We are Legion

by Korzark

A parahumans story about a new cape that can clone themselves.

2. Prologue

You are Jay Pagliacci, or at least you're one of the four Jay Pagliacci's currently in existence. Actually... that's kind of inaccurate. It's more like you're one fourth of Jay, and the other three fourths are out doing something else... That's wrong too.

It's like... you haven't actually figured out a good explanation for it, really.

You are one Jay Pagliacci and you are multiple Jay Pagliaccis all at the same time. But it's not like you're one boy, controlling four different bodies at once. There are four separate bodies, and four separate consciousnesses, and all of them are equally you.

You can definitely say that you are walking down the streets of downtown Brockton Bay. You feel the need to raise your hand to shield your eyes against the sand, whipped up by the cars speeding by. You can smell the faint scent of cheap hot dogs wafting towards you from half a block away, with the owner having set up a fan to try and catch the attention of as many hungry business men and women wandering by. You can hear the yelling of pissed off drivers, car honking, and the far away blare of a siren.

You also know that you're writing something down, a couple dozen miles away from where you're standing. While you don't actually feel your hand cramping from your grip on your pencil, or hear the frustrating muttering of the other students around you, you know everything that another version of you sitting in Arcadia High, School Jay if you will, is experiencing.

It's like recalling a clear memory of something that's happening in the present. It's strange.

A few dozen miles away, you know that another version of you, Docks Jay, is pumping his arms and legs furiously as he struggles to catch his breath. You know his heart is threatening to beat out of his chest, and he feels dizzy as he struggles to train his body and your body to be more "super" material. You don't envy you. Docks James has already vomited three times.

Across the city, sitting casually in a small library with a book held over his eyes, you can feel Library Jay focusing intensely to try and send the information on the page in front of him to School Jay. Or maybe School Jay is focusing intensely to decipher what he sees through Library James's eyes. They're the same person after all. You.

Again, it's hard to understand.

What you do know is that Downtown Jay has the best job out of the four Jay's. Doing whatever. It's a way for you to test out how your power works in a natural setting. To simply have multiple bodies existing at once, even if you're not doing something productive.

So here you are, a random 16-year old moping around downtown during school hours with nothing to do. You've got your cape "costume" in your bag, even if it's really just a blank white mask with a poorly drawn smiley face on it. You've got your credit card, and a few dollars in loose change in your pocket. You're wearing a baseball cap and a pair of cheap sunglasses to hide your face, just in case you happen upon any classmates playing hooky. You almost got caught once, and aren't willing to risk that mistake.

You walk towards the hotdog stand, fishing around your pocket for your loose change, when suddenly you notice something.

Standing across the street from the Brockton Bay Central Bank, are a handful of members from the Wards, the youth branch of the Protectorate within Brockton Bay.

Aegis, Clockblocker, Vista, Browbeat, Gallant, Kid Win. A row of superheroes, all dressed in their impressive and iconic costumes.

The thought that they're here to book you for skipping school crosses your mind for a brief second, even if it is ridiculous. Though you fully accept that becoming a mercenary will likely define you as a villain one day, you haven't even done anything illegal yet. At least to your knowledge. Skipping school wasn't against the law, right?

Regardless, you are sure they aren't there for you. You doubt they even know you exist.

So why are they here? And why do they look so grim as they glare at the bank?

You decide to stand by and watch for a while. No point in taking any action when you have no idea what's going on.

You do, however, notice the hotdog guy looking at you from the corner of his eye. It seems a shame to leave him hanging when you were clearly fishing around in your pocket for change.

As you walk towards him, his face lights up into an easy smile.

You buy a hot dog from the man, pointing and giving him a thumbs up when he asks you if you want one. He also asks you if you want to buy a soda too, but before you can shake your head and decline, your attention is drawn back towards the Wards who are now focused on dispersing the crowd of curious civilians. It looks like they're clearing out the immediate area in front of the bank entrance, up to about a block away. Noticing the shouting and the shift in your gaze, the hotdog man turns to look at the commotion.

"Oh, that is something you do not see everyday," the man says in a heavy accent that makes it a little difficult to interpret what emotion he's trying to convey. "Do you know who those children are, my friend?"

You nod.

He nods back to you. "Oh, it looks like something is happening," he says, though from the way he says it, you suspect that he's more excited than concerned. You wonder why. "A moment like this deserves proper food and drink to watch, no?" he says, shaking a can of ginger ale towards you, along with a small bag of caramel popcorn.

You consider the offer for a moment before you shrug and fish around in your pockets for a few more dollars. If anything, you have to admire the man for trying to make a sale out of a potentially dangerous situation.

After you walk away, the hot dog man is quick to try and push his food onto another passerby, effectively forgetting you. By the time you finish eating the hot dog, the Wards have taken their position standing in a perfect line across from the Bank. With no table to eat on, you don't want to open both your soda and popcorn at the same time, but you're having some trouble deciding on which one you want more.

You're curious about why nobody is doing anything, but you quickly get a semblance of an answer when the doors to the bank burst open. You raise an eyebrow as a bunch of scared looking civilians rush out, quickly followed by a cloud of black miasma.

The Wards look hesitant at the sight of the civilians, but you know for sure that you are about to witness your first fight between capes.

You decide to watch idly by as things play out. You also decide to eat your popcorn first and toss a few pieces of popcorn into your mouth as you wait to survey and study the ensuing battle, treating it as a convenient and valuable learning opportunity.

You nearly drop your popcorn when a pair of snarling monsters leap from the dark mist.

The monsters charge at Clockblocker and immediately begin to shred him to pieces and you can hear a few horrified gasps around you as any curious civilians watch the teen boy die in front of them. It takes you moment to realize that it's not Clockblocker, just from the fact that he's still swinging wildly at the monsters with a deep wound in his chest. Was someone else wearing his costume? Clockblocker's power didn't give him any sort of durability, as far as you knew.

Your attention is torn towards Aegis, who is being harassed by a small black cloud. Your immediate thought is that it's acting differently from the larger cloud that blankets the area in front of the bank, though it's hard to tell from so far away. When Aegis starts screaming about bugs, you wince as you realize what exactly the cloud must be. What a nasty power.

As you watch the fight play out, you're left with a mild sense of wonder and worry. The sight before you is a spectacle, but you can't help the nagging feeling you get as you wonder if you'd do any better if you had thrust yourself into the battle.

While you like to believe that you'd put up a pretty good fight here, it's hard to ignore the sheer power being thrown around. Incredible as your cloning powers may be, all your clones are still human.

You imagine that you could probably beat Clockblocker (who you eventually realized was dressed as Aegis and vice versa). A big enough dogpile would be more than enough to incapacitate him without any trouble, becoming an even more effective trap if the young hero decided to freeze your bodies.

You imagine that you could probably beat the darkness guy easily, just by running him down blindly and just trampling him. Assuming the darkness was his only power.

Kid Win and Vista are two of the fighters that you were certain you would lose to in a straight fight, just from the fact that they could just keep away from you indefinitely with their hoverboard and space-altering powers respectively. You make a mental note to think of any long range weapons that you could utilize to help you against those types of opponents.

All the others? You have no idea how you'd fare, either because you're unsure of your own combat capabilities or because you just don't know enough about their powers to make an educated guess. Of course, you could probably dog pile a majority of the other fighters and beat them down with numbers, but the question was whether you could a beating better than they could. While you've been in a small handful of schoolyard fights, you haven't ever faced anything like those monsters being controlled by that girl in the dog mask.

You grimace as reality hits you. You've never been in a serious fight before and you have no idea how you'd handle yourself in this situation.

No matter how much you prepare, you won't know how you'll fare against other capes until you try.

