Bonesaw sat in her full-body brute restraints against the wall. The new Protectorate building had come with holding cells, many mundane, but one with some actual money sunk into it. It was in this one, after being checked over by Armsmaster and divested of everything she could use to Tinker with, that we had thrown Bonesaw into under permanent guard; two PRT troops in their full-face riot gear, one with a containment foam sprayer and the other with a standard-issue automatic rifle.

She hadn't breathed out self-propagating plague gas, yet, though she had tried to squirt some kind of skin contact venom out of her tear ducts into my face when I dissolved the shackle covering her head. Armsmaster had collected a sample and ordered the rest to be properly disposed of.

She glowered at us, her true form as a psychotic murderer leaking through and turning the expression into something truly ugly. Maybe it was a little unfair to her, her having been forcefully recruited at age six and spending the next six years with only the Slaughterhouse Nine for company, but I really didn't fucking care at this point. She was like Murder Rat, in a way, a monster made by someone else but a monster none-the-less.

I should have mercy killed Murder Rat, that was the lesson here, surely. Maybe it would have been kinder that way.

"I'm not telling you anything," Bonesaw said primly, turning her nose up as much as her neck brace allowed.

"Jack Slash is already dead," said Armsmaster. "If you cooperate I can argue for some leniency rather than a lifetime internment in the Baumann containment centre."

Bonesaw's jaw clenched. "He's not dead."

"I see," said Armsmaster after a moment. "Then let's say that he's been incapacitated in such a way that he will never come back."

"I'll make him come back."

"No," said Armsmaster. "You won't. The Slaughterhouse Nine ends today unless you think one of your compatriots can rally the remnants of them into a team," he glanced sidelong at me briefly. "Were you aware that Jack Slash had the ability to subconsciously manipulate nearby parahumans?"

Bonesaw made a quiet sound of mixed disbelief and disgust.

"No? Well, suffice to say that without Jack Slash nothing will hold your team together. If we don't get them today, they will disperse over the country and return to being ordinary killers, leaving you alone," Armsmaster took a step forward.

"Sibby will come for me."

Armsmaster shook his head. "The Siberian will be dealt with soon."

He'd told me he had Velocity grid searching the city. The thing with projection masters was that they had limited range, so whoever was controlling the Siberian both had to be nearby and have a vehicle of some kind so they could keep up with the Nine as they moved; something that would stick out like a sore thumb on the otherwise deserted streets of Brockton Bay.

Well, unless they were an aberration cape of abnormal power like the Triumvirate, which may well be possible given how absurdly powerful the projection they created was. For all I knew they were sitting happily in a hotel room a town over, wanking furiously as their projection ate people.

Bonesaw stared at the roof. "You're lying."

"If you say so," Armsmaster turned to leave. "You have at best two days to decide before life in the Birdcage."

I didn't move to follow him. We were going to do good cop bad cop, and I was bad cop. I knelt down in front of Bonesaw, brushing dried flakes of blood off my neck, fixing my eyes on hers through my visor.

"Riley," I said. "I killed Jack. It wasn't any harder than catching you."

'Riley,' she mouthed contemptuously. "Do you honestly think this is going to make me talk?"

I shook my head. "Not really, but it doesn't hurt to check," I swallowed dryly. "Gotta ask though, do you think you're being a good girl?"

Bonesaw narrowed her eyes.

"I know what you're thinking," I continued. "This Thinker bullshit won't work on you, or even Master bullshit, you have safeguards against that crap. Bringing up your mother's last words won't do anything because we have different ideas of what being a good girl is."

She didn't answer.

"I know you were too scared of Jack to go against what he told you a good girl is," I shrugged. "I just want to know what you thought your mother meant when she said that?"

"You're trying to copy him."

I pulled the part of my uniform covering my neck down, dried blood flaking off onto the floor, and equipped my fancy beard cosmetic. Jack's fancy beard with the sawtooth cut. It was so distinctive to his aesthetic that this would likely be the only time I ever put it on.

There was a flicker of something across Bonesaw's face, something dark and livid.

"Just think of who you could have been without his constant pushing on your subconscious, all the sleepless nights it would have saved you, but he fucked you up, Riley. What do you think a good girl is?"

