I stepped out of the van—my last place of salvation—and onto the gray sidewalk. We stood in shadow, a little out of sight of our intended destination, all looking somewhere between stoic and apprehensive.

With a last nod to Clara, I closed the back of the van, a drab signal flare to fully commit to the task at hand. I turned my gaze to see that Captain Snaps had moved up beside me.

“I should have known you’d be best pals with the toaster fucker,” he said. “Been discussing longer attachments?”

[You clearly spend too much of your free time jacking off to old pictures of yourself from when you didn’t look so strung out.]

“Nope.” Roxy stepped between us and put a hand on each of our backs. “Dial it in or I’ll punt both your balls to the moon. Am I understood?”

[Understood.]

“Yes, Rox.” Captain rolled his eyes, but shot me a grin as he walked off to bother Wren.

“Seems you have a bit of a potty mouth, Dubs. I am surprised.” She tilted her head.

[Still working on my impulse control and certain individuals bring out my worst. I apologize.]

“Eh.” Roxy looked back at the other supers before addressing me again. “It’s not advisable against certain individuals, but I understand you wanting to stick up for Clara. In fact, it’s kinda…” She paused, the rest of the sentence not forming, before she shook the fragment away. “We’d best focus on the job, okay? Just follow my lead.”

I nodded and allowed her a couple steps head start before I followed along. Perhaps normally she could just leap into these situations, and I’d be slowing her down by having to go on foot. While the idea of her jumping about princess carrying me felt amusing to my frazzled mind, it probably wouldn’t go well for her public image.

Which was another ice-cube in what was fast becoming a tall glass full of them.

The League of Heroes would know of me. Have some record of me being here and doing the sidekick act, even if I was scrubbed from public records. It screamed danger, and I’d need to get Boss to advise me as soon as this was all over.

That thought allowed my mind to jump from that realization to the next - Clara didn’t think I had a supposed aura that could disable cameras and phone signal. There was too much currently going on for me to grasp at some answers that didn’t feel as though they were just based in paranoia or dismissive convenience.

Had Boss been lying to me? Seemed unrealistic given what I had been through. There would be no benefit to that. So how had I gotten away with so much over the years? The questions popped like swamp bubbles as we stopped with the rest of the group.

Clara: Connection test. All respond.

Rockslide: Confirmed.

PHG-Belle: Confirmed.

Little-Wren: Confirmed.

Captain-Snaps: Confirmed.

Mr-Dubs: Confirmed.

My eyes dulled at seeing the formal and full names of everyone - especially my own. Clara seemed to use their hero titles - even in private with Roxy. The check-in came as both text in my lense, as well as a robotic voice in the new earpiece I had borrowed.

While Wren and Belle bickered about something, another message came through.

//Clara: When you see a message like this, Mr Dubs.

//Clara: It means it is encrypted - even the League can’t see it.

//W: Thanks, Clara. Understood.

“You catch that, Dubs?” Roxy stood with a raised eyebrow, seeing that my attention had not been on whatever she had been telling the others.

//Clara: She said straight through the walls, east side.

[East side, straight through the walls. I’ll follow your lead.]

The super smiled and gave me a nod. I wondered how much I’d have to pay to have Clara connect in to my normal contracts. Probably not worth the risk to moonlight when it was the League paying her bills. Still, the worst she could say was no - but a yes would make my life so much easier, and we’d only just begun.

I watched as Belle recited a short hymn and a burst of energy flooded through the supers. Seems I was unworthy of receiving it, for whatever reason. Wren dropped her bow horizontally - which then hovered in the air. She hopped atop it, a scowl still across her face, and rode it through the air. I assumed then that the helicopter was just for convenience, but my active brain had long packed its suitcase and left the flap on the back of my skull to go on holiday.

“Ready, Dubs?” Roxy’s expression was all business.

I nodded, and we ran. Now, I wasn’t much for cardio, but I managed to keep a respectable distance behind her as we powered around the corner of the large building shading us. As sunlight washed over us, our target came into view. Not too dissimilar from the Oceano Group building I had fought my way through - it seemed many of the factories were designed or built by the same people.

Nothing overt that screamed villain’s lair, but that was the point. Tall outer wall that protected the large blocky building inside. Couldn’t quite read the sign out front, but it was powered down as if the factory was giving off the vibe that it was shut. Well, we were about to invite ourselves in and check.

A rush of air blew past us both as the speedster went around and around the far side of the building along the road, while Roxy was taking us directly toward the nearest wall.

