Genesis/Project Doppelgänger

“Good morning, Kaiser, We hope you are doing well in Neo Tokyo. We understand that today will be a busy day for you, but we hope that you remember your mission. Project Doppelgänger shall not see the light of day. We have high hopes for your accomplishment. Show us that you are still worthy of your place as Number 1. Good luck on your Philosopher Tests. Best wishes, Schrödinger.”

That was the message Kaiser received this morning. He really despised their backhanded way of convincing him to complete their mission through meaningless threats about his rank and fake wishes of wellbeing and luck. But what he despised more was his own conscious choice to follow their words as if he was binded to them even though no such contract existed. In the end, what was he doing all of this for anyway? In fact, he could destroy the entire organization without even lifting a finger! So, what was it that compelled him to still obeyed their orders like a puppet?

“Those arschgeigen are real pains-in-the-ass,” he grumbled with a click of his tongue. ‘What’s that squirt doing right now?’ he wondered, thinking about Kagura. The thought surprised him and he quickly shook it away. “Why did I even think of her? Shit, the missions are messing me up bad. And it got even worse ever since I met that squirt.”

“S-Sigfried?” came a female voice.

“What?” snapped Kaiser. The female student apologized with tears streaming from her eyes. She then told him that it was his turn to get measured for the Physical Exam. Kaiser heaved out a sigh and got it over with. When he was done, he walked towards a corner of the gym to isolate himself once again. As he did, he heard the irritating giggles of the female students.

“Hey, hey, did you guys get a look at Asuka-sama’s results?” asked the first girl.

“They were perfect! As expected of one of the world’s Nine Alphas!” said a second.

“It’s a shame that he’s the ninth ranked, though,” complained a third.

“Well, everyone of the Nine Alphas are royalty, too,” pointed out the second girl. “Though, not literally.”

“There’s the eighth ranked ‘Perfect Princess’ Hanada Miyoko of Nijimori Girls Institute, the fourth ranked ‘Lady Atom’ Uzuki Sara of Mitsukage Academy, and the third ranked ‘Absolute Empress’ Maria Gerard of Neuf Fleurs Academy from Laplace, L’Esprit,” listed the first girl.

“And don’t forget fifth ranked ‘Mystery Gentleman’ Euclid Tsukishiro of Takaraboshi International Institute, second ranked ‘Human God’ Ichiban Kōhei from the same school, and first ranked ‘All-Emperor’ Kaiser,” added the second girl.

“What about the sixth and seventh ranked?” asked the third girl curiously.

“The sixth ranked is ‘Beast God’ Tyler Kwan,” recalled the second girl. “I think he goes to Neon Polytechnic Institute in Neon City, Allied Union States. He’s a member of the Nine Alphas, but I’ve heard that he has a very lively and common-man-type personality unlike the others. He has a very different atmosphere from the otherworldliness the others possess.”

“And as for Spider, no one really knows much about who she is besides the fact that she’s female and from Chernobyl II, Severlya,” added the first girl. “What was her title again?”

“I think it was something like ‘Black Baroness’,” remembered the second girl.

“Uwah, that’s scary!” said the third girl.

“But Euclid Tsukishiro and Kaiser are also very mysterious figures,” pointed out the first girl. “No one knows exactly what Euclid Tsukishiro looks like except for a few people. I’ve only ever heard others say that he’s a very nice guy and works for VICE, but he avoids public attention and often disappears from a scene right after the crime is prevented. That’s why there are no photos of him! And the few that are spread on the internet always get scrutinized as fake or untrustworthy.”

“And Kaiser is an even bigger mystery! They say that he’s a very scary guy that you don’t want to meet. In fact, the rumor goes that if you do meet him, you won’t live to tell it! No one knows who he is, where he’s from, or the exact nature of his ability,” added the second girl.

“In the end, when it comes to the best Alpha in terms of personality, it has to be Aokōkū’s ‘Blue Prince’ Asuka Asuka-sama!” squealed the third girl.

