Season 1, Episode 7: Like Looking in a Mirror
It was another busy day in Canterlot, with downtown being particularly busy as many people had a lot to do and barely any time to do it.
That included Canterlot Bank, which had many people talking to staff about the overly complicated system that existed to try and make them more money. But one person soon stepped into the building that had a far more easier way of making money in mind. Steal it.
That person was a man dressed in rather unusual attire, wearing light green clothing over what appeared to be dark green football armour. He had red tape wrapped around his arms and legs, whilst his hood was up blocking his face from view. On his back was a strange looking device that looked like a leaf blower backpack, which had a large pole sticking out the top that ended in a satellite dish. A cable came off the device and was connected to a strange looking shield on his arm, which had red metal on the edges with green spots and the very centre was a purely reflective surface.
The minute he stepped into the room, all eyes were upon him. And many of them had lived in Canterlot long enough to know when you saw something out of the ordinary, you shouldn't just dismiss it as a weirdo with terrible fashion sense.
The bank's manager had been in the room when he arrived, so quickly noticed the man and moved over to him. "Can I help you with something...mister?"
"Yes," the man replied as he looked at the manager and allowed him to see he had a large bare of aviator goggles over his eyes. "I'd like to make a withdrawal."
"I'm sorry, but I don't think you have an account with us. I'm sure I'd remember such an...interesting client." The man said nothing and the manager frowned, "how much are you planning on withdrawing?"
"All the money in this bank," he explained. "And I must thank you in advance for giving it all to me." Before the manager could say anything, the man held up the shield on his arm. The minute the manager's reflection appeared in the glass, the device on his arm lit up and began to make noise.
That noise caught everyone's attention and as the manager stepped backwards, the satellite began to power up and spark with energy that quickly shot off. As it struck the ground, a form began to appear from out of it. Soon a pair of feet appeared, followed by some legs, a waist, stomach, chest, shoulders, arms, neck and head. Within a second, a perfect copy of the manager stood before the real one. The only difference being the second one's eyes, which were grey.
"What?" The bank manager gasped as his copy smirked and rushed forward, throwing a punch to his face that sent him falling to the ground out cold.
This action terrified the people and the security guards rushed forward. But before they could get close, the hooded man held up the shield and caught each of their reflections in the mirror. The device on his back powered up and unleashed the energy, creating perfect copies of the security guards.
The copies charged at their lookalikes and soon multiple fights broke out, the rest of the people running to the exit with a few getting caught in the mirror and copied. Those copies along with the bank manager's clone headed towards the back of the bank, leaving the security guards in a stalemate with their new twins.
Once at the back, the bank manager typed the code into an electronic keypad connected to a large vault. The vault swung open, revealing the large stacks of cash located inside. "Paydirt!" The man smirked before the many copies rushed into the vault and started filling dufflebags he had brought with him full of cash.
Within a minute, every bag was brimming with green and they began to make their way out of the vault. The security guards were still fighting themselves as they made their way towards the exit, the shield-wearer smirking. "Thanks for the loan. I'll be sure to pay it back...in about a million years." He laughed as he and his army stepped outside, only to find themselves running into a new obstacle.
Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind shot passed them and one of the clones cried out as he was knocked off his feet and the dufflebag he was carrying vanished. "What?" Was all his creator could say before another gust of wind did the same to another clone, then another and another.
Eventually, only the weirdly dressed man was left standing with his money bag. He looked around, holding up his shield as he tried to find who did this. Then he got his answer.
"Dude, what the heck is with that outfit?" The man spun around and spotted an armored dinosaur staring at him, this being the super speed hero XLR8. "And I thought I dressed weird wearing this stuff," he gestured to himself. "Oh well, I'm sure the nice people at the prison will be able to fit you for a nice orange jumpsuit."
The man stared at him for a moment before smirking, "so you're one of those aliens. I've heard of you."
"Join the club," XLR8 stated before looking at the shield. "So what exactly's the deal with that weird shield anyway. Are you so vain you'd want to look at your own reflection in the middle of a fight?"
The man chuckled, "why don't I show you." He pointed his shield and caught the alien in its reflection, causing the device on his back to power up. XLR8 didn't know what it was, but he knew it was bad news. As such, he shot forward. But as he did, the satellite fired the beam straight at him.
XLR8 was fast, but only a little faster than it and barely dodged the beam as it struck the ground. But this caused him to miss his target and fly passed the man, causing his hood to fly down and reveal him to be a pale yellow skinned man of middle age with pale blue hair that was graying. XLR8's claw had also nicked his goggle straps, causing them to break and make them fall away to reveal his pale grey eyes.
XLR8 skidded to a stop and spun around, as the man slowly turned to show his face to him. "Huh, not much in the looks department. You need to get out of the basement or wherever you crawled out of, get some sun on your skin. Better hope prison has big windows." He charged forward but before he could hit the guy, something shot passed him and right in front of XLR8. "What?" He was shocked to see an exact copy of him appear, the XLR8 clone speeding passed the man and throwing a punch at him.
XLR8 managed to slid under the claws and zoom to a safe distance, still shocked by what he saw.
"Another me?" He asked, "how is there another me?" The other XLR8 didn't give him time to explain, rushing forward and attacking with full force. XLR8 frowned but attacked back, the pair moving towards one another at super speed before they started throwing super speed attacks at one another. Both were equally as fast and equally as strong, so neither had the advantage. They were in a perfect stalemate.
"Have fun with your new friend," the man chuckled before pulling his hood back up and running with the single dufflebag of money he had remaining.
"Hey!" XLR8 tried to chase after him, but his clone managed to grab his tail and throw him back before he could. "Great." He glanced passed his clone and saw the man jump into a van, then turned back to the copy. "You're really starting to annoy me."
"Good," his clone chuckled before his visor opened to reveal XLR8's face, except his eyes were grey in place of blue. "Now what are you gonna do next? As if I don't already know."
