Of course, when you are a college professor who happens to be Omega Girl, you can power through that mess in a weekend and join your dad on a trip to visit his sister’s family over in Auburnville.

When they got there, Lacie received a message from Radiant. Excusing herself with her dad’s help, she quickly made the change to Omega Girl and took to the sky. According to the message, some sort of force field had sprung up around the High-Energy Research Facility of Ad Finitum Labs. Val asked her to come by and lend a hand.

In front of the facility, which was contained in an oddly translucent dome, were several police cruisers and a cargo van along with a group of police and civilians at the back of the van. Lacie spied her mentor conferring with several others at the center of the group. She landed next to a cop at the edge of the group, who squared his shoulders ready to try to stop her reaching the center, even though she could tell by the look in his eyes that he knew exactly what his chances were to stop her should she decide to go through him. “Excuse me, officer,” she gave him a winning smile. “I’m Omega Girl. Can I be of assistance?”

A voice from behind the officer cried out, “Omega Girl?” Radiant quickly waved, beckoning her forward. The interposing officer stepped aside as Lacie nodded her thanks and stepped over to her.

An officer in his early 50s glanced at her, then back at heroine already present. “And who is this?” he inquired.

“Lieutenant Cafferty,” Radiant replied, “this is Omega Girl, out of River City. She has my complete trust. Omega Girl,” she turned to address the other heroine, “this is Lieutenant Don Cafferty, the ranking officer on site. We went to high school together,” she added with a smirk.

“So, what’s going on?” Lacie asked. “Who’s in there?”

Cafferty replied, “We’re pretty sure it’s a gadgeteer who calls herself TechJen.”

“It’s her, alright,” came a voice from the van’s open back door. The heroes and cops stepped around to spy a man seated inside before a large control console that included quite a few monitors displaying all manner of data. “According to what I’m seeing here, the way she overrode the door security uses one of her signature techniques,” he continued. “It looks like she erected the force dome with components she got from two of the labs.”

“Ladies,” Cafferty addressed the two heroines, “this is Jerry Loomis, a field researcher at Ad Finitum. He had this lab truck out on an errand when TechJen sealed off the building.”

Jerry nodded. “I was heading up on the mountain to take some measurements on electromagnetic clutter and light pollution, when I get an alert that the building was being evacuated. I turned around and came back to find this dome up and all the building personnel outside it. That was about seventy minutes ago. I was able to get a remote login into the Ad Finitum servers from here.

“Can you see what she’s doing?” Radiant asked

He shook his head. “She disabled the security cameras, but I’ve been able to keep track of her what she’s doing by way of movement sensors and the door logs. She’s hit labs on every floor and seems to be congregating her loot in a ground floor lab on the east end of the building.”

“What’s normally in that lab?” Omega Girl inquired.

Jerry shook his head. “Lot’s of equipment with long names. The lab’s focus is supposed to have something to do with quantum tunneling.” He tapped the screen. “After more than an hour going all over the place, she’s spent the last twenty minutes in there. There have been a lot of weird fluctuations from the power grid as well.”

“Can you cut the power?” Lieutenant Cafferty asked.

“I’ve been trying, but no dice. The only reason we know as much as we do is because I’ve managed to keep her from detecting me. She has the power grid and security systems locked up tight. Any overt attack to try to take them back will only alert her to my presence and result in us being completely locked out.”

Omega Girl asked Radiant,”Have you tried punching through the shield yet?”

“A couple officers tried shooting at it,” Cafferty put in. “One of them got hit in the leg when his shot bounced off it. After that, I ordered everyone to hold off and let Jerry find a weak spot.”

“Somethings happening!” Jerry announced. Outside, the crowd started yelling about the shield being gone.

“Let’s go!” Radiant cried, and was off like a shot.

“Wait!” Jerry called. Lacie paused to look back. “She retracted the shield to only enclose the lab, but it’s still up,” he told her. She nodded and followed her mentor. Jerry watched the heroines’ progress via the motion sensors. As Lacie was just passing through the building’s lobby, Jerry saw three things happen at once. Most of the mass behind the shield appeared to vanish. At the same time, Radiant slammed into the shield at close to mach one, penetrating it. This caused a massive power surge that completely knocked out both the internal sensors and the building power grid.

Lieutenant Cafferty, standing behind Jerry, saw it happen as well. His radio already set to the frequency Radiant used, he thumbed the mic, “Radiant? Radiant, do you copy?”

I

nside, Omega Girl paused when the lights went out. But on hearing Cafferty’s call, she rushed to the lab.

Lacie’s pulse pounded in her ears as she rushed through the crumbling remains of the laboratory, her boots crunching over shattered glass and twisted metal. The air was thick with the acrid scent of burnt circuitry and charred chemicals, a nauseating reminder of the catastrophe that had unfolded. She forced herself to ignore the tightness in her chest, the suffocating feeling that threatened to overwhelm her as she picked her way through the debris.

