Double The Glory Part 2
We spent several long seconds staring at each other. Of course, I couldn't compare myself against the other girl in exacting detail, I didn't have a mirror to check myself with, but I wouldn't be surprised if the only difference between us was the length of our hair. It was weird for me, so I couldn't imagine how odd it was for her, who presumably was more used to our face than I was.
Eventually I couldn't take it. "So which do you think, long lost evil twin or escaped clone?"
That broke her out of the stunned trance we were in. Instead, she just blinked at me in confusion. "What?"
"I still have no idea who I am or what I'm doing here, so which do you think I am? Oh, actually, maybe I'm you from an alternate universe."
"What?" she repeated, before shaking her head and fixing me with an angry glare that was slightly less murderous than the expression she burst in with. "No, don't- Don't fucking confuse me! What the hell did you say to my sister?!"
"Sister?" This time it was my turn to blink in confusion.
Luckily, things were cleared up when the cutie with the freckles from earlier came back into the room and grabbed my maybe-twin's hand, pulling her back down to the floor. "Victoria! Please, she didn't- she just-" she babbled, struggling a touch thanks to how awkward this shit was.
"Uh, excuse me." I landed as well and took a step forward but stopped when Twinsie snapped her head up to glare at me. I ran a hand through my hair nervously. "Uh, sorry for flirting with you; that must have been super uncomfortable for you. I kinda understand why you ran out of the room now."
Freckles turned adorably pink again, while Twinsie looked between the two of us, confusion slowly transitioning into understanding until she just burst out laughing. "R-Really Amy? I thought she threatened your life or something!"
"I got flustered! Shut up!" Freckles smacked Twinsie's arm, which only got Twinsie laughing harder.
"Ahem." Freckles' PRT agent escort politely coughed, getting everyone's attention. "If everyone's on the same page now, perhaps we can get on with what Panacea is here to do?"
The three of us nodded, although Twinsie was still snickering, and the agent started explaining. "Veronica, this is Amy Dallon, also known as Panacea. Her power allows her to heal people, as well as get a full diagnosis of their body with a touch. We brought her in to quickly examine you, is that alright? As you can see, you're nearly identical to Glory Girl here and we need to figure out why that is."
"I don't mind." I shrugged. "But I thought superheroes were supposed to have secret identities?"
As Panacea stepped closer to me, Victoria spoke up. "We're kind of an exception. Just our family though."
"Do I have permission to heal you?" Amy asked as she reached out, the words sounding automatic, like she'd said them thousands of times before.
"Yeah, of course." I agreed, dropping my force field and taking her hand.
Amy's eyes opened in shock for just a second, before she tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Wha… Okay, that's interesting."
"Interesting how?" The agent asked, no nonsense.
"Well, I can confirm that she's exactly identical to Victoria down to her DNA, with two exceptions. Obviously, her hair is longer, but her Corona Pollentia and Gemma are placed differently, with slightly different shapes. They're very close, but they're not quite the same."
The agent made a note of that. "Alright, anything else we should know?"
"W-well, I'm not sure how important this is, but…" Amy blushed, her answer coming out slightly more hesitantly now. "So, over the course of your life, you pick up little imperfections from old wounds. Scars, tiny fractures in your bones and so on. Veronica, was it? Veronica doesn't have any of those, it's like she's brand new. But, uh, so is Victoria, because I've been, uh, taking care of those."
"Right." The agent says slowly, while Victoria gave Amy a look I couldn't read. The agent finished her notes before turning to me again. "Right, well, we're done with Amy and all the interviews for now. You're still considered a potential danger though, so-"
"Wait, what?" Victoria demanded, surprising me with the sense of offense in her voice. Was she getting defensive on my behalf? Why, I just met her and, honestly, I should weird her the fuck out.
"Make sense." I shrugged, cutting in before an argument could start. "Nobody knows where I came from, least of all me. There could be some trigger buried in my brain, waiting to make me go all Manchurian agent. It's a weird situation."
