ã€ŠRENDã€‹


 1.1

    Rule #4: I wouldn¡¯t bother the world as long as it didn''t bother me.

    Yes, magnanimous me would willingly resign myself to a life of absolute normalcy as my act of great service to this world, so long as it didn¡¯t bother me. Not a small feat since I hadn¡¯t experienced thinking like a normal person. Neither could I relate to such.

    However, I was quite adept at approximating an average person¡¯s actions in most situations.

    As the saying goes¡ªit¡¯s the actions that count.

    That¡¯s the correct saying, right?

    One might wonder why my main rule wasn¡¯t Rule #1. Simple. My Rules were numbered in the order they were established. Rule #1 mandated that I always stir any liquid back and forth instead of in the usual circular manner. Dad stirred his coffee this way, one of my earliest memories. Pretty kid me decided it was going to be my first Rule.

    Did it make sense? Not really. Just an impressionable child copying her father. But no one questions the Rules.

    Not even me. Especially not me.

    Dad influenced my first few Rules, including Rule #4. He¡¯d tell me, ¡°Be a good person if only not to add to the bad people in the world. There are more than enough of them already.¡± Something like that. Hard to recall his exact words because it had been so long since we last talked.

    Not sure what other parents taught their kids, but even as a child, I sensed that Dad¡¯s life lesson was odd. The way he phrased it¡­ he could¡¯ve stopped at ¡®be a good person.¡¯ He might¡¯ve suspected that his beloved daughter wasn¡¯t exactly normal. Sadly, or the approximation of sadness I could muster, I couldn¡¯t confirm if my guess was correct because he¡¯d been dead for nearly ten years.

    Dead in an official way.

    Many people, especially Mom, believed that he was recruited by the CoreBring Hive, with his death a cover to keep us safe. Me? Sure, I¡¯d buy that story. The circumstances surrounding his car accident were funky¡ªalso, no body at the funeral.

    Though he might be truly dead by now, killed by an Adumbrae during some mission of the Hive. It wasn¡¯t exactly a safe line of work.

    While Dad chose to be a good person by virtue of his moral compass pointing the socially agreed upon right direction, I, on the other hand, having no such compass, chose to approximate a good person out of consideration for everyone. In the end, I did follow Dad¡¯s advice¡­ somehow.

    Call it good manners, like not chewing loudly in a restaurant because that¡¯s super annoying and disgusting for the people at the next table over. In turn, I''d appreciate it if other people had the decency to leave me alone. I was already doing my best to be a run-of-the-mill citizen.

    Hence, Rule #4.

    Little did I know that I was going to get bothered today.

    <hr>

    Back and forth, back and forth, I stirred my cup of chamomile tea, staring at the strings of golden honey dissolving in it, inhaling its relaxing fumes. Don¡¯t hit the sides, or something terrible will happen, I continuously chanted in my head, timing each stroke of the spoon with a syllable. Nothing scientific about it, and it wasn¡¯t like any culture believed that hitting the sides of a cup while stirring brought bad luck.

    Still, remember Rule #1.

    My vibrating phone on the grey linoleum table snapped me out of my mini-ritual, its gentle buzz echoing in the empty cafeteria. ¡°January 20, 2020, 6:57 a.m., Sunrise, La Esperanza City, California¡±, the screen displayed.

    Thusly, the sun rose, welcoming the start of a brand-new day the world should count itself lucky I had Rules restraining my cute self.

    I took my cup and walked to the window walls overlooking the West Coast. The sun¡¯s rays crept over the horizon, running over the expansive waters. An ominous jagged tower protruding from the blue blanket that was the Pacific Ocean, the Black Spire, blocked the sunlight''s journey. The shadow cast by the Spire continued traveling across the ocean in the light''s stead.

    Enjoying the serenity I monopolized, I took small sips of tea while watching the shadow crawl toward the shore. A faint reflection of my innocent-looking face¡ªhandy for blending in¡ªstared back at me off the otherwise transparent glass.

    At the start of my first semester at law school, the cafeteria was the prowling grounds of wide-eyed freshmen. Come early enough in the morning, and one could set up a pretentious study nook with stands to cradle thick law books, a whole platoon of highlighters representing all the colors of the rainbow arrayed like ammunition for artillery, a laptop to the side that wouldn¡¯t be used, and stacks of printed notes.

    Fuck the trees. Law students needed to use highlighters and loudly flip through pages to display how hardworking they were.

    I didn¡¯t like studying if there were lots of people around, so I avoided the cafeteria then. After a while, my fellow 1Ls noticed the upperclassmen didn¡¯t study at the cafeteria. They immediately left after eating. We soon learned one of the campus legends¡ªwhoever studied in view of the Black Spire wouldn¡¯t graduate. Consequently, everyone came to the cafeteria only for lunch or coffee, studying elsewhere.

    And now, two weeks into the second semester, this was my own private study area in the morning before the food service people came in to prepare lunch. Law students were some of the most superstitious people on the planet, though the Black Spire thing wasn¡¯t that farfetched considering its story.

    Taking out my phone, I aimed its camera at the Spire and tried to get a closer look with zoom. Just the usual spinal spike of a gargantuan interdimensional monster that renovated the West Coast by sinking hundreds of square miles of land, including the people on it, into the ocean.

    Stories about ghosts emerging from the waters were common. And this is the remains of an Adumbrae Titan. Could it radiate some bad juju? Probably not. The government wouldn¡¯t allow people so close to it if it weren¡¯t safe, right? They could''ve removed the whole skeleton instead of leaving part as a monument to the tragedy.

    Anyway, that wasn¡¯t one of my Rules, so here I was while everyone else packed into the library.

    I finished my tea and went back to my table to study. An hour to go before International Law.

    I was reading the fifth case from the section of the syllabus assigned for today''s class when my phone buzzed again. A text from Amber Deen, our class monitor-slash-beadle by default. She asked me where I was and that we should go to class together.

    Part of Rule #4 was that I¡¯d be friends with everyone¡ªan approximation of friendship. The concept of being friends was easy enough, but I didn¡¯t know what my feelings were supposed to be toward said someone. Not really important. What was important was that I acted friendly. If everyone considered me a friend, that meant I wasn¡¯t a bother to anyone.

    Yet, I always stopped short of actually entering into a close-knit circle of friends.

    First, no one would feel chummy-chummy enough to bother me. Second, the way to be friends with everyone was not to be close friends with a select few. And last, it required much effort to be a close friend, as I understood.

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    But for some weird reason, Amber Deen adopted me as her close friend. A best friend even.

    Annoying as fuck.

    I sighed, texting back, ¡°Sure, I¡¯m at the cafeteria.¡±

    Checking my appearance on my phone¡¯s camera, I ticked off the components of my timid-nerdy-girl face.

    Just a light touch of makeup to achieve the supposedly no makeup look¡ªpale girls like me were like vampire victims if we didn¡¯t have makeup on. I ruffled my black wavy hair just a bit so it wouldn¡¯t look like I was particularly interested in my appearance. A bit of a slouch, a bowing neck, and to finish it off, I wore my glasses.

    These were not prescription glasses; my eyesight was very much fine. I wore them because they were an integral part of my face for law school.

    Face, not mask.

    All of my faces were real for every person I tailored them for. Calling it a mask implied I was hiding something beneath, that it was something that would be taken off, and that the person viewing it would know in the future what I was hiding. But the person I made a face for would never know what was on the other side.

    As far as they were concerned, what I presented to them was my real face.

    My current face was to make me look as unthreatening as possible to the enormous egos of law students, female law students especially¡ªan important factor in being friends with everyone.

    ¡°Erind?¡± Amber Deen¡¯s head poked through the doors of the cafeteria. ¡°Yoo-hoo, Erind.¡± When she saw me waving at her, she swung open the door and strode in.

    Amber Deen was the poster girl for the A-type personality, and there were many of those in law school. Immaculate blonde hair and corporate makeup¡ªhow she found the time this early in the morning, I had no idea¡ªand dressed too formally for a law school class. Navy blue skirt suit over a pristine white camisole and black heels with sharpened tips that wouldn''t look out of place as an exhibit for a murder case¡ªthe kind of outfit you wore for an interview for law school, in contrast to my usual attire of shirt and jeans.

    Overly casual clothes while going to the prestigious Cresthorne College of Law signaled non-conformity and a hint of rebelliousness, a dab of personality injecting independence to my otherwise diminutive persona. I did bring along a blazer for classes with strict professors who wanted everyone to dress as if we were going to court¡ªthey couldn¡¯t see I was wearing jeans under the table anyway.

    ¡°Hi, Deen.¡±

    People usually called her Amber. Most weren''t aware of her second name, Deen. A likely play on Aberdeen, as she had mentioned she was part Scottish. I called her by her second name to set myself apart from others and make an impression on her, making it easier to be her friend. My plan worked a little too well, and she thought we were close.

    "Studying here again?¡± she said. ¡°How I wish societal pressures of irrational traditions didn¡¯t bind me."

    ¡°Silence is very conducive to learning.¡± I jerked my thumb towards the Spire. ¡°And I know you don¡¯t believe that nonsense.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe it. Not entirely, anyway. But¡ª¡±

    ¡°But it couldn¡¯t hurt following it,¡± I finished. That was what people here always said.

    Deen grinned. We¡¯ve had this discussion several times already. ¡°Let¡¯s go. Class starts in twenty minutes. I must confirm with Adrian my understanding of the third case assigned.¡±

    ¡°Patterson v. Washington State? Twenty minutes to discuss that? You just want to talk to Adrian.¡±

    ¡°Nu-uh. It¡¯s a complicated case, especially how it shaped the modern transformation of the ¡®humanity above all¡¯ principle.¡±

    ¡°Everyone¡¯s making it more complicated than it should be. The main point is¡­ there¡¯s no point trying to sue¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªthe superheroes saving humanity?¡±

    ¡°¡ªthe people who can grind cities to dust.¡±

    Deen laughed at what she thought was a joke. Most people assumed I had dark humor when I said what I had in mind. ¡°You can¡¯t answer the bar exams with that,¡± she said. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go already.¡±

    I didn''t want to riffle through my closet of faces earlier than I had to, but appearances had to be kept. Mingling with the student body was a mandatory part of upholding normalcy. It was also needed to keep my faces updated. As a consolation, observing people interact with each other was enjoyable, especially law students. Resigned to my fate for the day, I packed my things.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡± Deen said, looking at someone behind me. ¡°Kelsey?¡±

    ¡°Someone else was here?¡± I said, surprised.

    A girl with wiry disheveled hair stood at the far end of the cafeteria. She gazed towards the ocean with sunken eyes. I may have seen her before, but the name Kelsey didn''t ring a bell. It meant I hadn¡¯t interacted with her yet and crafted the appropriate face.

    ¡°That¡¯s Kelsey, right?¡± Deen asked. ¡°From Section 2?¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°Guess so¡­¡±

    ¡°Kelsey, hello," Deen called out. "Is everything fine?¡± This Kelsey girl didn''t seem to have heard her. ¡°Didn¡¯t know someone other than you stays here this early in the morning,¡± Deen whispered.

    ¡°Neither did I.¡±

    Not sure how Kelsey, if that was really her name, entered the cafeteria without me noticing. I had a full view of the cafeteria door. Had she entered while my head was down, reading my notes, or facing the window, I still would¡¯ve heard the door open or her footsteps. I was about to suggest we should go and leave her alone, but that didn¡¯t sound like something a good person should say.

    Instead, I said, ¡°She looks sick. Do you think she needs help?¡±

    Deen nodded and approached Kelsey, as was my expected reaction after passing her the chance to take charge. I wasn¡¯t going near this weirdo. ¡°Are you okay?¡± she said to Kelsey. Again, no response. Deen reached out to pat her shoulder.

    Kelsey suddenly jerked back, her body convulsing.

    I sure do hope those aren''t her bones cracking. It sounded like almonds opened by a nutcracker amplified by a megaphone. Kelsey scratched her face with such ferocity that she drew red lines of blood. Deen fell back in surprise and landed on her butt. Kelsey clawed at her face more vigorously, shouting, ¡°Get out! Get out! Get out!¡±

    ¡°Deen, come here,¡± I hesitantly ran towards them.

    Before I got close, Kelsey shrieked at an inhumanly high grating pitch, ten times more painful than the worst microphone feedback I had experienced.

    ¡°Fucking bitch,¡± I inadvertently spat out, covering my ears. I turned to Deen to see if she noticed me cursing out of character. She was transfixed on Kelsey¡¯s bloodied face.

    Kelsey rushed to the windows, screaming, ¡°I¡¯ll die a human!¡±.

    ¡°Wait, wha¡ª?¡± I said. A human? My mind focused on that one line.

    ¡°No!¡± said Deen, picking herself up to go after Kelsey.

    But it was too late. Kelsey smashed through the glass, the sunlight bouncing off the broken shards framing her in golden shimmers. Screams grew faint as she fell to the waters below. Then we couldn¡¯t hear her anymore.

    After a couple of seconds of stunned silence, Deen cried out. ¡°Oh my god!¡±

    There should be rocks below. Even if Kelsey missed them, we were on the fourth floor, plus the cliff¡¯s height. High chance she¡¯d be too hurt to swim. Suicide right after my morning tea wasn¡¯t¡­my cup of tea. Thank you for coming to my show. Applause, please.

    I noticed Deen¡¯s horrified look. Wait, what¡¯s the appropriate reaction here? ¡°Oh my god!¡± I echoed her. ¡°Help! We should get help!¡± Embarrassingly lame and forced¡ªI lacked practice pretending to be shocked. ¡°There are rocks below,¡± I added, covering my mouth and approximating a panicked face, hoping that¡¯d distract her from my delayed reaction.

    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± She rushed to the smashed window and peered over the opening. ¡°I can¡¯t see Kelsey! Come, help me look.¡±

    Help you look for a dead body? Eww, gross. No way. ¡°I¡¯ll call for help,¡± I said, dialing campus security. They came five minutes later while Deen continued to look for Kelsey in the waves.

    My morning wasn¡¯t going well. Pretending to be distressed about what happened to Kelsey for five minutes was five minutes too long¡ªbothering me to the max!

    While pretending to care about someone who possibly killed herself, as an average empathetic human should, my thoughts went back to what Kelsey said. Something about dying as a human?

    Is she¡­ an Adumbrae?

    I had no personal encounters with Adumbrae or someone in the initial seeding stages. Not interested in being anywhere near one of them anytime soon. I liked my peaceful life, thank you very much.

    Watch it, world. Tone down with the shenanigans, I warned inside my head.

 1.2

    I slapped myself and looked at the bathroom mirror. ¡°Stop grinning like an idiot,¡± I told my reflection. My cheeks twitched, but the sides of my lips still turned up. Fuck it. This wasn¡¯t the appropriate face for the circumstance at hand.

    The memory of my stupid fake scream lingered in my mind, threatening another bout of giggles. I honestly couldn¡¯t remember an instance that I screamed for real, be it in fear or surprise.

    Maybe when I was a kid?

    Don¡¯t think so.

    The roller coaster ride I had with my cousins three years ago was the previous fake scream session I had no choice but to do. It would''ve been super weird if I sat in rigid silence while the coaster twisted and turned like pasta coiled around a fork.

    ¡°Ah shit.¡± I snorted, trying to stop my laughter as I remembered my dumb stuttering fake yelps riding the Spiral of Doom. "Be serious, you bitch," I hissed at the mirror.

    I wanted to tell Deen to shut up about anything that could get us quarantined and examined. But that wouldn¡¯t suit me. Instead, I texted her to ask if we should say anything ''about the weird stuff that happened.'' This way, she was in charge and would feel she had to take control.

    I didn¡¯t specify anything; she should know what I was talking about. Kelsey¡¯s grotesque contortions and screaming that she wanted to die a human¡­ ladies and gentlemen of the jury, was Kelsey turning into an Adumbrae?

    Couldn¡¯t say that beyond a reasonable doubt, but better safe than sorry.

    I didn''t want a record of being investigated for associating with an Adumbrae, much less a record for possibly aiding and abetting or even hiding the existence of one. Law school was already difficult; there was no need to make my life harder. Deen surely shared my sentiments.

    She texted back, ¡°You¡¯re right. We shouldn¡¯t mention anything about it.¡±

    That was that. Good thing, too. She wasn¡¯t being a stubborn rule stickler, dragging us through getting tested. Evidently, she also valued a clean record.

    Class was about to start in five minutes. I didn¡¯t go with Deen straight to it from the cafeteria because I couldn¡¯t control my face just yet. I played it off as if I had to wash my face to recover from the shock. It was true, in a way¡ªI was shocked I had to prepare a face as a witness to a suicide. Not something I thought would ever happen.

    I splashed my face with water and inhaled deeply. Blank your thoughts, blank your thoughts. ¡°There we go.¡± My smile fell. ¡°Time to¡ªOh, I forgot my glasses.¡±

    Around seventy percent or more of Cresthorne students wore glasses or contacts, so wearing one formed some subliminal connection with them. Glasses also make a person look smarter, more dependable, and more upright. Sounds cliche, I know, but I¡¯ve read about defense attorneys making their clients wear glasses to pump up their uprightness meter for the jury.

    I arrived at my class with a minute to spare. Professor Gallagher wasn¡¯t in yet. Judging by everyone huddling around Deen and talking in hushed tones, they knew what had happened.

    ¡°Erind, we heard from Amber,¡± Adrian said as I sat down. ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    I raised a brow at Deen two rows down.

    She subtly shook her head.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I said, playing the part of a delicate girl. ¡°Um, I just washed my face. It was really¡­ shocking. I hope they find her...¡± I nearly added ''body,'' but that''d be assuming she was dead. She probably was, let''s be real, but I didn''t want to look like an asshole.

    ¡°We were talking about what could''ve caused it,¡± Adrian said. ¡°Stress probably got to her. I heard someone four years ago attempted to jump off the third floor of the library during hell week.¡±

    Everyone else chimed in with their theories about Kelsey''s decision to throw herself into the ocean.

    The door opened with a bang, shutting everyone up.

    ¡°Good morning, class,¡± Professor Gallagher said.

    Everyone went back to their seats. The professor was one of those your-spot-in-Cresthorne-is-a-privilege teachers and didn''t hesitate to throw people out of class if he deemed them undeserving of their spot. He only carried the class list and nothing else.

    Running his finger down the names of students, he called, ¡°Mr. Narvaez.¡±

    We didn¡¯t have any attendance policy. Though since we were first-years, it was a commonly held belief yet to be shattered that attending classes was helpful. Also, Professor Gallagher had warned that those absent would have no spot in the next session.

    ¡°Sir!¡± Carlos barely reached his seat before standing up again.

    ¡°We began our introduction to International Law last week, but let¡¯s run through it again before continuing our overview of the course,¡± Professor Gallagher said. ¡°What is international law?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the collection of legal rules, norms, and standards generally accepted as binding sovereign states.¡±

    ¡°Sovereign states only?¡±

    ¡°Uh, no, sir! It also binds internationally recognized legal entities operating on an international level.¡±

    ¡°Text-book answer, Mr. Narvaez. You¡¯ll pass the bar with that,¡± Professor Gallagher said with a sneer. Carlos hesitantly looked around, uncertain if he was being complimented or not. He wasn''t. ¡°Now, let¡¯s dissect your answer, Mr. Narvaez. Generally accepted, you say. Who decides to accept that set of rules?¡±

    ¡°Well, the states themselves, sir.¡±

    ¡°Any specific person?¡±

    ¡°The leaders of¡ª¡±

    ¡°This will then prompt the question, what if the current leaders won¡¯t accept the acts of their predecessors? A question for another time. Moving on. That covers treaties and agreements with international organizations. How about international customs? Important aspects of international law are based on custom.¡±

    Carlos answered, ¡°Consistent practice by the states coupled with the belief that such action was a legal obligation or opinio juris.¡±

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Professor Gallagher chuckled. ¡°Are you telling us that part of international law is based on simply belief?¡±

    Carlos looked hesitant. ¡°Yes, Sir?¡±

    ¡°Are you asking me a question?¡± Professor Gallagher let out a hollow laugh.

    ¡°Uh, no, sir. I was¡ª"

    ¡°It is true. Opinio juris sive necessitates¡ªan opinion of law or necessity. Further along this semester, we will discuss how the hell one can show a state¡¯s action was motivated by the belief that it was legally obligated to do so. Sounds insane¡­ because it is. You may sit down, Mr. Narvaez. And next time, be confident with your answers.¡± The professor scanned the class list. ¡°Moving on. Mr. Hartwell?¡±

    I stood up. It was my first time getting called in this class. ¡°It¡¯s miss, sir.¡±

    ¡°I apologize. I assumed Erind was a male name.¡±

    ¡°I think it¡¯s an Albanian male name?¡±

    ¡°Well then, Ms. Hartwell,¡± Professor Gallagher said, ¡°Mr. Narvaez mentioned international law also bound international entities or organizations. Examples, please.¡±

    ¡°The International Financial Cooperative, the International Commerce Organization, the United Nations Security Council,¡± I said, ¡°including affiliate organizations combatting Adumbrae like the Free Will Initiative.¡± I specifically mentioned the Initiative because, from my research, I learned that Professor Gallagher once worked as an advisor for them.

    He nodded. ¡°We will discuss in a future session how these organizations are bound by international law to functions outside what is explicitly written on their respective charters. The UNSC Charter, for example, does not mention a legal obligation to quarantine and blockade a member state with an uncontrolled Adumbrae seeding rate. Yet, there is no question that it is obligated to do so. The ongoing blockade of Madagascar is a prime example.

    ¡°Cresthorne tailored our curriculum with the assumption that all of you are pursuing a career related, one way or another, to humanity¡¯s collective effort against the Adumbrae threat. We are, after all, mostly funded by the Bureau of Interdimensional Defense. However, Ms. Hartwell, you didn''t mention the Corebring Central Hive among the examples you gave. We have a substantial section of the syllabus on the Hive. It saddens me that you forgot about the main example.¡±

    Professor Gallagher raised the class list again to find the next person for recitation.

    Gotcha, Professor, I thought with a mental smirk. ¡°But, sir,¡± I piped up, surprising everyone.

    Deen gave me an incredulous stare as if I was insane for speaking out of turn in this class.

    I continued, unfazed, ¡°You asked for examples of the international organizations referred to by Mr. Narvaez that are bound by international law.¡±

    ¡°Pardon, Ms. Hartwell?¡± Professor Gallagher raised a brow.

    ¡°Sir, the Corebring Hive is not bound by international law.¡±

    He scratched his thick beard for a few silent seconds. Then walked to his table, noisily pulled out his chair, and sat down. ¡°Remain standing, Ms. Hartwell. Mr. Peterson, tell Ms. Hartwell why she is wrong.¡±

    ¡°Sir,¡± Nielson Peterson said, promptly standing up. ¡°The Corebring Hive is bound by international law in the same way as all other international organizations. They are composed of states or interact with states; the states are bound by international law. States fund the Corebring Hive. By transitivity, the Hive is bound by international law.¡±

    Professor Gallagher kept Nielson and me standing and continued calling people to argue why I was wrong. This was going all according to my plan to upgrade my face this semester.

    Based on my observations from my first semester, there were plenty of ways to classify professors at Cresthorne. Those intently observing if students listened in class, and those who didn¡¯t even care if no one showed up. Those who droned on and on, going off tangent all the time and couldn¡¯t finish half the syllabus for the semester, and those who stuck to the syllabus.

    And, of course, professors who were more on the academic side, contrasted by those who teach with the ready disclaimer that whatever we learned was not how it worked in the ''real world.¡¯ Professor Gallagher was a this-is-different-in-practice type of guy. At least, I hoped my impression of him was correct.

    Even Deen was called to recite.

    She glanced at me before saying, ¡°Patterson vs. Washington State, humanity above all principle. Corebrings are not under the jurisdiction of any international courts or state but are bound by the legal obligation founded on the moral obligation of all people to ensure the survival of humanity against the Adumbrae threat. Thus, they are obligated to follow international laws for the good of humanity.¡±

    I nearly rolled my eyes. Moral obligation?

    The Corebrings practically have the moral high ground in any scenario. The doctrine in that case was pure lip service.

    More people were called; eventually, half the class was standing. They must be annoyed at me for starting this argument.

    At last, Professor Gallagher said, ¡°What do you have to say, Ms. Hartwell?¡±

    I had been standing for twenty minutes, staring at the board and playing a tune inside my head. I was prepared. ¡°Sir, no one can legally bind superhumans who can grind cities to dust.¡±

    Deen inhaled sharply at my audacious answer. Silence followed.

    Professor Gallagher stared at me, and I stared back, grinning sheepishly.

    His laughter boomed out, startling everyone. ¡°Now, now, Ms. Hartwell. You can¡¯t answer that on your bar exams.¡± He raised his hand, ¡°Has anyone here met a Corebring face to face? A full-fledged Corebring, not the Initiates. A Melded Corebring?¡±

    No one had.

    ¡°Some of you will eventually graduate, and a fewer number will land a career in the field of ID. Only one or two of you, if any at all, will meet a Melded Corebring. An important tip: do not tell them they have the legal or moral obligation to follow the U.N. or anything idiotic like that.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± I said. Mission accomplished. The gamble paid off.

    With this, I have asserted a place in the class hierarchy. But no one would feel threatened because of the nerdy subdued persona I cultivated during the first semester, coupled with my general friendliness. Bonus points, Professor Gallagher has a good impression of me now.

    When the class ended, Deen ran to me. ¡°I''m still right that you shouldn¡¯t answer that on the bar exams.¡±

    I laughed. ¡°I know, I know.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, we¡¯re going to have lunch at Casa Diaz. It¡¯s the new Mexican bistro at Sanders.¡±

    I checked my watch. I didn¡¯t have anything after this, but it was a subtle assertion of dominance.

    Deen said, ¡°Oh, come on. You didn¡¯t come with us for lunch last time. You can ride with me. We need some relaxation after that whole¡­ thing, you know?¡±

    ¡°Okay then,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll get my bike from the rack. Can I put it in your backseat or your trunk? It¡¯s a folding bike.¡±

    "Sure, plenty of room in my car." Deen leaned close to me. "I''m relieved nothing has happened yet because of¡­ it. They just took our statements," she said in a whisper.

    "Let''s hope it stays that way," I replied in an even quieter tone.

    When we went out of the classroom, a man in white clothes stopped us. So much for being in the clear.

    On his chest was a badge depicting an eagle with six wings, the seal of Melchor Institute of Eloyce Field Studies. He noticed our concerned faces and explained that we should follow him because they needed to perform a routine check-up, witnessing the suicide and all.

    "Nothing to be worried about," he assured us.

    And that was a cause for concern!

    Cresthorne has its clinic, just the usual for stomach aches or migraine, mundane concerns. They could''ve given us pills or something for our nerves. Why did we need to go to Melchor? Routine check-up, my ass. We were going to get tested, weren''t we?

    I shot a look at Deen. She tried to keep a calm face, but her anxious eyes gave her away.

    She mouthed, "I have no idea."

    World. This is annoying.

    Stop bothering me.

 1.3

    Eloyce University was practically a small town at the outer edge of La Esperanza. I wasn¡¯t exactly the touring type so I hadn''t seen much of it. The only time I visited other colleges was for administrative stuff or if I needed to use their library because I couldn¡¯t find specific reference material at Cresthorne.

    Cresthorne and Melchor were at opposite ends of the university grounds. We had to ride one of those golf cart thingies the campus security patrol use.

    I had been to Melchor Hall only twice before. The first time was for pre-enrollment¡ªwe were required to pass a basic Eloyce Field test. The second was during our campus tour, orientation week. I never stepped foot on Melchor Hall since again; all my classes were at Cresthorne. In our third year, we''d be required electives at Melchor, so I didn''t expect to go back there until then.

    During the ride, I shot questioning looks at Deen. What was this about? I thought hard, hoping to reach her mind.

    ¡°Sir?¡± Deen finally said. ¡°Did they find Kelsey?¡±

    ¡°Do you mean the missing girl? Is that her name? I don¡¯t think so,¡± said the Melchor dude. He probably introduced himself to us at some point, but I didn¡¯t care enough to process it.

    Deen gave a small sigh of relief, visibly relaxing her tensed shoulders. She probably had thought they found Kelsey¡¯s body, mutated and all monster-like, and now they suspected the Adumbrae has begun seeding people here. That ¡®people¡¯ being me and Deen for a start.

    Concerning for sure, but if they actually found an Adumbrae who has started mutating, they would''ve shut down the school pronto. This place would be already crawling with police and BID agents.

    We were safe. Probably?

    Which brings back the question: why did they want us at Melchor?

    I dug the nail of my thumb into my index finger. My trimmed nail had a hard time wounding my skin. It did leave a bright red line which throbbed a bit. At least that meant I wasn¡¯t seeded by an Adumbrae¡­I hope. I wasn¡¯t hearing any spooky voices either.

    The pressing concern was people peeking into my head during Eloyce Field tests.

    I knew I wasn¡¯t normal...mentally. I didn¡¯t care for people very much, or at all.

    I know, I know, people usually don¡¯t care for others either. If everyone did care, we''d already be a utopia, no wars, no hunger. The world would be filled with peace, love, and understanding, kum ba yah.

    I meant something else. If Deen suddenly fell dead right now, in front of me, two things would cross my mind. The first would be that it was really funny I saw two people dying on the same day. And, second, that it was going to be such a hassle as I''d certainly be investigated for being around two people dying on the same day.

    Not sure what a normal person would think in that hypothetical situation, but it probably wouldn''t be the same as me.

    I had no idea how my Eloyce Field looked compared to others. That was why I was nervous when they tested me during pre-enrollment, the only time I felt nervous for the past, I dunno, decade or so. It was as if a face was forcibly removed and I couldn¡¯t do anything about it.

    About fifteen minutes later, we arrived at Melchor Hall, a three-story building with that cubey-spherical minimalist design, whatever the architectural term for that was. The students hanging out at the entrance gave us strange looks as we went up the steps.

    Eloyce University didn''t require a specific uniform, neither did the individual colleges and institutes within. Melchor students, however, usually sported a pin of their six-winged eagle crest. Elitist much. You would think the Cresthorne law students would be the elitist bunch at Eloyce.

    Melchor dude ushered Deen and me to a waiting room. He explained to us that they were still preparing the test since it was on short notice.

    A woman was already sitting inside. Her hair was dyed metallic blue and fell across her face, hiding it. When she heard us walking in, she brushed back her bangs revealing puffy eyes and a red nose. An eagle pin was on her chest. She looked a couple of years older than Deen and me and seemed vaguely familiar. She cleared her throat and managed to mumble, ¡°Hello¡±, as she dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief.

    ¡°Um, hi. I¡¯m Amber and this is Erind.¡±

    I raised my hand. ¡°Hi.¡±

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± asked Deen.

    Come on, girl, I exasperatedly thought. This was the second time today she asked someone if they were okay¡ªthe first one didn¡¯t do us much good. She should learn to stop asking people that.

    The woman answered, ¡°I...I¡¯m fine. You must be the ones who last saw my sister. I heard they fetched you.¡± Her voice was shaky at the start, but she composed herself. ¡°My name is Myra. Myra Fletcher.¡±

    ¡°Fletcher?¡± Deen said. ¡°Oh, Kelsey Fletcher. You must be her sister. I¡¯m so sorry.¡±

    I didn¡¯t know what she was saying sorry for. Because we didn¡¯t stop Myra''s sister from diving into the ocean? Or was that a condolence type of sorry? The first one placed the blame on us and the second sort of implied Kelsey was dead. Deen might mean the first one. I didn¡¯t like the sound of it either way.

    ¡°I hope she¡¯s found soon,¡± I said, so Myra wouldn¡¯t get the wrong impression of us.

    ¡°I hope so too,¡± said Myra. Upon closer examination, she did look a lot like her sister, almost like they were twins. The striking blue hair threw me off when I first saw her.

    Deen sat beside her and held her hand as a show of sympathy. ¡°They¡¯ll find her. I¡¯m sure of it,¡± she said. She was such a natural at this it made me envious for a second I couldn¡¯t feel that kind of emotion.

    Just a bit...

    Kind of like how I sometimes envied my cousin who could eat a level ten spicy ramen. But when I think about it, I was fine with just normal ramen. Same feelings here.

    ¡°It¡¯s my¡­¡± Myra shook her head. ¡°What did happen? They only told me Kelsey jumped out the window of the law cafeteria and they couldn¡¯t find her.¡±

    ¡°That was it,¡± I said. ¡°I usually hang out at the cafeteria early morning because it''s quiet. Deen here, I mean Amber Deen, came to meet me before going to our first period. We were surprised Kelsey rushed to the window.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell me anything else? How she looked? What she was wearing?¡±

    ¡°She appeared kind of sickly. Her hair was a mess like she just awoke and hadn¡¯t fixed her hair yet. And she was wearing¡­¡± I turned to Deen. ¡°What was she wearing?¡±

    ¡°Blue shirt with a cartoon drawing. Pants. Maybe pajamas? I remember the sound of slippers on the cafeteria floor when she ran.¡±

    Myra focused on the ground as she mumbled, ¡°How could she get here when she didn¡¯t take the car? We¡¯re far from a bus sto¡ª¡± She stopped herself and all of us sat in silence for a minute. She then said, barely a whisper, ¡°I''m not sure if I''m supposed to say this, but they suspect my sister of being an Adumbrae."

    "What?"

    "Huh?"

    Myra motioned for us to quiet down. "Kelsey has a disease...terminal. We went to the hospital a lot last year, her condition was deteriorating. And then she started to get well.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that good?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Like a miracle.¡±

    ¡°There are no miracles,¡± I said, perhaps insensitively.

    Myra nodded. ¡°No miracles. The doctors suspected she was getting seeded. But they weren¡¯t able to test her because she stopped coming to the hospital. I fear that¡­¡± She trailed off.

    ¡°That¡¯s not good,¡± said Deen, her voice quivered slightly with worry. And I agreed with her. This wasn¡¯t good at all. She leaned closer to Myra and asked, ¡°Does that mean there¡¯s a chance we¡¯re in danger?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. If you just met her once then there¡¯s no problem really.¡±

    ¡°Yes, only once,¡± I said echoing her. But the circumstances surrounding that meeting were very problematic. If what Myra was telling us was true, then Kelsey might''ve been losing herself to the Adumbrae at the cafeteria. Judging from Deen¡¯s expression, she was also thinking along the same lines.

    ¡°But¡­¡±

    ¡°But what?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a chance the stress from witnessing my sister attempted suicide might get a false positive on the tests.¡±

    Hmmm...I didn''t think that''d be a problem for me because I certainly didn¡¯t care enough about Kelsey, or anyone else, to be affected mentally. I also noticed Myra used the phrase ¡®attempted suicide.¡¯ Props for the optimism, but, girl, I think your sister''s attempt was successful.

    ¡°What then?¡± Deed said. ¡°What will happen if we get a false positive?¡±

    ¡°More tests that will end up with nothing. Happens here all time, trust me." Myra got something from the bag on her lap, a small black pouch. "However, there might be a problem if they found something...wrong...with Kelsey. You guys understand what I''m getting at?¡± She opened the pouch. Inside were vials containing blue liquid.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°And those are?¡±

    ¡°I got this from my boyfriend, he¡¯s a resident assistant here." She went off to explain a bunch of science stuff my law school brain wanted to shut out. Then she said, "Taking these can calm down brain activity so your Eloyce Field won¡¯t get disturbed as much. If you take these, you''ll surely be cleared now and won''t have any problems in the future if...I mean when...when they find my sister. I don''t want you guys having more trouble because of me...my sister.¡±

    Deen was about to say something but went back into her deep thought.

    ¡°Is this safe?¡± I asked. Did her boyfriend steal these from the Melchor labs? There was a big scandal last year because a group of BAU students stole equipment and chemicals from their university to make meth or some shit.

    ¡°Yes, very safe,¡± Myra said. ¡°You see, sometimes, we students here at Melchor have to visit Adumbrae research institutions. We all have to be tested after each time. If we get a false positive, we''ll get monitored, more tests. To avoid that, some students take these if they know someone who can procure one.¡±

    Deen glared at the vials with furrowed brows. ¡°Is that so?¡±

    I bet, like me, she also suspected Myra had assumed we witnessed something that made us believe her story about Kelsey but didn''t want to admit it. We were quite accepting of Kelsey being an Adumbrae actually; other people would''ve questioned it more. I was half-sure Myra¡¯s offer to keep us clean was genuine. But then again, I was fully sure I wouldn¡¯t have any problems about my mind getting disturbed by witnessing someone kill herself.

    I should just wait for Deen¡¯s reaction. My face was her best friend and¡ªit pained me to admit this¡ªsort of sidekick, so I should follow her lead. The Rules had to be kept despite a bit of disturbance.

    However, if I was going to do something possibly illegal, I wanted to make sure I could blame someone else.

    Someone like Myra and Deen.

    I instinctively reached into my pocket, unlocked my phone, and navigated to the record option. I practiced this more than a dozen times already and I could do it without looking. This was why I usually wore clothes with roomy pockets. No way I could do it wearing skinny jeans¡ªthose barely had pockets.

    ¡°Truth be told," said Myra, "I never took them for that reason. It was after I noticed weird things about Kelsey that I asked my boyfriend to try to, um, borrow, a few vials for me. And now, I¡¯m offering you this. Think of it as an apology.¡±

    Deen and I looked at each other.

    "My family would be angry if I''m connected to Adumbrae," Deen mumbled to herself. "What to do?"

    ¡°Will it hurt?¡± I asked Myra. ¡°Like what would happen if we drank that?¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t feel anything at all. I know because I¡¯ve tried it.¡±

    Deen said, ¡°Does this have any long-term effects?¡±

    ¡°Nothing you should worry about,¡± Myra assured her. ¡°It''ll get flushed out of your system in a day or so. Look, I¡¯m going to take it. You guys pick one each first and then also pick one for me. That way you¡¯ll be sure these are all safe.¡±

    Deen picked three vials and held them out for us. I took the left one, Deen took the right one, leaving the middle one for Myra.

    ¡°I''m truly sorry you guys were pulled into this mess," said Myra. "This is the least I could do.¡± She twisted the cap off her vial and drank it. ¡°You guys should take it before the testing. They¡¯re just waiting for a professor to oversee the tests and classes are about to end.¡±

    As if on cue, Melchor dude opened the door. We hid the vials. ¡°Ms. Fletcher,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯ll be going first.¡±

    After Myra left, Deen opened her vial.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to drink it?¡± I said, bringing my vial to eye level. It didn¡¯t look anything special. It was going to be funny if this turned out to be liquid meth or some other drugs.

    ¡°I¡­uh. Yes.¡±

    ¡°Eh? Why?¡±

    ¡°This isn''t about getting a false positive. I hate to assume the worst, but Kelsey might be¡ª¡± She pressed her lips together and glanced at the door.

    ¡°She probably is,¡± I said. Unless this was an elaborate setup by a gag show on tv, Kelsey was positively becoming an Adumbrae. Annoying shit, bothering my life.

    "As Myra said, when they find her sister, eyes will be on us too. But if we¡¯re clear now, then¡ª"

    ¡°I¡¯m sure we¡¯re clear.¡± Actually, I wasn¡¯t. I knew jack shit about Admubrae seeding. Even experts couldn¡¯t accurately predict it. We might be infected.

    ¡°If we aren''t affected¡ª¡± Deen shook her head to clear her mind. ¡°Bottomline is, I simply won''t accept a record of being connected with Adumbrae. I want this over and done. My parents will kill me if our family gets dragged into something embarrassing. How about you?¡±

    ¡°Same with me too.¡± Best friend Erind reporting for duty.

    ¡°If it¡¯s just a question of being stressed and messing up a machine''s reading, I wouldn¡¯t worry. This is completely something else. And both of us are in this together.¡±

    ¡°Yep, we are.¡± I shook the vial. My peaceful life would be ruined if something stupid happened like my Eloyce Field showed up disturbed, and I just happened to be with a person that was starting to get seeded. I agreed with Deen. Fucking hell really if they find Kelsey¡¯s body and it¡¯s mutated.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just get through this,¡± Deen said. ¡°We¡¯ll be fine. Myra drank it too.¡± Before I could say anything more, she downed the contents of the vial.

    ¡°Wait!¡± I said. ¡°Ah! You really drank it.¡± She swallowed, blinked a few times, then looked at me. ¡°Are you okay?¡± I asked, then I bit my lip. Shit, now it was me who asked someone if they were okay.

    ¡°I feel fine, a bit tingly, but fine.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± I stared doubtfully at her empty vial.

    ¡°See, nothing happened to me. Drink yours too. Better safe than sorry.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it funny the safe option is the drinking-unknown-liquid one?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if this works as Myra explained, but I would do anything to avoid the BID.¡±

    "I don''t think I''ll drink it," I loudly said. Then I reached for my phone to turn off the recording. I wasn¡¯t sure if what I recorded on my phone would be useful if we got busted for doing something illegal. But it was something.

    ¡°Well¡­I. If-if something happens to you, then¡­¡± Deen was stammering. I surmised she was trying to avoid saying if I got in trouble she¡¯d be affected too because it sounded selfish. ¡°I mean, we¡¯re friends, you can trust me.¡±

    Ah, the magic words. With the recording off, I quickly said, ¡°Of course, I''ll drink it too,¡± and then downed the contents of the vial I held.

    "A complete one-eighty? I, uh, I didn¡¯t want to force you."

    I shrugged. "Since we''re in this together, I changed my mind." The timid Erind face I had on would surely follow Deen''s lead. It was annoying getting trapped by a face. But all in a day¡¯s work.

    I didn¡¯t feel anything wrong with myself after drinking the blue liquid. Maybe it was a dud? If it worked as Myra explained, it¡¯d be a huge bonus. But if anything bad happened, at least I did it with Deen. I had leverage in case I needed her to protect me using the connections and influence of her family.

    Five minutes or so passed and Deen was called. Alone, I stared out the window at the parking area, wondering what the hell went wrong with my supposedly peaceful day. Then it was finally my turn.

    I entered the same place where I got tested before I enrolled here, a grey marble tiled room smelling of antiseptic. Four rectangular machines, about two feet taller than my modest 5¡¯4¡¯¡¯ height, lined the wall opposite the door I entered. There were a bunch of computers at the far end of the room manned by the Melchor dude and two others who were probably fourth-years doing their practicals.

    A lady, whose age was betrayed by a few wrinkles straying on her otherwise youthful face and blonde hair that was greying at the roots, stood by the machine. She was a professor and also a researcher of Melchor; I met her before during our orientation tour when she gave us a short speech about the Eloyce Field studies conducted here.

    ¡°Good morning, Professor Deslys,¡± I said, reading the nameplate on her white lab coat.

    ¡°Good morning, Ms. Erind.¡± I must''ve shown a bit of reaction when she referred to me by my first name because she said, ¡°No need to be anxious. These are simple routine tests given the unfortunate circumstance at hand.¡± Professor Deslys pushed a few buttons on the machine and gestured to the opening. ¡°Put your left hand here, right hand here, open your palms downward. And then let me adjust the retina scanner. Align your eyes here.¡±

    ¡°Okay, Professor.¡±

    ¡°Keep your eyes open after you feel the pricks. I suppose you have experienced this before?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I have.¡±

    ¡°Barely ant bites,¡± she said. ¡°Ready? We¡¯ll start.¡±

    My fingers and palm got pricked as if I grabbed a cactus. I knew they were measuring if I was healing like a normal human or I was already starting to mutate, which would happen if I was surrendering my body to super-reality entities. They couldn¡¯t exactly cut people and watch them heal, and it was better to observe the minuscule abnormal regeneration which was the starting sign of seeding. When I felt the prickling stop, I opened my eyes to be scanned.

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t too bad now, was it?¡±

    ¡°No, Professor.¡±

    ¡°All normal,¡± she said, Melchor dude giving her a thumbs up from behind the control panel.

    ¡°Could I go now? Or do I still need to do that helmet test?¡±

    ¡°The Field Integrity Test you mean? We will be performing a different test this time, and we need you to sign a waiver.¡±

    ¡°Waiver? What for? Why not that other test.¡±

    ¡°Time for a short lecture,¡± she said. She cleared a nearby table while Melchor dude, probably her assistant, gave us two chairs. ¡°What do you know about the Eloyce Field?¡±

    ¡°Not much. Isn''t it like the manifestation of the human free will?¡±

    ¡°That is the understanding of most people, Ms. Erind. It should suffice for the layman. I assume you''ve heard about the gestalt subconsciousness? I believe the term the media uses is ¡®shared consciousness¡¯? Which is incorrect.¡±

    I nodded my head.

    ¡°Humanity has a collective higher dimensional link. Not a hive mind, which is the first thing people think of. Those cheesy Adumbrae infection movies are so misleading. This higher dimensional subconsciousness¡ªa result of our evolution to more intelligent beings¡ªis what the Adumbrae are tapping.¡±

    I nodded again, unsure of where this was going. I only had a somewhat general idea of this. ''Adumbrae bad'' was sufficient for me. Actual information, the science mumbo-jumbo about Adumbrae were not common knowledge, the main reason being the government didn¡¯t want people trying to call an Adumbrae themselves. The desire of people for power shouldn¡¯t be underestimated.

    Professor Deslys tapped her temple. ¡°While we cannot access our gestalt subconsciousness¡ªhence, the term¡ªit has been proven to exist. It¡¯s on the same¡­plane¡ªa simple way to put it¡ªas the Adumbrae that try to manifest in our world. Some believe we are but a mere reflection of the true reality, the reality of the Adumbrae.

    ¡°I should stop here. I might get into more arguments if someone heard me teaching controversial topics. What¡¯s important is that the Eloyce Field is the manifestation of the human ego, not free will per se. The helmet test you mentioned checks if a person¡¯s Eloyce Field is crumbling. Taking a snapshot for quick analysis.¡±

    This was all going over my head. ¡°Could I just take that test then?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s practically useless if you ask me. If we detect a crumbling Eloyce Field, it means we''re already too late and the Adumbrae has seeded for some time already. These guys here are better.¡± Professor Deslys pointed to the machine I used earlier. ¡°To be more thorough, we''re going to do an Eloyce Field profiling instead. You''re a first-year law student, right?¡±

    "Yes, I am."

    "I assume you have studied this in your Constitutional Law class? Profiling of the Eloyce Field of a person is¡ª"

    "¡ªan invasion of privacy," I continued.

    Professor Deslys clapped her hands. "Good girl. Yes, Ms. Erind. Which also means that you..." She waved her hand, gesturing for me to finish her sentence.

    "Which means I can refuse," I said, my shoulders slumping at the realization. "And that¡¯s why you need the waiver." This was even worse. I absolutely didn''t want my head getting examined by anyone! But I couldn''t refuse in this situation even if the Constitution says I could.

    Did Deen and Myra do this too?

    Shit, what do I do here?

 1.4

    Fuck. I ended up agreeing to the test.

    Rule #7, don''t do anything that would break the character of the face I have on. A huge problem was that my law student face would agree to this test, no question. If my face was something along the lines of Deen¡¯s personality, it would''ve been easy to wiggle out of this. Getting trapped by my face again... urgh.

    There was nothing wrong with me physically; they already cleared me. The issue here was that I fucking didn''t want them to see what was going on inside my head. I hoped that stupid medicine or drug or whatever that was Myra gave to me would make my brain look normal; I didn''t even know what it actually did.

    Professor Deslys led me to a different room with a sci-fi-looking chair in the middle. It was a sleek white, egg-shaped pod with lines of blinking blue lights scrolling geometric patterns along its sides.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t she a beauty?¡± Professor Deslys said.

    ¡°Is this necessary, Professor?¡± I said in a feeble attempt to get out of this situation. But it was already too late, I already signed the waiver. Rule #7 was weighing down heavily on me.

    ¡°Necessary? No, it isn''t necessary, my dear. A precaution. Wouldn¡¯t you want to see your Eloyce Field Profile?¡±

    ¡°Well, no. Not really.¡±

    ¡°It will be interesting, I promise.¡±

    Interesting? What¡¯s up with that answer? I sat in the pod as a thought occurred to me. When the Professor discussed earlier all that gestalt subconsciousness bullshit, she cleared a table and the Melchor dude gave us two chairs. I may be wrong, but did that mean she didn¡¯t discuss anything with Deen and Myra? If they did this test with Deen, she would''ve wanted to discuss this thoroughly. A large chance that she''d outright resist this.

    ¡°A moment, Ms. Erind,¡± Professor Deslys said. ¡°The system was hibernating. Worth the wait, I promise you.¡± She was as excited as a child about to get a present.

    This bitch! She actually didn¡¯t test Deen and Myra. But why me? Did she know about my weird mind?

    ¡°You¡¯re going to fall asleep for about five minutes, Ms. Erind. Don''t fight it.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ª?¡± The machine whirred, a tingly feeling gently shocked me, and everything went black.

    Hello there, myself. Fancy seeing you here.

    I woke up with a gasp as if I stopped breathing for some time. Professor Deslys greeted me with a glass of water, which I thankfully accepted. She had a weird expression on her face.

    ¡°We¡¯re done. Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Erind.¡±

    That was it? I just blinked. ¡°There was nothing wrong, Professor?¡±

    ¡°Nothing,¡± she said in a disappointed tone. ¡°You have a normal Eloyce Field. Abnormally normal is how I''d put it. It''s hard to visualize the Eloyce Field because it''s non-spatial, but you have a peculiarly calm and compact Field. It''s good, I suppose, just not what I was expecting. To be candid, it almost appears fake given how calm it is.¡±

    Is this the effect of Myra¡¯s drug? ¡°What were you expecting?¡± I tried hard to keep my face calm even though I was pissed at her.

    ¡°You may go now, Ms. Erind. The test results will be confidential. Melchor Institute will store a copy of the records for five years per BID guidelines. A permanent copy will be kept at the BID main repository.¡±

    Fine, you don''t want to answer me. I got up and started walking to the door, then turned back. I forgot my manners, so I bowed my head a bit, almost like a nod, and said, ¡°Thank you, Professor.¡±

    ¡°It is unfortunate I couldn¡¯t do a deep profiling of your Field, Ms. Erind. BID guidelines require higher clearance for more extensive use of this machine,¡± Professor said, pointing to the pod. ¡°If we have the opportunity some other time, perhaps you would be interested in more tests.¡±

    ¡°I think I''m fine with my normal Field,¡± I said. I went out to look for Deen before the Professor get any more crazy ideas.

    <hr>

    Deen and Myra were waiting for me at the steps outside Melchor Hall. Deen leaned by the railings of the main stairs, animatedly chatting with Melchor students; friends of Myra perhaps. I put my hand over my mouth to hide my smirk. It was funny she could easily make friends with people because she was naturally a friendly person, while I could also easily make friends because I was naturally good at approximating a face that could make friends with others. Outwardly, we were both friendly.

    I slouched my shoulders forward and lowered my head, pretending I had a bad posture. I didn''t. In high school, I had to learn yoga for one of my faces; a benefit that came of that was my good form. I also brushed my hair down with my fingers so a few strands would stray across my face.

    Approaching them, I shuffled my feet hesitantly. Peering from the top of my fake glasses, I said in a voice loud enough to interrupt them, ¡°Uh, excuse me¡­¡±, coupled with brushing my hair away from my face. Classic move.

    ¡°Erind! There you are,¡± Deen said. ¡°Took you a while.¡±

    ¡°Yes, um...¡± I looked around at the Melchor students and adjusted my glasses.

    ¡°Oh, these are Myra¡¯s batchmates,¡± Deen said.

    Myra said, ¡°Guys, this is Erind. Did I get your name correctly?"

    ¡°Uh-huh, it¡¯s Erind.¡±

    ¡°Erind, that¡¯s a cool name,¡± one of Myra¡¯s friends said. They introduced themselves one by one while I maintained my shy posture. Their names went in one ear and out the other. I don''t care about your names and I won''t remember them.

    And they warmed up to me, just like that.

    Deen, with her personality, could easily socialize with them. By establishing myself as sort of her sidekick, they''d accept me by association even if my current face wasn''t an outgoing charismatic persona. I was always interested in how fast I could get people to accept me, no matter the face I had on, and without them knowing I wouldn¡¯t care if they all died in front of me.

    That was the point though.

    These people would never ever know what was going on inside my head. If I had my say on absolutely everything, no one would know what I was thinking.

    Which was why I absolutely hated that bitch Professor Deslys for probing my mind.

    I stepped forward into their circle and said, ¡°How do we get back to Cresthorne?¡±

    ¡°Mr. Hurain said we could ride with the campus patrol. They''re just rounding the corner, we can wait over there,¡± Deen said.

    That was the name of the Melchor dude? Whatever. Good thing because it was too hot and too far to walk. ¡°Let¡¯s go then?¡± I said. I shyly faced the Melchor students, adjusting my glasses clumsily. ¡°Oops, I didn¡¯t mean to intrude.¡±

    They assured me it was fine and that they were going to class anyway. What choice did they have? They already established friendly relations with me; they couldn¡¯t ignore me or shoo me away, trapped by societal conventions of the circumstances to stop their conversation. It again reminded me how I was trapped by my face because of Rule #7. I clenched my fist as we walked to our ride back to Cresthorne.

    ¡°Can you move over there,¡± Myra said, climbing on the cart. ¡°It''ll be a bit cramped.¡±

    ¡°Myra, you¡¯re coming with us?¡± I said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll just get my sister¡¯s stuff. I have a spare key for her locker at law school.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right.¡± I forgot about her dead sister. ¡®Supposedly¡¯ dead, excuse me.

    Deen said, ¡°Erind, Adrian said they''re at Sanders Mall. They had a long wait at Casa Diaz and they just got a table. We can still catch up to them.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the place you mentioned earlier? Sure, I¡¯ll come with you.¡±

    The campus patrol dropped us off at Cresthorne and we went our separate ways. Deen didn¡¯t go inside the building, heading instead to the parking lot to get her car. Myra followed me inside the building but went up to the second floor to get her sister¡¯s belongings. I fetched my foldable bike by the racks.

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    I was waiting in front of Cresthorne for Deen when Myra came running.

    "You guys are going to Sanders, right? Can I come with you?"

    "We can ask Deen. Here she is now," I said as Deen''s red SUV came rolling up to us.

    "Hey, Deen," Myra said, peering inside the car''s window. "Could you do me a huge favor? Can you drop me off along the way to Sanders? I live by a condo near there."

    Societal convention trap once again.

    Deen, of course, had no choice but to agree to it. Not that she would''ve refused; she was a good person after all as far as I could tell. Still. Trap scenario. All of us were in Deen¡¯s car, me riding shotgun and Myra at the backseat with my foldable bike.

    Now that I had some time to think, I reassessed my situation. Specifically, Professor Deslys. I looked at the car mirror to check the backseat. Myra was frowning, typing on her phone. I said, ¡°Thanks for the blue medicine, Myra. Nothing bad really happened. I thought we were in trouble.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Myra said. She put her phone away. ¡°Oh yeah, don''t mention it. I told you guys there was no problem. We didn¡¯t even need to take it.¡±

    Deen said, ¡°It was such a relief when I passed the physical test. They didn¡¯t even put the helmet on me.¡±

    I narrowed my eyes. It was as I suspected. Professor Deslys singled me out to test with that egg pod thingy. Why? The only thing that came to mind was that I have an¡­abnormal mind.

    How could she have known about it though? The only time I got tested before this was during pre-enrollment. Could she have gotten hold of my records because they were going to test us and then found something interesting in it? I had no idea what weird thing would that be to warrant her interest. She seemed pretty excited to test me. Just scientific curiosity?

    Fortunately, my test didn''t yield anything worrisome. Abnormally normal, she did say.

    Am I in the clear then?

    I guess so. I didn''t even get to see my results as she promised. The next question was: did she bother me enough that I should bother her back?

    Hmmm¡­not really.

    ¡°Where will I drop you off?¡± Deen said to Myra, breaking my train of thought.

    ¡°Number 21, Emerald Street. We take a left here and you¡¯ll see the tall apartment building of Swartz.¡±

    ¡°Okay then. Can we pass through its parking area to get to Pearl Street on the other side?¡±

    Myra checked her pockets. ¡°I don¡¯t have my pass right now. Really sorry guys, you¡¯ll have to take a roundabout way going to Sander¡¯s Mall from my place. I shouldn¡¯t have asked.¡±

    ¡°No problem at all,¡± Deen assured her. ¡°We have time.¡± Which wasn¡¯t true; she was just being nice.

    Passing by Myra¡¯s place added like ten minutes to our travel because of the nonsense traffic scheme of the Sanders business district. Tons of streets, some of them were one-way, or were one-way every other day, or were closed on specific days. Many people also parked along the side of the road so the traffic was heavy.

    I absolutely detested this area. This was the closest place to hang out from the campus. High chances of bumping into someone I knew so I had to keep my face up. I also didn¡¯t like being in crowds¡ªI liked observing crowds, not wading through them.

    ¡°I hope there¡¯s a parking spot,¡± Deen said after she got her card from the booth at the entrance of Sanders. Thankfully, we found an empty spot after roaming three underground parking levels of the mall.

    As we walked to the elevator, the numbers on its right side started descending, going down to our level. ¡°Nice timing,¡± I said.

    The elevator doors opened and a person wearing baggy black overalls stood inside. A black ski mask covered his face. Deen and I stopped walking. Sensing the dangerous situation, she instinctively reached for my hand.

    Are we getting robbed? I locked eyes with the guy.

    He flicked both his hands to his sides and long spikes burst out of his palms, extending a couple of feet.

    Barely forming any thoughts, I tightly gripped Deen¡¯s hand and dragged her into the row of cars to our left. I crouched down, hiding behind the cars, pulling her down with me. We heard something whistle past our head. Glass broke, showering us with its pieces.

    Rule #7: Don¡¯t do anything that would break the character of the face, I reminded myself. I wasn''t being heroic by taking Deen with me. The face I had on was her close friend. I couldn''t push her to be the bait while I escaped. I had no fucking choice but to save her. Even in the face of danger, the Rules must be followed. This wasn''t the first time Rule #7 was a detriment to me.

    ¡°Down, down, down,¡± I urgently repeated to Deen who was still in a state of shock. I half-crawled as I tugged her by the hand. ¡°Quick. Come on!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±

    ¡°I have no idea but¡ª¡± Something burst through the door of the car at my right side, barely missing my head.

    What was this object? A spike or a stake like the ones used to kill vampires in those stories. I ducked under it and continued crawling.

    The man was throwing spikes at us. Spikes! That didn¡¯t sound normal at all. Shit, was this guy an Adumbrae? Or maybe he had bioaugments. But what kind of augments were spikes? Either way, we have to get out of here. I could hear him running towards us.

    Fuck, moving while crouching was too slow. I got up and darted to the next row of cars, checking over my shoulder if Deen was following me. Thankfully, the man didn¡¯t shoot us. I headed for a pillar with a huge number 4 painted on it the next row over.

    ¡°Where do we go?¡± Deen said, catching up to me.

    ¡°Column. Number 4,¡± I said in between huffs of air as I ran for my life. We squeezed ourselves between a pick-up truck and the column, rounded the column, and hid behind it.

    ¡°Where is he?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    "Where do we go¡ª."

    "Shhh. Listen for his steps."

    Deen peeked behind the pick-up truck. I immediately pulled her back when I saw her eyes go wide. Two black things blew past, barely missing her face. They struck the ground several feet behind us, burying themselves deep. The man was coming over to our side of the row of cars.

    Go to the next row? We''ll eventually run out of cars to hide behind when we reach the wall of the level.

    The exit, where was it?!

    Deen got up and started running for the ramp going to the upper parking level. But it was too far away.

    I caught her and pulled her back. The man was running parallel to us, expecting us to go that way, and tried to head us off. Instead, I ran back to the elevator with Deen in tow. The elevator doors were still open. And there were usually stairs by the elevator; we could also take that.

    The murderous bastard realized we were going back. His heavy steps became louder as he chased after us. He was still on the other side of the line of cars. And, fuck, was he a fast runner.

    He threw spikes. Those didn¡¯t have any problems punching through the cars between us. Deen screamed behind me. I heard her steps following me so she still must be fine. I bent lower while running, covering my head with my arms as if it''d help.

    The spikes went high, through the car windows, and low, through the tires and the gaps between.

    Run faster!

    An explosion and a sharp yell.

    I looked back. A spike blew through a tire and grazed Deen¡¯s foot. She dropped to the floor from the pain, and that was enough for our assailant to get to our side of the row of cars. He jumped on a hatchback, making its alarms go off, and then dropped on our side.

    Thinking fast, I saw the fire extinguisher attached to another concrete column near us. I climbed on the trunk of the brown sedan beside me, scrambled over the top, and clumsily slid down its hood. Our attacker paused for a bit, wondering which way to go.

    Go for Deen! She¡¯s right there!

    And he did. I looked back and saw him walking to Deen, taking his sweet time now that he had cornered one of us.

    I grabbed the fire extinguisher and tried to look for a fire alarm. Nothing. I ran back to Deen.

    I''m going to kill this fucker!

    Deen screamed for help. The guy in black stood in front of her. He raised an arm covered in spikes. I was running on pure bloodlust and rage like I never felt before. This wasn''t only about Rule #7 anymore. This guy bothered me! He was the worst offender today! He¡¯s going to get massacred now! Rule #4 beckoned for me.

    Through the gap between two cars, I rushed with the fire extinguisher above my head, adrenaline giving me strength. I aimed the edge of the red cylinder at his neck.

    Spikes erupted along his spine, piercing the fire extinguisher. White fog hissed out of the container, covering all of us. I dropped down, evading a swinging spiked arm. I found Deen¡¯s leg. I pushed her. ¡°Run!¡± I shouted. Through the haze, I could make out her form scrambling away.

    I also tried to get out of the smoke cloud, running opposite the direction going to the elevator. A good call as the asshole blindly threw several spikes at the elevator. I coughed as I got out of the cloud of whatever was inside the fire extinguisher. Spikes flew everywhere.

    I¡¯m super, duper dead.

    Deen better make it out of this alive and honor my memory as her best friend. A face should not be taken off even at the end of my life. I wasn¡¯t doing this out of the goodness of my heart or a heroic impulse. Stupidity or not, I just couldn¡¯t break the Rules, I don¡¯t know what to tell you.

    I looked over my shoulder just as my would-be murderer burst out of the white smoke. Several spikes erupted from his body. I closed my eyes and crouched down, making myself as small as possible. Spikes struck the floor near me and the cars all around. I thought I heard Deen shouting over the orchestra of car alarms.

    Did I get hit? I patted my body.

    The fuck? I was completely fine!

    Something blaring to my right. Bright lights of a car barreling towards me blinded me for a second. Wildly honking, tires screeching, the car swerved to avoid me. A sickening crunch and the sound of something thrown against the wall.

    I rubbed my eyes. What happened? Did they hit him?

    A male voice shouted, ¡°Run! Run away! To the door!¡±

    Door? At the far end of the parking area, there it was. An exit to the emergency stairs. My legs hurt, my lungs burned, and there was a stabbing pain at the right side of my abdomen from all the running. Still, I ran once again.

    I had to.

    There was shouting behind me. I didn¡¯t dare look back.

    ¡°Stop! Don¡¯t chase her!¡±

    ¡°Shit, just a bit more,¡± I panted. I pushed the heavy metal door with all my strength and threw myself in. Close it! ¡°Lock, lock. How do I lock this?¡± I fumbled around. No lock. Where next?

    I was in a stairwell. Stairs! Up or down? I braced myself against the door to hold it closed. Which was a stupid thing to do.

    Something hit the door on the other side. The sound of metal giving way¡­

    Pain! Something hot dripped down my back. I stared down. A spike pierced through the metal door, straight through my body, bursting out of my stomach, skewering me. Blood seeped through my clothes.

    I gripped the spike with both hands and tried to push it back out as I slowly stepped forward. I gritted my teeth. The spike slowly exited my body while I carefully moved away from the door.

    Fighting back the urge to just lay down and wait for death, I limped up the stairs, exerting all my will to focus on getting to the next level, trying in vain to ignore the deep gnawing pain.

    Damn it. This day was just the worst.

 1.5

    I hissed as I went up the stairs, breathing through my teeth, struggling to put one foot in front of the other. The lonely echoes of my steps through the empty stairwell kept me company, at least for a short while. I knew the Adumbrae was coming. He was an Adumbrae...or starting to become one. Getting hit by the car might have stopped him for a short time...or... maybe he was killing the people in the parking area.

    Goodbye, Deen, I guess. I seriously tried to save you.

    Thanks for inviting me for lunch. NOT.

    It looked like I was dying next.

    I clutched my stomach tightly with both arms, putting pressure on the wound as I continually cursed in my mind. Reaching the door on the next landing, I grabbed the handle. My hand was red and sticky from the blood.

    My blood.

    I was too weak to open the heavy door. Too painful. I inhaled and threw my body backwards, using my weight to pull the door. It opened. I jumped in before it swung closed.

    There was pounding from below. He was here!

    The automatically closing door deadened the sounds of ripping metal. Did the spikes jam the door below? He seemed to be trying to force it open. I had precious little time to hide.

    Where the fuck am I? I found myself in a bleak, grey, narrow corridor, with double doors spaced evenly through its length. I thought I would''ve already reached the first floor of the mall. Was this the storage area? Leaning against the wall with my right hand, I started hobbling; it was too painful to run or just walk normally.

    ¡°Help! Help!¡± I shouted. ¡°Help! Is anyone here?¡±

    Silence.

    I spat out blood on the floor. ¡°Okay, no one. Fuck you all,¡± I muttered to the air.

    Reaching the nearest door, I noticed my bloodied handprints on the wall. Drops of red on the floor highlighted where I went. Knowing what I had to do, I inhaled deeply then held my breath, closed my eyes, clenched my jaws tight, and squeezed my abs. With one swift motion, I removed my shirt. My vision went hazy for a couple of seconds because of the intense, searing pain from stretching my arms over my head. It felt like I was tearing my wound wider.

    I whimpered, tears forming at the sides of my eyes, as I wiped my hands with my shirt. After that, I bundled it into a ball to hold against my wound to stop my blood from dripping to the floor.

    Hopefully, the Adumbrae would go for this door with my blood prints.

    A loud bang startled me. Did he break the door below?

    The next door was a few steps further on the opposite side of the first one. I turned my back and walked rearwards to open it without leaving any bloodstains. I opened it only a bit so it wouldn¡¯t swing after I entered. Then I gingerly squeezed through the small gap. The door from the stairwell opened just as I got in the room.

    I was in a locker room of sorts, maybe for employees.

    Further into the room, go!

    I shuffled my feet as fast as I could. Again, there were no people inside. I began tugging at the locker doors, praying to find an open one. They were arranged in rows, two lines of lockers back to back for each row. Next row, next row, please, please. It hurts so much.  Where was an open one?

    The cold breeze from the air conditioning brushed against my exposed skin, making me shiver. I felt more vulnerable now that I was only wearing a bra, not that me having my shirt on could have helped my current predicament.

    Finally! An open locker!

    I stuffed myself into the tight space, parting the stinky hanging clothes. That asshole hadn''t entered this room yet; he probably went in the first room. He¡¯d realize soon enough I wasn¡¯t there.

    How do I close this door? There was nothing that could lock it from the inside. I pinched the slits on the locker door and pulled it shut, holding it in place with straining fingers. This would have to do. My left hand remained clutching my abdomen.

    What next?

    My phone! Right, I could call the police. Why did I only think of this now?

    With my free left hand, I reached into my pocket, letting go of the formerly off-white now dark red shirt that was stopping my bleeding. It dangled a bit on my stomach, held on by sticky partially dried blood before it peeled off and fell to the floor of the locker. I winced.

    It was awkwardly difficult to get my phone from my pocket while trying to avoid movement that''d make my agony worse.

    Am I going to die here?

    As if to confirm what I dreaded, a whole new wave of pain radiated from my wound. Something was wriggling inside me! A piece of the spike that broke off?

    It felt like pointy butterflies in my stomach, poking and stabbing my internal organs. I wanted to just curl up into a ball and scream from the pain. But there was no space. My fingers held on vigilantly on the locker door.

    Barely able to stand, I leaned back for support. The cold steel of the locker caressed my naked back, providing momentary comfort.

    I''m going to die...

    A black spike burst from inside of me. It drilled through my stomach, making a brand-new hole, piercing the locker door. I could feel it also erupted through my back, pinning me to the back of the locker like a note stuck on a corkboard with a thumbtack.

    I opened my mouth to scream, but the pain was too much that I couldn¡¯t make a sound. My hands fell limply to my sides. The locker door remained shut, the black skewer holding it in place. A macabre rotisserie human.

    Blood gushed out of the wound on my stomach and back, flowing down to my legs. Its taste filled my mouth. I gagged, trying to stop vomiting blood. It dripped out of the sides of my mouth down my chest, warm streams on my skin that was steadily turning cold.

    I didn¡¯t even have the energy to cry for help as I stood in a puddle of my own blood.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Vision was fading...

    My head slumped on the locker door...

    <hr>

    I opened my eyes.

    Nothing.

    Total darkness surrounded me.

    There was some pressure, a slight throbbing on my ears.

    I realized it was because there was nothing to hear. A good representation of the phrase I always used to read in novels, ¡®deafening silence¡¯. I flailed around, shaking my arms and legs wildly, hoping to hit anything.

    Nothing, no walls, no floor, no ceiling. No gravity pulling me in some direction, I had no idea of my orientation. No breeze on my skin, no smell, no temperature that I could feel.

    Absolutely nothing.

    I clutched my stomach instinctively, but there was no pain. There was no wound. I felt all over my body and realized I had no clothes on.

    There I was, wading through the void¡­butt-naked.

    ¡°Wha¡ª? Where am I?¡± I said. I could feel I said words, but no sound came out. There was no air, and I wasn¡¯t actually sure that I was breathing anything. But I was alive...or am I? My last memory was dying inside a locker.

    Am I dead?

    Probably.

    Was this the after-life?

    Not much of an after-life. One-point-five stars. Sucks ass.

    The surprising news was that there was an after-life. With all the Adumbrae and Corebring business, proof of higher-dimensional beings, and all that, one would think that belief of heaven and hell should have vanished. But many people persisted with their beliefs and religions from before World War II and the advent of the Adumbrae invasion.

    Maybe I was looking at this the wrong way? Wasn¡¯t it more likely that there was an after-life, heaven and hell what have you, or whatever your religious beliefs were because higher-dimensional beings existed?

    Well, I was here. Wherever here was.

    I guess there is an afterlife all along.

    I sighed. So, this was it¡­

    Twenty-three years on that stupid earth, ending with a very painful death. Really, really sad.

    Or an approximation of sadness anyway. My uncaringness started to creep in. It was almost a relief I died because that pain was just insane.

    I say almost because my current situation wasn¡¯t an improvement.

    What a badass way to die, though. I was truly proud of myself. Still, it would''ve been a more awesome story if I didn¡¯t die in the end.

    That, however, wasn¡¯t exactly true. My story hasn¡¯t ended yet. An eternity of this bullshit nothingness was the continuation of my story, and it wasn''t looking good.

    Should I just kill myself?

    Rule #8: I can kill myself only after I have killed everybody else. Which practically meant I could never ever commit suicide. However, there was no one around me now. With no one else existing in this limbo, I will not break Rule #8 if I killed myself.

    The alternative was dreadful to even think about ¨C sensory deprivation for all of time. I''d go insane from boredom. I knew prisoners in solitary confinement sometimes went insane. This was way, way worse than solitary confinement. I closed my eyes because it was so unnerving to look at nothing.

    I wrapped my hands around my neck. This was stupid. I couldn¡¯t die by choking myself, I wasn¡¯t even breathing. Stabbing myself or slitting my wrists wasn''t an option. I was naked! I didn¡¯t have anything I could use to kill myself.

    Could I even die here? Die again?

    With nothing to do, I decided to sleep it off. I had an eternity in this void to think about what to do.

    <hr>

    <u>You¡¯re here again?</u>

    ¡°Who said that?¡± I tried to say, and again there was no sound.

    A small point of light in the distance, a hole in the wall of solid darkness. This distant speck of light called to me, pulling me towards it. Slowly at first, then I surged through the emptiness, my reference point was the light.

    Hope filled my heart. Heaven or hell, or some other dimension, I''d be grateful for anything else other than this pit of oblivion.

    The light grew brighter and larger, and it shattered into millions of stars as if thick clouds on a stormy night suddenly parted to reveal the starry sky. But it wasn¡¯t just boring twinkling lights punctuating the darkness. All sorts of colors flew through the space like those pictures of nebula I saw in science books. Clouds of unworldly colors, more real than anything I had seen back when I was alive.

    This beautiful display was interspersed with tendrils of darkness, threatening to consume the radiant plumage, barely noticeable with the backdrop of black. But when the tendrils snaked through the technicolor fog of space dust and stars, I could clearly see their outlines.

    An ancient chair, cracked and broken yet somehow held together by an unseen force, floated in the middle of this swirling insanity of color and darkness.

    A man sat on the chair.

    He wore a black suit with intricate gold accents, his slender figure was familiar. His right hand sported an imposing clawed gauntlet of gold. Draped over his shoulders was a white fur coat. It matched his long wispy white hair floating around him as if he was underwater.

    He wore a mask with a huge smile on its face like the mask of comedy worn by the muse Thalia from Greek myth, the mask used in theater logos nowadays, often paired with its opposing sad face mask. The mask was bisected down the middle, one side colored white and the other black, with gold designs radiating from the eye sockets. Red glowing eyes peered from behind the mask.

    Most peculiar of all was the two orbs of light behind him, chasing each other in orbit. I couldn¡¯t make sense of their position; they were both directly behind the chair yet could also be thousands of miles away. I assumed one was the sun, glowing a warm yellow, and the other was the moon, going through its phases as it chased the sun. Curiously, the balls of light orbited the back of the person clockwise. With the sun rising from his right and then setting on his left side.

    ¡°Again?¡± I said. This time, I could speak. ¡°Was I here before?¡±

    <u>Yep, you were just here a few moments ago, of your time.</u> A female voice, so she wasn¡¯t a ¡®he¡¯.

    She didn¡¯t actually speak with sound. She also wasn¡¯t speaking in my head. It was more like I felt what she had said, a very unsettling feeling as if she was inside my head but I was the one reading her mind. Bizarrely, I could feel she had a female voice if that made any sense.

    ¡°My time? Because this is a different dimension, you mean?¡±

    <u>Not really, you were always here. Rather, it was the first time we noticed each other.</u>

    Despite the weirdness of the situation, I tried to get closer to her. I swam through the space. It was then I remembered I was naked. I tried to cover myself up.

    She chuckled, her laughter like warm Christmas bells. <u>Why the modesty?</u> she asked.

    It wasn''t because of modesty but more of a feeling of vulnerability.

    <u>There¡¯s no need to be concerned.</u> She reached for her mask and started to remove it dramatically.

    Oh shit, I thought, finally realizing the meaning of her words and why her outline looked familiar. Please don¡¯t be me, please don¡¯t be me, please don''t be me.

    <u>Sorry</u>, she said, revealing her face.

    She was me.

 1.6

    She looked like me, but she wasn''t me.

    I am me!

    I didn¡¯t have floating creepyass ghost hair. Her skin tone was also different, a shiny marble texture, almost artificial, reflecting the cacophony of lights all around us. And glowing red eyes, I didn¡¯t have those¡ªwould be cool if I did.

    I thought she was a guy because her breasts weren¡¯t noticeable under her suit. I glanced down on my own not-so-ample bosom and giggled. At least she got that department right. Immature, I know, especially the abnormal situation I was in.

    She¡ªI will just call her SpookyErind¡ªgrinned at me. Her bunny teeth, which I also had, and are cute by the way, showed in her smile. Did she read the nonsense in my mind?

    Although none of this made any fucking sense, it couldn''t be denied I was wicked awesome in her outfit, floating through space while sitting on an ancient magical chair.

    I said, ¡°Okay, this is weird. I''m going to start with the most important question that needs an answer, asap: am I dead?¡±

    <u>No. Why would you think that?</u> said SpookyErind.

    ¡°It''s just that my last memory before getting in this dimension, or whatever this place is, was that I was dying.¡± I folded my arms across my chest, hiding my breast, then I crossed my legs. Was it cold or just my imagination? ¡°Oh, I know! You¡¯re an Adumbrae and you¡¯re going to ask me for my body.¡±

    <u>What are you talking about? I''m you and you''re me. You mean our body?</u>

    ¡°Sounds really suspicious. I know one of the ways Adumbrae tempt us to give up our bodies is when we''re dying, like Myra¡¯s sister. I just want to mention fuck her for getting me into this mess and ruining my day. I digress. Anyway, Kelsey probably decided to make a deal with an Adumbrae to give her a healthy body. And that¡¯s happening to me now, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m not dying from sickness like her, but pretty much dying...at a very fast rate.¡±

    <u>I''m not asking for your body, because it is our body. I, or rather we, already have this body.</u>

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s such an Adumbrae thing to say. I mean...I haven¡¯t talked to one before. But it makes sense, right? I''m super dead. Like no getting out of that one. The Adumbrae with spikes¡ªwait, can you see what¡¯s happening in the, um, outside world?¡±

    She looked at me smugly. <u>I can see what you see because</u> ¨C

    ¡°You are me,¡± I said. I already knew where this was going.

    <u>I know everything you know. Let¡¯s say I''m an Adumbrae. So what? Why do you care? What difference does it make if your next actions are truly your own, or me controlling you? As we always say</u>¡­ She gestured to me to finish the sentence.

    ¡°It¡¯s the actions that count." I shook my head. "But, but¡­that doesn¡¯t apply here.¡±

    <u>Just like there is no difference between Deen being friendly and you being, quote, unquote, friendly from the viewpoint of your classmates. Excuse me, our classmates.</u>

    ¡°Those people wouldn¡¯t know the difference between me and Deen because they only see our actions. That¡¯s the point. They will never ever get into our heads, so there¡¯s no difference in their perspective. A truth that can''t be seen isn''t reality. What they see is what they get. This is different.¡±

    <u>Oh yeah? How so?</u>

    ¡°Because we¡¯re inside my head? I, um¡­¡± I threw my hands up, at a loss for words, and shrugged my shoulders. SpookyErind smirked at me. She waved her mask around as if egging me on to understand it. I did understand it; I just didn¡¯t want her to win. ¡°You bitch,¡± I spat out.

    <u>Come on, none of that. Don¡¯t go cussing ourselves</u>, she said with a pout.

    ¡°Fine, you win. Yeah, you''re already in my mind. I won¡¯t know what¡¯s really happening. For all I know, you''re already mind-controlling me. It isn''t my reality anymore.¡±

    <u>Correct. It''s futile to even try to differentiate whether you are mind-controlled or not. We are already talking to each other which means that</u>...

    ¡°¡­that if you could mind control me, you would''ve already taken over my body. So, there¡¯s no reason for me to fret over this." I scrunched my nose in annoyance. "Is it really this easy to make people give up their bodies? I figured you offer like a healthy body to the sick, eternal youth to the old, superpowers to the¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­ the bored?¡±

    <u>Hey, I told you I''m not taking over your body. It¡¯s just that we''re the same person so I know that you know that if I was actually a being taking over your mind, your stance on that matter, and mine as well, is there¡¯s no point thinking about it.</u>

    I rolled my eyes. She was correct. Either this proved we were one and the same, or this proved that it was pointless to argue with her. I kept getting trapped today. So annoying. ¡°Again, that¡¯s such an Adumbrae thing to say. Let¡¯s put that aside for now. What¡¯s our agenda here?¡±

    <u>You¡¯re the one who came here. What do you need?</u>

    Since there was no point worrying about my mind, I should focus on saving my body. ¡°I''m dying. I don''t want to die...hmmm...¡± I noticed she was still holding up her mask as she smiled at me. A hint? If she was me, then¡­ ¡°I need a new face for this. Not the usual face I use to keep my Rules in front of other people.¡±

    <u>And what face is that?</u>

    ¡°Can I borrow your face?¡± I pointed at her happy face mask. ¡°That¡¯s a face, isn¡¯t it? I don¡¯t know what that does, but that could probably help me out.¡±

    <u>Yep, this is a face. Very good.</u> She put on the black and gold mask, covering her smile with the smile of the mask. <u>But I¡¯m using this one.</u>

    ¡°Hey, I thought we are one. Why can¡¯t I have that?¡±

    <u>There¡¯s only one of these. And I¡¯m using this in here. This is my face for this place. This face can¡¯t leave this place.</u>

    ¡°Hmph, okay whatever. I''ll ask for a different one. Give me a face, unrecognizable from mine, unlike any I had before. All my faces are for following the Rules. An altogether different face is needed for those who violate my peaceful Rule-abiding life.¡±

    <u>That face has to follow all your Rules too.</u>

    ¡°Of course, that¡¯s granted. A new face for war.¡± If SpookyErind was me, or she could read my mind, then she should know what¡¯s the next plan. ¡°Someone''s fucking killing me, and it is time I''ll retaliate in kind.¡±

    <u>And so, it shall be. You shall wear your spilled blood on your new face, and you will draw blood for the enforcement of our Rules.</u> SpookyErind stretched out her right hand, the one wearing a massive golden clawed gauntlet. She opened her palm, revealing a glowing white gem sitting at the palm of the gauntlet radiating a kaleidoscope of colors. <u>Come, take the new face you''ll wear as you cross the forest that is the world of violence, and death, and where Adumbrae lurk. </u>

    I swam through space to reach out for her hand. Golden liquid seeped out of the white gem, flowing upwards. As my fingers touched the swirling liquid of gold, it began to turn red. ¡°As wolves lurk in the forest ¨C¡±

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    ¡ª<u>wearing many faces, of gentleness, of guile, of disguise, of danger, of death¡­</u>

    ¡°¡ª in turn, I wear the face of a girl covered by a cloak drenched by blood¡­¡±

    ¡ª <u>a face of innocence, of beauty, of weakness, the face of prey¡­</u>

    ¡°¡ª waiting for the wolves to bare their fangs at me, to strike, to pounce¡­¡±

    ¡ª <u>their ignorance will be their downfall, for as the wolves attack¡­</u>

    ¡°¡ª they will know¡­¡±

    ¡ª <u>that the true wolf¡­</u>

    ¡°Is me.¡±

    <hr>

    I gulped for air as I came to as if I had stopped breathing for some time¡ªwhich I probably did.

    How long was I out?

    The skewer was still embedded in me and still fucking hurt. But the pain was different...almost tolerable.

    It even felt a little satisfying like I had an intense abs workout and savored the burn. I grasped it, about to pull it out, but noticed my hands weren¡¯t my own. I was wearing black gloves that ended in claws. And I was now squatting; I was sure I stood straight up when the skewer pinned me to the locker walls.

    There was no space to pull out the skewer as it was lodged into the locker door as well. I had no choice but to break it. Preparing myself, I clenched my jaws and felt a new sensation. Such insane power and exhilaration from flexing the muscles of my jaws.

    I twisted the skewer sidewise, breaking it with one hand. Immediately, I pushed open the locker door and extracted myself from the other half of the skewer still stuck to the back wall.

    The inside of the locker was splattered red, my blood-soaked shirt lay crumpled on the floor. I examined the part of the skewer I broke off. It had the texture of tree bark but was made of very hard material.

    There was a dressing mirror at the back of the room. Upon seeing my reflection, I jerked in surprise and nearly dropped the skewer.

    Staring back at me was practically a supermodel. About half a foot taller than my original height, my petite frame inflated into a curvaceous body. I wore a deep red hoodie¡ªwith exaggerated animal ears on the sides of the hood¡ªover a bare midriff black crop top with golden patterns and high-waisted mini cargo shorts.

    It was like some insane teen fantasy story where the unassuming plain protagonist turns into the hottest girl in school. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t see if the fairy godmother made me beautiful too because a mask covered the lower half of my face. It was a snout of some kind of animal with bared fangs, colored red matching my hoodie with black streaks. The mask¡¯s design reminded me of an oni mask in a Japanese play I saw once, or of Indonesian masks my mom bought when we went to Bali for a vacation a couple of years ago.

    I asked SpookyErind for a new face, and she did give me one. Well, a whole new body. Or transformed my original body more like; there was still the hole through my abdomen because of that stupid skewer. I touched the rapidly healing wound.

    Weird.

    I reached to remove the snout to check what was underneath. ¡°Let''s see how I look.¡± Or I would''ve said that, but the fanged mouth of my mask opened and instead emitted a deep growl.

    It wasn¡¯t a mask.

    It was my own mouth!

    It''s an actual face!

    I held up the broken skewer, warm and pulsating. It was sort of alive. It grew out from inside my body, maybe from a fragment of the spike that hit me. I wanted to eat it. I placed the skewer between my jaws and bit down with all my might.

    My skull shook from the strength of the bite; I crushed the skewer into splinters. It tasted weird, like burnt food left too long in the open air. Bones would surely be an easy task for me to bite through. I wondered what else I could bite. I opened my jaws.

    What big teeth I have!

    The door of the room blew off its hinges with a crash, reminding me I had an adversary. I was the weak and injured prey. This time, we''ll see who¡¯s the prey.

    The Adumbrae walked in. There was a jingle, a thwomp, and a screech like the sound of metal rubbed against another. I guessed he checked a couple of locker doors if they were open and just decided to stab each one instead.

    The steady cycle of stabbing and pulling came closer and closer to me.

    I waited by the locker I hid in earlier. Judging by his footsteps, he was going to appear from the right side of the row I was in. Instead of hiding inside the locker, I left the door open then hid on the other side of the door, waiting for him to come inspect it.

    When he reached my row, he rushed to the open locker, grasping the locker door not knowing I was there just on the other side trying not to laugh or growl. He turned his back, scanning the rest of the room, wondering where I could be. I opened my jaws wide and pounced on him from the back, aiming for the side of his neck as I have seen the lions do in nature documentaries.

    My teeth pierced his chewy flesh. It was tougher than I expected given my bite force. Perhaps it was because he wasn¡¯t truly human anymore.

    Blood spurted out his neck and into my mouth as my teeth found his collar bones. With rage and glee, I bit down even harder and felt his bones crack. I ignored the smell, and worse, the metallic taste of blood. The thought made me want to puke, but I found myself enjoying it. The fun of chomping down my victim made me hold onto my bite.

    ¡°Arghh!¡± a female voice screamed.

    Wait? I mistook a girl for a dude again? I had no qualms killing men or women, but the surprise made me loosen my bite slightly.

    ¡°Fuck you! Get off me!¡± she said. Sensing my weakening hold, she released spikes from her back, piercing me in several places.

    I kicked her away, extracting myself from the porcupine bitch. I had multiple stab wounds on my chest and stomach. But the pain...

    What pain? My wounds barely bled, and I could feel the heat of her blood coursing down my throat, strengthening me.

    A single idea came to my mind.

    I should eat her.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± she exclaimed. She put pressure on her profusely bleeding neck. With her other hand, she retrieved a syringe from her pocket. I readied myself to evade if she would throw it. She stabbed herself with it. ¡°Are you the ones experimenting with Adumbrae? What did you do to my sister?¡±

    What the shit was she was going on about? Huge applause though for still standing up after that bite; an Adumbrae body was really tough. My head was filled with thoughts of eating her, to make her pay for the pain she caused me. You can stab me all you want, but you won¡¯t stop me from eating you.

    A burst of mist came down from the ceiling, accompanied by continuous ringing.

    The fire alarms? Hot pain on my legs.

    I learned my first lesson of fighting: always concentrate on the enemy. The bitch threw spikes at my knees and legs as water poured on us. I knelt down from the fleeting pain. That was all the opening she needed. Instead of coming to attack me, she wisely ran to the side, fleeing out of the room.

    I roared in frustration, plucking the spikes off my legs. I ate them, the hardness was nothing to me, their warm albeit minuscule life force fed the needs of my body. The pain ebbed away.

    Where was that bitch?  I followed her, but stopped just as I was about to exit, wary of any traps.

    People were shouting in the corridor outside.

    ¡°Barb! Where are you?¡± a man called out. ¡°We should get out of here before the police¡ªWhat the hell? What happened to you?¡±

    ¡°Burn this place,¡± the woman I attacked earlier screamed. ¡°An Adumbrae! Use your powers!¡±

    Burn me? More enemies then. More food for me.

    I jumped out of the room with the anticipation of filling my belly with blood. Searing heat enveloped me, I held out my arms to protect my face and howled in agony. Who dared hurt me? I''m going to eat you too!

    "Who is she?" said the man.

    ¡°Hold me up,¡± the woman said. ¡°We got to run. Run, please. She bit me bad.¡±

    The heat became more intense. The entire corridor burst into flames. I couldn¡¯t see what was happening. I couldn''t see my prey.

    The unbearable blaze burned off my skin, my flesh, and I couldn¡¯t focus. I couldn''t continue the hunt. Run out of the fire was the last thing on my mind.

    And I did.

    My first battle and my first failure felt heavy in my chest.

 1.7 - Everett (Emcee)

    Everett (Emcee)

    Everett gripped the steering wheel firmly as he drove. The sirens of a firetruck made him grip it even tighter, causing it to creak because of his strength. The firetruck came into view, weaved through the sea of cars, and blew past him. Only then did he realize he was holding his breath. He was as tense as the time they went out on their first mission against the Adumbrae. Perhaps even more now¡­because they had just set fire to a mall full of innocent people.

    His side mirror reflected the flashing lights of the firetruck getting further and further away, heading towards a pillar of heavy smoke rising to the skies. The mall was no longer in sight, covered by all the other buildings of the business district. Which was good news. Everett wanted to put as much distance as possible between them and the scene of the crime.

    His crime.

    Another source of stress, and perhaps more concerning, was Barb and the problem she had brought upon their group. Everett adjusted the mirror to check the backseat of his car. Two women were sleeping.

    The one on the left had long blonde hair and wore intimidating corporate clothes. Everett had no idea who she was. All he knew was Barb wanted to kill her and another girl. Barb did scream it had something to do with Kelsey. No clue about that one either.

    Blank didn''t mention anything about it. He knocked out this gorgeous lady with his mind blast when they saved her from the rampaging Barb, and told him to take her with them. He was going to do it anyway. Otherwise, she would''ve died in the fire. Everett didn¡¯t want the death of an innocent bystander, a beauty at that, on his conscience.

    He tried to drive away the thought that he might''ve injured, or worse, killed someone with the fire he started.

    This was all the fault of that idiot Barb.

    Compared to the peacefully sleeping girl beside her, Barb was twitching in pain, pale and sweating profusely. Everett shuddered to think what monster could''ve taken a chunk of Barb''s flesh just like it was biting a cookie. He knew first-hand how tough Barb was.

    When they tested their powers, she could survive through his firestorm. That was not his full power, but he could cook normal humans with it. He had also seen Barb shrug off bullets and even point-blank shotgun blast to the chest when she had her spiked armor plate on.

    There was something wrong with her now. Her healing was oddly slow.

    As a temporary measure, he heated Barb¡¯s open wound. He planned to cauterize it and prayed he did a passable job. Hopefully, Oberon could patch her up later. Then they could all beat up Barb for endangering them.

    If they were exposed, they would be surely executed on the spot, whether it be by the Corebrings or the BID agents, whoever would find them first.

    His phone rang. Not his normal one¡ªthe secured phone Blank provided for them. God knows where he got these. ¡°Hello, Oberon,¡± Everett said. Finally, the lazy bum checked his phone and called back. ¡°We have a situation. And it¡¯s bad.¡±

    ¡°8 messages and 12 missed calls,¡± Oberon¡¯s sleepy voice answered. ¡°You guys could''ve stopped after I didn¡¯t answer the first two calls. You know I just put this phone on silent. Getting a call from you guys doesn¡¯t do me any good.¡±

    ¡°How many times we told you not to put it on silent! You¡¯re our support. It¡¯s bad enough you try to skip out on our missions.¡±

    Oberon sighed dramatically. ¡°What is it this time, Everett?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t call me by my name. Use the codename we have.¡±

    ¡°Fine, fine. Emcee then. So, what¡¯s up, Emcee my boy, my good old chap, Emcee?¡±

    ¡°Uh, how do I put this? Barb was trying to kill some people. I don¡¯t know who they are, don¡¯t ask. And we stopped her.¡±

    ¡°What the fu¡ª¡±

    ¡°She shot her spikes everywhere. We were at Sanders mall parking area, by the way.¡±

    ¡°Wait, wait, wait. You guys are the ones who started a fire at Sanders?¡±

    ¡°Huh? How did you know?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all over the news. My notifications keep popping up. I shouldn¡¯t have subscribed to all this shit.¡±

    Everett punched his dashboard, frustrated. Barbs moaned in pain at the back. He checked her, his stare lingered guiltily at his handiwork on her wound. What else could he have done? Barb¡¯s regenerative powers weren¡¯t doing anything to close the wound. Maybe it was infected with something dangerous. He had no choice but to burn the wound shut and hope she could take the pain.

    ¡°Blank¡¯s ok with that?¡± Oberon said. ¡°And why the fuck did you have to burn the mall? I was planning to take my girlfriend to a new restaurant that opened there.¡±

    ¡°We had no choice, okay?¡± Everett¡¯s usually calm voice was rising. ¡°We can¡¯t go around pulling out all the spikes! And if we did, the cars full of holes will raise questions. It was an in-the-moment decision. And Blank and I decided on it. There might be fibers of clothes or hair or some DNA specimen of Barb that was left there so we had no choice. We couldn¡¯t exactly comb the place.¡±

    ¡°So you burned it? That doesn¡¯t sound like a good alternative. Let¡¯s see, suspicious spikes or suspicious fire.¡±

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    ¡°Either way, it¡¯s gonna look suspicious. At least with this, we burned away any evidence Barb could have left. And may I remind you that any trace of Barb isn''t going to look human if examined.¡±

    ¡°Fine, man. So let¡¯s meet up at our hole of a hideout?¡±

    ¡°Yes, please. Thank you very much.¡±

    <hr>

    It was a long drive to their hideout. An abandoned uncompleted building on the northeast side of La Esperanza. It was supposed to be the premier business district of La Esperanza but the developer and the landowner had a dispute. It didn¡¯t help matters that the patriarch of the family which owned the developer corporation fell to the Adumbrae temptation. He was carted off by BID agents and his children were locked in litigation among themselves and against the landowner for years, bringing any planned projects in the area to a standstill.

    A perfect place for their group to hide.

    All along the way, Everett fidgeted in his seat and incessantly tapped the steering wheel. He wanted to turn on the music because he couldn¡¯t take hearing Barb groaning in pain. But it also assured him that she was still alive.

    He decided to stick with Barb¡¯s suffering.

    The first floor of the building they used as their hideout was mostly open with only a few stretches of walls completed and the support beams and columns in place. Everett drove into the building to hide his car from sight.

    Oberon was already inside. Even in the partial darkness, Everett could pick out his features. A long oval face, proud eyebrows, and lengthy black hair tied in a ponytail. They always argued that this hairstyle was conspicuous, but Oberon stuck with it. Something about connected themes with his power. He leaned on the vintage motorcycle his grandfather used to own as he smoked a cigarette.

    Everett pulled up his car next to him.

    ¡°Got you something,¡± Oberon said. He held up a plastic bag full of cheeseburgers from BeefGalore. ¡°As apology, and to show I¡¯m a caring and thoughtful person deep inside despite contrary reports.¡±

    ¡°Thanks a lot,¡± he replied, his gratitude genuine. ¡°I actually forgot I was hungry. You had time to get these?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I know a lot of shortcuts, plus my baby here can fit through traffic.¡± Oberon patted his motorcycle. ¡°What¡¯s up with your cargo? Barbsie Doodle in mortal peril as usual and, woah, a hot chick? An unconscious hot chick. I won¡¯t be an accomplice to your crimes Evere¡ªI mean Emcee.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s one of the people Barb was trying to kill. We can think about what to do with her later when Blank¡¯s here. Help me with Barb first.¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s Blanky boy, by the way?¡± Oberon said as he helped Everett carry out Barb.

    ¡°He went to find the security room of the mall to wipe the recordings of the CCTV cameras. Might take him some time to get here because he doesn¡¯t have a ride.¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah. Barb totaled his car when we attacked that drug den. Let¡¯s bring her to the room below?¡±

    Everett looked at the blonde woman asleep in his backseat. ¡°Let¡¯s do it here,¡± he said. He pointed at her. ¡°I¡¯m not going to bring her down along with us and I''m not going to leave her there on her own.¡± He started to lower Barb on a flat piece of ground dotted with grass, and Oberon had no choice but to follow suit.

    ¡°What? I¡¯m not going to do it here. It¡¯s so open!¡±

    ¡°There''s no one around.¡± Everett took out his backpack from the trunk of his car to use as a makeshift pillow for Barb as she lay on the ground.

    ¡°Exactly! So, leave that woman there. No one¡¯s here to kidnap your kidnappee, counter-kidnap you, or some shit.¡± Oberon¡¯s eyes darted around, trying to find any intruders. He always got antsy if he had to use his powers in an open space.

    Everett pulled out a burger, unwrapped it, and began chomping on it. Only then did he feel a wave of hunger overcome him. And boy, did the beef taste good with its juices running down the sides of his mouth. He said to Oberon, ¡°Look, I¡¯m already refueling myself. I promise I¡¯m not going to let anyone get to you.¡±

    ¡°Like the time I got shanked at the bathroom of the Baccarat.¡±

    ¡°I swear I''ll protect you, even if I have to burn my own body as fuel.¡± That seemed to get to Oberon because he simply nodded. Oberon wasn¡¯t the most trustworthy guy around but he was there when it mattered, and he could differentiate when it was time to clown around or to get serious. Everett always counted on this fact when the going got tough.

    Oberon took out the thick black knee pads he kept in the inside pocket of his leather jacket. He put them on and knelt on the dusty ground. With hands outstretched as if in prayer, he closed his eyes and began to chant. Gibberish was all it was to Everett, and the words probably didn¡¯t have any meaning at all.

    With nothing else to do, Everett decided to sit on the ground and continued to eat. The cheeseburgers satiated his grumbling stomach. He used up his massive breakfast, morning snack, as well as the light lunch he gobbled on the way to Sanders to fuel the fire power he''d used earlier. Terribly inefficient, but Blank assured him he was multitudes more efficient than a coal plant at extracting energy from mass. Energy which he could only turn into heat.

    The burgers Oberon bought were a welcome gift. Everett lived in constant fear of accidentally using his own body as fuel.

    After ten minutes of chanting, Oberon suddenly fell silent. The temperature of the air plummeted and the wind seemed to blow from every direction. He opened his mouth and singing filled the air as if childish cherubs serenaded the emptiness of the abandoned building. But it wasn¡¯t him singing.

    Everett had seen Oberon¡¯s power manifest several times already but it was so mesmerizing he couldn¡¯t help but stop and stare each time.

    Green light poured out of Oberon¡¯s mouth. A small green head peaked out and looked around. It had vines for hair, pointy ears, emeralds for eyes, and a frolicky smile. Fluttering its tiny wings, it flew out of the mouth and landed on Barb. The fairy then got to work healing her.

    ¡®Oberon¡¯, the name of the fairy-king in that one Shakespeare¡¯s play. Everett couldn¡¯t remember which one. He was certain Oberon didn¡¯t know either. He probably just searched on the internet and picked the coolest sounding name related to fairies as his codename.

    But it was a fitting name.

    So far, Everett had seen four types of fairies come out of Oberon¡¯s mouth, and there were surely more to come as their powers developed.

    It would take maybe half an hour for the green fairy to heal Barb to full health given the severity of her injuries. In that time, Oberon would remain in his kneeling position, unconscious. However, before the time was up, their blonde captive¡ªshe was a captive, right?¡ªwould''ve already woken up. Everett didn¡¯t know what to do with her. He supposed their only choice was to wait for Barb to regain consciousness.

    Only then would they have answers why she attacked this girl, and who attacked her, since he barely caught a glimpse of their enemy before he heated the corridor and made it burst in flames. He looked at the bag of cheeseburgers, having eaten four of them.

    Maybe he should leave two for the blonde girl.

 1.8

    ¡°Hi, Mom.¡±

    ¡°Erind! Thank goodness you picked up. I couldn¡¯t contact you. I thought something bad happened to you.¡±

    ¡°I was inside the elevator, Mom. Now, I¡¯m walking to my room.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? You gave me a quite scare, dear. I saw the fire on the news fire...the mall near your school?¡±

    ¡°Sanders you mean? Really? It¡¯s on fire?¡± I said with fake shock. I stopped in front of the door of my room and took out my key card. It was, fortunately, safe inside my wallet along with my credit cards, school I.D., and other important stuff. On the unfortunate side, all the other things I left inside Deen¡¯s car were probably already ash.

    My bag, all my notes¡ªthose were not a big loss, I could just buy a new cheap tote bag and reprint my notes. Good thing I didn¡¯t bring any of my expensive law school books today. But what pissed me off was my foldable bike getting burned. I had to take the bus from the train station to get home.

    I absolutely detested sitting close to people on the bus. The train was fine, I always stood in the middle, holding on to the grab rails. The bus passing by my apartment, regrettably, was nearly always packed which was why I¡¯d rather ride my bike. And now, I didn¡¯t have a bike.

    ¡°Yes! It¡¯s on the news," Mom said. "Cheryl, she¡¯s my new assistant, by the way, cheery girl, you should meet her. Where was I?

    I rolled my eyes. ¡°Cheryl,¡± I said to Mom. I pressed my key card against the lock and it clicked. My room was dark because I always closed the heavy blinds. I flicked the lights on.

    ¡°Oh yes! Cheryl, she said she saw it on the internet, and then she showed me. I was panicking because I know you go there sometimes. Thank the Mother Core, you¡¯re safe.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know about it. We had a meeting for a group report after my class this morning. I have a bit of headache, so I decided to go home right after.¡±

    ¡°A headache? Aspirin and a couple hours of nap would do you good. Also drink plenty of water, dear. All that late-night reading strains your eyes. Take care or you might have to wear glasses before you graduate.¡±

    I felt around my eyes. Shit. I dropped my glasses somewhere. When I wasn¡¯t concentrating on putting up a face for someone, I sometimes forgot certain aspects of my face, like my fake glasses for example. I didn¡¯t realize I lost it until now. ¡°I will, Mom. Don¡¯t worry about me.¡±

    ¡°I will worry about you, I''m your mother. Promise, after my convention in Switzerland I''ll visit you for a few days. Is that okay with you, dear? We can go shopping at the mall¡­ oh, the mall is burning.¡±

    ¡°We can go to other malls. Or I can just tour you around the city.¡±

    ¡°Sounds great, dear.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m inside my apartment now, Mom. I think I¡¯m going to order lunch. Thanks for calling.¡±

    ¡°Have your lunch and take a rest. You should also check on your friends if they¡¯re safe. Love you, Erind sweetie.¡±

    One friend is probably dead. ¡°Yes, Mom,¡± I said. I hesitated then added. ¡°Love you too.¡±

    Passing by my wall mirror, I caught a glimpse of myself. Every morning, before I went to university, this was my last stop, checking my outfit, makeup, and hair. Funnily enough, this was the first time I was wearing a different outfit than the one I left the house with.

    The pink blouse with puff sleeves I took¡ªokay, I shoplifted¡ªwas too striking for my taste and also a couple of sizes too large for me. But it did its job of covering the splotches of blood, my own blood, on the upper part of my jeans. I raised my blouse to reveal the smooth skin of my abdomen. No holes, as if I wasn¡¯t turned into shish kebab earlier.

    I should remember to avoid getting injured in front of other people and healing too fast or getting myself in a situation where I''d be forced to get tested. Any future medical examinations should be avoided. Employers required medical certificates, ugh. That was if I could even hide my secret and survive until graduation.

    Would you look at that, the campus legend that anyone who studied in view of the Black Spire by the sea wouldn¡¯t be able to graduate might have some truth to it?

    Still, my super regeneration was a minor concern at present. This was only the start of my bodily transformation. I opened my right hand and grimaced. Protruding from the left portion of my palm was a tiny white crystal, about the size of a pinhead. It reminded me of the crystal on the golden gauntlet SpookyErind wore on her right hand.

    I had no clue what to do with this one. A band-aid? Make-up? A pimple patch?

    I turned on the TV and switched to the local news channel. Sure enough, there was live coverage of the fire. Nine injured, two serious, and the authorities weren¡¯t sure if there was anyone left inside the burning building.

    Tuning out the news, I focused on my two concerns right now.

    First: getting discovered as an Adumbrae¡ªI am an Adumbrae, right? If the authorities were onto me, then I should prepare to run away and live the rest of my life in hiding. Wow, that¡¯s such a hassle!

    Second: there were Adumbrae who wanted to kill me and I had no idea why.

    There was nothing on the news about the possible suspected arsonist. But I knew the fire was caused by the ones after me.

    If the fire was only in that employees¡¯ corridor, how did it spread all over the mall so fast? When I got to the first floor, people were already running away and smoke was everywhere; they started fires in multiple locations. Did it mean they had two objectives? Burn the mall, and also kill me?

    I couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of this but, at the least, I could reasonably expect the police and BID wouldn''t come looking for me anytime soon. My would-have-been killers wouldn¡¯t want to be caught either, which meant they''d cover their tracks, indirectly covering any evidence leading to me. Maybe that was why they burned the mall.

    ¡°Breaking News,¡± blared the television, intruding in my genius-detective-brain-time. ¡°Update on the ongoing Madagascar crisis. An Adumbrae has just been categorized as a Kreggan. We are informed by the spokesperson of the United Nations Security Council that the Category Kreggan Adumbrae is currently roaming the southern part of Antananarivo City, capital of the French Protectorate of Madagascar.¡±

    The screen then showed grainy footage of a gigantic Adumbrae, around sixty feet tall considering the height of the buildings it was demolishing. It was vaguely humanoid, except it had six forearms, three branching out from each elbow, ending in hands with dozens of spindly claws. Stretching out its arms, it paraded through the street with a huge grin on its withered, almost mummy-like, disgusting face. Buildings crumbled into dust as it walked past, and then the video cut off.

    The reporter continued, ¡°That was the only footage we are provided by the UNSC of this Titan Class-C Adumbrae. After constant bombardment for three hours with no visible effect, and the data gathered by drones, the Free Will Initiative and the Gerhard International Research Alliance recommended to the UNSC tagging it as Kreggan, or an Adumbrae that developed conscious reality rending capabilities. This is the first Category Kreggan Adumbrae in the last six years. We now go¡ª¡±

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°What the fuck is happening in this world.¡± I flipped to other news channels, all of them talking about the Adumbrae in Madagascar.

    ¡°¡ªmultiple protests across France. The public is decrying the inaction of the French government in monitoring the situation of the seeding rate in its protectorate territory. Public opinion is divided whether the Adumbrae crisis in Madagascar is considered an external threat which requires the mobilization of the French Army under the treaty of¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªthe UNSC has officially requested assistance from the Corebring Hive. Two Overseers have already been dispatched by the Hive¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªToamasina, the second largest city in Madagascar, and currently holding the biggest concentration of refugees in the country is under constant attack. The 14<sup>th </sup>ComExo Expeditionary Unit of the United States has reinforced¡ª"

    ¡°Where¡¯s Madagascar again? Africa?¡± I said as I searched my phone. ¡°Okay, it¡¯s pretty far from here. So, not my problem.¡± I turned off the TV.

    I boiled water, poured it into a cup, and plopped in a teabag. Peppermint to relax my nerves. No honey. I sipped my tea so slowly it eventually got cold. All this time my thoughts went back to how turning into an Adumbrae would change my life moving forward.

    An hour or so passed. I wasn¡¯t taking note of the time, staring blankly at the wall.

    Thinking.

    This is such a hassle, I kept on repeating.

    I stood up and searched for a knife in my kitchen, then went to the sink and turned it on. With more bravado than I usually possessed, I held the knife¡¯s sharp point against the white crystal on my palm. It felt awkward holding the knife with my left hand because I was right-handed.

    The progression of an Adumbrae possession wasn¡¯t public knowledge. Like I had no idea how a giant Adumbrae comes into being. I also didn''t know how fast or slow someone mutates once an Adumbrae started taking over their body. One thing I was certain about, any mutation would progress until the individual wasn¡¯t recognizable as a human anymore.

    My cute self would be no more.

    And I didn''t want that to happen.

    What if I just removed any anomalous growths as they appeared? I inhaled and started to drive the knife below the crystal, into my skin, into my flesh. Blood spurted out of my palm and dripped down to the sink. My face contorted with anger and pain; pain that was eerily bearable even though I was digging around my palm with a knife.

    Not a very human trait.

    The knife hit a snag. I pulled the knife out and selected another entry point. I furiously dug around the crystal, clenching my jaws and tensing all the muscles in my body. The scarlet flow continued to cover the silver of the sink, mixing with the swirling water, eventually going down the drain. Knife scraping against bone was a repulsive feeling¡ªmultiply scratching a chalkboard with your nail a thousand times and add in pain.

    Lots of pain.

    It was no use. The crystal was connected to my bone somehow.

    Unless I cut off my hand...no, I wouldn''t go that far.

    I dropped the knife to the sink and stared at both of my hands.

    My right hand shook uncontrollably. Flesh around the crystal looked like my botched first attempt at filleting a fish in my high school home economics class. Bits and pieces of flesh jutted out like petals framing the crystal; it was almost lovely like a flower.

    I shook my head.

    The pain.

    Rather the absence of it.

    If I was still human, I should be writhing on the ground right now. The blood also stopped flowing, scabs forming, peeling off, the skin renewing. You wouldn¡¯t even need Professor Deslys'' machine to check if I was healing like a human.

    I am no longer human.

    My future¡­all my plans. Gone.

    I would say that this was depressing, but I couldn¡¯t feel that much of an emotion that would be categorized as a depressive state.

    Denial?

    No, no. I pretty much accepted I was an Adumbrae. As SpookyErind said, there was no point thinking about whether my mind had been taken over or not.

    Anger?

    Yes, I could feel some of that. Anger I couldn¡¯t continue living a normal life. Anger that it''d take an enormous amount of effort to hide I was an Adumbrae, and that this would continue on the rest of my life. A life that could be long or short depending on how well I hid it, and also how lucky I was.

    Sadness?

    Sad my life changed forever? Sad that surviving would be a pain in the ass? Not really. More like pissed. Maybe sad that my ending was pretty much set and I was just waiting for it? But then again, all of us are waiting for our end.

    Despair?

    No. I didn¡¯t feel despair.

    Happiness?

    Surprisingly, a bit. In a way. Normal life was indeed boring and this potential for thrill and adventure was nothing like anything else that could''ve happened to me had I stayed human. But at what cost?

    I walked to my mirror and stared at myself...

    as my blood dried on my skin¡­

    for awhile¡­

    ¡°Are you fucking stupid?!¡± I screamed at my reflection. I balled up my hands into tight fists and punched my face as hard as I could. Right, then left. Again and again. The salty taste of blood filled my mouth, a hot dribble dripped out my nose. Along with healing powers, my strength also went up. ¡°It¡¯s so simple! Just follow the Rules!¡±

    I wiped the blood off my nose with my arm then held up my right hand. Golden liquid rose out of the crystal, twisting, swooshing through the air. Gold turned to red, liquid into solid, into jaws, angry fangs. The mask I had worn sat on my hand.

    An actual mask that became a face.

    Follow the Rules!

    Rule #8, I couldn''t kill myself. If I gave up trying to hide my mutation, go surrender to the police, or did something else that would cause my death, it was equivalent to killing myself. And that wasn''t allowed.

    Rule #4, I wouldn''t bother the world if I wasn''t bothered. But I was bothered. Very much so. I have so many fuckers to kill. With this power, I could do it.

    There was no problem. I''d go living as usual, following my Rules.

    No problem at all.

    My phone rang. I stared straight into the eyes of my reflection. I wasn¡¯t finished pep-talking myself.

    The ringing continued. I sighed and closed my hand, the red-fanged face disappeared into thin air. What is it this time? I thought, taking out my phone.

    The name ''Amber Deen'' was displayed on my screen as the caller.

    Deen? She was alive? I already wrote her off as dead. She wasn''t killed by the Adumbrae in the parking lot? Or the fire?

    Perhaps this was someone else using her phone. My finger hovered over the answer button, unsure whether to take the call or not. Deen could also be at the hospital and someone was using her phone looking for friends or family members.

    But what if this was one of the people who attacked me and they had her as a hostage or something?

    I had to answer this before I could decide on my course of action.

    Okay, what was the appropriate emotion for this? Remember, I didn¡¯t transform and fought an Adumbrae. I was just a normal girl that escaped a fire and didn¡¯t know shit about anything. Upon seeing this call, I wasn¡¯t going to assume this was a trap; I¡¯d think this was really Deen.

    Sooo¡­distressed?

    Distressed, come on, girl, show me distressed.

    I answered the call, "Deen! Where are you! Are you okay? There was fire and, and, and, uh, where are you?" I decided to keep it vague just in case this was the police; I wasn¡¯t going to instantly admit I was there at the mall.

    "Erind," Deen replied, confirming she was alive. I relaxed upon hearing her voice. "Erind, listen¡­I have to tell you something. You won''t believe me because this will sound crazy. But I need you to trust me on this one."

    What the fuck is this now?

 1.9

    ¡°Trust you on what? I don¡¯t understand.¡± My forehead wrinkled as I checked the screen again. It was Deen¡¯s number and her voice for sure. ¡°Deen, are you alright? The fire¡ª"

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m alright. What do you mean?¡± she interrupted with a raised voice. ¡°The fire at Sanders mall? Did you also see it on the news? What¡¯s that got to do¡­¡±

    ¡°Uhm¡­" I trailed off, encouraging her to continue.

    ¡°Oh, you thought I went there? To the mall?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I did. My bad.¡± If I got this right, Deen also didn¡¯t want to say anything incriminating over the phone¡ªthere were rumors that calls and messages were recorded by telecom companies so the Bureau of Interdimensional Defense could review them in Adumbrae investigations.

    Then I thought of a more sinister possibility. What if someone was threatening Deen on the other side of the phone and she was speaking in codes, asking for help? I wasn¡¯t going to help her if it would be detrimental to me.

    ¡°I did plan to catch up with Adrian and others at the mall,¡± she said. ¡°I even wanted you to come, remember? But you refused¡­as usual.¡± Deen sighed with as much drama as she could muster. ¡°Turns out you¡¯re right.¡±

    ¡°I do hope there are no casualties in that fire,¡± I said, sounding like a decent human being that cared about others.

    ¡°I hope so too. We¡¯re fortunate to avoid getting entangled in another difficult situation today.¡± Then she continued slowly, stressing every word, ¡°Kelsey¡¯s disappearance is one case too many to be involved in within a day, right?¡±

    ¡°Not just within a day,¡± I said. ¡°For a lifetime more like.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t even know the half of it.¡±

    ¡°The half of what? Of the thing with Kelsey?¡±

    ¡°The reason I didn¡¯t go to the mall was that a lot of things happened after you left. Things connected to Kelsey¡¯s case. That¡¯s what I¡¯ve been wanting to talk to you about. Wait a minute. Where are you now?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m in my condo.¡± I bit my lips. Shit, that was stupid as fuck. I automatically answered because I was deep in thought. My automatic mode was useful most of the time, but there were instances my responses could use some thinking. ¡°Have you checked in on our classmates if they¡¯re alright?¡± I said, changing the topic.

    ¡°Huh? Ye-yes! I did,¡± Deen said in a flustered tone that meant she didn¡¯t, apparently realizing only now that some of our fellow 1L students might be charcoal. I didn¡¯t actually care if they were still alive; I only wanted to rattle Deen because I was annoyed she caught me off guard. She clarified, ¡°I only texted them, but I¡¯m sure they¡¯re fine. I¡¯ll call them after this. I contacted you first because I¡¯m worried that creepy guy might¡¯ve followed you home, so I immediately called you when I was able to.¡±

    What did she mean by ¡®when she was able to¡¯? How much time had passed since I left the mall? Over two hours already, relayed by my cutesy pink and silver wall clock. Not a pip from her for over two hours. And what was she talking about now? ¡°What creepy guy?¡± I asked.

    ¡°The creepy guy that, uh, we met earlier. You remember?¡± Deen said. ¡°The guy who¡­er¡­harassed us?¡±

    Only one thing came to mind as this ¡®creepy guy¡¯¡ªthe Adumbrae in the parking area. ¡°Ah, that guy. I remember him.¡± Right, Deen didn¡¯t know our attacker was a woman. She still assumed she was a dude.

    ¡°Harassed us. Yep, he harassed us at the train station when I dropped you off.¡±

    She had dropped me off a couple of times before at the train station at the end of the main road connecting Eloyce University with the city; we were besties that way, I guess. ¡°I wasn¡¯t exactly checking, but I didn¡¯t notice anyone following me once I got on the train,¡± I said with a fake uncertain tone. ¡°It was a pretty uneventful ride. I just listened to lectures and forgot about that creep.¡±

    ¡°Oh, Erind. It¡¯s like you¡¯re never flustered by anything, ever. That¡¯s so you to immediately forget about stuff like that. Do you even remember those two guys who stopped the creep?¡±

    If the ¡®creepy guy¡¯ was the Adumbrae that attacked us, then by ¡®two guys¡¯ Deen should be referring to the people in the car that bumped the Adumbrae. They might¡¯ve helped her afterward. ¡°You mean the ones inside the car?¡± I asked for confirmation. ¡°I didn¡¯t know there were two of them because I had to rush to¡­er¡­ catch the train.¡±

    ¡°Yes, those guys. They blocked the creepy man from chasing after us outside the station. After you left, they shooed that creep away and then he ran off. I was so scared that he might''ve gone after you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine, don¡¯t worry,¡± I said. ¡°Hang on. Do you mean to say that those two guys were able to fight off the¡­um¡­? How was that possible?"

    ¡°They did. I know what you¡¯re thinking right now. We¡¯ll talk about it later. Just trust me when I say, they kind of know how to fight¡­people like that.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how that works, but, ok then¡­ I¡¯m not going to ask about it for now.¡± Curious how they were able to drive the spiky bitch away. Was that why she went in my direction? Fuck them! They should¡¯ve died so I could escape; I¡¯d still be a normal human now.

    ¡°They¡¯re fighting the creep and his¡­uh¡­gang. There are many of them.¡±

    A vigilante group hunting Adumbrae? Were they like ex-military or something to be able to do this? Normal people couldn¡¯t fight Adumbrae. This was all sketchy as hell. ¡°Where are they now? What happened after all of that?¡±

    ¡°There might¡¯ve been others like that creep, so they offered to protect me. I¡ª¡±

    ¡°And you went along with them? Deen! You¡¯re shouldn¡¯t go with random guys!¡± This was something a good friend would say, right? I was, of course, more interested in what the actual fuck was going on with the Adumbrae and these random asshats showing up out of nowhere that could supposedly fight them. But this segue was much needed to establish goodwill if I¡¯d need Deen¡¯s help in the future.

    ¡°They¡¯re not random guys. They helped us.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re still strangers.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yeah, I didn¡¯t know who they were¡ª¡±

    ¡°Why did you go with them?¡±

    ¡°¡ªbut they¡¯re friends of Myra. So, not complete strangers.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Myra? What¡¯s she¡¯s got to do with all of this?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we can trust her,¡± Deen said to someone on her side of the phone. ¡°She understands it.¡± She didn¡¯t sound like she was forced or being held hostage. People were arguing; it had something to do with Deen¡¯s revelation that Myra was with them. ¡°She¡¯s not going to trust us otherwise,¡± I heard Deen claim.

    ¡°Is everything alright over there? What was that about Myra?¡±

    ¡°Like I said, they¡¯re Myra¡¯s friends.¡±

    I was shaking my head in disbelief. ¡°You¡¯re telling me that we met Myra just this morning, and then we got attacked, and then it turns out she¡¯s friends with the guys who helped us?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s connected. Actually¡ª¡±

    ¡°Her sister,¡± I said, having a moment of epiphany. ¡°This is connected to her sister, isn¡¯t it? That incident this morning?¡±

    ¡°Something like that. Myra came rushing to our location after hearing from her friends that someone tried to attack us. She was close by.¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah. She was.¡± She suspiciously was.

    ¡°Myra¡¯s actually the one who told them to go check up on us, just in case we needed help. She realized we might be harassed by that creepy gang because we were inadvertently entangled with their, uh, issue because of¡­that incident, yes, like you said, incident. I think you can guess how that came about. Remember what Myra said to us in Melchor?¡±

    That she suspected her sister was becoming an Adumbrae? ¡°I sort of have an idea but I¡¯m sure the actual story is much wilder.¡± This turn of events was not even in my top ten of possible scenarios that could happen next in my currently awful day. Things were escalating, getting more complicated, and I didn¡¯t like it one bit. But it was good that I was starting to get some explanation.

    ¡°She¡¯s here with us now,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯m switching to loudspeaker.¡±

    Another voice spoke, ¡°Hi, Erind!¡± Myra sounded like she was shouting from across the room. ¡°Glad to hear you¡¯re fine!¡±

    ¡°Errr, hi¡­¡±

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Switching back now,¡± Deen said. ¡°They also told me stuff that¡¯s going to sound insane and best discussed in person. It''ll all make sense once they explain it to you. Ermm, well, not really. It¡¯s very complicated. But you¡¯ll see they¡¯re not lying. Please just trust me on this one. We¡¯re best friends, right?¡±

    I rolled my eyes, but I still answered, ¡°Yes, we are.¡±

    ¡°Also, you may not be safe right now, Erind. That¡¯s why you have to meet us as soon as possible.¡±

    ¡°Why? Am I in danger of getting attacked again?¡±

    ¡°They aren¡¯t certain. We¡¯re still trying to find out why we were attacked. Maybe you can shed some light on possible reasons, so hurry here.¡±

    ¡°Here being where?¡±

    ¡°My house. My sister and I are renting a house at Poblacion Verde Hills. Sis is at work, so we can have our¡ªlet¡¯s just call this a little meeting¡ªhere. Plenty of space and privacy.¡± Deen explained to me how to get to her address via public transportation. She must¡¯ve realized I didn¡¯t have my bicycle with me so I couldn¡¯t take the train to the station near that place and bike the rest of the way. I should¡¯ve asked Mom for a car, but I didn¡¯t have the patience to find a parking space every time I went out. Privileged problems, I know.

    While listening to Deen talk and making agreeing sounds such as ¡°uh-huh¡± and ¡°yeah¡±, I composed a text message on my phone for her: ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I can¡¯t come. I¡¯m doing something now.¡± I didn¡¯t send it yet.

    ¡°Got that, Erind?¡±

    ¡°Yup,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m just going to message a friend who invited me for coffee this afternoon to say I can¡¯t come.¡±

    ¡°Ooo, is that a guy?¡± Deen said. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m just trying to lighten up the mood in this situation.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s not a guy. A friend that came to town. I¡¯m going to text her now to resched¡ªOh! Oops, I accidentally sent the message to you. Deen ignore that message saying I can¡¯t come, that was meant for her.¡±

    ¡°I haven¡¯t received any message yet.¡±

    ¡°It might be delayed,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m going to prepare for a few minutes then I¡¯ll be on my way there. Not sure how long. Traffic around this time and all that. Wait for me, okay?¡±

    ¡°Of course. Do keep me updated on your way here. Keep safe and be watchful of your surroundings.¡±

    ¡°Sure, buh-bye.¡± I ended the call and then sent the message to her.

    The message was to misdirect any possible investigation later should something unexpected happen at Deen¡¯s place or the mysterious people with her did something stupid and got caught by the police. If Deen¡¯s phone was examined, the police would see we had a long call and I might be suspected for whatever shit. That fake message would be a big help in dispelling suspicions towards me. On the other hand, if I ended up meeting with them, I already had an alibi, albeit, a weak one, if I had no choice but to kill them.

    That included Deen.

    This was a dangerous situation I found myself in, so I wasn¡¯t discounting any possibility of murder to save myself. I smirked. Look at me, getting superpowers and plotting to kill people.

    Now¡­

    To go or not to go? That is the question.

    I walked over to my mini-living room and sat on the cold tiled floor in front of my glass table.

    Let¡¯s take a step back and think about this thoroughly. I only half made up my mind when I agreed to meet with Deen and her new pals. To give me time to think, I told her I might be delayed because of traffic even if there was barely anyone riding the train going to her place this time of the day.

    If not going was the best course of action, I already gave Deen that fake story about a friend wanting to meet with me. I could tell her the friend showed up and I couldn¡¯t refuse.

    Visualizing the situation helped in thinking. Picking one of the stones strewn at the base of the fake potted plant sitting in the middle of my table, I said, ¡°Okay, so let¡¯s say this is the police.¡±

    After a few seconds of consideration, I placed the ¡®police¡¯ stone far from me; there was zero chance of this being a police trap. If the police, or even the BID, got a tip of an Adumbrae running around in the city¡ªpretty little me, for example¡ªthen they¡¯d already be here, busting down my door and arresting me. Or, you know, killing me on the spot.

    Going a step lower, if I was suspected of only aiding or hiding an Adumbrae, or even merely coming in contact with one, they¡¯d still arrest me as soon as possible, interrogate me, test me¡­find out I wasn¡¯t human.

    Boom. Dead.

    Speed was imperative in Adumbrae extermination; the BID wouldn¡¯t waste time with all this nonsense.

    I picked a handful of stones. These were ¡®Kelsey-is-an-Adumbrae¡¯ stones. Our attacker was female, vaguely familiar, and most likely an Adumbrae. I heard her mention about a sister.

    Candidates? Kelsey, duh.

    She was the only one I could think of that fit the bill.

    How about this theory? Myra suspected Kelsey would attack us for knowing her secret and sent her friends either to rescue us or stop Kelsey, or both. This would explain why the guys in the car weren¡¯t killed; Kelsey recognized them. Given that premise, there were a few possibilities.

    Stone numero uno, Myra¡¯s group genuinely wanted to save Deen and me from Kelsey. Who knew what was going on inside the head of Adumbrae? And that was one vote for going. I set a stone down in front of me. This was the go-to-Deen¡¯s-home pile.

    Next possibility, they were going to report us to the police. Which was dumb. They¡¯d be endangering themselves along with us. I placed this stone beside the ¡®police¡¯ stone for being improbable.

    Third. Myra¡¯s group planned to kill us to keep Kelsey¡¯s secret. This didn¡¯t make much sense because they could¡¯ve already killed Deen then just ambush me at school or find out where I lived and attack me here. Anyway, if this was the case, wouldn¡¯t it be better for me to make a move before they did? They¡¯d assume I was a normal human; I''d have the element of surprise on my side.

    If I didn¡¯t go there now and kill them, I¡¯d be constantly looking over my shoulder for an attack. I wouldn¡¯t be able to get a good night¡¯s sleep. Another for the go-to-Deen¡¯s-home pile.

    Now¡­what if that murderous spike bitch wasn¡¯t Kelsey? Just a random Adumbrae out there. What could Myra¡¯s group be? I grabbed a few more stones.

    The story they gave to Deen could be the truth. A secret vigilante group fighting Adumbrae. All sorts of idiots on this planet. They wouldn¡¯t be normal people, for sure. Possibly human with enhancements or bioaugmentronics. Should I go there then to ask for help?

    But if they found out that I turned into an Adumbrae, they might kill me. However, the benefit of gaining information heavily outweighed the risk. I simply had to be very careful not to reveal my secret.

    One more point for the go-to-Deen¡¯s-home pile.

    On the other end of the spectrum was the possibility they were a group of Adumbrae. One of them couldn¡¯t control itself, and we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, the rest wanted to silence Deen and me.

    It''d be hilarious if this was the actual situation.

    If so, shouldn¡¯t I reveal myself to them and ask for, I dunno, tips on how to hide being an Adumbrae while continuing with my life? I honestly had no idea what a group of Adumbrae would do. To the go-to-Deen¡¯s-home pile this stone goes.

    In between these two extremes was the possibility that Myra¡¯s group were just normal humans but engaged in something illegal connected to Adumbrae. Black market trade of Adumbrae parts¡­our attacker was an escaped Adumbrae they were about to harvest. Something like that? This was more common in Asia.

    How about a rich family hired a mercenary group to hide and secure an Adumbrae family member? Maybe the spiky bitch was the person they were supposed to guard and she escaped? There were a few famous cases of that here in the US.

    Bottom line was, this group would want to silence me. If so, I needed to strike first while I had an ace up my sleeve. Thus, the go-to-Deen¡¯s-home pile rose higher.

    Two stones at the improbable situation pile, five stones representing possibilities all in the go-to-Deen¡¯s-home pile, and none in the stay-the-fuck-away pile. It became clearer and clearer that I should meet with Deen.

    Ooooorrr ¡­I was just extremely biased in my arguments for going there.

    And the reason for that was Rule #4. Also known as reactive bothering.

    I shoved all the stones on the table to the side, picked up the potted plant itself, and set it in front of me. This was the biggest point for going to Deen¡¯s house. Those two fuckers in the car bothered me. How? They didn¡¯t die there in the parking area along with Deen so I could escape safely. Instead, they somehow drove that spiky bitch to me¡­and now I wasn¡¯t a human anymore.

    Granted the spiky bitch was the ultimate cause¡ªshe¡¯ll suffer accordingly when I find her.

    Still! The two guys had a hand, albeit indirectly, in my present quandary.

    Their sins will be mitigated by the fact that they indeed saved me in the parking area, so I wouldn¡¯t kill them. But I have to find out about the situation to have a proper and informed application of the Rules. If they could lead me to the spiky bitch, that would mitigate their penalty.

    Rules above all.

    Nonetheless, I went through the mental exercise of considering all the possibilities and consequences because of the main weakness of my...sort of people...that I was trying to be mindful of. People like me usually planned in terms of achieving goals and not in terms of possible negative consequences¡ªthat was why most serial killers commit batshit insane acts which would make a normal person wonder if the perpetrator just wanted to get caught. It wasn''t about wanting to get caught, but not even thinking of getting caught. And I usually suck in seeing danger.

    I went into my bedroom to change my clothes as I¡¯d been wearing my blood-stained jeans and a stolen blouse this whole time. I was about to go out of my room when I stopped and did an about-face. I was missing something.

    Some of the scenarios I considered earlier would require me to kill people. If I was up against a large group of criminals or something like that, then I might need to escape and go into hiding for some time after disposing of the people at Deen¡¯s house.

    I rummaged around my closet and took out a small backpack. A bigger bag would be better but too suspicious to lug around.

    I threw some comfortable tops into the bag, a couple of pairs of shorts, pants, a few pieces of underwear, and a thick jacket which I rarely wore because of the generally warm weather in California. Living under a bridge might be unavoidable in the future, and this jacket could be my blanket of sorts. I had to roll it up real tight to fit into my already cramped backpack. Women¡¯s necessities should also not be forgotten; I jammed them into any space left. Lastly, I squeezed the first aid kit Mom bought me, which I had never used before, into the front flap of the bag. I had enhanced healing abilities now, but who knew, I might need it.

    On my way out, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. ¡°Glasses. Forgot about it.¡± I went back to my room to get a spare. I always had a couple of them lying around since I had lost them a few times in the past. These fake glasses were cheap anyway.

    While walking to the elevator, I texted Mom that I decided to go out to eat instead of having food delivered. She replied, ¡°Take care, Erind sweetie. Be mindful of your surroundings.¡± Mom still had the unexpected fire at the mall in mind. ¡°You never know when you¡¯ll be in a dangerous situation,¡± she ended her message.

    True that, Mom. True that¡­

 1.10

    I tightly hugged my backpack in an attempt to mask the sound of my rumbling stomach. Did the taxi driver notice it? Would Deen have some food later? I was about to buy a Cesar¡¯s salad wrap in my favorite store, ¡®Salad-To-Go¡¯, a block away from my condo, when I realized it would entail a receipt, which wasn¡¯t ideal if I wanted to keep my whereabouts as vague as possible.

    It was also the reason I took a cab.

    There were security cams at the train station, tickets would show where I went, plenty of people to see me. With a cab, there was only the driver. And anyone trying to investigate me in the future would need to find this specific taxi first to trace my route. I didn¡¯t even use those ride-hailing apps.

    My only paper trail today was the receipt from the ATM where I withdrew $500, the daily atm withdrawal limit of my bank. The ATM was inside my condo building so I wasn¡¯t too worried about it. I patted the hidden pocket of my bag to check if the wad of cash was still there. Money would help big time if I was forced to flee.

    If possible, I didn¡¯t want it to come to that. That''d be such a pain. If nothing happened, I could use this money to buy another foldable bike instead. Yay.

    ¡°Where was it again, miss?¡± the taxi driver said.

    ¡°Green Meadows Park,¡± I said. I kept my head turned away from him, looking out the window, my face covered by the side of my hoodie. Suspicious? Heck yeah. But it was better than him seeing my face. He probably thought I run away from home. ¡°The northern gate, please. The one along McDouglas Street.¡±

    ¡°Right you are, miss.¡±

    When we arrived at the park entrance, I thrust the fare into the hands of the driver and quickly hopped out of the taxi, almost tumbling on the pavement. I thought my bag was going to be heavy, so I overestimated the strength of my jump. I quickly thrust out my hand to stop my fall.

    I stood up and smoothened my clothes. My eyes went wide upon seeing my handprint on the ground. Handprint, yes. On the cracked¡­concrete ground. I didn¡¯t expect to be this strong.

    ¡°Ow,¡± I said, checking my stinging hand. My palm was slightly bruised. Wait¡­the bruise¡­disappeared. ¡°Fuck,¡± I whispered watching the reddish skin returning to normal. Remember not to get injured in front of people. My hand was smooth again, without any blemish other than the tiny crystal sitting innocently on my palm.

    ¡°Are you okay, miss?¡±

    ¡°Yes! I¡¯m okay,¡± I said with my back to him. ¡°No problem here!¡± I took out my phone then pretended to call someone. Take the cue.

    ¡°Be careful then, miss.¡± The fading sounds of the engine told me he left.

    I wonder how many times I¡¯ve been told to be careful today, I thought while looking at the crystal on my palm. A pimple patch would do an awesome job of covering this, but I didn¡¯t have any because I rarely get zits. If I used a band-aid from my first aid kit, I¡¯d only draw more attention to it. Best just to inconspicuously hide it for now.

    With my foot, I raked a pile of dust on top of my handprint on the ground but it was still noticeable. Would this print be traceable to me? There was no one around, and the taxi had left.

    I stomped on it, breaking the pavement more, distorting it. The concrete made a satisfying crack with each step; more satisfying than crunching dried leaves. It wasn¡¯t that recognizable as a handprint anymore. Unfortunately, I also ruined my sneakers by squishing their sole a bit. And I think some of the threads became undone. Oh well, these were old shoes anyway that I used to fit my casual appearance.

    I shrugged and went on my way. Someone finding it would just think the city was behind in its maintenance activities.

    The sun sailed merrily high in the sky, but plenty of clouds and the green crowns of the trees shielded me from its harsh gaze. The bears in the tale of Goldilocks came to mind¡ªthe temperature was just right. Speaking of fairy tales, I only lacked a basket of food and this could be little red riding hood¡¯s story, with sweet little me going into a house where there might be a wolf¡­or wolves.

    Or am I the wolf?

    After having gone through a lot today, and I mean A LOT, I was having a great time jogging through the park. I felt like a different person¡ªfine, I¡¯m not human¡ªas if I suffered a bad bout of flu for a week then awoke refreshed on the morning of the first day I was fully recovered. There was a springiness in my step, a certain level of fitness that reminded me of my days when I was a cheerleader back in high school.

    If I closed my eyes so I couldn¡¯t see I was zipping past the trees, I wouldn¡¯t be able to tell how fast I was actually going with just the effort I put into my steps. Jogging? More like full-on running. Yet my breathing was for a leisurely stroll.

    And my heavy bag. What bag? There was barely any weight on my shoulders. I had to check my bag a few times if it didn¡¯t burst open and spilled out all its contents.

    I decided it was better not to ride the taxi straight to Deen¡¯s house at Poblacion Verde Hills. The north gate of this park was a little distance from the edge of Verde Hills. But this way, the taxi driver wouldn¡¯t know where I went after entering the park.

    With my speed, I made it to Verde Hills in no time at all.

    It was a high-end neighborhood, posh houses flaunting eccentric architectural designs with yards about twice or even thrice the size you could find in an average American suburbia. Amber Deen¡¯s family must be loaded for her and her sister to afford renting a whole house here.

    My family was¡­hmmm¡­I guess I could say a little well-off, with Mom being a consultant of Greaves BioAugmentronics Corp., but I wasn¡¯t even dreaming of renting a mini luxury house for myself.

    I enjoyed my walk to Deen¡¯s house, admiring the unique designs of the houses along the way. Appreciate the small things. This might be my last day to be able to walk without fear out in the open.

    It was amusing only a few hours ago I was having a relaxing tea while studying for my classes, and now I was a hundred percent ready to murder everyone inside Deen¡¯s house if they posed a threat to me.

    ¡°That must be it,¡± I said, stopping across the street from a marble grey house with a minimalist geometric theme. Sleek wood panels accented the walls, contrasting nicely with the modern style. I followed Deen¡¯s directions, and this house was as she described. ¡°I wonder how much their rent costs.¡±

    Was she able to get her car out of the fire? It wasn¡¯t in her driveway. Probably not. There was a big motorcycle in her driveway, a model I had seen biker gangs use. A weathered blue sedan I didn¡¯t recognize was parked in front of her house.

    Everything appearing safe, I crossed the street, passing by the suspicious car to examine it before going up to Deen¡¯s door. The car¡¯s front right side was dented, its headlights busted. This must be the car that collided with the spiky Adumbrae cunt that tried to kill me. There were also a few holes dotting the car. Traces where the spikes hit?

    I pressed the doorbell and waited. If someone other than Deen answered, I was going to run.

    The speaker to the right of the door beeped alive.

    ¡°Erind, there you are,¡± Deen said from the speaker. There was a camera hanging above the door staring down at me. Figured there would be cameras in this expensive house. I shouldn¡¯t forget about its recording if I did kill them. ¡°Just a sec, I¡¯m coming now.¡±

    The possibility that Deen was held hostage lowered. But if someone was with her, I might still run away. Especially if it seemed like someone was holding a gun to her back.

    Deen opened the door. She was alone.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    I exhaled, relaxing my tensed body that was ready to bolt. This was the first time I saw her in casual clothes, but I could easily tell she was wearing designer-brand clothing. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she didn¡¯t have any makeup on, like legit no make-up on not the ¡°no makeup¡± makeup look¡­ok that was confusing¡ªa girl thing.

    ¡°Hiya, Erind.¡± She stuck her head outside to peek if anyone else was there. ¡°You weren¡¯t followed?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t think so.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t text me where you were. I was worried.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I forgot.¡± I didn¡¯t. I just didn¡¯t want them preparing an ambush if they were my enemies. ¡°I was preoccupied thinking about¡­.thinking about everything.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­Come on in,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯d like you to meet the others. They¡¯ll explain everything to you.¡±

    The interior of the house mirrored its fa?ade, the same clash of geometric style with intricate woodwork. It was the sort of place that was too fancy you¡¯d barely make any movements for fear of breaking something expensive.

    Deen led me to the living room, and wow they had a pool in their backyard, separated by sliding glass doors. Two guys were watching TV and drinking juice Deen prepared for them. Another guy was outside by the pool.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Myra? You said she¡¯s here.¡± I gripped Deen¡¯s arm like I was nervous.

    The blonde guy lying on the sofa was flipping through the channels when he saw me. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re here,¡± he said, switching the TV off then standing up. He appeared a bit under the weather, cradling a bandaged arm. He had an immovable serious face he unsuccessfully tried to mold into a friendlier one, his steel-blue eyes piercing mine. Was he the leader of their group? ¡°Myra¡¯s here. She, uh¡­¡± He looked around.

    ¡°She¡¯s in the bathroom,¡± Deen explained, ¡°fixing something, or so she said.¡±

    ¡°Ah, her injury. She¡¯ll be here in a bit, don¡¯t worry.¡± He adjusted the sling over his shoulder, trying to offer me his right hand, the bandaged one, to shake, decided against it then offered his left instead. ¡°You must be Erind. Nice to meet you.¡±

    Left hand? Phew. ¡°Um, hello,¡± I said, feigning a hesitant tone, warily looking at his offered hand. Remember, Deen was the dominant personality here, so I should keep up my timid face. An unthreatening appearance was to my advantage. I went for an awkward shake, just holding his fingers. ¡°Such a weird circumstance to meet,¡± I added a nervous chuckle for good measure.

    ¡°Too much forwardness, oh great leader,¡± a different voice loudly said. It belonged to the guy with a ponytail smoking by the pool. He crushed his cig beneath his boot and went inside the living room, closing the glass door behind him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t litter here, Obe,¡± said the guy sitting on the right armchair. ¡°Sorry for that, Amber.¡± There was something in the way he stared at Deen. The shape of his muscles was visible under his tight black shirt, and his olive skin helped emphasize his sculpted forearms. Was this guy intentionally flexing his muscles so Deen would notice him? A normal day in the life of Deen.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry.¡± Ponytail guy, who was apparently Obe, sat on the couch. ¡°Just a habit, I forgot myself. I was getting entertained here by our leader putting moves on the cute lady newcomer.¡±

    Blue-eyes looked at his hand and put it in his pocket. ¡°I wasn¡¯t making moves on her. Get serious, Obe.¡± My cue here should be to blush, but that was a skill I hadn¡¯t practiced yet. I could cry on cue, but not blush. He said to me. ¡°I apologize, I should¡¯ve introduced ourselves first. I¡¯m Dario.¡±

    ¡°Everett,¡± said the muscled Mediterranean guy.

    ¡°Reo, at your service,¡± ponytail said, twirling his hand as a greeting.

    ¡°Um, hello. Oh, I already said ¡®hello¡¯, right? I¡¯m Erind, but I guess you already knew that,¡± I stammered. ¡°I thought your name was Obe?¡± I asked Reo.

    ¡°My real name¡¯s Reo. Obe is short for Oberon. My codename.¡±

    ¡°Codename?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we got codenames,¡± Reo said. ¡°We all do¡­except for one guy in our group who didn¡¯t want to pick one. To hide our identities, you know? Feeling like we¡¯re in a superhero story, woohoo.¡±

    ¡°How about you take a sit before I explain?¡± Dario said. ¡°You must be tired from traveling.¡±

    I vigorously shook my head and stubbornly stood behind Deen. She waved for them to continue.

    ¡°I¡¯ll remain standing too,¡± Dario said. ¡°Superhero names are supposed to be famous even if the public doesn¡¯t know who they are behind the mask. That doesn¡¯t translate well in real life. For our continued survival, we¡¯d prefer to hide both our codenames and real names from the public.¡±

    Reo snorted. ¡°It¡¯s a lame type of codename. We also have lame masks. Black ski masks from a thrift store. Are we robbing a QualityMart?¡±

    ¡°Our codenames are primarily so we¡¯d have something to call each other during missions and not use our actual names. When we plan or discuss something that¡¯s not so legal, we use our codenames as a matter of practice even if there¡¯s no chance anyone can overhear us. It¡¯s a good habit to cultivate. I think we¡¯re going to make an exception for now so you won¡¯t get confused with us. So, we¡¯re going to call Obe his real name, Reo.¡±

    ¡°Everett is particularly anal about that,¡± Reo said. ¡°But I see the point. Who knows if someone inserted a bug up your ass?¡±

    ¡°Really mature, Obe,¡± Everett dryly said. ¡°Uh, Reo. Right, we¡¯re not using codenames.¡±

    Dario added, ¡°Picking a codename for ourselves also fosters a sense of belongingness and a connection to our powers. My codename is Blank, for example.¡±

    ¡°Very well-thought-of codename, Oh Great Leader! It¡¯s like you spent five minutes on that,¡± Reo said, chuckling. ¡°Give me some credit here. Oberon! King of the fairies. Well, four fairies for now. I even grew my hair long to build the motif. Would really help a lot in theming if I was a white guy, like a Scandinavian or something. Take Dario over here. Just grow his hair long and he could sell this whole fairy king thing. Unlike me. I don''t think the Japanese have fairies like the Western ones. More like spirit creatures."

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with my codename?¡± Dario said. ¡°You spent five minutes on the internet searching for cool fairy names. Everett¡¯s codename¡¯s the one with some thought put into it.¡±

    ¡°Codename Emcee,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°Tell them how you came up with it. It¡¯s really cool.¡±

    ¡°Uh, it¡¯s short of e=mc<sup>2</sup>. Einstein¡¯s equation? E-equals-m-c-squared. Emcee. Something like that. Do you guys kind of see it? My power has something to do with mass-energy equivalence.¡±

    ¡°That is pretty clever,¡± Deen said, making Everett¡¯s face brighten.

    I frowned. ¡°This is getting too confusing. Codenames? Powers? Back up a bit. You said you guys have powers? Did I hear that correctly?¡± Because I got powers too, bitches. Not that I would tell them that. And that wasn¡¯t the important thing now. ¡°Is that how you are able to fight Adumbrae? Deen mentioned something about it.¡±

    ¡°Yes, with our abilities we can fight¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just to be clear¡­by powers, you mean superhuman abilities because of performance-enhancing drugs.¡± I looked them over from head to toe. ¡°Or do you have like augs, bioaugmentronics attached to you?¡±

    ¡°No, nothing of the sort,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°What we have,¡± Reo said, ¡°are powers that can¡¯t be explained by science.¡±

    I faked a gasp. ¡°Are you guys the same as the one who attacked Deen and me at the mall?¡± I was already thinking about what to do next. Do I say, hey guys I¡¯m actually one of you? ¡°Are you¡­Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Everett and Reo protested, in varying degrees of agitation.

    ¡°Everyone relax,¡± Dario said, putting his hands on their shoulders. They subtly tried to lean their bodies away from his hands. ¡°She didn¡¯t mean anything bad with that. Isn¡¯t that right, Erind?¡± I nodded my head. Dario removed his hands from his friends and they seemed to sigh in relief. ¡°Saying we have powers that can¡¯t be explained by science would naturally lead to such an assumption, Reo. We¡¯re either Corebring or Adumbrae. At least, that¡¯s what would people think. And we aren¡¯t Corebrings¡ª¡±

    ¡°Obviously,¡± Reo interjected.

    ¡°Technically not,¡± said Everett.

    Dario finished his sentence, ¡°So, it¡¯s understandable that Erind will assume we¡¯re Adumbrae.¡±

    What were they supposed to be if they weren¡¯t Adumbrae? Some product of a science experiment? A government project? That wouldn¡¯t be the first time the government tried fiddling with things beyond our comprehension.

    I shifted behind Deen, wary. Give me a suspicious expression, girl. I stuttered, ¡°Yo-you¡¯re not Adumbrae? You do-don¡¯t want to kill us?¡±

    ¡°No. A hundred percent, we¡¯re not Adumbrae. And we also don¡¯t want to kill you. We want to protect you.¡±

    ¡°What are you then?¡± I asked. I needed more intel. ¡°What is all of this about? Maybe you can show me your powers?¡±

    Dario looked at his friends and nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll be glad to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Before that,¡± a female voice interrupted him. A woman with shoulder-length hair dyed metallic blue, wearing a baggy Melchor sweatshirt. Myra Fletcher. A severely serious expression, almost aggressive, was on her face; very different from the concerned and sad Myra we met at Melchor. ¡°Before any explanations and stuff about our powers, let¡¯s hear first about what happened at the mall from Erind¡¯s perspective.¡±

    Wait a goddamn minute. Did she say ¡®our powers¡¯? She has powers too?

    ¡°And here comes Myra,¡± Reo said. ¡°Codename Barb.¡±

    My ears pricked up. Barb?

 1.11

    ¡°Barb, short for Barbarian.¡± Reo snickered.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not. Idiot.¡±

    ¡°Just kidding. Something to do with the tree-like powers she can shape into anything. Barb¡­jeez. Talk about lack of creativity.¡±

    I clenched my teeth upon hearing that but then relaxed my cheek muscles so they wouldn¡¯t notice my reaction. Can she make something like a spike with her powers? Barb¡­spikes. Close enough.

    ¡°Shut up, you.¡± Myra picked up a pillow from one of the sofas and threw it at Reo, who promptly ducked. She winced and massaged the side of her neck. ¡°I¡¯m not in a mood for your jokes, Reo.¡±

    ¡°Grumpy, grumpy.¡±

    ¡°Are you okay now, Myra?¡± Dario asked.

    Myra stretched down the neckline of her sweatshirt to her shoulder, revealing the side of her neck. ¡°Just redid my bandages.¡±

    ¡°Here you go,¡± Deen said, handing her an ice bag. ¡°Might help.¡±

    ¡°Thanks.¡± Myra sat on the arm of the chair where Everett was. ¡°Oh yeah, that feels good,¡± she said, pressing the ice bag on her injury.

    ¡°Sorry, I wasn¡¯t able to get more of the Diluter,¡± Dario said. He held up his own bandaged arm.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I don¡¯t want to overdose on it. I actually missed feeling pain like a normal person.¡± She pointed her finger at Reo who had his mouth open about to say something. ¡°Can it! I can see from your face you¡¯re about to make a BDSM joke.¡± He grinned and raised his hands, backing off.

    Myra, you sneaky, sneaky slime, I thought. I was raging in my mind but I easily kept my face neutral; years of practice. She was the one who attacked me! I was sure I heard the word ¡®Barb¡¯ mentioned when I transformed and fought at the mall. It turned out it was Myra¡¯s codename.

    The bandages on her neck were the final confirmation. I bit off a huge chunk of her flesh; I think I even reached her bone. But if Myra had powers, then I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she could heal herself from that apparently fatal injury. Kelsey was an Adumbrae...and Myra was what?

    And how could she have gotten to the mall before us from where we dropped her off?

    Hold on, wasn¡¯t the mall just on the other side of that block? Deen asked Myra if we could take a shortcut through the parking area of the building but she said she forgot her car pass. But what if she didn¡¯t have one? Did she even live in that building? Or did she get off there so she could pass through and arrive at the mall before us because we had to navigate the busy streets of the business district?

    If I¡¯d known she had powers, I would¡¯ve thought of her as the prime suspect. Not Kelsey. When my attacker mentioned a sister, it was Myra asking about Kelsey, not the other way around. I don¡¯t know shit about your sister!

    The mystery of the attack was slowly getting revealed. But there were more questions. Were all of them my enemies? Then why did Myra¡¯s friends stop her and save us? Were they going to silence us now? What was the blue vial she gave us back in Melchor?

    Control your anger, Erind, I coaxed myself. Which was easy. I couldn¡¯t properly get angry actually, more like only an approximation of it¡ªlike all other emotions. After a few minutes, I wouldn¡¯t be angry at her anymore even though she did try to kill me.

    But it didn¡¯t mean I forgave her. Even if I did want to do so, there were no exceptions to Rule #4. My hands were tied. Emotions and the application of the Rules were entirely different matters.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hear it then, Erind,¡± Myra said. ¡°What happened after you ran away from the parking area? That¡¯s the last part of the story we got from Dario and Amber.¡±

    I needed to be in control of the conversation and not let this turn into a Q-and-A with Myra on the reins. I wasn¡¯t going to be a witness grilled by a lawyer on the stand. Divert. ¡°Dario was the one in the car?" I said. "I was surprised when a car crashed into the man attacking me.¡± I corroborated Deen¡¯s incorrect belief that our attacker was a man. I paused and inhaled deeply. Distraught. I needed to be distraught so I could tell a jumbled story without arousing suspicion. ¡°I¡¯m really, really sorry, Deen. I just ran away after that. I¡­I¡­¡± My voice cracked, lips trembling. I reached for her hands and held them.

    ¡°Eh? What are you talking about?¡± Deen said. ¡°Erind calls me ¡®Deen¡¯,¡± she explained to them. ¡°It¡¯s my second name, ¡®Amber Deen¡¯.¡± Then she turned to me. ¡°What are you sorry for? You¡¯ve done nothing wrong to me.¡±

    ¡°Because I just left you! I was dying to tell you sorry over the phone but you immediately clued me in not to say anything about the mall.¡± Cue in teardrops. Just a few, don¡¯t exaggerate.

    ¡°Oh, that! Don¡¯t worry about it, Erind. Dario fought off the Adumbrae. I don¡¯t actually know what happened because I passed out in the commotion. That¡¯s where Dario was injured, I think? You couldn¡¯t have done anything there.¡±

    ¡°I just ran away and left you behind. I was only thinking about myself.¡± Deen hugged me and I sobbed on her shoulder.

    ¡°But what did happen after?¡± Myra impatiently said.

    ¡°Relax, Myra,¡± Everett said. ¡°Can¡¯t you see she¡¯s upset?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t think too much about it, Erind,¡± Dario said. ¡°It¡¯s understandable why you ran away. You were scared.¡±

    Could I push this a bit more? ¡°If you guys weren¡¯t there, Deen would¡¯ve died.¡±

    ¡°You already saved me when my leg got hit,¡± Deen said. ¡°If you ran away that time, the Adumbrae would¡¯ve killed me. You didn¡¯t leave me when it counted the most.¡±

    ¡°Hey, if we¡¯re up against a strong opponent,¡± Reo said, ¡°I¡¯d also run and leave these guys behind. Don¡¯t sweat it.¡±

    Myra made an exasperated sound. ¡°You were attacked, Dario hit the guy with his car, he and Everett got Amber while you ran away. Then what happened next?¡±

    Cunt. Based on their reactions, they didn¡¯t appear to have hostile intentions towards me...including Myra. I could be wrong, but I sensed she was more interested in knowing the identity of the woman who attacked her than what happened to me.

    I wiped my tears and added a couple of hiccups. ¡°It was all a blur. I just ran and ran. I wasn¡¯t really thinking clearly. That door at the side of the parking area¡­all my focus was just getting to it. I thought it would go into the mall but then it¡­it led into a stairwell.

    ¡°The door didn¡¯t have a lock. I dunno, maybe I didn¡¯t see it or I¡¯m too dumb to figure it out. Maybe I was just super scared I couldn¡¯t think straight. I¡­I¡­I¡¯ve seen on the news what Adumbrae can do¡ªthe guy who wanted to kill me is an Adumbrae, right?¡±

    ¡°We think so,¡± Dario said, glancing at Myra.

    ¡°Yes, he¡¯s an Adumbrae. Our enemy.¡± She had a straight face. ¡°Anyway, what happened in the stairwell?

    ¡°Because I couldn¡¯t lock the door, I held it shut with my body. Really stupid, I know. I¡¯m small and the Adumbrae could force the door open, just fling me away. I¡¯ve heard, they¡¯re all incredibly strong. I just stood there by the door because I didn¡¯t know which way to go¡­up or down. I might get trapped if I went the wrong way. Someone grabbed me and pulled me away from the door. Which was lucky because the Adumbrae shot several spikes that pierced through the metal door."

    ¡°Someone?¡±

    ¡°A woman in a weird getup. Without her, I would¡¯ve been injured, maybe dead.¡±

    ¡°Can you describe this woman?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s tall with a body like a supermodel.¡± I loosely described my appearance when transformed, adding in a few wrong details so it wouldn¡¯t seem I was too familiar with it. Myra¡¯s eyes lit up while I was talking, and she gave a hint of a nod to Dario.

    ¡°I sure wish I could¡¯ve met her,¡± Reo said. Myra shot him a menacing glare.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t even notice her when I entered the stairwell,¡± I said. ¡°Which was weird because there wasn¡¯t any place she could''ve hidden. Like, it¡¯s just the stairs going up and going down. I would¡¯ve seen her approach me. But I didn¡¯t think about it at that time. I was just relieved I didn¡¯t die. Maybe it¡¯s just one of her powers.¡±

    ¡°Why do you say she has powers?¡± Dario said.

    ¡°Besides the appearing out of thin air,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t say she appeared out of thin air. I just didn¡¯t notice her¡­maybe. But it was pretty obvious she wasn¡¯t normal because of her mouth.¡± Myra, maybe subconsciously, rubbed her injured neck. Should I ask her about her injury? Nah, too suspicious. I said, ¡°After pulling me away from the door, the woman opened her mouth. Like, I mean her mouth as in the mask thingy full of sharp fangs. That was her actual mouth! Like not a human mouth at all. She has a monster mouth!¡±

    ¡°Maybe I don¡¯t want to meet her,¡± Reo mused. ¡°Or maybe I do¡­You said she has a hot body?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be a pig, Reo,¡± Myra said, ¡°or I¡¯ll tell your girlfriend.¡±

    ¡°Kidding. Man, can no one take a joke anymore? She¡¯s an Adumbrae anyway.¡±

    ¡°I was terrified thinking she¡¯s with the man chasing me and she¡¯s going to attack me too. It didn¡¯t register in my mind at that time that she saved me. I was so sure I was super dead. If I went out the door, the man in black will skewer me and if I stayed there, she''ll bite my head off. But¡­she didn¡¯t bite me¡­she bit herself.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± All of them said.

    I nodded fervently. ¡°She bit her own arm. I was so shocked when she did that. She let her blood flow to the ground. Then she pointed at me and pointed down. Next, she pointed at herself and up. She growled or something while doing that pointing thing. I¡¯m sure she was trying to talk to me but I couldn¡¯t understand because she couldn¡¯t speak with her¡­uh¡­monster mouth. I don¡¯t know what to call it.

    ¡°When she smeared her blood on the spikes, that was when I understood what she was trying to tell me. The blood trail on the floor, the blood on the spikes. She planned to make it look like I was hit and then lead the Adumbrae with spikes a different way.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Myra said, more to herself than to me. She was looking at the pool, chewing her tongue, deep in thought.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    What do you mean ¡®I see¡¯, you bitch? I continued with my story, ¡°I ran down the stairs while the woman with the weird mouth went up. I couldn¡¯t see her but I assumed she dripped her blood along the way.¡±

    ¡°How about the man?¡± Deen said. ¡°Did you see him? He also entered the stairwell?¡±

    ¡°He did, but I didn¡¯t see him. I descended the stairs and tried to open the door of the lower floor when I heard a crash above. I¡¯m not sure, but I think that door got stuck because of the spikes he threw and he was trying to force it open. I was so scared I didn¡¯t even try to exit the stairwell. I just sat in a corner.

    ¡°I kept very quiet, covered my ears, and closed my eyes. I didn¡¯t move, I was praying the whole time he''d follow the woman. I still didn¡¯t budge when I heard him going up the stairs. It was the fire alarm that finally made me move.¡±

    ¡°And then what?¡±

    ¡°I was able to escape from the mall before the fire spread. Everyone was running out. I rushed back to my condo and hid inside until Deen called. I didn¡¯t know what to do. At first, I wanted to call the police but¡­but I changed my mind. I mean two incidents on the same day. With Myra¡¯s sister¡­and the mall. What if the Adumbrae has started to infect me too?¡±

    ¡°Do you know what happened to the woman with the monster mouth?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I never saw her after we parted ways in the stairwell. Do you know who she is?¡±

    Dario shrugged. ¡°We don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°She really saved me back there. Obviously, she¡¯s not human, but she wasn¡¯t a bad¡­not sure if I can call her ¡®person¡¯. Could she be like you? With supernatural powers but not a Corebring or an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°No, she¡¯s not like us,¡± Dario said. ¡°There¡¯s only five of us in our group. Four with powers, one who decided to stay normal. Four of us are here. Johann, the normal guy, couldn¡¯t come.¡±

    ¡°That woman is definitely an Adumbrae,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°But she helped me.¡±

    ¡°We still don¡¯t know her true intentions. That¡¯s one of the things we¡¯d like to find out.¡±

    ¡°How about the fire? Did the Adumbrae with spikes do it? It couldn¡¯t have been the woman. I hope it wasn¡¯t her.¡±

    ¡°We also don¡¯t know anything about the fire,¡± Everett said, perhaps too quickly, then he looked away.

    You guys set fire to the mall? If they did, then I had to thank them because they probably destroyed the recordings of the parking area security cameras. Or was that their intention? ¡°How about you? Did you see the woman or the Adumbrae trying to kill us?¡± I asked Dario.

    ¡°No. When the Adumbrae went after you, we took Amber, um, Deen, and escaped in our car. We only knew about the fire when we were already out of the mall.¡±

    That¡¯s going to be your story? They were saying they already left so they could disclaim any knowledge of the fire and push it on their imaginary enemies at the mall. Let¡¯s take more control of this conversation. ¡°Huh? You left, just like that?¡± I said with utmost indignation, adding in a stamp of my foot. ¡°You just left while an Adumbrae was chasing me? I could¡¯ve died! If the woman with the monster mouth didn¡¯t appear then I really would be dead.¡±

    Everett fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat and glanced at Myra beside him. She intently stared at the pool as if she couldn¡¯t hear us talking.

    ¡°Erind¡­¡± Deen said, but she didn¡¯t continue her sentence.

    ¡°You said you guys have powers.¡±

    Dario calmly answered, ¡°We do have powe¡ª"

    ¡°And you¡¯re fighting Adumbrae. Right? Right? So why did you leave me?¡± Either they should be nominated for the best actors of 2020, or, based on their expressions, they truly felt guilty. I surmised it was all just Myra¡¯s own thing. ¡°Why weren¡¯t you able to stop the Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°I guess I better explain,¡± Dario said. He fished a square leather object from his pocket. I thought it was his wallet, but I realized it wasn¡¯t when he opened it. ¡°It¡¯s because of this.¡±

    ¡°The blue vials,¡± I whispered. There were three of them inside the small leather packet. ¡°Just like what Myra gave us at Melchor.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yeah, she mentioned she gave you some. There was no need, this would have barely any effect on you and Amber Deen.¡±

    Myra grunted. ¡°Was just trying to be helpful.¡±

    ¡°What are those?¡± I said.

    ¡°They have scientific names for their formulas, but we just call them Suppressors for simplicity. There¡¯s another set of vials colored red, the Diluters.¡±

    ¡°Need to keep them simple because Reo can¡¯t remember their names,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Ha-ha-ha, very funny,¡± Reo said sarcastically. ¡°Sounds like we¡¯re talking about drugs if we refer to them like that.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s way better to be caught with drugs in our possession than these," said Dario. "Their official names shouldn¡¯t even be known by the public. Someone might overhear us and one thing can lead to another and we¡¯ll be investigated for possessing something that¡¯s government top secret.

    ¡°We use the Suppressor stuff to...well...suppress the source of our power as well as parts of our brain that connect to higher dimensions via the gestalt subconsciousness of humans. I¡¯ll spare you the nitty-gritty details, but we basically use them to get past Adumbrae scanners and tests. Not only we do have special abilities, but we also have super strength and increased regeneration like Adumbrae¡ª¡±

    ¡°Like Corebrings,¡± Everett said. ¡°Don¡¯t compare us to Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, wrong choice of words. Yes, like Corebrings, we have superhuman bodies and we need the Suppressor to hide it when necessary. The effect lasts for a few hours and we gradually get our powers back. For normal humans? Not much effect.¡±

    Deen waved her hand to join in. ¡°Myra said we could use it to pass tests in case we were affected by being close to an Adum¡ªuh, I mean Kelsey. Something about false positives.¡±

    ¡°Technically, yes. It does suppress parts of the brain associated with establishing a connection with an Adumbrae, biochemicals, and electric signals. But this is more suited for our use. In your case, it wasn¡¯t necessary at all. The chances you were affected by that brief interaction are minuscule.

    ¡°False positives are possible; the brain is a complicated thing and science is still very far in unraveling its secrets. However, further testing would clear that up. It''ll be a huge inconvenience, yes. Follow-up tests and records, but not worth even one of these rare and expensive Suppressors.¡±

    I recalled Myra mentioned she got the blue vials from her boyfriend. She meant Dario? They didn¡¯t seem to have a relationship. She told us a lie so we would trust her and take the Suppressor thingy. Technically, it was a white lie. The twist was that she was really trying to help us.

    The fuck was going on? She helped us and then she attacked us afterward? Did she think we were Adumbrae? It wasn¡¯t like she suspected we had powers so she tried to trick us into losing our powers by drinking the blue stuff. She let us pick a vial first and even drank hers before us. And she couldn''t have known if we drank our vials after she left.

    ¡°Myra wasted our limited supplies,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°I already talked with her, Reo.¡±

    ¡°She had good intentions,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°Dario,¡± I said, ¡°is that why you were injured and had to run away? You drank some Suppressor?¡±

    ¡°In my line of work, I always need to take it so I wouldn¡¯t get discovered. When I came to the mall, I could barely use my powers and I couldn¡¯t properly fight. That¡¯s how I got this injury that¡¯s still healing. If I didn¡¯t have the Suppressor in my system, this would¡¯ve healed in a few minutes. And it¡¯s also the reason why we ran away. Sorry. In our minds, at least we saved one person.¡±

    ¡°We hoped you would¡¯ve escaped,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°I understand now,¡± I said. ¡°Sorry I overreacted.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re the ones who should apologize,¡± Dario said. ¡°No matter what explanation I give, we did leave you behind.¡±

    ¡°But isn¡¯t pretty dangerous that you can¡¯t use your powers for a few hours? Like what if you get ambushed?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s where the Diluter comes in. It counteracts the Suppressor, flushes it out of our system. It¡¯s not immediate, but better than nothing.¡± Dario scratched the back of his head. ¡°I didn¡¯t have any Diluter on me at that time. We don¡¯t have any right now.¡±

    Because Myra took it? Was that how she was able to use her powers and also survive a fatal bite on her neck? She probably ingested some on her way to the mall. I recalled she jabbed herself with a syringe after I attacked her. Must¡¯ve been more of the red stuff to help her heal.

    ¡°Again, I sincerely apologize,¡± Dario said. ¡°You¡¯re right. We¡¯re fighting Adumbrae and we should¡¯ve chased the one attacking you. Even though my abilities were restricted, that¡¯s no excuse. Sorry. Now, we¡¯re here to fix our mistakes. We¡¯re here to help. You explained what happened in the mall, now it¡¯s our turn to explain what¡¯s going on. Or try to explain, because we also don¡¯t know plenty of things. As Amber told you, we also don¡¯t know why you were attacked. We have our guesses, and maybe you¡¯d have an idea after I give a backgrou¡ª¡±

    ¡°Can you show me your powers first?¡± I said.

    ¡°If that¡¯s what you want,¡± Dario said. ¡°We already showed Amber our powers.¡±

    I wasn¡¯t sure what the exact truth was, neither did I really care for it. However, I was certain they didn¡¯t want to silence Deen and me or dispose of us in some way because they already had many opportunities to do so. The deal with Myra seemed like a misunderstanding.

    So, what did they want?

    Their intention must be connected with my transformation. Otherwise, they just would¡¯ve left Deen at the hospital or something¡ªshe was passed out anyway¡ªand just not bother with us. If they posed a threat to me, or more specifically, my transformed self, then I needed to have an idea of their strength. If they didn''t, I still needed information because I was the one who''d be going after them eventually.

    ¡°Ok, everyone,¡± Dario said, ¡°who wants to go first?¡±

    ¡°Reo should go first,¡± said Everett.

    ¡°Why me?¡± he replied. ¡°Save the best for last. You guys go first.¡±

    ¡°Delude yourself all you want,¡± Myra said, ¡°but you¡¯re wasting time if you don¡¯t start your summoning now.¡±

    ¡°Ah! Forgot about that. Go ahead and continue while I do my thing here calling my baby.¡± He knelt on the ground. ¡°Nice, this carpet is soft.¡± Looking up at the ceiling, he extended his arms out to his sides, palms facing upward, and began chanting words I didn''t understand.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get weirded out, Erind,¡± said Deen.

    Was he praying in a foreign language? Japanese? No, it didn¡¯t sound Japanese. I had no idea what he was saying, but it looked like the start of some ritual. ¡°To be honest, this isn¡¯t what I envisioned for a showcase of powers,¡± I said.

    Everett said, ¡°Powers of both Corebrings and Adumbrae aren¡¯t usually as clear cut as shooting lightning bolts out of your fingertips like in the movies.

    ¡°What¡¯s yours then?¡± I asked him.

    ¡°Mine is a bit hard to explain. What do you know of that famous formula, E=mc<sup>2</sup>?¡±

    ¡°Only heard of it. I don¡¯t exactly know what it¡¯s about.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not a physicist by the way, but a simple explanation would be anything with mass has a huge amount of energy. The next problem is how efficiently can energy be extracted. Take a burger, for example. You can last for an entire day eating just one burger, but you¡¯ll be hungry and tired by night. That¡¯s because we are severely inefficient at extracting energy from our food. If there was a way to extract energy with even¡­how about fifty percent efficiency¡­from a burger, I¡¯m sure you could destroy a block of buildings with it.¡±

    ¡°Is that true?¡± I said skeptically.

    ¡°That¡¯s an underestimation,¡± Dario said. ¡°An average human contains energy equivalent to ninety-thousand times the power of the explosion of the first nuclear bomb used back in the Adumbrae war¡ªthe one dropped on Munich, the site of the first Purple Bloom. I¡¯m sure the energy in a burger extracted at fifty percent efficiency can destroy more than just a few buildings.¡±

    Everett said, ¡°I extract energy from what I eat¡­which we all do. The difference is that I can extract energy more efficiently.¡±

    ¡°Seriously? You just eat a burger and then you can blow up a building?¡±

    ¡°No, that¡¯s too much,¡± he said, laughing. ¡°I¡¯m just a tiny bit more efficient than a normal human digesting food, but not that efficient as to turn a burger into a bomb. With the energy I extract, I can focus heat around my body or on specific points.¡± He held up his fist and the air around it started to shimmer, like the hot air over the pavement on a searing summer day here in California.

    So, he¡¯s the fucker who burned the mall. My skin stung from the heat and I retreated a couple of steps. ¡°Woah, that¡¯s hot.¡± I was sure he was holding back a lot of his power so we wouldn¡¯t immediately suspect him of being connected with the mall fire. Based on our prior encounter, he could make things burst into flames from the amount of heat he could generate.

    ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to give off that much heat.¡± He smiled slyly at Deen. ¡°I do need to eat a lot to sustain my power. If I ran out of food, I¡¯ll start to digest myself. Think of ulcer, but way worse.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you hurt by your own power? The heat?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m heatproof to an extent,¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s the second part of my power.¡±

    ¡°How about Myra next?¡± Dario said.

    Finally!

    What was she going to do so we wouldn''t suspect her as our attacker?

 1.12

    ¡°Yeah, sure,¡± Myra said. ¡°Mine is simple enough.¡± She took off the Melchor sweatshirt she wore leaving only her sports bra on. ¡°I don¡¯t want to rip my clothes,¡± she explained. ¡°Thank god this jackass is chanting.¡± She jabbed her thumb towards Reo. Then she hugged herself and took a deep breath.

    I instinctively moved back a bit, belatedly disguising it like I was just curiously worried about Myra. Idiot, you shouldn¡¯t know she has the spiky power thingy, I scolded myself.

    Some sort of bark-like substance bled out of her skin, covering her upper body. It didn¡¯t form spikes but, instead, turned itself into a thick and formidable armor.

    Interesting. Was this her actual power and not just throwing spikes? Did she choose to cover her body in armor instead of growing spikes to trick us into thinking she wasn¡¯t the one who attacked us?

    But she didn¡¯t know I got a close look at her spikes. I even ate them. That was the same material, I was sure. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what were the chances I would meet another person who could make this bark-like material and had a friend who could burn things on the same day, within a span of a few hours?

    ¡°It¡¯s pretty straightforward,¡± she said as she retracted her armor and put on her clothes again. ¡°I can cover my entire body with armor in any design I choose.¡±

    ¡°Not just a simple armor,¡± Dario said. ¡°It can be huge, like some of the bigger ComExos.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s hard to do now with some Suppressor still swimming inside me.¡±

    I was right, she was way underpowered when we met. If we fought head-on with her full power, things might¡¯ve gone differently. As I thought of what I was going to say next, chills crawled down my spine and the hairs on my neck stood on end.

    Mournful singing flitted in the room, although I couldn¡¯t tell which direction it came from. I turned to Reo. His mouth emitted golden-red light. There was mischievous laughter. It wasn¡¯t him laughing. It was as if someone full of helium laughed in a cartoonish voice.

    A small hand came out of Reo¡¯s mouth, followed by a plump body. A fat, pixie-like creature struggled to exit. With a great heave, it pulled itself out, flew through the air, somehow managing to do so even with its disproportionately small wings. It looked at all of us and laughed again in that creepy way.

    ¡°That¡¯s Blubber,¡± Dario said. ¡°Don¡¯t be scared, it won¡¯t harm you. Obe, I mean Reo¡­he can summon four fairies so far. And this is the fairy that can fight. Can we give it something to destroy?¡±

    ¡°I got a pen,¡± Myra said. She threw it to the red fairy. It caught the pen and chewed it to dust, literally, in one second. ¡°Blubber¡¯s nasty. It can chew through everything, bore through your stomach, and come out your mouth. Flesh or metal, it doesn¡¯t matter. It will chew through it.¡± The fat fairy stuck out its tongue at her.

    ¡°In you go,¡± Dario said. ¡°Go on, go back in.¡±

    The fairy complied and squeezed itself back in Reo¡¯s mouth. After it returned to his body, Reo collapsed. Everett caught him and placed him on one of the chairs. ¡°He¡¯s usually like this after he finishes a summon. He¡¯ll come to in a few minutes.¡±

    Dario turned to me. ¡°That leaves me.¡± He took a fighting stance, adjusting his sling and bandaged left arm. He held his right fist in front of him. ¡°Throw a punch at me.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me?¡± I said.

    ¡°Punch me with all your strength.¡±

    ¡°Is something bad going to happen to me?¡±

    ¡°Nothing bad will happen. It¡¯s for a demonstration of my power.¡±

    ¡°Okay then,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to fight though.¡± Control your strength, I thought. I was very aware of how much stronger I had gotten. I swung my fist at Dario with as much strength as I thought old Erind would have. Undoubtedly an experienced fighter, he easily caught my fist...

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡°Dario, my man, you could¡¯ve just explained your power.¡±

    ¡°Is Erind going to be fine?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± I mumbled. Bright light. I blinked my eyes. Many people around me. What happened? Where was I?

    ¡°She¡¯s already awake? That was fast.¡±

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have done that, Dario.¡±

    ¡°I controlled my power. And don¡¯t forget I still have the Suppressor in me. There¡¯s no need to get all worked up.¡±

    ¡°Erind? Are you ok?¡± A woman¡¯s voice.

    ¡°It¡¯s disconcerting the first time it happens.¡± This time, a guy was talking. Talking to me?

    I looked at the person who spoke. A handsome man with blue eyes. A bandaged arm. Was he injured? Wait a minute. He was called Dario, right? Codename¡­something. What was it? Blank? All of the memories of the past hour or so came back. ¡°The f¡ªwhat¡¯s going on?¡± I barely stopped myself cursing. Everything was still blurry and I couldn¡¯t concentrate on a face.

    ¡°Less than five minutes,¡± Myra said, checking her watch. ¡°Awesome job even though it was just a small poke from Dario. When he first tested that on Reo, he stared at the sky for fifteen minutes. Or he was just coked out of his mind? Hard to tell the difference.¡±

    ¡°Everyone, laugh at Myra¡¯s joke, quick,¡± Reo dryly said. ¡°I swear, Dario didn¡¯t hold back that time.¡±

    ¡°I apologize for that, Erind,¡± Dario said. ¡°They¡¯re right, maybe that was too much.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Just caught off guard.¡±

    Dario performed some martial moves as he explained, ¡°I am physically weak¡ªstronger than a normal human, but especially weak in the world of superhumans. This is why I have to strategically use my power. Surprise the enemy.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t have to surprise her with it,¡± Reo said.

    Deen rubbed my back. ¡°How are you feeling, Erind?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­I¡¯m fine¡­I guess.¡± My wariness levels lowered. I was now a hundred percent certain they had no intention of killing us. If they did, Dario could¡¯ve incapacitated Deen and me, and killed us right then and there. Dumb move, Erind. This was very dangerous¡­coming here. But I just couldn¡¯t resist myself.

    Hey, this is my first time in this situation, give me a break. My kind did suck when assessing the danger in a situation. I was still alive, so no problemo in the end.

    Their little show made me realize I couldn¡¯t take on all of them at the same time.

    But I didn¡¯t need to.

    The only one I intended to kill was Myra.

    How about Everett? He did try to burn me. Scratch that. He unintentionally cleaned up my trail at the mall with the fire he caused, burning my bloodied shirt I left there. Same with Dario. He did try to help me, but he couldn¡¯t stop Myra from going after me.

    Purely from an application of Rule #4 standpoint, killing them both was uncalled for. They did bother me, so penalty still had to be meted. It wasn¡¯t a simple case of beating them up when I get the chance. That was a stupid form of punishment and they could take revenge on me after.

    Reo, I had no personal grievance with. As for Deen, I didn¡¯t want to drag her into this. That''d violate Rule #4. Both of us were innocent bystanders that got dragged into this mess against our will. Poor us.

    Motion to momentarily suspend application of Rule #4 until more favorable circumstances arise.

    Granted.

    ¡°I¡­this¡­this is all too much to take in,¡± I said. ¡°I never imagined in my entire life I would get attacked by an Adumbrae. When I was hiding in my condo before Deen called, I was thinking I just could move on with my life¡­just keep quiet.¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t turn back time,¡± Dario said. ¡°Like it or not, you¡¯re part of this world now.¡±

    ¡°Harsh, man,¡± Reo said. ¡°Could¡¯ve cushioned that a bit.¡±

    ¡°I should know about this world I was dragged into,¡± I said. I sniffled, threatening to burst into tears. What do you idiots want with me anyway?

    Deen noticed it and put her arms around me. ¡°I think Erind is now ready to listen to your story, Dario.¡± Then she directed me to a seat and went to fetch me a glass of water. Such an awesome friend.

    Even if it turned out the fate of the world hung in the balance, like some clich¨¦ action movie, it wouldn¡¯t matter to me. All I wanted was information I could use to protect myself, and information to formulate a fitting penalty for Dario and Everett, as well as to find a good way to kill Myra. The Rules must be upheld no matter how long it took. Rules above all.

    ¡°What do you know about Corebrings?¡± Dario said. ¡°You and Amber are both students at Eloyce University so you must know about them.¡±

    ¡°I just know as much as the average person,¡± I said. ¡°Information about their actual workings isn¡¯t exactly widely known. Uh¡­the hidden headquarters of all Corebrings is called the Hive; I don¡¯t know where that is. I also only have a general idea of their structure. The Corebring Initiates have weapons made from the Mother Core, their CoreQuips. Even though they haven¡¯t absorbed a Core into their bodies, just by wielding these weapons, they are bestowed with superhuman bodies that could match someone with augs or wearing ComExos.

    ¡°When they absorb a Core into their bodies, they are then called Melded Corebrings, or just Corebrings. There are the Overseers that manage the Corebrings and the workings of the Hive. And there are the High Overseers, the most powerful of them all, who are awoken only in extreme cases. That¡¯s about it. Even if Eloyce University and Cresthorne Law are geared towards the field of Adumbrae, we rarely deal with Corebrings directly. Our professor even said he doubted if one of us would ever get the chance to meet a Corebring face to face.¡±

    ¡°How about where they came from?¡± Dario said. ¡°The Mother Core? The Adumbrae War after the Second World War?¡±

    ¡°A history exam?¡± I grinned half-heartedly, pretending like I was trying to compose myself. ¡°I can¡¯t recall the exact year¡­but in the middle of World War II, some Nazi experiment broke through the higher dimension somehow and we got noticed by the Adumbrae. And they¡¯re now trying to get our bodies through our gestalt subconsciousness,¡± I said, adding in what I learned from Professor Deslys. ¡°World War II abruptly came to an end as we got lots of Purple Blooms all over the world, spewing out monsters like the one they spotted roaming around Madagascar right now.

    ¡°Multiple Cores cropped up all over the world around that time too, giving people superpowers to fight the Adumbrae monsters rampaging everywhere. I¡¯ve read many theories on what those Cores are or where they came from, but I don¡¯t know anything definitive because Corebrings keep that a secret. Anyway, the first Corebrings brought these Cores together because they are, I think, fragments of something bigger? These Origin Cores formed the Mother Core, and the Mother Core chooses who gets a Core and becomes a Corebring. That¡¯s about all I know. Is that correct?¡±

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Dario said. ¡°The Mother Core is the source of the power of the Corebrings.¡± He glanced at Everett for a moment before speaking again. ¡°And to complete the background of our story, what do you know of the Labor Day Purge?¡±

    ¡°The Labor Day Purge?¡± I stared at the ceiling, gathering what I could remember about it. ¡°That was like¡­uh¡­over forty years ago. It was about government experiments or something right? Adumbrae in the government¡ªpoliticians, people in high places¡ªcarried out experiments using government resources which were eventually uncovered.¡±

    Everett said with a strained voice, ¡°First Monday of September 1973, those abominations gathered thousands of their supporters on Capitol Hill to protect themselves¡­mostly ordinary people who didn¡¯t know what was going on. They didn¡¯t even transform or use their powers. Just made a human shield out of all the people they managed to fool.¡±

    ¡°I recall documentaries about it,¡± I said. ¡°The army was trying to find ways how to differentiate who was the enemy and who was not. They couldn¡¯t attack¡ª¡±

    ¡°The Corebrings didn¡¯t care about any of that. They swooped in and killed everyone they could find,¡± Everett said. ¡°My grandparents were killed on that day, and my father, still a teen, had a hard time afterward. The stigma of being associated with the supposed ¡®traitors of humanity¡¯ compounded with being the son of an immigrant. I understand why the Corebrings did that. But not one of the Adumbrae even transformed!¡±

    "The Adumbrae didn''t transform because they intended to retain their human consciousness," I said. "If they transformed, they''d lose themselves, fully turn into berserking monsters. They probably realized it was over when the Corebrings showed up and decided to die in their human forms."

    "Are you sympathizing with them?"

    "No¡ª¡±

    ¡°If they transformed then the military could¡¯ve acted, picking the actual targets, and perhaps the Corebring wouldn¡¯t have killed everyone.¡±

    There was an awkward pause before Dario went on with his story. ¡°Let¡¯s focus on the experiments that led to the Labor Day Purge. Project QR-Zephyr.¡±

    ¡°The illegal human-Adumbrae experiments,¡± I said, snapping my fingers. Most documentaries about that point in history were about the Labor Day Purge itself, but I watched a show about Project QR-Zephyr a long time ago. Well, Dad was watching it and I, being a kid, was just playing while vaguely paying attention to it. Dad also had a lot of books about it. I had no idea where they were now, probably with all the belongings he left in the Philippines. We weren¡¯t able to recover most of his stuff after he died.

    ¡°Illegal?¡± Everett said with hatred in his voice.

    ¡°That¡¯s incorrect, it wasn¡¯t illegal,¡± Dario said. ¡°Most people think it was the Adumbrae that clandestinely started the experiments. However, Project QR-Zephyr was officially sanctioned by the government. The experiments were carried out on American and even Canadian citizens. Basically, they were trying to figure out how to trigger an Adumbrae transformation. How to control it. Can the power of the Adumbrae be wielded by super soldiers? Their thinking was that it should be tested on the general populace and not in a lab because it would affect how a person¡¯s ego breaks down and how they eventually invite in an Adumbrae.¡±

    Sounds interesting. I didn¡¯t recall inviting SpookyErind in my head. Why the fuck was that bitch in there?

    Dario continued, ¡°The goal was to eventually make our own Corebrings because the government didn¡¯t want to rely on the Hive.¡±

    ¡°The US may be the most powerful country,¡± Myra said, ¡°but the Corebring Hive is the most powerful. Period.¡±

    ¡°Most powerful period?¡± Reo said, grunting as he tried to control his laughter. ¡°That¡¯s gonna need a lot of tampons.¡±

    ¡°Shut the fuck up, Reo.¡±

    Dario ignored his bickering teammates. ¡°Project QR-Zephyr was top secret. It wasn¡¯t going to be pretty if the Corebrings found out about the experiments given the government was actively trying to trigger Adumbrae transformations. And there would, understandably, be a huge public backlash if and when the people found out what the government was doing.

    ¡°Somewhere down the road, the Adumbrae began to infiltrate the project. When it was all exposed to the public, the government blamed it all on the Adumbrae. That it was them all along. Which wasn¡¯t the case at all. The Adumbrae didn¡¯t even change the experiments when they eventually were able to control Project QR-Zephyr.¡±

    ¡°Makes you wonder,¡± Everett said, ¡°what¡¯s the difference between Adumbrae and some people other than superpowers.¡±

    "The Adumbrae were also interested in the results of Project QR-Zephyr. They wanted to retain their sanity, their free will. They wanted to be in control of their bodies, keeping the higher dimensional entities at bay, while enjoying the powers they bestowed."

    "Like a Corebring," Myra said.

    ¡°With that, I¡¯m proceeding to our present situation.¡± Dario took out something from the pocket, a small silver box. ¡°I¡¯m now going to show you something neat.¡±

    ¡°Neat and illegal,¡± Reo murmured.

    Dario placed the box on the table and tapped it with his finger. It glowed and gradually became transparent, revealing a curious object suspended in the middle of it. ¡°Take a closer look.¡±

    I knelt beside the table and bent down to examine it. It was something organic, reminding me of an embryo in its early stage of development. About the size of my fingernail, it pulsated, as if alive, in sync with the light flowing out of it. Maybe it was alive. ¡°Looks so weird¡­What is it?¡±

    ¡°An artificial Core,¡± Dario said.

    I blinked. ¡°Excuse me? Like a core of a computer or¡­?¡±

    He pressed the cube again and it went back to its opaque silver color. ¡°Best to hide it. If it¡¯s not Melded with anyone, Corebrings can detect it just like a real one. We¡¯ll be dead before we know it if the Corebring Hive is made aware of what we¡¯re doing.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me?¡± I repeated, with real incredulity this time. ¡°Like a real one? What do you mean? Like a real Core from the Mother Core? Like the Cores inside Corebrings?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°How is that even possible? Like without the Mother Core?¡±

    ¡°It does need material from the Mother Core.¡± Dario nodded. ¡°Many, many, many governments, organizations, secret or otherwise, have tried to get to their hands on a Core, and have succeeded. Maybe a Corebring got killed by an Adumbrae and they managed to get the body before it got eaten by the monster. Or they ambushed a Corebring to get a Core.

    ¡°But it is impossible to hold it long enough to try to synthesize an artificial Core. The Hive will know where the stolen Core is hidden and send their big guns to get it back at any cost. Which was the reason why Project QR-Zephyr went with the Adumbrae route in making super soldiers. The government didn¡¯t want direct conflict with the Hive.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a new top-secret project,¡± I said, taking a guess. ¡°Making artificial Cores. They somehow found a new way to do it¡ªnot going the Adumbrae way¡ªand succeeded.¡±

    ¡°Correct. There is a new program on making super soldiers that could rival Corebrings¡ª¡±

    ¡°Backed by the government,¡± Everett said. ¡°Again.¡±

    ¡°Yes, a new top-secret government program carried out by the BID. Or, more specifically, Division Proxy within the BID. The reason for the experiments'' revival was that the BID somehow got its hands on an Origin Core, the ones that formed the Mother Core at the start of the Adumbrae War. Only this one wasn¡¯t able to join the Mother Core.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how that happened, or where they got it. However, since it never became part of the Mother Core, the Corebrings couldn¡¯t detect it. And that¡¯s why Division Proxy could do their experiments in peace. They also carry out their experiments in labs. They¡¯re using dozens of human test subjects, but they don¡¯t experiment on the public like Project QR-Zephyr.¡±

    ¡°Which is still bad, by the way,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s bad,¡± Dario said, annoyed. ¡°But we can¡¯t stop those¡­ perhaps in the future. Not now. We have talked about this.¡±

    ¡°I assume you guys are the result of this experiment?¡± I said. ¡°With your powers and all this stuff? Did you escape from the lab or something?¡±

    Reo shook his head. ¡°Not exactly. And no, we didn¡¯t escape anywhere.¡±

    Dario explained, ¡°We are getting a repeat of the events leading up to the Labor Day Purge. You see, an Adumbrae has infiltrated Division Proxy. He¡¯s using the resources of Division Proxy to test on the people of this city¡­among other places. At least, that¡¯s what the Professor told us. The Professor is one of the lead researchers of Division Proxy, and he¡¯s the one who discovered that one of them became an Adumbrae. He suspects there are many Adumbrae in Division Proxy as well as the upper echelons of the BID, which was why he couldn¡¯t just report it.

    ¡°The Adumbrae are using criminal organizations engaged in the illegal Adumbrae trade, funneling resources and information from Division Proxy, to accomplish their goal of finding a way to retain their human minds while gaining more and more power. Essentially, the same goal as the Adumbrae involved in the Labor Day Purge.

    "The Professor gathered us¡ªand each of us has our own reason¡ªto fight the Adumbrae. And that is how we have our powers. He provides us with artificial Cores, information, and other materials we may need in our missions.¡±

    ¡°To what end?" I said. "Why don¡¯t we report this to the police¡ª? Uh, I guess that would be difficult if there are Adumbrae in the government. How about exposing this to the media? Wasn¡¯t that how Project QR-Zephyr got revealed to the public? Let¡¯s bring this to the media! We got proof.¡± Needless to say, I didn¡¯t want them to actually do that because that would land me in trouble too. I was simply giving the reasonable response of a normal person.

    ¡°That¡¯s the problem," Dario said. "The Corebrings will know the government has an Origin Core and that they¡¯re making their own artificial Corebrings. This wouldn¡¯t be just about the Adumbrae anymore. The Hive will take this as a declaration of war. This will be way worse than the Labor Day Purge.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right¡­¡±

    ¡°And the government will not just give up the Origin Core and stop this project. So, it is in our best interests the Division Proxy project continues in secrecy. Unfortunately, the Adumbrae within Division Proxy is doing its experiments out in the open. Our group has two ultimate goals. Not only do we want to stop the Adumbrae experimenting on the public for obvious reasons, we also don¡¯t want Division Proxy to be exposed, thereby preventing war between the US and the Hive.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a really difficult situation,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°But what has this got to do with the two of us,¡± I said, gesturing to Deen and me. ¡°I know all of this is important, don¡¯t get me wrong, but I didn¡¯t ask for any of this. I didn¡¯t do anything for Adumbrae to attack us at the mall. Is it because of Kelsey?¡±

    ¡°That might be the case,¡± Dario said. ¡°We suspect they took Kelsey.¡±

    ¡°They?¡±

    Myra tried to stand but Dario put his right hand on her shoulder. She stopped with her mouth wide open as if she was about to start speaking. Then she closed her mouth, blinked a few times, and looked around in a daze. Dario pushed her back down on the armrest of Everett¡¯s. Myra sat still for a few seconds then recognition lit her face. ¡°Why did you do that?¡± she said to Dario.

    ¡°Relax, Myra,¡± he said. ¡°Let me handle this.¡± He turned to me. ¡°There''s this criminal organization connected to the Adumbrae in Division Proxy run by two brothers, Mark and Big Marcy. We have fought them on several occasions, trying to stop their operations in this city. They might¡¯ve taken Kelsey then sent someone to kill the two of you because you might know something about Kelsey, even if you don''t.¡±

    Woah. Hold on! There were no other people involved in that incident at the mall beside us here in Deen¡¯s house. No people from any criminal organization whatsoever.

    I think I see what was going on¡­

    There was this misunderstanding with Myra, whatever that was supposed to be. Then¡­Boom! A mysterious woman with a monster mouth¡ªpretty little me¡ªappeared and attacked her. Assuming Dario¡¯s story was true, they probably suspected my transformation as one of their enemies. So, they wanted to keep Deen and me close. They either sincerely wanted to protect us or suspected we were connected with their enemies. Personally, I think it was the first possibility.

    ¡°So¡­what now?¡± I asked.

    ¡°For one reason or another, you have been targeted by the Adumbrae. We don¡¯t know why. But what we can offer you is protection¡­and a chance to gain some powers of a Corebring."

    "I don''t understand."

    "Would you accept the power and join us in our fight against the Adumbrae?¡±

    The hell? Yeah¡­no, thank you. ¡°I don¡¯t want this.¡± I trembled, about to cry again. I needed to bail out of here. Enough of accepting strange shit from strangers. And if it was indeed an artificial Core, wouldn¡¯t that be dangerous for me to accept because I was an Adumbrae?

    ¡°Erind¡­¡± Deen said.

    ¡°It¡¯s just that I realized my normal life is over.¡± I bent down and started fake crying. It was hard to cry when I could barely stop myself from laughing out loud. This is all just misunderstanding upon misunderstanding! They wanted me to join them to fight my transformed self. Come on, this is stupid. I didn¡¯t need anything here. I didn¡¯t need anything from them.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know when they¡¯ll strike again,¡± Dario said.

    ¡°Maybe she¡¯s afraid of what will happen when she Melds with it?¡± Reo said.

    Everett cleared his throat. ¡°This is a big decision, Dario. For both Erind and Amber.¡±

    ¡°I need to explain it some more¡ª"

    ¡°No, this can¡¯t be true!¡± I yelled. I stood up and pushed Deen away from me. ¡°I refuse to accept this!¡±

    ¡°I think we may need some time,¡± Deen said, trying to calm me down.

    ¡°I don¡¯t need time!¡± I stepped away from her, shaking my head. Sorry for the drama. I need a quick reason to get out of here. You continue with your superhero stuff while I plan how to carry out Rule#4. I couldn¡¯t care less if war broke out between the US and the Corebrings. ¡°I was supposed to graduate law school, get a job, start a family. I don¡¯t want to fight monsters and play the hero.¡±

    ¡°Ouch, that stings,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°Not the time, Reo.¡± Myra stood up. Was she going to stop me?

    ¡°I''m leaving,¡± I declared. Dario stepped forward. Danger. ¡°Don¡¯t touch me!¡± I screamed with all my might. He was surprised and stepped back. I may have looked stupid, but it was a knee-jerk reaction. I didn¡¯t want him near me as I had no idea of the range of his power. ¡°Don¡¯t use your stupid powers on me.¡±

    ¡°Erind, please,¡± Deen said. ¡°Think about it."

    ¡°I¡¯m out of your stupid superhero team. Save the world all you want. Don¡¯t bother my life.¡± I stormed out of Deen¡¯s house, and they didn¡¯t stop me.

    Peace out, guys.

 1.13

    My phone buzzed, announcing the sunrise as it did each day. I glanced towards the ocean. The Black Spire was in the distance, greeting the sun, its imposing shadow treading the blue floor, making its daily journey to the shore. The broken window wall was already fixed as if no human in the process of turning into a monster crashed through it the day before. A ''Don''t lean on the glass'' sign was the only thing different¡ªan indication something went wrong here that warranted it.

    Just how wrong, the students who eat here would never know.

    I pressed the cold surface of my stainless-steel water bottle against my forehead hoping it would alleviate my constricting headache.

    It didn¡¯t.

    The bottle was new, along with my bag, pens, notebook, other things I bought yesterday to replace my stuff that got burned.

    I was desperate for anything that would stop my headache. It felt like my head was held in a vice grip, slowly getting tighter. Painkillers weren¡¯t any help, and my stash of various types of tea at home had no effect. The caffeine probably made the headache worse.

    I opened the bottle and drank its contents. Watermelon and cucumber smoothie with honey¡ªsomething I saw on the internet that could supposedly help with migraine. Yes, I was that desperate. The taste wasn¡¯t so bad.

    My skin felt gummy from lack of sleep, and I had to put a tad more makeup than usual to bring color to my unusually pale face. With superhuman healing, shouldn¡¯t I also be impervious to headaches?

    Apparently not.

    My meeting yesterday with Dario and his friends, those weirdo superhero wannabes, kept replaying in my mind. That was one of the reasons I stayed up all night, and even now I was still thinking about it. Other people did it too, right? When something big happened in their lives¡­just keep on replaying it. The danger...the risk...it was fun. Idiotic. I scolded myself not to be like that. Logic sometimes flew out the window when I found something fun.

    The other reason I didn¡¯t get any sleep was I sort of expected to get attacked in the middle of the night. It was possible Myra changed her mind and decided to finish me off. I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, ready to summon my mask and fight. Or flee if need be. I wasn¡¯t actually confident I could take on Myra without surprising her.

    She didn''t come.

    I was more disappointed than a kid who stayed up all night waiting for Santa, only to find out it was his parents all along.

    Deen didn''t even call me; I thought she would maybe try to comfort me or something.

    So...yeah...I had a headache for nothing.

    I still couldn''t get over how funny everything was. They, Dario¡¯s group, thought my transformed self was their enemy and now they wanted me to join them. Or, they wanted to observe me in case I was connected with their supposed enemy. Stupid shit.

    This morning, I watched my surroundings on my way to school if anyone was following me, but I didn''t find anything suspicious. Maybe there was no reason for me to worry at all. They should just carry on with their heroic deeds and leave me alone.

    I mean leave me alone so I could think of a plan to kill Myra and punish Dario and Everett.

    What if, yesterday, I waited for Myra to come out of Deen¡¯s house, followed her home, and then killed her? Could I pull it off? I wasn¡¯t sure. Myra had experience in fighting, and she was regaining her strength, compared to me who didn¡¯t know shit about fighting with powers. Or fighting at all.

    Should I practice then? Such a hassle.

    This was going to be the most effort I put into implementing Rule #4 ever.

    I took another sip of my smoothie. ¡°I just should¡¯ve brought tea,¡± I muttered. Shuffling my feet, I went to the window, as was my morning routine, to watch the sunrise before going back to studying.

    And what about their story of the Adumbrae doing sinister stuff in the city? What if that was true? I felt I needed to care about that, but I just couldn¡¯t muster the will to do so. Just leave it to the government or the Corebrings to sort it out. The world was still in one piece; the track record of Corebrings in keeping the world safe was stellar so far.

    My focus should be on keeping my secret safe, not worrying about other shit.

    ¡°Ehem-ehem¡± The sound of someone clearing their throat was amplified by the deathly silence of the cafeteria. I knew this voice. Knocking by the cafeteria door followed. The door was far away from me but because of the silence, the knocks eerily echoed.

    Deen smiled at me from the cafeteria entrance. I was so lost in my thoughts I didn¡¯t even notice her opening the door.

    A light grey pantsuit hugged her body, highlighting her curves, making me a bit envious for a moment. But I remembered my transformation¡¯s hotness meter was out of this world. Except for the mouth. I wasn¡¯t sure if guys would go for me in my transformed state if they knew I had a monster mouth. I think many guys still would.

    ¡°Hello,¡± Amber Deen said. ¡°It felt wrong walking into the cafeteria without your acknowledgment. This is your sanctuary, after all.¡± She unslung her Lrys leather bag, sat in front of me, and placed her bag on the chair beside her.

    ¡°What am I? The guardian of the cafeteria?¡±

    ¡°I suppose you are.¡± Deen chuckled. ¡°It''s rare to see you deep in thought.¡±

    ¡°Considering the events of yesterday, I think I get a pass to be in deep thought.¡±

    Deen placed her elbow on the table, propping her chin. She stared into my eyes. ¡°You¡¯re very interesting, you know that?¡±

    ¡°Interesting in what way?¡± I said with veiled suspicion.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°You¡¯re an introvert. You don¡¯t really like social situations, mostly avoiding them. I notice that, you know? Yet, you¡¯re very adept at interacting with people, not socially awkward at all. I know being an introvert doesn¡¯t mean a person is socially awkward, but you just seem to know what to do...what to say¡­in any situation. Everyone likes you. A very hard feat. I seriously can¡¯t think of anyone who doesn¡¯t like you. Many people don¡¯t like me¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t say that¡ª"

    ¡°I know when someone doesn¡¯t like me. It comes with the exposure.¡±

    ¡°And the looks.¡±

    ¡°And the looks, yes,¡± she agreed. She paused for a bit then frowned. ¡°Hey, we¡¯re talking about you. Where was I? You''re shy, and I don¡¯t mean that in a bad way. A passive personality? On the other hand, you were audacious enough to pull that stunt in Professor Gallagher¡¯s class. I¡¯m not brave enough to do that.¡±

    ¡°Are you complimenting me? I¡¯m not sure if I''m supposed to be happy with your perception of me.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m saying there are so many layers to you. You even saved me in the parking area. Others would¡¯ve just ran away. Not you. You picked up a fire extinguisher and attacked that¡­creep.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re just saying that so I won''t feel bad about it.¡±

    ¡°No! I really want to thank you for that. I mean it. Most people might not give you a second glance¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wow. I¡¯m so sorry I¡¯m not as attractive as you,¡± I said with an exaggerated tone. I grinned to show her I was kidding. ¡°Go on, Miss Prom Queen.¡±

    ¡°Not to brag, but I was prom queen,¡± Deen said with a smirk. I wasn¡¯t surprised by that fact. ¡°I was saying while you¡¯re not in the spotlight, you¡¯re a way more interesting person than me.¡±

    If only she knew how right she was, but she might be surprised why I was ''not like other girls''. I still had no idea where this was going. I sloshed around my watermelon cucumber concoction. Keeping silent encourages the other person to continue talking and elaborate, especially if they were hesitating with saying something.

    After several seconds of silence, Amber Deen continued, ¡°My future is already determined. When kids are asked what do you want to be when they grow up, they say they ¡®want to be successful¡¯ without even fully knowing what that means. I¡¯m the answer to that question. It might be too haughty for me to say this, but I cannot fail. I don¡¯t mean something bad will happen when I fail, or I¡¯m forced not to fail. I cannot fail, because I really can¡¯t. I will succeed in life.

    ¡°I have the brains and beauty, the social skills, the charisma, the connections. I plan to eventually run for the law student government and become student council president. After I graduate, my family has the money and connections to put me in high places, even over others who may be more qualified than me.¡±

    ¡°Why are you telling me this?" I said. "Did you have like a life-flashing-before-my-eyes moment yesterday and it put your life in perspective?¡¯

    ¡°Let me finish,¡± Deen snapped. I raised a brow. ¡°Sorry,¡± she hastily said, embarrassed. ¡°I was saying I have a straight path going up. I have a ladder. Effort and hard work are needed, but if I just prop the ladder to the top, I can just climb and reach it someday with certainty.¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s a bad thing?¡±

    ¡°I already know my future. The proverbial top of the world. It would¡¯ve been great if knowing my future was because of the power of clairvoyance. But it¡¯s not. My life is too predictable. Sad, really. That came to me yesterday.¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± I said, drawing out saying the word as I processed what Deen was getting at. ¡°No way,¡± I whispered as everything clicked inside my head. Was this the reason why Deen was strangely composed when I met her and the weirdo gang yesterday? ¡°You didn¡¯t¡­¡±

    Deen didn¡¯t answer me. She rummaged around her bag and took out a cutter, a small one like what I used when I was a kid doing school projects. ¡°I can¡¯t do this to myself, but can you do it for me? Just a small cut will do.¡±

    ¡°No way,¡± I repeated, truly disbelieving what was happening. I was so surprised it drove my headache away. I accepted the cutter. "Really? No way."

    Deen presented her finger. "Just a small cut."

    ¡°Oh my god, you accepted the artificial Core?¡± I said, lowering my voice towards the end.

    ¡°Go on,¡± she said. ¡°I wanted to check but I was too chicken to cut myself. Please, Erind.¡±

    ¡°Okay then.¡± I placed the edge of the cutter on her finger and then gently pulled it down. It didn¡¯t cut.

    ¡°You have to press harder. It¡¯s hard to injure me now.¡±

    ¡°Fine, but don¡¯t cry if it really hurts,¡± I said. She assured me she wouldn¡¯t. I pressed the blade down on her skin, gradually adding more strength until I sensed the slight snap of skin breaking. Then I dragged the cutter across her skin. A line of red appeared, oozing a minuscule amount of blood. It promptly sewed itself back together again, good as new.

    Deen wiped her finger. No more blood came out. ¡°I guess it worked,¡± she said.

    ¡°Are you insane?¡± I hissed. ¡°I can¡¯t believe what you¡¯ve done.¡± I wasn¡¯t expecting Deen to join them. She was law-abiding and a rule stickler, that was my read on her. She was the furthest person I would''ve guessed to even try something as illegal, and as permanent, as this. It hurt my pride I misjudged someone.

    ¡°Erind, you don¡¯t understand. I felt this was the right thing to do. I chose to go here, at Cresthorne, to pursue a career in the field of Adumbrae defense. Do my part. Help out in the fight against Adumbrae. Make myself count. That was then.

    ¡°Now, I have an actual way to fight the Adumbrae. Even if we graduate here and get a job in the BID, we won¡¯t be really fighting Adumbrae. Maybe I¡¯ll just be managing an office. Or my parents will force me to take over our business because my older sister isn¡¯t too keen on it. But this way¡­I count. I count in the fight against the Adumbrae. I can do something with my own hands, with my own power.¡±

    ¡°Where is it?¡± I whispered, referring to the artificial Core. I didn¡¯t expect this insanity from Deen. ¡°You have it right?¡±

    Deen looked around the cafeteria, confirming its boring emptiness. She began to unbutton her high collared shirt, revealing a sports bra. ¡°Myra taught me this trick,¡± she said, noticing my puzzled look. She pulled down the middle of her sports bra to reveal her ample cleavage¡­and the artificial Core. It rooted over her sternum, a small fingernail-sized growth on her otherwise flawless skin. ¡°They told me it won¡¯t grow past this size. I had to place it here they said. Something with its connections with the flow of energy in our body. I didn¡¯t really understand Dario¡¯s explanation. The sports bra is added protection for hiding it in case I¡¯m in a situation I had to change clothes with someone around. But I think it''d be better if I could conceal it more with makeup or a fake skin patch.¡±

    ¡°This doesn¡¯t make any sense,¡± I said, more to myself. This threw out my theory that Dario¡¯s group wanted to get close to Deen and me to get information that could lead to their enemy. No way they''d give out artificial Cores like free food samples at the mall even if they wanted to gain our trust. They truly wanted us to join them in their secret fight.

    ¡°It makes perfect sense,¡± replied Deen, misunderstanding me. ¡°With this, we can help save the world! We can do our very best in law school, be the very best at our job in the future, get promoted to the highest positions, but that will never, ever, ever, ever come close to having actual powers. Powers that can make a difference.¡±

    I gritted my teeth in frustration. I was frustrated with myself. I was way far off with my assessment of Deen. Marks against me. Grrrrr¡­I always get so irritated if I was wrong with something I was so sure about. I had to update my assessment of her. I knew what was going to follow. ¡°What powers did it give you?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t kno¡ª¡±

    BZzzz. We both jumped as my phone vibrated.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be late for class, Deen,¡± I said, checking my phone. We had different classes today. I looked her into the eye and said, ¡°I know you¡¯re trying to convince me to join you. And the answer is no.¡± I stood up and walked out of the cafeteria before she could button back her clothes and follow me.

    I should prepare myself to get pestered by Deen in the coming days.

 1.14

    ¡°Mens rea, meaning ¡®guilty mind¡¯, is the element of a crime involving the mental state of the individual.¡± Professor Bansa¡¯s droning voice lulled the class to sleep. Continuing his lecture at a monotone pace, he seemed oblivious to several students slowly nodding off, drifting between consciousness and the sweet slumber I was denied last night. ¡°It is based on the standard test for criminal culpability. Actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit, or ¡®the act is not culpable unless the mind is guilty¡¯. There needs to be criminal intent for one to be criminally liable.¡±

    I was lucky Professor Bansa rarely asked questions in class, and if he did, it was voluntary, unlike other professors who picked students to answer. I wasn¡¯t in the mood to listen in class, much less recite.

    Same with Professor Gallagher¡¯s class, I also had a plan to place myself on the top part of the hierarchy of students for this class without stepping on anyone''s toes. I''d study way ahead in the syllabus, looking up terms and concepts I came upon not connected to our basic subject, and then wait for an obscure question only I could answer. This was the best way to appear more intelligent than I actually was. But then again, I guess studying ahead was something an intelligent person would do.

    If that didn¡¯t work out like if it was a slow day, I planned to ask questions that would make me sound intelligent. Although I had to be careful going this route as I could very easily come off as annoying to my classmates.

    At the moment though, I didn¡¯t know whether I should care about that anymore. Having the power to bite off the head of everyone in class placed things in perspective. I wouldn¡¯t do that, of course; I''d be hunted down and killed by BID agents soon after. I''m just saying it¡¯s a different feeling knowing I can kill everyone in this room.

    Professor Bansa said, ¡°That is the general rule, and as legal systems evolved, exceptions were made. There are crimes involving negligence and reckless actions, the most common of which are vehicular accidents causing damage. Unless proven otherwise, we can assume most people do not intend to crash into a person or property. Another exception are strict liability crimes where the intent is immaterial as the law only looks as whether a prohibited act was committed.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me, Erind,¡± my classmate beside me said, breaking my dangerous fall to the sleep I craved. ¡°Is something wrong with your hand?¡±

    My eyes widened for a split second as I realized what I was doing; I was absentmindedly scratching the small crystal growth on my palm with my thumb. The skin-tone pimple patch I used to cover it was already crumpled and loosening.

    I closed my fist. ¡°I accidentally cut my hand while chopping vegetables yesterday. A small, shallow wound. Nothing to worry about. I was just trying to remove the scab.¡± I grinned shyly as if embarrassed. ¡°Sorry, that''s a gross thing to say.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to be grossed out by that.¡± He flashed a winning smile to reassure me. Ramello Staten, a 1L like me. We became classmates only this second semester.

    He was a mini-celebrity because he came from an impoverished family, none of which had gone to college before, and got accepted at the prestigious Cresthorne Law. He was also the recipient of many awards, including a medal from the White House. On top of that, he even co-founded a non-profit organization helping the mental health of his fellow African-Americans in low-income areas to reduce the risk of Adumbrae seeding. This guy¡¯s CV was loaded.

    ¡°Do you cook at home?¡± he asked.

    No, I was chopping vegetables for fun, I thought sarcastically. But instead, I said, ¡°Yes, I cook.¡± I sat up straight and looked intently at Professor Basa, hinting that the conversation was over. I tried to smoothen the pimple patch on my palm.

    ¡°That¡¯s awesome. I also love to cook. Don¡¯t have time now though, law school just demands so much.¡±

    I could act like a bitch to shut him up, but Rule #7 prevented me from doing that. Just slightly bitchy. ¡°We could make time if we really wanted to. But I know you¡¯re so much busier than me. You have plenty of advocacies and extracurricular activities from what I''ve heard on the news.¡±

    He scratched his chin, slightly embarrassed. ¡°Ah, that. Well, all that news, I didn¡¯t want exposure or anything. But you know, I have to show underprivileged people like me that we can climb and rise to the top.¡±

    Professor Bansa¡¯s coughing made Ramello stop talking. He was coughing harshly on the microphone, with spit flying everywhere. He drank some water and went on with his lecture. ¡°On the subject of crimes committed by Adumbrae, there are several interpretations on how to classify them. Note that this is wholly different from the universal crime of betraying humanity. One, we can view them as acts with criminal intent. This is, however, not a popular view as people with a collapsed Eloyce Field have surrendered their ego¡­¡± And the class went back to semi-hibernation.

    But not Ramello. He talked to me again after a few minutes. ¡°I noticed you bike going here every day. Sorry if I sound like a stalker. I¡¯m not following you or anything."

    ¡°Uh-huh.¡±

    ¡°We ride the same train. Again, not a stalker. I get on a couple of stations before yours so I see you sometimes. You''re always so focused on reading your notes with earphones on so I didn¡¯t bother you.¡±

    ¡°Yep, I put my earphones on when I don¡¯t want to be bothered,¡± I said pointedly.

    ¡°Alright then,¡± he replied. ¡°Anyway, do you have a hard time carrying your bike up and down the station? I can help you.¡±

    ¡°Not really. I have a foldable bike.¡± This guy was hitting on me? Seriously? Calm down big guy, I can eat you whole. In a non-sexual way, mind you.

    ¡°A foldable bike? That¡¯s smart. I should trade in my bike for a foldable one. It¡¯s too bulky during peak hours on the train. Do you know of a place where I could trade in my bike?¡±

    ¡°Um, no.¡± This guy was seriously annoying, I had a lot to think about. Talking about bikes just reminded me of my toasted bike which I replaced yesterday. After leaving the meeting of superhero hopefuls, I went on a shopping spree to replace all my lost stuff, putting the money that was supposed to be my funds for hiding into good use. Maybe I should''ve been more careful and stayed at home, but I really wanted a foldable bike.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    That shut him up for a while and we listened to Professor Bansa giving an overview of how Adumbrae crimes were classified and punished as opposed to normal crimes.

    I was committing a crime actually. The fact that I was an Adumbrae, or turning into one, was a crime in and of itself even if I didn¡¯t kill anybody. It was the universal crime of betraying humanity that Professor Bansa mentioned. A crime punishable by death. Death penalty wasn''t legal in all states, but the execution of an Adumbrae was a separate matter¡ªthey weren¡¯t considered humans for one. And now, I wasn¡¯t one either.

    ¡°Erind, do you have a class after this?¡± Ramello said.

    ¡°Yes, I have. I¡¯m guessing you already know that?¡±

    ¡°Ok, you got me. Want to have lunch later? I don¡¯t have any more classes for the day, but I can wait for you.¡±

    What the hell? Wrong timing, big guy. I wasn¡¯t in the mood for entertaining people right now. I was about to reject him but then paused and thought about it. I was stressed because of all the bullshit going on¡ªjust a bit; I found it difficult to feel full-on stress. More specifically, I hated that I lost some control over my life, being pushed around by hidden forces, Adumbrae this, Corebring that, ugh.

    This might be the relaxation I needed. A return to form, return to something familiar, something I could control.

    ¡°Professor, I have a question,¡± a girl a couple of rows in front of me said, raising her hand. The whole class woke up from their stupor. ¡°There is a case, Robinson v. California, where the Supreme Court held that it is unconstitutional to punish a drug addict, the status of being a drug addict, even if the person was taking illegal drugs. How do we reconcile this with the status of an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Good question, Ms. Roberts,¡± Professor Bansa said. ¡°Anyone care to try to answer it?¡±

    I knew the answer to this one. This was not the question I was waiting for where I could show off my knowledge, but this was enough for what I intended to do now. I raised my hand.

    ¡°Miss Hartwell, go ahead.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, sir. The state of being seeded by an Adumbrae is quite different from that of a drug addict, as the status of being an Adumbrae itself is dangerous. It''s more akin to driving under the influence. Let''s say a person is an alcoholic: driving under the influence was a voluntary choice, even if crashing into a person or property is involuntary, and will thus result in criminal liability. As opposed to getting drunk and sitting in a stationary car. One¡¯s body turning into an Adumbrae is anything but a stationary car.¡±

    ¡°Very good analogy, Miss Hartwell. Thank you for your answer.¡±

    ¡°Wow, you were listening,¡± Ramello said.

    ¡°Unlike you,¡± I said. He was coming on too strong, and if I accepted his invitation for lunch that easily, he would have the upper hand in any of our future interactions. My face was timid, but that didn¡¯t mean I couldn¡¯t be feisty if need be. That dissonance was attractive to men. They''d assume I was specifically confident with them while shy around others, making them feel special. ¡°How can we...what were your words again? Climb and rise to the top? If we weren¡¯t listening in class?¡±

    ¡°You got me again,¡± he said, smiling. ¡°My offer still stands.¡±

    I wasn¡¯t about to agree with him; stringing him along was fine. I could have lunch with him next week, or even next month. I was just happy I was in control of something again. ¡°Can''t. I have something to do. How about just accompanying me to the train station? Riding our bikes together? That is if you could wait for me even though we¡¯re not going to have lunch.¡±

    His face lit up. ¡°That¡¯s fine, yeah, sure. Riding together is fine. No rush. Uh, yeah, maybe we could have lunch some other time.¡±

    ¡°See you after my Consti class then.¡±

    <hr>

    I felt calmer throughout Constitutional Law, and the class finished without any incident.

    The new world I was forcefully thrust in, the world of Adumbrae, of superpowers, of conspiracies, of government experiments, was straight out of the movies. I was out of my game here. But it didn¡¯t mean I should lie down and get stressed out of my mind because there were things I couldn''t control...like staying human.

    Ramello was waiting for me by the racks, and we rode our bikes side by side until the train station, which was about fifteen minutes away by bike from the entrance of Eloyce University. Romantic, I know.

    I was on auto-mode, answering his questions, keeping the conversation going with random bullshit topics like professors we hated, the fire at Sanders mall, our grades, plans for the future, and all sorts of other crap.

    When we got to the station he said, ¡°Since we¡¯re here anyway, I think I will just go home as well.¡±

    ¡°Really? You have nothing else to do? Have lunch with your friends?¡±

    ¡°No, but maybe we can have lunch at a restaurant near the station you get off¡ª.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I was planning to eat while finishing work at my condo.¡±

    He nodded, disappointed but trying to hide it. ¡°It¡¯s fine. There¡¯s always a next time. I will still accompany you though.¡±

    This was all calculated, of course. Earlier, before he could suggest a different time we could have lunch, I suggested he accompany me to the train station instead. Naturally, he¡¯d agree to that.

    Going with me to the train station was dumb as fuck. What would he do after? He''d be forced to ride the train if he wanted to be with me a little longer. I knew he''d try to invite me again, and to his credit, he was gentlemanly enough not to force the issue. A few fucktards have tried that move on me back in undergrad. I''d reject him, and in the end, he was forced to go home early.

    I sighed in contentment as I folded my bike. Controlling people in subtle ways like this always brought a smile to my face. It was a win-win situation anyway. I was sure Ramello was also happy thinking he made progress with me.

    No harm done.

    ¡°Erind don¡¯t make it too obvious, but look at that car,¡± Ramello said, nodding to a light grey sedan parked on the corner, probably a Mayfair. ¡°Did you notice it earlier? I think I saw it on the way here.¡±

    It was an unfamiliar car to me. ¡°Are you sure? Maybe it was some other car.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure I saw it a couple of times.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? Like it stopped and waited for us to pass and then followed us again?¡±

    ¡°I, uh¡­that does sound dumb. You¡¯re right, maybe I saw a similar car. That model is common. Why would someone follow us anyway?¡±

    That would''ve been my reaction a couple of days ago. But not anymore. Annoyance started to creep back in. Should I drag him into this?

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, Erind. I can carry your bike for you.¡±

    ¡°Wait¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I can carry both our bikes.¡±

    I grabbed his sleeve as he walked ahead. ¡°Wait, Ramello. I have to tell you something. I think you¡¯re right...we might be getting followed.¡±

 1.15

    ¡°Are you being serious, right now?¡± Ramello huffed as he carried his bike by his right side and my bike by his left. He did his best not to bump other people as we made our way through the station. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if that car was actually following us. But it did look like it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m serious,¡± I said, drizzling frustration and worry in my voice. ¡°I wondered if I was imagining things, but I noticed some people following me yesterday. Following both me and Deen¡­Amber Deen. You know her, right?¡±

    ¡°Everyone knows Amber. I didn¡¯t know her second name is Deen.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, I think this has something to do with Kelsey.¡±

    ¡°Kelsey? I overheard people talking about it yesterday. Something about jumping out the cafeteria window? And she''s missing? I wasn¡¯t sure if it was true or not. She¡¯s my classmate in a couple of subjects. Haven¡¯t seen her in class for a few days.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s true,¡± I said. ¡°Deen and I were there when it happened. We saw Kelsey break through the window and fall to the ocean.¡± We came upon the train turnstiles. ¡°Oh, wait a bit.¡± I passed my new tote bag over the reader. It recognized the Metrorail card I kept at the bottom and opened the waist-high gates. ¡°Pass me my bike,¡± I said to Ramello. I took it so he''d have an easier time going through.

    Who could be following me?

    Dario''s group, duh.

    I already knew their faces. I looked around to see if there was something amiss, but the crowd was so thick that anyone following us would have an easy time hiding. Dario did say they had one more member who wasn''t present yesterday...if he was telling the truth.

    ¡°You were saying?¡± Ramello said.

    I motioned for him to come closer, and he leaned down. ¡°We think Kelsey was seeded by an Adumbrae,¡± I whispered. Ramello raised his brow in disbelief. I explained, ¡°Before Kelsey ran to the window, she was saying she wanted to die a human. And after our International Law class, Deen and I were tested at Melchor. I think there might be something going on here.¡±

    We entered the train and stood in the aisle, grabbing the handrails. The train wasn¡¯t full and there were empty seats here and there. But Ramello reasoned it was better to stand so we could clearly see the other cars if there were suspicious persons around. It was fine for me because I hated sitting beside people on public transportation.

    ¡°Who are these following you?¡± Ramello said.

    ¡°I have no idea!¡± I said in an intentionally loud, shrill voice, then I covered my mouth. ¡°Sorry, I''m just super stressed right now.¡± He hesitantly patted my shoulder, unsure of the boundaries between us. I said, ¡°The only reason I can think of why someone would have an interest in me is that I witnessed Kelsey¡¯s death. If this is the BID monitoring me, then they really don¡¯t need to lurk around. They can just nab me and perform tests on me.¡±

    ¡°Correct, they have too much power under the Panderton Act.¡±

    ¡°So, if not the government then¡­they¡¯re most probably on the other side of the law. I don¡¯t know why anyone would want me though.¡±

    ¡°The criminal underworld connected to the trade of illegal Adumbrae materials is vast,¡± Ramello said. ¡°We should go to the police and report this.¡±

    ¡°Huh? I¡¯m not going to do that.¡±

    ¡°Why not? If you¡¯re apprehensive about approaching the police, I can ask help from my uncle,¡± he said. ¡°He¡¯s not my actual uncle, but I consider him to be one. He¡¯s with La Esperanza PD and one of the people who helped me set up my foundation.¡±

    ¡°But can we trust him?¡± I moved closer to him, looking up, meeting his eyes, and doing my best helpless-damsel impression. ¡°I¡­I don¡¯t kno¡ª"

    ¡°Yeah, we can trust him, Lieutenant Jeremiah Hall. I¡¯ll introduce you to him¡±

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m going to get really honest here, and I hope you won¡¯t judge me, but I''m scared of getting in touch with the police or the authorities, especially the BID. Like what if something bad, as in an Adumbrae bad way, happened to Kelsey? And I''m going to be caught up in that? No way!¡±

    Ramello nodded. ¡°I understand. It''s so easy to be suspected of being connected to a person inflicted by the Adumbrae. Even if eventually cleared, the stigma of being associated with an Adumbrae remains. That¡¯s why I set up my foundation in the first place. ¡± He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. ¡°Let me think for a bit.¡±

    We fell silent, swaying back and forth a little as the train made its way to the next station. It was one of the older train lines in the city. I peeked at Ramello¡¯s face, he frowned in serious thought. He kept on glancing at the train cars in our front and back.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think you should go home,¡± he finally said.

    ¡°No,¡± I replied. ¡°I have to go home and check on Mom. What if something bad happened to her?¡±

    ¡°What? I didn¡¯t know. Call her. Tell her to get out of the house. The two of us should continue to my house.¡± He noticed my glare. ¡°No! Not that, don¡¯t think of me that way. I don¡¯t have any bad intentions. What I meant is if bad people are following you, then most likely they know about your address too.¡±

    ¡°But my mom...¡±

    ¡°Or, even if they don¡¯t know where you live, you might lead them to her. Call her now.¡±

    I took out my phone and dialed my mother¡¯s US cellphone number. Obviously, the call didn¡¯t get through as she was abroad. If I called her through the internet, then it would, but Ramello didn¡¯t need to know that. Just like he didn¡¯t need to know I wasn¡¯t living with Mom.

    I increased the volume of my phone, the cold, metallic, computer-generated voice telling me my call couldn¡¯t connect brought fake horror to my face.

    At that point, Ramello seemed to realize the seriousness of my fabricated situation. He took out his phone and began to dial what I assumed to be the police''s number. I grabbed his hand.

    ¡°No, please don¡¯t,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s check on my Mom first.¡±

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°Erind, we have to call the police now. Something might''ve happened to her.¡±

    ¡°Please,¡± I said, with tears forming on my eyes, my specialty. ¡°Help me get home safely first. If Mom isn''t there, I promise to call the police.¡±

    His fist tightened on his phone but he relented.

    Yes! I had my bait.

    I intended to meet whoever was following me. My money was on Myra; she probably changed her mind about killing me. Or perhaps she wanted to confront me about what I knew regarding the mysterious woman who attacked her. If I were in her shoes, I''d assumed that woman was connected with the disappearance of Kelsey.

    If it was Myra, then jackpot. This must be the opportunity I was waiting for to kill her for trying to kill me. I just wanted Ramello along for added security, perhaps buy time while I transformed or to distract Myra so I could surprise her with a fatal attack.

    And I wouldn''t waste my chance this time.

    If it wasn''t Myra, then I could extract information from them or something. Or just leave them alone because I didn''t care about them. Oh well.

    Please let the person following me be Myra. Please be Myra. Pretty please...

    I was starting to get giddy from the excitement of biting someone. I couldn''t forget about the strength of my jaws, how satisfying it was to chomp on flesh...on bone...

    Ramello suggested we plan our route to my condo. He searched a map of my neighborhood on his phone and picked a path different from my usual. He also checked the traffic from Riano station to the station near my condo to see if it was possible for the car following us to have beaten us there.

    It could.

    All in all, Ramello was a pretty dependable guy. Good looking too. If this was a romance movie, we would end up together after getting away from the people following us. Maybe I should go out with him if we survived this encounter.

    Clarification. If he survived.

    I was sure he''d fight for me, a big chivalrous man protecting weak, poor me. He wouldn''t last against Myra, no doubt. But I was banking on the fact that Dario''s group didn''t seem to be evil. Myra would probably hesitate to hit an innocent person.

    About a dozen people got off the train with us at the station. Ramello wasn¡¯t even hiding that he was trying to find our followers, staring right at people''s faces until they felt uncomfortable and backed away from him.

    ¡°There seems to be no one,¡± I said, unfolding my bike. ¡°Maybe they stopped after seeing someone was¡­uh¡­protecting me.¡±

    Ramello noticeably puffed his chest at my choice of words. ¡°We can¡¯t be too complacent. Let¡¯s go to your house.¡± He suddenly snapped attention to his left and squinted his eyes. ¡°That¡¯s them, I think¡­maybe¡± At the far end of the street was the hood of a car poking out. It was the same color and probably the same model...or not. I wasn''t too familiar with cars.

    ¡°Let¡¯s follow your planned route,¡± I said. "I want to get home as soon as possible."

    Follow us! Come on, Myra, if you''re there.

    Even if their car couldn¡¯t pass through narrow alleyways, they could easily catch us by going to my condo building¡ªwhich was my intention. Home base advantage in case there was a fight. It was also easy to notice if someone followed me into a building.

    We entered a small alley beside the local QualityMart, threading through trash cans, exiting at Madison Street. Then instead of following the sidewalk like I usually did, we cut through the parking area of a furniture store and jumped over the squat fence, taking a shortcut to San Pedro Bike Bridge where no car could follow us. We continued to Lowen Park and followed the winding footpath to the back of the West Limmons Apartments.

    That was a nice change of view. I haven¡¯t been this way before and it was a pleasant path, relaxing even. I was in high spirits. It was always a good feeling to resolve a Rule #4 case. I didn''t expect to be done this fast with Myra''s case.

    Ramello carefully peered out of the alley. My apartment building was right across the street. ¡°All clear,¡± he said. ¡°No people around.¡±

    A thought occurred to me. What if there was actually no one following us and this guy was just manipulating me? What if he just wanted to rape me or something, and made up this story so he could get in my room or invite me to his house? Sometimes when I get caught up thinking I was manipulating people, I couldn''t notice if the tables have been turned.

    I should improve on that. I internally shrugged, maybe this was nothing after all.

    I could still test my powers on him. A normal human would be pretty easy to bite compared to Myra.

    What a weird day.

    We walked out of the alley, both of us pushing our bicycles.

    There were no people on the street.

    Two black SUVs rounded the corner of the block and barreled towards us, boxing us in. Their heavily tinted windows lowered and one hand from each window appeared, carrying a gun. I was too surprised to react. Ramello stretched out his hands and threw himself in front of me. Fhwip, fhwip.<em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em"> Not bullets. Darts. Their tips stuck out of Ramello¡¯s body at several points.

    I raised my hand, ready to summon my mask and transform. No! Not in broad daylight. And they didn''t seem to want to kill us.

    ¡°The fuck do you want!¡± Ramello shouted.

    The car doors opened and large men piled out. One of them pulled out a long, thick, black stick and jabbed Ramello¡¯s side. He jerked and convulsed as the hulking man hit him. A stun gun baton. They only wanted to capture us.

    Reacting on instinct, I turned around to run away, but another car blocked me. I jumped over its hood and dashed down the street. The ground beneath me felt mushy. I looked down to see my feet sinking into the supposedly solid pavement like it turned into fucking quicksand. I lost my balance and toppled over. Then the ground hardened again, locking me in place.

    The fuck? Powers?! I looked back and saw a tall man with a purple mohawk and numerous piercings all over his face kneeling with his hands on the road.

    ¡°Can''t move,¡± I said, tugging at my legs buried ankle-deep in the concrete. I felt a sting at my back. These fuckers shot me with darts as well.

    ¡°Stay still, little girl. You¡¯ll go to sleep soon,¡± the purple mohawk man said as he stood up.

    ¡°What do you want from me?¡± I said. Then I screamed, ¡°Help! Help! Anyone, help us!¡± But like yesterday, no one came to help. They loaded Ramello into the backseat of their car and came for me. Rough hands grabbed my arms as drowsiness started to gnaw at my consciousness.

    The concrete loosened around my feet and they pulled me up.

    Powers...Criminal-looking ugly fuckers. Were these guys the enemies of Dario''s group?

    Would you look at that? They were actually telling the truth.

    The fuck did they want from me though? Did these assholes assume I was part of Dario''s group? Fuck this shit.

    Fortunately, it seemed they had no intention of killing me outright, so I decided not to transform and let them take me. It was my trump card and I should wait for the best time to use it. Since this purple parrot idiot had powers, then there could be others with superpowers too. Even the normal humans had guns. I''d lose if I fought now.

    My eyelids felt heavy, not unlike my feeling at Professor Bansa''s boring class.

    When I wake up, I better get answers to what''s happening.

 1.16

    I moaned as I came to, my mind in a haze.

    Dark with a sprinkling of light from the small holes dotting the high ceiling. I felt around me. Uneven concrete covered with dust, grime, and other things I¡¯d rather not know about. Then I reached a piece of warm flesh.

    I quickly withdrew my hand. Squinting in the dim light, I recognized Ramello¡¯s unconscious form. My strengthened body was probably why I woke up before him, or they drugged him more. Dunno. I poked him trying to wake him; I didn''t speak because I didn''t want to alert any enemy who might be nearby.

    Ramello did not react, but I could see his chest moving as he breathed.

    How long were we out? Should I try to escape? They didn''t bother to tie us, probably not expecting I would wake up this soon.

    There was a loud buzz and metal rattled. A motor groaned to pull up the metal slats of a large commercial garage door, the overhead type, letting more light creep in. The easily recognizable salty smell of the sea and my illuminated surroundings, which appeared to be a wide storage space of sorts, told me that we were held in a warehouse by the docks.

    The door was about halfway open when I decided it was best to pretend to sleep. I slumped back down and relaxed my body. Several footsteps...I couldn¡¯t make out how many they were. More than three. Maybe five. And clunky wheels, a trolley, or a pushcart carrying something heavy.

    ¡°Boss, are you sure about this?¡± one of them said.

    ¡°It¡¯s not about being sure or not,¡± said a voice I recognized. The man with the purple mohawk, the one with powers. This was him. ¡°As long as we don¡¯t go against anything Big Marcy said, we¡¯re fine. Understood?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Boss.¡±

    ¡°Now put that there. And wake these two up.¡±

    The overhead doors rattled shut and a click of a switch turned on the lights in the warehouse.

    Someone stepped over me and bent down, his large shadow putting me under the shade. I kept my body relaxed even as a thick needle pierced my skin. I could only hope he didn¡¯t notice my body was more durable than a normal human¡¯s.

    They chatted as they waited for us to wake up. In turn, I was waiting for Ramello to awaken so I could follow after him. Purple mohawk and his men talked about deliveries and auctions, and all other stuff I couldn¡¯t understand. I kept on listening, trying to memorize as much as I could. There was something about games and scheduling them, and the VIPs that will come. Were they referring to underground pit fights?

    ¡°What? Where am I?¡± I could feel Ramello jump to his feet. ¡°Who the fuck are you guys?¡± He shook my shoulders. ¡°Erind, are you alright? What did you do to her, you bastards?!¡±

    ¡°Relax, lover boy. We didn¡¯t do anything to your girlfriend,¡± purple mohawk said. ¡°We just put you both to sleep.¡±

    ¡°Ramello,¡± I whispered as I pretended to regain consciousness. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± And I''m not his girlfriend.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Seems like we got kidnapped by these people."

    I sat up and hugged my knees across my chest, making myself as small as possible. ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked them timidly. "Whe-where are we?"

    ¡°Who, what, where¡­add in when and why, and you have the Five W¡¯s of basic information gathering,¡± purple mohawk replied. ¡°''Who''. Well, you can call me ''Rofirio'', one of the enforcers of an organization I can''t tell you about. Next is ''what''. What¡¯s up with you guys?¡± He laughed, and his henchmen, three muscular gun-wielding goons wearing heavy coats, reluctantly laughed with him.

    "Don''t be scared, Erind. I''m with you.¡± Ramello felt around his pockets and took out his phone. ¡°Huh?¡± He tapped furiously at its screen.

    ¡°There¡¯s no point using that. Both of your phones, and any other electronic devices you may have on you, are fried. Thanks for asking the ¡®why¡¯ question.¡± He walked over to a large rectangular metallic container, about as large as twice my fridge at home. ¡°But let''s go back to ''where'' first. You''re near a body of water and far from help of any kind, so don¡¯t think about escaping. ''When'' is about two and a half hours since we nabbed you earlier. And now to ''why''.¡± Rofirio pressed a few buttons on a panel on the side of the container. It hissed, the front part clicked open, revealing the sleeping monstrosity inside.

    I tried my best to fake scream.

    "The hell? What is that thing?¡± Ramello exclaimed. He stood in front of me protectively as I cowered behind him.

    The ¡®thing¡¯ inside was something I didn''t expect to see. It was clearly once a human as it wore a tattered shirt with ¡®Calif. 1904¡¯ emblazoned on it, whatever that meant, and frayed jean shorts. But not anymore, now a horribly misshapen freakshow.

    Its arms were longer than a normal human¡¯s and of different lengths. One arm reached its thigh and the other its knee, both ending in hands that had way too numerous fingers. Its right leg had a couple extra joints and folded up in its container to be able to fit. The skin on its face peeled in several places, and pieces of its flesh had fallen off, showing crumbling bone beneath.

    ¡°Disgusting, right?¡± Rofirio said. He pointed furiously at Ramello. ¡°Don¡¯t go back to the question ¡®what¡¯ and start another topic. Where were we?¡±

    ¡°The question ¡®why¡¯, Boss.¡±

    ¡°Why? I honestly don¡¯t know. Big Marcy only told us to get you, specifically that little girl over there.¡±

    My eye twitched a bit as he referred to me. ¡°What do you want from us?¡± I cried out, my voice breaking. I was pretty good at doing it intentionally. ¡°Let us go!¡± Yeah, right. As if they were going to do that.

    ¡°Ok, fine, I guess I didn¡¯t answer the ''what''. That¡¯s fair.¡± He folded his arms across his chest. ¡°As I¡¯ve said, we were instructed to hold you. I don''t know for how long. And I¡¯m bored. So, what¡¯s going to happen¡ªsee that? I used ¡®what¡¯. Anyway, what¡¯s going to happen here is that you guys are going to play with this thing while I wait for Big Marcy to tell me why the fuck we had to take you.¡± He patted the container with a monster inside.

    Ramello brought up his fists and dropped into a convincing fighting stance, hinting he had experience fighting. ¡°You¡¯re not going to get away with this. I have an uncle in the police. If I don¡¯t show up for our meeting this afternoon, he will suspect something''s wrong, especially if he can¡¯t call me.¡± The part about the meeting probably wasn¡¯t true because Ramello planned to ask me out for lunch, and naturally he would have kept the rest of his afternoon open if something ¡®progressed¡¯ between us. ¡°And is that an Adumbrae? You guys are going to get hunted by the BID for sure. Or even the Corebring.¡±

    I rolled my eyes. What a stupid thing to say, Ramello.

    "What should we do then? Let you go so you can report us and then we¡¯ll get killed?" Rofirio licked the piercings on his lips and continued, "We just wanna have fun with you kids. Don''t be so uptight.¡± He motioned for one of his goons and pointed to the abominable creature¡¯s neck. ¡°For clarification, this is not an Adumbrae. We tried and failed. There¡¯s no one up here,¡± he said, prodding the monster¡¯s head. ¡°Human or Adumbrae, no one¡¯s home. A mutant may be an apt term.¡±

    The musclehead with a funky beard injected something into the mutant¡¯s neck. I think it was the same substance they used to wake up Ramello. As the monster stirred, they retreated to a safe distance and took out their stun gun batons.

    Ramello said to me, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I will protect you.¡± The monster roared, making both of us flinch. It thrashed about, jumped out of the container, and headed for the muscle grunts, but stopped at the sight of them waving stun batons as if it had experienced them before.

    ¡°I-I...I be-believe you''ll protect me,¡± I said, starting to sob.

    ¡°Hide over there,¡± Ramello said. I ran to the stack of boxes he pointed to.

    Rofirio cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, ¡°Round one, ladies and gentlemen! Place your bets how long will this fine, strapping young lad last? One minute? Two?¡±

    The mutant rushed at Ramello, running on all fours as it couldn¡¯t run normally with its lopsided legs. It swiped with its long arms. Ramello ducked and rolled, drawing it away from me. As he picked himself up, the monster let loose a barrage of punches with surprising speed. Ramello held up his arms. Sickening thuds and cracks echoed, Ramello misjudging the strength of its inhuman punches.

    To his credit, he didn¡¯t scream but only grimaced. He jumped out of the way as the monster started to smash wooden crates. Rofirio and his men cheered him on while he expertly dodged hits from the monster after getting a taste of its strength.

    ¡°Two minutes already! Let¡¯s go three minutes! Any bets if he could hit back?¡±

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    In answer, Ramello dove for a broken piece of wood shaped like a stake. He waited for the monster to strike, timing his attack between its raging fists. He rushed with the stake straight into its belly, putting his weight behind it, stabbing the monster deep. I shouted to cheer, surprising myself. I guess it was only normal to root for the underdog.

    Something hit Ramello, throwing him across the room. He landed into a pile of sacks. The monster had kicked him with its extra-long right leg it folded behind it.

    ¡°Stand up, lover boy!¡± Rofirio bellowed. ¡°It¡¯s going to get your girlfriend!¡±

    The monster was indeed coming for me. I ran further back into the warehouse. My mind was already calculating if I should use my powers.

    A roar reverberated, but it wasn¡¯t the monster. It was Ramello. Fueled by adrenaline, he rushed headlong into the monster as if he didn¡¯t have any injuries, and tackled it. He grasped the stake, pulled it out, and began stabbing the monster again and again with his remaining strength.

    Unfortunately, the monster also didn¡¯t care about pain. It grabbed Ramello with both of its grotesque hands, pried him off, and threw him away. Ramello hit his head on the floor and then rolled across like a ragdoll. The mutant hollered in triumph and lumbered towards Ramello to finish him off.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough entertainment for now,¡± Rofirio said. He ran to intercept the monster, dropping to the ground to touch it. Just like what happened to me previously, the monster''s feet sunk to the floor, stopping it in its tracks.

    ¡°There, I saved your friend,¡± Rofirio said. ¡°Don¡¯t cry anymore, little girl.¡±

    ¡°Are you okay, Ramello?¡± I rushed over, knelt beside him, and cradled his head. ¡°Of course, not," I said dryly under my breath. That was a dumb question.

    He was out cold. A bright red gash glistened on his forehead from where he hit the floor. He had bruises and wounds all over his exposed arms from trying to block the blows and clawing of the crazed mutant. Blood dripped from the side of his mouth; he probably sustained internal injuries too.

    But he was still breathing.

    I patted his head.

    You did good, I thought unsarcastically.

    I always appreciated naturally good people, those who would help others even if there was nothing in return, or even to their detriment. They were so unlike me; I would never be like them. Neither could I truly understand them. I found that especially fascinating.

    They were like a rare animal that should be protected.

    I didn¡¯t know if Ramello was going to survive his injuries or if he could even get out of here alive, but he should be honored that I thought highly of him.

    If he''d die, let the world remember this man who sacrificed his life for me even if I didn¡¯t care for his life. I¡¯ll make you a medal and put it on your casket, I swear.

    Rofirio approached the flailing mutant. It tried to reach him with its hands, making him step back. ¡°The audacity of my food to try to eat me.¡± He spat at the mutant and bent down again to reach the floor.

    His fingers dipped into the ground. It gave way as if it was water. He swirled the liquified concrete then coaxed it up into a blob, its consistency turning thicker, similar to that of clay. With expert hands, he quickly fashioned the crude form of a knife with the concrete turned putty. He pinched the base of the edge and smoothened it out with a flourish, flicking away the excess material. The clumps of mushy concrete become solid after leaving his fingers. They bounced off the ground with a crumbling sound expected from gravel.

    Rofirio waved his creation, slicing and stabbing an imaginary target in front of him. The knife had hardened and didn¡¯t break apart with all his movement. The mutant continued wailing in the background.

    He lunged at the feral mutant, driving the knife deep in between its eyes up to its crudely fashioned hilt. The unfortunate former human spasmed. It gripped Rofirio¡¯s arm and tried to pull it out. But it couldn¡¯t fight against Rofirio¡¯s strength. Instead of budging, Rofirio twisted his knife and lifted the creature with it high up in the air, releasing the hold on its legs, demonstrating his enhanced strength by doing it with only one hand.

    ¡°Is your friend still alive?¡± he said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­yes¡­I think he is,¡± I sobbed.

    ¡°We were instructed to keep only you alive. Your friend was in the wrong place at the wrong time, little girl.¡± He slammed the mutant to the ground. He pressed his other hand to the floor, softening it. Pushing the body of the creature down, he submerged it into the ground until only the upper portion of its head remained. ¡°Since we¡¯re going to be waiting here for a while¡ªI don¡¯t even know what we''re waiting for.¡± He turned to one of his lackeys. ¡°Do you know what we''re waiting for?¡±

    ¡°No idea, boss.¡±

    ¡°Is Big Marcy already in the main building?¡±

    ¡°No idea, boss.¡±

    ¡°Is that all you can say?¡± Rofirio wagged his finger at him.

    The grunt took a step back. ¡°I¡¯ll go find out.¡±

    ¡°Go on. You do that while I have my meal.¡± Rofirio threw the knife up, caught it, and slammed it on the mutant¡¯s head exposed above the floor. It made me wonder if there were other people buried below me. His power was very convenient for hiding bodies. And if you didn¡¯t know about his ability, he could catch you off-guard and incapacitate you quickly. He opened the skull of the mutant and rummaged around it. ¡°Whatcha looking at, little girl?¡± he said, noticing my stare.

    ¡°Nothing¡­I-I wasn¡¯t looking.¡± I bowed my head.

    ¡°Look back here.¡± He threw the knife and it landed beside me. ¡°Look at me when I''m talking to you, little girl.¡±

    I followed his orders.

    ¡°I''m eating, you see. A natural thing.¡± He ripped the mutant''s scalp off and removed pieces of the cracked skull. ¡°Very natural, even though it might be uncomfortable to look at. Just like breastfeeding in public. It¡¯s just a baby eating. Let them be. Just like I¡¯m eating this mutant¡¯s brain. Don¡¯t be disgusted.¡± He sat crossed-legged with the exposed brain in front of him. ¡°Ah, found it. As the Japanese say ¡®itadakimasu¡¯. Did I say that right, Burke?¡± Another one of his lackeys nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s insert some international culture in this place,¡± he said as he stuck his finger into the mutant¡¯s brain and scooped out its contents.

    ¡°Why are you eating that?¡± I asked meekly.

    ¡°Speak up, little girl. I won¡¯t bite."

    Oh? But I would. ¡°Umm, I was asking why are you eating that. Isn¡¯t that dangerous?¡±

    ¡°Yes and no. For normal people, yes. For normal people, food is sustenance. For me, this is retaining myself. If I don¡¯t do this, then I''ll lose myself to the dark void that always creeps there, asking to be paid its due after giving me powers.¡±

    What did he say? I closed my eyes. Pause, freeze-frame, halt, time-out. Did he mean he was eating the brain to keep himself from losing his personality to the Adumbrae?

    Didn¡¯t Dario say they suspected the Adumbrae hiding in Division Proxy was using criminal organizations to conduct experiments in holding back the Adumbrae taking over the mind? What if these people were intentionally making these mutants to harvest them? What if part of the brain of these mutants had something that could stop the Adumbrae¡¯s usurpation of the mind? Did that brain taste good?

    ¡°Hey! Hey!¡± Rofirio said. ¡°Little girl! Don¡¯t close your eyes.¡±

    I opened my eyes. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t I say you should look at me while eating? This is nature in motion.¡± He paused and wiped the blood from his mouth. ¡°You''re not crying anymore. Finally composed yourself? Or are you in shock?¡±

    I looked at the unconscious Ramello, slowly dying in my arms. I had a face for him, my law school timid girl face who could also be assertive. But these guys? Rofirio, his grunts, and everyone else around here. I didn¡¯t have a face for any of them. They''d all die by my hands anyway, so why bother to make a face for them?

    I made faces for people I''d meet again. That was the point. My first meeting with people was for making a face for our future social interactions. I really hated wasting my time making a face, like back in high school when I worked out so I could join the cheerleading squad to steal away the boyfriend of a girl that annoyed me¡ªwho incidentally preferred cheerleaders¡ªand he ended up changing schools anyway.

    I dug my nails into my palms as I controlled the urge to cringe at my stupid schemes when I was a kid.

    ¡°She¡¯s just staring blankly at me.¡± Rofirio waved at his men. ¡°One of you slap her around. The point of this is for kids to understand they shouldn¡¯t be disgusted by something natural.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not a kid,¡± I said calmly. I laid Ramello¡¯s head on the floor and adjusted his position to be comfortable. ¡°I don¡¯t know why you keep calling me that. I¡¯m short, but not like super short. I guess I do look young for my age.¡± I stood up and smoothened my clothes. ¡°You know what? Sometimes I get mistaken for a high schooler.¡±

    ¡°Burke, wait a moment,¡± Rofirio said, holding his hand up at the muscle-head walking towards me. ¡°Putting on a brave face, little girl? Oh, I do enjoy that. I thought you were just a sniveling bitch, hiding behind your boyfriend. That¡¯s not much fun. A bit of resistance is fun.¡±

    ¡°This guy? He¡¯s not my boyfriend. By the way, are you guys releasing me later?¡±

    ¡°I suppose so,¡± Rofirio said. ¡°We''re not going to kill you. But we''ll kill that guy so he can¡¯t snitch.¡±

    ¡°How about me?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. I think you¡¯ll need to be taught a lesson to keep your mouth shut. We also need to teach you good manners. Burke strip her.¡±

    ¡°Okay, Boss.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t really have much in the way of curves,¡± I said. I placed my right arm behind my back, palm open, concentrating on summoning the mask SpookyErind lent me.

    ¡°Just my lucky day,¡± said Rofirio, ¡°I do like little girls.¡± He licked his lips and wiped his bloodied hands on his pants. ¡°Big Marcy didn¡¯t say I couldn¡¯t play with you. Let me see the goods. If you take your clothes off, no need for Burke to hurt you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m the shy type,¡± I said, grinning.

    Rofirio shrugged. ¡°Todd, get me a seat for this show. Burke, go ahead.¡±

    Burke walked towards me. I put on the red mask on my face. ¡°What¡¯s that? A mask?¡± Burke said as he grabbed my wrist. ¡°Where did you get that?¡± His eyes widened as I suddenly grew taller and changed into a different person. ¡°Fucking hell,¡± he gasped, throwing a hesitant punch. I caught it with my other hand.

    I opened my long snout wide enough to cover Burke¡¯s face, showing off rows of sharp teeth that would put a metal grinder to shame, the muscles of my jaws brimming with power.

    And then I chomped down, removing the front half of his face.

 1.17 - Marc (Big Marcy)

    Marc (Big Marcy)

    Marc, more popularly known as ''Big Marcy'', a moniker which he hated, leaned back on his custom-made FaeCarper Executive Chair and propped his feet on the window sill, gazing at his daily view of the steel jungle of shipping containers. The gold buckle of his Tresmeni shoes, made with soft goatskin, caught a hint of the afternoon sun and gave a smart glint.

    The chair was delivered only yesterday and cost him ten grand. It was supposedly made with a unique ¡°space-age¡± fabric, whatever that meant, and special gel-filled its cushions that conformed to the body shape of its user. However, as he sat on it, Marc could not tell what made it worth the ten grand he paid for it. Its modern design also felt out of place in the rustic theme of his office, filled with his antique collections sourced from all over the world. He was already regretting buying the darned chair.

    Other than the addition of his new chair, it was another mundane business day for Marc. Making money for himself, and for his brother who always took a larger cut of the pie.

    They were twins and they divided everything equally since they were born. Up until his brother, Mark, took over the family smuggling business. From that point on, his brother¡¯s share in everything steadily became bigger and bigger than what Marc would get.

    Which was fine with him.

    After all, it was Mark who established their current operation, with smuggling relegated as their secondary income source. Things could have gone differently if he was the one approached by the Supplier instead of his brother. But lady luck was fickle, and he could hardly blame his brother for that.

    What Marc could not forgive was that he had to give up his name. He was named ¡®Marc¡¯, but it was too confusing to call him that when his brother was also ¡®Mark¡¯. He had no idea why their parents named them ¡®Marc¡¯ and ¡®Mark¡¯, but eventually people called him ¡®Marc-with-a-c¡¯, and it became ¡®Marcy¡¯, while his brother retained the usage rights over ¡®Mark¡¯. That was downright unfair as he came out of their mother''s womb a full thirty minutes before his brother.

    As he grew tall and large, people started calling him ''Big Marcy''.

    He had plans for deposing Mark, but for now, he had to sit tight on his ¡°space-age¡± chair for he did not know how to even contact Mark¡¯s Supplier for their current operation.

    The click on an attach¨¦ case closing told him Captain Gerald Price of the LEPD finished counting his weekly¡­ retainer fee.

    Marc straightened his Herm¨¨s tie, adjusted the diamond-studded tie bar, and turned his chair around with the grandeur of the evil boss in a movie. Childish, yes, but he always derived enjoyment from turning his chair to face visitors. ¡°All in order, Captain Price?¡± he said. ¡°Sixty grand in the bag?¡±

    Captain Price, a jovial stocky man who had a serious shot at Police Commissioner with Marc¡¯s backing, tapped the brown leather attach¨¦ case. ¡°Sixty grand, yes. I seem to have gotten an increase of my retainer fee.¡±

    ¡°The additional ten grand is for your increased efforts in controlling your men from snooping around in our operations.¡±

    ¡°You mean?¡±

    ¡°Lieutenant Hall, he is sending men into establishments we control. We even spotted him staking out the entrance of the docks last week. You understand this is inconvenient for us.¡±

    Captain Price chuckled heartily. ¡°I don''t know what to tell you. Hall is one of the best police officers in the city. I have to keep him around to make me look good.¡±

    ¡°Captain, may I remind you of our operation here. We are on the other side of the law, yes, but this is not a simple question of going to jail if we are found out.¡±

    ¡°I know that, Marc,¡± Captain Price said, aware of his gripe with his brother¡¯s name. ¡°You can trust me, you know that. I¡¯ve been your reliable partner ever since, and even your father¡¯s way back when I was a beat cop a couple of decades ago.¡±

    ¡°My father¡¯s operations pale in comparison to this. Not only in terms of rewards but especially in terms of risk.¡± Marc leaned forward. ¡°We can be executed without trial here. And that is why, as much as possible, I do not want to have my hand forced on this matter. Hall is the godfather of Melissa, right?¡±

    Captain Price waved Marc¡¯s concerns away. ¡°It needn¡¯t come to that. That would be too messy. Hall is popular and is an especially prominent figure in the African-American community here in La Esperanza. Hell, even the Hispanics love him. Very fortunate he''s not one to aspire for Police Commissioner; that¡¯s why I keep him close. It''d make too much rustle if something untoward happened to him. And, yes, my baby girl Melissa would be sad if something happens to her uncle Jeremiah.¡±

    ¡°Ten grand additional weekly, for your added efforts.¡± Marc emphasized the word ¡®efforts¡¯ as he felt Captain Price was not taking the situation seriously. ¡°Keep him away from us.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not making it easy for me, you know?¡± Captain Price said. ¡°If this continues, this might not even be enough for the effort.¡± He pointed to the bag. ¡°That thing with Sanders mall was a pain, to be honest.¡±

    Marc¡¯s brows furrowed. ¡°What do you mean? The fire?¡±

    ¡°It was finally ruled as faulty electrical wiring, but you know the strings I had to pull to get it to that? It was obviously an arson, and not by any simple arsonist. Two people died there, Marc. Stuff like this doesn''t happen in our city. The bigger the incident, the more chances someone might stick their nose into somewhere they shouldn¡¯t be.¡±

    ¡°I have no idea about that,¡± he said. He looked at Jim Ambrose, his trusted advisor and also bodyguard who was fitted with military-grade bio-augmentronics. Jim shook his head. Marc shrugged then said, ¡°I promise you, Captain. We had no hand in whatever happened at Sanders mall. We would have alerted you as soon as possible if it had anything to do with us.¡±

    ¡°You say that, but we found traces of questionable damage to several cars in the mall¡¯s parking area that weren''t caused by the fire.¡± Captain Price¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°As if something not human had a small scramble over there. You know the effort I exerted to have that buried and destroyed?¡± This time, it was Captain Price who emphasized ¡®effort¡¯.

    ¡°I assure you, we monitor our clientele very closely. I assume they have enough discretion to know to act accordingly. We will look into this.¡±

    ¡°I hope so. If that¡¯s the case, then it might be real trouble then. I¡¯ll try to keep it under wraps as much as possible and solve it locally so the BID won¡¯t come here.¡±

    ¡°How about you assign Hall to that case? Get him off our backs.¡±

    ¡°That''s an option.¡± Captain Price stood and picked up his money. ¡°We''re all done here? I do hope you keep your clientele under control. People with that much money want to test out what they paid for. They have to realize there are some things money, influence, and power can¡¯t buy.¡±

    ¡°Therefore, we focus on what we can buy,¡± he said pointedly. ¡°Thank you, Captain Price. Do update us on your investigation of that case. We are interested if it might be connected to us.¡±

    After Captain Price left, Marc reviewed the documents on his table. There was going to be another event on Red Island next Thursday and the limited slots for the audience, who were also the bidders, were auctioned off. The usual attendees were there, but he had to investigate the new ones. Prospective clients were always welcome, but they were also possible liabilities. Or worse, they might be government agents or spies from rival organizations. As Captain Price mentioned, there were some things money could not buy. This was why Marc thoroughly vetted those coming to the Red Island, no matter how much they were willing to pay.

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    What Captain Price said about the Sanders fire bothered him. He was aware that a group with superhuman powers has attempted on a few occasions to sabotage their operations. He was not actually sure if they were augmented humans or former humans who have tapped on the forbidden powers of the Adumbrae.

    If it was the latter, then that group was undoubtedly connected with the Supplier. Marc was sure none of their clients he personally approved was damn stupid enough to expose themselves.

    Or it could be other organizations...damn those bastards.

    ¡°Sir,¡± Jim Ambrose said, knocking on his opened door to get his attention. ¡°Rofi-boy is asking if you¡¯re free to deal with the girl you ordered to be taken.¡± Behind Jim Ambrose was one of Rofirio¡¯s underlings.

    ¡°About that,¡± Marc said. ¡°It was Mark who actually wanted her to be taken. I am not sure why. Just keep her there.¡± He noticed Rofirio¡¯s underling whispering something to Jim Ambrose. ¡°What is it? Is something wrong?¡±

    Jim Ambrose said, ¡°Sir, he says Rofi-boy took one of our mutants and had the captive fight with it.¡±

    ¡°He did what?!¡± Marc boomed. ¡°You were not supposed to hurt her.¡±

    ¡°Sir! Sir, that¡¯s not what happened.¡± Rofirio¡¯s underling held his hand up. ¡°There was a guy too. When we got the girl, she was with a guy, so we got the guy too. And Sir Rofirio was bored so he said we could have a little fun, make the guy fight one of the mutants. We got no instructions about the guy, so...¡±

    ¡°Yes, you did not have to bring him in the first place,¡± Marc snapped. ¡°Rofirio¡¯s not thinking. Again. And, even if he is not going to hurt the girl, he is a fool for casually showing off the merchandise. Those are not toys to play with.¡± Marc punctuated his word by slamming his fist on his antique oak table. ¡°Is that what you have been doing when I am not looking? Playing with the merchandise? Is Rofirio trying out his powers on them?!¡±

    The man nodded.

    ¡°Damn it! I knew I should not have agreed to his pleading. Even drug dealers know not to sample their own wares!¡±

    ¡°Want me to deal with it, Sir?¡± Jim Ambrose said.

    Marc massaged his temples. A certain level of professionalism would be appreciated even if they were working in the criminal underworld. ¡°Yes, go ahea¡ª¡± Jim Ambrose suddenly cocked his head. ¡°What is it, Jim?¡± he asked.

    ¡°I heard gunfire."

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Marc did not hear anything, but enhanced hearing was included in Jim Ambrose¡¯s augments so he believed him. He held up his finger, signaling everyone to keep silent. He closed his eyes and concentrated. It was faint and muffled, but there were multiple pops. ¡°Is that Rofirio? Is he shooting for fun or did he lose control of the merchandise? Which one did you get?¡±

    ¡°Just one of the normal ones, Sir, Big Marcy, Sir," said Rofirio''s lackey. "We didn¡¯t dare touch the large containers. We couldn¡¯t fit those through the doors of Warehouse 2-B where we keep the girl and the guy anyway.¡±

    Marc grunted in disdain. He had plenty to deal with on his plate right now. ¡°Go knock some sense into Rofirio after you have the situation under control,¡± he told Jim Ambrose. ¡°I will deal with him tonight. Do not forget to keep the mutant intact if possible. Each one could buy a few dozen of this new goddamn chair I have.¡±

    With that, Jim left the office, Marc went back to managing the budding Mark and Marc criminal empire. Before more than a few minutes had passed, however, more gunfire disturbed him.

    They were louder, this time as if they were shooting in the open, as opposed to the earlier subdued noise that sounded to have been fired inside a warehouse. There was a pause for a few more minutes, before the gunshots started again, followed by a couple of explosions. He raised his brow.

    He dialed the security post near the warehouses. ¡°Whoever this is,¡± he said as soon as someone picked it up, ¡°what the hell is happening? Has Jim Ambrose passed by there? Tell him to settle it as fast as pos¡ª¡±

    ¡°Big Marcy, Sir! Jim is dead! It¡­it ate him!¡±

    ¡°What? What do you mean Jim is dead? What is happening over there?¡±

    ¡°Jim...Jim tried to fight it, sir. It...it...the monster just ripped him apart and ate him. It¡¯s a monster! Oh god no, it¡¯s coming this way!¡± There was a scream and more gunfire before the line went dead.

    An attack? No matter who it was, Marc was unfazed. He called the guards where the merchandise was kept and ordered them evacuated. Next, he called the rest of his men to join him to handle the threat. The mutants and other supplies were the priority. They had plenty of properties elsewhere, and their primary business was not located here. But if they lost the mutants and the government somehow discovered those, they would be dead men walking.

    Marc pressed a secret button underneath his table and out popped a hidden drawer containing an enormous hand-gun: a Crest & Mare .500 Magnum, modified to hold armor-piercing, explosive rounds. It was heavy and unwieldy, even for his huge hands, but it was something that could surely kill a lesser Adumbrae in one, well-placed shot.

    Just make sure the brain explodes and the Adumbrae would go down for good.

    He descended the staircase as his secretaries and other office aides quickly packed up all the sensitive documents in his office, preparing to evacuate themselves.

    Two dozen of his men waited for him at the building¡¯s lobby. They were armed with assault rifles and powerful electroshock guns designed to fry Adumbrae brains. The trick was to expose the brain first before shooting the electroshock guns, and for that, they needed all the firepower they could get, especially if the target was one of the types that regenerated extremely fast.

    Given the nature of the merchandise they kept, they were well prepared to recapture any of them in the event they escaped, and that included the hulking mutant beasts that could rival a fully manifested lesser Adumbrae.

    ¡°Boss, I think you should evacuate,¡± Marcelo, Jim Ambrose¡¯s right-hand man, said. He had not undergone augmentation yet, which was a pity since they could use the extra firepower.

    ¡°No, I will stay,¡± Marc said, displaying his gun. ¡°I am not one to run. Moreover, I would like to see what is attacking us. This cannot be the mutant Rofirio took out, right?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not sure, Sir. If it becomes too dangerous, we have to evacuate you.¡±

    Their group marched out of the building.

    Screams, gunfire, and small explosions told them the threat was approaching. Several men emerged at the end of the street trying to flee toward the office building, running away from something hidden in the stacks of shipping containers.

    ¡°Greg, Motley, you guys are up,¡± Marcelo barked. Two men carrying shoulder-fired rocket launchers with anti-tank warheads knelt. ¡°Wait for my signal.¡± They mounted the launchers and stilled, eyes trained on the containers. For a moment, nothing, then something huge came into view.

    Marc was barely able to process what it was when Marcelo said, ¡°Fire!¡±, without any regard to the men who were running away from the monster.

    Two missiles flew and hit their target, blowing apart the containers on its either side. Howling filled the air and chilled their hearts in fear. Steel, debris, dust, and smoke filled the air. A couple of the fleeing men were also caught in the explosion, making Marc cluck his tongue in disapproval.

    ¡°Apologies, sir,¡± Marcelo said. ¡°That thing apparently killed Jim Ambrose. We have to damage it as much as possible before it reaches us. Reload, Greg and Motley.¡±

    ¡°Good judgment call, Marcelo,¡± Marc said. He held up his gun and aimed forward.

    A creature burst from the smoke. A werewolf was what came to mind. It was more than ten feet tall with long, blazing red fur coiling around its body and waving all over to a nonexistent wind. Unforgiving fangs bared, rows of knives ready to rip anything apart. It was bloodied and bruised from the explosion, but it did not look like it was going down any time soon.

    Spotting one of Marc¡¯s men on the ground, it picked him up and nonchalantly bit his head.

    ¡°Damnation to all.¡± Marc realized what was happening. ¡°It is regenerating by eating people.¡±

    It turned its attention to them. It dropped the body it was snacking on and rushed in their direction, first starting to run on two legs, then dropping down to all fours. Muscles rippled all over its body, giving power to its arms and legs as it bounded closer and closer, its huge claws gripping the pavement, propelling it further with each step.

    ¡°Shoot! Shoot it!¡± Marc ordered. ¡°Kill it now!¡±

 1.18 - Reo Hinode (Oberon)

    Reo Hinode (Oberon)

    Reo Hinode had been in the dark for more than two hours, the longest period he had his eyes closed while awake. This wasn''t counting the times he stayed up for hours late at night, lying in bed with eyes shut tight, unable to sleep, stressed, anxious, afraid of what he had gotten himself into, afraid of dying, killed by either human or Adumbrae, remembering the pain of death he felt each time one of his fairy summons died.

    But he wasn''t that spineless piece of shit right now, for he was Oberon, the king of the fairies. Although, he conceded that royalty across history would agree that the backseat of a 2007 Mayfair Galleon wasn''t a throne fit for a king. With only four fairies under his command, and able to summon only one of them at a time, perhaps this was as royal as he could get.

    His gang did make his place as comfortable as possible. Johann removed the backseats so he had space to kneel and stretch his arms. They secured firm cushions on the floor, arranged to hold his legs and butt in place so he could kneel for long periods with ease even if the car was moving at high speeds¡ªit was more like sitting than kneeling with all the support cushions. Slings hung from the ceiling that attached to his wrists, holding his hands up as required to maintain his summon. The general constitution of his body had improved since he melded with an artificial Core, but it didn¡¯t mean it was easy to hold the summoning position for long.

    They also had the windows tinted so no one could see the weird shit inside. Without context, someone seeing Oberon in his summoning pose would think that it was some kinky sex thing.

    And someone who knew the context would report them to the BID.

    A van would''ve been more convenient; those storage vans were pretty roomy, and they could easily deck it out for his use. But they realized they couldn''t easily park a large van anywhere without inviting suspicion. Not to mention they couldn¡¯t agree on how to disguise a van¡ªa laundry van, pest control, or a move-in van. It was also a matter of money. When Blank¡¯s car was totaled in a previous mission, they all decided to chip in and buy a cheap second-hand car they could use for their operations¡ªthis old Mayfair model.

    Oberon hoped that if ever this car would also get wrecked, he wouldn''t be inside.

    ¡°Johann texted me he finished his investigation,¡± Barb said from the front passenger seat. ¡°He¡¯s coming down now.¡±

    ¡°Finally,¡± Oberon said. Out of his four fairies, Sneak was his only summon where he retained his consciousness and was able to control his body, including being able to talk. With the other fairies, he enters a trance and was mildly aware of what was happening only to the fairy and not his own body; he would just be there, kneeling with his mouth wide open, until the fairy returned or died.

    ¡°You okay there, Obe?¡±

    ¡°What do you think?¡± he snapped.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe you¡¯re actually having fun back there?¡± Barb said with a snicker.

    ¡°Oh yeah. Five-star accommodations, lobster buffet, coffee rub spa. It¡¯s awesome back here.¡±

    ¡°Coffee rub spa? Is that a thing?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve seen a flyer of it.¡± Oberon cleared his throat. ¡°Could you get me a drink and maybe a gum?¡± He heard Barb rummaging and then felt a straw press on his mouth. He thankfully sipped the water.

    ¡°Open your mouth,¡± Barb said, and Oberon complied. ¡°Here comes the gum.¡± She made airplane noises before plopping the gum into his mouth.

    ¡°Thanks for that.¡±

    ¡°No prob. I know you must be dying for a smoke right now.¡±

    The driver-side door opened and someone got in. Johann spoke, ¡°Terribly sorry that took some time. But I now know where to go, and I hope I¡¯m right.¡± Oberon heard keys jingling and being inserted into the car ignition. ¡°Those plates are from a corporation named Dawson Stevedoring and Logistics, LLC. After some digging¡ªget this¡ªI found it¡¯s one of the companies controlled by our pals, the 2Ms.¡± Johann was referring to the Mark and Big Marcy criminal mastermind brothers. ¡°It looks legitimate on paper, but I think it¡¯s one of the companies they¡¯re using for their smuggling business.¡± The engine of the car roared to life. ¡°We¡¯re going there now. To the docks.¡±

    ¡°Using cars from their own company? Bold, aren¡¯t they?¡± Barb said.

    ¡°That¡¯s the thing,¡± Johann said. ¡°While I was having the plates that Obe saw checked. I asked my cop buddies over at traffic collisions if they could connect to the MetroTraffic feed, the live traffic camera system, and help me get footage of the street outside Erind¡¯s apartment building. I owe so many people free lunches at Taco Mastodon.¡±

    Barb exclaimed, ¡°Hey, what if they saw Erind getting kidnapped? We¡¯re avoiding the police getting involved in this, remember?¡±

    ¡°Then they will get involved,¡± Oberon said. ¡°We''ll have to trust the 2M bros to hide all their illegal bullshit, especially the ones connected to the Adumbrae. And we''ll just find Erind in the commotion.¡±

    ¡°My thinking exactly," Johann said. "But, curiously, the traffic cams on Erind¡¯s street weren''t working or were disabled by someone. That¡¯s why Rofirio didn¡¯t care about kidnapping them in broad daylight, and with their company cars no less.¡±

    ¡°Wow, really?¡±

    ¡°Not only on that street where Erind was taken. All traffic cameras of the surrounding blocks were also dead. It''s good we knew what cars they used and the company they were registered to. I asked for the feed of the cameras going from Erind¡¯s place to the office of the stevedoring company and caught those cars passing by those roads. It''s a safe bet they''re going to the docks.¡±

    Barb said, ¡°We were lucky Obe had the presence of mind to memorize the car model and plates.¡±

    ¡°Whoa, what do you mean?¡± Oberon pretended to be extremely offended. ¡°My presence of mind was a matter of luck?¡±

    Johann and Barb laughed. It made him feel a little bit better, chipping away at the fear in his heart. He could really, really, really use a smoke right now. But if he did, he would break the summon of Sneak.

