[Cortex] Into the Crimson Code [EN] | ходы игроков | His Dark Alleys

  Hydra had a lazy day. His efforts decreased the crime rate in the vicinity to the oblivion, so he had a lot of free time, unless somebody would break out from the prison, but it seemed unlikely, as they implemented a new defense system and all that. So Jesse had only drunkards to take care of, which was boring and potentially dirty. Only more reason to go into poor districts, like port area, or in the very middle of the city, where pick pocketers were active 24/7, even under the noses of the heroes. In the end he finally was coming home. Even with all of his efforts, today was just one of those days, when everything is calm. He jumped down from the roof and didn’t feel any hit as he continued his fall...



  His vision clouded for a moment, but soon restored for him to see the space, or at least how it would be portrayed in a planetarium. Around him everywhere were bright spherical lamps, and every single one of them moved. But the fall of Hydra was quite short. He couldn’t stop, or try to catch a sphere as they were further. Only one was directly underneath him and it definitely was getting closer and close. It continued for a couple of seconds until Dr. Hydra was spitted somewhere in the air and fell on the dumpster with a loud boom, which woke up a couple of homeless people, who made this dark alley their shelter.

  Wherever he was, he was still in Britain, as under him was lying a new edition of The Sun tabloid, dated 9th of November. The headline was short:

  “London mourns Viper, the greatest vigilante”

  Jesse never heard of that person, so his greatness was either an exaggeration, or something else… The homeless started to talk with each other but it wasn’t anything informative, just rumblings of old people, whose night sleep was interrupted. They climbed back under they cardboards and just tried to not pay attention to the guy, who fell from sky. That was their defensive mechanism. But even after that Jesse felt that he was watched. As he started to look around he noticed on the roof a small head on the long neck was looking at him. It was like a snake or an eel, and when noticed, it started to smile. For a second it was quite possible to think that it was some sort of a beast, but it was sentient, as it rapidly reacted and said:

  “Hello there…”

  Then it moved and jumped down. He still looked like a disgusting slimy snake-man, as he landed at the entrance of the alley and started slowly looking at the Hydra. Particularly at his tailor-made costume of the highest quality. Even in the darkness of the alleyway it was quite obvious. He smiled and then started to talk, slow and loud, his speech was like he was reading the text from the plot. Still it was completely butchered by his hiss, making his genuine attempts laughable at best.

  “Haven’t ssseen you around. You are not one of the escapists, aren’t you? But you have a nice sssuit, ssso I doubt it. Anywaysss, friend, can you help little old Eel get sssomething to eat?”

  He continued to smile, waiting for his so-called friend’s answer…

Jesse had few quiet days like this without having to chase supercriminals, hunt doomsday cars, paperwork, or doctor appointments. Usually the idyll was interrupted by a sudden call.
Some other “he” suddenly called and said "We have a job!". Or something exploded with fireworks under his window. Or an invitation to a family reunion came... that's why when Jesse lay down to rest on the sofa for a bit, he didn't even take off his suit with a helmet.

He lay and stared at the ceiling, waiting. And if nothing happened for half an hour from the moment he lay down, then he went to change into home clothes. Not that Jesse could refuse!
People have always needed him and clones were not always enough for everyone and everywhere where needed. So when he began to fall somewhere, Hydra was not even surprised. Instead, he cowered, preparing to fall.
Falling through the void was a new experience for him. "I don't know who's doing this," he shouted into the void with all his might as dozens of spheres swept by, "But the special effects are good! Didn't think to work in Hollywood-oo-oo-oo!". Even before Hydra could finish speaking, he landed in a smelly dumpster.

“Oh, for fuck's sake!”, Hydra hissed as he tumbled out of the tank and brushed the magazine off his head.

"If you didn't like the joke you could just say so!" he shouted into the void, addressing the teleporter.

"It's okay, Doc," brushed himself off as he got up off the ground and looked around, "Are we cool?". The man quickly straightened his tie and checked the charge on his helmet.

"Yeah, cooler then snowman", he answered himself out of habit.
Self-talk was for dr. Hydra is something natural. Perhaps the frequent transfer of memory affected.

Picking up a magazine with a headline on the first page from the ground, he assessed the appearance of the deceased. “Jesus!” Hydra involuntarily burst out in surprise, “Man, I don’t know how much I should grieve for you, but if the Chelsea match against Tottenham was moved to the second page for you, then you are either the Queen or Jesus! ..”

For a couple of seconds he looked at the title. Curiosity got the better of Jesse and he turned the page, "How did the match end, by the way?” “

“Come on, Chelsea, daddy put a couple hundred on you, don't let me down! ..", muttered at the moment when he heard a voice coming from somewhere above.

“Hello there…”, heard from above.

"General Kenobi," replied Hydra almost instinctively as he pirouetted.

