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"You look pretty silly," Horace said off-handedly to Al. "But I guess as long as it works." He imagined Al's peripheral vision was shot bundled up like that and suppressed a sigh. Horace hated the desert and hated feeling ill-prepared - he was certain they were going to encounter something he hadn't thought of. Irritably, he ran a finger under the thin elastic that kept his eyeglasses secure and followed Melvin inside.

All in all, the base had a weathered feel as though someone might have lived and worked here a while ago. The memory of people, perhaps. It was a little weird that there were no people around. Sand covered everything. He kicked a small dune across the floor as Melvin disappeared around the corner. Some small thought pushed at his mind - it wasn't as though Melvin were far away or that he could turn into a clone in two seconds, but regardless. Horace started after Melvin. He' just have to ask to see the tattoo again. His foot kicked out and something slid across the floor. He glanced down.

A weapons tablet. In the base. "Uh, Melvin, Al, be careful. I just found a tablet." Tablet but no body. Horace bent down to scoop it up, ignoring the way his fingers tingled. "Don't wander far," he called out to the both of them.

The back room was lined with old equipment. Surveillance and other things the Death division probably had far more information about using and Melvin only could make vague guesses. A few seemed to be some similar equipment for Infirmary use but everything had long since been destroyed, filled with sand and destroyed cables to the point that it wouldn't even be worth salvaging. Even some of the runes were worn off.

The blonde Lifer grunted as he was pushing aside a fallen locker and watched as an old coat fell out. Shoving it aside, he picked up the coat. Mist. He said and tossed it aside. There was no point in keeping it.

Moving through, he stepped over a broken monitor and paused when he spotted smearing on a side wall. Moving over a table that provided the only way through to the other side that wasn't blocked, he dusted off his pants and moved over.

Kneeling, he looked at the smeared blood, dried and with no indication of how recent. With all the sand, it could have simply been days or weeks since the place was ransacked.

Horace called to him and he stood up, glancing over his shoulder. "I thought that was clear. We're in the Sahara. Horsemen are all over this place." He knew far well how dangerous a mission could be. The Sahara and it's "natives" had demonstrated that quite clearly by a casualty he constantly relived.

He aimed for them to remedy that.

"Look for any evidence of what happened. That's the mission." Though it wasn't all of it. There had to be a where that they were taken, and this base was in the direction of the bug scouts he kept seeing from his mission with Lawr and Horace.

He didn't wait and instead turned on his flashlight, finding it increasingly harder to see. Moving into the next room, he paused.

There was a distant howling of wind from crumbled holes in the ceiling where shafts of light fell down, spotlighting the bedding of old pillows and thorn clothes lying about the place. A few shirts hung as wrinkled flags on a drying line, slowly moving from the outside wind.

On the far back wall was a hole that sank down into the ground like a cellar door without any steps. It was just a dark hole into a chamber. Approaching, Melvin pointed his flashlight down. It had no distinguishing markings he could see. It was just a pit, but a pit in a hunter's base.

"Horace. Al. Come here." He called out.

Al dropped everything he was doing and rushed over at Melvin's call. He peered over the other two down into the sandy abyss and then glanced around the room. No apparent tablets to be found but clearly more than one hunter resided at this base. He glanced back at Melvin. "They were kidnapped?" He asked, genuinely uncertain but it was the best conclusion he could think of right now. He looked back at the pit and frowned. "Or eaten. Tablets and all."

Normally, Horace would've suggested they split up - half into the pit, half waiting. However, with only three hunters it just wasn't viable. At Melvin's shout, Horace grabbed the rope and skidded down. "You got a flashlight in your bag, Al?" Before he even hit the ground, Jannisari was on his fists, her light glow illuminating nothing.

"Friend or foe, Melvin?"

He held the flashlight, waiting. The light touched on the light clothing the figure wore. A once pristine pair of shoes brushed by the sands, the footfalls light as it walked. The body had a natural sort of sway to it, curvy despite hints of a masculine build. There was confidence in its walk, a natural ease and comfort in its surroundings, and as it stepped closer, it adjusted a familiar white coat.

It smile at them, and for a moment, Melvin was left stunned. He had expected a Taym duplicate, but he hadn't prepared himself for the possibility of another. Because of this, he stared a moment, simply taking in Jan for the length of a held breath. In that flickering moment, he felt himself swell up with the hopes and relief in having Rin back in his life, to having all things to normal, and that despite it all, Jan was here to help. It was the reality that Jan was not there, that he had left her resting in a runic pod to know better than this. His back still ached from standing up for so long, simply looking at the frozen hunter back on the island until he had to leave to rest and give his body a break.

This was not Jan, and because of this, his mind snapped together theories and ideas like magnets. Jan had vanished before during their last mission. This was not Jan as Jan was in a pod. Conclusion: This was a clone. Jan had been cloned.

And in that, the body was even better than Taym. He didn't know Taym's body so much as he had seen during their brief talk. With those longer nights, Melvin knew how to identify Jan, and he knew that this Jan should not have two hands.

A slow smile started to stretch over Melvin's face, and soon he started to chuckle to himself. "This….This is perfect." He turned to look at Al and Horace, eyes bright as if he was a archeologist who had just discovered a living mummy inside a forgotten tomb. It was a discovery, and while it was not recent news, it was VALUABLE to him.

Jan was, as he had been back home, perfect. This meant something didn't it? That it should be Jan and not anyone else.

Smiling, he threw the flashlight down and let it roll on the ground as he fished out Saliva and summoned her. "Don't kill it. I need it to just be immobilized. Horace, just like before. I need it weak."

When the order came, Al didn't hesitate. He summoned Nuru and rushed in to crack the clone across the side of his head. What he didn't expect was; 1) The clone hit back really hard and 2) This was the Jan as he knew him, the sweet old man with two hands.

He honestly looked surprised seeing him here of all places. "Why him?" Al asked almost quietly as he contemplated attacking again. He was spinning Nuru in his hands anxiously.

HP - 45/50
DMG - 4
CRG - 1/3

He paused as he watched them, moved around slowly. It was fascinating. It moved like Jan in that it had an animated body, but it wasn't easy around him. It reacted, lunging when engaged but seemed otherwise dormant when not. He wondered if he could simply walk the thing out, but didn't want to risk losing his prize. Still, he distantly wondered if a clone had that same link, that same inviting vacancy that souls like Rin could come to, and he wondered if so, if she could stay permanently. It would be hard, but they could make it work until other opportunities came.

Yet, as he moved, as he knew this, how he wished to touch it and ask, as if calling out into a door he couldn't cross and hope the dormant Rin could hear him and transport here.

But he needed to bring it home, and to bring her out. He needed evidence. He needed a chip for a game he didn’t know how to play when his luck had been at its worst.

He needed this
.
He needed It.

And as he moved, he had to keep reminding himself that he checked Jan and there was no way this was him.

He crossed Al and Horace before finding his opening and firing. This Jan engaged and lashed back, quick and without hesitation.

"We checked, right? Jan summoned his weapon back one those dunes." He said, his voice loud in the quiet chamber.

HP: 45/50