Despite that, you're confident that you made the right decision in staying out of the fight that's happening in front of you. It's a clusterfuck, an overly chaotic one that you're not sure you'd be comfortable being a part of. Also, it's honestly pretty entertaining to watch, once you get over the natural human compulsion to be disgusted by the bugs that are swarming the area. Funny how you're still more creeped out by them than those weird monsters.

As you watch the fight continue, you find yourself being quite impressed by the bad guys. You don't quite remember what they were called, but with how badass the darkness guy looks, it's not hard to remember browsing his wiki page. You can't remember his name, but you can kind of recall who the other members of his team are. Hellhound is probably dog mask, meaning that those monsters are dogs. Regal, or something, is probably the one wearing the white mask, and you can't see Tattletale at all. You're pretty curious about whoever's controlling the bugs too. Maybe Tattletale? You doubt it since the name didn't really suggest a bug related power, but with how empty her wiki page was, anything was possible.

The bad guys seem to be winning, and you'd bet that they'll escape without a problem until you notice Glory Girl, right before she dives through a window into the bank.

With how strong she is, you half expect her to burst out of the front door in a few minutes, with a battered Tattletale in hand and a procession of cheering ex-hostages behind her, but you're surprised when you see tattletale and a figure in black spandex leaving the bank and gathering the rest of their team.

As Library Jay confirms for you that there are only four known members of the "Undersiders" your vision is cut off as a dark cloud from darkness guy, "Grue" according to Library Jay's Google search. You tense up instinctively as Grue's power washes over you, but refrain from pulling out your mask or activating your power.

You wonder if you should duck down and cover your head to sell the idea that you're just a powerless citizen, but before you know it, the mist is already gone, with the Undersiders nowhere in sight.

You are School Jay. With the help of Library Jay, you know you probably could've gotten a perfect score on that test, but you had held back. You aren't a very good student, and a sudden perfect score on a test could have some of your teachers asking questions. While you did embellish your grades a little bit, the purpose of the exercise had been to see if you could communicate perfectly with your bodies, and you had passed both tests with flying colours.

There's only one more period in school, though you're not in any reason to want to hurry out. One of the many benefits of your power include the fact that only a small part of you is ever bored of school. Though you aren't 100% tapped into the sensations of your other three selves, they're still you. It would be like expecting your right shoulder to be jealous if your left shoulder was receiving a massage.

From the sound of a loud groan to your left, you're reminded that others aren't so lucky.

"That bad?" you ask.

You're met with another groan as your friend turns to you. Elliot Fischer, one of your closest friends, gives you a glare that promises death.

"Yes, that bad," he grumbles. "Why? You don't agree?"

You shrug. You weren't trying to look cocky, but you suppose some of your confidence in the unfair cheating that your power provides you is showing on your face.

"I guess I felt pretty good about that test," you reply, smiling when Elliot's expression morphs into one of shocked betrayal.

"What the hell, man?! I thought we were friends! When did you become such a nerd?"

"If all it took to be not be your friend was to be smart than you, you'd be a very lonely man. Now come on, let's get to English class."

Elliot smiles at you before shaking his head. "Harsh," he says. "But true enough."

In a casual motion, Elliot pushes open his bag with his foot and slaps his pencils off his table and into his open bag.

"Just one more hour," he says. "And then freedom."

You nod, just as Downtown Jay boards a bus to get to the Docks.

"One more hour," you agree.

As you push through the slow moving horde of students occupying the halls, Elliot seems to have immediately forgotten about the History test that put him through so much strife, and is quick to revert to his regular self.

"Ah, Friday," he says wistfully, as if he's already out of school. "Never leave me again."

"Pretty sure that's not how time works," you helpfully suggest.

"You'd know, wouldn't you, ya nerd?" Elliot says, chuckling to himself before turning around to look at you. He's not looking where he's going, and he nearly bumps into a younger girl who gives him a dirty glare, but you don't think he noticed.

"You doing anything tonight?" he asks you.

"Sorry. I'm flattered, but I don't swing that way."

Elliot rolls his eyes and ignores your comment. "I'm planning to launch a very dangerous mission to rescue Ranger." He chuckles a little to himself, though you don't know why. "Wanna come? We'll go to the arcades later. Probably. He hasn't actually agreed to anything. Tried to text him, but the poor guy probably got his phone confiscated by those Immaculata cultists."

Ranger, or rather Park Jihoo, is one of your other closest friends and though you'd like to rescue him from the clutches of Immaculata High and spend the say hanging out at the arcades, you have other obligations. You shake your head. "Sorry, but Uncle Rusty's made his claim on the apartment for the day. Gotta keep an eye on Little J."

Elliot shrugs. "Bring her along."

You give him a blank stare. "I'm not bringing my sister to the arcade."

From the bewildered look he gives you, you're almost compelled to believe that you said something incredibly stupid. "Why not?" Elliot asks.

"She's eleven years old," you say. "Everybody there swears way too much."

Elliot gives you a pitying look for some reason. "Jay, look. I love you man, but you're way too protective of your sister. She's eleven not five. I'd bet you she's already got a colourful vocabulary as is."

You wince. Elliot makes a good point. While you tended to leave her out of your visits to the arcade out of habit, it's true that she'd probably be fine as long as you kept an eye out for her.

But you still don't know.

The thing is, you have a job lined up for you tonight, or more specifically for Legion. While it's totally in your capabilities to tend both your sister and to whatever gang needed your help at the same time, you kind of wanted to use non-Legion Jay to relax. You thought that you could just hang out with your sister at a family restaurant and watch a movie or something to offset the whatever excitement that could happen during your mercenary work.

But you supposed bringing Little J to hang out with your friends might not be a bad idea either. Elliot and Ranger both adored her and she liked them just as much.

You try to convince yourself that it's a bad idea, but you simply can't see why it would be. Maybe you're just having a hard time imagining Elliot being right.

You think for a few more seconds before nodding. "Sure, if she's fine with it." An idea hits you. "You think Ranger might be able to bring Cissy along with him? Might be nice for her to have someone her age around."

"Maybe?" Elliot says. "You'll have to ask Ranger when we find him. I think those Immaculata teachers make a point to keep your phone for a week if they find it. Ranger must've gotten cocky."

Oh yeah. You forgot that he wasn't answering his texts.

"I have to pick up Little J first. Just let me use your phone to ask him when you find him."

"Nah, I'll just ask for you. Don't know if Cissy would want to go though."

You shrug. "It was just a thought," you say as you walk into English class and take a seat. "She doesn't have to come."

Before Elliot can respond, the school bell rings, signalling the start of the next class. Mr. Paisley, your English teacher, straightens up in his chair and coughs into his hand. Elliot nods at you, but doesn't say anything else as Mr. Paisley starts to speak.

You are Docks Jay. You've just ran the equivalent of a marathon over the course of the day, despite not being a trained runner, and you feel like you're dying. Usually you tried not to overexert your body, but you feel like you unconsciously started to push yourself after seeing that fight between the Wards and the Undersiders. While you're confident in the versatility of your power, you can't help but feel a little nervous at the fact that you have yet to really test yourself in this world. Maybe you pushed yourself harder because you wanted to ensure that you were in top shape for tonight's job. You're starting to realize that overburdening your body might have been a mistake.

Your vision is hazy, and you're short of breath, but when you feel someone grabbing your arm, you don't panic. Maybe if you were any other person, you might have been worried about somebody randomly grabbing you when you're in the Docks area, but when that person was you, there really was no reason to worry.

Downtown Jay (though you suppose he'd also technically be Docks Jay now) hands you a bottle of water, which you greedily guzzle down. Downtown Jay also has a protein bar in his hand, but you don't think you'd be able to keep it down if you ate it, so he doesn't offer it to you.

