Okay. The fight is absolutely over now. With the access points completely sealed off, there's no way for people outside to reach us. They probably can't even hear the ongoing chaos or see what's happening. This situation only confirms one thing: the League of Heroes won't catch a whisper of this until almost everyone here—eighty percent of us, at the very minimum—is already dead.
"Ahhh! Sobs," A soft, broken sound reached my ears. I looked down, finding the young woman still biting hard onto my arm, fresh tears pouring down her face. God, that actually hurts quite a bit! I pulled her into a hug, feeling her whole body shake violently against mine. I couldn't grasp the level of pain she was experiencing. I've faced so much danger in my life—truly, a vast amount—but I've never reached the point of being physically wounded to this extreme. I always found a way out before the ceiling completely collapsed.
"It hurts... it hurts so much, ahh," she cried out, the pain overwhelming her capacity to hold it in.
What am I supposed to do right now? I desperately scanned the room one last time. My eyes drifted over the counter, where the hero was clearly visible, now clinging to life with only one leg—the other had been destroyed. We're completely screwed. I quickly checked on the attackers. One of the masked girls was deliberately stomping down on the hero's mangled leg. The other, a mountain of a man, built like a tank, had arms glowing a fierce, fiery red as he casually walked toward the crippled hero.
Wait. I know that guy. "Diablo," I muttered under my breath. Isn't he the madman infamous for large-scale, indiscriminate murder? I remember hearing he was the reason a hundred and thirty-eight people died back in Mexico. How in the hell did he break out of prison and end up here? Right now? About to commit another massacre.
"Hey, what are you both doing down there~?"
The question snapped my attention upward. A girl with a wide, disturbing smile was leaning against the counter, resting her chin on one hand.
"...AHHHH!" The lady beside me shrieked the moment she recognized her. My mind seized with immediate terror, a feeling anyone in this scenario would share.
I knew this girl. I had spoken to her just two days ago. We shared the same college course, in fact. She was a friend of a friend, so we'd exchanged words multiple times. But that history meant nothing now; I had recognized her face right in the middle of this bloody crime.
She's here to ensure no one talks.
"I knew that face was familiar," she chirped. "Is that you, Dave?" Her smile widened, cold and unnerving.
"Please, you don't have to do this, Erika," I pleaded, trying to appeal to any shred of humanity left in her.
"Do what?" she asked, tilting her head innocently.
I bit down on my lip. I glanced at the injured girl clinging to my arm; her face was pale, nearly white. "I'm begging you... don't kill us. You know me, right? We've talked."
"Sorry, but my hands are tied," she said, shrugging slightly. "I mean, I do know you... but doesn't that actually give me more reason to kill you?" That unsettling smile never left her face.
She is a lost cause.
She is completely gone!
"I can't let you live," she stated simply. "However, what I can do is give you and your little girlfriend a quick death." A rifle instantly materialized in her hand, pointed right at us.
"Wait! We need to talk this through!" I shouted.
"There's nothing to discuss. Tsk. Such a waste; I was actually starting to like you, too," she sighed dramatically.
Bang!
The lady beside me slumped, dead instantly.
"Now it's your turn, handsome," Erika said, redirecting her aim toward me. But before she could fire, a second shot rang out.
BANG!
A bullet went straight through her body. She froze mid-movement, her hand instinctively going to her chest. "...Blood," she muttered, her eyes wide with total disbelief as she looked at me before collapsing dead onto the floor.
"Damn it," I whispered to myself. I truly hoped the situation wouldn't come to this. I had always secured a measure of protection because I never trusted the heroes, knowing how unreliable they could be. I'd survived far worse situations than this and refused to be completely defenseless. Taking a deep breath to stabilize my violently beating heart, I looked down at the lady I failed to save. "I'm sorry," I said, gently closing her eyelids.
I glanced over the counter again. The hero's body was visibly torn in half, and the remaining attackers were now looking directly at me. "Shit," I blurted out. I rushed toward the backroom door, slamming it shut behind me.
BAM!
