Three tons of medical grade equipment, fifteen tons of warehouse equipment, three hi-los, a printer fabricator, and a bunch of raw ore and materials ripped out of the walls.

Chimera, despite being in a state of rest, was currently inside her mind, a place she realized she could start to go to ever since she peered into other people’s memories.

It was simple when she thought about it, why not go inside her head the same way she did the others?

Now she was putting that piece of herself to work, cataloging the vast amounts of physical gear they had swiped from the underground facility of Blackrock Prison.

Come to think of it, there’s a lot of underground facilities I’ve been running into.

The lab under the zoo.

The lab under the fighting ring.

The lab/medical ward underneath the prison.

Chimera thought about it as Clonemera corrected a few things on her list of stuff they pillaged.

“No, this isn’t medical grade, this is scientific grade, that goes over there.”

“Yes ma’am!”

Clonemera was utilizing her own unique gift of clone making to make even more versions of themselves to help out with the organization.

There were now five of them all together, Clonemera, Copymera, Dopplemera, Mimicera, and Julie.

For some reason that Chimera couldn’t place, Julie didn’t like being associated with the other copies, mostly because she was the youngest and they always had to be special.

She even made herself look different, going for a blue design instead of their iconic red and pink.

For some reason she hated that color.

It was pretty easy to distinguish the others as well, but Julie was definitely divergent to many of them.

Clonemera adopted a short bun for a haircut.

Copymera’s hair was all over the place.

Dopplemera straight up looked like a mad scientist.

And Mimicera would simply copy both Chimera and Clonemera when she could, almost like a mime would.

Which she was doing right now.

Chimera had a clipboard in her hand that was showing all the compiled parts, and somehow, Mimicera did the same, except there was only scribbling on hers.

“So, what do you make of this Mimi?”

Mimicera, or Mimi, looked at her, then at her drawings, making a big exaggerated move at the piles of junk over to their right in this massive mental warehouse.

“That’s what the filing catalogue is for.”

Mimi gave Chimera a big sigh, pointing to the pile and copying a writing gesture.

“You have a mouth, why do you refuse to talk?”

Mimi made a motion with her hands like she was talking with a puppet, then threw her hands like she wanted nothing to do with the gesture.

“Fine, but at least write it out if you got a problem with it.”

A clipboard appeared in Mimi’s hand and she handed it to her.

It was a picture of Chimera exploding and all of the stuff coming out of her.

“Oh… so you’re saying to get rid of the junk otherwise we’ll explode…”

Mimi nodded vigorously.

Chimera grabbed a walkie talkie and broadcasted the message to the rest of the clones.

“Attention, evacuate the non-essential equipment immediately, a category five explosive hazard has been detected. I repeat, evacuate the non-essentials immediately!”

“Aww, but I was making it into a snowman, with a laser hat!”

“Dopplemera, that’s an order, you can make your crazy shit later!”

“No fun at all, our brother would get it!”

“This is Clonemera, dispensing with non-essential equipment catalogue in five, four, three…”

Chimera opened her eyes as she tried to find some open space before she regurgitated the junk.

Luckily, the room she was in had space for it, and she, uncomfortably, spat out the junk she and her clones dispersed.

“Chimera!’

Meghan came into the room a second later, a few of her Botty’s peeking around her as they stared at the junk.

Next to it was a satisfied Chimera as she burped out pieces of what she assumed was a car’s axle.

“Chimera, you alright?”

“I think so… *burp*.”

A tire this time.

“We have a designated junk pile, why didn’t you throw it up there?!”

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“Couldn’t make it, emergency.”

She heard her friend sigh as she spoke to her bots.

“Bottys, take the stuff to the pile and have Printy sort through it. Make sure there’s no explosive materials, we don’t need Botty Ten to get his hands on that stuff again.”

Chimera chuckled at that, “alright got a disident amongst you’re ranks?”

Meghan shook her head, “nah, Botty Ten loves his work, a little too much. Me and the other’s don’t want to give him too much to work with. He can be happy with his thermite.”

“Thermite? How the hell did you-”

“Oh that’s easy, I got a contact from one of the suppliers on Jade’s database. Guy actually doesn’t live too far and I got a nice discount on the stuff.”

“...how?”

“Well, when it turns out that you have access to something like that and you don’t report it, it makes for very good blackmail!”

“...everyday we stray further from-”

“Yeah, yeah, enough of the holier than thou shit. Help the Bottys move your crap, and did you finally get the rest of the equipment?”

