Twice was now being pinned down by puppets that looked exactly like him. They had torn Turid away from him and had removed his mask.
"No! No!" he yelled, struggling. "Your hands are so cold! I don't get it; you're freezing my mind. Damnit, who are you? Are you me? You have my face, but I don't know you do I?"
"Gruffnut and Turid," said Sceptic. "B, make sure she can't move. E focus on him."
"Stop it; leave those two alone," said Johann.
"Sorry, but he can't talk to you right now," said Re-Destro forcing him to look away from Sceptic. "He's taking care of a couple of worthless villains. His meta-power allows him to create lifelike puppets; that's why he controls a slew of Gruffnuts. Thanks to my company's micro-transceivers and the con system he created, he can control them with exquisite precision."
"We know all about Gruffnut's mental trauma," said Sceptic gleefully. "Your client information is worth waiting gold. Is that frustrating for you? It must be broker; thanks to you, we will kill Turid and take Twice."
'Kill Turid; I doubt Gruffnut will bounce back from that,' Johann grimaced.
Twice was already having a mental breakdown being pinned down by people that looked like him.
"It's bad if I'm not wrapped up!" he cried. "Please stop it!"
Then to make things worse, he noticed that the puppets were holding out Turid, and the way they were positioning her, it was clear that they were planning to break her neck.
"Damnit, put her down! Turid! That's me; I'm trying to kill her! Why would I hurt the girl that wrapped me with her handkerchief? That's me! No, it's not! Wait, I'll never do that! So who is it? Where is the real me? Am I a copy? Have I been lying to myself this whole time? I'm going to tell myself in two! Am I the original? Is this really me? Who am I?!"
'Everyone was afraid for me just because my eyes look scary.'
Many years ago, before Gruffnut, Thorston had taken the villain's name Twice and even before he began diving into a life of crime. He was just an ordinary worker, but then he got caught in an instant that changed his life completely.
He had been driving his motorcycle when he crashed into someone. He was being charged with dangerous driving despite the fact that he was following the national speed limit and despite the guy across the road without looking both ways.
He was currently at the police station giving his testimonial. "No family; I live on my own."
"I see; that must be hard."
'One of the most critical moments in my life was when I was 16.'
"Bad news, the man you hit with your motorcycle, has a broken arm," the officer informed him.
"Not my fault; he jumped in front of me. I was driving in the speed limit and everything," said Gruffnut.
The officer didn't seem to listen to him or just simply ignored him. "This is the start of your criminal record. Don't worry; you may stumble in life you can always pick yourself up again."
'Nice idea in theory; some people trip and just keep on falling, though.'
When he returned back to work, his boss punched him in the face in anger.
"Fool! Do you have any idea who you ran over?" he yelled furiously. "An executive of one of our most valued clients! I just got off the phone and guess what? They said that they going to rethink working with us in the future! Is this how you repay me for giving you a job on a roof to sleep under? Your curse! Never show your face in this office again!"
Thanks to that, he now lost his job, and his home was forced to live on the streets.
'My parents died when I was in middle school, got caught up in a villain attack. I wasn't close to the rest of my family. I was alone all by myself, but I wanted someone to talk to.'
Gruffnut literally kept himself company by creating a clone of himself.
"Hey, did I make a mistake with you?" Gruffnut asked the clone.
"If you did, so what? Not your fault that you were born with the crappie us luck," said the clone.
'I wanted someone around, someone that I trusted. It was fun.'
Gruffnut then continued to clone himself not only to keep himself company but also to help him in his thefts. With an army of clones at his disposal, he could overwhelm police and villains alike and began going on a massive crime spree.
'Do you know what a person circling the drain really wants? An easy life, at least that's how I was, which is why I ended up making so many mistakes. And I didn't realise how many wrong turns I made until I hit rock bottom.'
Unfortunately, he kept on misusing his clones using them are servants began to rebel. Plus, there were so many that it was impossible to tell who was real, so they began arguing with themselves. Watching his clones fight one another day after day was traumatic, and in the scuffle, he got a nasty head.