XLR8 shot off down the road, his copy following him at the exact same speed. Their fight quickly turned into a race, with XLR8 trying to escape from his lookalike hoping to find the guy that created it and try to get some answers. But his clone was just too even with him and seemed to know everything he was about to do before he even thought about doing it. Every time he made a sudden turn, the other did the same. He tried to run up a build or curve back around halfway up and the other moved at the same time. It was like trying to escape his shadow.
"I am so done with this!" He roared before skidding to a stop and spinning his tail around, trying to slam it into the clone. Said clone was able grab his tail and spin on the spot, causing XLR8 to be pulled around before he was sent flying.
"WOW!" He cried as he flew into a nearby alleyway and crashed through some trash cans, making a big mess as he rolled along the ground and finally came to a stop. "Ow." He pushed himself up as his clone moved towards him, the alien trying to think of a plan. But before he could, the Omnitrix started beeping. "Not now!" In a flash, he reverted back to his human form. "No, no, no, no!" He cried, shuffling backwards as his copy moved forward.
"Looks like your time's up." He raised his claws and shot forward, ready to stab Flash in the chest. But when it was inches away, he suddenly exploded into particles of light.
Flash panted as he lay back, catching his breath as he was barely able to believe what had just happened. He had almost been killed by himself. "This takes self loathing to a whole other level." As he said that, he heard his phone ringing and pulled it out to see it was Shining Armor.
"Hey," he answered, "guess you're calling about the bank robbery. The guy got away." He listened and sighed, "it's not like I let him escape. And I did manage to get most of the money he would have left with away from him. You'll find it on the roof of a building near the bank. I'll text you the address. But listen, this guy's not your ordinary crook." He listened again and nodded, "so you've already heard. Okay. I'll meet you when you're done with the scene. Maybe we can figure out who the heck this is." With that, he hung up and sighed whilst laying back on the ground.
XLR8 didn't get tired, but a lot of his power could wear on Flash when he turned back to normal.
In an unknown location, the man was driving his van and keeping as low a profile as he could. Pulling into a back alley behind a building, he pulled to a stop and looked back at the single dufflebag of cash he had managed to obtain.
"Ahhh," he groaned as he picked the bag up and exited the vehicle. "This won't be nearly enough." He slammed the door shut and locked it before moving over to the doorway to the building he had parked behind. Several locks were in place on the door, the man taking several minutes to undo them all and finally step inside before locking them back up. "Honey, I'm home." He chuckled to himself as he stepped into the room, hitting a switch on the wall that illuminated the entire place.
The room was a fusion of a lab and a living room, but the entire place looked like someone had left a weed whacker on and threw it to the ground. The lab area had many pieces of machinery that were half destroyed, with beakers and other science equipment scattered around and broken. Meanwhile, the living room section had many takeaway tubes scattered around the place and the TV in the corner had its screen kicked in. All in all, it looked like the kind of place someone living a not so great life would live.
The man threw the dufflebag onto the couch before carefully taking off the strange device and shield, placing them both in the lab area and beginning to inspect the device. "Looks like the power cells are holding," he smirked before frowning. "Now if only I can get the constructs to become stable. I know it's possible but I just need more power."
He shut the device and moved over to a door that had just as many padlocks as the front door, the man reaching to open a small slot in the door that allowed him to look inside. "I'm happy to report the machine is nearly complete, though I guess you don't see that as good news. I'm just missing a few key parts and I'm sure once I have enough money to get them, we'll be able to complete our work." Movement could be heard inside the room, the sounds of rattling chains and moans filling the air.
The man laughed before closing the slot, the sound becoming muffled out. He moved over to the dufflebag and took out all the money. Most of it were hundred dollar bills, the man quickly counting them all. Once he was done, he totalled a little over thirty five thousand dollars.
"Still not enough," he sighed before looking over at the machine. He had been lucky the first robbery had been as successful as it was, especially with those aliens on the loose. Could he really risk trying for a second theft?
As soon as Flash had recovered from his race, he had headed over to Sugarcube Corner.
Trixie had been there and when he arrived, he quickly sat down next to her as she went to get him a drink. Once she returned, he explained everything that happened. "He created another you?"
"Yup," he nodded before taking a sip. "This guy didn't just look like me. He acted liked me, thought like me and could use his alien form as well as me. There was nothing I had the edge over him on."
"That's nuts," she frowned. "How can something like that be possible?" She looked around, then leaned forward. "You think this might have something to do with Equestrian Magic? Maybe that shield's an Equestrian Relic that was sent here and he found it."
Flash frowned as he thought about this, "it's possible. But that shield didn't seem all that magical. But we should probably tell Twilight and the others about it."
"Tell us about what?" He jumped and looked around to see Twilight, Sunset, Pinkie and Fluttershy standing next to him.
"How long have you guys been there?" Trixie asked, fearing they might have heard Flash talk about his alien forms.
"We just arrived," Sunset told her. "We saw you, but didn't want to interrupt...whatever you guys were doing. But then I thought I heard you say something about Equestrian Magic." She frowned, clearly wanting to know why they were discussing her world's rogue magic.
Trixie and Flash tried to think of a way to explain it, but then Trixie noticed something playing on the wall TV. "Look!" She pointed at it and they all looked around to see a news report on the bank robbery. First it showed the surveillance camera footage inside the bank, then changed to a street image that was taken from a camera across the street. "That's what we were talking about. Flash was there."
"You were?" Twilight asked, the girls looking worried.
"I wasn't there exactly," Flash fibbed. "I just happened to be walking down that street when it happened. But watch." They returned their attention to the screen as XLR8 appeared, the girls being surprised when they saw the second alien appear. "Do you think that could have been Equestrian Magic?"
Sunset frowned as she watched, but clearly wasn't sure. "I don't know. It's possible that's an Equestrian Artifact, but I've never heard of a mirror that can create duplicates of others. Cloning magic like that's a highly complicated piece of spellwork and it requires a piece of the person's DNA. I don't think something like that could simply create an exact copy like that."
"It looks like the shield is just a receiver," Twilight guessed after pushing her glasses up. "The device on his back is what created the clone, so I'm guessing whatever it is uses the reflection as a blueprint for the machine to create the copy."