Down from the roof into the filthy and tattered alley descended one of the most disgusting creatures that Doc had ever seen in his practice. He looked like the illegitimate child of Carl's third form of transformation and plastic snot heavily sprinkled with crack. "A huge amount of crack. A mountain of crack, really!" he thought, looking at the creature's teeth and smelling its fetid breath. But Jesse didn't like jumping to conclusions. Don't judge a mutant by his appearance. "Where are my manners?!" thought to himself. Adjusted the gloves.


"Really? You've never seen me?" It was clear from Hydra's voice that he was upset.

"Then let's get to know each other!", stepped forward with his hands on his hips, "I'm your friendly neighbor, Dr. Hydra! And you?.."

He looked uncertainly at the big man. He didn't introduce himself, but kept talking and talking. Hydra didn't particularly like referring to himself in the third person (as all villains do before attacking you in a dirty alleyway), but he still decided not to be led by dirty prejudices. The name was a good start of acquaintance.

And with him, Jesse decided to start!

"So you're an Eel, right?" nodded, "Cool cool. So... what do you usually eat? I have half a Fat Pitt* that I took with me from Fresco**. But if you want something fresh or you're a vegan we can go somewhere"

"But don't think it's a date," he said in an embarrassed tone, "You're cute, but not my type." The cybernetchi eye on the Hydra's helmet winked at Eel.

The Eel-man was still looking down on Jesse, allowing him to move freely under his unblinking gaze. He carefully listened to Hydra. In truth, he still was thinking what that "General Kenobi" meant, because he started to doubt his acquaintance's ability to speak English. He thought it was some sort of a greeting from unknown language. He then slowly nodded his head, as Jesse introduced himself. Those mannerisms were quite important for the villain...

  "Oh, I neely got the wrong idea. Sssory. Never seen you, even so you seem fameeliar. But you sure can talk. I like you... friendly neighbor Dr.Hydra... It does roll from the tongue, my dear friend. I appreciate you heelp."

  He slowly moved a little bit backwards.

  "The problem is my taste is quite... eelxquisite, I must sssay. As such my hunger can't be sssatisfied by anything I have around. Ssso pleelse... Give me your clothesss and a wallet... I'll be sssure to make a good use of them."

  Somewhere not far away a police siren was heard. That sound was unnerving for the eel, as he followed its source with small movement of the head and kept silent throughout. Meanwhile slowly crawling his tail around Hydra. He also moved closer and closer... His breath was really bad at this distance, that was for sure.

“Here we go… Again”, Hydra took a deep breath.

"Listen, Eelly, mate", Hydra tried to start the conversation as friendly as possible, “You and I both know that you're a metahuman, maybe even a villain. And me too. Normal people don't walk around with a chum bucket on their head and a Versace suit". He hit the helmet a couple of times with his knuckles.

"You're a tough guy, you obviously don't miss neck day and snake day at the gym," he waved his hands in the air, "but are you sure you want to turn it into a fight?"

"Come on, man," shook his head, "you twitch like an autumn leaf every time you hear the sirens"

Hydra thumped his heels together twice. He was surrounded by a hexagonal sphere that shimmered faintly in the dark, blocking the Eel's tail. The man continued:

"Even if you fail me, it won't be easy: ama tinker, and you know that fights with my kind are always dirty and long"

"And the longer your fight goes on, the higher the chance of the cops coming to the place. Or worse"

Hydra adjusted his suit. He pressed a button on his helmet, turning on the manual deep scan mode to see who he was dealing with. In parallel, he continued:

"So... instead of bleeding each other, I suggest that you decide things like civilized people!", waved his hand at the Eel, urging him to calm down.

"Old-fashioned team-up!" Jesse sounded a little too excited.

"You don't know me, but I'm very famous in metabiology circles and doing research on superpower transfer, oncology and cloning technology", began to explain calmly who he is and what Doc does, "I don't know what your tastes are, but if you eat something of biological origin - then I can recreate it ... all you need is electricity ... or try to assemble a replicator of the right material”

"Well?", nodded to him in anticipation, "What do you say?"

  "That... is also reasonable," monster dropped an act for real this time, no adding anything annoying to his speech. "Teaming up is good. You sure I don't know you? You're talking like you are in a business for a long time..."

  But he still got the wrong idea, thinking that the person before him was also a villain. His mind was now occupied by the prospects of wreaking havoc together with somebody who actually looks like a big deal. At least by the way he talked with long monologues and the way he presented himself. It wasn't as unusual in the villains circles. And he got some fire puns... And he was found in a dark alley. Whoever that guy before him was, he looked and sounded reliable for the good-old-school-oppressed-villain. Eel smiled.

  "Sssure. I can give eelectricity," things were back to the square one, as Eel relaxed and took up his habit once again. "Don't think it would be enough and I will soon be out of my powers, so... Maybe it would be more sufficient for us to raid the power plant?"

Eel moved returned his tail and slowly creeped to the exit from the alley. He then turned his back to the Hydra. Probably, completely believing in their cause now. He even started to dream bigger...