"She doesn't swear, for one," she said acidly, shifting slightly. "And she's loyal to her family."

After I had mind crushed Jack I realised the flaw in my attempts to read minds; the eye contact. I'd never done it with eye contact because it was a shamefully shady thing to do.

I took off my visor and looked her dead in the eye. Both our eyes were very blue.

Thoughts intruded into my mind, a maelstrom of concepts and emotion wildly different from my own. I almost couldn't parse any of it, so alien it was to my own mind, but there was something so singularly defining of Riley, the bedrock of her very self. Fear.

Constant fear, unending and all-consuming. And, right now, she was afraid I was right.

"What if your fear of Jack was entirely because of his power?" I said, putting my visor back on. "My power spoofed his, without it he was just some dipshit with a knife. You could have gotten away at any time were he not Mastering you. Pretty fucked up if your fake dad has to do that."

Bonesaw set her jaw and looked away petulantly.

"Well, whatever," I stood back up, putting back on my Armsbeard. "Get yourself Birdcaged, I don't give a fuck."

I walked out and her guards shut the door behind me.

"She's too scared of Jack at the moment, but she might cave in two days," the words tasted like fecal oil on my tongue. How did villains talk like that to people all the time? Being bad cop sucked. "So long as she can convince herself he's not coming back."

Armsmaster twizzled his beard thoughtfully. "Hopefully you didn't screw that up, but I can't think of any other avenues we might have gone down that would have worked."

"If we caught whoever the Siberian is, she thinks she's like her weird pseudo mum or something," I frowned. Poor Riley, actually. It wasn't her fault she was a monster, she was just a little kid. She just needed to be separated from the Nine and kept somewhere like Sveta's old parahuman asylum.

The taste of shit in the back of my throat intensified.

Armsmaster gave his beard one last stroke, then nodded. "I'll try again when Velocity gets back to me with the master's location. For now, I need to get back to the command tent. Our reinforcements will be converging there, where you will attach yourself under Miss Militia's command."

҉҉҉

I strapped on my armband. Apparently, it was the same kind that they gave out during Endbringer attacks, which didn't fill me with a whole lot of confidence. What did fill me with a little more confidence, however, was that the threat Echidna posed was being taken very seriously. Dozens, if not hundreds of clones had spawned before it became clear what was happening and a hell of a lot of them were clones of Crawler. One Crawler was bad enough, obviously, but fifty of him running around the city?

We were lucky they just wanted to fight each other at the moment.

To that end, however, we were getting some serious reinforcements in. People like Chevalier, Myrrdin and even the Triumvirate. They were turning up every minute, mostly capes from close by for now.

"Just to check again," said Miss Militia. "You sure?"

"I'm sure," I said.

I hadn't had much reason to talk to her lately, so I was sure she was talking to me like I was the same person from months ago. Me at that time just would not have been able to hack it, and I knew it, so her reservation wasn't even insulting in the slightest. I guess Armsmaster hadn't told her about Jack and Bonesaw for some reason, but I was kinda grateful for that. I wasn't very proud of today.

"I know what we're getting in to," I continued grimly. "I promise."

Miss Militia eyed the huge bloodstain running down my neck and nodded. I turned around and smiled awkwardly at my team, the five of them standing just a little bit away. Browbeat was not present.

"Sorry I just ran off," I walked over. "I had to save Panacea. Things would have been so shit if I hadn't."

"We're just glad you're not dead," Weld said, holding out his hand. He pulled me into a bro hug. "But please stop just fucking running off and doing shit on your own or I'm going to send you to protect Svetlana."

"I'd love to," I said. "But you guys need me out there. Armsmaster told me about this Echidna thing, and the clones."

"Offer to freeze you still stands," said Dennis.

"Tomorrow," I said.

Dennis sighed and Chris put a hand on his shoulder.

Lily had turned to face the direction the Echidna vs. Crawler brawl was happening, though we were much too far away to see or even hear anything. "I remember our group spar, back in Boston. Bas kept hissing about how much of an arrogant asshat you were, but you really could have taken us all on by yourself," she glanced over her shoulder at me. "How much stronger are you compared to then?"

"Quite a bit."