The small trail you're in is pretty empty, but there are still people that occasionally pass by. Unlike the rest of the existing Jays, you're dressed pretty differently than they are, wearing a tight tank top and shorts, while they're in jackets and jeans. Downtown Jay is also wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, which hopefully convinces any passerbys that you're not identical twins.

Library Jay comes by 10 minutes later, but makes sure to stay far enough away until you're sure that there won't be any witnesses around to see the identically dressed Library and Downtown Jays together. It takes a few minutes of Library Jay hiding out of sight before he can jog over to where you are. Quickly, Downtown Jay holds out both of his hands. Library Jay deposits a few dollars and a library card into his right hand and firmly grasps his left hand before disappearing. He's simply there, and then he's not. You can feel a flood of information entering Downtown Jay's head, and he takes a split second to wince at the suddenness of it, but he quickly recovers.

Where Library Jay once stood, there is nothing. Downtown Jay pockets the money and tosses the library card into his bag and you act as if nothing's happened.

It's been maybe twenty minutes since you stopped running, but you still feel somewhat short of breath and your muscles continue to scream at you. You're feeling well enough to eat that protein bar, so Downtown James opens the wrapper and hands it to you.

You devour it and give back the empty wrapper to Downtown Jay, who pushes it down into his pockets.

Now's about the time that you would normally absorb Downtown Jay, but you hesitate as you grab his hand.

You've done some experimenting and you know that whichever Jay does the absorbing will retain any alterations made to their body, whether it be haircuts, trimmed nails, wounds, and even pencil marks drawn onto your skin. Though you suspect the same logic would apply to muscle growth, you can't be entirely sure.

If you lived alone, you likely would have done some tests, but as you are now, it would be difficult to exist as more than one Jay for too long. As a teenager, you probably wouldn't be able to send a separate Jay to stay at a hotel or motel alone without drawing questions.

Since you're planning to take a job tonight as Legion, it might not be a good idea to go in with an exhausted body. While your jobs have been pretty boring so far, there's always the chance of danger looming over your head.

You consider your options. You could suck it up and absorb Downtown Jay with Docks Jay, accepting that you'll be achy and sore during your job, or you could absorb Docks Jay with Downtown Jay, accepting the fact that you might be throwing away a day's worth of hard exercise. To be honest, you could even just let all your bodies exist. Docks Jay could totally just hang around wherever, while Downtown Jay goes to work without absorbing him. Or perhaps there's another option you haven't considered yet.

You decide that there's honestly no need to absorb anyone here. Most of the people that could possibly recognize you live in or near the downtown core, and generally don't really wander into the Docks area. There are a few E88 wannabes that used to try and harrass you in school that might think of themselves as "badass" for spending their free time on the outer edges of the Docks area, but even if they see you, they probably wouldn't be able to tell you apart from any other non-White person. The one time where their racism would be convenient you suppose. You take the backpack and reach inside to hand him the mask you had stowed away in there. He takes it and shoves it underneath his shirt, and it's small enough that it doesn't show.

You are Downtown Jay, though you suppose you should rethink your viewpoint, now that you've moved around a bunch. Now that you've decided that you'll be the body to go on the job, you suppose that you should think of yourself as Legion.

You are Legion. You stand up and use your power. In the space of time it takes you to blink, there is another Jay standing right in front of you. He is wearing the same clothes as you, including the sunglasses and baseball cap. The sight reminds you of the fact that Docks Jay, or Exhausted Jay, still has his face visible to anyone that might recognize you. You take off your own sunglasses and baseball cap and toss them to your newest body, Guard Jay, not trusting in Exhausted Jay's ability to catch anything thrown at him.

You quickly jog away, walking deeper into the shadier areas of the Docks. It's easy to slip into the darkness that the alleys provide, even in the relatively bright afternoon light. You were a location and a time, 5:00 sharp, but you suppose there's no harm in getting there early and scoping out the place.

As you get deeper into the Docks area, you start to see more and more signs that you're getting deeper into the rougher parts of the city. Gang tags litter the walls, though you're surprised to see a few E88 tags overlapping ABB tags in a clear sign of disrespect, with even a few scrawled out sprays from the Merchants and a few smaller gangs. While the ABB tags are pretty old and are somewhat flaking away with the walls they cover, the other tags are noticeably fresh.

You recall that Lung, the leader of the ABB, was captured pretty recently, but you're still surprised at how quickly their rivals moved to exploit that apparent weakness.

One thing you notice is that while the tags from the Merchants and the gangs you don't recognize all seem to be hastily done, as if ran off halfway through their work, the tags from E88 are huge and blocky. Looking around, you can see why. Even if you're purposefully keeping to the shadows, trying to keep yourself hidden from anybody who might want to start a fight, you expected to see at least a few gangsters that you would have to duck into cover to avoid.

You haven't seen a single ABB member yet. The E88 taggers must have had a lot of time to do their work, without risking a fight.

You wonder if Lung's capture really crippled the ABB that badly. Why else would they have abandoned their turf to this degree?

You shrug and count it as a convenient blessing. You're still careful, but a little less tense as you recognize the street name of the location you're supposed to go to.

You put on your mask and walk down the street.

As you get closer to your designated location, you look up to see it's a warehouse of some sort, about as large as a house. It looks abandoned, but it's where you're supposed to be.

You didn't have a lot of details. As far as you could tell, you won't actually do anything other than going through an interview today, if your vague communications with your prospective employers was to be believed. It's honestly a lot sketchier than you should probably be comfortable with, but the fact that you have a power allows you to be a bit more liberal when deciding if you wanted to walk into potential death traps. At the very least, you'll never be outnumbered.

You're early, about an hour early. You don't know if the warehouse is empty or not, but the immediate area surrounding it sure is.

You decide to try and find some makeshift weapons in preparation for what could happen. You doubt anyone would call you out just to jump you when you're a mostly unknown cape with no bad blood, but maybe they'll get a bit aggressive if you try to refuse a bad deal or something.

You make five clones and you all scatter in different directions, finding as many weapons as you can and gathering them into small piles. Rocks, sticks, even two semi-sturdy pipes that you could probably use to bash.

Though you could make more clones, you don't. You want whichever Legion is your face to have a large amount of potential clones he can create. You know you can have about 40 versions of yourself active at once before your head feels like it's about to explode, and with only 9 active versions of yourself, you have about 31 versions you can create to literally flood the warehouse in a sea of bodies if you want.

Time passes. Finding weapons and scattering the Legions didn't take much time at all, and you're all pretty bored. While School Jay, Bodyguard Jay, and Exhausted Jay are trying their best to have fun, you still outnumber them 6 to 3.

One of you idly juggles, the one in front of the door. While you weren't certain about how muscle training worked with your power, hence your hesitancy to simply absorb Exhausted Jay, you were fairly certain that muscle memory could be transferred and retained by all your bodies.

You considered going to a martial arts gym for that reason, but you still haven't signed up to one. You probably should. You have the excuse of only having your powers for a bit more than a few weeks now, but that's still no excuse for the laziness. Your power is perfect for learning new skills after all and you really haven't been abusing that as much as you should, especially considering your desire to become a mercenary.

As you contemplate having Bodyguard Jay and Exhausted Jay search the town for some gyms, you're thoughts are interrupted as two men approach your location. The Legion at the door can't see them, but the Legion about half a block away notices them as they turn onto the street that leads directly to you. You probably would've noticed them for the fact that they're the only ones who've turned onto this seemingly abandoned street in the past thirty minutes, but the way that they're dressed makes it impossible to assume that they're not capes.

Both of them are dressed like ninjas. In fact, it's the exact same costume, but one of them has yellow highlights and the other has blue.

While you don't recognize the costumes themselves, you recognize the theme easily enough. A sure sign that the two men are the ones who you had contacted for a job, or some random cosplayers with immaculate timing. The two Mortal Kombat ninjas approach you with a confident gait, as if they're less of a joke than the world views them as.