"I met one cloner once. He was a clown. ClownCrowd. Great guy. Sadly he was caught in the middle of the outbreak. But many of ours are free now. That damn Viper died, so that's a beginning of a new era. We will take back this city..."

                  

Getting in touch with his own base was a Priority #1 for Hydra. As he soon learned, it wasn't the same here. His password was wrong, as was his second password, and the backdoor he left wasn't found here. So he had no other choice but to call directly.

The woman with genki voice answered after five seconds of dialing the call.

"Hello? You've called the Jubilee Electrics. Sorry, but we are currently not accepting orders and... wait a minute. Can you stay on the line for fifteen-fourteen seconds?"

"Jubilee" was definitely a right call, as his base and his base in this world were under the Jubilee Park & Garden. In the middle of the city, right beside the London Eye. Hydra could hear buttons pressing, as the phone was quite loudly dropped on the table. He also heard "No way" twice and a happy "Knew it" in the end. It all took around twenty seconds...

"So, yeah forget what I told you. I know your deal now... Or at least I think, I know your deal. you are not from here, are you?"

She patiently waited for an answer... And then decided, that she doesn't need it:

"Anyway, if you know the phone number, you know the place. I'll find others. There is something important about your... situation."

"I'm shocked too," Hydra threw up his hands as he adjusted his helmet, "I thought everyone in London had heard of me. It kinda hurts my feelings, you know, that you don't recognize me!"

Of course Jesse spoke ironically. He was pleased every time the villain did not know about him. And this, with its ubiquitous distribution of clones, did not happen often. "It's that posh boy!", criminals often shouted at the sight of him. Despite the fact that the Hydra is not even from Manchester! "Focking footy-bravs", the guy grumbled softly even from the memory of street hooligans. Hydra digressed:

"Wait," he said to the Eel, "ClownCrowd? You mean… Smith Body, right?"

"I know this guy," Jessie felt uneasy and turned to face the big man.

“Are you saying that there was an escape from the isolation center recently? When?..”, the guy began to quickly check the messages from the base.

But none of the clones sent him signals about the escape of prisoners. Moreover: not a single signal of its copies was registered by the network.

"Who is this Viper, by the way?", Jesse asked not so confidently, picking up the same store from the ground, "Some... new superhero?..".

A sudden thought shot through Jesse's brain. He tried to connect to the base's network. But none of the passwords matched. There was not even a loophole left by him earlier.
The man grabbed his head and whispered softly "fuck", then looked up at the Eel. Jesse once again remembered the teleportation process that had happened to him. And only now it dawned on him why he did not recognize the Eel, too, although he looks like a frequenter of the dark streets. This is... not his London, is it? Just in case, Jesse connected to the satellite network to check everything for sure.

The only living dot with DNA similar to it was highlighted on the radar. She was in the cemetery. Jesse took a deep breath. At that moment, he became uncomfortable. He glanced at the paper again, thinking about how the villains would react if he died.

"I got it," he nodded to himself, "I got it all, don't worry"

Hydra turned to the newspaper, now understanding much more clearly what had happened. To whom would he turn for help if he knew that he would die? .. To himself, of course!
All his copies should have thought the same way! Even if this copy is not a clone, but a similar person from another universe.

"You're a mad man, Eel, but we won't have to raid the power plant. I have my own ways for such cases."

"Give me a couple of seconds. We need to make a couple of calls and we can go," Eel Hydra asked and began to call.

After a few beeps, he finally got through to his base. The wait seemed endless. And an unfamiliar female voice that picked up the phone made the Hydra tense. It wasn't Anna. Apparently his local version had other allies. This was fully explained by the idea of the difference of even very similar parallel universes.

"Let me guess, I'm not the first alternate that calls you or that you hear about?" he asked the girl cheerfully.

"Yes, yes, of course not the first," he shook his head, continuing to say, "If it's not a secret, is there at least one hot girl among my versions?"

"My name is Jesse," he introduced himself after a running joke, "But in my world, my name is Dr. Hydra. Nice to meet you!"

In parallel, he began to move his hands through the air, typing something in the virtual keyboard. Jesse was looking for a way to connect via satellite to his other copy in the graveyard. Surely there must have been a way to connect to it! Phone, bluetooth, multifunctional helmet... at least something!

  "Don't worry, friend. They WILL recognize us. Right now even a bunch of homeless isn't scared..." He sadly looked back into the dark alley they left from. The homeless people there were casually sleeping even after Eel appeared on the scene. They didn't even flinch a brow!

  "Oh, you know Smitty? He is an incredible guy, you know that? Even his creepy exterior is not a problem after you know him for long. It was him to offer us in jail a helping hand... His jokes are funny even after you heard them thousand times. Maybe it's something about him, because when I tell them nobody is even disgusted. they just ignore me. It's the worst."

  Eel completely dropped his act with everpresent "Eelsss" and was talking like a normal... human. Well, a normal human whose lungs are full of water and whose throat is destroyed by constant smoking.