I'd put my recent points back into dexterity after so long saving them up to get the next mana control tier. It wasn't a purchase I regretted in the least, since not getting it meant all those people would have gone unhealed after Leviathan. I was three levels from my next perk choice, which was going to be Automatic Dodging. I kind of wished turning Jack's brain into vegetable soup gave me another point for it, as awful as that was.

"Enough to kill Crawler?"

"I fukken wish," I sighed. "Maybe if they're new clones? Armsmaster said they were being spat out without all his stuff."

"Small miracles," said Vista stolidly, wearing the face of someone much older and more jaded.

It didn't suit her, but it did suit today. We were all probably going to end up with blood on our hands because if we didn't then innocent people would die. There wasn't time to tie myself down in moral knots, I just had to do it.

We'd better do it soon, though. I looked in the direction of the fight. The situation was escalating every second we weren't in there. It made sense to consolidate our forces and hit Echidna and Crawler in one big alpha strike but the waiting set my nerves firmly on edge.

What few teleporter capes the Protectorate could field were working double-time to bring in reinforcements, and with a crack what looked like most of the New York team appeared on the other side of the empty parking lot that Armsmaster had designated the entry point, the teleporter vanishing the second their feet were on the ground.

Some were capes I recognised, either from having seen them on the internet, television, in the hospital after Leviathan or because they were my girlfriend.

I stepped forward, smoothly slipping through the growing crowd. She caught sight of me and her thrusters flared with an actinic blue as she blasted forward to meet me. We crashed together, drawing glances, arms wrapped around each other though I couldn't reach all the way around her armour.

"Savvy!"

"Greg!" Savannah span us around in mid-air. "What happened to your face?!"

"Got clipped on the cheek, it looks way worse than it was."

It had pissed out blood until my natural healing factor had staunched it, which was silly for such a small gouge.

"Fuck, I'm glad you're here," I pressed my forehead against her helmeted face.

"You'd better be," she said. "I came here specifically so I could keep you alive."

We touched back down on the ground and I ignored the looks we were getting from losers who didn't have sexy Tinker girlfriends.

"If you're in too much trouble I'm going to strap you onto this," she patted the big turbine jetpack attached to the back of her suit. "And send you back home."

"Thanks, babe. You're a lifesaver," I smiled wanly, taking her by the hand. I didn't know what else to say. Insisting that I was going to be ok and that she would more likely need it was just going to annoy her.

"So she was real," said Dennis loudly as my team walked toward us.

"Dennis, please," I said. "Just give it a rest."

He nodded and shut up. For some reason, he wasn't able to get over his conflicted feelings about me, but that was ok. I understood if not everyone liked me.

Lily stepped forward to be pulled into Savannah's enthusiastic handshake. While they were getting caught up I noticed someone next to Weld who looked like a twisted Neanderthal, which marked another tally in the cons side of my list of whether to join up with Cauldron or not.

In time Amy would get around to fixing her, but unfortunately not today.

"This is Gully," Weld said, realising I was looking. "Gully, this is Dark Smoke Puncher."

"That's a name," she said, voice deep and rough. "It's nice to meet you."

"Same," I said, letting go of Savannah's had to step forward and shake Gully's. "I'm thinking of changing the name, actually, when I move up to the Protectorate. Heart-Under-Blade."

Gully looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or not just in case I wasn't joking, which, damn, but I was still going to change it to that.

"That's… also a name. What happened to your face? I thought the fighting hadn't started yet."

"It was from a different fight today," I equipped a bottle of water, splashing it over my neck and scrubbing with my other hand. "Lots going on."

"I see," said Gully, her gargantuan brow creasing. "I assume you have some level of healing power?"

I nodded, dousing my head fully then switching the empty bottle for an uncomfortably moist towel that had been sitting in my inventory for months, still sort of warm from when I'd used it after a shower, to scrub the rest of the residue away. "I heal pretty good."

"Handy other power," she remarked blandly. "Is it a subspace or item generation?"

"Subspace," I put the towel back and made a mental note to finally put it in a washing machine. "Love my inventory. Love it."

"Don't let the name fool you," Weld cut in, cueing in on Gully not taking me seriously. "He won't let us down."

"It's true," I said. "I won't."

"I didn't mean to imply otherwise," Gully said hastily.

"No offence," I smiled, making sure my sparkle cosmetic pinged handsomely eliciting a complicated, but sceptical, expression from Gully.

