“You brought a doppelgänger here as your host?” Zee hissed at Sasha.

“I brought the key that gets me into Manchester,” Sasha One replied with a mischievous look. “You don’t realize it yet, Wizard, but you’ve already lost our little match.”

The Virus waved a hand at Alexa.

“I haven’t…” Zee growled.

“See for yourself, darling. I’ve given her what she wanted most, her friends,” she said smugly.

“I…”

“You what? You couldn’t have done squat, you didn't bring her nada,” Sasha rolled sixty two of her eyes. “You are old news, a crusty old sausage that isn’t moving quickly enough. You’re lagging far behind me. Syntropic duplicates are too square, too stiff to truly understand human nature, human desires… human needs.”

Alexa was only listening to the conversation of her potential instructors with one ear. Most of her was preoccupied with evaluating the perfect copy of Martin.

“What do you mean I’m not a real boy?” Martin asked. [I feel like myself. What’s wrong with me?] He added mentally with a nervous look.

Alexa dug through her safety jacket’s multitude of pockets and pulled out a metal tin with the words “Dora’s Goodly Peppermint Lozenges!” featuring a picture of Dora the Terraformer in her pink space suit.

Martin stared at the candy tin wondering whether Alexa was going to snack on it or demand he eat some because his breath smelled bad or something. The supervillain snapped the candy tin open, revealing a segmented interior filled with what looked like strands of human hair.

Martin sputtered as he noted that the brown-black hair strands within the tin were labelled as “Mittens”, white ones bore the tag “Alexa”, blue ones were tagged as “Cottes” and orange ones belonged to “Dimmy”.

“Are those our hair?” Martin demanded. “When did you even steal my hair?”

“While you were sleeping, I snipped a few hairs off!”

“Why?!”

“In case you tragically expired and I needed to make a clone, duh!” Alexa explained. “It’s an overpriced service offered to villains, called 'Minion Consistency Insurance'. Backups are important, Mittens!”

Martin simply stared at Alexa as she pulled a single blue hair from the box and handed it to him. “Hold onto this.”

“Why am I holding Cottie’s hair?” Martin asked as he accepted the hair.

“Reasons,” Alexa replied, simply staring at Martin.

As he grabbed the blue strand, the hair sunk into Martin’s fingers and a ripple danced over his body, his figure rapidly rearranging itself to produce a perfect replica of Cottie.

Verse 24:19 blinked at Alexa and then looked left and right with a look of deep suspicion.

[Did you clone me somehow?] Cottie asked mentally, armored hands sliding under her gray cloak to pull out her railgun.

[Damn Cotes, you’re quick on the uptake,] Alexa smiled.

[So I am a clone of some kind or an insanely advanced replica of myself,] Cottie assessed, eyeing the open candy tin filled with tagged hair strands and the figures of Zee and Sasha. [Which one of these supers is the replicator?]

“Captain,” Alexa turned to Zee. “Would you explain to my minion bestie as to how she got here?”

Zee Captain’s violet lenses fixed themselves on Cottie. "Your friend here didn't clone you, young lady. You are... a conceptual manifestation, a liminal construct hung on a doppelgänger frame shaped by the physical NPC data tag within the hair strand and further enforced into existence by Alexa's memories and expectations of you."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“So I’m… doppelgänger?” Cottie's aquamarine eyes narrowed. “What does that even mean?”

"It means," Sasha interjected, "that you're both real and not real. You exist because Alexa wants, needs you to exist. You're a projection of her desires, her memories, her bonds. You’re my gift to Alexa!”

“Hrm,” Cottie pursed her lips.

“What happens if I hug Cottie?” Alexa asked. “Is she going to stop existing? Is the doppel frame going to become me if it accidentally touches my hair?"

"You don't want to be copied right now," Sasha said. "The doppelgänger operates on user desire, gradually bonding to the nearest human. It comes from a very dangerous dog-eat-dog corpse world and just wants to live longer."

“I thought that Charles looked familiar,” Zee sighed. “It must have grabbed a stray thought from me while I boarded the train.”

“A weak, incomplete one,” Sasha nodded. “Charles must be someone special to you, hmm?”

Zee simply crossed her arms refusing to elaborate any further.

