Fawcett City, 3:29 PM.

October 13th, 2010.

They both left the coffee shop separately, splitting off and getting into costume while out of sight, before meeting two buildings over, on the rooftop; Enkidu was already there when he touched down, and he nodded in greeting.

“Alright, one minute to mission start,” Enkidu demanded, “Tell me the plan.”

“You think I forgot it in five minutes?” Aiden said, annoyed, before noticing her smirk. “Fuck off.”

Enkidu laughed before moving to the edge of the roof, and Aiden lifted off the ground in preparation, already searching the target building for Ki-signatures.

He hadn’t really been paying attention to it before, but now that he was actively focusing on it, he noticed that something had changed in Sarah’s own signature; it was honestly barely noticeable. It hadn’t grown at all, but it felt just the tiniest bit different somehow. He couldn’t really put a word to the feeling, broader or deeper, maybe?

More vibrant?

He didn’t have any more time to waste on the feeling, though, as he found a cluster of signatures inside the seventh floor of the building attached to the underground car park, none of which were any bigger than anyone else he had ever seen before.

Enkidu moved suddenly, sprinting over towards the ledge and crossing the street to the next roof in an instant. Aiden caught up to her a second later, wondering if she had always been this fast; she was seemingly moving even faster than when they had fought. He’d grown much more during that time as well, though, and he had no issue with matching her pace.

They reached the roof of the building, and Aiden dropped down behind one of the men in black suits. He slipped his arm under the guy’s neck and cranked it, apply pressure on the man’s carotid artery; the man choked for a few seconds before he slipped into unconsciousness. The two opposite him had enough time to turn towards the noise before Enkidu was on them, and they were both unconscious on the ground within seconds.

The two of them slipped into the roof access stairway and made their way downstairs, Aiden leading the way straight to the cluster of people that he was pretty certain was Sivana. Someone started moving towards the door before he had even kicked it open.

Aiden, despite knowing they were directly in front of him, barely saw the punch that hit him in the chest and sent him flying backward and through the wall of the building. He was in the open air for a moment before he arrested his momentum with a burst of ki and threw himself straight back through the hole.

A woman with black hair turned from advancing on Enkidu as he slammed into her and lifted her off the ground. He smashed her into the room with the group of people, saw a brief flash of black suits and a short, balding man before he drove her straight out the other side of the building—leaving Enkidu to handle the situation inside.

He made it about two blocks away before the woman regained her bearings and broke out of his grip with a strength that he now knew surpassed his own by far. Aiden swung at the woman and landed the hit, to his surprise, and she was sent flipping backward before she suddenly crashed into him again.

Aiden’s crossed guard failed to stop the charge, and his forearms smashed into his face, sending it rocking backward. The woman hit him before he had recovered, and it felt like taking an angry punch from Conner but worse.

“Fuck!” Aiden swore, holding his now crooked nose and snapping it back into place. “Who the hell are you?”

When Enkidu said ‘heavy hitter,’ he thought she meant that she was just a little bit out of her league—whoever this chick was, she was much, much stronger than him.

“You’re the one attacking us, and you don’t even know who we are?” The woman scoffed. “Suppose it doesn’t matter; you won’t be around for much longer, and then I’ll deal with that other one—never had to kill someone twice before.”

Everything about what she just said pissed him off, and he didn’t have a clue about what she meant by “killing someone twice,” worst of all, his face fucking hurt. Strangely enough, though, once he had a moment to actually take in her appearance, he felt like he had seen her before.

“My name is Bubbles, and I’m going to kick your ass now,” Aiden said clearly, wiping the blood away from his mouth. “This is where you introduce yourself.”

The tall woman smirked at him as she floated in the air, completely unaided.

“Call me Divine,” Divine smirked, cracking her neck.

He’d never heard the name before, and her ‘costume’ if he could even consider it one wasn’t familiar either—simply a black bikini, pants, and combat boots. Divine suddenly turned back towards the building angrily, and Aiden was forced to move before she could interfere with whatever was happening inside.

Aiden exploded towards her at his top speed, and heel dropped her as hard as he could; Divine vanished from in front of him before the asphalt below shattered as she hit it, scattering chunks of the road in every direction and setting off a car alarm in the process.

“What a shame!” Aiden taunted, calling out to make sure she heard. “You might have gotten back in the building if it wasn’t for that Divine intervention-”

Aiden tore his head back as twin lines of red flashed through space he was just in, and he had to jaunt backward as Divine cut through the air where he was standing, looking angry.

“Wait! Time the fuck out!” Aiden demanded, painfully blocking the next punch and being sent rocketing backward for his efforts. “Were those eye beams? Are you a Kryptonian!?”

Divine didn’t answer as she launched a series of punches that he switched to trying to avoid because blocking her hits sucked. He failed to get out of the way of the next one, and the next thing he knew, he was buried in the road, much like he had done to her a moment before.

