The WOOHP Osprey swung in low around a mountainside and entered the valley tracks followed. It leveled out over the tracks and began following them towards a wide pass that led to the prairie.
Sam, Alex, and Clover sat in the open cabin, and a WOOHP agent stood in the entrance with his hand on the frame.
"So tell me again what's going on here," yelled Clover to Sam over the din of the Osprey's engines.
Sam leaned over to the door and looked out. Two hundred-foot trees sped past them in a blur, looking like little more than pipe cleaners from this altitude. She leaned back and faced Clover. "What?"
"I said, what's going on?"
"What?"
"This thing is too darn noisy!"
"What?"
The agent guessed what Clover was saying and pointed over the girls' heads. Headsets were hanging from the walls, and the girls put them on. Immediately, the roar of the engines died, and the girls could hear one another again.
"Finally!"
Sam adjusted her headset and pulled the mike to her mouth. "Now what were you asking?"
"I just wanted to go over what exactly we're doing."
"Well, we're-"
"I think I'd better handle this, Sam," said Jerry's disembodied voice. "A few hours ago, a train loaded with Chylopsin bound for a disposal facility failed to pass a checkpoint, and communication with the engineers has been lost. We believe that the clones are trying to steal the Chylopsin to power their weapons. The FBI has turned this case over to WOOHP from now on. Our satellites have found the train heading on a previously unknown track to an unknown location. Your mission is to stop the train and return it to the nearest station."
Sam leaned out of the cabin and looked ahead. A long black line was snaking its way along the tracks in the distance.
"You three will be inserted at the rear locomotive. There's likely to be less resistance there than at the front locomotive, but do remember who you're dealing with."
"We'll keep that in mind," said Sam.
"Good. After you've secured the rear locomotive, make your way to the front of the train and stop it. WOOHP agents will arrive to back you up as soon as the train has stopped. Use your equipment wisely, and be careful. Good luck, spies."
"Thanks, Jerry," the girls replied.
Eventually, the Osprey caught up to the fleeing train and began to descend. As it slowed down to match the train's speed, the rotors tilted up to maintain lift while moving forward. The agent gave the girls a signal and they stood up and approached the door. Sam looked down at the speeding train and started feeling nauseous. The cars rocked back and forth as the ground sped by in a blur. The Osprey continued its slow descent until it was hovering a couple of meters above the rear locomotive. The agent gave a second signal, and the girls leaped out of the Osprey while engaging their magnetic boots. They stuck the landing on the locomotive and paused to gain their balance on the unstable platform. After making their footing sure, Sam gave a thumbs-up to the Osprey, which ascended and veered away from the train.
"Okay, let's secure this locomotive and then head for the front."
Clover and Alex nodded, and then Alex's eyes widened in alarm and she pointed behind Sam.
"Sam, we got company!"
Sam turned around and wasn't at all surprised. A lone Nemesis clone was climbing out of the locomotive. She wore yellow armor and carried the same weapons as the one they'd captured, and her eyes were brown.
"I guess this is one of yours, Alex?"
"I guess so. Hard to believe they could make something so ugly out of someone as cute as me!"
The clone climbed on top of the locomotive and crouched low to maintain her balance. She growled something at the girls and unfolded her scimitar.
"Well, I suppose we should get this over with, eh girls?" said Clover.
"Agreed," said Alex and Sam.
The clone made the opening move with a burst of plasma from her arm cannon. The girls dove out of the way, Alex and Clover using their boots to stick to the sides of the locomotive, and Sam leaping straight at the clone. The clone dodged to the left and followed through with a swipe from its scimitar. Sam quickly unfolded the TIQ (Telescoping Indestructible Quarterstaff) Jerry had given them and blocked the scimitar, much to the chagrin of the clone. The clone grinned and began pushing harder. Sam held the TIQ at both ends and pushed back with all her might. But the clone was far stronger than her, and Sam sank to her knees as the scimitar's point inched closer to her eyes and the clone bore down on her.
"Hey, ugly! Over here!"
The clone looked over its shoulder at Clover, who was taunting it from the other side of the locomotive. She fired at Clover, who retreated to the safety of the locomotive's side.
