~ Sanctuary ~

Chapter 3

It was a team of five, all walking with purpose in a triangle line together, with none other than my doppelganger at the front of it, with a Blake to her right, a Flynn to her left, a Felix on the Flynn's right, and a Griffin on Blake's left. As expected, they're all doppelgangers of course, but what should we expect? They're older versions of us. They all seemed to be strolling somewhere with a mission, but there was nothing to do in these drab streets. I mean, unless there's a salvage pile we don't know about, but even that's far-fetched.
I turned to Griffin and Seth, and they both nodded in approval of going and putting myself in the field, so I stepped out to where the main member could see me. And as soon as she did, she held her hand beside her in an open palm, and almost as if she was controlling them telepathically, they all stopped at the exact same time, all planting their feet and ruling their ground. Their presence was commanding as hell.
"Who are you," her voice boomed. Hers was more commanding than mine, and if you weren't sure of a stance, she'd blow you over with one phrase. And that's just an understatement.
"My name's Charlie, I know you don't know me, I don't expect you to," I started. She held out her hand to me, opening her palm again. Now I know why she did that when she told them to stop. She was hushing me from speaking. Her presence is more intimidating than anything I've ever experienced, and anyone who's around her seems to cower before her, because for sure, I shut my mouth right as she "instructed" me to.
"I know who you are, you're the whore who stole my parts," she seethed, spit nearly dripping out of her mouth. All of her comrades tensed up as soon as she said that, and looked at my crew with glaring eyes. Each of our doppelgangers from the Scavengers came close to us, inspecting us, as Seth and Madelyn stepped to the side, letting it happen. There was no need for their team to inspect them with purpose, because their parts were completely different. We were the ones who had their parts, and they looked like they'd tear us from limb to limb for their parts back.
Griffin's doppelganger looked him up and down, but kept his stance and distance, and Griffin seemed to be alright with that interaction. Based on what Griffin said earlier, he willingly gave his pieces to the other Griffin. But, Griffin still has to keep his distance for the other group's sake. Just a respectful type of deal. Blake's doppelganger looked him up and down and circled him, but never said anything. Just like Blake himself, he may be intimidating at first, but he's still as silent as an owl in the night hunting for a mouse to prey on.
Flynn's doppelganger kept squaring up, which Flynn responded the same way back, and Felix's doppelganger just kept studying him, holding his hand to his chin and tilting his head, as Felix stood his ground with his arms crossed.
Finally, my doppelganger walked over to me and got right in my face. My stance and attitude didn't falter, as she stood there menacingly, and I somehow couldn't take my eyes off how she was standing. And her loss of her arms. They were gone and were turned to wires and axes, by themselves. The wires were gray, but they resembled hands in a creepy and eerie type of way.
I looked up to try and get a glimpse of her eyes, which were boring into my soul, I'm sure, and her beak was full of teeth. She was built like a ripped up animatronic on purpose, because everything looked proper. I could see her darker, but still light-toned skin beneath her cropped jacket and her black sports bra with buckle harness on her torso. Her white baggy pants were stained with blood where her spike anklets and socks met her shoes. Again, another well-deserved and thought out design for what she had to wear to cover up certain bits of the body.
She had small batteries for her taser that was in her pocket, and spikes adorned her waist, shoulder pad and choker as well. Her demeanor loomed over my body, making me feel intimidated as she almost dwarfed me even though we were similar in height.
Then, the other Griffin's voice was quiet, but booming enough for the whole team to look in his direction.
"They don't want any bad blood between us. They didn't ask to be created. If they need something, we should consider their request," he said, his tone being timid but his voice being pronounced. He was quite the opposite in personality of Griffin. Yeah, he's a giant, but his voice is not so much, tone wise. The other Charlie looked at him and then back at me, before I heard her growl somewhat underneath her breath, and take two steps back. Every single of the other team members did so from our team eventually, and it gave us room to breathe.
"Fine, you don't want bad blood?" the other Charlie questioned. I nodded silently, and I saw and felt her sigh, even from far away, her movements I can feel from afar, even if I'm not in contact with her. It feels weird. I don't mind it, but it still feels weird.
"My name's Cassidy," she starts. Finally a name. Hallelujah. "The brown bear's name is Finn, the rabbit's name is Banner, the golden bear's name is Gunner, and the fox is Fraser," she finishes. Huh, similar names, I guess. Same first letters, so we'll have to get used to that. They're our doppelgangers, alright.
"Well, it's nice to meet all of you," I said, gesturing to all of them individually as that sentence continued, actually trying to muster the ability to be sincere with my words. "I'm Charlie, and I'm here with the Veterans, Griffin and Seth," I started, gesturing to each of them. Both of them nodded their heads at Gunner, which he did back politely. "Then there's Blake, Flynn, and Felix, the other three," I said, gesturing to each, and each of their doppelgangers gave them a look up and down and seemed to de-tense only a slight bit. Being on guard across this entire world, no matter how strong you are, isn't the most shocking thing.
"Then our final member, Madelyn," I said declaring, and in a special way, Madelyn bowed to them politely, and like a lady is usually trained to do. But that's just part of her personality. All five of their members stared at her in awe, even if they were trying to hide it a slight bit, and I don't blame them. She's a rarity, you don't see a lot of barely-cyborg humans around these parts, and alive and breathing. But here she was, in the flesh, so to speak.
"So, what exactly do you want from us, now that we got introductions out of the way," Cassidy said coldly. Her jarring attitude in comparison to my aspiring one is quite the debacle. I feel like I could get along with her if I really tried, but it'll be difficult to get through. But what's not trying?
"We wanted help with taking down the Con Man and freeing everyone in Sanctuary," I said simply. She started chuckling to herself, and the rest of the group giggled with her. Those giggles changed into full blown cackles, and even though it was quite an amusing sight to hear and see, I didn't understand well. "What's so funny?" I questioned, giggling with them to try and seem cooler. But I just felt like I was stupid for asking. The cackling died down eventually, with Cassidy still trying to contain her laughter.
"It's just, you're gonna get killed," Cassidy choked out, and started hysterically laughing. She kept laughing until she came to a stop and caught her breath again. Goodness, how much air and stamina does this girl have when it comes to laughing from the diaphragm? "I'm sorry, it's just we tried that about ten centuries ago, and nothing happened. We were plotting it and telling the whole village, and of course we told one group of wrong people and it got to the Con Man, and came to bite us in the ass, which is where you all came from," she finished. I could tell she was smiling but was unhappy with the circumstances. I don't blame her, I would be thinking the exact same thing if that happened to me.
"I'm sorry about that, do you wanna talk about what happened?" I offered. She silently shook her head, but then Banner held her shoulder gently from behind her. She turned to face him, and after a long pause, sighed and started her story after turning toward me to speak.