Sveta saw no recognition in Jack's face. Did she really not know about the inter-dimensional rip in the middle of New York City?... She must have been more of a recluse than Sveta realized. Rips in time and space were not exactly as easy to miss as a new movie in the theaters...

>>"Duh what now. A nudder New York? As iss... one isn't e-nuss."

"Yeah." Sveta sighed. Really, New York was usually more than any mutant could handle. "It is a rip between two dimensions dat are... very similar, but not the same. I guess sci-fi fans are very excited now."

>>"So dere's a-nudder New York, and in dee uzzer New York, dere are deez Su'er guys dat like... strong-arn nyutants into... whate'er?"

"Yeah." Sveta nodded again "They are a government agency. They track and tag mutants, recruit some, make others disappear... some dark racist sh*t is what it is. They caught me, and it took me weeks to get away. Dey tried to train me as one of their agents. My powers are very valuable to them. So, I live here now. It's the safest place to be."

The prawn listened as Sveta explained, her expression drawn and unreadable. People who tracked and tagged mutants... recruited them... made them disppear... it was a stretch, but... those men had randomly come into her apartment, maybe... maybe they'd been part of this "Super" group. Jack kept a low profile, but she was out and about enough to be recognizable. Mybe they'd decided to track her... recruit her... or maybe...

She looked owlishly at Sveta, a quiet breath escaping her. She couldn't give words to the realization that just crossed her mind.

"It's here!"

"Take them both!"

Maybe they hadn't been talking about her. Maybe those men weren't hitmen hired by Jack's former gang. Maybe they were Super. And if that was the case...

"He was like a son to nee... like san-ily..."

"You have the wrong gu-"

"LIKE A SON!"

What if... no, that was crazy-talk... impossible... The prawn's expression pinched, her mandibles curling beneath the surgical mask as she felt a surge of emotion welling-up within her, threatening to burst free. The prawn looked at the sculpture in her hands, still waiting to take shape.

What if she'd had the wrong guy... like the man had said... What if wasn't Jude, but... someone from the other side?

"Do you sink..." the prawn trailed, her voice small, "Dat dere could 'e udders... like us? On duh uzzer side? Like... du'licates?"

She looked up at Sveta, her lavender eyes almost desparate.

For a moment, Sveta was worried she had said too much. Jack had clearly been through a trauma she was not over yet, and here Sveta was telling her about evil mutant-hunting organizations, and digging into fresh wounds. She gave Jack a concerned look, wondering what she could say to make it better. Nothing came to mind.

>>"Do you sink... Dat dere could 'e udders... like us? On duh uzzer side? Like... du'licates?"

Sveta blinked in surprise.

"I don't think." she shook her head "I know for a fact. The first person I ever met from the other side was a copy of a friend of mine. I haven't met mine, but... yes. Many people seem to have doppelgangers in the other New York. Sometimes they are different... different face, or powers... but they are the dame person."

The prawn regretted the question as soon as it was uttered. There was no way someone could know that-- there were seven billion people in this whole wide world, or something like that... now, to double that and to hope to find one person who was just like you... it was virtually impossible. And yet...

>> "I don't think. I know for a fact. The first person I ever met from the other side was a copy of a friend of mine."

Jack's expression scrunched, as if she was intently focused on something. In reality, she was fighting whatever outburst was roiling in her. Laughter? Tears? It could've been either of those... she couldn't believe it...

>> "I haven't met mine, but... yes. Many people seem to have doppelgangers in the other New York. Sometimes they are different... different face, or powers... but they are the dame person."

It might not have been Jude... maybe it was someone else... maybe it was her own doppelganger... relieved tears welled-up in the prawn's eyes. There was no way to be sure. But even the smallest inkling that Jude might not be dead... was a huge relief.

She returned to quietly carving the sculpture in her massive hands, a sense of calm having washed-over her actions. She worked methodically, refining the edges, smoothing them.

"Dat's good to hear," the prawn said, her voice low. She didn't look back up at Sveta, not yet. She was trying to swallow the raw emotions that were welling-up again. It wasn't safe to let her emotions get the better of her, not with what had happened in the past.

It was better than good. It was the best news she'd hear in a while. But there was no way of confirming the identity of he deceased lookalike.

Sveta watched as a range of emotions moved through Jack's face. Pain, relief? Hope? It was hard to read her expressions, but the blonde knew that her words had some kind of impact, a strong one, on Jack's mood, for better or worse. The other woman turned back to carving something, but some of the heavy sadness she had sensed earlier seemed to have lifted.

>>"Dat's good to hear,"

"Is it?..." Sveta arched an eyebrow "I mean... it is weird, I guess. I have not met my own copy, but have met both copies of friends, and it's... strange, to say the least. Why... do you think you met yours, maybe?"

Would Jack's doppelganger be easy to recognize? Or harder than others?...