When the fighting was done, only he remained, and he wasn't certain whether he was the real Gruffnut Thorston.
'When I stop being able to trust myself…'
Gruffnut soon found that if he didn't keep his face covered, he would have a massive panic attack, so he began walking around with a paperback on his head. Plus, he ended up with a split personality which made conversations rather difficult.
Fortunately, he was able to find Johann, who offered to help him.
"What a mess," said Johann. "Watching a bunch of use kill other yous makes you go a little nuts. So what's with the bag? Panic attack?"
"If I'm not wrapped up, I'll split," said Gruffnut. "I won't; I'm fine!"
"Ah, interesting," said Johann as he leaned back, intrigued.
"The doubles I make disappear after receiving a certain amount of damage. Basically, when they get the equivalent of a broken bone. You can see why I'm kinda concerned. No worries here."
"Thanks to the flashy robberies you committed with all those clones, you made it onto the nation's most wanted list. You know, if you used your power right, you could take on the entire country. I'm kinda surprised that you are so down and out, given that power."
"Any advice for someone like me?"
"Find some people that can trust you."
"Who?"
"Like-minded folk, there's been a group on the move lately, and I'm positive they would want a guy like you to join their ranks," said Johann offering him a cigarette. "Trust me on this. There are plenty of people in this world who think the same way as you."
Back in the present, Twice managed to break free from Sceptic's puppets and rushed over to Turid.
"Turid, no!"
"F and G, punch him!" Sceptic ordered.
One of the puppets then punched Twice hard across the face, and then he and the other puppets began beating him.
"Ouch! So weak!" he cried.
"Grabbed his arms! Break them!"
The puppets then grabbed Twice's arms and broke them, causing him to cry out in pain.
"Do as I say, and this stops, got it?" said Sceptic. "Resistance is pointless."
"It hurts," Twice cried. "Damnit."
"Great Turid is regaining consciousness," Sceptic noted. "Need to increase their strength."
"The pain," Twice smiled. "My arms! They hurt; it's bad. But even though it hurts, I'm not disappearing!"
He then laughed joyously as he finally realised that he was indeed the real Gruffnut Thorston. 'I've been avoiding any real injuries because I was afraid that I would disappear. It's been like this for so long. No matter what, I keep on making all the wrong choices; I could have figured this out right away if I just try to hurt myself. But I kept on falling and failing until I met them until I met her… Turid! I swear I'll save you!'
Then suddenly, all the puppets found themselves being blown away as he began using his power, much to Sceptic's surprise.
"Out of the way you face," said Twice as he began making copies of himself. "I would never kill a comrade. You will fear me. Liberation Army, I'll show you the extent of my power."
Twice's meta-power was powerful, but there were certain limitations. First off, you could only create two clones at a time, and what he made with his ability is far more fragile than the real thing. Additionally, the second one that would be made would be far more fragile than the first, and he was unable to make anything new until the first one disappeared.
When they got the bullets that Grimmel had made, Twice tried to use his ability to duplicate them. Unfortunately, they were flawed copies, mostly due to the fact that he did not know what they contained.
"It's no use. Sorry, Krogan," said Twice. "I can do it. Not a problem. I need data and something to visualise for my power. I don't have data for this. I'm afraid I'm not going to be helpful for reproducing the Mafia bullet."
'I'm sorry that I was never of much use; I've been holding you back. You accepted me, and I wanted to repay you from the bottom of my heart, and now I can. I can do this! Let's go, Twice!'
"It's time for the massacre!" said the Twices.
The other liberation warriors saw the commotion in the back garden, and they knew instantly that something had gone wrong.
"Hurry, we'll help Mr Sceptic!"
"Don't kill the doubler!"
However, swarming out of the back garden was a complete mountain of Twices. Twice had his clones create duplicates of themselves in the duplicates made duplicates meaning in a very short span of time, there was a complete army of Twices.
"Argh, damnit!"