  "We tried to escape, yes. A couple of days ago a bunch of serious business men in black smokings came and took some of us from special division. And they told us that Viper is dead. So Smitty and other guys came up with a plan to escape. Sadly he didn't make it. Only fifteen of us are free now. But as I heard it isn't for long. We didn't think that Viper funeral would be today and a bunch of heroes would appear out of nowhere. We've got a lot of work to do, Hydra."

  "New? Did you live in Liverpool, my friend? Viper was, forgive my French, a pain in the ass for years. Robbing banks? Viper is here. Trying to steal from people on the street. Viper. Armed assault on the mayor? Would you believe, Viper! Guy was strong and was everywhere. Still crazy that he is dead, but I'll gladly take it. I actually never was caught by him, but that's what people in the Tower-II talk. Like Smitty or Division. Fafnir actually almost won, but said that he was betrayed. So everybody who is free has something against him."

  His description wasn't very informative, but it was definitely impressive that he was able to say so little with so many words. But at least he wasn't into monologues when he was told that power plant raid won't happen. He was much more concerned about his friends maniacal way of randomly telling that he's got something. What could he even get from that story?

                  

  Hydra was acting very fast, as he tried to create a connection to the clone or copy or alter. He still wasn't sure, but his DNA was clearly detectable. So, he reached there with the help of modern means of communication. Of course that guy had a phone! Something about its signal was off though. Still it was connected to network, so Jesse called. It was answered after a long pause:

  " ̸̪͈̾̂W̴̢̥̌̋V̶͚̟̐̆͝h̶̥͔͂s̷͍͇͛͠j̴͕̊͠ ̶̪̹̘̔͋c̸̝̘̕͠x̴̲̊͐̀" there was a lot of static. Like A LOT. Nothing of value was possible to detect. "Ẉ̵̈́̔ẖ̴͈̋ö̸́͜'̸̼̀ͅs̷̝̞̃ ̶͕͎́̂t̸̡̎̍h̴̝̕a̶̖̒t̶̯̓͐?̸̦̔ İ̷̩̊ ̵̡͈̌ǎ̷͇͜m̴͕̉͜ ̶̣͎̈n̷̺̄͒o̵̢͊͘t̵̻̍ͅ ̵̱̈́g̴̢͛̉o̶̺̒͜i̵͉̅̇n̵͚̾͒g̴̼͂̀ ̸̪̑͝a̸̳̹̚͘d̶͈̘̓̏c̸̻̄̕j̷͎̟̆h̴̛͍ḍ̵̛k̷̠͔̽j̷͔͂͝c̴̜̒H̵̨̏j̷̬̝̀k̶͖̼̾̀b̶̦̑z̴̗̋h̴̺͠c̴̰̘͆ĥ̴̯͓v̷̧̋̐z̵̗̻̅͝ ̸"

  And then the call ended. Another attempt was met with silence and woman saying "User temporary not available". Probably he turned off the phone. Hydra still received some knowledge about him... he wasn't a clone but they had almost identical DNA... only difference was in chirality.

                  

  Girl on the other side began to answer. She gradually accelerated her speech throughout, like she was on timer:

  "Actually, you are the first. But thanks to you, now I have some data that will help detect others. It's surprisingly easy. Even if not very good for you... I'll explain when we meet... Sadly I can't detect who is hot, but there at least three signals apart from you, so you can be optimistic... At least about something."

  When Jesse introduced himself she stopped for a little bit and then reacted:

  "Hydra it is. Nice to hear ya. I'll try to connect with others now. Fuck, the second is in Anfield. That's a taxi at least... Hope she's got money on her."

  And she ended the call.

"Yes, they will recognize us ... even faster than we would like"

Hydra seriously thought about how to transport his new friend to their base. More precisely, to the Viper base. It is worth getting used to the fact that in this world everything that belongs to him is now worn by him.

Jesse turned to Eel and sighed:

"Yes, Smith is a funny guy," every clown's joke was really funny. Literally any joke: he had psychic powers that made people laugh.

"I'm not surprised he wasn't allowed to escape - the guards always focus their fire on the prisoners who can cause the most economic damage"

"Well, you know," he nodded to the Eel, "you certainly are villains ... and everyone seems to be dangerous ... but someone in the eyes of parliament is more dangerous, because the loss of money for repairs is much worse than the death of civilians"

"You're even lucky in that sense!", Hydra pats the Eel on the shoulder... or rather on the back, turning to the villain and encouraging him, "You have the perfect set of powers"

"You're a brute, your abilities are simple and clear, and therefore it's easy to intimidate and operate with them ... you just lack the presentation"

"You know, buddy" as Hydra tried to contact his counterpart, he kept saying, "The idea of making snake sounds, that's HSSS is not bad! BUT!..", he turned to the villain and nodded at him, "You will be good at intimidating ordinary civilians with this. If you want to be feared and respected by other villains, you need a slightly different approach"

"You're strong, but you're not enough, you know..."