Aiden coughed and forced himself to his feet, but his eyesight cut out, and he desperately jacked his ki up to its maximum as he was suddenly dragged face-first through the asphalt, digging a mile-long trench with the back of his head. He kept on powering up and dug his foot into the road while bringing out roshi’s technique to try and match her strength.

His right arm swelled before he struck out at her—the hit landed with an ear-splitting crack before shattering the road around them with the force.

Divine caught the punch with her other hand with seemingly no additional effort, and he stared at her for a long moment.

“That’s all you’ve got?” Divine smirked, still holding him by the face. “Here, I thought this would be fun.”

“I’ll show you fun,” Aiden gritted, raising his free hand and launching a ki blast directly at her face.

Divine was set rocketing backward before it exploded violently in mid-air, sending her through another wall and into the bottom floor of a building. Aiden scrambled to his feet and did a frantic search with his Ki-sense.

Enkidu and another ki-signature were almost at the edge of the city, which meant that he only had to keep Divine occupied for another couple of minutes. Divine stumbled out of the debris, covered in dirt, pants torn—but otherwise completely unharmed.

“How are you not even hurt? That is such bullshit,” Aiden insisted, “You’re a god damned cheater.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Divine demanded, stomping towards him.

“How about no, idiot.” Aiden quipped before flying upwards as fast as he could.

Divine followed him barely a second later, and she was closing in on him fast.

“Kryptonians are bullshit!” Aiden shouted.

If he survived this, he was going to train his ass off, if only so that he could come back and kick her invulnerable ass. Divine seemed intent on not giving him a chance to fulfill his new life-goal because she grabbed him by the leg and dragged him down before punching him in the face.

Aiden’s kick landed against her cheek at the same time, and they were thrown away from each other. He sent a burst of ki behind him and used the propulsion to kick her right in the chest, sending her further backward. He had to wipe the blood out of his eye, as her last hit had opened a cut above his eyebrow.

“Where is that piece of trash taking him?” Divine said darkly, snapping her bikini strap back into place from where it had started to slip. “Why the hell are you even here?”

He couldn’t feel Enkidu anymore as she was out of his range, which meant he was pretty much home free—he just needed to get away now.

“Jail, I would assume,” Aiden said sarcastically, “You know that place they put criminals?”

The comment wasn’t appreciated, apparently, but this time he was expecting it, so he managed to get his ki-shield up before she got him again. Divine’s hit cracked it—which he had never seen before—and he was forced to channel more ki into it to repair it.

“Why are you working for Savana?” Aiden said with a faux calm while furiously trying to figure out how he was going to get away.

Divine struck the shield against, harder than before, and it almost shattered entirely before he managed to fix it again.

“Doctor Sivana. I’m going to break your shitty little bubble,” Divine said darkly, “I’m going to break you, and then I’m going to go find your friend.”

Well, that was terrifying; time for drastic measures.

He’d been working on it since he first figured out how to use his Ki, and it had gotten to the point where he could use it effectively. Aiden had also spent some time experimenting with trying to change the color, but that was still just a work in progress.

He’d actually used it once against Conner as a test because he’d been curious if it would even work on him. Thankfully it had worked and hadn’t made the guy stronger than he already was because that would have made it completely useless right now.

This would be the first time he would be trying it against a full Kryptonian; Aiden placed his hands in front of his face and started gathering ki.

“Yeah?” Aiden said mockingly, Ki rising high. “Well, I’m going to drop my bubble, I’m going to come out there, and then I’m going to-SOLAR FLARE!”

He dropped his bubble and pushed as much ki into the technique as he could, and the world went white as a buzzing sound filled the air. Divine shouted in pain as she was suddenly overwhelmed with the white light.

He held it just long enough for the technique for it to become temporarily self-sustaining and then fled at his maximum speed, eyes clenched tightly shut.

Aiden crossed the city in an instant and left it behind him in under a second. He headed straight towards the only place he knew that she would be reasonably worried about following him into.

He’d never flown as fast as he was right now, and he was burning ki at a completely unsustainable rate even as everything blurred around him, his eyes no longer able to keep up. He wasn’t exactly being stealthy either, as he had traded that completely for speed—his aura was a bright spark in the sky and a beacon for her to follow, and he could already feel her catching up.

He pushed everything he had into moving faster, even as she steadily closed in on him, and the world around him lost all detail; a grey smudge appeared in the distance, and he felt ki-signatures burst into existence far in front of him—Divine suddenly broke off the chase and retreated.

Aiden came to a stop directly above Metropolis, gasping for breath but triumphant. Nothing but a speck of Ki remained, and he felt his ki-sense vanish, as it had nothing left to fuel it.

He dropped down to the building directly below him and collapsed.

