Seeing Double

Prologue + 1: Takeover

(Credits go to: Stark_Bastard)

Prologue

Ben:

The Great Hall was festooned with streamers and illuminated with chromatic lights. It was pulsing with energy and throngs of people were milling about, wearing their ridiculously gaudy- looking outfits and inwardly boasting of each of its resplendence. Ben stood in a corner, perhaps the only one who stood out as well, even when his plan was to do all but because unlike the others, he had chosen to dress in a sensible monochrome outfit in the hopes of staying out of sight. Right now, he lingered in the background, scanning the crowd, trying to appease himself. He was going to make the jump soon and once that was done, there was no going back. But what he feared more was what lay ahead. In the other dimension adjacent to his own.

"Doc, where are you?" Ben sent a thought to his friend- a friend who had been the one to pave the way in inter- dimensional travel, the one who had provided his people with a one- way ticket to salvation.

See, their dimension had progressed too quickly, entering its golden age too early and now slowly crumbling to ruin all because of Man's doing. Many people were afraid, many had no idea where to go. And then the fantastic idea to travel to the next dimension popped up and Doctor Hamill was put in charge. Doctor Hamill, unlike the others who helped pioneer this breakthrough in Science, did not believe in the 'Takeover' but for his sake, his people's sake, he had conceded.

"Ben, gather with your faction. They're probably dispatching people to Earth-2 soon. Remember, we'll be able to keep in contact across dimensions because of the modified head implant so send your thoughts to me whenever," Doc sent over.

Everyone in their dimension had to have a head implant which determined the faction they were in. It was also the device that chose their powers for them. It was one of the four elements- Wind, Earth, Water and Fire. Fortunately, the implant didn't double as a tracker.

"Yeah, heading there right now. And Doc, you know you're always in my thoughts," Ben teased, a smile pulling at the edges of his lips. It was something he rarely did these days, but Doc was practically a father to him, and if he would offer up a smile, it would be to someone like him.

Ben was glancing around furtively in case anyone had noticed how he hadn't budged since he had reached and how he wasn't as excited about the wide-scale homicide that would soon take place. Fortunately, everyone was too busy to notice his presence. Or absence, rather?

"One more thing, Ben. It's time I told you this. I created the injections to numb the minds of the doppelgangers in Earth-2 during the takeover. But I knew that I couldn't possibly leave them completely helpless either. The injection will trigger something within certain individuals and I have reason to believe that they might develop powers too. Different powers but powers nonetheless. Wielders, I'd call them," Doc's voice resounded in his head.

It was then Ben noticed a girl approaching him and he immediately severed the connection.

"Snap out of it, Ben," she teased, "You're coming with me, yeah?"

Ben didn't actually know who he was supposed to go with. He looked at the girl, not wanting to put a name to the face and a memory to the person because all it did was constrict his heart and leave him with a pang of guilt. He'd taken the oath to be with the rebels and there was no going back. He didn't want to go back. There was no going back. There was only moving forward to his inevitable betrayal.