ic My Evil Twin (IC)

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

"Ya don' bloody say." Bernadette muttered back to green haired Consuelo as the two watched the purple haired version, apparently from some other dimension destroy a portion of the wall to search for whatever it had been she had been looking for. The redhead's mind was racing, she had learned a bit about alternate dimensions in one of her classes at Claremont, and it was well known there were examples of dimensions where things were a mirror reflection of things in this dimension, where someone that was good was bad, and vice versa.

But learning about it and being confronted with it where two different things. But one thing was clear, they needed to find a way to stop this alt-Consuelo. Suddenly, there were two Bernadettes standing there as she summoned a duplicate.

"Come on, lets get after her an' see if we can talk her down."

 

The redhead started off after the purple haired Consuelo, her duplicate following close behind. "What is so important about this power multiplier you are lookin' fer?" She asked.

 

 

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

"Well," said purple Consuelo as if talking to a slow child, "it, like, multiplies" and she held out one hand "your powers."  And she held out her other hand too, made a bunch of fast motions with both hands, and then stretched her arms out wide. "Get it?" She turns to Bernadette and, for the first time, sees that she had duplicate. "Holy crap! There's two of you now! Is this like happening to everyone? Uh, that could be bad . . . . We should probably hurry up. I'm going down this left corridor!" And she jets off down the hallway, the same way that Dr. Adamu went.

 

"Uh, yikes!" Observes green Consuelo and flies after her. 

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

The two Bernadettes glanced at each other a moment before focusing back on the purple haired Consuelo. "This is pretty much normal fer us." The original Bernadette replied with a slight shrug. But then the other Consuelo seemed to panic slightly and flew off down the hall in the direction the institute scientist had gone, with green haired Consuelo quickly flying after.

The two Bernadettes let out a collective sigh as they started off after the two Consuelos, still trying to figure out just how they were going to deal with this situation, short of just punching out the purple haired version.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

Consuelo and Bernadette chase down the hallway after the purple-haired troublemaker. She stops at the first door on the left and opens it. Following after, the two young heroes notice that the door might have been locked before, but now the mechanism has been disintegrated, leaving a jagged hole in both the door and the door frame. Purple Consuelo lets out a low whistle as she looks at a strange machine featuring a large cylindrical chamber in the center of the room. “Whoo-ee! You know, I think we may have found it! I thought we were gonna split up to cover more ground, but kinda lucky we didn’t, right?”

 

She floats up towards the contraption and scratches her head. “I wonder how you turn this thing on? What do you think, other Ruin? Hey, your super name is Ruin too, right?” She asks regular Consuelo.

 

“Holy cow, can you, like, slow down for a minute? I think you might be, like, misinterpreting what’s going on here. And no, my super name is, uh, “Rot”. But seriously, that’s, like, not that important. You kinda seem like you’re on the run. Maybe if you can just slow down and tell me what is happening, we can, like, figure out what to do.” Rot flies up to Ruin as she talks to her, and the Bernadettes can see how identical the two are, except for the clothing, the hair color, and something else not on the surface.

 

Ruin slows down for a second and looks at Rot. “Seriously? “Rot”? That’s like, not very epic sounding. I mean, it’s kind of spooky, sure. But, I don’t know. . . .”

 

The pause in the action gives Multi-Girl a chance to take in more of the surroundings. In addition to the large transparent chamber in the middle of the room, the walls to both sides are lined with computer interfaces and there is a desk next to a shelf stocked with technical manuals. The walls of the room appear to be concrete block. There’s a phone on the desk and a fire alarm on the wall next to the entrance door.

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette watched the two version of Consuelo talk as they found some sort of equipment in the room the purple haired Consuelo had decided to check out first. As the two bickered about their code names, the redhead spent a bit of time looking around the room, but did not really see anything that immediately leapt out at her as possibly helping with the current situation. She did have her duplicate slowly start walking around, and eventually come to a halt near the fire alarm on the wall.

"Do ya even know what this thing does?" The original Bernadette called out to the Consuelo that called herself Ruin. "I mean, do ya have a plan, or ya just makin' this up as ye go along?"