"That sounds even more impossible," Pinkie frowned. "I thought making clones and goofy stuff like that was all science fiction. Though I guess magic used to seem just as impossible. Aliens too." She bopped herself on the head, "silly me." They continued to stare at the TV, as the news froze on an image of the man's face.
This caused Twilight to acquire a funny look, the girl moving closer to the screen. "You okay Twi?" Sunset asked, but Twilight just kept looking at the screen.
"I...I know him?" That was a surprise, the lot of them giving her a shocked look. "I know who that is."
"Who?" Flash asked, wondering how Twilight could know such a hardened criminal.
"He's a scientist. He hasn't had many great accomplishments, but he's well known in several scientific fields. Doctor Positine. He's known to be rather reclusive, but has designed several interesting theories that have become the groundwork to even nobel prize winning theories."
"Do you know if he's got any criminal history?" Flash asked, with Twilight shaking her head.
"As far as I've heard, he's never even gotten a parking ticket. His signature research topic is energy and the different types that have yet to be discovered. The Magic Scanner I used back in the Friendship Games was based on technology he designed."
"Shining Armor will wanna hear about this," Trixie pointed out. "He's on this case, so you should call and tell him."
Twilight nodded and took out his phone, getting through to him and explaining what she had just told them. A few moments later, she nodded. "Okay, I'll meet you there as soon as I can." She hung up and turned to the others. "I'm gonna go talk to him. He's got some info he thinks I might be able to help with."
"Isn't it against the law to show evidence like that to a civilian?" Fluttershy asked.
Twilight shrugged, "he thinks this might be Equestrian Magic as well. You guys should stay on alert in case that man shows up again." They nodded and Twilight headed for the door, only for Flash to step up besides her.
"Why don't I give you a ride. I'm interested in seeing what Shining has as well." Twilight frowned at this, but eventually nodded. Trixie went with them, calling shotgun before they even reached the car. When they got inside, Twilight gave Flash the address and they drove off to a diner not to far from Shining's police precinct.
The man was already there, going through a bunch of files and having a laptop open on the table as well. "Twilight," he smiled before noticing Flash and Trixie. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Giving Twilight a lift," Flash replied. "plus it gives me a chance to learn about the guy I saw earlier." Shining looked worried at him, clearly fearing Twilight might figure out his alien secret. But when Twilight wasn't looking, Flash mouthed. "I told Twilight I was a witness to the crime." Shining nodded, having learned to read lips to help with stakeouts his first year on the force.
"Alright Twilight," he pushed a laptop towards her. "Tell me everything you know about this Positine guy. He's a legal blackspot with not a single record against him. I get the feeling he hasn't even littered before with how squeaky clean he is." Twilight nodded and started typing away at the computer, bringing up several scientific articles. About his small but respectable accomplishments. He was born in the United Kingdom, studied at Cambridge and received his doctorate before he was aged twenty-one. He had travelled to multiple different countries working with some of the top scientists in the world before moving to the states and working on something special several years ago. It was just as Shining had said, he was the perfect law abiding citizen.
"Okay," Trixie frowned, "so how does a guy like that go from geek to crook?" Twilight frowned at her calling him a geek, but knew it was a good question. As she thought about it, Shining's phone beeped at a text he had received.
"Well there's no denying it," he stated. "The lab just confirmed facial recognition on Positine based on the image captured by the security camera compared to his last public address. It's him alright."
"Do they have an address?" Flash asked, Shining nodding but stating there hadn't been any confirmation that he still lived there in three months. "Maybe we should check it out? Even if he isn't there, we might find something that'll lead us too him."
"We?" Twilight asked, clearly wondering why Flash and Trixie would come along. "No offence guys, but this guy's dangerous. If he really is using Equestrian Magic, you guys being there wouldn't be good."
"And who was it that figured out how to save you all at Flurry's birthday?" Trixie asked, smirking as Twilight frowned.
Flash and Shining shared a look, Shining obviously wanting to bring Flash but knowing Twilight being there would make it difficult for him to transform. "I still think you guys should stay here," Twilight stated. "It's not safe and if Shining's boss finds out he brought a bunch of kids with him to a crime scene, he could get in serious trouble."
"Twilight's right," Shining nodded before getting up. "I'll just take her with me. You guys just do whatever it is you'd normally do around now." He paid for the drink he had just finished and headed off after collecting the files and his laptop, Twilight going with him whilst Flash and Trixie sighed.
"Great," Flash moaned, "now what do we do?"
"Wanna see if there's any good movies?" Trixie replied before Flash got a text, the teen looking it over and being surprised to see it was from Shining. "What did he send?" Trixie asked, with Flash smirking.
Twilight and Shining had driven across town and it was getting pretty late in the day, the sun growing closer and closer to kissing the horizon as they found the area they were looking for.
"This is it," Shining pulled into an alleyway down the street from the one they were looking for so as to not draw attention to themselves. They quickly made their way over to the building with the address and moved around behind it, stepping into the alleyway and not seeing anything of note. "Flash said he saw Positine escape in a white van." As he said that, he noticed a patch of dirt hidden in the shadow of he building. Said dirt had tire tracks in it, the cop taking a closer look and smiling. "These are the types of tracks made by the van Flash described."
"So Positine is here?"
"That doesn't prove anything," Shining stated. "And even if it did, it means Positine either fled or is out causing more problems."
"Which means he won't be around to stop us from taking a look inside," Twilight smiled as she moved over to the door and saw all the locks on it. She quickly used her magic to undo them all, Shining taking out his gun in case Positine actually was inside and attacked.
Twilight slowly opened the door and looked around, seeing the messy state the place was in. "Geez," Shining frowned as he picked up a takeout container full of very old noodles. "I guess his hygiene went the same was as his law abiding skills."
Twilight moved over to the lab, staring at all the equipment and wondering what he was working on in it. She found a bunch of files and saw there was multiple papers talking about one single theory. "Molecular Energy Printing?"
"What?"
