The room was quiet, bathed in the dim light of the desk lamp.
Todd stood in the center, slowly stripping off his shirt and tossing it aside.
One by one, his clothes followed, trousers, socks, undergarments, until he was completely naked.
He knew from everything about powers like this: when the transformation happened, when the split took place, the expansion of mass and the shifting of anatomy would tear fabric to shreds instantly.
There was no point in ruining perfectly good clothes before he even understood how this ability worked.
Better to be bare than to be naked and broke.
He stood straight, his skin cool against the air, and closed his eyes.
He focused on the new energy humming beneath his skin, the new power now awakened inside him.
It didn’t feel like learning something new.
It wasn’t like studying a manual or practicing a skill.
It was instinctive.
It was as natural as breathing or blinking.
His body knew exactly what to do, as if this power had been part of his biology since birth
Todd took a deep breath, and then… he pushed.
The transformation was disturbing.
A sharp, tearing sensation bloomed deep in his chest and abdomen.
His skin stretched unnaturally, bulging and rippling as if something alive was trying to claw its way out from inside him.
With a wet, sickening sound, his torso split open from the sternum downward.
Flesh stretched like rubber, bones cracked and reformed, veins and muscles visibly tearing and reconnecting in grotesque fashion.
Blood and clear fluid dripped onto the concrete floor as a second head pushed out from the opening, followed by shoulders and arms.
The process was slow and agonizing, lasting nearly eight seconds of visceral transformation.
The clone’s face emerged with a silent scream, skin stretching and tearing until it finally separated.
Finally, a complete duplicate of himself stood beside him, breathing heavily.
The clone looked identical from head to toe, except for one small difference: while Todd’s eyes were blue, the clone’s were a vivid green.
It wasn’t just seeing a reflection or looking at another person.
It was like his consciousness had suddenly sprouted a second head.
He felt a link, invisible and unbreakable, stretching from his mind into the other body.
He could feel the clone’s heartbeat as if it were his own.
He knew exactly where the clone’s hands were positioned without looking.
He could feel the clone’s curiosity, his obedience, his very thoughts, flowing back and forth along that mental bridge.
It was like seeing through a second set of eyes, hearing through a second set of ears, yet he, the original, remained the center of it all.
He could command this body with a mere thought, order it to move, speak, or fight, and it would obey instantly.
“Interesting,” both Todds said at the same time.
___
Two days had passed since then.
Deep inside the reinforced facilities of Nomanisan Island, the silence was heavy, broken only by the sound of footsteps and the occasional wet thud.
What was happening here was nothing short of incredible.
Scattered across the vast chamber were twenty-nine versions of Todd.
They stood, sat, floated, or worked in different corners of the room.
But at the absolute center of it all stood the Prime, the original.
He was naked, his arms soaked crimson from fingertips to elbows.
With a wet, tearing sound, he pulled his hand out from the skull of the figure kneeling before him.
The body collapsed instantly, lifeless, hitting the cold floor with a heavy thud.
Two other clones stepped forward immediately, expressionless and efficient.
They grabbed the corpse by the arms and dragged it toward a pile in the corner, a mound of countless identical bodies, all looking exactly like him, discarded like broken tools.
“Another failure,” Todd sighed, wiping his hand on his own skin, though the blood only smeared.
He had learned much in these two days.
First, the limit: he could split himself into a maximum of thirty distinct bodies excluding himself.
That was a number he was quite satisfied with, an army of thirty versions of himself was a terrifying concept for anyone else.
But there was a catch… a big one.
Not all of them were created equal.
As the Prime, he was the only one who possessed the ability to replicate further.
He was the source.
The first five clones he created were perfect inheriters, they possessed everything he had: Homelander’s strength, invulnerability, flight, heat vision, speed… the full package.
They were equals in power, differing only by the color of their eyes.
But after those first five, the quality dropped drastically.
The rest of the clones were random.
Some inherited two or three powers.
Some inherited only one, maybe just flight, or just strengt and worse… many turned out to be completely normal humans.
Identical in appearance, but biologically ordinary, fragile, weak, and powerless.
Useless.