    ¡°Actually, we were luckier Rofirio didn¡¯t notice my fairy sneaking up behind his ass,¡± he said. Although Sneak was tiny, just like his other fairies, and slightly transparent, unlike the others, he could still be spotted by someone paying attention to their surroundings.

    ¡°We are the luckiest Sneak was able to hide before it lost its connection with Obe,¡± Barb said. ¡°They couldn¡¯t find Sneak, right?¡±

    Oberon frowned. He didn¡¯t like referring to his fairies as ''it'', they were his royal subjects after all. ¡°Nah, they couldn¡¯t find Sneak even if they wanted to.¡± Sneak could become completely invisible if he stuck on something and stopped moving¡ªthis time, he was able to stick to Rofirio¡¯s left leg before the criminals took Erind and that other dude, and sped away. Not simply invisible. He wouldn¡¯t even register in people¡¯s minds if they accidentally bumped or touched him in his invisible state. A person had to be specifically looking for Sneak to recognize him when detected. ¡°Unless Rofirio accidentally jumped into a grinder, Sneak is safe.¡±

    ¡°It''ll be awesome if Rofirio did jump into a grinder,¡± Barb said.

    ¡°No way! I''ll feel Sneak getting ground up like minced meat too.¡±

    <hr>

    After about twenty minutes of Johann¡¯s bumpy, reckless driving, Oberon felt the car slow down. Barb clicked her tongue and slapped what sounded like the dashboard. The car suddenly sped up. Johann said for Oberon¡¯s benefit, ¡°There are guards. Not simple security guards.¡±

    ¡°Buff dudes with big guns,¡± Barb said. ¡°Like what are you guys doing there? Too obvious.¡±

    ¡°They won¡¯t care about being discrete because the only vehicles passing by here are cargo trucks and their people.¡±

    ¡°And now they saw us,¡± Oberon said.

    ¡°It looks like we¡¯re at the right place,¡± Barb said. ¡°What do we do?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll try driving around the perimeter,¡± Johann said, ¡°to see if Obe can connect.¡±

    Oberon concentrated, trying to feel Sneak. Each of his fairies had a certain range they could operate away from him; if they crossed that distance for one reason or another, they would hibernate in their last state until Oberon reconnects with them or breaks the summoning position. Sneak¡¯s range was about a hundred and fifty meters away from him, the furthest among the four summons. As Rofirio sped away to some godforsaken hole, Sneak went to sleep. ¡°No dice,¡± Oberon said. ¡°But I can feel Sneak is inside, just out of reach.¡± He didn¡¯t stop the summon so that they''d have an easier time finding Rofirio, and also Erind, once they knew the general location of where to search.

    ¡°We attack them?¡±

    ¡°What? No!¡± Johann said. ¡°Barb, don¡¯t do stupid things. There''s only three of us and tons of them.¡±

    ¡°Only two,¡± Oberon said. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to summon a different fairy.¡±

    ¡°Okay, two. I got a gun, but they also have guns, lots of guns. Barb has powers, but they have lots of firepower. Rofirio also has powers, and we don''t know who else they got inside. ¡±

    ¡°Fine!¡± Barb sighed. ¡°So, this is it then? We wait? With Blank, we might be able to get through the entrance, but he¡¯s meeting the Professor. Emcee can make this place go up in flames, but he¡¯s sulking like a baby.¡±

    ¡°Barb,¡± Johann said, ¡°two people died in the fire at¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know! Okay? No need to bring it up again.¡±

    ¡°Quiet down!¡± Oberon ordered. He strained his ears. There it was again. ¡°Gunfire?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Barb said. More shooting, louder this time.

    ¡°What the hell¡¯s happening inside?¡±

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°This is our chance! Let¡¯s go back to the entrance.¡±

    Oberon groaned. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you want to attack from the front.¡± But it was too late, he could feel Johann frantically driving back. ¡°Guys, I don¡¯t think this is a good idea.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re near,¡± Johann said. He cocked his gun and stopped the car. ¡°There¡¯s only two of them. The others probably went to check what was going on inside. Go on ahead, Barb.¡±

    ¡°What the fuck? You¡¯re agreeing with her?¡±

    ¡°Have faith in me, Obe.¡± The car door opened and Oberon felt something heavy get off. ¡°You fuckers! Have some of this!¡±

    Oberon assumed Barb charged towards the entrance gate. People were shooting at them, or rather at Barb, and he could hear bullets ricochet in all directions. There was shouting and cursing. He prayed fervently to any god who existed that he wouldn¡¯t get hit by stray bullets.

    ¡°Here we go, Obe,¡± Johann said.

    Oberon tensed up, gritted his teeth, and clenched his butt. He pleaded to the heavens he wouldn¡¯t die here in a position like he was in a sex rig. He didn¡¯t want to die with his eyes closed, unable to see what would kill him. Should he open his eyes? No!

    They bounced, a speed bump most likely, and hit something that gave way with a crunch. Something jumped on the car, making it buckle.

    ¡°What was that?¡± Oberon said in a worried voice.

    ¡°You mean the guardhouse?¡± Johann said. ¡°Or Barb on top?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s follow the shooting,¡± Barb shouted from above them.

    Johann drove frantically. Left, left, right, then a curve. Oberon gave up trying to remember where they were going. ¡°Don¡¯t charge into the gunfire,¡± Oberon said. ¡°Slow down, I don¡¯t want to die.¡±

    ¡°Nothing yet?¡±

    ¡°Wait¡­I feel it. There we go, I¡¯m back online.¡±

    ¡°Nice,¡± Barb said. ¡°Keep me updated on what¡¯s happening. I¡¯ll try to find them in the gunfire hubbub. And standby for quick extraction.¡±

    ¡°Aye-aye, Captain,¡± Johann said sarcastically. The car did a little bounce as she jumped off. ¡°Talk to me, Obe. What do you have?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m still opening my eyes, I mean Sneak¡¯s eyes.¡± As Sneak¡¯s vision connected with his, he saw he was clinging to some kind of leather material. Rofirio was wearing leather pants, so this must be his leg. Sneak looked around. ¡°Shit, what is this...?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°The fuck? Is this Rofirio¡¯s leg? This might be his leg! Just his leg. Tons of blood.¡±

    ¡°Where are you?¡±

    Sneak flew up to get a better view of his surroundings. ¡°In a warehouse with its doors ripped apart by something huge. There are body parts everywhere. A blood bath.¡± Sneak went down to each of them. Pieces of flesh were ripped and torn by a creature he didn''t want to meet. ¡°Is that bastard Rofirio finally dead?¡± Rofirio was the one who stabbed Oberon in one of their missions while he was in summoning mode. He gave him nightmares after that.

    ¡°Can you see who they''re fighting?¡±

    ¡°You mean ''what'' they''re fighting. I don''t think it''s human. It''s not here though. It''s somewhere outside, thank god.¡± A couple of explosions rocked the air. Oberon smirked. Fireworks for celebrating Rofirio¡¯s death. ¡°Wow, they''re going at it outside.¡±

    ¡°Is Erind and that other guy there?¡±

    ¡°They don¡¯t seem to be here¡­oh someone is covered by some boxes and debris.¡± Sneak tried to push away the things piled on top of the body but his tiny body lacked the strength to do so. He burrowed into the debris to find the face of this person. ¡°I think this is him, the dude with Erind earlier. But he¡¯s in a bad shape.¡± Sneak opened the eyes of the dude. ¡°He seems to be alive. Barely.¡±

    ¡°We need to get Barb there.¡±

    Sneak flew outside of the warehouse. Death and carnage everywhere. So many dead bodies, or what remained of them after a monster tore through them. ¡°The 2M bros messed up big time here. What kind of experiment of theirs escaped?¡±

    Oberon relayed everything he saw to Johann, the placement of the sun, the warehouse numbers, other surrounding landmarks, anything that could help Barb know where to go, and Johann repeated everything over the phone to Barb.

    ¡°I¡¯m trying to avoid the fighting,¡± Barbs said on the loudspeaker of Johann¡¯s phone. ¡°I need more directions.¡±

    ¡°Barb, there¡¯s something nasty here,¡± Oberon said. ¡°I¡¯m looking for it¡ªOH MY GOD!¡±

    Sneak turned a corner and came upon a feral beast of nightmares.

    Eight feet tall even as it was hunched over, the furred creature was feasting on a body, a human leg dangled out of its disproportionately large jaws. Its powerful arm suddenly stretched out, clawed hands opened, and reached for Sneak. Oberon willed Sneak to beat his wings as fast as he could and fly up.

    But it was too late! Tiny Sneak was going to get caught!

    He readied himself for the pain from Sneak getting squeezed like a tube of toothpaste.

    Surprising salvation came. The side of the monster exploded, followed by a barrage of gunfire.

    The monster shielded itself with its arms, its hide and flesh as durable as the side of a tank. Only small nicks that barely bled were all the guns could show after their hard work.

    Sneak, with this window of opportunity, fluttered over the top of the warehouses, putting as much distance between him and the monster.

    ¡°What happened, Obe?¡± Johann said. ¡°Tell me so I can tell Barb what to do.¡±

    ¡°I found it, ''it'' being the fucking monster wreaking havoc here.¡± From his vantage point, Oberon described the location more accurately. Barb went up over a pile of containers and waved over at Sneak. Oberon guided her on how to go around the monster and the men with the guns trying to kill it.

    He looked back at what the monster was doing. Oblivious to the men shooting at it, the monster went back to eating a body. And Oberon soon realized why. It healed itself from eating the bodies of the dead men. All the damage it sustained was being healed and was gone in a heartbeat, soon replaced by a fresh set of injuries as a new wave of assault started.

    He could¡¯ve sworn it was steadily growing larger.

    ¡°We need more firepower!¡± someone shouted, someone very familiar to Oberon and the rest of the gang.

    ¡°Jim Ambrose is here,¡± Oberon said. Their favorite augmented human. Barb fought with Jim Ambrose before and was barely able to escape because Blank was there to disable him. Unfortunately, they couldn¡¯t finish him at that time because his nervous system was also augmented and shocked him out of Blank¡¯s hold.

    ¡°That means Big Marcy is here too?¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Probably. Jim Ambrose is leading the men against the monster.¡±

    Jim bared his mechanical arms layered with cerrasteel, the same armor plating used by military ComExo units. Oberon knew each arm had hidden electroshock cylo-engines that generate fields of energy that could knock out and fry Adumbrae brain, the best way to stop an Adumbrae.

    The werewolf Adumbrae lunged at the men on a jeep trying to maneuver a machine gun mounted on top of it. Jim Ambrose used that opening to land a hit on the monster, rocking its skull. The energy field exploded and enveloped the Adumbrae. It staggered and fell.

    ¡°Jimmy boy took it down,¡± Oberon said. ¡°Tell Barb to hurry up.¡±

    ¡°We should get closer and meet up with her.¡± Johann started driving the car.

    Oberon wanted to protest coming closer to danger, but he knew they needed to get Barb out as fast as possible. He controlled Sneak to fly lower to get a better view, attached himself to the upper side of a warehouse, and turned invisible.

    Jim Ambrose approached the unconscious monster, kicking it smugly. Another successful capture of an escapee, or so it would seem. The monster was only feigning getting knocked out. It grabbed Jim Ambrose¡¯s left arm, its huge fist enclosing the whole limb, and squeezed hard.

    Oberon could hear through Sneak the metal getting crumpled like a milk carton box. Jim Ambrose was so reliant on his electroshock attack that he let his guard down. He raised his other fist to deliver another electrifying blow, but the monster had already shown it didn''t care for anything he could throw at it.

    The creature caught Jim Ambrose¡¯s other arm and stood up, dangling the clothes on a laundry line. Jim couldn¡¯t break free. In desperation, it appeared he decided to overload the engines on his arms. A dangerous whirring noise signaled the destruction to come.

    A large explosion and blinding light!

    Oberon momentarily couldn''t see through Sneak''s eyes.

    As Sneak''s vision came back, Oberon saw Jim Ambrose¡¯s armless torso sticking out of the monster¡¯s mouth, slowly getting chewed. The hands of the monster were torn to shreds by the explosion, but it was already eating the barbecued body of Jim Ambrose to heal itself.

    ¡°I¡¯m inside the warehouse,¡± Barb said, breaking Oberon¡¯s horrified concentration on the brutal end of another one of their nemesis. "Where''s Erind''s friend?"

    Sneak returned to the warehouse with Rofirio''s leg. ¡°Jim Ambrose is dead,¡± Oberon said to Barb over the phone''s loudspeaker. ¡°The monster ate him. Big Marcy is going to be so pissed.¡±

    ¡°Huh? What are we going to do then? Who¡¯s going to stop their Adumbrae experiment? Those fuckers should have better control of this whole thing.¡±

    ¡°Well, we¡¯re not going to be the one to stop it,¡± Oberon said. ¡°The guy is over there, by the way.¡± He pointed the location with Sneak''s tiny hand.

    The monster went away probably to find other food to eat. There didn¡¯t seem to be any of Big Marcy¡¯s men that survived, so Johann decided it was safe, against Oberon¡¯s objections, to drive to the warehouse so they could easily load the injured guy they found into the car.

    "Excuse me, Obe," Barb said. "Heave-ho!"

    Oberon heard the rear door of the car open and he felt someone squeeze in beside him. The backseat was a tight fit because even if the seats were removed, the cushions were there. He wanted to break the summon already, but they were still looking for Erind.

    Did the monster eat her? Damn it.

    Sneak flew up again to see where they should go next. They decided to go to the office buildings past the rows of warehouses. The 2Ms might be there, controlling the operations of their smuggling business and their legitimate logistics business. If they wanted something from Erind, she was likely held there.

    ¡°Oh, come on,¡± Oberon groaned as the car followed Sneak flying above.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid to ask what is it this time,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Incoming two helicopters. One is huge with missiles and lots of guns."

    ¡°A gunship? Is it the military?¡±

    "The other helicopter looks like that used by rich people to land on the helipad of their giant luxury yachts.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re trying to save Big Marcy,¡± Barb deduced. ¡°We were right that he¡¯s here.¡±

    The attack helicopter started shooting at something on the ground and out of view¡ªa holy pissfire of lead. Unlike a rifle on auto where Oberon, to an extent, could identify the individual sounds of bullets fired, he could only hear a steady oppressive hum, the sounds of bullets fired so numerous they all merged into one single note of destruction.

    Missiles were let loose, fiery spears stabbing the ground. Johann stopped driving as they braced for impact. All of them inside the car yelled as the earth quaked. From Sneak¡¯s point of view high above, he could see the gunship chasing something through the towering stacks of freight containers.

    The other helicopter landed, a huge fellow surrounded by guards hurried to board it. With its precious cargo secured, the smaller chopper took off. The gunship let loose a few more spurts of hot lead before following Big Marcy.

    Sneak scouted ahead to try to find the monster if it was still alive. Perhaps luckily, they couldn¡¯t find any trace of it. They did, however, eventually find Erind, hiding in a freight container full of appliances that accidentally opened because of the explosions. She wasn¡¯t hurt, unlike the other guy they saved, only slightly disoriented.

    Oberon and the gang hightailed out of the docks as a cacophony of the sirens of police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances sounded in the distance. This looked like a dire situation for the 2M bros, but Oberon was sure they had enough money to cover all of this up. And he was fine with the blatant corruption of the city¡¯s authorities, as well as the impunity of the operations of the 2M bros.

    As long as it kept the eyes of the Corebrings away.

 1.19

    Deen stared at me.

    ¡°What?¡± I said.

    ¡°The way you¡¯re stirring the tea. I also noticed it yesterday. I didn¡¯t say anything then, but are you alright?¡±

    In accordance with Rule#1, I stirred my tea back and forth instead of the typical circular way. ¡°I''m just used to doing it this way,¡± I said. ¡°I assure you, I''m very much okay.¡± I bit off the crust of one side of the buttered toast Deen prepared and took a sip of my tea.

    ¡°And tea for breakfast? With eggs and toast? What kind of tea is that?¡±

    ¡°What are you, the breakfast police?¡± Both of us laughed. ¡°It¡¯s chamomile tea. I¡¯m not British, but I do prefer tea over coffee.¡±

    ¡°Treason,¡± Deen said, followed by an offended gasp that was obviously fake. ¡°Breakfast for me is only coffee, black, and nothing else. It''s a nice change I prepared breakfast for someone else.¡±

    ¡°How about your sister?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s barely home. Usually eats outside with her boyfriend.¡± Deen went to the cupboard above the sink. She pulled out its contents and reached for something at the back. It was a golden-colored box with the name ''Twinings''. ¡°I saw you brought over different kinds of tea. How about you try this one out?¡±

    ¡°Breakfast tea,¡± I said, reading the label.

    ¡°It was given as a gift to me, but I don¡¯t drink tea and neither does sis. It¡¯s been hiding away at the back of the cabinet for almost a year.¡± She sat back down. ¡°That¡¯s not expired by the way,¡± she hastily added.

    ¡°Twinings is the oldest tea brand I think? I''ve only ever bought American tea brands. I¡¯ll try this one out tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Another thing I noticed.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°When you ate your breakfast yesterday, you started on the crust of the bread and then the middle part. You did the same for the fried egg as well. Eat the egg white first then the yolk. You¡¯re also doing it now.¡± Deen shrugged. ¡°Is it weird I find your habits interesting?¡±

    I grinned. ¡°Do you think this is a nature documentary?¡±

    Actually, Rule #2 was the reason for the way I eat¡ªyes, the first Rule was for drinks, and the second was for food. Absolute nonsense? Maybe...but Rules are Rules.

    I remembered my grandmother cut off the crust of the bread and threw it away when she made sandwiches. Pretty little kid me thought it was a waste. Grandma should''ve separately eaten the crust if she didn¡¯t want it with the rest of the bread.

    And then it became a Rule. So that''s that.

    If the food has some kind of outer and inner part, I''d eat the outer part first.

    It was fine for some food. For chicken, I''d eat the skin first, followed by the meat. It was weird for others, like I''d eat the pizza crust first¡ªthe edge part¡ªand the middle part with the toppings last. That creeped out some people so if ever I craved pizza, I ate it alone.

    I tried very hard to comply with Rule #2 while I was previously in beast mode, and I couldn''t. I have justifiable excuses! Firstly, I was barely able to keep my mind together with all the rage and power of the beast ripping apart my sanity. Secondly, it was also so hard to do the outer-first thing with my huge mouth. Lastly, my primary goal was to kill them, and not eat like eating dinner or something like that; Rule #2 shouldn''t apply.

    I touched my mouth. It still felt surreal, as if everything was a dream after I started eating them. I knew it did happen from the news I saw on TV. However, they didn''t actually report a huge Adumbrae rampaging at the docks. Some explosion due to incorrectly stored dangerous chemicals was the story. They did report that many ''warehouse employees'' died.

    It was their fault they died really. They bothered me, forsaking the protection everyone had under Rule #4. Once I was sufficiently bothered that the situation was taken out of the ambit of Rule #4, the life of the person that bothered me was forfeited.

    And it wasn''t just Rule #4.

    It was such a weird feeling. Each time I was attacked, an unexplainable rage coursed through me. I mean, I''d naturally get angry if I got shot. Anybody would. But it was different when I transformed. Like a primal urge to kill who hurt me...to eat them. An insatiable hunger for the flesh of anyone who did me harm.

    With the number of people attacking me, I couldn''t control the overwhelming rage surging in my body. And that was why I barely had any memory of what happened after I killed Rofirio and his men.

    ¡°Are you sure you''re alright?" Deen said.

    "Yes, I am."

    "We¡¯ve been friends since the first semester, but I don¡¯t really know much about you. Since you¡¯re staying here, I guess we''ll get to know each other more. We''ll need to because we¡¯re on the same side of the fight against Adumbrae.¡± There was intense conviction in Deen¡¯s voice at the last part of her sentence.

    I was indeed staying at her house.

    After that incident, the league of superhero wannabes decided, and to which I agreed, that staying at my condo was dangerous. Deen offered for me to stay at her luxurious house so that at least I''d have company and protection. She assumed I wouldn¡¯t agree to be protected by the others, and she was correct.

    To me, it seemed like she had awakened her powers to some degree, and that gave her confidence to volunteer to guard me against whatever enemy we were facing. After packing my things, we went straight to her house and I already stayed here for the past two nights.

    The reason I agreed to such an arrangement wasn''t exactly what Deen and the others thought. They assumed I wanted to be safe in case the criminal organization headed by the Mark and Big Marcy brothers, or the 2Ms for short, came to visit me again¡ªthat was only partially true.

    I realized something was missing in all of this...

    Why did the 2Ms kidnap me?

    Dario''s group sold the story to Deen and me that the ''man'' who attacked us at the mall was sent by the 2Ms. For their part, I suspected they thought the mysterious woman with the monster mouth Myra encountered at the mall was the one sent by the 2Ms.

    Both weren''t true.

    The 2Ms shouldn''t even know about me.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    How would they?

    Unless someone from Dario''s group leaked information about me somehow, whether intentionally or not, to the 2Ms.

    Myra perhaps? But they kidnapped her sister. Hmmm.

    What the 2Ms wanted from me, I had no idea. However, it was clear I wasn''t safe on my own, but I also didn''t want to be with Dario''s group. Staying with Deen was the best option. And her place was awesome. It was like I was having a vacation here.

    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay with still eggs and toast today?¡± Deen said. "I haven''t prepared anything else."

    ¡°Yup, they¡¯re good.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll make something different for you tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°You really don¡¯t have to. I can cook for myself.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I wanted to practice cooking anyway. To take my mind off things.¡± Deen looked at my plate. ¡°Are you already finished?¡± I nodded and took my plate and cup to the sink. She said, ¡°We can go now to visit Ramello at the hospital. It¡¯s best to leave early to avoid the rush hour.¡±

    <hr>

    Ramello was admitted to First Pioneer Hospital. Or rather, Reo and the others dropped him off there anonymously and ran away after.

    I was glad Ramello survived and got the medical treatment he needed. It was a nice and comfy hospital. He almost lost his life protecting me and that should deserve the highest honor. Unfortunately, the nurse told us that he was still unconscious even if no longer in a critical condition.

    ¡°We can¡¯t visit him?¡± Deen asked the nurse.

    ¡°No, ma¡¯am. Only family members with identification are allowed.¡±

    ¡°I thought friends can visit, right?¡±

    ¡°Ma¡¯am, the patient is currently under police protection. We were informed he''s an important witness to a crime.¡±

    ¡°We just want to see how he is. We¡¯re his classmates. It''ll be fast.¡±

    The nurse didn''t relent. ¡°You can take that up with that detective over there,¡± she said, nodding at a tall man wearing a brown trench coat who walked out of the elevator followed by two uniformed cops. With that final rejection, she left us and went back to her work.

    Deen and I looked at each other before approaching the man. He was discussing something with his companions. We didn¡¯t talk to him, just lingered for a moment nearby to catch what they were talking about. The guys in blue referred to him as Lieutenant Hall.

    ¡°That guy is a close friend of Ramello,¡± I said. ¡°He mentioned him before. They are close enough that he considers him his uncle.¡±

    Deen pulled me into the elevator. "Let''s go up and find Ramello," she said.

    "But we don''t know which room he''s in?"

    She waved her hand over the elevator buttons. She pressed a floor and the buttons lit up as we passed by their respective floors. ¡°They came from the sixth floor.¡±

    I raised my brow but didn¡¯t say anything. That has got to be her superpower.

    But what was it?

    When we exited on the sixth floor, we separated to look for Ramello¡¯s room. It was easy to find because it was the only room on that level with a policeman posted outside. We didn¡¯t go near, we were moving suspiciously enough but instead went back down.

    ¡°Ok, we now know how the situation looks,¡± Deen said.

    "Do you think they already know Ramello was at the docks with me?"

    "I don''t think so. If they did, the police would''ve already come looking for you."

    "True. But I should be prepared for the possibility I get investigated. There were cameras at the train station showing us together."

    ¡°Let¡¯s go meet the others to talk about it, and also to plan how Dario can get in Ramello''s room to muddle his memories.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not calling him Blank?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not on a mission and I haven¡¯t been on any mission with them yet. By the way, how are you holding up?"

    ¡°I...I''m good.¡±

    She patted my shoulder. ¡°I know you don¡¯t really want to be a part of this, but these are the cards the world dealt us.¡±

    I nodded with a depressed look on my face.

    ¡°We will all get through this alive. I promise you that.¡±

    I did not respond and only smiled at her, following her back to her car. Deen''s definitely on my side.

    What about the hero wannabe gang? Were they friend or foe?

    I don''t know.

    Nonetheless, I needed them for my protection. They knew about the criminal organization that was interested in me. On the other hand, one of them may be a danger to me. Of course, there was also the matter of punishing Myra, Dario, and Everett under Rule #4. But that had to take a backseat for now while I sorted this shit out. I didn''t want to get kidnapped again.

    Something useful did come from that kidnapping. Rofirio, that purple-haired creep, essentially confirmed there was a way to stop, or at least slow down, the Adumbrae taking over the mind while retaining the powers they gave¡ªit was with consuming brains of monsters.

    That was it, right?

    Right. There was...this feeling...telling me I should consume others with powers to save myself. Was this urge just a residue from when I was in beast mode?

    I didn''t have any clue how to stop the Adumbrae from taking over my body. It should be impossible; that was general knowledge. However, the Adumbrae working with the 2Ms might''ve found a way. That was their goal after all. And maybe, that was what Rofirio was doing.

    I couldn''t expect any help from Dario and his group. They''d kill me if they knew I was an Adumbrae. But what if I tried out what Rofirio said?

    That was why I ate him back then.

    My thinking may be wrong, but so far, the only visible abnormality on my body remained to be the small crystal on my palm. It hadn¡¯t grown or anything. And I was able to return to my human form after transforming into a huge monster.

    So, maybe I''m right!

    Rule #8 prevented me from killing myself, which consequently meant I also couldn''t throw away my sole lead at survival. I planned to use Dario and his group to get me to the rest of Rofirio''s group, their experiments, the Adumbrae among their ranks, any information that could help me, and all potential food to consume.

    But what if we eventually won? What if there were no more bad guys? No more food for me?

    We will all get through this alive, Deen¡¯s promise echoed in my head as we traveled in her car.

    No.

    That wouldn¡¯t happen.

    After I eat all mutant experiments, all the Adumbraes I could find, and there were no more, I''d move on to the remaining group of people with powers. I gave Deen a sideways glance as she concentrated on driving. I had no qualms eating Myra and the others, but I made a mental apology to Deen because there may come a time I''d have to eat her too.

    Only I will get through this alive.

 2.1

    Why did you want to go to law school?

    I was asked this question during my interview for Cresthorne Law. Other interviews also ask some variation of that question; I did get asked that during the interview for my undergrad of business administration.

    In both instances, I went auto-pilot mode, spewing bullshit that would make me look good. I was an expert in giving the generic ¡®correct¡¯ answer called for by the situation and feigning conviction behind my statements. But then again, the interviewer had no doubt heard those sorts of answers many times before and would''ve accepted it regardless of perceived sincerity.

    The difference for law school was a certain pressure to give an answer that sounded ¡®socially responsible¡¯, if that was the right term. ¡®Making money¡¯¡ªfix it up a bit to sound professional and not too greedy¡ªwas a perfectly acceptable answer for business school. But saying you want to land a well-paying job at a high-powered law firm, the American dream, wouldn''t cut it for a law school interview.

    That goes doubly so for Cresthorne Law, which was geared towards legal practice in the field of Adumbrae. We were practically required to give the help-in-the-fight-against-Adumbrae-in-our-own-way answer. Most Cresthorne students did have that noble goal in their hearts, although how long that nobility stays within them was a different question. Heck, we even got Deen wanting to play hero, resorting to illegal means to gain powers.

    How about me? What was the true reason I wanted to go to law school?

    That¡¯s simple: Gain skills to correctly interpret the Rules and be able to faithfully follow them.

    The Rules governed my life.

    But they weren¡¯t as simple as they seemed. Rule #7, do not do anything that would break the character of the face I have on, for one, had very broad applications.

    Back in high school, I was using my default timid face, not only because it fit well with my appearance, but it was also the easiest one to use and has the fewest restrictions. Some bitch thought it was a wise idea to bully me. It was so frustrating because I couldn¡¯t directly fight back due to Rule #7. I had to put in so much effort to make everyone hate her¡ªefforts I¡¯d rather not detail¡ªand by our senior year, even her gal-pals bitch-squad abandoned her.

    I was a vengeful, petty little brat in high school, but very proud of my work.

    In the end, her only remaining friend was, get this¡­ me. A true divine comedy.

    The persona I had on was the only one who didn¡¯t hate her in the entire school. In desperation for human connection, she approached me. She made a heartfelt apology and shared all the hardships she went through because everyone avoided her and wouldn¡¯t even share the same table with her. I had no fucking choice but to forgive her because of Rule #7. I did have lots of fun hearing about her suffering¡ªthat I caused¡ªbut I couldn¡¯t gloat in front of her because of, again, the extensive coverage of Rule #7.

    To be fair...both of us came out a better person after that.

    She became a decent human being and had only me to thank for it. On my part, I came to realize that gloating after making a person suffer wasn''t the right way. Gloating meant I wanted to see the other person¡¯s reaction, which in turn meant I valued their reaction.

    Which I shouldn¡¯t.

    Because that¡¯s stupid.

    This time, I had a novel problem when it came to the application of the Rules.

    Do they apply when I''m transformed?

    I''d been staying at Amber Deen¡¯s house for a week now, spending my nights pondering this question. No satisfactory definitive answer has yet come to mind during my internal deliberations. The dilemma was mostly due to one of my views that my transformed body was a different person altogether. A counterpoint was that my mind was still the same, so the Rules should still be effective, right?

    Could this situation be considered analogous to a person changing citizenship, hence getting affected by a different set of laws and whatnot? Like if a married couple who were citizens of a country where divorce was illegal¡ªnot sure how many countries were still that conservative¡ªwent here in the US to get a divorce, they¡¯d still be married because the laws of the country of citizenship governed civil status. But if they somehow got US citizenship, they can obtain a binding divorce. At least, that was my understanding of it. We hadn''t gone that far yet in my International Law class.

    Did the Rules follow my original body, since they were made for it, such that having a different body meant a different set of Rules?

    I dunno...

    But enough of that.

    Tonight, I decided to have a break from studying the different ways of interpreting and applying the law for some experimentation.

    Deen and her older sister left to attend some fancy party hosted by a family friend of theirs, a wealthy business tycoon who recently opened a five-star hotel. And so, they were gone for the night.

    Before leaving, Deen repeated a dozen times why I should remain inside her house, detailing all their state-of-the-art security system. I think people from a security agency would even come to the house if there was a break-in, and they were guaranteed to arrive before the police. Very fancy.

    Of course, Deen couldn¡¯t lock me in the house. She did leave with me the keys.

    I''m going out. Sorry, Deen.

    My destination was a mansion under construction at the edge of Poblacion Verde. It was about twenty minutes of brisk jogging from Deen¡¯s house. From the looks of it, it was going to be a huge house, and would surely be as luxurious, if not more, than the houses around it. I bet the piece of land it was on was even more expensive than Deen¡¯s because it was in a secluded portion of Poblacion Verde; exclusivity in a cramped city like La Esperanza was premium. I found the half-built house when Deen and I were jogging late afternoon last Friday. There were no workers at this time of the night so it was the perfect place for some privacy.

    I circled to the back of the structure where the construction materials were stacked to avoid any cameras and entered the open part of the house. The only sources of light were the bright moon and the distant streetlights.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    I stepped into what I assumed was going to be the kitchen based on the works already made, gingerly walking in, careful not to move anything out of place, until I reached an open space free from sawdust and gravel.

    I took out the contents of my bag and set them on a nearby workbench. A knife, an empty microwavable container, another container with a couple of raw chicken legs, a third one with fried chicken, and some bandages and ointments for wounds from my own first aid kit.

    Deen might wonder why I had so many chicken legs for dinner. It was so hard to smuggle them out along with the knife while avoiding the security cameras in her house. Why were there so many cameras everywhere nowadays?

    After arranging them neatly on the bench, I spread out clear plastic sheets across the floor, the same one used for wrapping books¡ªI bought some at the mall yesterday. I also fixed across my hips the same plastic wrap fashioned into a skirt. My dark blue velvet dolphin shorts were short enough to be covered by the make-shift skirt. I took off my black sweatshirt and sneakers and set them aside to avoid getting blood on them.

    The chilly wind blew in from the gaps of the roof and wrapped around me, making the hairs on my skin stand on end from the cold. I held my breath as I gripped the knife tightly with my right hand. I placed my left hand on my abdomen and clenched my jaws.

    Here goes.

    The sharp edge of the knife glided across my pale skin like the blades of a figure skater elegantly slicing through the ice. Blood slowly dripped out of my parted skin. It wasn''t enough.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± I gasped. The cut was shallow. And I was healing too fast.

    I steeled myself for another pass of the knife.

    Shit, shit, shit. I couldn¡¯t explain exactly how, but it was extremely grating to cut my stomach compared to the time I stabbed my palm. The blade bit into my flesh a little deeper. I angled it up a notch as I pulled on my skin with my left hand, intentionally slicing off a tiny bit of my flesh.

    Blood raced down my torso, caught by the plastic skirt. I collected the dripping blood with the empty container but some drops missed their mark and landed on my feet and the floor, which was thankfully covered by the plastic sheets. I slid the sliver of my flesh sticking to the knife into the container with my blood.

    I breathed slowly. There was searing pain from the cut but it felt good somewhat, like when you scratch stretch marks. Weird comparison, I know. My rapid healing added to the feeling of euphoria from the pain. This could get addictive.

    Stop that! I slapped myself with as much force as I could muster, rattling my head.

    This was the primary way Adumbrae tricked people into giving up their minds. Give them a body of a superhuman and they''d naturally crave for more...until they weren¡¯t themselves anymore. And it wasn¡¯t only in cases of Adumbrae seeding. There were stringent government regulations on enhancing and augmenting humans for that very same reason. Some people get carried away and weren''t remotely human anymore after so many enhancements.

    I examined the container of my blood with the small piece of my flesh floating on top, a gross garnish on a vampiric drink.

    On to my experiment.

    I didn''t know how I turned into the big bad wolf last time. Or how I returned to my own body. All I could remember was the intense rage at the people attacking me, the inconceivable hunger, the unstoppable desire to consume them, to feel their bones break between my teeth, to chew their soft flesh.

    I summoned my mask, examined it for a couple of seconds, and put it on with a nonchalant shrug.

    A familiar surge of power!

    Strength!

    I looked down to confirm that I had indeed changed. Black gloves with red-tipped claws were on my hands. Braided golden hair flowing down over my chest, check. Hot body with shapely long legs, check and check.

    The gash on my bare midriff healed at an insane speed, so much faster than earlier. The flesh stitched itself like steel getting wielded together. The wound was gone. I could feel the formidable power of the muscles of my jaws. I snapped at the air a couple of times to test out my precious fangs, the impact of the bites running through my skull.

    First up was the fried chicken.

    I took a bite. The crispy skin, juicy meat, and brittle bones offered no resistance, and it tasted like¡­fried chicken. Good fried chicken, I mused, patting myself in my mind. The other fried chicken leg I swallowed whole with my wide mouth. Then I waited for a few minutes, staring around me.

    Nothing.

    Second was the raw chicken legs. I would''ve found them disgusting to eat were I in my original body, but I didn¡¯t mind them now. Another point for the different body, different Rules theory?

    I held up both raw chicken legs and chomped on them at the same time. Wow, what an amazing taste of nothing. A dab of chickeny taste lingered on my tongue, but besides that, there was nothing of note. Raw chicken was bland and rubbery.

    As expected, nothing happened too.

    My working hypothesis was that I needed human flesh and blood to trigger the transformation. I couldn¡¯t exactly raid a graveyard or a coroner¡¯s office or a morgue, nor did I want to. That was where I drew the line. Too icky. I suspected I needed the flesh and blood to be fresh anyway.

    I had to make do with my blood and meat. I opened my mouth and dumped my blood, including the tiny piece of my flesh, down my throat in one go. Shutting my mouth, I swallowed quickly. My stomach rumbled and I held it with my arms, dropping the container to the floor. It tasted so disgusting!

    I vomited, saliva and blood splattering the plastic sheet on the floor.

    The fuck happened?

    This experiment only added more questions. Why did I find my flesh and blood disgusting even though I munched on other people¡¯s body parts with gusto? Did I need to eat a different person to trigger my transformation? What do I do next? Kidnap someone and take a bite out of them? I couldn¡¯t see any other way moving forward.

    My phone rang, making me tense up, wary. I sighed when I saw it was only Deen calling. I removed my mask and reverted to human form. ¡°Hi, Deen,¡± I said, answering the phone. ¡°How¡¯s the party?" I checked my wound. No trace of it remained. There was no need for the first aid kit.

    ¡°It¡¯s the usual¡­boring,¡± she said with a sigh. I had no idea what ¡®the usual¡¯ was supposed to be for someone as rich as her. ¡°I should''ve persuaded Sis to take you too. I think I could''ve snuck you in.¡±

    ¡°No way, I don¡¯t know what to do in those parties. And I don¡¯t have fancy clothes for it.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m going home now because I¡¯m worried about you.¡±

    I pinned the phone between my cheek and shoulder to free my hands and started packing my things. I carefully removed my plastic skirt and wrapped it with the plastic sheets covering the floor. ¡°Worried? Why? Nothing¡¯s going to happen to me. I''m outside doing some jogging actually.¡± I didn¡¯t lie about leaving the house because of the security cameras.

    ¡°What?!¡± Deen said, nearly yelling. ¡°Someone might¡­pick you up again.¡± I wondered why she didn¡¯t use the word ¡®kidnap¡¯. Did she think I was going to be sensitive about it? ¡°Where are you right now?¡±

    ¡°Just around here. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m going back to your house.¡±

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll get home in about thirty minutes. We have to prepare for guests tonight.¡±

    ¡°Guests? Who?¡±

    ¡°The group will be there later. My sister will stay over at her boyfriend¡¯s flat tonight so we have the house to ourselves. Dario called for a meeting.¡±

    I raised my brow in interest. ¡°Really? What¡¯s it about?¡±

    ¡°He said he has a new lead in pursuing the 2Ms.¡±

    I smiled. Seems like I won¡¯t have to bite off the leg of a homeless man in some back alley to continue my experiment. Those kidnappers wouldn''t mind me experimenting on them now, would they?

 2.2

    Nothing can beat a hot shower after a jog to wash away the sticky sweat and dirt from my body. Okay, that wasn''t accurate because a lot of things can beat a hot shower, like that helicopter with machine guns and missiles that tried to kill me at the docks. It was also a fact that a shower normally didn¡¯t fight back, so it was pretty easy to beat.

    But it was still awesome. Especially if you were using a full body shower system with eight body massage shower jets and an overhead rainfall shower, all of which had independent controls for pressure and temperature.

    Just saying I could do a lot with this shower.

    As I wondered how expensive all of this was, I ran my finger across my wound on my abdomen, now a scar, and even that scar was fading quickly. Soon, there would be no trace of it whatsoever. My flawless skin would be back. Fine, my skin was not really flawless, but it could be if I used Deen¡¯s celeb-level, luxury skincare products long enough.

    Deciding that I spent enough time racking up Deen¡¯s water bill, I turned off the shower, dried myself, and dressed up in comfy shirt and shorts. Some of Deen¡¯s friends were already hanging out below, and yes, those fake Corebrings weren¡¯t my friends.

    It was about time I made friends with them though. I might get a clue of what they really wanted with me and Deen, why Myra attacked us in the first place, or how did the 2Ms know about me.

    They held plenty of secrets, but I also had mine. And I''d hold my trump card close for as long as possible while I was still trying to get my bearings in the midst of all of this crap.

    The sound of the news blaring from a TV echoed through the spiral staircase as I descended to the entertainment room-slash-den-of-sorts where the meeting was going to be held. I caught snippets of it: the reporter talking about the investigation of the Sanders fire, some safety permit issues, the status of the injured, and the funeral of the dead.

    ¡°Switch the channel,¡± Myra said. I stopped going down, deciding to eavesdrop for a bit. ¡°Why are we even watching this?¡± she said. ¡°Too much annoying stuff in the news.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m checking if there''s something about what happened at the docks,¡± said a voice I recognized to be Johann''s. I met him only once before. Tall, serious face, a bit lanky, but also had broad shoulders. I recalled he worked at the police station in the Adumbrae Investigation Unit. I was sure he wasn¡¯t a cop, but I didn¡¯t exactly get what his job there was. A technician?

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Myra?¡± Deen said. ¡°And do you guys have any clue who attacked us at the mall? They should be brought to justice, not just for attacking us but also for injuring and killing those people.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, Myra. Those people should pay for what they did, right?¡± Reo said with subtle sarcasm that I picked up.

    ¡°Yes, they should,¡± Myra said, sounding strained.

    I smirked. I wondered how Everett was holding up knowing he killed two people, even if unintentionally. I wouldn''t care if I was in his shoes. He seemed like a normal decent person so he should be bothered by it.

    Surprisingly, Everett spoke up. "They needlessly died in that fire. If only..."

    Deen, apparently oblivious to the truth of the matter, said, ¡°Don¡¯t get disheartened. You couldn¡¯t save everyone there. But you saved me and Erind, and we¡¯re thankful for that. What we need to do is make sure the 2Ms don¡¯t do it again.¡±

    Everett said something I couldn¡¯t make out.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough,¡± Johann said. ¡°Look the news already changed.¡±

    That was my cue. I stepped loudly down the stairs and went inside the room. ¡°Hello,¡± I said. ¡°Dario¡¯s not here yet?¡±

    ¡°Not yet,¡± Deen said. ¡°But he texted me that he¡¯s near. Have a seat, Erind. I heated some cookies over there at the bar. Some chips too, if you want.¡±

    ¡°Cookies and chips? Looks like we¡¯re having a playdate,¡± I said.

    ¡°Sorry I couldn¡¯t prepare anything better. I didn¡¯t have the time.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, really.¡±

    Deen¡¯s game room was not that huge, but huge enough for a pool table, the latest Imago Virtual Reality system, a minibar, and a bunch of beanbags of assorted colors congregating around a widescreen¡ªprobably fifty, maybe fifty-five inches. I didn¡¯t take any of the snacks and plopped myself down on one of the beanbags.

    The disgusting taste of my blood persisted on my tongue, making me lose my appetite. I brushed my mouth with so much intensity it bled¡ªobviously very hard to do given my regenerative abilities¡ªbut the repulsive taste didn¡¯t leave.

    The others weren''t keen on continuing their conversation, and Deen didn¡¯t know what to say, so all of us just watched the news with awkward silence.

    The newscaster for XYTV reported, ¡°The situation at Madagascar is now escalating with the appearance of the third Category Kreggan, Titan Class Adumbrae earlier today, prompting the Gerhard International Research Alliance to recommend to the UN Security Council to raise an alert for a possible Purple Bloom. The Free Will Initiative have already deployed their drones looking for the Purple Bloom.¡±

    Reo whistled. ¡°A Purple Bloom? Wow. Is Madagascar far from us?¡± he said, asking the question that I also thought of when the first Kreggan was reported at Madagascar.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s off the southeastern coast of South Africa.¡±

    The new caster continued, ¡°However, field correspondent Henry Leedy is here to give us good news. Henry?¡±

    A male reporter appeared on screen wearing a bulletproof vest over his attire. He was in a military camp. ¡°Yes, Caitlyn, very good news. A spokesperson from the UNSC forces deployed here informed us that the third Kreggan, designated as XV-03, may have been eliminated.¡±

    The screen switched to a video of said Adumbrae. It took the form of a four-armed, six-legged giant centaur, about half as tall as the Statue of Liberty, with skeletal wings. A huge spear pierced its body¡ªlike it was stabbed with a telephone pole¡ªentering from above its right shoulder and out its lower left side. Two of its excessively long treelike arms were trying to remove the spear while the other hands swatted at the drones and helicopters peppering it with gunfire and missiles. It had the face of a human baby with sprawling antlers of a deer, bawling, crying out in pain.

    ¡°Holy fuck,¡± Myra exclaimed.

    ¡°Holy fuck,¡± Johann confirmed.

    We were all transfixed at the TV. The reporter said as the video played, ¡°As you can see, this footage is not distorted compared to previous ones of the other Kreggans. That is because the US army has successfully hit XV-03 with an Eloyce Reality Wedge, minimizing its reality rending abilities. The Wedge has been converted to be fired from a rail-gun ship. This video was taken an hour ago before the US military had begun bombarding XV-03 with kinetic missiles from the new orbital weapons satellite Longinus. We are now trying to confirm the status of the Adumbrae. This may be the first time in history that human weaponry has brought down a Kreggan.¡±

    ¡°Longinus?¡± Myra said.

    ¡°That¡¯s the name of the Roman soldier who stabbed the side of Jesus Christ with a spear,¡± I said.

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    ¡°Wow, you know some stuff,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°People know stuff, Reo,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Why did they name it that?" he said, ignoring Myra. "I¡¯m not into religious symbolism but are they saying they could kill gods with that? That we don¡¯t need the Corebrings anymore against the Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t equate Adumbrae to gods," said Johann. "More like demons and the Corebrings are gods.

    "And we¡¯re the puny humans stuck in between their fight," Myra interjected.

    Reo leaned back and pointed at the TV. "The question should be: is the government thinking of using that Longinus against the Corebrings?¡±

    ¡°Hopefully not,¡± Everett said in a barely audible voice. ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯re fighting for, right? At least remove one reason for normal humans to fight the Corebrings, even if we ourselves aren¡¯t normal humans anymore.¡±

    Again, everyone descended to awkward silence, only to be broken by the sound of the doorbell.

    ¡°That must be Dario,¡± said Deen, relieved.

    It was indeed him. He entered the room following Deen who opened the front door for him. ¡°Can I connect to the TV?" he said. "Got some pics and vids to show you guys.¡± After Deen helped him, he turned to us. ¡°Okay, update, I tried what I can with your friend, Ramello. I¡¯m not sure what he remembers, he was pretty banged up anyway. He probably won¡¯t remember much even if I didn¡¯t use my powers on him. But we need to check up on him, okay?¡±

    ¡°Erind and I are on it,¡± Deen said.

    Woah, I¡¯m part of your group? Okay, sure. I nodded. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll talk to Ramello when he gets back to school.¡±

    ¡°Next topic is the 2Ms, the Mark and Big Marcy brothers. The initial story for the docks incident was something with dangerous chemicals, but now they''re saying it''s connected to smuggling. At the moment, the police are treating it as a fight between groups of organized crime syndicates operating here in the city. I don¡¯t know how it got twisted to that, but here we are.¡±

    ¡°The case got assigned to someone who I''m sure is in the 2Ms'' pocket,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Because of what happened, the 2Ms are lying low. My leads on their operations have dried up. Luckily, the Professor was able to supply us with new information.¡± Dario showed us a picture of a woman on the screen with silver hair in a fashionable bob cut. She had beautiful olive skin, delicate yet sharp facial features, including high, well-defined cheekbones, and curiously silver pupils that matched her hair. ¡°I present to you Bianca Eleanor Ceressa.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s hot,¡± Reo hooted. ¡°Wait, she looks familiar. I don¡¯t watch TV much, but I think I''ve seen her somewhere before.¡±

    ¡°Bianca is a niece of Mario Ceressa, which you may recognize as the owner of a famous chain of luxury hotels. Their family also owns the Royal Ceressa Cruise lines¡ªvery subtle naming sense¡ªand they also have stocks in the bio-augmentronics industry.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I remember now! She¡¯s in that reality show¡­forgot the name. Bianca¡¯s Travel Diary?¡±

    ¡°You watch that?¡± Myra said to Reo in a judging tone.

    ¡°No, but I see it sometimes when I flip channels.¡±

    Dario cleared his throat. ¡°Going back on track here. The Professor said she''s a prospective customer of the 2Ms. We need to get close to her and try to find out the location of the Red Island.¡±

    Red Island? I planned to just keep quiet, sit back and make myself small, but I was interested in possible food sources. I raised my hand. ¡°What¡¯s the Red Island?¡±

    ¡°Right, both of you still don¡¯t know about it,¡± Dario said. ¡°As I''ve explained, our enemies are trying to get the powers of the Adumbrae without getting taken over by them. The 2Ms already have a sort of prototype technology that does that to some extent. They offer this to the rich and powerful in return for funding and all kinds of support. And these customers of theirs are operated on at the Red Island. I believe it''s also on this island where they keep their experiments and do some sort of maintenance on their customers.¡±

    ¡°So they wouldn¡¯t turn into a monster like the one at the docks?¡± I said innocently.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Dario said. ¡°The 2Ms dropped the ball on that one. I suspect it was a person that was recently operated on. Or maybe they were trying to make a mutant to sell as a weapon. If only we knew about it earlier then we could''ve staked out the docks. But now, I have no idea about their movements. Perhaps our best lead is Bianca here.¡± He jabbed his thumb at the screen. He showed us more pictures and videos of her.

    ¡°Those silver eyes look beautiful but also creepy,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Augments,¡± Johann said. ¡°She has the money for them.¡±

    ¡°Oh, they¡¯re contacts,¡± Reo said. We all looked at him. ¡°She showed that she¡¯s just wearing contacts for fashion in her show.¡±

    ¡°You were really watching her show!¡±

    Reo shrugged. ¡°She said she''s against any augments or enhancements. It¡¯s odd she wants to be a customer of the 2Ms.¡±

    ¡°This is the information provided by the Professor,¡± said Dario, ¡°so I trust it.¡± He next showed us a video of Bianca with two bodyguards. ¡°I think you know about them, Reo?¡± he said.

    ¡°Since my TV viewing habits are already exposed, might as well. They¡¯re fraternal twins, a guy and a gal. Zachary and Xazary. Pretty cool names. I have seen them a few times on the show shadowing Bianca. Based on the rumors on the internet from forums that I will not admit I browse, they''re both not only augmented but also enhanced to the max, like performance-enhancing drugged-up galore, pumped high to the sky.¡±

    ¡°My sources also say their bio-augmentronics might rival Jim Ambrose¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s dead now though,¡± Myra muttered. "That electric fuck punched me."

    Reo grinned. ¡°Served him right.¡±

    ¡°What do we do next?¡± Johann said.

    ¡°That¡¯s why we¡¯re meeting tonight. The Professor only provided me with this information. It''s up to us to decide our actions. Bianca is currently in this city, no doubt negotiating with the 2Ms. We should find her then get close to her. Maybe Myra can disguise¡ª¡±

    ¡°Me? Why me? You don¡¯t mean to tell me I¡¯ll dress up and try to befriend her?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll get close to her!¡± Obviously, it was Reo who said that.

    "I''m not disguising myself. I''ll get found out right away."

    ¡°Wait,¡± Dario said, ¡°we¡¯re just brainstorming here.¡±

    Deen¡¯s hand shot up and everyone stopped bickering. ¡°If I may, I have a suggestion. You see, I also have seen Bianca. Not on TV, but personally. Earlier I was at a party and I saw her there. If you can just find the places she''ll go to while she''s in the city, maybe a bar or a restaurant, then I¡¯ll try to get close to her. I don¡¯t personally know her, but it¡¯s easy to strike up a conversation since we have common friends.¡±

    ¡°Wow. Can you ask for her autograph?¡± Reo said. Myra punched him on the shoulder.

    ¡°That seems to be our best bet for now,¡± Dario said. ¡°Are you okay going alone? We could have Myra go with you¡ª¡±

    ¡°How about I go with Deen?¡± I said. ¡°I can be Deen¡¯s sidekick since she already has queen bee vibes. I¡¯ll be perfect to tag along with her.¡±

    ¡°But the 2Ms already know your face,¡± Everett said.

    "Bianca doesn''t."

    Deen said, "Will it matter?"

    "What if they''re watching Bianca because she''s going to be one of them and then they''ll spot Erind?"

    "That''s such a small chance though."

    ¡°We can disguise Erind to be safe," Reo said. "That¡¯s way better than trying to disguise a gorilla like Myra.¡± His statement earned him another punch. ¡°But seriously, you can¡¯t expect Myra to act all fancy and girly and all that.¡±

    ¡°It''ll be assuring to have Erind by my side," Deen said. I was expecting her to turn me down. "I think my power is enough to protect us. And we''ll pick a public place anyway, we¡¯re not going to follow them somewhere dangerous.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure about this, Erind?¡± Dario said, looking at me straight in the eye. ¡°This is going to be dangerous.¡±

    ¡°Our existence is already dangerous,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°Well, we have fifty percent chance of getting out of this alive,¡± I said, trying to be humorous and get closer to them.

    ¡°Fifty percent? How so?¡±

    ¡°Either we get out alive¡­or we don¡¯t.¡± That elicited a few chuckles.

    Deen said, ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how math works.¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s why I became a law student and not a mathematician.¡±

 2.3

    Although Deen and I volunteered to try and get close to Bianca¡ªand I think Deen had a pretty good shot of making friends with her; better than Myra for sure¡ªDario was still worried there might be no opportunity to meet her in the first place.

    Johann found the hotel she was staying in because some cops had escorted her there when she arrived in the city; special favor from the mayor was the rumor. The rest of the team tried to stake out the hotel for the next couple of days, but they didn¡¯t have the free time to do it round the clock, and they wouldn¡¯t even know if Bianca left the hotel in a heavily tinted car anyway; she was a celebrity and surely had experience avoiding paparazzi.

    Fate, however, was on our side when we, or rather Reo, found out that Bianca decided to shoot her stay here in the city for an episode of Bianca¡¯s Travel Diary. It included visiting various nightclubs, bars, trendy places boasted by La Esperanza.

    We should just pick the right place.

    ¡°What''s this ¡®Olympus Mons¡¯?¡± I said, scrolling through Bianca¡¯s website on my phone. She picked the places where she would visit from the suggestions of her fans and put up a schedule online so her fans could see her.

    ¡°That¡¯s the nightclub in the basement of Mars Hotel,¡± Deen said. We were hanging out at the cafeteria of Cresthorne early in the morning. As expected, there was no one else here, and hopefully, no more suiciding people would suddenly appear. It was the perfect place to sit down and plan. ¡°I¡¯ve been there twice, maybe six out of ten. Mixed style of vintage and modern. Not for me.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not one of those exclusive places with bouncers at the entrance?¡±

    ¡°Nope. It¡¯s really pricey though. And Bianca¡¯s going there at night, right? That place is going to be packed. I doubt we could get in.¡±

    ¡°How about this place, ¡®Eve¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Eve is very exclusive. I¡¯m surprised they¡¯re going to let her film. You need to be invited by someone who¡¯s a regular there.¡± Deen drank coffee from her tumbler and shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know anyone who has been there. Maybe sis does? Not sure.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not familiar with these places,¡± I said, handing her my phone.

    ¡°Wow, she¡¯s going to a lot of clubs and bars here. How about we cross off the places she¡¯ll be going at night? They¡¯ll be surely full of people and we¡¯ll have a hard time trying to get close to her.¡±

    ¡°Okay, afternoon then. It¡¯s annoying she keeps on changing her schedule for the day.¡±

    ¡®Wait, she has a new post. ¡®Arthouria Infinity¡¯¡­Oh! I know this one. It¡¯s on top of the Arthouria Hotel. And she¡¯s going there this afternoon.¡±

    ¡°We got a shot with that one?¡±

    ¡°Maybe? It¡¯s a rooftop bar of a five-star hotel so it''s pretty expensive. The upside is we don¡¯t need to be on a reserved list to get in.¡± Deen took out her phone and started texting. ¡°I¡¯m going to tell the others about this. We go there after class. I think we can have our lunch there¡ª¡±

    ¡°Lunch with drinks?¡±

    Deen laughed. ¡°Yeah. If we get there early, we¡¯ll already have a spot to relax. And we¡¯ll just wait for her.¡±

    ¡°Cool. Any ideas on how to start the conversation with her?¡±

    ¡°That I don¡¯t know.¡±

    <hr>

    Ramello still hadn''t come back to class. I heard he was already out of the hospital and spending several days at home to recover. He hadn¡¯t attempted to contact me, so I assumed he didn¡¯t remember we were together before he got pummeled. If everything worked out, he wouldn¡¯t remember anything connected to me.

    After class, Deen helped me fix up a feeble attempt at a disguise. I wore a wig and she styled me with heavier makeup than usual that practically turned me into a different person. I was so used to wearing light makeup that I was surprised with Deen''s handiwork. Bianca didn''t know who I was anyway, so I felt this was unnecessary. What were the chances the 2Ms sent people to watch her? They wouldn''t bother. If they did have people trailing her, what was the likelihood one of them knew my face? The guy who did probably got killed by yours truly at the docks.

    I still had no clue why the 2Ms targeted me or what they wanted with me, and that made me a tiny bit apprehensive with getting close to a prospective client of theirs. But the faster the 2Ms were brought down, the sooner I''d have peace of mind and not be cautious of another kidnapping.

    The destruction of their base at the docks and the death of many of their men might''ve given the 2Ms a pause on whatever they planned to do with me. I had time to try and find out what the fuck was up with them.

    Deen drove us to our meeting place, a coffee shop a couple of blocks away from Arthouria Hotel. Everett and Reo were already there. They were the only ones available at such short notice.

    "Hi, girls," Reo said, removing his sunglasses when we entered the cafe.

    "Shades indoors?" Deen said.

    "I was going for a spy...mission...uh...undercover look. You get what I mean."

    "You just look more suspicious," Everett said.

    We discussed our plan, which was basically we try to make friends with Bianca...just on the fly.

    We sucked.

    There was no actual concrete plan beyond Deen having common friends with Bianca. Reo and Everett were going to be backup if something went wrong. But what could the two of them do if the mission went downhill?

    ¡°Are you going to use your fairy?¡± I asked in a whisper to Reo.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s too far,¡± he said. ¡°Way too far for me to maintain the connection with my fairy. The bar is at the top of the hotel, I''ll be at street level."

    "Can''t you find a place inside the hotel?"

    "I refuse to kneel for hours inside a handicapped bathroom stall. It¡¯s too easy to get caught.¡±

    "How about I book a room?" Deen said.

    "That''s too expensive," I said. From Deen''s expression, I could tell she didn''t care about costs. "And we''ll leave a record when we use your credit card."

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    "You''re right. Better not do it."

    ¡°We¡¯ll be here outside,¡± Everett said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Just call us and we''ll be there.¡±

    "As fast as the elevator could take us from the ground floor to the top," Reo said with a laugh.

    <hr>

    The open-air bar of Arthouria was bordered by an infinity pool instead of the usual pool in the middle with the lounge chairs at the sides. It had a very chic design and offered an unmatched view of the city, the other skyscrapers bowing before it. The price point matched the luxury they afforded their customers. They charged a cover just to get in, and the prices of the food and drinks were so expensive they weren¡¯t even written on the menu.

    The sort of people who didn¡¯t care what was on their bill came here.

    The sort of people like Deen.

    Sometimes, I pitied guys taking us girls out on dates. Society placed such a huge burden on them to pay the bill, and I wouldn¡¯t wish paying the bill of this place on my worst enemy.

    It was a weekday afternoon, right after lunchtime, however, there were way more people here than we expected, especially given the ridiculous prices. Bianca was clearly the reason for that. Her crew was already on-site, setting up stuff, and after half an hour Bianca herself showed up with her two bodyguards, Zachary and Xazary.

    I wasn¡¯t a drinker. I just stretched the drink Deen ordered for me while we watched Bianca shoot her show. Rays of the Sun was the name of the drink, I think. I don''t like it. What kind of person put spices in their drink? Christopher Columbus didn¡¯t accidentally discover America and kill the natives while looking for the spice islands of Asia just for spice to be put in drinks.

    After her shooting, Bianca sat down on a table away from everyone else. To my surprise, her bodyguards called her fans to form a line for autographs. I thought she was a bitchy type of person that only had a pleasant personality in front of the camera but was a total primadonna in real life.

    Sorry for assuming the worst in people, I thought sarcastically.

    ¡°Should we go too?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°She barely spends time talking to them. Just a picture and autograph. She''s probably rushing to get to the next location. Want an autograph to give to Reo?¡±

    ¡°We didn¡¯t think this through.¡± Deen''s brows furrowed.

    I chewed on my tongue, thinking of a plan. We could go up to her and mention the rich people friends of Deen which she may know. Still, that didn¡¯t mean she''d stay and chat with us. Deen was right. We didn''t think this through.

    Deen stood up. ¡°I¡¯m going to line up too.¡±

    I held her hand. ¡°Wait.¡± I checked around to see if there was anything I could use. Something sharp. There! One of Bianca''s crew was using a cutter to open a box of what I assumed were souvenirs for her fans. It looked like a stationary cutter where you could break off the end of the blade when it became too dull. I pulled Deen down and whispered, ¡°Wait here for me. I''ll be gone for just a minute. Think of a story for Bianca or something. We go when she¡¯s meeting with her last fan on the line.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Deen said. ¡°You have a plan?¡±

    ¡°Trust me on this.¡±

    She looked confused but nodded.

    I walked to the employee with the cutter. ¡°Excuse me, miss?¡±

    ¡°Hi, ma¡¯am, are you here for the free shirts? We give them after you have met with Miss Bianca. We only have limited stocks though, but we¡¯ll try to give one to everyone. Kindly form a line there.¡± She pointed at the line by the poolside snaking to Bianca¡¯s table. Bianca was posing with a group of fans for a picture.

    ¡°Oh, I''m going to line up later. I''m just wondering if I can borrow your cutter for a minute?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­¡±

    ¡°It''ll be quick, promise. I just want to cut a stationary into a shape before I have it signed by Bianca.¡± I grabbed the cutter from her hands when I saw her hesitate. ¡°Thank you very much! Just a sec.¡± I walked away before she could complain.

    As soon as I turned my back to her, I pushed up the blade of the cutter. Next, I removed the back portion. The cap at the end could be used to remove the end of the blade that has dulled, revealing the next fresh sharp edge. I slotted the blade into the slit of the cap and in one swift motion, broke the blade. The small blade went into my pocket. I assembled the cutter back together and gave it to the assistant who came running after me. I mumbled an apology and went to find Deen.

    ¡°I''m back."

    ¡°Now will you tell me your plan?" Deen said. "What were you doing over there?¡±

    I explained it to her as we waited for the line of fans to end. Deen wasn¡¯t a hundred percent on board with it, but couldn''t suggest any alternative.

    Bianca was all smiles when she greeted us. She was so good at making a face that I couldn¡¯t tell whether she was faking it or not. ¡°Do you guys want to take a pic?¡± she said, noticing we didn¡¯t bring anything she could write on like her other fans.

    ¡°We saw you at the party last time,¡± I said. Bianca raised her brow. I nudged Deen.

    ¡°Yes, we''ve met before,¡± Deen said a bit too shakily. She wasn¡¯t lying though; she really did see Bianca at the party she attended the night I experimented drinking my blood. Deen composed herself and explained to Bianca who she was and when they met.

    Bianca, without missing a stride, talked to Deen like they were long-lost friends, recounting the party. Deen could only keep up the conversation for so long. Bianca would eventually leave and go to her next scheduled shooting.

    Time for me to butt in. ¡°Deen here really wanted to meet you for a different reason though. I mean different from the one you''re thinking. This won¡¯t take too much of your time if we can talk a bit...¡±

    ¡°Wait, who are you again?¡± Bianca said to me. I hadn¡¯t introduced myself to her. ¡°Were you even there at the party?¡± she asked, mildly annoyed.

    ¡°Yeah, but I was just at the sides. I¡¯m Deen¡¯s sort of plus-one wherever she goes. No, not in a relationship sense, we¡¯re both straight. I meant that I¡¯m the one who knows her secret.¡±

    Deen said, ¡°I know we¡¯re, erm, forbidden from knowing about each other, but I very much want to be friends with someone like me.¡±

    ¡°Like you?¡± Bianca said. Xazary who was standing beside her approached us with her hand out, ready to shoo us away. We probably looked like crazed fans at that moment.

    I took Deen¡¯s hand, held it on the table, and took out the blade I nicked earlier. Xazary¡¯s hand, gloved in black, and a few inches away from us, started to vibrate. Gold lines glowed beneath the leather, burning through it. We were a few seconds from having our faces blown off, which would admittedly make a pretty epic episode of Bianca¡¯s Travel Diary, probably the best episode to date, but I¡¯d rather that it wouldn¡¯t go that way.

    ¡°Please take a look,¡± I said, as I cut deep into Deen¡¯s palm.

    Xazary was about to lunge at us.

    ¡°Stop,¡± Bianca said, her voice curt and commanding authority. It was just one word but it was as if a different person spoke compared to the amiable, socialite celebrity host we were talking to a moment ago. Xazary withdrew her hand, her glove still smoldering. Hints of silver machinery showed through the holes.

    Blood spurted out of the cut on Deen¡¯s palm, then the wound quickly healed and disappeared. I cut it deep enough that the unnatural healing of the wound was observable.

    ¡°She¡¯s very squeamish about it,¡± I said. ¡°So she told me to cut it. I know about Deen¡¯s secret of being a¡­um.¡±

    ¡°A member of the you-know-what club,¡± Deen continued. ¡°I¡¯ve heard rumors you were in town because you planned on becoming a¡­member¡­too. Our identities are kept secret from each other and the only ones who know, besides you-know-who, are the people who help us with our daily lives. Obviously, they have to know. Like my best friend here.¡±

    ¡°But Deen also wants to be friends with someone like her,¡± I said. ¡°I had to force her to do this. We''re very sorry we had to do it in such a creepy way.¡±

    Xazary stooped down and whispered to Bianca¡¯s ear. A fleeting look of irritation swept through Bianca¡¯s beautiful face. She waved Xazary away. ¡°Can¡¯t you see I¡¯m talking to my friends? Move the schedule of the next place, I don¡¯t care what you do, that¡¯s not my problem. Call the waiter, let¡¯s have something to eat for my newfound friends.¡±

    I smirked inwardly. I guessed right. Bianca was like me.

    But she was a novice at this game. You don¡¯t break your face under any circumstance, you stupid bitch. This was the reason for Rule #7. Someone like you might notice who you were, and at that point, you''ve already lost.

 2.4

    When Dad was still in the land of the officially alive, we used to have his and Mom¡¯s friends over for a barbeque on Saturdays. One of them, Auntie Carla, was obsessed with watching a documentary series about serial killers and she made all of them watch at least one episode each time while waiting for the food.

    Pretty little me, running all over the house, watched it sometimes as well, but I didn¡¯t really pay it any mind. A vague feeling of understanding was all I had of the people featured in it. Eventually, Mom got hooked and watched stuff like it even after Dad was gone. Murder mysteries, crime scene investigations, unsolved cases, Mom used to love them.

    Maybe they reminded her of the simpler times when Dad was still around.

    These shows were my first exposure to other...not-so-normal people. And they were very interesting. Oftentimes, the shows included studies trying to explain their minds, mostly conducted on the prison population, more like solely conducted on prisoners. I guess, they were most accessible¡ªthey weren''t going anywhere. Also, I doubted if people like me would go to a psychologist of our own volition.

    Why would we? There was nothing wrong with us.

    I know, I know. The definition of ''wrong'' was highly debatable.

    One thing these shows didn¡¯t highlight or even understood, was that they were only able to ¡°spot¡± these people because they had no more interest in keeping their masks up. Yes, I say ¡®masks¡¯ because they took it off eventually.

    A ¡®face¡¯ was never taken off, because there is nothing underneath, duh.

    A ¡®face¡¯ was the truth to the person it was made for. If twenty individuals knew me by such particular face, and only I was aware of what was underneath, then who cared that that wasn¡¯t the real me? Twenty to one: the societal truth was my ¡®face¡¯.

    Which was why it irritated me to no end whenever I saw a face taken off. At that point, the face becomes a mask. It was like when you see your friend, who had said she was dieting, binge eat a bucket of fried chicken. Like, girl, what are you doing?

    Irritating.

    <hr>

    When a waiter came over, Bianca was back to the friendly and joyful persona she used for her show in a snap. She ordered sandwiches for us and asked us what drinks we wanted. I requested a drink that was on the fruity side with little alcohol content.

    After the waiter left, Bianca leaned back, crossed her legs, and said, ¡°Xaz? How are they?¡± Xazary simply shook her head in response. ¡°Awesome,¡± she said clapping her hands. ¡°I hope you¡¯re not offended that I had Xaz scan you for wires and bugs. You can never be too careful.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you didn¡¯t need to do that,¡± Deen said, nonchalantly waving it off. ¡°If we were with the BID there would be no point for doing this at all.¡±

    I crouched a bit, with my shoulders dropped as low as possible, making myself small. We already made contact. This was the time for Deen to be in control. Be front and center. If I continued butting in, Bianca¡¯s attention would be turned to me. Right now, she was fixated on Deen. She had no reason to mind me. I was a nobody in her eyes.

    ¡°Really?¡± Bianca said.

    ¡°The Panderton Act. The BID is just too powerful with it.¡± Deen gave a dramatic sigh. ¡°I know someone, who I¡¯d rather not name, he disappeared and a week later his family was gathered up for testing.¡±

    Bianca nodded slowly with her eyes in slits. ¡°That is true. I think I''ve heard of that.¡±

    I told Deen to prepare this answer while we were waiting to meet Bianca. ¡®How could I trust you?¡¯ was the question I anticipated Bianca to ask. This was close enough. Remembering my brief conversation with Ramello about the Panderton Act, I told Deen how to answer it. And it was true. The BID would just nab suspected people whether rich or poor. Deen¡¯s story about knowing someone that was taken was a nice touch. Vague enough that Bianca was likely to have heard about something like it.

    Bianca¡¯s logical choice was to believe that we were with the 2Ms. She wouldn¡¯t know about Dario¡¯s gang because she was new here, and I didn''t think the 2Ms would have told her about us. How many people were running around the city with illegal powers anyway?

    More likely than not, they would be connected with the criminal underground of Adumbrae experimentation. At least, that was what Bianca would think.

    ¡°And¡­let''s say I was with the Corebrings. Then you''d be dead,¡± Deen said.

    Bravo, I thought. I didn¡¯t tell her to say that, but it drove home her point.

    ¡°That is also true.¡± Bianca was unfazed and kept on smiling. ¡°It¡¯s good I met you. I must confess I''m anxious about the operation. After seeing your demonstration, it seems worth it.¡±

    ¡°It is,¡± Deen said, eagerly nodding. ¡°The sensation is something hard to explain. Like you''re a new person. Strength and energy you''ve never experienced before.¡± I assumed Deen was truthfully speaking about her own experience.

    ¡°I must ask you, though. How did you know about me? Like you said, our identities are kept secret from each other.¡±

    I swallowed and prayed that Deen could properly answer. This was the other question we were anticipating. We didn''t have a good response for this, but I had two plans to sidestep this question.

    ¡°Once we are members, yes, it¡¯s very hard," Deen said. "What we did was check the list of people who were going to the Red Island. New people are on a different list, you see. A list that''s easier to get.¡± The first part of our plan was name drop ¡®Red Island¡¯ to prove we were in the know.

    Bianca was about to say something when the waiter showed up with food. It was a good thing too because he broke Bianca¡¯s train of thought. I nudged Deen with my foot to talk before Bianca did.

    Deen continued, ¡°Actually, we had help from someone to check the guest list. She¡¯s way older than me, so we can¡¯t really be close friends. You¡¯ll know her eventually. She looks very young compared to her actual age because of all operations done on her. With her new body, she pushed the limit on plastic surgery. Do you also plan to have plastic surgery after your trip to Red Island? I can ask her for the name of her surgeo¡ª¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Bianca hissed. Her face momentarily contorted in rage. And it was back to her friendly expression so fast that if someone else saw it, they''d wonder if they were imagining things.

    This was my second plan. We knew Bianca had something against any operation on her body, so I concocted this story for Deen to tell and divert the conversation this way to elicit a reaction from her. This outcome was both unexpected and also very much welcome.

    ¡°Many people do that, I heard,¡± Deen said, pushing on, acting as if she hadn''t seen Bianca¡¯s outrage. ¡°We have these healing abilities but it doesn¡¯t stop us from aging.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I mean I can understand the older people wanting to look young again. It also matches the young feeling of their bodies.¡±

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Bianca¡¯s nostrils flared. She inhaled deeply to calm herself down. ¡°I''m not turning myself into¡­ to do that. Feeling and looking young? Nonsense.¡±

    ¡°By the way, thank you for the food and drinks you ordered,¡± Deen said, sensing it was time to change the topic. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. Who knows, we might become close friends in the future? Help yourselves.¡± Bianca took one of the club sandwiches on the tray in front of us.

    ¡°We¡¯ll get to know each other more after your trip to the Red Island.¡± Deen switched the topic back to rich people''s social circle stuff, to which Bianca happily obliged. She probably was trying to fish information from us.

    I didn¡¯t dare look as if I was studying my surroundings because I could feel the eyes of Xazary on me. The only places my eyes went were Deen¡¯s face, the food, the drinks, and Bianca¡¯s face. I just nodded once in a while in between sipping my drink while listening to them talk. The sandwich was a no-no for me. A clubhouse sandwich had meat, lettuce, and other stuff in between the bread. Following Rule #2, I had to eat the bread first, leaving the filling for last, and that''d look weird.

    ¡°By the way,¡± Bianca said, ¡°are you going to attend the fight this Saturday night?¡±

    Deen tensed up. She gripped my knee underneath the table. Reacting quickly, I pulled up my phone. ¡°Checking Deen¡¯s schedule,¡± I mumbled. Bianca¡¯s schedule posted on her site was on my recently visited pages. I scanned it as it loaded. ¡°It¡¯s Saturday night at the Eve, remember?¡± I told Deen.

    The ¡®Eve¡¯ was the nightclub I saw on Bianca¡¯s Saturday schedule. Deen had mentioned she had no idea what was inside because it was super exclusive. Putting two and two together...

    ¡°You meant that? Of course, I know about it. But I rarely go to the Eve.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s already very squeamish with cutting herself,¡± I said. ¡°The sight of blood and violence makes her¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªmakes me want to puke,¡± Deen said with a grimace. ¡°You didn¡¯t need to tell everyone about that.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± I said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to go there if I can help it.¡±

    ¡°All those blood and guts.¡±

    ¡°My Xaz here is going to fight this Saturday,¡± Bianca proudly said. ¡°It''ll make me so happy if you¡¯re able to come.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re fighting?¡± I said to Xazary, horrified, with matching hand to my mouth. ¡°Isn¡¯t it dangerous? You might get killed there.¡± I said in a whisper, ¡°You do know you¡¯re not fighting against humans?¡±

    Instead of Xazary answering, Bianca spoke, ¡°She will fight. I have to show what I¡¯m capable of.¡±

    Establishing dominance in a new environment, I see. Her way though was too direct for my liking.

    Zachary, her other bodyguard, approached Bianca and said something to her we didn¡¯t catch. Bianca heaved a sigh and said, ¡°Can¡¯t be helped. I have to go now, duty calls. Or shooting calls.¡± She laughed and we laughed along with her.

    ¡°We understand,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Take care. Do try to come to my precious Xaz¡¯s fight. We¡¯re new and supporters would be nice.¡± Bianca stood up and pranced away, waving at her fans, enveloped by her crew.

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± Deen mouthed exaggeratedly with barely a sound. ¡°We¡¯re still alive.¡±

    ¡°The gamble paid off,¡± I replied. She poked my side, making me jump up. ¡°Hey! I¡¯m ticklish there.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m just really giddy we pulled through. I was getting worried there we''d be caught in our lies.¡±

    ¡°You can escape,¡± I pointed out. ¡°With your awesome power.¡± I hoped she''d give me a hint of what it was¡ªI decided to make it into a guessing game.

    ¡°I¡¯m more worried about you. I don¡¯t know how I can get you to safety if her scary bodyguards decided to kill us.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think they''ll kill us. Too many people here.¡±

    ¡°They can totally do it! One test of my dead body and they¡¯ll have justification. They can say they knew I wasn''t human so they killed me.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± I said, grinning.

    She poked me again. ¡°Don¡¯t treat it as a joke. We could¡¯ve died. How were you so sure that Bianca wouldn¡¯t just report us to the police or have her bodyguards take care of us?¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°She had no reason to doubt who we are. Like I told you, the only logical choice for her given the available information she has was to assume you''re truly a client of the 2Ms. It¡¯s natural for people who are part of a secret organization to reach out to each other for connection. That¡¯s why it¡¯s so easy for seeded people to organize cults and dupe their followers into feeding the Adumbrae within them.¡±

    My explanation appeared to be satisfactory to Deen. It wasn¡¯t the real reason I was confident Bianca wouldn¡¯t only refrain from being hostile to us, she''d actually accept us.

    Those experts always repeated the same old checklist when trying to spot not-so-normal people like me: grandiose, manipulative, charming, lacking empathy, impulsive, yadda, yadda. That last one, impulsivity, nothing could be further from the truth. I had a hunch that others like me also had Rules they followed. It may not be as concrete as mine, a literal checklist, but we all had Rules.

    Keeping things in symmetry.

    Dare I say, a universal truth to each of us.

    When it came to Bianca, my gut feeling was she also had Rules. She didn¡¯t want any enhancement or augmentation done on her body. Makeup, dyeing her hair, colored contacts, those were fine for her. She¡¯d rather work her butt off exercising than have liposuction to get thinner. Plastic surgery was normal for celebrities, but as I searched the internet, it turned out Bianca was famous for being ¡°all-natural,¡± just as Reo had mentioned.

    Why the fuck would she agree to get turned into an Adumbrae then?

    Call it instinct, or maybe relatability, I had a hunch I was seeing part of one of her major Rules. Someone normal wouldn¡¯t have this kind of roundabout behavior. It might even be called impulsive.

    It was anything but.

    Since it was part of her major Rule, whatever that may be, there was no way she was going to kill us. She¡¯d want to know more information, gain connections, allies, friends, or even pawns¡ªas much help as she could muster to successfully follow her Rules, or at least not break them. Turning us away would be impossible for her.

    And I was right.

    As we stepped inside the elevator, Deen said, ¡°Finally, we¡¯re out of there. My body''s still so tensed up even after they left.¡± She suddenly hugged me. ¡°You were awesome back there, Erind,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t think I could''ve gained that much info from her without your plan. I wouldn''t have gotten that close to her at all.¡±

    ¡°I think quickly under pressure,¡± I said, returning her hug reluctantly with an awkward tap on her shoulders. I hated being hugged; I was fine if I was the one who initiated it though.

    ¡°There are still some things I don¡¯t understand. How did you know about what happens at the Eve club?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s pretty easy. When Bianca mentioned the fight on Saturday night, I checked her schedule on her site and Eve was the only place that could possibly host a secret fight.¡±

    ¡°I get that, but I mean, how did you know what¡¯s going on during the fights?¡±

    ¡°Remember when I got kidnapped?¡± I said. Deen nodded. ¡°I overheard them talking about something like it. It wasn¡¯t clear, but it sounded like those underground illegal fights. And when they made Ramello fight against the mutant, it clicked that the fights they''re holding weren''t between humans, maybe only one side is human.¡±

    Deen¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°I see. How clever of you to make that connection. I felt it made her believe our story even more. The Eve is our next lead.¡±

    ¡°Bianca confirmed enhanced humans join these fights. Are they going to fight normal humans? No way.¡±

    ¡°It has to be other enhanced humans too. Or¡­¡±

    ¡°Or the mutants made by the 2Ms.¡± A wonderful thought occurred to me.

    How about I try getting in the fights? Isn''t that free food for me?

 2.5

    When we stepped out of the hotel, we didn¡¯t go straight to Deen¡¯s car and made our way to our hideout. I had the right to say ¡®our¡¯ hideout after all the effort I had exerted in this mission. Instead, Deen and I visited a fashion boutique across the street to appear like two ¡®normal¡¯ ladies out shopping. We may be overly cautious, but I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Bianca ordered someone to watch us for a bit.

    I approached the nearest rack and pretended to look over the displayed clothes. They were kinda in my price range but not my style. Deen called Johann and Reo to update them on what happened. Obviously, I wasn¡¯t ¡®like other girls¡¯¡ªin a different sense than the normal use of the expression¡ªbut I was also like other girls since I did enjoy shopping for clothes¡­online.

    Browsing online stores was a favorite hobby of mine. I''d add the latest arrivals I liked to my basket and have them shipped within the week. Voila! No need to wade through the seething masses of humanity at the mall; it always left me with a slight feeling of vulnerability. The thought of cute new outfits was appealing but the process of physically acquiring them?

    Not so much.

    Waiting for ages for the sales attendant to find your size¡ªwhich always happened to be the one not in stock¡ªand queueing for the fitting room; it was certainly packed during a mall sale day. If you¡¯re going out on a shopping trip with the girls, it has got to be during a mall sale. That also meant long lines at the cashier. My god.

    Deen sidled beside me and checked the clothes I rummaged through. ¡°I called Johann. They decided to check out Eve.¡±

    ¡°With Reo¡¯s fairy?¡±

    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s Johann¡¯s day off so he has time to guard Reo.¡±

    ¡°Our next problem is how to get in that place.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll figure something out later when we meet the others.¡± She picked out a light blue cardigan and held it up, comparing it with my body. ¡°I bet this looks good on you.¡±

    ¡°Is this even my size?¡± I said, taking it from her.

    ¡°I have a Ph.D. in shopping so it probably is.¡± She picked another item. ¡°We can buy a couple of clothes so it''ll look like we¡¯re shopping.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t have anything in mind I want to buy. I usually do my shopping online.¡±

    ¡°Sorry for my technologically backward ways, esteemed high priestess of online shoppers. My sincerest apologies for having offended you.¡± Deen pretended to bow before me.

    I snickered. ¡°It¡¯s way faster to do it online.¡± The real reason I hated shopping at the mall was that keeping up my face for the entire day for the same group of people was mind-numbingly boring and disgustingly exhausting. People would normally zone out and endure through all that waiting time in long lines, maybe droningly browse their phone. As for me, I had to concentrate not to let my guard down and drop my face. I always wondered what would I look like to other people without a face up.

    ¡°It''s faster, but you don¡¯t receive it immediately.¡±

    I made a face at Deen. ¡°I''m mature enough to understand the concept of delayed gratification.¡±

    ¡°Careful everyone, we have a sophisticated adult here.¡± She tried to poke my side again but I dodged her finger. ¡°That reminds me, I do have to buy something. Let¡¯s go to a sportswear store.¡±

    ¡°What are you buying?¡± I followed her as she navigated the busy streets.

    Towering buildings surrounded us, cased in glass, reflecting each other and the clear blue sky, full of offices with busybodies that didn¡¯t have to deal with the bullshit I was suffering through. The lower floors of these buildings were comprised of stores and restaurants catering to the financials crowd working here, most of them young professionals. It was a kinda posh section of the city.

    I tried to casually inspect my surroundings to see if there was someone following us. Then I realized I had spent more time looking over my shoulder for the past week or so than I spent in ever.

    ¡°Sports bras,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Huh? For hiding that¡­um¡­thing? I thought you¡¯re already wearing one for it?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for a high-impact sports bra. Something I could move around in.¡±

    ¡°Eh? What for?¡±

    She stopped in front of a sportswear store and stared at me. ¡°For fighting,¡± she seriously said before entering the store.

    ¡°Fighting?¡± I said, puzzled. I hurried after her.

    ¡°I''ll need a good quality sports bra to be able to fight comfortably. To keep things in...uh...place.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll have a problem like that,¡± I mumbled under my breath.

    ¡°I bet even Corebrings wear them, or more likely a specialized suit to stop boobs bouncing around while they fight against the Adumbrae. Unless being superhuman prevents that? I guess some powers do stop that like Myra¡¯s armor. She said it¡¯s hugging her body that she doesn¡¯t have any problems, but she still wears a sports bra underneath.¡±

    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t mean that,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re going to fight? Like fight against people with guns and monsters?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± she simply said.

    ¡°What''s your power anyway?¡± I asked innocently. "I''ve been trying to guess it." The only instance I knew she used it was when we looked for Ramello at the hospital, but that wasn¡¯t enough for me to get a start on. I wasn¡¯t ready to give up on my mini-game just yet though. ¡°Can you just give me a clue?¡±

    She placed a finger on her cheek and looked at the ceiling. ¡°It¡¯s hard to think of a clue. How about you watch me later? I¡¯ve asked Dario to teach me how to fight. I¡¯ll try to use my powers. You can¡¯t see it though; it¡¯s not visible like Myra¡¯s or Everett¡¯s or Reo¡¯s powers.¡±

    ¡°Something along the lines of Dario¡¯s then?¡±

    ¡°Yep, try to guess what it is later,¡± she said playfully.

    Never in my short mortal existence here on this terrestrial plane did I expect to help a friend choose sports bras for fighting interdimensional monsters and armed men from the criminal underworld engaged in illegal human experimentation. Then again, a lot has happened that I didn¡¯t expect.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    It was just so funny to me that the store employees we were asking about the various features and advantages of this or that brand couldn''t have guessed in a million years what Deen was buying it for. They were probably thinking that she was some ditzy blonde who was over her head trying extreme sports.

    Our second mission for the day completed, albeit an impromptu one, Deen and I were on our way to meeting with the others to discuss our next move.

    On the drive, Deen animatedly talked about how she planned to go about learning martial arts, like watching videos on the internet and trying to copy them at home as if it were some home yoga for fitness tape. For the practical part of learning, her only options were to fight against either Myra or Dario. Controlling her inhuman strength was easy for normal day-to-day tasks, but she didn¡¯t trust herself to be able to do it if she enrolled in a self-defense course or something.

    My mind went back to earlier musings about Bianca and impulsivity. I could somehow accept Bianca¡¯s actions were logical but I still couldn¡¯t understand Deen¡¯s line of thinking.

    To me, this was the correct example of impulsivity.

    I interrupted Deen¡¯s lecture about why learning to fight was so important and that I should practice with her. ¡°What are you going to do after this?¡±

    ¡°After what?¡± She raised her brow while keeping her eyes on the road. ¡°After the meeting? Want to go eat somewhere? I can call Adrian and the others. Just doing normal social stuff would be nice.¡±

    ¡°I meant after this, like let¡¯s say you guys stop the experiments on the innocent citizens here in the city. Or after that. Like you find who¡¯s the big bad boss behind all this and¡­kill him, I guess? Not like you¡¯re going to surrender him to the government or the Corebrings.¡±

    She pursed her lips as I mentioned the only option of killing. ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right.¡±

    ¡°So¡­after that? What do you do after you win?¡±

    Deen didn¡¯t answer immediately. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel and stared unblinkingly at the road. Did she hear me? She did. Was she ignoring the question? I was thinking of changing the topic when she said, ¡°Then my fight will be done. I go back to my old life knowing I''ve done my part.¡±

    ¡°Part? Meaning part in the fight against the Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Part in the service of humanity.¡±

    ¡°But you don¡¯t have to do this. Can you even go back to being a human?¡±

    ¡°Who knows,¡± she said, her voice trailing off wistfully. I didn¡¯t say anything, waiting for her to continue. ¡°I haven¡¯t thought about it. Likely not.¡±

    ¡°And you¡¯re okay with that?¡±

    ¡°Sacrifices have to be made. I''m in a very good position to hide my condition. My family is sufficiently well off that I wouldn¡¯t have to place myself in a situation where I need to get tested. So long as I keep a fairly human form, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll have problems later.¡±

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right.¡± I looked out the window so she wouldn¡¯t see me smirk. She spoke as if she was a superhero in a movie. And I could tell she had thought about it even if she wouldn¡¯t admit it. But I still couldn¡¯t understand her at all.

    Deen and Bianca were similar in some ways. Deen was a stickler to the rules, the model student, potential student government president. Someone who, after a decade or so, was probably going to give a commencement speech to future Eloyce graduates, giving them motivational quotes and crap like that. And she did something completely unthinkable and opposite to what I knew of her.

    On the other hand, Bianca absolutely hated any surgery or enhancement on her body, yet she also did something that contradicted what people knew about her. However, I only understood, or at least could somehow relate, to one of them.

    Interesting.

    ¡°Can I also ask you something too?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    ¡°What about you? Why are you helping us? You don¡¯t have an artificial Core. We''ll protect you, and you can still stay at my house even if you don¡¯t want to help us.¡±

    ¡°I guess I¡¯m just worried about you.¡±

    Deen faced me and smiled. ¡°Thanks for being a true friend, Erind.¡±

    I returned her smile. True friendship?

    I wonder what that feels like.

    <hr>

    The road cleared as we made our way to the ghost town part of the city. An advantage of having the hideout at this location was we could easily spot if someone followed us. And if someone did, the plan was to circle the parking lot of the abandoned mall at the side of the main avenue, go back to the city proper via the side access road, and pretend as if we weren¡¯t doing anything sketchy.

    No cars followed us, so we continued onwards.

    If the heart of La Esperanza could be described as a bustling concrete jungle, this place was a dead forest. Husks of buildings that were never filled grew out of the ground here and there, their empty frames slowly decaying through the years, a testament to the prospects of business and wealth that had gone to waste. Some of the lots didn¡¯t even have the chance to grow their dead concrete tree. There were formerly empty lots that now supported thriving ecosystems of shrubbery and weed. Dug out foundations that have been hastily refilled. Steel columns hinting at a building that could''ve been.

    This would be a good setting for a horror movie.

    We drove further in. Our hideout was located inside of a building at the periphery of the former development project. There were no people there besides us.

    At least, that¡¯s what Dario had said.

    Homeless people lived inside the empty buildings on the portion of the project that bordered the city proper. I think a couple of those buildings have been turned into shelters. The people residing there could easily walk to a nearby food bank set up by a charity. Those were the structures that were mostly completed, compared to the ones around us which were probably structurally unsound since their construction was halted halfway.

    There was no reason for anybody else to venture further in.

    We entered the first floor of a building. Stretches of the sides of the structure weren''t covered by walls, just thick concrete columns propping the entire thing, and perhaps piles of rubble here and there which Deen carefully navigated past.

    Inside, we found the two cars parked. Everett''s and Myra''s. I stepped out of Deen''s car, smelling the fresh, clean air. This area was devoid of any graffiti or even a speck of trash.

    No humans, no pollution.

    The hideout was in a room below, but instead of going there, I followed Deen to the atrium of the building, bringing my bag with law school notes inside. I was going to pretend to study while they practiced fighting to show that I wasn¡¯t interested in what they were doing, but I intended to study them. It''d be unavoidable I''d get into fights myself in the future, and since I didn¡¯t know how to transform into my giant werewolf form, learning some fighting tips would be great.

    ¡°They must already be practicing,¡± Deen said, referring to the loud crashes we were hearing.

    When the corridor opened up to the atrium, we were greeted by the sight of a human and a monster in combat. The human, Dario, wearing a tight-fitting, black tracksuit which showed his fit physique I hadn''t made note of before, was going against a creature probably more than one and a half of me in height covered in darkish brown bark-like armor. I knew it was Myra even though her face was also covered. What surprised me was her form.

    Her added height was due to curved blades jutting out from her feet, acting like the running blades prosthetics I had seen before watching the Paralympics, giving her insane speed as she whipped around the columns surrounding the atrium, then up the zigzagging staircase in the middle, trying to catch Dario. Her scythed arms lengthening, shortening, snaking through the air as Dario danced between them.

    ¡°Holy fuck,¡± I gasped.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Everett said. He was sitting on a lawn chair he brought along, watching a video on his cellphone. He removed his earphones. ¡°Blank¡¯s not going to get hurt.¡±

    But that wasn¡¯t the reason I cursed. It was because I realized just now how strong Myra was at full power. If she didn''t drink the blue vial, the Suppressor, back then when she attacked us at the mall, I would already be dead.

 2.6

    For a few seconds, Deen and I processed the battle in front of us. I had seen on TV how Corebrings, or even BID agents wearing ComExo power armors, fought up close and personal against fully transformed Adumbrae. It was a whole different thing witnessing with my own two eyes a fight between a superhuman and a monster.

    My heart raced as I wondered if I could do this too, visualizing myself in Dario¡¯s place. Increased physical capabilities wouldn¡¯t count much if I didn¡¯t know how to fight. An honest assessment of myself, I was only able to¡­massacre¡­those dumbfucks at the docks because I luckily turned into the giant werewolf monster. I had no idea how to do it again.

    What if I was the one facing off a monster? What if I fought Myra now? Without the Suppressor, she''d cut me to ribbons.

    Deen and I looked at each other. I raised my brow at her then cocked my head at the two fighting, wordlessly asking if this was what she wanted to get into. Her brows furrowed, determination flashed on her face, and she gave me a nod. She stepped forward to get a closer look. Perhaps it was also to show me her bravado and psyche herself up.

    ¡°I strongly suggest you don¡¯t come close to them,¡± Everett said. He sat up straight and shrugged. ¡°Or actually you can, but not too close, then come back here.¡±

    ¡°Why? What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked.

    ¡°You¡¯ll get in range of Blank¡¯s power. I¡¯m not good at estimating how far its reach is, but the outer edge should be near us. It''s good to experience some of it though.¡±

    Deen continued walking forward so I followed her. Information is power. I was a fish out of water. Come to think of it, I wasn¡¯t even a fish anymore but definitely out of the water, and even more clueless than a fish on dry land about this new world I was dropped in. Learning about their powers may lead me to learn more about mine.

    Half a dozen steps forward, I realized my head started to throb, signaling the beginning of a bad headache. Pressure gradually built up in my ears like I was flying on an airplane with a bad case of a cold and I wanted to pop my ears but couldn¡¯t. It wasn¡¯t that awful of a feeling, the time I got a hangover in high school after getting drunk at our graduation party was worse¡ªthat was also the time I swore never to drink again.

    Was this one of Dario¡¯s abilities? A field around him that made people feel sick? We were pretty far from him, about the distance from the uppermost seat of the lecture hall of Professor Gallagher¡¯s class to the teacher¡¯s table.

    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get closer,¡± Deen said to me. I didn¡¯t realize I stopped walking, deep in thought about Dario¡¯s power. She held my hand and pulled me. ¡°Don¡¯t be scared,¡± she said, totally assuming the wrong thing.

    The sickening sense increased and my vision got slightly hazy at the edges. What made it worse was that it wasn¡¯t bringing full-on pain but more a needling sensation of discomfort that I couldn¡¯t identify, as if someone was scratching a chalkboard with their nails inside my head.

    I tried to focus on what Myra and Dario were doing. They were at the second landing of the huge skeletal staircase. Myra sliced at Dario, alternating her left and right blades, mixing in slashes from blades that suddenly spurted out of her elbows to catch him off guard. He easily parried the attacks with his bare hands like some kung fu master in those old Chinese movies Dad used to watch, redirecting swords with their palms.

    I recalled Dario said when we first met that he was physically weaker than Myra, which was pretty obvious now with her monstrous form, but he didn¡¯t seem to break a sweat even when she was attacking him seriously.

    ¡°I think this is enough,¡± I told Deen. Memories of my hangover episode were coming back, and I absolutely detested being reminded of the stupid decisions in my life.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she said with concern in her voice. ¡°You might be feeling worse than me with your normal body.¡±

    I grimaced. ¡°It''s not a good feeling, that¡¯s for sure.¡±

    We returned to where Everett was lounging on his lawn chair. A red cooler was beside him with a paper bag on its lid. He stood up and offered the paper bag to us, or more specifically to Deen. ¡°You want some food?" The smell of beefy goodness and sweet onions filled the air as he opened the bag. Splotches of grease covered the bottom of the pouch. Deen struggled not to recoil from it. ¡°It¡¯s some burgers, you can get one,¡± he said.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Deen said, uncertainly peering inside.

    ¡°This is our go-to meal. We¡¯re usually in a rush to get here because it¡¯s so far, so we just buy some burgers from a drive-thru before coming here. We can¡¯t exactly have pizza delivered to this place.¡±

    Deen accepted the offer and chose a cheeseburger from the looks of its yellow wrapper. It was from BeefGalore, a place I sometimes went to if I wanted to binge eat, feel good, and then feel crappy afterward, which was usually the case after I was forced to attend a social event I really didn¡¯t want to go to. Always takeout though; I looked weird eating burgers following Rule #2.

    From the way Deen delicately picked up the burger from the bag with the tip of her fingers, I got the impression she hadn¡¯t eaten a fast food burger before.

    ¡°Have you ever set foot inside a fast food restaurant?¡± I said.

    She blushed. ¡°Yes, I have!¡±

    ¡°Uh-huh. What, where, and when?¡±

    ¡°Errr, Johnny Rack¡¯s, at 22<sup>nd</sup>, besides that¡­um¡­I think hardware store, about two months ago.¡±

    ¡°What did you eat there?¡±

    ¡°Spicy baby back ribs. Am I being interrogated, officer?¡±

    ¡°Your answers are too specific and too fast to be true. But you¡¯ll be a good witness on the stand.¡± Grinning, I grabbed the paper bag from her. ¡°Just admit you¡¯ve never eaten at a fast food joint before.¡± I chose a burger too. ¡°Try these out. These are good.¡±

    She rolled her eyes. ¡°Fine, you got me.¡±

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°I can call Reo,¡± Everett hastily said. ¡°See if they can buy pizza or whatever you want on their way here.¡± He seemed a bit embarrassed about the burgers. ¡°The other thing I can offer you now are drinks.¡± He opened the red cooler. ¡°Only got root beer and soda though.¡±

    Both of us went for root beer, Deen more of just following what I got. We looked around for a place to seat but there was no other chair and dust covered everything.

    ¡°Sorry, I should''ve gotten the spare chairs from the hideout below. I forgot, really sorry,¡± Everett said. He offered his chair to Deen, but she declined. How about offering it to me, you fuck? What if I wanted to sit on it? Not that I did.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, we can just sit here,¡± Deen said, pointing to the steps that lined the perimeter of the atrium. ¡°Erind, do you have a spare paper there?¡± I plucked out a page from my printouts and gave it to her.

    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re done with this?¡± she said.

    ¡°Yeah, I already finished reading and making notes about it.¡±

    Deen placed the paper on the steps and sat on it. Good idea, I thought, copying her. I would''ve just sat on the floor no problem and dusted my butt off after.

    I put on my fake glasses and flipped through my notes to our next assigned cases for Constitutional Law class. I always printed out the full cases as well as their briefs, reading the case briefs first then skimming through the case in full, lastly, making notes on important matters which I predicted the professors were going to ask. But this time, the notes I took down were about Dario and his team.

    ¡°Everett,¡± I said while nonchalantly pretending to study. ¡°I can call you Everett, right? Or should I call you Emcee since we¡¯re here at the hideout?¡±

    ¡°Everett is fine.¡±

    ¡°Everett then, thanks. Anyway, correct me if I¡¯m wrong, Dario¡¯s power is sort of short-circuiting people¡¯s brains when touching them,¡± I said, ¡°and then this area around him where we get headaches when we enter?¡±

    ¡°Yes, those are the two forms of Blank¡¯s power. You have experienced the first one. He can control its intensity, but he usually doesn''t fully use it."

    "Can he fry someone''s brain with it?"

    "That''s what he wants to avoid. He said he prefers to shoot someone than make them lose their minds. He hasn''t tried doing it yet though."

    "How about the second one?"

    "It''s more complicated than the first. He has a hard time controlling this invisible field around him, both its range and effects. It used to be only a meter around him and gave a mild headache to anyone inside. As his powers developed¡ªevery one of us grew our abilities through time and training¡ªthe range got bigger. I¡¯m not sure how many meters is its radius now. And, yeah, the effects also increased.

    ¡°It¡¯s still the usual mild headache when you¡¯re in its fringes, but it gets worse the closer you get. It¡¯s like you¡¯re having vertigo if you¡¯re near him. If you¡¯re as close to him as Barb is now, you can add a bad case of migraine to that as well as nausea. Depends on the person.¡±

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s powerful," I said, nibbling at my pen to act casual. "Especially, if you don¡¯t know about it and suddenly got hit with it.¡±

    ¡°Main disadvantage is that friend and foe alike will get affected. Our solution is we have to train inside it to get used somewhat to the negative effects. ¡®We¡¯ being mainly me and Barb. Sometimes we can force Oberon to try it, but he hates it and he likes to stay away from the action, his fairies as his proxy. To be candid, I also hate being inside Blank¡¯s field. I sometimes vomit when I¡¯m next to him.¡±

    ¡°Myra is right beside him now. She seems to be doing fine. Her armor protects her from the effects of Dario¡¯s power?¡±

    ¡°Not one bit. That¡¯s sheer determination for you. Lately, she¡¯s been insistent to practice with Blank. For long periods too. Normally, ten minutes and she had to take a rest, but right now they¡¯ve been going on for nearly twenty minutes already.¡±

    ¡°Probably because of Kelsey,¡± Deen said.

    Oh yeah! Myra¡¯s sister was the start of this shit I was in. I hadn¡¯t thought about her at all, but that was because I didn¡¯t care about whether she was still alive or not. She was likely dead, smashed up against the rocks below the cliff or something stupid like that. But her body should''ve turned up somewhere. Waves wash up dead bodies ashore, right? I¡¯ve seen that happen a few times in the crime scene documentaries Mom and I used to watch.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Everett said. ¡°We still don¡¯t know where to find her. There¡¯s a large chance she¡¯s at the Red Island. That¡¯s why Barb is practicing fervently now. We should all be prepared. This is the closest we''ve gotten to finding Red Island.¡±

    ¡°Does Johann practice with Blank too?¡± Deen asked. ¡°Would it be more awful for normal people?¡± She turned to me, ¡°I¡¯m very sorry, Erind, for dragging you inside.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s going to be much difference between us and normal humans when it comes to Blank¡¯s power. From my understanding, we still have human physiology, even Barb under all her tree armor, so we can get headaches just the same. We could get stunned too. Fortunately, Barb¡¯s armor does protect her from stun guns and other electroshock weapons.¡±

    I scribbled some notes about the case I was reading because Deen peered over what I was writing. ¡°I see. The 2Ms crew will have lots of stun weapons because they''re dealing with mutants and their Adumbrae experiments.¡± Rofirio and his goons did have stun batons.

    ¡°Electroshock weapons are the most effective in dealing with Adumbrae, the regular-sized ones anyway. Guns wouldn¡¯t do much against super-fast healing unless you have plenty of high-powered firearms, armor-piercing rounds, exploding rounds. At that point, you¡¯re just trying to kill them faster than they can heal. A gun could also work if you could land the perfect headshot. But if the goal is to control them, then shocking is the way.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it something with the brain being the way Adumbraes manifest in our world?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the main reason why shocking them is preferred over shooting. If you can blow off their head, sure, go ahead. If not, better to shock them to interfere with their powers, which does include healing. And then you can shoot them or restrain them.¡±

    Don¡¯t get electrocuted at all costs! I wrote right beside the paragraph where the Supreme Court examined the history of the Bill of Rights. In the next paragraph, I randomly outlined some sentences then wrote: Buy a stun gun? Would stun guns available in online stores be enough? I knew I had to get permits if I was to try to buy something stronger, something that could probably kill a person.

    Deen said, ¡°Isn¡¯t Barb impervious with her armor on? I recall someone saying that her armor is bulletproof. Stun guns won¡¯t work on her either. If she keeps her armor up, doesn¡¯t that mean that nothing can stop her?¡±

    ¡°Bulletproof against normal bullets,¡± Everett explained. ¡°She¡¯s not as durable as a tank or the armor of ComExos. There are guns made to shoot through those, and they could shoot through Barb''s armor for sure. Specialized electroshock weapons can also incapacitate her. The 2Ms had an enforcer augmented with something that could shock Barb through her armor. We barely escaped with our lives that time.¡±

    My ears perked up. ¡°You said ¡®had¡¯. Past tense?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s dead now.¡±

    ¡°Did you kill him?¡±

    ¡°No. He was there at the docks when we rescued you. The Adumbrae that went on a rampage ate him.¡±

    Oh, that guy. Everett probably meant the guy with metal arms that packed quite a punch and then exploded. He gave Myra a hard time? I just tore him apart. ¡°One less problem for us,¡± I said. Everett nodded in agreement. Deen suddenly stood up beside me. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°Blank and Barb finished fighting. I¡¯m going to ask them to teach me.¡±

 2.7

    What a weird tableau: Dario lecturing a tree monster covered in blades how to fight. As they approached us, he pointed to various blades jutting out of Myra¡¯s armor and made motions in the air demonstrating how to perform certain moves. It felt so surreal that it made me wonder if this was all a dream. Or maybe I did die and my soul was trapped in the limbo dimension of SpookyErind?

    Standing equal to the tallest NBA players, her blade-feet extensions contributing the most to her height, thorny tree monster Myra presented an imposing form. The full-face helmet of bark-like material covered in spikes made her head look disproportionately bigger compared to the rest of her body. The especially thick helmet was obviously for protecting her¡ªor maybe I should say ¡®our¡¯¡ªmost vulnerable part; if something happened to our brain, we can say goodbye to our regeneration. And powers.

    Tiny slits for eyeholes meant her field of vision was limited. A thick collar grew out of her body armor, protecting her neck, but also somewhat restricting the movement of her head. When she turned to face Dario, I noticed dense overlapping plates running down the center of her back. Did that mean it wasn¡¯t only the brain I should protect, but the spine as well?

    Myra retracted the blades on her wrist, elbows, and knees. Even though she could grow blades anywhere on her body, I assumed she chose to do so on her joints for easy and comfortable usage. But I would have to watch out in case she grew a blade out of her ass or somewhere unexpected to sneak a hit in. Her dagger-tipped fingers unraveled, her arms shortening to their normal length as the bark was reabsorbed into her skin.

    Bite her real arm, I jotted down.

    She wobbled for a moment as the blades on her legs softened, untangled themselves, and receded into her soles, bringing her feet down to the floor. The blade extensions meant longer strides, and with cadence far surpassing a normal human¡¯s, her running speed would be insane.

    My first thought was to zigzag if she were to chase me because the blades were rigid and it would be hard for her to turn or stop, but if she could control their flexibility then that plan might not pan out.

    Oddly, she didn¡¯t throw any spikes at Dario. Was it because she had a limit on how much of this bark-like substance she could produce and maintain at a time? If that was the case, it made sense if she''d rather concentrate on making all of them into armor to protect herself and keep some backup to repair her armor if it was chipped away; throwing spikes would be throwing away her own protection. Or the likelier reason was she didn¡¯t want us, specifically Deen and I, to recognize her as the same person who attacked us at the mall.

    Probably a combination of both reasons.

    I squeezed the buns of my BeefGalore burger, pushing down the patty into the wrapper. I had to eat the buns first. I turned away from Deen so she wouldn''t notice the way I ate burgers, although the wrappers covered the weird shit I was doing. She hadn¡¯t touched her burger. I also didn¡¯t really care for a burger, but I figured eating what was offered to me showed goodwill and a sense of belongingness, like an explorer eating the food offered by an indigenous tribe to foster good relations.

    ¡°Hey, guys,¡± Myra said, as the last pieces of her armor disappeared. Barefoot with only a black sports bra and matching black cycling shorts covering her fairly toned body, she looked totally out of place in an abandoned building.

    Not that her monster form was a better fit in the setting.

    Dario unzipped his jacket and took it off, revealing a grey tank top that showed off his muscles. ¡°Hi, Deen, Erind, did you guys enjoy the show?¡± he said half-jokingly.

    Why was everyone so fit around here? I should also start working out. But how?

    When I used to religiously maintain a routine at the gym, I used twenty-pound dumbbells, which wasn¡¯t much, I know, but hey, they did their job. With my current situation, however, I could probably juggle twenty-pound dumbbells¡­if I knew how. Really heavy weights might do the trick but a short petite girl curling a fifty-pound dumbbell would surely draw inquiring stares.

    ¡°We enjoyed the show. Sure beats anything on TV,¡± Deen said.

    I simply nodded and peeped a small, ¡°Hello.¡±

    Dario wiped his body with a towel he tucked in the waistband of his pants. ¡°Emcee, can you give me something to drink?¡± Everett threw him a can. When he twisted his body in Everett¡¯s direction to catch it, I noticed he had a huge tattoo on his back, with parts of it stretching across his rear delts and up the nape of his neck. I couldn¡¯t quite make out what it was because most of it was covered by his tank top.

    ¡°How¡¯s your leg?¡± Everett said.

    ¡°Fully healed. As if it were never cut off.¡±

    Myra folded her arms. ¡°And here I was thinking to hold back because of your injury.¡±

    ¡°Did you hold back?¡±

    She grinned. ¡°No¡­¡± All of them laughed, and I just added my weak chuckle to the mix. Nice laugh, everyone. I feel so included.

    Deen gasped. ¡°Your leg was cut off? I only knew about your arm injury.¡±

    ¡°My arm completely healed when the Suppressor wore off. My leg injury is different. It was during our fight with Jim Ambrose about a week before we met you guys. We tried ambushing their delivery truck thinking it probably held their experiments, but it turned out Big Marcy¡¯s goons were waiting inside for us.¡±

    ¡°But that¡¯s not a problem for you, right? You can knock them out?¡±

    ¡°Normally it¡¯s not, but that was when we discovered Jim Ambrose has an auxiliary adrenaline system.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°AAS, it pumps the blood with a concoction of drugs to resuscitate the user. It has other features, but I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s what happened,¡± I said. They all stared at me. ¡°My mom is a consultant at Greaves so I picked up a few things here and there.¡± Everett whistled in amazement. Greaves was one of the big players in the bioaugmentronics industry.

    ¡°That¡¯s exactly what happened,¡± Dario said. ¡°We call it ¡®zombie mode.¡¯ I admit it was a huge blunder on my part. Fortunately, my leg was merely cut off, not blown apart. I don¡¯t think I can grow a new one. Barb grabbed my leg as we retreated and I was able to reconnect it with my own regeneration.¡±

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Deen said with a serious tone, ¡°I have mentally prepared myself for the dangers I might face going into this, but hearing about what our enemies are actually capable of¡­ it¡¯s a different matter altogether.¡±

    ¡°Preparation prevents mistakes from happening. While we can¡¯t plan ahead for everything, we try, as much as possible, to discount variables that could hinder us. And we need intel to prepare. Obe relayed to me a general view of what happened. But I''d like to hear from you how the mission went.¡±

    ¡°It went awesomely well,¡± Deen said. She narrated what we did, praising me for my quick thinking. I acted embarrassed, looking at the floor while sipping my root beer. ¡°You don¡¯t have to be shy,¡± she said. ¡°I was about to walk right up to Bianca and wing it as we went along, but she would''ve easily seen through me and not divulge anything.¡±

    ¡°The best lie would have some truth mixed in," I said. "It works even better if the true parts are the unexpected ones.¡± Then I realized the irony of my statement.

    ¡°Amazingly well put,¡± Dario said. ¡°Going into focus now. We''re approaching a crucial portion of attaining our goal of ending the experiments here in our city and catching the Adumbrae in the BID-Division Proxy. Thanks to Deen and Erind, we have a lead on where to go next. This is our best shot at finding the Red Island¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªand finding Kelsey,¡± Myra added.

    ¡°Yes, Kelsey as well. We shouldn¡¯t squander this opportunity. When Oberon and Johann arrive, we''ll move on to planning. For now, I have something to ask of you, Deen.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Can you help us in our upcoming fights?

    Deen¡¯s face lit up. ¡°Yes, of course, I will.¡±

    She answered so quickly that Dario was taken aback. ¡°Wait! Don¡¯t give me an answer so fast. You have to carefully think about it first. Fighting is a very different thing from what you just did with Bianca. Don¡¯t get me wrong, we couldn¡¯t have pulled that off ourselves. But asking you to be in the middle of the battle fighting alongside us is magnitudes above it.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have asked you if it were a different situation, truly. However, we have a concrete chance of locating the Red Island. When we do, we are going to attack it. And we''d need all the help we can get.¡±

    ¡°I have thought about it,¡± Deen said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have volunteered for the Bianca mission if I hadn¡¯t prepared myself for this. We have revealed ourselves to Bianca. This means that we''re in danger if, in the future, she becomes one of the Adumbrae¡­clients¡­of the 2Ms. She can easily find out we were lying and send her people to chase us. Which means we should succeed now. And I''m willing to put my life on the line now.¡±

    Dario, Myra, and Everett were shocked into silence with Deen¡¯s speech filled with conviction, unsure of what to say next, and looking even a bit embarrassed.

    Cogs turned inside my head at her statement.

    If she already anticipated there was a chance we''d be in mortal peril because we revealed our true identities to Bianca, then¡­

    Wait a minute.

    She didn¡¯t even try to stop me when I volunteered to help her! I couldn¡¯t recall she said anything like ''No, Erind this is dangerous, bla, bla, bla¡­'' It was Dario and the others who were hesitant with me joining in the Bianca mission. What the fuck?! Was Deen lowkey strong-arming me into her delusional heroic path?

    I couldn¡¯t even get angry at her because I was just so amazed at her thought process. I did want to find out where the Red Island was located for my reasons, so no harm done. She wasn¡¯t like me; I was sure of that. I could barely put myself in her shoes to figure out what was going on inside her head¡ªwhich I was very good at with both normal people and others similar to me. Was she a different species altogether? Fascination crept into my mind.

    Dario cleared his throat to break the awkward silence after Deen¡¯s speech. ¡°Then we will teach you how to fight.¡±

    ¡°I was already going to ask you to teach me. And I also want to try out my powers.¡±

    ¡°Your powers? It was some time since you melded with the artificial Core. But we didn¡¯t ask you about it yet because I feel it¡¯s a personal thing. Your powers might have weaknesses that you wouldn¡¯t want to share, and we wanted to wait until you trusted us enough to share them on your own.¡±

    Deen bent down to remove her gladiator-style, high-heeled, summer sandals. ¡°If it¡¯s not too imposing, can we have like a mock battle? Do go easy on me. You can try to guess what my powers are.¡±

    ¡°Uh, sure.¡± Dario shrugged reluctantly. ¡°Do you have any experience fighting?¡±

    ¡°I took up taekwondo lessons when I was a kid because my mother was adamant a girl should know how to protect herself. But it was just a casual thing, and I hated those lessons so I made every effort to miss them. I pretty much stopped in high school. To answer your question¡­I emphasize, please go super easy on me.¡±

    Dario moved away from us then beckoned Deen to come attack him. She approached him, walking cautiously, and stopped a few feet from him, sizing him up. She held up her fists in front of her, unsure of what to do. ¡°Go ahead,¡± he said.

    She aimed a kick to his torso before he could finish his sentence. He made a tiny hop backward to avoid it, but she stopped mid-kick and pulled back her leg. There was no need for him to get out of the way. Deen lost her balance a bit with that bizarre maneuver, but she quickly put her foot back on the ground to stabilize.

    She lunged at Dario, awkwardly swinging her left fist. He almost lazily put up his hand to catch it, but she didn¡¯t finish the punch, twisting her body to pull it back and then throwing her right fist instead, which Dario easily avoided with one step back.

    ¡°What¡¯s up with that,¡± I heard Myra mutter.

    Although it was obvious that Deen presented zero threat, Dario¡¯s eyes were wide in amazement. He still had his hand up, the one which was supposed to catch her punch, as if he was in shock. Deen pushed forward with amateurish kicks and punches, which made me cringe internally so much that I thought my stomach was already putting the burger I ate back together like a jigsaw puzzle. What made it even more painful to watch as she kept on stopping and pulling her punches and kicks, and doing weird moves like ducking even when Dario wasn¡¯t doing anything.

    ¡°Come on, attack me,¡± Deen said, backing up. She held up her hands. ¡°I would just like to qualify my statement that it wasn¡¯t meant as an arrogant challenge, but as it''s your turn now to attack.¡±

    Dario chuckled then I felt a wave of an invisible force that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I felt clammy, my skin rubbery, and my brain and stomach were doing somersaults.

    Fuck! It was Dario¡¯s power, and he was near me. The disgusting feeling disappeared. Deen was kneeling on the ground with a stubborn frown on her face. It might have been my imagination, but I think she knelt down before the blast came.

    Hopping on the balls of his feet, Dario closed the distance to Deen and gave her a light jab. She stepped to the left, about to meet Dario¡¯s other fist, but she ducked down and it passed harmlessly over her head. Everett cheered her on. We all knew Dario was just playing around, but I must admit it looked cool when Deen evaded his punches.

    Dario¡¯s attacks steadily became faster and faster. Deen didn¡¯t even try to hit back anymore, concentrating on evading them, stepping back continuously, giving ground to him. ¡°What? I don¡¯t understand,¡± she exclaimed. She attempted a half sideways jump while ducking, got her legs tangled up, then fell on her butt.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Dario said extending his hand.

    ¡°I give up,¡± she said with a laugh as he pulled her up. ¡°I¡¯m just too slow to keep up.¡±

    ¡°If my guess is right, you have a powerful ability.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Does it have something to do with her weird movements?¡±

    Before Deen could explain, Dario cut her off. ¡°Deen earlier said we should guess. I have a good idea of what it is, let''s hear yours.¡±

 2.8

    ¡°Ok, ok,¡± Myra said, ¡°so it looks like Deen''s predicting Blank¡¯s moves. Heightened senses? Hyper intuition?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s doing things even before Blank made a move in a certain direction,¡± Everett said. ¡°She¡¯s also stopping her punches and kicks way too early for hyper intuition. And she¡¯s also evading weirdly.¡±

    Myra said, ¡°Blank, I know we¡¯re doing a guessing game, but we should be able to ask you questions since you were the one who fought her.¡± Dario gestured for her to go ahead, and she said, ¡°Did you think about doing specific moves to attack or block her?¡±

    ¡°Of course, I think about it. What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Come on. Don¡¯t play dumb. I bet when you tried to catch her fist and she didn¡¯t follow through finishing her punch, you thought she had mind-reading powers. That would be my first assumption too. If it were me, I''d think of various fake ways I''m going to attack and check her reaction and how she moved. Did you do that? And did she react the way you expected her to?¡±

    ¡°It crossed my mind. But if Deen¡¯s power is mind reading, then she''d see through the fake intentions. Instead, I cleared my head and relied on instinct, mostly focusing on reacting. Even if she could read my mind, she doesn¡¯t have experience fighting and would process it too slowly. I gradually increased my speed in attacking for that reason. With enough speed, it''ll be as if she wouldn¡¯t have mind-reading powers anyway.¡±

    ¡°Oops, you¡¯re right. That¡¯s smart.¡±

    ¡°I discounted the possibility of mind-reading. The way she moved was incompatible with it. It¡¯s more like she knew my next few moves before I thought of them. She''s trying to evade them all way in advance because she doesn¡¯t have the skills to avoid them as they come.¡±

    ¡°If it¡¯s not mind-reading or hyper intuition, is it prescience?¡± Everett said.

    Myra frowned. ¡°Prescience?¡±

    ¡°Precognition, future sight, foreknowledge?¡±

    ¡°Fancy terms. But seriously, precognition? Do Corebrings even have someone who can predict the future?¡±

    Dario said, ¡°There are rumors of Corebring precogs. Our population has exploded since the end of World War II, but we are living in relatively peaceful times. One would think the Adumbrae seeding rate will increase proportionally with population, but we have only this one Purple Bloom at Madagascar for the last several years, compared to multiple at the same time at the start of the Adumbrae invasion. It''s not far-fetched to assume Corebrings have precogs detecting future disasters. And if Corebrings can have this power, then we also have a chance of manifesting such a power, even if only a weaker version of it. Precognition is also my guess.¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± I said. ¡°Jumping into the discussion here. I¡¯m going to share how we found Ramello¡¯s room in the hospital, if that¡¯s okay with you, Deen?¡± She assented so I told them about it. ¡°That couldn¡¯t have been precognition, right? She couldn¡¯t check the future to know where we should go because we don¡¯t know where to go in the first place.¡±

    ¡°Unless Deen was checking the past? What floor the cop came from? Future and past sight?¡± Our guessing game went on for a few more minutes until Dario put a stop to it and said, ¡°So, Deen, what is it? Our best guess right now is that you have visions rewinding the past and fast-forwarding to the future.¡±

    Deen giggled. ¡°I wish it were that then I wouldn¡¯t have a hard time figuring out what to do. Precognition is close, but also not.¡± She took a deep breath before the big reveal. ¡°I have something I call a Guardian Angel,¡± she said, waving to space above her right shoulder.

    Myra gave an incredulous snort. ¡°A Guardian Angel? A summon like Obe¡¯s? We can¡¯t see it.¡± Dario and Everett echoed Myra. I also couldn¡¯t see anything out of place near Deen.

    ¡°It¡¯s invisible, but it¡¯s there. I tested it with the security cameras at home; it doesn¡¯t show up. I also ordered a thermal and infrared camera online, and I even bought those ghosthunting cameras; I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯re real. By the way, Erind, those were the boxes I was trying to hide from you last week. Nothing is showing up. I think only I can see it."

    "What does it look like?"

    "A cute baby gargoyle shaped like an egg made of ivory with faint gold, feathery wings. And only I can touch it. It¡¯s incorporeal for other people and things.¡±

    ¡°This¡­Guardian Angel of yours, how does it work? It can see the past and the future?¡±

    ¡°Only the future. Possible futures to be exact, and it¡¯s processing them at lightning speed. I know this because when I tried touching it one time, it shared its thoughts with me.¡± Deen shuddered at the memory. ¡°It¡­it was just too much. The result was me curled up on the floor of my room, having a severe seizure, my nose bleeding. My head hurt so bad I was bawling. I concentrated on not screaming because sis and Erind were in the house.¡±

    ¡°Was that the night you didn¡¯t go out of your room and suddenly canceled your date with Adrian?¡± I said, checking Everett¡¯s reaction to what I said.

    ¡°Yes, that was it. And it wasn¡¯t a date.¡± She glared at me. ¡°To be fair, my Guardian Angel did tell me ¡®I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you¡¯ when I reached for it. That¡¯s basically how it works. It processes things and just tells me inside my head what to do. During the fight with Dario, it says stuff like, ¡®He¡¯ll catch your hand when you punch¡¯ or ¡®A left kick¡¯, and so on.

    ¡°For that time at the hospital, I assume it scanned the possible futures for each button in the elevator and it told me, ¡®I''d press six if I were you.¡¯ It¡¯s more than just seeing the future. But, technically it¡¯s my Guardian Angel doing all that. It then just tells me what to do given the situation.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of an ability similar to that before,¡± Dario said.

    ¡°I suppose I have to share my weaknesses too. Disclaimer alert, this is all my observation. I¡¯m still not a hundred percent sure of how it works, especially its limitations.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll help you figure it out. That¡¯s what we¡¯re here for. We all had to go through that process. Eventually, you¡¯ll understand your power. Taking a guess, the main weakness is its range?¡± In response to Deen¡¯s astonished face, he said, ¡°That wasn¡¯t some brilliant deduction. All of us start like that. Not just us, Adumbrae and the real Corebrings too. We are technically affecting the world with energy from a higher dimension. Start small. As we get the hang of it and siphon more power from a world, not ours, our abilities are amplified.¡±

    ¡°I''d say that¡¯s the main weakness.¡±

    I snapped my fingers. ¡°Is that the reason why you always wanted me close to you when you said you can protect me with your powers?¡±

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Deen said. ¡°I can tell if something bad was about to happen to you if you''re next to me. Let¡¯s say someone''s about to shoot you, my Guardian Angel might say, ¡®Pull Erind down¡¯, or something to that effect. But if you were in another room, it¡¯s not going to tell me to run over to you to save you. If it¡¯s going to tell me to do something or use a certain object, I have to be near that person or item for it to prompt.¡±

    ¡°Like the elevator buttons,¡± I said. Deen nodded in agreement.

    ¡°If someone is going to shoot you from afar, a sniper for example,¡± Myra mused, ¡°it¡¯s not going to tell you anything?¡±

    ¡°I think it will. Let''s say if I go out of a building I''ll get shot by a waiting sniper, my Guardian Angel would see the future me dead on the ground and tell me to just stay inside. It predicts what happens to me and those within a short radius of me. And it¡¯s not just a limitation on physical distance. The distance in¡­time is also affected. Sorry, I don¡¯t know how to properly word it.¡±

    Dario said, ¡°I get it. You mean how far into the future it¡¯s scanning possibilities and then advising you what to do?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it! During our fight, it¡¯s pretty obvious it¡¯s telling me something in the immediate future, a few seconds forward. But for the elevator thing, and this is just my guess here, it scanned the consequences for each button maybe for ten minutes in the future. I¡¯m not sure yet what my limit is but I''m sure it won''t alert me about something an hour into the future.

    "The consolation is it will tell me how to avoid or mitigate the bad outcome maybe ten minutes before it¡¯s coming. In that sense, I have to be careful in deciding to follow what it says because I might end up in a scenario where I shouldn''t have entered an hour ago and now I don''t have any way out. ¡±

    ¡°Damn, that¡¯s still useful as heck,¡± Myra said. ¡°Despite its limitations, we can avoid plenty of dangers with it.¡±

    ¡°The other weakness, at least I consider it as one, is the advice given by my Guardian Angel is short. It doesn¡¯t elaborate on things. The advice to choose the sixth floor at the hospital could''ve meant Ramello was on the sixth floor, which it did. But in a different situation, it could mean go to the sixth floor, even if Ramello wasn''t there because the other floors are dangerous. During the Bianca mission earlier, it told me to go along with Erind. Just that.¡±

    "See, your Guardian Angel thinks I''m trustworthy," I said with a smile.

    ¡°These short advice...it may be minimizing the scope of the instruction so that the ¡®safe¡¯ future option won¡¯t be affected much,¡± Dario guessed. ¡°I hypothesize that when your Guardian Angel processes what to tell you, it includes possibilities of your actions when given certain advice. This might be a safeguard to keep the advice as relevant as possible for the next ten minutes or so that it calculated the future.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t get much of that,¡± Myra said. ¡°But having something that could calculate the future is a huge benefit on the side of the good guys.¡±

    ¡°This is merely the start of it,¡± Dario reminded her. ¡°When Deen¡¯s power develops, I¡¯m sure she can do more things with her Guardian Angel."

    I made a mental note I should be mindful of my actions when Deen was around. On the other hand, her powers could also be helpful to me someday.

    Dario and Deen continued with their practice. Their names sound good for a talk show, the ¡®Dario and Deen Show¡¯ or ¡®Learning to fight Adumbrae with Dario and Deen¡¯.

    Determined to learn, it was evident that Deen was giving it her all, even asking Dario to activate his field for a few seconds at a time to adapt to its effects. They distanced themselves away from us so I wouldn¡¯t puke burger and root beer slushie all over the place.

    Everett continued watching videos on his phone, sunbathing in the rays of light pouring from the wide opening high above the atrium that would''ve been covered by a glass ceiling if the building¡¯s construction was finished. As for Myra, she went down to get dressed and catch a nap. I''d been to their hideout before; it was a small dingy room they cleaned up and outfitted with various second-hand furniture they brought over to make them comfortable.

    I switched to studying for real, my talk with Deen about what she planned to do after this was all over came to mind. She was correct. Someone rich enough could avoid getting tested. The trick was to stay as human in appearance as possible and not invite suspicion.

    I did keep an ear open to eavesdrop on Dario¡¯s and Deen¡¯s conversations if there was anything important. She asked him where he learned to fight. Something vague about a stint with the Free Will Initiative was his answer. That explained his motivation to fight Adumbrae, and his skills and know-how. Was it connected with the tattoo on his back? It didn¡¯t look like any of the logos of the Initiative and its affiliated organizations.

    After an hour or so, Johann and Reo arrived bringing a couple of boxes of pizza. They brought a foldable table and plastic chairs from the hideout, and we had a mini pizza party in the middle of the abandoned building. Eerie but scenic. The heist planning montage part of the movie began.

    Which didn¡¯t amount to much because Reo couldn¡¯t get Sneak, his stealth fairy, into the secret area of the Eve club.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure there¡¯s something below Eve,¡± he said. ¡°Places like that always have something sketchy in the basement. Drug den, illegal fighting pit, fetish club¡ª¡±

    Myra snorted. ¡°You seem to know an awful lot about what¡¯s going on in the basement of clubs.¡±

    ¡°¡ªVIP lounge, there¡¯s gotta be a VIP room in a club,¡± Reo continued, ignoring Myra. ¡°I couldn¡¯t find anything. It was cool inside, I¡¯ll give them that, and looks expensive as hell, but that doesn¡¯t make sense for their exclusivity policy. The problem is if no one goes to that secret room, or even opens it, then Sneak can¡¯t get in. I tried attaching Sneak to various people, but nada.¡±

    ¡°The heck? We¡¯re not even sure if it¡¯s the right place?¡± Myra said. ¡°Deen, did your Angel tell you anything when Bianca invited you to Eve?¡±

    ¡°No, but it couldn¡¯t have anyway. That¡¯s too far in the future remember?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the right place,¡± Reo insisted. ¡°We saw Stella guarded by Dekano inside. Too bad they were already leaving when we arrived.¡±

    ¡°At least we¡¯re sure of the location,¡± Dario said. For Deen¡¯s and my benefit, he explained, ¡°Stella is the personal assistant or executive secretary of Big Marcy. We¡¯re not exactly sure what¡¯s her position, but it¡¯s quite high up. Dekano is one of the augs of Big Marcy. Strong guy.¡±

    Myra scoffed, ¡°His system is not as sophisticated as Jim Ambrose¡¯s so I¡¯m not afraid of him.¡±

    ¡°They probably don¡¯t open the secret area of the club unless there¡¯s a scheduled fight. It has to be this Saturday. The question is what to do.¡±

    ¡°We get in, of course!¡± Reo said. ¡°Deen and Erind can do some undercover gig again. If confirmed something sketchy is inside, they call us, we bust the place up.¡±

    Dario said, ¡°How does that help us in finding the Red Island though?¡± Reo held up a finger, put it down, and shrugged. Dario continued, ¡°We have to focus on our goal. There¡¯s no benefit if we attack the place.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no way they¡¯re keeping their experiments at Eve, right?¡± Everett said. ¡°Too dangerous. If I were in their shoes, I''ll have the monster delivered on the day of the fight. As close to the fight as possible. I wouldn¡¯t want it stored at the club for too long. Look at what happened at the docks when one of their monsters escaped.¡±

    ¡°Correct. We need the delivery truck and where it¡¯s going after. Johann?¡±

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± Johann said, giving a thumbs up. ¡°I¡¯ll just work into the night later at the office, will say over time, need to finish something, then hack the computer of the boys at accidents and collisions, tap into the MetroTraffic feed records. I¡¯ll get the records of the traffic cam feeds of the streets around Eve for every Saturday for the past¡­?¡±

    ¡°Three months should be enough. We¡¯ll make copies and share the footage with the seven of us. The more eyes looking for a suspicious truck, the better. It¡¯s Thursday now. We should aim to find a lead by tomorrow so we can plan by Saturday.¡±

    With the meeting done, we went our separate ways. Deen was desperate for a hot shower after her intense workout, so we returned to her house. I was pretty full from the greasy fast food I ate so I decided to go to bed early.

    Another normal day done.

 2.9

    Sunlight bathed my face, nudging me out of sleep. I had always drawn the thick curtain shades of the guest room I was staying in because that was what I was used to in my condo. ¡°Is that you, Deen?¡± I grumbled, assuming she entered the room and pulled the curtains open to wake me up. ¡°What time is¡ªwait, what?¡±

    Hard ground was beneath me. I was no longer cradled by comfy pillows and a springy mattress, the last state I was certain I was in before I fell asleep. Instead, my cheek rested on a cold, rough surface. I immediately got up, adrenaline rushing through my body, pumping my heart into hyperdrive and driving away the drowsiness instantly.

    As I jumped to my feet, I found myself in an enclosed dome-shaped space that looked like it was carved out of solid rock. It was large enough to fit maybe two of Deen¡¯s house, with the ceiling as high as the utility pole out in the street. The air was musty and damp.

    I¡¯m going to get so angry if I got kidnapped again.

    What I mistook for sunlight was actually an item glowing bright yellow in the center of the cavern, suspended by invisible forces in defiance of gravity in the middle of a pillar of water continuously pouring from the ceiling to a hole in the ground. It was an exquisite golden gauntlet, its fingers ending in wicked claws.

    I recognized it instantly.

    SpookyErind¡¯s gauntlet!

    I breathed slowly to calm myself. Although annoyed, I relaxed knowing I was somewhere safe. SpookyErind wouldn¡¯t hurt me, right? After all, she was the one who saved me from certain death.

    Where was I anyway? This wasn¡¯t the place I previously met her. Good thing I was not naked this time. I wore the clothes I went to sleep in. That also meant I was barefoot.

    The glowing gauntlet wasn¡¯t the only source of light in this cavern. Curious bioluminescent flora, unlike any I had seen on Earth, littered various spots of the cavern, the meager kaleidoscope of lights they gave off trying to survive under the glare of SpookyErind¡¯s gauntlet. Perhaps even more curious were the broken pillars and statues around me, like I was in the ruins of an ancient civilization. These statues, as well as the carvings on the pillars, sometimes depicted humans but were mostly of creatures that probably came from some mythology I wasn¡¯t familiar with.

    So, what do I do now?

    Six archways, evenly spaced throughout the perimeter of the cavern, appeared to be the only means of exit. Gaping maws of darkness that the light of the gauntlet couldn¡¯t pierce.

    Or¡­I can take the gauntlet?

    SpookyErind didn¡¯t seem to be around.

    I made my way to it, climbing over the rubble and carefully avoiding the alien plants. As I struggled to get over a thick column that has fallen over, I realized I didn¡¯t feel as strong as before. Or maybe the correct thing to say was that I was as weak as before I had gotten powers. Even my feet hurt walking over the gravel and uneven ground. I had my normal body back in this weird place.

    When I reached the middle of the room, I couldn¡¯t see any way to get to the gauntlet floating in the downpour like a salmon swimming up a waterfall. If I still had my superstrength I could''ve stacked these ruins to get to it, or threw a rock to try to dislodge it.

    I reached for the falling water with my index finger, tensed, ready to run away if something bad happened. My fingertip poked through the wall of cold water. A bell chimed somewhere. I jumped back and looked around for the source of the sound.

    Nothing.

    However, one of the archways lit up, blue fire tracing the arch with incomprehensible writing. The lines of fire entered the corridor, creeping along the walls and the ceiling, illuminating the hallway like a runway at the airport.

    That was my next path, I guess.

    <hr>

    Several minutes passed...

    Or maybe an hour...

    Possibly two...

    I wasn¡¯t sure anymore.

    All I knew was my feet were sore and my knees tired. It felt like I''d been walking this corridor for a long time and I couldn¡¯t recall when I started walking. No end was in sight.

    Was this some loopy dream thing? Not that I was worried about getting trapped here. SpookyErind needed me outside. Last time this happened, I returned to the normal world with barely any passage of time even though I stayed quite a while in SpookyErind¡¯s dimension. I could take my time getting to the end of this path.

    A troubling thought needled my mind. What if she had already taken over my body?

    Fuck! Why didn¡¯t I immediately think of that?

    Was that why I had my weak, normal body now? Was this the real me? The human me? And now I was trapped here forever.

    What now?

    The corridor stretched far in front of me. I turned back and found that it was the same.

    Wait a minute.

    Was this the way forward? Or back?

    Did it matter?

    I paused to consider. No. Not really.

    I should''ve been dead before anyway, so SpookyErind could have that body since she was the one who saved it. My only regret was I couldn¡¯t see what kind of monster my body transformed into when SpookyErind manifests herself into my world. I bet she was going to be gigantic and powerful, and she''d probably be the type of Adumbrae that retained its consciousness instead of those lesser ones that mindlessly rampaged until they were eliminated. The city was going to be a warzone. Call the army, the super soldiers of the BID, ComExo units, the Corebrings¡­

    As for me?

    Just keep walking...

    <hr>

    A gigantic double-winged door appeared in front of me out of nowhere after I didn¡¯t know how long, signaling the end of my journey. Ancient and made of dark metal, it was adorned with ominous carvings of wolves, fangs, and claws.

    I approached it, placed my palms against it, and tried to push it. But I was too weak. How do I open this thing?

    To answer my thoughts, the door slowly opened on its own, the ground grumbling beneath my soles. It led to yet another cavern. Perhaps this one was smaller than the previous one, but I couldn¡¯t exactly tell because it was shrouded in darkness except for the places touched by the light of the blue flame from the corridor.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    I entered the room. The fire did not follow me. I didn''t dare go further inside and plunge myself into darkness.

    Something was inside here, far in the back of the huge room. Hints of its fur caught the blue light, giving me an idea of its shape. It was incredibly colossal, a wall of fierce fur and powerful muscles, and it appeared to be curled up at the end of the room. Chains bound it, reflecting hints of the light from outside.

    I couldn¡¯t see most of it but I felt it was familiar.

    It was like my transformation during my rampage at the docks.

    This was bigger. Far bigger.

    <u>Hellooo</u>, a voice said inside my head in a singsong way. There was no sound, the greeting simply popped inside my head like I was the one who thought of it. Someone, presumably the speaker, hugged me from behind and squeezed hard, nearly knocking the wind out of me. <u>I missed me so much</u>, she said.

    I turned my head to see who it was and found myself face to face with a Thalia drama mask, the laughing mask of theater. The mask was divided down the middle, one side colored white, the other black. Cracks ran all over the mask, even squiggling across the lines of golden metal that radiated from its eye sockets. Peeking through those holes were tantalizing red eyes with an unearthly glow, more beautiful than the finest jewelry I''d seen.

    It was SpookyErind. Who else could it be?

    ¡°Hi,¡± I said, struggling to breathe normally despite the bear hug she had me in. I was unsure of what to say to her. ¡°You missed¡­you? Or me?¡±

    The cracks on the mask deepened and expanded, breaking the mask apart. The broken pieces crumbled to dust and disappeared into the air, revealing a grinning face that looked like mine, with the cute upturned nose and tiny bunny teeth. I¡¯m praising my own looks, I know. The difference was her marble-like complexion; her white, almost transparent, wispy hair; and, of course, those demonic eyes.

    <u>I missed you, I missed me, me, you</u>, she said, still singing. <u>Meyoumeyoumeyou.</u>

    ¡°Am I dead?¡±

    <u>Nope, why would you think that? That¡¯s a weird thing to ask after just meeting again. I¡¯m not the grim reaper.</u>

    ¡°Just asking. Have you taken over my body?¡±

    What are you talking about? She tilted her head and smiled innocently.

    I held her arms and tried to unwrap her around me, but she wouldn¡¯t budge. ¡°Was only wondering why I''m here. I thought you took over my body already.¡±

    <u>That¡¯s nonsense. We¡¯re one and the same. No one is taking over anyone.</u>

    ¡°You do say that a lot.¡± What should I ask her? I shouldn¡¯t risk antagonizing her or I might not get out of here. She did seem amiable to me. ¡°Where is this?¡±

    <u>Somewhere not your world? Does it really matter where this is?</u> she said, repeating my earlier train of thought when I walked through the corridor. I shrugged to show I agreed with her. <u>Is your next question why are you here?</u>

    I nodded.

    <u>Because I don¡¯t know the answer to that one. You¡¯re the one who came here.</u> She nuzzled her cheeks against mine. She was surprisingly warm. I expected her to be dead cold because she looked like a vampire or some demon lord. <u>Why don¡¯t we just bond?</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m not really a touchy-feely type,¡± I said with no intention of finding out what she meant by that. ¡°If we¡¯re the same then you shouldn¡¯t be too.¡±

    <u>This doesn¡¯t count. This is just me loving myself. I do love myself so, so, so, very much. Don¡¯t you?¡±</u>

    ¡°I do love myself very much too. Perhaps, I only love and can only love myself.¡±

    <u>Samesies. We have so much in common. Meyoumeyoumeyoumeyou¡ª</u>

    ¡°Oh, I do have a question I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you,¡± I said, interrupting her chanting. ¡°How do I turn into that monster?¡± I pointed to the hulking mountain of fur covered in shadows. ¡°You let me borrow a face, and I really appreciated it. Super thanks. But I don¡¯t know how to use it.¡±

    <u>Eh?!</u> She let me go. I inhaled deeply. Grabbing my shoulders, she rotated me to face her. <u>Seriously? You don¡¯t know how to use it?</u> <u> </u>

    ¡°Um¡­I don¡¯t¡­.sorry.¡±

    SpookyErind giggled with a thick air of condescension and patted my head like I was the biggest dumbass she had ever seen across whatever dimensions she''d been in. <u>You¡¯re not a very good listener</u>,<u> aren¡¯t you? Didn¡¯t I say ¡®That face has to follow all your Rules too¡¯ when we last met and I gave you that face?</u>

    ¡°I remember that. I¡¯ve been thinking about how the Rules affect me when I''m transformed.¡±

    <u>Ughhh. That¡¯s not it.</u> She placed her hands on the side of my head and pulled me closer until the tips of our noses bumped. <u>Come on, you know this. Think.</u>

    Her eyes burned like molten steel. I willed myself to look into them although I felt that I would probably lose myself in them. We stared at each other for several seconds. ¡°Shit, I get it now.¡±

    <u>Ding! Okay, I suck at making a lightbulb noise.</u>

    ¡°The face you gave me works based on the Rules. But what Rule is it?¡± I tried to remember the times I had transformed.

    <u>What do you think?</u>

    ¡°Rule Four,¡± I whispered, everything finally clicking in place. The circumstances I had asked for the face was a Rule Four scenario, and that was the intention when she gave them to me. Which meant it works based on Rule Four. ¡°Action, reaction. Or more like action, retribution. Nothing happened when I tried to eat the chicken because it didn¡¯t do anything to me. But for people who meant me harm¡ª¡±

    She squealed in excitement. I cringed. I didn¡¯t think I have made such a reaction to anything ever. <u>Exactly! I was scared there for a bit you might be an idiot. Because that would make me an idiot too. But I¡¯m not. Sooo¡­ good job! Do you have anything else to ask me?</u>

    ¡°Nothing, for now.¡± I paused then added, "Thanks for the help."

    <u>Well then.</u> SpookyErind moved away and turned her back to me. <u>Do visit sometimes. It¡¯s entertaining with you around. </u>

    ¡°How do I come to visit you?¡±

    <u>Dunno. You just keep popping around here.</u>

    <hr>

    Fierce sunlight pierced through my thin eyelids and poked me out of sleep. Was it for real this time? I purred in satisfaction as I stretched out my muscles charged with superhuman strength, then warily opened one eye to check if I was back in the real world.

    Deen¡¯s smiling face peered over mine. ¡°It¡¯s unlike you to wake up late.¡± She checked the time on her phone. ¡°Seven a.m. It¡¯s not really late but late for your usual wake-up time. It always amazes me how you always get up at five sharp, even without an alarm.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just used to waking up at that time no matter what time I fell asleep. Even if I slept at four in the morning, I will still wake up at five.¡± I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. There was something odd in my palm when I balled up my hand. With my thumb, I checked if the pimple patch I used to cover the crystalline growth was still there.

    Deen sat on the edge of my bed. ¡°You weren¡¯t outside stirring tea in your peculiar way, so I got worried you may be sick.¡±

    ¡°I...I just woke up early then decided to go back to sleep.¡± I opened my palm half an inch to take a peek, then quickly closed it. Shit. I clenched my jaws to stop myself cursing out loud.

    ¡°By the way,¡± Deen said, ¡°Johann has hacked into the traffic camera feeds last night. Dario messaged me that they discovered a problem.¡±

    You got that right that there¡¯s a problem. I nonchalantly hid my right hand under the covers. ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡±

    ¡°Every Saturday, between eight p.m. to twelve midnight, the traffic cams monitoring the streets surrounding the club are turned off. They may be paying someone at MetroTraffic to do that.¡±

    ¡°So, we don¡¯t know which truck to ambush?¡±

    ¡°Yes, we need to do some brainstorming on our backup plan. Right now, they¡¯re viewing footage of neighboring streets trying to find a new lead. Myra will give me copies of some footage so we can help them out.¡±

    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll help with that,¡± I said. ¡°I think we can talk about possible plans while we eat breakfast? I¡¯ll just fix myself up then follow you down.¡±

    Deen hopped off my bed. ¡°Sure, we¡¯ll figure out something soon. I made avocado toast, by the way. I hope it turned out fine.¡±

    ¡°Yum,¡± I said with fake gusto. I opened my right hand when she left to examine the growth. It expanded. The crystal on the left portion of my palm branched out and gave birth to a second tiny crystal, connected with a hairs-width vein of gold.

 2.10

    Professor Bansa tapped on the microphone to check if it was on. Feedback echoed throughout the lecture hall, heralding the start of the agonizing and slow fight against sleepiness only a select few would win in the end¡ªCrimLaw was in session.

    The professor cleared his throat and checked the screen of his laptop that was also projected behind him. ¡°We finished the basics of burden of proof, including the concept of ¡®proof beyond reasonable doubt¡¯, a term which we¡¯ll be hearing and reading plenty of times as we go along. As with other topics, we''ll move on to discuss the Adumbrae aspect.

    ¡°Of course, suspected Adumbrae are not taken to court like alleged offenders for normal crimes, so the burden of proof works differently. The hurdle the State needs to overcome before a suspected Adumbrae is sentenced to execution is related to physical examination of the body of the subject, which you will learn more about in your future Adumbrae forensic courses at Melchor. Suffice to say that these tests are the counterpart of ¡®proof beyond reasonable doubt¡¯ for criminal convictions. However, there are many exceptions to this ¡­¡± And he droned on and on.

    From my vantage point at the end of the sloped auditorium, I observed the class sink into a collective slump as they settled in for a couple of hours of stupor. Amazing how Professor Bansa could make an interesting and important subject sound so boring just by the way he spoke.

    While we didn¡¯t have a permanent sitting arrangement for this class¡ªsome professors did require it to have an easier time remembering a student if they sat at the same place every class¡ªwe all have settled into a sort of a sitting plan ourselves. My usual place for Professor Bansa¡¯s class was somewhere on the left side of the fourth row.

    However, I wasn¡¯t sitting there today because of two reasons: one, Ramello was back, sitting beside my usual spot and I didn¡¯t want to talk to him just yet; and, two, I had something more pressing to do than listen to the lecture.

    Ramello was searching for me, craning his neck to scan the people in the class, and when he found me, he raised his brow and pointed to the empty seat beside him. I gave him an apologetic smile and nodded at my laptop. He gave me a thumbs up and mouthed ¡®talk later¡¯, or something like that; I sucked at lip-reading. He then faced forward to listen to Professor Bansa.

    In law school, the back rows of classes with lenient professors were usually reserved for people catching up for another class, be it studying, homework, or some project. Meryl and Alexis sitting right in front of me were, based on their laptop screens, studying for an elective course I didn¡¯t get, ¡®US Bureau of Interdimensional Defense and the Panderton Act¡¯. Given my current predicament, maybe I should enroll in that course next semester. Five seats to their right was Victor watching a movie.

    Okay, so the back seats could also be for people who wanted to waste time.

    Not like I could judge him. I wasn¡¯t exactly studying for my next class myself.

    I opened my palm to check the crystals growing on it. I now used two pimple patches, one for each of the tiny crystals. And for added measure, I applied a thick foundation to it. Unless someone really focused on my palm, and why would they, it didn¡¯t look weird at all. I pushed the pimple patches down to make sure they were sticking properly, then I reapplied makeup to blend the patches with my pale skin tone and to disguise the gold vein connecting them.

    This morning as we ate breakfast, I asked Deen what was the best sweat-proof makeup she could recommend and I immediately ordered it online. I wasn¡¯t a sweaty person, mind you. But I¡¯d rather not risk it.

    Disguising it was the easy part. What was particularly difficult was controlling myself from absentmindedly picking at it. When it was just that one teensy-weensy crystal, I could will myself to ignore it. I guess that showed I wasn¡¯t a princess compared to that mysterious woman in the children''s story, ¡®The Princess and the Pea¡¯, who turned out to be royalty because she could feel a tiny pea through like twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. Weird way to establish royalty, if you ask me.

    But now that there were two of them, the annoying feeling became so much more pronounced. They weren¡¯t so close as to grind against each other when I curved or closed my palm, but I could feel them there, like a tiny chunk of meat that got caught between my teeth that I simply couldn¡¯t ignore. I might be a princess just yet.

    Satisfied with my handiwork, I placed my makeup kit back into my bag. There were only a few instances someone could touch my palm. I wasn¡¯t into having my future predicted through palm reading, so that was minus one instance. Perhaps the most concerning case was shaking hands with someone. It was extremely rare in people¡¯s daily lives to shake somebody''s hands unless it was job-related like a salesperson or something. But in law school, handshakes were pretty common.

    I practiced cupping my hand to avoid my palm touching another¡¯s in the event I was forced into a handshake by societal norms. It was awkward to practice shaking my left hand with my right. After a few tries, I gave up and moved on to the next order of business.

    Watching traffic cam footage.

    Before coming to Cresthorne, Deen and I passed by Melchor Hall to get a USB drive from Myra with copies of a few of the videos Johann took, or hacked, from MetroTraffic.

    I plugged the USB drive into my laptop¡¯s port, opened the folder, and scanned the files. I randomly opened one. Streets, and people, and cars, and trucks, the occasional stray animal. Wow, this is boring.

    I sped up the video and blankly stared at it, my eyes probably glazing over. I didn¡¯t expect to find anything, but I found doing something mundane was conducive to thinking. They say that was why Einstein worked at a patent office. It was during this dull time of his life that he published numerous papers, including the one on the theory of relativity and his most famous work on the theory of tiered dimensionality¡ªwhich eventually became the basis of Nazi experiments and, fast forward several decades, resulted in SpookyErind slowly taking over my body.

    I did want Dario and the super friends to find the Red Island. I know, it was for the good of the world and all, blah, blah, blah, whatever. But it was even more important now with the crystal on my palm slowly growing. Nothing happened for a couple of weeks after I met SpookyErind, so I thought it was going to be slow, taking months to gradually change. Was it because I ate that guy with powers to kind of liquify solid stuff? What was his name again? I think they said he was Rofirio? How long did nothing happen since I ate him? Nearly two weeks?

    This urge to consume...why?

    It worked, right?

    Right.

    In short, I was like a vampire needing a constant stream of food. I sighed. I needed to help the superhero wannabes find my food source. I need to consume. Dario and the others, including Deen, would be my last resort because eating them wouldn¡¯t last me a long time.

    I continued watching boring videos while Professor Bansa¡¯s lecture continued passing through one ear and out the other. He said, ¡°We have discussed last week the ruling of the US Supreme Court that the Due Process Clause in the Constitution includes protection from criminal conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt. This right, however, does not extend to Adumbrae, as enunciated in the landmark case of People vs. Milphard. I assume you already tackled this in your Constitutional Law class. The Bill of Rights does not extend to Adumbrae.¡±

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    I paused the video to listen to him.

    He went on, ¡°The law does not distinguish between persons who have just been seeded, who most likely retain their mental faculties and will continue to do so for some time, and Adumbrae who have already completely manifested into our side of the plane. They are all categorized as Adumbrae. In the field of science, yes, there are terms for different stages of Adumbrae seeding and mutation. Necessity dictates such. The eyes of the law, however, do not distinguish. This is very much deliberately implemented with the passing of the Panderton Act.¡± He looked up from his screen, ¡°Uh¡­ yes¡­Mr. Harlon?¡±

    We all looked in surprise at Jacob raising his hand. Even Professor Bansa was surprised someone cared enough to ask questions in his class. ¡°Sir, isn¡¯t there a world of difference between someone recently seeded and a fully realized monster?¡± Jacob Harlon asked. ¡°The latter is dangerous, but the former is no danger to anyone¡­yet. For an analogy, there is a difference between driving under the influence, which is just a misdemeanor and has a fine as a penalty, and vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, which is a felony and is punishable by jail time. Shouldn¡¯t there be categorization?¡±

    ¡°Any volunteers to answer?¡±

    I raised my hand, but Ramello was quicker.

    ¡°Mr. Staten, go ahead,¡± Professor Bansa said.

    Ramello looked back at me to wink before answering, ¡°Not every drunk driver will result in manslaughter. But if many people are driving under the influence, it''s only a matter of time before they get into an accident which may result in damage to person or property. The State is interested in penalizing driving under the influence to prevent something worse from happening. Vehicular manslaughter is the ¡®something worse happening¡¯, which warrants a higher penalty and is classified as a felony.

    ¡°Compared to Adumbrae, it''s only a matter of time before a seeded individual turns into a monster. We are absolutely sure that this specific drunk driver will damage persons and/or property in the future, thus, there is no need to have different categorization.¡±

    I nodded slowly as he spoke. He was right. There was no recorded case that someone seeded was ¡®cured¡¯. There was no going back to being a normal human.

    And that included me.

    After answering, Ramello once again turned to me and gave me a quick thumbs up. I rolled my eyes.

    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Staten,¡± Professor Bansa said. ¡°Very well put. Although, it can be simplified. We have to understand what offense was committed in the first place. Letting oneself get seeded, allowing an Adumbrae into our world, is a crime against humanity. From the point of seeding, the crime has already been committed. From that point, such a traitor to humanity can, and should be, executed.¡±

    The class went silent, not because they were bored, but because everyone was surprised that Professor Bansa, a gentle, soft-spoken, old man, could be that direct. Something was chilling with the way he said it.

    I sunk down my chair and sighed. Technically, I guess I no longer have any human rights. All the more reason I should strive to maintain my human appearance. No way anyone was going to execute me.

    <hr>

    After class, Ramello waited for me by the door. My mind rushed about whether I should brush him off or talk to him. Fine, I¡¯ll talk with him. ¡°Hi, Ramello,¡± I said. ¡°Are you fine now? I heard that you were attacked.¡±

    ¡°I guess so. I did get banged up pretty badly.¡± He shook his body. ¡°All fine now.¡±

    How should I go about this? I wasn¡¯t sure what he remembered. ¡°Did they catch the people who did this to you?¡± I said, pointing at the bandage around his head.

    ¡°No, the police don¡¯t have much to go on. I¡¯m not even sure what happened before I woke up at the hospital.¡±

    ¡°Really? What do you recall?¡±

    ¡°I was with you. We rode the train and¡­I was supposed to accompany you home, right?¡±

    I paused, considering what I should say next. There should be cameras at the train station. ¡°Easy there, big guy.¡± I playfully poked his chest. ¡°You wanted to accompany me home, but I said no. We did walk for some time together but I didn¡¯t allow you anywhere near my apartment.¡±

    He held up his hands. ¡°Relax, I¡¯m not a stalker. Although I couldn¡¯t remember what happened back then, I¡¯m sure I had only good intentions. I¡¯m a beacon of morality, I swear.¡±

    I put on a concerned face. ¡°Seriously though. What was the last thing you could remember?¡±

    ¡°I remember getting off the train with you. And I think I noticed people following us. I suppose I got attacked after we parted ways.¡±

    I gasped. ¡°I¡¯m lucky I already left.¡± Then I forced myself to stutter. ¡°I-I didn¡¯t me-mean it that way. It¡¯s bad what happened to you, I was saying¡ª¡±

    Ramello laughed. ¡°I understand. I¡¯m also glad you weren¡¯t there when I got attacked.¡±

    ¡°Do the police have any leads? You said you have an uncle who¡¯s a detective or something?¡±

    ¡°Lt. Hall. Yes, he¡¯s a detective. We¡¯re not actually blood-related, but I do consider him my uncle.¡± He inserted his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall. ¡°Still no leads, or at least that¡¯s what uncle told me. I asked other cops I know about it and they said that it¡¯s probably some mobster who got beef with my uncle. He¡¯s clean, never accepts any bribe, and has a personal vendetta against organized crime and corruption. They probably attacked me as a warning to him. I¡¯m relieved they didn¡¯t do anything to you.¡±

    ¡°Oh, wow. I don¡¯t know what to say. That¡¯s such a difficult situation.¡± This meant he didn¡¯t remember I told him at the train station that I suspected the people following us were after me.

    ¡°I¡¯m just going to tell you that it¡¯s probably for the best we don¡¯t get too close to each other.¡±

    The fuck? We were close? ¡°Why? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to try to help my uncle with this. This doesn¡¯t sit right with me that I¡¯m being used to threaten him. Feels like I¡¯m a burden.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t get it¡­What are you going to do? What can you even do?¡±

    ¡°That I don¡¯t know. But I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll figure something out. I¡¯m not going to just sit here and do nothing.¡± He saw my skeptical face. ¡°Yeah, okay, I¡¯m not like a secret assassin or whatever with some hidden fighting skills. But I¡¯m pretty resourceful, and I know the streets.¡±

    ¡°This seems to be way over your head. Can¡¯t you tell your uncle to stop whatever he¡¯s doing? I can¡¯t¡­I mean you¡¯re up against scary people.¡±

    ¡°Are you familiar with the story of the two wolves?¡± Ramello said. ¡°They say it¡¯s a Native American legend. I¡¯m not sure of which tribe. Cherokee, I think?¡±

    ¡°No, I haven¡¯t heard of that one.¡±

    ¡°There are two wolves inside of us. What they represent differ in various versions of the story. There is light and darkness, hope and despair, love and hate, righteousness and sin, good and evil. In this case, the two wolves can represent bravery and fear, or doing what is wrong and doing nothing. These two wolves fight continuously fight inside of us. Which one do you think wins?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    Ramello, with a resolute face, said, ¡°The one you feed.¡±

    I stared with a brow raised, and then snorted, trying to hold down a laugh.

    He scratched his head. ¡°I know, I know, alright. It sounds cheesy. But it sounded awesome in my head like I was in a movie. My point still stands. There''s something wrong here and I¡¯ll set it right. I''m not going to let fear get the better of me. I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯ll have to keep my distance from you.¡± He walked out the door, which admittedly looked cool even though what he said didn¡¯t make sense to me.

    Why was everyone so eager to be a hero? There was no point. My understanding of how people should behave was being challenged.

    Maybe I was the normal one?

    There was one thing I agreed with Ramello. I should feed the wolf inside me. It just felt right. And it couldn¡¯t wait until we find the Red Island. I had to get into the Eve club and find something inside to eat.

 2.11 - Jeremiah Hall

    Jeremiah Hall

    Lieutenant Jeremiah Hall of the La Esperanza City Police Department scratched his greying stubble while his commanding officer, Captain Hayward, hollered at him over the phone. He said, ¡°Yes, sir¡± a few times and added in a couple of grunts and other noises of agreement to appease the irate captain without particularly listening to what the latter was saying as he kept his eyes peeled for anything out of place in his surroundings.

    ¡®Mother Core Disciples Charities¡¯ it stated in bold letters above the wide, speckless, glass doors that led into the soup kitchen that was Hall¡¯s destination for the day. Every time someone entered or exited the building, sumptuous smells wafted towards the parking area at the front where he leaned on the hood of his unmarked cruiser.

    From what he had heard, the McHunter family donated this three-story building to the MCDC years ago; a PR tactic to influence the public opinion in their favor, which they sorely needed after the head of their family, the big man himself, Raphael McHunter, was executed for being an Adumbrae.

    Hall didn¡¯t follow the news after that. Last he heard, the family members and employees sitting in jail for aiding and abetting an Adumbrae were still appealing their convicted asses all the way up to the Supreme Court. They were lucky they didn¡¯t get the death sentence, but that was the extent they could twist the law with money. No amount of wealth could save Raphael McHunter, a confirmed Adumbrae, from execution.

    Sadly, instead of rebuilding their business empire, the remaining McHunters who weren¡¯t in jail fought amongst themselves for a cut in the tasty pie that was the estate of their grandfather.

    ¡°Hall? Are you still there?¡± Hayward barked. ¡°Are you listening to what I said?¡±

    ¡°Here. Let¡¯s see. A goldeye from USBID is coming. No going to Fifteenth¡¯s area. Focus on the Martinez case for this week because the mayor wants something good to announce to the press. That stupid seminar next Wednesday. Have I already said not to go to the Fifteenth?¡±

    ¡°You did,¡± Hayward said. He continued in a softer tone. ¡°What happened to Ramello was awful, and we will catch the people who did that to him. But there''s nothing to show that it''s connected to the explosion at the docks, alright? Pure coincidence both incidents happened on the same day. I don¡¯t want to hear any more complaints from Captain Diaz that you were in their area doing your own investigation.¡±

    ¡°Copy, sir.¡± Both of them knew he wasn¡¯t going to stop his jaunts to the docks. This wasn¡¯t a film noir criminal thriller, but even outside of movies, Hall knew there were times he had to trust his guts even when the facts said otherwise.

    This was such a time.

    ¡°I know you have a lot on your plate right now. Rest during your free time. You know we have a policy against handling personal cases.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. I understand,¡± Hall said, wondering how many more iterations of those words he could string together.

    ¡°And keep the goldeye out of my hair until he¡¯s finished with his business and out of this city. I¡¯ll send you his contact details. He wants to meet with you as soon as possible.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll get on that.¡± After the call, Hall checked the phone number Hayward sent him. Then he looked up from his phone to the person approaching him. ¡°Is he inside there, Castan?¡± he said while messaging the goldeye.

    The freshly-minted detective who recently became his partner in his ¡®personal investigations¡¯ shook his head. ¡°He didn¡¯t come here all day, LT. But the soup kitchen director pointed me to some people who know him. They were still lining up, so I asked the director if we could borrow a table to talk with them while they eat. Set aside a place for us. He said that guy usually shows up around this time, but it¡¯s probably good news if he no longer needed to come to this place.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope that¡¯s the case.¡±

    ¡°What did Cap say, LT?¡±

    ¡°The usual. Something you might find interesting though, there¡¯s a goldeye from the Bureau who¡¯s going to meet us. Meet me. But he¡¯s coming here right now, so you¡¯ll meet him too. Always in a rush, those guys.¡±

    ¡°A goldeye from the Bureau? The BID? What¡¯s a goldeye?¡±

    ¡°I meant the augs of the Bureau. There was a time their eyes used to be mandated colored gold. They can change it when they¡¯re undercover, but on official business it¡¯s gold. That was around the time of the McHunter scandal, they were swarming the city, getting up in everyone¡¯s business. Our nickname for them back then was goldeyes, so you¡¯ll often hear old-timers like me refer to them as such. Been a while since there was a high-profile investigation from the Bureau in this city.¡± Hall walked to the soup kitchen and gestured for Castan to follow him in.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t met a BID aug yet. Why does he want to talk with you? Unless that¡¯s top secret.¡±

    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s about some case I had several years ago. Nothing so sensational.¡±

    The soup kitchen was fairly large. It could sit a hundred, possibly a hundred-twenty or so people, one of the larger soup kitchens in the city. Even though the building was donated to them more than a decade ago, the interior appeared brand new. Fairly fresh coat of white and pale green paint mirroring the fa?ade of the building, and sparkling clean tiles with no hint of any crack. A catchy tune played over the speakers¡ªHall recognized it as a worship song of religious believers of the Mother Core. Every day, on his way to the precinct, he saw people asking for donations for the MCDC and they always played those worship songs.

    Hall didn¡¯t find it surprising there was a small shrine with a depiction of the Mother Core to the left of the door so that everyone leaving the building could see it. Some of the customers chose to bow to the shrine, touch it, or make some sign before they exited. Various religious sects worshipping either the Mother Core, the Corebrings, or both, have their own interpretation of the Mother Core, but, of course, no one except the Corebings knew its actual appearance.

    The place was about ninety percent full.

    An average person who knew nothing about soup kitchens or food banks might have a mental image of something akin to a refugee camp, filled with people who looked like they hadn¡¯t taken a bath or shaved in days, wearing dirty, grubby clothes, the only piece of clothing they owned. It wasn¡¯t anything like that. Everyone here was dressed normally. No one could have guessed each one of these people had financial problems based on their appearance. There were also a few men wearing ties and jackets over their dress shirts.

    ¡°Just goes to show you can¡¯t tell what a person is going through with appearance alone,¡± Hall said in a voice low enough only Castan could hear.

    ¡°Are those your wise words for the day, LT?¡± To which Hall replied with only an amused grunt. Castan pointed to a frail old man leaning on a four-pronged walking cane. ¡°There¡¯s the director. His name''s Noel.¡±

    ¡°Good morning, sir,¡± Hall said, stooping to accept the hand offered to him. ¡°I¡¯m Lt. Hall, LEPD. Very nice place you have here. The people of La Esperanza appreciate this social service extended by the MCDC.¡±

    ¡°We share our blessings. Every act of kindness may prevent someone from falling into the clutches of the Adumbrae,¡± he answered with a soft voice.

    ¡°Very true,¡± Castan said, nodding eagerly.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°Barty¡¯s friends are over there. At the end of the hall. But before going there, would you like something to eat?¡±

    Castan opened his mouth, but Hall quickly spoke before he could say anything, ¡°We appreciate the offer, but we''ve already eaten.¡± Castan¡¯s face dropped and he shrugged in resignation. ¡°If you could show us the way,¡± Hall firmly said. ¡°Please.¡±

    <hr>

    The three men sat across the table from Hall. Right in front of these three men were plates piled high with beef macaroni and thick pieces of buttered toast on the side.

    Larson sitting on the left side refused to make eye contact with Hall. Strands of different kinds of fur clung to his yellow sweater, which was starting to fade. Working at a pet grooming perhaps? Or dog sitting for someone who had many dogs. Hall doubted if Larson himself owned multiple dogs; he wouldn¡¯t be able to afford taking care of them.

    Bolivar sat at the center. The overalls he wore with a construction company logo, calloused hands, and sun-burnt face, corroborated his background story. The contractor and the sub-contractor were in a dispute about overpayments, and so the poor laborers got fucked.

    The person at the right introduced himself simply as Spuds. He was jittery and didn¡¯t want to say anything about himself except that he had a bright future that was robbed of him, and now he didn¡¯t want his friends to see that he goes here. Hall didn¡¯t find anything suspicious about him. Spud was keeping secrets, but it didn¡¯t feel like he would be interested in them.

    After they all introduced themselves, Bolivar leaned forward as if they were in a secret meeting. ¡°Did something happen to Barty? What''s all this about? If it¡¯s something illegal, we don¡¯t know nothing ¡®bout that.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s right,¡± Spud said in between bites of his toast. ¡°We just know each other here. Watch the TV over there and comment on current events. Anything about our lives, we keep mum about those. That¡¯s each of our own personal business. We talk about the news which is everyone¡¯s business.¡±

    Hall placed his hands on the table, palms facing up, to show openness. ¡°We¡¯re investigating a missing person¡¯s case. Multiple persons perhaps, or one, or maybe none.¡± Bolivar¡¯s brows furrowed. It seemed he was the only one intently listening. Hall continued, ¡°Suffice to say we have a tip from a credible source that someone, or an organization, is kidnapping homeless people.¡± He nodded at Bolivar. ¡°You understand how hard it is to verify, right? We don¡¯t even know who the missing persons are.¡±

    Excited he was personally referred to, Bolivar said, ¡°You got that right. Barty was living in his car for a couple of months already. Dunno where he parks at night to sleep. But it¡¯s all over the city. Wouldn¡¯t really know if he¡¯s missing.¡±

    ¡°And before you get any ideas,¡± Spud said, ¡°We don¡¯t have no idea where Barty is right now, or yesterday, or a week ago.¡± Bolivar agreed with this.

    Hall stared at Larson for a couple of seconds to see if he could get him to say something, but the latter stayed silent. ¡°What do you know about Barty then? I know you don¡¯t talk about personal stuff, like Spud here said, but nothing at all? I¡¯m sure he would¡¯ve mentioned something.¡± Again, Hall stared directly into the eyes of Bolivar, subtly pressuring him to give any information at all since Larson was of no help and Spud was just spinning them around.

    ¡°I think he worked at a chop shop,¡± Bolivar said after some moments of thinking.

    ¡°Hey, nothing illegal. We know nothing about nothing,¡± Spud reminded him. ¡°Only watching the news and talkin¡¯ about it.¡±

    ¡°No idea if it¡¯s true, just that Barty mentioned it a couple of times. Was some time ago. When he left that place, that¡¯s when he started living in his car.¡±

    Hall continued pressing them for information. He only found bits and pieces of a puzzle, or maybe different puzzles. There were too many questions in this trail and Barty was his best bet for the next lead. And now, Barty seemed to be missing. Perhaps the first missing person that he could identify.

    ¡°How about when you¡¯re watching the TV?¡± Castan said.

    ¡°What about it?¡± Spuds said.

    ¡°Anything weird about his comments on the news? Or if not on the news, the ads, anything on TV.¡±

    Spuds and Bolivar looked at each other and shrugged. To Hall¡¯s surprise, Larson, who had been quiet this entire time, spoke, ¡°If it¡¯s ads...there was an ad for clinical trials for a stress pill.¡±

    ¡°Like those that say they lessen the chance of collapsing our Eloyce field? Some science mumbo jumbo shit like that,¡± Bolivar said. ¡°But I don¡¯t remember an ad for a clinical trial.¡±

    ¡°I recall Barty saying he was going to try to apply. It was only one time that ad showed. And Barty never mentioned it again. But I distinctly remember that time because we were talking about clinical testing makeup on animals and how inhumane it is.¡±

    ¡°And I have a comment on that,¡± Spuds jumped in.

    The conversation meandered to various topics. Hall couldn¡¯t get any more from them. That clinical trial was the key. He heard something like it before. An acquaintance of one of the supposedly missing persons also mentioned going to testing of some kind. It wasn¡¯t for a stress pill, but a psychological study on indigent individuals. Hall clenched his jaws and slowly exhaled. The puzzle was getting larger, yet he couldn¡¯t catch up in finding the pieces.

    Someone tapped on his shoulder. ¡°Excuse me, detectives,¡± Noel, the director of the soup kitchen said. ¡°A man is looking for you."

    Hall turned to see Noel and the hulk of a man behind him. ¡°From the Bureau, I presume?¡± The man nodded and flashed his identification. He appeared to be half Hall¡¯s age, but if he was an aug, what was to prevent him from replacing his face? His skin did have a strangely reflective sheen. The goldeye arrived quickly and even entered the soup kitchen to find him. He stood up and extended his hand, his six and a half feet was still a head shorter than the goldeye.

    ¡°Good afternoon, Lieutenant Hall.¡± The man returned the handshake. ¡°You can call me¡­Matt. Let¡¯s go with Matt.¡±

    Hall grasped the hand firmly and tested the strength of the grip. Though the skin on the palm had the texture of skin, beneath it wasn¡¯t human flesh at all, more like the feel of a Kevlar vest. The hand had an unnatural weight to it as well. ¡°How may I help you?¡±

    ¡°I hope I¡¯m not interrupting you,¡± said Matt, clearly aware he was interrupting. ¡°If you¡¯re done, can we go outside? We have things to discuss.¡±

    ¡°Yes, we¡¯re done here,¡± Hall said. ¡°Let¡¯s go Castan. No need to waste this man¡¯s time. Every movement of his is powered by enough energy to supply this place¡¯s electricity for a month.¡±

    Matt laughed. ¡°My energy system is not nearly as inefficient as that, mind you.¡±

    Hall thanked Barty¡¯s friends and Noel, and made his way back to the parking area. ¡°Are we going to talk here¡­or¡­?¡±

    ¡°Do you know of a good restaurant where we can have some privacy?¡±

    ¡°Sure, I know of a place.¡± Hall threw the keys to Castan. ¡°Danny¡¯s should be empty this time.¡± He was usually the one who drove, but he wanted to spend the time thinking and consolidating what he had so far on the case so he wouldn¡¯t forget any of it. And perhaps, because it was fresh information, he could find a link. Castan jogged to the driver¡¯s side of the car while the goldeye walked to a black SUV nearby. Hall was about to open the car door¡ª

    BANG! BANG!

    Hall instinctively dropped down and drew his gun. Crouching behind the cover of his car, he looked for the threat. As he turned around, he noticed Matt was behind him, arm outstretched, palm open somewhere behind where his head was a second ago. A tiny piece of metal dropped to the concrete ground. The bullet.

    ¡°What was that?¡± Castan said. ¡°Where is he?¡±

    The guy who presumably shot at them was right outside of the soup kitchen, lying on a pool of his blood. From the screams of the people in the soup kitchen, he most likely came from inside and followed them.

    Hall noticed Matt had formed a finger gun with his other hand and it was pointed in the direction of the perp.

    ¡°Fastest draw in the West.¡± Matt held up his hand and blew on his smoking index finger. ¡°Can you check him?¡± he asked Castan, who obliged and ran to the dead body while still on the lookout for other possible attackers. ¡°Didn¡¯t know it was this exciting here.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for saving me. I owe you one.¡±

    ¡°All in a day¡¯s work, you don''t owe me for that. You do owe me something else.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°You owe me an explanation. Someone anonymously sent a video to us. Perhaps you¡¯re familiar with it. Giant furry creature ripping apart storage containers while being shot at. Interesting video. Very interesting.¡±

    ¡°What does it have to do with me?¡±

    Matt looked him in the eye. Hall was certain he was being scanned. ¡°Isn¡¯t it interesting that a certain Lieutenant Jeremiah Hall would send an anonymous tip to us of such magnitude instead of going through official channels?¡±

    ¡°If that''s true...then it does sound interesting.¡±

 2.12

    ¡°Now that I¡¯ve thought about it, Erind¡¯s plan is way better than mine,¡± Reo said. Or perhaps it was more apt if I referred to him as Oberon since we were on an actual mission. He was in the driver¡¯s seat of the van he allegedly borrowed from his friend. I wasn¡¯t so sure if his claim would hold up in court.

    Myra, or rather, Barb, riding shotgun, said, ¡°Obe, your plan was thought-provoking. It reeked of pure, high-level intellect. You were playing 4D chess with your eyes closed¡­I¡¯m saddened we didn¡¯t get to see it...fail.¡±

    ¡°Thank yo¡ªhey! It was a genius plan. We hijack one of the food suppliers of Eve, like the Pink Oven Cake delivery van, right? Go in all sneaky like, and Deen and Erind can go in the club from the kitchen or something. It could work!¡±

    ¡°Other than the cake supplier arrives late afternoon while the club will not be open for a few hours. What would Deen and Erind do? It¡¯s going to be weird to see two ladies dressed up to party inside a club that¡¯s not even open yet.¡±

    ¡°I know, okay? I already conceded that Erind¡¯s plan is better than mine.¡±

    ¡°Is there any word from Dario, I mean Blank?¡± I said, talking a touch louder so they''d hear me from the back of the van. I tried to push away a large speaker beside me, but it wouldn¡¯t move because of the stack of boxes beside it. If I wanted to, I could really push it and squash the boxes, but I reminded myself that I was a weak normal human.

    These sound system equipment thingies were supposedly also borrowed by Oberon from his friend who was in a band. There were a couple of tripods and cameras crammed in here with us as well, provided by Deen, to lend credence to the disguise.

    ¡°No update. I think they¡¯re still following Bianca¡¯s crew,¡± Oberon said. ¡°But that was some time ago. We should get going.¡± He started the van, turned on the lights to illuminate the dark alley we were hiding in, and started to drive onto the main road.

    ¡°Bianca¡¯s not with her camera crew?¡±

    ¡°The last time they saw her, she went inside her van after her shoot. But that van was still outside the Promenade Club when the pips with the cameras and equipment left. Blank and Johann had to follow them.¡±

    ¡°The crew always goes first to set up, anyway,¡± Deen said. She was sitting in the middle of the van, hugging a bag with our outfits for later. ¡°She¡¯s probably having her makeup redone.¡±

    ¡°Are you pips okay back there?¡± Oberon said. ¡°Emcee might get angry with us if something happened to you. And by you, I mean Deen. Sorry, Erind.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s cramped back here,¡± Deen said, ignoring Oberon¡¯s teasing. ¡°But we can manage.¡±

    A cellphone¡¯s ringtone made us all silent. ¡°It¡¯s Blank,¡± Barb said. ¡°I¡¯m putting him on speaker.¡±

    ¡°¡ªa mess. Sorry, Boss. I can¡¯t make it to the meeting on time,¡± Blank said. There was chattering and yelling in the background. His voice became distant like he was talking to the people on the other side. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir. Just calling my work to let them know I¡¯ll be late. Wait a bit, let me just get my insurance info.¡± Then he was back talking on the phone. ¡°The police are here. I¡¯ll get this sorted out asap. It¡¯s only minor damage. I might catch up to the meeting if we''re done here fast enough.¡± A long beep followed, signaling the end of the call.

    ¡°Blank said ¡®minor damage¡¯?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Yeah, he did,¡± Barb said ¡°That means we don¡¯t have much time. But he really couldn¡¯t wreck the ride of Bianca''s crew too much or they¡¯ll be late getting to the club and that''d be suspicious.¡±

    ¡°He also said ¡®the police are here¡¯,¡± I pointed out. ¡°And that means Johann is also there now.¡±

    ¡°That 3D printed badge Johann uses looks so convincing,¡± Oberon said. ¡°I should get me one of those. Could be very handy.¡±

    ¡°Hey, get serious.¡± Barb hit him jokingly on the head with a rolled-up poster of Bianca. ¡°It¡¯s nearly showtime.¡±

    ¡°Five minutes until we reach the club,¡± Oberon said. ¡°Remember boys and girls. Err, only girls here. Remember that being undercover is twenty percent disguise and eighty percent attitude.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to tell us again the story of how you snuck in the backstage of whatever stupid concert that was because you dressed like one of the stagehands and just walked straight in? Spare us that BS.¡±

    ¡°But it did work. If you vaguely look like you belong in that place, just strut about and be confident. No one will question you.¡±

    In their previous missions, Blank said they wore balaclava face masks to hide their identities when attacking 2Ms¡¯ illegal activities. Actually, only Blank and Emcee needed to wear masks¡ªsometimes Johann if he decided to jump in when they were in a severe pinch, but he was understandably hesitant in joining the fight of superhumans and monsters. Oberon was usually far away from the battle. And Barb, of course, always wore a helmet made of the bark-like material she could produce to hide her face in addition to protecting her head.

    With this operation, however, we''d be revealing our faces. Oberon confirmed with Sneak that there were security cameras outside and inside the club. Depending on what happened tonight, or what other missions we might have, the enemy would have a record of our faces and it would only be a matter of time until one of them had enough brain cells to review the security cam footage looking for us. We did wear caps pulled low to partially hide our faces from the security cameras.

    This was the subject of lengthy deliberations, but in the end, we decided to go for it. Barb reasoned that they already knew about her because they kidnapped her sister, a suspected Adumbrae. They also knew me, they already kidnapped me once. It was a huge question why the 2Ms didn¡¯t do anything else after that. But then again, an Adumbrae was the leader of their entire operations. Who knew how an otherworldly entity would think? Now that we decided to try to find and attack the Red Island, we would fight them head-on anyway.

    We just had to win. Simple.

    However, there was an even bigger question that Blank, Deen, and the rest hadn¡¯t considered. Why did the 2Ms want to kidnap me? The group assumed that it was related to the mysterious woman who attacked Barb during the Sander¡¯s mall fiasco. Barb assumed that woman was with the 2Ms, could be a client, and they wanted to get me because I saw her.

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    That would''ve been a good guess were it not for the fact that that woman was me! There was no reason for the 2Ms to kidnap me because they didn¡¯t even know about me. Or rather, before the kidnapping, they had no way of knowing about me and my connection to these superhero wannabes.

    Which led me to think¡­what if one of us was a traitor?

    I mean besides me.

    Which also didn¡¯t make sense?

    Hmmm¡­

    <hr>

    There was a small crowd of Bianca¡¯s fans outside the Eve, washed by the cool blue lights from the neon sign of the club. They couldn¡¯t get inside the club even if they could afford the price, which was astronomical, because of the club¡¯s policy that only a former customer or someone they personally invited could get in. That didn¡¯t stop Bianca''s fans from coming through. The staff of the Eve cordoned them off to the sides so they wouldn¡¯t block the entrance, with a few muscleheads in an all-black tuxedo trying to keep them in line.

    ¡°You guys see Emcee?¡± Barb said.

    Oberon pointed to someone behind a herd of high school girls. ¡°There he is. Haha! He even printed a poster of Bianca.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that your poster of Bianca like this one you gave me?¡±

    ¡°No way I have a spare poster of Bianca that I gave to Emcee so he can pretend to be one of the fans.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s an oddly specific denial you got there.¡±

    Someone shouted outside, ¡°There they are! Bianca¡¯s logo is on that van! Let¡¯s go!¡± And the crowd surged forward, the bouncers of the club couldn¡¯t do anything. It was Emcee who egged on the crowd to go out of control. Oberon was laughing his ass off as he carefully parked the van on the curb while screaming girls, and some guys as well, converged around us.

    Deen opened the door of the van. The crowd stopped pushing each other, surprised by a beautiful woman stepping out. Taking advantage of the lull, Deen said to them, ¡°Ms. Bianca is still not here! She¡¯s arriving later. We just finished shooting at the Promenade Club. We¡¯re the advance crew so if you could please make way while we unload the equipment.¡± The people didn¡¯t budge, murmuring among each other, unsure of where to go. ¡°Okay people, we have a few Bianca shirts, the rest are still with the main crew. So, if you guys could line up there, we can give shirts to the first twenty people. The rest will have to wait.¡±

    Emcee said somewhere in the crowd, ¡°I¡¯m going to line up! Give me a shirt!¡±

    The crowd parted, herded away by grateful bouncers who couldn¡¯t exactly beat up the people to disperse them. A lady also wearing a black tuxedo and carrying a clipboard under her arm and a phone in her hand came out of the club and approached us.

    ¡°You¡¯re up, Deen,¡± Barb said.

    ¡°No prob. Leave it to me,¡± she said.

    During the planning, every one of us agreed that Deen should be present in all stages of the mission. Her power, even with its numerous limitations and several aspects we weren¡¯t sure of, was an invaluable security blanket. We hoped she could get us through without getting questioned.

    Oberon alighted from the driver¡¯s side, went around to our side, and began unloading the boxes with Bianca shirts that Deen ordered online on express delivery, as well as the speakers. ¡°Come on, pick up the boxes and give them to the people.¡±

    Barb took out the boxes and gave out shirts to the ones in line. I helped out Oberon unload the equipment. We pretended to play around like we were checking them. I gave a sidelong glance at Deen to see how she was doing. She looked very sure of herself talking to the Eve employee, then shouting something in her phone like she was calling the rest of the crew.

    ¡°Claire, Dessy!¡± Deen called out to me and Barb with our fake names. ¡°Let¡¯s go check out the inside. We¡¯ll have to see if we brought compatible equipment.¡± She turned to the Eve employee and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry but we need to get inside now to check the place.¡± She jostled the lady who appeared to be in charge even before she could finish speaking to get inside.

    The lady tried to follow us but Oberon cut her off asking about wiring and lighting and stuff like that. Speed was the key before they could suspect something was wrong. We were pretty believable if I may say so myself.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m now texting Emcee to mess with the power,¡± Barb said.

    After being part of the crowd, Emcee¡¯s next task was to burn Eve¡¯s power¡­box? I wasn¡¯t sure what he was going to do; I heard them discuss it but I didn''t know much about electrical matters. From what I understood, it was something about interfering with the club''s electric supply, making it look like a few wires overheated and melted on their own.

    The purpose was three-fold: one was to turn off the lights while we were inside the club switching into our disguise, two was to cause some commotion so that the Eve personnel wouldn''t notice two of Bianca¡¯s supposed crew were nowhere to be found, and las, was to be the exit strategy for Oberon and Barb. They were going to say that the generators might not be able to handle the equipment so they¡¯d have to meet with the main crew first.

    Which was absolute nonsense. But if we did it fast, no one would think about it hard enough.

    ¡°According to this, the restrooms are this way,¡± Barb said, consulting the map Obe drew based on Sneak''s reconnaissance. The lights flickered a few times before turning off. A couple of emergency lights went on, saving the place from total darkness. The heavy music also stopped as well as the barely noticeable hum of the centralized air conditioning. Someone was yelling to turn on the backup power. "Let''s go this way," Barb said, walking down a corridor.

    Two women rushed out of the restroom with their cellphones out to light their way. As they walked past us, we hurried inside. With the lights of our cellphones, we confirmed there was no one else inside. Deen threw a small duffel bag to me. Next, I entered a cubicle and placed my lit phone on the lid of the toilet seat. I stripped out of my shirt with a Bianca¡¯s Travel Diaries logo, skinny jeans, and sneakers. I took out the contents of the bag, my outfit for the night, and stuffed it with the clothes I shed off.

    The lights flickered back on. I threw the bag over the cubicle door.

    ¡°Got your clothes,¡± Barb said. ¡°I¡¯m going now. Good luck.¡± I heard the door of the restroom open then close while I quickly finished putting on my next set of clothes.

    After two minutes, the door of the cubicle beside mine opened. ¡°Are you done?¡± Deen said. Wow, she was fast.

    ¡°A sec, just putting on my heels.¡± I went out and saw Deen combing her hair into a stylish wave. A pure white, high neck bodycon with ribbed design hugged her body, showing off curves that I didn¡¯t have¡ªperhaps in another lifetime or plane of existence. A small makeup kit was on the sink along with expensive accessories she was going to wear. ¡°You look gorgeous,¡± I said. ¡°All will think you¡¯re a beautiful socialite out clubbing tonight¡­oh wait, you are.¡±

    ¡°Cute outfit,¡± she said, looking at my reflection on the mirror while she fluffed her hair. She moved on to applying makeup. When she was done, even the lady who she talked to in front of the club wouldn¡¯t recognize her. Or maybe I just sucked at recognizing women with and without makeup. ¡°And you look pretty tonight.¡±

    I wore a navy blue playsuit with white stripes. The legs were cut mid-thigh. It had puffed sleeves and a lowcut neckline, which didn¡¯t reveal much because there was nothing to reveal. I folded my arms and frowned. ¡°What do you mean I look pretty tonight? I look pretty all the time.¡± We both laughed at my stupid joke as if we weren''t on a serious mission. ¡°Let¡¯s finish preparing before someone else comes in here.¡±

    With a little more than five minutes of feverish hairstyling and putting on makeup, we walked out of the restroom, two gal pals ready to party.

 2.13

    ¡°Here are your drinks,¡± the bartender said. He set a martini glass in front of me filled with creamy, light brown liquid, its rim coated with chocolate syrup. Bubbles from the mixing dotted its surface along with dark chocolate bits. ¡°Chocolate truffle martini for the lady in blue and¡ª" He presented Deen her order, an exquisite red drink almost like liquified ruby with a wedge of lemon on the glass rim. ¡°A simple, classic sangria for the lady in white.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Deen said, giving the bartender a wink. What was that supposed to be? Did Deen think she was a femme fatale undercover character in a spy thriller? They always did flirt with the people around them as part of their disguise. But that was a stupid thing to do here; it would only reinforce the bartender¡¯s memory of us. Not that Deen, in her stunning get-up, was an easily forgettable sight. She raised her drink to me and I clinked my glass with hers. ¡°Cheers,¡± she said, ¡°and dare I ask, a chocolate drink?¡±

    ¡°With vodka,¡± I reminded her. ¡°You know I¡¯m not really into drinking, so this is my compromise. A big girl chocolate milk drink.¡± Taking a sip of our drinks, we surveyed the place.

    Eve wasn¡¯t only a partying and dancing haven but also a high-class restaurant and lounge. The dancing area of the club in the middle was elevated a few steps higher than the surrounding restaurant area. At one end of the club was a stage with a runway that extended to the dance floor. A rapper from the ¡°underground scene¡± according to Deen, whatever that meant, was performing with backup dancers in skimpy clothes. I didn¡¯t recognize him even though she said he was famous. Above the stage was a platform designed to look like an opera box but was actually the stage for the DJ.

    Decadence and glamour could barely capture the essence of the place. Huge LED screens hung all over. Dropping from the ceiling were thin crystal chandeliers with branching filaments, emulating a forest of lights growing from above. Darting through and between the chandeliers on a preprogrammed path were drones projecting holographic images of a rainbow-colored koi fish around them.

    ¡°This is the fanciest place I¡¯ve ever been in,¡± I said without any exaggeration. ¡°I bet you¡¯ve been in fancier places.¡±

    ¡°For a club? I¡¯ll have to agree with you. This will also be my top fanciest club. Although I may look like it, I don¡¯t go out partying that much.¡±

    ¡°Huh, that¡¯s a sentence I never expected to hear coming out of you.¡± I took another sip of my drink. It was smooth and sweet; I could barely taste the alcohol. ¡°Lookie there, Nikki,¡± I said, calling Deen with a fake name. ¡°Bianca¡¯s crew are starting their shoot.¡±

    ¡°She shouldn¡¯t be far behind. Maybe she¡¯s already outside prepping.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, they¡¯re interviewing people. Want to give a review of this place? Awesome club, ambiance, and service. Ten out of ten.¡± I lowered my voice into a whisper. ¡°Not to mention the monster fighting ring hidden somewhere around here.¡±

    ¡°Twelve out of ten for that. I haven¡¯t heard of any other club offering such entertainment.¡±

    Our phones beeped. ¡°Sneak en route,¡± was the short message from Emcee.

    Deen and I nodded at each other.

    After we got inside, the plan was for Emcee to wear a shirt with a logo of Bianca¡¯s show and join up with Barb and Oberon so it wouldn¡¯t look like they lost a couple of crewmates. While they tinkered with the equipment, he was going to burn a camera¡ªit was one of the cameras Deen bought online when she was trying to record her invisible pet¡ªand make it seem like it was a malfunction because of the power outage of the club. Then they¡¯d just pack up and say adios, they¡¯d have to fix it, whatever, and that the main crew with the proper equipment would take over.

    Fortunately, they were able to safely leave before the real crew arrived.

    And earlier, after we ordered our drinks, we also received a message from Blank that after they let Bianca¡¯s crew go, they spotted her van not shortly after.

    I checked the time on my phone. Blank and Johann should be somewhere outside the club by now. The two of them and Myra would position themselves on the streets leading to the club, on the lookout for vehicles going to the club that could deliver the mutants for the fight tonight; a large truck, most likely.

    That was phase one of the plan.

    We were now in phase two: getting Oberon¡¯s fairy into the secret fighting area. Sneaking in Sneak.

    Right now, Oberon, guarded by Emcee, should be in the ¡®summoning car¡¯¡ªan old car with its backseats removed and fitted with cushions for Oberon to comfortably kneel for long periods¡ªwhich Emcee was assigned to drive on his way here.

    Oberon already knew how to get his fairy inside the club from his previous attempts to find Eve¡¯s secret area. The problem was the fairy couldn¡¯t exactly look around for the secret place if no one went inside there, and it probably wasn¡¯t even open if there wasn¡¯t a scheduled event like tonight. The task of getting inside the hidden area was up to us, or more specifically Deen.

    ¡°Good evening ladies, first time seeing you here.¡± A pair of douchebags approached us.

    To be fair, I didn¡¯t know who they were and I was probably just being a judgmental bitch, but getting hit on was not ideal while we were on a mission. Were they children of the clients of the 2Ms? I''d hazard a guess they were a few years younger than us, but, then again, both of us did look pretty young for our age.

    ¡°That¡¯s because it¡¯s our first time here,¡± Deen said demurely, tucking her hair behind her ear.

    ¡°Hello,¡± I managed to say all cutesy-like with a small wave while stopping myself from vomiting at myself.

    ¡°I guessed it right,¡± said the first d-bag who could pass for the leading actor in a romantic comedy movie with his good looks. ¡°I¡¯m Abniel, by the way.¡± He put his hand on the shoulder of his bro d-bag who admittedly was on the same level of handsomeness as him. ¡°And this is Christoff.¡± He went to Deen¡¯s side and put his elbow on the bar. ¡°We come here often, and there¡¯s no way gorgeous ladies like you could escape our notice.¡±

    Deen¡¯s willpower to stop her eyes from rolling back into her skull radiated like a forcefield around her but the d-bag duo seemed oblivious to it. I could feel Deen consider just permanently giving up on saving the world. ¡°I¡¯m Nikki,¡± she purred, speaking in a higher pitch than usual. She gave me a sidelong glance, looked at her shoulder, then subtly gave a nod towards the d-bag pair.

    I understood her hint that her Guardian Angel got our backs. But I didn¡¯t know what I was supposed to do. ¡°And I¡¯m Claire,¡± I said. ¡°Nice to meet you guys.¡±

    ¡°Do you guys like, I don¡¯t know, keep tabs on all the ladies here?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Only the pretty ones,¡± Abniel said. Then he and Christoff high-fived each other while laughing. Yeah, these idiots were obviously way younger than us. I might get cramps trying to prevent my intestines from literally physically cringing. ¡°So, what brings you girls here tonight?¡± he said. ¡°Who¡¯s your sponsor?¡±

    Deen turned her body towards him, feigning interest. "Bianca''s coming here tonight and we''re such big fans. I pestered my friend who¡¯s been here before to invite the two of us.¡±

    Evading the question of who invited us, and we were turning our flirting game on? Roger, Deen, I¡¯ll follow your lead. I spun my barstool around to face Christoff. ¡°Since we¡¯re new here, how about you guys tell us about yourselves?¡± I leaned down to take advantage of my low neckline, but, I mean, I don¡¯t really have anything there. For a combo, I also crossed my legs to hike up the hem of my playsuit. It was a bit awkward to intentionally raise it. If only I knew beforehand there would be some seduction action going on tonight, I would''ve worn a bodycon like Deen. ¡°I bet you guys are pretty well connected to be able to get in this exclusive place.¡±

    Deen chimed in, ¡°And it sounds like you¡¯re here regularly too.¡± From her tone, I could tell she was barely holding back her laughter when she noticed what I was doing. I glared at her.

    Abniel said, ¡°Well, my dad¡¯s the VP of Kedrano Pharma. He¡¯s a member here, so I can just go in and out of this place like it¡¯s my house. Hey, maybe I can show you girls my house later. Dad¡¯s staying late here tonight anyway.¡±

    ¡°Bro, hold back a bit,¡± Christoff said. ¡°You¡¯re ruining the gentleman vibes we have going on here. Anyway, as for me, my mother¡¯s Melissa Roquero. You should have heard of her. She¡¯s a member here too.¡±

    ¡°The celebrity chef,¡± Deen said. ¡°You¡¯re her son? Really?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve seen her on TV,¡± I said. I have not. ¡°You do look like her.¡±

    ¡°I get that a lot,¡± he said. I sighed with relief inside my head that I got it right. ¡°And not just TV shows. We have five-star restaurants all over the country.¡±

    ¡°The caliber of guys at this place¡­just wow,¡± Deen said.

    The two d-bags went on to brag about being well connected, pointing to various people in the club, introducing them as that rich businessman, that important politician, that famous celebrity, all the works. I doubt everyone here was connected with the illegal Adumbrae activities of the 2Ms, but I bet a few of these people weren¡¯t exactly human anymore.

    Deen and I let them continue with their pissing contest. I had met a few guys like this in the past, always getting caught up with showing off how important they were. They were probably used to girls throwing themselves at them upon hearing how rich they were. If I were in their shoes, I''d have a couple of introductory lines loaded with the goodies like a padded resume then move on to asking the girl about herself.

    More often than not, the girl would go, ¡®Awww, he¡¯s so important but he wants to know about me.¡¯ Winning formula if you ask me.

    ¡°Umm,¡± Deen said, interrupting them. I raised my brow. I assumed Deen had plenty of experience with this type of guy too so we should just continue appreciating how awesome they were and then try to get information from them. She, however, said, ¡°I think we might excuse ourselves for now. Just¡­um¡­going to the¡ª.¡±

    ¡°Restroom,¡± I said. Deen had a concerned expression, although she was trying to keep herself calm. Her eyes were out of focus like she was concentrating on listening to something. Did we mess something up and the Guardian Angel was telling us to bail? I jumped down from the barstool and beckoned for Deen. ¡°Restroom, right?¡±

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    But Abniel stopped us. ¡°What¡¯s the rush? The night is only starting.¡± He wasn¡¯t as stupid as he seemed, recognizing the trademark subtle rejection patented by womankind. Unfortunately, he was a pushy idiot. ¡°How about we move to the dance floor? Or if you¡¯re not comfortable, we can have dinner instead. It¡¯s on us.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯d rather not,¡± Deen said. She tried to move to the side, but Christoff was there.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t even finished your drinks,¡± he said. ¡°We wanted to offer you a drink when we spotted you, but you already have yours, so don¡¯t waste it. Stay around for a bit.¡±

    I tried pushing Christoff out of the way, placing my hand on his chest, but he wouldn¡¯t budge, even stepping forward to get closer to me. Control your strength, I cautioned myself. It was only expected a small woman like me couldn¡¯t push him. ¡°We really need to get going,¡± I insisted. A commotion coming from the entrance of the club made us turn our heads. ¡°Bianca is here!¡± I said, grabbing Deen¡¯s hand. ¡°We¡¯re going to see her. Later guys, or not.¡±

    "Wait," he said. Then this bastard had the fucking audacity to put his hand around my waist! The hair on my neck and arms stood on end as a bolt of utter disgust shoot up through my spine from where he touched me. I hated¡­ ABSOLUTELY HATED GETTING TOUCHED when I didn¡¯t allow it. ¡°Let us accompany you,¡± he said. ¡°Bianca? We¡¯ll introduce¡ªOOF!¡±

    I elbowed him in the stomach with as much restraint as I could muster. Just kidding, I made sure to hit him hard, way harder than someone my size should be able to, but not as hard as I truly wanted, which was to kill him. Too bad. He dropped to the floor on his knees, clutching his stomach, retching saliva on the floor.

    ¡°What happened?¡± Abniel said. ¡°Hey bro, you okay?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going now,¡± I coldly said. I didn¡¯t want to look at Deen in case what I did was wrong. If it was, she didn¡¯t stop me in time, so that was her fault or the fault of the Guardian Angel. Easy to shift blame to the prescient pet.

    ¡°What did you do to him?¡± Abniel said. He reached out to grab me, but a huge hand came out of nowhere and closed itself on his arm, and pulled him away. ¡°Huh? The fuck?¡±

    ¡°Well, well, what do we have here?¡± A towering man loomed beside us. ¡°Bullying girls? You¡¯re too young to be an asshole. The younger generation is supposed to be the future of our country.¡±

    How we didn¡¯t notice such a large man approaching us, I had no idea. This time, I turned to look at Deen. She pursed her lips and furrowed her brows. I guess I messed up big time. I mouthed an apology. But Deen gripped my arm tightly and shushed me.

    Abniel turned around to the newcomer and faltered as he looked up at him. ¡°Who do you think you are?¡± he managed to stammer.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see. What was that again¡­? Matt. Let¡¯s go with Matt.¡± At first, I thought he was a bouncer due to his size, but the bland coat and tie he wore, more akin to a boring office attire than something one would wear in Eve, told me otherwise. A bodyguard of some VIP client here?

    ¡°What the fuck do you want? Go away.¡± Abniel tried to pull his hand from the giant''s grip.

    ¡°That¡¯s not the way to speak to your elders.¡± Matt stooped down to pick up Christoff and made him stand up with one arm. With his other hand, he held Abniel¡¯s shoulder, pinching it hard as the latter winced in pain. ¡°Now off you go. Carry your friend and don¡¯t bother these nice ladies.¡± With the tight grip on his shoulder, Abniel complied and walked away with the still gagging Christoff. Matt followed them to make sure they didn¡¯t turn around.

    ¡°Thank¡ª,¡± I began to say, but Deen poked my arm and shushed me once again. ¡°What was that all about?¡± I asked when they were some distance away.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Deen said. ¡°Sorry you had to go through that, I really am. I...I misinterpreted my Guardian Angel.¡±

    ¡°What did it say?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll explain about it later. I should greet Bianca first before she gets too busy.¡± She checked her phone. ¡°And Emcee says Sneak is inside the kitchen.¡±

    ¡°Alright then. I¡¯ll get a table and order something."

    Deen hurried to Bianca as I chose a table in the restaurant area of the club. I took my pick of the lush velvet cushioned chairs and black glass tables and called over a waiter. I asked him what was popular on the menu and ordered something else. We couldn¡¯t have something that some other person could''ve ordered too. Right now, Sneak should be in the kitchen, having passed through the exhaust fans which were easily accessible for a small creature. I texted Emcee what we ordered so Sneak could watch out for it and ride it to our table.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Deen said, coming back from meeting Bianca. ¡°Have you ordered?¡±

    ¡°I got us salmon tartare and grilled sea bass.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to eat tonight.¡±

    ¡°Are you okay? How did it go with Bianca?¡±

    ¡°My Guardian Angel gave only a couple of pointers. I think I did mostly fine. Bianca was delighted to see me and asked me to go with her after her performance. That¡¯s my ticket inside.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s going to perform?¡± I asked. Deen nodded. Sensing something wrong, I said, ¡°What happened back there? That was a complete one-eighty. I thought we were going to flirt with them.¡±

    ¡°Uh-huh, and get information from them. It was my assumption too. My Guardian Angel did say ¡®get close to them¡¯. Only that. Reading the situation, I made a reasonable assumption, right? Tell me I didn¡¯t make a stupid assumption.¡±

    ¡°I would''ve thought the same.¡±

    ¡°But, after a few minutes, my Guardian Angel told me to ¡®get away¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Only those two words? ¡®Get away¡¯?¡±

    ¡°At first, yes. Then it kept on repeating ¡®get away¡¯. You can tell I got shaken back then. There was an urgency on the way my Guardian Angel said it.¡±

    ¡°We did get away though. Whatever that was. Thanks to the big guy."

    "When the huge man arrived, I was told we shouldn''t say anything."

    "The situation got resolved in the end, no worries. We just made a mistake somewhere.¡±

    ¡°Not ¡®we¡¯, only me. I made a mistake interpreting the promptings of my power."

    I couldn¡¯t have Deen losing her confidence now. I needed her power for my plans. ¡°But that¡¯s one of the limitations of your power. It can¡¯t exactly explain to you the reasoning of its advice so you must make the best of it. And you did. We¡¯re still safe.¡±

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right.¡±

    ¡°And what if you weren¡¯t wrong? It¡¯s just the Guardian Angel not being able to see that far into the future yet.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Like for the immediate future of like ten minutes or so, it saw that the best option was to get close with those guys. After a few minutes passed, it saw we¡¯re gonna meet a dead end. Game over. So it said we should get away. Because¡­what else could it say at that point since it set us down the wrong path in the first place?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a possibility.¡± Deen stared at the table, hesitant to accept my explanation.

    A round of applause erupted. Over at the stage, Bianca was introduced. The host handed her a microphone. I wasn¡¯t familiar with her career other than a few of her more famous shows and movies, and I didn¡¯t know if she could sing. Apparently, she was a good singer.

    ¡°Deen, are you familiar with the hero¡¯s journey?¡±

    ¡°I''ve heard of it. Isn¡¯t it a story structure?¡±

    ¡°Yep. Basically, you start with a reluctant hero receiving a call to adventure. Our prospective hero would be hesitant to leave his normal life. Understandable. But for various reasons, he has to go be the hero, duh.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡±

    ¡°So, the hero goes on and faces tests, obstacles, challenges. He¡¯ll meet failure. This story structure needs the hero to fail, to reach rock bottom.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying I failed?¡±

    ¡°No!¡± I snapped. ¡°Let me finish my lecture. And so, the hero, being the hero, will rise to the challenge and overcome all the odds, and you know become the...uh...hero. So, by the time the final battle begins with the big baddy, the hero has already been fully realized.¡±

    ¡°Is this supposed to make me feel better?¡±

    I snorted in annoyance. "I haven¡¯t reached the moral of the story part. Applying it to your situation, you''ve defied the beginning of the hero''s journey. You could''ve refused this and nothing would change. You''re not the chosen one or anything. It was your own choice to be a hero.

    "Now, you''re in the trials and tests part of your journey. Following the structure, you''re going to fail, be depressed, find inspiration, pick yourself up, then arise a new person. But you shouldn''t follow that. You didn''t follow the start of the hero''s journey because you were a hero from the start. And there''s no need to go through this part of doubting yourself because you and I know that you have what it takes to be a hero."

    Deen met my gaze, tears forming at the side of her eyes. She inhaled and wiped them. "You''re right."

    Of course, I''m right! Don''t ruin my plans for tonight. ¡°Come on, cheer up,¡± I said. ¡°The food''s here, try to get a bite or two.¡± The waiter set our order on the table. I squinted, trying to spot something out of place, but Oberon said there was no way of spotting Sneak if he didn''t move. And if we did have special cameras to spot it, we still wouldn¡¯t be able to see it because our brains would refuse to recognize it unless we already knew what we were looking for.

    After the waiter left, Deen put her hand on the plate of salmon tartare. Something shimmered into view, a small greyish pixie-like creature with gossamer wings. It scooted over to Deen¡¯s hand, hugged her wrist, and stopped moving, disappearing once again. ¡°It doesn¡¯t weigh anything,¡± Deen said, shaking her hand. "I can''t even feel it on my arm."

    "Awesome!"

    She sighed, looking at her plate. "I guess this is it."

    ¡°You still look down.¡±

    Deen slapped her cheeks then shook her hands and head. ¡°Just getting it all out of me. Shoo, go away bad thoughts.¡±

    I stood up. ¡°Let¡¯s go dance.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Come on.¡± I grabbed her hand.

    ¡°What about the food?¡±

    ¡°Just leave it, I¡¯ll return to it afterward. I gotta eat something while waiting for you to finish your date with Bianca later. They said she¡¯s going to perform a couple more songs. Dancing will get rid of your nerves.¡±

    Not waiting for an answer, I dragged her to the dance floor and she reluctantly followed me. We danced under the flashing, multi-colored lights, the heavy booming of the music pounding our eardrums, making our hearts quake. Many people were dancing with us and I took great care not to rub against any of them; I abhorred that feeling.

    Deen warmed up pretty quickly. We were two university students taking a break from the stress of law school, partying on a Saturday night. She was having a great time it seemed, laughing out loud as she rocked her body to the beat of the music. Was she dancing her heart out to bury the stress of the mission? Or was she savoring a moment of normalcy in this crazy world that she entered? Whatever her reason to laugh, I joined her. The whole scene was just too damn funny for me. Everything was very funny.

    Deen didn¡¯t even know the real story here. No one did.

    Including me!

    And wasn¡¯t that funny as fuck?

    When the music died down and Bianca thanked the crowd for their support, Deen went in for a hug.

    I allowed her to do so, awkwardly hugging her back. She''s so fucking tall.

    ¡°Thank you so much, Erind," she said. "I needed that. You¡¯re a great friend. She let go of me and deeply inhaled. ¡°I¡¯ll get going now.¡±

    ¡°Good luck,¡± I replied. Good luck to both of us.

    We were going to need lots of luck tonight.

 2.14

    I picked at the salmon tartare with my fork to check if there was something inside. I knew it was just salmon bits mixed with herbs and some sort of sauce then shaped into a circular pile, but I¡¯d experienced in the past that some places get all fancy and creative and hide a filling inside a dish that normally didn¡¯t have it. Satisfied that Rule #2 need not be applied, I raked a small mound to the lemon sauce drizzled on the plate, mixed it, then scooped it to my mouth. Super fresh, and I did like the sauce.

    Good thing the waiter covered our food when we went away to dance.

    Like Deen, I also didn¡¯t feel like eating. I did have something else to eat later if all went well. But we paid so much for the food! Cash, of course. Using a credit card was a sure way we would get found out that we weren¡¯t supposed to be here.

    I stared at my phone while eating. Was Deen able to get into the hidden area with Bianca? Her Guardian Angel should be sufficient protection, and she seemed to have recovered her confidence when we parted ways. It''d be worrisome for me if she started to doubt the advice of her Guardian Angel.

    My phone lit up and a message popped on the screen. ¡°She¡¯s in,¡± Emcee said.

    I picked up the phone and called him. ¡°Emcee, where¡¯s the entrance?¡± I said.

    ¡°Are you going to try to find it?¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s better if we stick with the plan. I trust Amber can take care of herself.¡±

    ¡°I know my part is to stay around here in case something bad happened, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be much help sitting here.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s going to be hard following her in.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to follow her. That¡¯s too dangerous. I¡¯ll just check around the entrance if there¡¯s something I can do, like prepare for an escape¡­maybe?¡±

    Emcee paused to think about it. ¡°Okay then. I¡¯ll put Obe on, he can explain it better.¡±

    There was some rustling before Oberon¡¯s voice came through. ¡°It¡¯s a hidden elevator, Erind. Hard to see shit when I¡¯m on Amber¡¯s hand, but I¡¯m not going to move up her arm and risk Sneak getting spotted."

    ¡°Maybe you just want to stay around the level of the hem of Deen¡¯s skirt,¡± I said, trying to inject some humor into the situation.

    Oberon snorted in derision. ¡°Ha, ha, and also ha. Emcee¡¯s here. He''d kill me if I had such immoral thoughts¡±. Emcee retorted on the other side, but I couldn¡¯t hear it clearly. Oberon laughed. ¡°I¡¯m on serious mode now. The entrance is a narrow hallway from the downstairs bar. The bar for the VIP rooms at the...I guess it¡¯s the basement of the club. The way to the smaller bar is on the map I drew for you, but it¡¯s not complete.¡± He instructed me how to get downstairs as I examined a picture I took of his sketches.

    ¡°Thanks, Oberon. I won¡¯t do anything stupid, trust me. Bye.¡± I gulped down the red wine the waiter recommended to go with my salmon tartare. ¡°Yuck,¡± I said, trying to stop myself from spitting it out.

    I hurried to the restroom. One woman was inside by the mirror, reapplying her lipstick. She didn¡¯t look at me when I entered. I walked past her while checking for feet under the cubicle doors. One was occupied.

    Go out soon, both of you, I thought, entering the last cubicle.

    I fished out a small pocketknife out of my purse. I extended the blade and poked my finger with it. Sharp enough. I set it aside. Next, I squeezed my phone and purse into my pockets. A playsuit was my chosen outfit for tonight because this one had roomy pockets. I could¡¯ve worn jeans or pants, but I didn¡¯t have something fashionable enough for this club. And I didn¡¯t want to be labeled the ¡®less hot friend¡¯; I had to at least exert some effort to match Deen''s level.

    The woman in the other cubicle went out and asked for help from the woman by the sink to zip the back of her dress. We girls did have a few complicated outfits that needed a surgical team to get in and out of. Case in point, my playsuit, as well as its cousins, the romper and the jumpsuit. I listened to them chat. Nothing suspicious.

    I removed the patches on my palm. The two crystals were still the same size. It was a relief there were no new growths. Game time!

    Mesmerizing molten gold oozed out of the crystals and floated above my palm, twisting and snaking into a mask. It formed the shape of the lower half of the face of an animal with an elongated snout and rows of sharp teeth, like that of a wolf''s or a similar creature. The golden color darkened and turned into an angry red streaked with deep black as the mask slowly solidified.

    Footsteps going out of the restroom made me hold my breath. The door closed and chattering died down.

    All clear.

    I fixed the mask around my mouth.

    And so, the mask became a face.

    I suddenly turned into a different person. The floor was further away by a foot or so, and I could see shapely legs that I was sure didn¡¯t belong to my original body. No bone-cracking, flesh-rending transformation like an Adumbrae-infested human mutating into a monster. Neither was there a substance covering me like Barb¡¯s armor.

    Just voila, a new body.

    I picked up the knife and inserted it in the pocket of my mini cargo shorts before going out.

    ¡°Hello there, hottie,¡± was what I wanted to say to my image on the mirror, but it came out as a low growl. I didn¡¯t have the vocal cords and the human mouth to speak words.

    The reflection that stared back at me was a woman with a body that could give Deen a run for her money. Which she had a lot of anyway so why would she run for it? I wore an open red hoodie with animal ears over a black crop top that cut off at my mid-riff. Luscious braided golden hair draped over my chest.

    If this was my original body that transformed, then I should still have my previous clothes on, including my glasses and my phone and purse in my pockets. It wasn''t the case. Only after returning to my original body would I also have my old clothes back. This led me to suspect that this was an all-new body, curiously, with its own outfit, from only SpookyErind knows which dimensions.

    Where the fuck did my own body go every time I transformed?

    Hopefully, SpookyErind took good care of it. I assumed my original body passed its injuries to this body after I transformed, like what happened when Barb nearly killed me. I haven¡¯t tried the reverse, and I¡¯d rather not.

    I gave my powerful jaws lined with shiny fangs a couple of test bites as if clicking kitchen tongs a couple of times before cooking. Using my powerful jaw muscles was almost addicting. I loved the jolt across my skull every time my jaws clamped shut.

    Focus. I slapped both of my cheeks.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    Oberon¡¯s advice echoed in my head: ¡®being undercover is twenty percent disguise and eighty percent attitude¡¯. I wasn¡¯t sure of the accuracy of the percentages on that one, but he made the right point. I strode out of the restroom with as much confidence as I could muster. As I walked down the corridor, a guy coming out of the men¡¯s restroom paused to stare at me. He tried to strike up a conversation, but I ignored him.

    I regularly go to this club, I chanted inside my head. Except for my face, I didn¡¯t particularly look out of place with my outfit. Other customers have way more outlandish and exotic fashion styles.

    Going down the stairs to the basement, I passed by a couple of bouncers, a waiter, and other employees of the club, as well as other customers. They did notice me. It was pretty hard not to notice with my wicked mask. A couple of drunk guys asked about my mask, but I shoved them away. I continued walking as an employee helped the drunk guys that fell on the floor.

    The third corridor wasn¡¯t it? I pictured in my mind¡¯s eye the map on my phone. Down another flight of stairs, past a narrow hallway lined with sketchy doors with weird, raunchy noises coming out of the rooms. Get a room, people.

    Oh wait, they were already in rooms. Carry on then.

    I finally arrived at the downstairs bar Oberon mentioned. Blue neon lights bordering the walls and the dim glow illuminating the extensive booze cabinet behind the bar were the only sources of light. With just my peripheral vision, I could see outlines of people doing the nasty in the dark corners of the room. Some people here were probably also doing drugs.

    Where was the hallway Oberon talked about? Fuck, there was no other path out of this room.

    A door was on the left side.

    Was that it? Should I ask the bartender?

    Oh shit, I couldn¡¯t talk.

    Someone walked out of the door I was eyeing. I decided to risk it. I briskly walked to the door before the man could close it. He stared at my face to check who I was, but I pretended I didn¡¯t care about him, my head held high. I grabbed the doorknob from him. He decided to give way.

    This corridor was narrower than the one I passed to the downstairs bar. It led into a place that looked like an old, decrepit stock room, with dusty boxes piled to one side, rusty steel cabinets, cleaning supplies, and all sorts of junk. Oberon mentioned something about this.

    There were people inside. Two were playing chess at the center of the room and a third was leaning against a cabinet, reading a newspaper. I would''ve thought they were janitors from their clothes, but their humongous size, barely fitting their muscles in their clothes, gave them away. Bulges under their shirts suggested they carried firearms.

    Cabinet Guy put down the paper covering his face to reveal a computer tablet. He pressed something on the screen and seemed to be waiting for me to speak. The chess players looked up from their game. I walked to the man with the tablet and pointed at the cabinet. Then I opened my mouth, revealing I wasn¡¯t wearing a mask at all. I snapped at the air like a rabid dog.

    The guard didn¡¯t jump in surprise or even flinch.

    Exactly as I expected. Why would he? Plenty of not-so-human people certainly passed by this place when they had an event. And if there was a non-human here, the only conclusion was that I was one of the clients of the 2Ms or maybe someone high-ranking in the organization.

    Would he risk his job to contest a person who in all likelihood was a VIP?

    I gestured for him to move away from the door. He gazed over his fellows playing chess. They had already returned to their game, not paying any attention to us. Just another monster passing through. He shrugged and opened the cabinet door, revealing another door behind it.

    Contrasting heavily with its derelict surroundings, this door was a shiny chrome.

    The guard pushed a button, and it slid to the side with a hiss. ¡°Welcome, Ma¡¯am.¡±

    I stepped into the elevator. There was an attendant inside, standing by the floor buttons. I pointed down. ¡°Of course, Madam.¡± The elevator descended smoothly for a few minutes then slowed down to a halt. ¡°Enjoy the evening,¡± he said.

    I exited into a small room that had a solid rock for walls.

    A woman wearing a sparkling black dress with the club logo pinned on her shoulder came to me. She held a box, opening it to reveal a variety of elegantly designed masquerade masks. ¡°Care for one, Madam? Although you probably do not need a mask.¡±

    I shook my head.

    ¡°As you wish.¡± She closed the box and I followed her to the opening of the tunnel that was on top of a staircase cut from the bedrock. ¡°A table for one, Madam? Or do you have company?¡±

    Again, I shook my head and waved her away. She bowed and retreated to her spot by the elevator door.

    What the fuck? I made it this far?

    That was all impromptu shit!

    I let out a huge sigh of relief. I was so giddy with excitement that I had to grit my teeth to stop myself from laughing out loud. Focus, you stupid bitch, I told myself. Time to find Deen.

    I followed the tunnel. The sound of my leather boots stepping on the stone stairs echoed around me. The tunnel widened into a spacious cavern, way bigger than the cavern in my dreams when SpookyErind visited me. It was probably twice, possibly three times as wide as my old high school gym.

    Like the club above, there were tables and chairs arranged on the outer portion of the cavern. They were on tiers of concentric circles of such a slope that everyone sitting on each tier had a view of the middle of the cavern. Instead of a dance floor in the middle, there was a massive pit lined with a metal fence and glass. It reminded me of a zoo enclosure for like lions or gorillas, and visitors can view them from this sort of gallery.

    I went in for a closer look and found that this pit was bigger than a full-sized basketball court - maybe one and a half times as big. I also realized my zoo analogy was incorrect.

    Blood, bones and flesh, whole body parts, mostly human and some non-human, scattered across the rough floor of the pit. Three persons¡ªstill alive ones, anyway¡ªwere at the bottom. One donned a mechanic''s overalls, another wore a generic coat and tie, the other one had a sweater. Two of them wielded crude spears while the other was on the ground crying, pleading, and bleeding. They didn¡¯t look like they signed up for this. To me, they appeared to be people plucked from the streets and thrown in here.

    ¡°Barty! Pick up that axe!¡± spear guy one said. I could barely hear him over the excited chattering of the viewers and the soothing jazz music filling the air.

    The injured man on the floor who I assumed was Barty cried out, ¡°Don¡¯t let them kill me!¡±

    ¡°Where is it?¡± spear guy two said.

    His question was quickly answered when a flash of shadow darted out a pile of rocks behind them and dove at him. A mutant chomped on his shoulder and dragged him back to the rocks. Spear guy one, instead of trying to save his companion, ran away to the other side of the pit.

    This wasn¡¯t a zoo. It''s a gladiator ring.

    And we were at the part of normal people versus wild animals.

    Gross. I averted my gaze as the mutant ate the second spear guy. Weird. I didn¡¯t have problems eating people myself. I guess this was kind of the reverse of a doctor friend of Mom who had no problems with performing extensive surgeries but would nearly faint at the sight of her own blood.

    There were many people here, probably more than at the club. How many were Adumbrae? And where was Deen?

    After some walking around, I found her.

    Although everyone wore masks, it wasn¡¯t difficult to spot Deen. Her pure white dress stood out with the dark cave as background as if she was in a detergent commercial. With her on the same table was Bianca. She had a different dress than the one she wore on stage, but I recognized her graceful olive skin and her unique silver hair styled in a bob cut. A tall woman in a black suit, also wearing a mask, stood behind Bianca¡ªher bodyguard, Xazary, the one who wanted to burn our faces off last time.

    They were at the other end of the cave, Deen''s white dress like a beacon leading the way.

    As I headed to their table, I went through my calculations again. I stayed up all night thinking about various scenarios of how this could go. My success getting here spurred me on. Xazary spotted me going up the stairs. She became wary as I got nearer to their table. Deen and Bianca stopped their conversation. There was a brief moment of recognition on Deen¡¯s face because both Barb and I had described the appearance of my transformed self to the group.

    Do your thing you stupid precog pet, I intensely thought as I stared at the space over Deen¡¯s right shoulder. I was sure that it prioritized her safety. The safety of the people she cared about? I wasn¡¯t so sure on that one. So, I had to create a situation where the branching future scenarios might endanger Deen if I got found out.

    She blinked rapidly, I assumed the Guardian Angel was talking. She then put on a wide smile, ¡°Madam Blanchette! I didn¡¯t know you were here tonight. Please join us.¡±

 2.15

    ¡°Nice to meet you¡­Madam Blanchette,¡± Bianca said. A glittering silver masquerade mask mirroring the color of her hair covered the upper half of her face, her intense silver eyes peered with suspicion through its slits.

    Deen chuckled weakly. ¡°She¡¯s the one I told you about. With Madam Blanchette¡¯s help, I can check the guest list now and then, see who¡¯s who.¡±

    ¡°Snoopy, snoopy you.¡±

    ¡°I know, right? Anyway, that¡¯s how I found out you were going to join us. Benefits of being snoopy.¡±

    Bianca narrowed her eyes. ¡°I see.¡±

    I winked at Bianca as a greeting and nodded at Deen, acknowledging her introduction. Deen hid her hands beneath the table cloth. Her forearm muscles tensed. The rustling cover told me she was fidgeting under it. And even though she tucked her left leg behind her right ankle, she was rapidly tapping the floor with her foot. She noticed I was examining her, so she stopped moving.

    I hadn¡¯t seen Deen''s leg bouncing before. I could only guess what was going on inside her mind. Freaking out, probably. No matter how much she mentally prepared for this mission, she could never have accounted for me showing up here.

    But why introduce me this way? Did she forget Bianca hated our fake mysterious benefactor?

    During our first meeting with Bianca, I told Deen to make up a story that someone well-connected with the 2Ms was how she found out about her. And this ¡°friend¡± was supposedly an old woman who looked young because of extensive surgeries only possible with the help of the super healing abilities she gained. I suspected Bianca had a personal vendetta against plastic surgery and other such non-natural ways of changing the body, so we made up that story to distract her from probing us.

    This could be the Guardian Angel''s chosen path. Let''s see how this would pan out.

    I sat down and twirled my hand, indicating they carry on their conversation. To show I was an old-timer here that didn¡¯t care about the affairs of newbies, I turned my chair to face the monster pit instead of them. Don¡¯t mind me, just chilling here.

    ¡°Blanchette?¡± said Bianca. ¡°Isn¡¯t that of French origin?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but that¡¯s not her real name, of course,¡± Deen said, giving me a hesitant sidelong glance. ¡°It¡¯s just the name she goes by when we¡¯re at this place since, er¡­we¡¯re not supposed to know each other here.¡±

    ¡°Of course. Blanchette. Wasn¡¯t there a version of ''Little Red Riding Hood'' where the girl character was named Blanchette?¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s how Madam Blanchette picked her alias. The red hood outfit and all is fitting.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sold on the whole little red riding hood motif,¡± Bianca said, her tone indicating the contrary. ¡°Did you know,¡± she said to Deen, ¡°the early versions of that story were about a girl coming of age and learning the dangers of the world, especially of men? That¡¯s the point of the wolves, you see. The tale had more erotic undertones which the published versions sanitized.¡±

    ¡°I''ve heard about that.¡±

    ¡°It suits Madame Blanchette so well with her¡­I''m looking for an appropriate adjective,¡± Bianca said. "Luscious? Sensuous? Perhaps alluring body?¡± I turned to her and smiled with my eyes, caring not to move my actual monster mouth. ¡°How much surgery did you have to do to get that body?¡± she asked icily.

    Deen drew a sharp breath, sensing the situation was getting out of hand. From her perspective, she was just spouting bullshit to make Bianca believe she knew me. But Deen had no idea what I was doing here, what I wanted, or even who I actually was.

    For all she knew, she was already exposed and I was just toying with her, lounging around before killing her. If I were in her shoes, the logical step was not to antagonize me so her Guardian Angel would have enough time to get in range of a possible future where she could escape with her life. She had to buy time.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure Madam Blanchette would know about children¡¯s fairy tales,¡± said Deen. It was pretty cool in this cavern, but I spotted a couple of beads of sweat on her forehead. ¡°Let''s talk about Xaz joining¡ª¡±

    But Bianca was just getting started. ¡°I don¡¯t mean to pry, but what did you look like before¡ª"

    ¡°Oh look!¡± Deen said with noticeable panic. She pointed to the pit where the mutant was feeding on the humans. ¡°They¡¯re done with the round.¡±

    All the humans in the ring appeared to be dead. The few people who were watching at the side of the pit returned to their tables. Were they going to bring in more people to be eaten by the monsters? Or was that it?

    The earth around us rumbled. Dust fell from above to the pit, the stalactite-ridden ceiling parted to reveal mechanical workings behind it. Four wide screens, similar to a four-sided basketball scoreboard LED display, descended from the opening to give all the customers a nice view of the show. The screens flashed on, projecting a view of the pit.

    ¡°This is it, Bianca,¡± Deen said. ¡°Are you going to press it?¡±

    Press what? Almost immediately, I saw what Deen meant. A hole in the middle of our table opened, revealing a red button. The chattering inside the cavern increased a level. What the fuck was going on?

    ¡°Not yet,¡± Bianca said. ¡°I¡¯ll wait for one more fight. We only saw the end of the last one. I want my precious Xaz to observe first.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡±

    ¡°I have no doubt Xaz could easily dispose of any disgusting mutated human they could bring out. However, it¡¯s best to be prepared. Right, Madam Blanchette?¡±

    I only nodded in response. I didn¡¯t even turn in her direction but kept my eyes on the screen.

    If I paid her any attention, she''d continue trying to converse with me, and I didn¡¯t want to reveal that I couldn¡¯t talk just yet. She''d probably try to get a rise out of me because she hated me, or to be more accurate, she hated my fake identity Deen told her about. My best recourse was to stay aloof. It did suit the persona I was portraying. Surely, Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel would back me up on this one.

    Stolen story; please report.

    The lights dimmed with only the red buttons glowing on each occupied table. The cavern fell silent. Everyone waited for who would press the button.

    A buzz broke the silence.

    I noticed that people were bringing their hands together. Before the majority could start to clap, I quickly clapped so it''d give the impression I already knew the routine in this place. Bianca and Deen followed my lead.

    The screens above displayed a large man wearing an Aloha shirt, unbuttoned at the top, showing off his hairy buffed chest. He was on the other side of the cavern across the pit from us and a couple of tiers above our own. The camera followed him as he descended. The man pumped his fists in the air, trying to rouse the people in the cave, but they only increased the intensity of polite clapping. They were bloodthirsty, not-so-human-anymore people, but they are posh bloodthirsty, not-so-human-anymore people.

    Aloha man roared and took off his shirt. Ripping it would¡¯ve been better if he was going for a gladiator arena thing, but his shirt must be expensive. He bent down and flexed his muscles, his skin reddening and started to harden like he was growing an exoskeleton. He kind of reminded me of Barb, maybe the crab or lobster counterpart to her tree material. And he only covered his upper body with red armor.

    A drone with a camera flew over him, giving everyone a closer view of his transformation.

    Especially thick exoskeleton formed around his arms and fists, turning them into knobby clubs. The crimson carapace on his back cracked. Spikes poked out of the cracks, four of them. They shot out and extended like the most aggressive weeds ever, hardened and bent into multi-jointed limbs like the legs of a crustacean, their ends were serrated spears.

    Crab Man jumped into the enclosure with a loud crash. The drone followed him down. He kicked away a half-eaten body with such force that its head separated from the torso. With one of his spikey legs growing out of his back, Crab-man skewered the severed head like a trash picker and held it up. He searched around the arena waving the head on his spike.

    The mutant came out of its hiding place, jumping on his back. The three other spikey legs stopped it, two speared its body and another its arm. Crab-man threw the mutant away. The mutant, oblivious to the pain, got back to its feet and scurried away, trying to find another hiding spot among the rocks to set up another ambush.

    Bianca tutted. ¡°Not a human, huh? The previous one was the aug bodyguard of that guy over there.¡± She pointed to a man on a table below ours. ¡°At least he was human. Oh, well.¡±

    ¡°An aug would¡¯ve been a better reference for Xaz,¡± said Deen.

    ¡°I don¡¯t mean that. I just dislike this farce, just child¡¯s play here.¡± The mutant tried chomping Aloha Crab Man but couldn¡¯t even make a dent. Crab Man swung his arm and flung the mutant to the wall. ¡°I mean look at this. This isn¡¯t fun," she sullenly said. "If they wanted entertainment, they should keep up the human versus monster thing.¡±

    ¡°Super agree,¡± Deen said. ¡°This isn''t exciting at all.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, what were we talking about before? I remember! We were talking about Madame Blanchette¡¯s awesome body.¡±

    At first, I wasn¡¯t completely sold with the path Deen took in making up an identity for me. Yet, it was working out fine. Bianca was obsessed with criticizing me, indirectly, of course. She wasn¡¯t dumb enough to outright pick a fight with me given her position. I took back my earlier doubts about Deen¡¯s actions. Her Guardian Angel was really handy.

    Deen, however, had no idea all was going according to plan. Her Guardian Angel¡¯s plan.

    Her eyes widened as Bianca went back to discussing my body. ¡°Before we move on to that," Deen interjected, "I just have something to say about the little red riding hood topic. I hate how the printed versions changed the essence of the story. There were earlier versions with morbid endings, like little red riding hood getting eaten. But in most versions, she''d outsmart the wolf and escape on her own, relying on her wits.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Bianca said slowly.

    ¡°I guess it¡¯s because men published the Mother Goose and Brothers Grimm versions.¡±

    ¡°Huh, I haven¡¯t thought about it that way. The early versions never had the lumberjack or an older man helping red riding hood get away. It was only in the published versions, published by men, where they added a man helping her.¡±

    ¡°Right? Right?¡± Deen said, perhaps a bit too eagerly. ¡°That¡¯s another message of the story lost through the changing versions.¡±

    Bianca continued with her lecture about women being independent and men taking credit while Crab Man pummeled the mutant. I took a mental note of Bianca''s feelings. Deen struck gold with this one. Good advice, Guardian Angel, if this was you.

    Crab Man was only hitting the body of the mutant. After the mutant stopped moving, he cut off its head with his spiky limbs. A different drone went down the pit carrying a pouch. Crab Man deposited the head inside. Then he climbed out of the pit, and the screens ascended back into the ceiling. Some people walked back to the edge of the enclosure. Were they going to release a new mutant?

    ¡°It¡¯s done?¡± Bianca said. ¡°That was quick.¡±

    ¡°I really hate this thing they¡¯re doing,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°What? Do you mean releasing people for the mutant to eat before someone volunteers to fight it?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡ª¡±

    ¡°I think that¡¯s a good way to showcase what the mutant is capable of before someone joins in.¡±

    Deen pressed her lips together but reluctantly nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. It¡¯s just¡­they don¡¯t have to do this to innocent people.¡± She tensed up and held her breath. Shit, I thought. Did she say something wrong and went down the wrong path?

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± said Bianca. ¡°The mutants harvested to keep you this way, looking outwardly human, are just random people. I would''ve said us, but I¡¯m not yet one of you.¡± She leaned closer to Deen. ¡°Is your conscience bothering you? That¡¯s weird. I thought you would¡ª¡±

    I tapped the table. Bianca and Deen looked at me. I opened my mouth, baring my fangs. Both of them immediately leaned away from me. Even Deen forgot she was supposed to know me. I growled at them. Closed my mouth, put a finger up the end of my snout, and tried to make the best shushing noise I could do with my weird mouth. It came out like a wet wheeze from a dying animal.

    That shut up both of them. What were they going to do? Talk back to me?

    You¡¯re welcome, Deen.

    Although we were far away from the pit, we could faintly hear people screaming. I expected the screams and cries for help to echo around the cavern, but they didn¡¯t. They might have done something with the acoustics of this area.

    When I saw the pit, I first thought of a zoo enclosure. I changed my mind to it being more of a gladiator arena, but I might have been correct the first time.

    During the normal innocent people versus mutant round, kind of the intermission portion, no screens projected the gruesome slaughter happening below. Those interested to watch needed to go to the sides of the pit to observe the mutants eating humans. Essentially, they were zoo visitors watching an animal during feeding time.

    I used to enjoy watching fish feeding in an aquarium.

    Pretty soon, the lights dimmed once again and the red button appeared. The people were killed quickly this time. Perhaps this next mutant was particularly bloodthirsty or stronger than the last one. I tapped the table again to get their attention. I pointed at Bianca then at the red button. I gave her two thumbs up with my claw-tipped hands.

    She pursed her lips and stared at me coldly. She slammed her hand on the red button. A drone came over to our table and followed Xaz as she took the stairs down to the pit.

    Good luck, I thought. I''ll join the next one.

 2.16

    The display screen lingered on Xaz¡¯s face partially hidden behind a black mask, showing only her mouth with an even darker shade of lipstick. She adjusted her ponytail and her gloves, pulling them tighter. She wasn¡¯t taking them off? Interesting. Her hands had aug-weapons if I recalled correctly.

    I waved at Bianca until she noticed me, pointed to Xaz on the screen, then to my hand. I tilted my head questioningly.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m allowed to talk now?¡± Bianca said sardonically. ¡°What big eyes you have to notice that, just like the big bad wolf in¡ª¡± Deen subtly elbowed her to stop her from irritating me. Bianca smirked. ¡°Anyway, yes, Xaz has bioaugmentronic hands. Not just her hands. I had most of her body modified, reinforced skeleton, synthetic muscle fibers.¡± She grinned impishly. ¡°I ran up the bill quickly, both her and Zachary. But that¡¯s with dad¡¯s money. He gave me a small gift to start on my own and make it in the real world. Other girls might pick a nice little island with a modest vacation house for their getaway, but not me. I made a nice investment with both of them, I must say.¡±

    I nearly rolled my eyes. Yes, other girls would''ve gotten an island. I¡¯ve always thought that I wasn¡¯t like other girls for quite unusual reasons. But these two, Deen and Bianca, were pretty insane themselves. Makes me think I might be closer to the norm than them.

    Xaz reached the edge of the enclosure. She jumped over the fence around it and landed on the outer portion of the pit. The mutant was nowhere in sight. I didn''t even have an idea what it was other than it killed its batch of people swiftly.

    Bianca rattled off the features of Xazary. ¡°The usual cycloengines, but more compact. I didn¡¯t want Xaz to get bulky,¡± she said like talking about dressing up a doll. ¡°And a custom-built Greaves reactor for her plasma weapon. I had to have one custom-built just so it won¡¯t reach the threshold restricted to the military. The permits people are very lenient if you know¡­and pay¡­the right ones, but there¡¯s only so much even they can overlook.¡±

    ¡°Xaz would have no problem then,¡± Deen said.

    Bianca huffed. ¡°Obviously. I even told her not to use any weapon.¡±

    ¡°Will she be okay?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no way all the garbage here can take on my precious Xaz. My purpose here is to show off so it¡¯s better this way.¡±

    I see¡­I finally understood. Bianca considered Xazary and Zachary her possessions, not actual people. That made so much sense!

    Having bodyguards who not only had enhanced bodies but were also augmented with state-of-the-art technology allowed outside of the military was awesome. If I had the money, I''d make my private army. However, Bianca¡¯s hatred against such ¡°unnatural¡± methods of modifying the body made me wonder why she picked such bodyguards. Her disdain for such was apparently one of her Rules.

    But the answer was so painfully obvious and logical it made me want to smack my head for being so stupid.

    It wasn¡¯t an insult or anything that Bianca thought of her bodyguards as possession. Quite high praise. Relatively speaking.

    The ranking of how I valued people and objects went something like this: At the top were people I actually cared for¡ªI didn¡¯t have any, but I was sure, even if exceedingly rare, others similar to me did. Below that were valued possessions, including people counted as objects¡ªI also didn¡¯t have anyone or anything in this category. Next were the people I pretended to care about¡ªthis encompassed most people in my social interactions. And last was everybody and everything else¡ªall of them on the same level of worthlessness.

    If Bianca and I were the same kind of people, then we''d have a similar valuation system of sorts. Modifying Xazary would just be the same as decking out a car or something.

    The mutant Xaz was supposed to fight still stubbornly remained hidden. Only the dead bodies from previous rounds could be seen, strewn all over the pit.

    She carefully walked to the middle of the pit, observing her surroundings.

    Movement behind her. The cameras followed it.

    It was the headless, half-mashed body of the previous mutant. It stood up and ambled awkwardly towards her with its broken limbs. With a clean downward kick, she knocked it to the ground.

    She suddenly turned around to kick another attacker. Then she evaded another one trying to grab her while delivering a punch to knock it away.

    Something was also crawling on the ground trying to get to her¡ªthe upper body of a person. A dead one, obviously. It attempted to grab her ankles. She easily shook it off. But the headless mutant rose again and tried to grab her as well. She kicked it for real this time, its left shoulder was blown off from the impact.

    The cameras zoomed out to reveal several of the corpses in the arena, those with somewhat intact bodies, had stood up and were making their way to Xaz. There was a spattering of applause. The novelty of the situation made the customers who had grown callous to the violence they regularly witnessed mildly interested.

    I was also mildly interested.

    My usual view of an Adumbrae¡ªI supposed these mutants could be considered failed ones¡ªwas a bloodthirsty monster tearing up everything in its path. Not something with more unconventional powers other than just brute strength. But then again, anything was possible with otherworldly energies in play.

    ¡°Oh wow, very entertaining.¡± Bianca clapped especially loudly. ¡°That¡¯s more like it.¡±

    ¡°Where''s the mutant?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Hiding somewhere. It¡¯s not a threat.¡±

    ¡°How are they moving?¡± Deen squinted at the screen. ¡°Those bodies are being controlled like puppets.¡±

    Xaz swooped gracefully across the arena, dismantling the reanimated corpses with surgical precision. She jumped in front of one holding a spear and, with two quick jabs to both shoulders, smashed off its arms like it was hit full-force with a sledgehammer. The flesh and blood splattered outwards. She made two kicks to the knees, breaking the legs, permanently downing the dead body.

    She moved on to the others, weaving through them. They were slow and shambling and could never hope to catch her. Every movement was calculated so she wouldn¡¯t get dirty even as she tore apart the dead bodies.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    ¡°There¡¯s a black cord or vine¡­I¡¯m not sure,¡± Deen said. ¡°It¡¯s connecting to the bodies from underground.¡±

    She was right. It was hard to spot with the dark earth and dirty rocks as a backdrop, but every time Xaz mangled a body so much that it could no longer move, wriggling black spaghetti detached from it and descended back to the ground.

    Bianca placed her phone to her ear. ¡°Xaz, drag it out a bit. I know it¡¯s easy, but just put on a show for a few minutes.¡± Xazary looked directly at the camera and nodded. Bianca waved her phone. ¡°Another feature, I have a special line of communication with Xazary and Zachary. I can even contact Zachary who¡¯s somewhere outside the club with my crew.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s amazing,¡± Deen said, checking her phone. ¡°I have no signal here this far underground.¡±

    A woman dressed similarly to the person who greeted me by the elevator came to our table. She offered to refill the wine glasses of Deen and Bianca. And while she did, I noticed she stole glances at us. Our eyes met.

    Was the jig up? Did she know everyone here?

    Since she already noticed me, I signaled to her that I wanted something to drink. She raised the wine bottle she was holding. I shook my head and shaped a bottled water in the air to indicate what I wanted. She bowed and left.

    ¡°The trash is stepping up its game,¡± Bianca said.

    In addition to the zombie thingies, which honestly weren¡¯t doing much to Xazary, the mutant switched up its tactics and started attacking her directly with those black vines shooting up from the ground. Xaz avoided them without looking down with such elegance it was as if she was swimming in between the bursting spikes while bringing down the walking dead. After making sure no corpse could move, she jumped on top of a large rock, out of reach of the spikes.

    ¡°End it now, Xaz,¡± Bianca said to her phone.

    Xaz sprinted the length of the pit to a small rock outcropping on the opposite end and smashed into it.

    A dark blur scurried away, avoiding the debris. Xaz was hot on its heels if it had any. It attempted to hide again, but Xaz was unrelenting, breaking any rocks or crags before it could sink into it. That thing didn¡¯t even try to impale her, focusing instead on its survival.

    With a fat splat, Xaz landed on it with her heels, cracking the ground. Moderate cheering was the response of the crowd. Bianca, however, was ecstatic, standing and waving at Xaz. It was as near to genuine happiness as far as I could tell. Xaz, being her prized possession, was nearly categorized as part of Bianca. Which was why she was so happy¡ªit was as if she won herself. I wasn¡¯t sure if Bianca and I were capable of being happy for the success of others like normal people.

    Deen gasped. ¡°Is¡­is that a¡­a child?¡±

    ¡°Maybe?¡± answered Bianca. ¡°You¡¯re always fretting about these small things. It¡¯s dead. It¡¯s gone. It¡¯s not our problem.¡±

    ¡°But it looks like one.¡±

    The mutant was tiny for sure. It was dark and sort of gelatinous. She picked up the head of the mutant she killed; its only part that remained solid. Judging by its size, it did appear to be a child. Like with the Aloha Crab Man, a drone came to pick up the head.

    Bianca did a little wiggly dance in her seat. ¡°Yehey, I won!¡±

    ¡°Are they continuing with this?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°What are you saying? It¡¯s still too early. I thought you knew how long this went on for?¡±

    ¡°I told you, I normally don¡¯t attend these things.¡± The screens went up into the ceiling once again and a few people were going back to the sides of the pit. ¡°They''re continuing,¡± Deen said tensely. ¡°Just how many people die here every time they do this?¡±

    ¡°Who cares?¡± Bianca said. ¡°Xaz is coming back. And who¡¯s that with her?¡±

    A short, balding man with a funny mustache accompanied Xaz back to our table. The waitress who took my order trailed after them. Xaz took her place by Bianca¡¯s side.

    ¡°Good evening, ladies.¡± The man bowed with a flourish. ¡°I came to inform you,¡± he said specifically to Bianca, ¡°that we will process the brain into a more palatable and easily consumable form. However, since you haven''t officially been inducted as a member, we will keep it in storage until after you successfully become one.¡±

    I flexed the muscles of my jaws a couple of times. There was a high possibility that this guy, unlike the other employees and guards, knew who was supposed to be here...and who wasn''t. He didn¡¯t bring any guards with him though, so it was safe¡­for now.

    ¡°Of course,¡± said Bianca.

    ¡°Thank you for your kind understanding.¡± And he bowed once again before leaving. The waitress set the bottled water in front of me and followed the man.

    ¡°That was an explosive ending, Xaz,¡± Bianca said. ¡°Very messy and disgusting, but I see why you had to do it. It was a very easy fight, so you had to end in a shocking manner. Don¡¯t you agree, Deen?¡±

    ¡°Uh, yes. A bit excessive, but it did fulfill your intention of making an impression.¡±

    ¡°Right? Right?¡± Bianca giggled. ¡°School, workplace, wherever, it¡¯s the same. People always say first impressions matter, and that¡¯s correct.¡±

    I mentally smirked. People did say that, but I didn¡¯t think this was the way they meant that advice to be applied. I agreed with her though. If I was in Bianca¡¯s position, I''d do the same.

    I opened the bottled water and emptied the liquid on the plates on the table. Bianca and Deen stared at me. I grinned at them, displaying the entire rows of my razor-sharp teeth. They hastily went back to chatting with each other, mostly Bianca bragging about the features of Xazary and Zachary like a kid talking about the various powers of his toy robot.

    I stood up and beckoned for them to follow me to the pit below. Bianca was up for it. She smugly walked down the stairs as others stared at her, recognizing her as the woman who had the previous fighter in the ring in her employ. They probably guessed she was Bianca because of her signature hair color. Deen, on the other hand, was hesitant, mumbling she was grossed out with the dead bodies. I knew the real reason was she didn¡¯t want to witness innocent people getting needlessly murdered for sport.

    Understandable, but I needed her to be near me as insurance and for my plan to work. I reached out to take her hand.

    She recoiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ll follow you.¡±

    Thank you, Guardian Angel, if that was you counseling her. Cooperate with me on this one.

    Deen¡¯s ability wasn¡¯t as simple as future sight. I wasn¡¯t sure if she understood just how powerful it was.

    It could give her information that she couldn¡¯t have otherwise known. The primary example of this was the elevator incident when we were looking for Ramello¡¯s room in the hospital. If it was simple precognition, Deen could sit down at the hospital lobby, gaze into the future to try and find where to go, and get absolutely nothing.

    She''d just see herself in the future still sitting for the simple reason that she didn¡¯t know where to go in the first place. Her future, thusly, would still end up not knowing where Ramello¡¯s room was.

    However, her Guardian Angel worked differently. It scanned various possible futures of Deen doing all sorts of things. A choose-your-own-adventure book would be the closest example, with the caveat that she could add her own pages and choices to see if it fit.

    And this was just the start of it. Emcee said that their powers would eventually grow. Who knew, maybe Deen would become a fucking omniscient, all-seeing being in the future? That was if I didn¡¯t eat her beforehand. And I should before her abilities grew too powerful. Or even more powerful, rather, because it was plenty powerful now.

    But that was in the future. For the situation at hand, I needed her.

    Now, let¡¯s see what the next monster was.

 2.17

    It was quite a common scene in heroic stories, be it about superheroes or perhaps a fantasy setting, that the protagonist finds himself in a difficult situation wherein he needed to choose who to save, or if he should act at all. Disheartened companions would tell him he couldn¡¯t save everyone no matter how strong he was. Yet, against all odds, the hero would find a way to do the impossible and save the day.

    Clap clap clap.

    But that only happened in stories.

    Even with her Guardian Angel, I highly doubted Deen could find a way to save the humans in the pit below us. Her face was stone-cold, hiding any emotion. Her eyes betrayed her. She wanted to turn away but she forced herself to look.

    Was this some delusional concept of heroism? A sort of apology to the humans she couldn¡¯t save. Etching the memories of the dying in her mind as tribute. Or was it to motivate herself to continue with her mission, and take revenge on the big bad someday?

    The mutant in the arena was likely a young woman before she met her cruel fate. Its physique appeared extremely malnourished. Pale skin draped over a skeleton with barely any flesh in between, the ribs awfully pronounced. However, its belly was bloated with vile green liquid, the skin stretched to become almost transparent. It wasn¡¯t encumbered by the jiggling, heavy baggage, chasing after the fleeing humans with ease. Using its long, spindly limbs, it crept over the rocks and the jagged surface of the enclosure like a spider scurrying after its prey.

    The humans didn¡¯t dare fight back like the ones before even if they were provided with crude weapons scattered around. Standing your ground was not an option when this mutant could spit out an acidic liquid that quickly chewed through clothes and flesh. Sinking into bones, wearing them away, almost severing the part of the body that was hit.

    One human gathered an ounce of bravery and speared the mutant¡¯s lower back when it was focused on turning someone else into sludge. The same acidic substance spurted out from its wound, eating away the rusty bladed tip and pole. Some of it splashed on the brave prey¡¯s face. He screamed in agony, trying to get it off with his hands and shirt. Yet, as he wiped, chunks of flesh detached from his skull.

    I paused, realizing I¡¯ve been referring to the people below as humans¡­as if they were different from me. Which was true. I wasn¡¯t one of them anymore. And it was improbable¡ªmy assessment of my present situation¡ªthat I could turn back into a human.

    Or if I even wanted to.

    But still.

    Most of my faces¡ªscratch that¡ªactually, all of my faces were for interacting with humans¡­people rather. It would make it difficult for me to get into the persona I wanted if I considered humans lower-class creatures. A wolf would already have a hard time fitting in a pack not its own. It would be way harder for a wolf to fit in a herd of sheep. Better not to complicate things.

    Deen continued her silent vigil of watching the people die one by one. Bianca, on the other hand, was busy mingling with the other patrons watching.

    ¡°I''m grateful for the opportunity to be here,¡± I overheard her saying. ¡°This has opened my mind to all sorts of possibilities.¡±

    ¡°We are all for the continuous development of humanity,¡± one of them answered.

    ¡°Very true. We can¡¯t let laws and all such nonsense hold us back,¡± another said. ¡°Humanity marches forward.¡±

    Interesting that they considered themselves humans. Anyway, the people in the pit were thinning. Time for the next phase of my plan.

    I tapped Deen¡¯s shoulder, snapping her out of her concentrated wrath at the ongoing massacre. She looked up at me, confused, a bit afraid I was finally going to kill her. But she didn¡¯t pull away or run, possibly counseled by her Guardian Angel.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to help them?¡± Deen asked me softly. Her shaking fists clenched by her side.

    What did her Guardian Angel tell her that she decided to reveal herself to me? She didn¡¯t even know if I knew about her. I raised a brow at her question.

    ¡°I''ve heard of you. I¡¯m not sure who or what you are¡­or what you want. My friend, um, you''ve met her. The lady you saved at Sanders mall? I don¡¯t know why you did that, but I thank you on her behalf.¡±

    I shrugged.

    ¡°Are you with all these awful people? Killing for fun?¡±

    I just stared at her, letting her make her own assumptions.

    ¡°Even if you are,¡± she hissed through clenched teeth, ¡°there might be some good in you if you helped my friend.¡± She met my eyes with unyielding resolve. ¡°I can¡¯t do anything here. Maybe you can. You saved my friend. Can you save these people too?¡±

    Okay. Unexpected development. But it did tie neatly into my plans. I paused as if I was considering her request and patted her head. It was a nice feeling to be taller than Deen for once.

    ¡°You will?¡± She turned left and right, checking if someone was eavesdropping on us. ¡°What can I do to help?¡±

    I pointed at myself then at the pit.

    ¡°You¡¯re going in later?¡±

    I took out the pocketknife and placed it in her hands with the empty water bottle. She received them with a puzzled face. I gestured to the pit then mimed choking and getting hurt, walking around like I was maimed. At first, she didn¡¯t understand.

    ¡°What do you mean? Like you¡¯ll get injured?¡± Deen said. I gave her a thumbs up. I acted what she should do next until she pointed out, ¡°You could just type on my phone.¡±

    A great idea that my dumb self didn¡¯t think of. Clicking on the phone¡¯s screen was a chore with my claws, and I also minded my strength, careful not to poke a hole through it. Eventually, I was able to type what I wanted.

    She read it with a perplexed expression. ¡°I don¡¯t... You want me to do this? Why?¡± I pointed at the dead bodies. Her expression told me she didn¡¯t understand but still nodded. ¡°You¡¯ll be able to stop them from killing more if I do this? Okay then, I''m in!¡±

    The grumbling of the earth signaled that the last person was dead.

    ¡°We¡¯re going back up?¡± Bianca said, detaching herself from her newfound monster acquaintances. She flicked her hair. ¡°I prefer to relax for the rest of the night since I already accomplished what I wanted.¡±

    Deen said, ¡°No, we¡¯ll stay here. Madam Blanchette will go up to press the button and come back down.¡±

    ¡°Oh, she¡¯ll fight?¡± Bianca clapped with enthusiasm. ¡°I¡¯m interested to see that.¡±

    I jogged up the stairs, skipping steps, and just as the red button emerged from the table, I slammed it. The drones went looking for me, but I was already going back down the stairs. With the cameras and spotlight trailing me, people turned to see who I was. Perhaps they noticed they haven¡¯t seen me before.

    I picked up momentum, crouched down at the last step of the stairs, swung my weight in one smooth motion, and pushed with my legs. I flew across the air, over the fence of the pit, down to its depths. Momentary elation filled me as I soared. After descending several feet, I landed gracefully, like a well-executed dismount after a cheerleading stunt. A small cloud of dust blew away.

    That was awesome! If I didn¡¯t have powers, my ankles would¡¯ve given out, my legs broken in several places because of the impact.

    The mutant crouched beside a couple of dead bodies, wallowing in the acid, blood, and liquified flesh and bones. It rocked back and forth, hiding its face behind its hands, shaking¡­as if it was crying.

    The crunch of the stone beneath my heels alerted it. It shrieked like a banshee, its jaws opening a couple of times wider than a human could. I assumed it warned me to stay away. It didn¡¯t immediately attack, perhaps recognizing I wasn¡¯t like the weak bags of flesh it was killing.

    I went into a full-on sprint as I aimed to close the gap between us. Left with no choice, it spat out acid at me. Digging my heels deep, I pivoted left, just as the ground I was standing on became a bubbling puddle of acid. I went out further to the side than I intended to, underestimating my own strength. I tutted as I stopped myself.

    Hand-eye coordination-wise, I was slightly above-average in my honest assessment. I had a stint as a cheerleader back in high school, and I used to do yoga. Although now, my physical activities were limited to jogging and occasionally going to the gym. Nonetheless, I was confident I could evade the acid spits because of my speed.

    The way the mutant moved gave me an idea. I dropped on all fours, digging my claws into the dirt. This way I had more control when turning. I ran like a wolf. My claws burrowed deep in the ground, pulling me forward. My powerful legs kicked back, pushing me on.

    I switched direction to the left, and then right. Zigzagging was my chosen strategy. Try hitting me you stupid mutant bitch.

    Jets of acid arced through the air, yet they were nowhere near connecting with me. Only a few more steps. I wanted to lunge at the mutant and sink my fangs into it, but I noticed its belly weirdly bubbling. I immediately dropped down even though I was already near it. It released a mist of the corrosive substance, forming a shield of deadly cloud around it. I hugged the ground. The green mist was above me. I moved away before it descended.

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    Where did the mutant go? I rolled back up and scanned the enclosure.

    There! I ran after it, dropping back down to four limbs as I climbed over piles of rocks so I wouldn¡¯t slow down.

    Remember to watch out for the acid cloud. The mutant¡¯s head face forward in the direction it was fleeing to. No way it could make another acid cloud.

    Be alert if it turned back. It stayed its course and didn¡¯t look back at me. This was my chance. I increased my speed and leaped towards it.

    Huh? Where did it¡ª?

    I caught nothing but rocks and soil.

    A shadow beneath me that wasn''t my own.

    It jumped at the last moment! I looked up just in time to see it spit down at me.

    Fuck! I half-twisted my body, half-jumped out of the way, and ended up rolling down a slope in the pit. I picked myself up quickly. Burning pain on my forearm. I got hit. You fucking bitch. I growled at the mutant. No offense meant to who she was before she got turned, but the fucking acid seriously hurt.

    I assessed the damage. My beautiful, flawless skin was burned away, exposing bleeding flesh. Oozing blood mixed with the green slime into a disgusting soup that dripped down as my flesh melted. The white of my bones peeked through the rotting mess. It was too much! My regeneration couldn¡¯t keep up with the corrosion.

    Then¡­it kicked in.

    Red enveloped my vision.

    Kill it! Kill it! Eat it!

    I¡¯ll fucking eviscerate the trash that dared attack me! All I wanted in the world was to open my jaws wide and clamp the sides of the mutant¡¯s head. Rows of my teeth easily piercing the skull like pencil poking through cardboard. Chomping it with my powerful jaw muscles until the soft brain burst out from the cracks of the skull like a squeezed grape, its juices dripping down the sides of my mouth¡ª

    CONTROL YOURSELF!

    I chased away the mounting bloodlust from my thoughts.

    Breathe slowly. I tensed my muscles so I wouldn¡¯t go after the mutant with blinding rage. The urge to devour was still too great. I wouldn¡¯t give in that easily. I went down on one knee and anchored myself to the ground with my claws deep into the soil.

    Rule #4: I wouldn¡¯t bother the world as long as it didn¡¯t bother me.

    This was the Rule that governed the powers of this face according to SpookyErind. Or more like her exaggerated interpretation of how Rule #4 should be applied with her twisted logic. Whenever I was attacked, I''d feel an insatiable desire to eat whatever attacked me, and my strength, speed, and healing increased until I downed the foolish prey that didn¡¯t know its place.

    Confirming my hypothesis, the severe injury on my forearm healed more rapidly than before. Flesh grew and stitched together to cover my crumbling bones. Remnants of the acid, however, still lingered. Only then did I notice my shallow breathing, inhaling and exhaling through my tightly clenched teeth. I could endure pain, but regenerating my flesh only for it to be dissolved was a torturous ordeal.

    Fuck, this hurts so bad!

    I brought my injured arm up to my face. Before I could have any second thoughts, I bit the diseased flesh away, acid and all. I spat it out immediately. I felt the burn in my mouth. I knew the moment I saw this mutant that I''d have a hard time with it. Not with killing, that was easy, but with eating it. However, I was certain my powers could fight back any damage I took so long as I could continue eating.

    Wading through the warzone that was the docks was a walk in the park because I sustained myself by gorging on the 2M¡¯s small army trying to kill me. I just needed to do it here once again.

    Eat! Devour! Consume!

    Barely repressed thoughts of the mutant as a sumptuous meal resurfaced.

    The mutant was easy to find. It didn¡¯t try to hide. Instead, it was sticking to the sides of the enclosure, not only putting a fair amount of distance between us but also trying to find a way out. Only now did I notice multiple steel doors along the walls.

    Duh. How else did the monsters and humans enter the pit?

    The doors remained shut to the mutant¡¯s utter dismay.

    Time to hunt.

    Chasing prey gave me a sense of joy I had never experienced before. A deeper, more primal happiness of following my instincts, or to be more accurate, giving in to the feral nature of this face.

    The mutant spewed several streams of acid to drive me away, but those were way off their mark. Desperate, it released the acid cloud once again, expecting itself to be safe inside it.

    Faster! I closed my eyes and held my breath. Straight into the eroding haze!

    I didn¡¯t stop. I didn¡¯t hesitate. My skin burned and started to peel. Arms, legs, abdomen, all my exposed skin. It felt like a carpet of pins slapped against me and dragged away every bit of skin they stabbed. For a second, I wondered why this body had such skimpy clothes.

    I opened my mouth and bit at the place I last saw the mutant. I was able to bite something!

    Cries of pain bombarded my ears as I continued running out of the acid cloud. I stopped as soon as I felt the prickling of my skin abate. Opening my eyes, I saw the mutant wailing with one of its arms missing. Between my jaws was the arm I ripped off, its hand dangling by the side of my mouth. I bit down, cutting the hand off which then fell to the ground. I swallowed the rest of the arm already inside my mouth.

    Stabbing pain filled my mouth. Even the mutant¡¯s flesh had corrosive properties. It was as if every inch of the inside of my mouth and throat was filled with the worst canker sores in the history of forever and then I gargled lemon juice. But the pain soon ebbed away.

    I have fulfilled the condition of my power.

    I was able to eat the one that bothered me.

    Childish joy welled inside me as I watched my claws grow longer, curving like scythes. My gloves started to rip apart with blazing red fur peeking through the tears. The claws on my feet tore through my boots. Itchiness filled my mouth as my fangs extended, crowding each other inside my huge snout. I could feel myself getting taller. Clothes became tighter. My braids loosened, grew longer, wilder, reddish hue crept on its golden color. The blood covering my body from diving into the acidic mist evaporated into the air, leaving behind my gorgeous regenerated skin, smooth as a baby''s.

    More! More! I need to eat more!

    I noticed a few more people came to the perimeter of the pit to watch. Not customers. They weren¡¯t wearing masquerade masks. Guards with weapons.

    Fun time was over.

    I never had any fear that my plan was going to fail even if I was caught earlier. It was easier to go after the guards, have them shoot me, then eat them. When people with powers or augmented guards would come to stop me, I would''ve already powered up from eating low-level grunts just like a computer game.

    But the best-case scenario for the fastest transformation would be to eat a mutant first, the closest to a person with powers I could find. Just like what happened at that time with my kidnapper who had powers, Rofirio was it? I knew that at a certain point when I was already in my full beast form, I could probably take on all of them here.

    Which was my end goal.

    I wasn¡¯t just going to eat a mutant or two.

    Mutants, humans, Adumbrae. All of them here were on the menu.

    I came tonight for the all-you-can-eat buffet!

    The mutant fled back to the walls of the pit, scratching along its length with one hand, trying to find a different exit. Its other arm dripped acid from its severed end. It reached one of the steel doors. This one was bigger than the rest.

    A mournful wail came out of the mutant while it fruitlessly tried to open the door. Fear was an emotion it hadn''t forgotten after it was turned into this abomination. Actually, I noticed that all the mutants had nuances to their behavior. Snippets of their memories most likely lingered in their minds.

    It tried disgorging copious amounts of the fierce acid from its stomach in an attempt to burn a hole through the door. The door held firm. The mutant continued clawing the steel door with its remaining hand.

    A pitiful sight.

    Too bad I couldn¡¯t feel actual pity. Only an approximation of it. And I wasn¡¯t interested in approximating any shit tonight.

    Was this the part of the story the hero would hesitate to finish off the monster that was once human? How would Deen deal with this situation?

    Since Deen couldn¡¯t do the heroic part of her story without risking her life, I¡¯ll do it for her like the good friend I was.

    I inhaled as deeply as I could and raised my snout to the ceiling. A ghostly howl filled the cavern. My powerful throat vibrated as air passed from my lungs. The hair on my neck and arms stood on end at my own call, I even felt the howl chill my bones. A single powerful note to freeze the hearts of everyone who heard it.

    I sunk my claws into the shoulders of a torso missing its limbs, courtesy of Xazary, and heaved it over my back. Wasn¡¯t this Barty? His was the only name I caught earlier. The head and clothes were familiar.

    Come here Barty, I thought, and this other person. I bent down, grabbed the ankles of a headless woman¡¯s body, and dragged her behind me. Let¡¯s go, guys, you¡¯re going to be my shield for the acid. I¡¯ll just go straight for the mutant¡¯s head. Put it out of its misery and bite off as much as I could with these two bodies minimizing the damage I was going to take.

    The mutant whimpered in despair. It prepared to run in another direction as I closed in on it with two dead bodies in tow. Its feral state notwithstanding, it had just enough intelligence left to understand what I was going to do. As if in answer to its proverbial prayers, the huge steel door behind it slowly opened.

    It tried to squeeze in the tiny opening but then, just as quickly, it jumped back out. Falling on the ground, it scampered across the floor away from the door. Was there something inside that scared it?

    A meaty hand grabbed the door, denting it with its powerful grip. The steel groaned as the creature inside pushed it open.

    A large foot stepped out of the shadows, followed by a thick leg, a heavy and bulky torso, and a misshapen head. The ugly-as-fuck, ogre-like mutant stood twice as tall as me. It was packed with so many muscles it looked like a mountain of buns, except that the buns were boulders of flesh wrapped in thick hide that was almost a coat of gravel rather than skin. I was far from an expert in anatomy, but I could tell it had muscles a normal human didn¡¯t have.

    Massive pieces of metal that looked like they came from a scrapyard were linked by thick iron rings into a hastily put together armor to protect its body. Not that it needed additional protection.

    It only had one hand. The other one was replaced with a brutish metallic contraption that was a cross between a heavy machine gun or a cannon and a bludgeoning mace with dozens of spikes jutting out in odd directions. The colossal newcomer raised its gun-mace-whatever-fist above its head.

    Fuck, I thought in resignation.

    The giant pummeled the acid mutant into a pancake. Acid splashed across the front of its body, poking shallow holes in its armor. The acid that bathed its skin didn¡¯t do anything, fizzling weakly before evaporating in the air.

    My food¡­

    And more importantly¡­the fuck is this giant bastard?!

 2.18

    During orientation week for Cresthorne Law, several alumni came to speak. One of them was a veteran prosecutor with a tough guy veneer who shared his life-threatening experiences putting various high-profile criminals in jail. Receiving death threats, getting ambushed, the works¡ªhe probably embellished some of those stories to entertain us. He added nonchalantly that it was ¡®highly unlikely¡¯ any of us would experience having a gun pointed at our face as he did, so we shouldn¡¯t worry too much about it.

    Highly unlikely?

    Well, Mr. Prosecutor, sir, I had been shot with high-powered firearms by criminals engaged in illegal Adumbrae activities. Mix in there a few missiles, grenades, explosive thingamajigs I didn¡¯t know about. I could distinctly remember, even in my frenzied full beast form, barely hanging on to a thread of sanity, that an attack helicopter joined the party trying to kill me.

    So, yeah. Plenty of highly unlikely stuff has happened to me lately.

    But you know what¡¯s even more unlikely?

    Turning into a half-wolf, half-woman creature with a power given by a possible interdimensional being, infiltrating an underground fight club full of Adumbrae, and getting into a one-on-one fight with a huge mutant that had a gun for a hand.

    That¡¯s pretty unlikely to happen to anyone.

    Astronomical odds, I''d say.

    Yet, here I am.

    The fucking ugly mutant, which I decided to call Mr. Ogre, happily flattened the acid bitch although it was clearly way past dead. Calm and peace swept away my fury at the acid mutant. When it died, my desire to eat it suddenly turned off.

    There goes my food and my plan to transform fast. I would have to make do with Mr. Ogre. I could tell it would be tremendously way harder to bring down than the acid one.

    How do I deal with this guy? Think about the tips I wrote down listening to Blank teach Deen how to fight. Observe. Get a clue of what your opponent¡¯s powers might be. Be on the lookout for hidden weapons or abilities. I had plenty of time to study how the acid mutant worked watching from the side, but it didn¡¯t cross my mind it could also make an acid cloud, which, fortunately, I was able to avoid.

    Be more careful this time, I warned myself. I didn¡¯t have the luxury of watching Mr. Ogre fight beforehand.

    Super strength was plenty obvious. It could crumple metal slabs; it would do me well not to get caught. How fast was it though? A large size didn¡¯t automatically mean slow so I had to always move quickly. Acid that could burn a hole through my flesh didn¡¯t do anything to its skin. Was that its power? Or was it just naturally, or unnaturally, extremely durable?

    How about the heavy contraption on its arm? I assumed it was a gun because it had two barrels, a small one and a large one. Might be a machine gun with a cannon.

    But where were the bullets? No magazine sticking out anywhere, or a bullet belt feeding into the gun. Unless the bullets were stored in the horrid device itself? That wouldn¡¯t be too many bullets then. I could probably run around and deplete its ammo. However, it could be a flamethrower or a different weapon that shoots some other nasty stuff a normal civilian like me wouldn¡¯t know of.

    After thoroughly mixing the body of the other mutant with the soil, Mr. Ogre grunted in satisfaction. It then gazed in my direction. Nostrils flared, it grumbled an angry gibberish. The fuming expression on its face told me we weren¡¯t going to be friends. The machine on its arm began to rattle and clunkily whir. Mr. Ogre moaned that sounded like the call of a whale.

    My knees were half-bent, ready to evade if it decided to shoot me.

    Go left or right?

    At the corner of my eye, I saw an axe to my left.

    Mr. Ogre raised his arm with the gun. Before it could align with me, I rushed to the side. It opened fire. I once again ran on all fours. It was easier this time, more familiar as if my physiology slowly changed to adapt to running like a beast. My ears twitched at the deafening, continuous gunfire.

    Huh?

    Did the fake animal ears on the top of my hoodie just move?

    Before I could process my ears changing, I reached the axe. I picked it up and continued running on two legs. Mr. Ogre suddenly swung his gun sideways, strafing my position with bullets. I didn''t have time to react. Tiny explosions from rocks exploded around me. I felt hot spears piercing my body. The force of the bullets nearly knocked me off balance.

    An enemy! Eat! Eat the bastard who dared attack!

    Adrenaline rushed through my body like when the acid mutant first hurt me. This was what I was waiting for! The pain from getting shot several times became nothing. They felt so distant like it was someone else getting hurt.

    A surge of rage. Of energy. Of power!

    Focus! Forward quickly!

    It was still shooting at me. I dashed through the curtain of bullets, debris, and dust.

    Throwing an axe was not in my resume the last time I checked, but perhaps sheer brute strength might do it. I raised the axe with both hands above my head to keep its path straight. I swung down with all my might, releasing the axe when it leveled with my eyes.

    It beautifully rotated in the air, curving towards the head of Mr. Ogre.

    And luck was on my side tonight. A hit! I''m so fucking great!

    Unfortunately, it was the handle that connected with the temple of the mutant, not the blade. Whatever, good enough. I''d take any success at this point. Mr. Ogre wasn¡¯t visibly injured. It shook its head for a moment. I took this chance to get closer so it couldn¡¯t shoot me anymore.

    Claws spread wide, I swiped with both hands at its abdomen. I tore through the armor it wore, ripping the steel plates and breaking the chains linking them. As easy as opening a gift. Its skin exposed, I attacked even more ferociously. Slashing. Biting.

    It bellowed, more in annoyance than actual pain, because I couldn¡¯t even rip through its skin.

    I snarled in frustration.

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    The gun-mace descended. I rolled to Mr. Ogre''s side.