“Right?” agreed the other two in unison.

“Bah, what a bunch of nonsense,” grumbled Kaiser under his breath after they passed him by. He exited the gymnasium and leaned his back against the wall. He saw from the corner of his eye two examiners walking by. He closed his eyes to appear as if he was resting so to not draw their attention as he listened in on their passing conversation.

“What’s the status?” asked the first examiner.

“I’ve got word that our branches in Neon City, Wissen, and Laplace have completed their Philosopher Tests. Meanwhile, the branches in Sun Tech City and Chernobyl II will have their results ready by the end of the afternoon. As for Neo Tokyo, we’ll be done very soon, too. We will get all of our data this evening. The other branches will be sending their information to us as soon as their tests are complete,” answered the second examiner.

“Then everything is going according to plan,” confirmed the first examiner. “Once this is all done, we’ll be able to move forward with Project Doppelgänger,” he said with a malicious smile.

“Tch, these bastards are plotting something, that’s for sure,” muttered Kaiser once they were out of sight. “I guess I’ll just have to get rid of them tonight.”

“S-S-Sigfried!” called a male classmate from the door.

“What is it?” Kaiser answered with a glare.

“I-I-It’s time for the Ability Exam,” explained the classmate with a whimper.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going,” said Kaiser with a disinterested sigh.

Now at the stadium where the Ability Exam was being held, Kaiser waited for his turn. He had his back against the wall and his eyes closed the entire time as his classmates were given their tests. And then, it was his turn.

“Sigfried, 18 years old. Type: Psion. Ability: Energy Reactor. Level: Beta,” announced the head examiner. “Proceed with Simulation 200 Beta.”

The stadium shook and the ground revealed three openings. Three drones rose up through the openings and suddenly took flight. “Begin test!” announced the head examiner.

Kaiser held out his hand and shot out three beams of yellow energy that pierced through the drones before they even had a chance to do what they were intended to do. The test ended in the blink of an eye. “T-T-Test complete,” announced the head examiner in awe.

Kaiser heaved out a disappointed sigh and left the stadium. He was outside when two examiners approached him. “Hey, young man, have you ever wanted to take the Rank-Up test?” asked the first examiner.

“No,” answered Kaiser simply.

“But you have the potential to be Alpha-ranked!” revealed the second examiner.

“Not interested,” said Kaiser with a frown.

“B-But—,” attempted the first examiner.

“There can only be nine Alphas, right?” obviously pointed out Kaiser.

“But there’s no law that says that that’s how it has to be,” countered the first examiner with a smile. “It’s more of a figurative saying than a hard-rule.”

“Besides, if you think about it, there’s still a spot open,” added the second examiner. “The first ranked Alpha, Kaiser, is more-or-less a placeholder than an actual person. I mean, someone that no one else knows about?—that has got to be someone who doesn’t exist. And even if he did, he must be dead by now. That can be the only explanation to his unknown existence.”

“I said no!” vehemently snapped Kaiser, peeved by their shallow reasoning. He then walked off. ‘If this wasn’t during the day, I would’ve killed you arschgeigen for your slander.’

“Test complete,” announced the head examiner.

Euclid walked back to join the rest of his class to the sound of loud cheers. “Tsukishiro-sama!” cheered a boy.

“Tsukishiro-kun is a beast!” whooped another.

“Marry me, Tsukishiro-sama!” squealed a girl.

“Thank you very much,” accepted Euclid with a humble chuckle. Euclid’s identity was only known to those whom he allowed to know—close friends, classmates, teachers, relatives, work colleagues, and select public figures. However, in exchange for sharing his identity to them, he made them promise to not share it to anyone else. He was very particular about his private life. Of course, no one would ever want to betray the kindness he has shown them through various generous deeds, and so he had never had to worry about having his personal life open to the unwelcome public. This was how he was able to cultivate a mysterious persona regarding his status as one of the Nine Alphas.