“I win,” Aiden managed weakly.

“Are you alright?” Divine’s voice said curiously, floating in the air behind him. “Why do you look like your about to pass out?”

Aiden threw himself into a roll across the roof and spun to face her in alarm, unable to believe she had followed him into the city—oh. Unless Divine had used the last ten seconds to dye her hair blonde and change her costume entirely to white, this wasn’t her. If not for the hair color, though, they might as well have been twins. It was the first time he had ever seen what she looked like, but like when he had first spotted Divine, there was a sense of familiarity.

“I’ve been better,” Aiden said warily; this was the girl from Conner’s team that he had seen on the news. “You’re Power Girl, right?”

“Got it in one, Bubbles.” Power Girl said, smirked, “I know who you are as well; Robin and Superboy have both mentioned you before.”

That smirk was bringing back memories of getting his ass kicked not five minutes ago.

“Do you have a sister?” Aiden said suddenly, he had no fucking idea what was going on at this point. “With black hair?”

“Uh,” Power Girl said, surprised, “No? Why?”

“I just got my ass kicked by a woman who looked exactly like you, except with black hair—she said her name was Divine.” Aiden said easily, “She was also a Kryptonian—at least I think so—she was throwing around eye beams and shit.”

“What?” Power Girl said weakly. “That’s not…she looked like me—what?”

Aiden flopped back on his back and groaned.

“Close enough to be identical twins,” Aiden muttered, staring up at the sky. “I think I need to talk to Superman.”

Wayne Tech, Metropolis, 4:49 PM.

October 13th, 2010.

Of course, Batman had an office building right smack bang in the middle of Superman’s City.

Aiden followed the blonde hero down the staircase and into an elevator that only opened after she placed her hand on an inconspicuous panel.

“Is this a spy movie now?” Aiden said tiredly, stepping inside.

“You don’t seem like you would make a very good spy.” Power Girl smirked.

Aiden wondered if he should be offended at that; he’d be a great spy. The elevator moved surprisingly quickly, and if not for his ki-sense that was once again being fueled by the slowly regenerating ki—he wouldn’t have known whether they were going up or down. They dropped below the ground floor, and when the door opened, they were in a room with some couches, a table, a countertop, and a door.

“He’s on his way now; it won’t be long.” Power Girl said easily, taking one of the couches for herself and kicking one leg over the other. “Tell me more about this twin of mine.”

Aiden dropped down onto one of the chairs several meters away from here, just in case.

“She was working for a guy called Doctor Sivana,” Aiden said, frowning. “Don’t know what her job actually was, though.”

The elevator dinged before opening, and he watched as Superman stepped into the room, in full costume; the guy was big.

“Clark Kent, nice to see meet you at last,” Aiden said easily.

Power Girl jumped at the name, and Aiden gave her a curious glance before turning back in time to catch Clark’s eyes flashing.

“Aiden Neve,” Clark said evenly. “It’s nice to meet you as well.”

Wow, the guy just face checked him, and somehow Aiden hadn’t even thought that was a possibility. Rude.

“Woah! He knows your name?” Power Girl said, shocked. “Aiden Neve? That’s the guy that came in the space ship a while back!”

“He seems to know everyone’s name,” Clark said, smiling. “What’s the situation?”

“Oh! He found another Kryptonian!” Power Girl said quickly, staring at the larger man.“Aiden said she looks identical to me, except with black hair—”

Clark’s eyes went wide, and he turned to look at him, surprise clear on his face. Aiden frowned at her use of his name but didn’t mention it; there were more important things such as the connection he had just made to where he had seen her face before.

Why the hell did Emil have one of these Power Girl knock off’s working as his assistant?

“No,” Aiden interjected, cutting her off. “There’s actually two of them, one is blonde, and the other has black hair.”

“Two?!” Power Girl said, astonished.

“You haven’t seen Karen at her job by accident?” Clark suggested, trying to make sense of the information.

“Hey!” Karen yelped before looking at the complete lack of surprise on Aiden’s face. “Oh, you knew my name already.”

He didn’t, but he nodded anyway, no point in throwing Clark under the bus—it would do more damage to the bus anyway.

“No, the other blonde is called Tea,” Aiden said, frowning. “The black-haired one is called Divine.”

Clones. Fucking clones of clones.

There was actually another one of these aliens running around that he had forgotten, or it might have already been dealt with, but either way, he needed to tell Clark—Shit, he needed to talk to Conner.

“Hold that thought,” Aiden said seriously, pulling his phone out and dialing a number.

“Who are you calling?” Karen said, alarmed, stepping towards him.

Clark placed his hand on her shoulder gently, stopping her from grabbing him.

“Conner? You need to come and meet me at the Wayne Tech building in Metropolis,” Aiden said evenly. “You weren’t the only clone—there’s another one—called Project Match.”