The situation was growing increasingly dire by the second. Even though Tulpa's projection was capable of taking out the copies en masse, Messiah could slaughter with impunity, and everyone else wasn't too shabby either, the number of copies being made still grew faster than they could kill them. By the 30 second mark the Wards received the final piece of evidence they needed to confirm once and for all that this Overrun was in fact their friend and comrade, Dean. The earliest surviving clones began to melt away into a horrifying puddle of flesh-goop. There could no longer be any doubt. Overrun was Martyr.
A number of the Deans found themselves crushed beneath the car cleverly used by Margrave. Not to be outdone Thunderbolt tossed a train engine, killing the greatest number of the copies in a single strike thus far, yet it still wasn't enough. The train engine completely stopped its motion as soon as it came into contact with the outstretched palm of a clone. All motion, all momentum, ceased in an instant with no natural deceleration. "Alright, a brute! Let's see who's stronger, shall we?" He shoved the train engine right back toward Thunderbolt, moving about 60 mph. Something was off about it. The air around the train engine rippled, like it wasn't just the engine he affected, but the entire space that the engine occupied.
A great many copies died to Heartless's knife skills, naively attempting to punch the shadow man and getting naught but sliced arteries for their troubles. That is until another one stepped up to the plate, a good ten feet away still. The female clone that had pulled Heartless, and everyone else, back into range. "Pathetic child!" she spat at Lillian, turning back to face Heartless. "You waste your time with compassion. Should've just kept running, and maybe I'd have forgotten about you." As before she performed a tugging motion, like pulling an invisible rope, and yanked Heartless despite his incorporeal form. What's more this time it went a step further. Somehow she pulled him
out of his shadow form. Still about five feet from her, Heartless was now very much an easy target for the stampede of duplicates.
Another copy stood nearby observing the massive damaging Tulpa's projection was causing. He looked and observed, as though analyzing the monstrous behemoth before striking. Pointing a single finger at the creature, he fired out some sort of beam which struck its form. The creature did not experience any harm, but for Tulpa observing through her psychic connection the effect was very clear. The projection's personal timeline had been accelerated. It couldn't move any faster, but it was experiencing time at a greatly accelerated rate, which was only getting faster and faster. Twice as fast, three times, six, ten, twenty, yes about twenty times faster than normal was where it had maxed out. What was only a handful of seconds in reality had become several minutes for the creature. Then the copy of Dean that blasted the tulpa melted into goo, and the effect ceased, the projection was back to normal... 7 minutes into its relative future.
<"Epsilon you need to listen to me!"> Ira's communicator beeped on in a private link with Decoy, speaking Japanese. Nobody else could hear this line.
<"I know what you must have seen with your goggles. It's terrible I know, and I will explain everything to you, but it is important you do not tell the others! They need to believe the copies are not real, or they may hesitate! Do you understand Epsilon? Please, for everyone's safety, they have to believe they aren't killing anybody!">Then a massive gunshot rang out. Dean, the Wards' friend and colleague, was no more. His torso exploded into a mist of blood and bone fragment. A life ended by the massive gun of Headhunter.
"You FUCKING ASSHOLE!" echoed Troll's response, a reflexive rage. However that wasn't the end of things. No, far from it. For anybody expecting the swarming clones to end, they would be sorely disappointed. Not even the Wards were ever made aware of the specifics of Dean's power, but as the "original" had died, the power transferred to the first one created still alive. The one that most closely resembled the Dean that started it all. So more clones kept coming, more waves of enemies, each one growing more unique and bizarre from the last and more and more beginning to display their own superpowers. Sure the oldest ones were melting into flesh gunk, but that just meant they could be replaced by fresher, more dangerous soldiers. Things were getting bad and fast.
"Trying to leave?" An especially tall clone asked of Chatterbox and Sofia. He snapped his fingers and suddenly there were two Chatterboxes. Two Sofias.
"Wow, I knew I looked good, but damn I didn't realize how good!" the new Chatterbox said. His words weaved into their heads like a small trickling stream beginning to take root. Maybe Sofia wouldn't realize it, but subtle or not Chatterbox would recognize his own power being used on him.
Meanwhile, amidst the ever increasing chaos, a single
unique copy of Dean slinked away around the corner. He had existed for more than fifty seconds yet hadn't melted away, and neither was he the new anchorpoint of the power. Something was different about this one, but nobody would find out what just yet. He pressed a button on his belt turning his entire body translucent, and stepped through the wall. Out of sight, out of mind, out of the entire scene.
Leaves