The lab was a shadow of its former self, the once sleek and sterile environment now a charred wasteland. Equipment that had hummed with purpose was now twisted and blackened, some pieces still smoldering faintly, releasing tendrils of smoke into the stale air. The floor, once pristine, was marred with scorched patches where machines had stood, their remains now indistinguishable from the rest of the wreckage. Each step felt heavier than the last as she struggled to comprehend the scale of the destruction.

But it wasn’t the ruined machinery or the devastated landscape that made her stomach churn with dread. It was the bodies. Two of them, sprawled on the floor about eight feet apart, barely recognizable beneath a layer of black, soot-like powder. Lacie’s breath caught in her throat as she approached the first body, her heart thudding painfully against her ribs. She knew that she had to check if they were alive, even as her instincts screamed at her to turn away, to not face whatever horror awaited her.

Kneeling beside the nearest figure, she gingerly reached out, her hand trembling as it brushed against the ashen coating that covered the body. The texture was disturbingly soft, like a thick layer of dust that clung to her fingers. Lacie’s breath hitched as she wiped away the powder, revealing the face beneath. Her blood ran cold.

“Val...” The name slipped from her lips, barely a whisper, as she stared at the hollow, sunken features of her friend. Val’s skin was taut, stretched grotesquely over a skeleton that seemed too fragile to belong to the vibrant, strong woman Lacie had known. She looked desiccated, a macabre mockery of the person she once was. Lacie’s mind recoiled from the sight, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away.

A shiver of pure horror ran down Lacie’s spine, her stomach twisting with nausea. Somehow, with what could only be described as a dry rattle, the rictus form before her struggled to draw a shallow breath. She had seen grievous injuries before, but the idea that anybody could survive this she couldn’t begin to comprehend. The urge to scream, to run, to vomit surged within her, but she forced it down, locking it away in a place where she could deal with it later—if there would ever be a later.

The harsh crackle of her radio snapped her back to the present, pulling her out of the spiraling pit of despair that threatened to consume her. She fumbled for the device, her fingers clumsy and numb. “Cafferty!” she barked, her voice more urgent than she intended. “We need medics in here! Radiant has been seriously injured!”

On the floor, Val began to stir.

A strangled gasp escaped Lacie as she watched her friend shift on the floor, her movements slow and feeble. It was impossible—the idea that she might survive like that was one thing, but to actually regain consciousness in that state? But Val’s fingers twitched, her lips parting in a weak groan that was barely audible over the sound of Lacie’s own ragged breathing.

“Oooooh,” Val moaned, her voice little more than a whisper, strained and raspy. “Anybody get the number of that planetoid?”

Lacie’s throat tightened, a choked sob threatening to escape. She had heard Val’s sardonic quips countless times, but never like this. The familiar, snarky tone was gone, replaced by something frail and broken. She wanted to reach out, to hold Val, to promise her that everything would be okay, but the sight of her friend’s skeletal form was paralyzing.

“Val, you’ve been hurt. Don’t try to move.” The words were automatic, a feeble attempt at comfort. But even as she spoke, the words felt hollow. What could she say to someone who looked like death itself?

Across the floor, the other figure began to moan. The sound was eerily similar to Val’s, the same weak groan of someone in excruciating pain. Lacie’s head snapped toward the noise, her heart lurching with a new wave of dread. She hadn’t looked closely at the second body yet, too focused on the horror of finding Val. Now, she felt a grim obligation to see who it was.

Steeling herself, Lacie moved cautiously toward the second figure, her breath catching in her throat with each step. The same black powder covered this body, obscuring its features, but she could tell it was just as emaciated as Val. She knelt beside the figure, hands trembling as she reached out to roll the body over. The powder flaked off as she moved the person, revealing a face that sent a jolt of shock through her.

It was Radiant, an exact copy of the woman laying not ten feet away. This woman had the same blonde hair, the same sharp features, the same uniform, but she was a husk of her former self, just like Val. Her eyes, dull and unfocused, blinked slowly as if struggling to remember how to function.

“Anybody get the number of that planetoid?” the doppelganger murmured, her voice a faint echo of Val’s.

Lacie recoiled, a chill racing through her veins. This couldn’t be real. There couldn’t be two Radiants, both injured in the exact same way, both speaking the exact same words. Her mind raced, trying to piece together the puzzle, but nothing made sense. Panic clawed at the edges of her consciousness, threatening to take over. She had to stay focused, had to figure out what the hell was going on. But every second spent in this hellish scene made it harder to keep a grip on reality.

The radio crackled again, breaking through the fog of fear that clouded her mind. “Omega Girl, we’re on our way. ETA two minutes. What’s the situation?”

She swallowed hard, forcing the words out. “Two bodies. Both barely alive, emaciated. Almost desiccated. They-- they both appear to be Radiant.”

