1 The Good, The Bad, and The Okay I Guess

A light strung above a chair shone on an unconscious man. The clicking of heels drove Peter's senses and he weakly opened his eyes only to quickly shut them again. He winced, feeling a slight ache at the base of his neck. He went to soothe his pain only to find his arms and legs bound by tight ropes. Every time he moved, he felt the pinprick texture of the rope digging into his skin. He sniffed once and looked around, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. The room he was in was foreign to him, blank walls and not a single window. A woman stood at a blinking console, not too much unlike the League console he was used to back at his base.

Peter squinted his eyes, which were still adjusting to his surroundings. Her brown hair curled at her shoulders, but her pink streaks confused him; he swore she used to have blonde tips. And her outfit was very… unGrace-like, for lack of a better word. Her high goth heels clicked malevolently as she strode around the room, and her cropped leather jacket was something Grace would either detest or try to steal. Still, who else could it be? He threw caution to the wind and weakly called out, "Grace?"

She turned slowly, and Peter knew immediately he had never met this woman in his life. Her brilliant pink eyes fell on him, and she grinned slyly as he turned a pale shade of white. "Finally, you're awake. Usually he's out for three hours." She seemed to be talking to herself and him, but he didn't have the courage to ask this strange woman who the "he" she was referring to was.

"Who are you?" Peter demanded, trying to free his hands from their restraints.

"I'm Aphrodite, sweetheart." She ran a painted nail down his cheek and grinned again.

"Get your hands off of me," growled Peter, whipping his head away.

"Oh, c'mon, you don't mind." Aphrodite frowned, unfamiliar with this sense of dislike. He didn't respond, only stared questioningly at her.

"I said," Aphrodite warned, her eyes connecting with his, "you don't mind."

"I don't mind," Peter found himself repeating, eyes widening as he paused. What the hell?

"That's better." Aphrodite smirked. "I look familiar to you, don't I?"

"Yeah," Peter nodded, liking her less and less. "You look like...someone I work with."

"The speedster," Aphrodite affirmed. "And, likewise, you look like my boyfriend."

Peter almost choked on his own spit. "Your what?"

"My boyfriend, Vanish." Aphrodite clicked a button on her watch and a miniature image of a man who looked almost exactly like Peter was projected above the watch. The only noticeable difference was a scar that ran through the doppelgänger's eye.

"He's blind in that eye," muttered Aphrodite, as if she'd noticed Peter staring at the scar. "Silver is still a bit unstable, and she slashed him right in the face."

"Who's Silver?" Peter asked, his hands vainly trying to get free.

"Someone else I work with," responded Aphrodite. "She's got some...unhealthy tendencies."

"Seems legit," muttered Peter, looking around some more.

Aphrodite's watch vibrated loudly, and she clicked a button and a video feed popped up. Again, Peter was taken aback by the similarity between these people and his teammates. The girl on the screen looked much like Marie while also looking like a total stranger. Peter regarded her hazel hair with streaks of colors, a familiar sight, unlike her skin which was a glowing blue and her eyes a piercing silver.

"Hey Siren, what's up?" Aphrodite asked.

Siren signed something much too rapidly for Peter to understand, not that he could understand sign language anyway. Aphrodite, however, knew perfectly well what Siren had said and a frown crossed her face.

"Yeah, drag him in. It's a tad unfortunate though, for him at least." Siren nodded and the video feed ended.

"What was that about?" Peter asked.

"Siren accidentally spoke to someone, and now she either has to murder him or let him murder himself for her." Aphrodite explained, focusing on her watch. "She has to sign when she's in siren form so she doesn't cause any of us to commit suicide and jump in the ocean."

"Oh," Peter stated. He didn't really know what else to say.

Aphrodite glanced at his blank facial expression. "Oh, cheer up, sweetheart. I can't bear seeing you upset." Immediately, Peter's mind was swept away from thinking about Marie and his face broke into a small grin. "There we go," She said with a smirk.

Aphrodite's head jerked up as she heard a small patter of footsteps behind Peter. His attempts at craning his neck to see who it was were unsuccessful and Aphrodite gleefully skipped behind him.