The clone, distracted by Clover's antics, had eased up on Sam. Sam took her chance and let go of one end of the TIQ, deflecting the scimitar to one side and momentarily throwing the clone off-balance. She struck the back of the clone's knee with the TIQ, causing her to fall to one knee. Sam followed through with a reverse spin kick and sent the clone bouncing down the locomotive, a victim of her own inertia. Before she fell off the train, she twisted and buried her scimitar in the locomotive to stop herself.
Clover stood over the clone and smiled. She unfolded her TIQ, and then pressed a button to extend it and drew it back behind her head.
"Fore!"
She swung at the clone's head, but the clone caught the staff in her teeth and tried to wrestle it from Clover's grasp.
"Hey! Let…go! That's mine!"
While the two of them played tug-of-war, Alex crawled up below the clone and reached for her.
"Gootchie gootchie goo!"
Alex tickled the clone's sides, and she began squirming and laughing uncontrollably, as well as letting go of Clover's TIQ. Clover raised the staff over her head and struck the scimitar's hinge, breaking it. The clone fell away from the train and hit the ground, bouncing many times before rolling to a halt in a cloud of dust.
Clover helped Alex back on top of the locomotive. "How did you know it…I mean she was ticklish?"
"She's my clone, silly! I've always been ticklish right there!"
Sam walked over to them. "You guys alright?"
"Fine, but I don't think that clone's too happy."
"Good, let's get going."
The girls climbed down into the cabin. It was empty now, save for a person lying in a corner. Alex knelt next to him and shook him. At first he didn't respond, and then he moaned and started moving. Alex breathed a sigh of relief and the others walked up behind her.
"Wha…who are you?" asked the engineer as he rubbed the back of his head.
"We're with WOOHP," said Alex. "What happened?"
The engineer held his forehead. "Ugh, those things boarded the train when we were navigating the mountains. One of 'em clubbed me from behind. How's the rest of the crew?"
"We just got here ourselves," said Sam. She looked around the small engineering room. "They're probably in the front, if they're still on the train, that is."
"Probably. Where are we heading?"
"We don't know yet, but we've got to stop the train. Think you can help us?"
"Yeah, I think so." He closed his eyes as his head swam. "You'll need to take the front locomotive. Without it, we can't activate the brakes."
"Okay. We'll go on ahead and take the locomotive. You stay here and activate the brakes once we do."
The engineer held his head in one hand as the room spun again. "No complaints here. You planning on going across the cars?"
"Yeah, why?"
"It's just that walking across cars is a bit of an art form. The cars sway back and forth like crazy, so you'll have to learn to sway with them to stay on top."
"Don't worry about us," said Clover. "We've got a few tricks up our sleeves."
With that, the girls climbed out of the locomotive and back on top of the train. Far ahead, they could see the end of the train. Between it and them lay a long line of chemical tanker cars, all pitching back and forth as the train sped along.
Sam swallowed and brushed her hair out of the way. "Well, let's get going." She walked to the back of the locomotive and hopped across the open space onto the first car. Her boots held her down, but she still had to fight to maintain her balance on the unstable platform.
When she finally stood upright, she motioned to the others to follow and hesitantly began walking along the car.
Walking across the train proved to be a difficult proposition. The cars swayed wildly, and the wind continuously pressed against them, slowing their progress up the train.
"That engineer wasn't kidding," shouted Clover over the roar of the wind. "This takes skill, even with our magnetic boots!"
"Try to rock with the cars," Sam yelled back. "Don't fight it!"
Through trial and error, the girls found that by crouching low and swaying side to side with the car's motion while moving forward, they could traverse the cars with relative ease.
The girls steadily worked their way up the train as it roared through the valley. Their footing became steadier with each car they crossed, and eventually they were running across the cars with relative ease. They stopped and crouched when the train entered a fast turn that ran along the base of a hill. The girls felt the centrifugal forces nearly throw them off the train, and thanked Jerry for issuing the boots. When the tracks straightened out again the girls stood up and started to move forward before Sam glanced back at the others.
"Duck!"
The girls threw themselves to the top of the train just as a low-lying tree swept over them.
"That was close!" said Alex as they got back up.
"Stay sharp!" said Sam. "We don't want to fall off the train at these speeds!"
"Don't have to tell me twice!" said Clover.
"Hey, do you think there are any hobos on this train?" asked Alex.
Clover looked at Alex quizzically. "Any what?"
"Hobos."
"Why on earth would you want to see a hobo?"
"Haven't you seen those old movies? Trains always have hobos!"