    If scratching couldn¡¯t do anything, how about stabbing? I jabbed at its flank with my hand and fingers straightened. My claws harmlessly bounced away. The mutant tried to sidekick me but I parried its leg with my arms crossed in front of me. Damn, it was like holding back a truck, not that I¡¯ve done it before. I tried pushing it off balance. But it swung back its leg¡ªwhich I evaded by ducking down¡ªfollowed by a stomp right on my crouching body. I dove towards its back.

    Fucking sturdy. The closest thing I could compare it with was the water-cornstarch science experiment we did back in grade school. The one where if you punched the liquid it''d turn hard, but if you touched it gently it would retain its liquid consistency. It was the same with Mr. Ogre¡¯s skin. The harder I attacked it the more resistance it offered.

    Unfortunately, gently touching its skin didn¡¯t make it soft either.

    I recalled that Barb¡¯s armor, aside from heavily protecting her head, was also thick along her back. Mr. Ogre¡¯s head was hard to reach with the large height difference between us, but I could go for the spine. Break the spine, stop the power. I tried to dig its spine out.

    My claws and teeth, all ineffective! I punched the middle of its back with all my might. Damn it! I couldn¡¯t make any progress with the thick skin!

    It swung its arms wildly around, blindly hoping to catch me. I made sure to remain low while keeping up my fruitless attacks. The low kicks and the stomps were my main concern. But I could evade them. I couldn¡¯t explain it, but I had more focus, better reaction time, and a sort of fighting instinct. The mutant roared in anger. It couldn¡¯t get me while I danced around it.

    I couldn¡¯t do shit to it either.

    Stalemate.

    Once again, the whirring noise started, coupled with Mr. Ogre¡¯s labored groaning. It peppered the ground around us with bullets. But I was too close for it to shoot properly. I didn¡¯t let it move away; sticking to it was my ticket to surviving. Sure, there was nothing I could do right now, but I was buying time to think while preventing myself from being turned into swiss cheese. Minimizing damage was paramount because I couldn¡¯t regenerate quickly from too many injuries without eating what was attacking me. And this mutant was the worst opponent for me.

    Mr. Ogre pointed his gun downward. Huh? I managed to think before the earth exploded.

    BOOM!

    Why the hell was it shooting dow¡ª?

    BOOM! BOOM!

    I was thrown a few feet away by the explosion along with rocks and dust. I curled up as I hit the ground, then rolled away. So much rolling tonight. It dawned on me what had happened. The fucker couldn¡¯t catch or shoot me so it decided to blow up everything to shoo me away. It was still shooting at its feet, excavating dirt, so I slinked between the rocks and hid behind a particularly large one.

    Damage report! I patted my body.

    A few gashes, my skin torn away by the debris. It was already mending itself back together. The bullet holes I suffered were also closing. My body was covered with my blood. Yuck! Even my hair was sticky with it. And wow, did my hair start to grow wild.

    Now that I had respite and the rush of battle was dying down, I could feel pangs of hunger. An incessant gnawing of my innards. Food¡­not just any food. My mouth began to salivate as the thoughts of eating Mr. Ogre came to mind. If I was in any other state, I wouldn¡¯t have found that appetizing in the slightest. But right now, all I wanted was to tear away the mutant¡¯s skin and chew on its flesh.

    I turned my ears, the wolfish ones on the top of my head.

    Did it stop shooting? Heavy footsteps getting closer. I ducked down just as the upper part of the rock covering me was smashed to pieces. I didn¡¯t have to look up to know Mr. Ogre was there. I fled once again.

    That strange bellowing sound came from behind me. As expected, the gun whirred right after Mr. Ogre''s wailing. I ran with all my might across the pit with the bullets trailing behind me. I didn¡¯t dare try to zigzag because I was running away and couldn¡¯t see the path of the gunfire. The bullets slammed my back. All the action movies I¡¯ve watched lied to me! I dropped down to let the path of the gunfire continue forward.

    How the fuck was I getting hit? Weren¡¯t machine guns terribly inaccurate? Mr. Ogre''s strength must be keeping the gun from recoiling wildly. Although it has to have pretty good eyes to be this accura¡ª

    The eyes! A plan formed in my head. I turned back to face the mutant.

    Mr. Ogre stopped shooting, the mournful groans replaced with a battle cry. It decided to charge at me. Its mace held high, it barreled through the rocks and the corpses like a rampaging elephant.

    I crouched down.

    Wait for it...

    The powerful muscles of my legs coiled, ready to release at a moment¡¯s notice. Twelve feet...eight...five...

    Now!

    I launched myself towards its head, twisting myself across the air, drawing from muscle memory of my days as a cheerleader, avoiding the mighty mace that came crashing down. I grabbed the sides of its head to stop myself from overshooting. Positioning myself behind its head, I wrapped my legs around its thick neck and locked myself in place.

    Let¡¯s see how you like this! I scooped its eyes with my claws. It roared in pain and wildly shook its head. But I kept my claws inside its eyes sockets and rummaged around, mashing up everything I could reach like I was kneading dough.

    A massive hand came to grab me. Fat fingers wrapped around my chest and waist, trying to pry me off. I held fast to its head with my fingers holding on to the sides of the eye sockets. I also opened my mouth wide and bit down. You¡¯re not getting me off here!

    The fingers holding my body started squeezing me like a tub of toothpaste. My ribs cracked. I couldn¡¯t breathe! It pulled even harder but I kept holding on. My arms stretching, muscles straining. Bones cracking, going to break. Don''t let go¡ª!

    I was in the air! Pieces of its skull were in my clenched hands.

    What?

    It pulled me off and threw me up?

    As if in slow motion, I turned my head to the left just as the gun-mace was coming at me. WHAAAM!

    I slammed into a hard surface, another and another. Ground? Wall? I didn¡¯t know. Everything blended together. I bounced like a ragdoll around the enclosure and came to a stop. I whimpered as I tried to pick myself up.

    It hurts¡­fuck. This hurts so much!

    I stood up. Knees wobbling. Everything blurry. I blinked several times to clear my vision.

    Wait¡­Where was I again? I was dancing in a club. Did I get wasted?

    Not again.

    My ears were ringing¡­or was that something else? Like an engine humming¡­whirring.

    Whirring?

    The gun!

    Fuck.

    BOOM! BOOM!

    I was flung to the wall and fell to the floor with a splat. Thick crimson blood from my mangled body stretched across the dirty floor. I was shutting down. So...much...pain... I could barely move. I pushed myself up with a seemingly broken arm. Fix yourself! Regenerate!

    But my powers could not keep up with the damage.

    Food...food...

    This was not a good idea at all, I kept repeating inside my head.

    What was my backup plan again?

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    Someone calling me? Who?

    "Hey! Up here!"

    I looked up and saw a beautiful woman with flowing blonde hair dressed in white perched atop the glass fence surrounding the pit. Was she an angel? A man was trying to get her down. ¡°You said I should do this if you¡¯re hurt,¡± she shouted at me, raising something in her hand.

    It glinted.

    A blade?

    She threw it at me, the blade burying itself deep in my back.

 2.19

    Sharp pain radiated from the short blade embedded in my back like thorny vines growing into my flesh¡ªa minuscule addition to my mountain of suffering.

    I snarled at the woman in white. Bitch! Get down here so I can bite your head off! I struggled to keep holding myself up with my broken arm. My other arm was uncooperative, and all my legs could manage was weakly wriggling on the ground like a seal on dry land. Healing was going to take time.

    And I didn¡¯t have time.

    There were so many enemies I should eat! Instead of hunting them, my useless, pathetic ass was busy dying.

    ¡°Here,¡± called out the woman who threw the knife at me. This time, she had a different object in her hand. A cylindrical item filled with something red¡­wonderful, appetizing red that made my stomach grumble in anticipation.

    What was that? I wanted to eat that. The same mouthwatering red covered her arm as well¡­dripping down¡­

    ¡°Catch this,¡± she said, throwing the object at me just as some people dragged her away from the top of the fence.

    I was mesmerized by the falling cylinder as if it was the most precious ruby in the world. Gathering all my strength, ignoring the protests from my failing body, I squirmed across the ground using my elbows to drag my body forward so I could catch it in my mouth.

    Warm liquid filled my mouth as my fangs pierced the cylinder, more delicious than hot cocoa with marshmallows during a cold Christmas eve by the fireplace. I hungrily gulped down the liquid as if my throat was parched. The warmth spread throughout my body and filled it with renewed vigor. My hazy thoughts began to clear up, everything was coming back.

    Who I was. What I was doing here¡­the backup plan¡­Deen¡­

    Deen!

    You¡¯re indeed a great friend! Not that she knew my true identity with my transformation on.

    She was the ace up my sleeve. If I''d get too injured and couldn¡¯t eat my enemy for whatever reason, I''d need another source of food to replenish myself. She just had to attack me and ¡®donate¡¯ a part of her for me to eat. Blood was the easiest to give. Earlier, I handed her a pocketknife so she could attack me from afar. It was also her means of wounding herself. She''d then pour her blood in the empty bottle I gave her and throw it to me.

    And she pulled through!

    When I formulated my plan, I banked on the Guardian Angel helping me out for the sake of Deen not getting caught. If I got caught, Deen would surely be next. However, it did occur to me that when the time came for me to fight, the Guardian Angel might tell Deen to run away and leave me behind. If I was going to lose, what better time to escape than with me far away from her?

    Which was why I brought her down to watch the people getting killed.

    She wanted to be a hero? Sure, I believe her. But heroics and bravery couldn¡¯t do anything here, and she knew that. Deen wasn¡¯t stupid enough to try to save these people and risk herself getting captured or killed, and possibly end up with all the others getting caught as well.

    And so, guilt would build up inside her while she helplessly watched innocent people die. An idealistic view of heroism¡­taking on the burden no one told her to. It was a simple matter of offering that I do the heroics in her stead. I was actually surprised she was the one who approached me first.

    With our arrangement in place, she certainly wouldn¡¯t leave me behind even if her Guardian Angel told her to do so. Also, it''d embolden her to draw her own blood because I knew she might hesitate to wound herself.

    As I pushed myself up, I found there was some icky stuff sticking on my hands. Slivers of flesh, slime and blood, small bone fragments. Nasty, very much so, but, oh, they looked so appetizing. I licked them off. More of this, please.

    I bounced on the balls of my feet, psyching myself up. I cracked my necked and rolled my shoulders. That probably didn¡¯t do anything, but that was what the main characters did when it was time for an epic comeback.

    ¡°You go, girl!¡± someone shouted above me. A woman in red cheered from the crowd of onlookers. More and more people went down to watch instead of staying in their seats and staring at the huge screens. ¡°Show these men how it¡¯s done!¡± she said.

    ¡°I¡¯m betting on you!¡± said a man banging on the glass wall. ¡°Don¡¯t lose on me now.¡±

    ¡°Kill it!¡±

    ¡°Give us a good show!¡±

    This must be the most exciting time they had in a while. There was no way the 2Ms would actually allow their customers to fight the stronger mutants that could kill them. Not good for business. Plus, these were important, rich, and powerful people; any of them suddenly disappearing would present problems.

    I waved at them. You¡¯re all on the menu.

    Now, where was Mr. Ogre? I spotted it walking back to the large steel door it pried open to enter the arena, massaging its gun-mace arm.

    Thanks for the second life, Deen, but I was now back to my previous problem. Impenetrable skin.

    And I confirmed it also had insanely fast regeneration. In the short period it pulled me off its head, swatted me away like a baseball, and the few seconds I tried to regain my bearings, it was able to regenerate enough of its eyes to aim its cannon at me.

    I examined my claws and tutted. I had to go for the eyes agai¡ªthe bits of flesh and bones on my palm¡­

    Hyper regeneration? A light bulb switched on inside my head.

    This meant¡­endless food!

    Mr. Ogre noticed me closing in only when I was less than a dozen feet away. The gun didn¡¯t have enough time to charge and shoot at me. It was left with no choice but to attempt to smash me with its mace. I perfectly timed a front flip to get out of its way. Even if I haven¡¯t done any flips or somersaults for years, my incredibly athletic and powerful body more than made up for my rustiness. It was just like learning how to ride a bike; the skill stays with you.

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    I dodged the mace and the hand trying to grab me. I caught its arm and clambered back up to Mr. Ogre¡¯s head. Round two, big guy, I thought as I stuck my claws into its eye sockets.

    It roared in pain.

    With my left hand securing my position like a grappling hook, I pulled out my right hand from inside its head. My prize¡ªa fistful of eyeball chunks. I shoved them greedily into my mouth before I could think how disgusting it was. Slimy, with a bit of chew. Pretty bland, could use some salt. I thrust my claws back to scoop for more fleshy goodies. Nothing could satisfy my cravings.

    As I gorged on Mr. Ogre¡¯s eyeball that kept on regenerating, my strength exponentially grew. Wah! My own body was actually growing. The hoodie I wore turned into a lush, deep crimson, coat of fur, mingling with my already wild hair of red and gold. Pretty soon I looked like I had a lion''s mane. Muscles enlarged, my limbs extended like a child¡¯s growth spurt compressed in seconds.

    Strength! Power! Pain?

    There was no pain.

    Mr. Ogre was pulling me off once again. There was no way I was letting myself get removed this time. It tried to crush my body with its monstrous grip, but my tensed muscles held firm, my bones unbreakable. My prey posed no threat to me.

    BAM!

    My entire body rattled as something hard and pointy slammed onto my back. I growled in irritation. Can''t a girl eat in peace around here?

    BAM! BAM! WHAM!

    So distant. Everything else besides eating my prey felt distant. I knew it was hitting me with its gun-mace, but I didn¡¯t care. I probably should. I didn¡¯t.

    My body shuddered after each impact and I nearly lost my grip on its head. The spikes on the mace bit into my back. Some of them broke off, stuck in my flesh. I held on even tighter and continued with my meal, steadily scooping out Mr. Ogre¡¯s right eye as it regenerated.

    After a few more hits, Mr. Ogre paused. No doubt it was disoriented from clubbing itself even though I was between the mace and its own head. It tried to close its eyes. I couldn¡¯t pierce its eyelids because of its power, but it was easy to pry it open with my claws.

    A guttural cry escaped its mouth. Pain and suffering of the prey¡ªmeaningless. The revolting thought of opening its mouth and eating it from the inside crossed my mind as I reached the back of its eye socket. Wasn¡¯t the brain here as well? I had to get to the brain to stop its powers. That should''ve been my first thought. But what actually first came to my mind was more food.

    Perhaps sensing I was aiming to break through to its brain, Mr. Ogre wildly shook its head and resumed pounding me with its fist and gun-mace. I had to hold on with all my strength. Then the gun whirred to life.

    It aimed the gun at me. I released my hold on its head and clamped my jaws on the barrel just as it opened fire. Incredible heat filled my mouth. Bullets ricocheted around my indestructible teeth, sending concussions up my skull. Other bullets went through the left side of my face, boring holes through my cheeks and jaw muscles.

    BITE DOWN!

    BOOM! The gun exploded when I closed the barrel through the sheer force of my bite.

    I hung on to Mr. Ogre¡¯s arm, tearing away the metal device attached to it with my teeth and claws. I was seeing several copies of the world, white noise filled my ears, my brain barely able to think after being sloshed around my skull by the impact of the gunfire in my mouth and the subsequent explosion.

    In a split second of momentary clarity, I realized some bolts secured the gun-mace to its arm. I bit them off and howled in triumph as I pulled the gun-mace from the end of its arm. I dropped to the floor, hugging the weapon. It was filled with unfamiliar mechanisms. Assorted gears and cylinders, complicated wirings, and curious vials of liquid. No bullets? And how did it fire the cannon?

    Mr. Ogre ambled away from me, hollering like a grievously injured cow. The stump where the gun-mace was previously attached was bleeding.

    ¡°Go down all of you!¡± someone on a loudspeaker said. ¡°Secure Unit EM03 and capture the intruder.¡±

    Several men with guns watching from the sides jumped over the glass fence and dropped into the arena. A few of the steel doors opened with more men flooding in. Several of them carried bulky devices that didn¡¯t look like guns. A few wore armor, probably illegal ComExo units from the black market.

    They were forming a wide circle around me.

    No¡­

    They were going to steal my food!

    Mr. Ogre! You¡¯re mine!

    I bounded after my prey and latched on to its arm. Surprise and delight filled my heart as I saw bleeding, meaty flesh unprotected by the annoying skin where the gun-mace used to be. I wanted to partake of the feast, but a small nagging voice at the back of my head told me to eat the skin first.

    I bit down the mutant¡¯s arm. But my massive fangs couldn¡¯t penetrate the skin. Inedible shit. Oh, well. Moving on to the flesh as intended. I heaved with all my might and pulled Mr. Ogre down to the ground like a lion taking down a buffalo. It struggled against me. I didn¡¯t let go of my prey. I chomped and chewed its exposed flesh as it thrashed around.

    It lifted me then slammed me down hard, cracking the ground. I was numb to pain. All I wanted was to eat. The thoughts of food began pushing all coherence out of my mind. I started to snicker while I ate. This was like eating a burrito with an inedible tortilla and with infinite meat inside. Hehehehe¡­Burritos are awesome. What was I supposed to be doing here again?

    ¡°Shoot her! Unit EM03 won¡¯t be affected.¡± Multiple mosquito bites plagued my body.

    ¡°Sir, it¡¯s not doing anything.¡±

    ¡°Try electroshock weapons.¡±

    ¡°It''s just eating and growing. The fuck is this shit?¡±

    Voices. Annoying. I paused mid-bite to look at the people closing in and attacking me.

    Food? Lesser prey. I finish this one first.

    They kept on pelting me with pebbles and tickling me. I ignored the nuisance. Plenty of room in my stomach for them later.

    ¡°Sir, Unit EM03 is dying. It¡¯s peeling the skin off and¡ª"

    ¡°Don¡¯t you think I can¡¯t see that with my own eyes? There¡¯s no way we can capture this alive.¡±

    ¡°It will turn to us after it''s finished with Unit EM03.¡±

    ¡°ComExo forward. Eliminate the threa¡ªWhat was that?!¡±

    I grew bigger. Bigger than my prey. Or was my prey getting smaller? Duh, I was eating it. Of course, it''d get smaller. The puny men around me scrambled around. They were no threat so I let them be. Maybe the shaking of the earth frightened the weak creatures?

    ¡°We¡¯re under attack, Sir! The emergency detonation of the elevator shaft was triggered!¡±

    ¡°Attacked? By who?¡±

    ¡°The BID! Agents are trying to get down here!¡±

    I felt like the voices were talking about something I should care about. But I could barely process what they were saying. It didn¡¯t concern me. My prey had finally given up struggling. I happily continued with my meal as shouting, explosions, and fighting engulfed the cavern.

 2.20 - Amber Deen - Part 1

    Amber Deen - Part 1

    Amber Deen swallowed the last drop of saliva in her rapidly drying mouth. Her mind raced to think of an explanation that''d get her out of her current predicament. Her throat hurt as if a rock was lodged in it. Her skin felt clammy. And if she didn¡¯t have makeup on right now, she''d probably look even paler than Erind.

    Her palms were starting to sweat, so she tried to wipe them on the sides of her dress, disguising it as adjusting her skirt which hiked up when she climbed the glass wall surrounding the arena to help the mysterious woman with the wolf mask. She was careful not to get any blood from the self-inflicted wound on her arm on her white outfit.

    Half a dozen burly armed men in black suits surrounded Amber, cradling guns that threateningly angled in her direction. They were led by a man she would''ve described as somber and unimposing were it not for his distinctive mustache, which she surmised was styled in an expensive barbershop. He introduced himself as Leandro, manager of the ¡°evening¡¯s festivities¡±, as he put it.

    ¡°Miss, there''s no need to be distressed,¡± he said. ¡°We had to pull you off the top of the barrier for your safety.¡± He narrowed his eyes. ¡°Unless you wanted to join in the fight as well? That''s something we can easily arrange.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Amber said with more force than she intended. She relaxed her tone even as her heart raced. ¡°I mean, I''m fine here outside the ring. Thank you.¡±

    ¡°And we do not allow interference in fights. It''d be highly unfair to previous participants who didn¡¯t receive any help.¡±

    Wasn¡¯t it also unfair they released the gun-wielding giant monster to fight Madam Blanchette before her fight with the acid-spitting mutant was over? But Amber realized it was better not to argue. ¡°I understand. I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Terribly sorry for the disruption. Uh¡­I¡¯m going now.¡± She tried to squeeze past the men but Leandro blocked her.

    He smiled. ¡°Even if our esteemed clientele don masks throughout the night¡ªwe value anonymity, after all¡ªI do come to eventually recognize most of them. Something unavoidable in my line of work. And I think it''s a hallmark of a good manager, wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡±

    Amber nodded hesitantly.

    ¡°Forgive me if I¡¯m mistaken,¡± he said, ¡°but I don¡¯t think I''ve seen you before.¡±

    ¡°I¡­um.¡±

    ¡°Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself?¡±

    There it was, as Amber dreaded. Deep gnawing pain in her left shoulder blade, as if someone was drilling straight into her bones. She breathed slowly, trying to keep her face from wincing while her muscles contracted in anxiety. Why does this always happen when I''m in a difficult situation? This was the most stressful state she had been in¡­forever.

    No word from her Guardian Angel. It had stayed silent after it frantically repeated its advice to run away.

    Which she ignored.

    Amber''s stomach churned as she considered the possibility that she might have passed a point of no return when she helped the woman she dubbed Madam Blanchette, whatever her true identity might be.

    She glanced at Bianca. Should she call out to her for help?

    The famous silver-haired celebrity stayed by the side of the enclosure and didn''t follow Amber when the guards took her. Bianca was talking on her phone, an annoyed expression on her face, her eyes darting around the cavern but never looking in Amber¡¯s direction. She might''ve already suspected Amber was a fake. And even if she hadn''t yet, she''d eventually put two and two together once Leandro questioned her. Amber would just be digging her own grave even deeper by calling Bianca.

    ¡°Well?¡± Leandro said.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not tell you my name. You did say you value anonymity.¡±

    ¡°Yes. But we also do value the security of our patrons.¡± He walked up the stairs and beckoned the guards to follow him. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the interrogation room and get this over with.¡±

    [Pretend you¡¯re hurt.]

    Amber¡¯s eyes widened when she heard her Guardian Angel¡¯s voice. She had trained herself not to show any reaction whenever it spoke, but she was just so relieved to hear it she nearly cried out in joy.

    Pretend to be hurt? In what way?

    The guards grabbed her arms and she understood.

    ¡°My arm!¡± Amber cried out. She forgot she injured herself when she gave Madame Blanchette her blood. The wound healed so quickly and she was preoccupied when she was accosted by the guards. ¡°It hurts! Get your hands off me. I have a wound there.¡± Her arm was covered with blood, but if they examined it, they''d find that she was lying.

    ¡°Oh my gosh,¡± an annoyingly high-pitched female voice said. ¡°That¡¯s so cool.¡± They all turned. It was one of the patrons, a lady wearing an elegant, dark blue cocktail dress adorned with laces and feathers. She had feathers on the sides of her mask. ¡°You really wounded yourself.¡± Her arm was linked with a guy in a designer tuxedo, presumably her boyfriend or husband. She kept on repeating ¡°oh my gosh¡± as she chased after them, dragging the man with her.

    If Leandro was surprised that someone interrupted them, he didn¡¯t show it. ¡°Excuse me, miss,¡± he started to say.

    The woman ignored him. She reached out between the guards, pushing them out of the way, and unabashedly touched Amber¡¯s blood-covered arm. ¡°Yuck, that¡¯s gross.¡± She pulled back her hand and checked her fingers. ¡°Told you it was real blood,¡± she said to the man beside her.

    ¡°I honestly didn¡¯t expect it to be real,¡± he said. ¡°I thought it was mere theatrics.¡±

    ¡°This is awesome, I¡¯m glad I came with you tonight,¡± she said. She spoke in a shrill voice. ¡°I thought it was going to be boring as usual. Ugh. Just guys showing off in the arena with no real danger. Childish really. Tonight is actually fun. Blood and gore from both combatants, not just the poor mutants that always get bullied.¡±

    ¡°Awakens something primal inside us, doesn''t it?¡± The man patted Leandro¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Nice work, I hope we have more of this next time.¡±

    ¡°We do our best,¡± Leandro said, without missing a stride. ¡°Now if you¡¯ll excuse us, we have to get this young miss to the infirmary.¡±

    [Call attention to the screen] The Guardian Angel counseled.

    ¡°Hey! Look at the screen.¡± Amber wrested her arm from the guard and pointed up. She hadn¡¯t paid any attention to what was happening to Madame Blanchette because she was in a tight spot herself. But now, she saw Madame Blanchette made a huge comeback in her fight and was already winning.

    Not simply winning.

    She was eating her opponent.

    Madam Blanchette¡¯s gorgeous body was morphing into a heavily muscled beast coated with red fur. She dug her claws deep into the head of the giant mutant, scooping out its eyes and eating it. The cameras zoomed in on the disgusting scene.

    Amber, with her stomach already tied up in knots, held her breath and flexed her abdomen to stave off the rising urge to vomit. There were cries of horror and even cheering from the crowd.

    At the corner of her mind popped the memory of Oberon telling them about the humongous red werewolf that rampaged in the docks. Didn¡¯t he say that it was one of the mutants of the 2Ms that accidentally broke free?

    Come to think of it¡­they only assumed that.

    What if we were wrong?

    ¡°My, my, what do we have here,¡± Leandro said, turning his full attention to the screen. The mutant shot the wolf-woman with the bulky gun attached to its arm, but she tore away the gun with her teeth and claws. Severely injured and its weapon destroyed, the mutant lumbered away from the wolf-woman.

    ¡°Release more to fight her!¡± the woman with the feathered masked said. ¡°Don¡¯t let the round end, we want more.¡±

    ¡°Honey, calm down,¡± said her partner.

    ¡°They¡¯re not going to beat her if they keep sending mutants one by one. Or better yet, how about we send those men who always fight the weak mutants as her next opponents?¡±

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    But Leandro wasn''t listening to her. He took out his phone and scrolled through its screen. He was muttering ¡°Wolf¡­red¡­¡± He frowned, gripping his phone tightly, breaking it. ¡°Someone is ruining the evening¡¯s festivities. I can¡¯t have that.¡±

    ¡°Is everything alright?¡±

    ¡°Yes, of course.¡± Leandro quickly went back to all smiles, but he had a murderous glare that made the woman falter. ¡°Now if you and the kind sir can move along. Are you going to watch by the sides of the arena? It might be better to stay at your table. How about Chapman here escorts you to your seats,¡± he said, referring to one of the guards. The couple reluctantly complied. Then Leandro pressed something on his collar and his voice boomed throughout the cavern, ¡°Go down all of you! Secure Unit EM03 and capture the intruder.¡±

    Guards that gathered around the perimeter of the pit immediately jumped down into it. The ground was several feet below, but they landed with ease, showing that they had at least some form of augs or maybe performance-enhancing drugs. Madame Blanchette, who was shedding her last traces of humanity and growing even larger to rival the mutant¡¯s size, was oblivious to her increasing enemies.

    [Say you don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening.]

    That¡¯s easy because she truly had no clue what was going on. ¡°Huh? I had no¡­I had no idea,¡± she stammered. ¡°Why is she turning¡­into that?¡±

    ¡°You,¡± Leandro said, pointing to a guard. ¡°Go up and check what Boxer¡¯s doing. He¡¯s not responding to my calls. Probably drunk by the lounge.¡± He pointed to another. ¡°And you. Alert the boys at the back in case we need more firepower.¡±

    ¡°I swear I don¡¯t know who...or even what she is,¡± Amber said, almost pleading.

    ¡°Shut up,¡± he said harshly. ¡°We¡¯ll deal with you later. The rest of you take her away.¡± He stormed off down to the pit to lead his men. They had already started attacking the red beast with all sorts of weapons, but the beast didn¡¯t mind them.

    Madame Blanchette swatted the men away like they were annoying flies. The heavy gunfire wounded her, the camera showed her back bleeding, but it was only superficial. She grabbed one man, bit his head off, threw away the body, and then went back to eating the mutant. The upper body of the mutant was already gone, with only its impenetrable skin remaining like a sausage casing with its meat filling scraped off.

    ¡°What have I done?¡± Amber whispered.

    A guard yanked her away from looking at the carnage on display. Her mind went back to attempting to escape.

    Realizing she finally had to fight for her life, anxiety gripped her heart again. The gnawing pain on her shoulder returned. You have to do this, she screamed in her mind. She volunteered for this job, and she had considered the possibility of getting caught. Would she prefer getting tortured to fighting now?

    Obviously not.

    And they probably wouldn¡¯t stop at hurting her anyway. She shuddered to think what other things they would do to make her talk.

    Three guards left.

    When Amber pulled her arm away from one of them, the grip wasn¡¯t that strong. They may be stronger than normal humans because of enhancements but she was still stronger than them. From her discussions with the group, only a select few of the guards had enhancements or bioaugmentronics that could fight toe-to-toe with Adumbrae. Brute force should work if they weren¡¯t expecting it. And she had her Guardian Angel on her side. She should just find the resolve to overcome her fear of being shot.

    [Close your eyes. Wait for the explosion.]

    Amber complied. The ground shook beneath her feet. Dust fell from the ceiling. An earthquake? There was murmuring from the people around them. Was this the explosion the Guardian Angel meant?

    More shaking. The guards stopped walking and held Amber still. The lights flickered.

    KABOOM! BOOM!

    The ear-shattering blasts rocked the cavern. People screamed. Several smaller explosions followed. Amber could hear rocks dislodged from the ceiling, raining around them. Panicked footsteps everywhere, everyone running every which way. She feared there would be a cave-in.

    [Now.]

    Amber opened her eyes just as another set of explosions knocked out most of the lights, severely dimming the cavern. With her eyes already adjusted to the darkness, she had no problem accurately swinging her fist towards the jaw of the guard on her left. Her knuckles met bone. The guard¡¯s jaws broke, deformed, crumbled. Red emergency lights switched on. The guard was on the floor, splatters of his blood and teeth beside him. Amber was momentarily shocked by what she did.

    [Kick back.]

    She obeyed without hesitation, swinging her leg backward with all her might, tearing her dress in the process. Her leg connected with the midsection of the other guard who raised his gun, about to shoot her. The man crumpled on the ground.

    The last guard who was leading the way looked back and saw the fate of his fellows. Amber, listening to the promptings of her Guardian Angel, leaped into action and incapacitated the guard with a few blows. She clumsily beat up the guard, punching with her full strength.

    She stood up. Her hands were shaking. Breathing raggedly. The blood of the guards coated her knuckles.

    A gunshot from behind her!

    Amber dropped down to the floor, covering her head. The bullet hit the ground a couple of feet to her left. She turned around, ready to fight, adrenaline swimming through her veins. The man who at shot her, one of the guards who came over after seeing her try to escape, was held by Xazary.

    Xazary placed a finger on the man¡¯s neck and a small jolt of electricity coursed through his body. He fell limp in Xazary¡¯s arms and she let him fall to the ground.

    Amber sighed in relief. ¡°Xazary¡­uh...thanks¡± She wondered why the Guardian Angel didn¡¯t warn her about this one. There was also no advice on what to do next. Hold on a minute, she thought. Why was Xazary helping her?

    ¡°Saved you on that one, Amber.¡± But it wasn¡¯t Xazary who said that. Bianca popped up from behind her bodyguard. ¡°Now you owe me,¡± she said.

    ¡°Bianca¡­er¡­thank you for the help,¡± said Amber even though it was actually Xazary who saved her.

    ¡°Imagine that. You''re a BID agent?¡±

    ¡°Pardon?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re with the BID right? I helped you so maybe you could broker in a deal for me.¡± Bianca massaged her temples as if she had a headache. ¡°I was so sure you were also a client of the Mark and Marc brothers. The powers and the connections¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry but I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Was this another trap? Amber was certain she''d lose against Xazary. Her only option was to run away. But they helped her. What was that about?

    ¡°Amnesty maybe? I¡¯m still human after all. I know that counts a lot for you guys.¡± Bianca noticed Amber had a puzzled expression. ¡°Come on, I already know the Bureau is attacking this place.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not with the BID¡­¡±

    Both of them stared at each other for a couple of seconds.

    ¡°Seriously?¡±

    Amber decided it was a whole lot riskier to pretend to be from the BID so she nodded. ¡°I¡¯m not.¡± She frowned. ¡°Wait, did you say they¡¯re attacking this place?"

    Bianca burst out laughing. ¡°Oh, my fucking god! What group do you belong to then?¡± Amber opened her mouth to explain but Bianca immediately said, ¡°On second thought, that can wait. And yes, this place is about to be a warzone.¡± She held out her hand and Xazary gave her a long black hair wig. ¡°I¡¯m pretty recognizable,¡± she explained to Amber, noticing her raised brow. ¡°And don¡¯t forget, I helped you. So that should count for something, whatever group you are from.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Amber said. She didn¡¯t know what else to say. What should she do next? Before she could consider her options, there was another explosion, this time by the entrance of the cavern, the one connected to the elevator from the club above.

    Clouds of dust rolled out of the tunnel. Although the entrance was far from them, Amber could see what was going on because it was in an elevated position. Guards ran toward the mouth of the entrance, taking positions around it, preparing to attack. They turned over tables and used them as cover.

    Out of the smoke came a man with formidable stature, broad shoulders, and height most likely nearing seven feet. He looked familiar, but Amber couldn¡¯t quite place it. She was too far away to make out his face. Oddly, he was wearing only a simple office attire. Plain coat and tie over a dress shirt and pants. Dirt covered his clothes.

    This man was from the Bureau? Amber expected someone more fearsome.

    ¡°They¡¯re here,¡± Bianca said, adjusting her wig. ¡°Do I look good, Xazary?¡±

    ¡°As always, Miss Bianca,¡± was Xazary¡¯s monotone response.

    Two more people emerged from the tunnel. And these were the fearsome ones.

    One was a petite figure covered from head to toe in state-of-the-art ComExo armor, sleek and compact compared to the clunky ones worn by the guards here. Amber guessed she might be a woman. She wielded two swords with long, thin, wide rectangular blades. The contraption on her back that looked like a steel backpack unfolded itself, revealing two mechanical arms. Blades extended from each arm, bringing the total number of swords she wielded to four. Wires connected to the blades, charging them, making them glow bright blue which made them stand out from the harsh red lights illuminating the cavern.

    The other was an inhumanly colossal man with disproportionately long and extremely thick arms that reminded Amber of sledgehammers, probably nine or ten feet tall if he stood straight up. But he was crouched down with his knuckles on the ground like a gorilla. He was also wearing a compact ComExos but with especially thick plates, almost like a human tank. Pistons stuck out of his forearms and back.

    Amber looked around for possible exits. There was no way they were going back up to the club using the elevator. ¡°Uh¡­should we escape?¡± she said, her voice slightly trembling.

    Whichever side would win, the men of the 2Ms or the agents of the BID, Amber would be in trouble. She decided to stick with Bianca because the celebrity didn¡¯t seem to be strictly on the side of the 2Ms.

    The guards opened fire and lobbed explosives at the agents. Their ComExo units came forward, shooting their mounted missiles at the intruders. The BID agents were quickly covered in explosions, dust, rocks, and fire.

    An amplified voice spoke, loud enough that Amber could hear it even though she was on the other end of the cavern. And it wasn¡¯t Leandro making an announcement.

    ¡°Attention creatures that are illegally alive! By authority of the BID under the Panderton Act, this area is classified as a prime Adumbrae seeding hotspot. Given the number of inhuman creatures here, the BID raises Alert Level 1 for a potential Purple Bud formation.

    ¡°As such, to prevent further encroachment of extradimensional elements on US soil inimical to our citizenry, everyone here is slated for immediate execution.¡±

    Amber gasped. ¡°This is not good. We should escape now.¡±

    ¡°Wait a bit,¡± Bianca said.

    ¡°Why? Do you have a death wish?¡±

    ¡°No. But I¡¯d like to see some¡­or maybe a lot¡­of these people die.¡±

 2.21 - Amber Deen - Part 2

    Amber Deen ¨C Part 2

    A black blur with flashing blue lights burst out of the thick cover of smoke and past the wall of bullets. The agent brandishing swords swept through the guards, an unstoppable force of overlapping whirling blades, leaving chopped-up bodies in her wake. She was so fast that she already killed several people before their lobbed-off limbs, heads, and torsos hit the ground. There was no blood, the cuts cauterized by the intense heat of the blades. The flying body parts looked like broken mannequins.

    Amber was rooted on the spot, mouth agape, transfixed at the equally beautiful and horrific scene unfolding. She never expected the night to go this way.

    Bright blue blades rotated nonstop through gunfire and explosions; a morbid light show of carnage. The guards could barely react and train their guns on the agent before they met their deaths. Even the ones wearing ComExos were equally helpless, methodically disassembled by the swordswoman, machine and body parts alike.

    A roar filled Amber¡¯s heart with dread. Following it was a shockwave that blew away the smoke at the entrance of the cave, sending the dismembered corpses of the guards, broken weapons, and machines tumbling away. The parting smoke revealed the other armored agent, the one with the body akin to an oversized metal gorilla, standing protectively in front of the agent in plain clothes.

    Unsurprisingly, they were unharmed. The air shimmered around them; a force field. Sparks danced across the tops of the cylindrical piston-looking devices sticking out all over the armor of the gorilla man.

    Bianca whistled. ¡°Plenty scary, aren¡¯t they?¡± she said as she absentmindedly twirled the ends of her wig. Her tone was slightly interested as if she was commenting on the weather.

    ¡°That BID agent¡­I¡¯ve seen him before,¡± Amber said, unable to let go of the nagging feeling.

    ¡°You mean him?¡± Bianca nodded up towards the screens.

    The wide screens flickered between displaying broken images and static. Some of them were cracked, busted from all the shaking, and dangled precariously. It was a surprise they hadn¡¯t already fallen from the ceiling. The drones had shifted their attention from the arena to the BID agents. One of the remaining working screens facing their direction showed a close-up of the lead agent and the gorilla man protecting him.

    Amber snapped her fingers. ¡°Oh, I remember now. I saw him at the club.¡± If her memory served her correctly, he introduced himself as Matt¡­or Matthew?

    ¡°You knew the BID was going to raid this place?¡± Bianca pouted. ¡°You should¡¯ve warned me. We¡¯re friends right?¡±

    Amber ignored Bianca¡¯s second question. ¡°No, I meant I just saw him. I didn¡¯t know who he was.¡± She realized this was the reason her Guardian Angel reacted bizarrely. She assumed she and Erind incorrectly handled their conversation with the two guys hitting on them, but apparently, it was the Guardian Angel foreseeing a terrible future for them if they interacted with this man at the club.

    Whatever the future that never was, she didn¡¯t know and didn¡¯t want to know. She was just relieved they avoided it.

    Then a realization came to her. Her shoulder muscles contracted, the pain returning once again. It had been cropping up more often lately as she found herself to be tense nowadays.

    He had seen them!

    Even if they weren¡¯t doing anything wrong at the club, the place itself, especially this cave below it, was full of illegal activities¡ªand that was an exceptionally severe understatement. This was way worse than getting caught by the police raiding a party where illegal drugs were found, something she had experienced back in her rowdy teenage years.

    Much, much worse. No amount of connections or battalions of lawyers could bail her out of this one if she got caught.

    What should I do?

    Bianca clapped her hands. Amber, already jumpy from the hefty concerns sloshing in her mind, made a surprised squeak.

    ¡°What was that about?¡± Bianca said with a giggle. ¡°Would you relax? I¡¯m just excited that someone with powers is coming to fight them. See that tall guy over there? The one running from the side of the arena to the BID agents? I remember him when I was interviewed for¡­you know. Not a hundred percent certain, but I think he has powers.¡±

    The arena was also a place of heavy fighting. The fence around it was down and men were shooting at something below, obviously Madam Blanchette. However, Amber couldn¡¯t see what was happening in the arena because the screens were no longer displaying it. Leandro was standing on top of a table, commanding his men. He had a ring of thick greyish clouds around him that rolled and pulsated as if something in it was trying to get out.

    A clump of the cloud branched out, rapidly expanded, and puffed up. It separated from the main ring and solidified into a six-legged creature that grew to the size of a horse. The creature screeched and jumped into the arena. Leandro kept summoning more creatures to throw into the pit while shouting orders at his men.

    Deep menacing growls that made the hairs on Amber¡¯s arms stand on end emanated from below, telling her that Madame Blanchette was alive and kicking. The occasional torn corpse or shadow creature sent airborne out of the pit showed there was much kicking going on.

    Was Madame Blanchette also part of the BID?

    An even bigger problem if she was. She seemed to know Amber, and she definitely knew Erind. But the fact that both of them hadn¡¯t been arrested, or worse, summarily executed by the BID, countered that possibility.

    Deen bit her lip, thinking it was also too much of a coincidence that the time Madame Blanchette attacked this place was also when the BID came. There was a connection here she should figure out.

    That was if she would be able to leave this place alive.

    Amber turned her attention to the man Bianca pointed out.

    Against the flowing river of fleeing customers and employees, he led a small group of guards up the stairs from the pit to meet the BID agents. He leaped forward, several feet ahead of his men, and rolled on the ground. The stairs and floor crumbled beneath him, rocks jutted out of the ground as if an extremely heavy object dropped on it. Rocks tumbled and gathered around him, encasing his body. When he rolled back up, he was completely covered in an armor of rocks.

    He stomped towards the agents, growing larger with each step, absorbing more and more of the earth. He attacked the female agent with wild swings.

    The swordswoman nimbly evaded the strikes and ignored him. She swooped between his legs and went after his men behind him, dispatching them with ease. The rock giant clumsily turned around, trying to chase her, but a blinding burst of light hit him, momentarily driving back the red hue coating the walls of the cavern.

    The gorilla man shot the rock giant with a powerful charged beam. Each of his forearms had opened up to reveal hidden energy cannons.

    With a mighty roar, the hulking agent launched himself at the convulsing rock giant, arms held high, streaks of electricity covering him. He dropped down on the rock giant, slamming its head with his forearms that once again transformed into heavy metal bludgeons. Rocks and earth gave way to the powerful punches of the agent. In a couple of seconds, the rock giant was reduced to rubble with the mangled body of the guard mixed in with the debris.

    Bianca snorted. ¡°That was fast. And disappointing.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re killing the fleeing people,¡± Amber said.

    The female agent had cut a path across the guards and reached the customers and employees that were trying to escape. They had crowded at the exits connected to smaller tunnels which presumably led out of the cavern and back to the surface. The elevator couldn¡¯t have been the only way out of this place.

    Seeing the guards were getting slaughtered left and right, several of the patrons decided to take matters into their own hands and fight the agent with their powers. Amber spotted the man who participated in the arena before Xazary; he took off his clothes and transformed into a human-crustacean hybrid.

    ¡°We should have popcorn with this,¡± Bianca said. ¡°Xaz, could you get me some?¡±

    ¡°Apologies, Miss Bianca. That is not possible given our current situation.¡±

    ¡°Hmph.¡±

    The sword-wielding agent jumped amid the frightened crowd and slashed the people blazingly fast with her four swords. Some of them died mid-transformation into grotesque creatures. The man with the crab exoskeleton led those trying to use their powers to defend themselves. But it was obvious they didn¡¯t have any experience fighting. With blades supercharged and glowing a blinding blue, the female agent easily cut down the crab-man and the others who rallied behind him.

    Amber noted that the agent always hacked off the head of everyone she killed. And for some people, especially those who showed superhuman abilities, she drove her blade into their skulls, even if they were already separated from their body, and, with a surge of electricity racing up the blade, made the decapitated heads explode.

    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    She¡¯s making sure their brains were destroyed. Unconsciously, Amber patted her neck and the back of her head.

    The agent continued cutting through the throngs of people like a scythe reaping wheat. Screams overpowered the sound of gunfire. The nauseating smell of burnt flesh and the metallic hint of blood filled the air, mixing with the gunpowder and dust. The swordswoman pressed on with her slaughter into the corridor out of Amber¡¯s view. Small groups broke off from the main crowd and went looking for other exits.

    ¡°Some of them are just normal humans!¡± Amber cried out. ¡°Especially the employees.¡±

    ¡°Probably.¡± Bianca shrugged. ¡°So?¡±

    Lances of blue light hit the stragglers, turning their bodies into charred corpses. The other agent positioned himself on top of an extended rock platform that appeared to be the bar complete with cabinets of drinks lining the walls; most of the bottles were broken or had dropped to the floor. He methodically shot people one by one with precision from his vantage point. The agent named Matt, on the other hand, if that was his real name, leisurely descended the stairs from the entrance.

    ¡°They¡ªthey can¡¯t do this! They can¡¯t just kill everyone.¡± Amber wanted to run and try to stop the BID agents, but she knew it was suicidal. ¡°Even the customers, not all of them are¡­they can capture and test people!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid. The BID already declared this as a possible Purple Bud area. They¡¯ll have to kill everyone here ASAP.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just look around you. Dozens of Adumbrae beneath a city? The Adumbrae gathering while killing humans? Like a cult or something. I know we¡¯re not forming a Purple Bud here like they thought¡ªas any rational person would think after seeing this. They¡¯re just rich people who want to have the power of Adumbrae while keeping their minds. But the Bureau has no choice but to assume the worst.¡±

    Amber tightly pressed her lips together when Bianca changed from ¡°we¡¯re¡± to ¡°they¡¯re¡±. Did that mean Bianca had a different purpose being here? Come to think of it, wasn¡¯t it also suspicious that all of these happened on the night Bianca first attended this event? ¡°So, you¡¯re fine with them killing you too?¡± she said, her voice rising.

    ¡°No? But I¡¯m not innocent. I wouldn¡¯t hold it against them if they try to kill me. I don¡¯t know what your goal is here, but I can say that you¡¯re not exactly innocent either. I don¡¯t think anyone is innocent here anyway.¡±

    Once again, Amber was helpless and useless.

    She sighed in defeat.

    She couldn¡¯t save the people killed for sport in the arena. And she couldn¡¯t save any of the normal people here. For sure, even among the customers, many of them weren¡¯t Adumbrae. Was it right to kill them immediately without even checking whether the Adumbrae had taken root inside them?

    What about the waiters and waitresses? The bartender? She wouldn¡¯t exactly count the employees as complicit in the killings happening here. At most they could face jail time. Not die here like butchered cows in a slaughterhouse.

    ¡°What¡¯s that look on your face?¡± Bianca sneered. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you infiltrated this place to save people? Because that¡¯s dumb. You can¡¯t save anyone here.¡±

    Bianca¡¯s words stung her heart, but Amber didn¡¯t have anything to retort.

    [Go left. Bring Bianca.]

    Her eyes darted around looking for immediate danger. There was none. Most of the people on their side of the cavern also made for the exits like they probably should too, herded along by employees and a handful of guards that didn¡¯t join in the fighting. The BID agents were still busy cleaning up the other half of the cavern.

    Leandro ordered his shadow creatures to attack BID agents. Many of them scrambled out of the pit, charging at the agents before they could all be shot down. Did he already kill Madam Blanchette or just gave up on trying to kill her?

    ¡°Bianca, I think we should go now,¡± Amber said. She turned around looking for the path the Guardian Angel was talking about. There was an exit straight up, a little bit to their right, and another one even further to the right. Why go left?

    ¡°What¡¯s the rush? The way out is still packed.¡±

    ¡°When the BID agents cross the pit and go to our side, it might be too late to run away.¡±

    Bianca exhaled in exasperation. ¡°One time I was sent to shoot an episode of my show in this godforsaken impoverished country and the plane had no first-class seats, so I had to sit with the rest of the rabble I usually avoid. It¡¯s so annoying when the plane has just landed and everyone is standing up, flocking to the exit, even though they are advised to sit down.¡± She folded her arms and frowned. ¡°I¡¯m not sure where I was going with this¡­but the short answer is no. I don¡¯t want to cram in a pack of people like a can of sardines.

    [Grab Bianca¡¯s arm.]

    What? Amber blinked at that instruction. She didn¡¯t think Xazary would like it very much if she grabbed Bianca, but she did anyway. ¡°We have to go,¡± she said more forcefully.

    Xazary stepped forward, about to raise her hand, but she stopped with a small shake of Bianca¡¯s head. Bianca looked down at Amber¡¯s hand holding her arm and smiled. ¡°Sure, friend. If you really want to go now.¡±

    ¡°This way.¡± Amber veered left. The way Bianca said ¡®friend¡¯, sent chills down her spine. She didn¡¯t know why the Guardian Angel wanted her to take Bianca with her, but having Xazary along was reassuring.

    The BID agents couldn¡¯t have come here on their own. The two with ComExos weren¡¯t run-of-the-mill agents. She hadn¡¯t seen anything like them before on TV. This could only mean this was a major operation, and the Bureau wouldn¡¯t have sent them here without any backup.

    Amber assumed the rest of the BID forces were above, along with dozens of police officers. They simply couldn¡¯t follow down because the elevator collapsed. The chances were high, however, that they''d meet some of them as they made their escape. Seeing that Bianca wanted Amber to owe her a favor, she''d hopefully order Xazary to protect both of them.

    ¡°There¡¯s an exit there,¡± Bianca said, pointing to the top right, but Amber continued walking in a different direction.

    ¡°Trust me, it¡¯s this way.¡±

    ¡°Sure, if you say so. But are you just going to leave your newfound friend?¡±

    ¡°Newfound friend? You mean¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Madame Blanchette? Is that even her name? I know you don¡¯t actually know her.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I don¡¯t know her personally,¡± Amber said, deciding there was no more need to lie. She looked over at the pit, remembering that the mysterious woman did save Erind. Twice in fact, if she counted the attack at the docks, if that was actually Madame Blanchette. She also destroyed the operations of the 2Ms there.

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing she¡¯s with the BID since she¡¯s the one that started the attack?¡±

    ¡°No, I doubt she¡¯s with the Bureau.¡± Amber slowed down even if the Guardian Angel kept on telling her where to go. She paused to think whether she should leave Madame Blanchette or try to help her escape too.

    ¡°Hmm? I expect to have an explanation after we get out of here.¡±

    An eerie howl made them stop. A clawed hand, large enough to envelop Amber¡¯s body in its grip, emerged from the side of the arena and grabbed onto the ledge. It pulled up the body of a terrifying wolf-like beast, golden eyes pierced through the reddish smoke, jaws that could swallow a human whole, a heavily muscled torso covered in impenetrable wild fur.

    Madame Blanchette was even larger than the last time Amber had seen her. This confirmed it. She was indeed the monster Oberon saw at the docks.

    Several creatures grabbed on to Madam Blanchette as she struggled to climb out of the pit. Besides the smoky creatures of varying sizes and forms summoned by Leandro that kept on trying to injure her, biting, slashing, and scratching in futility, there were also two mutants. One looked similar to the gun-wielding mutant; just as large but with a double-bladed axe attached to the end of an arm. The other was a great serpent with a human face and dozens of tiny human arms along the length of its body that reminded Amber of a centipede. It coiled around Madam Blanchette¡¯s left arm and up her neck trying to choke her.

    The giant werewolf howled in annoyance, gripped the body of the snake mutant, and pulled hard. The human head of the snake shrieked in pain and loosened its grip or else its body would be ripped apart by the force. Madam Blanchette threw the snake across the cavern.

    It flew above Amber, Bianca, and Xazary, the latter protecting Bianca as the shadow of the snake covered them momentarily. The snake crashed into the group of people at the exit Bianca wanted to go to. The people there were thrown everywhere like bowling pins after a strike. After shaking its head, the mutant snake started to attack those around it.

    ¡°What the¡­?¡± Bianca stared at Amber. ¡°How¡­how did you know that''s going to happen?¡±

    ¡°Just trust me.¡±

    ¡°Your power?¡±

    Amber tersely nodded and beckoned Bianca and Xazary to continue their path. Under the guidance of the Guardian Angel, they entered an easily missed narrow corridor. At the end of it was the top of the short staircase that led down to a steel door at the bottom. Heavy chains and a massive padlock secured the door.

    ¡°Is this our path, oh great seer?¡± Bianca said with an amused voice.

    ¡°It is. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s behind it, but I can assure you that¡¯s our way out.¡±

    ¡°I know it¡¯s not apparent on my beautiful face,¡± Bianca replied, ¡°but I¡¯m a good judge of character and my instincts tell me I should trust you.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­uh¡­good then,¡± Amber said, preoccupied with something in her mind.

    ¡°Xazary can open that.¡±

    As Xazary broke apart the chains and forced the door open, Amber thought about Madame Blanchette. Based on what Oberon told them, the wolf monster rampaged through the docks without rhyme or reason. And Madame Blanchette appeared to be on a rampage like what happened at the docks. She didn¡¯t seem to be in control of herself. If Amber was going to make her best guess, she would say that Madame Blanchette planned to berserk here once again to destroy this cavern.

    They were on the same side if that was the case.

    She¡¯s a powerful ally to have in our fight against the 2Ms, even if I don¡¯t know much about her.

    And, again, she did save Erind from getting killed at the mall.

    Madame Blanchette probably didn¡¯t know that the BID was going to attack tonight. Assuming she managed to kill the BID agents¡ªand Amber also didn¡¯t want that to happen¡ªall of the forces above ground would make sure she''d end up dead. There was no way she was walking out of this alive. That was if she stayed and fought.

    ¡°Come on,¡± Bianca said, going through the door. Xazary held up her hand which glowed bright gold to illuminate the dim corridor.

    ¡°Go on ahead.¡±

    ¡°Huh? You¡¯re not coming with us? If you¡¯re sending us into a trap¡ª¡±

    ¡°No. I swear that¡¯s the correct path to escape. But I have something else to do first.¡±

    ¡°Is it something stupid?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re going to try to save Madame Blanchette, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    Despite the protests of her Guardian Angel, Amber replied, ¡°Yes.¡±

 2.22

    What big ears I have¡­

    Towered over everything. Everything small below. So small. But big ears could hear everything. Voices talking. Machines. Gears grinding. Explosions. Gunfire. Even scratching of pebble against another.

    Could hear. Everything.

    But did not care for any sound. Sound all noise.

    Very noisy¡­but everything muffled. Could hear all¡­annoying¡­but all sound distant. Those that made noise¡­some were near. Some on me. Many of them far. Screaming from afar. Dying? Screaming. So many¡­many¡­making noise.

    Noisy but couldn¡¯t hear. Chose not to hear.

    Insignificant sounds.

    What big eyes I have¡­

    Could see everything with big eyes. Very easy. A strand of hair. Insect scurrying inside crack on wall. Drop of blood drying. Speck of dust. All bright as day. Big eyes make everything clear. Nothing could hide from my sight.

    Saw creatures¡­many creatures. Creatures on me. Creatures around me. Inconsequential. Puny. Every one of them. I could see. Every movement. Doing¡­something. What were creatures doing? Attacking me? Weak creatures. Attack. Me.

    I did not understand. Could not feel them.

    At all.

    What big teeth I have¡­

    Rip¡­with my big teeth. Big teeth tear¡­chew anything. Long and sharp teeth. Could eat everything with big teeth. Any that attack me¡­to be eaten. Eat those that bothered me. They food. Have to be eaten. Food? Where food?

    Creatures attacking me. On me. Around me. Trying to hurt me. Trying. Failing. Were they food?

    No. Not food.

    Could not harm. Me. This was nothing. I could not feel them. What they doing? They not see they weak?

    No pain¡­not food. Not bother me. Did not crave them.

    Not hungry for them.

    I had eaten many. Many preys. Those that bothered me¡­I ate. I grew big. Big and strong. With what I ate. No other prey worth eating now. All weak now. Boring. Nothing bothering me.

    Something dangerous¡­

    A black mound.

    Big mound¡­dark¡­moving shadows. Writhing creatures gathering. Shadow creatures on me ran away. Gathered bodies. Then ran to mound. Joined black mound. With bodies they brought. Tentacles wandered all over the cavern. Absorbing bodies. Take heads, not whole body.

    Black mound¡­it wanted heads? Eating and growing as I did.

    Might be dangerous. Might be good to eat.

    Black mound growing fast. Ate to grow. Growing as large as me. Grow to call something.

    Something coming.

    Inside darkness.

    But black mound didn¡¯t bother me. Tentacles kept away from me. Did not touch me. Only took heads around me. Brains? Wanted brains? Not interested in me.

    Me not interested in it then.

    Simple.

    Two creatures attack black mound. Two¡­small¡­trying to stop mound growing. They not bother me.

    No one bothered me.

    I want to sleep¡­

    KABOOM! BOOM!

    A massive force hit me on the chest,

    ¡°GrrrROOOAaarr!¡± I bellowed with fury, sending shockwaves outward. Ripples of air pushed away from the smoke and fire, stirring up dust clouds. An attack! Someone dared to bother me. As the intense heat spread all over my upper body, blue flames singeing my fur, my senses sharpened like I was waking up from hibernation.

    Tuned to fight. To kill. To eat.

    The world slowed to a crawl as my concentration heightened. I could feel the minuscule stones and individual cracks on the concrete under my feet as I took a step back to steady myself after taking the brunt of the massive explosion. My feet sunk a few inches into the ground, the earth breaking under my tons of weight.

    The rancid smoke in the air fought with the stench of blood and death. But what enraged me was the smell of burnt hair and flesh. My own hair and flesh! I quickly regenerated my injury, flesh mending itself, skin blanketing the muscles, fur bursting forth from my skin. Good as new.

    Who attacked me? I roared.

    Those two creatures! The ones attacking the black mound.

    I focused for a second on the mound of squirming dark sludge. Unstoppable in its growth, the mound already covered an entire side of the cavern. Parts of it branched out into the ceiling, hanging on to the stalactites with its numerous appendages.

    Dangerous was what it was. Instincts told me as much.

    But it didn¡¯t bother me so I wouldn¡¯t bother it.

    Those two creatures, on the other hand¡­They were evading the thrashing tentacles that were as thick as tree trunks, endlessly sprouting out of the black mound.

    One creature had the appearance of a human, but he didn¡¯t smell like one. What was a human supposed to even smell like? I suppose I¡¯ll consider him a fake human. He was dressed in plain coat and tie attire; but his clothes were torn, revealing a skintight black bodysuit underneath. The other was a humanoid creature with bizarre proportions encased entirely in metal. It had cannons pointing at me. It was the one that attacked!

    I snarled at them.

    ¡°Brody, conserve the rest of the plasma disruptor charges for the Cocoon, it doesn¡¯t seem effective on the Titan,¡± the human said. ¡°Our priority is the Cocoon. That one may be a Titan, but it¡¯s not a Manifested.¡± Even though they were far from me, I could hear them talking.

    ¡°Copy, Sir. But we cannot simply leave it alone,¡± said a deep voice with robotic tones. ¡°According to scans, it is not an Aggregate. The Cocoon might try to absorb it for the Bridging.¡± The metal man¡¯s head was fully covered by a boxy helmet, but I assumed it was him replying to the fake human.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, we¡¯ll have to keep them away from each other. I¡¯ll do my best to hold the Titan. Focus all your firepower on making sure the Cocoon doesn¡¯t grow more.¡±

    ¡°I have destroyed all the brains it has not absorbed in this area.¡±

    Their conversation¡­the words, their identities, a gut feeling pestered me that I should be concerned. But why? I didn¡¯t understand. I had no reason to care. Right?

    I simply wanted the metal man.

    Eat the metal man, then go to sleep.

    Whatever the metal man hit me with, it didn¡¯t only cause an explosion and burned me. It also sent a massive jolt throughout my body, a thousand swords poking me all over. The muscles on my chest twitched uncontrollably. A burning sensation crept under my skin, like the flesh underneath was on fire.

    I flexed my entire body and howled. An inexplicable force erupted deep within me and drove out the paralyzing charge. Then I stomped over to the two creatures, each step making the earth tremble. Tables and chairs crumpled like brittle twigs. I also squashed a few of the shadow forms that weren¡¯t lucky enough to get out of my path.

    ¡°Destroy the tendrils branching out of this cavern," the human said. "Especially that big one that followed Lexis into that tunnel.¡±

    ¡°It is looking for more heads. In her haste, Lexis might have left plenty of brains intact.¡±

    ¡°Dammit. She didn¡¯t know one of these abominations turned into a Cocoon. Make sure none of those tendrils reach her.¡±

    The heavy tentacles of the black mound crept away from me as I passed, but not fast enough. I tore through them. Dark, thick juice spurted out of the severed tentacles. Revolting flesh, not food. Not food at all.

    ¡°It¡¯s cutting some of the tendrils. Lucky us. Let¡¯s do this, Brody. The residents of the city above depend on us.

    ¡°And it is only the two of us here.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going now. Good luck to us both.¡±

    Whips of crackling light coiled around the fake human. He ran across the cavern, over the rocks, black tentacles, straight for me. I stomped on him. But he suddenly disappeared.

    WHAM! A powerful force hit the side of my head. My dense fur, thick muscles, and heavy skull absorbed the blow. I barely caught a glimpse of the fake human when he zipped out of sight. WHAM!! Another blow to my neck. I roared and tried to catch him.

    The bastard was a flash of light in the dimming cavern. Zooming on the ground, the walls, even on my body. Hitting me and then running away before I could catch him.

    There he was! To my left, on a tall pile of coiled tentacles. I slashed down at him. But before my claws could reach the ground, he dashed away. I ended up chopping the tentacles he had stood on.

    He repeated it a few times, luring me into the tentacles that were exiting the cavern. I knew what he was doing. But I was biding my time so that he''d get used to my movement. One wouldn¡¯t expect speed from something as large as me.

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    But I knew. I knew how fast I could get.

    Another blow to my flank, and the man once again ran, leading me to another location. I followed him and roared as I slashed at him. Expectedly, he jumped out of the way. But I held back the downward motion of my claws, twisting them to the side with blinding speed into his escape route. My claws connected. The fake human was flung away. He expertly rolled as he hit the ground, quickly stood up, and ran to put some distance between us.

    I held up a claw. Skewered on it was the fake human''s arm. I put it inside my mouth, chewed, and spat it out in disgust. There was barely any flesh! I wasn¡¯t even sure if the soft, chewy parts I ate were flesh. The arm was mostly metal. Metal wouldn¡¯t give me nourishment. Eating the arm didn¡¯t satiate me at all.

    This prey was a waste of time!

    I¡¯ll just destroy him.

    I charged on all fours at the inedible man, bounding over giant snake-like fleshy growths in my path that weren¡¯t there before. He didn¡¯t try to hit me anymore but decided to flee, going up the tiered levels of the cave. The energy inside me¡­I could feel it. It flowed into my muscles, waiting to be released.

    Now!

    My coiled muscles sprung with energy, giving me an incredible burst of speed. I leaped at him, jaws wide open, biting down where he stood.

    Earth, concrete, those black fleshy things¡ªeverything, including a leg made of inedible garbage¡ªall got crunched by my fangs. I spotted the man¡¯s body flailing in the air, a surprised expression on his face, narrowly avoiding being swallowed whole. I slapped him away with my backhand.

    His body collided with the wall of the cavern, breaking apart large pieces of it, and then fell to the ground. Slabs of rocks dropped on him.

    ¡°Stop that! Stop what you¡¯re doing!¡± a small voice struggled to be heard. A puny creature was calling to me.

    Who is this? A morsel of thought prompted that I should be able to recognize this voice, but it was quickly gobbled up by the raging instinct to kill. The human mishmash of metal and flesh extracted himself from the pile of rocks. Only his right arm and left feet remained of his limbs, yet he was able to stand up, balancing perfectly on one leg. He looked up defiantly at me, then at the tentacles inching towards him, climbing over the rocks.

    A clump of blasts slapped my face, knocking my head back. A minor annoyance. I huffed out a gust of air and shook my snout to clear away the smoke.

    That other creature of metal.

    He couldn¡¯t wait his turn and was bothering me again.

    The metal man danced on the black mound, cutting off tentacles with blades of concentrated plasma extending from his arms, displaying impressive speed and agility despite his bulk and size. Ignoring his efforts, the mound was growing ever larger. Missile launchers extended from the metal man¡¯s back, but he wasn¡¯t using them to shoot at the mound. Instead, they were trained on me.

    Another round of missiles came. I lazily held up my hand. The missiles detonated on my palm, barely scratching me. The metal man had probably expended his more powerful weapons on the black mound and only had failures to show for it.

    ¡°Brody, focus on the Cocoon godammit! Delay the Bridging,¡± my injured prey called to the metal man. ¡°I can take care of myself here.¡±

    Take care of yourself? This was going to be your end, you inedible thing.

    ¡°Madame Blanchette! Please!¡± An urgent pitter-patter of tiny feet on something soft, the creature telling me to stop running closer. ¡°Don¡¯t kill him!¡± the tiny creature cried out. ¡°Get away from here!¡±

    My ears turned in the direction of the sound. The pleas made me halt for a breath, my hand already raised high in the air, claws stretched out, ready to deliver the final blow on this unpalatable garbage that dared attack me. I made a throaty growl as I considered what to do.

    What was the smaller creature saying? I should know her. Her?

    A woman. This woman¡­someone I should know...important I should listen to her...why? As I turned my head to look at her, I saw in the corner of my eye the inedible man take his chance to escape. I roared and brought down my hand backed by the tremendous weight of my body to squish him.

    ¡°No!¡±

    My entire body seized up. Myriad thoughts rushed into my mind. Images. Memories. Flooded¡­FLOODED INTO MY MIND! My head hurts!

    [This will happen if I do that. That will happen if I do this. This. That. Many things happening. The injured human will do this. Will do that. A female human in white. She will do this and that and that. The metal man. A woman with a ponytail. All of their actions. The consequences of their actions. The black mound trying to devour us. The metal man and his companion. They will do something. Violent shaking. I fight. I continue to fight. Rocks falling. Rock will drop there. Drop here. Explosion. Collapse. Fire will consume the cave. Future. Possibilities. Everything was rewinding. Replaying. Different scenarios. What will happen if I do this? This and that will happen. Everything ends in an explosion. If I fight. All possibilities end in an explosion. Burned by fire. If I fight. If I stay. Buried under the earth. Everything is a dead end. NO! Not all. Human body. Escape explosion. All exits will close. Cave collapse. Fire fills the cave. Explosion destroys everyone in the cave. Escape before that. Need to escape. Back to human. Human! The form I can see it. It is me.]

    I am human.

    I am Erind!

    As I came to, I was on my knees. I had my tongue out, panting like a dog. Saliva dripping down from my tongue formed a pool on the ground. I was seeing double, it was difficult to concentrate. My mind still reeling. What happened?

    I am Erind, that was the important thing.

    A hint of movement to my right. A woman in a white dress, but the dress was not so white anymore. She was curled up in a fetal position. She hugged herself, trying to stop her seizures. Small vines grew out of the black fleshy floor and crept up on her body.

    Deen! I reached out and realized I was still a giant monster. A single finger was as big as her body. I might injure her and make her situation worse if I touched her. But I needed to get her away from those black things. A figure dropped down beside her. A woman in a suit with a black mask, her hair in a ponytail. It was Xazary.

    She picked Deen up while observing me warily if I was going to attack. I noticed she injected Deen with something using a needle sticking out of her finger. Deen stopped trembling after that. Xazary mouthed, ¡°Go. Now,¡± before leaping from one tentacle to another, blasting smaller ones out of the way as she made her escape with Deen¡¯s unconscious body over her shoulder.

    ¡°We have failed the residents of this city,¡± a voice announced.

    The inedible human! The metal man saved him while I was incapacitated. They retreated to a small ledge high on the cavern wall. Tentacles were trying to reach up to them, fended off by the metal hulk, shooting at them or chopping them off.

    I didn¡¯t notice¡ªor didn¡¯t care to notice, to be more accurate¡ªjust how big the black mound had gotten. No longer just a mound, it was a humongous blanket of black slimy flesh laced with throbbing veins covering the entire cavern. The mound, the source of it all, was pulsating as if a beating heart. Dozens of heads surfaced and submerged across the gelatinous membrane covering it.

    ¡°Lexis is not coming,¡± the metal man said in between shooting. ¡°Something untoward might have happened to her. Or the way to the surface is exceedingly far.¡±

    ¡°Yes, we are alone. How¡¯re the readings?¡±

    ¡°The Cocoon will finish Bridging soon.¡±

    ¡°A narrow Bridge? We managed to prevent our Titan friend from getting absorbed.¡±

    ¡°A narrow Bridge.¡±

    Did they mean me? I stood on my hind legs, looking up at them. I could get to them if I wanted to, but the shock from Deen cleared my mind. I didn¡¯t need to fight them. I had more pressing concerns if the visions I had were accurate.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a victory,¡± the inedible man missing two of his limbs said. ¡°We can manage a narrow Bridge. There is only one thing we can do in this situation.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. Our last duty to this country.¡±

    ¡°Prepare to overload your Greaves Reactor at the exact moment the Cocoon opens and connects the Bridge to our world. Both our reactors should be sufficient to collapse the Bridge before the Manifestation.¡±

    ¡°With this narrow a Bridge, my calculations show that, yes, we will succeed. I am going to begin charging.¡± the larger metal man stopped shooting and switched to punching away the tentacles still trying to grab them.

    The inedible human looked down on me. I bared my fangs at them. ¡°Relax, dear Titan,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll take you with me to the afterlife.¡±

    Over the groans and other disgusting sounds the black mound was emitting, I could hear a faint mechanical whirring that was slowly getting louder. It came from inside both of the people on the ledge. I didn¡¯t fully understand what they were talking about, but I certainly didn¡¯t want to die here with them. These fuckers were the cause of the explosion in my vision that ended the vast majority of the future possibilities!

    The black mound, which they called a Cocoon, grumbled as if a giant was speaking gibberish. The cavern once again shook, more violent than ever before, black tendrils burrowing deep into bedrock. The remaining red emergency lights that weren¡¯t covered by the encroaching flesh flickered were turned off, and a veil of darkness covered us. Only the lights coming from the sparks on the pistons on the metal man¡¯s armor were the source of light.

    But it wasn¡¯t a problem for me, for my monster eyes could see extremely well in the dark.

    This was it.

    Time to bail. I jumped down into the arena and landed on a bed of flesh.

    The only way out that could accommodate my size was the door used by Mr. Ogre.

    Oh, Mr. Ogre how I miss you so much.

    This night started so simply, now what the fuck was going on? Even though the black stuff covered everything, I remembered the location of the large steel doors. I dug through the patchwork of tentacles, hacking them away with my claws like pruning aggressive weeds. Subduing my disgust, I resorted to using my teeth to rip away the veins and flesh hiding the door.

    A glint of metal.

    Finally! I swept away the black flesh to reveal the exit.

    A terrible realization came to me. I was still too big to fit through the door. How the fuck do I get small?

    Turn back to human! I screamed inside my head.

    I tried to force myself into the hole, but it was too tight. Still, I didn¡¯t give up. I pushed forward, dragging my body inside with my hands and elbows, forcefully expanding the size of the tunnel. Large patches of fur and pieces of flesh were ripped away from my chest and back as I persisted in crawling further in. I didn¡¯t care if parts of my body were torn off by my furious tunneling.

    The inedible human and the metal man were happily chatting on the ledge, a couple of idiots. I could faintly hear their voices.

    ¡°Decades fighting Adumbrae. It¡¯s a pleasure serving with you, Brody.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s an honor fighting by your side, sir.¡±

    And that was the last I heard of them as the opening of the tunnel collapsed behind me due to my digging and the fierce earthquakes caused by the Cocoon.

    I dug faster. Faster! I didn¡¯t know if I could survive the Greaves Reactor explosion they planned to do. And if I did, I doubted if I could survive getting buried here even in my monster form.

    Fuck I don¡¯t want to die like this.

    At least let me die in my own body.

    I positioned my claws beneath my jaws, my other hand continued carving a path, my legs pushing me forward. How do I change back? Remove the mask? My claws pierced my flesh and met my lower jaw bone. I tried pulling and then roared in pain. I only succeeded in removing flesh from the lower half of my face.

    Where the fuck was the mask? How do I turn the face back into a mask? How in fucking hell was I going to remove it?!

    My head burst into a large room full of machines and equipment. Three tunnels branched out of it, and these were narrower than the one I passed through. It might be my imagination but I think I was getting smaller. But I still couldn¡¯t fit in these tunnels. No choice but to force myself in again.

    Become smaller and smaller, I chanted in my head.

    I picked a tunnel and dove into it, ignoring the pain as my body was squished and bones were broken. I concentrated on digging even though the earth was shaking non-stop.

    Dig. Dig. Dig.

    Was I even following the tunnel or was I digging a new one?

    Dig. Dig. Dig.

    I didn¡¯t even know whether I was the going right way up. Where the fuck was up?

    Panic gripped my heart.

    What if I¡¯m digging downwards?

    But good news, I was indeed becoming smaller! I found it easier to navigate the tunnels.

    Then it was as if the entire world was turned upside down. A mighty wave washed over me. Rocks fell, threatening to bury me alive.

    Was that the reactor? I gritted my teeth and steadied myself as the earth churned like I was in a concrete mixer. I didn''t know how long the explosions continued. I just stayed still and prayed it would be over soon.

    When it calmed down, I pushed the rocks and noticed my hands and arms were only partially covered with fur.

    Finally!

    The tunnel began to grow hot. Flames squeezed in between the rocks and licked my body.

    Wait! This wasn¡¯t a good time to turn back into a human!

    Dig for your life, you bitch! I screamed at myself.

    And I did.

    I dug and I dug even as I was getting roasted alive.

 2.23 - Everett (Emcee)

    Everett (Emcee)

    Emcee eyed the collection of bullet holes on the windshield. Next, he checked the rearview mirror and the side mirrors. There was no one following them. For now. He still decided to play it safe and crouched low as he drove, his chin almost touching the steering wheel. One lucky shot blowing his brains out and that''d be the end of his regeneration.

    And the end of him.

    He allowed himself to take a deep breath to celebrate their momentary respite. Only then did he realize how hard he was holding onto the steering wheel. Loosening his grip on the wheel, his fingers ran across the deep indentations he''d made on it.

    Where did they end up? Stonehill Street, a sign informed him. This was the first time he and Oberon visited this part of the city. In the course of their escape that was nothing short of miraculous, they somehow found themselves here.

    Middle-class homes, neatly kept front yards, cars in much better condition than their own half-dead second-hand vehicle were parked along the streets or up the driveways, all the streetlights working. A simple residential street. Not one soul walking outside, which wasn¡¯t surprising because it was already late at night. That, and the fact the city had sent out a mass advisory for people to stay indoors. Some of the houses still had their lights turned on. An occasional shadow by the window told Emcee the people living here were curious about them.

    Admittedly, they looked plenty suspicious.

    The black ski face masks they wore made them appear even more suspicious like they were going to rob a house.

    ¡°Emcee. I¡¯ve been shot. Hey, Emcee brother, bro Emcee,¡± Oberon whined from the backseat. Or where the backseat would''ve been if they didn¡¯t remove it to make space for Oberon¡¯s ¡®summoning station¡¯. ¡°Emcee¡­Everett!¡± Oberon called out.

    ¡°Yes, I heard you the first time,¡± Emcee replied through gritted teeth. ¡°And call me Emcee while we¡¯re on a mission.¡±

    ¡°Mission? This mission¡¯s way fucked up by now. By the way, have I mentioned I got shot?¡±

    ¡°You have, several times already.¡±

    Oberon stuck his head out between the front seats. ¡°Yeah, since we¡¯re having a breather, I¡¯d just like to repeat that I¡¯ve been shot.¡±

    ¡°Sorr¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been shot while summoning!¡± He threw his hands up, yelling in Emcee¡¯s ear. ¡°You¡¯re supposed to guard me. Don¡¯t let me get fucking hurt while my mind is in fucking la-la-land.¡±

    ¡°I already said sorry.¡±

    ¡°Know what it feels like? It¡¯s like I¡¯m blindfolded and waiting for a firing squad to execute me.¡±

    ¡°If it¡¯s going to make you feel any better, I got shot too,¡± Emcee said, gesturing to his own dry blood caking his clothes and seat. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry, okay? And you''ve already healed up, right?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not the point. You know that I promised myself when I got my powers that I¡¯m going to die conscious, so I can at least say ¡®fuck you¡¯ to the world one last time.¡±

    ¡°Yep, got it. Anyway, I didn¡¯t expect the cops to immediately resort to shooting us.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s up with them? No word from Johann about what the hell¡¯s going on?¡±

    Emcee checked his phone resting on the dashboard. A few unread messages, all text alerts. Stay indoors. Don¡¯t panic. Report suspicious activities. The kinds of messages they received every few months or so when the city was testing the system. Only now, it was no longer a drill. ¡°Latest is still Johann¡¯s message that his friend at work told him there was an emergency deployment of cops,¡± he said to Oberon. ¡°Even if he tried to contact us after that text, there¡¯s still no signal.¡±

    ¡°Tsk, even this far away from the club?¡±

    Emcee nodded. ¡°I thought they were blacking out only that area but it¡¯s likely citywide.¡±

    ¡°This has gotta be a BID operation. Why else would the cops be so happy to turn our car into swiss cheese instead of trying to apprehend us like in those high-speed car chase videos? Ah, I forgot the name of that show. Used to watch it with my pops.¡±

    ¡°If the BID classifies an area at a certain danger level,¡± Emcee said, hastily steering back the topic before Oberon went on reminiscing about his parents, ¡°cops are allowed to lethal force in capturing suspected Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Right, right, I remember that.¡± Oberon squeezed himself between the front seats and sat shotgun. ¡°Didn¡¯t help that after they showered our car with lead, we still sped away like everything was fine. Now, they''re sure something¡¯s up with us.¡±

    Emcee looked down at his torn and bloody shirt and shrugged. ¡°Where do we go now?¡±

    ¡°Just park here?¡± Oberon rolled down what remained of the bullet-ridden window on his side and stuck his head out to examine their surroundings. ¡°Seems pretty quiet. Wait it out?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea. Our car looks like we¡¯ve been through a warzone.¡±

    Oberon sat back, arms behind his head, and placed his feet on the dashboard. ¡°Just continue driving? Move to another state. Start a new life and forget about all of this.¡±

    Emcee didn¡¯t know if he was joking or not. ¡°Our priority is safety, next is we need to regroup with the others.¡±

    ¡°What became of them? You think Deen and Erind are still alive?¡±

    ¡°If only you didn¡¯t break your summon¡ª¡±

    ¡°Emcee,¡± Oberon said evenly, ¡°my concentration broke when I got shot. I may bitch about it a lot, but I didn¡¯t intentionally cancel it after getting shot.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Emcee mumbled, embarrassed. ¡°We could only hope they got away with Deen¡¯s power.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s going to be a be huge ass problem if they get caught.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why we need to regroup and plan what to do next. Especially if we find out they were arrested.¡±

    ¡°Blank, Barb, and Johann posted themselves further away from the club compared to us since I needed to be close to maintain my connection.¡±

    ¡°I think they¡¯re fine. Johann could easily get away. Blank too, especially with his power. Barb¡­I hope she didn¡¯t do anything reckless.¡±

    ¡°If we got away, then they should have too.¡±

    ¡°Maybe. So¡­again, where to? Our hideout¡¯s too far away and we¡¯d easily get spotted on our way there.¡±

    ¡°Out of the city?¡± Oberon said. ¡°We can also ditch the car and hide.¡±

    ¡°Continuing on foot is a good idea. But not here. I¡¯m going to drive somewhere with fewer people to destroy this car.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why?¡± Oberon asked. But he then shushed Emcee before the latter could open his mouth to answer. ¡°Hear that?¡± Oberon checked the side mirror. Seeing nothing, he looked over the back of his sit. ¡°I hear sirens.¡±

    He was right. Sirens could be heard from afar, but the sounds stood out clearly in the eerie silence of this peaceful, quiet night. The residents of this neighborhood must have reported them. Or were there street cameras around here that tracked them? More and more sirens. Where do we go now?

    ¡°Fuck!¡± Oberon said, still looking behind them.

    Car tires screeched as several vehicles rounded an intersection corner about four or five blocks behind them. Red and blue lights reflected in the rearview mirror as a new set of sirens turned on. This group of cops got close behind them first before turning on their lights and sirens. That other set of sirens in the distance must be trying to head them off, surround them.

    Going straight was a trap. They have to turn back, past this group of cops.

    Emcee yanked the wheel and made a hard left, praying they didn¡¯t end up at a dead end. Or dead. They hit something which clanked and rolled over the hood of the car. ¡°Trash can,¡± He said in response to Oberon screaming like a little girl. ¡°Chill out.¡± They exited into a different street.

    ¡°Drive! Drive!¡±

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ¡°Oh, let¡¯s just park here,¡± Emcee sarcastically said. ¡°What do you think I¡¯m doing?¡±

    The entire area was laid out in a neat grid-like pattern. Left. Right. Left. Left. Right. He proceeded to weave around the neighborhood, accidentally demolishing trash cans, mailboxes, and clipping parked cars. Houses were turning on their lights.

    ¡°Do you want to wake up everyone here?¡± Oberon asked. ¡°Or do you just have a problem with sidewalks?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s hard to control the car! Something¡¯s broken.¡±

    The police cars were relentless. They may have shaken off a few of them, but more were coming.

    ¡°Aaaah!¡± Emcee yelled as a black car parked a block ahead came to life and charged at them. An unmarked police car! He turned left, onto a property with a spacious lawn to avoid the oncoming black car. BONK, they jumped over the curb. Stepping on the gas, the tires dug up bits of soil gaining traction before tearing across the lawn.

    The people in the unmarked car shot at them as they passed each other, uncaring of the houses nearby.

    ¡°Can you just give us a ticket?¡± Oberon shouted at them.

    They entered a wider street and it looked like the highway straight ahead. ¡°Do we take that?¡± Emcee said. In answer, a couple of police cars appeared and formed a barrier to block the exit. Cops got out of their cars and took positions to fire at them. ¡°Fuck this,¡± he said, turning right before the police could open fire.

    The unmarked car from earlier, this time with police lights on its dashboard, was hot on their tail, leading a herd of white sedans, painting the street red and blue. Emcee floored the pedal. Their car groaned with worrying clunks, burning rubber, before shooting down the block.

    Unfortunately, the police behind had no problem catching up to them. And there were no corners to escape to in sight.

    BAM! The black car rammed them from behind. ¡°Shit,¡± Emcee said as their heads were thrown back in whiplash.

    ¡°Surrender or we will use any force necessary to stop you!¡± a voice on a megaphone blared.

    ¡°Let¡¯s fight them!¡± Oberon said. ¡°You fight them, rather. Because I can¡¯t summon Blubber in this condition,¡± he clarified, referring to the reddish-gold, plump fairy that could rip apart anything like an insane piranha on steroids.

    ¡°What? I¡¯m not going to blow up cops.¡±

    ¡°Move over,¡± Oberon said, grabbing the wheel with one hand, and pulling Emcee away with the other. The car wobbled. Wham! The black car rammed them as they slowed down. ¡°Stop them, Emcee!¡± Oberon steered the car back on the road after throwing Emcee behind.

    Emcee tumbled in the back of the car into the cushions used by Oberon for summoning. They may not be any help stopping bullets, but he still gathered the cushions to shield his body. He peered over the back window just as the black car rammed them once again. ¡°Damn it,¡± he said under his breath. He stabilized his position and focused on the tires of the black car. It was a test of concentration because the distance between them was constantly changing. ¡°Steady the car!¡±

    ¡°Steady the car?¡± Oberon said, almost shrieking with incredulity. ¡°You steady your fucking ass! They¡¯re ramming us!¡±

    Concentrate! Emcee slowly took deep breaths. If he gathered the heat at the wrong spot, he could blow up the black car. Only the tires. He didn¡¯t want to increase the list of innocent people dying because of him. Just a small point of heat, he coaxed himself, on the front left tire. I can do this!

    Boom! SKKkreee! The black car swerved out of control and collided with one of the police cars. Another car, trying to avoid piling on the others, turned left and collided with a tree. But it wasn¡¯t the time for celebration. A couple of cop cars slipped past the wreckage and continued giving chase.

    ¡°Just blow them up!¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not going to kill them,¡± Emcee said with firm conviction. ¡°Shut up there, I¡¯m concentrating.¡±

    ¡°This is no place for your morals! We¡¯re dead if we¡¯re caught!¡±

    Emcee¡¯s attention was on the tires of the cop car near them, but he caught a hint of a glint. The occupants of the car were drawing guns. BLAAM! BLAAM! Hot pain on his leg, a bullet went past the back of the car and the cushions. Emcee didn¡¯t waver his stare on the tire. BAM! ¡°Yes! One left.¡±

    ¡°Leave that to me,¡± said Oberon. ¡°Hold on tight.¡± He braked hard, the car making sounds that had Emcee worrying it was going to fall apart, the tires trying to ignite the pavement.

    A sudden hard left slammed Emcee on the windows, almost throwing him out.

    Screeekk! The remaining police car tried to follow them. But they turned too sharply. Out of control. Skidding across the road¡­straight to a concrete divider out of nowhere!

    ¡°Booya!¡± Oberon said.

    They continued on the curving road, going up and exiting into a different road.

    ¡°The highway?¡± Emcee said.

    ¡°Yeah, we passed some sort of side access road out of that residential area.¡±

    ¡°The signs, this is going to the airport?¡±

    ¡°The airport, the beach, those hotels, and resorts. Wanna hang out there?¡±

    A giant ray of light enveloped the car, almost blinding them. A spotlight! A steady humming above them. Helicopter?

    Emcee made sure the black mask he wore was still secured before poking his head out the open window. Cylindrical objects covered in blinking lights and with propellers attached to their sides dropped from the helicopter. ¡°Police drones,¡± he said, his voice filled with dismay.

    ¡°Where?! Where do I go?!¡± Oberon said. ¡°This car won''t last long.¡±

    ¡°The beach,¡± Emcee said, looking once again at the road signs. ¡°Wait, go down that road.¡±

    Oberon did as he instructed. ¡°The Viewpoint. Are we going sightseeing over the ocean? Or do you know of a hiding spot there? I don¡¯t think the restaurants are a good hiding spot.¡±

    Emcee got back to the front of the car. ¡°Close your eyes.¡± He punched the windshield, shattering it.

    ¡°My face!¡±

    ¡°I told you to close your eyes.¡±

    The car jumped as they went over the hump at the entrance to the Viewpoint. The spotlight was still on them. The police drones were buzzing nearby but having a hard time flying lower because of the trees lining the path.

    Oberon squeezed the steering wheel so hard that he was starting to bend it out of shape. ¡°Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What next?¡±

    ¡°We dive over the cliff.¡±

    ¡°Huh? I guess we can survive that.¡±

    ¡°With the car.¡±

    ¡°Are you out of your mind!¡±

    Emcee stretched his leg and slammed his foot down on the gas, right on top of Oberon¡¯s shoe. He grabbed the wheel and made sure the car went straight. ¡°Get ready when we go underwater. Out of the car. I¡¯m going to blow it up.¡±

    ¡°Get off, you lunatic!¡± Oberon tried to push Emcee away, but even if they both had superhuman strength, Emcee was far stronger than him.

    Past the parking area, over the graveled path to the scenic cliff, up a short flight of stairs. Emcee concentrated his power ahead of them, melting the fence as it came up. Oberon yelled curses straight into his ear all along the way.

    And they were airborne, a hundred feet above the ocean.

    <hr>

    Emcee coughed out water as he surfaced. His lungs hurt so bad. Forcing himself to hold his breath and stay underwater¡­he had no other choice. He deposited an unconscious Oberon face-up on the sandy shore.

    ¡°Hey, Obe. Are you alive?¡± Emcee rasped.

    Oberon¡¯s chest wasn¡¯t moving. Emcee couldn¡¯t feel any air on his cheek after placing his face close to Oberon¡¯s mouth and nose. CPR. That chest thing. He couldn¡¯t recall what those letters stood for.

    I should do that chest thing.

    Control your strength, he thought as he placed the heel of his hand on the center of Oberon¡¯s chest and started pumping. He didn¡¯t exactly know what he was doing; he was only copying what he had seen on TV.

    ¡°Breathe, Reo,¡± Emcee said, calling Oberon by his real name. Was he pressing too much? Or should he put more strength into each pump? He tried to ignore his rapidly beating heart, and the sinking feeling in his stomach that he might lose another friend.

    After a couple of tense minutes, Oberon stirred and gasped for air.

    ¡°Thank, god, the Mother Core, whatever cosmic being is out there.¡± Emcee helped him sit up. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to do that mouth-to-mouth thing, but I was about to do it.¡±

    Oberon weakly pushed away Emcee. ¡°Fuck you, man. No one wants to lock lips with you,¡± he said in between coughs.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re alive too,¡± Emcee said. He laid down on the sand and stared at the stars¡­thinking.

    Destroy the car and escape at the same time. All things considered, they were insanely lucky to pull it off.

    Emcee was resolved to destroy the car instead of just ditching it. A strand of hair, flakes of dried skin, some abnormal energy readings, he wasn¡¯t sure of the technological capabilities of the Bureau but if they got the car, he was certain they¡¯ll find something inhuman there. And if they could do that, they could also trace the car to them.

    As for diving into the ocean, in addition to losing parts of the car in the strong waves, Emcee surmised it may be the only chance to get away from the helicopter and the police drones. He then relied on the force from the explosion of the car to propel them away from where the police were searching.

    They continued swimming underwater for several minutes. Even if they weren¡¯t expert swimmers, they had superhuman bodies that allowed them to swim fast and far through the power of each stroke of their arms and kick of their feet.

    Surviving underwater for more than a few minutes was a different matter; they had no training holding their breath. But Emcee knew humans could survive underwater for several minutes, it was just a matter of being able to hold their breath. Through sheer willpower, they had stayed underwater while swimming with all their might, gambling that their regeneration would be sufficient to deal with the damage suffocation brought long enough for them to gain sufficient distance.

    But they still made sure not to pass out. Their brain shutting down from lack of oxygen equaled the end of their regeneration.

    As luck would have it, when Oberon released his breath and passed out, they had almost reached the shore.

    Emcee started to chuckle in relief. Oberon joined him. The chuckle evolved to uncontrollable laughter.

    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s enough,¡± Emcee finally said, wiping tears from his eyes.

    Oberon got up. ¡°Let¡¯s head back¡ªis that an explosion?¡±

    Emcee quickly sat up just as a wave of wind passed over them, covering them with sand. ¡°What''s going on?¡± He said, dusting off the layer of sand coating him

    ¡°I think the right question is what the fuck is that.¡± Oberon raised his arm to point at something in the direction of the city.

    Emcee turned around, followed Oberon¡¯s finger, and saw a thin pillar of blue light, rising from somewhere in the middle of the city, piercing the sky, eventually fading away into the darkness of the night after a few seconds.

 2.24

    I groaned as I gradually regained consciousness. Buzzing pain drilled into the sides of my head. My eyes felt like they were getting pressed into my skull. Take the headache of staying up all night studying and then taking three final exams in a row, multiply that pain by five, or maybe even ten times. It was so bad I just wanted to chop my head off.

    First thought: How long was I unconscious?

    Second thought: Lucky no one tried to kill me while I was out.

    Flickering yellow light from an old bulb above greeted me as I tried to open my eyes. ¡°Shit, that¡¯s bright,¡± I said, my parched throat making my voice sound like I had sandpaper for vocal cords. I immediately closed my eyes again; the lights weren¡¯t blindingly bright, but they made my head and eyes hurt.

    Waiting for my eyes to rest, I tried to feel around to have a clue where I was but my body was too numb and weak to move and would barely follow my thoughts. It reminded me of the time I stupidly forced myself to do a heavy leg workout day after millennia of not going to the gym and I couldn¡¯t feel my legs the next day, only this time, it was my entire body that was sore and out of commission.

    Healing power, yoo-hoo, where are you?

    I was partially lying down, my arms and legs splayed out on a smooth but hard surface, most likely a dirty tiled floor based on what I could touch with a feeble movement of my fingers. My head was slumped against the wall, bent downwards at a sharp angle, my chin almost touching my chest. This awkward position with my neck strained didn¡¯t help alleviate my headache at all. Did I pass out sitting with my back on the wall and then slid down to the floor?

    Trying my utmost to ignore the pain, I struggled to roll my body to the right to change my position. I managed to turn my torso and slide my head completely down to the floor, ending up lying on my side, my head on my outstretched arm. Still uncomfortable but so much better than my earlier position. My breathing was ragged, the pain overwhelming. I didn¡¯t want to try to move anymore.

    There must be a limit to my healing. Was it a finite power that would recharge over time?

    I hoped it would.

    I had been through so much I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if I momentarily ran out of healing power.

    Let¡¯s see¡­

    Surviving the fire and explosion, which presumably came from the two BID agents self-destructing, while I was going back¡ªwas ¡®devolving¡¯ the correct term? ¡ªto my transformed human form, the body called ¡®Blanchette¡¯ by Deen, so that I could fit in the tunnel that was collapsing.

    Digging out of the caved-in tunnel in my original body, my strength waning, healing barely doing anything. I still had no idea why I got kicked out of the transformation. I couldn¡¯t remember taking the face off; I was fixated on crawling out of there in one piece.

    And when I was finally able to extract myself out of the debris into a relatively stable corridor, I ran into two asshats that attacked me. They were probably working for the 2Ms. Fortunately, they were only weakass normal humans, no enhancers or augs. One had a gun though. Shot me a few times, that piece of shit. I pummeled them both to a pulp and didn¡¯t stop even after they were dead because I was in such a foul mood.

    After the rush of adrenaline and my anger abated, I fainted from exhaustion.

    Just so much¡­

    I tried opening my eyes again, blinking a few times to adjust to the light. My sight was still cloudy as if I was underwater. I couldn¡¯t muster enough concentration to focus on something. I did notice two forms on the floor.

    The two dead guys.

    I thought I was able to move further away before falling unconscious.

    Served them right, what I did to them. Those fucks. Recalling that they shot me, my face contorted in rage, my fists balled, and pain raced up my body when I did so, making me wince.

    I can¡¯t do shit in this state.

    I decided to stay still for a few minutes¡­or was it an hour¡­?

    Drifting in and out of consciousness, I couldn¡¯t tell how much time had passed. Everything was a haze.

    There were moments I wasn¡¯t even sure if I was dreaming.

    Like, right now, there was an eyeball on the floor, about a foot from my face, staring at me. It wasn¡¯t there before; I obviously would¡¯ve noticed it. This has got to be a dream, right? Or did an eyeball roll out of the head of one of the guys I killed earlier? I chuckled at the thought of an eyeball popping out of its socket while I was pounding the head flat, like a pea squeezed out of a pod. Even a tiny bit of laughter made my abdomen hurt, but the soreness of my body was more tolerable now.

    ¡°Hey there, buddy,¡± I whispered. ¡°Are you the left eye or the right eye?¡± I snickered again, holding in my stomach with an arm to lessen the pain. I had no idea why I thought it was damn funny.

    Mesmerizing blue iris, abyssal dark pupil, thin pinkish veins crawling over the white of the eye. The eyeball was larger than a human¡¯s, about as big as a tennis ball. It twitched then rolled on the floor over to the bodies of the guys I killed. I could¡¯ve sworn it was checking the bodies, stopping at one and then the other.

    Then it rolled back to me.

    Soooo¡­

    ¡­this might not be a dream.

    Spidery legs sprouted from underneath the eye, elevating it a couple of inches above the ground. It gave me one more look-over, rocking back on forth on its legs, before scampering off, turning left into the path where I came from. The caved-in dead-end was further on.

    Noise echoed down the quiet corridor, opposite the direction the eyeball went. I shifted my head off my arm so I could press my ear on the floor. The tiles were cold and dusty. I wrinkled my nose to stave off a sneeze. Holding my breath, I focused on the vibrations on the floor.

    Footsteps? Clinking of the hard soles of shoes on the tiles and something softer. People talking. Coming nearer.

    This isn¡¯t a fucking dream!

    ¡°There¡¯s someone here,¡± a female voice said in a loud voice.

    Someone replied to her, but I couldn¡¯t hear it clearly.

    Two¡­maybe three persons based on the voices and footsteps. From the bits and pieces of their conversation, I could make out that they were arguing whether to come to me or not.

    Shit, what do I do?

    I forced myself up. My arms shook, struggling to support my upper body.

    Transform? I held up my hand, examining the crystals on my palm. I was hesitant summoning the Blanchette face. I wasn¡¯t even sure I could do it. I didn¡¯t know why I was forced out of my transformation earlier. Possibly because I was too weak. It would be disadvantageous if I transformed now only for it to fail. I should assess the danger first.

    And if I transformed, I might not be able to control the urge to start eating people that attack me. Then I''d certainly turn into my giant beast mode and there was no Deen around here to snap me back to sanity.

    But I just couldn''t do nothing. There was no place to hide. Those people knew I was here, anyway. They were getting near the intersection of tunnels up ahead.

    The gun! Where was it? I rubbed my eyes before scanning the room. I recalled I kicked it away after I knocked out the guy holding it.

    There! I forced myself to crawl over to get it. Next, I half-knelt in that part of the corridor with the gun held close to me. It was heavy and cold in my hand. Just point and pull the trigger? Did I need to cock the gun or something? I fumbled over it. How do I cock a gun? Those guys immediately shot me with it, so I also should be able to¡ª

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Excuse me, miss!¡± the female voice said. She stayed behind the left path of the intersection. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid. We¡¯re here to help.¡±

    I tensed up and raised my weapon. There was scratching on the ground beside me. It was the eyeball again. I pointed the gun at it and it ran away. I pointed the gun back down the tunnel.

    A hand appeared out of the corner waving a pink handkerchief like a surrender flag. ¡°Can you please put the gun down? We¡¯re friends. We also escaped from the underground arena.¡±

    I lowered the gun and slowly stood up, my left hand on the wall for support. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m not going to shoot,¡± I said, hoping they''d understand my scratchy voice. If they were the Adumbrae clients of the 2Ms, shooting them wouldn¡¯t do much unless I land a superb headshot.

    A brunette woman appeared. A mask covered her face, just like the masks given out at the club. She wore a black sleeveless crop top with matching high-waisted fitting dress pants. An oversized coat was over her shoulders. It was in men¡¯s style so someone must''ve given it to her. Even if her clothes were powdered with dust and grime, they were obviously very expensive. She was barefoot, her high-heeled sandals dangling by their straps from her fingers.

    I held up my hand over my face. Although I lowered my gun, I was prepared to summon the Blanchette face and put it on if needed.

    Misunderstanding my actions, she said, ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t need to be afraid about your identity.¡± She removed her mask revealing a conventionally beautiful face with friendly features. I would say she was in her early twenties, somewhat close to my age. ¡°I¡¯m Vanessa Minnows. Minnows as in the mayor. I¡¯m his niece.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t need to tell her your actual name,¡± said a man still behind the wall.

    I instantly raised my gun again.

    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot!¡± Vanessa held up her hands. To the guy hiding out of sight, she said, ¡°Just let me deal with this, I¡¯ll say when it¡¯s clear.¡± She faced me again. ¡°Sorry, I know this is pretty confusing for you. We¡¯re on the same side. And you look like you¡¯re hurt pretty bad, it¡¯s best if you rest and take it slow.¡±

    I checked myself. She was right. The playsuit I¡¯ve bought specifically for this mission that took a chunk out of my savings was not only sprinkled with soil and dried blood but also had tears all over that made it borderline immodest were it not for me looking like I¡¯d been rolling in dirt¡ªwhich I actually did. Who knows, some guys might go for this look.

    However, I was relieved that in between the tears on the fabric, I could see that my wounds had healed, flesh and skin restored. Including the bullet wounds. There was no more trace that I fought and killed these two dudes. I doubted if Vanessa and her friends would appreciate I killed people working for the 2Ms.

    I let my hands fall to my side, giving a shrug of resignation. But I maintained a tight grip on the gun.

    ¡°I¡¯m walking forward now,¡± Vanessa said. She slowly approached me with her hands up, offering her hand when she was close enough. ¡°Again, I¡¯m Vanessa. You don¡¯t need to tell me your name.¡±

    Right hand. Shit. I transferred the gun to my left hand. A firm handshake or should I try to hide the crystals on my palm? I accepted her hand, deciding to go for a light grip, cupping my hand to keep the crystals away from touching her palm. ¡°I''m not hiding my name. I''m Rachel Clifford,¡± I said, using the first random name that came to mind. "Nice to meet you, I guess?"

    ¡°Nice to meet you too, Rachel. Er, is something wrong?¡±

    My eyes widened because I noticed something that could clue them in that I killed the two dudes. The bloodstains on my knuckles! There were even splotches of blood on my arm. ¡°Uh, nothing¡¯s wrong,¡± I said. Thinking quickly, I tightened my grip on her hand.

    ¡°Ah! what¡¯s that?¡±

    I pulled back and hid both of my hands behind my back. ¡°Uh, nothing,¡± I said while trying to discreetly wipe the back of my hands and arms on the back of my outfit. ¡°That¡¯s the crystals¡­on my hand. Uh¡­my power. Sort of. Sorry.¡±

    Vanessa¡¯s face lit up. ¡°See, we¡¯re on the same side. I¡¯m going to introduce you to my friends now, okay?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re alright here!¡±

    Two guys revealed themselves.

    One of them removed his mask. He wasn''t exactly good looking but he had a very self-assured aura. I estimate him to be ten or so years older than me. I didn¡¯t want to go for guys with that huge an age gap. But I assumed he was a gentlemanly type. From the design of his pants, I could tell he must¡¯ve been the one that gave the coat to Vanessa to cover herself. ¡°You can call me Dominic,¡± he said.

    The other guy didn¡¯t remove his masquerade mask but the uncovered lower half of his face showed a graying short beard with neatly trimmed sides. His clothes were torn as if they were worn by someone several times larger than the intended size. That could mean his powers had something to do with transformation, becoming larger. I marked him as the dangerous one. ¡°I¡¯m not going to give her my name,¡± he said in a gruff voice.

    ¡°Hmph,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Whatever, just call him¡­Rob.¡±

    "Rob?"

    "Yes, you''re Rob now. You don''t get to choose an alias."

    Rob groaned in annoyance.

    ¡°Hello,¡± I said. My eyes quickly darted between the three of them, examining them from head to toe. I intentionally made it obvious that I was suspicious of them. Whether they were friends or foes trying to fool me, they¡¯d exert effort to lessen my distrust which I could use to my advantage.

    Dominic knelt beside one of the dead bodies to check it. ¡°What happened here, Rachel?¡±

    ¡°Looks like the handiwork of the snake,¡± assessed Rob.

    I nodded, sure, let¡¯s go with that, vaguely remembering a huge serpent-like mutant back in the arena. ¡°I was just running aimlessly around, trying to escape from the BID agents. I ran into those guys. The snake came. We tried to escape in this corridor but that explosion caused a cave-in that blocked our path.¡±

    ¡°I checked,¡± Vanessa said, ¡°the tunnel up ahead collapsed.¡±

    ¡°We had nowhere to go. I-I didn¡¯t¡­I didn¡¯t know what to do,¡± I said, feigning a voice on the verge of tears.

    They stared at each other.

    ¡°I used my power.¡± I showed them the crystals on my right hand while continuing to wipe my left hand behind my back. ¡°I formed a crystal shell around myself and hugged the wall. It had difficulty moving in this space so it pinned those two guys with its body and punched them with those numerous freaky hands¡­I watched as it killed them¡­it¡­it kept on pounding their heads even after they already died.¡± Adding dramatic effect, I glanced at the dead bodies and then turned away, pretending I was about to vomit.

    ¡°That¡¯s the snake bastard alright,¡± Rob said. ¡°Creepy fucking thing with those dozens of arms like a centipede. Why are we even calling it a snake?¡±

    ¡°Let her finish her story,¡± said Dominic. ¡°Please continue, Ms. Rachel.¡±

    ¡°After it killed them it went for me. I didn¡¯t know how long¡­ it kept on punching my crystal shell¡­then slamming with its body. It was strong enough to break portions of the shell. The parts of the crystal that are destroyed disappear so I have to remake them. It didn¡¯t stop¡­for a long time¡­I was so tired of remaking the crystal shell. I don¡¯t think I can make more without a good rest. It probably got bored and just left.¡±

    Vanessa approached me and put her coat, or rather Dominic¡¯s coat, on my shoulders. I was getting Deen levels of friendliness vibes from her. ¡°I did spot the snake in this general area with my eyes,¡± she said.

    Oh, shit! Really? I was super lucky it didn¡¯t come to me then. ¡°Is that eyeball yours?¡± I noticed it skittering in between Vanessa¡¯s feet.

    ¡°This is my power.¡± She scooped up the eyeball. A hole opened in her arm, the skin parting like an eyelid revealing a hollow socket. The eyeball crawled in, retracting its legs as it snugly fit inside the opening. The hole closed, Vanessa¡¯s skin smoothening as if there was no hole at all. ¡°My left arm contains several of these eyes¡­familiars, if I can call them that.¡±

    ¡°Woah.¡± I stepped back in surprise. Several eyelids opened from her hand up to her shoulder. Most of them housed eyeballs of varying sizes, looking here and there. But there were a few empty sockets. Those were probably the ones out scouting.

    ¡°While my right is the home of my mouth familiars.¡± Vanessa presented her right arm. Mouths filled with rows of teeth opened, chattering incoherently. Some of them laughed. Vanessa shivered and tensed her right arm to close the mouths. ¡°I haven¡¯t used the mouths at all. They creep me out."

    Rob tutted in disapproval. ¡°Essa, dear. I know you¡¯re trying to show you¡¯re trustworthy, but you didn¡¯t have to show your right arm as well.¡±

    ¡°She told me her powers, so it¡¯s only fair I reveal mine. And it¡¯s good to establish trust if we¡¯re going to help each other on the way up.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of going up,¡± said Dominic, ¡°we should get going now.¡±

    ¡°Right. The snake might come back here. Or worse, BID agents.¡±

    Dominic said, ¡°Rachel, do you need help walking? I can give you a piggyback ride if you still feel weak.¡±

    ¡°Um, I can manage¡ª¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Vanessa interjected. ¡°I can help Rachel walk. Giving her a ride is too much, Dominic.¡±

    ¡°Too much what?¡±

    ¡°Never mind. Go on ahead, lead the way.¡± Vanessa went up beside me. ¡°Just put your arm around my shoulder, I can support you.¡±

    I had no doubt she could with us having super strength and all that. ¡°Can I go to your other side?¡±

    ¡°What? Why?¡± She noticed me looking warily at her right arm. ¡°Ah, of course. Just stay still.¡± She transferred to my right and helped me walk. ¡°They don¡¯t bite unless I wake them though.¡±

    ¡°You okay there, girls?¡± Rob said. ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up.¡±

    ¡°Where are we headed to?¡± I asked.

    Dominic pointed up. ¡°Out of here.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it better if we just stay here below? BID agents and cops would be up there.¡±

    ¡°They''ll go down here eventually once they find a way,¡± Rob said. ¡°And we¡¯ll be like trapped rats in that case.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Rachel,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Rob knows the way up. He has prepared an escape plan for a situation like this.¡±

    Rob looked over his shoulder. ¡°Count yourself lucky that Essa wanted to help you. Don¡¯t slow us down now.¡±

    Lucky?

    I was lucky as fuck meeting you guys.

    I can¡¯t say the same for you though.

 2.25

    Our ragtag band of inhuman beings, including one of Vanessa¡¯s eyeball pets as our rearguard, set forth on a great journey to find an exit to the overworld. A party of adventurers straight out of a fantasy book exploring a dungeon filled with monsters.

    Hey, we¡¯re monsters too! I suppressed the urge to snicker at that mental picture. I was giddy from exhaustion, a tad lightheaded.

    The tunnels were mostly long stretches of darkness broken up by the occasional light which had the good fortune to survive the tremors.

    Rob, who was in the lead, didn¡¯t need any light. He walked several feet ahead of us, his back sometimes disappearing into the shadows. Vanessa didn¡¯t have problems either; she said her eyeball familiars as well as her own eyes could see just fine in the dark. But out of consideration for me, she used her phone¡¯s light. As I understood from their conversation, Dominic, who couldn¡¯t see shit in the dark, previously used his keychain flashlight, but since I was with Vanessa, she was the one lighting our way.

    Three people.

    Three people with superhuman strength which, at the moment, certainly exceeded my own, as well as super healing. Not to mention they each had their unique abilities. And I only knew about Vanessa¡¯s power.

    I tried putting all my weight on both legs then switched back to limping before Vanessa could notice. I could already walk normally. How about I go for Vanessa first then run away right after? I could shoot her. How fast would she be able to react? However, the eyeball following us would certainly see if I''d raise my gun.

    Something more subtle?

    My right arm was draped over her neck as she helped me walk. I could try crushing her spine from the back of her neck. Even if I couldn¡¯t outright kill her, I might be able to destroy her spine enough that it''d stop her healing and she''d eventually die. At the same time, I''d crush her phone to turn the light off. Dominic, the one near us, couldn¡¯t easily chase me in the dark, and Rob was too far away to immediately react.

    You¡¯re also going to be blind in the dark, you stupid bitch!

    Oh, yeah.

    Scratch that plan then.

    I wasn¡¯t thinking straight. I wasn¡¯t even sure I could fatally injure Vanessa without transforming. And what would I do after I run away? Play hide and seek with Rob and Dominic in the dark? Ok, ok, chill for a moment, girl.

    There was still time before we reached the surface. Time to recuperate and make sure I''d have enough strength to maintain a transformation. I should go with them for now since I didn¡¯t know the way out.

    No rush.

    When we reached a forked path, Rob raised his arm with a closed fist to signal our group to stop, pretentiously roleplaying a tactical commander of a military operation. Counterchecking the labeled arrows hanging from the ceiling, fading and rusty from age, with what I presumed to be a map in his phone, he muttered, ¡°I see, we¡¯re at this point. This leads to the A-2 section, so then we go this way.¡±

    ¡°I send a familiar to the left?¡± Vanessa said.

    ¡°Please.¡±

    Her left arm supporting me tensed behind my back followed by a disgusting plopping sound. An eyeball dropped on the floor just beside my foot.

    Upon seeing it, I jumped right into Vanessa, letting out a tiny yelp. That wasn¡¯t too dramatic, was it?

    The eyeball rolled a couple of yards before extending its insect-like legs and rushed to the corridor Vanessa was pointing to with surprising speed. ¡°Sorry,¡± she said. ¡°Did I scare you?¡±

    ¡°No, I was just surprised. I can¡¯t help but be jumpy from¡­uh, from all that¡¯s going on tonight.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m sending out my familiars ahead of us.¡± She smiled to assure me. ¡°So there''ll be no surprises.¡±

    ¡°Do you see what they see? Is that how it works?¡± I was thinking it was similar to Oberon and one of his fairy summons, Sneak.

    ¡°I can if I want to. But it¡¯s very disorienting to do it with all of them at that same time. It makes my head hurt so much. And that¡¯s including what I see with my own eyes, by the way. So, what I do instead is cycle through my familiars every minute or so.¡±

    ¡°Kind of like switching through different tabs in an internet browser?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never thought of it that way.¡± She started giggling. ¡°If you see my eyes glazing over, that means I¡¯m checking my familiars. I have three of them out right now.¡±

    Rob checked his watch. ¡°We¡¯ll wait a couple more minutes before following it.¡±

    ¡°How much farther away do we need to travel, Rob?¡± Dominic said, snorting when calling him ¡®Rob¡±.

    Inside joke? Thanks for including me in the joke, guys, I quipped sarcastically in my head.

    ¡°There¡¯s an exit about ten minutes away. But now, it¡¯s going to take us fifteen minutes or more, most likely more, since our pace has slowed down.¡±

    You dick. I knew he meant me. I said with strained breathing, ¡°You can go on ahead without me. I just need some time to rest then I¡¯ll be fine on my own. If you can leave me with directions to the exit, I can follow later.¡± I glanced at Vanessa. Come on, girl, I thought. Do your thing, help me out here. I started to untangle myself from her, but she held on to me.

    ¡°No, you¡¯re coming with us,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°We¡¯re all escaping here.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m simply saying we¡¯re slowing down,¡± Rob said with a shrug. ¡°I didn¡¯t mention anything about leaving anyone.¡±

    ¡°Yes, no one gets left behind. We¡¯ll all help each other, and if we find others, we¡¯ll also help them too.¡±

    Rob exhaled slowly. I couldn¡¯t see him well with the low lighting and the mask covering his face, but he probably rolled his eyes at Vanessa¡¯s statement. He said, ¡°We can¡¯t leave her behind, anyway, Essa dear. What¡¯s your name again? Rachel?¡± I nodded. Rob said, ¡°Rachel here knows your names and faces. Can¡¯t risk her getting caught if we leave her behind.¡±

    ¡°I showed her my face because we saw her face,¡± Vanessa defiantly replied.

    And that''s the problem, you know my face.

    Dominic cleared his throat. ¡°How about we get going? Vanessa, is it all clear?¡±

    ¡°A moment.¡± She stood still and blinked a few times. ¡°Yes, nothing in the way.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡± Dominic started walking, waving at us to follow him.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine if we quickened our pace,¡± I said.

    Rob and Vanessa glared at each other. She stuck out her chin and held me close. Rob shook his head before walking briskly to overtake Dominic and be at the head of our line once again.

    ¡°Fifteen minutes and we¡¯re out of here,¡± Dominic said.

    ¡°Positive thoughts, everyone,¡± Vanessa added.

    After a few minutes, Rob slowed down so we would catch up with him. Once he was in a row with us, he said, ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking¡­¡±

    ¡°About what?¡±

    ¡°It might be better to skip this exit and go for one further way.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Because it might be caved-in like that other one?

    Dominic said, ¡°Let¡¯s go check first? Even with just Vanessa¡¯s pet.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re not pets, they¡¯re familiars,¡± she said, slightly miffed. She then whispered to me, ¡°The collapsed tunnel near the place we found you, it was close to an exit.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s that,¡± Rob said. ¡°We would be wasting our precious time if we end up at a dead-end. But even if the path to the exit is clear, I can think of a few more possible problems with the nearer exit.¡±

    ¡°Like what?¡±

    ¡°Before the BID commenced their raid, they would''ve cordoned off the area a certain radius from the club. Ringed it with police, set up checkpoints, arrest anyone suspicious. Cast a wide net, you know? Standard operating procedure. This is why I opted to go for an exit that wasn¡¯t in the immediate area of the club.

    ¡°However, that huge explosion, the one I assumed to be due to the deliberate overloading of the Greaves Reactor of the two BID agents, would''ve caused considerable damage aboveground. If tunnels in these parts were affected, then it¡¯s safe to say the buildings on top of us have suffered a similar fate. Most likely even worse. The explosion wasn''t at a sufficient depth for it to be contained underground. This distance might not be enough.¡±

    ¡°You mean it¡¯s not safe for us to go above since we¡¯re still near the center of the explosion?¡± Vanessa said.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Rob ticked off a finger. ¡°That¡¯s one.¡±

    Dominic said, ¡°We¡¯re not even sure if the exit above is still open.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the bigger problem.¡± Rob held up another finger. ¡°The possibility the exit is blocked on the other side by, let¡¯s say, a collapsed building, cannot be discounted.¡± Holding up a third finger, he said ¡°And the biggest problem is that because of the explosion, more police will come. You might think we¡¯ll have an easier time escaping in the commotion. But you shouldn¡¯t forget this is a disaster connected to a BID operation. They¡¯ll be on high alert. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they¡¯ll call the National Guard or even the military.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a National Guard camp near our city, over at San Domingo,¡± Dominic said. ¡°They¡¯ll be sent here for sure.¡±

    ¡°And there¡¯s an Air Force Base by the airport.¡±

    Vanessa chewed her lips, concern flashed on her face. ¡°This is bad.¡±

    ¡°The National Guard, the military, more BID agents,¡± Rob said. ¡°Think about it, when was the last time something this big Adumbrae related happened? The government, the people, everyone will be in full-on panic mode. Send in the cavalry. Send everyone!¡±

    ¡°A further exit then?¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes,¡± he said, jogging to once again get ahead of us.

    Wait a minute. How did they know what happened in the cavern? Did Vanessa leave an eyeball pet there? ¡°Excuse me,¡± I said. ¡°Uh, Rob?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± he responded, but he didn¡¯t even turn to glance at me.

    ¡°Earlier you mentioned that the big quake was because of a Greaves Reactor overload?¡± I said. ¡°My parents work at Greaves, you see,¡± I added. And that wasn¡¯t a lie, kinda. I didn¡¯t give any more details and let them draw their own conclusions. ¡°I¡­I just don¡¯t understand. You mean the BID agents who attacked us killed themselves?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s merely an assumption. I didn¡¯t see what happened; we only had Essa narrating to us what she could see before her pet was¡ª¡±

    ¡°Familiar!¡±

    ¡°Before her familiar was destroyed.¡±

    ¡°Why would they do that? There''d be so many casualties because of the explosion in the middle of the city. Were they losing the fight? They were killing people left and right when I escaped.¡±

    ¡°They weren¡¯t losing,¡± Rob said. ¡°At first.¡±

    ¡°Those were BID heavyweights,¡± said Dominic. ¡°Why the hell were they deployed here? Someone must¡¯ve tipped them off about what¡¯s going on. A fucking rat. I¡¯ve heard a rumor of infighting in Mark¡¯s organization.¡±

    ¡°The woman with the red hood and creepy mask? She must be connected to all this.¡±

    I stored Dominic¡¯s comment about a possible traitor in their organization in my mental filing cabinet. I directed the conversation back to the question that interested me. ¡°Even if they were losing," I said, "they wouldn¡¯t resort to blowing up part of the city.¡±

    ¡°A Cocoon formed,¡± Rob said.

    I gasped. ¡°A Cocoon? Who?¡± I wanted to ask ¡®what¡¯, but I sensed it wasn¡¯t the correct question from someone supposedly one of them.

    I only had a vague idea of what a Cocoon was. As far as I knew, it was usually formed by Adumbrae cults. A person with Adumbrae powers could easily gather followers, especially in countries where a large percentage of the population was religiously inclined.

    Even here in the US, Adumbrae cults occasionally did crop up in extremely rural areas, although a bold Adumbrae might try its luck in the city. Like there was one group that called itself a ¡°self-empowerment fellowship¡± discovered operating in New York City last year. An Adumbrae cult leader would use their followers to increase their power. How they actually go about doing that? I don¡¯t know. But at some point, the cult leader would form a Cocoon using his followers. That didn¡¯t seem to be the case here.

    ¡°Leandro,¡± Dominic said.

    Rob clicked his tongue in disapproval. ¡°I¡¯m honestly surprised it was Leandro out of all of us.¡±

    ¡°Leandro?¡± I said, bringing my hand to my mouth. Who the fuck is Leandro? ¡°How? Why him?¡±

    ¡°I don''t know, to be honest. Our supply of pills, the monthly psychological conditioning and evaluation¡ªpure desire shouldn¡¯t be able to break that. But in the end, Leandro still succumbed to the Adumbrae temptation. His desire to fulfill his duty of protecting us might''ve overcome all the precautions.¡±

    ¡°Could he have skipped out?¡± Dominic said.

    ¡°Leandro? Unlikely,¡± Rob said. ¡°He of all people knew how important the rules we follow are.¡±

    ¡°I still don¡¯t understand. Even if there was a Cocoon, doesn¡¯t it take time to form? Why immediately go for blowing up the entire place?¡±

    ¡°That¡­I¡¯m not sure,¡± Rob trailed off. We could hear him scratching his beard. ¡°Something else might''ve happened. You¡¯re right, Cocoons shouldn¡¯t have formed that fast. They¡¯re usually cultivated for a long time. But according to Essa, a huge Cocoon rapidly formed and eventually filled the entire cavern.¡±

    ¡°What?" I exclaimed. "That¡¯s huge!¡±

    ¡°And it was absorbing the brains of the people the agents killed,¡± Vanessa added. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t there be a willing connection if links are to be established to support a Cocoon? I didn¡¯t know a Cocoon could just form spontaneously like that.¡±

    ¡°Plus, the participants should be alive. Yes, it was weird it could grow by absorbing brains. There are so many unexplained things tonight.¡±

    Dominic snapped his fingers. ¡°It must be that giant werewolf Vanessa saw. Everything that happened tonight must be connected to that person. Vanessa, you got a good look at her, right? Before she transformed?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I was just watching the screens since I didn¡¯t have anyone to talk to since this is my first night attending.¡±

    Rob¡¯s footsteps became heavier, his shoulders dropped. ¡°I should have dissuaded your father more forcefully from sending you here,¡± Rob said. ¡°Foremost, I didn¡¯t want you to see what¡¯s happening in the arena. And now we have this unforeseen situation.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Dad wanted me to mingle with others, and I could see his point so I decided to go here. My own decision. You¡¯re not at fault.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re all past that now,¡± Dominic said. ¡°Escaping is our first goal. Then we¡¯ll wait until Mark contacts us. We have to report the things Vanessa¡¯s familiar saw in the cavern. Other groups might be targeting us.¡±

    ¡°Undermining Mark¡¯s influence in the Adumbrae trade?¡± said Rob. ¡°It¡¯s possible that red-hooded woman was sent by the boys at Las Vegas.¡±

    ¡°I heard they have a new boss after Mad Hatter killed himself before the BID could catch him.¡±

    ¡°Not only the authorities, huh? We¡¯re now fighting other groups too for the supply. Godammit.¡±

    Vanessa, ever the optimist, said, ¡°Let¡¯s deal with our problems one by one. We focus on escaping here first."

    I didn¡¯t say anything else but I was screaming inside my head for the world to just chill out. What is all this shit they''re talking about? Could everyone relax first while I sort out my life?

    We continued our journey in silence, all the new information I¡¯ve learned tumbling around in my mind. I thought the bullshit in the cavern was the shitshow to top all shitshows and that I¡¯d already escaped the worst fiasco I¡¯d experienced for a long time. Clearly, I was wrong. This was big. And it¡¯s going to be an even bigger problem. Freakin¡¯ humungous gigantosaures rex big! Buuut¡­I didn¡¯t have the energy to give two shits right now about what was going to happen in the future.

    I¡¯d just deal with it when it comes.

    That was future Erind¡¯s problem. Sorry, future me.

    I stared straight ahead while walking. Gazing into the darkness, just zoning out, focusing on the sounds. The hard heels of Rob''s leather shoes struck the floor. The softer but still heavy footsteps of Dominic¡¯s sneakers. A sneakers with a suit kind of guy? He sort of pulled it off but I didn¡¯t like that style. There was the faint but annoying scratching of the eyeball pet walking behind us. And then there were my flats shuffling on the tiles, pretending I was still having difficulty walking.

    Oh, I forgot¡­there was also Vanessa. Her bare feet scarcely made any sound. I casually looked down, trying not to make it obvious I was checking her feet. They were dirty. Duh. Good thing I didn¡¯t wear high heels tonight. No Adumbrae could force me to run in high heels, I hadn¡¯t unlocked that in my skill tree yet. And apparently, Vanessa didn¡¯t have that one either.

    She didn¡¯t show any hint she was grossed out by walking barefoot, or that she was in pain or inconvenienced. Kudos to her. Being the judgmental bitch that I was, I mistakenly wrote her off as a rich girl that could barely function without the comforts and luxury she was used to.

    I was human¡ªtechnically, not so much now¡ªbut I should really stop being judgmental. It prevented me from making a face accurate to the person.

    The reason I judged people was for making a face, which was why it was bad for me if I jumped to unfounded conclusions because it would ruin the face I was trying to craft. However, as I understood how normal people think, being judgmental was only bad if it had negative intent. I didn¡¯t have any negative intent. So, in a sense, did it mean I couldn¡¯t be a bad judgmental person?

    What the fuck was I thinking about? I haven¡¯t done drugs in my entire life, I swear.

    During all my nonsense musings, one of Vanessa¡¯s pets that came from another tunnel caught up to us. Rob didn¡¯t miss the opportunity to comment.

    He said, ¡°The tiny six-legged creature was able to catch up. Let¡¯s hasten our pace people.¡±

    I thought Vanessa was going to argue with him but instead, she apologized to me and said, ¡°I¡¯m going to walk faster, Rachel. Is that okay?¡±

    ¡°No problem at all,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re practically carrying me already. I hope I¡¯m not too heavy.¡± Setup for mandatory weight jokes among girls to lighten the mood.

    ¡°I have super strength, don¡¯t worry.¡±

    ¡°Which means if you didn¡¯t have super strength, you¡¯d find me heavy?¡±

    Fake laughter ensues. I mean, it was fake from my end but Vanessa¡¯s laugh was probably genuine. Who cared if I faked my laughter?

    As our laughter died down, I tried to observe the tunnels we passed through. I knew abandoned tunnels under cities weren¡¯t uncommon. Like old train tunnels, maybe flood systems, sewers. But I wasn¡¯t sure what these were supposed to be. I doubted if the 2Ms constructed them. Some tunnels were wide, almost like an underground train tunnel, others were really small, only enough for three persons abreast to pass through.

    ¡°What are these tunnels?¡± I asked Vanessa. ¡°They couldn¡¯t have been made along with the arena below the club. They¡¯re like super old.¡±

    ¡°Nope, these were here way before the club. Cle¡ªuh, Rob, yes, Rob explained to me about these tunnels before we found you. These were supposed to be bunkers constructed decades ago in case of Adumbrae attacks.¡±

    ¡°Adumbrae attacks? Why bunkers?¡±

    ¡°I think it has something do to with that Purple Bloom in the Philippines? When was it again?¡±

    ¡°In the seventies,¡± Dominic said.

    ¡°That one, yes. These bunkers were constructed during that time.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve read about that. It was one of the biggest Purple Blooms ever, not counting the massive ones during the start of the Adumbrae invasion. The Corebrings were forced to sink some islands of the Philippines to the sea. But isn¡¯t the Philippines far from California? There¡¯s the entire Pacific Ocean between us.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡­uh¡­Rob? Can you help explain?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s because a couple of Titan Adumbrae showed up in Hawaii a month after the Purple Bloom was destroyed. They apparently walked on the seafloor until they found Hawaii. I can''t recall what exactly happened back then, I was only four or five years old at that time. But there were mass panics because of the very real concern that Titans could be wandering at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and they¡¯ll eventually reach US soil.

    ¡°The panic fueled the hasty construction of these underground bunkers for major cities all along the West Coast. Nothing happened anyway, and these bunkers are just...here. Abandoned. Mark took over these with the help¡ª¡±

    ¡°Someone¡¯s coming!¡± Vanessa said. She pointed forward and the eyeball behind us rushed in that direction. ¡°I wasn¡¯t able to see clearly, but the person had a mask like ours.¡±

    ¡°Rob, what do we do?¡± Dominic said.

    ¡°Only one person?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    "He''s one of us!" Obviously that it was Vanessa who said that.

    ¡°Ready your trap, Dominic. We¡¯ll see who it is.¡±

 2.26

    Dominic knelt on the ground and tapped it thrice with his right hand; each time, a blue circle expanded into the size of a plate from the point his finger touched the floor. He waved his right hand, which was glowing a faint blue, and the circles followed his movement, gliding across the floor away from us. One zipped up the wall.

    With his left hand, he tapped the floor again and summoned three more circles, these time red ones. The red circles stayed close to us, forming a line in front before disappearing into the ground. ¡°I¡¯ll keep the sink hole traps near,¡± he said.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to transform,¡± Rob said. ¡°Best be prepared since Essa wasn¡¯t able to get a good look at him.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯ll pass by my second familiar. Don''t worry, I''ll pay attention,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Do you need my diamond bracelet?¡±

    ¡°Save it. I have a few steel bars left.¡±

    ¡°Just tell me when you need it.¡±

    ¡°If possible, I don¡¯t want to use it because that¡¯s my gift to you.¡± Rob took off his belt and slung it over his shoulder like a sash. Attached to it were small packets. Rob retrieved a square item from one of the packets. It reminded me of weights used by divers to counteract buoyancy; I learned basic scuba diving when I went for a week-long vacation in Honolulu after I graduated from college¡ªprivilege, I know.

    ¡°He¡¯s on his way here,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Definitely wearing a mask like ours. He didn¡¯t notice my familiar. He can¡¯t see in the dark¡­I think? He¡¯s bumping into walls in parts where there''s no light, terribly panicked.¡±

    ¡°What else?¡±

    ¡°Wait, my familiar is trying to keep up. He has a gun. A pistol.¡±

    ¡°Get behind me,¡± Rob said.

    Vanessa put herself in front of me.

    I drew the coat Vanessa gave me closer around my body. ¡°I think I can already use my power to protect myself,¡± I said, knowing she would refuse.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Rach. Rob can protect us.¡±

    ¡°Or I could use this.¡± I raised the gun I ¡®borrowed¡¯ from the guys I killed earlier. ¡°I haven¡¯t shot a gun before though.¡±

    ¡°Does that still have bullets?¡± Dominic said.

    I shrugged because I didn¡¯t know how to check. He instructed me how to do it and we found only two remaining bullets, as most of them were shot at me. But they didn¡¯t need to know that. ¡°I just need to make these two shots count,¡± I said, grinning with manufactured fake bravado. We''re layering fakeness now.

    ¡°He¡¯s near,¡± Vanessa said.

    ¡°I thought my new stretch suit would be enough.¡± Rob crushed the steel bar in his hand, or maybe absorbed it; it had disappeared. ¡°But I need them to be even more stretchy,¡± he said, his voice becoming unnaturally deeper towards the end, as if a recording of his voice was played back in slow motion. He grew in size, filling in his clothes, stretching them until the tears expanded, his feet threatening to burst out of his shoes. He didn¡¯t mutate into a monstrous figure; his body only became larger and more muscular, comparable to the massive strongmen that set world records in weightlifting. A steel coating covered his skin, creeping up his neck, covering his scalp and then his entire face.

    ¡°My familiar is right on his tail,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°There¡¯s blood on his clothes, and the way he¡¯s walking, he either injured or blind in this darkness. Maybe both.¡±

    Rob took a couple of steps, shaking the floor with his weight. ¡°I¡¯m going to dispose of him if he¡¯s a threat to us.¡±

    ¡°Rob! Please don¡¯t. He¡¯s one of us.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be the judge of that.¡±

    ¡°There he is.¡±

    A set of frantic footsteps made us all tense up.

    ¡°Stop right there!¡± Rob said.

    The man screamed in terror. He shot Rob. Vanessa gripped my arm tightly as the shooting continued. The bullets ricocheted harmlessly off Rob, hitting the walls and floor, causing a few sparks. ¡°Die! Die! You¡¯re not going to take me!¡± He didn¡¯t stop until we heard the awkward clicking of an empty gun.

    ¡°Calm down,¡± Vanessa loudly said, as if saying that in a stressful situation has actually worked in the history of mankind. A female voice, however, might calm down the man. ¡°We¡¯re on the same side.¡±

    ¡°Put the gun down,¡± said Rob.

    The man got scared again when Rob spoke. He yelled, threw the empty gun at Rob¡ªit didn¡¯t even reach him¡ªand ran back where he came from.

    ¡°He did put down his gun,¡± Dominic mused.

    ¡°Running away? Okay, he doesn¡¯t have offensive powers. Catch him, Dom.¡±

    ¡°Got it.¡±

    I heard sounds of struggle somewhere in the dark. Vanessa shone the light of her phone on the man. Thick tendrils, three of them to be exact, a mixture of earth, concrete, and ceramic from the tiles, erupted from the wall and floor, and entangled the man. There was a faint blue circle at the base of each tendril, the same circles Dominic summoned. The tendrils forced the man to the ground.

    We approached him as he screamed hysterically, saying over and over not to kill him. ¡°I don¡¯t want to die, I have a family,¡± he said. ¡°I didn¡¯t know what I was getting into. I was forced. Please let me go.¡±

    Rob condescendingly laughed in a guttural rumbling way. ¡°That excuse will not work with the BID. You¡¯re lucky we¡¯re not them.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do the talking,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°And I think you can already go back to human form to not scare the man.¡±

    ¡°What a waste of a steel bar,¡± muttered Rob.

    ¡°Hello,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid.¡±

    ¡°Sta-stay back! I can kill you with my powers.¡±

    Rob scoffed, ¡°If you could, you would¡¯ve already done it.¡±

    ¡°Shush,¡± Vanessa said. She crouched down and began her patented negotiation script. ¡°I¡¯m Vanessa Minnows, the niece of the Mayor. It¡¯s fine if you don¡¯t tell us your name.¡± I heard Rob inhaling sharply, but he stayed silent. ¡°There¡¯s no reason to be afraid. Like I said, we¡¯re on the same side. We¡¯re also trying to find the way out like you.¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­you can call me Frederick, can be just Fred. Er¡­sorry for shooting you. Sorry, yes.¡±

    ¡°Nice to meet you, Fred,¡± Vanessa said.

    I said, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Rachel. This is Dominic and this is Rob.¡± I took the initiative to introduce the other two as well so that I¡¯d present myself as part of the group rather than some stray they picked up.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to release you now, okay?¡±

    The man, struggling against the immovable tendrils, pointed to Rob who had already returned to his original form. Dominic made the tendrils recede with another wave of his hand. Fred said, ¡°I¡­I think I¡¯ve seen you earlier. I recognize your mask and beard.¡± Rob tilted his head and pointed to himself. ¡°You arrived with Raphael, yes? Raphael Bautista? The lawyer from Wilkens & Kingson?¡±

    Rob lurched at the mention of the name. ¡°Is he alive? Raphie¡­Raphael?¡± he said, grabbing the man¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°No. No¡­He-he was killed.¡±

    ¡°What?! He¡¯s dead? That can¡¯t be.¡±

    ¡°He is¡­ I¡¯m sorry. He''s your friend, yes? We¡¯re acquainted through work. I¡¯m the EVP of a corporate client of Wilkens & Kingson, and Raphael¡¯s one of the partners that handle our account. You seem to be close friends, no?¡±

    ¡°We are¡­we were...¡± Rob sat on the ground, his hand covering his face as he slowly shook his head. ¡°I expected him to have already escaped because I saw him leave the arena before me. He also knew the way out. What happened?¡±

    The Fred guy narrated to us what he went through from the time he fled when the BID agents attacked until we found him. He talked rapidly once he calmed down and realized he was safe with us. Apparently, that Raphael dude led a group of them, saying, like Rob did, that it wasn¡¯t safe to use their usual exits because they would just get caught.

    Their big group was divided when the sword-wielding BID agent caught up with them, no pun intended. Luck was on their side tonight, as was the case with all of us in this group, and they won the BID execution roulette¡ªthe agent went after other groups so they were able to escape with their lives. He didn¡¯t know anything about the black tentacles of the Cocoon or the giant mutant snake running amok somewhere around here.

    But their streak of good luck ended when they met, according to Fred, a ¡®killer spider drone¡¯.

    ¡°A spider drone?¡± Vanessa said.

    ¡°I believe he means a Skitter,¡± Rob said. ¡°An armored combat drone that looks like a spider. Actually, it only has six legs, so not a spider. It¡¯s about the size of, I would estimate, a large dog. I believe only the Bureau uses the Skitter. Right? Miss my-parents-work-at Greaves?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said, unfazed. ¡°The police wouldn¡¯t have Skitters because those are intended for killing instead of incapacitating people. They have weapons meant to combat Adumbrae.¡± I was trying to recall the stuff Mom said to me about combat drones. ¡°Greaves don¡¯t make combat drones, anyway. Only parts for them.¡±

    Rob snorted, satisfied with my answer. ¡°This Skitter killed your group, Fred? Including Raphie?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m the only one who escaped. I was hit by a large round but I was able to regenerate.¡± Fred unbuttoned the lower half of his torn shirt that was soaked in blood to give us a better look of his healing wound. ¡°Blessed to have survived, yes?¡±

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°That¡¯s a terrible looking wound you have there. You were able to heal it that fast?¡±

    Fred had a conflicted expression on his face. ¡°My power is transforming into¡­something horrendous. I normally don¡¯t do it, I¡¯d rather not do it, but when I use my power, my healing abilities are top tier. I only partially transformed to heal, and then reversed it.¡± He shuddered. ¡°I don¡¯t like using my power. No, not at all.¡±

    ¡°I can understand,¡± said Vanessa.

    ¡°What do we do now?¡± Dominic said. ¡°We can¡¯t stay here. If there are BID drones in the tunnels then there would be many agents and police around here too.¡±

    ¡°Not necessarily,¡± Rob said. ¡°They should¡¯ve pulled out their troops after the quake. I¡¯m sure the area above us is devastated by the explosion, and it would be unwise for them to risk continuing to send people down here. Not to mention they would have many casualties among their ranks. Fred, have you seen any agents or police?¡±

    ¡°None at all.¡±

    ¡°If there are police or agents trapped down here after the quake, they would be few in number and focused on getting out first. The Skitters on the other hand¡­¡±

    ¡°Where do we go? There?¡± Dominic said jabbing his thumb back.

    ¡°Yes!¡± Fred said. ¡°There must be an exit there, no?¡±

    Rob was looking at the map on his phone. ¡°You met the Skitters somewhere ahead of us, which means they entered the tunnels in that area. Maybe even further on. Which also means the police ring is wider out than we¡¯ve imagined. They probably already started to search possible exits even before they started their operation. Damn it. How did Mark not get wind of this from his police connections?¡±

    ¡°We should go in the other direction, yes?¡±

    Rob shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s no other direction.¡± He faced Fred. ¡°I¡¯ve already explained this to them that if we do find an exit back there, we will be inside the ring of the police. Whether above or below, we¡¯re only crawling deeper in the cage if we go back.¡± Addressing all of us, he said, ¡°The best choice is to make it past through the Skitters and any cops or agents deployed there. Our biggest asset are Essa¡¯s pets¡ªfamiliars, sorry Essa dear. We can avoid danger with them.¡±

    ¡°And if we can¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°Can we win in a fight against a Skitter?¡± Vanessa said. ¡°I¡­I¡¯ll try to use my mouth familiars if really needed.¡±

    ¡°We have to win,¡± Rob grimly said. ¡°If you¡¯re comfortable with using your mouth familiars, then go ahead Essa dear. But if not, then better don¡¯t. Our biggest disadvantage is we don¡¯t have any actual combat experience using our powers.¡±

    While they were discussing, I placed the gun I was carrying on the ground and tore the bottom part of the coat Vanessa gave me. All of them turned to me upon hearing the ripping sound. ¡°Drones means cameras,¡± I said. I folded the piece of cloth, covered my mouth with it, securing it with a knot behind my head. ¡°Sorry, Vanessa for tearing this. Or maybe Dominic. I think this is yours? You guys should also wear your masks again.¡± I tore another long piece off the coat and tied it around my waist so that the coat wouldn¡¯t flap around when I would need to run later.

    ¡°Can you also give me something to use as a belt?¡± Rob said. I ripped a few strands of the coat and gave them to him. ¡°I¡¯m not going to wear my belt again so I could quickly transform without impediment later. But my damn pants keep falling down.¡±

    Dominic frowned. ¡°Anyone else wants a piece of my coat?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll buy you a new one,¡± Vanessa said, elbowing him in a way that I guessed was supposed to be playful but only ended up being awkward.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here first before making any shopping plans,¡± I said.

    ¡°You can come with us shopping when we get out.¡±

    ¡°Sure. That would be fun.¡±

    We set off in a hurry. Vanessa was practically carrying me while running. Rob also asked her to send more of her familiars to scout ahead of us; it was gross seeing them coming out of the sockets on her arm, like gigantic zits getting popped. She was blinking rapidly, having a hard time checking the view of each of her familiars while keeping up with the group. A couple of times we nearly ran into walls. She even stumbled over an exposed pipe, almost falling face first on the floor if I didn¡¯t stop her. I decided to help out with the running instead of being a useless sack of potatoes being dragged.

    ¡°You¡¯re already fine, Rachel?¡± she said, noticing I was leading her instead of the other way around.

    ¡°I can manage,¡± I said with a wince for added believability. ¡°We do heal pretty fast.¡±

    A couple minutes more of running and we approached the place where Fred said his group were killed by the Skitter. Rob did that annoying military hand signal thing again to make us halt. ¡°According to my map,¡± he said, ¡°it¡¯s supposed to be a generator room to power the bunkers.¡±

    ¡°Are we going inside there?¡± Fred asked. ¡°There¡¯s no other way, no?¡±

    ¡°If we avoid the generator room, we¡¯ll need to take a roundabout way that will waste a lot of time. Plus, I have to do something inside.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±

    Rob didn¡¯t answer Fred but instead talked to Vanessa. ¡°Essa dear, there¡¯s going to be multiple paths branching from inside here. Send your familiars down the ones I point to.¡±

    We entered through massive steel double doors that were ajar about a foot or two, just enough for us to squeeze by. Total darkness greeted us¡ªexcluding for Vanessa and Rob. Sensing that I held her hand tighter, Vanessa raised her phone to try and brighten up the room the place, but it was too wide, even wider than the auditorium at Cresthorne. Dominic also turned on his tiny flashlight but it barely did anything, only revealing the steel stairs descending into the darkness.

    ¡°Is there a light switch somewhere?¡± I said.

    ¡°No, this room doesn¡¯t have power,¡± Rob said. ¡°This was never operational. The electricity for this place, which is only for the lights along the corridors, are because of the connections made by Mark since he uses the tunnels.¡±

    Fred was shaking as he went down the stairs. ¡°After we first met the Skitter, and it killed a few of us, we hid inside here. I didn¡¯t want to hide, but I was shot so I had to take time to heal. The Skitter eventually found this place.¡±

    ¡°So, you ran away while the Skitter killed your companions?¡± Rob said through gritted teeth.

    ¡°You¡¯re angry with me because I ran away as your friend died, yes? There¡¯s nothing I could do, no?¡±

    Rob spat on the ground but sensibly chose to let the matter go. He instructed Vanessa where to send her eyeball pets. I couldn¡¯t see the places Rob was pointing to, but I supposed there were exits there. ¡°We need to find the exit to Section 21,¡± he said. ¡°Have your familiars look at the labels. It¡¯s hard to decipher where it is just from this map on my phone.¡± He motioned to borrow Dominic¡¯s flashlight, which he then gave to Fred. ¡°Now, can you lead us to Raphie¡¯s body?¡±

    We found the body of Rob¡¯s friend lodged in between two large metal tanks. Given the canisters this Raphael guy hid behind were riddled with bullet holes the size of pepperoni slices, the body unsurprisingly didn¡¯t fare very well at all. As Rob pulled out the body, he told Vanessa to turn away to not see the messed-up corpse. I didn¡¯t look away. I was too tired to feel disgusted.

    ¡°His spine was hit, yes?¡± Fred said. ¡°What are you going to do with his body?¡±

    Rob rummaged through the clothes of his friend. ¡°I¡¯m going to take everything that could identify him.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why?¡± Dominic said. ¡°We should go.¡±

    ¡°This is the least I could do for him. The police will surely search this place and recover their bodies. And it¡¯s going to be easy to find out who Raphie is.¡± Rob held up a business card. ¡°See?¡± After thoroughly removing the contents of Raphie''s pockets he moved on to ripping out the tags on the clothes. ¡°Just to make things harder,¡± he explained. Then he laid out the corpse flat on the ground, with its hands extended to the sides.

    ¡°We can¡¯t bring him with us. There''s a chance we''ll have to fight for our lives and we can''t carry-¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± Rob said as he transformed. ¡°I would''ve been more assured if I could burn his body.¡± With his massive fists, he dug up a chunk of the concrete floor and absorbed it through his palms. His body was coated with concrete. ¡°But this is the next best thing.¡± He raised his fists and smashed it down on Raphie¡¯s head.

    Vanessa, who was peeking between the fingers of her hand, screamed, her voice echoed in the desolate room like a banshee¡¯s wail.

    ¡°Essa, don''t look!¡± Rob turned his friend¡¯s head into minced meat. He also slammed the corpse¡¯s hands, flattening them on the ground. He turned to us, getting smaller, reverting to human form. ¡°On the off chance that I die down here in this shit hole, I would appreciate very much that I be extended the same courtesy. I promise to do likewise with your body...if I can. Take anything that could identify us then make sure to smash the skull, no dental records and all that, and the hands, so no finger prints. They couldn¡¯t identify us with DNA because any DNA records we might have on the government database are from before our trip to the Red Island.¡±

    Red Island? Weren''t we supposed to find out about that? I suppressed the urge to laugh. Look at me now. I don''t have an idea what''s going on anymore.

    ¡°This is such an extreme measure, no?¡± asked Fred.

    ¡°Extreme? Would you want to ruin your family¡¯s life if the BID find your inhuman body?¡± Rob cleaned his hands on his friend¡¯s shirt. ¡°I have to tell Raphie¡¯s wife to make up a story that he moved to, I don¡¯t know, somewhere in the Caribbean.¡±

    Vanessa screamed again, surprising us.

    ¡°Essa, calm down. It¡¯s over already.¡±

    ¡°No! Not that.¡± Vanessa was hyperventilating.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± I asked. Obviously not. Stupid question, Erind. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    She had her hand on her chest as she leaned on me for support. I held her and put on a concerned expression. ¡°Something killed one of my familiars. It-it hurts¡­¡± Blood was flowing out of a slit on her arm.

    ¡°We should get out of here,¡± Dominic said. ¡°Where did that familiar die?¡±

    ¡°Wait! I-I¡¯m not sure,¡± She was blinking rapidly again. ¡°Not sure which one died.¡±

    ¡°Essa, you have to be sure which one it is.¡±

    ¡°Is a Skitter coming here?¡± Fred said.

    ¡°This is the first time I¡¯ve sent out this many familiars at the same time.¡± She was on the verge of tears. ¡°Wait¡­wait¡­I¡¯m checking.¡±

    I rubbed her back. Was this correct? I didn¡¯t know shit about comforting people. ¡°Breath slowly.¡±

    ¡°That wa¡ª¡± Vanessa stopped upon hearing a foreboding sound. We all heard it. Metal against metal, constant tittering, like something with numerous metallic legs was coming closer.

    ¡°Everybody get down!¡± Rob yelled.

    Without a second thought, I pulled Vanessa to the ground. A steady drone of thunder nearly made us deaf as streaks of light lit up the room. The floor vibrated from the bullets raining down on us. Rob, mid-way in his transformation, ripped out one of the metal tanks off the floor and threw it at the fucker above shooting at us. That something dropped down to our level. I looked up just as Fred turned the flashlight in the direction of our attacker.

    It was a Skitter. I¡¯ve only seen pictures of it, but I was sure it was the combat drone we were talking about.

    Rob rushed in front of our group; metal pipes were in his fists. An armor of the same material as those pipes covered his body. The Skitter opened fire. It wasn''t normal gunfire. The Skitter was ripping through Rob, the best way to combat Adumbrae regeneration.

    ¡°Arggh!¡± Rob roared as the bullets stripped away parts of his armor and flesh. He didn¡¯t move away because we were right behind him. I bet it wasn¡¯t me he was especially keen on saving. But he wasn¡¯t going to last long, and we couldn¡¯t run out from behind him because the Skitter would just change its target to us.

    ¡°Rob!¡± Dominic waved his left hand. Red circles zipped across the floor and positioned themselves under the Skitter. The front part of the Skitter sunk into the ground, and its line of fire was directed downward, saving Rob. ¡°Everyone run! Rob get them away from here.¡± Dominic¡¯s blue circles surrounded the Skitter sprouting tendrils from the ground. They got hold of its turret, pulling it away from our direction.

    I helped Vanessa get up. ¡°Don¡¯t let your mask fall off,¡± I said, as I tightened my own mouth mask.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Rob said, easily scooping both of us. He draped Vanessa and me on each of his shoulders facing backwards. Dominic and Fred followed us. The Skitter has sunk halfway into the ground, red rings still underneath it. It kept on trying to point its guns towards us, but concrete tendrils held them facing another direction.

    ¡°Not that way,¡± Vanessa said, twisting her body to see where Rob was going. ¡°My familiar was killed that way.¡±

    ¡°You mean that Skitter there is a different one?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­yes.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡±

    The Skitter deployed a smaller arm from its back. It was a laser cutter, which it used to cut through the floor around it. Another arm appeared with a rotating blade and proceeded to hack away at the tendrils. I raised my gun. What would a gun do against it? ¡°It¡¯s trying to free itself!¡± I said.

    ¡°Wait! I¡¯m checking the map. It¡¯s hard to use the phone with my fat fingers.¡±

    ¡°Just go already!¡± I said, pounding on Rob¡¯s massive, metal covered back. ¡°It¡¯s going to start shooting again.¡±

    After hesitating a moment, Rob chose the path Vanessa said was safe, even though it was far longer.

 2.27

    Skitters were hot on our tails. They were few¡ªonly one or two catching up at a time¡ªbut they were quick, unrelenting and deadly. They seemed to know where we were no matter how fast we ran.

    ¡°Focus, everyone. This is a matter of life and death,¡± Rob advised us. ¡°Once we¡¯ve make it out of here, we¡¯re safe. The exit I¡¯ve prepared has a small bomb that we could detonate after we get out. It will seal the exit so these Skitters won¡¯t be able to follow us anymore.¡±

    ¡°Where do we exit?¡± Fred asked.

    ¡°In the northern part of Clover Heights. I bought a rundown garage there. It¡¯s permanently closed but it has a car inside we could use to escape. I prepared several of these places throughout the city in case of situations like this.¡±

    ¡°Very prudent, yes?¡±

    ¡°Keep up the speed. We still have some distance to cover.¡±

    I gave Vanessa a piggyback ride so she could focus on managing her familiars since she had sent out almost all of them. She was bigger than me and, at first, was hesitant to climb on my back. Rob and Dominic, however, had to concentrate on fighting, and she also didn¡¯t want Fred to carry her. Haha, poor guy. She had a hard time trying to articulate why she was uncomfortable with it so I just picked her up over her complaints.

    Her weight wasn¡¯t much of a problem. She locked her legs around my torso. With one hand, I held her legs in place high up on my waist so they wouldn¡¯t drag on the floor due to our difference in height; my other hand still gripped my stolen gun containing its precious two bullets. Vanessa wrapped her arms around my neck; the high-heeled sandals she was holding dangled down my chest. Rob told her to throw them away but I explained to him that there might be toe prints on the sandal and we couldn¡¯t be a hundred percent certain if Vanessa could wipe it completely clean.

    ¡°Are you serious?¡± Rob said. His pace slightly slowed with hesitation. ¡°Toe prints can be used to identify people like fingerprints?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a few cases in history that toe prints were used in criminal investigations,¡± I said in between huffs of air while I ran, recalling something I¡¯ve read in a criminal law book.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me before?¡± he angrily said. ¡°Damn it, I should¡¯ve crushed Raphie¡¯s feet too.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s extremely rare for toe prints to be used for identification. Mostly because, unlike finger prints, there¡¯s no database for those. After we escape here, just tell your friend¡¯s wife to thoroughly wipe everything that may have his toe prints and problem solved. There¡¯s no need to worry.¡±

    ¡°How about Essa?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s different with Vanessa. She can¡¯t exactly wipe off the patterns on the bottom of her feet now, can she? She can¡¯t even burn it off or mutilate it in some way because she¡¯ll just regenerate it back. We¡¯ll have to make sure not to leave any evidence behind, like her toe prints.¡±

    ¡°I can see your point,¡± Rob said. ¡°Next time, tell me immediately if you know something important like this.¡±

    Vanessa gasped and tightened her hold around my neck for a second, choking me. I almost blurted out, ¡°Fuck¡±, but held my tongue. I gave her a sidelong glance. Her head was right next to mine, our cheeks almost touching. Her eyes were tightly shut; she was completely focused on the viewpoint of her familiars. A teardrops slid from the corner of her eye.

    ¡°Did another one die?¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s far away from here.¡±

    Each time one of her eyeball pets died, she could feel it. The sockets on her arm where that specific dead eyeball came from would bleed. A number of them already died so we covered Vanessa¡¯s eyeball arm with a large piece of Dominic¡¯s coat to prevent her dripping blood along the floor which the Skitters could use to follow us. She could heal herself no problem, and she explained to me that her familiars would regenerate after a few days, but I assumed it still felt like parts of her body were removed piece by piece while she couldn¡¯t do anything about it. I wouldn¡¯t want that experience even though I had super healing.

    ¡°Essa, your familiars, how many remain?¡±

    ¡°Three out, and one last still in my arm. I¡¯m trying to use them to draw away the Skitters, but they can¡¯t survive for long. And then the Skitters would just continue chasing us.¡±

    ¡°They do seem to show up at every turn,¡± Dominic said. ¡°It¡¯s like they know where we are.¡±

    ¡°Hey, Greaves girl,¡± Rob said.

    What was the fake name I gave them again? ¡°It¡¯s Rachel.¡±

    ¡°Rachel, do you know if they have any way of tracking us?¡±

    ¡°Skitters have scanners that can probably detect where we went. But I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s how they¡¯re tracking us.¡±

    ¡°We are still far from the exit, no?¡± Fred said.

    ¡°Not that far. But we have to make it past a long narrow tunnel up ahead. No place to hide.¡±

    There was a collective groan of disappointment from our group. Straight paths were the most dangerous place to meet a Skitter. We¡¯d be basically trapped in a kill zone and our only hope of survival was Rob shielding us. He had to hold on long enough for Dominic to restrict and trap the Skitter. That was our strategy all this time. Besides the Skitter in the generator room, they had already trapped a couple more Skitters and also threw one down a large pipe.

    Even if, like Rob mentioned, he and Dominic didn¡¯t have any actual experience fighting with their powers, they made a pretty good team.

    As I had observed, Dominic could summon red and blue circles, three of each, which could only move, almost glide, on the surface of the floor or walls or even other objects. The red ones made anything on top of them sink down, kind of like the power of Rofirio, the idiot who kidnapped me. Unlike Rofirio¡¯s power though, which only liquified the surface he touched, the red circles actively sucked things into them, burying them into the floor or wall.

    In contrast, the blue ones sucked the material of the surface they were on to make tendrils which Dominic could then control.

    Rob¡¯s powers were pretty straightforward. He becomes bigger and more muscular, his strength, durability, regeneration and endurance multiplied a fewfold. And he could then absorb materials he touched to synthesize an armor to protect his entire body.

    I was pretty sure I could take on Dominic; the tendrils were only as strong as the material they were made of, and the circles were slightly visible if one paid close attention. Vanessa wouldn¡¯t be a concern either. Rob was a different story when he was in a transformed state. Lastly, I was also wary of what Fred¡¯s actual power was, although he didn''t seem to want to use it.

    ¡°How many steel bars do you have left?¡± Fred asked, anxiety laced his voice. ¡°Still many, yes?¡±

    Rob held up one steel bar with his meaty fingers; he was permanently on transformed mode now. ¡°Only this one. We have to make this count. Dom, the next Skitter we meet, hold it while I destroy it. I¡¯ll take some of its parts.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s risky, no?¡±

    ¡°Are you sure, Rob?¡± Dominic said.

    ¡°We have no choice. I have to find something to use. This bar is made of specially hardened steel I ordered, that¡¯s why I can stand the Skitter¡¯s firepower with an armor made out of this. If I use concrete or the metal from the pipes and doors around us, I will barely last a few seconds.¡±

    ¡°Like what happened in the generator room, yes?¡±

    ¡°Now, what object do you think could make an armor that could protect me against Skitters?¡±

    ¡°A Skitter¡¯s own armor,¡± I said.

    ¡°Correcto, Greaves girl. I¡¯m sure those goddamn murder machines are very durable. Dominic couldn¡¯t even dent them. That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to use this last steel bar to get close to one and dismantle it. I¡¯d have enough material for armor synthesis for more fights.¡±

    ¡°What will you do when you get close to it?¡± Dominic said. ¡°You had to throw that last Skitter down that chute because it was electrocuting you with its feelers. It''s almost a fluke I was able to close that pipe using my red and blue circles at the same time, or it would''ve climbed back up and killed us all.¡±

    ¡°Rob, don¡¯t do it,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°How can you dismantle a Skitter if you can¡¯t touch it? Its metal plating is also conducting the electricity from its feelers.¡±

    ¡°Your armor would start peeling if you¡¯re shocked and the Skitter could slice through you like butter with its charged blades. With three tendrils I can only hold back the guns, not the blades too.¡±

    Rob stopped at the mouth of a narrow circular tunnel. ¡°It¡¯s funny that you mentioned conducting electricity because my plan is related to that.¡± He ripped the shoes off his feet; they were already falling apart due to the size of his transformed feet. ¡°Greaves girl here gave me an idea.¡± He held up the tattered shoes with a proud grin, his contorted, overly muscular face looking even weirder. ¡°Leather is an insulator."

    ¡°Uh¡­yes. You sure that will work?¡±

    Rob shrugged. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a Skitter in this area,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°I only caught a glimpse of it earlier.¡±

    We listened intently for any hint of the dreadful scratching sound the Skitter made when it moved. Nothing. The only sounds were our feet on the floor of this narrow tunnel. A thought came to mind. Perhaps I should share it to look like a helpful member of the team.

    ¡°Rob, you told me to speak up when I think of something important,¡± I said. He only grunted as an answer. ¡°I¡¯m not super sure, but I think diamonds are insulators too. You and Vanessa were talking about a diamond bracelet earlier?¡±

    ¡°Really? They¡¯re insulators?¡± Vanessa said, almost yelling in my ear.

    ¡°I think they are. Is that why you told Vanessa to save them?¡±

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    ¡°No, I told Vanessa to keep them because I gifted them to her when she was a child. I will only use it in the direst situations. I didn¡¯t know it¡¯s also an insulator. I only know that diamond is the hardest material in the world and would make a good armor in case of an emergency.¡±

    ¡°Do you want it now, Rob?¡±

    ¡°Nah, keep it. I can use my leather shoes to insulate myself. I¡¯ll tell you when I will need it.¡±

    ¡°Okay then,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Wha¡ª?!¡± She gripped me tightly again.

    ¡°Urgk,¡± I croaked, trying to loosen Vanessa¡¯s hold on my neck. ¡°Is it here?¡± I said. Everyone stopped. They all knew what I meant by ¡®it¡¯.

    ¡°A Skitter! I¡¯ll try to distra¡ªit killed my familiar!¡±

    ¡°Coming from the front?¡± Rob said.

    ¡°Yes!¡±

    ¡°Traps out,¡± Dominic said.

    Fred crouched down, making himself as small as possible, and hid behind one of Rob¡¯s trunk-like legs. ¡°Oh my, we don¡¯t have much space to move.¡±

    Rob raised his hand. ¡°Making this last one count,¡± he said, absorbing the steel bar. He finished coating himself in a hardened steel armor just as the Skitter came into view at the end of the tunnel.

    The tunnel was sparsely lit so I could spot Dominic¡¯s circles zipping to the Skitter. The red circles positioned themselves below the Skitter but it jumped high up and clung to the ceiling, burying its bladed legs to secure itself.

    ¡°Shit,¡± Dominic spat.

    The Skitter opened fire, lighting up the tunnel. We huddled behind Rob. Bullets ricocheted off his body, hitting the walls. Clouds of debris formed. Sharps objects rained on us. Parts of the wall? Or shrapnel? I covered my head with my hands and shielded Vanessa with my body. Being wounded by shrapnel was a small sacrifice to gain their trust and, more importantly, to keep Vanessa safe. I needed her, all of us needed her to safely escape.

    ¡°Catch it!¡± Rob said.

    ¡°I can¡¯t see where it is!¡± Dominic sneaked a peek behind the massive wall that was Rob and was rewarded with a bullet that took a small chunk off his cheek. He yelled and held his bleeding face.

    Shouting over the deafening rumble of the Skitter¡¯s gunfire, Rob tried to explain to Dominic the Skitter¡¯s movements but he still couldn¡¯t catch it. Did the Skitters figure out how Dominic¡¯s powers worked and then shared the information among themselves? ¡°This is going nowhere,¡± Rob said. He bellowed, charging towards the Skitter.

    ¡°Don¡¯t leave us!¡± Fred said.

    Dominic pushed Vanessa and me down. ¡°Hug the floor!¡± Bullets zipped above us.

    Rob launched himself at the Skitter, pulling it from the ceiling. He slammed it to the floor, grabbed one of its legs and smashed it against the wall. He then ripped the leg off.

    Was he actually going to win?

    The Skitter jumped on him. Sparks erupted and covered both of them. Rob screamed in pain. The legs of the Skitter buried themselves deep into Rob¡¯s flank, his armor giving way as he was electrocuted. With a massive heave, he threw the Skitter upside down onto Dominic¡¯s waiting red circles on the floor. The floor absorbed the gun turret of the Skitter, rendering it useless.

    Rob was still convulsing from the shock coursing through his body via the charged blades embedded in him. The Skitter didn''t let go of him, pulling him down as it was sinking into the floor.

    ¡°He¡¯s going to die!¡± Vanessa said. She shoved Dominic away and rushed to Rob¡¯s aid.

    ¡°Vanessa, don¡¯t touch him,¡± I yelled, running after her.

    Dominic¡¯s tendrils tried to pry the Skitter¡¯s legs out of Rob¡¯s body, but was only able to remove a couple of them. Rob saw Vanessa was coming and yelled at her to stay away, but she didn¡¯t stop. With a mighty roar, Rob brought his foot down on the underbelly of the Skitter, pushing it further into the red circle and, at the same time, used it as a platform to jump away. The blades left his body as he flew across the air and crashed into the wall of the tunnel.

    I caught Vanessa and held her. ¡°Look, it¡¯s still dangerous to get close.¡±

    Rob was twitching, sparks jumping all over him, but he was still conscious, wearing a determined expression on his face. ¡°Stay there, Essa,¡± he said with labored breathing. ¡°Greaves girl, hold her.¡±

    ¡°Rob, are you okay?¡± Vanessa said.

    He¡¯s not, obviously, I thought. Why do we keep asking questions with obvious answers? Rob begun to absorb one of his leather shoes. The sparks died down when he was covered with leather.

    ¡°Amazing resilience, yes?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s Rob for you,¡± Dominic said.

    Vanessa pried my arms off of her waist and ran to Rob¡¯s side. We all followed her and gathered around Rob.

    ¡°Got that fucking hunk of metal,¡± he said, holding the leg he removed from the Skitter as trophy. ¡°I can get more parts now that it¡¯s trapped like an overturned turtle.¡± He tried to stand and then grimaced. ¡°What the hell?¡±

    ¡°What is it? Maybe you should rest for a minute or two.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like a good idea, no?¡± Fred said. ¡°We have to keep moving. Other Skitters will come, yes?¡±

    Rob rapidly turned back to human. ¡°Wait a goddamn minute. There¡¯s something¡­¡± He dug inside one of his wounds caused by the Skitter. Blood spurted out of the wound, but he kept on digging with his fingers even though the pain he was experiencing was apparent on his face. ¡°Damn, what the hell is this?¡±

    Vanessa reached out to him, but he swatted her hand away. ¡°Rob, what are you doing?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Are you getting a kidney stone?¡± Dominic said with a half-hearted smile. He pressed on his bleeding cheek.

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t know¡­I¡¯m about to get it out,¡± Rob said with clenched teeth. ¡°There!¡± Between his bloodied fingers was a small cylindrical metallic object he retrieved from inside his body.

    ¡°What is that?¡±

    ¡°This fuckin¡¯ piece of shit was electrocuting me from the inside. The Skitter injected it in my body.¡±

    As everyone came closer to have a look, a stroke of genius crossed my mind. ¡°That looks familiar," I said. "It almost looks like¡­¡± I grabbed it and pretended to intently examine. ¡°Ah! It is.¡± I dropped it to the floor and stepped on it until it broke into pieces.

    ¡°Huh? Why did you do that?¡±

    ¡°What was it anyway?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s an electro-shock weapon for incapacitating Adumbrae. Like a mini stun gun with a battery. You could¡¯ve guessed that, I suppose. But it has a second purpose. When it fails to incapacitate its target, it also doubles as something¡­a beacon for other Skitters.¡±

    ¡°A tracker?¡± Rob whispered.

    ¡°They have trackers?¡± said Dominic. ¡°That makes so much sense. If it can¡¯t stop an Adumbrae, then it will call other Skitters over to its location.¡±

    ¡°Then that means we have to get out of here now, yes?¡±

    ¡°Is that how they were tracking us? But wait¡ª¡±

    ¡°We don''t have anything like that,¡± Vanessa said as she patted her body. "We would''ve noticed."

    I nodded. ¡°You''re right, we don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°We should be careful not to have any trackers on our person.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure how to say this¡­but it¡¯s just that they¡¯ve been following us like they''re already tracking us.¡±

    ¡°Same impression here, Greaves girl,¡± Rob said. ¡°I did have that thought at the back of my mind. Vanessa¡¯s familiars were reduced to mere early warning devices with their deaths instead of actual scouts because the Skitters appeared to know which way to go.¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s the tracker then?¡± Dominic said.

    ¡°I can¡¯t recall an instance a Skitter could''ve placed a tracker on or even inside us¡­¡± I said slowly for dramatic effect, my eyes darting around. ¡°Unless¡­¡± My eyes stopped on Fred¡¯s clothes, colored red with his blood.

    Rob followed my gaze. ¡°You!¡± he said, grabbing Fred. ¡°Damn you! Were you the one leading them to us?¡±

    ¡°Wha-what? Me? No, no, no!¡±

    ¡°Let go of him, Rob,¡± Vanessa said, pounding on Rob¡¯s shoulder. But he wasn¡¯t listening to her. He was already transforming again.

    ¡°You said you were shot by a Skitter before you met us? Is that how it got a tracker inside you?¡± Rob¡¯s growled as he towered over Fred.

    ¡°Get your hands off! I don¡¯t have a tracker inside me.¡±

    ¡°How sure are you of that? Can we check¡ª?¡±

    ¡°You want to check inside my body, yes?" Fred punched Rob''s face but it had no effect. "To hell with that.¡±

    Rob began to absorb the leg of the Skitter. Metal armored in the same shade as the Skitter''s blanketed his body. ¡°You said you hid with Raphie? You fucking led the Skitters to him, you bastard!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no proof of that!¡±

    ¡°Rob, stop it,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Fred wasn¡¯t followed by a Skitter when we met him.¡±

    ¡°Vanessa, let¡¯s stay out of this,¡± I said, realizing that Vanessa might become the voice of reason. ¡°We have to get moving now, other Skitters might come soon. We¡¯re not sure how many of them are left. Or maybe the ones Dominic trapped have already freed themselves.¡±

    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll have to go,¡± Dominic said.

    Rob said. ¡°Without Fred.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re leaving me here? You can¡¯t be serious, no?¡±

    Rob gave his phone to Dominic. ¡°Use the map and go on ahead, I¡¯ll follow. I¡¯ve memorized the way.¡±

    Dominic hesitantly accepted the phone. ¡°Rob, what are you going to do?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll die if you leave me.¡± Fred tried to go to Vanessa but Rob held him. ¡°Vanessa¡¯s your name, yes? We¡¯re on the same side, yes? You said that yourself.¡±

    ¡°Shut your mouth,¡± Rob said. ¡°You go¡ª"

    ¡°We are. We are on the same side. Rob don''t¡ª¡±

    ¡°Come here, Vanessa,¡± I said, bodily lifting her. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about us, Rob. I won¡¯t let go of Vanessa.¡±

    ¡°No! Put me down.¡±

    ¡°All of you go. Now!¡±

    I ran while dragging Vanessa. ¡°Lead the way Dominic.¡± He had no choice but to follow us. Based on my impression of Fred and Rob, I kind of had an idea of what¡¯s going to happen. It was best that we weren¡¯t around.

    ¡°Don¡¯t leave me! Vanessa, help me!¡± Fred yelled trying to chase after us, but Rob slapped him back and pinned him to the wall.

    ¡°Rachel, let go of me!¡± Vanessa protested, but I ignored her.

    It was kinda reasonable to assume Skitters would have trackers. The possibility the object inside Rob was an actual tracker was also high. Was that actually a tracker?

    Who knows¡­

    Not me.

    Hehehe.

    I focused my strength, both mental and physical, on restraining Vanessa just so I wouldn¡¯t giggle. I was very, very close to breaking into fits of laughter; it¡¯s already bubbling under the surface.

    Even if that was an actual tracker, we¡¯d have no way of checking if Fred also had one without opening him up¡ªsomething that he was, understandably, opposed to. Vanessa had a point though. Fred ran a long way without getting killed by a Skitter. But tensions were running high, people weren''t thinking straight, and everyone just wants to escape in one piece.

    Sorry, Fred, I had to thin our numbers. I hope you survive out there on your own. I now had to think of some way to incapacitate Rob. How about that bomb he mentioned?

    We faintly heard the yells of Fred, ¡°If you leave me behind, I¡¯ll surrender and reveal everything to the Bureau!¡±

    Oooo¡­Why did you say that, dumbass? That was actually a legit threat and other people would have caved in to that. But not Rob. If it weren''t for Vanessa, Rob would''ve already left me behind even if I didn''t have a tracker. Fred should¡¯ve realized the lengths Rob would go to save himself¡­and Vanessa.

    The sounds of Fred and Rob arguing continued to echo in the tunnels even as we got further and further away from them. Vanessa strained to escape from my bear hug, but Dominic helped me in stopping her.

    A bloodcurdling scream made us halt.

    Then everything was silent. All of us realized what happened.

    And Vanessa stopped struggling to get back to Rob.

 2.28 - Vanessa Minnows

    Vanessa Minnows

    Everyone was going to die someday.

    Vanessa Minnows knew that.

    Everyone knew that. But everyone would like to think it wasn¡¯t going to happen to them soon. The same with her; she wasn¡¯t ready to die. She didn¡¯t know how it was for others, but for her, it was mere wishful thinking.

    She was supposed to die young.

    She was weak and frail for as long she could remember, weaker than her older brother and younger sister, weaker than her classmates and friends. Muscle problems...among others. Lots of other problems with her body, but the deteriorating muscles was the main concern. Yes, including the heart¡ªmany forget it was a muscle too¡ªand her lungs.

    She wasn¡¯t going to last long. Tough luck.

    The life expectancy of people with her condition was around the late teens. Lucky to get to the early twenties. Guess what? She was in her early twenties.

    Everyone told her she should feel lucky.

    She didn¡¯t.

    Her family was ready to do whatever it took to save her; they had the money for it. But there was a limit on how many of her organs could be replaced with machines, there was a limit on how far medicine could extend her life. Her body wouldn''t survive bioaugmentronic operations. She was simply too weak to continue on living.

    The doctors gave a very generous estimate of two more years. In that two years, she was going to suffer for every moment she was living on borrowed time.

    And she was willing to accept it.

    That was when her doting godfather stepped in with an offer. Become an Adumbrae. There was no need to worry, her godfather had said, she would be able to control her body. Her mind would be hers alone. She would get to enjoy a healthy body, and so much more. And she trusted him for he had been there for her and her family since she was a child. She even used to call him ¡®Rob¡¯ after a character in her favorite cartoon show; his actual name was nowhere near ¡®Rob¡¯.

    However, there was a cost. The life of others for hers to cheat death.

    Despite knowing this, without a moment¡¯s hesitation, she accepted Rob¡¯s offer.

    Because she didn¡¯t want to die.

    <hr>

    Rob caught up with them carrying scrap metal in his arms. He slightly bent down to fit the large stature of his transformed body in the small corridor they were in. ¡°Parts of the Skitter,¡± he explained. ¡°I used my other shoe to insulate myself and rip out what I could before other Skitters came.¡±

    No one responded. The others didn¡¯t say anything about Fred. Vanessa eyed what remained of Rob¡¯s clothes. Were they bloodier now? She couldn¡¯t tell if he had Fred¡¯s blood on him. His blood from several encounters with Skitters completely soaked his tattered shirt and pants in red.

    He noticed her stare. ¡°Essa¡­¡± he began to say.

    She looked away, purposefully staring down at the floor while Rachel supported her with an arm around her waist. Their roles were reversed now.

    ¡°Essa, are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?¡±

    She shook her head, her lips pursed. There was no problem with her. I wanted to be unwell. Because if she wasn¡¯t, then it meant she could¡¯ve broken free of Dominic¡¯s and Rachel¡¯s hold and stopped Rob. With her mouth familiars, she could incapacitate the two of them if she really wanted to. She didn¡¯t.

    ¡°That¡¯s good. I know you¡¯re angry with me right now, but I did what¡¯s the best for all of us.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t the best for Fred, she wanted to say, but what came out of her mouth was, ¡°I know.¡± Her voice cracked, surprising herself. She only then realized she was close to crying.

    They all slowed to a walk. ¡°Vanessa¡­¡± Dominic said. He reached out to her, noticed Rob¡¯s gaze, and stopped.

    Rachel rubbed her back. ¡°There, there, Vanessa. Rob had to do¡­um¡­do what he did to save us. To save you.¡±

    Vanessa was sure Rachel meant well, but her words only hurt her. She knew Rob had no qualms killing people to keep her safe. Rob undoubtedly felt her life was his responsibility since he was the reason she was here tonight.

    ¡°Greaves girl, thanks for taking Essa away.¡± Rob said. ¡°Essa, if you¡¯re angry with me, that¡¯s alright.¡±

    Vanessa shook her head. She wasn¡¯t angry with him. She was angry with herself. At the back of her mind, she agreed with Rob. To escape, they had to abandon Fred. It was too much of a risk to gamble that Fred didn¡¯t have a tracker in him when Skitters hounded them nonstop, her familiars dying left and right. She wanted to believe Fred didn¡¯t have a tracker, but in the end she didn¡¯t. She wasn¡¯t able to keep her promise of helping every other person she met as penance for the lives of the innocent needed to sustain her control over her body.

    ¡°Save your anger for when we get out. We¡¯re nearly there,¡± Dominic handed the phone with the map back to Rob, but he refused, gesturing for Dominic to keep it. ¡°Rob wouldn¡¯t care what you think of him as long as you¡¯re safe.¡±

    Pangs in her chest. Dominic repeating Rachel¡¯s sentiments drove stakes of guilt deeper in her. How many people had to die for her to live? But she also didn¡¯t want to die.

    ¡°You can call back your familiars trailing us, Essa,¡± Rob said, snapping her out of her wallowing thoughts.

    ¡°They¡¯re coming,¡± Vanessa said. She blinked once. A wide path with pipes running on the ceiling. This one was left, left, straight, then enter the tunnel where they fought the Skitter and abandoned Fred. Another blink. The other was hiding in the vents in a different tunnel running parallel to them. While peering through the grates, she tried to recall where this one was supposed to go.

    ¡°Have you already sent one to scout ahead?¡±

    ¡°My remaining one, yes. It left just before you rejoined us.¡± She checked the view of her last familiar. The walls were different, as if this corridor wasn¡¯t made at the same time as the rest of the underground network. ¡°Nothing here. Just go straight?¡±

    ¡°Follow the path. Your familiar will soon come upon a metal door. Past that is our goal.¡±

    ¡°How near are we to the exit?¡±

    ¡°Five minutes of running.¡±

    ¡°That near, huh?¡± Shut up, Vanessa. Just shut up! She couldn¡¯t bear the guilt, couldn¡¯t keep her mouth shut. Pretending to have the moral high ground was her refuge. ¡°We could¡¯ve saved¡ª¡±

    ¡°Vanessa!¡± Rachel said. ¡°It¡¯s four people for the life of one. This may sound too utilitarian, and yeah, every life is precious, blah, blah, blah, but would you rather have all of us die?¡±

    She made a mental thank you to Rachel for justifying what her heart truly felt. She should say ¡®sorry¡¯ to Rob, but couldn¡¯t get the words out. I could¡¯ve saved Fred¡ªthat was what she was sticking with. Otherwise she wouldn¡¯t be able to sleep at night. She didn¡¯t know how many people already died to maintain her treatment to keep the Adumbrae from taking over her body, but they were all faceless. Fred was a person she actually got to know, even if briefly. After they escaped and everything calmed down, she resolved to find his family and help them anyway she could.

    ¡°Essa,¡± Rob said. ¡°Is your familiar near the tunnel where we last fought a Skitter?¡±

    ¡°Yes, why¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Can you¡­er¡­¡± Rob mumbled something incomprehensible.

    Rachel said, ¡°I think Rob wants you to, I dunno, disconnect or something from your familiar passing through there.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t get it.¡±

    ¡°On behalf of Rob, I¡¯m going to guess he doesn¡¯t want you to look at Fred¡¯s body.

    ¡°I see,¡± Vanessa whispered. ¡°I understand.¡± Rob didn¡¯t meet her gaze, only nodding in agreement with Rachel¡¯s statement. She was about to check her familiar in that area specifically to find out what happened to Fred. They were right, it would be better if she didn¡¯t. It would only fracture her relationship with Rob.

    ¡°You can do that, right?¡± Rachel said. ¡°It¡¯s not like your familiars can¡¯t do anything unless you connect to them, if that¡¯s the right term.¡±

    ¡°They each have their own miniscule consciousness and could independently act based on general instructions, or even just feelings from me. But it¡¯s faster¡ªOw!¡± She pressed a hand to her left arm. A sharp pain, as if a hot blade stabbed deep, reaching her bone. A pain she was all too familiar with, having experienced it several times tonight. Which one was it? The familiar ahead. No. Air ducts? Not that.

    ¡°Where did it die?¡± The others asked each time this happened.

    ¡°The one that passed by Fre-uh, the tunnel where Rob took parts from a Skitter.¡±

    ¡°Did you see?¡± Rob said, unclear whether he meant Fred or the Skitter that killed the familiar.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see the Skitter.¡±

    ¡°See, they¡¯re really tracking us,¡± Rachel said.

    ¡°No disrespect,¡± Dominic said, ¡°but I hope the Skitter stops to examine Fred.¡±

    ¡°Dominic¡­¡± Rob said.

    Should she say something? Inwardly, Vanessa agreed with what Dominic was implying. But she wanted to show them differently. Fortunately, Rachel spoke up before she could say something stupid.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up before they catch us!¡± Rachel said, pulling her as she ran faster. ¡°Vanessa, has your familiar found the exit?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­yes! It reached a steel door. It¡¯s like a door of a safe from a bank.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it!¡± Rob said. ¡°Go! Go! Go!¡±

    Her heart was pounding even faster than her bare feet pounded on the ground. Finally, the end to this nightmare was near. To the Mother Core, to whichever god was real, to any interdimensional being that would listen, even the Adumbrae, if she got out of here, she would find out exactly how many people died for her sake and she would help a hundred people for each one of them. Set up a charity? A foundation? Soup kitchens? She¡¯ll figure something out. That¡¯s a promise!

    ¡°The door!¡± Dominic said. Vanessa¡¯s familiar was waiting for them in front of it, excitedly tapping its legs.

    ¡°Is it locked?¡±

    ¡°Not locked, but welded shut,¡± Rob said. ¡°I didn¡¯t want anyone opening this if they found it.¡±

    They reached the door. ¡°Do we force it open?¡± Rachel said. ¡°Looks sturdy.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s easy, Greaves girl.¡± Rob put his hands on the place where the metal frame melted with the edge of the door and started absorbing it. ¡°Raphie also has a way of opening these welded doors.¡±

    ¡°Look!¡± Dominic pointed behind them.

    In the other end of the corridor, two red dots popped up. The others might not see well in the dimly lit area, but Vanessa, with her vision that pierced through the darkness, saw the killer machine behind those two red specks. Bright searchlights pointing at them turned on, nearly blinding them.

    With a powerful kick, Rob opened the door.

    Vanessa was swept off her feet. ¡°Wha¡ª? Rob!¡± He threw her inside. Then he jumped in after her with Rachel and Dominic under both of his arms. He already started coating his body with Skitter armor.

    The barrage started.

    ¡°Aaahhh!¡± she screamed, barely hearing herself over the deafening rumble of gunfire. She curled up on the floor underneath Rob and covered her head.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°Close the door!¡± Rob roared. ¡°I can¡¯t move away.¡± For the umpteenth time, he protected them. Vanessa could barely distinguish the individual sounds of bullets pinging off his metal covered back.

    ¡°I got it!¡± Dominic waved his glowing blue hands. He rolled to the side to get a view of the door. His tendrils tried pulling the door shut. The Skitter switched its aim to destroying the tendrils. ¡°Rob!¡±

    The door had closed halfway, just enough to cover them. Rob rushed to the door and finally closed it all the way. The pounding of the bullets on the metal door didn¡¯t stop. The door was gradually getting deformed by the impact of the bullets. Rob held the door in place, supporting it with his entire body, planting his feet firm on the ground. Chunks of the armor on his back were torn away, revealing bloody shredded flesh that was slowly healing.

    Pain shot up Vanessa¡¯s arm. Was she hit? No. A familiar died. The one by the door wasn¡¯t able to get in.

    ¡°What now?¡± Rachel said.

    They found themselves in a cramped room with roughly finished walls. There was barely any space for the four of them, especially with the hulking Rob. If the door and Rob weren¡¯t there, they would all be dead. ¡°There¡¯s the way!¡± Vanessa said. On the wall directly opposite the door was a ladder, similar to a fire escape ladder, running upwards to freedom.

    ¡°Go up, Vanessa,¡± Rachel said.

    ¡°No! You go up first.¡± If she went ahead, Rob might leave the others behind. Maybe not Dominic because they were acquaintances of some sort, but how about Rachel? They barely knew her. Rob wouldn¡¯t care about her once Vanessa was safe.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do this cheesy movie bullshit now.¡± Rachel pushed her to the ladder.

    A large explosion behind them made Vanessa grab the ladder. Smoke filled the room. The door was nearly blown off the entrance. Some bullets hit the wall right beside her.

    ¡°Hurry, Essa!¡± Rob said while he scrambled to put the door back in place. Dominic helped out closing the entrance, using the tendrils from his blue circles, and sucking the edges of the door into the sides of the opening with his red circles.

    She started to climb up. The metal rungs were cold but welcoming on the skin of her bare feet. This was what she wanted. She wanted to live. No need to lie to herself. She was getting out of here first. The others would follow her, for sure, and they¡¯d all escape.

    ¡°Rachel, go up too,¡± Dominic said. ¡°Your gun is not going to help here.¡±

    Vanessa reached the ceiling. It was a hatch with a lock. ¡°What do I do?¡± she stammered.

    Rachel, who was below her, shouted, ¡°Pull it! You can just destroy it.¡±

    She pulled the lock open with all her strength. The gunfire made her nervous, she couldn¡¯t think properly. It easily broke. Another explosion rocked the tiny room. She nearly lost her grip on the ladder. She looked back down to check what happened.

    The upper part of the door was blown away. Rob and Dominic were ducking behind what remained of the door. The Skitter¡¯s shots reached inside the room, hitting the bottom of the ladder.

    ¡°How many bullets does it have?¡± Dominic said.

    ¡°Another Skitter arrived!¡±

    ¡°Vanessa, open it and go!¡± Rachel said.

    ¡°Something went inside!¡± she said, ignoring Rachel. ¡°Rob, look out. Rob!¡±

    Another bug-like drone the size of a chihuahua slipped through the opening and jumped on Rob. It glowed blue and exploded into a cloud of sparks. Rob¡¯s body twisted, his muscles contracting uncontrollably as the massive shock course through his body. His body started to smoke. Despite this, he held on to the door which was slowly broken down by the unrelenting gunfire from the Skitter outside.

    ¡°Go away, you fuck!¡± Dominic, blinded with rage and fear, swung a broken piece of the metal door at the small drone. Fortunately, Dominic missed or else he would have been electrocuted too.

    What do I do?! If Rob remained with his metal armor on, he would die from electrocution. She could throw her sandals for him to absorb; there might be some material that was an insulator in them, but the Skitters outside would tear through Rob and then Dominic. Either way, Rob was going to die.

    Just go up and leave them, a small voice told her. Save yourself. She didn¡¯t want to die. There was nothing to do here. She opened the hatch.

    ¡°The diamond bracelet!¡± Rachel shouted. ¡°Throw it down to me!¡±

    Diamond! It was both an insulator and the hardest material in the world. That meant it would be a good armor! She dropped the bracelet to Rachel¡¯s waiting palm. With it, Rob could survive the electric shocks and guns of the Skitters.

    Rachel descended the ladder, just above the big Skitter¡¯s line of fire, and threw the bracelet to Rob. ¡°Catch this!¡±

    In Vanessa¡¯s view, the world slowed to a crawl as the bracelet arched through the air. She could hear her own heartbeat. Weird. The bracelet glinted differently, like it was made of a golden material rather than diamond stones.

    Rob stood up and stretched his arms to catch it. Without the protection of the door, bullets impacted his body. His Skitter armor was still mostly there. The small drone glowed blue once again, charging another massive electric shock.

    ¡°Absorb it!¡± she screamed. Rob¡¯s fists closed on the bracelet and their eyes met. He caught it. Yes!

    Where was the diamond armor?

    Was I too late?

    As the mini Skitter zapped Rob, Vanessa saw in his eyes he lost consciousness. His body was about to fall to the ground, but was stopped by the incessant shots by who knows how many Skitters in the corridor. The powerful gunfire pinned him to the wall just below Rachel, his body slowly ground like minced meat by waves upon waves of bullets hitting it.

    Dominic, who partially sunk himself on the floor to avoid getting hit, stared up in horror as Rob¡¯s blood, flesh and bones rained on him.

    ¡°ROB!¡± Vanessa¡¯s right arm shuddered. A chorus of chattering. Menacing laughter. Gnashing teeth. Red filled her vision. Another person died for her. Were they going to die next? She didn¡¯t want to die. I¡¯m not going to die! ¡°NOOOOOO!!¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Rob!¡± Vanessa jerked awake. Rachel was over her with a concerned face, her head was on her lap. ¡°Wha¡ªwhat happened? Where are we?¡± she groaned as she sat up.

    ¡°At last you¡¯re awake,¡± Dominic said in a low voice. ¡°We were thinking of shaking you, but we were worried they would attack us.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ª? Where¡¯s Rob?¡±

    ¡°Can you get them away first?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why are they out?¡± Vanessa said, noticing what made Dominic so afraid. Surrounding them were her mouth familiars, about a dozen of them. They weren¡¯t incoherently babbling or laughing like they usually did when she opened their sockets. They bared rows of sharp teeth at them, quivering with anger like a rabid dog ready to pounce.

    ¡°I was about to use my power to try and stop them but I didn¡¯t want to look like a threat. I know what they can do.¡±

    ¡°Call them off, Vanessa,¡± Rachel said. ¡°You can do that right?¡±

    ¡°Ye¡ªyes! Of course.¡± She closed her eyes and connected to all the mouth familiars, telling them to calm down, quelling their rage. There was a disgusting taste in her mouth upon directly controlling them. She gagged at the taste, quickly closing her mind to them before she vomited. ¡°That should do it.¡± They shut their mouths, retracted their legs and sat still on the ground, looking like gigantic roasted almonds. ¡°Where are we?¡± she said, looking at the old machines covered in dust and cobwebs surrounding them. There were parts of the frame of a car lining the wall. Mufflers on a work table. ¡°An abandoned mechanic¡¯s shop? We made it out? Where¡¯s Rob?¡±

    ¡°Err¡­¡±

    ¡°And what did you mean by that Dominic? You said you know what my familiars can do. You''ve never seen them out of my arm before.¡±

    Rachel and Dominic looked at each other with hesitation. ¡°For your first question,¡± Rachel answered, ¡°yes, this is the garage Rob mentioned. We got out, thanks to you and your mouth familiars.¡±

    Vanessa couldn¡¯t remember controlling her mouth familiars. She might¡¯ve blacked out from using all of them at the same time. Her familiars took out all the Skitters? However, the more important question was, ¡°And Rob?¡±

    Rachel took a deep breath. ¡°He didn¡¯t make it.¡±

    Vanessa¡¯s lips trembled. She knew what the answer was going to be. She remembered now¡­his last moments. He was clearly dead by then.

    What would she tell Aunty Marie about her husband? What would she tell Rob¡¯s children? That she wasn¡¯t able to save him? That she was too stupid to think fast and give him the diamond bracelet? ¡°I should¡¯ve given him the diamond bracelet from the start!¡± she said, punching the dusty floor of the garage with each word. ¡°I should¡¯ve forced him to take it!¡±

    ¡°Vanessa, this is not the time to blame yourself. We¡¯re not yet in the clear. Move away now so that Dominic can detonate the bomb to close the tunnel below us.¡±

    ¡°We couldn¡¯t do it as soon as we got out because your familiars followed and surrounded us. They must¡¯ve made short work of the Skitters and chased us. Or you. Chased after you.¡±

    ¡°They really did it? They destroyed the Skitters¡­wait...¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t!¡± Rachel hugged her. ¡°Don¡¯t think that.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I could¡¯ve saved him¡­even without the diamond.¡±

    ¡°Vanessa. Stop. Just don¡¯t think about that for now.¡± Rachel pulled her up and dragged her away. ¡°If we don¡¯t leave now, other Skitters will come. Maybe even police or the BID will come.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re already above ground,¡± Dominic said. ¡°Don¡¯t let Rob¡¯s sacrifice be in vain.¡±

    ¡°He didn''t even need to sacrifice himself if I wasn''t such a coward!¡± she retorted.

    ¡°He wouldn¡¯t want you to get caught here after all we¡¯ve been through.¡±

    Her shoulders dropped. She stood up and followed them in resignation. ¡°Wait! Rob¡¯s body! He said¡­that thing with Raphie. We should do that.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve seen what happened to his body. There''s no need. Move your familiars away and let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°We have to make sure. You weren¡¯t able to check because you quickly escaped, right?¡±

    ¡°Vanessa there¡¯s no point doing that. The Skitters...uh¡­they blew everything up.¡±

    ¡°No, they didn¡¯t. What¡¯re you talking about, Dominic?¡±

    ¡°The police wouldn¡¯t be able to identify anything,¡± Rachel said.

    ¡°How can you be sure?¡± There was something about their expressions. They were keeping a secret from her. ¡°Oh god¡­No¡­¡±

    ¡°Rachel...¡±

    ¡°No... Please no. No, no, no!¡± That taste when she connected to her mouth familiars. It wasn¡¯t a metallic taste. She tasted something like it before. When she first used her mouth familiars, they went berserk and ate her dog in seconds. She vowed never to use them again after that. But that taste¡­that texture¡­ ¡°Did I? Did I eat him?¡±

    Rachel and Dominic didn¡¯t answer.

    They didn¡¯t need to. She could see the answer on their faces.

    Bile rose from her stomach. The bitter taste crept at the back of her tongue. She knelt on the ground and vomited. ¡°I must¡¯ve¡­I must¡¯ve been thinking of removing all traces of identification from his body when I controlled the familiars.¡± Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. At the ultimate moment of desperation, her true self was revealed. In the end, all she was thinking about was saving herself. Making sure the authorities couldn¡¯t find out who Rob was so they wouldn¡¯t eventually find her too. What a disgusting person she was.

    Rachel helped her up. ¡°Get your familiars out of the way.¡±

    ¡°No."

    "Don''t be unreasonable."

    "Bury them.¡±

    "What?"

    "Bury them all!"

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Dominic said.

    ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t want to control them.¡± The taste. She didn¡¯t want to experience it again. ¡°Rob is inside them. Bury them here.¡± She allowed herself to be led away by Rachel.

    Dominic said that according to Rob¡¯s notes on the phone the explosion would be small enough to just collapse the floor, so they only needed to move to the room where the detonator was located and they¡¯d be safe. Vanessa didn¡¯t care anymore. She blanked her mind, following Rachel like a zombie while they went to a different room to retrieve the control for the small bomb.

    No more thoughts.

    Don¡¯t try to remember anything about Rob.

    Otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t be able to carry on. She would break down and vomit.

    She stood expressionless while the shop shook from the explosion. She watched Rachel and Dominic find the key for the car. Dominic checked the car to see if it was okay to drive.

    This was it. They were going.

    She survived.

    ¡°Vanessa, Rachel, get in the car. I¡¯m going to open the garage door.¡±

    ¡°Let me,¡± Vanessa said.

    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Vanessa. I¡¯ll do it. You can rest with Rachel.¡±

    ¡°No. This is not ending with me moping.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s what you want.¡±

    Vanessa pushed up the rusted garage door, feeling the slight thump as each slat of the door fed into the compartment above.

    Was this entire night her penalty for becoming an Adumbrae? For not caring about the cost of keeping on living? Rob assured her they were homeless people, those with no family and friends, people society didn¡¯t care about. No one would miss them. That shouldn¡¯t have made her feel better if she was a decent person.

    But it did.

    She was revolted with herself for shutting her ears and heart to the screams of the people dying in the arena while she dined and socialized with the friends of Rob as if a massacre wasn¡¯t happening in front of them.

    This is my life now.

    Her godfather was dead. The city was in turmoil. And they were being hunted down. She couldn¡¯t shake off the sinister feeling this was only the start of her penalty.

    ¡°Vanessa,¡± Dominic called out, ¡°get in the car.¡± He tapped the windshield to get her attention.

    ¡°Coming!¡± She wasn¡¯t going to waste Rob¡¯s sacrifice. She would live her life to the fullest. Whatever the future may bring, she wouldn¡¯t give up.

    ¡°Sit here beside me,¡± Rachel said from the backseat.

    Vanessa smiled. A good thing that came out of the worst night of her life was a new friend her age who could relate to her peculiar situation. She bent down and entered the side of the car opposite Rachel. ¡°Ra-Rachel?¡± She couldn¡¯t understand what she was seeing.

    ¡°Urgh¡­urck,¡± Dominic gasped from the front of the car. Blood came out of his mouth. A long piece of metal stuck out from the front of his neck. The metal end of a screwdriver. He tried to pull it out but Rachel held fast on the handle behind his seat.

    ¡°What are you¡ª¡±

    Rachel pointed her gun at the back of the headrest of Dominic¡¯s seat, aligned the barrel with his head, and pulled the trigger before Vanessa could process what was happening. Dominic¡¯s head slumped down, blood flowing out of the hole in his forehead.

    Vanessa tried to back out of the car but Rachel grabbed her arm and pressed the hot end of the gun between her eyes.

    I don¡¯t understand.

    She stared into Rachel¡¯s eyes expecting malice, anger, maniacal glee, or even cold empty eyes. But it was neither of those. Rachel had a neutral expression, as if they were waiting in line for an order of coffee, as if she wasn''t about to murder another person.

    Just like when Rachel threw the diamond bracelet at Rob, the world slowed to a crawl for Vanessa. In that split-second Rachel¡¯s finger was about to pull the trigger, many questions raced through Vanessa¡¯s mind, every one of them vying for the position to be her last words before she left this world. Who was Rachel? Did she lie to them about the tracker in Fred? Did she really throw the diamond bracelet to Rob? Why was she doing this? The words that won in the end were¡­

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to die.¡±

 2.29

    Monsters, cold-blooded and evil, without an ounce of guilt or remorse, people you¡¯d hesitate to call humans¡ªthe usual descriptions of my kind. This was mostly due to the media¡¯s tendency to sensationalize everything. Movies, TV shows, and books depicted only the most extreme of us. In the news, criminals committing heinous acts of brutality were often labelled as my kind even if it was hardly the case.

    Take ownership of your own shortcomings, normal people. Don¡¯t push it on us.

    It wasn¡¯t like we didn¡¯t know how to distinguish between good and evil, or at least what society considered as such. We did. We just didn¡¯t care for it. But that didn¡¯t mean we were evil. That we were full of malice. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was no voice in our head egging us on to do evil deeds. Come to think of it, our lack of empathy oftentimes prevented us from being intentionally malicious.

    We did what was beneficial for us and avoided things that were bad for us.

    Just like everyone else.

    Taking advantage of others? Not caring for others? Wasn¡¯t that normal human behavior?

    I¡¯d argue it¡¯s actually worse in the case of normal people. They felt guilty about doing the wrong thing, for going against their morals and values, their conscience supposedly restricts them, they wrestle with a voice inside their head telling them not to do this or that¡­because it¡¯s bad...because it''s evil¡­

    ¡­yet, they still do it anyway.

    Personally, I considered those people were more dangerous than my kind.

    And it wasn¡¯t as if my kind were devoid of morals or values. Each of us had our own Rules, some more concrete than others. And I was proud that my Rules, for the most part, coincided with peacefully integrating in society.

    In my own assessment, I was a pretty considerate and well-mannered individual¡ªI had Rule #4, for example. I didn¡¯t go out of my way to be a cunt to others. I didn¡¯t take advantage of anyone unless necessary¡­or if I was bored¡ªbut that rarely happened. Give me a pass on that one. If someone helped me, I generally repaid them in one way or another even if there was no incentive for me to do so.

    I was proud of my efforts to be a ¡®decent¡¯ person in the eyes of society.

    Applause please.

    Vanessa helped me. Big time. There was next to no chance I would¡¯ve gotten out of the maze of tunnels alive if she didn¡¯t take me into her group. I wasn¡¯t an ungrateful bitch to just forget about that.

    I unscrewed the cap of the red five-liter fuel can I found in the trunk of Rob¡¯s getaway vehicle. It was packed along with canned goods, bottled water, medicine, a tent, and other survival tools. Even though he was dead, I had to commend Rob¡¯s preparedness. I wrinkled my nose as the sharp stench of gasoline filled the air, but it was soon wafted out of the open garage door by the billowing air of the cold, early morning. Poised to pour gasoline over the dead bodies of two of the heroes that helped me, I stared at them for one last time, burning their memories in my heart before I burned them for real.

    I never forgot those who helped me.

    Vanessa¡¯s dead eyes stared at the ceiling of the garage. Literally dead eyes. Blood flowed from the bullet hole right above her nose bridge, down her left cheek, and to the grubby floor. A red pool collected behind her head, forming almost sort of a halo. An angel of blood.

    Beautiful.

    It turned out shooting between the eyes did result in instant death. I¡¯d seen it a few times in movies and I¡¯ve read about it too. I thought it was only for dramatic effect, or maybe for a cool line¡­shoot between the eyes. But in one episode of a true crime series Mom loved, it was explained by an expert that while people sometimes survived headshots, shooting between the eyes guaranteed a kill. The brain stem was there and other important brain stuff, whatever. The victim wouldn¡¯t even know they were dying; the last thing that would register in their mind would be the sight of the barrel.

    A quick and painless death¡ªthe least I could do for Vanessa.

    Well¡­it was also within my interests that she died quickly, without any opportunity to regenerate or use any more powers she was hiding. But¡­shhhh¡­let¡¯s just go along with the reason I wanted her to die painlessly as a sign of gratitude.

    Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t do the same for Dominic. I wasn¡¯t sure I could accurately hit his brain stem through the headrest of the driver¡¯s seat. To hold his head in place before I shot, I stabbed his neck with a screwdriver I found in drawer, hopefully also damaging his spine in the process. He had a rough time dying from the looks of it. I laid him face down on the floor beside Vanessa so I wouldn¡¯t see his expression frozen in agony. Sorry, Dominic, I tried my best.

    I poured the gasoline over my two friends.

    Yes, I¡¯ll award them the distinction of being considered my friends for their bravery and self-sacrifice.

    Involuntary self-sacrifice¡­if one wanted to get all technical about it. I appreciated it nonetheless.

    ¡°Oops, shit. Oh my god, Vanessa.¡± I accidentally splashed gasoline over her wide-open eyes. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry.¡± I knelt down beside her and tried to close her eyes. They wouldn¡¯t stay closed. ¡°This wasn¡¯t like the movies at all,¡± I murmured. I tried a few more times but her eyelids were insistent on staying half-open, like she was very sleepy. ¡°Fine, just stay that way.¡±

    After I emptied the contents of the fuel can, another idea popped in my head. I searched all over the garage shop for flammable materials. Cardboard boxes, a wooden table and cabinet I ripped apart with my bared hands, and stacks of yellowing papers, probably receipts and documents of this shop when it was still operational. I covered the bodies of Vanessa and Dominic with them, making sort of a funeral pyre. I removed Dominic¡¯s coat and placed it on top of him, murmuring thanks.

    I felt like I did something wrong...I probably should''ve made the pyre first and poured the gasoline after, not the other way around.

    Oh well, it looked cool. Satisfied with my work¡ªwhich they also would¡¯ve liked if they weren¡¯t, you know, dead¡ªI lit up a wad of crumpled paper using Dominic¡¯s lighter attached to his keychain and tossed it to the pile. I slowly backed away, smiling fondly at the flame that was growing.

    The fire crept over the paper and cardboard, curling them, turning them black. Suddenly, a fireball erupted and the small flame consumed the whole pyre.

    "Fucking shit!" I exclaimed, holding my hands up to cover my face, running backward out of the garage. The skin on my arms were a bit singed, but they were healing. The ends of my hair were also burned. It wasn''t regenerating; I supposed dead cells like hair wouldn''t regenerate. Did I pour too much gas?

    The roaring fire licked the brittle wood until it succumbed to the heat. Flames danced higher and higher, reaching the ceiling of the garage, enveloping Vanessa and Dominic. Their clothes started to crumple. The fire swept through the thin film of gasoline covering the puddle of blood beneath their corpses.

    A fiery blood angel.

    Very beautiful.

    ¡°You guys really made me rack my brains thinking how to kill all of you,¡± I said as the heat of the growing fire splashed my haggard face. Without Dominic¡¯s coat, I started to feel cold. I held out my hands to warm them over the flames.

    Disposing of Fred was such a sheer stroke of genius on my part that I wanted to award myself a gold medal. I was about ninety percent certain Fred didn¡¯t have a tracker on him. Like Vanessa said, Fred made it all the way to us without getting attacked by a Skitter. I had no idea why Skitters kept on finding us though.

    Getting rid of Rob was a bit more problematic. I was selling to him the idea of using the diamond bracelet as armor. I¡¯d encountered the factoid that diamond was the hardest material on earth, but I hadn¡¯t heard of a diamond armor.

    Why was that?

    After our encounters with the Skitters, I noticed that Rob¡¯s armor made out of the special metal bar was deformed, the impact of the bullets left pockmarks on its surface, or mini craters more like. I doubted a diamond armor could absorb impact like that. Hadn¡¯t seen a diamond get dented after getting hit, only chipped. A diamond armor could probably survive a few hits, but it would shatter under continuous gunfire. That was the key to killing Rob.

    Timing it would be very difficult. We had to be near the exit when Rob died because of a faulty armor. I also needed to kill Dominic and Vanessa while escaping the Skitter that would kill Rob.

    In the end, I didn''t even follow the tricking-Rob-into-using-a-diamond-armor plan. What actually happened wasn¡¯t as I envisioned it.

    But, hey, everything worked out in the end.

    The skin of the corpses started to break, like a sausage splitting, its casing opening when cooked, revealing the bloody flesh beneath. The fire pounced on the exposed flesh, fueling itself to grow larger with human fat. I walked further away. The garage itself was burning.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Death¡­with the brain destroyed, the connection to the Adumbrae severed, powers gone¡­this was the closest they could get to returning to human.

    Wow, that is fucking poetic. Almost made myself tear up.

    ¡°I wish there was some other way,¡± I said. ¡°But I had no choice.¡± If I didn¡¯t kill them and they were able to contact the criminal organization led by the 2Ms, then the latter would find out I wasn¡¯t one of them and would try to find me. The 2Ms would have even more reason to search for, and maybe even kill me, when they realized I was the same person they kidnapped on the same day their base at the docks was destroyed.

    Up to this day I still had no clue why the 2Ms had kidnapped me. That was the main reason I went to live with Deen and was sort of helping Dario¡¯s group. They probably targeted me because of my connection with Dario¡¯s group. But no one should¡¯ve known about it¡­unless there was a traitor in their¡­oh, sorry, I mean our group. And that was another reason I joined them; they already knew who I was anyway, so might as well get close to find if one of them was working with the 2Ms.

    I also didn¡¯t want the 2Ms piecing together that I was the giant wolf Adumbrae that attacked the docks. From what I gathered from the conversation of Rob and the others, the 2Ms had plenty of enemies. They might¡¯ve assumed it was an enemy organization that attacked the docks.

    However, once they knew I was also here in the club at the same time the wolf Adumbrae made another appearance, it would click that I was at least connected with it, even if they didn¡¯t know the truth that I was actually that giant werewolf.

    I would¡¯ve stood there for a longer time, but I had to go. I had no issue looking at the burning bodies. They were my friends, after all. Getting grossed out by their cremation was disrespectful. The smell though¡­it was causing me to gag. I didn''t want to make a disgusted face in front of them.

    ¡°Bye guys,¡± I said, stepping in the car.

    Arms of darkness welcomed me as I drove out into the street. The only sources of illumination beside the headlights of the car were the puny lightbulb and friendly bonfire inside the garage. And now that I left behind its warmth, the cold caressed my skin through my torn and ragged clothes. Beyond this tiny island of light was a sea of black.

    There were no stars in the sky. Was it just cloudy or was it because the heavy smoke from the detonation of the Greaves reactor of the two BID agents rolled high above the city?

    The light pole outside the garage wasn¡¯t working. It was slightly bent. Broken glass was at its base. The two-story building the next door over also suffered some damage. Its sign had fallen down on the sidewalk and its display windows completely shattered. Must¡¯ve been due to the shockwave of the explosion reaching here.

    The street was weirdly empty. Even with the advisory from the city mass message system to stay indoors, people would¡¯ve been out in the streets after that explosion.

    Rob did mention this was in the northern part of Clover Heights. I recalled this was a sort of a neglected portion of the neighborhood, the southern area being the lively part full of thriving business. From the little I could see with the headlights of the car shining down the road, I spotted other closed or abandoned shops similar to the one Rob bought.

    Because there was no one around, I decided to park the car along the curb to continue watching the last moments of my friends. ¡°Ugh, I suck at parking so much,¡± I said. Fortunately, there were no other parked cars so I didn¡¯t hit anything.

    I opened one of the bottled waters Rob packed as supplies. Would¡¯ve been better if I had liquor, but I didn¡¯t like to drink anyway so this would suffice. The water felt so good running down my parched throat. Only now did my thirstiness hit me after fighting and running around the entire night.

    I drank about half of the water in the bottle then poured the rest on the street.

    ¡°Libations for my friends! Ten-over-ten rating. Would make friends with you again.¡± I didn¡¯t have any flowers or anything to make into a cool funeral for them but then I remembered pouring liquor on the ground was a thing. In fact, the ancient Egyptians used water as libations, the holy Nile river and all that, so this was fine.

    I wasn¡¯t doing this sarcastically. I did consider them as my friends. I didn¡¯t even eat their brains even though that was my initial plan joining the fight in the arena beneath the club.

    Why did I want to eat brains?

    Rofirio said he ate the brain of one of the mutants because it would stop him from losing himself. I assumed he meant that he should eat the brains of people with power, be it mutant or Adumbrae, so he would maintain his sanity and not lose his mind to the Adumbrae giving him powers.

    That was it.

    Only an assumption.

    Why did I assume that though? I had no concrete evidence to back it up. The 2Ms did seem to use mutants in some way to maintain the sanity of their clients. The mustache guy in the arena who found out I wasn¡¯t one of their clients said they processed the brains of the mutants. Made sense. There was probably something in the brains of people who failed to become an Adumbrae that they used with scientific hocus-pocus to turn it into something to stabilize the brains of their clients against the interdimensional encroachment of malevolent entities.

    I actually never saw their clients eating brains. Like, you know, right out of the skull. When someone won in the arena, a drone came to pick up the head of the mutant they defeated like some kind of prize.

    Where the fuck was I getting the impulse to eat brains?

    Know what I saw actually eating brains?

    That weird Cocoon that popped out of nowhere.

    Even Rob and the others were puzzled by it. The BID agents deemed it dangerous enough they sacrificed themselves and the lives of who knows how many people above ground just to stop it.

    Hmmm¡­did SpookyErind have a hand in this?

    That bitch!

    Something crashed, interrupting my musings. I jerked and looked around for the source of the noise. It was just the ceiling of the garage falling apart. The fire had reached up the walls and ceilings and was slowly burning it down.

    Time to go.

    While driving, I stared at the diamond bracelet on my wrist. I''ll keep this to remember you, Vanessa.

    As I left the ghost town portion of Clover Heights, I came to witness the destruction wreaked by the detonation of the Greaves reactor. I drove past fallen trees, street lights, telephone poles. There was so much broken glass. Windows of cars, of houses, of shops, of buildings. Some buildings were on fire.

    People were on the streets, running this way and that. Some with injuries. Others trying to find help for the injured.

    But there was no help.

    No ambulances, no firetrucks. I did hear sirens somewhere far off. It had been about two years since I last drove a car, so I was a bit tense navigating the streets full of panicked people. I nearly ran over a guy who was trying to flag me down. He probably wanted a ride to the hospital for his injured wife and kid waiting on the sidewalk.

    I ignored him. Sorry, I¡¯m just hurrying to have a shower.

    After exiting Route 42 and jumping to the highway, I finally saw the center of the explosion in the distance. A tall pillar of smoke rose out of the ground, rivalling the height of surrounding skyscrapers. The area around it glowed a distinct orange. Helicopters floated above.

    Most of the city¡¯s ambulances and firetrucks were probably at that place. The police too. I wondered how many cops that accompanied the raid died. Probably all of them.

    There were no cops in the streets to enforce the curfew. Despite the advisories, there were plenty of cars driving along the highway with me. People rushing to the hospital. People rushing to help their friends and families.

    I checked my phone. The city still hadn¡¯t lifted the signal lock. Only messages and calls to emergency numbers allowed. This contributed to the general panic and mayhem in the city.

    ¡°Where should I go?¡± I wondered out loud. Back to my apartment? Or to Deen¡¯s house? Wait a minute¡­ I slammed the steering wheel upon remembering something important. ¡°Shit! Bianca got Deen.¡±

    Did I remember it correctly? My memory from when I was in my giant beast form was muddy, but I recalled Xazary, Bianca¡¯s bodyguard, saving Deen in the arena. Best case scenario, Bianca just dropped off Deen at her house and went away to mind her own business, maybe hide or prepare to be investigated by the BID. Or she took Deen to hide with her¡ªmeaning she still hadn¡¯t figured out Deen wasn¡¯t one of them. Worst case scenario, Bianca already discovered Deen''s secret and she delivered her to the 2Ms.

    They¡¯d torture her to spill our identities and they were going to hunt us. Killing Vanessa and Dominic would¡¯ve had no point. Damn.

    Ok, ok, let¡¯s tackle this one at a time.

    I¡¯ll check Deen¡¯s house first. Most likely she wasn¡¯t there. Take a shower while thinking of a plan. Try to look for Dario and the rest, if they were still alive. Then figure out a way to find Bianca and Deen. Rescue Deen and maybe kill Bianca. Game.

    It was already 3am when I reached Deen¡¯s house. I parked the car out in the front.

    ¡°Shit, I¡¯m a mess,¡± I said, looking down. ¡°Shower, shower, shower,¡± I sang as I prance across Deen¡¯s lawn. ¡°Key, do I still have a key? Yes!¡±

    All the lights were off. Deen¡¯s sister always stayed late at her boyfriend¡¯s house. She probably didn¡¯t try to come home after the curfew was in place.

    Sounds.

    Voices talking.

    The TV was on?

    A hand touched my shoulder and my heart stopped.

    It was a firm grip; I couldn¡¯t get away unless I used my inhuman strength. Which I didn¡¯t want to do. I glanced at the hand. I knew this person.

    ¡°To the living room, please.¡±

    ¡°Alright, Xazary.¡±

    Beautiful, silver-haired Bianca was sitting on the far end of the couch watching the TV while munching on popcorn. Deen was lying on the couch with her head on Bianca¡¯s lap. Zachary stood at attention behind the couch.

    Bianca¡¯s face lit up upon seeing me. ¡°Are you seeing this?¡± She gestured to the TV. It was news about the explosion. The news helicopter hovered above a gigantic crater where the club along with several buildings, once were. "This is crazy."

    ¡°Is she dead? Deen?¡±

    Bianca shook her head. ¡°Just sleeping.¡± She brushed crumbs of popcorn off Deen''s face. ¡°I have her knocked out.¡±

    "Is she a hostage? Am I a hostage too?"

    "Nope to both. Have a seat first so we can talk."

    Xazary brought me a seat. And I reluctantly sat down. Xazary was right behind me, her hand on my shoulder. How fast would she be able to react to my transformation? Pretty fast I would say. I knew she could blow up my head the moment I summoned the mask.

    ¡°Relax, Erind Hartwell. Or should I say Madame Blanchette.¡±

    I raised my brow.

    ¡°Don''t be afraid. We have much to talk about. You see...I¡¯d want us to be on the same side.¡±

 2.30 - Bianca Eleanor Ceressa

    Bianca Eleanor Ceressa

    Bianca ran her thin fingers through Amber Deen¡¯s golden locks while she scrolled through the script on her phone. She prepared it while waiting for her guest to arrive. ¡°Erind Hartwell. Twen¡ªyou know what? It¡¯s pretty dark. Zachary, switch on the lights. The TV in the dark hurts my eyes.¡±

    ¡°Shall I also turn the TV off as well?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The news no longer interests me.¡± When the lights came on, Bianca saw the terrible state of Erind.

    She was covered in dirt, her clothes horribly torn as if she crawled out of the earth¡ªwhich she most likely did if Bianca¡¯s guess as to her identity was correct. There were splotches of dried blood on Erind¡¯s clothes and skin but, curiously, not one visible scratch on her. It was hard to tell with all the dirt patches all over her, but Bianca was ninety-nine percent sure that under all the grunge Erind¡¯s body was unblemished.

    Bianca smirked. ¡°Looks like you¡¯ve been through a rough night.¡±

    ¡°Very rough,¡± was Erind''s only reply. Reserved. She didn¡¯t slouch or try to make herself small.

    Bianca wasn¡¯t expecting Erind to be cooperative, especially given their current situation, but she was going to agree to help her eventually. ¡°Where are my manners? Before we begin¡­Zachary, get a basin with warm water and a towel so our friend here can wipe away all that dirt. Sorry, Erind, I can¡¯t let you go and have a shower. I¡¯m not letting you out of my sight.¡± On the surface, this looked like she was being nice within constraints of cautiousness, but she was subtly establishing dominance.

    ¡°Understandable,¡± Erind curtly said.

    She wasn¡¯t going to give her anything to go on, was she? It would¡¯ve been easier if Erind lashed out or got angry because she was captured or that they knocked out Amber¡ªall of that was accounted for in the script. But she didn¡¯t even ask any question beyond if Amber was alright.

    Bianca needed to keep the conversation going while waiting for Zachary to not lose momentum and control despite Erind¡¯s stonewalling efforts. How lame was it to just awkwardly stare at each other? ¡°We¡¯ve waited quite some time for you. I wasn¡¯t sure if you were going to come here. I was going to use Deen¡¯s phone to message you to come but the signal is still down. Anyway, glad you¡¯re here¡­how long was it since we last met?¡±

    ¡°Uh, since we met at Arthouria Infinity? The bar at the top of the hotel? Let me see¡ª¡±

    ¡°Today.¡± Bianca checked her phone. Twelve minutes past three in the morning. ¡°Yesterday I mean, time flies.¡±

    ¡°Ah, at the club? I don¡¯t know.¡±

    She wasn¡¯t going to deny she was at Eve? She didn¡¯t even react to being called ¡®Madame Blanchette¡¯ earlier. Essentially, the message was, ¡®so you caught me, now what?¡¯ Bianca observed Erind¡¯s body language. ¡°You were in quite a bind when we left you.¡±

    Instead of answering, Erind examined herself and adjusted her outfit so the tears wouldn¡¯t be as revealing.

    Bianca continued, ¡°I was worried something bad happened to you when I saw the large crater on the news. Such a relief I was able to escape before the explosion. Oh, and you too.¡±

    Erind was trying to scratch off the clump of caked mud on her knee while checking behind her, making it obvious she was more interested in waiting for Zachary.

    An advanced form of looking-at-the-watch move? She¡¯s also assessing me while telegraphing I don¡¯t fully have the upper hand. If Erind displayed the powers she used in the arena, then, admittedly, she had the advantage. There was nothing they could do if that was the case. Bianca surmised, however, that she had to go through transformations, at least two of them, to get to her unstoppable, gigantic beast state.

    The conditions for the transformation? Bianca didn¡¯t know. Her only security for now was the threat of Xazary killing Erind before she transformed; that and having Amber. Even if Xazary couldn¡¯t stop Erind, she wouldn¡¯t haphazardly go berserk here and endanger her best friend, would she?

    Despite her heart racing with excitement, Bianca continued with her nonchalant conversation as per the script, ¡°You know, I was just watching TV while waiting for you for an hour, an hour and a half maybe, after Amber went to sleep¡ª¡±

    ¡°Unwillingly,¡± Erind said, still not looking at her. This would¡¯ve meant a person was intimidated if it was some other situation; but Bianca didn¡¯t feel that at all from her.

    ¡°It can¡¯t be unwillingly if she didn¡¯t see it coming.¡± Bianca giggled as she lightly pinched Amber¡¯s cheek¡ªshe was delighted Erind reacted when it came to Amber, the latter still breathing softly, asleep. She continued with her random topic. ¡°Like I said, my eyes hurt when I watch TV in the dark, or even when I use my laptop or phone. I had to remove my contacts.¡± She showed Erind her silver contacts. ¡°But I didn¡¯t want to turn on the lights.¡±

    No response once again.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just pretend you asked why I didn¡¯t switch on the lights. It¡¯s for the big reveal! If the lights are on, I¡¯m sure you¡¯d still enter the house. But I wanted to try that thing¡ªOh, Zachary is here. He even brought you a hot cup of coffee and a blanket. See, I¡¯m nice.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Erind said to Zachary instead of her. Bianca¡¯s left lower eyelid slightly twitched at that.

    ¡°I was saying I wanted to try that thing in the movies where the villain is in the dark and then the lights turn on when the protagonist enters the room. Usually, the villain has a hostage.¡± Bianca looked down at Amber. ¡°Okay, this isn¡¯t what it looks like. Just a clarification, I¡¯m not saying I¡¯m the villain, I¡¯m your friend.¡± I¡¯m not the villain because I¡¯m the main character. ¡°And Amber isn¡¯t my hostage.¡± She was a negotiation accessory.

    Erind took a sip of coffee, then went to work wiping herself with the towel.

    I can¡¯t get a read on her. It didn¡¯t frustrate Bianca. On the contrary, she was pleased Erind wasn¡¯t reacting normally. An Adumbrae wouldn¡¯t react like a normal person after all. ¡°I¡¯ve always wondered¡­what does the villain do while waiting for the protagonist to enter the room? I got my answer. I just watched TV and ate snacks. I didn¡¯t steal this food¡­just pointing out. Amber gave me popcorn because I craved some after our escape.¡±

    It was apparent Erind was deliberately slow in wiping her arms and legs. Was she waiting for her power to charge? Was that how it worked? Or was she buying time to think of a plan?

    ¡°I guess I can start,¡± Bianca said. She pretended she was about to begin reading from a script on her phone, but she was already a fourth of a way done with it. She ticked off most of the points to build her fa?ade. While her target was misled by the fa?ade she presented, she would build walls around her; the outside suddenly becoming the inside while the true inside would never be revealed. ¡°Erind Hartwell, first-year law student at Cresthorne Law.¡± She read the information Zachary and Xazary compiled from the internet and all the databases they could hack before Erind arrived. ¡°Impressive resume. You even interned at Wilkens & Kingson. And that was before you got accepted to Cresthorne? Wow.¡±

    No reaction to flattery about things a normal person would be proud of. This meant she got her powers recently.

    Pull back a bit on the flattery. Evaluate her relationship with other people to find leverage. ¡°All of these accomplishments are to be expected from a Cresthorne law student. I must say that even your parents are impressive. Both of them have PHDs at AIT. Did they meet there?¡±

    Bianca enumerated the data on Erind¡¯s parents they dug up in the short time they had, first about her father, then her mother. Not only did she want to see what Erind thought of her parents, she was also hinting she knew a whole lot more than she was letting on. This was both a fa?ade and part of the wall.

    There was an almost unnoticeable nod from Erind at the mention of her father.

    ¡°Your mother works as a senior consultant at the Greaves Bioaugmentronics headquarters. Your father, on the other hand, was the site director of the U.N. facility researching the Devlyosian Sinkhole in the Philippines. I¡¯ve always wondered what¡¯s in there.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing there,¡± Erind said, more to herself.

    Continuing on with the father topic then. ¡°I always wanted to go there. I¡¯ve only seen videos of that place. A gigantic hole in the sea where Corebring Devlyosian sunk several islands to destroy a Purple Bloom. Defying all logic, just a huge hole where water, to this day, keeps draining in. Just imagine the otherworldly power that caused it. Sometimes it makes me relieved to know all the High Overseers are in their slumber cycle right now.

    ¡°Nonetheless, the Sinkhole is one of the unexplained wonders of this world. Maybe we can go there and you can introduce me to your fathe¡ª¡± Zachary bent down and whispered in her ear. Bianca gasped. ¡°Oh my, I didn¡¯t see in my notes your father died.¡±

    ¡°It was a long time ago.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­it¡¯s here at the bottom of my notes.¡± It wasn¡¯t; it was at the top. And Zachary¡¯s part was also written in the script, which was why Bianca had to wait for him to return. ¡°He died when you were thirteen? I missed a couple of news articles here. An accident. I¡¯m so sorry.¡±

    Erind shrugged.

    ¡°I hope you¡¯re not offended by all the digging around we did.¡± Mislead. Build a wall. ¡°To be honest, we researched all we could about you so it would look like we have a lot of information.¡± Admit one wall was fake, to misdirect attention from the thicker wall built behind it. ¡°And I¡¯m just so curious about the background of a person like you. It¡¯s so weird a person whose parents both made substantial contributions in the fight against the Adumbrae, and who herself entered Cresthorne, would become one.¡±

    ¡°One what?¡±

    ¡°An Adumbrae.¡±

    Erind cocked her head, but didn¡¯t deny or admit it.

    Time for a rapid fire. ¡°I know Amber is not a normal human; she has an artificial Core giving her powers. If you ask me, Corebrings will consider her a higher priority target than an actual Adumbrae.¡± Planting a seed of a possible bargaining chip. ¡°I know she¡¯s with a group of people with artificial Cores. They¡¯re fighting the Mark and Marcy brothers, planning to bring down their whole operation before actual Corebrings step in and start wiping out people like back during the Labor Day Purge. Honestly, I don¡¯t really care about them; I¡¯m more interested in you.

    ¡°I know you¡¯re sort of part of their group, but you don¡¯t have an artificial Core. Amber told me you didn¡¯t want to accept one and decided to stay a normal human. But the truth is that you¡¯re an Adumbrae¡­¡± Bianca was going to add ¡°aren¡¯t you?¡± but that wasn¡¯t in the script. She decided she wouldn¡¯t outright ask Erind to confirm anything. ¡°Amber¡¯s protecting you from Mark and Big Marcy. She accepted the artificial Core and gave up her humanity to protect her friend. It¡¯s interesting to know what she would think when it turns out her friend was an Adumbrae all along. And not just any Adumbrae¡­the one that cau¡ª¡±

    ¡°Are you threatening me?¡±

    ¡°No, I''m not.¡± She really wasn¡¯t. That was a fake blackmail attempt which she would then retract to show some form of defeat. ¡°I apologize if it came off that way. I¡¯m merely commenting on the peculiar circumstances surrounding you. Right now, you¡¯re probably wondering what I want¡ª"

    ¡°Not particularly. No.¡±

    ¡°¡ªand how I found out about you.¡±

    ¡°You asked Deen. Big deal.¡±

    Bianca¡¯s eyelid twitched again.

    According to the script, she wouldn¡¯t reveal to Erind how she found out about her. Logical. Would give her the upper hand. But this wouldn¡¯t do. Erind is wrong it was all from Amber. She was being belittled. She dug her nails into her palm. Don¡¯t. Don¡¯t. Don¡¯t. She lowered her clenched hand to Amber¡¯s side so Erind wouldn¡¯t see it. ¡°It wasn¡¯t like that at all,¡± Bianca said hesitantly, unable to ignore Erind¡¯s wrong assumption.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°I bet Deen wanted to save you,¡± Erind said. She tossed the towel to the basin on the table and sat back, crossing her legs. ¡°Did she say something like ¡®you¡¯re still human, there¡¯s still hope¡¯? And then she revealed they¡¯re secret superheroes trying to fight Adumbrae in their own way? I bet that¡¯s what happened. Typical Amber Deen.¡±

    Bianca chewed her tongue. She already said something off script, but she couldn¡¯t drop this matter. Erind thought she had uncovered everything that happened. She had to show her how wrong she was. ¡°You and your group pretended to be my crew to get into Eve. Cut off the power. And when the lights came back on, you and Amber were already disguised as customers of the club. You¡¯re probably thinking how I knew about it? Simple.

    ¡°When I met Amber at the club, I wondered why she didn¡¯t bring you along with her into the arena. Weren¡¯t you supposed to be her best friend that knows her secret? That¡¯s the story you told me when we first met. I recalled you even said Amber was squeamish so she doesn¡¯t attend the arena fights. Why wouldn¡¯t you, her best friend, accompany her then?¡±

    ¡°You had Zachary find me?¡±

    ¡°Correct,¡± Bianca said. She confirmed Erind¡¯s guess to trick her into thinking she was still following everything. ¡°Xazary is usually the one guarding me and Zachary watches the crowds. Like at Arthouria, Xazary was beside me while Zachary was among my fans. Xaz is guarding you now because I thought it will make you more comfortable that a woman is beside you instead of a man.¡±

    ¡°How considerate,¡± Erind said flatly.

    ¡°I know, right?¡± she retorted without missing a beat. ¡°Xazary accompanied me underground while Zachary stayed behind at the club. I ordered him to look for you. Inconspicuously, of course. And he found you. That would¡¯ve been the end of it. Maybe you just didn¡¯t like going to the arena too, like your best friend. Maybe you were just waiting for Amber until she finished with her business in the arena. How would I know? But then¡­you know what you did?¡± This was the second question she directly asked Erind. It wasn¡¯t one of the questions listed in her script. Asking questions gave the other party power, which was why each question had to be calculated beforehand. But she made an exception because she had to take Erind down a notch. She was already way off the script anyway. ¡°You know what you did?¡± she repeated, her tone implying Erind made a mistake.

    ¡°I transformed¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wrong,¡± Bianca said a matter-of-factly. ¡°You suddenly disappeared. Zachary wasn¡¯t trailing you or anything. But he did notice when you didn¡¯t return to your table with an unfinished meal still on your plate. Nothing suspicious yet. Maybe you were on a diet. He went to ask people at the entrance if they saw you leave. They didn¡¯t. Weird. Then he asked around some more. And no one saw you. Weirder. He reported it to me¡ª¡±

    ¡°Your phone¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± she said, cutting off Erind, preventing her from explaining whatever she realized. ¡°Phones don¡¯t have a signal that deep underground, but I could communicate with Zachary using my phone. I did mention that when we were at the arena. Thanks for confirming you were there.¡± She chuckled. Got her. Don¡¯t try to be clever with me. Before Erind could respond, Bianca went on, ¡°I ordered Zachary to check the security footage and look for you. Which wasn¡¯t easy. Zachary had to incapacitate the guards. I could''ve gotten in trouble for that, but I didn¡¯t care. I had to find out who you were. It wasn¡¯t too much of an inconvenience, was it, Zach?¡±

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t, Miss Bianca.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s where he saw that whole switcheroo thing you and your group pulled to get in. It was easy to spot if you already knew who you were looking for. He informed me immediately, so I knew that you and Amber weren¡¯t one of us way before Amber said anything to me. Zach traced your movements on the recordings from when Amber left you up to the time you went inside the restroom.¡±

    ¡°And I didn¡¯t come out.¡±

    ¡°And you didn¡¯t come out. Instead, a different woman exited the restroom. There was no footage of her entering. Zachary checked the women¡¯s restroom to look for any hidden tunnel or path you could¡¯ve used, but there was nothing. He sent me another message, describing this mysterious woman. Wouldn¡¯t you know it, she was right in front of me.

    ¡°I continued to observe the two of you. Amber was saying the transformed you supposedly liked the Little Red Riding Hood theme, even calling you Madame Blanchette. There are many versions of the Little Red Riding Hood tale, and the 1888 story by Charles Marelle was probably the only version where the little girl was given a name¡ªBlanchette. Amber might¡¯ve read about it somewhere and just blurted it out without knowing that Blanchette had a golden hood instead of a red one. That¡¯s when it dawned on me¡­she knew the transformed you, but she didn¡¯t know she was you...Erind. She didn¡¯t seem to think you, as Madame Blanchette, were an ally, but she didn¡¯t regard you as an enemy either.¡±

    ¡°You reported me somehow.¡±

    ¡°Wrong again,¡± Bianca smugly replied. ¡°I didn¡¯t report you. I had no idea who you were. I didn¡¯t know who Amber really was too. You might belong to other criminal groups that dabble in the Adumbrae trade. Or you could be from the BID. I decided to let things go on and react depending on the circumstances. Eventually, you were found out. Again, I had no part with that.

    ¡°When you were fighting in the arena and Deen was captured by the guards, I got a call from Zachary. He said the BID was going to raid the club. The call was abruptly cut-off. The BID must¡¯ve placed a signal jamming field over the entire area; that was the only way our special signal would be blocked. It was a dire situation.¡±

    Erind said, ¡°That¡¯s why you helped Deen. You thought we were with the BID.¡±

    ¡°The most plausible conclusion given the facts I had at that moment. Either you or Amber were with the BID. Or both of you, and you were a sleeper agent, which would explain why she didn¡¯t know who you actually were. Whatever it was, I decided to help Deen, and almost immediately found she wasn¡¯t with the BID.¡± Bianca burst out laughing. ¡°Can you imagine it? The night I went to the club was the night all these groups decided to go there too. What¡¯s up with all of you?¡±

    ¡°Funny¡­yeah.¡±

    ¡°Even after finding out she wasn¡¯t with the BID, I still helped Deen. You know why?¡± Bianca held up a finger. ¡°Don¡¯t answer that. Because you wouldn¡¯t figure it out.¡± Time to go back to the script. Bianca pulled up a picture on her phone and showed it to Erind. ¡°Do you know what this is?¡±

    ¡°Not really. A bit blurry.¡±

    Bianca handed her phone to Zachary so he could show it to Erind. She wasn¡¯t going near her; she wanted to stick with Amber to be safe. ¡°One of my sources provided me with that picture. He guaranteed it wasn¡¯t fake. A picture of an Adumbrae with the form of a gigantic werewolf that attacked one of the bases of the Mark brothers, almost mysteriously disappearing afterwards. No point denying¡ª¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to.¡±

    She grinned from ear to ear. ¡°Awesome. I thought I was going to have a hard time making you admit it. Before continuing with my story why I helped Deen because of that picture, I¡¯m going to give a little background about myself and what I want. I hope I¡¯m not going to bore you with this.¡±

    Erind took another sip of the coffee. ¡°It¡¯s not like I have any choice but to listen.¡±

    ¡°Splendid! You see, Mark and Big Marcy have dealings with my father. It¡¯s connected with the Red Island. I¡¯m not sure in what way. My family owns the Royal Ceressa Cruise Lines; I¡¯m assuming they take a cruise ship to the Red Island. You guys are interested in that, right? At least Amber said she was.

    ¡°For a long time, Mark was trying to convince my father to become an Adumbrae; he would have a greater hold over him if he did. But Dad would have none of it. Next, they tried to convince me. I actually wanted to become an Adumbrae for personal reasons, reasons grander than that nonsense ¡®have power¡¯, ¡®live forever¡¯, all that crap. However, I also didn¡¯t agree because all the parts to my plan weren¡¯t complete yet. That is until I found you¡­or at least that picture of you.

    ¡°You see, Erind, I''ve been an overachiever all my life. I guess you are too. All of those achievements, awards, the things that make our resume look like a menu of a five-star restaurant, those are normal to people like us. If I calculate I can reach the top of a certain field with a bit more effort, I stop. I don¡¯t go all out. Why? Because I know I¡¯m going to win anyway. And reaching the absolute top takes a lot of time. Time I don¡¯t have. I move on to a different challenge. Sports, dancing, singing, acting, even cooking, managing a business¡ª¡±

    ¡°Am I supposed to say ¡®wow¡¯?¡± Erind said. ¡°Is this a bragging contest?¡±

    ¡°You can say ¡®wow¡¯ if you want to. There are so many challenges out there, both physical and mental. I don¡¯t have time to finish all of them. I don¡¯t have time to prove to myself I¡¯m an awesome person. Physical activities especially take a lot of time to prepare for and accomplish¡ª¡±

    ¡°Augment yourse¡ª¡±

    ¡°NO! That¡¯s cheating. Augmentations¡­enhancements¡­psycho-conditioning¡­pills, drugs to boost brain power. All cheating! Even my beauty regimen is all natural. No surgeries¡­no whatever. I don¡¯t want to succeed by cheating.¡±

    ¡°Is it even chea¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it is!¡±

    ¡°It won¡¯t be cheating if no one knows¡ª¡±

    ¡°I WOULD KNOW! I don¡¯t fucking care about what anyone else would think. The important thing is: I. Would. Know. I. Cheated. I see a challenge. I do it. I succeed. What kind of pathetic loser am I to cheat myself?¡±

    ¡°So, you wanted to turn into an Adumbrae to have super strength for the physical challenges you take on?¡±

    ¡°What? That¡¯s dumb. That¡¯s also cheating. I was saying I didn¡¯t have time to finish all of the challenges in my lifetime¡ª¡±

    ¡°So, you wanted to extend your life by becoming an Adum¡ª¡±

    ¡°Will you let me finish?¡± Bianca snarled.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you glad I¡¯m replying to you now?¡± Erind said with a friendly smile. She was interested. Perfect.

    Bianca laughed. ¡°Yes, thanks for that. I¡¯m sorry I acted out. I just get so agitated when it comes to my goal." All in the script. "Long story short, I¡¯m going to attempt the ultimate challenge. If I succeed, it means I can complete all the other challenges available in this world. There¡¯s no need to attempt all of them.¡±

    ¡°Makes sense. And what¡¯s this ultimate challenge?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s what you¡¯re doing, actually,¡± she replied. ¡°I want to do what you¡¯re doing. I want to have an Adumbrae infect me, and I¡¯m going to resist the Adumbrae¡­I will beat the Adumbrae and have full control of my body. That is the ultimate challenge.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that what the clients of Mark are already doing?¡±

    ¡°No, that¡¯s different. They¡¯re using all sorts of methods to aid them. I think they¡¯re even damaging their brain and nervous system by doing it. That¡¯s cheating. I¡¯m going to do it all on my own. But I¡¯m not going in blind. I researched and researched. I paid so many people to find information, I used the connections of my father.

    ¡°Eventually, someone told me that there was a group of Adumbrae that can control themselves. They can use the full power bestowed by the Adumbrae with their own free will. The clients of Mark can¡¯t do that by the way. They have to be careful because they¡¯d still lose control of themselves if they pushed too hard. That¡¯s why all of them are so weak, getting slaughtered like cattle by the BID agents. This group my source referred to was different.¡±

    ¡°Is there really such a group?¡± Erind asked.

    Bianca smiled even wider, if that was even possible. She felt Erind genuinely didn¡¯t know what she was talking about. This confirmed her hypothesis that Erind only got her powers recently. Which meant she controlled her Adumbrae all on her own¡ªthe best resource person Bianca could possibly ask for. ¡°Yes, they exist. At least according to my source. They¡¯re so powerful they can fight Corebrings. The normal ones anyway. They¡¯ll probably die fighting an Overseer, which is why they are in hiding. My source had no clue where to even start looking for them.¡±

    ¡°And then you found me.¡±

    ¡°Yes. My source wasn¡¯t sure if you were part of the group he mentioned, but he was sure you could control your powers. And I have the proof here right in front of me. You, perfectly sane after the havoc you wreaked at the club. I want your help in attempting the ultimate challenge.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t kno¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know. We¡¯ll figure out how you''re able to control the Adumbrae when myriad others failed. I¡¯m not even infected yet. Plenty of time.¡±

    ¡°Does that involve experimenting on me.¡±

    "I''m not going to cut you up. It¡¯s all in the state of mind. You¡¯re going to be my lifestyle coach. The weirdest lifestyle coach I¡¯ve ever had.¡±

    ¡°Why would I help you?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s money I can offer, although that¡¯s meaningless to you who have attained ultimate control over mind and body. But I know what you want. You want to protect Amber while keeping your true nature a secret from your best friend. I¡¯ll help with that. Before I knocked Deen out, I told her Zachary rescued you so she didn¡¯t need to worry that you were caught in the raid. I¡¯ll do everything in my power to help you hide your secret.¡±

    ¡°Uhh¡­¡±

    ¡°Amber wants to bring down Mark and Big Marcy, right? If she succeeds, she¡¯s going to go back to her normal life. I¡¯ll help you with that. I don¡¯t care about them. I don¡¯t need their treatments because I¡¯m going to fight the Adumbrae infection on my own. If you guys want to fight other organizations, sure. Let¡¯s wipe all of them out.¡±

    Erind stared at her best friend, considering Bianca¡¯s offer.

    ¡°Anything else you want. As long as it¡¯s within my means, I¡¯ll give it.¡± Bianca extended her hand. ¡°What do you say, Erind?¡±

    Everything was quiet. Erind was still looking at Amber. Five seconds passed. Ten seconds passed. Bianca didn¡¯t retract her hand. Fifteen seconds passed. Erind met her gaze. She reached out and clasped Bianca¡¯s hand. ¡°Pleasure to work with you.¡±

    ¡°Welcome aboard, lifestyle coach,¡± Bianca said. She was beside herself with joy. She hit all the important points in her script. Plus, her ad-libbing worked out perfectly. All those beautiful walls surrounding Erind while she stared at the fa?ade Bianca presented her. Erind would never get into the building that was Bianca¡¯s mind. In due time, the construction of the walls would be completed, and Erind would not be able to escape.

    Fighting off the Adumbrae infection? Fully controlling a body with the powers of an Adumbrae? Bianca wouldn¡¯t aim that low. There were other people who already accomplished that. Including the person in front of her. That couldn¡¯t be the ultimate challenge.

    Aim higher.

    Aim for power.

    Aim to be a Purple Bloom!

    Yes! She wasn''t going to be a run-of-the-mill side character Adumbrae. She was going to be the first person to control the power of a Purple Bloom.

    Her source told her that to form a Purple Bloom, extremely powerful Adumbrae consume and absorb each other. Not only would Erind help her win against the Adumbrae infection¡­

    ...she would also be the first Adumbrae on the menu.

    The ultimate challenge begins.

 2.31

    <u>Wakey, wakey, Erind¡­</u> a voice singing in annoyingly high spirits bounced around in my head.

    ¡°De¡ªDeen?¡± I said as I struggled to wake up. ¡°Is that you?¡± My eyelids¡­my whole body felt heavy; it was oddly difficult to move as if I was underwater. I opened my eyes to see who was lying on my lap. A sleeping Deen. I looked up to the person who woke me and snorted in annoyance. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you.¡±

    SpookyErind, with her hands on her hips, gazed down at me, her fiery ruby-like eyes shining through the slits of the mask she wore. I knew it was a face, but she took it off so it was a mask as between the two of us. We should be the same height but she had such an imposing presence that it felt like she was atop a mountain and I was stuck in the depths of a crevasse. I should get high-heeled boots like she has, I thought with amusement.

    Like in our previous encounters, she wore tight-fitting black suit and pants adorned with golden lines forming peculiar patterns, over a white dress shirt and a black tie. A pure white fur coat latched on her shoulders giving her an air of luxury and elegance. The foreboding golden clawed gauntlet was on her right hand like the first time we met.

    <u>Aren¡¯t you glad to see me? You? Meyoumeyoumeyou.</u>

    ¡°Ermm¡­not really.¡±

    <u>That¡¯s so sad.</u> Her half-white, half-black mask laced with gold crumbled and dissolved into shimmering lights, like curtains pulled back to reveal her beautiful face; our beautiful face, ahem. If she didn¡¯t move, one could mistake her for an expertly sculpted marble statue given her unearthly complexion. She brushed away her wild, wispy, white hair and grinned at me. <u>I¡¯m always happy to meet you.</u>

    ¡°Am I¡ª¡±

    <u>You¡¯re not dead. That¡¯s always your question when we meet</u>.

    ¡°Just making sure. I did check if I was alive before I fell asleep.¡±

    <u>A very good habit.</u>

    ¡°Hold on¡­why are you here?¡± It was already morning. The sunlight let itself in Deen¡¯s living room through the glass doors leading to the pool outside. Everything seemed normal, yet it didn¡¯t. It was hard to explain, like everything was an approximation of what they were. It was too quiet, everything too still. ¡°Is this the real world?¡± Obviously, not. Id¡ª

    <u>Obviously, not. Idiot.</u>

    ¡°I was just about to think that! Did you read my mind? Heh, we¡¯re inside my mind anyway.¡±

    <u>We¡¯re the same</u>,<u> that¡¯s why we thought of the same thing</u><u>. Meyoumeyoumeyou.</u> She shrugged off her fur coat and twirled. The coat swirled around her and formed into a white apron that tied itself neatly behind her back. <u>Leave your friend there. I¡¯ll cook you breakfast. Come, come.</u>

    What choice did I have? She controlled this place. I carefully moved Deen¡¯s head off my lap even though this probably wasn¡¯t the real Deen. When I stood up, I found SpookyErind behind the kitchen counter with a pan in her hand. I turned around and Deen and the sofa weren¡¯t there anymore. ¡°Huh? I guess we¡¯re in the kitchen now.¡±

    <u>Take a seat. What do you want to eat?</u>

    ¡°I was going to say just cereal but since you already have a pan in hand how about bacon and eggs? The clich¨¦ breakfast in movies. I do feel like having a hearty breakfast. Been really busy last night.¡±

    <u>Bacon and eggs coming right up</u><u>.</u>

    ¡°Do you know where to get¡ª?¡± She magically had an egg between the claws of her gauntlet which she expertly broke even with that cumbersome armor piece. ¡°Never mind. Eggs from another dimension¡­yey,¡± I said half-heartedly as she added a couple more of them to the pan.

    <u>How¡¯s everything going so far?</u> She laid thick strips of bacon she plucked out of thin air on a different frying pan.

    ¡°Very tiring.¡± I watched her cook. The oil was sizzling, but the sound was muffled. Even the smell was somehow muffled, if that made any sense. All of my senses were covered by an inexplicable heavy fog. Maybe because I was still asleep in the real world. ¡°But everything was settled in the end.¡±

    After Bianca and her two bodyguards left, I took a much-needed hot shower and changed into clean clothes. I then made a peanut butter jelly sandwich and checked on Deen while I ate it. Bianca did offer to wake her up but I declined; she was going to naturally wake up in a few hours if left alone. I mulled between carrying her to her room or just leaving her on the couch. I ended up cradling her head on my lap like Bianca did because I¡¯m the bestest friend in the whole wide world ever.

    Also, she¡¯d immediately see the caring, true friend that I was when she woke up.

    The help Deen extended to me, even if she didn¡¯t it know it was me, couldn¡¯t be understated.

    Without her, there was no way I could''ve regained my sanity when I was rampaging in my giant werewolf form. I would¡¯ve been super dead, reduced to ashes in the crater of the Greaves reactor explosion.

    I wasn¡¯t sure what she did to me. Did she connect me to her precog pet to shock the ferocity out of my mind? She was incredibly lucky her plan worked out¡ªoh, right, her future-seeing pet would¡¯ve ensured her success. Just like with Vanessa, I appreciated Deen¡¯s actions, which was why I decided to act extra nice for a while.

    Others might say this was just the manipulative nature of my kind¡ªbeing nice to useful people.

    I disagree.

    I was genuinely thankful and appreciative of everyone who saved my life, Deen and Vanessa. And, to some extent, Ramello too; I didn¡¯t need saving in his case, but he did try to protect me with no regard to his own safety so it sort of counted. I was proud I was able to cultivate this trait of normal people. Like taking your car to regular maintenance or cleaning your house or buying a good antivirus software for your laptop.

    I¡¯m just taking care of my stuff.

    Move along, people. Just being normal, nothing to see here.

    ¡°You know what?" I said. "I¡¯m still alive after all of that¡­it¡¯s not too bad.¡±

    <u>That¡¯s nice to hear, Erind dear.</u> SpookyErind flipped the bacon. She could just snap her fingers and conjure breakfast in a flash if she wanted, yet she chose to go through all these theatrics.

    We were really the same. Bianca was like me too, with all of those nonsense interactions before getting to her point. My actions usually had so much padding to hide my true intentions that I was surprised my boobs didn¡¯t appear bigger.

    ¡°You sound like my mother,¡± I said. ¡°We look the same anyway, so you could be. And you¡¯re older than me.¡±

    <u>Older? If you mean that I existed long before you did, then yeah. Before your world even. And I¡¯ll exist long after you¡¯re gone. But actual age¡­dunno about that. Don¡¯t get me started with how time works.</u>

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    <u>Since you said I sounded like your mother, how about you tell me about your new friend?</u>

    ¡°Vanessa? She¡¯s great, too bad she¡ª¡±

    <u>Not her. Bianca. I saw you had fun talking with her.</u> She transferred the bacon and eggs to a plate and carried it to me.

    ¡°Bianca? My friend? I wouldn¡¯t go as far as saying that. It¡¯s impossible to be friends with someone like her¡­like me. But I did enjoy chatting with her. It¡¯s a different kind of experience interacting with someone like me.¡± I suddenly had a knife and fork in hand, unaware of how they got there. I sliced a small piece of bacon and ate it. It was very good, but there was something missing in the taste. ¡°You¡¯re not going to eat?¡±

    <u>You don¡¯t even know what I eat.</u> SpookyErind sat in front of me, propped her chin on the palm of her gauntlet, her elbow on the table. A huge smile was on her face. <u>Tell me all about it. You don¡¯t have anyone to share it with, might as well share it with me.</u>

    Was she telling me to entertain her? Sure. Not only did I want to keep her happy so she wouldn¡¯t do anything bad to me, but she was right, I wanted to brag about my mental and verbal sparring with Bianca. Normally, I couldn¡¯t tell anyone how I manipulated people, duh, but it was different when it came to SpookyErind. She was already in my head. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll start with the face I used. It was really easy to modify it for Bianca. I just went along with what she assumed: that my main goal was to protect Deen. I barely had to do anything since she did all the work.¡±

    <u>Is that so?</u>

    ¡°It actually worked to my advantage that it was her assumption. I was able to maintain the upper hand. I bet she was thinking I didn¡¯t want to use my power because Deen might get hurt if a fight ensued, which wasn¡¯t true at all. Our conversation would¡¯ve gone a different route if she knew she could just order Xazary to kill me before I could transform. I did all I could to sell her that story. Fifty percent discount on that item. Buy one take one. Just full-on mega sale. I even acted tough as if I didn¡¯t care about Deen¡­ I mean I would try to save her if possible because I¡¯m the bestest friend ever, but not to my own detriment. So, I wasn¡¯t really acting¡­I guess? Hmmm¡­I¡¯m confused!¡± I giggled at the convoluted mess of my mind.

    SpookyErind snickered along with me, her laughter inside my head was infectious. <u>It was so funny that you didn¡¯t look into her eyes.</u>

    ¡°Oh that! Yeah. Even if I had a face on, my eyes are sort of empty if you pay really close attention to them. Most people don¡¯t. I was afraid Bianca would realize we were the same if I tried to maintain eye contact. I wonder what she thought about that.¡±

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    <u>Good job fooling her. I made that breakfast to congratulate you. Eat some more.</u>

    I finished a slice of bacon and started on the eggs to appease her. ¡°It was easy because I know what she is. My actions confirmed her theory so her ego would prevent her from even considering I was trying to fool her. She was focused on thinking she had me. Kind of like a confirmation bias thing, but not really. I even threw her some crumbs to lead her on, feed into her belief she was unravelling me.

    ¡°Like how I reacted when she talked about my father. I did that so she wouldn¡¯t think of threatening Mom but would instead try to get to me through my memories of Dad. Her tactics are really good against a normal person. Too bad she faced me. I did learn a lot though.¡±

    <u>Like what?</u>

    ¡°Like one of the main weaknesses of my kind¡­or our kind since we¡¯re the same.¡±

    <u>Meyoumeyoumeyou.</u>

    ¡°We¡¯re so wired to seek recognition, rewards, confirmation of our awesomeness that we often forget about risks. In those true crime documentaries Mom love so much, people say our kind wants to get caught. That¡¯s not true. Who the fuck wants to get caught? But they do want to be recognized. It¡¯s just because of sloppiness in seeking recognition that they¡¯re finally arrested by authorities.

    ¡°Normal people are like that too¡­everyone wants recognition from others, but our kind even more so - recognition, not appreciation or admiration. I¡¯m guilty of that sometimes, but it¡¯s very enlightening to see it in action with Bianca. I wasn¡¯t exactly interested how she knew about me; I¡¯m sure I made a lot of mistakes in hiding my identity, this being my first time as a monster and all. But I knew she didn¡¯t want to reveal how much information she had on me so I made it a game to extract as much as I could from her.

    ¡°I even made blatantly wrong guesses so she¡¯d correct me. If she didn¡¯t think she had the upper hand, I couldn¡¯t have reeled her in that easily. Wait a minute¡­you¡¯re doing it to me too.¡±

    <u>Doing what?</u> She smiled innocently then took a sip from a glass of orange juice. I didn¡¯t notice I also had a glass by my side. Magic orange juice. <u>I¡¯m not doing anything.</u>

    ¡°You¡¯re making me monologue too!¡± Both of us laughed, SpookyErind¡¯s laughter in sync with mine in my own head.

    <u>Supplemental lessons. Orange juice cheers!</u> She raised her glass. I clinked mine with hers. <u>Are you going to help her with her plan?</u>

    ¡°I¡¯ll tag along for sure, but I don¡¯t trust her. Lifestyle coach? Who does she think she¡¯s fooling? Our kind don¡¯t want anyone telling us what to do. She wants to keep me around, that I¡¯m sure of. But why? I think she¡¯s just telling me half-truths. That¡¯s a habit of mine too.¡±

    <u>You don¡¯t trust her yet you¡¯ll help her?</u>

    After finishing the egg whites, I plopped the whole egg yolk in my mouth. I chewed it slowly before answering, formulating how to best get my thoughts across without angering SpookyErind. ¡°I heard something interesting from Bianca,¡± I said. ¡°She said there¡¯s a group of people who can prevent an Adumbrae taking over their minds through sheer willpower alone while retaining their supernatural abilities.¡± SpookyErind tilted her head to the side. ¡°I¡¯m not saying I want to shoo you away. I didn¡¯t mean that.¡±

    <u>But that¡¯s what it sounds like.</u> She pouted. <u>You don¡¯t want me around anymore?</u>

    ¡°Don¡¯t be sad! I''m thinking of making this into a game. It''s going to be fun, I promise.¡±

    <u>A game?</u>

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll try to gain control of my body through whatever means I can find. That¡¯s why I¡¯m teaming up with Bianca. I¡¯m exploring all avenues."

    You''re not going to try with just willpower?

    She didn''t say her usual line that she wasn''t going to try to control my body because we were the same. She was seriously considering this. "Honestly, I''m not sure I could do that. I don''t even know if I can do what Bianca thinks I could. It''s not going to be entertaining with just me -"

    I think that already sounds fun.

    "But!" I hastily added. "But you''re going to have more fun watching me interact with different groups. The group Bianca was talking about, if we can find them. There''s Dario''s group, the mysterious Professor backing them up, the Adumbrae in Division Proxy, BID agents...It''s going to be better than any reality TV show my world has to offer.¡±

    <u>Okaaay. That¡¯s on your part. How would that be a game to me?</u>

    ¡°Tell me what you want to add so that it¡¯s fair.¡± This was a very dangerous gamble. Normally, I should''ve stacked the rules in my favor; it was insane to give the other party the chance to add rules. But I couldn¡¯t do that with SpookyErind because¡­ she could read my mind. I couldn¡¯t trick her with this.

    Instead, I was indirectly telling her I was going to entertain her in return for giving me a chance to take control of my body, which was why I let her add in rules. Perhaps the only ''trick'', if it could even be considered one, that I used was to suggest I try every method I could find in the hopes that she''d suggest I try it with only my willpower. I calmly sipped my drink, or as calmly as one could while trying to bargain with an interdimensional being who was trying to take over my body.

    <u>I don¡¯t have anything to add. </u>

    I almost choked on my orange juice in surprise.

    <u>You just have fun with your game. I¡¯ll cheer you on.</u>

    ¡°Really?¡±

    <u>But¡­</u> She stood up and went behind my seat. <u>I don¡¯t want my precious Erind to die. You¡¯re doing well so far compared to the last one.</u>

    The last one? I wasn¡¯t surprised if she possessed someone else before me. Did that person get killed by a Corebring? Or did SpookyErind do something bad to her? I didn¡¯t speak and just went on eating.

    <u>You¡¯ll face many powerful enemies in your game. You know that, right?</u>

    I nodded.

    <u>I don¡¯t think the first face you borrowed will be enough. It''s too restrictive, too limited.</u> She placed her hands on my shoulders. <u>You need more power. Different kinds of power.</u>

    I looked back at her. ¡°What power?¡±

    Her gauntlet glowed as golden liquid rose out of the white gem in the middle of her palm. <u>I¡¯m offering you this</u>. The golden liquid slowly formed the shape of a mask. It was the face of a mannequin, silver chrome in color, with a weird symbol on its forehead. <u>You¡¯re going to need more faces in the future. How about this one next?</u>

    ¡°Are you going to give that to me?¡±

    <u>I would if I wanted to, but I can''t. You need to help me out first. It¡¯s not easy to send this over to your world. I need power from your end. I need you to consume.</u>

    She didn¡¯t need to tell me what I needed to consume because I already knew. I was right. She was the reason I had the unexplained urge to consume Adumbrae. ¡°You¡¯re going to turn me into a Cocoon or something? Like the one I saw in the underground arena?¡±

    <u>That one? No, ewww! Fucking gross. I just want to help you.</u>

    ¡°You¡¯re telling me I need to consume Adumbrae to get that face?¡±

    <u>Your words, not mine. And you already started doing it. </u>

    She meant the second crystal growing on my palm. ¡°And I¡¯m going to get more power the more I consume?¡±

    <u>I just want to help you in your game.</u> She closed her hand and the face vanished. She pumped her hands in the air and cheered. <u>Go Erind! Woooo!</u>

    I started laughing as I realized why she didn''t bother to add rules to my game. She was sure I was going to need her help in the future in achieving my goal of having complete control of my body while keeping the powers she bestowed upon me. I might be playing solitaire, but she was keeping some of the cards of the deck and was asking for other cards in exchange for them.

    Essentially, there was no way I could win. I liked those odds. ¡°Thank you very much for your help,¡± I said. ¡°I look forward to getting that face in the future.¡±

    <u>Good girl</u>, she said, planting a kiss on my cheeks, even worse than the kiss of Judas. <u>I enjoyed this chat with you. Do entertain me. See you next time.</u>

    ¡°You can count on it. Good¡ª¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°¡ªbye¡­¡±

    She was gone.

    And I was back in the living room with Deen sleeping on my lap.

    Beep. Beep. Beep. I reached for my phone on the coffee table while making sure not to wake up Deen. ¡®February 2, 2020, 6:50 a.m., Sunrise, La Esperanza City, California¡¯, came my daily alert.

    Sunlight was only starting to push back the darkness outside. Waking birds chirped. Wind rustled the leaves of the trees surrounding Deen¡¯s pool. The smell of peanut butter from a small dried splotch stuck on the side of my mouth. I licked it¡ªI¡¯m gross, I know¡ªconfirming from the taste it was indeed peanut butter.

    This was the real world.

    Real sofa, real pillows, the TV, the potted plants. That driftwood side cabinet looked real, as well as the bronze lamp on top of it, and the eyeball beside it too. The books seemed real, the curtains¡ªeyeball!

    I jumped to my feet and picked up the coffee table beside the sofa, raising it above my head as a weapon.

    ¡°Wha-what¡¯s going on?¡± Deen groggily said, waking because I suddenly moved away.

    ¡°Deen, it¡¯s nothing.¡± I placed the table back where it belonged before she could fully wake up. ¡°There¡¯s just¡­uh¡­¡± The eyeball wasn¡¯t there anymore. Was I imagining things? It looked like one of Vanessa¡¯s eyeball familiars. I walked over to the side cabinet and moved the lamp to check where it could¡¯ve gone.

    ¡°Erind! You¡¯re alive!¡± She jumped on me while I was rummaging through the cabinet¡¯s drawers.

    She felt almost weightless, which confused me until I remembered that I had super strength. I dropped to the floor maybe a second too late, but I hoped she didn¡¯t notice it. ¡°Yeah! I¡¯m alive,¡± I said. We both laughed as we rolled across the floor. ¡°Didn¡¯t Bianca tell you I was safe?¡±

    Deen hugged me tightly. ¡°She did. But I wasn¡¯t sure whether to believe it or not.¡± She pulled me up. ¡°Sorry for jumping on you.¡± She exhaled, shaking her hands like they were cold. ¡°Phew! I¡¯m just so happy you¡¯re safe. I hope the others are safe too.¡±

    ¡°There was still no signal when I checked my phone a moment ago.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if they were able to get far away before the BID agents self-destructed. They''re experienced enough not to get caught by the police. ¡°I¡¯m sure they can take care of themselves.¡±

    Deen dabbed her eyes with her shirt.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just so overwhelming, you know? Everything we went through.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure what you went through was way worse than mine. I was just hiding with Bianca¡¯s crew.¡± I awkwardly stood while Deen sobbed. Should I hug her? Don¡¯t want to. We hugged enough already. ¡°If it¡¯ll make you feel better, how about you tell me what happened?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll make breakfast while we chat.¡± She hopped happily to the kitchen. Weird mood swing.

    ¡°Uh, I¡¯m not hung¡ª¡± My stomach rumbled. Didn¡¯t I eat? That bitch SpookyErind fed me fake food! Before following Deen, I checked the cabinet one last time. I probably just missed Vanessa; I wasn¡¯t going to see her again, so it was natural to miss her. Good thing I kept her diamond bracelet as remembrance.

    ¡°Erind!¡± Deen yelled from the kitchen. ¡°What do you want to eat?¡±

    ¡°Bacon and eggs,¡± I called back. I needed a big breakfast to start the first day of the game between me and SpookyErind.

    This is going to be fun!

 Authorâ€™s Retrospective - Arc 1 and 2

    After more than seven months of writing to reach this point of the story, I decided to share my thoughts. Not only is this a personal thing, so I can assess what I¡¯ve done so far, but I also want to share to you readers my thought process in this story, my inspirations, and the ideas I want to explore.

    Conceiving this story/Inspirations:

    Female Main Character - When I started reading English translations of light novels and then moving on to web novels, I always read stories with male MCs. Eventually, I also tried web novels with female leads, most notably Worm. In recent years, there¡¯s been some controversy regarding female MCs in books and especially movies about them being Mary Sues, as well as other criticisms. I then thought how about I try my hand at writing a female MC? I challenged myself to write a good female MC, even though a male MC would''ve made this type of story more popular.

    Psychopath Main Character ¨C I didn¡¯t want to have a ¡°normal¡± protagonist. I wanted something very different.

    How about a psychopath? There are many stories with supposedly psychopath MCs, but I wasn¡¯t very sure with their depiction. At first, I shelved the idea because I could see how hard it will be to write an actual psychopath MC, and tried to find some other peculiar defining trait for my MC. Then I came upon the book ¡°Gone Girl¡± with a female psychopath MC. It changed my perspective on writing psychopath character. I¡¯m not going to spoil anything with the book, just that it¡¯s very different from other psychopath stories which mostly dwell on killings and shock value. Gone Girl goes deep in the mind of a psychopath and that inspired me. Furthermore, male and female psychopath have differences, which I considered as an interesting challenge to write.

    World Building (Corebrings) ¨C There are many stories with a superpowered group maintaining peace and stability but my inspiration for the Corebrings are the Knights in Knight Run. It¡¯s not a famous webtoon, so many might not be familiar with it. Give it a try. I even used the name Purple Bloom in homage to the Purple Flower in Knight Run.

    Alternative History ¨C Instead of setting it in the far future like Knight Run, I set it instead in an alternate history earth. And the inspiration for that is SCP. You probably got a slight feel of SCP with the BID. There are other organizations mentioned in the story that will play a bigger role in the future.

    Group of people with powers ¨C There¡¯s been mention that this story has a Worm feel to it at the start. I¡¯ve read the entirety of Worm, Twig, and Pact. So Wildbow¡¯s various groups of superpowered people has inspired me greatly, but my main inspiration for having a group of people with powers as part of the main cast is Animorphs. Goes to show that I¡¯m a 90s kid. Basically, it¡¯s Gantz/Evangelion for kids that got past censors because no one expected that kind of content to be in a children¡¯s book with goofy covers.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Ideas I want to explore in this story:

    Relatability ¨C Perhaps one of the main tips for new writers like me is to make your characters relatable. Instead of making a ¡°conventionally¡± relatable MC, I made a psychopath MC. So am I violating that tip I mentioned? Nope. I believe that all of us have psychopathic traits here and there. You¡¯ll find yourself relating to Erind in one way or another even in weird ways. It is a social experiment of sorts.

    Starting small ¨C In most stories with OP MCs, or even YAs, the MC will become one of the most important person in the story quickly, like they¡¯ll led the rebellion, have the secret weapon etc. I¡¯m not saying that¡¯s bad; if the story is geared for enjoyment and power fantasy then that¡¯s the way to do it. However, I intend to write this story for a long time, and making the MC immediately an important player will put a time limit to the story, and I could easily write myself into a corner. Another reason we¡¯re starting very small in scale and taking it slow is because I want to explore how Erind¡¯s psychopath mind evolves through her experiences, before she becomes an evil mastermind in the far future of this story.

    Absolutes are right ¨C If you¡¯ve noticed, the Corebrings and the BID and other people in authority take a black and white stance when it comes to Adumbrae. Transposing this to other stories, you may have an iron-fisted government and the MC will lead a rebellion, hoping to change the world into something in the middle ground. That is not the case here. I wanted to explore a story with a black and white figure of authority that is not evil, that is actually right. Why? Because our MC is a psychopath who can¡¯t see black and white. Isn¡¯t that an interesting twist to the usual setup? Not sure how this will go.

    No main villain ¨C I got this idea from Overlord. It¡¯s pretty famous so I think many of you know of it. There¡¯s no villain in Overlord. You may say the MC is the villain, but not really because he¡¯s just trying to protect his own. Can¡¯t also say his enemies are the villains in the traditional sense. For one they pose no threat to him. And they don¡¯t even know about him and are just trying to survive. I¡¯m trying out that setup in this story. I think readers might wonder why this story doesn¡¯t have a clear cut villain. But as the story progresses, I hope it becomes clearer what I¡¯m aiming for. Let''s see how this pans out.

    Depicting a Psychopath MC ¨C There are plenty depictions of psychopaths in media, including in manga and light novels/ webnovels. Usually, what is branded as a psychopath MC is a revenge story where the MC is bullied/oppressed/betrayed and then he goes on a killing spree. That¡¯s not a psychopath. Psychopaths can¡¯t even muster the emotions to get angry like that. With that backdrop, many readers come into REND expecting that serial killer MC. My fault actually because the start of the story (before the edits) gave a wrong impression. Anyway, it is hard to put myself into the mind of a psychopath, which is why the first arc¡¯s characterization of Erind is shaky before I eventually got to revising it to be more consistent.

 3.1

    What emotions do people like me feel?

    A lot, actually.

    Many portrayed us as emotionless husks. Again, not true. We weren¡¯t completely devoid of emotions¡ªI was certain I wasn''t¡ªbut we do experience it differently than normal people. That was the reason I called some of my emotions as ¡®approximations¡¯.

    I also couldn¡¯t hold a specific emotion for long, like I couldn¡¯t hold a grudge. Take Myra, for example. I was no longer angry with her even though she had tried to kill me. At that time, I was, duh. Not anymore. I think normal people would be angry at their would-be murderer forever or could also choose to forgive them. Neither was the case with me.

    On an emotional level, I just didn¡¯t care.

    However, that didn¡¯t mean I was letting her off the hook. She still needed to be punished, and I was going to set up her death in a fitting way as Rule #4 required. Something ironic¡­something funny¡­

    It¡¯s just the Rules. All business.

    This wasn¡¯t about revenge.

    Never was.

    I could have a bit of fun on the side though.

    Emotions or their approximations had no part in the applications of the Rules. Same with the law. Which was why Lady Justice had a blindfold on. Impartiality and such, yada, yada.

    Which begs the question: How could Lady Justice see the scales of justice if she¡¯s blindfolded?

    Moving back on topic, I wasn¡¯t sure how to explain this difference in emotion between my kind and normal people. How could someone blind since birth explain to a person with sight how they viewed the world? I''d assume they just saw black, but I was sure that wasn¡¯t the case. A more outlandish view: if we could converse with monkeys, could we relate or understand their experience of having a fifth limb in the form of their powerful tails? Could a mantis shrimp explain to us the colors it could see but we could never ever visualize? Could we understand how they saw the world?

    Perhaps a more apt and understandable analogy would be an experience of mine when I took judo classes back in undergrad. We had elective PE classes and were free to choose what we wanted from the wide offerings of the college¡ªfancy college, right? I recalled around that time, a student was assaulted coming home from a late-night party, so my group of approximate friends wanted to take self-defense lessons and I got dragged along.

    There was this submission hold in judo that we just called ¡®chicken wing¡¯ hold¡ªI forgot the Japanese name for it. Basically, it was a bent arm lock used to apply pressure on the elbow or the shoulder. I couldn¡¯t, for the life of me, understand how to execute that move. Why? Because I couldn¡¯t feel pain when that move was done to me.

    It turned out I had a very flexible shoulder joint. I¡¯ve popped my shoulder a few times in the past and could pop it back in myself with only slight discomfort.

    Emotions for me were like that judo move. I could never experience them in the same way as normal people, hence I could never relate to them. Like when I used that move on an opponent, I just couldn¡¯t understand why she was feeling pain because that move didn¡¯t work on me. For all I knew, she was just faking it. Which was probably why it was easy for people like me to be brutally violent, both physically and emotionally. We just couldn¡¯t relate to the suffering we caused.

    Phew. Profound thoughts just after lunch.

    I was reminded by that judo thing because Deen kept on telling me to take self-defense classes with her as if knowing grappling techniques was going to help against Adumbrae or BID agents. I guess some people just liked their security blankets. The same in law school, many students printed or photocopied piles of notes and paint pages with highlighters even though it wasn¡¯t useful other than to give the impression of being prepared for exams.

    My phone buzzed. I checked it and groaned. Deen forwarded to me several posters of mixed martial arts lessons we could take. She also told me she was going to pay for both of us. ¡°Let¡¯s just wait for all of this to blow over,¡± I texted her.

    ¡°Fine then. Maybe next week or so,¡± she replied. ¡°Promise you¡¯ll take them with me.¡±

    I rolled my eyes while typing, ¡°I promise.¡±

    ¡°Where are you? Did you eat lunch yet?¡±

    ¡°I just finished eating at Jenny¡¯s, MOM,¡± I told her, capitalizing ¡®mom¡¯ and adding in a couple of smiley faces at the end.

    ¡°Just checking,¡± was her message. ¡°Where are you now? You didn¡¯t answer me.¡±

    ¡°So bossy,¡± I added in another smiley to show I was kidding. ¡°I¡¯m having hot cocoa while studying at a cafe a block from Jenny¡¯s.¡±

    Her messages were relentless, checking up on me, telling me to go to her house. Her latest text was that ¡°Erind, come back to Cresthorne and wait for my class to end so we can go home together. It¡¯s safer.¡±

    She was annoyingly paranoid now for some reason. Weirdo. Yesterday, she was moping and inconsolable, barely talking, worried about something she didn¡¯t want to tell me. I got slightly concerned she might¡¯ve realized I was the monster she saved in the arena. Could she have peered into my possible futures with our connection and spotted me transforming back into human form?

    Don¡¯t think so. If she discovered my secret, she would¡¯ve already confronted me. At least that was what I expected from her personality. I was wrong about her once though; I didn¡¯t expect her to accept an artificial Core, yet she did.

    I may be wrong again, but my instincts told me her problems weren¡¯t connected to my secret.

    More likely, she was mentally burdened by the weight of everything she went through.

    In the aftermath of what happened last Saturday, the city declared an everyone-stay-the-fuck-at-home order for Sunday and Monday. The National Guard came. Reinforcements from the BID came. Emergency response teams from other cities came. Excavators and other heavy machinery came. It was a big rescue operation. However, many people, including the cops and BID agents who participated in the raid, were beyond rescuing.

    The whole city was in panic mode.