He had spent hours upon hours, day and night, splitting, testing, and killing the failures.
He needed an army, not a bunch of meat shields.
So he discarded every clone that didn’t meet the standard.
Right now, he had twenty-nine clones that were usable.
He only needed one more batch to get the numbers right, but the one he had just made was a dud, a regular human.
Hence, the disposal.
It was a strange, unsettling feeling, killing what was technically yourself.
Every time he struck a clone in the head or heart, the pain, the shock, the fear… it all traveled straight back to him through the hive mind.
He felt their death.
He felt the dread.
It was an eerie, surreal experience to watch your own body fall lifeless at your own hands.
However, he had learned to control the connection perfectly.
The hive mind was a network where every clone shared memories, sensory input, and knowledge.
It was like a massive database where everything experienced by one was experienced by all.
But Todd, as the Prime, held the administrator rights.
He could turn off the pain signals.
He could block memories he didn’t want to see.
He could filter exactly what sensations he received and what he ignored.
He could drown out the noise or amplify it at will.
Todd had created a ranking system to keep order:
Alpha: The top 5, possessing all powers.
Equals in strength.
Beta: Those with 3 powers.
Gamma: Those with 2 powers.
The rest… were trash.
The reason he was so desperate to categorize and rank them was simple: he had plans.
He intended to send fifteen of them out into the world.
Some would go to libraries or research facilities, disguised and quiet, tasked with absorbing every bit of knowledge possible, history, science, engineering, technology.
Whatever they learned would be uploaded to the hive mind, and instantly, every Todd would know it.
One would attend his school, keeping up the appearance of a normal student and protecting his secret identity. The source of this chapter is g.com.
After classes, that clone and the others would return here, to Nomanisan Island, which he had claimed as his private base.
The rest were already working, repairing, upgrading, and fortifying the island’s infrastructure.
It wasn’t a hassle; it was efficiency.
If one clone learned to be an architect, all of them knew how to build.
If one learned advanced mechanics, all of them were engineers.
If one learned martial arts, all of them will know.
With thirty minds working as one, there was almost nothing they couldn’t achieve.
For now, though, he intended to keep his duplication ability a secret.
Cecil was observant and paranoid; he might notice small changes, but Todd wasn’t about to reveal his trump card unless absolutely necessary.
As for the privacy of this island?
Todd had been thorough.
He had talk to Cecil into ordering surveillance drones pulled back by promising he would aid the public.
Then, using his own senses, he had hunted down and destroyed every hidden camera, bug, or listening device on the island.
He might not know how to build counter-measures yet, but he knew how to break things, and for now, that was enough.
Todd split himself again.
Another clone formed after eight seconds of discomfort.
The new clone opened its eyes, green, like most of the others.
“Show me,” Todd ordered.
The clone nodded wordlessly.
His feet lifted off the ground, hovering in mid-air.
His eyes flared bright red, and in an instant, twin beams of concentrated heat shot out, scorching the empty air and burning a mark deep into the reinforced wall behind him.
Todd nodded, a satisfied smirk forming on his lips.
“Good.”
This one had the vision and flight.
A solid unit.
Suddenly, one of the other clones approached him.
This one had eyes that burned with the same intensity as Todd’s own, the Alpha.
The Alpha floated closer, holding a smartphone out toward him, his expression serious.
“Prime,” the Alpha said, voice flat and respectful.
“An emergency.”
Todd flicked his hand, shaking the dried blood from his fingers, and took the phone.
The screen showed the caller ID: Cecil.
He answered immediately.
“Hey, kid,” Cecil’s voice came through, tight and serious, lacking his usual casual tone.
“We need help. Now. The Flaxans are back.”
“The Guardians are already there,” Cecil continued, his tone grim.
“But let’s just say… these versions of them came back with an upgrade. A big one. They’re tearing through everything. We need heavy firepower.”
“Got it,” Todd replied simply, ending the call.
He looked up at the Alpha floating before him, then swept his gaze across the room at the twenty-nine other versions of himself.
He wiped the blood completely from his arms and stood tall, his naked body radiating power.
He nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing with excitement.
“It’s time.”
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