He excused himself from the class to use the restroom. Once he broke away from them, he took a detour and sneaked off to the empty auditorium that the examiners were using as their base of operations. Using the stealth skills he had developed under his training as a VICE officer for undercover operations, he snuck into the auditorium as soon as he saw two examiners exit through the doors. The two examiners were caught up in conversation and Euclid took advantage of their blind spot to avoid being caught.

As soon as he was inside, he spotted a dark corner near the stage and used his ability to teleport there. With the cover of darkness on his side, he blended into the wall and perked up his ears. Atop the stage, the voices of an elderly man—the person in charge of the entire exam, and a young woman could be heard.

“The project is proceeding as expected,” informed the young woman.

“It won’t be long before our dream is realized,” concluded the elderly man with a satisfied chuckle. “Looks like it was a good draw for us that we were picked to be this year’s examiners for the Philosopher Tests.”

“After being declined five times before, it’s a real achievement that we were finally able to do it in the end,” agreed the young woman.

“And to make it even better, we have unrestrained access to obtain information on the Nine Alphas! And how lucky are we that two of those very Alphas are here at this very school?” loudly declared the elderly man.

“Doctor, your voice is too loud,” warned the young woman.

The elderly man heeded her words and cleared his voice. “How far are we until we finish the tests here?” he asked the young woman.

“Before the end of the afternoon,” the young woman told him. “Once we’re done, all of the data will be sent over to our central laboratory.”

“Good, good,” said the elderly man cheerily. “Soon, we will finally achieve our long-awaited goal. All Philosophers will be under our control.”

“I see,” muttered Euclid to himself with a smirk. “Inspector Gōda was right. These guys are definitely planning something.” He used his ability and teleported out of the auditorium. Once he was outside, he teleported onto the school’s roof. Using the roof’s wide view, he spotted one of the examiners’ vans. He teleported next to it and placed a hand on it. “Coordinates confirmed,” he said once he etched the van’s point vector coordinates into his mind. “Tonight’s going to be fun,” he said to himself with a wide grin.

“Proceed with Simulation 6 Epsilon,” said the head examiner. The stage transformed. Five human-sized armored robots were brought up from underground, armed with gatling guns. “Begin test!” announced the head examiner.

“Hah, I shall get this done quickly,” said Gabriel haughtily with a flip of his hair. “¡Mis chicas encantadoras, mírame! I will complete this task without breaking a sweat!” Cheers erupted throughout the entire stadium. “¡Vamos allá!” he shouted like the showman he was. He brought out a small pouch from inside his coat pocket and threw its contents into the air. The white crystals sparkled as they flew through the air—sugar. With a snap, the sugar crystals in the air joined together to form giant massive crystalline spikes, and with a flick of his wrist, the spikes pierced through the armored robots like adamantine javelins. Gabriel smiled charmingly and sensually licked the sugar on his fingertip. He winked at the crowd, sending them into a frenzy.

Suddenly, the ground shook and Gabriel jumped back. The center of the stage opened up to reveal a giant armored robot twice the size of an elephant. However, Gabriel wasn’t the least bit deterred. With a smirk, he reached into his coat and took out a small rose pink quartz. He flicked the quartz up into the air. When it descended back down, with impeccable timing, he touched the crystal with his finger just as it was horizontally aligned and parallel to the ground with its top pointed directly at the robot. “¡Iluminación!” he called out triumphantly with a matching smile. Suddenly, the crystal shuddered and shot out a giant bolt of electricity straight at the robot, destroying it completely. He grabbed the crystal from midair and replaced it in his coat. “¡Ole!” he boasted with a dramatic bow. The crowd resounded back with an “¡Ole!” of their own.

Gabriel returned back to join his class. He was basking in the cheers and admiration from his classmates until Masaki’s sarcastic claps turned him off. “This is why jealous people are no bueno. Mucho feo,” dismissed Gabriel with a scowl.

“Who’s playing a flute*?” asked Masaki with a confused tilt of his head. (Flute in Japanese is pronounced ‘fue’. The joke is that the Spanish ‘feo’ sounds like ‘fue yo’—’It’s a flute!’)