But they're still your only feasible way to get your foot in the door as a mercenary. The PRT and New Wave would be a tough sell if you're not a hero outright, and since you're neither white nor Asian, the two major gangs were out. While there was the option of approaching Faultline or Coil, you had no interest in being absorbed into another mercenary group, and you had no idea how to connect to Coil, leaving only Uber and Leet or the Merchants as your first prospective customers.

Since Uber and Leet had an easy way to contact them through their stream, they had won out over the Merchants.

Just barely.

You stand up and turn towards where you know Uber and Leet will be coming from. When they finally walk past a small building, they see you staring directly at them and they flinch slightly before continuing to walk closer to you.

Maybe it's because they didn't expect you to know exactly where they would be coming from, or maybe it's because of how poorly you drew what was supposed to be a friendly looking smile on your mask, or maybe you just imagined it. In any case, you decide not to mention it.

They're still quite far away when Uber, dressed up as Scorpion, spreads his arms in a theatrical manner and speaks to you from a fair distance away. "If it isn't the man of the hour. Legion, I presume. Pardon my uncertainty, but you are a recent addition to our little world."

You wince a little at the sheer volume of his voice and you have to hold yourself back from looking around to make sure nobody was poking their heads out of their windows to check what was going on.

You nod. While you did notice how Uber was casually mentioning your status as a newbie, maybe to try and establish their superiority over you, they're still your prospective employers.

You wait for them to get a little closer before talking.

"Uber and Leet," you say. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

You consider offering a handshake, but you keep your arms by your side. When touch-based powers existed, you assume a simple offer of a handshake could be taken as a sign of aggression.

"I can't say the pleasure is ours, until we know we're not getting duped," Uber says, crossing his arms. "You say you're a cape. Prove it."

You're a little surprised by how pushy he's being, but from what little you've seen of their streams, you suppose it's not that surprising. Besides, you're not too put off by the directness of his request. You don't see the point in wasting time either.

You create another clone of yourself beside you. You're a little pleased by how it makes Uber and Leet both flinch back a bit.

"Is this enough?" you say, with both bodies simultaneously.

"Leet?" Uber asks.

"Both of them are flesh and blood," Leet answers, the blue eyes of his mask glowing ominously as mist comes out of his mouth. The effect is corny, but you suppose it's what you signed up for. "It's legit. Perfect power for a goon."

The comment bothers you, but you suppose he's right. This is literally what you signed up for.

"I assume you're willing to hire me, then?"

Uber and Leet give each other a brief glance, before they both turn back to you.

"We're open to it, assuming you are," he says.

"I am," you admit. "Shall we discuss this inside?"

Leet shrugs. "It's not exactly cozy in there."

You raise your eyebrow behind your mask.

You wanted a smooth business relationship with these two and you're not sure if questioning their "authority" might give them a bad impression of you. Even so, you can't shake the idea that these two are being incredibly reckless by discussing a mercenary contract in public, even if it does seem like there are any people around. From how you have a few bodies scattered around without Uber and Leet knowing, you assume that there could just as easily be someone else hiding in the area.

"You're not worried that somebody might overhear the details of the job?" you ask.

Even with a mask covering his mouth, you can still tell that Leet's face breaks out into a wide grin. "Let them. It wouldn't matter anyways."

You're not sure how to interpret that.

"I'm not sure how to interpret that."

"We're in ABB territory," Leet says, as if that explains anything.

"And our job for you concerns the ABB," Uber adds. "Specifically, in the role of an ally."

You raise an eyebrow. Apparently you'd lucked out. Even if Uber and Leet were considered to be jokes in Brockton Bay, the ABB had a lot more clout, for better or worse.

"Interesting," you say non-commitally. "What's the pay?"

Leet lets out a shrill laugh and Uber chuckles beside him, his narrator-like voice making it sound a lot more ominous than it has any right to be.

"Mercenary in every sense of the word," Uber says. "Asking about the pay before even knowing what the job is."

You're not sure whether that's a compliment or an insult. You decide not to make any assumptions. Uber waits a few seconds to gauge your reaction, but when you make none, he continues.

"Well, the pay is actually somewhat related to our job, so I'll save some time by explaining both. You know how Lung was captured recently?"

Of course you do.

"A few days ago. By Armsmaster," you say.

Leet chimes in. "That's what they say, but according to our mutual benefactor, it wasn't actually Armsmaster that got him. He was just the one to bring him in."

Uber nods. "Armsmaster made the claim, but he was only there to pick up Lung's body after he was already defeated."

While there were a few rumours around Lung's defeat since the PRT didn't circulate many details on the event, you're still surprised by the claim. Uber and Leet stop talking, and you realize they're waiting for your reaction.

"Interesting," you say, maintaining an air of cool professionalism as best as you can. "And since you're telling me this, your job for me has something to do with Lung or the ones who captured him."

If they're disappointed by your muted reaction, they don't show it.

"Ding ding ding!" Leet says, as he makes some strange hand motion to accentuate each ding. "You kind of cheated by guessing two options at once, but you still win!"

"We've been hired by the ABB to take down the ones who took down Lung. The Undersiders and their new recruit, Skitter."

Oh.

Before you can say anything, Uber continues.

"I know what you're thinking, Legion. But you still haven't told me what you're paying me!" he says, using a falsetto voice that clashes with his narrator-like voice to an odd effect. "Well, we're getting to that."

"You see, the Undersiders are getting a bit big for their own boots." Leet chimes in. With how they keep alternating speakers, you wonder if they rehearsed this speech or if they're just really in sync with each other. "They're getting pretty cocky to the point where, right after taking down Lung, they decide that it's not enough and they go ahead and rob the Brockton Bay Central Bank."

"They were successful, but their loot is still unprocessed, hidden away in a storehouse of some sort until they can hand it off to someone who can turn it into something that looks legitimate," Uber says. "We'll have the location of the loot by tomorrow and bait them into a trap once we steal it away. Which is where we come in."

"The ABB wants us to make an example out of the Undersiders," Leet says. "Beat them up, steal their lunch money, we get the loot. And it's a fuck ton."

"We don't know the exact amount," Uber admits. "The bank was just robbed today and we probably won't get an official statement anyways, but the average haul from a heist like that is twenty thou."

Uber stares directly into your eyes.

"You'll get twenty five percent of the loot, while we get the rest. Normally, for a goon, we wouldn't even offer you ten percent, but the ABB's doing most of the work and they don't even want a piece of the pie. Figure it'll be good incentive for you to participate."

"You don't seem to be the type to offer a good deal for no reason," you admit, a bit baffled as to why they would even offer it in the first place if standard fare was ten percent. "I'm not complaining, but it seems too good to be true. All you know about me is my power."

"We-" Uber and Leet pause as they both try to answer at the same time. They look at each other for a split second before Leet continues to talk, while Uber stays silent.

"We just don't really care too much about money," Leet says. "Our mission is to spread the word about the noble and underrated art form that is video games. Money's nice, but we have more than enough of that from our previous gigs. We'd much rather give you a few extra thousand as incentive."

You raise an eyebrow. You know of them well enough that you know their obsession with video games is borderline fanatical, but would they really pay thousands of dollars to buy your loyalty?

You decide it's not worth the trouble to question them on it. Best case scenario, they're telling the complete truth and you would just insult their dedication to their "mission". Worst case scenario, they're planning to betray you and by pushing them you would just let them know you're suspicious.

You still don't quite know if they're telling the complete truth, but you suppose you can just keep your eyes peeled for any signs of betrayal. It's not like you don't have the extra eyes to spare.

"When we beat the Undersiders," you say, trying to sound as casually confident as you can, "How hard do we go? Do you intend for us to beat them or kill them?"

"You got a problem with killing?" Uber asks. He sounds more curious than confrontational.