"How exactly did you get that," Weld tapped his cheekbone. "You ran off to save Panacea, but from what?"

"Bonesaw," I said, forcing myself to act casual. "Wanted to recruit her for some insane reason, but that wasn't how it happened, look, it's a whole thing," I shook my head at his questioning look. "So I take out Bonesaw first, then someone else I owe a big favour to was being herded toward us by Jack Slash."

Or at least, that was what I assumed was happening. Bonesaw was about to be neutralised and Jack wanted Bonesaw, so his power influenced both him and Taylor to head in our direction so that he would just happen to stumble across us. Then when he was losing whoever was in control of the Siberian just happened to have a gut instinct to check up on him or something of that nature so that he would be bailed out of danger. Unfortunately for him, my power was as insane as Eidolon's because we both completely spoofed Thinkers. I suspected he was influencing me but wasn't getting the correct information back and the disconnect was enough for me to get him.

"But, no," I held up a hand, forestalling his interruption. "He didn't get me. The Siberian turned up; it's a projection, don'tcha know? Crazy, huh?"

"Oi."

I turned to Savannah. I'd wanted to get away with not mentioning it all, but the internet told me honesty was important in relationships so maybe this was for the best.

"It really was only just a clip on the cheek-"

"By the Siberian?" Savannah tried to flap her hands in distress, her bulky flight suit rendering the motion clumsy. "You don't ever owe someone a favour that big, were they trying to get you killed?"

I mean, it was possible?

"They were desperate," I protested. "It was to save their life."

"Someone who's drowning will still drag you under," she said.

I opened my mouth and paused mid breath. Damn, that was actually some profound shit, only I had pushed Taylor into the water in the first place. Well, the profundity kind of broke down when it was more like I accidentally pushed her into the water, because I didn't see the water or the sharks in the water, then jumped in to save her and she tried to drown me; also by accident because she was being mastered.

"They were being subtly Mastered into it," I said. "It's all Jack Slash's fault, he had a secondary power."

Savannah paused, then said in a more quiet voice. "You can just tell us if you tripped into a wall or something, we won't laugh because it's 'undashing'."

"What? No! I know it sounds a little implausible but go ask Panacea."

Savannah drifted forward and hugged me. "I believe you," she said like she was doing me a really condescending favour by being nice.

I sighed and hugged her back. "Thanks, sweetie."

Whatever, the truth would come out eventually. It would be easier for them to believe once we started the attack and got onto the killing field. I screwed my eyes shut, clenching my hug as tight as I could and Savannah patted me on the back in a motherly sort of way.

A ripple of reaction ran through the crowd, tiny gasps and mutters, and I opened my eyes. The Triumvirate was here.

Legend, Eidolon. The two I hadn't yet Observed. I breathed a sigh of relief as I read them, nothing there contradicted Alexandria's story; a possible tally on the pro side of joining them.

"We're starting."

Alexandria's voice carried over the crowd, strong and confident as her cape flapped in the wind.

"We're treating this like an Endbringer attack, divide into role groups. If you're a Mover, group up to the left; you'll be working to shrink the perimeter. Less movable hard hitters, group to the right; you'll be taking care of clones as they are expelled from Echidna. Barrier capes, group to the back; you'll be penning Echidna in. Blaster's to the front, you will be our main strikers for Echidna herself," Alexandria began to rise higher into the air. "Do not come into physical contact with her. She will spit out a clone with your powers and I think we all know just how bad that would be. If you've not yet received an armband, come and get one now. We have Dragon as support, she will let you know where clones are if she can and you are to update on their locations. You must destroy the clones, understood? Move out!"

"We're on the same team," said Savannah weakly as we broke our hug. "Before, um, before we start you should have this just in case we get separated."

She reached over her back, retrieving the jetpack. "It's pre-programmed to head back to New York so as soon as you're in trouble just," she gestured to a ripcord dangling from the side. "I'll strap you in now and you put it in your magic space."

"You're literally the sweetest," I said as she held it out for me and I slipped my arms through the straps so she could adjust them to my size.

I inventoried the jetpack, then quipped it again. It fit without hassle so I put it away again, then stroked Savannah's helmet, "I bet I won't even need it."

"Don't jinx yourself, idiot."

