2031
Fissure was unconscious when they shackled him to the wall. Lucky for them, he was a hard one to put down the first time; they probably wouldn’t have succeeded again.
“Thank you 891, 727. That will be all.” Dr Hastings said, dismissing the two laboratory-grown hyper-soldiers.
“Sir.” They both said, saluting their superior, before leaving.
Dr Hastings approached Fissure, completely assured that the power-nullifying restraints would protect him from his new subject. “Now, let’s take a look at you…” He whispered, producing a syringe.
<><><>
Icon slammed the door behind himself. “We left him there!?” He shouted.
“I never liked the guy, but damn that’s cold.” Sparky added.
“We were going to die out there.” Flasher said. “We had to escape.”
Miss Liberty stood in the corner, facing away from her team to hide her tears. For the past year, she and Fissure had been dating. At least, as close as two people can come to dating, while fighting an underground war against an oppressive government.
“Maggie, seriously, we have to go back for him.” Icon said, approaching his leader.
Miss Liberty held up her hand, and Icon stopped in his tracks. Wiping her tears away with the other hand, Miss Liberty turned to face her team.
“Of course.” She forced a smile. “We’re only here to regroup, and figure out a new entrance strategy.”
“I knew it!” Flasher said, clenching his fist with excitement.
“Calm down Flasher, we’re not there yet.” Sparky said. “Going up against those two again would be suicide.”
“Not now that we know what we’re up against.” Miss Liberty said. “Look, they’re both hyper-soldiers, and we saw their powers.”
Icon screwed up his face. “But that doesn’t mean we can win. 891 is clearly a Mosley clone, I don’t know which one, and 727 is a Basher. Coupled with the hyper-soldier genes, they’re pretty much unstoppable.”
“I didn’t say we’d beat them.” Miss Liberty said. “But we can get by them. Keep them busy until we can get Fissure out of there.”
“And how do you plan to do that?” Sparky sneered.
Miss Liberty gave her Brats another smile, before explaining her plan.
<><><>
Fissure woke up to find Dr Hastings standing in front of him. He began struggling, but found himself completely immobilised.
“There is still some fight in you, I see.” Dr Hastings said. “No matter. You won’t be here much longer. I have already extracted your DNA for our archives. Clones made from your DNA will be quite powerful. I should receive a promotion; get out of this stinking military base and into a real laboratory.”
“You won’t be going anywhere.” Fissure said. “You know as well as I do that if you were worthy of a promotion, you would have it by now.”
“How dare you!? I am brilliant! I have been overlooked for the last time!” Dr Hastings spluttered.
“President Carmichael might be an evil dictator, but he’s far from an idiot. Everyone in his command is exactly where he wants them. He knows how to run an evil organisation, he’s been doing it for over a century.” Fissure said.
Dr Hasting’s face twisted in rage, before turning back to calm. “I’m going to go tell the prisoner transport team not to bother. It seems you resisted and we had to kill you. Quite unfortunate, I understand your friend Avatar is in the facility you were to be transferred to. He would have been happy to see a familiar face.”
Fissure spat at Dr Hastings, as he left the room, locking the cell door behind him.
Moments later, the building shook. Fissure smiled. The cavalry had arrived.
The door shot open, and two guards entered the room. “Don’t even think about making a move.” One of them said, pointing a gun at them.
“I don’t have to.” Fissure smiled, as the space behind the guards blurred, as Sparky stopped running, before delivering an electric shock to the base of both men’s necks.
“Took your time.” Fissure said, as Sparky used the last of his saved up charge to blow the power nullifiers that were keeping Fissure bound.
“If you hadn’t let your sorry ass get captured in the first place, we’d all be back home already.” Sparky replied. “Ready to go?”
“Born ready. Where are Maggie and the others?” Fissure asked.
“Follow me.” Sparky said. “I guess I’ll have to slow down so you can keep up.”
Fissure rolled his eyes and started running after his team-mate.
<><><>
“We couldn’t beat them head-to-head at full strength, so you think we’ve got a chance without our two strongest guys?” Icon asked, as he ducked behind a crushed car.