You shake your head. "If it's my job to kill someone, I'll do it." You're surprised by how easily the words leave your mouth. "But I'd rather not," you add. "Killing someone during my first significant job as a cape would paint a huge target on my back. I don't want to draw extra attention to myself if I could just let them limp home with a couple of bruises instead."

Uber and Leet give each other a brief glance before Uber turns to you.

"You don't need to kill them," he says. "Just beat them to the point where they can't move."

You nod, a bit absentmindedly. You're a bit surprised by yourself, at how easily you told them you would be able to kill someone. Was that actually true? You decide not to think to hard about it. You'll find out eventually.

You have no further questions.

You know what you're being paid, you generally know what you're supposed to do.

"Alright," you say, giving Uber and Leet a nod each.

"Alright?" they ask.

"I accept your offer," you say.

It takes a moment for them to react, but eventually they nod and extend their hands. Oh. Maybe you were being a bit overly analytical when you assumed that offering your hand to shake would be a bad idea. You suppose it still would be, with Uber's potential skill in martial arts and the potential for Leet to be hiding something like a lethal buzzer in his hand, but you see no point for them to betray you here. You shake Uber's hand and then Leet's.

"Now that you've accepted the job," Uber says. "I suppose we can tell you a bit more about it."

"We won't be providing any equipment," Leet adds. "At least not in terms of weapons."

Then in a very strange and unsubtle way, Leet glances at Uber and Uber gives him a slight nod back.

Your eyes narrow.

"But we can provide other things for you," Leet says, continuing as if he didn't just pause awkwardly for a few seconds.

It takes you half a second before you guess what they want from you.

"Are the video game costumes mandatory?" you ask, trying not to seem distasteful of the idea. You haven't had much time to think about it, but you would prefer that your first appearance as "Legion" would be in your actual costume, even if it is lacking.

"N-no," Leet stutters, caught a little off guard. "But if you do wear it, we'll make it worth your while."

You raise an eyebrow. "I'm already being paid a good amount."

"We'd increase your split to an even thirty three percent," Uber says quickly.

You consider it for a moment.

It's an easy answer. Though your mask is cheap and not really worth showing off, it's still your mask, and you plan to have it associated to your name. While you don't know how much exposure you might get off of this mission, you don't plan to throw it all away by voluntarily becoming nameless.

"Sorry," you say. "I'm trying to build my brand."

"With that shitty costume?" Leet asks. "Dude. I promise that whatever we make for you will be a thousand times better."

You frown behind your mask.

"No, sorry," you say.

While Leet seems like he's not done pushing for you to change your mind, Uber interrupts him to give you some of the details of your mission.

You give them the phone number of a burner phone you had bought a few days ago, and they tell you that they'll be in contact at any time from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM tomorrow. They don't tell you an exact location where you should meet quite yet, but tell you that you should be around the Docks during that time, in case they need you quickly.

It's honestly a pretty unreasonable request, to expect you to just be on call for three hours when you could just meet up with them at a specified time, but it's really not a problem for you, due to your power. You briefly consider the idea that they kept that in mind, and weren't actually being inconsiderate, but you doubted it.

You leave soon after, turning down their casual offer of hanging out at their lair and playing some Mortal Kombat.

As you head home, you barely seen any people on the streets, and the few you did see were wearing ABB colours, but they were also running around frantically. It was strange, but you had chalked it up to Lung's disappearance causing chaos within their ranks.

While you walk, you absorb your other Legion clones when you feel like you're not being watched. When you get far enough from your meeting place that you're certain nobody is following you, you take off your mask and wait for the bus that will take you home.

Note: The following section will describe the actions of Normal Jay, starting after we left him off at school. This means that it is occurring pretty much in parallel with your meeting with Uber and Leet.

English class was a pretty boring affair, and really not anything worth thinking about. One of your classmates, Carlos Cabrera, was away and enough of your classmates heard the news about the Undersiders attack to ensure that the first five minutes of class was filled with people jokingly speculating on which of the Wards he was. Mr. Paisley didn't even try to stop it. It was a classic Arcadia tradition.

A majority of the votes claimed that he was secretly either Kid Win or Vista, with the reasoning being that he was handsome enough that he should never be forced to wear a full face-mask.

Immediately after the school bell rang, Elliot sprinted out of the class, much to the chagrin of Mr. Paisley. Presumably, he wanted to catch Ranger before he got too far from Immaculata. If his phone actually had been confiscated, it would be a bit annoying to track him down. But you'd deal with it eventually.

You are Jay. Just regular Jay, you suppose. You take a moment to lean against a wall and shake a small rock out of your shoe. After you make sure that it's gone, you put it back on and start walking.

You wave and wish a nice weekend to whoever you recognize from your classes and walk a separate way from the large mass of students who are power-walking towards the lone bus stop in front of the school in an attempt to avoid the initial rush of students trying to get home. You spare them every ounce of pity in your body as you veer away from the quickly growing mass of bodies that are trying to get in position to rush the first bus when it comes.

It takes about ten minutes for you to get to Westridge Middle. School hasn't ended yet, with middle schools in Brockton Bay generally ending about half an hour later than high schools, but you walk through the front doors anyways. Immediately after you walk in, you make a left, push open a door, and walk inside to a reception room.

Sitting behind a tall counter, a short woman with mousy brown hair looks up at you. Her lips curl up into a small smile. Your smile mirrors hers.

"Hey Jay," she says as she hops off her chair and walks around her desk towards you.

"Hey Auntie Mackenzie," you say as she walks up to you and wraps her arms around your waist. You return the hug easily, though you have to bend down slightly to accommodate for her short stature. Even with the three inch heels she has on, she only just reaches the height of your elbow. "No trouble today with Little J?"

"Oh, you're not here for me? How rude of you to get my hopes up," she says as she releases you from her hug.

You grin. "Sorry. Maybe next time I visit I'll just drop by to see you."

"Damn straight you will," Mackenzie says as she motions you to sit at one of the seats that line the walls. When you sit down, you're surprised to see her join you instead of returning to her desk

"Not gonna sit on your high chair?" you ask.

She punches your shoulder and gives you a mock glare.

"I don't want it to feel like I'm interrogating you when I ask how you're doing." she says.

"I'm doing alright," you say.

Mackenzie lets out a low groan and rolls her eyes. "Teens. You're always alright, fine, or okay."

"We're pretty annoying," you admit. "But honestly. It's not like anything crazy's happened since Wednesday. Just school."

"That's fair," she says. "I guess I'd be more worried if something did happen. Well, it's Friday now. I'll heal your woes with some lasagna."

"What do you mean?" you ask, confused about where that comment came out from.

"Oh, did you not get my message?" Mackenzie asks. "With your uncle kicking you out tonight, I thought I could have you and Little J over for dinner. I know you already promised to take her out to Eddies, but I was hoping I could change your mind."

You take your phone out of your pocket. Just as Mackenzie claimed, you had a notification saying that you had an unread message.

"Oh, I didn't realize," you say. "Arcadia High, remember? They have some stuff around the school that blocks off cell signals."

Mackenzie makes a sound of realization.

"Damn, I keep forgetting about that. Well, I guess I'm asking you now. You want to come over for dinner? I've already asked Jessie during lunch and she's fine with it if you are, but I could see she still wanted to go to Eddie's. Gotta admit. I can't compete with those shakes, at least not for the taste buds of an eleven-year-old."

"I'll ask Little J what she thinks," you say, unwilling to make a decision either way without her input.

Mackenzie beams at you and reaches up to pinch your cheeks. "Aww, such a good big brother, considering your sister's opinion first. Who's a good boy? You are! Yes you are!"

You can't fight the blush that rises to your cheeks. You grab her wrist to gently peel her hands off your face, which she lets you do.