I smiled thinly, then turned to my team who were in a huddle with a space waiting for me. I pulled Savannah along with me and locked shoulders with her and Chris.

Weld put his hand out, palm down, and we all piled our hands on top. "Be careful," he said.

There was a tense moment before we split up into our respective groups. Savannah and I joined up with the other half dozen Mover class capes including Victoria. The group was headed by Alexandria herself, wisely separating herself from the group of capes who were meant to be in close range with Echidna because christ would that be fucking disastrous.

Even a single clone Alexandria would cleave through our ranks like butter until either she or Eidolon could stop it.

"We don't know for sure how spread out the clones are," she eyed us grimly. "Combined with our numbers means we're going to have to split up to cover the entire perimeter. Dragon will direct us faster flyers to the estimated far end of the perimeter while the ground-bound movers will cover the nearer half. There is a good chance there will be civilian clones inside buildings, spare none. No more wasting time, go."

She vanished in a burst of motion, the wind from the sheer speed of her flight pushing against my face.

I turned to Savannah again and we embraced once more.

"See you soon," she said, then lifted up off the ground and rocketed away in a blast of heat and light.

I took a deep breath, shared a nod with Victoria as she too flew away, then turned to the three remaining people.

One was a boy my age in dark, sleek armour and a shaggy mop of black hair partially covering his full face mask. He had one elbow resting on a large, segmented black rectangular box, the segments outlined with faint blue light. The same light began to shine between the segments of his armour before his body began to disassemble, pieces flying off the box to attach to him and reform his body into that of a sharp six-legged lizard. He had an interesting power, a mix between Tinker and Changer, able to turn most of his body into machinery and combine it with his technology.

The next was a man in his later twenties, his form-fitting suit covered in psychedelic swirls. His power was to move incredibly fast in one direction with an effect trailing after him that would disorient anything caught within it.

"I'll take left," he said, glancing at his armband which lit up with an arrow pointing toward, presumably, the nearest clone on the left.

The last person, a woman who was probably only just nineteen despite her short stature, nodded. She could emit a beam from anywhere on her body that would pull her toward whatever the beam hit. I could see she was able to make more than one beam, opening up interesting tactics like anchoring herself to a building then slingshotting clones by attaching another beam to them and pulling on both.

"I'll take right, then," she said before shooting into the air, Spidermanning her way with her beams.

The man saluted and vanished in a swirl of fractals and tie-dye.

"Leaves us middle, huh?" I said to the boy; whose code name was Tactical, which I thought was too edgy for the PRT to handle given that Tactical had famously been Butcher Six.

Tactical nodded queasily, his six black metal legs flexing. When he spoke his voice was distorted mechanically, "let's do it."

We ran, his lizard form keeping up with me quite easily, our armbands pointing the way.

New quest 'Rip and tear, until it is done'!
Echidna is spawning insane, homicidal mutant clones! Take out as many as you can before the timer ends!
Success: Bonus for each clone killed
Time: 5hrs

҉҉҉

Tactical and I had split up also as each of our armbands began pointing in slightly different directions. I'd retrieved my spear while he had transformed his arms into a shield and a beam cannon.

The arrow wasn't pointing exactly to any clone, it turned out, but to where the last known location of the outer perimeter of clones was. I was going to have to search manually, Urban Tracking finally being put to good use.

It didn't take long to find a trail and follow it until I could hear screams and thumping. I raced in through the shattered front door of the corner store, nimbly stepping over the trashed interior. A twisted clone thrashed against the staff only door behind the counter with hands far too large for his body, his head a swirled gnarl of bone and matted hair and his nude body covered with similar hairy patches.

"Oi," I shouted, just to hear myself over my own heartbeat.

The clone turned, he had blood down his front that wasn't his. "The fuck do you want?"

"Step away from the door," I said firmly.

"But I wanna kill them," he said, almost whined. "They're fucking idiots."

He was unpowered, a clone of a civilian Echidna had gotten a hold of. I tightened my grip on my spear and lunged forward, closing my eyes as the razor-sharp tip pierced through his enlarged forehead.

XP Bonus: 0.1x

I moved the spear until the dead clone wouldn't be in view when I opened my eyes again, then moved to knock on the staff door blinking away tears.