"It's a theory that many scientists have tried to prove, but have had very little success. It's theorised that every atom in existence is held together by a special kind of energy. Like a magnet that connects two pieces of metal together. Scientists believe that if someone can find a way to access this energy, they can use it to make practically anything out of thin air."
"Anything?" Shining asked.
"Yup." Twilight realised what this meant, "including aliens and people. Positine's figured out how to do it." She frowned, "this could have made him a millionaire. Why would he throw all that away to rob a bank?"
"Who knows," Shining shrugged as they heard a sound coming from outside. It sounded like a trashcan being knocked over, causing the siblings to go on alert with Shining reaching for his gun once again. They turned towards the doorway and prepared for anything, only to then hear a voice they recognised.
"You ever hear about being sneaky?" That was Flash's voice.
"Trixie doesn't do low key."
"Obviously." In that moment, Flash appeared and the doorway with Trixie behind him. "Hey."
"What are you doing here?" Twilight looked horrified, as Flash stepped into the room. "How'd you even find this place. Did you follow us?"
"No," Trixie moved over to the living room, "but we have our ways."
"You weren't supposed to actually come in," Shining whispered to Flash. "I figured you'd stay outside and only interfere in things go bad."
"Oh," Flash looked sheepish. "Sorry." Shining rolled his eyes and as he did, they suddenly heard something coming from the next room. "What was that?"
Shining turned to the door and listened closely, also noticing the many locks on this door. The sound of chains rattling filled the air, along with what appeared to be moans. "Twilight." The girl nodded and used her magic to grab the many locks and undo them, Shining aiming his gun as he stepped in front of the door. He nodded and Twilight opened the door, Shining darting in and seeing it was some kind of bedroom.
It was just as much of a mess as the rest of the place and in the centre of it, chained to a bed with a tie gagging him, was Positine.
"What the?" The others came in and gasped when they saw him, Twilight moving over to unchain him. "Don't you make a move," Shining explained as Twilight pulled out his gag. "Try anything and I'll shoot."
"You don't understand," Positine explained. "I'm not the one you're after." Flash took a closer look and when he did, he noticed something about Positine that was different from the last time he saw him.
"His eyes are a different colour." Shining gave him a confused look, then stared back at Positine and noticed his eyes were blue instead of the gray he had seen in the footage.
"Could have worn contacts," Shining pointed out.
"I'm not the one you're after," Positine repeated. "I know how this looks, but you have to believe me. My face has been stolen and is being used to ruin my good name." The four shared a look, not sure if they should believe him.
"Why don't you start from the beginning," Twilight told him. Positine nodded as Twilight undid the shackles holding him.
"It all started two weeks ago, during that big thunder storm." They nodded, remembering said storm. It had been a real doozy. "I was working on a device that would have won me the nobel prize. A way to end the need for transplant lists and saving hundreds of lives. I created a device that could take the imagine of an object and create an exact copy of it using molecular energy printing. I was getting close to a breakthrough when it happened."
Two weeks ago.
Thunder boomed and lightning flashed outside, as Positine was working on his device. It was a large fridge-sized device with an metal arm that had a satellite on it, with a wire connecting it to the mirror shield. Positine wheeled it over to another section of the lab, all the while being careful not to pull on any of the wires connecting it to the mains.
"Alright," he smiled as he shut the device and picked up the shield. He then turned towards the table, where a single sausage could be seen. "Beginning test one oh four." He activated the device and pointed the shield at the sausage, the image becoming locked on within the reflection.
This caused the device to power up as the information from the shield was transmitted into it, the energy beginning to spark around the satellite. After a few seconds, the energy exploded off and hit the table next to the sausage. A few moments later, something appeared within the energy. A second, identical, sausage.
"It works!" He laughed as he switched off the machine and inspected his creation, seeing it looked exactly like the original. But then he smelled it, causing him to gag at the foul stench it was giving off. He almost threw up and quickly pulled out a knife to cut it open, finding the inside was full of mold.
He wasn't sure what the heck had gone wrong, cutting open the other sausage to see if it was moldy. But it wasn't. And even stranger was the second sausage suddenly vanished, transforming into wisps of light that quickly faded.
"What happened?" He asked, looking over at the machine and staring at the mirror. But as he did, something that would change his life forever happened.
A massive boom filled the air and a blinding light exploded, as every electrical device in the room went haywire. This included his machine, which sparked and had parts explode but began to power up. Positine gasped at this and looked down at the mirror, which continued to show his face in the reflection.
The next thing Positine knew, he was being thrown against the room and smashed into the wall. As he fell to the ground the machine kept powering up before the satellite unleashed a massive burst of energy that struck the ground.
As Positine recovered and opened his eyes, he saw a figure appear before him. Himself.
The second Positine turned towards him, his face hard and his grey eyes glaring down at him. Positine quickly realised he was looking at every bad part of himself, the pure opposite of who he truly was.
"I don't know why, but the machine somehow creates a copy of the original that's the exact opposite personality wise." Positine rubbed his wrists as he sat up. "The clone was pure evil. All the darkness hidden within me, given flesh. I honestly don't know how it happened."
"Maybe because you used a mirror," Trixie guessed with the others turning to her in confusion. "If the machines were using the reflections as the blueprint to create them, it was using a blueprint that's the exact opposite of the person. After all, a reflection is pretty much the opposite of the original." The others didn't seen to buy that, "well you come up with a better reason for him being evil."
"It doesn't matter why he's evil," Twilight stated. "This other Positine is bad news and he needs to be stopped."
"Negatine." They turned to Positine, "that's what he wants to be called. Negatine." That confused them more than anything else that had happened so far, as Flash remembered something.
"You said the sausage you cloned vanished after a minute or so. The fakes...Negatine created disappeared after about five. So if this guy was made two weeks ago, how is he still around?"
"I've also wondered that," Positine frowned. "My best bet is that the lightning supercharged the energy that created him, allowing his physical structure to stabilize. He's now as real as you or me."
Trixie frowned. "So instead of being your evil clone, he's more like your evil twin."
