Holy crap, Captain America was standing in front of me demanding to know what was going on like I had done something wrong.

Which I hadn't, by the way. Unless you count sneaking on a plane, which had frankly been unavoidable. I was just confused as to whether to be offended by Captain America thinking I had caused this or relieved that the Ultimates were finally here. Or annoyed that they hadn't turned up at any other point over the course of this month and a half when arguably I had needed them a lot more.

"Uh, um, hi Captain America, uh, it's kind of a long story…" I began, rubbing the back of my neck nervously but refusing to take a step back. I was a superhero too, I shouldn't be quite this awestruck and intimidated by him.

A whirring sound interrupted me from continuing my story. I turned around to look… and there was Iron Man with my clone, holding him bridal style, hovering in the air. "Hey Capsicle, are you sure that's the actual Spider-man? I think we have another clone thing on our hands."

I piped up, trying to keep most of my sarcasm to myself, "You'd probably be right."

There were several more thumps and I looked back to see Black Widow, Hawkeye Hulk and Spider-woman standing there. "All the Hydra goons are taken care of," Black Widow said, crossing her arms.

My clone struggled in Iron Man's grip. "Let go of me!" they yelled. I realised that they weren't putting their super strength to any use because it would be easy to get out that way.

"Not happening." Iron Man replied, his smugness obvious. Turning to the other Ultimates and me he said, "So which one of you is not the clone?"

"I'm the real one!" Both of us shouted at the same time. I looked over at my clone and glared, are you kidding me? "You attacked me first! Would an actual superhero do that?"

"Oh come on! An actual superhero would get rid of their clones."

"You're kidding me, right? We both know you're the clone. You're just trying to get them to get rid of me or whatever." Turning to the Ultimates I said, "His costume isn't even right! I don't have red lenses or red soles. His costume doesn't have any signs of wear either."

"I… I had to make a new one. My other one was too torn?" Yep, as soon as the voice faltered it was obvious who the real one was. I mean, I already knew but that wasn't exactly relevant. Also, I did have a tear in my own costume, which I knew everyone had glanced over at.

"Liar, liar pants on fire, when you're on the run you don't have any time to make a new costume," I said matter-of-factly, crossing my arms.

"Well, you've been gone from New York for a month or something! Who knows what you were doing during that time!?"

"I was doing a lot of walking, hiding and panicking. That's what I was doing." I said. The Ultimates gave me looks of concern, bemusement, and confusion. Black Widow stayed blank.

"We need to get you both back to the Triskelion," Spider-woman said, interrupting the awkward silence. She glanced between me and the clone. "Fury will probably be interested in this."

And that's how I ended up in a cell. It almost made me feel like I had done something wrong, which wasn't really true but kind of was. The cell I was in was the exact same one I had been in when I first came to the Triskelion. I could swear on it, because I had spotted the same patch of grime in the corner that I had seen the first time round. Which was disgusting.

My clone was in the one opposite to me, curled up on the bed. They had pressed themselves right into the corner with their head buried in their knees. Their mask was still on so I couldn't see their expression. It made me understand why some people freaked out or hated me, because not knowing whether or not someone was silently plotting to kill you or in their happy place was a bit scary. I mean, I wasn't sure if they would be like me and most thoughts would be non-stop screaming or had been changed cause of Hydra. A flip of a coin basically. The fight didn't really help me determine that fact either.

Only the two of us were in this group of cells, and there were no guards around to interrupt us.

I didn't mind waiting here in this cell until they had decided to do something with us. I was patient enough to wait. Mostly I was just happy that finally, the Ultimates had turned up to help. I mean, seriously, there were Hydra goons in the streets in Washington and they did nothing? Well, I'm pretty sure they did nothing because there had been no headlines about them being in Washington. I would think that would be reported.

But that didn't matter now. I would be home soon enough. I just had to deal with my clone first. I looked at them, they hadn't moved.

"What's it like being a clone?" I asked abruptly.

They looked up at me, "What?"

"Being a clone, what's it like? Do you have all my memories? Or did Hydra get rid of them all? Are you being mind controlled or…? Did they mess with your DNA? Are you missing any body parts? Are you secretly a sociopath? Did they make girl clones? I'm curious."

They paused, looking back down at their knees. "No, I'm not being mind controlled. Remember when you had your blood taken back in the Hydra base? I can remember everything up until then. Except… everything is more like a movie. You know when you watch a movie and you understand what a character is feeling but you're not completely immersed? That's kind of what it's like. So, for example, I'm not… attached to Mum and Dad? I know who they are and how I felt about them – how you feel about them – I just don't have those emotions myself. So maybe I'm a sociopath. Who knows? And I don't know if there are any female clones. Probably."

I frowned, "Are you supposed to be saying this much?" I had been expecting a flippant remark and being ignored, not being told all of their life story. Literally, they had only been alive for a few weeks I was guessing.

"Probably not, but I'm expendable. One of the Hydra goons will probably kill me within the week. It's what they said would happen anyway." They shrugged, seemingly unfazed by how dark that was.