“...Understood. We’re almost to you.”

The radio clicked off, leaving Lacie alone in the silence once more. She clenched her jaw, trying to steady her breathing. She had to hold it together, at least until the medics arrived. But the sight of the two women lying on the floor, their bodies withered and broken, was too much to bear.

Lacie’s mind raced, trying to make sense of it. But as she watched the two women, she noticed something. They didn’t look quite as bad as when she arrived. It appeared as though the meat was returning to their bones. They still looked like they had spent a couple weeks in a cell without food, but at least they no longer looked like they’d been pulled from a grave.

Lacie remembered the incident with the supertanker a couple years prior. Her powers had gone haywire, making her fire off a continuous Omega Blast. Val couldn’t even approach within a couple hundred yards from the intensity. When she tried to stop it, it apparently cut off all her powers, causing her to fall toward the Pacific Ocean beneath her. When she attempted to access her ability to fly, the continuous blast returned, and Radiant, who had been swooping in to catch her, got a face full of it, her face and upper body catastrophically burned. But as terrible as the burns had been, Val recovered from them within minutes.

Now that healing factor appeared to be coming into play again, causing both women to “magically” regain the mass they lost. It wasn’t an instant process, but it gave Lacie hope that her friend would survive what she had just gone through.

Even if there were now two of her.

***

The emergency room was unusually quiet, save for the steady beeping of heart monitors and the soft rustling of medical staff moving in and out. Val sat on an exam bed beside… herself. Both versions of her—two identical women with the same long, blonde hair, the same piercing blue eyes, the same voluptuous physique—shared a moment of surreal calm. They sat cross-legged facing each other on the bed, knees touching, a small point of contact that seemed to anchor them in this strange new reality.

Lacie watched the two women, feeling a strange mix of emotions—concern, curiosity, and a deep sense of protectiveness. These were the same feelings she had always felt toward Val, but now they were doubled, complicated by the existence of two identical versions of the woman who had been her mentor, her friend, and in many ways, her surrogate mother. And yet, despite the impossibility of it all, both Vals seemed surprisingly at ease.

One Val—the one closer to the foot of the exam bed—tilted her head slightly and glanced at the other. “So… where do we even start?” Her voice was light, almost amused, as if this were just another puzzle to solve.

The other Val mirrored her expression. “I guess we start with the basics.” She looked down at their joined hands, a subtle gesture that seemed to reassure them both. “What’s the first thing you remember?”

The first Val’s brow furrowed in thought. “I remember the lab. The explosion. The feeling of… I don’t know, being pulled apart. It was like something inside me was stretching until it snapped.”

The second Val nodded, her eyes narrowing as she focused on the memory. “Exactly. It was like a thread being unraveled. But I also remember something before that. Something… different.” She hesitated, her gaze flicking to Lacie, then back to her other self. “When I was little. The feeling that I wasn’t alone, even when I was by myself.”

The first Val’s eyes widened slightly. “Yes! I remember that too. I used to think it was just my imagination, like an imaginary friend. But now… it’s like I’ve always known, deep down, that there was more than just me.”

Lacie, who had been quietly listening, couldn’t hold back her curiosity any longer. “Are you saying you’ve always felt there was another you inside you? Your whole life?”

Both Vals nodded in unison, their expressions thoughtful. “It makes sense, doesn’t it?” said the first Val. “When we were split, it wasn’t just our bodies that were divided. It was something deeper, something that’s been a part of us since the beginning.”

The second Val leaned back slightly, her mind clearly turning over the implications. “But why now? What the hell were they working on in that lab??”

“Well,” Lacie began, “when you… you?” she pointed at one Val then the other and back again. “Which one of you made that phone call when we got here?” After one raised her hand, “I got a call from Jerry. He looked over some of the notes that survived, and it seems the lab had a focus on teleportation.”

“Teleportation?!” the two Radiants cried out in unison, then pointed at each other and simultaneously accused, “You’re Evil Kirk!” Then both broke into giggles.

Lacie facepalmed and shook her head. “My Trekkie mentor strikes again.” She was still trying to wrap her head around the situation. “I don’t know. But Jerry thinks the contracted force field was supposed to contain the teleport effect. You broke through just as it went off. Maybe you were caught in the effect and it somehow tried to beam you back to two locations at once and forced the split.”

The first Val considered this, her gaze distant as she searched for answers within herself. “It could be. It felt like it was pulling something out of me. Something that was always there but hidden.” She looked at the second Val with a sudden realization. “Like you.”

The second Val met her gaze, a smile tugging at her lips. “And now that we’re both here, we can finally figure out what that means.”

Lacie took a step closer, her expression softening as she looked at the two Vals. “It’s just… it’s a lot to take in. I mean, I’ve seen some crazy things in my time, but this… this is      something else.”

Both Vals chuckled softly, their voices harmonizing in a way that was both eerie and comforting. “Welcome to the club, Lacie,” the first Val said with a wink. “We’re just as baffled as you are.”

