On the other tower, where things happened together while Sera was chasing after Daisy.

A man jumps down through the fire stairs around the building, he quickly turns back to check if the chaser was still on him.

And it was.

Bang!

The bullet hit on the wall just inches next to his head.

Bruford then got over the cover, waiting for Mickey Mannix.

“.......”

Mickey peeked on his wristwatch, 19:50, he must end this as fast as possible.

Mickey knows the main objective of this mission.

The point is they didn't come for a fight, they're here to take Daisy and Pete.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Mickey kept spamming the shots. to Bruford, suddenly, the clone Toshi jumped over from behind.

“ ?!?! ”

It was a little surprised, he didn't think that it will regenerate faster this much.

The cloning Toshi quickly grabbed Mickey's hand, it elbowed his face, at that same moment, Bruford peeked out from the cover and aimed his pistol towards Mickey.

However... This was all according to Mickey's plan.

It was in front of him all along, but he overlooked it. Now he realized.

Mickey used The cloning Toshi as a shield then he ran towards Bruford.

“ ?!?!?! ”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Doesn't matter how much he shot, the bullets all hit on a cloning Toshi.

“ Shit-”

But too late.

Both he and the cloning Toshi got slammed to each other, that moment, Mickey Mannix already pointed his pistol towards Bruford's face.

Bang!

The bullet penetrates his skull.

Bruford dies instantly.

“........”

“ Really? Is this it? ”

Mickey Mannix slowly walked over both bodies, looking at any direction, he can confirm that Bruford is dead for sure.

“.......”

“...........”

“................”

Mickey turned around to check if there'll be something bushwhacking him.

But none.

He even touched over his body to see if he put any censors or weird stuff on him.

Also none.

“..............”

“ well... I thought it'd be longer than this...”

Mickey looked over Bruford's corpse.

“.... This asshole is just a talking machine huh? ....”

Mickey began to loot the body.

He found a polaroid camera next to the body, as he picked it up, he found that the polaroid camera was slowly turning into ashes.

“.......”

This makes the boy know...

This camera is the enemy's ability.

“...........”

“...When the host dies, his ability also disappears...-Hm?”

He found a picture keeping inside Bruford's jacket.

It's a picture.

A picture of Syd Barrett and Toshi Ishii.

“....”

By analyzing it, he found that this picture is being printed out from a bigger scanner or something. Not from the polaroid camera itself.

*Search* *Search* *Search*

“........”

Mickey paused, his hand caught something.

As he pulled out, it was a picture from the polaroid camera.

And it was Toshi's solo image.

It's a picture of Toshi's picture.

“..... What the fuck is this inception thing? -----”

While Mickey was confusing, The cloning Toshi surprisingly got up and locked his arms over Mickey's neck from behind.

“ HGGGGGG---?!?!?! ”

(.... WHAT??? HE'S STILL ALIVE?!... BUT THE USER IS DEAD! HOW CAN HIS ABILITY STILL ACTIVE? ....)

The lock was tight. Mickey was struggling, not good, he could fade from the lack of air in no time if this continued.

Mickey's hand was randomly swiped around the floor, looking for a pistol.

As he grabbed it, he quickly shot the cloning Toshi's right in the head.

BANG!

Not only it sent Toshi flying off, but it also muted his right ear too even the suppresser is being put on the muzzle.

“ GUHH---!!!!!”

Mickey coughs heavily, he then got up, turned around, and shot his gun to Bruford's corpse.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

In case he still not dead.

But it was useless. His corpse caught the bullets and the blood's spreading all over the green grass.

No moans, absolutely nothing.

Which means Bruford is already 100% dead.

But the cloning Toshi is getting up from the ground.

Mickey was panting.

“.... His ability... still activated even he's dead??? ”

He never encountered this before.

“.... Shit... His minion is immortal... How could I get rid of this?! ”

Mickey slowly walked back, to prepare for another fight with it.

“.......”

Suddenly...

The cloning Toshi suddenly paused from moving.

“.....???”

Mickey noticed and was confused by that. But as he gazed down...

His feet accidentally stepped on Toshi's picture that's being taken from the polaroid camera.

“..........”

“ Hey...wait a minute...”

The dots are being connected. Mickey started to know all the puzzles now.

He twisted his feet on the picture.

And as he expected, the cloning Toshi was no longer standing still. He twisted himself as same as the twisted picture of him.

That made him knows.

Mickey quickly grabbed the picture and ripped it apart.

The cloning Toshi then distorted and disappeared.

Gone... Forever...