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

Ruin pauses from her critique of Rot's superhero name long enough to respond to Bernadette's question. "Well, gee, I don't know, cupcake. Why don't you look through the manual and tell us how it works? Seriously Rot, where did you find this girl? At first I was jealous you had a minion, but now I'm not so sure. . . ." Rot seems to pause a moment, as if in thought, and then flies over to the computer interface and waves her hand in front of the screen. The monitor comes to life on the welcome screen presenting three options:

 

WELCOME TO THE INSTANT SUBLIMINAL LEARNING SYSTEM

TUTORIAL

RUN DEMO

ENTER ACCESS CODE TO PROGRAM

 

"Oh hey, that was actually pretty easy. Nice work, Rot! . . . No, wait, that doesn't say power multiplier, does it?" As Ruin asks this, Rot looks at her with a confused expression. "Well, no. It says 'Instant Subliminal Learning System', whatever that is. . . "

 

Ruin holds her chin as if pondering for a moment and then shrugs. "Actually, that sounds pretty cool too. Let's give it a try!" And she swats at the option to "Run Demo". A door slides open on the cylinder and Ruin starts flying towards it. "C'mon, let's check this out!" Rot shrugs and starts flying after her, and Bernadette sees the message on the screen change:

 

DOOR SHUTTING IN 

10 . . .

9 . . .

8 . . .

 

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette gave Ruin an unimpressed look as the purple haired girl again dismissed her and acted as if she was Consuelo's "minion." The red head simply shrugged and replied. "I believe I was already clear that I wasn' her 'minion,' but her friend. Guess ye were too busy actin' the maggot ta pay attention ta that."

"But more ta the point, I'm tha senior student present, so she is sorta me responsibility. So the last thing we are goin' ta be doin' is continuin' ta help you." The Irish teen said as she moved over to get between Ruin and the cylinder, ready to try to forcefully stop the pruple haired girl from entering.

Meanwhile, her duplicate pulls the fire alarm.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

Bernadette runs past Consuelo to block Ruin from entering the chamber and, at the same time, her duplicate pulls down the fire alarm. As she approaches Ruin, everything becomes dark and distorted, and she starts to feel an intense pain on the side of her nearer to the purple-haired inter-dimensional interloper and a feeling of repulsion and threat like when she first encountered Consuelo, only much, much worse. For a moment, it seems certain that she will die. Then the darkness subsides and Ruin has moved past to enter the chamber, leaving Bernadette with a stinging sensation on her skin and some big holes in her clothing.

 

But that's not all.

 

The room lights dim except one bright flashing light in the corner  that has come on. A soothing voice over the PA system says "The fire alarm in the building has been activated. Please proceed along the lighted path to the emergency exit. Thank you. . . . The fire alarm in the building has been activated. Please proceed along the lighted path to the emergency exit. Thank you. . . . The fire alarm in the building has been activated. . . ." over and over.

 

Multi-Girl's duplicate can see the control monitor for the ISL machine display change mid-countdown:

 

MESSAGE 006 IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN

 

The whirring and intensifying of light that had been happening inside the chamber suddenly dies down, much to Ruins' chagrin. "Aw man, you gotta be kiddin' me!"

 

Consuelo flies up to where Bernadette is standing. "Holy Smokes! Are you okay? Ruin? What the heck?!!? You could have really hurt her!" 

 

"Pffft. I coulda done a lot more than that, if I'd wanted to." 

 

Somehow, amid the chaos, Bernadette's eye catches on an odd assortment of items stashed on a table behind the ISL unit. Some manga books in Japanese. A bunch of bean bags. Several jump ropes. Then she sees a list displayed on a monitor against the wall.

 

DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM PARAMETERS:

JAPANESE

JUGGLING

JUMP ROPE SKILLS

 

The door to the room swings open, and in steps the friendly-seeming green-skinned woman Bernadette and Consuelo had briefly met out in front of the Institute. She looks very worried, but that softens somewhat as she sees you. "Oh, thank goodness I found you two! We have to evacuate immediately . . . uh . . . there's four of you?" And she seems to take a sudden interest in Multi-Girl's duplicate standing next to the fire alarm.

 

"Aww, smack! It's the fuzz!" Ruin flies out of the ISL chamber and starts to gather ugly, dark disintegration energy around her. It doesn't look like she is going to show any restraint in dealing with this Albright Institute staffer.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

"No, stop! Yelled Consuelo as she launched herself at Ruin" Her purple-haired counterpart easily sidestepped her however, with a dismissive scowl. The air around Bernadette's duplicate and the green-skinned lady warped and darkened. Having seen these powers before, Bernadette's duplicate knows to jump away. Even not having seen these powers before, the emerald-hued AI employee appears to arrive at the same conclusion, and she hurls herself down and away. She's pretty quick, but not quite fast enough. She saves her life, but loses most of her hair and the back half of her lab coat and shirt, and her back appears badly injured, as though burned, as she lies there on the floor.

