A throwing knife spun in my right hand while I patiently waited in the old antique shop, there was no sign of The Doctor yet so I took this small moment to take a look around the Dam's interior- Unsurprisingly, it is exactly as dark as one would expect it to be, the lack of lighting gave the narrow space a feeling of claustrophobia. Houses- most of them abandoned due to the people once living here moving out- were dug into the walls of the Dam's tunnels, little bunkers that have designs around the front door to make them look like houses.

The Doctor's lair is no different from that, just a bunker that had been dug to act as a living space for the people taking refuge here 25 years ago. Obviously, being the egoist that he is, The Doctor picked a bunker that's spacious enough to house all of the crazy shit that he does and more. So, even when the front of the "house" looks small, the inside is large enough to reach the other side of the dam, thus the observatory.

"You're not gonna come in?" Says a broken voice meant to unnerve anyone listening. I grinned and started walking flourishly to the door, I boosted my eyes, trying anything other than a faster perception. The surroundings became much clearer and lo and behold, there's a speaker just beneath one of the windows, barely visible to anyone who doesn't have better than human eyes.

I would love to call it out but I held my feelings back, "Why don't you just come out yourself?" I said, twisting the doorknob and pushing the door open fast enough that the creaking sounded like a 'Weeeeee' instead of the usual laugh-like sound. The Doctor stayed silent and undoubtedly, it was because he's observing me. I pushed on regardless of my feelings and started walking across the hallway, ahead of me, lightning flashed, coloring the dark hallway in bright blues and shades of white.

"Even after 4 years, you're still trying to make me go through this thing," No amount of kindness would've made the disdain in my words fade, "Lightning this, pass through that- survive." It happened so much that I'm honestly starting to think that The Doctor was experimenting on me all this time instead of just forgetting on turning the lightning off, "Actually- Was I already a lab rat before you said I was? Before I ran away from here?"

Still no answer. "It wouldn't surprise me, I think." I'm starting to feel angry and the thought of punching something felt pretty tempting so I did, crumbling the wall to my right and creating an earthquake that amplified the cracks running through the flat brown surface of the concrete. The devices ahead of me persisted through the earthquake and kept throwing out lightning.

I pulled of a theatrical shake of my head, "I'm mad. You know." Would he listen? Definitely not but I feel like lashing out. "Years. That's how much time I've spent inside of this place," 3 Years. The number made it seem small and the memory of the entire thing is just a flash to me every time I thought about it but fuck me if it didn't affect me so hard that I'm still reeling at the thought of contacting the guy responsible.

The Doctor sighed, "Tyler. You know the answer to that don't you?" Of course I did. I just ignored it.

And not because I'm scared, "I don't. Enlighten me." I stopped and crossed my arms, waiting for his confession. Seconds ticked, minutes passed, and I got impatient, "Doctor?" I felt my jaw tensing and my foot stomped loudly when I continued my walk, "Doctor?"

Something on my right, a device- a flat, metal surface my height and twice my size activated and turned blue, the color darkening with each second. I pulled my arm back and punched it, sending lightning up my limb that did nothing other than make me flinch and cause the hair on my head to stand up. "That is amazing." He said through the speakers.

"Now that's just on purpose isn't it?" I got no answer. "Fuck you."

I ran through the entire thing without bothering to dodge, taking in all the lightning without so much as a scratch. I can feel something inside of me grow with each bolt that struck me but it feels too far away for me to use right now, it was barely even a feeling in the center of my chest. Something dropped from the ceiling and caught me, with a push, I trudged through a net that sparked with electricity, it didn't do anything other than slow me down.

All it took for me to get through the tunnel is walk with a beat in my step and confidence in my posture and the devices turned useless. I kicked a tesla coil when I was about to reach the entrance to the observatory, sending it flying to a wall and shattering on impact. The wires attached to it went taut, and like dominoes, the other coils it's connected to fell down one by one while sending out incoherent electric screams that grated my ears.

Nodding in satisfaction, I headed to the door, a twist of the knob later and it opened to the same observatory that served as a living room for the first four years of my life. The same haphazard organization I had seen yesterday is still the prominent decoration of the place, there are a few changes, like more papers on the floor compared to last time but they were all minor details I willingly ignored so that I can focus on the man standing in the middle of the room, right next to a piece of rock encased in a dome of glass.

"So, was I already a lab rat?" I asked again, "Tell me,"

"You know the answer to that." He said calmly, still facing the glass. With my enhanced eyesight, I can see the eyes of his reflection slightly shift and when I looked at them, we both locked eyes. He looked away, focusing on the Kronos' piece, "Why do you want me to say it?" He asked, a metallic finger tapping the wooden pedestal the rock is on top of, "When you clearly know."

I didn't fall for his shit, "Because you know more than me," if he thinks that I'm gonna feel a sense of self satisfaction when I personally give myself an answer for my own existence then he's thinking wrong. 'So much for being a Super Genius.'

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

He smirked like he read my mind, "You know, the original?" he asked rhetorically, "Hecati was powerful." I didn't see his point, "Enough that he was a contender for Peerless' position if the hero passed."

"Well he still died didn't he?" So what if the original was a candidate for the Peerless' spot? There are a lot of people like that in Gloria and some are alive and kicking as we speak. "Not really much of a contender if he did."

"You're probably thinking along the lines of Peerless having a lot of contenders right? That his position isn't as secure as it sounds?" I reluctantly nodded, "Well, they're fake." He hissed out, "And the Aristrocats only say those words to please themselves into thinking that they can control the strongest person in this city. But no one is."

"That's why he's called Peerless?" I said, trying to predict his point.

