Ancient Place, New Struggles: Part Two

"An old warehouse. Why is it always an old warehouse?" Jessie took in their surroundings. An old, dilapidated warehouse complete with the works; broken windows, falling bricks, do not enter signs blanketing parts of the wall. "I swear, cities should really start doing away with these buildings."

Off in the distance, Jessie could hear sirens. Hearing them shifted Jessie's attention back to what they originally came there to do. They readied themselves for whatever was about to happen. Jessie exhaled.

"Time to see what this mysterious figure wants … and hopefully it's just a better name for themselves."

Jessie began walking into the abandoned warehouse and materialized a sword in their left hand. They opened the door and immediately felt weird. They started feeling like they were being pulled in every direction. Magnets. "The Robies really forgot to mention that this dimension would have something that could sort of counteract my metal abilities. Maybe this time I'll have to go in complete human form." Jessie dematerialized the sword and switched to human form. "Much better."

They looked around and saw machines no longer being used, flickering lights, puddles of water directly underneath the holes in the ceiling. There were leftovers from … someone. Not like they were killed but just that something possibly happened that maybe wasn't exactly good. Papers piles that look like they currently belong to one of the presumably many rodents which now live there.

"What kind of jerk picks this place?" Jessie asked aloud. Suddenly, a button is pressed and Jessie could hear the machinery attempt to come alive and perform as they once did when the old warehouse was still in use. The lights were consistently on now. Some lights that weren't on before were franticly flickering to life now. It was as if the warehouse was person who hadn't exercised in years and was suddenly trying to run a 5k race.

"I take it that you're here" Jessie started "and you've probably been here awhile … watching me, studying me. Well, I'm sure you've noticed that I like to talk to myself."

"You're right." A mysterious voice from the second floor said. "You do like talking to yourself." The mysterious figure was now in view. A man with red irises, no hair, a mustache that looks like it wants to join with his beard but can't quite make it. Dressed in a matrix-style black trench coat, blue glasses, with tactical boots on he stood there looking Jessie over. "Miss having one of your copies to talk to, do you, Jessie?"

"So you have been studying me."

"Not any more than you study the people you intend to chop down with a pretentious grin on your face and a blood-thirsty ax in your hand."

"Okay. Wait. Are you gonna be one of those villains who psychoanalyzes the heroes so you feel like you have a good reason to try to kill them? Because we can just skip over all of that stuff. I know I'm no saint. I do not pretend to be one. I have done things in the name of the balance of this planet that were not pleasant but I do not sleep any easier at night despite all the good I have been able to do because of my bad deeds."

"So I guess you didn't enjoy making a clone to get close to a certain person of interest and then forget about me?"

"A forgotten clone, huh?" Jessie turned to metal again and started feeling the pain from being pulled in every direction once more. They fell to one knee trying not to pass out. "You sure you want to stick with that story?" Jessie materialized a backpack and tossed it to the side. Jessie turned back to their human form. The pain stopped and Jessie stood up.

"It's the truth. I can manipulate metal, copy someone's form, and I could feel you reaching out to me while you were in your metal form." The Samurai Jessie clone jumped down from the second floor and was now eye to eye, though 10 feet away from, with it's creator.

"I admit that those sound like my powers, but I think you're just a knockoff claiming to be an imitation of me. I can prove it, clone." Jessie grabbed their backpack and pulled something out. "This is a napalm grenade I picked up from an R and D department somewhere so long ago that I forgot where it came from. If I use this on you, metal or not, it will kill you rather quickly."

"Sounds like a fake story to me." The clone retorted.

"You would be the expert on that. By the way, before I drop this on you, you care to explain to me how you're not doubled over in pain from the magnets?"

"Who says I'm in my metal form?"

"You should be." They threw the napalm grenade at the clone's feet. Instead of the clone melting from the heat, the clone stood there, unscathed. The clone held out it's hand and the flames from the grenade gathered neatly and then disappeared into their hand. Then the clone smiles. "I knew it. Well, I knew you weren't a clone. However, now, I know that you are indeed-"

"Francis Fine." Both of them said. "I suppose the flame manipulation gave it away." Francis said.

"Yup."

Francis walked to a lever. "This next part, I suspect, will be brand new." Francis threw the lever and the building started to shake.

"Francis! What did you do? What's going on?" Jessie struggled to keep their balance. They tried turning to metal but felt the pain immediately and stayed in their human form. They gripped the backpack tightly as they desperately tried to stay standing, preparing for whatever was going to happen next.

"Don't worry Jessie. The façade is dropping, revealing where we've really been all this time." The old abandoned warehouse transformed into some kind of underground sacred-looking place where people once might have gone to sacrifice some unlucky soul. The shaking stopped.

"Like what I've done with the place?" Francis slyly asked.

"It wasn't living up to it's potential before but now …" They tried to transform into their metal form and fell to their knees.

"Yeah, still can't be metal, Jessie. We are in a place deep underground. A place that I believe was used by an ancient peoples who *ahem* took care of serious matters in this very spot. That's exactly what I plan on doing right here, right now." Francis snapped his fingers and four spots on the ground opened. Platforms rose from the opened spots. Four people that Samurai Jessie helped were on those platforms, hands bound behind their backs and tied to stakes.

"Understandably I had to make some changes. The other interesting part of this lovely albeit hard to reach vacation rental, is that the surround rocks are all magnetized. Who knew? Bunch of lodestones that which to help me bring down the mighty Samurai Jessie." Francis walked to the stake with a local diner owner whom Jessie helped get out from the mob boss' thumb he was under not too long ago. Sometimes Jessie, Camile, and others would go to said diner and congregate.

"Jessie! What's happening?!" Max exclaimed.

"It'll be alright Max. I'll save you all." Jessie reassured.

"Oh, I'm so glad you said that." Francis smiled mischievously. He generated fire from his left hand and threw it around Jessie in a circle, trapping them. "It's time for you to see what happens to those who align themselves with you." Francis brought his right hand to the stake Max was tied to and set it aflame.

TO BE CONTINUED …