Chapter 1.1.49 — Best Laid Plans

There was a slight lurch as the Fast-Response Drone stopped. The mesh inside loosened around Emmett, and a moment later, the doors opened. Cold night air rushed in, and Emmett grit his teeth.

It took Emmett a moment to get his bearings, but he stepped out onto a roof in the warehouse district. Nervously, he adjusted his mask and looked around for Clara.

She materialized beside him a second later, clad in her gray exosuit.

Dr. Venture had briefed him on the plan on the flight over. The drones would surround the warehouse while Clara and Emmett converged on it. Clara’s exosuit had been outfitted with a sonic weapon that would prevent Porcelain from duplicating. Clara would shoot her with the sonic blast, then together they would destroy any duplicates until only a single copy of her was left. The drones were there to prevent her from fleeing if she figured out their plan. If an unaffected duplicate got away, it would all be for naught.

Clara handed Emmett two small sonic grenades about the size of grapes, which he stuffed into his upper arm compartment. Those were his backup in case Porcelain targeted him or in case she tried to get away.

Venture hadn’t answered when Emmett asked how he’d come up with the sonic weakness. Emmett had just rolled his eyes and hoped Venture saw the gesture.

“Are you ready?” Clara asked, her voice slightly tinny from the intercom.

Emmett snapped back to the moment. He still felt sore from their last fight, but he adjusted his mask and nodded. “I’ll follow your lead.”

“She’s in the basement this time. Drop to the street and we’ll go in through the side entrance.”

Clara descended, and Emmett swung down to the alley between warehouses. Then the pair snuck through side streets until they came to a creaky side entrance. They squeezed in sideways, careful not to push the door open anymore than needed.

She led the way into the gloom of the hallways. Neither she nor Emmett needed the lights to see, so they walked in near-complete darkness. The only sign to mark their passing was the occasional crunch of broken glass beneath their feet.

They pushed open a set of giant double doors and entered the warehouse’s main floor. Rows of metal shelves littered the room. Most still stood upright, but several were toppled against the far wall, their criss-crossed braces giving the appearance of giant spiderwebs covering the room.

Emmett peered through the veil of metal and gloom, at first finding only the occasional box and wisps of trash—

Until he saw Porcelain.

She stood in one of the aisles, hands cupping her face in her hands like she was crying. Emmett pointed her out to Clara, and after watching Porcelain for several long seconds, Emmett realized she wasn’t moving or making any sound at all.

If he hadn’t already seen her before, Emmett would’ve thought she was a nude department store mannequin.

Slowly, Clara and Emmett stalked across the aisles. Emmett wasn’t sure how close they would need to be for Clara to use the sonic blast, but he guessed that she couldn’t use it across the room or through so many barriers.

There was a cut-through aisle in the center of the room, and the pair crept through it. When they came to Porcelain’s aisle, they realized they weren’t as alone as they thought.

There were two more copies of Porcelain, both of them unmoving: One had a hand on the crying duplicate’s shoulder, as if reassuring her. The second stood in the next aisle over, peering through the bars at the first two with a mournful expression on her face.

“I’m sorry.”

The voice came from behind them, and both Clara and Emmett whirled around, searching for it.

A duplicate sat perched at the top of a shelf beside them, peering down like a gargoyle, but it didn’t move and it didn’t speak again.

“I didn’t know.”

The voice came from the original group—from a new duplicate reassuring the crying one.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry…”

One by one, duplicates appeared around them, filling up the warehouse. Their voices overlapped until the room was deafening. But no matter how fast Emmett turned, he never actually saw them move—never saw them appear. It was almost like they’d already been in the warehouse, hidden from sight.

In seconds, Clara and Emmett were back-to-back and surrounded by hundreds of duplicates.

Emmett swallowed dryly. His hands were clenched, but he was afraid to reach into his arm compartment for a grenade.

Soon, he wouldn’t have a choice.

Emmett searched the room, waiting for an attack to come from any angle. Every duplicate was completely still, frozen in a myriad of poses across the warehouse and atop the shelves.

Now they were silent—whether that meant Porcelain was at her limit and there were no more duplicates forming, or that she’d simply stopped apologizing, Emmett didn’t know.

“What are you sorry for?” Emmett asked. The question came out as little more than a whisper.

Through the web of metal and dolls, one duplicate turned her head and looked directly at Emmett—

All of them looked at him.

Emmett flinched at the sight and pressed his back against Clara’s armor.

