Versus Vengence Part 2

Chapter 1

Panting heavy breaths and dripping sweat that the fighting and stress had caused. Two bodies repeatedly slammed against the concrete floor and walls. One is on the side of good, the other is unknown, but they form into a single being when combined. The hero's confidence was dwindling and he did not see himself winning this battle. He dodged upcoming attacks and retaliated strong. His counterpart grew frustrated and tried to find a way to pin down the pilot. Unfortunately for him, he was swung into the wall, resulting in a painful hit and fall. He groaned while his eyes met his good double.

"Well if I know one thing, I'm not weak...damn!" The alternate said, although instantly regretted it at the feel of the slam.

"Yeah, you feel like that when you're not on the other side of things." Ryan replied as he panted in his place.

"Damn straight," The clone agreed. He slowly stood up and wiped off his knees. The actual pilot sighed and waited for him to stand. He rubbed his forehead afterwards while his double continued to speak, "ahh, so, what's it gonna be?"

Ryan rolled his eyes, however, it was not because of what was asked. What had been decided next was the cause of his response. He opened his mouth to inform, "sector forty nine is not a room to just break into. The guardians blocked that off for a reason, not that I know why."

His duplicate walked closer to him slowly and answered, "there's no way in hell Mackenzie will let us in, not with me running around, she won't risk it," he stopped once they were closer, "niether will the other girls."

"So we don't go to them." Ryan said.

"We're not guardians." The double had noted.

"But we know how to get into the guardian world. Once we get there, we improvise, no one said a plan was detailed step by step. The best ideas are always changing." Ryan had also made a very good point.

The dimensional technopath allowed a smirk to creep onto his mischievous face. He crossed his arms and said, "I knew you'd come around," Ryan pressed his lips together, still not completely proud of himself, "literally I knew, we can share thoughts since we're the same person. I just get them slower."

He patted the real pilot's shoulder while walking past him. Ryan watched him head out first before he pulled out his Mech link. He looked down at it and gave it a tight squeeze as his heart felt guilt and regret seeping in for all of the right reasons. Passionate greed and dangerous interest clouded his actions. The young hero believed in putting others first, and yet here he was again, doing the exact opposite of that despite his intentions. Except, no guilt or regret was placed in that area. With one last huff, Ryan began to follow his clone to the guardian world that would set off the chance of facing the people he loved the most.

****

Her thoughts were peddling fast and her anger failed to be seized. The body refrained from moving and her eyes stared at the empty wall. She was still, she was quiet, but peacefulness was denied at every entry. The door slid open and closed behind the visitor. Said visitor chose not speak, as she felt it was best to do so when it was okay to. Instead her feet traveled towards her friend and helped her sit down. Her presence was known and was not pushed. The rightfully enraged female looked at her best friend, who did not meet her gaze. Her eyes remained glued to the ground and Veracity turned her head to where it was previously. The silence, although pleasant for the moments it was needed, became hard to maintain with their current situation. Eventually words had to be spoken, and both of the girls knew that.

"I can't tell you not to be mad," Mackenzie went first as she looked at Veracity, "I would be. Whether he was the one to kill her or not, he did nothing to stop it and unless she returns miraculously alive, he has no one to say that he wasn't involved."

"It's not just about my mother," Veracity replied, her voice growing louder as she faced Mackenzie, "everything he's done, the lying, hurting, flip flopping sides, it's frustrating! How hard is it to choose?!"

The guardian shrugged, "it's a thin line between the two and, sometimes people can't see when they've stepped over it."

"He needs to decide, otherwise he is going to get himself killed and drag everyone else down with him." Veracity told her.

"There are consequences for choosing," Mackenzie responded that puzzled her teammate, who made a face that asked her to explain. The female technopath did just that, "Harper was bad, then turned helpful by being an inside man for when you guys faced Tregear and promised to be worth it. Grey captured him and forced him to work for them or they would murder all of us. I can see that struggle in him-"

"It could be a lie, I'm not buying anything that comes out of his mouth-"

"You can't give yourself those types of bruises V. It takes a lot more than a crow bar to do that kind of damage. I don't trust him either but, he sounded sincere-"

"Sounded is different than actually being-"

"You have every right to be mad," Mackenzie stopped her, "but we have a job to do right now. We will deal with him, I promise you. Let's just be glad he's not an obstacle in our way and that he's trying to help."

Veracity's eyes followed Mack's as she stood up and held her hand out. She was not wrong, Veracity was aware, and everyone would pay the price if they did not have their head in the right mindset to achieve victory. Sighing, although agreeing, the genius locked hands with her friend's. The two stared at one another for some time before heading in to rejoin the others, who were preparing their weapons for a battle.

"Keep Mech X4 outside, we'll let you know if we'll need it." Casey instructed.

"There is a good chance we will so, at least three of us should stay back." Harris suggested.

"Look I'm the action guy if you hadn't noticed. I'm not sitting on my ass watching the rest of you beat the shit out of 'evil Ryan'." Spyder spoke up.

"First of all, he is a clone from one of the dimensions that are based off of supressed emotions and can only be seen on the technopathic plane, not an evil duplicate. Simple," Casey corrected him. Spyder mockingly put his hands up in surrender as she continued, "and second, don't think this will be easy. We don't know if we're just facing him or if he corrupted Ryan."

"Corrupted?" Mark inquired.

"Temptations, we all have them, and if Ryan was ever passionate about something like this than there is a chance he gave in. We won't kill him but, there's no saying that he won't be on the other side of this fight." Alyssa retorted and handed Harris his Mech link.

Mark unintentionally shared a look with Seth. The two did not have to read each other's minds to figure out what they were thinking. Harper closed his eyes and sighed to collect himself and walk over to the kids to ask, "are we ready?"

"Yeah, let's go." Mackenzie riposted, everyone now realizing that the other two girls were in the room.

The team rushed out of the room and went to the X-deck in preparation to leave. The billionaire was on Veracity's heels. He gripped her arm and pulled her back to say, "look, I need to tell you something. It's not what you think-"

"Now's not the time to talk about this," Veracity quickly shut him up and yanked her arm away, "I don't want to hear what you have to say anyway."

"Veracity..." Seth called after her when she turned to leave, but she never came back, causing a sigh from him to be let out before he caught up with the others.