    The casualties were too high for a normal BID operation, so people began speculating they fought something not so normal even by Adumbrae standards. News outlets, possibly under directives from the BID, were quick to allay the fears of the public, spinning a story that it was ¡®nothing serious¡¯¡ªjust a criminal organization engaged in the trade of illegal Adumbrae parts.

    No real living Adumbrae in this city, none of that they said. Unfortunately, the news informed us, the criminals also smuggled heavy weaponry and explosives which detonated during the fight. That was the cause of the massive explosion.

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    I could understand why they didn¡¯t want to release the true story of the night¡¯s events.

    We watched it all unfold on TV last Sunday. ¡®We¡¯ being Deen and me. Her sister decided to stay at her boyfriend¡¯s place, so we had the house to ourselves and could discuss freely. We were eventually able to contact the others and confirmed everyone was still in one piece. Deen¡¯s anxiety lessened¡ªit was already getting annoying pretending to care about the safety of the group while talking to her. We decided we''d all stay low and keep safe:

    Don¡¯t contact each other.

    Don¡¯t act suspiciously.

    Continue with our lives.

    Keep safe.

    Remember, we don¡¯t know nothing about anything.

    Deen was still fine last Sunday. But by yesterday, something was weird with her. I did ask her what was wrong, being a good friend, but I didn¡¯t pry too much because I was too tired to pretend to care. It was probably something stupid like her conscience bothered by all the people who died; she couldn¡¯t have done anything to save them anyway.

    ¡°You should listen to your class,¡± I told her.

    ¡°Am I too annoying?¡± she answered. ¡°I¡¯m just worried.¡±

    ¡°Worried about what?¡± I paused, thinking about what could shut her up. ¡°Nothing to worry about. The BID is here. We¡¯re safe.¡± And send.

    ¡°Just be careful.¡± She eventually replied, getting the hint to watch the messages we sent.

    ¡°Yep, I know. I¡¯m studying here.¡± I sighed. Fine, I¡¯m going to be considerate. ¡°Tell me later when you¡¯re leaving Cresthorne. I¡¯ll go to Podium and we can meet there. Buying something.¡± There, now she''d feel like she was keeping me safe by meeting me later.

    Was I actually studying at a caf¨¦? No way. I hated studying in crowded places. I didn¡¯t even study in the university library because there were just so many fucking people. It didn¡¯t matter that the library was quiet; the fact that there were people was the problem. I couldn¡¯t concentrate on studying if I had to keep my face up all the time.

    Deen would kill me if she knew where I was.

    I was actually going near the crater.

    Criminals always returned to the scene of the crime¡ªa belief so prevalent it was a staple trope in crime mystery TV shows or movies. It was like when one posts a picture on social media and then checks later if someone liked or commented on it. I don¡¯t do that though. I barely maintained my social media accounts because of Rule#16. The more extreme reasons for returning to the crime scene could be on the sexual deviant side. The perpetrator might get off from it or something¡ªit still stemmed from the need to check one''s handiwork and people¡¯s reaction to it.

    Well¡­I was going to a crime scene but it wasn¡¯t necessarily my crime.

    And I couldn¡¯t get near the crater because the city cordoned off a radius of several blocks away from the center of the explosion.

    Still, I was symbolically going back to the crime scene.

    I was surprised to see a lot of people hanging out at the police blockade of the main road going to the quarantined part of the city. Most of them, as far as I could tell, had businesses located in the locked-down zone, trying to force their way through to check what happened to their properties. Others were just curious idiots who wanted to see the site of the battle, maybe eager to find Adumbrae''s body parts. A small group seemed to be relatives of people missing in the rubble, waiting vigilantly for any good news.

    Many of them wore masks, the medical ones. Actually, I also noticed a few students in my Crim and Consti classes earlier today wearing masks. Did they think the fallout from the explosion was dangerous or something? I could make fun of them for being too paranoid, but I wasn¡¯t sure if the air was safe. A lot of inhuman creatures were included in the massive barbeque pit. Who knew if there were contaminants in the smoke?

    Some people set up stalls, selling masks and other stuff. I went closer for a look and giggled in amusement. There was a pile of t-shirts with the print ¡°I survived the Adumbrae invasion¡±. Other shirts have pictures of the more popular Corebrings on them, like the beautiful Overseer Katherine who had many male fans all over the world.

    I had to applaud these people for being business savvy.

    Shouting and marching. A group of angry protesters, about a couple of dozen or so, approached the police line. They weren¡¯t going to try and breach the cordon, they just wanted coverage from a media van that was stationed nearby.

    ¡°Arrest the Mayor!¡± said one of the placards. ¡°Mayor is an Adumbrae!¡± I read another.

    ¡°Is that true?¡± I wondered out loud.

    ¡°Don¡¯t think the mayor is one,¡± a man beside me said. ¡°He¡¯s a fucking crook, but ain¡¯t no Adumbrae who''d want his disgusting body. Fucking sellout.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s coddling these illegal traders in the city,¡± a woman, probably his wife, chimed in.

    ¡°Fuckin¡¯ tradin¡¯ Adumbrae parts right here. Mayor has a part in that, take my word for it.¡±

    ¡°Now, we don¡¯t even know if our store is still standing because of him.¡±

    Something might¡¯ve happened yesterday. I wasn''t aware of it because I kept on changing the channel whenever Deen wanted to watch the news. It was annoying seeing her concerned face each time something related to our mission came up. But I did gloss over some articles about our mayor getting investigated when I browsed my phone while I ate lunch.

    A news reporter followed by a cameraman exited the TV5 van and rushed to cover the protest.

    ¡°Excuse me,¡± I said to the disgruntled couple and passed between them. They didn¡¯t mind me and joined the protesters in chanting. I made sure not to get in the sight of the camera.

    While it was cool to see the results of what happened that fateful Saturday night, I wasn¡¯t sure what I wanted here. Was I perhaps, deep down, still looking for traces of Vanessa?

    But she was already dead.

    It wasn¡¯t like I was some evil villain in the movie and left her before making sure she was dead. I saw her body burn. That eyeball I saw¡ªor I think I saw¡ªa couple of days ago was just a hallucination, my mind wobbly from having woken up from SpookyErind¡¯s dreamland.

    Rob¡¯s garage wasn¡¯t anywhere near here, so I couldn¡¯t check it. And I wasn¡¯t dumb enough to show my face there.

    I stood still. Pondering. I guess I was just sad, or an approximation of sadness. Although we only knew each other for a short time, I did consider Vanessa a friend. Very weird behavior, I know. Some serial killers kept body parts of their victims because they considered them their friends, even talking to them. I wasn¡¯t at the point I was talking to Vanessa¡¯s bracelet, but I missed her somehow.

    ¡°Woah, my bad.¡± A man carrying a bunch of flyers bumped into me.

    I took a few steps back even if he didn¡¯t have the strength or weight to push me off balance. ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I said, adjusting my glasses. These were new. I lost the pair I wore while escaping the tunnels¡ªmight¡¯ve slipped out of my pockets.

    ¡°Sorry miss,¡± he said, stooping down to pick up his dropped flyers.

    I helped him. ¡°What''s this about?¡± I asked, looking at the writings on the paper. ¡°Prayer Worship of Lady Isolde of the¡­¡±

    ¡°Of the Flying Fortress City!¡± His face lit up in excitement. ¡°The High Overseer Isolde has awoken! Praise the Mother Core! It¡¯s all over the news! Just think, okay? Just think. We get this disaster and then there¡¯s news of a High Overseer waking¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erm, here are your flyers,¡± I said. It was a religious group worshipping one of the High Overseers. I remembered they were more common when I was a kid before all of the High Overseers decided to sleep because the world became relatively peaceful.

    Worship a deity of a religion from ancient times or worship an actual godlike being hanging around on this earth? It was easy to see why many people jumped ship and started new religions.

    ¡°You can keep one,¡± he said. ¡°Here¡¯s a pamphlet too. I¡¯m guessing you haven¡¯t heard about her awakening yet because all of our news over here is about this¡ª¡±

    ¡°Thanks for this,¡± I interrupted him. ¡°I have to go¡ª¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re just starting meetings. Saturday nights at 8:30¡ª¡±

    A woman screamed. A large crash followed. More screams.

    ¡°What the?¡±

    There was gunfire. An unearthly shriek. Many people running away.

    Trouble?

    Time for me to transform and save the day!

    Just kidding.

    I followed the fleeing crowd.

 3.2

    The police were fighting whatever it was. The popping from pistols sounded feeble after experiencing the thunderous barrage of a Skitter¡¯s weaponry.

    Then the gunfire stopped.

    I looked back and saw cops running out of the corner of the street followed by an overturned car skidding after them. They dove out of the way. The car came to a halt as it crashed into the traffic light at the intersection. The pole bent down, hitting a couple of cars on the road. More people joined the panic as the inhuman shrieks came closer. What the hell were we running away from?

    ¡°Adumbrae!¡± someone to the back of our stampeding herd screamed.

    ¡°It¡¯s an Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°Everyone, run!¡±

    Thanks for answering my question, guys.

    That dreaded name was picked up by others and echoed. Within seconds, everyone understood what was going on.

    Which meant more panic.

    Before the ¡®incident¡¯, putting the events of last Saturday lightly, people wouldn¡¯t readily believe there was an Adumbrae in La Esperanza¡ªafter all, this was one of the safest cities in the country. ¡®Maybe it was a hoax¡¯, would¡¯ve been the immediate reaction.

    Not anymore.

    Everyone now knew the danger that lurked in their midst, hidden in the bowels of the city.

    Was this Adumbrae one of the survivors from the underground arena and only surfaced now? I slowed down because I wanted to see what it was. I knew I should be more concerned for my safety, but I was just having so much fun running with everyone. I imagined this was what a bull run in Spain felt like.

    Wait!

    Instead of running down the streets, I veered left, wading against the current of rushing people, inadvertently knocking down a couple of them because of how strong I was. I muttered a quick, ¡°Sorry about that¡±, as I continued to the sidewalk and entered a two-story brick building. Several bookshelves, stacks of books in the middle, people browsing, a cashier¡ªa cozy bookstore.

    All of them were surprised in varying degrees as I burst inside, still unaware of the commotion on the streets. I heavily breathed¡ªfake, I was far from tired¡ªand wore a terrified expression. There was a security camera behind the cashier counter.

    ¡°Are you okay, miss?¡± A store attendant approached the door, curious about what was happening.

    ¡°There¡¯s so-something out the-there,¡± I stammered in an anxious voice. ¡°A-Adumbrae. There¡¯s an Adumbrae outside!¡±

    ¡°What?¡± she exclaimed in bewilderment, hearing something she didn¡¯t expect in the course of her employment. With terrific timing, shots cracked in the air followed by the terrible cries of the Adumbrae. The monster¡¯s calls sounded curiously familiar. ¡°Is-is it really an Adumbrae?¡± she said.

    Murmuring. Everyone in the store was rooted on the spot, hesitantly looking at each other.

    ¡°Run up!¡± I ordered them. I led the way to the second floor of the building where various school and office supplies were sold. I heard them following me, their steps pounding up the stairs. One of the kids asked his mom what was going on.

    As I weaved through the shelves to get to the windows, I noted another security camera. It was just a small store with only one camera for each floor. Small enough for my purpose but I had to be careful of my actions.

    Now, where was it? It should be nearby.

    A teacher-looking guy followed me to the window to also get a look at what was happening. He fucking screamed, ¡°Adumbrae!¡± into my ear as the monster came into view. Some of the bookstore¡¯s customers who had no common sense also flocked behind us to watch.

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± I said, selling shock and fear.

    It had the form of a serpent, its deep green scaly body was as thick as the banana boat I rode during my Hawaii vacation, and it was long enough to completely cover the car it caught when coiled around it. Maybe a serpent wasn¡¯t the correct comparison for it had numerous human arms lining the length of its body on both sides. More like a cross between snake and centipede¡­and human. It had an anguished human face, continuously bellowing in pain.

    This wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae like the people mistakenly assumed. Just a failed experiment. A horribly mutated human.

    Still very dangerous.

    ¡°Oh, my god,¡± I repeated more melodramatically. ¡°What is that?¡± However, I was cheering deep inside. Snake mutant buddy! You¡¯re alive!

    While it did try to kill me, I still felt a strange sort of kinship with it, like how after surviving a hellish exam the entire class was suddenly closer. Something like that. As fellow survivors, I now considered it my buddy.

    Some of its arms were mere bloody stumps, the open wounds healing but not regrowing. It had massive scars on its body, large swaths of scales ripped off, the flesh oozing green slime, even large chunks just missing. I had a hunch about what happened to it. The BID agents must''ve been clearing the tunnels and flushed this guy out of its hiding place. That would explain its injuries. It escaped the BID agents and somehow made it here.

    ¡°There are people in the car,¡± the teacher guy said.

    Snake buddy tightened its body around the car, slowly crushing it. The people inside begged for help. A brave cop approached the mutant, his handgun aimed at its head. He emptied his magazine. The mutant''s head barely moved, but it cried out in pain. This wasn¡¯t like with Vanessa who I easily killed with a headshot; snake buddy¡¯s entire body was tough as fuck. You¡¯d need weaponry as hard-hitting as that of a Skitter to fatally wound it.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hide in the storeroom!¡± It was the store attendant. She waved at everyone to come to the back of the store.

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    The mom quickly herded her two kids to the safe hiding spot. The attendant called for us again, and others followed. It was just me, the teacher guy, and a high school girl still in her uniform who stayed to watch. The teacher had a string of beads in his hand, mumbling a prayer while kneeling by the window; I could tell he was a follower of the Mother Core from the design of the beads. The student was engrossed with recording the scene on her phone.

    I checked the situation outside. The mutant somehow got hold of the cop, raising him high up the ground by the neck with its two uppermost hands. The lower hands, with their immense strength, tore the cop¡¯s body apart, a handful of flesh at a time.

    Ewwwww!

    Bitter bile touched the back of my tongue. My lunch was coming up.

    I checked the shelf behind me and grabbed a tray of¡­staplers. I wasn¡¯t sure if this could work, but it was the hardest thing I could throw within my reach.

    My plan was simple. One, get the attention of the mutant. Two, draw it inside this building. Three, kill it. And lastly, eat it. Add something about dealing with the security cameras somewhere in that to-do list. I¡¯d be hitting two birds with one stone. I hoped this counted as consuming something as, um, ¡®payment¡¯¡ªI guess I could call it that¡ªto SpookyErind for giving me another face. And I would also close this Rule #4 case with my mutant snake buddy.

    This wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae, but it wasn''t normal either. If it didn¡¯t count, then at least I''d know I should only hunt Adumbrae.

    It¡¯s just so nice when everything falls into place.

    ¡°Hey! Let¡¯s help them!¡± I yelled. The student stared at me like I was crazy and then ignored me. The teacher was still focused on praying. ¡°We can still help the people in the car,¡± I insisted. Probably? The car was already compacted to half its size, and there was no more screaming inside. ¡°We should try to help.¡±

    ¡°What do I do with this?¡± the confused student said, holding up the staplers I shoved to her hands.

    ¡°Stop that with your phone and throw!¡± I pulled the teacher up and shook him out from his fervent prayer. ¡°You too, get these and throw.¡± I opened the sliding glass windows and lobbed the staplers at the mutant, aiming at its body for higher chances of hitting. ¡°Don¡¯t kill them!¡± I yelled at the mutant. ¡°We have to distract it so it would release the car.¡±

    ¡°Let them go!¡± the teacher shouted with me.

    The girl had confusion all over her face, but she decided to copy me too and threw the staplers to get the monster¡¯s attention. Both of them weren¡¯t thinking straight, shocked by the situation. The staplers they threw, the pitiful few that hit their mark, harmlessly bounced off the snake¡¯s back.

    ¡°Leave those people alone!¡± I used my real strength. My staplers broke into pieces upon impact, but the mutant was still busy dismantling the cop. ¡°Shit, I ran out. Wait here, guys.¡± I ran to another shelf and got a few study lamps. ¡°Here! Continue throwing,¡± I said, sliding them to their feet. ¡°I¡¯ll get something bigger.¡± I hurried to the display of models of the earth and other planets near the stairs and grabbed the biggest one I could find. ¡°Is it still there?¡± I asked them, returning by their side with the huge globe.

    ¡°It¡¯s leaving,¡± the guy said. He raised the lamp but didn¡¯t have the opportunity to throw it. The snake had dropped the barely recognizable skeleton of the cop, stripped of its flesh, and slithered away. ¡°We weren¡¯t able to save them,¡± he said mournfully. Blood oozed from the crumpled car.

    ¡°This is insane!¡± The girl had her camera up again, her hands shaking but her voice was excited. ¡°An actual Adumbrae. And dead people too.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t record the dead,¡± the teacher said, his voice wavering in contrast to the girl¡¯s. Actually, I didn¡¯t know if he was really a teacher. ¡°That¡¯s disrespectful¡ª¡±

    ¡°My classmates aren¡¯t going to believe this!¡±

    The street was clear, only the dead remained. I sat on the windowsill and leaned my upper body out the window. I had the globe in one hand, my other hand hanging onto the ledge. ¡°We can¡¯t let it get away.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ª? What are you doing?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to get its attention.¡±

    The girl said, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut up, I¡¯m trying to concentrate.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t do that!¡± The teacher tried to pull me back in, everything clicking in his head.

    ¡°Hey!¡± I yelled at the mutant. ¡°Hey! This way!¡± I threw the globe as hard as I could at the back of its head. There was distinctive bonk as the globe bounced on top of the mutant. It was a pretty solid and well-made globe, not those cheap, hollow ones. The mutant stopped but didn¡¯t turn around. ¡°Another globe then.¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± the guy began to say as I left them.

    I heard the girl ask him, ¡°What should we do now?¡±

    I sprinted back to the planet models display. Only smaller ones left. Could I carry two of them? I put one under each of my arms. There were office chairs too. How about tho¡ªCRASSSHHH!

    ¡°The fuck?¡±

    Mutant snake buddy was here!

    It smashed through the glass windows and forced its body through the opening, crumbling the brick wall. It knocked over shelves as the girl screamed. Rulers, protractors, pencils, piles of papers, all kinds of school supplies exploded along with splinters of wood. The mutant pushed back the shelves that fell over it. It raised the upper third of its body.

    The head of the teacher guy was in between the mutant¡¯s jaw, its human mouth stretched to accommodate the size of its prey like a snake¡¯s could. The guy was trying to free himself, punching the head of the mutant to no effect.

    I turned my attention to the camera at the corner of the ceiling. I dropped the globes.

    ¡°Help!¡± The high schooler was pinned under one of the toppled shelves.

    The mutant, irritated by the punching of the teacher guy, thrashed beside her. It flung the body violently in every direction while clamping on his head. Yep, that guy was done for.

    ¡°Help me, please! It hurts!¡± the girl pleaded. ¡°Get me out of here!¡±

    What do I do? Should I tell her to shut up? The mutant was going to spot her.

    I stared at my hand. Why am I hesitating to summon the mask?

    The teacher guy''s body flew overhead. Just the body. The head was still in the mutant¡¯s mouth.

    I dove for the girl. Kneeling in front of her, I grasped her hands and pulled with all my might. The mutant whipped its tail. I braced for impact. The mutant wasn¡¯t aiming for me. Its tail smashed through the shelf on top of the girl. She screamed. I pulled her free.

    ¡°Yes!¡± I celebrated as I dragged her to safe¡ª

    Shit.

    I was pulling her.

    But only her upper body.

    Her lower torso and legs were splattered all over the mutant¡¯s tail, the walls, the floor, the ceiling. I held the girl¡¯s hands, her lifeless eyes looking up at me. A shadow fell over me. I gazed up and locked eyes with the snake mutant.

    I slowly moved my right hand was over my face, ready to summon the Blanchette face at a moment¡¯s notice. I wasn¡¯t sure what the mutant was thinking. It loomed over me but made no move to attack. I might be imagining it, but its bloodshot eyes seemed perplexed. Its mouth, lined with jagged teeth with bits of flesh on them, gaped open stupidly.

    One second.

    Two.

    Should I transform?

    Three.

    Four.

    At five, I¡¯ll transform.

    ¡°Screeee!¡± it shrieked and slithered out of the opening it made earlier as quickly as it could.

    ¡°Eh?¡±

    It left?

    Just like that?

    ¡°What now?¡± I lowered my right hand and surveyed the damage. My left was still holding the hand of the dead girl. I didn''t dare move my eyes down her body or I might really vomit. I could see hints of her entrails spilling out. I pulled her and laid her head on my lap. It was becoming my favorite move to be caring.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± I mumbled awkwardly. I truly didn¡¯t expect them to die. ¡°I did my best to save you. I guess I could¡¯ve done better. Better luck next time¡­.oh, wait. There''s no next time. Sorry ¡®bout that.¡±

    I was still wondering why I didn¡¯t put on the face immediately, much less summon it. The mutant had the strength to kill me if I didn¡¯t use my power. The security camera? I could just destroy the recording afterward. I stared at the crystals on my palm.

    Was it because¡­.?

    No.

    What about the two who died? Simple. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. No need for a big drama over them. Still, I was genuinely sorry I wasn¡¯t able to save them. I didn¡¯t intend for them to die. Although, whether they lived or died wouldn¡¯t matter much to me in the end. And it was their fault they stayed to watch.

    I shook my head. I better move on.

    The deaths of the teacher guy and the high school girl would be in vain if I didn¡¯t get to eat the snake mutant. Yes! That would be the best form of apology to these two.

    Happy with the resolution I reached, I got out of the building and went looking for the mutant.

    Snake buddy, yoo-hoo! Where are you?

 3.3

    It was easy to find where my one and only mutant pal went off to: just follow the screams of people.

    I sprinted down 17<sup>th</sup> Street way faster than my normal self should be able to, making a beeline to the sounds of commotion. Screeching tires pierced my ears. I reached the corner of 17<sup>th</sup> and Serenade Streets just in time to see a police car crash into the mutant, pinning it against the wall of the Serenade Bazaar.

    I didn¡¯t know what possessed the cops to do this; I was sure this wasn¡¯t a tactic in the police manual when dealing with Adumbrae. Were they really pissed that several of their fellow police officers died last Saturday? But they did stop the snake mutant momentarily. Good job.

    Angrily punching the hood of the car with its many human hands, the mutant scrunched metal like it was a piece of cardboard.

    The police car squealed as the driver floored it, trying to keep the mutant in place. His partner alighted from the passenger¡¯s side and aimed a shotgun at the mutant''s face.

    BANG!

    Its head flung back from the force of the shot, bouncing off the wall. Bits of mutant flesh and flecks of greenish blood flew in the air like confetti. BANG! BANG! The cop didn¡¯t miss his shots.

    Were they actually going to succeed in killing it?

    The people cheered. Yeah, many people were watching like idiots. La Esperanza hadn¡¯t experienced an incident where an actual Adumbrae went on a rampage in broad daylight so this was a novel spectacle.

    I spotted the TV5 news reporter¡ªthe one interviewing the protesters earlier¡ªhiding with her partner cameraman behind a parked van on the other side of the street of the bazaar. When they saw the mutant apparently dying, they crossed the street and ran to the building to get a closer view, sneaking behind a thick column. The Serenade Bazaar, a cross between a modern bazaar and a mall, had huge Romanesque concrete columns propping up a heavy overhanging roof at its entrance.

    As for me, I went to take over their previous hiding spot and carefully peered from behind the van.

    The mutant grabbed the front end of the police car and flipped it.

    Okay, it''s not dying. But its face was a mess. I couldn¡¯t even tell that it had a human head. It slammed the overturned police cruiser with its tail for good measure just as the cop inside tried to escape through the driver¡¯s window.

    The shotgun-wielding cop switched to his pistol and continued shooting, hoping to divert the mutant¡¯s attention. He got his wish as the snake mutant turned to him. Its face had already healed from its heavy injuries. Huh? Was that its face earlier?

    The cop rolled across the ground, evading the thrashing tail of the mutant.

    It chased after the cop, but stopped mid-slither, shrieking in pain. Something burst out of its back but quickly disappeared. It was something long with a pointed tip.

    The cop, along with the reporter and cameraman, continued running, fearful the mutant was still behind them.

    It wasn¡¯t.

    Instead, it entered Serenade Bazaar, breaking through the automated glass doors before they could fully open.

    No more hesitation this time! I summoned the Blanchette face while crouching behind the van, careful not to let anyone see me. I took a deep breath.

    Let¡¯s do this!

    I instantly felt a surge of power as I placed it on my face. I flexed the muscles of my body, including my favorite jaw muscles. This. Was. Awesome! I would grin in excitement if I still had a normal mouth, but the best I could manage was grimace with my fangs.

    Here comes your hero, bitches!

    I had no intention of being a hero¡ªif I did, I would¡¯ve transformed way earlier¡ªbut anyone I inadvertently saved should be eternally grateful to me and worship me as a hero.

    I was about to go out of my hiding spot and run to the Serenade Bazaar''s entrance when I realized there was a high chance the crowd of onlookers would record me with their phones. This place has a side entrance, right? I visited this bazaar a couple of times before when I was looking for various brands of tea.

    I returned to 17<sup>th</sup> Street and hurried along the side of the building.

    There!

    Several people exited the side entrance, pushing and shoving to escape, pitifully scrambling over one another in their single-minded goal to save themselves even at the expense of hurting others. Snake mutant buddy must be wreaking havoc inside. Some dumbfucks still carried their groceries while escaping. I think a person was getting trampled by the crowd.

    A huge mess.

    Which was good for me.

    In their panic, they didn¡¯t notice the strange woman in a cosplay-looking getup with a fanged mask crowd surfing through them. I wanted to growl in frustration because they kept pushing me back, but I kept myself in control. Eventually, I was able to extract myself from the horde without throwing anyone in the air in a fit of rage.

    The building had three floors full of stores with skylight roof-covered corridors traversing it in a grid-like pattern. This way, shoppers could see the stores on the upper levels from the ground floor. Ample sunlight filtered in for the lush plants. It would be more accurate to describe it as a small town of three-story shops connected by bridges under one huge transparent roof.

    I went up to the second floor and headed to the front part of the building hoping to find the trail of the mutant. Luckily, I spotted the reporter across the circular atrium lobby with her ever-trusty camera guy. She seemed to know where to go.

    Bridge. Where was the bridge to get to the other side?

    Damn it! I descended back to the ground floor, ran across the lobby, then went back up the second floor to look for them.

    Straight down the row of stores selling rolls of fabrics; all of them were empty, everyone having wisely run away to somewhere not fucking here. I came upon a small square garden at the middle of the intersection of the bazaar¡¯s corridors.

    ¡°Help!¡± a despairing plea echoed in the uncomfortable silence of the usually bustling marketplace.

    The snake mutant was beside the fountain at the center of the garden. It had captured a couple of people, its body wrapped around them, slowly squeezing. Another body was beneath the end of its tail, squished flat. A woman covered in blood was trying to hide behind a lush fern at the edge of the garden.

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    ¡°Please help us!¡± cried the people constricted by the mutant, struggling to breathe.

    It didn¡¯t stop tightening the coil¡­

    I snarled in disgust.

    That wasn¡¯t a good sight. Like squeezing peas out of a pod. Except the pod was a human body and the peas were blood, bones, and guts.

    As I instinctively turned away, I spotted the TV5 people. I bent down and hid behind the floor railings¡ªnot a particularly good hiding spot. They were a floor above me on the other side of the garden. I could cross the bridge to get to their side. Should I go over there and destroy their camera before going down to fight the mutant?

    I was sure this place had security cameras which already captured me running around. But those were blurry, shitty footage. It was another thing to be broadcasted on the news. I¡¯d rather not want that, thank you very much.

    My heart pounded in anticipation.

    This was the first time I used my power since the fight at the underground arena. Would I be able to control myself now? I swear I can stop myself from eating too much, just limit it to the snake mutant. Also, I should finish before more police and BID agents arrived. I might not be able to control myself if reinforcements kept coming. And if it came to that, I''d have no choice but to keep on eating them to survive.

    I wanted to avoid killing normal humans if possible. I wasn¡¯t a monster.

    Ok, I am. But I was still a human in my head.

    ¡°Stop that!¡±

    A cop? A BID agent? Were they already here? No, it was a security guard of the Serenade Bazaar based on his uniform.

    Seriously? I almost felt sorry for the guy that I considered jumping in now before he stupidly got himself killed. Yet, a part of me wanted to see this one play out.

    ¡°Stop!¡± the guard yelled again. He had a taser in his hand.

    The mutant didn¡¯t heed his call. No surprises there. It glided to the woman by the ferns. The woman made no attempts to escape. Perhaps injured, perhaps frozen by fear.

    Showing an amazing display of courage, the guard went up behind the snake mutant and shot the back of its head with his taser. I almost clapped my clawed hands to cheer for him.

    A normal human hit by a taser would¡¯ve seized up and hit the floor, convulsing. A normal Adumbrae hit by a powerful electroshock weapon like a Skitter¡¯s would also end up convulsing, barely able to control their powers like what happened to Rob. An Adumbrae, or a mutant, in this case, hit by a normal taser would do...nothing. If it connected. The prong thingies of the taser just bounced off the scales of the mutant.

    It raised its tail.

    Folks, we all know what¡¯s coming next. A pancaked security guard.

    But the tail didn¡¯t slam down on the poor guard going way above and beyond his pay grade. A pole-like object erupted out of the mutant¡¯s tail and embedded itself to the floor, nailing the tail to the ground. My eyes widened. What was that? A spear?

    I looked around to check. No one threw a spear or anything. On the third floor, the TV5 crew didn¡¯t seem to notice what had happened. Where could it have come from?

    Hold on¡­The spear didn¡¯t skewer the tail.

    It came out of one side of the tail, the side towards me. The news people couldn''t see it from their side. As the mutant tried to free itself, I saw there was no entry point on the other side of the tail, the other half of the spear was nowhere to be seen.

    It fucking grew out of the tail!

    Was it the same thing I saw earlier?

    This had to be a friggin¡¯ power. Sufficiently advanced technology may seem like magic, but I didn¡¯t think the BID had developed the technology that could make spears just grow out of the body. This is some supernatural shit. It reminded me of the time Myra nearly killed me. One of her fucking tree bark-like spikes grew out of my body. But that was because a splinter got lodged inside my stomach.

    Here, I didn¡¯t spot anyone, or anything, that could¡¯ve been the source of the spear.

    I crouched lower and started to crawl towards a post to better hide myself. There must be an Adumbrae somewhere around here. Maybe someone from the 2Ms¡¯ organization. However, why would an Adumbrae want to kill this mutant? To cover their tracks?

    What if this wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae? What if...it was a Corebring?

    The snake mutant grabbed the spear with its many hands and attempted to pull it out. It should¡¯ve been easy for it to dislodge given its strength, but it couldn¡¯t uproot it from the ground. Unsure of how to free itself, it lunged at the guard who was still in striking distance. The spear went back into its tail, freeing it, but the mutant suddenly stopped, shrieking in pain.

    At first, I didn¡¯t understand what happened. After I changed my position to get a better view, I realized that the hocus-pocus spear emerged beneath it, out of its belly, as if someone speared it from above but only the half of the spear that passed through the mutant¡¯s body was visible. Yet again, it was stuck in place, held by the spear. Its arms, inches from grabbing the guard.

    Amazed at his luck, the guard went around the monster and rushed to the aid of the survivor by the ferns. What a swell guy.

    The mutant pushed on the floor, struggling to free itself. The spear held firm. It pounded on the floor in anger, cracking the tiles. Suddenly, it was free again! It was able to move several feet as the spear went back in its body, only to emerge out the bottom of its jaw. I didn¡¯t need x-ray vision powers to know part of the spear was inside its head.

    Game over? That thing¡¯s gotta be dead. Its brain was done for.

    The spear disappeared. It didn¡¯t recede into the mutant¡¯s body as it previously did. It simply vanished. The monster fell to the ground. Motionless.

    Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the pair from TV5 had left their spot. They were probably going down to get a closer look at the dead mutant.

    I should probably make my escape now to avoid the same fate as my snake mutant buddy. No way I could fight whatever this was that killed it.

    As I turned to leave, an angry bellow echoed. The mutant was back up again?

    It raised the upper half of its body to scout for danger, seeking its attacker. How did it survive having its brain destroyed? As its head swept in my direction, I got my answer.

    It had a different face.

    Either its brain wasn¡¯t inside its head, or it had multiple brains. What a dumbass I was to assume monsters would have one brain, or that their brain would be in the same place as a human¡¯s.

    The TV5 reporter emerged on the second floor, having gone down the stairs. The cameraman looked over the floor railings and pointed his camera at the mutant.

    And then the spear appeared again.

    It shot through the mutant¡¯s flank, towards my side as before. It got absorbed back into its body and immediately emerged out of another place but still towards me. It kept on repeating this like a grim whack-a-mole, the spear being the mole. Brownish-green blood from the mutant coated the tiles. The mutant dragged itself across the floor with its arms as the spears continued to go in and out of its body, slowly killing it.

    My prey!

    I assumed whoever was doing this was looking for the brain inside the mutant¡¯s body.

    Wait a minute¡­the camera¡­

    When I first saw the spear, it was outside Serenade Bazaar. That time, the camera guy came nearer for a better shot. The spear appeared on the side not facing the camera. Then it disappeared¡ªvanished, instead of just going back in the mutant¡¯s body¡ªwhen the cameraman ran away.

    Now, the spear appeared on my side, the side opposite the camera. It disappeared when the cameraman went down from the third floor. It reappeared when he pointed the camera once again at the mutant.

    Was someone spearing my snake buddy through the camera?

    Holy fucking shit.

    I made a dash to the bridge that to the other side of the garden, keeping my head below the floor railings. I had to destroy the camera before my monster pal died.

    The reporter and the cameraman didn¡¯t notice me coming over. They were perplexed at what was happening to the mutant, keeping the camera trained on it. Don¡¯t point that thing at me, I prayed as I made a mad dash toward them.

    At the last moment, perhaps hearing my frantic footsteps, the cameraman turned to me. Focused on the line of sight of the camera, it was as if the entire world slowed down. I bent low, dove at it with my claws out, and swung wildly.

    ¡°What the¡­¡± the cameraman said as I smashed the camera out of his hands. He fell on his butt. The news reporter screamed at my sudden appearance and threw her microphone at me.

    I didn¡¯t mind them. I jumped over the railings to my snake buddy, to my prey, to my food.

    Snake buddy! Don¡¯t die before I can eat you!

 3.4

    Weeeee!

    One, two, three, I counted quickly in my head, stomp!

    I kicked my legs down, hitting the ground with the hard soles of my boots with as much force as I could muster. Baaam!

    I knelt, absorbing the impact, feeling the wonderful strain go up my lower body like an electric shock. I leaned forward as my knees bent to stop my body from bouncing back up. The sparkling white floor tiles cracked satisfyingly, my boots sinking about half an inch into the ground. With my light weight, and given I jumped from only the second floor, I most likely wouldn¡¯t be able to break the tiles upon landing if I didn¡¯t intentionally stomp on them.

    Of course, there was no need for any of this. But I wanted to make a cool entrance.

    Because that¡¯s the most important thing when you have powers.

    Would¡¯ve been a lot cooler if a crater formed when I landed, kicking up dust to envelope me before the dramatic reveal. Broken tiles were enough for now.

    This was the second time I jumped down from a high place; the first was when I threw myself into the arena of the Eve club. I''d never get tired of this exhilarating feeling. Maybe I should try jumping from a way higher place next time.

    The mutant twisted its body in my direction, quickly turning back around to flee when it saw me. Did it remember who I was? But it only met my giant werewolf form in the arena.

    My mutant pal was gravely injured, its insides a mess. It couldn¡¯t slither properly. Instead, it dragged its long body, its numerous human-like hands with inhuman strength digging into the floor to pull its heavy weight forward, with the tip of its tail kicking back. It left a trail of its sickly-colored blood and bits of its entrails, moving more like a centipede now than a snake.

    I howled, pointing my snout to the ceiling. Holding the single, piercing note, I exhausted the air in my lungs. The howl echoed throughout the nearly empty building.

    A howl to start the hunt.

    Actually, I wasn¡¯t sure if wolves howled before hunting their prey. Maybe to signal each other? But there was no one here for me to signal. Wait! I knew wolves also howled to warn enemies in their territory to stay away. That was close enough for me.

    Bottom line, I just enjoyed howling. Feeling my powerful vocal cords vibrating, the air rushing through my throat.

    I got down to all fours and charged after the mutant. It entered ¡®Cotton Pals¡¯, a store at one corner of the garden selling stuffed toys, seeking a place to hide. It broke part of the display window to get inside.

    After gathering speed, I leaped in after the mutant, making sure to smash through the other unbroken window instead of entering through the opening it made. Broken glass couldn¡¯t scratch my skin. It was so much fun being this powerful!

    My body banged into a shelf, knocking it down and scattering cute rainbow corgis everywhere. With my momentum, I continued rolling into the arms of a giant bear plush bigger than me. Another shelf fell as I tried to stand, drowning me in a flood of chubby stuffed seals.

    I snarled in irritation, snapping at everything, ripping the toy animals with my teeth. I swung my claws madly, tearing apart the huge bear, the shelves, and all the other plushies. Wood, cotton, wool, whatever crap they stuffed these toys with, all of that flew in the air as I tried to destroy everything I could reach with reckless glee.

    This was way better than being a kid in a ball pit! I assumed everyone pretended to be a wild animal at least once when they were kids, imagining they had long fangs and sharp claws.

    I giggled while shredding the fruit and vegetable plushies. Did anyone ever buy one of these stuffed tomato toys?

    Why am I here again?

    A tail as thick as a tree trunk parted the clouds of fluff and caught my mid-section. It knocked the wind out of me and hurled me to the wall. The drywall easily gave way. I tumbled into the store next door.

    I coughed blood, scrambling to my feet. This time, display cases of sneakers fell on me.

    After getting hit by the mutant came the sensation I was waiting for. Not the pain that radiated from my bruised abdomen. Not the possible broken rib or two.

    Bloodthirst!

    Feral rage bubbling beneath my consciousness, waiting for me to give in to its temptation. I gnashed my growing fangs as my jaws itched to clamp down on flesh. My claws extended.

    Power¡­more power¡­

    Power to rip apart those that hurt me. Power to hunt my prey and tear it to pieces!

    Sooo good¡­

    I heard a crash. Through the me-shaped hole on the wall, I saw a portion of the mutant¡¯s tail disappear from view going to the right. It went to the other neighbor of the plushie store. Rage welled up more and more.

    My prey!

    I was enthralled by this sensation. Addicted to it. It wasn¡¯t the power that I wanted to feel the most. It was the rage. I couldn¡¯t feel this level of fury when I was pretty little Erind even when I tried my best to get angry. Catharsis through animalistic rage resulted in a different kind of happiness. I craved this level of emotion just for the sake of feeling something¡­exotic.

    And I needed to control this craving. Now!

    I balled up my fist, my claws digging into my palm. Get ahold of yourself! I punched the side of my face. The world turned hazy for a second, and I tasted my blood. I shook my head to get back into focus. Okay, that wasn''t the brightest of my ideas, but it knocked some sanity back into me.

    I didn¡¯t go back into the plushie store. My plan was to go right and break through the wall at the back of the sneakers store. Next, I¡¯d go left and smash into the store where snake mutant buddy should be. That was if it hadn¡¯t already gone away. This was way slower, but I hoped destroying walls and shelves would calm me down.

    I broke into a run, coiled my powerful legs muscles, and dove at the wall. Please don¡¯t be a concrete wall, I fervently prayed as I soared across the air. Please just be weak plasterboard.

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    Craashh!

    I got through to the other side. Cymbals clanged, strings twanged, my left foot got stuck inside a snare drum. I narrowly avoided a bunch of ukuleles hanging from the ceiling dropping on me. I extracted myself from the musical instruments and faced left. I found that I didn¡¯t need to break through another wall. The music store was big, taking up the space usually meant for two stores; both sides of the store opened to the corridors on the left and right side. I spotted the snake mutant out on the left corridor, the sunlight pouring through the transparent roof high above bathed its body making its green scales glint like emerald.

    It raised its body with its arms flailing, trying to make itself look bigger. It yelled a challenge, ¡°Skkkreeekkk.¡± Was it saying it was going to take me on?

    A piano was beside me. Very tempting.

    Should I?

    I promise this is the last time for shenanigans. I squatted deep and buried my claws into the bottom wood panels of the piano. Can I lift this?

    Never say never! It was heavy, but not as heavy as I thought. Keep your core tight, I reminded myself. Don¡¯t slouch. Lift with the knees and not the back. A broken back was the last thing I wanted even if I could regenerate it.

    Heave! I roared as I lifted upwards.

    And it didn¡¯t go up above me like I expected.

    It fucking toppled over.

    Idiot.

    So that was why it didn¡¯t feel as heavy as I expected. I wasn¡¯t lifting it correctly.

    Fuck this shit.

    Well, I was a stubborn bitch so I wasn¡¯t going to walk away from this failure. I crouched low behind the fallen piano to get more leverage and leaned my shoulder against it. Firmly planting the balls of my feet on the ground, I began to push the piano to the mutant, making it a makeshift battering ram. I cleared all the other musical instruments from my path like a snowplow¡­plowing snow.

    I gathered more speed. Baaam! I collided with the mutant.

    Or rather, it caught the piano.

    ¡°Grrrrrr.¡± I couldn¡¯t move another inch forward. There was no way I could budge the mutant. It was heavier than me and we had about the same strength. If it wasn¡¯t injured, it would surely be stronger. I gritted my teeth as it started to push back. My soles squeaked on the tiles. I couldn¡¯t get traction. Wood creaked. Then splintered. The piano was breaking between the two of us sandwiching it.

    Fine! I lost the pushing match. I don¡¯t care about it anyway, I thought pettily.

    I rolled to the side as it pushed the broken piano away. I stabbed its flank with my claws. Monster blood burst out like I was popping a gigantic zit. It wasn¡¯t as durable as the late Mr. Ogre. I reached deep into its body, scrambling everything I could as if my claws were a kitchen mixer. If that mysterious spear user thought this was the way to kill it, then I was going to try it too.

    The mutant cried in pain. It punched me. It scratched me. It tried to pull me away.

    With each of its attacks, I grew angrier. Red clouded my vision. I shivered with rage. I snapped at everything, ripping its hands and arms that my jaws could catch. Blood from the stumps of its limbs showered my face and chest. I didn¡¯t care. I kept on chewing its flesh while my claws remain buried inside it.

    It flailed, trying to throw me away. I opened my mouth wide and chomped on its body to hang on. My teeth met its scales, breaking them like they were potato chips. Even as it rampaged from store to store, slamming me against various merchandise, the wall, the floor, even the ceiling, it couldn¡¯t get rid of me. I was like the most determined leech in the world.

    I only grew stronger as I devoured it while it kept on hurting me.

    As it slowed down, I wondered if it was weakening or dying. It should only be a matter of time. Where the fuck was its brain anyway? Destroying it should put an end to this.

    Time to see what¡¯s really inside of you!

    With my claws, I widened its wounds, then pulled back the scales, the skin, the flesh¡­

    ¡­and found heads inside its body.

    Hairless human heads. Male, female, old, young, even a small child''s head. All connected with thick veins that almost looked like intestines pumping the green liquid into and out of them.

    Its body was packed with heads and tentacles!

    The heads slid against each other in a mucus-like substance. They reminded me of tapioca pearls in syrup. The disgusting version of that¡ªa hundred, no, a thousand times more disgusting than the most disgusting shit I''d ever seen. Besides the heads that had huge holes poked through them, the handiwork of Mr. Spear, and the heads I myself destroyed, there were plenty more that were unharmed. Those pulsated and twitched.

    One of them turned to me and opened its eyes.

    Feeling my hold weakening from the shock, the snake mutant grabbed me with its remaining arms and pulled me off. I was barely processing the revolting sight of its innards when I found myself up in the air. Its massive tail came to meet my face.

    WHAMM!

    CRASHH!

    I was thrown into yet another store. I roared as I cleared the stuff that fell on me. The pain I felt was negligible like I was just thrown in my judo class back in college. After consuming a lot of my mutant pal¡¯s flesh and bones, on top of getting hurt many times, my power was already kicking in. Hints of fur grew from the back of my hand. Claws pierced through my boots. My snout elongated. I was becoming more and more muscular.

    This was the stage I had to be careful. I shouldn¡¯t get pushed to fully transform into my giant wolf form.

    Peace.

    Calmness.

    Control.

    A thick book fell on my head. I growled. There goes my inner peace. I caught the title of the book in the corner of my eye and it made me stop. ¡®How to Control the Adumbrae in You.¡¯

    Eh? Where the fuck was I? Leather-bound books, trinkets, weird statues, and symbols. Looks like an occult store dedicated to warding away Adumbrae.

    A tiny sound made me turn my head.

    A woman hid behind the cabinet full of jars of different colored liquids that survived my meteoric landing. ¡®Anti-Adumbrae Aromatherapy¡¯, said the label of the cabinet. I should remember to visit this store after this was all over, I thought sarcastically.

    The woman had pale skin, even paler than mine. I didn¡¯t think it was because she was afraid of me; she just naturally looked like a vampire. She had a defiant expression on her face peering through the strands of her jet-black hair. She had various piercings on her lips and ears with designs that looked like symbols related to Corebring cults.

    ¡°Don¡¯t come close,¡± she bravely said, holding out a branding iron like those for cattle but with a mystic symbol as the brand. ¡°Don¡¯t make me use this on you.¡±

    I have no idea what¡¯s that supposed to be. A curious thought crossed my mind. What if I drew the mutant over here? I mean it wouldn¡¯t be my fault if the mutant went after her. Right? Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge. Would be fun to see how she would try to survive¡ª

    Cut it out! I scolded myself. That was enough for today. I didn¡¯t have time to waste on this. I didn¡¯t even know how to kill my mutant pal with its many heads. Plus, this was already toeing the line of bothering people.

    ¡°Begone, Adumbrae!¡± she said, waving the piece of iron. ¡°Begone from this realm!¡±

    Whatever, weird lady. I went out of the store.

    A buzzing sound. A white and black cylindrical object flew overhead. Reinforcing my assessment of the situation that I was running out of time, police drones had entered the building.

    Flee? Or go after the mutant?

    The answer was obvious.

    My mother taught me to always finish my meal.

    This one is for you, Mom!

 3.5

    It stung.

    Something was pelting me with hot things. Many, many painful small things. I ignored it. Continued eating.

    hey¡­

    My skin hurt. But not so much. More irritating than painful really. I healed quickly, then the pain was gone. But it came back right after because that weird thing on many wheels wouldn¡¯t stop hitting me. It itched. I wanted to scratch my body, but I was too busy eating. Bothering me while I ate. Annoying. What was it?

    Hey!

    Needed to eat faster. I munched on the bones, chewed the rubbery flesh. Soft pudding gushed out from the cracks of the skulls. There was something with this creamy food. I didn¡¯t know what it was, but it had a tingly feeling on my tongue. I wanted it. I couldn¡¯t explain why, but I just wanted it. I grabbed more of these bloody, circular things with faces, pulling them from pulsating tentacles. They twitched, they tried to speak, their mouths moved but no sound came out because they didn¡¯t have any throats, some sobbed, a couple tried to bite my fingers. I paid them no mind, shoving each of them into my expectant, salivating maw.

    Hey, Erind!

    That thing that was hitting me, it wasn¡¯t stopping. Now, another one came, moving towards me on caterpillar treads. What was a caterpillar? Those rolling things below it were also on tanks, right? A tank? What was a tank? Wasn¡¯t a tank supposed to be big? This new thing was smaller than me.

    Many of these annoying things. Some in the sky, flying, some in the ground, hitting me. This very, very small tank looked different from the other things hitting me. But like the others, it also pointed something at me.

    BOOOM!!

    A flash of white. Searing heat. A massive force threw me some distance. I slammed into a thick pillar. Slabs broke off, big and small, falling on me. Dust slowly floated down, settling on my exposed, bloody flesh. I growled as I gripped the corner of the square column, pulling myself up.

    My wounds were superficial, my body quickly regenerated. Skin grew back, covering newly formed muscles. A thick carpet of crimson fur followed. I growled even deeper as a new wave of rage threatened to come crashing down on my consciousness. But something was fighting it back, an anchor at the back of my mind.

    The anger was less pronounced.

    Muted.

    These things couldn¡¯t kill me, why bother?

    I should go back to eating. Then I found that those things were destroying my food. The round objects with faces were getting destroyed by the very, very small tank! Making them explode. The floor shook with the explosions. The other things were helping out, shooting my snacks with the endless burning pebbles they spouted. I snarled and dropped on my front legs, the muscles of my hind legs pumped and ready to kick back to begin the charge. I was going to eat all of these damned things.

    Get ahold of yourself, you stupid bitch! That¡¯s not even food.

    The tiny voice at the back of my head was right!

    I destroyed one of those flying things earlier by throwing one of my round snacks with a face at it; the rest flew higher so I couldn¡¯t easily knock them out of the air. I also smashed one of the things on wheels. I tried eating them, but I found out these things bothering me were inedible. I munched and munched on them and they were very hard and tasted bad. They weren¡¯t food even if they were hurting me.

    I was just going to destroy them.

    I charged at the very small tank that sent me flying, caught it with my claws before it could shoot, and buried my fangs into its thick armor. Both of us rolled on the floor. It whirred and spurted, its treads rolling uselessly in the air. We came to a stop. I turned it over and roared as I dismantled it.

    Pain shot up in my upper right back. Just a minuscule prick. I turned and looked up. There was a new flying thing; it looked different from the other flying things already here. It shot something at my back with a long string connected to it. Other flying things that looked similar to it showed up, forming a loose circle high above me.

    Another one shot me. With my fast reflexes and predator eyes specialized in tracking movement, I evaded its shot and caught it. Two long and sharp needles with strings connected to the floating weird thing.

    Bzzrttt!

    My body shuddered. My back muscles spasmed. More of those needles pierced my body. They weren¡¯t able to penetrate deep, some bounced off, but most of them stayed rooted in my flesh.

    Bzzz¡­bzzrrttt¡­bzzz¡­

    I snarled as I tried to keep standing. I wanted to thrash, wildly shred anything around me, but I couldn¡¯t. I fell on my knees.

    The flying things were doing something to me. These needles¡­the strings. They were humming, clicking. My muscles seized up and wouldn¡¯t listen to me. I couldn¡¯t think¡­The inevitable rage that followed each time I was injured kept me conscious.

    Taser! Taser? I recalled what that was. These drones were fucking hugeass flying tasers. I also remembered the ¡®flying things¡¯ were police anti-Adumbrae drones. More and more memories were coming back.

    Erind¡­that was me. Erind.

    I¡¯m Erind!

    I felt like I crawled out from the murky abyss that was the feral instincts of my beast form. As if from a deep slumber due to staying up all night binge-watching movies, I awakened after what felt like twelve hours of sleep. The tiny, conscious part of me that endured, tucked away in the fringes of the beast¡¯s mind, was coming to the fore, fighting for more control.

    Many thanks to these fucking drones electrocuting me because they scrambled the rage of my beast form.

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    But I was still convulsing from the electric charges passing through my body.

    I willed my body to move, grabbing the needles embedded in my flesh and yanking out all of them. I pulled the strings, tugging the drones towards me to make them crash. But the drones cutoff their cords and flew higher. With a running jump, I tried to reach for one. My claws snagged its bottom plating, and I dragged it down to the ground, smashing it with a stomp of my foot.

    The drones with mounted guns and rockets fired at me. They were finished with their job of destroying the remaining heads the snake mutant carried inside it. My mutant pal¡¯s body was torn to open from the bottom of its neck, if it could be called a neck, down the length of its body, nearly to the tip of its tail¡ªmy fault for opening it like a duffel bag to get its juicy insides.

    I dashed towards the wall. One of the bullets clipped my calf. I stumbled a bit and wasn''t able to jump as high as I wanted, but I nearly reached the second floor. I hung on with my claws and pulled myself over the floor railings. Some of the bullets hit me, but the guns of the police drones didn¡¯t have the firepower of a Skitter¡¯s gun; it might be a war crime to use a Skitter on a normal human.

    I ran without thinking about my destination.

    First order of business: get away from here. I weaved through stores, trying to shake off the drones. Some of them were able to keep up with me.

    At least the drones with the machine guns and rockets were stuck on the first floor. They only had wheels and caterpillar treads; they didn¡¯t have the sophisticated BID technology the Skitters had with their spider-like legs that could navigate any terrain. I seriously doubted the police drones could use the elevator.

    Second agenda: return to my base form, my Blanchette body.

    I was partially transformed, parts of my body covered in fur, my hoodie melded with my skin and turned into a fierce mane of blood-red hair. My snout had elongated, my mouth grew large enough to fit a whole human head inside. Arms and legs lengthened and became extremely muscular.

    Turn back to normal!

    Normal as in my Blanchette form, which wasn¡¯t normal at all I suppose.

    I didn¡¯t exactly know how to reverse my transformation, but I just focused in my mind as I ran. If I met cops in this state, I might not be able to stop myself from attacking and eating them if they shot me, which they probably would do if they saw me. It''d be a downward spiral from there. I¡¯d just keep eating cops as they came, and then finally complete my transformation. If that happened, I wasn¡¯t sure I¡¯d get lucky again that something would jolt my mind back to rationality.

    And I couldn¡¯t risk losing control in the middle of the city. The BID and National Guard were here, well not exactly here, they were probably at the crater or searching the tunnels below the city. But they were surely on their way here.

    My fur slowly receded into my skin. I was getting smaller. In my vision, I could also see my snout becoming shorter.

    Phew. I was getting the hang of this.

    Just needed more practice.

    Why did I lose control anyway? It was just one opponent.

    Mr. Snake wasn¡¯t a threat to me; it didn¡¯t have the strength to hurt me enough to trigger a full transformation. Which was why I didn¡¯t have any reservations about fighting it because I was sure I¡¯d be able to control myself. Was it the heads? When I ate the heads? Hmmm¡­my memories of that point were still hazy.

    Third on my to-do list: Escape.

    Where? Where should I go?

    I hid inside a furniture store. Not exactly hide because the drones knew where I was. But they didn¡¯t try to get inside the store.

    With some breathing space, I had a teensy-weensy bit of time to think. Should I go to the front of the building? I peered at the corridor to check what shops were around my location, trying to reorient myself with my memory of the layout of this place. I was too far away from the entrance, and I¡¯d have to go through the rest of the drones to get there. Since the drones came from the front of the building, tons of cops were already waiting for me to come out. If they had the anti-Adumbrae drones, then some of the city¡¯s Combat Exoskeleton Units would also be there. I¡¯d be serving myself on a silver platter to them.

    I wondered why they hadn¡¯t stormed the Serenade Bazaar to attack me.

    At first, the drones they sent in only attacked me. Then they switched to the heads. I was just taking a stab in the dark here, but I think the BID took over command and told the police to prioritize destroying the heads.

    The BID might¡¯ve found traces of the peculiar Cocoon that formed in the arena beneath the Eve club. I wasn¡¯t sure what it was, but it was obviously dangerous as it forced their agents to overload their Greaves reactors to destroy it at the expense of the lives of dozens of people aboveground. I recalled that weird Cocoon was collecting heads. They¡¯d be on the lookout for something like that.

    Seeing the number of heads I was consuming, I surmised the BID was concerned I was going to turn into a dangerous Cocoon as well and told the cops to chill out unless they wanted to add their heads to the pile. That was the only explanation I could think of why this place wasn¡¯t swarming with police ComExos.

    Whatever the real reason was, I had the space to escape now.

    I exited the furniture store and headed to the side entrance. Circular shadows on the floor told me that the drones were high above, keeping up with me. I retraced my path back to the entrance of the bazaar that opened to 17<sup>th</sup> street, but as I approached it, I could hear police sirens in that direction.

    Ok, that was the wrong place to go to.

    I continued running, hoping the back entrance of the store that led to the huge parking lot along Whiskers Drive might be my ticket to freedom. From the semi-circular balcony at the end of the second floor, I jumped down to the smallish garden-atrium right in front of the Whisker¡¯s Drive entrance. A few meters away from the glass doors, the police had set up a barricade with their cars. I also saw a huge armored truck unloading policemen wearing Combat Exoskeletons bristling with heavy weaponry.

    For a couple of seconds, we all stared at each other¡ªthe cops behind their cruisers, the ComExos in front of them, the anti-Adumbrae police drones.

    Shit.

    I ran back into the building as the police opened fire. I turned left and rolled into the nearest store as the atrium and the lobby leading out of it became a killing zone. The glass windows and doors shattered as I dove underneath a table with bottles of scented body wash on top of it. Endless bullets entered the building like a horde of shoppers on Black Friday.

    The food carts along the corridor and the other stalls in the lobby were torn to shreds. The tiles were broken, dug up out of the floor by the sheer force of the bullets.

    Fuck. Fuckity, fucking fuck! Was I trapped here?

    Despite my dire situation, I was only mildly panicked. Think quickly. Serenade St., 17<sup>th</sup> St., Whisky Drive, all of them were a no-go. How about the last side? An office building, wasn''t it? There were no doors on that side, so that also wasn¡¯t an option.

    Where else? Down?

    Go to the basement of this place and hope for an entry to the sewer system? I wasn¡¯t so sure of that. And if there was an exit there, the cops would have that covered.

    Or¡­.

    I crawled to another spot in the store to get a better view of the outside, taking care I wouldn¡¯t accidentally expose myself to the line of fire of the cops.

    There! A tall white column that branched out at its top supported the transparent roof, an architectural depiction of a tree that blended with the environmental motif of this marketplace.

    My way up.

    My way out.

 3.6 - Detective Jacobin Castan

    Detective Jacobin Castan

    Detective Jacobin Castan draped his right hand out the window of Lt. Hall¡¯s two-seater coupe with a cigarette stick between his fingers. ¡°LT, you sure you¡¯re okay with me smoking?¡± He lightly tapped the tip of his cigarette and watched as the wind carried the ashes away. ¡°Nice ride you got here. Would be sad if the smell of smoke sticks everywhere.¡±

    ¡°You look like you need it.¡± Lt. Hall drummed on the wheel waiting for the traffic light to turn from red to green. ¡°How many years has it been?¡±

    ¡°Since when?¡±

    ¡°Since you last smoked?¡±

    ¡°Four years. Or is it five? ¡®Bout half a year after my fianc¨¦e, Sharmaine, called off our planned wedding and left me, so five. After that, I decided to clean up my act and do my best to get the gold badge.¡± He placed the cigarette between his lips and inhaled. ¡°Didn¡¯t you see that picture of me when I was on patrol?¡±

    ¡°The picture Linette passed around a couple of months ago? I didn¡¯t get to see it. I do recall Mulberry and Adams nearly pissed their pants laughing at it.¡±

    ¡°I got way out of shape when Sharmaine went with that¡­guy. Let myself go. Very different from the toned, hunky, piece of ass I am right now.¡±

    Lt. Hall let out an amused grunt.

    ¡°Lost weight, stopped drinking. I even went to church for a couple of years¡­All kinds of churches.¡± Castan paused as a helicopter passed over them. He stuck his head out of the window to check its markings. ¡°BID,¡± he said.

    Lt. Hall only grunted again in response, expressing his disinterest.

    Castan wondered what the BID agent, that guy named Matt, and Lt. Hall talked about last Saturday. He knew it was connected with the raid at the Eve club that night and all the hell that followed after. Was that Matt person still alive? However, he sensed this wasn¡¯t the time for that conversation. He continued with the safe topic of his life. ¡°I still do drink sometimes. Only during occasions. Church? Not anymore.¡±

    ¡°Well, I hope this doesn¡¯t become a habit of yours,¡± Lt. Hall said.

    ¡°Going to church?¡±

    That made Lt. Hall crack a smile. ¡°This smoking. You know my stance on that. But I do understand, the stressful situation¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that LT. I¡¯m fine. Not fine physically.¡± He paused for another smoke. It also gave him time to push down the memories of the collapsing building that was nearly his grave. ¡°But mentally¡­I¡¯m fine. I don¡¯t have PTSD¡ªor I think I don¡¯t. I have to be honest, I did wake up in the middle of the night at the hospital, sweating, thinking the world was caving in on me again. That was only one time. Nothing since then.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be too hard on yourself.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± he repeated.

    ¡°Why are you smoking then?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t smoke again because of the stress of what happened. It¡¯s more to, uh, symbolize a restart of life?¡±

    ¡°Restart?¡±

    ¡°I know this sounds cheesy, but when I smoked my last stick five years ago, I promised myself that after I finished, it''ll be the start of my new life.¡± Castan held up the cigarette he was currently smoking. ¡°And after this, it will, again, be another start of my new life.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Lt. Hall said.

    ¡°It¡¯s not even me deciding this. Fate decided I get to live.¡± He took another huff, held the smoke in his mouth, and exhaled through his nose. ¡°I already threw away the rest of the pack. Just this one for me. And I¡¯m done again.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s good, that¡¯s good,¡± Lt. Hall repeated as if on auto-pilot. Both of them stayed silent as they cruised through Romeo Drive. There was a moment Castan thought Lt. Hall was about to say something, but it just turned into a cough. Everything was quiet again.

    Only inside the car. The street was busy and noisy as if there was a holiday shopping sale.

    This road that was usually plagued by heavy traffic on most days, being one of the more famous shopping streets in the city, was impossibly more crowded today. It wasn¡¯t even the weekends. Not just here. Castan noticed the city seemed busier, more people than usual were out on the streets.

    He expected people would stay in their homes if they didn¡¯t have anything important to do, but the opposite happened. This was an interesting reaction to the two-day lockdown the city ordered. There was a certain uneasiness over the city. Going out¡­He wasn¡¯t a psychologist, but Castan surmised this behavior was due to people overcompensating their desire to go back to a sense of normalcy.

    He could relate to that. There was an uneasiness even in the car.

    Castan noticed Lt. Hall kept on clenching and unclenching his jaws, his cheeks constantly moving. He must have plenty on his mind. The lieutenant was a stoic and brooding person, but a good conversationalist if the situation called for it. He could easily put witnesses and suspects at ease. If they¡¯re stressed at the station, he knew what to say to break the tension. He didn¡¯t like dead air even if he himself didn¡¯t talk much. When they, he and Castan, went on random investigations on the Mark and Marc brothers¡ªoff duty and in secret, of course¡ªthe lieutenant always had tales to fill the long hours they staked out locations.

    Deciding it was his duty to start small talk, Castan said, ¡°You didn¡¯t have to drive me to work, LT.¡±

    Lt. Hall said, ¡°You¡¯re not going to drive with that injury.¡±

    ¡°A smashed arm,¡± Castan said, struggling to lift his left arm encased in a cast, cradled by a sling attached to his shoulder, ¡°a couple of ribs and my left femur also broken. I know I¡¯m not going to drive any time soon. But that¡¯s what cabs are for.¡±

    ¡°Just consider this a public service from your friendly, neighborhood police officer. How are you managing?¡±

    ¡°Going down the stairs is a darned chore. The elevator at my apartment still isn¡¯t fixed.¡±

    ¡°Getting used to crutches?¡±

    Castan turned his head to check the crutches he stowed in the back. ¡°Needs practice. First time I ever had a foot injury. Not even a sprain when I was a kid.¡±

    ¡°How much did those cost?¡±

    ¡°The crutches? I borrowed those from Linette. I was going to buy a pair, but her brother has an old pair so she offered them. You know her brother? The military guy?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve seen him.¡±

    ¡°Doctor said I¡¯ll be able to walk normally within four months. Three, if I respond well to physical therapy. Just stay out of trouble, she said.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s good news. Stay out of trouble? You know you could stay home¡ª¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t even need a steel bar in my leg,¡± Castan said. He didn¡¯t want the conversation to go that way. Linette already tried to convince him to take some time off. But he wouldn¡¯t. His eyes started to water. And it wasn¡¯t from the smoke. He flicked the cigarette outside. He sniffed, swallowed his saliva, and blinked his eyes several times to drive away the gathering tears. ¡°Doctor said I was also lucky I didn¡¯t injure any internal organs even though I have broken ribs.¡±

    His littering didn¡¯t escape Lt. Hall¡¯s notice. ¡°That¡¯s an offense with a fine. Can also be community service picking up trash for up to eight hours. You''re also not wearing a seatbelt¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­I don¡¯t know how I got out of there alive,¡± Castan said, not listening to Lt. Hall. His voice, barely a whisper, was nearly drowned by the gentle hum of the air conditioning. If he spoke any louder, he was sure his voice would crack. He stared at his shaking right hand while he clenched his left hand in the cast. ¡°My injuries¡­they¡¯re nothing compared to the others. As if I only had a car crash¡­ or a bad fall down the stairs. You wouldn¡¯t even think I was there when the fucking earth was overturned. We were there inside a building at the edge of the crater. When I saw the pictures of the scene¡­other buildings next to the one we were searching¡­all were swallowed by the earth.

    ¡°Four of us in that team. Five, counting the guy from the BID. Can¡¯t recall his name. Then the earth just fucking decided to flip itself. I¡­I don¡¯t know how I got away with just this. Jimenez lost his right arm and his legs were squashed under a concrete pillar. When I was at the hospital, they amputated one of his legs. And Linette told me when she came over with the crutches that they also had to amputate Jimenez¡¯s other leg."

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    "Castan..."

    ¡°Just this morning, they found Marshall¡¯s body. I immediately called his mom to¡­uh¡­you know, extend my condolences. I didn¡¯t know what to say if she asked me why I survived but her son didn¡¯t. Thinking back now, why the hell would she ask me that? But when I called her, I dreaded getting asked that question. Because I was also asking myself that question. And Patel? Patel¡¯s still missing. Still missing under all that rubble.

    ¡°And that BID agent¡­damn it, I forgot his name. He introduced himself to us, but I can¡¯t fucking remember his name, goddammit. He died right beside me. I should¡¯ve remembered his name. The ceiling collapsed¡­ a huge slab fell down and he pushed me at the last second. If I was a few inches to the left, I would¡¯ve also died. And here¡¯s another thing. Not only did he push me to safety, but he also fell on top of my hand, essentially saving my hand. Sure, I got a broken left arm, but he cushioned the impact of the concrete¡ª¡±

    Lt. Hall placed his hand on Castan¡¯s shoulder.

    Castan jerked up and looked around, confused. ¡°The road?¡± he dumbly said, only to realize the lieutenant parked the car beside the curb in the middle of his rant. He was so engrossed he didn¡¯t notice.

    ¡°It¡¯s good you let it all out,¡± Lt. Hall said. ¡°To protect and to serve¡­We¡¯re all prepared to put our lives on the line¡ª¡±

    ¡°But not like this. Death and injury are occupational hazards. As Marshall would say, a perk of the job. A negative perk. Getting shot while chasing a suspect¡­ But not like this¡­I¡¯m sure the guys at Anti-Adumbrae unit don¡¯t think getting nuked was¡ª¡±

    ¡°You wasted your last cigarette stick.¡±

    ¡°I guess I did.¡±

    ¡°Since you¡¯re done with your last cigarette, it¡¯s the start of your next life. It¡¯s a new start for the entire LEPD; we lost so many of our brave officers. Let us not forget what we¡¯re fighting for.¡±

    Castan wanted to ask Lt. Hall what he knew of the operation. They were briefed with the same information that the media was now telling the people. Illegal traders of Adumbrae parts. That wasn¡¯t true. This was somehow connected with the Mark and Marcy brothers, and he knew they were doing experiments and also hiding Adumbrae in this city. This must be related to that Matt person.

    Would LT answer him if he asked? Or was it confidential?

    ¡°Castan,¡± Lt. Hall said. He started the car and went back on the road.

    ¡°Sir?¡±

    ¡°You asked why I offered to drive you to work. It¡¯s the small things. We need to help each other now more than ever.¡±

    Castan nodded.

    ¡°Find out the name of that agent from the Bureau who was with you. Call his family. Offer help, whatever you can. It''ll make you feel better.¡±

    ¡°I will do that.¡±

    Lt. Hall turned left to Maplewood Road instead of continuing to the highway. ¡°A small detour,¡± he said in answer to Castan¡¯s puzzled expression. ¡°Let¡¯s go to Danny¡¯s. Pastrami to brighten your day, our day.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Detective, I¡¯m not sure if this is insensitive to say,¡± mumbled the aging Danny, the owner namesake of the restaurant, behind his white, bushy mustache, ¡°but I sure am glad to see you alive and kicking, even in your current state.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m glad I¡¯m alive too,¡± Castan somberly said.

    Danny wrapped their usual order, pastrami sandwiches piled so high with meat they could barely fit it in their mouths, a hint of mustard, and a side of coleslaw. ¡°This is a trying time for the city.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir, it is. It really is.¡±

    ¡°Yet, those bastards are out there partying after the lockdown, as if there¡¯s something to celebrate about.¡±

    ¡°Got lots of orders?¡±

    ¡°Yep.¡±

    Frantic honking out on the street made them both look outside. ¡°That Jeremiah?¡± Danny gave the paper bag with their order to Castan. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound good.¡±

    ¡°It sure doesn¡¯t.¡± He grabbed their order and rushed back to Lt. Hall¡¯s car. Right as he opened the door, police chatter filled the air. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± he asked as he got inside.

    [Multiple victims! We have multiple victims¡ª]

    [Squad 430 to 3024 17<sup>th</sup> Street. Possible Adumbrae. Do not engage as per protocol.]

    [402, uh, we¡¯re here. We don¡¯t see it. Checking the casualties.]

    [406, we¡¯re north of Serenade Bazaar. Witnesses say it¡¯s inside.]

    [Copy, 406. Do not engage. CEU en route, ten minutes.]

    [Need EMS. This is 402 moving on to the corner of Serenade and 17<sup>th</sup>. Need EMS, officer down.]

    [Rescue coming.]

    Lt. Hall expertly backed out on the street. He didn¡¯t need to tell Castan where they were going. ¡°It¡¯s an Adumbrae. They initially encrypted the frequencies, but someone high must¡¯ve realized that could mess up the coordination of everyone.¡±

    ¡°Good call,¡± Castan said. And he meant that. They finally decided to drop their stupid cover story in favor of coordination and saving as many people as possible. Even the media listening in to police scanners could help save lives. It was not as if this was a manhunt and the suspect might also listen in to evade arrest. Everyone needed to step up and protect this city.

    ¡°We¡¯re lucky that the BID is already here.¡±

    ¡°Or unlucky that they needed to be here.¡±

    [Next squad, block 18<sup>th</sup> and Serenade, all the way up. 16<sup>th</sup> too.]

    [521, nearing 16<sup>th</sup>. Will do.]

    [We need to start evacuating people. Crowd forming outside of Serenade Bazaar.]

    Officers were speaking over each other, sometimes not even identifying themselves. There was panic since it had been a long time since the LEPD encountered a Manifested Adumbrae. The LEPD also lost officers in last Saturday¡¯s raid, and most precincts hadn¡¯t yet dealt with the chaos that caused.

    They were nowhere near Serenade Bazaar; they weren¡¯t needed there. But both of them were in silent agreement that they should go and help in any way they could.

    Reports noted only the Adumbrae¡¯s physical strength and monstrous appearance. There was no mention of paranormal abilities. It also didn¡¯t seem to be in control of itself. Dispatch said the initial assessment was an SBM, a Spontaneous Breach Manifestation, possibly Level 1 or 2.

    Castan and Lt. Hall tried to make sense of what was happening. From what they could piece together, it showed up somewhere near the edge of the quarantined zone and started to go on a killing spree. They weren¡¯t sure how many were the casualties, but there were officers included. And based on the initial reports of the officers on the scene, there were more dead than injured.

    At the moment, the Adumbrae was inside Serenade Bazaar. A perimeter was established.

    According to dispatch, the Combat Exoskeleton Unit of the LEPD had just arrived on the scene. No word from the BID if they were sending people over. Most of them were inside the quarantined zone, near the middle of the crater of the explosion, doing whatever secret shit they did. The CEU sent in combat drones while waiting for BID communication.

    ¡°Why are they still not sending the heavies in?¡± If the initial categorization was correct, the CEU should be able to handle this no problem. ¡°They¡¯re wasting time!¡±

    ¡°Calm down.¡±

    The chatter went dead. Something must¡¯ve happened for the signal to be locked.

    After several minutes of anxious silence, it came back on.

    [On the roof, eyes on the roof. A woman. She may need assistance¡ª]

    [Holy hell! She jumped to the next building.]

    [A second Adumbrae! All units that woman is a confirmed second Adumbrae.]

    Both of them looked at each other. ¡°What the hell?¡± Castan said. ¡°Now there¡¯s two of them?¡±

    ¡°This is getting worse,¡± Lt. Hall said.

    They listened as the updates kept coming on the movements of the female Adumbrae. She leaped from building to building with extreme speed.

    ¡°Hang on,¡± Castan said. ¡°Serenity Building II?¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t we near there?¡± Lt. Hall slowed down.

    ¡°This is Building IV." Castan poked his head out of the window to look at the street signs and names of the buildings. "So, uh, it should be next to this¡ª¡±

    CRASH! The roof of the car collapsed on them. Castan, on instinct, opened the door on his side and managed to tumble to the street. He saw Lt. Hall¡¯s head pressed on the steering wheel by the depressed car roof. There was blood. ¡°LT!¡± His broken ribs and leg nearly paralyzed him as he quickly tried to stand without crutches. He dropped back down to the ground, groaning, his eyes blurry from the pain. Then he noticed what fell on top of the car.

    A woman wearing red.

    Fuckin¡¯ hell¡­She fit the description of the second Adumbrae.

    Castan whipped out his pistol and aimed the best he could from his position lying on the street, focusing through all the pain. The Adumbrae noticed him. ¡°Eat this, you bitch!¡± It jumped on him. BLAM! BLAM! He managed to get two shots off before the Adumbrae bit his gun, munching the metal into pieces like it was as soft as bread.

    This is it.

    I never thought I''ll go out this way.

    The Adumbrae examined herself.

    Castan hit her right arm and left thigh. Too bad he wasn¡¯t able to hit her head. The gunshot wounds were already healing.

    It walked over to him.

    He closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate. He couldn¡¯t stand up. And he wasn¡¯t going to pathetically crawl if he was going to get killed anyway. No! I should open my eyes. He did, staring straight into the demonic eyes of the Adumbrae.

    It stepped on his broken leg, breaking his cast into pieces.

    ¡°Argh!¡± He screamed. Was it going to play with him before killing him?

    Next, the Adumbrae grasped his right hand, pulling him up. She squeezed¡­squeezed until he heard the crunch of his bones. ¡°Arghhh! Just kill me already!¡±

    The Adumbrae released him. He crumpled on the pavement, barely conscious.

    Castan forced himself to look up, to face death.

    But the Adumbrae wasn¡¯t there anymore.

    She just left¡­

 3.7

    ¡°I¡¯m behind you.¡±

    ¡°Where? I¡¯m right here in front of Seco¡¯s Caf¨¦. I don¡¯t see you.¡±

    I put my phone down and called with a loud voice, ¡°Here, Deen!¡± I waved my hand to get her attention.

    She did a double-take when she finally spotted me. She hurried over, almost jogging. How she managed to do that wearing her favorite pencil skirt and insanely high heels without looking ridiculous, I didn¡¯t know. I would¡¯ve fallen on my butt if I tried the same. ¡°Woah, I almost didn¡¯t recognize you,¡± she said when she reached my table.

    ¡°Why? It¡¯s just the same old me.¡± I removed a couple of paper bags on the chair beside me so she could sit there. I placed them on the floor, one between us and the other below the table.

    ¡°You tied your hair?¡±

    ¡°I rarely do this,¡± I said fluffing up my messy bun held together by a pencil. ¡°I should charge a viewing fee.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t aware you knew how to do that. First time I¡¯ve seen you in a different hairstyle than just letting your wavy hair be free in the wild.¡±

    ¡°Does it look good?¡± I faced sideways so she could get a better view of my handiwork.

    ¡°Extremely cute. You look like a different person with your hair up.¡± Deen squinted her eyes, taking a closer look at my face.

    ¡°Uhhh, I guess I¡¯ll take that as a compliment.¡±

    ¡°It is. You shouldn¡¯t hide your cheeks behind the curtain of your hair. They¡¯re really pinchable. You should do this style more often.¡±

    ¡°Too much of a hassle.¡±

    ¡°With your teeth and high cheeks, you look like an actual rabbit.¡±

    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t actually pinch me,¡± I said, pushing her hands away from my face. ¡°That feels weird. You know I don¡¯t like people touching me.¡±

    Deen looked down, puzzled. ¡°And are those the same clothes you wore when you left for school?¡±

    ¡°No, mom,¡± I said with a grin.

    ¡°Cut it out.¡± She frowned. ¡°Stop calling me mom. I¡¯m just a few months older than you.¡±

    ¡°I was just feeling so stressed I decided to buy some clothes to cheer myself up. I usually shop online, but I decided to try out, you know, actually shopping at a physical store to understand what¡¯s the big deal.¡±

    ¡°Were you finally enlightened in the ways of shopping at the mall?¡±

    ¡°Not really. I still prefer online. No crowds, no lines, and I can lay on my bed while browsing selections. Although, I¡¯m happy I got to try the clothes before buying them. That, and getting the clothes I bought immediately.¡±

    ¡°I thought you were miss-adult-that-understood-delayed-gratification.¡±

    I tried to mix the whipped cream on the top of my frappe by stirring it back and forth with my straw, but it stubbornly refused my efforts. I just scooped it up using the straw and licked it. I then stuck out my tongue at Deen¡¯s judgmental face.

    She rolled her eyes at me. ¡°Are these the clothes you bought?¡± she asked, peeking in the paper bag near her. ¡°I like the warm pastel colors.¡±

    I intentionally placed that paper bag there so Deen could see I was telling the truth¡­partially. Beneath my new clothes were the clothes I wore earlier¡ªI made a mental note to find a way to get rid of those. And underneath them were plain shirts and pants, those cheap, brandless stuff at the department store that people used for t-shirt printing, inconspicuous clothes compared to my normal wardrobe. I was sure Deen wasn¡¯t going to rummage beyond my old clothes.

    Inside the other paper bag, the one I shoved under the table, were two pairs of cheap sneakers, gotta be careful of my footprints; a generic reversible hoodie; and a couple of anti-dust cloth face masks. All of these in case I needed to sneak around in the future. I got the idea to get these after I escaped the police chasing me. It was fortunate there were many other people buying face masks because of the contaminated fallout scare, so I didn¡¯t look out of place buying them too.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡± I wondered if I left any suspicious evidence in the paper bag.

    Deen held up a crumpled paper. ¡°This.¡± She smoothened it out on the table. It was the flyer from the guy inviting me to worship the recently awakened High Overseer. Deen made a face after reading it. ¡°Oh god, these groups are emerging out of their holes again, huh?¡±

    ¡°Someone on the sidewalk gave those out,¡± I said nonchalantly. Fuck, I forgot about that stupid piece of paper. I just threw it in the bag after taking it out from my pocket. I hoped Deen wouldn¡¯t be able to figure out where I was earlier with just this.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to join them, are you?¡±

    ¡°No, of course not. I don¡¯t even know what that¡¯s about.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m all for freedom of religion, even though I don¡¯t agree with what most people believe in. Bill of Rights, and such. As law students, we should know that. But this is a different thing. The Corebrings themselves don¡¯t endorse all of these religious sects worshipping them in one way or another. In fact, they discourage them. You know what they do?¡±

    ¡°Do what? What¡¯re you talking about?¡±

    ¡°If someone becomes a Corebring Initiate, they disappear, maybe a staged death or the like, so people wouldn¡¯t know about them and start a religion for them. The main purpose for all the secrecy is so that no one would harm their families. Preventing people from starting these stupid religions, even looting the old homes of Corebrings for something to worship, is a close second.¡±

    ¡°Ah, you mean that. I heard they also do it for the normal people that work at the Hive,¡± I said. Like what happened to my dad. Was he still alive inside the Hive doing science stuff? What would he think if he knew his daughter became their enemy? ¡°But those are just rumors.¡±

    ¡°Rumors or not, the Corebring Hive doesn¡¯t officially support these religions.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I was just curious so I accepted the flyer but then forgot about it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just so annoying,¡± Deen said with exasperation. ¡°I have an aunt who¡¯s into these religions. Or can we consider them cults? She¡¯s going to bother us all again and invite us to worship High Overseer Isolde. She believes High Overseers are demigods.¡±

    ¡°They practically are, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°But it doesn¡¯t mean we should worship them.¡±

    ¡°Uh, so this High Overseer.¡± I took the flyer from Deen. ¡°This Isolde. I haven¡¯t heard of her before. She can¡¯t be a new one because there¡¯s no new High Overseer from the time they all went asleep like a decade ago.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s one of the first Corebrings. Fought at the start of the Adumbrae invasion. Also went to sleep just a couple of years after the invasion was under control. I¡¯m not sure why they woke her up now.¡±

    I whistled in amazement. ¡°She must be pretty powerful. When did she wake up?¡±

    ¡°Just this morning. Some of the Adumbrae from Madagascar are already going to mainland Africa, either flying or walking on the ocean floor, breaking through the blockade. What¡¯s worse is that they still haven¡¯t found the Purple Bloom, so it¡¯s nonstop Adumbrae production.¡±

    ¡°I see. I haven¡¯t watched the news since last Sunday. Since it¡¯s all about the¡­explosion. I got tired of it.¡±

    ¡°I also haven¡¯t checked the news, but this is all over social media¡­oh, right, you don¡¯t like social media.¡±

    That was Rule #16. I shouldn¡¯t make a face online because I couldn¡¯t tailor that to a specific person. A face was the truth for each person I made them for. That simply wouldn¡¯t work over the internet. Who was I making it for?

    Also, there''d be a permanent record of any face I left on the internet which might clash with any future face I would make. Thus, incorporated into each face was a built-in feature that my persona didn¡¯t like using social media. There was more to it, but those were the two main parts of Rule #16.

    ¡°At least get the messenger app of Snippet so we can communicate faster,¡± Deen insisted.

    ¡°Here we go again,¡± I said. I sipped my drink while rolling my eyes.

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    Indeed, she went on about the benefits of using Snippet instead of just texting. ¡°The message is instantaneous. You can send pics, send videos, you can call, or a video call if needed.¡±

    ¡°Are you paid to advertise them or something?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s also location sharing so we can easily find you in case of emergency.¡±

    ¡°But I need to download the Snipper app to get the messenger. I don¡¯t want that.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to use it. Just don''t post anything if you don''t want to. But it never hurts to check what¡¯s going on. For example, I knew that¡­¡± She looked around to see if someone was near enough to eavesdrop. She leaned closer to me and whispered, ¡°...that a mutant from the arena is still alive because people were sharing videos of it on Snippet.¡±

    I gasped. ¡°I thought you said they all died!¡±

    Deen shushed me. ¡°Quiet down. I just assumed it died. Are you done here? You can take your drink to my car so we can safely talk.¡±

    <hr>

    A compact but sleek SUV, the light blue Genvoi was Deen¡¯s newest car. This wasn¡¯t purchased with the insurance proceeds from the car she lost in the Sander¡¯s fire. She mentioned she was still processing it. A day after her car was torched, she just decided to buy a new one. If I had her resources, it would be super-duper easy to hide I was no longer human. I could just live the rest of my life on a remote island in the Caribbean.

    ¡°Where¡¯s the vid?¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± Deen said, scrolling through her phone. ¡°Here, look. I muted it because it¡¯s just people screaming.¡±

    She showed me footage recorded by someone with a very unsteady hand. The guy was eating inside a restaurant by the window. It appeared he hid below the window and just raised his camera overhead so the video wasn¡¯t centered correctly, but we could make out what was happening.

    Snake mutant buddy crawled out of a manhole. Or it was trying to. It made the hole bigger by digging and smashing through the pavement with its many hands. People were running away. A couple of police officers shot at the mutant while it was stuck. It freed itself and caught someone, then the video ended.

    ¡°There are many videos like this posted on Snippet,¡± Deen said. ¡°Social media is usually faster than the news. Another reason to download Snippet. Here¡¯s another video.¡± This time, it was when the mutant was outside Serenade Bazaar. When it flipped the police car, the guy recording decided to bolt.

    ¡°Is it still roaming around?¡±

    ¡°No. The news said it was already killed inside Serenade Bazaar.¡±

    ¡°How?¡± I asked innocently.

    ¡°There¡¯s still no official statement about the entire thing.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t this good for us? The BID is here. They may be the ones to finally put an end to the 2Ms criminal operations.¡±

    Deen¡¯s brows furrowed. ¡°I¡¯m not so sure. I don¡¯t think the BID will be able to catch the 2Ms. They''ve been operating for a long time, and they have clients and connections in high places. They¡¯re not going to stop now. Also, remember our ultimate enemy is the Adumbrae hiding in the BID itself? The worrying matter is that this will surely call the attention of the Corebrings.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. This is probably the biggest Adumbrae related incident in our country for the past¡­ like year? Year and a half? I can¡¯t recall when that touristy mountain village in Colorado disappeared because of an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°As of now, the Hive is focused on the Madagascar infection¡­¡±

    ¡°But they may still send people over to check what¡¯s up,¡± I said, finishing her thought. They may be already here, I added in my mind, remembering the mysterious spear that burst out of the snake mutant.

    ¡°Exactly. This is the one thing we wanted to avoid.¡± She sighed deeply, her eyes tightly shut. ¡°If only we could contact the others so we know what to do.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s best we don¡¯t. We already agreed we keep a low profile. We really shouldn¡¯t draw suspicion to ourselves with the BID in town.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­¡±

    ¡°I was thinking, and I hope you don¡¯t get angry with this,¡± I said hesitantly. Deen shot me a questioning glance. ¡°I was thinking,¡± I continued, this time with more confidence, ¡°it might be best I go back to my condo.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± she almost screamed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t go ballistic on me now,¡± I said.

    ¡°We¡¯re sticking together because it¡¯s dangerous to be alone. Now you want to go back to living on your own? What if you¡¯re attacked? What if you¡¯re kidnapped again? What if¡ª¡±

    ¡°Deen!¡± I frowned at her. ¡°Let me explain first.¡±

    She puffed herself up, ready to argue some more, but I held firm and stared her down. After a few seconds of an intense staring match, she deflated. ¡°Sorry¡­I was just¡­¡±

    ¡°I know you want to keep me safe,¡± I said gently. ¡°And I¡¯m grateful for that. Just hear me out here. Isn¡¯t it highly suspicious I¡¯m living together with you? Your sister doesn¡¯t care one bit, but what about others?¡±

    ¡°Huh? You¡¯re worried about what people would think? This is 2020, no one cares about¡ª¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Then I realized what was going on inside her head. ¡°Oh my gosh!¡± I said in between fits of laughter. ¡°I¡¯m not saying people might think we¡¯re a couple and I¡¯m living with you.¡± The fuck, I almost said out loud. ¡°Okay, enough of that. I¡¯m saying that if someone is looking into us, they¡¯d think it¡¯s weird we¡¯re living together just out of the blue.¡±

    ¡°Why would anyone investigate us?¡±

    ¡°We''re witnesses to Kelsey¡¯s apparent suicide. It may seem like an isolated case, but there''s a chance it''ll crop up in BID''s investigations. This whole thing is huge, they¡¯ll turn over every rock to find anything. Remember that Myra said Kelsey has a terminal disease that was suddenly cured or something? There''ll be records of it somewhere. Who knows if that will show up in their investigations? And then they¡¯ll find out the possible Adumbrae disappeared without a trace, and the two witnesses were suddenly living together like they¡¯re hiding something.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s unlikely¡ª¡±

    ¡°How about Bianca? There¡¯s not going to be much in the way of records of who was in the club that night because everything was destroyed, but it¡¯s public knowledge Bianca was there. She even had a shooting for her show just before the raid happened. She''s a person of interest to the BID. They¡¯ll trace everything, where she¡¯s been, the people she came in contact with. And that includes us.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure she can take care of herself. One test and they¡¯ll find out she¡¯s just a human¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be suspicious that the two people present when a possible Adumbrae disappeared also met with Bianca who was there at the club on the night of the raid?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, Erind. That seems to be a stretch.¡±

    Deen was right. It was a stretch. Maybe someone with extremely big brains in the BID could dig this up and figure out all the clues, but they already had a lot of work hunting the 2Ms that they wouldn¡¯t have any manpower to spare chasing obscure leads. The safest choice for me was to stay with Deen.

    But I wanted to go back to living alone. If I was on my own, I could try hunting in the tunnels below the city, find mutants or Adumbrae still in hiding.

    And eat them.

    Wait just a second, you idiot, I chastised myself. I was getting too cocky. This was the pitfall of criminals¡ªthey get caught when they enjoy committing crimes too much and slip up. I wasn¡¯t saying I was going to be a criminal. Okay, I''m already a criminal. Normal people suffered from hubris too, but I had an easier time getting blinded by it.

    I should watch myself.

    But it was just so much fun transforming and fighting with a powerful body¡­

    Which was why I should go back to my condo so I could practice fighting and controlling my powers. I could also research the various powers of Adumbrae and Corebring. I only knew about the legal side of things because never in a million years did I expect I would end up fighting Adumbrae in a physical sense, and maybe even Corebrings.

    And if I really wanted to destroy things and feel the rush of power, I could go to one of the abandoned buildings surrounding our hideout. No one cared about those. I already bought clothes for sneaky jaunts.

    If only Deen would agree that I should go back to living on my own.

    Time to pull out the big guns. ¡°I¡¯m just worried¡­¡± I said, trailing my words. ¡°I was just thinking of all the possible ways to lessen the chance of us getting investigated.¡±

    ¡°I understand¡ª"

    ¡°You don¡¯t have any supply of the blue vial, right? That was what I¡¯m worried about. You said it yourself. In Bianca¡¯s case, one test, and they¡¯ll find out she¡¯s human. That¡¯s a pass on execution without trial. She could then just weave a fake story she didn¡¯t know anything about the illegal activities at the club, maybe pay off some people, have an army of lawyers to protect her.

    "But how about in your case? We don¡¯t have anything to use if you get tested by the BID. It¡¯s not like you can refuse them. And I can¡¯t do anything to help you. The only thing I could do is to distance myself to make the both of us less suspicious.¡±

    Deen didn¡¯t reply. She stared unblinking at the dashboard, deep in thought. The reason I gave was still bullshit. That wasn¡¯t the point. ¡°I think,¡± she said, ¡°I think¡­you may be right. Not the part about us getting investigated. I maintain there¡¯s a low possibility of that happening. The part you¡¯ll be with me, someone who¡¯s not a human. By being together, I¡¯m putting you in danger.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not what I¡¯m saying!¡± It was exactly what I intended her to think.

    ¡°I know you didn¡¯t mean it. But I realized it¡¯s more dangerous for you to be with me at this time. If someone discovers I¡¯m not a human, you¡¯ll be implicated too because you¡¯re living with me. Anyone would conclude that you knew all along about my secret.¡±

    ¡°But you said there¡¯s a low chance of the investigation reaching us.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but there¡¯s still a chance. I can see someone following the breadcrumbs you mentioned earlier, follow them straight to us. At least, if we¡¯re separate, you could deny knowing I¡¯m not human. You won¡¯t get charged with aiding or abetting an Adumbrae. And no doubt the BID will assume I''m Adumbrae. Finding out I''m a fake Corebring might actually be worse.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to leave you on your own if the BID comes for you,¡± I said. The good ol¡¯ switcheroo. We now exchanged positions in the argument. I loved doing this. It used to be my most favorite thing to do. But now, my most favorite activity was transforming and using my powers.

    She wasn¡¯t listening to me anymore. ¡°The 2Ms¡­I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll try to kidnap you again after what happened. They didn¡¯t do anything after we rescued you from the docks. Why would they do anything now with the city on high alert and the BID crawling everywhere?¡± She nodded. ¡°It¡¯s best if you return to your condo.¡±

    ¡°Deen, I really didn¡¯t mean I wanted us to separate so I would be safe in case¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind, I know that. I know you¡¯re not a selfish person. I know you¡¯re a true friend.¡± She smiled at me. ¡°I also know that given the current circumstances, it''s better if we don''t stick together.¡±

    ¡°Deen,¡± I stammered, feigning I was on the verge of tears.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get all emotional now,¡± she stared, poking my side. ¡°Lighten up. Just promise me one thing.¡±

    ¡°What is that?¡±

    She grinned mischievously. ¡°Promise me you¡¯ll download Snippet.¡±

    I scrunched my nose. ¡°I promise.¡±

 3.8

    ¡°Home sweet home,¡± I sang as I strode across the condominium lobby.

    ¡°You¡¯re awfully happy,¡± Deen said. ¡°Didn¡¯t you enjoy your stay at my place?¡±

    ¡°I did, I super did,¡± I truthfully said. It was awesome at her house. ¡°But I also adore familiarity.¡± And being alone.

    I hated change. Hell, I couldn¡¯t even change how my mind worked even if I wanted to. Familiarity quelled my urge to bother people; it pacified me to an extent. The squeaky marble tiles of the condominium lobby, the potted mini palm trees that I wasn¡¯t sure were real. The vending machine where I bought a bottle of milk tea each time I was bored and wanted a quick sugar rush. The ATM that needed a ritual before coughing up your money. Familiar faces were here too. The guard who greeted us as we entered, the friendly janitor mopping a spill on the floor, the nice lady at the counter.

    Just kidding. I could barely recall any of these people even though I often saw them. I couldn¡¯t pick them out of a police line-up if you held a gun to my head.

    I also didn¡¯t know any of the other people living in the building.

    Not a single soul.

    They knew me, for sure. Many people greeted me inside the elevators, along hallways, stairs. I just put on a friendly neighbor''s face and replied ¡®hello¡¯, ¡®have a nice day¡¯, ¡®nice weather¡¯, and I never committed their faces or names to mind. Why would I? I don¡¯t care if everyone in this building died the next day. More importantly, it was too much work to create a full-fledged face for each of the fuckers here¡ªa normal disinterested neighbor persona was enough.

    Deen and I entered the elevator. ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s fine that you carried my bag with the law books and stacks of printouts?¡± I asked her. ¡°I should¡¯ve used a stroller for all of that.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± she replied. ¡°Is it because I¡¯m a woman that I can¡¯t carry heavy baggage?¡±

    ¡°Deen,¡± I said rolling my eyes at her, ¡°there¡¯s a difference between an empowered woman and a woman with powers. One of those could get you arrested by the BID. I needed like two trips to bring my law stuff inside your house, and you¡¯re carrying my bike too.¡±

    She shrugged. ¡°No one knows what¡¯s inside these bags anyway.¡±

    ¡°Does it feel good?¡±

    ¡°Huh? What¡¯s with that out-of-the-blue question?¡±

    ¡°The power. Having super strength. Every injury healing quickly. Just curious.¡±

    ¡°Yes, it feels great,¡± she simply said, her tone indicating she didn¡¯t want to explain further.

    We didn¡¯t talk about anything else because people entered and exited the elevator as it climbed to the 22<sup>nd</sup> floor where my room was. A couple greeted me, and I expectedly had no idea who they were. Still, I politely greeted them back.

    There was this one woman though who I was ninety-nine percent sure I hadn¡¯t met before. She stepped into the elevator wearing high-heeled, knee-high black boots, a leather skirt, and a leather jacket over a crop top. She was middlingly good-looking, with¡­um¡­unconventional makeup. Like, girl, what¡¯s up with the orange eye shadow and exaggerated cat-eye eyeliner that looked like it was drawn with a black marker? I knew she was a resident because she was able to press the button for her floor after scanning her room key card.

    She stared condescendingly at Deen for the entire ride up, perhaps threatened by her beauty, until we alighted first upon reaching my floor. I could feel daggers in my back as we exited the elevator. While I couldn¡¯t remember the faces of people I didn¡¯t care about, I was certain I''d remember someone as weird as her. She probably moved in when I was staying at Deen¡¯s.

    ¡°Weirdo,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yeah, what¡¯s her problem?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Lots of interesting people you¡¯ll meet living in a condo.¡±

    ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll try that. But my sister hates living in a place with many people, that¡¯s why we rented a whole house at Verde Hills. And she wouldn¡¯t allow me to live on my own because she¡¯s afraid I might bring guys over.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re in our twenties,¡± I said. ¡°Why would she care who you bonked? Or the venue of said hypothetical bonking? Most of the time she¡¯s not at your house.¡±

    ¡°Is that your word for sex? Bonk?¡±

    ¡°Bonk, bonk, bonk.¡±

    ¡°Please don¡¯t do that.¡±

    "What word do you want me to use? Plow?" I grinned at her frowning face. ¡°Wait, is your sister staying at her boyfriend¡¯s flat because I¡¯m at your house? Is she avoiding me? I didn''t mean to inconvenience her.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s like that even before you came, don¡¯t worry about it. She¡¯s a ghost haunting the place. Sometimes there, sometimes not.¡±

    When we entered my unit, I inhaled deeply, taking in the stale air of a room that hadn¡¯t been opened for a couple of weeks.

    I loved it!

    Finally, some peace and rest. It wasn¡¯t that I hated staying at Deen¡¯s place. It was just that I had to keep up my face for an ungodly amount of time.

    ¡°Thank you for everything, Deen,¡± I said. ¡°Here, I¡¯ll even initiate the hug as a sign of my gratitude.¡± I spread my arms and wrapped them around the middle of her body, pulling her to me, laying my head on her chest. My hand felt her back until I found her spine. It would be so easy to rip her spine out¡ªErase! Erase those thoughts or the Guardian Angel might say something to her.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you burn like a vampire under the sun if you hugged me first?¡± she said, hugging me back tightly.

    After several seconds, I said, ¡°I think that¡¯s enough hugging for now. That¡¯ll last us for a while.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget to always check your messages,¡± Deen said. She continued with her reminders and stuff for several minutes until I told her she was acting like a mother again. ¡°Whatever. I guess this is goodbye, Erind.¡±

    ¡°Why the sad face coupled with a forlorn farewell?¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯ll see each other again tomorrow.¡±

    "I don''t know. I''m already starting to miss you."

    <hr>

    Once Deen left, I turned on the TV to catch the evening news and sat on the couch to order pizza. It had been so frickin¡¯ long since I last ate pizza! I didn¡¯t want to eat one with Deen because she might judge the way I ate it. It was fine with a toast to eat the crust first, but I''d get odd stares if I ate the pizza crust first.

    ¡°Oh, a text from Mom,¡± I said as I opened my phone. I literally forgot about my own mother because of the excitement of the past few days. I should¡¯ve texted her I was safe the moment the signal block was lifted like the dutiful and responsible daughter I should be. Why did she only contact me now? The shit the city was going through should be carried by international news too.

    As if answering my question, Mom explained she was busy with some convention in Switzerland and didn¡¯t know what was going on in the US until today. Understandable, most of the international news would be focused on the Madagascar crisis. She also said she was going to visit me next month.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Mom. Still alive and kicking,¡± I texted her. ¡°I¡¯m safe here. Just tell me when you¡¯re not busy so I can call you.¡±

    Now what flavor to order? I listened to the news with one ear while browsing the menu of my favorite pizza place. It was just a couple of blocks away from here and I could¡¯ve ordered earlier on the way, but I didn¡¯t want Deen to judge me if I got a whole 12-inch pizza all for myself. I decided to get a four-in-one to save time on thinking what flavor to choose. I looked up from my phone when the news about the snake mutant at Serenade Bazaar came up.

    The reporter interviewed a city official outside Serenade Bazaar. Heavily armed police officers, as well as a few in ComExos, established a perimeter while people in hazmat suits went in and out of the building. The reporter and the official referred to the mutant as an SBM Adumbrae even though it wasn¡¯t. Outwardly, there was no actual difference between my snake mutant buddy and a low-level Adumbrae, the ones categorized as Spontaneous Breach Manifestations.

    SBMs, they were the most common Adumbrae manifestation, an infected person that spontaneously transformed at an early stage before the Adumbrae could make any progress transferring itself down to our dimension. Just your average mindless monster.

    Most people thought these were weak-willed individuals who couldn''t handle the onset of the mental invasion and broke down, resulting in a premature mutation. As a result, there was a certain...view...about these individuals that also affected their families. I recalled this fact because my father lectured me on this when I made a supposedly ''insensitive'' off-hand comment about something I saw on TV. I was a kid back then, who could blame me? I was an adult now so I knew when to shut up about my thoughts.

    The city official explained this was a Level 2 SBM. SBMs were classified in five levels if I recalled correctly, depending on their strength, destructive capabilities, and how difficult they were to kill.

    The news switched to an expert in the studio to explain more about SBMs. He said, ¡°Neither the Adumbrae nor the individual is in control. Effectively, the Adumbrae has abandoned the individual. The negative well left by the collapse of the Eloyce Field of the individual is not sufficient to house the Adumbrae.¡±

    Science mumbo jumbo, but I got the gist of it. ¡°Didn¡¯t Rofirio say the mutants also didn¡¯t have Adumbrae inside them?¡± I muttered as I chose pepperoni, four cheese, burger, and barbeque chicken as the flavors for my pizza. I was going to pig out tonight. ¡°Were mutants like a level below the SBMs?¡± I wondered out loud. In a way, the mutants were knock-off brand Adumbrae. The 2Ms wouldn¡¯t want to make actual Adumbrae for harvesting purposes; that was too dangerous.

    ¡°SBMs are often said to be akin to wild animals,¡± the expert on TV continued, ¡°but that is not an accurate representation. Devoid of the consciousness of the individual and lacking control from the Adumbrae, the SBM will be fueled by the remnants of the negative well of the individual. Thus, while some researchers are of the opinion it retains some memories of its former self, its primary objective will be to indiscriminately kill and destroy, as we¡¯ve seen tragically happen today.¡±

    I checked other channels. They were all covering the incident, they only talked about one Adumbrae. What the hell? Why was there nothing about me?

    Come on, show something about me!

    Another channel said that the BID was tracking the people who were inside Serenade Bazaar at that time. Good thing I transformed before entering. Although, they were expectedly having a hard time identifying the people just based on the security cam footage alone.

    ¡°If you have video recordings or pictures of the incident,¡± an advisory flashed, ¡°don¡¯t hesitate to contact the BID hotline on your screens.¡±

    I snorted. No one was dumb enough to do that. If you contacted the BID to volunteer footage, that would be admitting you were there. And then you¡¯d also be tested and placed on a watch list just in case you might be infected with something. That meant months of follow-up tests. Such a hassle.

    Well, there were people dumb enough to do that.

    For example, the people who posted the videos they recorded online.

    My phone vibrated. Was it Mom? Or perhaps it was Deen being paranoid again?

    I snorted as I saw the name. Yep, it was just nagging Deen. She messaged me using that stupid Snippet app she forced me to download. I told her I was fine and that I was going to sleep because I was tired so she wouldn¡¯t bother me for the rest of the night.

    A couple of minutes passed and my phone buzzed again. If this was still Deen I wasn¡¯t going to answer her. I groaned as I picked up my phone. But if I didn¡¯t answer her, she might come barging in my room, thinking I was attacked or kidnapped.

    It was her again, ugh.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I said, reading Deen¡¯s message. ¡°What is this?¡±

    She sent, ¡°Watch this,¡± followed by a link.

    It led to a Snippet page of a group called SVS, the Silent Vigil Society, whatever the hell that was supposed to be. The latest post on the page was published only five minutes ago, yet it already had hundreds of comments and reactions. ¡°DOWNLOAD and SHARE before the BID deletes this video!!!¡± was its caption.

    More footage of the snake mutant? While I missed my snake mutant buddy, I¡¯d seen enough of these videos already. I was about to dismiss it when the next line caught my eye. ¡°A good Adumbrae? An Adumbrae saved me! Click to see a hero Adumbrae!¡±

    I immediately clicked play.

    My mouth slowly formed a grin as I realized what the video was about. Sure enough, the snake mutant was there. But that wasn¡¯t the important part. The true star of the show walked into view, a gorgeous woman wearing mini cargo shorts, boots, and a red hoodie over a bare midriff top.

    I laughed out loud, perhaps my most genuine laugh for a long time.

    A hero?

    I didn¡¯t even save anyone, was the first thought that came to mind. Second thought: someone was there who was able to record this? Lastly, maybe I should text mom, Mom, I¡¯m on TV! Or to be more accurate¡ªwhat was that term kids nowadays used? Oh yeah.

    Mom, I¡¯m going viral!

 3.9

    ¡°I want to show this to the world,¡± a woman spoke in the video, her voice a bit choppy. Might be a cheap phone. She breathed heavily as she ran after the two monsters ransacking Serenade Bazaar to record them.

    I could tell she was on the second floor from the view of her camera looking down on me and the snake mutant fighting from store to store. This was the reason I didn¡¯t see her; that and I was too focused on killing the mutant. Good thing she had the presence of mind to go up and have some semblance of safety while she did the insensible thing of chasing after murderous monsters.

    She turned her phone¡¯s camera and showed her face. ¡°That Adumbrae you see there. The woman in red. She was inside my shop. I thought she was going to kill me.¡±

    Hey, I know you! It was the woman managing that bizarre occult store selling Anti-Adumbrae products that were probably a scam. I was happy I recognized a person I met only once that I absolutely didn¡¯t care about. Usually, I couldn¡¯t recognize even people I met every day, like those in this building. To be fair, this woman had a really¡­peculiar¡­appearance, an almost ghost-like complexion, while sporting those mystical earrings on her ears and lips.

    She continued explaining, ¡°But she didn¡¯t kill me. I even tried to hit her with this.¡± She showed that stupid iron brand she wielded when we met. ¡°There was no reaction from her. The symbol of Dolor should have caused intense pain to the impure of heart, however, it didn¡¯t affect her! What could it mean?¡± she said dramatically. ¡°Now look!¡±

    The view was once again on me and the snake mutant. Memories of the fight came back as I watched the video.

    Both of us came out of Hardy¡¯s Hardware Store. I was just done ¡°shopping¡±, carrying rakes and pitchforks from the gardening section. My problem with the mutant was that it wouldn¡¯t die because of the tons of heads it had inside its body. And I needed to stop it while I ate it.

    After I caught up with it, I proceeded to pin it to the ground with various gardening implements, taking a page out of the book of the mysterious spear user.

    ¡°Look at that!¡± the occult lady said, as I did to the mutant what I did to the poor frog in biology class back in high school, but with rakes instead of pins. ¡°She¡¯s fighting this other Adumbrae. She saved me from it!¡±

    Saved you? What was she talking about? The snake mutant didn¡¯t go to her store. She was the one who chased me. But I wasn¡¯t one to turn down getting credit for something I didn¡¯t do.

    She gasped as I ripped open the mutant¡¯s body and the heads spilled out. The mutant was still fighting back. I started gorging on it so that my ¡°eating¡± would be considered part of fighting and wouldn¡¯t come under Rule #2. I heard the woman mumbling a prayer. The camera was shaking. Maybe she knew something about the heads? Or she thought she knew something bad about them.

    Then the police drones arrived.

    I was able to bring down one of the flying drones with a well-aimed throw using one of the creepy heads. I clapped and cheered myself on in the video. I nearly forgot about that part. I realized just how great I was at throwing stuff. I also hit Mr. Snake with a huge globe, and I hit Mr. Ogre in the arena with an axe. That was three for three. When the shooting began, the occult lady ran away, and that was the end of it.

    I checked the other posts on the page to learn more about this woman and this SVS group.

    It was absolute garbage.

    This woman went by the alias of ¡°Initiate Reginus¡±, maybe a nod to Corebring Initiates. I couldn¡¯t find what her real name was. She was one of the founders of SVS, a group of random delusional people who presented themselves as prospective Corebrings Initiates yet to be given a chance by the Mother Core, trying to find ways to combat the Adumbrae menace on their own.

    These ''ways'' were a combination of pseudoscience and the occult. They obviously weren''t related to any official groups fighting Adumbrae and didn¡¯t seem to be affiliated with any of the major Corebring worshipping religions.

    I didn¡¯t know what to make of them. It was good no one really cared about their articles like ¡°Top Ten House Plants to Ward Off Adumbrae¡±, ¡°Is Your Neighbor an Adumbrae?¡±, and ¡°Find Out Which Overseer You Should Worship.¡± The posts on their page barely had any comments or reactions, and they seemed to be a small group no one paid any attention to.

    Until now.

    The video of Reginus¡ªI was just going to call her that for now¡ªdrew thousands to their Snippet page. This was going to be fun! Maybe social media wasn¡¯t too bad.

    Once again, my phone buzzed.

    I scowled as I picked it up.

    Phew, it was just the pizza guy. ¡°Yey, unhealthy food!¡± I said, excitedly skipping to the door. Deen must¡¯ve thought I was already asleep.

    I had to go down to get my food because the management didn¡¯t allow delivery people to go up. The resident key card was required to be able to use the elevator. This condominium was a bit on the expensive and exclusive side, which was a wonder why that stupid ATM wasn¡¯t fixed yet.

    ¡°Ugh,¡± I said as I jogged through the corridor. There was a foul smell. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on what it was.

    I rushed to the elevator to escape it. I hoped this wouldn¡¯t ruin my appetite. It would be entertaining to read the comments of the people on the video while eating pizza¡ªthat was if the video wasn¡¯t taken down yet.

    ¡°Shit,¡± I muttered, ¡°I should¡¯ve downloaded it.¡± But the elevator door already closed and the floor numbers started ticking down. I guess I could still find another copy of the video later.

    Alone in the elevator, I considered the implications of getting caught on video. When I was in the mall, I avoided the crew from TV5 because it was way better for survival to keep a low profile. The BID would have less information on me. Perhaps more importantly, the 2Ms wouldn¡¯t know I was still hanging around the city. Was someone able to inform them I was in the club before the BID raid commenced? I imagine they¡¯d be furious if they knew their wolf nemesis that destroyed their base at the docks was also present at the club.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    But here we are now.

    I didn¡¯t have the power to turn back time.

    Still, I was very happy with the video. I looked like an absolute badass!

    I wasn¡¯t the type to seek attention from the public at large because that''d mean I wanted validation from people...people I didn¡¯t care about. Attention-seeking equated to giving value to the thoughts of others, and that was dumb. The only time I cared about the impressions of people was when it was connected to the persona I was cultivating. Normally, when I built a face, it was only for a person or a small group. I''d take into account the personalities of those people to tailor the perfect face to present to them to further my goals.

    I hadn''t yet made a face to present to literally everyone¡ªI think that would be like the politicians or something, the ones who needed a face to take advantage of a large number of people.

    Me? I was satisfied with my small social circle. How would you control the reaction of people you hadn¡¯t even met? I used to shudder at the thought of that lack of control over my face. Maybe I''d be able to learn that skill someday.

    In this instance, however, my Blanchette face was shown to the world. Come to think of it, this was my first face shown to the ¡®public¡¯, in some sense.

    Did I do a good job on it?

    Since this was the first face I showed to the general public, albeit an actual supernatural transformation instead of a persona, I was concerned with how it would be built. My transformation was meant to be a badass fighter, monstrous even, dangerous and feral. Beautiful and deadly at the same time. And the video uploaded by Reginus showed exactly that. I was satisfied with her work. Maybe, when Serenade Bazaar opened again, I could buy something from her store as thanks.

    When I exited the elevator on the ground floor, I spotted that woman who seemingly hated Deen. She didn¡¯t so much as glance my way when I passed by her. She was too busy complaining about something to the janitor.

    ¡°¡ªI just moved in and the hallway on my floor stinks! I¡¯ve already called the attention¡ª¡±

    I shrugged my shoulders. If Deen was here, would she go to the aid of the poor, bullied janitor? Or was she the type to join in complaining? Not my problem. Well, it kinda was, but the smell didn¡¯t enter my room. I could enjoy my pizza in peace.

    Speaking of pizza, here was another random person I could recognize by face¡ªthe pizza delivery guy.

    In the entire condominium lobby, there was only one sofa that had a view of the hallway leading to the elevators, and he always sat on that spot. If it was occupied, he would stand somewhere where he could immediately see me. When he spotted me exiting the elevator, he stood up straight like he was a soldier and a general passed by.

    ¡°Hi there, uh, Ramon,¡± I said, reading his nameplate. He always wore his nameplate from the time he noticed I would mention his name only when he had it on.

    He smiled at me. ¡°Good evening, Miss Erind.¡± I never gave him my name, but it was on the credit card I used to order, so it wasn¡¯t like it was a secret. Other girls might find this creepy. I just let him be. If he was around, my pizza always got delivered quickly. ¡°Here¡¯s your order.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± I said, taking it from him.

    ¡°I¡¯m always amazed you could eat this all by yourself,¡± he hastily said before I could turn away.

    ¡°Hey, you shouldn¡¯t say that to girls.¡±

    ¡°Err, sorry. I was just thinking if what you said was true. That you could eat it all¡ª¡±

    ¡°I could!¡± I protested playfully. I may be wrong here, but I assumed he had a crush on me. I noticed he started acting extra nice to me when I told him the pizza I ordered was all for myself. ¡°Why would I lie about that? I''d say if I had friends over, or even a boyfriend to help me eat, which I don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have a boyfriend?¡± His face beamed upon hearing that. Then he quickly pulled back. ¡°Um, sorry. That was too personal.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t bad-looking, but he was way younger than me. I think he had mentioned he was just starting college and took up part-time jobs to pay for it. Admirable and all, but too young for me. I did flirt with him once in a while to make him happy¡­and to make sure he keeps being nice to me and promptly delivered my food. ¡°Yes, you shouldn¡¯t ask that of your customers,¡± I told him sternly.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± he said. ¡°I should get goi¡ª¡± He sniffed the air. ¡°What¡¯s that smell?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± I smelled myself.

    ¡°Not you!¡± he hastily corrected the misunderstanding. ¡°I was saying there¡¯s an odd smell. And it just got stronger.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re saying it¡¯s me.¡± I pouted in a cutesy way, but I also sniffed the air, concerned I gave off a weird smell. Not body odor¡­but something related to being an Adumbrae.

    ¡°No, no, no!¡± He inhaled again, then gagged. ¡°Like there¡¯s something that died. Like dried blood of a dead animal¡­I¡¯m not sure.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe a dead rat. They¡¯ll clean that up soon. I¡¯ll go up now.¡±

    ¡°Uh, yeah.¡± He looked dismayed. ¡°Maybe next I can help you eat¡ª¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± I said, raising my brow. You¡¯re going to ask me out? Was he out of his fucking mind?

    ¡°Nothing,¡± he said. He pulled his cap low to hide his face reddening with embarrassment. He rushed to the doors, slipped, and fell on the floor.

    Fine. I was feeling magnanimous. I set my pizza down on the sofa and hurried over. ¡°Are you okay?¡± I said, extending my hand to him.

    He didn¡¯t accept it but picked himself up as quickly as he could. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± he mumbled and rushed out of the building.

    ¡°Heh,¡± I said. I bet he''d regret not accepting my hand when he had time to think about it. I already offered him a bone, yet he refused it. ¡°Oh well, time to go back up.¡±

    The foul smell was no longer there when I got to my floor. I was concerned it was something connected to me when the pizza guy mentioned it. Like what if some substance from the snake mutant stuck to me after I transformed back to my cute self? But Deen didn¡¯t mention anything, so it must be something with the place, not me.

    I checked the Snippet page again of Reginus and her SVS group and found that it was blocked. ¡°Wow, they act fast,¡± I said. I wasn¡¯t sure what the BID was trying to hide, but they had their work cut out for them. People were going to spread that video.

    What to do now? Seven p.m., still early. I had plenty of time to relax. Let¡¯s say about three and a half hours. I could waste time binging a new series while pigging on pizza, maybe squeeze in an hour or so of nap in there, then I¡¯d go out.

    Where?

    To the place where Vanessa died.

    I swear I was just going to pay respects to my deceased friend. Or¡­maybe poke around and see if I could enter the tunnels below.

    We¡¯ll see.

 3.10

    Beep. Beep. Beep.

    ¡°It¡¯s time already?¡± I mumbled. I instinctively stretched out my hand and slammed it on my alarm clock. I felt my hand go lower than it was supposed to, paired with the sound of crunching plastic. ¡°Oh shit.¡± I forced myself awake, realizing what I did. Mental note to buy a new alarm clock tomorrow, check.

    I didn¡¯t need an alarm to wake myself up in the morning; I always got up at five in the morning on the dot no matter what time I fell asleep. But when I took a nap, I needed my trusty alarm clock to wake me at a specific time. And now, it was busted.

    I jumped to my feet and prepared for my first solo ¡®mission¡¯.

    Well, it wasn¡¯t exactly a mission. A tour, more like. No shenanigans, no putting myself in danger. I was just going to check out what happened to Vanessa¡¯s body; that was it. She was my friend after all.

    Just being a good friend.

    If I found an entrance to the tunnels, that would be a pleasant surprise.

    And if I found something to eat in said tunnels, then that would be an even more pleasant surprise. Pleasanter? Was pleasanter a word?

    Anyway, I fucking swear, if there were any police or BID, or a hint of the 2Ms, or even Corebrings, I was going back home like a good girl. I promised under Rule #9, the Rule that temporarily made something into a Rule. I only used it in situations where I felt I was about to do something stupid because it was fun, and I needed to control myself.

    I wore the new clothes and sneakers I bought, including the reversible hoodie. And I stowed one anti-dust cloth mask in my pocket.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see how I look,¡± I said, standing in front of the mirror. The grey color of the hoodie wasn¡¯t fashionably offensive; I was reserving its dark blue side for later. Just a normal girl with no illegal intent, no need to be wary of me.

    Before going out, I checked if I placed my leftover pizza in the fridge; I wasn¡¯t going to repeat that mistake from last time.

    Outside, along the corridor, the disgusting smell was no longer here. Good thing they cleaned it up. I pressed the down button and waited for the elevator.

    ¡°Ten forty-three,¡± I said, checking my watch. I rarely wore a watch, but I had to now because I left my phone behind to avoid getting my location traced in case the BID was monitoring phone signals. The subway operated until 2:30 a.m. and I had to ride a train to get to and back from Clover Heights where Rob¡¯s burnt garage was located.

    The elevator arrived and the doors opened.

    There was someone else inside. A balding, middle-aged man wearing a business suit, maybe just coming home late from work. He didn¡¯t greet me like other residents usually did, so I also didn¡¯t say anything to him. I would¡¯ve preferred it if I didn¡¯t meet anyone on the way out, but I guess it was still kind of early for this bustling city. I just hummed to the tune of the elevator music as we went down.

    Hold on, if we were going down, then this guy beside me wasn¡¯t returning to his unit. He had work this late at night?

    Upon reaching the ground floor, I didn¡¯t immediately step out of the elevator, waiting for the man to go out. But he didn¡¯t. Did he want me to go out first as a sign of being a gentleman?

    Sure. I stepped out then slowly walked so he would eventually get ahead of me. I looked back, confused. He still didn¡¯t go out of the elevator. The doors closed and it went up again.

    ¡°Another weirdo,¡± I said under my breath.

    I didn¡¯t meet anyone else except for the guard at the lobby who was watching a Mexican soap opera on his small TV. He waved to greet me. And I waved back, explaining, ¡°Going to jog at the park.¡±

    I crossed the street, looking left and right. After I was certain no one was around, I entered the narrow alleyway beside West Limmons Apartment. Continuing on the winding footpath starting from the back of the old apartment building, I eventually came to Lowen Park. I started jogging to not look out of place. Many people from the surrounding condominiums and apartments exercised in this park at night¡­among other things. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t meet anyone doing those ¡®among other things.¡¯

    Instead of using my normal route to the train station, I chose this path that Ramello and I took the day we got kidnapped. This was shorter, but I couldn¡¯t ride my bike throughout except for the short part passing the bike bridge, so I usually took the longer but smoother route when I went to Eloyce University.

    After nearly getting lost a few times navigating alleyways in the shadows of buildings, jumping over some fences, and avoiding a drunk dude vomiting behind a dumpster, I emerged from behind the QualityMart right across Riano train station. This was only my second time passing through here, and although I remembered the route from last time, it was like a different place at night. Fortunately, the moon, while not a complete circle, still gave off the light comparable to that of a full moon.

    Mental note to buy a small flashlight.

    I peered from the side of the convenience store, surveying the station across the street. The yellowing light of the decrepit but miraculously still working lamppost flickered from the corner. Other than a few people exiting the station and some cars passing by, everything was relatively peaceful in this part of the city.

    ¡°Here goes.¡± I held up my hand and summoned my Blanchette face. The liquid rising out of the crystals on my palm lit the dark alley in gold, and then in red as the face solidified. I brought the red snout to my mouth.

    I let out a low growl of satisfaction as I savored the addicting power. It was still awesome, but I was getting used to it. I immediately noticed the chilly air caressing my exposed skin. Maybe I should¡¯ve also bought clothes for my transformation.

    Why didn¡¯t I think of that when I was shopping? Another mental note.

    I didn¡¯t want to enter the station as Erind. The cameras and people who¡¯d see me would contradict my alibi of jogging in the park. Of course, I also wasn¡¯t going to enter with my Blanchette form either.

    But I needed to ride the train¡­just not in it¡­

    On it.

    Most of La Esperanza¡¯s train system was underground, but there were portions of the tracks that were street level or on elevated railways. The tracks going out of Riano Station ran through the middle of the road and descended underground right before the intersection of Riano and Mendez Sts.

    That was my ticket.

    So here I was, in the middle of the road, looking over the concrete barrier that separated the tracks from the rest of the traffic, checking for the perfect place to jump down to the train. The tracks in this part were already below street level, sloping down into the opening of the tunnel.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    I estimated there was about a fifteen-foot drop from the top of the concrete barrier down to the tracks, but if the train was here, it would be just a few feet down to its roof. The train would also start slowly from the station, and only picked up speed after it went underground, so I was confident I could land safely. People did this in movies, right?

    A few minutes after, a train left the station, rumbling towards me. I leaped on top of the concrete barrier and waited for it. One wrong move and I might slip off the train and get squished. The danger and the exhilarating prospect of riding on top of the train would¡¯ve filled a normal person with adrenaline, but it did not affect me.

    This was nothing compared to fighting monsters.

    The earth shook, the train rolling below. After about half of it had passed, I held my breath and jumped down. It was only a short drop as I correctly guessed, and I landed squarely on my two feet, bending down to maintain balance.

    Yes!

    Then the train accelerated.

    Fuck.

    I tittered a few steps back, trying to stop myself from losing balance, but I stepped on some slimy grime and lost my footing. I rolled backward just as the train entered the tunnel. I stretched out my claws and hung on, flattening myself on the roof to avoid the ceiling of the tunnel.

    Phew.

    See, no problemo.

    Oh, my claws! I buried them too deep into the train¡¯s roof in a moment of panic. Hopefully, they didn¡¯t go through the ceiling. If they did, the passengers probably wouldn¡¯t even notice anyway, too tired from a day¡¯s work and wanting to just get home. I also hoped that all the clanking of this aging train masked the ruckus of my landing.

    No screaming yet?

    Okay, yeah, no problemo.

    What was that slime that nearly made me fall off? Yuck!

    I also noticed my abs and legs were covered with dirt and other repulsive stuff I¡¯d rather not know about from laying down on the roof. I shuddered as I tried to wipe them off with one hand while my other kept holding on. I¡¯ve been in way more disgusting situations but I just found this too icky.

    There was enough clearance between the top of the train and the ceiling of the tunnel that I could probably sit straight, but I decided not to risk it, settling on a weird crouching position, making sure I kept as much of my skin off the dirty fucking roof. I held still, enjoying the rushing wind sweeping over me as the train sped to its destination.

    Getting on the train was the first hurdle.

    Several minutes passed and the train slowed down as it approached the next station. This was the next hurdle.

    I dropped down the side of the train not facing the station platform, hanging from the roof while waiting for some passengers to disembark and new ones to get on. With this, I avoided getting spotted by the cameras on the station platform as well as by the people waiting for the train. I only waited for a minute and then climbed back on top as the train left the station.

    This was an easy way to roam the city since I had no car. And even if I had a car, it would be risky to use it.

    Hold on¡­I did have a car!

    Technically, it was Rob¡¯s getaway car, but he¡¯s dead so it was kind of mine. Too bad I told Bianca to help me get rid of it, including other evidence that could be traced back to me that she could find.

    I was about ninety-nine percent certain Bianca would be on my side for the foreseeable future.

    While I did have more to lose if both of us got caught¡ªI was no longer a human compared to her, plus she had the money and resources to wiggle out of tight spots¡ªthat wasn¡¯t how our minds worked. We always had more to lose in our own view since we didn¡¯t care shit about other people. Unless we specifically want someone to lose. In that case, we wouldn¡¯t care how much we would lose to bring down our target.

    I was sure Bianca had nothing against me, she just wanted to use me to achieve her goals. Which meant she valued not getting caught, which included me not getting caught. I was sure she was going to help me until she got what she wanted. Whatever it really is.

    I just rode this train until I got as near as I could to Clover Heights. Onto my third hurdle¡ªgetting off the train.

    I made my way to the end of the train, crawling carefully on its roof, making sure my claws had a secure hold before moving forward. An easy enough job with my strength and agility.

    Just a single dude sleeping, I thought, checking the last train car through the back window. I slowly lowered myself to the back of the train.

    I focused my attention on the walls of the tunnel, waiting for an exit sign. Subway tunnels have an exit spaced out along its length for people to use in case of emergency. Obviously, I wasn¡¯t going to exit through the station.

    There!

    I jumped off the train, diving onto the rough ground, making sure to stay in between the tracks. My sensei would be proud of my perfect judo roll. Then I leaped on the walkway running the length of the tunnel and headed to the exit I spotted. Movies taught me that the metal tracks had an electric current running through them. Not sure exactly which of these were electrified, but better not to touch any of them.

    I emerged above the street in the outskirts of Clover Heights. I couldn¡¯t believe I just went through all of that and everything went splendidly well.

    Perhaps I had a knack for sneaking around.

    Now for the last hurdle in my pilgrimage to Vanessa¡¯s resting place¡ªI had to pass through the bustling southern area of Clover Heights before reaching its northern part, the semi-ghost town area of the neighborhood.

    Of course, I also had a plan for this.

    I transformed back to my original body, turned my hoodie inside out, and put on my mask. Voila! I looked like some skinny wannabe gangster kid or something. I made sure the hoodie I bought was at least a size larger so it wasn¡¯t easy to tell I was a woman.

    After aimlessly roaming Clover Heights, avoiding people as much as could, I eventually found the street I drove on when I left Rob¡¯s burning garage last Saturday. Oh wait, that was already early morning Sunday. I just had to follow this road and I¡¯ll be at my goal soon!

    <hr>

    Fuck.

    There were a couple of police cruisers waiting further down the road parked on either side of a barricade in the middle of the street. They were clearly intent on blocking people from going into the northern part of Clover Heights.

    I could guess why.

    I sighed, watching them from behind a telephone pole a block away.

    Did I need to turn back now? I looked around for a good vantage point so I could see if there was another way I could take and if there was any other sign of danger. The highest building near me stood at just three floors tall. I snuck in the small space between it and the neighboring pawnshop, both of which were already closed at this hour.

    Behind the dumpster, I pulled my mask down and put on my Blanchette face. I climbed the wall as fast as I could before anyone passed by. It was a breeze scaling the building with my claws that easily bit into the bricks; as easy as swimming with flippers. I bet I could actually do this with my original body. Next time, I''ll try.

    From the top of the building, I spotted red and blue lights in the distance. I exhaled in disappointment. More cops were roaming the neighborhood where Rob¡¯s garage was located. The very definition of danger. No matter what mental gymnastics I did, there was no way I could win an argument in court that it was safe for me to try and enter that area.

    My shoulders slumped down. Fine! I was going home. The temporary Rule #9 had to be followed.

    I turned around, walking slowly with a frown¡ªor as much as a frown that I could manage with a snout and a mouth full of fangs, which turned to be more of a snarl¡ªand wondered if I should just finish the rest of the pizza and put myself in a food coma so I would immediately fall asleep and not think of doing any other stupid things to do with my power tonight.

    ¡°You¡¯re already leaving?¡±

    I spun around, my claws extended, ready to attack whoever it was that spoke or instantly flee if needed.

    It was a guy sitting behind the water tank. My eyes caught a glint of the moonlight off the bladed end of the long pole he was holding that poked out from the shadows.

    Just a guy¡­

    ¡­with a spear.

    A guy with a spear?!

    Stay or run? Decide quickly!

 3.11

    Run?

    Stupid idea! This guy could easily stop me if he wanted to. If I wasn¡¯t mistaken about his power, he could skewer anyone and anything he could see, even if it was through the TV. As long as he got his eyes on me, I was cinnamon crusted French toast. How I wished I had plenty of extra brains like my snake mutant buddy.

    Stay?

    Better idea. Rather, there was no other option. If he wanted to kill me, he already would¡¯ve. Which meant he wanted something from me and I was safe¡­but I didn¡¯t know for how long.

    I dropped my clawed hands to my sides and tried to appear as unthreatening as possible. But I also tried to give off an air of confidence, standing with a hint of swagger, my hips swayed slightly to the left with my hand on it. Sass could go a long way with impressions. The only card I held was that he didn¡¯t know what my abilities were. I should capitalize on that and try to gain an equal footing in this encounter.

    Could I draw his eyes somewhere and make my escape?

    Just relax.

    Wait for an opening.

    He dusted his butt as he stood up, then stepped out of the shadows to present himself. He wore a blue and yellow striped t-shirt with the bearded smiley face logo of QualityMart on it, stylishly atrocious calf-length trousers, and a bandana tied across the lower half of his face. The spear he wielded was silver in color with serpentine carvings that looked almost like they were alive. I could¡¯ve sworn they were slithering beneath the gaze of the moonlight. With his left hand, he held his spear behind his back. Did he want to tell me he meant no harm? ¡°Are you supposed to go there?¡± he asked pointing north, in the direction of Rob¡¯s garage, but keeping his eyes on me.

    I simply shrugged. My mind flipped through the possibilities of his identity. BID? Surely not. An Adumbrae? One of the goons of the 2Ms? How about a Corebring? If he was a Corebring, why the stupid outfit? They usually wore uniforms with helmets to hide their identities rather than this gaudy bandana. Please don¡¯t let him be a Corebring.

    ¡°The shy type, I see.¡± His eyes narrowed. ¡°There are ways I could make you talk.¡±

    I tensed for half a second when he said that, adrenaline kicking in, but I forced myself to calm down.

    He chuckled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I''m just kidding,¡± apparently noticing my minute reaction. He had an accent I couldn¡¯t place; I guessed English wasn¡¯t his first language but he learnt it in an expensive school abroad. The way he spoke was like an English teacher with exaggerated pronunciation, but I could tell he was attempting to mask his original accent. ¡°Just trying to make conversation in this beautiful night,¡± he said, gesturing at the sky.

    Would he get annoyed and attack me if I continued keeping silent? But it would be stupid of me to open my snout and show him why I couldn¡¯t answer because then he¡¯d know I wasn''t human, most likely an Adumbrae. Judging by his attempts to kill my snake mutant buddy, the possibility was high he¡¯d also want to kill me once he knew what I was.

    Does he already know who or what I am?

    He wasn¡¯t there at the Serenade Bazaar, otherwise he would¡¯ve have continued attacking the mutant even after I broke the TV news crew¡¯s camera. The camera couldn¡¯t have caught a glimpse of me. But what if he saw the video posted by Reginus on Snippet?

    That must be it! Why else would he confront me?

    ¡°You¡¯re ignoring me?¡± He melodramatically tutted, closing his eyes and shaking his head. ¡°Stop trying so hard to think of how to escape and just focus in the moment.¡± He opened his eyes and winked at me.

    Could have I made a run for it? His spear was still behind his back, although I had the feeling he was baiting me.

    ¡°Or are you not answering me because I didn¡¯t introduce myself first?¡±

    I nodded, going along with the conversation.

    ¡°I see. It was ungentlemanly of me to suddenly accost a girl this late of an hour without at least telling her my name.¡±

    I nodded again while tilting my head coyly to the side. It was so hard to try and fish information from him without being able to speak.

    ¡°With this bandana on my face, I do look like a mugger. Did you think I¡¯m a mugger?¡±

    I shook head and waved my hand down to indicate that it was a silly thought.

    ¡°Where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself.¡± He bowed low, super low, making it really obvious he was no longer looking at me. He drew his right leg back, scraping the ground, like that fancy way to bow in a medieval royal court, accompanied with stretching his right hand to his side. ¡°I am Corebring¡ª¡±

    As that word registered in my brain, another word popped up. RUN!!!

    I pivoted and dashed to the edge of the building away from him. I only took a couple of steps when a spear burst out of my left kneecap! It embedded itself deep into the concrete rooftop. But I was already prepared for this.

    ¡°¡ªInitiate¡ª¡±

    Bam! I stomped my right foot down to stop myself falling over from my momentum while, at the same time, tried to extricate myself by jumping up with the force of the stomp. The concrete cracked, but the spear held firm, nailing me down, as if someone was continually exerting force stabbing it downwards.

    ¡°¡ªClive¡ª¡±

    Next, I tried to back away from the spear. It grew out of me, so I should be able to just leave it behind if I couldn¡¯t dislodge it, right? Wrong! I couldn¡¯t move my knee back to where the rest of the spear should be. It wasn¡¯t there, but it felt like it was.

    ¡°Corebring Initiate Clive,¡± he repeated. ¡°You can just call me Clive.¡±

    Escape attempt failed. See! He really was fucking baiting me to try and escape!

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t nice of you to leave while I¡¯m introducing myself.¡± I could hear his footsteps coming nearer.

    I turned as best as I could from a half-lunging position because of the stupid spear growing out of my knee. I held up my hands in surrender while shrugging my shoulders as if to say, okay, you caught me, it was just a joke.

    Internally, however, I was in full crisis mode, part of my brain was focused on thinking of what to do, as the rest of my gray matter came up with colorful swear words to berate my stupid ass. I still wasn¡¯t dead, which meant my gamble paid off. I knew he was daring me to try to flee, as if it was a game, so I was sure he wouldn¡¯t outright kill me if he caught me¡ªand there was a high chance of him catching me.

    Now, even if I knew his intentions, what was I supposed to do? When I heard ¡®Corebring¡¯ I had to try and escape even if success was just a tiny speck.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    ¡°Clive¡­You don¡¯t have to tell me it¡¯s an uncool name for a Corebring. I wrote my real nickname on the form. I didn¡¯t know it was official and I couldn¡¯t change it afterwards.¡±

    What the fuck was this guy talking about? He¡¯s just messing with me. Priority! Don¡¯t let the rage take over. My powers kicked in because I was hurt, making my blood boil. Having encountered this sensation several times before, I was prepared to quell it. I didn¡¯t want this Clive guy to sense any murderous intent from me.

    ¡°I was right. You do know how my power works,¡± he said. The spear was still behind his back but the bladed end was missing; it was jutting out of my knee.

    I put my hands on my hips and gave him a feisty look. Then I gestured to my knee.

    ¡°Apologies.¡± He walked around to my front so I didn¡¯t need to awkwardly turn to look at him. I felt the spear inside my knee disappear as soon as he no longer had a view of the back of my leg, and I could stand properly. His spear simultaneously reformed in an instant. ¡°I had to satisfy my curiosity. You were able to figure out my ability in the short time you witnessed it earlier today. Awesome!¡± He gave me a thumbs up.

    Okay, I¡¯m still alive. I was right he had no intentions of killing me. Was he going to capture me and bring me to the Hive? Besides exterminating Adumbrae, I had no idea what else Corebrings did. Were they going to experiment on me?

    Keep calm, Erind.

    There would eventually be an opening for me. He did apologize for hurting me, even if perhaps mockingly. Just keep humoring him, I advised myself. If I acted fearful and submissive, he wouldn¡¯t be interested in playing his ¡®games¡¯ with me anymore. I pointed to the regenerating wound on my leg and cocked my head.

    ¡°Sorry for that.¡± He bent down to examine my knee. ¡°It doesn¡¯t appear to inconvenience you so no need to fret. It will be completely healed soon.¡±

    He was within striking distance. Should I attack?

    Flapping noises from above made both of us look up. I considered to try escaping again, but I quashed that thought. I might anger him.

    A seagull descended from the dark sky, a common enough bird in California especially for cities along the coast like La Esperanza, even if a bit rarer this far in the center of the city. The white bird landed on top of the water tank. It had something in its mouth which I couldn¡¯t make out in this light. Food? Cheese puffs or something.

    ¡°What¡¯s up, Clive?¡± said a squeaky voice like what I imagined a mouse would sound like if they could talk, but it was loud and clear. Where did it come from? There was no one else here besides me, the Corebring¡­and the bird. Was the seagull fucking talking? ¡°Woah, woah, woah!¡± the voice exclaimed, ¡°What are you doing to her? Sexual harassment alert! Police!¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t doing anything,¡± Clive said, standing back up. ¡°And control your voice, Pan. The police are just over there, they might hear you.¡±

    ¡°Good, so they can arrest you for unwelcome sexual advances,¡± Pan, the seagull said. ¡°Were you ogling her legs?¡±

    ¡°False accusations,¡± he said in a fake offended tone. ¡°Such slander I¡¯ve never encountered in my years as a beacon of morality.¡±

    ¡°I may be your junior, but let me give you a bit of advice on us girls. She may look really hot, but don¡¯t forget she¡¯s a monster.¡±

    ¡°Do you mean to say women are monsters?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­I forgot where I was going with that thought. Let me get back to you on that. It¡¯s hard to control this seagull¡¯s mind and body while talking.¡±

    ¡°Or are you saying only the hot ones are monsters?¡±

    ¡°Maybe¡­if hot women are monsters, then I¡¯m a monster for sure.¡± Both of them laughed. The seagull¡¯s laugh was especially comical, and it would¡¯ve elicited a genuine chuckle from me if this was any other situation.

    This night kept getting weirder and weirder. The seagull called Pan must be also a Corebring. Two of them. This situation wasn¡¯t in the list of things I considered while planning for this trip, I couldn¡¯t be blamed for getting myself in this! How the hell was I supposed to expect two Corebrings? Fuck, maybe I should¡¯ve just stayed with Deen.

    And these two were so weird. They were so far removed from my expectations of what a Corebring should be¡ªa heroic warrior that regularly fought malevolent interdimensional beings. But these ones? I¡­I didn¡¯t know what to make of them. However, with two of them here now, my chances of escape lessened.

    ¡°Seriously though, Clive, she¡¯s not human. She ate the creature you were trying to kill earlier.¡±

    ¡°I know. You repeated it several times like you don¡¯t think that I¡¯m listening to you.¡±

    ¡°Most of the time you aren''t.¡± The seagull hopped down from the water tank, glided over me, then landed on Clive¡¯s head. With a closer look, I noticed something peaking from behind the gull, lodged in between its wings. A creature of some sort? The bird pecked at Clive¡¯s head with the cheese puffs still in its mouth, dusting his black hair with yellow crumbs. ¡°Were you attacking her?¡±

    ¡°She seems to know about my ability. I found it interesting.¡±

    ¡°So, you tested your powers on her?¡± the seagull said. Or was it the creature on its back speaking? The bird was munching on the cheese puffs. ¡°Are we even allowed to do this?¡±

    ¡°Probably not. Who¡¯s to say?¡±

    ¡°You? Because you¡¯re like the senior in our group? You¡¯re regrettably our leader with Corebring Delirium not here.¡±

    ¡°In that case, I don¡¯t know what to say.¡±

    Pan made gagging noises, perhaps to show her frustration, before making the seagull turn its head to me. ¡°Hello, Miss Monster,¡± she said. ¡°Sorry for Clive attacking you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Attacking her? You make it sound like I¡¯m a bad guy.¡±

    ¡°Sometimes I think you are,¡± retorted the seagull. ¡°Anyway, good evening Miss Monster. I go by the name ¡®Trepanner¡¯. T-R-E-P-A-N-N-E-R, some people make a mistake in its spelling. Only Clive calls me Pan because he sucks, and I can¡¯t do anything about it. Don¡¯t call me Pan. I will hate you. Even boss Delirium calls me Trepanner.¡±

    I bowed my head a bit as greeting. The new Corebring wasn¡¯t hostile to me, best to keep it that way. She also didn¡¯t know my name, but she certainly had seen the video Reginus posted.

    ¡°I¡¯m a new Corebring Initiate,¡± Trepanner continued, ¡°in contrast to Clive here who¡¯s been stuck as a CI since the start of written history¡ª¡±

    ¡°By my own choice,¡± Clive clarified.

    "A stupid choice that''s affecting me. Everyone knows you intentionally reject Faceting. Such a waste. Your CoreQuip is so awesome, imagine if you Meld with it."

    "I want to make it clear to our friend here that I''m not a delinquent Initiate."

    "Or imagine if your CoreQuip becomes Corebound to you and you receive a different Core from the Mother Core!"

    "Pan, there''s no reason to be jealous of my CoreQuip. Yours is very versatile and useful in various situations."

    ¡°But it''s a support type. I thought I was already done with being support personnel. What''s worse is I got assigned to your team to support you, and you don''t even help me with developing my powers.¡±

    ¡°I thought I made it clear during orientation that our team is very independent. You do your own thing. It¡¯s the real world out there.¡±

    ¡°Doing my own thing? Real world?¡± Trepanner said, almost shrieking in an inhuman pitch. ¡°Like you got a part time job at QualityMart? Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s your cover¡ª"

    ¡°I¡¯m going to be candid, the fried chicken there is awesome. I just wanted easy access to it.¡± He felt the top of his head where Trepanner was perched and touched her feet. ¡°What a peculiar pair of feet. Seagulls don¡¯t have clawed feet like other birds?¡±

    ¡°Gulls have webbed feet, but they do have small claws. Never mind all that! It¡¯s time we get going, we¡¯re not even supposed to be here.¡±

    ¡°True, the manager might be wondering where I am.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not what I¡¯m talking about! Are you done here? What did you want to do with her anyway?¡±

    ¡°I merely wanted to talk to her. But she won¡¯t respond.¡±

    ¡°I guess she can¡¯t talk in that form,¡± Trepanner mused.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you see the video? That¡¯s not a mask on her face. Those are real teeth, that¡¯s her actual mouth.¡± There was a moment of silence and Trepanner made the gagging noise again and pecked at Clive¡¯s head. ¡°You didn¡¯t watch it!¡±

    ¡°I was on duty at the convenience store, we can¡¯t watch videos.¡±

    ¡°Ask her to turn back to her human form so you can talk to her.¡±

    I almost took a step back when I realized she knew this wasn¡¯t my original body. How could she have known that? That wasn¡¯t in the Reginus video. She might¡¯ve spotted me transforming, which would explain why Clive came here. Was she patrolling this place or did she follow me since I climbed out of the subway emergency exit? In any case, I didn¡¯t have a way to wiggle out of this.

    What to do? Should I just transform back?

 3.12

    ¡°Human form?¡± Clive said. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    The bizarre gagging sound Trepanner made when she was irritated turned into violent gurgling then to a piercing whine. ¡°OHMaygashyoustupidfuckerz,¡± Trepanner screeched, making me jerk in surprise. There was no reaction from Clive. ¡°Youidiotshitdontlistenurkk¡­ugrhh¡­¡±

    Clive suddenly grabbed the seagull on his head, including the creature hitching a ride on it, and squeezed hard.

    ¡°Don¡¯t¡­kill¡­the bird!¡± Trepanner managed to say.

    He threw the gull in the air, but it fell to the ground, its wings apparently broken. ¡°She has a human form?¡± he asked. All this time he kept his eyes on me.

    ¡°Ye-yes,¡± Trepanner croaked. ¡°I told you about it when I called.¡±

    With the seagull splayed on the ground, I finally had a good view of the creature on its back. It had the form of a human fetus in its early stages, but with six tiny hands instead of just two. It was inexplicably able to cling on to the seagull¡¯s feathery back. Its skin reflected the bright moonlight, however, it had a cloudy sheen as if it was sculpted out of white quartz. Tiny gems and gold accents adorned its body, like if someone made a fetus themed amulet jewelry¡ªI don¡¯t know why anyone would make such a thing. Growing out of this creature was a scorpion-like tail which pierced the back of the head of the seagull; I guessed this was supposed to be some sort of umbilical cord.

    So, this was Trepanner? Or rather her CoreQuip which she was controlling remotely.

    ¡°You did?¡± Clive said, scratching his chin. ¡°Then I wasn¡¯t listening.¡± He checked his watch and flicked his eyes back to me and grinned. He continued talking to Trepanner. ¡°This is the time shops close in south Clover Heights and many people pass by the convenience store to buy something to eat so I was busy.¡±

    ¡°Tell her to change to her human form so you can talk or whatever you wanna do.¡± The seagull tried to limply stand but couldn¡¯t. It weakly flapped its broken wings.

    ¡°Why me? You tell her.¡±

    ¡°Because I¡¯m using a fucking bird! I don¡¯t have any coercive capabilities. You¡¯re the one with the poking stick!¡±

    ¡°Whew, ¡®coercive capabilities¡¯, what a term.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re just picking a fight with me at this point.¡± The fetus creature¡¯s tail glowed blue, pumping something into the head of the seagull. Dozens of small white wires burst from the hands of the creature and stabbed the seagull¡¯s body. ¡°Hmph, you didn¡¯t need to do this to the poor bird.¡± The gull begun to contort for a couple of seconds¡­and then it was fine again, plodding about while checking its wings. The white wires receded back into the fetus and its tail stopped glowing blue.

    Clive glared at the bird with unemotional eyes then back to me. ¡°You can heal it. No need to fret.¡±

    I held up my hand to get their attention. Then I felt for the spot where my monster snout connected to flesh somewhere beneath my chin and pulled, taking off my Blanchette face. I bowed my head, turning away to the left so they wouldn''t see my real face. As I felt the power of my transformation drain from me, returning to my original body, I quickly pulled up my face mask to cover my nose and mouth. I faced them; my heart began beating faster. Surprisingly, I did feel a tinge of anxiety. This was easily the most dangerous situation I¡¯ve been in.

    Yes, my ¡®normal¡¯ body had super strength and healing abilities too, but I might as well be a weak seagull if Clive wanted to kill me. My senses told me his little ''demonstration'' of crushing the bird was more for me than as a result of being annoyed at his teammate - I didn''t think this guy could even get annoyed. I would¡¯ve been more assured if I stayed with my Blanchette body, although I still wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything against Clive¡¯s ability. But it wasn¡¯t only anxiety I felt; extreme excitement at the thrill of a life and death gamble soon pushed away any emotion of concern inside me.

    I had to take the initiative in this situation if I was going to bullshit my way out of this, which I couldn¡¯t do if I couldn¡¯t speak. And I¡¯d rather not wait for Clive to decide he was going to force me to transform back. Trepanner was really insistent on making me turn to my human form and I felt the right move was to transform on my own to show strength and confidence.

    ¡°Hello!¡± I said to them in a jovial tone, waving my hand in a wide arc my voice, slightly muffled by the cloth mask I wore. Talk about lucky I brought a mask along. ¡°My name is Blanchette. Not my real name. If you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯d prefer not giving my real one.¡± I was already thinking of what to do next if they forced me to reveal my identity...which wouldn''t really matter, I suppose, if their goal was to capture me. Should I tell them that I think my dad is working for the Hive? Would they even know him? I wasn''t even sure if he was still alive.

    Clive whistled. ¡°You do have a human form, imagine that.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯ve been telling you.¡± Trepanner flapped her wings, or rather controlled the seagull to fly on my head and sat on top of my hoodie.

    I tried to stand as still as possible so I wouldn¡¯t disturb her. Is this a threat?

    ¡°Imagine this!" she exclaimed. "Working with this guy? He just casually squishes me.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not you, just a bird and your CoreQuip¡­which no one, not even a High Overseer, can destroy. Why fret?¡±

    ¡°This is why I don¡¯t show up in our meetings.¡±

    ¡°Fair,¡± Clive said with a shrug.

    I blinked. They didn¡¯t care about me. A monster that they knew ate an Adumbrae just transformed into a human in front of them, and these two Corebrings still continued with their nonsensical banter. Was this how the protectors of humanity were? I actually like them. ¡°Um, excuse me,¡± I said.

    ¡°Me, a wide-eyed newbie,¡± Trepanner said, ¡°excited to learn about the world and do my part in saving it and then I got assigned to be with this guy.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me, uh, Trepanner?¡± I said. She stopped with her rant. ¡°How did you know I could transform?¡± I figured that I should be relaxed with them. Just chat normally like they couldn¡¯t kill me if they wanted to.

    ¡°I want to know as well,¡± Clive said. ¡°It wasn¡¯t in the video¡­I think?¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t even watch the damn video!¡± Trepanner said, making that gagging sound again.

    ¡°Did you see me transform?¡± I asked, trying to sound my utmost friendliest.

    ¡°Okay, calm down, Trepanner.¡± She gargled then sighed. ¡°Sorry, Miss Monster¡­er, Blanchette. I just get riled up when he¡¯s around. I have plenty of seagulls patrolling the city. Where was that again? I think that was called the Bryce area. The part where the train crosses the elevated railway over the artificial river? That tourist spot at daytime? I had a seagull perched on top of the arch of the bridge. That¡¯s where I saw you.¡±

    I relaxed upon hearing her explanation. Byrce Bridge was far from my condominium; she wouldn¡¯t know where I came from. That was assuming she wasn¡¯t lying. ¡°But I returned to my human body while I was inside the subway. How were you able to follow me afterwards?¡±

    ¡°I did lose you. When the train left Clover Station, you weren¡¯t on top of it anymore. So, I called my gull squad and started following suspicious people.¡±

    ¡°Like me who used the emergency exit of the subway?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see you come out of any exit. I don¡¯t even know where that is. I just spotted you lurking suspiciously in the dark, and there were no stores or anything where you came from. I was surprised when you transformed into the woman with the red hood I saw in the video. Lucky guess. I was about to stop following you.¡±

    So, Lady Luck fucked me up? The world just wasn¡¯t on my side tonight. I probably used up all my good fortune when I escaped from the Eve arena in one piece. ¡°Are you going to kill me?¡± I said in a casual tone, as if I was only asking what was the time.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Why would I do that?¡± he asked.

    A rhetorical question? Even if it was, I should answer to gain control, even if a tiny bit. How should I go about this? I wasn¡¯t dumb enough to answer, ¡®because I¡¯m an Adumbrae.¡¯ Got it! I swallowed before saying, ¡°I thought you might be angry with me because I killed your target. You wanted to kill that Adumbrae, right? The one that looks like a snake at Serenade Bazaar?¡±

    ¡°Adumbrae? That wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae,¡± Clive said.

    Let¡¯s pursue this thread. ¡°Oh, I thought it was.¡± Nodding up a bit as if to look at Trepanner on my head.

    And she did join in the conversation. ¡°It wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae, or we would¡¯ve felt it. The Mother Core didn¡¯t tell us, through our CoreQuips, to kill that creature. Clive shouldn¡¯t have done anything.¡± She stomped on my head with the seagull¡¯s webbed feet, showing her frustration. ¡°He¡¯s getting us in trouble.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you big on saving people?¡± he said.

    ¡°Which is odd that you¡¯re the one who acted. I didn¡¯t even know what was happening because I was on the beach capturing more seagulls at that time.¡±

    Before they could fight again and derail the conversation, I stepped in. ¡°Wait. So, you weren¡¯t supposed to attack that creature? It was fine then that I stepped in and finished it off?¡± I was twisting the narrative here a bit. I didn¡¯t exactly step in to help; I destroyed the news camera so he couldn¡¯t finish my snake mutant buddy. But Clive seemed to be absentminded with everything that he might not notice it. ¡°I wanted to help save the people too.¡± I insisted.

    ¡°Yes, you helped,¡± Clive said. He snapped his fingers and pointed at me. ¡°And that¡¯s why I wanted to talk to you. To thank you.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s all?¡± Trepanner said. ¡°I thought it was something important.¡±

    ¡°It is important, my dear Pan. Not only to thank her for killing the creature and stopping the number of casualties from rising. Admirable, of course. But I¡¯m also thanking her for helping in our mission. If I continued attacking that snake-like creature through the TV, our target would have noticed our presence in the city, or at least realize that the attention of the Hive is turned here.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± replied Trepanner. ¡°You¡¯re thanking her because she saved your butt from getting kicked by Boss Delirium for endangering our mission?¡±

    ¡°Precisely!¡± He dug into his pocket, pulled out a few strips of paper, and offered them to me. ¡°Here, Blanchette.¡±

    I hesitantly accepted them. ¡°Thanks¡­what are these?¡±

    ¡°Discount coupons from QualityMart. That¡¯s all we have left at the store.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s your way of thanking her?¡± Trepanner said, her voice rising in pitch, dangerously close to shrieking again.

    ¡°There might be a couple of free upgrades on a fried chicken meal there. Those are the coupons with the most value.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡± I still couldn¡¯t wrap my head around the behavior of these two, but I went with the flow.

    ¡°Why did you spear her if you just wanted to thank her?¡± Trepanner said.

    ¡°That is an entirely different matter. You see, she smashed the TV camera that was broadcasting a live feed of the snake creature, stopping me from killing it,¡± Clive explained. He looked straight into my eyes. The muscles of my lower body tensed, as if ready to run even if that was the last thing I was going to attempt. ¡°I confirmed that it was no accident, that she actually knew what she was doing¡­intentionally stopping my powers.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± I said. What should I say here? Disclaim knowledge? Tell a lie that I thought he was also a dangerous Adumbrae? ¡°To be honest, I did that so you wouldn¡¯t attack me too when I went after the snake creature.¡±

    ¡°You wanted to be the one to kill it? To eat it?¡±

    Fuck me. He wasn¡¯t as absentminded as I thought. If I said yes, would he kill me? The BID was intent on destroying Adumbrae eating brains like the Cocoon in the arena, and also me when they discovered I was eating the heads inside the snake mutant. I assumed the Corebrings from the Hive also shared the same disposition. ¡°Yes, I wanted to kill and eat it,¡± I said. Trepanner saw the video; she would alert Clive if I was telling a lie. I didn¡¯t offer any other explanation for my actions.

    ¡°Okay then. That¡¯s the other matter I wanted to clear up.¡± He bowed in the same way he did earlier, with a leg swept back and an arm stretched to the side. ¡°Once again, I, Corebring Initiate Clive, extend my humblest gratitude to Miss Blanchette.¡± He straightened and looked me in the eye. ¡°I am deeply appreciative of people who unknowingly help me.¡±

    ¡°Thank you¡­wait¡­welcome, I guess,¡± I said. I looked at the coupons. ¡°Yes, you¡¯re welcome. Glad to be of help. And thanks for the coupons.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid to use those. I¡¯m not going to trace you with them. I¡¯m a man of my word," he said. "And I guarantee the fried chicken of QualityMart are to die for,¡± he added with a wink.

    ¡°Just imagine I made the appropriate rebuttal here,¡± Trepanner said, ¡°I don¡¯t want to ruin this wonderful moment with hostility.¡±

    ¡°One more thing.¡± Clive took out his cellphone then showed me a picture on it. It was a photo of a man looking straight at the camera with hazel eyes. ¡°Have you seen this man?¡± He had a well-kept full beard with strands of grey mixed in with the deep brown hair, a nasty scar across his left cheek, and deep crow¡¯s feet at the sides of his eyes.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± I said. Who was this? Their target? Was this one of the 2Ms? I didn''t know what they looked like.

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± he said. ¡°If ever you see him, do keep in mind to stay away.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll remember that. Thanks for the heads up.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye then.¡± Clive jumped off the building before I could utter a response and was gone.

    Huh¡­

    That¡¯s it? I was still alive?

    I couldn¡¯t believe that I almost blurted out, ¡®you weren¡¯t going to kill me?¡¯, but I kept my mouth shut because Trepanner was still on my head. After several seconds, she was still there, unmoving. Would she be the one to finish me off? That fetus thing might climb down and stab me with its tail.

    Should I grab her? And then¡­uh¡­throw her away or something?

    ¡°You handled that well, Blanchette,¡± Trepanner said. She was still talking with that silly voice, but her tone changed into a flat and serious one.

    ¡°I¡¯m alive, so I think I did,¡± giving her a straight answer rather than playing dumb.

    ¡°You may be wondering why you are still alive.¡±

    ¡°Kind of, yes.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t truly know. The Mother Core is not telling us to kill you. You¡¯re also not a target for execution by the Hive.¡±

    ¡°Like the man in the picture that Clive showed me?¡±

    ¡°Yup.¡± She paused, as if expecting me to ask who that man was. But I kept my mouth shut. The less I knew about the business of these people, the better. ¡°Those are basically the two groups that we¡¯re allowed to kill,¡± Trepanner continued. ¡°And to some extent, killing for self-defense, but that¡¯s a different thing.¡±

    ¡°Good thing I¡¯m not in those groups.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not,¡± she agreed. ¡°But that¡¯s only when it comes to our team. I¡¯ve been with other teams as support personnel for a few years before I was selected by the Mother Core, and the others will probably have a different perspective on what to do with you.¡±

    ¡°Avoid other Corebrings in the future. Got it.¡± Why was she still not going away if she already said she didn¡¯t want to kill me? I held the coupons up to her. ¡°These discount coupons¡­ they were not really meant for me, am I right?¡±

    ¡°Correct. Clive likes to keep those.¡±

    ¡°And there¡¯s a chance he would¡¯ve killed me if you weren¡¯t here.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s why I was annoying him.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said, with as much sincerity as I could gather, while I hoped this Corebring didn¡¯t have mind reading powers. You bitch! If you didn¡¯t tell him where I was, I wouldn¡¯t be in danger!

    ¡°No need to thank me, because I have to apologize for Clive¡¯s behavior. He¡¯s pretty inconsiderate sometimes.¡±

    I was seething. You led him to me! But all I said out loud was, ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± What else could I say? The tone of her apology was unsettling, as if she was saying sorry in behalf of someone who just spilled tea on me or something.

    ¡°Following Clive''s example, I also want to thank you for entertaining me. I was nearly going crazy with practicing my power on these birds. You¡¯re probably thinking mind control? It¡¯s not.¡± I felt the weight on my head disappear as she took off. ¡°I also have something good to tease Clive with. He practically admitted he wanted to save people. This is going to be fun.¡± She cackled mischievously as she flapped her wings and rose higher and higher in the air. ¡°In sum, we¡¯re even. Have a good night, Blanchette. I doubt we¡¯ll meet each other again.¡±

    ¡°Goodnight,¡± I said, waving goodbye. She became smaller and smaller as she flew further away. Other birds joined her, probably ones she also controlled, and they eventually disappeared as specks in the sky. I continued waving at her, then slowly balled my open hand into a fist.

    That bitch!

    What was that about being even? She didn¡¯t even want anything from me. She was just bored and wanted to dick around. Yet, she had the gall to expect me to be appreciative that she saved me from Clive. I wouldn¡¯t have minded it if she wanted to kill me because she was a Corebring and I was an Adumbrae.

    And what was that about the Mother Core telling them which ones to kill? Why not me?

    Even though I was irritated by those two asshole superheroes, especially Trepanner, I could see myself doing the same thing she did to me if I was in her position and was bored as fuck.

    Perhaps, like me, the Corebrings weren¡¯t right in the head either...

    What a weird night.

 3.13

    I stared at the slice of pizza on the rotating plate inside the microwave.

    5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

    Beep¡­beep¡­beep.

    I took it out and brought it to the table by the sofa where my milk tea waited. It was a bottled one I bought from the vending machine. I didn¡¯t have any money when I went out, so I had to go back up, get my wallet, then go back down again to the ground floor.

    A hassle, but I didn¡¯t have anything with tons of sugar in my room.

    I stared at the black screen of my TV until the smell of the pizza brought me back to reality. I hurriedly ate the crust, set it back on its plate, and took a long drink from the bottle of milk tea, downing nearly half of it in one go.

    I went back to looking at the TV in a daze.

    Eventually, I noticed my reflection on the empty screen.

    The sides of my lips slowly curled up. I breathed heavily, my shoulders shuddering. I began tapping on the floor with my right foot. Unable to control it any longer, the giggles started. I bobbed my head in a valiant attempt to stave off laughter. My efforts to stop laughing resulted in stupid snorting, which only made it funnier.

    I parted my mouth. ¡°Hehehe¡­Hahaha¡­¡± I was rocking back and forth on the sofa. ¡°HahahaHAHA!¡±

    My reflection on the TV screen looked like a total idiot. I was stamping my feet on the floor while maniacally laughing. ¡°HAHAHAHAHA!¡±

    I accidentally kicked the table, flipping it over. It nearly hit the TV. The plate broke when it crashed on the floor.

    ¡°Hahahah¡­geez¡­¡±

    That made me stop.

    I wiped the tears from my eyes as I looked down at the mess I made. The pizza fell face down on the floor¡ªI guess pizzas didn¡¯t have faces, so toppings-side down¡ªsplattering sauce and cheese on the tiles, mixing with the broken pieces of the plate. Fortunately, I had drunk enough of the milk tea that only a small amount was spilled even if it rolled on the floor without its cap on.

    I still didn¡¯t move, just staring at the floor, chuckling once in a while.

    An unsettling feeling¡­laughing to this extent. I felt like it was another person laughing and I was just observing. It was all so stupid and funny, but the emotion barely penetrated my heart. Poetic.

    I threw my head back. ¡°What the fuck, world?¡± I yelled. ¡°What the fucking fuck was that?¡± I raised my middle finger to the light on the ceiling. "The fuck is all of this shit?"

    I knew fate was an imaginary concept. Destiny meaningless. We didn¡¯t have actual preordained roles in life, no deity directing our path, no author writing our actions, no proverbial thread of a set future.

    People just found the idea of a set future comforting.

    But what the hell?

    What is all of this shit happening to me?

    Not just meeting the Corebrings. All of this! This couldn¡¯t be all of SpookyErind¡¯s schemes. How much of her power could affect what was happening in this world? Could she affect reality?

    My reality?

    I doubted it.

    SpookyErind was likely swimming through different planes of existence my feeble mind couldn¡¯t comprehend, but I hadn¡¯t seen any indication that she influenced my ¡®real world¡¯.

    I wouldn¡¯t even have met her if Myra hadn''t attacked and nearly killed me at Sander¡¯s mall; and Myra wouldn¡¯t have attacked me if I wasn¡¯t there at the cafeteria when Kelsey threw herself outside the window; and I wouldn¡¯t have been in the cafeteria at that time of the day if I bent to societal norms and studied in the library like all the other 1L students.

    ¡®Why me?¡¯ was the question people tended to ask when they felt the world was piling everything on them. And I also ask that question now, Why me?

    ¡°World,¡± I yelled at the light on the ceiling, knowing full well I was addressing no one, "if you¡¯re going to bother me to this extent, you should¡¯ve made sure to kill me before I start bothering everyone back¡ª¡±

    Knock, knock, knock.

    I clamped my mouth shut.

    The knocking continued.

    Neighbors annoyed at my screaming? I was a bit too noisy and it seemed the walls weren¡¯t thick enough. ¡°Sorry!¡± I loudly said. No response. That was embarrassing, or the approximation of that emotion I could feel. ¡°Huh. So much for a bothering speech.¡± I looked once again at the mess I made, deciding I should clean up first before going to sleep.

    Knock, knock, knock.

    Was I supposed to be expecting anyone? There were no messages on my phone. Even if it was Deen coming over for a surprise visit, she wouldn¡¯t be able to go up without a resident key card unless she snuck into the stairwell or something. And it was already quarter to one. I never had visitors this late¡­or this early.

    I stood up and walked to the door to see who it was.

    The knocking was steady and evenly spaced out, almost rhythmic, that it made me wonder if someone was playing a prank on me.

    Could it be a robber? I heard rumors of someone getting robbed when I first moved in this building, which was why they beefed up security. I had been away from my room for a couple of weeks, maybe robbers were scouting out rooms with no people. But my lights were on, they¡¯d know someone was inside.

    A few feet from the door, I suddenly darted to the side and crouched low.

    What if these were enemies? Did the 2Ms finally know about me and what I did to their operations, someway, somehow? I didn¡¯t want to be in their line of fire if they decided to pump my room with bullets. If I was going to kill someone who I suspected was an Adumbrae, I¡¯d riddle the upper half of the door with gunfire when they came to answer it.

    But why would they knock in a weird way?

    The knocking stopped. Only the ticking of my pink wall clock could be heard.

    I crawled from my hiding space to check. The shadow beneath the door shuffled away. I peeled my ears to try to discern how many people were outside, but I couldn¡¯t clearly hear. It seemed to be just one person who was walking away.

    Should I go and see who it was?

    No. The world was out to fuck with me, I should be more careful of my actions.

    Even if there was no more knocking, I returned to the side of the room and didn¡¯t move from my position. I sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, playing random games on my phone. I was thinking whether to turn the lights off, but maybe people were still outside and then they¡¯d know for sure I was awake. I¡¯d rather they assume I was asleep and attack me now that I was aware of them.

    But absolutely nothing happened.

    It was 1:01 a.m. when I stood up, switched off my lights, and went to bed.

    Bummer. The time I was being super careful, it turned out to be nothing.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    <hr>

    Run! Faster! Faster! I picked up speed as I neared the left end of Serenade Bazaar¡¯s transparent rooftop. I forced myself not to look down or my legs might turn to jelly. I kept my focus on the roof of the next building.

    Jump!

    I soared over the gap between the two structures. It was about a couple of car lengths, but the neighboring building was lower than Serenade Bazaar and I gained a lot of speed before jumping.

    That roof is going to be fucking hard, was the last thought in my head before I landed¡­not so gracefully. I rolled across the rooftop, getting caked in dust, feeling the searing concrete baked under the hot afternoon sun on my bare skin. I stood up and continued running, whatever grazes and bruises I incurred healing almost instantaneously.

    I was grinning with my wolf snout, savoring the excitement¡­the rush¡­the thrill of getting caught.

    I had the weird urge to start panting as I ran.

    Faster! As fast as I could until my lungs burned, my muscles got sore, my body taking the toll of my superhuman speed, running and jumping over the buildings. And then my regeneration kicked in so I could push my body to the limit all over again.

    The shadow of the police helicopter covered me. More sounds of rotors joined in; drones were following me too.

    Building after building and soon I was about to reach the end of the block. A gap ahead. A busy street; two lanes wide. Should I stop now and find a way down?

    No! I should press on. My destination was further along, somewhere to lose myself in the crowds. Could I make this jump?

    I could!

    I believe I can fly!

    I arched across the air, several stories above the jam-packed traffic. The building across was coming nearer and nearer, its wall not looking very inviting. There was no way I was going to reach its roof. I braced myself for impact.

    BAMM!! I hit the face of the building. I slammed my claws into wall as my body was about to bounce off, grabbing on for dear life. My brain was rattled, I was seeing double, triple, everything was shaking, I probably broke a couple of bones and injured some of my innards, I was even hearing a knocking sound. I closed my eyes to stop the world around me from swirling.

    Focus!

    Climb! Climb up and continue running on the rooftops!

    The drones might try to shoot me down; I could hear them whizzing closer. I hoped the police would exercise restraint for fear of hitting the people inside the building, but anything goes when trying to stop an Adumbrae. Sirens from police cars were getting louder, converging on my location¡ª

    Knock, knock, knock.

    Knocking?

    What?

    I opened my eyes and found that my claws weren¡¯t latched on to the side of the building. And my claws were missing! I had my hands, my normal hands! When did I transform back?

    I was falling!

    ¡°AAAaaaahh!¡±

    I sat straight up so fast my brain almost got left behind.

    Can¡¯t see shit.

    I felt around me. Blankets, a soft mattress, pillows, I was in bed. I blinked until my eyes adjusted to the light, or lack of it. It was still dark except for a thin line of moonlight squeezing itself through the small space between my two heavy curtains covering the wall windows of my bedroom.

    Just a dream.

    I couldn¡¯t recall the last time I dreamt so vividly. It was about my time escaping from Serenade Bazaar. That wasn¡¯t even a nightmare because that was a very cool memory. Too bad something woke me up.

    Was it knocking? I couldn¡¯t recall.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    I couldn¡¯t even recall what my dream was. Something about jumping.

    I reached for my phone on my bedside table to check the time; I already threw my smashed alarm clock in the bin.

    Weird. I was trying to get my phone, but my hand couldn¡¯t seem to reach it, just slowly inching towards it. After several seconds watching the impossible scene, I was finally able to grab my phone.

    1:01 a.m.

    There was something wrong here. What time did I fall asleep again?

    Then it clicked.

    I was still in a dream. I''d experienced several instances of a dream within a dream when I was a kid, and maybe a couple of times when I was in high school, but none recently. Maybe I was just tired as hell now.

    Knock, knock, knock.

    My heart seized. I recognized that sound.

    As soon as I heard it, my hand went up to my face while summoning my mask before even turning to see who it was. It wasn¡¯t the same knock I heard when I was awake. That wasn¡¯t the sound of the door to my unit. That was the sound of the door of my bedroom!

    Fucking hell! The gold liquid wasn¡¯t coming out of the crystal on my palm. And my hand was moving at a snail''s pace!

    The light in my room flicked on.

    ¡°You,¡± I said. I wanted to do the gagging and gurgling sound Trepanner loved to make because it seemed apt with the situation.

    SpookyErind had the knuckle of her index finger against my open bedroom door. <u>Knock, knock, knock,</u> she said with each rap on the polished wood. <u>Are you awake?</u>

    ¡°Is that a trick question?¡±

    <u>No?</u>

    ¡°Sounds like one. Am I still asleep?¡±

    <u>I was asking you, now you¡¯re asking me? Meyo¡ª</u>

    ¡°Meyoumeyoumeyoumeyou,¡± I interrupted. Her eyes widened with surprise. ¡°Just messing with you.¡± I stuck my tongue out to her. ¡°I¡¯m allowed to do that, right?¡± I hastily added, hoping she wouldn¡¯t get angry.

    She laughed and walked to the side of my bed. <u>Of course, you are</u>, she said as she jumped on my bed and crawled to me.

    ¡°Hey! You know I don¡ª¡±

    <u>You don¡¯t like anyone else climbing on your bed. I know. But this doesn¡¯t count¡­because you and I are the same.</u> She grabbed the lower half of my face before I could speak and forced my mouth shut.

    Her grip was hard, my jaws were getting squished. I could feel the squeaky texture of her leather glove on my skin. I wanted to try to peel her hand off my mouth but I moved as if in slow motion. The previous time I met SpookyErind¡ªin that different dimension fashioned after Deen¡¯s house¡ªthe whole setting also had a dreamlike quality where everything seemed foggy and distant. This time, it was that annoying dream thing where moving was slow as fuck and distances appeared to warp and distort.

    She flashed me a knowing smile and whispered to my ear, <u>Meyoumeyoumeyou</u>, her breath almost ticklish, then she released me.

    "Actually, I was going to say I don''t want your boots on my bed."

    Really now? If I take off my boots, it''s going to be fine with you?

    I rolled my eyes at her. ¡°I was wondering when you¡¯d show up,¡± I said, massaging my cheeks and chin, my hand having reached my face at last.

    <u>Why is that?</u>

    ¡°There¡¯s so much that happened today, I was expecting you to be the icing on the cake.¡± My phone was in my other hand. It still said 1:01 a.m. even though I was sure at least a couple of minutes should¡¯ve already passed. ¡°I guess this is already the next day.¡±

    <u>I see that you¡¯ve been pretty busy.</u>

    ¡®Very.¡±

    <u>You¡¯ve even made sufficient payment of the delivery fee.</u>

    I raised a brow. Did she mean the heads inside my snake mutant buddy? I had no idea what those were¡ªsome sick experiment of the 2Ms¡ªbut it seemed I made the right choice eating them as they had something in them that SpookyErind was looking for. ¡°Does that mean I can now use that face you showed me?¡±

    <u>Yes, but only for a short period of time. A few hours of your time with the delivery fee you paid.</u>

    ¡°Oh,¡± I said, slightly disappointed. ¡°I was looking forward to playing with that one. Is it different from the first face you gave me?¡±

    <u>Lent.</u>

    ¡°Lent?¡±

    <u>I lent you that face. You borrowed it. The one you¡¯re calling Blanchette?</u>

    ¡°Right.¡±

    <u>Anyway, for this second face¡­you see, it¡¯s extremely difficult for me to send more power across dimensions.</u>

    I nodded as it somehow made sense to me, recalling the Cocoon in the arena beneath Eve and the two BID agents mentioning that it was Bridging or something into our dimension by eating the heads. ¡°So, I could only use it each time I¡¯m able to gather enough¡­to pay the fee?¡±

    <u>Bright girl!</u> She smiled at me and our eyes met.

    I didn¡¯t break eye contact, drawn in by her demonic pupils. Her gauntleted hand reached for my face, a single golden metal claw parted my hair and tucked it behind my right ear. Then she trailed the tip of her claw by the side of my face, down to my throat, and up again, following my jawline to my chin. A shiver crawled down my spine. I hated being touched, but I didn¡¯t say anything because I knew what her response would be.

    She opened her hand, showing me the huge crystal on her palm. Now that I saw it up close, I realized it wasn¡¯t one crystal; there were seven of them, the six arranged in a circle around a central crystal. <u>You¡¯re going to need this.</u> SpookyErind said as the golden liquid from her gauntlet turned silver and formed into the next face I was going to use. <u>Do you want to try it on now?</u>

 3.14

    The new face floated between SpookyErind and me.

    It was whitish silver in color, very shiny like silver chrome or something. Its cheek reflected my face clearly as if it was a mirror. It had the appearance of the face of a mannequin, the well-crafted ones with beautiful designs in the high-end department stores, not those crap ones you¡¯d find in flea markets.

    Curiously, it had no eyeholes, or eyes for that matter. But then again, mannequin heads didn¡¯t have eyeholes either; I was just expecting it to look more like a mask. Deep grooves ran from the sides of its lips straight down to the bottom of its jaw, similar to a ventriloquist dummy whose mouth could move. It would be good if I could talk while transformed.

    The last oddity on it was the symbol on the middle of its forehead. It appeared to be a representation of an eye crudely painted on the chrome surface, looking really out of place. The lines were uneven and shaky, the crimson paint was cracked and peeling in places.

    A gold line appeared in the middle of the eye symbol, bisecting it. Then it opened, revealing an actual eye with a mesmerizing golden pupil.

    ¡°The fuck¡­¡± I blurted out. "That''s creepy." A third eye? The eye was excitedly darting this way and that, too fast and erratic compared to a normal human eye. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it popped out of its socket with its extremely jittery movements.

    <u>Don¡¯t get weirded out now, this is going to be your new face.</u> SpookyErind thrust it towards me.

    I tried to move back, and that slow-motion-dream-thingy kicked in. ¡°Wait! You¡¯re telling me to wear it now?¡±

    <u>Yeshissiree! Come here and let me put it on you.</u>

    ¡°Like when I wake up, I¡¯ll be transformed?¡±

    <u>You should be. You need it.</u>

    ¡°Before that!¡± I said, raising my voice. She stopped trying to put it on me, tilting her head from side to side questioningly like a cute puppy would. I said, ¡°Can you tell me about it first? Its powers, the conditions for using it¡­its weaknesses and stuff?¡±

    SpookyErind¡¯s smile fell then turned to a frown.

    Oops. I recalled she thought I was a total idiot when I couldn¡¯t exactly figure out the power of the Blanchette face. And since we were the same, as she often repeated, that would imply she was an idiot too. ¡°Uh, wait. A clue! Just give me a clue, a hint, whatever.¡±

    <u>A clue?</u>

    ¡°Yeah. Like a game. Isn¡¯t a game fun?¡±

    She pouted while looking at the ceiling, considering my proposal. <u>A clue¡­Hmmm¡­ Honestly, you wouldn¡¯t need one. This is a pretty straightforward face. Just point your finger at the appropriate target.</u>

    ¡°Point my finger?¡±

    <u>Or fingers. Now, when I say straightforward, I mean you¡¯ll understand what¡¯s going on immediately because you¡¯re such a bright girl.</u> She poked my cheek with a claw. It hurt a bit. <u>But all the nitty-gritty stuff you could do with it¡­and can¡¯t do with it¡­that may be a bit confusing.</u>

    ¡°Help me out here then. It wouldn¡¯t be fun if I make a huge dumb mistake.¡±

    <u>You¡¯ll figure it by testing it. It¡¯s going to be enjoyable when you test out stuff so I won¡¯t spoil it for you.</u>

    As I expected, she wouldn¡¯t give me a straight answer. Point my finger? That was better than nothing. ¡°Thanks for the clue,¡± I said. ¡°But don¡¯t get angry if I do something stupid, okay?¡±

    <u>Fine, I¡¯ll give you something more. This one is also going to be pretty obvious, so it wouldn¡¯t really spoil things, but it¡¯s very important. Take care of your body.</u>

    ¡°I guess that¡¯s both obvious and important.¡± I made sure to make a mental note of that advice because it might have some hidden meaning knowing her. ¡°Thanks! I¡¯ll make sure it¡¯s going to be entertaining when I eventually use it.¡±

    <u>Now.</u>

    ¡°Now?¡±

    <u>Now.</u>

    I stared at SpookyErind¡¯s grinning face while chewing my tongue. She did mention that if I wore it now, I¡¯ll wake up transformed. I thought she was just excited for me to try it out, and maybe make fun of me. However, if that was her intent, why did she say, ¡®You need it,'' to me? I groaned. ¡°There¡¯s some shit waiting for me when I wake up, isn¡¯t there?¡±

    <u>Maybe?</u> she said playfully, her tone indicating that there weren¡¯t only some, but rather lots of shit in the waking world.

    ¡°Ugh, my day still isn¡¯t over¡­and it¡¯s already the next day!¡±

    <u>Here, I¡¯m going to put it on you now.</u>

    I didn¡¯t resist. ¡°How sweet,¡± I said sarcastically. ¡°Oh! One last thing! You said I¡¯ll be able to use this only for a few hours. How long is that exactly?¡±

    <u>I¡¯m not sure¡­Give or take three hours of your time¡­Good luck¡­</u>

    <hr>

    Tap, tap, tap¡­

    Someone knocking again? I opened my eyes and I immediately knew that I had transformed. I was standing in front of my bedroom window. The curtains were drawn, the lights turned off. It was absolute darkness.

    Yet, I could see everything clearly.

    The color of my curtain, the minute patterns I hadn¡¯t noticed before, and even its individual threads. It wasn¡¯t that greenish thingy that night vision has¡ªI didn¡¯t know what that actually looked like, I only saw night vision as depicted on TV¡ªbut it was similar to how movies simulated total darkness, like there was a ton of stage lights around me.

    I could weirdly tell it was absolute darkness but I could see everything¡­my brain hurt trying to understand this.

    Tap¡­tap¡­

    It wasn¡¯t the door this time.

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    Something was tapping on my window.

    Nothing good came out of scenes like these in horror movies. Even more worrying was the fact that I was on the 22<sup>nd</sup> floor. My next enemy? Someone or something with flying powers? Was this the reason SpookyErind wanted me to transform?

    The tapping continued, there was scratching and crunching sounds too. My window started to creak like it was getting pushed in. It didn¡¯t sound like someone was outside my window¡­it was as if something was growing and pressing against it.

    Time to test out my new powers!

    With one hand, I pulled the curtain aside and pointed at whatever was out there with all the fingers on my other hand. Nothing came out of my fingers.

    Huh?

    I slowly lowered my useless hand as I gazed at the spectacle outside my window. It took me a few seconds to understand what was happening.

    Charcoal-colored vines as thick, or even thicker than my body, covered my window, blocking any view of the outside. Not even a hint of the bright moonlight could get in. They were growing, slithering, coiling around each other. It brought back a disgusting memory of a something I saw as a kid on the Animal Channel of a massive snake mating ball comprised of tons of snakes bonking each other.

    ¡°What the fuck,¡± I said, for the umpteenth time since I was brought into the world of Corebrings and Adumbrae. And I was able to speak! ¡°Finally, yehey!¡±

    My voice had a metallic clang to it and sounded a bit fake akin to a voice generator. Which was probably apt, seeing as I turned into something robotic. My hands had the same shade of silver as the face SpookyErind gave me. The joints on my fingers, wrists and arms were colored black, and were probably like a ball socket¡ªor ball hinge, whatever the right term was¡ªallowing me movement that wasn¡¯t possible for normal human anatomy.

    ¡°Woah, this is neat,¡± I said as I rotated my arms the wrong way. I could even bend my fingers and touch the back of my hand. A cool trick, but I wasn¡¯t sure if that could help in a fight. ¡°But what do I do with this?¡± I said to no one in particular, just enjoying my weird voice, referring to the vines outside my window.

    This must be the power of an Adumbrae. Was the entire building covered with vines? It wasn¡¯t trying to enter my room, so I guess that wasn¡¯t an immediate concern for now.

    I turned around to go out of my bedroom¡ª

    ¡°What the fuck,¡± I said as an unexpected sight greeted me. I rushed to my bed¡­to the body lying on it.

    My body!

    ¡°Am I dead?¡± I knelt at the side of my bed and touched my face. In my vision, there was a gray tinge outlining my body. I hoped it didn¡¯t mean I was deceased. I couldn¡¯t check if my body was cold because I didn¡¯t have human skin to feel temperature with.

    My chest wasn¡¯t moving. I put my ear over my nose and mouth but I couldn¡¯t hear any breathing. I couldn¡¯t feel even a hint of air on my cheek. Could I even feel that? I lightly touched my cheek and confirmed the answer was ¡®no¡¯. You don¡¯t have skin, remember?

    Mirror! Where¡¯s a small mirror? I just took my cellphone on my bedside table and held it under my nose. No fog on the screen.

    Next, a flashlight. I was about to open my drawer when I remembered I was already holding my phone. I pressed the screen for the fingerprint recognition. My phone lit up but didn¡¯t unlock. You have no fingerprints, idiot!

    ¡°Huh¡­still 1:01 a.m?¡± I said, reading the display on my phone screen. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s 1:02 a.m. now.¡± I didn¡¯t get any sleep at all. No doubt it was some dream world fuckery courtesy of SpookyErind. Another thing I noticed with my phone was that I had no signal. If it was the city locking the signal once again, there would be advisory messages flooding my phone already, so it wasn¡¯t that. It must be the vines enclosing the building.

    I rummaged through my drawer and got a small flashlight. I pried open my eyelids and shone the light on my eyeball. It wasn¡¯t moving.

    I was practically dead.

    Or perhaps it was more accurate to say my body was an empty shell. I couldn¡¯t be dead because I was still here in my metal body. This must be one of the conditions for using the new face SpookyErind gave me.

    Rule #7: Don¡¯t do anything that would break the character of the face I have on. I didn¡¯t expect it to be this blatant. And how could I break the character of my face when I was in a different body?

    Was my body still alright? I could still return to it, right? I had to check.

    I placed my fingers beneath my jawline, visualizing where the end of the face would be. This was how I took off the Blanchette face, and I assumed it would work this way for this face too.

    I was about to remove my current face when SpookyErind¡¯s words came back to me. She said I had to pay the ''fee¡¯ each time this power was lent to me. It likely meant that if I removed the face now, I couldn¡¯t summon it again without consuming the brains of Adumbrae and mutants. I just had to trust SpookyErind that my body was fine.

    So, this was what she meant that I should take care of my body. She was right, this was pretty obvious...and important.

    And I could already see this was going to be a hassle.

    At least I could see my body now, compared to when I was transforming into Blanchette where my body just poofs to another freaking dimension.

    Let¡¯s reorient myself first. Okay¡­

    I was up against someone powerful enough to wrap the whole condominium with these vines that had the color of cheese that dripped to the bottom of the oven while baking pizza and got burnt. I was only assuming it was the entire building¡ªI had to check other floors to confirm this. But even if it was just my floor covered with these vines, it was still a wide area. And it wouldn¡¯t make sense to just cover my floor if the purpose was to isolate and trap me because I could just go down to the next floor.

    I had powers I had yet to discover, plus I also had to take care of my body. This wasn¡¯t looking good.

    With my work cut out for me, I should start with my first task: bringing my body with me.

    I obviously couldn¡¯t stay here. At first, I considered leaving my body in my room, maybe hiding it under my bed or in the closet, and returning for it after I¡¯ve killed the enemy. But my goal was only to survive and escape safely. No need to fight whoever was this Adumbrae with vine powers. Plus, anyone targeting me would search my room; it was the stupidest place to hide my most important¡­possession¡ªwhat a weird way to refer to my body¡ªwhich was also my weakness. I also didn¡¯t know how long these vines would stay out the window.

    I rolled my body on the bed, wrapping it with my blanket like a sushi. Then I grabbed my body by the waist and threw it over my shoulder.

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± I blurted, as I staggered under the weight, nearly dropping to my knees. I gently lowered my human body to the floor, straining not to fall over. ¡°Wow, do I need to diet?¡±

    I raised my human legs and dropped them as a test. The sound they made as they hit the floor didn¡¯t seem like they were heavier than usual. This led me to the conclusion that my new metal body was weak as fuck. I was about as weak as when I was a normal human.

    While contemplating this added challenge, I dragged my body out of the bedroom and into the living room, holding it under the armpits, taking care of my neck and head. I then left the body on the floor and went to check what was outside my living room window.

    Yep, tons of fucking vines here too.

    Remembering something, I went back to my human body and dragged it into the kitchen part of my unit and arranged it next to the fridge. I had one last test to do.

    I took my sharpest knife from the rack and unwrapped the blanket to find my human body¡¯s hand. Holding the knife against the skin, I gently tried to slice my palm. It didn¡¯t bleed. Good to know I was still tougher than a normal human. I slowly increased the force I used until my skin turned red. Then I sliced as hard as I could to make a wound. It was like slicing a tough old meat with a blunt paring knife.

    Bright red blood flowed from the cut and dribbled down to my white blanket, making red polka dot patterns on it. I anxiously observed the wound and sighed in relief¡ªmetaphorically, as I couldn¡¯t actually breathe¡ªwhen it quickly healed. It was a good safety net that my human body still retained its durability and regenerative abilities. I could bung it up a bit. Funny that I was referring to it as my human body when I wasn¡¯t human anymore.

    Should I begin my daunting task of carrying my body to the elevator? I didn¡¯t get tired at all. However, I sensed that I couldn¡¯t push my metal body too much or it would fall apart. It wasn¡¯t painful, but I could inexplicably feel the strain on my joints in a bizarre way when I dragged my human body out of my bedroom.

    Knock, knock, knock.

    Seriously? There was that fucker who kept on knocking my door.

    Knock, knock, knock.

    Should I answer it now?

 3.15

    What will happen if I die in this body?

    That interesting thought popped in my head as I walked to the door. I took care not to make any sound with the metal soles of my feet treading the tiled floor. My room was also dark so I hoped the fucker outside wouldn¡¯t know I was at the door unless they had someone checking the bottom of it.

    If I still had a human heart, it would¡¯ve pounded in excitement at the prospect of another gamble.

    I already posited before that whenever I wore the Blanchette face I wasn¡¯t exactly transforming. My body was replaced with the Blanchette one, and my consciousness was transferred over. Although, I still called it transformation because it¡ªtangentially, sorta, kinda, loosely¡ªwas¡­depending on how you look at it. And I didn¡¯t have a better term to use.

    This new face proved my hypothesis since my actual human body was there, by the fridge. If this metal body got destroyed, my theory was that I would simply be returned to my original body. And maybe I would lose usage of that specific face as a consequence.

    Of course, I could be wrong and I¡¯d permanently die if I got killed while in a different body, my consciousness dissipating into nothingness, my body left as a lifeless husk. But SpookyErind wouldn¡¯t let me die this easily, right?

    I hope so¡­

    Despite the risks, I wanted to see who my visitor was because he or she might be a prospective ally. If I had actual enemies outside my room, why bother knocking? They could just charge right in and blast everything. The building was covered with these fucking vines; there was no need for subtlety and subterfuge.

    So, what¡¯s up with this weird knocking?

    I swear my purpose was not to just find someone to test my powers on¡­

    It is... Hehehe.

    I excitedly tried to peer through the peephole but something felt off with my head. I felt around the part of my face where my eyes should be and found smooth metal. I continued feeling up my face and found my eye¡ªsingular¡ªin the middle of my forehead.

    Sure, that might as well be the case, I thought with a shrug.

    I carefully aligned my cyclopean eye with the peephole.

    Who is this guy?

    I couldn¡¯t see his face, only his curly brown hair, because he bowed his head down while continuing to knock in that evenly spaced way, almost like a metronome. I knew a few people with curly hair, but I was sure they weren¡¯t this guy.

    Should I open the door? There were no other people in the corridor besides him.

    He might be some drunk but innocent person who mistook my room for his, and he still wasn¡¯t aware that everyone in this building was going to get fucked soon. A perfect candidate for experimentation. He was the one who came to me anyway.

    My hand was about to clasp the door knob when I noticed the color outlining his figure. It was of a similar quality to the gray tinge enveloping my human body. His color, however, was a sickly green. Like green turning halfway into grayish muddy color.

    What could this mean? I was even more convinced I should use this guy as a guinea pig.

    As I focused on him through the peephole, I spotted a splash of red color drifting in his head. The longer I looked, the clearer the red form became. It had the shape of a worm or probably closer to a tadpole but was about as large as my thumb. I didn¡¯t have x-ray vision¡ªthat I was sure of¡ªbut I could see something was in his head that shouldn¡¯t be there. This red tadpole thing was swimming inside him.

    I spotted another one, and yet another. I wasn¡¯t sure if they were multiplying, but the way they moved, it was as if they were tunneling through his flesh and organs.

    Then the guy looked up straight into the peephole with his mouth open.

    Fucking hell!

    His pupils were almost all white and glassy, tears of blood ran down the sides of his eyes. The skin on his face was drier than the Sahara Desert, graying from the lack of blood, his skin cracking like the soil during a severe drought. He opened his mouth and displayed his jagged teeth. His tongue was burnt and shriveled. Zombie-looking fuckface.

    Luckily, I wasn¡¯t actually breathing or I would¡¯ve gasped. I surprised myself that I didn¡¯t jerk back upon seeing his face.

    Something was coming up from the back of his throat. Small tentacles, like clumps of spaghetti that achieved sentience, extended themselves and reached for the peephole; their reddish outline told me they were connected to the tadpole thingies inside him.

    I slowly backed from the door. The knocking continued, but with added scratching sounds from the small tentacles.

    I pointed my fingers at the door. Power! I thought forcefully. Let¡¯s go power!

    Nothing happened.

    I tiptoed to the kitchen as fast as I could without making any noise. Weapons, I needed something to fight back with. I picked the biggest knife I could find and held it with my right hand in front of me. There was no point trying to hide because they were going to find me anyway. This was just a condo unit; it would take a few minutes to search every possible hiding spot here.

    If this zombie asshole barged in here, I had to make a last stand.

    No super strength, no powers, this was going to be ugly. Weirdly, I was remaining super calm as my situation steadily worsened.

    I was in my element. Life and death situations, fighting against monsters, I was at home here. This was my life now. Whatever was coming¡­bring it on!

    I slowly advanced back to the door, deciding I should distance myself from my human body in case there was a fight. But the knocking and scratching stopped. I wasn¡¯t sure if my hearing improved in this metal body, but I was certain I could hear the zombie guy walking away.

    Knock, knock, knock.

    This time, the zombie was knocking on the door of my neighbor. There were no people in that room as the couple who owned that unit were on a two-month tour of Asia and they didn¡¯t rent it out before they left. I recalled them because they were very nice to me and regularly used to give me a couple slices of the apple pie they baked during weekends, which I sorely missed when they went abroad.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Was the zombie guy just going to knock on each room? Good luck to whoever answered him.

    As for me, I had to figure out what to do next.

    SpookyErind¡¯s parting words returned to me. Before wishing me good luck, she told me that ¡®Give or take three hours of your time¡¯ my power was going to run out. SpookyErind certainly had a reason why she gave me this face instead of just telling me to use the Blanchette one. Which then meant the power of the Blanchette face wouldn¡¯t be enough or was unsuitable for this situation.

    In short, my escape is on a timer.

    I examined the fingers on my hands. In place of fingernails, there were symbols drawn on them with the same red paint as the one used for the eye on my forehead, a different one for each of my ten fingers. Ten different effects? I suspected this was why SpookyErind seemed to be excited at the prospect of me testing my different abilities.

    The next question would be how to activate them in the first place so I could test them?

    Looking closely, there were nearly invisible grooves on the tips, as if they were supposed to open. And I assumed my power was shooting something out of my fingers since SpookyErind said I should just point my finger. Why was nothing happening then?

    I was missing something.

    Point my finger¡­

    ¡­¡®at the appropriate target.¡¯

    I forgot about the second part of her clue!

    This must be connected to the colors I could see. Green for ¡®go¡¯? Red for ¡®no¡¯? What the fuck was this, a traffic light? Or do I shoot the red ones?

    Not only did I need to find out what the colors meant and which I should target, I also needed a clear shot. Nothing came out when I pointed at the vines outside the building because they were not ¡®appropriate targets.¡¯ Nothing also happened when I tried to shoot at the zombie guy in the corridor, even though he had both red and green colors, because my door was in the way.

    I should take this chance to test my powers on the zombie guy outside since he was alone. Then I was going to make sure the path was clear before dragging my body to the elevator. I¡¯m going to get super mad if the elevators aren¡¯t working.

    ¡°Oh my god if I have to fight through every fucking floor with my body in tow to get out,¡± I muttered as I listened for the zombie. He was knocking somewhere else. I think a guy shouted at him to go away. An idea! I could wait for it to attack someone and try to shoot it from behind.

    But I should hide my human body first before going out of my room.

    A bloodcurdling scream made me pause. Did someone finally let the zombie in?

    I should hurry if I wanted to join in on the action.

    It would take too much time and effort to try and carry my body back to my bedroom. Behind the sofa? I dropped my knife and pushed away my flipped table, glancing at the pizza and broken plate that I hadn¡¯t cleaned up. Then I positioned myself in front of my sofa. I bent down and pulled it with all my might.

    ¡°I hate this,¡± I murmured, as I budged it a few inches away from the wall. How I missed my super strength. A couple more inches, I thought, as I could feel my joints nearly popping.

    I dragged my body from my fridge to the living room area of my unit. Then I put it on the seat of the sofa, and with monumental effort rolled it to the top of the backrest until it fell behind the sofa. I winced at the heavy thud as it dropped while thinking, why didn¡¯t I just stuff it from the side? I pushed the sofa to squeeze my body and hopefully hide it while offering a bit of protection.

    Following the shrieks of terror, came the pleas, ¡°Help! Help! Someone, please help!¡± Or that was what I thought the woman was yelling. I wondered which unit it was because it seemed a bit far from mine, the sounds too muffled.

    I picked up my knife and rushed back to my door. I waited and listened.

    Other people joined in the screamfest as the commotion, or whatever the fuck was happening, escalated. They must be really having a blast. I could even hear banging pots and things thrown around. And was that a huge display cabinet full of expensive chinaware falling over? I felt the floor shake a nudge.

    ¡°Police! Call the police!¡± It was the woman who was screaming earlier, but by the sound of it, she was able to get out of their room. She was pounding on the doors of the different units. ¡°Help! Someone is killing my husband!¡±

    I peered through my peephole. Where was she? I wasn¡¯t being a bad guy here, but I hoped she would get attacked. Be my bait, lady.

    She sprinted past my view. There was no one chasing her. Fine, I was going to find the zombie myself.

    I opened the door and stepped out of the room.

    ¡°Thank god. Call the pol¡ª¡±

    I stared at her. A disheveled brunette in sheer, silk evening gown stared back. She was cradling her blood covered arm as she stopped running and turned to see if someone was finally coming to her aid. Her hopeful face turned into one of confusion upon seeing me, a metal mannequin wielding a kitchen knife.

    ¡°What are you?¡± she whispered as bewilderment turned into fear. ¡°Monster!¡±

    ¡°Green,¡± I said as I tossed my knife from my right to the left hand. Could it be? I pointed my right index finger at her fleeing back and concentrated on the thought of shooting.

    There was a hiss, similar to that of a soda can opening, and something burst out of my finger, hitting her right between her shoulder blades. The projectile was connected to my finger with a blue shining thread, reminiscent of the anti-Adumbrae tasers of the police drones. But these weren¡¯t tasers.

    As soon as we were connected, something clicked in my head. SpookyErind was right once again when she said this was ¡®pretty straightforward¡¯ and I would immediately understand what to do. (Stop), I ordered with my mind.

    The woman abruptly stopped in her tracks and fell to the floor, off-balanced by my sudden command. (Help! Help! I can¡¯t move!) She kept screaming inside her head.

    My consciousness wiggled into her mind. We were in one spot and it was getting cramped. (Lady, relax. You¡¯re so loud.)

    (Get out of my head! Help!) Her incessant screaming was making my head hurt. There was no actual sound in my mind, but her thoughts were broadcasted on megaphones. (Let me go! My husband is dying!)

    (Relax, we¡¯ll help your husband. Just don¡¯t fight me.) But she wasn¡¯t listening. She was freaking out, and I was also freaking out. Such a disgusting feeling this was to lose control. I couldn¡¯t blame her reaction; any normal person would panic if a metal mannequin was trying to invade their mind right after they¡¯ve escaped a zombie attack. The problem was she was projecting it back to me through our connection. Revolting emotions I wasn¡¯t used to were enveloping my mind.

    (Help! Anybody there? I can¡¯t move!) She kept on trying to run away, but I held firm in imposing my will on her body to stay. She ended up convulsing on the ground as both of us fought for control.

    There was a commotion in a room further down the hallway in the direction she was headed. Two bloody bodies piled out of a room. Dead people? No. The two of them slowly stood. They opened their mouths and red tentacles came out. How many of these zombie fuckers were around?

    Shit. This lady was rampaging in her head. (Let me control your body!)

    (Help! Help!) She kept on yelling that over and over while continuing her attempts get away from me. She didn¡¯t even realize there were a couple of monsters ahead of her and she was trying to run towards them.

    The two zombies headed towards us, awkwardly shuffling at first, but then their slow gait increased in speed. The tentacles growing out of their mouths thickened, ripping their cheeks wide open, turning their heads like that of Pacman. Literally grinning from ear to ear. To make matters worse, the ends of the whip-like tentacles began growing barbed spikes.

    And I wasn¡¯t making any headway in taking over the woman¡¯s body.

    This calls for drastic measures. I strode to the lady who was kneeling on the floor, her body shuddering as her mind took inputs from both of us. I raise my left arm, my hand clutching the knife¡­

    Sorry for this, although, I¡¯m really not.

    ¡­then I smashed her temple with the butt of the knife¡¯s handle.

 3.16

    Silence.

    The effect was instantaneous. It was like someone turned off a blaring radio.

    Credits to Mom and her lectures on how a young lady could protect herself when assaulted: a strike using anything hard on the temple could potentially knock someone out. And thankfully it worked. I was concerned I didn¡¯t hit hard enough and this woman would just get hurt but not pass out; she¡¯d just end up screaming more and fighting me back even harder.

    I concentrated on sending energy to her through the glowing blue thread connecting us. SpookyErind didn¡¯t instruct me to do this; I simply felt like it was the right thing to do after we connected.

    I was momentarily mesmerized by the tiny red symbol painted on the finger nail of my right index finger coming to life, hypnotically rotating, until the mournful groans of the zombies coming nearer brought me back to reality.

    And what a fucked-up reality this is.

    The zombies paused a couple of doors away from the woman and me, apparently sizing us up, growing even more tentacles. The heads of the zombies were no more, skull and flesh torn to shreds like a violently peeled banana but with bony bits. The tentacles were practically growing out of the zombies¡¯ neck. Those tentacles, in turn, were covered with claws, spikes, suction cups, mandibles, all sort of gross things.

    And they were filling up the corridor.

    The green color outlining the bodies of the zombies faded, almost gray now. The red from the tadpole-like creatures inside them¡ªor perhaps ¡®parasites¡¯ was the right term for those critters¡ªbecame the dominant color. I pointed the index finger of my left hand and thought, shoot!

    But nothing came out. Did that mean red wasn''t the correct target?

    ¡°This is bad,¡± I said. I looked at my puppet¡ªI decided to refer to her as that since I was controlling her body. She had started to change after I gave her power. Her muscles grew, their definition apparent as they stretched her skin thin, pushing her veins against it. The green hue covering her, while still glowing strong, was also noticeably starting to fade. ¡°I hope you¡¯re up for this.¡±

    The tentacles snapped through the air and lashed at us.

    I bent down behind her, hands covering my head. ¡°Protect me!¡±

    My puppet punched the tentacles with amazing accuracy, fending off all of them as they came close. Her speed and power were incredible. Just from the sound of each impact alone, I could sense the strength of each of her punches.

    (Power! More power!) From a ball of swirling energy inside of me, I drew power to send to my puppet. (Defend me with all you¡¯ve got.) It was different from the overwhelming strength I felt when using the Blanchette face. This new immense power was stored inside me, inexplicable in its potential, but I knew it wasn¡¯t for me.

    It was for my puppet¡­or puppets.

    The tentacles went splat on the walls and floor as my jacked-up puppet swatted them away. I tossed my knife to her and she grabbed it without looking. She proceeded to slash away at the disgusting things reaching for us.

    She was a fucking meat grinder! A goddamn weedwhacker on steroids!

    Slimy blood, and bits and pieces of the tentacles covered the floor as she advanced on the tentacle zombies. My knife was just made for cutting food. It wasn¡¯t supposed to be able to hack monsters to pieces, but through sheer strength and speed she was able to do it.

    I gaped with my metal mouth as I stared up at the carnage she wrought on the mesh of tentacles. I couldn¡¯t follow the wild movements of her arms at all. If I was in my Blanchette form, I bet she could turn me into sashimi before my powers could kickstart my regeneration and begin my werewolf transformation. I didn¡¯t think I could even heal that fast.

    Stop gawking, you idiot.

    Right! I looked back to check if the first zombie was finished killing this woman¡¯s husband. The corridor behind me was clear. Was it still in their unit?

    Better get back to the safety of my room, I thought as I continued pumping my puppet with energy and egging her on to kill the two tentacle zombies. Finish these two and then find that other one, then I was going to carry my human body to the elevator once everything was safe.

    Nice plan.

    I nearly slipped on the scattered pieces of the tentacles as I crawled on the floor. Some of the pieces were still alive, squiggling, trying to attack me. Fortunately, they were small and couldn¡¯t pierce through my hard plating. I ignored them.

    I hid behind the open door of my room and cheered my puppet on, amazed by her fighting prowess.

    This is a really cool power!

    Perfectly fitting the modus of my kind to manipulate other people.

    But she wasn¡¯t winning. More and more tentacles came. The tadpole parasites, which were really not tadpoles at this point but rather horrific creatures of sprawling tentacles, had eaten the upper body of their hosts, assumedly using it to create more tentacles. They were just tentacles with legs now.

    My puppet hacked and hacked until the knife broke. Then she grabbed any tentacle she could catch and began ripping them with her bare hands. The tentacles were unrelenting, and those that she couldn¡¯t catch hit her body, tearing her clothes, her skin, her flesh. I heard her bones crack. Her blood painted the walls and floor, mixing with the blood from the chopped tentacles.

    Unfeeling of pain, she kept on fighting. With her consciousness passed out, and probably for good, she couldn¡¯t go against my order to fight and protect me, even at the cost of her own life.

    The color¡­just as I thought. A green tinge didn¡¯t only mean an ¡®appropriate target¡¯, it also referred to the life force whatever of the target. And this woman was dying.

    Maybe from getting pumped with my power, her body achieving strength that it couldn¡¯t sustain for a long time. Maybe from the attacks of the tentacle monsters.

    Probably both.

    I needed her to win before she died.

    (Get even stronger), I thought, concentrating on further juicing my puppet. She fought even more fiercely, breaching the wall of lashing tentacles and jumping on the main body of one of the zombies.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Several of the surviving tentacles of both monsters coiled around each, merging into one particularly large tentacle, its end formed a huge ball covered with spiky barnacles. They smashed my puppet with this new giant tentacle-mace, throwing her across the corridor. She slammed into my door, breaking it, knocking me back as well.

    Both of us, as well as broken pieces of door, skidded across the floor.

    I scrambled to sit back up, disentangling my body from my puppet and the wreckage. ¡°Are you okay?¡± I stupidly asked her, as if she could reply.

    Answering for her: No, she wasn¡¯t. She was horribly deformed and mangled beyond recognition. Her skin was red from the blood vessels that burst from her rapid growth, and there was tearing in some spots where her muscles suddenly grew too large. Some of her broken bones also protruded out of her flesh. It was her mutated muscles that somehow kept her body going¡­but not for long.

    If only she had the regeneration of an Adumbrae. She was beyond saving now, the green color turning muddy gray like the first zombie I saw.

    Unfortunately, the tentacle zombies were still alive. I needed her to fight while I find a replacement. I scanned the other rooms¡ª

    The door of the room across the unit beside mine creaked open. A man crouched in the darkness of his room with a gun in hand. He peeked suspiciously at me, trying to understand what he was seeing. His eyes darted between me and the bloody woman struggling to get up to fulfill my order to continue fighting. I could see it in his eyes that he assumed the worst.

    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot¡ª¡±

    ¡°Die, you killer robot!¡±

    Bang! My head jerked back. He fired his gun a couple more times, accurately landing headshots. I hit the floor again.

    The man rushed out of his room his gun still trained on me. I laid unmoving, keeping my jittery cyclopean eye still as he gave me a quick look over. I couldn¡¯t feel pain but I did feel the heavy impact of the bullets vibrating through my body.

    Then he rushed to the aid of my puppet. ¡°Are you okay, miss?¡± He turned his head towards the sound of the thrashing tentacles, letting out a yelp of surprise.

    My hands checked my face and I didn¡¯t find any holes. Am I indestructible?

    ¡°What the hell is that?¡± he exclaimed at the conjoined twin zombies sharing a huge tentacle-mace. He raised his gun, fired a single shot which didn¡¯t do anything to stop the monster walking towards us on its four legs. The man thought better of it and decided to instead pull the woman to his room rather than try to stupidly fight it.

    (His gun!) I ordered. (And disable him.)

    The woman slapped the gun out of the man¡¯s hand and punched him in the stomach. He doubled over yelling profanities. My puppet followed it up with her knee at his lowered face. He fell back through the doorway of his room, unconscious. I hoped she didn¡¯t kill him.

    (Go fight! Kill the tentacle fuckers if you can. Buy me time.)

    My puppet roared with a guttural voice of a dying beast as she charged at the abomination.

    I quickly crawled to the unconscious man.

    His head was bloody from getting hit by my puppet. He wasn¡¯t dead, was he? Even if his room was dark, the dim lights from the corridor barely entering, my special eye could see that his chest was feebly moving. He also had a healthy green color.

    ¡°I hope this works on you. Time for some finger action,¡± I said, as I shot him between his eyes with my left index finger. ¡°That sounded wrong.¡± Feeling our minds linked, and making sure that he really was passed out, I fed him power from the well of energy inside me through the blue thread linking us. It was too dangerous to give him powers if I didn¡¯t have control of his body.

    (Uhhh¡­What¡­)

    ¡°He¡¯s waking?¡± I said in surprise. His green light blinking brighter. The gash on his forehead stopped bleeding and was actually healing. So that''s my second ability. (Don¡¯t move), I transmitted to his mind.

    (What¡¯s happening?)

    (Don¡¯t move), I repeated, firmer this time. After confirming my second ability, I stopped pumping him with its power.

    (You! Monster! Wha¡­I can¡¯t move?) Just as with the woman before, the two of us struggled for the control of his body.

    Before he could fully understand what was happening, I pummeled his head with my fists. I didn¡¯t have much power behind my punch, and yeah, these are girly punches. But my fists were made of fucking metal.

    (Stop! Stop! What are you doing to me?) This guy was tough. His face was getting bruised but he was still awake. I tried landing my punches on his temples but he was starting to push me away from his mind; he moved his head to at least try to soften the blows.

    ¡°Go. To. Sleep,¡± I said with each punch. I could still save my puppet if I hooked her up with my healing ability while using the finger of strength on this guy. I really needed to think of better names for these.

    The man fought with amazing willpower to push me out of his mind. He broke our stalemate and slowly raised his shaking arms to cover his face. I pried them open while pushing back in our mental battle to make him surrender his body.

    (Don¡¯t fucking move!) I held his head, pinning to on its side to the floor, then I repeatedly punched him with my right hand, making sure my knuckles hit squarely on his temple. (Both of us will die if you don¡¯t help me. Sorry in advance for this.)

    One more downward punch, this time putting the weight of my upper body behind it, and I finally sent this guy to the dream world.

    Yes!

    But then I also sensed that my connection with the woman was broken.

    No!

    I opened my fist and checked the symbol on my right index finger. It stopped swirling. Fuck it. I legit wanted to try and save her with my newfound healing power.

    Did she at least kill the tentacle monster outside?

    The grating screeches and roars from the corridor filtering in the room answered me in the negative.

    No matter. I had a new toy¡ªahem, helper, excuse me. ¡°You¡¯re going to fight so both of us will survive,¡± I said, as I ordered him to go out of the room before me. I spotted the gun on the floor. I picked it up knowing that it wouldn¡¯t be of much help with the enemies we were facing. ¡°This is for our own survi¡ªwhat the hell happened here?¡±

    A giant ball of leathery brown flesh was on top of a bloody mess of human limbs and tentacles. It was barely able to fit in the corridor.

    Where did this new asshole come from? I groaned inwardly. Why won¡¯t you fuckers give me a break?

    This ball stood up on its two feet¡ªor hands, it didn¡¯t have any feet, just muscular arms extending from its sides¡ªand turned around to face me.

    It wasn''t an asshole. It was a freakin¡¯ hugeass mouth! A mouth wide enough to swallow a full-grown man. Its square teeth, each one as large and as thick as phonebooks, were chomping on a leg.

    The scraps of shredded satin on the floor and in between the mouth monster¡¯s teeth were enough to tell me of the fate of my first puppet. Judging from the severed anaconda-like tentacle still squiggling on the floor, and the clump of four legs by its side, she did pretty well before this new guy showed up and ate her.

    There was banging behind me. I turned around and pointed my gun. A zombie, the fucker who was knocking on my door, came out of a room a few doors down, presumably the unit of my first puppet. He had a knife lodged deep in his head.

    Another zombie followed him out of the room, a guy in his underwear. He had deep cuts across his chest, but they were being sewn shut by tiny tentacles erupting out of his skin. He was possibly the husband of my first puppet. In the end, they both died around the same time. How sweet.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± I said, ¡°I¡¯m going to send you to wherever afterlife your sweetheart is now.¡± I looked to the left and right at the enemies sandwiching me.

    They were coming nearer.

    How I wished I had facial muscles so I could smirk. I was more confident this time. My new puppet was rapidly growing in size. And I connected my healing thread to him too, counteracting the massive damage his body endured from being forcibly mutated into a brutish monster. He was still dying at a pretty rapid rate which was why he didn¡¯t wake up even if I was healing him. ¡°Time for round two, you pieces of mutated shit.¡±

 3.17 - Ramon - Part 1

    Ramon ¨C Part 1

    12:35 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    Charles Ramon Peterson, who preferred to be called by his second name, ¡®Ramon¡¯, as homage to his Latino roots on his mother¡¯s side, pulled down the stiff bill of the Marty¡¯s Pizza House cap he wore to cover his face. He sunk low in his chair, trying to hide behind the cushy armrest, as the quintessential girl-next-door, the beautiful angel, Erind Hartwell, passed by the condominium¡¯s front desk after buying a bottled drink from one of the vending machines at the right nook of the lobby. She was going to the elevators at the left wing of the U-shaped building to go back to her room.

    Referring to Erind as a ¡®beautiful angel¡¯ might be too much if you asked other people. He had shown his friends a picture of her that he dug up from the internet, and their verdict was that she was cute in a nerdy way but was also on the plainer side.

    And all of them can suck it because Erind is an angel to him!

    He peeked from the side of the brim of his cap, hoping she wouldn¡¯t look in his direction by the sofa chairs of the lobby. He might not be able to stop himself from waving at her¡­and then what?

    She¡¯d think he was a creep. That¡¯s what.

    Did she notice him now? He saw her several minutes ago entering the building in a hurry, wearing a hoodie and jeans, and he was sure she didn¡¯t glance his way that time as she jogged to the elevators. Then, when she went back down after changing clothes, he considered approaching her. He came to the conclusion that it was a stupid idea and stopped himself before he did anything embarrassing. It would probably be awkward given the situation, and could get even more awkward if the dude who ordered the pizza arrived to get his food and saw him hitting on a girl when he should be doing his job.

    He did have an order to deliver at this late hour; it was only a coincidence that he saw Erind. A God-sent coincidence; he¡¯d take any opportunity to see her, even from afar.

    Honest to God, he wasn¡¯t stalking her.

    But¡­what if she thought he was stalking her? Waiting for her in the lobby... Maybe she even assumed he was following her outside.

    Shit, man, he didn¡¯t give off desperate stalker vibes when he talked to her earlier, did he? Hope not, he thought as he stared at her.

    Erind stood by the elevators, waiting for one to come down. She didn¡¯t have her glasses on. He guessed that she only needed them for reading. Without her glasses, she had a different air about her. She wore an oversized dark blue blouse that fell off her right shoulder and very short shorts that had an athletic design. His older sister told him the right term for those shorts before. Was it ¡®Dolfins¡¯? Dolphin shorts or something that sounded dumb.

    He admired her as she looked up at the descending numbers of the elevator. In his humble opinion¡ªthe only opinion that mattered when it came to Erind, and everyone else who thought otherwise could eat shit¡ªErind would look great in anything. She could wear a garbage bag, or a potato sack, or even nothi¡ª

    Bro! Chill out, he chided himself, mentally kicking his ass to clear his mind.

    That was exactly the kind of immature thinking he should avoid if he was going to try asking her out. The picture of her from the internet was taken during a speech she gave in a contest in her college probably a couple years ago, so he was sure she was older than him. And from a survey of his sisters, his female cousins, and also friends, about nine out of ten times, the answer he got was that they preferred guys older than them.

    Now, he didn¡¯t know the preference of Erind, but if he couldn¡¯t be actually older than her, at least he should attempt to be mentally and emotionally mature; his older sister told him that was what girls were mainly looking for when they say they want an older guy.

    Reliability, commitment, those kinds of things. Shit he should work on.

    But maybe¡­he could be immature for one last time?

    Ramon raised his phone to try and take another photo of Erind. The elevator dinged open and she got on, turning around as she entered, then pressing the button for her floor.

    He hastily put away his phone and faced to his side, closely examine the palm tree beside him with great concentration, waiting for the sound of the elevator going up to echo in the empty lobby.

    I nearly got a heart attack there.

    Did she see him?

    He wasn¡¯t sure since he was intently trying to get a good shot of her. ¡°What a dumbass move,¡± he muttered. ¡°Really, really dumb.¡± He dragged his palm across his face. It was fine if she saw him, it was another matter if she also noticed he was trying to take her picture. He would know the next time she ordered pizza based on how she¡¯d react to him.

    Or maybe she did notice and she wouldn¡¯t order from Marty¡¯s Pizza House ever again.

    Oh, man¡­

    And the picture he took wasn¡¯t even good. It was a blurry mess because he wasn¡¯t able to keep his phone still.

    He swiped to the other picture he took of Erind. She was in front of the vending machines, deciding what to buy. He congratulated himself on getting a good side profile of her. Did she wear those clothes to sleep? She looked really cute in them. She also binges on pizza, and maybe she plays video games too. He decided to ask her that next time¡­if there was a next time.

    Should he just delete that other photo? It was pretty unrecognizable. His finger hovered hesitantly over the delete button, then decided to keep it because it might be the last he¡¯d see of her after the stupid move he just pulled.

    ¡°Stupid, stupid,¡± he said with a groan, hitting his forehead with his knuckles. He resolved that on his next day off he¡¯d hang around this lobby to try and wait for her if she¡¯d show up and then he¡¯d profusely apologize. Maybe bring some flowers. What was that drink she bought? Was that her favorite? He could check and also buy her a bottle¡­ share a drink with her or something romantic?

    Or maybe I should just put ¡®stalker¡¯ on my nameplate?

    He shook his head. ¡°Shit, man. What do I do here?¡±

    ¡°Ramon, my boy!¡± someone called to him. Boady, one of the guards assigned for the graveyard shift, approached him, probably just finished patrolling the right wing of the building. He seemed to be in his early forties, fit and beefy, actually looking like he could guard something compared to dumpy old man Johnson who stayed at a small desk by the entrance watching his Mexican soap operas. ¡°Got another delivery?¡± Boady said. ¡°It¡¯s very late to be eating pizza.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. Our pizza¡¯s so good you¡¯ll want to eat them any hour of the day.¡±

    ¡°You should make that your motto,¡± he said with a raspy laugh. He mentioned he used to smoke a pack per day. ¡°Working hard, I see.¡±

    ¡°Scholarship can¡¯t pay for everything,¡± was Ramon¡¯s reply. Boady already knew about his situation because they chatted plenty of times in previous deliveries so he didn¡¯t elaborate further.

    ¡°Who¡¯s the delivery for?¡± Boady counted the stacks for pizza boxes. ¡°Four boxes? That¡¯s not for Ms. Hartwell then.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, she only ever orders one box,¡± he said. ¡°These are for¡­¡± he paused to check the receipt, ¡°Mr. Daniels.¡±

    ¡°I see. Too bad you won¡¯t get to meet her.¡±

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°She ordered from us earlier,¡± he said with a grin, ¡°so I did see her.¡± He glanced at the elevators to make sure Erind didn¡¯t go back down again. ¡°Also, just now, she bought something from the vending machine so I saw her again. But I didn¡¯t talk to her.¡± He didn¡¯t mention he was trying to take her picture.

    ¡°Why not? You have to take every opportunity you got, my boy. Life¡¯s too short to hesitate.¡±

    ¡°Life¡¯s too short¡­¡± he repeated wistfully. ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. It¡¯s just that do I even have a shot?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll never get a shot if you don¡¯t ask, my boy. A shot doesn¡¯t just fall from the sky right on your lap.¡±

    ¡°Wise words, Mr. Boady,¡± he said, ¡°but I¡¯m talking about like¡­uh¡­she can afford a place like this. And I¡¯ve seen her wearing an Eloyce University jacket before. I¡¯m not sure if she goes there or someone gave it to her.¡±

    ¡°Come on, my boy, I already told you no need to call me ''Mr. Boady'',¡± the guard said. "We''re all friends here. Anyway, she does go to Eloyce." He noticed Ramon¡¯s disheartened face. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean you got no shot. If you show her you¡¯re a hardworking and committed person, I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll give you a chance despite¡­you and her¡­how do I say this¡­?¡±

    ¡°Different social standing? Economic too.¡± Ramon sighed. ¡°Different social and economic standing.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go with that. My point still stands.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right Mr. Boady...err, Boady. If I don¡¯t even try, I wouldn¡¯t know. If she rejects me, then at least I tried. But I¡¯m also not sure if she already has a boyfriend. I don¡¯t want to be that kind of guy, you know?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think she does. Haven¡¯t seen her with a guy. We did promise you we¡¯ll tell you if we think she has one. Here¡¯s Johnson, we can ask him.¡±

    In a rare occurrence worth recording in the history books, old man Johnson stopped watching his small TV, got up from his eternally squashed chair, and waddled over to them. ¡°Good evening, fine gents. What are you discussing? Ask me about what?¡±

    ¡°My boy Ramon here was wondering if Ms. Hartwell has a boyfriend. I told him we haven¡¯t seen anyone who could be¡­our target.¡±

    ¡°Hoho, we¡¯ll take care of anyone who could be your rival,¡± Johnson chuckled, holding his belly. ¡°We swore a pizza oath that fateful day.¡± Ramon did give them pizza before, bought out of his own pocket, so he¡¯d gain their friendship and they¡¯d chat with him about Erind. Johnson patted his back. ¡°Kidding, hohoho, but it¡¯s true we haven¡¯t seen Ms. Hartwell with a guy.¡±

    ¡°I saw her enter the building about ten minutes ago though,¡± Ramon said. ¡°At this late hour¡­could she have visited someone. A guy?¡±

    ¡°Nah, she told me she was out jogging.¡±

    Boady folded his arms and scratched his neatly trimmed beard. ¡°But she was away for a couple of weeks though. She only returned today.¡± He checked his watch. ¡°Or yesterday rather.¡±

    ¡°She was?¡± Ramon¡¯s brows furrowed. ¡°That explains the lack of orders then. Do you know where she went?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, my boy,¡± Boady said. ¡°She stayed over at a friend¡¯s house, a female friend. I think Johnson saw her?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s a looker! An absolute stunner,¡± Johnson said eagerly, his frizzled mustache quaking. ¡°The friend, not Ms. Hartwell. No offense to Ms. Hartwell,¡± he clarified with a knowing wink at him. ¡°That gorgeous woman was helping Ms. Hartwell carry her bags up to her room. Prolly they got a project or somethin¡¯ so she had to stay at her friend''s house?¡±

    ¡°Probably,¡± Ramon replied, still unconvinced.

    Johnson picked the chair beside his and lowered himself on it with great effort. ¡°Unghh¡­There we go. Nice and easy.¡± He adjusted his uniform that went taut in his mid-section. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to worry, yeah? Ms. Hartwell¡¯s, she¡¯s a loner through and through. She¡¯s the only one in her room, no roommates, no family, no nothing. I haven¡¯t seen her bring a guy up.¡± He turned to Boady. ¡°Have you?¡±

    ¡°Nope, didn¡¯t notice anyone.¡±

    Ramon nodded slowly. ¡°That¡¯s good news then¡ª¡±

    ¡°You shoulda¡¯ seen Ms. Erind¡¯s friend,¡± Johnson said. He gestured in the air, making curves. ¡°A rockin¡¯ body. A very shapely blond. She could be a model for those expensive brands with her looks.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be weird, Johnson,¡± Boady said sternly.

    ¡°Hoho, that¡¯s because you haven¡¯t seen her. I¡¯m just telling our Ramon that maybe his plan should be to make friends with Ms. Hartwell so he¡¯ll get introduced to her gorgeous blond friend.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m team Erind forever, Johnson,¡± he replied, ¡°my heart is for one and only.¡±

    ¡°My boy Ramon here not chasing looks,¡± Boady said.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll defend team Erind till my last breath.¡±

    ¡°Atta boy!¡± Boady roared, enthusiastically slapping his back. All of them laughed. As their chuckling chorus died down, he said, ¡°Who¡¯s that delivery for again? You¡¯ve been waiting for some time already.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s for a certain Mr. Daniels. Stefan Daniels.¡±

    Boady turned to his partner. ¡°Do you know him?¡±

    Johnson grunted as he shifted in his seat. ¡°We prolly got a couple of Mr. Daniels here. Not sure which one is named Stefan. Ramon, have you called him?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve called him a couple of times, but he¡¯s not answering. I¡¯ll try calling again.¡±

    ¡°You do that,¡± Johnson said. He grabbed the armrests of the sofa with his huge hands and pushed himself up with great effort. The chair creaked in protest. ¡°I¡¯ll check with Christa if we can get the room number of this guy then we¡¯ll call him.¡± He then ambled to the front desk accompanied by Boady.

    Ramon tried to call their customer again while following the two guards.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Christa?¡± Johnson said as they came upon an empty counter.

    ¡°In the comfort room perhaps?¡± replied Boady. ¡°She said she was feeling unwell. She mentioned something about the smell making her nauseous.¡±

    ¡°We did get a few complaints about that. Fuckin¡¯ dead rat in the vents s¡¯what I¡¯m sayin¡¯. Those temps the manpower agency sent aren¡¯t doing their jobs properly.¡±

    ¡°I did smell it a few times while patrolling, but couldn¡¯t find where it was coming from. How odd that it was in various places in the building.¡±

    ¡°Christa should be on top of coursing those complaints to the management. I wonder why they suddenly changed the people they send here.¡± Johnson went to the other side and checked the computer terminal. ¡°I¡¯ll look for that Daniels guy.¡±

    ¡°Hey, Christa will be angry with you if you do that.¡± Boady leaned on the counter but didn¡¯t actually do anything to stop his partner.

    ¡°I can¡¯t contact him,¡± Ramon said, looking at his phone. ¡°The signal is very weak¡­now it¡¯s gone.¡± He shook his phone and checked the screen again. ¡°That¡¯s weird. I could contact him before but he just wasn''t answering.¡±

    Boady took out his phone. ¡°Really? Oh, you¡¯re right, my boy. I don¡¯t have a signal as well.¡±

    ¡°Those m¡¯fuckers shutting down the signal again?¡± Johnson said while tapping away at the keyboard. ¡°Another Adumbrae incident? The BID gets a big cut of the pie that¡¯s the national budget. They should do a better job with the hard-earned taxes.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right on that, Johnson.¡±

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just reception,¡± Ramon said. ¡°I¡¯ll go outside¡­huh?¡± He squinted his eyes at the entrance glass doors. It seemed like something was blocking it. ¡°What¡¯s¡ª¡±

    ¡°Everything getting broken nowadays.¡± Johnson said, shaking his head. After a final tap on the keyboard, he stood straight and pulled up his built. ¡°Stefan Daniels, Unit 1401. I¡¯ll just call him¡ª¡±

    "Boady, Johnson, I''m not sure but..."

    ¡°What¡­what are you doing¡­there.¡±

    The three of them turned to the sound of the croaking voice. A woman wearing the uniform of the condominium property management shuffled towards them. She was trailing dark liquid on the floor. The front part of the blue vest she donned was wet with the same substance.

    ¡°Ma¡¯am Christa?¡± Ramon said, barely recognizing the nice lady who gave him the old books of her children who already graduated college. ¡°Are you alright?¡± he needlessly asked, as there was something seriously wrong with how she looked.

    She had a complexion that was inhumanly ashen except for the prominent red veins that crossed her face like a mask made out of spider webs. Her eyes were pure black and she was crying black tears. ¡°Johnson¡­don¡¯t touch the computer¡­¡± she said with great effort. She stopped walking and vomited black goo that looked like tar. All three of them reflexively recoiled.

    ¡°Jesus Christ! Christa, what the hell happened to you?¡± Johnson tried to rush over but Boady headed him off. ¡°What? She needs help.¡±

    Boady pulled him back then drew his gun. ¡°Can¡¯t you see? We might be the ones who¡¯ll need help.¡±

    ¡°Johnson¡­Boady¡­.,¡± Christa said. ¡°It hurts¡­something inside me.¡±

    ¡°She could be an Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°Adumbrae? Goddamit!¡± Johnson also whipped out his weapon and aimed. ¡°Stay back, Christa.¡±

    ¡°What do I do?¡± Ramon said. He instinctively dialed the emergency hotline for Adumbrae reports, then smacked himself in the head, remembering there was no signal. He glanced over at the entrance of the building. He really couldn¡¯t see the street outside! It was completely blocked by something he couldn¡¯t tell.

    ¡°Stay back, Ramon!¡± Boady also started retreating while keeping his gun trained on Christa¡¯s head. ¡°Christa! If you¡¯re still inside there somewhere, please go away. Don¡¯t make us do thi¡ª¡±

    She opened her mouth wide¡­

    ¡­an arm covered in black slime came out.

    Boady and Johnson opened fire.

 3.18 - Ramon - Part 2

    Charles Ramon Peterson ¨C Part 2

    ¡°Her head!¡± Boady yelled. The two guards fired as accurately as they could into the most vulnerable part of an Adumbrae, its brain. The arm that came out of Christa¡¯s mouth thrashed ferociously in the air, blocking most of the bullets from connecting with the head; it was way sturdier than mere human flesh and didn¡¯t seem affected by the gunfire.

    Unable to find any success, Johnson lowered his aim targeted Christa¡¯s torso, but she stood firm even as her body shook from the bullets. ¡°Dammit, dammit!¡±

    Ramon backed away from the fight, unable to make up his mind whether to help or run away. But what could he do here? He tried to call the BID emergency hotline which should be open even if there was a signal lock, but even that didn¡¯t work.

    ¡°Johnson, we have to hit the head!¡±

    ¡°But that hand¡ª"

    ¡°Side!¡± Boady roared. He ran perpendicularly to the right of the monster while pointing Johnson to the left. His partner, moving with impressive speed, got out of the front desk counter and flanked the Adumbrae on the other side. ¡°Fire! Let¡¯s kill it Johnson!¡±

    Both of them peppered it with bullets. The goo-covered arm couldn¡¯t keep up blocking the bullets coming from two angles even with its insane speed, and the two guards were able to get some good hits in. It wasn¡¯t blood that came spurting out of Christa¡¯s wounds, but that same ominous black goo she vomited.

    ¡°Reload,¡± Boady said and Johnson followed suit. Both of them raised their guns in unison, but held their fire as Christa tittered and then fell to the floor on her back. The mysterious arm blackened with the goo twitched for a couple of tense seconds, and stopped moving.

    ¡°Oh, man¡­Christa,¡± Johnson said, lowering his smoking gun.

    ¡°Wha¡ªwhat do we do?¡± Ramon said. ¡°I can¡¯t contact the police or the BID.¡± He pointed at the glass doors. ¡°And there¡¯s something blocking the entrance!¡±

    Boady wasn¡¯t listening. He was trying to contact someone on his radio. ¡°Adam? Come in. You there? We have an emergency. Adam!¡± Only static was the reply.

    Johnson, on the other hand, knelt beside Christa¡¯s body, mumbling her name repeatedly.

    ¡°Boady, the door¡ª¡±

    ¡°Fritz? Dickens?¡± he yelled into his radio. ¡°Johnson, the security room...the boys at parking. They¡¯re not respon¡ª¡± He turned his head and found his sobbing partner caressing the face of their deceased co-worker turned monster. ¡°Get away from her!¡±

    The hand growing out of Christa¡¯s mouth came back to life and swiped at Johnson¡¯s head. ¡°Aaargh!¡± he yelled clutching his face. A chunk of the flesh on his cheek was in the black hand¡¯s grasp. Johnson stood up but tripped in his haste, falling smack right back on the floor. He kicked the body of Christa away as the black hand reached for him, and crawled away as fast as possible given his massive size.

    ¡°No!¡± Boady yelled. He fired a couple of shots at Christa¡¯s body that was lying motionless, but stopped when the black hand started dragging it across the floor as it chased Johnson. He¡¯d risk hitting his partner if he continued shooting.

    ¡°Help me!¡± Johnson said. He looked back to try and shoot it, but the black hand took this as an opportunity to catch up to him, grabbing his leg. He screamed in pain, drowning the stomach-turning crunch of his bones. The hand squeezed his leg like it was a tube of toothpaste. Bones burst out of his skin as blood and flesh erupted in the air like confetti. ¡°Help! Aaaa!¡± He shot wildly at everything.

    Boady charged at Ramon, tackling him to the ground. ¡°Keep your head down!¡±

    Ramon obeyed and laid himself as flat as possible with his hands covering his head. Boady was on top of him, attempting to shield him.

    Am I going to die?

    Memories of his family, especially his mother who passed away a few years ago, swam in his head, filling his heart with determination to survive no matter what it took. He had plenty left to do in this world. The face of Erind centered in his mind. ¡°No, no, no,¡± he repeated to himself. ¡°I¡¯m not going to die here.¡±

    ¡°Johnson, fucking stop that! Don¡¯t kill us!¡± After a few seconds, they heard the clicking of an empty gun over Johnson¡¯s screams for help. Boady stood up and raised his gun again.

    Ramon had other plans.

    Gathering strength that wouldn¡¯t be possible without the adrenaline pumping through his veins, he grabbed the nearest potted palm tree that was bigger and heavier than him, and rushed to Christa and Johnson while carrying it above his head, screaming like a madman. ¡°Take this Adumbrae!¡± he yelled as he slammed the huge pot on Christa.

    Her head exploded like a squeezed grape, painting the floor with more of the black goo. The hand let go of Johnson¡¯s leg, and Boady was already there to pull his partner away from harm.

    Ramon jumped over Christa¡¯s corpse to get to the side of the two guards and helped in dragging the injured Johnson. As they reached the front desk, Ramon collapsed on the floor, his arms and legs shivering from the intense physical exertion. He was fit and worked out in his free time at the cobbled together backyard gym of his uncle, but he was sure he wouldn¡¯t be able to lift that potted palm tree if this was a different situation.

    Boady peered over the counter, his gun held close to his chest. ¡°It¡¯s not moving,¡± he whispered.

    ¡°Where do we go now?¡± Ramon replied, heavily breathing. ¡°What do we do?¡±

    ¡°Just leave me¡­here,¡± Johnson said. Sweat covered his face and he was beginning to pale. His words were hard to understand, slurring and airy because his left cheek was partially gone.

    Ramon could see some of Johnson''s teeth peeking through the gaps of shredded flesh. He held his breath and closed his eyes as he felt that he was about to puke.

    ¡°I¡¯m not¡­I can¡¯t walk¡­anymore.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to leave you,¡± Boady said.

    ¡°Hey¡­Boady¡­listen up, Boady.¡± He pulled his partner down. ¡°I¡¯m bleeding and in pain¡­and there may be more of those things here.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t know that for sure.¡±

    ¡°Adam and Fritz responding? The others¡­something bad must¡¯ve happened to them.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going to get you out!¡± Boady grabbed Ramon. ¡°You¡¯ll help me, right? My boy, Ramon, tell Johnson we¡¯re going to get him out.¡±

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ¡°Ye¡ªyes. Yes, we will,¡± Ramon replied, but he wasn¡¯t too sure of that. He couldn¡¯t feel his arms and legs. His strength spent in that moment of reckless courage. His heart was pounding so hard in his chest that he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it jumped out of his mouth. ¡°But the entrance is blocked,¡± he said. ¡°How can we get out?¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Boady said, poking his head over the counter again to check the glass doors, only know realizing just how weird everything was. ¡°What the¡­what''s going on?¡±

    Johnson pushed his partner¡¯s back. ¡°Go¡­by the pool¡­or the kitchen¡­just go.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re coming with us.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not going to work¡­you carrying me. Go¡­just go¡­¡±

    Ding!

    It was one of the elevators from the right wing of the building. ¡°A resident?¡± Boady stood up and pointed his gun at Christa¡¯s body. ¡°I have to protect them.¡± The person who alighted the elevator walked out of the corridor at the right side of the lobby and came into view.

    The man wearing the uniform of cleaning personnel was pulling a large cart full of cleaning equipment with a mop bucket attached to it at the end. Short and thin and walking with a slight hunch, he was probably in his late fifties and aging didn¡¯t do him justice. Ramon vaguely remembered this man when he delivered Erind¡¯s order. A woman was hounding him with complaints. She was really loud and caused a scene which was why it stuck to his memory.

    ¡°The new janitor?¡± Ramon said. He hadn¡¯t seen this man before that incident even though he knew, at least by face, most of the people working in this building. Was this the temp Johnson mentioned?

    ¡°Yes, he is,¡± Boady confirmed.

    ¡°Boady,¡± Johnson croaked, reaching for his partner. ¡°Get that man¡­and all of you¡­escape.¡±

    The janitor stared curiously at the large potted plant on top of Christa¡¯s corpse and approached it. He didn¡¯t have any reaction besides mild interest.

    ¡°You!¡± Boady waved at him. ¡°Uh¡­I forgot his name.¡± He walked out from behind the counter. ¡°Get away from that body.¡±

    ¡°What happened here?¡± the janitor said. ¡°Did you kill her?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not what it looks like,¡± Boady said. ¡°She¡¯s an Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°Adumbrae? No, no, you¡¯re wrong.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to believe us, but you need to come with us for your own safety.¡±

    The janitor simply stared at him.

    ¡°Come here! We don¡¯t know if that thing¡¯s really dead.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s dead alright. My child is dead.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    The janitor clapped. ¡°Bravo for managing to kill one of my children.¡±

    ¡°Children?¡± Boady aimed his gun at the man. ¡°The fuck are you?¡±

    ¡°Wha¡­what¡¯s happenin¡¯¡­¡± Johnson feebly said.

    Ramon also understood the whole situation with that one word. And the smell! That foul smell from when he delivered Erind¡¯s order was here again. Their situation was going from bad to worse. His survival instincts kicked in. ¡°Johnson, where are your bullets?¡± Unfortunately, the injured guard was drifting in and out of consciousness and couldn''t answer. He patted down the injured man and found a clip inside his vest. The gun! Where was it?

    ¡°Don¡¯t move you bastard,¡± Boady ordered the janitor, ¡°or I¡¯ll put a fucking bullet in your head!¡± It was obvious by now that this man wasn¡¯t who he was supposed to be. The janitor, or whoever he actually was, didn¡¯t listen to him, moving to the back of the blue cart. ¡°Stop that¡ªRamon? Get back here, boy!¡±

    He also didn¡¯t listen to Boady, diving for Johnson¡¯s gun that he dropped as they pulled him. Then he rushed back to Boady¡¯s side, reloading the gun as he ran, recalling what his uncle taught him several times when he hid inside their house from a rival gang. He took his position beside Boady just as the janitor fished for something in his large yellow mop bucket. ¡°What do we do?¡±

    ¡°You know how to use that?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s just say, I¡¯ve been raised in a bad neighborhood.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve got a present for you,¡± the janitor said. From the bucket, he retrieved a wriggling fat worm or leech of some kind, about the size of a hotdog bun.

    Boady¡¯s eyes darted between the unconscious Johnson, Ramon, and the janitor. ¡°Boy, you have to make a run for it. You know the way to the kitchen? It connects to the¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to leave you here.¡±

    ¡°No! I¡¯m not going to leave Johnson¡¯s dying ass here. You, on the other hand, are going to escape.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± the janitor said, juggling the thick slug. ¡°You¡¯re not listening to me even when I am so kind as to give you a present?¡±

    ¡°Shut the fuck up,¡± Boady said. He fired. The shoulder of the man exploded. ¡°Missed.¡± He fired a couple more shots, but the man evaded with amazing nimbleness and hurled the slug at them. It zipped across the floor in a blur, their eyes barely able to follow it. ¡°What is that?¡± Boady tried to line a shot, but the slug zigzagged with extreme speed that you wouldn¡¯t expect from its appearance. It was clear where it was headed.

    Ramon tucked the gun in his pants, grabbed one of Johnson¡¯s arms and tried to pull him away, but he could barely move him. Boady tried stomping his foot on the slug, but it swerved. The slug jumped to Johnson¡¯s nearly severed leg, burrowing into his exposed flesh. The unconscious guard woke up from the pain and started screaming again.

    ¡°Johnson!¡± Ramon helplessly called. ¡°What do I do?¡±

    ¡°Find it,¡± Boady said. He got something from inside his vest. A large swiss knife. He flicked the blade out.

    Ramon nodded. He tore Johnson¡¯s pants with his fingers and patted his flesh, looking for the invasive slug. ¡°Here!¡± he said, feeling a bump in his inner thigh that shouldn¡¯t be there. He tried to cup it with his hands, putting pressure to hold it in its place somewhere deep in Johnson¡¯s flesh.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Johnson,¡± Boady said, plunging the blade into the large lump. Foul smelling black goo spurted out of the wound. His partner screamed and flailed his limbs in a frenzy. Ramon threw his body over Johnson to keep him still as Boady added a few more stabs for good measure.

    ¡°Is it dead?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    Ramon looked past Boady at what the janitor was doing. ¡°Look out!¡±

    Boady turned just as a slug flew towards his face. It went inside his mouth before he could react. ¡°Urrgkkk¡± He coughed violently but the slug didn¡¯t come it. ¡°Ugh¡­ukk¡­run.¡±

    ¡°What did you do to him?!¡± Ramon raised his gun at the janitor who was looking at them with an amused expression even though the right side of his clothes were soaked in blood from his wounded shoulder. He had another slug in his hand.

    Boady pushed him. ¡°Ramon¡­urghh¡­kawkk. Run.¡± A tentacle poked out of his nose. ¡°Run¡­please.¡±

    He nodded once and fled to the left wing of the building. Past the elevators was a huge restaurant that opened up to the garden surrounding an Olympic-sized pool. He could go there and try to scale the back wall to escape. Boady mentioned that there was also a way in the kitchen. A back entrance of some sort? Maybe the restaurant connected to the kitchen too.

    However, he stopped in front of the row of elevator doors instead of continuing on to the restaurant. He pressed the ¡®up¡¯ button while wondering if he had gone mad. He¡¯d only trap himself if he went up.

    But there was someone up there who would surely be trapped if he didn¡¯t come to save her.

    Erind Hartwell.

    Ramon pointed his gun at the corner going to the lobby while waiting for one of the elevators to come down. ¡°Come down, come down quick.¡± A gunshot cracked in the air and he crouched low. Was that Boady? Did he manage to kill the janitor? But Boady would be calling for him if everything was safe.

    A door dinged open.

    He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and decided that going for Erind was the right choice. He hurried to the elevator door and bumped into the chest of a large person inside. He fell on his on butt.

    ¡°What the¡­¡± he said, massaging his nose. In front of him was a massive man whose upper body, including his entire head, was wrapped in bandages. He wore a heavily worn-down trench coat and beach shorts. He looked down and saw that the legs of the man were also wrapped in bandages. With his instincts screaming ¡®danger¡¯ at him, he shot the man in the head after a second of indecisiveness.

    A black point appeared on the man¡¯s forehead. The bandages around the bullet hole reddened with blood. Unfortunately, the man didn¡¯t care about the hole in his brain. ¡°Well, well, well,¡± he said, catching Ramon¡¯s gun-wielding arm. ¡°What do we have here?¡±

    He closed his eyes. Erind¡­I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t save you.

 3.19 â€“ Ramon â€“ Part 3

    Charles Ramon Peterson ¨C Part 3

    ¡°I sounded like a regular villain right there,¡± said the man covered in bandages. He wheezed at his own realization.

    ¡°What the he¡ªwhat is this?¡± Ramon struggled to get free of the man¡¯s grip over his body. The hand of the bandaged man had inexplicably grown large enough to grab his whole torso, the yellowish strappings unraveled to reveal motley, reptilian skin. He wondered what was behind the strips of cloths covering this man¡¯s face, wrapped tightly around his head, but then thought it was nothing good and better that he didn¡¯t know. It was obvious this man was no longer human; rather, a vile creature who betrayed his own humanity for power. ¡°Let me go, you fucking Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°Wrong place, wrong time, bud. Tough luck.¡± He picked Ramon up like he weighed nothing. ¡°Ya coming with me.¡±

    Ramon¡¯s arms were getting crushed against his sides. But he wasn¡¯t getting captured this easily. He twisted his body while in the reptile man¡¯s grip and kicked sideways, hitting his captor¡¯s flank. It was as hard as a rock and there were pointy protrusions all over his body. ¡°Ah! Shit, my knee.¡±

    ¡°If you only stayed still. Be a good boy and I¡¯ll tell Mister to let you watch this momentous occasion.¡±

    He strained to extend his arms outward and open his captor¡¯s grip but he couldn¡¯t move the giant fingers an inch. He said, ¡°You¡¯re not going to turn me into one of you!¡± He also wanted to add, ¡®just kill me¡¯, but the words wouldn''t come out. He had been taught since he was a child that it was better to die than become an Adumbrae. Deep in his heart, he knew what his mother taught him was correct. He had seen what they were capable of, the destruction they caused, the monstrous changes their bodies underwent. But I also don¡¯t want to die. Not yet.

    ¡°Twitchy little brat, aren¡¯t ya?¡± the bandaged man said. The man carried him like a piece of luggage back to the lobby where the janitor and the two guards were.

    He stopped struggling as he realized that angering the Adumbrae would only accelerate his death. He was aware that he was powerless right now. Bravado had its limits; empty bravado had no place if he wanted to live. And he couldn¡¯t save Erind if he died now. ¡°What do you want with me?¡± he asked, hoping there was something he could use to survive seeing as he wasn¡¯t immediately killed.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want anything with ya, but let¡¯s ask Mister if he does.¡±

    ¡°Mister who? What are you talking about? BID agents are in this city, they¡¯ll catch¡ª¡± As they got out of the corridor of elevators and into the main lobby, Ramon spotted Boady lying face down on the floor a few feet away from Johnson, a pool of blood collecting around his head, the janitor looking intently over him. ¡°Boady!¡±

    ¡°Hi there, Mister,¡± the reptile man said.

    The janitor looked up. ¡°Slinky, I see you found a new friend. I also see that you have a bullet hole on your forehead.¡±

    "It''s nothing."

    ¡°Why did you kill him?!¡± Ramon shouted. ¡°You damn Adumbrae!¡±

    He nodded at the guard on the floor. ¡°Kid, you mean this? He did that to himself. Turns out he didn¡¯t want to become like your other friend over there.¡± The janitor, who was apparently called ¡®Mister¡¯, jabbed his thumb towards Christa¡¯s corpse.

    ¡°Huh? Boady wouldn¡¯t kill himself,¡± Ramon stammered. Or would he?

    ¡°Slinky, why did you pick up that kid?¡±

    ¡°I shouldn¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°I wanted him to get away. See how¡¯s he going to survive in this place.¡±

    ¡°Hey, how could I have known that? I¡¯m not Cordova. That twerps fucking locked up at the Red Island. What ya want me to do with my buddy here? Release him to the wild?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡ªwait. On second thought, bring him here.¡±

    Ramon wasn¡¯t paying attention to their conversation because he was focused on Boady. The reptile man with the gigantic hand dropped him beside the guard. Boady¡­he really did kill himself, he thought as he crawled over to him. Why? Were they using the slug creatures to turn people into Adumbrae? But turning into an Adumbrae required willingness, so that wasn¡¯t it. A monster then, some sort of sick experiment, something only someone as evil as an Adumbrae could think of. Boady must¡¯ve realized what was happening to his body and turned his gun on himself, choosing to die a human.

    ¡°Here, bud,¡± the reptile man said, tossing Johnson¡¯s gun to him.

    What was he supposed to do with a gun? He knew there was no way he could kill them with it. Perhaps the one called ¡®Mister¡¯ if he could land a headshot? If. He eyed the man¡¯s shoulder wound that has apparently healed. There was, however, no way he could kill this reptile man named ¡®Slinky¡¯. If shooting his head, which was supposed to be the weakness of Adumbrae, didn¡¯t work, then what could he do?¡±

    ¡°Why did you give him the gun?¡± Mister said.

    ¡°I ain¡¯t a thief.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not even his.¡±

    Ramon held the weapon, gazing at the metal surface of the barrel. Johnson took care of it well. It was so shiny that his own despairing face stared back at him. If they tried to turn him into a monster, should he do the same thing as Boady? He swallowed his saliva. Can I kill myself?

    ¡°Why the long face, kid?¡± Mister asked, squatting beside him. He patted Boady¡¯s back. ¡°You seemed to know this person. Am I right?¡±

    Ramon tightened the grip on the gun. Mister was so close. How fast could he react if he shot him? After a couple seconds of thinking, he simply nodded.

    ¡°Are you sad that he¡¯s dead?¡±

    Again, he nodded.

    ¡°But he isn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Hey, looks pretty dead to me,¡± Slinky said, peering over them.

    ¡°He isn¡¯t,¡± Mister repeated. ¡°My child is still inside. I could sense it already bonded with him. If he was dead, my child would have already exited his body.¡± He turned Boady¡¯s head, peering at the front of his head. Ramon faced away, avoiding the gruesome sight. ¡°It appears he blew his face off but missed the important parts of his brain.¡±

    ¡°Oof, that¡¯s gotta hurt.¡± Slinky stamped his foot as if cringing. ¡°Must¡¯ve angled his gun the wrong way when he swallowed the end of the barrel. I heard that happens sometimes.¡±

    ¡°No, he didn¡¯t make a mistake,¡± Mister said examining the mess that was Boady¡¯s face while Ramon looked in every other place except that direction. ¡°He was aiming for my child digging in his face, trying to reach his brain.¡±

    ¡°Gutsy. I like this guy.¡±

    ¡°From the looks of it, he hit part of my child.¡±

    ¡°Is it going to be okay? The subject? XR-01A was it? Or is this one of the XR-03? Those slug looking things.¡±

    ¡°My child is going to be fine,¡± he said evenly, giving Slinky a cold look. He took out his cellphone and began to video Boady. ¡°Very interesting to see how my child will perform given a nearly dying body. It¡¯s a different scenario if it already has taken root before a body is gravely injured. If it has already hijacked the brain and broken the Eloyce Field to connect¡ª

    ¡°What do you want with me?¡± Ramon said. ¡°Do you want me to kill him?¡± Perhaps the reason they kept him alive was because they wanted to toy with him. They were Adumbrae; he expected nothing less than vile wickedness from them.

    Mister regarded him with a smile. ¡°How did you come to that conclusion.¡±

    ¡°Is that it? You want me to kill him before he turns into a monster?¡±

    ¡°No, such a barbaric way of thinking. Do you assume I¡¯m a psychopath? I¡¯m a man of science, a man that wants to see the evolution of the human race. And I want you to witness it as well. Educating the young, a noble goal.¡±

    ¡°Nice,¡± Slinky said. ¡°I was planning to ask ya if ya¡¯d let him watch what¡¯s going to happen in this building. I¡¯d say great minds think alike but that¡¯d be an insult to ya, Mister. My mind¡¯s nothing like yars.¡±

    ¡°In more ways than one.¡± Mister stood up and took pictures of Boady at different angles, the flash of the camera bathing the body each time. ¡°Kid, you¡¯re going to see what will happen to your friend here. It¡¯s going to be¡ªlet¡¯s see, what do young people say¡ªneat. Yes, it¡¯s going to be neat.¡±

    ¡°Looks like ya¡¯ luck is turning around, kid,¡± Slinky said. ¡°Mister¡¯s taken a liking to ya. Lighten up. We¡¯re not going to do anything bad to ya.¡±

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°You, however,¡± Mister deliberately said, ¡°are free to do anything you want.¡±

    Ramon clenched his jaws. Although they say that, he understood they were implying the exact opposite. And even if they were truthfully saying that they meant him no harm, which he had to be absolutely braindead to believe, would he just sit back and watch as Boady transformed into a monster like Christa? His palm holding the gun was starting to sweat. He wasn¡¯t family, they weren¡¯t even close friends. But they were friends nonetheless.

    And they were fellow humans¡­

    Didn¡¯t he have the moral obligation to kill Boady now before he became a monster?

    At least, I should put him out of his pain¡­right?

    Before he could further think about his dilemma, there was a rumble by the entrance of the building. Salvation? He dared hoped. Had the BID been alerted and came to the rescue?

    Slinky instantly unwound the bandages on his hands and grew long scythe-like claws.

    The wall of darkness that blocked the doors had dissipated and a large group led by a woman walked into the lobby.

    ¡°Stand down, it¡¯s just Stella,¡± Mister said.

    ¡°Stella and the rabble,¡± Slinky muttered.

    No¡­ it was more of these Adumbrae! Their followers? Ramon knew that some Adumbrae formed cults and various groups to manipulate people. Were they all part of a big secret organization of Adumbrae? This was the group the BID fought a couple of days ago!

    The woman appeared to be half Asian, probably of Korean descent; some of her features reminded Ramon of the Korean family who ran a small supermarket near the tiny apartment room he rented. She wore a fitting charcoal business suit, its buttons struggling to keep it close as her bust strained against it, black skin tight pants highlighted her shapely legs. Her heels clicked on the tiles like a ticking time bomb counting down to his eventual end.

    She had softly shaped face which contrasted with her loud and authoritative voice as she barked orders on the phone. Despite the fear and stress, Ramon couldn¡¯t help but be mesmerized by this woman¡¯s exotic beauty that he nearly forgot about his dire situation, and also nearly didn¡¯t notice the small army behind her.

    To her right was a freakishly tall and broad man with a tattered fedora casting a shadow over his gaunt, lifeless face. He carried a huge concrete pillar over his shoulder that required some maneuvering to get into the building without breaking the glass doors. To her left was another man with prominent bionic eyes that glowed red; he was wearing a dri-fit tank top to showcase the fearsome weaponry that was his extensively augmented arms. About a dozen goons brought up the rear. They were armed with high-caliber firearms and a number of electroschock weapons that Ramon had only seen on TV.

    ¡°She escaped?" the terrifying bombshell he assumed to be called ¡®Stella¡¯ yelled to her phone. ¡°What do you mean she escaped? You numbskulls! How did you lose a stupid blonde?¡±

    ¡°Something wrong, Stella?¡± Mister said.

    ¡°You idiots better find her,¡± she shouted, ¡°or you¡¯re all going to be cut off from the supply!¡± She ended the call and growled in annoyance, making an almost beast-like sound that made the hair on the back of Ramon¡¯s neck stand on end. ¡°Hello, Mister. Just a slight hiccup in our plans.¡± She checked her appearance on her phone¡¯s camera. ¡°A hair fell out of place. Actually, it¡¯s not related to our ultimate goal of field testing the XR-Series so I shouldn¡¯t get too worked up.¡±

    ¡°You know that I, more than anyone, want to see my children perform on the stage, but I just want to reiterate my misgivings about this.¡±

    ¡°BID¡¯s not going to like this very much,¡± Slinky said.

    ¡°That¡¯s none of your concern,¡± Stella said. ¡°Your group was sent here from the Red Island for one task, and worrying about the eventual consequences of this operation is not part of that. Oh, two tasks. We need to deal with that she-wolf bitch when she appears here.¡±

    ¡°If she''s even going to show up...¡±

    ¡°Her past behavior indicates so. We haven¡¯t seen that wolf-bitch with those bandits being a thorn in our operations. She showed up only when that woman¡­what¡¯s that other bitch¡¯s name again?¡±

    ¡°Erind Hartwell,¡± the guy with the heavy augments said.

    Ramon¡¯s ear perked up upon hearing that name. Erind? Did they mean his precious Erind? It wasn''t a common name, especially for a girl. What did they want with her?

    ¡°Yeah, that, the wolf-bitch appeared to save her after we kidnapped her as a request by the Supplier. And both of them were also at Eve. We just need to draw her out to capture her, and why not test the XR-Series in the process? The she-wolf will certainly appear to save her friend. Two birds in one stone.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s what Boss Mark and Big Marcy wants,¡± Mister said with a shrug.

    ¡°It is.¡±

    They kidnapped Erind before? Did he understand that correctly? Ramon had no clue what was going on but these people didn¡¯t mean her any good for sure. Was that why she was gone for some time? Could she have been hiding away from them after she escaped?

    They found her now.

    ¡°Anyhow¡­one of the twins has taken control of the security room,¡± Mister said. ¡°The other is at the top of the building, keeping watch. Those two, Slinky here, and Ichor and his men guarding the perimeter of this building are at your disposal. The rest of my crew is at the basement parking waiting for me, ready to leave. Everything, cameras and all, are already in place. I¡¯m proverbially turning the keys of the house over to you.¡±

    ¡°Excellent, with the footage from security cams and the cams your crew have setup, we¡¯ll have plenty of data for future development and also footage for advertisement.¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re going to use the elevators, I suggest the freight elevator at the parking area because we¡¯re going to disable these ones soon,¡± he said pointing to the left and right corridors leading to the elevators of the two wings of the building. ¡°We also placed a few of my children in these elevators just in case someone unlucky tried to escape that way before we did.¡±

    Stella¡¯s gaze fell on Ramon, seemingly noticing him for the first time. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Then she looked at Boady and Johnson. ¡°And this, and that?¡±

    ¡°I wanted this kid to witness my work. He would appreciate this science lesson. You see, one of my children has connected to the brain of this man after he nearly killed himself and damaged his brain, although not in an immediately fatal way. And it seems to be working despite my initial assumption that my child wouldn¡¯t be able to salvage the situation so to speak. It will be fascinating to see¡ª"

    ¡°Spare me the explanations, Mister. I¡¯m sure I will not be able to appreciate it the same way you do, and I don¡¯t think this kid will as well.¡±

    ¡°Urghhh¡­unhhh¡­¡±

    ¡°Boady!¡± But instead of coming closer to help him, Ramon backed away. ¡°Boady,¡± he repeated his friend¡¯s name, but this time in a horrified tone as the once nearly dying man stood up, wisps of smoke coming out of the pores of his skin, his ears, and the bloodied mess that was his face. Patches of skins started to burn like there was fire inside of him.

    ¡°So, that explains these two people,¡± Stella said. ¡°But what about the fat one?¡±

    ¡°He''s injured. Not a concern. Although my child who¡¯s supposed to take over him was unfortunately destroyed.¡±

    Stella snapped her fingers at the giant of a man holding the concrete pillar and pointed at Johnson. Then she looked at Ramon straight in the eye. Despite himself, his heart skipped a beat. ¡°I do value educating the next generation,¡± she said. ¡°Perhaps it is a better teaching moment if you ordered this¡­uh, smoke person¡ª¡±

    WHAMMM!

    The floor shook. In a flash, the augmented man was in front of Stella, shielding her from a shower of blood and pieces of flesh. Slinky held out his trenchcoat to cover Ramon.

    All of them looked at the colossal man wearing a fedora, then down at the floor where Johnson¡¯s body was squashed under the thick concrete pillar.

    ¡°Bob! What. The. Fuck,¡± Stella said. She snarled menacingly, a demonic sound that a human shouldn¡¯t be able to make.

    ¡°Stella, don¡¯t get angry at him,¡± Mister said. ¡°You know you have to give him clear instructions.¡±

    ¡°Whatever! Speaking of giving instructions, you order your smoke creature here to kill this kid.¡±

    ¡°That don¡¯t work like that, Miss Stella,¡± Slinky said. ¡°Only simple instructions that don¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°Maybe it can work!¡± Mister said, his face contorting with intense excitement which was made even scarier by Johnson¡¯s blood that covered his right cheek. ¡°Maybe it can¡­they both know each other and¡ª¡±

    ¡°I trust your theory,¡± Stella said, ¡°just do it.¡±

    Ramon was zoning out when he realized what was going to happen. Johnson¡¯s death, Boady¡¯s fate that was worse than death, the threat of Adumbrae, all of the things he should worry about took a backseat in his mind as he realized there was a chance he could live. His heart pumped even faster. His hands tingled with excitement and hope.

    They were letting him go!

    Yes, he was in a monster infested building with the monster Boady chasing him. But I have a chance! They weren¡¯t going to execute him right here, right now. His mind raced, thinking of a plan what to do next while he watched Mister give instructions to Boady.

    Slinky went beside him while trying to remove pieces of Johnson that stuck to his bandages. ¡°Like I said, kid. Wrong place, wrong time.¡±

    ¡°But you said you weren¡¯t going to do anything bad to me,¡± Ramon stupidly replied knowing that that didn¡¯t mean anything to these people.

    ¡°Sorry kid, for what¡¯s that¡¯s worth.¡± Slinky handed to him a knife. "Might be of use to ya."

    He looked at it confused. Wasn''t this Boady''s knife that he used to kill the slug inside Johnson?

    ¡°I¡¯ll lead the way to the freight elevator,¡± Mister said to Stella, ¡°since we¡¯re going in the same direction.¡±

    ¡°I really feel bad about this to be honest with ya,¡± Slinky said with sincerity that might¡¯ve been genuine. The monster Boady croaked, spewing smoke around him, and stretched his arms as he wandered towards Ramon. ¡°You hafta¡¯ run now.¡±

    With a determined look in his face, he said firmly, ¡°Can you delay disabling the elevators for a bit?¡±

    Even if Slinky¡¯s face was wrapped in bandages, Ramon could tell the man was smiling based on the contours of his face. ¡°Sure, kid. I could do that. Do your best. I¡¯m rooting for ya!¡±

    He stood up and sprinted to the elevators, the gun in his hand, the swiss knife in his pocket. There was no way he was going to survive here on the ground floor. This place was crawling with these Adumbrae and who know what other monsters. The Adumbrae also made sure no one would be able to get out of this place so there was no point trying.

    The way to go is up!

    He was certain that the mysterious thing covering the building was the reason why he didn¡¯t have a phone signal. But maybe he could call for the BID at the top of the building! There was only one person guarding that place according to Mister. Better try his luck up there than down here.

    ¡°Yes!¡± The elevator that Slinky used was still open. Ramon got in and pressed the button for the 22<sup>nd</sup> floor. He spotted the monster Boady running into the corridor just as the elevator doors closed. "Sorry I couldn''t save you. But I''ll try my best to save another."

    He wasn¡¯t going to leave Erind here alone. The plan was to get her then go to the roof. What is her room number again? Did he forget it? He sensed that he was forgetting something else.

    Clank. Clank, clank¡­

    Was something up there? Above the carriage? Mister said they were going to disable the elevators¡­

    ¡­didn¡¯t he also say he left some of his children in here?

    Ramon slowly looked up.

 3.20 - Adam Pavell

    Adam Pavell

    1:18 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

    How I wished I didn¡¯t go to work today, Adam Pavell lamented as he watched helplessly while the hellish bloodbath continued to unfold on the screens of the condominium¡¯s surveillance security room. He had seen plenty of videos of gruesome Adumbrae attacks on the internet but it was another thing to watch them on the screen knowing you were in the same building as them.

    Their security cameras captured the scenes of a number of their residents turning into monsters, the monsters in turn devouring those still human, some of them were even combining and merging to birth even more abominable creatures.

    And he couldn¡¯t do anything except to stay and watch, bound to his seat by hardened plaster. His head was also held in place, glued to the chair¡¯s headrest, forced to face forward at the panel of screens. Even the luxury of being able to scream and call for help was denied him by the patch of the same plaster covering his mouth.

    But I could say I am the lucky one.

    Adam tried to turn his head to the seat beside him where Brummer his partner, sat. He couldn¡¯t, the plaster holding firm. He strained his eyes to look as far left as he could. In his peripheral vision, his partner¡¯s body wasn¡¯t moving.

    Brummer¡¯s really dead.

    What did he expect? It had been more than five minutes since the terrorist Adumbrae covered Brummer¡¯s entire face with plaster because he was yelling profanities, trying to get a rise out of him. And it had been a couple minutes since Brummer stopped struggling, no doubt dying from suffocation.

    Call me a coward if you want, but after his partner died, Adam didn¡¯t entertain any thought of attempting to escape¡ªhe couldn¡¯t even if he wanted to¡ªor antagonizing in any way the terrorist who took control of the surveillance room of the condominium.

    Brummer was new. Adam has worked with him for only three months so there wasn¡¯t much in the way of camaraderie between them, yet he felt guilty to be relieved that he was the one who survived. He wasn¡¯t religious in any way, but he prayed to whatever god that would listen to him to forgive his selfish thoughts.

    But then again¡­if any god was truly out there, they allowed all of this to happen, so fuck ¡®em!

    Gods might not be real, but demons were.

    ¡°I¡¯m back! You guys really got some messy cabinets.¡±

    Here was one of the demons. A terrorist, was what he¡¯d call him. And he seemed to be an Adumbrae given the powers he displayed¡ªfor what vile person would think about turning humans into monsters? He was sure that was what they were doing for it was unthinkable that a large number of people in the same building spontaneously became Adumbrae at the same time. It was more likely there was an Adumbrae who could turn people into monsters.

    What were their aims?

    He didn¡¯t know. It was enough that they were spreading death, destruction, and terror.

    They are Adumbrae¡­that was their nature.

    Adam¡¯s hunch was that these demons were the reason of the massive explosion that caused dozens of deaths last Saturday¡ªthe group the BID was fighting. They weren¡¯t some run-of-the-mill syndicate smuggling illegal Adumbrae body parts as what the news wanted the people to believe.

    They were an Adumbrae terrorist organization!

    What shitty luck he had they chose to attack this building.

    ¡°Did I miss anything?¡± the man said.

    Adam grunted as he struggled to make an acceptable response even if his mouth was covered. He wanted to placate the terrorist so he wouldn¡¯t get killed. Or worse, turned into a monster too.

    The man who spoke took the empty seat to his right, almost jumping on it. He lazily placed his feet on the console, flecks of dust from the soles of his boots showered the keyboards. He opened the bag of CheezyBlitz he got from one of the cabinets, grabbed a large handful of the chips, and stuffed them in his mouth.

    Adam couldn¡¯t see the expression of the terrorist watching people getting killed by monsters because he was leaning back in his chair, but he could hear the nonchalant crunch of the chips. ¡°You guys are cool. Really cool,¡± he excitedly said. "You have snacks stashed here."

    Adam tried to nod as much as the plaster around his head would allow him and made sounds of agreement.

    ¡°Need to have snacks while we watch this awesome show.¡± More sounds of munching.

    How could all of this have happened?

    It was all a blur¡­as if everything was a nightmare. Yet it was all real.

    Why tonight? Why here? Why him?

    Adam closed his eyes to the horrors that was happening in front of him, thinking back at everything that happened since he entered the building for his shift...if he could¡¯ve seen it coming, if he could¡¯ve done anything to prevent it, if he could¡¯ve escaped beforehand¡­only if¡­

    He had eaten an early dinner¡ªa large tuna salad wrap from Salad-To-Go¡ªas I always did before his shift, and was hanging out at Johnson¡¯s desk as I always did before going up, listening to him blabber on about a hot blonde woman that he saw. It was like every other night until people carrying various equipment entered the building. Christa told them there was nothing to worry about as the management informed her they were supposedly upgrading the security system.

    Why didn¡¯t I sense there was something wrong that time?

    He was watching those people on the screens of the security room as they installed cameras and god knows what else all over the building, and he didn¡¯t think there was anything fishy. Some of them even entered the security room and tinkered with the computers. And he just sat back and let it all happen. He was even the one who informed all the other guards that tech people were coming in to do some work.

    He also recalled that Gilbert and the guys from the prior shift mentioned to him that the new cleaning personnel were doing bizarre things such as placing various canisters in the vents and piping, but they reasoned it must be fumigation ¡®or some shit¡¯ and didn¡¯t do anything about it.

    It didn¡¯t ring any alarm bells in his head back then. No one told them beforehand about this ¡®system upgrade¡¯. What was worse was that he didn¡¯t think there was anything wrong that they were doing the installation at night.

    After Christa told them that the management ordered it, he didn¡¯t give it any more thought.

    Adam was just ready to spend the long night watching the NBA games he saved on his phone¡­as I always did.

    He had become too complacent. He even waved away Brummer¡¯s complaints; the kid was the only one talking sense but he didn¡¯t listen.

    It was too late now. Too late¡­

    ¡°Yow!¡± The terrorist kicked his chair and he fell over. ¡°Why are your eyes closed? I told you to watch this.¡± He pulled Adam¡¯s chair back upright. ¡°Sorry, sorry for that.¡± His temper and tone changing so abruptly that it was unsettling. He patted Adam¡¯s head. ¡°I got too excited because this is a once in a lifetime experience,¡± the man said.

    Adam knew what the man was implying, so he opened his eyes and went back to watching as more and more people were getting killed.

    ¡°Here! This. Watch this one.¡± The man pulled Adam¡¯s chair closer to him and angled it so he can see what the man was pointing to. ¡°This is a scene worth getting snacks for.¡±

    It was the mysterious silver metallic man, or maybe woman since it had a more feminine shape, but he couldn¡¯t really tell. It looked like one of those metal human sculptures from those fancy modern art galleries, the ones that looked like highly stylized dummies, and it had red symbols painted on various places of its body.

    At first, he thought it was just another one of the monsters made by the terrorist Adumbrae, or even an actual Adumbrae, but based from the terrorist¡¯s reaction, it didn¡¯t appear to be the case.

    This metal man wasn¡¯t part of their organization.

    But it was also making its own monsters.

    From what Adam could pick up from the ramblings of the terrorist, they were observing one of the residents of the condominium, a certain Erind Hartwell. This man beside him was ranting about losing her earlier, and then he was elated when she returned. He wasn¡¯t certain, but Johnson had also mentioned something about Erind earlier when he was chatting with him. Wasn¡¯t she the friend of the hot blonde he was raving about?

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    He was sure the terrorists were waiting for someone to show up that was connected to Erind. Then this metal man was spotted near Erind¡¯s room. However, it turned out this wasn¡¯t the person the terrorists were looking for.

    The terrorist who bound him was extremely surprised at the appearance of this strange new entity.

    ¡°Holy cow! He just ripped that guy in half!¡± the terrorist said, clapping his cheese powder crusted hands while the monster the metal man made tore up another monster that looked like a giant mouth.

    Adam was sure the hulking reddish mutant brute protecting the metal man was formerly one of their residents, Mr. Cesar Pintor, a financials guy with a loving family.

    Where was his wife and daughter? Did the metal man kill them both before enslaving the father of their family? Or it may even be that Mr. Pintor was turned into a monster and killed his own wife and child.

    Both of them watched as the metal man and its slave monster tore through the 22<sup>nd</sup> floor, fighting the other residents that also turned into monsters. They wove in and out of the camera¡¯s view, fighting inside rooms, fighting in the hallway, ripping flesh and walls just the same.