The second Val leaned forward, her expression growing more serious. “But we can’t just sit here and theorize. We need to figure out what this means for us, for both of us.”

“Perhaps I can help with some of that,” a new voice was heard, as another woman stepped into the exam room. She was five feet nine inches tall, wearing a white, sleeveless below-the-knee-length dress with slits on both sides up to the hip, with cleavage covered and a faux turtleneck collar. Her straight white shoulder-length hair was adorned with ephemeral sigils and glyphs that floated around the strands. She also wore a white domino mask.

“Omega Girl,” the first Val said, “this is my colleague, the Sigil Seraph. She’s one of the foremost thaumatologists on the planet.”

“Thauma-what now?” Lacie replied.

“She means I’m a sorceress,” Seraph grinned. “Radiant asked me here to look at her, um, them, from a magical perspective. It’s nice to meet you, Omega Girl.”

At Lacie’s dubious expression, Val shared a look with herself. One stepped over and guided Seraph over to one corner to talk privately, while the other brought Lacie to the far corner.

“Is there a problem?” Val asked Lacie in a low tone.

Lacie shook her head. “It’s just… Magic? Really?”

“Yes, really,” Val replied. “I learned early on that my powers are actually magical in nature. As for Seraph, I can’t go into why right now, but I trust her with my life.”

“You say that now…”

“I felt that way before I experienced King Solomon’s custody solution, and I still do. Now, don’t give her too much guff. She’s nervous enough right now.”

Lacie hadn’t noticed anything. “How do you mean?”

“She’s trying to convince me to let her call in someone more experienced,” Val answered quietly. “That she’s too young to properly handle the situation.”

“Is she?”

Val shrugged. “She’s in her thirties and has been a ‘working mystic’,” her fingers made air quotes, “for twenty years. She’s just worried because most mages with her credentials are in their eighties. But I’ve watched her career and, like I said, I trust her.”

“When did she voice these concerns?”

“Just now.”

Lacie blinked. “Wait a minute. Are you and the other you sharing a mind?”

Val grinned. “No, but we’re aware of each other’s thoughts.”

The other Val turned suddenly and raised her voice to normal conversational levels. “The reason for that is why we asked Seraph to check us out.”

Sigil Seraph’s gaze fell upon one Val, then the other, then she addressed Lacie: “Do you get the feeling we were just part of a conversation and neither of us knows what the other said?” Lacie nodded.

“Okay,” Seraph clapped once, “Radiants, sit on the exam bed, facing me, and I’ll get to scrying.” She closed the door as they complied. After a moment, the witch’s hair seemed to grow suddenly, moving down her back before flaring out to either side to form white wings, the glyphs and sigils from her hair floating within. Several glyphs separated from the wings to encircle the pair at chest level, then broke into two groups to orbit their heads individually. Then they moved to another pattern.

As Sigil Seraph’s iconic glyphs floated around the two Radiants, dancing through the air with an otherworldly grace, the room hummed with a quiet tension. Lacie, leaning against the wall, tried to distract herself by watching the swirling symbols. The sight was mesmerizing, each sigil moving in a pattern that seemed almost deliberate, as if they were performing some ancient, arcane ritual. But her mind kept drifting back to the two versions of her mentor sitting on the exam bed.

The low, steady hum of magic filled the room, mingling with the rhythmic beeping of the hospital machines monitoring the two Radiants. Despite the bizarre situation, Lacie found a strange sense of calm in the repetitive noises, as if they were assuring her that, despite everything, some things still made sense.

Sigil Seraph, her focus entirely on her task, moved her fingers subtly, guiding the glyphs as they continued their intricate dance. It was clear that the sorceress was in her element, her expression serene and composed. She was a woman who had seen it all, who had battled forces beyond mortal comprehension and come out the other side stronger for it. And yet, despite the intensity of her work, she found the presence of mind to speak.

“So, how long have you known Radiant?” she asked, her voice casual, as if they were discussing the weather and not the extraordinary situation at hand.

Lacie blinked, startled by the sudden question. She hadn’t expected conversation, not now. Her mind scrambled to catch up, and she pushed off the wall, trying to appear less on edge. “Oh, um, fourteen years. She actually helped me get started.” The words felt inadequate, as if they didn’t fully capture the significance of Radiant in her life. But how could they? How could she possibly convey what it had meant to have Radiant by her side, guiding her, shaping her into the hero she had become? Lacie glanced at the two Radiants again, a flicker of unease passing through her.

Sigil Seraph gave a small nod, her attention still divided between Lacie and the glyphs. “Fourteen years… That’s a long time. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot together.”

Lacie nodded slowly. “Yeah, we have. She’s… well, she’s been through so much. More than most. And she’s always come out stronger. She taught me what it really means to be a hero.”

