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The Face#13 – Day of the Doppelganger.
There I was, face to face with my faceless face; pitted against a four-armed exact counterpart of myself, with tattered, bloodied clothing and bulging, muscular veins. This thing did not seem happy to see me. I was fortunate enough to be greeted with a strong swipe of the wrist that had aimed for my face, but I was able to block the strike in time with my own arm. Though I had to say, the blow was still rather painful.
I shifted from the defensive to a counterattack, reeling my arm backward, and aiming for the monster’s gut. It was as tough as a rhino’s hide. My arm trembled at the repelling force, and the eyes behind my mask widened in amazement. He seemed to work out often. Foolishly being distracted by this wonderment, I was unprepared to brace myself for a connected blow to the gut, which sent me backward and wheezing for air.
Recollecting myself, I rushed forward, and prepared an attack of my own, swiping my right foot upon the ground like that of a Dragon’s Tail, to sweep my opponent off my feet. But instead of falling, he seemed to anticipate that very movement, and he leaped into the air with great height, and pulled back both his right arms, strangely to say, and readied himself for a two-fold jab.
I fled from the intended target area, and watched as the monster struck down his fists into the road with ground-breaking force. This was no mere imposter.
Again I struck, this time with a Crippling Axe Kick technique, raising my right leg high into the air, intending to strike the monster’s jaw… but if it missed, that was only the beginning part. In just a moment’s notice, I would force my limb downward in a rapid motion like an axe slicing through plain wood. Unfortunately, my plan was foiled, when the monster took hold of my foot with two hands, and flipped me over upon the ground causing great discomfort and agony.
He seemed to know my every move.
Knowing that I had outdone myself, and that continued fighting would lead to nowhere, I decided to do what any other self-respecting citizen would do in a situation such as this. I fled. Rushing down the street, I looked for an ideal alley to escape through. But as I made my way down the road once again… an astonishing thing occurred.
The monster had leapt at twenty feet before he landed right in front of where I stood. The bare, oddly-shaped feet had dug into the road with unrelenting force.
I made my way to the nearest dark alley and chose my regular route of escape… the fire escape. I clamored up to the rooftop as quickly as I could, with much agony brewing through my limbs.
When I had finally reached the top, I was relieved, but not completely, to see that the monster was nowhere in sight. That is, until I heard a strange rumbling noise beneath me.
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I looked over the front of the building, and to my display, the doppelganger had somehow managed to dig his hands into the concrete of the building and pull himself up with great ease.
I wasted no time, and opened the rooftop door to enter the building. Quickly, with an abundance of sweat collecting atop my forehead, I pushed the elevator button and waited patiently until the light lit up. The door opened, and I waved the rampaging beast that headed toward me goodbye. The doors had shut in time.
I put a finger to my chin to think of a way to free myself from this mess. But my thought process was interrupted once again, this time, by the sound of scraping metal. It was the beast again, and he had opened the door to the elevators and jumped upon my cable car, for I felt a great rumbling and sounds of clattering metal. He burst the door open, and one of his deranged limbs began swiping at me with fury.
I pushed the emergency stop button, and manually opened the doors before me, and fled down the staircases to exit the building from the lobby.
I saw a man preparing to enter his vehicle, which was a beetle, of all sorts, and I sprang into action and asked him if I could borrow it for a moment, intending not to wait for an answer.
The glass windows to the hotel had sprung out from the original frame, and the doppelganger was close behind. I started the ignition, put up the brake, ignited drive mode and stepped on the pedal. Hopefully, I could escape.
Unfortunately, I was too hopeful at that. Using his incredible leg strength, my friendly neighborhood carbon copy jumped upon the roof of the car, and began to punch at it rampantly. He then had the idea of breaking the glass window beside me, and he pulled me from my collar out of the car and into the breezing fresh, city air. No one was driving anymore. But luckily, he threw me off of the car in a fit of rage before the Beetle collided into a lamppost. The monster was thrown from the vehicle and onto the ground.