"I didn't see anything like that in your brain." Amy hedged.
I looked at her in surprise. "You can see brainwashing?"
"P-Probably?" she answered, unsure.
"Anyway." The agent cut in harshly. "You're free to explore the building, provided you stay out of restricted areas and have an official escort wherever you go."
"Oh, hey, we can do that! Do we count?" Victoria asked, excited enough to start floating again while I looked on in bemusement.
"I… I'll ask." The agent pulled out a radio and passed on the question. A moment later she nodded. "Yes, that works fine. Especially since you'll be able to restrain her if Veronica does turn out to be a danger."
"Awesome, let's go!" Victoria shouted, flying out the door without a second thought.
I looked over at Amy. "Is she like this all the time?"
Amy snorted. "Sometimes she's worse."
I was about to respond with something snarky when Victoria zoomed back into the interview room and grabbed both our wrists. "What're you guys hanging around for? C'mon, I bet Ronnie's starving," she said as she pulled us away.
The PRT's cafeteria was… well, it was a cafeteria. Not a terrible one but there's only so much you can do with a cafeteria. I did manage to snag three chicken wraps though. Victoria was right, I was starving.
We sat down, Victoria and Amy on one side of the table, myself on the other. Thankfully, Victoria picked out a table in the corner rather than in the middle of the room. We were already getting enough stares as it was. Well, Victoria and I were getting stares but Amy looked as uncomfortable about it as I felt. Victoria didn't seem to notice.
As I tore into the first wrap, Victoria started asking questions. "So? What's your story? Where'd you come from?"
I swallowed before answering. The wrap wasn't bad, a little bland and I was sure hunger was making it taste better. I'd probably be sick of them by the time I finished. "Dunno. I woke up in the basement of some abandoned house in town. Didn't remember anything, not even my name, so I called the cops and here we are. If these PRT guys have figured out anything since then, they haven't told me."
"That must have been pretty scary, waking up all alone like that." Victoria said, giving me a sympathetic look.
"Not really? I figured out I had super powers pretty quick and I just… No memories, right? So even though I knew something was probably not right, I didn't have anything to compare it to, you know?"
Victoria didn't look like she got it, judging by how she frowned. Amy was the one with the next question. "You said you didn't remember your name. Did the PRT call you Veronica?"
I shook my head as I swallowed another bite. "Naw, the cops asked for my name on the phone. I thought maybe it started with a V, so I just guessed."
"Hn." Amy grunted, giving me a suspicious look. I just shrugged again and kept eating. Fair was fair and I was suspicious as fuck. Maybe I should have been annoyed or defensive or upset about how I was being treated, but it was clear to me that I was an intruder, an anomaly. Due caution and all that.
Although, there was one exception and I was curious about that. I shoved the last of the first wrap into my mouth and swallowed before turning to Victoria. "So why're you so cool with me, like, existing? Like I said, for all you know I'm some sort of evil clone here to pull a kill and replace. Aren't you getting uncanny valley feels from me?"
"I mean…" Victoria bobbed her head back and forth, pursing her lips. "A little? This is definitely very weird and I'm still getting used to it. But you don't feel like a threat to me. And, you know, if you're
not secretly evil, then this is really cool. Right Amy?"
"I'm not sure I'm ready for two Victorias." Amy mumbled, before blushing for some reason.
I snickered and there was this weird echo. I looked over at Victoria and found her looking back at me with a similar expression of surprise on her face as was on mine. "Okay, that's weird."
She nodded. "Agreed. Avoid doing it again?"
"I can certainly try, that was just freaky," I said as I picked up my next wrap. "Anyway, think you can bring me up to speed on the whole super powers thing? I got no idea how this is supposed to work."