The Twices stormed the warriors catching them by surprise and overwhelming them with their numbers.
"A march of grief!" Twice roared as he held Turid in his broken arms. "Do your worst; I'll protect my comrades."
From the tower, Re-Destro observed the army of Twices swarming the city.
"What a surprise," he said. "He's overcome his psychological trauma. It's not what you expected from him, huh, Mr Sceptic. A red miscalculation and failure."
Sceptic merely closed his laptop and walked away. "Failure? What are you talking about, Re-Destro?" He made his way to the elevator and looked at Re-Destro with a frustrated look. "I can say without hesitation I only failed once in the past. Understand? Just one time in my entire life. So you take it back, this is all to plan. I'm just prepping for my next move."
"Ah, yes, of course, Sceptic," said Re-Destro as Sceptic entered the elevator.
Johann then laughed, though painfully. "So the kids right in the head now? He must have one hell of a doctor. If his shackles are really off, he can do anything; you'll see. At the very least, he'll even out the numbers on the battlefield."
"Quality over quantity, right, Geten?" said Re-Destro is a dark patch began to form on his forehead.
Geten was the man in the Arctic coat, who was currently riding his ice dragon down towards Diablo, who then unleashed another powerful burst of blue flames. His flames were powerful enough to melt the ice forcing his opponent back.
"Your power might be useful in the right situation, sure, but you've almost blown through all the ice in the area," said Diablo as his skin began to smoke.
Compress was having a pretty hard time fending off his attackers, he only had one good arm, and he wasn't very skilled when it came to combat.
"If you've got a free hand, then help me!" Compress yelled.
"Why should I bother lending you a hand?" Diablo scoffed.
"Are you so unfeeling?"
"Plenty of other guys over there, who can help you out," said Diablo pointing behind them.
Suddenly rushing to the scene were Twices clones.
"Diablo!"
"Mr Compress!
"Backup Twices are here to the rescue!"
"What the hell?" Compress stared. "But… you're trauma?"
"Love encourage even me out!" said a clone as they rushed past him.
"I don't get it, but it sounds like your hero's journey even though you're a villain."
"What? Is it weird for a villain to save his friends?"
"Not at all!" said all the clones.
"I won't let you die!"
"I'm so cool."
"I don't have many friends, so you're all important to me."
The clones began to swarm the battlefield overpowering the Liberation warriors with sheer numbers.
"Wait, am I an idiot?"
"You said it."
"Not a bad fighter, though."
"Yep, check me out! I'm the best."
"Let's give them a good one, all a good 20,000."
"I'll make more of you guys too! We'll be more than a League; we'll have a population of the city! Let's go, city of villains!"
"Wait, Twice! If you annihilate the enemy, we won't have any extra players to throw against Gigantio later," Compress pointed out.
"Go easy on them?"
"Then Diablo should stop; he burns lots of stuff."
"But the massacre!"
"How long until the big guy wakes up?"
Compress pulled out his pocket watch. "An hour and five minutes."
"Then I'll stall them. More importantly, Turid's in trouble; get the location for me and hurry over!"
Suddenly I shot out of the ground during everything in its path, taking on a good number of the clones.
"Oh no, mes!"
Diablo was able to protect himself by unleashing the wall of fire. "What's this? Is there an ice factory around here? Where is all this ice coming from?"
Geten was now hovering over a platform of ice and had two pillars spin around him.
"There is more to my ability than simple manipulation," he explained as the drop of water on Diablo's wrist turned to ice and expanded.
"Huh, is that so?"
"I can control the temperature of the molecules too. So why call out of the water in the pipes and lower the temp? It freezes and becomes my weapon."
"You could have told me that from the beginning," said Diablo as he formed flames in his hand. "Now I'm angry."
"In the future, we're aiming for the strength of someone's power will directly link their place in society. In other words, increasing your meta-ability will be essential."
He then raised his hand at ice erupting throughout the entire streets obliterating the clones are the good number of Liberation warriors.
"No, mes!" the clones cried as they were tossed into the air.