“We had the element of surprise this time.” Miss Liberty said, ducking and weaving between the oncoming fireballs. “You know, this hyper-soldier treatment isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, I know it’s supposed to be a direct genetic match to what happened to my great-grandfather, but they’re just not as good.”
“Good enough for me. The Basher was strong enough, without being faster, smarter and more agile.” Flasher said, as he fired his energy blasts at 727, who ducked and weaved just as well as Miss Liberty.
“You’re just getting out of practice.” Miss Liberty said, as she moved in close and landed a punch on 891, before taking one of her own on the chin, knocking her backward. “Damnit Icon! Do something!”
“Sorry Maggie.” Icon said, as he honed his psychic powers onto their opponents, attacking their minds directly, leaving them slightly disoriented.
“Not much I can do guys, but their reflexes are probably shot now.” Icon said.
“That’ll do.” Flasher said, as one of his blasts grazed 727’s hip, causing the mountain of a man to cry out in pain.
“Just in time too.”
All around 727 was a blur, as Sparky began laying punch after punch at super-speed, more annoying the hyper-soldier than anything, but it was enough of a distraction for Fissure to use his powers to draw the concrete up, trapping 727’s feet in the ground.
“Ok, let’s finish the other clone-trash and go home!” Miss Liberty said.
“Not so fast!”
From a second-story window of the nearest building, the Brats could see Dr Hastings with a megaphone.
“Funny you should mention 891’s origins.” Dr Hastings laughed.
“These clones shouldn’t exist, and you know it! You people try to play god!” Fissure said.
“Oh this just keeps getting better.” Dr Hastings laughed harder.
“Get to the point, point-dexter.” Sparky shouted.
“I sent away Fissure’s DNA to be added to our archives, for the next generation of hyper-soldiers.” Dr Hastings said, pausing for dramatic effect. “It seems we already had his DNA on file, in a manner of speaking.”
“What?” Fissure asked. He was sure he’d never had his DNA copied.
“Yes. It would seem you’re already a genetic match for not one, but two of our DNA files.” Dr Hastings laughed.
Fissure’s eyes went wide. He knew what that meant.
“Yes, it seems you’re a match for both Elemental #12, codenamed Kiwanja, I believe he was a member of UNLEASHED some years ago, and one Richard Jackson, or as he was designated in the databanks: Hyper Template #3.” Dr Hastings began cackling madly.
“What the hell does that even mean?” Sparky demanded, electricity crackling around him.
“That means… It means…” Miss Liberty stammered.
Fissure sighed, hanging his head in shame. “It means I’m a clone.”

Mosley tossed another beer can across the carpark and burped. That six-pack had barely lasted him an hour. He wanted more, but didn’t have any cash on him. It had done nothing to dull the anger. He still felt every little bit of rage from what had happened the day before.
The Blackbird was his teammate. The constant reminder of his father. The piece of his past he couldn’t escape. And he wasn’t helping matters by bringing his mentor, and Mosley’s father’s teammate, into his home. And then he tried to stop him from fighting a villain? He might have gotten carried away, but the Arctic Wolf was a bad guy. He deserved it.
No. Mosley realised he’d been putting the blame in the wrong place. It wasn’t about The Blackbird, either of them, or the Arctic Wolf. It was never about them. It was about what they reminded him of. He couldn’t go on taking it out on others. He had to put a stop to it.
He had to fight his father.
<><><>
After a wobbly start, Firestorm rode his motorcycle right up to the Hire-A-Hero building. He left his bike on the steps and stormed through the glass double-doors into the lobby.
“I want Napalm!” He shouted.
“Napalm isn’t here sir.” The receptionist said.
“Don’t give me that crap! Where else would he be?” Firestorm flared up.
The receptionist went pale, she’d been at the company long enough to remember Firestorm’s superpowered temper-tantrums. “… He’s not on call today. He’s not here.” She managed to stammer.
“WHAT!?” Firestorm demanded, pounding his flaming fist on the desk, leaving scorchmarks.