"We're not here to see hobos!"
"But what if there are any? What do we do if we see one? Do we keep our distance? How do we know if they've had their shots?"
Clover punched the air furiously and shouted "WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND HOBOS?"
"Will you two knock it off?" said Sam. "We've got more important things to worry about than hobos!"
"But what if we see one? Do we treat it like a wild animal, or what?"
Sam slapped her forehead and shook her head. "Unless a hobo is a genetically modified clone of us, I don't think there will be any on this train. Now come on!"
They stood up and began working their way up the train again. With every car, they grew more cautious and frequently looked over their shoulders.
"This is too easy," said Alex. "If it's true they have psychic links with one another, they should know we're here."
"I agree," said Sam. "I think they're trying to set a trap."
When they reached the middle car in the train, the trap sprung. Two Nemesis clones hopped up onto each end of the car. One wore green armor and appeared to be unarmed like the one from the prison, and the other wore red armor with a pair of devices attached to its arms. The green one stood in front of them with its arms spread as if to catch them. The red one began slowly approaching from behind.
"Just ignore them," said Sam. "Head straight for the engine and stop the train!"
"Right!" replied Alex and Clover.
The green clone lunged at them, and the girls scattered. Alex and Sam used their boots to stick to the sides of the car and ran past the clone. Clover jumped on her head and sprang off of it to the next car. The clone wheeled around and started to chase them just as the train hit a large bump, causing it to stumble and fall between the cars. The girls took the chance to put some more distance between them and the clones and ran across the car.
The red clone helped the other one up and pointed her right arm at the fleeing spies. The cylindrical device on her arm expanded and a trio of barrels arranged in a circle extended from the end. The girls reached the end of the next car when Alex looked back and saw the barrels begin to spin.
"Get down!"
The girls jumped down between the two cars as a stream of plasma bullets filled the air where they were standing just a moment ago. The white-hot bolts burned into the heavy metal walls of the cars, leaving the smell of ozone and burned steel in their wake. Clover peeked out to the side, only to find the clone hanging off the side of the car and aiming at her head. Sam and Alex pulled her back in just as another volley filled the air.
"We can't stay here forever!" said Clover.
"That clone's got us pinned. We can't move as long as she's got a bead on us," said Sam.
The clone grinned with satisfaction on her end of the car and fired another burst at the girls' location. The Sam clone climbed down and bapped her on top of the head and growled at her angrily. If one could understand their arcane dialect, it would go something like this:
Knock it off, dummy! These things are full of pure Chylopsin. Do you want to punch a hole in the tanks?
Oops, sorry. You know I tend to get carried away.
Now there's an understatement. You go on that side, I'll come from the other side.
The Clover clone deactivated her weapon and began carefully crawling along the side of the car while the Sam clone crawled along the other side.
Eventually Sam poked her head up and looked around. "I don't see them."
"I really don't think they gave up," said Alex.
"We should at least take the chance to get moving while we can." Sam climbed up onto the next car. "Let's get moving before they come back."
Clover followed her up, and Alex grabbed the top rung of the ladder just as something hard clamped around her ankle. She looked down to see the red-clad Nemesis clone hanging from the side of the car with one hand and grabbing her ankle with the other.
"Guys! Help!"
The clone started trying to pull her down, and Alex clung to the ladder for her life. The clone could only grasp her ankle with one hand, as it used the other to hold onto the train.
Sam and Clover leaned down and grabbed her arms and tried to pull her up, but it was no use. The clone was far stronger than all of them combined. Alex was losing her grip, and the other clone was getting closer.
Clover decided to do something crazy. She let go of Alex and jumped back to the other car. Using her boots to stick to the side, she climbed down to where the clone was hanging onto the car. She unfolded her TIQ and struck its hand as hard as she could. The clone yelped and let go, falling off the train, but still hanging by Alex's ankle. Alex started kicking the clone in the head.
"Let go of me! Let…go!"
Sam unfolded her TIQ and held it overhead like a spear. She aimed at the power pack on the clone's back and hurled the TIQ at it. The staff pierced the pack's casing and caused a shower of sparks accompanied by a high-pitched whine. The clone was so surprised she let go of Alex's ankle and fell off the train, crashing in spectacular fashion beside the tracks. Sam pulled Alex up just as the other clone appeared and made a grab for Alex.
