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After the phone call and the aftermath of finding out that Chloe was in hospital Marlin had found himself pre-occupied, enough so that he hadn't argued too hard with his Dad when he told him to take a couple of days off from the shop and clear his head.

He'd started to regret doing so however, when he realised that the side effect of suddenly having free time meant that the day had seemed to drag on and on. It had been a theatre club night, but with Steve not going and Chloe still in hospital, Marlin hadn't felt like going and instead had phoned and made his apologies.

He'd been planning on staying at home, but after flicking through a few channels on the tv, he had eventually let restlessness drive him out of the flat and it was that same restlessness, that had had him find somewhere secluded and power up into his alter-ego of Falias.

It was pretty late as he walked the streets, something that was not helped by the way that the moon still appear blotted out despite the fact that the actual eclipse had been two nights back.

Looking up at a sign, Falias realised he had somehow ended up by the DCU district, then figured he'd keep wandering on the path he'd set out on - he hadn't particularly planned to head this way, but now that he had it was as good a place to patrol for a bit as any.

It was a relative quiet night and Falias found his thoughts drifting towards Chloe, Steve had said that Chloe's attacker had been well Chloe, but he had no idea what his friend had meant by that - after all he'd known them both for a but and Chloe had never mentioned a twin, crazy or otherwise.

He'd been walking for a bit when he first became aware of footsteps heading in his direction, green eyes narrowing as Falias realised that they were heading his way at no small speed. This was Destiny City, people running tended not to be a good thing, although the lack of any auras was kind of weird - surely he should have been able to pick up on something.

Either way Falias reckoned it was something he should probably check out, quickening his pace a little - the footsteps sounded close which meant that he should come across the source right about...

He turned a corner and found them, a mint-haired girl running towards him and a strangely greyish figure close behind.

He stepped forward to try and give the fleeing girl a hand. Falias wasn't too sure what was going on - but he could see enough to know that whatever it was it wasn't good.

As the greyish figure Falias was able to take a proper look at it and then found himself having to take another look at it her, green eyes startled as he realised that he was looking at an identical copy of the mint-green teen who had run behind him, but in grey-scale.

O..kay so even for Destiny City this was strange. It didn't stop Falias from making sure to keep himself between the weird double and the mint-haired girl, as the thing indicated in the teen's direction.

"She doesn't seem to think so," he pointed out, adding. "You should just go." Falias wasn't about to step away from his position between teen or double, not particularly liking the look that the grey-scale one was directing toward the other.

The way that the greyscale copy was studying the mint-haired girl was kind of creepy and it made Falias even less inclined to move away from his position between the Shade and the girl, particularly as the Shade continued to insist that the girl belonged to it.

The switch from creepy staring to suddenly lunging to attack took him by surprise and Falias yelped as the Shade managed to get a solid kick in to his shin and barely managed to block the follow-up punch. “You should…” he started to call out to the mint-haired teen, only to have the Shade thing kick out at him again, the greyscale thing viciously relentless as it continued to attack him.

I guess it makes a change from nutcase Negaverse members Falias told himself as he tried to grab for the greyscale thing’s hands in an attempt to try and restrain it. Although this thing’s just as crazy. He was hoping that the mint-haired girl would take the opportunity to run as he’d started to tell her before the thing when crazy attacker on him – after all it was fairly obvious that the Shade seemed to want her for and even though Falias had no idea why, he doubted it was for anything good.

Falias doubled over with a pained 'oof' as the greyscaled copy's elbow collided with his stomach, his hands almost instinctively curling round his stomach. It meant that he was unable to miss the thing's follow up elbow, which his mind resentfully labelled as overkill.

Worse , in that moment it meant that the Shade had a clear shot at its non-monochrome double. A girl who had just announced her continued presence by the 'eep' sound from her direction.

"Run!" He tried to shout, although it came out more like a gasp - after all the girl seemed to be what the thing really wanted.

Doubled-over as he was in pain, Falias had been unable to stop the girl's Shade from striding past him and in the direction of where the mint-haired teen had gone and he could only hope that the girl had taken the opportunity to run.

A commotion from up ahead suggested otherwise and he forced himself upwards as for a moment Steve's words echoed in his mind.

Chloe’s attacker looked just like her.... Right down to that daffodil barrette she likes to wear

He followed after the Shade, wondering if the thing was like whoever or whatever had attacked Chloe and put her in hospital. After all its actions to date suggested yes.

And then then he came across the duo, with the mint-haired teen trying to hold off her crazy greyscale double with what looked to be a branch, saw the thing seemed to gear itself up as if for a charge.

"Oh no you don't" Falias told it as he dashed after it and attempted to tackle the murderous thing whilst hoping that he didn't end up getting whacked by the tree branch as the move put him in range of the defending girl.

Both he and the clone went down in a tangle, although any hopes that it would be enough to stop the thing were swiftly dashed as the psycho thing immediately started struggling like a professional berserker.

Falias did his best to use his weight to try and pin the thing and managed to get a stray punch to his side for his trouble.

He held on grimly however, not about to allow the thing to get another shot at the girl who hopefully was taking the hint and using the opportunity to run.

It was therefore something of a surprise when the psycho copy suddenly went limp, his green eyes looking startled for a moment at the girl, before he nodded.

"Yes" he said as he got his feet and looked over to her "Lets" because he really didn't want to be around when then the psycho thing came to "By the way I'm sorry about earlier. Are you okay?"

The girl didn't answer his question immediately, instead tugging him by the hand as she broke out into a run.

Falias had been pretty easy about it, breaking first into a trot and then, as he hit his stride, into an outright run.

The two of them ran like that for a while, the girl's hand warm in his grip and their footsteps pounding the ground, only slowing when the two of them had put some distance between themselves and her psycho twin - lots and lots of distance.

It was then that she finally answered his question from earlier, in between gasps to catch her breath.

"I'm glad and there's no need for thanks" he said simply and he was and there wasn't because he wouldn't wish what had happened to Chloe on anyone.

"And I'm okay, thanks" he continued with a slight smile. Well okay he was tired and he was pretty sure that he was going to have bruises from some of the psycho thing's vicious attacks on his person, but he'd deal.