I found myself a nice little manhole cover, and hoping that I was stronger than when I had previously attempted such a feat, I pulled. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as difficult as I expected it to be. I then quickly climbed down the ladder, and into the depths of the underground plumbing system.
I made sure that I quietly walked into the darkest area, so that my eyes could adjust to the darkness faster than the monster’s, and in effect I would have the advantage of surprise. I would use my trump card. It was a familiar one to many readers. I steadied my hand upon the cellular phone that rested inside of my trench coat pocket.
I heard the monster clumsily splash through the water. He may have had great strength, but he did not inherit my ability of stealth. I waited silently, breathing shallowly, making sure not to make any movement.
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Then, I saw him. I let fly a blast of electrical energy at high power from my taser, which would have rendered a normal person helpless and stupefied. And yet again, I was reminded that this wasn’t any normal person.
In some bizarre sort of effect, the electrical waves seemed to engulf him in a friendly manner, and looked to have been absorbed into the tough skin. He held up one of his fists, brushed it forward, letting out a large spark of thunderous lightning. This clone of mine must have been highly upgraded from the original. In a moment, I felt a strange, agonizing sensation, and fell into the dirty water. My consciousness had left me.
The next thing I knew I was dangling atop a building, only to be held aloft by a single helping hand. However, in this case, when I looked up, it was more of a threatening hand. I was shocked at the sight of my doppelganger, and thought to myself, “Oh yeah… now I remember,” with reminiscent thoughts of the strange electrical phenomenon.
Suddenly, I heard a door burst open which indicated possible companions who had come to my aid. But a voice confirmed that it was just the local law enforcement officers.
“This is the police! Put your hands up!” One officer cried. I was surprised to see that it only took them an hour to get here, more or less.
But with such strength the beast that was threatening me had possessed, how could bullets stop him? However, I was astonished to feel myself being thrown into the air like a human Frisbee, and landing safely on top of a pile of ineffective police officers.
I watched as the monstrous counterpart roared in anger, pounding his four fists loudly upon his chest, and then leaping off the building to a great distance below… I assumed.
And just what I needed was a few babbling officers who could not distinguish the good from the bad.
“Alright, Face!” The officer said. “You’re under arrest…for all the wrongful acts you have committed!” And he cuffed my hands as I sat bewildered in befuddlement.
“Can’t I make ONE phone call?” I asked the unforgiving law enforcer.
“Nope… you’ll get nothing! Hear me? Nuthin’! Muahaha!”
“You’re disenfranchising my right to counsel! I could have you put in this jail in my place, you know! I’m a journalist!”
“Journalist, shmournalist. I just want my $450 for your capture. I gotta feed the family tonight y’know.”
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I sat down on the isolated bench in the barred precinct, feeling entrenched within a hopeless situation. But then, I had an idea.
“Hey officer, aren’t you gonna check to see what my real identity is? I’m sure the ol’ commish would be proud if you finally found out who the real ‘Face’ behind the Face was!”
The officer stroked his chin for a moment, contemplating the words.
“Hey… you know what, guy? You’re right! I’ll be the new top cop in this town for sure! Jeb Slinger… unmasker of the Face! No, not just Officer Jeb… Deputy Jeb! Then there’ll be enough pork chops on the table for a century!”
The officer approached the cell.
“Don’t forget the keys.” I said.
“Oh, yeah! Of course! I almost forgot! Thanks, guy!” The officer thanked, retrieving the keys.
He carefully chose the right one and unlocked the door, which gave me just the right opportunity to sock him in the head and leave him unconscious. I dragged him upon the bench and closed the door to the cell.
“You are hereby sentenced to jail for a while for refusing a citizen of his right to counsel,” I explained.
This wasn’t the most noble thing to do, but some things need to be done in order to protect. Besides, I would make up for things later once I got my friendly clone behind bars in my place.
But once I was outside of the precinct my friend was nowhere to be found no matter where I searched. It seems that he had somehow escaped my clutches, but only for this round.
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