Job Half Done

“That was easy.” Crait joked as they rendezvoused at the rear of The Vengeance. Charrlene gave them the look. “What?”
“They’ve jinxed it haven’t they.” Charrlene looked to a rather grim Lore. Their hands and uniform stained with their own blood. Piper nodded. Fearing further retribution, they Breached away.
Flashing red. The base was on full alert and everyone was moving. Everyone had a job with the exception of the five who had just reappeared. They were beginning to become a problem as the increasingly more armoured and armed members of staff attempted to squeeze past them.
“Sir. Am I glad you’re back.” Crait’s number two had her arms full of tablets, juggling them while determining which Crait needed to see first. “We’ve just got a ping on our tracker. It’s Lore.” Crait narrowed their eyes. As they did, their number two’s widened. “Oh you didn’t did you?”
“Didn’t what?” Crait stepped back. She nudged the topmost tablet towards him. A blurry image of Lore’s face filled the screen. “Ok, bring us up to speed.” They pointed towards one of the nearby meeting rooms.
“Since I’m guessing you did what I think you did, Lore has been on the run for the last nine / ten years.” She shrugged. “We’ve been unable to find them until now. In three months, a camera in the Park hill area will take this photo.” It was undeniably Lore. “We don’t quite know what they’re planning but given the readings that came after this, it isn’t good.”
“So, Lore survived our duel, we incarcerated them and then they escaped almost immediately?” Crait was flipping through the tablets.
“They had help. While the projections showed their capture as nullifying most of the die-hards, Lore must have built a stronger inner circle. We estimate there are barely twenty of them but they’ve got some of our best minds.”
Piper had been quiet the whole time, as per usual in matters that didn’t entirely concern them, but this time it was not for lack of words but for wanting to focus. They were looking for something. Something they soon found. “It’s the same device that they tried to bring you here with.” Piper jumped from the floor and scrambled for the correct tablet. “Look. They’re not trying to do anything here, they’re trying to get elsewhere. That would destabilise the universe.” Number two looked to the child confused.
“The energy readings we’ve been getting are worrying, it is a hell of a lot of power, whatever they’re doing.”
“Call off the teams.” Crait was staring the picture in their eyes. “One small team should be more than enough.”
“I must object. Even with your personal history, Lore isn’t going to roll over for you. You’re taking the men and that’s that.” She both figuratively and literally put her foot down.
“Let’s go then.” Lore too was looking themselves in the eye.
The brutal structure stood before them. Although old, its design seemed somewhat timeless. With only minor repair jobs to sustain it, the building was doing remarkably well.
“Bloody Sheffield.” Lore shook their head.
Building was an understatement. The flats were comparable in size to a small village, containing enough individual housing space for hundreds of families, schools and shopping areas. They entered nearby to one of the pubs. Looking around, it was immediately familiar, matching the background from Lore’s photo. It was uncomfortably silent. Their feet crunched on the concrete below, slightly damp from the last nights rain. For an area that large, there should have been more people about, yet nothing. They continued, weapons at the ready, and began their scans for Lore. Due to multiversal differences, this was easier said than done; this Lore had next to nothing unique about them, they were nothing more than a highly trained, pureblood human, living weapon. No special rings, no special powers, just a human with a metal stick. Lore stopped the group.
“Lore!” They shouted into the silence. It echoed back. But then it shouted.
“Lore!” The group looked around. Lore’s voice was an octave lower than theirs.
“I’ll sort them out, you go stop that machine.” Lore handed over their satchel and scanner. “Go!”
Char wanted to answer back but she knew it wouldn’t achieve anything. She was the last to enter the complex properly, watching as Lore advanced on Lore.
“Two of us. So I wasn’t mad. My transporter is going to work.” Lore smiled. “Nice.” Lore was speechless. “Cat got your tongue?” Their silence was twofold. They partly had no words to speak but mostly, they were examining their evil doppelganger.
“Not every day I get to do this.” Their eyes were drawn to the bulky, metal arm on their right. “Snap.” Lore waved their own, stretching their wrist joint.
“I’m guessing that’s about where the similarities end. I should have grown a goatee, then it would have been more obvious.” Crait’s Lore held their hands around their mouth. “This does feel more evil.” Without missing a beat, they drew their staff with a flourish. “Didn’t see this coming but hey, it might be good for me to see myself get my arse handed to me.” Crait’s Lore took a moment to go over what they had just said. “Yeah. That.” And with that, the battle begun. With the strength of a trained executioner, they brought their staff down over Lore’s shoulder. Sparks erupted from damaged electrics as Lore failed to dodge. They could still move it but as far as fine motor skills were concerned, their hand may as well have been considerable gone. Cross drawing their staff, Lore joined the battle properly. Despite having two working hands, since the battle, they had spent  time retraining themselves to be left handed. This allowed them an unexpected edge. Lore countered almost every blow from their doppelganger, at times using their useless weight of an arm to block but the attacks kept on coming. They were unrelenting, giving them barely enough time to see, let alone react, before their next strike. It was evident that trying to fight them head on wasn’t going to work. Lore tossed several temporal disks ahead of themselves. The staircase took them to one of the sky bridges above. Crait’s Lore was in hot pursuit but given their surprise, it afforded them a welcome break from the carnage. It didn’t last long. As soon as boots hit the ground, the fighting resumed. Crumbling to Dust.