"There is no value to life other than the amount of strength you wield," Geten explained.
"That's a pretty depressing worldview," Diablo commented. "Now die."
"You are the one that will perish, blue frame user," said Geten noting the smoke emerging from Diablo's patchwork skin. "Your body already burns. Determinating an opponent's meta-power is the most basic of tactics. Your scorched skin looks as if it's about to fall off; you will be able to fight for long, will you? Because your flames are consuming your own body."
Compress had been saved by the clones, who shielded him from Geten's last attack, though barely.
"A frightening attack, and he willingly sacrificed his own allies," said Compress. "The ice user is travelling; he's the only one who stands out from the rest. He's exactly who we want to throw at Giganto."
The Doctor was observing everything from his laboratory.
"This hardly seems fair," he chuckled. "But if you die here, Drago would be so sad."
He then pressed down a button which activated the old radio wrapped around Giganto's neck.
"Giganto," said Drago's voice.
Giganto then immediately awoke, breaking free from the earth that had surrounded his body.
"The master's successor is doing his best, but he's awfully tired," said the Doctor through the radio.
Giganto sniffed the air and picked up Krogan's scent. "The master's successor…"
He then shot forwards, heading straight towards Krogan as the crow flew.
Back in Hercorn, Geten fired several icicles at Diablo, who fired a burst of flames, melting them instantly.
Krogan, Viggo and Spinner were currently making their way towards the tower where Re-Destro had Johann prisoner.
"Krogan, how you holding up over there?" Spinner asked.
"Concerned?" Krogan asked.
"You've barely had any sleep in the past month and a half," Viggo pointed out.
"You say we shouldn't have come?" Krogan questioned.
"Well, if we haven't come to this city, then we would have been reported and chased by a bunch of heroes, right?" Spinner pointed out. "We would have been in trouble either way."
"Yes, I suppose that's true," Krogan agreed. "They did have me trapped."
"On the other hand, we knew what we would deal with if the heroes attacked; the Liberation Army, on the other hand, is an unknown quantity," Viggo added.
"True, but we would also have to deal with Giganto at the same time," Krogan reminded. "Anyway, the tower is close."
They suddenly came to a stop when they came across a street filled with several hundred liberation warriors.
"It's well guarded," Krogan noted.
"Where did all these people come from?" Spinner stared.
The liberation warriors immediately fired them, but Twice's clones rushed in, tackling them and pushing them out of the way.
"Whoa, there are so many Twices!" Spinner stared.
"Yo, Spinner!"
"A bunch of me died in the ice."
"I twisted my knee."
Viggo smiled. "So you've managed to go past your trauma. Your time is impeccable; now we can really even the odds."
"Krogan!"
Krogan looked at the Twices. "Well, this is unexpected. You're an army now."
"Yeah!" the clones cheered.
"And since I can do this… I can help the team out. Right, boss?"
The clones then immediately began to engage with the liberation warriors.
"You're incredible, Twice," said Krogan as he lifted himself up. "Think you have enough clones to clear a path to the tower for me? Someone said their boss and Johann are holed up inside there. I thought that it might be a bluff, but the closer we get, the more enemies there were. They're protecting something. We need to leave enough pawns to take on Giganto, but I need to make sure their big box is dead."
"Yeah, you got it! Why don't you go and take a nap while I'll trim the fat for you?" Twice suggested. "We'll take down Liberation Army with a single multiple person."
"Hey, me! I'll leave that tower to you!"
"Hold on, Johann! I'm coming!"
"So Twice is going to be able to handle this by himself," Spinner stared.
"Not completely," said Viggo. "I imagine they have a few very powerful and skilled individuals in the Liberation Army. Twice maybe able to create limitless clones, but it won't do any good if they have to face someone incredibly powerful."
"Regardless, he has a soft spot for Johann," said Krogan. "The Liberation Army is playing with people's hearts. I'll make sure they'll suffer into their last breaths."
Suddenly a campaign truck drove right in front of them with Hector Smoothtongue riding on top.