    Adam predicted the metal man was trying to clear a way to the elevators. Residents, awoken by the commotion, either fled or were forced out of their rooms, several of them dying as they got caught in the melee. The ones who escaped the rampage of the monster Mr. Pintor ran into other monsters and were promptly eaten.

    Unable to take the gut-wrenching violence, he stole a look at the other screens since the terrorist was still engrossed in watching the metal man. It appeared that the fierce battle on the 22<sup>nd</sup> floor attracted monsters from other levels.

    A skeletal centaur with a scorpion tail and scythes for arms galloped up the stairs from the 17th floor, seemingly headed to the fighting. In its haste, it crashed into a headless willowy ghoul that was dragging a pack of corpses connected to it with heavy rusty chains up the stairs. The centaur and the headless ghoul faced off while another creature with too many spindly limbs climbed on the ceiling to avoid them, hitting the security camera and knocking it down.

    Another screen showed a large worm that burst into the 23<sup>rd</sup> floor, chewing through the floors of the upper levels. It started to dig its way to the 22<sup>nd</sup> floor. Through the hole it made followed a few zombies that fell through it.

    He must be losing his mind because he found himself mesmerized by the otherworldly scene. If a man found himself in hell with no escape, what else to do but gaze upon the horrors it brought?

    ¡°What is it doing this time?¡± the terrorist said. He elbowed Adam, who jerked in surprise, to get his attention. ¡°Man, look at this. What do you think of this?¡±

    Adam turned his attention back to the screen displaying the metal man, nervously grunting an apology.

    The former Mr. Pintor was holding back the new onslaught of monsters, looking worse for wear with one of his arms nearly severed and several deep gashes on his body, while the metal man was behind it pointing at a couple of cowering residents; a husband and wife by the looks of it. They were familiar faces, Adam recalled they often rented the conference rooms of the condominium for their business seminars, but their names escaped him. The husband shielded his wife and, by the looks of his gestures, was offering himself to the metal man.

    The metal man pointed at the husband with a finger of its left hand.

    And then the man began to bleed and convulse in his wife¡¯s arms.

    ¡°It¡¯s healing that other guy,¡± observed the terrorist. ¡°Wait¡­no. It¡¯s not healing.¡±

    Who did he mean by other guy? The monster? Adam looked more closely, somehow interested. Noticing it, the terrorist pushed him closer to the screen. He was right, the monster protecting the metal man was getting healed.

    ¡°See? Weird, huh?¡± said the terrorist. ¡°It¡¯s like it¡¯s transferring the injuries from that guy to this guy. Looks like he¡¯s dead,¡± he said referring to the husband. ¡°The hell?¡±

    With proof before his eyes of the absence of god, Adam still prayed fruitlessly that the metal man would leave the woman alone after killing her husband. But the metal didn¡¯t move away. It approached her, raising its arm to strike her as she grieved for her dead husband.

    No! Adam thought.

    As if hearing him, the metal man stopped and then walked away. To Adam¡¯s surprise, the woman stood up and followed the metal man without any resistance.

    With its monster good as new, or even stronger and fiercer than before, the metal man continued the push through the hordes of monsters blocking the way to the elevator. They made impressive speed, reaching the stairs beside the elevators.

    ¡°Look out!¡± the terrorist said.

    From the stairs came charging the skeleton centaur, hacking the other monsters in its path. The metal man noticed and ran back down the corridor. The centaur followed it, flailing its arms, nearly slicing the head of the wife that was standing nearby in a daze. Its eyes were dead set on the metal man, ignoring the woman.

    The metal man slipped and fell on the floor. The centaur tried to slam the metal man with its hooves, but missed. Before the metal man could stand, the centaur followed up its attack with slashing blades. The metal tried to fight it off, but was helpless as the centaur monster used its blade-arms to hack its body into pieces. Or not exactly. The metal body was dismantled at the joints but the centaur couldn¡¯t cut the individual parts no matter how hard it tried.

    The terrorist laughed. ¡°It¡¯s like a doll!¡±

    The Mr. Pintor monster rushed to the metal man¡¯s aid, diving at the skeleton centaur, crushing its bones.

    In this chaos, the woman following the metal man presumably had a moment of clarity and fled down the stairs.

    Adam tried to shout, Don¡¯t go down! but he only managed a pathetic whining sound.

    The other screens showed the horrors awaiting her at the lower floors.

    He closed his eyes. This couldn¡¯t be happening. This couldn¡¯t be happening. He kept repeating it to himself until he remembered that the terrorist might get angry at him for closing his eyes again. He hastily opened his eyes, but the terrorist didn¡¯t notice as he was distracted with something.

    ¡°Should I answer this?¡± he said. Adam could hear a phone vibrating. The terrorist sighed. ¡°I might get my ass chewed off if I don¡¯t.¡± He cleared his throat. ¡°Hi, miss Stella. How¡¯s it going?

    Was this their boss? Adam heard the name ¡®Stella¡¯ mentioned a few times when the terrorist was rambling to himself.

    ¡°Nah, nothing much happening. She¡¯s holed up in her room and just fighting off the ones that tried to attack her. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, she¡¯s not a normal human as the intel said. She got super strength and all that. Probably an Adumbrae too yeah.¡±

    Were they talking about Erind? But what the terrorist was saying to his boss wasn¡¯t true at all. They hadn¡¯t seen Erind since she went back to her room after buying something from the vending machines. And what was he saying about her being an Adumbrae?

    The terrorist continued talking on his phone, ¡°No, haven¡¯t seen any of that wolf woman. Yeah, I¡¯ve seen the picture, I know what I¡¯m supposed to be looking for.¡± He paused to listen to this ¡®Miss Stella¡¯. The terrorist impatiently tapped his foot on the floor. ¡°By the way, Miss Stella,¡± he said, ¡°like are we even sure that wolf girl will come here? Erind ain¡¯t got no signal in here. How¡¯s she gonna call for help? Unless she got a special phone like ours¡ª¡±

    Adam could hear the person on the other end was yelling.

    The terrorist raised his phone high above him so his boss wouldn¡¯t hear him sighing in exasperation. He looked at Adam and grinned. Then he answered her, ¡°Right, right. Rofirio fried her phone when we first got her but the wolf girl still came.¡± He sighed. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll report if there¡¯s anything weird. Have fun testing the freakshow we got here.¡± The terrorist pointed to another screen, showing the event hall which was usually rented out for weddings and parties. ¡°There they are,¡± he whispered to Adam.

    The main group of terrorists congregated inside the event hall. A couple of them, obviously Adumbrae, battled some of the monsters they lured inside while the others captured the battle with cameras. It was a weird tableau, as if they were shooting a movie.

    ¡°One last thing, Miss Stella,¡± the terrorist said. ¡°We¡¯re looking for a wolf girl yeah? And she transforms into a giant werewolf? So kinda like you transform into a¡ªthe fuck?¡± He threw his phone against the screen. ¡°The bitch dropped the call. You think she¡¯s a bitch, right?¡± He patted Adam¡¯s head.

    Adam eagerly grunted in agreement.

    ¡°Yep, you understand me.¡± He pointed at the screen with the metal man. ¡°Does that look like a wolf girl to you?¡±

    He tried to shake his head ¡®no¡¯ but the plaster prevented him and he ended up only rattling the headrest of his chair. Was that the correct answer? Wolf girl? Another Adumbrae? What was a wolf girl supposed to look like?

    ¡°You¡¯re right, my pal. That doesn¡¯t look like a wolf girl to me too. That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t tell Miss Stella about it. Was I right to do that?¡±

    He slowly nodded his head, unsure of how to answer.

    ¡°Thanks, pal. I know you¡¯re on my side. I hope they meet this metal thing walking around. Look, it put itself back together again. Is that even an Adumbrae? That has gotta be a pretty fucking evolved one. Could that be Erind?¡± He looked around his chair in a rush and nearly fell off. ¡°Where¡¯s my chips? There it is. Anyway, where was I?¡±

    Adam flicked his eyes towards the screen with the metal man and the riot of monsters.

    ¡°Oh yeah! Thanks, bud!¡± He leaned in closer at the screen. ¡°You think that¡¯s Erind?¡±

    He shrugged. He wasn¡¯t familiar with Erind. And he didn¡¯t know if she was an Adumbrae as this man assumed.

    ¡°You¡¯re not much help are you? I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s her. The info we got was that she was a weak one, just basic Adumbrae stuff with no manifested specific ability yet. There¡¯s no way this is her unless she pulled a Leandro. Hey, bud!¡± He was whispering to Adam¡¯s ear. ¡°You know what Leandro did?¡±

    He tried to shake his head and shrug at the same time, desperate to give any sort of signal that he had absolutely no idea about the things the terrorist was talking about.

    ¡°Leandro¡¯s an ass who couldn¡¯t control himself. BID blew him up. Don¡¯t tell your friends about this okay? It was the BID that blew up part of the city because Leandro was being stupid and called something over he shouldn¡¯t have. Probably desperate to fulfill his duty of protecting the arena. Dumb motherfucker.¡± The terrorist looked back at the screen. ¡°That metal dude is done clearing up the monsters. It¡¯s going to get boring again.¡±

    Adam held his breathe. This man might do something impulsive again if he was bored. Was he going to play with him? Torture him?

    As if confirming his thoughts, the terrorist spun his chair so that they would be face to face. He wore a mischievous smirk. ¡°Hey, my man. Tired of sitting there? Want me to let you go?¡±

    A trap? He tried to shake his head, then also tried to nod his head. His ears were ringing, he could sense that something bad was coming.

    The terrorist took out a small vial from his breast pocket. He held it close to Adam¡¯s face. ¡°I nicked this from Slinky earlier. I wonder what thing inside it does. Do you want to know?¡±

    ¡°Mmnnhhh! Mnghh!¡± Adam attempted to shake his head with all his might as he stared at the small worm swimming in the green liquid contained in the vial. He wanted to push his chair away from the terrorist, but his feet were also bound to the chair with plaster.

    ¡°What was that? You do? Good¡­¡±

 3.21

    1:26 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

    ¡°Is it over?¡± I stood still, waiting for the world to throw another curveball at me. I was tempted to say, how can this get any worse? Just to tempt fate, you know? I was feeling pretty cocky with my situation even though I''d just been through the bowels of hell.

    No other monstrous asshole showed up.

    Finally¡­they stopped coming.

    A severed head was by my foot, an oversized demonic baby head with one eye. Its pupil glowed crimson, same as the parasites tinged in red inside it. It faded. Both the eye and the glow of the parasites. A fellow cyclops, hehehe. I could feel derisive snorting coming but recalled my metal body wasn¡¯t capable of that. What a weird sensation.

    I kicked the head away and it rolled into a pile of broken bones, remnants of the off-season Halloween-version-centaur that fucked me up.

    This guy!

    Those fucking blades.

    They were shattered now along with the rest of its body. But just the sight of them gave my metal self phantom shudders. I didn¡¯t experience any pain when I was broken into pieces. I didn¡¯t know what I was supposed to feel, like I should feel pain but couldn¡¯t.

    It wasn¡¯t pleasant.

    At all.

    Imagine seeing the most bizarre and uncomfortable uncanny valley effect ever, experiencing the weirdness not only with sight but all of the senses at the same time, with the eeriness cranked up to ten. Not sure if that made any sense, but neither did the sensation I felt when I got dismantled.

    Fuck this stupid body of mine. Its individual pieces were indestructible¡ªbullet and blades couldn¡¯t put a scratch on it¡ªbut it was so easy to break me apart like a toy. My joints gave way too easily and I was too weak to fight back practically any monster here in this building.

    At least, I could reassemble my body just as easily. Even if I was broken apart, the individual pieces remain connected with the same blue string I used to link with puppets. I then needed to concentrate to pull myself back together, and that required a lot of focus.

    I picked up the horned skull of the centaur, staring at it with appreciation and a mild sense of accomplishment. I tried to crush it by squeezing it between my hands but couldn¡¯t. Would¡¯ve been cool as fuck if I could. I threw the skull into its open ribcage and it landed on its squished innards.

    Oh, well, whatever, I thought as I made my way to my puppet.

    Wait, no. My helper.

    No, no, that was also wrong.

    My friend.

    I have a new friend.

    The floor was slick, coated with about an inch or so of blood of various colors and gore and other indescribable discharges from numerous dead monsters. Most of the monsters still retained a humanoid shape, several were mutations of body parts, a handful were not connected to the human form in any way. There was a couple I just couldn¡¯t make heads or tails what they were supposed to be.

    Careful with each step I took, I navigated piles of shredded monster corpses. I already learned my lesson how slippery fresh blood could be. That stupid centaur couldn¡¯t have bullied me so much if I didn¡¯t lose my footing.

    The corridor was barely recognizable. I could put up a booth and open this as a haunted house and it would be a sure hit. Doors and walls of the rooms along the left and right sides were knocked down or broken through, the ones that still stood were painted with disgusting colors of battle. There was even a huge hole on the ceiling where a sofa-sized worm dropped from the floor above; it was now a deflated sack of leaking pus mixed in with all the other corpses.

    I hesitantly peeked up at the hole on the ceiling, cautious that something else might fall down.

    ¡°Huh? That¡¯s a lot of holes,¡± I said. The worm apparently dug through several floors. So that''s why a ton of monsters showed up. The ones from the higher floors jumped through the hole it opened. Lucky for me, my puppet got me covered.

    Ahem, my friend.

    Where was he anyway?

    The two blue strings linking us, the one that gives strength and the one that heals, would lead me to him. I could barely feel his mind. The last message I got from him was a weak, (No), when I tried to heal him after I reestablished connection.

    I came upon strings of entrails scattered on the floor like a child threw a plate of spaghetti in a tantrum, only that each strand of pasta were as thick as an anaconda. I traced the entrails through a wide opening in the wall and into a huge living room, probably a three-bedroom unit, finding their owner: a golem creature that surprisingly had fleshy innards. I recognized its craggy exterior as the same material as the pillars of the building.

    The blue threads also led into this room through the hole. However, draped over the hole, half its body inside the room and half outside in the corridor, was a tall humanoid creature with a giant mouth that opened lengthwise from its neck down to its crotch.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not going through here,¡± I said. I went for the door instead, which was fortunately unlocked.

    I paused before the body of the golem. It had an amazing surplus of intestines for a half-stone monster. It was lying on top of a man, one of the residents. Dead. Squished by its weight. Lucky enough to remain human but unlucky to be in the middle of the battle of monsters.

    I continued into the spacious kitchen of the unit where I finally found my puppet¡­friend.

    Saying he was not in a good shape would be an understatement. Laying on the rubble of the sink with his limbs splayed out, his body had grown about three times larger than his original size, extremely muscular with lots of tumorous growths which I assumed were a result of giving him extreme amounts of power from the energy core within me¡ªhe probably had muscles and bones that a normal human shouldn¡¯t have.

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    Like my puppet before him, his skin was red from the pressure of the sudden growth and was severely torn like an out-of-fashion ripped jeans, revealing boulder-like clumps of bare muscles and barnacle-looking bones. Pieces of flesh were falling off his body as if he was a brisket, slow-cooked for ten hours. Hmmm¡­the fuck was that mental image?

    On top of my friend''s chest, pinning him down, was a horned head the size of a yoga ball covered with shaggy brown fur; a severed head of a buffalo monster. The headless body of the monster was thrown over the toppled fridge. Judging by the hole on the kitchen wall, it burst through from the next room and attacked my friend.

    I went closer to him and realized that not only did the massive coiling horns of the buffalo monster sunk deep into his flanks, messing up his insides, the front of his torso was also skewered by dozens of horns sprouting from the face of the buffalo monster.

    I didn¡¯t need the greyish color coating him to know that he¡¯s dying soon.

    Pity?

    Was I about to feel pity? Actual pity?

    I stared at the jets of water shooting forth from the busted pipes, down to the water mixing with copious amounts of inhuman blood that drained from his body.

    No.

    How should I begin this? ¡°I just realized you regained consciousness earlier,¡± I said.

    When I began to control him, I was barely using my healing power, keeping the damage his body suffered above what was regenerated to make sure he wouldn¡¯t wake up and fight off my control. Eventually, I had to give him more strength, mutating his body even further.

    There was no going back for his body. There was no going back to human for him.

    What else could I do? Monsters came pouring in and he needed to get stronger. It was for both of us. If he died, I¡¯d die next. At least one of us would survive.

    Me, obviously.

    It was a necessary sacrifice to make.

    To counteract the massive damage his body took, I pumped him with more and more of my healing power. Otherwise, he¡¯d just die. Somewhere along the way, he might¡¯ve come around. I wasn¡¯t sure when; must¡¯ve been pretty early on. But he kept on fighting the monsters. He didn¡¯t try to drive me away from his mind. He didn¡¯t attack me with the tremendous strength I bestowed him. He could¡¯ve easily broken me apart to disconnect our link.

    Which was why I never noticed it¡ªthat and I was too focused on avoiding the monsters¡ªuntil he saved me.

    He didn¡¯t respond to what I said but I felt his mind stir. Despite his earlier request to stop healing him, I decided to go against his will because I wanted to learn something.

    ¡°Why did you save me?¡± I tried a different line of questioning as I felt his consciousness resurface.

    (Save you?) He was able to answer me with his mind, but I sensed he couldn¡¯t continue this for long.

    ¡°Yes, why?¡± I was both speaking to him and also projecting it into his mind to make sure he understood me. ¡°When the centaur broke me apart, I was distracted and lost my connection to you.¡± I also lost my connection with that other woman. A weakness that I should remedy by maintaining focus no matter what happened. ¡°You realized that?¡±

    (I did feel¡­freedom.)

    ¡°Why did you rescue me?¡± I used the word ¡®rescue¡¯ even though I wasn¡¯t in danger of getting destroyed. But I was helpless as fuck, so I guess I needed rescuing. That was also when I knew he had regained his consciousness even before we disconnected. ¡°Were you afraid I will try to regain full control of your body again? Well, that time the centaur knocked me down was the best time for you to attack me.¡±

    (I didn¡¯t¡­)

    ¡°But why though? Or you could¡¯ve ran away. Even that woman chose to flee. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s up with her. First coming with me then¡­¡± I didn¡¯t continue anymore because I could guess his thoughts about what I did to that woman¡¯s husband.

    (I-I can¡¯t¡­can¡¯t run away.)

    ¡°Because you¡¯re¡­?¡± I didn¡¯t finish my sentence out of consideration for my friend. Just like it was tactless to tell a friend they were ugly to their face, even more so to tell a friend they looked like an actual monster. ¡°I guess it will be hard to explain to the BID if you are able to escape from this building. Still, you could¡¯ve attacked me for what I did to you. But you didn¡¯t.¡± A true friend? I found it very interesting that I was resolved to know the reason.

    (I need to fight¡­I need power¡­Without you¡­can¡¯t fight.) The thoughts he sent to me were jumbled. He couldn¡¯t form the words. Then the image of two people was broadcasted clearly in my head.

    ¡°Your wife and daughter.¡±

    (I love them¡­I¡¯ll fight for them¡­) More alien emotions. I hated this.

    ¡°I can save you. I¡¯ll try to find someone¡ª¡±

    (No!) Perhaps his strongest thought yet. (Just¡­let me die¡­)

    ¡°I understand.¡± Phew, good thing he didn¡¯t want to be saved. I wasn¡¯t feeling up to the task of looking for a surviving human I could coerce into willingly accepting the damage of my puppet¡­friend¡­here. I wasn¡¯t sure if I¡¯d get lucky to find people like that couple again. ¡°Anything you want? Before you, um, before I leave you here to¡­rest?¡±

    (Promise me¡­promise.)

    ¡°Yeah, sure. What do you want from me?¡± A promise from my kind didn¡¯t mean much, unless it was something connected to our Rules. We basically had two types of promise: a promise that we intend to break from the start, and a promise that we will keep with utmost loyalty until we no longer wanted to; if it suited us, we¡¯d break any promise with anyone. This guy did me a huge favor. Since he was my friend, I''d extend him the courtesy of the second type of promise.

    (Please¡­don¡¯t¡­)

    I held up both of my hands and watched as the blue strings from the index fingers of my left and right hand faded in the air, the red symbols on my fingers also stopped spinning. He wasn¡¯t able to finish his sentence, but he transmitted a hint of his thoughts...his last will to me.

    ¡°I promise I won¡¯t take control of your wife and kid,¡± I said.

    Funny that he didn''t ask me to promise to save them, but rather I''d leave them alone. I must admit that I did consider testing my fingers on them if I found them, but, for this time only and for the sake of my friend, a promise was a promise...until it wasn''t.

    I came closer to him and attempted to close his eyes, just like what I did with Vanessa. Again, I also failed to do so. His eyeballs grew as large as tennis balls and were bulging out of their sockets. No way I could close his eyes. In death, he stared blankly at the ceiling.

    ¡°Ok then, rest in peace, my friend,¡± I said. Wasn¡¯t it nice that I was making plenty of friends recently? Two of them dead. But that just meant I needed to make more friends.

    I made my way to the elevators to check them. There were four elevators here, lining the left side of the corridor. I pressed the down button and none of them worked. One had destroyed doors, apparently opened by a monster that came from inside the elevator shaft. The other two doors weren¡¯t opening; I guessed monsters destroyed the elevator in other floors. The last door was open as the elevator stopped in this floor.

    I peeked inside.

    And wow, what a sight. I could tell my friend entered here and fought a bunch of monsters. I examined their dead bodies mixed with what appeared to be half-eaten corpses of humans they were snacking on. It looked disgusting as fuck, the most disgusting image I''ve seen so far since I became an Adumbrae.

    However, I didn''t back away as something caught my eye. In the corner of the elevator, nearly hidden by the bodies, was a cart with boxes, like the ones delivery company people used to bring packages to people''s doorsteps. The boxes were crushed during the fight that happened here, their contents strewn over the dead bodies.

    Broken vials and canisters. All empty.

    ¡°Hmmm. I don¡¯t know what those are supposed to be, but that cart would be an awesome way to carry my body."

 3.22

    Extracting the cart from the pile of corpses inside the elevator was damn chore. I tried to hurry, concerned that some other monster could¡¯ve snuck on this floor and visited my room while I wasn''t looking. I was still alive though, perfectly fine in my metal body, so my body should also be fine.

    Too bad, I dislocated both my elbows in my haste to get that stupid cart out. Clumsy me. It ended up taking more time than if I¡¯d just been careful because I had to concentrate on reattaching my arms.

    I also didn¡¯t want to stay too long in that elevator because I just knew the sight of leftover human body parts mixed with the dead monsters that were eating them would get burned into my memory and ruin my appetite for the next few days¡­that was, if I ever get out of here alive.

    I don¡¯t know why I found this more disgusting than other stuff I¡¯ve seen.

    I wanted to grit my teeth, but I didn¡¯t have any. I wanted to pant in exhaustion, but I didn¡¯t even breathe, neither was I actually exhausted, just weak and helpless as fuck. This is so frustrating. More frustrating than the time aunt Jenna forced me to go shopping with her and my cousins for an entire day because there was a mega sale, and those whores left me waiting in the super long line to pay for all the stuff they bought.

    Heh? What the hell was I going on about now?

    Focus. I needed to focus.

    ¡°Some serious rest and relaxation would be great after all of this,¡± I said, struggling to push the cart over the corpses in the hallway. ¡°Maybe a vacation. Hot springs would be nice.¡± It would¡¯ve already been a huge challenge getting the cart through this corridor if only human bodies were in my path, but traversing an obstacle course of monster corpses was an exceptionally monumental task. An obstacle corpse, I mused. Applause please, thank you very much. Stupid joke.

    I took care not to break the two wheels of the cart as it rolled over bones, fangs, claws, scales and spikes. I frowned¡ªin my head, obviously¡ªwhen I noticed pieces of flesh were getting stuck in its wheels. At one point, I had to pick up the cart and climb over a particularly large monster body blocking the way. I slipped again while carrying the cart and got coated with even more muck.

    After what felt like a century, even though it was only about five minutes tops of extracting the cart from the elevator and pushing it over the terrain of monster bodies, I finally reached the stairs. I wondered if the wife of that guy I used to patch up my friend was still alive. I could¡¯ve sworn I heard her scream earlier. Or it might just be some other person getting killed in the lower floors.

    I paused in silence for several seconds, listening for any signs of danger.

    Everything was still.

    I left the cart by the stairs then continued down the corridor back to my room. I could already see my next challenge: passing through the hallway of death again carrying my human body. I didn¡¯t bring the cart with me to my room because I wouldn¡¯t be able to use it to carry my body anyway. There were too many corpses littered on the floor. I¡¯d just end up carrying both the cart and my body, which would be impossible.

    Eventually, I reached my room. There were no signs of any monsters, still living ones, lurking around here. I looked back at the passage I just trudged through. Fuck, this was going to suck ass. Not impossible, but it was going to take me a long time to drag my body past all of that. What would I do if the next batch of monsters came? I wasn¡¯t sure how long I was going to last. I didn¡¯t even have any puppet to use.

    Or do I?

    I looked down the other side of the corridor.

    Wife and daughter. The door to their room was closed. It was open when I, um, borrowed my friend. I was sure of that. His family? Who else would be there? They might¡¯ve sneakily closed the door when the fighting started.

    Prospective puppets just right there.

    This must be a record on how fast I changed my mind about keeping a promise. Well, the guy was already dead when I said I promised not to take control of his family, so I could just say that didn''t count.

    I did a quick peek inside my room if nothing was disturbed, my special eye scanning through the darkness, then walked to my friend¡¯s room. Nothing like a friend visiting another friend¡¯s home, checking up on their wife and kid. I held the door knob and slowly twisted. Click. I turned it a few more times and it answered with that annoying click each time.

    Dumbass me. Of course, they¡¯d lock the door after closing it.

    Was there a key card on his body? Too late to check it now. And I also didn¡¯t have the time to waste trying to break it down, especially with how weak I was.

    What if I tried to trick them to come out? Like what? Say, ¡®Daddy¡¯s here?¡¯ If I was in the shoes of my puppet...I mean friend...and I think there was some violent crime going on in the building, I would tell my wife and kid to stay put in their hiding place no matter what. And if I was the wife and my husband didn¡¯t come back, I also wouldn¡¯t open the door to strangers.

    Fine. Back to keeping my promise then because I was such a good person. You know what? I''d even do them a favor.

    I knocked then loudly said, ¡°Hello! Your husband has gone off to find help. Just stay inside.¡± I paused thinking what else to add. ¡°He said he¡¯ll be back with the BID. There are Adumbrae in this building. You might have seen them. So, don¡¯t come out.¡± I think that was enough to make them stay there until the BID eventually came to rescue survivors. By that time, I¡¯d be sure to escape from this building. ¡°I¡¯m going to hide now too! Good luck to both of us.¡±

    That should be fine.

    I jogged back to my room and checked if my body was still safely hidden behind the sofa. Yep, still there. I pulled it out to the middle of my living room area and opened the blanket wrapping my head to be sure. Still pretty and cute, looking like Snow White waiting for a prince to wake her up from a deep slumber. This could also be the story of Sleeping Beauty. Both of them needed a prince.

    Where the fuck would I find a prince?

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°Step away from her, you monster!¡± a shaky but determined woman¡¯s voice ordered me. This person turned on the lights of my room.

    Uh-oh, not a prince but a new problem.

    I had my back to the doorway, crouching down on my human body, so I couldn¡¯t see who this newcomer was. Still, I was relieved she was human. I had enough of these monsters to last me a lifetime. And she didn¡¯t seem to be an Adumbrae or anything of the sort from the way she addressed me. A new puppet candidate?

    Bang!

    A couple of feet to the left of my body was a bullet hole on the tiled floor, bits and pieces of the ceramic scattered. That was why she was so sure of herself. Bitch, you could¡¯ve hit my body. And she better pay for that. Damage to my room was going to come out of my deposit.

    What did she want with me? Even if she had a gun, it was a stupid thing to try and fight monsters. I threw my friend¡¯s gun away after I shot a couple of zombies and it didn¡¯t do shit.

    ¡°Slowly move away from that girl!¡± she said. ¡°No sudden movements! I can put the rest of the bullets of my gun into the back of your head, you Adumbrae.¡±

    Sorry to inform you, lady, but bullets can¡¯t pierce my metal body. But I didn¡¯t tell her that. I slowly raised my hands in surrender while shuffling away from my human body. Then I gradually stood up, my back still facing her.

    ¡°Turn around,¡± she said.

    I followed her orders and got a good look at her.

    A frizzy brunette, her wild hair tamed as much as possible by tying it into a high ponytail. I deduced she was a resident because she was wearing a bathrobe over her nightdress. Her skin was evenly tanned, not artificially, more like she spent a lot of time under the sun. I guessed she worked out a lot outdoors; her nicely toned legs were proof of that.

    With my enhanced eyesight, I noticed hints of wrinkles on her face. Probably mid-forties? Her body looked really good for her age. I might¡¯ve seen her around before, especially since we were close neighbors, but I couldn''t recall. I had an idea who she was.

    ¡°Ok, don¡¯t shoot. What do you want me to do next?¡± I said. I wasn¡¯t an expert, but the way she held the gun seemed professional.

    ¡°That voice¡­so it is you!¡±

    ¡°Me what?¡± I said, acting dumb.

    ¡°The one outside my door¡­about my husband. Where is he?¡±

    Will you look at that, I was right and she actually came out. It was good that I had a metal body, or I''d already be giggling. ¡°I don¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t lie, Adumbrae! Did you do anything to him?¡± She shot again. The tile between my feet exploded. ¡°I can kill you¡­you know that. A headshot is¡ª¡±

    ¡°And then what? If you kill me, how will you find your husband?¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡­¡±

    ¡°Calm down first.¡± As if telling someone to calm down in a stressful situation ever worked. ¡°What I said is true. Your husband is trying to look for a way to escape this building and get help. I don¡¯t know where he is now. Somewhere in the lower floors.¡±

    Was she aware I was the one who attacked her husband in their room? Their room was dark, but with my enhanced eyesight, I would¡¯ve seen her. And she¡¯d come to the aid of her husband if she saw us fighting. Maybe she was hiding with their kid inside the bedroom at that time.

    ¡°But how? The monsters in the corridor¡­¡± She quickly glanced to her back, as if expecting one of them to sneak up from behind, and then looked back to me. ¡°Is my husband dead?¡±

    Oh, boy. I¡¯d rather not be the one to bring her the bad news. ¡°Like I said, he went to get help.¡±

    ¡°Bullshit! He got past¡­past that? All of those things? Those monsters?¡± She pointed outside. ¡°Don¡¯t bullshit me. Or did you kill him?¡±

    I really didn¡¯t want to be sucked in an emotional scene. I just found it uncomfortable to stand while someone cried because of some stupid thing. Super uncomfortable. Like when people sing ¡®Happy Birthday¡¯ to you and you didn¡¯t know what to do. I think it was better to tell her the truth after we escaped; my friend was going to prefer it that way. And since she showed up here through her own volition, I was going to drag her along.

    ¡°Answer me, Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°Mommy?¡± called a little girl¡¯s voice from outside. ¡°Are you ther¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just wait a minute, sweetie. I¡¯ll come back in a bit.¡± She stepped closer to me. ¡°What did you do to Cesar?¡±

    Cesar? That must be her husband''s name. Oops, I forgot to ask him his name. What an awful friend I was, I thought with amusement. ¡°I keep telling you I don¡¯t know where¡ª"

    ¡°Mommy, I¡¯m scared.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t come out here!¡±

    ¡°Lady, if I may,¡± I said. ¡°You got two choices here. Stay inside your room and wait for your husband, who may or may not be alive.¡± Her face twisted with rage. ¡°I honestly don¡¯t know, lady.¡±

    ¡°I already told you don¡¯t lie to me¡ª¡±

    ¡°Mommy! Don¡¯t leave me alone.¡±

    ¡°Lizzie! Stay inside our room! It¡¯s dangerous out here.¡±

    ¡°Listen here, lady. Shooting me won¡¯t change anything. Anyway, your second option is to go out and try to find him and escape, whatever you want. As you can see by what¡¯s outside, it¡¯s not a good idea. I suggest going for the first option. I can¡¯t guarantee you¡¯ll be completely safe, that no monsters will come, because there¡¯s a ton of them here, but the alternative is more dangerous. So, just let me be here.¡± Still facing her, I took a step to the side, towards my human body.

    Bam!

    My head flung back, bending too far, almost popping my neck joints. I staggered from the impact of the bullet, but I was able to regain my balance. I touched my eye. That bitch shot my eye! In other news, wow, she''s a good shot.

    I waved my fingers before my single eye. Nothing seemed damaged. My enhanced eyesight was working fine, I could see the healthy green color coating this woman.

    ¡°Where¡¯s your brain?¡± She shot me a couple more times, hitting me dead center on my chest. Obviously, that also did nothing, but I nearly fell over from the force of the bullets. Her stupid little kid screamed in their room.

    ¡°Save your bullets,¡± I said. ¡°Those won¡¯t hurt me.¡± I feel so cool. Like I was roleplaying an indestructible hero¡­or villain, in this woman¡¯s eyes. ¡°Go back to your room and protect your kid. Pray to the Mother Core, or the High Overseers, or whichever god you worship that I win this fight against those monsters, and also pray that they don¡¯t come for you before I succeed.¡±

    ¡°Wha-what are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°The monsters outside, I killed them all." Time to reel her in. "That was how your husband survived. When he went out of your room, he ran into me fighting the monsters. I was perplexed why he didn¡¯t go back to his room. Now, I understand why: he didn¡¯t want to lead them back to his wife and daughter. Admirable, and very brave. And very annoying because I expended nearly all of my powers protecting him while killing the monsters."

    "Is...is that what happened? You killed them-"

    ¡°He continued running and I don¡¯t know where he went because I was focused on fighting. Now, if you don¡¯t have any business with me, please go back to your room and hide because I have to get this woman,¡± I pointed at my human body, ¡°out of this building. She¡¯s the target of the Adumbrae who sent these monsters.¡±

    ¡°Are you¡­¡± she started to say as she cautiously lowered her gun, the confused look into her face turning into one of understanding, ¡°are you one of those Adumbrae that fight other Adumbrae?¡±

    With a nod of my head, I said with as much authority as I could muster, ¡°Yes. Yes, I am.¡±

 3.23

    ¡°Mom, it¡¯s so stinky,¡± Lizzie, the four-year-old daughter of my friend, Cesar Pintor, said to her mother.

    Cesar¡¯s wife, Dominique, or ¡®Doms¡¯ for short, as she said she preferred to be called, replied, ¡°I already put plenty of perfume on your mask, sweetie. You can still smell it?¡± She made makeshift masks for herself and her daughter, folding squares of paper towels sprayed with liberal amounts of perfume, wrapping them in wide handkerchiefs, and then tying those to cover their noses and mouths.

    I was going to offer them the masks I bought, but then I realized it would be hard to explain why I knew about those; not that those masks would be much of an improvement to what they were using.

    ¡°Yes, mommy. Super stinky!¡± The kid said, coughing in between her words.

    ¡°Cover your nose, okay?¡±

    ¡°Um, I¡¯ll try.¡± She did, first with one hand, then clumsily with both. ¡°Still smelly!¡± whined the piece of shit who was a spitting kid version of her mom. ¡°Mommy, help me! You cover my nose.¡± It was like she was asking for monsters to come to us.

    ¡°I can¡¯t do that,¡± Doms said, trying to keep her voice calm and steady as she stepped over the remains of the giant monster mouth ball, oblivious to the fact this was her husband¡¯s handiwork which she should be proud of. The huge tongue of the mouth monster spread on the floor like a mini red carpet rolled out to welcome us. ¡°Mom¡¯s hands are busy, okay? I¡¯m holding you up.¡±

    ¡°Other hand!¡±

    "I¡¯m helping, er, Aunt Pino.¡± Doms stole a glance at me, checking my reaction. ¡°You¡¯re a big girl already. You can cover your own nose, okay?"

    I nodded at her. I introduced myself to them as ¡®Pino¡¯, short for ¡®Pinocchio¡¯. We both had marionette bodies so¡­I¡¯m not good at thinking names, okay? I didn¡¯t have much time to get creative. Doms introduced me to Lizzie as an aunt to help her get more comfortable with me.

    ¡°I want to help Aunt Pino too.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t. We¡¯re carrying really, really heavy baggage. She just moved in the building. Just stay still. That will already help, okay dear?¡±

    The baggage she referred to was my human body; both of us were carrying it like a wasted friend after a wild frat party. I gave her no information other than a precursory explanation that the Adumbrae desired this human body, and it wasn¡¯t dead but affected by some sort of power which I didn¡¯t want to fall into wrong hands.

    I could see in her expression she simultaneously wanted to know more and also didn¡¯t want any part of it. She chose to hold back her questions and concerns. I supposed Doms prioritized getting her kid out of here and go with the person who seemed to know what was going on even if that person wasn¡¯t human and was apparently kidnapping someone.

    Priorities, people. This woman got hers right.

    ¡°Okay, Mommy. I¡¯ll stay still.¡±

    I said, trying to sound gentle and friendly, ¡°If you behave, Lizzie, the sooner we¡¯ll get through this smelly corridor.¡± My nose was sculpted metal, not an actual nose with holes. I didn¡¯t have lungs either. It didn¡¯t occur to me back then that these piles of carcasses would smell awful. I couldn¡¯t even imagine the reek of decay these deceased inhuman fuckers were giving off. Not to mention these monsters might excrete noxious gases. I hoped these two didn¡¯t drop dead from something poisonous we weren¡¯t aware of.

    ¡°Aunt Pino?¡± the brat said in a muffled voice, both her hands covering her mouth and nose as she nuzzled into her mother¡¯s chest as if to hiding from the smell would work. ¡°Your voice is funny.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s because I smoked when I was a teenager and didn¡¯t listen to my mom,¡± I said. ¡°So, you listen to what your mom tells you, okay?¡± I added, mimicking Doms¡¯ way of talking to her kid. ¡°Don¡¯t follow my bad example.¡±

    ¡°I wanna see you, Aunt Pino.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s better if you don¡¯t, Lizzie dear,¡± Doms said.

    ¡°When I visit Aunt Pino, I always wear blindfold?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ye¡ª"

    ¡°Yes, you have to. I¡¯m very shy, you see,¡± I said, trying not to laugh. The kid looked funny with handkerchiefs covering her entire face. Seeing me wasn¡¯t the main problem. Her mother understandably didn¡¯t want her to see the dead monsters and humans.

    ¡°Are you ugly?¡± she tried to take off her blindfold, but Doms squeezed her and told her to stop it. ¡°Why not?¡± Lizzie asked. ¡°I¡¯m rispek¡­respeck¡ªful. Respectful! I won¡¯t say Aunt Pino is ugly even if she is.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Doms said. ¡°Aunt Pino isn¡¯t ugly.¡± She looked at me with worried eyes and bowed her head a couple times to say ¡®sorry¡¯.

    Why though? As if getting offended by a kid was a big deal in the face of being trapped in a building full of monsters. She might be assuming my looks were a touchy subject for me, that since I lost my human body after turning into an Adumbrae I had strong feelings on topics of appearance. I was aware some Adumbrae did resent eventually turning into a monster, but that was rare given the feeling of power and pseudo-immortality was generally the main driving factor of people giving in to the Adumbrae.

    ¡°Why so smelly?¡± Lizzie said, already forgetting about wanting to see my appearance.

    Doms concocted some explanation about leaks flowing out the corridor, plumbers unable to come at this late an hour, and irresponsible management that should get fired, all while carefully navigating through the corridor of monster corpses and carrying more than half the weight of my human body on her left shoulder since she was taller than me.

    Her daughter, ever so inquisitive, kept on asking questions upon questions, which Doms dutifully answered. She amazingly kept her cool even though we were practically walking through hell and she was helping an Adumbrae.

    I guessed it depended on the person how they¡¯d react to a situation such as this.

    I could tell Doms was a survivalist, a practical and pragmatic woman, intent on saving herself and her child even if it meant teaming up with an Adumbrae¡ªactually, similar in mindset to her husband. She might be aware of the viral video posted by Reginus on Snippet about me. Well, a different transformation of mine. Could it be the reason she was open to the idea of a ¡®helpful¡¯ Adumbrae?

    But why was she so good with guns? Was she in the military before, or maybe an ex-cop? Or they were just a gun-loving couple; Cesar had a gun too.

    Whatever her backstory was, she was reliable and dependable. Right after we agreed to team up following some delicate but brief negotiations, she went to get her kid and got back to me¡ªhaving changed out of her nightwear into something more suited for running, ready with those improvised masks for herself and her kid, and armed with a gun and a huge hunting knife attached to a sling around her waist¡ªall under five minutes.

    I would¡¯ve preferred if I could take full control of her body, but I scrapped that idea, recalling I didn¡¯t notice Cesar, her husband, regaining consciousness. While both of them had the same motivations, they were in different situations and would react differently. If I did take control of this woman and she woke up in the middle of the fight, she¡¯d certainly attack me the first chance she¡¯d get and then run away to find her child.

    And where would that leave me? Alone and unable to protect my human body.

    Worst case¡­I can always return to my human body and then turn into Blanchette. Rush the transformation into the big bad wolf and bust out of here. To me, that sounded like an awesome plan.

    But I still couldn¡¯t see the reason why SpookyErind didn¡¯t want me to use that option. There was usually some reason, even if convoluted, for her instructions, so I was going the Blanchette route only in the direst situation.

    I supposed it was better to actually make a group of willing puppets, as ironic as that sounded. I¡¯d need to be careful not to treat them as one-time-use tools, but I¡¯d also have the benefit of teamwork and being able to test my powers. And Doms could help me to convince other survivors, if there were still any, to join us.

    Wait!

    Was this why SpookyErind wanted me to use this power? So I¡¯d be forced to make a group?

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    Power of teamwork.

    Hilarious, bitch, I thought with spite. Given her twisted sense of humor, I knew she¡¯d get a kick out of putting me in this situation. Sure, I¡¯ll entertain you¡­if it meant getting help from her.

    I noticed Doms subtly trying to check the corpses we passed, especially the ones that looked like humans. She was also checking the rooms through the open doors and broken walls when she thought I wasn¡¯t looking at her; she didn¡¯t know my cyclops eye had a wide range of vision, almost like a fisheye lens but not as warped. I knew she didn¡¯t quite believe me when I said that her husband survived.

    Understandable.

    Predictable.

    This was, perhaps, the most important reason why she¡¯d make a good teammate. She¡¯d do anything to protect her kid, especially when she thought her husband was already dead. While I couldn¡¯t relate to her love for her family, her main driving force, I perfectly understood that anything she¡¯d do was¡ªand she¡¯d do anything¡ªtowards her goal. There was no need for trust if someone was this predictable.

    The perfect ally.

    It was also predictable she¡¯d eventually betray me when the opportunity came she could escape with her kid without my help. Naturally, I needed some precautions.

    From behind my human body, using my right arm holding up my share of its weight, I pointed at Doms¡¯ back with my middle finger. There was a slight hiss as the blue thread shot forth. She didn¡¯t appear to notice the sound, neither did she give any sign that she felt us getting linked.

    ¡°Lizzie, I¡¯m going to put you down, okay?¡± Doms said as we reached the cart by the stairs. She looked for a spot on the ground that was free from blood and gore. ¡°Stand here, okay?¡± she said. ¡°And continue covering your nose.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t move?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± she sternly replied.

    ¡°Unless you want to step on leaking water from a toilet,¡± I chimed in.

    ¡°No! Ewwww.¡±

    Doms and I set my human body in a standing position against the back of the cart. We wrapped it once again in blanket, binding it tightly to the cart with strong ropes I found in my kitchen. Thank you, Mom, for stocking my kitchen with useful stuff. Moms do know best. The end result of our efforts looked like we were delivering a mummy to a museum.

    ¡°Let¡¯s start going down the stairs?¡± I said.

    ¡°Are you sure we can''t use the elevators?¡± Doms said, looking down the stairs with apprehension. She adjusted her mask, the smell probably seeping in.

    More dead monsters, their body parts strewn over the steps. I wasn¡¯t sure if this was all of Cesar¡¯s kills; most of them appeared to have been cut into pieces by blades¡ªit was that stupid centaur.

    I shook my head. ¡°Some of¡­them¡­got inside,¡± I said, nodding to the monsters, careful not to mention them to the blindfolded Lizzie. ¡°All four of them are not working.¡±

    ¡°I see, when the¡­leak¡­happened, dirty people might¡¯ve rushed inside.¡±

    ¡°Most likely.¡± I pulled the cart to the top of the stairs. ¡°Shall we start? It¡¯s going to be a long way to go.¡±

    ¡°It is,¡± Doms said with pursed lips, thinking hard. ¡°What do we do if more of them came? Is there no other way?¡±

    ¡°The elevators on the other side of the building?" I said, meaning the other wing, "I doubt those are still working. I suspect they¡­um¡­also suffered the same fate over there.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. All of these,¡± she said, pointing to the monsters, ¡°seemed to have spread all over the building.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about, Mommy?¡±

    ¡°Nothing, Lizzie. We¡¯re just thinking where to go because the stairs are awfully dangerous, especially while carrying heavy bags.¡±

    ¡°If the elevator here is dirty too,¡± she piped, ¡°then use that big elevator!¡±

    ¡°What big elevator?¡± I said.

    ¡°The big elevator where we put the big cabinet. Remember, Mommy? That big, big cabinet won¡¯t fit in the normal elevator?¡±

    ¡°The freight elevator.¡± Doms snapped her fingers. ¡°It¡¯s in the center part,¡± she said in answer to the quizzical tilt of my head, pointing down the corridor past the busted elevators. She must mean the middle part of the u-shaped condominium building. ¡°Lizzie¡¯s right, we can use that. There are three elevators there; the two normal elevators, plus the freight elevator. All three of them go straight to the parking area. We could get to my car and then go out and call for the police or the BID. What do you think?¡±

    Okay, I¡¯m just going to ignore the going to the police part of her plan; I didn¡¯t think I was going to be part of that. What surprised me was that there was no mention of her husband. Was she writing him off? ¡°It¡¯s a good idea,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s go with that.¡±

    Honestly, the elevators in the center part of the building weren¡¯t even in my mind. In all my time living here, I had only been there twice: when I moved in, and when Mom visited me last Christmas and asked we tour the building. As far as I knew, there were offices, function rooms, those kind of stuff there. There were also suites managed as sort of a pseudo-hotel-residence-style thing by the property manager.

    ¡°Cesar would¡¯ve also gone that way for sure.¡±

    There we go. Although, from the tone of her voice, she didn¡¯t believe what she said. ¡°We might run into him,¡± I said, pushing the cart in that direction.

    ¡°Yes¡­I hope so." She picked up Lizzie and followed me. ¡°And there are fewer people the in the center area. Which means fewer¡­¡± She nodded at the monster we passed before helping push the cart over its leg.

    I nodded. ¡°And even if we can¡¯t use the elevator, the stairs there would be way safer too.¡± This was such a stroke of genius to bring her along and not turn her into a puppet. Unlocked the power of teamwork. I should get a medal, I thought sardonically.

    ¡°Hang on,¡± she said, grabbing the handle of the cart and holding it back.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s pass through here.¡± She steered the cart through an open doorway.

    Uh-oh. This room.

    I followed her so she wouldn¡¯t suspect anything.

    ¡°These big rooms have two doors, some even three. We can bypass all of that¡­outside¡­by going through here and exiting out the other door.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re in the very big room?¡± Lizzie excitedly said. ¡°Like the one Daddy said we¡¯ll get if I have a baby brother? I wanna see!¡±

    ¡°Lizzie, no. Don¡¯t take off your blindfold.¡± Doms halted before the pile of rocks that was the remains of the golem monster. ¡°If you do, I¡¯ll get really angry.¡± She peered at the face of the man squished under the golem then sighed in relief when she didn¡¯t recognize him as her husband.

    I continued pushing the cart to the other end of the huge room so she¡¯d follow me and not wander around. I didn¡¯t want her to see her husband¡ªthat was, if she could even recognize him¡ªand turn into an emotional wreck. I wasn¡¯t paid to deal with that. ¡°Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just checking if the other people living here are still¡­okay.¡± She was probably going to say ¡®alive¡¯, but that would be hard to explain to Lizzie. ¡°They¡¯re a big family, although I don¡¯t know them personally.¡± She went to the kitchen. ¡°I¡¯ll be quick.¡±

    I rolled my eye but didn¡¯t do anything to dissuade her. Half of me was interested in seeing what would happen.

    ¡°Here!" she called. "Pino, we can pass through here.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t know there¡¯s a hole here,¡± I said, arriving at the kitchen. The overgrown corpse of her husband and the dead buffalo monster that finally ended him were both untouched. I was fifty-fifty on whether I should admit I¡¯ve been here, deciding in the end I should play dumb. ¡°Good thinking. We can pass through then exit out of the next room.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­we can¡­¡± Doms slowly said as if she had a hard time talking. She paused in front of her husband¡¯s dead body.

    ¡°Way better than passing through all of that outside,¡± I continued.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, Mommy?¡±

    Doms didn¡¯t answer. Her eyes glazed over.

    ¡°Mommy?¡± Lizzie said. ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°Is there a problem?¡± I said. No way she could identify Cesar¡¯s monster body. It was mutated beyond recognition; even his own mother wouldn¡¯t recognize him. Also, there wasn¡¯t any shred of identifiable clothes left on his body. He was wearing only underwear before and there wasn¡¯t any of that left now, his monster dong just hanging out¡ªa sight I¡¯d rather not focus on.

    ¡°Uh¡­nothing,¡± she said. She blinked rapidly and took a deep breath. ¡°I don¡¯t know what came over me.¡±

    ¡°We should move on.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­right.¡± She nodded as if to convince herself about something. ¡°Right¡­let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll pass through the hole first so I can help you with getting the baggage through.¡±

    ¡°Okay then,¡± I said. Seriously? Did she sense something? Was this something that had to do with love? I recalled Mom getting depressed for several months when Dad ¡®died¡¯. I wondered what that felt like. I pushed the cart closer to the hole after Doms went to the other side.

    She set Lizzie down, once again instructing her not to move. ¡°Pass the handle here,¡± she said.

    ¡°Careful with it,¡± I said, tipping the cart to her side. Doms gripped the handle of the cart and started pulling it through. I pushed up the wheels of the cart over the lower lip of the hole. ¡°How about you¡ª¡± Movement in the corner of my eye. Something was crawling on the ceiling of the next room, a zombie creature with way too many arms and hands, a human-spider mutant. ¡°Look out!¡± I said, pointing behind her.

    Before even knowing what it was, Doms pushed her daughter away. The monster dropped from the ceiling and pounced on her.

    Not that easy. I pumped power to Doms using the middle finger of my right hand through the thread connecting us, thinking hard to make her body use the power, hoping that she would be too surprised to counteract my thoughts.

    The monster grabbed her and bit her neck. ¡°Aaahh!¡± she screamed. Confusion replaced her expression of shock and fear. ¡°Wha¡ªhuh?¡± she exclaimed, realizing that the fangs of the monster didn¡¯t penetrate her skin, meeting the armor plates that was starting to cover her body. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°Fight!¡± I ordered, at the same time transmitting it to her mind. ¡°Fight for your kid! Kill it!¡±

 3.24

    ¡°Lizzie, get down on the floor!¡± Doms unholstered her gun and pointed it at the head of the monster ferociously gnawing the side of her neck. BAM! BAM!

    Her stupid kid screamed shrilly in terror.

    The spider monster, its face bloody, an eyeball dangling out of its socket, let go of Doms. It shoved her away and jumped back to the ceiling.

    I caught Doms as she nearly went through the hole with the force of the push. ¡°Fucking heavy. Careful, you¡¯ll hit my¡­the body,¡± I managed to say while concentrating on keeping my joints together. Her armor, even though it was thin as I intentionally kept it to a minimum, added a lot to her weight. I grabbed the sides of the hole to stop myself falling backwards while propping her up with my shoulder to stop her from falling on my human body.

    Fortunately, Doms was also able to keep herself upright, pushing herself up on the handle of the cart which was slumped over the opening. Our faces close together, she looked at me with fierce eyes. ¡°What in the Mother Core¡¯s grace did you do to me?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡ª¡± But before I could give her an explanation, she turned her back to me and faced the spider monster, her gun pointing upwards. Our enemy was erratically crawling all over the ceiling, shrieking in pain, dripping its gooey black blood on the floor like an abstract painting. ¡°Such bad timing,¡± I said. I pulled the cart with my human body back into the kitchen with Cesar¡¯s body, then I dove through the hole. I spent time getting Doms on my side; I wasn¡¯t going to let my initial investment on forming a team go to waste. Plus, we couldn¡¯t lose here. My human body is here!

    Doms swore as she missed a couple of shots.

    ¡°Kreecchhh!¡± the monster shrieked at us. An extremely long spiky tongue extended out of its mouth that was partially torn by a bullet.

    ¡°Mommy? What¡¯s happening?¡± Lizzie said, her voice quivering. Still with her blindfold on, she crouched beside a small table a few feet to my left, sticking as much as possible to the wall.

    The monster turned to her.

    ¡°No!¡± Doms yelled.

    I leapt in front of Lizzie. A sound cracked in the air. Wham! Something whipped my side, sending me rolling across the floor. I pushed myself back up so I wouldn¡¯t crash into Lizzie. I positioned myself to shield her as the tongue shot in our direction again. It hit my back. The force was tremendous, sending vibrations through my body, but I felt no pain.

    ¡°Don¡¯t touch my baby!¡± A couple more shots, followed by a mournful inhuman whine, the bullets finding their mark.

    ¡°Mo-Mom¡­?¡± Lizzie took off her blindfold, saw me and cried, ¡°Ah! Mommy, help!¡±

    Hey, I look weird but I don¡¯t look scary. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid,¡± I said. I would¡¯ve offered her a smile, but my metal face didn¡¯t have that feature. ¡°It¡¯s me, your Aunt Pino.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± she said with a kick. ¡°You¡¯re not! You¡¯re a monster!¡±

    They say you were really ugly if a kid called you ugly. So, what did that make me? ¡°Calm down,¡± I said, nearly adding ¡®you fucking brat¡¯. I wasn¡¯t really good with kids. As expected, she didn¡¯t calm down, ferociously thrashing her arms and legs while I hugged her. I should keep tabs when saying ¡®calm down¡¯ actually worked.

    ¡°Help me!¡±

    ¡°What are you doing to her?¡± Doms yelled. Her gun still continuing its duet with the monster¡¯s shrieks.

    ¡°Your daughter is fine!¡±

    ¡°Get your hands off her¡ªUngh!¡± A loud crash followed.

    I turned to look at what was happening.

    The monster still hung from the ceiling with its many thin arms. The upper half of its face blown off by Doms¡¯ expert shooting. It could no longer see, resorting to wildly swinging its thick tongue laced with fearsome barbs every which way.

    It appeared to have luckily, or unluckily, caught Doms with its tongue and sent her flying. But she was now crawling to a sofa chair to hide behind it; the armor presumably saved her from severe injuries. The tongue whipped in her direction, tearing up upholstery and filling the air with feathery white cotton.

    ¡°Let go of me!¡± the brat said, continuing her futile struggle. I wasn¡¯t strong but I sure can hold a four-year-old down.

    ¡°Stay still or we¡¯ll get hit,¡± I said. The tongue whipped over us and I pushed Lizzie to the floor. The vase on top of the table beside us shattered with the passing of the tongue. The kid cried as the broken pieces of wood, shards of the vase, and shredded flowers rained down.

    ¡°Lizzie!¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s fine!¡± I assured Doms. How are we going to win this? Should I also connect my first finger with Doms and give her strength? But what assurance did I have she wouldn¡¯t go after me when we won? Even before that, she''d fight off my thoughts of making her mutate. She was now aware of what I was doing.

    And why was this monster still alive? Its head was already blown off.

    The parasites should¡­the red color...

    They''re still alive inside the monster! I recalled the first couple of zombies I fought with my first puppet; they seemed to be the same type.

    ¡°It¡¯s the tongue!¡± I yelled at Doms. I also sent my thoughts to her because it was faster to explain everything that way.

    (Got it), she replied with her mind. As the tongue swung near her, she leapt from behind the sofa, almost tumbling from the weight of her armor, and caught it. The spikes on the tongue snagged and ripped her clothes but it couldn¡¯t penetrate her white bony armor. She stabbed the thick piece of wriggling flesh repeatedly with her knife. Goo spurted out, splashing on her clothes.

    The spider monster tried to fling her away, but couldn¡¯t. It didn¡¯t have the momentum, and the armor was too heavy.

    (Don¡¯t make it thicker!) I advised her what I learned from my brief experience of using the armor finger on one of the fleeing residents when Cesar was fighting the monsters on our way to the elevator. (You¡¯ll get weaker!)

    In its desperate attempts to pull its tongue free, the spider monster accidentally fell from the ceiling, the part it was hanging on to broke off. It rolled on the ground, trying to flee, but Doms hugged its tongue and continued stabbing it. The tongue was steadily growing bigger, the host body slowly shriveling up.

    ¡°Ah! What¡¯s that?¡± Lizzie said, poking her head through my arms, spotting the spider monster.

    ¡°Shit!¡± I exclaimed. The spider monster, sensing us, tried to go in our direction. Fortunately, it was already too weak. Doms pulled it towards her. The tongue was bleeding out. She was practically swimming in black goo. ¡°Quick, go over there,¡± pushing Lizzie on to the other side of the room.

    ¡°Okay, okay.¡± She didn¡¯t resist anymore, crawling away from the monster as fast as she could. She looked back at me. ¡°Aunt Pino, save Mommy, please.¡±

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ¡°I will.¡± I grabbed a broken leg of the destroyed table and rushed to the spider monster. This guy was going to die given like a minute or more of bleeding out, but not before I showed off my good side.

    With my special eyesight, I could somehow detect the ¡®points¡¯ of life force of the tongue of the spider monster¡ªwhich was essentially its main body by now¡ªindicated by more concentrated glowing red spots. I stabbed at them with the sharp end of the table leg, backing each downward thrust with my weight. Black goo also splattered on me, but they slid right off my smooth metal body.

    After a tense several seconds of holding it down, me with the crude stake and Doms with her knife, it stopped moving.

    Doms stood up. ¡°Is it over?¡±

    I withdrew my power from her. Shards of white armor fell off her body, leaving her with torn clothes coated in vile black goo.

    ¡°Mommy! Are you okay?¡± Lizzie came running to her, but stopped and violently coughed upon inhaling the stench of the foul substance.

    ¡°Sweetie, don¡¯t come near me.¡± Her daughter was puking on the floor and she helplessly watched.

    ¡°Hand me your knife,¡± I called to Doms.

    She walked towards me, her eyes suspicious, but, after a moment¡¯s hesitation, handed it to me handle first.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said. I knelt over the body of the monster, the human body not the giant tongue, and stabbed the remaining point of red I saw at the nape of its neck. One of its offspring I surmised. I had seen them multiply with my ¡®life force¡¯ vision, if that was the right term, inside the zombie that was knocking on my door. ¡°There. Done. Good teamwork.¡± I extended my hand to her. You gotta trust me after all of that. I was proud of my performance.

    ¡°It¡¯s time.¡± She glared at me. ¡°It¡¯s time you explain to me what you did to my body. Explain what¡¯s going on. Explain what are you doing with that girl.¡±

    ¡°Clean yourself up first so you can carry your daughter. There might be clothes you can use in this room. I can get the girl through the hole. We need to get moving soon. We can talk on the way.¡± I also needed some time to think about a good story to sell.

    <hr>

    The wheels of the cart clanged as we carefully traversed the corridor. We still encountered dead bodies, mostly humans, but they were few and far in between, so the cart¡¯s path was mostly clear. We slowed down each time we neared an open door or hole in the wall, just in case some mutated fucker controlled by a parasite was waiting to ambush us.

    ¡°Do I still smell bad?¡± Doms asked her daughter. She had wiped herself as best as she could and wore the clothes of whoever was living in that room¡ªwe found their corpses by the trampled door of their room, gored as they were escaping by the same buffalo monster that dealt the killing blow to Cesar.

    ¡°No, Mommy,¡± she bravely said, but her hands covering her nose and mouth betrayed her. Doms made her a new blindfold and mask from hand towels we, technically, looted. ¡°Mommy, is Aunt Pino our friend?¡±

    ¡°I hope so, sweetie,¡± Doms said, giving me a sidelong glance. ¡°So, Pino, are you our friend? Can we get our explanation now?¡±

    ¡°Friend? Perhaps, for now. Not an enemy would be more accurate.¡± I stretched one hand to gesture at the dying bodies we passed. ¡°As to what¡¯s going on, you probably already have a guess. The group the BID fought last Saturday? This is their work. They aren¡¯t just some random smugglers dealing with illegal Adumbrae body parts. They''re a group composed of Adumbrae. A huge organization, actually. We refer to them as the ¡®2Ms¡¯.¡± I was talking out of my metal ass here. I wasn¡¯t even sure if this was the 2Ms¡ªthat wasn¡¯t even their actual name¡ªor some other organization who came to know about who I was. And were they really targeting me? Why just send mindless monsters?

    ¡°I see,¡± she said, although from her tone she hadn¡¯t fully bought my story. ¡°An Adumbrae organization? Haven¡¯t encountered those since my stint in Bucharest.¡± I made a mental note of what she said. Did she mean that huge cult in Eastern Europe that ended up controlled by an Adumbrae?

    ¡°Where you met Daddy?¡± Lizzie said. ¡°Right? Right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sweetie. Where I met¡­Daddy.¡± Doms voiced cracked a bit. She cleared her throat. ¡°Okay, so Adumbrae are here. These, uh, 2Ms. Then the explosion¡ª"

    ¡°What did the media say about that again? That they were also smuggling explosives and it accidentally exploded in the fight? All a lie. It was the BID that deliberately caused the explosion. Of course, the BID won¡¯t admit that.¡± Need to sprinkle in truths.

    Doms held out her arm to stop me as we neared splinters of a door in the middle of the hallway, as if something forced itself out of the room on our left. There were bloody handprints on the floor, each as wide as a suitcase. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn¡¯t here anymore. She waved for me to continue on. ¡°If what you¡¯re saying is true, I can see why they¡¯d change the news.¡±

    ¡°Many people died. BID agents, police, other people in that raid. Innocent people in the surrounding buildings that collapsed. Why? Why were they willing to sacrifice those lives?¡± I paused for dramatic effect. Time to bullshit. ¡°Because they were trying to stop something like this. Like what¡¯s going on here in this building. And believe me when I say that it was way worse at the place they raided. A lot of the experiments escaped¡­were released, rather. The BID really had no choice there.¡±

    ¡°Is that what¡¯s happening here? The Adumbrae are experimenting with turning people into monsters?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. What I know is the 2Ms settled in the abandoned tunnels beneath this city and setup a huge complex. They kidnapped many people for their experiments. They were able to do that because they control key people in this city, government officials, the police. That was the place the BID raided.¡±

    ¡°Tunnels? The subway?¡±

    ¡°I like trains,¡± Lizzie said.

    ¡°Not the subway. The abandoned shelters for Adumbrae attacks constructed decades ago.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t even know those existed.¡± We came up another destroyed wall and tiptoed our way past a pile of bones picked clean of flesh. Something here has been eating them. We stopped and observed our surroundings to make sure there was no threat. ¡°So, how do you figure into all of this?" Doms asked. "And this girl?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m an Adumbrae who fights other Adumbrae. I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t explain more about us other than that,¡± I said, intentionally using ¡®us¡¯ so that she¡¯d draw wrong conclusions. ¡°I suppose, I can say that I¡¯m trying to stop what the 2Ms are doing in this city.

    ¡°This organization we¡¯re fighting, they¡¯re looking for people who could become Corebrings, those who have high probability of being chosen by the Mother Core, and try to force them to turn into Adumbrae. All these monsters are just by-products of their numerous experiments.¡±

    ¡°Wai-wait. I don¡¯t understand. You can¡¯t force people to become an Adumbrae. Except for a Purple Bloom¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right, you can¡¯t force people to become one. Even a Purple Bloom can¡¯t. It assimilates people into its consciousness instead, which is different. But the 2Ms seems to think they can. And they''re attempting it on potential Corebring candidates.¡±

    ¡°You mean this girl? She has the qualities of becoming an Initiate?¡±

    ¡°Something like that. I actually saved her from the underground complex of the 2Ms. But, unfortunately, she escaped my custody and returned here to her condo unit. I wasn¡¯t sure what she was thinking. For now, I surmise her own energies are acting up. That¡¯s why she¡¯s out of commission right now.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I don¡¯t know what to think of this.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. This doesn¡¯t concern you anyway. Escaping is your concern.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. But you know what¡¯s a concern of mine? What you did to my body. Why did you use me? Why don¡¯t you fight? You said you killed all of those monsters back there.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s simple. My ability is to bestow powers on people, including myself. But it comes with the condition that the stronger the person I¡¯m giving the power to, the more energy I need to expend. The definition of strong is a bit iffy. Suffice to say that my body is pretty indestructible, super strong in a sense, and I need tons of energy to make myself physically stronger for combat using my unique ability; I expended a lot of my energy in that fight earlier and my tanks are now low. However, I only need a small amount of power to give strength to something weak, like a normal human.¡±

    ¡°I suppose I am weak in your eyes,¡± said Doms with a smirk.

    "Mommy is strong!" Lizzie insisted.

    ¡°I help you become strong, I help you fight and protect your daughter, I help you escape. In turn, you¡¯re also helping me to escape. It¡¯s a win-win situation for both of us.¡± There was a slight rumble. I stopped the cart. We were already near the center part of the building. Up ahead, the glass doors leading to it were shattered, the walls on the sides smashed as if something big forced itself through.

    ¡°But how does it work? The specifics. Why can you speak inside my hea¡ª?¡±

    I held up a finger. We listened. There it was. Screams. Roars.

    "Uh-oh," Lizzie said.

    ¡°What do we do here?¡±

    ¡°What do you think? We can go back and use the stairs, or go forward, try to help these people, and maybe find a better way down. Your husband may also be there.¡±

    "You''re right," she said, her expression growing determined.

    ¡°This is the best way to learn how my power works. Nothing beats a practical approach to teaching. Let''s go!¡±

 3.25 - Cassandra

    Harriet Cassandra

    1:07 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    ¡°Here¡¯s one coming up!¡± Cassandra said. She anxiously shifted her stance; her left ankle still hurt after the bad fall she had running down the stairs. Fleeing in high-heeled boots was a challenge, but she was too stubborn to take them off; they are very expensive.

    She chewed her lips while watching the number displayed on top of the metal doors gradually tic upwards. She came closer, eager to enter as soon as it opened. This was the only working elevator out of the four.

    3, 4, 5, come here to the 16th floor.

    But what if there were people inside? She tightened her grip on the rubber handle of the baseball bat she wielded. If that was the case, then they just had to make way for her...or I¡¯ll force them to make way.

    Made of aluminum, the bat felt incredibly light. But it was also sturdy. It was a bat specifically made for home defense that the bartender kept below the counter in case there was an especially rowdy customer. This should be enough to dispatch anyone inside who¡¯d try to stop her from getting on. It wasn¡¯t much use against Adumbrae, as the bartender himself personally came to know, but it would be helpful in taking control of this eleva¡ª

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Melinda, the grouchy lawyer from Wilkens and Kingson, demanded of her.

    Cassandra scowled. She hated this hag. The bitch was strutting about, thinking she should be their leader even though they were the ones who saved her. But Cassandra did lower her bat, surprised at herself that she was already prepared to clobber anyone inside. Desperate times make people¡­well, desperate.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to fight those monsters? Are you insane?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­no.¡± She didn¡¯t say she was actually expecting people inside. It hadn¡¯t crossed her mind Adumbrae could also be using the elevator. It was possible, but she was too prideful to admit that. She begrudgingly backed away from the elevator door.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hide, first. Come.¡± Melinda trotted off on her platform sandals that sounded like cloven hooves when they hit the floor, the perfect sound for the devil that she was.

    ¡°Fine, whatever,¡± Cassandra grumbled. Lawyers couldn¡¯t be trusted in her eyes, but she still followed her. Survivability was higher if she stayed with the pack. She could also use these people as shields when it came down to it.

    ¡°Over here!¡± Rolly, the gym attendant for the midnight shift, called to them. He had forcefully opened a nearby room by smashing the lock using a barbell with a couple of small gym weight plates attached to one end¡ªan improvised sledgehammer. He followed after the two of them entered, giving off an air of protective masculinity, something Cassandra recognized all too often.

    A perfect candidate for a meatshield, she thought. Just like that bartender. She scrunched her nose. ¡°Ugh, it also smells. Is something in here?¡±

    ¡°The door was locked. It just smells bad everywhere.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s like gasoline. The stench is already stuck in our noses that we smell it everywhere,¡± Melinda conjectured. She turned to Rolly. ¡°Don¡¯t turn on the lights,¡± she said as he reached for the switch. ¡°We don¡¯t want to be noticed.¡± She took a position next to the slightly ajar door, peering outside to observe the incoming elevator. Rolly shrugged and stood beside her, trying to get a view as well.

    The last member of their group, the elderly but still spry Connelly, was already inside the room, giving it a quick look for possible threats, brandishing one of the prized swords from his expensive Persian blades collection, or so he said. The bright lights from the corridor coming through the small gap glinted off his scimitar. Cassandra could hear him furiously sniffing. ¡°What was that?¡± Connelly asked as she approached him. ¡°You going to fight them monsters?¡±

    ¡°Not really. No,¡± she replied. She eyed the crusted blood on the sharp edge of the blade. The blood of his son that had the misfortune of visiting him this dreadful night, the elder Connelly had explained. He took his own son¡¯s life before he could fully transform into an Adumbrae. This man was a useful ally, but also a dangerous one. She had to watch her steps around him.

    ¡°We can only take care of the weaker ¡®uns. Stronger ¡®uns, don¡¯t bother.¡±

    ¡°Quiet,¡± Melinda whispered. She had a finger on her lips. With her other hand, she raised her silver revolver that looked like it had never been used before.

    ¡°It¡¯s here,¡± Rolly said. There was the ding of the elevator stopping on their floor followed by the subtle hiss of the doors opening.

    ¡°I can¡¯t see the back of the elevator,¡± Melinda said in hushed tones. They crowded behind her. From the angle they were looking from, they could only see the left front half of the elevator.

    ¡°Should we rush out now?¡± Cassandra said, hoping to encourage others to go out before her and bait out possible danger.

    ¡°What if there¡¯s something in there?¡±

    ¡°What if the elevator leaves, huh? You don¡¯t mean to tell me you want to use the stairs?¡±

    ¡°And what will you do if there¡¯s something inside? Kids these days¡ª¡±

    ¡°Sixteen fucking floors, Melinda,¡± Cassandra said. She looked at Rolly and fluttered her eyes, wordlessly imploring him to come to her aid.

    ¡°Hush,¡± Connelly growled from behind them. ¡°Something¡¯s inside. The shadows.¡±

    He was right. There was a hint of shadows on the floor. Cassandra didn¡¯t notice it immediately because the light from the corridor washed it away.

    A person? An Adumbrae?

    They wouldn¡¯t know if they didn¡¯t go out.

    The elevator would certainly close soon if the person inside had pressed the button for another floor or if someone from a different floor called for it. But she wasn¡¯t the one going out there first. She took a step nearer to Rolly, almost about to press her breasts against his muscled arms. If I could just get this guy to go all macho and be the bait. She put on her best damsel-in-distress face and looked up at him. ¡°Rolly, can you¡ª¡±

    There was a thud outside. ¡°A person!¡± Melinda exclaimed.

    Someone had dropped face-down on the floor. His torso out in the hallway, his legs still inside the elevator. The elevator dinged again, closing its doors, but the body blocked it. What good luck! ¡°Is he dead?¡± Cassandra asked.

    ¡°Nope,¡± Connelly answered. ¡°He¡¯s ¡®un of them monsters.¡±

    ¡°Turning into one to be exact,¡± Melinda said.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    The man jerked to life, then convulsed on the ground. His groans reached them. He turned over and they saw black veins creeping up the left side of his body, covering his neck, climbing his cheek, coiling up his arms to his fingers. They radiated from a point in his neck, a point that the man stabbed with a sharp object, although Cassandra didn¡¯t have a clear view of what it was.

    A knife?

    The man gripped the sharp object with both hands, driving it deeper into his neck. Red blood mixed with black liquid flowed not only out of his wound but also from his ear and mouth.

    ¡°He looks familiar,¡± Cassandra said. She was sure she had seen him in the lobby when she complained about the foul smell to the janitor. The blue jacket with the logo of Marty¡¯s he wore, now partially obscured by black goo and deep red blood, was too distinct.

    ¡°My god,¡± Rolly said. ¡°Is that Ramon? Ramon the pizza guy?¡±

    Connelly clicked his tongue. ¡°Mother Core forsakes us. If the pizza delivery guy is turning into ¡®un of ¡®em, that means¡ª¡±

    ¡°The ground floor also has monsters,¡± Melinda finished. ¡°Nowhere is safe.¡±

    ¡°We still have to get to the bottom of the building somehow,¡± Cassandra said. ¡°And there¡¯s our way! Taking the stairs is suicide!¡±

    ¡°What do you suggest we do, Miss-know-it-all?¡±

    ¡°We can¡­uh¡­¡± Cassandra turned to Connelly. They were scared for their safety. How about this old guy? She doubted her sex appeal would do much to him so how about she tried this? ¡°He¡¯s still human. We can help him. At least let him pass on as a human. Unless our lawyer here has a problem with that?¡±

    ¡°Hmph. At this point, it is arguably self-preservation. There is jurisprudence to support¡ª"

    The elevator sounded again. It tried to close its doors, but the struggling pizza guy¡¯s body kept it open. He continued moaning in pain, continuing to stab whatever it was in his neck. He wasn¡¯t winning, that was clear.

    ¡°We have to act now.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s right,¡± Rolly said. Cassandra did a mini-dance in her head to celebrate. He nudged the door open with his shoulder, his barbell at the ready. ¡°If you guys won¡¯t do it, I will.¡±

    A screech from behind them. A flash of black ball in the darkness of the room. Connelly yelled in pain. Thuds of struggle. Without knowing what it was and without looking behind her at Connelly¡¯s fate, Cassandra immediately dropped to the floor and crawled to the other end of the room as fast as she could. The old man shouted profanities, and Melinda joined in. Sounds of a fight. The lights were turned on, perhaps by Rolly, and they finally got to see what it was.

    ¡°The hell¡­¡±

    ¡°Fuck.¡±

    ¡°What is it!?¡±

    ¡°I got it! I got it¡­¡± Connelly huffed as he leaned on his sword. ¡°Piece of shit.¡± His precious scimitar skewered with its curved blade a small grey creature, pinning it to the floor. ¡°Fucking demon baby.¡±

    And that pretty much summed it up. It was a crying, stretching its chubby short arms up, trying to reach Connelly. It grabbed the sword and pulled itself upward, the blade sliding through its body.

    Melinda stepped forward and fired her gun. She missed. ¡°Fuck,¡± she spat. The baby cried even harder. She walked as near as she dared and put a couple of bullets into its head. It stopped crying.

    Everything fell silent. Only their breathing could be heard. They looked at each other.

    ¡°Is that¡­¡± Cassandra¡¯s eyes were drawn to the fleshy string growing out of the baby¡¯s stomach leading to something behind the couch, ¡°¡­an umbilical cord?¡±

    ¡°Might be,¡± Connelly said. He held down the baby''s deflated head with his boot and pulled out his sword.

    Ding!

    They all jolted in surprise. The elevator! Her ticket to escape. They nearly forgot about it! She stood up, ready to rush out. She was determined to fight her way into the elevator. She hoped that, at the least, Rolly would go with her. They could leave the rest. She was at the doorway, beside Rolly, when a bloodcurdling shriek made her stop. All of them tensed up, looking for the source of the noise.

    ¡°My¡­baby¡­.¡± said a belabored guttural voice. From behind the velvet L-shaped sofa at the corner of the room, something stirred. An Adumbrae? Connelly might¡¯ve missed it when he hastily checked the room earlier.

    A gnarled hand with extremely long, twig-like fingers gripped the top of the sofa, followed by a rotting arm that had several joints a human arm shouldn¡¯t have. It pulled the rest of the body hiding behind it. A ten-foot-tall woman towered over them, her head already hitting the ceiling. Her body was nearly just skin and bones, her tattered clothes draping loosely like a sail hanging on a mast in a windless sea. She cried black liquid from her sunken eyes.

    ¡°Baby¡­where¡­¡± she moaned as she stepped over the backrest of the sofa with her freakishly long legs. Cassandra noticed the umbilical cord from the dead baby monster connected to between her legs. ¡°Baby¡­dead?¡±

    ¡°We should run from this ¡®un,¡± Connelly said as two-foot-long black claws burst out of the fingers of the willowy Adumbrae. ¡°Out!¡±

    Cassandra shoved Rolly out of the way and nearly jumped into the corridor in her panicked escape. The heel of her left boot broke. She fell on the floor, crying in pain as her foot and ankle twisted in an awkward position. Rolly fell on top of her, but he dropped the barbell to the side as he did. Melinda jumped over the two of them. Connelly was the last to exit the room.

    ¡°Stand up and run!¡± he shouted at them as he closed the door.

    Cassandra was about to pick herself up, ignoring the pain as much as she could, when Rolly stopped her from standing up. There was a crash. Something splashed on them. Blood. They looked up. Connelly¡¯s blood.

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± Cassandra said. The Adumbrae¡¯s claws pierced the door and went through the old man¡¯s chest.

    ¡°Go,¡± he managed to say before vomiting more blood. He roared and stabbed his sword into the door. A shriek responded from the other side. ¡°Go!¡± he yelled.

    Rolly helped Cassandra stand up. ¡°Where do we go?¡±

    ¡°The elevator!¡± she said, pointing her bat in that direction.

    ¡°No!¡± countered Melinda. ¡°Let¡¯s go this way.¡± She ran off the opposite end of the corridor.

    ¡°Don¡¯t follow her,¡± Cassandra said. She squeezed his arm. ¡°I already came from there. Adumbrae are there too! Let¡¯s escape in the elevator.¡±

    ¡°But Melinda,¡± Rolly said, resisting her pull towards the elevator.

    ¡°She¡¯s already gone!¡±

    ¡°Go already, dammit!¡± Connelly said. ¡°I can¡¯t hold¡ªAaaa!¡± The door shattered and Connelly was pulled inside the room.

    ¡°The elevator,¡± Cassandra said, almost whimpering as the pain of her injured ankle was getting to her.

    Rolly followed her instructions and carried her towards the elevator. ¡°Fuck this,¡± he said. ¡°Oh, shit!¡±

    The wall to their left exploded. Connelly¡¯s mangled body was thrust into the hallway, held in the Adumbrae¡¯s grip, blocking their path. Both of them fell to the floor in surprise. The Adumbrae exited the room through the hole it made with Connelly¡¯s corpse as a battering ram.

    ¡°Follow Melinda,¡± Rolly said. He set Cassandra down on the floor and picked up the barbell-sledgehammer with both hands. ¡°I¡¯ll hold this thing here for as long as I can.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean follow Melinda?¡± Cassandra said hysterically, her voice nearly breaking into a shriek. ¡°I can barely walk!¡± But as she said that, she was already crawling on the floor. She tried to stand up, using her baseball bat as a crutch. ¡°Fuck!¡± she yelled in pain.

    ¡°Come and get some of this!¡± Rolly yelled.

    Cassandra looked back as she limped, tracing Melinda¡¯s path, and saw him waving his barbell to swat away the Adumbrae¡¯s long arms. ¡°Why can¡¯t these people just help me?¡± she panted, breathing through clenched teeth, trying her best to endure the pain. ¡°Where¡¯s that hag, Melinda?¡±

    The Adumbrae flicked her fingers and cut off one of Rolly¡¯s hands. He dropped his barbell and screamed in pain.

    ¡°Shit. I¡¯m going to be next,¡± Cassandra said. She hastened her pace, but the pain in her ankles nearly made her crumple on the floor. ¡°I¡¯m not going to give up,¡± she hissed. ¡°I¡¯m not going to fucking die here.¡±

    The Adumbrae cried, ¡°MY BABY! WHO KILLED MY BA¡ª¡±

    Surprised at the abruptly cut-off screams of the Adumbrae, Cassandra checked behind her once again. The head of the Adumbrae was on the floor beside Rolly who was holding his severed hand. A fountain of black liquid gushed out of the monster''s neck. The Adumbrae fell on her knees, revealing their savior behind her.

    It was the pizza delivery guy.

    He was mostly human, except that his left arm has turned into a huge blade.

    Was he going to kill them too?

 3.26 - Ramon

    Charles Ramon Peterson

    1:20 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    No! It hurts¡­so bad¡­ Ramon wished for death.

    The centipede-looking creature with pinchers dropped from the ceiling and jumped on him. He tried to grab it and throw it away, but it already latched on the side of his neck, securing itself with dozens of its sharp limbs. Unimaginable pain coursed through him as the creature effortlessly ripped his skin and chewed his flesh, digging deep into his body. He couldn¡¯t pull it out. He couldn¡¯t stop it. His mouth gaped in agony but the pain was too much he couldn¡¯t even gather the strength to scream out loud.

    Just let it all end¡­

    ¡­

    Be one¡­Crave for power¡­Reach across the veil¡­Why am I thinking this?

    His thoughts were jumbled. Was it the creature turning him into a monster? This was it then. Every trace of his humanity would be soon gone. But the pain slowly numbed and disappeared. Not just the pain. He couldn¡¯t feel¡­at all. His own movements, the hard floor beneath him, the creature in his neck¡­ nothing. It was as if time crawled to a stop. His consciousness was being whisked away, but at the same time he stayed anchored in his body. He was outside his body, witnessing it get taken over by the creature. At the same time, he was also inside his mind. Trapped. The creature was pushing him to a corner. He could hear its thoughts. It was calling out for something.

    You are nothing...life is meaningless...your life is meaningless...He already knew that. Why did he think that now?

    You can find meaning...it''s not too late...I can give you meaning...what do you want? Who was this inside his head?

    ¡­

    I¡¯m taking you with me! You¡¯re dying with me! Ramon repeated this mantra as he held on to the knife.

    In the swirling consciousness that wasn¡¯t his own, he was able to resurface. The next thing he knew, he had already stabbed himself. No. He stabbed the creature inside him. What happened to Boady and Johnson came back to him. Boady had stabbed the slug in Johnson¡¯s leg before it took him over. With this same knife! And then Boady, with amazing will, tried to kill the slug inside his head as it made its way to his brain. Boady failed and turned into a monster. Ramon resolved that he wouldn¡¯t.

    Better die as a human!

    ¡­

    What happened? Why am I still alive?

    The cloud over his mind was lifted. There were no other thoughts drowning his own. There was no pain. There was clarity. And strength! He clenched his teeth to stop himself from screaming out loud. He stood tall, brimming with power.

    And what was this before him?

    A headless monster.

    On the floor was the monster¡¯s severed head covered with long hair, its mouth wide open, screaming as it died. He continued looking down and noticed a blade. It was like the upper part of a gigantic crab claw crossed with a single-edged curved sword. My arm! Before he could gather his thoughts, the headless corpse stirred. Tentacles emerged out of the stump of the neck. There were roars from behind him. A couple of hulking monsters burst forth from the walls and charged towards him. Now wasn¡¯t the time to think about what was happening to his body.

    Now was the time to fight!

    <hr>

    ¡°Why did you have to bring him?¡±

    A woman¡¯s voice.

    Who was she?

    Ramon might¡¯ve heard her speak before, but he wasn¡¯t sure.

    She shouted over the din of someone¡­or something¡­pounding hard on wood. The door? There were also other sounds¡­scratching, wailing, eerie chatter, growls that made his heart uneasy. They were stifled; outside the room, maybe? He opened his eyes and winced at the bright light over him. Where was he? What happened?

    ¡°He¡¯s an Adumbrae!¡± the woman said. He was shocked at her words, but Ramon closed his eyes again and pretended to still be unconscious. ¡°You should¡¯ve left him there to die. Look, he already healed himself.¡±

    ¡°Because he helped us,¡± replied a man. He sounded like he had a hard time talking; he was in agony and was only forcing himself to speak.

    ¡°Not much help when he also destroyed the elevator. That was our ticket out.¡±

    ¡°He helped us,¡± the man repeated. Then he groaned in pain.

    ¡°And how sure are you he¡¯s going to continue helping us? Look at him! He¡¯s an Adumbrae.¡±

    Ramon wanted to shout ¡®No!¡¯ to her, but he didn¡¯t move. Adumbrae? I''m not an Adumbrae. Why would she say that?

    Everything came back to him.

    The two continued to argue while Ramon laid still, processing everything that happened so far.

    What do I do now?

    A heavy object was being pushed. He felt the vibrations of the floor with his cheek.

    He could also feel that his body wasn¡¯t human. Without needing to look at a mirror¡­he just knew.

    Am I still me?

    Someone stamped their foot on the floor. ¡°He¡¯s not much help now, is he?¡± the woman said. ¡°You only delayed us. And now we¡¯re trapped.¡±

    ¡°He¡­he can help us.¡±

    ¡°Try to wake him up then? If you¡¯re so sure he¡¯ll help us.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡¯m not going to do that.¡±

    ¡°Then what do you propose we do? You just led us here in this room to die!¡±

    ¡°Shut...shut up! Help me get more things to¡­to¡­ungh¡­to block this door,¡± said the man. ¡°They¡¯re trying to break it down.¡± As if to prove his point, the monsters outside intensified their efforts to get inside the room, their growls growing louder.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to fucking die!¡± the woman cried out. ¡°No, no, no, no. This isn¡¯t happening!¡±

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯re you doing with that gun? Are¡­are you going to kill yourse¡ª?¡±

    ¡°No fucking way I¡¯m going to do something idiotic like that.¡± She walked closer to Ramon, her shoes clicking on the tiled floor. He cracked his eyelids a sliver. Her shadow was over him. She said, ¡°I-I¡­I¡¯m going to kill as many of them as I can before they eat me. Starting with this one.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot hi¡ª!¡±

    Ramon fully opened his eyes, sat straight up, grabbed the gun that was pointed down at his head, and threw it away. The woman yelped in surprised and jumped back. She sprinted to one of the bedrooms in the condominium unit and slammed the door shut.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    The other person in the unit was a shirtless man leaning on the stack of furniture and various things blocking the door. He was holding up a bat with one hand, ready to strike. But it was obvious he didn¡¯t pose any threat.

    His other hand was just a bloody stump, his face deathly pale and covered in sweat. The torn clothes he used to wrap his injury was dripping blood on the floor. ¡°Are¡­are you on our side?¡± he said.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Ramon said, lowering his blade-arm, unsure of what he could say to convince him that he meant no harm. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m on your side.¡±

    There was the sound of something breaking. It was clearly the door being torn down even if they couldn¡¯t see it because it was covered by an ornately carved wooden cabinet. Suddenly, all of the things blocking the door lurched forward.

    ¡°No!¡± the man said, throwing his body over the furniture. ¡°You¡¯re not getting in!¡±

    Once again, Ramon didn¡¯t know what was going on. With his body. With his surroundings. But he only knew that one thing was certain. He was going to fight the monsters that were trying to get in this room.

    Fight them.

    And kill them.

    He strode over to the injured man with renewed purpose and helped him stand up. ¡°Go and hide. I¡¯ll take care of them.¡± The man nodded and staggered away to find a hiding place, cradling his injured arm.

    Ramon held out his blade-arm in front of him. The chitinous plating covering the left side of his body shifted, brushing against each other as he moved, like it was plate armor worn by a knight in fairy tales. Except that he wasn''t a prince in shining armor; he was the monster.

    How was he supposed to use this blade-arm? Just swing it wildly? It was sharp. He was strong, several times stronger than before. It didn¡¯t need a genius to figure out what to do.

    Just cut everything in my path.

    Something stirred inside his blade-arm. Energy hidden within. Concentrating on this power, the blade glowed a sinister violet. Scattered along the spine of his blade-arm, the part that looked like a huge crab claw, were holes, or more like small vents. These vents puffed up black smoke, as if something ignited inside his blade-arm. The air around it shimmered from the heat.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get this party started,¡± he said, giving his blade a few test swings. He snorted. Why the hell did I say that? The absurdity of the situation caught up with him. He laughed at the stupid line he said. At his stupid situation. At¡ª

    Crash!! A large tentacle shot through the cabinet.

    Ramon turned his body, positioning his armored part forward. The tentacle slammed into him, but he stood his ground. He was momentarily stunned not by the force of the blow but at how strong he became. He instinctively slashed at the tentacle. There was a blur and the tentacle was cut into pieces.

    I¡¯m fast as hell!

    The tentacle withdrew through the hole it made. The pieces he hacked that fell to the floor burned with violet flames.

    Clawed hands were the next to come out of the hole, digging at its edges, making it bigger, ripping the wood and upholstery. Ramon jumped on the couch in front of the cabinet and slashed at anything that emerged out of the hole. The creatures on the other side squealed as he sliced them. The violet fire crept up their limbs, continuing to burn and consume their mutated and decaying flesh.

    With this wave of monsters retreating, Ramon saw through the opening what was coming next.

    ¡°Oh, shit,¡± he said, crossing his arms in front of him.

    A large ghoulish skull forced itself through the crowd of monsters packed in the corridor, shoving those that got in its way, smashing past what remained of the door and the rickety barricades. It burst into the room and slammed into Ramon. He arched across the air and crashed into the opposite wall.

    The skull, which was as large as his upper body, opened its mouth. Several voices speaking gibberish filled the air.

    And his head.

    ¡°Aaah!¡± Ramon cried out. His head hurt so much. His movement became sluggish from the pain.

    The voices were singing. The jumbled choir became increasingly louder and louder, the piercing voices speaking over each other, each one following a different melody, each song bringing up a painful memory from deep within him. The death of his best friend...his mother and father fighting...his pet dog...

    ¡°Shut the fuck up!¡± As an angry battle cry left his lips, he leapt at the skull hovering near the ceiling and stabbed it repeatedly with his blade-arm. He sliced the sides of its face, removing its lower jaw. Then he jammed his blade into the eye sockets. Violet flames engulfed the floating skull.

    Something cracked inside of it and exploded. Once again, he was thrown back.

    ¡°You¡­you¡­fucking piece of shit.¡± The right side of Ramon¡¯s body was heavily injured by the impact of the blast. Pieces of the skull tore into the mostly human and unarmored part of his torso. But it wasn¡¯t the physical pain that hurt the most.

    It was the memories brought back by the skull¡¯s singing.

    He closed his eyes, trying to forget about them, but they wouldn¡¯t go away.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill all of you!¡± He jumped through the doorway into the seething masses of monsters.

    He hoped that fighting and killing would make him forget about those memories. That it would also make him forget about his situation, that he was no longer human. He slashed at everything that moved. And all of them attacked him. He screamed in pain as they bit off chunks of his flesh, as they clawed at his body, as they yanked off pieces of his armor. A monster spat acid on his shoulder. Spikes buried in his back.

    The pain only increased his bloodlust. But in this rage, he was able to find peace and think.

    I wasn''t much of a human before.

    And now, the human Ramon was practically dead.

    Gone.

    What remained was a monster with parts that looked like human, but a human, he was no more. His monster heart ached at this realization.

    Tears streamed from his human right eye as he continued fighting even as the monsters did their best to eat him. He couldn¡¯t hear anything other than the beat of his heart.

    Only then when he realized that he was screaming. And he couldn¡¯t hear himself.

    Mom¡­I¡¯m sorry.

    Memories of his family and friends¡­

    He didn¡¯t have a good life. He didn¡¯t accomplish much. Nothing to be proud of. A tiny blip in the entirety of existence that made no impact at all. He wasn¡¯t able to help Boady and Johnson. He set out to help Erind, but he also failed that task before he found her. He wasn¡¯t even able to kill himself before he turned into a monster. And when he died here, he would also fail the those two people hiding in the room. He recalled what that woman said before trying to shoot him.

    The least I can do is kill as many of these monsters as I can before I die!

    <hr>

    ¡°I¡­I¡­survived?¡± Ramon said. His body was grievously injured but was already healing back. He didn¡¯t know what to think. He expected to die. ¡°Is¡­is this a second chance?¡±

    He trudged back to the room where those two people hid. If this was a second chance, then he was going to help these two get to safety, and any other survivor they may come across. He was going to kill each monster they''d meet. That would be one less monster hunting other people still alive in this building. Hopefully, Erind was one of those survivors.

    ¡°It¡¯s not over yet,¡± he said to himself as he climbed over the pile of monster corpses outside the doorway. His original plan of reaching the roof was still doable. The man and woman in this room, he was going to bring them up there. He also promised to try and find Erind, but he wasn¡¯t so sure he still could. ¡°And after that¡­after that¡­I¡¯ll¡­¡± He didn¡¯t know what to do.

    There was no after that for him.

    He shook his head and looked for the two hiding in this room, following the man''s trail of blood on the white tiles. He was going to think about that after all of this. If hiding in the sewers for the rest of his life was the answer, then so be it. It seemed the world didn¡¯t want him to die just yet.

    ¡°Hello?¡± Ramon said. ¡°It¡¯s safe to come out now.¡± He found the woman with the wounded man. Perhaps she looked for him during all the fighting. She didn¡¯t seem as bad as his first impression of her.

    Unfortunately, she also retrieved Boady¡¯s gun and was pointing it at him. ¡°Back off, Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not an Adumbrae. I didn''t answer the call of the Adumbrae from across the veil. I was turned into a monster. I¡­I didn¡¯t want this.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Still a monster.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. But I¡¯m on your side. I¡¯m a victim too.¡±

    She slowly lowered her gun. Her face was confused. He did save them twice now. She had been crying. Her tears ruined her heavy eyeliners. The man beside her was unconscious but breathing shallowly.

    ¡°I killed all monsters outside.¡± Ramon continued in a gentle voice. He knelt down and hid his blade-arm behind his back. ¡°I don¡¯t know how I regained consciousness and didn''t become one of them. Like one of those outside that hunt humans. But I assure you, even if I look like this, I''m still human deep within and I''ll help you get out of this building alive.¡±

    ¡°You¡­you will?¡± Her face crumpled and she began crying again. ¡°We have to get out fast. Rolly¡­Rolly is dying. He bled too much.¡±

    The woman had a complete change of attitude compared to when she wanted to kill Ramon earlier. Apparently, she also cared for this Rolly. Perhaps she was just stressed by the situation. He could relate to that. ¡°Rolly? Is that his name? My name is Ramon.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­I¡¯m Cassandra.¡±

    He picked up Rolly and went out of the room. ¡°Let¡¯s get clear of this place before more of them come.¡±

    ¡°Ho-How do we get down? The stairs?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re using the stairs. No other choice. But we¡¯re not going down.¡±

    ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Do you still have your phone?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I have it. But there¡¯s no signal.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± He patted Rolly¡¯s pocket and felt that he also had his phone. Ramon had somehow lost his own when he dived the crowd of monsters earlier.

    ¡°Um...you still didn''t say where we¡¯re going. How do we get out of this place?¡±

    ¡°Up."

    "Up?"

    "We¡¯re going up to call for help. That¡¯s our way out.¡±

 3.27

    Erind Hartwell

    2:04 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

    They say your life flashes before your eyes when you were about to die. Fact? Or just a clich¨¦ line from the movies to sound cool? I¡¯ve read an article about some research that suggested it was real to an extent. Science mumbo jumbo that the last part of the brain to go before dying was the part with memories.

    Maybe it was real then? I dunno.

    I¡¯ve been in several dangerous situations myself. A few of them could¡¯ve gone horribly wrong and resulted in my death. Come to think of it, I¡¯ve actually had near-death experiences like three times already. First, when that bitch Myra tried to kill me, and then I met SpookyErind. Second, in the arena below the Eve club, when Mr. Ogre absolutely destroyed me in our one-versus-one fight; I got him back for that though, thanks to Deen. And last, when those fucker agents from the BID detonated their Greaves Reactors and nearly burned my ass to ashes, along my body attached to said ass, literally.

    None of that life-flashing-thingy so far.

    Too bad I wasn¡¯t going to experience that now either. Given my indestructible body, I doubted if being the bait for a dangerous monster would count as a near-death experience.

    I was genuinely curious what it looked like though¡­that life-flashing-thingy.

    ¡°Look over here, you ugly fuck!¡± I shouted. The bulky greyish monster that looked like a gorilla with the hind legs of a wolf didn¡¯t listen to me. Rude. It was occupied with chomping down one of the group of humans it cornered at the far-left edge of the huge office space full of cubicles on the 21<sup>st</sup> floor.

    A balding guy wearing glasses and a plaid shirt splattered with blood desperately threw a gun that was probably out of bullets at the monster. It harmlessly bounced off its hunched back. The monster continued eating, and the woman on the floor continued screaming. Bald guy bravely stepped forward to try and save the woman. Armed with an electric guitar that he took from one of the kids behind him¡ªhis son, most likely¡ªhe bonked the gorilla monster on its head.

    It almost looked like a comedic gag except that the monster didn¡¯t find it funny.

    It grabbed the man¡¯s arms, spreading him out like the letter ¡®T¡¯ dangling in the air. The man cried for help as the monster tried to pull him apart. Unwilling to go down without a fight, he kicked the gorilla monster¡¯s head, but it caught his leg with its jaw and bit down hard. If I still had my human body, I would¡¯ve cringed at the grating crunch of the bone.

    ¡°Pino!¡± Doms yelled from somewhere in the opposite corner of this office space. She was hiding inside one of the still standing cubicles in that area, waiting to do her part of the plan after I made my move.

    Whoops, I got too entertained watching the gorilla monster eating people. If Mom was here, she would scold me that I got entranced again with animals eating each other, just like she did when I was still a little kid.

    ¡°On it!¡± I answered back. ¡°Face here, fuckface!¡± Ugh, stupid line. ¡°Drop that guy!¡± I rushed at the gorilla monster with my weapon held high¡ªa spiky leg from a dead giant insect we passed. As I got close enough to have a better look, I found the reddish glow that indicated the location of the parasites. (It¡¯s hiding in the spinal cord!) I told Doms.

    I stabbed the monster from behind with the spike, aiming for the bony ridge along the middle of its back, like its spine grew too large and protruded out of its skin. There were hints of the enlarged spinal cord showing through the gaps of the vertebrae. The tip of the spike hit the bony part instead of the spinal cord and glanced off.

    Fuck.

    Oh well, I wasn¡¯t planning on killing the parasite myself anyway. From experience, it appeared we needed to kill these monsters twice: first, kill the main body; and next, kill the parasite that could still control the body.

    Or just inflict so much damage that could kill them both at the same time, like my best pal, Cesar, did ripping everything in his path. Condolences to his wife, Doms.

    The gorilla monster still didn¡¯t pay any attention to me.

    How about this? Swinging my upper body down to add to the force, I held on tightly to the spike as I attempted to jam it into its lower back. The spike pierced its thick hide and penetrated about an inch. I did draw some blood. Yey!

    The monster looked over its shoulder, its mouth full of the bald guy¡¯s flesh and bones. It roared at me, spraying me with gore.

    Uh-oh.

    Or that would¡¯ve been the apt reaction¡­if I wasn¡¯t fucking indestructible.

    ¡°Stop eating too much, that¡¯s not heal¡ª¡± I shut my mouth. Wow, that was awful. I sucked at coming up with one-liners. I needed to get better at this if I was going to cultivate a heroic face. The Saturday movie nights with Mom watching campy superhero movies wasn¡¯t a good influence on me. ¡°Hey, can we have a redo¡ª¡± WHAMM!

    A massive backhand sent me in a direct flight path to the plasterboard wall of the office space. My body punched through it, tumbling into the next area, and kept on rolling until I crashed into a concrete column. I dropped to the floor in a heap, dust and pieces of concrete from the cracked column falling on me.

    Damage check. Joints? Body parts?

    My left hand, which was still holding the insect leg, was half a dozen feet in front of me, near the partition wall; I focused on pulling it back to my wrist. My left foot was a couple of feet to the left of my ankle. My right arm was bent backwards. The rest were still intact, but some joints were loosened. I concentrated on reforming my body again.

    I felt the impact of the hit¡ªin the sense that it vibrated throughout my metal body, not that it was painful or anything. The disconnect with what I expected to feel and what I actually ¡®felt¡¯ with my metal body was disconcerting, like if you ate something that looked sweet and it ended up being savory. Weird, but I was starting to appreciate this body.

    I found myself in an empty portion of the floor. The lights weren¡¯t even turned on. Maybe it wasn¡¯t rented out yet?

    Through the hole on the wall my body made, I saw the gorilla monster flinging around the screaming bald guy like a rag doll.

    I waved my hands at it. ¡°I¡¯m still alive!¡± I could later say that I drew it here in this empty space to get it away from the survivors. That would lead credence to my story that I was a ¡®good¡¯ Adumbrae. ¡°Come and get me!¡± I called out.

    Seeing I was still standing, the gorilla monster bellowed at me. It threw away the bald guy it was eating at a water dispenser. The two kids chased after him. Yeah, they''re probably his children or something.

    The monster pounded its hairy chest, hunkered down on its knuckles, then charged at me on all fours in an awkward run. Awkward, but powerful. A filing cabinet was in its way. One punch and it was flying. The same thing happened to the fake potted fern bush beside it. The monster¡¯s eyes glowed red in rage.

    I didn¡¯t move from my spot. I was supposed to be bait. But I did sit down and hug my knees, hoping this position would be best at keeping my body together.

    (Doms! It¡¯s coming for me!) I sent to her mind, although she also would¡¯ve seen it.

    (I¡¯m moving.)

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°GRoawwh!¡± It charged past the plasterboard wall, carving out a bigger hole, and launched itself at me with its springy hindlegs, almost reaching the ceiling in one great leap.

    (Check the kids first), I managed to squeeze before two barrel-sized fists descended on me.

    BAAMMM!

    The ground, or even maybe the entire level, shook. My body sunk half an inch into it the floor. This is pretty neat, I thought. I was literally looking at the floor cracking because a gorilla monster was trying to forcefully replace the tiles with my body.

    I held onto my knees and pooled all my thoughts in holding my joints tight; Doms wasn¡¯t here yet so there was no need to control the power of my fingers.

    ¡°GHrooo, groawwhhh!¡±

    The fists fell again and again like a group of burly workers with sledgehammers taking turns driving a stake to the ground. My body creaked, but it was only my detachable parts rubbing against each other.

    There was no damage to me at all. Zero, nada, squat, zilch.

    Also no life-flashing-thingy. Awww, too bad.

    ¡°Ha¡­haha¡­hahaha.¡±

    When the skeleton centaur was dismantling me, I was annoyed with how weak I was. Having an indestructible body wasn¡¯t that great compared to having the strength to fight.

    Power is fun. Having lots of it was awesome.

    There was a reason why it was one of the most common manifestation of an Adumbrae bleeding its existence into our world. The other thing was extreme healing abilities. Not quite like being indestructible, but it was obvious why a lot of people would also be enticed by that. Still, I thought super strength to be able to fight was better.

    BAM!

    ¡°Hahahaha.¡± But now, I was warming up to having an unbreakable form.

    BAM! BAM!

    ¡°I¡¯m still alive!¡± I yelled to keep its attention on me. ¡°Hahahaha! Try and destroy me.¡± I must say this was exhilarating.

    Getting pounded by a powerful monster¡ªno sexual innuendo intended¡ªwhile having this tough body was a novel experience altogether different from having super strength. As I descended another half an inch into the floor, I realized this was becoming an addicting experience. My only concern was the floor giving way.

    Between the legs of the monster, I saw the armored Doms tending to the kids and the injured, or maybe already dead, balding man. What was taking her so long? I knew I told her I was indestructible and she shouldn¡¯t worry about me, but she should be more considerate with making people wait.

    (Doms, it¡¯s focused on me¡ª)

    (I''m coming!)

    KRrrrck¡­

    ¡°Huh? Wait¡­¡± The floor! Hold yourself together, I thought with all my might. My body was already buried halfway in the concrete. Cracks were everywhere. Shit. (Doms!)

    Ccracck¡­

    The gorilla monster jumped up. Its feet and massive butt fell on me like a dislodged boulder during an avalanche.

    Uh-oh!

    CRRRASSSSHHH!!! BAAMMM!

    I madly floundered mid-air for half a second in the midst broken slabs of concrete and a hairy monster ass above me before slamming into the floor below.

    Am I still alive?

    Clouds of dust filled the room, but my special eye could see the greenish glow of the gorilla monster looming over me, the reddish hue of the growing parasite inside its body overlapped with the monster¡¯s outline.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± I said as it grabbed both my arms and held me in front of its face like it did with the bald guy. It curiously sniffed me before roaring and biting the side of my torso. The only thing that broke were some of its teeth.

    ¡°Grooaaa!¡±

    ¡°That was your fault,¡± I said. (Doms, I fell through the hole¡ª) ¡°Hey! My arms!¡± It was pulling me apart and roaring at my face in anger, covering me with spit, blood and bits of teeth. I couldn¡¯t overcome its strength and it pulled my right arm off.

    It tossed the arm away. But as soon as it let it go, I willed it to go back to me. It was surprised when my right arm flew right back and reattached itself to my elbow. Then I jammed my arm as deep as I could down its open mouth. It clamped down its jaws, but luckily its fangs hit my upper arm instead of a joint. A few more broken teeth were its reward.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way you can destroy me,¡± I said, my cyclopean eye locking on its enraged bloodshot eyes.

    ¡°Pino!¡± Something heavy dropped on the back of the gorilla monster. It remained standing despite the heavy weight of Doms with her armor, but lost its footing on the heaps of broken concrete and fell on one knee. ¡°Sorry, I got delayed,¡± Doms said over the bellows of agony of the monster. She already got to work attacking the spinal cord.

    I was connected to Doms with three fingers. I increased the energy I sent through my strength finger while also matching it with healing from another finger. I tried to maintain a balance so she wouldn¡¯t suffer permanent damage after I disconnected from her.

    (Just focus on fighting), I repeated my earlier advice to her. (Don¡¯t think about increasing your strength or armor.)

    (Got it.)

    The gorilla monster released my other hand and reached for Doms, but its back was too broad and thick and its arms too muscular that it was having a hard time grabbing her. She continued hacking away at anything she could with her knife.

    As for me, I tried to squeeze anything I could grab inside its throat. Any damage would help out. I noticed these monsters weren¡¯t like Adumbrae; those regenerated, these monsters didn''t. The parasites, on the other hand, grew by consuming the host body, which wasn¡¯t technically regenerating.

    The gorilla monster swallowed as hard as it could, its throat muscles contracting, its tongue pushing my arm further down.

    I lost some of my fingers, then my whole hand, then my arm. I was about to be dislodged from its mouth. It only needed to swallow some more and then bite off my shoulder joint.

    ¡°Stop that, you fucking shit!¡± I said, punching its eye with my free left hand.

    It grabbed my left arm before I could land another punch and pulled, while biting down my upper right arm inside its mouth, intending to tear me in two. I let it pull out my left arm. It threw it away and then tried to catch Doms again.

    This time it succeeded.

    ¡°Let go of me!¡± Doms said. I saw her furiously stabbing the hands of the gorilla monster before it flung her upwards. She hit the ceiling and then crashed down on the floor.

    (Doms! Are you okay?)

    (I¡­I¡¯m still alive.)

    Still hanging from the mouth of the gorilla monster, I looked behind me and checked her situation. She was trying to get back to her feet. Even though she was encased in white bony armor, she was bound to be terribly hurt. I increased my healing power by half a notch again; I was hesitant to put it in full blast because I suspected that it, like the power of my strength finger, had a terrible cost.

    The gorilla monster grabbed me by the waist and began pulling me down while also chewing my upper arm. Our situation was dire.

    Any life-flashing-thingy incoming? None?

    Although its teeth couldn¡¯t dent my metal body, I was still helpless.

    Or was I?

    Was this the end?

    Of course not.

    If I really thought we had no chance with our current fighting power, I would¡¯ve increased Doms¡¯ strength no matter the negative effects and just discard her after she died.

    But we weren''t done just yet.

    To the right of Doms was my left arm, and just a few feet further on was the monster insect leg. My left arm already started crawling across the rubble with its fingers to get to it.

    I was face to face with the monster. I looked it straight in the eye. ¡°I¡¯ll be having my hand and arm back now.¡± From the pits of its stomach, I concentrated on reattaching my fingers to my hand, pulling the hand back up the esophagus to reattach to my forearm, then reattached it to my elbow.

    The monster roared, the pain it experienced made obvious by the sound of its cry. I could only imagine the damage of its insides as it kept on trying to swallow my arm but I kept on pulling it back up its digestive tract each time its throat muscles relaxed.

    It pulled more fiercely at my lower body and I just let it be. The joints of my legs popped out. There was no way I could resist its strength.

    I didn¡¯t need my legs anyway. I needed my left arm.

    Come!

    My left arm soared through the air, triumphantly grasping the insect leg, heading straight for my elbow. As soon as it was reattached, I slammed the insect leg into the eye of the gorilla monster. Hitting the eyes was becoming my signature move.

    Black goo burst out of its eye.

    ¡°Doms!¡± I yelled both with my voice and my mind. ¡°This isn''t over yet!¡±

 3.28

    I yanked out the spike from the gorilla monster¡¯s eye socket and tried to stab its other eye. It turned away. I missed but did scratch its flat nose. It violently shook its head, whipping me back and forth. I hung on. Keep your joints together!

    Thick fingers closed around my chest. I timed another pass at the other eye. Its remaining pupil widened as the sharp end of the insect monster leg pierced it.

    ¡°Take that!¡± I yelled in celebration just before it finally peeled me off its face. I abandoned my arms, my right arm remained inside its mouth while the left still grasped the spike jammed in its eye.

    It threw me on the floor¡ªjust my head and a torso remaining¡ªand stomped on me. But I didn¡¯t care; there was no way I was going to die with this body. (Doms, where are¡ª), I started my question, but she was already in front of me, slicing at the monster¡¯s legs that were trying to flatten me.

    The monster stumbled backwards on the rubble. I rolled my body away from it, freaking hard to do with no limbs.

    It swung it arms around, blindly trying to grab Doms, but she managed to duck each time even with her heavy armor. She continued hacking at the monster¡¯s legs, making sure it was never getting up. Then something shiny flew in the air. ¡°My knife!¡± Doms said.

    It broke? ¡°Oh, shit,¡± I said. (Weapon! Something to cut the spinal cord.) We needed to kill this fucker fast even if it was already incapacitated. The parasite might decide to devour this body and start round two. ¡°Doms, what are you¡­what is that?¡± (Hey, I told you not to use the power I gave you), I continued using our mental link, making sure she heard me.

    The white bone gauntlet Doms was wearing had extended and formed into a sharp end, like the pointy tip of a giant pickaxe. (See? Weapon), she said to me. She jumped at the back of gorilla monster that was crawling away and chiseled at the exposed vertebrae.

    This was one of the abilities of the armor finger?

    Cool.

    But this presented another reason why it was imperative we finished this fast. I wasn¡¯t certain what the negative effects of the power were, just that it was bad and I didn¡¯t want her to suffer them. Not while we were teammates anyway.

    My legs clinked back in place, and I stood up after some awkward maneuvering. (Focus on the spinal cord. I¡¯ll take care of the gorilla.)

    The monster spat out a mixture of blood and black goo as my right arm, which it had stupidly swallowed, continued to wreak havoc inside it. It looked like it was trying to puke it out, but I grabbed on to something inside. Maybe the opening of its stomach? Gross when I think about it.

    My left arm still hung from the spike jutting out of its eye socket. I called for it with my mind. As it flew back to my elbow, it also pulled out the spike along with it, leaving a fountain of blood gushing from the gorilla monster¡¯s eye socket. Guttural wails of pain echoed in the room.

    The monster curled up on the floor, one hand clutching its stomach, its other covering its eyes. The monster¡¯s green hue was beginning to dim. The red color of the parasite was following suit. Props to Doms for her nice work.

    We¡¯re not done yet, big guy.

    I concentrated on retrieving my right hand from inside its stomach. It shot out of the monster¡¯s screaming mouth, followed by a fresh wave of black goo.

    Finally, all my limbs were back in place. I ran to the gorilla monster¡¯s head and, with both hands holding the insect leg, stabbed its ear as deep as I could.

    Reach the brain! I encouraged the spike as if it was going to listen to me. The monster shrieked and tried to smash everything in its death throes. It caught me with a downward slap, flattening me on the ground once again.

    It tried to push itself upright and roared.

    ¡°Seriously? You¡¯re still alive?¡±

    Then it suddenly turned limp and fell on me, its massive body was like a concrete slab pinning me to the floor.

    ¡°Get off me! (Doms, help me!)

    (Is the parasite already dead?)

    Right, forgot about that. (Not yet.) She really didn¡¯t need me to tell her that because I could see the red outline of the parasite through the body of the monster as if I had x-ray vision. It was forming into tentacles, consuming the biomass of its host.

    I hoped Doms wouldn¡¯t get incapacitated or something stupid because I couldn¡¯t move the dead monster on my own. I¡¯d be pinned here until the time limit of this face, or even before that if some other monster asshole wound up finding Lizzie hiding with my human body in the janitor¡¯s closet and eat them both. While having this body was fun, I¡¯d rather have super strength in times like these.

    Still, this was a fulfilling fight. Especially because I didn¡¯t use super strength to kill this big guy.

    Doms was prompt on her job. I could see from her green color interacting with the parasite¡¯s red. She cut off the tentacles as they were just forming. The red slowly faded.

    (There. It¡¯s dead), I told her.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get you out of there,¡± she said.

    After several seconds, one side of the monster corpse was lifted a few inches up allowing me to scamper out from underneath it. Doms had found a piece of rebar from the wreckage of the destroyed ceiling and used it as a lever to free me.

    ¡°Thanks for that. Awesome teamwork once again,¡± I said with an acknowledging nod. I noticed she had formed a crude bony blade with the armor on her arm. I guessed that was what she used to prune the tentacles of the parasite.

    ¡°We should hurry back,¡± she said.

    ¡°Yes, the noise might¡¯ve attracted other monsters. And Lizzie¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t mean that. You could probably still save the father of those two kids up there.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right.¡± The monster did fuck him up pretty badly. Since I was a ¡®good guy¡¯, I should try to do heroic things. An idea popped in my head. ¡°Of course. I¡¯ll see what I can do. How do we get back there?¡±

    ¡°Let me just absorb this monster to add to my armor then we¡¯ll find the stairs going up.¡±

    I grabbed her hand just before she could touch the dead monster. ¡°There¡¯s no need for that now.¡±

    Earlier, on our way to aid of the survivors upstairs, we discovered that Doms, when linked with the armor finger, could absorb monster corpses to build her armor instead of using her own¡­um, energy or something. Actually, I wasn¡¯t certain how the bone armor finger worked, except that the first guy I tested it on panicked when monsters were attacking him, subconsciously made his armor extremely thick, and ended up fainting. His armor then fell apart and he got eaten by the monsters.

    Perhaps absorbing dead bodies was the correct way of using the armor power. Doms did mention the sensation came to her when we passed the corpse of the insect monster where I got my spike weapon from.

    ¡°Why not?¡± she said. ¡°This corpse will be wasted.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to disconnect my power from you now,¡± I said.

    ¡°Hold on¡ª¡± she begun to say, but chunks of her armor started falling off and crumbling to dust.

    ¡°You¡¯re a normal human,¡± I said. ¡°I haven¡¯t used this power on a normal human before. It¡¯s usually with fellow Adumbrae when we fight. Oh, I guess I did use it once on an augmented human, but that¡¯s very different from your case.¡± I was having fun making up a backstory for this face, or whole new body more like. ¡°There¡¯s no telling what will happen if you¡¯re exposed to my power for long periods of time.¡± I paused to examine her as the helmet covering her face fell apart. ¡°You already don¡¯t look so good,¡± I said, observing her skin pallor.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± she said with a shrug. ¡°You can heal me. Who knows when we¡¯ll find a free monster corpse this large without any other monster bothering us?¡±

    ¡°If you increase your armor, you¡¯ll have a hard time jumping back up." I pointed up at the hole in the ceiling. "And yeah, I think going through here is our best bet.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll be too heavy to jump. If we take the stairs, we¡¯ll probably meet other monsters and will be forced to fight. It¡¯s a waste of time.¡±

    ¡°Just give me more strength. My body will be able to take it. I¡­I don¡¯t want to be weak again.¡±

    ¡°You want strength to protect your daughter? I understand that. I really do. Don¡¯t forget I¡¯m an Adumbrae,¡± I said. I paused and looked at her in the eye to give weight to my words. She faltered and looked away, realizing what she was saying.

    ¡°Ah¡­er¡­I didn¡¯t mean it that way.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, I don¡¯t want to use my powers, be it giving you strength or healing or whatever, if I really don¡¯t need to. It only delays gathering enough energy to use my power on myself. I will need it if we meet the Adumbrae responsible for all of this.¡± I kicked the gorilla¡¯s head. ¡°This guy is nothing compared to fighting an Adumbrae, especially one that has control of their mental faculties.¡± A pat on the back to congratulate myself for concocting a believable reason on the fly why I couldn¡¯t continue giving her power instead of, you know, saying that she might go out the same way as her husband. And I even sounded like an experienced fighter.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    "Yes, but¡ª"

    "And I''d rather use my energy on healing the injured guy up there, who might be already dead because we''re taking too long to get to them."

    She sighed in a resigned tone. ¡°Yes, you''re...right. You''re right. Just give me enough strength to jump up to the next floor."

    "Throw me up first.¡±

    I left behind my legs and arms so Doms, with minimal help from my strength finger, would have an easier time tossing me back to the 21<sup>st</sup> floor before leaping up herself. It was a simple matter of pulling my limbs back to their sockets.

    I let Doms take the lead in approaching the grieving kids because, duh, it would be hard to¡­um¡­introduce myself to them. She was adamant not to lie to those kids about my ¡®true identity¡¯ since we''d be taking them in our group.

    The two kids, probably high schoolers, were named Paolo and Julie. And I was right that the bald guy was their dad. Unfortunately, they weren¡¯t so accepting of me. Especially when Doms tried to explain who, or rather what I was, to them.

    ¡°You told us a Corebring was helping you!¡± Paolo swung his broken electric guitar to shoo us away. His sister hugged their bleeding father behind him. ¡°You lied! An Adumbrae? You¡¯re working with it?¡±

    ¡°¡®She¡¯, not ¡®it¡¯,¡± Doms said sternly. ¡°And her name is ¡®Pino¡¯. The least you could do is call her by her name after she saved you. I also didn¡¯t mention anything about a Corebring. Just that someone with powers was helping me.¡±

    ¡°So, you just left out that it was a Adumbrae?¡± he retorted. He turned to me, pointing his guitar in my direction. ¡°Isn¡¯t this the work of Adumbrae? Turning people into monsters? Is this your fault?¡±

    ¡°Pao,¡± Julie, his sister, said, pulling at his sleeves to get his attention. ¡°They did help us.¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t my power,¡± I said. ¡°But I do know the Adumbrae responsible for this. In fact, I¡¯m here to stop them.¡±

    Julie gasped. ¡°Pao, remember that vid I showed you earlier?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯re you talking about?¡±

    ¡°The video of that Adumbrae killing the other Adumbrae at Serenade? The one saving people. Maybe she¡¯s one of them?¡±

    ¡°You''re talking about the one with the red hoodie?¡± I said. Julie nodded. ¡°I know her. I¡¯m working with her to stop evil Adumbrae. It might be hard to believe, but I assure you, we''re not all evil. I wouldn''t have risked my life saving you otherwise.¡±

    ¡°I¡­uh¡­I still don¡¯t trust you.¡± Paolo said.

    ¡°Then let us show you that Pino is trustworthy,¡± Doms said, pushing his guitar away. ¡°She has a healing ability. She might be able to save your dad.¡±

    Save? Whoa, there. Let''s not give them false hope. ¡°I¡¯ll do the best that I can,¡± I said. ¡°That is¡­if you let me.¡±

    The siblings looked at each other. Then they had a whispered discussion that turned into heated argument. ¡°I want to save Dad no matter what!¡± Julie shouted down her brother''s concerns. ¡°Dad¡¯s going to die soon!¡±

    Paolo opened his mouth, thought better of what he was going to say, then shut up. He stepped back and put down his guitar. He glared at me. ¡°Don¡¯t do anything funny.¡±

    I nodded then approached the dying bald guy. His green color was very faint, almost turning grey.

    His head was on his daughter¡¯s lap. He was missing his left leg, bitten off by the gorilla monster. The kids wrapped the stump the best they could with bandages made of torn clothes, probably with the help of Doms. The guy¡¯s left side was also heavily bleeding, half his shirt was already soaked in blood.

    ¡°Can you remove it?¡± I said, pointing at what looked like the torn sleeves of Paolo¡¯s sweatshirt crumpled in a ball and held against the massive wound on their dad¡¯s flank.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Julie said. She pulled it away as gently as she could. Dried blood made it hard to remove. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Dad,¡± she said, tearing up while her father groaned as the scabs were torn off, sticking to the wad of cloth. ¡°Just bear with it.¡±

    She showed me the large wound, then peeled away more of her father¡¯s ripped clothes to show the true extent of his injuries. Calling it a wound was an understatement. It was like he joined a weight loss program where the solution offered was cutting off parts of your belly. He was missing huge chunks of flesh down the side of his torso. Innards were showing.

    So, this was what the gorilla monster was eating? I was surprised this guy was still alive somehow.

    I knelt down beside them and quickly connected my healing finger. I wasn¡¯t going to allow this guy to die before I showed my powers. ¡°This does look bad. And I don¡¯t think I can regrow limbs.¡±

    ¡°Just do what you can. Please.¡± Surprisingly, it was Paolo who said that.

    ¡°I will.¡± I started to transfer my energy through our link. I sensed their dad¡¯s feeble consciousness. It was slowly coming back. Very slowly. I made sure to keep my thoughts to myself so he wouldn¡¯t sense what I planned for him.

    Julie clapped her hands. ¡°It¡¯s working! The bleeding is stopping. Oh my god, it¡¯s working.¡± She hugged her father¡¯s head. ¡°Dad, please don¡¯t leave us.¡±

    "What the...?" Paolo knelt beside me and held his father¡¯s hand. ¡°Yes! His wounds are really healing.¡±

    Flesh was growing, covering the innards. The muscles knitted themselves together, skin crept over and covered them. It was slow, but it was working. No surprises there.

    Given my experience with Doms¡¯ husband, Cesar. I already knew my healing power was very¡­well, powerful. With my strength finger, I pushed my best pal, Cesar, to mutate to an extent where he should just drop dead from the damage his body suffered. He certainly incurred more grievous injuries than this bald guy, but my healing power kept him going, and he took on wave after wave of monsters. The problem was the consequences of this healing power; I had a suspicion of what they were.

    I could save this guy. His body wouldn''t exactly be normal if my hunch of the side effects of my healing power was correct, but I was sure he wouldn''t care too much if he lived in the end.

    But saving him wasn¡¯t my intention.

    My first goal with this charade was to show I was a ¡®good guy¡¯ to these kids.

    Now, onto my second goal.

    ¡°Poison? He¡¯s poisoned?¡± I whispered. ¡°What the¡­¡±

    ¡°What did you say?¡± Julie said.

    ¡°He¡¯s poisoned!¡± I repeated with as much concern as I could muster with a metallic sounding voice.

    ¡°Poisoned?¡± her brother said. ¡°You¡¯re saying Dad is poisoned?¡±

    ¡°The monster earlier that attacked him¡­its bite has something. Some corrosive substance. I¡¯m not sure what it is. It¡¯s inside your father¡¯s bloodstream and is destroying him from the inside.¡±

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± Julie put her hands to her mouth.

    ¡°Wha¡ªwhat¡¯s going on?¡± Paolo said. ¡°He¡¯s already healing, isn¡¯t he?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m doing my best to counter it.¡± I placed my hands over their father¡¯s wounds as if doing that would make my healing better. Theatrics. But I did increase my healing power. By a whole lot. I was starting to feel him wake up. ¡°Look at his flesh. I¡¯m healing it, but¡­¡± I let my words trail.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­falling off,¡± Doms said. She squeezed in beside me. "How?"

    The flesh did heal at a rapid rate. However, his skin dried and broke just as fast, the surface of the exposed flesh was flaking, then breaking down. This happened to Cesar as well. I thought back then that he looked like a slow cooked brisket with flesh falling off the bones. A mild form of that was happening to this guy.

    I continued pumping my power into him. All the progress I had healing him was getting undone.

    A lightbulb lit up in my head. Could I use this power as a weapon?

    Anyway, my second goal was to check the consequences of using my healing power on the target¡¯s body. I guess I¡¯m done with that. Let''s finish with the last goal.

    (Can you hear me?)

    (Am¡­I¡­dead?)

    (No. Not yet.)

    The bald guy''s eyelids moved a bit. It caused Julie to cry more. Her tears fell on his face that was twisted in agony. (So much pain¡­whoever you are¡­please¡­)

    ¡°I can¡¯t do this¡­¡± I said with hesitation. ¡°He lost too much blood. And the poison¡­Dammit! It''s stopping my healing!¡±

    ¡°Please, please, please,¡± Julie was crying her eyes out. ¡°Please save him.¡±

    ¡°No! Dad! Don¡¯t leave us like Mom!¡±

    (Please¡­help my kids), their father said in my head. He sent me memories of his family. I could tell these were the happy moments in his life. Was that his wife? Then there was a funeral. These two were very young when their mother died.

    Come on, dude, I don¡¯t care about this. I ignored his thoughts and forced them back. I told him, (Don¡¯t go yet. Say goodbye to your children. You can do it.)

    His eyelids opened a bit.

    ¡°Dad!¡± Paolo and Julie said at the same time.

    ¡°He¡¯s not going to¡­stay¡­for long,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t save him. The most I can do is give you time to say goodbye.¡±

    ¡°Pao¡­Jules¡­¡± their dad said. ¡°Come closer.¡±

    ¡°Julie!¡± Paolo said. ¡°Record what Dad is going to say!¡± His sister hastily took out her phone and held it against their father¡¯s mouth.

    ¡°Kids¡­take care of each other.¡± The dad-soon-to-be-dead-guy droned on for a bit with cheesy, emotional shit I just couldn¡¯t relate to.

    Annoying.

    In times such as this, like in funerals for example, I usually shut off my brain because I couldn¡¯t understand it¡ªif I didn¡¯t, I might unconsciously roll my eyes. However, I forced myself to listen to the bald guy''s dying words just in case he said something like ¡®don¡¯t trust this Adumbrae.¡¯ But he didn¡¯t mention anything of the sort. I wasn¡¯t sure if he was even aware of what was going on; he just knew that he was dying.

    I steadily increased the flow of my power, and his body broke down more, a puddle of his blood formed around us.

    He ended his final message with, ¡°I¡¯m going to where¡­ugh¡­Mom is¡­now¡±

    And he closed his eyes.

    Phew, that was dramatic as fuck.

    Paolo, who was trying to put on a strong face this entire time, finally crumbled and broke down. He hugged his dad, ignoring the blood painting his clothes, and said his goodbyes. The daughter bawled her eyes out. I hoped there was no monster nearby that would get attracted by the racket they were making. I stood up and moved back to give them space.

    Yeah, I¡¯m not paid to deal with this.

    A minute or so of this emotional nonsense passed.

    The son turned to me, his face full of rage. ¡°You said you know the Adumbrae responsible for this.¡±

    I nodded.

    ¡°And you¡¯re going to fight them?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the plan, yes.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to join you,¡± he said, his teeth gnashing in hatred, tears streaming down his face. ¡°I¡¯m going to kill them all. I¡¯ll do anything to kill them all!¡± His eyes told me he meant everything he said.

    Anything? Good.

    And with that, my last goal was completed.

    I extended my hand to him.

    He accepted it.

    Welcome to team Erind.

 3.29

    (There are monsters roaming near the stairs), Doms said in my head. Our link had extended quite a long way, and if there was nothing blocking us, it would stay connected. After fetching Lizzie and my human body, she also checked if there was danger in our path. I stayed behind with Paolo and Julie who were tending to their father¡¯s body.

    (Good thing we didn¡¯t encounter them. Is Lizzie okay?) I was going to ask about my human body, but I figured I would appear more thoughtful if I asked about her daughter first.

    (Yes, she¡¯s fine. She said she heard them wander near her hiding spot, but they moved away. She¡¯s a good girl that listens when I tell her to stay very quiet.)

    (And the sleeping prospective Corebring?)

    (Also with us.)

    (Hmmm. If there are monsters by the stairs, that means we can¡¯t get to the elevator either.)

    (We could fight.)

    Fight? What was up with her being reckless? (I¡¯d rather not, for now. We''re doing plan B), I said, referring to the convenient way left for us by the gorilla monster. Even if we were capable of fighting, it was best to avoid the monsters. (Let''s see if there are monsters hanging out by the elevator door of the floor below us.)

    (¡­)

    (Doms?)

    (Yes¡­yes, you¡¯re right. We¡¯re on our way back to you now.)

    (Take care.)

    I crossed my legs and leaned back on a comfy office swivel chair, waiting for them to return. Whenever I sat on one, I had the urge to spin it with my legs stretched out; I always did that with Dad¡¯s chair in his office when I was a kid. To distract myself, I tapped my metal foot on the floor, getting lulled by the rhythmic clinking, watching the two kids wipe as much blood off their father¡¯s corpse as they could using office documents¡ªI guess calling them ¡®teens¡¯ would be more fitting, but they were still just kids in my eyes.

    Paolo, the older sibling, was blonde, same as their mother based on the memory their father shared with me, but he had some hair accents. He sported a crazy haircut and wore a sweatshirt with the logo of a band that I had heard of in passing. His sleeves were torn off, the strips of cloth were used to bind their father¡¯s wound.

    His sister, Julie, was nothing of note. Quite an average looking brunette¡ªby the way, that was coming from someone who was, admittedly, average looking too, so I wasn¡¯t being a judgmental bitch here. She did have some fashion sense though, more than I did. But then again, I intentionally wore plain clothes as part of my general face.

    They appeared to have recovered from the death of their father.

    At least Julie had stopped sobbing. She now had a determined, yet caring look on her face as she and her brother arranged the body of their father inside a cubicle to hide it. Then they pulled out the drawers of a tall filling cabinet, clearing out all its contents. Using the emptied filing cabinet, they carefully covered the dead body with it like an instant coffin.

    We obviously couldn¡¯t bring the corpse with us in our escape so I suggested to Paolo and Julie they do this to hide their dad¡¯s corpse from monsters that might eat it. They could retrieve it later when the rescue came.

    That¡¯s me, just your super thoughtful, friendly Adumbrae.

    Too bad I couldn¡¯t save their dad.

    For one, I wouldn¡¯t be able to fully heal him. At some point, my healing power reverses itself or something; I wasn¡¯t sure exactly what was happening. Their injured father would just slow us down, and we were already dragging my human body around.

    At least, I saved his kids. He should be thankful for that.

    Then, there was the matter of making these kids trust me so they¡¯d go with me and I¡¯d have more puppets. Or just get them to my side; there was no need for actual trust.

    Take Doms for example. She was ready to do everything and accept help from anyone so long as she could get her daughter safely out of here, especially since she considered her husband already dead¡ªshe wasn¡¯t wrong about that. No trust between us required. I just needed to deliver on my promise to help her escape and she¡¯d be on my side, no questions asked.

    Paolo and Julie would have a different mindset.

    Kids like these were taught in school that Adumbrae equals bad. That lesson was drilled into their heads. I was also taught that, and I believed it too. My experience with Adumbrae so far told me it was kinda true. Heck, I was an Adumbrae and I wouldn¡¯t trust myself if I was in their shoes. Which was why I had to do that little performance with their father to get them on my side, to make them have a reason to work with an Adumbrae besides escaping.

    My main target was Paolo because I was sure he would desire to avenge his father if he could. A guy thing maybe? I heard most of the augmented BID agents were people who wanted to take revenge on Adumbrae for one reason or another, and most of them were guys. If I had Paolo with me, his sister would be sure to follow him.

    Tada, and here we are now. The situation presented itself to me and I just took it.

    Another interesting thing I took from this encounter was the application of Rule #4.

    I wouldn¡¯t bother the world as long as it didn''t bother me.

    Like, how would that apply to the bald dude? Was I bothering him without getting bothered first?

    This was simple. I could explain this away with my usual justification: I was just going about my business and, unfortunately for him, I ended up bumping into him. Just like if I bumped into someone during rush hour at the train station and knocked them down. That wasn¡¯t my fault they were in my way, right? I wasn¡¯t out to specifically get them. On the flip side, I also wouldn¡¯t get angry if someone bumped me in the train during rush hour. That was fair. Stuff like that was unavoidable and part of daily life.

    Just because there was a life involved didn¡¯t make this any different from all the other instances I manipulated social situations to my advantage.

    I could¡¯ve left it at that, but another thing popped in my head about Rule #4.

    The bald dude was inevitably going to die if I wasn¡¯t there. Viewing it from his perspective, there was nothing lost or gained with what I did to him. The end was still the same.

    The perfect application of Rule #4.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Technically, the status quo wasn¡¯t preserved. The bald guy actually came out with a net positive when you think about it. I saved his children! If I wasn¡¯t here, these two would surely die, either by the hands of the gorilla monster or by some other creature crawling out there. In the end, I was actually doing good.

    Huh¡­I¡¯m an actual hero.

    Kinda?

    I hadn¡¯t considered viewing Rule #4 this way before. Such logic could be extended to most people I¡¯d encounter in this building. In all, a very interesting mental exercise.

    Those thoughts went through my mind while Paolo and Julie discussed what they were going to do with the dead body of the woman their dad tried to save. This woman wasn¡¯t their family or friend; they told me they didn¡¯t know her, but just ran into her. Their dad was a swell guy for trying to save someone he didn¡¯t know. Turns out, a majority of the human race was pretty decent.

    As a side note, a majority of the human race wouldn''t include me in the ¡®pretty decent¡¯ category.

    The siblings decided to hide what remained of her body under a table and covered it with the folders and papers from the filing cabinet encasing their dad. They really were dealing with the situation quite well. Kudos to them. I usually didn¡¯t like interacting with kids, but these two were okay.

    Paolo wiped his hands on his pants after they were done with their job. ¡°Jules, you still have no signal on your phone?¡±

    ¡°No, or I would''ve already called for help. Whatever weird thing the Adumbrae did to block this entire building, it¡¯s still up.¡±

    ¡°Keep your phone safe, ¡®kay Jules? Protect it.¡± He picked up his guitar and put it over his shoulder. ¡°And I¡¯ll protect you.¡±

    Her sister had a confused grin. ¡°Ye-yes? I will. What¡¯s up with you? Don¡¯t be weird.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the last words of Dad in your phone. If the internet was up, we could¡¯ve uploaded it online so it¡¯d be safe.¡±

    ¡°Ah, you mean that. Yeah, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll keep it safe.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re back,¡± I said as Doms appeared out of the corner carrying Lizzie while pushing the cart with my body.

    Before Doms left to get her daughter and my human body, I connected my armor, strength, and healing fingers to her. She didn¡¯t reform an entire armor because there was no corpse to use¡ªwell, there were two corpses nearby, but I had a feeling my two new companions would object to such a suggestion¡ªand I wouldn¡¯t allow her to use too much of her own energy, or whatever the bone armor was using. As compromise, she made do with creating bladed gauntlets as weapons for her protection, the same as the ones she used during the gorilla monster fight.

    ¡°Thank god, they¡¯re safe,¡± Julie said. ¡°And is that her daughter?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± I said. ¡°Her name is Lizzie.¡± She wasn¡¯t wearing a blindfold now.

    ¡°She¡¯s really cute. I hope she¡¯s going to be okay with¡­all¡­all these things happening to us.¡±

    ¡°That mummy on the cart,¡± Paolo said. ¡°She¡¯s the girl that the Adumbrae want?¡±

    Hehe, I do look like a mummy, all wrapped up in white blanket. I nodded. ¡°The prospective Corebring.¡± I did give them a summary of the bullshit backstory I concocted to explain away my human body. To be fair, it wasn¡¯t complete bullshit as there would be some truth to it if it was really the 2Ms behind all of this.

    ¡°If she¡¯s with us, then the Adumbrae that turned the residents into monsters would come to us, right?¡± he said.

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be dangerous?¡± Julie said, worried.

    ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± Paolo said. ¡°I can fight them.¡±

    ¡°No!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re going to give me powers, Pino?¡±

    ¡°Pao! Remember what Dad said. We¡¯re going to get out of here in one piece. Don¡¯t do dumb shit like fighting Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°I know what Dad said,¡± he grumbled. ¡°Pino, I can get powers like Doms, right?¡±

    ¡°I can give you powers to fight,¡± I said. I needed to change this conversation because this wasn¡¯t the time for it. ¡°But first,¡± I said as I stood up and looked around for something we could use to get down the hole, ¡°help me gather these extension cords.¡± These should be long enough to get them down.

    <hr>

    We stood at the lip of the hole, bent steel bars jutted out from the craggy edge. An uninviting pile of debris was below.

    Doms quickly braided the cords and wirings we found¡ªit made them stronger, according to her¡ªturning them into a rope; she knew her way around knots, making me wonder again what her background was. Next, she tied it around the nearest concrete column, giving it a couple of tugs to make sure it was secure. The plan was to lower the siblings first so they could take care of Lizzie when we lowered her next, then the cart, and the last to go down would be Doms. I could just jump down on my own.

    ¡°Looks like it¡¯s clear.¡± Julie crouched at the edge, stuck her head down, and scouted for danger. ¡°Oh! The body of the monster is there!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s dead,¡± I said. ¡°We made sure. No need to worry.¡±

    ¡°Get away from the edge, Jules. You might fall down.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be such a fussyfart. Only now do you care about what I do.¡±

    ¡°Hey! I do care about you.¡±

    ¡°Who first?¡± Doms said,

    ¡°Me,¡± Paolo said. He tossed his electric guitar down the hole. ¡°I can catch Jules if the rope breaks because of her weight.¡±

    Her sister had a perplexed look on her face. ¡°What do you mean? I¡¯m not heavy¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a joke, Jules. Not much of a joke now since I had to explain it.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I see,¡± his sister replied awkwardly. I could tell these siblings weren¡¯t really that close, but I could see Paolo exerting effort now. Was it because of the life-and-death situation we were in? Or was it because their father died?

    Doms tied the other end of the braided cords around Paolo''s waist and slowly lowered him, using the column as sort of a pulley to control his descent. Lizzie held my hand as she waited for her turn.

    ¡°You weren¡¯t afraid when you were alone in the closet?¡± I asked Lizzie.

    ¡°Nope! I was with sleeping lady. You said she¡¯s a Co¡­Corebrrr¡ª¡±

    ¡°Corebring. She''s going to be one.¡±

    ¡°Yeah! Corebring. They¡¯re heroes! Mommy always tell me they keep us safe.¡±

    ¡°That they do.¡±

    ¡°Are they going to come here and save us?¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll come if they know what is happening here.¡± Would Clive and Trepanner come to help us? They probably would. But how would they know?

    Wait.

    The thing Paolo said about uploading the recording of their dad¡¯s voice online returned to me. If only we could stream a video of what was going on here, it would eventually reach the Corebrings. They didn¡¯t even need to come here. Clive could spear them through the camera. If only we had a signal.

    <hr>

    All of us made it safely down.

    ¡°What the hell are you doing, Pao?¡± called Julie. Her brother was beside the gorilla monster, his guitar held high.

    ¡°That won¡¯t change anything,¡± Doms said. She bent down and patted Lizzie. ¡°Don¡¯t look at it, sweetie. I said you could take your blindfold off if you listen to me when I tell you to look away.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mommy.¡± Lizzie turned around with a small hop.

    Paolo sighed and lowered his guitar. ¡°I know. I know it won¡¯t bring back Dad.¡±

    ¡°But we can still use this corpse.¡± Doms gave me a sidelong glance with a brow raised. ¡°How about it, Pino? I think I should use this now to make a full armor. We''ll need it.¡±

    ¡°Before that,¡± I said, ¡°I want to see first what powers Paolo will get.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re finally giving me powers?¡±

    ¡°You see, when I bestow a power on another person, it can manifest in different ways. We saw how it manifested for Doms. I¡¯m not sure what it will be for you.¡± That was obviously not true. I made this shit up because I was going to test a different finger on him, and I had no fucking clue what power the next finger would give. ¡°This is a good opportunity to test whatever power you get on this corpse before Doms absorbs it. Are you ready, Paolo?¡±

    He briefly looked at his sister before saying, ¡°I am.¡±

 3.30 - Adam Pavell

    Adam Pavell

    2:17 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    Adam Pavell was no longer human.

    Not after what the Adumbrae terrorist had done to him.

    I¡¯m sorry¡­

    Fresh blood was on his shriveled hands and arms, slowly drying, forming a sticky coat over his pockmarked skin. Blood dripped from the sides of his permanent impish grin that stretched from one pointy ear to the next. Between his uneven serrated teeth, stringy bits of flesh were stuck. He was disgusted to think that the metallic taste of blood and the soft texture of flesh felt right as he chewed.

    I¡¯m truly sorry¡­I can¡¯t stop myself¡­

    His claws stabbed the folds of flesh of the meaty stomach of their prey. His ears twitched at the infuriating screams. The prey was yelling for help while trying to fight them off, but the others held him down, chomping on his arms and legs, devouring everything they could.

    Adam had to move fast or else there would be nothing left for him. He furiously shoved the others away, their snarling heads, clawed hands, tentacles, and barbed appendages. He grabbed as much flesh as he could, putting it into his gaping mouth before the others could eat the best parts.

    Forgive me¡­this isn¡¯t me¡­my body is no longer my own.

    The helpless resident of the building he used to guard was no longer screaming. Dead. Yet, he and the others continued their feeding frenzy. His claws snagged some tendon; he pulled it out with an annoyed growl. He crushed their prey''s brittle bones and sucked out the juicy marrow they contained.

    Inside his head, Adam the human begged the entity that had full control of his body it wouldn¡¯t look at the face of the person he was eating. It didn¡¯t listen to his pleas, but it¡ªor rather I, as it was me and I was just a tiny piece of consciousness left at the corner of my mind¡ªwas too focused on eating that he stuck his head into the writhing mass of mutations to gnaw the leftover flesh off the bones that he still ended up not seeing this person¡¯s face.

    Please forgive me¡­

    Please save me¡­

    After a short while, the body was bones.

    And most of the bones were also eaten.

    The meal done, most of them calmed down and walked away. Adam mumbled words made incoherent by his monster vocals cords. He didn¡¯t know what he was saying, he didn¡¯t know what the entity was thinking. He continued shambling through the hallway while grumbling gibberish, his long arms brushing against his outwardly bowed knees. The tail made of bones that was his spine extending out of his body lazily swished behind him.

    He didn¡¯t know which part of the building he was at. He didn¡¯t know how many people he had eaten. Each time he found a human, a ravenous need to kill and consume filled his head. That sensation, the insatiable hunger, he feared feeling it.

    And if he feared the all-consuming hunger, he absolutely dreaded the cry¡ªthe call others made when they found food. His mind blanked out after hearing those calls. And the next thing he knew, when he was able to regather what little remained of his scattered consciousness, he would already be eating someone.

    But I haven¡¯t killed anyone!

    He had convinced himself of that. Even if he was turned into a monster and had memories of eating humans, he was never the one who dealt the killing blow. He was weak and injured; he couldn¡¯t chase people down. It was the others that hunted and killed. He only ate. It may not be the most lucid or most justifiable of thoughts, but he grasped at anything that could comfort him.

    I hope it was true.

    With no prey to hunt or to eat, the voice inside his head had quieted. He still couldn¡¯t control his body for he had been driven into a small space at the edge of his mind, but at the least he found peace.

    It was in these moments of respite he could clearly think.

    He remembered what happened after the small parasite entered his nostril. He couldn¡¯t resist because the hardened plaster that was the power of the Adumbrae terrorist kept him in place. He recalled the mental battle, the voice inside his head, his mind pushed away.

    Then there was something¡­something not from this world, something from across the void talking. But not to him; to the creature that took control of his body. The mutations followed. The terrorist laughed and taunted him as he lost his body to the new entity that moved in his mind.

    The terrorist¡­Finlay. Adam vividly recalled his name, even if nothing else.

    To make matters worse, Finlay¡¯s boss called him again and apparently berated him for not following orders. He then took out his annoyance on the mutating Adam, toying with him, wounding him and breaking some of his bones. That was the reason why Adam¡¯s monster body was severely weakened.

    Finlay¡¯s unhinged laughter still rung in Adam¡¯s ears. The terrorist monologued about the ¡®true plan¡¯, whatever that meant, and that he was going to get back at the woman who got angry at him. Something about that woman being loyal to the wrong person.

    Adam couldn¡¯t recall much of what else Finlay said because memories of his torture resurfaced each time he thought about it. Fortunately, he wasn¡¯t able to feel pain during that ordeal. Or was it really fortunate? He was already losing his body at that point after all. He was just in the backseat, watching his monster form getting broken by a deranged Adumbrae.

    There were shrieks ahead of him.

    It wasn¡¯t the cry, so he didn¡¯t care.

    Or maybe he should? He stopped walking in that direction. Was it the others eating each other? He didn¡¯t know why they did that for he hadn¡¯t felt such an urge himself. Best to avoid those that do eat others; given how weak he was, they''d probably just eat him too.

    A charred slug-human hybrid came from the direction of the riot of monstrous calls. It slithered with great effort across the floor, leaving a trail of black liquid and gelatinous blobs. It reached out to him with a pudgy hand. Its half-burnt human face looked up to him and asked for help.

    At the end of the corridor, the one responsible for the commotion showed itself. A smoldering humanoid, a walking charcoal of a man. Adam took a hesitant step backward. Was this one going to attack him?

    Is that our uniform?

    Most of it was burnt away, but Adam had been a security guard of this building for years and they rarely changed the design of their uniform so he easily recognized it.

    Who was this? Most of them were killed; he saw it in the security cameras. The boys at the parking area especially met cruel fates.

    The monster Adam didn¡¯t know what to do. He knew he was weak and couldn¡¯t fight this one. He crouched beside the moaning slug and attempted to use its bulk to hide. It kept on saying, ¡°Help me¡±, to his ear but he didn¡¯t pay attention to it.

    He kept very still while the charcoal man walked past him.

    ¡°Ramon¡­where are you?¡± it said in a hoarse voice.

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    Ramon? Who was that? He felt that he had heard that name before. The charcoal man kept on repeating it, his voice getting softer as he went further away. Adam stared at the back of the charcoal man as it turned left and disappeared from view.

    Comfort.

    It was nonsense and stupid and selfish, but somehow, Adam felt comfort that another guard was also turned into a monster.

    Why am I thinking like this?

    His ears fluttered.

    A sound. Faint. Familiar.

    He got back up his feet, his heart raced, his monster body feeling anticipation. But even if his heart wasn¡¯t his anymore, Adam could feel the phantom beating of fear. The fear grew in the same vein the monster¡¯s anticipation grew.

    Anticipation of the hunt.

    There was the call. The call the monster waited for, the call that Adam the human was terrified to hear.

    The others found prey! He must hurry!

    Hurry or there would be nothing left for him to eat!

    When he arrived at the feast, he found three humans. Two of them had fallen. The others crowded on top of them; there was no place for him. The last one was inside a glass office. She barricaded herself by pushing down a bookcase to block the door. But that wouldn¡¯t stop them, not for long. The others were still busy eating the two humans they caught.

    Adam the monster licked his lips in anticipation. The glass walls would be easy to bring down. Even though he was weak, he could probably do it. He was going to do it! He¡¯d get to the prey first before the others.

    No! Don¡¯t kill her!

    ¡°Security? Help me!¡± the woman inside the room yelled into the office phone. ¡°Hello, Security?!¡±

    Sorry, no one is going to answer that.

    ¡°Call the BID¡ªIs anyone there?¡± She slammed down the receiver on the table. ¡°Fucking useless! Is everyone dead?"

    Adam swiped at the glass wall with his claws.

    ¡°You stupid monster!¡± the woman aimed a gun at him. ¡°Come in here and I¡¯ll shoot you!¡±

    It made him pause for a bit. A gun was supposed to be dangerous; his human brain knew that. But why did the monster stop too? It didn¡¯t care about what he thought before.

    ¡°I clawed my way to the top only to die like this? My fucking career!¡± She swung around, confused where to point the gun as others came and pressed themselves against the glass walls. They weren¡¯t making a move yet, as if to savor her fear. ¡°All of life¡¯s work! No! No! This isn¡¯t going to end like this.¡±

    Clawing her way to the top? He has heard that before. M¡­Mel¡­I know her! But I can¡¯t recall her name...

    The memory of a lawyer getting angry at the security guards because of some complaint floated in his miniscule consciousness. He couldn¡¯t remember the exact incident, but this woman was etched in his brain because she nearly got him fired by threatening to sue the management due to some petty grievance.

    Maybe I should eat¡­No! No! That¡¯s not me talking!

    This was the right time for revenge. He was going to kill and eat her. He began slamming his body at the glass wall. Web-like cracks spread on its surface. Faster! Before the others made their move.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going down as monster food!¡±

    I¡¯m so sorry. I can¡¯t do anything to help you¡­

    The others were already here! The woman was yelling all sorts of profanities at them from the other side of the wall while pulling out her hair and waving her gun. He couldn¡¯t understand what exactly she was saying because that was no longer the focus of his thoughts.

    He had to get to inside! He had to take the first bite!

    The glass shattered and the crowd of monsters finally got in the room. They scrambled on top of each other to get to the woman who standing behind the large table. She had the gun in her hand pointed at her head.

    ¡°I¡¯m going out on my own terms!¡±

    BANG!

    Thank you it wasn¡¯t me who killed you¡­I¡¯m sorry¡­

    Adam the monster didn¡¯t care if the prey killed itself. He jumped in the crowd and pushed in. He was like the runt of the litter. If he didn¡¯t position himself well, he wouldn¡¯t be able to eat. He was prepared to fight even if he was weak!

    FEAR!

    He instinctively jumped to the other side of the huge wood office table and scrambled to hide beneath it. He curled up to one side, deathly afraid of...something. His heart pounded, terrified beyond anything he has ever felt before.

    All the others were also frozen in fear.

    The blank eyes of the woman¡¯s corpse stared at his cowering body. What¡¯s happening? he asked her even though she wasn¡¯t going to answer, blood draining out the hole on the side of her head.

    BAAMM! BAM!

    ¡°This is fun! They really can¡¯t do anything if the gizmo is on.¡±

    ¡°Boss Dekano, wutz this thing called again?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I wasn¡¯t listening when Mister explained.¡±

    There was more shooting.

    ¡°Stop that!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine to shoot them, right Boss? We¡¯re not taking these as samples?¡±

    ¡°Yea, Boss. Wez gotz plenty already¡ª"

    ¡°Stop shooting, you idiots, because I¡¯m calling that asshole Finlay! Let¡¯s hear what he has to say before clapping his smug cheeks.¡±

    The terrorists!

    Adam couldn¡¯t see them because the bottom part of the table he was hiding behind blocked his view. And that was good. If he couldn¡¯t see them, they couldn¡¯t see him either. They seemed to be killing some of the others for fun. What were they doing here?

    ¡°Finlay! You bastard, you finally picked up. What the hell are you doing? What¡¯s up with the late report that Erind may be out of her room?¡±

    Adam tried to focus on the conversation, but the entity who had control of his body was shivering in fear. From the bits and pieces he could pick up, it seemed Finlay was delayed with the updates from the security room and Dekano was going there to check up on him. They also sent some people to capture this Erind they were hunting and kill the survivors who were helping her escape. The wolf woman, whoever she was, still wasn¡¯t around.

    ¡°Just the residents of this building with Erind? My men should be able to handle them then. Slinky had to go down because Ichor said they''re getting attacked outside the building. Might be those fuckers harassing our operations.¡±

    Who was he referring to? The BID? Were they going to be rescued? Probably not. That gave Adam a pause. What would he do if rescue indeed came? The BID and the police were going to kill him!

    ¡°Bob is with Stella, and I¡¯m going to check on your incompetent ass. That¡¯s why I¡¯m making sure that only normal humans are with Erind!¡±

    There was a pause as this Dekano person listened to Finlay¡¯s response.

    ¡°Don¡¯t play games with me, Finlay! Miss Stella is going to rip you apart. After she deals with the wolf woman and captures her, I¡¯m sure she¡¯s going to kill you¡ª¡± There was a stomp on the ground followed by a couple of shots.

    ¡°Boss! You killed them too. I thought you said¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know what I said! That asshole Finlay dropped the call on me.¡±

    ¡°We should putz him in his placez, boss.¡±

    ¡°Yeah!¡± the other one chimed in. ¡°Take him down a peg. He¡¯s too cocky just because he¡¯s part of the army that guards the Red Island.¡±

    ¡°Nah,¡± Dekano said. ¡°He¡¯s being a dick because he knows Miss Stella can¡¯t use her power all the time.¡±

    ¡°The longer she doesn¡¯t use it, the stronger her transformation gets, right Boss?¡±

    ¡°Yes. And that bastard Finlay is banking on Miss Stella saving her power for the wolf woman instead of squishing him like the slimy worm that he is.¡±

    After the terrorists left, Adam the monster still didn¡¯t leave his hiding spot. But the others were already moving. They pulled away the woman¡¯s corpse and ate her. He didn¡¯t join in, the overwhelming fear still gripping his heart. Then, he noticed black liquid on the floor, it was spreading towards him.

    Curious, he finally got out from under the table and checked the other side.

    One of the others. Dead.

    He was so hungry.

    There was nothing left of the woman.

    He was very, very hungry. He knew the others ate each other. Should he try this one?

    He knelt down beside it and started eating. It felt right. Maybe he should start eating the others too. Maybe he would get stronger. Stronger so he wouldn¡¯t fear anything. He didn¡¯t want to experience that fear again.

    Maybe...just maybe...if he ate that charcoal man he would get very, very strong. Stronger? Adam the monster would like that. The charcoal man was going to be food the next time he saw him.

    I¡¯m sorry my fellow guard¡­I can¡¯t control myself¡­I hope we don¡¯t meet each other again.

 3.31

    Erind Hartwell

    2:31 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

    Lizzie leaned towards me, her hand cupped around her mouth, and whispered, ¡°Hey, Aunt Pino.¡±

    Yeah, she was really calling me her ¡®aunt¡¯ now. Weird kid. I bent down. ¡°Hmmm?¡±

    ¡°I have a secret. Want to hear it?¡±

    Really, kid? This wasn¡¯t the time and place for childish shit. We were lined up against the wall, keeping quiet because there were some monsters on the other side, and this kid wanted to gossip? Despite myself, I replied in a hushed voice, ¡°A secret?¡±

    ¡°Promise you won¡¯t get angry?¡± she said.

    I rolled my eye, but it didn¡¯t properly convey my exasperation because I only had one. I checked on what Doms was doing at the head of our line¡ªshe was scouting the way to the elevators using a cellphone tied to the end of a pole with its video recording turned on¡ªthen I looked back at Lizzie. ¡°Sure, I promise.¡±

    ¡°Aunt Pino, I wanted to see Erind when we were hiding together¡­so I peeked under the blanket.¡±

    I pointed at the cart with my human body beside us and questioningly tilted my head at Lizzie. ¡°I¡¯m not going to get angry at that,¡± I answered. ¡°What did you think of her?¡± If she was going to say my human body was ugly, I¡¯m going to throw you to the monsters when I get the chance.

    ¡°She¡¯s pretty¡ª

    I nodded my head. Okay, kid. We¡¯re going to be friends.

    ¡°¡ªpretty normal.¡±

    Fine, I wasn¡¯t going to argue with that. "That¡¯s the secret?¡±

    ¡°No. Um, I¡­I notis¡­notishd something with her.¡±

    ¡°You mean ¡®noticed¡¯?¡± I said, and she nodded. Was there something wrong with my human body? ¡°Uh, okay¡­what is it?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s sleeping but not really.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±

    She exaggeratedly inhaled and exhaled then pointed at her nose. ¡°Um, what¡¯s this again?¡±

    ¡°Nose? Breathing?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, breathing. I forgot,¡± Lizzie said with a frown. ¡°She¡¯s not doing that. And she¡¯s very pale. But not dead. That¡¯s the secret.¡± She looked at me with a serious expression as if it was some great revelation. I guess, to her, or to any normal person, it really was super weird.

    ¡°How can you tell she¡¯s not dead?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s warm,¡± she said. ¡°I touched her.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± I had to take her word for that because I couldn¡¯t feel any temperature with my metal body. That was a sort of relief to know my human body was still warm. I was low-key getting concerned what was up with it because it didn''t have the greenish glow other people have.

    ¡°I know dead people are cold,¡± Lizzie said a-matter-of-factly, like when kids were proud of knowing an ¡®adult fact¡¯. ¡°I found Grandma cold before¡ª¡±

    (There¡¯s only two of them), Doms said, interrupting my nice little chat with her daughter. (Normal zombie types that haven¡¯t mutated into something nastier.)

    I leaned to the side to see past Julie and Paolo¡¯s massive form, and saw Doms waving her cellphone back at me. She already watched the footage it captured. I gave her a thumbs up.

    (We can do this!) she insistently projected in my head. (Then we¡¯ll be able to use the elevators.)

    (Hopefully, they work.)

    (We have to check them asap to plan our next steps if they¡¯re busted.)

    (You¡¯re right.) Just two zombies? With Doms decked out in her blades and armor and Paolo in his powerful copied form, we could easily make short work of those two. (But do keep in mind that any nearby monsters might also come), recalling what happened to me and Cesar, and that Doms said she saw some monsters in the floor above us. I sent my thoughts to both Doms and Paolo.

    (Got it!) Paolo said. Even though we were communicating with our minds, I sensed the eagerness in his thoughts. Just a typical guy, excited to test out his brand-new strength like it was a toy.

    (We¡¯ll quickly kill them.)

    The two of them replied to me, but they couldn¡¯t ¡®hear¡¯ each other¡¯s thoughts.

    Once the three of us were connected, I instantly sensed that the two of them would also be able to speak to each other using our links. I immediately blocked it. It was hard to maintain concentration with all the finger links I was using, not just controlling the output of power, but also guarding the thoughts that passed between the three of us.

    Besides keeping it a secret that they could communicate with each other, I also didn¡¯t want them to know I could actually control them if I needed too. Of course, they could mentally fight back, and I¡¯d most likely lose if they concentrated hard enough. However, if I could surprise them, I¡¯d be able to control them for a few seconds before they realized what was happening. Best to keep my cards close to my flat metal chest.

    (Do we go now?) asked Doms.

    (Wait. I''ll be the bait), I said. (Paolo, Doms said there''s a couple of them.)

    (Just two?) Paolo said. (No need to be the bait, Pino. I could smash them all.)

    (I want the two of you to be as safe as possible), I said. (When they are on me, the two of you kill them. Target one each.)

    (I¡¯ll take whatever monster will be on your right side.)

    (Paolo said he¡¯ll take the right, so you get the left), I said to Doms.

    (Copy that.)

    ¡°Julie,¡± I whispered to Paolo¡¯s sister who had no idea what was happening in our mental conversations and was watching us with a perplexed expression, ¡°Take care of Lizzie and the sleeping Erind. We¡¯re going to fight.¡±

    She gazed up in concern at Paolo¡¯s imposing stature. ¡°Pao¡­Don¡¯t do anything stupid.¡± She reached out and awkwardly patted his tremendously muscled arm covered with hair.

    Paolo was only able to grunt in response because he no longer had a human mouth to speak with. He waved his hand, which was large enough to grasp her entire head, as if to say she had nothing to worry about.

    (I¡¯ll first check the location of the parasites), I said as I walked to the corner that turned right to the elevators. (Then I¡¯ll give the signal to attack.) There was no need for me to do this bait-thing since these were just the weak zombie ones; Doms and Paolo could handle it.

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    But I had a couple of goals to tick off here.

    One, I wanted to look like I cared about them, I couldn''t resist the urge to build this face, and two, I was going to test my healing finger on these monsters.

    I haven¡¯t tried using it on the monsters before because, duh, why would I want to make these mutated fucks stronger or give them impenetrable armor? However, the properties of my healing finger presented the opportunity of using it as a weapon. Logically, I should be able to shoot them with my finger threads. The host bodies of these monsters had the same green glow as the humans I¡¯ve linked with; why would they be any different? As for the parasites with the red glow, I think it was better to let them be for now.

    I stepped out from behind the corner. Two of them, like Doms said. One was standing right in front of the elevator, as if it was waiting for it to open. The other zombie was kneeling on the floor, surrounded by a pool of black goo, doing some prayer-like motions.

    ¡°What¡¯s up, fuckheads?¡±

    They both turned to face me with blank stares.

    Tiny tendrils crawled out of their mouths. Damn, the parasites inside were starting to mutate them.

    I pointed my healing finger at the kneeling zombie and fired. I hit it just below its right collarbone. I started pumping it with my power, the blue thread connecting us glowing brighter. Was it going to turn it back to human? Or was it going to decay at a rapid rate?

    But before any noticeable change could occur, the kneeling zombie screeched and lunged at me. I ducked under its arms and rolled. I slipped on the black goo and continued sliding across the floor. ¡°Fucking¡ª"

    The zombie by the elevator, seeing I was bowling towards it, leapt at me with its mouth wide open. I held up my arm to block its bite. Its teeth cracked as it met my hard as fuck metal skin. The tentacles growing out of its mouth wrapped around my forearm.

    Where was the other one?

    Darkness fell over me as another mouth bit the upper half of my face, covering my sight, its teeth grated against my temples. But I could still see very well even in the mouth of this fucking zombie. I could see the disgusting saliva coating my eye. I stared down the zombie¡¯s throat, straight at the tentacle parasite inside it. And the parasite stared back at me with dozens of pebble-sized glowing eyes from deep the zombie¡¯s gullet.

    EWWWW! Fucking gross! A rare instance I wished I didn¡¯t have this enhanced vision.

    Was this bastard biting my head the one I shot? Did my healing power have any effect? I tried pushing them away to see what was happening, but I was too weak. The two fuckers were gnawing my body even if their teeth were getting worn down.

    (Do we go now?) Paolo asked

    Enough of this shit. (Attack them!)

    (The parasites¡ª?) Doms begun to ask.

    (Inside them! The tentacle things!)

    Suddenly, the asshole zombie biting my head was pried off. Paolo''s huge bulk blanketed me with its shadow. He held the struggling zombie above his head. My arm that the other zombie was biting suddenly felt lighter. I looked down and saw that only the head remained attached on my arm. The headless body, now controlled by the tentacle parasite, was being hacked to pieces by Doms.

    (Are you okay?) Paolo said. He started twisting and pulling apart the zombie he captured.

    (Wait¡ª)

    (Huh? Why?)

    Hmmm¡­I was still connected to the zombie, and I continued using my healing power on it, but I didn¡¯t notice anything wrong with it. I mean, there was something obviously wrong with it because it was a mutated human with freaking tentacles coming out of its mouth. But there was no indication that my healing power had any effect whether in a positive or a negative way. (Never mind. Kill it.)

    (Die, you monster!) he shouted in my mind.

    The zombie shrieked as its body was stretched¡­and stretched¡­until the skin, and muscles, and bones could no longer hold on. Like a pi?ata smashed opened, there was an explosion, not of candies, but of the zombie¡¯s innards. It reminded me of what the gorilla monster did to me. In fact, this was exactly what the gorilla monster did to me, minus the shower of blood and guts, because Paolo copied its form.

    In each massive fist, Paolo held a half of the zombie. He bellowed as he waved the zombie pieces in the air. He was enjoying himself too much. One would assume he would have misgivings about using the body of his father''s killer.

    The green color had been snuffed out, but the red was still there.

    A large piece of the clump of tentacles that was the parasite, managing to keep itself mostly in one piece, escaped from inside the torn body of its host like a nut jumping out of its cracked shell. I grabbed its tentacles as it tried to flee. It jumped on me and tried to bind me. Paolo came to my aid and easily ripped it away. He threw it to the floor and flattened it with a stomp of the clawed toes of his wolf-like hind legs.

    ¡°Can you help me with this too?¡± I held out my arm with the head of the other zombie still attached.

    Paolo pinched the head like it was a grape, and it sprayed me with more black goo.

    ¡°That¡¯s a bit brutal, isn¡¯t it?¡± I said, wiping away the gore from my body. ¡°Looks like Doms is done too.¡±

    ¡°Is it dead?¡± she asked me. ¡°The parasite?¡± She gave her zombie a few more stabs for good measure.

    ¡°It¡¯s dead.¡±

    ¡°If only all of them are this easy.¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, they¡¯re not.¡±

    ¡°Wishing is free.¡± Doms shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ll get Lizzie and Julie.¡±

    ¡°So, how¡¯s your body, Paolo?¡±

    This was the power granted by the third finger of my right hand. Before Doms absorbed the corpse of the gorilla monster to remake her armor, Paolo copied it, gaining its form and strength. Although to what extent he inherited its power and abilities, we weren¡¯t sure of. We also didn¡¯t know how long this transformation would last. But we did confirm he couldn¡¯t copy a living target as Doms asked him to try it on her and nothing happened.

    I noticed a sort of pattern here: the fingers on my right hand gave powers to puppets such as strength, armor, and being able to copy a dead body; while the fingers on my left were more of supporting the puppets, like healing and transferring damage between targets.

    (It feels great!) he said. He beat his chest like a gorilla would and roared.

    ¡°Quiet down,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯ll attract other monsters to our position.¡±

    (Yea¡­I¡¯m sorr¡ª)

    ¡°You also roared earlier. You should really control yourself.¡±

    (It¡¯s just that the strength¡­I feel like I could really kill the Adumbrae that caused all of this. With this strength I can rip apart all the monsters we meet!)

    Now, where have I heard that before? I thought sarcastically. ¡°Don¡¯t forget these were people,¡± I scolded him while pointing at the zombies. "They''re victims too, you know. Just like you." Wow, I was surprised I could say that without breaking into giggles. Having a robotic sounding voice did help. I had worn faces that cared about others, but I was certain I hadn¡¯t said anything like this before.

    He slowly lowered his arms. (I¡­yes¡­I forgot.)

    ¡°Is Paolo okay?¡± Julie asked me.

    ¡°I was just telling him not to get drunk on power.¡± I also faced Doms for a second when I said that, building up my face some more. ¡°I think I should remove my powers from Paolo¡ª¡±

    (What? Why?!) He also made a sound that was a cross between a grunt and a keen whine.

    ¡°¡ªfor now. If we need it later, you can transform again.¡±

    (But I¡¯ll need another dead monster to copy!)

    ¡°I already explained this to Doms that I don¡¯t know what the long-term effects of my powers are on you normal humans. I don¡¯t want you to escape here alive just to get locked up by the BID afterwards. So far, looks like Doms is fine. But you¡­I¡¯m not so sure.¡±

    (I¡¯m fine too!)

    Julie didn¡¯t know what her brother was saying to me, only hearing the grunts of the gorilla monster form, but she understood her brother was being stubborn. ¡°Paolo, please listen to Pino. I don¡¯t want you to turn into a monster.¡±

    I did this little schtick for Doms, now I had to do it to Paolo for consistency¡¯s sake. Now, on to the real reason why he had to return to human form. ¡°You do know you¡¯re not going to fit inside the elevator with that size?¡±

    His boulder-like shoulders slumped upon realizing that teensy-weensy fact. (You¡¯re right¡­)

    ¡°I don¡¯t think he should change back yet,¡± Doms said. We all turned to her. She was by the elevator. ¡°Both of these are not working.¡±

    "Huh?"

    "They''re turned off. The Adumbrae must''ve deliberately disabled the elevators."

    Shit! Were the stairs our only way down? ¡°Julie, what¡¯s the time?¡± I said, remembering something important. ¡°Can you check your phone?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­er¡­it¡¯s 2:37 a.m.,¡± she said. ¡°Why?¡±

    2:37 a.m.? If I recalled correctly, I started this transformation at 1:01 a.m. And SpookyErind said I only had about three hours or so in this form.

    Fuckity fuck.

 3.32

    ¡°Still nothing,¡± I said. I pressed the down button a couple more times just to make sure. No blinking lights, no rumblings of the elevator moving, no ticking numbers. ¡°Looks like the Adumbrae have really turned them off somehow,¡± I said.

    We descended the stairs to check a couple more floors, killing some weak monsters along the way, and confirmed that the elevators were indeed disabled. I punched its metal door. I wasn¡¯t angry or anything; I just though it would¡¯ve been a cool moment if I could make a dent on it, but I was too weak to pull off cool moves. Wouldn¡¯t cracking concrete be cooler? Note to self, punch a concrete wall until it cracks when I return to my not-so-normal body.

    ¡°They must be in control of the security room of the building,¡± Doms said while smoothing out Lizzie¡¯s hair, careful that her blades didn¡¯t hit her daughter. She surveyed our surroundings, her gaze stopping at the security camera on the right corner of the ceiling. ¡°Who knows, they may already be looking at us.¡±

    Paolo roared at the camera and did his stupid chest thumping thing again. (Come here, you fuckers!) he yelled in my head.

    ¡°Pao, stop making noise,¡± Julie said, kicking her brother¡¯s legs. ¡°So, um, Miss Pino, what do we do now?

    ¡°Continue going down the stairs?¡± Doms said.

    I stared at the shiny metal door of the elevator, examining the reflection of the rag-tag band of survivors. behind me. Yeah, I think we can do it. Alone, I wasn''t going to make it down the stairs fighting monsters while protecting my human body. Actually, I couldn''t really fight back without puppets.

    Now, with Doms and especially Paolo by my side, I had a realistic chance to escape with my human body unharmed using the stairs...unless we meet several monsters on the level of the gorilla monster.

    What if we met Adumbrae?

    If worse came to worst, I¡¯d leave these guys behind as bait. Paolo would be especially easy to goad into fighting. Doms, on the other hand, would probably be the first to leave me if she had the chance to safely escape with her daughter; I¡¯d just make sure to leave her before she could abandon me.

    I turned to face them and nodded. ¡°Yes, we don¡¯t have any other way down except the stairs. We''ll have to risk it.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­um,¡± Lizzie said, hopping on her toes while raising her hand.

    Julie sighed. ¡°Fortunately, we¡¯re going down, not up. Imagine if we had to climb twenty floors¡ª¡±

    ¡°Aunt Pino!¡± Lizzie frantically waved her hand.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry the elevators here don¡¯t work,¡± I said to her. ¡°I recall it was your suggestion to go here.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s still a good choice to come here,¡± Doms said, patting her daughter to comfort her, ¡°because there are fewer monsters here.¡±

    ¡°True that. And we also saved Paolo and Julie.¡±

    Lizzie stamped her foot in frustration. ¡°No! The big elevator!¡±

    ¡°The big elevator?¡± I pointed at the two elevators behind me.

    ¡°Those are not big!¡±

    Doms snapped her fingers. ¡°The freight elevator!¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah! That one! We forgot about that. Sorry, Lizzie.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s my baby girl,¡± Doms said. ¡°All that fighting and we became too fixated on reaching these ones that we forgot about the freight elevator.¡±

    Lizzie folded her arms with a look of superiority. ¡°Hmph. See, I¡¯m helpful.¡±

    "If we could get to it, it''s a quick ride to the basement parking. We could get to my car and escape."

    "Mommy, how about Daddy?"

    "And if it''s also not working," Doms said, raising her voice and ignoring Lizzie, "we can use the stairs there. There''s practically no one in that area at this time, which means no one to turn into monsters."

    "Unless some wandered over there," Julie said.

    "Still our safest bet."

    ¡°Sounds like a plan," I said. "Where is it, anyway?¡± I wasn¡¯t pretending not to know where it was because I was supposed to be an outsider who came to rescue Erind, I seriously didn¡¯t know where the friggin¡¯ freight elevator was. "Lizzie?"

    ¡°Uh¡­uh¡­I don¡¯t know,¡± Lizzie said.

    ¡°I also can¡¯t remember,¡± said Doms. She looked down at Lizzie who was on the verge of crying. ¡°There, there, we¡¯re not angry at you. We¡¯ll go looking for it. It shouldn¡¯t be hard to find.¡±

    ¡°Pao, didn¡¯t dad have that massive bookcase delivered like three months ago? Weren¡¯t you there when it arrived?¡± Her gorilla-brother nodded. ¡°The delivery guys would¡¯ve used the freight elevator. Do you remember where it was?¡±

    ¡°He said he does,¡± I told Julie, relaying what Paolo was saying in my mind. ¡°He¡¯s trying to remember¡­oh, he recalls the way, isn¡¯t that right?¡± Paolo gave us a massive thumbs up. ¡°Let''s go,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯d rather take the elevator than fight our way through, um¡ª¡± I checked the floor number. ¡°Eighteen floors of monsters.¡±

    <hr>

    I led the way while Paolo gave instructions in my head. This wasn¡¯t me showing a heroic side to build my face; this was simply the setup most beneficial to me. If I kept Paolo and Doms unscathed, then I''d have more firepower at my disposal; their safety directly benefited me. Furthermore, I preferred the two of them to be near my human body instead of being in front.

    We encountered a few monsters. None of the dangerous eldritch-looking horribly mutated assholes, just mid-sized ones. Having had experience dealing with these guys, we had no problems taking them out and clearing the way. We also came across a few human corpses, but fortunately no more survivors. I say ¡®fortunately¡¯ because I didn¡¯t want to add to our number. It would be harder to manage a bigger group.

    ¡°Left? You sure?¡± I said, peering down the hall. ¡°This looks just like more empty rooms.¡±

    Paolo scratched his head. (Er¡­hang on.)

    ¡°Is everything okay, Pao?¡±

    ¡°He said he¡¯s getting confused because he knows the way, but on the 23<sup>rd</sup> floor. He¡¯s trying to work out the way here.¡±

    ¡°Different layout?¡± Doms mused. ¡°If you know the general direction¡­¡±

    ¡°You should¡¯ve told us that earlier," Julie said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t stress your brother,¡± said Doms. ¡°Take your time, Paolo. We¡¯re safe here. Let¡¯s have a break while you collect your thoughts.¡±

    ¡°What if we returned to the 23<sup>rd</sup> floor?¡±

    ¡°That would take some time.¡± I looked around for any signs that would point us the right way. ¡°Maybe if we could find a floor map or something¡ª¡± Right above Paolo was an open vent. Spiky things were poking out of it, followed by the huge head of an insect monster. In a split-second, I decided against hijacking his body and moving him out of the way but instead I yelled, ¡°Look out! Above you!¡±

    The monster stabbed his back with its mantis-like blades. Paolo cried in pain, but he was able to grab the monster¡¯s arms and pulled its blades out of his body. More guttural hollers came from him as the blades that were lined with hooks ripped out chunks of his flesh as he removed them. He threw the monster away and stumbled backward, apparently shocked by the pain.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Doms charged at the human-sized mantis, stabbing it before it could get up on its numerous spindly legs. The insect monster tried to stab her back, but its blades couldn¡¯t penetrate her armor.

    Julie pulled Lizzie away from the commotion, then rushed behind the cart. She seemed to consider helping her brother, but he was flailing his arms from the pain, so decided to stay put and hide with Lizzie.

    Yo! What the fuck, you kids? Don¡¯t use my body as a shield.

    ¡°Paolo!¡± Julie yelled as he rolled on the floor from the pain. Black goo gushed out of his wounds. The gorilla monster wouldn¡¯t have minded these kinds of injuries, but it was obviously the first time Paolo felt pain of this magnitude.

    (Stand up, Paolo!) I blasted in his mind. (Fucking stand up and fight!)

    I couldn¡¯t heal him just yet because my healing finger was connected to Doms; it was counteracting my strength finger that was giving her the power to move in her heavy armor and fight the mantis monster.

    There was a thud as another monster dropped from the open vent. This time it was a cockroach, about the size of a Rottweiler, with human legs sprouting from its underbelly. It scuttled towards my human body and the two girls hiding behind it.

    Doms was fighting the mantis monster while Paolo hadn¡¯t noticed the new insect, still preoccupied with his injuries. I couldn¡¯t get to it in time. I stretched my hand, lined up the cockroach bastard with a random finger, and fired. As soon as I felt the connection, instead of using the untested power of this finger, I thought with all my might, (STOP!)

    And it did stop!

    Its legs beneath it seized up, folding to its stomach. Due to its momentum, it continued skidding across the floor, hitting the cart and toppling it over. But because I concentrated on keeping it immobilized, Julie and Lizzie were able to run away from it.

    (DON¡¯T MOVE!) Then, to Paolo¡¯s mind, I broadcasted, (Get your ass up!) In that brief second I switched my focus to Paolo, the cockroach jumped back to its gross human feet. I quickly went back to trying to keep it paralyzed with my thoughts. Oh man, this is getting hard to keep track of everything.

    A dark presence lurked in the mind of this bigass cockroach.

    Jumbled, overwhelming, oppressive.

    "What is this...?" I said.

    That something threw me out of the cockroach monster¡¯s mind.

    ¡°The hell?¡± I actually fell down after receiving the mental assault even though no one physically pushed me. It was like dreaming of falling, and then suddenly jerking awake, but ten times more jarring. Was that the parasite taking back control of its host? That was dangerous; I wouldn¡¯t want it to connect to my mind.

    The cockroach was up and about.

    ¡°Mommy!¡±

    ¡°Run away!¡± Doms yelled at the girls while still entangled with the mantis monster.

    Lizzie didn¡¯t listen to her mother but went back to the cart. She tugged at the white blanket covering my human body. ¡°We have to save sleeping Erind!¡± Julie pulled her away and ran down the hall. The cockroach opened its carapace and unfurled gross leathery wings.

    (Paolo! Stop that cockroach!) I said as the insect monster flapped its wings and went after the two girls.

    Crunch!

    Paolo moved with jaw-dropping speed for his size and caught the cockroach mid-flight, squishing it between his palms. He slammed his palm with the cockroach stuck on it against the wall. I felt a slight tremor. (You pieces of shit!) he raged inside my head.

    (That¡¯s already dead, enough of that!) I told him. (Help Doms!)

    He grunted in acknowledgement and sauntered over to Doms. He pried open the blade arms of the mantis monster that was holding down Doms, and the two of them dismantled it. A creature that looked like an eel slinked out from the between chitinous plating of the monster.

    (The parasite!) I pointed at it.

    Doms stabbed its tail, pinning it to the floor to stop it from slithering into the crack beneath a door. Paolo flattened it on the ground with an open palm.

    We didn¡¯t move for a few seconds, as if expecting another monster to pop up.

    ¡°Okay, okay, we¡¯re good,¡± I said. ¡°That was a bit of a mess, but we¡¯re good.¡± It just goes to show we had way easier time dealing with monsters if I used myself as bait to draw them to me.

    Doms rushed to check on her daughter. Paolo slumped against the wall and slowly slid down to a sitting position, painting the wall behind him with the black goo from the wounds on his back.

    Too bad I couldn¡¯t move you out of harm¡¯s way, I thought. ¡°Hey, are you okay?¡± I wasn¡¯t going to reveal that I could control him just yet. I was mildly surprised I was able to control the cockroach monster though, but I shuddered when I recalled what I assumed to be the mind of the parasite. It gave off an inexplicably disgusting vibe I¡¯d rather avoid.

    Julie knelt beside her brother. ¡°Miss Pino, I think it¡¯s better if you turn him back to human.¡±

    Paolo vigorously shook his head while patting his sister¡¯s shoulder. (Tell her I¡¯m fine.)

    ¡°But you¡¯re not fine,¡± I said, putting my hands on my hips. ¡°Your sister''s right, you should¡ª¡±

    (No! We¡¯ll lose this powerful transformation! I¡¯m not going to copy that insect thing. It¡¯s too weak.)

    He was right. This transformation was our biggest asset. If we had no choice but to use the stairs, we''d really need this gorilla form with us. ¡°If you want to stay that way, then at least let me heal you. But I need to focus my power on you. Where¡¯s Doms¡ª¡±

    (No¡­no, no.) He stood up straight. (I said I¡¯m fine. I was just surprised by the pain. But this body can take it, just needed some getting used to.) He pointed down the hallway. (I think I know where to go now. The pain jogged my memory.)

    ¡°Pao, are you really okay?¡± Julie asked, but he ignored her and continued walking.

    (Tell her there''s no problem. I don¡¯t want to lose this body¡­its power¡­I don¡¯t want to lose it.)

    I shrugged and followed him. ¡°He¡¯s saying he knows the way. And, Julie, he wants you to know he¡¯s doing fine.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Woah!¡± Lizzie said. ¡°This is the way to the big elevator!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the same on our floor¡­I mean your floor too?¡± I said to Lizzie, whom I was carrying in my arms. I hoped they wouldn¡¯t notice my slip up there.

    ¡°Yup, it¡¯s the same way. I remember this cor¡­corri¡­¡±

    ¡°Corridor,¡± Doms said. She was beside me pushing the cart with my human body.

    "Corridor! It looks the same."

    Julie rushed to the door of the freight elevator. ¡°Oh my god, its on!¡± We hurried to get closer. ¡°See, the lights are on. Yes!¡± She excitedly pressed the down button.

    "Mommy, should we find Daddy so he can go with us?" Lizzie said.

    "Oh, sweetie, um¡ª"

    ¡°Wait a minute,¡± I said. ¡°The numbers! I think it was already going down before Julie even pressed it."

    ¡°Wha¡ª?¡±

    "Someone is using it. Everyone, hide! Quick!¡± I gave Lizzie to Julie and shooed them away.

    "Was I wrong to do that?" Julie said.

    ¡°Follow what Pino said. Hide over there!¡± Doms pushed the cart to the side before I even gave an explanation. ¡°I get it. Are we going to fight?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be bait, as usual,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯ll take them on. We have to try and take control of this elevator then decide what to do next.¡±

    (Uh, guys¡­what¡¯s going on?) Paolo said.

    ¡°If it gets ugly, you guys run. Don¡¯t worry about me, I¡¯m not going to die easily. But please do take care of Erind.¡±

    ¡°Will do,¡± Doms said. ¡°Paolo, you stay at the right side. Keep yourself out of view. Wait for Pino¡¯s instructions.¡±

    (Er, guys¡­)

    ¡°Someone is using the elevator,¡± I explained. ¡°Given that the Adumbrae have seemingly disabled the other elevators, there¡¯s a chance the ones using this elevator are our enemies.¡±

    (Ah! I understand now¡ª)

    ¡°It¡¯s here!¡±

    Ding.

    The elevator opened.

    There were four assholes inside.

    The guy nearest to the door carried what appeared to be a high-powered electroshock weapon. The two at his sides each had an assault rifle. The dude at the back touted a sawed-off shotgun and had some sort of machine the size of a briefcase slung over his shoulder. Most likely normal humans. They also didn¡¯t look like the BID; I was slightly concerned the BID might already be attacking this place.

    They were laughing loudly and chatting with each other. They weren¡¯t expecting us.

    Instant silence when they saw me.

    ¡°What the fuck are you?¡± The guy in the lead raised his weapon. ¡°You don¡¯t look like one of ours.¡±

    An electric field enveloped me. ¡°Ah!¡± I dropped to the floor. Streaks of electricity danced all over my body. ¡°Please stop!¡±

    ¡°I''m gonna fry your one-eyed bitchass!¡±

    Then I looked up at him. ¡°Just kidding.¡±

    I shot him with a finger and jumped in the elevator. Normal humans? I could easily fuck up normal humans.

    Party time!

 3.33

    (Point it left), I ordered the guy with the electroshock weapon.

    ¡°Huh, the fu¡ª¡± he exclaimed when he suddenly shocked his buddy beside him.

    ¡°What¡¯re you doin¡ª? AAAHH!¡±

    ¡°Kev! I didn¡¯t mean to¡ªoof¡± An uppercut to the chin shut him up.

    (Don¡¯t move!) His brain still sloshing inside his skull offered barely any conscious resistance. I followed it up with a punch right on the middle of his face. Blood spurted out of his broken nose. I pushed the end of his electroshock weapon down to his friend shuddering on the floor. (Hold the trigger!) Sparks flew all around us.

    Brrrt! Brrrt Ping! Ping! Ping!

    Bullets glanced off the side of my head and shoulder. I almost stumbled from the impact. The guy to my left had the long barrel of his gun about a foot from my face. This fucker couldn¡¯t wait his turn!

    ¡°Die!¡± said the soon-to-be-dead asshole.

    Brrrt! Ping! Ping!

    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot in here, idiot!¡± The guy with the weird machine crouched to the back of the elevator as bullets ricocheted everywhere, joining the shower of sparks. ¡°I¡¯m hit! Aaah!¡±

    (Pino! Do you need help¡ª)

    (There¡¯s gunfire¡ª)

    (Stay outside!) I told them both. I crouched down and yanked away the weapon of the fried guy on the floor. The asshole firing at me stopped for a moment, clear from his hesitant expression that he was concerned of hitting his buddy. I pointed my ¡®borrowed¡¯ gun at him. His eyes went wide and mouthed, ¡®no¡¯. Too bad. I tried pulling the trigger but couldn¡¯t. Eh? The safety lock or was it jammed?

    ¡°I¡¯ll kill you!¡± He yelled a string of curses and sprayed me with bullets.

    I got splattered with the blood of the guy convulsing beside me.

    What a friend.

    I fiddled with the gun trying to figure out what was wrong, the bullets slapping my face a minor nuisance. I didn¡¯t know where the safety lock of this shit was. Fuck this! (Hold your friend.)

    ¡°Turn it on!¡± he yelled. ¡°Ha? Let go!¡± The guy I was linked with, still doozy from my metal knuckle sandwich, followed my order and locked him in a bearhug.

    Turn what on? I knocked his head back with the butt of the rifle. Then I threw it down and grabbed his gun. ¡°At least yours works.¡± I pulled the trigger. Bullet holes appeared on his chest, on the wall above his shoulder, and traced a path to the ceiling, shattering the lights.

    Woah! What a recoil! I didn¡¯t intend my aim to go up. And my joints were nearly dislocated because I wasn¡¯t holding the rifle correctly.

    ¡°Urgkkk¡­don¡¯t¡­kill me¡­urggh.¡± He vomited blood on the shoulder of his woozy buddy holding him.

    I think I was supposed to have the rifle¡¯s butt against my shoulder. I hoped my shoulder joint could handle this. ¡°Didn¡¯t you want to kill me too?¡± I stepped closer and held the end of the gun an inch from his forehead. I wasn¡¯t going to miss this time.

    ¡°Please¡­sorry¡­urk¡­¡±

    Brrrt!

    His head slammed against the wall then slumped down, his chin touching his chest.

    A quick death for you.

    A few inches right and another spurt of bullets. I felt a mind link dissipate.

    And a quick death for your friend.

    I was being super considerate here¡ªgracious enough to bestow them a quick death¡ªgiven these assholes were part of the group that upturned my life. Like what the fuck was I going to do after everything blew over? The condominium building I was living in was now a hellhole of monsters! I was going to be investigated and shit for sure. Such a hassle. I was fucking pissed at these guys, whoever they were supposed to be.

    I turned around and observed the electrocuted guy on the floor. Bloody, smoking, and not moving. I shrugged and put a few rounds in his head.

    Aren¡¯t there four of you?

    ¡°Paolo!¡± Doms said from outside the elevator.

    BAM!

    "A fucking gorilla?"

    (Got him!)

    BAMM! BAMM!

    ¡°I¡¯ll be taking that from you,¡± said Doms. ¡°You could¡¯ve killed me.¡±

    The sneaky guy somehow crawled out of the elevator right under my nose. Paolo held him up in the air by the scruff of his clothes like a mother cat would with her kitten. He punched and kicked Paolo, a smattering of blood spreading on the floor from his wounds caused by stray bullets from earlier, but achieved nothing except looking funny.

    ¡°The fuck are all of you?¡± he said. ¡°Are you Adumbrae too? You fuckers must be sent by the families from Vegas?¡±

    I raised a proverbial brow at that statement since I physically had none. That sounded familiar. If I recalled correctly, the guys with Vanessa mentioned something about rival organizations of the 2Ms in Las Vegas, the city of augs. What were the names those guys again?

    Doms trained our captive¡¯s own shotgun at him. ¡°Shut up! We¡¯re the ones who¡¯ll ask the questions.¡± There was a smudge of black on her otherwise white bony chest plate. But there wasn¡¯t any crack.

    Ding!

    I glanced over the elevator¡¯s control panel and did some quick thinking. Yeah, better not use this. I held out my hand by the door to stop it from closing. Then I picked up the guns, the electroshock weapon, and the weird box, and threw them out of the elevator car. I stared at the bodies, considering getting another one for use later.

    Nah, the one we have was enough. I stepped out of the car and it went on its merry way down.

    ¡°Wait, what?¡± Doms moved towards the door but I stopped her. ¡°I thought we¡¯re going to use it?¡± she said.

    (I could¡¯ve fit inside it.)

    ¡°You fucking freakshow!¡± said the grunt presumably working for the 2M¡¯s. ¡°None of you gonna leave this place alive!¡±

    ¡°Quiet down a bit,¡± I said, ¡°I¡¯m thinking.¡±

    ¡°You the leader of this crew? Release me¡ªugh.¡± I slapped him. His head snapped to the left. He spat out what looked like teeth I knocked out. ¡°You metal bitch!¡±

    I picked up the stupid gun that wouldn¡¯t work and clubbed his wounded leg with it. He yelled both in pain and surprise. Geez, don¡¯t people know how to behave anymore? ¡°Don¡¯t talk unless we tell you. You have an annoying whiny voice.¡± Then I handed the gun to Doms. ¡°Trade! Can you figure this out? I think it has its safety on.¡± She didn¡¯t respond, still a bit taken a back by what I just did. I took the sawed-off shotgun from her. ¡°And can you take care of that security camera up there?¡±

    She feebly nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­¡± There was a click after she unlatched whatever the fucking hell it was, and she shattered the camera with a couple of well-aimed bursts. ¡°Now, can you tell us why we¡¯re not using the elevator?¡±

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°The floor buttons thingy in the elevator car. There¡¯s no button turned on.¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­so?¡±

    ¡°The elevator car didn¡¯t stop here because of Julie. These assholes were really going to this floor.¡±

    ¡°And we could¡¯ve used the elevator?¡± Doms said, anger creeping in her voice. ¡°We can escap¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just now, the elevator was going down. If there¡¯s no button lit up, it means someone is calling for it below. Either other survivors or more of these assholes; I¡¯ll bet on the latter. Which also means we can¡¯t use the stairs here because the enemy will be somewhere downstairs.¡± I gestured at the weapons I ¡®borrowed¡¯. ¡°At least I got these.¡±

    (I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m right on this one¡­if they pressed the button for this floor then they know that we¡¯re here?)

    ¡°That¡¯s right, Paolo,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s the main thing on my mind.¡± In response to Dom¡¯s quizzical stare, I explained, ¡°He said these guys know about us if they intentionally went to this floor.¡± I turned to the elevator behind me. Good thing it was still going down. Probably all the way to the basement parking? ¡°By the way, keep an eye on if it goes back up.¡±

    ¡°They know about us?¡± Doms said. ¡°The security cameras?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Although there¡¯s something I don¡¯t understand here. These assholes were surprised seeing me. Maybe we¡¯re not the ones they¡¯re looking for?¡±

    ¡°The easy way to know is to ask him,¡± Doms said. ¡°Hey, scumbag! Are you hunting us?¡±

    ¡°Hunting you?¡± He spat out blood. ¡°The fuck we want with you fuckers? We¡¯re looking for a girl¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind?¡± said Doms. She glanced at me.

    ¡°Yeah, I think that¡¯s her name.¡± The guy laughed. ¡°Wait a minute¡­I see what¡¯s going on here. You Vegas fucktards are also going for the same thing! You got to our target first then? Where is she? Is she with those girls hiding over there?¡±

    Lizzie jumped from behind a column and shouted. ¡°You can¡¯t have Erind!¡± Julie cupped her mouth to shut her up and pulled her back to the safety of the concrete column.

    Doms said, ¡°You girls stay hidden!¡±

    ¡°The bosses don¡¯t explain a lot to us,¡± the goon said. ¡°But I got enough brains to figure this out. The wolf woman is working for you. It was you Vegas fucktards all along. Messing with our operations and shit. It finally makes sense! Wait until Miss Stella hears about this. You sneaky bastards going around breaking the agreement and shit.¡±

    (What is he talking about?) Doms privately asked me.

    I had no idea what he was talking about either. I messaged both Doms and Paolo with my best guess, (He thinks I¡¯m from a rival organization. Another Adumbrae organization with nefarious goals. I¡¯m not though. I¡¯m part of a group of Adumbrae that wants to stop all of them from doing evil deeds.) Cringey heroic speech. I didn¡¯t know if they believed it even though it was, in some twisted way, kind of the truth.

    ¡°You fuckers are in our turf. And you¡¯ve made the biggest mistake of your life.¡± He flipped us off while spit mixed with blood flew from his mouth. ¡°You think you¡¯ve brought enough firepower? Miss Stella and Bob are both here!¡±

    There was a ton of misunderstanding going on. Misunderstanding I didn¡¯t care about. But I was able to confirm the 2Ms were involved¡ªI think I even heard the name ¡®Stella¡¯ mentioned by one of the hero wannabes before¡ªand that they were after me once again.

    Still, the question of why he was surprised to see us was unanswered. I was with my human body the entire time. I assumed they must¡¯ve seen me leave my room through the security cameras, and they probably had someone check out my room afterwards, so they knew the body wrapped in the blanket was the person they were looking for. But then, they should also know we were guarding this body, right?

    However, from the reaction of these asshats, they didn¡¯t even expect we had Erind, or rather, my human body, with us all along. And why send just these four idiots to get it¡­get me? They should''ve sent augmented dudes at the least if they saw they had to fight us; I knew the 2Ms had some of those.

    Everything was already wrong¡­but something was even wronger. Hmmm, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a word.

    The answers I sought weren¡¯t with this guy we captured. But before I killed him for use in my plan, we could try asking him what stuff he did know. ¡°Hey, you know how to get out of here? I assume some of you guys are in the basement parking? How about the ground floor?¡±

    ¡°Why the fuck am I going to tell you that?¡±

    ¡°Figures. Anyway, you know how to get through those vine things wrapping the building?¡±

    He chuckled. ¡°You went in here without an escape plan?¡± Paolo shook him and roared at his face. ¡°What?¡± he said. ¡°You gonna torture me? I don¡¯t know shit about that!¡±

    (I¡¯m going to break this guy¡¯s bones!) Paolo grabbed each of the guy¡¯s arms, dangled him in the air and started to pull. (Pino! Tell this guy I¡¯m going to rip his limbs off if he doesn¡¯t answer.)

    ¡°What are you doing? Stop that!¡± Doms said.

    ¡°Hold on¡­I really don¡¯t know! Stop pulling!¡±

    Paolo bellowed and violently shook him.

    ¡°I really don¡¯t know!¡± Tears streamed down the guy¡¯s cheeks. ¡°It hurts!¡±

    ¡°Paolo!¡± Julie rushed out of her hiding spot. ¡°Stop it! Just stop it! Do you realize what you¡¯re doing?¡± He slowly lowered the guy. ¡°You¡¯re doing the same thing that monster did to Dad!¡±

    (I¡­I didn¡¯t¡­I¡­uh.)

    I clapped my hands to get their attention. ¡°Enough of that. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll get anything useful from him.¡± I jabbed my thumb in the direction of the elevator. ¡°And look, it¡¯s going up. We need to go.¡±

    ¡°You guys are fucked if our Adumbrae get here. If it¡¯s an Adumbrae versus Adumbrae fight you want¡ªOW!¡±

    I slapped him again. How amusing he suddenly got brave again. But if he was right those were Adumbrae coming here then we better pack up and leave on the double. ¡°Julie, you know how to use a gun? Here.¡± I gave her the shotgun. ¡°And also take this weird machine box thingy he has.¡± I hung the strap of the electroshock weapon across my shoulder while picking the other assault rifle as my main weapon. ¡°We¡¯re moving out. Paolo, put our friend on the floor and hold him still.¡±

    ¡°Why are you pointing the gun at him?¡± Doms said.

    ¡°Because I¡¯m going to kill him.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll do what? Just leave him tied up. We can use the firehose over there."

    ¡°We¡¯re not going to leave him,¡± I said. ¡°We need his corpse for Paolo¡ª¡± Doms put herself in front of the guy. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s up? Move out of the way."

    ¡°You seriously can¡¯t be planning to make Paolo copy this guy?¡±

    (Huh? What am I going to do? Pino?)

    ¡°The elevator¡¯s coming up,¡± I said. ¡°Move out of the way. There¡¯s no time.¡± Did she have a problem with Paolo copying a bad guy? ¡°We can discuss copying him later. But we need to kill him now. It¡¯s much easier and safer to carry a corpse¡ª¡±

    We heard a distinct metallic twang followed by cracks in the air like that made by a heavy whip. Mechanical crunches and bangs that didn¡¯t sound normal joined in. We all turned to the elevator. I assumed none of us have heard it before, but we all knew what it was. The cables inside were cut.

    But where was sound of the crash? Was it too far away? Or did the elevator car have emergency brake?

    The guy we captured tried to pull away from Paolo, and all of our attention went back to him.

    ¡°You¡¯re all fucked when they get here! You¡¯re all gonna get culled like stray mutts!¡±

    ¡°Why threaten us with death when we¡¯re going to kill you?¡± I said. I only saw that in movies, but never expected to encounter such behavior in real life. Like, what the hell? He was just giving me more reason to kill him.

    ¡°Paolo,¡± Doms said, ¡°release him.¡±

    (Ah..eh? But Pino said¡­)

    This is weird. I knew me and my kind couldn¡¯t relate to the emotions of normal people, how they processed information and think and such. But we were very good at understanding them even if we couldn¡¯t relate. And I¡¯d like to think I had a good read on Doms. Which was why I couldn¡¯t understand her now. ¡°You had no problems with me killing those guys in the elevator?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°That¡¯s different!¡±

    ¡°These are evil people,¡± I said. I thought we were already on the same page? Should I just kill her too? Would Paolo and Julie still go with me if I did that? Probably not. "What''s the difference?"

    ¡°I know you¡¯re an Adumbrae and you don¡¯t think like us¡­but be it Adumbrae or human, what you¡¯re going to do to him¡­this is a cold-blooded murder. I¡¯m not going to let you do that.¡±

    Hmmm.

    I blinked. ¡°You win!¡± I lowered my gun and walked away. There was no point arguing with her. ¡°Leave him there then and let¡¯s go before the Adumbrae comes up the stairs. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re not going to be stopped by whatever that was.¡±

    (I¡¯ll just release him?)

    ¡°Yeah. Let him go.¡±

    The asshat crawled to the elevator and rested against the door. He wiped the blood on his mouth. ¡°What? You expect me to thank you? Eat shit!¡±

    I pointed my finger at the goon. ¡°Stay there. Don¡¯t follow us or do anything funny. Or else.¡± I traced my finger across my neck. Was that cringey? I guess so? Oh well, I can¡¯t take that back anymore.

    Without warning, the building shook. Julie and Lizzie screamed. Doms rushed to her daughter. Earthquake? A bomb? The power of an Adumbrae?

    Dust fell from the ceiling. Cracks appeared.

    ¡°Run!¡± I said.

    (Run!) Paolo echoed in my head. He scooped up Julie and Lizzie in one arm and the cart with my body with the other. All of us went out of the room with the freight elevator and into the hallway. Before turning right, I looked back at the dude sitting by the elevator door. He stared up at the crumbling ceiling.

    A large pillar burst out of the ceiling and smashed him.

    It continued going down, punching through the floor and onto the lower levels.

    The building continued shaking.

    And we continued running.

 3.34 - Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    2:39 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

    ¡°I finally caught your slippery ass!¡± Myra Fletcher¡ªor maybe she should refer to herself as ¡®Barb¡¯ since they were on a mission¡ªgloated down at one of the Adumbrae enforcers of the 2Ms. ¡°Checkmate, Ichor baby. End of the line.¡± She trapped him in her favorite move, a giant prison of spikes.

    Ichor, fully transformed into his silvery slime body, tried his best to escape the multitude of spikes of various sizes hemming him in, his liquid form easily slipping through the numerous gaps. But he couldn¡¯t completely get away because she had caught his brain, the main weakness of his power.

    Myra sneered behind her spiky helmet. Dario was right.

    She recalled the tips he gave her after their third encounter with Ichor. He realized that even though Ichor could transform his body into viscous liquid, his brain, or maybe even his entire skull, retained its form. Dario observed how Ichor moved his brain inside his slime body to keep it safe, and told Myra how to catch it the next time they met.

    That guy¡¯s really good at fighting, she thought. Unfortunately, they might end up going up against him someday.

    Ichor was panicking, flicking back and forth between his solid and liquid forms. His minions tried to free him, emptying their clips at Myra. They even chucked a couple of grenades at her, which she deflected with a wall of spikes.

    After all the times they fought, these idiots still couldn''t remember that most conventional weapons couldn¡¯t pierce her armor.

    But one of them, being a party pooper, brought out a stun pulser. Myra flung spikes at them. She hit most of the grunts, but the guy with the stun pulser managed to remain standing, taking an aim at her.

    Fortunately, Johann was there to the rescue, dropping the threat with his excellent marksmanship.

    ¡°Thanks, Johann!¡± she said.

    Ichor tried to pierce her, again, forming tentacles and hardening their tips. All of them bounced off her thick armor, again. Next, he tried to find cracks in her armor to get to her body, slime creeping up on her. But she simply shed a layer of her armor to disperse the liquid coating her before it could reach her eyeholes. She hated fighting him because of stuff like this.

    ¡°Anytime now, Everett!¡±

    He poked his head from behind a smoldering car and yelled back, ¡°Call me Emcee!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going to kill them all, there¡¯s no need for codenames¡ªwoah!¡± Myra felt the extreme heat penetrating through the cage of spikes and even her armor. ¡°Damn, that¡¯s hot as hell.¡± She breathed a sigh of relief that Everett had recovered enough to use his powers again. He looked pretty pooped after blowing up the thick vine wall earlier.

    Sensing his impending doom, Ichor gathered his entire slime body and compressed it, forming an extremely dense and hard casing around his brain.

    But it doesn¡¯t matter.

    It wasn¡¯t going to protect him because the heat wasn¡¯t coming from the outside. It was going to radiate from a point Everett focused on. And that point was going to be somewhere inside his brain.

    Everett always had trouble concentrating energy in a specific area he couldn¡¯t see, more so if it was a tiny spot; he preferred just heating up whatever was in front of him. But he had plenty of practice with Myra¡¯s spike cage, especially targeting the center of it¡ªwhich was where she held Ichor¡¯s brain.

    ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about,¡± she hooted as the spikes below her blackened and cracked from the heat. She was madly sweating inside her own armor. ¡°Enjoy getting your brain boiled, you slimy bastard.¡±

    The rest of the surviving grunts fled back into the building after seeing their boss turned to ash.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough, Emcee!¡± Johann said. He jumped out the smashed window of a small store across the street and sprinted over to Everett to check his condition.

    Giddy from killing an Adumbrae, Myra did a backflip as she descended from the massive burning spike cage. ¡°Nice shooting, Johann!¡± He was a technician at the Adumbrae Investigations Unit, not a cop, but his practice with his cop buddies paid off. ¡°And we have another kill, Everett! Hurra¡ª" He didn¡¯t look like he shared her celebratory mood, all wobbly on his feet. ¡°Ah¡­did you overdo it?¡±

    He took off his black ski mask. His lips were sickly pale, his cheeks sunken. With a trembling hand, he wiped blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. ¡°I¡¯m¡­I¡¯m fine.¡± He tipped to the left.

    ¡°Everett!

    Johann caught him as he was about to fall. ¡°You pushed yourself too much. Here, drink this.¡± He handed him a can of energy drink.

    "Thanks..."

    ¡°I also have some food here I got from the store. I know you didn¡¯t have a chance to eat a lot before rushing here.¡±

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Myra said.

    Everett snorted ¡°Got or stole?¡±

    ¡°If he can make snide comments, then he¡¯s okay,¡± Johann said. ¡°I didn¡¯t intentionally steal those, by the way.¡± He adjusted his own mask. ¡°I may look like a robber, but I wanted to pay. Although, if I left money, it would be easy to trace me.¡±

    "Nice excuse." Chomping down on three granola bars at a time, Everett ate as if he had been starved for weeks, which probably was the state of his body after using large amounts of his power.

    ¡°Thanks for doing this,¡± Myra said. ¡°I know you want to go to Deen first¡ª"

    ¡°You make it sound like I want to just forget about Erind because of Deen.¡±

    ¡°No! Come on, man, I didn¡¯t mean that.¡±

    ¡°Just kidding. She¡¯ll be angry with me if I didn¡¯t help her best friend.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯d have no way of busting through that weird wall if you weren¡¯t here.¡±

    ¡°This grenade I got from Dario¡¯s weapon stash won¡¯t be much help,¡± mumbled Johan. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve heard you mention someone with this power?¡±

    ¡°Some fart hiding away in the Red Island that decided to show his ugly face only now?¡± Myra said with a shrug.

    ¡°Thanks for the food, Johann.¡± Everett held up the crumpled wrappers of the food he gobbled, burning them all to nothingness. ¡°You must get going now. That wall might close up. I¡¯ll be off to find Deen.¡±

    ¡°Take care,¡± Johann said. ¡°The police will be coming here soon, you might run into them. I don¡¯t think the illusion covering the building masked the sounds of our fight."

    "Yep," Myra said. "I bet someone already reported the explosions.¡±

    ¡°You guys move quickly too before the BID arrives. Don¡¯t be bogged down fighting. Get Erind and get out.¡±

    ¡°Why are you staring at me?¡± Myra said with an innocent grin. ¡°I swear I¡¯m not going out of my way to kill any fucking Adumbrae, especially that jackass, Calder, making this illusion barrier. He should be around here somewhere.¡±

    ¡°Myra¡­¡±

    ¡°I know, I know.¡± She held out her fist. Johann and Everett bumped it with theirs. ¡°See you later. Don¡¯t die.¡±

    ¡°You too.¡±

    And they went their separate ways; Everett to a stolen car¡ªtheir actual ¡°team¡± car was at the bottom of the ocean; Myra and Johann to the opening on the wall of vines.

    Johann checked his gun and changed his clip. ¡°I have plenty of bullets left, two magni-field mines, two flashbangs, one HE grenade. Wasted a lot of the magnis catching Ichor.¡±

    ¡°Just make those count.¡± Myra increased the size of her armor; it almost felt like she was piloting one of the larger ComExo models. ¡°Stay behind me,¡± she said as dove through the hole, into the building.

    A twelve-foot spiky tree golem, she charged down the ramp that curved into the basement parking area. The floor shook beneath her feet. She intentionally smashed the ticket booth in her way. A hail of bullets greeted her, but she pressed on, chasing the jackasses shooting at her. Killing them one by one as she caught them.

    Violently. Very violently.

    She zoned out as she started killing. She blocked out their dying screams, the final words that came out of theirs mouths. They deserve it, she told herself. They all deserve it.

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    The guy charging at her with a heavy stun rod? Sliced to pieces.

    Hiding under a pick-up truck? Flattened along with the truck.

    Reloading behind the cover of a large canister? Skewered through the canister.

    The two running away from her down the row of cars? Hit by spikes that exploded into smaller spikes inside their bodies.

    She usually didn¡¯t shoot spikes because it was less material for her armor. She preferred saving the bark she produced, especially after making something as large as the cage of spikes outside. But now¡­she decided she didn¡¯t care. None of these pieces of shit were getting out of here alive.

    She used to hesitate killing them.

    Adumbrae were Adumbrae, but these were humans.

    These hired goons might have their own reasons for working for the 2Ms, just like she had her own reasons for discarding her humanity and accepting highly illegal powers. She could argue all she wanted that she was a good guy, that she was fighting for the right side, but that wouldn¡¯t matter in the eyes of the BID if she was ever caught.

    All of her compassion and empathy fizzled out when Kelsey disappeared.

    These people might not even be responsible for whatever happened to her sister if Johann¡¯s suspicions were correct. But Myra didn¡¯t care anymore. She just wanted to kill¡­kill to forget that she was nowhere closer to finding Kelsey.

    A rocket to her chest blasted her to the side of a van, but she stood back up as if it was nothing. She hurled the crumpled van at the large cargo truck used by the 2Ms¡¯ men. Green liquid spilled out as the truck toppled to its side. The last thing she expected emerged out of it.

    ¡°What¡¯s all of this?¡± she whispered.

    Monstrous creatures crawled out of the wreckage and attacked the minions of the 2Ms. A few of them saw her. They leapt at her, scratching her, trying to open her armor to no avail. Blades burst out of her armor, slicing the annoying gremlins before they even realized their heads were detached from their bodies.

    She stopped to observe just how weird everything was. Complicated boxy machines were set up throughout the parking area. Enormous canisters filled with green liquid being loaded onto trucks. And what were those creatures floating inside the canisters?

    Experiments? Mutants?

    Where did the 2Ms get them? From this building? Were those residents of this building? What the hell? She thought they only wanted to kidnap Erind and hold her hostage to trap their group when they came to rescue her. But they seemed to have huge operation going on here. She hoped Erind wasn¡¯t turned into one of these monsters.

    ¡°The elevator!¡± Johann said as he ran towards her. ¡°They¡¯re trying to escape!¡±

    A small group of armed men congregated in front of the elevator door, waiting for it to come down. When they saw Myra leaping over the rows of cars to get to them, they panicked and fled in every direction.

    ¡°I¡¯m not letting any of you go!¡± She threw spikes to jam the door to the stairwell.

    D¨¦j¨¤ vu.

    WHAM! A car slammed into her.

    D¨¦j¨¤ vu indeed.

    ¡°Shut up!¡± she screamed, madly tearing the car apart to stop its piercing alarm.

    ¡°Here''s some more!¡± someone said.

    A couple more cars came flying towards her. She punched them away.

    ¡°You caught ''em. Good for ya!¡±

    That voice with an annoyingly jovial tone. ¡°Slinky? Is that you? Show yourself!¡±

    A man wearing a trench coat jumped on the hood of the car to her left. ¡°What¡¯s up, tree twerp? I can¡¯t have you destroying all of these.¡± His entire body was covered by bandages, even his head. The strips of cloth wrapped around his arms unraveled, revealing hands covered in scales. His forearm muscles bulged like an inflated balloon, his hands turning into scaly wrecking balls.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you, you lizard freak!¡±

    ¡°Freak? That¡¯s rich coming from ya.¡±

    She gathered bark around her fists and slammed it down on Slinky.

    He jumped out of the way and countered with a left hook using his massive fist.

    So that''s what you want? Myra buried spikes from the soles of her feet into the ground, anchoring her in place. She received the flurry of punches from Slinky without giving up an inch. Out of the corner of her eye, through the small opening of her helmet, she spotted Johann somewhere behind Slinky signing something.

    No need to worry, Johann. She wasn¡¯t going to get tricked by Slinky again.

    She traded a few blows with the lizard idiot to keep him entertained while Johann prepared their trap. After seeing her teammate give her a thumbs up, she grinned. Dozens of spikes erupted from her armor. But that didn¡¯t deter Slinky. He was more than ten feet tall, and still continuing to grow. No doubt seeing it as a challenge, he punched even harder. His blows broke most of the spikes, but some of them buried into his flesh. Those ones birthed more spikes, spreading themselves inside his hands and arms.

    With Slinky locked with her, Myra easily grabbed him. More spikes shot out of her chest and held him in place. Laughing out loud, she tackled him like a deranged quarterback, pushing him to where Johann signaled earlier.

    ¡°What are ya doing?¡± Slinky said. His voice became earthier as he changed more and more into a towering humanoid lizard monster. ¡°Tree twerp! Ya know that I¡¯m stronger than ya¡ª¡±

    ¡°See you later, idiot!¡± Myra cracked a hole on the back of her armor and exited through it.

    ¡°Wha? Where ya going? EARGHH!!¡±

    Tongues of electricity licked Slinky¡¯s body as if he was a plasma ball display at a science fair. Johann had activated the magni-field mine. ¡°To the elevator!" he said. "Let¡¯s not waste time.¡±

    ¡°Got it.¡±

    ¡°Here.¡± He tossed her something. ¡°A mask.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re always so dependable,¡± Myra said, donning on the black mask matching his.

    ¡°Of course. That¡¯s why Blank wanted me on the team even though I¡¯d never accept a Core.¡±

    The elevator car has already arrived, its doors wide open inviting them in.

    ¡°Wha-? Why are there dead people here?¡± Myra accidentally stepped on one of them. The disgusting smell of burnt flesh went up her nose, almost making her puke.

    ¡°Maybe someone else got here before us?¡± Johann said. He pressed the button for Erind''s floor.

    A roar reverberated throughout the enclosed parking area. "Uh-oh," Myra said. "He''s coming. I still don''t have armor."

    "Don''t worry. He won''t reach us."

    Slinky stomped towards the elevator, but Johann triggered their last magni-field mine, locking him in place.

    "Eat this!" Johann pulled the pin out of an HE grenade and threw it in Slinky¡¯s direction just before the elevator doors closed. There was a rumble after a few seconds, but they were already on their way up.

    ¡°Jeez, man. What¡¯s going on here?¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Beats me,¡± Johann said. He kicked the bodies to check if they were alive. ¡°Bullet wounds? But the police aren¡¯t here yet. Who were these guys fighting?¡±

    ¡°Whatever¡¯s happening here, it wasn¡¯t what we expected.¡± She slowly rebuilt her armor, excreting the bark-like substance through her skin, hardening it layer per layer. ¡°This isn¡¯t a simple rescue mission anymore. This better be worth it, Johann.¡±

    ¡°I already told you it¡¯s just a guess,¡± he snapped.

    ¡°I know¡ª.¡±

    ¡°And you¡¯re the one who insisted we do this.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I did. I...I¡¯m just grasping at straws...at anything to find Kelsey. And that thing you told me about Dario.¡±

    ¡°What I suspected about him,¡± he clarified.

    Myra nodded. "I really hope Erind is the way to finding Red Hood."

    ¡°I''m sure of it. You first met the woman with that monster mouth wearing a red hood when you were...¡± Johann didn''t complete his sentence.

    ¡°In a parking area,¡± Myra muttered.

    ¡°Red Hood was also there at Eve last Saturday night based on witness statements I dug up from confidential BID files.¡±

    ¡°The night Erind lost control of herself again and turned into a giant werewolf. Just like at the docks.¡±

    ¡°There was a ton of security protecting those files, but from what I was able to gather, the BID did encounter the same creature we met at the docks.¡±

    "Red Hood was probably there at the docks too,¡± Myra said more to herself. ¡°We just didn''t see her." They already discussed this before they called Everett to help them bust in this place. But they didn''t tell him about it, obviously.

    ¡°And most recently, the incident at Serenade," Johann said, referring to a security camera of a store a few blocks away from the bazaar that caught a glimpse of Erind. "Although, I''m not sure about that one."

    ¡°Lucky the BID deputized the city¡¯s AIU to help them investigate all of this," Myra said. "Otherwise, you wouldn¡¯t have access¡ªwhat was that?¡±

    The elevator lurched to a halt.

    They looked at each other.

    The elevator car careened downwards. Myra turned her armor into thick lances, piercing through the car''s walls, burying into the sides of the elevator shaft. Some of them broke from the weight of the car, but most of them were able to stop the fall. ¡°They cut the cables!¡±

    ¡°Or Slinky''s pulling us down?¡±

    ¡°Out, out,¡± she said, forcing the door open with her immense strength, ¡°before they do something else.¡± The elevator car wasn¡¯t exactly lined up with the door of the floor, about only a fourth of the way, so they had to crawl to fit through the small gap. Johann held her hand and pulled her out even if he didn¡¯t need to. She appreciated the gesture.

    ¡°Damn, this is getting insane,¡± he said, sitting on the floor. ¡°Even I¡¯m hoping that this is worth it.¡±

    ¡°This is going to be shit if after all of this Red Hood turns us down, or if she won¡¯t even show up.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯ll show up for sure. She wants to stop Erind going berserk in her giant werewolf form. Maybe this will be the time she''ll finally recruit her...forcefully."

    "But will she help us?"

    "I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Well, what¡¯s the next plan?¡± Myra said. ¡°It looks like Erind hasn¡¯t gone out of control yet, so we have that going for us.¡±

    She felt a pang of guilt thinking about it. Red Hood was the one trying to turn Erind into an Adumbrae; why else was she there at Sanders Mall? But Myra couldn''t shake the feeling that she herself was the reason Erind finally became an Adumbrae, the one that pushed her over the edge by nearly killing her.

    And now, Erind turned into a giant werewolf whenever she couldn''t control her power. Damn it! How was she going to apologize when they met again? If only she hadn''t misunderstood Kelsey''s note in her locker. It probably referred to Dario rather than Erind.

    ¡°Next plan?¡± Johann said. "I''m not sure if Erind is still in her room after all of this..." He snapped his fingers. ¡°The security room! We could check there. I¡¯ve downloaded this building¡¯s blueprints¡ªis the floor shaking?¡±

    ¡°We just can¡¯t catch a break,¡± Myra said pulling Johann up. ¡°Let¡¯s run!¡±

 3.35

    Erind Hartwell

    2:49 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

    ¡°No more shaking?¡± I stepped on the bullet-ridden head of a rotting ghoulish child and fished my severed arm out of its gaping mouth. Everything had quieted down but I still raised my gun at the unhinged double doors of the spacious conference room we fled in. ¡°I guess no more monsters too. How are you guys doing?¡±

    Paolo huffed and puffed as he waded through piles of monster body parts around him. He had planted himself by the door and bore the brunt of the wave of monsters that chased us after the building started shaking.

    I checked the color of the corpses to make sure they were all dead. They didn¡¯t seem to be specifically going for us. More like they were spooked by the quakes and stampeded, and then ran into us. I saw a few of them even eating each other.

    (I¡¯m fine), he said, noticing my gaze. How many times had he said that to me already? He was heavily bleeding after tearing through the monstrous horde. Definitely wasn¡¯t fine.

    ¡°Mommy.¡± Lizzie emerged from under the table. ¡°Are you¡­are you okay?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mommy¡¯s okay, sweetie,¡± Doms replied as she shoved the lifeless beast with weird fangs off her shoulder. ¡°My armor protected me.¡± The thickly-furred monster fell on its back, revealing its gutted chest and stomach, courtesy of her bony blades. In a stern voice, she said, ¡°Lizzie, look away.¡±

    Her daughter complied and ran to Julie, hugging her arm and pressing her face against her side so she wouldn¡¯t see anything.

    ¡°Ow! Careful, Lizzie. My shoulder hurts.¡±

    ¡°Sorry!¡±

    Paolo went near his sister, making grunts and whines of concern that didn¡¯t need any translating.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, Pao,¡± she said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Just the recoil of the gun on my shoulder.¡± Props to her for knowing how to shoot with a rifle. ¡°How about you? You¡¯re covered in blood. Is that your blood¡ª¡±

    Paolo forcefully snorted and shook his head, returning back to his post by the door.

    ¡°Hmph, whatever then.¡±

    Everyone was super stressed with everything going on, especially Doms and Paolo; they were so stressed their thoughts began to bleed into mine. I doubled my efforts to keep my own mind in check while making sure they wouldn¡¯t notice each other¡¯s minds. I did briefly peek on what they were thinking, careful that if I prodded too much, they might pick up my own thoughts.

    Paolo¡¯s was mostly on killing the monsters and the Adumbrae who turned this place into a hellhole. But I could tell he was only focusing on that to distract himself from the pain of his injuries. Was he afraid I was going to force him out of his gorilla transformation that he loved so much? Idiot kid.

    Dom¡¯s thoughts were a bit more concerning; mistrust was brewing. The scene of our earlier misunderstanding as well as the words of the 2Ms¡¯ minion that I was from a rival organization was playing on repeat in her head. I bet she assumed I wasn¡¯t really as good of a guy as I presented myself to be¡ªwhich was true¡ªand that I¡¯d sacrifice them or something when I got the chance¡ªwhich was also true.

    Whatever. First things first.

    ¡°Seems like everyone is fine,¡± I loudly said to get their attention. ¡°Everyone¡­except Paolo.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Julie said. ¡°He really is badly hurt! Don¡¯t try to hide it, Pao.¡±

    (I said I¡¯m fine! I¡¯m not going to get rid of this transformation.)

    Even though Julie could only hear grunts, she understood her brother was being stubborn. ¡°Miss Pino, you have to do something about it.¡±

    ¡°Relax, Paolo,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m not going to force you out of that transformation. But I can heal you.¡±

    ¡°Yes! Please heal my brother.¡±

    Doms said, ¡°Do you need to, uh, dispel, or what should I call it? Remove my armor, so you can concentrate your powers healing him?¡±

    Paolo growled. (Pino, tell them I¡¯m fine. It¡¯s dangerous if Doms doesn¡¯t wear¡ª)

    ¡°Hey! I said relax!¡± I also blasted my words into his head. ¡°Doms, you don¡¯t need to take your armor off. But I do suggest you sit on the floor in a comfortable position because, when I focus on healing Paolo, you¡¯ll feel very weak. Well, not really weak¡ª¡±

    ¡°You mean I¡¯ll go back to my normal strength?¡±

    ¡°Exactly.¡± No way I was going to keep her connected to my strength finger without the healing finger.

    ¡°Us weak normal humans,¡± she sighed.

    ¡°You don¡¯t want to get squished by your own armor, do you? But we could take it off too, if you want.¡±

    ¡°I can manage.¡±

    After changing my finger links, I pumped Paolo with healing power and¡­it didn¡¯t have any effect. ¡°Eh? It doesn¡¯t work,¡± I exclaimed.

    ¡°You can¡¯t heal my brother?¡±

    ¡°I¡­um, it¡¯s not working. Hmmm.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°My hunch is that it¡¯s a limitation of the manifestation of the power I gave him,¡± I said, thinking on my feet to come up with a plausible explanation. ¡°Like Doms can make her bone armor using her own energy. Which is, obviously, not advisable.¡±

    ¡°It feels awful,¡± Doms said.

    ¡°But we found out she can use corpses. As for Paolo, it seems he can copy corpses but I can¡¯t do anything to the copied body, like heal it.¡±

    ¡°Why is it like that?¡± Julie asked.

    ¡°Correct me if I¡¯m wrong, Pino,¡± Doms said. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that Adumbrae powers differ from person to person¡ªbesides the usual strength and super healing¡ªand it¡¯s tied to their personality or personal circumstances, something along those lines?¡±

    ¡°I know only a few Adumbrae well enough to make an assessment of that,¡± I said, ¡°but I think you¡¯re right on that one.¡± Just talking out of my metal ass here.

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    ¡°You mean to say this condition is my brother¡¯s fault?¡± Julie asked. ¡°Can¡¯t really argue with that. He really is stubborn and doesn¡¯t want help from others.¡±

    Paolo snorted and looked away.

    ¡°Anyway, we have to get moving,¡± I said. ¡°And since I can¡¯t heal him, the alternative is turning him back to human. He can then choose a new body to copy from these ones around us.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you should¡ª¡±

    Paolo shook his gorilla head animatedly and made a cross using his arms to make his sister understand his vehement opposition to the idea. I conveyed his thoughts to her, ¡°He says the bodies here are weak and not good replacements. To which, I agree.¡±

    Julie struggled to keep her face neutral, trying to hide concern. ¡°What¡¯s going to happen to Pao then? He¡¯ll just fight in that form until¡­until he couldn¡¯t anymore?¡±

    Correct, which I didn¡¯t say that out loud. ¡°If his situation gets worse,¡± I said, ¡°I¡¯ll turn him back to human no matter what he says.¡± Paolo gave us a thumbs up. ¡°See? He agrees. That¡¯s settled then.¡± I paused to listen to him speaking in my mind. ¡°Your brother wants me to tell you that he promises that if his injuries become too severe, he¡¯ll change back with no more complaints.¡±

    ¡°Pao, I¡¯m going to trust you on this one,¡± Julie said, ¡°so don¡¯t do anything stupid.¡± Her brother carefully patted her head with a finger the size of her arm.

    How sweet, would¡¯ve been the appropriate reaction.

    I knew that much.

    Right?

    <hr>

    Left with no other choice, we decided to look for the stairs and make our way down. Our best bet was indeed to fight while we still had Paolo¡¯s copied gorilla monster body, our main source of firepower. If it was just me and Doms, we¡¯d definitely have a hard time dealing with even just a small group of the weak monsters.

    (Paolo, I know you have a strong body), I said to him in a private message, (but don¡¯t be reckless.) No response from him, so I continued. (It would be bad if you''re forced to turn back in the middle of the fight.)

    (Yea, yea, I know.)

    (I¡¯m not sure if we¡¯ll get lucky again and kill a monster as strong as that. I¡¯d rather hope we don¡¯t meet one¡ª)

    (I know, okay?) he replied, snappiness weaving through his thoughts. (Don¡¯t treat me like a kid.)

    Well, you¡¯re really a kid. I considered scolding him, but I didn¡¯t have any experience getting angry at a child, a teen, whatever. How was I when I was a teenager? I knew I was a petty bitch. Before I got lost in my thoughts reminiscing about the past, I luckily noticed a massive hole in our path. ¡°Stop!¡±

    ¡°Big hole,¡± Lizzie said.

    ¡°Another hole?¡± Doms said.

    I said, ¡°That pillar thingy went through here.¡±

    ¡°Big, big hole!¡±

    ¡°Is this the power of an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°The 2Ms have many Adumbrae in their ranks. I¡¯m not familiar with most of them, but I¡¯m sure this is the work of one.¡±

    ¡°But why is this here?¡± Julie said. ¡°We didn¡¯t pass this way.¡±

    Doms said, ¡°Perhaps we¡¯re wrong in assuming that pillar was aiming for us.¡±

    While we did destroy the security camera by the freight elevator, we also didn¡¯t show up in other cameras. Whoever was watching us would conclude we were either riding it or were somewhere near its door, which was why they cut the cables of the car and tried to squish us with the pillar. That was what we had assumed. But Doms might be right in her observation that they weren¡¯t aiming for us.

    ¡°They¡¯re fighting other people?¡± I wondered.

    ¡°The Adumbrae from Vegas? You said you¡¯re different from them, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m not connected to those guys and their rivalry with the 2Ms. It would be bad if they¡¯re here too.¡± Please don¡¯t be here, I thought, whoever you fuckers are. I already had plenty of problems. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s go back. We can¡¯t pass by here.¡±

    (I can get you down.)

    ¡°Hold on, guys,¡± I said. ¡°You were saying, Paolo?¡±

    (I can get you down through here. Faster to go this way.) I relayed what he said to the others. (I have a monster gorilla body. This should be easy.) He hunched over at the edge of the hole and bent down. (We can just look below if the coast is clear¡ªHOLY SHIT!) He stood back up and rushed to us. (Run! Run! Run!)

    ¡°Wha-What¡¯s happening?¡± Julie said.

    ¡°He said to run!¡±

    A guttural rumbling vibrated through the floor. The building started shaking again. Was it the pillar? Were they aiming for us? From below?

    (It''s going to see us!) Paolo shoved all of us, including the cart with my human body, inside an office at the left side of the hallway. (We don¡¯t have time! Hide!) Then he smashed his way into another office unit and hid inside.

    Doms picked up Lizzie and tucked themselves behind a cabinet. Julie tried to pull my human body to the side but found it too heavy and left it in the middle of the room while she scrambled under the table.

    Stupid useless kid. I desperately pulled my body to the wall, nearly popping my shoulder joints.

    Julie peeked from under the table and whispered an apology to me. She hugged her gun and the weird box we looted from the 2Ms¡¯ men. I stayed near the entrance of the room with a potted plant covering me and the cart to my back.

    (Paolo! What¡¯s happening?)

    (I saw something below! A really big one!)

    A monster? How big could it be? I thought he¡¯d get excited if we found a possible replacement for his gorilla monster form. Was this one a bit too big? Judging from the quakes it caused and the sounds of destruction that filtered through the hole, this might be something we couldn¡¯t handle.

    I focused on the open door of the room. Just a normal glass door most modernish offices used, but it was angled in such a way I could pick off a faint reflection of the corridor outside off its otherwise transparent surface.

    A creature emerged out of the hole.

    I couldn¡¯t see its form clearly, the glass door a bit blurry, but it was obvious it wasn¡¯t as big as Paolo made it out to be. Perhaps as tall as an average NBA player but twice as muscular. Paolo¡¯s form was bigger than it.

    (That doesn¡¯t look big). Is what she said, I added in my head. Mature of me, I know. We could use this one as a replacement for Paolo¡¯s copied body. (Is this what¡ªfucking hell!)

    A colossal charred hand grabbed the lower body of the tall creature which was trying to escape out of the hole. A hand large enough to make the monster it captured look like an ice cream popsicle in comparison. A flaming popsicle! The first monster cried out mournfully as it slowly burned in the giant''s grasp.

    (Is it there?) Paolo asked.

    (Yes! Damn, we can¡¯t fight that.)

    (Is it coming up?)

    To answer Paolo¡¯s question, the giant monster¡¯s head peered out of the hole. Its glowing eyes, smoldering charcoals, clearly shone on the glass door, washing out the rest of its indistinct reflection. Smoke billowed out as it spoke, blanketing the corridor outside.

    R A M O N N N?

    Its voice wasn¡¯t what I expected. Not deep and earthy like giants in movies, but chilly and eerie like those spooky voices in shows where the main character was being reminded by their conscience or a memory. The thin walls and even my body vibrated when it spoke.

    R A M O N, M Y  B O Y?

    Ramon?

    Who the fuck is Ramon?

    I  S A W  Y O U. W H E R E  A R E  Y OU  H I D I N G?

    The head sunk back down the hole, leaving the corridor smoldering. The rumbling continued. Between that stupid pillar and this giant ass monster demolishing the building, the possibility it might collapse flitted in my mind. Don¡¯t forget the fire, I thought sardonically.

    There we go. The sprinklers turned on and the fire alarm wailed. This building was really going to get fucked. And I couldn¡¯t save all of my stuff in my room!

    I¡¯ll need to find a new place to live in and buy new stuff after all of this mess.

    Such a bitchass hassle.

 3.36 - Ramon

    Charles Ramon Peterson

    2:54 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    Ramon¡¯s mind was reeling.

    Was that Boady? He was sure it was. But what happened to him?

    Before they parted ways, or rather before he escaped into the elevator as Boady chased him¡ªbeing ordered to do so by that Asian woman leading the Adumbrae group¡ªthe friendly security guard had turned into a monster but was still his original size. Somehow, Boady inexplicably became a giant of a monster made of charcoal hunting for him.

    Is this the right choice?

    Ramon kicked down the door of the suite at the end of the corridor. His blade held out straight in front of him, he cautiously entered first and turned on the lights. A moderately-sized room with only a few basic pieces of furniture; this looked like it wasn¡¯t occupied yet. Before he could make sure there was no danger, everyone rushed in, a couple of people even jostling him, fearful the giant or some other monster would catch them outside.

    It was a relief they were no longer afraid of him. For the most part. But it was apparent in their expressions they were still disgusted by the smell of his blood; some did hide it better than others. He couldn¡¯t blame them.

    Each time they entered a new location, he checked how many they were. One, Cassandra, two, Vince, three, his son ¡­

    He stopped counting and turned around.

    He no longer wanted to be reminded of how many of them were left after everything they went through, how many died, how many he couldn¡¯t protect. Instead, he plopped down at the corner of the room, away from all the others, sitting beside the sofa not on it, using the armrest to partially cover him. Only then did he feel a bit of chill because of his damp clothes. At least the emergency sprinklers and the fire alarm were turned off.

    His head down, he blankly stared at the floor.

    How did it get to this?

    It was all going so well.

    As well as being turned into a monster and trying to get to the top of a building full of monsters could be. He gave his all protecting Cassandra and the injured Rolly as they climbed up, wielding his newly acquired strength and powers like he had been using them for a long time.

    He cleared each flight of stairs, landing per landing, hacking to pieces the monsters in their way. They even met the McKennon couple running down the stairs, who were suspicious of him but grateful for the help he offered.

    It gave him joy and comfort he was doing something good even though his situation was dire and hopeless. Deep inside, he knew there was no way for him to get his human body back. He took out his anger and despair at the monsters blocking them.

    Upon reaching the 22<sup>nd</sup> floor, he got conflicted if he should look for Erind.

    Would she be afraid of him? Was she even still alive? But even though he did make up his mind to find her, he missed one tiny detail¡ªhe didn¡¯t know her room number. He lost his phone, and he wasn¡¯t even sure if it had the details of her room in his record of deliveries for the day.

    He tried to look for her but was unsuccessful. He did find other survivors, and he would find more in their journey to the top of the building.

    He couldn¡¯t stay on the 22<sup>nd</sup> floor for long. In between convincing the new people they met to come with them, and trying to stupidly check each and every room, he wasted a lot of time. Rolly¡¯s health was deteriorating and he needed medical attention fast. Ramon had no choice but to abandon his search of Erind and pray she escaped safely.

    Each time he saved more people, who would then join their group, he extensively asked them about Erind. But he''d always end up getting the same answer. They didn¡¯t know her.

    ¡°If only you didn¡¯t scream like a dumb bitch,¡± Gregory yelled at Cassandra.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough, Greg!¡± Aiyani pushed her boyfriend back. ¡°You¡¯re only making things worse.¡±

    ¡°Because of her, the fucking monsters chased us!¡±

    ¡°Just like when you shot that monster by the stairs and missed?¡± Cassandra retorted. ¡°Good job on that one, Greg," she said, her voiced lace with sarcasm.

    "I don''t want to hear that from you."

    "Milton, Miller, Mill-something. Whatever his name was, his blood is on your hands! It was your fault¡ª¡±

    ¡°I did what I had to!¡±

    ¡°Guys, guys,¡± said Vince, the most level-headed of their slowly dwindling group. ¡°Let¡¯s calm down¡ª¡±

    But they didn¡¯t calm down, and another shouting match began.

    Ramon wanted to cover his ears so he wouldn¡¯t hear the panicked arguments of the survivors. He raised his hands and it came back to him that he only had one hand remaining, his left arm having turned into a blade that emitted purple energy.

    Purple. Violet. His sister used to lecture him about the difference between those two. She did say purple and violet only looked similar to human eyes.

    I¡¯m not human anymore. Should I be able to tell the difference now?

    Assuming he could, he wouldn¡¯t be able to tell his sister. He couldn¡¯t talk to her ever again.

    Or any of his family and friends.

    Droplets of thick black blood fell from the wound on the side of his face. He felt the bizarre texture of his blood between his thumb and index finger. It almost looked like tar. His finger traced the gash on his skin. The bullet fired by the men guarding the upper floors of the building tore a hole through his cheek. It was pain like he never felt before, but it rapidly healed.

    The monsters he fought, that he killed, those creatures didn¡¯t heal themselves. They occasionally mutated and combined with each other, but he never noticed them regenerating like how an Adumbrae should.

    Because they weren¡¯t Adumbrae... He didn¡¯t need a scientist to tell him that. It was those damned parasites that turned normal people to monsters.

    Just like what happened to Christa. Like what happened to Boady. And to him.

    Or was it?

    If the same thing happened to him, why was he regenerating while the other monsters didn¡¯t? Why did he keep his consciousness while the others became mindless monsters who hungered for human flesh?

    Did I turn into an Adumbrae?

    That couldn¡¯t be¡­

    He couldn¡¯t recall talking to any suspicious voice. No way he¡¯d ever agree to anything an Adumbrae would offer! He wasn¡¯t dumb. But a morbid thought needled at the back of his mind. Perhaps... someway...somehow, he might¡¯ve accepted something¡­

    He looked up. A new drama started and the survivors bickered amongst themselves once again.

    Survivors. Look at him excluding himself from them.

    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    Cassandra was at the forefront of the drama once again. This time, she was up against Samantha, the bank officer, who wasn¡¯t backing down. Samantha raised her voice while holding back her frail grandfather who wanted to slap Cassandra. Was it true what he said? That Cassandra left Rolly to die? Or was he just senile and imagining things? Ramon didn¡¯t know what was true. Everyone blaming everyone. He bowed his head back down and tuned them out.

    He was starting not to care anymore. Was it because he was losing hope to save any of them when he couldn¡¯t even save himself? Or was he truly becoming an evil and despicable Adumbrae?

    If he was an Adumbrae, that meant he was dangerous. Or would be.

    What if he left them? What if he just¡­left them. For their own safety.

    Maybe I should do that...

    No! He promised to save them.

    Survivors. They weren¡¯t going to do much surviving if he left them now. Some of them even died under his so-called ¡®protection.¡¯ He wasn¡¯t going to leave them. But he just didn¡¯t know what to do.

    ¡°Are you okay there, uh¡­¡± a gruff voice started to say. The burly Benitez, the most recent addition to their group, stood over him.

    ¡°Ramon,¡± he replied. ¡°The name¡¯s Ramon.¡±

    ¡°Right, right, Ramon. Me, I¡¯m not so good with names.¡± Benitez sat on the sofa and leaned over him. ¡°Don¡¯t beat yourself up, okay? Your plan to go up to the roof was good¡­and logical.¡±

    ¡°I¡­uh¡­¡±

    ¡°If there¡¯s no way to escape at the ground floor because it¡¯s crawling with these sons of bitches, then the next option is to go up. Makes sense to me.¡±

    ¡°Do you believe me when I said there are Adumbrae at the bottom of this building? Adumbrae and their men, and not just more of these monsters?¡±

    ¡°Sure, yeah. I do believe you.¡±

    ¡°But I was wrong that there was only one guy at the top of this building. I was wrong that we could escape up the rooftop and call for help there.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not some psychic or some shit, right? Unless you got those powers too?¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t have anything like that.¡±

    ¡°Then you couldn¡¯t have known about shit like that. That those motherfuckers would post men with guns up there. If the rooftop is an escape path, makes sense sooner or later they¡¯d put guards there. Makes sense, yeah.¡±

    Ramon shook his head. ¡°I should¡¯ve thought about it¡ª"

    ¡°Don¡¯t beat yourself up. Don''t make me repeat myself. You¡¯re not some superhero.¡±

    ¡°Some of us got killed by those terrorists. The McKennons, the lady employee¡ª¡±

    ¡°And all of us would be dead by now if we hadn¡¯t met you.¡±

    ¡°How about Ramon?¡± Cassandra said, pointing at him.

    What is it this time? Ramon sat straight up. He didn¡¯t know what they were discussing, but he understood they were including him in their arguments. He wasn¡¯t surprised it was Cassandra again. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have saved you, he thought.

    ¡°What about him?¡± Samantha said, her hands on her hips.

    "You whore," Samantha''s grandfather said in a raspy voice as pointed a gnarled finger at Cassandra. "What you did to Rolly...you''re a danger to us."

    "Take a sit, grandpa." She led him to the side. "She''s never going to admit that."

    "I''m the dangerous one?" Cassandra said. ¡°That giant was looking for him! It said ¡®Ramon''. Everyone else heard that. Don''t lie.¡±

    Gregory stomped forward, breaking free of his girlfriend¡¯s embrace. ¡°You¡¯re gonna say he¡¯s luring us to the monsters again?¡±

    Ramon closed his eyes to calm himself down. Cassandra and some of the survivors had accused him of leading them to their deaths. It wasn¡¯t good that those on Cassandra¡¯s camp died along the way, giving a semblance of truth to what she was saying even though it wasn¡¯t the case.

    ¡°This is different!¡± she argued. ¡°He¡¯s a good guy? Sure, whatever. But now we see the monsters are after him. We¡¯re in danger if we stick with him.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fucking dumb¡ª"

    Benitez jumped to his feet and put himself in front of the sitting Ramon. ¡°Lady, the door is behind you."

    "I''m just thinking for the good of everyone."

    "If you stay in this group, then we stick with each other. But no one''s stopping you from leaving."

    ¡°And where do I go? Up? To get massacred like the others? Down? That might be just what he wants." She pointed to her feet. "I have a broken ankle and have a hard time running. So you''re telling me to go out and die?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not¡ª¡± Ramon began to say.

    ¡°What do you want to happen then?¡± Samantha asked. ¡°Do you want Ramon to leave us?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not exactly helpful, is he?" Cassandra shot back. "He couldn¡¯t even destroy those fricking vines covering the building.¡±

    "Oh, this shit again," Benitez groaned.

    Ramon was so tired of defending himself, so tired of all these arguments. He leaned against the sofa¡¯s side and focused on figuring out a way to escape. These people with him, he was still going to try and save them whether they wanted him to or not.

    ¡°Is that gunfire?¡± Vince said, holding his son close to him.

    Cassandra said, almost shrieking, ¡°We wouldn¡¯t have this problem of going up or down if he can just cut away the vines and we''ll have signal to call for help.¡±

    ¡°What do you want Ramon to do? Like what Sam said, you want him to leave us? You leave us, you stupid bitch.¡±

    ¡°Greg, just shut up,¡± Aiyana ¡°That¡¯s enough from you too, Cassandra.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re all ganging up on me!¡±

    ¡°It is gunfire.¡±

    ¡°Quiet down!¡± Benitez said. ¡°All of you!¡±

    It was faint, but Vince was right. There were guns shooting. They also heard the sounds of monsters. Ramon stood up, his blade at the ready. ¡°Someone is fighting out there,¡± he said. The building wasn¡¯t shaking so Boady wasn¡¯t nearby. ¡°Who could it be?¡±

    ¡°Could it be the BID?¡± Samantha said. ¡°The terrorists we met upstairs weren¡¯t getting attacked by monsters, so it couldn¡¯t be them.¡±

    ¡°I think you¡¯re right,¡± Ramon said. He also remembered that Boady didn¡¯t attack Stella and her group. If someone was shooting and fighting the monsters, it wouldn¡¯t be them. Did help finally arrive? What did it mean for him?

    ¡°Let¡¯s go then!¡± Cassandra said. ¡°Ramon, you lead us.¡±

    ¡°Now, you¡¯re asking for his help?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going out,¡± Ramon said. ¡°Follow me.¡± He was about to exit when Vince caught up to him. ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Ramon, if this is the BID,¡± said Vince, ¡°you run away, okay? It''ll be enough you got us near the authorities. But you should run before they capture you or kill you.¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± he replied, although it pained him to say that. Vince thrusted a small card to him. It was a business card. ¡°What is this?¡±

    ¡°The sounds are getting further away,¡± Cassandra said. ¡°Let¡¯s get going, Ramon!¡±

    ¡°When you escape from this place,¡± Vince said, ¡°call me on this number. I¡¯ll help you any way I can as thanks for keeping me and my son alive.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Ramon hastily said. He turned away and jogged down the corridor. He felt the tears forming. His voice was about to crack if he continued speaking. He shook his head to regain composure. I¡¯m getting these people to safety.

    They followed the sounds of fighting, passing by several monster corpses, each one increasing the hope of the group that help was finally here.

    ¡°Through that door!¡± Cassandra said. The sign above told them it was a restaurant. Its glass doors were shattered. A couple of dead monsters laid on top of the broken glass. ¡°Ramon, go check it.¡±

    ¡°No, not him,¡± Vince said.

    ¡°Ramon, you wait here,¡± Benitez said. ¡°I¡¯ll check it out, not you. If it¡¯s really them BID boys, we don¡¯t want you getting your ass shot now, do we?¡±

    ¡°Maybe that¡¯s what Cassandra wants,¡± Gregory muttered.

    They waited with baited breath as Benitez crawled to the door, keeping his head low, ignoring the blood and gore on the floor. His leather jacket protected him from the broken glass. He peeked inside.

    ¡°Is it the BID?¡± Samantha asked.

    ¡°No, not them. Ramon, get your ass here! It¡¯s other survivors!¡±

    He immediately went into action, leaping over Benitez and turning left, entering the restaurant. The tables and chairs were in disarray, most of them broken. Littered among the wreckage were more monster corpses, at the end of the restaurant were three people. Two girls, a high schooler with a gun and a small kid. A guy several feet to their side, heavily injured given the tons of blood covering him, struggled to crawl towards them. A peculiar monster that took the form of a metallic humanoid was approaching him, perhaps waiting to pounce and finish him off.

    Ramon calculated he could take on the smaller monsters here, but the one covered in an armor of bone might give him a hard time.

    These three people...No more deaths. Wait, four people.

    There was another person behind them, lying on the floor. An unconscious woman partially covered by a white cloth. When the kid moved out of the way to reveal the face of that person, time crawled to a snail¡¯s pace for Ramon. All of his attention was focused on the woman¡­he recognized her.

    That face. There was no way he''d mistake her for anyone else. The face of an angel.

    Erind Hartwell.

    Erind!

    Ramon roared and charged into battle!

 3.37

    Erind Hartwell

    3:06 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

    ¡°Paolo? Can¡¯t you see I¡¯m a little busy here?¡± I said after feeling a garbled jolt from our mental link. ¡°What is it?¡± I repeatedly punched the eye of the barf-colored goblin gnawing my other arm. I recalled an advice to hit a shark in the eye if it bit you, but I wasn¡¯t having much success using that trick on these monsters; I couldn¡¯t shake this little bugger off even if its eyes were already bleeding.

    ¡°Kekekek,¡± came the annoying cackle from others of these tiny shits.

    One yanked my gun away¡ªit was out of bullets anyway¡ªand clobbered me with it. A couple more pipsqueaks pulled on my legs, bringing me down. ¡°Kekekekek.¡±

    These ugly gremlins came from only one monster, a chunky abomination that could be a mascot for all diseases ever. It was lounging by the wine bar of the restaurant, literally birthing these goblins. Not a sight for the faint of heart.

    (What is it?) I mentally asked Paolo. He might¡¯ve not heard me the first time over the din of battle.

    (Pino¡­I can¡¯t¡­too painful.)

    ¡°These fucking¡­¡± More and more goblins jumped on top of me, recreating a miniature football pile-up, pinning me on my back. I pushed them away from my head and craned my neck, making sense of the upside-down view. (Where are you¡ª)

    There!

    Four tables down from the stage at the end of the restaurant where the girls and my body were. Paolo held up two of the circular tables as if they were shields. Spikes as thick as my arm punched through the tables and skewered his body. He couldn¡¯t move and evade or else the spikes would hit Julie and Lizzie, and my body too. This scene irked me, reminding me of Myra trying to kill me in the past.

    Paolo staggered backwards and fell down, letting go of the tables.

    (It¡¯s going to shoot again!) I said, spotting the willowy zombie with fleshy tendrils for hairs that was attacking him.

    He was too weak to respond. His mind barely there. Julie didn¡¯t notice what was happening, still busy shooting at other monsters. It would be too late if I called out to her. She didn¡¯t have time to move my body away.

    No choice.

    (Get up!) I squeezed my consciousness into his brain. (Up. Up. Up!)

    The tall zombie shrieked. Several of its tendrils hardened and, with a wild whip of its head, the spikes soared across the air.

    (Protect my human body!)

    Paolo complied, jumping on his feet even as black blood pooled beneath him. He extended his massive arms to the sides, making himself as wide as possible.

    After the spikes hit, I yelled in his mind, (Charge! Charge! Kill it!). I ordered him to pick up dead monsters on the way, remembering my fight in the underground arena against that acid bitch. (Use those as shields!)

    (What¡¯s happening?) Doms asked, my frantic thoughts probably spilled over my links with her.

    The tendril zombie released another volley right before Paolo reached it. He smashed the corpses he used as shields down on the monster. He caught the tentacles and tore them off its scalp, and finished it by squeezing its head.

    Almost spent, his green hue dimming, nearly turning to the grey of the monster he just killed, he dropped on his knees.

    (Paolo?) Doms said. (He¡¯s severely injured!)

    Nice observation, Doms, I thought sarcastically. He wasn¡¯t going to last long if I didn¡¯t do anything.

    I willed him to go to Julie, crawl if he had to. I concentrated on siphoning my powers back, hoping it would reverse his transformation and he could return to his healthy human body before he died. Please work. Given my experience with the fingers so far, I wouldn¡¯t put it past my copy power to have some stupid consequence that the user couldn¡¯t return to his original form or some shit.

    ¡°Kekekek¡­kekekek!¡¯

    The goblins were trying to pull me apart. I couldn¡¯t focus. (Doms! Help!) The fucker who stole my gun kept on whacking my head. (Get them off me so I can¡ª)

    (On it!)

    Something large blew past over me, snagging a couple of goblins. Flying monster corpse delivery courtesy of Doms. (Thanks for that!) A glance at Paolo and I confirmed he was shrinking. Phew. My arms freed, I headbutted the little turd and wrested my gun back. ¡°Payback time, you fucklings.¡±

    (Is Paolo going to be okay?)

    (He¡¯s already turning back to human.) I played whack-a-mole with the heads of the goblins, smashing their skulls with the gun¡¯s butt. They ran back to their ¡®mother¡¯ or whatever I should call that vomit-inducing monster.

    Let¡¯s assess the situation. Were we winning? Only a few monsters remained. Doms and I could finish this¡ª

    A bloodcurdling scream!

    Shrieks of terror from Julie and Lizzie followed.

    ¡°Woah! What the fuck?¡± I said as turned and saw an unexpected sight.

    Paolo had returned to his human form¡­but¡­he was writhing on the floor covered in blood.

    Red blood not black. His own human blood.

    Screams of pain drowned out the annoying screeches of the goblins, the growls and roars of the other monsters. Then Paolo fell silent, his mouth remaining open. Trapped in mid-scream, he continued crawling to Julie, his barely conscious mind following my last order to go towards her.

    Would you look at that, I pondered as I batted away the remaining goblin and made my way to Paolo. The injuries of the copied body carried over back to his human form. This was the negative consequence of the copy power. Unexpected. Or, maybe, I should¡¯ve expected this. With all the monkey¡¯s paw shit my powers pulled, all the fucking ironic twists, this was a pretty logical outcome. My uncaringness for others was creeping up again, turning to inattentiveness to detail. Mom would scold me if she knew I was lapsing again.

    ¡°Miss Pino! Help! Paolo is¡ª¡±

    ¡°I see him! Stay there, Julie.¡± I was going add ¡®and protect my body'' but that sounded like a selfish thing to say.

    (You¡¯re going to heal him?) Doms said.

    (Yes! Uh, you¡¯re still fighting¡ª)

    (I can continue¡ª)

    (No! You won¡¯t be able to move.)

    (I know. I¡¯ll grab some of these monsters and draw them to me. Just don¡¯t remove my armor!)

    (Got it.)

    ¡°Mommy!¡± Lizzie said, concerned for Doms wrestling the monsters.

    She hugged as many of the remaining monsters as she could before I stopped giving her super strength, using the weight of the armor to keep them all in place. The armor should protect her. Attracted by the commotion, the goblins also joined in and actually attacked the other monsters on Doms. Nice.

    I disconnected my healing finger and pointed at Paolo while I weaved through the tables. Heal! Just enough so he wouldn¡¯t die. Don¡¯t forget, healing had consequences too, I reminded myself. I didn¡¯t want to end up killing him; this was a different situation from his dad¡¯s. I doubted if Julie would take it kindly if I let her brother die. Plus, I¡¯d prefer to keep using Paolo than forcing his sister to be his replacement.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°I¡¯m healing him. Don¡¯t worry.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Miss Pino! Please save him.¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s the electro gun thingy?¡±

    ¡°Here!¡± She pointed behind the podium on the stage. ¡°But I don¡¯t know how to use it.¡±

    I didn¡¯t either. Shit. It would¡¯ve been awesome if we shot Doms along with all the monsters with it. ¡°Just see what you can manage.¡± Wait. Wouldn¡¯t Doms get hurt by that too? Uncaringness turning to inattentiveness again. Tch.

    Someone else screamed. It sounded like a drunk guy starting a fight at the club.

    A condominium resident who was still human?

    No.

    A new monster entered the restaurant.

    Humanoid. Insect-like plates covered the left half of his body. His left arm was a hugeass blade that glowed purple, the air shimmered around it like it was pavement baked under the hot California summer''s sun.

    The goblin mother waddled over to him, calling her children to join in the attack. Purple blade guy sliced the tiny ugly fucks that came close, pieces of their corpses sizzling from the heat.

    (This looks like trouble), Doms said. (I can barely hold these ones.)

    (A bit more), I said. Touching Paolo¡¯s chest, I felt he was still breathing. Barely. (Just a bit more time.) Should I just let him die and concentrate my powers on Doms? Cut my losses here and focus on what I could save?

    Purple blade guy quickly got past the goblin family, leaving behind their chopped-up body parts. He charged and threw himself at Doms, crashing into her and all the monsters with her. For a second, it became a confusing ball of monsters tearing up each other, like those whacky cartoons fighting inside a smoky ball. But the blade guy got the upper hand and sliced every one of them with blazing speed, kicking up a fountain of black blood and ground up monster meat.

    But he couldn¡¯t slice through Doms armor. Sparks erupted each time his blade hit Doms. ¡°Die! I¡¯ll kill all of you!¡±

    (What the hell¡ª? He¡¯s so strong!)

    (You okay, Doms?) Did that monster just speak?

    ¡°Don¡¯t hit Mommy!¡± Lizzie tried to throw a microphone she found, but Julie stopped her.

    ¡°Behind me, Lizzie!¡± Julie fired, but her gun came up empty after a few rounds. ¡°Go away, you monster!¡±

    Purple blade guy was unaffected by the bullets, but he did stop. ¡°Wait. I¡¯m here to save you!¡±

    Excuse me? He did talk! We met other monsters that could speak, like the charcoal giant, but nothing as coherent as this. An Adumbrae? But he had torn clothes as if he transformed like the other people in this building. (Don¡¯t move, Doms.) I pressed down on Paolo¡¯s wounds, making him cry out.

    ¡°You!¡± Purple guy turned his attention to me. ¡°Don¡¯t touch him!¡±

    Interesting, I mused as he ran to me. He wanted to save them? My mind raced, analyzing the situation. A wide slash sent me flying.

    Perhaps sensing that his attack did nothing, he followed me as I tumbled through tables and chairs. Again and again came his blade. Wood shattered and blackened from the heat. Dark fumes came out the vents lining the back of his bladed arm. My body vibrated all throughout each time blade met armor.

    He couldn¡¯t cut through my body. But, with the force of his blows, I got disassembled. My body parts scattered, I stopped moving.

    ¡°Finally,¡± he said. He rushed over to Paolo. ¡°Are you okay¡ªwoah!¡±

    Julie was by her brother¡¯s side. ¡°Go away, you monster!¡± She held the electroshock weapon and threateningly waved it at him. It was powered up, but I wasn¡¯t sure if she completely figured out how to use it. ¡°Miss Pino! Are you okay? Continue healing my brother!¡±

    Shut the fuck up, you stupid kid! Don¡¯t ruin my bit here. He already believed he took care of me.

    ¡°I know this looks bad¡­that I look like this,¡± said the purple guy in a gentle voice. ¡°But I¡¯m not an enemy.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Julie craned her neck. ¡°Miss Pino!¡±

    ¡°Calm down,¡± purple guy said. He gave a quick explanation of what he was. Some guy who was turned into a monster by the Adumbrae he met¡ªthe goons of the 2Ms, by the sound of it. And, somehow, he retained his consciousness. He¡¯d been using his powers to help survivors. "You have nothing to worry about. We can help you."

    "Shut up!" was Julie''s reply.

    (Is he telling the truth?) Doms said.

    (I don¡¯t know.) I honestly had no idea what to make of this.  I pretended to lose¡ªnot that I could win against him if I wanted to¡ªso I could hear what he had to say. The story that he was a random pizza delivery guy that got roped into this disaster sounded plausible; his clothes did look like the uniform of that pizza place I liked.

    But most importantly, this confirmed he wasn¡¯t a Corebring. I would breath a sigh of relief if I could. Corebrings wouldn¡¯t bother with this shit if they were rescuing us. I was already entering mini-crisis mode when I thought Corebrings were here. Trepanner did warn me it wasn¡¯t a good idea for me to meet other Corebrings. This situation was soooo much easier.

    (Remove my armor), Doms said. (Just leave me with my bladed gauntlets.)

    (You¡¯re going to fight him?)

    (No¡­I think¡­I think he¡¯s telling the truth. I want to talk to him. Just leave me with a weapon.)

    This was a problem if Doms was starting to think that way. I couldn¡¯t have this. (He¡¯ll notice if you change. It might provoke him. Let¡¯s wait first before making a move.)

    (But¡ª)

    (I¡¯m still healing Paolo.)

    ¡°Miss Pino!¡±

    ¡°Who are you calling for?¡± purple guy said. ¡°Your friend? Where? I can save them.¡±

    ¡°Miss Pino, I know you¡¯re not dead. Please¡­¡±

    FuckingshitidiotJulie! I was still thinking about my next moves because I wasn¡¯t just going to team up with this guy even if it was true that he was a ¡®good guy''.

    ¡°What do you mean not dead?¡± Purple guy turned around, following her gaze.

    ¡°Put yourself back together and heal my Paolo!¡±

    Those words, it finally clicked in purple guy¡¯s head; I could see in his demonic eyes staring straight at my own. I had to act now and bring him down! I rapid fired my plan at Doms. My hands were already near purple guy¡¯s feet, having crawled on the floor while he told his story to Julie. I shot him with a finger and grabbed his ankles. Holding on tight, I thought, Pull! Reform!

    ¡°What the¡­?¡± he exclaimed, seeing my various body parts zipping towards him.

    ¡°Doms, go!¡± I stopped giving her armor power.

    ¡°No, you don¡¯t,¡± purple guy said. He stabbed his blade down, anticipating where my body was going to be.

    (Stop!)

    ¡°Eh?¡± He exclaimed, surprised by my thoughts entering his mind. ¡°I can¡¯t¡­?¡±

    I assembled my body and held on to him. (Don¡¯t move!)

    His muscles trembled as two inputs fought over his body. (Get out of my head!) he said.

    (DON¡¯T MOVE!) I concentrated my entire mind to hold him. I even stopped healing Paolo.

    (Adumbrae? You¡¯re an Adumbrae!) "I¡¯m not giving you my body."

    ¡°Doms!¡±

    (This is my body!) He was able to take control of his lengthy bladed arm. But he couldn¡¯t easily stab me because I was tightly hugging him.

    ¡°Now would be a good time!¡±

    KKZZzrrttt! ZZzzt!

    Electricity course through us. His body convulsed from the shock. But it didn¡¯t affect me. I continued hugging him as his muscles seized up and he fell down. ¡°No! No!¡± he screamed as he kept on fighting my mind control. Amazing resilience. (I can¡¯t lose here! Erind!) He sent me a bunch of jumbled thoughts just as, like a lightbulb getting switched off, his mind went dark.

    (We¡¯re good. He¡¯s out.) I hurriedly disentangled myself from him. Anything longer and it would¡¯ve been weird. Especially after what I learned just before he passed out.

    ¡°I followed your instructions,¡± Doms said.

    "Good work."

    ¡°But is he a bad guy?¡±

    Julie jumped in front of Doms, her eyes red from tears. ¡°Miss Pino, is Paolo going to be okay?¡±

    ¡°Yes, your brother¡¯s going to fine. I¡¯m healing him. He¡¯s not bleeding now.¡±

    ¡°Thank you!¡±

    ¡°As I was saying,¡± Doms interjected, ¡°is he a bad guy?¡±

    ¡°No...doesn¡¯t seem so.¡±

    ¡°So why did we do this? We could just introduce ourselves to him?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s going to be hard to explain our situation to him.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s going to be harder now that we knocked him out.¡±

    Doms was right, of course. But I didn¡¯t want to team up with this guy in the first place. This was just asking to get betrayed. If I was in their shoes, I¡¯d go with this guy instead of going with me. For one, they knew the Adumbrae wanted Erind and they were in danger if they stayed with me. The protection I offered¡­this guy could offer it as well. I really wanted to kill him and have Paolo copy him or something.

    But after understanding who he was, I changed my mind. Perhaps this guy would become my greatest ally. At last! The world gave me an advantage instead of all the shit I¡¯ve been running into tonight. A very unexpected advantage.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he¡¯ll come to,¡± I said. ¡°I wanted all of you guys together to explain¡ª¡±

    BAM!

    Everyone except me crouched down. What was this now?

    A couple of guys stood by the entrance of the restaurant. The biker-looking man with a shotgun had just fired it at the ceiling.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on here,¡± he said, ¡°but we can¡¯t have you killing Ramon.¡±

 3.38

    ¡°I must say,¡± I said as I sat cross-legged on the wooden floor of the stage, ¡°I¡¯m surprised you guys jumped in to save, Ramon. Yeah, that¡¯s his name, right?¡± Ramon, the pizza delivery guy turned monster, who, by sheer good fortune, knew and even liked me.

    Like as in like.

    My human self anyway.

    After a tense standoff with their group, we were able to talk it out and understand each other¡¯s situation. Doms handled the discussion pretty well. Note to self, have a cute kid like Lizzie around to look less threatening. They also had a kid in their group, Vince¡¯s son. He popped from behind his father¡¯s back and stared at me with nervous curiosity.

    We were gathered around Ramon¡¯s body, waiting for him to wake up. I didn¡¯t heal him¡ªgiving the perfectly valid excuse I was focused on healing Paolo¡ªbecause I wanted to talk with his group first. There were seven of them, eight including Ramon. And they said there were more of them before. However, through various unfortunate events, about half their group died along the way. I was still impressed Ramon was able to protect this many people while navigating this god forsaken place.

    ¡°He saved us many times,¡± said Benitez, the buff man with the shotgun. ¡°No brainer move to save him now.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Vince said.

    ¡°We don¡¯t abandon people, unlike that dumb bitch, Cassandra,¡± added the dude named Greg or Gregory.

    Aiyani, his girlfriend elbowed his side. ¡°Don¡¯t talk like that.¡±

    No brainer? Did that mean many people in life-or-death situations would still try to save others? Shouldn¡¯t their own survival be the priority?

    They told me Ramon mentioned he met some of the 2Ms¡¯ people, so they, like my group, all knew the bad guys were specifically looking for me. If we allied with this Ramon guy, everyone here would eventually abandon me and go with him because that was the best choice for survival. Like just freaking sacrifice me and my human body to the 2Ms as bait, right?

    But maybe I was wrong.

    These guys wanted to try and save Ramon even after seeing us bring him down. Weird people. Or maybe they were just the exception?

    In any case, I still had the trump card of Ramon liking me, so I was sure he wouldn¡¯t leave me behind.

    That said, contrary to popular belief, my kind weren¡¯t that big on our own survival either. Sure, we probably had stronger self-preservation instincts than the average person, but we¡¯d prioritize our rules over anything, even if it pushed us to reckless behavior.

    Very interesting realization. It¡¯s fun to learn more about how people think.

    ¡°Should we look for her?¡± Samantha said. ¡°Cassandra can¡¯t have made it far.¡±

    ¡°Leave that bitch to die,¡± Greg said.

    ¡°Stop calling her that. Ramon would want us to look for her.¡±

    ¡°But where the hell would we look?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s better for everyone to stick together,¡± I said, taking on the leadership role. Apparently one of them, this Cassandra woman, left when they decided to save Ramon. In her position, I would¡¯ve stuck with the group and do all I could to ensure success. The fuck were my chances surviving on my own without powers? Weird woman.

    ¡°Uh-huh, we should do that,¡± Benitez said. ¡°By the way, uh, Pino¡ªis that short for Pinocchio or somethin¡¯?¡±

    ¡°From that children¡¯s book,¡± I said.

    ¡°Because you want to be a real girl?¡± piped up Vince¡¯s son.

    ¡°Tommy!¡± Vince exclaimed. ¡°That¡¯s not, er¡­Sorry for that Pino.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve been watching old cartoon movies made by Walt Disney," he explained. "Tommy didn¡¯t mean anything bad.¡±

    ¡°Mommy, can we watch cartoons too?¡± Lizzie said.

    ¡°We will,¡± said Doms, ¡°when we escape here.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll watch with Daddy.¡±

    I saw Dom¡¯s cheek muscles twitch. I said, ¡°Oh yeah. Pinocchio did have a movie, but I haven¡¯t watched it. Too bad Walt Disney went bankrupt after just a few movies.¡±

    ¡°Got sidetracked there.¡± Benitez cleared his throat. ¡°Continuing what I was saying, Pino, about this young lady here, Irish¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind.¡±

    ¡°My bad. Erind here is a Corebring?¡±

    ¡°Not yet, but she will be if she¡¯s brought before the Mother Core.¡±

    ¡°I suppose she got some special qualities, this or that?¡± Benitez said. ¡°That¡¯s why this Adumbrae organization, the uh¡ª¡±

    ¡°2Ms.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why these 2Ms want her?¡±

    ¡°Yes. But let¡¯s wait for Ramon to wake up before I explain more.¡± I noticed Ramon was already stirring. ¡°I don¡¯t want to repeat myself again.¡± The burns on the not-so-mutated side of his body caused by the high-voltage electric shocks were starting to heal.

    Weird. Other monsters we encountered couldn¡¯t regenerate their body, even the gorilla monster. Lots of weird things, huh?

    Ramon¡¯s eyes suddenly opened. ¡°Wha¡­what¡¯s going on?¡± He sat up and waved his blade. We all instinctively backed away. ¡°Vince? Greg? Where¡ª¡± Then he saw me. ¡°You! You¡¯re still alive!¡±

    ¡°Stop!¡± Benitez stood in front of me, his hands held up. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Ramon. It¡¯s okay. They¡¯re not the enemy.¡±

    ¡°What? Huh? But we¡¯re fighting¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s over now. Lower your blade, there¡¯s no threat. We¡¯re all on the same side.¡±

    ¡°Same side? What do you mean?¡±

    Benitez introduced us to him. He also told him about Cassandra running away. Ramon had a slightly conflicted, but almost impassive expression. He didn¡¯t seem to want to look for her, opposite what Aiyani said.

    Then I explained the situation to him, or rather I repeated the lies I told to Doms, Paolo, and Julie. That I was a good Adumbrae¡­kinda. That I was using my powers on Doms and Paolo. That Erind was a prospective Corebring. That the 2Ms wanted Erind, and that they were doing experiments on making monsters and stuff. ¡°So, yeah, like Benitez said, we¡¯re on the same side. I¡¯m sorry we attacked you. We didn¡¯t know¡ª¡±

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s¡­I mean, you couldn¡¯t have known,¡± Ramon replied, a mournful expression apparent on his otherwise half-monster face. ¡°I look like this.¡±

    ¡°No, what I¡ª"

    He shook his head. ¡°Never mind. Anyway, these 2Ms. Mark? The Adumbrae did mention that name,¡± he said, deep in thought, his violet-colored pupils staring intently at the floor.

    ¡°It¡¯s the name of their boss. Two bosses actually. Mark and Marc, the other one spelled with a ¡®c¡¯. Hence, ¡®2Ms¡¯.¡± A morsel of truth mixed with a large helping of lies would make the entire story look palatable and easy to swallow. Wow, that sounded legit. I should make a compilation of my quotable quotes.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    ¡°I finally understand why they¡¯re looking for Erind. I didn¡¯t know she was going to be a Corebring.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re talking like you know her¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡­uh¡­she orders pizza a lot.¡±

    Jeez. Don¡¯t expose my unhealthy eating habits to this random crowd of people. ¡°You¡¯re friends with her?¡±

    ¡°No! No¡­ we just sometimes talk when I deliver her order.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s a really nice person. I¡¯m relieved people like her become Corebrings. I didn¡¯t know what she was going through, why she disappeared for a couple of weeks.¡±

    ¡°It was good I saved her before they did anything to her.¡±

    ¡°But she ordered pizza tonight,¡± Ramon said. ¡°I didn¡¯t sense anything wrong with her. Why would she order pizza if you just saved her from that underground base of the 2Ms?¡±

    Oops. When I made my fake story, I didn¡¯t expect to meet the pizza delivery guy. ¡°I think she was disoriented and was just going through the motions of what she usually does. She was unconscious when the 2Ms kept her in a vat in their laboratory, so she doesn¡¯t really know about anything going on.¡±

    ¡°She was so cheerful and kind when I talked to her,¡± he said wistfully.

    "You can talk to her when her power stabilizes and she wakes up."