Clover climbed back on top of the car and yelled, "RUN!" as she jumped to the next one.
The girls scrambled along the cars as the clone hopped up on top of the train. She roared angrily at the fleeing spies and then leaped over two cars to land right behind them. She hit the car at an odd angle, causing her to stumble and pause to regain her balance. The girls took the chance to put some distance between them and turned to face her. Alex and Clover unfolded the TIQs while Sam reached for another gadget on her belt.
The clone settled into a fighting stance and reached behind her back. She held up what appeared to be a short stick and clutched it in her hand.
"What, you wanna play fetch?" taunted Clover.
The clone flicked her wrist, and a bright flash radiated from her hand accompanied by an electric crackle. A short energy sword had materialized in her hand. It originated at the ends of the stick and enclosed her hand and extended from just past her knuckles into a small point.
Clover sweatdropped. "Uhh, if you don't want to play fetch, that's a-okay with me, okay?"
The clone growled and lunged at the girls with a wide sweep of its sword. Sam and Clover jumped back, but Alex stumbled and fell down. She rolled to the side as the clone stabbed at her, and then she rolled between its legs when it tried to slice her in half. She was about to stand up when the clone swiveled around and kicked her back down. She held Alex down with one foot and raised her sword.
"Wait!" said Alex, squirming under the weight of the clone. "Don't do it!"
The clone paused and gave her a look that said, "why?"
"Because…because Sam would never kill anyone!"
The clone grinned and tensed for the strike. Her lips and jaw moved and a gravelly sound emanated from her throat.
"Not Sam. Only one Sam."
"Tree!"
The clone looked back a second too late. A low-lying limb clotheslined her and knocked her completely off her feet and off of Alex. She roared as she bounced across three cars before falling off the train.
Alex hopped onto her feet and caught up with Sam and Clover.
"You okay?" Sam asked.
"I'm fine. Let's stop this train!"
Sam smirked. "You bet. Let's go."
They made their way up the rest of the train without incident. Eventually, the lead locomotive came into sight. They were halfway across the tenth car from the locomotive when a familiar-looking blonde appeared. She poked her head up from between the cars and smiled at them.
The girls stopped. "Uh oh."
The clone raised her machine gun in the air and pointed it at the girls.
"Get down!" yelled Sam, grabbing her friends and yanking them down. The staccato crackle of the machine gun pierced the air as bullets zipped over the girls' heads and danced off the surface of the car just inches from where they were lying. When the gunfire stopped, they looked up to see the clone still smiling at them and still pointing her gun at them.
"Aww, what's the matter?" she asked mockingly. "Scared of a little bitty machine gun?"
"Sam," whispered Clover, "the smoke bomb ring!"
"Gotcha." Sam slowly removed the ring she'd been wearing and grasped it tightly in her fist.
"Anytime the three of you want to move is fine with me!" yelled the clone.
Sam raised her hand and smashed the ring on the surface of the car. Immediately a dense cloud of smoke engulfed them, hiding them from view of the clone. The wind stretched the cloud into a long trail that ran down the length of the train.
The clone tensed her arm to fire, but couldn't see anything to shoot at.
"Damn smoke, I can't see worth a damn."
She waited for what felt like forever, but saw no movement. She held her gun level at the smoke cloud and waited. Her tension mounted and her temper slowly rose, until at last she could wait no longer. She climbed onto the car and slowly walked to the smoke cloud with her gun extended. Just as she got there, the cloud dissipated and was swept away by the wind, revealing only bare metal.
"Oh crap!"
She spun around to find the girls several cars ahead and running for the engine. She slung the gun on her back and took off after them.
The girls were one car away from the engine when they hit another obstacle. Alex's Athena clone was waiting for them. The girls stopped and faced her, ready to fight. The clone wasted no time in meeting the challenge. Keeping her head low and her arms wide, she dashed toward them with frightening speed. The spies scattered and met her head-on. The Alex clone fought with grace of a ballet dancer. Even against all three of the girls, she remained calm and focused.
The clone charged toward Sam and ducked to avoid her fist, transitioning smoothly into a wide leg sweep. The girls dodged and countered with their feet, but the clone leaned back out of reach and then rolled and sprang gracefully out of the way. The combatants stopped and stared at each other for a long time. The clone brushed her hair back and smiled. She was obviously enjoying this, and looked ready for more. The girls tried to gauge her, but they couldn't get a decent read just on looks alone.