And, like always, I never do, "No, I said that the original Hecati is a contender for that position remember?"

"And?" So what? "He still died." And now clones like me have to take up his fucking mantle and do his job.

"Do you know the cause of the original's death?" He turned away from the dome, his eyes locked with mine and the servo on his cybernetic legs whirred as he jogged. I silently let him do his thing, and he moved to one of the four desks around the room, this one is empty, devoid of any computers, written papers, and mechanical experiments. If I saw it inside a study, I wouldn't find it strange.

He opened a drawer on the right side of the desk and started rummaging, eventually taking out a stack of papers tied together by a blue string. A box-shaped thing rests at the top, The Doctor's arm cried and a key popped out of his index finger, he shoved it inside and with a twist, he opened the box and out came a picture, it flew across the room, stopping just a few feet away from where I'm standing.

He looked at me expectantly and I gave in, making sure to stare at the walls as I moved, even when The Doctor seems friendly, he might just be trying to get your guard down. You can never know with someone like him. 'Which is why it's important to watch out for hidden turrets.'

I got to the picture without much fanfare, I turned it around when I picked it up, "Oh."

I didn't know what to say.

The person in the picture looked exactly like me, dark green eyes, autumn brown hair, and an attractive looking face. He had a few wrinkles on the side of his eyes which showed his age but other than that, we were a perfect 1 to 1 match. Features wise at least. "Was he... sick?" I trailed off, staring at the odd features that stuck out.

The Doctor nodded, "Overstimulation." He answered briefly and knowing what those words mean, I looked for the signs of the disease and spotted a few obvious ones; blackening lips, purple fingers, and ears closing by merging with the skin. The Doctor sighed, "He was powerful, you know? And just like any other Magician out there, Hecati can grow stronger with time, so he was gonna be even more powerful overtime but..." He raised his hands and waved them around, gesturing at the picture while I tried not to roll my eyes at The Doctor building things up, he couldn't just get to straight to the point could he?

"The exact cause is unknown but somewhere down the line, Hecati started showing signs of Overstimulation from Theikos, causing the energy to eat more and more of his physical body. It made him stronger too, and everyone thought that he's gonna rise and take Peerless' role so that the old man can finally retire but again, he died from the disease that set those expectations in place in the first place."

Actually, that got me curious about something, "And where do the clones come in?" I asked.

Really, what did Hecati's death mean for any of us? Why were we even created in the first place? Are we just here because someone wanted to feel nostalgic? Why would someone clone a powerful but ultimately, deceased superhero? Because the Aristrocrats needed more enforcers? Probably- I can see my... siblings getting hired by the people at the top, acting as their personal magicians that'll come to them whenever they feel like calling them. 'Now that I think about it, just how many of the Magistrate are Hecati's clones?'

I've never thought about that before... "And just how many of us are there actually?" I asked, curious.

"I was getting to it." He said with a huff, "But if you're curious then I'll give you an answer- So far, only 16 of you have survived." I frowned. Huh, a lot less than I thought. "And most of that 16 aren't even that powerful, mere average at best." He said with disappointment but also a bit of scorn, "And out of all of those who became powerful, by far, you're the most successful."

He pressed a metallic finger on my chest, "Congratulations."

I let his compliments enter one ear and out the other, "Okay, why were they weak?" I asked, we're all the same aren't we? Why would clones vary?

"Because, Tyler, the samples that we got for them have been from when Hecati was already weak from overstimulation." He answers.

"And me? Why am I strong?" I could guess why but again, I wanted to hear it from him.

"Because you are actually borne from a perfect sample of Hecati. His sperm, in fact." I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he simply shrugged, "He donated some, like all the other heroes... powerful heroes out there. And we, and I mean the old cabal of Super Geniuses that I once belonged to; decided to clone him using his donation." He started pacing back and forth, "And it wasn't just any type of cloning either, no, we used a surrogate, one whose egg we cleared before impregnation. An old, outdated, but trusted cloning method."

So I had a mom? "Is she still out there?"

"She's dead." The Doctor replied, "It was back when Hecati was in his prime, so its best that you assume your... mother abused the riches we gave her as well as the title of being the one to birth Hecati's clone." The Doctor shook his head, "Sadly, she died of an overdose because she partied too much."

And who would believe that story? Exactly? "Okay, so she's dead." I don't really care about someone I've never met but maybe I can visit her grave? I don't know. "And what about everything else? The extra sperm? The other clones? What about the part where I woke up sixteen instead of a child when I'm born? With the original's memory to boot!"

"None of those are important," says The Doctor, casually waving his hand. "but now that you know about your past, I want to you to ask your question again- are you a lab rat? Tyler?"

I looked at him, and I meant it- I looked at his eye, singular. Stared at the remaining organic and natural part of his face and he looked back, his blue eyes digging into me like it was daring me to do something, anything. With a sigh, I unclenched my fist and looked at him up and down; a gesture that I've come to know from him as someone looking down on others.

His face looked normal, with skin, a nose, and a forehead covered by brown hair. If one looked hard enough, they'll be able to see the glowing blue wires beneath the surface. He had a beard on his chin, long and scruffy, it reached down to his neck, covering it.

When I was young, the typical scientist get up that he wore always unnerved me, now? It just looked normal. A white labcoat with no visible stains, though the gray shirt he's wearing underneath had circles of oil splashed into it, creating a contrast that I know is done on purpose. Below that are a pair black pants and shoes, and like the lab coat, both are clean and polished.

I closed my eyes, I didn't want to look away when I said it. I gulped, "I- I am."

It hurt to say.