"You! Leader of the League of Villains!" he yelled from a microphone. "Up until now, we have allowed you to pursue your agenda."
"The politician forgot about him," Spinner spat.
"We believe that humans are not frail beings and that we all have some sort of power. Our revival party will show how people use their meta-abilities to defeat evil. Witness the strength of flesh and blood!" He then performed the Liberation Army salute. "It is time! Dismantle our guest of honour! Crush the League of villains! Liberate yourselves, my friends! Use your righteous power to bring forth a new era! Show everyone is a hero, and at the same time, nobody is!"
Somehow his voice was amplifying his followers increasing their strength, endurance and agility. They quickly attacked and almost instantly wiped out the clones protecting them.
"I'll leave the rest to you, me," said one of the clones before it disintegrated.
'Smoothtongue, dammit,' Spinner cursed. 'Every time he talks, the soldiers out here get more fired up. What should I do? Krogan is already exhausted. We can't let him get more worn out.'
Re-Destro was still watching the battle unfolding when one of Twice's clones arrived on the elevator.
"There you are!" he said. "You're the jerk who crashed our big fight and made us come here. What a crappy move!"
"Ooh, so you made it to the tower," said Re-Destro looking impressed.
"What's with the weird hair balding?" said Twice as he began making clones. "No, wait. I'll call you forehead. Sorry, that was rude."
"Gruffnut," said Johann weakly.
"I can double lots of things, but it's much faster to make more of me," said Twice as he made a clone of himself and Krogan.
"Because I know myself better than anybody," said the clone making a clone of itself and of Diablo.
"Beg for forgiveness, pee you're pants, forehead," said the clone making another clone of itself and of Compress.
"That was quite a large number of warriors waiting for you downstairs," said Re-Destro. "You're meta-ability is wonderful, quite like as Sceptic said."
"Listen up, you guys, you're just copies of my real comrades!" Twice yelled. "So even if you die, you'll be gone forever. No worries out to you beautiful graves for each of you."
"Don't make a copy of your leader just to kill him," said Krogan.
"Repeat after me, we're double, so even if we die, we're not dead. That should make you feel better about this fight."
"What's wrong with you? And who are these guys?" Diablo asked.
"The weirdo there is the Liberation Army's boss."
"Hey, are you able to clone yourself now?" Compress asked.
"Oh, right. I guess I didn't catch up on the situation with my psyche. I got over my trauma."
"Wait? Are you a clone too?"
"What you say? I'm the realist of the real."
"No, I'm the original!"
"Shut your face! It doesn't matter; I'll put my soul on the line for everyone's sake. Do you feel the same way or not?"
The clone then charged at Re-Destro, but seconds later, his head was completely blown off on his shoulders.
"Holy!"
"See, he was totally a fake the whole time."
Re-Destro stood over the clone with his finger covered in thick black markings as well as the right side of his face. It looked as if he had just flicked his finger, and the clone's head was shattered instantly.
"Pretty fragile clone," he said. "Awesome, I'm very certain that you don't understand what the term hostage means."
"Did you see what he did?" said Compress.
"Don't ask me," said Diablo.
"Gruffnut, if you make any more copies, Johann is dead," Re-Destro warned as more black markings slowly covered his face. "He's not a formal member of your group, so I don't really want to kill him, but I will."
"You did good Twice," said Krogan as he stepped forward. "You make sure we outnumbered him; he's just one man."
"We got the advantage!" Compress yelled as he jumped in.
"Get Johann back, and we can leave," said Diablo as he unleashed a burst of blue flames.
"Wait!" the clones yelled.
Re-Destro's right arm was then suddenly turned black then expanded into it was five times its normal size. With one wave of his hand, he managed to destroy all the clones in a single hit causing the windows to shatter due to the shockwave.
"Useless fodder," he said as his arm returned back to normal. "It's ridiculous to even think we're fighting in the same ring."
"Johann…" said a voice.