Sigil Seraph’s eyes flicked to Lacie, her expression one of quiet understanding. “Radiant has that effect on people. She’s been a mentor to many of us, in one way or another.”

There was a moment of silence, the weight of unspoken thoughts hanging between them. Sigil Seraph’s fingers moved in a complex pattern, and the glyphs responded, their dance becoming more intricate, more focused. Lacie could feel the magical energy in the room intensifying, and it sent a shiver down her spine.

After a moment, Sigil Seraph continued, her tone more conversational, as if she were trying to ease the tension. “I’ve known her for seventeen years. We met when I was dealing with a vampire nest in Louisiana back in ‘72. It… didn’t go well.”

Lacie tilted her head, intrigued despite herself. “What happened?”

Sigil Seraph gave a small, wry smile. “Let’s just say bayou vampires are the worst. I was in over my head, outnumbered, and they were closing in fast. I thought that was it for me. Then Radiant showed up.”

Lacie could picture it—Radiant descending from the sky like a beacon of light, scattering the vampires with her sheer presence. It was exactly the kind of thing Radiant would do, charging into danger without a second thought.

“She didn’t hesitate,” Sigil Seraph continued, her voice softening with a hint of admiration. “She just… acted. Took them down one by one, faster than I could keep track of. By the time it was over, the vampires were dust, and I was still standing. Barely.”

Lacie smiled, the tension in her shoulders easing slightly. “That sounds like her. Always fearless, always ready to help.”

Sigil Seraph’s smile widened, a rare warmth in her eyes. “Yes, she has a way of making the impossible seem routine.”

The conversation lulled, both women falling silent as Sigil Seraph resumed her full attention on the glyphs. Lacie watched the sorceress work, feeling a strange mix of awe and apprehension. There was something otherworldly about Sigil Seraph, something that made Lacie feel small in comparison. She was used to being in control, to knowing her place in the grand scheme of things. But this… this was something else entirely.

“Do you think they’ll be okay?” Lacie asked quietly, almost hesitant to voice her fears.

Sigil Seraph didn’t answer immediately. Her eyes were focused on the final sigil, which seemed to be taking longer than the others to complete its scan. Lacie held her breath, waiting, the air in the room thick with tension.

Finally, the last sigil finished its work, and Sigil Seraph lowered her hands. The glyphs floated back to her, arranging themselves into patterns before her eyes. She studied them intently, her expression unreadable.

“I’ve discovered a couple things,” Sigil Seraph said after a moment, dismissing the glyphs with a wave of her hand. Her wings vanished as well, hair returning to its normal length. “First, it appears you were always meant to be twins.”

“What do you mean, ‘always meant to be twins’?” Lacie asked in confusion and disbelief.

Seraph took a moment to decide how best to explain. “Identical twins come from a single fertilized egg, the resulting zygote splitting into two distinct zygotes, that develop into distinct individuals. But sometimes those zygotes merge back together. When this happens with fraternal twins, the resulting individual, if they survive, would be a chimera, with two different sets of genes in different areas of the body. For zygotes of identical twins to re-merge, there would normally be no way to tell the original division occurred, as it would be result in someone with uniform genetics throughout their body, as if the zygote split had never happened.

“However, for some reason, during that brief separation, each zygote gained a soul, which is something that doesn’t normally happen until much later in the development of the fetus. So, Valorine, you’ve lived your whole life as one person with two souls.”

Lacie’s eyes widened, the revelation hitting her like a physical blow. She glanced at the two Radiants, both of whom were listening intently, their expressions mirroring her shock.

“When the accident occurred,” Sigil Seraph explained, “you were sent to two different places at once, and the souls parted ways, one to each body.”

“But why did those two bodies look like they died in a famine?” Lacie blurted out, her concern overriding her tact.

The two Radiants turned to her in unison, their identical expressions of mild annoyance almost comical. “Rude,” they chorused, smirking.

Lacie couldn’t help but laugh, the tension in the room breaking slightly. “It’s true! The EMTs can vouch for how bad you guys looked, and you were in even worse shape when I got there a few minutes earlier.”

Sigil Seraph interjected before the banter could continue. “I think the teleportation effect sent half your mass to each location. But instead of ripping you down the middle, it pulled mass uniformly from throughout your body.”

Lacie, along with both Radiants, grimaced in unison. “Ewww…”

“On the up side,” Seraph continued, her tone turning more clinical, “your powers seem unaffected by the incident. Both of you are each as powerful as you were before the split.”

“Except for the Guardian Gear,” the Val on the right stated, lifting the tiara from her brow.

“Agreed,” the left Val affirmed, removing her own. “We may have survived being torn in two, but it looks like our poor headpiece wasn’t so lucky.”

