Mine 22 (Clones really rock.)

Cole stood in front of a large towering building with a stunned look on his face. This was probably the last place he expected to find when he traveled here. Yet here he was, the skyscraper that was the Med-Hall building right in front of him.

Of all the places the Endbringer Shelter could have been built under it had to be this one. This place was a front for the Empire. His father did not work for this place for obvious reasons as the Empire did not want their connection to Medhall to be revealed but he did work at a company associated with them.

There were actually a lot of Empire supporters working in that company but it was seen as a necessary evil in the public eye. The company that his father worked at was part of a vital logistic chain after all. No one really asked any questions after that fact was revealed.

There is no need to question why such a vital connection was left to them or why they could not forge a new connection. Business was cutthroat after all, if you wanted to advance it meant making deals with less-than-ideal people.

Anyways the Medhall building was a major landmark in the downtown area so he should have expected it would be close to the shelter. The thing is from the permits and mapping that Lisa gave him it was placed right on top of the fucking thing.

Thankfully Cole was not dressed as himself as the security cameras would have caught him instantly. Which would lead to even more problems for him.

He looked around but obviously, the entrance to the Coil’s super secret base was not going to be in the open. He was at least fairly confident that the entrance was not in Medhall itself as that was firmly under the Empire’s control.

That left the rest of the buildings on this street to case out. He took one last look at the Medhall building before he slinked away to a more private location so he could send clones to infiltrate and search for the entrance.

While his clones were breaking and entering with near reckless abandon he was texting Lisa to get her input. He had to foot a new phone bill to get her set up but he did nuke her previous phone so it was fair game.

Her replies were slow but insightful as she went over the information he provided. She was getting ready to talk to the Undersiders to get them on board so she was a bit preoccupied but she was able to offer some new angles.

Thankfully he did not have to wait too long as one of his clones managed to find the place after breaking into an office building. The top floors were the standard office affair but the basement had an elevator that was fairly hidden and was not anywhere near the regular elevator path.

After swapping with the Clone he arrived in a dark corridor that was hidden behind several winding paths. At the end of the hallway was the elevator that the Clone spotted but there was a camera monitoring said elevator.

Cole cursed softly as that was going to be an issue but it made sense to monitor the fucking entrance. He could do the whole EMP routine again but that might lead to Coil freaking out and trying to get away.

Beyond that considering the amount of resources that Coil put into the fucking base it was most likely shielded from EMPs. It was not exactly a difficult task for modern equipment to shield an EMP after all. As much as it pained him to say Coil was not one to cut corners in any of his plots.

Cole frowned as he tried to figure out a way to get to that elevator shaft without alerting the cameras. He let out a sigh as he could not see a way to slip into a blindspot considering the coverage and hacking the security system would require an access point. 

He knew that there would be air ducks but unlike movies, most of them were not exactly inhabitable for humans. This was not like the purposely poorly built prison. Like he said Coil did not cut corners so such easy methods were definitely off the table.

So instead of trying to slink his way into this base he went for hiding his motives in audacity. He swapped into his Cape outfit clearly showing exactly who was showing up and waltzed his way down the corridor. Taking out the camera with a flick of his wrist as he sent a metal card at it.

He was playing up the foolhardy teen who was too reckless for his own good. Coil would certainly be cautious about the new cape on the scene targeting him but from what was publicly known he should be able to handle the kid. At least that was what Cole hoped Coil thought.

So Cole was betting on him not immediately bolting. It was risky but it worked out this way. Cole called for the Elevator and waited for it to arrive.

As the cold metal doors parted to the brightly lit elevator he blinked. He expected that he would be dealing with guards coming up immediately but maybe Coil wanted to lure him in deeper first.

Again there was a camera monitoring the inside of the elevator but it was soon taken care of. Before he could even hit a button to go somewhere the thing started moving so he faced towards the door and waited. While he was doing that he produced two clones and had them hide on top of the elevator by popping open the top.

He opened up his Inventory and gave them some tools for fabrication. If he was going to pull this off he needed to be prepared after all.

The clones would be taking care of his more secretive motives while he drew attention to himself. The doors of the elevator opened and he was greeted with the sight of a long brightly lit hallway that currently had half a dozen men pointing rifles his way. Instead of the professional gear that was on the mercs, the guns were odd looking.

Still clearly guns but strangely designed with bulky and unnecessary-looking apparatuses. Tinker Tech even mass-produced was not pleasant to look at. Cole raised his hands up with a calm smirk on his face.

The mercs looked like they were a moment away from riddling him with bullets if he so much as twitched in their direction but him slowly raising his hands was let past.

“Come now boys, if I wanted a fight I would have been a whole lot more aggressive. I just want to talk to the man in charge. I figure a man of his talents would want a man of my talents working for him.” Cole spoke out calmly as the guns did not shift away from him for a moment.

There was a tense moment as the mercs waited for someone to make a call but that tension was broken by the crackle of one of their radios.

The mercs moved as one at that signal. Two walked forward with uneasy looks on their face and the other four kept their guns trained on Cole. He just smiled blandly at the men walking towards him.