Lost for words, my mouth openly gaped. They looked up and sighed, "Are you trying to catch flies?"

I looked down, trying not to be completely and utterly rude. Mama always said to be nice to strangers. That was in a southern Texas accent if you hadn't already guessed. My actual mum had never said that as far as I remembered.

I looked back up at my clone. They still had their mask on. If they had all my memories then they knew it was fine to have my mask off. I frowned and asked them, "Why haven't you taken your mask off yet?"

"No point," they shrugged. Then they added in a quieter voice that I wouldn't have picked up on if I wasn't enhanced, "and it'll freak you out."

I stood up, going to the shield thing blocking me from leaving. I didn't touch it because I didn't know if that would set off an alarm, electrocute me… or be like a brick wall and I didn't want to find out. "Freak me out? Okay, now I have to see."

They stood up, going over to the shield as well. They grabbed the hem of the mask, taking a deep breath before taking it off in one fluid motion. Now their face was out in the open and… oh, my god. That explains why they wanted to keep the mask on.

"I knew my voice wasn't that squeaky!" I exclaimed. They were shorter than me, I realised at that moment. You normally couldn't tell small height differences in a height because you were busy trying not to die. Their face was rounder and softer looking than mine. The clone also didn't have any crease lines on their forehead or cheeks. I guess that was understandable considering they hadn't had time to frown as much as I had over the years. "…Wait, why do you look a few years younger than me?"

"I have an accelerated growth. By this time next week, I'll be… like twenty years old? Well, I'll look it. I'll only technically be a few weeks old but you get it. You would because you're me, but better after all?" My clone grinned in a self-deprecating way.

"Right…" I couldn't help but feel unsettled about how laid back they were about dying, I guess you would have to just accept it but it was still pretty messed up. I stepped back from the shield, having a hard time thinking of something to say to fill in the awkward silence. What could you say to someone who knew they were going to die either because of Hydra or old age? Hydra wasn't trying to give any of the clones a chance to revolt against them I was guessing. If they had longer to live they could actually plan something, but since they don't... they couldn't.

If they were going to look twenty in the span of two weeks, they would be a hundred in… two months? They would probably be dead before then if Hydra was going to make them this expendable.

Before I could speak up about how messed up Hydra was and how unhealthy that mindset was (I know I'm a total hypocrite. My mind was really messed up to the point that I needed therapy, but I could probably, maybe talk them away from being that casual about their own death), a door opened and in walked Fury in all his eye-patch wielding, terrifying, awe-inducing awesomeness walked in.

Yes, I did, in fact, think Fury is cool. But! I also had a healthy terror for the man, as any person should. Sue me for admiring the man for making his coat whip out behind him whenever he walked as if he was Darth Vader. But a cool Darth Vader? Yeah.

"Which one of you is the real Miles?" He asked, looking between the two of us with his one eye. I put my hand up and my clone pointed at me.

"Come with me, we have some questions to ask you. Clone, someone will come in shortly to ask you some questions. Whether you comply or not is up to you, but I advise you help." He stated.

My cell… shield thing opened and I immediately hastened my footsteps to catch up with Fury. You do not stop and pause when he gives an order, you more or less sprint to do it. That may be because of my terror/awe of him but that doesn't really matter anyway. I reached his side and he didn't even glance at me.

We walked through corridor after corridor, until finally Fury stopped and entered a very quiet room with only two chairs and a table in it. I looked into the corners and spotted some cameras. Very intimidating.

I guessed this was probably going to be about where I've been, which was good because I had some complaints to make. Some big ones too. Like how they haven't helped me, at all.

"Take a seat," he said, gesturing to the chair on the furthest side of the room. I quickly did just that. I relaxed, leaning back and folding my arms. Let's see where this goes.

"You went missing September 12th at approximately two am, last seen in an alleyway by a woman who claimed you had been drugged. She said that you had told her Hydra was the one who had done that to you. You've been gone for fifty-two days. What has happened during this time?" Fury said. His eyes were piercing and I couldn't help but swallow nervously.

"Uh, from the start?" Fury nodded. "Well, Hydra goons went after me that night and managed to take me down by drugging me. Next thing I remember is waking up tied down to a table. Over a month, they tested all my powers and trained me up. Basically, they wanted my powers and soldiers with said powers. Which is why we have my clone, I'm pretty sure."

"But you escaped, I'm assuming?" Fury probed.

"Oh yeah, I got out of there as soon as I could. By the way, if you knew I was in there why didn't you just come get me?" I asked, leaning back and give him my best unamused face that I could.

An honestly confused look came over his face. "What?"

"You gave me the blueprints? I think? I used it to get out of there? Sort of there were some inaccuracies... I wouldn't think they would give me a way to get out. They had guards everywhere too..." I frowned.

"If I had known, I would have sent the Ultimates. We try and take out every damn Hydra base we find out about. If I had an agent with blueprints they would have immediately sent it to us." Fury growled.

