Our Band of Justice (ONC 2021)

Chapter 5: One Woman Army

"Are they gone?" Jack asked as the trio walked right to the beach. Katherine was quick in letting go of their hands, turning all of them visible at once.

Katherine immediately fell to the floor tiringly, it was a lot of work after all. Meanwhile, Alex looked everywhere, puzzled by the look of it. "Where's the boat?" Jack asked himself, such so that Alex heard it.

"What did you say," Alex asked him worryingly.

"There's supposed to be a boat!" Jack tried to look all over the beach... no signs. Alex dropped the GPS, not even having the energy to shout at him. 

"That's just great, some leader you are."

"I got us out remember?" Jack replied in a repulsive tone, not having the friendly chat with  Alex.  "Now help me out and look, both of you."

"How do you even know there was supposed to be a boat anyway?" Alex questioned Jack as he dropped the GPS down. Jack couldn't help that this one question actually made sense to him. "Those people back there, they usually have boats to do amphibious missions or some last-ditch evacuation missions."

"Well, I don't see any, why not a helicopter? Did you even read through your plan?"

Jack held his hands quite near Alex, his fingers twitching to just grapple it. Kat saw the commotion and stood up: "Guys, not here. The last thing we need is to fight ourselves."

 Jack simply sighed as he left them unfazed. "I can kill you, you know that?" Jack whispered to him as he left.

The two got up as their eyes scanned over the beach. The endless sea did not show any boats, as their attempts seem fruitless. Kat did find some fruits and water, so there was some solace in their dire predicament.

....

A few hours of searching still proved fruitless, as no boat was in sight. Alex still couldn't understand what was happening. All his life that he remembered was a cell and himself. Those metal objects, he thought. That was their purpose, to stimulate my powers?

Hell, he still couldn't even summon them now. Still a regular joe as the moment he left the cell. Jack did come to help begrudgingly, only fair that he would prove his own theory. It's a miracle that no guard ever came. Alex would probably shiver in sight before being riddled with bullets.

Smoke, Alex saw in the distance, as he thought there might be survivors. "Hey, Jack!" Alex yelled for him as he too saw the smoke. Having no powers, perhaps having Jack along would help.

The duo didn't have weapons to start with. And as far as they are concerned, this might be a trap. Alex made sure that Jack was in front, to the latter's disapproval and annoyance. As they kept walking forward, all they saw was another van crash. Probably a group escaping like them... except that only one is still alive, who looked much alive as she doesn't look as malnourished as them, as her body looked rather strong yet lean.

The survivor looked shocked, or rather out of focus. Her big, blue eyes were focused on her dead comrades lying around. "Is this the second group?" Jack whispered while Alex didn't have much to say. 'Second group?' Alex wondered. The woman had one assault rifle in her left hand as if about to fall off.

"Hello?"

She raised her gun at them almost immediately, ready to fire in an instant. Alex instinctively held his hands up high. "Katherine!" he yelled as Jack looked at him disgusted.  "Come on blondie" Jack tried to defuse the situation as he tried to get closer. "We're all trying to escape, no need to make this worse"

"Squad 1 til 8, visual confirmation on escapees" the woman monotonously said as a buffer was heard from her head. Jack's eyes widened as he knew. "Great, only I can do this" Jack cursed as he tried to keep a straight face. "Guys?" a feminine voice came from behind. It was Kat, probably just came back, at the worst possible time.

"You're just one girl. Against three of us? No chance."

The girl widened her eyebrows as if puzzled by their response. During then, another woman seemed to divide from her, an exact clone of her. As she divided herself into two bodies, another body was already separating itself. She cloned herself again and again until there were about a dozen of her, all armed with rifles.

"How about a dozen girls?"

"Oh... duplication, that's just great" Jack joked emotionlessly as Alex looked in horror. Alex looked to the right, seeing nothing but the empty beach. OF course, Kat disappeared almost immediately, very considerate of her.

"Screw it!" Jack went on the offensive as he proceeded to disarm the first girl. The few clones around her shot him several times in the chest. For all of his invulnerability, his heartfelt the short precise impacts of bullets.

As Jack was overwhelmed by the girls to the point of dogpiling, Alex took steps back to be horrified at how coordinated these clones were. Unfortunately for him, he can't disappear. Two clones away from the chaos aimed their guns at him immediately, putting Alex at their mercy.

"Hey wait just a minute!"

A shot was heard, but no bodies dropped. Alex saw the bullet literally in front of his eyeball. His hands doing a clutching pose as he gritted his teeth. His hands flung as the bullets dodged him, much to the surprise of the clones. Alex looked at himself as he saw his power doing the work.

"Huh, that's neat." 

Several shots were made simultaneously, as Alex flung the bullets like toys. As if some connection, the iron in his body communicates with such small metallic objects. Soon, the magazines in the guns were empty, as Alex felt a swell of pride. He raised his fists, seeing how they have no ammo.

"So who's ready," Alex said with glee.

And then they beat the hell out of him.

Alex was nearly unconscious when they were done. He saw Jack still putting up a fight, holding off against ten was pretty impressive, Alex admitted. Even then, Jack's energy slowly wore off as he could barely put up a fight now. Normally, fighting off against five is hard, ten is just overkill. One strong man who can feel pain against ten identical, seemingly trained girls who worked together as one.

Alex heard a reload as he saw the barrel at him. "Come on" Alex felt nothing but helplessness as he saw her raising her knife towards him. Unfortunately for him, with the knife held by a hand, he can't control the knife. Alex closed his eyes hard as he accepts his fate.

Suddenly, he heard an electrical zap far from him. He opened his eyes, seeing how her body kept shaking. Electrocuted? Can't be. Alex looked to the right where Jack was. All ten of them looked electrocuted, but only one of them actually is. Soon enough, they all vanished except one, who dropped to the ground.

"Ron?" Alex wondered who was the Samaritan who helped them. Then, someone appeared all of a sudden. "Is it over?" Katherine asked as Alex rolled his eyes. Some friend she was. 

"Could've used your help."

"Really, my invisibility power versus her one-woman army, yeah." Kat chuckled, partly in shock as to Alex and Jack still alive. "How do you guys survive anyway, dumb luck?"

"Maybe someone bothered to help," an old voice startled them as they saw a man walking towards them with a boat behind. Alex was elated and then confused as he approached them.

"Who are you?" Alex asked as the old man stopped. He took a cigarette and lit it casually while looking at the mess they made.

"The guy who bailed you out," he responded.