Her fist wound back just before we reached it, and with a quick punch, the concrete burst away as if it were made of plaster. I followed her through the cloud of dust and falling debris, my boots crunching over shattered defenses, to find her already powering up to do the same to the factory itself. We had approached the long side of the building shaded away from the sun - I assumed just taking a guess that we’d enter some place where shit was happening.

//Clara: All clear from Wren. Captain and Belle are getting the actual gate open.

//W: Noted.

Roxy broke through the wall, and we stumbled into the interior.

Harsh metal lines and fluorescent lighting within. Medium-sized rectangular room with a large central table. Counters around the left side with a door on the right. Windows covered by dusty horizontal blinds on the wall opposite us.

Four figures sitting at the table in the midst of eating. Two on the left by a sink and kettle. All wearing a similar blue jumpsuit. Each identical in facial appearance - harsh brown eyes with a heavy brow, pale skin, head shaved down to dark stubble. Across each of their foreheads was a written number.

One of the few benevolent things Goldarch had passed in law - clones were highly illegal. Although the corpos wanted to push for an ever-expanding workforce, there were just too many downsides to it being widespread that the city didn’t want to deal with. Increases in crime across the board, identity theft, and tax issues - not to mention the actual ethical concerns.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Although I had seen no hard evidence, I was willing to believe these gentlemen weren’t sextuplets.

Roxy had stepped forward before they had a chance to act, grabbing hold of the table and flipping it against the back wall - crushing and knocking the seated ones out against the stone, shattering some of the covered windows.

For my efforts, I blew the brains out of the one by the sink, racking a second shell and bursting the second clone’s chest into red ribbons. As the second empty cartridge bounced across the bloodied carpet, the super turned to me with a grimace on her face.

“You might be surprised to learn that League doesn’t often allow us to kill people. It’s usually subdue and arrest, if it’s not a monster or some weird shit.”

[I have no such reservation in my work.]

“Clearly.” She looked at the two clones leaking their internals about the place. “Not that I’m squeamish, but it’s just a lot more… visceral?”

I found that hard to believe. If I had super strength, then I’d be running up to people with a metal pole and shattering their skulls like glass. Perhaps there was a good reason I had tried to stay clear of the League. I didn’t do well with rules.

My attention went to the hole we had made through the wall, while I tried to dissociate from the situation I found myself in. A small dragonfly-like drone buzzed in and hovered behind us.

Clara: Rockslide is in the factory.

Clara: Captain has disabled the outside security, now moving in.

A red light bloomed into life just over the door out of here. A digital crackle moved through the air as a voice hissed into our ears.

“We are under attack, children! To arms! Repel the false heroes!”

Clara: Unable to triangulate the signal source.

Roxy gave me a shrug and then rolled out her shoulders. “Ready to get this party started then, Dubs?”

[I am sure it will be the least painful of the two endured today.]

“Ah, you jest.” She pulled a face, knowing that I wasn’t. With a sigh, she stepped over to the door and went for the handle.

A blast of shrapnel blew through it, and she slid back away with her arms crossed in front of her. Despite her bare arms blocking the shot, she had little more than some dark lines across the impact points. Her teeth clenched, still some pain behind the weathered attack. I interrupted her next action by ejecting my unspent shell and replacing it with one drawn from my bandolier.

She paused as I fired it through the hole wrought in the metal door, empty cartridge popping out as a burst of thick smoke filled the corridor beyond.

“Thanks, Dubs.” With a grin, she grabbed up one of the discarded chairs and dragged it to the exit. She took a quick step and then kicked out at the ruined door - breaking it completely from the wall and sending it off into the obscured beyond.

A sharp clang as it clearly struck something straight ahead that didn’t appreciate the act. She then stepped out and flung the chair down the right-hand passageway. I slid out beside her, placing two sequential shots down the left corridor. A hand placed on my shoulder told me we were going to head the direction that I had fired, before the smoke cleared and we could admire our destruction.

Pragmatic to keep moving, I supposed. Normally, I’d stick around to finish the job. The sounds of groaning and one person coughing up some liquid weren’t convincing enough for me - I required silence from my enemies. But I was playing by the League rules, and was here to assist Roxy in doing things her way.

I led the charge through the smoke. Out into the longer hallway where one clone lay, shredded by my shots. Much further down, another three had gathered, and were arranging themselves into a firing formation with their guns. I fired and slid across the carpet.

Not enough to do anything but minor damage at this range - but it caused them to flinch and cover their faces. As Roxy then leaped over me, I flung a Rubber shot into the air from my bandolier.