"Shut up," you say, unable to think of a good comeback.

She grins at you and pats your cheek gently, right before the school bell rings. The sound seems to perk her up, and she stands up and shuffles to the side, as quickly as her heels let her and leans against her desk.

"And three… two…"

The door slams open as it bends to the mighty power of a well-placed kick by an eleven-year-old girl, powered by sugar and a general lack of understanding on the concept of property damage.

"Jay!" she yells, right before she sprints towards you and leaps.

You quickly push yourself up out of your chair to catch her. It's a well practiced move on your part, and what makes it easier is how perfect your sister's flying tackle is. It's less about trying to catch her and more about letting yourself be a willing victim.

"Little J!" you yell back. You know you should really be scolding her for her recklessness, but you find yourself being infected by her boundless energy.

"Jay!"

"Little J!"

"Jay!"

"How many more rounds of this are we gonna have to go through before either of starts to speak English?" Mackenzie asks, letting herself walk closer now that the immediate danger has passed.

"You're not even a teacher. You can't tell me what to do, Ms. Smith," Little J says, sticking her tongue out when she finishes.

"Ms. Smith?" you ask.

"She's taken to calling me that instead of Auntie," Mackenzie explains, though she doesn't seem too upset by it.

"She's lame," Little J explains, having found an awkward resting position draped over your shoulder. "I can't keep calling her Auntie. It'll hurt my rep too much."

"Your rep?" you ask.

"Hey," Mackenzie cuts in, ignoring your confusion. "All the other students think I'm cool. How am I lame?"

"You're lame because you keep messing up my hair when you see me!" Little J yells. "Besides, everybody only thinks you're cool because you wear heels and drive a car, even though you look our age."

Even if you hadn't seen the amusement on Mackenzie's face, you're not willing to let this continue on for too long. You know she's immune to jokes about her height, but that doesn't mean she won't take Little J's words as a challenge.

"Little J," you say quickly, as soon as you see Mackenzie's mouth open. "As you know, Auntie Mackenzie has invited us over to her place for dinner. I know that you know I've promised you to take you out to Eddie's today. And also, Elliot and Ranger have invited me to hang out with them at the arcades." You feel Little J's body tense up at the mention of arcades.

You hide your smile as you realize you can exploit this. "If you're good," you say, putting as much emphasis into the words as you can. "We can do whatever you want. I'm sure Auntie Mackenzie probably has something delicious waiting for us at home." Out of the corner of your eye, you see Mackenzie smiling and making a repetitive thumbs up motion. "Or we can go to Eddie's and have food there." Mackenzie's face morphs into one of exaggerated sadness and along with an equally repetitive thumbs down motion. "Or we can hang out with Elliot and Ranger, maybe get some pizza or something. Cissy might also be there, if Ranger can convince her." Mackenzie gets on her knees and silently yells up at God.

To your surprise, Little J doesn't immediately jump at the arcades option and actually takes a second to think about it.

Eventually she speaks. You can't see her expression from her position on top your shoulders, but she sounds a little uncertain.

"Can we do all three?"

You raise an eyebrow as Mackenzie gets up from the floor, dusting off her knees.

"What do you mean?" you ask. "I don't think we could fit three dinners inside of you."

As Little J shifts around in your grasp, you assume she's violently shaking her head. "No, not three dinners. We can go to Auntie's house first and have dinner," she says, not noticing that she forgot to call her Ms. Smith. "And after that we can go to Eddie's for the shakes. And after that, we can go to the arcades!"

You consider it for a moment and you can't find a reason why not.

"That's fine with me." You turn around, whipping your little sister around quickly, earning a quiet "wheee" from her.

"Is that fine with you, Mackenzie?" you ask.

"Huh? Why wouldn't it be?"

You shrug. "It feels rude to just come over for dinner and leave right after."

She smiles softly at you and pats your face gently. "Such a sweet boy. I like having you two over for dinner. There's nothing rude about it." She pauses. "Actually, why don't you ask Bryce if he wants to tag along with you to Eddie's and the arcades. I don't know if he has anything planned tonight, but I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

Bryce. Mackenzie's son and your honorary cousin. He's two years younger than you and goes to Arcadia too. He's alright. Pretty quiet. You see him often enough, both at school and whenever you visit, but you don't really make an effort to hang out with each other.

"Sounds cool. I'll just ask Elliot and Ranger if they're fine with it first."

"Tell them if they're not, I'll kick their asses," Mackenzie says casually.

"Sure," you reply, sending Elliot and Ranger a quick group text. You only remember that Ranger doesn't have his phone on him after you've sent it, but whatever.

'me and little j eating dinner at macks first' 'will catch up with u guys after eating' ' bryce might want to come too' 'that cool?'

You stow your phone away, into your pocket. It's on vibrate.

"Alright then, we'll see you soon then?" you ask, picking up Little J from off your shoulder and setting her down on the floor.

"You don't want to wait for me?" Mackenzie asks. "It'll just be a couple more minutes before I can finish up my work. I can drive us home."

You shake your head. "I left most of my money at home. If I don't pick it up now, Uncle Rusty might not let us in later."

Mackenzie makes a low humming noise. "Ah. And how's he doing?"

If it were any other person, your automatic answer would've been, "Fine." But Mackenzie knows Rusty well enough to know that isn't ever completely true.

You give a shrug, one that you notice Little J mirroring exactly from beside you.

Mackenzie shrugs back.

"Alright then," she says. "In that case, you two should run along."

You nod in agreement.

Your apartment is about a ten minute walk away. The proximity to your school is a convenience and probably also the main reason that you got into Arcadia High in the first place. Your grades aren't very good, and though Elliot sometimes like to joke that you're there to fill a diversity quota, if only to make any eavesdropping teachers purposefully uncomfortable, you just live in the district.

As you push past the large doors into your building, you and Little J wave to the doorman and wait for your elevator. You take it to the eighth floor. As you wait, your phone vibrates.

It's a message from Elliot.

'sure its cool' 'fours a good number to have at arcades anyways' 'couldnt find ranger'

You raise an eyebrow and text him back.

'really?' 'you check at his place?'

'ofc' 'his mom said she got a call saying he skipped school' 'i told her he was skipping with us' 'bastard owes me'

You raise an eyebrow, not following his logic. Ranger's mom was weird, often saying that Ranger was too serious and that he should try being more reckless when he has the benefit of youth on his side. You assume that she would be happy to hear that he was skipping class, regardless of if he was skipping class with you and Elliot or on his own.

'why?'

'bastards probly with reagan'

Ah. That made sense. Ranger was desperate to hide his secret girlfriend from his mom, and though you never understood why, he always insisted that it stay that way.

'fair' 'ill text you after dinner'

'k'

You stow your phone away in your pocket.

When you get to the eighth floor, Little J bounds ahead of you, running down the halls and unlocking the door to your condo before you even step off the elevator.

You hear the familiar shout of "Uncle Rusty! We're HOME!" followed by the equally familiar shriek of surprise from your eccentric uncle, who has yet to get used to Little J's energy despite living with her for eight years.

You walk at a more leisurely pace into your condo and walk inside, where Little J is clawing her hands and growling, as if she's terrorizing a small animal. As always, you're not sure if Rusty is playing along or if his fear is slightly genuine.

"No terrorizing the Uncle, Little J," you say, as you grab the top of her head and yank her gently backwards.

Little J lets out one last growl, but lets herself be pulled into a casual hug from behind.

Uncle Rusty smiles and looks up at you. You expect him to be taller, or at least as tall as you, but with his permanently hunched posture it's hard to tell.

"Hello Jessie. James. Did you forget something at home?" he asks you.

"I didn't want to bring my money to school. I'll just pop by my room for a quick second and grab my wallet."

"Smart. Smart smart smart."