The moment I was inside, I pushed every heavy object I could find against the door to block the entrance. I looked around frantically. There was no way out. The only other door led to the cold storage room. I was utterly trapped.
"There has to be something else I can do," I muttered, my voice tight with desperation.
Wait, there is.
I have superpowers.
Yes, I do.
That's common in this world, but the real challenge is what power you possess and its usefulness. Many people who died out there had powers too—mostly useless ones: slightly enhanced bodies, the ability to hold breath underwater, being able to light a small match, or super comprehension. None of those powers save you when facing a lunatic with a gun.
My power wasn't much better, honestly.
I can clone myself.
But I can only create one.
"DIE!"
And that brings up the major issue.
My clone always tries to kill me the instant it's created. That's why I never use this power.
"Stop!" Anticipating the attack, I dodged the kick and slammed a punch right into the clone's face. He flew backward, colliding hard with a metal cupboard.
"Damn you, fucking clone," he cursed, spitting on the floor.
I clicked my tongue. "If I'm the clone, why are you trying to kill me then?" I challenged him. He glared, but then his furious expression instantly dissolved into shock.
"I'm the clone," he whispered, bewildered by the realization.
"That's right, you psycho. Only the clone tries to kill the original. If you're really me, you should know that," I argued. He growled in frustration but actually conceded and nodded.
Wait, that was it?
What the hell? If I'd known I could stop them from attacking me with just a simple conversation, my life would have been profoundly different.
"So, what do we do now?" he asked, rubbing his chin where I hit him.
"I don't know! That's why you're here! I need a second mind and a second pair of eyes!" I explained.
"But I'll just think the same stuff you do! We're the exact same person!" he argued back.
"That's not how it works, genius. From the moment you are created, you have your own mind. Hey, since you are the clone, why did you try to kill me?"
"....That? I... I don't... know. It was like one moment I was focused on creating a clone, and the next... I just wanted to kill the clone before it tried to kill me."
"...That makes absolutely no sense at all."
BOOOM!
A massive, deafening explosion ripped both the door and the entire wall to shreds. Through the heavy dust cloud came... ERIKA?!
"That REALLY hurt, you know?!" I heard her furious roar, her voice vibrating with anger.
The dust gave me a brief smoke screen. I seized the moment, throwing the clone my second gun and my phone. "We shoot our way out," I said quickly. He nodded once, understanding the plan.
"FOUND YOU!" I heard. I spun around. Erika was standing there, both arms stretched forward, holding a compressed beam of intense light right in front of her.
"SHOOT!" I roared and pulled my trigger instantly. But...
BOOOM!
She fired the beam straight toward me.
"No."
BOOOM!
To my astonishment, the clone jumped right in front of me at the very last second, taking the full impact of the blast. He was violently flung across the room, hitting the far wall with a sickening thud. "Shit!" I looked back at Erika.
"Two? A twin? Wait, you can clone yourself!" she yelled, her previous shock quickly turning into realization. I pulled the trigger again, aiming for her head, but...
"That's not going to work," she said calmly. The bullet collided with something invisible and fell uselessly to the floor.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
I'm dead.
I am totally cooked.
Boom!
One powerful blast from her sent me slamming against the wall, everything blurring.
"You got me by surprise the first time. That won't happen again," I heard her voice, low and controlled now. I groaned, tasting blood.
"Erika, we have to go!" someone screamed frantically from the main room. They were finally finished with the others.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed my chin. My blurry vision focused on her face, hovering right before mine. "You want to live that badly, huh?" she whispered, her grin returning.
—SHAAAAA!
Something sharp ran right through my lower abdomen.
"Too bad I don't have more time to play," she said, her voice starting to fade as my senses dulled.
It became excruciatingly hard to breathe. The more I tried to gasp for air, the more something gushed out of me instead.
DOOOOM!
A massive explosion, too loud to ignore, reached my hearing. The next sound was people screaming.
"No, nonononononono!" I heard a panicked, desperate yell.
That has to be the clone.
But I was too weak to process it.
I just... wanted... to sleep.
And that is exactly what I did.