Re-Destro turned his gaze to one of the Twice clones, which was lying on the ground with its lower torso completely blown off. It must have jumped out of the way just before his attack, but not completely unscathed.
Before it completely vanished, it created another clone of itself within and immediately rushed over to Johann.
"Johann!" the clone cried. It was then that Johann was missing all the fingers on his right hand. "Your fingers, they really took them, didn't they? Damnit! And it was your right hand, that your smoking hand. Oh man, how can they do such a thing? I'm sorry."
"I'm the one who should apologise," said Johann. "He got the info about you guys from my files. I'm a failure as a broker."
"Don't you say that! People who haven't done anything wrong should never have to apologise!"
"You're taking this so seriously," said Re-Destro approaching him. "As long as you have a goal as an organisation, such excessive emotion is so unnecessary. Your Little League just can't compete."
He then extended his left hand, which started to turn black as he tried to grab Twice.
"Sounds like you have a noble dream!" said a voice.
Re-Destro quickly leaned his head back just in time to avoid Krogan grabbing him.
"Oh, still alive, are you?" said Re-Destro trying to swipe him with his other hand. Krogan managed to jump back to a safe distance. "A noble dream? I like that. Perfect timing, let's test your might."
Suddenly his face and his right arm began turning black, and the right side of his body up to the shoulder began to expand just like before.
"Once, there was a woman who gave birth to a child with a meta-ability. This was back when people still had strong prejudices against them. When the world was in chaos. A place of unending abuse and feather discrimination. She pleaded with society on behalf of her beloved offspring; after all, he couldn't be blamed for how he was born!"
He then swung his right hand at Krogan, who dodged just in time. Re-Destro's hand then smashed through the window.
"Please she said, make this a world where my child to live freely. But society looked at her and laughed, she never spoke out for him again, and you know why that is friend? I'll tell you, she was killed by those who opposed meta-powers."
"You think I'm stupid?" Krogan glared and then charged at him. "That's history 101 regarding the history of meta-humans."
"Sorry, I heard that you didn't have any formal education," he said as he swung his hand once again.
Re-Destro kept swinging his hand to keep his distance from Krogan, who, in turn, tried to avoid getting swatted by his immense strength.
"Anyway, heroes and vigilantes became more popular governments across the entire world started to re-establish order. They dug up her appeal while working on the political reform and came to the conclusion that meta-powers were natural. It changed how people thought."
He then suddenly grabbed Krogan and, while he tried to get behind, began squeezing.
"However, in actuality, the political measures that were implemented oppressed meta-abilities more than ever. What they wanted to squash was the use of powers. Some could use the powers as they wanted, so it was freedom in name alone. But you know what Destro thought?"
He then lifted Krogan up in the air, so he was now hanging upside down.
"'This is not what my mother wanted. We must use meta-abilities freely.'"
"His mother?" Krogan stared.
"It was an inconvenient truth for society. Do you understand why Destro was wanted for so many crimes? He sought freedom through revolution, and now I will accomplish Destro's dream. His blood is in my veins; I am his son! This world will change the hands of Re-Destro!"
Krogan watched as more of his face started to turn black.
"You're just some bugs with the urge to destroy," he said, leaning him towards his face. "How can you possibly stand against our glorious dream?"
"Heads up, Twice, if you're going to protect Johann, you're going to need a cushion," Krogan warned.
Twice was the middle creating another clone himself. "A cushion?"
"I was caught on the window with that first blast, a good vantage point. My eyes met his down below." Everyone's eyes widened as they realised what he was getting at. "He's here. The tower is in reach; I would touch it if I wish him."
The real Krogan was at the base of the tower, placed his hand against the tower, and it immediately began to crumble. Everyone had stopped fighting and watched as the tower crumbled to the ground.
"The thing about humans," said Krogan as he stepped through the rubble. "They're supposed to die when they fall from up high." He watched as Re-Destro pulled himself out of the rubble; his skin was now completely black and three times his normal size. "You must be the Liberation boss?"
"I didn't get an answer to my question, such a pity," Re-Destro glared.