Victoria's eyes lit up with joy and I immediately regretted my decision. Amy groaned and slumped onto the table as Victoria launched into an explanation of parahumans and their powers. I just ate and observed. Victoria was bright, cheerful, and apparently quite the nerd despite her/our looks, at least when it came to parahumans. Amy, meanwhile, was sarcastic when she cut in and grumpy when she didn't. They made quite the pair and it was clear to me that they really were sisters, no matter how different they looked from each other.
"Oh, wait!" Victoria paused in the middle of explaining how brain tumors gave you powers as an idea came to her. "Amy said your Corona Pollentia and Gemma were different from mine, right? We should figure out how that affected your powers. Wait here, I'll go see if we can get you into power testing."
Victoria literally took off, flying out of the room. She got some shouts to watch it from the agents around but most just shrugged their shoulders and went back to eating. I guessed they were used to her already.
After watching her go, I turned back to Amy. I felt some urge to make up for the sudden silence without Victoria around, but Amy's expression made it clear she wasn't that interested in talking. I got to eating my third wrap and after a moment, she pulled out her phone.
"Victoria! Amy. I didn't know you were coming in today. Why didn't you text me?"
I choked slightly as someone suddenly sat down next to me, far too close. Especially since he was wearing a bright, shiny suit of metal armor. Looking him over, it looked like a high tech version of a knight's armor. Unfortunately, it totally covered his face, meaning I had no idea who this was or what he was thinking.
Armor Boy tilted his head to the side, looking at me in confusion. I assumed. Again, I couldn't exactly tell thanks to the helmet. "Vicky? You okay? If I did something wrong, please tell me."
Seriously, who was this guy? Victoria's friend? Boyfriend? Creepy stalker? Unable to deal, I looked across the table and begged. "Amy, help!"
All I got from her was a satisfied grin. That traitor. Sure, maybe we hadn't known each other long and maybe I deserved a little payback for the flirting thing, but still. Traitor!
Armor Boy just looked between the two of us. "Uh, did I mess up or-"
"I'm back! And-" Aaaand there was Victoria, running back over to us. Guess she'd gotten a reprimand for flying. But she froze when she saw Armor Boy sitting too close to me. "Gallant? What are you doing?" She asked in a tone that promised he'd fucked up.
Armor Boy, or Gallant apparently, whipped his head back and forth between Victoria and me. "W-Wait, what? Who-?"
"I'm Veronica, Vicky's evil twin. 'Sup."
Gallant scooted away from me and I managed to breathe a little easier. Victoria relaxed as well, although she still seemed ticked off as she sat down beside Amy again. "You're not allowed to introduce yourself like that."
"Even if it's probably true?"
"You're not evil."
"Am I at least annoying?"
"Right now you are!"
I cackled and Victoria groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Gallant, meet Veronica, who's apparently a brat when she gets going. Veronica, this is Gallant. I'm publicly dating his civilian ID, so don't get any ideas."
"Ew, boys." I stuck my tongue out before cheekily popping the last of my last wrap into my mouth.
"Veronica, I'd like to apologize if I made you uncomfortable." Wow, Gallant really lived up to his name. That actually sounded pretty damn noble. Not my type, at least I didn't think so, but not hard to see how a girl could fall for the literal knight in shining armor. "However, I'm still rather confused. Could I get an explanation, please?"
I opened my mouth but Victoria beat me to an explanation. I guess she didn't trust me to not give him the wrong idea. Which I wouldn't. At least if he could tell I could when I was joking.
Once Victoria was done, Gallant offered me a handshake. "Well, I for one also believe in your good intentions, Veronica. I look forward to working with you in the future."
Oh wow. He was just
painfully earnest, wasn't he. Just sitting next to him, I was getting second hand embarrassment. How could he say things like that with a straight face? Well, maybe he was smirking under that helmet but somehow I didn't think so.
"Yeah, you too." I awkwardly shook his hand. "Not sure when the suits will actually let me out of here, but I can't wait to get out there and kick some butt."
"Heck yeah!" Victoria agreed. "Look out Brockton Bay, now there's gonna be two Glory Girls!"
"Yeah, no, I'm not calling myself that."