She caught it from the air with no issue, landing just past me and spinning on her heel. Whipping her hand around, she pitched it like a baseball. The rocketing chunk of thickened rubber struck a clone in the face, completely rupturing their eye socket and pasting their brain matter with shards of bone.

Before I had a chance to get to my feet, her hand was down to help me.

I took it, and she yanked me forward, almost tearing my left arm from the socket. Rush of air and I was now sliding across the carpet on my boots. The friction was probably terrible for the wear on the soles, but besides the point. Now I was in better range of the clones.

First shot took the one standing out, his body convulsing and collapsing against the back wall splattered with blood. Despite tearing grooves through the carpet, my arrival put me close enough to take a couple of steps forward to melee the last of the trio, who looked rather panicked to be dappled with the insides of their equals.

Barrel struck him in the collarbone with a crack, sending him stepping backward. I followed with an elbow to the side of his head. Grabbed his overalls while he was dazed, and brought him in for a headbutt. Dropped his limp body to the ground and put a shot through his head. Oops, force of habit.

I turned to the super, to see her eyes figuratively aflame - her usual positive attitude back to illuminate her face.

“Sure you don’t want a sidekick gig? I could get used to this.”

With a gesture to the next doorway, I shook my head. While I couldn’t deny we were effective together, the gnawing thoughts of those questions that I didn’t want to let out of their locked boxes were playing on my mood. I didn’t care for mystery, and now found myself steeped in it.

She gave me a nod, perhaps reading my neutral front as a business-only sign, and her smile wavered. As she stepped past over the dead bodies, I looked back down the corridor. Smoke was starting to clear, and the clones who had only gotten away with a light beating would be up to surround us. I glanced at the dragonfly.

//Clara: Captain and Belle are going to follow your route and will clear.

At least I wouldn’t have to worry about being surrounded then. My gaze went back to Roxy as she wound up her kicking-foot once more. Well, not surrounded by clones, at least.

Drum mag ejected at the same time as the doorway jettisoned from the wall. Switched out for the HE Slugs. Not really necessary, given our opponents only registered between 8 and 10 on the Threat scale… but I needed the stress relief.

Maybe the violence would distract me from the fact that all of this felt wrong.

Roxy stepped into the room and I followed suit, before putting my hand on her shoulder. A large room full of nothing. Maybe a couple of tool boxes or cabinets around the edges, and cables running here or there - but otherwise devoid of anything but a promising doorway on the other side.

“Everything okay?”

[Trap.]

Relatively well concealed. The ceiling painted the area in dim light that didn’t do me any favors, but if there was something I had learned about factories, it was this amount of space was never left empty. Did that mean they expected to be attacked? A knot in my stomach was trying to tell me something, but I had too much on my mind to pin it down.

“We’ll make our own doorway then.” She turned ninety degrees to the wall on our right and put her arm through the stone. Didn’t take her much effort to pull the brickwork away to allow us entry to a smaller room that was brightly lit. “Trouble with lairs is they’re always such mazes.”

I followed her through, into something that looked like a control room.

“Some kind of… power generation?”

[Uncertain.]

Behind me, the drone powered through and hovered around the machinery.

//Clara: Not… generation - but routing.

//W: Should we destroy?

//Clara: Estimating…

//Clara: It would either kill all the clones still in vats on the floor below.

//Clara: Or set them free. As 50/50 as it gets.

[Feel like gambling? Destroying this will either kill the basement full of growing clones, or let them out to play.]

“No.” She shook her head. “Too risky… although what would you do?” Her hands went to her hips as her brow furrowed.

Probably not stand around debating the merits of every action taken, for one. Ignoring the usual melodrama and dour thoughts that I doused my contracts with, at least I had full control of all the moving parts.

[Inconsequential. League rules apply. I am to follow only.]

“Don’t be a dick. This is me asking you.”

A sigh rattled through my re-breather. It was her asking me, and in any other situation, I would be content enough to take her at face value. There was just… still the feeling like I was being led along a destined route. Fishing line retracting as I followed the bait around, hoping for a taste of something to satiate me.

[I would take the risk. Either my life becomes much easier, or I will have to fight through something I know I can overcome.]

“I knew that’s what you'd do.” She clicked her fingers. “And no. I’m not about to do it just because you said you would. League rules, you’re right.”

Lights along the panels illuminated with pulses of sharp green. The shifting hum of two of the large cabinet-sized machines beside us changed in pitch. A robotic voice fizzled through a speaker above the rows of buttons.

“Emergency protocols now active. All clones released. Full armory access granted.”

Roxy pouted as her eyes went slowly away from the panels and up to me. “Probably too late now, huh?”