 

Where the two had stood just a moment before, the damage is extensive. Most of the door and a good chunk of the concrete wall are just gone. The lighting in the hall appears to have dimmed, and little arrow-shaped lights along the floor point back toward the stair, as the fire alarm voice drones mindlessly on. 

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette's duplicate managed to roll clear of most of the dark energy wave Ruin launched at her and the lab employee. While she still caught some slight effects from the attack, they mainly cause a slight stinging and cause a bit of shredding to the duplicate's clothes.

 

Looking over to see the green skinned employee hurt by the attack, the redhead duplicate rushed over and helped her to her feet and guided her out into the hallway and out of Ruin’s field of vision. "Ya need ta get clear an' get the authorities here, likely some o' the Freedom League." The duplicate stated to the woman once she appeared steady on her feet once more.

Meanwhile, in the lab, the original Bernadette looked over to Ruin. "Alright, enough humorin’ ya, ye clearly are a sociopath." The Irish teen stated as she rushed forward, delivering a solid right hook to the purple-haired teen, who seemed completely unfazed by the attack. Oh bugger, this may be more difficult than I thought. The redhead thought with a frown.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

As Multi-Girl's double hauls the green-skinned woman through the blast hole and around the corner, she seems to recover a bit. "Yes." She nods in agreement to calling for help, pulls a cell phone from the ruins of her lab coat, and focuses on dialing. Bernadette was just about to repeat her warning to get to safety when she notices all of the tissue damage on the lady's back has healed already.

 

Back in the ISL room, Consuelo had come up with a new ploy. "Ruin, wait! I think I, uh, just remembered where the power multiplier is! I think it's in the office of that, like, inter-dimensional specialist scientist we met."

 

Ruin's demeanor changed immediately. "Oh, you do? Awesome! Yeah, let's go to the inter-dimensional . . . " But then her face turns ugly. "Oh, I see. You think I'm pretty stupid, huh? Dang it, other Consuelo! You too? You're gonna try to send me back? I don't think so!"

 

And she blasts Rot with dark swirls of disintegration, this time even more intense than what she threw before. Darkness rages all around Consuelo. But, when it subsides, she emerges unscathed, except that all her outer clothing is purged off, revealing just her black super suit now.

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette's duplicate was a bit amazed to see that the green skinned woman appeared to have fully healed from Ruin’s attack, but was very glad to see it. "If you have any ideas for sendin' this nutcase back ta where she came from, that would be great." She said, making sure the staff member was alright, then running back into the lab to see what she might be able to do to help.

The original Bernadette watched the exchange between Rot and Ruin and how Rot appeared completely unaffected by Ruin's powers. Something that might well be the case the other way as well. Seeing as Ruin seemed unfazed by her punch, the redhead figure perhaps she could restrain her, and rushed forward to try to grapple the purple-haired girl. But Ruin was too quick and managed to pull back from the Irish teen.

[Huckleberry]

As Ruin evades Multi-Girl, her eyes come off Rot long enough for her to spring up and tackle her. She gets on top of her alter, and for a moment, it looks like she's going to be able to hold her down. But then the purple-haired villain gives a kick and a growl. She breaks free and the two Consuelo's are both up, glaring at each other.

 

In the hallway, the green-skinned woman's phone call connects. "Director, yes, no, LISTEN! I'm in the basement. There's a dangerous metahuman down here going wild. They're disintegrating concrete walls. Trying to hurt people. We need the Freedom League." She hangs up her phone and looks at Bernadette's double.

 

"Where she came from? What do you mean?"

Edited February 1 by Huckleberry

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadett watched as the green-haired Consuelo jumped into the melee, actually managing to tackle the other and, for a moment at least, get her to the ground. But then the purple-haired Ruin was free and back on her feet. But that was when she took her eyes of the Irish redhead.

 

"Oh bloody hell." She muttered as she moved forward, this time managing to grab one of Ruin's wrist and then shove her in the back of the shoulder and take the purple-haired girl down to the ground once again, quickly grabbing the other wrist once she had her down. Glancing up at Rot, she said, "help me hold her down."

 

Meanwhile, her duplicate looked at the green-skinned woman as she asked what the teen had meant by 'where she came from.' "The security guard asked Dr. Adamu ta show us where the rest o’ the class was. She led us ta a room just down the hall." She pointed in the direction of the room where Ruin had first appeared. "When we stepped in, some artificial voice said somethin' about a power duplicatin' subject being found an' there was a bright flash o' light an' next thing we knew the purple-haired version o' Consuelo was there."