"And he's just the first of many." The five of them gasped and turned towards the doorway, where Negatine could be seen standing there with the device on his back. "Hello there. If I'd known I was going to have guests, I'd have prepared snacks." Shining held up his gun but Negatine was faster, capturing the four of them in his shield's reflection.
The machine kicked into gear and unleashed the energy, Negatine leaping back as it hit the ground and began forming the four individuals. In the blink of an eye, grey-eyed versions of Flash, Trixie, Shining and Twilight stood before them.
Twilight's clone acted before the rest of them could, holding up her hands as they glowed purple. The real Twilight gasped as she realised her clone had her powers, only to suddenly feel her body going stiff. The others also felt themselves get stuck in place, unable to move a muscle with their arms moving down to their sides.
Positine was then pulled towards Negatine, who frowned at him before instructing Flash to grab some rob from the lab. "Guess I'll have to find another place to hide. Luckily, I managed to find someone who's willing to sell me the power cell I need to complete the machine." Flash returned with the rope and quickly tied Positine up.
As this was happening, Twilight was taking several deep breaths and focusing. She managed to connect to her geode and in doing so, her own hands began to glow and the light spread to the rest of her. "Huh?" Her clone asked as she noticed this, but not in time to stop Twilight from unleashing a magic wave that cancelled hers out. "What?"
Negatine saw this and was shocked to see the others now free, with Shining being the first to react. He leapt at his clone and tackled him to the ground, Trixie and Flash following close behind with Twilight and her clone beginning to magical fight. Negatine pulled Positine to the back of the room as they watched the four struggle against their lookalikes.
Flash frowned as his clone pushed him away, the teen staggering towards the door. As he did, he realised he had an opening. "It's a little crowded in here." He ran towards the door, "let's take this outside!"
"Get him!" Negatine ordered, with Flash's clone rushing after the original whilst the others continued their struggle.
As soon as Flash was outside and out of Twilight's view, he stopped running. His clone stopped with him and smirked, "realised you can't escape?"
"Nope," Flash turned to him, "now I can fight back properly." He activated the Omnitrix and cycled through his aliens before slamming it down, a bright flash of green light blinding his clone for a second before it faded to reveal his new form.
"What the heck?" His clone asked, staring at the humanoid rhino that now towered above him. "How...how'd you do that?" Riot-Horn smirked before leaping forward with his fist raised, "WAIT!" But Riot-Horn slammed his fist down on him and he exploded into a million tiny pieces of light, the alien standing up and clapping his hands together.
"Accept no substitute," he chuckled before turning back to the building. As he did, he spotted Negatine pulling Positine out of it. "HEY!" He roared, charging forward as the two men turned to see him.
"What?" Positine gasped seeing the alien rushing towards him, whilst Negatine frowned.
"Another of those aliens," he growled before a smirk appeared on his face. "No matter." He pushed Positine in front of him, causing Riot-Horn to slide to a stop before he could hurt him. Negatine then pointed his shield at Riot-Horn, catching him in its reflection. "Gotcha!" The decide on his back activated and unleashed the energy, which flew over Positine and struck the ground in front of Riot-Horn.
"No!" He cried as an exact copy of him, with the grey eyes, stared back at him.
"Have fun with your new friend," Negatine smirked as he pulled Positine away. Riot-Horn tried to go after him, but he was quickly tackled by his clone.
"Augh!" He cried as he was pushed backwards, his copy attacking him like a football player. Before either of them could slam into something, Riot-Horn thrust his legs back into the ground and ripped it up as they slowed to a stop. He then raised his fists and swung them both downwards into his copy's back, fake Riot-Horn crying out as he was sent into the floor hard enough to shake it.
Riot-Horn attempted to jump over him and rush over to Negatine, who had just thrown Positine into the back of a white van, but his clone quickly rolled to his side and grabbed him by the foot. "WOW!" He roared as he was thrown to the ground, but kicked his feet out of his copy's grasp and rolled away. Both aliens quickly got onto their feet and glared one another down, their fists quickly getting covered by the hard round shell that came out of their wrists.
They rushed forward and threw a punch at one another, the fists colliding with a perfectly equal force that sent out a shockwave. Windows all around them shattered, both aliens pulling away from one another and throwing another punch that had the same equal force.
One after another, the pair traded blows but couldn't land a single one on each other. Every strike was either deflected, blocked or dodged. "Raaah!" Riot-Horn slammed his fist into the ground, causing a pavement around him to explode.
"Raaah!" His fake smashed both his fists into the ground and created a shockwave that deflected Riot-Horn's attack, then charged forward with a fist pulled back. Riot-Horn duck under the punch and threw his own into its chest, the fake flinching as he was knocked back.
The pair continued to trade blows with one another for several minutes, Riot-Horn managing to keep his clone from doing any collateral damage. Eventually, both aliens panted as they stared one another down. They then charged and let out might roars before throwing a punch at each other. But just as their fists connected, the fake Riot-Horn exploded into a million tiny pieces.
Threat gone, Riot-Horn sighed in relief. "Flash?" He then heard Twilight call out from inside, the alien realising her clone must have vanished as well.
He rushed over to and around a corner, looking out the alleyway and seeing the main street with nobody walking passed to see him. He looked down at the Omnitrix, really wishing this thing came with an off button as he heard Twilight's voice call out again.
"Flash, are you out here?" He then heard her gasping, "what happened out here?"
"Come on!" Riot-Horn began tapping the dial, "turn back turn back turn back!" It was then that the Omnitrix started beeping, Riot-Horn letting out a sigh before also hearing footsteps approaching his direction. A green flash filled the alley seconds before Twilight stepped around the corner, seeing Flash leaning against the wall.
"Are you okay?" She asked, Flash nodding back.
"I'm fine. Just a little winded after fighting...myself."
"What was that noise before?" She frowned, looking around. "I heard a weird beeping and I thought I saw a green light appear." Flash tried to think, saying the first insane thing that came to mind.
"Yeah, I heard that beeping too. I think it was somebody's car as they drove passed. And the green light was...the sunset. You've heard of the green flash, right?" Twilight frowned as she turned to the sun, which was still setting. From what she knew of the green flash, it happened in the last moments before the sun completely vanished.