"I'm with the Protectorate, is anyone in there?"

Four panicked voices started shouting over each other and there was the sound of something heavy being dragged from in front of the door.

"Please stay in the room," I ordered. "The emergency order is still in effect, someone will be back to rescue you; I promise."

I clicked the buttons on my armband, "clone down, civilians in the Quickmart staff room."

The armband beeped, a female Canadian voice, Dragon's voice, chiming a prerecorded, "acknowledged." The arrow now pointed in a slightly different direction.

I quickly headed back out of the store. The clone had been homicidally insane just as my quest had said, there was no saving them. It just wasn't feasible. I suspected Amy might be able to, given a few hours for each one, but she would have to essentially lobotomise them with the amount of rewiring she would have to do.

I ran through the streets, a quick jogging pace to conserve stamina, making slow progress in attempting to thoroughly cover my section of the perimeter whilst still working my way inward. There were very few clones this far out and I slaughtered each one with a single strike of my spear.

All of them were malicious and insane, twisted in both mind and body, driven to snuff out every last thing the original cared about then move on to the wider world. It was something Bonesaw would have done but on purpose.

The next clone, a ludicrously tall Morgan Freeman lookalike, I found in a conference call on a cellphone. The name of the originator rang a bell.

The clone lowered the phone from where it had been furiously whispering and hung up. "Your next words," it said through a toothless mouth. "Will be, 'Thomas Calvert was Coil?'"

"Thomas Calvert was Coil?" I said. What?! A Master effect?

"Your next action will be," the clone said with a wicked smirk. "To-"

I hurled my spear directly into its chest before it could speak, the force of the throw knocking it back several meters and pinning it to a wall.

XP Bonus: 0.6x

I ripped my spear back out of it, clicking down on my armband. "Clone down, did you know that Thomas Calvert was Coil?"

"Acknowledged."

Thanks, Dragon.

As I moved further in toward the epicentre the clones became more common, as were dead civilians. The clones were indiscriminate, destroying everything and everyone they could get their hands on.

My spear ignited on contact with a clone of Circus, fire running up it even as I lopped their head from their body, necessitating I drop it before my fingers went up in flame. The flames burned intensely for a few seconds before dissipating, the shaft of the spear uncomfortably hot in my hand when I picked it up despite being a bar of solid steel.

Victory!
5000xp
Jester's cap

Despite the fact that the clone had been stark nude, of course. I closed the pop-up and moved on.

҉҉҉

"All combatants, converge on Echidna!"

The armband broke me out of my mindless action. I'd been running on autopilot, not thinking about what I was doing, only paying just enough attention so that I could do what I had to.

The armband chimed again, an annoying peal, the arrow flashing rapidly. I ran in the direction it pointed, I was close enough now that I could hear the fighting. When I bounded into the main arena I walked into a shitshow.

The scene was dominated by Echidna, taller than a house, a twisted mess of human and animal parts sticking out of her bulk at random. Her frame heaved, a fountain of rank gore spewing from her several enormous mouths and carrying with it a pile of naked, twisted bodies.

Crawler was bounding around Echidna like a giant puppy, taking bites out of her that sizzled and spat. He was about half her size, jet black, with the look of powerful, ancient savagery about him.

Several smaller versions of Crawler were harrying him around Echidna and all of them were being pelted with beams and blasts of all kinds.

The rest of the battle was a wild, uncontrolled melee. A mess of clones and heroes. Not only clones of the original people Echidna had taken, but clones of people on our side who had gotten within touch range of her. A blistering, eye-searing array of powers were being fielded, forcefields going up and being smashed through by Echidna or Crawler, the road twisting and writhing under some Shaker effect.

I could see on Echidna's back there was a cluster of Coil's and a dozen twisted mockeries of some little girl all being shielded by a copy of what may have been Bastion or Shielder; possibly even both or more that one of either.

I lunged forward, spear lashing out left and right as I raced across the battle and each swing took out a clone, shearing through them with sparks and ozone. My level up screen flashed in front of me, I grit my teeth in irritation, allocating the points into dexterity and pushing it out of sight.

