Chapter 6: What Happened the Next Day

The next day at school, Octavia was surging with energy. She didn't feel tired at all. If she wasn't superhuman, she would have struggled to stay awake—she hadn't fallen asleep until three o'clock in the morning.

All her classmates had heard about Octavia breaking the machine, even if they hadn't seen it. Combined with the stories about Octavia being held hostage a couple months ago, the exploits of the former outcast and her feats of strength were getting more fantastic with each telling—and to Octavia's dismay, it was making her even less popular than she already was. Everyone was too frightened of her to even say hello; even Daisy was distant. Only Jordan stood by her friend.

The day was passing so slowly Octavia thought it would never end. It was uncomfortably like being a new kid on the first day of school.

She passed the vending machine getting lunch in the cafeteria. There was a sign taped over the hole, which said, "Out of Order."

It suddenly occurred to Octavia that her whole life was out of order.

The nightmares were coming back.

Her boyfriend, David, had broken up with her.

Her template, Dr. Octavius, only cared for what she could do for him.

Her creator, Dr. Melitta, only saw her as an experiment. A lab rat.

Her guardian, Anthony, was outing her past on his internet blog.

Her friend, Daisy, didn't want anything to do with her.

Everyone else at the school was scared of her.

She was developing new powers, and her strength was quickly increasing to a level that was, frankly, almost frightening. Just to see if she could do it, she'd lifted Anthony's new Buick above her head without using her tentacles. With one hand. She'd tripped over the Anthonys' coffee table and watched as the gash on her leg healed completely within thirty seconds.

What was she going to do?

She shuffled off to homeroom. Her teacher was standing in front of the classroom. With her was a handsome, brown-haired boy.

Octavia gasped. She didn't need to see the dark, tattoo-like mark on his shoulder to recognize him. She started to poke Jordan.

"Jordan…it's Mack! The clone of the Scorpion!"

"No way."

"Yes way."

In fourth period, Octavia could barely pay attention in class. Another clone! What would she say to him? Did he know about his origins? Was he aware of why he was created? Did he know that he might not be uniquely alone? Had he ever met his template, as Octavia once had? If he didn't know the answers to any of that, would he believe Octavia if she told him?

"Octavia!" Professor Emilia stared at her. "You're daydreaming in AP Physics! This isn't like you?"

"I'm sorry, Professor. I was distracted."

At lunchtime, Octavia was shaking as she sat with Jordan. She caught sight of Daisy as she took a tray of mystery meat stew.

"Daisy, are you going to sit with us?"

Daisy lowered her head. "No, Octavia. I have to study for a history test. I'll be eating in the library."

"That liar!" Jordan snarled. "She's got second period World History, same as I do. There are no history tests coming up for two weeks." She pointed to where Daisy had taken a seat next to some black girls.

"She doesn't want to hang around with me," Octavia said morosely. "She's scared of me. Everyone is."

"I'm not scared. I know better than to be." Jordan changed the subject. "Where's that Mack dude? Are you going to, you know, introduce yourself?"

"What if he doesn't know?"

Jordan rolled her eyes. "What if he's not a clone?"

"He is!"

Jordan sighed. "Maybe you want to think he is. Maybe you want to believe that so bad because you don't want to face the fact that you might just be an anomaly."

"Uniquely alone?"

"Right. And if you are right, and he is a clone, he's uniquely alone too. You're a singularity. An anomaly. And he's a completely different singularity or anomaly. Dig?"

"I dig real good, Jordan. Shut up! He's walking over here!"

Jordan swallowed. Mack had walked over to Octavia's table. He then bent over and whispered something into Octavia's ear that proved all she thought about him.

"I know what you are, Octavia Jones. And I know what I am."

"This is just fascinating. Just fascinating." Agent Cindy Cypher was perusing the files Dr. Nancy Melitta had handed her. The Director was observing.

"Do you understand what has happened? Octavia has a few new powers even her template could only dream of! A layman such as yourself, Agent Cypher, has no idea the doors this could open up."

"Exactly what powers are we talking about?"

"Superhuman physical strength and accelerated healing. I've got to hand it to the field agents working on Project Octopus—we all have the late Clark Carlyle to thank for this development."

Cypher had no interest in the tedious scientific aspects of Project Octopus. She was first assigned to Operation Apollo, a mission somewhat more in her field of expertise, and had failed. She had narrowly avoided the fate of Carlyle, but it technically wasn't her fault that Octavius got away.

"Look, if we could duplicate that Oz formula, our super-soldiers would be much stronger, much faster, heal much quicker! It could save enormous amounts of money. If our soldiers have more endurance, they would last longer. We wouldn't have to keep replacing them."

"I could already guess that, Nancy," sneered Cypher.

"Look who's bitter, Cindy. You couldn't even shoot a chubby physicist in the head at point-blank range."

Cindy retorted with some words that I couldn't even put in print here. Then she said, "We're supposed to be leaving them alone. If the clones called Octavia and Macendale were to have a child together, it would pick up the positive attributes of both parents. Then we could clone the offspring, and—"

"Well put, Cypher," agreed the Director.

"Oh no. That plan will never work. Just listen to the real scientist here, will you? First off, cloning a clone isn't going to work. It would be degenerate—a copy of a copy. Useless. The clone called Octavia nearly died of cellular disintegration at the advent of puberty. Secondly, Octavia is cloned from a male. She has a Y chromosome. She developed as a female by a quirk of genetics. She's probably sterile. She could no more produce a baby with Macendale than two gay men. I say we just kill her off. She's a failed experiment. Start off with a clean slate."

"You think you're going to get funding for another cloning project when you failed at both Projects Octopus and Scorpion?"

"Hell yes. And Project Scorpion didn't fail."

"I must say I have been persuaded to Nancy's point of view, Cypher. It's unlikely the clone called Octavia will do much to further our objectives."