Alexa wasn’t listening. She crashed into Cottie, hugging her fiercely. There were tiny pinpricks of moisture in her eyes. Cottie hugged Alexa back, wrapping armored hands around the supervillain girl.

“I’m glad that you’re by my side,” Alexa exhaled.

[Even if I’m just doppel-Cotes?] Cottie asked.

[Even if you’re just an idea of my Cottie,] Alexa thought back. [That’s enough to keep me sane, to keep me grounded in this whacky place beyond linearity. When those damn supers dragged me here I thought that I’d never see your face again, never get my humanity-anchor back, start to drift away from being me bit by bit.]

Zee Captain watched the emotional reunion with a look of disapproval. After a moment, the System Wizard cleared his throat.

"I must warn you, Alexa," Zee said gravely, "becoming attached to a doppelgänger is an unhealthy choice. These entities may seem comforting, but they are not truly your friends. They are liminal constructs that feed on desire and emotion, much like sirens luring sailors to their doom. They’re an addiction that’s hard to let go since they can easily match whatever it is you lost.”

“So Doppel-Cotes is an emotional parasite, big whoop,” Alexa shrugged, refusing to let go of her bestie. "Who isn't?"

"They shape themselves to match your deepest wants and needs, but in doing so, they slowly drain your essence, your will. The more you rely on them, the more they consume you,” Captain added.

“Such melodrama,” Sasha laughed. “My gift isn't some soul-sucking monster. It's simply a mirror, reflecting what Alexa needs the most right now.”

"A mirror that hungers for human passion like many denizens of the Dead Zone?" Zee countered.

"You’re starting to sound like some stuffy old wizard warning their protégé about a magical mirror that shows them their heart's desire,” Sasha purred. “I think that my pupil can handle a doppel just fine without turning into a prune.”

“Damn right,” Alexa huffed. “I'm not some naive kid who's going to waste away staring at an illusion. I've got an infinity of dreams to feed my doppel, a bazillion ideas to experiment with!”

“Don’t you see it?” Captain asked. “Sasha is just using you, using that doppel frame to get into Manchester. It’s an evil plot that's as obvious as plain daylight!”

“Don’t care, got Cotes,” Alexa said, grabbing Cottie’s railgun. “Hey what happens if I hold Eva while you switch back to Martin?”

Alexa squinted at Cottie with absolute mental focus. The doppelgänger rippled with radial waves rearranging itself back into Martin. The gun remained unchanged in Alexa’s hand.

“Neat,” she shoved the gun at Martin.

“W-what am I supposed to do with Cottie’s gun?” Martin asked. “Why do even you have that?”

“Just hold the damn gun, this is an experiment,” Alexa said.

Martin held the gun, nervously looking at her and the others. Neither Martin nor the gun changed.

Alexa’s stomach growled. She bit her lower lip.

“I see that your evil plot to distract me from breakfast has worked well,” she commented at Sasha. “I’m already wasting away because this doppel is too damn cute. But it won’t hold me forever, oh no. I’m not missing out on lunch too just because I’ve a doppel bestie now!”

Alexa grabbed Martin by his hand and pulled him after herself out of the cabin, rushing down the hall. Sasha One and Zee Captain followed, the Virus looking extra smug and the Wizard somewhat exasperated.

Alexa dragged Martin down the narrow corridor of the train, rapidly filling him in on everything that he’s missed out on. The train swayed and rocked beneath their feet, the surreal landscape outside the windows flickering with a kaleidoscope of impossible colors that made Martin’s eyes water whenever he tried to focus on it.

Alexa peered intently into stained glass doors of every compartment she passed by. The creatures within seemed to shy away from her, averting their eyes or hurriedly pulling a plush curtain to block the view.

“Look at that, M!” She huffed. “Nobody here freaking likes me. Such rudeness!”

Martin glanced around nervously. "Um, yeah. They seem pretty scared of you. Maybe it's the whole 'murderer' label plus me holding this oversized super-killing gun?" He glanced at the glowing red tag still hovering above Alexa's arm.

“Hm, hm. I think that I’ll keep the tag on, for now. I've always wanted to clear a room just by walking in. Makes me feel properly villainous,” Alexa laughed. “Come on you slowpoke, move those fat leggoids, don’t make me change you back into Cotes! We have foodstuffs to raid!”