"Vanish! Lovely!" Aphrodite clapped her hands together delightedly. "This is your doppelgänger, Matter Man."

"Pleasure," came the practically-silent voice.

"Speak up a bit, darling," Aphrodite said with a semi-sympathetic look in her eyes.

"Pleasure," repeated Vanish, with a slightly more audible voice.

"Do people always listen to your demands?" Peter asked Aphrodite in a slightly insulting tone.

"Yes, sort of." Aphrodite laughed, ignoring his tone. "That's my 'superpower', I guess: mental manipulation."

"What?" Peter exclaimed. Oh no, I am not going to get manipulated into betraying my team. Back off, lady. I don't care if you look like my ex, I will murder you.

"Sweetheart, calm down." Aphrodite placed a slender hand over his. Her hand felt like ice compared to his.

Nope, you're not going to get to me this...easily… Peter sighed. Whatever, I'm good. What was I worrying about anyway?

Vanish glanced nervously down at his doppelgänger, clearly worried for his well being.

"May I leave?" Vanish asked, glancing up at his girlfriend. Even though he was seven inches taller than her, she wore eight-inch heels purely to gain leverage over him.

"Absolutely, darling." Aphrodite patted his shoulder and gestured him away.

Vanish hurried off, leaving the base entirely. Silver and Siren were on patrol and Chaos was busy admiring himself in a mirror, so it was the perfect escape. He had to find the League.

Vanish approached the League base tentatively. He was correct in assuming there'd be some sort of security, but he didn't think that this would be a problem. After all, I'm a doppelganger.

There was a thumbprint scanner and a retinal scanner at the door, one of which he could get through, but the other he couldn't without destroying it.

When he approached the door, he spotted the sticky note that read, "Jack if you touch this scanner, I swear to god, I'll kill you." He probably also has powers that destroy things.

Vanish tested the retinal scanner and it worked. The door automatically opened for him and he stepped inside.

Maybe this was a bad idea.

The second Vanish had entered the League base, he'd earned a swift punch in the face from a much shorter Aphrodite.

"Where have you been and what the hell happened to your eye?" She demanded.

Vanish was honestly shocked by the outburst and immediately broke down crying. God, Logan, get your act together. Don't look vulnerable.

"Oh god," muttered Aphrodite's doppelgänger. "You're not Matter Man, are you?"

"N-No," Vanish stammered between tears.

"C'mon, sit down." She led him over to a chair. It was honestly a little weird getting to sit down by himself. "I'm Trailblazer, or Jaiden. What can I call you?"

"Vanish is fine," he muttered, rapidly wiping away tears.

Sarah walked into the room and noticed Vanish sitting there. Vanish glanced up at her and immediately flinched back, causing his chair to fall over in the process.

"Are you okay?" Jaiden grabbed his hand and helped him back up. "I promise, Sarah's not going to hurt you."

"Her double gave me this scar," blurted Vanish. "I'm really sorry, Sarah, I'm honestly terrified of my entire team and I ran here for comfort and…"

"Hey," Jaiden began rubbing circles on his back. "It'll be okay. You're with us now."

A loud beep sounded from the main console, signalling that they had a video message from one of their team members.

"It's Peter," Marie called from the other room. "Should I put him on?"

"Yes." Jaiden led Vanish into the console room as Peter's face popped up on the screen.

"What the hell's he doing there?" Peter cried in disgust. "Did you replace me?"

"Shut up, Peter, he hates his team almost as much as you do," scoffed Jaiden. "What's up?"

"Aphrodite's got mental manipulation powers. That's the only reason why I'm still here. I'm not allowed to leave."

"Yeah," Vanish affirmed. "I was able to escape her grasp to get here. I asked her to leave. She meant the room, I meant the base."

"Clever thinking," Jaiden patted him on the back, causing him to flinch for a second. "Sorry." She snapped her attention back to Peter. "Try to word your requests a certain way and you should be able to get yourself out."

"Or, you know, use your powers, dumbass!" Sarah called smugly.

"Ha ha, very funny." Peter snarled. "I can't. She told me I couldn't, anyway."

"Well, figure something out." Jaiden said before abruptly cutting the connection. She placed her hands on her hips. "Alright team, who wants to go save him this time?"