Seraph nodded. “I saw that in my examination. The energy pattern that makes up the Gear’s enchantment appears to be distributed between the two, leaving neither one working. But, if I may,” she added, “I think I can bring them back together and restore its function.” The twins quickly handed her their Gear, which she clasped between her hands and intoned, “𐑤𐑧𐑑 𐑞 𐑑𐑵 𐑐𐑸𐑑𐑕 𐑮𐑰𐑑𐑻𐑯 𐑑 𐑢𐑩𐑯. ·𐑜𐑸𐑛𐑩𐑩𐑯 ·𐑜𐑰𐑮 𐑮𐑧𐑟𐑩𐑥𐑱 𐑓𐑳𐑙𐑒𐑖𐑩𐑯.“ A brief flash of light later, she then passed the restored Gear to one of the Vals, who confirmed it was once again functional.

“Powers aside,” Sigil Seraph continued, “you also have a strong mystical and psychic connection to each other. Most twins share a womb for nine months and often feel a link their whole lives. You two shared a body for more than half a century. Your sensitivity to each other is understandably stronger.”

Lacie nodded slowly, trying to wrap her head around everything she was hearing. It was a lot to process—this idea that her mentor, who had always seemed so singular, was now two people with a bond that went beyond anything she could comprehend.

The one on the right asked Seraph, “What did you say the range on this psychic link was?”

“With the strength of the link,” Sigil Seraph replied, “one of you could probably be on the Moon and still keep in contact.”

“Maybe we should keep this under wraps,” the first Val said. She looked at her double and continued, “One of us could be the superhero, and the other could be James’s girlfriend.” Her new sister started to grin.

“How do you decide which one is going to fill which role?” Lacie asked. “You would both be cutting out a major part of your life.”

“That’s the beauty of it,” the second Radiant replied. “I know what she knows and she knows what I know. We can literally swap when we feel like it without a problem!” She was obviously excited about the idea. “Listen, Seraph and I will chase down the staff and paramedics who know about this and… do a little memory editing—”

“—while Omega Girl and I,” the first Val continued, addressing Seraph, “fulfill a family obligation we have involving her secret identity.” On the stern look Sigil Seraph gave her, she added, “Please?”

“...Very well,” Seraph conceded. She looked and Lacie. “These two are going to be trouble, aren’t they?”

“Oh, without a doubt,” Omega Girl confirmed. “It was nice meeting you.”

“Likewise,” she replied before following her companion out.

Lacie regarded Val. “Family obligation?”

“Dinner at your aunt and uncle’s place,” she smiled. “James thought you should get to know your cousins better.”

The week following the split, Val returned to River City with James, embracing her independence from the superhero life. Their days were filled with leisurely walks, intimate dinners, and conversations that reminded her of why she had fallen in love with him. James, one of the few people aware of Val’s “division,” responded with warmth and understanding, knowing that the woman before him was both familiar and somehow different. For Val, it was a week of rejuvenation, one that let her focus solely on herself and her relationship, free from the pressures of her other life.

It was the evening of day 7, as the couple were getting ready for bed, that James decided to revisit a subject they had discussed a couple months earlier. “Hey,” he began as she climbed under the covers and snuggled into his arms, “I have a question for you, but I don’t want your answer right now. I want you to sleep on it.”

“This sounds ominous…” she observed.

“Not really,” he chuckled, “I just want you to give the question careful consideration.”

She smiled into his chest, not pulling away. She knew what the question was.”Ask.”

“Will you marry me?” After a couple moments, she pulled back enough to look him in the eye. She began to answer, and he put a finger to her lips. “Uh-uh. Not now. Tomorrow. I want you to sleep on it and be sure.”

She held his gaze for a few more seconds, then sighed. “Fine. Have it your way.” she cuddled back in. “I’ll wait until morning to tell you yes.”

Several hours later, she was jolted awake. Something’s wrong. She wasn’t sure what it was. Had she heard something? Had the unluckiest prowler on the planet tried to break into James’s house? She listened intently. Nothing.

Still, she figured she should check everything to be sure. As she rose, James grumbled in his sleep. She lightly kissed his cheek and whispered, “Go back to sleep. I’ll be right back.” He turned over and settled down.

Val quickly and quietly checked both up- and downstairs for any sign of intrusion. Again, nothing. What was it that had yanked her out of sleep?

She went to the kitchen and poured a glass of water. She sat at the table and felt an unease she hadn’t realized was there begin to fade, to be replace by something else. She felt… alone, in a way she had never felt before.

Well, there’s a remedy for that, she mused, and reached through the link to her twin. ‘Hey, sis. You awake?’

...Nothing.

Fear gripped Val heart like an icy claw. ‘Sis? Val? RADIANT??’ She leapt to her feet, hands on her head, screaming silently into the void at what until recently had been the other half of herself. She could feel the link, like a line streaming into the dark, but as she reached through it, there was nothing. No, not nothing. Just… no thought, no self awareness. A solid wall.

Unmoving. Impenetrable.