Jesse spent a few minutes plotting a route for them and then started working on a helmet to go through the filing cabinet of inventions he'd seen earlier. He needed something to help them hide. In the meantime, he can talk to Eel.

"Approach," Hydra picked up the right term.

"Villains like Column are certainly fighters, tough as nails," he continued, "But even Column has something other than strength. And I'm not talking about a couple of million pounds and a personal pool with sharks"

"You want to be heard, right? You want not to be ignored. And your opinions are taken into account... these things are very difficult to achieve if you're just some guy's hookman, agree?"

"Have you thought about changing your role from shock villain to controller?", he asked him, "Like... don't go to the front of the attack, but let your people do the dirty work? Engage in battle only when you want to fight or consider it necessary?"

"You can turn into a human, by the way?" Hydra asked.

"My base is at Jubilee Park & Gardens, and if you can't change uniforms, I suggest throwing camouflage on you and me and sneak past any observers very quickly and very discreetly. At my base, we can already work on your image and state"

"By the way," Hydra added with a slight tension in his voice at the very end, "Python...Python also escaped? Did you know that?"

  Eel simply listened to observations of his new colleague and nodded, as he remarked about the fact that somebody is stopped. Firstly, it reminded him about his dropped habit, which instantly hit him. He didn't even want to drop it! He just was so enamored by Hydra, that forgot about his feature.

  "I understand the logic. Eelspecially if it benefits me. It's just sad to think that they were able to stop somebody. It lowers my chances. Sssimple and clear."

  That was clearly a lie. He never had any chances to begin with. And he most likely understood it. His best bet was to become an underling to somebody powerful, and he probably was okay with anybody... Even if he met them like five minutes ago and they were actually a hero. Probably. He still didn't know the truth and he was too scared of the unknown future to try and doubt the words of somebody who definitely knew one or two things...

  "I know what you're saying. A crimecity is a huge sea and while we all are sharksss, there also are killer whales... And I am just an eel. Still scary, though."

  He tried to smile to look scary but the rows of uneven teeth looked like they were in pain from that expression. It was really something unnerving and scary about his appearance with a `smiling` face. Maybe he should use it more often? Or better not, because it would raise his effectiveness. And nobody really wants it.

  "You've met Column? I completely undereelstimated you, my friend. This guy is more enigmatic than Wonder himself... Never thought he would be a `brute`. It just feels wrong."

  Well, he was kinda right, because it really did feel wrong. But that was truth. In universe of Jesse-Hydra Column was a real beast in close quarter combat. Maybe it was because of all built-up rage and stress, because he had no particular meta-abilities. Just a real desire to win and some great muscles to support it. Meanwhile the talk moved into a direction of disguise. And Eel clearly was a little bit disappointed when his appearance was brought up.

  "No. Been this way for whole my life. Like four years? I woke up one time. On the ship. They tried to sink me in the sea, but I dropped them instead. Don't know why or how I appeared there, and for all this time never had any hints. Hard to be a monster, can't go to police to even file a report, because I can't get an ID. So I think of good old Eel as an all-natural product."

  He ended that on a positive note, while returning back to his scary `expression`. His story was a strange one for sure. Was he a discarded experiment? A natural-born eel-man? Atlantis refugee? Amnesiac metahuman? It was hard to tell just by analyzing him or his genes. The question about Python he also met with a little bit of disgust. If ClownCrowd was probably his friend, Python clearly didn't leave the best expression on this guy:

  "Python? Yes, he probably did. He was not on board with our plan, but I don't think he would pass an opportunity like that. Haven't seen him though."

                  

  The way to the base was... problematic. They couldn't go too fast, because it would mess up the disguise. They couldn't contact any person, because that would mess up the disguise. And they couldn't even call the base again, as they were met with monotone "This line is busy" for a whole hour. What was that girl doing? So, the road was long and uneventful. Good thing that it was three o'clock, so nobody sane and sober would actually try to interact with random people in the middle of the villain outbreak, known to everybody. Actually the streets were completely empty. Only random cabs were moving on the road, but they never stopped.

  And finally they stood underneath the Eye of London, famous observation wheel at the coast of Thames. Below it lied the Jubilee Park & Garden, built for 25th anniversary of the Queen Elizabeth II. It was renewed dew to 2012 Olympics and now it was actually a public park, so using this place for a secret base was actually a very bad idea. But it somehow worked out. In both universes it wasn't revealed to the world, so doubt was unneccessary...

  But for some reason the enter didn't work! He even found a panel, that was opening it, but his attempts were pointless. It felt like the secret entrance wasn't even there... Eel was paranoid, so he nervously asked:

  "What are we looking for again?"

"Come on, pal," Hydra tried to cheer up the villain by patting his arm, "Don't be so hard on yourself - you can do just fine as is!"