    ¡°If only I asked her¡­.¡±

    ¡°What did you say?¡±

    ¡°Nothing! Nothing. It doesn¡¯t matter now.¡±

    Would other girls find this gross? Or would they be flattered? For me, I didn¡¯t really mind it. I wasn¡¯t ¡®Ms. Popular¡¯, so I wasn¡¯t approached by guys out of the blue. Any guy who liked me, any relationship I had, was because of emotional manipulations, and it was usually because I was being a spiteful bitch towards other girls. I was more mature now though, so I didn¡¯t do any of that petty shit anymore.

    Just when I¡¯m bored.

    I found it weird someone liked me even though I wasn¡¯t intentionally trying to influence their emotions towards me. But, hey, if this guy liked me, maybe others did too? They were probably just too shy to say anything.

    Was this SpookyErind¡¯s goal in making me use this power and work with other people? Some self-reflection nonsense? Like what lesson was I supposed to learn here?

    ¡°Those bastards,¡± Benitez said. ¡°Turning people into monsters. Truly evil, these Adumbrae. No offense, Pino. We¡¯re working with Ramon, so it¡¯s not as if we¡¯re¡ª¡±

    ¡°No offense taken,¡± I said.

    Samantha snorted. ¡°Is that some form of ¡®I¡¯m not a bigot because I have a gay friend¡¯? I¡¯ve heard that so many times already.¡±

    ¡°This is different because Ramon is not an Adumbrae,¡± said Benitez.

    ¡°Correct!¡± Vince said emphatically. ¡°He only had the incredible misfortune of being turned into a monster by these Adumbrae terrorists. Not an Adumbrae. Isn¡¯t that right, Ramon?¡±

    Ramon hesitantly agreed with a slight nod.

    ¡°Julie, what¡¯s the time?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s 3:21 a.m.,¡± she replied.

    I blinked with my cyclopean eye. Hmmm. ¡°I think we can already move Paolo.¡± His clothes were crusted with dried blood. Scars covered his arms and legs, and I assumed the rest of his was body too. ¡°You okay there?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m good to go,¡± he said with a forced smile. He was probably suffering internal injuries because of my power, but he wouldn¡¯t let his sister know that. The important thing was he could walk again.

    ¡°I¡¯ll help you there, buddy,¡± Benitez said, offering his shoulder to Paolo.

    ¡°Thanks.¡± He stared intensely at me. (Are we still connected?)

    (Yes.) I still had my healing power linked with him. (Why?) I knew what he was going to say.

    (When we find a strong monster, use your powers on me again.)

    (But your injuries?)

    (Before I copied the gorilla monster, I had a few wounds. But they disappeared when I transformed.)

    (You mean they weren¡¯t carried over to the copied monster?)

    (Yes! I can transform and¡ª)

    (How about Julie?) I had to act like I was caring.

    (She¡¯d understand), he hastily answered.

    (If you say so.)

    ¡°Where do we go now?¡± Samantha said. ¡°Up or down? There are enemies either way. We¡¯re trapped.¡±

    ¡°I say up,¡± Ramon said. ¡°We should try again. There¡¯s only one Adumbrae up there. We failed because he had tons of men with guns. Having Pino on our side, I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll win this time.¡±

    ¡°We have a stun pulser too,¡± Vince said. He did mention he was an engineer or something and knew his way around this kind of things. ¡°An illegally modified one at that. This should pack quite a punch and help us fight Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°What about that box?¡± Ramon pointed at the suitcase-sized metal box we nabbed from the 2Ms¡¯ goons.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what it is. I¡¯d say some sort of field generator. Of what? I don¡¯t know. Best recourse is not to bother with it.¡±

    ¡°Wait a minute,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m not so sure of going up.¡± Assuming we succeeded with their plan, it was going to be the absolute worst situation for me. When the BID comes to the rescue, I¡¯d be fucking stuck on the rooftop. ¡°The Adumbrae with the pillar. He¡¯s above us.¡±

    ¡°What pillar?¡±

    ¡°The holes, have you seen them? Those large holes that goes through several floors?¡±

    ¡°We have,¡± Samantha said.

    ¡°Those were made by the giant monster,¡± Benitez said.

    ¡°The one that knew Ramon?¡±

    ¡°I¡­um¡­I guess I should explain.¡± Ramon¡¯s eyes darted back and forth. ¡°One of the security guards who knows me¡­you know, ¡®cause of the deliveries¡­he turned into the giant monster and is chasing me.¡±

    That explained one mystery I didn¡¯t care about. ¡°No, the giant isn¡¯t the one who made those holes. It was an Adumbrae.¡±

    Doms joined in. ¡°Pillars as big as that one,¡± she said, pointing at a decorative column with fancy lights, ¡°descended from above, punching large holes through the floors.¡±

    ¡°An Adumbrae, eh?¡± Benitez said. ¡°You¡¯re right. Those holes are too circular and uniform. Don¡¯t think that giant could do that shit.¡±

    Greg whistled. ¡°An Adumbrae that could make swiss cheese out of a building? Glad we didn¡¯t meet him when we went upstairs.¡±

    ¡°So down?¡± Aiyani said. ¡°We go down?¡±

    ¡°If we went down, how will we break through the vines?¡±

    ¡°We still can¡¯t escape.¡±

    I tilted my head to Ramon. ¡°He can.¡±

    ¡°Eh? I¡­I, uh, already tried,¡± he said, with a reluctant tone. ¡°Many times. Sorry. I really can¡¯t cut the vines.

    ¡°I¡¯ll make you stronger with my powers. I¡¯m just conserving it now. Kinda running dry after all the fighting and healing Paolo. But by the time we reach the ground floor, I¡¯ll be ready. I¡¯m a hundred percent sure if we combined our powers, we could escape this prison.¡±

    I could pump Ramon to absolutely monstrous levels of strength because his body could handle the negative effects of my power. But I made up the excuse of conserving power because I didn¡¯t want to make Ramon stronger until I was sure he was on my side. He might frickin¡¯ kidnap my human body and run away with it - who knew what went inside the head of guys?

    Everyone was suddenly in high spirits. We finally had a clear escape route.

    About time too¡­because I was running out of time.

    Less than forty minutes left.

    We headed to the main flight of stairs at the center part of the building. Ramon easily handled the few monsters we encountered. I was becoming more and more confident it would be a breeze going down, so long as we avoid the huge pillar Adumbrae and the giant monster.

    ¡°The stairs!¡± Samantha said.

    ¡°Hold on,¡± Benitez said. ¡°Stop. Everyone, stop!¡±

    ¡°What? Why?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a person coming down the stairs,¡± Ramon said.

    A woman.

    Human?

    Her leather skirt and jacket were torn in several places; her bare feet streaked with wounds. She obviously wasn¡¯t having the best of days. Even her makeup was ruined with her tears. Orange eye shadow and thick cat eye eyeliner?

    I''ve seen her before...How many people used orange eye shadow?

    Samantha gasped. ¡°Cassandra!¡±

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Ramon said. He was about to go close to her, but Benitez held his arm.

    ¡°Look, there¡¯s someone behind her.¡±

    A thin man with a pasty complexion presented himself. He had an unnerving smile stretched across his face that never quite reached his cold slit-like eyes. ¡°Hello there, friends of Cassandra! My name is Finlay. Congratulations! You just saved her life."

    Armed men in full combat gear, armor and all that, marched out of the stairwell. They formed two lines, one kneeling and one standing, and aimed their weapons at us.

    Finlay stroked Cassandra¡¯s disheveled hair. ¡°I did promise I won¡¯t kill her if she showed us the way to her friends. I can¡¯t say the same about you though.¡±

 3.39

    Crisis mode on!

    Assess the fucking situation.

    I was in front because I took charge of the group while making the most of my invulnerability to protect the others. And for the safety of my own human body too, obviously. I didn¡¯t dare look behind me to check where my body was positioned. Finlay, the creepy smiling guy, had his eyes on me. All I knew was Vince was pushing the cart. Which means, the kids were near the cart, and hopefully Doms too.

    (Doms, are you¡ª)

    (I¡¯m beside it. Can you increase my armor?)

    (No. We don¡¯t have a corpse for you to use. You¡¯ll just get weaker¡ª)

    (Just do it!)

    (There¡¯s no use if you can¡¯t move. Calm down. I¡¯m thinking¡­)

    I looked left and right, moving my head as little as possible. Good thing my eyeball had a wide range of vision. My body wasn¡¯t to my sides, so it must be somewhere behind me. If shit went down and these fuckers started shooting, it should be easy for me to shield it.

    ¡°Ratty bitch!¡± Greg said, his voice shaking with fury. He raised his middle finger at Cassandra. ¡°You couldn¡¯t just fuck off and die?¡±

    ¡°Now, now. That¡¯s not a very nice way to talk to your friend,¡± Finlay said.

    ¡°We¡¯re not friends with that sellout!¡±

    ¡°Awww,¡± he said dramatically, his hand going to his chest with a flourish. ¡°Your friends don¡¯t want you. Isn¡¯t that heartbreaking?¡±

    Cassandra looked down at her feet, grumbling about something.

    Finlay grabbed her chin and made her face us. ¡°They are your friends, right?¡±

    ¡°No¡­?¡± she answered nervously. ¡°It hurts¡­please¡­¡±

    He glowered at her. ¡°I told you to me bring to your friends or else I¡¯ll kill you! Did you bring me to the wrong people?¡±

    ¡°Yes! Yes! They¡¯re my friends.¡±

    What¡¯s all this shit? Why wasn¡¯t he attacking? This guy reminded me of Rofirio, playing around with people for fun. Fucking sick in the head. What was so fun about this? I couldn¡¯t understand this guy. It¡¯s more fun if people don¡¯t know you¡¯re playing with them.

    Speaking of Rofirio, this guy must also be one of the mini bosses of the 2Ms, commanding a bunch of grunts Was he an Adumbrae too? Should be. It would be stupid to attack us with just guns even if you got lots of them. At the least an augmented human, although I couldn¡¯t see any heavy augs work done on his body.

    ¡°You did good,¡± Finlay said, patting Cassandra¡¯s head. ¡°It¡¯s nice to be friends with lots of people. I¡¯d also like to be friends with them. Is that okay? How about you introduce me to them?¡±

    ¡°I¡­uh¡­I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s start with that metal man¡­woman?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m a lady,¡± I said, deciding to engage him to buy time to find an opening. ¡°My name¡¯s Pino. Nice to meet you, Finlay.¡±

    ¡°Polite and amiable.¡± He clapped his hands. ¡°You want to be my friend, Pino?¡±

    How should I respond to this?

    Wait a fucking minute¡­

    Was this asshole also buying time? He wasn¡¯t the pillar guy for sure or he would¡¯ve just squished us and taken my human body. Given how pillar guy operated¡ªbusting through several floors with no care in the world¡ªhe didn¡¯t seem to be the type to show his face and play around. I was sure Finlay was a different person. He must have weak powers, most likely dragging this out while waiting for reinforcements.

    Maybe we should attack now and say sorry to those who¡¯d die afterwards?

    ¡°I remember you,¡± Ramon said.

    ¡°Pardon?¡±

    ¡°You¡­you¡¯re the Adumbrae we met!¡±

    ¡°Is that him?¡± asked Vince. ¡°The one who killed the McKennons? You monster!¡±

    ¡°Monster? That¡¯s such a strong word. I¡¯m hurt.¡±

    ¡°What the hell did you do to them?¡±

    Finlay shrugged. ¡°I honestly have no idea what you¡¯re talking about.¡± He turned to Cassandra. ¡°You know what they¡¯re talking about?¡± She awkwardly moved her head, something between a nod and a shake.

    ¡°I knocked your helmet off!¡± Ramon said. ¡°You were wearing full armor like these guys, but I knocked it off. I remember your face.¡±

    Was this enough justification to attack? Rule #7: Don¡¯t do anything that would break the character of the face I had on. Not just face, but I had a literal fucking body I built up to be a hero for all of these people¡ªan Adumbrae on the side of good or whatever. I just couldn¡¯t commit a reckless charge and put all of us in danger even though I was sure we¡¯d win¡­with casualties. That was blatantly contradictory to my face. Rules, rules, rules.

    ¡°Ah! I get it now.¡± Finlay placed his fist on his palm while snickering. ¡°You must be talking about my twin brother, Calder. He¡¯s the one assigned to guard the way to the rooftop.¡±

    ¡°Twin brother?¡±

    ¡°Yes, my twin.¡±

    ¡°But you look¡ª"

    Finlay rolled his eyes. ¡°Identical twins. That¡¯s how it works. And we¡¯re wearing different clothes. You won¡¯t find me in crass combat gear. I don¡¯t have the barbaric fashion sense of my brother, thank goodness.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t kill¡ª?¡±

    ¡°We haven¡¯t met before. I¡¯ve seen you guys only through the screens of the security room. Although, I saw my brother did a number to your group.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Benitez answered gruffly, his grip tightened on his shotgun, his finger hovered by its trigger. He stared down the barrel. ¡°He killed many of us.¡±

    ¡°I was polite enough not to shoot. Now, you¡¯re going to shoot me?¡±

    Doms said, ¡°Let¡¯s all calm down.¡±

    Scratch that then. I needed some other reasonable justification. The longer this Finlay asshole dicked around, the more I became certain he was buying time, and the more my instincts told me to attack. Doms only had a thin layer of armor, and Paolo wasn¡¯t transformed. But I had Ramon on my side. Finlay shouldn¡¯t be as powerful as the pillar dude. He was probably, at the most, a couple of levels stronger than Rofirio. Come on, just order your men to shoot us, I prayed in my head. Make this easy for me.

    ¡°What did you say?¡± Finlay snapped at Cassandra. ¡°Speak up so your friends can hear you!¡±

    Cassandra flinched when he shouted at her. ¡°Will you let me go now? You promised¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes, I did. I nearly forgot!¡± He snapped his fingers and two of his men grabbed her.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°Ha? Ow, let me go!¡±

    ¡°I got too distracted making friends, but you¡¯re right. I¡¯m sorry for that. We should finish our business first.¡±

    ¡°What are you doing to her?¡± Benitez said. He pushed away Ramon¡¯s arm holding him back and pointed his gun at Finlay.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid and do anything rash!¡± Samantha hissed at him.

    ¡°We could all die here,¡± added Doms from somewhere behind me.

    ¡°I know, okay? I know. But we can¡¯t just wait for them to kill us.¡±

    Go on and shoot, I pleaded in my head. It would¡¯ve been the perfect opportunity for me if he did.

    Finlay took something out the breast pocket of his pin-striped dress shirt. ¡°A parting gift for a friend.¡± It was a small vial with a wiggling thing inside.

    ¡°Is that¡ª?¡± Ramon exclaimed. ¡°You¡¯re going to turn her into a monster!¡±

    Nice! My much-needed heroic justification. Plans, plans. How should this fight go? I recalled my encounter with the other goons in the elevator. Who should I try to control? This Finlay guy? Then he¡¯d immediately know about my power. I''d be fucked if he shook me off right at the start. Or maybe I should first take over like two of his men¡ªWhat the fuck?

    ¡°Is that what you¡¯re going to do?¡± Cassandra said, trying to pull away. ¡°No! Please!¡±

    ¡°Stop that!¡±

    ¡°Why? I¡¯m only doing what I promised to you.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s bullshit!¡± Benitez said.

    I agree, this is bullshit. How the fuck did I not notice all the other guys had no green color covering their bodies? Or any color at all, not even the grey color of dead bodies. Did I get too used to the green colors that I just zoned them out?

    ¡°This isn¡¯t what you promised!¡±

    ¡°I promised to let you go. But if I let you leave as you are, you¡¯ll just get eaten by monsters somewhere out there. I have to do this so they won¡¯t eat you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just let me be! Please!¡±

    ¡°Ramon,¡± Benitez said, ¡°we¡¯ll just let this shit happen?¡±

    Some kind of robots? I tried shooting the two at the left end of their formation and my blue thread wouldn¡¯t even come out of my finger. The 2Ms legit had the money to buy and deploy these? I mean I knew they were rich, but these seemed to be a waste; better just get some humans and tweak them.

    ¡°Wha-what are we going to do?¡± Ramon said.

    ¡°Nothing,¡± said Finlay. ¡°You¡¯ll be doing nothing.¡±

    ¡°Why you¡ª!¡±

    ¡°Ben, don¡¯t do it.¡± Vince grabbed his arms and pushed the gun down.

    ¡°Just calm down!¡± Samantha said. ¡°Do you want us all to die?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Ben, my buddy,¡± Finlay said, stressing the name with a mischievous grin. ¡°Ben, don¡¯t do it. I know your name now, Ben. We¡¯re friends now.¡±

    ¡°Friends my ass!¡±

    Hmmm¡­I couldn¡¯t shoot any of them. Were they all really robots? I couldn¡¯t recall any robot guarding the underground arena. If the 2Ms had military-grade combat robots, they would¡¯ve posted them there. Sure, they had ComExos, but those had human pilots. If not robots, then this must be Finlay¡¯s power. How strong were these things?

    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot me, Ben. I¡¯m your friend.¡± Finlay waved his arm and gestured to his men. ¡°Our other friends will shoot you back.¡±

    (Pino! Can you hear me?) Paolo said.

    ¡°We¡¯re all friends here, Ben.¡±

    (I need power to fight.)

    (Ah, there¡¯s no body¡ª)

    (I¡¯ll run back the hallway and find one.)

    (Pino, we should do something!) This time it was Doms.

    (Wait¡­I¡¯m¡ª) The two of them kept on talking inside my head. I ignored them, concentrating my eye on the fake humans. Nothing else? Something more than knowing they were puppets creations of Finlay.

    Cassandra began screaming her head off, trying to escape with all her might. The two men beside her held her up. She kicked wildly, even hitting Finlay who was just laughing. Her shadow beneath her reflecting her desperate struggle to escape. Shadow¡­ shadows!

    ¡°He¡¯s dragging this out,¡± Greg said. ¡°Just turn her into a monster! We don¡¯t care about that bitch.¡±

    "Greg, shut up."

    ¡°Please don¡¯t do it¡ªAaaah!

    (Pino! Are you listening?)

    Finlay tipped the vial into Cassandra''s screaming mouth and held it shut.

    (Doms, wait a bit. I¡¯m thinking of a plan.)

    ¡°There we go,¡± he said. ¡°Release her.¡± The guards let go and she fell to the floor. ¡°That wasn¡¯t too bad, was it?¡±

    Cassandra harshly coughed like she was going to spit out her lungs. She tried to claw inside her mouth and ended up vomiting. Everyone was silent, watching what was going to happen next.

    "You''re now safe...I think," Finlay said. "You''re good to go. Back to your friends, or you can¡ª¡±

    Before he finished what he was saying, Cassandra fled down the stairs.

    ¡°Oh, so she didn¡¯t want to go with you guys.¡± Finlay sighed with a contented smile even wider than before. ¡°I''ll try to collect her later if she turns into an interesting specimen."

    (Don¡¯t react), I said to Ramon, Doms, and Paolo. (Don¡¯t let him notice I¡¯m talking to you inside your head. Most of his men are illusions.)

    (Illusions?) Ramon said.

    (How did you know?) asked Doms.

    (He¡¯s just bluffing us? Let¡¯s fight!)

    All three of them were talking in my head. (Shut up all of you! Listen to me. They have no shadows!) Which was also why they didn¡¯t have any color coating them. They weren''t all real. But some were.

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s continue on,¡± Finlay said.

    ¡°What do you want with us?¡± Greg said. ¡°We don¡¯t have anything. Are you going to kill us?¡±

    ¡°Turn us to monsters, more like,¡± Benitez murmured.

    (The two that grabbed Cassandra are real. The three kneeling in front of Finlay, the ones forming a triangle, those are real too.) They bombarded me with questions, like could the illusions shoot, and how do we make them disappear. The hell should I know? (Those five are not human. I don''t know what they are.)

    ¡°Right, Pino?¡± Finlay said, raising his voice.

    ¡°Yes? Or no¡­What was the question?¡± I continued planning. (We just focus on those five and Finlay¡ª)

    ¡°I was asking about Erind. Is that her wrapped with the blanket?¡±

    ¡°We know what you want with her!¡± Benitez said.

    ¡°You do?¡± Finlay said with genuine surprise in his voice.

    ¡°It is Erind!¡± I said, drowning out Benitez. Let¡¯s not reveal my lie. ¡°Yes, Erind is here. She¡¯s here. Yes.¡± I was continuing to make discuss with the other three inside my head. It was hard because they had differing definitions of ¡®acceptable casualties¡¯ and I was talking to them separately.

    ¡°A bit distracted there, aren¡¯t you, friend?¡±

    ¡°No. So you want Eri¡ª¡±

    ¡°I saw you doing something with your fingers earlier,¡± he said with a smirk. ¡°And you seemed awfully quiet too.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s rude to interrupt,¡± I said. (Guys! Shut up. We can¡¯t save everyone. But we should act now.)

    "Don''t you dare point your finger at me, Pino. I don''t like that."

    "What are you talking about?"

    ¡°And you¡¯re right.¡±

    ¡°Huh? About what?¡±

    ¡°I''m not sure, but there¡¯s something weird with your eye. You probably have already seen through me and figured out my secret.¡±

    Shit. We should attack¡ª

    ¡°I pee in the shower.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°And most of these are illusions.¡±

    ¡°Run!¡±

    ¡°Fire.¡±

    "The children!" Benitez screamed before he got riddled with bullets.

    Screams and gunfire. Aiyani¡¯s head exploded, splattering me with blood. Greg tried to protect her, not noticing his girlfriend died instantly. Ramon charged at Finlay. I turned around, hugged everyone I could and pushed them to the hallway. Shield my human body, all of you!

    "I''ll kill you!" Ramon cried out.

    Finlay was laughing behind us.

    Everyone tumbling over everyone else as all tried to get out. I saw Doms was the first to run out the hallway while carrying Lizzie. Even though I shielded some of them with my metal body, most were still hit. No one was pushing the cart. The white blanket turned red. I didn¡¯t know who was still alive. I picked up the cart and followed Doms, pushing it over somebody on the ground.

    ¡°Run! Just run!¡± I said.

    ¡°Lizzie!¡± Doms cried from further ahead. Her body slammed against the wall.

    A man blocked our path. He was holding Lizzie.

    He had the same face as Finlay.

    The same annoying smile.

    ¡°Hi, I''m Calder. What¡¯s the rush, guys?¡±

 3.40 - Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    3:13 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    ¡°This guy just won¡¯t die!¡± Myra yelled, struggling to climb out the hole made by that giant of man who kept on saying ¡®Bob¡¯. The meager armor she managed to hastily grow was chipped and cracked all over. As she clambered to the next floor, she spotted Johann curled up at the corner, having crashed into a large potted fern. ¡°Stand up! He¡¯s coming!¡±

    ¡°Ugh¡­why did you throw me up so hard,¡± he groaned. He slowly picked himself up, blood from his wounds dripped on the leaves of the fern and broken pieces of the pot, patches of soil stuck to his clothes.

    ¡°Because you¡¯re slow¡ª¡± The bark armor around Myra''s left leg crumpled, its jagged edges digging into her skin and flesh. ¡°Aaah! What the hell?!¡± She looked down. Their undying pursuer was here. His massive fist had a death grip on her lower leg. Despite the three-foot long spikes piercing his eyeballs, he inexplicably still found them.

    ¡°Bob!¡± His booming calls of what was probably his own name struck fear in Myra¡¯s heart unlike any enemy she faced before. ¡°Bob¡­Bob¡­¡±

    ¡°How are you still alive?¡±

    ¡°Bob! Bob!¡±

    She tried to kick him off as hard as she could, kicks that could destroy the skull of a normal human, but Bob held firm. He jumped off the lower floor and hang onto her leg. ¡°Gaaggh!¡± she exclaimed from the surprising weight threatening to pull her joints apart.

    ¡°Bob!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t drag me down!¡± She hung on for dear life as Bob swung freely from her leg. Her fingers buried into the floor, piercing through the tiles, cracking the concrete. Spikes shot out of her arms, anchoring her. ¡°You¡¯re so heavy, you bastard.¡±

    ¡°Myra!¡±

    ¡°Run¡­run away.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Johann tried to grab her hand but got pricked by the spikes that uncontrollably spurted out and receded into her skin, showing how panicked she was becoming.

    ¡°Just leave me! I can¡¯t shake him off.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t.¡± He stood over her and fired his gun down at Bob.

    ¡°Just run,¡± she gasped. Weak. So weak. For the first time, she felt she could barely manage to produce any bark. Her strength was also fading, her grip weakening. She wished he would just rip her leg off. Take my leg and just go away. Please.

    Johann threw his empty gun at Bob. Then he grabbed Myra¡¯s hands again, ignoring the tiny spikes wounding him, not that he was of any help. ¡°We¡¯re getting out of here alive,¡± he said. "Don''t give up!"

    He was right¡­I have many things left to do!

    She still had to find Kelsey, or avenge her if she was already dead. She couldn¡¯t just give up here. She refused to die to an Adumbrae who could only say his name! Concentrating the last of her power into the sole of her free foot, she looked down and timed her only chance to free herself.

    ¡°Bob! Bob! Bo¡ªurghk!

    A massive spike burst forth from the bottom of her foot, skewering Bob through the mouth like a pig on a spit roast. She felt it didn¡¯t go that deep into his body. Barely down his throat. Bob was unfazed, he even tried to chew the spike.

    Myra wasn¡¯t surprised either.

    After fighting him for so long, she was sure he wouldn¡¯t die this easily. Even the spikes that should¡¯ve gone into his brain through his eye sockets didn¡¯t do much. But this desperate move wasn¡¯t meant to kill him.

    Myra used the spike as leverage to twist her other leg free. ¡°Let me go!¡± she screamed as she tore her leg from his grip. ¡°GAAARGH!¡± Pain to top all the pain she ever felt in her life. She nearly passed out. But her will to live pushed back. She shot out the spike from her foot, disconnecting it and letting Bob fall down the hole to the lower floors.

    ¡°Yes!¡± Johann enthusiastically yelled.

    ¡°Tired¡­I¡¯m so tired.¡±

    ¡°Up! Get up here.¡±

    She stumbled into his arms. He flinched when some of her spikes poked him, but he didn¡¯t say anything, continuing to hug her. ¡°Run,¡± she forced herself to say through her teeth clenched in pain. ¡°Have to¡­run.¡±

    Johann pulled her up, but she stumbled when they started walking. ¡°Your leg¡­Mother Core¡¯s grace, look at¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut up! I¡¯m not going to look.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°It already hurts like a bitch. It¡­it¡¯ll be worse if I see it.¡±

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go.¡± Johann supported her, and both of them limped away. They walked in silence, only their belabored breathing could be heard. After a few minutes, he said, ¡°I¡­I can¡¯t go very far.¡± He gave her a weak smile. His skin was very pale.

    ¡°Me too.¡±

    ¡°We need to find¡­find a place to rest.¡±

    ¡°But not now. A bit further on.¡±

    ¡°The pillar¡ª¡±

    ¡°I got it away from him¡­but¡­but he¡¯ll find it soon enough. We need to move a bit further away.¡±

    Johann swallowed then inhaled deeply. He wiped the tiredness from his face and put on a resolute expression. They continued walking until the building slightly shook. A fire alarm was ringing. ¡°What was that? Was that him?¡±

    ¡°He found his toy.¡±

    ¡°It sounds far away.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± Myra said. She forced herself to talk and ignore the pain. There were quakes, but she couldn¡¯t hear the sounds of the building getting destroyed, like concrete crumbling. The fire alarm was turned off. ¡°He¡¯s attacking a different place.¡±

    ¡°I bet he doesn¡¯t know where to point his pillar because you blinded him. But he did find it somehow, so he can probably sense it.¡±

    ¡°Through that room.¡± She pointed at an ajar door. ¡°Time¡­a bit of rest¡­¡±

    Johann turned on the lights as they entered. A small cleaning supply room. The boxes were scattered, thrown off the shelves, spilling their contents. Dried blood streaked the floor. ¡°Bad luck to whoever was hiding here and got found,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°I hope that doesn¡¯t happen to us,¡± Myra said. He was about to turn off the lights when she told him to stop. She held her breath and slowly lifted up her leg, the one she forcefully yanked out of Bob¡¯s grasp. She gasped upon seeing it.

    ¡°Myra¡­¡±

    ¡°So, that¡¯s why I couldn¡¯t feel it,¡± she jokingly said. She was about to cry. All this time fighting the 2Ms, even after the fiasco that was their first mission, and this was the only time she felt like crying. Huge chunks of flesh were missing from her lower leg, revealing her bones. She collapsed on the floor.

    ¡°Myra!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m ok¡­ok¡­¡±

    ¡°Just sit there,¡± he shifted her to a clean spot.

    ¡°Ok¡­ok¡­¡±

    Johann took off his tattered jacket and covered her injury with it. After closing the door and turning off the lights, he sat beside her. ¡°So¡­¡±

    ¡°I guess it looked worse earlier,¡± she said in a forced upbeat tone. She didn¡¯t want Johann to think she was weak. She was supposed to be the strongest one in their group. Always on the front line of every fight, not backing down against anything. But she was rattled this time. Especially when that Adumbrae tore off her armor with his bare hands, her armor that could withstand grenades got torn to shreds like it was cardboard.

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Johann said. ¡°You¡¯ll be fine. You¡¯re already regenerating. Compared to me¡­¡±

    She heard rustling. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°Supposed to be painkillers. We confiscated this from an illegal bioaugs syndicate. I got this from the evidence room. You want some?¡±

    ¡°Is that safe?¡±

    ¡°Probably not.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t take it then.¡±

    ¡°My body aches all over. And it felt like I was slapped by a giant cactus when I hugged you.¡±

    ¡°Now, it¡¯s my fault?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­no, I didn¡¯t mean¡ª¡±

    ¡°No one told you to hug me.¡±

    ¡°Erm¡­sorry.¡±

    She felt her body to make sure there wasn¡¯t any piece of armor left. Then she leaned over to him and hugged him from behind. She felt him tense up. She hoped he didn''t mind being hugged by someone who wasn''t human anymore. ¡°Don¡¯t move...don¡¯t talk. Or...or I¡¯ll hug you tighter until you¡¯re dead.¡±

    He relaxed and started to chuckle.

    Myra frowned. ¡°What¡¯s so funny? You think I can¡¯t do it?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not moving.¡±

    ¡°You talked.¡± She nestled her head next to his. ¡°Five minutes of rest, then we¡¯ll go out and find Erind.¡± Johann nodded his head. She felt the stubbles of his freshly-shaved face brushed against her cheeks. ¡°I hope we do find the woman with the red hood. We¡¯ll need every help we can get if we¡¯re fighting Adumbrae like that one.¡±

    He nodded again.

    ¡°I hope Kelsey''s still alive.¡±

    He didn¡¯t nod.

    <hr>

    ¡°We¡¯re near the security room,¡± Johann said. ¡°Through this hallway, then the first left.¡±

    ¡°Let me go first,¡± Myra said, walking as briskly as she could with the crude crutches they made from a broomstick. Although her leg was regenerating rapidly, she didn¡¯t want to put weight on it just yet.

    ¡°Why are there a lot of dead monsters here?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe Red Hood passed through here? Or someone else.¡±

    ¡°Myra, wait. Check out this body.¡±

    The corpse he pointed to was human with a similar attire as the other men of the 2Ms. ¡°Why is he dead? Don¡¯t they have some way to control the monsters? They had a pretty smooth operation at the parking level.¡±

    ¡°Maybe they did fight Red Hood?¡±

    Johann looted the dead guy of his gun and ammo before moving on. ¡°Here¡¯s another human.¡± He pushed aside monster carcasses, uncovering a man dress in a bright pin-striped shirt. ¡°A civilian? No¡­there¡¯s something wrong with him.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Myra took a look at the other body and pulled Johann back.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s Calder!¡±

    ¡°Calder? The Adumbrae with the illusion power? He¡¯s dead?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­huh? Why is there a hole in his chest?¡± It wasn¡¯t a hole like a gunshot wound, or even a wound from an explosion. It was just¡­a hole. The body was hollow. Myra stepped on the supposedly dead body of Calder. It cracked and shattered as if it was a piece of pottery sculpted into a human body. ¡°The hell?¡±

    ¡°An illusion?¡±

    ¡°No. This feels real. Let me check.¡±

    ¡°How?¡±

    She punched herself.

    ¡°Myra!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t go being all caring for me now,¡± she said. She tasted blood in her mouth. A few of her teeth were dislodged, but they would heal so she didn¡¯t care. The pieces of the fake body of Calder were still there. ¡°Um, I¡¯m not sure what¡¯s going on here.¡±

    ¡°Hopefully, we¡¯ll see something in the security room.¡±

    They passed more monsters corpses and a couple more of those fake dead bodies that looked like Calder. And they came upon the entrance to the security room, its doors blasted off by an explosion.

    A man was inside.

    He was wearing the same pin-striped dress shirt as the fake bodies outside. He stood in front of the screens.

    ¡°Calder!¡± Myra exclaimed. She covered her body in whatever armor she could muster. Johann aimed his gun over her shoulder. The man turned to look at them, revealing that the right half of his face was missing. ¡°Oh, another fake,¡± she said. ¡°Is this another one of your powers?¡±

    ¡°Hello there. Did you say ''Calder''?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s your name, right? Where the hell is your real body?¡±

    ¡°A lot of people are mistaking me for my brother today. It¡¯s starting to get weird.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re Calder¡¯s brother? A twin?¡±

    ¡°Yes, my twin. Glad you easily caught on. The name¡¯s Finlay, at your service.¡± He attempted to bow as a greeting. More pieces of his face and chest broke off and turned to dust as they hit the floor. ¡°Oops,¡± he said, ¡°hard to keep myself together.¡±

    ¡°Myra, what do we do here?¡±

    ¡°Some bullshit about having a twin. And we have no need for a fake.¡±

    ¡°What are you guys mumbling over there? Come inside here and make yourselves comfortable.¡±

    ¡°Hey, Finlay or whatever the hell your name is.¡± Myra extended her hand and shot forth spikes, skewering him. ¡°Thanks for turning off the fire alarms.¡± His body shattered into pieces.

    Johann squeezed past her and entered the room, his gun at the ready. ¡°Here''s a dead man, a security guard from his uniform.¡±

    ¡°Wow, did he wrap that guy¡¯s head and suffocate him?¡±

    ¡°And another dead body here,¡± he said, nodding to a chair at the back of the room.

    This one was just a head and torso, the head also completely wrapped in hardened plaster like the other corpse, suffocating whoever this was. However, this guy¡¯s limbs were ripped off. Bioaugmentronic limbs by the looks of it. ¡°I¡­I really have no idea what¡¯s going on here.¡±

    ¡°This guy, Calder or Finlay, he killed them both,¡± said Johann. ¡°That plaster material. I think it¡¯s the same as those fake bodies.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I guess. But who is this?¡± Myra removed the plaster covering the corpse''s head like she was peeling a hard-boiled egg. ¡°Holy¡­it¡¯s Dekano!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s him? I¡¯ve only seen his pictures on the police database.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why did he¡­Calder? Why would he kill Dekano? They¡¯re on the same side.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± Johann said. They searched the room for more clues, but couldn¡¯t find anything besides a metallic boxy contraption that was partially destroyed.

    Myra went over the screens. ¡°Johann, I think you should take a look at this.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± He was busy tinkering with the metal box.

    She pointed at one of the few screens that still worked. ¡°There¡¯s a group of survivors!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m surprised those people managed to stay alive.¡±

    ¡°Are those Adumbrae with them?¡±

    ¡°Adumbrae helping them escape? Or are those the 2Ms¡¯ men that captured them?¡±

    ¡°Oh, they¡¯re off screen,¡± Myra said. ¡°Is there no other way to follow them?¡±

    Johann worked his magic on the control panel and managed to transfer some of the footage on that floor to other working screens. ¡°And there we go,¡± he said, pressing a button. The survivors were facing off a small group of heavily armed men.

    ¡°Uh-oh, that doesn¡¯t look good.¡±

    ¡°So, they weren¡¯t on the same side after all.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t even know what sides are here,¡± Myra said. Both of them watched, curious as to what was going to happen next. The armed men opened fire. ¡°Oh my god! We should help them!¡±

    ¡°What do you mean help them? They¡¯re so far away.¡±

    ¡°What floor?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re seriously going there?¡±

    Beep.

    They looked at each other. Johann shook his head. He had no idea what it was. They both had their phones on silent. They already learned that precious lesson during past missions.

    Beep. Didit. Deeet.

    Myra turned around, spikes bursting out of her skin, turning her into a human porcupine. Johann scrambled for his gun and aimed, looking for the source of the sound. They slowly fanned out, keeping their eyes peeled.

    Beep. Beep. Deeeeeeet.

    ¡°Is Dekano¡¯s body making that sound?¡± she said.

    ¡°Seems like it.¡±

    ¡°Do we¡­do we poke it?¡± Or was this a bomb? Should she grab Johann and run out? He apparently had the same idea because he was already backing to the door.

    Dekano opened his eyes and gasped for air.

    ¡°Huh, he¡¯s still alive?¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Phew, I thought he had a self-destruct sequence,¡± Johann said. ¡°Quite advanced systems to put him into hibernation and provide him with backup oxygen until it detected he was safe.¡±

    ¡°We should kill him.¡±

    ¡°What? No!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t preach to me about morality here. If we leave him¡ª¡±

    Johann gave her a look of incredulity. ¡°What are you talking about? I meant to hostage him. We should be able to make use of him in our escape.¡±

    ¡°How can you think of escaping when we haven¡¯t even found Erind? We can¡¯t just lug Dekano¡¯s body around while we search the building.¡±

    ¡°I think it''s about time to plan our escape route now.¡± Johann pointed at the screen.

    The armed men had withdrawn, leaving many of the residents dead or injured. Standing in the midst of the survivors was a woman with a familiar outline. She turned her head. Even if the footage was a bit blurry, Myra still easily recognized her.

    ¡°Erind.¡±

 3.41 - Paolo

    Paolo James Conti

    3:35 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    Everything was swimming in Paolo¡¯s sight as if he was back to before he had eye surgery. He could barely make sense of what was in front of him. Searing spots erupted all over his body. Wounds from earlier torn open? Bullet holes? Or was he just imagining the pain? He stretched out his hands, hoping to reach out to someone¡­anyone who could help him.

    The desperate screams for help, the nonstop gunfire, people clambering over each other, bullets hitting the walls, the floor, flesh¡­everything rolled into one piercing drone, like a microphone¡¯s feedback that grew louder and louder in his head, gradually clouding his thoughts, muddying what little was left of his consciousness.

    He might be screaming too; he wasn¡¯t sure.

    He wasn¡¯t sure of anything anymore.

    Am I still alive?

    Where was Julie?!

    I need to protect Julie! he yelled in his head, fearing that he¡¯d forget, fearing that he¡¯d just pass out, unable to do anything. That he¡¯d just die¡­helpless.

    His legs got tangled in the stampede, and he tumbled down. A person on the floor broke his fall. Another dropped on top of him, pushing him against the person beneath him. He felt footsteps on his back, on his face. He was yelling. What was he saying?

    ¡°Paolo! Don¡¯t die!¡±

    It wasn¡¯t him who was screaming. It was Julie. He couldn¡¯t scream, he couldn¡¯t move from the pain.

    ¡°Pino! Help him, please!¡±

    Paolo felt a tug on his back. Someone tried pulling him up by his clothes but couldn¡¯t lift him. Whoever it was decided to drag him across the floor instead. He got shoved into something hard. It felt cold and smooth on his cheeks. Was this the cart? There was something warm too. A body?

    (Copy! Copy it!)

    ¡°Pino¡­?¡± he croaked.

    (Copy the body or you¡¯ll die!)

    Even though he wasn¡¯t thinking it, his body moved on its own and reached under the blood-soaked linen. His hand clasped another hand. It was still warm, but he couldn¡¯t feel any life from it. He focused on their connection.

    This dead person¡­whoever you are¡­

    ¡­thank you.

    <hr>

    (¡ªawake already? Paolo? Just stay down, okay? Don¡¯t move.)

    ¡°Wha¡ª¡±

    (Shut up!)

    His mouth clamped tight. Huh? Why did I do this? He didn¡¯t think of closing his mouth. He tried to push himself up, away from the overpowering smell of blood on the floor, but another order came into his head to stay still. His body seized up.

    Was someone controlling him? He needed to fight it!

    (Knock that off!)

    (Someone¡¯s controlling me!) No way he was going to let¡ª

    (This is Pino, listen to me. Just don¡¯t move.)

    He didn¡¯t know what was going on, but he relaxed when he heard her name. Yes, this was Pino; he recognized the ¡®sound¡¯ of her thoughts. He was disoriented when he woke up and panicked. Whatever she did before he passed out must¡¯ve worked since he no longer felt any pain. I¡¯m alive! he realized, cheering in his head.

    Did she heal him? But he felt different from the time he was healed of his injuries from his gorilla monster form. He strained to recall what happened a few moments ago.

    His own body provided him the answer¡ªor, to be more accurate, his new body. He must¡¯ve copied someone¡¯s corpse just as he was at death¡¯s door. He didn¡¯t know whose body this was, but he felt incredible strength. He wanted to jump for joy that he was alive, and he was sure he could touch the ceiling and even burst through it.

    But his happiness was cut short as a morbid thought crept in his euphoric mind.

    (Pino, who is this¡ª)

    ¡°What do you want? Give me back my daughter!¡±

    (Ha? Hey, what¡¯s going on?) Was that Doms? She sounded really distressed. Did something happen to Lizzie?

    Pino didn¡¯t answer his question. (Don¡¯t move no matter what happens), was her reply.

    ¡°You dumbass!¡± said a man. ¡°How did you get caught?¡±

    His voice was familiar. This was Finlay, the leader of the group that attacked at them. But why did it sound like he was somewhere ahead? Paolo was sure he had his back to that Adumbrae because he was running away, not towards them.

    ¡°Let her go!¡± Ramon roared.

    ¡°My bad, Calds,¡± said a man barely able to control his laughter. ¡°He¡¯s just too strong. I had too few puppets with me because Dekano destroyed most of them.¡± This also sounded like Finlay, but the voice came from somewhere behind Paolo. There were two of them talking? Was he going crazy?

    ¡°You already took care of him?¡± replied the first man who spoke, who must be Calder, the twin brother Finlay mentioned. ¡°Cool. But why did you come here with your real body?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that. This metal woman got a funky eye, so I thought she¡¯d probably notice if I only sent my puppets.¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± Ramon said. ¡°Are you going to give us back Lizzie or not?¡±

    ¡°Please let my daughter go,¡± pleaded Doms. ¡°I¡¯ll do anything¡ª¡±

    ¡°As I was saying!¡± Finlay forcefully interjected. ¡°Turns out I was right that she¡¯d notice.¡±

    ¡°And now you¡¯re caught, you dumbass.¡±

    ¡°If you don¡¯t let Lizzie go,¡± Ramon said. ¡°I¡¯ll¡ª!¡±

    ¡°Kill Finlay?¡±

    ¡°I¡­Yes, I¡¯ll kill him!¡±

    ¡°Go ahead. I don¡¯t care about if he dies.¡±

    ¡°Ouch, that hurts. You¡¯re supposed to be my brother. My twin at that.¡±

    ¡°I heard what you said about my outfit.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s true. I¡¯m the more fashionable between the two of us. I was only telling the tru¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut the fuck up!¡± Ramon yelled in frustration. ¡°I¡¯m not messing around! I¡¯ll really kill him.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you care about your brother?¡± Doms said. ¡°I also care about my baby, Lizzie. We can exchange¡­¡±

    Calder laughed. ¡°I¡¯m serious. Go ahead and kill him. We¡¯re both adults and responsible for our decisions. I¡¯m not responsible for his own skin.¡±

    ¡°Harsh but true,¡± Finlay said.

    ¡°My responsibility now is getting Erind. For which, I figured I needed a hostage to exchange for her.¡±

    Can I do something to help? Paolo didn¡¯t know why, but he felt he was invincible. There was just¡­something¡­something about this body he copied that he felt he could take them on. The feeling of power coursed through his body when he transformed into the gorilla monster, he could feel it now too. If only he could see what was happening, but there were bodies around him.

    ¡°Pino, please,¡± said Doms. ¡°Maybe we can give them Erind.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Ramon said. ¡°What are you even saying?¡±

    ¡°If we give them Erind, I can get my baby back.¡±

    ¡°It won¡¯t work like that, lady. You¡¯re a good mother and all, but I¡¯m sorry to say I¡¯ll be hanging on to your daughter for awhile. We¡¯ll make really good friends.¡±

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    ¡°Why? You only want Erind, right?¡±

    ¡°We won¡¯t give them Erind!¡± Ramon shouted.

    ¡°If I release this girl¡ªLizzie or something, was it?¡ªyou¡¯ll just kill us right after.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ªno! We won¡¯t do that.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t take me for an idiot like my brother, lady. Just kidding, Fins. Anyway, that mutant guy with blades you got back there holding my brother can take on both of us. I really need your daughter as hostage.¡±

    ¡°He wants a hostage to make sure he gets away from us safely,¡± Pino calmly said. ¡°He¡¯s not sure if he could get away with Erind.¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Calder said. ¡°Firstly, how do I know that¡¯s really Erind you got there with you, all covered up and hidden? Secondly, like you said, I can¡¯t be certain if Erind is hostage material. For all I know, she can beat me up. I do know she¡¯s not human.¡±

    ¡°You do? That¡¯s interesting.¡±

    ¡°Just take me instead!¡± Doms said. ¡°If you want a hostage, just take me. I¡¯m no threat to you.¡±

    ¡°No, thank you, lady. I¡¯m fine with your daughter. Much safer for me, and more portable too.¡±

    ¡°How about me?¡± This time it was Julie who spoke. ¡°If you don¡¯t want an adult as hostage, then take me!¡±

    What? No! Paolo wanted to stand up and stop her, but Pino was immediately inside his mind, assuring him they wouldn¡¯t let them take his sister.

    ¡°Wow, you make it sound like I¡¯m bullying kids,¡± said Calder.

    ¡°Earrggh!¡± Ramon screamed.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±

    ¡°The hell?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s going down the stairs! Fuck!¡±

    There were sounds of scuffle. Should he move and see the situation for himself? He knew he copied only a human body, but he felt like he could fight and take on anyone. There was an indescribable feeling of vigor he wanted to release.

    Calm down, he told himself. He resolved to trust Pino. She was the reason he and Julie survived this long. (Pino, what was that? What¡¯s going on?)

    (Hmmm. Finlay escaped Ramon¡¯s hold.)

    ¡°Why did you let him go?¡± said Samantha. ¡°He shot Gramps!¡±

    ¡°What happened? Where did he go?¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡­I¡¯m sorry,¡± Ramon mumbled in confusion. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­his arm¡­uh.¡±

    ¡°He was our bargaining chip!¡±

    ¡°Fins just left me?¡± Calder said. ¡°Real dickhead that brother of mine. Anyway, don¡¯t blame each other. Friends shouldn¡¯t fight amongst themselves.¡±

    ¡°You need to chase him¡ª¡±

    Bang! Paolo instinctively flinched from the sudden gunshot. But he stopped the urge to cover his head with his hands. He hoped Calder didn¡¯t notice his minute movement. It was obviously important for Pino¡¯s plan she was yet to share with him that the enemy didn¡¯t know about him. He didn¡¯t want to mess it up.

    ¡°No! No!¡± Calder said. ¡°No one¡¯s chasing anyone. Everyone of you stay here! I still have this precious little girl with me, so don¡¯t think of doing anything dumb.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re wasting time,¡± Pino said. ¡°You¡¯re just playing around like your brother.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t compare me to him. I¡¯m very efficient with my work, mind you. I was even fine to sacrifice him since he was hindering our objectives.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s cut to the chase then. Where do we deliver Erind?¡±

    ¡°Deliver Erind?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re obviously not going to give us Lizzie until you feel safe. And that¡¯s when you¡¯ve regrouped with your pals or whatever. Go back to your pals now and we¡¯ll go there to exchange Erind with Lizzie.¡±

    ¡°Wa¡ªwait! We¡¯re not going to give them Erind!¡±

    ¡°Ramon, let me handle this. You already messed up.¡±

    ¡°I¡­uh.¡±

    ¡°Discord and mistrust in the group,¡± Calder said, ¡°I like it.¡±

    ¡°So, where do we deliver Erind? Don¡¯t waste our time, we still have to tend to our casualties. If you insist on staying here, I assure you, you¡¯re not going to get away like your brother. And then we¡¯ll hunt him too.¡±

    Paolo felt a chill up his spine when Pino said that. It was calm and collected, like she was giving a lecture. It didn¡¯t sound like a threat at all the way she delivered it. But he was convinced she was going to do it.

    ¡°Oho! Is that the Adumbrae talking now?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°I thought you¡¯re supposed to be helping these humans¡ªwoah! Don¡¯t point your finger at me!¡±

    ¡°Pino, don¡¯t do it!¡±

    ¡°Five¡­four¡­¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± Calder said with a sigh. ¡°You¡¯re no fun.¡± He gave them instruction how to get to the biggest conference room in the building where he''d be waiting with the rest of his group. He did promise to keep Lizzie safe. ¡°You guys are probably going to have an interesting discussion whether to give us Erind or not. Have fun!¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°He¡¯s¡­also gone.¡± Vince shook his head as he felt Gregory¡¯s pulse.

    ¡°We can¡¯t do anything to save him,¡± Ramon said.

    Both of them moved Gregory¡¯s body beside the corpse of his girlfriend, Aiyani. Benitez was also dead. And so was Samantha¡¯s frail grandfather. Doms and Julie were hugging Samantha, trying to console her.

    Paolo didn¡¯t know much about the people who died, he barely talked to any of them. He did feel bad to be relieved he wasn¡¯t one of the dead.

    For now.

    Deep down, he knew, he couldn¡¯t escape what fate had in store for him.

    A normal guy turning into a girl would find it hilarious, but he couldn¡¯t crack any joke. It wasn¡¯t the situation for one. That dark nagging thought at the back of his mind made his heart sink into the bottom of his stomach.

    He stared at his hands.

    They were small, and soft, and delicate. But looks could be very deceiving. He held the handle of the cart carrying Erind¡¯s true body and gripped it hard. The metal deformed.

    Is this how a Corebring feels?

    ¡°Are we going there now?¡± Doms said. She armed herself with a gun from one of the clay puppets Ramon destroyed.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Pino said.

    Ramon stomped forward and stood in front of the cart. ¡°No! We¡¯re not giving them Erind!¡±

    ¡°They wouldn¡¯t give me Lizzie back otherwise.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s just giving them another captive. And we don¡¯t know what they can do with the body of a Corebring. We shouldn¡¯t let them¡ª¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s my daughter!¡± Doms pointed her gun at him. ¡°I¡¯ll do anything to get her back.¡±

    ¡°What? You¡¯re going to shoot me?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to. Either you come with me and Pino and help get my daughter, or you stay out of our way.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re trusting her over me?¡± Ramon pointed at Pino. ¡°I know I messed up and let Finlay escape. I know I look like a monster¡­heck, I am a monster. But she¡¯s an actual Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s kept us alive all this time. She healed all our injuries.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear what she said to Calder? She was going to attack him if he didn¡¯t leave, even if he had Lizzie as hostage. Why¡­why are you trusting her?¡±

    ¡°Actually,¡± Pino said, ¡°I had to do that...¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Calder already had Lizzie, but he still wasn¡¯t leaving. Why? Because he wanted to play with us. He and his brother, Finlay, have the same personality. They want to play with people, watch them suffer. Just like Finlay toying with Cassandra, Calder is going to do the same to us.¡±

    ¡°How is that¡ª¡±

    ¡°How? Simple. He¡¯s going to make us decide right then and there whether to give up Erind or not, probably make a game out of it. We¡¯ll surely be divided, and Calder would enjoy seeing us destroy ourselves. If his only intention was to safely escape while having a bargaining chip, he would''ve scrammed the moment he got Lizzie. You see, he didn¡¯t even want to leave after Finlay escaped."

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­um...¡± Ramon lowered his blade.

    "You fought with him before, but we still have no idea what his powers are. He''s too dangerous, I had to drive him away. He won''t do anything to Lizzie without an audience, so I''m sure she''s safe. And now we''re going to save her.¡±

    ¡°But you can¡¯t be serious in giving Erind to them. I¡¯m not going to allow it!¡±

    ¡°I thought you already understand that Pino is on our side.¡±

    ¡°I-I mean¡­be-because¡­because,¡± Ramon stammered, ¡°who knows what they¡¯ll do if they have the body of a Corebring?¡± He said to Pino, ¡°Weren¡¯t you supposed to save her and stop these Adumbrae from experimenting on her? You already saved her! You can¡¯t just give her back to them.¡±

    ¡°We also can''t leave my daughter with them.¡±

    Pino held up her hand. ¡°We¡¯re not giving them Erind. And we are getting Lizzie back."

    ¡°How will we do that?¡±

    Paolo inhaled deeply, sensing it was time for him to step forward. He stood up. Julie noticed him. Her face contorted in distress as she realized what he was going to do.

    ¡°No!¡± She rushed to Pino and confronted her. ¡°Did you make him copy Erind to use him as bait?¡±

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t my intention. I made him copy Erind¡¯s powerful body so he¡¯ll survive. There¡¯s no point making him copy another person just to end up dying again. I wasn¡¯t even expecting him to be able to copy her. Remember that he can only copy corpses, but somehow he was able to copy Erind even though she¡¯s only in hibernation. If he couldn¡¯t copy her, I would¡¯ve made him try¡­uh¡­someone else.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re lying!¡±

    ¡°Cut that out, Jules.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not letting you go. You¡¯re the only one I have left.¡±

    ¡°I have to go.¡±

    ¡°You idiot! Didn¡¯t you promise you won¡¯t do anything stupid.¡±

    ¡°I did.¡± It was weird talking in a girl¡¯s voice. Everything felt surreal, like he was still asleep in his bed. He still couldn''t believe everything that happened. Being woken up by a monster Mrs. Parker attacking their dad. Their neighbors dying. The whole building turning into a nightmare. All of this felt like he got sucked into a book, which was funny as he hadn¡¯t read any books for a while because he was preparing for a contest his band would join next month. He inhaled deeply. ¡°I did promise that.¡±

    ¡°So why¡ª¡±

    ¡°Because this is not anything stupid. We¡¯re going to save Lizzie and we¡¯re going to come back here.¡± He knelt down and punched the floor. The tiles crumbled, his knuckles buried themselves into the concrete. This was every little boy¡¯s dream, to have super strength. But he didn¡¯t feel excitement. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to worry about, Jules. I have the body of a Corebring.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­You¡¯re going to go no matter what I say?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I promise I¡¯ll be back.¡±

    ¡°Ok.¡± She turned away from him.

    (Pino. I want to ask you something), he said while staring at this sister¡¯s back.

    (What is it?)

    (When I turn back¡­when I return to my original body¡­)

    (Yes?)

    (Uhm¡­nothing. Never mind.) He didn¡¯t have the heart to finish his question. He knew the answer anyway. Once this transformation ends, he was going to return to his dying body¡­and die. His injuries were too severe. Pino wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything about it anymore. ¡°Let¡¯s go and save Lizzie!¡±

 3.42

    Erind Hartwell

    3:46 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    ¡°Anyone here?¡± I called as I stuck my head inside a room. Everything was bright as day even with the lights off. There was nothing weird inside this random office suite on the floor where our meeting place with the 2Ms was located. ¡°I think this is a good place for Julie to hide.¡± I turned on the lights and beckoned the others to enter. It was a pretty wide space with no signs of struggle or of monsters. ¡°Can you smell anything?¡±

    ¡°Erm, you guys go inside,¡± Ramon said, shifting in embarrassment. ¡°I¡¯ll stay here and guard. You might¡­just smell me. Just yell if you need help.¡±

    Me, Doms, Paolo, and Julie quickly checked the room. Yep, only five of us were going to rescue Lizzie. Well, four, since we were going to leave Julie here with my real human body.

    Vince, his son, and Samantha, the only ones who remained of Ramon¡¯s companions¡ªunless you count monster Cassandra roaming around somewhere¡ªdecided to stay on that floor where we fought Finlay and Calder, holing up in a room to hide. They figured it was better to take their chances and wait for the BID¡¯s rescue.

    We killed probably all of the monsters on that floor so it was relatively safe for them to remain there; they also had guns from Finlay¡¯s puppets. Was that much safer than going with us to rescue Lizzie? Probably. I think I would¡¯ve done the same thing if I was in their shoes, and just pray the giant charcoal monster wouldn¡¯t pass by.

    Julie wanted to come with us, which was obviously pretty dangerous. We settled in a compromise where she¡¯d just hide somewhere kind of nearby, but not really. Which turned out pretty well because I had someone I could leave my body to for my plan later.

    ¡°Pao, listen.¡± Julie put her gun down and grabbed her brother¡¯s shoulders. ¡°Okay, this is weird. I¡¯m taller than you now. It¡¯s really you inside there?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s me. Who else would it be? Want some proof? Remember that time you made out with your ex during spring break and got caught by¡ª¡±

    ¡°Sshh! You promised to forget about that.¡±

    ¡°Just kidding. I¡¯m just¡­you know¡­you¡¯re all so serious.¡±

    ¡°This is serious!¡±

    ¡°What were you going to say? I¡¯m going to take care of myself. I already promised we¡¯ll return with Lizzie.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just...I wanted a little sister for a long time. Maybe you should stay like this.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°Just kidding. You¡¯re right. It¡¯s getting too serious.¡±

    These fucking kids. Should I smack them in the head? Making fun of my body like that even though I was several years older than them. ¡°What¡¯s the time, Julie?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s 3:47 a.m. Right, you shouldn¡¯t waste time here.¡± She hugged her brother. ¡°I¡¯ll just be serious here and say that do be careful. And¡­I hope you can retain that form until we get help.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean¡ª¡±

    Julie pushed Paolo. ¡°Go! Save Lizzie quickly.¡±

    Did she suspect her brother was going to die when he returned to his original body? Because I was thinking that too. And Paolo most likely as well. He was really super dead I was even surprised he managed to copy my human body before he kicked the bucket.

    ¡°Take care of Erind,¡± I said.

    ¡°I will. Both of us will just be here in the small room behind the photocopier.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t come out unless it¡¯s us, okay? I think we can have like a code or signal. We¡¯ll say ¡®your little sister is here¡¯ when we come get you.¡±

    Julie forced herself to chuckle as she wiped a tear off her eye. ¡°Okay guys, I know you¡¯ll come back.¡±

    I¡¯ll surely be back, I thought, but I don¡¯t know about the rest of us.

    <hr>

    The conference room we were headed to was located at the end of this floor. I knew it opened to a massive cantilevered balcony, the prominent feature of this building, which overlooked the Olympic-sized pool. I haven¡¯t been on that balcony; I only saw it from the pool below during the rare times I felt like swimming early in the morning when there were no people around.

    ¡°This is how it''ll go,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯re going to exchange Paolo with Lizzie. Then¡ª¡±

    ¡°Will they believe I¡¯m the real Erind?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. I know a bit about Erind and I¡¯ll tell you what to say through our mental link. Once they get you, that¡¯s where it¡¯ll get dicey. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll give us Lizzie because they''ll attack us afterwards anyway.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Doms said. ¡°They won''t let us go alive.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the plan then?¡± asked Ramon.

    ¡°Simple. We fight back. It¡¯s not like we have any choice.¡±

    ¡°I mean, yeah¡­¡±

    ¡°Fight with escaping in mind. Paolo, when they get you, they¡¯ll restrain you, maybe with something like those huge reinforced armcuffs the BID use when they arrest an Adumbrae. They¡¯ll make sure you won¡¯t be able to help us. Resist with everything you got.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I will,¡± Paolo said. ¡°I''m sure Erind¡¯s body can put up a fight.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s on Ramon to rescue you and bring you back to our side. Ramon, the moment they touch Paolo, you attack and help him return to us. This is the crucial part of the plan. Once we¡¯ve regrouped, we¡¯d have more firepower to escape.¡± I paused, then added. ¡°It¡¯s important we help each other so all of us can get out of here alive.¡± Which goes without saying. But I still mentioned it anyway because it was more for Doms than the other two. I really hoped she wouldn¡¯t abandon us once she got Lizzie, but I had to plan for that possibility.

    ¡°What do we know about them?¡± Doms said.

    ¡°Finlay is the guy with that clay¡­plaster, whatever power.¡±

    ¡°Easy for us to break,¡± Ramon said.

    ¡°He uses it mainly for making puppets. Those aren¡¯t strong; we can count them as more grunts on their side. His brother, Calder, is more annoying with his illusion powers.¡±

    ¡°You can see through it, right?¡± Paolo said. ¡°Didn¡¯t he back off when you pointed your finger at him? I was facedown on the floor so I didn¡¯t see what was going on.¡±

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    ¡°Not exactly see through it. I can only see if a person is actually fake, or if Calder¡¯s hiding someone behind an illusion,¡± I explained. ¡°I was bluffing when I pointed my finger at him, and I have to thank Finlay for that. I was sure Calder heard Finlay¡¯s comment I was doing something weird with my fingers and that I could see through the clay puppets and illusions. So, I pointed my finger at one of Calder¡¯s men hiding behind him.¡±

    ¡°He had others with him?¡± Doms said.

    ¡°There were three more real people covered by a wall of illusion. When Calder realized I could see them, he backed off. Thankfully, he did because I really didn¡¯t have anything else besides some minor body control powers.¡±

    ¡°It was you¡­¡± Paolo said.

    ¡°Sorry about that, I had to make you stay still so Calder wouldn¡¯t notice you.¡±

    Ramon said, ¡°Ah, that time I suddenly stopped when we were fighting¡ª¡±

    ¡°That was also me,¡± I confessed. Better tell them about it and not give them any reason to mistrust me. ¡°But you easily broke out of it. I¡¯m too weak now to do anything major with my powers, that¡¯s why I¡¯m mainly relying on Paolo and Doms. I¡¯ll tell you guys if there¡¯s any illusion shenanigans going on. Who else is there?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s Slinky, a huge man wrapped in bandages,¡± he said. ¡°I shot him in the head and he just laughed it off. I think there¡¯s an even bigger dude with some kind of weapon. There¡¯s also a guy with augs, bionic eyes and modified arms, the works. Oh, and I nearly forgot. Their leader is this half-Asian lady. I¡¯m not sure if she¡¯s an Adumbrae too.¡±

    ¡°Could we take them all on?¡± Paolo said.

    ¡°We don¡¯t need to fight to win,¡± Doms said. ¡°Once we have Lizzie¡­¡± She didn¡¯t continue her sentence.

    ¡°We have an ace up our sleeve.¡±

    ¡°Something that can help us win this impossible matchup?¡± asked Paolo.

    ¡°I think so¡­If it comes down to it, I can divert all my power and give it to Ramon. I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll become several times stronger than he is now, even if only for a short time. But I don¡¯t want to do that unless our situation becomes dire. More dire than now¡­direr?¡±

    ¡°Why not? Ramon can beat up all of them? Let''s just do that then!¡±

    ¡°No, because Doms will be helpless.¡± I looked Paolo straight in the eye. ¡°And you¡¯ll be helpless too.¡± And dead, I added in my head. From his expression, he understood what I was trying to tell him.

    ¡°I¡­I¡¯m not that confident protecting others,¡± Ramon said. ¡°I don¡¯t have a good track record so far.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t think about it now,¡± I said.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t able to save¡ª"

    ¡°We¡¯ll all fight together,¡± Doms said. ¡°You¡¯re not alone.¡±

    ¡°Okay guys, are you ready?¡± I said as we stood in front of the gilded oak double doors. This was like sticking my head into the gaping maw of a starving crocodile. Normally, I''d be giddy from this life-and-death situation, excited for the prospect of gambling my life and coming out on top because I was so awesome. Come to think of it, this may be too much of a risk that I wouldn¡¯t have gone through with this without a back-up plan.

    But I do have a back-up plan.

    Which was why I didn¡¯t feel any thrill.

    I only had a little over ten minutes remaining in this transformation. My plan was to wreak as much havoc as I could, and, whether we succeeded or not, in ten minutes I was going to be fucking out of here. Whatever reason SpookyErind wanted me to use this face would be over once the three hours was up, so I was sure she wouldn¡¯t mind if I used my Blanchette body to finish these assholes off.

    They¡¯d get what they deserved for bothering me. There was just so much to do after this¡­such a hassle! My god, these fucking people were really annoying for messing up my life.

    Ten minutes.

    And if it turned out I couldn''t take them on, I''d already be out of this room and be off looking for a place to hide.

    No risk whatsoever.

    <hr>

    ¡°You guys really came!¡± Finlay said.

    ¡°See, I told you they will,¡± Calder said. They were easy to tell apart with their clothes. ¡°You owe me.¡±

    We were inside a very large room, wider than the biggest lecture hall we had over at Cresthorne College. Given the height of the ceiling, with lavish crystal chandeliers dangling from above, this was probably two floors merged together.

    All of the tables and chairs were stacked to the side, all except one table in the middle. Finlay and Calder were having tea with Lizzie. Corpses of humans and monsters surrounded them. There were elaborate cameras and lighting setup as if they were shooting a movie.

    To our right were glass vats or tanks filled with green liquid, some containing monsters, some humans. There were also other machines I didn¡¯t recognize. This was straight out of some sci-fi horror movie shit, like there were mad scientist experiments going on here.

    On our left were people. Real live humans. Not monsters. They were bound and gagged, guarded by the grunts of the 2Ms.

    ¡°They¡¯re gathering the survivors,¡± Paolo gasped.

    ¡°I think we can guess what they¡¯re doing to them,¡± I said.

    The room just extended on and on until an expansive wall of windows. Unfortunately, we couldn¡¯t see the view outside because those hugeass vines were crawling all over the balcony, pressing against the glass. Near the windows, a short woman in fitting business attire, probably a bit taller than me, walked to and fro while talking on the phone, her heels annoyingly clicking on the tiled floor.

    She¡¯s their leader?

    ¡°They¡¯re not here,¡± Ramon whispered to me.

    ¡°The other Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. The dangerous looking ones are not here. We might really have a chance of winning this.¡±

    ¡°Unless they¡¯re hidden by an illusion,¡± I said, scanning the room.

    ¡°Lizzie!¡± Doms called out. ¡°I¡¯m here for you!¡±

    ¡°Mommy!¡±

    ¡°Tell your Mommy we did nothing to you.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­um¡­¡±

    ¡°We''re just having tea, aren''t we, Lizzie?¡±

    She nervously nodded.

    "What did you do to her?" Doms demanded.

    "Nothing!" Finlay said. "We didn''t actually give her tea. This is just water."

    "We''re not that irresponsible as to give a kid tea," Calder said.

    "Don''t be afraid sweetie," Doms said. "Mommy is here."

    ¡°There''s nothing for her to be scared of." Calder had his hand on Lizzie¡¯s shoulder. "We¡¯re all friends here.¡±

    ¡°Take your hands off her!¡±

    ¡°Relax, lady. You¡¯ll have your daughter soon. I see that you¡¯ve brought Erind.¡±

    BOOM! The ornately carved column near their table suddenly exploded, showering them with debris. Finlay used his body to cover Lizzie.

    ¡°Can¡¯t a person talk on the phone in peace around here?¡± the woman at the far end of the room boomed with an impressively loud voice for her stature. ¡°Get me another phone!¡± Her voice reverberated around us. One of her men sprinted over and gave her what she wanted.

    ¡°Sorry about that, Miss Stella,¡± Finlay said. ¡°You didn¡¯t need to throw your phone at us.¡±

    ¡°Holy fuck,¡± Ramon whispered. ¡°She¡¯s really strong. I didn¡¯t even see that.¡±

    ¡°And here¡¯s the reason why she¡¯s their leader,¡± I observed.

    As Stella approached the table halfway across the length of the room, her expression changed to something gentler. ¡°Hello! You must be Erind. We finally have a chance to meet each other. You seem plain-looking for all the trouble you¡¯ve caused.¡±

    (Answer her.)

    Paolo nodded his head.

    (What was that? Just a nod?)

    (I don¡¯t know what to say!)

    ¡°We¡¯ve been looking all over for you and your friend, the wolf bitch. By any chance, is she around here? Is she coming?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Paolo replied, following my instructions in his head. ¡°Maybe? Just a clarification, she¡¯s not my friend. I don¡¯t know her at all even though I¡¯ve seen her.¡±

    Stella stopped beside the table. Finlay pulled up a seat for her, but she ignored him. She poured herself a cup, and drank it very slowly. Such a bitchy power move. Everything was silent except for the slight moaning and rustling of some of the hostages, and the hum of the weird machines.

    "Miss Stella...that''s just water."

    "Refreshing." She looked at Paolo and said, ¡°Are you really Erind?¡±

 3.43

    ¡°How do you not know the face of the person you¡¯re looking for?¡± said Paolo, masquerading as the real me. ¡°I am Erind. Why would I lie about that?¡±

    (Why did you add the part about lying thing?) I said. (That¡¯s something a liar would say.)

    (Really? Sorry!)

    (Just follow what I tell you to say.)

    ¡°Why would you lie about who you are?¡± Stella said, catching on to Paolo¡¯s slip-up. ¡°That¡¯s an interesting question. We do have pictures of Erind, and yes, you do look like her. You are, most likely¡­her. But aren¡¯t you just a smidge too eager to come here?¡±

    ¡°Because I want to save the little girl. I¡¯m here now, so release her.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡±

    ¡°She doesn¡¯t have any part in this. It¡¯s me you want.¡±

    ¡°But what is ¡®this¡¯ you speak of?¡± Stella said.

    I had no fucking idea what ¡®this¡¯ was either¡ª¡®this¡¯ being everything that was fucking happening. I wanted to try prodding Stella into spilling information without directly questioning her; the likelihood of her lying would lessen that way. This might be my only chance to gather some clues before the fighting started. As they say, knowledge is power.

    ¡°This? I¡­I don¡¯t know,¡± Paolo said with very convincing delivery. ¡°All I know is you had me kidnapped a couple of weeks ago. There was this guy with weird hair. He said his name¡¯s Rofirio. The guy with the power to liquefy solid surfaces he touches?¡±

    (This is information Erind would know), I explained to Paolo. Then to all of them, I said, (I don¡¯t notice anyone hidden by illusions, so the other Adumbrae Ramon saw before aren¡¯t here. Calder could make them look like the hostages or something, but I don¡¯t know why he¡¯d do something like that since they already have the upper hand.)

    ¡°Rofirio and his purple mohawk,¡± Finlay said.

    ¡°May his purple mohawk rest in peace,¡± his brother chimed in.

    Stella, however, was silent, texting on her phone as if we were a waste of her time.

    A tactic to show dominance? Or she wanted us to continue talking because she didn¡¯t have much information? Probably both. Fine. I really didn¡¯t want to ask questions, but I had no choice since the ball was in my court.

    ¡°Why did you kidnap me?¡± Paolo said.

    The twins looked at each other. Stella was still focused on her phone.

    ¡°Is it because of this?¡± He stomped on the ground, following my instruction, and made the floor shake. Cracks branched out from his foot all across the beautiful marble slab beneath us.

    ¡°Woah!¡± Calder said, keeping the pot and cups on the table steady.

    ¡°She really is not human,¡± Finlay said.

    Theatrics. And it did get Stella¡¯s attention as I hoped.

    ¡°Yes¡­so it appears,¡± she said. ¡°An Adumbrae like our intel said. Alike, yet very much unlike us, I bet. Is this the reason the Supplier requested us to capture you? However, why didn''t he give us any information? We incorrectly assumed you¡¯re just a normal girl.¡±

    (The Supplier?) I blurted out.

    ¡°The Supplier?¡± he echoed.

    Stella ignored his question. ¡°If only he briefed us of the risks, the parties who also wanted you, then we could have appropriately prepared and wouldn¡¯t have lost so many people at the docks. A fucking fiasco that was. I was the one who had to coordinate the cover up for that one.¡±

    ¡°Here I am now. So, release Lizzie.¡±

    She still wasn¡¯t listening to Paolo. ¡°That explains one thing¡­or maybe it doesn¡¯t. You, a ¡®true¡¯ Adumbrae, in contrast to us. Very rare, yes. But why does the Supplier specifically want you? I¡¯m sure he has plenty of true Adumbrae at his disposal.¡± Her eyes narrowed as she looked past Paolo, glaring at me, Doms, and Ramon.

    ¡°Um¡­I¡­¡±

    (They don¡¯t know the true value of Erind!) I exclaimed to the three. (Their bosses must¡¯ve kept it a secret from them. We shouldn¡¯t let it on that she¡¯s actually a prospective Corebring or they won¡¯t even bother exchanging Lizzie for Paolo and just attack us.)

    ¡°Why do so many people want you?¡± Stella droned on. ¡°Who was that wolf bitch who rescued you at the docks? She was also there at the club. And who are those with you? What¡¯s so special about you that everyone¡¯s after you?¡±

    ¡°Err¡­¡± Paolo stepped back, overwhelmed by the questions. (Help! What do I tell her?)

    ¡°Greetings from Vegas!¡± I said with a jovial wave. Time to take center stage. It was hard to verbally maneuver through only a mouthpiece. ¡°Well, that¡¯s not really accurate. I¡¯m a mercenary hired by the guys at Vegas, and so are the rest of us. But we¡¯re not actually from there.¡± I gestured to Ramon and Doms. (Just trust me on this), I told them.

    How would Stella disprove my lie? Both of us were on a fishing expedition, but she wasn¡¯t aware I was in the same boat as her. In her efforts to fish, she revealed she didn¡¯t have much information about what was happening, giving me an opening to insert lies.

    ¡°Mercenaries from Vegas?¡±

    ¡°Unlike you¡­Adumbrae¡­if you¡¯re really deserving of that label, the three of us are the real deal.¡± I placed my hands on the sides of my head and dramatically pulled it up. Stella raised her brow at my demonstration. With the little I recalled of their operations from my short interaction with Vanessa and her friends, I knew they had some way of stopping Adumbrae from taking over their bodies while remaining mostly human in appearance. My full body wasn¡¯t human except only vaguely in shape; there was only one conclusion here.

    ¡°Another true Adumbrae?¡± Stella said. ¡°A very developed manifestation.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a compliment.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re saying the Vegas boys hired you? I suppose it¡¯s for deniability.¡±

    ¡°They know you¡¯ll notice if one of their own is sneaking around your territory.¡± I was super confident with my lies because the truth was so incredibly unbelievable that anything else sounded like a plausible explanation in comparison. ¡°That¡¯s why they hired us instead of sending their people.¡±

    ¡°And here I was already thinking of killing you guys. I suppose I¡¯ll have to be courteous to our colleagues.¡±

    ¡°Much obliged. There¡¯s no need for violence. I¡¯m aware of the, um, thing you have going on with our bosses, but we have no part in that.¡±

    ¡°So¡­what brings you guys here in our wonderful city of La Esperanza?¡±

    Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°We¡¯re here to guard Erind. Discreetly. She wasn¡¯t aware of us until tonight when we had to reveal ourselves to her after what you¡­did¡­to this entire place.¡±

    ¡°Oh, really?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to head you off before you make any wrong assumption. We¡¯re not with Blanchette. She¡¯s the one you¡¯re calling wolf bitch.¡±

    ¡°Blanchette¡­¡±

    ¡°She''s a true Adumbrae too, as you put it. I don¡¯t personally know her, but she is quite famous in Adumbrae circles. I had no idea she was in this city until she showed up at the docks in her giant werewolf form. I didn¡¯t know she was also there at Eve. Isn¡¯t that your¡ª¡±

    ¡°If you don¡¯t know, then you don¡¯t need to know.¡±

    ¡°Touchy, touchy. Anyhow, I haven¡¯t got the slightest idea what Blanchette wants with Erind either, so I can¡¯t help you there.¡± I paused to give time for Stella to react, but she didn¡¯t say anything so I pressed on. ¡°We¡¯ve been living in this building since Erind moved in to keep watch over her, and it¡¯s only this time that people are coming for her. It turns out it was you guys. Now, I¡¯m not sure what to do. At the end of the day, aren¡¯t your bosses and ours on the same side?¡±

    Stella smirked. ¡°Of course, we are.¡± She circled around the table as she continued, ¡°Which is why our current predicament is interesting. Both of our groups want Erind. Why though? Is the Supplier pitting us against each other? How does this Blanchette figure into all of this?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have the answer to your questions.¡± I presented her disjointed tidbits, some true, mostly false, and let her draw her own conclusion.

    ¡°I have my suspicions¡ª"

    ¡°To be candid, we don¡¯t care about your internal affairs,¡± I said, cutting her off for some pushback. ¡°We¡¯re focused on fulfilling our contract. Living as an Adumbrae is very difficult, which is why we have to align ourselves with you¡­people¡­even though we don¡¯t want to.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a bummer?¡± she said with a fake sympathetic expression.

    ¡°Unfortunately, it¡¯s apparent now we can¡¯t carry out our work because of¡­let¡¯s just say internal bickering among the management. So, we¡¯re pulling out of this job, and you carry on with your business. We just want to get the daughter of our Doms here.¡± Then to Doms, I said, (Sorry for not thinking of a fake name for you.)

    (Will she believe us?) Doms asked.

    (It doesn¡¯t matter.)

    (What? I thought you¡¯re trying to bluff her we¡¯re on the same side?)

    (Not really), I said. (She won¡¯t believe us no matter what we say.)

    And herein lies the beauty of this situation. I bet Stella¡¯s brain was burning itself out thinking of various possibilities. She''d be considering explanations I couldn¡¯t come up with as a lie, especially when I had no idea about their organization, or maybe that was with an ¡®s¡¯ since there were at least two rival groups here.

    If I was in Stella¡¯s shoes and someone explained to me the actual truth, all this nonsense shit of SpookyErind¡ªI hope you¡¯re not there listening to my thoughts¡ªI wouldn¡¯t believe them. I¡¯d probably attack them for trying to take me for a fool.

    Thus, the best course of action was to give an acceptable lie, and Stella would come up with a more ¡®believable¡¯ explanation even if it was nowhere near the truth. She¡¯d convince herself it was the truth I was hiding, doing my job for me. Unknowingly, she¡¯ll provide us with a reason why she shouldn¡¯t just kill everyone of us.

    I''m really having fun here. I wasn''t in any danger at all, but I still didn''t want to lose to Stella.

    There was only the matter of exchanging Lizzie left.

    Stella stopped walking and paused right behind Lizzie. She straightened her ruffled hair with her fingers. ¡°What does our little friend here have to do with it? She¡¯s your daughter?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± Doms said. ¡°I had her before I¡­turned.¡±

    (Good thinking adding that.)

    ¡°Why is she with you?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve been watching Erind for a long time,¡± Doms replied. She followed the story I was feeding in her head. ¡°To fit in the place, like living here in this building, I brought my daughter with me.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that sweet?¡±

    ¡°Please, she¡¯s the only family I have.¡±

    She¡¯s already writing off her husband? She wasn¡¯t wrong about that one though. (Paolo, your turn to speak), I said as I taught him his lines.

    He boldly stepped forward. ¡°Doms is my neighbor. I¡¯ve played with Lizzie plenty of times and I¡¯ve grown to love her.¡±

    ¡°You still want to save her even after knowing her mother was hiding secrets from you?¡±

    "Yes! Even if she was just some random kid, I still don¡¯t want her to be dragged in this mess. Release her and I¡¯ll go with you guys with no resistance.¡±

    ¡°Very commendable,¡± Stella said with a smile. ¡°We¡¯re not monsters as to take a child away from her mother." She helped Lizzie off her chair and told her to come to us. Finlay and Calder stood back.

    Jackpot! Whatever wrong explanation Stella came up with led her to the conclusion it wasn¡¯t worth it to mess with us.

    Paolo swallowed and took a deep breath. I could feel his nervousness through our link. He closed his eyes and suddenly became calm, as if he accepted he wouldn¡¯t return once he gets to their side. He started walking, and Lizzie followed suit.

    Everyone, even the hostages and the guards, all watched the two of them approach each other.

    Doms walked forward, but I stopped her. ¡°Wait for Lizzie,¡± I said. (Ramon? You ready?) Once we get Lizzie, we could safely start fighting.

    (Yes. Just tell me.)

    (Don¡¯t let them notice you¡¯re preparing to charge.) To Paolo, I said, (Once they lay their hands on you, fight them.)

    If I still had a human body, I would''ve found it hard to control my body and not sigh in relief as the two of them passed each other. This has been probably my biggest faceoff with anyone before. My verbal tussle with Bianca had way lesser stakes than this. Some thrill was welcome every now and then.

    It was only a few seconds of both of them walking to the respective sides, but it felt like it stretched to minutes.

    Stella was smiling smugly. I didn¡¯t like it.

    Doms couldn¡¯t hold it any longer and ran to Lizzie once she was a few feet away from us. ¡°My baby! I¡¯m sorry I let them take you.¡± She knelt down and hugged her.

    I focused on Paolo. Finlay and Calder went to meet him while Stella drank another cup of water. Her eyes were over the lip of the cup, staring straight at me. Her shoulders shuddered. She was chuckling!

    (Paolo! Fight them!) I pointed my finger and aimed. (Ramon, go!)

    Paolo had his fists up, but Finlay and Calder run past him, rushing to meet Ramon¡¯s attack. He looked back in confusion.

    ¡°Look out!¡±

    About a dozen men revealed themselves behind Stella, hidden away all this time by an illusionary background. They looked like cheap version of those terracotta warriors from China, with way simpler features. Finlay¡¯s clay soldiers. Fuck! They didn¡¯t show up in my vision!

    The clay men jumped over Stella and the table and piled on top of Paolo, trying to pin him down with their numbers. Paolo fought them back in a fit of rage. Their brittle body parts broke off with every punch and kick.

    Ramon engaged Finlay and Calder. I shot Calder with my finger and ordered him to stop. Seeing the opening, Ramon pummeled him to the ground, then he took on Finlay.

    ¡°Payback time, you bastard!¡±

    ¡°Get up, Calder!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s something stopping me¡­fuck!¡±

    I squeezed every drop of my concentration to take Calder out of the fight. Ramon was handling Finlay pretty well; he beat him once, he should be able to do it again.

    Were we winning?

    Stella flipped the table to the side, then haughtily walked over to Paolo fighting the clay soldiers. She shoved them away and reached for him. He punched her right on the jaw, but her head didn¡¯t even move an inch. Stella grabbed his head and slammed it to the floor, almost burying it in one go.

    We¡¯re not winning!

    (Ramon you need to help¡ªWait! Take him hostage!) I ordered. He didn¡¯t question me and tried to hold on to Finlay with his purple blade held to his neck.

    ¡°Stop! Stop that!¡± I yelled at Stella who was thrashing around Paolo like he was a ragdoll. I wanted to wince, but my metal body couldn''t. Seeing my human form getting beaten was unpleasant. Fucking shit. This wasn¡¯t going as planned. We didn¡¯t even manage to hurt Stella at all, or even force her to reveal her powers. ¡°We have Finlay! Stop what you¡¯re doing or else¡ª¡±

    She grabbed Paolo by his long hair and pulled up his limp body. His eyelids fluttered. He was barely conscious. ¡°Or else what?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­can we exchange people again?¡± I said.

    Stella stuck her tongue out at me. ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡±

 3.44

    ¡°Erind!¡± Ramon shouted.

    ¡°Ow,¡± Finlay said, ¡°right next to my ears.¡±

    ¡°Stay where you are,¡± I said. Good that he didn¡¯t mistakenly call Paolo with his real name. Or maybe he just reacted to seeing my human body, even if a fake one, getting beaten up. I could relate.

    ¡°Yeah, Ramon, my pal, my buddy,¡± Finlay taunted him. ¡°Stay here with me.¡±

    ¡°Shut it or I¡¯ll kill you!¡±

    The minutes were ticking down before I was out of here; I shouldn¡¯t feel anything for these people anymore. Yet, I was peeved.

    My last moment in this face would be losing.

    What could I do here now though?

    Nothing. Transforming into Blanchette later and trying for a round two wasn¡¯t also looking that good either. Especially since I needed to fight and eat a lot of random monsters to make my Blanchette form stronger before duking it out with Stella. I was better off just escaping.

    And getting revenge with my Blanchette body wasn¡¯t the point. Even beating Stella wasn¡¯t the point. This was going to be a failure for Pino¡¯s heroic persona. As Pino, I was not only running out of options but also of time. I could walk away¡ªand I will¡ªbut my first intentionally crafted hero face was going to crash and burn with nothing to show for it.

    Fucking annoying.

    The surviving clay creations of Finlay, five of them, formed a wall in front of Stella. Did he realize my ability had something to do with shooting with my fingers? Not that I would try controlling her. I was already busy keeping Calder still. Weirdly, this guy wasn¡¯t fighting back that hard, just lolling around on the ground like a he was taking a nap. His mind was quiet; no yelling or whatever.

    ¡°The fuck you¡¯re doing?¡± Ramon shouted. His purple blade was glowing hot, burning the skin on Finlay¡¯s neck. ¡°Stop controlling those things.¡±

    ¡°You think you can order me around?¡± Finlay retorted, not showing any reaction to the pain. ¡°But if you ask me as a friend¡ª¡±

    ¡°Enough of that friend talk!¡±

    ¡°Ramon, don¡¯t let him get to your head,¡± I said. ¡°Focus, or else he¡¯ll escape from you again.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m¡­that won¡¯t happen again! But what about Erind?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure they won¡¯t kill her.¡±

    ¡°Lots of things worse than death,¡± Finlay chimed in.

    ¡°The fuck is this in front of me?¡± Stella said, her brash, infuriated tone returned. ¡°I can¡¯t fucking see what¡¯s going on.¡± She karate chopped a couple of the clay men in front of her, destroying them. ¡°There we go. Where were we?¡± Her voice became gentle and friendly once again.

    ¡°They¡¯re worried about Erind,¡± Finlay called out.

    ¡°She¡¯s already healing herself,¡± Stella said. ¡°No harm done. Permanently anyway. And why do you care about her? What''s all this?¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t blame us for still trying to fulfill our job of protecting her,¡± I nonchalantly replied.

    ¡°All of us here are on same side, right? You said it yourself.¡±

    ¡°Our contract didn¡¯t specify any exceptions,¡± I said. Let her make of that what she will. ¡°What will you do to Erind?¡±

    ¡°Hand her over to the Supplier and be done with this. I don¡¯t know what he wants with her, nor do I care. We have plenty of other matters to attend to, especially after our relatively successful¡ªI think that¡¯s a fair assessment¡ªfield testing of the new weapon commissioned by the Supplier. A return to form, you know? We were weapon smugglers a long time ago.¡±

    ¡°So I¡¯ve heard. You look pretty young if you were already around since that time.¡±

    ¡°Young and pretty,¡± Stella corrected me. She gestured for one of her men to fetch her an object she was miming. ¡°There¡¯s a lot cosmetic surgery can do with a rapidly regenerating body.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll just hand her over, just like that?¡± I said, making a last-ditch effort. ¡°How about¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know where you¡¯re going with that,¡± Stella said. ¡°I wasn¡¯t born yesterday.¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s worth a try.¡±

    ¡°What the hell is that for?¡± Ramon said, as one of the grunts handed Stella a scary syringe, about the size of a water bottle, filled with fluorescent blue liquid. ¡°Are you¡ªNo!¡± he said as she jammed the needle into the side of Paolo''s neck.

    ¡°You¡¯re weirdly attached to her,¡± Stella observed.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­I¡­¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re just putting her to sleep,¡± I said as I felt Paolo¡¯s woozy mind go completely blank.

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Stella said. ¡°It¡¯s for the best. I don¡¯t want to keep on punching her.¡± She let go of Paolo¡¯s hair, letting him drop to the ground. ¡°Maybe we can put her in one of the vats. Do we have an empty one¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Hold on!¡± Ramon said. ¡°We still have Finlay!¡±

    (Don¡¯t¡ª) I started to say.

    ¡°And his brother!¡± He pointed his bladed arm threateningly at the unconscious Calder. (What?) he snapped at me. (We can¡¯t just let them take Eri¡ªI mean Paolo!)

    (Um¡­I¡¯m thinking of a plan.) Stella already didn¡¯t care about us. I was going to suggest we leave Paolo and escape. It could be a win for me of sorts. But perhaps I could still do something with this.

    Contrary to what I expected, they knocked out Paolo instead of putting him in restraints. Still overwhelming odds. But there was something else bothering me that could be used in our favor.

    ¡°You can have them.¡±

    ¡°Huh? You don¡¯t care what happens to these two? They¡¯re your men.¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Aw, come on, Stella,¡± Finlay said. ¡°Don¡¯t be like that.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s Miss Stella to you. I¡¯m not sure what nonsense you were doing in the security room. I still can¡¯t contact Dekano. Fucking useless. You, not Dekano. Calder too, just lying there like a piece of shit on the floor. Did he get too used to hiding behind his illusions?¡± Stella turned away from us. ¡°I¡¯ll try calling Dekano again.¡±

    (She¡¯s bluffing us), I told Ramon, even though she wasn¡¯t.

    ¡°You¡¯re bluffing!¡± he said out loud. ¡°There¡¯s no way you¡¯ll just let your investments on these two go to waste,¡± he continued, following the lines I fed him.

    Stella held up a finger. ¡°Hmm¡­still no connection.¡± She frowned at her phone. ¡°And since I already have a finger up, I¡¯m going to point out a few things to you. One! Erind, as a true Adumbrae, is more valuable than those useless twins. Two! You¡¯re acting very suspiciously for your story.¡±

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    (You there?)

    (¡­hello there...)

    (It¡¯s me. The metal woman, Pino.)

    (Nice mental thing you¡¯ve got going here. Calder, at your service.)

    ¡°Three!¡± Stella continued as she held up another finger. ¡°No one¡¯s going to miss if the three of you disappear. The boys at Vegas won¡¯t lift a finger no matter what happens to you. Four! True Adumbrae who still haven¡¯t been completely overtaken? I bet I can get a high price for just your corpses.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Ramon said. ¡°You¡¯re going to kill us?¡± He stared at me, concern was on his half-monster face.

    I wasn¡¯t unnerved by what Stella was saying because I was busy negotiating with Calder. (You stay out of our way, we do our best to take down Stella.)

    (By the way, how did you¡ª)

    (Dekano.) I recalled Finlay mentioned he took care of Dekano. There was some internal shit going on with them that I could capitalize on.

    (I see. You''re good. Tell Fins our code, ¡®I¡¯m your bestest friend in the world¡¯. He¡¯ll understand.)

    ¡°Five! I¡¯m out of fingers. And you''re out of time!"

    All of us tensed up. I still wasn''t finished planning.

    Stella grinned at us. "Don¡¯t get so worked up, I¡¯m just kidding. You¡¯ll seriously fight back if I try to kill you. Which is a hassle on my part because I still don¡¯t know all of your powers.¡± She nodded her head towards me. ¡°You, for one, are strangely calm.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re all on the same side,¡± was my answer. I was preoccupied with explaining the plan to Ramon and Doms, the latter was strangely silent.

    (Are you being serious right now?!) Ramon said.

    (Don¡¯t let Stella notice your reaction.)

    (Can we trust them?)

    (I¡¯m not sure¡­but we don¡¯t need to trust them.) My favorite answer. Trust not the person, but the certainty of their motivations. Which was why I wasn¡¯t sure I could count on Doms. She was behind me, blissfully reunited with her daughter.

    ¡°Since we are¡­colleagues,¡± Stella drawled, ¡°I do hope you can help me with a small favor.¡± Right after threatening to kill us, it was obvious she wasn¡¯t asking for our consent. Her gaze swept over the cowering hostages. ¡°There¡¯s something I¡¯d like to capture on film. It''ll make for very good promotional videos.¡±

    I never paid attention to the hostages before because I knew I couldn¡¯t save them; I was already having a hard time saving the ones with me. One step at a time for my heroic journey. But now that I closely examined them, I noticed tiny red blips inside of their heads. It dawned on me. ¡°Seriously? You¡¯re going to make us fight them?¡±

    ¡°A lucky guess or your powers at work?¡± She pointed at a metal box, the size of a briefcase, sitting on top of the large machines beside the green vats. It looked similar to the one we found before. Her men hurriedly brought it to her.

    (They''re going to turn into monsters), Calder said.

    (I guessed that much. Any tips?)

    (See that box?) he said. Stella was pushing some buttons on it. (It transmits a signal that controls the monsters on a basic level.)

    (How do we mess it up?) I asked him. Fuck, if only I knew that stupid box was important then I wouldn¡¯t have left it behind.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening to them?¡± Ramon said.

    The hostages started to transform. Some grew larger, some smaller, most stayed humanoid in size and shape. All becoming horribly disfigured. They were ripping the ties that bound their legs and hands. A lot of them sprouted extra limbs. They chewed their gags as their mouths widened, crying out a hair-raising cacophony of an inhuman choir.

    ¡°If we win we get to go?" I said. "Is that it?¡±

    ¡°Correct!¡± Stella said. ¡°Adumbrae versus subjects infected by the XR-Series!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not going to do that,¡± Doms said, surprising me by speaking up.

    ¡°They¡¯re¡­they¡¯re humans too," said Ramon. "We¡¯re not joining your stupid game.¡±

    I was about to say that Ramon had already killed plenty of monsters, but I was memorizing the instructions of Calder.

    ¡°I thought you might refuse,¡± Stella said. ¡°That part about being humans though¡­eh?¡± In a blur, she threw something. It blew past my head, the sweeping gust almost toppling me. There was a loud crash as that something collided with the wall behind us. ¡°And another phone gone. You might have already gotten your daughter, but I hoped you wouldn¡¯t just leave your friends.¡±

    I turned around. Doms was inching towards the doors, but Stella nearly hit her with her phone. Doms didn¡¯t meet my gaze. I wasn¡¯t judging her or anything; it was natural she¡¯d try to escape with her daughter. Speaking of her daughter, what is that? There was something inside of her too.

    "All of you will fight."

    ¡°We have no part in this!¡± Dom said. ¡°Just let me and my daughter go.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t do that, because your daughter needs this.¡± Stella showed us a vial.

    (Sorry. My bad for suggesting that to Stella), Calder said. I already knew what he was apologizing for.

    Doms figured it out without any more explanation. ¡°What''s inside my baby?¡± She raised her gun, one of those we nabbed from Finlay¡¯s clay soldiers.

    ¡°Are you sure you want to shoot? You might hit this oh-so-important vial.¡±

    She lowered her weapon and contacted me, (I¡¯m sorry I was about to leave¡ª)

    (I understand.)

    (I''m really sorry)

    (Don''t worry about it), I told her. (We''re all in this together.) For a few more minutes anyway.

    (I need your help¡ª)

    (We will all help each other. Give me your gun.) I gave her a run down of the plan.

    ¡°You guys get a good shot of this,¡± Stella barked at her men operating the cameras. ¡°We¡¯re about to start!¡±

    Sure, we are, I thought, smirking in my head. ¡°Ramon, go!¡±

    Ramon and Finlay fought. He bodily threw the clay-making bastard away. Calder, supposedly breaking free from my power, jumped on Ramon. He was also flung aside, fulfilling our deal to get them out of the fight. Then Ramon yelled, ¡°I¡¯ll get you,¡± charging at Stella.

    ¡°Oh?¡± she said, surprised by the sudden turn of events. ¡°What¡¯s going on¡ªhuh?¡± The controller for the monsters was snatched away from her hands by none other than¡ª¡°Erind?¡±

    Ramon leapt across the air and crashed into Stella before she could go after Paolo. I controlled Paolo and tweaked the machine, recalling the instructions of Calder, to scramble its signal.

    ¡°How are you awake?¡± Stella said at Paolo while she kicked Ramon, ripping her tight skirt, sending him flying into the chandelier above. Stella went after Paolo next, but I ordered him to fight back.

    ¡°I''m going in,¡± Doms said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll protect Lizzie,¡± I assured her. ¡°Good luck in getting the vial from Stella.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she said.

    It wasn¡¯t just a three-versus-one fight. Many of the hostages were already full monsters and joining in as well. But they weren¡¯t attacking just us, they were attacking everyone. That machine box thingy we messed with sent all sorts of mixed signals, driving them wild.

    The human grunts of the 2Ms fought for their lives as the monsters fell upon them. The monsters were also eating each other, targeting those slow to transform, eating the ones who were mostly human.

    ¡°Aunt Pino.¡± Lizzie hugged me as we retreated to the door.

    ¡°I¡¯m a bit busy here,¡± I said. A woman with the uniform of a condominium employee was crawling on the floor, heading for us. Her skin and flesh were melting off her skeleton as if it were hot wax. I shot her a few times on the head. Thankfully, the parasite was in the same place as her brain.

    ¡°I¡¯m not feeling well¡­¡±

    ¡°I should get you out of here¡­no, I can¡¯t leave them or they¡¯ll lose without my powers.¡± Or lose faster rather. Because the three of them were already losing now.

    Stella was basically just bullying Paolo, Doms, and Ramon. It would¡¯ve been a funny scene, given she was just a bit taller than me, but she fiercely rained blows on the three of them with such speed that they were like stationary punching bags. I felt a bit sorry for them.

    ¡°Aunt Pino¡­it hurts.¡±

    ¡°Er¡­Hang on.¡± Maybe I should just tell Lizzie to run away while I stayed here? But I wasn¡¯t sure if she¡¯d be safe on her own, especially when all of the monsters around us were going crazy. Monsters? I looked down. ¡°Woah!¡±

    Lizzie stared back at me with snake-like eyes. ¡°Is something wrong with me?¡±

    BAM! BAM! Doms bounced off the floor like she was a thrown stone skipping across a river.

    ¡°Mommy!¡±

    ¡°You want this?¡± Stella said, throwing the vial at Doms.

    It shattered on the floor beside her. Doms reached for it, her shaking hands trying to scoop its contents off the floor. "No! No...no...no..."

    ¡°You bitch!¡± Ramon yelled. He was covered in black smoke, his blade arm growing larger and larger.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get so worked up,¡± Stella said. ¡°That¡¯s just water. There¡¯s no cure."

    "What?!"

    "That¡¯s what you get for thinking you could trick me!¡±

 3.45

    ¡°No!¡± Doms cried out. ¡°That''s not true.¡± She stared with glazed eyes at the pieces of the vial on her palms while its contents, if it was really water, slipped through her fingers, dripping to the floor. She was oblivious to a couple of monsters crawling towards her.

    ¡°Aunt Pino!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I see them.¡±

    ¡°Come on. We save Mommy.¡±

    ¡°Fucking goblin kid,¡± I spat out, not at Lizzie but at a monster child that blocked us. I aimed my gun at it, but Lizzie got to it first, kicking it aside.

    ¡°Go away!¡±

    ¡°The fuck?¡± I said. The goblin kid tumbled several feet from the kick, right into a pack of monsters ravenously eating Stella¡¯s men. It was also added to their menu.

    Lizzie then picked up a broken piece of the marble flooring and threw it at the monsters near her mother. The head of a mangy goatman snapped back, the piece exploding upon hit. She was becoming freakishly strong. The monster gang turned their attention to her.

    I rushed forward, knelt on the floor to steady my aim, and sprayed them with bullets. I hit the closest one squarely on the center of its bulbous head. I tried aiming as best I could, going for the clumps of red color in their bodies. It was fucking hard controlling the gun with recoil. ¡°Fuck, sorry,¡± I said under my nonexistent breath when I nicked Doms¡¯ armor a couple of times. ¡°They¡¯re so close to her.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t touch Mommy!¡± Lizzie also helped out by throwing chunks of the floor at them, driving them away.

    ¡°They¡¯re gone. Go, go!¡±

    ¡°Mommy!¡±

    ¡°Doms, are you all right?¡± I said. A stupid question but I was required by ¡®good guy¡¯ law to ask it. Part of her craggy helmet was cracked. Pieces of it fell off, revealing half of her bruised face with strands of her hair matted by sweat and blood.

    ¡°I need to get that cure!¡± She trembled as she tried to push herself up. Her arms surrendered, and she collapsed in a heap. ¡°That woman¡­¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t move,¡± I said, ¡°or you¡¯ll hurt yourself more.¡±

    ¡°She must be¡­hiding it,¡± she insisted, still in denial.

    ¡°You¡¯re terribly injured. You have to stay still.¡± I wasn¡¯t a doctor, but I knew that despite a tough as heck exterior, she was still a squishy human inside. Which meant that Stella¡¯s hits surely did a number on her body. Just like having concussions when the brain gets sloshed inside the skull by heavy impacts, vibrations from each blow certainly hurt Doms even if her armor was still mostly intact.

    ¡°I¡­ugh¡­there has to be a cure.¡±

    ¡°You rest, Mommy.¡± Lizzie hugged Doms. I noticed her hair, which was a shade lighter than her mother¡¯s brown, was growing longer and turning ghostly white at its roots. The skin on the back of her small hand had streaks of purplish gray, starting to flake and forming a patchwork of scales.

    ¡°Lizzie¡­don¡¯t get close. You¡¯ll get hurt¡­sharp¡­ the armor.

    ¡°No! I¡¯ll stay here with you.¡± She coughed violently. Flecks of blood sprayed on Doms¡¯ white chest plate.

    ¡°Sweetie¡­¡±

    ¡°It hurts, Mommy.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± Tears streamed down Doms bloodshot eye that wasn¡¯t covered by her broken helmet.

    Lizzie shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault. The bad lady did this to me.¡± I could tell from her voice, which was beginning to sound demonic, she was trying to stop herself from crying. ¡°Where¡¯s Daddy?¡±

    ¡°It''ll be¡­okay.¡±

    ¡°Tell Daddy to buy medicine.¡±

    ¡°I will, sweetie.¡±

    ¡°Buy medicine for¡­you.¡±

    Doms closed her eyes.

    ¡°Mommy! Don¡¯t do what grandma did!¡± Lizzie grabbed my arm. Her nails grew long and sharp, scraping my metal skin. ¡°Aunt Pino, please help Mommy.¡±

    If I abandoned Doms and focused my powers on either Ramon or Paolo, we¡¯d have a chance of injuring Stella. Who knew, maybe we could beat her on the unlikely chance she insisted on playing around and not using her powers.

    However, I, Pino, the one and only good Adumbrae, the Adumbrae that helps and saves people, won¡¯t let my companion die if I could help it. Until the last moments of my transformation, I had the face of a hero, and a hero I shall be!  Furthermore, I spent a crapton of effort keeping Doms alive. ¡°I¡¯m going to help your Mommy with everything I can.¡±

    Lizzie mumbled something, which was probably ¡®thank you¡¯. She gave me a pained smile, gratitude was on her emerald snake eyes. Those were glowing now. Sweat covered her forehead, two nubs pushed out of her temples, probably growing into horns. She slowly dropped down on her mother¡¯s lap.

    I pumped Doms with more and more healing power. This was going to eventually have a negative effect, but I figured she¡¯d want to continue fighting for her daughter until the bitter end¡ªwhich was pretty near. There might be no way to reverse her daughter¡¯s monsterification, but it would be good to at least have a semblance of revenge. Hurting Stella, even just a teensy-weensy bit, was better than nothing. I was certain her husband, my pal, Cesar, would approve of this. Go down fighting and all that crap.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Doms said, beginning to recuperate. Wait¡­no!¡±

    ¡°Calm down,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m doing the bes¡ª"

    ¡°You still have powers?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but I¡ª¡±

    ¡°Heal Lizzie!¡±

    ¡°Lizzie? How about yo¡ª"

    ¡°Don¡¯t heal me! Save your powers for her.¡±

    I actually half-made up my mind to throw Lizzie as far away as I could before she started attacking us. But although I wasn¡¯t well-versed in family matters, I had a hunch Doms would prefer Lizzie stay by her side even if she turned into a monster. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what I can do for her,¡± I honestly replied. The red color of the parasite inside Lizzie expanded from nape of her neck up the back of her head. ¡°I should heal you instead.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Doms shoved me. ¡°Do anything for Lizzie, please!¡±

    ¡°The parasite has taken root in her spine and is spreading to her brain...maybe replacing it. I don¡¯t think we can do anything at this point.¡±

    ¡°I will kill it...¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear what I just said?¡±

    Doms sat straight up, having recovered some strength. She examined Lizzie who curled on her lap, hugging herself and shuddering from pain. ¡°Tell me where it is. I¡¯ll do it.¡±

    ¡°Do what? You¡¯re going to try to kill it?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡±

    ¡°Kill it while it¡¯s embedded in her brain? Are you insane?¡±

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Here?¡± Doms swept away Lizzie¡¯s mostly white hair, exposing the back of her neck.

    ¡°Hold on!¡± This was too crazy, even for me. ¡°Even if you kill it, we don¡¯t know what will happen to Lizzie.¡±

    She held the blade on her gauntlet right below her daughter¡¯s hairline. ¡°But if we don¡¯t do anything, she¡¯ll completely become one of those monsters,¡± she said. Despair was making her voice crack.

    ¡°There¡¯s no guarantee she¡¯ll return to human after.¡±

    ¡°I know. I¡¯ll take care of her. Hide her from the BID, I¡¯ll figure it out.¡±

    ¡°And you might kill her too.¡±

    ¡°Heal her. We¡¯re wasting time. I¡¯m going to do it.¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­if that¡¯s what you want.¡± I myself sometimes dabble in the realm of bad ideas, but this one was exceptionally bad. That fricking thing was already part of Lizzie¡¯s brain. If she started to attack us, I was leaving them both.

    ¡°I¡¯ll kill the parasite, and you heal my baby at the same time.¡±

    (Aaarggh! Pino! Out of the way.) Ramon bounced off the spot where I was a split-second before Doms pulled me towards her. He came to a stop as his body smashed against the wall. ¡°Fucking hell,¡± he said. He managed to stand up again, black blood covered his body like he took a bath of squid ink. ¡°We can¡¯t win this. Just run with Doms.¡± He pointed at the door. ¡°I¡¯ll put my life on the line to hold Stella.¡±

    Life? That might do it.

    ¡°I know my job was to save Paolo...but I can¡¯t get him from her.¡±

    ¡°Had enough?¡± Stella called from the other side of the room. Her hand was around Paolo''s neck. ¡°Can you just give it a rest?¡± He kept on trying to escape despite being knocked out cold because I was controlling him. I was certain she wouldn¡¯t kill him so she wouldn''t be able to stop him unless she beat him up so bad he couldn¡¯t move. I doubted she¡¯d go that far.

    ¡°Tell Julie I¡¯m sorry,¡± Ramon said. ¡°Now, go¡ªhuh?¡± He checked himself, no doubt feeling the surge of energy. The vents lining his blade pumped out more black smoke. Purple flames erupted all over his body, exploding out of his wounds. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to focus my power on you¡ª¡±

    ¡°No! What about Lizzie?¡± Doms said. Her armor crumbled, exposing the sorry state of her body. But I left her with her bladed gauntlet.

    ¡°Go!¡± I urged Ramon. He nodded, gave Doms a hesitant look, then sprinted off to fight Stella.

    Doms grabbed my arm. ¡°You can¡¯t do this! Don¡¯t leave my baby to die.¡±

    ¡°No amount of healing can help if you rip that thing from inside her brain,¡± I said truthfully. ¡°Remember that I couldn¡¯t save Paolo¡¯s dad? This is way worse.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯ll become a full monster soon! Is it because I was going to leave you? I¡¯m really sorry for that¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not it. There¡¯s a way to save her. However¡­¡±

    ¡°What is it? I¡¯ll do anything! I¡¯ll give my life for her.¡±

    I nodded.

    "Huh?"

    "Your life..."

    ¡°You mean to say you can save her with my life?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it!¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m going to kill that thing inside of my baby, and you give her my life force or whatever.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± She already made an incision at the base of Lizzie¡¯s head. ¡°Baby, be brave,¡± she said to her unconscious daughter. ¡°You¡¯ll be¡­fine¡­¡±

    Thick black liquid seeped out, almost like tar. Tiny tentacles that looked like clumps of spaghetti burst out of the wound, widening it. Doms stabbed and pulled them out. I stared with morbid fascination. There was a phase in high school where it became a trend to watch gross medical operations on the internet, just like popping massive pus-filled boils or pulling out gigantic splinters; this reminded me of that time. But this topped all of those videos combined. Fortunately, I didn¡¯t have a stomach or I would be certainly be puking right now.

    Doms kept on repeating, ¡°Be brave,¡± to Lizzie as she extracted the parasite.

    It wasn¡¯t going down without a fight. The parasite was in survival mode, eating the body around it to evolve itself, ready to abandon its host. The tentacles grew and Doms cut them down. Lizzie¡¯s green color was fading.

    ¡°Just a bit more,¡± I said. I didn¡¯t mention that Lizzie was also dying; Doms already knew that. ¡°Continue what you¡¯re doing. I¡¯ll prepare for¡­it¡­now.¡±

    I connected the finger that exchanges life force to Doms and Lizzie. I had only used it once, when I forced some dude to give his life to completely heal Cesar by threatening to kill his girlfriend. I was surprised that the guy agreed.

    I didn¡¯t like this finger because I couldn¡¯t relate to its use. There was no way I¡¯d willingly give my life for others¡ªthe requirement of this power. Maybe, SpookyErind added this power to make me uncomfortable. Just like it was normal to be bothered by something we couldn¡¯t understand, I was bothered by this.

    Which was weird. I normally didn¡¯t care for other people¡¯s decisions. But there was just something I couldn¡¯t accept with sacrificing your own life for others.

    ¡°It¡¯s dead,¡± I said.

    ¡°Pino¡­¡± Doms cradled Lizzie. She was shriveled, the parasite having eaten a large chunk of her flesh to try and save itself. They were surrounded by a pool of black blood and mounds of tentacles that you wouldn¡¯t expect to have come out of Lizzie¡¯s small body. ¡°Please¡­¡±

    ¡°Say your goodbye and close your eyes.¡±

    ¡°I love you, Lizzie. We¡¯ll meet again someday."

    Lizzie feebly stirred.

    "Mommy and Daddy will look over you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to do it now. You¡¯re daughter will live, I promise.¡±

    ¡°Promise me too that you¡¯ll take care of her.¡±

    I didn¡¯t reply. The fuck was I going to do with a half-monster kid?

    ¡°Pino.¡±

    ¡°I will,¡± I said, despite of myself. I was hero Pino until the end.

    Doms closed her eyes and I transferred her life to her daughter just before her green color completely became gray.

    <hr>

    I stared at Doms¡¯ lifeless body next to my feet. Her fully recovered daughter, blanketed by a shade of bright green, laid unconscious on top of her, continuing their last embrace. Lizzie hadn¡¯t woken up yet. She had small horns, patches of beautiful purple scales. The black blood seemed to slide right off her white hair that had grown as long as her body.

    I don¡¯t know what will happen to you, I said. I may have promised Doms to care of her, but that was as Pino. And Pino was going to disappear soon.

    My eyes swept the room, taking in the scene of the riot of abominable monsters, once my fellow residents whom I didn¡¯t feel any shred of connection with, tearing each other apart as they fought over the tasty banquet that was the last remaining grunts of Stella. Those men hastily built a mini fort with tables and machines at the right side of the room by the bar. They desperately fought back, but for every monster they gunned down, two more would jump at them, and the monster they shot would also get up, the parasite taking over its body.

    Those two dicks, Finlay and Calder were nowhere to be found. I was sure I hadn¡¯t seen the last of them.

    The tall windows were shattered by the fight of Paolo and Ramon against Stella. Ramon getting a power up finally forced Stella to use her powers. Most of her clothes were torn or burned away, revealing her skin that was becoming the color and texture of a gargoyle''s. Her muscles were abnormally defined, as if she was a sculpture of an extremely ripped woman with no skin.

    Ramon, even with his enhanced strength, couldn''t press his advantage because Stella was using Paolo''s body as a shield. She caught him with a kick that slammed him against the massive vine covering the balcony.

    ¡°Okay!" Stella said. "That was fun. But we need to wrap this up now. Who¡¯s still alive? The twins?¡± She spotted me. ¡°Oho! You didn''t run away? I had a hunch you didn¡¯t have any combat capabilities or you would¡¯ve joined the fight by now.¡±

    I remained silent as I stared at my hands. They were beginning to fade.

    ¡°What are you going to do now?¡±

    I shrugged. There was nothing I could do anymore. My time was up.

    Saving Lizzie using the life force of Doms looked like as good of an ending as I could hope for my Pino face. Tragic, but still uplifting, with tones of self-sacrifice and bravery; not on my part though. Still, Lizzie was going to die here, and so would Ramon and Paolo. If she somehow survived, the BID would capture her and most likely kill her.

    I looked up at the ceiling. The chandeliers above were beautiful. There was an uneasy disappointment in my heart. Ending it like this was unsatisfying.

    At least I should say a cool line before I go.

    ¡°Is the building shaking again?¡± Stella said. ¡°That fucking Bob! What the goddamn hell is that dimwit doing?¡±

    The floor was indeed quaking. I lost my balance and fell on my metal ass. The fuck was going on?

    In answer to my question, a large pillar broke out of the floor, growing upwards. Then, the door behind me banged open, the heavy wooden panels knocked off their hinges.

    A huge tree monster entered, reminding me of that bitch Myra. There was a horde of monsters coming up behind it.

    Brand new shit was going down, and I wasn¡¯t staying around for this.

    I was disappearing in the wind. Yes! Get me out of here! "Adios, motherfuckers!" I cringed at my bad line.

    The tree monster bounded forward then threw a box towards Stella. I was able to get a good glimpse of the monsters wide back. It carried three people wrapped in tendrils and vines like they were its backpack. One was Julie, next to her was a familiar looking guy, and the last person was¡­

    My body?! ¡°Why is that here?¡±

 3.46 - Julie

    Julie Conti

    3:57 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    Julie Conti pressed herself into the corner, the warm body of Erind to her left, the cold wall to her back, and a rusty filing cabinet to her right. Her palms sweated as she tightly clutched her gun, her finger stiff by the trigger. She wanted to shoot the attacking monsters but she might hit her self-proclaimed rescuers in this cramped space.

    A towering tree creature, its crown of barbs scraping the ceiling, protected them, sweeping the monsters with its trunk-like arms covered with spikes and blades. Julie knew there was a woman named Barb inside the huge body made of bark; she briefly revealed herself before the monsters came. The story that she wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae, and that she and this other guy were Erind¡¯s friends, sounded far-fetched. Julie, however, didn¡¯t have any choice but to believe them.

    The monsters came in droves. Barb mowed down all of them.

    Julie wanted to close her eyes, cover her ears, and scream as loud as she could to drown out the shrieks, snarls, and roars. The smell of the black blood from the shredded monsters was too much. Even breathing through her mouth didn¡¯t help.

    But she pushed back her anxiety. As Barb effortlessly killed one monster after another, hope surged in her heart despite the uncertain situation. These people might be able to save her brother!

    ¡°I¡¯m out of bullets!¡± shouted Johann, the one who introduced himself as an undercover cop. He even showed her his badge. But why was he working with the mysterious Barb?

    ¡°Why bother?¡± said Dekano, the head and torso with missing augmented limbs.

    Julie wasn¡¯t clear on his story either. From their conversations, it sounded like he was with those twin Adumbrae that attacked them. But why was he with these two now, the supposed friends of Erind? Julie couldn¡¯t let her guard down and trust them completely.

    He said, ¡°Your puny pistol isn¡¯t helping at all. It¡¯s your tree friend here doing all the heavy lifting for you.¡±

    ¡°For all of us. We¡¯re dead without her.¡±

    ¡°Augs are the key. You can¡¯t be just a normal human running around in this world.¡±

    ¡°Do you have anything that can help us then? Where are your combat augs?¡±

    ¡°No, Finlay pulled them out¡ª¡±

    ¡°Then shut the hell up,¡± Barb interjected, her voice distorted by the all the bark covering her face. ¡°They¡¯re thinning now. I¡¯m pushing out before the next wave comes.¡±

    ¡°Or that giant,¡± Johann said. ¡°Um, Judy, you get Erind. I¡¯m carrying this useless sack.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m helping you guys get out of here,¡± Dekano said as Johann secured his body with frayed wiring, carrying him like a backpack. ¡°Some gratitude would be nice.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Julie,¡± she said, not sure if they heard her. She pushed the cart over the dead monsters. Thankfully, Erind wasn¡¯t heavy. She felt like she was going to vomit just seeing the corpses, but she had to look down or she might slip.

    ¡°Coast is clear,¡± said Barb, checking both sides of the hallway. Then she stooped down and cut the ropes tying Erind to the cart.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Julie demanded. Barb touched the end of her gun and gently pushed it aside. She didn¡¯t realize she unconsciously raised her weapon. ¡°Uh¡­sorry.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Just taking a page out of Johann¡¯s book. I think it¡¯s easier if I carry Erind on my back. We can move faster.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­sure.¡±

    ¡°My sensors are detecting unnatural vibrations,¡± Dekano said. ¡°The giant is coming. You should feel the shaking soon.¡±

    ¡°Are you really sure it can get us out of here?¡± Johann said. ¡°Don¡¯t bullshit us. Remember, we saved your life.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I know our deal. I¡¯m ninety, maybe ninety-five percent certain the giant is strong enough to tear through the vines outside. Such an interesting specimen. If not it, then Bob. A hundred percent Bob can do it. Luring those two at the same time was unnecessary. You just need to trick one of them into destroying the vines.¡±

    ¡°They were already fighting each other,¡± Barb said. ¡°Might as well bring both of them along.¡±

    ¡°More monsters showing on my biosensors,¡± Dekano said. ¡°Most below us, but three are coming up the stairs to the left.¡± Julie could hear them too if she concentrated hard enough. ¡°You¡¯re attracting too many of them with the XR-Field Generator,¡± he said, ¡°especially with it at max.¡±

    She glanced at the box Dekano was talking about. It looked like the same metal box they got from the armed men they met in the elevator. It might be the same actual box.

    ¡°The more the merrier,¡± Barb said.

    ¡°Sure, whatever you guys want. Just bring me to Stella, and keep those monsters chasing your ass, especially the giant, away from our side. Then it¡¯s a truce¡ª¡±

    ¡°Put him down, Johann.¡±

    ¡°Dekano? Why? Are we fighting here? Shouldn¡¯t we continue running since we¡¯re near¡ª"

    ¡°Put. Him. Down.¡±

    ¡°What are you doing? We should go now,¡± Julie said. She wanted them to hurry up, not just because monsters were coming, but so that they could reach Paolo sooner.

    ¡°The fuck?¡± Dekano yelled as Johann untied the straps and dropped him to the floor. ¡°Oy! Pick me up! The goddamn hell is this shit you pulling?¡±

    ¡°I guess this is where we part ways,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°You fucking bastards double crossing me?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Barb replied.

    ¡°Look, there¡¯s one monster over there,¡± Julie said. ¡°Are we really leaving him here?¡±

    ¡°You shitty brats don¡¯t have any honor? Stella is at the end of this floor. Just fucking put me by the door and go¡ª¡±

    ¡°Honor?¡± Johann scoffed. ¡°That¡¯s rich coming from you.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll be the ones going to Stella,¡± Barb said.

    ¡°I helped you get Erind! I told you the way to escape!¡±

    ¡°Did you seriously expect us to let you live after seeing our faces? Wow, I sound like I¡¯m the bad guy.¡± Barb chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re planning to kill us too once you¡¯re reunited with Stella.¡±

    ¡°Ungrateful little shits! You¡¯re all dead when they find out what you did to me! Come back here, and I may just forgive you.¡±

    ¡°Judy, let¡¯s go,¡± Barb said. A large vine grew out of her back and coiled around Erind, picking her up and attaching her to her back.

    ¡°You can¡¯t just leave me here to die!¡±

    Julie shuffled her feet after Barb. ¡°Are we¡ª¡±

    ¡°Come on,¡± she said.

    Julie hesitantly looked over her shoulder at the helpless Dekano lying on the floor. He shouted curses at them, his saliva flying everywhere. His bionic eyes seemed to bore right through Julie¡¯s heart. She was glad he had those instead of normal human eyes so she couldn¡¯t see the despair in them. He¡¯s the enemy, she reminded herself. He was part of the reason people in this building turned into monsters.

    More and more monsters arrived. They crawled all over Dekano. He couldn¡¯t do anything except scream for help. Barb paused for a couple of seconds. Julie thought they were going back to help him. But they didn¡¯t. They just watched¡­watched as he was torn apart and eaten.

    ¡°He deserves it,¡± Barb said, more to herself than to them.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Julie half-heartedly agreed. She couldn¡¯t bring herself to be angry at him. After all, this was the first time she had seen him. The monsters spotted them. ¡°The conference room is this way,¡± she said, running ahead. She should focus on getting the help to her brother. ¡°Oh¡­what?¡± A thick tendril wrapped around her waist.

    ¡°I¡¯ll carry you too,¡± Barb said, putting her beside Erind. She also grabbed Johann, placing him on the other side of Erind. ¡°Much faster.¡±

    ¡°Ah! I can¡¯t see the way,¡± Julie said.

    ¡°Just tell me the directions.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­um,¡± she tried to reorient herself and remember the way while facing backwards.

    ¡°Is this it?¡±

    ¡°You took the wrong turn! Go back.¡±

    ¡°The building¡¯s quaking,¡± Johann observed. ¡°Or is that just you, Barb?¡±

    ¡°Left¡­uh, right! Your right, not mine. Sorry, I¡¯m getting confused¡ªAAAH!¡± Something burst out of the wall. What were these?

    ¡°Fingers!¡± Johann said, answering the question in her mind. It was the fingers of the giant monster, trying to enclose them.

    ¡°No, you don¡¯t!¡± Barb swatted a couple of the fingers away and evaded before they were caught.

    Julie saw the giant¡¯s hand crushing the floor where they were a few moments ago. The walls blackened upon contact with the giant¡¯s smoldering charcoal skin. Julie yelped in surprise as Barb smashed through a side room, went out the opposite wall, and circled back to the correct path.

    ¡°Wow, that was close.¡±

    ¡°Are you okay, Judy?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± she answered Johann. ¡°I¡¯m fine. And it¡¯s Julie.¡±

    ¡°Where next?¡± Barb called out.

    Julie glanced at the sign they just passed. ¡°Turn into the wide hallway with red carpeting.¡± Barb followed her instructions. ¡°Then just straight. It¡¯s the large room at the end.¡±

    ¡°Got it.¡± Barb suddenly paused.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Bob¡¯s stupid pillar is blocking the way. I¡¯ll go around¡ªoh, it¡¯s going back down.¡±

    ¡°Both of them are here now. What¡¯s your plan? You didn¡¯t explain it earlier since Dekano was with us.¡±

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to bring everyone inside that room where Stella is.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what?¡±

    ¡°The giant, Bob, all the monsters behind us.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to just charge inside? That¡¯s not¡ª¡±

    ¡°We lead the monsters to Stella then hope that either the giant or Bob open a way for us.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not a plan!¡±

    ¡°Maybe we can also take down Stella while we¡¯re at it. I really want to take that bitch down a peg.¡±

    ¡°And you didn¡¯t answer my question. You¡¯re just charging in?¡±

    ¡°Can you save my brother too, please? You promised me you would.¡±

    ¡°Uh yes, yes to both your questions. Here we go!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re insane!¡±

    Julie felt Barb accelerate. She was jolted each time Barb¡¯s feet hit the ground. Then they cleared a huge hole made by the one they called Bob, whoever he was.

    In the brief moment she looked down, she saw many monsters below climbing up. There was also flames and smoke in the lower floors. She recalled Johann said Finlay disabled the fire system of the building. She was worried for Vince, his son, and Samantha, hiding in a room somewhere, unaware there was widespread fire.

    Some monsters also showed up behind them, rounding the corner, probably looking for the metal box. She wanted to try shooting them, but the world was shaking so much.

    ¡°Brace yourselves!¡± Barb giddily called out.

    ¡°You¡¯re really insane!¡± Johann repeated.

    ¡°We¡¯re going in!¡±

    BAAM!

    Julie closed her eyes and held her arms over her head. She instinctively tried to use the gun as cover and hit Erind¡¯s head with its butt. ¡°Oh my god. I¡¯m so sorry!¡±

    ¡°Watch it,¡± Johann snapped at her.

    ¡°Eat this shit, Stella!¡± Barb yelled, throwing something far into the room, presumably the metal box.

    Julie couldn¡¯t see what was happening. She only had a view of the corridor leading to the room. Monsters amassed, many emerged out of the hole from the lower floors. They attacked and ate each other, but several were making their way to the conference room too.

    ¡°Why is that here?¡± someone exclaimed in a voice with a robotic tinge.

    ¡°Pino?¡± Julie said. ¡°Where is Pao¡ªwhat?¡± One moment Pino was there, and the next she wasn¡¯t. Julie was certain it was her. How could anyone miss a metal woman? ¡°Where did you¡ªhuh? Doms?¡±

    Doms was on the floor, laying on a pool of black blood. A kid was on top of her. This child had white hair, purple scales covering parts of her arm. A monster!

    ¡°Doms! No!¡± Julie fumbled with her gun; her arms shook as she tried to steady her aim. Should she shoot? She might hit Doms instead. But she just couldn¡¯t watch her get eaten by this creature. ¡°Get off of her, you monster!¡±

    BANG!

    The marble floor a couple of feet away from Doms shattered.

    Julie turned to her left. ¡°What the¡­?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot.¡± It was Erind. She had awoken. She pushed away Julie¡¯s gun, making her miss.

    ¡°But that¡¯s a monster.¡±

    ¡°Lizzie¡­ow, my head hurts. Spinning.¡±

    ¡°Erind?¡± said Johann from the other side. ¡°Myra¡ªer, Barb! Erind¡¯s awake! She¡¯s alive!¡±

    Barb didn¡¯t answer him. She was busy talking to Stella.

    ¡°Let go of my gun.¡± Julie didn¡¯t have the strength to pull it from Erind¡¯s grip. ¡°I have to shoot the monster.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s Lizzie.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­Lizzie?¡± she softly repeated. The clothes of the small monster, even if soaked in the vile black blood, indeed looked familiar. ¡°What happened? How did you know?¡±

    ¡°Too long to explain,¡± Erind said. ¡°Myra! The monsters are coming.¡±

    ¡°Incoming! Incoming!¡± Johann said, rapping his knuckles on Barb¡¯s bark to get her attention. ¡°Move out of the way, they want that box.¡±

    ¡°WHO IS THIS?!¡± a voice thundered.

    ¡°Paolo!¡±

    ¡°Was that Ramon?¡± Julie asked. ¡°Ramon! Ramon!¡± she frantically called. ¡°What happened to Pao?¡± She craned her neck as Barb turned to move to the side. ¡°Pao! Where are you?¡±

    ¡°Myra, those two on the floor,¡± Erind said. ¡°Get them too!¡±

    Barb stretched out an arm, growing dozens of vines, and lassoed Doms and Lizzie, pulling them to safety with them, just in time before the monsters outside stampeded in. She carried all of them to the corner of the room, and positioned herself to protect them, growing more vines to make a wall. ¡°Everyone just stay here. I¡¯m waiting for an opening.¡±

    ¡°WHERE IS ERIND?¡± said the voice that sounded unnaturally amplified. ¡°CALDER? ARE YOU PLAYING TRICKS ON ME?¡±

    ¡°Let him go!¡± That was definitely Ramon. Something bad has happened to Paolo.

    ¡°DID YOU SWITCH HER WITH THIS DEAD GUY?¡±

    Dead guy? Julie¡¯s heart sunk to her stomach. Please don¡¯t let it be my brother. ¡°I need to see Paolo.¡± She had a hard time talking, valiantly keeping back the tears. She tried to get out of the tendril holding her. ¡°Turn around again. Barb! Or put me down. Barb, put me down!¡± The vine loosened and she dropped to the ground. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± she asked. ¡°I can¡¯t see.¡±

    ¡°The monsters are attacking Stella,¡± Barb replied.

    ¡°Paolo! Where are you?¡± Julie peeked through a small gap between the vines that weaved together to form a barricade.

    The tide of monsters attacked a moving twelve-foot-tall statue of a heavily muscled woman; this should be Stella. She looked like those anatomy models in science class, the ones that showed the muscles of the human body, but with the color and texture of concrete. Her eyes glowed a blinding white light. In her right hand, she gripped a bloody limp body.

    ¡°Ramon!¡± Julie called out when she saw him climb up Stella¡¯s arm. Then it dawned to her. ¡°Is that Paolo? Save him!¡±

    Stella was distracted with the monsters trying to bring her down. She opened her mouth. A burst of light came out, the same color as her eyes, and fried the creatures clinging to her legs. ¡°PESKY LITTLE SHITS.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s Stella¡¯s power?¡± Erind was beside Julie, also trying to see what was happening on the other side of the vine shield. ¡°Myra, Barb, whatever, I don¡¯t think we can take her on. We should go¡ª¡±

    ¡°Chill out, Erind,¡± Barb said. ¡°Our gift to Stella is still coming.¡±

    ¡°What gift?¡±

    ¡°There it is.¡±

    A huge hand burst out of the floor. It was the giant!

    It grabbed Stella. She blasted it with the light from her mouth, taking chunks off its arm, but it didn¡¯t release her. Ramon took that chance to free Paolo from Stella¡¯s grasp. Both of them fell into the horde of rampaging monsters.

    ¡°I¡¯M GOING TO KILL ALL OF YOU!¡±

    ¡°No!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t go out there,¡± Johann said, pulling Julie back down as she tried to climb up the vines. ¡°Do you have a death wish?¡±

    ¡°I need to save Pao. Please! Anyone, please help him.¡±

    ¡°Ramon will save Paolo,¡± Erind said. ¡°Trust him.¡±

    ¡°How do you know both of them?¡±

    ¡°There he is.¡± Ramon emerged out of the crowd of monsters. He was carrying a body on his shoulder while hacking the monsters with his blade arm like he was forging a path through thick brush with a machete.

    ¡°That monster-guy is coming to us,¡± Barb said. ¡°Is he a friend?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± Julie said. She pushed Erind aside to get a better view through the gap. ¡°His name is Ramon. And that¡¯s Paolo, my brother, he has with him.¡±

    ¡°Got it,¡± Barb said. ¡°I¡¯m going to whack the monsters following them.¡± She stood up, leaving a large gap in the wall of vines. ¡°Yow! Come here!¡±

    Ramon was surprised by a tree monster talking to him. Then he saw Julie waving at him and understood. Behind him, the head and upper body of the charcoal giant followed its hand, widening the hole on the floor. Several monsters fell down. A huge pillar was pushing the giant up. The giant roared, showering the room with glowing embers.

    ¡°BOB? IS THAT YOU? WHAT IS THIS YOU BROUGHT WITH YOU?¡±

    ¡°This is getting dangerous,¡± Erind said. She had her hand over her face. Her expression was conflicted.

    Barb bounded forward. She ran past Ramon and planted herself in front of the monsters chasing them. Ramon carried Paolo through the gap in the wall, delivering him to Julie.

    ¡°Oh my god. Paolo!¡± Julie held his head and put it on her lap. His body was badly mangled, barely recognizable from all of the injuries.

    ¡°Where is Pino?¡± Ramon said. ¡°We need her to heal him.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know! She disappeared!¡±

    ¡°Huh? What do you mea¡ªErind!¡± Ramon jerked back in surprise. ¡°You¡­you¡¯re alive!¡±

    ¡°Why would I be dead?¡± she said. She examined Paolo. ¡°He¡¯s not breathing.¡±

    ¡°Oh no! Pino, where are you?¡± Julie hysterically looked around.

    ¡°What happened to Doms?¡± Ramon said. ¡°Is this Lizzie? What¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know! I don¡¯t know!¡± She cried as she tried to see where Pino could¡¯ve gone.

    There were too many things going on in the large room that Pino could be deep in the sea of monsters, or she could''ve fallen to the floors below through the hole and no one would¡¯ve noticed.

    Stella growing non-stop, trying to match the charcoal giant in size. Another person also joined the fight, a freakishly large man carrying an even bigger pillar; but tiny compared to the two huge monsters fighting. The charcoal giant spewed fire up at the ceiling. Tongues of fire rained down. Barb rushed back to cover them.

    Julie didn¡¯t care for any of that. ¡°Pino¡­where¡¯s Pino?¡± She could barely see anything, tears flooding her eyes. Hiccups overcame her, she couldn¡¯t speak straight anymore.

    Her hands grew cold, her chest tightened. She slowly realized there was nothing she could do.

    No!

    No¡­.

    ¡­no¡­

    It was as if the sounds of all the fighting, of all the monsters, of the building collapsing¡­everything was muted.

    She tuned everything out as she stared down at her brother¡¯s face. They weren¡¯t close or anything like that. He did his guy thing; she did her girl thing. It was normal siblings didn¡¯t go all up in each other¡¯s business, especially at their age.

    I didn¡¯t know much about him.

    His friends. The name of his band¡¯s songs; she didn¡¯t even know the name of his band¡ªshe always put her headphones on whenever he practiced with his instruments. She hadn¡¯t met any of the girls he dated, she only heard about them after they broke up. At least his favorite food¡­was it still shepherd¡¯s pie?

    She pried his eyes open, knowing that wouldn¡¯t do anything. Her brother gazed at nothingness with glazed eyes. She knew¡­she just knew Paolo was gone.

    All alone. Mom¡­Dad¡­now Paolo. They all left her all alone. Maybe she should just stay here with Paolo¡¯s body and wait for the end too. She didn¡¯t know what else to do. She bent down to hug his head.

    I¡¯m just going to stay here like this¡­

    ¡­and wait for everything to end.

    She closed her eyes.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    Someone grabbed arm and pulled her up. ¡°We need to go!¡± Erind yelled at her face.

    ¡°Huh?¡± she answered in a daze.

    ¡°Stella destroyed part of the vine wall! Get up now.¡±

    ¡°Come, follow me!¡± Barb flung Johann over her shoulder and ran the length of the wall of the room, sticking to the side as much as possible, plowing through stacked tables and chairs, shoving heavy machinery aside. She was carrying the unconscious Lizzie and Doms on her back.

    ¡°I¡¯ll carry Paolo,¡± Ramon said.

    ¡°Uh-huh,¡± Julie replied.

    ¡°She¡¯s in shock.¡±

    ¡°Go!¡± Erind said. ¡°I¡¯ll bring her.¡± She put one arm under Julie¡¯s leg, her other arm holding her back, and ran after Barb.

    Their voices were faint. Julie stared at the high ceiling. It was burning. The flames reflecting gracefully off the intricate glass chandeliers. Streams of fire shot forth everywhere, crisscrossing with beams of light. Beautiful.

    ¡°WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU¡¯RE GOING?¡±

    ¡°Shit, Stella saw us.¡±

    ¡°Be careful she¡¯ll shoo¡ªto the left!¡±

    ¡°Damn it, we nearly got hit.¡±

    ¡°Out, out! We¡¯re fucking home free!¡±

    ¡°Hmmm?¡± Julie wondered. The burning ceiling was replaced with a dark blanket peppered with glowing things. Stars. Oh¡­we¡¯re outside. It was a clear night sky. Beautiful. I hope Paolo can see this.

    ¡°Where are we going next? Barb, stop. That¡¯s the end of the balcony.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re jumping, where else are we going?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve lost your mind! We¡¯re not going to fucking survive this.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a pool below. Hurry up, Stella is following us.¡±

    ¡°Gather round everyone. Quickly! I¡¯m going to cover us with my bark.¡±

    ¡°COME BACK HERE!¡±

    The beautiful sky turned into absolute darkness. This was also good too, Julie thought. Dark meant time for bed. She just wished everyone else would quiet down now. I¡¯m going to sleep. Maybe tomorrow I¡¯ll ask Paolo the name of his band.

    ¡°And away we go!¡±

 3.47

    ¡°And away we go!¡±

    Vines bunched us all up in a ball like squeezing sardines in a can. I felt a rough texture brushing my skin. Who the fuck was beside me? If this was Ramon, I was gonna go apeshit! I didn¡¯t like this invasion of my personal space one bit. ¡°Are we really dropping from this height?¡± I loudly said, hoping Myra heard me.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she cheerily replied, her voice echoing inside our pod. ¡°My vines are pulling us over the ledge now.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re crazy!¡± said Johann.

    ¡°The pool is below us.¡±

    ¡°Water is just as hard as the ground from this height,¡± I said as I hugged Julie. How do I make sure she survived the impact? I wanted to save her to make up for being unable to save her brother. That loss for my Pino face bothered me enough that I dismissed thoughts of letting her die to have one less witness.

    Am I going to survive this? My inhuman body probably would. But a stroke of misfortune, a broken neck or something, could end me. I curled up more, keeping my neck muscles flexed, hugging Julie tighter. Or should I relax? I heard drunk guys could survive a fall because of loose muscles. Or was that an urban myth?

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I have a plan.¡±

    I said, ¡°Your plan better be¡ªoh, waah!¡± I couldn¡¯t see anything but I felt we were falling. Falling fast.

    ¡°AAAH!¡± Johann agreed. ¡°We¡¯re going to die!¡±

    Myra laughed at him. ¡°You¡¯re being such a baby. We¡¯re fine.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just a normal guy! I¡¯m going to die!¡±

    Aren¡¯t we falling for too long? I thought after a few seconds.

    ¡°AAAAHH!¡± continued Johann.

    It felt like riding a plane as it was about to land, anticipating when it would make contact with the ground. I played this game plenty of times when I was a kid since we moved a lot. It always landed when I least expec¡ªand we hit water.

    My head bumped against the side of the vines while Julie¡¯s head hit my jaw. ¡°Ow!¡± I bit my tongue. ¡°Are we down? Woah!¡± Our pod bounced up a bit as it rebounded out of water, reshuffling our positions inside.

    ¡°Huh? Was that it?¡± Johann said.

    ¡°See, that wasn¡¯t so bad,¡± Myra said.

    Johann heaved a deep sigh of relief. ¡°I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re alive.¡±

    ¡°I thought it was going to be so much worse,¡± I said, pushing someone¡¯s leg off my face.

    Water leaked through the gaps of our pod. The vines unraveled and more water poured in. I made sure Julie¡¯s face was above water. She was still unresponsive, mumbling nonsense shit. With the light coming in, I realized it was Dom¡¯s corpse and the unconscious Lizzie beside me. I totally forgot about her because I legit didn¡¯t know what to do with her. Oops. Fortunately, Ramon was taking care of her.

    ¡°I streamlined this pod into a teardrop shape,¡± Myra explained, ¡°to smoothly dive into the water instead of crashing into it.¡±

    ¡°It was still nearly fucking suicide!¡± Johann angrily said.

    ¡°The outer shell of this pod is also made of weaker vines which collapsed upon impact.¡± She swam through the mass of floating dried vines and branches to get to the side of the pool. ¡°I already thought of everything,¡± she said a-matter-of-factly.

    ¡°Sometimes I worry you forget normal humans are pretty squishy,¡± he mumbled.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to let you die. You know that.¡±

    ¡°Watch out!¡± Ramon said.

    FWOOM. I closed my eyes as bright light painted the night white. An explosion followed. Waves pushed us to the edge of the pool.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± I said. My ears were ringing.

    ¡°Stella shot at us!¡±

    ¡°From that far away?¡±

    ¡°Swim, guys. Swim faster.¡± Hands grabbed my arms and bodily pulled me out of the water. I blinked away the glaring haziness in my eyesight. It was Myra in her sports bra and cycling shorts; she must be pretty tired right now if she couldn¡¯t make any armor. She plopped me on the tiles. ¡°We already have Judy, er, Julie. Come on!¡±

    All of us with the dead bodies¡ªI don¡¯t know why we¡¯re still carrying Doms and Paolo¡ªmade our way to the bar restaurant at the side of the pool. I noticed the lights were turned off, as in all of them. The underwater lights of the pool, the lamp posts lining the walkways, the lights of the restaurant, everything was off.

    Where is the light coming from? I wondered as I looked up.

    The building itself was still mostly dark, the mysterious thick vines stifling any light from the windows. But huge tracts of the vine wall burned. Flames also billowed out of the balcony we fell from, framing Stella¡¯s gigantic form gazing down at us with searchlight-like eyes. It looked like a castle of a dark lord straight out of a fantasy book.

    I guess, that¡¯s it for my room and belongings.

    ¡°Run! Stella¡¯s shooting again!¡±

    FWOOM! Her light beam thingy hit the pool.

    Myra grabbed me, and threw both me and the catatonic Julie into the restaurant after the others. Scalding water splashed over her. ¡°FUCK!¡± she screamed.

    ¡°Myra!¡± Johann called out, dropping all pretense of using their codenames.

    ¡°Shit, that hurts,¡± she said.

    ¡°Are you oka¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just stay there!¡± She entered the restaurant and closed the door behind her to stop the steam coming from the boiled-up pool. ¡°Hurts like hell, man. I feel like a lobster getting cooked.¡± She was red all over, patches of her skin were peeling. Then she noticed the windows were shattered by the shockwave of the blast. ¡°In! Further inside. Don¡¯t let the steam hit you.¡±

    ¡°Where to?¡± Ramon said. ¡°She¡¯s going to shoot again.¡±

    ¡°Come, we go to the back of the property.¡± I lugged Julie like a sack of potatoes and ran to the other end of the L-shaped restaurant. It led to the garden. Footsteps followed me.

    ¡°Sleep¡­so noisy¡­going to see Pao tomorrow,¡± Julie murmured.

    I ran sideways and smashed through the glass doors with my head and shoulders. We exited to the outside dining area covered by a canopy of exotic leaves. It was still super dark, the light from the burning building barely making it through the leaves overhead. ¡°Past the garden, over walls and out to the street,¡± I said.

    ¡°I can see the walls,¡± Ramon said.

    ¡°Is that red and blue lights on the other side?¡± Johann.

    ¡°Sirens too.¡± I dragged a table cloth we passed and draped it over Julie and me. ¡°We need to hide our identities.¡±

    ¡°Way ahead of you,¡± Myra said as she caught up with me. Her head was covered by a helmet. ¡°I can only manage this.¡±

    There was another explosion. We all instinctively ducked. But there was no shower of debris or even a shockwave. ¡°Where did that hit?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s on the other side of the pool,¡± Ramon said. ¡°She missed so bad. Boady, I mean the fire giant. It¡¯s trying to pull her back in the building.¡±

    I briefly glanced upwards. Stella was shooting wildly, hitting the wings of the building. The balcony gave way, boulder-sized debris falling down. The two giants clung to the sides of the building. I faced forward just as I went inside a hedge.

    ¡°Gross,¡± I said, spitting out leaves. ¡°We¡¯re so near.¡± From the sound of the sirens, it didn¡¯t sound like there were lots of cops. We reached the wall. ¡°Okay, so we just jump over and run? I hope they don¡¯t have ComExos on the other side.¡±

    ¡°When we went inside about twenty minutes ago,¡± Myra said, ¡°there was no one out there. I don¡¯t think they have gathered plenty of firepower to surround this place. Johann, what do you think?¡±

    ¡°The guys outside should¡¯ve already reported a Titan Class Adumbrae. I¡¯m not sure if this is the right classification, but Stella¡¯s probably as strong as a D one. The SOP for the police if there¡¯s a Titan is to focus on evacuating citizens. They¡¯re not going to be out there trying to blockade this place.¡±

    ¡°Is that a helicopter?¡±

    ¡°News or police?¡±

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    ¡°That¡¯s an LAPD chopper,¡± Johann said.

    BOOM!

    ¡°What the fuck?¡±

    ¡°Stella just shot it down!¡±

    The helicopter crashed into the left wing of the building, removing a large patch of the vines. Stella then fired a couple of times at the charcoal giant. It slid down, ripping more vines and parts of the building.

    ¡°It¡¯s going to fall soon,¡± Ramon said. ¡°Boady¡­¡±

    ¡°We can go over the wall when it hits the ground,¡± I said. ¡°Use it as a distraction to run past the police.¡±

    ¡°We should leave these dead bodies behind.¡± Myra said. She motioned for Ramon to put down Doms as she laid Paolo on the floor. ¡°These are deadweight.¡±

    ¡°Myra,¡± Johann sternly said.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t making a pun.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Suddenly, Julie went amok on my shoulder. ¡°No! Don¡¯t leave Paolo!¡± Her screams almost becoming screeches of a banshee.

    ¡°They¡¯ll just slow us down,¡± Myra snapped. ¡°I¡¯m going to fight off the police. I¡¯m leaving him behind.¡±

    ¡°No! No!¡± Julie struggled to escape from me. ¡°Pao!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll carry Paolo too,¡± Ramon said. ¡°Both him and Lizzie.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± Myra said. ¡°But we¡¯ll leave this dead woman here.¡± She nodded down at Doms'' corpse.

    ¡°Look!¡± I said. A large pillar grew from the destroyed balcony and hit the charcoal giant. At the same time, Stella blasted it from above. It started falling. ¡°That¡¯s our signal! Up the wall,¡± I said. It was surprisingly a breeze to climb up the ten-foot-wall even if I was carrying Julie. My fingers digging its own handholds into the concrete blocks. Johann followed me up, using the dents to climb.

    ¡°I¡¯m going first,¡± Myra said, jumping over the top.

    ¡°Keep your head down, Julie,¡± I said. ¡°And hold the cloth.¡±

    The street on the other side was mostly empty except for three police cars parked on the other side. The cops were trying to shoo away idiots who wanted to take pictures of the spectacle. There was a resounding roar. All of them were looking up at the falling giant; no one noticed us dropping to the street.

    The earth shook as the charcoal giant fell into the mostly empty pool. We dropped to the ground from the quakes. Only Myra was able to keep her footing. ¡°Come on,¡± she said, helping Johann to his feet.

    ¡°Hol¡¯ up!¡± a cop spotted us. ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    Myra rushed over to him and punched him before he realized we were a threat. Then she upended one of the patrol cruisers, and threw it at the other two.

    We ran past them, diving into the crowds. Most of them were running away already. We shoved a few people aside and entered a narrow alley. There were more sirens, including the piercing blare of a firetruck. As we emerged on the other side, it came into view, barreling down the street.

    The familiar blinding light cut across the firetruck.

    BOOM!

    ¡°It¡¯s fucking Stella. She saw us!¡±

    ¡°Left! Go left!¡±

    We veered away from a diner just before a beam sliced it open, burning the people standing by its windows who were curiously watching the commotion outside not knowing it was the last thing they¡¯d see. Stella was like a lighthouse; a tower with a searchlight was a better comparison, except that the light caused death and destruction on everything it shone upon.

    ¡°Here, follow me,¡± I said, taking advantage of my knowledge of this area. We turned into a street full of mid-size buildings and trees, and hugged the sidewalk.

    Yet another beam destroyed a group of buildings ahead of us.

    ¡°Why the hell is she so strong?¡±

    ¡°She doesn¡¯t know where we are. She¡¯s just destroying everything around here.¡±

    ¡°Just keep running.¡±

    We all felt another quake. That could only mean one thing. ¡°Stella dropped down,¡± I said. ¡°She can¡¯t see or shoot us for sure. Let¡¯s find a place to hide before she comes here.¡±

    There were continuous shaking and explosions. Stella was probably running and shooting at the same time. We couldn¡¯t see her because of the trees around us.

    We eventually broke into an empty rundown pub.

    ¡°Let''s go up,¡± Myra said, ¡°so we can see where she is.¡± The second floor was a dusty storage room full of crates and broken furniture, but it did have windows. ¡°Okay, we can all rest for a bit.¡±

    ¡°Now what?¡± Ramon asked.

    Johann turned a bar stool around and sat on it. ¡°Stella¡¯s destroying buildings looking for us. I¡¯m sure she¡¯s well aware she has time before anything that could take her down gets here. If BID Central Command is alerted just now that a Titan Class Adumbrae is wrecking La Esperanza, we can expect their first responders to arrive in about fifteen minutes. The agents and ComExos that can fight a Titan Class will arrive probably five to ten minutes after that.¡±

    ¡°Can the BID kill her?¡± Ramon said.

    ¡°Certainly. BID Nodes have enough firepower to combat these kinds of threats. The nearest BID Node is at Palomar Mountain, and they have a huge base over there. After about, at most, ten minutes of trying to find us, Stella has to give up and escape.¡±

    ¡°That bitch¡¯s going the wrong way,¡± Myra said, peeking through the blinds. ¡°Two streets away, just blasting buildings. I bet she¡¯s pissed we escaped and she¡¯s just taking out her anger on everything she sees.¡±

    ¡°Ten minutes?¡± Ramon said. ¡°Can¡¯t anyone else stop her? How about the National Guard?¡±

    Johann shook his head. ¡°Neither the National Guard at San Domingo or the Air Force Base at the outskirts of the city is equipped for suppression of a Titan Class in an urban setting without incurring significant casualties. At any rate, the BID will arrive here before the National Guard. Stella will be long gone by then.¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t just sit here and wait.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s exactly what we¡¯re going to do,¡± Myra said. ¡°Ten minutes isn¡¯t so long. Just sit on your ass. I¡¯m keeping an eye on her. We¡¯ll move if she goes this way.¡±

    ¡°Many more people are going to die in ten minutes.¡±

    ¡°What do you suggest we do?¡± she said. ¡°Go out there and fight her?¡±

    ¡°I¡­uh¡­¡±

    ¡°We barely escaped with our lives.¡±

    ¡°But we can¡¯t just let people die.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t think of doing something stupid like using yourself as bait. I¡¯m going to stop¡ª"

    ¡°Myra,¡± Johann cut in. ¡°Let me.¡± He approached Ramon and put his hand on his shoulder. ¡°I know you want to try and help others. Believe me, we want that too. But not at the cost of our own lives. You, especially, shouldn¡¯t carelessly expose yourself. Not just because Stella will kill you, but the police or BID might catch you¡­and kill you because you¡¯re¡­er."

    ¡°Because I¡¯m a monster?¡± Ramon said. ¡°I look like an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­I wouldn¡¯t put it like that.¡±

    ¡°No need to sugarcoat it. There¡¯s a small part of me who still hopes this is all a nightmare and I¡¯m going to wake up¡­but I¡¯ve accepted this is all real. This is me now. A monster. But it doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m going to stay here and achieve nothing.¡±

    ¡°If you go out there,¡± I said, ¡°you¡¯ll also achieve nothing. Except dying.¡±

    ¡°Erind¡­¡± He faced me, but then immediately turned away. ¡°Doms is dead. Paolo is also¡­¡± He didn¡¯t continue, concerned Julie might get angry. ¡°The others, Samantha, Vince, his son¡­they¡¯re all probably dead too. Ah, you don¡¯t know them. But yeah, the people I¡¯m supposed to save died. In the end, I¡¯ve really done nothing.¡±

    ¡°I understand,¡± I said. Well, not exactly. He felt guilt and remorse, while I was annoyed for losing the people I aimed to save. But hey, I was going to stop him from suiciding himself out there. This should count for something. ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking right now. You want to find meaning in your¡­erm, misfortune. You want to save people before getting yourself killed so your death will mean something.¡±

    His eyes widened. ¡°No, I don¡¯t¡ªthat¡¯s not what I''m planning to do.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re friends, right?¡± Ew, no, I thought. ¡°We¡¯re not close, but we¡¯ve talked, so I can guess what you¡¯re thinking.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡¯m not¡­¡±

    I held his right hand; I obviously couldn¡¯t hold his blade-arm. ¡°Don¡¯t do this. You might look like this now, but don¡¯t give up on life.¡±

    ¡°But what is my future as this? As a monster?¡±

    ¡°To be honest¡­I don¡¯t know. We can think about that later. What¡¯s important now is you don¡¯t get captured by the BID. You and Lizzie.¡± I was sure I could make use of the two of them. ¡°Don¡¯t get killed, even if not for yourself, but for Lizzie¡¯s sake.¡±

    ¡°She lost her family," Ramon said. "And has become like me¡­a monster. I can be her family.¡±

    I hope he¡¯s not thinking some gross shit like we¡¯ll be mother and father for Lizzie. ¡°We should get to our base first, and then we can think about our plans in safety.¡±

    ¡°We do have plenty to talk about,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll explain what I know of this situation later,¡± I said, ¡°the little that I know anyway.¡± I needed to buy time to think of bullshit stories to sell to Myra and Johann. I already have a working draft for a dramatic script in my head. ¡°Where are the others?¡± I wanted to give a fake story to Myra and Johann and convince them to keep it a secret from the rest of the group. It was easier to manage my lies that way.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure where Blank is. Emcee went to get Deen. Oberon is heading there too.¡±

    ¡°Deen? Why? Was she attacked too?¡±

    ¡°Yes. But she already escaped them. Her powers are very handy. She can take care of herself.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t we check up on them?¡± I said as Deen¡¯s absolute best friend forever.

    ¡°The city might¡¯ve shut down the signal again,¡± Myra said. "I can''t call them anyway." She gestured to her body; her clothes obviously had no pocket for a phone.

    ¡°I also don¡¯t have a phone with me,¡± I said.

    ¡°Johann?¡±

    ¡°The city won¡¯t do that,¡± he said as he got his phone from his pocket. ¡°They¡¯ll be prioritizing evacuations and rescue.¡± He held up his phone and shook it. Droplets of water fell. ¡°But I need to buy a new phone.¡±

    ¡°My phone!¡± Julie suddenly exclaimed, making us all jump. She searched her pockets, almost ripping her clothes. ¡°My phone. Paolo said to take care of it.¡± She managed to find it. ¡°It¡¯s working, thank god.¡± She sobbed as she rubbed it against her cheeks.

    ¡°Is she okay?¡± Myra asked.

    She was protective of that phone because it had a recording of the last message of their father. I remembered Paolo told her to protect it since they couldn¡¯t upload it to the internet for safekeeping because of the vines jamming the signal.

    Of course, I didn¡¯t tell the others about this story. Something, however, was gnawing at the back of my head. Phone¡­internet¡­phone has a camera¡­

    ¡°Anyway,¡± Myra said, ¡°as much as I¡¯d love to kill Stella, that¡¯s not happening. Let¡¯s just wait a bit more and I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll stop¡ªHang on!¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s coming this way! She¡¯s destroying all the buildings in her way.¡±

    ¡°We need to get out of here.¡±

    Phone¡­internet¡­camera¡­

    ¡°Okay, Ramon, you got Paolo,¡± Myra said. ¡°Erind will carry Julie. I carry this kid. Or do you want to carry her? We can swap. Then we bust down this wall to go to the next building. We avoid running out on the street¡ªErind?¡±

    I held up my hand. ¡°You guys want to kill Stella, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°I got a plan. It¡¯s got a low chance of working, but I¡¯m sure we can kill Stella if it does work.¡± I wonder if Clive is awake at this time.

 3.48

    ¡°Now, are you going to tell us your plan?¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Just a sec.¡± I fiddled with Julie¡¯s Snippet account, trying to figure out how the hell to broadcast live. ¡°What do I¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Let me,¡± Myra said, taking the phone from my hands.

    We were on the rooftop of a three-story building a few doors down from the pub, crouching behind the low walls lining its perimeter. ¡®We¡¯ being me, Myra, and Johann. Ramon was protecting Julie and Lizzie back in the pub. I wasn¡¯t sure if they left to find a better hiding place. It was better for us to split up mainly because our group would be running around and those two girls would only slow us down.

    Julie was especially being difficult. I had to convince her I was going to record more videos Paolo would like so she¡¯d let go of her phone. I was this close to punching her to dreamland to get the phone.

    That, and Lizzie was waking up. Before we left, we restrained her with thick ropes we found just as a precaution. However, I was sure she retained her sanity even though she had a monster body. I also didn¡¯t want to be around when Ramon had to explain to her what happened: why her Mommy was not there, why Paolo was dead, why Julie had gone cuckoo, and why she was a purple half-snake girl with white hair and horns.

    My energy was way past spent for tonight that I couldn¡¯t deal with any emotional bullshit; I wouldn¡¯t be able to stop my eyes from rolling. Plus, I had to focus on trying to kill that bitch, Stella. Even though my Pino face didn¡¯t defeat her, I was going to bring her down as Erind.

    Tag team¡­kinda.

    ¡°Here,¡± Myra said. ¡°I also turned off the audio recording.¡±

    ¡°Thanks. I didn¡¯t think of that.¡± I focused the camera at the incoming Stella.

    In my estimate, she was just a tad shorter than the building we were on. Wow, did she grow a lot since she transformed, and was still growing. She punched and kicked small buildings like how a kid would destroy sand castles on the beach. As for the taller buildings, she swept her powerful light beam up and down their height, collapsing them. She forged a path, trailing fire and destruction in her wake. She headed in our general direction but hadn''t noticed us.

    I broadcasted everything on Julie¡¯s Snippet account. I think streaming was the right term; sorry, I suck at social media stuff. She had many Snippet friends, and they shared it with others, quickly racking up the views¡ªI¡¯m just assuming that¡¯s how Snippet worked. I hoped Clive was one of the gradually increasing view count at the bottom of the video.

    ¡°So, why are we putting ourselves in danger again?¡± Myra said. ¡°There are people out there dumb enough to take pictures or videos of Stella instead of running away. We can just leave it to them.¡±

    ¡°I need an uninterrupted livestream.¡±

    ¡°Eh? I¡¯m sure some of them are livestreaming too. And there¡¯s also the news. I saw a news copter earlier.¡±

    ¡°Which had to go away because Stella was shooting at it,¡± Johann said. ¡°But there should be TV news crews on the ground broadcasting this live.¡±

    ¡°We have a better vantage point,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯re closer than any news crew will dare to shoot, and we can get even closer.¡±

    ¡°I suppose so.¡± Myra folded her arms. ¡°For what though? Let me guess, you¡¯re doing this so the BID knows her location?¡±

    ¡°But they already know,¡± Johann pointed out.

    ¡°True. It¡¯s hard to miss her. She¡¯s probably like a fourth the size of the Statue of Liberty. Anyway, she¡¯s going to escape before the BID arrives. She¡¯s not an idiot to get herself killed. She¡¯ll return to her human form soon enough and tiptoe away like the devilish bitch she is.¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± I said. ¡°And that¡¯s what we¡¯re going to capture on camera. We¡¯ll follow her until she turns human, and keep on livestreaming her.¡±

    ¡°Oh! That¡¯s a brilliant idea. The BID will know who they¡¯re looking for.¡±

    ¡°Yep. We¡¯ll show the world this giant monster is this woman while also showing her location.¡±

    ¡°That just might work,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°If she¡¯s back to human form, special agents and ComExos from the Node aren¡¯t needed to kill her. The BID agents currently in the city should be able to take here down, assuming they¡¯re on their way here right now.¡±

    ¡°Or just the police might be able to do it,¡± he added.

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s do that!¡± Myra enthusiastically said, eager of the prospect of defeating Stella. ¡°Just don¡¯t forget, let¡¯s not put ourselves in harm¡¯s way.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of harm¡¯s way,¡± I said, ¡°I think we have to move because Stella¡¯s coming closer. It¡¯s best if we¡¯re parallel to her.¡±

    ¡°Keep your head down, guys. Don¡¯t get seen.¡±

    Of course, that wasn¡¯t my real plan. Not totally anyway; just half of it.

    I was hoping Clive, not the BID, would kill Stella. No way I was going to continue following her until the BID arrived. Too risky. But I knew I had to continue filming her until she got smaller.

    Although Clive could spear anything he saw, even if it was through a screen, I doubted he could do much to the gigantic ass of Stella. He wasn¡¯t able to kill the snake mutant I fought at Serenade Bazaar¡ªokay, that was mostly because I destroyed the TV camera, but he still had a few seconds before I did that. His spear would just be like a toothpick in comparison to Stella¡¯s size. But if Stella was human-sized, then he could certainly poke holes in her.

    This was all assuming Clive was watching my specific livestream out of all the other videos out there. And that he was willing or able to help. I recalled Trepanner scolded him for attacking the snake mutant because it wasn¡¯t their mission.

    I guess this is really a long shot.

    If nothing else, at least I¡¯d show Stella¡¯s true identity to the world for the BID would catch her afterwards.

    I fixed the table cloth I wrapped around my head as we jumped from building to building. I didn¡¯t see any point in pretending to be a normal human anymore. Myra followed me while carrying Johann. I was sure both of them had many questions with my inhuman strength but didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°This seems like a good place,¡± I said, kneeling behind sloping skylight panels on the roof of an office building based on what I could see through the glass.

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    ¡°We¡¯ll just play the waiting game,¡± Johann said, crouching next to me. Myra placed herself next to him.

    ¡°If she starts growing smaller, that¡¯s the time we go near.¡±

    ¡°How about I leave you here?¡± Myra asked Johann. ¡°It¡¯s much safer.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going with you. I''m making sure you don¡¯t do anything stupid. I know just how much you want to kill Stella.¡±

    ¡°Fine," she said. "If that¡¯s what you...¡± Her eyes gazed up at something behind Johann and me.

    ¡°Myra?¡± Johann asked. ¡°What is it?¡±

    I turned around and followed Myra¡¯s gaze. Thanks to the uncontrolled fire courtesy of Stella, I could make out the silhouette of an imposingly large man looking down on us from the top of a water tank about two buildings further to our right. ¡°An enemy?¡±

    ¡°Bob,¡± Myra said, hatred lacing her voice, and perhaps a sprinkle of apprehension. ¡°This fucker''s still looking for us.¡±

    ¡°Bob? Who is that?¡±

    ¡°One of Stella¡¯s underlings,¡± Johann said. ¡°We encountered him when we were looking for you. Gave us a lot of trouble.¡±

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t have his pillar with him,¡± she said.

    ¡°Pillar? He¡¯s the guy with the pillar that grows big?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure Obe would find something funny with that,¡± she said. ¡°I have to take care of this guy.¡± She covered her body with thin armor, not the usual large tree monster body she used.

    Bob jumped down from the water tank to the next building and sprinted towards us. It seemed like he crawled out of rubble. Dust covered his body, almost obscuring his deep wounds and severe burns, his tattered clothes blackened by fire. Despite this, his expression was impassive. He leapt over the gap and landed on the rooftop we were on, by the far end of the skylight panels.

    ¡°Oh no, you don¡¯t!¡± Myra flung spikes at him, aiming for his head.

    He caught them, except one that pierced his eye. He roared in pain. With a running jump, he soared over the skylights, heading straight for us. Myra jumped even higher using springy vines on her feet. She caught him in the air and tackled him downwards. Both of them smashed through the skylight panels.

    ¡°Myra!¡± Johann yelled, rushing to check what happened.

    ¡°What the¡­¡± I said, barely processing anything. I glanced at Stella, saw that she didn¡¯t notice us, then went over to Johann. I peered down the broken glass.

    The building inside was mostly dark except for a few dim lights and the blazing glow of the fires coming in through its windows. The two of them landed on the fountain in the middle of the atrium three floors down.

    ¡°You need to help her!¡±

    ¡°What¡ª¡±

    ¡°He nearly killed Myra when they fought. She might really die this time.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t, I¡¯m¡ª¡±

    ¡°A Corebring like Julie said? An Adumbrae? I don¡¯t care what you really are. I just know you can help her.¡±

    What should I do? I could just let Myra die now. But it wouldn¡¯t be very impactful or satisfying. I do love theatrics. And Myra¡¯s time to die wasn¡¯t now; I was sure she¡¯d be very helpful as I navigated the world of Adumbrae and Corebrings, especially if she owed me her life. Plus, I just thought of the best story to sell to her.

    ¡°Give me the phone,¡± Johann said. ¡°I¡¯ll video Stella.¡±

    I kicked away the remaining shards of glass then hung by the edge of the opening on the rooftop. I swung myself back and forth, hoping this would work, and let go. I soared and grabbed the third floor railings. I still got it, I cheered as I pulled myself over. Maybe I should do yoga and calisthenics regularly again just like my cheerleading days. There was a lot I could do now with my superhuman body.

    I looked around for anything to throw and spotted the fire extinguisher. ¡°Myra!¡± I called down below. ¡°Up here! Climb up here!¡±

    She was trying to keep out of Bob''s reach while throwing spikes at him. I got the impression she didn¡¯t want to get near him again. She saw me waving at her and started to scale the walls with the help of her spikes. Bob, full of spikes like a pin cushion, chased after her.

    ¡°Take this!¡± I said, throwing down the fire extinguisher as hard as I could. It hit him in the head knocking him down. ¡°Yes!¡± He quickly got back up. ¡°Aw¡­¡±

    I grabbed the painting behind me and threw it at him, followed by two large vases, and the long table they were on. That was enough to stop him from climbing up after Myra. I extended my hand to her and pulled her up. He roared at us in frustration and started to climb up again.

    ¡°Thanks for the assist,¡± Myra said. ¡°Appreciate it. Where¡¯s Johann?¡±

    "Up on the roof, still filming Stella.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s for the best. Come on!¡±

    ¡°To where?¡± I asked. We ran along the corridor, turned left then entered a room.

    ¡°New plan. We¡¯ll draw Bob away this building to keep Johann safe. Whether the BID kills Stella or not, that¡¯s out of our hands with Bob following us.¡± She smashed the windows and sat on the sill. ¡°Give me your hand.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­Hey!¡± I exclaimed. She pulled me out of the building and threw me up to the roof of the next building.

    ¡°Bob has already climbed up,¡± she said, still on the window. ¡°Go ahead. I¡¯ll make sure he follows us instead of going up to Johann.¡±

    Should I turn into Blanchette? I considered as I ran. The problem with my Blanchette face was I needed to eat something to become stronger. If, as Johann said, Bob nearly killed Myra, that didn¡¯t bode well for my own chances with just my base Blanchette form. And why should I fight? It was way better to just run.

    I looked over my shoulder. Myra was catching up to me.

    ¡°Go! Don¡¯t look back!¡± she said. ¡°He¡¯s behind us.¡±

    I couldn¡¯t see Bob, but I followed Myra¡¯s instructions. The corners of my lips turned up into a wide grin. This was so much fun! The cold night air swept over me, but the adrenaline warmed my body. Not transforming into Blanchette just added to the thrill. Running as fast as I could in my own body, jumping from building to building like I was a superhero, while a giant with laser beams burned the city, and her minion chased after us¡­this is super-duper fun!

    ¡°Hold up!¡± Myra said, stopping me from running forward.

    The roof of the next building exploded, broken shingles flew everywhere. Bob burst upwards.

    ¡°So fast!¡± I said.

    ¡°This relentless piece of shit,¡± Myra hissed.

    ¡°We should split¡ª¡±

    ¡°BOB!¡±

    I covered my ears and knelt down. Bile rose from my throat, its bitter taste at the back of my tongue. I was seeing double, my head woozy. I closed my mouth to stop puking. Then I couldn¡¯t stop myself and vomited anyway. Something inside my ear was fucked up. Warm liquid oozed out of my ears, dribbling down my palms. Blood.

    ¡°BOB!!!¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± I yelled. I couldn¡¯t hear myself, just feeling my voice vibrate through my head.

    Myra dragged me by my clothes. Her helmet probably protected her from Bob¡¯s earth-shattering cries. ¡°Stella saw us!¡± was what I think she said. I couldn¡¯t exactly tell. She ran away while carrying me. Bob continued to scream. I couldn¡¯t hear him anymore, but I could feel his cries go through my entire body, making my heart pound faster.

    FWOOM! BOOM!

    Myra was shouting something. I didn¡¯t need to understand what it was. Stella was shooting at us.

    FWOOM! FWOOOM!!

    I put my hand over my face. I should transform to Blanchette.

    Bright light erupted. I was too late.

    Is this the end?

    "Huh? What?"

    Nothing happened.

    Myra stopped running. I opened my eyes and looked up at her. Her eyes were wide open, her mouth gaping in amazement. I turned to the left and saw the towering Stella. She was so near, just over the next block.

 3.49

    Eh? The fuck is going on?!

    A gigantic sword wrapped with blue lightning snakes protruded out of her chest,exiting at a sideways, slightly downward angle.

    The sword was as long as a small school bus. It crackled with power, making the hairs on my skin stand on end even if I was from it.

    Lightning erupted from the blade, taking the form of snakes swimming through the air in a mesmerizing dance, driving away the darkness of the night with their blue light, swallowing the red glow of the fire. The silver blade gave off ghostly wisps that spread like dense fog.

    Stella shrieked as the blade kept on growing out of her chest. My eyes adjusted to the brightness and I noticed the intricate serpentine carvings on the blade that mirrored the lightning snakes around it. The carvings themselves appeared to move; they also looked familiar.

    As the blade extended, it revealed its base and that it was attached to a pole.

    It was a spear, not a sword. An impossibly big spear that made its blade look like a colossal broadsword in comparison to Stella.

    Clive! It had to be him.

    Stella grasped the spear to break it, but her hand disintegrated upon contact with the blade. Liquid light poured from the stumps of her arms and from her chest like it was her blood. They also streamed down her eyes and mouth.

    ¡°The Corebrings,¡± Myra said. ¡°They¡¯re here¡­¡±

    Stella tried to turn around, but the spear held her in place even though it was just growing out of her chest and not anchored to anything. The same thing also happened to me when Clive speared me. She managed to crane her head enough that she was able to face in the opposite direction where the spear pointed to. What was over there? The building with skylights!

    ¡°What is she doing?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s aiming for Johann!¡±

    A massive beam of light shot out of Stella¡¯s mouth. It hit Johann''s building. The giant spear dissipated, the darkness of the night returned, barely held at bay by the red blaze of the fires.

    ¡°No! Johann!¡±

    ¡°Bob!¡± That annoying Bob decided to chase after us.

    ¡°You bastard,¡± Myra said. ¡°Just don¡¯t know when to give up.¡± She threw me aside as Bob lunged for her. ¡°Save Johann!¡± she cried out. Both of them tangled with each other and tumbled into the gap between buildings, falling to the ground below.

    I picked myself up, having mostly recovered from Bob¡¯s screams, and headed to Johann¡¯s direction.

    Stella was on her knees, a fountain of liquid light gushing from the massive hole on her chest. Was she going to die soon? Or was she going to transform back to human?

    She did neither. Instead, she blasted the buildings around her, including the one I stood on. The rooftop shook as her light beam strafed the lower floors.

    ¡°You bitch,¡± I said, trying to keep my balance as I kept on running.

    I jumped to the next building, shooing away a flock of seagulls in my way that got spooked by the buildings getting demolished. I needed to get to Johann¡ªdunno if he was still alive¡ªand get the camera so Clive could finish Stella off. I wasn¡¯t even sure if the phone was still in one piece. Was there no other video he could watch?

    I looked over my shoulder. ¡°Fucking shit!¡± Stella had stood up and was limping in my direction. ¡°Ooof¡ªwhat the hell,¡± I grabbed whatever hit my face. It was a clump of feathers. ¡°Stupid seagull.¡±

    Stella opened her mouth. I turned left, heading to the side of the rooftop. Hopefully, I could drop down and the building would offer some protection. The night suddenly turned bright once again as the sword shot forth from the back of Stella¡¯s head.

    ¡°Clive? Yes!¡± I celebrated. Stella shot her light beam as her last act before her death. ¡°No!¡± I yelled as I scrambled to jump down the building.

    And the world exploded.

    <hr>

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡°Ungh¡­¡±

    How long was I out? was the first thing on my mind. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have the answer to that. Feelings of d¨¦j¨¤ vu nagged me.

    The next question was, where am I?

    Darkness.

    My eyes are open, right? I blinked a few times to check. I was concerned I hit my head so hard and became blind. There was a tiny sliver of light that wiggled through the miniscule gap in the rubble. Very faint, but it confirmed I could see.

    Rubble?

    The building collapsed, I groaned in realization.

    And I was buried alive.

    ¡°That fucking Stella¡ªargkk.¡±

    The dust on the ground went up my mouth as I spoke, sticking to my throat. My chest hurt as I tried to cough it out. Scratch that, my entire fucking body was in agonizing pain which shot up to a hundred if I moved just a little. I kept still and shallowly breathed, fighting the urge to cough, ignoring my throat that itched like crazy.

    Just keep calm, I told myself. This was the second time this happened to me; I should get used to this. Although I might be in a worse state than the time I escaped the cave-in caused by the BID agents.

    I couldn¡¯t feel my right leg. After a couple of tugs, I sighed in relief that it wasn¡¯t cut off¡ªit was just pinned by something huge. I wasn¡¯t sure if I could actually regrow amputated limbs. My left arm was bent the wrong way, tucked in a small gap between two slabs of concrete. I clenched my jaws, held my breath, and pulled it out so it could heal straight.

    ¡°Fuuuuck,¡± I whimpered. Tears formed in my eyes, mixing with the layer of dust covering my face.

    I decided to rest for now¡ªnot that I could go anywhere with my leg stuck¡ªhoping for my super regeneration to do its job. There were faint noises of sirens, probably firetrucks, but they soon disappeared. I wasn¡¯t sure if I wanted to be rescued by them. Anyway, what was important was I didn¡¯t hear rubble moving. The collapsed building had settled. I wasn¡¯t in any immediate danger.

    Once I had recovered enough, I was going to dig my leg out, wait for it to recover again, then try finding my way out. Maybe I could transform into Blanchette to have an easier time digging with claws. I didn¡¯t want to transform now because my mangled leg might be inherited by my Blanchette body just like what happened when I first transformed due to my fatal injuries caused by Myra.

    Oh well, just chilling out for now.

    At first, I tried singing songs in my head to pass time. But that didn¡¯t pan out because I didn¡¯t listen to music much. I promised myself I was going to try singing once everything had settled down. What the fuck am I thinking?

    Next, I tried to plan for my follow up actions, what I was going to do with Myra and Johann, how I was going to fix my ruined life, but it was so tiring to think of those things. I had a very long night, and I didn¡¯t want to think about serious things. I thought of finishing the pizza I ordered but remembered my room was probably burned by now. That was sad as fuck.

    I then forced myself to take a nap; maybe it could speed up healing. But I couldn¡¯t sleep. My brain was on high alert in my vulnerable state. So, there I was, staring at the darkness, trying not to inhale dust, feeling my body mend itself, listening to my bones crack into place.

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    After I didn¡¯t know how long, there was rumbling. Pebbles a few inches from my face stirred. A small cloud of dust descended from the huge piece of concrete a couple of feet above my head making me cough. It didn¡¯t hurt as much this time.

    The fuck was happening? I hope this shit doesn¡¯t collapse on me.

    And what was that? I think I heard a voice. I strained my ears.

    ¡°Hello! Can you hear me?¡±

    I was right, someone was out there. They were digging for me. This was good, I guess?

    What¡¯s the game plan? When they get me out, my squished leg would start healing rapidly, although it was unlikely they¡¯d immediately notice it in the commotion. But once they brought me to the ambulance, the paramedics would recognize my inhuman healing, and that was going to be my signal to escape.

    Where was that table cloth? I needed to cover my face. I could use my shirt, I guess. Modesty was going to take a back seat; hiding my identity was more important.

    ¡°Blanchette! Are you down here?¡±

    I froze in the middle of taking my shirt off. Blanchette? These weren''t rescuers. I realized I couldn¡¯t hear any sirens. Who the fuck was this? A female voice, but one I hadn¡¯t heard before.

    ¡°Yohoo! Make some noise if you¡¯re alive.¡±

    Obviously, I didn¡¯t reply. This wasn¡¯t Deen. Not Bianca either. Who else knew the name ¡®Blanchette¡¯?

    ¡°Just wait a bit while I move these rocks away. Keep your head safe down there!¡±

    I had a sinking feeling I knew this woman.

    Shit, that seagull from earlier. It wasn¡¯t just some random bird. But why would she be here in person?

    I squinted at the darkness. There were skittering sounds I picked up from the noise of rubble moving. Something dropped down from a hole. It gave off a cloudy white glow, illuminating the cramped space I was trapped in as soon as it plopped in front of me.

    A fetus-like thing, about the size of my fist, with a scorpion tail and six human hands. It stared at me. I say ¡®stared¡¯, but I wasn¡¯t sure it had eyes. There were jewels all over its body, including on what I assumed was its face; those could be its eyes. Golden designs connected these jewels, accenting its glossy white body.

    ¡°Trepanner,¡± I muttered.

    A flashlight shone through the gaps. ¡°There you are,¡± she said from above, speaking with her real voice. She sounded closer now. The giant slab overhead moved. ¡°This is heavy. Huup!¡± There was a mighty crash as she uncovered me. Then she moved aside some of the smaller rocks. I was about to look up when the fetus-thing went up to my face and menacingly waved its tail.

    ¡°Hello there,¡± I said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t look at me,¡± she said. ¡°Or I¡¯ll kill you.¡±

    ¡°Okay, no prob. I¡¯m going to close my eyes.¡± I heard the fetus-thing scuttle away.

    ¡°Can you get out now?¡±

    ¡°No, my right leg¡¯s stuck.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I see it. Hang on.¡±

    She walked by my side. I opened my eyes a bit and caught a glimpse of her feet. They were about a size larger than mine, and she was wearing designer flipflops. I recognize the brand, it was¡ª¡°Oh!¡± I exclaimed when she freed my leg. The pain came rushing in, but I actually welcomed just being able to feel my right leg again. ¡°Thank you so, so much.¡±

    ¡°There you go,¡± she said.

    I massaged my leg while keeping my eyes closed. ¡°Also, thank you for killing that giant Adumbrae. Thanks to you and your team, especially Clive.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell Clive, but not the rest of those asses. It¡¯s better if they don¡¯t know about you.¡±

    ¡°Is that how Clive¡¯s spear became that huge? With the help of your team?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a sexual joke there somewhere Clive would appreciate,¡± she answered, giggling. ¡°But yeah, you got it right. Our team¡¯s composition is based around Clive¡¯s power. Including Boss Delirium too, although he didn¡¯t help in the earlier fight, otherwise that Adumbrae would be pulverized.¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡±

    ¡°Because he¡¯s going to say to the Overseers our team acted on our own. He did allow us to help, by the way. Throwing us under the bus, that prick. But it¡¯s the price to pay for disobeying orders, and Clive really, really wanted to save people.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s nice of him then.¡±

    ¡°He shouldn¡¯t get all the praise,¡± she said. ¡°I was the one who reestablished his sight.¡±

    Sure, whatever you want. I didn¡¯t want to get on her bad side. ¡°Thank you, Trepanner,¡± I said, turning to her direction with a big smile. ¡°For that, and for saving me just now.¡± I was a tad tempted to peek at her face, but didn¡¯t dare to.

    ¡°Let me wipe off all that dust so I can see you better,¡± she said. I let her clean my face. There was nothing I could do here. There was no point hiding my identity. ¡°You¡¯re pretty cute.¡±

    ¡°Er¡­thanks?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t get weirded out. Clive and I were talking about what you looked like in your human form.¡±

    ¡°I wish more boys would think I¡¯m cute,¡± I said, just piling on the girl talk since she seemed interested in that. I doubted she got to gossip much with other Corebrings. If she actually cared about who I was, covering my face with my shirt wasn¡¯t going to help. I decided to just go with the flow and be friendly. ¡°I¡¯m rather plain.¡±

    ¡°Just a bit of makeup will do the trick. And confidence. Keep your chin up, girl. Even if you¡¯re not human, you shouldn¡¯t give up on guys.¡±

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right.¡± Please don¡¯t say you¡¯re capturing me. She was right beside me; she could easily stop me if I tried to transform. ¡°Thanks for saving me and the dating advice.¡±

    ¡°Anytime.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just going to wait here until my leg heals. Don¡¯t let me keep you from your mission, whatever that is.¡± Go away now, shoo.

    ¡°You¡¯re really lucky my objective is just nearby so it wasn¡¯t much of a detour to dig you out. I¡¯m still waiting for confirmation of my mission parameters anyway, so I got time to spare.¡±

    ¡°Really? What¡¯s your mission? It isn¡¯t killing the Titan Adumbrae?¡± Maybe she was hunting the rest of the 2Ms? But wasn¡¯t that what Dario and the rest of the hero-wannabes wanted to avoid? Sucks for them then.

    ¡°Hmmm, I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m allowed to tell you¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, secret Corebring business. I¡¯m not going to pry¡ª¡±

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll tell you!¡± she excitedly said. She went closer to me and whispered in my ear. ¡°There¡¯s a new candidate for a Corebring Initiate around here.¡±

    ¡°Really? Wow.¡± I wasn¡¯t stupid enough to ask who it was.

    ¡°Yup, yup. I¡¯m just waiting for the go signal and I¡¯ll pick him up, or maybe her.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s exciting.¡±

    ¡°Right? Tell you what, since I¡¯m in a good mood, I¡¯ll heal your leg for you.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to,¡± I began to say, but that fetus thing was already climbing up my leg. ¡°Oh, that feels refreshing.¡± Those toothpaste commercials where they have like icy air to show fresh breath? It feels like that was injected into my leg, soothing the inflammation and numbing the pain.

    ¡°I¡¯ll even deliver you to your friends.¡±

    ¡°How do you know¡ª?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m always watching.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Just kidding. But my seagulls were there when your friend fought the huge guy. She¡¯s alive, by the way.¡±

    ¡°She escaped? That¡¯s awesome.¡±

    ¡°And I¡¯ll bring you to her¡ªhang on.¡± I heard some beeps. ¡°Boss Delirium is calling. I think it¡¯s the instructions for getting the prospective Corebring.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine if you need to go.¡±

    ¡°No, I already promised you. I can talk to my boss on the way. But I¡¯ll have to put you to sleep.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m good, you already healed me¡ªaw!¡± The fetus-thing climbed to my back and poked my neck. It moved so fast I couldn¡¯t even react. ¡°What was¡­¡±

    <hr>

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡°Ughhh¡­¡± How long was I out?

    Hang on, this felt like d¨¦j¨¤ vu upon d¨¦j¨¤ vu. And where was I? A cool breeze, the distant sounds of sirens, a faint smell of smoke.

    ¡°Erind!¡±

    ¡°Huh? Is that her?¡±

    ¡°Yes! She¡¯s alive.¡±

    ¡°How did she get up here?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Myra rushed to my side and sat me up. ¡°Are you okay?¡± She pried my eyes open.

    "Yesh¡­m¡¯kay,¡± I replied, my words slurring. I was still groggy from whatever drug Trepanner injected into my bloodstream.

    ¡°We were looking all¡ª¡±

    ¡°Myra?¡± I said. I rubbed the sleepiness away from my eyes and looked at her. ¡°What the¡­¡± Her eyes weren¡¯t blinking, her mouth open mid-sentence. Johann beside her also didn¡¯t moved. In fact, nothing else was moving. The red and blue lights a couple of blocks away weren''t blinking. The wind wasn¡¯t blowing anymore. And I couldn¡¯t hear anything.

    <u>Heya!</u>

    I turned around.

    There she was, sitting at the edge of the rooftop, looking back at me. She patted the spot beside her, inviting me to sit there. <u>How was it? Did you have fun?</u>

    ¡°Yeah¡­yeah¡­¡± I broke into a big grin. "I had lots of fun."

 3.50.1 - Epilogue I

    Adam¡­my name is Adam.

    That was him. No one else. Adam something, something he couldn¡¯t recall. What was it? It was just there, at the back of his mind. Adam¡­Evelyn, Mitchell, Boady, Ishaan, Adriel, Cassandra¡­a bunch of other names came up.

    ¡°Groarggh!¡± he roared, lashing out, destroying whatever was around him. I¡¯m not any of you! he screamed, but only guttural grunts came out.

    No¡­no¡­he could talk. Adam could talk like a human.

    I am human!

    It was the darkness and cramped space messing with his mind. It was stifling. If he got out, he''d be fine. He should dig to escape. And then he¡¯d probably remember his full name.

    Hands with extremely long clawed fingers moved away the smoldering rocks blocking his way.

    Their faint glow showed him things he didn¡¯t want to see.

    These aren''t my hands! No claws; humans didn¡¯t have any claws. Humans only had two hands. Not many. These were not his feet. Not his tentacles. A human didn¡¯t have those. No pincers either.

    He closed his eyes. But he could still see! He forced himself to close his eyes again, and they did close, but they were also open.

    I have many eyes, he realized in horror. All of his eyes unceasingly opened and closed, not only seeing the space he was trapped in, but showing him more and more of his body.

    No! No! No¡­no¡­no¡­this didn¡¯t make any sense.

    This is all a dream. Yes, that was it. A dream!

    That made sense. Adam, the human, was dreaming he was a monster.

    Once he got out of here, he was going to wake up. He might get yelled at because he was sleeping on the job. It would be the first time he slept¡ª

    A job! He recalled something about who he was. Yes, he had a job. He couldn¡¯t recall what it was, but it was probably tiring that he fell asleep and was having these weird dreams. All the people in his head might be his co-workers.

    Satisfied with this explanation, he happily continued to dig.

    Digging with his many hands. Crushing slabs with his pincers. Pushing away rocks with his tentacles. Chomping the dirt with his mouths lined with sharp teeth that ground stones to dust. His body was inexplicably large, but it was able to slither through the hole he made, compressing itself and squeezing through like an octopus.

    Light!

    Finally, the way out!

    He sensed the bright red and blue lights shining through the gaps in the rocks should be a problem, but he couldn¡¯t recall why. There were also a lot of noises. Many sirens. Annoyingly loud and grating.

    But none of that didn¡¯t matter.

    ¡°Graaoorgh!¡± he yelled in celebration as breached the surface. I¡¯m ready to wake up now!

    There was a lot of smoke around him. Everything was hazy. Flashing red and blue lights all around. Just like a dream. He was right after all. Bright lights pierced the walls of smoke and centered on him.

    ¡°RAWWGHH!¡± he bellowed in agony. Sharp pain everywhere! Blue beams lanced off chunks of his bulbous body, burning away huge patches of his skin. He held up his many limbs to shield himself. His arms and tentacles were blown away. ¡°GRAWWGGHH!¡± Don¡¯t hurt me! Please stop!

    More and more blue beams fell from the sky.

    He looked up, continuing to plead for them to stop, but all that came out of his mouth were wails of a beast. There they were, humans in black armor floating above him. They stared back at him with glowing golden eyes. Why wouldn¡¯t they listen to him?

    I¡¯m dying, he roared at them. Stop killing me! I¡¯m not a monster!

    Then a thought popped in his head. He had dreamt a few times of falling from tall heights; he always woke up when he hit the ground. Could this be the same situation? Was he going to wake up when he died?

    They should kill him faster! He was going to attack them. He roared and stretched his tentacles to the sky, swatting at them. They evaded and retaliated by shooting him with more powerful beams. Explosions blanketed his body.

    Kill me faster, he roared. I want to wake up¡­

    On the ground, strange machines with guns and cannons shot at him. Unbelievable pain. But it wasn¡¯t real, he told himself. Endure it, this was going to be over soon. He could feel it.

    Adam Pavell! That was his name. He remembered it just before he was about to wake up from this very weird dream.

    Adam Pavell, the security guard.

    I hope I don''t get fired for sleeping on the job.

    There was no more pain.

    All of his many eyes closed.

    <hr>

    Detective Jacobin Castan tried to make sense of the radio chatter. ¡°What the hell¡¯s going on in this city?¡± he mumbled to himself, gingerly cranking up the volume with his stiff fingers.

    Saying everything was a mess could barely encapsulate the crisis they faced. It was about half-past four in the morning, most of the force, especially the higher-ups, were just waking up to the bad news. Officers and emergency rescue personnel were mostly deployed at the site of last Saturday¡¯s explosion, continuing rescue operations. And now, they were getting diverted to yet another tragedy. Not to mention the explosion a few days ago also claimed the lives of many of their ranks, injuring dozens more, further hampering their current response time to any disaster.

    Disaster. That¡¯s a good way to put this.

    The police manual did have an extensive section on what to do in case of a Titan Adumbrae strolling in the city¡ªthey even had yearly drills for it, massive evacuations and all of that. But it was very different when the actual thing happened. This was the first time an Adumbrae of this scale appeared in La Esperanza.

    ¡°You¡¯re not listening to me,¡± said Linette, a fellow detective in the same precinct. She tutted in annoyance, turning down the volume of the radio.

    ¡°What did they say? Is the Titan dead or not? Are the Corebrings here?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why I let you talk me into bringing you along.¡± She ignored his questions, ruffling her already wild and frizzy hair in frustration. ¡°You should¡¯ve stayed at the hospital with LT.¡± She was talking about Lt. Hall who was in a comatose state after yesterday¡¯s Adumbrae attack.

    ¡°We can¡¯t do anything except wait for him to wake up. The doctor said¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t mean stay and watch over him. I was doing that, and Ramello¡¯s going to spend the night there. What I meant was you should¡¯ve stayed at the hospital because you¡¯re a friggin¡¯ patient.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine¡ª¡±

    ¡°Cut the crap.¡± She knocked on the cast on his arm. ¡°Both arms broken, at least the cast on your right arm is only up to your elbow.¡± Then on his leg. ¡°And your injured leg was injured again by that Adumbrae. I don¡¯t even know how you¡¯re moving around.¡±

    ¡°I took painkillers¡ª¡±

    ¡°Now that I think about it, are you sure the doctor said it¡¯s okay for you to leave? Shouldn¡¯t you be monitored because you came in contact with an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°If we¡¯re going into specifics¡­I can say that¡­there is a doctor¡­who did not say it was not okay for me to leave.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Did you even talk to any doctor before you left your room?¡± She stared at him with furrowed brows, her lips pressed tightly together. He could see in her eyes she was thinking of throwing him out of the car.

    ¡°Eyes on the road,¡± Castan said before he was chewed out.

    ¡°That¡¯s a no then.¡±

    ¡°There was no time to talk with a doctor. They¡¯re busy with all the injured people from the explosion, uh, and I¡­uhm¡­they¡¯re also expecting more casualties because¡ª¡±

    ¡°Enough of that crap. What do you even plan to do when we get to the scene? I¡¯m using the term ¡®scene¡¯ loosely here because I have a feeling, just hear me out, I have a feeling it¡¯s going to be a scene of destruction. Now¡­what the friggin¡¯ heck are you going to do there with all your injuries?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Castan truly didn¡¯t. Something just clicked in his head and he escaped his room to chase after Linette. He was lucky he caught her at the elevator going down to the parking area. He wasn¡¯t even sure how he moved that fast given the state of his body. ¡°But we have to help. If LT¡¯s awake, he would¡¯ve wanted us to help out in any way we can.¡±

    ¡°What the friggin¡¯ nonsense you spouting? LT would lock you up at the hospital if he¡¯s awake. Actually, that sounds like a swell idea. I¡¯m turning this car around.¡±

    ¡°Wait, we¡¯re nearly there. Okay, we¡¯re not actually going near the Titan Adumbrae, but, you know, uh¡­like we can help out the evacuations. Yes! Exactly, that''s supposed to be our job in this scenario anyway.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯d probably evacuate you instead.¡±

    ¡°How about this,¡± he hastily said, ¡°since you¡¯re bringing me back to the hospital anyway, we can bring some of the casualties with us.¡±

    Linette frowned as she drove, glaring angrily at the road.

    ¡°The ambulances will be full,¡± he insisted. ¡°You know that. The city¡¯s ability to respond will be stretched to its limit. We help bring a couple of people to the hospital. Even something that small is already a huge help. I promise I¡¯ll stay at the hospital afterwards.¡±

    She thumped on the wheel as she thought about his proposition. ¡°Fine,¡± she relented. ¡°You''re so adamant with helping people.¡± She turned on the red and blue lights on her dashboard and sped to the blaze on the horizon.

    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± he driftingly agreed. Why was that?

    Guilt that he survived the explosion while others didn¡¯t? That Lt. Hall was in a coma and was probably going to be paralyzed while he, although also injured, was still awake?

    He didn¡¯t know.

    What he did know was that these Adumbrae needed to be stopped. And although he obviously couldn¡¯t face them head-on, he was going to try and help with everything he could.

    This area of the city was part residential, part commercial; mostly people living on top of their shops. Plenty of apartments rented by those working at the bustling business district of La Esperanza downtown. It wasn¡¯t particularly known for having an active night life, but the streets were emptier than usual¡ªin fact, it was only them on the road; even the sidewalks were devoid of any bystanders.

    The people now knew to follow the city¡¯s advisory to stay indoors.

    Further ahead, a few blocks away, the orange haze of the spreading fire peeked through the buildings. Columns of smoke swirled upwards and eventually merged with the dark sky. The sirens were incessant, layering on top of each other. Multiple searchlights from helicopters above turned the streets into a disco club.

    ¡°See any Adumbrae walking around?¡± Linette asked Castan as he rolled down the window and stuck his head outside to get a better view.

    ¡°No Adumbrae in sight, big or small. Seems like the Corebrings really did take care of the Titan.¡±

    ¡°Guess so,¡± she said. ¡°This is going to be messy.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°The Titan was taken down quite swiftly, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that good?¡±

    ¡°Of course, it is. But what I mean is¡­it wasn¡¯t like the BID agents from the Palomar Node were having a hard time and asked for help from the Corebrings. The Corebrings just showed up and poof, the Titan is down. Or that¡¯s what I understood from the reports.¡±

    ¡°You think they came here without following the Protocol?¡±

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°Uh-huh. That¡¯s like a big no-no, especially since the President is big on the Protocol. Always that, ¡®US can do just fine without the Corebings¡¯ nonsense,¡± she said, imitating President Goodwin¡¯s tone.

    ¡°Politics,¡± Castan said, shaking his head.

    Linette¡¯s phone beeped. ¡°Seriously? At a time like this?¡± she said, scrolling through her messages.

    ¡°What is it? And eyes on the road please. I don¡¯t want to get more injuries.¡±

    ¡°Mulberry¡¯s sending tons of texts¡­quotes and prayers from his Corebring-worshipping church. The religious nuts are gonna go insane with Corebrings visiting our city.¡±

    ¡°Mulberry? I never knew he¡¯s the religious type.¡±

    ¡°Just a nominal church-goer for the most part. But he goes zealous-mode if there are Corebrings around. He mentioned he went on a pilgrimage to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Watch out!¡± Castan yelled. He tried to grab the wheel, but cramps made his muscles seize up as he tried to stretch his arm. Linette was fortunately able to react just in time. She swerved sharply to the right, avoiding a large rock on middle of the road.

    ¡°Ah, crap. Are you okay? Sorry, Jacob."

    ¡°I told you, ¡®eyes on the road¡¯.¡±

    ¡°I know, sorry again. What¡¯s that rock doing there?¡±

    ¡°Rubble¡¯s strewn all over the street. Some buildings around here are damaged but rescue isn¡¯t here yet.¡± Castan peeled his eyes for anyone who might need help while Linette reported the situation at their location. ¡°Going to take them awhile to get here?¡±

    ¡°There are other priorities right now.¡±

    ¡°I was right that everyone of us should help out. How about those two?¡± he said, nodding his head ahead. Half a block down the road, a couple of people were by the collapsed fa?ade of an old brick building. ¡°They might need our help.¡±

    ¡°Is she digging?¡±

    ¡°Someone might be trapped.¡± As their headlights shined on the two, Castan shouted, ¡°He¡¯s an Adumbrae!¡±, spotting a huge blade growing out of the man¡¯s arm. He ignored the dozens of pins pricking his muscles, his body trembling from the pain of his injuries, and scrambled to draw his gun. A spasm ran up his side. ¡°Fucking hell!¡± He dropped the gun between his legs, his hands shaking, his head spinning. The painkillers weren¡¯t doing the trick anymore.

    ¡°I got it!¡± Linette exited the car with her gun out and immediately fired before the Adumbrae could come closer to the girl. Her bullets pinged off the side of the Adumbrae; it had some sort of exoskeleton. It turned to look at them, revealing a monstrous face peering from under a hood. ¡°Crap! I think we have to¡ªhuh?¡± She was half-way back inside the car when the Adumbrae climbed the rubble then jumped to the other building and disappeared.

    ¡°Ugh¡­whe-where did it go?¡±

    ¡°Jacob! Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡¯m fine. Che-check on the girl. Just go!¡±

    Linette swept her flashlight around with her gun drawn as she approached the girl. Castan heard her calling for back-up, putting up an alert for an Adumbrae. He groaned in pain, trying to stay conscious despite his vision beginning to darken. He bent down to pick up his gun; that Adumbrae might return. ¡°Damn it,¡± he spat out as another wave of pain came. He couldn¡¯t hold on¡­his mind fading to black.

    His last thought was¡­at least we saved one girl.

    <hr>

    Ramon debated with himself whether leaving Julie by the ruins of the bar was the right choice. He had the strength to stop her from vainly digging for the corpse of her brother, to forcefully carry her away as the cops came. But what was the point? She¡¯d struggle to escape and would just endanger all of them. It was probably for the best she wasn¡¯t with them.

    If the worst happened and they got caught, Julie got a lot of explaining to do why she was with two monsters¡ªif she could even explain herself properly given her mental state.

    Yes, I made the right choice with her, he finally concluded.

    She was safe with the police.

    Now, he was once again faced with a difficult question: should he leave Lizzie?

    ¡°You¡¯ll be safe here, no one comes here,¡± he said. They were inside the small shed behind the pizza restaurant he worked at. It was sort of a storage for random trash like their old oven. Absolutely no one bothered to come here; the thick layer of dust on the floor was undisturbed when they entered. ¡°We¡¯re going to separate so I can move easier,¡± he slowly explained.

    Lizzie just stared at the floor, not making any sound.

    ¡°That was Slinky chasing us. You haven¡¯t met him before, but he¡¯s one of the bad guys.¡± As if hiding from the cops wasn¡¯t bad enough, remnants of Stella¡¯s men were looking for them too. For revenge? To tie up loose ends? To experiment on them? He didn¡¯t know. What he did know was that they shouldn¡¯t get captured. ¡°I¡¯m going to lead them far away from this place. Do you understand?¡±

    She gave him a slight nod.

    ¡°Just stay here, okay?¡± he said. ¡°And keep this on.¡± He covered her with a musty old parka he stole from the bar.

    She brushed away the frayed fur collar of the coat and peeked up at him with her snake-like emerald eyes. She hadn¡¯t talked much after he explained to her that Doms died and she was turned into a monster. Afterwards, she just sort of blanked out and repeatedly mumbled she couldn¡¯t cry. He still wasn¡¯t sure if he made the right call on telling her the truth; he didn¡¯t know what else to say.

    ¡°You understand me, right?¡± He was beginning to doubt if he could really leave her alone. ¡°Wait for me here. Don¡¯t go out.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    He hoped she was starting to feel better now that she answered him. ¡°I¡¯ll return when they¡¯re gone.¡±

    She sat down beside the oven, laying her head on her knees. At a glance, with the old coat covering her, she was unnoticeable from the rest of the junk around.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be back,¡± he assured her. ¡°Lizzie, no matter how long it takes, I¡¯ll be back for you.¡± He closed the door and jumped over the back wall, praying that Slinky didn¡¯t see him go this way.

    Ramon was familiar with these streets, he knew how to weave through them. He wasn¡¯t exactly trying to hide; he wanted Slinky to spot him again so he could draw them away from Lizzie¡¯s hiding place. But he also didn¡¯t want to expose himself so much the cops or the BID could catch him.

    His plan was to shake off these Adumbrae and then double back to Lizzie. Both of them would hide in the shed until he figured out how to contact Erind and those other people with powers. They were their best bet at surviving.

    Yes, when everything calmed down, I¡¯m going to call Erind. He had memorized her number.

    He didn¡¯t know how long it would take, a few days probably, but they had a place to sleep and he knew how to steal food and water from the restaurant without getting noticed.

    A few minutes passed when he began to wonder if Slinky was really following him. He slowed down and looked around. He was in a narrow side road between an old pawnshop and the tall fence of an empty lot. If they were following, this was the perfect place to attack him.

    But where are they?

    Did they notice he wasn¡¯t carrying Lizzie and tried to find where he might¡¯ve hidden her instead?

    Dammit! He retraced his way to the pizza restaurant, his heart beating faster in anxiety. He shouldn¡¯t have left her alone! Please let Lizzie be safe.

    ¡°What¡¯s the hurry?¡± A person appeared out of the corner and blocked his path.

    ¡°Finlay!¡± Ramon turned around and another person with the exact same appearance showed up behind him. ¡°Calder!¡± The last time they met, these two abandoned Stella, just like they promised. But now they showed up again. He was right they couldn¡¯t be trusted. He didn¡¯t know whose side they were on, but they certainly weren¡¯t on his. His blade arm raised, he considered his chances fighting them.

    ¡°It¡¯s still me.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Finlay,¡± said the man in front of him.

    ¡°And I¡¯m also Finlay,¡± said the other.

    ¡°I don¡¯t¡ª"

    ¡°Calder¡¯s dead. He got flattened when the building collapsed. Turns out I¡¯m the luckier twin.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to kill me because of that? I have nothing to do with¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know it¡¯s not your fault. It¡¯s Stella¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°What do you want with me then?¡±

    Finlay theatrically exhaled. ¡°I¡¯m just getting it off my chest. I¡¯ve just been so used to having him around that I made a puppet a stand-in for him. And that¡¯s enough of my rant. Let¡¯s go.¡± He beckoned him along.

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®let¡¯s go¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, you¡¯re coming with us. What¡¯s so hard to understand with that?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going anywhere.¡± If it was just Finlay and his clones, he could take them on. But he didn¡¯t believe one bit Calder was dead. He could be surrounded by illusions and he wouldn¡¯t know it.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have a choice in that.¡± The first Finlay snapped his finger. A towering man stepped out and stood behind him. This was the same man who fought the charcoal giant along with Stella.

    ¡°Hey there, kid,¡± said a voice above him. ¡°Nice to meet ya again.¡± Ramon looked up and saw Slinky dangling upside down with his tail attached to the emergency staircase above. Most of his bandages were burned or torn away, revealing his scales. ¡°It¡¯s been wild this night, huh?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t¡­don¡¯t mess with me,¡± Ramon said, trying to keep the fear away from his voice. ¡°I¡¯m an Adumbrae mercenary working for the¡­uh¡­group in Vegas¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t try to sell me that nonsense,¡± Finlay scoffed. ¡°I know you¡¯re just a normal guy who somehow survived the infection of the XR-series.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not¡ª¡±

    ¡°I watched the whole thing from the screens of the security room. A pizza delivery guy at the wrong place at the wrong time. You didn¡¯t trick Stella with that stupid story, you¡¯re not going to trick me either.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡­¡± Ramon squeezed his brain, thinking of a way out of this mess.

    ¡°That was a funny cover story the metal woman¡ªwhat was her name again?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Pino,¡± replied the clone Finlay, or the real one, or both of them might be clones.

    ¡°Thanks, substitute Calder. The story Pino told Stella was funny. Adumbrae mercenaries? I¡¯m not saying they don¡¯t exist, because they do, just not very common at all. But I find it very hard to believe the Vegas boys would be dumb enough to hire Adumbrae to do their work.¡±

    ¡°You see,¡± the Finlay clone continued, ¡°true Adumbrae, unlike us,¡± he waved at the abnormally large man then at Slinky, ¡°are controlled by¡­?¡± He twirled his hand, gesturing for Ramon to answer.

    ¡°Uh¡­by Adumbrae?¡± he replied, wondering where this was going.

    ¡°Ding, ding, ding! Such a bright young lad you are. That¡¯s why they¡¯re called Adumbrae, there¡¯s no distinction with someone partially or fully controlled. If they¡¯re not taken over yet, eventually they will be. It¡¯s only a matter of time. And that¡¯s the huge hole in Pino¡¯s story.¡±

    ¡°You see now?¡± said the first Finlay. ¡°Why the hell would anyone want to work with an actual Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°You never know what they truly want.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m with the Supplier!¡± Ramon said in desperation.

    ¡°Ah, you mean the thing Stella said about the Supplier having true Adumbrae working for him? She was lying.¡±

    The second Finlay said, ¡°He doesn¡¯t have any¡­not that I know of. Just fake ones like us, made in a controlled environment, pumped with drugs, undergoing intense psychoconditioning to keep any mental incursions at bay. The Supplier himself might be a true Adumbrae though.¡±

    ¡°And here¡¯s the funny thing!¡± the first Finlay chimed in. ¡°That Pino woman might be a true Adumbrae, and that¡¯s the reason Stella didn¡¯t just kill off all of you lying shits. She didn¡¯t know what to think of the situation and was acting carefully. She wasn¡¯t going to pick a fight with a true Adumbrae. Because of that blatantly fake story, Stella¡ªand this is just my guess¡ªassumed Pino is very strong and was just messing around with her.¡±

    ¡°But I know she¡¯s not strong in combat because I saw her on the security cameras,¡± said the second Finlay. ¡°I didn¡¯t tell Stella about that.¡± Both the Finlays roared in laughter.

    ¡°Hurry it up, will ya?¡± Slinky said from above. ¡°I don¡¯t want to stay out here with Corebrings around.¡±

    The first Finlay held his stomach, trying control himself. ¡°Okay, okay, this is enough. The Corebrings, forgot about them.¡±

    ¡°I already said I¡¯m not going with you,¡± Ramon said. He concentrated energy on his blade. There was no way he was going to win, but he could try taking some of them with him. I¡¯m sorry, Lizzie.

    ¡°I think you¡¯re misunderstanding us.¡± The two Finlays held up their hands as a sign of peace. ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so hostile. We¡¯re not going to forcefully take you.¡±

    ¡°What? I don¡¯t¡ª"

    ¡°You¡¯re going to willingly come with us because we¡¯re the only choice you have. Are you seriously thinking of surviving in this form?¡±

    ¡°I can manage,¡± he said, preoccupied with formulating a plan in his head. He was going straight for the second Finlay. Whether it was the real Finlay or just a clone, he could get past it then run¡ª

    ¡°Is this about the little girl? Lizzie?¡± said the first Finlay with a shrewd expression, interrupting his thoughts.

    Cold fear gripped his heart. Did they find her? Anger blazed within him. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare touch her!¡±

    ¡°Let me preface this by saying I don¡¯t have any mind reading powers. But I can see it on your face. The answer is yes. We know where you hid her, and we have cops on our payroll who are going to take her.¡±

    ¡°You fucking¡ª!¡±

    ¡°Calm down, we¡¯re not your enemy. We¡¯re not going to do anything bad to you or her. We¡¯re your family.¡±

    ¡°What kind of bullshit is that? Are you going to use her as a hostage so I¡¯ll come willingly?¡±

    ¡°As I¡¯ve said awhile ago, you¡¯ll come with us because we¡¯re the only chance you¡­and the girl have. Mostly you.¡±

    ¡°What help are you talking about? You¡¯re the ones who made me into this! I don¡¯t need your help.¡±

    Finlay disappointingly shook his head. ¡°Ah, you still don¡¯t get it, do you? All this talk about true Adumbrae and you still haven¡¯t put two and two together. I¡¯m taking back my praise that you¡¯re a bright kid.¡±

    ¡°What are you¡ª?¡±

    ¡°I saw on the security camera you tried to kill yourself when you got infected. But then, you turned out like this. Alive and not a mindless monster like the others. Not exactly mindless, if we¡¯re being technical, since the slugs are taking over. Anyhow, do you have any idea why you¡¯re not like them?¡±

    Ramon shook his head. But deep down, he did have a suspicion. The voices when he was dying¡­his regeneration.

    ¡°Mister might be the better person to explain this to you, and this is just a hunch anyway, but I think you¡¯re¡­dun, dun, dun. Drumroll please!¡± Finlay mimicked drumming in the air. ¡°You are true Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± That didn¡¯t surprise him as much as he expected it to.

    ¡°My guess is the XR-series parasite opened a connection to the higher dimensions before you killed it. In that small window, as you and the dumb slug were dying, I bet an Adumbrae noticed you through the opening and made you an offer¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not an Adumbrae! I may be a monster, but I¡¯m not an Adumbrae. I didn¡¯t accept anything.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the only explanation I got. Look inside yourself. You know it¡¯s true. You know you accepted an Adumbrae¡¯s offer.¡±

    Ramon¡¯s mind was reeling. ¡°This can¡¯t be¡­¡± He pushed all of it away. Lizzie! He had to focus on getting Lizzie and make sure she was safe. But would she be safe with an Adumbrae like him? And didn¡¯t they say they already had her?

    ¡°Come with us,¡± both Finlays said in unison. ¡°We can help you.¡±

    ¡°But Lizzie¡­¡±

    ¡°Both you and that little girl. You don¡¯t have to be afraid. Stella¡¯s dead, we¡¯re not like her. We¡¯re your family now. The only choice you have if don¡¯t want to be taken over by an Adumbrae.¡± The first Finlay slowly approached him, offering his hand once again. ¡°We have the means to help you.¡±

    Ramon reached out with his own hand.

    ¡°Welcome to the family, kid,¡± Slinky said, joyfully clapping.

    Adumbrae? No. I¡¯m not an Adumbrae.

    He was going to fight anything that tried to take over his mind. A monster body was one thing, but he was going to remain as a human in mind.

    But he had to come with them to find Lizzie. After all that happened, he wasn¡¯t able to save anyone from the building; even Paolo ended up dead. His only shot for redemption was with her. He wasn¡¯t going to abandon her now. He repeated in his head his last words to her, his final promise:

    Lizzie, no matter how long it takes, I¡¯ll be back for you.

 3.50.2 - Epilogue II

    Trepanner spiritedly swung her legs as she sat on the railings of a footbridge, the empty street about four or five meters below, the flickering light from the barely working lamppost on the right end of the overpass scarcely reaching her. One of the thirteen Beads from her CoreQuip, the ¡®Giant Necklace of Trepanning¡¯, scuttled restlessly beside her, its small hands pitter pattering on the steel rails.

    She clicked her tongue¡ªstopping herself short of making gurgling noises¡ªpeeved that some cheese puff crumbs lodged themselves into the threads of her denim shorts when she tried to brush them off.

    Whatever, she thought as she dove into the bag for another piece of that salty, crunchy goodness, plopping it into her mouth.

    She didn¡¯t usually eat this kind of stuff¡ªdespite her superhuman body with healing abilities, she still kept her habit of eating healthy foods¡ªbut spending the better part of a week controlling seagulls who had a penchant for scavenging through trash cans and dumpsters¡ªone seagull especially having an extreme desire to eat junk food, even snatching them off the mouths of beachgoers¡ªsomehow affected her tastes. She couldn¡¯t resist buying the huge bag of CheesyBlitz, the cheese puffs variant, displayed on the window of a QualityMart she passed. Fortunately, the store was open even with the news of Adumbrae attacking the city; the bored cashier looked like she didn¡¯t care about what was happening.

    This weird craving will wear off, she assured herself as she adjusted her earphones. For now, she was celebrating this wonderful day with junk food.

    While waiting for the prospective Corebring to pass this way, she listened to her annoying teammates argue with each other because their team was suspended after they killed a Titan Adumbrae on American soil without any request from the United States government.

    ¡°Man, this freaking blows,¡± Yeo said, his voice echoing. They were still inside that stupid cavern.

    Trepanner doubted if their target was still there, but Boss Delirium told them to continue searching the caves outside the city as sort of a ¡®punishment¡¯ even though he himself allowed them to kill the Adumbrae. Lucky for her, she was assigned to stay behind in La Esperanza to keep an eye on things. She did send three Beads to accompany the team. Exploring caves sucked; she¡¯d been to a lot of those missions before she became a Corebring.

    ¡°We have this cool thing going for us,¡± he continued, ¡°but now we¡¯re getting recalled back to the Hive. When we go into Deep Sleep, we¡¯re going to be stuck there for Mother Core knows how long, so I want to enjoy the outside world as much as possible.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t notice you¡¯re already a full Corebring,¡± Jaron sarcastically commented. ¡°Deep Sleep isn¡¯t something we should worry about right now. Getting suspended at the Hive is a small sacrifice to save people. You should be proud of yourself. I know I am.¡±

    ¡°Tons of babies are born every minute; tons of people die every minute,¡± drawled a silky voice.

    ¡°Jeez, Everglade. Don¡¯t reduce people into numbers.¡±

    Trepanner chuckled at their continued bickering. Although it didn¡¯t sound like it¡ªall of them did have differing views on being ¡®heroes¡¯¡ªthey got along with each other just fine. If they were seriously bothered by this, they would all be blaming Clive because he put them up to it.

    No way they¡¯ll do that.

    Their team was a weird bunch, but she was growing fond of them even though she wouldn¡¯t admit it to their face.

    She herself didn¡¯t care for the penalty of suspension. She was the most junior of their group so she wouldn¡¯t be affected that much. Time resting at the Hive was fun; she could hang out with all of her friends from before she became a Corebring¡ªthose who were still alive anyway.

    ¡°How are you there, Pan?¡± That was Clive, of course. He was the only one who called her ¡®Pan¡¯, despite her insisting not to shorten ¡®Trepanner¡¯. ¡°Awesome save earlier,¡± he said.

    The others quieted down. They didn¡¯t exactly respect Clive even though he was their de facto leader if Boss Delirium was absent, neither did he demand respect from them¡ªhe was, after all, just an Initiate too. But he was the only Initiate they knew who had met Nanny, the High Overseer taking care of all the slumbering Corebrings, and went into Deep Sleep.

    They didn¡¯t know how that came to be because only full Corebrings were forced into Deep Sleep, but that meant Clive should be way older than he looked and had participated in at least one off-world mission.

    Which was weird¡ªInitiates weren¡¯t allowed to go past the veil. Hence, Clive was a sort of legend among the Initiates, and it was a no-brainer to listen to him if they wanted to live long enough to become a Corebring.

    ¡°It felt to me like the Titan Adumbrae knew how your power worked,¡± she replied, ignoring his praise since they were supposed to dislike each other.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, I suspected she did. She immediately shot in the direction where my line of sight should be.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure there are interest groups which have info about your ability on a database,¡± Jaron said. ¡°You¡¯re one of the more famous Initiates.¡±

    ¡°It is quite distinct, yes.¡±

    ¡°Because of what you did at the mall yesterday, the Adumbrae in this city probably expected you to intervene if they did something.¡±

    ¡°Very likely.¡±

    ¡°No worries because I reestablished the line of sight quickly,¡± Trepanner said. ¡°While one of my seagulls was watching the Adumbrae on the laptop of a girl through the window of her home, I already sent the rest to the place in case something happened and our view was cut off or the live stream got delayed.¡± It was one of the weaknesses of Clive¡¯s power: his view of his target should be as accurate as possible for his spear to teleport. Sometimes live broadcasts weren¡¯t really as ¡®live¡¯ as they seemed.

    ¡°Good thinking,¡± Clive said. ¡°It is so much better using my power when connected to your Beads. Really uncomfortable though.¡±

    ¡°I imagine having a hole bored through your skull by Trepanner¡¯s CoreQuip is more than just uncomfortable,¡± Jaron said with a hint of disgust. He and Everglade were the only ones who hadn¡¯t been poked by the Beads yet. Jaron was probably okayish mindwise; Trepanner wasn¡¯t too keen on linking with Everglade. ¡°I¡¯m not going to let that touch me,¡± he said, ¡°no offence Trepanner.¡±

    ¡°None taken. I sometimes have to use it on myself, so I know it¡¯s painful.¡±

    ¡°Pain is negligible,¡± Clive said. ¡°It¡¯s¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± Trepanner interrupted. ¡°I don¡¯t like connecting our minds either, but we need to.¡± Linking their minds was somehow the perplexing way to bypass the limits of Clive¡¯s power that he could only teleport his spear to a place he could reach if he actually threw it. Granted he could throw his spear very far, but he was outside the city right now. Sharing the same eyeballs as the seagulls who were actually watching the scene unfold was a huge plus and way better than any live broadcast.

    ¡°A Titan Adumbrae just popping up when we¡¯re here,¡± Everglade droned. ¡°Fishy.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Clive said. ¡°High chance it¡¯s connected to our target.¡±

    ¡°But we¡¯ll never know,¡± Yeo said with a groan, ¡°because we¡¯ll be sent back to the Hive later.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t get so down, Yeo,¡± Clive said. ¡°Just listen to Pan chilling. She was just munching on food while you guys were arguing.¡±

    ¡°Because we should really be happy,¡± Trepanner said.

    ¡°Why?¡± Everglade said, her creepy voice unnerving as usual. ¡°Oh, the new Corebring.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you guys should be more excited. He¡¯s Called by the Mother Core.¡±

    Clive snorted. ¡°Are you really excited to meet someone¡¯s who¡¯s Called? Or you¡¯re just happy you were given clearance to get the prospective Corebring no matter what.¡±

    ¡°Both,¡± Trepanner said with a giggle. ¡°I personally don¡¯t know anyone who was Called compared to, you know, the usual tests and application like we did, then being presented to the Mother Core for acceptance or rejection.¡± She suspected Clive might¡¯ve been Called too, but she didn¡¯t say it. ¡°Being able to let loose is just icing on the cake.¡±

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ¡°Do be careful,¡± he said.

    ¡°Yeah, whatever,¡± she said, nonchalantly brushing it off. ¡°Oh! He¡¯s coming this way. Talk to you guys later.¡± Before they could say anything, she already pulled her earphones off and stuffed them in the small pocket of her shorts.

    She watched the car her target was in through the eyes of the seagulls following it. A police van followed by a patrol cruiser. Weird. Was this guy a criminal? They were coming up the road from behind her.

    Her Bead climbed her back. Here we go again, she thought as she willed it to puncture the base of her skull and connect her mind¡­to her own. She closed her eyes as she started to peer into herself.

    Concentrate!

    She might get into a trance again like the first time she did this, stuck in an endless loop of herself looking at herself. She normally wouldn¡¯t risk doing something like this without any of her teammates nearby to snap her out of it if she lost control, but she didn¡¯t have a choice right now. This wasn¡¯t a simple matter of grabbing someone off the streets. She needed to get juiced up in case of danger.

    As the icy liquid pumped into her system, she felt herself grow stronger.

    The police van was coming nearer.

    One¡­two¡­three¡­go!

    She jumped off the footbridge.

    BAM! Her feet dented the roof of the van. She bent down, stretched her arms, and grabbed the sides of the van to keep herself steady. Then, she arced her body back, ripping the roof off like opening a tin can. She threw the roof away and was met by cops pointing their guns up at her. They opened fire, their bullets barely penetrating her flesh, her body strengthened through paranormal trepanation.

    She dove in with a huge grin on her face. Time for some fun before getting suspended!

    <hr>

    Finlay viewed the ruins of the building that claimed the life of his brother through binoculars. Its center and left wing had collapsed, the right wing only partially so.

    We should¡¯ve gotten out sooner, he thought with a heavy heart. He only got out because of his secret ability to switch his real body with any of his puppets.

    Calder dying wasn¡¯t part of the plan at all. The building collapsing wasn¡¯t part of the plan either. He still didn¡¯t understand how it happened. The rapidly spreading fire¡ªwhich was mostly due to him disabling the building¡¯s sprinkler system¡ªcouldn¡¯t be the sole reason. Bob, that big idiot, and the charcoal giant probably took out part of the building¡¯s core support.

    The charcoal giant¡­an interesting specimen. An unexpected mutation, one he was sure Mister would be interested to study. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t realistic to get a sample with BID agents congregating on the site.

    ¡°This is way messier than I expected,¡± he said.

    ¡°What?¡± Slinky said, yelling to be heard over the noisy rotors of the medevac behind them. ¡°Ya gotta speak up.¡±

    This bastard somehow survived, Finlay mused. He would¡¯ve gladly traded Slinky¡¯s life for his brother¡¯s. He waved his hand, indicating it was nothing, and then pointed to the medevac from a local hospital their group partly owned; very spacious and inconspicuous in the midst of this chaos, the perfect escape vehicle. ¡°We¡¯re going now.¡±

    ¡°We done with everything here?¡±

    ¡°Yes, we are,¡± said Finlay. Mister informed him the meeting with the Supplier went smoothly; the Corebrings weren¡¯t able to find them because they were distracted by this huge mess.

    He couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the genius of their boss, Mark. They were alerted to the fact that Corebrings were in the city because of the incident at Serenade Bazaar the day before. In that brief moment as they watched the news, Boss Mark was able to formulate a plan with multiple objectives.

    The attack on the condominium was, first and foremost a distraction, which worked out splendidly. Thank you, Stella, for offering your life to the Corebrings. It was also to field test the XR-series, although that one didn¡¯t go as well as they envisioned. They did gather plenty of data and specimens but lost a lot of men and equipment in the process.

    They could¡¯ve tested it in any other residential place; there were much better choices. But Boss Mark decided to do it where Erind lived. Finlay mentally jotted down he should check whether the mayor''s niece was recovering. She was in an awful state when she told them about Erind.

    They still didn¡¯t know why the Supplier wanted her kidnapped a couple of weeks ago; he didn¡¯t bring it up again. Boss Mark, however, wanted to make her pay for what she did to his operations. If they could get the wolf woman too, it would be an added bonus; she seemed like she would be a splendid specimen for experimentation.

    And that wasn¡¯t all that their boss planned. Last but not the least, he tasked Finlay to get rid of the key men¡­and women¡­loyal to his brother, Big Marcy, namely Stella and Dekano. Big Marcy himself was not long for this world.

    All in all, Finlay could say it was a mostly successful operation. He even found what he suspected to be a true Adumbrae. He turned to Ramon. ¡°Come on!¡±

    ¡°How about Lizzie?¡±

    ¡°The girl?¡± he said. ¡°I told you, my men have her. Nothing bad is going to happen to her. I promise you that.¡± His phone vibrated. More orders from Boss Mark?

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we wait for them?¡±

    ¡°They are¡­¡± Finlay stopped speaking to read the message. It was from the cops working for them tasked to get the other specimen, the girl. He narrowed his eyes. What was this? They failed him? They were supposed to be part of the Anti-Adumbrae Response Team of the LEPD. How hard was it to get a little girl? He was going to deal with those idiots later.

    ¡°Finlay, where¡¯s Lizzie?¡±

    ¡°They have a different escape route. We all can¡¯t fit here.¡± He walked to the medevac. ¡°Time¡¯s running out.¡±

    Ramon followed him. ¡°If you say so.¡±

    ¡°You have nothing to worry about. She¡¯s safe. You¡¯ll meet her soon.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Bye!¡± Trepanner said, waving a bloody hand at the retreating cop car, its tires squealing in its haste to escape. "Now that that¡¯s taken care of,¡± she said, pulling back the hood of the small person Called by the Mother Core. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Trep¡ªwoah!¡± A trembling girl looked up at her. Girl, yes. Human? Debatable. Actually, probably not.

    The girl''s eyes lingered at the blood covering her.

    ¡°Oh, this.¡± Trepanner hid her hands behind her back, a sheepish grin on her face. ¡°Oops. Were you scared? I guess that was a bit excessive. But you saw they were shooting me, right?¡±

    She slowly nodded.

    ¡°My name is Trepanner. Nice to meet you. What¡¯s your name?¡±

    ¡°Lizzie.¡±

    ¡°Well, Lizzie. You¡¯re not exactly what I pictured,¡± Trepanner said. ¡°I was thinking like a big burly guy. I assumed you¡¯re a cop or a criminal they arrested. But you¡¯re¡­¡± She gestured wildly, unable to form her thoughts. ¡°A kid? I haven¡¯t seen a kid accepted as an Initiate, but I also haven¡¯t met anyone Called before. And why do you look like¡­wait, I¡¯m not sure if this is tactful to say¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m a monster,¡± the little girl replied.

    ¡°Oh! No, that¡¯s not was I was going to say. You¡¯re just different looking, which isn¡¯t a bad thing. You look very beautiful actually.¡± And Trepanner meant it. This kid¡¯s eyes were mesmerizing, her scales shining like jewelry, her silky white hair flowing like a river of milk. ¡°There are plenty of Corebrings who don¡¯t remotely look human. But that¡¯s after they turn into Corebrings. I was just surprised you look like this now, that¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°Were you the one calling me?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the Mother Core.¡±

    ¡°Mother¡­Core? Mommy¡­¡± Lizzie sniffled. ¡°Why¡­tears not coming out?¡±

    ¡°If I have to guess, that¡¯s because you have snake eyes? Snakes can¡¯t cry.¡±

    ¡°I...I want to cry.¡±

    ¡°Oh boy, this isn¡¯t really how I planned things to go. I was thinking of giving a cool speech. Like you¡¯re chosen to protect our reality, our world and other worlds from Adumbrae, yada-yada. And there¡¯s a bit too about harvesting the Mother Cores of worlds we can¡¯t save. I haven¡¯t memorized the whole thing they say when someone becomes an Initiate. Never mind that. Now, things are just awkward.¡±

    The girl wasn¡¯t listening to her. She was furiously rubbing her eyes, trying to force tears to come out.

    Trepanner picked her up. ¡°It seems you¡¯ve been through a lot,¡± she said, softening her tone. ¡°I don¡¯t know what that is, but you can tell me. I¡¯m your new friend.¡±

    ¡°New friend?¡±

    ¡°Yes. You see, I¡¯m a Corebring. An Initiate. You¡¯re going to be a Corebring too. You¡¯ve heard the Call.¡±

    ¡°Corebring? The superheroes? Mommy said Corebrings help people.¡±

    ¡°Your Mommy''s right. In fact, we¡¯re the ones who killed the giant monster. Did you see it walking around? It¡¯s gone now because of us.¡±

    ¡°If¡­if I¡¯m a Corebring, I could¡¯ve saved Mommy.¡±

    Did her mother got stepped on by the Titan Adumbrae? Trepanner brushed back Lizzie¡¯s hair and wiped the blood off her face. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of this mess first. All these dead bodies are icky with their yucky blood.¡±

    ¡°The voice calling me¡­tell it to wait.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°I have another friend¡­he told me to wait for him.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about? You¡¯re Called. You have to come.¡±

    ¡°I should tell him firsshh¡­¡± Her words slurred as she fell asleep.

    "Sorry, Lizzie. It''s time we go." She looked around at the carnage she caused. These police officers didn¡¯t seem like bad guys; they didn¡¯t deserve to be torn to pieces. But it was their fault they kept on trying to kill her. The BID would assume an Adumbrae killed them.

    Kids like junk food, right?

    Maybe Lizzie would feel better if she ate some CheesyBlitz when she woke up.

 3.50.3 - Epilogue III

    I sat down beside SpookyErind on the edge of the rooftop. The familiar heavy dreamlike atmosphere enveloped me, almost like being underwater. My body was weightless but at the same time sluggish, my arms and legs becoming double as I moved them, reminding me of the time I got super drunk back in high school, moments before I passed out.

    That was it¡­like I was on the verge of passing out, yet retaining full focus.

    ¡°Sooo¡­¡± I said, gazing at the frozen world in front of me. Although mostly dark, there was a smidge of light at the horizon, the sun halted in its journey to greet the waking city of La Esperanza a brand-new day. Not a very good day though. Rising smoke stood still like pillars holding up the sky. From this vantage point, I had a good view of the destruction wrought by Stella. Parts of the building I lived in had collapsed, and so did several of the smaller surrounding buildings. ¡°So, why didn¡¯t you want me to transform into Blanchette? Why make me use the other face? I decided to call it Pino by the way.¡±

    <u>Pino?</u> SpookyErind linked her arm with mine and laid her head on my shoulder, her annoying floating hair tickling my nose. <u>A cute name.</u>

    She knew I hated physical contact, but I didn¡¯t mind her. I wanted my curiosity sated. ¡°Would Stella have defeated me if I fought her as the big bad wolf?¡± I said, trying to hold back a sneeze. ¡°She¡¯s like really strong; I bet she probably can. Yeah, I had no idea there was such a strong enemy around, but because I was using the Pino face, I was constrained to act more carefully.¡±

    <u>That might be it</u>, SpookyErind said in a tone that told me it was definitely not it.

    ¡°Or was it because you wanted me to try out this power and make new friends? Learn teamwork? Stuff like that?¡±

    <u>Hmmm¡­plausible.</u>

    ¡°How about this then; this is my best guess. You didn¡¯t want me to use the Blanchette face because if I had turned into a giant werewolf, Clive would''ve killed me.¡±

    <u>Maybe¡­</u>

    ¡°Both me and Stella actually. It won¡¯t matter if I can beat her or not because once the Corebrings see us on TV, they¡¯ll just see two bigass Adumbrae destroying the city and being a danger to everyone.¡±

    <u>That¡¯s a good guess too.</u>

    ¡°You wanted to save me from getting killed by Corebrings? Even if I focused on escaping, it would be unavoidable I¡¯ll fight and eat those monsters in my Blanchette form; I won¡¯t be able to stop myself from growing into the big bad wolf.¡±

    <u>Does it really matter what¡¯s the reason? </u>

    I shrugged my shoulders, bouncing her head. ¡°Just curious. Which of my guesses is correct?¡±

    She locked eyes with mine. I didn¡¯t break eye contact even though her eyes made my head swirl. <u>None</u>, she said. <u>But I¡¯ll tell you why since you¡¯re so hung up on it.</u> She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, waving her arms like there was some big reveal. <u>You see, my dear Erind, a lot of people are looking for your Blanchette form. Many people are expecting for you to show up all clad in sexy red, displaying your big, sharp teeth.</u>

    ¡°Huh? I don¡¯t under¡ªthere¡¯s the 2Ms looking for Blanchette. Who else?¡±

    <u> Isn¡¯t it funny then if Blanchette didn¡¯t show up?</u>

    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s funny.¡±

    <u>It is!</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯re pulling my leg or not¡­I really shouldn¡¯t try to understand you.¡± Either she didn¡¯t want to tell me, or there was some hidden clue here I didn¡¯t notice. ¡°I¡¯ll just assume you did it to save me from Clive.¡±

    <u>Sure, let¡¯s go with that.</u> She patted my head. <u>That makes me look caring.</u>

    ¡°I hate to admit it, but the teensy-weensy fact the Corebrings are in this city slipped my mind. I was so focused on what¡¯s in front of me I didn¡¯t realize the very real possibility that, assuming I defeated and ate the forces of the 2Ms, I¡¯d just die to Clive and his team.

    ¡°I did consider the BID coming, but I was sure I could escape when they arrived. I¡¯ll just pop back as Erind and they won¡¯t catch me. Clive is different though. If he just caught a glimpse of me¡­wait a minute¡­I remember he said they weren¡¯t supposed to save people because they were in some sort of secret mission. Why then did the Corebrings kill Stella?¡±

    SpookyErind had a huge grin on her face, seemingly enjoying my guessing game. <u>So many questions from you.</u> She raised a brow as if she was encouraging me to continue.

    ¡°I bet the three-hour-thing has something to do with helping me survive too. Am I right?¡±

    <u>You¡¯re really putting a lot of thought on this, way more than you needed to. </u>

    ¡°Well¡­anyway,¡± I said, letting it drop; it was obvious I wouldn¡¯t be getting any more information, ¡°you really helped me a lot. Err¡­thanks so much.¡± I cringed at my lame attempt of showing genuine gratitude. Usually, it was just automatic when I say ¡®thanks¡¯ or something, and I, more often than not, didn¡¯t mean it¡ªthat wasn¡¯t a trait of my kind; that¡¯s a trait shared by a majority of the human race. This time, however, I really did appreciate her help. Which was weird¡­was she already taking over me, changing how I thought? Or maybe I¡¯m just beginning to enjoy my life.

    <u>Give me a huge hug then!</u> She opened her arms wide.

    ¡°I¡¯m not¡ª¡±

    <u>Come on! I want you to initiate the hug.</u>

    ¡°Fine,¡± I groaned. I awkwardly wrapped my arms around her. ¡°Thanks again for the help.¡±

    <u>See, that wasn¡¯t so bad. I¡¯ll always help you because we¡¯re one and the same. Meyoumeyoumeyou.</u>

    ¡°Meyoumeyoumeyou,¡± I said along with her. We high-fived each other and then giggled. ¡°You admitted you were helping me.¡±

    She stuck her tongue at me and turned away, once again looking at the time-locked city in front of us. I also faced forward.

    I had no idea why, but it was relaxing to be with her. Perhaps because I could talk freely; there was no one I could talk to like this. Most of the time¡ªactually all of the time¡ªmy real thoughts were just in my head; they were filtered before coming out of my mouth.

    But with SpookyErind¡­hmmm¡­does this technically count as still talking inside my head?

    <u>Yes!</u>

    ¡°Wha¡ªhey! Cut that out!¡±

    SpookyErind threw her head back, laughing as I have never laughed, as I could never laugh. Like without a care in the world. Like the pure joy of a playful dog. I don¡¯t think I can do that.

    All the genuine laughter I had in my short life¡ªthe pitiful few, now that I think about it; I just realized I had more fake laughs than real ones¡ªwere not as unrestrained as hers. Not because there was something at the back of my mind¡ªpeople always had something at the back of their minds¡ªbut because I couldn¡¯t connect with myself, if that made any sense. I always felt I was an outsider to my own body. Whenever I laughed, it was like I was looking at myself from the outside, looking at another person laughing.

    The fuck am I thinking about now? I had no idea why my thoughts went this way. ¡°What¡¯s up?" I said. "We just met a few hours ago.¡±

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    <u>What do you think about everything you¡¯ve gone through just now?</u>

    ¡°Everything I¡¯ve gone through? Annoying? All my stuff is burned. Or are you asking me if I had some profound epiphany because of my experience?¡±

    <u>You said you had fun. </u>

    ¡°Can¡¯t deny that. This was the first time I met people in a life-or-death situation. Or second time if I counted Vanessa and her friends, but that was a different scenario. This time though, the emotions of these people trying to survive have more¡­impact? Not sure how to word that. I found it very comforting.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like emotional stuff at all, but this time, because it was connected to life and death, it felt real. I was sure people were presenting me with their true face, the face only shown when people are desperate to survive.¡±

    <u>How about you? Do you have that face?</u>

    ¡°No, not really. I wasn¡¯t desperate to live. I¡¯m supposed to be dead anyway; I¡¯m just living on borrowed time. Speaking of living on borrowed time¡­¡± I turned around, looking back at Myra kneeling beside my body. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, facing SpookyErind again. ¡°Did you see my Pino face though? I did enjoy playing a hero. And I saved, um, hmmm¡­I¡¯m not sure who¡¯s still alive.¡±

    <u>The important thing is you had fun.</u> She hugged me from the side. <u>I was just checking up on you. I figured we could watch the sunrise. It¡¯s nice it¡¯s rising at the correct spot.</u>

    ¡°What do you mean by that? It always rose up by the ocea¡ª¡± I blinked. The ocean wasn¡¯t that way. It was the other side of the city. Or was I just dreaming? I swore I always watched the sunrise rise over the horizon of the Pacific Ocean. ¡°What¡¯s going on¡ª¡±

    <u>Time for you to wake up.</u> She jumped off the rooftop, dragging me with her.

    ¡°The fuck?! Aaaa¡ª"

    <hr>

    ¡°Aaaah!¡± I sat up straight, my mind scrambling to compose itself. I tried calming my breathing down. ¡°What the¡­¡±

    ¡°Erind!¡± Myra said, shaking me. ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t do that,¡± said Johann.

    ¡°Uh, yeah, I¡¯m fine,¡± I said, massaging my temples. Everything was slowly coming back to me. ¡°Where are we? How did I get here? I don¡¯t¡­I don¡¯t¡­last thing I remember is that the building I was standing on collapsed¡­Got hit by Stella.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re on top of a building,¡± Johann began to say.

    ¡°She can see that,¡± Myra snapped. She grabbed my shoulders. ¡°Who was that who brought you here? That weird woman? She knew we¡¯re together. She could be danger¡ª¡±

    ¡°A Corebring.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°That was a Corebring,¡± I said. ¡°One of the guys who killed Stella.¡±

    ¡°A Corebring?¡± Myra and Johann looked at each other. ¡°Are you connected with her?¡±

    ¡°What? No. She saved me, dug me out of the rubble. She said she¡¯ll return me to my friends. I don¡¯t know anything else about her. I have no idea how she knew about us. She was probably watching¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not with the Corebrings? What are you then? Are you an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Myra¡­¡± Johann said.

    ¡°I think we deserve an answer now,¡± she said. ¡°We all thought you¡¯re just a normal girl. Innocent and unconnected to the bullshit of this world. Turns out I was right the first time¡ª¡± Johann elbowed her. ¡°What?¡± she spat at him.

    ¡°You should calm down,¡± he said. ¡°Erind¡¯s hurt and¡ª¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s hurt? Really? Her clothes are torn and dusty, so it seems her story about being in a collapsed building is true. There¡¯s even some blood on her clothes. But she doesn¡¯t have any injuries. Why is that, huh, Erind? You¡¯re not human, are you?¡±

    I looked down at myself. She was right. All of my injuries were already healed. I couldn¡¯t have healed my squished leg that quickly. Must¡¯ve been Trepanner¡¯s handiwork; I saw her use her healing powers before. Now, what was I going to say to these two?

    ¡°Were you playing with us the entire time?¡± Myra said, her voice steadily rising. ¡°Are you an agent of the Corebrings, pulling the strings for Mother Core only knows what fucking plan those guys have? Or are you an Adumbrae planning to take over our bodies? A lot of organizations in between that. Which one are you in?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about that. And didn¡¯t you see what just happen? The Corebrings are here.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t change the¡ª"

    ¡°Isn¡¯t your whole plan to keep the Corebrings away?¡± I yelled back at her. I already had a story prepared, but I didn¡¯t tell it yet. There was something amiss. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you more concerned? Deen became one of you because she wants to stop the Corebrings from attacking our country.¡±

    She glared at me, her cheeks tensed, her nostrils flaring.

    It was easy enough to understand. ¡°You lied to Deen?¡±

    ¡°No, we didn¡¯t,¡± Johann said, putting himself between us. ¡°This isn¡¯t the place¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s obvious it¡¯s a lie.¡±

    ¡°Myra!¡±

    ¡°What? She¡¯s playing with us. She knows more stuff than she¡¯s letting on.¡± Myra tried to shove Johann away but he didn¡¯t budge. He narrowed his eyes, daring her to use her super strength to push him aside. She sighed and looked at me. ¡°Why am I not more concerned? Why should I be? The Corebrings control this world. What do you think of them? Something like that 90s cartoons, what¡¯s it called? League of Heroes? Or you assume they¡¯re like the Corebrings in¡ªdamn, I forgot the name¡ªthat¡­that TV show? Just an organization that sends help when Adumbrae attack then they hide back in the Hive afterwards?"

    "Um..."

    ¡°That¡¯s stupid as hell. They sell weapons, they sell technology to corporations¡­to countries! They control powerful companies. They control a lot of those churches worshipping them even though they say they don¡¯t want to be worshipped as gods. They outright control some small countries, and surely have a big influence even in our government. Our president doesn¡¯t like the Corebrings, but they can bomb the White House and kill him and the US still won¡¯t go to war. Many politicians are on their side. And those that aren¡¯t? It¡¯s as easy as mind controlling them if needed.¡±

    My eyes widened at her revelation. Was this all true? It all sounded plausible. Someone with superpowers wouldn¡¯t just be like the heroes in movies. ¡°I didn¡¯t know¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t give me that confused look. They¡¯re demigods! You think they¡¯re just going to be like a plumber you call when there¡¯s an Adumbrae leak at your house? But you already know that, don¡¯t you? Miss Corebring¡­or Miss Adumbrae, whatever you may be.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right¡­I¡¯m not human.¡± I could transform and kill her right now. She was weakened by our whole ordeal while I practically slept through all of it. My body was also fully healed by Trepanner. If I really wanted to keep myself safe, I could grab Johann and take him hostage. But that wouldn¡¯t do, that wasn¡¯t enough.

    ¡°Obviously.¡± Myra folded her arms and frowned at me, waiting for me to explain.

    Rule #4 wasn¡¯t simply about revenge, it wasn¡¯t just about killing Myra because she tried to kill me. Gravity and theatrics; a simple death didn¡¯t fit that. I said, ¡°But I was human about a couple of weeks ago¡­¡±

    ¡°A couple of weeks ago?¡± she repeated. I could see on her face she was starting to piece it together.

    I had the script for several lies in my head, prepared to explain away my nature, to take advantage of them. But now, I suddenly had a brilliant idea. There was no need for lies here. This was the time for truth. ¡°Sixteen days ago to be exact," I said. "January twenty was the last day I was human.¡±

    ¡°January twenty...That was when Kelsey disappeared.¡±

    ¡°That was when you attacked me. When you tried to kill me.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything like that!¡±

    ¡°I saw you throw your spikes earlier. Your power is not just growing an armor of bark, you can make projectiles. You know who you hit with your spikes last January twenty?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± she whispered. It wasn¡¯t an answer to my question. It was a ¡®no¡¯ of disbelief.

    ¡°Me,¡± I said. ¡°You nearly killed me that day. You saw all that blood in the stairwell of Sanders Mall? In the corridor? In the locker room? All of that was my blood!¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡­didn¡¯t,¡± Myra stammered.

    ¡°What is this all about?¡± Johann asked her. ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t hit her because someone stopped you? Weren¡¯t you attacked by the woman in the red hood¡ª¡±

    ¡°But do you know why I didn¡¯t die?¡± I said, talking over Johann. ¡°Because someone offered to save me.¡±

    ¡°An Adumbrae,¡± she said.

    "What Adumbrae are you talking about?" Johann said.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. On that day, I became an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°The woman," she said, "with the fangs and the red hood¡­it was you all along.¡±

    Yes, the truth was, unironically, the best story to tell. ¡°It was me. That was the first time I transformed. I bit you in self defense. It was all because you nearly killed me¡­and you would¡¯ve killed me if it wasn¡¯t for the Adumbrae."

    She shook her head, slowly stepping backwards. "No...no...that''s not true."

    "You''re fighting against the Adumbrae. You want to save your sister from the Adumbrae. But look at what you did."

    "It can''t be. No way."

    "You''re the reason, Myra."

    "There''s no way that''s true!"

    "Because of you, I became an Adumbrae.¡±

 Authors Retrospective - Arc 3

    After six months, we finally finished Arc 3! Let¡¯s all congratulate ourselves, me for finishing it and following a two chapter per week release schedule, and you guys for being here through the Arc, which I know had a lot of ups and downs. A huge thank you to all of you readers who stuck around with the story.

    It¡¯s now time for the Author¡¯s Retrospective. A heads up that this is going to be very long, but I know some people enjoy reading this kind of stuff. This is not only to share information about the story, the background workings and all that, to you, the readers. This is also for me to be able to consolidate my thoughts and learnings so we can improve REND going forward.

    I wonder how many people clicked this thinking it was a quitting announcement or something. It¡¯s funny that the last Retrospective we did had way more views than other chapters just because non-readers were curious about it, probably assuming it was about an author quitting.

    Anyway, this arc has really been a challenge to write, but the important thing is that we¡¯re finished with the ¡°introduction¡± part of REND.

    <hr>

    Arcs 1-3 (Just Intro) ¨C Perhaps many of you have heard of types of plot outlines, especially those who are also writing their own stories. Essentially, they¡¯re templates for making the skeleton of a story. Even if you haven¡¯t heard of them, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve encountered sort of similar ways how stories with powers start.

    Tell me if this sounds familiar: we begin with the main character living their normal life; something strange happens that upends their normal life (essentially the world bothering the MC); the MC meets with someone/something who can teach him/her, as well as the readers, about the new world (joining an organization, a mentor, a system, magical item, a book, a prophesy, etc.); we learn and practice the powers and stuff like that; and then we begin the adventures/missions. This usually happens over the first few chapters/episodes of a story to establish everything early on.

    REND sort of follows that too. However, instead of just being a small part at the start, the introduction was stretched over three arcs and more than one year¡¯s worth of writing. (This story started May 20, 2020). Imagine super condensing Arcs 1-3, and it can essentially be the intro part of a book. We¡¯re just 16 days into the story!

    This is so that we (especially me as the writer) can have a solid foundation for Erind¡¯s character from which we can build her.

    <hr>

    Building from the ground up ¨C Most psychopaths we see in stories are already ¡°built¡± when they are presented. That¡¯s because they¡¯re usually the antagonists and not the main characters so they have to be end-game boss levels when they do show up. Besides some rare flashbacks and tidbits of info, we¡¯re usually not going to see these characters from before their journey to be the antagonist.

    On the protagonist/MC side, we do have ¡°psychopaths¡± who start from scratch in a sense, but most of them are not real psychopaths. I¡¯m referring to stories with homicidal/psychotic killers seeking revenge because they were betrayed/humiliated/oppressed/bullied ¨C you know those kinds of stories, revenge plots are very popular right now. Stories with real psychopaths as protagonists are very rare. It¡¯s rarer to find stories which explore the character development of psychopath protagonists, blending into society at the start, living a ¡°normal¡± life, and then gradually transforming. Why is that?

    These are reasons I came up with: 1) It¡¯s hard to write the character arc of a psychopath; 2) It will make them look less threatening/intimidating if readers see them from when they were being ¡°normal¡±; 3) Most readers won¡¯t be able to relate or understand, or even appreciate, their character arc anyway.

    We could''ve started REND far into the future when Erind is already a mastermind of an organization or something¡ªnot sure of what her future would be. It would¡¯ve been way cooler that way. However, I didn¡¯t do that. For one, I¡¯m not confident in writing Erind to be as great a character as I want her to be in the future. The key to that is joining her in her journey. I believe, and I hope it¡¯s true, that if I built Erind from the ground up, we''ll get an infinitely way better character. Even if it takes years of writing, I know it will be worth it in the future. That¡¯s also tied to what I said in the previous Retrospective about starting small.

    Speaking of the future of this story, let''s discuss the new revelations we had about the Corebrings.

    <hr>

    Revelations about the Corebrings ¨C Towards the end of this arc, we had two new pieces of information about the Corebrings.

    First is that they¡¯re not the usual hero organization we see in stories¡ªlike Justice League or the Avengers¡ªbut they actually control parts of the world through discreet means. I¡¯m not going in-depth discussing this now. Suffice to say this setup is not only meant as a reimagining of the usual concept of a hero organization but also a thought exercise on how a world would be if superheroes who actually cared about saving it are the ones running it from the shadows. Some (probably most) Corebrings don¡¯t think normally, but they do truly want to save the world. I¡¯m excited to explore this concept as we go along.

    The second revelation is that there are tons of worlds/dimensions out there. Corebrings help these other worlds fight off Adumbrae. And if it¡¯s not winnable, they will get the Mother Core of that world and abandon it. I''ll focus on this second one.

    I had many ideas for REND before settling on Erind. One of the earlier concepts for REND was set in a different world with the Corebrings from this world coming there to harvest the Mother Core.

    My main inspiration for this is Chronicles of Narnia. Maybe you¡¯re familiar with its second book: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. The story of the second book is a bunch of kids got summoned to another world by a god and then they adventure and fight to save it. Hey, it might be one of the earliest isekai stories that has the same ¡°formula¡± as the modern ones we got now.

    But it was the first book, the Magician¡¯s Nephew, that interested me the most. It has a place which has many, many portals leading to others worlds, including our own. These worlds are also very different from each other, you can even see new worlds being born or worlds about to end ¨C the main characters visited a dying world and Narnia, which is a new world. See the neat ideas in this old book? Considering this was published way back in 1955, you can actually say that the rise of isekai we got now is just a resurgence rather than a new thing. People back then got their isekai too!

    Besides Narnia, I was also inspired by Dune (although I¡¯m not going to tell in what way because it will spoil some things). From recent works, my inspiration is World Trigger. I¡¯m sure many of you who have read/watched World Trigger can spot some concepts here. But really, most of it is from the Chronicles of Narnia plus elements of Sci-Fi and ideas from the SCP foundation.

    What does this setup of different worlds mean for the future of REND?

    <hr>

    Longevity of REND ¨C I¡¯m sure you guys read tons of other webnovels/manga, and I¡¯m also sure many of them are long running, perhaps some ongoing for several years already. Webnovels, especially ones by amateur authors like me, usually don¡¯t have that much planning for the future. More often than not, they will reach its natural end¡ªlet¡¯s say they defeat the demon lord or reach the peak of cultivation¡ªbut because of demand from readers, the author will continue it, like making a new peak cultivation level for example, or like in the case of Naruto, they¡¯re fighting alien gods now (I don¡¯t follow it anymore).

    Anyway, I think it¡¯s clear what I¡¯m getting at here. With this setup of multiple worlds, we¡¯re not going to face that issue. We won¡¯t have any problems with scaling and asspulls because we have the setup for a very long story. We could technically start a ¡°brand-new¡± story with Erind in another world, and that could be a whole series in and of itself. I also plan to write other stories¡ªfor example, a mainstream fantasy adventure story¡ªand it¡¯s easy to put it on the other worlds that¡¯s just thinly connected to this one.

    With that, we have a rough view of the future of the story, and we¡¯re done with the introduction as well. Let¡¯s move on to the challenges writing this Arc before discussing why I wrote Arc 3. It would have been fine with Arc 1 and 2 as introduction. Plus, this arc is way different from the other two.

    <hr>

    Challenges in writing Arc 3 ¨C This can also be labelled as the challenges in writing a webnovel with different plotlines and multi-POV chapters of side characters. Webnovels are not a good media for that because of the scheduled release. With two chapters (or one) a week , it takes some time to progress a specific plotline because each of them has to be given time.

    That¡¯s why single thread linear stories like power progression (levelling up, cultivation, those kind of things) are the prevalent webnovel genre. It¡¯s easy to maintain them and keep the readers hooked all throughout even with staggered releases. Moreover, readers most likely can¡¯t appreciate or even remember something that happened several chapters ago¡ªprobably published a month or two ago¡ªin this or that plotline.

    Another problem is the reception of the side characters and their accompanying story threads. People will like some of them and dislike others. I know a lot of you didn¡¯t like the setup of Arc 3. I¡¯m with you on that, I personally don¡¯t like complicated stories with staggered release. But I will read them after they are already done (more on this later).

    Given these problems, why did I still go through with it? Essentially, I did it to experiment with many things, one of which is how readers connect with psychopath characters in webnovels. To get a better understanding of that, I think we should revisit a certain topic.

    <hr>

    Problems writing a psychopath main character in a webnovel ¨C By problems, I don¡¯t mean the challenges in writing per se, but more on the reaction of readers to psychopath MCs. I¡¯ve discussed some of this in the previous Retrospective and also with readers in the comments section of a few chapters, so some of you probably already know about this. I¡¯ll be going a bit more in-depth this time.

    Webnovel readers have an expectation of what a psychopath main character should be. Revenge plot stories with tons of gore/killing are what a majority of webnovel readers think when talking about psychopath main characters. However, most of those MCs are not psychopaths. For one, they were decent/normal people before getting betrayed (or whatever is the setup for revenge), then they transform into homicidal maniacs afterwards. Real psychopaths don¡¯t/can¡¯t change like that.

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Given this prevalent expectation of what ¡°psychopaths¡± should be in webnovels, REND encountered a lot of negative reaction¡ªand still continues to do so, but fortunately it has become much less, to the point of becoming tolerable. At the start, I didn¡¯t use the term psychopath at all because I don¡¯t want to be constrained by a ¡°textbook¡± definition of a psychopath and would rather like to let Erind¡¯s character grow on her own instead of ticking off a checklist. And in the story, Erind herself doesn¡¯t refer to psychopaths when she says her ¡°kind¡±.

    The problem is many people didn¡¯t understand REND has a psychopath MC and reacted negatively. I believe you can still see some of the comments in the early chapters and maybe some of the harsh reviews that weren¡¯t deleted by mods (I make it a rule not to report even the most stupid reviews; I did rant about one but I deleted the author¡¯s notes after like a week). Some of the fault was with me early on because I was still getting a feel of how to write Erind. I was still learning early on how to handle it, so it involved awkward self-reflective spiels that psychopaths wouldn¡¯t do.

    So, I edited parts of Arc 1 and explicitly put psychopath in the summary (even though I really didn¡¯t want to) to avoid confusion. And that was when readers specifically looking for psychopath webnovels came. Which then brought about a whole new wave of negative reaction because they were actually looking for revenge plot stories with psychotic killers and not a real psychopath main character.

    I pushed through all of that, as older readers would know, and just kept on writing. Eventually, some of those readers appreciated my depiction of a psychopath, changed their views, and stayed with REND, and I¡¯m thankful for that.

    Another challenge is when Erind actually does psychopathic things. Let¡¯s first discuss how the usual ¡°psychopath¡± MC webnovels handle morality. Whenever the MC do bad things (be it killing/injuring/using others), they will do it to either bad guys or random faceless people (this is mostly collateral damage), and the latter one is very rare.

    Why is it that these supposedly psychopath MCs only target bad people? That has something to do with self inserts. A vast majority of webnovel readers consume this media for enjoyment and escapism, which means self inserts; this is also the reason why most webnovels are power fantasies.

    That¡¯s not a bad thing; I enjoy most webnovels this way, and I¡¯m sure so do most of you. Unfortunately, it¡¯s not very advisable to self-insert into Erind. And here comes the problem. Revenge webnovels (which are usually labelled as psychopath MCs) are structured as self-insert stories. That¡¯s one of their main appeals. I think most readers are fine with self-inserting to MCs that do more vile things than Erind because they are doing it to the bad guys. There is something cathartic perhaps for a reader to get the ¡°revenge¡± while reading a webnovel which they can¡¯t get in real life against their problems.

    And so, many readers instinctively self-inserted into Erind when they tried REND, and became bothered when she does morally questionable things without regard to the line of good guys/bad guys.

    The most recent example of this which had a lot of impact on my readership is the chapter in Arc 3 where Erind kills Paolo¡¯s dad. A lot of readers got uncomfortable with that because Paolo¡¯s dad is an innocent bystander who was trying his best to survive, and Paolo and Julie pleaded with Erind to save him. Erind said yes, but actually killed him (he was already dying though).

    After that chapter, several followers dropped out (way more than usual fluctuation) and then a slew of negative ratings came in. There are also instances of this in Arc 1 and 2. Veteran readers know about this. With that, let¡¯s proceed to why I wrote Arc 3.

    <hr>

    Why write Arc 3?

    In connection with the discussion above, I wrote this arc to have normal people with bigger roles so there will be a divide between Erind¡¯s psychopathy and the emotions of normal people, hoping it will remedy some of the negative reaction to what she does. It is exhausting emotionally following Erind all the way, so I thought to test having this ¡°rest¡± by bringing in many side characters this arc.

    And given there is not much normal relatability with Erind, I hoped the side characters could help with that. Take for example Ramon, he was supposed to be a ¡°normal¡± MC type of character. If you analyze his path, he can really have a story on his own which is more in line with the usual story of getting superpowers in a dark themed story.

    A side goal is to practice my skills writing side characters, giving them life even though they appear in just some chapters, making sure they have an impact with the reader even though they¡¯ll most likely die this arc. That¡¯s another reason why there are tons of new characters this arc.

    I also wanted to explore the mind of a psychopath. Arc 3 is a survival horror genre. We have the side characters and Erind, and I¡¯m trying to see their differences. That¡¯s why it feels like there¡¯s like two or three different stories in one because Erind¡¯s POV is just way different.

    Let¡¯s take the exploration of fear for example. Recent studies show that, contrary to popular belief, psychopaths can feel fear. Their part of the brain that can activate fear is functional. However, it¡¯s their processing the appropriate response for dangerous situations that¡¯s impaired. So, Arc 3 has more explorations of life and death situations for Erind, comparing it with how side characters go through similar scenarios. We can contrast their character arcs and emotional development with Erind¡¯s.

    I consider Arc 3 an investment for the future. To explain this point, let¡¯s take Overlord, specifically Volume 4, the Lizardmen. I didn¡¯t like that volume when it started getting translated. The previous Volume 3 was about Shalltear¡¯s fight, so I was eager to learn more about Ainz¡¯s story. I really hated those Lizardmen and their story threads. Moreover, only parts of the chapter got slowly translated by unofficial sources (ehem), so it was more annoying. I just wanted to get over with it.

    I¡¯m sure many of you felt the same way with this arc. However, after several volumes of Overlord, and after rereading it a few times, I¡¯ve grown to like the Lizardmen volume. I rank it the second volume I like the most (top 1 is volume 9, war with the kingdom). The true experience of the lizardmen arc only came to me after reading it in one whole go.

    My theory is that many readers won¡¯t like this arc as it is getting written (turns out I was right). If I was a reader, I wouldn¡¯t like this either. But I¡¯m sure if this is completed, and there are arcs after this, people will like this a lot just how I came to like the Lizardmen arc of Overlord after rereading it.

    Based from the comments of new readers, those who came when the arc is about to get done, they do like this arc, so I guess I¡¯m on to something here. I just can¡¯t fully explain what. I guess, if we¡¯re comparing arcs to stocks, Arc 3 looks good on the portfolio, especially in the long run.

    <hr>

    Inspiration for Arc 3 ¨C At first, I wanted to do an Alice in Borderland thing, with puzzles and all that. But that¡¯s way above my skill level to write, and I have no idea how to make good puzzles. So, I switched over to this monster building experience, mostly influenced by Sweet Home and the tons of zombie infection movies. This is really a perfect setup for having lots of side characters.

    As for Erind¡¯s Pino face, it¡¯s obviously based on Pinocchio with an end timer of turning into a real boy (girl in this case). I tried to bring in elements of Snow White (having a prince in Ramon and saving the sleeping real body) and Pied Piper (mind controlling people and pulling them along) but I eventually dropped those and focused on Pinocchio theming. I think I didn''t need to have complicated it too much; it was fine to maintain the themes from Pinocchio and twist them like I did with Little Red Riding Hood. Although it really isn''t twisted here but more in line with the original version.

    Most are familiar with the Disney Pinocchio, not the original one. In the original, Pinocchio is really a brat, and the ending was him getting his comeuppance, with him left for dead. However, because of its popularity, Pinocchio was continued and eventually given a happy ending of turning him into a real boy. The thing is, everyone else he encountered along the way still retained the cruel fates they met and he didn¡¯t really pay for all the asshole things he did.

    In a way, that applies to Erind too, especially the ending where she came out unscathed, while others paid the price for her survival.

    <hr>

    Lessons learned ¨C Let¡¯s now discuss some of the things I learned writing Arc 3.

    Small audience - I have a niche webnovel and I shouldn¡¯t expect mainstream acceptance. A true psychopath MC is not for everyone, and I¡¯ve come to accept that. It¡¯s really a waste of time to worry about those who dislike this story because REND caters to a specific taste most people don¡¯t have.

    Of course, as a writer, I do want to have widespread audience. It¡¯s only normal. And since it¡¯s not possible with REND, my plan is to write another story (alongside this one) for more mainstream consumption. It will be set on one of the other worlds of REND and will be thinly related to the main story. I don¡¯t have much plans for it yet, but at least I can take comfort in the idea that I could make a story for general audience, and one for a niche audience.

    This is Erind¡¯s story - I¡¯ve also come to understand that my niche audience, you guys, do like Erind a lot and would like to have the story focused more on her. There¡¯s a mixed reception for the side characters, but I could say that everyone wanted more of Erind. Going forward, we¡¯ll focus more on her with the occasional side stories that will have much more impact.

    Erind affects the readers ¨C I¡¯m not sure how to phrase this, but I believe that Erind¡¯s psychopathy affects the readers. The best analogy for this is watching nature documentaries. For example, if it¡¯s a documentary about the lion, we will cheer the lion hunting a gazelle. But if it was a documentary about the gazelle, we will be sad if the gazelle gets eaten by the lion.

    Let¡¯s go back to the scene of the death of Paolo¡¯s dad. The nature documentary analogy isn¡¯t going to apply that well here; readers are not going to cheer Erind killing Paolo¡¯s dad compared to if she¡¯s fighting a bad guy for example. However, many readers are more ¡°accepting¡± of what happened.

    There¡¯s a certain disconnect with emotions in that scene. It was supposed to be an emotional scene for Paolo and Julie, but Erind was thinking about other stuff and it influenced the readers. I think many readers did have a jarring time reading that, and I found that interesting. We should have more scenes like those.

    Plotting ¨C Arc 3 really had a shaky start especially when we started introducing various story threads with the side characters. Personally, I was concerned with pulling it all together. In the end, I think I did a pretty good job wrapping up this arc.

    There are several setups here that I¡¯m proud of (like that metal box, Erind being able to control her puppets, Finlay''s shenanigans). Most webnovel writers aren''t planners/outliners, especially hobby ones like me writing in our free time; we barely scrape by the next chapter. Still, I¡¯m happy with how I plotted Arc 3 given the constraints.

    Writing myself into a corner - This is related to above with plotting exciting story threads and scenes; perhaps this is more with action scenes. I got this idea from Wildbow (writer of Worm and other famous webnovels). He writes himself into a corner and then plans how to get out of it with what¡¯s available to the character. Compare this with planning everything first so you already know how the characters solves the situation before you write it. I liked this idea because it gives a different feel to the scene; like there is desperation and survival in it. Or, it makes the scene have more impact. It¡¯s kind of hard to explain.

    A good example of this is in Erind and Doms vs the gorilla monster. I liked that fight a lot and I think many of you also liked it. I only thought of things like jamming her own hand into the gorilla¡¯s throat, etc. (the kind of things one can do with detachable body parts) after I had written Erind getting beat up by the gorilla.

    Another example is when Erind first encountered Finlay. I, as the author, knew about Finlay and his puppets, but Erind doesn¡¯t. I had to figure out a way for Erind to discover it and win the situation.

    I think the best example for this is the ending of Arc 3. Erind said she had many fake stories to sell to Myra, but at the last minute, she realized that the best path in that situation is telling her the truth. That is exactly what happened to me. I had a different ending for the Arc, Erind is telling Myra a fake story, but I feel like it doesn¡¯t really solve the situation. And that was when it hit me, Erind should just tell the truth. Scenes written through this method really have a different feel to it.

    <hr>

    And that wraps up this Author¡¯s Retrospective.

    Thank you so much for being with me through this journey. I don''t think I would''ve continued REND after getting tons of negative reaction if you guys are not here. Many webnovel readers seem to forget that I''m just a guy writing in my spare time, putting a lot of effort into making a different kind of webnovel without any payment. A lot of thanks to those who rate and especially those who take their time and review the story.

    That said, for those who haven''t done it yet, I''d appreciate it if you do leave a rating/review if you like REND. Thanks in advance. Besides rating and reviewing, it would really help out a lot if you recommended this story to people who you think will like REND. It would be a huge help in making our niche reader community grow.

    Onwards to Arc 4!

 4.1

    The small breakfast nook by the kitchen area of Deen¡¯s house was cozy as fuck, it could¡¯ve been straight out of an interior design magazine. With a laptop in front of me, a phone on one side¡ªboth of which I borrowed from Deen¡ªand a cup of chamomile tea and French toast on the other¡ªI already ate most of the crust¡ªit was the perfect place for my first online class this wonderful Thursday morning¡ªInternational Law. It was almost too relaxing that the absolute shitfest I went through seemed like a distant memory even though it was only a day ago.

    I really do move on quickly.

    This class, even if it was Professor Gallagher¡¯s, wasn¡¯t too taxing. He couldn¡¯t do his usual schtick of continuously grilling us, calling student after student and battering them with questions, because he wasn¡¯t used to looking at a screen with all our faces while keeping track of who was reciting.

    Not for the lack of trying though, but he did give up pretty quickly and settled with a good old boring lecture with an occasional student giving a summary of the case being discussed or defining a concept. He shouldn¡¯t be so demanding because this was just a make-up class. Our usual schedule on Wednesday was cancelled because of the whole Adumbrae attack thingy.

    Which was fortunate because I spent the entire day yesterday sleeping.

    Peterson, one of my classmates, droned on my earphones, reciting about the Duerr case. Listening absentmindedly, I stroked the crystals on my palm with my thumb. The crystalline growth was spreading. Before, I could use one pimple patch to cover it, now I needed three plus heavy make-up. I hoped Johann came up with something for this before I get tested later; it was in his interests to help me.

    I stopped fingering my palm and, to distract myself, gazed at the well-landscaped garden outside the curved window walls to my left, appreciating the plants soaking up the rays of the sun. Their shadows extended towards me, slowly shrinking as the sun moved across the sky above.

    Is the sun supposed to rise on this side?

    My eyes shifted to the ten-foot-tall evergreen shrubbery behind the backyard fence hedging the property, trying to get a glimpse of what was beyond them. I wasn¡¯t good with directions, but I was mostly certain the ocean wasn¡¯t that way. The sun always sets by the Pacific Ocean.

    Everyone here knows that.

    But why was I thinking about the ocean and the sunrise? I wasn¡¯t the beachgoing type whether the sun rose or set there. There was a tiny nibble at the back of my mind telling me there was something important I forgot. It was irritating I couldn¡¯t remember, like a dream fading away as soon as you woke up. Maybe my subconsciousness was telling me to get a tan? I hadn¡¯t been to the beach since I started law school.

    When everything calmed down, I could go sunbathing. Hopefully, Trepanner¡¯s seagulls weren¡¯t at the beach.

    I shrugged and returned my attention to the class. As I adjusted the angle of the laptop so the sunlight wouldn¡¯t reflect off the screen, a small message popped at the bottom of it. ¡°Are you okay wearing that?¡±

    It was from Deen. She waved as I looked over her direction. She sat on a plush armchair in the living room area. The place was modern in its design, with the living room, dining area, as well as the kitchen all in one long open space, so I could see her even if she was on the opposite end of the house.

    Both of us were in Professor Gallagher¡¯s class and listening through earphones, yet she still insisted to sit apart so we could supposedly concentrate better¡ªDeen, ever the model student. She even took notes with a pen and paper.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine with your clothes,¡± I typed back.  I don¡¯t have much choice anyway. Deen let me raid her closet and I just threw a red plaid blazer over the clothes I wore to bed last night¡ªshirt and pants maybe a size or two bigger than mine which I also borrowed from her. I didn¡¯t have any other clothes and I was too bummed to shop. I wasn¡¯t even sure if stores were open yesterday.

    Comparing it with Deen¡¯s outfit, she looked more ridiculous than me, with a dark corporate blazer over her light blue blouse while still wearing her pajama shorts. At least she realized there was no point changing her shorts since our classmates would only see the upper half of our bodies. But then again, there was also no need for her to go all out fixing her hairstyle and putting on makeup just for a freaking online class.

    ¡°Do I look bad on camera?¡± I added. Deen was unsurprisingly immaculate on screen; she could be a supermodel who lost her way and accidentally joined our online class. I squinted at my laptop, remembering I should''ve a bit of trouble with my sight, then I turned to her. She hurriedly shook her head and signed we should listen to the class.

    Whatever, she messaged me first. I didn¡¯t look too bad with oversized clothes; it was barely noticeable. And my face was just plain as usual minus the glasses.

    Fuck it, I had to buy clothes and fake glasses¡­along with the tons of other shit I lost. Including all my expensive law books! Losing my stuff in a fire and then moving in with Deen¡­this felt familiar. D¨¦j¨¤ vu¡­that uncanny feeling you¡¯ve experienced already something, even when you know you haven¡¯t. This was it, right?

    Hang on¡­I have experienced this before¡­

    This wasn¡¯t d¨¦j¨¤ vu; this was history fucking repeating itself. And it¡¯s worse this time!

    Not only did I lose all my stuff, I also lost my home. Was I doomed to forever getting my life plagued by fires?

    All the hassle I was in for didn¡¯t sink in yesterday because I was just so done with the world. Like I was too spent to think about anything.

    Once our group was reunited in this house¡ªminus Myra who bolted because she was a bitch who couldn¡¯t handle the truth, and Dario who said he was attending to some ¡®business¡¯¡ªwe¡ªbeing me and Johann¡ªtold the others a sanitized version of Myra saving me. We left out a lot of the other parts of the story like me being an Adumbrae, Myra trying to kill me before, and their lies to Deen. Johann told me beforehand that Emcee and Oberon also believed the same story they told Deen about why they were fighting the 2Ms.

    He did promise to tell me the full story when we had the time. That piqued my curiosity.

    On Deen¡¯s side, she detailed her escape with the help of her Guardian Angel. She got out of the house and ran away a few minutes before the men of the 2Ms arrived so she got a nice head start. Fortunately, her sister was at her boyfriend¡¯s place as usual so she didn¡¯t need to worry about her. Even though Deen was outnumbered, having a prescient pet was a huge plus in escaping. Eventually, Emcee and Oberon arrived to fight off the assholes hunting her.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Deen messaged me. ¡°Is it your eyes?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine,¡± I replied. My annoyance at losing my stuff probably showed on my face. I scrunched my nose and sighed. I¡¯m going to listen in class now. I straightened up, my hands poised over my keyboard, ready to type my notes.

    ¡°Thank you for that, Mr. Peterson,¡± Professor Gallagher said with barely audible words, his microphone sounding like a relic from World War II. ¡°You may sit¡ªdamn it. I forgot. Anyhow, that¡¯s the Duerr case. To summarize, the government was under no obligation to follow the Vienna Convention and inform the German Consulate that the US has detained German nationals suspected of being an Adumbrae.

