The fresh scent of paltry technology unbound filled the senses of the hero and heroine at the door to the gargantuan building that lay overhead. There were no signs of activity without, nor within the foundation. At least, at where they were standing. Stargirl floated stationary in the air, and peered through the glass, while Archer stood with arms folded comfortably in front of him, his eyes peering through his bandit-like mask running over his eyes.
"Okay, so here's Caltech Industries. Now what?" Stargirl wondered impatiently.
"We do what any self-respecting private eye does, we investigate," Archer explained.
The door to the quarters was locked, and there was no other way inside. Archer examined the locks closely.
"Alright, stand back, I'll get this door open soon." He drew an arrow, and lifted it forward. Stargirl, however, had a more destructive, but fool-proof way of infiltrating the building... using her own brute strength. She drew her powerful fist backward.
"Wait!" Archer said.
"What?" Stargirl wondered.
"This isn't what the Face would do. We have to keep a low profile."
Using one of his sharp-edged arrows, he carefully and cautiously drew a circle with the blade at the tip. He pushed the circle of glass down to the ground inside, reached his hand forward, and unlocked the door. The two entered warily.
Stargirl hovered forward and scouted the area. She viewed a few guards that had been knocked unconscious by an unknown force.
"We’re too late," Archer said.
"But how?" Stargirl asked. "I was with you the whole time!"
She continued ahead of Archer, who had checked to see if the guards were still alive. Their pulses were slow, but still active.
Stargirl let out a loud gasp.
From a distant hall, Archer could see Stargirl emerging in flight with a lifeless body dressed in a blue suit resting in her hands.
"We were too late..." she said. "Who could've done this?"
Archer took hold of his red-feathered cap, and scratched his head.
But soon, the sound of rushing flight had whisked through their ears, and following that, a young, feminine voice.
"Well, well, well," she said. "I'd never thought I'd meet you here, at least not yet."
Stargirl's eyes widened in shock and surprise as she viewed the figure standing in flight before her.
"It's... it's me?" she gasped.
"Only a little bit older," Archer explained.
He was right, the mysterious girl had the same exact features of Kelly Watkins, only she sported a light purple, legless suit with no sleeves, and short brown hair. She looked a bit more mature than her younger counterpart.
"Who... are you?" Stargirl asked.
"Why I'm you, you cock-eyed little girl, only better. You can call me Oblita."
She hovered forward to the awestruck young heroine.
"I've been waiting for this moment for a very long time," she said excitedly, pounding her fist.
"You... you've been killing everyone in my dreams..." Stargirl deduced.
"That's right, and I down-right hate that you're interfering with my plans. Our minds are linked, because you're a clone. A clone of me. You're the one that keeps telling me not to do it... but I must... I need to... to become more powerful. And now, I need to get rid of you..."
She thrust her fist forward, propelling like a burning bullet into the jaw of Stargirl, sounding a resonating thud that thunderously clapped about the halls and sent Stargirl into the backward direction. Archer readied his bow, and aimed it at the imposter with his exploding arrows while her back was turned. He let the arrow fly and upon impact, Oblita was covered in exploding, searing smoke.
As the blackness cleared, Archer could see that Oblita was thoroughly disturbed. She had suffered little, but still mildly effective burns on her back.
"No one gets me while my back is turned..." She angrily scoffed.
"Well, it looks to me like I just did," Archer smartly replied.
Oblita's eyes grew red with flaming rage, and her hands began to glow with purple sparks.
"Maybe I shouldn't have said that," Kevin realized.
Before she could let our her fury, she was shot in the back by the flurrying strength of Stargirl's forceful body, who knocked the angry woman into the opposite wall.
"That's two in a row, cloney," Stargirl yelled. "And there's more where that came from!" She cried, propelling to her target.
But as the dust from the rubble of the foundation cleared, Stargirl was apalled to see that her furious counterpart had vanished.
Once again, I was busy typing away at the keyboard of my very own computerized database, searching for information on our missing link.
"Doctor Laramie... Doctor Laramie... what have you been up to lately?" I asked myself.
Then it hit me like a sock in the eye. Upon the screen was the information I needed.
"So that's the plan," I said to myself.
And off I went, retrieving my trenchcoat once again and darting into the dark world of night.
In the rubble of the side wall of Caltech headquarters, Stargirl frantically searched out her counterpart in order to find vengeance. However, she was nowhere to be found.
“Is she gone?” Archer wondered, running his eyes over the large scale room.
“She must’ve slipped away… the coward…” Stargirl satisfyingly claimed.
But the sound of her voice had almost seemed to continue, though she did not speak. “What did you call me?” the voice asked.
Stargirl rapidly shifted her vision behind her, and witnessed the infallible Oblita carrying a large cylindrical object nearly ten times her size overtop her head. Rounds of wires and sparkling, disconnected circuitry bounced about the object as it was held in air.
“Eat this…” Oblita forcefully spoke, thrusting the cylindrical prison down upon them, with bottom door open, and enclosing them inside.
Stargirl desperately tried to smash her way out of the titanium, metallic dungeon that had restricted them from the outside, while Archer busily knelt upon the ground examining the cage and brushing his hands over it.
“This must be one of those super-powered prisons I’ve heard about. The ones that are specifically made for heroes and heroines like you,” Archer explained to Stargirl.
“If she thinks this’ll hold me down…” Because of her rage, she didn’t finish. Stargirl continued to fruitlessly pound against the undying cage with all her strength. The loud bangs and clangorous thuds could be heard by the giggling, devious mouth of Oblita who gleefully watched and listened to her other half barely making dents throughout the prison.
“Looks like we’ll be stuck here for awhile…” Archer said, resting upon the ground.
“You just wait, Oblita…” Stargirl was obliviously draining her endurance, while being blinded by her own rage against the more cunning clone.
“At least the Face knows where we are…” Archer hoped.
And hope was what they needed, for outside, were gathering ten Caltech Super Soldiers sent out to guard the prison and contain the fallen heroes.
I whistled a random, lively tune as I strolled down the dark sidewalks of the street, when I happened to pass an inactive appliance store. However, the televisions placed behind the window were still running, and it just so happened that the twenty-four hour news channel was on in the background. What was being broadcasted had caught my glinting eye, and I was a bit disappointed that there was no sound.
On the television was Caltech Industries. It seemed as though my good friends had gotten into a little tiff with the local people. I decided to pick up a small brick, and fling it forward against the appliance store glass, developing a way for me to turn up the volume on one of the sets.
A news reporter updated my lack of city-wide information. “Just moments ago, two members of the Justice Union had been caught, single-handedly breaking and entering into local Caltech Industries Headquarters tonight. Officials say that the two were considered armed and very dangerous, and are now being held captive in a giant cylindrical prison made officially by the operators of the company. Who captured them is a mystery, but we know that we can thank Caltech’s newest employees, with their technologically advanced, military super-suits for the capture of these criminals.”
I shook my head in shame.
“Couldn’t even keep a low profile…” I whispered, as the alarm to the Radio Hut Appliance store rang throughout the town. As I heard a loud cry of “Hey!” and a gunshot being fired, I knew that it was my time to leap into the dark shadows of the alleys, and disappear.
