Fake-Kai smiled."Host found."
Its voice resonated like mine, just the right level of deepness, but it came from a wrong place. A lifeless place. From something that shouldn't be breathing.
Chills creeped down my spine as a million thoughts raced through my head. Never in a million years had I envisioned that there was another me existing somewhere.
The living universe, along with all its dimensions, was a world too small for one Kai. Two Kai's was a stretch. It was asking for too much.
Fake-Kai lunged, leaping towards me with a grace that defied physics.
I barely dodged, rolling behind a shattered containment pod. "Okay. What the hell is that?"
Lydia's time-freeze field crackled around her fists. "Your twin apparently."
"Not a twin," Fake-Kai hissed. Its voice was wrong—like two recordings of me playing at once. "A prototype."
An army of BEA drones burst into the passageway, fast and slick as they shot towards the thing wearing my face.
Fake-Kai pulled a glowing blue handgun from a disheveled pocket. It didn't aim. Nine clears shots, all within a second, dropped the drones in a whiring mess to the floor.
It moved faster than I could track—one second across the room, the next right in my face, fingers clawing for my throat.
I did the only logical thing. Maybe, illogical thing depending on how you look at it. In my defence, wits fled me a long time ago.
I punched myself in the jaw.
Fake-Kai's head snapped back with a sickening cracking of bones. It laughed. "You still fight like a human."
Behind us, Lydia froze a chunk of the ceiling mid-collapse and kicked it at Not-Kai. The debris smashed against its back without any visible effect.
It regarded Lydia with souless eyes before opening fire. If not for Time-freeze, Lydia would've transformed into a pincushion for bullets.
She suspended the bullets long enough to skid behind the decapitated cell door.
"Mercer! Think! What's its weakness?"
I ducked a swipe that would've taken my head off. "How should I know?!"
"You're It. I mean, It's you."
"My deranged alter-ego, you mean."
Fake-Kai's fist connected to my chest, the force behind the punch enough to send my body across the passageway and hard against the steel wall.
"Ooof!"
My chest burned. Breathing in hurt like hell. "Something's definitely broken."
Fake-Kai's maniacal grin remained as it stalked towards me, arms flexing.
Lydia started around her hiding place but immediately retreated when bullets ricocheted all around her.
"Kai? You have to do something. Backup won't get here in time! It'll kill you."
"I don't know how to stop it!"
Fake-Kai halted for a second. "You don't. But he does."
It pointed beyond my shoulder. I followed its motion.
Bug stood in the doorway, face pale. "Oh crap—"
--- —-- —--
[Two Minutes Earlier (Bug's Very Bad Idea)]
While we charged toward danger like idiots, Bug remained in the lab and did something actually smart—he hacked the Sublevel 5 archives.
The screen flashed red:
>> PROJECT MIRROR <<
>> STATUS: TERMINATED (???) <<
>> LAST MODIFIED: 18 MONTHS AGO BY DIRECTOR VANCE <<
A video file popped up right of the screen. Hesitating for a moment, Bug tapped on it.
The scene was of a lab, this lab to be precise. A man stood centre of the lab, gesturing to a floating black orb.
He was not unfamiliar. With the shiny bald pate and stubble, he still looked like he was now. This was a younger Vance.
"Phase Three begins shortly. We imprint the Weaver's signature unto Subject Zero's neutral—"
The footage glitched, going in and out of focus. The camera angles shifted as if an invisible force was controlling its motion.
When clear images returned, the dark orb was the centre of attention. Close up, it hovered larger than life, the surface opaque. Inside it, a denser form moved.
Then someone screamed. An eerie howl of a sound from within the orb. The video crashed, sizzling with static.
Then suddenly, it sharpened, panning on the orb again. A palm pressed against the inside wall of the orb. A human face appeared.
Kai Mercer.
The video froze.
Error messages bombarded the holographic screen.
Bug pushed all of them aside to find two unique folders within the video file. DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY and KILL SWITCH.
He'd just accessed the latter folder when the intercomm blared with a warning message from the security system.
>> SHOTS FIRED BY LEVEL 5 THREAT<<
>> SUBLEVEL 5 COMPROMISED<<
"Wonder where it got a gun." Bug mused, hurriedly copying the contents of the file into his Intelligence System. The system would develop the best algorithm to follow in exactly thirty seconds.
He plugged in his earpiece, collected his portable lab (An ipad as thick as two combined) before dashing out of the lab.
--- —-- —--
[Present Time (Back to Dying)]
"Get out of the way!" Kai warned.
But Bug was fixated on his iPad, tapping at the screen in a flurry. "I have to initiate the Self Destruct algorithm."
A couple of drones zoomed into the hallway, but Fake-Kai swatted them aside like confetti.
"I just need one more—"
Bug didn't get to finish what he wanted to say before Fake-Kai grabbed him by the throat. "Hello, programmer."
Bug struggled. "Let go of me!"
Fake-Kai pried the iPad from his grip, gave it a listless glare before crushing it inside a fist. Glass rained down like snow.
It pushed Bug against the wall. "You're powerless without your devices. What is going to save you from me now?"
It drew back, right arm fisted, ready to punch Bug's head into the wall and an undesirable demise.
Lydia moved—but too slow.
I moved faster. And I was closer.
Fake-Kai's head snapped towards me just as I slapped a palm against its back and summoned a portal.
For once, it worked exactly like I wanted.
The rift ripped, tearing Fake-Kai apart molecule by molecule as it expanded, bending reality and matter around it.
Fake-Kai screamed in that double-voice, clawing at its own dissolving flesh as the portal continued to expand.
"YOU'RE JUST A TOOL—"
Sparks exploded out of the destructive portal as it consumed its boundaries, Fake-Kai's body, which was too weak to keep it contained.
Bug collapsed, gasping. Lydia stared at me like I'd grown a second head.
I flexed my fingers. The glow was back—deeper now, like ink under my skin. "So. Anyone else terrified right now?"
"Where does that go to?" Lydia asked, moving closer.
She meant the portal. I was curious as well. My portals, like Dr. Vance had pointed out, always possessed an electric blue essence to them.
This portal brimmed like a pool of pure darkness, still and motionless, its perimeter simply fading out of focus.
"The limboid."
The place between worlds, universes, and dimensions. The source for dark energy, the void and black holes.
Bug coughed as he sat up. "Um…maybe you should close it?"
Almost immediately, the portal blinked out of existence. It simply vanished, as if deleted from the scheme of things.
I shared a glance with Lydia. "Now that was odd."
"You alright?"
I stretched. My backside hurt. "Yeah. Just a few bruises here and there. An icepack would help."
"Wasn't talking to you." She helped Bug up.
The lights died.
I sighed. Won't this terrible day end already?
Director Vance's voice echoes through the intercomm. There was a strange note to it.
"Subject Zero. You are ahead of schedule."
"Who's Subject Zero?" I directed the question at Lyds.
Bug replied. "You."