Alex whispered to her friends. "You two go on ahead. I'll take care of her."
"You sure you can take her?" asked Clover.
"No, but I've got to try, and we've got to stop this train."
Sam looked back at the engine, then at Alex, and then at the approaching Clover clone. "Alright, but be careful."
"No prob." Sam and Clover turned around and headed for the engine while Alex settled down for a fight.
"Funny," said the clone, "I heard you were the most cowardly one."
"Well you heard wrong."
The clone tilted her head to one side. "Oh? Well, what can I say? It's been awhile."
"I hope you're ready for a nice, long nap."
The clone's smile vanished instantly. "Over my dead body." She held her hand out and motioned to Alex. "Let's go already."
Alex lowered her head and charged into the most difficult fight of her young life.
Sam and Clover climbed into the engineering room and looked around. A door leading to another compartment had been barricaded, but otherwise the room appeared empty. Sam went to the control panel and studied the controls.
"Can you stop it?" asked Clover.
"I think so, but let's call the other engineer first." She picked up the intercom and hailed the rear locomotive. "You there?"
"Yeah, I'm here," said the engineer. "I guess you've reached the controls, then. Okay, give me a second to link the systems."
"Roger that." Sam put the intercom back and went back to studying the controls. Her eyes wandered over the control panel until they settled onto a wire plugged into a terminal. The wire trailed off the panel and down to the floor. Sam followed it across the room and gasped.
The wire led to a large bomb sitting in a corner. The lights on the device glowed green and one of them was flashing.
"Oh, great."
The engineer's voice crackled over the intercom. "Hey, WOOHP agents, you there?"
Clover picked it up. "Yeah, and we've got a problem up here."
"What is it?"
"A bomb."
"A bomb?!"
"A bomb."
There was a lengthy pause before he spoke again. "Okay, what's it doing?"
"Nothing right now."
Another pause. "Okay, that's all well and good. Are there any displays or dials on the device?"
Sam knelt next to the bomb. "It's connected to the control panel. I'm going to see what it's doing." She opened her Compowder and started analyzing the bomb. After a few seconds, she got a reading. "It's connected to the braking system. If the brakes are engaged, the bomb will go off!"
More silence. "Well, you're the secret agents. Got any ideas?"
"We'll work on it," said Clover, putting the intercom up. "Any ideas, Sammie?"
"I'm working on it." She stared at the bomb for a moment. "We have to either trick this thing into thinking the brakes are still off, or get it off the train in a hurry, maybe both."
Clover walked over and unlatched the casing. "It's always the red wire, right?" She flipped the casing open; only to find all the wires were red. "Aww, mannn! They just had to make this difficult, didn't they?"
Sam was rapidly tapping on her Compowder. "I can configure my Compowder to mimic the signal from the control panel, but we have to plug the bomb directly into it to work."
"And if we unplug it from the controls, it'll go boom?"
Sam swallowed. "Probably."
Clover heaved a sigh. "Well, it's not the first time we've risked blowing up. Might as well give it a shot."
They walked over to the control panel and bent over the port. Sam held her Compowder ready. "On the count of three, remove the wire and plug it into the Compowder."
Clover grasped the wire.
"One."
Clover's grip tightened on it.
"Two."
She depressed the hook on the terminal.
"Three!"
Clover yanked the cord out of the socket, jammed it into Sam's Compowder, and they both looked at the bomb. The lights flickered for a moment, and then resumed their normal state.
Clover and Sam rested on each other's shoulders and heaved sighs of relief.
"Let's stop this thing, shall we?" said Sam.
"Please?"
Sam reached for the brake controls and pulled the lever all the way down. The train lurched and the wheels screeched as the brakes engaged. The train decelerated slowly for what felt like an eternity, and then finally ground to a halt.
Sam straightened up and turned to Clover. "Come on, let's go help Alex!"
"Right. I hope she's okay."
They stepped out of the engineering room just in time to see Alex get tossed off the car and onto the thick sod beside the tracks.
Sam leaned over the safety rail and shouted, "Alex! Are you okay?"
Alex sat up and rubbed her head. "I'm fine, but- behind you!"
Clover spun around and found herself staring at her own face. She instinctively threw a punch, but the clone grabbed her arm, spun around with her, and then tossed Clover out of the cabin.