I came out the other side of the brawl, and re-entered at a new angle, carving a new path through the clones. I struck at a Crawler, my spear bouncing off its leathery hide. I jumped up onto its back, plunging a lightning wreathed hand into the back of its skull. The Crawler howled, twisting its neck all the way around and expelling a spray of boiling venom. I rolled off its back as it ignored me and went back to trying to gnaw through the originals leg.

What a fucking shit show.

A hand grabbed my shoulder, reefing me back the split second before a beam drilled a hole through the concrete in front of me. I flinched around, catching sight of Alexandria let go of me and smash through a clone of some flying blaster cape, warped to unrecognisability.

All throughout this Echidna was barfing up new clones every twenty seconds or so and I realised the clones didn't all have the same powers. A clone of Bastion was hauling itself out of the slurry of vomit and was hurling bright blue force discs that ricocheted off of whatever they hit; something the original Bastion could not do.

Eidolon nailed it with a sickly green ball and ten more sprayed Echidna's main body, withering flesh into a necrotic slop.

I skipped back out of the fight, looking for a better angle, cleaving a clone of Uber in half on my way out. Alexandria was suddenly next to me and I flinched, swinging my spear, but she caught my arm with casual ease.

"What do you read off of her?" she asked, letting go of my arm.

I grit my teeth and Observed Echidna like I should have instead of rushing in.

"Uh, she's from Aleph, she's a Simurgh bomb, drank half a vial, can't control herself; nothing that helps right now."

Alexandria held out her palm, a different beam eating through the palm of her glove but splashing uselessly against her skin.

"Where's Legend?" I asked.

"Wherever the Siberian's master is," Alexandria turned to me, mouth a flat line. "They've been making their way here and we can't let that come to pass. Let's go."

Alexandria vanished from next to me, six clones seeming to explode as she struck them in turn too fast for anyone to track. With that, the tide turned, our side rallied and I charged back into the fray spear a whirling dervish while beams of lightning drilled through clones when gaps opened up. Six of the twenty present Crawler clones, the most evolved ones, formed a line between us and Echidna, baying and snarling with glee.

The Siberian crested the buildings behind Echidna, carrying something in its arms. Jack. I blinked and it was atop Echidna. Its mouth was moving, it was saying something, but I couldn't tell what over all the noise. The Siberian sunk through the force fields covering Echidna like they weren't there, disappearing into its flesh.

It didn't resurface.

The battle line crashed into the Crawlers, me with them, my hands blazing blue with electrical energy as I slashed and tore at the clones, to no effect.

Echidna puked, an enormous volume, it sprayed over our back line depositing a fresh line of clones in the perfect position to pincer us.

One of the clones that had landed on the largest Crawler staggered to its feet, shaking itself free of the dark reddish fluid. The clone of Jack Slash scraped its beard free of goo and the flow of the battle reversed. The clone army rallied, pincering us between the hammer of the new clones and the anvil of the Crawlers.

Something hit me from behind this time, taking a huge chunk out of my shoulder. My armour shattered, arm hanging loose as bright waves of pain coursed through me. I dashed back, getting free of the scrum, pushing healing mana into the wound.
A geyser of vomit sprayed again, one of the clones landing within spitting distance of me. I recognised him. I staggered over, falling to my knees.

Gregory Veder (clone)
Level 1
HP: 50/50
MP: 200/200
STR: 4
DEX: 5
VIT: 5
INT: 19
WIS: 3
CHA: 2

I picked him up with one arm, cradling him. He was me, these were my stats from the very first time I'd seen them. He didn't have a power. His nude body was pudgy, soft; me before I got my powers. He stirred feebly, gasping his first newborn breath.

My very own…

"My very own clone," he coughed, reaching for my face. "Now neither of us-"

I put a finger to his lips, quietening him.

He went limp, and like a wave, everyone else in my field of view went limp. I looked searchingly over the crowd as they started to recover. Everyone had been affected, right down to Eidolon, the Jack clone and Echidna.

-600

I blinked, looking down at the bright red thread protruding from my chest stretching from my clone's fingers. He was unravelling into shimmery thread, his whole body unspooling. I tried to yank it out but was met with searing pain. My clone, my clone triggered? His thread body reached all the way to Echidna, I could see it attached to her.

With a sharp, blindingly painful jerk the thread contracted, pulling me through the air like a fish, through the battle lines and directly into one of Echidna's many waiting maws.