The prawn nodded slowly, without lifting her head.

"I nean, I night has 'een ny... do'elganger..." the prawn mused, "Dere's no way uzz knowing, dey didn't say too nuch..."

"I sought... I nean, I only ezzer net one 'erson dat looked like nee, and it 'as sun hone-less co'ycat kid dat lizzed wiss nee sore a while..." Jack's explanation came out haltingly as her brain tried to articulate the already jumbled thoughts, "So I sought, when I sound sun-one who looked like nee... it has to 'e hin, you know?"

The prawn stopped her carving, for the tears were welling-up in her eyes again.

"Who-ezzer it was, dey were killed dy doze guys in ny a'art-nent," Jack said, an edge creeping into her voice, "Iss dere's... e-zen duh slightest chance dat it was... nee s-run duh uzzer side, and not hin... dat'd 'e good news. Great news, e-zen."

Jack inhaled and sighed shakily, setting the carving and the whittling knife down. Her hands were trembling. It didn't change the fact that she'd killed someone in self-defense... and in a way, it'd be sad to think that her doppelganger died in the company of its twin. But it meant that Jude was out there, somewhere-- maybe not-dead. And that was profoundly reassuring.

>>"I nean, I night has 'een ny... do'elganger... Dere's no way uzz knowing, dey didn't say too nuch..."

So, there was more to the story. Sveta did not want to dig into things that caused Jack to re-live her pain, but they were in this conversation now. And she was also curious. If Jack met her doppelganger, and recognized her as such, then why exactly did she not make sure?...

>>"I sought... I nean, I only ezzer net one 'erson dat looked like nee, and it 'as sun hone-less co'ycat kid dat lizzed wiss nee sore a while... So I sought, when I sound sun-one who looked like nee... it has to 'e hin, you know?"

Sveta nodded slowly. There were other mutants out there, some could take on the faces of other people. Just because someone looked like someone else, the only explanation was not that they came from the other side of the rip. But in Jack's case, it also came with a feeling of relief. She knew a copycat, therefore she thought... what, exactly?...

>>"Who-ezzer it was, dey were killed dy doze guys in ny a'art-nent. Iss dere's... e-zen duh slightest chance dat it was... nee s-run duh uzzer side, and not hin... dat'd 'e good news. Great news, e-zen."

Sveta paused, as she pieced the information together. Jack met someone that looked like her... thought it was the copycat kid... that person got killed in front of her... and now she was hoping, what? That it had been her own self from an alternate universe, rather than the kid she cared for?... In a twisted way, it made sense, when Sveta really thought about it.

"So... maybe it was your doppelganger, and not... the copycat?" she ventured, hoping that giving hope to Jack was the right thing to do "It could be... SUPER has been going after people and their doppelgangers. It would make sense. Plus dey would want copycats alive. They are useful to them..." she sighed "I dated one once. Dey don't mix well with my powers."

Jack nodded as Sveta slowly pieced the carapaceous woman's rationale. Yes. She'd rather Jack-from-another-universe die rather than Jude-from-this-universe. That was precisely where she was coming from. She'd rather lose part of herself, than someone she considered to be her family.

Sveta's rational was slightly reassuring-- Super wouldn't kill a copycat, because they'd want to use them. And then she offered an "out" from this dismal hypothetical conversation, towards something more natural for two people to discuss-- exes. Jack smiled, welcoming the distraciton.

"Did dey ni-nic your nyu-tation, or did you an-li-sy de uzzer nyu-tation they were carrying?" the prawn inquired. It was a valid quesiton-- how did Sveta's power interact with powers that copied other powers, "Or did dey co'y a lotta nyutations at once?"

Once Sveta pieced the situation together, they took a silent agreement to move on from the topic of death and loss. It was a good decision. If Jack really wanted to talk about it more, Sveta would listen; but if she did not, she offered her a way out into a less painful conversation. Even though it took her talking about Jude, which she did not usually do; not to causal friends, anyway.

>>"Did dey ni-nic your nyu-tation, or did you an-li-sy de uzzer nyu-tation they were carrying? Or did dey co'y a lotta nyutations at once?"

Sveta chuckled at the question. It was a valid one.

"He copied mine. And den we boosted each other, so... my aura got stronger. Our our aura, really." she sighed "It was not good... for anyone around us.". Including moose.

Jack smiled—a sad smile, really—as Sveta explained the situation. In any other situation it might sound funny, two people magnifying powers forever and ever. But something bad most have come of it. At least how Sveta was talking about it.

Jack chuckled at her own encounter with a power copier.

“Heh, duh kid who co’ied nee, he was so snall,” the prawn chuckled, “Gangly little guy. Den he all uzz a sudden shot-utt. Ri’ed all his clothes.” A genuine laugh escaped her. Everyone was tiny, to her, “Sank-sully I’s at work, had a change uzz clothes I could lend ‘in.”