While they were approaching him he had his clones start working on the next step of infiltration. He took a cursory glance at the Mercs uniform and how they were equipped. The first clone started fabricating a uniform and fake tools while the other one started working on a face mask.

Cole's job was to keep an eye on one of the mercs to capture their movements, appearance, and mannerisms to the best of his abilities.

“Boss-man said he would have appreciated a more subtle approach but now that you are here he is willing to forgive…your aggressive approach.” One of the men spoke out stiffly clearly not fully on board with this but willing to follow orders.

Cole smiled at him for a tense moment, trying to drag out this interaction a little longer. The moment the lead guard frowned as if he was dissatisfied Cole piped in again.

“Well, I could not afford to waste time with subtly I’m in a bit of a bind and I needed to catch the Boss-man’s attention,” Cole spoke out with a nonchalant shrug as if there was no lethal tech being pointed at him.

The guard let out a scoff and looked like he was going to say something but Cole beat him to it again.

“Come on boys, surely you can understand that life can get a bit messy. Sometimes you end up far too deep into something and have no idea how to get out of so you have to do something drastic.” Cole spoke out slowly dragging out his words to fit an elegant persona but mostly to keep wasting time.

The guard looked at him flatly. “Whatever, just follow me.” The guard spoke out as he started to lead forward with the other guard following behind Cole with his gun still out and pointed at Cole.

Cole paused for a moment but thankfully his clones had finished up their tasks. So Cole looked over at one particular guard and swapped his position with his own disguised Clone. The fellow Mercs around him did not even notice the change as they were too focused in on him.

His other clone knocked out the guard that suddenly appeared beside it already prepared. Thanks to the hive-mind nature of his clones Trickster’s power was massively boosted. So he could swap the guard with his clone despite said clone not being in his eyes sight since the other clone was watching it.

Cole went along with this whistling a jaunting tune that seemed to annoy his escort but they were not really his concern. He was in a fantastic mood after he was able to get some of his plans to work out. 

While he was leaving the Clone was swapping its fake gear with the one on the unconscious guard. So that the fakes would not be called out later.

Cole walked with the two guards while the rest of the Mercs were heading back to a certain point. His clone was mainly following the lead and acting like he already knew everything but thankfully it appeared they were a part of a group.

He was being led around through countless hallways as they took twists and turns to get to their destination. Cole was fairly certain they were taking unnecessary turns to mess with his sense of direction as they constantly took turns. Even if this complex was massive and it was sprawling underneath the city the amount of turns they took was outrageous.

Sadly for them, Kaito Kid had a photographic memory so all they were doing was building up his mental map of this place. Even if said mental map just equated to hallways and how to get back to that Elevator.

Still, even if they were stalling Cole eventually reached the destination they wanted to lead him to. The Lead card took out a card and swiped it opening the door in front of them. The guard then gestured for him to enter the room while he gripped his rifle tightly. Again Cole gave him a bland smile and walked into the room with a relaxed gait.

The room they brought him to was a richly decorated office. Tasteful but clearly showcasing his wealth. It was a stark difference between the bland white hallways that all looked the same but the two things had different purposes. Those hallways were purposefully bland to disorient anyone wandering them while this office was meant to intimidate from the wealth disparity.

Seated behind a desk in a dark leather chair was an almost skeletal man. He was dressed in a tight body suit that did not take away from that skeletal image as it clung tightly enough to him you could see the man’s ribcage. The black body suit was mostly featureless but there was a white snake drawn on it wrapping around the man from head to toe. It was coiling around him which of course meant this man was Coil.

Or that was what Coil wanted him to think. From what he can recall Coil was known for using body doubles to issue orders on his behalf. Why put yourself at risk when you had other options? Even with his almost fail-proof power, Coil was someone who put his safety above everything else.

Again this might have been another Fannon theory that got stuck in his head but he was fairly confident that it was right. The man sitting at the desk in front of him was far too calm after all. He was carrying himself like a man who was used to being in control and who was in control of the situation in front of him. There was not a hint of the nervous energy that Coil should be feeling as his power was effectively shut down right now.

Cole gave the man a cocky wave as he stood in front of him without a worry in the world.

“You must be the bossman, I heard your name was Coil but I did not think it would be quite so literal but I can dig the snake motif you got going on. God knows that most Capes in this city can’t understand the need to pick a theme and stick to it. Look at me, I got this whole stage magician look going on for me but Lung just wanders around shirtless. Sure it’s intimidating but that is more about his power than his outfit.” Cole rambled out with an easy smile on his face. 

The longer he spoke the more exasperated the body double before him would be. He really wanted to sell the image of a cocky teen losing his head. Cole could tell from the subtle twitches of his body that at least a part of this was working on the Bodydouble.

Too bad he was not the one he needed to convince. Coil was bound to be watching this but not knowing how he was taking this image was worrying. Hopefully, the rest of this can work out as he expected.