She knew that this was what roused her. Whatever had happened to her twin, the shock of it was the last thing to cross the link. But she had been sleeping and so wasn’t paying attention to Radiant’s thoughts before it happened.

She closed her eyes and centered herself, reaching within to try to find some scrap of memory from just before she woke…

   Radiant had followed the money trail and other clues that led TechJen to the botched attack on Ad Finitum that cost Jen life and split Val in two. It had led her to a base buried beneath the mountain north of Auburnville…

     ...Disjointed images: breaching the hideout… moving through tunnels… confronting Cyber in a large room… his grin as she sensed a flash off to one side. Then nothing.

“A trap,” she muttered. “Of course it was a trap. What the hell was she thinking, going in alone? She should have called me or Lacie…” She walked to the phone and dialed.

“...Hullo?” a groggy voice answered.

“Lacie, I need you.”

“Val…? What time is it?”

“Who cares? Radiant’s been captured. We gotta go get her.”

“Wait. What? Who?” She clearly was still waking up.

“Doctor Cyber has my sister,” she enunciated slowly. “We’re going to rescue her.” Then at normal speed: “Now get dressed. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“But I live a half hour away…”

“I’m not driving!” she snapped. “Wake up! Get dressed! Ten. Minutes. I want to be in Auburnville in thirty.” She hung up and grabbed her own uniform.

Ten minutes later, a powered-up and alert Omega Girl was in the sky above her apartment as Val shot past. When she moved to catch up, Val stated, “I don’t want to ‘boom’ everything between here and there, so we’re going high altitude,” and she accelerated into a climb.

After twenty minutes, the pair’s speed and altitude dropped to the level where they could talk. Val filled Lacie on what she knew. The memories and images she picked up. “Okay, so, a trap. And you want to follow her into it?” Lacie inquired.

“A trap that has already been sprung,” Val replied. “This happened just an hour or two ago. He has no reason to expect a rescue this soon. Nobody is even aware it happened yet. And even if he thought Omega Girl would charge in, he has no clue there is another Radiant flying around.”

Lacie nodded. “So, how do you want to do this?”

“The front door to the base is in that cave,” Val pointed, then gestured higher on the incline. “There’s a ventilation shaft up there, which is how Sis went in.”

“At this point, are we really worried about stealth?”

“I just want my sister back,” Val replied.

“Front door it is, then.”

“Hard and fast. In three…”

“Two…” Lacie returned.

“ONE!” they yelled together, breaking the sound barrier once again as they barreled toward the cave entrance. They struck the reinforced hatch door, collapsing it in as it was wrenched from its massive hinge, and used it as a battering ram, sweeping the automated defenses from the mountings as they extended from the walls. Val set the hatch aside at the far and of the ruined reception hall as Lacie kicked the next door in.

As they stepped through, they found themselves bathed in a familiar warm light. “Stop. Stay right where you are.” The duo found they were unable to move. There was a chuckle off to the right. “Lovely. Now, let’s see. You cannot act in any way to harm me. You cannot attempt to escape. You cannot move from where you are standing until I give permission. You can speak in a normal conversation tone, but you cannot lie to me.” He stepped into view, holding the Guardian Gear in his hand as its Light shown on them. As the Light faded, he asked, “Now, any questions?”

“How!?” Val would have shouted if it were allowed. As it was the question just sounded desperate. “How are you using the Gear? It’s keyed only to me.”

The old man grinned. “How? Why, the same way you are unable to resist its effects: your newly bifurcated nature.” Val’s eyes grew wide as the implications of that statement sunk in.

“How do you know about that?” Lacie asked, still not getting it.

He regarded her. “My dear, because of the gadgets I am often seen using, the press dubbed me Doctor Cyber, and I have to say, it is the greatest favor those vultures of the Fourth Estate ever gave me. It almost makes up for how they trashed my reputation and career.

“You see, while people believe I use science and technology, I actually apply scientific methodology to mysticism and magic. The experiment that gave your mentor her powers was a modified ritual I pieced together from a number of ancient texts.”

“That experiment only activated my own latent abilities, although I’ll grant you that it may have supercharged them as well,” Val interjected.

“Quite,” the Doctor acknowledged. “I also created this trinket,” he waved the Gear, “from a piece of a destroyed Lemurian artifact. I keyed it to her because I wasn’t sure what it was capable of, or if it had any side effects. Then after I found out, I couldn’t break the bond and take it for myself.

“So, the last several years, I have devoted myself to the detailed study of the mystical ebb and flow of events, and tracing events back to root causes. I discovered your dual-souled nature,” he addressed Val, “and discovered that that, plus the Guardian Gear, was the secret to your immunity to mind control. All these years, a lot of controllers have tried to bring you to heel, but you always shrug off the control. The reason being you literally had another person inside you “unbrainwashing” you, as it were, whenever you fell to their influence.”

“You meant for me to be split in two,” Val frowned.