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    ¡°Scratch that. Not mere suspicion, but confirmed Adumbrae. Which is why the Duerr family was summarily executed after the required tests under our laws. Germany sued our government before the International Court of Justice and argued that under the Vienna Convention they should¡¯ve been informed so they could¡¯ve extended consular assistance to the Duerrs.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± I muttered as the vibrating phone shook the table. I raised my brow at the number displayed on screen. It was Mom''s. I made sure I was muted on my online class before answering the call. I didn¡¯t pick up the phone, instead turning it on loudspeaker and covering my mouth so I¡¯d look like I was dutifully listening in class. ¡°Hello, Mom. How are you?¡±

    ¡°Erind sweetie! At last, we finally get to talk with each other. I was so worried. Where are you right now?¡±

    ¡°Mooom, you don¡¯t have to worry about anything. I told you yesterday I¡¯m fine. I¡¯m still here at Deen¡¯s place. I did promise you I''m not going out until it was safe.¡±

    We texted each other yesterday. I wasn¡¯t planning to at first because I was so tired and didn¡¯t want to spend energy dealing with Mom. She¡¯d be all hysterical and difficult. But if she saw on the news my condo was totaled, she¡¯d panic. And if she couldn''t contact me because my phone was probably burned or squished by rubble, she''d raise all hell. So, I texted her I left my phone behind at my condo because, last minute, I decided to stay overnight at Deen¡¯s place to rush a group project...and luckily avoided the Adumbrae attack. I also told her I wasn¡¯t feeling well and that she could call me the next day.

    ¡°Obviously I¡¯m going to worry,¡± she said indignantly. ¡°What kind of mother won¡¯t worry if their daughter nearly got caught in an Adumbrae attack? Many people died! Are you watching the news?¡±

    ¡°No, I haven¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°You should watch it. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll recognize some of the casualties. Residents of your condo! Praise be the Mother Core she guided you to safety. And tell Deen thank you from me too.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mom. I will. She¡¯s studying now so I don¡¯t want to bother her.¡±

    While Mom fussed about me, Professor Gallagher continued with his lessons, ¡°As was discussed by Mr. Peterson, the ICJ gave two reasons in support of their decision in favor of the US and against Germany. One: Adumbrae weren¡¯t human so they didn¡¯t have the right to consular assistance. Two: Invoking the Article on the Security Council, deeming the US has an obligation to quickly execute the Adumbrae regardless of their nationality.

    ¡°The first reason wasn¡¯t discussed all that well because this line of thinking, which is prevalent now, wasn¡¯t dominant back then. Remember, this was a decade and a half after the war. Now, most laws in place regarding Adumbrae do not consider them human. Keep that in mind when we¡¯re discussing old cases.¡±

    I zoned both of them out until I heard Mom say, ¡°¡ªin three days.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you¡¯re coming here?¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes, dear. I want to check up on you personally. Find you a good and safe place to stay, buy you furniture and clothes. Just like we did when you moved there, remember? I know you¡¯re supposed to be an independent woman, you don''t want your mom going there, those kind of things, but I still want to make sure my sweetie is secure.¡±

    ¡°In three days?¡±

    ¡°I wanted to go there right now, but unfortunately I have to get some certifications since the US is upping the security. And I have to settle things with the convention. Cheryl has been very helpful. You remember her? She¡¯s my assistant¡ª¡±

    ¡°Your convention hasn¡¯t started yet, right?¡± I recalled she said a couple of weeks ago that it was to be held in Switzerland in about a month¡¯s time. ¡°You¡¯re not going to attend?¡±

    ¡°I will. But I have to see my precious daughter first. I¡¯ll spend a few days with you then fly to Switzerland. I already have everything planned out.¡± She went on about stuff we were going to do, the presents she was going to bring, and if there was anything I wanted¡ªthe usual Mom stuff. ¡°Are you okay with that, dear?¡±

    ¡°Yep. See you in three days,¡± I said with fake excitement.

    ¡°Take care. Love you.¡±

    I blinked, stared at Professor Gallagher¡¯s face on screen, then at my classmates, before replying, ¡°I love you too. Bye, Mom.¡± Technically, that wasn¡¯t true. I wasn¡¯t sure how real love felt so I couldn¡¯t say for sure I loved her. It was simply a part of the image of being a good daughter to reciprocate whenever Mom said she loved me¡ªthere shouldn¡¯t be any problem with that. It was just similar to other generic and automatic replies I gave to Mom and everyone else, but it always gave me a pause before I told her that I loved her too.

    ¡°Was that your mom?¡± The ding of Deen¡¯s message knocked me out of my reverie.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I answered. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you about it later.¡±

    ¡°And if there¡¯s no questions,¡± Professor Gallagher boomed in my earphones, ¡°we¡¯ll be moving on.¡± He waited a few seconds, but everyone knew no one was going to¡ª

    ¡°Sir, I have a question.¡±

    I could see all my classmates reacting, some even violently, when one of us dared to prolong the lesson. It was funny seeing everyone intently looking at their screens, perhaps for the first time this whole session, looking for the culprit. Professor Gallagher himself was also surprised someone voluntarily participated in his class.

    It turned out it was Sherle. ¡°Sir, I remember our discussion a couple of weeks ago about Corebrings not being bound by laws,¡± she said. ¡°Um¡­what happened¡­the Titan Adumbrae attacking our city. It was the Corebrings who killed it. But I read somewhere¡­um, just speculations online, the Corebrings did it in breach of the Protocol? They arrived too fast for it to be in response to a request for aid from our government. If they caused collateral damage, how would we hold them liable?¡±

    ¡°The simple answer, Ms. Oakley, is that we don¡¯t and we can¡¯t. I recall an instance when Ms. Hartwell was reciting¡­where are you, Ms. Hartwell? What did you say that time?¡±

    ¡°Here, sir!¡± I waved at my camera to catch his attention. ¡°I said we can¡¯t sue superhumans who can grind cities to dust. And, sir, you told me not to answer that in the bar exams.¡±

    Deen sent me a smiley face, to which I replied with an emoticon with its tongue sticking out.

    ¡°Precisely, Ms. Hartwell. Thank you for that.¡± Professor Gallagher cleared his throat. ¡°The textbook answer though, Ms. Oakley, is the concept of eminent immunity of the Corebrings. It is a recent formulation compared to diplomatic immunity from ancient times, or its modern conception in the 17<sup>th</sup> century. That should suffice as an answer for now, and we will discuss it more when we reach the section of our syllabus on the Hive.¡±

    ¡°But is it true, sir, that the Corebrings violated the Protocol?¡± This time it was Troy. Some of our classmates were nodding or shaking their heads, clearly interested on the subject matter and had their own opinions on it.

    ¡°Mr. Bendale,¡± Professor Gallagher said. ¡°I believe the BID already had an official statement on that yesterday. They sent an urgent request and the Corebrings were able to respond quickly through a Gate.¡±

    ¡°A Gate?¡± Charles said in surprise. ¡°Isn¡¯t he asleep¡ª¡±

    ¡°That is the official explanation, Mr. Narvaez. There was no violation of Protocol. And if there was, what could we do?¡± The Professor shrugged. ¡°Chuck it up to some legal fiction of Corebring immunity to cover the true fact we don¡¯t have the power to enforce the Protocol if need be. History shows us that international law can only go so far depending on the powers of individual states. Our country certainly has thrown its weight around in the past. At present, however, the certain truth is that the Hive is the most powerful state on the face of this earth. Class dismissed.¡± He began rattling off our assignments while everyone pondered the weight of his words.

    Everyone knew the Corebrings were powerful. And before my ¡®heart-to-heart¡¯ talk with Myra¡ªif one could call it that¡ªI¡¯d assume that, despite their power, they just acted like how they were depicted in shows: they only showed up when there was trouble with the Adumbrae.

    But now that I knew the truth, Professor Gallagher¡¯s statement has a different meaning to me.

    ¡°Erind? Hello?¡±

    ¡°Oh, Deen,¡± I said. I didn¡¯t notice her approaching me, her laptop tucked under her arm. She already removed her blazer so I followed suit. ¡°Sorry, I¡­I¡¯m just a bit tired.¡±

    ¡°Do you want to rest first? You could sleep for half an hour or so before our next class. We''ll meet with them around lunchtime.¡±

    I knew the ¡®them¡¯ she was talking about. ¡°All of us will attend?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I think so. Dario said everyone will come. We¡¯re not going to meet at our base because it¡¯s too conspicuous going there. We¡¯ll just have a nice lunch at Cindy¡¯s. It should be fast because we¡¯re going to the police station to get you tested afterwards.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± So Myra was going to be there too. Interesting. We wouldn¡¯t be able to talk just yet, but I did want to see her reaction. ¡°I think I¡¯m going for a nap.¡± I need to be well-rested for the long day ahead of me.

 4.2

    ¡°Is it fixed now?¡± I asked Deen after the front door clicked, locking behind us. It had been broken open by the goons of the 2Ms when they were looking for her.

    ¡°Uh-huh,¡± she said. ¡°Sis dropped by yesterday while you were asleep. Called the repairmen to fix it. They also replaced the glass and other broken stuff.¡±

    ¡°Oh, too bad I didn¡¯t meet her. I really want to thank your sister for letting me stay here again. She always goes off to some place when I¡¯m around. Is she getting annoyed with me?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± She led the way to her car. ¡°I¡¯m sure she doesn¡¯t mind you¡¯re here. Most of the time I don¡¯t even know where she is.¡±

    ¡°Did she say anything else? Like¡­uh, did she believe the story that someone wanted to rob your place?¡±

    ¡°She did. Or maybe she didn¡¯t care enough whether it¡¯s true or not?¡± Deen shrugged, bouncing her pale golden hair on her shoulders. ¡°It does look like a robbery for what it¡¯s worth. I considered throwing away a few valuables to make it look more authentic, but I didn¡¯t want to rip the TVs off the walls; real robbers would¡¯ve taken those. In the end, I didn¡¯t bother. Sis just thinks they were scared off when Adrian dropped me from a party I made up. I should tell him to cover for me.¡±

    ¡°A fake party?¡±

    ¡°It was the first thing that came to mind. Luckily¡ªhmm, or perhaps also not¡ªthose assholes quickly realized I jumped over the fence and escaped through the back, so they didn¡¯t ransack the house trying to look for me. That would¡¯ve been such a mess¡­literally.¡±

    ¡°Assholes?¡± I snorted, trying to keep a chuckle down.

    ¡°What?¡± She put her hands on her hips, frowning at me from the other side of her car. ¡°Did I say something wrong?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t recall you ever using the word ¡®asshole¡¯. Have you ever cursed before?¡±

    ¡°I do! It¡¯s just that I don¡¯t want to. How about you? I haven¡¯t heard you curse in like ever.¡±

    ¡°Very rarely. Anyway, good thing those assholes didn¡¯t decide to spray your house with bullets, and just broke in like regular kidnappers. It¡¯s going to be hard to explain to your sister if your house got turned into Swiss cheese.¡±

    ¡°I never thought I¡¯d ever hear something like that in an actual conversation,¡± she said. ¡°And I agree with it. That reminds me, I also told Sis you were there at the party too. Don¡¯t forget it when she asks you, although she probably won¡¯t. I told her I asked you to stay over because there was news of an Adumbrae attack, and it turned out the Adumbrae destroyed your place, so now you¡¯re here with us.¡±

    ¡°I will,¡± I said. It was a different story than what I told Mom so I shouldn¡¯t mess these up. ¡°Thanks again for everything, Deen. I appreciate it.¡±

    ¡°This is what besties do.¡± After starting the car, she checked her appearance on her phone¡¯s camera.

    I absentmindedly copied her. I didn¡¯t actually mean to do it; I was just on auto-pilot mode. In this state, I just do the most generic thing to fit in, and, given the situation, I obviously had to mimic her ¡®grooming habits¡¯ to be part of ¡®the herd¡¯¡ªnot sure if that animal behavior analogy explained it well. She looked me over. I cut her off before she could say anything, ¡°I¡¯m fine with your clothes, really.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re not too loose, are they?¡±

    ¡°A bit¡­can¡¯t really help that. Isn¡¯t it trendy to wear billowy clothes nowadays?¡±

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m not that big,¡± she poked my side while driving.

    ¡°I¡¯m just saying I¡¯m small.¡±

    ¡°We could go shop¡ª"

    ¡°Nuuu, we don¡¯t have time to shop. They¡¯re probably already waiting for us at Cindy¡¯s. And I don¡¯t have money.¡±

    ¡°I already told you I¡¯m going to lend you,¡± said Deen. ¡°It¡¯s no big deal. Or you can just think of it as a gift.¡±

    ¡°A gift to celebrate I survived¡­all of that?¡± I said, grinning at her reflection on the rear-view mirror. Does she seem a bit nicer than usual? It might be because she got off quite lightly compared to me. My condo was attacked by the Adumbrae of the 2Ms, while only normal dudes with guns chased after her. Tons of people around me were turned into monsters, my home was destroyed and I lost everything, and so on.

    I knew it was normal for people to be nice to those who suffered misfortune¡ªI did copy that attitude a lot; very nice social optics. Besides empathy¡ªwhich I couldn¡¯t relate to¡ªI theorized people behaved this way because they were relieved the bad thing didn¡¯t happen to them. But there was something different I sensed here. If I had to guess, I''d say Deen was compensating because she felt, between the two of us, she should¡¯ve been the one to suffer more instead of me; she was supposed to be the hero, after all.

    Just a weird vibe I was getting from her.

    We continued on our way, just two girls going to have lunch with their friends. Nothing to see here people, move along.

    I found it relaxing to engage Deen in these mundane fake conversations, like about clothes, law school, also about Mom visiting. She was especially excited to meet my mother¡ªI wasn¡¯t. Just a nice and uncomplicated face of a friend. After using all sorts of faces since that fateful day of nearly getting killed by Myra, I realized I missed the simple life.

    For all I knew, Deen might be making a sort of face for me too, pushing to talk like this to have some sense of normalcy in her life. Or maybe not? Maybe she had already adopted to this new life that she wasn¡¯t fazed anymore and thus could talk like this in a relaxed way.

    ¡°There are cops,¡± I hissed, interrupting Deen wondering if the foot spa place she liked was open. A patrol car rolled down the other side of the street. It didn¡¯t have its sirens or lights on. I tightly closed my right hand, then relaxed when the crystals grated against each other. Were they looking for me? I don¡¯t think so. ¡°Are they coming to your house?¡±

    ¡°No, they shouldn¡¯t be,¡± Deen said. ¡°We didn¡¯t report the break-in. Sis told me to, but I didn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Why are they here then?¡±

    ¡°I think¡­hmm¡­they should be going to the club¡ªsee, there they go,¡± she said as the cops turned left, climbing up the winding road to the clubhouse in the middle of Verde Hills. It was the common area for this gated community, with the pool, restaurants, a bar, the usual amenities for rich folk.

    ¡°Did something happen there?¡±

    ¡°I guess I didn¡¯t elaborate yesterday. When I said Everett and Reo fought the men of the 2Ms, it was¡­¡±

    ¡°A big fight?¡±

    ¡°In a way. They decided to fight back at the clubhouse because no one was there at that late an hour. Everett got slightly overeager and even killed a few of them.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± I said. He must have been pretty angry they were attacking his beloved Deen. ¡°Why did he do that? That¡¯ll really draw the cops here. They¡¯ll investigate and¡ª¡±

    ¡°We thought of that, don¡¯t worry. Everett used his power to¡­dispose of the bodies,¡± she said, her voice getting weaker towards the end.

    ¡°Eh? What do you¡­Oh, he burned them to ashes?¡±

    She nodded slightly, as if she didn¡¯t want to expose me to the horrors of what they did. ¡°Like you said, the cops will come. Better they see something like a vandalism incident at the clubhouse than actual dead bodies. I¡¯m surprised they only came now. Probably busy with everything else. Compared to an Adumbrae attack, whatever happened here is low priority. But if there were dead bodies, cops might¡¯ve came sooner.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just a bit extreme, isn¡¯t it?¡±

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    ¡°If we left the dead bodies as is, it''ll even draw more attention to this place. Don¡¯t forget, we¡¯re living here.¡±

    ¡°I guess so¡­¡± I tilted my head, showing hesitation in agreeing with their decision. Of course, I would¡¯ve done something similar in their place, but I had to be the outsider here. Deen nonchalantly talking about dead bodies was also so eerie; I didn¡¯t expect this from her at all. And I came to believe I had a fair grasp of her personality. Maybe she was changing? Aren¡¯t we all?

    Speaking of cleaning up our tracks, I finally thought about the fate of Ramon, Lizzie, and Julie. I surprised myself it took me this long to care about them again. There was a chance Ramon and Lizzie were killed by the BID clearing the other monsters which escaped the collapsed condo. I had seen on TV many of them crawled out of the ruins. Even if those two were alive, I was sure they''d be in hiding and posed no threat to me.

    But what about Julie? She knew who I was. Did Ramon take her to hide with them? Or did he leave her by the police station or something?

    I kind of regretted that I didn¡¯t kill her back then, or just left her to die¡­but only a smidge. I badly wanted her to survive as sort of a victory for my supposedly heroic Pino face. It was a win¡ªor more like a consolation prize looking at the big picture¡ªso, congrats to past Erind. Now present me will be dealing with the consequences.

    I¡¯ll just bring it up in the meeting later that we should look for her. They¡¯d all want to help because it affected the whole group too.

    The traffic slowed to a crawl as we drove along Romeo Drive, perhaps the busiest shopping street in the city. Deen turned to me while we stopped in front of a red light. ¡°Erind?¡±

    ¡°No, we¡¯re not shopping here,¡± I said.

    ¡°I¡¯m not talking about shopping. It¡¯s just¡­you seem worried.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not,¡± I said, which was true. I was just preoccupied with my thoughts. Is she projecting on to me? But I spoke in such a way that would deliberately make her think my mind was weighed down. Anything to gain sympathy helps in the long run with whatever plan I¡¯d concoct in the future. ¡°What made you say that?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re a bit quiet.¡±

    ¡°Come on, you know I¡¯m the quiet type. I¡¯m just talkative when you¡¯re around.¡± I missed these times of socially manipulating people here and there instead of fighting for my life.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to take the test later if you¡¯re not ready,¡± Deen said, mistakenly assuming what I was thinking. ¡°Just rest for now. I know you went through a lot. We got time. Remember what Johann said?¡±

    ¡°I do,¡± I replied. He told us yesterday that when he and Myra went to the security control room of my condo hoping to find me using the security cameras, they found that the 2Ms¡¯ men hijacked it and destroyed most of the recordings there. He also tried to erase what he could. Anything left would certainly be gone given the building burned and collapsed. ¡°But they will eventually find a list of the condo residents,¡± I said, ¡°including me. Maybe they have it now. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s some big secret who lives there.¡±

    ¡°The property manager can provide a list of only the owners of the units, right? And you¡¯re just a lessee. I assume a number of the units there aren¡¯t occupied by the registered owners but also rented out like your unit.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about that¡­¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s say they somehow put together a list of people who were supposed to be there that night. They still have to sift through the rubble and identify the dead bodies to find out who¡¯s missing¡ªI don¡¯t know how they¡¯ll do that with the ones who mutated, or the people who were eaten. Only then can they start to look for you. It¡¯s going to take a long time. You can put off going to the police station for a few days at the least if you¡¯re still not ready for it.¡±

    Yep, I thought, Deen was really changing. It made me wonder how I changed since that day we met Kelsey. Could I even change? I said, ¡°Deen, I still think it¡¯s best for me to do this as soon as possible. I¡¯m already continuing on with my life¡­our classmates saw me in class. It''ll be weird and suspicious if I didn¡¯t come forward now. I think I also need to go to the police before getting new credit cards.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± Deen said, snapping her fingers. ¡°I forgot about that. I¡¯ll just be here to support and help you¡­always. You don¡¯t have anything to worry about.¡±

    ¡°I know you are,¡± I said, smiling at her. ¡°And I appreciate it.¡±

    <hr>

    As we pulled in the parking area of Cindy¡¯s, we spotted the hero-wannabe gang. They occupied a table at the outside sitting area of the restaurant, hiding beneath the wide shade of a bright red patio umbrella from the hot California sun high above, an odd day out the usual mildly warm February weather.

    ¡°Deen, Erind!¡± Everett, or Emcee if we were on a mission, waved at us. His strong Mediterranean features broke into a friendly smile. I internally smirked when I noticed he was wearing extremely tightfitting clothes. Trying to impress Deen with his muscles as usual? Although, he should have bonus points by now for actually saving her. His natural olive-toned skin made me think about getting a tan at the beach again¡ªand reminded me there was something amiss connected with the sun and the ocean.

    ¡°Hello, ladies,¡± said Reo, codename Oberon. ¡°Ohayo!¡± He stood up with his arms wide open. He wasn¡¯t wearing his usual leather attire¡ªprobably a death sentence in this heat¡ªchoosing to don a loose jersey that revealed his pale arms. Instead of his signature ponytail, a bandana tied as a headscarf held back his long black hair. ¡°I missed you guys so much. Come and give me a hug¡ª" Myra kicked his shins. ¡°Ow! The fuck, you used your actual strength on me.¡±

    ¡°Because you¡¯re being a creep,¡± Myra, also known as Barb, retorted. She appeared a bit under the weather with heavy bags under her eyes and pale lips. ¡°I was holding myself back from breaking your bones.¡± The blue color of her hair was brighter, like it was newly dyed; her bangs were trimmed and her normally shoulder-length hair was an inch shorter. Did she go to the salon after our encounter? Or did she do this herself? Such a weird reaction.

    ¡°How is that being a creep?¡± Reo sat down and massaged his leg. ¡°I¡¯m the most gentlemanliest guy ever in the whole wide world.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, right. And Santa Claus is a Corebring.¡± She nodded in our direction as a greeting but didn¡¯t look at us. Or at me, to be more specific. ¡°Hey, guys,¡± she muttered.

    ¡°You¡¯re crazy,¡± he said. ¡°Anyway, ladies. Have a seat, don¡¯t be shy. Dario¡¯s inside ordering food for all of us. All the best fastfood junk Cindy¡¯s has to offer.¡±

    "Johann went after him because Dario always forgets he doesn¡¯t want pickles in his burger,¡± Myra added.

    Everett said, ¡°Isn¡¯t ¡®Ohayo¡¯ good morning in Japanese? Good afternoon is something else.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t really care, man,¡± replied Reo. ¡°I always tell you I know shit about Japanese even though I¡¯m half. You do remember an Adumbrae ate my dad when I was two, so no one could¡¯ve taught me?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­sorry,¡± Everett said. ¡°I forgot.¡±

    ¡°If you guys want anything,¡± Myra said in a raised voice to cut through the awkward silence, ¡°you can tell Dario. He¡¯s right at the counter now.¡± She jabbed her hand back and we looked inside the restaurant through its window walls.

    "He''s getting burger and pizza," Everett said.

    Burger and pizza? I couldn''t eat those normally. ¡°I like the chicken wings of Cindy''s,¡± I said. "Should I go...? Oh, but it would be too imposing..."

    "I got you," Reo said. "I''ll just text Dario, no biggie."

    "Thanks!"

    ¡°Greasy and fatty goodness for everyone.¡±

    ¡°More people are wearing masks,¡± Deen observed, referring to some of the customers.

    ¡°Because of the fires, you know.¡±

    Everett explained, ¡°People think the burned Adumbrae material floating through the air can cause them to get sick. I saw some started wearing masks after the raid at the club for the same reason. They thought the huge explosion scattered Adumbrae material in the air.¡±

    ¡°They think it¡¯s some contagious disease or something?¡± Reo shook his head. ¡°These people."

    "Who knows, they might be right. The truth is sometimes crazier than the conspiracy theories people cook up.¡±

    ¡°Only sometimes?¡± Myra said. ¡°Seems like most of the time.¡±

    After about five minutes of chitchat, Dario and Johann arrived with the food. Dario said, ¡°I got three pizzas. I don¡¯t know their flavors; I just pointed randomly at the menu and agreed with the cashier.¡±

    ¡°You suck,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°I also got the group bundle they have of burger and fries. Erind''s chicken wings. And also large smoothies.¡±

    ¡°Wow,¡± Myra said in a sarcastic tone, ¡°everything sounds so healthy.¡±

    ¡°Should we even care about what we eat?¡± said Reo.

    ¡°You guys alright with this?¡± Dario said. His question was obviously directed at Deen. ¡°Er, they have salad¡­not sure¡­orange juice?¡± He was blonde, although more on the platinum side in contrast to Deen¡¯s golden hair. Even though he was just carrying food to the table, his had a serious expression as if it was a military operation with the lives of the innocents at stake. Or maybe he was just perpetually constipated.

    ¡°I¡¯m really fine!¡± Deen said in exasperation. She looked like a celebrity dining with her fans pretending to like the ¡®normal¡¯ food they ate. ¡°I¡¯ll have whatever you guys are eating.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not eating pickles,¡± said Johann. ¡°That¡¯s my one and only rule on food.¡± He was tall and lanky, I think the tallest of our group, like a walking bamboo with clothes. His face was more on the stoic side compared to Dario¡¯s utter seriousness.

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s have an overview of the aftermath first,¡± Dario said. All of us learned forward to listen. ¡°No, don¡¯t do that. Just eat like we¡¯re hanging out.¡± Everyone leaned back. ¡°From what I¡¯ve gathered, the 2Ms are pulling out of the city. Johann also found out that some key officials supporting them have been arrested. The BID is basically breaking their hold over the city. Is that a good thing or bad thing? Perhaps bad because then our next target, and only remaining lead, will be the Red Island. And we don¡¯t know where that is.

    ¡°But let¡¯s put that aside or now. We have two more pressing concerns. One is Erind¡¯s test. That¡¯s Johann¡¯s assignment, and he says he¡¯s all prepared for that. And the other one is Julie. Did I get her name right? A survivor from Erind¡¯s condo.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Myra said. ¡°Her name¡¯s Julie. One of the guys we got out of that shithole.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s this about Julie?¡± I said.

    ¡°Julie is the immediate threat to us,¡± Dario said. ¡°I need to get to her.¡±

 4.3

    ¡°No!¡± Deen stood up so quickly her chair would¡¯ve toppled to the floor if I hadn¡¯t caught it. ¡°That¡¯s something I can¡¯t allow.¡± She slammed her hands on the table. ¡°Leave that poor innocent girl alone. She¡¯s been through so much already.¡±

    ¡°Deen, tone it down,¡± I whispered, tugging her clothes. I gave a quick sidelong glance at the annoyed teen couple having a date three tables away, their lovey-dovey time disturbed by her outburst. ¡°Don¡¯t draw attention to us.¡±

    ¡°But I don¡¯t agree with this,¡± she said in a much lower voice as she slowly sat back down. ¡°We can¡¯t¡ª"

    ¡°Let me see that.¡± I nudged her hands. She raised them up from the table revealing a couple of dents on its aluminum surface.

    Reo whistled. ¡°Oof, that¡¯s going to leave a mark.¡±

    ¡°It already did, you dumbass,¡± Myra said. She nonchalantly rotated her head as if she was stretching. ¡°A security camera by that corner. What do we do?¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡­I didn¡¯t, I was¡ª¡±

    ¡°You should learn to control your strength.¡±

    ¡°I got it.¡± Everett was there to the rescue for Deen. ¡°Rotate the table over to me,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll try to smoothen it out. No one will notice the dent.¡±

    ¡°Can you fix it? I¡¯m really, really sorry.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Deen. I¡¯ve worked at a fastfood place before. We¡¯re not paid enough to notice these things.¡±

    Dario cleared his throat, and we all settled down again. ¡°Before there¡¯s any more violent reactions, let me explain myself first. Out of all the people that Myra, Johann, and Erind saved from the condo, Julie is the only one who knows their faces. Did I get that right?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± said Myra. Johann nodded.

    We¡¯re sticking to that story then? Johann and I had told the others a band of fellow residents helped me stay alive in the den of monsters that was my condo. When Myra and Johann finally came to my aid, only me, Julie, and her fatally wounded brother remained of our group.

    And on our way out of the building, we did meet a few more people and took them with us, but by that time we already had improvised masks on so they didn¡¯t see our faces.

    It wasn¡¯t a very coherent story, but we didn¡¯t have time to make up something award-winning when we got to Deen¡¯s house. We left out our monster pals, Ramon and Lizzie, substituting them instead with generic survivors. We also didn¡¯t mention Pino; all Myra and Johann knew about her was what Julie told them anyway, and I disclaimed any knowledge of her. Curiously, it was Johann who wanted to keep as much details from the others as possible. Apparently, he also told Myra to sync her story with ours.

    Now, the question was whether Dario knew the truth¡ªat least Myra and Johann¡¯s version of it. He was the leader of the group after all so, logically, I expected Johann to tell him.

    Or maybe he didn¡¯t? I couldn¡¯t tell if Dario was just playing along with the fake story or he truly believed it.

    ¡°Julie knows you three are involved with Stella and the 2Ms,¡± Dario said. ¡°Being enemies counts as ¡®involved¡¯. She¡¯s also aware Myra isn¡¯t human. Okay, knowing your faces might not be enough, especially the two of you.¡± He pointed to Myra and Johann. ¡°But she definitely knows Erind is living in the same building as her. If she told the authorities, they can find the rest of us given time.¡±

    ¡°I have a tiny gut feeling we don¡¯t want that to happen,¡± Reo said.

    Deen shook her head. ¡°Johann said she was in shock her brother died. Right, Johann?¡±

    ¡°Erm¡­that was what it looked like to me.¡±

    ¡°She did seem a bit out of it,¡± added Myra.

    Dario stuffed some fries into his mouth. He gestured at us, encouraging us to eat too and pretend to hang out. ¡°I¡¯ve seen someone so overcome by grief,¡± he said in between chewing, ¡°over the loss of a loved one that they couldn¡¯t speak for several days.¡± He took a long sip of his smoothie before continuing. ¡°But that person eventually recovered. Once Julie recovers¡ªfor all we know, she already has¡ªshe¡¯ll be coherent enough to be questioned. And then we¡¯ll be in trouble.¡±

    ¡°But we shouldn¡¯t kill her even if we want to be safe! That¡¯s not something heroes¡ª¡±

    ¡°No ones killing anyone,¡± Dario said. ¡°I didn¡¯t say that.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Deen¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°I thought¡ª!¡±

    Everyone of us stared at her with incredulous faces. Did she seriously assume Dario planned to kill Julie?

    I mentally smirked. Funny it was the first thing that came to her mind. If she thought of this, did it mean killing Julie also crossed her mind as an option to keep our identities¡ªmostly mine¡ªa secret? I remembered how she was uncharacteristically chill with Everett and Reo killing the thugs sent by the 2Ms and burning their bodies.

    Maybe something happened back then that mentally affected her? Was she the one who suggested to burn the bodies? Or maybe she herself killed some of her pursuers? Deen killing someone? I want to see that!

    ¡°I apologize¡­I don¡¯t know what¡¯s gotten into me.¡±

    Myra sighed. ¡°Seriously, we¡¯re not that kind of people.¡±

    What kind of people then? I wanted to say to her, but I kept my mouth shut. The murderous type? Very tempting to look in her direction. I did my best to keep the sides of my mouth down because I was about to grin.

    ¡°What I meant by ¡®I need to get to her¡¯,¡± Dario said, ¡°was I needed to get close to use my powers on her.¡±

    ¡°That makes more sense,¡± Deen said timidly, her cheeks a pinkish shade.

    ¡°Like what you did with Ramello?¡± I asked.

    ¡°In a way,¡± Dario said. ¡°Your friend, Ramello. His situation was much easier to¡­fix. He already suffered severe head trauma so even if I did nothing, he would¡¯ve forgotten many parts of the time both of you were kidnapped. Julie¡¯s case is different. If I correctly assessed what Myra described to me, Julie didn¡¯t forget anything. She¡¯s only incoherent because of shock. To make her forget a day or two, I need to exert more of my power to¡­you know¡­¡±

    ¡°Scramble her brain,¡± Reo said. Myra elbowed him, causing him to squeeze the burger he was chomping on. ¡°Hey, you got ketchup on my clothes!¡±

    ¡°That was your own fault.¡±

    ¡°Why so grumpy today, huh? And what I said is true.¡±

    ¡°Deen, before you say anything,¡± Dario said. ¡°I know it doesn¡¯t sound good. We can sugarcoat what Reo said, but it will be¡­like¡­that.¡±

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    ¡°It¡¯s not so bad as it sounds,¡± Everett said. ¡°Sometimes people get so drunk they forget a day or two. Just think of it like that.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s this one time,¡± Reo said, ¡°that I¡ª¡±

    ¡°I understand,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯m not na?ve about our situation. My reaction earlier¡­that was because I promised myself I will never take an innocent life in the fight against the Adumbrae. But I do know we have to do these things to survive, to keep on fighting.¡±

    There was silence. Then Johann suddenly exclaimed. ¡°Damn it, there are pickles¡ªoops. Sorry, I told them not to put, but they still did.¡± They all chuckled. I heartily joined in because I just found it so amusing that Deen might¡¯ve killed someone judging by how she was acting.

    ¡°We don¡¯t kill the innocent,¡± Dario said. Everett stopped eating and bowed his head. ¡°That¡¯s something we can all agree on.¡± I also looked down just in case a smile popped on my face. ¡°We can now move on to planning how to get to Julie. It may have some difficulties.¡±

    Before a giggle could escape me, I said, ¡°Does that mean you already know where she is?¡±

    ¡°We do.¡±

    ¡°How¡ªwhere¡­I mean, I was so worried about her,¡± I said, feigning distress. ¡°I was planning to ask for your help to look for her to make sure she¡¯s safe.¡±

    ¡°Johann¡¯s the one who found her,¡± Dario said, gesturing at our eyes-and-ears at the police to continue explaining.

    ¡°Her name is Julie Conti.¡± Johann pulled out a small notebook. ¡°She was found by a couple detectives around half an hour after the Corebrings killed Stella. I¡¯m not familiar with them because they¡¯re from a different precinct. But one of them was injured during the Serenade Bazaar incident last Tuesday while pursuing a possible Adumbrae.¡± He briefly looked at me, meeting my gaze, before reading from his notebook again. ¡°That¡¯s the only notable thing I found out about them.¡±

    Did Johann know I was part of the thingy at the Serenade? I couldn¡¯t recall injuring any police officer. ¡°Where did they find her?¡± I said.

    ¡°From their report log I got when I hacked our system, they found her beside a destroyed pub a few blocks away from your condo.¡±

    ¡°A pub?¡± Deen said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you mention you hid at a pub?¡±

    ¡°Yes, we stayed in one," I said, "but we split up afterwards. We¡¯re the ones Stella wanted, so we decided to separate to keep the others safe.¡±

    ¡°This is likely that same pub,¡± Johann said. ¡°There¡¯s not a lot of those in that area. A stray laser from Stella probably hit it.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate,¡± Myra dryly said.

    ¡°How about the other survivors we picked on our way out of the condo?¡± I asked, subtly hinting at him to give me details about Ramon and Lizzie. ¡°What happened to them?¡±

    ¡°They didn¡¯t find anyone else besides Julie. Or rather any other human. Their report stated they chased away a suspected Adumbrae. Rather than an Adumbrae, I believe this is one of the mutated people from the condo. Or¡­maybe the others we saved¡­¡±

    ¡°Also mutated?¡± Deen said with a gasp. ¡°Those poor people. They already escaped.¡±

    ¡°That is the likelier scenario,¡± said Dario. ¡°In the end, Julie is the only survivor who interacted with Myra, Johann, and Erind, and could provide the authorities a lead to find us.¡±

    I nodded, agreeing with whatever they were discussing while mentally processing what Johann said. This meant Ramon and Lizzie probably left Julie behind to hide; the most logical choice. Good luck to them. I hoped they hid well for my sake. This left Julie as my only concern. Technically, she was the concern of the whole group, but not for entirely the same reasons as mine. Our goals did overlap.

    ¡°So where is she now?¡± I asked.

    ¡°At EFU Medical Center by Marshall Avenue,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°The hospital ran by our school?¡± Deen asked, shooting a questioning look at Myra.

    The acronym stood for Eloyce Federal University, which included both Cresthorne College of Law where Deen and I went to, and Melchor Institute of Eloyce Field Studies for Myra. EFU was funded by the federal government, the US Bureau of Interdimensional Defense to be more specific, and it had various institutions connected to it like the huge hospital along Marshall Avenue.

    ¡°We Melchor students go there for some practical classes,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that place far from my condo?¡± I said. ¡°Why didn¡¯t they rush her to a nearby hospital? Southern is way closer.¡±

    ¡°She was at Southern, but was transferred to EFU Medical Center yesterday evening,¡± Johann said. ¡°The many casualties from Adumbrae attacks¡ªboth this recent one and last Saturday¡¯s¡ªwere spread out through various hospitals all over the city. However, there were tons of complaints from other patients that they didn¡¯t want to be in the same building as someone involved in an Adumbrae-related incident.

    ¡°The hospitals decided to setup special wards to isolate these patients, but it wasn¡¯t enough to ease the fears. This is the first time we experienced this, so people are hysterical. In the end, the city decided to designate a specific hospital to house all of the patients connected to the Adumbrae attacks. That¡¯s EFU Medical Center, one of its buildings anyway, the big block at the corner of Marshall and Pennway.¡±

    ¡°I passed by there earlier to scope out the place,¡± Dario said. ¡°The roads were closed, police are everywhere. They also called in the National Guard to help push away protesters. Some groups are even attempting to attack the building. I hope it calms down over there.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Is that true?¡± exclaimed Deen. ¡°I haven¡¯t watched the news yet. Why do they want to do that?¡±

    ¡°Irrational fears that another Adumbrae seeding outbreak may occur,¡± Johann said. ¡°People believe that what happened at Erind¡¯s condo was a seeding outbreak¡ªof course, we know the truth that it was a mad-scientist-experiment of the 2Ms¡ªso the people rioting over there want all of those patients thrown out of the city.¡±

    ¡°Idiots,¡± Everett said, ¡°all of them.¡±

    ¡°At least you¡¯re not at their level, Reo,¡± Myra said, raising her smoothie to him as a toast.

    ¡°You¡¯re really picking on me,¡± Reo said. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re falling in love¡ªOw! Don¡¯t throw your fries like a fucking brat.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s a huge mess out there,¡± said Dario. ¡°But we need to study the place. Myra, Reo and I will go there after this meeting. Myra can go in with her Melchor ID, make up some story for research or a school project.¡±

    ¡°If they allow me in with the protests going on outside.¡±

    ¡°Reo will use his fairy while I guard him and take notes. Good luck at the police station later, you guys. Johann will brief you on what to do.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Our aim is to come up with a plan by tonight and break in as soon as possible to get to Julie. The fact that the police already had her name on file means she could already have answered basic questions. I don¡¯t think they realized she¡¯s one of the survivors of the attack on the condo since they found her so far away from the building. That¡¯s a detail I¡¯m sure would be on the report logs.¡±

    ¡°You know what?¡± Johann said, tapping his finger on his notebook. ¡°I think she might be the only survivor. I tried looking for others in our logs but couldn¡¯t find any.¡±

    Not the only survivor, I thought. I¡¯m here too. He was right though that there might not be any others. Stella rounded up all the remaining living humans she could find and forced them to turn into monsters. Anyone lucky enough to escape her would¡¯ve died from the fire or the collapse of the building.

    ¡°Deen,¡± Dario said. ¡°Whatever plan we come up with, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be a key part of it with your powers.¡±

    ¡°You can count on me,¡± she replied with a determined expression.

    ¡°So, that¡¯s two of our main concerns. We tackle one thing at a time so that we can focus and not make any mistakes. For now, we just eat and relax. If you guys want more food, I can go in and buy.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re good,¡± I said. ¡°Isn¡¯t that right, Deen?¡± I stuck out my tongue at her while she glared at me.

    ¡°Ye-yes, all good,¡± she said with a forced chuckle. We stared at her until she took a nibble of her burger. Then all of us clapped and cheered her on to eat more. Just a random group of friends doing goofy things, nothing suspicious here.

    ¡°How about you buy us ice cream?¡± Reo said.

    ¡°What are you,¡± Myra said, ¡°a kid?¡±

    ¡°Ice cream is good for celebrations. And we should celebrate because the Corebrings killed Stella!¡±

    ¡°I was surprised she¡¯s that strong. You¡¯re right. The Corebrings taking her out is something to celebrate.¡±

    ¡°Wait a minute¡­¡± Deen said, putting down her burger.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t like it,¡± Everett said, ¡°I can buy you something else.¡± He looked around. ¡°There¡¯s a Salad-To-Go across the street.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t this a more pressing matter?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°The Corebrings came here! They know there¡¯s something wrong going on in this city. Isn¡¯t our goal to keep them from knowing about the 2Ms and their experiments?¡±

 4.4

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be worried about this? The¡ª¡± Deen narrowed her eyes and raised a finger. ¡°Hang on.¡± She turned left and right, her eyes scanning our surroundings. No one else was at the outside sitting area of Cindy¡¯s besides us and a waiter clearing the table of the teen couple who had just left.

    We all followed her lead, staring at the waiter for a few seconds longer than normal, making him uncomfortable. Did her Guardian Angel tell her something?

    The waiter went back inside the restaurant shooting a weirded-out expression our way.

    ¡°The experiments of the 2Ms,¡± Deen finally said, ¡°giving the rich pseudo-Adumbrae powers in return for funding, isn¡¯t all of that just a small part of the plan of the Adumbrae? The true Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Correct,¡± Dario said. ¡°And¡ª¡±

    ¡°And these Adumbrae,¡± she pressed on, ¡°the real ones behind the scenes. They infiltrated the BID. What was that again? Division Proxy? The Adumbrae are stealing technology developed by Division Proxy, by our government, to conduct their own experiments through these criminal organizations like the 2Ms to find a way to retain their human minds, pushing back the entities from the other dimension while still keeping their powers. This technology being¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s us,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°Ehm, not really us, per se,¡± Reo said. ¡°The Professor just stole the artificial Cores we¡¯re using from the BID.¡±

    ¡°Per se,¡± Myra scoffed, rolling her eyes.

    Dario nodded. ¡°As I¡¯ve told you and Erind, Division Proxy of the BID is making super soldiers with artificial Cores they developed. They¡¯re able to do this¡­safely¡­because they have an Origin Core that, for some unknown reason, was never absorbed by the Mother Core, consequently making it undetectable by Corebrings.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that,¡± Deen said, her brows furrowed. ¡°We¡¯re fighting the 2Ms. They¡¯re in league with Adumbrae, they¡¯re making Adumbrae, making monsters, they¡¯re killing people, experimenting on people¡­I, uh, they¡¯re evil. That¡¯s it! We¡¯re on the side of good fighting evil. But that¡¯s¡­that''s also not it. Not all of it anyway. Isn¡¯t our goal not only to stop whatever the Adumbrae are planning to do with their experiments, but also to keep all of this away from the Corebrings? Because if the Corebrings find out about the 2Ms, it¡¯s only a matter of time before¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªthey also find out about the Origin Core our government is keeping,¡± I said, continuing Deen¡¯s thoughts. I had to back up my best friend here. Plus, I was interested to see where this was headed. ¡°The Corebrings will surely fight our country for that. It''ll be a huge conflict.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m getting at,¡± she said. ¡°Because of Stella, the Corebrings¡¯ attention is turned to our city. Or maybe they were already here before? I heard in class this morning¡ªjust a rumor my classmate shared; I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s true¡ªthat the Corebrings killed the Adumbrae, well, Stella, without any request from our government through the Protocol. They supposedly reacted too fast to have been contacted through official channels. If so, it could only mean they already had their eyes on La Esperanza for some time. Isn¡¯t that the absolute worst scenario?¡±

    I wanted to shake Deen¡¯s hands and congratulate her for being such a bright girl. She had no idea how close¡­and how far¡­she was on that one. I also confronted Myra about this, but then she revealed to me that our government wouldn¡¯t ever go to war with the Corebrings because the latter had the support of many of our own politicians and could mind control more if needed.

    Then what are these hero wannabes actually fighting for?

    I hadn¡¯t thought about it back then because I was focused on manipulating the situation against Myra. I must admit I was getting a little intrigued. Was there even any truth to the story about the BID and their top-secret experiments? There should be parts that were since Deen did get superhuman powers.

    But which ones?

    That, however, was a question for another time. Right now, I wanted to see how Dario was going to answer this.

    He shook his head. ¡°The Corebrings aren¡¯t here,¡± he assured Deen. ¡°Killing Stella was a routine thing for them, just another day on the job.¡±

    ¡°How do you know that?¡± she demanded. ¡°They are here. How could they have killed Stella if they¡¯re not¡ª¡±

    ¡°Omnispear,¡± he replied. Deen raised a brow. I didn¡¯t know what that was either. ¡°Omnispear is the name of the Corebring who killed Stella. To be more accurate, that¡¯s what he¡¯s called in the BID database of Corebrings; I have some access to it with the help of the Professor. No one knows his real name, or if he¡¯s a ¡®he¡¯, because he has never shown himself.

    ¡°His ability is very distinct, which is why he has a specific file even though no one has seen him. What can he do? He can teleport his CoreQuip, a spear, inside a target he sets his eyes on. The spear will burst out of a body, a brick wall, a tree, anything he can see.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what happened to Stella,¡± Myra cut in. ¡°A huge blade came out of her chest out of nowhere.¡±

    ¡°Omnispear doesn¡¯t need to see the target with his own eyes; that¡¯s what the BID hypothesized. It can be through binoculars. A live broadcast seems to work too, like a live news report, or a livestream on the internet; depends on the delay of the broadcast and how his target has shifted in relation to that delay.

    ¡°The BID has recorded several instances of this happening all over the world¡ªa mysterious teleporting spear showing up when there is a live broadcast and disappears when the broadcast is cut off. Spears of varying sizes coming out from the bodies of Adumbrae. I¡¯m not sure if the change in the spear is his own ability or because of other Corebrings boosting his power.¡±

    ¡°I¡­see¡­¡± said Deen, slumping down her chair, still sounding unconvinced.

    ¡°I picture him relaxing on a couch at the Hive, chilling the fuck out and watching TV,¡± Reo said, leaning back and pretending to hold a TV remote. ¡°Then there¡¯s a news flash showing Stella destroying our city, just begging to be killed. He gets pissed off the rerun of his favorite soap opera was interrupted, then BOOM! Teleports a spear into her.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s some imagination you got,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Perhaps not exactly that,¡± Dario said, ¡°but something along those lines. I assume the Hive is monitoring these kind of events all of over the world, and Omnispear saw people needing help. He acted immediately, putting the lives of people above following the Protocol.¡±

    Johann raised his smoothie at me as if to toast. ¡°Nice going, Erind, with your idea to video Stella. Who knows, maybe it was our video that Omnispear used to teleport his spear? We were hoping the BID to show up, but it was this Omnispear guy that helped us.¡±

    ¡°Ah!¡± I exclaimed, surprising everyone. ¡°I think it really was because of our video. The giant spear disappeared when Stella destroyed the building you were in,¡± I said to him.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°That bitch probably knows about Omnispear,¡± said Myra with anger in her voice. ¡°She immediately shot Johann¡¯s position like she was estimating where the camera that spawned the spear could be.¡±

    ¡°I was really lucky I got out with just scratches.¡±

    ¡°We owe this guy for killing Stella, but I also hate him because he nearly got you killed.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine¡­¡± He turned away and shook his head to dismiss her concerns. ¡°Even though I¡¯m just a normal human, you don¡¯t have to worry so much about me.¡±

    There were a few seconds of awkward silence that I decided to break by saying, ¡°The spear reappeared afterwards and finally finished off Stella. Another camera, I guess? It¡¯s clear this was Omnispear.¡± I should call Clive that name the next time I see him; he might find it hilarious. But it was probably better I don¡¯t run into Corebrings ever again.

    ¡°Here¡¯s a funny thing,¡± Reo said. ¡°I did some research on the internet when Myra told me about a Corebring with a power like that. Turns out this guy¡¯s pretty famous in Corebring fan forums, especially after killing Stella. People are fighting over what to call him. ¡®Omnispear¡¯ sounds cool as fuck, but there¡¯s this troll insisting to call him ¡®Clive¡¯, pissing off everyone.¡±

    ¡°Sounds like a dumb name,¡± Myra said. ¡°You fit right in with those trolls.¡±

    ¡°The main point is,¡± said Dario before Reo could retort, ¡°Omnispear killed Stella while watching TV, or he could be watching it online. He¡ªor any other Corebring¡ªis not actually here in our city.¡±

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right.¡± Deen awkwardly grinned at us. ¡°Did I sound like a worrywart?

    Everett leaned towards her. ¡°You were right to worry, but we already have plenty to worry about.¡± He extended his arm as if to pat her shoulder, but pulled back when he saw Reo winking at him. He cleared his throat and straightened up on his chair. ¡°It¡¯s just a normal day for the Corebrings, like Dario said. It feels like a big deal to us, as if there¡¯s some conspiracy in the background, something more sinister going on, because it is our own city that''s under attack.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not dismissing your concern, don¡¯t get me wrong,¡± Dario said. ¡°We¡¯ll keep our eyes out as always. And I¡¯ll be in touch with the Professor as often as I can to see if he has more intel.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll also keep my ears open on the side of the police,¡± Johann chimed in. ¡°I¡¯ll probably hear something if Corebrings are arriving in our city.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I just can¡¯t help but overthink¡­¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Deen,¡± I said. ¡°How about you take a bite of the burger so you¡¯ll feel better.¡±

    ¡°How would that¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Or you want a chicken wing?¡±

    ¡°Burger! Burger!¡± Reo started to chant.

    I also joined in, clapping my hands timidly at first, then louder when all of them also clapped their hands. ¡°Burger! Burger! Burger!¡±

    ¡°Fine!¡± Deen held her breath, and took a huge bite of the burger. She swallowed it, barely chewing, and nearly choked. We all laughed while she tried to wash it down with a smoothie.

    Yep, I really miss this. Just having a normal face on, the face of a friend, the face of an average member of society, just swimming through social interactions, pretending I could relate to them. A leisurely pastime. Very relaxing.

    I should savor this moment because I feel like my life would get upturned again pretty soon.

    I¡¯m getting used to it anyway.

    <hr>

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe this street is also packed,¡± Deen said. It was already the third time we took a detour to avoid heavy traffic only to run into yet another one of its ever-growing tendrils. ¡°I thought only tumbleweeds passed this way.¡±

    ¡°Tumbleweeds?¡± I said. Rundown shops lined both sides the streets, most of them already closed. There were a couple with a condemned sign hanging on their doors. Obviously, not somewhere we should be. Yet many cars were passing this way, on the same quest as us to find a faster way downtown. Derelict vehicles illegally parked along the road, probably not working anymore, forgotten or abandoned by their owners in ages past, exacerbated the traffic. If only I still had my foldable bike, then I could avoid this nonsense.

    ¡°It¡¯s just an expression.¡±

    ¡°Okay, but what are tumbleweeds?¡±

    ¡°You know those big balls of dried weeds rolling in the desert?¡±

    ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s what they¡¯re called. Added ¡®tumbleweeds¡¯ to my dictionary.¡±

    ¡°Honestly? You didn¡¯t know what tumbleweeds are? There are tons of them here in California, like the southern desert places.¡±

    ¡°Is there a national requirement to know the name of those things?¡± I poked her side, and she accidentally hit the horn of her car.

    ¡°Quit that.¡± She poked me back. ¡°They¡¯ll think I¡¯m an impatient driver.¡±

    ¡°We should¡¯ve gone with Johann,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe we could¡¯ve avoided this.¡± He left thirty minutes earlier than us to prepare some stuff at the police station; it would also be suspicious if we arrived together at the same time. He explained to me what was going to happen, and also said he¡¯d call later to give us more details of his plan.

    Since we weren¡¯t going anywhere anytime soon, we decided to watch the news on the TV of Deen¡¯s car.

    The local news channel was covering the insanity at Marshall Avenue. The whole road was closed. A large protest snaking down the whole length of it, only halted at the hospital by a barricade manned by the National Guard.

    A large contingent of the Mother Core Disciples sect was having a prayer rally, occupying a side road, encouraging the protesters to join them in prayer. Their goal was supposedly to cleanse the hospital of the Adumbrae taint, from what I could gather from the placards they were carrying. There were other religious groups doing their own things all around the place.

    A smaller gathering was held by family members of the casualties of the Adumbrae attacks currently housed in the hospital. They were pleading for understanding from the citizens of the city.

    The news reporter said that the violent groups who attempted to scale the back walls of the hospital were arrested by the police. Police were also deployed all over the downtown area to deter looting and further acts of violence.

    Normal people are really weird.

    ¡°I hope Dario and the others get to the hospital safely,¡± Deen said. ¡°But looking at how things are going,¡± she pointed at the screen, ¡°maybe they won¡¯t be allowed inside.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll think of something. Reo can still use his fairy to scout.¡±

    The traffic moved sluggishly, and we sat in silence while the news continued. It was apparent on Deen¡¯s face she was concerned for the people. Or maybe she was concerned for our sake? I was thinking maybe I should look concerned too. Nah, she won¡¯t notice me. She was engrossed by the stupidity of humanity displayed on TV.

    One would think only an idiot would listen to an Adumbrae and let them get taken over. That humanity would surely unite and help each other. But things like these proved the opposite. It was very easy for Adumbrae to take over someone and then gather followers.

    Although, that was rich coming from me. Not like I could judge these people given my situation.

    I wasn¡¯t sure whether I should speak up. It was usually Deen¡¯s role to be talkative, but I should also be a caring friend when she was obviously worrying about something, right? ¡°Deen¡­¡± I started to say, but she also spoke.

    ¡°Erind, there¡¯s something I have to tell you.¡± She muted the TV. ¡°Keep this a secret from the others for now, okay?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± What was this about?

    ¡°We¡¯re looking for the Red Island and we need to find it as soon as possible.¡±

    ¡°Right. But we have no leads now.¡± Actually, we do. Or rather, I do¡­through Bianca.

    ¡°I think I have a way to find out.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°Bianca.¡±

    ¡°What about her?¡±

    ¡°I think I can get her on our side.¡±

 4.5

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I said. Was she finally confessing that Bianca saved her from the explosion at Eve? Her story before was she escaped on her own, guided by her power¡ªher pet with limited but very powerful foresight nonetheless, the Guardian Angel. If she decided to tell me the truth now, that meant we were really besties. Yey, I cheered sarcastically in my head. Oh! I¡¯m going to act hurt later that she lied to me.

    ¡°I¡­I didn¡¯t tell you the truth about how I got out of Eve.¡± She stared at the cars ahead of us moving at a snail¡¯s pace. I didn¡¯t respond; it was more dramatic that way. ¡°I didn¡¯t do it on my own,¡± she said after a few seconds of silence that really needed a suspenseful background music. ¡°I got knocked out cold because I didn¡¯t follow my Guardian Angel.¡±

    ¡°Bianca helped you?¡±

    ¡°She did.¡± Deen tilted her head like a confused puppy as she mulled how to convey her thoughts to me. ¡°Now that I think about it, my Guardian Angel probably already accounted for my actions and maneuvered me into a situation where Bianca¡ªactually, her bodyguard, Xazary¡ªcould¡­would save me.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ª? I don¡¯t understand."

    ¡°I suppose if I¡¯m already telling you the truth about Bianca, I might as well tell you everything that transpired in the underground arena.¡±

    ¡°Fights between humans and Adumbrae,¡± I said. ¡°More of a one-sided slaughter? Then the BID attacked, that¡¯s what I remember you telling me. Something else happened?¡±

    ¡°Erind¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°I can trust you, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, of course,¡± I replied without any hesitation. Was this the time to act hurt? Nah. I also thought of adding ¡®I haven¡¯t reported you to the BID, have I?¡¯ or something like that. But it sounded preemptively defensive and insincere. I didn¡¯t have much experience navigating these heart-to-heart talks¡ªexcept probably with Mom, but that''s a different situation¡ªso I was treading unfamiliar ground. I hoped I could approximate a trustworthy friend someone could confide in.

    ¡°I met Madame Blanchette at the arena.¡±

    ¡°Blanchette? Who¡¯s she?¡±

    ¡°Oh, right. You don¡¯t know. It¡¯s a name I made up for her. I ended up calling her that because I don¡¯t know her real name. She couldn¡¯t talk like a normal person because of her mouth.¡±

    ¡°Eh? Wait¡­what¡¯s this about her mouth?"

    ¡°Remember the woman who saved you at Sanders when you were getting attacked by an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°You met her there?¡± I exclaimed. I was getting good at acting surprised at stuff.

    ¡°Yes¡ª¡±

    ¡°That means she is our enemy. I knew it!¡±

    ¡°No, no, you¡¯re wrong,¡± Deen empathically said. ¡°Why do you think that?¡±

    ¡°I just thought¡­um, she¡¯s there at Eve and she¡¯s not human. She must be one of them then.¡±

    ¡°I was there and not human too,¡± Deen said, turning to me because the traffic ground to a halt again, an annoyed expression on her face. ¡°Not anymore. You shouldn¡¯t judge, er, this doesn¡¯t matter.¡± She sighed. ¡°She¡­Blanchette¡ªI¡¯ll just call her that until I know her true name¡ªis not our enemy. She saved you from the 2Ms, twice actually.¡±

    ¡°Twice? She saved me from the Adumbrae at Sanders. What¡¯s the other time?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m getting ahead of my story. This is going to be a long one.¡± She adjusted her grip on the wheel before driving forward as the traffic moved along. ¡°Okay, so I met Blanchette there at Eve¡¯s arena. She was pretending to be one of the clients of the 2Ms. I didn¡¯t understand at first because she couldn¡¯t talk with her, um, monster mouth, but I eventually got that she was going to attack the place. I told her I''ll help her. Then¡ª¡±

    ¡°But why?¡± I asked. ¡°You trusted her?¡±

    ¡°She saved¡ª"

    ¡°She helped me, saved me from that other Adumbrae trying to kill me. Yes, I¡¯m thankful for that. But that doesn¡¯t mean you can trust her because¡­because she¡¯s an Adumbrae too! We don¡¯t know how they think. Or what they¡¯re thinking about. I always see the evil things they¡¯ve done on TV. But now, after surviving the¡­after escaping my condo in one piece, I¡¯ve confirmed for myself that they¡¯re truly evil.¡± Is this good character progression for my face? I was proud of this bit. I should become a writer.

    Deen exhaled slowly, her fingers drumming on the steering wheel. ¡°If you really feel that way¡­think of it as siding with the lesser evil. Blanchette planned to attack the underground arena. Could be some infighting among the Adumbrae, I don¡¯t know. As for me, I wanted to stop the 2Ms, stop them from killing humans and making more Adumbrae. Or just slow them down. That¡¯s why I agreed to help her.

    ¡°But it¡¯s not just that. My gut feeling was I could trust her. Not worth much, gut feelings, I know. I have no idea why I felt that way. Maybe you¡¯re right that we don¡¯t know what they want so we shouldn¡¯t trust them. They are Adumbrae.¡±

    I wanted to joke around with her using the term ¡®gut feelings¡¯, but that felt inappropriate in this heavy atmosphere.

    She continued on with her story recounting the events of last Saturday¡¯s night at the underground arena below Eve. Stuff I already knew, like how she helped me transform. Stuff I didn¡¯t, like after she helped me, the guards caught her. Luckily, when I started transforming, she found an opening with the fucking cheat ability of her Guardian Angel and escaped her captors.

    ¡°The huge wolf monster at the docks was Blanchette?¡± I said. ¡°I can¡¯t remember much of what happened there besides what Myra, Johann, and Reo told me after they saved me.¡±

    ¡°I also don¡¯t know what the monster at the docks looked like, but a giant werewolf is quite distinct,¡± she said. ¡°The guards at the arena seemed familiar with her, so it must¡¯ve been really her who attacked the docks. Indirectly, she saved you.¡±

    As the traffic picked up pace and we were finally able to merge into a main road, Deen narrated my fight against the men of the 2Ms, their weapons, their ComExos, all the monsters unleashed from the holds of the arena to stop me. It was very surreal hearing it and knowing it was me, yet barely remembering any of it. Also, very enjoyable. She left all of this out when she first told me about what happened that fateful Saturday night.

    ¡°And then the BID attacked,¡± she said.

    ¡°I remember you mentioned one of them was the guy we ran into at the club?¡±

    ¡°The large man who shooed away those perverted jerks. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m saying this, but I¡¯m glad he got caught in that explosion. His body is probably pulverized. If he survived, looking for him to wipe his memory would be a hundred times harder than getting to Julie.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s an understatement. What happened next? How did you get knocked out?¡±

    ¡°I led Bianca, and Xazary to an escape route thanks to my Guardian Angel. But I returned to help Blanchette¡ª¡± She held up a finger at me. ¡°Before you say anything, consider this first. She¡¯s an enemy of the 2Ms. ¡®The enemy of my enemy¡¯ whole deal. She saved you twice, so we owe her.¡± I noted she used ¡®we¡¯ not ¡®you¡¯. ¡°And, again, I trust her. I¡­I just trust her. Maybe she¡¯ll be a powerful ally someday.¡±

    ¡°Fine, I¡¯m not arguing with you on that anymore,¡± I said. ¡°But I¡¯m sure your Guardian Angel told you not to do it, right?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t listen to it. It''s not the boss of me."

    ¡°And how did you help her?¡± This one I was interested in knowing.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what happened there. I remember deciding to intentionally put myself in harm¡¯s way to force my Guardian Angel to react. I was hoping it would pick a future where Blanchette and I could escape.¡±

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°That¡¯s crazy!¡±

    ¡°I was desperate, okay? My memory¡¯s all fuzzy, but I think I touched my Guardian Angel and Blanchette at the same time. I¡¯m not sure why my Guardian Angel told me to do that. I fainted right after.¡±

    I see...The Guardian Angel¡¯s plan became clear: shock me back to sanity to stop me trampling Deen, then wait for Xazary to jump in and save her. In that brief moment the three of us were connected, we shared our minds and looked into our futures. Lucky that Deen didn¡¯t remember much of the visions. I didn¡¯t either. ¡°Were you able to really help Blanchette?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Deen replied. ¡°I admit I was reckless there. I hope my Guardian Angel didn¡¯t make me hurt her in order to save me.¡± That flipped a switch in my mind. In an unfortunate future Deen discovered my secrets, I could tell her she nearly killed me that time even though she really saved me. She went on with her story, ¡°Bianca brought me to my house and waited for me to wake up. Apparently, Xazary is skilled at accessing databases to find my address.¡±

    ¡°I guess you told her everything then?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Everything. About our group¡ªshe already knew we impersonated her crew. About the source of our powers, the artificial Core. I also told her you were human.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re just trusting people¡ª"

    ¡°I know her secret; it¡¯s only fair she knows about mine,¡± Deen replied.

    I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s how it should work, I thought, but I didn¡¯t say it out loud.

    ¡°I can already see it on your face,¡± she said. ¡°Bianca saved me. And don¡¯t forget she also saved you too."

    "Zachary did protect me when the fighting started," I said, "and he escorted me to your house afterwards. But at that time, you didn¡¯t know if Bianca was telling the truth. I¡¯m just not so sure about telling her everything.¡±

    ¡°Well, I already did,¡± she said with an edge in her voice. ¡°And I did that to convince her to be on our side. She¡¯s human, not an Adumbrae, so she can still back out of this whole Adumbrae matter. She said she¡¯s going to think about it because her family is involved in the illegal Adumbrae underworld. Who would¡¯ve known? After all of that, I finally get to what I said earlier about our lead to finding Red Island. We should try to contact her. It¡¯s probably our only option.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­¡±

    ¡°Are you angry I only told you about this now?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not angry at¡ª¡±

    ¡°Or do you think I shouldn¡¯t have trusted Bianca after all that she did for us?¡±

    Heh, loaded question. Spoken like a lawyer. If she wanted to go that way, then so be it. I timidly said, ¡°What if¡­.¡± We stopped by a red light, right in front of the intersection. The streets were less crowded now that we were moving away from downtown. ¡°Never mind, I¡¯m probably overthinking it.¡±

    ¡°What if what?¡± She locked eyes with me, daring me to continue what I was going to say. She wore a stubborn face I¡¯ve never seen before, ready to defend her actions from my complaints. Very uncharacteristic of the Deen I was used to.

    ¡°What if Bianca reported us to the 2Ms?¡± I said slowly in a hushed tone as if I just realized something, being as melodramatic as I could without being over the top. "Then that¡¯s why they attacked us to take revenge¡­¡±

    She stared at me, blinking rapidly several times.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not saying that¡¯s what actually happened,¡± I hastily clarified. ¡°Just something I thought of. I¡¯m probably wrong.¡±

    Then she stared ahead, her eyes out of focus.

    ¡°Deen? Are you¡ª?¡± Blaring horns made me jerk. I exaggeratedly jumped to mimic a normal person getting surprised, adding in a belated high-pitched yelp. The light had turned green and our car wasn¡¯t moving forward, holding back the narrow lane. ¡°Deen! We have to go.¡±

    The car lurched forward and we sped to the precinct where Johann worked.

    Deen didn¡¯t speak a word for like five minutes.

    Whoopsie.

    Did I overdo it?

    I was mulling over whether to get angry at being lied to, or blame her for the attacks yesterday. For the record, I had no idea why the 2Ms did that. I couldn¡¯t even say for sure if Bianca had a part in it.

    Although acting hurt was a good reaction to Deen¡¯s revelation, I realized that if she ever discovered my secret, she could throw that back at me because I also kept a lot of secrets from her. Far weightier secrets. I¡¯d have no moral high ground in that encounter.

    That''s why I went with the second option. I could guilt-trip her when needed. I could hold this over her if I do decide to tell her the truth someday. The scene was clear on my mind: I¡¯d tell her I needed to keep it a secret because the 2Ms were hunting Blanchette. As proof, I was going to point to the attacks and blame her for telling Bianca everything about us.

    Of course, this would all fall apart if Bianca decided to side with her and told her otherwise. Bianca, however, was already on my side¡­until that bitch got what she needed from me.

    Let¡¯s just see where everything goes.

    For now, I had to tone it down a bit because I might have caused a bit more mental damage to Deen than I intended. ¡°Deen¡­I was just guessing when I said that.¡±

    Still nothing.

    ¡°I mean, Bianca wouldn¡¯t have saved you only to betray you afterwards.¡±

    ¡°Mhmm.¡± She slowly nodded her head.

    ¡°There¡¯s a lot of other possibilities. Maybe someone tailed you guys as you escaped. Or the 2Ms questioned her and she had no way of refusing.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­.you¡¯re right,¡± she mumbled, trying to convince herself. She was probably blaming herself in her head. Time to bring out the big guns of emotional manipulation.

    ¡°It might not even be connected to her,¡± I said. ¡°What if it was me? The 2Ms kidnapped me before. Then someone recognized me at the club and pieced it all together. And that¡¯s why they targeted us for revenge. It makes it my fault then¡­¡± My hand went to my mouth at the horrific realization. Very dramatic, mind you.

    ¡°What?¡± Deen said. ¡°No! How did you come to that conclusion?¡±

    How? Flipping shit was my specialty. I should work at Cindy¡¯s flipping burgers and I¡¯d be employee of the month in a month. Because it¡¯d be weird if it happened in a week. What the fuck is my brain thinking? I told her, ¡°Maybe this is really all my fault? My neighbors¡­dead.¡±

    ¡°Erind, don¡¯t be like that.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m the cause of so much death. All the people in my condo¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind!¡± Deen honked the horn of the car. ¡°Stop that. Don¡¯t blame yourself for what the 2Ms have done. We don¡¯t know why they did that, or what their plan is for turning people into monsters."

    And just like that, she was fine again. Expectedly, she was going to jump at the suggestion that she wasn¡¯t at fault. Normal human behavior. "It''s not my fault?" I said, on the verge of tears.

    "No, it''s not. Believe me, when we ask Bianca, she''ll tell us about the real reason...and I''m sure it''s not you.¡±

    "Okay then..."

    ¡°Bianca will also be the key in finding the Red Island. And we will make the 2Ms pay for all the innocents they murdered.¡±

    I said, ¡°You¡¯re sure we can trust her?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°I may not trust her, but I trust you.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    Maybe I should try to contact Bianca first.

    <hr>

    ¡°Let¡¯s finish this quickly before someone wonders why I disappeared during my shift,¡± Johann said. Deen connected her phone to the car¡¯s speakers so we could better hear his voice; it was echoing, the connection a bit choppy because he was hiding in a stairwell. ¡°Erind, don¡¯t forget the story why you came to our office instead of going to the headquarters which is closer to Deen¡¯s place.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want any media attention so I decided to avoid the headquarter,¡± I said. ¡°But I think I got a better story. How about I just make the protests and riots downtown my excuse?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a very valid reason to avoid going to LEPD main office,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°A way better fake excuse than what I came up with.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not even fake.¡±

    ¡°Good point, let¡¯s go with that,¡± he said. ¡°Where are you guys now? Erind, don¡¯t forget to drink the Suppressor before coming here.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re parked in front of the donut shop across the street of your precinct. I think I¡¯ll go inside their restroom after taking the blue stuff to check myself if there are any side effects or something.¡±

    ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any, right?¡± Deen said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have any effects on normal humans?¡±

    ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t,¡± Johann hurriedly said in a loud voice. Then he tried to play it off nonchalantly. ¡°We¡¯re having Erind drink it as a precaution.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be inside a police station. Even if this doesn¡¯t do anything, drinking it will calm me down and make me feel safe.¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re not comfortable, we can¡ª¡±

    ¡°Deen, I said many times I¡¯m fine. I want this done now.¡±

    ¡°I agree with Erind,¡± Johann said. ¡°Better to get this over with as soon as possible.¡± He then quickly ran through the tests they¡¯ll perform on me. Standard physical tests, some bioscanners and shit, the helmet test, all of which could be beaten by the blue vial. He assured me that their office didn¡¯t have the egg pod test that I detested; it was at their headquarters.

    Deen clapped her hands. ¡°It sounds like we have no problem then?¡± She smiled reassuringly at me.

    ¡°Not exactly," Johann said. "We might have one problem.¡±

    ¡°I spoke too soon.¡±

    ¡°Uh-oh,¡± I said.

 4.6

    ¡°You won¡¯t be in charge of the testing?!¡± I exclaimed with genuine concern. ¡°But I¡­but¡ª¡± I stopped myself, remembering Deen didn¡¯t know about the crystals on my palm. I had shown these to Johann so he was aware he needed to be the one managing the machines or whatever for the tests. That was the only major problem we had; everything else could be solved by the blue stuff. ¡°I mean, you need to¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to administer the test,¡± he said. ¡°I got you, don¡¯t worry. That¡¯s why I asked you to come now because it¡¯s my shift. The problem is something else. But it¡¯s only minor.¡±

    Phew. If wasn¡¯t going to be Johann then I¡¯d have no choice but to call this off. ¡°What it is then?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s this one test¡ªnot exactly a test, a sensor¡ªthat I¡¯m not sure the blue stuff can beat.¡±

    ¡°A sensor?¡± I asked. I glanced at the rearview mirror to make sure I looked nervous instead of annoyed. He didn¡¯t mention this when we were at Cindy¡¯s. Pisses me off that something this simple doesn¡¯t go according to plan.

    ¡°Some of the tests are conducted in this room with a BRF Umbrella. BRF stands for Baseline Reality Field. Umbrella because, well, it¡¯s covers the room like an umbrella.¡±

    ¡°Reality Field? Does that have something to do with Reality Wedges?¡±

    ¡°Wedges?¡± Deen said. ¡°What are those? I¡¯ve heard them mentioned a few times on the news recently. All I know is that they¡¯re used in fighting the Adumbrae invasion in Madagascar right now.¡±

    ¡°Eloyce Reality Wedges are deployed against Category Kreggans,¡± Johann explained. ¡°We¡¯ve seen them on TV that time we had a meeting at your place, both a Kreggan and a Wedge, those large poles. No Kreggan encounters have been officially recorded for the past six or seven years, although the Corebring might¡¯ve killed some we don¡¯t know about, which might be the reason why you¡¯re not familiar with Reality Wedges.¡±

    ¡°As the name suggests, they¡¯re for pinning down reality to counter the Kreggans¡¯ power, stitching it together as much as possible to be able to fight the strongest forms of Adumbrae with conventional weapons. Otherwise, we can¡¯t touch them. Most Corebrings won¡¯t be able to touch them either. Wedges are also sometimes used on non-Kreggans but still very powerful Adumbrae to weaken them.¡±

    That sounds scary as shit to be used on me. ¡°And the BRF Umbrella is¡­?¡±

    ¡°It''s not like that,¡± he replied. I inwardly sighed in relief. ¡°It just measures how much reality is bent¡ªthat¡¯s the simplest way I can describe it. All Adumbrae affect reality to some extent just by existing, but most of the time it¡¯s miniscule to the point of being indistinguishable from commonplace reality fluctuations since, you know, from the start of this whole war.

    ¡°The Umbrella¡¯s use outside of BID missions is screening suspected Adumbrae who might have abilities that can cheat standard tests. Most cities don¡¯t have these Umbrellas. Or if they have, like our beloved city does, it¡¯s rarely used.¡±

    ¡°Science mumbo jumbo aside," I said, "it sounds like it should be turned on all the time.¡±

    ¡°Well, yes. But the city¡¯s budget says no. Most people don¡¯t realize just how rare Adumbrae are in these times. The last Adumbrae we caught in this city with standard testing was a couple of years ago. Only a small percentage of Adumbrae can control their abilities to some extent. And among that extremely small number, only a few have abilities that allow them to bypass standard tests. Moreover, the tritium cells needed to power the Umbrellas are very expensive. We only use it for high-profile Adumbrae investigations, assuming the city council authorizes the budget for it, which they usually don¡¯t. However¡ª"

    ¡°Let me guess,¡± I said. ¡°The BID ordered it to be used this time?¡±

    ¡°Yes, and they¡¯re providing the power cells for it. There¡¯s a huge pressure on the BID to find the origin of the seeding outbreak¡ªwhich we know isn¡¯t really one. An attack this big with no leads, they¡¯re pulling out all stops.¡±

    ¡°So, this Umbrella thingy is turned on? Maybe Deen¡¯s right, I shouldn¡¯t do this now. We have to think¡ª¡±

    ¡°Ah, no, we don¡¯t have problems with the Umbrella itself,¡± Johann said. ¡°Basically, I¡¯m going to lower the settings of the Umbrella to a level I¡¯m sure it won¡¯t detect¡­anything. Obviously, I can¡¯t turn it off because someone in the office will notice. And I can¡¯t lower it manually as that requires authorization only my boss has.

    ¡°Fortunately, he¡¯s not around. Haven¡¯t seen him since yesterday. So, I¡¯m free to tinker with the Umbrella. What I can do is lower its power source. It doesn¡¯t turn off on low power but instead defaults to operating on minimum settings automatically to maintain a level of protection for as long as possible during BID operations.¡±

    ¡°You have a problem with disrupting its power source?¡±

    ¡°Also no. I already swapped in the nearly drained batteries we were using yesterday; easy to do with my boss absent. That''s why I didn''t tell you about this when I briefed you. The problem that cropped up is the log in changing the power cells. I discovered just a while ago it¡¯s also recorded in the computer terminal of Philip¡ªhe¡¯s a co-worker of mine¡ªand I need to access it before he checks it and realizes something is wrong.

    ¡°Which he will do after we test a large group of people. Members of a local gang selling fake Adumbrae body parts were arrested and will get tested soon. If only you weren¡¯t delayed by the traffic, you would¡¯ve been tested before them and we won¡¯t have this problem. I tried resolving it on my own but I can¡¯t get to Philip¡¯s station without being noticed. That¡¯s where I need help. Deen¡¯s help actually.¡±

    ¡°Why Deen?¡± I said. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re going to use her as a distraction.¡±

    ¡°Are you okay with that Deen?¡± Johann said. ¡°I¡¯ll introduce you as a friend of a friend. My officemates know Myra, and I¡¯ll tell them you¡¯re her friend from school. Us technicians, we¡¯re just a bunch of guys, you know¡­¡±

    I chuckled. ¡°The oldest trick in the book. I¡¯m sure Deen can manage that.¡±

    ¡°A minor problem like I said. How about it, Deen? I¡¯m sorry if this sounds sexist or it¡¯s like objectifying you. But you¡¯re the easiest distrac¡ªer, this really sounds bad.¡±

    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s not a problem for her,¡± I said. ¡°Right, Deen? Uh¡­Deen?¡±

    She was weirdly silent the entire time we were discussing about the Umbrella. She stared at the people going in and out of the donut shop, her brows furrowed. What¡¯s her problem now?

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°Deen?¡± I repeated. ¡°Are you okay with Johann¡¯s suggestion?¡±

    ¡°I may have misunderstood something,¡± she said, ¡°but I don¡¯t see the problem with the Umbrella.¡± I blinked once to push down all the other physical reactions to shock my body might have as it dawned on me what she was thinking about. She turned to me, her eyes slowly narrowing. ¡°The Umbrella doesn¡¯t care about normal humans, right? And you¡¯re a normal human. So¡­¡±

    Johann, who was supposed to answer this question, wasn¡¯t able to immediately say anything so I decided to speak up. A couple of seconds of silence would make her more suspicious. ¡°Just to be safe, you know? We should¡ª¡±

    ¡°But this seems unsafe,¡± she interrupted. ¡°Isn¡¯t it better not to bother with the Umbrella since it won¡¯t detect anything?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­uh¡­we have to do it,¡± Johann stammered. ¡°Because, uh, the blue stuff! The Suppressor! It has side effects the Umbrella can detect.¡±

    ¡°It does?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case¡­I was going to suggest Erind not drink it anymore, but given what she¡¯s been through, I suppose it might be better if she does because some, I don¡¯t know, Adumbrae material might¡¯ve latched on to her.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± he said, hints of relief in his voice. ¡°And since she has to drink the Suppressor, I also need to make sure any anomalous signal it emits isn¡¯t detected by the BRF Umbrella.¡±

    ¡°Are you okay with helping out Johann distract his co-workers?¡± I said. ¡°This feels like a spy movie and you¡¯re the femme fatale character.¡± I jokingly poked her side, hoping it would divert her attention. ¡°Are you up for it? You¡¯ll just talk to them and they¡¯ll already be mesmerized by your beauty.¡±

    ¡°What the hell are you talking about?¡± She poked me back.

    ¡°Come on, you know what I mean. You might not even need to do anything except stand there and be beautiful.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it, okay? I¡¯ll be your distraction.¡±

    Crisis averted. ¡°Yay,¡± I said. ¡°Johann, I¡¯ll just drink this blue thingy and we¡¯ll go there.¡±

    <hr>

    I pressed the skin above my left cheek and pulled my lower eyelid down revealing the flesh inside. ¡°Pale white,¡± I mumbled, examining my reflection on the mirror. The flesh below my eye, streaked with red veins thinner than my hair, gradually turned pink, deepening more and more in color. ¡°Is this the correct color or should this be already red?¡±

    I have no idea why I¡¯m doing this.

    I just saw this a lot in movies and tv shows when characters have an illness of some kind or took drugs, they always checked the inside of their eyelids on the mirror. For dramatic effect? Or was there something here that signaled there was something wrong with my body?

    I bent closer to the mirror. What should I be looking for anyway?

    Knock, knock, knock.

    I jerked up. Danger? Find a weapon! I grabbed the liquid soap bottle on the left side of the sink and held it up. Whoever came in was going to get fucking clobbered. The knocking came again, and I realized I panicked for nothing.

    ¡°Fucking Deen,¡± I spat out in a low voice. I didn¡¯t like knocking very much since that zombie-parasite-asshole knocked on my condo unit.

    ¡°Just call for me if you need any help,¡± she said from the other side of the door. I was inside the restroom of the donut shop. It was a unisex restroom that only allowed one occupant. She wanted to come in with me but I insisted it was better for her to stay outside and stand guard, pretending to be waiting in line.

    It has been barely a minute since I went in here, jeez. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I said.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m just here outside!¡±

    Obviously, I thought, rolling my eyes at my reflection. I was getting jumpy. Normally, I wouldn¡¯t get surprised that easily.

    I looked at the bottle of soap I held. Was it made of glass or plastic? I wasn¡¯t sure. It was thick and hard¡ªReo probably would have a joke for this¡ªa well-made bottle that was definitely not cheap, but a material I could easily rip apart like paper. Literally. But that was before I drunk the blue stuff.

    I squeezed the bottle with one hand. And squeezed some more. And then squeezed with two hands as hard as I could. Did it compress a little or was it just my imagination?

    This sucks.

    How weak I¡¯ve become.

    Or rather, how weak I was when I was still a normal human. I didn¡¯t miss this one bit. My entire body was heavier, sluggish, drained. It was like I was super athletic, then suffered an injury so I couldn¡¯t move around much, and my body wasted away after some time. I could just compare how fit I was in high school compared to how I barely did any physical activity in law school¡­not that I could tear open soap bottles when I was a teenager.

    I sighed as I placed the bottle back on the sink. ¡°I get it now,¡± I muttered. It wasn¡¯t a side effect of the blue stuff that made me jumpy. Weakness. The feeling of vulnerability. This was the first time I had my weak and pathetic normal human body back since I became an Adumbrae.

    I mean I should feel happy...right?

    But I''m not.

    People can be as judgmental of those who became Adumbrae, but you¡¯ll never know how you¡¯ll react if you were in their shoes. Experiencing the power and then being stripped of it, I can sympathize.

    Hahaha, sympathize¡ªas if I knew how that felt. An approximation of it. I gained a better understanding why people craved power from Adumbrae even if they were¡­you know¡­Adumbrae.

    Because it was awesome.

    I took out a couple of plastic forks I stowed away in my pocket while we were eating at Cindy¡¯s. Not sure if these can wound a normal body, but I tried to stab myself. The teeth of the fork broke off, leaving a reddened skin. I tried with the next fork and was able to scratch myself.

    Okay, so I¡¯m healing normally too.

    Let¡¯s get this over with.

    ¡°Are you ready?¡± Deen said to me after I exited the restroom.

    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± I pointed the paper bag she was holding. ¡°You bought donuts?¡±

    ¡°For you, to make you feel less nervous. Our brain releases dopamine when we eat sweet things.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s thoughtful of you.¡± I took out a donut and chomped on it to show my appreciation. ¡°Thank you,¡± I said while chewing the sugary dough.

    ¡°Distract yourself with happy thoughts, like we¡¯ll go shopping later for new clothes.¡±

    ¡°Eh? That again.¡±

    ¡°We should! You don¡¯t have any other clothes. I threw away the ones you wore yesterday.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± I said levelly, a nugget of concern lodged at the back of my brain.

    ¡°They were too dirty.¡±

    ¡°I can wash them.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s better to throw them. You wore that while you¡­you know,¡± Deen said with a shrug, giving a sidelong glance at the guy manning the cashier who was gazing starstruck at her. ¡°All that dirt, you don¡¯t know what got stuck. And it¡¯ll be fun to shop. It can make you feel less stressed.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± She led the way out of the store and back to her car.

    I followed her while chewing my tongue, a frown of annoyance slipped my guard and formed on my face.

    Was there blood on that shirt? My blood?

    Did Deen notice it?

 4.7

    ¡°A goddamn crazy circus is what it is!¡± boomed the middle-aged but already intensely balding police officer assigned to question me. His announcer-like voice straight out of a boxing ring was unexpected from his frail frame. He closed his eyes and shook his head with condemnation. ¡°Would it hurt for these people to sit still in their fucking homes?¡±

    I flinched when he shouted then looked up with an alarmed face, not because I was actually surprised, but because I was supposed to be a timid girl. Just an honest day¡¯s work farming sympathy here. Nothing to see people, move along.

    He wasn¡¯t yelling at me.

    I turned around to check what he was complaining about. He was watching the large TV at the lobby through the glass door of his office, the news showing the on-going protests at Marshall Avenue.

    ¡°I apologize, miss,¡± said Harold or Harley, some name starting with an ¡®H¡¯. He had introduced himself to me, but I didn¡¯t care enough to remember his name. I also didn¡¯t take note of his rank and title, although he obviously had a position in whatever department this was, and one of Johann¡¯s superiors. ¡°These people¡­¡± He shook his head again. ¡°Just makes your blood boil, you get what I¡¯m saying?¡±

    ¡°I¡­I think so.¡±

    ¡°Did I startle you?¡±

    ¡°Erm, yea¡­a bit,¡± I said with an embarrassed grin. I showed him a line on the questionnaire I intentionally messed up with some scribbles. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I jumped when you yelled. Can I get a new one?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about a small thing like that.¡± He placed a correction tape in front of me. ¡°Know how to use this? You kids still use these things?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. I do. Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Good, that¡¯s good,¡± said Officer H-Something with an appreciative nod. ¡°I thought you kids were all computers nowadays.¡± He went back to his tirade against the protesters. ¡°They¡¯re just making it worse. In times like these, everyone should calm the hell down.¡± He slammed his palm on the wooden table, causing me to really mess up my writing this time. He didn¡¯t notice so I didn¡¯t make a big deal out of it. He continued his spiel as if the people on TV could hear him.

    I nodded every time he paused to shake his head while dutifully filling up the forms requiring various info about me.

    ¡°Look at that rabble,¡± he said, waving his hands. ¡°You got a good head on your shoulders deciding to come here instead of going to HQ, miss; whole downtown¡¯s utter nonsense. We¡¯ll forward everything to them as per procedure anyway, ah, to the BID.¡±

    Witnesses and other persons-of-interest related to the Adumbrae investigations¡ªwhich I supposed included me, a resident of the condo-turned-hellhole¡ªwere advised to go to the LEPD main office for processing. Of course, I was going to come forward. Hiding would just make it worse. But I wasn¡¯t going to their headquarters. Johann wasn¡¯t working there, and that place was crawling with BID agents who had taken charge of the investigation on the two Adumbrae attacks.

    This Hackett or Haden guy also mentioned it was super crowded at their head office, with all the leads being pursued and tons of people brought in for investigation and testing, and now this whole protest thing happening.

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± I said. ¡°Thank you so much for your help. It would¡¯ve been bad if Deen and I, my friend, were stuck there. I have a class in about a couple of hours I can¡¯t miss.¡± Deen had a class later, not me. I just told a teensy-weensy white lie so I would look the part of a harmless student, at the same time subtly hinting I had something important to do later to set a timer on this whole thing.

    Some guys¡ªscratch that, most guys¡ªwould be more helpful towards Deen than me. She had a huge advantage in most social situations involving men. Not so much with women because they¡¯d view her as a threat. Basic biology¡­I think. I forgot all the science shit I learned in school; it had been a few years since I had a science class. And I only took those during undergrad because they were required units.

    Officer H-Something¡¯s case was different. Compared to the other colleagues of Johann who swarmed around Deen when he introduced her, he didn¡¯t pay much attention to her.

    I also noticed this Harvey or Hyrum had pictures of, presumably, his teen daughters, three of them, on his table¡ªgraduation pictures, vacation pictures, the usual dad stuff. Going for the helpless daughter vibe was clearly the way to go for me. I was four years, going five, past being a teen, but if those thirty-year-old actresses can play teenagers in cringey romance movies, then I could do it too. Didn¡¯t hurt that I actually looked like a high-schooler.

    Officer H-Something occasionally referring to me as a ¡®kid¡¯ meant I correctly read his personality and my adjusted face was working smoothly.

    ¡°We¡¯ll just be quick here,¡± he said. ¡°We don¡¯t want you missing your classes. A missed class is money thrown to the winds, that¡¯s what I always tell my girls. I¡¯m saving for their college tuition. I imagine tuition fees at EFU are not cheap in the slightest.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. I¡¯m lucky I got in with a scholarship.¡± Not true. I did have discounted tuition because of my high scores on the entrance exams. I suppose, it was still technically a scholarship, just not what people usually think when they hear that term. I wasn¡¯t some genius, award-winning student who was a member of tons of organizations.

    Nonetheless, it did impress Officer H-Something as I intended. A begrudging smile broke the grumpy mask he wore. ¡°Seems like you¡¯re a bright girl. I do hope when you become a lawyer, you work for the government instead of going private. There¡¯s more money there, I get it. Money does buy happiness, contrary to what people say. I¡¯ll be happy if my girls won¡¯t need student loans when they go to a good university, maybe even to Eloyce University, like you.

    ¡°But there are some kinds of happiness money can¡¯t buy. The happiness of people you¡¯ll help if you work for the government, for example. Or the general happiness of the city you¡¯re helping to keep safe. Many people take normalcy for granted these days. It''s only when something bad happens, like now, that people remember the happiness they felt when everything was safe. And I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll need bright girls like you to help keep the people safe.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s inspiring, sir,¡± I replied. ¡°I always wanted to work in the public sector.¡±

    ¡°Maybe you can work with us here, or maybe with the BID.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± I replied noncommittedly. I bent down to finish the questionnaire, and he returned to watching the TV. A couple more lines and I finished answering it. I looked it over twice, carefully rereading everything just like a future lawyer should, before signing the bottom of each page and handing it to him.

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°If these people genuinely believed there¡¯s a possibility of another seeding outbreak,¡± he said with a frown, ¡°or that there¡¯s some Adumbrae lurking inside the hospital, then why in the goddamn hell are they there¡ªoh, you¡¯re done.¡± He nodded towards the TV. ¡°Look at that. They¡¯re rioting now¡­or again. If you were stuck in the traffic, you might¡¯ve gotten caught up in that.¡±

    I shook my head with an air of disapproval, mimicking his favorite gesture. ¡°I can¡¯t believe this is happening in our city.¡± Don¡¯t read what I wrote. Not that I¡¯ve written anything false or illegal there, but the fewer the questions, the better.

    ¡°People can change at the drop of a hat, don¡¯t forget that, miss.¡±

    ¡°I guess it¡¯s because it¡¯s the first time this happened in our city,¡± I said. ¡°People are panicking and acting irrationally. Like you said, sir, people take normalcy for granted. I guess that includes me too.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s true. And it¡¯s not just the shit they¡¯re stirring up there that¡¯s the problem¡ªexcuse my words, miss, I¡¯m just pissed. An emotionally charged gathering like this in the wake of two major Adumbrae incidents? It affects not only the psyche of the people gathering there, but the city as a whole. Very dangerous.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean, sir?¡±

    ¡°This is the first time something like this happened in La Esperanza. The result is shock, distress, and heightened stress on the minds of the people, creating possible cracks an Adumbrae could wiggle in. It¡¯s a vicious cycle that could happen if we don¡¯t put a stop to it.

    ¡°Think of earthquakes. A particularly strong earthquake causes a lot of damage, but that¡¯s not the end of it. There will be aftershocks that follow which can cause even more devastation, especially if they hit the same place. If a building is already weakened by the main quake, the aftershock might be the one to bring it down. The smartest thing to do is try to get back to normal as soon as possible. I know that¡¯s a tall order¡ª¡±

    There was knock behind me followed by the clicking of heels on the tiles as a woman entered the room. ¡°Sir, I got it printed out,¡± said Saffron, this guy¡¯s secretary. I had no problem remembering her name even if I didn¡¯t give a fuck because I always wanted to try out saffron tea. She handed me a document. ¡°Here is the statement you gave us earlier, Ms. Hartwell.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said.

    ¡°I¡¯ve also printed the certificates needed for your tests so we can quickly have these stamped and signed afterwards. It was annoying to have these organized because your beautiful friend is causing quite a commotion there at the back.¡±

    ¡°Sorry for that,¡± I said, with an embarrassed smile. I hoped those two could successfully carry out the plan. ¡°I¡¯m sure she didn¡¯t mean to.¡±

    ¡°Those rascals,¡± said Henry, or maybe Hector. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to them later. I was telling Ms. Hartwell here she should try working for the city when she graduates. She¡¯s not going to be too keen on that if she sees we employ a bunch of excited boys.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­no,¡± I said. ¡°There¡¯s no¡ª¡±

    ¡°Are you sure that that¡¯s going to be the problem, sir?¡± said Saffron, winking at me. ¡°You may have already scared her from applying to our office.¡± She bent down and whispered to me in a voice intentionally audible to her boss, ¡°Just bring ear plugs, and you¡¯ll be fine working here.¡±

    ¡°I can hear that, Saffy,¡± he growled.

    She chuckled. ¡°Miss Hartwell, go over your statement and tell us if there¡¯s anything incorrect or inaccurate; I¡¯ll edit it. If you¡¯re satisfied with it, you can sign it at the space indicated and we can proceed.¡±

    ¡°Are those punks done getting tested?¡±

    ¡°Should be done in a few minutes. There was a slight delay because of our beautiful visitor.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m really sorry!¡± I said. ¡°Deen wanted to tour your office and¡ª¡±

    ¡°No worries, miss,¡± Officer H-Something said. ¡°I said it was okay for her to tour. It¡¯s rare we get Eloyce students interested in what we do.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a bit for any edits,¡± said Saffron, walking out the door. ¡°I¡¯m just going to check the testing of the suspects.¡±

    Harry or maybe Harlem heaved a sigh. ¡°Those punks Saffy mentioned¡­Five of them, about the same age as my oldest girl. We caught them trying to sell Adumbrae parts they allegedly harvested from the body of the Titan Adumbrae. Some wacko people think those can be used as talismans to ward off Adumbrae because they were touched by Corebrings.¡±

    ¡°Is that true?¡±

    ¡°Definitely not. Adumbrae body parts can be dangerous. Fortunately, what those punks were selling were fakes. Sculptures made from wads of wet paper painted to look mysterious. Low-life fraudsters trying to profit from the panic. We normally don¡¯t test these swindling nutjobs, a waste of resources of the city. But because we had two Adumbrae attacks, the BID wants every suspect we come across, no matter how seemingly unconnected, tested and processed, their info entered in the database. Better be safe than sorry.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± I said, examining the paper Saffron gave me.

    ¡°Go ahead and read it. I¡¯ll just get coffee.¡±

    They accurately typed out the statement I gave earlier:

    I had some school project I was working on with Deen, so I stayed at her place last Tuesday night. I had no idea about the Adumbrae attack on the condominium building I lived in until I saw it on the news. At that point, obviously I didn¡¯t go there anymore. After recovering from shock this morning, I decided to come forward to help the police and the BID in assembling the list of the casualties in that horrible incident¡ªmore specifically, to remove my name from it¡ªand to volunteer any possible information that could help them in rooting out other surviving Adumbrae.

    Everything neatly tied with a ribbon.

    I decided making the story I told Mom the official one because it was so much easier to keep straight, only requiring Deen to be my witness if needed. The police had no reason to suspect my story. I was a strait-laced lady going to one of the best universities in the country, just doing school work like the hope of the nation that I was.

    Mental note, we had to change the story Deen told her sister. That was if her sister even cared about it.

    ¡°All in order, miss?¡± Officer H-Something asked, swigging a steaming mug of coffee in his hand.

    ¡°It¡¯s accurate, sir. I¡¯ll just sign here?¡± I pointed at the blank. I know to sign there, duh. But it was to give this guy an opportunity to be helpful, and for me to be grateful. He nodded. ¡°Thank you,¡± I said as wrote my signature. ¡°Am I going to be tested next?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait for Saffy¡ªah, here she is,¡± he said. ¡°They done there?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. Ms. Hartwell can follow. And by the way, Dr. Cornelio came in. I think he wants to question Ms. Hartwell first before approving her for testing.¡±

    He grunted in surprise. ¡°He¡¯s here now? He better have a good excuse why he was absent yesterday and came in late today. I was about to assume that crazy bastard got killed by an Adumbrae behind a dumpster.¡±

    ¡°Excuse not only for us, sir, but for his wife too.¡±

    ¡°Oho! You¡¯re right. She was worried sick about that old fart not coming home, kept on calling me yesterday.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re both the same age, sir.¡±

    ¡°That reminds me, miss,¡± he said to me, ignoring Saffron¡¯s comment. ¡°Perhaps you know Cornelio¡¯s wife? He¡¯s the head of the labs in this station, and his wife is a professor at Eloyce University.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I do,¡± I said, trying to remember my female law professors who were married. Most were single. ¡°Cornelio is the surname? I don¡¯t think¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, no, er, yes, Cornelio¡¯s is Kenneth¡¯s surname, but his wife uses her maiden name. Isn¡¯t that right, Saffy?"

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± she said. ¡°Her surname is Deslys.¡±

 4.8

    ¡°I can¡¯t remember the last time we were this swamped,¡± said Dr. Kenneth Cornelio, head of the Adumbrae Criminalistics Laboratory of the AIU based in this station. He had a deep and monotonous voice, and looked exactly like you would expect a man with his job: a glasses-wearing, academe-looking, serious man who was going to give the boring exposition in a sci-fi movie. ¡°I¡¯d say during the McHunter scandal, but we didn¡¯t have this laboratory back then. HQ had a barely-funded disgrace of a facility at the time. Do you know about the McHunters, Miss Hartwell?¡±

    This is weirdly fascinating; he could ask a question without his voice rising at the end of the sentence. ¡°Isn¡¯t that the super-duper rich family infected by Adumbrae?¡± I said. ¡°I think it was the head of their family?¡±

    ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re familiar with them? You were probably in high school when the whole scandal exploded. It was actually because of them that the city ramped up its spending on anti-Adumbrae tech to the level we have now.¡±

    I simply nodded because I didn¡¯t have anything else to say. Even if I¡¯ve lived in this city for only a couple of years, I¡¯ve heard of the infamously wealthy McHunter clan because they were the owners of the huge abandoned development project where the derelict building we used as our hideout was located.

    I tried to shift in my seat without drawing attention, hoping to get a better view of Dr. Cornelio¡¯s screen. He was reviewing my government records on his computer before I get tested.

    ¡°And it seems, given recent events,¡± he said, ¡°we need to expend more resources, leading to a quandary.¡± He held up his hands and moved them up and down as if they were weighing scales. ¡°Spend astronomical amounts of the taxpayers¡¯ money to have state-of-the-art of facilities to combat Adumbrae. What if no Adumbrae appears? The public will accuse the government of wasting money. Don¡¯t do anything, and then an Adumbrae shows up? The public will crucify the government. Isn¡¯t it a funny situation, Ms. Hartwell?¡±

    ¡°Erm¡­yes?¡± I wasn¡¯t sure what to think of this guy.

    He nodded at a high stack of documents Saffron delivered earlier. ¡°Paperwork is accumulating, and the BID is demanding results. You should¡¯ve called ahead of time so we could''ve scheduled you properly.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir,¡± I said.

    ¡°I know you lived in that condominium building, ground zero of the seeding outbreak, so you might¡¯ve assumed we¡¯ll immediately accommodate you. However, we have plenty of individuals connected to the case already lined up for testing.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. That¡¯s what I incorrectly thought.¡± A no-nonsense rule stickler asshole. Fiercely bureaucratic. Very difficult to deal with. He couldn¡¯t send me home, but he was giving me a bit of a hard time for not following the rules. "Sorry,¡± I said again for good measure.

    ¡°There are the residents who weren¡¯t present during the outbreak, like yourself. The employees, not just of the property manager, but also of the various companies renting office spaces in that building. Occupants of surrounding buildings are being tested as well. The main office can¡¯t handle them all and passed some of the load to us. We all have them scheduled, Ms. Hartwell.¡±

    Fucking Johann assured me everything was in order for me to get tested. ¡°I didn¡¯t know, sir. I¡¯m sor¡ª"

    ¡°And now, I come to my office to find out you just showed up here, and Martin slotted you in. In managing our test slots, we keep in mind accommodating unforeseen emergency testing. For example, the suspects selling fake Adumbrae body parts that were just brought in. But not people just showing up when they could¡¯ve called.¡±

    Martin? Was that Johann''s second name? A huge hassle to deal with these kinds of people, my usual tricks weren¡¯t that effective. I stuttered, ¡°I¡­I was afraid that¡­um¡­police might come and drag me away.¡±

    ¡°Drag you away? Ms. Hartwell, the police won¡¯t arrest you for this. You¡¯re a law student, are you not? You should know there are procedures we follow.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± I replied. Prick. I was tempted to say there were many cases the police didn¡¯t follow procedure which we studied in law school, but that was a dumb move. I didn¡¯t need to antagonize him. ¡°I was thinking the cops will like come to school or something, and escort me off to get tested.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­I can¡¯t say that doesn¡¯t happen. However, given the police are currently stretched thin, I don¡¯t think they will specifically come for you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve seen it on TV, so I thought it was going to happen to me too. I mean, there¡¯s nothing wrong with that, it¡¯s just that it¡­looks bad¡­um, and¡ª¡±

    ¡°Say no more, Ms. Hartwell. I understand your position.¡±

    ¡°You do? Um, really?¡±

    ¡°I truly do. Take my situation, for example, working in a lab testing Adumbrae. My family¡¯s social life is affected by this. It¡¯s quite common for friends and acquaintances to avoid prolonged social interactions with me and my wife once they know our line of work. Quite understandable even if irrational. Or, perhaps¡­it is rational?¡±

    ¡°Er¡­I¡¯m sorry to hear that, sir.¡± Okay, I didn¡¯t need to know shit about your life. Not the direction I thought this conversation would go, but he seemed to become lenient with me.

    ¡°I see here that your last test recorded in the BID database was on January 20. Just last month? The one before this should be for your enrollment. You are a first-year law student at Eloyce University, correct?¡± I nodded. He said, ¡°Then what is this January 20 test for? And a profiling at that.¡±

    ¡°Sir, that¡¯s because I witnessed a fellow law student jump out the window down to the ocean; our building is on a cliff. I guess she was super stressed, or had some mental problems. I¡¯m not sure what happened after that, but I do know they never found her body. Maybe it was somehow connected to Adumbrae and that¡¯s why I was tested?¡±

    ¡°Perhaps, perhaps. But why did you undergo an Eloyce Field Profiling? And this doesn¡¯t seem to be at the main office.¡±

    Isn¡¯t that the egg pod test? I got an answer for that, and the perfect way of delivering it. ¡°I¡¯m¡­I don¡¯t know. There¡¯s this Professor at Melchor who said I should try it. I think it should¡¯ve been just the helmet test thingy¡ª¡±

    ¡°Field Integrity test.¡±

    ¡°Um, that. But the lady professor insisted I should do that test where I sit in this huge white machine that looks like an egg pod thingy. I think her name was Professor Dessy¡­Desly?¡±

    ¡°Deslys,¡± he said with dejected flatness.

    I snapped my fingers. ¡°Yes, I think that¡¯s it. I haven¡¯t heard the surname Deslys before.¡±

    ¡°Why am I not surprised?¡± Dr. Cornelio sighed while shaking his head. ¡°She is my wife.¡±

    ¡°Oh! I didn¡¯t know that,¡± I exclaimed. He didn¡¯t know that I already knew because Saffron told me. ¡°That¡¯s so cool. Both of you are scien¡ª"

    ¡°I¡¯ve advised her a number of times not to do this. It¡¯s not in accordance with the guidelines. She merely wants to satisfy her scientific curiosity,¡± he complained, his monotone voice gradually showing breaks of frustration. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I agree with her decision to submit the test to the database as per the rules. A wiser choice would¡¯ve been to delete any trace of her favorite pastime. But I would never suggest that.¡±

    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°She shouldn¡¯t have done it?¡± That bitch! I knew it.

    ¡°No, there was no reason to. And the unit you call ¡®egg pod thingy¡¯ at Melchor is an experimental model used for research and not a regulation approved instrument. The only ¡®egg pod thingy¡¯ for official use in this city is at LEPD headquarters.¡±

    ¡°Is it bad? Are there side effects, or¡­?¡±

    ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any, Ms. Hartwell. No cause for worry. Although, I suppose I should apologize for my wife inconveniencing you. And since everything seems to be in order, you can proceed to testing. I¡¯ll just call for someone.¡± He waved his hand to the people outside the glass wall of his office.

    Johann was walking along the corridor with Deen; she had a bunch of other presumably technicians in tow. His eyes widened when he saw his boss. His co-workers fled like rats back to their holes, surprised by the presence of their boss, but not as surprised as Johann.

    Dr. Cornelio gestured for him to come in, and he had no choice but to comply.

    ¡°Sir, I didn¡¯t know you came in,¡± he said.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t aware I should report to you.¡±

    He grinned apologetically, scratching his head. ¡°It¡¯s just that your wife has been calling the office and¡ª"

    Dr. Cornelio stared him down to shut him up. ¡°Martin, I expected better from you. I found out you scheduled Ms. Hartwell here¡ª¡±

    ¡°Deen!¡± I said with fake excitement. ¡°This is Dr. Cornelio. Guess what? He¡¯s the husband of Professor Deslys. Remember her? The pretty professor at Melchor?¡±

    ¡°Oh my god, really?¡± Deen said without missing a beat. ¡°I¡¯ll never forget Professor Deslys, beauty and brains, all in one.¡± There was a glint of understanding in her eye. ¡°I didn¡¯t know she¡¯s married. So cute that both of you are scientists¡­er¡­sir.¡± She did a little curtsy, drawing her hands to her side as if she was wearing a skirt. ¡°Good afternoon, sir. My name is Amber Deen. I¡¯m Erind¡¯s friend and classmate. I accompanied her here because she¡¯s a scaredy cat.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m not.¡±

    ¡°Sorry for being so informal, sir. I can¡¯t help but gush. I didn¡¯t expect to meet a couple scientist.¡±

    ¡°Right?¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s what I said earlier.¡± The two of us were speaking rapidly and loudly, not giving Dr. Cornelio the opportunity to butt in.

    ¡°I actually saw a picture of Professor Deslys when Johann was touring me in the office.¡±

    ¡°Did she work here before, sir?¡± I asked, eagerly leaning forward, making it perfectly clear he had no other choice but to shoo us away. ¡°You met each other at work?¡±

    ¡°Ye-yes,¡± he said, visibly uncomfortable with the two of us prying.

    ¡°That could be a great TV show! I¡¯ll watch it. Can you tell us more¡ª"

    ¡°Here are your papers, Ms. Hartwell. Martin will accompany you to the testing. Move along now, I have a lot on my plate to deal with.¡±

    ¡°Right on it, sir,¡± Johann replied. He gave me a wink, grateful for our efforts in distracting his boss. ¡°Ms. Hartwell can be done before the next group scheduled for testing arrives.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°106 lbs, Ms. Erind,¡± said Philip, tapping a tablet with his stylus.

    ¡°You know you shouldn¡¯t ask for a woman¡¯s weight,¡± I said. ¡°That should apply to tests too.¡± He laughed at my lame attempt at a joke. Sitting beside him was Johann, who gave me an assuring thumbs up. Just the usual social interactions; it was like filling up a quota per setting. Normally, I¡¯d get tired after a while, but I¡¯ve grown to appreciate this given all the utter nonsense happening in my life. Officer H-something was right, we take normalcy for granted.

    I went through a fairly basic physical assessment. Weight, height, heartrate, BMI, the usual. I passed through bioscanners peeking my muscle mass, bone density and structure, and other stuff Philip was blabbering about earlier. He even jested that, for all they knew, maybe I was a monster hiding in human skin.

    And they¡¯d be right.

    After that, they led me inside a room with even more machines.

    Whoa! As soon as I entered, I felt the atmosphere became heavier, it was slightly harder to breathe like hiking up a very tall mountain and experiencing thin air for the first time. Static made the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end.

    Johann looked me in the eye for a couple of seconds then gazed upwards. I followed suit. Hanging in the center of the high stainless-steel ceiling a curious contraption made of concentric silver plates. It gave off a very faint high-pitched whirring noise, almost a whistle.

    The Umbrella.

    I couldn¡¯t see the whatever-field it was, but it was certainly turned on. Johann better have made sure his plan worked.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if this is normal,¡± I said, ¡°but I¡¯ve got this weird sensation.¡± I held up my arms, showing them my goosebumps.

    ¡°That¡¯s normal, Ms. Erind.¡± Philip ushered me to the large rectangular machines that checked regeneration. ¡°This way, please.¡±

    I stood rooted on the spot, appearing to look nervous, my eyes flickering at the machines then at him. Then I glared at Johann. He was behind a control panel of sorts. Philip stepped back, unsure of what he had done wrong.

    ¡°Philip won¡¯t bite,¡± Johann said, grinning at his co-worker. ¡°He¡¯s a nice guy actually. We can check his HR records after this, if you want.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for the endorsement,¡± he replied sarcastically.

    ¡°Oh, I wasn¡¯t thinking that!¡± I said to Philip. ¡°Honest. I was¡­I was just scared of this machine.¡± And with that, Philip will¡ªeither consciously or unconsciously, it didn¡¯t matter which¡ªkeep his distance from me. I moved to the machine in an angle that ensure he¡¯d be on my left side following me. ¡°I put my hands here?¡±

    ¡°Palms down, please,¡± he said. ¡°And look into the retina scanner.¡±

    As the machine did its thing, Johann chatted with his co-worker, teasingly pairing him with me, so he wouldn¡¯t look too closely at my hands. He wouldn¡¯t think about checking my right palm, anyway; that was such a random thing to do. Which was why Johann decided, instead of standing beside me, he should be commanding the control terminal in case the machine reacted to the crystals on my palm.

    After the prickling on my palms stopped, I quickly turned to Johann to check if there was something wrong. He gave me a subtle shake of his head.

    Nice. I was so relieved that it lowered my disgust for the helmet test that came up next.

    I was even humming to myself while waiting for the helmet thingy to scan my brain and whatnot. It did help it was Johann administering the test; I would¡¯ve been more uncomfortable if it was someone else. He already knew there was something wrong with me¡ªbeing an Adumbrae¡ªso he¡¯d chuck up any irregularity to that reason, and not to the other¡­not so normal part of me.

    I reminded myself I didn¡¯t have any cause for concern because the Suppressor would deal with it. Just a normal girl, sitting on a chair, getting tested. Normal. Normal¡­normal¡­

    Do I want to be normal again?

    I mean¡­yes? I should, right?

    Damn it. Was this SpookyErind getting to me?

    I was already thinking like an Adumbrae. The natural thing would be to try and find a way to be human again, or at least hold back the Adumbrae incursion in my mind and body. Technically, I should be happy now that my powers were suppressed, that there was a way to be ¡®cured¡¯ or something. Perhaps in the future the BID could find a successful way of turning an Adumbrae back to human permanently.

    But I wasn¡¯t happy.

    So¡­

    ¡°We¡¯re done, Miss Erind,¡± Philip said, interrupting my thoughts. ¡°You can wait at the lobby while we process your results and sign off the certificates. The results will be in the BID database, but it is important you have papers too.¡±

    ¡°Thank you so much.¡± I was about to go out the door when Dr. Cornelio came in. ¡°Hello, sir,¡± I said, stepping out of his way. He didn¡¯t even look at me. I shrugged and walked out the door.

    ¡°Tritium power cells are expensive,¡± he firmly said to Johann and Philip, ¡°and while thriftiness is debatably a minor virtue, I presume the two of you are aware why you shouldn¡¯t let them run low if possible.¡±

    Excuse me?  I stopped walking and decided to eavesdrop a bit, holding the door a few inches open.

    ¡°Sorry, I wasn¡¯t able to check¡ª"

    ¡°I¡¯ll change it right away, sir,¡± Johann cut in.

    ¡°No need. I already had Kempis change it before Ms. Hartwell entered this room. I wanted to tell you before I forget it. Don¡¯t let it happen again.¡±

    I didn¡¯t show any reaction, slowly closing the door and walking out of the lab to the lobby.

    What the fuck? The Umbrella was working normally the entire time?

 4.9 - Johann Martin Fischer

    Johann Martin Fischer

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir,¡± said Johann Martin Fischer. ¡°I¡­uh¡­I forgot.¡±

    Everything had been going smoothly according to Johann¡¯s plan. He changed the power cells of the Umbrella without anyone noticing and it had gone into energy-conservation mode as expected, lowering the settings to a level he was certain couldn¡¯t detect the Adumbrae traits of Erind, especially after she took the Suppressor. He also had checked the readings right before they started her tests. He couldn¡¯t risk it with an actual Adumbrae in their midst.

    Philip hadn¡¯t come near his terminal at all, engrossedly chatting with Deen and their co-workers, spinning stories of their supposed encounters with Adumbrae¡ªmost of which were tall tales to make them look cool. As if the planet had aligned, even the extremely diligent Dr. Cornelio was absent for the day, a once in a century occurrence.

    Had been.

    Why had his boss shown up for work now?

    And why had he checked the power cells?

    That was a stupid question. It was something Dr. Cornelio was bound to do if he was present.

    We were so close! Johann vented in his head. They stumbled right as they were about to cross the finish line. He swallowed his saliva as his hands grew cold, blood rushing to his head made his temples throb. He was about to find out just how much his plans were ruined.

    ¡°Martin,¡± Dr. Cornelio said, using his second name¡ªhis boss had lectured him that the name ¡®Johann¡¯ was given to male babies as a matter of practice in olden times, being differentiated by calling them their second names, ¡°I¡¯ve always told you that apologizing after the fact doesn¡¯t have much use if we already let an Adumbrae run free because of our lapses.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I understand.¡± The plan wasn¡¯t completely ruined just yet. The doctor hadn¡¯t raised an alarm. No one has.

    Either the scanner hadn¡¯t detected anything, or no one had checked it, the latter being the more plausible reason as it was his and Philip¡¯s job to compile and upload the reports during their shift. From the corner of his eye, he saw Erind walking out of the testing area with her back to him so he couldn¡¯t see her expression.

    Did she hear their conversation? She must have. What was she going to do?

    More importantly, what am I going to do next?

    ¡°I know you understand,¡± said Dr. Cornelio, ¡°it¡¯s another matter when it comes to doing. I¡¯ll be checking an issue with the main office, and then I¡¯ll be free to sign Ms. Hartwell¡¯s papers.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll sign it, sir? Lt. Tetterton can do it if you¡¯re busy. He¡¯s been signing the certificates in your abse¡ª¡±

    ¡°And now, I¡¯m present. So, I will sign it.¡±

    There goes another idea. Lt. Tetterton had the authority to sign the papers and was one of Johann¡¯s back-up plans. The loud-mouthed head of the AIU, while well-versed in all matters Adumbrae, had little patience for the nitty-gritty technical side. He would sign off on certificates, fully trusting his subordinates. Dr. Cornelio was the complete opposite of that. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Johann said, his brain already working on another plan.

    ¡°Give me about ten minutes while I make an important call to HQ. Don¡¯t interrupt me. And can you find Saffron and tell her to bring me coffee? She¡¯s not answering her phone; perhaps she¡¯s not at her desk.¡±

    Johann couldn¡¯t remember the last time he asked Ms. Saffy to make his coffee. It must be an important call. I have time! But not enough. ¡°Copy, sir. I¡¯ll look for Ms. Saffy, and have the papers prepared.¡±

    Dr. Cornelio gave them a curt nod, dismissing them.

    ¡°Philip, can you handle the next batch?¡± Johann said. ¡°Let me just make this up with Dr. Cornelio with Erind¡¯s case. I¡¯ll catch up.¡±

    ¡°Sure, bud. Don¡¯t take it too seriously, you know how he is.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but I don¡¯t want this to affect my quarterly evaluation.¡±

    Philip scratched his head. ¡°How come you care about that now? He never gives any of us a high rating no matter our performance.¡±

    ¡°Now¡¯s a good time as any to start caring,¡± Johann said. ¡°Maybe we should be more serious about this, especially when we have Adumbrae roaming around our city and killing people.¡±

    ¡°Going above and beyond?¡± he said with an unconvinced shrug. ¡°You do you, bud. I¡¯m contented with doing what I¡¯m paid for. Go now, I¡¯ll hold down the fort.¡±

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

    Johann ran to the usual places one would expect to find Ms. Saffy. Deep in the Records section, the bustling Admin, at Lt. Tetterton¡¯s office, or at the small cafeteria they were blessed to have the budget for. While he zipped across the building, he composed himself.

    The beating of his heart shook his body like he was in a rave with a 1000-watt bass box blasting right beside him keeping in rhythm with his pulsating migraine. Deal with the problems one by one, he coached himself.

    The most pressing concern were the digital report files of the test.

    Erind¡¯s certificates would contain tracking numbers of her test records in the system, so he needed to first compile the test records, including the Umbrella readings, and upload them into the BID database before presenting the papers to Dr. Cornelio for his signature. His boss was bound to check the numbers so faking them wasn¡¯t an option.

    Once the files were in the system, there was no way Johann, with his meager hacking skills, could fiddle with them. Even a battalion of top-tier military cyber operatives had no hope of breaching the BID database and altering files undetected. Which meant he had to tamper with the files before uploading them and having the certificates signed.

    This was the biggest flaw of the system¡ªensuring the integrity of files uploaded from various sources all over the country. The BID couldn¡¯t possibly check all of the files one by one. Strict laws were in place paired with severe penalties to deter people from uploading tampered files¡ªpeople like me.

    But ten minutes wasn¡¯t going to cut it. He already wasted a couple of minutes looking for Ms. Saffy.

    More time. I need to make more time.

    ¡°Saffy? You just missed her,¡± grumbled Grumpy Tony, their loyal but cranky janitor since time immemorial. He pointed down the hallway. ¡°She went back to her spot.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Tony!¡± said Johann, running in the direction Grumpy Tony pointed. After mulling it over for a few seconds, he took out his phone and texted Erind, ¡°Everything is under control. Will take some time. Just wait there.¡± He decided not to add ¡®don¡¯t run away¡¯, although he really wanted to.

    He wasn¡¯t sure if she¡¯d do anything stupid¡­or violent. She was mostly still Erind, I hope, but she was an Adumbrae too. What if the Adumbrae was already in control and had other plans to keep itself safe? What if she¡¯d attack this place?

    No, she won¡¯t do that. She was still under the effects of the Suppressor, and she had no Diluter. Even the Adumbrae inside her would be muted somewhat...should be. They hadn''t used the Suppressor on an actual Adumbrae before.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Why am I helping an Adumbrae? That question made him slow down.

    If Erind was exposed and caught, then he¡¯d also be arrested. Yes, he should help her. That was enough of an answer for him.

    ¡°Ms. Saffy!¡± There she was at the cubicle of Marissa, a couple down her own, discussing something on her computer screen. He slowed down as he approached them, inhaling deeply to calm himself. ¡°Ms. Saffy¡­Oh, hey, Marissa. Sorry for the interruption. I¡¯m just going to ask Ms. Saffy something.¡± The curly haired brunette rolled her eyes at him. She still hadn¡¯t forgiven him the last time she nearly had gotten into trouble because of his hacking misadventures.

    ¡°You look quite haggard.¡± Ms. Saffy peered above her violet rimmed glasses. ¡°We were about to finish,¡± she said. She explained a couple more things to Marissa, then went back to her cubicle, waving for Johann to follow her. ¡°What is it? Is Dr. Cornelio giving you a hard time?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡ªno¡­maybe. Wait, how did you know?¡±

    ¡°Intuition. The doctor¡¯s been acting weird. Absent yesterday, late today. No call informing us he won¡¯t be able to report for work. And according to his wife, he didn¡¯t come home yesterday. Marital problems?¡± Ms. Saffy shook her head, reminiscent of Lt. Tetterton¡¯s favorite gesture. ¡°It¡¯s not my place to speculate. Anyway, whatever the issue is, it¡¯s sometimes unavoidable for bosses¡­or for anyone for that matter¡­to bring their problems to the office.¡±

    ¡°Is that what¡¯s happening?¡± Marital problems? There might be something here he could use.

    ¡°We both know what Dr. Cornelio is like, but he¡¯s also human. Just give him a pass if he¡¯s too hard on you today.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for the advice. You¡¯re definitely an institution in this precinct, Ms. Saffy.¡±

    ¡°Enough of that. What can I help you with?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just that Dr. Cornelio wants you to bring him coffee. He¡¯s busy right now in his office with a call.¡±

    ¡°Only that? I thought it was something serious.¡± Ms. Saffy sighed, looking at the ceiling. ¡°Although, it might be serious if he¡¯s asking me to make his coffee again. Okay, I¡¯ll get on it."

    ¡°Should we call his wife?¡± he blurted out as Ms. Saffy was about to leave. She gave him an incredulous look. ¡°I¡­uh¡­I think she¡¯d want to know that Dr. Cornelio is safe.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s up to Dr. Cornelio. I know you have good intentions, but it¡¯s inappropriate to stick our noses in their affairs.¡±

    ¡°Err, yes. You¡¯re right as usual, Ms. Saffy.¡±

    ¡°You should go back to the lab. From the look on your face, you have a lot of fires to put out.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­I¡¯ll just stand here for a minute to¡­catch my breath. I ran around the building to find you.¡± He stared at Ms. Saffy''s back as she walked away, making sure she was going to the pantry. Then he looked over at Marissa¡¯s cubicle. She was hunched over, pouring over a thick folder. The other cubicles weren¡¯t occupied. A few people passing by the hallway. They didn¡¯t look his way.

    He went inside Ms. Saffy¡¯s cubicle and pulled out the thick notebook in her center drawer.

    D for Deslys. There was no entry of Deslys. It must be under Cornelio.

    Jackpot! There was the name of Professor Deslys and what he presumed to be her personal number.

    Ms. Saffy¡¯s mention of marital problems sparked a genius plan of a possible way to distract Dr. Cornelio and buy himself time. Genius or stupid? Now was the time to find out. If Ms. Saffy wasn¡¯t going to do it, then he had to do it himself.

    He called the number with his phone as he sprinted back to the laboratory. Please pickup, he prayed. Please don¡¯t be in class. The ringing continued. He might need another plan. What should¡ª?

    ¡°Hello?¡± a warm woman¡¯s voice answered in a professional tone. ¡°Who is this?¡±

    ¡°Good hello, er, I mean good afternoon, ma¡¯am,¡± he stammered. He tried to steady his breathing even as he ran. ¡°Professor Deslys?¡± He hadn¡¯t talked to her before, so he was unfamiliar with her voice. He gave a vague explanation that he worked for the AIU without giving his name. ¡°I remembered Lt. Tetterton mentioned you were looking for Dr. Cornel¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes! Do you know where he is?¡± Professor Deslys said, her calm demeanor drastically changing. ¡°Is he there?¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am. He came to wor¡ª¡±

    ¡°Thank god he¡¯s alive!¡± she said. ¡°Can you give the phone to him? I need to talk to him.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m actually not supposed to call you, ma¡¯am. But I thought you should know he is well.¡±

    ¡°What? Who is this? Hold on, how did you get this¡ª¡±

    ¡°Please call the office if you want to talk to him.¡± He dropped the call and then turned off his phone so she¡¯d have no choice but to contact their office. He hoped Ms. Saffy was on her way to give Dr. Cornelio his coffee so she wouldn¡¯t be able to stop the call getting forwarded to their boss.

    Now, to see what I can do with Erind¡¯s files, he thought as he entered the room with the computer terminals.

    Johann pulled a chair, turned it around, and sat on it backward. He plugged in a USB into the port of the terminal, and took one last look through the glass wall in front of him to check if anyone could interrupt him. Philip was testing a couple of people. He seemed to have pulled Kempis along to be his temporary assistant. The other technicians were working inside the other rooms, or maybe just pretending to look busy because their boss was around.

    Let¡¯s do this! he yelled in his head to encourage himself.

    Johann put a timer on his phone for seven minutes, cracked his fingers, and got to work. He barely blinked, staring intently at the screens, his eyes starting to tear up. He didn¡¯t even bat an eye when he noticed that the Umbrella did detect anomalies. He didn''t pause to analyze them even if he was interested. It didn¡¯t matter what they were, it was imperative they were deleted as soon as possible.

    His hands flew over the keyboards, the clicking of the keys a symphony that lulled him into a trance.

    Beep¡­beep¡­beep¡­alerted his cellphone. Seven minutes already? He grabbed a random stack of papers on his way out.

    Dr. Cornelio was expectedly in his office, seemingly having an intense discussion on the phone. Johann couldn¡¯t hear what he was saying because of the sound-proof glass walls, but it was apparent Professor Deslys managed to reach her husband.

    As for me, I¡¯m not supposed to know anything about that.

    Johann took a deep breath, thinking to himself, I hope I¡¯m not shooting myself in the foot with this. Then he knocked on the door. His boss looked up with an annoyed snarl. He waved the papers. The doctor shooed him away and turned his swivel chair around. The message was clear.

    My plan worked! Hell yeah!

    Even in this tense situation, he couldn¡¯t help but feel elated over a small victory. If his boss actually asked him to leave the papers for signature, he would¡¯ve been dead.

    Johann ran back to the room with the computer terminals, hoping that no one entered and noticed what he was doing inside. He didn¡¯t know how long Dr. Cornelio¡¯s wife would keep him occupied.

    Back to work! He gritted his teeth in a mad grimace as beads of sweats formed on his forehead despite the aircon blasting cold air in full. There were times he realized he was holding his breath. This was the fastest he had ever worked. If he normally worked at this pace, he would have full scores on his quarterly performance, even with Dr. Cornelio rating him.

    ¡°And send!¡± he said. A huge grin was splashed across his face as he watched the tampered files upload to the BID database. He stretched his body, savoring the relief his tense muscles felt, allowing himself to exhale a satisfied groan.

    ¡°Martin.¡±

    Johann nearly vomited his heart out. He jumped up from his chair. ¡°Sir! You¡¯re here, I, uh yeah. I thought you were still on the phone so¡ª¡±

    ¡°Where are Ms. Hartwell¡¯s papers?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just printing them, sir.¡±

    ¡°Hmm? I thought you already had them prepared?¡±

    I forgot about that! ¡°Yes, I did¡­bu-but I reprinted it because there are some uh¡­unclear things¡­the paper folded.¡±

    ¡°Just give those to me.¡±

    Johann hastily gathered the correct papers for Erind¡¯s clearance. ¡°Here, sir. These are ready now.¡±

    Dr. Cornelio¡¯s eyes narrowed, but he didn¡¯t say anything, taking the papers from him.

    He sighed in relief. His boss wouldn¡¯t know that he changed them, and he didn¡¯t have any reason not to sign these.

    Kempis suddenly appeared at the doorway, blocking Dr. Cornelio. ¡°Oops, sorry. Nearly bumped into you there, sir.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t run inside the labs,¡± Dr. Cornelio said.

    ¡°I was rushing because you might forget this.¡± Kempis rummaged inside a file cabinet and pulled out a piece of paper. Dr. Cornelio inquiringly tilted his head and reached for it. Kempis explained, ¡°The computer printed this after I changed the power cells. I¡¯m not sure what it is about, but it might be part of the test records of that lady inside here earlier with that beautiful blonde friend, so I kept it.¡±

    Johann clenched his jaws to stop himself from reacting. His hands uncontrollably shook as he hid them behind his back. His heart raced, there was ringing in his ears.

    ¡°Thank you, Kempis,¡± Dr. Cornelio said. ¡°Martin, pass by my office later to get this. Ms. Hartwell might¡¯ve been waiting for some time already.¡±

    ¡°See you, sir,¡± Kempis cheerily said, waving at the doctor. He turned to Johann. ¡°You okay, bro?¡±

    Johann didn¡¯t move. Shitshitshitshitfuckfuckfu¡ª

    ¡°Bro?¡± Kempis approached him.

    ¡°Sir!¡± Johann suddenly exclaimed. He shoved Kempis aside and ran after his boss. ¡°Dr. Cornelio, sir! Wait!¡±

 4.10

    ¡°Will take some time, huh?¡± I muttered, reading Johann¡¯s text message again. My eyes drifted to the top of my cellphone¡¯s screen, checking the time. I clicked my tongue in annoyance. It had been nearly ten minutes since I last heard from him. ¡°And telling me, ¡®Just wait there¡¯. How long am I supposed to wait?¡±

    Chill out, Erind, I told myself. Let¡¯s not do anything suspicious here.

    To be fair, ten minutes wasn¡¯t long when it came to transacting with the government. There were other people at the lobby waiting for whatever who were here before me. Getting my driver¡¯s license took ages, and that didn¡¯t involve any lab work¡ªor maybe it did, and that was why it took so long. Who knows what the DMV people are doing?

    My backside started to hurt from sitting on the hard edge of one of the plastic waiting chairs lining the right side of the lobby. The chairs were old, their red coat peeling in places, and every time I shifted, they¡¯d loudly creak. To make it worse, the chairs were a tad too high for me, my feet dangling over the floor if I didn¡¯t sit on the edge.

    I look like a fucking kid.

    On the bright side, I did miss my body getting sore because of normal things.

    It would¡¯ve been more comfortable if I plopped my butt on the sofas on the opposite side of the room; I¡¯d even have a view of the TV to distract me from impulsively thinking of running away. Unfortunately, because Deen was sitting there, people¡­guys¡­crowded over there too.

    Not just Johann¡¯s technician buddies, most of them went back to work. Young cops and other employees were talking to her, maybe hitting on her¡ªinterestingly, there was a fine line between those two when talking to someone as attractive as Deen. Some of them were even asking to take pictures with her as if she was a celebrity.

    Did Johann introduce her to the whole building?

    I couldn¡¯t help but be amazed at how she handled them. Other girls might be uncomfortable with this level of attention¡­I guess Deen probably was too, but she didn¡¯t show it. She handled the situation perfectly, never looking bothered the tiniest bit, dealing with the guys like a teacher with excited preschoolers. I was more well-versed in social interactions than the average person, and I could tell Deen was at the top of the game in this specific setting. Not that I would ever find myself in her place so I couldn¡¯t compare.

    A couple of minutes later, an older cop, sour-faced and at the same time embarrassed by the behavior of his subordinates, arrived to disperse them. Deen, of course, graciously lied she wasn¡¯t troubled. With her fans gone, she called over at me to sit beside her.

    ¡°What was that all about?¡± I asked. ¡°It¡¯s a fact of life you¡¯re beautiful, but why were they taking pictures of you?¡±

    ¡°Oh, shut it.¡± She tried to pinch my side. I shoved her hands away and moved to the far end of the sofa. ¡°Whatever. It¡¯s because of my sister.¡±

    ¡°Your sister? Why?¡±

    ¡°Her boyfriend is the executive assistant of the mayor, so she usually attends events and stuff like that with him, and the police know her because they¡¯re guarding those kinds of events. You can¡¯t exactly miss Sis. She¡¯s popular in this city actually; a couple of local magazines have featured her before.¡±

    ¡°So, they recognized you¡¯re her younger sister and wanted to take pictures with you?¡±

    ¡°I guess?¡±

    ¡°Or they just wanted to take pictures with a beautiful girl then post it on social media to flex on other guys?¡± I snorted in disgust, ever the protective friend. ¡°Guys¡­honestly. We should¡¯ve thought of a better plan than use you as a distraction.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine with it, no biggie.¡±

    ¡°Hang on, freeze frame, rewind a bit. Your sister¡¯s boyfriend is the executive assistant of the mayor? I thought he¡¯s an architect working for a luxury property developer? I also remember a pilot mentioned before. This guy has many jobs or what?¡±

    ¡°Those are different guys,¡± Deen said with an embarrassed grin. ¡°The lore of my sister¡¯s love life is vast. The number of her boyfriends is bigger than the set of counting numbers. I¡¯m not sure if I should say anything to her¡ªI wouldn¡¯t dare¡ªbut I¡¯m sure she wouldn¡¯t listen to me anyway if I tell her to stick to one guy.¡±

    ¡°Your sister is very scary,¡± I said.

    ¡°Enough of her, and of me. How about you? How are you holding up?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine too, no biggie,¡± I said, repeating her earlier response. I gave her a hesitant smile, like I was hiding something. Indeed, I was really hiding a problem, but I wasn¡¯t going to tell her the Umbrella might¡¯ve detected something anomalous with me. It was just my instinct to farm sympathy whenever I could. I especially needed her on my side now more than ever.

    ¡°Really, you¡¯re fine?¡± Deen examined my face as I put up my best uncomfortable-but-hiding-it-and-failing expression.

    She reminded me we¡¯d go shopping later. There was a sale at this shop and that store, but there was a wider range of selections at another place, this or that mall might be too crowded, yada, yada, yada. She moved on to my size, colors that went along with my pale skin and black hair, fashion trends and why we shouldn¡¯t follow those. She talked on and on, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

    Hey, she¡¯s a pretty nice person.

    I couldn¡¯t help but be surprised when people were nice without ulterior motives. What did that feel like? What was the thought process behind it? I honestly couldn¡¯t comprehend it.

    While chatting with Deen, I checked the time on my phone again. Also no message from Johann.

    What now?

    The police weren¡¯t acting suspiciously like they were about to arrest me. And why would they? All of my other test results were normal. If the Umbrella did detect something, then Dr. Cornelio would¡¯ve already called me back in for more testing. And if I resisted, that was the time the police would act and restrain me. That sounded logical to me.

    Nothing was happening.

    Perhaps Johann was able to fix whatever the problem was? He did say ¡®everything was under control¡¯.

    Should I trust him? It seemed like I didn¡¯t have any other choice than to rely on him¡­or, you know, just hightail it out of here.

    Relying on others. I hated it. I didn¡¯t have control of the situation, and the one in charge of fixing the problem might have interests not aligned with my own. And if others failed, most of the time I didn¡¯t have any recourse to fix their mistakes that affected me.

    I texted Johann, asking him what was up. A couple of minutes later and there was still no reply. I tried calling him and I couldn¡¯t connect to his phone. Shit.

    Either he didn''t have reception inside the labs, or something went horribly wrong.

    ¡°It¡¯s still not done?¡± I said, looking around with concern, interrupting Deen¡¯s lecture on makeups. ¡°What¡¯s taking them so long?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure they¡¯re just busy,¡± she said. ¡°We got the time to wait.¡±

    I nodded. Dr. Cornelio did say they were swamped. Maybe I was just overthinking this; I did do that a lot. However, nothing to be lost by being prudent. ¡°I¡¯m going to ask,¡± I said. I stood up and approached the counter to inquire. Pretty normal stuff, I¡¯d say. We had been waiting for a while.

    Still nothing, drawled the bored lady at the counter, and she wasn¡¯t sure how long it would take. She didn¡¯t even check anything, not sparing a glance at me, just continuing to stare fixatedly on her screen. Typical American bureaucratic process.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    ¡°Can I just come back for them?¡± I said.

    ¡°Bring your claim stub and ID,¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯ll keep your files for five days only, afterwards we¡¯ll shred it and you have to pay a fee.¡±

    There¡¯s this fucking option the entire time? I should¡¯ve gotten my ass out of here already when I realized our plan hit a bump and no one would¡¯ve been suspicious of me. Johann could just tell me later if it was safe, maybe bring me the certificates himself, or warn me if I should pack my things and flee. Shit, I don¡¯t have any stuff now.

    ¡°We¡¯ll do that,¡± I said. ¡°Thank you, miss.¡±

    ¡°Erind, are you sure?¡± said Deen. ¡°There¡¯s no problem wait¡ª"

    ¡°I¡­I just want to get out of this place. We¡¯re going shopping, right? That¡¯ll take my mind off of things.¡± Go shopping so that I¡¯d have clothes if I was forced to go into hiding, sounds like a great plan. A better use of my time than sitting on my ass here, watching the news and listening to Deen¡¯s treatise on blending makeup colors.

    ¡°Sure, if that¡¯s what you want.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Deen. We¡¯ll return tomo¡ª¡±

    ¡°Ms. Hartwell!¡± a voice called, followed by pounding on glass, then ringing. It was Saffron behind the counter window, pinging the reception bell to get our attention. She exited to the lobby and caught up with us. ¡°Ms. Hartwell, Dr. Cornelio is calling for you, something about your certificates.¡±

    ¡°Why? Is there anything wrong?¡± I said, keeping my face neutral. Did they realize I was an Adumbrae? Were they setting up a trap for me?

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± she replied. I picked up nothing from her expression or way of speaking. ¡°Follow me to his office.¡±

    Go with her or run? My brain went into overdrive processing my options. ¡°Can Deen go with me inside?¡±

    <hr>

    I scanned my surroundings as we followed Saffron, walking down the familiar corridor bounded by glass walls on either side. It was reassuring I could see into the rooms.

    Any ambush here, guys? No one wanted to arrest me? Everyone was acting normally, going about their daily working lives. I was overthinking this for sure.

    In any case, I had Deen and her trusty Guardian Angel with me. The fucking prescient pet wouldn¡¯t let me get arrested. If ever we got caught, Deen would be in a worse position than me. She hadn¡¯t taken any Suppressor; it¡¯d be easy to check she wasn¡¯t human. A hundred percent certain the Guardian Angel would be on my side.

    Nothing to worry about. I may not want to rely on others, but I was strangely okay with putting my fate in the hands of an entity I couldn¡¯t even see...and who didn''t even have hands.

    ¡°Ms. Hartwell,¡± Dr. Cornelio said. He was sitting behind his table like the first time we met, inhaling the fumes of his hot coffee. ¡°And your classmate is here too.¡±

    Johann stood beside his boss, clutching a bunch of papers, strangely ashen-faced. He stared at me with deranged eyes, almost trying to transmit his thoughts to me through sigh. Then he looked at the papers beside the doctor.

    I raised my brow at him. What the shit is happening?

    ¡°Please have a seat, the two of you.¡±

    ¡°Hello, sir.¡± I sat right across him, bending subtly forward to try and get a glimpse of the papers Johann was focused on. ¡°Good to be back,¡± I jokingly said. ¡°Is there any problem?¡± Whoops. Should I have said that? Did it sound like I was expecting for something to be wrong or was that normal?

    ¡°Nothing of the sort,¡± he said. Johann behind him visibly deflated in relief. ¡°Although there was something interesting in your results.¡± Johann went into a little seizure behind his boss, trying to stop himself from grabbing the papers. Deen looked at me with a little alarm, picking up something wasn¡¯t right.

    ¡°What kind of interesting thing, sir?¡± If he did anything suspicious, I was out of here. Both of his hands were holding a paper, probably the one with anomalous readings. At least, he couldn¡¯t push an alarm button under his table, or was that only in movies?

    ¡°Interesting¡­.¡± he said, not listening to me.

    Did I need to distract him? ¡°Sir, how¡¯s your wife¡ª¡± I shut up as Johann made frantic signs not to continue with it. Another tract then. ¡°Oh, um, sir, what was the interesting thing you mentioned?¡±

    ¡°How are you feeling these days, Ms. Hartwell?¡±

    ¡°Same¡­same as usual, I guess.¡± Shit, he might know something. What was that interesting thing?!

    ¡°I see¡­¡± He adjusted his glasses, looking at my paper.

    Several seconds passed. I kept glancing at Deen, checking for a cue if her Guardian Angel instructed her to flee. The silence going on for too long; I decided to speak up. ¡°I mean, sir, not the same after what I¡¯ve gone through¡­or didn¡¯t go through, I was lucky enough not to be¡­there. But physically, I feel fine. Hopefully, after this test, I can go back to living normally.¡±

    ¡°Living normally¡­yes.¡± He nodded. ¡°That would be good.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me, Dr. Cornelio, sir?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    ¡°Your coffee might be getting cold.¡±

    What the fuck, Deen? Then I realized it must be her Guardian Angel. But such a random thing to say. My body tensed, ready to run away at a moment¡¯s notice. Come on, Guardian Angel, what do we do here?

    Dr. Cornelio was mildly surprised with her too, but after a couple of seconds, he did pick up his coffee. ¡°You¡¯re right. I do dislike cold coffee.¡± He raised the cup to take a sip from it and¡­the cup accidentally slipped from his hand. He yelped in surprise and stood up. I looked at Deen, but she didn¡¯t run away, instead leaning forward to check what happened.

    ¡°Oh my god, are you okay, sir?¡± Deen said, her hand covering her mouth. ¡°I¡­I¡¯m so sorry.¡±

    ¡°What for?¡± Dr. Cornelio wiped the front of his clothes with his hands. ¡°It wasn¡¯t your fault. A slight mishap, is all. If anyone has to apologize, it is me for spilling the coffee on Ms. Hartwell¡¯s paper.¡±

    Nice! Was this the work of the Guardian Angel? But it was farfetched to imagine there was a possible future Dr. Cornelio spilled his coffee. Oh¡­.wait a fucking minute! Did I need to get tested again?

    ¡°No worries, Ms. Hartwell,¡± said Dr. Cornelio as if in answer to my thoughts. ¡°That was just an extra piece of paper. The rest of your certificates are here. I¡¯ll sign them now before I spill coffee on them as well.¡±

    Deen, Johann, and I stared at each other while listening to the minute scratching of Dr. Cornelio¡¯s pen on the papers. All of us weren¡¯t sure of what had just happened. Deen shrugged at me, and I shrugged back. We¡¯re home free I guess?

    ¡°Here are your papers,¡± Dr. Cornelio said. I cautiously accepted the documents. He pointed his pen at me. ¡°Be careful you don¡¯t spill coffee on those like I did. Of course, you could have those reprinted for a fee, but I doubt you want to come to a police station again.¡±

    What did he mean by that? ¡°Yes¡­I mean no, sir,¡± I said. ¡°Or, yes?¡±

    ¡°The interesting thing in answering negative questions, Ms. Hartwell, is that the leading ¡®yes¡¯ or ¡®no¡¯ doesn¡¯t matter. It¡¯s the qualifying phrase afterwards. ¡®No, I don¡¯t want to go to a police station¡¯, and ¡®Yes, I don¡¯t want to go to the police station¡¯ are the same in response to my question, although there might be a preference to the first phrasing.¡±

    ¡°No, sir. I don¡¯t want to go to a police station again,¡± I clarified. ¡°It¡¯s just scary even if I haven¡¯t done anything wrong.¡±

    ¡°Understandable. I also don¡¯t want to be inside a police station if I can help it. But then I remember I have a job here.¡± The corners of his lips turned up the slightest bit, his shoulders quivered as he chuckled at his own joke¡ªor maybe he was having a seizure. I honestly couldn¡¯t tell if he was laughing or dying. Johann couldn¡¯t either based from the bewilderment painted on his face.

    ¡°Thank you, sir,¡± I said, laughing along with him. ¡°I¡¯ll stay clear of police stations and hot coffee.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Hurray!¡± Deen said, repeatedly thumping her palms on the ceiling of the car. ¡°Wohooo!¡±

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked, keeping my head down and pressing myself against the car door so she wouldn¡¯t accidentally hit me with her arms inside this small space. I wasn¡¯t sure how well she could control her strength.

    ¡°Celebrating? Shouldn¡¯t you be happy nothing happened?¡± She honked the car¡¯s horn a few times. ¡°Celebrate with me.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­nothing happened.¡±

    ¡°Right? I¡¯m not sure why you were anxious earlier. You¡¯re human, remember? You have nothing to be afraid of. And you also took the Suppressor.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­I mean you never know when a plan suddenly goes wrong¡­just because.¡±

    ¡°This time, the plan did work without a hitch,¡± she said, oblivious to the whole Umbrella thing. I was certain from Johann¡¯s demeanor at Dr. Cornelio¡¯s office that something did go wrong. Deen hummed a cheery tune as she backed the car out of the parking space. ¡°Nobody got hurt¡­except for Dr. Cornelio.¡±

    ¡°Poor Dr. Cornelio,¡± I chimed in with a kindly tone. That fucker deserved it for coming to work and annoying me. ¡°The coffee must¡¯ve been scalding hot with all the steam it was giving off.¡±

    ¡°But he barely reacted to it. It splashed all over the paper and his lap.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, it might¡¯ve been not that hot then.¡± Too bad.

    ¡°I wonder why my Guardian Angel told me to point out the coffee mug. And why point at it, not kick the table to spill it?¡±

    I shrugged. I filed this tidbit in my mental cabinet.

    ¡°How does Dr. Cornelio spilling his coffee factor in the whole thing?¡± she continued. ¡°Something about the paper maybe?¡±

    ¡°Maybe¡­dunno,¡± I said. I checked my phone to show I wasn¡¯t interested in the topic, only listening with half an ear. Whatever that paper was, the Guardian Angel wanted it destroyed. Johann would tell me if there was something more to this that would explain the bizarre instruction of the Guardian Angel. For now, we should change topic or Deen might realize there was something anomalous about me I was trying to hide. ¡°Deen! Look, fifty-percent off at Bellarose Boutique. Let¡¯s go shopping there!¡±

 4.11

    ¡°Wow, time flies so fast when you¡¯re having fun,¡± Deen cheerily said, as if our three-hour long shopping spree fully charged her batteries instead of draining them like it did to mine. What the hell was wrong with her? Was the majority of the human race like this? Maybe we should just be wiped out by Adumbrae. ¡°You had fun, right?¡± she asked as she propped my new bike, a foldable one, against the side of the cabinet.

    ¡°Yeah, it was fun,¡± I replied, putting on a smile that was about to break because I didn¡¯t have any more interaction points to squeeze for the day. It was like fighting a losing battle keeping in your poop as you rushed home.

    What the fuck am I thinking?

    I was totally out of it¡ªcompletely pooped, if you will.

    Okay, just shut up, Erind¡¯s brain. Jeez, I was so tired my brain was going cuckoo.

    ¡°Good night, Erind.¡± Deen waved, walking out the door. ¡°See you tomorrow!¡±

    ¡°See you tomorrow,¡± I echoed with my last ounce of social energy. I closed the door on her face¡ªgently, even though I wanted to slam it shut with my all my might. It¡¯d probably be cathartic popping it off its hinges. ¡°Good night.¡±

    I stepped over the paper bags littered all over the floor¡ªthe stuff we bought¡ªand teetered to my bed, allowing myself to fall face first on the inviting mattress as soon as I got close enough. I hadn¡¯t realized I could get so drained I nearly dropped my face¡ªthat¡¯s a no-no for Rule #7. I¡¯d rather die than let that happen. It was weird I felt tired because I already regained my super powers.

    Examining my right hand, I saw the pimple patches on my palm were crumpled, the makeup fading, hints of the crystals peeking at me.

    Then I flipped over, faced the ceiling, and punched the air several times. My fists moved so fast they made whooshing sounds. I wasn¡¯t good at punching, or any kind of fighting for that matter, but with my super strength and speed, I made it look cool and intimidating.

    ¡°I¡¯m back,¡± I whispered. ¡°Hehehe¡­¡± This felt so good. I sensed my powers gradually returning while we were shopping. And as we were having dinner at a restaurant, I was tempted to test my strength on the silverware, but I wasn¡¯t an idiot to do that with Deen beside me. How about I find something to test it with now?

    I didn¡¯t want to break any of the furniture in the room. Maybe there was something I could use from the stuff we bought. Rummaging through the paper bags, I found the folder with my certificates from the lab testing.

    Right, I should take care of this. Visiting the police station again would be such a hassle.

    ¡°Another test¡­after six months?¡± I muttered, reading the details on the papers. I already knew this was going to be a pain in the ass, recalling Dr. Cornelio checking the BID database. Once you had a record, it was there forever. In my case, since as I was in an ¡°at-risk¡± group given my circumstances, it was reasonable they¡¯d want to retest me to be sure an Adumbrae didn¡¯t infect me in the interim; seeding usually took a long time, which was why my case was very peculiar. Or maybe, I simply wasn¡¯t aware SpookyErind was inside me all this time? ¡°Oh, well," I said with a sigh. "I have six months to prepare for that.¡±

    Checking more of the fine print, I found out I had to retest bi-annually for the next three years, then annually for three years after that. This was pretty okay, I guess. I wasn¡¯t even sure if in three years I¡¯d still be alive, or if I¡¯d even have control of my body.

    To be fair, I got off lightly. I was expecting to get tested every month or so since I lived at ground zero of a quite devastating seeding outbreak. I imagined that if something Adumbrae related was recorded in connection with my encounter with Kelsey, I¡¯d be more closely monitored with that kind of history.

    Thanks to Johann for recommending lenient conditions, as well as Dr. Cornelio for approving them.

    I take it back that I want hotter coffee to splash on you.

    Something fell to the floor as I flipped through the documents. ¡°What was that?¡±

    A small piece of rectangular black cardboard with gold borders, it had some writings and symbols on it in white ink. A black silk ribbon was tied in a neat bow through the hole on its top part.

    A bookmark? A fancy but old one, its sides frayed in places and traces of smoothened creases ran across it.

    There was a passage written in the middle, which read:

    1 Enoch 7:4 And when men could no longer sustain them,

    the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.

    Huh?

    Was this Dr. Cornelio¡¯s? Must be. He was the last one to handle my papers before I got them.

    I never took him for a religious guy. I expected someone in his line of work to be more on the atheistic side. But then again, someone regularly exposed to dangers of Adumbrae might turn to find comfort in religion. My recent experience taught me people reacted in unexpected ways to extreme situations.

    This bible passage was creepy as fuck though. Who the hell thought this was a good quote to put on a bookmark?

    Enoch? Was this even from the bible?

    It was ages ago, but if my memory served me right, Aunt Emily mentioned Enoch not being a canonical part of the bible. She wasn¡¯t an actual aunt but a family friend I was instructed to call an ¡®aunt¡¯ when I was a kid.

    Every social neighborhood gathering she attended, she always tried to preach about her religion. I couldn¡¯t remember the name, but it was a form of Neo-Core Christianity¡ªa reformation of a number Christian sects to include the existence of Corebrings and Adumbrae in their teachings. She did make awesome braised brisket and apple pies, so she was always invited and everyone just put up with her.

    I couldn¡¯t forget her because she was insufferable and loud, and she forced me to sit beside her so she could teach me how to get to heaven. But even as a kid, I knew better than to throw a slice of apple pie at her. I just sat down, my hands on my lap, and listened like the good girl I was.

    She did say Neo-Core Christianity included the books of Enoch in their bible. Something about those old texts as proof that Adumbrae and Corebrings fought thousands of years ago, way before World War II.

    Probably a bunch of nonsense.

    The peculiar drawing on the top part of the bookmark must be the symbol of the Neo-Core Christian denomination Dr. Cornelio was a member of. It could also be that someone just gave this to him. There were more scripture notations below the passage like, 2 Enoch 33:1, 3 Enoch 13:1¨C2, and 4 Enoch 20:5. These ones were handwritten using a red pen, and were hard to read with the black background.

    ¡°Was there even a fourth book of Enoch?¡± I wondered, as I stowed the certificates and the strange bookmark in the drawer beside my bed. I could ask Johann to give the bookmark back to Dr. Cornelio the next time we met. ¡°Now, what could I test my strength on?¡±

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Not the foldable bike, although it was hardest thing I got. Deen was so happy when she bought it for me as a gift that it bordered on creepy. She even wanted to buy me glasses, which I had to decline, explaining that my eye sight wasn¡¯t that bad and I¡¯d buy a replacement tomorrow.

    She kept on telling me I was practically part of her family. It felt like something companies said when they were about to violate employee rights. Maybe I was just being cynical about this whole thing.

    I never really had a close friend¡­or rather, someone who considered me a close friend.

    ¡°Bike lock?¡± I said. ¡°This could work.¡± It was the one with the long shackle, not the chain lock type. I didn¡¯t even notice she bought this as well. How thoughtful.

    A renowned brand, and it felt sturdy in my hand, a good test subject. If I bent the shackle only a little, maybe I might still be able to use. Hey, if I had enough strength to bend it, then I should be able to fix it.

    ¡°Ssshhhitttt¡­¡± I hissed through gnashing teeth, putting everything I had in bending the shackle. It creaked, but after a few seconds, I let go of it. I wasn¡¯t sure if it budged at all. ¡°Still straight?¡± I said, holding it up against the light.

    Slightly bent.

    Good enough. I shouldn¡¯t have expected much. I did have super strength, but I wasn¡¯t that strong to destroy heavy duty locks.

    What if I transformed and bit the lock¡­nah, I wasn¡¯t that much of an ungrateful bitch to nonchalantly destroy Deen¡¯s gift. And I was going to use this too.

    I should still test out transforming though.

    As a rule¡ªjust a small letter ¡®r¡¯ rule¡ªI shouldn¡¯t transform into Blanchette while inside Deen¡¯s house. Who knew if she might walk in on me, or if her future-seeing pet might negatively react in some way? However, I decided to make an exception this time, something I couldn¡¯t do with capital letter ¡®R¡¯ Rules. I excitedly jumped on my feet and ran to the vanity mirror in the bathroom.

    I scratched away the pimple patch covering the crystals on my palm, and concentrated. Gold liquid flowed upwards from the crystal, swirling in the air before condensing into a blob. It slowly solidified into the Blanchette mask, changing color from shiny gold to deep red.

    Here goes. I put it on as I watched myself in the mirror. The mask was going to become a face.

    One blink and Blanchette took the place of Erind.

    Hello there.

    I grinned, showing more of my beautiful teeth, each one long and sharp like spear tips. It had only been a few days since I last turned into Blanchette, but it felt like ages. Funnily enough, it wasn¡¯t my short stint as Pino that made me miss my Blanchette face¡ªokay, that too, it was annoying being indestructible but physically weak¡ªbut rather the time I spent as a¡­quote, unquote¡­normal human again.

    I scraped my fangs with my claws, savoring the grating feeling. Then I snapped my jaws, the power of my jaw muscles making me giggle. My head rattled each time my upper and lower teeth collided with each other.

    Best feeling ever!

    It couldn¡¯t be denied that a normal human body sucked compared to this. I bit the air a few more times, harder and harder each time. Oops, not too loud. Deen or her sister might wonder about the strange noise.

    Of course, a normal human wouldn¡¯t be hunted down the BID or the Corebring¡­normalcy had that going for it I suppose.

    But this¡­THIS.

    THIS IS AWESOME!

    Maybe I didn¡¯t want to be normal agai¡ªWHAM!

    I punched myself. ¡°Graooawo..grrw,¡± I slowly said to my reflection, tapping the mirror with my clawed finger to punctuate each word¡­or growl. Don¡¯t think that way, was what I meant to say to myself.

    Normal.

    Return to being normal? Did I want that?

    I shook my head. I shouldn¡¯t think about that now. Maybe I didn¡¯t want to know my own answer to that question just yet.

    I went out the bathroom, making little exited hops. I kicked aside the paper bags to make space. My claws swung across the air. Then I followed it up with kicks and punches. I controlled myself in case I inadvertently let out a battle roar as I got immersed in shadow fighting. Dario would probably laugh at my moves, or lack thereof. I would probably also laugh if I saw a video myself.

    All the monsters I met in my condo¡­how could have I fought them in my Blanchette body¡­?

    So far, I fought as Blanchette with brute strength and inhuman speed, mostly guided by instinct, cooking up superficial battle strategies, relying on my ability to get stronger and heal myself by gorging on my enemies.

    That wasn¡¯t enough.

    I needed practice in actual fighting if I wanted to become stronger without transforming. I couldn¡¯t keep on relying on my giant werewolf mode.

    But how?

    Try copying martial arts videos online?

    Maybe I could get Myra to help me? Sounds like a dangerous idea.

    Speaking of my giant werewolf form, that was another aspect I also needed to practice: controlling the raging werewolf mind, and turning myself back to my normal Blanchette form too. How the fuck was I going to practice that without an enemy to eat?

    I stared at my claws, wondering if I could¡¯ve won against Stella as a giant werewolf. I wasn¡¯t so sure¡­she could destroy buildings with her laser. How would my werewolf body fare against that? And she was getting bigger and stronger as time went by, just like me. However, unlike me, she didn¡¯t have the constraint of needing to get hurt and then eating enemies to grow.

    That would¡¯ve been a losing battle.

    Perhaps, that was why SpookyErind advised me not to go the Blanchette route.

    Oh yeah, what did happen to Stella¡¯s corpse? I recalled Officer H-Something mention people stealing Adumbrae body parts and selling them as charms. I removed my Blanchette face¡ªthat was enough fun for the night¡ªand booted up the laptop I borrowed from Deen. I was going to buy my own once I got my credit cards sorted out.

    ¡°Poor Stella,¡± I said with a smirk.

    I saw a picture of her gigantic body lying in the midst of destroyed buildings. It didn¡¯t look like the usual carcass of an Adumbrae I saw on TV¡­or that I had seen with my own two eyes. It was more like someone put the Statue of Liberty downtown and pushed it over. Most chunks of it were indistinguishable from the rubble around. I could pick out her feet and hands; those were easier to spot.

    I tried to find a picture of her face to see her expression when she died, but it was pretty hard to find since the BID carted the head off as soon as possible, it containing the Adumbrae-infected brain and all that.

    Eventually, I ended up on Snippet, checking if people were sharing pictures and videos of the incident.

    Just curious. Maybe someone managed to get a picture of me?

    So far nothing¡­

    Mostly a bunch of bullshit that I never thought people would do. Like a group of people breaking through the police cordon around Stella¡¯s corpse as a ¡®pilgrimage¡¯ to the site of a ¡®holy battle¡¯ between Corebrings and Adumbrae. There were those demonstrating trinkets and all sort of shit that people were supposed to buy to protect them from Adumbrae. Police were also called in to stop a riot in a small neighborhood where the residents started accusing each other of being Adumbrae.

    I was so fascinated by this nonsense that I kept on browsing Snippet despite my general dislike of social media. I came upon a video of the leader of the protesters encouraging everyone to join their cause of raiding the hospital where the survivors of the Adumbrae attacks were housed.

    This must be what Officer H-Something meant by ¡®aftershocks¡¯. ¡°This city is going insane,¡± I said. ¡°Bit by bit.¡±

    A link to another video caught my eye, ''SVS Plea'' was the caption. I clicked it and sure enough it brought me to the familiar page of the Silent Vigil Society, the small group of wackos founded by that woman managing the occult store at Serenade Bazaar. I think she went by the alias ¡®Initiate Reginus¡¯.

    Her face was the thumbnail of the video, ghost-like complexion even paler than mine, piercings of strange trinkets on her lips and ears. It was a pinned post on their page, and had thousands of reactions, a couple of hundred comments. She must be getting popular. Good for her.

    I shrugged as I clicked it, wondering what she was up to these days.

    ¡°Red Hood,¡± she said as an opening, ¡°if you¡¯re out there, if you''re watching this, the city needs your help. Save us. Fight for us!¡±

    The fuck?

 4.12

    ¡°I owe my life to you, Red Hood,¡± Reginus continued her open message to me, her ghostly face full of believable sincerity, the edges of her extremely thick eyeliners threatening to streak as tears rolled down her cheeks. She was so overcome with emotions she choked on her words. ¡°And tha-that¡¯s why I be-believe with all my heart¡­that you¡¯re not evil. No¡­no¡­no¡­You¡¯re different. I also believe¡­I know¡­our meeting was fated by the Mother Co¡ª"

    I paused the video and rolled my eyes. ¡°Wow, the drama.¡±

    A small group of people, about seven of them, crowded around Reginus to fit in the frame of the camera. The SVS pins they wore on their chests told me they were members of whatchamacallit? Oh yeah, the Silent Vigil Society.

    They surprisingly looked ordinary, just wearing regular-people clothes ranging from a department store suit and tie, to a faded sweater, to the black leather getup of Reginus¡ªokay, hers wasn¡¯t so common, but not that weird as it was just her goth-inclined fashion sense. Still, they were very much unlike the image I had in mind of hooded figures practicing occultism and making blood ritual sacrifices deep in a cave. The small signs they weren¡¯t so normal were the mystical trinkets, earrings and amulets they wore; add in the occasional tattoo of some enigmatic symbol.

    And the candles. Can¡¯t forget about those.

    Each one of them, except Reginus who was operating the camera, held a small glass with a candle inside. It was like those thingies commonly used in memorials or prayer gatherings, and sometimes in night-time protests too. I think those were called vigil candles?

    ¡°Oh! Because they¡¯re the Silent Vigil Society,¡± I said with a snap of my fingers. Very nice commitment to branding, props to them.

    And where were they holding this mini vigil? I tapped the forward button a few times to check more of their surroundings as Reginus shifted along with the camera while giving her speech. They seemed to be in a small empty lot, covered by the shadows of old brick buildings to their sides, the only light coming from the camera and the candles.

    Forward a couple more minutes and Reginus stood up, again changing the angle of the camera. The people behind her parted a bit, allowing me to spot a tall blocky building with a green logo towering over the silhouette of the squat shops across the road¡ªEFU Medical Center. If I was more familiar with the layout of La Esperanza, I could¡¯ve pinpointed where they were, but they were certainly a comfortable five-minute or so drive to the hospital where Julie was staying¡ªfive minutes if there was no traffic.

    And no protests.

    Were they going to join the protests after whatever this is they were doing in the dark?

    I returned to the beginning of the video to listen to Reginus¡¯ message.

    After explaining it was destiny she met me, she narrated how I saved her, a very action-packed and embellished tale that would be amazing if made into a movie.

    Too bad all of it was a lie.

    I didn¡¯t save her at all. I did crash into her store, but I didn¡¯t pay her any mind and immediately went out. As for the snake mutant, my best buddy went nowhere near her. Instead, she was the one who chased us to get a video.

    I smiled. If it was fun to take credit for the work of others, it was even better to take credit for something that didn¡¯t happen but everyone else believed did. There was no one who could call her out on her lie unless the BID released the security camera footage of what happened inside Serenade Bazaar to the public. But why would they? They had a lot on their plate than to bother with a seemingly crackpot group of conspiracy theorists, a very small group at that.

    On the other hand, Reginus did have the video of my fight with my snake mutant buddy which I suspected would give a lot of credibility to her lie. And just the fact she was brave enough to follow us¡ªor stupid, depending on how one viewed it¡ªmeant people were more likely to believe her, equating bravery, or heroism if really pushing it, with trustworthiness.

    I scrolled through the comments below the video and confirmed my hunch. Majority of the people watching it did buy her story that I saved her. Along with the actual video of me killing the snake mutant, they were also beginning to believe there were good Adumbrae.

    I mean, I wouldn¡¯t call myself good¡­per se¡­

    ¡°The SVS rejects the lies peddled by these supposed experts,¡± Reginus burst out, her comrades aggressively nodding their heads. ¡°There is a way to cure those infected by Adumbrae. It¡¯s out there, people! They say that there isn¡¯t, but...We. Should. Not. Give. Up. No matter how slim the chance, we should try to save everyone infected, and not outright execute them. That¡¯s what it means to be human¡­being part of humanity. We don¡¯t abandon others.¡±

    ¡°Surprisingly noble,¡± I muttered. Whatever was going through in her head, she probably had good intentions. Or she just wanted to scam people. Hard to differentiate between those two at a glance.

    ¡°The SVS will not rest until we find the cure!¡± She shook her fist at the camera. ¡°To start our research on the cure, the SVS is looking for Adumbrae who can help us. Adumbrae¡­no¡­humans. The SVS have known for years there are humans who successfully fought back the Adumbrae within them. To find the cure, we have to find them.¡±

    I raised my brow at that. I was already about to close the video and go to sleep, but what was this about? Just a conspiracy theory or did they actually have information about those people? Bianca was also sure there existed a group who mastered their Adumbrae powers without losing their human minds.

    Did Reginus know about them too?

    I kind of want to meet them.

    ¡°And the key,¡± Reginus said, ¡°is Red Hood.¡±

    ¡°Okaaay,¡± I sigh. Disappointing. Turned out, they didn¡¯t know anything about the group Bianca was looking for. And what was up with calling me ¡®Red Hood?¡¯ I preferred the name Deen gave me. ¡®Blanchette¡¯ sounded so much better, ¡®Red Hood¡¯ felt like a cartoon character.

    ¡°Many people will not believe this,¡± she empathically said, ¡°but we have proof. Others may call us crazy, but they¡¯re the ones who don¡¯t want to open their eyes to the truth. The authorities are harassing me, making me go through tests¡ª¡±

    Harassing? Or the police simply wanted to test her because she was there at the Serenade Bazaar during an Adumbrae incident? You and me both then.

    ¡°¡ªthey will not silence us! We are exercising our right to free speech to inform the world that the cure is out there!¡±

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    I muted the video as Reginus continued to rant. I was on the verge of getting excited that I could find a way to look for the group of Adumbrae Bianca wanted to meet. If I wanted to enjoy my powers while stopping SpookyErind from taking over my body, then those people seemed to be my best bet.

    Or the 2Ms, when I came to think about it. But I seriously doubted if they would want to help me out.

    Dario¡¯s group might be the best choice if I was looking for a cure. They already have the Suppressor; in a few years, perhaps they might find a permanent solution.

    I stared at Reginus¡¯ face while pondering the question: Do I want to be cured?

    I turned the laptop off and went to bed.

    I¡¯ll answer that next time.

    <hr>

    ¡°Hi, guys! What are you watching?¡± Deen asked the hero-wannabe-group crowding around Reo¡¯s phone.

    ¡°Hello, everyone.¡± I meekly waved at them.

    We just arrived at Tulip¡¯s Nook, going through the restaurant and exiting to the patio at the back where were going to hold our meeting. This place probably a couple of levels above Cindy¡¯s, a bit fancier family place¡ªthey even had a pergola entwined with vines over the al fresco dining area¡ªbut also still had a bit of a fast-foody side. I bet they chose this venue in consideration of Deen. And also because there were no other customers here at this hour.

    ¡°We¡¯re watching a live news of EFU Medical Center,¡± Everett explained. ¡°They were releasing patients with minor injuries since there¡¯s no reason to hold them anymore after they passed testing.¡±

    ¡°Just need to return for more testing,¡± I grumbled.

    ¡°There, there,¡± Deen said, patting my back. ¡°Yours is not for six months. Anyway, Julie is not released yet, is she?¡±

    ¡°Nope, still there. Johann checked this morning.¡±

    ¡°This shit is insane,¡± Reo exclaimed. He turned up his phone¡¯s volume and showed us what they were watching.

    A blockade was setup in front of the hospital manned by the National Guard. Beyond the hospital gates, the concrete barriers, the steel fences wrapped in barbed wires, throngs of protesters were trying to push through. They had multiplied severalfold from the last time I saw them on TV at the police station. Riot vehicles pushed them back with powerful water guns.

    It was like those zombie apocalypse movies that were all the fad about five years ago, except this one was crazier. Normal humans behaving like a zombie horde looked more disturbing than actual zombies.

    Officer H-Something, you were really, really right. This city is going nuts.

    Deen gasped, covering her mouth in shock. ¡°They¡¯re releasing the patients to that?¡±

    ¡°No, no, they¡¯re not that dumb,¡± said Reo. ¡°They stopped what they were doing when the protesters came¡­attacked. Some head honcho guy was interviewed, and he said they¡¯re going to freaking fly the patients out of the place instead. A helicopter to a secret location or somewhere. The hell is that plan?¡±

    ¡°What do you suggest they do then?¡± Everett gestured at the phone showing the riots. ¡°They can¡¯t push away the people there without violence. The BID spokesperson just said they didn¡¯t want to escalate the situation for fear of another seeding outbreak."

    I nodded. Officer Herbert or Homer also mentioned something about the psyche of the people of this city.

    Myra sighed, shaking her head in disappointment at the human race. ¡°Or they could just keep them there. That¡¯s what they¡¯re already doing with the hospital staff.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re staying at the hospital?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re holed up there,¡± Reo confirmed. ¡°Several incidents of getting attacked going home. These fucking people are insane for going after the nurses and doctors.¡±

    ¡°And now, the hospital is besieged,¡± Everett added.

    ¡°Poor them,¡± said Deen. ¡°The patients and the staff. I-I can¡¯t believe this is happening.¡±

    ¡°There was even this guy,¡± Reo said, ¡°one of the patients supposed to be released today, who got so angry with the protesters that he rushed out and stabbed himself with a ballpen.¡±

    Fascinating how people are behaving. ¡°Didn¡¯t that happen before?¡± I asked, recalling I saw a similar incident on live TV when I was still in undergrad. ¡°I think an NBA player? Um, who was it again?¡±

    ¡°Ah, I remember that! Big Nate Marshalls. Guy so good he singlehandedly carried his team to snag the rings. There was a buttload of accusations he was an Adumbrae because of his godlike skills, so he stabbed himself after winning the championships to show he was a normal human.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I do hope people won¡¯t harass me," I said. "I got my certificates and all. But that NBA player was also tested and even held several press conferences to show his certificates but people still didn¡¯t believe him.¡±

    Deen hugged me. ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about that,¡± she said soothingly. ¡°We¡¯ll protect you from those crazy people.¡±

    ¡°In times like this,¡± Everett said, ¡°people can¡¯t help but accuse each other of being an Adumbrae.¡± He bowed his head with a somber expression on his face. Everyone else quieted down too.

    What was up¡ª? Oh, I remember. His grandparents were killed in the Labor Day Purge. I bet his family was hounded by accusations of being Adumbrae for a long time, maybe even up to this day. I think that was enough for that topic. ¡°By the way, where¡¯s Dario and Johann?¡±

    ¡°They said they¡¯re going to be late a bit,¡± Everett said, checking his phone. ¡°Some problems at city hall¡ªoh wait, they¡¯re here.¡± He stood up and looked through the glass doors of the restaurant.

    ¡°Dario! Johann!¡± Reo called, waving his arms at them so they could see him.

    ¡°What were they doing at city hall?¡± I asked Myra just for fun.

    She hesitated for a second, but decided to answer me, although she didn¡¯t face me. ¡°They were looking for the plans of the hospital.¡±

    ¡°I see. Thank you,¡± I said, trying to hold my laughter.

    ¡°Hey, guys,¡± Dario said. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re complete. Sorry for the delay.¡±

    ¡°It took me some time to get the blueprints for EFUMC.¡± Johann spread a couple rolls of paper on the table. ¡°I got these ones easily enough. I¡¯ve done this before for a couple of missions,¡± he explained me and Deen. ¡°The problem is that these are old ones, back from the time the McHunters¡ªone of their foundations, to be exact¡ªwas still operating the place.¡±

    ¡°The McHunters also own the hospital?¡± I said. They might¡¯ve been pretty powerful in this city back then.

    ¡°Yes, but the government expropriated it after¡­you know. There have been many renovations since then, and floors were also added to the main building where Julie is. I couldn¡¯t find copies of the new plans. They¡¯re digitized and I can¡¯t hack the system to find them. Uh, not to brag, but I probably can¡­I just don¡¯t have the time.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the big deal, man?¡± Reo said. ¡°It¡¯s just a hospital. Not like we¡¯re breaking into Fort Knox or the White House.¡±

    ¡°With the guards around the hospital,¡± Dario said, ¡°it¡¯s quite a secure place at the moment.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right, those fucking protesters. But what¡¯s the rush? Yeah, we need to get to Julie as soon as possible, but we could just wait for Johann to get the new plans then. So far, Julie hasn¡¯t spilled the beans or else Erind would¡¯ve already been arrested.¡±

    ¡°We need to get to Julie tonight.¡±

    ¡°Tonight?¡±

    Dario held up two fingers. ¡°Two reasons. Firstly, a memorial is going to be held for the people who died. The protesters, most of them, will certainly go there to stir things up. Which means, the attention of the police and the National Guard will be shifted there too.

    ¡°Secondly, the leader of the protesters made an ultimatum to the mayor that unless he transfers the casualties of the Adumbrae attacks out of the city, they¡¯ll storm the hospital within two days. We have no choice. We have to go tonight.¡±

 4.13

    After making sure no one else was within ear shot, Dario gestured for all of us to pull our seats closer. Then he turned to Deen and me. ¡°I already told Johann on the way here what happened during our mini-mission yesterday, so I¡¯ll also bring both of you up to speed. Because of the protests blocking the streets, we had to leave the car at 17<sup>th</sup> and continue on foot to Marshall. We did make it to the hospital, and although they were very strict of the identity of people they let inside, Myra was able to get in because she¡¯s a Melchor student.¡±

    ¡°We occasionally have lectures and practical exams at the hospital,¡± Myra elaborated. ¡°It wasn¡¯t that suspicious I came there. Just an excuse I needed to get some forms for class.¡±

    ¡°The whole state of the place¡­¡± Deen said, confused. ¡°I assumed they¡¯d bar all visitors.¡±

    Dario answered, ¡°Pure luck we got there about fifteen minutes before the whole place went into lockdown because of the escalating violence. Before that happened, many people were there, mostly families of the transferred patients checking up on them.¡± He then gave us a brief story of how Myra distracted the staff at the front office so Sneak could go through the files on a computer.

    ¡°I had to stop myself vomiting because of the smell of the dumpster,¡± Reo whined. ¡°You guys couldn¡¯t find me a better place to summon?¡±

    ¡°I was there with you,¡± Everett said. ¡°The smell wasn¡¯t that bad. And it was the only secluded place within range of the hospital.¡±

    ¡°Picture this: me concentrating on typing on a keyboard using Sneak¡¯s finger-sized arms as shitty smell frolicked up my nose.¡±

    ¡°Frolic?¡± Myra repeated with an exaggerated British accent. ¡°Stop being a drama queen.¡±

    ¡°I was waiting for alarms to go off. Flashing red lights, blaring sirens, screaming people. ¡®Help! A grey gremlin is on the keyboard!¡¯ Something like that.¡±

    ¡°Hospitals don¡¯t have that kind of alarm, you idiot,¡± she said, elbowing his arm. ¡°Fire alarms maybe, but not those ones like you broke in a secret military base.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m just saying I was expecting the guys watching the security cams to spot Sneak on their screens. He wasn¡¯t on invisible mode. Seems like we can¡¯t expect people to be diligent on their jobs nowadays.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s rich coming from you.¡±

    ¡°Continuing on,¡± Dario said before the two of them could argue more. ¡°Myra and Reo did find Julie¡¯s room number, but they couldn¡¯t get to her because the way to that building was guarded by cops. Perhaps if we had the time, they could¡¯ve done more reconnaissance. But the the order came to lockdown the whole hospital and the surrounding streets.¡±

    Myra folded her arms. ¡°I still think I had a shot of finding Julie if we pushed on and took advantage of the commotion. It was total chaos when all the visitors were herded out of the hospital.¡±

    ¡°I told you to abort because it¡¯s too risky,¡± he sternly replied. ¡°This is the middle of the city. If you do get discovered, you¡¯ll be fighting the police and the National Guard.¡±

    Myra clicked her tongue, irritated at Dario shooting her down. ¡°I can handle¡ª"

    ¡°It¡¯s not a question of whether you can win against them or not. You¡¯ll be fighting against humans. Do you want stain your hands with the blood of innocent people?¡±

    ¡°Er¡­no, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°BID agents will eventually come, don¡¯t forget about them. And assuming you successfully snuck your way to Julie, what will you do? I¡¯m the one with the ability to erase her memory.¡±

    ¡°I could¡­¡± She turned away from us, gazing at the small fountain in the middle of the garden. ¡°You¡¯re right¡­I also really don¡¯t want to cause any more innocent casualties.¡±

    Dario stared at her for a couple of seconds, his eyes narrowed. He then sighed and said, ¡°After that, all of us scouted the surroundings and took notes, the walls of the hospital, the placements of the guards, the camps of the protesters. However, considering the rapidly evolving situation, the intel we got yesterday of the layout of area is no longer accurate. We¡¯ll have to go back there later a couple of hours before our mission to see what¡¯s what. Let¡¯s move on to¡ªoh, let¡¯s order first.¡± He waved at the waiter who courteously hovered by the door several feet away, waiting for us to finish our discussion.

    When he approached us, the waiter glanced at the plans on the table. Dario noticed and loudly chatted about our ¡®project¡¯ for our architecture course, throwing technical terms around like he knew what he was talking about. Maybe he did.

    As everyone ordered food and drinks, I pondered my course of action.

    I obviously wanted to have Julie¡¯s memories erased, duh. Me above everyone else here. But I couldn¡¯t contribute anything because I was supposedly a ¡®normal human¡¯, with only Myra and Johann knowing my secret. I still had no clue if they told Dario.

    ¡°Let¡¯s discuss the obstacles while we wait for our food,¡± Dario said. ¡°First, we have to get past the protesters¡ª"

    ¡°Um¡­excuse me,¡± I began to say, ruining the cool start of a planning montage. ¡°Should I stay here? I¡¯m going to be useless in this whole breaking in the hospital thing.¡±

    ¡°You have to be here,¡± Deen empathically said. ¡°We¡¯re a group!¡±

    ¡°No¡­yeah, I mean we¡¯re a group. But isn¡¯t it better if I didn¡¯t know about your plan just in case¡­I don¡¯t know¡­the fewer people know about it the better, I guess? And it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be of any help.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you can contribute to our plans,¡± said Dario. ¡°We are a group, yes. The more brains working together the better.¡±

    ¡°Not always,¡± said Reo.

    Myra snorted. ¡°Not with your brain.¡±

    Dario again ignored his teammates. ¡°And we¡¯ll find a part for you, Erind. You can be a lookout, keep us updated of what¡¯s happening with the protesters, the movements of the police¡ª¡±

    ¡°From a distance!¡± cut in Deen. ¡°From a distance, right? We don¡¯t want Erind near any danger.¡± She put an emphasis on the ¡®we¡¯. ¡°Those protesters could turn violent any second, they are violent now.¡±

    ¡°I can take care of myself,¡± I asserted. ¡°And I want to have a part in this.¡±

    ¡°Erind has been through a lot,¡± Everett said to Deen. ¡°I¡¯m sure she knows how to deal with danger.¡±

    Dario also assured her, ¡°She¡¯ll be far away from any riots.¡± Deen pursed her lips, but relented, nodding her consent like she was my mother or something. He said, ¡°We¡¯ll need all the help we can get; a lookout isn¡¯t a small part. If anything happens, Erind can decide for herself if the situation is getting dangerous and leave.¡±

    Does he know my secret?

    I felt like his actions weren¡¯t that of someone knowingly sitting at the same table with an Adumbrae.

    Dario was the leader of a group fighting Adumbrae. It was a no-brainer he¡¯d want me, an actual Adumbrae, a real one unlike those of the 2Ms, eliminated. Not that apparent, but I could tell he was a dangerous person. He didn¡¯t seem affected by the deaths of a couple of people during the Sander¡¯s fire, unlike Myra and Everett.

    Maybe that was why Myra and Johann didn¡¯t tell him about me.

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Or maybe Dario was just really good at hiding things. I¡¯m not so sure about him.

    ¡°I feel like a tree,¡± I said. They gave me quizzical looks. ¡°You know? A kid playing a random tree in a school play? You guys are just giving me a role so I wouldn¡¯t feel bad.¡± There was nervous chuckling at first, then everyone laughed after I told them I was joking¡ªeveryone except Myra.

    The planning montage started. Queue in the tense music with subtle rising crescendo.

    Even though I wasn¡¯t going to have an important part, I still listened with half an ear, trying to teach myself practical skills like¡­doing illegal stuff.

    Going past the ring of protesters was easy enough, the perimeter of the National Guard would be the hard one to crack. And once they were inside, they also had to move about undetected. If the hospital was operating normally¡ªDario could''ve just waltzed in and do his magic on Julie like he did with Ramello before.

    ¡°Babies get kidnapped from hospitals all the time,¡± Reo said, leaning back on his chair. Myra unexpectedly didn¡¯t hit him, but just grunted her distaste. ¡°What? I¡¯m just saying this would¡¯ve been a piece of cake if not for the protesters making the situation worse.¡±

    The food arrived and the planning continued while we ate, discussing how to get past security we had no idea consisted of. There was even a debate on whether they should try to take over the security room to make their movements easier. But that¡¯d also leave a trace that they were there in the first place, and would signal to the BID that there was something important with the patients at the hospital.

    ¡°One thing is clear,¡± Dario said. ¡°We need Deen front and center.¡±

    ¡°I will be there,¡± she said.

    ¡°It¡¯s really a different thing with you around,¡± Everett said. Reo snickered beside him, catching the double meaning.

    Nearly twenty minutes later and they had a crude plan. My part, like Dario said earlier, was going to be a nearly useless lookout, far away from anything remotely dangerous¡­or helpful, which meant Deen was satisfied with it.

    ¡°The memorial starts at 9:00 p.m.,¡± Dario said. ¡°The mayor scheduled it at that time so they could have a prayer vigil as well.¡± I mentally snickered, remembering Reginus and her tiny group. Dario went on, ¡°I suspect he set it up like that in hopes the religious groups attending to pray¡ªand there¡¯s going to be many of them¡ªwill be the buffer against protests.¡±

    ¡°Smart stuff,¡± Reo said. ¡°Pitting the masses against each other. I¡¯m glad I voted for that guy.¡±

    ¡°You care about voting?¡± Myra asked incredulously. ¡°And don¡¯t forget that guy likely helps out the 2Ms.¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah. Then fuck that guy. I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t vote.¡±

    Dario said, ¡°Let¡¯s say 7:00 p.m. we start to move in position and update our plans accordingly.¡±

    ¡°By the way, Erind,¡± Myra said, surprising me. ¡°You left your phone at your condo, right? Like, it¡¯s gone?¡±

    What¡¯s up with her now? I nodded. ¡°My phone, among other belongings...all of my belongings are gone, yeah. I¡¯m just borrowing one of Deen¡¯s phones until I get money from Mom and buy a replacement. Why do you ask?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s your new number now? If there¡¯s something important, we can¡¯t just keep calling Deen.¡±

    ¡°Er¡­yeah,¡± I said. I gave all of them my number.

    After we were done eating and about to go our separate ways, Deen said to me, ¡°Erind, I¡¯m going to Cresthorne for my afternoon class. Want to come with me? You can study at the library. Or I can drop you off at my house.¡±

    ¡°Are we required to go to Cresthorne for class? I thought it¡¯s only students who feel they can safely travel to the university during all this¡­nonsense¡­and the rest can just attend online.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right, but I miss meeting other people.¡± Deen grinned. ¡°Oh, you know? Extrovert people stuff. You won¡¯t understand. Although I¡¯m not sure who is going to be there.¡±

    Perfect. ¡°I think I¡¯ll buy glasses this afternoon.¡±

    ¡°We can do that together late¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll just buy on my own,¡± I insisted. She was getting weird these days. ¡°I have nothing to do at Cresthorne or at your house anyway, might as well get this done.¡±

    ¡°But what if¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Deen, you shouldn¡¯t be so worried of Erind.¡± It was Myra who said that. Mild shock, I sarcastically thought. She subtly nodded at me. ¡°She can take care of herself. Johann always scolds me when I get too protective of him just because he¡¯s a normal human.¡± There was something weird with the way she said ¡®normal human¡¯.

    ¡°Fine,¡± Deen said. Her golden hair bounced as her shoulders dropped in surrender. ¡°But keep me updated when you get home, okay?¡±

    ¡°Okay, Mom,¡± I said, sticking my tongue out at her.

    <hr>

    Was this the right place?

    Where was Myra?

    The fountain she mentioned in her text was here, but I wasn¡¯t sure how many were there in this mall. I approached the guy at the food stall selling cinnamon rolls beside it, and he confirmed it was the only one.

    Deen dropped me off at this mall on her way to university. I fibbed there was an optical shop here where I could get an eye exam and order new glasses¡ªwell, not exactly a lie because there was really an optical shop here. I checked. But I was just going to buy cheap fake glasses from the department store.

    Later, I¡¯d have to think of some reason why it took me a long time to return to her house.

    She was being very nosy nowadays, bordering on controlling.

    I puzzled over what could¡¯ve triggered the change. Was she intermingling her heroic purpose with my safety? She did volunteer to protect me at the start of all of this shit; technically, it was her first mission, a personally imposed mission at that. And the one night I left ¡®her care¡¯ was the night the 2Ms attacked.

    It might¡¯ve dealt a pretty huge blow on her self-image, although that was really on me for insisting to go back to my condo. So far, this was my best explanation of Deen¡¯s abrupt change, but I might be wrong. I¡¯ve been wrong about her before.

    One thing was certain: even though Deen was my closest ally, I should start watching my back around her.

    But enough of that, I should focus on my meeting with Myra.

    Was this the right decision?

    I replayed my thought process in deciding to come here, making sure I wasn¡¯t doing this because the danger was fun. It was a creeping concern I was getting used to danger and could no longer approximate ¡®flight¡¯ instincts as time went by.

    Myra hadn¡¯t attacked me since our little encounter at Sander¡¯s mall, so it seemed like it was really a mistake on her part¡ªher reaction to my ¡®revelation¡¯ that she was the reason I became an Adumbrae confirmed this. And she also hadn¡¯t attacked me even after she knew I was no longer human.

    She was, from what I could tell, a relatively good person by her irritated reaction each time someone brought up the Sander¡¯s fire¡ªa reaction of a person bothered by her conscience.

    Her personality was very consistent thus far, so I was certain I had a good read on her.

    I stared at the pimple patch-covered crystals on my right palm. The main reason I wanted to meet her wasn¡¯t to know the truth¡ªthat was also important, I suppose, so I could better plan for my survival¡ªbut to get help in practicing my powers.

    Okay, that¡¯s a lie. That wasn¡¯t the main reason.

    It was because I wanted to be close friends with her before making her suffer for all the wrongs she committed against me. This was my modus operandi since I was a kid. I stopped myself grinning like an idiot in public while thinking about what I¡¯d do to Myra.

    ¡°Erind?¡± a voice behind me called.

    I turned around. ¡°Oh, Myra¡­Hi..."

    ¡°Um, so¡­¡± she looked around, fidgeting uncomfortably, her eyes landing on the food stall. ¡°Have you eaten? I can buy you cinnamon¡ª¡±

    ¡°We just ate, remember?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah.¡± She exhaled. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°There I said it. Anyway, we should go some other place to continue talking.¡±

    ¡°A secluded restaurant? Hmm, I know a caf¨¦¡ª¡±

    ¡°We should go to our hideout¡­or we could choose any of the other abandoned buildings near it.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why there?¡± She wanted to go an isolated place?

    ¡°If we¡¯re going to show each other our¡­abilities¡­it¡¯s best if we do it there.

    I blinked, thinking rapidly. ¡°Just the two of us?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Johann has work. We haven¡¯t told anyone else about you.¡±

    ¡°Uhhh¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to do anything to you.¡± She grimaced, realizing what she said. ¡°I know it¡¯s hard for you to believe this¡­but¡­you can trust me. That¡¯s all I can say¡­for what that¡¯s worth.¡±

    Do I go with her?

    Obviously, duh.

    I could foresee a lot of drama was going to happen here. I wouldn¡¯t miss this for the world!

 4.14

    Nervous? Or incensed?

    How about scandalized?

    Scandalized was too much. Timid with a spattering of righteous indignation was what I settled for. Insert chef¡¯s kiss. I¡¯d update my face, letting it grow as ¡®its own separate person¡¯, as the situation developed. That was what it entailed maintaining many faces.

    I could theoretically act really angry towards Myra since my face was updated from a meek normal girl to someone taken over by Adumbrae because she nearly fucking murdered me¡ªraging and lashing out could be explained away with the Adumbrae influencing my thoughts¡ªbut it was so, sooo, much better to reserve those theatrical outbursts for more¡­let¡¯s just say, emotionally impactful moments.

    I do love drama¡ªespecially creating it.

    ¡°You¡¯re good back there?¡± Myra checked my reflection on the rearview mirror.

    I turned away. ¡°I-I¡¯m fine.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± I monotonously replied.

    I was in the backseat of Myra¡¯s car, sitting diagonally behind her. She told me to ride shotgun, and that was the polite choice, but I refused, reasoning I didn¡¯t want to be close to her. Plenty of ways to interpret what I said, and I left it up to her imagination. From her facial expression, she assumed I hated her, repulsed by the idea of being close to her.

    Which wasn¡¯t true.

    Hate. Anger. Hmmm, grudge?

    I didn¡¯t¡­couldn¡¯t¡­hold those kinds of strong feelings for long. I was super-duper angry at Myra when she attacked me. Duh. What she did literally fucked up my peaceful life. But after that?

    Not really, not anymore.

    I simply wanted to start implementing Rule #4 now. That¡¯s it.

    And maybe have some fun along the way since this was going to be a long project.

    It was just an unfortunate coincidence the bother Myra inflicted on me was of such gravity I had to make her suffer a lot as well, as per Rule #4. Weird to say, but this was nothing personal.

    As we moved through traffic, going the long way to avoid the shitshow of the protests and riots downtown, I stared at Myra¡¯s metallic blue hair, wondering what was going through her head.

    She might also think I didn¡¯t want to sit beside her for my safety. And that was the real reason I chose to sit here¡ªI¡¯d have more time to react if she decided to attack me.

    From this position, the fastest attack she could do without alerting me would be shooting spikes from her back, piercing through the driver¡¯s seat, and then stabbing me. Our diagonal orientation was the furthest distance possible in this car compared to if I sat beside or directly behind her. I also had my hand on the car door handle, ready to jump out at a moments notice.

    Did she lock this? I gave it a slight tug and confirmed she didn¡¯t.

    She might¡¯ve heard me checking the door because she repeated her earlier offer, ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want me to drink the Suppressor? I¡¯ll do it if it¡¯ll make you feel safe.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need,¡± I answered curtly. I didn¡¯t want her to become powerless so she couldn¡¯t pull bullshit like egging me on to hurt her as payment for attacking me. It was also easier to guilt-trip her when she was stronger than me.

    ¡°I want to show you can trust me,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll drink it, then you can check if¡ª"

    ¡°I trust you.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I trust that you won¡¯t hurt me.¡±

    ¡°Err¡­right. I won¡¯t.¡±

    We didn¡¯t speak to each other the rest of the way, letting the hum of the air conditioning fight back the deafening silence inside the car. Myra concentrated on the road in front of her, not even glancing at the rearview mirror again, or so much as turn her head that she¡¯d see me in her peripheral vision.

    Was this to show she wasn¡¯t suspicious of me? That she trusted me since I said I trusted her? I might attack her from behind after all. She must be really sincere then.

    <hr>

    The road turned rough as we entered the abandoned development project of the McHunters. We passed by the rundown buildings at its borders. The homeless of the city have taken shelter here, establishing some sort of small community that thrived on the kindness of charities operating food banks nearby. People in rugged clothes peeked out from the windows. The ones out on the streets stopped to stare at our car.

    I turned around and looked through the rear windshield. They went back to whatever they were doing, not paying us any more mind.

    A couple blocks along and there were no more completed structures. There were also no more signs of people¡ªnothing for them here¡ªjust the vast concrete jungle that looked like ruins of our modern civilization a time traveler might come upon a thousand years into the future.

    ¡°Um, Myra?¡± I said. She jolted. Our eyes met on the rearview mirror. ¡°Myra, maybe we can go in one of these buildings instead? How about that one?¡± I pointed at a boxy four-storey building, shorter but more complete than its neighbors. ¡°Our hideout is still further ahead, and we¡¯re not sure if others are hanging out there.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­sure.¡±

    I became more confident this wasn¡¯t a trap because I picked the location. If she insisted on a different building, I might¡¯ve already summoned my Blanchette mask.

    Myra parked the car beside the building I chose, partially hiding it from the street behind a wild growth of shrubbery. Then I followed her inside, climbing through one of the large windows on the wall.

    As I expected, it was just an empty floor with the support pillars evenly spaced across, not unlike our hideout. The difference was that the walls and columns already had a smooth cement finish. This was also a way smaller place, with the columns closer together, giving me an advantage in a fight against Myra. The columns could restrict her movements and provide cover against her spikes. And since there were many openings, I had my pick of escape routes.

    I considered whether I should speak up first. However, it would be better if I waited for Myra to initiate the conversation.

    Come on, I thought as my glare stabbed the back of her head. This place was already perfect. I didn¡¯t want her to go to the basement or something; I definitely wouldn''t follow her there. Talk now, you bitch.

    ¡°Stay there,¡± she said, while she continued walking. About twenty feet away, she turned around and faced me. She willed herself to meet my gaze. ¡°Since you didn¡¯t want me to drink the Suppressor, this should be enough distance to make you feel safe.¡± This desolate place was so quiet, devoid of the usual sounds of the city, that I could clearly hear her normal speaking voice.

    ¡°I already said I trusted you.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to let her get away with scoring good-guy points being all considerate and shit. And even if she said this was for my benefit, she was certainly also wary I¡¯d attack her.

    She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, shaking her hands as if to psyche herself up. ¡°I suppose first things first¡­again¡­I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    ¡°Sorry for what?¡± I snapped.

    ¡°Er, you know? The whole thing.¡±

    ¡°A proper apology would be appreciated.¡±

    Myra scratched her head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for attacking you. There. I know that¡¯s not enough¡ª¡±

    ¡°Attacking? More like trying to kill me.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­Um, that. Sorry.¡±

    ¡°And then what?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°And then what?¡± I repeated, stomping my foot on the ground.

    Myra gulped, still visibly hesitant to admit her fault, but also wanting to make amends. She nodded like she was agreeing not with me but with her thoughts, and said, almost yelling, ¡°I¡¯m very sorry I tried to kill you and pushed you into becoming an Adumbrae.¡±

    Wow. Her apology caught me off-guard that I almost sarcastically clapped. Instead, I pulled on my clothes and looked at the floor just in case I couldn¡¯t control myself grinning. ¡°Thank you for that¡­even if it¡¯s belated.¡±

    She stepped forward. ¡°So, you forgive¡ª¡±

    ¡°But it doesn¡¯t mean I forgive you.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­I-I wasn¡¯t really expecting to be forgiven.¡±

    ¡°And an apology can¡¯t turn me back into a human.¡±

    Myra didn¡¯t have an answer to that.

    Both of us stood in silence for a while. I didn¡¯t move. She didn¡¯t either. Let her emotions fester. A minute, maybe two? How long should I keep this up? I just wanted a sign of the emotional turmoil inside her before pressing on with my psychological attacks.

    ¡°Erind¡­¡± she began to say, holding her arm out as if trying to reach me even though we were far apart. Then she closed her mouth, unsure of what to say, letting her hand fall to her side.

    Break time¡¯s over. ¡°Maybe you don¡¯t believe you¡¯re the reason I became an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°No! I-I mean yes, I believe¡ª"

    ¡°You¡¯re hoping I¡¯m not really an Adumbrae. I can see it in your eyes,¡± I said, pointing an accusatory finger at her. Of course, I couldn¡¯t. I was just pulling shit out of my ass. ¡°How you wish it isn¡¯t true, right? Well, it is!¡± I suddenly knelt down and punched the floor, cracking it. Dust clouds billowed away from me.

    Myra instinctively crossed her arms in front of her, her forearms covered by weaves of bark armor. As she lowered her arms, I saw her mouth gaped in disbelief even though she already knew I wasn¡¯t human, still vainly hoping this was all just a huge lie.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to attack you,¡± I said icily. ¡°I don¡¯t just randomly try to murder people.¡±

    ¡°No, this isn¡¯t what it looks like.¡± Her bark armor unraveled, the dark tendrils sinking back into her skin. ¡°I¡¯m not going to fight you. I¡­I was just surprised.¡±

    ¡°As you can see, I¡¯m not human anymore. Because of you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not denying that, okay? I get it¡ª¡±

    ¡°And unlike you, I didn¡¯t have a choice because my only other option is dying.¡±

    ¡°If I¡¯m truly the cause, then I¡ª"

    ¡°Maybe you¡¯re thinking I might be an Adumbrae long before we met?¡± I said. Her eyes widened, shocked I apparently read her mind. She didn¡¯t want to feel guilty, so it was natural she¡¯d find any excuse to exonerate herself. ¡°You¡¯d like that to be the truth, wouldn¡¯t you?

    She mouthed ¡®no¡¯ but no sound came out, betraying her actual thoughts.

    I continued with more intensity, walking a couple of steps closer to her. ¡°But I¡¯m sure that by now you know with certainty I wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae before you tried to murder me. I had tests before enrolling to Eloyce University, just like you did. I don¡¯t have the Suppressor or anything like that. I bet you even asked Johann to check my records, am I right? And you saw nothing there.¡±

    ¡°Ye-yes¡­I had him do a background check on you.¡±

    What the fuck, seriously? I was just throwing around random guesses. ¡°You had Johann do that for nothing other than because you couldn¡¯t face the truth.¡±

    ¡°I-I was just trying to make sure,¡± she stammered, ¡°that what you said was true.¡±

    ¡°Think back at what happened at Sanders¡¯ parking area.¡± I took a couple more steps forward, emboldened by my control of the situation. Just a bit more grilling and I''d chill; I did like a bit of char on my food. But I also didn¡¯t want Myra to be well done. I didn¡¯t want to emotionally wreck her that she¡¯d leave me here¡ªI¡¯m not going to fucking walk all the back out of here¡ªbut there was a point I wanted to drive home. ¡°Remember all the blood you saw, the blood on the door, the blood on the stairs, the walls, the floor. I made up a story that the woman who bit you faked a blood trail to lure you, but it was too much blood¡­I¡¯m sure you''ve realized that now.¡±

    Her widening eyes told me she hadn¡¯t even thought about this. Dumb bitch. And here I was giving her brainpower more credit. She probably didn¡¯t even want to think about it because it made her feel more guilty.

    ¡°You hit me with a spike,¡± I said. ¡°No one pulled me away from the door to save me¡­there was no one else there. I tried to escape from you while holding my bleeding stomach closed. Remember the locker full of blood? I hid there, waiting for death.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡¯m sorry,¡± was all she managed to say, her voice cracking. If I was in her position, I wouldn¡¯t know what else to say either.

    ¡°If I had already been an Adumbrae,¡± I said, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have bled that much from one spike.¡±

    ¡°In that locker,¡± she said, her voice almost a whisper. I walked a few more steps closer to better hear her. ¡°Was that where an Adumbrae spoke to you?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    I removed the pimple patches on my palm and began the summoning. Gold liquid swirled up from the crystal, illuminating our dimly lit surroundings with golden light. Myra had a confused expression, uncertain of what I was showing other than that I had weird powers. Then the gold liquid turned red as it solidified and formed into jaws. I held the Blanchette mask in my hands.

    She gasped, recognizing the mask even though she had seen it only once. Knobs erupted all over her skin, slowly growing. But she closed her eyes and calmed herself. The spikes receded.

    ¡°Are you going to blame me for accepting the Adumbrae¡¯s offer to save me?¡± I knew a lot of people would. I considered bringing Kelsey into the argument¡ªgiven her sister¡¯s situation, Myra would be more understanding¡ªbut decided to hold onto that card for a bit.

    ¡°No,¡± she said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how my power works, just that if I wear this¡­I change." The mask dissipated in the air. "You already met her.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± She massaged her neck, perhaps unconsciously.

    ¡°I can¡¯t control myself when I transform, like I¡¯m a different person," I said. I wasn''t going to tell her the truth about my powers. "I guess I¡¯m technically a different person now anyway with an Adumbrae inside me? Am I even a person? As a law student, I know I don¡¯t have any human rights.¡±

    ¡°I''m sorry I tried to kill you,¡± Myra said, obviously changing the topic because she couldn¡¯t give me a straight answer. ¡°I can explain what happened that day, at least the things I know. I¡¯m not sure how to tell my story, and why I need your help.¡± My ears pricked upon hearing that but I didn¡¯t show any more reaction. ¡°But I¡¯ll do my best, starting from the beginning.¡± She sat on a chunk of a broken pillar. ¡°This is going to be long.¡±

    I plopped myself down on the dusty floor. ¡°Beginning?¡±

    ¡°Our parents died when we¡ªKelsey and I¡ªwere just kids. They were fanatic members of a cult led by someone who later turned out to be an Adumbrae. The BID raided their church. Mom and Dad were either eaten by the Adumbrae or killed by the BID. Either way, good riddance. I couldn¡¯t remember much of them because they were always doing this or that for their cult.

    ¡°Our aunt, Mom¡¯s sister, was the one who took care of us during all that time¡­and also after our parents died. She not only gave us a place to stay, but also supported us as we were regularly tested because of what happened to our parents.¡±

    Okay, wow. Myra wasn¡¯t kidding when she said she¡¯d start from the beginning. This was perhaps too much ¡®beginning¡¯. I didn¡¯t care for all of this shit. Fast forward this please.

    ¡°I¡¯m not turning this into a sob story,¡± she said defensively. ¡°I¡¯m just giving you a background of what could¡¯ve possibly caused Kelsey to turn into an Adumbrae. It might be our parents, I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you tell me it was because she was sick? Something terminal?¡±

    ¡°That was¡­a lie. Sorry¡±

    ¡°Nothing new then,¡± I snidely remarked.

    ¡°If she really had a terminal illness and was miraculously recovering possibly due to an Adumbrae, doctors would report her to the BID. She¡¯d get tested and executed.¡±

    Makes sense, I mused as Myra narrated how she came to know of her sister¡¯s infection. I hadn¡¯t given it much thought because I didn¡¯t give a fuck about Kelsey. Oh, wait a minute! I just came up with something brilliant. ¡°It might be Kelsey,¡± I interrupted her.

    ¡°And that¡¯s how I was sure¡ªwhat are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°It might be because of Kelsey I became infected.¡±

    ¡°What? That can¡¯t be¡ª"

    I stood up to give more oomph to my words. ¡°And then you came along, trying to kill me,¡± I said, ¡°pushing me over the edge and forcing me to rapidly transform.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡­no, tha-that. No!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the only explanation I can think of why I became an Adumbrae this fast.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if this actually was the case. I just wanted to emotionally hit her some more by blaming her sister too. But as the words came out of my mouth, I was beginning to believe that my guess could be true.

    Myra shook her head, but it wasn¡¯t to disagree with me. ¡°I can¡¯t say for sure you¡¯re wrong. If it was also because of Kelsey, then I apologize for that too. It''s not worth much, I know. Like you said, it¡¯s not going to turn you back into human. But I¡¯ll try to make it up to you. I¡¯m not sure how. But I will!¡±

    Aw, sucks she surrendered this fast. I could¡¯ve had more fun. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not turning back¡­No point fretting over this. Anyway, so, Kelsey is really an Adumbrae? And you joined Dario¡¯s team because of, let me guess, the Suppressor?¡±

    ¡°Yes, the Suppressor momentarily made Kelsey human again¡­at least physically. I didn¡¯t care back then about the 2Ms, but I¡¯m fighting them because Dario promised me that when a cure was developed someday, the Professor will smuggle one for Kelsey.¡±

    ¡°Makes sense,¡± I said. Just a typical origin story. Boring. ¡°And I, well, Deen too, both of us were unlucky we met Kelsey that day. Come to think of it, it wasn¡¯t because of just Kelsey, it was because you attacked us afterwards. We had nothing to do with whatever happened to Kelsey. If you just left us alone, we wouldn¡¯t have gotten dragged into this.¡±

    ¡°Repeating ''sorry'' over and over might make it lose its meaning, but I really¡ª¡±

    ¡°Why did you do it?¡±

    She kicked a pebble near her foot, focusing on it as it rolled across the floor. ¡°I joined you guys going to Cresthorne to check Kelsey¡¯s locker. She left me a...a note inside. I can¡¯t tell you the exact content, but it made me suspect you guys were involved in her kidnapping.¡±

    Kidnapping? Not suicide? ¡°We¡¯re not, as you might¡¯ve figured out by now. Does this have something to do with you needing my help? You finally figured out Kelsey¡¯s note?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m not sure if I correctly understood her message to me, but if I¡¯m right, I¡¯ll need all the help I can get, and I don¡¯t have many options.¡±

    ¡°If you can¡¯t tell me what the note said, fine, but can you at least tell me who we¡¯re up against?¡± I used ¡®we¡¯ intentionally.

    Her face brightened at the hint I was on her side despite what she had done to me, but then her face fell again as she told me our enemy. ¡°Dario¡­Dario and the Professor probably have Kelsey.¡±

 4.15

    ¡°Dario and the Professor kidnapped Kelsey?¡± An unexpected development. Or was Myra going insane over the loss of her sister, just throwing accusations at anyone? I said, ¡°I thought you¡¯re supposed to be the good guys?¡±

    ¡°Good guys,¡± Myra pensively mumbled. ¡°At the risk of sounding philosophical, are any of us actually on the side of good? I can¡¯t even justify a morally grey side because there¡¯s an objective good in our society. We are vigilantes, and what does the law say on that, Erind?¡±

    ¡°Vigilantism is not legally justified¡ª¡±

    ¡°Using this artificial Core inside of us makes it even worse. It¡¯s the product of a government project, but that doesn¡¯t make it any less illegal. This was made through human experimentation, not to mention using a stolen Origin Core from the Corebrings. Convincing anyone we¡¯re the good guys just because we fight Adumbrae is a long stretch.¡±

    ¡°Okay, not the good guys. But Dario and the Professor¡­aren¡¯t you at least on the same side? Or am I missing something here?¡±

    ¡°Same team. I can¡¯t say we¡¯re all on the same side; I don¡¯t even know what our side is supposed to be. Dario told us we¡¯re helping a lone BID scientist defeat an Adumbrae conspiracy ring embedded in the government. But other than that, we don¡¯t know anything else about this Professor guy. None of us have met, or even talked to him. Johann and I suspect something way bigger than just a single scientist is behind Dario.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s working for some secret organization?¡± I said, reading between the lines. Was she hesitant saying it outright for fear I¡¯d back out of helping her? ¡°What made you think this? Did you discover something? I dunno, some concrete evidence?¡±

    ¡°Decide for yourself if this is concrete evidence,¡± Myra answered. ¡°A couple of days after our Eve mission, Johann visited my apartment.¡± She explained what she learned from him about the BID taking jurisdiction of the investigation, deputizing the city police¡ªone of their powers under the Panderton Act¡ªand using the additional manpower to review the massive amounts of leads coming in. ¡°The BID turned the huge parking lot of the LEPD headquarters into their base of operations, like a mini tent city. Johann took every opportunity he had, making up all kinds of excuses, just to hang out at that place and gather info from his friends and other people he knew.¡±

    ¡°And he found something out,¡± I said. ¡°Evidence connected to us.¡±

    Myra raised a brow, surprised. ¡°How did you know? Or you¡¯re guessing?¡±

    ¡°A gnawing feeling I had since our Eve mission.¡± A lie. I hadn¡¯t thought about this at all. The truth was I had other things on my mind such as all the fun and excitement I had at Eve, meeting new friends and killing them, and the whole thing with Bianca too. Hey, I deserved a couple of days of relaxation after going through that shit.

    ¡°Unfortunately, you¡¯re right on that one.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s to be expected. It was a massive BID operation.¡± I kept my voice neutral, hiding my annoyance at myself for being so carefree. I just offhandedly assumed the explosion wiped our tracks. Apparently, it didn¡¯t. I ticked off my fingers, enumerating possible evidence I thought of only now¡ªstuff I should¡¯ve already considered after escaping Eve. ¡°They¡¯d have surveillance videos of the comings and goings at the club before the raid; that should include when we arrived. There should be files from the security cameras of the Eve itself, recording me and Deen inside, assuming those survived the explosion¡ªprobably not. And I guess there are witnesses who survived. What did I miss?¡±

    ¡°The agents inside the club,¡± Myra said. ¡°Johann found out they were transmitting in real-time everything they saw to the BID command overseeing the raid.¡±

    ¡°So, we¡¯re¡­¡± I was going to say ¡®fucked¡¯ but that was uncharacteristic of me. ¡°So, they know about us? How come they haven¡¯t arrested us yet? Did Johann manage to delete all the evidence? He¡¯s very reliable, he helped me through my tests too. He must¡¯ve¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right on the evidence going missing part, but Johann didn¡¯t do anything.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Everything connected to us were deleted by someone else.¡±

    ¡°Huh?! I don¡¯t¡­what?¡±

    ¡°After Johann discovered the evidence, that was late Sunday night, he informed Dario, who told him to stand down, assuring him the police won¡¯t notice us. There were tons of other people there anyway. Since Johann helped you with your tests, you must know the type of guy he is. He couldn¡¯t just leave it up to chance and decided to find a way to wipe our tracks the next day. But...they were no longer there.¡±

    ¡°Could it be just some error?¡± I said. ¡°Or it might be the 2Ms. Yeah, it must be them. They¡¯re trying to hide¡ª"

    ¡°I also thought of that, but it¡¯s not possible. For example, there was a video from the surveillance team watching the entrance of Eve. Johann said when he saw it, it was a long one which included us posing as Bianca¡¯s crew. But the next time he checked it, the part with us was gone, just cut out somewhere in the middle. The same thing happened with the recordings of three other cameras pointed at Eve¡¯s entrance. These are too specific to be computer errors. And if it was the 2Ms, they¡¯d want to destroy all the evidence. Why delete just the parts with us? It¡¯s like someone was¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªprotecting us,¡± I finished her statement. What do I make of this?

    I had to admit¡ªjust to myself, of course¡ªit was a huge fucking oversight not to think of the consequences of the Eve mission. I should¡¯ve immediately gone into hiding, assuming the worst. Stupid bitch, Erind, I mentally berated myself. This shouldn¡¯t happen again.

    Oh well, I was still walking around, free as an Adumbrae could be.

    No harm done.

    Thanks to this mysterious person¡­or people who cleaned our tracks.

    However, I still wasn¡¯t sure if I was going to buy this secret organization story Myra was selling even if she was going to put it on sale with a fifty-percent discount. Maybe it was all Johann¡¯s work and she was just twisting the truth to convince me to help her find her sister¡ªpresenting a fake scary enemy to make me side with her rather than Dario.

    Myra recounted a couple more missions from before Deen and I joined them where they had been certain the police were going to find them, but nothing happened.

    If all of these were true, then I had to concede she was right that some deeper shit was going on here. And I was beginning to see Johann couldn¡¯t have possibly done this on his own. Hiding this much evidence would need people in high places, at least that was what I learned from some cases I studied in law school. I let the turmoil in my mind show on my face as I knotted my brows.

    ¡°It sounds insane,¡± Myra said. ¡°I get you. I know you¡¯re not going to be convinced this easily because I could be making all of this up and there¡¯s no way you could check. How about when you were kidnapped by the 2Ms?¡± I held my breath and exaggeratedly tensed my body, faking trauma from that experience. ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry," she hastily said. "What I¡¯m referring to was the police investigation that followed.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± I said, shaking my head as if to chase away bad memories. ¡°Just stuff I want to forget¡­what was that about the investigation? The police looking for Ramello¡¯s attackers? They never did find out about me.¡±

    She intently looked at me. ¡°Why do you think the police didn''t know about you?¡±

    ¡°Because Dario¡ª¡±

    ¡°Ramello doesn¡¯t remember you, but his statement can¡¯t be the only evidence. During the time he was unconscious at the hospital, the police should¡¯ve traced his route for the day. Normal policework. Plenty of security cameras and witnesses, especially at the train station. In fact, Johann can''t find any progress reports on Ramello''s case.¡±

    I had to give it to her that the thing with Ramello didn¡¯t add up. And I never thought about it before. Another example of my complacency that should be squashed if I wanted to continue living as a human in society.

    ¡°He¡¯s also a student from our school,¡± Myra said. ¡°Frickin¡¯ Eloyce Federal University! A law student to boot. And isn¡¯t he pretty famous? Like some prodigy?¡±

    ¡°No, he¡¯s famous for coming from a very poor family and being accepted to Cresthorne Law, and also for his various advocacies. He has all sorts of awards and stuff.¡±

    ¡°Then that¡¯s even more newsworthy, isn¡¯t it? But there¡¯s nothing about his attack on TV¡­in the papers. There¡¯s no further investigation? Come on, someone is covering for us. I don¡¯t know why, but I¡¯m sure they¡¯re there.¡±

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    ¡°Okay, okay, okay.¡± I paced around the dusty floor. Everything sounded insane but also it all made sense. Myra already had me half convinced, but I wasn¡¯t about to admit it just yet. ¡°Let¡¯s say for now I believe you there¡¯s a secret organization or something. How do you know they took Kelsey?¡± I didn¡¯t care about Kelsey¡¯s well-being; my only concern was if these mysterious people were a threat to me. However, if they really kidnapped Kelsey, it should be because she was an Adumbrae. Guess what? I was an Adumbrae too. Fuck.

    ¡°Deen told me in detail about what happened to Kelsey when you guys met her.¡± Myra closed her eyes. ¡°Tha-that¡­she scratched her face, deeply wounding herself. Her bones cracked loudly. Her body contorted. She was shrieking¡­yelling she wanted to die a human. I knew she was losing control of herself.¡± Her shoulders shuddered, her fists tightly balled up on her lap.

    ¡°Myra¡­¡± I really, really hated to comfort others. What should I¡ªthen a light bulb suddenly lit up in my head. ¡°You said you joined Dario¡¯s team because they were giving you supply of the Suppressor for Kelsey,¡± I said, finally seeing everything come together.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± Myra¡¯s eyes lit up as she realized I understood what happened. ¡°The Professor even developed a special type of Suppressor for her that lasts for twelve hours at a time, an extra concentrated version. She took the Suppressor every day, including the day she disappeared. I made sure of it before I left the house first for my 7:00 A.M. class.¡±

    ¡°But she lost control of herself,¡± I said. ¡°Someone administered the Diluter to her¡­or not? What if¡ª¡±

    ¡°The Suppressor was just a bad batch or something?¡± Myra said. I nodded. ¡°That¡¯s just like saying all the police computers had an error and wiped all evidence of us.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± I said. Unlike totally not caring about the aftermath of the Eve mission, I decided to dedicate brainpower to analyze the implications of this. If I wanted to survive in this cruel world as a monster everyone would just love to burn at the stake, I should start to be more prudent.

    ¡°Since we¡¯re already talking about the Suppressor,¡± said Myra, ¡°just think about what it is. A chemical that can momentarily turn an Adumbrae back into a human? In our case, artificial Corebrings. But it also worked for you.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I understand what you¡¯re getting at. It¡¯s not a cure, but close to one. Closer than anyone has gotten.¡±

    ¡°A chemical like this can change the world! But we haven¡¯t heard about it, so it must be top secret. A cure for Adumbrae¡­this should be the most heavily guarded item in a BID base.¡±

    ¡°But the Professor is giving it to us like¡­like¡­¡±

    ¡°Like free candy samples at the mall.¡± Myra stood up on the debris she used as a chair. ¡°The Professor can¡¯t be stealing all of this. They¡¯re intentionally giving it to us¡ªthat¡¯s the only explanation.¡±

    For all we know¡­we¡¯re also being experimented on. I gritted my teeth at the thought. Someone bothering me¡­Not just bothering, more like controlling me. I already had SpookyErind inside my head, thank you very much, I had enough people trying to control me.

    Myra also shared that Dario provided them with weapons. Guns, grenades, he even had magni-field mines. ¡°He¡¯s not a normal person,¡± she said. ¡°Someone is arming and sending us off to fight the 2Ms and the Adumbrae.¡±

    I was listening to her with only one ear. This secret organization could''ve had something to do with me becoming an Adumbrae. And even if they didn¡¯t, they¡¯d certainly want to capture me like they did Kelsey. So far, they hadn¡¯t openly done anything to me except protect me behind the scenes.

    What do I do?

    ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m looking for allies,¡± Myra said. She jumped down from the rock and approached me. ¡°Just¡­anyone¡­anyone who can help me. Right now, I only have Johann, and as much as he wants to help, he¡¯s just a normal human. I have powers myself, but I know it won¡¯t amount to much if Dario and the Professor are actually backed by a secret organization.¡±

    ¡°How about Reo and Everett?¡± I asked even though I already knew the answer.

    ¡°They have their reasons accepting the artificial Core and joining Dario¡ªmostly boils down to revenge against Adumbrae. We¡¯ve all fought together, got through so many life-or-death situations, and I trust the two of them. I am also a hundred percent sure they¡¯ll never join me rescuing Kelsey if they ever discover the truth about her. Somewhere down the line¡­those guys are bound to know.¡±

    ¡°Or Dario might reveal it to them.¡±

    ¡°That one too.¡± Myra looked at the ceiling in deep thought. ¡°Actually, even if Dario doesn¡¯t say anything, Reo and Everett don¡¯t have a reason to trust me over him. I don¡¯t have anything concrete. Just, um¡­what do you call that in law? Something that¡¯s not direct evidence?¡±

    ¡°Circumstantial evidence?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­only circumstantial.¡±

    ¡°Circumstantial evidence is enough for a conviction,¡± I said. But Myra reminded me she¡¯d still be saving an Adumbrae. ¡°Maybe we could convince them or something¡­¡± I added, lamely trailing off. I already hinted I might join her, but I wanted to drag it out and make her work for it.

    ¡°Not a chance they¡¯ll change their minds. If someone close to them became an Adumbrae, then it''ll be different. Maybe Deen could be¡­¡± She shook her head. ¡°This is why I tried looking for an Adumbrae to help me. Real Adumbrae. The only one I know is Red Hood.¡± I raised a brow at her. She awkwardly grinned, and said, ¡°Red Hood¡­you know? Your transformation. There was a video of you at Serenade Bazaar and a lot of people are calling you Red Hood because you have a hood that¡¯s colored red.¡±

    ¡°I get that," I said chuckling. ¡°I¡¯ve settled on the name Blanchette, by the way. I don¡¯t like ¡®Red Hood¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Blanchette?¡±

    ¡°A long story. So, why look for me¡ª? Oh, right, you didn¡¯t know it was me yet; why look for the Adumbrae that bit you, is what I meant.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I just don¡¯t know who else could help me. I assumed Red Hood is an Adumbrae helping new Adumbrae who couldn¡¯t control their powers yet, like you, for example. And then¡ª"

    ¡°What did you just say?¡± I cut in with an enraged voice. Let¡¯s focus back to Myra. At this point, I honestly didn¡¯t care she lied again, but a face was a face. ¡°You already knew I was an Adumbrae?!¡± Not what I expected, but I could see what was going on here. Actually, I should¡¯ve expected this from her. Either way¡­all systems engage for drama session number two or one-point-five, just a tiny bit for now.

    ¡°Uh¡­I-I, wait¡ª¡±

    ¡°You knew and you still played dumb?¡± I turned my back to her, a classic move I haven¡¯t used for this scene.

    ¡°Not knew, more of suspect¡ª"

    ¡°I was wrong when I thought you were hoping I¡¯m not an Adumbrae,¡± I said in a deathly whisper. ¡°You were just hoping you¡¯re not the one who caused me to turn into one.¡±

    ¡°I¡­yes,¡± she said softly.

    ¡°So, what was that about Johann checking¡ª¡±

    ¡°That was after you told me the truth the night we saved you from your condo,¡± she said.

    I sighed, exaggeratedly slumping down. That should be enough. I was supposed to be meek and timid Erind after all. Being forgiving would also allow me to hold more of her strings to pluck later. ¡°I understand. There¡¯s your sister, and now me. I can see why you wanted the truth to be that way.¡± Okay, just that poke. I had to go back to information gathering because this was getting interesting. Before she could process that I was trying to guilt trip her, I said, ¡°How did you know I am an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s Johann again. While snooping through the files of the Eve raid, he found something about a wolf monster. And he also heard there was a lookout advisory for an Adumbrae giant werewolf in this city circulated among the police. We have seen a wolf monster before.¡±

    ¡°At the docks,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes. Two-and-two together¡­um, not really. Johann and I just assumed that it¡¯s too much of a coincidence that both of you were at the same place at the same time. What was that again? Circumstantial evidence. Very flimsy circumstantial evidence.¡±

    ¡°And you thought Red Hood was helping me like survive or something?¡±

    ¡°Something like that. Besides your story that she helped you, Johann also found a witness statement from one of the customers at Eve that they saw someone that looked like Red Hood¡ª¡±

    ¡°Blanchette.¡±

    ¡°Blanchette, erm yeah. Sorry. One more thing. Johann also scoured the files of your misadventures at Serenade Bazaar. That case was left to the city police because it is so much smaller compared to the Eve case, so Johann had an easier time hacking the police system to get to the records. A security camera footage from a bookstore captured you. You as in Erind. We thought that you guys were meeting. Turns out you''re the same person.¡±

    I groaned. ¡°I remember that one. The serpent-looking Adumbrae went inside the store.¡± Fuck. When I was inside there, I told myself to destroy the security camera recordings afterwards. I just kind of forgot after I fled from the police. ¡°Oh, did this video mysteriously disappear too?¡±

    ¡°Johann was the one who wiped it, that¡¯s why the police never came to visit you even if you did encounter an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Huh? If this secret organization didn¡¯t delete the video, then that means¡ª¡±

    ¡°They don¡¯t know you¡¯re an Adumbrae, that you''re Blanchette.¡±

    ¡°Right. Otherwise, they would¡¯ve acted.¡± This changed a lot of my assumptions. Just what the fucking hell is going on here?

    ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m asking you now for help,¡± Myra said. ¡°They¡­whoever they may be¡­they don¡¯t know your secret. It can be our trump card. I know this might be too much to ask for your help. I haven¡¯t made up for trying to kill you and turning you into an Adumbrae, and now I¡¯m asking for a favor. A really huge favor. I¡­It¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t want¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll help.¡±

    ¡°You will? Really?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have much to do anyway. I¡¯m already an Adumbrae. I don¡¯t believe in heaven or anything like that. I just want to do good deeds before the Adumbrae completely takes over me.¡± Just one last guilt tripping stab, I couldn¡¯t help myself.

    ¡°We¡¯ll find a cure¡ª¡±

    ¡°Myra, the cure is with our enemy. I¡¯m not sure how we¡¯ll get that.¡± And I don¡¯t think I want to be cured. She fumbled her words, trying to think of a way to repay me. I said, ¡°I also have a favor to ask of you.¡±

    ¡°Sure! Anything.¡±

    I extended my hand to her. ¡°Teach me how to fight, how to use my strength, my powers. Help me get stronger and I¡¯ll help you find Kelsey.¡±

    Myra shook my hand. "Deal."

 4.16 - Amber Deen

    Amber Deen

    "Deen...you?"

    "Yes, Erind. It''s me," she replied. She was already used to being referred to as ''Deen'' instead of her first name, ''Amber.'' At first, it was only Erind calling her that. Now, it was their entire Adumbrae-fighting group. She was starting to prefer being called ''Deen''.

    "Hello? Hello?"

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you replying to my texts?¡± Deen asked Erind over the phone with a hint of chuckle to show it was just a light-hearted question; she knew she was becoming unreasonably intrusive as of late. I should¡¯ve said something else. ¡°You¡¯re not in any trouble at the mall, aren¡¯t you?¡± she added, making an opening for her friend to make a ¡®mom joke¡¯; it could sort of excuse her behavior.

    But Erind didn¡¯t. She said, ¡°Deen? Ah¡­can¡¯t hear...very well¡­signal.¡±

    ¡°Hello, Erind?¡± A spike of static made Deen wince. She wanted to tell Erind to go out and find better reception, but that was being incredibly bossy. ¡°Are you still at the mall?¡± Where was she that the connection was this bad?

    ¡°What did you¡ªmall? Yeah, I¡¯m¡­mall. Waiting¡­glasses.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re done with having your eyes checked, and now you¡¯re waiting for your glasses? How long¡ª¡± Deen bit her lip. ¡°Just tell me later when you¡¯re done, okay? We¡¯ll have¡ªwe can have dinner together if you want¡­just a suggestion.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll¡­back by dinner,¡± Erind replied, misunderstanding her. ¡°Are¡­.class now?¡±

    Deen stared at the sea of grass outside her car window¡ªthe sprawling Green Meadows Park. ¡°I have class right now,¡± she said. ¡°I just stepped out to check on you because I was worried.¡± A couple minutes of driving along the street bordering the park and she¡¯d be at the entrance of Poblacion Verde Hills; three or four more minutes after that and she¡¯d be home.

    ¡°We can¡­later¡­listen¡­class.¡± Erind¡¯s voice was becoming less clear, the connection very choppy.

    ¡°Talk to you later then. Take care.¡± After the beep of the ended call, Deen sighed. She reached over her left shoulder and massaged her back, around her left shoulder blade.

    When she was stressed, she had a bad habit of unconsciously raising her shoulders, resulting in gnawing pain as the tight muscles contracted. It rarely happened, but it was distractingly uncomfortable when it did. Accepting the artificial Core and entering the world of Adumbrae and Corebrings resulted in more stressful encounters¡ªa very generous description of the life-and-death experiences she had¡ªand regularly too.

    But she expected she would no longer experience this pain even if she had become more tensed since then. Surely her regenerative powers would take care of it? Apparently, she was wrong.

    Or maybe her powers did heal the tense muscles, and this was this something like phantom pain?

    Can it be psychological?

    In any case, she found she was less tense, hence less suffering, when Erind was around.

    ¡°We just have to protect Erind and keep her close, right Gabe?¡± Deen said to her Guardian Angel. The name just popped in her head one day. Gabriel was a biblical angel, and ¡®Gabe¡¯ was like a cute nickname version of it. ¡°We have to protect her no matter what¡­especially now that she¡­¡± She hit the steering wheel in frustration, accidentally honking the horn, surprising herself.

    She also surprised a couple of kids skating on the sidewalk. One of them stumbled and crashed into the other.

    Slowing the car, she called out to them, ¡°Sorry! Are you okay?¡±

    The kids waved at her to show there was no problem. She continued watching them, looking back as she drove on to make sure they were alright.

    Gabe floated into view and stared straight into her eyes. It was very rare it opened its eyes, even rarer it would meet her gaze. Its eyes were orbs of endless darkness. If she stared long enough, she knew she¡¯d notice sprinkles of light, which would become a fountain of stars streaming forth from the darkness, as if endless galaxies were trapped inside them¡­the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

    ¡°Hello, is something¡ª?"

    [Focus on driving.]

    ¡°Oops, road safety first.¡± Deen didn¡¯t need the power of foresight to know she was asking for an accident by not keeping her eyes on the road.

    Sure enough, a few yards ahead, a man walking several dogs inadvertently let go of one of the leashes. An excited black Labrador streaked across the road, right in front of her car, but she was able to brake in time.

    ¡°Phew. Thanks, Gabe,¡± she said, observing her Guardian Angel with affection.

    She could¡¯ve sworn it had grown bigger since it first manifested, with minute cracks branching across the surface of its egg-shaped body. Perhaps it was molting its hard ivory-colored exterior? The wings it held close to its body had more feathers now, and the feathers themselves grew about an inch longer. She couldn¡¯t explain it, she just knew Gabe would unfurl those blindingly white wings someday.

    Deen had an urge to touch them. I bet they are very fluffy. But she held back, remembering what happened the two times she did.

    To distract herself, she looked right through Gabe¡ªthrough not past; its body was mind-bogglingly transparent and not at the same time¡ªat the park. She didn¡¯t forget to keep glancing on the road.

    There were curiously a lot of people at Green Meadows Park today. Joggers, children playing, people walking their pets, families having a picnic. If she had to guess, these were people avoiding the center of the commotion at downtown while trying to find a way to have a ¡®normal¡¯ atmosphere despite the madness enveloping their city.

    Getting a dog would be nice.

    I¡¯ll ask Erind if she likes animals.

    <hr>

    ¡°Hello?¡± Deen poked her head through the doorway. Everything was silent. She glanced at Gabe¡ªit had become her habit every time she was about to enter a place. Her Guardian Angel just rotated in the air, its eyes tightly shut. ¡°Sis, are you home?¡± she called, walking in with her shoulders dropped.

    Even if her sister was around, she wouldn¡¯t answer because she¡¯d be in her room wearing headphones blaring classical violin music. Deen checked the wall clock by the entrance. Her sister wasn¡¯t usually home this early anyway¡­or at all.

    The clock also told her she had plenty of time before her next class.

    Deen did go to university like she told Erind she would. However, her prior class was cancelled last minute because their professor was injured on his way to work. Many conflicting stories on what happened, the most believable was a roving gang of religious fanatics blocking the traffic, supposedly checking passing cars if there were any Adumbrae inside, decided her professor wasn¡¯t human¡ªyes, this was the most believable.

    Given what was happening lately, she wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the more far-fetched stories were also true.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    So, there she was, hanging out with the few of her classmates who were present, having a relaxed time socializing even though her usual circle of friends didn¡¯t come to school, when the dean ordered all classes be moved online until further notice. They had no choice but to go home, ruining her plans of having a normal time with normal¡­humans.

    I''m not normal, she reminded herself. And I''m not human anymore.

    But that didn¡¯t mean she didn''t wanted to feel normal sometimes...just like the people at Green Meadows Park.

    Speaking of normal¡­

    Deen ran upstairs, checking the rooms just to make sure no one else was here, before entering the closet in her own room. She had the primary bedroom¡ªher sister yielded it to her since she was barely home¡ªwith a huge walk-in closet.

    One of the cabinets had a false wall hiding a safe the size of a mini fridge behind it. Her sister didn¡¯t know¡­or didn¡¯t care¡­about this safe, and Deen was the only one who knew the security code. She had no use for it because she had no jewelry to put inside; her mother was an avid collector of luxury accessories, but Deen and her sister didn¡¯t share that passion.

    Right now, the only thing inside of the safe was a sealed plastic bag containing dirty clothes¡ªErind¡¯s clothes the night she escaped her condo.

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± Deen said as she opened the plastic bag.

    It was absolutely foul, worse than gym clothes soaked in sweat cooped up in a bag for days. She had dried them under the sun before storing to lessen the smell, but it still reeked.

    ¡°Gross,¡± she muttered. ¡°And sorry, Erind. I know you¡¯re not smelly.¡± She held her breath as she examined the clothes.

    The shirt and shorts were dark blue, making it hard to know which of the many dried splotches were blood. Still, Deen tried her best to examine each one of them. Most were likely bodily fluids of monsters, causing the bad odor even if the clothes were already dry.

    There were many tears on the fabric¡ªnot just small holes, some were a few inches long¡ªwhich meant Erind was wounded that night¡­which also meant some of the dark patches were her dried blood. If she had these wounds on the parts of her body covered with clothes, she¡¯d likely have wounds on her bare arms and legs too.

    It¡¯s all logical.

    The problem was Erind didn¡¯t have any wounds.

    None at all, not even a small bruise.

    Sensing something didn¡¯t add up, Deen hid Erind¡¯s dirty clothes and told her she threw them away. There was no way to explain the tears on the clothes while her best friend¡¯s skin remained unblemished.  I don¡¯t think Erind was the type to wear fashionably ripped clothes.

    Deen stowed them inside the safe again, and filled the entire closet with clouds of perfume to get rid of the smell. She also opened all the doors and windows of the room to help air out the foul odor.

    She fetched her laptop, not for her online class, but to search for the optical shop Erind went to. She found it was on the second floor of the mall, so Erind shouldn¡¯t have any problems with reception unless the phone itself was defective. I don¡¯t think it was, I bought it just four months ago.

    And did Erind really need glasses?

    She acted like she did, squinting at small objects, printing out case notes in larger fonts, asking Deen for help reading small text. However, Deen got a glimpse of her at the police station, effortlessly filling out the forms. Was her eyesight healing too, just like the rest of her body?

    ¡°This can¡¯t be happening,¡± Deen said, clenching her fists.

    All those weird conversations between Erind and Johann, their reactions, everything made sense now. There was no need for Erind to drink the Suppressor if she was a normal human. Johann didn¡¯t have to do anything if she was a normal human.

    But she''s not human¡­that was the only explanation.

    When this suspicion first crawled in her mind, Deen¡¯s initial reaction was to assume Erind accepted an artificial Core. She was hurt her best friend didn¡¯t tell her; she already promised she would protect her¡ªthere was no need for her to surrender her humanity too.

    But as she thought about it over the past couple of days, she realized Erind wouldn''t just change her mind and accept the artificial Core. If she did, Dario would take that into account in their planning. And Erind would¡¯ve told her! She would ask for her support as she grappled with the changes in her body.

    This was something else¡­something happened to Erind that night the 2Ms attacked that only she, Myra, and Johann knew.

    She is becoming an Adumbrae¡­

    The 2Ms did something to Erind. And Deen wasn¡¯t there to protect her best friend.

    Deen wanted to scream in anger, but she instead gnashed her teeth. She dug her nails into her palms, cutting into her skin. Blood ran down the side of her hands. ¡°Oh, no,¡± she whispered, extending her arms so the blood wouldn¡¯t fall on her shirt. She rushed to the bathroom sink to wash it off.

    The cuts on her hands rapidly healed, probably the same thing that happened to Erind¡¯s wounds.

    Poor Erind...

    Deen had a theory on what happened: Myra and Johann rescued Erind from the men of the 2Ms, but they were too late to prevent whatever experiment was done to her. She ended up becoming an Adumbrae. The three of them decided to keep it a secret from the rest of the group because they were fighting the Adumbrae.

    Adumbrae were evil.

    Adumbrae were the enemy.

    The people who let themselves get taken over by Adumbrae were traitors to humanity.

    Everybody was taught this way when they were children.

    Erind will never confess to me. And part of that was because of her actions. Deen recalled she made a grand speech about doing her part in the fight against the Adumbrae. Her best friend would understandably be ashamed to reveal she became an Adumbrae even if it wasn¡¯t her fault.

    What could she do to make Erind reveal the truth? She didn¡¯t want to just confront Erind; it may drive her best friend away. Maybe she could approach Myra and Johann? Would they tell her, or hide it from her?

    Erind was probably with them right now. It made Deen feel a pang of jealousy.

    ¡°I sure wish I¡¯m wrong about this,¡± she murmured as she walked to the guest room Erind was staying in.

    Right to privacy and all that, I know what I¡¯m doing is wrong, she admitted to herself as she combed through Erind¡¯s belongings. After each drawer she rummaged, she¡¯d arrange everything back to their respective places.

    It didn¡¯t take her long because Erind didn¡¯t have much other than the clothes they bought yesterday, and most of them were still in the paper bags. I¡¯ll help her fix her cabinet later, Deen decided, smiling at the thought of doing something normal.

    She didn¡¯t find anything interesting besides the certificates of Erind from the testing. These should prove Erind was normal¡­that was what anyone would think. But Deen had an inkling that Johann tampered with the tests somehow.

    ¡°A bookmark?¡± she said, finding a piece of cardboard amongst the papers.

    It couldn¡¯t be Erind¡¯s. It might be bookmark of the owner of this house. The library downstairs had many books, and this could¡¯ve been left by the owner or the previous lessees inside one of them. But Erind didn¡¯t have any books in this room.

    Deen took a picture of the bookmark, placed it back with Erind''s certificates, and left the room. She still had thirty minutes until her next class so she spent it browsing the internet for clues about the bookmark.

    Searching for the symbol on it yielded no results. Or rather it had a lot of related images, but no exact match. The symbols that came up were connected to Neo-Core Christianity. Unlike mainstream Christianity, the sects categorized under it did believe in the books of Enoch¡ªmost only on the first book¡ªso it seemed to be a good lead.

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for a church, organization, some kind of group,¡± Deen said, ¡°that believes in all the three books of Enoch as scripture, and uses this symbol.¡±

    She zoomed in on the picture she took of the bookmark. There was a handwritten notation that seemed to cite a fourth book of Enoch. More browsing confirmed there were only three books. The number ¡®4¡¯ was too different from ¡®1¡¯, ¡®2¡¯, or ¡®3¡¯ for it to be just a handwriting mistake.

    She didn¡¯t give up on her search, continuing during her International Environmental Law elective class. She had been looking forward to the topic they were discussing today¡ªenvironmental laws for areas previously ravaged by Purple Blooms¡ªbut she was so engrossed in learning more about the bookmark that she lowered the volume of her professor¡¯s lecture.

    Her efforts did pay off as she came upon a twenty-three-year-old news article. It was just a screenshot saved in the blog of a guy who collected odd news articles, so she couldn¡¯t verify its authenticity; the source site was no longer up, and the news company shut down more than a decade ago.

    The piece was about a police raid on the headquarters of a civil rights activist group that was declared illegal because they lobbied for limited rights for Adumbrae who weren¡¯t violent. Among the items retrieved in the raid was a Bible that included several unusual books, including the mysterious fourth book of Enoch.

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Deen said. ¡°No other details?"

    She stared at the picture of the bookmark again. Where did Erind get this?

    Were Adumbrae trying to approach Erind and make her join them?

    If so...

    I¡¯ll kill them.

 4.17

    ¡°It was Deen,¡± I told Myra as I put my phone back in my pocket. ¡°No worries, she thinks I¡¯m still at the mall.¡±

    ¡°What if she came to check on you there?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s at uni. It¡¯s hard to understand what she was saying because the signal was choppy, but she should have a class right now, and another one after that.¡±

    ¡°If you say so,¡± said Myra. ¡°Deen really hassled herself to go to school even if there¡¯s the option to just attend classes online?¡±

    ¡°She just wants to hang out with our classmates and be normal.¡± I heaved a drawn-out sigh. ¡°I understand her. Wanting to be normal¡­is normal.¡± Okay, I just couldn¡¯t resist myself with that one. I might need to use Rule #9 and make a temporary Rule to stop myself making passive-aggressive comments. Myra opened her mouth but didn¡¯t say anything, unsure of how to respond. I changed the topic before things got awkward again and said, ¡°What will you teach me about fighting as an Adumbrae?¡± No more emotionally poking her, get it, Erind?

    Now was the time to learn.

    ¡°Alright then,¡± she said, clapping her hands together. ¡°Just throwing out a disclaimer before we begin¡­what I know is how to fight as someone with an artificial Core, but the same principles should apply to you. Super strength, super speed, a sturdy body, and fast regeneration¡ªall those traits we share even if on varying levels. The three most important things you should learn are: pushing the limits of your strength, evading, and attacking from afar.¡±

    ¡°The limits of my strength?¡± I stared at my hands, clenching and unclenching them.

    ¡°We¡ªI mean us with the artificial Core¡ªdon¡¯t get any stronger than what we are now. Our powers gradually develop, but our bodies don¡¯t. Not drastically anyway; we¡¯re not going to become twice as strong even if we, I don¡¯t know, bench six hundred pounds every day. It¡¯s a different case with Adumbrae. You guys get physically stronger, in addition to your powers growing, as you¡­as the¡­um¡­¡±

    ¡°The infection develops,¡± I supplied.

    ¡°Erm, yeah,¡± she agreed, looking sideways. ¡°It doesn¡¯t happen with the Adumbrae of the 2Ms since they control the infection of their clients.¡±

    ¡°Customers who turn into monsters can¡¯t pay,¡± I attempted to joke to make her more comfortable.

    ¡°You got that right,¡± she said, grinning. ¡°And their infection is artificially induced in the first place, so it probably works differently for them. As for you, you¡¯ll naturally become physically stronger over time. I don¡¯t know how fast, but that¡¯s not what I meant by pushing the limits of your strength. What you¡¯ll push are your limits now.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I see¡­I think?¡± I wasn¡¯t sure what she meant by that. Like working out to get stronger?

    ¡°But before that,¡± said Myra, ¡°let¡¯s talk a bit about evading and fighting from a distance. As much as possible, you should evade all attacks because you don¡¯t know how strong your enemy is.¡±

    ¡°Um, why? I don¡¯t understand.¡± Actually, I do. It was a precious lesson I learned when I fought Mr. Ogre in the underground arena of Eve. ¡°I¡¯m strong now too.¡±

    ¡°Okay, take Bob, for example. You remember him? He¡¯s one of the Adumbrae who attacked your condo.¡±

    ¡°I do. The one who chased us while we were trying to video Stella?¡±

    ¡°Yep, that guy. He¡¯s a large guy, yeah? Very. But there are many large dudes out there, especially the ones taking drugs or those who undergo surgeries to get bigger. If you saw me wearing my huge armor covered in spikes up against Bob, and you don¡¯t know anything about the two of us, who would you bet on?¡±

    ¡°You probably? You¡¯re bigger than him with your armor. Scarier looking too. I also don¡¯t know his powers or¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s exactly the problem,¡± she said, snapping her fingers. ¡°We can¡¯t just trust what we see to be sufficient information to judge our opponent. When I first met Bob, I tried to evade his attacks as much as I could even if I was fully protected with spiked armor. And thank the Mother Core I did, because it turned out he was hella fucking strong and could rip my armor off with his bare hands like it was papier mach¨¦. If it wasn¡¯t for my armor, I¡¯d be minced meat. He did catch my leg once, and he yanked off a large chunk of flesh from my bones.¡±

    I winced because timid Erind should be disgusted by the thought. ¡°Oh my god, are you okay now?¡±

    ¡°I was able to regenerate it.¡± Myra extended her left leg and pulled up her pants. ¡°Just some scarring left, should completely disappear in a couple of days. So, yeah, I think you get my point. There¡¯s no way of knowing how strong your opponent is, be it an Adumbrae or a human decked out with bioaugmentronics, just by looking at them. And that¡¯s just physical strength. Powers or abilities is a whole ¡®nother issue.¡±

    ¡°Evade all enemies. Got it.¡±

    ¡°That includes normal humans too,¡± she firmly added, pointing her finger at me for emphasis. ¡°We don¡¯t know if a random guy is hiding a secret weapon which could incapacitate or kill you. Or even if just normal guys with normal guns.¡±

    ¡°I can handle bullet wounds,¡± I said, playing the part of being inexperienced.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been shot at before? When did this happen? At Eve?¡±

    ¡°Uh-huh. During the raid everyone was shooting at everyone else. I was trying to escape but still got hit. It was no big deal. I mean, it¡¯s painful but I can handle it. The bullet wounds on my legs healed pretty quickly.¡±

    ¡°Erind,¡± said Myra, shaking her head in disapproval. ¡°Because of our new bodies, we have this sense of invincibility. We get careless. Don¡¯t belittle guns. It takes one unfortunate bullet going through the right spot in our brains to stop our powers...and that includes healing.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡¯ll keep that in mind,¡± I said. Of course, I already knew this. It did take one bullet each to kill Vanessa and Dominic. But with that, Myra would feel happy she was able to correct me. I don¡¯t know why, but correcting someone felt more fulfilling than just plain old teaching.

    ¡°You were lucky you were able to escape during the raid. Did you transform into Red Ho¡ªBlanchette? Johann mentioned there were statements from witnesses who saw you there as Blanchette.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I think it¡¯s because I was injured by an explosion. No, not the one that left a crater where Eve once was. Just that someone probably threw a grenade in my direction. I¡¯m not sure what exactly happened, but when I¡¯m severely injured, I transform into Blanchette as a defense mechanism.¡± I wanted to add ''just like that time you attacked me'', but I stopped myself because I¡¯m a big girl who¡¯s above pettiness. I could tell from Myra¡¯s expression she was expecting me to say it too. Instead, I said, ¡°And if I get severely injured as Blanchette, I transform into the wolf monster you saw at the docks.¡±

    ¡°Injury is the trigger for your power?¡± Myra said.

    ¡°I¡­I think so? I''m guessing it is.¡± I gave her partially wrong information on how my powers worked. Half-truths were always better than outright lies. ¡°But, like I said, I can¡¯t control myself as Blanchette¡­even less as the giant wolf. A total blackout.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t remember how you escaped from Eve?¡±

    I shook my head. ¡°Not one bit.¡±

    ¡°It worked out well in the end that you transformed. Your Blanchette form was able to escape.¡±

    ¡°I-I do-don¡¯t want to transform,¡± I said, shuddering. ¡°It feels like the Adumbrae is taking over¡ª¡±

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°Oh! I didn¡¯t mean it that way, my bad,¡± Myra hurriedly said. She put her hand on my shoulder. Wow, she was feeling close to me now? ¡°I may not know how you feel, but Kelsey shared with me her experiences, so I think I can say I can understand what you¡¯re going through even if just a bit. Anyway, isn¡¯t this another reason why you should try to evade all kinds of attacks?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­I guess you¡¯re right.¡±

    ¡°And since you¡¯re going to keep your distance from your enemies, you should also learn to attack from afar. They say a baseball pitcher can kill a person with a good fastball¡ªby ¡®they¡¯, I mean Reo. He told me someone died in a World Series game from getting hit with a baseball ball; not sure if that idiot was just pulling my leg. Even if his story isn¡¯t true, there¡¯s no question someone using super strength to throw a rock can kill people¡­assuming you have good aim.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± I nodded, remembering when I hurled an axe at Mr. Ogre.

    ¡°A rock, pots, soda cans from a vending machine, anything you can throw.¡±

    ¡°I did that when we fought Bob. I threw a fire extinguisher at him, and a table, and some other things too.¡±

    ¡°Good work on that one,¡± Myra said. She looked at the floor while shifting her feet. ¡°I don¡¯t think I thanked you for your help that time.¡±

    ¡°You did.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I remember you thanked me,¡± I lied with a smile. Maybe she did, but I didn¡¯t care enough to store it in my memory. ¡°Are we going to practice evading and throwing stuff? Like I¡¯ll try to evade your attacks?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going to do that later. Let¡¯s circle back first to the other important thing you should learn. Pushing the limits of your strength. Are you ready? You might¡­you¡¯ll be injured and¡ª¡±

    ¡°I can handle it.¡± I wore a determined expression. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of getting hurt, I¡¯ll be able to heal it anyway.¡±

    Myra walked over to the part of the floor I punched earlier to show her I was no longer human. She knelt beside the crack and felt the depression.

    ¡°I can punch harder than that.¡±

    ¡°Better if you try one of the pillars,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s awkward to bend down and keep punching the floor. You¡¯re not strong enough to make this building collapse, are you?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no, no. I¡¯m just the, you know, just kind of normal super strength. I don¡¯t know how to describe¡ªI can¡¯t bend a heavy-duty bike lock, if that helps.¡±

    ¡°We should be safe then.¡± Myra patted the surface the column she chose. ¡°Punching¡­I know I said to keep your distance from your enemy, but I think this is the best way to understand the concept. Once you know how to go past your limits, you can use that in throwing things too. And there are going to be times you just can¡¯t avoid fighting in close combat, so it¡¯s good to learn how to punch. Go ahead and hit this as hard as you can.¡±

    ¡°Uhm, here goes¡­¡± I balled my right hand into a tight fist, feeling the crystals on my palm grate against each other. I imitated a boxer¡¯s stance I''d seen on TV as best as I could, not sure if this helps, then swung my fist forward with all my might, twisting my body along with it.

    The surface of the pillar cracked. Small pieces of the layer of cement finish fell off along with a puff dust.

    ¡°Aw!¡± I said, cradling my elbow. ¡°I think it bent the wrong way¡­urgh¡­¡±

    ¡°I told you, you might get hurt,¡± Myra said. ¡°But I didn¡¯t think you¡¯ll hurt yourself this way. Are your fingers and knuckles fine?¡±

    ¡°My fingers are fine, it¡¯s just my elbow,¡± I said through clenched teeth. I was just overreacting for theatrics¡¯ sake. This pain was nothing; I had suffered through much, much worse.

    ¡°I¡¯ll teach you how to punch properly.¡± She explained to me the importance of punching straight to avoid injuries and also to add power and speed to my punch. Then she gave me tips how to improve my form.

    ¡°Don¡¯t flare out my elbow,¡± I said. ¡°Got it.¡±

    ¡°Yes, keep your elbows close. Don¡¯t punch like you¡¯re bench pressing.¡± She moved my body to the correct stance. ¡°Punch with your whole body, exerting force on the ground with your legs, and then rotating your body as you punch.¡±

    I giggled while holding the punching pose. ¡°You sound like a sensei.¡±

    She shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m just repeating what Dario taught me.¡± I noticed she had a slightly contemptuous tone when she said that. She gestured at the column. ¡°Go ahead and try again.¡±

    Bam!

    Fuck yeah! More cracks appeared¡ªvery satisfying. A slab of concrete finished peeled off and broke into even more pieces as it hit the floor.

    ¡°Wow,¡± I said, genuinely happy with how it turned out. I covered my nose and mouth from the dust, and also to hide a huge grin on my face. Imagine if that was a person¡¯s head? I¡¯m going to watch and copy martial arts videos tonight. ¡°How¡¯s that? It¡¯s a really huge difference punching correctly. Is that what you meant by pushing the limits? Because I had bad form earlier, I injured my elbow and wasted a lot of my strength.¡±

    Myra examined the part of the column I punched, then she checked my fingers and knuckles. ¡°No, you haven¡¯t gone past your limit yet.¡±

    ¡°But I thought¡­okay, I¡¯ll try again.¡±

    Bam!!

    Not the punch Myra was looking for.

    Bam!!!

    Still not it.

    ¡°What do I do?¡± I said, watching her feel my fingers again. The skin on my knuckles were bruised, but the wounds were healing. Streaks of my blood were on the column. ¡°I can feel each punch get stronger so I guess I wasn¡¯t pushing myself before that. But can you just tell me¡ª¡± I stared at my fingers, then remembered my injured elbow. ¡°You¡¯re checking if I punched hard enough to break my own fingers?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± she said. ¡°I was waiting for you to break them, then I¡¯ll urge you to push more.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­you weren¡¯t joking when you said I¡¯ll be injured. Let me try again.¡± I finally understood what she meant by pushing the limits of my strength. As weird as it sounded given the cracked concrete column, I was still holding back¡ªand I simply wasn¡¯t aware of it. Obviously, I didn¡¯t want to break my fingers so I was unconsciously not giving it my all, but I had the strength to punch hard enough to do it. I took a deep breath. I¡¯m going to heal afterwards, I reminded myself. Fuck this concrete column! ¡°HAAA!¡± I yelled as I punched.

    BAM!!!

    ¡°Ouch!¡± I exclaimed. ¡°That really hurts! Oh my god!¡± Again, just an overreacting for Myra¡¯s benefit, but my fingers were really fucking busted. My hand trembled. Some of my fingers were crooked. I grimaced and just gently cradled my hand. ¡°I-I¡­um, a bo-bone¡­a bone is about to go through my finger. I can feel it.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s rest first and wait for it to heal, then we continue. You''re nearly there. Look at this.¡±

    ¡°A mini-crater,¡± I said. ¡°Wow¡­and owww.¡± It was so beautiful. A small, but very noticeable cavity on the concrete column, radiating lots of cracks like the rays of the sun. It was hard to explain it, but I was weirdly proud of it. This seems like a fun thing to do.

    ¡°Hysterical strength,¡± Myra said. ¡°There are lots of stories about feats of superhuman strength from normal people in emergency situations. A mother carrying several children as she escapes their burning house. A man lifting a car up to free someone underneath. An old lady fighting off a bear. Some of them are fake, but there are those that are true¡ªthe one about the old lady is probably a hoax. But last year, a guy was on the news for ripping off a car door to save his wife from their burning car.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I recall that one. A lot of people were accusing him of being an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°He was hospitalized for torn muscles and broken bones because of what he did¡­so not an Adumbrae. But for several seconds, he seemed to have superhuman strength. The term for that is ¡®hysterical strength''. The common belief is the adrenaline rush in fight-or-flight situations boosts the body¡¯s performance, but there¡¯s no firm evidence supporting it. Adrenaline does help, but not to the level of hysterical strength. If it was that simple, it should happen more often.¡±

    ¡°So, how do I tap this hysterical strength? Does it have something to do with punching so hard that I break my fingers?¡±

    ¡°Sort of,¡± Myra replied. ¡°Dario said that the BID had research on this since they are making super-soldiers. It is supposedly more of a psychological barrier keeping us from fully tapping our strength. It¡¯s our body''s way of making sure we don¡¯t injure ourselves. Take that guy who ripped off a car door, he did have that strength all along, but if he performed at that level all the time, his body would be destroyed. However, it¡¯s not the same with us.¡±

    ¡°We can heal ourselves,¡± I said. ¡°And very quickly too.¡± I held up my injured hand and shook it. ¡°A couple more minutes and I think I¡¯m good to go again.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s really a combination of good form when fighting so we won¡¯t unnecessarily injure ourselves, like what happened to your elbow, and getting past the psychological barrier of holding back our strength. The reason there isn¡¯t much research on this is because¡­uh, how the hell do you even test this? We don¡¯t have any medicine that can heal people this fast. But the BID did test this¡ª¡±

    ¡°Because they have people with artificial Cores.¡±

    ¡°Yep. And Dario taught me that. And now I¡¯m teaching it to you. This is just the start. There will be more injuries and pain to come; you¡¯ll probably have torn muscles when pushing the limits of your throwing power. Just tell me when you¡¯re ready and we¡¯ll continue with punching. I can tell you haven¡¯t even reached your limit yet.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m good to go.¡±

    Cue in training montage music from the 80s.

 4.18

    There is no pain.

    BAM!

    ¡°Er-Erind¡­?¡±

    BAM!!

    ¡°Erind, that¡¯s enough,¡± Myra said, her voice raised a notch.

    BAM! BAM!!!

    ¡°Erind? Erind! Stop now!¡±

    I held my punch mid-way and pulled back my hand close to my chest. ¡°W-why?¡± I blurted. My breathing was harried, my vision blurry at the edges. I didn¡¯t know why. ¡°I can¡­I can still continue. I need to¡­practice¡ª¡±

    I noticed my hand was shuddering uncontrollably. Patches of discolored skin covered my arm, a camouflage pattern but in violet and red. My fingers looked like they were jammed inside a meat grinder, the skin shredded away revealing sore bleeding flesh¡ªor what was left of it still clinging to my bones.

    Huh? I could no longer clench my fist. I couldn¡¯t even feel my hand¡­my arm¡­or the right side of my upper body.

    Then I stared up at the column I was punching, and gasped. I did this?

    I couldn¡¯t believe the damage I caused, seeing it clearly only for the first time. Huge chunks of concrete, as large as my head or even bigger, had broken off the column as if a demolition team with sledgehammers were hired to dismantle it. There were places where the steel rebars reinforcing it were exposed, some of which were bent. It was like my fingers where the flesh had fallen off the bones.

    ¡°It¡¯s fair then?¡± I mumbled while giggling, my woozy mind peculiarly giddy.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Myra whispered with worry. She cautiously approached me. ¡°I mean, obviously you¡¯re not. Your hand¡ª¡±

    ¡°Is¡­is that all my blood?¡± The debris had crimson splattered all over, reminding of a school project I had in elementary where we made colorful pictures using a toothbrush to flick watercolor onto sheets of paper. ¡°Just like a painting,¡± I mumbled, weakly grinning.

    ¡°What are you talking about? Erind, can you hear me?¡±

    Due to tiredness, my head drooped down. I noticed the small puddle of red between my feet, slowly expanding as more blood dripped from my hand to the floor. ¡°Look, my blood¡¯s here too¡­hehehe.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re in shock! Erind!¡±

    ¡°Myra¡­my hand doesn¡¯t look¡­correct.¡± The tsunami of agony came crushing down all at once. I fell on my knees, kneeling on my own blood, and bent my upper body down to instinctively hide my severely injured arm. ¡°Ow, ow, owfssh¡ª¡± I bit my tongue and continued inside my head. Shitfuckshitfuckinghell it hurts! It fucking hurts goddamnit! A couple drops of tears rolled down the sides of my eyes as I tightly closed it.

    ¡°Erind! Shi¡ªwhat do I do?¡± Panic was evident in Myra¡¯s voice. I felt her hands shaking me as if that was going to make things better. She gently pushed me to my side, away from the pool of blood. ¡°Lie down, okay? Just, just lie down and rest.¡±

    I curled up like a baby while hugging my arm. I breathed through my teeth as I forced myself to gradually get used to the pain. ¡°Ow, ow, ow,¡± I continued saying to stop myself from cussing the world.

    ¡°Erind, I¡¯m really sorry,¡± she said. ¡°I should¡¯ve stopped you before it got worse.¡± I felt her attempt to hug me, then she released me and ended up just patting my shoulder. ¡°Just concentrate on healing, you hear me? Listen to my voice. Don¡¯t think about it.¡±

    ¡°Ugh,¡± I moaned. ¡°Painful¡­¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t bend it that way.¡± She pulled out my arm I was hiding and laid it straight over my side. ¡°Just relax and wait for it to heal,¡± she said in a soothing voice.

    ¡°Okay¡­hurts so much.¡± And it did. But I was exaggerating my reaction. I could keep my mouth shut and suffer in silence even if someone cut off my arm even back when I was still a normal human¡ªnot that it had happened to me, but I was sure I could endure the pain. I did handle it pretty well when Myra skewered my stomach. I was dying, but I wasn¡¯t squealing like a little bitch.

    After becoming an Adumbrae, I also suffered much worse than this. I got beaten to a pulp by Mr. Ogre in the arena. As a giant werewolf, I squeezed myself through the tunnels, not minding chunks of my flesh getting ripped off because I was too huge. And I was barbequed while escaping the explosion caused by the BID agents, and crawled out of a cave-in in my human form.

    This is nothing.

    ¡°A few minutes and it will start to get better,¡± said Myra. ¡°I¡¯m really, really sorry I didn¡¯t do anything earlier. I should¡¯ve stopped you. But I saw you were close to tapping your hysterical strength, that¡¯s why I hesitated.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s...fine,¡± I said, each word punctuated by belabored coughs. The pain was starting to become more bearable, but I still acted like I was paralyzed by the agony. Such a drama queen.

    ¡°I¡¯m checking your bones, okay?¡± She cautiously poked my arm. I winced. ¡°Oops, sorry. Bear with me for a bit.¡± I groaned while she gingerly squeezed my arm. She kept on apologizing as she examined me. Satisfied with whatever she was checking, she said, ¡°You fractured your forearm. These red bruises under your skin are signs of internal bleeding. I don¡¯t think this happened because your form was bad; it was quite decent. You were punching straight, otherwise your injury would be with joints, like your elbow or shoulder. This is actually very good.¡±

    I opened my eyes, blinking away the haziness. Then I raised a brow at her. She still looked very blurry to me.

    ¡°Ah, no! It¡¯s not good,¡± she corrected herself. ¡°You¡¯re injured and¡­that¡¯s bad. I mean it¡¯s good because you were able to push past your limits and use your hysterical strength.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I did it?¡± My arm was healing, the red parts were fading. Flesh and skin had mostly covered the bones on my hands.

    ¡°I think so, yep. Fracturing your forearm bones is the sign of that; Dario explained it to me before. Breaking the bones of your fingers is natural because you¡¯re punching something very hard, way harder than you. The forearm is different. If you put your forearm on the table and hit it with a hammer, then yeah, you¡¯ll break the bones. But if you apply pressure from the ends, like punching, then it takes a lot of force to break it. And since you were able to break it, that means you were able to tap your hysterical strength.¡±

    ¡°Hurray,¡± I muttered, giving her a weak smile.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you were able to do it this fast. Really impressive. You were like laser-focused punching the column that I was honestly kind of scared to stop you. None of us were able to do it in¡ª¡± She checked her watch. ¡°That took like fifteen minutes. And for the last five minutes, you were just non-stop punching the column. How did you do that, just turning off feeling pain like a switch?¡±

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    That got my attention. Not the attaining hysterical strength part, although that was cool and all, but the part that I progressed differently from them. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I just thought really hard¡­to punch really hard.¡±

    ¡°It can¡¯t be as easy as that,¡± she said. ¡°I needed several practice sessions to be comfortable, not sure if that¡¯s the right word, with breaking my fingers with each punch. And it took me double that time, probably even longer, to break my forearm bones because I couldn¡¯t accept the thought of intentionally injuring myself. I didn¡¯t try it anymore after managing to do it once. You, on the other hand¡­your focus is insane.¡±

    My left cheek twitched. ¡°Must be because of law school. Need to really focus studying and all that.¡±

    ¡°Eh? I study very hard at Melchor too. Maybe you¡¯re the type of person who zones out everything when doing a specific thing? I think I can do that when studying if I pushed myself, nothing to it. But it¡¯s very different with this training. I suppose we are breaking a psychological barrier, that¡¯s why it¡¯s so unsettling to do it. But you¡¯re different. Just wow.¡±

    Different is bad.

    Erind, a first-year law student at the prestigious Cresthorne College of Law, was just a normal person. She didn¡¯t make any waves besides the occasional ripple on the social pond, she didn¡¯t stand out in a crowd, and was a bit on the timid side. Very far from different.

    Still, I wasn¡¯t concerned I may violate Rule #7¡ª Don¡¯t do anything that would break the character of the face I have on¡ªbecause I already took into account that I might act differently in this situation. This was my first time knowing about hysterical strength and the psychological barrier connected to it, and I had no idea how others behaved when it came to this, so I already prepared a sort of ¡°catch-all¡± excuse to explain any deviation from the norm.

    There was an Adumbrae inside of me. Simple as that.

    I learned to do this even before Rule #7 was established. When I was a little girl, I didn¡¯t attend birthday parties of other kids because kids were irrational selfish little shits. I much prefer the parties and other social gatherings of adults because I was entertained watching them interact with each other. This hadn¡¯t gone unnoticed, and Mom was eventually able to force me to go to the birthday party of Callie. I knew I was different from other kids and, even though my kiddie brain couldn¡¯t form a concrete explanation yet, I also knew being different was bad. So, I made an excuse that I was really nervous. Any weird shit I did during that party I¡¯d just chuck to being nervous.

    Rule #7 was made soon after that, and since then, whenever I knew I was getting into a situation where I didn¡¯t know how people would normally react, I have an explanation already prepared.

    ¡°I¡­I didn¡¯t know what came over me.¡± I held up my still shaking right arm. ¡°After some point, I couldn¡¯t feel any pain. It¡¯s like something inside me took over.¡±

    ¡°What did you say?¡± Myra said, her brows furrowed in concern as she understood what I implied. ¡°I''m not sure if we should continue this.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of getting hurt. I already told you I¡¯m prep¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not what I mean,¡± she cut in. ¡°I was thinking that maybe¡­maybe¡­¡± She scratched the back of her head while glancing to the side. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how to say¡ª¡±

    ¡°The Adumbrae is taking root inside me and changing how I act.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not¡ª! I-I mean, yeah, kinda like that. I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    ¡°Why are you apologizing? You¡¯re probably right.¡± There was a small chance she could be, but it was likelier she wasn¡¯t. SpookyErind didn¡¯t seem to want to directly influence me but rather enjoy the show as I struggled; she could be having fun right now.

    ¡°Maybe we should stop trying this.¡±

    ¡°No! This just means I have to fight back the Adumbrae inside me. I have to do this. I have to get stronger and learn how to fight to survive. I don¡¯t have anyone protecting me like the 2Ms protect their clients. I¡¯m all alone.¡±

    ¡°Uh, you got me and Johann. We don¡¯t really count much, but we¡¯ll help you.¡±

    ¡°Thanks.¡± I smiled at her. How sweet, I thought sarcastically. ¡°Can you tell me how it went for you? Practicing for hysterical strength I mean.¡±

    ¡°Sure, but there¡¯s nothing much to say.¡± Myra deflated with a relieved sigh when I changed the topic. ¡°Just a whole lot of punching. We may have these superhuman bodies, but it feels so weird, not to mention painful as hell, to practice tapping our hysterical strength.¡±

    While Myra shared her story, I thought about how normal people processed pain. I may be way off the mark here, but I think my kind had higher tolerance for pain. Or perhaps we processed pain differently and therefore had an easier time ignoring it than others.

    My mind wandered back to after I escaped the burning Sanders mall and went home to my condo. I didn¡¯t have any hesitation trying to dig out the crystal on my palm with a knife even if I didn¡¯t have any idea about my regeneration ability at that time.

    I also remembered when I was cheerleading in highschool that I had my fair share of injuries too. I had an especially nasty fall because the dumb bitch Janiza was talking to her boyfriend on the stands while we were practicing a pyramid. I fell from the top of the stack, tried to break my fall, and ended up with a severely dislocated shoulder¡ªmy loose shoulder joints made it worse. I was so angry at her, and so focused on controlling myself that I wouldn¡¯t strangle her neck, that I seriously forgot about the pain until the nurse reminded me I was injured.

    Maybe there¡¯s really something to this?

    ¡°And you see,¡± Myra said, ¡°that¡¯s why it¡¯s so difficult to do this. Everett took way longer than me to tap his hysterical strength."

    I went on auto-pilot mode, giving appropriate responses to Myra¡¯s story as I kept on thinking how I should react to pain.

    I knew there were women¡ªprobably my kind¡ªwho had no problem injuring themselves, sometimes severely, to frame guys for this shit or that. I did look up stuff about it when I was dangerously close to doing something like that myself¡ªduring my undergrad days, a guy pissed me off because he was a useless piece of shit in a project that was a huge chunk of our grade in a major subject that I seriously contemplated framing him as a violent stalker.

    Thankfully, I thought about it for a week, and promptly forgot about being angry at that guy. I just anonymously reported him to the professor that he wasn''t doing any work, and that was the end of that. Getting him arrested was probably not covered by Rule #4 and would take a huge amount of effort to pull off.

    ¡°And Reo just sucks,¡± said Myra, heartily laughing. I laughed along with her even though I was barely listening to what she was talking about. ¡°Reo, that big baby, gave up after breaking his fingers a couple of times. He did make a good point that he¡¯ll just be hiding and summoning, so we didn¡¯t pressure him to keep on practicing.¡±

    ¡°So¡­¡± I looked over my arm. ¡°I¡¯m ready to go again. Should we continue?¡±

    ¡°What? You want to continue?¡± She shook her head. ¡°That¡¯s enough for the day. It must be mentally exhausting to do this for you, to just like turn off feeling pain.¡±

    ¡°Oh, okay then. Enough of hysterical strength. How about evading or throwing stuff? When do I get to practice those?¡±

    ¡°Some other day. You should take a rest now.¡± She nodded down at my body. ¡°Maybe next time, you can bring extra clothes.¡±

    ¡°Ugh, yeah.¡± My clothes were dirty. There were also red spots from my blood flying everywhere each time I punched. Blood were on my jeans from when I knelt down. ¡°I should go back to Deen¡¯s house before she returns so I can wash this off.¡±

    ¡°Good idea.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we can return here tomorrow?¡± I was genuinely having fun with this. ¡°Practice those other things you mentioned.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see. We still have our mission later, and we might all be in jail by tomorrow if it doesn¡¯t work out well.¡±

    ¡°Oh right, that. I don¡¯t really have a part in it besides keeping an eye on the activities of the protesters. Good luck to you guys though, I hope nothing bad happens.¡±

    ¡°Thanks. Deen will be with us, and that makes everything so much safer. If all goes as planned, then we can practice tomorrow. I¡¯m not sure what to teach you though.¡±

    ¡°How about those martial arts stuff Dario did when you sparred with each other? I know you said to evade, but maybe I could do something like it?¡±

    ¡°He wasn¡¯t blocking my attacks but redirecting it. I don¡¯t know how to do that. Even if I did, I still advise against doing it in actual combat. Same thing that I taught you applies: you don¡¯t know how much stronger your enemy is. Fancy karate moves won¡¯t work against Stella or Bob. Anyway, I¡¯ll think about what we¡¯ll do tomorrow, but for now let¡¯s focus on our mission."

    "Okay then."

    "Want me to drive you home? You might get funny stares on the train wearing clothes covered with dust and blood.¡±

    ¡°Yes, please,¡± I said, feeling a tiny bit of excitement to go home and search up martial arts videos online to study. And I rarely get excited. Learning new things is fun.

 4.19 - Ramello Staten/ Myra Fletcher (Barb)/ Amber Deen

    Ramello Staten

    Ramello Staten tapped his pen on the page of his notebook as he listened to Detective Jacobin Castan on the phone.

    ¡°Lt. Hall is out of commission,¡± said the young detective who has helped his uncle in his crusade against the Mark and Marcy criminal organization, ¡°but if he isn¡¯t, he¡¯ll also tell you to stop what you¡¯re doing. They got to you, and they can do¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know that!¡± Ramello snapped in a raised voice. ¡°Uh, I¡­I¡¯m sorry, Jacob. I¡¯m just on edge these days. But if Uncle Jerry is awake, I¡¯m sure he won¡¯t let this slide either.¡±

    ¡°He won¡¯t. He also wouldn¡¯t want you to snoop around on your own. You¡¯re putting yourself in danger.¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t just let them get away with this.¡±

    ¡°Well, they aren¡¯t, okay? Just relax. The BID is on their case. They¡¯re on the ropes now. It¡¯s only a matter of time. They still have plenty of their cronies in the police and in city hall, so we should all be careful. Me and Linette, we¡¯re already doing our own digging around¡ªdiscreetly, of course. Let¡¯s just wait for LT to wake up.¡±

    ¡°I¡­you¡¯re right,¡± Ramello replied, making up his mind not to pay heed to Castan¡¯s words and continue with what he was doing. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ll visit Uncle later. I just have an appointment now. My foundation is helping clean up Fournier Area. The city still hasn¡¯t sent people to clean the debris from the shockwave of the explosion.¡±

    ¡°You just focus on that. LT will be proud.¡±

    Ramello leaned back in his chair while rereading his notes, as if the new position would provide a different perspective of analysis. He had everything in this little notebook, everything he has uncovered so far in his investigations. The missing security camera footages from the train station the day he was kidnapped and beaten up, the lack of witnesses, the lack of any updates to his case, the police stonewalling him.

    He would¡¯ve chucked it all up to bureaucracy if the circumstances weren¡¯t so suspicious.

    And all of this seemed connected to the Adumbrae wearing a red hood.

    He closed his notebook when he saw a couple enter the caf¨¦. A woman in a goth getup with several piercings, and a man in a coat and tie but also with amulets hanging from his neck. Two of the people from the SVS video, they were here. He waved at them.