"It's good to have a sound assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, but in the business of villainy, not having a little Itsy bitsy portion of megalomania and unhealthy ambition is also bad, you know?" he said to him softly, as if reminding him that, as it were, the Eel is a villain.

Not that cheering the monster on was a good idea... but on the other hand, he's clearly a metahuman in need. And Hydra will help them regardless of their side. Moreover, the Eel looks like someone who is more confused and rejected by society than a villain in origin and nature.
The scientist spent some more time simply adjusting his force fields to create and maintain the illusion while continuing his conversation with the Eel. He ran various thoughts through his head. How was the Eel born? What relationship binds him and many other prisoners? What are the forces of the local Column? Jesse wanted to know, but didn't know how to ask the right question yet.

And most importantly, he did not yet know how to help Eel.

Dr. Hydra looked at the Eel, who was now talking about the sea and about sharks and killer whales, but as soon as he saw how he was smiling, he slowed down. He snapped his fingers, pointing at the villain.

"NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A MILLION DOLLAR VILLAIN SMIL!"

"Do it more often, mate," Moody Hydra suggested, "It's far more menacing than any hissing and other shenanigans… no, really"

"Column is not a `brute`", Hydra stopped clowning, “He’s THE BRUTE. It feels wrong, no shit, but even without superpowers, he beat the crap out of me when I tried… huh, it does not matter, forget it”

"The Column is not the kind of person who should be at least somewhat equal. In every sense of the word", Hydra answered dryly at the end of the phrase. He straightened his suits and looked out of the gateway:

"Great!", Eel nodded, "There is no one - that's what we need!"

"Now I'll put on an illusion and let's go. Slowly", Hydra clicked its heels.

From the mad scientist, a faintly glowing bubble of green energy spread out in all directions, which froze in the form of a faintly rattling field around the Eel and Hydra. The field changed colors for several seconds. Then, it became transparent, and for an outside observer, the Eel and the Hydra were transformed into two drunkards of not very noticeable appearance. The Hydra brushed off his clothes. He looked into the nearest shop window, at their reflection. He giggled awkwardly:

"Not exactly what I expected," he admitted very quickly, noticing the flaws in the illusion, "But for our needs, this will do."

"Come on, we need to move... the faster we get to my base, the faster I'll create something for you to eat," scientist urged him on.

The group of two moved through the deserted streets while Jesse listened to the Eel's story. Classic. A mutant without memory who has not found his place in society. Crooked path of atrocities. Imaginary "acceptance" of him in the team. General therapy in the Prison... something to be expected at the very beginning.
But the details didn't quite add up. Hydra did not quite understand how and why his friend became like this and who exactly could conduct such an experiment in this world. No, he had one very bad guess. But he hoped he was wrong. "If only it wasn't Karl. Anyone but Karl!", he prayed quietly to himself. Meeting him was the last thing Jesse was looking for.
But the conversation continued. And the more Eel told about himself, the more Jesse realized that this was very similar to ... to his experiments with Carl? But of a different nature. Carl, even before he became Dr. The lizard has performed experiments on humans, but never a complete transformation. Moreover, erasing memory is not his style. He couldn't imagine it in a million years. Rather... erasing memory is Hydra-style.

***

"Fuck," Hydra moved away from the panel.

Thinking about why the passage to the dungeon does not open quickly led Hydra to the idea that there were no clones in this world except for one copy of itself and that Viper's corpse lay in the cemetery ... which means Viper did not use clones! If he did not use clones, then he must have a different combat strategy. This means that he will use other descents to the subway.

"Bad news - this entrance is blocked", Hydra turned to the now nervous Eel and started to calm him down, "Very bad news - there are no other inconspicuous entrances of your size nearby"

"So we have one way", it's time to discuss the plan, "Now we will go to the subway and go down from the nearest station on the way, and from there we will reach the germ doors of the shelter"

“My base is an old underground complex. It was found by my father in his time. There are a lot of tunnels underground and entrances to them... so we need to find one of them of your size!”

  "Subway? You hungry?" Eel thought for a couple of seconds. "Oh, you mean Underground. Okay-okay, pardon me my British snobbery."

  They headed to the entrance of the Waterloo station of London Underground. It was close to the park, basically the nearest building. Entrance was on the other side and currently was closed till 5 am, but it wasn't locked, so Hydra and Eel could just enter the station. The lone guard was soundly sleeping in a chair close to the entrance. Otherwise it was very quiet.

  "Cameras all around. You sure it's the best way?"

  The platform was the same. No people, no sound, no problems.. other than the shielding closing the railways from the passengers. But the doors were actually easy to open. The unlikely pair was able to jump down on the railways. The electricity was disabled in this hour, so they could easily walk through the tunnel and find the needed shaft. Which again was easy. Sadly, Eel was barely able to move through it and needed to squeeze himself. He didn't like it, but that was probably the biggest entrance available... And also walls were slimy now.

  As they finally got through into the base, Hydra couldn't breathe freely. It at least looked familiar. But it still felt off. He didn't see his own devices, everything was even more chaotic and the coffee machine was placed on the coffee table and not on the counter. Madness!