“Feo! F-e-o! I’m calling you UGLY!” emphasized Gabriel in frustration. “Anyway, where is Atago Chiharu?”

“Chiharu? I don’t know where he’s gone,” admitted Masaki honestly.

“Atago Chiharu, that coward! Is he afraid to lose to me? I hardly believe that! He’s looking down on me! We promised to fight fair-and-square! Does he have no honor?!” ranted Gabriel.

“Actually, it’s not fair-and-square at all. Chiharu didn’t accept your challenge in the first place. It’s been a one-sided competition the entire time,” commented Masaki.

“¡Disparates!” asserted Gabriel firmly with a stretched out palm. “I shall win this competition and prove once-and-for-all that I am the best there is!”

“Good luck,” muttered Masaki with a roll of his eyes. ‘But really, where are you Chiharu? Where could you have gone during this time?’

It was evening in Neo Tokyo. Standing beneath the cover of darkness next to a brick building was Kaiser. Before him was a large building in the center of a huge parking lot and other open spaces, all surrounded by a steel fence and gate with barbed wire on top. In big black English letters on the front of the building was the word: Genesis. Outside the gate, many armed guards were standing by.

“Let’s get this crappy work over with,” muttered Kaiser. “Those arschgeigen are going to regret making fun of me in front of my face.” He took one step forward.

“Wait a minute,” came someone from behind him. Kaiser turned around and poised himself to attack. The figure stepped out of the darkness and revealed himself to be Euclid Tsukishiro.

‘Tch, it’s him,’ cursed Kaiser. He didn’t care much about Euclid during their initial meeting, but after learning his name, Kaiser knew that the VICE officer was someone he had wished he’d never gotten acquainted with. Kaiser was well informed about the Nine Alphas, whether he wanted to be or not, by Schrödinger—he was equipped with information regarding their backstories, personalities, affiliations, and most importantly, their abilities. Honestly, he had wished that that one time they teamed up would the last time they’d ever cross paths together. But now….

“What are you doing here, Mister Five?” Kaiser asked him.

“I might ask you the same question, Mr. Sigfried,” came Euclid politely with a smile.

“Just getting rid of some pains-in-the-ass,” Kaiser told him simply.

“Ah, then we share the same goal!” revealed Euclid happily. “Say, why not we work together? It went perfectly last time, didn’t you think so?”

“That’s what you say, but I bet you’re ready to arrest me at any time,” said Kaiser distrustingly.

“Only if you commit a crime worth arresting,” replied Euclid. “However, I am not lying when I say that I am here to destroy their plans, too. In fact, they are the criminals in this situation.”

“Project Doppelgänger,” remembered Kaiser aloud.

‘Project Doppelgänger?’ wondered Euclid. He thought back to the conversation he eavesdropped on between the elderly man and the younger woman. A few of the pieces began to click for him, but it was still all speculation on his part.

“How did you get here anyway?” Kaiser asked Euclid.

“I marked the coordinates of one of their vans,” revealed Euclid with a proud smile.

‘Yep, this guy is dangerous,’ confirmed Kaiser.

“I know that you’re excited to get this show on the road, but breaking in would only draw unwanted attention onto ourselves,” said Euclid. “So instead, how about I teleport us inside? No one would suspect a thing.”

“Do what you want,” Kaiser relented with a sigh.

“Gladly!” Euclid grabbed Kaiser’s right shoulder. In a blink of an eye, they disappeared from their current positions and reappeared right inside the parking lot. “See? Better, right?” he said with a playful smile.

Kaiser caught the sight of a security camera in the corner of his eye. With a snap, he sent out a thin stream of focused red energy at the camera, destabilizing it. “It’s only going to get more annoying from here on out,” he told Euclid.

“I’m all up for excitement,” Euclid replied warmly.

