Vortex Origins

The room shook again. The tremor rolled through the walls like something massive had stirred beneath the base.

Max's room was cluttered but calculated. Steel shelves lined with parts and half-assembled machines flanked the left wall. A monitor stood powered off beside a glowing circuit board, still warm from last night's work. The air smelled faintly of solder and coolant. Against the far corner, a white marker board stood beside a long table riddled with sketches, formulas, and system diagrams etched in black ink. Notes crowded every inch, scrawled fast but sharp, like thoughts he didn't want to forget.

The tremor reached him. His eyes opened.

He blinked once, sat up slowly, then rubbed his face.

"Argh... what is going on now?"

Before his feet hit the floor, the door slid open.

Nexer charged in. The bot's body jerked with static. Its voice stuttered, mechanical and clipped.

"Max. Max. The base is under attack. The attack is coming from your lab."

Max didn't speak.

He was already moving.

Barefoot steps hit the steel floor. He pulled on his jacket mid-stride, heart hammering. Every thought pointed in one direction: why the lab?

When he reached the hallway, the damage told its own story.

The doorframe was warped inward like something had exploded from within. Chunks of the wall had peeled back. The floor was torn, as if a body had been thrown hard enough to leave its outline. Wires hung from the ceiling, still sparking, burned down to their cores.

Maintenance bots swarmed the corridor. Some repaired the twisted panels. Others scrubbed carbon from the walls or welded broken hinges back into place. The lights flickered, casting the scene in a pulse of harsh white and dim shadow.

Max stopped. His hands curled into fists.

He stared at the dented door to his lab.

His throat felt dry.

"Dammit. What's going on?"

The wall shook again, harder this time. Dust slipped from the cracks and drifted across the light.

Max stepped closer to the ruined entrance of his lab. His breath came slow. One foot past the threshold and the smell hit him, burnt copper, scorched circuits, and something sharp beneath it. Not blood, but something close.

The lab wasn't destroyed. That was the first thing he noticed. Some of the major systems were intact. His core tools hadn't been touched. The whiteboard still stood tall. A few screens blinked on and off in the dark like dying eyes.

But the rest was chaos.

Scorch marks stretched across the floor in uneven lines. A table had been flipped. Part of the left wall was punched inward, the impact deep enough to bend the frame. The air was heavy. Like something powerful had been set loose and didn't care what stood in its way.

Maintenance bots crawled over the mess, scraping, sweeping, and welding.

Max's eyes moved fast. Every detail was screaming the truth.

Kael had been here.

This was a fight.

But who was he fighting?

His gaze shifted. The plastic cage on the upper shelf caught his eye. His body froze.

Two spiders.

But one was wrong.

One lay curled beneath a coat of silk, its body limp, legs folded inward. Covered like a corpse. The other moved slowly, weaving strands across the cage in smooth patterns. It did care about the death of its twin.

Max stared, and something cold pressed into his spine.

His head turned toward the worktable.

The Duplicator sat near the edge.

Its settings were changed.

The interface was dim, but not powered down. The trigger was reset. The stabilizer was out of alignment by a single degree.

Someone had used it.

His chest tightened.

This wasn't just damage. This wasn't a random fight. Every mark pointed in one direction. Every answer was carved into the walls, burned into the metal.

He stepped back from the table, eyes locked on the spider web, on the corpse inside it.

Questions flood into his mind.

How did the spider die?

Was it killed by the other one?

If that was true, then something had gone horribly wrong.

No... this wasn't just a malfunction. This was about to turn into something far worse.

The room shook again.

A deeper tremor. Something hit the far end of the base. The air snapped.

Max clenched his jaw. Fire boiled in his blood.

"Kael!"

————

Flames surged in Kael's palm. His arm snapped forward, and the fireball screamed through the hallway, its glow painting the walls in orange and bloodlight.

The target stood just ahead—identical in face, frame, and movement. Anyone watching would think they were twins, if not for one detail.

The other Kael's eyes weren't black.

They were human.

The clone leaned left, dodging the fireball with a sharp pivot. His right arm lifted.

A beam of fire tore from his hand, thin but furious, burning a line through the air.

Kael didn't flinch.

His own beam roared out to meet it.

The hallway vanished in a wall of heat and smoke. Metal groaned as the impact rattled the frame. The blast didn't end—it bled into the steel and left the air thick with ash.

Footsteps echoed inside the smoke.

The clone stepped forward.

"To think we're equal in power. I wanted a fight, yeah, but not like this. We should—"

His voice cut off.

Kael burst from the haze and drove his fist into the clone's chest.

The hit landed with a sound like crushed armor. The clone flew back and crashed into the wall hard enough to dent the metal. His body folded before hitting the ground.

The hallway shook again. The impact rattled the ceiling. Loose panels fell. The light flickered overhead.

Kael wiped blood from his mouth and stared ahead.

"Stop talking like you're me. You're not. You're just a clone."

The clone's boots hit the ground.

He moved without warning, fist flying toward Kael's face.

Kael ducked under the strike, his body spinning past the blur of motion. His hand lit up again. Fire burst from his palm.

The clone had already twisted mid-air, both hands slamming against the ground.

Flames exploded beneath him, launching his body up like a flare. Kael's beam flew past and slammed into the far wall, leaving a wide scorch mark across the steel.

High in the air, the clone shifted his stance. His arms pulled back, fire pooling at his palms.

Then he blasted it downward.

The recoil launched him like a bullet.

Straight toward Kael.

His voice rose through the chaos.

"Can you stop trashing the place? What do you think Max is gonna say when he sees all this?"

The clone slammed into Kael, grabbed his waist, and drove both of them into the ground. Steel cracked beneath the weight of their bodies, then again as they crashed into the wall at the end of the hallway.

Both hit the floor hard.

Both stood just as fast.

Kael's arms lit up, red fire swirling to his fists like blood boiling through skin. He stepped forward and drove a punch into the clone's face.

"What do you mean by trashing? You're the one who started this."

The clone stumbled, then steadied himself.

Flames surged up his own arms.

His punch struck Kael's stomach and forced the air from his lungs.

"Yeah. I started it. Because you don't get it. You're the clone. I thought it was smart to end this before you got any funny ideas."

Kael's eyes narrowed.

"Any funny ideas?"

He stepped in and slammed his fist into the clone's jaw.

"You don't even realize it. You're the one with the black eyes. That's proof enough."

The clone staggered back. His body tensed but he didn't strike. His voice came out low, sharp.

"What are you talking about? You're the one with the black eyes."

Kael raised a finger and pointed straight at his face.

"You think you can trick me? I saw it the moment you opened your mouth to speak to me. You're the one with the black eyes. You are definitely the clone here. Just accept it. "

The clone's stance shifted. His shoulders squared. His fingers curled again.

"Yeah. This is exactly why I wanted to erase you. You already tossed out the truth. You don't want to see what makes you the copy."

Kael stepped forward.

The clone met him halfway.

Their fists collided in midair. The impact shot out a wave of force that stripped the dirt off the floor and cracked the walls nearby.

They moved to strike again—

A voice tore through the air like a blade.

"Both of you. Stop it."

The words landed heavier than the blows.

Both Kaels froze.

Their eyes turned to the far end of the hallway.

Max walked through the wreckage, fists clenched, shoulders stiff, his face carved in fury. The hallway behind him was scorched and twisted from the fight. Sparks still fell from the ceiling.

Behind him, a swarm of maintenance bots followed in silence. Welders, scrubbers, and patchers—all ready to clean up the destruction the two Tier Six monsters had left behind.