  In the main lobby, there was no cloning machine, but the whole bunch of monitors will all sorts of data, video footage and some pointless stuff like the paused game of Final Fantasy VII Remake. There were 16 of them and before them was placed a wheelchair with a girl sitting in it. Probably the same, who talked on the phone before. She was also talking with someone now...

  "She just did what?.. That's good right?.. Just don't bother with registration, she won't be here long... I understand... That's my responsibility, but she won't be in the world longer than three days and registration takes the whole week... Officer Braum, please... Great, thankies. Can you also drop her here on your car?.. At least tell her about the boba-store and password... I can't call her. Frequencies don't match..."

  She didn't pay attention to her back and Eel already started to smile menacingly...

"Will you have coffee?", the scientist quietly asked the Eel, moving away to the coffee maker.

He walked slowly around the room, approaching the rows of cupboards and searching for his favorite mug in the piles of crockery Hydra never bought. He needed not even a loved one, but any clean one. But... not that they were.
Sighing heavily, Hydra took one of the dirty mugs and went to wash it in the sink. At least its location hasn't changed. Along the way, he sadly surveyed his base. No cloning pots... no analyzer… no portable scanner... not even a centrifuge! How the fuck did Jesse of this world even work here?!
With a drink, Hydra went to the sofa opposite which there was a table (although putting it there was a terrible idea, everyone will put their feet on it), sat down opposite it and took off his jacket, laying it next to him. Then he took off his helmet and placed it at his feet. He waved his hand to Eel and said with a grin:

"Welcome to a not-quite-mine base!", took a sip of coffee, "Make yourself at home. You can stretch your legs… everyone here is legit"

"Hello. I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away, I didn't want to distract you," he said to the girl in the chair, "How's the search for the others going?"

  "Actually water would be fine. I feel dehydrated after slithering all this way. Or tea." Well, he still was British, even if natural cuisine was partially against his kind, he couldn't resist the cultural influence. He causally moved hos whole body past the coach. "What a mess."

  The girl was still oblivious to the fact that she already had guests even when she stopped talking and put the phone back on the table. And then Hydra talked to her:

  "Wow, you scared me. Phew..." if she was able to jump from her chair she would've. "...And of course the first one is just like him but emo. Jeez, how did you enter? I forgot to tell you where... WHAT IS THAT THING DOING HERE?"

  Once again she nearly jumped, now because she noticed the giant Eel-Monster in the back of the room. She was scared and started reaching for the big red button on the desk.

  "Told you they hate me."

  "You literally escaped from the prison! Why are you with him, Jesse?.. Don't tell me you are some kind of an evil version."

  She was hovering her hand above the button, ready to press it, but patiently waiting for an answer...

"If listening to My Chemical Romance is a crime in this world, then send me to jail," the boy replied sarcastically as he removed his helmet, “None of the normal entrances worked, so we entered through the central sub... okay-okay, Underground tunnel”

Hydra stuck out his middle finger and showed it to Eel in response to a malicious eye. "Fuck you" was in ach of his eyes at that very moment. But he didn't say anything out loud. Just grumbled something about snobs and mutants from Manchester.

Jesse shook his head, straightening his long hair. He took a hairband from his pocket and pulled his hair back to the back of his head. Then he pulled out the same wallet with glasses. They were rectangular, in a thin silver frame. Putting them on, he lifts some kind of magazine behind the table in front of him. He handed Eel his tea. “Here, take it,” he said to the mutant, turning his gaze to the girl:

“Here, take it,” he said to the mutant, turning his gaze to the girl.

"In your world, this loogan might be a villain, I don't argue. But in my world... I'm not sure"

"I brought him here to run a DNA test on my database and help. Synthesize some food, you understand," he shrugged.

"But as far as I can see, local Jesse has no cloning chamber. And no synthesizers either. And tablecloths under the coffee machine too", he finished with an unbearable smile as he sipped his coffee.

"So I may need your help," he looked at the Eel and the girl, folding his arms like a house. "If you help me assemble the cloning chamber and the necessary equipment for experiments, I think we can help each other in this difficult situation"

"And no, I'm not a villain," Hydra spread his hands, "I just love monologues, classic costumes, and creating clone armies. By the way, before I was transferred here, I already had two hundred thousand ready, and another million on the way "

It was hard to tell if he was being serious now, but Jesse didn't look anywhere near tense.
He drank coffee and tapped his helmet with his finger.

  "But it really is a mess... thanks," Eel took his tea, raised his pinky and looked at the chairperson with the signature look of smug and superiority. He was going to show her that he is not a mere monster and that Hydra was right to trust in him...

  Girl was still not convinced, but she still didn't press the button, so maybe she was at least doubtful.