There was an audible ringing noise, as the elevator doors opened.
“This had better be important, I was in the middle of a massage.” Captain Awesome stepped through the elevator doors.
“You? Go back upstairs. I want my father.” Firestorm ordered.
Captain Awesome glared at Firestorm. “Don’t speak to me like that, you insignificant little nothing.”
“I’ll speak to you how I damn well please jerk-off.” Firestorm said, cracking his knuckles.
Captain Awesome sneered. “They didn’t need to call me. Any of those D13 kids could have handled this.”
“Oh yeah? Send them down; I’ll kick their asses like I’ll kick yours.” Firestorm’s skin was a raging inferno by now.
“As much as I’d like to teach you a lesson about respecting your betters, I think that’s your father’s job. He’s not here. He went home.” Captain Awesome said.
“Home? Are you kidding me?” Firestorm demanded. “You’ve got to be f***ing kidding me.”
“He went home, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go too.” Captain Awesome cracked his knuckles. “Because he’ll probably leave you alive. I’ll just kill you.”
“I’ll be back for you, jackass.” Firestorm said, storming out of the lobby.
Captain Awesome laughed. “You girl.” He pointed at the receptionist. “You’re coming up to my room now.”
The receptionist paled even further. “Me…?”
“That little bastard got me all angry. I have a lot of energy to work out, and the massage girls aren’t going to be enough.” Captain Awesome leered.
“… You want me to…?” Mary stammered, clearly looking frightened. She had seen what the girls they sent to him came back looking like.
“Sure, why not? You’re kind of pretty.” Captain Awesome reached over the desk and lifted the woman out of her chair.
“… But…” Mar protested, but Captain Awesome ignored her, carrying her into the elevator with him.
<><><>
The sun was starting to set as Firestorm rode his motorcycle into his old street. He hadn’t seen the place in months, but nothing had changed. Still the same run-down houses, the same car bodies. This was his own personal slum on the outskirts of Newport. His own personal hell.
His motorbike had barely stopped moving when he jumped off and charged at the door, knocking it off its hinges with a huge fireball.
“What the hell?” The elder Mosley screamed, as he rushed to see the commotion. He wasn’t panicked, he wasn’t even worried. When he saw his son standing there, his face became angry.
“You stupid little bastard.” He said. “What do you think you’re doing, blowing my damn door in? You want to blow my cover?”
Firestorm’s jaw set. “That’s not all that’s going to be blown.” His skin flared up again.
“So you came here for a fight, did you?”
“You know I did. It’s my turn now.”
“Your turn for what? You think you can beat me? Boy, look at me.”
Firestorm looked at his father. His beer-gut was gone, he looked five years younger. Gone was his slight hunch. Instead, James Mosley was every inch the super-hero he had once been.
“Looks like I was right.” James said. “I always told you that you ruined my life. Because of you I lost everything. My wife. My career. My health. You stole eighteen years of my life. But I’m making up for lost time. I can have the limelight back. And you’re not going to be able to ruin it for me again.”
Firestorm’s face contorted into animalistic rage, as he charged forward to attack his father. James sidestepped and tripped his son, sending him sprawling into the wall.
“What are you, drunk?” James taunted, as Firestorm climbed to his feet and tried again, this time connecting. As his son’s shoulder grazed his hip, James laughed.
“This is the best you can do? Take away the advantage your powers give you, the advantage I gave you, and you’re worthless.” James said.
As Firestorm made one last grab for his father, James swung his fist up and hit him in the jaw, knocking him down.
“You sicken me.” James said, as he turned his back on his son.
Firestorm climbed to his feet. “I’m not done yet, you son of a bitch.”
“Yes you are. Get out of my house, and never come back. You were never welcome in the first place.” James said.
“Fight me!” Firestorm demanded.
“You’re not worth it boy. You don’t deserve to call yourself my son.” James said, turning his back once more.
With a savage roar, Firestorm charged at his father, managing to get one blow in to his face, before taking two shots to the abdomen, and a knee to the face, knocking him unconscious.
James shook his head. “No son of mine.”