“....... I see... So this is how it works... They can only be destroyed if the picture is destroyed.”

“..........”

“..............”

“ I guess he doesn't know that Toshi's ability is not for fighting...huh....”

“...........”

Mickey then turned around and was about to run back, but...he realized something...

From Bruford's entire body, he only found a polaroid camera and 2 pictures. One is Syd and Toshi in the same frame, another is the picture of the first picture but it was only Toshi.

Toshi's picture had already been destroyed.

BUT WHERE'S SYD'S picture???

“ !!!!!!!! ”

Mickey's emotion dropped drastically, he quickly returned back to Bruford's corpse and tried to loot it again.

But he found nothing.

He tried to look for Syd's picture again, but it's useless.

Bruford didn't have it and it's impossible that he would not create the cloning Syd.

Since Mickey and Toshi ran into Pete's room, the only clone jumping over them was Toshi.

But where is Syd?

Mickey finally realized something...

Daisy Raine! Jody! Sera!

And the clone can copy the original's ability too.

A drop of water appears on Mickey's face.

He's panting.

“ SHIT! ”

He quickly pressed down the earpod and shouted with his life.

“ THE ENEMY CAN CREATE A COPY OF PEOPLE! IT HAS THE SAME ABILITY AS THE HOST! JODY! SERA! GETAWAY FROM THERE!!! I REPEAT!!! GET AWAY FROM SYD!!!! GETAWAY NOOOOW!!! ”

.

.

.

.

.

.

“ [ THE ENEMY CAN CREATE A COPY OF PEOPLE! IT HAS THE SAME ABILITY AS THE HOST! JODY! SERA! GETAWAY FROM THERE!!! I REPEAT!!! GET AWAY FROM SYD!!!! GETAWAY NOOOOW!!! ] ”

The message has been sent, unfortunately, it reached everyone except Jody Johanson.

“.........”

She's now walking in a circle with the clone Syd Barrett.

The boy stares at her lifelessly.

Jody knew that by shooting him with air bullets, it won't help. He'll soon get up again.

“........”

She felt such an intense menacing aura just by staring at him. Though he hasn't done anything yet, she knew that this guy has a ton of something terrifying prepared for her.

“.......!?”

Jody peeked down, she saw a ‘moving flame’ was running towards her way.

It caused no sound at all. If she didn't peek down, it would have touched her feet. Although she didn't know what or where or even how did it come from, her instinct told her that she should never, ever set foot on this thing.

Jody jumped back, but the flame's still keeping on track. The same as Syd, the boy started making a move.

He slowly walked up to her way, he touched on the steely chair, then radiating a red aura. A sign that he's using a swapping technique.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Jody shot 4 air-bullets at him.

2 of them were for his eyes, the other was for his knees.

The bullet was fully hit on the knees but got blocked on the eyes.

Jody shifted her body to the left side, a quick move, but the ‘flame’ did bend itself to her.

She then has no choice but to use this opportunity when Syd was losing his control, rushing towards him.

Then she shot the other set of air-bullets right into his head.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

It knocks the boy off immediately.

“ I'm starting to understand this creature now... his intellect is not so much as the original... He hasn't come up with any outsmarting as he used to do... He's more like a puppet...”

“ But the problem is... He can get up every time I try to take him down...it must have some weakness...but where?”

Maybe his eyes.

That's what she thought.

Jody then proceeds to blow his face up by the air-bullets.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

In the head.

“.........”

Turning back, the flame that was following her has already like 2 inches away from her body.

!!!!!!!!

Jody quickly jumps away from it.

She turned right, seeing a makeup table, she then quickly pushed it down to the flame.

Crash!!!!!

She then got up, but then...

* C r a c k *

!!!????

A cracking sound coming from her left leg.

A massive amount of pain rises up.

“ AAAAAAAHHHHH?! ”

Jody moans in pain.

“.... Shit.... Syd's power ran out?!...”

Bad timing, the property of steel Syd put on her was already run out.

Her legs went back into their original state.

That means Jody could no longer run or sprint or making any fast movement.

But she's still lucky that it happened only on her left side. The right side was fine...for now...

Then Jody heard a sound of object oscillating again...

As she gazed up, the crashing table was being burned by the fire and simultaneously ‘inverted’ back up like before it was being pushed.

The scattered pieces of eye-liners, jewelry, makeup products, and stuff like a small mirror, which was originally placed on the table and already break-apart, they all gathered back at one piece again, the objects were all forming back up, floated back on the table, and settled once again as they're all burning and being destroyed.

Then, the boy got up from the ground again, Jody didn't wait for him to do that.