[Huckleberry]

Consuelo piles on top of her double along with Bernadette. "This is so weird. But like, what are we going to do now?"

 

Rot might be stumped, but Ruin has an idea. "Let go of me, you traitors! Arrrgh!" The air around the trio darkens and distorts, and Bernadette experiences an unpleasant sensation like she's being blurred out. But the two young heroes manage to keep a firm grip on the squirming troublemaker, despite her lashing out with her powers.

 

Just outside the room, the green-skinned lady from Albright listens to Multi-Girl's double with a look of even more mounting concern. "Doctor Adamu? Oh . . . . " Her face becomes resolved and she looks at Bernadette's alternate. "Maybe I can find her. You can come with me or stay here . . . for this." And she gestures towards the scuffle back in the ISL room.

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette felt the pain of Ruin's attack, but kept hold the villainous copy of Consuelo firmly down, her face pressed up against the floor with the redhead's knee at the base of her neck.  "Just keep holdin' her in place till we can figure what ta do with her or someone gets here that can otherwise subdue her" The Irish teen responded to Consuel who was helping hold down the purple haired girl.

 

Out in the hallway, the duplicate Brenadette looked at the green-skinned woman a moment. "I'm goin' ta stay here ta try ta help keep her under control." The duplicate then ran back into the room, moving over close to Ruin.

[Huckleberry]

"Okay, be careful!" The Albright employee (Bernadette's double noticed her nametag said "Carnelia Harvest") sends her one more worried look before running (pretty quickly) down the hallway.

 

As the second iteration of Multi-Girl re-enters the room, green-haired Consuelo is still straining to help her friend keep a pin on her ill-tempered alternate. She grabs two handfuls of purple dreads and wraps them around her double's neck. "This is, like, totally not what I thought I would be doing today.  . . ."

 

Unable to wriggle free at all, Ruin yells at her assailants. "Get offa me, you creeps!" The air in the room warps and darkens with her anger, and both versions of Multi-Girl feel an unpleasant hollowing sensation.

[Huckleberry]

As Ruin struggles and squirms under the combined grasp of Multi-Girl and Rot, shadowy disintegration waves surging all around, Bernadette's double calmly stalks up to deliver the knockout blow. Ruin suddenly stops her wriggling. "Hey, I feel kinda funny. Whoa. . . Look at all the colors!" Her face takes on a strange, childlike curiosity right as Multi-Girl's fist sweeps down in a merciless arc to connect with her temple.

 

The pinned teen's disintegration aura seems to turn in on her, and, within an instant, there's absolutely nothing in the place where she just was. Bernadette and Consuelo slump into the floor in their enemy's absence.

 

It suddenly seems very, very quiet. "Um, what the heck was that?" the remaining Consuelo asks rhetorically.

 

Outside the room, a squeaky wheel can be heard gradually making its way down the hallway, accompanied by an exhausted sounding voice with a thick accent . . . Dr. Adamu? "Alright, Carnelia - keep your pants on!"

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette continued to work to hold Ruin down, while the purple haired version of Consuelo was struggling, the Irish teen was considerably stronger. She was hit several times by Ruin's disintegration power (as was her duplicate again), but both versions of the redhead managed to weather the attacks.

When Bernadette’s duplicate managed to deliver a powerful hit intended to knock Ruin out, the purple haired girl instead seemed to have her power turned inward and she disappeared completely. The redhead looked over at the normal Consuelo, letting out a deep sign. "I have no bloody idea. That should only have knocked her out."

 

As she heard the sound of Dr. Adamu approaching, Bernadette dismissed her duplicate and stood back up from the floor.

[Huckleberry]

The squeaking gets closer and then the teens hear Carnelia's voice close to the hall in the wall. "Wait! Let me check!"

 

Carnelia's green head popped briefly into view, then retreats, and her voice can be heard on the other side. "Uh . . . She's . . .  gone?"

 

"Hmm." Dr. Adamu sounds bored and slightly annoyed. She wheels into view pushing a cart full of bizarre and incomprehensible scientific equipment. She looks in on Bernadette and Consuelo. "This some kind of prank? Why you break the wall?" Without waiting for any type of answer, she puts on an expensive-looking set of headphones, starts bobbing her head to whatever music is playing out of them, and begins pushing her cart back to wherever she came from.

 

"No really, there were more of them. Good ones and evil ones. They were all fighting and destroying the building." Carnelia insists, a twinge of desperation in her voice.

