Ash
I felt a little bad about doing this to Ken. He was dumb as a rock, but a nice kid. A good fit for April. But this was bigger than the two of us. Completing this ritual would mean officially joining the Sisterhood. Forbidden knowledge, unlimited power, immortality. Hell, I might just get some extra bounce in my tits once this was over.
And besides, once this was all over, I’d have more than enough resources to cancel out any little messes the ritual might cause.
But those thoughts were for later. For now, I was going to focus on winning.
Just as soon as I wagered all five of my hearts and hit the start button, the card spun away, growing in size with each rotation, bigger than the table as it pressed against the ceiling, spinning so fast that it looked like a circle instead of a square. And then it dropped right down to the floor.
Ken and I were taken to the arena while the rest of them must have been staring slackj-awed at what just happened. The card would find a wall to take over, projecting our Duel to everyone else, and that was just another advantage I had.
“Heads up, Ken. April and the rest are watching us right now.”
“Aw jeez! Do you hate me or something?”
“Don’t be such a baby.” I took a look at the room we’d been dropped into. Dim lighting, save for the two big beds at either end of the room.. Looking up, there was the black ceiling with the golden fist symbol on it. I wasn’t sure if that was literally the card he’d used or something it had created. Hell, I didn’t know what was outside of this room, whether it was an alien world or a black and empty void. No toys or outfits to play around with, but then, the lack of tools was the point of these games. All that was missing were the clones.
“Fine. Just remember you’re the one who picked this,” Ken said, then took a deep breath, hollered at the top of his lungs, “April! Love you, babe! I’ll make it up to ya after this!”
I covered my ears and winced. This guy was too much.
Just as I thought it, two different magic circles appeared in front of us, arcane etchings made of pure light, spinning slowly as they lifted off the ground, three pairs of feet and legs left behind in each circle. Midway, I felt a strange wave of vertigo, the whole room spinning for an instant, and when my vision cleared, there was just the one clone of me and Ken staring back at us. I’d thought I’d seen three pairs of feet, but they must have converged.
“Guess it needs to do these one at a time.”
I said in perfect stereo with my two fellow clones standing to my left and right. The three of us looked at each other in disbelief. None of us had expected a clone to use her own memories. Were we going to merge back with the original once this was over? Or just wink out of existence? Either way:
“Shit.”
Meanwhile, Ken and his doppelgangers were all looking at each other like they were about to jump into a brawl, foreheads creased and frowning with concentration. Some toxic masculinity about wanting to establish dominance, I bet. Not that they’d get anywhere with all four being identical.
“Four two six, seven banana banana pew pew whapalooloo doh!”
All four of them shouted it at the same time, then burst out laughing, the doppelgangers clapping each other on the back while the original crossed his arms. “Hah! You guys are awesome!”
“Right back at ya, bud.”
“Let’s do this!”
“Fuck yeah!”