  "Well, we never made clones, so it's to be expected. Would have been nice to have a spare version, but alas... The tech was in work but the lead scientist was killed and then the project dissolved. No one knows where to find the blueprints. Same goes for synthesizers... and tablecloths, yes. None of us working here was a scientist, but you can fancy yourself, I'll help with what I can."

  "What do you mean not villain?" Eel was shocked. He felt betrayed, backstebbed and quite possibly bamboozled. "How not villain? But you tick every boxsss... Not that I am against working with good guys for a change, but I don't know if I can trust you, Hydra."

  The poor monster nearly cried. If he had an ability he would have definitely shed some tears. But he then finished his act as easily as he started it and smiled creepily. Gal wasn't impressed. But at least she removed her hand from the big red button.

  "Give me one reason and I myself will put you in the jail... Anyway, if you are a good Jesse, than you are in the right place. We just need to wait for a couple of others. Then two are currently unavailable for communication, so I'll monitor them for a day. And maybe..." she then noticed the motion at one of the monitors and distracted herself there. On the monitor a young white-haired guy was talking to an old guard of the shop. "Yeah, that's an entrance you should've went through, but I trolled. Mr Lee is an owner of the shop and this place, so if he comes here, be sure to stay polite..."

"Losing the blueprints of the tablecloth for the coffee maker is the greatest tragedy of this world", Hydra shook his head and stood up. He took his helmet by the handle that was tucked into the back of his head. Just like a bag.

Conveniently. Effective. Ergonomically. What else can you dream of? Hydra also wanted to build a subscription to Netflix into this helmet. But the existing functions will be enough for him. The man went through the things that were lying here. Spare parts were close enough... he sighed. Looked at Ugry. Then to the girl. He still really needs their help in the assembly.

JJ didn't like those situations. Especially with new friends.

"Right-right, you're up to situation. Goody! We can start introducing ourselves", straightened his tie.

"Nice to meet you all!", waved to everyone present, "I'm your friendly neighbor, Dr. Hydra!"

"I am an alternate version of the superhero Viper who came to your world from my own world for unknown reasons," Hydra continued. He decided to briefly explain who he is, where he is from, and what he is doing here.

"I quickly answer your questions: no, I'm not a villain in my world; no, I don't know any of you in my world ... or at least I'm not sure about it - I met Eel only in the alley; no, I not an official superhero in my world; no, I'm not an official superhero in my world, not because I'm a mad scientist, but because of the multiple accusations of harboring illegal metahumans and mutants, fraud with votes in parliamentary elections, experimenting on people ... I mean, my clones, and the possibility that if I register as an official superhero, I could be charged with treason."

"And before you think anything else: no, I'm accused of treason, not because of some terrible crime, but because of ... a technical error that I made", Hydra began to pile up the electronics he needed into one heap.

"When I was tasked by MI6 and the Templars to clone the Queen in case of her death, one of her young clones turned out to be a very hot futanari and advocated Labor, so when the clones I created escaped from my base, she became something of a street vigilant around which many people gathered... I think at least for this I am guaranteed a place in the Tower in that case"

"See? I introduced myself. I trusted you and told you more about myself," Jesse pulled an extension cord out of his pocket and turned to the girl, "Where can I plug my helmet?", briefly asked her, "Thank you... so now it's your turn to introduce yourself! Who are you? Where are you coming from? Why are you hiding in my the dungeon now?". He took out some tool and nooded:

"Building the camera and replicator will take some time, so I'll need your help and my music selection. Is my playlist still there?" Hydra paused, "The playlist of me from this world. Our tastes, of course, may vary, but I believe in myself!"

"Yes, it is. Pretty sure, there are some lying around from the older times, though. Maybe you'll find them," Gal wasn't on board with this need for tablecloths, but she won't stop her new friend from finding and implementing them. After allowing Eel to be here, drawing the line at tablecloths would be very strange.

She then listened to the introduction of Hydra, patiently waiting before introducing herself. For some reason she didn't ask or even didn't have any questions towards Jesse.

"Sorry, I am not into revealing everything about myself, cause that's a tragic story and the last thing we need is our heroes crying like babies... just call me Gal-in-a-Chair. I had the power in my legs, but then had to stop the villain and he wrecked me. Jesse saved us, but now my legs are... not mine. So I move around like that and tinker on things for Viper. Tinkered... Now I have to find a new employer, but before that I want to save the world from that mess, because even I have some dignity... Shit, you reminded me about MI6, hope they didn't find this place yet."

She stopped for a little bit, then thought that she definitely didn't tell enough for her mates to stop questioning her, and added:

"Also, I love Vietnamese cuisine and my brother just escaped from the prison. But I am totally on the good guys' side. Mostly because half of the villains hates me and the good side pays more stably. Now let's get cooking your lab."

She clapped her hands, and waited for the instructions, while opening the local Viper's Spotify playlist, containing psychedelic rock of 80s and unknown indie rock of 00s from both huge groups like The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys and The Wombats and smaller, or even non-existant in other universes groups like Crying in the Pillow, The Hale End and Bollocks.