The clone lunged at Sam, who hopped up on the railing and then jumped off the train to where her friends were down below. She looked up, but the clones were nowhere to be seen.
"Where'd they go?" said Sam.
"I dunno," said Alex, "but we'd better contact WOOHP!"
Before anyone could move, six figures leaped over the train and landed behind the spies. They were all Nemesis clones, two of each kind, armored and primed for a fight. The Clover variants held their round shields up while aiming their arm cannons at the girls. The Alex variants did the same with theirs while unfolding their scimitars, and the Sam variants turned on their energy swords. The clones spread themselves out in a semicircle, growling and chattering with one another.
Sam backed up. "More of them? This looks bad, girls!"
Alex got up on her feet. "No kid-" she stopped when she felt something sharp press against her throat. A slender, powerful arm wrapped around her and held her hostage.
"Now, now, little girl." Whispered a familiar voice in her ear. "You don't want to get hurt, do you?"
Clover unfolded her TIQ. "Alex!" Before she could take another step, her Athena clone jumped in front of her. Clover swung at her, but the clone knocked the TIQ out of her hand. Clover threw a punch and a kick, both of which the clone blocked. Clover kicked again, but the clone juked to one side, drew her pistol, and pressed it against Clover's temple before Clover's foot touched the ground.
"Nice to see you again. I wouldn't move too much. We don't need your brain."
It all happened so fast, it took Sam a moment to realize what was going on. She clenched her fists and spread her feet. "Let them go!"
The clones looked at her quizzically and Alex's clone held Alex tighter, her knife still pressed against Alex's throat. "And you're going to do what, now?" She nodded at the six clones that were all focused on Sam. Sam glanced back at the Nemesis, and then at her hostage friends. Alex and Clover's eyes pleaded with her to do something, but she was fresh out of ideas. She slid her feet apart and relaxed her shoulders. She readied the next gadget in her right hand, hoping it would give her even the slightest chance to save her friends.
Sam took one step forward, and a midnight blue blur with an auburn mane jumped in front of her. It spun around, sweeping Sam's feet out from under her. The blur made a second revolution while Sam was still airborne and planted its heel in Sam's stomach, sending her flying. Sam bounced off the side of the train and her vision blurred instantly. She lay on the ground for some time, unable to tell up from down or even what color the grass was. When her senses finally returned to her, she slowly looked up.
Standing over Sam was her mirror image. She wore a short midnight blue Chinese-style dress with a white sash tied around her waist. She wore green boots, and Sam noticed she was carrying a sheathed katana in her left hand. There were other details on the dress, but Sam couldn't see them through her blurred vision.
Sam heard her own voice say, "Good job stopping the train. I knew you'd come here."
"Huhnn?" Sam looked around. Though her vision still swam, she could see Alex and Clover standing back-to-back, facing their respective doubles.
Sam staggered to her feet, though she was still unsteady. She stumbled and fell forward , instinctively steadying herself on her clone's shoulder. Only then did she realize what she had done. She stared at the clone apprehensively, expecting her to rip her arm off or something equally painful.
Instead, the clone raised an eyebrow and snorted. "Maybe I did hit you a little too hard." She guided Sam to the others and stood back with her own friends. Alex and Clover supported Sam while she looked around. On one side, the monstrous Nemesis clones were still poised to strike, and looked more than a little eager to do so. On the other side, the Athena clones, young and fair as themselves, yet even more dangerous than their Nemesis sisters.
The Athena clones looked at the girls for a moment while a breeze stirred the grass. An uneasy silence settled on the scene, broken only by the rustling grass, the train engines, and the electronic whine of the Nemesis' weapons.
Clover-Athena broke the silence after a while. "We should get going. I don't wanna waste my time on those WOOHP grunts."
Sam-Athena nodded. "Me either. De-cloak the ship and get the Chylopsin, and then take the prisoners aboard."
She looked up, and the girls followed her gaze. A huge airship materialized out of thin air, blocking out the sun. The Nemesis clones put their weapons away as hoses descended from the aircraft and they carried them to the train.
The Athena clones formed a circle around the girls, who stood back-to-back.
"Well, are you going to kill us?" said Sam. "You didn't sound like you needed us alive."
Sam-Athena folded her arms. "Of course not. But really, even we don't want to harm our own mothers."
"Your what?!"
"Isn't it obvious? We were created from your genes. That makes you: Mom."