You nod and walk towards your room. With Little J having positioned herself so she's standing on top of your feet, it's more of a waddle, but you still make good time.

The walls of your hallways are lined entirely with various knick knacks, to the point where you can barely see the original wallpaper underneath. Ranging from old records to tribal-looking masks, there is no coherent theme to the strange wall decorations, aside from the fact that they are perfectly placed to maximize space efficiency, like the entire condo was designed by a master tetris player.

Your Uncle Rusty is a hoarder. In the first memory you have of visiting his condo with your parents, you remember that it was much worse back then. Aside from a small area in the living room, the items you currently see on the wall were just littered around everywhere, with no rhyme or reason that you could see, despite Uncle Rusty's claims that he could find anything he wanted in the disorganized pile.

When it was first decided that you would live with him after your parents died, he'd sent you to stay at Aunt Mackenzie's for a week while he organized his collection to the point where the condo was actually livable. His collection of items line the walls and ceilings of the condo completely and the one time you were allowed to look in Uncle Rusty's room, you remember thinking that there was literally no space to sleep in. You had never even figured out if he had a bed for himself, with him literally having to wade through items to move across the room.

You waddle to your room and Little J hops off of your feet, saying that she wants to change from her school clothes and rushes to her room. You suppose you can change into something too, if only to rid yourself of the stench of bodyspray that littered the halls of Arcadia.

A stark contrast to the rest of the condo, your room is pretty barren. Uncle Rusty had ensured that absolutely no trace of his obsession made its way to your or Little J's room. Even though you might not have minded a few trinkets, you're more impressed and grateful for how willing he was to make you as comfortable as he possibly could.

You change into a simple outfit. A shirt, a windbreaker, and a pair of pants that are easy to move in. If you're correct in your assumption, Little J will have dragged you to the DDR machine at least a few times before the night ends.

You grab your wallet, make sure it's not empty, and you leave. Little J's already waiting outside your door, and you're surprised she didn't just barge in to drag you out.

As you leave, Uncle Rusty waves you goodbye and a quiet apology for kicking you out. You say it's not a problem and wish him good luck on whatever it is he's doing.

Aunt Mackenzie lives very close to you, in the condo two buildings over. It takes you no time at all to walk over, ride the elevator up, and open the door. You have your own key.

The condo is empty, but you're comfortable with making yourself at home, as is Little J. She immediately runs over to the TV and takes out a video game console. You warn her not to mess with any of Bryce's save files, and she gives you a look that implies she's insulted you even felt the need to say that.

Mackenzie comes over soon after, completely unsurprised to find you both making yourselves at home. She warns Little J not to mess with Bryce's save files and Little J responds with a frustrated "I know!"

It takes a while for Bryce to come home, and from the brief look of surprise that passes over his face, it seems he's forgotten his mom invited you over for dinner, or she simply never told him.

Making casual conversation, you ask him why he's so late and he tells you he had band practice. You feel a bit stupid for not noticing the small case in his hands. In an attempt to quickly change the subject, you ask him if he wants to join you at the arcades tonight. He thinks for a brief second before accepting.

Before he goes to his room to drop off his stuff, he glances at the TV and starts to ask if Little J overwrote his saves, but before he can finish, she pauses the game, turns around, and gives him an incredibly adorable death glare.

Mackenzie helpfully shouts that she made sure to tell Little J that she could save over his files if she wanted.

Wise to his mother's antics, Bryce rolls his eyes and walks to his room, ignoring her comment that he'd be cuter if he fell for her jokes from time to time.

Dinner is home-made lasagna. It tastes really good, and you're glad that Little J suggested eating Mackenzie's food. Little J seems to think otherwise, as she meticulously picks out all the vegetables that are hidden between the layers. You remind her that you only said you'd be going to Eddie's and the arcades if she was good, and she grumbles as she forces the vegetables down her throat.

When Mackenzie adds that she won't grow big and strong without her vegetables, Little J asks why Mackenzie isn't big if she likes her vegetables so much.

Dinner quickly devolves into a passionate trade of insults over the table, with you staying mostly out of the crossfire and Bryce occasionally sniping at either target when he has the chance.

After dinner, you go to Eddie's, a small family restaurant that's miraculously not modelled after an 80's diner. The tables are full, but you let the waiting staff know that you're just there for a shake. Little J tugs on your sleeve and corrects you. Okay, you're there for two shakes.

They're fine with letting you drink the shakes outside or in the waiting area, though you do have to return the cups. As Little J drinks her concentrated sugar, you recognize a waitress as being one of your classmates and you say hello. She says hello briefly to you and Bryce before apologizing and returning to her shift.

You notice Bryce has gotten a little shy at the brief interaction, and you ask how they know each other.

From band.

You ask if he likes her and Bryce's face turns crimson before he asks you to stop, explaining that he already gets enough teasing from his mom whenever he even mentions a girl.

It was pretty obvious that he did, which you're sure that your classmate also realized, but had the grace not to mention. You shrug. It's not your place to say anything.

You text Elliot, first apologizing for forgetting to text him right after dinner and then telling him that you're at Eddie's. He says it's cool, that he's been at the arcades since after school anyways, and that you can meet him there whenever you're finished.

When Little J finishes her shakes, you return the cups and you all head to the arcades. You spend most of your time beating up scrubs on the arcade machine for Street Fighter III, getting dragged into playing whatever two player game Little J wanted a partner in, and being pitted against a strangely aggressive Elliot in table hockey.

From his mutterings, you decide that his strange drive is mostly motivated by the frustrations of not having a girlfriend while Ranger is probably making out with his girlfriend right about now.

You frown as a thought crosses your mind. If he never went to school, wouldn't that mean his phone never got confiscated? Why wasn't he answering his messages?

The thought provides enough of a distraction for Elliot to slam the puck into your goal, and you decide to focus on the game, deciding that Ranger was probably too busy to be looking at his phone.

You feel a tap on your shoulder. It's Bryce, carrying Little J on his back with some degree of discomfort. Apparently she got pretty sleepy while they were playing Timesplitters together. Probably just a sugar crash from the two shakes you got her.

You nod and take her off his back. She's still awake, but certainly sleepy and a little grumpy. There's still about thirty minutes before you're allowed to come back to the apartment, so you decide you'll just wait it out in the arcades. Little J falls asleep pretty quickly and you have to wave off the few concerned employees that notice.

About ten minutes before 9:00, you decide that you can start walking home. You let Bryce and Elliot know that you're leaving and they decide to go too.

Elliot's path diverges from yours pretty quickly, but you walk with Bryce until you get to your apartment. His condo is only two blocks away, but you still tell him to be careful and get home safe.

He rolls his eyes and calls you a worrywart.

When you get home, it's a bit past 9:00. You unlock the door and it opens. If you were early, it would be latched shut from the inside. You let yourself in and aren't surprised to see no sign of Uncle Rusty. It's nothing uncommon, so you don't think about it. You likely won't be seeing him outside of his room until tomorrow morning at least

Carrying Little J to her room, you place her gently in bed before shaking her shoulder. She wakes up and you tell her that you're home, and to change out of her outside clothes before going to bed.

She nods sleepily and you step outside for a minute before knocking on her door again.

She's in her pajamas, but she's also faceplanted on her bed, on top of the covers.

You pick her up, turn her around, and place her underneath her covers. She doesn't stir when you kiss her forehead and wish her a good night.

Before going to bed yourself, you go back downstairs and walk out of the building, turning a corner and walking into an alleyway. The area you live in is nice enough that there's no need to be paranoid about ever being jumped, no matter how poorly lit it is, but somebody steps towards you anyways.

It's you. During the time it took for you to come back home with Little J in tow, Legion had already met up with Exercise Jay and Bodyguard Jay to be absorbed by Exercise Jay. Now he stands in front of you, carrying the small bag that contains your mask.