Doctor Cyber nodded. “Not just you, my dear. The Gear as well. I figured it would either be duplicated, or the enchantment split between the two pieces and rendered nonfunctional. In either case, I knew the keying to you would be disrupted. So here we are: a Radiant ripe for reprogramming and the means to rewrite her to my specifications.”

“Where’s my sister?” Val demanded as forcefully as the limits placed on her allowed.

The old man blinked. “’Sister?’ Not doppelganger? Fetch? Shadow?” He shook his head. “You needn’t worry about her. She’s someplace safe. And she’ll stay there until the sun expands.” He moved in front of Lacie. “The one you should be worrying about is this tall drink of water.” He glanced at her chest. “Or should I say, milk.”

Lacie blushed, unable to meet his eyes.

“Get away from her,” Val growled.

“Let’s start with the basics,” he continued, ignoring Val, “take off the mask and tell me your real name.”

Unable to stop herself, Omega Girl lifted the mask from her face. “M-my name is Lacie Ann Gilbertson.”

“And what do you do for a living, Lacie?”

She gave a ragged sigh and answered, “I’m a college professor.”

“Really??” he chuckled. “With tits like that, and you’re a teacher?” He winked at Val. “What’s the matter? Not big enough to be a research assistant?” Val scowled as he reached up and fondled a boob. “Not to worry. I’m sure there’s room in the porn industry for an Omega Whore.”

“Vincent, no,” Val said desperately as she called Cyber by his given name. “Leave her out of this! It’s me you want. She’s not involved here.”

“But you made her involved,” he glared at her. “You brought her here. Every titty fuck she gives after this is on you.”

Val felt tears stinging her eyes, the thought of him violating Lacie was too much. “Vincent, please! Let her go. I’ll do anything!”

“I can already make you do anything. But fine,” he stopped playing with Lacie’s tits and faced her. “Give yourself to me willingly, and I’ll let her go.”

“Val, no!” Lacie cried.

“Silence. Let her make her choice,” Cyber ordered her, then turned back to Val. “Well?”

“My sister, too,” Val countered.

The old man shook his head. “One or the other. Your choice. Who is the world getting, Omega Girl or Radiant? Oh, and neither of them will be able to take you from me.”

She looked at Lacie, who could only shake her head as tears ran down her face. I’m sorry, sis. She closed her eyes. “Fine. Let Lacie go and I’m yours.”

Lacie cried out in anguish at her declaration. Cheeks wet with tears, she glared hard at the evil man. “Dr. Cyber,” she growled, “you made it so that I can’t lie to you. So hear this. You will NOT get away with this. I don’t know how yet, but I swear I will find a way to stop you. And I will rescue both of them from your clutches. No matter what it costs me, no matter how long it takes, I will save them.” Her eyes narrowed. “And I will make you wish you’d never been born.”

Vincent blinked, taken aback. Despite the situation, despite having total and absolute control over the situation, he felt an icy chill running down his back. The young heroine words rang of an absolute truth, one that he instinctively knew he should not take lightly. Nevertheless, he had the upper hand, and the ability to safeguard himself. “Oh, child. How will you save them if you haven’t a clue where to look?” he stated with a sneer.

Lacie watched in horror as the smirking Doctor raised his hand, the light from the Guardian Gear filling her vision…

***

Lacie woke up in her bed and gave a long, luxurious stretch. She felt wonderful. As she rose from bed, she noticed she wasn’t wearing the nightie she went to sleep in. How odd. She shrugged and stepped into the bathroom.

Looking in the mirror, she was surprised to see Omega Girl staring back. Why was she powered up? She dismissed the question, powering down and starting the shower. As she let the water wash over her, she wondered what she could have been dreaming to cause her to turn on her power.

“Hehee. Turn ons,” she found herself giggling inanely as her fingers reached between her thighs to find her slit wet and hot. Lacie wasn't sure if she'd ever felt so horny before. As her fingers slipped across her clit, she was struck with the urge to be taken by a male, or a strong woman. Or an alpha male.

Lacie shook her head. What was she thinking? She didn’t swing that way. She didn't think of any girls like that. But, god, how good would it feel to have a nice, thick cock pounding her cunt. Or a strap-on, plunging deep. Her fingers slipped between her nether lips and teased her clit, making her gasp and moan as waves of pleasure washed over her.

She came hard and fast, leaving her knees weak. She had no idea where this was coming from, but she knew it wasn’t going to go away anytime soon.

She dried off, thinking about what she would do today. Maybe I’ll call Dad and see if he and Val want to go to breakfast…

***

Mary checked herself in the mirror one last time. Hair tied back in bun, check. Sexy maid uniform on, check. Collar tight and leash attached, check. Ridiculously big boobs almost spilling out, check. Fuckslave maid ready to prepare Master’s breakfast, check.

She scurried to start her tasks for the day. She was so glad Master had chosen to create her to be his assistant and sextoy.