"Well…" I grasped for words, trying to come up with a possible explanation for what had happened. I knew that without the blueprints I wouldn't have gotten out of there. I wouldn't have been able to destroy all the computer servers. In the long run, I guess it only delayed the inevitable, but that still gave me time. I wouldn't have escaped in Washington if the clones had been there.

And then I remembered something. Something very important that put things into perspective.

"Maybe it was another test Hydra was giving me... I think they wanted a good excuse to kill me, or maybe a way to test how skilful I was under stress." Fury's eyes sharpened at that. I quickly went on to explain, "When I first got there they said that if I tried to escape they would kill me. When I escaped they had done every test that wasn't lethal to me. When boot lady was talking to me about how I had to join Hydra, she said that if I refused they would use more... extreme measures. I think they either wanted the chance to kill me, but with my clones maybe they would have done lethal tests on them, or brainwash me to fight for them. I rejected, then agreed just to go along with it, and that's when I escaped."

Fury's expression hardened. He looked away for a moment before looking back at me. "So you escaped… how long were you in the Hydra base?"

"A little under a month."

"What happened after that?"

"Well, I was escaping the Hydra base on a bike and they were following me in cars shooting at me and I knew I wouldn't be able to get away when they got a helicopter out so I went into this river and stayed under for as long as I could. But a few minutes in my spider-sense went off but I didn't know what it was and ended up pretty much breaking my wrist against a boulder." I absently rubbed my wrist, and I saw him give it a searching look as I continued. "I got really tired so I held on to a log and passed out.

"I ended up getting out after one of their boats passed by me and ended up in a Wakandan city. Do you know how advanced all their technology is?"

"Yes. How long were you floating in the river?"

"Um, maybe up to five hours? I'm not really sure." Sleeping for a while really threw a wrench into my sense of time.

"Alright, continue."

"Right. Um, so when I got in there was this nice lady who helped fix up my arm a little bit. I spent about a week there before I got on a plane for Washington. I may have hidden in the overhead luggage, and let me tell you, eighteen hours is way too long for a flight. Useful to me but so boring."

"Do you know what date you were on that plane?" He interrupted.

"Um, it would have been ten-ish days ago now. Why?" I asked.

"We're going to try and backtrack your path so we can take down the Hydra base. Continue with your story."

"Right, uh, plane. So this flight attendant discovered me as I tried to sneak off the plane and she ended up helping me get out of the airport without anyone noticing. Got all the way to her place and I had a nice warm meal. But, turns out she was a part of Hydra and thought that they would help me get the rest of the way home so that led to Hydra coming after me. I'm not really sure when it happened but I got shot here."

I brought my leg out so he could see the hole in my suit and the scar that was healing up. He frowned.

"Anyway, I managed to escape by ducking into this store and hiding. There was a girl working there and I freaked out and ended up passing out. Turns out she knew someone studying to be a doctor so they got me out of there and I stayed with him for the ten days." He nodded. "He was nice enough to give me a ticket to Grand Central and when I got here I decided to go swinging around so hopefully, you guys would notice me and you know the rest from there.

"You managed to get in contact with your friend and your Mum." He stated more than asked.

"Uh yeah, mostly to make sure they knew I wasn't dead. I'm, uh, thinking of telling my parents about all of this." I chuckled nervously, "It'll probably be hard to come up with a cover story for all of this…"

Fury clasped his hands together and put them in his lap, leaning back casually in his seat, "It won't be as hard as you think. If you want to keep your identity a secret to them we have options." There was a glint in his eyes and I couldn't tell what it meant.

"I-I know. But, they deserve to know what I was doing this past month. It's... it's not fair in them. And I'm sick of having to lie to them all the time." I said, looking down at my lap.

He nodded slowly, paused for a few seconds then asked me, "How are you, Miles?"

I straightened back up and looked at Fury. I couldn't tell what he was thinking by his expression. That wasn't unusual but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say. He probably meant my injuries anyway…

"Besides from when I was escaping its mostly being bruises. Oh, and I also got electrocuted in Washington. I've also lost a lot of sleep but in our job, that's pretty normal, right? So, pretty good considering everything." I said, avoiding eye contact with him.

"Not physically," he said, frowning, "how are you, Miles."

I chuckled lowly, "I'll probably need therapy."

Before Fury could continue his questioning, there was a knock at the door and someone walked inside. Their eyes were wide and they looked worried, maybe even alarmed. "You'll want to see this, sir." A hologram appeared on the wall to my right and I looked over. Playing were clips of the city being overrun by what looked like clones. I could tell because they were all wearing that slightly modified costume that the clone in the cell was wearing.

And there were hundreds of them, and that was only the ones that these cameras had managed to capture so far. There might even be a few thousand running rampant around New York. Oh crap. I whipped my head back to look at Fury and his face was blank.

"Assemble the Ultimates." He ordered.

"Already being done, sir." The person said. Fury waved his hands in a dismissal.

Fury closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Finally, he opened them and looked at me. "Ready to join the Ultimates?" He asked.