“You’re a dangerous one all right. A dangerous idiot,” muttered Kaiser under his breath. A line of armed personnel suddenly exited out of the building. Kaiser clicked his tongue with a scowl and sent out a wide wave of green energy that hit every one of the personnel, knocking them down immediately. “They’re just unconscious. Heavily unconscious,” Kaiser told Euclid nonchalantly.

“Oh, don’t mind me. I can always chalk it up to self-defense,” Euclid reassured him with a smile.

Kaiser blasted through the door and the duo entered the building to more armed personnel. “Fire!” shouted the one in charge. The enemy opened fire at the duo. Kaiser was ready to destroy those bullets with radiation when Euclid stepped forward with a dangerously cheerful smile and clapped his hands. The bullets suddenly disappeared as if they were erased from existence! The enemy were taken by surprise and took a few steps back.

“Oh, we need to get rid of those, too,” said Euclid, referring to their guns. With a snap, the guns disappeared from their arms. The enemy were now scared out of their wits and began to retreat. A few of the more stronger-willed ones attempted to use their abilities, but Euclid expertly dodged them all by moving the vectors of their abilities to different points in the greater coordinate vector space that was Neo Tokyo.

“Let’s get this over with,” declared Kaiser. He took off his glasses and tucked them into his uniform pocket. Now, he could see everything. With a light raise of his hand, the particles in the air entered their energy state and were blasted out as bright blue energy beams. The beams struck the enemy in the blink of an eye and pierced through their armor. Their bodies became lifeless and blood were spilled out of their body through wounds caused by the energy blast.

Euclid let out an impressed whistle. “You took care of that pretty quick,” he commented. “Say, this is kind of exciting isn’t it? We’re like two adventurers with perfectly compatible abilities! I’ll handle defense while you take care of offense! We’re the ultimate dream team! No enemy can stand against us!”

“I don’t know if I want to barf or kill you right now,” responded Kaiser with furrowed brows.

“Let’s put a pin in that for right now,” relented Euclid with a laugh. “By the way, where do you think they’re keeping their data?”

“I’ve been to enough labs to know that they keep their most precious data in tightly secured rooms. Those left in lightly secured rooms and offices are usually data that don’t matter or fake data to use as cover to protect against leaks and hacks,” informed Kaiser.

“And what kind of security can we expect once we reach those important rooms?” asked Euclid.

“The kind that’ll make you piss your pants without warning,” replied Kaiser. “Actually, that kind of security only applies to federal and international level laboratories. Private laboratories, unless they’re rich enough to have the same kind of security, usually only have the most basic of high-tech security systems: hidden explosives, laser weaponry, chemical gas, radiation inducers, electric deterrents, gravity rooms, and bioweapons.”

“Wow, you know quite a bit,” commented Euclid.

Meanwhile, in the laboratory’s control room, the head of the lab—the same elderly man from Euclid’s school—was alerted of the duo’s presence. He was then shown on the giant screen live-camera footage of Kaiser and Euclid in the building. They were progressing steadily into the laboratory. “Stop them at all cost,” he ordered the others.

“We received a report that our personnel who were responsible for dealing with intruders had been taken out!” reported one of the scientists.

“What?” gasped one of his colleagues in surprise.

“After reviewing some footage, it appears that we can identify one of the intruders as Euclid Tsukishiro, the fifth ranked of the Nine Alphas,” informed another.

“Euclid Tsukishiro?! Are you serious?” came a young woman scientist—the same one who was talking with the head of the lab at Euclid’s school.

The scientist that made the declaration pulled up a picture of Euclid to put beside the live footage. There was no doubt to them now that one of the Nine Alphas was here in this very building. More than half of the scientists in the room were now growing very uneasy at the thought of having to oppose one of the strongest Philosophers in the world.

“Who’s the other?” asked the head of the lab gruffly.

“We do not know,” came a different scientist. “Our cameras couldn't identify him at all. Even when we tried to match his image to Philosophers using an identification engine, nothing comes up.”

“Nothing?” asked the head of the lab with a raised eyebrow.

“There are no data on him at all. The only reply I get back from the search is, ‘Not Found’.”