She blasts a load of air-bullets right at him.

But this time was different. Because Syd's aura was glowing ‘Red’.As the air-bullets went through his skin, somehow, Jody saw the air around Syd's wounds forming up to the tiny spinning air like her bullets, most importantly...

They're all moving backward from his skin.

And where did they all travel to? Jody questioned, but she found the answer in just like 2 seconds after that...

Yes.

They're traveling ‘Back’ to her fingers.

The source where these bullets were created.

“ Shit...”

Jody quickly turned back and used her arms to throw herself over another table, she shot it to flip it over to use its horizontal plate as a cover.

Luckily this was a makeup room, so they're a large number of desks and tables Jody could use.

GNAB---. GNAB---. GNAB---. GNAB---.GNAB----.

The reverse bullets hit the table.

(.... Even the sound was inverted???? )

Jody thought.

Suddenly, with an unexplainable reason, The table Jody was taking a cover flipped back over her.

!?!?!?!?

It made Jody got hit on the head, moreover, it threw her backward and made a huge bruise on her arm.

“ What the?? The table was flipped over when those inverted air-bullets hit on it?”

It just flipped in the opposite direction. It got up and settle on the floor, the operation was on the complete opposite of what Jody had done to it.

“...........”

With a carefully considered, She realized it wasn't.

“..... Wait ... No... The table wasn't flipped over...”

She said.

“ The table was also ‘Inverted’ ?! ”

Jody was panting.

“ l flipped it over from horizontal to perpendicular to hide behind... But when the inverted bullets hit, it turned back from perpendicular to the horizontal by itself... T...this....”

“.........”

“.... Same as those tables...those ceiling lamps... Even my own bullets...Everything that I used to attack at him...all returns back to where it came from, simultaneously, they're also getting destroyed by a flame.....this power... What is it???”

“............”

It didn't stop at that, Syd has already got up. His face was terribly ripped by Jody's bullet.

“ Shit...”

Though he didn't have intellect, these weirdly bizarre abilities and Jody's status right now showed that she was the one on the disadvantage side.

Then it began to happen again.

Jody saw a moving flame, but this time, they're 3 of them.

They all split from each other and one of them went to the wall.

As it touched the wall, the fire ignited all over it as if the wall was oil.

“... He's burning down this place??? ”

(... This is bad! )

Not only she'd been played by him, but also the heat that is flowing all around the room.

But it is strange.

There's no single “smoke”.

But it doesn't matter, now, the problem here is how to defeat this creature?

Syd then quickly ran towards Jody, he was about to get close to her... And grabbed her head...

But...

Jody grabbed him first.

She grabbed his face, another of her hand was grabbing a bowl of moisturizer she picks from the make-up desk.

Then Jody began to release a blue aura.

It's the ‘Swapping technique’ Syd taught her.

Although she had only done it once and hadn't mastered it yet, she had no choice left. She couldn't move so much because of the disease or even if her legs were still fine, If she ran away, he'll just leave her and go after Sera.

The sudden heat rises up, the blue intense aura shaken by the feeling of its user.

Jody felt like her chest was about to explode, but she did endure it.

The sweat leaks down from her face, the pain from heat rises from her inside.

“ Aaaaaaggg---”

She bit her lips so hard that it bleeds.

“ COME ON! ”

She shouted.

Then she started to sense that something has been leaked to both sides of her hands.

They're the properties of 2 objects.

Syd's skin and the moisturizer.

As this process was proceeding, Jody couldn't stand the tremendous amount of heat that her body received from the process.

“ How could Syd be able to endure to anything like this? ”

She questioned.

Her heart beats frequently, her white skin turned to red from extremely exhausting. She felt like she could no longer standing still, but she kept doing it.

She's swapping the property of the flesh with the moisturizer.

As she's certain that the properties have been swapped because her hand felt that the boy's face was turning softer to the point that she could squeeze it due to the characteristic of the moisturizer, Jody used this opportunity to blow a load of air bullets from her other hand into his face.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

His fleshes flew in a random direction, it splashed everywhere.

They both got pushed away from each other, Jody hit the ground but she landed on it by her back. So that her legs won't get damaged.

Since moisturizer, with the characteristic of a slimy-jelly liquid thing, the boy's head was so terribly ripped that can not identify his face anymore. His body fell down on the ground... No longer move.

However, Jody didn't think that herself right now was different than him.

She completely ran out of energy.

The swapping technique she just used drained out all of her stamina all at once.

Her arms were shaken when she tried to get up, all the girl could do now was crawling away from here.

