1:4:8 Doubles (Part 1)

Confusion. Lore and Char kept a respectable distance from the two but found it harder than they had expected.
“Where are they going?” Lore and Char ducked into the main campus as the pair doubled back on themselves. “Do they know we’re here?”
“Either that or they’ve got no idea where they’re going. They’ve not even left the courtyard yet.” Lore proposed. “Maybe we stop following them and ask them where they’re looking for?”
“As good of a plan as any.” She shrugged, holding the door open for them.
Upon exiting the building, their scanner updated showing that their doppelgangers had covered a fair bit of ground but were still yet to leave the courtyard. Then the reason why hit them.
“They’re Breacher doesn’t have a key code to open the doors…” Char smiled.
They approached the pair but as they did, the Char Breached away leaving only her Lore to engage with them. “Um… Hi!” They shouted in surprise. “Didn’t see you there, was in a world of my own.” They rambled.
“Hello…” Lore looked them up and down. “I’m Lore and this is Char. We were just wondering if you and your Char needed help moving around the campus. We know how confusing it can be.” Lore tried to sound friendly and approachable but their efforts were countered by their accusatory looks. The Lore before them seemed familiar but not in the way Lore was expecting. They were wearing modified Protectorate armour mixed with street clothing; there wasn’t a scratch on the plating nor a tug or tear in the clothing. Their face was clean shaven and it was causing them some discomfort. Everything about them seemed brand new.
“Thanks. That would be great. I don’t quite know where Char has gone but I’m sure she’ll turn up.” They paused. “Lead on I suppose.”
They were needlessly jittery as Lore scanned their Breacher and unlocked the campus door. Char tried to locate her vanished doppelganger but the building didn’t do her any favours. She let the two Lores walk ahead of her so she could keep an eye on them while checking her scanner.
“So, when are you from?” She moved between them. “We’re fresh in, trying to get to know everyone.”
The Lore swallowed before answering. “We’ve just been to Illia; huge war’s just started and the others needed us to assess the situation before they did anything about it.”
Lore turned to Char, confused. Their doppelganger saw their window and dived, Breaching away. Lore and Char ran to the nearest exit. Now outside, the map properly displayed their target’s locations; they saw that the newcomers had both Breached to the same point, one of the generators outside of the main campus’ perimeter. “Okay. That could have gone better.” Lore admitted.
“Still, if they’re on alert, they’re more likely to slip up.” Char zoomed into her map. “Should we tell the others?”
Lore shook their head. “No. The less they know the better. We need to find out why those two are here and stop them.”
“Without raising any alarms…” Char followed them on the map. “They must be messing with the generators.”
“Then, when they’re done, we’ll sort it out, but for now, we leave them be and give them some room.” Lore paused. “Hang about, do you remember when that Char vanished?”
Char’s eyes were engulfed with a golden light as she cast her mind back. “She was stood just over there then she ran and vanished in a white light.” The light in her eyes faded. “A white flash!”
“She’s not a Char.” Lore smirked. “So who is she?”
“She’s on the move so we better get to those batteries.” Char grabbed Lore’s wrist and together, they appeared at the generator.

It was a large structure, almost the same size as The Destiny’s main drive section; they split up and each walked down one side. They both walked down their thirteen metre side of the generator, scanning for anything irregular but failed to find anything. Meeting again on the opposite short side, they shrugged at one another. “Nothing.” They said in unison.
“It would probably help if we knew what they looked like in the first place. Then we would just need to compare the before and after.” Then it hit them. “Or we could just nip back in time to before they even arrived and have a look ourselves. I’ll pop back, take a few scans then we can compare the two when I get back.” Lore smiled then vanished in a flash of white. They quickly circled the generator, scanning it with their Breacher before returning to the present. “Done!” They sent a copy over to Char before returning to their side and scanning it once again. They compared what they saw to the wireframe model hovering over their wrist but still saw no deviations. Again, they met at the short end to compare.
“Nothing. I’ve scanned the whole thing and they’ve not changed anything.” Char brought up her map again. “There are two more generators that they visited. I’ll check this one, you get the other?” She made sure Lore knew where they were going before she teleported away. Lore made their way to their generator and began another scan.
Their Breacher noted nothing wrong with the device, however, Lore’s eyes begged to differ. Propped up against the generator, not connected or attached in any way, a small, shoulder bag. It was similar in design to the one Lore had woken up with in the cave: A reinforced, canvas like material with two compartments and a plethora of pouches and pockets hidden under its fold. Apprehensively, they lifted the fabric flap and unzipped the main compartment. There wasn’t much inside beside a container of foundation, a makeup setting spray and a thin, gold toned face paint. Lore checked the smaller pocket, finding a used blending sponge and a contact lens container.
“Why would anyone want to paint themselves gold?” They asked themselves the question but upon hearing it they got their answer. Without hesitation, they Breached over to Char’s generator. “That ‘Char’ we saw, they weren’t a Char.” Lore held up the stained blender. “Golden face paint. They didn’t want us getting too close because we’d be able to tell they weren’t a Char.”
“So, who are they?” Char took the blender and compared the makeup to their own skin tone. “And is there any of that makeup left… For evidence reasons of course?”
“Most of a tube.” Lore said offhandedly. “There was also a pale foundation; whether that’s for the ‘Char’ or the Lore, I’m not sure but either way, they’ve gone to some strange lengths to hide their identity.”
“We know one thing for sure: They aren’t from the council. Why would a council member need to paint themselves when they can use these?” Char tapped her collar and her skin went from golden to matching Lore’s.
Lore’s eyes widened. “They’re Protectorate. The Breacher, the lack of proper adaptive technology, they must be. Which means, Lore is Loren. It has to be him. He didn’t bat an eyelid when we told him we were new around here and his armour was too nice… Too new.”
“But who’s the ‘Char’?” Char tried to get a more in depth scan of her. “Apart from a human.”
“Could be Reid?” Lore tried to remember the other Inquisitors. “Maybe Soren? Was Soren an Inquisitor? No… Soren was too tall…” Lore continued to mumble.
“Either way, they’re extremely dangerous and currently outside of our scanning capabilities. I say we split up and try to find them. Once we do, get them outside as quickly as possible.” Char nodded. Lore returned the nod. “The ‘Char’ will probably Breach away as soon as we see her so it’s just Loren we have to be careful around. He’ll probably not hesitate to start a fight in the Campus.”
“Only if we’re alone. I doubt he’d want to break his perfect cover.” Lore tapped at their Breacher. “As long as we’re both in the Campus, we can use my Breacher’s scanner to search for any humans.” Lore gasped. “But, if we include Lore DNA in the don’t scan list, we can limit the results to just the ‘Char’.” Lore configured their Breacher but still saw a dot on the map where they were. “Strange.”
“Genetic drift. You’re a clone remember.” Char pointed out.
“And so is he!” Lore jumped up and kissed Char. “Brilliant! As long as we’re in the same part of the building as them.” They shook their head indecisively. “And we’re within ten or so metres, we’ll be able to track them.” Lore tapped their Breacher to Char’s teleporter. “So, we find them and try to draw them out here.”
“Then we send them packing and undo anything they might have changed.” Char finished.
“Let’s get going then.” Lore smiled before Breaching away.