Then the screaming started. Hundreds of white mouths opening, quickly turning from a discordant choir to an ear-splitting scream.

The duplicates descended on them, sprinting from the aisles and leaping from the shelves. Clara raised an armored hand and blasted—clearing entire aisles of copies.

Emmett lashed out with his whip, hoping to keep the first few enemies at bay. Surprisingly, his whip cracked two of them in half. He swung twice more quickly and cut down several more just as easily. He realized that Porcelain had divided her power as she made copies, and making so many had spread her thin.

Emmett wasn’t going to complain.

He lashed out as quickly as he could while Clara let loose kinetic blasts behind him. Soon Porcelain’s screams were drowned out by the thumps and cracks of impact.

Despite the sweat beading on Emmett’s forehead, they were faring well. The only problem was he could already feel the duplicates growing stronger. For every one they destroyed, the next seemed even more durable. Soon, they were taking multiple strikes from Emmett’s whip to destroy, and then his whip wasn’t hurting them at all.

Emmett retracted his whip and waited for them to close in, meeting the first few duplicates with full power punches with his metal right hand. Thankfully, they fell and shattered.

Clara flew up and tackled the shelves, causing them to topple. Screeching metal filled the room as the shelves fell into each other like dominos, crushing dozens of duplicates beneath them.

“Here goes,” Clara said, still hovering in the air behind Emmett.

The first blast of her sonic weapon echoed through the room. It sounded like the ringing of a glass, but even higher pitched. It felt like Emmett’s teeth were ringing in his skull and the pain caused him to wince, mid-punch.

Unfortunately, the duplicates in front of him didn’t flinch at all, and a Porcelain punched him in the face. The impact sent Emmett reeling and nearly tripping over the fallen shelves.

The punch left him dazed and Emmett could already feel blood pooling in his mouth. They’d destroyed enough duplicates that now Porcelain was probably back to full strength—far too strong for Emmett to trade punches with.

Emmett shook his head and managed to kick away the first duplicate that tried piling on top of him. He resisted the urge to use his own sonic grenades while more shots echoed from Clara’s kinetic weapons.

Two more blasts rang out from the sonic weapon, and Emmett’s eyes watered as he struggled to keep them open. A punch from his right hand bought him enough time to leap to his feet. Emmett had been about to scream from the pain in his ears when he saw the duplicates glowing in front of him—

Not glowing. Vibrating.

Each copy of Porcelain was surrounded by a thin haze as their bodies oscillated with latent energy. In the free moment he had, Emmett glanced quickly around to see the copies of Porcelain steadily dwindling.

“It’s working!”

“Don’t let up!” Clara replied.

Emmett leapt forward with renewed intensity. As the number of duplicates fell and Porcelain’s durability increased, Emmett could no longer break her copies in two or even three punches. So he focused on pushing them away and keeping them from getting past him and attacking Clara from behind.

Even Clara was having trouble destroying enemies in one shot from her kinetic weapons.

Moment after perilous moment, the number of deadly white mannequins fell until there were little more than ten surrounding them.

Then each of the duplicates stopped and stared at them, completely frozen.

“I didn’t know.”

“I’m sorry.”

Emmett didn’t see any of them speak, but he heard them all the same.

No more copies appeared, and Emmett wondered if Porcelain had figured out their trick with the sonic weapon. From where Emmett stood, it looked like every copy had been tagged by the sonic weapon, so she wouldn’t be able to duplicate anymore. Even if she was deep in a hallucination, she had to realize that her powers weren’t working correctly… Maybe she was plotting her next move.

“Watch out,” Venture said over the intercom. “Third party inbound—fast! Brace for impact. Clara, sensors indicate Mutagen-X.”

Venture sounded like he was genuinely scared.

Outside, kinetic weapons sounded as the Fast-Response Drones engaged the new target. Emmett couldn’t do anything but listen as a chorus of shots were punctuated by a hum of thrusters. Drone search lights flickered through the upper windows.

Emmett thought he heard footsteps—heavy footsteps. Not even a moment later, something like an explosion echoed through the warehouse. The floor trembled and the metal shelves squealed as they ground against one another.

Porcelain still didn’t move.

Footsteps came from down the hall, coming closer.

Another crunch of steel like doors being torn open.

Emmett’s heart was beating in his throat and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the hall across the room. Whatever super was coming their way, something inside Emmett was screaming at him to run.

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