The prawn sighed, “He’s a good kid. Lizz’d wiss nee sore a see-ew weeks. Got ‘ack on his seat. Good kid.”

She trailed off for a bit, “Gaze nee dis real cute caw-see nug too… said “World’s Greatest Dad.” Cutest sh*t.”

Then Jack really trailed off, methodically running the whittling knife over the sculpture. It was really starting to take shape now. It vaguely had the look of a howling wolf, tail and all. Now it needed some detail work. She seemed lost in the sculpture, her mandibles moving beneath the surgical mask. She really hoped he wasn't dead.

Sveta felt a little awkward, talking about her experience with a power copier. Mostly because that person had been Jude, and they had a... complicated history, to say the least. Jack, however, seemed to think it was a little amusing. Sveta did not mind.

>>“Heh, duh kid who co’ied nee, he was so snall. Gangly little guy. Den he all uzz a sudden shot-utt. Ri’ed all his clothes. Sank-sully I’s at work, had a change uzz clothes I could lend ‘in.”

Sveta laughed a little. To imagine some gangly little power copier suddenly turning into a...

And then, her stomach sank like the floor had dropped out from under it.

>>“He’s a good kid. Lizz’d wiss nee sore a see-ew weeks. Got ‘ack on his seat. Good kid. Gaze nee dis real cute caw-see nug too… said “World’s Greatest Dad.” Cutest sh*t.”

Jack muttered on, focusing on her carving, so she probably could not see the smile disappear from Sveta's face as information clicked together. How could she be so stupid, not seeing it before?... It was not like copycats ran all over New York City...

"Jude?..." Sveta ventured quietly, afraid of what answer she might hear.

The prawn was absorbed in her work, that much was true. She hadn't even noticed that she'd trailed off. Detail-work was so much more attention consuming, and now she was hollowing-out the space between the wolf's ears, the inside of the ears, carving eyes, nose, and a mouth.

>> "Jude?..."

The blade slipped, a rookie mistake, and sank into the prawn's thumb in alarm. Jack sucked air through her mandibles, sculpture and whittling knife set aside, surgical mask hastily shed, and bleeding thumb stuck squarely in her mouth. It stung. The bleeding gash, and the name. Shrewd lavender eyes were now very-much-looking at Sveta.

Jack removed her thumb from her mouth, surveying the wound, debating as to whether or not the knick warranted running under cold water or bandaging. She might at least need to grab a paper towel. Her eyes returned to Sveta.

"Yeah..." she admonished. No point in lying. However awkward the question might be, Jack pressed, "Don't su'ose you has your ex's nun-der, do you?"

Some girls purged their lives of any sign of their exes after a break-up, while others still kept contact. If Sveta had any way of contacting Jude, any way of verifying that he wasn't dead...

The moment Sveta said Jude's name, Jack went and cut herself. By accident, obviously, but Sveta could clearly see how she jolted at the mention of the name. It was Jude, then. Dammit. He had decided to live as a kid, and not he was a runaway kid on top of that, staying with Jack for some godforsaken reason (not that Jack was a bad person, but Jude, really, used to have a home), and now he had been... what? Attacked? Dead? Mistaken for a doppelganger?...

Dammit, Jude.

>>"Yeah... Don't su'ose you has your ex's nun-der, do you?"

Sveta thought about it for a moment, then sighed.

"I can give it to you. He wouldn't pick up if I called." she picked up a notepad from the table and wrote the number down. If Jude still had the same number he used to, it would work. She memorized it once upon a time, for emergencies.

"I hope he is okay." she added. Jude and her were not exactly on good terms anymore, but she really did not want him dead.

Jude

>> "I can give it to you. He wouldn't pick up if I called."

The expression that crossed Jack's features was hopeful, a tense muscle loosening and turning upward in relief. It was just a glimmer of a chance that Jude was alive, but that was all she needed.

"Sank you," the prawn murmured, her voice even more muffled by the bleeding thumb that was tucked into her mouth, "Neans a lot to nee. Really does."

>> "I hope he is okay."

"Nee too," the prawn remarked, graciously accepting the slip of paper. She surveyed it for a moment, then carefully folded it, and tucked it her pocket. She wasn't sure if she was ready to make that call, yet. What if he'd been the one who died? What if the number belonged to someone else now? If it was a dead end? Besides, it would be weird to call a woman's ex right in front of her, whatever the motivation.

Jack's stomach yowled in agreement at that sentiment, and the prawn dug the knuckles of her free hand into her gut.

"Hey..." the prawn began, gaze trailing after Sveta, "Do you... eat pizza?" The "p" that the prawn breathed was more of a clicked sound, almost sounding like "tee-zza", but the question still remained. It was the only way that the armored woman could think to repay the blonde's willingness to help.

"Was sinking uzz ordering sun, iss you're interested," she explained.