"Okay...well what happened out here?" She pointed the the half destroyed back alley, Flash thinking fast and deciding to simply tell her the truth...mostly.
"An alien showed up!" Flash announced, "Riot-Horn. He tried to stop Negatine and got copied. They fought against one another and the copy eventually vanished." Twilight looked shocked by this and then frowned.
"Then he left?" Flash nodded. "Of course he did. Well, do you know where Positine and Negatine went?" Flash frowned.
"Negatine threw Positine into the back of his van and drove off." Twilight sighed at this, but nodded.
"We have to find them." She rushed back into the building and Flash followed behind, the pair finding Shining and Trixie looking through the documents.
"They're nowhere to be found, right?" Shining asked as the pair nodded. "Thought so. Let's hope something here can tell us where they went." They continued rifling through the papers, but only Twilight understood what it all meant. The rest could have been reading latin for all they knew.
"There's nothing here!" Trixie cried.
"We have to find where they're going," Flash stated. "You heard what Negatine said. He's gonna get the part he needs to complete his machine. If that happens, he'll be able to make a bunch of copies that are as real as he is." They all frowned at this, not like the sound of that at all. "Twilight, you know more about Positine than anybody. You must have some idea where he would go to hide."
Twilight sighed and began rubbing her temples, trying to think of the answer they seeked. Then, a thought slowly popped into her head. "There...there is an old lab on the outskirts of town. It was abandoned a few years ago but it might have the equipment Negatine needs to add the power cell to the device."
"It's as good a place to start as any," Shining stated before heading for the door. They followed him and all rushed to Shining's police cruiser, Twilight typing the address into the satnav. As they drove, Shining sent a call into his precinct. "All units, I need backup at the following address. Possible location of the assailant who robbed the back this afternoon. I need as many officers as can be spared to apprehend the suspect." The person on the other line acknowledged this request and confirmed the backup would be on its way. "Let's just hope we get there in time."
Over at the lab Twilight had talked about, Negatine's van pulled up to it as several black cars arrived.
Negatine got out of the van with his device on as suited individuals got out of the cars, the two groups moving over to one another. "You have them?" Negatine asked, the men nodding before one stepped forward with a briefcase. He opened it up to reveal a bunch of strange looking tubes made of metal and glass that had a red light flowing out of the glass parts.
"You have the money?" The man asked, Negatine holding up the dufflebag.
"Now before we do this," Negatine raised his shield and caught each of them in its reflection. The men were shocked when the device powered up and shot the energy around Negatine, each of them pulling out a gun. But they stopped when they saw copies of themselves standing before them. "Sorry for the shock, but I needed backup in case you decided to double cross me."
"How is this possible?" The man asked, but Negatine just threw the dufflebag at him and he was barely able to catch it. Negatine then pulled the briefcase out of his hands and walked towards the building.
"You have your money. Now leave before my new friends do something you won't like." The men frowned, but nodded and returned to their cars. They drove off and Negatine told the other clones to get Positine and bring him in. Once the professor was dragged out of the van, they made their way into the building. It was filled with many stairs and different rooms, the lot marching their way through it. "Here it is." Negatine pushed open the doors to the lab right as the other clones vanished.
The place was a big open area which had once held a bunch of valuable equipment. Now all that machinery was gone but some more devices were still there. Several doors could be seen surrounding the place and on the far side, a large workbench was just sitting there waiting to be used.
"Alright," Negatine pushed Positine towards the bench. He then took off the device's backpack and started plugging it into the walls. The place was abandoned, but the power was still there and could keep the machine going whilst he installed the power cells. "Now, you're gonna help me complete your greatest creation."
"Why would I do that?" Positine asked, only for Negatine to take a knife out of his jacket and show it to him. Positine frowned, wondering if he could take his clone. But before he could try, Negatine raised the shield and the device powered up. "You wouldn't." He did. A burst of energy from the plugged in machine hit the ground behind him and began to form a new person, a perfect copy of Positine now standing there with a frown.
"Do it, or we'll figure it out without you." Positine sighed, but knew he had no choice. Negatine put the briefcase down and the three began to work.
As Shining's car drew closer to the lab, Twilight was on his laptop trying to hack into the building's security system.
"Anything?" He asked as his sister kept typing away, but the security system had gone offline and she would need to do some serious rerouting to get it working again.
"Sorry," she frowned, "it's not working." She then noticed something, "but I was able to hack into the power grid. The building's started drawing a lot of power from it."
"Negatine must be working on his machine," Flash frowned. "If he gets that power cell locked in, nothing's gonna be able to stop him." They finally reached the lab and as they pulled up next to it, Trixie noticed a flash of light coming from a third story window.
"Up there!" She cried, pointing to it. The others saw it and nodded before getting out of the car. They ran inside and as they did, a bunch of sirens filled the air. They looked back and saw several police vans racing up the hill, the four of them not stopping in case they were close to completing the machine.
They rushed up the stairs and as they reached the third floor, they heard sounds coming from a nearby room. Shining pulled out his gun and kicked the door in, surprising the occupants as Shining aimed his gun at Negatine.
But the man grabbed his twin and pulled him in front, treating him like a human shield. "Don't even think about it!" As he said this, the other Positine lifted up the shield.
Flash leapt behind some boxes as the other three were caught in the reflection, the device powering up and unleashing the energy. In a flash, Shining, Twilight and Trixie were facing their lookalikes and the clones charged. The three began fighting with the Twilights using their magic to try and grab hold of each other. Trixie and her clone were trying to strangle each other whilst Shining was wrestling with his clone for the gun.
Flash tried to think of a way to sneak towards Negatine and grab him, but he couldn't think of a way to get to him without getting cloned. It was then he heard many more footsteps coming up behind him, Flash realising the police SWAT team were there. He quickly opened a nearby door, deciding to duck out and find a way to help without anyone seeing.