“Ah! I know who that is!” came another female scientist. “That’s a student from Aokōkū! I believe his name was Sigfried.”

“Now that I look at it closer, he is wearing an Aokōkū uniform, isn’t he,” realized the previous scientist.

“And his ability is only Level Beta,” continued the female scientist. “I believe it was called Energy Reactor.”

“Level Beta?” questioned the head. ‘That level of destruction is not consistent with that at all. Something’s not right.’

Suddenly, the live-footage of the duo disappeared and was replaced with static and snow. The camera, unfortunately, became a victim of Kaiser’s penchant for destruction. “Sir, they just took out the camera!” immediately reported a scientist.

“It’s okay. We know where they are,” reassured the head. He stroked his beard. “If I remember correctly, don’t we have a trap set up right where they are right now?”

“Yes sir, we do,” confirmed the same scientist.

“Let’s split them up,” said the head with a devious smirk. One of the scientist pushed a button on their keyboard.

Kaiser and Euclid were walking through a dark hallway that led straight into the center of the laboratory when the former suddenly felt the ground below him disappear. Euclid, who had been in front of him, was spared from the trap. Kaiser fell through the new hole and landed somewhere in the darkness. Euclid witnessed the entire thing from the corner of his eye and was taken aback by the sudden trap. He leaned forward and called for Kaiser.

“I’m fine,” responded Kaiser. “Just get going. A trap like this isn’t enough to stop me. Besides, maybe I can find something about them down here.”

“I see,” said Euclid. “Well then, let us meet again after all of this is over.”

Silence. “Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever,” finally replied Kaiser in his usual harsh way.

Honestly, though, Kaiser wasn’t the least bit surprised by this development. In fact, he had expected them to have a trap or two up their sleeve. ‘I bet they just think I’m some low-level Philosopher,’ he concluded. “Gah, I honestly don’t care what they think, but the idea of them looking down on me is just bullshit. Especially since they’re a bunch of arschgeigen. I’ll teach them to look down on Kaiser.” He gently flicked his index finger and what happened next shook the entire building to its core. A massive ring of high-energy purple beams were released in every direction, disintegrating everything in its path.

“W-W-W-What was that?!” exclaimed one of the scientist in the laboratory’s control room.

“Was that an earthquake?!” asked another.

“Of course not!” shouted a third.

“Maybe it was an explosion!” posited a fourth.

“Who the hell could be responsible for that?!” cried a fifth.

“Could it be?…” wondered the head to himself.

The door to the control suddenly opened. Euclid walked in with an access card in his hand. Outside, there were no signs of guards at all. “Your friends are taking a little vacation,” Euclid politely told the scientists in the room.

“E-E-Euclid Tsukishiro,” stuttered a scientist, his face contorted in horror.

“It’s one of the Nine Alphas!” exclaimed another.

“We can’t beat him!” bemoaned a third.

“If you peacefully surrender, I’ll make sure not to send you into the depths of the Amazon Forest to serve as piranha food,” Euclid politely threatened them.

“Surrender? For what, exactly?” asked the head, unafraid of who he was going up against. “You are a member of VICE, aren’t you? If you are arresting us, then would you please tell us our crime?”

A loud explosion happened again and a cloud of smoke filled the room. When it disappeared, Kaiser appeared right beside Euclid. “I’ll tell you of your crime,” he said in Euclid’s place. He walked up and stood right in the center of the room. “What the hell is Project Doppelgänger?” he demanded with a glare.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” replied the head, feigning ignorance.

One of the scientist quickly pulled out a gun and shot at Kaiser. The latter didn’t react at all to the gunshot and casually flicked a finger in the shooter’s direction. A beam of blue energy pierced the bullet and the shooter in one strike. The shooter keeled over and a pool of blood was quickly forming around him. The sight elicited screams from everyone else. Fearing for their lives, the scientists all scrambled to escape. Kaiser held up a hand and loudly announced, “If anyone else moves, I’ll kill each and every one of you right where you stand!”