 

"You need a vacation, Carnelia."  Is Dr. Adamu's only response as she continues down the hall.

 

Carnelia pops back in the room, looking very flustered. "You girls okay?"

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette frowned slightly as Dr. Adamu accused them of being the ones responsible for all the damage (well, directly responsible at least). However, the scientist did not seem particularly interested in anything they had to say before she put her headphones back in place and started walking away again.

 

The redhead focused on the green skinned woman. "Yes Ms. Harvest, I'm okay, just likely ruined these clothes." She stated, looking down at several holes of various sizes that were the result of Ruin hitting her multiple times with her disintegration attack.

 

"Not exactly shoor what happened. We were holdin' the purple haired copy o' Consuelo down an' my duplicate tried ta knock her out an' then she just vanished."

[Huckleberry]

The lights continue to flash and the soothing voice repeatedly instructs everyone to calmly exit the building. Bernadette, Carnelia, and Consuelo try to make sense of what just happened. But they don't get very far before they hear a platoon of hard boots stomping down the hallway.

 

"Everyone, freeze!" Four Albright Institute security guards in high tech armor arrange themselves about the door and gaping hole in the wall and point energy rifles authoritatively at the occupants of the room. Apparently, the director elected to tap in-house security rather than contact the Freedom League, as Carnelia had pleaded.

 

Speaking of Carnelia, one of the armed guards was now addressing her. "Albright employee, please identify or locate the hostile metahuman."

 

Consuelo blanches and starts slowly hovering back away from the guards. "Freeze!" repeat three of the guards and train their weapons on her.

 

"Alright, alright, the hostile metahuman isn't here anymore."  says Carnelia, but it doesn't seem to do much to ease the tension.

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette looked at the armed security personnel as they entered the room, remaining still and calm, even as they pointed their energy weapons at the two teenage girls. "Coulda used you lot a minute ago." She muttered before glancing up to Consuelo as the other girl started lifting herself up into the air.

"Consuelo, just chill out, don' antagonize 'em." The Irish teen stated before looking back at the gathered guards.

"Look, as Ms. Harvest just stated, the copy o' my friend here that was causin' all this mess is gone. I am not shoor where she came from, but it was due to some machine back in another room just down the hall, an' I am not sure where she went when my duplicate punched her out."

[Huckleberry]

The Albright security team isn't letting go of the idea that Bernadette and Consuelo could be hostile metahumans easily. After all, they have all this cool gear, and they hardly ever get to use it! They continue to keep their weapons trained on the pair. Exasperated, Carnelia steps in front of their guns and tells them they are being ridiculous. It seems almost as if they are about to move to restrain her . . . Things appear to be on the brink of getting ugly.

 

Then the fire department arrives and recognizes the guards for the meat heads that they are. They literally talk them down by pretending to need their help sweeping the building to declare it clear of fire danger.

 

Carnelia, Consuelo, and Bernadette are checked by firefighter paramedics with the director present. The story of what actually happened gradually comes out, and a couple of the scientists are called in to postulate what may have occurred, resulting in the visit from Ruin. The most plausible conjecture that comes out of the process is that Dr. Adamu took Bernadette and Consuelo to the old sample media room ratherthan the video/media room, which has since been remodeled to house the power duplication equipment, and the two got caught up in the system calibration process, somehow resulting in everything that subsequently transpired. Since the event seems to have a parallel reality component, Dr. Adamu actually takes interest and asks Consuelo to come back the following week for some tests.

 

The event caused enough of a disruption that the rest of the field trip was canceled, and all the other students returned on the bus. The vice principle came over from Claremont, for Bernadette and Consuelo, and attended the debrief for them with the institute director.

 

Sitting behind his desk, the director looked exhausted as he peered over his reading glasses at the two teens. "Again, please accept the Institute's sincerest apologies for the inconvenience and danger you have been subjected to. I know you both have had a very long day and are probably eager to leave. Do you have any more questions before you go?"

 

 

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette had almost begun to wonder if she was going to have to defend Ms. Harvest from her own employer's security personnel. Thankfully the fire department soon arrived and helped divert the idiots and then the director of the institute came down to get involved and smooth things over. The redhead provided a full account of what had occurred and did her best to follow along with the discussion about what they believed happened, but honestly it was a bit beyond her.

 

When they were finally sitting up in the director's office with the Vice Principal from Claremont, the redhead just gave the man a warm smile. "No worries sir. Sorta gettin' accustomed ta things like this happenin' ta me. I am just glad we were able ta keep Ruin somewhat under control an' prevent too much damage."