As he did, a few dozen police officers rushed into the room carrying guns and other weapons. "Freeze!" They cried as they spotted Negatine, then noticed Shining, Twilight and Trixie fighting themselves. This was all the distraction Negatine needed and he quickly raised his shield, catching the SWAT team in its reflection before the machine unleashed the energy.
In the blink of an eye, the SWAT team were cloned and soon a full on riot broke out in the lab with the clones doing everything they could to protect Negatine and the two Positine. As the clone of the scientist disappeared, they managed to implant half the needed power cells.
Twilight saw this and tried to pull the machine away from them, but her clone actually leapt onto her back and tried to strangle her. Twilight gagged as she tried to throw the fake off of her, but the clone suddenly transformed into her pony form. Before Twilight could do the same, she was pulled into the air and thrown through a doorway.
"Twilight!" Shining cried as he saw this, though he wasn't sure if he had seen his sister or her clone be thrown. Either way, the other one flew after her and they both vanished. "Flash," he growled as he pushed his clone away, "you better figure out a way to end this."
Flash was three rooms away from battle and once he was clear, he slammed the door shut and tried to get his breathing under control.
As he did, he looked down at his watch and activated it. Cycling through his aliens, he tried to think of which alien could best stop that psychopath. "XLR8?" He stared at that silhouette for a moment, "maybe if I'm fast enough I can grab the mirror before he can reflect me." But then he sighed, "but if he gets me I'll have to deal with another super speed opponent." He flicked to Riot-Horn, but knew Negatine would definitely be able to copy him if he did that. Molestache was a possibility, but again he was still dealing with the issue of how to avoid getting copied.
"Ahhh!" He eventually cried, feeling rather annoyed at how hard picking an alien was. "Damn it. Any way I look at this, going alien is just gonna make things worse. As long as he can get a reflection of me-" It was then that he stopped, realising the answer had been obvious from the very beginning. "That's it." He cycled through his aliens until he found it, "you're my only hope." With that, he slammed the dial down and the room was filled with light.
Back in the lab, Positine added the final powercell.
"There," he sighed before unplugging the machine, "it's done. The clones you create from now on will now be supercharged like you, making them as real as the original."
"Excellent," Negatine smirked as he looked over the device. He nodded seeing nothing that told him Positine had sabotaged it, so turned to his brother. "Thank you for this. You've just helped bring new about a new age. The age of clones." He pushed Positine away and the scientist tripped into a bunch of materials, whilst Negatine began to put the device on. "Now," he looked around, "who should I copy first?" He spotted Shining Armor still fighting his clone and knew the fake wouldn't last much longer.
He thought about copying him, but then remembered that strange girl. "Yes, I'll need to make a copy of her more then anyone. Now, where is she?" But before he could even attempt to look for her, something happened that he never saw coming.
"Augh!" He cried as he suddenly found himself getting punched in the face, making him stagger back before regaining his footing and looking around. "Who did that?" He raised his shield, but couldn't see anything. "Where are you?"
"Right in front of you," a voice replied before he felt a presence leap towards him. He was suddenly tackled and thrown to the ground, Negatine feeling a pressure on his chest that quickly leapt off it.
As this happened, Shining and Trixie's clones vanished and the pair were able to stop fighting. They looked around and spotted Negatine on the ground, both wondering what had happened. That was until they saw something appear on the ceiling. "Chamalien!" Trixie cheered as the alien lizard smirked down at Negatine from his spot on the roof, having just made himself visible to glare at the criminal.
"Another one?" Negatine asked before grabbing his shield, "then you can be the first to add yourself to my collection." He pointed his shield at Chamalien but before he could reflect and copy him, the lizard vanished. "Where'd he go?"
"I'm still here!" Chamalien's voice replied before the alien leapt down on the roof, Negatine having rolled away from where he had been and accidently dodging the attack. "You can't copy me if your shield has nothing to reflect!"
"Damn you!" Negatine growled before getting punched in the face and sent staggering, the reflection regaining his balance and swinging his fist to try and punch back. But all he hit was air and he quickly felt his legs being swept by Chamalien's tail. "Ahhh!" He groaned as he sat himself up, still trying to capture Chamalien in his shield's reflection. "Stop this. Come out and fight like a man!"
"Gladly!" Chamalien's voice replied, "once you do the same and get rid of that shield." Negatine growled at this, whilst more of the clones started vanishing.
In a stairwell, Twilight was fighting her clone using whatever came to hand with their magic.
Fake-Twilight pulled a fire extinguisher off the wall and threw it, but Twilight caught it half-way towards her before moving the nozzle and pulling the lever. "Ahhh!" Her clone cried as she staggered backwards, moving towards the top of the stairs leading down.
Twilight then had an idea and dropped the extinguisher, then grabbed Fake-Twilight's shoes and pulled them towards her. This made her clone scream as she fell backwards, beginning to roll down the stairs several times. Twilight rushed to the top and saw her clone fall to the bottom of the stairs, vanishing as she did so and letting the girl sigh. But she didn't have any time to celebrate and rushd back the way she and her clone had fought.
As she got closer, the sounds of battle were getting quieter and quieter. She then pushed through the doorway and what she saw amazed her.
"Augh!" Negatine cried as he was punched by an invisible force, then had his hood pulled down over his head before receiving a wedgie. "AYYYYY!" He squealed, only to get kicked in the butt and sent falling forwards. Twilight couldn't help but laugh, then notice several police officers were starting to fade away.
"Whatever's doing this, they need to hurry up and stop him before he makes any more minions." It seems Negatine had the same idea, as he noticed Twilight.
"Fine!" He yelled, holding up his shield and pointing it at Twilight. "I'll just have her be my first minion!" As the reflection of Twilight began to form, the girl gasped believing she was about to have a permanent evil twin. But before the device could activate, a loud whipping sound filled the air that was followed by the sound of shattering glass.
Said glass sound came from the shield, which shockingly exploded as something nobody was able to see seemed to stab it. That something quickly became visible and revealed itself to be Chamalien, who had used his tail spike to break the glass and send it flying in every direction.