“That’s quite enough Mr. Diamant.” ‘Coil’ spoke out in a calm but slightly annoyed tone. Hearing his words Cole paused for a moment and felt his lips twitch. Coil really was willing to poke at the unwritten rules so blatantly. Then again it was clear that Cole really was moments away from his identity being exposed.

“Huh, I’m afraid I don’t quite understand bossman,” Cole spoke out with a guileless smile. The both of them knew he was lying out of his ass but that was not the point of that exhange.

“My apologies, I must have confused you with someone else. I’ll look into that further later but for now how about you introduce yourself? Or would you like to be called Stagehand?” Coil spoke out calmly with a hint of edge. The guy was basically brushing past his ‘mistake’ while making it blatantly clear he did not mind using said mistake to his advantage.

“I was thinking of going by Phantom Thief but that sounds kind of lame as well. Making up a Cape name on the spot is a pain in the ass. I know I don’t want to be Stagehand at least. So I guess we could roll with Phantom for now.” Again Cole rambled out trying to lead this conversation in pointless circles. He was drawing attention to himself after all.

His clone had followed along the Mercs to a rest station. Filled with beds and a table. The Mercs started a game of Poker but someone had to patrol the halls so his clone volunteered. The others did not even think about his choice. Just letting the clone wander out of their rest area.

While he ‘patrolled’ he was mapping out the complex further. Most of the rooms were cells and empty storage areas but he was finding more and more things as he went. Eventually, he managed to get to the security room that was filled with walls of monitors and computers to well monitor the complex.

When he opened up that door the people inside looked up at him in alarm but he excused himself quickly. Thankfully they shrugged off his random entrance. Knowing what was in that room the Clone played the same trick they did earlier. By preparing a different disguise and cracking open the door slightly to replace one of the men at the computers.

One more swapped guard and a knocked out merc later and he finally had access to the compound. Thankfully his Clones could make more Clones or this would have been more difficult. So the original Clone went back on patrol while the new Clones started to work on the terminal. The Clone started breaking into the system to the best of his abilities so Cole was close to getting what he needed.

“Well, I’m sure we can come up with something more appropriate later. For now, let’s focus on your recruitment. You said you were in a bit of a mess. I have an inkling of what you mean. I am more than capable of securing your friend and your family. No need to worry about the PRT taking them back or the Empire threatening their lives.” ‘Coil’ spoke out with a silky smooth delivery. The voice of a snake whispering sweet sweet words.

Again he was all but saying that Cole Diamant was the Cape before him but he was at least dancing around the subject. Despite knowing that he was going to take care of this asshole soon Cole still gritted his teeth for a moment. 

Coil was clearly paying attention to him already. He really needed to be thankful to Lisa for barging into his life. Without her suddenly showing up he would have been completely and utterly blindsided.

“Again I don’t know what you are talking about but I may or may not have a friend that needs a service like that,” Cole spoke out calmly despite his frayed nerves.

The two ‘Capes’ stared at each other for a tense moment but thankfully some information had Cole relaxing. The clone had finally managed to get the information he needed. He could not take total control of the compound from the terminal he was at but he was able to locate where the actual Coil was.

The Clone on patrol started bee-lining it toward the real Coil while Cole was having his face off with the body double.

“Well, I’m sure we can help your friend with their issues. Beyond that, I can assure you that the pay you will gain here is rather lucrative. That is of course assuming you are worth the money. There is not a lot known about you just yet after all.” The body-double spoke out while leaning back into their chair in a display of raw confidence.

Cole smirked at the man as his Clone reached the door he needed to open up.

“Well, I am certainly worth a pretty penny for example look at this,” Cole spoke out as he took out a device from his inventory. It was a handheld device that had a cable to hook into something.

The body double tensed for a moment at the sudden appearance of the device but seeing it do nothing he relaxed.

“So what does it do? Or are you just trying to impress me with your ability to take out items seemingly from nowhere?” ‘Coil” questioned in a bland tone trying to underplay any sort of interest. Cole smirked at him while snorting.

“No, this really is what I wanted to show you. This device can break into the majority of digital locks ignoring any Tinker Tech for obvious reasons.” Cole spoke out with a sharp smile before the device was swapped with a syringe that his Clone had.

The Bodydouble paused at the sudden change but Cole reacted first. He sprang forward and injected the Bodydouble in front of him knocking him out while the Clone used the codebreaker to enter the room where the real Coil was hiding.

The room opened up and a man dressed exactly like the body double before the real Cole swung away from the computer in front of him. Coil to his credit did not even pause for a moment before several bullets tore into his Clone. Tearing bloody chunks from his Clone and embedding them into the wall behind said Clone.

Coil did not stop shooting until he finished the full clip inside his pistol. As his Clone did not drop from the first dozen or so bullets. The Clone was using RCT after all, as soon as the bloody chunks of his flesh were torn out it was soon replaced.

Cole swapped with his Clone when it finished taking all those shots and lunged forward to inject Coil with a sedative. The man tried to put up a fight but his skeletal frame did not really offer any sort of strength.

He looked down at the downed man with a victorious smirk. He hoped Lisa was going to like this nice little welcoming gift.