“Ah, I would obey his orders. You see, my partner is very scary because he means each and every word he says,” added Euclid helpfully.

The scientists all stopped what they were doing and stood very still.

“Now, old man, tell me what I want to know,” demanded Kaiser.

“Heh! Why should I?” responded the head arrogantly.

“Tsk, enough with playing nice,” grumbled Kaiser. He shot forward and grabbed the head mercilessly by the throat. He left just enough room for the old man to spit out information, but otherwise had a very firm hold on the old man’s life.

“Do you really think I’ll give in to your threats?” asked the head in a strained voice.

“Then what about this? Every time you don’t answer me, I’ll kill one of your subordinates,” suggested Kaiser casually. He pointed a finger at a random scientist and shot out the same purple beam as before, killing them instantly. “That was for the last excuse. Your move.”

The old man said nothing and laughed. Another random scientist was killed. “Well, if you want to know so much, then maybe I’ll tell you,” said the head finally. “Project Doppelgänger is just a means to an end. Once we complete it, our goal will be realized! We’ll be incredible, invincible, unstoppable! Philosophers under our control! We’ll rule the world!”

“That still doesn’t tell me anything,” said a peeved Kaiser.

“Ah, I know now! I know who you are,” said the old man with wide eyes and a knowing smile. He then laughed hysterically to himself like a madman. Kaiser had enough of the old man’s foolishness and promptly ended him with a beam to the head. He dropped the old man’s lifeless body from his grasp. With a sigh, he said, “Honestly, I didn’t care much about it at all. And my mission didn’t say anything about getting information. Once I destroy this place, my mission will be complete.” Without another word, he unleashed a huge array of purple and blue beams. People were killed with one hit and computers exploded. It wasn’t long before the entire room became a sea of flames.

“Done already?” asked Euclid as he and Kaiser exited the room.

“I did what I came here to do,” Kaiser told him plainly. They hopped into the hole that was made by Kaiser while he was underground.

Euclid noticed bright lights coming from a room not too far away. He told Kaiser of the discovery and they both went to explore the room. The room was a long and wide high-ceiling hall with mysterious human-sized pods lined up vertically in three rows and three columns. The tubes were filled with some kind of greenish liquid, but was otherwise empty. It looked like a scene straight out of a movie!

Euclid noticed a light coming from a computer right near the entrance and walked over to it. When he read what was on the screen, it all made sense: “Finally, the time has come for humankind to evolve further! Although humans may have evolved to be able to wield the powers of nature and abilities that allow for the manipulation and shaping of our world, Philosophers, on the grounds of ethics, cannot be used as weapons. Even though the abilities that we possess are enough to make weapons of ourselves, it is ‘ethically’ wrong to use ourselves as such. Laws have even been executed to prevent abilities from being used in frivolous and harmful ways. But now, we can finally circumvent these restrictions of ‘ethics’ and realize the potential of using Philosophers as weapons! Enter: Project Doppelgänger. With Project Doppelgänger, we plan to collect the genetic data of Philosophers around the world, with our main targets being the students of Institution Centers around the world, and use them to create clones! Imagine, using the Nine Alphas as weapons—finally, there will be no more need for nuclear warheads and chemical weapons! Only one of them are enough to wipe out an entire army! Furthermore, these clones will be reproduced for military purposes and sold to nations across the world!”

“Biological weapons,” concluded Euclid.

Kaiser raised a hand and purple beams shot out everywhere to destroy every one of those pods and eventually the entire room. Once he was done, he turned back around and made his way to the exit. Euclid joined him.

“Nice work,” said Euclid, patting Kaiser on the back.

“Touch me again and I’ll kill you,” Kaiser grumbled back.

“Noted,” understood Euclid. They exited the building and Euclid teleported them back to their location outside the building’s fence. Once they were outside, Euclid pulled out his phone and called the police. He spoke to Inspector Gōda and informed him of the matter. When he was done, he tucked his phone away.