“........”

Fortunately, she still has power left to crawl.

But the heat from the burning wall around her combined with the heat from her inside slowly making Jody went unconsciousness step by step.

This was very torturous for her.

Jody knew...

She's slowly dying from the heat.

She can't breathe.

“....*Cough*.... The air....*pant* the air... I can't .... breathe.”

The girl's body doesn't have any sweat left to leak out.

The fire in the room gets wider and wider as a minute passed by. The oxygen from the air is being used more and more.

Suddenly...

“... Oh no...”

Her eyes wide opened.

The ‘moving’ flame came out from the corner of the room.

It's getting closer and closer to Jody.

Since the flame is moving...that means...

Jody turned her face back.

Another moving flame, which Syd released it out that time before his head got ripped, entered the area where the majority of his fleshes and blood had splatted on...

She hopes that what she's thinking would not become true...

But it wasn't.

Syd's body is slowly getting up slowly and slowly... His flesh, the blood, the skin, the pieces of the skull...which were splattered around... floated back and recombined as one piece again.

It all proceeds backward again!

“ FUCK! There's no way I can kill it! ”

Jody then turned her face over to the front.

That moving flame is getting closer and closer to her.

“.....”

There's no way she can make it.

She had no enough strength to get away.

Jody thought it was the end now, but suddenly, Someone stepped his foot on

the moving flame right in front of her face.

!?!?!?

Jody lifted her face up.

!!!!!!?!!!!!?!!

Her eyes wide opened.

It was Syd Barrett, The real one.

“ Syd?!”

“....this is worse than I thought...”

He said.

“ SYD! Don't step on the fire! It will-”

“ Yeah. I know.”

As she tried to warn him, though it's too late, Syd Barrett touched her face as he noticed that her skin is turning red by the heat.

“.......”

His face looks extremely concerned about the girl.

He then brought out a bottle of water and poured it on the floor all-around her in a circle.

“ Don't get out the circle, Jody.”

He said.

Before he walked straight up to the clone of himself who has just got up from the floor.

Then she saw a new ‘moving flame’ coming out from the real Syd Barrett.

It was ten times brighter than the forgery one.

And its color was "Red".

Crimson Red.

And the red aura... Is much brighter and more terrifying.

When the brighter moving flame hits the forgery, Syd.

It was as her expectation...

The clone's head being exploded out again. He bounced back to the floor, lying still, then the exploded fleshes began to combine back to one piece.

He got up so unnaturally like the inverted video of a guy falling, running backward before fell down again...

To summarize... The forgery Syd is replaying all the actions he did to Jody in reverse but also being destroyed by the fire at the same time.

(...this is crazy...)

Jody thought.

She didn't get a core at all.

“....Syd... T-this... This is your ability...”

She said.

But the boy didn't reply.

He turned back, poured water on both of his hands, and helped to carry Jody up from the ground.

“ Wait!... What about it?!...”

Jody mentioned about the forgery Syd.

“.......”

The boy looks hesitant to answer, but as he realized it's no used to hide it anymore, he answered her...

“ It's getting back to where it came from.”

“...........”

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.

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.

.

Syd carried Jody out of the tower.

Coincidently, Mickey Mannix was waiting over there, so he helped him took care of her.

Toshi Ishii finally caught Pete Wetton by disguise as a bodyguard and blent in among the crowd of people before snapped Pete in the back and dragged him to the van.

Right now, all of them were assembled in the van.

Jody was put on lying down, took an area over 2 seats, she's panting heavily.

Roxxy was taking care of her by using her Ice ability to gently cool down the body temperature.

Syd was driving, Toshi, Mickey, and Sera were looking over Daisy and Pete at the back.

“.........”

Sera noticed something.

If in usual, Mickey would now come up with some roasting to her because now Sera was completely wet from her head all the way to the bottom.

But Mickey did not.

Like he understands why Sera was like this.

Same as the rest of the agents, they were not in the mood for fun and games like they used to.

.

.

.

At the same time at the tower of the VIP guests.

If someone was there, or more precisely, assumed that if there's actually someone still walking around there.

He or She would spot a man, running in backward with his entire body completely burnt to crisp.

The man ran backward all the way up to Pete's VIP room.

He then slowly turned from running into walking backward, before stopped at the spot that used to be where Pete and Bruford had dealt with each other before.

Then he started walking backward again and made a turn into the bathroom where he first came out before disappeared.

Zooming in The tower where the fashion show has been established, if looking closely, you'll see a picture of Syd Barrett that has been taken from a polaroid camera was slowly burning away...