"Gotcha!" He smirked, retracting his tail blade before leaping up and swinging a leg around to kick the shield out of Negatine's hand. The wires connecting it to the machine snapped as Negatine staggered back, whilst the rest of the clones all faded away.
"No!" He cried, quickly rushing forward and attempting to punch Chamalien. But it was clear that without his army, this criminal was no real threat and Chamalien quickly ducked under the punch before throwing his own right into Negatine's gut. "Gyah!" He was knocked backwards and as he tried to regain his balance, Shining Armor rushed forward and tackled him to the ground.
"You're under arrest!" The cop quickly cuffed his hands behind his back as the rest of the police force rushed into action, whilst Chamalien made himself invisible and rushed towards the nearest exit. Twilight tried to keep track of him, managing to notice a few shifts in the area that Chamalien was mimicking, but eventually she lost sight of him.
"There they go again," she sighed as Shining pulled Negatine to his feet. "Saving the day and disappearing before anyone can thank them." It was then she noticed someone was missing, worrying filling her as she looked around. "Wait, where's Flash?"
Shining and Trixie heard this and frowned, knowing Flash likely had a good few minutes left before turning back to normal. "I saw him run off to try and escape his double," Shining explained whilst Negatine looked confused. "I'm sure he's around here somewhere. Probably got lost after his double faded."
"I never made a double of that boy," Negatine exclaimed as the other police officers dragged him away.
"Sure you did. You made so many doubles, are you really surprised you lost track of them all." Negatine still looked confused, as he was pulled away by the rest of the police force. Shining moved over to Positine, who was staring down at the destroyed remains of his shield. "You okay?"
The doctor picked the shattered mirror up, a single shard remaining in it that reflected his face. But all he could see was Negatine's face staring back at him. He then pulled the shard out and tossed it to the ground, the glass shattering as he put the shield down on the table so the police could take it as evidence.
"That's your life's work," Twilight told him.
"And it almost caused a lot of harm," Positine pointed out. "Maybe the world just isn't ready for this kind of technology. I can write a paper on it and explain how it works, but I will never attempt to rebuild this machine. It's just too dangerous."
Twilight sighed, but nodded. Maybe he was right.
A few minutes later, the police threw Negatine into the police van and began to drive away. As they did, Twilight, Shining, Trixie and Positine stepped out of the building. The police had dropped all charges against Positine, but they still wanted a statement about what the heck happened. Positine was happy to come down to the station and give that statement, so there they were stepping out of the building.
When they did, they spotted Flash off at the side waiting for them. "Where did you get to?" Twilight asked him, the teen smirking.
"Things were getting a bit too crowded in there for me, so I managed to maneuver my double into another room. I tried to go back in when the clone vanished, but everything was so hectic. So what I miss?"
"One of those aliens appeared," Twilight smiled. "It was Chamalien and they were able to stop Negatine because he couldn't copy something invisible."
"Cool," Flash smirked before looking up at the night sky, "we don't have to go to the station and give a statement do we? I don't think my parents would appreciate me being out that late or getting tangled up with the cops." The others laughed and Shining told them he would give them all a lift home.
Positine was placed in the care of other officers and soon enough, Shining was driving them all back into the city. "You think Positine is right?" Twilight asked a few minutes into the drive.
"Right about what?" Flash asked.
"About some technologies being too much for the world to handle. All my life, I've dreamed about inventing something to improve the world by leaps and bounds. I thought I had it when I made my magic catcher, but look how that turned out. And now Positine's possible nobel winner turned his life into a nightmare. I mean, just imagine the most powerful device you can think of that could be used to change the world forever." The other three all thought about the same device, the one strapped onto Flash's wrist. "If it's used wrongly, it could change the world but in a bad way."
Flash thought about those worlds and realised Twilight was right. He used the Omnitrix for good, but he could easily use it for bad. Like robbing banks or even being an assassin. With the Omnitrix, who could stop him if he wanted too?
"You're thinking too narrow minded," Shining told him. "It's not a matter of whether the technology is evil. What matters is the person using it. Yes, Positine's device created evil copies. But that's only because it was used to copy good people. Imagine what would happen if someone used it on a criminal."
"You'd make a copy of them that's good," Trixie realised.
"Exactly. Technology isn't good or evil. It's just what you make of it. Maybe the world isn't ready for Positine's invention. Maybe it never will be. But the technology itself isn't what's the blame for that. It's the world."
"I guess you're right," Twilight nodded. "The world isn't perfect, but it's got enough good people in it that a machine like that doesn't have a place in it...yet. But I do hope one day Positine can find a way to use it the way he had intended to." The others all agreed and slowly fell into a comfortable silence. But as they did, Flash looked down at the watch and wondered something.
Flash had used the Omnitrix to become a hero and save people, but what was it originally designed for? Who had actually created it and what were they hoping to accomplish with its creation? Flash could only hope we would one day get to find out.
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Azmuth, of course.
Loved the ideas of the mirror energy clones and Flash's way of stopping the bad guy.
This was a pretty great chapter. Negatine's being able to create evil eversions of others, and essentially everyone getting into a mirror match with their opposite selves, was pretty cool. Plus the way Flash figured out the weakness of this ability and used Chamalien to save the day was clever. Especially considering Chamalien barely got any use in canon.
The ending was also surprisingly heavy and insightful. Twilight comparing Positine's invention to herself and her magic catcher was an interesting comparison, as was how some inventions could be considered too dangerous. Though ultimately, like was essentially said here, regardless of whether an invention was meant to be used for good or evil, it is ultimately how they are used that matters and determines their place in the world. Plus that ending scene with Flash looking at the Omnitrix and wondering who made it and what it was originally made for feels like great foreshadowing for Azmuth.
Azmuth himself has faced a problem similar to this in the past due to not thinking his creations through, and showed disgust with how everyone wanted to use the Omnitrix for themselves instead of peace like he hoped. Let's hope he is proud of the way Flash uses it.
Nice big brain moment from Trixie there.
Badass!
What about Diamondhead? He could have worked too, right?
Also...
Its stakeout. Sorry.
that was close thought for sure she was going to learn his secret.
a good lesson on technology and science