You hand him your keys before you take his hand and he absorbs you.

You are Exercise Jay. You're pretty tired, and as the experience of being around Little J for the entire evening washes over you, you become even more tired, but it's a good sort.

You smile, reaching up over your shoulders to stretch your entire body, feeling grateful for your recent increase in training. With how used your body is to exercise by now, you assume that by the time you wake up tomorrow, you'll feel pretty well rested and ready for whatever the day has to throw at you. Assuming you get a good nine hours of sleep, of course.

You text Bryce and Elliot to make sure they're both safe. Bryce threatens to tell Mackenzie that you're gunning for her spot as his mom and Elliot just calls you gay.

You wonder why you even bothered as you go back inside.

You take a quick shower, go to your room, and jump into bed.

You close your eyes and it doesn't take long before your consciousness fades into nothing.

You are Jay. Just Jay. Why would you be anything else?

You vaguely understand that you're dreaming, but you can't seem to internalize the thought. As most dreams go, your mind is muddled and you simply go wherever the dream takes you, bending to the whims of your sleeping mind like a leaf, floating by on a gentle stream.

You look around you. Surrounding you is a peaceful scenery, with the image in your mind sharper than a dream has any right to be.

You start walking. Why wouldn't you? You're on one of your nature walks, traversing a pretty secluded mountain trail. It's dirty, you're surrounded by bugs, and it was a hell of a hassle to get there, but you doubt you'd ever stop going on these walks.

It was one of the few things that reminded you of your father, after all.

Though your father was always the first to try and disassociate himself from his Native American blood, due to the abuse he and Uncle Rusty suffered under the hand of their overly traditional father, there were still a few things from his culture that he did enjoy. Namely, his respect and love for nature.

He would take you on these walks from a young age, introducing you to the idea early enough that you had enough energy to run up and down the trails without complaint, despite the grimy conditions. He never took your mother with you, claiming that it should just be a "guy's day" kind of thing whenever she was in earshot, but letting you know that he was just letting her save face when she wasn't. She was terrified of bugs, but he knew that she was too stubborn to admit it and would just tag along to have a horrible time.

He told you to keep his little lie a secret. You didn't understand why at that age, but you agreed nevertheless. You suppose that if Little J were old enough, you would take her along and your father would've had to find a new excuse for your mother to stay home, but that never became an issue. They both died before Little J was old enough to go.

But you're here to remember your father, not his death. With a smile, you walk along the mountain trail, thanking him for introducing you to your favourite pastime.

The trail is beautiful, as usual. You see a protein bar wrapper slightly off the trail, so you pick it up with a gloved hand and push it into a plastic bag hanging off your belt loop. It's already filled with five wrappers you've picked up earlier. Honestly, that was better than usual. You're almost at the peak and you've only seen six pieces of litter. It's a good day.

You hear a noise in front of you and you look up. You see a woman. Though you usually don't see women walking these trails alone, it's not too uncommon of a sight that she stands out. At least not for that reason. You don't remember what she was wearing, but it was probably standard hiking clothes. She was quite pretty, and you remember thinking she was a bit pale to be someone who goes on hikes often, but that's not a very important detail either.

You remember what made her stand out so clearly in your memory, as your eyes are drawn to the top of her head. Who wears a fedora to go on a hike?

"It's beautiful out there," she says. It's a dream, so you don't actually hear the words, but you remember what she said perfectly. "More than usual."

"Really," you say. "How so?"

She smiles at you. "You'll have to figure it out yourself."

And with that, she leaves. She's out of sight and out of your dream.

You walk forward. Appreciating the brief moment of hiker's small talk, but not thinking too much of it. You're near the peak and the small rocks that litter the trail make it easy to slide back down if you place your weight wrong. You can't stop it from happening, but you make sure you don't tumble when you do.

You reach the peak. The sky is clear and the sun shines down on you, gently baking your skin with its heat.

It's a beautiful sight, but nothing too special. You've been on this trail many times before and you don't notice anything different about it.

You walk closer to the peak.

Maybe you were curious about what that woman had said, and were trying to see if you missed anything. Maybe you got overconfident after hiking this trail so many times. Maybe you got a bit too much sand and gravel stuck in the crevices of your shoes, losing you traction and grip in your rubber soles.

In any case, you slip and fall, lurching off the mountain peak.

Your heart almost stops as you reach backwards and try to grip on something. The skin on your fingers is torn as you try frantically to grab something, anything to stop your fall.

You hit your shoulder on something, and suddenly, you're airborne. There's nothing to grab onto.

You don't remember screaming. You must have, but you can't be sure.

You're falling. Before last month, you know that whenever you would dream about falling, you would always wake up before you hit the ground.

But not this dream. You know how it ends and it's not yet over.

You know you're going to die. You forget you're in a dream. And you know for a fact that when you finally hit the ground, you will land on rock and you will die.

Time seems to slow for you. You remember your father, your mother, your sister, uncle, aunt, cousin, friends.

They'll all miss you once you're gone.

You don't want that. You don't want them to have to miss you. You don't want to die. You don't want to die. You don't want to die.

If only you weren't so cocky, so stupid, so reckless and basically fucking walk off a fucking cliff. Why the hell did you do that? Why couldn't you have just kept one step back. Why couldn't you just have stayed back where it was safe? Why did you have to get yourself killed? You don't want to die.

And all of a sudden, you feel something surge within you. Something unexplainable. And then, you see a perfect copy of you, standing on top of the cliff, looking down at you. You watch as he stumbles in the same way you did and starts to fall after you. Before you can follow his fall towards you, you hit the ground.

You're surprised by how little it hurts. You're also surprised by how calm you feel as you feel as the life drains from your body.

You're dying. You just have a certainty that you are.

It's a strange feeling. It's horrifying, but somehow it just feels right. Up until this point, you haven't really thought too much of your death. Sure, death in general, but rarely your own. But now that you're dying, your body dying, ready to decompose and become part of the world it lived in, your soul ready to return to wherever it came from, it just feels like it was meant to be.

Your body jerks up for some reason, and in the brief moment that your head shifts, something enters your quickly fading vision before your world turns completely dark.

With the final seconds of life you have left, you try to figure out what you saw. Something about it just didn't make sense. It looked like you, but it wasn't. It couldn't be. You are you, nobody else. But you can't fathom that it's anything else other than your own body.

Why did an identical copy of you just land on top of you?

Suddenly you get angry. You don't know why, but you can't help but hate that other you. The fact that it exists. The fact that it landed on top of you, probably breaking your bones again and pushing you further along into death.

How dare it be alive when you're dead?

And then you realize.

You're not angry. You're jealous. Jealous it gets to be alive. You remember that you don't want to die. You want to have what it has. You don't want to be the Jay that died after he hit the rocky trail below. You want to be the Jay that materialized out of nowhere, landing on the already dying Jay, using his body to soften your fall enough that you're still alive.

And suddenly you are.

Suddenly, you're two Jays. Both the one dying on the rocks and the one writhing on top of him.

Not for long. As Dead Jay's consciousness fades, you're left with only one.

You are Alive Jay. You're not sure if your other body softened your fall enough that it spared you from any broken bones, but you are alive. It hurts like hell, but you're alive.

But your pain isn't purely physical. It feels like something is missing.

You look down at the body you're lying down on. It's you. Even through your involuntary tears, it's impossible not to recognize yourself. His eyes are blank. Lifeless.

He's dead.

But he's not gone.

He still exists, and you feel incomplete without him. It simply doesn't make sense that one of you is dead while the other is alive. You need to fix it. You need to make it so that you're both alive or you're both dead.

You reach out to him. Instinctively, you understand that you can absorb him, make yourself into one, as it should be.

You absorb him, and you experience death once more.