Kaiser turned around and began to leave. “Ah, leaving already?” asked Euclid. Kaiser answered back with a wave of his hand.

A few minutes later, the police arrived on the scene. Inspector Gōda met up with Euclid and the latter explained the situation. “Good work—that’s what I would like to say, but next time, try not to do anything dangerous like this in the future,” said the inspector with a worried frown.

“But I’m Euclid Tsukishiro, the ‘Mystery Gentleman’ and one of the Nine Alphas!” gasped Euclid dramatically with feigned arrogance. “But I’ll take that into consideration next time,” he added more seriously.

“Do your best to contact the authorities before you decide to do something reckless,” said Inspector Gōda.

“By authorities, you mean you, right?” returned Euclid in a playful tone.

“Yes,” answered back the inspector flatly. “Well, we have to thank you for taking care of it, nonetheless.”

“Oh, it wasn’t just me. I had a little help,” said Euclid.

“Help?” asked the inspector.

“Ah, that’s a secret,” answered Euclid with a secretive grin.

The inspector stared at Euclid for a good minute before deciding to switch topics. “Anyway, biological weapons, huh? The idea of creating clones for military purposes is like something straight out of a horror movie. I can’t imagine a world like that, and I have no intention of doing so, either. It’s a good thing then that the plan was stopped before production began.”

“Imagine, a militarized clone of me,” said Euclid with a terrible shake of his head.

“Having just one clone of one of the Nine Alphas is scary enough. But an army made up of the full nine…,” said the inspector with a frightened frown. “Just one is enough to wipe out an entire country!”

“Oh, I don’t think I can do that,” interjected Euclid lightheartedly.

“Well, at least we don’t have to see that become a reality,” said the inspector with a satisfied sigh.

Finally, the authorities cleared and the laboratory was left alone once again. Beneath a large slab of drywall ceiling, keeping quiet the entire time until it was clear that the building was empty, was the lone survivor of the attack. The young female scientist used whatever strength she had left to push aside the drywall piece and pull herself up. Battered and bruised with wounds of varying degrees of concern all over her body, the scientist still pushed herself to move forward despite the pain that shot through her body with each movement.

She made it to the destroyed room that contained the cloning pods. “Our…project…,” she muttered sorrowfully to herself with a gasp. She dragged herself inside and gazed around the room with tears collecting in the corner of her eyes. Her sadness immediately turned into anger as the sight reminded her of the reason behind this horrible reality. “Euclid Tsukishiro,” she muttered through gritted teeth. “I will destroy you. I will get revenge for what you did to our hard work! And your unknown partner, I will find out who he is and get my revenge on him, too!”

Flickering lights from a computer caught her eye and she quickly turned her attention in its direction. She quickly approached it. “This computer…,” she muttered with an expression that was half-surprised and half-hopeful. She clicked the mouse and the screen immediately changed to one showing the collected genetic data of every Philosopher that participated in the Philosopher Tests. The damage to the computer unfortunately destroyed all of the data, causing the results on the screen to show up as ‘File Not Found’. She grew even more angrier by the words on the screen and slammed both of her fists on the computer. She then let out a loud anguished scream.

When she opened back her eyes, she noticed one slight discrepancy on the screen. She couldn’t believe her eyes and rubbed them in case she was seeing things. The discrepancy was still there. On the screen, one of the results still said: ‘File Complete’. “I-I-Is this my key to my revenge?” she asked herself, her expression brightening up like a child finally receiving what she wanted for her birthday. “If the file is still here, then I can create a clone!” She then remembered something and said, “I have a friend who works at DNAgency who owes me a favor. I’ll use their cloning program to create my weapon of revenge.” That’s when an even more devious idea came to her. “Wait, why stop at one clone? I can use this one piece of data to create an entire team!” Satisfied with her plan for revenge, she laughed maniacally to herself, her voice echoing throughout the entire dead room.

The data in question belonged to a very dangerous individual who was already considered a walking weapon by many: one of the Nine Alphas, nicknamed ‘Lady Atom’, Uzuki Sara.