“How did you know I was-”

“Oh please, back in ChemTech you went though our resources with a fine toothed comb to make sure that the other departments weren’t skimming our stuff.”

“Well-”

“Yeah I know.”

“Let me finish a sentence damnit!”

“Sorry I just didn’t want you to go off into another tirade about not being ‘Sarah’. You have her memories, and you and I can still talk about her right?”

“Well, yeah?”

“Then take my references and use them. By the way, gimme.”

“What the hell did you want now?”

“The science stuff, what else?”

“But I’m not done catagorizing them yet,”

“Don’t matter, gimme.”

Chimera recognized the hungry gaze coming out of Meghan as she grinned at her, sharp teeth showing through.

The Bottys hanging around her added to the spooks as their red dot eyes seemed to focus on her like a hawk drone.

“Okay, just stop staring at me like that!”

“Heh, works everytime.”

“Is that something you want to be proud of?”

Meghan stuck her nose in the air.

“Intimidation is a prime tactic against people, and it comes in all kinds of flavors.”

Chimera sighed, “God help this world if you go full villain.”

Meghan laughed at that, “oh man, if that happened the whole world would be robots by now.”

“Haha!”

“Hehe!”

They both laughed for a while, until it got a bit awkward after they started to make their way to Printy.

“Hey.”

Chimera turned to look up at Meghan, “yeah?”

“If I ever go that bad, you’ll pull me back right?”

“It’s not even a question, of course I would.”

“Best friends?”

“The best.”

Meghan turned to look at her, “I’m being serious Chimera, I need to know that you’ll stop me if that happens… If I go too far.”

Chimera felt the weight of her words, “of course, but don’t sell yourself short Meg. You’re strong and smart enough to know when abuse of power becomes the norm.”

Chimera dumped the ‘science stuff’ next to Printy as he began to pick up the various parts and pieces.

“The Medical grade Lazurus suit Mark one should be ready after a day, Creator Meghan and Chimera. The suit will need at least twelve hours afterword for testing and power checks as well.”

“Two days then.”

“Yes, Creator.”

“Those scientists won’t have that long, we need to find them before Pox gets rid of them.”

Meghan nodded and turned to her work bench.

“You need to go then, find them and bring them back to the Hero’s League safe and sound. I’ll be here working on some experiments.”

Chimera nodded, but a fear planted itself in the back of her mind.

“If I run into Crysa, I don’t know how that fight will go.”

“Then run, don’t engage. Crysa gives the big shot Heros a run for their money, and we don’t know a proper counter for her ability yet.”

Chimera looked at the floor, “If I have no choice?”

Meghan walked toward her and knelt before her, “I won’t say kill, but you can do alot more to people from the inside yeah?”

Chimera felt a shiver run through her as Meghan said that.

It was the truth though, and her tests on the various different villains and death children she ran into confirmed it.

Like her brother, Chimera could rearrange the genetic code of whoever she was inside, and that meant she could do some very messed up things to them.

Like, turn their body into cancer.

Or make their blood toxic

She could even have the body go catatonic until she fixed the person and brought them back.

Even now as she was cataloging the medical grade equipment for Meghan, Chimera was working on another catalogue.

The list of her powers, the ones she had taken.

In her mind facility, she could see them all, the now over fifty different abilities she had stolen from her foes, taken from animals, or accidentally absorbed.

The Chimera Catalogue.

What if I got more, and… if I could absorb that energy stealing ability of Crysa’s…

She could see it.

Unlimited energy, power that she could feed to her new gift from her other ones.

Bio energy feeding into electrical and heat energy into the absorbing power to create more bio energy.

She wouldn’t need to feed on anyone again.

She would be…

More.

Greater than any hero.

Stronger and more powerful than any villain.

She would be perfect.

Chimera was afraid of that feeling, as she felt it wasn’t really what she wanted.

But deep within her body, down to the code that made up the Crimson R.

She knew it was what her body yearned for.

“Meghan… if the same happens to me, if… I go full villain…”

“Without a doubt, I will bring you back.”

Chimera felt a warmth in her heart at that, the feeling bloomed inside her as she reached out to grab her friend’s hand.

“You got to mean it, even if I go full Kaiju, you got to stop me.”

“Chimera, you have to have more confidence in yourself. You’re strong, and you’re getting stronger by the day No one’s going to be able to stop you.”

Chimera tried to smile reassuringly at her friend, but that dark fear in her heart grinned in the back of her mind, its teeth and eyes red and glistening.

That’s what I’m afraid of.

…