    ¡°Are you Ramello Staten?¡± inquired the woman. She compared him with a picture on her phone. ¡°You seem to be him. My name is Reginus. Not my actual name. I won¡¯t hold it against you if you try to search for my real name. Or maybe you already know if you¡¯re working with the cops.¡±

    ¡°Reginus! Be more open-minded, will you?¡± said the man. He bowed to Ramello. ¡°Apologies for that, Mr. Staten. It¡¯s hard to trust people nowadays. You can call me Mercator, also not my real name.¡±

    ¡°I know where you¡¯re coming from,¡± was Ramello¡¯s honest reply. ¡°I understand if you¡¯re suspicious of me. Have a seat.¡±

    Reginus placed a small orb, the size of a ping pong ball, in the middle of the table. It appeared to be made of iron with various symbols roughly carved on its surface. ¡°An All-Seeing Eye,¡± Reginus explained, which only made Ramello confused. ¡°It will tell me when you¡¯re telling lies.¡±

    Ramello was starting to doubt reaching out to this group, but he forced himself to ignore their peculiar antics. ¡°Sure, go ahead. You can also pat me down if you want.¡±

    ¡°No, no, that¡¯s not necessary,¡± Mercator said. ¡°We checked your background¡ªI hope you don¡¯t find that offensive¡ªand concluded the police won¡¯t use someone like you to be an undercover agent to spy on our group.¡±

    ¡°You guys concluded that,¡± Reginus hissed at her partner, closing her fist on the All-Seeing Eye. ¡°I still don¡¯t trust this guy.¡± She turned to Ramello and whispered furiously, ¡°In your message, you said you have met Red Hood before. But there¡¯s no news about it. Zero! How do you expect me to believe that? I got my meeting on video¡­on the news.¡±

    Ramello held up his hands. ¡°Calm down and I¡¯ll explain. Meeting Red Hood¡­I can¡¯t remember much. Wait! Before you react, I¡¯m saying I can¡¯t remember because I was badly beaten up that time.¡± He pointed to his bandages and also pulled up his shirt to reveal traces of his injuries.

    ¡°Are you saying Red Hood beat you up? That can¡¯t be. She¡¯s a good Adumbrae. We shouldn¡¯t have come¡ª¡±

    ¡°Red Hood saved me.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°The criminals the BID was hunting in this city? The cause of the explosion? They¡¯re the ones who beat me up; that was a few days before the explosion happened. And as I lay on the floor barely conscious, Red Hood came to save me. Or perhaps she came to fight them, but she saved me in the process.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why would they beat you up? And why would Red Hood save you?¡±

    ¡°My uncle, Lt. Jeremiah Hall of the LEPD, he¡¯s investigating these criminals. They obviously hurt me as a warning to him. That¡¯s all I know. I don¡¯t know why Red Hood saved me.¡±

    ¡°Lt. Jeremiah Hall¡­sounds familiar,¡± Mercator said. ¡°Isn¡¯t he one of the cops injured during Red Hood¡¯s escape from Serenade Bazaar?¡±

    ¡°You want to catch her and take revenge!¡± Reginus exclaimed. Luckily, the caf¨¦ was mostly empty. The woman typing on her laptop by the window gave them an annoyed glance. The cashier just continued staring at the TV.

    ¡°Reginus, keep it down. Let¡¯s hear what he has to say first.¡±

    ¡°Red Hood saved my life, but also put Lt. Hall in the hospital. I want to meet her and find the truth.¡±

    ¡°The truth?¡±

    ¡°The truth,¡± Ramello repeated. Then he opened his notebook to tell his story.

    <hr>

    Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    Myra Fletcher gave Erind a sidelong glance while the latter was calling Deen to check if she already went home. Other than her clothes covered in dirt and bloodstains, Erind appeared normal¡ªno difference whatsoever with the Erind she first met at Melchor Hall the day Kelsey disappeared.

    ¡°Yeah, the signal is better now,¡± said Erind on the phone. She paused as Deen responded with something Myra couldn¡¯t hear, to which she replied, ¡°Are you still at Cresthorne? I¡¯m going home now. I¡¯ll just wait for you before ordering dinner.¡±

    Who are you? Myra thought, her eyes narrowed.

    ¡°We can have food delivered,¡± Erind said. ¡°How about pizza? Or burgers?¡± she laughed, obviously teasing Deen with the fastfood options. ¡°You don¡¯t like those? Why not?¡± She spoke nonchalantly as if she didn¡¯t destroy her arm less than half an hour ago with absolutely no hesitation.

    Myra leaned forward to get a better view of Erind¡¯s right arm resting on her lap. It seemed to have mostly healed, the skin on the arm a healthy pale pink; there was still scarring on the fingers. Erind noticed her stare and grinned, pointing at the phone, assuming that Myra also thought her fastfood joke was funny.

    Are you still Erind?

    ¡°I can cook dinner too,¡± she told Deen. ¡°We can buy groceries at that small convenience store, um, I forgot the name. The one a block away from the park? That should be fun.¡±

    Or is this already the Adumbrae controlling you?

    The horrifying memory of Erind in a trance-like state, continuously smashing her fist against concrete, was fresh in Myra¡¯s mind. Debris, flesh, blood flying everywhere. Erind not even uttering a sound as her arm slowly got more and more injured with each punch. It reminded her a bit of Bob who didn¡¯t show any reaction to her attacks.

    How¡­how could anyone do that?

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    And it was only Erind¡¯s first time, yet she wasn¡¯t affected at all by the ordeal. Myra herself needed a couple of hours to zone out after her first session because she was overwhelmed with intentionally inflicting injury on her body.

    ¡°I¡¯m on my way home,¡± Erind said. ¡°Er, I mean your house. It¡¯s my home now too?¡± More laughter and inside jokes between her and Deen. ¡°I¡¯m going to take the train and maybe ride a taxi from the station. It¡¯s too hot to walk from the bus stop. See you later. Buh-bye.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s still at univ?¡±

    ¡°Yep. And since we have time, can we pass by the Podium? I just need to buy something quick.¡± Erind explained her made-up story to Deen about getting new glasses.

    ¡°So that was what you guys were talking about an eye exam. Isn¡¯t that going to take awhile? And you¡¯ll wait for the glasses too.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just going to buy at the department store.¡±

    ¡°Nonprescription ones? Is that what you¡¯ll buy? I suppose they have those at the Podium. I thought you had prescription glasses.¡±

    ¡°I did use prescription glasses before. But I no longer need them.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? Like your vision is¡ªoh, I see¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes, my vision was cured when I became a¡­you know.¡± Erind sighed. ¡°One of the small advantages¡­but I still prefer being a normal human with blurry eyesight.¡±

    Myra gritted her teeth. She hated it when pangs of guilt hit her. ¡°Mom¡­um, I mean our aunt who took care of us, not my actual mom who I don''t call ''Mom'', she uses reading glasses because she can¡¯t read fine print anymore.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll buy fashion eyeglasses. Reading glasses strains my eyes if I wear them constantly.¡±

    ¡°Ah, okay.¡± Myra chewed her tongue. How do I keep the conversation going? Unable to think of a good topic that didn¡¯t involve Adumbrae or Corebrings, she just settled with turning on the music to cover the awkward silence.

    Am I hastening Erind¡¯s infection?

    Myra was starting to see hints of the Adumbrae in Erind. Surely, it was a result of practicing how to attain hysterical strength. It was such an alien concept to the normal human psyche that it could have negative effects on Erind¡¯s mind, making it easier for the Adumbrae to take over her.

    But I also want¡­need¡­Erind to get stronger.

    If this was what it took to get her sister back, then so be it!

    Even better if Erind was able to control her Blanchette form. It would be a great asset when they were going to inevitably fight Dario and the secret organization he was working for head-on. How should she go about convincing Erind to practice controlling her powers?

    Maybe she could push further and make her transform into the giant wolf mons¡ª

    ¡°Myra?¡±

    ¡°Uh, what¡¯s up? We¡¯re near the Podium. Or do you want to go somewhere else to buy your glasses?¡±

    ¡°I was thinking¡­¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    ¡°Why do we, I mean you guys, have to break in the hospital and find Julie? There¡¯s no need to wipe her memory, is there? They¡¯ll protect us anyway¡­they¡­whoever they are.¡±

    ¡°It did cross my mind,¡± Myra said. ¡°And I think Dario is doing this to keep up his story that we¡¯re just a ragtag band of vigilantes working with a sole scientist. If we succeed, then less work for them.¡±

    Erind clicked her tongue. ¡°Theatrics, huh?¡±

    ¡°Theatrics. For all we know, Julie has already spilled the beans about you, and the cover up is already underway. But we still have to do this so Dario won¡¯t suspect we know something¡¯s wrong.¡±

    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s true.¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t make it any less dangerous. The police or the BID could still kill us if we make a mistake.¡±

    Erind sighed. ¡°Yeah¡­¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s focus on shopping for your glasses!¡± It may look like she was distracting Erind from depressive thoughts, but she was also distracting herself from feeling guilty for¡­for everything bad that happened to Erind. And she was using her now to boot. I should be nice with her. ¡°Grab that Melchor sweater and tie it around your waist. It should be long enough to cover the blood on your jeans. And I have an extra shirt here that you can wear. It¡¯s going to be weird walking around the store with bloodstains on you.¡±

    <hr>

    Amber Deen

    Is this Erind?

    Amber Deen stopped reading the 2010 issue of Allure she took from under the coffee table of their living room when she heard the sound of an incoming car. She peeked over the magazine, hoping that it was finally her best friend.

    Fashion articles from more than a decade ago were mildly entertaining, but she had been sitting here for more than fifteen minutes and it was getting uncomfortably hot. The balding tree beside the wrought-iron bench she sat on provided next to no shade. Her sister¡¯s hoodie that she wore to hide her hair and face¡ªone that Erind hadn¡¯t seen before¡ªwas making her sweat like a¡­she stopped her thought, remembering that Adrian had told her a trivia about pigs being incapable of sweating.

    From the edge of Green Meadows, she observed the car climbing the winding road up Poblacion Verde Hills. It wasn¡¯t a taxi. It was a red Rolls Royce Wraith. Erind could¡¯ve used a ride-hailing app like Jaunts, but Deen was certain she wasn¡¯t in this car even if the windows were heavily tinted. Jaunts with a Rolls Royce in their fleet? There was no way. In fact, she recognized this particular car. She had seen the son of one of the committee members of the Homeowners¡¯ Association drive it.

    The moment Erind told her over the phone she was coming, Deen decided to stake out the road going to their house. She was curious if Erind was alone or with someone else, perhaps Myra or Johann¡­or maybe some other people were trying to get close to her, to trick her, to take advantage of her.

    And what if those people were Adumbrae?

    No one is going to hurt Erind!

    That was a promise.

    How about Madame Blanchette?

    Deen hadn¡¯t thought of her before. She pondered how Madame Blanchette figured into everything, and whether she was going to be friend or foe the next time they met. Did the mysterious Adumbrae have something to do with Erind getting infected? Or was she trying to stop the 2Ms from doing something to Erind?

    What if she came to take Erind? Logically speaking, wasn¡¯t her best friend better off with Madame Blanchette since they were both Adumbrae? The latter seemed to be a good person¡­as good as an Adumbrae could be. And Deen did team up with her in the Eve arena.

    Still¡­Deen wasn¡¯t so sure she was going to give Erind up to anyone.

    She was navigating her thoughts about Madame Blanchette when a familiar car came into view. ¡°That¡¯s Myra¡¯s, right?¡± she mumbled to herself with a raised brow. She had seen that same car parked at the Tulip¡¯s Nook during their lunch meeting, and also at Cindy¡¯s the day before.

    Yes, I¡¯m sure it¡¯s Myra¡¯s car.

    She tried to get a glimpse of its occupants while keeping the magazine up to cover the lower half of her face. The petite woman riding the passenger¡¯s seat had long black hair. Could be Erind, could be any other woman with black hair¡ªshe was too far away to confirm. The driver, however, had striking blue hair.

    Definitely Myra.

    Deen walked back to her own car parked on the side of the park, opposite of the road to Poblacion Verde. After getting inside, she turned on the air condition, took off the sweatshirt, and stared at a couple of children playing Frisbee with their golden retriever.

    So, they¡¯re together.

    The barking of the dog snapped her out of her reverie. She texted Erind, ¡°I¡¯m on my way home.¡±

    But she didn¡¯t drive just yet; it was too soon, too suspicious. She watched the people at the park for another five minutes while waiting for her sweat to dry. Then she reapplied her make-up to look like she had just been from school. She also had donned the clothes she wore when she and Erind left the house this morning.

    ¡°Time to meet Erind.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°So classes were cancelled because of that incident?¡± Erind asked after Deen explained why she went home early¡ªa partially tweaked version of the true events. ¡°I suppose it¡¯s better to just stay home nowadays if we don¡¯t have anything important to do outside.¡± She was sitting on a couch watching TV. The pedestal fan in the living room was pointed at her wet hair.

    She took a shower? But Erind went just to the mall, why would she need to shower? It was such a hassle to dry long hair. Deen didn¡¯t point it out, instead saying, ¡°Don¡¯t forget we do need to go out later. Our mission, remember?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just a lookout. It''s you guys who will be crawling in the midst of police and BID agents. Be careful later, okay?¡±

    ¡°I have my Guardian Angel with me; it never failed me so far. By the way, how was your eye exam?¡±

    ¡°Nothing much to it.¡± She tapped the eyeglasses she wore. ¡°I got a rose gold frame. What do you think of it?¡±

    ¡°It looks cute. Can I see it?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­no¡­It might make your head hurt if you try it on.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not, I¡¯ll just¡ª"

    ¡°And I¡¯m a bit iffy with letting other people touch my glasses. I¡¯m not a germaphobe or anything like that; I don¡¯t think your hands are dirty either. Not sure why, but I¡¯m just weirded out with other people touching my glasses. Kinda like with my toothbrush.¡±

    ¡°I get you, I get you,¡± Deen said, even though she didn¡¯t, laughing so that Erind wouldn¡¯t think she was particularly interested with the glasses. She¡¯d try to find a way to check them later if they were prescription or not. ¡°Anyway, what is that humming sound? The washing machines?¡±

    ¡°Oh! I¡¯m washing my clothes. There was this annoying guy who bumped into me at the mall. Spilled fruit shake down my front. It¡¯s so embarrassing to ride the train with a huge stain on my shirt.¡±

    ¡°Is that why you took a shower?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it was so sticky.¡±

    Deen blinked. Erind was prepared with all these lies. She¡¯s this committed to hiding her secrets from me? ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll take a shower too. Freshen up before our mission later. And a hot shower will calm my nerves.¡± She waved goodbye to Erind as she walked to the stairs, but she didn¡¯t go up to the next floor, swerving instead to the laundry room to have a peek at what Erind was washing. I¡¯m sure she won¡¯t mind, she thought, intending to look for clues as to what Erind and Myra were up to.

 4.20

    ¡°For self-defense,¡± barked the overly upbeat, brawny instructor in the video I was watching, ¡°better use low kicks. These are much harder to block compared to high kicks. And while you¡¯re at it, you can also put your attacker off-balance by sweeping their legs. All of that, and more, coming up in this episode¡­¡±

    I flinched when the intro music blared out of my earphones. ¡°Fucking hell,¡± I murmured, my voice muffled by my face mask.

    I had time to splurge on random stuff, just hanging out in this rundown pub tucked away in an unassuming side street that branched off Marshall Avenue, about twenty minutes of brisk walking away from the hospital because Deen wanted me to be as safe as possible, waiting for the hero wannabes to wipe Julie¡¯s memories. Instead of watching movies¡ªand it had been a long time since I just sat down and ate pizza while having a movie marathon¡ªI decided to use my time effectively and learn how to fight.

    I was excited to check out kicking tutorials after my teensy-weensy experience in punching.

    Even for an absolute novice in fighting like me, it was obvious kicks were way more powerful than punches; they have longer range too. And most importantly, they looked cool as fuck, especially those flying kicks in kung fu movies. I know those are just stunts, with wires and stuff, but with my superhuman body, I bet I could do those sick moves if I practiced hard enough.

    Erind, your goal is not to do a flying kick, I sternly reminded myself.

    After hopping from one random internet video to the next for the last ten minutes¡ªyeah, very reputable source materials, I know¡ªI came to learn that kicks weren¡¯t really advisable in like a serious fight, or I guess street fight was the appropriate term. It was too slow and could easily put me off-balance. Low kicks though seemed to be pretty useful.

    This could be the reason the taekwondo varsity members back in high school rarely did those fancy kicks when they sparred. When us cheerleaders practiced at the gym, the taekwondo team was often also there, doing their own thing in an area that was sort of modified into a makeshift dojo with tatami mats laid on the floor.

    I sometimes watched them, amazed that they could kick higher than their height. Some of them were more flexible than me, and I was pretty flexible¡ªwas; now, I wouldn¡¯t dare try to split. I observed they used mostly low kicks when fighting with each other even though they were more than capable of other types of kicks.

    Well, now I know.

    The instructor guy was demonstrating a foot sweep. It didn¡¯t need much power but mainly focused on speed to put the enemy off-balance. Hard to guard against because it was unexpected, and a quick way to take down someone. I was warming up to this move. Once my enemy was on the ground, I could make a run for it or¡­stay around and bash his head in.

    Plenty of options.

    ¡°Note I¡¯m sweeping at an angle,¡± Instructor guy said, repeating the, I guess it was a low kick of sorts¡ªan ¡®outside sweep¡¯¡ªin slow motion on his demo partner. ¡°I¡¯m hitting the front leg of Dennis¡ªsee that my kick is connecting at ankle level¡ªbringing it to the back leg. And there,¡± he said, executing the move, bringing Dennis down, ¡°swept both feet off the ground. Thank you for the help, Dennis.¡± He clasped hands with his partner and pulled him off the floor.

    ¡°I can probably do that,¡± I whispered to myself. It was way easier than those over-the-head kicks, and seemed more practical too.

    I recalled a move like this when I took judo as my PE class for one semester in college. Too bad I didn¡¯t really pay attention back then because I hated that class. Since I was one of the smallest girls, I was used by the other girls as the test dummy when they wanted to practice a move. They just wanted someone easy to throw without actually doing a technique properly. Fuck those annoying bitches.

    ¡°Guys, note it¡¯s not just the feet.¡± Instructor guy swayed his partner to the left and right like they were dancing. ¡°Both arms and feet work together to take down your opponent. If Dennis here just¡ªDennis, can you stand straight? See, if he stands straight, and I did this, I end up the one off-balanced. So, you should coordinate pulling your opponent with sweeping their feet.¡±

    I nodded. Makes sense. Or I could also wait for my opponent to move, like step forward or something, then hook his feet.

    It all sounded good in theory, but just watching videos wasn¡¯t enough. I should try to practice this on someone; I couldn¡¯t exactly sweep a concrete column off its feet¡ªthe lack of actual feet being the hardest obstacle, I thought sarcastically. Perhaps I could convince Myra to spar with me? She told me I should avoid fighting head-on, but this sweep thingy seemed a good defensive move to learn.

    I scrolled through the comments section of the video to see if I could learn helpful inputs.

    I didn¡¯t¡­figures. It was just full of people bragging they could do better moves, or pointing this or that as the mistake of the instructor guy. Everyone¡¯s an expert on the internet, I guess.

    ¡°Just kick him in the balls,¡± I read one comment, snorting through my mask. Well, that was unironically good advice compared to the other comments. What if I did kick a guy¡¯s junk? I vaguely recalled hearing that a man died due to a kick in the balls. Whether that was true or just an urban legend, I positively could kill someone with a super strength kick to the nuts.

    Scrambled eggs, I mused, giggling. Okay, I knew I was being immature, but I just couldn¡¯t help myself. The image of a super powered groin kick got stuck in my head.

    I looked around for anything that would distract me from my stupid juvenile humor, and noticed my untouched drink¡ªa cucumber lemon mocktail.

    When I ordered this drink, the bartender gave me a weirded out, almost condescending look. From his appearance, and that of this little bar, I wasn¡¯t even sure if he has made a non-alcoholic drink in the last decade. I was half-expecting him not to know what a mocktail was.

    I turned to the window and pulled my mask up just a bit so that I can sip from the straw.

    Wow! This actually tasted great.

    I fixed my mask and turned to the counter, spotting the bartender glancing in my direction, checking my reaction. I gave him a thumbs up and he nodded at me in return with a smug smile on his face. There were only two other customers beside me: a guy passed out drunk in one booth, his head hidden by empty bottles; and another guy at the counter chatting with the bartender.

    The TV above the right side of the wine cabinet had its volume turned up, perhaps to make the place livelier than it was. I bet this bar was packed if there weren''t stupid stuff going on lately.

    I turned away from the three of them, facing the window again so I could enjoy my mocktail without revealing my face. The windows were covered by thick, dusty curtains, so no one could see me from the outside too.

    All in all, an unexpectedly cozy spot to pass the time. I hadn¡¯t been to a place like this before. Another new experience; I had plenty of those the past three weeks.

    Deen, on the other hand, didn¡¯t like this bar and was reluctant leaving me here. But we had no choice because we couldn¡¯t find any other shop or store where I could stay while waiting for them. Most of the establishments along Marshall Avenue and the surrounding streets had closed down because of the violence of the protests, with riots and looting wrecking many businesses in this area. We were actually surprised to find a bar open here.

    My guess was the owner thought tonight was going to be relatively peaceful, most of the protesters stirring up shit at the memorial instead, and tried to keep his business going. Poor guy. Someday, when everything was calm, I planned to come back here and try more drinks.

    I pulled back the curtains to check the street outside. It was dark, most of the streetlights had been smashed. With the dim light coming from the bar, I could pick out silhouettes of people passing by. This area wasn¡¯t as empty as we expected it to be.

    Should I go out and have a look?

    I was supposed to be a lookout after all, observing the movements of the protesters and the police, updating Emcee, who was guarding Oberon, if there was anything dangerous going on. But no one actually expected me to snoop around.

    Nonetheless, I was kinda itching to go out, already bored with watching videos. I enjoyed people-watching just like I was entertained by nature documentaries, learning how they behaved, picking up habits and reactions that could help me build faces. The city was undergoing a once-in-a-lifetime crisis, and this might be my only opportunity to study how people beh¡ª

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    ¡°And now we have an exclusive interview with the leader of the Protectors of the City Movement,¡± the news reporter boomed on TV. I heard it because I paused the video I was watching while wandering my thoughts.

    I took off my earphones and turned to the TV upon hearing the interesting topic. From what I gathered watching tidbits of news these past few days, the Protectors of the City Movement, or PCM, were the biggest group among the protesters. I also saw flyers and posters about them scattered everywhere.

    ¡°Get a load of this guy,¡± the customer sitting by the counter said, pointing at the TV with his mug. He and the bartender stopped their conversation to listen to the news.

    The PCM leader came on screen. His appearance was far from what I imagined; he had a meek posture, almost making him invisible from the backdrop of the massive crowd before the reporter interviewed him. There wasn¡¯t an air of charisma around him that I expected from someone controlling a more radical group. He actually looked like an overworked scientist in a movie, figuring out how to save the world from some sci-fi disaster, his brown hair disheveled, pronounced bags under his eyes, looking five years older than he probably was. Managing a large group of people took its toll on him.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a leader,¡± he said. The name ¡®Auron Cohenn¡¯ appeared on screen. ¡°I am but a guide to everyone wanting the safety of La Esperanza. The PCM doesn¡¯t have a leader for everyone has a voice, and that voice is united.¡±

    I raised a brow when he spoke. Again, unexpected. This Auron guy had a Southern accent, but with super clear pronunciation, the stress in every word perfect. I wasn¡¯t sure how he did it because Southern and clarity didn¡¯t go hand in hand; my grandmother on my father¡¯s side lived in the deep South and I couldn¡¯t understand anything she said.

    ¡°Our united voice gathered here to speak to the mayor, to let him know of the dangers our city is facing, to let him know that the people will not sit down in their homes and do nothing, to let him know that the people will act if he does not.¡±

    His voice was strong and powerful, peppered with a large smattering charisma. This was how he was able to lead his organization.

    ¡°What a fucking pile of steaming shit,¡± drawled the guy on the counter. ¡°Go back to your homes, you fuckwits!¡± He tried to throw his mug at the TV but the bartender caught it.

    ¡°Keep it down Larry,¡± said the bartender, consolingly patting his shoulder. ¡°The people are scared. Scared people band together. And¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I know. And scared people in a large group do stupid things. Things like burning my food truck.¡±

    The news reporter asked Auron, ¡°Mr. Cohenn, what about the allegations that the PCM is vandalizing public property, especially the buildings donated by the McHunters, like the hospital for ex¡ª¡±

    ¡°As I''ve said,¡± Auron interjected, ¡°I am only a humble guide that serves the united voice of the people. While united, there are some who have more extreme views in achieving the goal, perhaps misguided views. Defacing public property built by the accursed McHunters, the family who brought the Adumbrae curse to La Esperanza, is but an outlet to the feelings of anger by the people¡ª¡±

    ¡°What a fucking roundabout way to say you can¡¯t control your people!¡± bellowed Larry. He then spotted me. ¡°Hey, boy! What do you think about these clowns?¡±

    Boy? I was wearing a hoodie and face mask to hide my identity so it was easy to mistake my frame as a teenage boy. Fine, I wasn¡¯t going to get offended by this. I looked to the bartender with questioning eyes. Best not to engage the drunk dude.

    The bartender mouthed an apology to me. He turned his friend away from me. ¡°Don¡¯t bother the other customers, Larry. Let the poor girl enjoy her drink.¡±

    Poor girl? Where the hell did this come from? The bartender might¡¯ve assumed I was a runaway or something.

    ¡°But what about your ultimatum to the mayor,¡± the news reporter pressed on. ¡°That you will attack the EFU Medical Center if the casualties of the two major Adumbrae attacks are not¡ª¡±

    ¡°Attack is such a strong word,¡± Auron said, once again not letting the reporter finish. ¡°The will of the people is the safety of La Esperanza. It is but logical that we take the dangerous elements out of the city. ¡®Peaceful relocation¡¯ is the term that I will use. If the police do not stop us, everything will be peaceful and orderly as we relocate these patients to institutions outside the city and away from the population.¡±

    ¡°What a load of bullcrap!¡± yelled Larry.

    I couldn¡¯t help but grin. That was some intense mental gymnastics there to justify a riot. This Auron guy would make a fine lawyer. Maybe he was? He had really good public speaking and bullshitting skills.

    ¡°Mr. Cohen, any message to the mayor?"

    ¡°Mr. Mayor, we, the people¡ª¡±

    Ringing bells made me, the bartender, and Larry look towards the entrance. It was the wind chimes singing as a group of people opened the door and entered the bar.

    I know I shouldn¡¯t judge people by their appearance, but these four men looked like they weren¡¯t going to be customers but came here to stir up shit. The symbol on the bandanas they tied to their upper arms was enough to identify them as members of the PCM, just like what I¡¯d just seen on the news.

    ¡°What can I get you, gentlemen?¡± The bartender asked.

    The large guy in the lead wearing a maroon beanie said, ¡°We are looking for members of the Silent Vigil Society.¡± My ears pricked up. ¡°The SVS. I assume you¡¯ve heard of them?¡±

    ¡°Those cuckoos thinking Adumbrae are good?¡± Larry said.

    ¡°No, we haven¡¯t,¡± the bartender said. ¡°Haven¡¯t heard of them. Haven¡¯t seen them."

    ¡°SVS, PCM,¡± drunken Larry droned on, ¡°fucking alphabet clowns can kiss my A-S-S.¡±

    ¡°What did you say?¡± The scrawny man behind Beanie guy grabbed Larry by the collar. ¡°See this, old man?¡± He showed the bandana on his arm. ¡°We¡¯re protecting this city while you old farts just sit here and drink the remainder of your life away.¡±

    ¡°Get your hands off me, you disrespectful brat!¡±

    Uh-oh, trouble. It was easy to see what these idiots wanted with the SVS. They were angry at Adumbrae. The SVS were pushing the narrative that there could be good Adumbrae¡ªehem, moi. That was probably the wrong use of moi.

    ¡°Harper, let him go,¡± Beanie guy said. He was larger and stronger than the twig Harper and easily pulled him away from Larry.

    ¡°This is a business,¡± the bartender said indignantly, puffing his chest to make himself look bigger, but he was still dwarfed by Beanie guy. ¡°If you¡¯re not going to order anything, you can leave instead of causing trouble.¡±

    ¡°Just have some business with the SVS, sir,¡± he replied, adopting a more respectful tone. ¡°They were spotted nearby earlier. We¡¯ll leave after we make sure none of their members are hiding here.¡±

    I could take these guys on. Don¡¯t forget about guns, Myra¡¯s reminders floated in my head. Yeah, whatever.

    Beat these guys up, and then what? Draw attention to myself? Very suspicious if a tiny woman clobbered four grown men.

    ¡°Not this one,¡± another PCM member said, pulling up the head of the passed-out guy to check his face.

    ¡°I told you, they¡¯re not here.¡± The bartender came around the counter with a bat in his hand.

    ¡°Not so fast, old man,¡± Harper said, patting the bulge on the side of his hip covered by his sweatshirt. ¡°We packin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°For our own safety,¡± Beanie guy clarified, pushing Harper behind him. He held up his hands as a sign of peace. ¡°We¡¯ll just check that boy over there and we¡¯ll be on our way.¡±

    Again with the boy? I stood up and moved towards the door. It wasn¡¯t good to expose myself here¡ªexpose myself as an Adumbrae, not as a girl. I was just going to force myself past these guys and run away.

    ¡°Leave that harmless girl alone,¡± the bartender said.

    ¡°He''s a gir¡ª?"

    ¡°The SVS have female members too,¡± Harper said as he approached me, pulling up his sweatshirt to reveal his gun. ¡°Take off your mask or I¡¯ll take it off for you.¡±

    Oh, I don¡¯t think I should. I ignored them and went to grab the door knob. Harper cursed and lunged at me, but the bartender grabbed him.

    ¡°You old fart, let go of my gun!¡±

    ¡°Harper! Don¡¯t do something stupid here!¡±

    ¡°Go! Run away!¡± shouted the bartender.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I hurriedly said as I exited and made my escape. I heard Harper scream in rage. I looked back, seeing Harper disentangle himself from the bartender to go after me. But Larry jumped on him and bashed his head with a bottle. The rest of the PCM members joined the fray.

    Their leader, Beanie guy, took one last look at me, our eyes meeting. My mind was already whirring, planning what to do if he chased me. I could try the foot sweep thingy on him. But he probably decided I wasn¡¯t one of the people they were looking for, diving instead into the mass of fighting men, trying to break it up.

    Mental note, visit the bartender next time and buy more drinks. Such a nice person, helping me without even knowing who I was.

    Did he assume I was a member of the SVS, and that I was hiding away from those protester fucks? That would be hilarious if that was what actually happened. It did explain his desperate behavior to help me escape. To his mind, those guys might do something bad to me, a poor, helpless girl.

    Hmmm¡­a genuinely good and selfless person. Would you look at that, I already found something interesting tonight. Since I was already out here, might as well find other interesting stuff. And if those guys decided to follow me, I was going to kick their balls!

    I giggled like an idiot as I strolled along the dark street, a funny thought wiggling back in my head.

    Scrambled eggs...hehehe...

    Ugh...I should grow up.

 4.21

    Cue in dark and mysterious noir jazz background music.

    All alone, walking late at night¡­the rough and seedy part of the city isn¡¯t safe to traverse for a girl like me¡­

    Well, I wasn¡¯t exactly alone. There were other people hanging out around here. Many others. I didn¡¯t make eye contact or so much as glance in their direction when I passed them. In the corner of my eye, I saw most had the distinct splash of yellow of the PCM members, be it shirts, masks, bandanas, or arm bands. I really wanted to experiment making a drastically new face to interact with them, but it was perhaps better to avoid any confrontation.

    Some other time then.

    It also wasn¡¯t that late. Only 8:46 p.m., my phone¡¯s clock told me. If everything was normal, this area would just be starting to stir in this city that never sleeps. Things, however, weren¡¯t normal.

    To be fair, this wasn¡¯t a seedy place¡ªalthough it did look the part now with trash littered everywhere, graffiti of a clenched fist, the symbol of the PCM, on the walls and windows of buildings, among other acts of vandalism. This was supposed to be the exact opposite of seedy since this was fricking downtown. A small side street, okay, but this area was always crawling with people at this hour, all the shops open and full of customers.

    Was¡­before the riots happened.

    And while it wasn¡¯t safe for a normal girl to be here now, an Adumbrae girl like me would fare just fine so long as I didn¡¯t attract the attention of the police¡ªwho were woefully absent. They must be at the memorial for the people who died, holding back the protesters.

    The only thing that was correct in my intro spiel was that it was dark.

    Sure, the streetlights were busted and yet to be replaced by the city, but wasn¡¯t there supposed to be a full moon tonight?

    I kept track of the sunrise each day with an app, accordingly setting my alarm for it. I always wanted to drink tea while watching the sky light up as the sun popped over the horizon. It wasn¡¯t a Rule, just something I''ve been accustomed to during law school. When using this app, I sometimes inadvertently also see the scheduled phases of the moon.

    The full moon is on Sunday, I realized after checking the app. But shouldn¡¯t this Friday night already have a pretty bright moon?

    Could be smog blanketing the city. La Esperanza was an overcrowded metropolis, pollution was unavoidable. The smoke from the Eve explosion probably just made things worse, nasty particles and shit still floating up there in the sky, not to mention the tons of others fires that spread as collateral damage when the shockwave swept over the city.

    And Stella also burned a lot of buildings a couple of days ago.

    My phone vibrated, its light I used to illuminate my path flickering. A message or a call?

    A call.

    It¡¯s Mom.

    There was no one around me. I darted to the gap between two buildings to hide myself. I looked at the name of my screen again, and then sighed. Might as well get this over with. ¡°Hello, Mom. How are things in¡­uh¡­there?¡± I forgot which country she was supposed to be in right now.

    ¡°Hi, Erind sweetie. Wrapping up everything with my current project, just the usual. How about you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Mom.¡±

    ¡°Cheryl, my assistant, you remember her, right? She showed me videos on the internet of the riots at La Esperanza, dear me. It might be best if you don¡¯t go to school for now. I¡¯m sure your professors will understand. I can write them a letter¡ª¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re having classes online, Mom, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m safe here at Deen¡¯s place. We don¡¯t go out anymore because it¡¯s too dangerous. We even have food delivered.¡±

    ¡°Thank the Mother Core you have a friend like Deen. I wanted to tell you to try to find your own place, but it might be better to be with her until everything calms down. Just wait for me and we¡¯ll find you a new condo together. I already asked Cheryl to search the internet for reputable listings in your area.¡±

    ¡°Okay, Mom. I¡¯ll try to search too to add to our options.¡±

    ¡°Have you eaten yet? What are you doing? Is Deen there with you? I haven¡¯t talked to her yet.¡±

    Shit. The ¡®Mom questions¡¯ were starting. Evasive maneuvers. ¡°I just had a quick dinner¡­need lots of time to study. We¡¯re both studying since we have a major test on Monday. She¡¯s inside her room while I¡¯m in mine.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I do hope I wasn¡¯t bothering you, Erind sweetie.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not. I can take a break now. I always have time for you, Mom. But I need to return to studying soon, I have a lot of material to cover. Our professor is a really grouchy one. He doesn¡¯t care about what¡¯s going on in the city, just that the test needs to push through next week.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure he¡¯s concerned with your education, and so should you. And yes, don¡¯t forget to take breaks and rest your eyes. Anyway, Erind dear, I called to tell you that I already bought my airplane tickets. I¡¯ll arrive there Sunday night.¡±

    Gears were grinding inside my head. I forgot Mom was going to come visit me! Hmmm, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s going to be any issue, is there? ¡°Really, Mom? That¡¯s great. Did you have a hard time booking a flight?¡± Just asking daughter things before I attempt to end the call. Mom had mentioned there were more requirements because of the recent Adumbrae attacks¡ªthe usual knee-jerk reactions of politicians to come up with not-so-thought-out rules overnight.

    ¡°Very hard. Fortunately, I have Cheryl to arrange everything for me. And instead of buying a direct flight over Europe, she bought me a connecting flight via Singapore.¡±

    ¡°Why? Isn¡¯t that way longer?¡±

    ¡°The Madagascar situation is getting out of hand. Can¡¯t say it¡¯s just a Madagascar situation now, since Adumbrae are roaming the fringes of the African mainland. What¡¯s worse is that there are plenty of flying Adumbrae. They haven¡¯t made their way up to Europe yet, and experts say they won¡¯t, especially with the air forces of the Central African Union patrolling their airspace. But if even a single one is sighted over Europe, I fear that flights will be cancelled in a heartbeat.¡±

    ¡°I had no idea the crisis was worsening,¡± I said with a gasp. ¡°Our news is filled with what¡¯s happening over here in this city, having two Adumbrae attacks and all that. I should watch international news too.¡±

    ¡°I pray every day for the Mother Core to help the people of Africa. And yes, you should keep yourself updated with what¡¯s happening in the world. The Purple Bloom still hasn¡¯t been found. Some experts say it might be deep underwater.¡±

    ¡°Just like the one at the Philippines where¡­¡± Dad used to work, was going to be the continuation of my sentence, but I held my tongue. I didn¡¯t want any cheesiness tonight.

    Dad was the site director of the UN facility studying the Devlyosian Sinkhole¡ªthe result of the fight between High Overseers and one of the largest Purple Blooms to form after the invasion¡ªfor possible perpetual energy applications.

    If the Madagascar Purple Bloom was as big as that the one that showed up in the Philippines fifty years ago, the Corebrings need to wake up more High Overseers.

    Mom may not have heard what I said, or just pretended to ignore it. She said, ¡°This is such an awful year, and we¡¯re only two months in. May the Mother Core protect us. I know you¡¯re not keen on going to church, sweetie, but you should try to attend online masses¡ª¡±

    ¡°Uh, I¡¯ll try, Mom. But I should focus on studying now.¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes, go ace that test!¡± she said enthusiastically. ¡°I¡¯m not going to disturb you anymore. I¡¯m excited to see you.¡±

    ¡°See you soon, Mom. Take care.¡± And end. Good thing she didn¡¯t tell me she loved me. All these years and I still wasn¡¯t satisfied with how I responded to it.

    I poked my head out the street, checking if the coast was clear.

    There were people the next block over, congregating underneath a rare working streetlight. PCM members with their smattering of yellow. One guy, maybe the leader, was pointing this way and that, giving directions to the others. Then their group divided into pairs, turning on their flashlights and going their separate ways.

    Were they looking for me? But they didn¡¯t know who I was, or even what I looked like besides the general description of a person wearing a hoodie and a mask. That was basically eighty-percent of the people I had seen while I walked around.

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    It was likelier they were closing in on the SVS.

    And here I was thinking all these groups were together. Turns out, the SVS was the odd one out¡ªthe black sheep of radicals; kinda weird to put it that way. Really dumb for Reginus and her gang to show their faces here. What were they doing around these parts?

    A couple of the PCM member were walking in my direction. I sunk back in the shadow, watching them pass by.

    Reginus and the SVS¡­should I help them?

    They were technically¡ªa very stretched technically at that¡ªon my side since they fervently believed I was a good Adumbrae. And I liked that image. I really do. Blanchette was my first ¡®public¡¯ face, even if unintentionally so¡ª¡®public¡¯ as in it was a face for everyone, and not tailored to a specific person or just a small group. Having a taste for the theatrics, I was growing attached to the narrative the SVS was pushing that I¡­me as Blanchette¡­was a hero Adumbrae.

    And I have to tell them my name is Blanchette, not Red Hood.

    In any case, I should learn about the situation.

    First things first, I should grab one of these PCM people to get some info. Fortunately, the lead PCM guy was still under the streetlight, reading a paper while talking to someone on the phone, could be his superior. His underlings weren¡¯t there anymore, making my job easier. It was only him that I wanted.

    He put his phone and notes back inside his jacket and walked down the street. I followed him, transferring from one hiding spot to another, behind a lamppost, a mailbox, a tree. I bet I really looked funny while doing this.

    So¡­how does this work? Just run up to him and grab him?

    And if he didn¡¯t want to answer me¡­then what?

    Like beat him up until he does?

    Wasn¡¯t that torture?

    Yeah, I guess. I didn¡¯t have any other way of forcing him to reveal to me what he knew about the SVS. I really hoped he wouldn¡¯t play hard ball because I wasn¡¯t sure how the torture part would work out; I had no experience doing it to anyone besides insects when I was a little kid.

    Since I got entangled with the PCM-SVS business, I felt like I could justify torture under Rule #4. Furthermore, this was also justifiable under defending self-defense of sorts, because I would be protecting the good name of my Blanchette face.

    The two of us soon left the bright umbrella of the streetlight.

    Just follow his flashlight, I told myself while doing my utmost to shadow him quietly. I carefully treaded my path because I couldn¡¯t see shit; I didn¡¯t want to risk using my phone because this guy might look behind him and see me.

    He turned left into a narrow side alley.

    I might lose him! I darted out from behind a parked car that had its windows smashed, and ran as quietly as I could.

    A flash of purple light!

    Without thinking, I rolled to the side, and hid myself as best I could behind a small shrub which really didn¡¯t provide much cover.

    The fuck was that?

    I rubbed my eyes. I saw that, right? Something purple or violet, whatever the fuck was different between those two. Definitely not the flashlight of the PCM guy.

    Footsteps. Light growing brighter. Someone was coming out of the alley.

    The faint footsteps¡­they sounded different from the PCM guy from earlier, probably from a smaller person One¡­no, more than one. Multiple shadows were cast on the side of the building beside the mouth of alley. He had others with him? I tensed up, bringing my right hand near my face. But I didn¡¯t summon my mask because that would reveal my location with gold light.

    My brows raised as high as they possibly could when out came two children.

    The hell did these two brats come from?

    A boy and a girl as far as I could tell from their clothes; the boy was holding a flashlight. Were they from one of the buildings along the alley? Maybe they opened the door of their house and they had, I dunno, fucking purple Christmas lights they forgot to take down or something.

    I stared at them as they fucked off.

    Not my fault if something bad happens to them, I thought with a shrug. I wasn¡¯t their babysitter. If they were living here, they should know it was dangerous to go out at night especially with all the shit going on.

    I sprinted to the alley. Maybe I could still find the trail of that PCM guy, then I¡ª

    A dead end!

    What I thought was a passageway was just a small nook, about ten feet from the sidewalk to the side of the building. I held my phone up, lighting as much of the area as I could.

    Three solid walls. No doors.

    ¡°Eh? It can¡¯t be¡­Seriously?¡±

    I knocked on the bricks, going high and low. I pushed them, lightly punched them. How about if I punched a bit harder? Yep, they were pretty solid alright. I stomped around, expecting to find a trapdoor on the floor. Still nothing. This was just a fucking recessed corner on the face of the building, probably some design shit an architect thought of.

    How about the PCM guy? He just poofed in the air? And did the ground just spit out those children?

    Come on, there had to be a way out of here. A hidden door of some kind. It might even lead me to the PCM hideout. I resumed my search, but I was interrupted by a bright light.

    Someone shone a flashlight on me.

    I held up my arm to shield my eyes. I squinted at the person blocking my way out of this corner.

    ¡°Found you, you cunt!¡± It was just the twig guy who acted tough back at the bar. Barter or Harper. Most likely Harper because Barter sounded weird to be a name.

    I didn¡¯t respond. Just a human, I mentally scoffed. Yeah, yeah, I hadn¡¯t forgotten about his gun. Big deal.

    ¡°You gave me trouble looking for your little ass,¡± he spat at me.

    How about I try to get info from this guy? Not sure if he knew anything useful. It would¡¯ve been better if I questioned the guy with the beanie¡ªspeak of the devil.

    ¡°Harper! You idiot, what are you doing here?¡± It was Beanie guy, yey. ¡°We already found the SVS. That girl is not one of them. Why are you still chasing her?¡±

    ¡°Look at this shit.¡± He pointed at his head. It was wrapped in a bloody PCM bandana. ¡°She¡¯s gotta pay for this!¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ª? But she¡­that¡¯s not her fault,¡± Beanie guy said, speaking my thoughts. ¡°That was the¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t care, man,¡± Harper snapped. ¡°You cunt! See this, huh? This is on you. Fucking hurts.¡±

    Beanie guy grabbed his arm. ¡°Leave her alone. She has no part in this. We have to go. The others¡ª¡±

    Harper pulled away from Beanie guy. The larger man tried to hold him again, but he pulled out his gun. ¡°Fucking hands off, Radi, my man." Beanie guy, who was apparently called ¡®Radi¡¯ took a couple of steps back. ¡°I¡¯ll just finish my business with her and follow you guys,¡± Harper said, waving his gun. ¡°Go on. Don¡¯t want to hurt you, man. Don¡¯t make this more complicated than it is.¡±

    ¡°Wha-what are you going to do with her?¡±

    ¡°Just going to have a bit of fun with her.¡±

    ¡°What the fuck are you talking about?"

    "No police round these parts, perfect time to have some fun while teaching her a lesson."

    "You can¡¯t do that!¡±

    ¡°I can and I will. I¡¯ll make her regret messing with me.¡±

    ¡°But she didn¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut the fuck up! Stay and watch if you want, I¡¯m not going to judge you. But don¡¯t dare try to cock block me. You can have her after I¡¯m done. I''ve been waiting to do this again since I got out.¡±

    ¡°Are you out of your mind? We''re not going back in because of this¡ª¡±

    ¡°Hands where I can see them! I don¡¯t want any trouble between us, man. Just walk away. You ain¡¯t seen nothin¡¯ here. Don''t want trouble? Don''t be here."

    "I can''t let you do this."

    "You should. Don''t forget you owe me. You know what you should forget? Forget about me and this girl. Not worth your trouble.¡± Harper turned his attention back to me. ¡°Now, how about you show me your pretty face. Take off your mask.¡±

    Radi¡¯s expression was conflicted. Guess he wasn¡¯t hero material. ¡°Radi!¡± I cried out. ¡°Help me!¡± I couldn¡¯t resist messing with them. Calling him with his name gave him a bit more bravado that he stepped forward. ¡°I don¡¯t have anything you want,¡± I added for good measure. ¡°Just leave me alone.¡±

    Harper finally pointed his gun at Radi. ¡°Don¡¯t make me do this, man. Such a small thing. Go away, and forget about this. I¡¯ll join you guys later. I just can¡¯t leave this little cunt unpunished. She must learn her lesson.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I¡¯m going to¡­the police will arrest you!¡±

    ¡°No police here, little cunt. They gave up on this place. They¡¯re all at the memorial protecting our corrupt mayor. Now take off your mask, then your clothes, and let¡¯s see what you got.¡±

    ¡°Radi, you can¡¯t let him do this to me. Please¡­¡±

    ¡°Harper, you shouldn¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have all night! Someone is going to get fucking shot if everybody keeps on not fucking listening to me!¡±

    I crouched down hugging my body, acting like I was paralyzed by fear. ¡°Please¡­no¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t do a proper sobbing session because I was too excited to try out something. And no, I¡¯m not going to kick his balls, although that did enter my mind. Scrambled eggs....hehehe¡ªDon''t laugh!

    ¡°Why do I have to do everything myself!¡± Harper approached me, his hand reaching to grab my head.

    Yes! It was the opportunity I was waiting for; the opportunity to test out sweeping legs and putting enemies off-balance. I crouched down to make sweeping easier since I wasn¡¯t sure I could do a proper standing leg sweep. I extended my right leg, aiming for his right ankle just as his stepping foot was about to touch the ground, kicking out as fast and with as much power as I could, sweeping his back leg as well.

    ¡°The fuck¡ª!¡±

    Harper did a violent half pinwheel in the air, his feet going high up, his head down, his arms flailing. It was like a comedic sketch of a cartoon character exaggeratedly slipping on a banana peel. His head smashed against the ground, stopping his rotation, followed by a nasty crunch as the rest of his body crumpled in a heap on top of his head.

    Me and Radi stared at the unmoving body.

    He shone his flashlight on his fellow PCM member. A dark pool of what I assumed to be blood was slowly spreading.

    Oops.

    I didn¡¯t mean to do that.

 4.22

    Squishy?

    Yep, that was what came to mind when it came to normal humans.

    Squishy bags of flesh. Easy to pop like zits.

    The only other time I had hit normal humans as super-strengthened Erind was right after I escaped the explosion in the Eve underground arena, when I ran into a couple of 2M goons in the tunnels. I couldn¡¯t recall much of it because I was reeling from the explosion and severely injured, other than I desperately punched those two until they died¡­and continued some more even after they were dead.

    Oh! I also elbowed the jerk who dared put his hand around my waist at the club. That made it two previous times. While I knew how squishy normal humans were, I never realized they were also so crunchy. A satisfying crunch too, like cracking knuckles.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m so¡­I¡¯m sorry,¡± I cried out, coupled with the standard hands-covering-the-mouth in abject horror.

    ¡°Is¡­is that bloo¡ª?¡±

    ¡°He¡­he was going to attack me! You saw it!¡± I scampered to the back wall, pressing myself against it while hugging myself. Damsel-in-distress face was on auto-pilot; no need for higher brain functions because the correct ¡®normal¡¯ reaction was obvious. I was preoccupied with wondering why I underestimated my force by a mile. It reminded of the times I picked up a bottle of water thinking it was full but was actually empty, ending up with nearly throwing it because I used way too much strength. Was I getting stronger?

    ¡°Ha-Harper?¡± Radi whispered, his voice wavering in disbelief. ¡°The hell, man? Is he dead?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­I¡¯m really sorry. It was his fault!¡± Crunchy Harper, the sounds of his body breaking replaying in my head like an ad of a fastfood place exaggerating the crispiness of the skin of their fried chicken.

    Radi knelt beside the probably dead guy. ¡°Harper?¡± he repeated, shaking him, which might not be advisable. The fleshy heap that was his friend¡ªI don¡¯t actually know if they were friends¡ªjust slumped down some more. ¡°Shit, shit, shit, what do I do?¡±

    Calling an ambulance was a good idea, but with the state of this area, I wasn¡¯t sure if any would come here. He could also try bringing Harper to the hospital since we were near one. I was hoping to learn something for when I¡¯d be confronted with a similar scenario someday and had to modify my face to care about someone dying.

    He checked Harper¡¯s pulse. Probably finding nothing, he lowered himself down to Harper¡¯s head, putting his ear next to the mouth that was leaking blood, checking for breathing.

    I was just sobbing at the side, pretending to be paralyzed by fear.

    My original plan was to practice knocking down the perverted twig Harper and then run away. Radi wouldn¡¯t block me; I was positive of that based on how he acted. With me gone, Radi would drag Harper along and rejoin their PCM group hunting the SVS, then I¡¯d just follow them. Clean. No torturing involved. And they¡¯d forget about me.

    But now, what do I do?

    I couldn¡¯t beat this Radi guy up for information even if he was a PCM member and technically the enemy of my Blanchette face. After all, he did try to stop Harper from assaulting me. It was another matter if he became a threat.

    Radi tried to arrange Harper¡¯s horribly entangled body into a better position, pulling his legs out and straightening it. It became easier to see Harper''s neck was crooked like a bendy straw. Nasty. No need for a doctor to declare this guy dead.

    Maybe I should just get going and find someone else. I slowly inched around them.

    ¡°Hold it,¡± Radi whispered.

    ¡°What?¡±

    He reached for Harper¡¯s gun. I tensed up, ready to kick his head off. But he didn¡¯t point it at me. ¡°Harper¡­he¡¯s dead.¡± He slowly stood up and faced me with a deranged look.

    I figured as much. Indignant mode on. ¡°Are you going to blame me for that? You saw it! He was¡ª¡±

    ¡°Our leader told us there are many Adumbrae lurking in this city.¡±

    ¡°What has that got to do¡ªwait, are you accusing me of being one?¡± These PCM nutjobs, seriously. ¡°Wha¡ªI can¡¯t believe it. You guys try to assault me, and now you say I¡¯m the Adumbrae? You assholes are the one who are monsters!¡± I yelled, pointing a finger at him. I¡¯m having too much fun with this.

    ¡°His legs,¡± Radi said. ¡°They are broken.¡±

    ¡°He fell, that¡¯s why¡ª¡±

    ¡°Smashed, the bones of his legs are smashed. Ankles bent the wrong way. It¡¯s like a sledgehammer hit his legs.¡±

    Hmmm, he didn¡¯t fall for my bait accusing him along with Harper. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about that. I¡¯m just trying to go home when you guys attacked me.¡±

    ¡°This is¡­this is all wrong¡­¡± His hand holding the gun was shaking by his hip. I was going to hit him if he raised it higher than that; I wasn¡¯t sure if I was fast enough to evade a gun aimed right at me. He said, ¡°I¡¯m already going to say sorry if I¡¯m wrong, but can I shoot you?¡±

    ¡°What? No! Why are you going to do that?¡±

    ¡°I need to check if you¡¯re an Adumbrae¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re insane,¡± I gasped, edging closer to the sidewalk. He seriously was.

    ¡°Don¡¯t move! I¡¯ll do it, okay?¡± He was speaking rapidly, his breathing becoming agitated. ¡°I¡¯ll shoot you. Just your leg. If you regenerate, that means you¡¯re an Adumbrae. Then I¡¯m going to blow your head off.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not an Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°If you do-don¡¯t heal, I¡¯ll call an ambulance! Yeah, that¡¯s right. Don¡¯t worry, miss. I can also get my car and bring you and Harper to the hospital.¡± His shivering hand was slowly raising. ¡°That¡¯s¡­that¡¯s right. This is the right thing to do,¡± he said, more to convince himself. ¡°Just let me shoot you.¡±

    What¡¯s wrong with this guy? I could just run¡ªA lightbulb lit up inside my head. I raised both my hands as a sign of surrender. ¡°You got me,¡± I said.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°I said you got me.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m an Adumbrae.¡±

    His brows furrowed, still not quite understanding what was going on. ¡°You are?¡± A wide smile formed on his face; his eyes brightened. ¡°Mr. Cohenn was right! We¡¯re not crazy! Adumbrae are really among us!¡± Just as fast as his confusion turned into happiness, happiness turned to intense hatred. ¡°Die, you Adum¡ª!¡±

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    I stepped forward and slapped the gun out of his hand. More cracks. His hands and fingers were messed up. Fuck, too much strength again.

    Radi was about to yell but I clamped his mouth tight. His other hand dove into his jacket. I grabbed it, recalling he also had his own gun, and crashed his forearm bones. He whimpered. The gun fell to the floor. His pained faced contorted in anger. "Mhhmm!"

    ¡°Now,¡± I said, dropping him on top of Harper¡¯s body. ¡°Where¡¯s the SVS?¡±

    ¡°You¡­you¡¯re going to help them?¡± he said, his words punctuated by groans. ¡°Mr. Cohenn is really right¡­many didn¡¯t believe him when he said that you Adumbrae bastards are here¡­and you¡¯re in league with that trash SVS!¡±

    ¡°Tell me where¡ª"

    ¡°You¡¯re not getting no shit out of me!¡± he interjected. ¡°I¡¯m not giving in to you like you seduced Harper¡ªAH!¡±

    I stepped on his ankle. ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything to your perverted friend,¡± I snapped, besides accidentally killing him. Was this torture? Perhaps. He did point a gun at me. And, unfortunately for him, he was witnessing the debut of my villain face. Such a stroke of genius to transform the timid girl face into a hidden Adumbrae persona¡ªwell, it was also the truth, but also a face. ¡°Either you tell me or¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to tell you anything! I¡¯m not afraid of dying. Finally, something worth fighting for. I¡¯m not giving in to an Adumbrae!¡±

    He kept rambling on, his words bunching together, his mouth starting to foam. His crazed eyes were bloodshot, almost popping out of his head. And it seemed like he no longer felt the pain of his injuries.

    What the hell was going on? It was seriously starting to get weird. He wasn¡¯t crazy like this earlier.

    Were normal people this weird all along?

    And how do I torture information out a guy in this state?

    Was there a guide on the internet for this?

    ¡°Kill me! Kill meeee!¡±

    I believed this guy really wasn¡¯t afraid of what I could do to him. The fact I was an Adumbrae actually gave him courage. Okay, I had to admit things were not going great for my villain debut. Embarrassing really.

    ¡°KILL ME! DO IT, YOU ADUM¡ª!¡±

    Too loud. I grabbed his shoulder, holding him in place. Then my right hand flew across his face. His head violently snapped to the left that I was concerned I killed him. I just wanted to put him to sleep. He spat out blood and a few of his teeth.

    ¡°Urghkk¡­fucking bitch¡ª"

    Still awake?

    I slapped him once more, aiming for the side of his chin. This part of the jaw was supposed to be a knockout spot, knowledge courtesy of random internet videos. The lower half of his face just shifted left. I jerked back and released him, shocked at the sight.

    ¡°Oh my god, I didn¡¯t mean to¡­¡± Hang on, I felt like I had already said this.

    Radi was twitching on the ground. His fingers curled, followed by his arms getting rigid while still shaking horribly. Tears poured from his eyes mixed with the blood from his nose and mouth. Poor guy, maybe I should just kill¡ªnah. While he did try to kill me, he was a nice guy before that so he gets to keep his life.

    ¡°This really isn¡¯t going well.¡± I sighed, shaking my head.

    Why was I having trouble controlling my strength? There was no problem if I was doing normal human stuff, but when I tried to exert superhuman strength, I was overshooting it.

    It must be connected with my practice with Myra. I was getting out of sync estimating my strength. Not only did I need to practice going past the limits of my strength, I also needed to relearn calibrating my super strength.

    Oh, well. So¡­what should I do with these two?

    I could just leave them here. They didn¡¯t know who I was, and neither did I leave any traces.

    ¡°What was that?¡± A ringtone. It wasn¡¯t my phone.

    I rummaged through the pockets of Radi and finally found his phone. I used his bent fingers to unlock the screen, trying each to find the correct one. I didn''t pay any attention to him having a seizure beside me while I scrolled through his messages.

    The PCM was giving orders to its members where to gather. They apparently cornered the SVS who were trying to do an ¡®Adumbrae summoning ritual¡¯, whatever that was supposed to be, inside a warehouse.

    ¡°Warehouse of Dawson Stevedoring and Logistics, LLC,¡± I read. ¡°I don¡¯t know where that is.¡±

    But it wasn¡¯t a problem because there was a tracking feature on Snippet so the PCM members could see each other in this area. I opened up the map on Snippet and found the pinned location of the warehouse. Deen was right, these social media apps had plenty of handy features.

    The warehouse wasn¡¯t that far, but I still might be too late to help. I could run maybe two or three times faster than a normal human, but everyone along the way would see me.

    Unless¡­

    I ripped Harper¡¯s PCM bandana off his arm before jumping as high up on the wall as I could. My fingers easily sunk into the bricks. Then I pulled myself up, kicking off in tandem and jumping to the opposite side. A couple more leaps and I was on the roof. I took one last look at Radi and dead Harper below before dashing to the warehouse.

    I jumped over a small street, landing on the next row of buildings. This was so much faster than weaving through the streets. No one was looking up. And even if they did, they couldn¡¯t see me anyway, camouflaged against the cloudy sky with my dark clothes like a reverse penguin.

    I miss watching the Animal Channel.

    Who knows, I might get to witness more interesting animal behaviors at the warehouse.

    I couldn¡¯t help but grin as I zipped across rooftops, the sides of my hood flapping against my head, the cold night embracing me. It was like a dream, sprinting with superhuman speed, leaping from one building to the next a couple of dozen feet away.

    Almost flying...

    I¡¯d only done this before when Myra and I ran away from Bob. But this was more satisfying...probably because there was no unkillable Adumbrae chasing after me.

    Weeee! I thought, giggling while yet again increasing my speed.

    Nearing the location, I noticed more and more people running on the streets below. I tied Harper¡¯s bandana on my arm to fit in, then dropped down the gap between two buildings, narrowly missing an open dumpster that I didn¡¯t notice in the darkness.

    ¡°Phew, if I fell into the trash, I can say goodbye to all my snooping plans.¡± I jogged to the street, seamlessly joining a small crowd of people.

    Most of the streetlights were still functioning in this area because we were a bit of a distance from Marshall Avenue so I had a better look of the people around me. Although the PCM yellow was predominant among us, there were other splashes of color and symbols, indicating that other groups were coming under the PCM''s banner.

    We entered a compound¡ªthe gate and the small guard house beside it already destroyed¡ªand headed to one of the warehouses. It was the same size as the one at the docks where Rofirio put me and Ramello.

    I inhaled sharply as people gradually invaded my personal space, more and more of us packing in front of the warehouse. I was jostled and pushed around because of my small stature. My fists were balled, my jaws clenched. Don¡¯t think about it, Erind, I told myself. Think about an open space. Every bit of self-control was needed to stop myself lashing out at these fuckers while I was getting squeezed.

    I really should get out of this crowd before I kill someone.

    I waded through the throng of modern-day witch hunters¡ªAdumbrae hunters to be more accurate; misguided and misinformed Adumbrae hunters¡ªeasily squeezing myself past them. Most people probably didn¡¯t notice who forcefully shoved them aside. The irony that me, an Adumbrae, was in the middle of their group, joining them in their hunt, wasn¡¯t lost on me.

    Very amusing.

    I climbed up the hood of a delivery truck to have a better view of what was happening.

    They were trying to open the doors of the warehouse, seemingly closed from the inside with chains or something. A group of men were holding it as far apart as they could while inserting a circular saw through the gap. Sparks flew while the crowd held their phones up like we were in a concert.

    Someone with a megaphone was giving out instructions, trying to make himself heard over the din. ¡°¡ªare inside. We¡¯ve sent out pictures so you know who to look for! Find them! Don¡¯t let them escape!¡±

    ¡°Pictures?¡± I said, checking Radi¡¯s phone. Sure enough, the faces of the SVS members were shared on Snippet. Reginus¡¯ picture was first, followed by other people I didn¡¯t recognize. They were likely in the SVS vid but I just didn¡¯t bother to remember them. ¡°Next¡­next¡­next¡­huh?¡± I came across a picture I did recognize.

    Ramello? You¡¯re with the SVS?

 4.23 - Ramello Staten

    Ramello Staten

    ¡°It¡¯s got to be here somewhere,¡± Ramello Staten panted as he pried open another crate with a crowbar, chips of wood flying off. Before beginning his search, he pulled up the lower half of the balaclava mask he wore to wipe away beads of sweat dangerously close to his eyes.

    Another crate full of canned foods. Same as the last six. He clicked his tongue, annoyed at the lack of progress. Should he just search elsewhere? But this time, it could be different. There might be something covered by all of these cans. He dug through them, anxiously trying to find¡ª

    ¡°What are we even looking for?¡± cried out the robust man calling himself Devyn, a devoted worshipper of the High Overseer Devylosian as was apparent from his chosen alias. The hockey mask hiding his identity muffled his voice. ¡°Baked beans, corned beef, chowder,¡± he said, shaking cans after reading their labels. ¡°And what the hell is this? Asparagus.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m not sure,¡± Ramello replied, embarrassed with his answer. ¡°Anything¡­anything suspicious. We¡¯ll know when we see it.¡±

    ¡°Look for anything suspicious?¡± snorted the stocky woman rummaging the shelves beside him. ¡°That¡¯s not very helpful.¡±

    ¡°Is this can of extra-long asparagus spears suspicious?¡± Devyn asked sarcastically.

    ¡°Chemicals, vials, canisters, anything weird,¡± said Mercator, the one who accompanied Reginus in their earlier meeting. The well-dressed man had tied his coat around his waist and loosened his tie, his dress shirt drenched in sweat, the amulets around his neck swinging wildly as he pushed down a stack of boxes so he could begin searching them. ¡°I know it¡¯s quite a tall order to look for something we don¡¯t know, but Ram¡¯s right. It should look suspicious, whatever it is.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, just hunker down and continue searching, guys,¡± Reginus huffed. ¡°Cent said the trucks that go to the hospital get their packages from this warehouse.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what shows up in their database,¡± Cent, the resident computer-expert replied. He was still in the stolen company uniform he used to sneak in the office of this compound. ¡°Sorry guys, I didn¡¯t find any other details.¡±

    Devyn shook his head. ¡°This is hopeless, dammit.¡±

    He¡¯s right, this is going nowhere. Ramello kicked over the crate in front of him, frustrated at the seemingly dead-end. Cans rolled across the floor. ¡°It¡¯s got to be here,¡± he murmured. He jammed the crowbar beneath the lid of the next crate in line and pushed it down.

    It¡¯s got to be here.

    It should be. Something had to be here!

    <hr>

    The face of the Adumbrae called ¡®Red Hood¡¯.

    Salty smell of the air.

    And ¡®Dawson¡¯.

    Those were the only three things Ramello recalled. Nothing else. From the last memory of accompanying Erind on the train to when he woke up at the hospital, everything in between was a huge blackhole¡ªexcept for those three tiny pieces of memory.

    At first, he thought he only imagined the face with the scary snout-like mask, some kind of bizarre dream. But after seeing Reginus¡¯ video of the incident at Serenade Bazaar, he realized he had met an actual Adumbrae. She was there when he was beaten up. As a friend or foe, he didn¡¯t know. He did tell Reginus that Red Hood saved him, but he only said that to gain their trust; he wasn¡¯t so sure if that was what actually happened. Red Hood attacked Uncle Jerry and Castan¡­she might be an enemy after all.

    The distinct salty smell told him he was brought somewhere near the ocean. He hadn¡¯t been to the beach for some time, so there was no other explanation for the memory of the strong scent of saltwater suddenly popping up in his head.

    And lastly, the word ¡®Dawson¡¯. He didn¡¯t personally know any Dawson. Could it be the name of one of his attackers? A clue as to their identity?

    He told the police about the name, but they ignored him, obviously stalling the investigation. His uncle couldn¡¯t easily step in because it was the jurisdiction of another precinct. Just looking for a person with such a relatively common name was going nowhere. For all he knew, it could be just a nickname, or he could¡¯ve even misheard it.

    A sheer stroke of luck struck him. While watching the live news broadcast of the protests at EFU Medical Center, a truck with a logo containing the word ¡®Dawson¡¯ passed by the camera.

    One glance at the logo on the side of the truck and it jogged a small part of his memory.

    That was it! He had seen this logo before. ¡®Dawson¡¯ wasn¡¯t the name of a person. It was a company¡ªDawson Stevedoring and Logistics, LLC was its full name, as he found out after some research.

    This company had to be connected to the Mark and Marc organization. He must¡¯ve seen it somewhere when he was kidnapped and beaten. Why else did his brain desperately remember the name even if he could barely recall anything else the day he was attacked?

    Ramello¡¯s theory was confirmed by his uncle¡­indirectly.

    Uncle Jerry, or Lt. Jeremiah Hall, as the seasoned detective insisted to be called if they were in front of other cops, was still in a coma at the hospital. Using the pretext of cleaning his uncle¡¯s house¡ªchecking the mail, the fridge for any rotting leftovers, any unplugged appliances¡ªhe took the opportunity to search for information related to the Dawson company.

    Although he couldn¡¯t get into his uncle¡¯s computer, there were plenty of notes strewn on his uncle¡¯s work desk that outlined possible front companies of Mark and Marc¡ªone of which was the Dawson company. The smell of saltwater made sense. Stevedoring being one of the services offered by the Dawson company, it was bound to have warehouses by the docks. He must''ve been brought to the docks, and thus near the ocean, when he was taken.

    He also read his uncle¡¯s suspicion about the mayor possibly protecting the criminals in the city.

    It wasn¡¯t hard to put two-and-two together.

    The mayor ordered the patients of the two major Adumbrae attacks transferred to EFU Medical Center. Then delivery trucks from a company related to the Mark and Marc brothers showed up at the hospital? No fucking way it was a mere coincidence.

    There had to be something sinister going on!

    And Reginus and the rest of the SVS agreed with him when he shared the results of his investigation. They trooped to the hospital after their meeting to stake it out.

    They didn¡¯t have to wait for long for a Dawson truck to arrive. It was escorted by the police to be able to get through the lines of protesters. Everything reeked of a conspiracy. That was when they decided to follow the truck to the Dawson warehouses to find out what was being delivered to the hospital. For sure nothing good. And they were going to expose it to the public.

    <hr>

    ¡°This is hopeless,¡± complained one of the SVS members after another half an hour of fruitless searching.

    Others agreed with him.

    ¡°It¡¯s going to take ages to search this whole place.¡±

    ¡°What if it¡¯s in another warehouse?¡±

    ¡°Or what if it¡¯s inside these cans?¡± Devyn said. He placed the can on the floor and jammed his crowbar down on it. Red liquid spurted out, splashing on them.

    ¡°Watch it!¡± exclaimed Reginus.

    Ramello wiped off some of the liquid off his arm and brought it up to his nose. Tomatoey. It was just meatball sauce. But Devyn was right. Whatever they were looking for could be hidden in cans¡­or in toasters, books, basketball balls, the possibilities were endless. Uncle Jerry had shared with him the disingenuous ways smugglers hid drugs to get them through customs. If dangerous chemicals were brought to the hospital, it wouldn¡¯t be in obvious containers.

    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    ¡°Stop playing around,¡± Reginus snapped. ¡°We¡¯re not going to find it if we waste time like this.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know what we¡¯re looking for. We don¡¯t know if it¡¯s even here!¡±

    ¡°Obviously, it¡¯s not going to be hidden in plain sight.¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t spend hours searching this warehouse,¡± countered Devyn. ¡°This place is huge. And we got those PCM bastards on our tail. We still don¡¯t know why they decided to go after us now.¡±

    ¡°I can think of plenty of reasons,¡± Mercator said.

    ¡°Everyone, just shut up,¡± Reginus yelled. ¡°Continue search¡ªDevyn, where are you going?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to ask the guys at the back if they know anything,¡± he replied, referring to the guard and three Dawson employees they tied up in a small office room.

    ¡°They already said they don¡¯t kno¡ª¡±

    ¡°Bullshit! They should know if something fishy¡¯s up. They work here.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother,¡± Mercator said, sighing. ¡°Even if they know anything illegal going on, why would they tell us?¡±

    Devyn patted his palm with the curved end of his crowbar. ¡°This is why.¡± Then he sprinted away.

    Stressed, anxious, and tired, they all stared at each other for several seconds, processing what Devyn meant by that. Reginus interrupted the concerning silence. ¡°Uh¡­is he?¡± she said, with a brow raised.

    Ramello exclaimed with a start, ¡°We need to stop him!¡± He rushed after Devyn, beckoning the others to follow him.

    He didn¡¯t need to be a law student to know he had broken, and was still breaking, many laws. It was his plan to break into the Dawson compound and tie up the employees, and now they were ransacking private property.

    But what could he do?

    Go to the police?

    The police would just ignore him if he reported this. And he didn¡¯t have enough evidence. More likely, he¡¯d get beaten up again, or worse, killed, once those bastard criminals knew how close he was to uncovering their plot¡ªwhich he still didn¡¯t have a complete picture of. Taking the law into one¡¯s own hands was illegal; that was why there were laws in place to stop society from descending into chaos if everyone just did what they think was right.

    But I am right¡­ If he stood aside, another incident like the one that happened to Erind¡¯s condo was going to happen again. It¡¯d be on his conscience if a lot of people died because he let it happen. And while he was sure he was right, he also knew lines had to be drawn.

    What Devyn was going to do was certainly crossing it.

    ¡°Devyn!¡± Ramello called out. A yelp of pain and a crash. He spotted Devyn through the windows of the small office at the end of the warehouse. The man with the hockey mask used the crowbar to hit someone on the ground, out of his view.

    ¡°Where is it?!¡± Devyn roared. ¡°I¡¯m going to break your bones if you don¡¯t answer me.¡±

    ¡°Are you out of your mind? Stop that!¡±

    ¡°Ple-please¡­it hurts¡­I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°The hell you don¡¯t!¡± Devyn raised his crowbar, but Ramello barged into the office just in time to grab it. ¡°Let go! This whole gig was your idea.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but we never agreed to do this,¡± Ramello spat out as he wrestled the crowbar away from the unhinged SVS member. ¡°Wha-what have you done here?¡± he said as he looked around.

    The bound security guard was lying on the floor, unconscious with a gash on his forehead. The male warehouse worker was twitching beside the guard, his leg injured by Devyn. The last two female employees tried to hide behind the desk, squiggling their best across the floor despite the ropes tying their hands and feet.

    What the hell am I doing here? Ramello thought in horror as a moment of clarity grazed his mind.

    ¡°Dev! Ram!¡± Reginus shouted. She and Mercator entered the office, stopping in their tracks upon seeing Devyn''s handiwork. The other SVS members also followed them, standing outside the window. ¡°Wha¡ª! We have to get them to the hospital. Someone call an ambulance!¡±

    ¡°But then we have to stop searching,¡± Mercator said.

    ¡°I know! But look, they¡¯re hurt bad.¡± She knelt beside the bleeding security guard, taking out her cellphone and dialing numbers. ¡°We can¡¯t just leave them like that.¡±

    ¡°The police will arrest us.¡± Mercator grabbed Reginus¡¯ phone, then glanced at Ramello, hoping he would step in.

    ¡°I¡­I¡­¡± Ramello stammered. What do we do? Should they just give up now? If they stopped now, Mark and Marc would know for sure they were on to them and hide their operations. ¡°I think we¡ª"

    ¡°Reg! Reg!¡± The three members tasked with searching the front part of the warehouse, and also to guard the entrance, came running towards them. ¡°Reg, here you are. We were looking for you. We¡¯ve got a problem. The PCM¡ª¡±

    ¡°They found us?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. They¡¯re gathering outside! There¡¯s a lot of them!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how they found us here.¡±

    ¡°Why did you leave your post?¡± Reginus demanded, her hands on her hips. ¡°You¡¯re supposed to guard¡ª¡±

    ¡°Do you want us to die? Those PCM assholes are out for our blood!¡±

    ¡°And it¡¯s not like we just left,¡± replied another. ¡°We secured the doors with heavy chains and padlocks. Then we stacked as many crates as we could to block it.¡±

    ¡°But they¡¯ll soon break through!¡±

    ¡°Can you hear it?¡± one said, holding a finger to keep everyone quiet. ¡°There! The buzzing. They¡¯re cutting through the chains and forcing their way in!¡±

    ¡°Shit, we got to run,¡± Devyn said, pulling his arm out of Ramello¡¯s grip. ¡°This place got a backdoor or something? Hey, you!¡± He pointed at the Dawson employee he hit with a crowbar. ¡°Where can we escape?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ye-yes, we have a backdoor! Don¡¯t hurt me!¡± He told them how to get to it.

    ¡°Go! Go!¡± Devyn yelled, leading the SVS members to the back exit.

    Reginus looked down at the injured Dawson employees. ¡°What about these¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just leave them!¡± Mercator said, pushing her to follow the others. ¡°Come, Ram. We can¡¯t stay here. We don¡¯t know what the PCM will do to us.¡±

    Ramello balled his fist, digging his nails into his palm. Damn it! Did he really have no choice but to give up?

    His jaws were clenched, seething in anger, as he brought up the tail of their fleeing group. He lagged behind, still thinking whether he could hide in the warehouse and then continue searching after the PCM members had left. They would go after the SVS while he¡¯d be free to continue his search.

    This was his only opportunity to find evidence. After this, they¡¯d¡ª

    ¡°Ah! They¡¯re here!¡±

    ¡°They have the place surrounded!¡±

    ¡°Run, run back inside! Find a place to hide!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Ramello blurted out. He turned to his left just in time to see a two-by-four heading straight for his face.

    And everything went black.

    <hr>

    ¡°Ugh¡­whut?¡± Ramello groggily asked after a splash of cold water hit him.

    He shook his face to dry himself and found his mouth was stiff with something. He hissed in pain as he scrunched his nose to try to dislodge it. He couldn¡¯t. And he just made his entire face hurt.

    He reached for it with his tongue, and from the taste found out it was dried blood caking his mouth. His arms were tied behind his back so he couldn¡¯t wipe it off.

    ¡°And another one wakes up!¡± someone with a megaphone said.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± he mumbled. Even speaking was painful.

    All the SVS members were bound and thrown in the middle of a large circle of people.

    There must¡¯ve been more than fifty people surrounding them. Not just PCM members, but also those from other organizations based on the symbols they wore. Ramello was aware of these more radical groups because he encountered them recruiting members from the more problematic communities of the city where his foundation was having advocacy programs. Back then, he thought it was funny how fast gangs were being replaced by these groups over the past couple of months.

    It wasn¡¯t funny now that they were here.

    The crowd¡­no, the mob, was armed with bats, spiked pieces of wood, clubs, chains. They only lacked pitchforks and they¡¯d be a proper lynching mob. And instead of torches, they had cellphones to light up the night.

    He shook his head. I¡¯m fucked. We¡¯re all fucked.

    ¡°As you can see, we¡¯re fucked,¡± Devyn said, echoing his thoughts. Ramello finally got to see the man¡¯s face as his hockey mask was removed but he couldn¡¯t get a good look because it was swollen and also covered with blood.

    ¡°How did they find us?¡± Reginus said. ¡°Aw¡­my wrists hurt.¡±

    ¡°A traitor,¡± Devyn said, spitting blood on the ground. ¡°What else?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no traitor among us,¡± Reginus fiercely said. ¡°I¡¯m sure of it. My rituals made sure of¡ª¡±

    ¡°Fuck your rituals!¡±

    ¡°Now is not the time to fight amongst yourselves.¡± The man with the megaphone stepped out of the crowd. ¡°Now is the time for your trial¡­judgment¡­and execution.¡± The crowd cheered, waving their lit phones, clanging their crude weapons.

    Ramello¡¯s heart raced as he faced impending death.

    A way out! There has to be a way out!

    He scanned the vicious throng, looking for an opening. And then he met someone¡¯s eyes.

    Those eyes.

    He knew those eyes.

    He could never forget it for it was one of the memories he recalled from the day he was attacked.

    Red Hood was among the crowd, staring right at him.

 4.24

    ¡°You are accused of being Adumbrae sympathizers! Of being enemies of the good and honest people of our beautiful city! Of being traitors to humanity!¡± Megaphone Man¡¯s amplified voice could barely fight the racket of the crowd jeering and hurling insults at the SVS group.

    The SVS tried to defend themselves, arguing back, but the crowd just shouted them down. I couldn¡¯t make out what they were saying because yelling fuckshits surrounded me. Such a waste of time to argue anyway when everyone here was out for their blood.

    ¡°And now, we can add summoning an Adumbrae to the list of your crimes!¡± declared Megaphone Man.

    ¡°Just kill them already!¡± yelled the guy to my right, waving his phone in the air like he was in a concert.

    Sir, please. Move your sweaty armpits away. If those touched me, I was going to rip his arms off and jam them down his throat. This guy was wearing a tank top with dropped armholes like douchebags at the gym. How was he not feeling cold?

    ¡°They¡¯re all guilty!¡±

    ¡°No need for this trial!¡±

    There are a lot more people here than I expected. I was hemmed in once again by the pack; I had no choice but to wade through the crowd if I wanted to see what was going on. I thought they were supposed to be at the memorial for the victims of the Adumbrae attacks? Weren¡¯t they supposed to protest against the mayor?

    Everyone was so engrossed with their little modern-day witch hunt that they didn¡¯t notice me standing in their midst, suspiciously not joining in their festivities. And I already appeared super sketchy even though I did my best to disguise myself.

    Before I transformed, I took off my hoodie so it wouldn¡¯t get teleported to whatever dimension my original body poofed off to. Then I put it back on after becoming Blanchette to hide my distinct red clothes and trademarked animal ears on top of my hood. It was uncomfortably tight, especially around my chest, not only because I was wearing it on top of another hoodie, but because it was also a couple of sizes too small.

    This is all Deen¡¯s fault. I wanted to buy an oversized one when we shopped to make me appear nerdier and smaller, hence contributing to my timid persona. Plus, I could also use it as Blanchette, which was why I chose a generic design so it¡¯d be inconspicuous and hard to trace if someone saw me.

    Unfortunately, because I picked, in Deen¡¯s own words, a horrendously bland hoodie, she insisted I should, at the very least, buy the correct size.

    So, here I was in a very fitting hoodie. Guys could pull off this look¡ªEverett occasionally wore tight hoodies to show off his muscles to Deen¡ªbut it just looked unfashionable for girls, especially on me as Blanchette who was a bit on the top-heavy side.

    And to hide my very noticeable snout, I tore several strips off a rugged tarp covering the back of a truck, fashioning it into some sort of scarf. My makeshift scarf reeked of grease and gasoline. I dearly wished for the smell of gasoline to be stronger to mask the odor of the sweaty cellphone-waving PCM guy beside me.

    ¡°To have a fair trial since we are civilized people,¡± blared Megaphone Man, ¡°we need to prove the accusations before meting out penalties. For that, we call our first witness!¡± The crowd cheered as he beckoned for someone to come forward. ¡°A witness of the evil deeds of the SVS.¡±

    A couple of PCM members helped a limping man walk to the center of the circle. The people shone the lights of their cellphones on him like a spotlight. He wore a uniform of some kind with a logo, the same design I saw on the toppled gate of the compound. An employee working in these warehouses was my guess.

    ¡°Silence! Silence! Let us hear him speak,¡± said Megaphone Man. ¡°Good sir, did you witness these people perform a ritual inside the warehouse?¡±

    The warehouse worker was in a daze and pain, probably thinking everything around him was just a fevered dream. He hesitated before speaking on the megaphone. ¡°Ri-ritual? Ugh¡­I don¡¯t¡­I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Did these people tie you up?¡±

    ¡°Ye-yes¡­me and three others¡­¡±

    ¡°Did they hurt you?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­they hit me on the leg.¡±

    ¡°What other crimes did they commit?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­they also hit Morris¡­he¡¯s the guard¡­on the head¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh my, these accursed people are out of control. Anything else to add, my good sir?¡±

    ¡°Morris, he¡¯s unconscious. I think he needs an ambulance¡­ My leg is busted¡­you told me you¡¯ll bring us to the hospital if¡ª¡±

    ¡°And there you have it, people!¡± Megaphone Man interjected, waving the warehouse worker away. ¡°The SVS bound four people and beat them as part of their ritual to summon an Adumbrae inside that warehouse. They are the reason why there are many Adumbrae in our city¡ª¡±

    ¡°We were not doing anything like that!¡± Reginus shouted. She tried her best to stand up with bound feet. ¡°That¡¯s a lie¡ª!¡±

    ¡°¡ªthe blood of the many, many innocents who died are on their hands. They are pure evil, and evil must be purged from our city to return to¡ª¡±

    ¡°You got it all wrong! Stop making this all up!¡±

    ¡°Silence!¡± Megaphone Man strode over to Reginus and slapped her face. She fell on top of other SVS members. The crowd roared its approval. Reginus continued to argue so Megaphone Man kicked her. ¡°Silence! Order in the court! Order!¡± He stooped down to hit her with his megaphone, quite a move befitting his moniker I made up.

    One of the SVS guys put himself in front of her to shield her from the blows.

    Huh? Is that¡­?

    I thought the heroic dude who came to Reginus¡¯ aid was a member of her little club, but it turned out he wasn¡¯t. It was Ramello!

    Oh yeah, the PCM had him on their mini wanted list. I should¡¯ve expected this, but I was surprised he was here. What the hell was his connection to all of this? Did he join them?

    I racked my brains but couldn¡¯t come up with an explanation. I knew he wasn¡¯t one to sit back while his attackers roamed free, and he did tell me he was going after them. In his investigations, he must¡¯ve somehow stumbled across the SVS. But how that came about to be, I had no idea.

    Ramello was also talking back to Megaphone Man, but I couldn¡¯t pick out what he said. When transformed, hearing was included in my enhanced senses. Although I could now hear a lot of stuff I couldn''t before, I didn¡¯t have much practice filtering out all the noise and focusing on specific ones. My head just hurt from all the yelling, every sound just sort of rolling into one drone.

    ¡°We don¡¯t care about the words of Adumbrae sympathizers!¡± Megaphone Man replied. ¡°You don¡¯t have a right to defend yourselves!¡±

    I could guess what Ramello said. Typical law student trying to invoke his rights that¡¯d just lead to escalating a situation rather than defusing it. It earned him a megaphone smash to the face.

    Awesome, now I have the justification to intervene.

    More alleged witnesses were brought in to ¡®testify¡¯¡ªa couple of female employees. With a bit of time before the PCM ended this sham court and definitely execute the SVS people, I observed the crowd I would be going up against.

    Some of them were dressed even weirder than me, with all sorts of masks and costumes. They were mostly armed with baseball bats, hockey sticks, crowbars, chains, just random weapons. I knew several of them had guns, but there was no fun in just shooting to kill someone. If their goal was to make a spectacle and raise the morale of their group by hunting their ¡®enemy¡¯, then no better way than to beat someone to death.

    I couldn¡¯t let them do that to Ramello.

    If it was just the SVS, I wasn¡¯t sure I¡¯d save them in this situation. Yeah, they were making my Blanchette face look good to the public, so I figured I could help them if it was just a few guys bothering them. Maybe like beat up some PCM people so they could run away.

    But this? I¡¯d needed to rip through like fifty people for their sake. If these were all goons of the 2Ms, I¡¯d have no issue, but these were just normal¡­kinda¡­people.

    It wasn¡¯t a conscience thing¡ªI didn¡¯t even know how that shit worked. It was doing too much that might break Rule #4. Unbalancing the world and the like.

    Killing tons of 2M grunts was fine because we were enemies. These people, however, were just going about their business doing normal people stuff with barely any connection to me. Sure, they¡¯d be breaking the law by lynching SVS members, but that was a natural progression of their irrational fear of the Adumbrae.

    Just desperate people doing desperate things.

    Like how the camera crew of the Animal Channel I loved dearly as a child didn¡¯t intervene when a cute baby seal was eaten by a polar bear, I also wouldn¡¯t bother the world more than I needed to¡ªthe upper limit of Rule #4. In fact, the Animal Channel was as much of an influence in establishing Rule #4 as the wise words of my father.

    Invoking self-defense on behalf of Reginus and her gang was on shaky ground; I wasn¡¯t sure I could justify it with the Rules. Saving Ramello on the other hand? Very justified. He¡¯s my friend after all.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    Straining my ears, I heard Ramello invoking their constitutional right to counsel. Why was he trying to talk legalities with this bunch of insane mooks? This wasn¡¯t going to end well.

    ¡°Lawyer?¡± Megaphone Man said. ¡°You¡¯re saying you want a lawyer for due process? What do the people say?¡±

    The crowd booed him.

    Megaphone Man shook his head. ¡°People, people, we are a court of law, of fairness. We should give them a chance. And no, you¡¯re not going to defend yourself. I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re a law student, kid. We will get you professional help since you wanted fairness. Come here, Marty.¡±

    A man wearing a murderer clown mask, probably bought from a dollar general store with a discount on Halloween items since it was already February, hesitantly stepped forward, confused why he was called. The mob roared in laughter.

    ¡°Marty, the court appoints you as the lawyer for the accused. Any words before the court deliberate on the evidence presented?¡±

    Okay, I must admit this is pretty funny.

    They were going to make their judgment soon. If only the wheels of justice moved this fast in actuality, but this was more like wheels of injustice. Time to make my move. How should¡ª?

    ¡°This is the funniest shit I¡¯ve seen!¡± Armpit Guy eagerly videoed Marty the Clown mumbling nonsense for the crowd¡¯s amusement. He wasn¡¯t that tall so he needed to hold his camera high, bobbing up and down to get a good view. One shove from the people on his other side and he ended up colliding with me.

    Okay, we have a volunteer! I snarled as I grabbed his arm, savoring the satisfying crunch of his brittle bones. He screamed in surprise and pain. I violently swung Armpit Guy around like a crocodile trying to tear its prey apart. People around us fell like bowling pins. I dug my claws into his chest, hooking his ribs. Blood spurted out of his mouth as he continued screaming. With a firm grip on his torso, I tore his arm away.

    ¡°AAARGrghkk¡­Helppp!¡±

    Too noisy.

    I buried his arm down his mouth to shut him up.

    Oops, I didn¡¯t mean to do that. Story of my life so far tonight.

    It would''ve been better if he continued screaming to spread panic. I planned to rapidly strike fear into the hearts of these people so they¡¯d run away rather than fight me. I was positive I had no problems dealing with them, but an unlucky bullet from several guns shooting at the same time might stop me. And I also didn¡¯t want Ramello and the SVS to get injured in a crossfire.

    I hurled the lifeless body of Armpit Guy at Megaphone Man. He yelped in surprise and fell, struggling to disentangle himself from the mangled corpse. Marty the Clown exclaimed curses into the megaphone before dropping it in shock. Piercing feedback reverberated. That got the attention of the mob.

    The people around me were frozen in place, stunned by being bathed in the blood of their friend. I removed my scarf and bared my fangs at them, snapping my jaws, growling to scare them. They screamed and scrambled to get away. Nice. Now then, I¡¯d have less work¡ª

    ¡°Adumbrae! ADUMBRAE!¡± Megaphone Man frantically shouted, having found his trusty megaphone. ¡°The SVS really summoned an Adumbrae! Attack! Kill that Adumbrae!¡±

    The fleeing people stopped and then turned back to me.

    You can¡¯t be serious. Were these fuckers really going to¡ª?

    A man suddenly tackled me. I was surprised but didn¡¯t budge. I opened my mouth wide and bit his head that was buried between my boobs. Sir, no indecent behavior please, I thought as I closed my jaws. His head easily burst, blood and bits of brain splattering me and the rest of the crowd coming for me.

    The fuck was this? I just killed one of you!

    They threw themselves at me with no hesitation. Stabbing me with knives, clobbering me with bats, a giant wave of squishy humans trying to bury me with their weight.

    ¡°GRoarww!¡± A sweep of my claws and heads parted from their bodies. Another slash ripped open the chests of three people, their guts flying in the air. My punch smashed right through a man¡¯s skull. I drove my foot into one guy¡¯s stomach to kick him away, but I put too much strength that my foot just went through him. I flailed my leg in frustration, trying to fling the body away.

    ¡°KILL! Kill the Adumbrae the SVS summoned! Don¡¯t be afraid! The Mother Core is with us!¡±

    "Kill! Kill! Kill!" chanted the mob.

    They threw chains at me. I yanked them and whirled the chains around, smashing all the bodies it came into contact with. But they were relentless. Some managed to duck under the lashing chains and charged at me, others latched on the chains weighing it down, making me lose its momentum. I was dumbfounded by their insanity. Many were closing in on me again. I abandoned the chains and returned to my good old claws.

    ¡°GRrreaaow!¡±

    ¡°Kill! Kill!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t fear death! All Adumbrae must die no matter the cost!¡±

    So soft, everyone was so soft. One diagonal slash and my claws went through the bodies of four people. Two heads, a torso, and legs. No fighting style, no thought, just madly swiping everyone who came near. I was like a kid doing the helicopter punch strategy during recess fights.

    What the hell is this? Confusion swirled in my head as I ripped through dozens of people, snuffing out their lives with barely any effort, as anti-climactic as it got. They couldn¡¯t injure me enough to trigger my feral craving; werewolf Blanchette stayed silent inside me.

    All this carnage and I didn¡¯t feel any bloodlust at all. Boredom, yes. Astonishment at the craziness happening; I was in the middle of it but still couldn¡¯t believe it. Also annoyance at the blood soaking into my clothes. I have to throw away this hoodie, sorry Deen.

    ¡°¡ªshoot her!¡±

    ¡°¡ªwe might hit¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªfire! Fire! I don¡¯t care about the others!¡±

    From the chaotic cacophony, my ears pricked at the mention of shooting. I grabbed the people nearest me, a girl with a painted face and a guy wearing a bandana across his mouth. Pops of gunfire. I held the bodies up as shields, not knowing where the shooting was coming from. Many people dropped. I felt hot pain in my left leg.

    Anger bubbled up from deep within me, a surprising emotion from the eerie lull.

    Where¡¯s the prey that hit me?

    I charged like a raging bull at the people with guns, holding up corpses as shields and battering rams. I slammed into them, crushing them with their fellow PCM members. I shoved my claws into the pile of bodies, looking for the fuckers who attacked me.

    I needed to consume their flesh¡­eat them to heal myself.

    Eat them because they hurt me!

    STOP! Don¡¯t eat people, you stupid bitch.

    Sane Erind fought back. If I ate them, I might spiral out of control. Turning into a giant werewolf in the middle of the city was the last thing I wanted to do. And I had a mission here. I concentrated on my hearing while sending bodies flying.

    ¡°¡ªSVS are escaping¡ª!¡±

    ¡°¡ªcatch them¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªshoot them! They summoned an Adumbrae!¡±

    I cut through the crowd, looking for Ramello and the SVS, ignoring the weak humans trying to bludgeon me. They were no threat. Just a minor annoyance.

    The SVS was fighting their own battle. Ramello somehow managed to free himself and was untying the others while fending off the mob. I chucked body parts at people with guns to help out¡ªhey, I¡¯m getting good at this throwing thing.

    ¡°Run!¡± Ramello said while he fought with a PCM member for his hockey stick. He managed to win and waved the stick around to drive back the others. ¡°Run! I¡¯ll hold them!¡±

    Oh, come on. Don¡¯t do that heroic shit. I was supposed to save him, and now he was staying behind.

    I clambered over a couple of people, stepped on their heads, and jumped over the crowd towards Ramello. His eyes widened as I landed in front of him. I must¡¯ve presented a grisly sight having bathed buckets of blood and innards.

    ¡°You! I remember you,¡± he said, raising his hockey stick. ¡°Sta-stay awa¡ª¡±

    I wrested the hockey stick from him, then pointed it at the fleeing SVS people paired with a jerk of my head. That should be a clear sign to move along. He nodded and followed Reginus. A glint at the corner of my eye. A loud bang. I leaped to cover his back, getting hit with a strong blow around my mid-section. Ignoring the pain, I threw the hockey stick, butt-end first, at the guy with a shotgun, skewering him.

    Calm down, Erind. Insatiable hunger welled up inside me. Saliva dripped from the corners of my mouth. My stomach was messed up, a bunch of holes all over my abs, but the pain was barely on my mind compared to the anticipation of food.

    The shotgun guy wasn¡¯t dead yet, just twitching on the ground with a hockey stick through his stomach. I could go over there and have a bite...

    No!

    Fight back the urge! Just focus on defending the SVS while they fled.

    A mechanical whir to my right. A towering man, the biggest of the bunch I¡¯d seen so far, brought down a rotating saw blade machine upon me. This could be the same one that cut through the warehouse locks. I easily caught it, letting the blade bury an inch deep in my palm out of curiosity, before clamping it with my claws.

    So, this is how it feels like, I thought with a satisfied snarl. I then pulled it towards me.

    Thinking he could fight me with his laughable human strength, he didn''t let go and got dragged down. I grabbed his head and ended his life with a little squeeze. My claws pierce through his skull and into his brains. Blood burst out of all the orifices on his head.

    There, I no longer hungered for him because he was dead. And I got a new meatshield against guns. A pretty big one. Shotgun man also died from his wounds. Or maybe the incoming hoard trampled him.

    Either way, my cravings finally stopped.

    I held up my meatshield and readied myself for the next wave.

    Is this some fucking joke?

    I already killed so many of them. And they knew they couldn¡¯t do anything to me. I was getting more and more weirded out by the second. I always became uncomfortable when humans weren¡¯t behaving as expected, and that was a severe understatement in this situation. I knew people could radically change their behavior when joining like cults or something, but this was too extreme.

    Everything felt surreal.

    Was I was getting pranked on TV? Maybe some gag show was setting me up to think I was in the middle of a zombie infection outbreak. These fuckers were like zombies. But instead of running away, I was killing loads of people, so jokes on them, imaginary gag show.

    Could this be the work of an Adumbrae¡ª?

    ¡°Stop! Everyone stop!¡±

    I gazed up to my left. On top of a cargo freight container was Megaphone Man. How did he get up there so quickly?

    ¡°STOP! Stop attacking!¡± he commanded on his megaphone. My eyes widened when the remainder of the mob halted in their tracks in unison like they were being controlled.

    If that wasn¡¯t weird enough, beside the kneeling Megaphone Man stood a little boy who was holding him by the collar, forcing him down. The boy carried a humungous axe over his shoulder, its double-bladed head wider than his shoulders, its shaft a couple of feet longer than his body. The axe glowed a sickly green, fitting for the Halloween theme of the night. One look and I could tell there was something seriously wrong with it.

    Isn¡¯t that one of the kids I saw earlier? I was right, there was some sketchy shit was going on with the PCM!

    And it seemed I had a new enemy. Not sure if this little fuck was even human.

    The kid struggled a bit to raise the axe over his head but surprisingly managed to do so even if his tiny hands couldn¡¯t fully grasp the handle.

    This really looks like a gag show.

    Then he threw the axe at me.

 4.25

    Of all the times I decided to start dieting, I mused as I watched the hugeass axe hurtle through the air towards me, I end up in a situation where I should¡¯ve eaten. I raised my human corpse shield¡ªI doubted it would provide much protection¡ªand bent my knees, ready to jump out of the way. But I didn¡¯t move just yet. There was something wonky with the throw.

    Eh?

    It completely missed.

    By like a mile. Okay, okay, by like a couple of yards. It landed halfway between me and the currently dormant mob.

    I wasn¡¯t an expert on axes, but this one looked really weird. Not only was its head way too big, the shape was bizarrely very circular compared to what was common. It was like lollipop-inspired in design. A fucking ugly human face in mid-scream was sculpted on both faces of the axe head. It reminded me of those creepy paintings depicting the victims of Medusa, their expressions frozen in terror as they were turned to stone. Its bright green glow had receded, pooled into the eyes of the creepy faces.

    The axe just menacingly stood there¡ªI suppose ¡®stood¡¯ is a weird term to use for it-¡ªwith one side of its head buried a few inches into the ground, its long shaft standing high¡ªthere¡¯s an immature joke here somewhere. It reminded me of the Excalibur, but an axe instead of a sword. Nice analogy, Erind, I thought sarcastically.

    Stupid kid with his stupid throw.

    Was it too heavy for him? Or¡­?

    I squinted my eyes, holding my meatshield even higher, bracing for impact. One second, two, three¡­No explosion or anything? If it wasn¡¯t meant to hit me, I expected some sort of power, like an explosion or shockwave or whatnot, to come out. But nothing.

    So, that¡¯s it? Was this an axe giveaway?

    I gazed up to the little boy, wondering how he was going to retrieve his weapon now.

    He was gone. Only Megaphone Man remained on top of the freight container, lying unconscious while still holding his megaphone. The kid must¡¯ve hit him before leaving. Where did the little brat go?

    I warily scanned my surroundings. Light only came from one dim lamppost, a squat office building three warehouses away, and the Halloween-green axe. The mob was no longer using the lights of their cellphones or flashlights; they just stood as if in a trance, some slowly bleeding out to death. When in Blanchette form, I could see much more in the dark than my original body could, but I still wished I had the night-vision thingy of my Pino face.

    Total silence.

    I strained my ears for any signs of the boy¡¯s movement. No car horns or the distant sound of traffic. The wind was still. The people who were severely injured¡ªa number were missing limbs or had huge wounds courtesy of yours truly¡ªdidn¡¯t make sounds at all, not even a groan or a moan of pain. Eerie as hell.

    These guys had to be controlled by an Adumbrae to make them listen to the words of Megaphone Man¡ªI didn¡¯t think he was an Adumbrae, but that boy surely was.

    Or not.

    I hadn¡¯t heard of children becoming Adumbrae; their brains weren¡¯t developed enough to understand the concept of agreeing with an Adumbrae, whatever that meant. My father told me about it when I asked him what was going on after watching an Adumbrae seeding outbreak on the news, but I couldn¡¯t remember much of the technical aspect of his explanation. What I did recall was that kids couldn¡¯t let Adumbrae into our world, so he told me I shouldn¡¯t be scared¡ªnot that I was scared back then, just mildly interested like I was watching my favorite Animal Channel except with humans and Adumbrae.

    I¡¯d bet my¡­well, I couldn¡¯t really bet anything because I lost all my stuff in the fire¡­I¡¯d bet the clothes Deen bought for me that this was the fucking 2Ms again. Some new form of that freaking parasite? They could control the monsters with some sort of signal from a metal box; perhaps they were similarly controlling these guys. Parasites would also explain why the kid was super strong.

    I slowly backed away in the direction where Ramello and the SVS gang had fled while keeping the axe in view. I intended to fight here for a bit to give them time to gain distance and hide before bailing myself. Now, where was that stupid kid going to attack from?

    Seconds ticked by with nothing happening. With the lull, I began to notice the smell of death¡ªtoo melodramatic¡ªthe smell of blood rather. The bodies were freshly killed, so no rotting odor, only the raw earthy musk of scattered innards and the overpowering irony stench of blood, further amplified by my strong sense of smell. I wiped the blood off my snout. I just couldn¡¯t find the upside to enhanced smelling sense. Curiously, I somehow didn¡¯t find this nauseating. Maybe because this was my handiwork?

    Wait a minute¡­

    Did that brat just leave me and run after the SVS instead?

    Fuck, I¡¯ve been had! Snarling, I dropped the corpse I carried and turned around. I was about to bolt after the SVS when I looked over my shoulder to check the axe one last time. But why would the kid leave his weapon here? This looked valuable.

    Just left there¡­all alone¡­

    I kind of wanted to take it.

    It should be easy to carry with my super strength; I was certainly stronger than that little kid. But wouldn''t it be too cumbersome? What was I going to do with an axe anyway?

    I could do a lot with an axe. Ever-trusty videos on the internet could give me some ideas. And I didn¡¯t need to do anything with it really; it was enough I had an axe. If it was too heavy, I could return for it later after I chased¡­who was I chasing again?

    Better get this axe now so I could already go my way chasing whoever it was I was supposed to chase. No one wanted the axe anyway, so might as well get it. It was fun to have an axe. Everyone had an axe; it¡¯d be weird if I didn¡¯t have an axe¡ª

    I punched myself as hard as I could. My head shook, my fangs grated against each other as my fist hit my cheek. I tasted my own blood. ¡°Graawrrooar.¡± What the fuck was that?! I held my head. Tons of nonsense thoughts in my mind convincing me to take the axe. Good thing I was able to sneak in a command to punch myself.

    My head hurts, both from the intrusive thoughts and my own punch. I better get out of here so I could think more clearly.

    (Hey¡­)

    A voice inside my head.

    (Hey there¡­can you hear me?)

    I growled. Oh, come on. What the fuck was this bullshit?

    (Come take me¡­take the axe¡­don¡¯t leave me.)

    No, thank you, Mr. Axe. There it was, the secret of this stupid axe and why the kid just plopped it here. It felt like wading through muck just trying to leave it behind. I wanted to look at it to check what was happening, but sane Erind was fighting back to protest that it was a bad idea.

    ¡°I want the axe!¡±

    Huh? Who said that? One of the PCM idiots?

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°That axe is mine!¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s mine, you bastard. Go away¡ª¡±

    ¡°Fuck you all. Let go! I¡¯ll kill¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªargh! Piece o¡¯ shit, ass¡ª¡±

    In my peripheral vision, I saw the crowd had moved again, fighting one another for the control of the axe. It seemed like I wasn¡¯t the only one who heard its voice. Suddenly, the oppressive force that was enticing me to join the scramble for the axe vanished. I panted, realizing that I was holding my breath for several seconds.

    ¡°I got it!¡±

    ¡°Wha-what¡¯s happening?¡±

    ¡°Oh my god! There are so many dead people. Is that Jeremy¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Call the police! Call the¡ª¡±

    ¡°Help! I¡¯m hurt¡ª!¡±

    Feeling that the threat of whatever mind control bullshit had passed, I let my curiosity get the better of me and turned to the axe and the PCM members.

    They were all in disarray, running this way and that, seemingly having just awoken from being controlled, and seeing for the first time the carnage that was around them¡­or happened to them. Those injured called for help, crawling on the floor, hugging their severed limbs. A guy was trying to hold together his slashed stomach, still in shock that his intestines were hanging outside his body. The one beside him was shaking with his limbs twisted like pretzels.

    Many were freaking out from being covered in blood and guts. Several had fainted. A couple had the presence of mind to call for help on their phones. Others were actually pretty level-headed and tried to do whatever they could for the injured. I raised my brow at someone who was trying CPR on a headless corpse; okay, maybe that guy wasn¡¯t as level-headed as the others.

    Note to self, don¡¯t kill normal humans if I can help it.

    The aftermath was unavoidable drama, and I didn¡¯t like drama except if I caused it for emotional manipulation purposes. I mean¡­I did cause this, but not for manipulating anyone. I found this as awkward as waiting for everyone to stop singing ¡®Happy Birthday¡¯ to me.

    Amid the chaos stood a woman.

    The woman who won the axe.

    Let¡¯s call her Axe Lady. I was having fun with naming everyone tonight.

    Surprising that she was the one who emerged victorious given she was only a couple of inches taller than my height as Erind and just as petite. She sported a bloody broken nose and a puffy cut lip. Patches of her long hair were ripped off her scalp. Her clothes were torn, wounds all over her body, the price she paid to get possession of the axe. And now that she had it, her eyes glowed the same creepy green as the axe.

    Some of the people around her, previously fellow competitors in the axe contest, noticed something was wrong with her and crawled away as fast as they could despite their injuries.

    Axe Lady looked at me. Our eyes met.

    I grabbed the broken saw machine near me and flung it at her with all my might.

    A whistle.

    The wind kicked up dust.

    The saw machine broke into four pieces.

    I managed to see the first slice, but could barely discern the second one. And she did it with that humongous axe without snagging the injured people near her with the wide swings. Ladies and gentlemen, a prime example of someone I should stay the fuck away from.

    Bye, I thought as I sprinted off. I leaped up the side of the nearest warehouse when I heard the whistle of her swing. I climbed up as fast as I could and then looked down. She hadn¡¯t moved from her spot but she did raise her axe. That gave me a jolt; I thought she moved so fast she was already right behind me.

    Searing pain in my left calf. A red line appeared; blood seeped out. The wound widened as if it was a mouth breaking into a huge smile, and in a second there was a huge gash that nearly reached my bone.

    ¡°Rwaa!¡± I yelped both in pain and surprise. How the fuck did she get me?

    Another whistle.

    I immediately rolled left, avoiding a gust of wind sweeping up the part of the roof where I was a split-second earlier. There was no trace of any damage until one of the huge fan ventilator thingies further up simply exploded. Like a scissor smoothly gliding through a piece of paper, a cut opened up on the roof where the gust of wind hit.

    More whistles.

    I rolled right and dropped down the hole into the warehouse. As I fell, I watched the rest of the roof get stripped away as if a powerful tornado was passing by.

    Oof!  Wooden crates broke my fall. Or rather, I broke the crates. I also squished their contents. Fucking cans of¡­sardines by the smell of it. I was now covered with guts, blood, and sardine oil.

    I extracted myself from the crates and lost myself in the maze of cabinets and containers. With my hands stretched in front of me, I tried to find a hiding spot, barely making out where I was going. This would be utter darkness for a normal human.

    A crash followed by several loud noises.

    Footsteps. Steel dragged across the floor.

    She¡¯s here!

    I dropped down and crawled, keeping myself as low as I could. I went inside this warehouse rather than continue running outside because Axe Lady could just easily hit me with this wind-blade-whatever power she had. My fight with Mr. Ogre back at Eve taught me running didn¡¯t automatically mean being able to evade everything like in the movies; I got hit with bullets back then, I certainly didn¡¯t want to get hit by the power of this axe now. I already knew it could easily dice me.

    My wounded calf throbbed as it stitched itself back together. My powers kicked it. Increased healing, more strength¡­strength to kill the one who hurt me. To eat her. That fucking bitch! I was going to bite her head off!

    Calm down, you idiot, I scolded myself. There was no way I could get near enough for a bite without getting sliced into pieces. I beat back the urge to snap my jaws and savor the power of my muscles. I had to be as quiet as possible. Focus so I wouldn¡¯t bump into shit and give away my location.

    Fwoom! CRASSHH!

    As expected, she let loose gusts of wind in a random direction hoping to hit me.

    Fwoom! FWOOM!

    That one was a bit too close for comfort. It was just the next aisle over. I crawled faster.

    From her footsteps, I could tell where she was going. And I went the other way, specifically towards the hole she made to enter the warehouse. I could tell where it was because of the sound of the wind and the smell of open air. Wow, I was getting good at using my senses. Good thing Axe Lady didn¡¯t have the same abilities or she would¡¯ve already found me by following the scent of blood and canned sardines.

    She went deeper into the warehouse, destroying more stuff, while I was already by the exit. Hopefully, she¡¯d waste time trying to search the warehouse so I could safely run away. I also bought time for Ramello and the SVS.

    Lots of whistling, almost like a choir of flutes, accompanied by destruction.

    Good luck there, Axe Lady. Adios! I hopped outside and bolted. I was off to find the little boy.

    Knives? Baseball bats? Should I pick up some weapons? I passed through the dead bodies of PCM members. How about guns? Nah, I couldn¡¯t shoot with my huge claws. And I didn¡¯t want to waste time looking for guns in this field of corpses.

    There was something snake-like up ahead that glinted from the meager light of the lamppost. Oh, the chain!

    I hurried over to it and coiled it over my shoulder. It was sleek with blood but I didn¡¯t mind it. Throwing shit at Axe Lady would be fruitless unless I caught her off-guard, but this chain could probably entangle the axe so I could pull it away from her.

    ¡°A fucking monster!¡± yelled a PCM guy on the ground. He gave me quite the shock as I assumed was dead. ¡°Adumb¡ª¡± I stomped his head to shut him up.

    But it was too late. Other people were screaming as well. They ran away from me. I followed them. Axe Lady was going to be out here soon.

    The whistle! Down or to the side?

    I dove for the ground and pressed my body down as flat as I could. A gust passing overhead confirmed I made the right choice. Too bad for the other people¡ªHuh? No one was chopped up. The wind dissipated? Could it be?

    From my position on the ground, I ran on all fours. A wind blade raked my left side, shaving a chunk off my shoulder. I roared in pain just as I caught up to the nearest PCM guy who was limping away. I grabbed him, turned around, and presented the pleading guy in front of me. I defiantly faced the Axe Lady.

    She didn¡¯t swing down her axe.

    Hehehe, I was right. She was intentionally avoiding hitting these people. I also noticed it earlier when she swung her axe and didn¡¯t hit a single person even though many were near her. Not sure why she was doing this. Woah, was she the good guy? So, that made me the bad guy?

    Oh well, whatever it took to survive.

    I grinned, which was more like baring my fangs. What are you going to do now, bitch?

    She smirked and charged at me.

 4.26

    Oh shit! She¡¯s not stopping.

    ¡°Help me!¡± cried out my hostage. ¡°An Adumbrae got me!¡±

    No one was dumb enough to come to his aid. The fucking guy tried to pry my fingers off his neck but couldn¡¯t. He then tried to kick and elbow me, so I shook his body to make him stop, and to emphasize to the Axe Lady she might hit him. She didn¡¯t slow down.

    Some of the survivors¡ªsurvivors of my earlier killing spree, ehem¡ªran into the narrow passageway between two warehouses. I followed them in, the chains coiled around my shoulder jiggling as I ran. They screamed in terror.

    ¡°Oh, my god! Help!¡±

    ¡°Mother Core, please save¡ª¡±

    ¡°Where are the police? The BID?¡±

    Chill out, I thought, their shrill shrieks prickling my hypersensitive hearing, I¡¯m not going to hurt you. I was just going to use them as human shields.

    They froze as I blew past them, my hostage in tow, expecting to get hit. But I didn¡¯t bother with them, instead getting to the other end of the alley before they could exit. With me blocking their front, and the Axe Lady coming up from behind, the seven cornered people despaired. One guy stupidly held up his fists in a fighting stance. A couple hugged each other while crying. The rest stuck to the walls, probably praying they had the power to phase through, or just stood still, waiting for the end.

    Axe Lady leaped up and bounced on the walls like a freaking ninja, avoiding the people between us. I raised my hostage overhead like an umbrella so she couldn¡¯t slash me from above.

    ¡°Ple-please don¡¯t kill me!¡± he begged the descending Axe Lady.

    She did a physics-defying mini-somersault in mid-air and landed behind me.

    I didn¡¯t have the time to be amazed; I didn¡¯t even turn around. As soon as I heard her feet touch the ground, I propped up my hostage, leaving him standing, and ducked as low as I could. It was as if someone pushed the remote button for slow-motion as I concentrated on all my senses, feeling the wind, keenly listening to every sound, observing the slightly darker shadows moving on the ground.

    Right!

    I scooted right just as the axe came down, cracking the ground with its force. I was face to face with its ugly head sculpture. My gaze dropped down and saw that it cut off the end of my left boot¡­including my toes! ¡°Rrrwaa¡ª!¡±

    My yelp was cut short as the axe raked across the floor, shoving me to the side. I dove away from the Axe Lady before she could pin me against the wall. All of that happened in a couple of seconds.

    ¡°Wai-what? What was that?¡± said my temporarily free hostage, not knowing what went on behind him and how close he was to getting sliced. When he saw me roll beside him, it clicked in his frightened brain I wasn¡¯t holding him. ¡°Aaah!¡±

    He tried to run, but I grabbed his leg.

    I scrambled to stand up, holding my hostage upside down by his ankle before Axe Lady could land her strike. She was somehow able to stop the momentum of her creepy hugeass axe mid-swing. I still felt the gust from her powerful attack blow over me. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t that whistle-bullshit-wind-blade-cheat-skill.

    She took a couple of steps back, analyzing the situation.

    A moment to breathe. I rearranged the chains I carried so I wouldn¡¯t get entangled. The pain from my injuries also caught up with me. Tch, if only I could get a bite. The feral rage deep within was yelling to eat her.

    I was hoping in this cramped space I could somehow get inside her guard and sneak a tiny chomp. But it was too risky. Her control of the giant axe was insane. I noticed she sliced through the jacket of my hostage but didn¡¯t wound his skin. I had purposely let him go to see how much control she had, like if she¡¯d nick him a bit while trying to hit me. She really didn¡¯t want to hurt these humans.

    ¡°My god, is that Beth? Why does she have an¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Her eyes are glowing!¡±

    ¡°Wha-what the hell¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°Run! Everyone fucking run while they¡¯re¡ª¡±

    Oh no, you don¡¯t. I tried to head off survivors once again, seizing whoever I could to have more hostages.

    A greenish glint was my only warning. I pulled back my arm that was an inch from grabbing a woman before it got chopped off. Up and down the axe came. I wanted to stop the other PCM members from running away, but I had to fully concentrate on keeping myself in one piece. I realized I only needed to watch out for vertical slashes because the space was too small¡ªno!

    Axe Lady swung her axe sideways, cutting into the walls of the warehouse, aiming around my chest. I shifted my hostage to the left. She pulled back her strike. Then she twirled around and the axe came in another direction.

    ¡°Run!¡± It was Axe Lady who said that. ¡°All of you run away while I hold this Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Beth, is that still you?¡± cried my lone hostage. ¡°Save me! For the Mother Core¡¯s sake, please¡ªAaah!¡± He yelled as I used him to stop another slash.

    I kept on trying to get another hostage, but Axe Lady, who was apparently called Beth, stopped all my attempts. Annoying, bitch. The crowd fled back out in the open.

    No! come back, my meatshields! I still tried to stick with them, but Beth, the Axe Lady, was unrelenting. She chased me in their midst, slashing with such precision and finesse that the huge axe, which was bigger and wider than my torso, didn¡¯t hit anyone.

    ¡°Run away, guys! Spread out!¡± They followed her instructions and ran in different directions.

    For a second, I stood still, my brain ground to a halt picking which way to go. A slash came from an angle covered by my hostage¡¯s body. The axe bit into my hip, driving into my pelvic bone. It was my hostage being in the way that stopped it from cutting deeper.

    ¡°GHRAAR!¡± I roared, shoving my hostage into the blade. Axe Lady yanked her weapon away to save the guy. I then tried to chase the couple who were still crying and hugging each other, but the axe came down in front of me.

    I went the other way and was once again met by the axe. This bitch was herding me! One hostage wasn¡¯t enough for my safety. Then I heard a small, distinct crack. My eyes honed on one of her arms holding the axe. It was reddish-purple.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    Internal bleeding! Just like what happened to me when I was practicing hysterical strength. And that was probably a fractured bone about to pierce through her flesh.

    She saw that I saw.

    Our eyes met once again.

    She scowled.

    I threw my hostage at her to block her vision. In one smooth move, I uncoiled the chains around my shoulders and whipped it at her legs.

    ¡°Beth! Thank the Mother Core that you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Get away, damn¡ªit!¡±

    I pulled the chains just as its end wrapped around her legs. She tried to attack but I swung her round and round like I was in an Olympic hammer throw competition. Don¡¯t stop swinging, I fervently urged myself. I was tempted to smash her into a building or on the ground, but I might accidentally untangle the chains.

    WHAM!

    She somehow managed to swing her axe on the ground to anchor herself. I lurched and nearly toppled when she stopped my swing.

    ¡°Rrrwwaaa!¡± Oh no, you don¡¯t! I pulled with all my might.

    She didn¡¯t let go of the axe even if her joints were about to get dislocated, her muscles stretched past their limits. I could literally hear her body getting stretched like some kind of medieval torture. The axe was suddenly uprooted. I swung her helicopter-style once again.

    The next time she¡¯d attempt to anchor herself, I¡¯d yank her away so fast she¡¯d let go of the axe. If she wasn¡¯t going to do that, I¡¯d just continue swirling her until the muscles of her arms were torn from the weight of the axe.

    I was getting dizzy. I tightened my abs, clamped my jaws tight, and breathed as shallowly and rapidly as I could to stave off vomiting.

    I was spinning so fast and with so much force I was on the verge of going off-balance. My foot missing its front third part didn¡¯t help. I could feel the strain on my muscles as the weight on the end of the chain, the Axe Lady, and ultimately her axe, gradually felt heavier and heavier because of centrifugal force or some shit¡ªI dunno, I already forgot about science stuff from school.

    What if the chain broke?

    No, her arms were going to give way first. Last time I checked¡ªokay, I didn¡¯t really check¡ªbut I was positive human flesh was easier to cut than chains. Just a bit more, just a bit¡ªthe weight suddenly became so much lighter.

    I spun out of control and tumbled on the ground, the chain whipping around like a tornado. I didn¡¯t know where Beth¡¯s body bounced off to.

    Finally, I thought. She let go of¡ªwait! I picked myself up and frantically searched where the axe went. It hit the cabin of a cargo truck near the stack of freight containers. That was fine as long as no one else could pick it up.

    Someone tumbled out of the cargo truck. A man who had a bloody stump for an arm wrapped with his shirt. He grabbed the handle of the axe with one hand and dislodged it from the truck¡¯s hood.

    There was a round two? I turned around to find the body of Beth, the former Axe Lady and rushed over to her. Bitch, she purposely threw the axe in that direction.

    I placed my hand on her chest. Still alive.

    Arm or leg? She¡¯d probably choose to save her leg if she was conscious. I bit the side of her arm, avoiding the bone out of consideration. Something didn¡¯t feel right. I swallowed, and a wave of nausea hit me.

    ¡°Blreegh!¡± I regurgitated the piece of Beth''s flesh. I was expecting to be satiated by eating her, to activate my power and get stronger, but there was just extreme disgust that dissipated my appetite. Then it dawned on me.

    It¡¯s the axe¡­

    Axe Lady wasn¡¯t the one who hurt me; she¡¯d never fulfill the conditions for my power no matter how much I ate her. It was that stupid axe all along. How the fuck do I eat that thing? This just meant I had no way of becoming stronger by eating.

    And there was only one way of defeating it.

    Make sure no one is alive to use it.

    I heaved the dying Beth on my shoulders. Hopefully, the stupid axe could sense she was still alive and avoid hitting her. I went to get some knives strewn amongst the corpses. The new Axe Man chased me. He dragged his weapon behind him with only one hand; he was definitely slower than when Beth wielded it.

    I threw the knives at him. He stopped and whipped up the axe as a shield. I charged towards him. The knives bounced harmlessly off the axe. I slammed into the face of the axe, pushing him with the momentum of my charge.

    Push! Push Push!

    I shoved him as fast as I could towards the door of the nearest warehouse, not giving him a moment to get out of the way. ¡°HRWAAAR!¡± You tried to do this to me, you fuck! I pinned him against the door. Then I punched the face of the axe, squishing him behind it.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    I alternated slamming against with the axe with my shoulder and punching it. Blood sprayed from behind it, splattering all over the warehouse door. There were squishing sounds, bones cracking. I didn¡¯t stop until I was sure the man on the other side of the axe was dead.

    I retreated a few yards away, letting the axe fall to the ground. Plastered all over the wall was the fleshy pancake that was the Axe Man. I also let Beth¡¯s body slide off my shoulder and down to the ground. Her eyes bulged out of her pinched head. She wasn¡¯t moving; I might¡¯ve squeezed her to death too while slamming against the axe. Okay, I also really didn¡¯t mean to do this.

    I was panting. My shoulder was dislocated, my arm was broken. It was going to heal, no worries. And it was all worth it. I could¡¯ve just run away after Beth let go of the axe.

    But I just wanted to win.

    And man, did it feel so fucking good.

    Now¡­it¡¯s over.

    Or not.

    The little boy dropped from the roof of the warehouse and picked up the axe. Was he watching us the entire time? That meant Ramello and the SVS were safe. No way I was going to stay here and fight¡ª

    ¡°Don¡¯t blame me,¡± the boy said. I raised my brow. ¡°People always go after me thinking you¡¯re my power even if you¡¯re not. That¡¯s why I don¡¯t want to stay while you fight.¡±

    He¡¯s talking to the axe, I realized.

    ¡°Only two people dead, that¡¯s not too bad. I just don¡¯t understand why you try so hard to¡ªwhatever.¡± The kid shook his head disapprovingly. ¡°And why were you trying to kill her?¡±

    The kid paused as if listening to something. Was the axe legit talking to him? How was that possible? What was this axe?

    ¡°Oh well, that doesn¡¯t matter now. We already have what we need¡ªwhat? What do you mean?¡± He turned to me, curiously looking me over. I was ready to run. ¡°I see¡­That¡¯s not our agenda. We need to talk to the others first. Our business for tonight is done.¡± The kid sort of saluted me, the kind of greeting drivers do when passing a police officer along the road. Then he jumped away into the night and left me alone.

    Hmmm, I don¡¯t know what was that all about.

    <hr>

    I tilted Megaphone Man¡¯s head to the left. He had a bruise on his temple. He wasn¡¯t dead, just unconscious. His wound wasn¡¯t healing. A normal human. The megaphone was suspiciously missing though, the one he used to control the crowd. I recalled he did bring it up here on top of this freight container.

    The kid wanted that? I mean he already got it, so why throw the axe at me? It seemed like they were buying time for something else. And that axe seriously wanted to kill me, or at least hurt me bad.

    Sirens. Quite far from here.

    Those should be the police called by the PCM members. I¡¯ve been hearing them for about a minute now, but they didn¡¯t seem to be getting nearer. Weird. Maybe they weren¡¯t coming here.

    But where?

    The hospital?

    Something must¡¯ve happened there. I just remembered my phone was in another dimension so I wouldn¡¯t know if Deen was calling me. If she did call but wasn¡¯t able to contact me, she¡¯d freak the fuck out. I better get out of here and transform back. Ramello and the SVS should be already safe. But first thing¡¯s first, I should get rid of my bloody hoodie.

    Phew, what a night.

 4.27 - Amber Deen

    Amber Deen

    Amber Deen stared at her reflection on the stainless-steel surface of the elevator button panel. At the corner of her eye, she could see Gabe, the Guardian Angel, lazily floating somewhere to her right side. It didn¡¯t have its own reflection.

    [I would go to the fourth floor if I were you.]

    Thanks for that, she thought, pressing the correct button.

    Dario, also known as ''Blank'' since they were on a mission, raised an eyebrow at her. She gave him a nod to confirm it was the instructions of her Guardian Angel. Then she scooted to the wall because she was weirded out by the stuttering and shuddering man in the middle of the elevator¡ªa doctor of the hospital who entered just before the doors closed.

    The doctor immediately spotted something was wrong with their disguise, leaving Blank no choice but to incapacitate him. He placed his hand on the nape of the doctor¡¯s neck and used his power. Deen hoped it wouldn¡¯t leave any lasting effects on the poor doctor.

    Admittedly, their disguise wasn¡¯t particularly good. They had to make do with what they could prepare on short notice. Blank procured a couple of scrubs for them to wear; these were kind of the same shade of green as that used by the hospital, although closer scrutiny would show they were a cheaper variety. The ones they wore didn¡¯t even have embroidered hospital logos; this was what the shaking doctor beside her noticed right away.

    That was on top of the two of them already looking weird.

    Both of them wore wigs to hide their blonde hairs; they also wore medical masks to hide their faces. To add to their height, they placed two-inch-thick insoles inside their shoes. A couple of layers of bulky clothing underneath their baggy scrubs changed their figures a bit. Blank explained this would make it harder for anyone reviewing the security camera footage later to get an accurate description of their body shapes for investigation.

    It was just added precaution. If everything went well, no one was going to check the cameras anyway.

    As the elevator went up, Deen prayed to the Mother Core that her Guardian Angel wasn¡¯t making a mistake. She wasn¡¯t that religious, but she did believe the Mother Core was a higher being that protected humanity. And wasn¡¯t her power supposed to be made from an actual Core?

    They couldn¡¯t distract the people at the front desk and search the computer terminal for Julie''s room because cops were stationed there. Left with no other leads, they decided to trust the Guardian Angel in finding Julie. After all, it found Ramello¡¯s room inside a hospital before.

    Blank pressed the button for the topmost floor just as they were about to arrive on the fourth floor. ¡°So, our friend will be on his way,¡± he explained.

    They alighted and left the doctor inside. Deen heard him mumble, ¡°Wha-what? What¡¯s¡­going on?¡± before the doors closed and the elevator went up.

    Blank grabbed her arm and steered her into the left-wing, away from the nurse¡¯s station in front of the elevators. The two nurses there paid them no mind. One had his back turned to them, checking something in the cabinets. The other nurse was focused on her computer.

    Gabe was silent.

    Deen warily glanced at the security camera at the end of the hallway. As the two of them turned the corner, they ran into a couple of cops who were patrolling. She hugged the metal clipboard she carried close to her chest to hide her lack of a hospital logo.

    Blank nodded at them. ¡°Everything quiet here, officer?¡±

    ¡°Nuthin¡¯ much going on,¡± said the gruff cop with a greying beard. "No one ''ere but us."

    ¡°And Luis doing his rounds,¡± added the young cop who looked like he was fresh out of police academy. ¡°I think he went to the other side of the floor.¡±

    ¡°The nurse? You know his name?¡±

    His partner shrugged. ¡°Was chatting with him ¡®cause he was stressed they aren¡¯t allowed to go home, and that his family might get harassed because he works here. You know, the whole deal with being assigned to Adumbrae victims?¡±

    ¡°True that,¡± grumbled the older cop. ¡°We¡¯re all on the same boat here.¡± He turned to Blank. ¡°I thought it¡¯s¡­um, Luis, yeah. Isn¡¯t it Luis and that Chinese wom¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Her name¡¯s Mella, and I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s Chinese.¡±

    ¡°Asian, wud do I know? Aren¡¯t those two doing the rounds here?¡±

    ¡°Dr. Sean Crawford told us to check something.¡± Blank held up a folder full of scraps of paper; it was just a prop. ¡°He went up the elevator just now. You can confirm with him later.¡± Deen was surprised he had the foresight to check the doctor¡¯s nameplate.

    ¡°Bah, no need. We dun wanna hassle you guys further. Already stressful enough as is.¡±

    ¡°True, true,¡± Blank laughed, nodding at Deen.

    She chuckled with him. It came off a bit forced.

    It was weird seeing him laugh; it didn¡¯t quite reach his piercing steel eyes. Having his mouth covered while he made laughing sounds with deadly serious eyes was eerie. The cops didn¡¯t seem to mind as they passed between them, going to the hallway leading to the elevator. Blank held up his finger to signal her to stay. She raised a brow at him. He cocked his head in their direction. The footsteps of the cops faded. Everything was silent.

    ¡°They didn¡¯t stop by the nurse station to ask about us. Did your Guardian Angel say anything?¡±

    ¡°No, why?¡±

    ¡°I was just wondering¡­you didn¡¯t join in chatting with the police officers. I thought it said something to you.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Um, that¡¯s why I didn¡¯t say anything. Because it also didn¡¯t say anything.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that too restrictive of an interpretation?¡± he said. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you assume that if it¡¯s silent, then you¡¯re free to do most of everything and not mess up anything? You could¡¯ve done a cartwheel in front of those cops and I¡¯m sure nothing bad would¡¯ve happened. Your Guardian Angel would¡¯ve told you otherwise beforehand.¡±

    Deen frowned. She understood what he was trying to say, but she still didn¡¯t agree. ¡°I don¡¯t think cartwheeling¡ª"

    ¡°My example was just an exaggeration. Take what happened when we stepped out of the elevator. Our choices were either to go right or left. We went left because I instinctively preferred left as I am left-handed. Your Guardian Angel didn¡¯t say anything, which meant it was right¡ª¡®right¡¯ as in correct.

    ¡°Then we met the cops. You didn¡¯t warn me about anything beforehand, like telling me to ¡®keep quiet¡¯ for example, so I assumed I should talk to them. The Guardian Angel looks at future possibilities, doesn¡¯t it? My future possibilities should mostly be me, acting¡­as me. Ten out of ten times I would¡¯ve talked to those cops to avoid suspicion, which was why I did it without you telling me to do it. See what I mean?¡±

    ¡°I¡­yes. I haven¡¯t thought of it that way before.¡±

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    ¡°Just keep that in mind. Moving on, the fourth floor has semi-private wards. I suppose we¡¯ll have to check each one of these rooms quickly. We have seven minutes left.¡±

    ¡°Around that, yes.¡± Deen could feel that Gabe could look about ten minutes into the future¡ªmaybe it was increasing now as her powers developed.

    When Gabe told her to go to the fourth floor when she thought of looking for Julie, it didn¡¯t simply point them in the right direction, it was essentially saying it picked a future wherein it saw that they reached Julie safely¡ªwhich should be about ten minutes from the time it told her to go to the fourth floor.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll take this side of the hallway,¡± Blank said. ¡°You got her picture that Johann printed out?¡±

    ¡°Yep. Here, attached to my clipboard.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s find her then. Be fast, but don¡¯t be suspiciously too fast. We don¡¯t know if security guards are watching the cameras. They usually don¡¯t, but prudence is a virtue.¡±

    ¡°Got it.¡± She reached the first double doors on her side of the hallway. She peeked through the windows on the doors to check the room even though the cops did say the nurse assigned here was doing rounds in the other wing. Prudence.

    The beds were separated by curtains; she wouldn¡¯t know if someone other than the patients was inside.

    Gabe will tell me if there¡¯s a problem, she reminded herself. She strode in with the confidence that she worked here. The lights were dimmed because the patients were asleep, but it was still bright enough that she could make out their faces. The six female patients were too old to be Julie.

    ¡°Is this the female side of the floor?¡± she muttered, finding the next room with six more female patients, all asleep as well. If it was, Gabe really did take into account Blank going left as soon as they exited the elevator. Julie wasn''t here either.

    After a couple more rooms, she found Blank waiting for her in the hallway. He pointed at a door. ¡°I found her,¡± he said.

    ¡°Oh, that was fast.¡±

    ¡°Barb also messaged me that she and Emcee are okay. They are just going to check out something.¡± He pushed open the door for her. ¡°The last bed,¡± he whispered.

    ¡°Thank goodness everyone here is asleep too.¡±

    ¡°Shhh.¡±

    Deen shone her phone¡¯s light on Julie¡¯s picture on her clipboard, and compared it with the brunette girl sleeping on the bed next to the window¡ªJulie was just a teen so it was correct to call her a girl, but it made Deen realize she was getting older. She scrunched her nose a bit at the thought.

    Blank questioningly tilted his head. Deen nodded hers to agree it was indeed Julie. He put a finger on his lips to indicate keeping silence, then pointed at the door. She understood he meant for her to stand guard. As she tiptoed back to the door, careful not to wake the other patients, she glanced over her shoulder and saw him putting his hands on Julie¡¯s forehead.

    She watched the empty corridor and tried to force herself to relax; a paradox in and of itself.

    Why am I always so stressed? I¡¯m the one with the power to look into the future¡­kind of.

    Blank was right. If Gabe didn¡¯t say anything, then it was fine.

    Her Guardian Angel didn¡¯t make a pip when they scaled the tallest wall behind the hospital using Barb¡¯s power¡ªprotesters couldn¡¯t climb that way unless they brought firefighter-levels of ladders, so there was only a patrol team passing that section every fifteen minutes or so. Gabe also was quiet when they broke into the hospital itself through a fire escape door. The only time it did speak tonight was once in the elevator, and when they passed through the main lobby after donning their disguises, telling them which persons to avoid.

    And even without her Guardian Angel¡¯s protection, Barb and Emcee were doing just fine guarding the way out the hospital¡¯s back wall, with Oberon¡¯s scouting fairy, Sneak, to give them a head¡¯s up of danger.

    I¡¯m just overthinking things.

    Still, she couldn¡¯t shake away the feeling of anxiety.

    But this is normal, right? It was a human trait to expect to run into trouble when everything was moving forward without a hitch. Having a prescient pet, she expected she¡¯d be less nervous about¡­everything, but it might¡¯ve just made her more paranoid.

    Right now, she half-expected the cops they met earlier to come running back after finding out they weren¡¯t real nurses. Or the nurses stationed here would come to check up on them. Or that doctor would remember he met suspicious people on the elevator. Having everything proceed so smoothly was eerie.

    She shook her head.

    Instead of being stressed, she should be elated that once Julie¡¯s memory was erased, they¡¯d be safe from the BID. Erind, especially, would be safe.

    Erind¡­

    In her attempt to distract herself from stressing out with their mission, her mind wandered to Erind¡¯s bloody clothes she found in the washing machine. What were Barb and Erind doing that day? Were they fighting? Fighting what?

    Deen¡¯s heart beat faster as a disturbing thought came to her.

    Adumbrae eat people¡­

    Maybe not all of them, but she had seen more than enough Adumbrae on the news killing and eating humans. The mutants made by the 2Ms also ate many innocent people in the Eve arena. In turn, the brains of those mutants were processed by the 2Ms for their Adumbrae clients. Would a ¡®normal¡¯ Adumbrae like Erind just outright eat people?

    That would explain the blood.

    And it would also explain why Erind didn¡¯t tell her anything. Barb¡¯s sister Kelsey was an Adumbrae; that was what she told them when they met for the first time. Did she procure humans for her sister to eat? Was she doing the same thing for Erind?

    Deen slapped her cheeks. What is going through my brain? This is too much overthinking at work.

    Surely, there was some logical explanation for the blood that didn¡¯t involve eating humans. Then her eyes widened, realizing that the noise of slapping herself might¡¯ve woken up the patients.

    She swallowed as she turned to them.

    They were still asleep.

    Right. Gabe didn¡¯t say anything so there should be no problem. She really should be more relaxed with having an ally with foresight over her shoulder. They must have had some really good luck that all the patients were sleeping. But there was something off with them.

    The patients here, as well as the other rooms she searched, all laid straight on their beds with their arms beside them. Not that it was weird to sleep that way; Deen herself slept flat on her back. But shouldn¡¯t a few of them be sleeping on their sides, turned right or left, or maybe curled up? At least have a stretched arm here and there. She knew Erind¡¯s preferred sleeping position was flat on her stomach.

    Deen approached the woman nearest her. Gabe didn''t tell her to stop. She pulled down the covers and gasped at what she saw.

    The arms of the woman were strapped to the sides of the bed with restraints. She reached for the woman¡¯s shoulders and shook her. She didn¡¯t stir. But she was alive; her chest moved as she breathed.

    Deen rushed to Blank and found that he already discovered that Julie was tied to the bed too.

    ¡°I suppose you also found out,¡± he said.

    ¡°I think they¡¯re sedated,¡± said Deen.

    He opened Julie¡¯s eye and examined it with a small flashlight. ¡°You¡¯re probably right.¡±

    ¡°Why would the hospital do this? They''re all normal humans. Are they that afraid some of them might become Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Plausible. An Adumbrae in the initial stages of seeding won¡¯t have the strength to break these bonds. It might be the case that someone did get infected here, that¡¯s why they implemented these precautionary measures.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s horrible¡­these poor people. Can¡¯t we do anything?¡±

    ¡°Obviously not. What could we do here? And this is just temporary. When they are eventually cleared, they¡¯ll be released no problem.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­yes, you¡¯re right. Fortunately, Erind didn¡¯t have to endure this.¡±

    ¡°And with Julie¡¯s memories wiped, she won¡¯t have¡ªhang on,¡± Blank answered his phone. He put it on loudspeaker, saying with an assuring wink, ¡°They¡¯re all asleep anyway.¡±

    ¡°Blank, you there?¡±

    ¡°Yes, wha¡ª¡±

    ¡°We have a problem. We, uh, found something. The 2Ms are connected to this place. We should¡ª¡±

    There were scuffle noises and Emcee¡¯s voice came on. ¡°Blank, we need to get out of this place. Barb¡¯s about to do something stupid and expose us.¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not!¡± they heard Barb¡¯s faint voice speak in the background.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here,¡± Emcee repeated. ¡°We need to discuss what to do about this thing we discovered.¡± Barb continued arguing with him.

    [It''s a good time to leave the hospital.]

    "My Guardian Angel says we should go," Deen hurriedly said to Blank.

    ¡°Got it.¡± He exited the room, Deen keeping up with him. ¡°We¡¯re going down. You and Barb stay put. Tell Oberon to make sure our way out is clear.¡±

 4.28

    I was about to plop my butt on the hood of Deen¡¯s car when I remembered this new light blue Genvoi was the replacement she bought for her other car that was torched in the Sanders fire. I didn¡¯t think I was heavy enough to dent it, but I was still a bit excited from my fight about a couple of hours ago that I might not be able to control my strength. I ended up half-leaning and half-sitting on it that left me worse than if I¡¯d just remained standing; I hoped I¡¯d just rapidly heal whatever muscle cramps I¡¯d get from this awkward position.

    Up to now, Deen still didn¡¯t know the fire was Everett¡¯s work; I wondered what her reaction was going to be when that day would inevitably come. For now, we were still one united group, planning our next course of action regarding the discovery they made over at the hospital.

    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry we can¡¯t go in the house,¡± Deen said. We were gathered on the driveway outside her garage, her car partially covering us from the view of her house. ¡°I didn¡¯t know Sis is going to come home tonight. We could¡¯ve held our meeting at the park instead.¡±

    ¡°I want to meet your sister,¡± Reo said with a mischievous grin. ¡°I¡¯m curious to see what she looks like. An older you?¡±

    ¡°Um, I guess a bit? I can introduce you to her if you really¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him, Deen,¡± Myra said, shooting him a warning glare. ¡°He knows what your sister looks like. I saw him searching for pics of your sister on his phone¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shuddup,¡± he hissed. ¡°Don¡¯t make it sound weird and creepy."

    ¡°Anyway,¡± Deen said, not minding them, perhaps already too used to guys being creepy with her sister, and also her. ¡°We can go in the house. After all, sis knows you¡¯re my friends. Nothing weird about that. But we can¡¯t talk about important matters inside; she might walk in on us discussing¡­incriminating stuff.¡±

    Everett stood up even straighter. ¡°We¡¯re fine here outside. The night breeze feels nice.¡± He folded his arms across his chest. I could¡¯ve sworn he intentionally bounced his pecs when he did that. And he also flexed his forearm muscles.

    ¡°So, Julie¡¯s memory is already wiped?¡± I asked. ¡°She doesn¡¯t remember the attack on the condo? And also about me being there?¡± The group turned to Dario.

    ¡°Yes¡­should be.¡± Dario scratched his chin. We seemed to have disturbed him while he was in deep thought. He was mostly silent on our drive here to Deen¡¯s place. He said, ¡°It¡¯s hard to say because that was a few days ago, and I don¡¯t actually read minds to snip out specific memories. Can view it as getting a feel of what the brain has processed for the appropriate time frame and scrambling that. But don¡¯t worry, I estimate I did a sufficient job that any residual memories she had of you that night can be explained with being stressed and confusing it with meeting you some other time. You also have Deen as your witness that you weren¡¯t at your condo during the attack.¡±

    ¡°One less thing to worry about then,¡± I said. ¡°So, what was that¡­that thing you guys were talking about in the car? I didn¡¯t quite catch it. Something about the 2Ms connected to the hospital?¡±

    ¡°About the 2Ms¡­we¡¯re still not certain.¡± His brows furrowed, he said, ¡°But there¡¯s a large possibility it is them. I suppose we haven¡¯t fully explained it to you, but we should since you¡¯re part of the group too.¡±

    Aw, I¡¯m so touched, I thought sarcastically.

    He explained that Johann¡ªthe real lookout, in contrast to me, just a tree lookout¡ªnoticed a convoy of police cars and a couple of suspicious cargo vans went past the National Guard barricade on Marshall Avenue and proceeded to the hospital. I might be wrong, but could that convoy be the police sirens I heard when I was at the warehouse compound? They were actually on their way to the hospital for sketchy things instead of heading to me. I wondered if the police eventually did respond to the calls from the PCM members that they were massacred by an Adumbrae¡ªnamely, me.

    ¡°We were already there.¡± Everett shrugged. ¡°Thought we might as well check it out.¡± He narrated how they sneaked around to find where the convoy went off to, aided by Reo¡¯s fairy.

    ¡°Another day by the dumpsters,¡± Reo said with intentionally fake gusto.

    Myra leaned near him and sniffed. ¡°You do stink.¡± She acted like she was about to gag. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s better we¡¯re out here. We don¡¯t want Deen¡¯s sister to think we¡¯re friends with someone who doesn¡¯t maintain personal hygiene.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ª! You¡¯re the ones who told me to summon there¡ª¡±

    ¡°Moving on.¡± Dario swept his hand between them like a referee stopping a match. ¡°Tell them what you guys saw.¡±

    ¡°Let me.¡± Myra was suddenly enraged. ¡°Those bastards were wheeling patients into their vans! We saw four patients, maybe there were more. They were bound with those straitjackets and also tied to their beds with straps across their bodies. And they were also gagged and blindfolded.¡±

    Everett chimed in, ¡°At first, we thought they were dead.¡±

    ¡°Yeah! They looked like mummies with those tons of restraints. But then I realized that if those were dead bodies, then they should¡¯ve been in body bags. And why were the police doing the moving?"

    "It really isn''t their job," Johann agreed. "You were right to be suspicious."

    "Then one of the bodies moved! The guy probably woke up. He got an arm free, and threw a cop across the parking area, a good ten feet away.¡±

    ¡°With one arm.¡±

    Deen nodded. ¡°Definitely suspicious.¡±

    "The lighting wasn''t good, but I might''ve seen some abnormal growths on that arm," Everett said.

    ¡°Those criminal assholes are doing something to the patients!¡± Myra said. ¡°And then they¡¯re taking them away for more experimentation. It¡¯s got to be the 2Ms. This should be connected to whatever shit they were cooking up at Erind¡¯s condo. Maybe version two-point-oh of their turning humans into monsters plot.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re probably right on that one,¡± Dario conceded. ¡°Although we don''t have any more information.¡±

    Or do you mean to say your secret organization hasn¡¯t told you about it yet? It was always Dario who brought this or that intel, supposedly from the Professor, to start a mission. He was essentially a handler for the group like this was a spy thriller movie. But now, he seemed genuinely surprised by whatever was going on at the hospital.

    Myra caught my gaze. We seemed to be thinking the same thing. The people behind Dario didn¡¯t get a whiff of this beforehand? A pretty fucking big issue to miss.

    The group started discussing our next moves. It was obvious that, as self-proclaimed heroes and vigilantes fighting a criminal Adumbrae organization, we should do something to stop it. But what?

    ¡°How about we leak this to the police?¡± said Deen. ¡°Johann can do it. Then the police will come in and investigate¡ª¡±

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°We¡¯re not sure which police officers can be trusted,¡± replied Johann.

    ¡°Hmmm, the BID then? How do we leak something to the BID?¡±

    Reo snapped his fingers. ¡°How about we leak this to the media instead? Newspapers, TV, the internet. Just fucking everywhere! There¡¯s no need to worry about who¡¯s a good guy or a bad guy. Also no problem with covering our tracks compared to if we try to contact the BID.¡±

    ¡°What exactly are we going to leak?¡± Myra said.

    Reo stared at her for a couple of seconds. ¡°Oh, I thought you were going to follow it up with an insult or something like¡ªnever mind. We do some recordings of the horrors at EFU Medical Center.¡±

    ¡°Go back in and video what they¡¯re doing there? We don¡¯t even know what exactly they¡¯re doing there."

    The discussion went on and on for several minutes. They were a lot of problems with trying to get evidence of criminal activities inside the hospital. For one, they only lucked out being present when the cops came to take some patients. They couldn¡¯t just break into the hospital and stay there until something suspicious happened; they also weren¡¯t sure if it happened every night.

    I drummed my fingers on the hood of Deen¡¯s car thinking how to get out of this because I wanted to go to sleep. I should¡¯ve made some excuse early on that I was just a nominal part of the group. Now, they were even asking me for suggestions.

    ¡°What do you think, Erind?¡± Dario said. I sensed he was just doing it to make me feel included. But why? To appease Deen? Was he trying to get Deen on his side? She was the one with the most useful power among them all.

    ¡°Ummm¡­¡± I looked at my fingers, then at Deen¡¯s car. New car, old car. Sanders fire. An idea popped into my head. ¡°What if we set fire to the hospital?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Deen exclaimed. ¡°We¡¯re not going to do that!¡±

    ¡°Very straightforward,¡± Reo snorted.

    ¡°Wait, I think Erind is onto something here,¡± said Dario.

    ¡°I mean not burn it and kill people.¡± I was really tempted to glance over at Everett, but that was too suspicious. ¡°Just make a scare so that authorities would come and check it. Protesters would also take advantage of that somehow to clamor for patients to be moved away¡­stuff like that. Like set fire to an empty wing?¡±

    ¡°If we¡¯re going that route, it might be better for it to be a bomb scare.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know we''re terrorists now,¡± Johann said. ¡°Isn¡¯t that too much?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll blame this on the protesters,¡± Dario said. ¡°We can call ahead to warn the hospital, then rig a bomb to explode in an empty part of the building just to show the threat is real.¡±

    The discussion went on again, and I regretted giving that suggestion. Everyone hated the kid who asked a question just when the class was about to be dismissed, and I kinda did it to myself here. Fuck.

    We didn¡¯t reach a consensus on what to do with my arson idea, which now turned into a terrorist bombing attack. It wasn¡¯t going to exactly lead to the arrest of the 2Ms or their underlings, but it would surely lead to having the hospital evacuated.

    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s it for tonight guys,¡± Dario said. ¡°Good job on our mission. However, we have a new problem on our hands. Let¡¯s sleep on this first; maybe we¡¯ll have more ideas tomorrow. I also have to check my stash if we need to make bombs.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Oooh, cheesecake tarts from Lyon Patisserie,¡± I said as we came to the kitchen counter to check what Deen¡¯s sister left for us. Lyon was probably the most expensive gourmet pastry shop in the city. I always wanted to try their food, but I found it too expensive to buy for binge eating while watching movies.

    ¡°She says it¡¯s from an office party,¡± Deen said, reading off a sticky note her sister left on the fridge. ¡°I remember her mentioning that their big boss was having his birthday. This must be it.¡±

    ¡°We should thank her.¡±

    ¡°Better not disturb her if she¡¯s already in her room. She must be tired.¡±

    ¡°Ah, you¡¯re right. Is it okay if I have some?¡±

    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Deen grinned.

    I bit off the crust of the tart, nibbling around the custard filling. "This is so flaky and buttery." Then I threw the creamy center whole into my mouth. ¡°Yum! Very good.¡± I liked to eat or drink sweet things after doing something stressful or tiring. Like after I had my little exploration of the city and ran into Clive and Trepanner, I bought a bottle of milk tea from the vending machine at my condo. Rest in peace, vending machine.

    ¡°If you want to eat other¡­things,¡± Deen mumbled, ¡°I can help you with¡­um¡­looking for them?¡±

    ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Just if you want something else to eat.¡±

    ¡°Like now? I¡¯m good with these. These tarts are awesome. It¡¯s also kind of late to order more food, and I''m not hungry.¡±

    Deen blinked rapidly, struggling to put her thoughts into words. ¡°Not now. But if you want something to eat another time¡­don¡¯t hesitate to ask me for help.¡±

    ¡°You already cook breakfast for me,¡± I said. ¡°Speaking of breakfast, let¡¯s save the rest of these for tomorrow. These should be great with tea¡­or coffee in your case. I¡¯m a traitor to the Founding Fathers who dumped tea to the sea.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t specifically mean breakfast.¡± She chewed her lips while looking at the floor.

    What¡¯s up with her? Did she suspect I was getting tired of her being clingy? ¡°That reminds me,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m really, really sorry for losing the hoodie we just bought.¡± I gave her the story that I took it off when I was at the bar because their aircon was broken. Then a fight broke out among the drunk guys and I had to run, leaving it behind in my hurry. It was kind of close to the truth, minus the part that I actually threw it in a random trash can because it was crusted with dried blood.

    ¡°We should go get it,¡± she emphatically said. ¡°I¡¯ll go back there tomo¡ª"

    ¡°No, just let it be,¡± I interjected. I knew she¡¯d think of getting it back. It was good that I headed her off now before she went there on her own and traced my trail of death and destruction. ¡°If we go there to retrieve it, then that¡¯s as good as admitting I was there tonight. Good thing I chose a generic-looking design; they¡¯ll just chuck it to a lost and found bin and forget about it. If it was something that looked expensive, they might go to the police, right?¡±

    ¡°I¡­okay then,¡± she said. ¡°I won¡¯t go there.¡±

    ¡°Hooray for bland design!¡±

    <hr>

    Knock, knock, knock.

    I groaned as I turned over. I still want to sleep.

    Knock, knock, knock.

    Why did this feel familiar? I opened my eyes. I could make out the features of the room in the darkness; I was still at Deen¡¯s house. I wasn¡¯t sure what time it was. I usually woke up around 5 a.m., so it was probably earlier than that.

    Who the fuck was knocking? Deen? She didn¡¯t wake up this early.

    Knock, knock, knock.

    I swear if it''s those fucking zombies again¡ª

    ¡°Erind? Are you already awake?¡± It was Deen. Must be something important.

    ¡°Coming!¡± I said, my voice still raspy from just having woken up. I rubbed my eyes and rushed to the door. ¡°What is it, Deen?¡±

    ¡°Let me in,¡± she said. She was clutching her phone and had a worried expression on her face. ¡°Sis might overhear us if she¡¯s awake.¡±

    I stepped aside.

    ¡°I just saw on the news that the mayor was arrested by the BID last night as he was coming home from the memorial event. It was all hush-hush, but some aide of the mayor leaked it, and the BID confirmed that it happened.¡±

    ¡°Woah,¡± I said, ¡°The BID sure does move fast. Hmmm, so what will happen to the hospital now?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. Maybe the 2Ms will stop their operations there because the mayor can¡¯t protect them? Never mind that for now, there¡¯s another thing that happened.¡± She showed me her phone. It was a public advisory by the BID with pictures of persons-of-interests they were looking for.

    ¡°What is this?¡±

    ¡°There was another Adumbrae attack last night. About two dozen people were either killed or injured. The BID says it was an Adumbrae attack, but it could be one of the experiments of the 2Ms that escaped. This could be connected to what they''re doing at the hospital. The thing is, the BID is looking for people around the scene of last night''s incident.¡± She scrolled down her phone and stopped at a familiar picture. ¡°And one of them is Ramello.¡±

 4.29

    ¡°And that¡¯s the latest update on the Madagascar crisis, which has now spread to parts of southeastern Africa,¡± said the male news anchor for XYTV¡¯s Good Morning California. He turned to his partner. ¡°Perhaps we should now call it African Adumbrae Crisis? What do you think, Lisa?¡±

    ¡°Not if the Corebrings have anything to say about that, Frank,¡± replied Lisa, the blonde anchorwoman beside him. ¡°The situation seems to be turning for the better with High Overseer Isolde deploying more of her Flying Fortresses. They may push the Adumbrae out of mainland Africa just yet. Our thoughts and prayers to the people of Africa.¡±

    ¡°The American people stand with you. And thanks to our field correspondent, Henry Leedy, for bringing us the news despite the dangers. Take care of yourself there, Henry.¡± Frank, the anchorman, turned to a different camera and said, ¡°The American people too are suffering from Adumbrae attacks, albeit at a much lower scale. We return to La Esperanza. This city just can¡¯t get a break. Right, Lisa?¡±

    ¡°Right you are, Frank,¡± she replied. She shuffled the papers in front of her. ¡°Yesterday, between ten to eleven in the evening¡ª"

    Finally, I thought as I made my way around the cheesecake tart, nibbling all the crust off. It took them a while to get to the news I was waiting for. First was that thing with our mayor getting arrested, then the protests and riots during the memorial, then an update on the Madagascar crisis, and now the news about what I was up to last night.

    ¡°¡ªwe go to our field correspondent, Melanie, who is at the temporary base of operations of the BID set up next to LEPD headquarters,¡± said Frank. ¡°What¡¯s the update, Melanie?¡±

    ¡°According to the BID spokesperson,¡± Melanie said, ¡°they''re in the process of identifying the bodies at the scene of the Adumbrae attack. The state of the bodies is making it difficult to correctly count the number of casualties, but the BID maintains it should be less than thirty people dead and injured.¡±

    ¡°Do we have a number of the ones dead and the ones injured?¡±

    ¡°The BID still hasn¡¯t released a more accurate list of casualties, neither do we have the names of any of them. We¡¯ll try to get those as soon as possible, Frank."

    I adjusted my glasses¡ªit¡¯ll take some time to get used to this new one¡ªand wondered why they weren¡¯t reporting the correct number of people I killed. I was sure the number of casualties should be much, much higher, with more dead than injured. They were downplaying my achievements, and that was disappointing¡ªto be fair, killing normal humans wasn¡¯t much of an achievement to speak of. Still, it was a pretty normal human trait to want to see high numbers in most of everything¡­except weight, I guess.

    Perhaps the BID didn¡¯t want the people to panic as much. They couldn¡¯t hide this ¡®Adumbrae attack¡¯ because some survivors might¡¯ve called their friends or families when they regained their sanity.

    An obnoxious whirr drowned the sound of the television. Deen went down the stairs, drying her hair with a cordless hair blower. ¡°That¡¯s the Adumbrae attack where Ramello was seen?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re getting ready for the event already?¡±

    Since our mayor was arrested, in accordance with the City Charter, the President of the City Council would immediately become the acting mayor. And then he¡¯d get some time to decide if he''d accept the position; if he rejected it, the City Council would choose among themselves the next mayor who¡¯d hold office until the next regular elections. The City Council President, being a staunch opponent of the previous mayor, and having lofty political goals himself, was going to announce his acceptance around lunchtime and have a whole grand celebration.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a casual event, so I have to really dress up,¡± she shouted over the noise of the hair blower. ¡°I''m going to need a lot of time to prepare. Sis would disown me if I showed up there looking like a hobo. Anything below fancy is a hobo to her, and she has a very high standard for fancy.¡±

    One of the boyfriends of Deen¡¯s sister was the executive assistant of the previous mayor. He betrayed his former boss and provided information to the BID that led to the mayor¡¯s arrest. Can¡¯t really blame the guy. He probably did it in return for immunity from prosecution or something. This guy was now cozying up to the next mayor, which led to Deen getting dragged in by her sister to the event.

    ¡°Kind of tone-deaf to have a party with the state of the city.¡±

    ¡°What did you say?¡± Deen loudly said.

    ¡°I said I hope you¡¯re not going there dressed in a long gown!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be absurd. Oh, look at the TV.¡± She turned off the blower.

    ¡°¡ªrumors abound that the infamous Red Hood is the Adumbrae involved in last night¡¯s grisly attack,¡± said the reporter named Melanie. ¡°However, we don¡¯t have any confirmation of this because no pictures or videos of the Adumbrae that appeared are available. We also tried to track down the survivors for an interview, but they are now gathered by the BID here, at their base of operations behind me. And that¡¯s the latest on¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll just go upstairs to continue drying my hair,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you here to watch the news¡­and eat the tarts. Wait, how many did you already eat?¡±

    ¡°This box, so that¡¯s six already. Plus three in this other box. Nine in total.¡± I plopped the custard center of the tart I cleared of crust into my mouth. ¡°Ten in total,¡± I said while chewing it.

    ¡°If you like it that much, I¡¯ll buy you more.¡±

    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s too expensive.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t mind. I¡¯ll see if I can pass by Lyon¡¯s later and buy some. Anyway, I¡¯ll go back up so I won¡¯t disturb you. Ta-ta!¡±

    ¡°¡ªappears that this Red Hood is gaining notoriety,¡± the anchorman said. That caught my attention. ¡°In San Diego, the neighboring city of La Esperanza, a small shop was ordered closed down by the city after it was found to be running a business of printing t-shirts with the name and pictures of the Adumbrae, Red Hood. The police traced where these illegal items are being sold, which then led to the arrest of several informal vendors.¡±

    The robust police chief of San Diego appeared on screen, interviewed by an XYTV reporter. ¡°The city has been lenient with these acts in the past, but we have to remind the citizens that this is, in fact, illegal. With the Adumbrae outbreaks faced by La Esperanza, the police are going to step up in enforcing laws related to Adumbrae perception in our city. They are the enemy. Let us not forget that. We should be united against them, and not sell paraphernalia that glorifies them. The Supreme Court has ruled that this is not covered by freedom of speech¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah, I remember that case,¡± I said. But then my mind returned to what they were saying before this police chief guy showed up. They¡¯re printing t-shirts of me! Never in my life did I expect to be famous enough that people would wear shirts with my picture on them¡­well, it wasn¡¯t exactly my picture. Close enough.

    ¡°In related news,¡± said the anchor, ¡°the DA has issued a statement that they are studying the possibility of filing a case against the Silent Vigil Society, or SVS, a small group that was apparently present in last night¡¯s Adumbrae attack, for statements made online that might constitute Adumbrae-glorifying propaganda. However, the BID might also press federal charges¡ª¡±

    I kind of zoned out as a wide grin spread on my face. Good thing Deen already went up so she wouldn¡¯t see the goofy expression I had on. T-shirts, hehehe. Really funny. I bet SpookyErind was also amused with this.

    I kind of wanted to buy one of those illegal t-shirts.

    <hr>

    ¡°I¡¯ll just be here, in the house,¡± I assured Deen. ¡°Nothing¡¯s going to happen to me. I¡¯ll just study a bit, watch some movies later, chill out.¡±

    ¡°Erm, yes. You¡¯re right.¡± Hesitation was still on her face.

    ¡°Won¡¯t hurt to live as normally as possible every chance we got. Kind of like you going to a social event now. That¡¯s like your natural habitat.¡± Go now, I thought. I could probably practice fighting with Myra after Deen left; not sure if she was available.

    After yesterday¡¯s¡­shenanigans¡­I realized I sort of enjoyed fighting. Thrill that made my heart pound was hard to come by. Or it could be my Blanchette form allowing me to experience such an extreme emotion as bloodlust in battle that made it enjoyable.

    ¡°Whatever,¡± Deen said, rolling her eyes at me. She faced the mirror near the doorway and did a little twirl, which almost seemed like a magic trick on her precarious stiletto heels. ¡°What do you think of my outfit? And don¡¯t say you¡¯re, ¡®beautiful as always¡¯, because that¡¯s such a guy thing to say. I¡¯ve heard that said to me so many times¡ª¡±

    I faked a cough and muttered, ¡°Humblebrag.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t!¡± she protested with a grin, lightly slapping my shoulder. ¡°What I meant was guys say that when they¡¯re hitting on me because they can¡¯t spare the brainpower to think of an imaginative compliment.¡±

    ¡°Still humblebrag. Let¡¯s see¡­imaginative compliment, huh?¡± I folded my arms across my chest. ¡°I suppose you¡¯ve been complimented having an hourglass figure plenty of times already. I see you¡¯re wearing your favorite pencil skirt. Well, it really shows off the curves of the lower half of your hourglass body. Compared to if I wore that, then it¡¯ll be apt for its name. So¡­my imaginative compliment is¡­nice work on making a pencil skirt not look like a pencil.¡± I gave her a thumbs up.

    She chuckled. ¡°Don¡¯t say that, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll look good in a pencil skirt too.¡±

    ¡°We should petition for a name change,¡± I said, entertained with a bit of banter despite myself. The two of us had been together for a while that I should probably act a bit closer to her like I was getting out of my timid shell. ¡°The point of pencil skirts is to accentuate curves. So why is it called a pencil skirt if the goal is not to be that shape?¡±

    ¡°Are you high on sugar that you¡¯re having this monumental epiphany? You did end up eating all the pastries Sis brought.¡±

    I raised my hands and stared at the ceiling like I was having a vision. ¡°Another realization. On the point of guys just saying the same thing when complimenting you, girls are even worse. We are obligated by law to say our friends are beautiful, even if they¡¯re not. So, I don¡¯t know why you¡¯re asking me. But you are beautiful¡­as always.¡± The two of us high-fived each other while laughing¡ªDeen had to bend down because her heels made her even taller; it wasn¡¯t as high of a five for her.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get going now,¡± she said. ¡°Just call me if there¡¯s any problem.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mom.¡± I waved at her. Deen didn¡¯t move. Her brows pressed against each other, she cocked her head as if listening to something. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Gabe¡­ah, that¡¯s what I decided to call my Guardian Angel. It told me to stay here for a bit.¡±

    ¡°So¡­something is wrong? Should we escape?¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m not sure. That¡¯s only its message. It¡¯s probably better not to move and wait for what¡¯s going to happen.¡±

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right,¡± I said, unclenching my fists that I unconsciously balled up. ¡°¡®Stay¡¯ was definitely far from ¡®escape¡¯.¡± We stared at each other for about a minute, keeping quiet, listening to the ticking of the clock in the hallway. ¡°How long should¡ª?¡± The musical chimes of the doorbell interrupted me.

    Deen whipped out her phone and checked an app that connected to the security cameras in the house. Both of us looked at the footage of the camera by the door.

    ¡°Two cops?¡± I asked in hushed tones.

    ¡°Maybe?¡± she whispered back. ¡°They¡¯re not wearing police uniforms, but they do have those blue police jackets. Plainclothes detectives probably?¡±

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    ¡°What do we do?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­my Guardian Angel isn¡¯t telling me what to do next.¡± The doorbell rang again. ¡°Um¡­um¡­¡±

    ¡°Just answer it,¡± I said. ¡°If it¡ªyour Guardian Angel¡ªdoesn¡¯t have any more instructions, then just do as you normally would.¡± Although I was no longer sure what constituted as ¡®normal¡¯ with Deen. She was getting too annoying with her Guardian Angel, second-guessing herself and being paranoid. ¡°We don¡¯t have anything to hide, remember? We¡¯re not doing anything illegal. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.¡±

    Deen nodded with resolve. ¡°Yes, we don¡¯t have anything to hide.¡± She took a deep breath and opened the door. ¡°Good morning! How can I help you?¡±

    The eyes of the two police officers widened when they saw Deen standing tall and proud in front of them like she was about to answer a Ms. Universe question¡ªa very understandable reaction.

    The guy cop to the right was probably younger than he appeared, his face weighed down by tons of stress like his police life wasn¡¯t going that well. His heavily injured state attested to that, his limbs wrapped in bandages, and he needed crutches to stand up. The lady cop beside him had a very gentle-looking face that didn¡¯t fit being a police officer, as if she should be a kindergarten teacher or something, with her frizzy hair and roundish glasses.

    ¡°Uh¡­¡± the guy cop said, his mouth gaping open.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± his partner cut in. She recovered much faster from Deen¡¯s beauty shock power. ¡°I¡¯m Detective Linette Klein, and this is Detective Jacobin Castan, LEPD.¡± She showed her golden badge, followed by her partner. ¡°Just call us Linette and Castan. Ms. Leska, isn¡¯t that right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s me,¡± Deen replied. ¡°Or are you looking for my sister?¡±

    Leska? I stifled a giggle. I hadn¡¯t heard Deen¡¯s surname for some time that I nearly forgot what it was¡ªwhich shouldn¡¯t happen because we were besties forever, and we sort of became friends because of her surname. It was an Albanian surname, Deen being like one-sixteenth Albanian or something. She assumed I was part Albanian too because of my name, ¡®Erind¡¯. I¡¯m not. But she sort of adopted me as a friend afterward.

    Detective Linette said, ¡°We¡¯re looking for you.¡± She stepped to the side to get a better view of me behind Deen. ¡°And Ms. Erind Hartwell, I presume?¡± I timidly nodded. She adjusted her glasses. ¡°We have a few questions to ask if you don¡¯t mind?¡±

    ¡°I mind. We¡¯re not legally required to answer any questions,¡± Deen said a-matter-of-factly.

    Here we go with the first-year law student syndrome. I was about to step in when I realized this was the correct reaction. It sounded like something a guilty person would say, but considering we were inexperienced law students sent to an expensive college by our well-off families, this was expected behavior from us. But it was kind of too aggressive for Deen¡¯s personality.

    ¡°We won¡¯t take much of your time. If we can step inside¡ª¡±

    ¡°And I don¡¯t think you have a warrant to come inside my house. As law students, we know our constitutional rights.¡±

    ¡°Law students from Cresthorne Law,¡± Linette said. One side of her mouth curled up like she was trying to stop a smirk. Then, opposite her gentle appearance, she becomes all business-like and rapid-fired her words. ¡°I know that you know we can¡¯t force you to answer our questions. And you¡¯re right, we don¡¯t have a warrant. However¡ª¡±

    ¡°Then we shouldn¡¯t waste time here,¡± Deen said. She put her hands on her hips and swayed a bit to the left, acting all sassy-like. Very uncharacteristic of her to be haughty. ¡°Unless we¡¯re official suspects? Then perhaps we should call our lawyers? And even if we are, you still can¡¯t enter my house without a warrant. If we¡¯re done here, I have something to attend¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not suspects of anything, Ms. Leska.¡± Detective Linette shot a look to her partner before saying, ¡°Which is surprising that you¡¯re acting this way.¡±

    ¡°I can act this way because I am not breaking the law. I should call your¡ª¡±

    ¡°You can file a complaint later. But we would appreciate it if you answered a few questions now. Again, you¡¯re not legally obligated to do so, but it¡¯d be swell if you cooperate.¡±

    Uh-oh. Why was Deen acting this way? She should¡¯ve at least asked what they wanted. This wasn¡¯t first-year law student syndrome anymore; this was just being an ass.

    I looked down and saw Deen¡¯s hand, hidden from the view of the cops behind her butt, waving at me.

    Oh, so it¡¯s the Guardian Angel¡¯s instruction. Obviously, I didn¡¯t know what I was supposed to do next. But the Guardian Angel assumed I did. So, maybe I do know.

    If Deen was behaving like this, and I could only act following the Erind face I had on, then there was only one direction for me. ¡°Deen, let¡¯s hear what they want to ask first,¡± I said. I turned to Detective Castan to start a new track. Essentially, we were going to ¡®good cop, bad cop¡¯ the cops¡ªor that was what I interpreted to be the Guardian Angel¡¯s plan. ¡°We do want to help the police.¡±

    ¡°Ms. Hartwell,¡± Detective Castan said with an acknowledging nod. ¡°How are you doing? I¡¯m sorry, we should¡¯ve asked how you are first after your¡­experience.¡±

    ¡°Or lack of it,¡± I said. ¡°I was really lucky I was staying here at Deen¡¯s house when the Adumbrae seeding outbreak happened. But¡­but I¡¯m also really devastated that all the other residents¡­my god.¡± I pretended to shudder. ¡°I still can¡¯t believe all of this happening in our city.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re lucky you have a good friend in Ms. Leska,¡± Detective Linette said with a slight sarcastic tone, giving Deen a snide glance. ¡°Anyhow, Ms. Hartwell, we are doing a follow-up of the occupants or recent visitors of your condominium building. We saw that you came in for testing and that you¡¯re temporarily living with Ms. Leska.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re working our way down a list and we¡¯re not supposed to visit you yet,¡± explained Detective Castan. ¡°But because of a new case that cropped up which you might have some information related to it, we decided to visit you now. A few questions, that¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m fine. You¡¯re not going to be late for your event, Deen?¡±

    ¡°I might be,¡± she huffed, sticking her chin up.

    Detective Castan stepped forward before his partner could get another word in. ¡°I¡¯ll handle this, Linette.¡± She frowned at him but moved back. ¡°Five minutes tops. We can talk here outside, no problem.¡± He did a quick look down at his injuries as if to elicit some sympathy. ¡°First is about Mr. Ramello Staten,¡± he pressed on before I or Deen could reject him. ¡°I assume you heard about what happened to him?¡±

    ¡°Snippet groups of my fellow law students are talking non-stop about it,¡± Deen said. ¡°Seems like he got entangled with that whole Adumbrae business last night?¡±

    ¡°He was probably just doing advocacy work and was mistakenly connected to them,¡± I said. ¡°The Ramello I know wouldn¡¯t do anything illegal. I don¡¯t think his advocacies will connect him to those crazy protesters like the PCM and SVS.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I almost forgot,¡± said Deen. ¡°You¡¯re classmates with him.¡±

    ¡°Criminal Law, yeah. I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll all be cleared up when he shows up. Right, Detective?¡±

    Detective Castan shook his head. ¡°Well, that¡¯s the problem. We don¡¯t know where he is. He might be in danger¡ª¡±

    ¡°And you expect us to know?¡± Deen interjected. ¡°I barely know the guy. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve talked to him yet.¡±

    ¡°No, Ms. Leska. But Ms. Hartwell probably knows more about him. We were thinking that you might have some leads for us?¡±

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t think I know him enough to guess where he could be,¡± I answered truthfully. Where did he go after escaping yesterday night? Don¡¯t tell me that weird axe kid got him? Fuck if that happened. I worked so hard to save him and the SVS. ¡°We¡¯re just classmates in one subject, that¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°Apologies in advance if my assumption is wrong, or if this is too intrusive,¡± Detective Castan said, ¡°but did you have a relationship with Ramello?¡±

    ¡°In a romantic sense,¡± clarified Detective Linette. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind us asking.¡±

    I didn¡¯t have to act shocked for that one. ¡°No, we don¡¯t! What made you think that?¡±

    ¡°He accompanied you to your condo on January twenty-first?¡±

    ¡°Twenty-first? Oh!¡± I gasped. ¡°That¡¯s the day he was attacked. He didn¡¯t go in my condo if that¡¯s what you¡¯re implying. I didn''t even allow him to go near the building. He was just with me on the train and walked with me a few blocks from the station. That¡¯s it. I really don¡¯t know anything much about him. We weren¡¯t close or anything.¡± Why were they asking about this now? I thought Dario¡¯s secret organization handled this; that was what Myra led me to believe. I decided to throw in a crumb to appear cooperative. ¡°He may have liked me, I guess? But we didn¡¯t talk much after he was¡­you know, beaten up and hospitalized.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Detective Castan said. ¡°One more thing before we move on to the next matter. Have other police officers questioned you about Ramello getting attacked?¡±

    I shook my head. ¡°This is the first time, Detective.¡± Didn¡¯t these two get the memo to lay off me from Dario¡¯s secret organization? Or were these guys a couple of honest cops that might¡¯ve accidentally stumbled across the cover-up and decided to snoop around to find out what was going on?

    ¡°Thank you for answering honestly, Ms. Hartwell. The next matter is about Julie¡­Julie Conti? Do you know her?¡±

    I controlled my eyes not to flick over at Deen. If my eyes wavered, they might suspect something was up. How do I answer this? Admit I did know her or deny? Deen was silent; her Guardian Angel wouldn¡¯t be able to help, any negative consequences from my answer here would occur far from the ten minutes it could see in the future. ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡­that name sounds familiar,¡± I answered uncommittedly. Let¡¯s play this by the ear.

    ¡°She¡¯s also one of the residents at your condominium,¡± he said.

    Fucking Dario wasting our time with the hospital mission. ¡°Oh my god,¡± I said. ¡°Is she alive? That¡¯s why her name sounds familiar. I might¡¯ve met her a few times.¡±

    ¡°Yes, she¡¯s alive,¡± Detective Castan said. ¡°Linette and I found her near the ruins of a building a few blocks away from your condo. We suspected she ran there while being chased by an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Frigging lucky we got there just in time to save her from one,¡± said Detective Linette. ¡°And also frigging lucky the Adumbrae decided to run away instead of attacking us.¡±

    ¡°Ms. Conti wasn¡¯t in a good state at that time,¡± Detective Castan explained. ¡°She was mumbling nonsense. It might be the shock from the numerous monsters showing up and killing her family. However, she did mention your name. It is an uncommon female name. We assumed you knew each other.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­I¡¯m not really the type of person who¡­you know, interacts with others.¡± I meekly adjusted my glasses and hunched my shoulders. ¡°Like I said, we might¡¯ve met. If you could show me her picture, I can probably recognize her. There¡¯s a lot of people in the condo that I just sort of randomly chat with in the elevator. The weather, and stuff like that. I don¡¯t have like someone I know on a personal level.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Ms. Hartwell. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t get a picture of Julie Conti from our files.¡± Detective Castan paused, chewing his tongue while thinking. ¡°That¡¯s actually why we wanted to get confirmation from you that Ms. Conti is actually a resident of your condominium. In our database, she¡¯s listed as a casualty of the seeding outbreak, and nothing else. If she is a resident, then we should be questioning her¡­ah, never mind. I think we took enough of your time. Thank you, Ms. Hartwell, Ms. Leska.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­pleased to help, Detective,¡± I said. ¡°Although we really weren¡¯t much help.¡±

    He gave me a card. ¡°Don¡¯t hesitate to call us if you remember something.¡±

    After the two detectives left, Deen stayed for about five more minutes just to make sure they weren¡¯t coming back and that I wasn¡¯t in any danger. She also considered not going to the event at city hall. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how angry Sis would get if I ditched her,¡± she said as she sat inside her car. ¡°She¡¯s kind of scary¡­¡±

    ¡°Just go already,¡± I said. I leaned over the car window. ¡°You worry too much. We already talked about this.¡±

    ¡°But that was before those detectives passed by. What if you came with¡ª¡±

    No, thank you, I thought. I didn¡¯t want to dress up and mingle with people right now. Too tiring. I bent down to get closer to her and draped my hands over the car window sill. This was to make sure she wouldn¡¯t go out of her car. ¡°Deen, after all this time, after everything we¡¯ve been through¡­I¡¯m still fine, okay? And I¡¯ve been through a whole lot more than you, I can technically pull rank on you.¡±

    ¡°Hey, it doesn¡¯t work that way!¡±

    ¡°Well, I decided that it does because I have a higher rank than you,¡± I said, poking her cheek. ¡°And I¡¯ve gone through¡­you know, a lot, while just being a normal human. I can take care of myself.¡±

    ¡°Normal¡­¡± Deen whispered. She heaved a sigh. ¡°Yeah¡­you¡¯re a very strong person, still smiling and still¡­being you, after all your experiences.¡± She met my eyes wearing a very weird expression that I couldn¡¯t read.

    Since she still wasn¡¯t starting her engine, I said, ¡°How about this, I¡¯ll contact Myra and see if she¡¯s free. If she has a class, we can just hang out at a caf¨¦ where she could attend her online session while I read a book or something.¡± I did plan on sneaking out after Deen left, but the whole thing with the cops earlier reminded me that she might check the security cameras of the house with her phone and go ballistic if she couldn¡¯t find me. Creepy, yes, but something she''d probably do since she was a bit cuckoo lately.

    ¡°With Myra?¡± Deen narrowed her eyes at me. ¡°When did the two of you become so close?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not,¡± I said. ¡°But she¡¯s an EFU student too, and she can protect me. I don¡¯t think you¡¯d approve if I asked one of the guys to be my bodyguard.¡±

    ¡°Err, yeah, I mean no,¡± she said. ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. You''re better off with Myra.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll give her a call and¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind, remember what I said last night?¡±

    ¡°About what?¡±

    ¡°If you need help with anything, like you want to eat something¡ª¡±

    ¡°You mean like lunch?¡± I said, poking her cheeks. ¡°I¡¯ll find my lunch later. The tarts did make me pretty full though. And I can eat on my own, you know? We don¡¯t have to eat together all the time. Is that our thing? Guys always joke that girls go to the restroom in groups, our counterpart to that is eating together.¡±

    She shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s fun if we''re together.¡±

    ¡°How about you sneak some food for me from that event you¡¯re attending. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll have awesome food there.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­I-I, yeah, okay,¡± she relented, finally starting her car. ¡°Just keep me updated where you are. We can have dinner together later.¡±

    ¡°Sure. You¡¯re too concerned about what I eat. I can eat all I want and not get fat.¡±

    ¡°Lucky you.¡± She waved goodbye. ¡°Take care. Enjoy hanging out with Myra.¡±

    ¡°I will.¡± I definitely will.

 4.30

    ¡°Were you the Adumbrae who kil¡ªuh, attacked those people yesterday?¡± Myra was probably dying to ask me this since she heard the news; she did peace out of her ongoing online class and immediately drove to fetch me from Deen¡¯s house after I called her. Realizing she sounded too accusatory, she took a step back and softened her tone. ¡°Was it you? Er, I mean did you transform and lose control last night?

    ¡°The short answer is yes.¡±

    We were back in the abandoned building where we previously practiced tapping my hysterical strength. The place was just as we left it yesterday. Dried blood, my dried blood, was on the partially destroyed concrete column and the rubble around it. The difference this time was Myra brought extra clothes for me; I changed in the backseat while we were on the road.

    Myra actually could¡¯ve just interrogated me in the car instead of waiting to get here. I wonder why she waited. Did she expect I might react violently, and thus picked a secluded place she could fight me just in case? She might be even assuming that the Adumbrae had already taken over my body.

    ¡°And the long answer is?¡± she asked. ¡°Hold on, can you remember what happened or did you black out again?¡±

    ¡°My memory is a bit hazy because I did transform and lose control of myself, but not totally. It wasn¡¯t like the time I escaped Eve. I think our practice yesterday helped in some way, like improving my mental strength to ignore pain contributed to gaining a foothold of sanity while I was in my Blanchette form.¡±

    ¡°What did happen after we left you at the bar?¡±

    Before beginning my story, I melodramatically paced to the dried blood splatters¡ªshould we clean this up or something? I furrowed my brows as if I had a hard time remembering. ¡°It was peaceful at the bar, there were just two other customers¡­¡± I didn¡¯t bother cooking up an actual fake story; it was way easier and more believable to just slightly twist the truth. I just told her that the PCM mistook me for the SVS and I had to run.

    ¡°Crazy bunch of nutjobs,¡± spat Myra, ¡°going after an even crazier bunch of nutjobs.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t familiar with the area and got cornered. I could¡¯ve taken them on¡­I think¡­but a couple had guns. I remembered what you said not to belittle normal humans if they have guns. I went along with them hoping I¡¯d eventually get a chance to escape. I also didn¡¯t want to reveal I was, you know, not human.¡±

    ¡°To be honest, I probably would¡¯ve fought those guys if I was in your position,¡± she said with a shrug. ¡°Not saying it¡¯s the right call, by the way, it¡¯s hard to judge a situation with guns in play.¡±

    Continuing my story, I said, ¡°The PCM people brought me to this huge compound full of warehouses, freight containers, and huge trucks.¡± I  basically narrated what happened then, but I included myself with the captured SVS group. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if Ramello was there too; maybe he was because the BID is looking for him. What I¡¯m sure of is we would¡¯ve been killed if I didn¡¯t transform.¡±

    Myra nodded. ¡°Okay, I get it now. Those crazy bastards were going to lynch innocent people¡ªthe SVS is also crazy, but innocent nonetheless. You were justified in killing those PCM idiots.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t¡ª! Uh, only a¡­a few of them.¡±

    ¡°Only a few?¡± she repeated, puzzled. ¡°Not sure what ¡®a few¡¯ is to you, but the news report says it¡¯s¡ª¡± She stopped upon seeing my depressed expression.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to kill humans.¡± I covered my face with my hands and shuddered. I didn¡¯t need to do this bit, but I was feeling giddy because of all the sugar I ate, and being a bit dramatic was a good way to release energy.

    ¡°Don¡¯t blame yourself.¡± Myra awkwardly patted my back. ¡°Killing is bad¡­okay, that sounded lame. But you were left with no choice. You were in danger and you defended yourself, and others¡­¡± She added in a barely audible murmur, ¡°If they survived.¡±

    I assumed she unconsciously said that, so I just ignored it. ¡°Guilt, yes I feel that.¡± I slowly shook my head with my eyes closed. ¡°But it¡¯s not only that. It also feels like¡­like if I lose control while fighting, the faster the A-Adumbrae will get hold of me. I-I can¡¯t¡­I don¡¯t know what to do.¡±

    ¡°You already said you had more control when you transformed because of our practice. Which means you need more practice.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­yeah, you¡¯re right. That¡¯s actually why I called you. If only I had more experience fighting, I could¡¯ve fought those people even if they had guns. As much as possible, I don¡¯t want to transform. If I can fight as just me, that¡¯ll be great.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s practice with you as just regular Erind, and then we¡¯ll try to see if you can control yourself as Blanchette. That was our deal, wasn¡¯t it? I teach you how to fight, how to get stronger and use your powers, and you help me find Kelsey.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Myra.¡± I weakly smiled at her.

    ¡°Perk up now,¡± she said, giving me an awkward smile in return. ¡°And don¡¯t think about the people you kil¡ªer, don¡¯t think about what happened. At all. You don¡¯t want to stay up all night thinking about them. Trust me, I¡¯ve been there. Better not to watch the news too. They¡¯re incorrectly reporting the casualties. I assumed you attacked some of those PCM guys and then the rest ran away? But the news says there are many¡ª¡±

    ¡°Many people did die! But I already told you it wasn¡¯t me.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ª? I don¡¯t understand.¡±

    ¡°I think the media is underreporting the casualties. But it wasn¡¯t me¡­or mostly not because of me. Another Adumbrae was there.¡± I described the kid with the axe and his powers, and my fight with him¡ªbut I did kind of switch our places in the narrative. ¡°I swear I tried to avoid hitting other people. But I was just so scared that I¡­I might¡¯ve injured a few as I scrambled to escape.¡±

    ¡°An Adumbrae with an axe? We haven¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°So many people died¡­just so many. Some deaths are because of me. The Adumbrae was chasing me and killing everyone in the way. It¡¯s my fault that¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind!¡± She held my shoulders. I looked up at her. ¡°That Adumbrae killed them. Not you. Get it?¡±

    I nodded.

    ¡°You¡¯re not responsible for everyone¡¯s lives. Don¡¯t think about that anymore. We should focus on this new Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­yes. Could he be with the 2Ms?¡±

    ¡°We haven¡¯t met or heard of this kid before. And isn¡¯t that weird that he¡¯s a child? It could be an experiment of the 2Ms.¡±

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    ¡°That¡¯s the second reason why I wanted to meet with you. I didn¡¯t want to tell anyone else about the kid Adumbrae I met, not even Deen. It¡¯d be hard to come up with a story of how I ended up at that place. But I had to tell someone, and it¡¯s either you or Johann.¡±

    ¡°You were right to tell me about this,¡± Myra said. ¡°Speaking of Johann, he did some digging about that warehouse compound. He found out it was owned by Dawson Stevedoring¡­something. It¡¯s a long name, I can¡¯t exactly remember it. The point is, this Dawson company is one of the known business fronts of the 2Ms.¡±

    ¡°So, it¡¯s really them!¡± I said, acting shocked. Figures. Who else would be experimenting on making children Adumbrae? There was something else that bothered me about this whole thing. ¡°This Dawson company¡­I think I¡¯ve seen their logo before.¡±

    ¡°The docks where we saved you¡ª¡±

    ¡°It was the same company?¡±

    ¡°Yep. This whole thing got the fingerprints of the 2Ms all over it. The EFU Medical Center. The Dawson warehouses, which aren¡¯t that far from the hospital. Perhaps the PCM too? Capturing the SVS could be a fake story to trick the protesters into gathering more experiment subjects for the 2Ms. Somehow these are all connected, and we just don¡¯t know how.¡±

    Myra grilled me for more details concerning that night, taking down notes to share with Johann. I could tell she wasn¡¯t completely on board with my story about a new Adumbrae, which was funny because that part was actually true. I bet she was half-thinking I was making up shit because I didn¡¯t want to admit to killing a lot of people. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job keeping my story straight.

    If Johann could get information from the BID investigation that conflicted with what I told Myra, I could just chuck it to faulty memory due to my wild transformation, or that the BID was covering something up. My story was mostly true anyway.

    It was just a matter of who killed who.

    And who cares about that?

    ¡°I¡¯ll talk to Johann after our practice,¡± said Myra, ¡°and we¡¯ll come up with some way to share this with the group without mentioning you. The stuff he dug up about the Dawson company should be a good start, but we also have to tell them about this new Adumbrae. I bet they¡¯re from the Red Island. All the more reason for us to prepare to fight. Should we start our practice?¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Keep up, keep up.¡± Myra¡¯s words were echoing inside her helmet. She expertly weaved backwards through the columns while facing me, intentionally keeping out of my range by only a few inches. ¡°Come on, just one hit.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m trying,¡± I huffed as I chased after her, punching and kicking while avoiding the thick concrete columns. I already learned my lesson¡ªI clipped their edges a couple of times.

    Five minutes, or maybe closer to ten minutes had passed since we started what Myra called ¡®light sparring¡¯, and I hadn¡¯t landed a single hit on her. She kept on giving random advice like ¡®don¡¯t flail around¡¯ and ¡®focus your strength¡¯, which didn¡¯t really help me much. To be fair, it was hard to give detailed advice when she was concentrating on avoiding getting pummeled by yours truly.

    She told me to go ahead and give it my all to simulate an actual fight. To protect herself, she fully encased her body with her bark armor thingy. She also made herself larger with leg and arm extensions made of the same bark material, explaining that several Adumbrae they encountered were much bigger than normal humans. I sort of shared the same experience.

    ¡°Keep your form tight,¡± she called out.

    ¡°Yes, got it!¡± I answered. What the fuck does that even mean?  It sounded like clich¨¦ advice from action movies.

    I drove Myra into the middle of the building where there were no columns¡ªor maybe she let herself be herded this way. I rushed to get close to her. All her tips from yesterday flitted in my mind, I tried to replicate the correct form for a punch and then threw my fist as hard as I could.

    Tendrils shot diagonally downwards out her side, burying into the floor and pushing her body out of the way. I ended up punching those tendrils; they might as well be dried twigs that crumbled from my attack. But because they were brittle and barely offered any resistance, the force of my punch carried me forward and put me off-balance. I ended up tumbling on the floor.

    ¡°Good try,¡± Myra said. ¡°But you¡¯re still flailing. Attacking with power and making sure you maintain your balance are both equally important. You¡¯ll leave yourself open to counterattacks afterward.¡±

    ¡°Okay, I understand.¡± I nodded as I sat on the dirty ground analyzing the situation. This is super annoying.

    My fighting instincts were woefully absent when I was just my cute and pretty Erind self. Movements as Blanchette were way smoother, more coordinated, and I had more sense in what I was doing. During my fight last night against the kid and his weird axe¡ªmostly the weird axe¡ªI was like the protagonist in an action movie with how I moved¡­just erase the using human shields thing.

    The worst part with our sparring was that this wasn¡¯t enjoyable as myself. Was there something with my transformation that made fighting entertaining? Was it because I could feel extreme emotions such as rage and bloodlust only as Blanchette? Right now, fighting felt like a chore. Perhaps if this was life or death, I¡¯d be more excited.

    I wouldn¡¯t say addicted, but I did like the thrill of the battle. It was¡­cathartic? I wasn¡¯t sure if that was the right term. I¡¯ve used the word ¡®cathartic¡¯ a few times, but I never actually knew what it felt like. It probably wasn¡¯t possible for me to feel catharsis.

    I¡¯m going to hit Myra, I firmly resolved.

    Might as well make this learning experience an enjoyable one. I picked myself up and dusted off my butt with a closed fist, feeling the two stones I palmed in each of my hands. Although I sucked at fighting with this body, I was sure I could throw accurately. I just needed the perfect opportunity. For now, I should make her more complacent.

    We went back to our spar.

    ¡°And you¡¯re sticking too close to me,¡± Myra said. She lightly shoved me with her long branchy arms and jumped back to avoid my punch.

    ¡°Because my reach is too short,¡± I retorted, allowing frustration to creep in my voice. This reminded me of college when I had a judo PE class. It was so irritating getting paired with a much taller girl. I couldn¡¯t get a hold of them; they¡¯d grab me straight away when I approached them.

    ¡°That¡¯s why it¡¯s best to attack from a distance.¡±

    ¡°I know, I know,¡± I said. ¡°But throwing stuff from afar won¡¯t do much.¡±

    Our fighting continued, and she was starting to get more relaxed. She poked me a couple more times, and I just let her. Just a bit more.

    She shoved me again. This was it!

    I hooked her arm and pinned it to my side. Myra inhaled sharply. I yanked her down, surprising her with how much strength I was holding back.

    Out of reflex, she swung her other arm at me for real¡ªit was a blur in my peripheral vision. I lashed at it with my other arm, punching through it. I got both of her arms. Just the extensions, but still. I raised my leg.

    Myra already knew what I was going to do. Branches sprouted out her chest, catching my kick and pushing me away. She also broke off her arm extension to get free of me.

    ¡°You almost got me,¡± she said with a grin as she retreated. The branches receded into her bark armor. ¡°I admit I was care¡ªoh!¡±

    I threw a stone at her leg that was stepping back, breaking her blade stilt. She wobbled to the left. I hurled the other stone at her head when she turned to check what happened to her leg. She yelped as it hit her. I charged and leaped in the air. She instinctively held up her arms. I punched downwards, putting my weight behind it. Her arms protected her chest, but I hooked my punch to her stomach.

    Myra¡¯s body slammed to the ground. And I slammed into her. She bounced up and we hit each other again because my arm was stuck in her armor. The impact dislodged my arm and threw me off. I rolled several feet away.

    Shit, my arm hurts. I quickly picked myself up. I could feel my finger bones were broken. I looked down at my arm. My skin was scored like a roast pig. Shards of the bark armor were buried deep in my flesh. Blood coated my fist; some mine, most hers. Did I¡­?

    Oh, wait.

    ¡°Myra!¡± I exclaimed, rushing to her side. Move out of the way people, concerned friend coming through. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I didn¡¯t mean¡ªoh my god! I broke your armor!¡±

    She coughed up blood. Flecks stuck to my left cheek. ¡°I-I¡¯m fine,¡± she croaked. She tried to smile to back her words. ¡°Le-let¡¯s take¡­five.¡±

 4.31 - Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    ¡°Argh! Dammit. I really hate this.¡± Myra Fletcher bit her lower lip so she wouldn¡¯t scream again.

    Her body immediately went into rapid healing mode, which was a good thing. The bad thing was it started by pushing the shards of her armor lodged amongst her innards out of her body. It was literal hell as their jagged edges scraped her insides on their way out. It wouldn¡¯t be this painful if these were just bullets instead. Maybe it would¡¯ve been better if she didn¡¯t wear any armor.

    However, the flip side was that Erind would¡¯ve certainly caused more damage.

    ¡°Myra¡­you¡¯re bleeding so much,¡± Erind nervously whimpered as she cleared the armor to get a better view of the wound. ¡°Let me see¡ªAh! There¡¯s a hole in your stomach! Oh my god, oh my god. What do I do?¡± She tried to put her hands on the gaping wound.

    ¡°Don¡¯t,¡± was all Myra could say. She swatted Erind¡¯s hands away or else they¡¯d stop the shards she was expelling.

    ¡°Just tell me if you need me to do anything.¡±

    ¡°Nothing. Just chill.¡± Myra shallowly breathed, enduring the process of expelling the pieces in determined silence. As she sucked the rest of her armor back into her skin, she suspiciously eyed Erind. Did she intentionally do it?

    If she did, then it meant she wanted to hurt Myra as some form of revenge. Very understandable. I¡¯d hate me too if I was in Erind¡¯s position, Myra thought. She couldn¡¯t blame her for that, but she also didn¡¯t want to get a surprise betrayal someday. Still, it didn¡¯t feel like something the timid Erind she knew would pull off.

    Was this the Adumbrae inside Erind rearing its ugly head? It could be influencing her to get angry¡­angrier at me.

    Either case was dangerous. She should be careful not to get stabbed in the back someday.

    Or maybe she was overthinking this. It was likelier Erind simply got caught up in the heat of the fight and got a lucky hit in. I did tell her to give it her all.

    ¡°Erind¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes? What can I do¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Your cheek. My blood¡­sorry I coughed on you.¡±

    Erind wiped her left cheek. ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m sorry too, for doing this to you,¡± she sheepishly apologized.

    Myra hissed through gritted teeth as she sat up. Catching Erind¡¯s worried expression, she clamped her mouth shut to stop herself from making any more noises.

    It reminded her of the aftermath of one of their earlier missions¡ªtheir group was severely injured, and they all went to her house to recuperate because it was the nearest safe place. She didn¡¯t expect Kelsey to be home that time because she was supposed to have a class, but it turned out it was canceled. Her sister had the same look of concern Erind was giving her. And it inexplicably irked her. ¡°I¡¯ve got the fastest healing speed out of all of us with artificial Cores. That''ll be fixed in a jiffy, don¡¯t worry.¡±

    ¡°I punched shards into your stomach! Of course, I¡¯d be wor¡ª¡±

    Myra was starting to get irritated. I don¡¯t want to be pitied. ¡°I¡¯m fine!¡± she shortly interjected. She grabbed Erind¡¯s hand and pressed it against her wound. She stopped herself wincing from the pressure. ¡°It¡¯s healing nicely. Can you feel it?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­¡±

    ¡°The hole already closed up. Just give me a few min¡ªwhat?¡± She noticed Erind¡¯s conflicted and slightly embarrassed face.

    ¡°Maybe you can let go of my hand now. It¡¯s getting weird.¡±

    ¡°Oops¡­right, it¡¯s weird. And I got more blood on you.¡±

    There was silence. Their eyes met.

    Myra¡¯s brain scrambled to squeeze out a joke to stop the situation from becoming more awkward. ¡°Not as weird as having your fist inside of me¡ªoh god, that sounded so wrong. I can¡¯t think straight right now.¡± Both of them giggled. She forced herself to take it further and laughed out loud to keep up a tough image. ¡°If that perverted Reo is here, I¡¯m sure he¡¯d have something stupid to add.¡±

    ¡°You do seem to be okay,¡± Erind said, hesitantly smiling.

    ¡°I am,¡± she firmly replied. ¡°You should clean your hands. I have some towels in the bag over there. You can use the large bottle of water to wash it off if it¡¯s already sticking too much.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m really, really sorry¡ª¡±

    ¡°I already told you it¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve experienced much worse.¡± Like fighting Bob, she added in her head. ¡°This is nothing. It just feels like severe cramps now¡­not sure if that comparison is correct. I haven¡¯t had cramps since I got the artificial Core.¡±

    ¡°Right, because you¡¯re just healing any pain. I suppose that¡¯ll happen to me too.¡±

    ¡°Girl talk,¡± Myra cheerily said. ¡°Who would¡¯ve thought. Anyway, you should wipe the blood off before it dries. Can you bring me a towel as well?" Erind brought over the bag and the two of them cleaned themselves. Myra took off her shirt and examined the bloody tear on its front with amusement. ¡°I also had some injuries when I practiced fighting with the guys like Everett had burned me a few times.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to hurt you¡­or anyone.¡±

    ¡°But there are times you need to,¡± she argued. Erind going soft was not within her plans. ¡°You should be prepared to fight at all times. Just like when you were caught by the PCM guys.¡± She didn¡¯t want to bring up her next point because it involved Kelsey but decided it was important to impress on Erind that she should stick with her. ¡°Kelsey¡­Dario¡¯s group took Kelsey because she was turning into an Adumbrae. If they somehow discover your secret, and I¡¯m sure they eventually will¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. You and Johann already suspected something was wrong with me.¡±

    Myra eagerly nodded. She needed to continuously remind Erind that joining her side and fighting Dario was the best option. She didn¡¯t want her to go to Dario seeking a cure. It was already bad enough that she and Erind had a rocky history¡ªa severe understatement. ¡°If someday they come to get you, you¡¯ll be prepared to fight back.¡±

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    ¡°Not if we get to them first,¡± Erind said in a wavering voice. It was so obvious that she was forcing herself to sound tough.

    It almost made Myra grin, reminding her of herself. ¡°Yeah¡­and save Kelsey.¡±

    ¡°When I first met Dario, you know, at Deen¡¯s house with all of you except Johann, I already sensed something was off with him. I noticed he used his powers to make you stop arguing with me.¡±

    ¡°Er, yeah. He always says we¡¯re democratic as a group, but he always has the last say on everything. He keeps saying he¡¯s the weakest of us all, but none of us could actually beat him if he was serious. And you¡¯re right something is off with him. He¡¯s too mechanical sometimes¡­too clinical in his thinking. Really suspicious guy.¡±

    ¡°I should¡¯ve known that he¡¯s the one who told the 2Ms to kidnap me.¡±

    Myra¡¯s head jerked in surprise. She turned to Erind, her forehead wrinkled in confusion. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°I mean only your group knows about me at that time. Like the 2Ms don¡¯t have any idea who I was. Okay, maybe not tell them to kidnap me, but I figured Dario tipped them off or something to eliminate me¡­stop me from spreading your secret. Something like that? And you guys arrived because I trashed the docks.¡±

    That gave Myra a pause. Should she tell her the truth? Yes, if she wanted to gain her trust. Then they could puzzle over the new question that popped¡ªhow did the 2Ms know about Erind? She explained, ¡°It wasn¡¯t Dario who told them about you. I¡¯m sure of that. You¡¯re right, he wanted to stop you from spreading our secret. That was why we were following you that day.¡±

    ¡°Hold on. Were you in the car following me and Ramello from the station near our university? I think that was a Mayfair sedan. Rofirio and his goons were riding black SUVs. I should''ve realized something was up. All this time I thought that was also them.¡±

    ¡°Yep, that was us. Although that car was destroyed when Everett and Reo were chased by the police the night of the Eve raid. Johann, Reo, and I were following you in that car, observing how you acted while we waited for Dario to meet up with us because we were going to capture you and, uh¡­¡±

    ¡°Let me guess, wipe my memories?¡±

    ¡°It was the group consensus¡ªminus Deen, she was new at that time. She had no idea about all of this. Dario initially planned to wipe Deen¡¯s memory too, but she voluntarily joined us. Dario was eager for more recruits. But you didn¡¯t, so he was left with no choice. In a way, you got lucky that Rofirio kidnap¡ªerm, sorry. I misspoke. I meant to say that¡­uh¡­¡±

    ¡°Something good came out of it?¡± Erind sighed. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t treat me like I¡¯m overly sensitive. Deen also does that too, tiptoeing around certain topics. Don¡¯t forget what I¡¯ve been through.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. You¡¯re a strong person. And, yeah, that was what I wanted to say. Because of what happened, you still ended up sort of joining us and we didn''t fight each other. Dario was disappointed you didn¡¯t agree to meld with an artificial Core, but having you around kept Deen happy, and he wanted to cultivate her power.¡±

    ¡°Her ability has a lot of potential,¡± Erind agreed.

    ¡°So, that¡¯s that.¡± Myra wiped her body again before putting on a fresh shirt. ¡°Dario wasn¡¯t behind the kidnapping because he ordered us to get you. Unless this is some insane big brain fourth-dimensional chess plot to force you into joining us, I don¡¯t really see that he had something to do with it.¡±

    Erind nodded then bowed to the floor, deeply mulling about something. Myra guessed that they were thinking about the same thing. Erind, her eyes still on the ground, softly spoke, ¡°So¡­why did the 2Ms kidnap me? Scratch that. If they knew I was connected to you, that¡¯s plenty of reason to do something bad to me. But I only met your group a day before, and I didn¡¯t even join you¡­so how did they know about me? Is there a traitor in your group?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Myra quickly replied, finding the idea preposterous even though she considered it herself. ¡°Traitor? As in someone siding with the 2Ms? If there was, then they¡¯d have caught and killed us all a long time ago.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Erind conceded. ¡°But how¡­¡±

    Myra didn¡¯t have an answer to the hanging question. Before, she assumed that Red Hood¡ªor ¡®Blanchette¡¯ as Erind insisted¡ªworked for the 2Ms. But since Blanchette and Erind were the same person, then that wasn¡¯t the correct explanation. Even after Erind confirmed that she was Blanchette, Myra hadn¡¯t revisited this question with this new information. ¡°How¡­and who?¡±

    A ringtone jolted them both out of their serious discussion.

    Myra was almost thankful for the distraction because she really didn¡¯t have any idea, and she was starting to blame herself for missing it. Another mysterious person¡­another missing piece of information. What if it had something to do with Kelsey¡¯s disappearance?

    She rummaged her bag, looking for her phone. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Johann. Let¡¯s hope this isn¡¯t some bad news,¡± she said, shrugging at Erind. ¡°Hello, Johann. What¡¯s up? I¡¯m hanging out with Erind like we did yesterday.¡±

    Johann didn¡¯t immediately answer. It might sound like she was just pretending to have a normal conversation, but she was actually giving him a hint not to discuss anything Erind shouldn''t know about. ¡°Oh, I see. I hope you guys are having fun there. I suppose you¡¯re not watching the news there?¡±

    ¡°Uh, no. Why? Did something happen?¡± Myra raised a brow at Erind as she sat next to her to listen in. ¡°Johann, I¡¯ll put you on loudspeaker, okay?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, no prob. She¡¯ll find this interesting. You guys won¡¯t be able to guess who came in our precinct to surrender.¡±

    Myra and Erind looked at each other. ¡°If Erind will find it interesting¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­then it¡¯s Ramello,¡± Erind finished.

    ¡°Darn, it was that easy to guess?¡± Johann spoke. ¡°Yes, Ramello and some SVS members came in to surrender themselves. I think they went here because we¡¯re the only other place in the city with testing Adumbrae facilities, and HQ is a mess with crazy protesters outside who want to hang the mayor currently detained there upside down¡ªformer mayor, excuse me.¡±

    "These guys are just trying to avoid getting lynched a second time¡ªoops.¡±

    ¡°Lynched a second time? What do you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡ª¡± Dammit, Johann didn¡¯t know about Erind¡¯s story about yesterday night.

    ¡°A lot of people are angry at the SVS because of their radically different views on Adumbrae,¡± Erind chimed in, ¡°so they might get lynched if they go to where the protestors are congregating.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I wanted to say,¡± Myra said. She was going to explain everything to him later.

    ¡°Well, I think it¡¯s good that Ramello came forward,¡± said Erind. ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯s innocent. He¡¯ll certainly clear his name.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep you guys updated,¡± Johann said. ¡°I¡¯m going to tell Dario about this now. I just wanted to gossip with Myra first.¡± Upon hearing this, she turned her head away so Erind wouldn¡¯t see her smirking. He continued, ¡°I might be on the news later, so make sure to watch for me. There are already a couple of news vans outside. Unfortunately, some protesters are also starting to gather.¡±

    ¡°Take care of yourself, ¡®kay?¡± Myra said. ¡°We¡¯ll swing by there later to see what¡¯s up.¡±

    ¡°You guys might need to extract me from here if the protesters decide to surround our precinct,¡± Johann joked. He added a chuckle at the end, but Myra picked up a hint of nervousness in his voice. "See you later."

    ¡°That was unexpected,¡± Myra said as she put her phone back into her bag.

    ¡°I don''t think so,¡± said Erind. ¡°Ramello doesn¡¯t have anything to do with this so coming forward is the best choice for him.¡±

    ¡°This guy really attracts trouble, huh?¡±

    ¡°He was mistakenly kidnapped along with me, and now he¡¯s caught up again¡­okay, that sounds too much to be just a coincidence when I say it out loud. Maybe he has something to do with my kidnapping? Uh, no. He couldn¡¯t have. He was beaten up quite badly. And he also doesn¡¯t know about my connection to you.¡±

    ¡°We can discuss this with Johann when we meet up with him later,¡± Myra said. ¡°Maybe he¡¯ll have some ideas.¡±

    ¡°Oh, we¡¯re going there?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m worried about him. People are getting crazy as hell these days.¡± She picked up a rock and tossed it to Erind. ¡°Let¡¯s just do some throwing practice. I think we have had enough sparring for today. After thirty minutes, we''ll head over to the police station where Johann is working.¡± Erind snickered. Myra inquiringly tilted her head.

    ¡°Ah, I just thought of something funny,¡± she said. ¡°I was at that station just a few days ago, and I swore I wasn¡¯t going back there again¡­until like my retest in six months.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll just wait outside for Johann. No need to be nervous.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not. I just think it¡¯s funny. I hope there¡¯s no hot coffee there.¡±

 4.32 - Johann Martin Fischer/Amber Deen Leska

    Johann Martin Fischer

    Johann Martin Fischer slowed down as he walked past Lt. Tetterton¡¯s office. He nonchalantly glanced at the glass walls, feigning mild indifference at the two people on the other side talking to the head of the Adumbrae Investigations Unit of their precinct.

    He couldn¡¯t recognize their faces. The man had a police jacket draped over his blue plaid dress shirt and black tie; it must¡¯ve been one hell of a challenge putting on his clothes with his severe injuries. He had one sleeve and one pants leg rolled up because he had casts on, and he needed crutches to walk. Why is he still moving around in that state? The woman beside him wore a similar business casual attire, but she had her police jacket folded in her arms. Even without overhearing Saffron mention they were detectives, their attires were already telling.

    Earlier, when Johann had Lt. Tetterton sign some testing certificates¡ªDr. Cornelio mysteriously hadn¡¯t shown up for work since Thursday, the same day Erind was tested¡ªMs. Saffy came in and told their boss that Detective Castan and Detective Klein wanted to talk to him about one of the people who came forward in connection with last night¡¯s Adumbrae attack and was currently being tested¡ªRamello Staten.

    Castan and Klein. Johann was certain they were the ones who found Julie Conti according to the records he hacked from their system. There could be a few Kleins in the force, maybe a couple of other Castans too, but the two of them together here? And now, they were looking for Ramello?

    This isn¡¯t a simple coincidence.

    As far as Johann knew, the only link connecting Ramello and Julie was Erind. Did they discover something about her that they shouldn¡¯t?

    Johann quickly reprinted a bunch of testing certificates and went back to Lt. Tetterton¡¯s office, hoping he could eavesdrop on anything important. The walls were soundproof. He stood outside the glass door and knocked. Catching Lt. Tetterton¡¯s attention, he waved the papers he held, a trick he also used with Dr. Cornelio. But this time, he wanted to be let in instead of shooed away.

    Before Lt. Tetterton could make a gesture in answer, Johann pushed the door and entered. ¡°Sorry for interrupting, sir.¡± He gave an apologetic nod. ¡°I was just hoping we could release these certificates before we process the next batch. The BID is rushing us to upload, um, you know¡­¡± He mumbled some words, hoping it would get a pass.

    The lieutenant, barely giving Johann half an ear, sighed at the detectives and then turned to him. ¡°Give ¡®em here. These are starting to become endless.¡±

    Johann prayed Lt. Tetterton won¡¯t check the certificates, because if he did, he¡¯d see these were the same papers he signed a while ago. But the lieutenant rarely read what he was signing, and if he scanned the contents of these, Johann was banking on the fact that he didn¡¯t read the ones he signed before so he wouldn¡¯t notice anything was wrong.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what to tell you, detectives,¡± Lt. Tetterton boomed while his pen flew over the documents. ¡°We can¡¯t just give you custody of Mr. Staten. As you said, he, and the rest of that goddamn rabble, are not being detained. They also don¡¯t have any standing warrants. There¡¯s no custody to speak of.¡±

    ¡°But, sir¡ª¡± the man tried to cut in.

    ¡°By all means,¡± Lt. Tetterton pushed on, ¡°your boy could walk out of this building after his testing¡ªif he has clean results, I might add¡ªand go with you, and you be the one to accompany him surrendering at the BID base beside HQ. Except for the fact that the BID told us to keep him here. We will stop him if he tries leaving. We can discuss the legalities by then. But your boy has no desire to leave, that¡¯s why he submitted himself for testing.¡±

    ¡°Sir, they still haven¡¯t taken jurisdiction¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± the lieutenant said, waving at them in frustration, ¡°we¡¯re just going in circles. That¡¯s why I used the word ¡®told¡¯, not ¡®ordered¡¯ or ¡®instructed.¡¯ You¡¯re still not taking him with you. If you¡¯re going to surrender him to the BID, why do you want to take him away now?¡±

    ¡°Err¡­we¡¯re worried about him. He¡¯s the¡ª"

    ¡°Don¡¯t try pushing the goodwill of Hall now, this is not connected to anything I owe him, and you tell him that when he awakens. Poor guy, bunged up by an Adumbrae.¡± Lt. Tetterton stopped writing for a couple of seconds and somberly shook his head. Then he said, ¡°The BID is coming to get your boy. They¡¯re riding a helicopter because they couldn¡¯t get through those goddamn lunatics rioting. They¡¯ll be here soon. Talk to them if you want.¡±

    The two detectives looked at each other, at a loss on what to do next.

    ¡°I don¡¯t even know why you¡¯re asking me instead of the captain. Although, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll have the same ans¡ªJohann?¡±

    ¡°Sir?¡± He stepped forward, trying to keep his expression neutral.

    Lt. Tetterton flipped through the papers. ¡°Some of the names here look familiar.¡±

    He held back the impulse to nervously gulp. ¡°I think some of them are relatives of the people we tested, so they have the same surname. That must be it, sir.¡± The lieutenant accepted his explanation and finished signing the papers. He still had the backup explanation that he spilled coffee on the first copy of signed certificates¡ªagain, recalling what happened with Dr. Cornelio¡ªwhich was why he had to reprint them. Thankfully, he wasn¡¯t forced to use that excuse; he didn¡¯t want to look incompetent if he could help it.

    ¡°Here you go, Johann,¡± said Lt. Tetterton. ¡°Get this over with so you guys can finish processing Mr. Staten¡¯s group when the BID picks them up.¡± He nodded at the two detectives. ¡°This is out of my hands. As for that other thing¡­¡±

    Johann had no other excuse to stay. He walked out of the office and into the lobby, leaving the door open. He braced himself for the lieutenant¡¯s yells, telling him to close it. But Lt. Tetterton seemed to be discussing another important topic with the detectives. He turned left, out of view of his boss¡¯s office, but still as close as possible to the door. He folded his arms and pretended to intently look at the TV, which was constantly tuned in to a news channel.

    ¡°Investigation¡­don¡¯t go around¡­allegations.¡±

    The lieutenant was very loud in contrast to his short stature, yet Johann couldn¡¯t make out what he was saying. And there was no way he could hear the responses of the detectives. All the offices having glass walls meant he couldn¡¯t get any closer without being spotted, and had to hide behind the huge fern in front of the neighboring room.

    ¡°The mayor¡­BID will take care¡­don¡¯t bother.¡±

    Johann frowned. I¡¯m going to try another pass. Out the corner of his eye, he noticed Mimi leave her post at the front desk and raise the volume of the TV with the infamous remote that only she knew how to operate. She normally didn¡¯t leave her spot, eternally playing solitaire on her computer in between work. He stopped and looked at the news.

    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s the leader of¡­whatchamacallit? The PCM, yeah,¡± said one of the people sitting in the lobby, probably waiting for Mimi to process his papers.

    Auron Cohenn, a fairly unassuming man, led a massive rally that occupied the whole road. The people behind him had banners and placards full of anti-Adumbrae slogans. They also flew many yellow flags with the fist symbol of their organization. Reporters kept up with the PCM leader, battering him with questions.

    ¡°The will of the people shall prevail!¡± Auron shouted, holding up his fist. The horde echoed his call. Several hundred fists pumping into the air. ¡°And the will of the people is to take matters into our own hands. We are left with no choice since the government is unable, is unwilling to keep us safe. We, the people, will protect this city!¡±

    Fists rose once again in tandem with cheering.

    One of the reporters off-screen asked him a question, to which Auron responded, ¡°PCM members are innocent. They were hunting for Adumbrae, following suspicious activities at EFU Medical Center. The arrest of the mayor proves what the PCM has long known: gathering Adumbrae-related patients in that hospital is going to be the bane of this city! A hive of evil!¡± He grabbed one of the microphones getting shoved to his face. His expression became more impassioned, almost on the verge of tears. ¡°Many, many of our brothers and sisters died, so many. The BID is hiding the true numbers. We shed blood to catch Adumbrae, and the BID is suspecting our people.¡±

    ¡°Mimi, you¡¯re listening to that crazy guy?¡± Philip, one of the technicians at the lab walked in. She hushed him. ¡°Okay, sheesh. Johann, my man. We need you back¡ª¡±

    ¡°Hang on,¡± Johann said. Philip raised a brow at him. He nodded at the TV. ¡°That looks like Palmer St.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the fault of the SVS!¡± Auron Cohenn roared at the cameras. ¡°They all survived while dozens and dozens of our members died? It means they are connected to the Adumbrae! And we are going to get them¡ª¡±

    ¡°Holy Mother Core,¡± Philip gasped.

    ¡°¡ªto exact the justice of the people¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. There¡¯s that small pharmacy I pass by every day.¡±

    ¡°¡ªare the Protectors of the City Movement, and we will protect this city!¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re only a couple of blocks away,¡± said Johann. Were they seriously going to attack a police station? It seemed they were ready to kill, and not just protest. Should he¡ª

    The frantic pitter-pattering of heels on tiles jolted all of them. Saffron came running out the corridor that led to the main building. Everyone in the lobby gawked at her, expecting some bad news. She stopped, surprised at all of them. ¡°Eh? Why are you all¡ª?¡± She shook her head and went inside Lt. Tetterton¡¯s office, pausing for a second to check the door left open. Johann took this opportunity to get closer to eavesdrop. ¡°Sir! Dr. Cornelio¡¯s wife is looking for him again and¡ª¡±

    ¡°Kenneth is becoming a pain in the ass. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s missing. He showed up a couple of days ago, didn¡¯t he?¡±

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Yes¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s obvious he just doesn¡¯t want to go home. Don¡¯t forward that call to me. Tell his wife there¡¯s no need to worry. She already filed a missing person report, and the police are doing everything they can to find him, but resources and manpower is currently stretched because¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not a call, sir. Professor Deslys is here. She¡¯s making a scene and the captain wants you to talk to her.¡±

    ¡°Another headache,¡± Lt. Tetterton groaned. ¡°The captain and I know the same thing about Kenneth¡¯s whereabouts¡ªwhich is nothing. Goddamn this. What do I tell her¡ªJohann?¡±

    Johann was still facing the TV, so he didn¡¯t notice Lt. Tetterton walk out of his office. ¡°Uh, sir. Hello¡­¡± he sheepishly said.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you to finish Mr. Staten¡¯s group before the BID arrives?¡±

    ¡°I was just¡­The news, sir. Look¡ª¡±

    ¡°When I come back, I expect an update.¡± Lt. Tetterton whipped around and pointed at the two detectives in his office. ¡°And you two. We have nothing more to discuss. But you¡¯re free to stay in my office while waiting for the BID. Tell Ms. Saffy if you want anything to drink.¡± He then stormed off, huffing in annoyance.

    ¡°Johann, I¡¯ve been meaning to talk to you,¡± Saffron approached him with a frown. He had an inkling of what she was about to bring up. ¡°Mrs. Deslys kept on insisting someone from our office called her a couple of days ago and told her that Dr. Cornelio reported for work. Would you happen to know anything about that?¡±

    ¡°No¡­no¡­¡± Johann tried to keep his voice even. ¡°You told me we shouldn¡¯t stick our noses in their business.¡±

    ¡°I did. Yes. It¡¯s just that someone opened my notebook. You know, the one on my desk¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Ms. Saffy, look at the TV,¡± he frantically interrupted.

    ¡°What are you talk¡ª? Oh my gosh, is that Mrs. Churros down the street?¡±

    Indeed, it was the famous churreria of the city, second only to the donut shop right across their station of the top places police officers hang out for coffee and pastries. The camera captured two cop cars parked outside the small store, and Johann had a sinking feeling he knew what was going to happen next. Is this what having Deen¡¯s power feels like? he darkly joked to himself as all of them, including Saffron, stared in horror at the large group of protesters becoming crazed at the sight of cops.

    One lone PCM member, carrying a flaming object, broke away from the group. Cameras followed him. He threw the thing he carried¡ªa Molotov cocktail¡ªat the cop car. It shattered the window, and exploded inside the vehicle, setting it ablaze.

    The rest of the PCM horde took it as some sort of signal as they raised their fists into the air and started to run, knocking down the TV news crews in their midst. The view of the camera became full of trampling feet and was suddenly cut off.

    ¡°They¡¯re coming here¡­¡± Johann whispered.

    <hr>

    Amber Deen Leska

    Where did Sis run off to? This should be her thing. Amber Deen Leska didn¡¯t let her annoyance show on her face, acting like she had been facing cameras and microphones her entire life. She even did a few poses. Erind will certainly tease me if she sees my pictures in a magazine.

    ¡°Ms. Amber, are you going to take over your family business someday since your elder sister expressed no interest in it?¡±

    ¡°My sister changes her mind a lot,¡± Deen replied. She felt weird answering to the name ¡®Amber¡¯ since Erind called her ¡®Deen¡¯ all the time. Then she felt weird about feeling weird about it. And then she felt weird being asked about her plans as...a normal person. ¡°I¡¯m sure Sis will come around and change her decision.¡± She definitely won¡¯t. She''ll kill me when she sees this interview.

    The reporters were relentless in their questions, excited to find something different amid political turmoil and Adumbrae fears. She understood what they were going for. The people needed plenty of distractions, and the sister of a local mini-celebrity and daughter of an influential tycoon seemed to be the perfect feature piece.

    ¡°What do you think of our new mayor?

    ¡°Do you have any political aspirations someday?

    ¡°Can you share your experiences in law school?¡±

    ¡°How about a future career in showbusiness or the modeling industry, Ms. Amber?¡±

    Deen politely shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m cut out for acting. And I¡¯m not so sure with modeling, I¡¯m not that confident with my looks.¡± She gave them a sly smile, indicating she was joking. All the reporters laughed. She was certain Erind was also going to laugh if she was here, but for different reasons. She terribly regretted not being pushier with forcing her to come to this event.

    ¡°Can you tell us about your love life, Ms. Amber?¡±

    ¡°Any boyfriends? Relationships?¡±

    And here we go. It took them a while to get to this annoying line of questioning. Deen absolutely hated this. Why was it that every time there was an attractive woman, people felt the need to ask her if she had a boyfriend? Was there a requirement to be attached to a guy? Her sister also detested this, which was why she ended up juggling multiple boyfriends¡ªthe extreme end of the spectrum. Probably a weird power thing for her. ¡°I don¡¯t have a boyfriend. Law school is hard enough as it is, and I don¡¯t want any distraction.¡±

    After five more minutes with the reporters, which stretched like a hundred years of annoying questions about which actors she thought were handsome, Deen finally escaped, thanks in part to a rumor that a new wave of riots was starting, and the reporters rushed to ask the new mayor about it.

    Thanks in part? What a distasteful way of putting it, she berated herself.

    Was she starting to become callous with violence?

    Maybe¡­

    Deen walked away from the gathering of socialites and political supporters of the mayor and headed to the lofty wall windows at the end of the event hall. No one followed her. She gazed outside to clear her head.

    Beyond the beautiful gardens below¡ªa project of the recently arrested former mayor¡ªwas a line of police cars and barricades keeping protesters at bay. However, there wasn''t much protesting. The people were actually walking away. If they continued their track, they¡¯d intersect with Marshall Avenue. Turning right, they¡¯d reach the hospital. Was that where they were headed? She had no idea where else they could be going.

    She tried to focus on each person. They were too far away, so she couldn¡¯t exactly make out their faces. But they all appeared calm. Almost like this was routine. This is becoming normal for them.

    The whole city was becoming desensitized to the deaths and destruction around them. It only took a short time. And it was happening to her as well. She no longer cared¡ªassuming she even did in the first place, which she probably didn¡¯t¡ªabout the two men she killed several days ago. They were the goons of the 2Ms, yes. They were also a threat to her; they were going to shoot her.

    No.

    With her Guardian Angel guiding her way, those two weren¡¯t a threat. Not in the slightest. They were simply normal humans that she killed. Gabe didn¡¯t tell her to kill them. She could¡¯ve knocked them out. She didn¡¯t know why she did that.

    She expected to be tormented by their pained expressions as they slowly choked to death while she crushed their throats. But there were no nightmares. No sleepless nights. It might be because she was preoccupied with making up her failure to protect Erind that she simply shut out anything else. Truth be told, their deaths probably made the world a slightly better place...was what she preferred to tell herself.

    What did she care about? People¡­or saving people? She was afraid to delve deeper into herself.

    ¡°Hmmm?¡±

    Someone among the passing protesters caught her eye. She whipped out her phone and zoomed in on the person with her camera. The image was still not super clear, and other people were blocking the view, but the man was taller than others around him so she had a good look at his slightly blurred face. He was wearing an uncommon maroon beanie even under the sweltering noon heat.

    ¡°That man¡­¡± She let out a minute growl which surprised even herself. ¡°He¡¯s one of the people who chased Erind.¡±

    Before coming to this event, Deen passed by the pub Erind stayed in last night. Erind did tell her not to bother finding the hoodie she left behind, but there was no danger of raising any suspicion. Deen was looking for her friend¡¯s hoodie, that''s all. There, she found out that Erind¡¯s story about a barfight breaking out, which was supposedly why she left in a hurry and forgot about her hoodie, wasn¡¯t true.

    The bartender told Deen that PCM members tried to capture Erind for some reason, but he and a customer stopped them so she could escape. He had the injuries to prove it. As far as he knew, no hoodie was left behind.

    It made her blood boil. Under threat of getting sued, backed by name-dropping the new mayor, sprinkling in a few intimidating legalese, the bartender showed her the video from the barely working security camera of the shop.

    The footage was grainy, but the large man with a maroon beanie was distinctive enough to stick in Deen¡¯s mind. If she had to guess what happened next, they continued chasing Erind. And then she was probably forced to fight. Obviously, she couldn¡¯t reveal the truth to Deen, which was why she made up a fake story.

    Deen¡¯s earlier assumption was that Erind might¡¯ve badly beaten up the PCM members, got their blood on her hoodie, and had to throw it away. But if this man was still walking around with no visible injuries, then Erind probably tried her best not to hurt them. Good job, Erind. I¡¯m proud of you.

    But where did the hoodie go? For sure something else happened. If Erind didn¡¯t hurt them, then they might¡¯ve done something to her. Deen was determined to find out the truth.

    If they hurt her¡­

    ¡°Miss, would you like¡ªeek! I¡¯m sorry. Is something wrong, miss?¡±

    In her deep thought, Deen didn¡¯t notice a waitress approaching to offer her drinks. She must¡¯ve had her face twisted in anger. ¡°Nothing¡­nothing¡¯s wrong. And no drinks, thank you. I¡¯m on a diet.¡±

    She briskly marched out of the hall, burying her fear of her sister¡¯s wrath for suddenly leaving. She didn¡¯t even want to think of an excuse now; she¡¯d worry about that later. Her focus was on chasing after the man with the maroon beanie cap.

    She went out the back of the main building of the city hall, going to the parking lot behind it. Her car was parked somewhere in the middle. She was lucky she arrived and got a spot before the rallies clogged up the roads.

    It was so hot that no one was standing in the parking lot. There were a few people by the surrounding buildings. Would they be able to see inside her car? Probably not. And the car windows, while not heavily tinted, should be enough cover. At any rate, now wasn¡¯t the time for modesty.

    She opened the trunk of her car and took out a duffel bag. Extra clothes and shoes were inside it, the same ones she wore when she went to do her little investigation at the pub.

    Then she got in the backseat, quickly took off her peplum top, ripping it in her haste, and put on a plain black shirt. Tutting at the torn blouse before shoving it in the bag, she thought, I¡¯ll just buy another one like this. Next, she kicked off her heels and wiggled out her pencil skirt, taking care not to tear anything this time. The pants she put on were just discounted department store jeans, not the high-waisted skinny luxury denim brands she usually wore.

    To finish her getup, she donned on a horrendously bland hoodie¡ªshe got the idea to buy one from Erind¡ªand tucked her thick blonde hair into it. Instead of putting the hood up, which just invited suspicion, she put on a baseball cap that she¡­borrowed¡­from her sister¡¯s room. It was probably a gift from her boyfriend who played in a Major Leagues team.

    Deen had a huge grin on her face when she got out of the car. Inexplicably, she felt different in this outfit. I¡¯m supposed to be different because I¡¯m in disguise. But there was a different feeling of being different that she couldn¡¯t put her finger on. So different...Was this what it felt like not having a spotlight on her all the time?

    She turned right. ¡°Am I about to do something stupid?¡±

    Gabe lazily rotated in the air. Its eyes were tightly closed. It ruffled its feathers a bit but didn¡¯t utter a word.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to take that as ¡®no.¡¯ Deen-solo-mission is a go.¡±

 4.33

    ¡°I say, that was a very productive session.¡± I stared outside the car window as we whipped past the derelict structures of the failed McHunters development project claimed by the tide of greenery. My arm, still throbbing from our strenuous throwing practice, dangled over the windowsill. I opened my hand, feeling the much cooler breeze in this abandoned part of the city.

    February wasn¡¯t exactly hot in California compared to its blazing summers, but temperatures were higher in this southern part of the state. La Esperanza was especially hot. The urban sprawl worked in tandem with pollution to trap the heat in the center of the city. This area was very refreshing, in contrast.

    ¡°You have a knack for throwing,¡± Myra replied.

    ¡°A talent I discovered only recently.¡±

    Compared to my fighting prowess which seemed to inherently manifest only when I was in my Blanchette body, my aim was pretty good as just my cute and pretty Erind self. Back when I threw a huge globe at my snake mutant buddy to get its attention, I was able to hit it from a fair distance even without transforming. While not as fun as fighting as Blanchette, I did enjoy using my superstrength to throw and destroy things. Just a hint of exhilaration.

    I glanced at Myra. She was driving a bit too fast. The car bounced as we flew over the rough unmaintained road.

    I fought back the needling urge to grin, remembering that I was able to force her to demonstrate the stuff she was teaching me using her spikes. I insisted she had plenty of experience throwing spikes and had better aim with them, so it might help me better understand her lessons. She was hesitant but eventually did it after a bit of pushing. The look on her face as she used her power was priceless. She was anticipating me to lash out or make a snide remark that she hit me with a spike before.

    And I really was about to cause more drama but decided it was better to hold back.

    Because of that, she¡¯d be emotionally indebted to me that I just focused on the lesson and didn¡¯t bring up our¡­spiky¡­past. My instinct told me she¡¯d feel that way, even if unconsciously. Weird. I don¡¯t know how that works out. But I gave up trying to understand normal people a long time ago; it was enough that I knew based on observation and experience how they thought, not why.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to Johann now, right?¡± I asked. We neared the edge of the McHunters project, the almost-completed buildings presently used by the homeless of the city as their abode coming up on the horizon.

    ¡°Yes,¡± answered Myra. ¡°He hasn¡¯t texted or called again, and I¡¯m worried by the silence. The news¡­can you check it now?¡±

    ¡°Hang on.¡± Although Myra¡¯s phone had a better signal than mine, both of us had trouble connecting online for news while inside our ¡®practice building¡¯, or whatever we should call that place. We did see that a group of protesters was going to the police station where Johann worked and an even bigger group headed to the hospital, but we weren¡¯t able to get any more updates afterward. ¡°Internet¡­internet¡­there!¡± I gasped for dramatic effect, and then whispered, ¡°Myra, it looks bad¡ª¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°The protesters are attacking the police station,¡± I exclaimed. ¡°Is the headline¡­I¡¯m trying to load the video, it¡¯s slow and choppy. It looks like the police have formed a sort of barricade using their patrols cars in front of the precinct. Tons of smoke¡ª¡±

    ¡°Probably tear gas to drive off those crazy guys.¡±

    ¡°¡ªfrom burning cars.¡±

    ¡°Damn it!¡±

    ¡°There is tear gas too, you¡¯re right. I think those are the smoking canisters on the ground. But there are also burning cars. And is that the donut shop across the precinct? It¡¯s also in flames. The surrounding buildings as well.¡±

    Myra cursed and hit the wheel with her palm. ¡°What else is happening?¡±

    ¡°There''s a few people lying on the streets, not sure if they¡¯re dead or what. Hard to tell. The cameraman is hiding behind a huge police truck, the one that shoots out water.¡±

    ¡°Water cannon, yeah, yeah. Sounds like things are looking really bad out there, dammit. Show me the video.¡±

    ¡°Here,¡± I said, raising my phone, ¡°you should keep your eyes on the¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shit!¡± Myra jerked the wheel to the right to avoid an old man with a cart who suddenly crossed the road. She pounded on the horn, yelling at the poor guy, ¡°Watch where you¡¯re going!¡±

    ¡°That probably applies more to us.¡±

    ¡°Give me a break,¡± she snapped with almost a snarl. ¡°I didn¡¯t hit him, did I?¡± She exhaled and then spoke with a more even voice. ¡°We need to get to Johann as fast as possible. Can you call him, please? Use my phone.¡±

    I raised a brow as I did as she instructed. Why was she so riled up? Yeah, Johann seemed to be in a bad spot. But the police should be able to hold back random people who didn¡¯t have anything better to do with their lives. ¡°He¡¯s not answer¡ªno, it¡¯s not connecting. There¡¯s something wrong with his signal, ours is fine.¡±

    ¡°What the hell? That doesn¡¯t sound right.¡± There was a hint of uncharacteristic distress in Myra¡¯s voice. Perhaps this was the same situation with Deen being overprotective of me because she assumed I was still a normal human. Johann was a genuine normal human¡ªas far as I knew anyway.

    Using the map feature of the Snippet app, we connected ours and Johann¡¯s last online location, the police station, and, with its smart mode, picked the fastest path that avoided the heavy traffic. That meant narrow side roads. Myra barreled into them without hesitation. She knocked down several trashcans, almost ran over a cat, and nearly got stuck in a dead-end that wasn¡¯t updated on the maps. I was surprised we didn¡¯t hit any people.

    She was tight-lipped the entire time. Stress oozed out of her body, making the air heavy like it was a tangible thing. She kept on clasping and unclasping the steering wheel to stop herself from deforming it with her super-strength. Her expression was frozen. Nothing fazed her. There was no reaction when her car¡¯s right-side mirror slammed against a lamp post.

    ¡°We¡¯re getting close,¡± I said. We squeezed out of an impossibly small alley and skidded into Palmer Street.

    ¡°You got that right,¡± she mumbled as we blew past a smoldering cop car in front of a store selling churros.

    ¡°People ahead! Find somewhere to park¡ª¡±

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°What? Why?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®why¡¯? Are you going to ram them?¡±

    ¡°Ah, er¡­of course, not.¡± The car climbed the curb and hit a mailbox, toppling it over. ¡°Good enough. Okay, here¡¯s the plan. I¡¯m going to wear a mask, go through these violent wackos, enter the police station¡ª¡±

    ¡°How? Like you¡¯re just going to just walk in the front? They¡¯ll shoot you.¡±

    ¡°¡ªfind Johann,¡± she continued, ignoring my argument, ¡°get him out¡ª¡±

    ¡°The same way you came in? I don¡¯t think that¡¯s possible.¡± It felt really weird to be the voice of reason in this situation. But I kind of didn¡¯t want Johann to just die. He was very useful to me, and one of the only two people who knew about my secret identity. ¡°It¡¯ll be like you¡¯re kidnapping him. How will he explain that late¡ª?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re asking too many questions!¡± She threw up her hands. ¡°Hell, you¡¯re right. I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll be able to get him out through the main entrance. And it¡¯s not the best idea to enter that way either, with the police fighting the rioters¡­give me a couple of seconds to think.¡± She checked the map of the area on her phone. ¡°Revised plan. I need you to drive this car¡ªyou know how to drive?¡±

    ¡°I know how, but I haven¡¯t driven recently.¡± I was going to add ¡®not for like the past year¡¯, but I did drive Rob¡¯s getaway vehicle after I escaped the tunnels connected to the Eve underground arena. ¡°You want me to drive your car and then pick you up like a getaway ride or something?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll try to go in and out the back of the station, that¡¯s the street here,¡± she spoke pointing on the map. ¡°I want you to meet me there.¡± She nodded and muttered to herself, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a good idea.¡± Then she looked up to me and explained, ¡°I¡¯ll waste a lot of time if we go the long way to avoid this horde of dingbats to get to the street behind the station. So, you drive, I get Johann. We¡¯ll meet at this spot, then escape. You¡¯re up for that?¡±

    ¡°I am. Anyway, we¡¯re going to get only Johann? We¡¯re not going to help the¡­um. Ramello is also inside. And many other people will die if these riots continue.¡±

    ¡°Stop the riot? How the hell are we going to do that? That¡¯s the job of the police.¡±

    ¡°Er¡­right.¡± That should be enough to look like a good person.

    Myra reached over my side and opened the glove compartment. Inside were a bunch of dark balaclava masks, the ones usually worn by the group during missions. She picked one and wore it. ¡°Really good point that they¡¯ll shoot me, by the way. I taught you that lesson, and now I¡¯m not listening to myself.¡± Dozens of vines sprouted out of her face, weaving into a full-face helmet with the mask beneath. Her arms and hands were covered as well, and her shirt stretched as a thin layer of armor formed beneath it to protect her body.

    ¡°Should we call the others?¡± I asked, ever the cautious and timid one. ¡°This is getting danger¡ª¡±

    ¡°No time. I don¡¯t even know where they¡ª¡± Her phone rang. ¡°Talk about timing. It''s Reo,¡± she said. ¡°Did he see what''s happening on the news?¡± She answered the call. ¡°Reo! You¡¯re on speaker. Erind is with me. We are near Johann¡¯s precinct. We need help¡ª¡±

    ¡°We also need help!¡± Myra and I winced at Reo¡¯s agitated screaming. Someone was talking to him on the other side. It was probably Everett. They were also plenty of background noise, which sounded awfully like the noise surrounding us. ¡°We¡¯re at the fucking hospital, we¡¯re doing some¡ªEh, what did you say about Johann?¡±

    She quickly explained our situation. ¡°How about on your end? The hell are you guys up to?¡±

    ¡°Me and my man, Everett here, we were scouting good locations for the terrorist bomb plan, and things suddenly went fucking insane here.¡± He narrated that the massive group of protesters going to the EFU Medical Center launched an all-out assault at the National Guard barricades. ¡°There¡¯s shooting everywhere! Can you hear it? We had a hard time finding a place to hide. Many people are dead. Something bad is going to happen if these insane fuckers get to the patients experimented on by the 2Ms, I can feel it in my guts.¡±

    ¡°Have you told Dario about it?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not answering his phone. He¡¯s supposed to cook up a bomb for our plan, he could be doing something delicate. You need to come here. The 2Ms are going to do something for sure to save their experiment subjects!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll get Johann and go to you, guys. Although I have no clue in hell what we¡¯re going to do there.¡±

    ¡°Just get here asap!¡±

    After the call beeped end, Myra deeply exhaled, making a snorting sound inside her helmet. She gripped her phone tightly. ¡°Fuck, so many things fucking happening. Okay, I wasted enough time. I¡¯m going now. Erind, there¡¯s probably something blocking the signal inside the police station, so I¡¯m not sure if we can contact each other later if something goes wrong inside. Whatever may happen, we just improvise, okay? I already showed you where we¡¯ll meet, and I¡¯ll do my best to get there with Johann.¡± She jumped out of the car. ¡°Go, go!¡±

    I scooted to the driver¡¯s seat and made a whack U-turn, hitting the mailbox again, and went off to a side street to avoid the protesters. I passed by scenes of looting, quickly driving away to avoid the attention of the rioters.

    As I went around a couple of blocks, I expected the waves of people to thin out. They didn¡¯t. Fucking pricks threw bottles and bricks at me. One hit the windshield, causing a radiating crack that looked like a sun at the upper right corner of the glass. I was tempted to stop the car and go out to beat their shits up their asses, but I just shrugged it off. Not my car, not my problem.

    And I didn¡¯t want to start another massacre. My quota should be once a week, I thought sarcastically. Be thankful, you fucks.

    I couldn¡¯t get close to the designated rendezvous point. Wow, look at me, military-Erind reporting for duty. Not only were the roads clogged with people, but there was also a huge bus blocking the way.

    ¡°What is this? Why are there so many people here too?¡± Then I realized that we made a mistake.

    A couple of months ago, there were riots in Atlanta over an Adumbrae scare during a Christmas event¡ªwhich turned out to be fake. A police station was burned to the ground if I recalled correctly. There were no casualties. Compared to this situation, Myra and I never stopped to wonder why the police didn¡¯t just evacuate their precinct.

    They couldn¡¯t.

    They were surrounded.

    It wasn¡¯t just the group in front of the police station that was going to attack the place. Buses and vans brought in more people, encircling the whole block where the precinct was located, slowly closing in, tightening the noose. These guys were really serious about killing Ramello and the SVS inside.

    ¡°Something else is going on here,¡± I said, drumming my fingers on the wheel while I observed the mob running to the police station. They parted to give way to another van that rolled up to the bus in the middle of the road. It unloaded another dozen people or so. They all wore yellow shirts with fists symbols printed on them. Everything was too organized. It almost like a fake riot.

    The attack on this precinct. The attack on EFU Medical Center.

    What else?

    The arrest of the mayor. The weird stuff going on at the hospital. Even the axe boy. The warehouse compound connected to the 2Ms. Whatever shit the SVS was doing there. There were too many pieces to the puzzle, and I was certain that I wasn¡¯t aware of even more pieces. The question was¡­did I want to solve this?

    I kind of didn¡¯t.

    I was just hoping there¡¯d be nice pastries at the event Deen went to, and that she¡¯d bring me some.

    Okay, okay, thinking seriously here. At the least, I should be interested in three people inside that precinct. Ramello, for selflessly putting his life on the line trying to save me from Rofirio, although his actions were pretty useless. Myra and Johann for being valuable assets in surviving as an Adumbrae. I especially didn¡¯t want those two to die here.

    Myra could probably get Johann out of there. I should be the one to get Ramello then.

    ¡°Gather ¡®round here!¡± a voice blared. The PCM members scattered up and down the street flocked in the direction of the voice. On top of the van beside the bus stood a woman with a megaphone. Someone with a high rank in the PCM no doubt. ¡°We are going to attack the police station from this side. Do not fear for your lives. The Mother Core is with us! We will cleanse the Adumbrae infesting our city! That means everyone inside that accursed building. Onward, Protectors of the City! Do your duty.¡±

    ¡°A fucking megaphone again.¡± I rolled my eyes. I opened the glove compartment box and took out a spare balaclava mask. Fine, I¡¯ll see what I can do here.

 4.34

    I had a few faces in the past that were outgoing even though I myself wasn¡¯t. I was quite introverted actually if my self-assessment was accurate. I wasn¡¯t like those people whose answer to ¡°What do you want to do in life?¡± was ¡°Everything¡±, or those who just up and went backpacking in Asia or something on a whim. Erind Hartwell was just a simple girl with a simple life.

    Okay, I was an Adumbrae now, so not that simple. The point was I rarely tried new and adventurous activities.

    Never in all my years on this dirtball of a planet, and some unspecified amounts of time in other dimensions whenever SpookyErind was around, did my simple, cute, and pretty self¡ªthe adjectives were starting to pile up¡ªever expect to loot a convenience store in the middle of a raging riot¡­

    Yet, here I am.

    ¡°Lil¡¯ Homie, this your first gig, or what?¡± A burly man swung open the door of the fridge behind me and shoved the beer cans on its shelves down to a shopping cart. He was fully covered in dark-colored clothes and wore a balaclava mask as I did. ¡°Doncha worry, Cracked Humpty¡¯s gotcha. I take care of Trevino¡¯s crew while the BID got him. Just grab anything you want.¡±

    Cracked Humpty? Not sure if I heard that correctly. Cool street name.

    To my right was an ice cream freezer cabinet. I liked ice cream, even though I had to wait each time to eat it because of Rule #10. However, I wasn¡¯t sure if it would lower my looter creds if I got, or stole, rather, a couple of pints. I eyed it then turned to Cracked Humpty. He nodded encouragingly at me. I pushed aside the cover of the freezer and scooped a few tubs in one dive.

    A topless guy who wrapped his head with his shirt handed me a shopping basket. I placed my loot inside and bowed as thanks. They seemed nice.

    After leaving Myra¡¯s car behind because the street was blocked, I went with the stream of people going to the police station with no plan and no clue of what was happening. I had a feeling that the car was going to get trashed. Sorry, Myra. I was going to help them anyway, so I was certain she wouldn¡¯t mind it.

    I fitted right in with the protesters¡ªrioters¡ªwith my get-up, other than that I didn¡¯t have any PCM paraphernalia with me. I saw a long pole with a PCM banner attached to it propped up beside the entrance of a convenience store, so I went to get it. At the same time, a group of people rushed into the store to loot it, sweeping me along with them. I was positive they weren¡¯t with the PCM; they didn¡¯t have any of the distinguishing yellow color or the fist symbol, and they weren¡¯t keen on joining the march but instead focused on stealing.

    ¡°You okay with just that, Lil¡¯ Homie?¡± asked Cracked Humpty.

    I nodded. I refrained from speaking to not give away I was a girl. They thought I was a teenage boy, apparently mistaking me as part of ¡°Trevino¡¯s crew¡±, whoever that was.

    ¡°Finish up, boys!¡± called out Shirtless Guy, who wasn¡¯t really shirtless because he used his shirt as a mask. ¡°We movin'' next door!¡±

    ¡°Keep up! Keep up!¡± Cracked Humpty grabbed my basket with ice cream, put it on his cart, and guided me out. Shirtless Guy and about half a dozen others followed us carrying their goodies. ¡°Stick with me, Lil¡¯ Homie. Don¡¯t get left behind. You don¡¯t want no PCM to get a hold of your ass.¡±

    ¡°Got that right, Humpty,¡± said Shirtless Guy. ¡°We¡¯re just hawks, cleanin'' up their trail.¡±

    ¡°Hawks?¡± Some guy behind piped up. ¡°They don¡¯t eat no scraps. We vultures, man.¡±

    ¡°I saw a hawk eating a fuckin¡¯ roadkill ¡®coon once.¡±

    ¡°Get your eyes checked, man. Ain¡¯t no hawks eat roadkill.¡±

    ¡°I watched Animal Channel when I was little, hawks are also scavengers.¡± There were grunts of agreement, and that settled the issue. Apparently, we were hawks.

    I was in a bit of a quandary here.

    Two actually.

    The first was I didn¡¯t put up a face that I was with their gang; they just assumed I was. However, I went along with it on a bit of an impulse, so that was on me. The concept of ratification in law applied here; I approved of their act and adopted it as my own. I was stuck with this face and couldn¡¯t break it as per Rule #7.

    The second question was whether Rule #7 was even going to apply in this case. Did I really have a face to speak of? I was wearing a literal mask. My identity was this actual mask. Did this count?

    For now, I assumed it did because it was the prudent thing to do.

    Just like with the US legal system, if there was a shaky part of a law, the law enforcer, the cops, for example, should ensure it was followed to a tee. It was up to the courts later on, if a legal challenge was raised, to interpret an exception, if so warranted, which would then become part of the case law. In my case, I was the Rule maker, the Rule enforcer, and also the interpreter of the Rules. But I didn¡¯t have the time right now to sit down and deliberate on how this should work.

    I guess I¡¯m going to go looting with them for a bit.

    And one of them also watched the Animal Channel as a kid, so I was chill with them.

    We broke into a shoe store a couple of doors down the sidewalk. ¡°Do your shopping, Lil¡¯ Homie.¡± Cracked Humpty gave me back my basket. The rest of the group rushed down the aisles to get the products they wanted. ¡°We first here, we first dibs.¡±

    Despite my pressing mission of helping Myra, Johann, and Ramello, I also went to pick out a few pairs of shoes. Not that I was going to bring this with me back to Deen¡¯s house, but this was such a rare opportunity that I had to immerse myself¡­was my fake reason. I personally just found this very amusing.

    A realization came to me.

    You know what¡¯s funny? I asked myself.

    Whenever I transformed, I thought in answer, I had a literal mask becoming a literal face, and body too. So, this balaclava mask should be considered a full face as well. And another funny thing was that I was also trying to make different faces for my transformed faces like I was trying to make my Pino face have a heroic face¡­aaaah! My head is spinning with layers and layers of faces to keep track of.

    I had a suspicion that there was an ironic shitty twist in all of this. Adumbrae powers were connected to the person in some ways, and I was sure SpookyErind set something up with me that was hilarious to her. She was probably laughing right now that I was carrying a shopping basket with tubs of ice cream and boxes of shoes in the middle of a riot. Oh well, if she was entertained, she was on my side, so it was all good.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Time to get serious. I circled back to the front of the store to observe the PCM outside.

    Were all the megaphones used by the PCM leaders capable of mind-controlling their members? I couldn¡¯t say for certain. But I was super positive it didn¡¯t work on all of them. It wasn¡¯t that noticeable unless one really paid attention to each individual, but there was only a small fraction of the dozens and dozens of them who immediately reacted, almost mechanically, whenever someone gave an order using the megaphone. The majority just followed instructions like normal people, going along with the group.

    I surmised that yesterday, the main PCM horde went to protest at the memorial for the Adumbrae attack casualties, while those connected to the megaphone thingy stayed behind around the hospital for a different purpose. Now, they were mixed together. And¡­I don¡¯t know what to make of it.

    When our looting party would go to the next location, I was going to separate from them.

    And then what?

    Going to the police station was the simplest option, but not the easiest. Or it might be the easiest considering other alternatives. But I didn¡¯t immediately head there because I had a hunch something bigger was afoot, and it might be a good idea to get a megaphone. Strolling up to a PCM leader and just grabbing it was too rash, so I was observing, gathering more information. Hooray, I¡¯m being careful. And I now had ice cream and shoes.

    ¡°Me knows we got to loot shit because of ''em,¡± said Shirtless Guy, noticing that I was looking out the display windows at the PCM fucks on the¡ªoh wait, there was no more window because we broke the glass getting inside. ¡°And I like them new kicks,¡± he continued, raising his feet to show the stolen sneakers he wore, ¡°but I¡¯m getting really bad vibes from them PCM dudes.¡±

    ¡°You got that right,¡± Cracked Humpty said, rolling his cart piled high with shoeboxes up to us. ¡°Showing up out of nowhere a few months ago and gathering a group. Preaching and all that. Me? Not going to join that fishy shit.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, they actin¡¯ mighty suspicious. Be all mysterious with what they doin¡¯. Reminds me of them Adumbrae cults.¡±

    ¡°Was telling Lil¡¯ Homie here to be careful of the PCM.¡± He peered down at my basket. ¡°Whatcha got there, bro? That lady heels? Watcha going to do with that?¡±

    I picked up the box of pumps I got, stared at it, and then shrugged at them. I didn¡¯t pick this for myself; this wasn¡¯t my size or my style. I just wasn¡¯t good at this looting thing.

    ¡°Givin¡¯ that as present for your mum?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good Lil¡¯ Homie right there,¡± said Cracked Humpty, patting my back. I resisted the urge to tear his arm off; I didn¡¯t like being touched, but we were part of the same gang. ¡°Let¡¯s get a move¡ª¡±

    ¡°Aargh!¡±

    The three of us looked at each other, all equally surprised by the anguished scream. It came from further inside the store.

    ¡°Yow, Pinky! What¡¯s goin¡¯ on back¡ª¡± A display cabinet toppled on us.

    Cracked Humpty pushed me out of the way. He and Shirtless Guy dropped to the floor. They were lucky the shopping cart stopped the cabinet from falling further and hitting them. They scrambled towards me as the screaming continued.

    ¡°Fuck was that?¡± Cracked Humpty spun around. ¡°Pinky! What happened to your arm?¡±

    This Pinky guy held a bloody stump, his arm lost up to his elbow. He yelled for help as he tried to get away from someone dressed in PCM clothes. This mysterious newcomer had blood down his front, and the missing arm was entangled with tentacles that came out of his mouth. Hey, this looks familiar. D¨¦j¨¤ vu?

    ¡°The hell is that thing?!¡± Cracked Humpty shielded me with his body.

    ¡°Motherfucking Adumbrae!¡± Shirtless Guy reacted quickly and whipped out a gun tucked in his waistband. Gunfire reverberated inside the small store. ¡°Take that!¡±

    The tentacle zombie staggered as Shirtless Guy emptied his gun. But the zombie didn¡¯t fall. It wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae that had extreme regenerative capabilities, contrary to their assumption, but it was still pretty hard to kill. It flung the arm it was chomping on at us. We ducked. Then it jumped at the first guy it was trying to eat, wrapping his head with tentacles and trying to rip it off his body. Fearing for their lives, the other gang members had no choice but to abandon their fellow, choosing to go past the tentacle zombie while it was occupied eating, and ran out of the store.

    Cracked Humpty pulled back Shirtless Guy who still wanted to try and save their friend. He led the both of us out to the broken windows but stopped when he saw what was happening outside. ¡°The hell is going on? This the fucking end of the world?¡±

    A couple of minutes ago, there were just normal humans rioting outside. Now, several tentacle monsters were killing and eating them. I didn¡¯t even notice the monster attack. It was so sudden and unexpected. Some of the tentacle creatures were already transforming into more hideous abominations as they ate more and more people.

    It was my condominium all over again. But this time, it might be much, much worse because we were out in the open; these monsters could spread all over the city. I couldn¡¯t understand what the 2Ms were thinking by releasing their parasites here. What would they gain from this? Were they just pissed at the BID destroying their business that they intended to cause as much death and destruction as revenge?

    And that wasn¡¯t even the most insane thing about all of this. The PCM leaders ordered their members to fight back! They had weapons so they had moderate success against the weaker monsters, but many of them were slaughtered by the big ones. I seriously couldn¡¯t understand what the fuck was going on! And I was watching this while holding my shopping basket with ice cream and shoes.

    Yeah, SpookyErind is definitely laughing her head off with this scene.

    ¡°Baron! Guido!¡± Cracked Humpty called out to his friends who were grabbed by a car-sized crab that scuttled past the shoe store.

    ¡°Fuckin¡¯ shit. Where do we go?¡±

    ¡°To the back!¡± someone called out. The guy who saw a hawk eat a roadkill raccoon waved for us to follow him.

    Compared to the pandemonium outside, there was only one zombie here, and it was still busy devouring our friend. Shirtless Guy pointed his gun at the tentacle zombie even though he was out of ammo. It noticed us. Me specifically. It charged at me, its tentacles flailing. Cracked Humpty charged it with his shopping cart. The tentacles, which had grown to the size of Humpty¡¯s arms, coiled around the cart and threw it aside. I took out a tub of ice cream¡ªit was frozen rock solid¡ªand threw it. I hit it squarely on its chest. It stumbled back for several feet and was covered with collapsed display cabinets.

    ¡°Nice going, Lil¡¯ Homie!¡±

    The way to the backroom of the store was blocked by one of its employees. He was trying to drive us away with a mop. Shirtless Guy threatened him with his empty gun, and all of us entered the backroom which, judging by the tons of shoeboxes here, was also its storage space. Cracked Humpty grunted as he pushed a heavy cabinet to block the door, and then stood in front of it. He took off his mask, revealing that he had a bald eggy head with a huge scar running across his scalp, hence the nickname, and wiped his sweaty temples.

    Two frightened store employees, Cracked Humpty, Shirtless Guy, two other gang members, and me, whatever I was supposed to be. The seven of us kept deathly quiet under a single dim lightbulb that illuminated the cramped storage room. We listened to the screams, gunfire, and monstrous roars muffled by the fairly thick door. The female employee could no longer hold back and started hysterically sobbing. First getting robbed, then getting attacked by monsters, a rough day for her.

    So¡­am I just going to stay here?

    Bang!

    The female employee and Hawk-Raccon Guy screamed in unison.

    The door creaked, the cabinet in front of it shifted, a few boxes on its shelves fell on Cracked Humpty. He stayed put on his post, roaring to keep up his bravado as the banging continued. All the other people rushed to the far end of the storage room. Once again, the tide of the crowd swept me. I was pressed against the stacks of shoeboxes right up the back wall. I could barely see what was happening in front.

    ¡°Go away, motherfucker!¡± Cracked Humpty yelled. ¡°Ain¡¯t no Adumbrae getting in here!¡±

    Tentacles burst through the door, smashing the back of the cabinet, and grabbed his body. Shirtless Guy tried to help him, but he was already pulled out of the room.

    I sighed.

    Side mission: Save the homies.

    And while Lil¡¯ Homie Erind couldn¡¯t do anything that would violate Rule #7, a different face may have something to say about this. I held up my hand and peeled off the band-aid covering the crystals on my palm. Golden liquid flowed upwards.

 4.35

    I am the most important person in the world.

    This goes without saying¡ªbut I still said it, in my head.

    And it also goes without saying that anyone who helped the most important person ever by putting their life on the line, of their own free will, with altruistic intentions, without any manipulation or influence on my part, should be awarded for their acts. For that, I bestowed upon them the highest honor of being considered my ¡®friend¡¯. I didn¡¯t have a ¡®true¡¯ one anyway¡ªwhatever that entailed¡ªand I could never fathom what actual friendship felt like, so I¡¯d never have any, only approximations. Might as well give that slot as a reward to people doing the goodest of deeds¡ªfrom my perspective.

    Latest in the very short line of those awarded that honor was Cracked Humpty.

    The floating liquid from the crystals on my palm partly perked up the dim storage room, but the others didn¡¯t notice the golden glow from behind them because they were too shocked and scared of the monsters outside. The gold light turned red as the liquid coalesced into a long snout lined with wicked fangs.

    And the mask will become a face, I chanted as I affixed it on my mouth.

    Nothing.

    Eh?

    I repeated it a couple more times. Still nothing.

    Fuck.

    A light bulb dinged on inside my head. It must be the fucking balaclava mask I wore! I pulled it up and put on the Blanchette mask correctly.

    A surge of fucking power! Erind poofed to another dimension, and Blanchette stepped on stage. Got me worried for a second there. We just encountered some technical difficulties, people. The show will continue.

    I flexed my entire body from head to toe, my toe muscles up to my head muscles. The fuck was the nonsense I was thinking? Too much giddiness with the whole situation. I chomped the air, savoring the impact as my upper and lower fangs clashed against each other.

    The store employee in front of me heard the noise and turned around. She screamed as she saw me, but her voice was drowned by an even louder cry for help by Cracked Humpty.

    My homie! I shoved everyone aside and dove through the hole where the door formerly was.

    A wild mesh of tentacles filling the store greeted me. In the middle of the tentacle bouquet was Cracked Humpty, each of his limbs and his head was slowly pulled apart by tendrils. The many bloodshot eyes covering the monster¡¯s body all focused on me.

    I jumped over the counter, snagging the cash register with my outstretched claws. The two nearest tendrils grew spikes and whipped forward. I smashed them away with the cash register, then the one coming from the left, and then the two snaking from the floor. The cash register broke apart, coins and dollar bills scattered as more tentacles came for me.

    Shit, I have no choice.

    A whirlwind of claws and fangs, I dove in to save my new friend, shearing away the monstrous limbs. Disgusting black goo spurted out from the stumps. The stench burned my nose, my hyper-sensitive sense of smell an annoying double-edged sword. An awful taste filled my mouth as I bit down and tore away the tendril squeezing Cracked Humpty¡¯s head. Bleurgh, this was what I was trying to avoid.

    I pulled out Cracked Humpty and tossed him back before continuing my business with the monster. I knew from fighting these fuckers as Pino that although they didn¡¯t regenerate like Adumbrae, they were tough to kill and could continue to grow and mutate if they kept on feeding on their host or other food sources.

    After a few seconds of frenzied ripping and tearing it, my prey stopped moving. I stood up, covered in black liquid as if a giant squid emptied its ink sacs on me, smelling like the most disgusting shit ever. The tentacles and its main body had shriveled up. I didn¡¯t have Pino¡¯s ¡®life-force sight¡¯ ability to check, but this fucker was positively dead.

    Cracked Humpty was in pain but he¡¯d live. I pointed at him and then to the storage room. He struggled to prop himself up, confusion on his face, trying to understand who, or what, I was. But instead of crawling to safety, he reached for a sharp piece of wood from a destroyed shelf.

    ¡°Humpty, my man!¡± Shirtless Guy poked his head out of the storage room. He climbed out of the hole. ¡°Fuckin¡¯ hell, the smell.¡±

    ¡°Adumbrae¡­¡± Cracked Humpty croaked, raising the stick at me.

    ¡°Whut you doin¡¯? Drop that!¡± Shirtless Guy wrested the stick away and helped him up. ¡°That¡¯s Lil¡¯ Homie you pointing at.¡±

    ¡°Lil¡¯ Homie?¡±

    ¡°Yeah! Dunno why, but he turned into a monster chick and saved you.¡±

    ¡°Lil¡¯ Homie¡­is a monster chick¡­all along?¡±

    I nodded.

    ¡°Schrkrkrk!¡± An ugly ass creature that was a cross of man and fish hung upside down from the roof of the store, looking inside through the broken display window. Its bulging slimy eyes, rotating incessantly, scanned the room while it made the weird clicking noise. Using its webbed hands that ended in hooked nails, it stuck to the ceiling and crawled towards us.

    I pointed again, with more urgency, at the storage room and snarled.

    ¡°Me got Cracked Humpty,¡± Shirtless Guy said. ¡°Be careful fightin¡¯ them Adumbrae, monster chick Lil¡¯ Homie.¡±

    I gave him a clawed thumbs up.

    The Fishman launched itself at them. ¡°Kreekrkrk!¡±

    I intercepted it, slamming it against the wall. I opened my jaws wide and chomped off the front of its face. I spat out the gelatinous flesh¡ªit hadn¡¯t hurt me so it was a bad move to eat it. Ignoring the fresh black blood shower, I tore into the gaping wound with my claws and ripped its head apart like I was opening a coconut¡ªor how I¡¯d imagine it¡¯d be like because I hadn¡¯t opened a coconut before.

    Its body flailed; the parasite was still alive. I dismembered it in rage as I dragged it out of the store. Takes such a fucking long time to kill one of these asshats.

    As soon as I stepped outside, I ducked to avoid a flash of red¡ªa fucking giant claw tried to snip me in two. It belonged to a humongous crab, probably the same one that killed two of my fellow looters. Its eyestalks bent down to stare at me. Then, before I could react, it scuttled to the other side of the street, apparently more interested in a parked car.

    Oh, you don¡¯t want to fight? Lucky you, I mused as it struggled to open the car to get to the screaming people hiding inside.

    I scanned my surroundings, taking in everything with my senses.

    Inhaling deeply, I detected the metallic scent of fresh blood, the earthy musk of scattered innards, the piercing smoke from the raging fires¡ªthe stench of the black slime still overpowered it all. Screams and cries from both humans and not. Gunfire. Explosions. Loud crashes. The engines of a helicopter overhead. Absolute chaos up and down the street. The ground was also oddly shaking.

    Many dead people. There were, surprisingly, also several still alive. Monsters here and there, mostly the generic tentacle zombies. But that wouldn¡¯t be for long as they ate and killed humans as well as each other. It was fortunate for the news chopper above that none of these fuckshits mutated into a flying asshole.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    A vending machine soared across the air, launched by a giant arm with four legs further up the street. The projectile missed the low-flying helicopter by a good five feet, but the news team decided to fly higher for their safety. The vending machine arched back down to earth and landed a couple of feet to my right.

    This fucker! Was it trying to hit the helicopter or me? Either way, this was good press.

    I charged at Giant Arm, plowing through a few tentacle zombies that dared block my path.

    Giant Arm was too busy trying to uproot a lamppost; it didn¡¯t notice me diving at it with my claws stretched in front forming a spear. I penetrated deep into its body in one swoop. I angrily crawled inside it, shredding whatever I could, ignoring the foul black blood, and emerged on the other side like a worm boring a hole through an apple.

    I looked up at the news chopper. Did you get that?

    A video of me killing Giant Arm would certainly earn more fans. Killing? Not really. Knowing these parasite mutants, Giant Arm probably wasn¡¯t dead yet. But I had to move on; I couldn¡¯t stop and eliminate each and every one of them.

    Now, off to find Myra.

    My awesome strength, speed, and agility made avoiding the monsters a piece of cheesecake tart. With nothing to fear, it was like I was just strolling in a zoo, observing all the interesting mutations: a flaming ostrich skeleton, a human-faced rodent that burrowed underground, a pinwheel made of arms and legs rolling down the street, and so much more. One day, I promised myself, there¡¯ll be a time I¡¯ll seriously fight these parasite abominations.

    Nearing the police station, I passed by an even more interesting sight.

    A large group of PCM members, as well as innocent bystanders who had the misfortune of being in this area at the wrongest-time-ever, have holed up in a SaveValue Depot, turning it into some sort of fortress. They fortified it by piling sacks against the display windows, lining it with rakes and other sharp objects. Some of them had guns. Others armed themselves with anything they could find inside the store like nail guns, axes, and drills.

    Kudos to them for actually killing several of the weaker monsters and a couple of large ones. What especially interested me was the PCM guy barking orders through a megaphone, urging the others to fight the Adumbrae till the end.

    So, that was how they were able to quickly organize themselves and survive.

    He saw me.

    A bizarre expression of recognition passed the PCM leader¡¯s face. ¡°Red Hood!¡± he boomed with his megaphone. ¡°Get that Adumbrae with the hood covered in black blood! Kill it! Kill it!¡±

    Most of the PCM members didn¡¯t react to his orders, too occupied with trying to survive the onslaught of monsters that broke through a portion of their crude wall. But those under the mind control spell thingy immediately stopped whatever they were doing and followed the direction their leader was pointing to.

    They all sprinted to me with all their might, like newly hatched sea turtles racing across the sand to the seas as various predators snatched them. Tentacles, claws, jaws picked them up as soon as they exited the store. They didn¡¯t care. Wearing deranged expressions on their faces, their eyes were focused solely on me.

    I didn¡¯t have time to be amused at the ridiculous scene because a brilliant idea came to me. Time to get the megaphone!

    I rushed out to meet them and was about to get in range of the closest PCM member when something large above blotted out the sun. I instinctively leaped out of the way, narrowly avoiding a massive foot that stepped on where I was a split-second earlier. The ground shook, three PCM members about to attack me went splat. Others slammed into the side of the foot.

    Gazing upward, I saw its owner. So, you¡¯re the cause of the mini-quakes!

    A massive wooly mammoth, twice, no, thrice the size of a normal elephant, loomed over the SaveValue Depot. It was smaller than the fire giant that Stella fought, but this was nonetheless the second largest of the parasite mutations I¡¯d seen. Its tusks were disproportionately large compared to its body, curving down almost to the ground like a waterpark slide, before shooting upwards and branching out like antlers.

    It lowered its head, catching the lip of the building¡¯s roof with its tusks. Throwing back its head, it tore the roof off like it was opening a can. The people inside screamed and ran in all directions. The mammoth¡¯s trunk split into scores of tendrils, grabbing anything it could inside, human and monster alike, shoving them into its mouth.

    I weaved between its legs and entered the store. The mind-controlled PCM people were still on my tail.

    Where¡¯s the guy with the fucking megaphone? It was hard to spot him in the commotion. Was he still alive?

    ¡°Fight! Protectors of the City! Fight to the death!¡±

    Yep, still alive. There he was, dangling upside down from a tendril.

    I hopped on the tops of the shelves and caught up to him, swiping at him with my claws.

    ¡°Ahhh! My hand!¡±

    I pried his severed hand off the megaphone¡¯s handle and flung it back to him. And since he only asked for his hand, I assumed he was okay with me keeping the megaphone.

    I, as Blanchette, entered the aisle for floor cleaning products along with three SaveValue Depot employees trying to escape from the mammoth¡¯s tendrils; in their panic, they didn¡¯t even notice I was a monster too.

    I, as Erind, exited it safe and sound. And clean! Yey. I tore off the tendrils coiling around my neck and chest. Then I pulled down the lower half of the balaclava mask that I earlier raised when I wore the Blanchette face. Above me, my hiding-spot-mates were on their way to the mammoth¡¯s gaping black hole of a mouth.

    ¡°How do I turn this thing on?¡± I muttered, fiddling with the megaphone. ¡°Is this¡ª?¡± Grating feedback noise made me wince. ¡°Test, test, testes¡­what?¡± I giggled.

    The absurdity of the situation was getting to me.

    ¡°Protectors of the City!¡± I yelled as I scaled a display of stacked cans of paint. ¡°Protectors of the City, hear me! Help all the humans escape down Leon-Mejia Street!¡± I pointed in the opposite direction of the police station. ¡°Everyone, go there! Take any human you can help and escape that way! Escape quickly!¡±

    The PCM members who were puzzled that Red Hood disappeared found a new purpose. Some of them even tried to grab me and take me to ¡®safety¡¯ while I ran past them on my way out of the store. A number of normal people would be swept with or join them, and it would snowball with the majority of the group escaping with the herd, following my instructions.

    My initial plan was to use these guys as a distraction¡ªmore like meatshields¡ªto get past the defenses of the cops and inside the precinct. But now, I needed them to draw this mutant mammoth away from the police station. It was going to be a pain in the ass to fight this colossal thing, and it might even kill the people I was trying to save if it continued its way.

    And my new plan was working!

    I looked over my shoulder and saw humans streaming out of the SaveValue Depot, followed by monsters chasing them, followed by the mutant mammoth snacking on them all. Have fun!

    Continuing onwards, I came upon the entrance of the back parking lot of the precinct. And it looked like a warzone. Smoldering police cars were overturned. Several people lay dead, a few of whom were cops; a number of the bodies were half-eaten.

    I surmised the PCM assaulted the police lines en masse, a la Charge of the Light Brigade, kind of like my plan actually, and was able to break through with heavy casualties. There should be more corpses around here, but, apparently, the monsters already had a pass at the buffet.

    The cops had retreated to their station and were shooting from the windows at the monsters trying to enter the building. I dunno where the protesters had gone off to. My problem now was getting past the monsters surrounding the station. I held up my right hand, deciding it was best if I transfor¡ªMyra?!

    A ten-foot humanoid tree covered in spikes used a pick-up truck as a battering ram to clear the monsters in front of the station doors. She pressed on, smashing the vehicle into the legs of a two-story tall golem that was reaching into the second floor of the building. As the golem toppled down, she jumped on its head, continually stabbing it with her blades.

    This had to be Myra!

    But why was she fighting them? Yeah, we knew these monsters were made by the 2Ms, but I thought she was just going to fetch Johann and leave. Did she have a change of heart and decide to save everyone?

    That might be a good idea¡­

    The two of us could work together and protect these people, just hold out until the BID arrived. Johann¡¯s secret would be preserved; he¡¯d avoid suspicion of getting kidnapped by a tree monster. Ramello would also be safe inside. Not sure if Reginus was also there, but she was a fun person; I didn¡¯t want her to die. Officer H-Something, if he was still alive, was also amusing. Hmmm, there were a lot of people I found entertaining in that building.

    Two helicopters descended from the sky. It wasn¡¯t TV reporters this time.

    The BID!

    I immediately crouched behind a smoking sedan. They got here so fast! Should I retreat now?

    But I wasn¡¯t sure if their forces were enough to beat back the monsters. The larger helicopter landed on the roof of the precinct. They might be evacuating people that way. The smaller chopper circled Myra, who was fighting several monsters. It didn¡¯t appear to be a gunship¡ªI couldn¡¯t spot any weapons attached to it¡ªbut the three BID agents sitting on the sort of ¡®bench¡¯ on its side did have guns.

    They opened fire on Myra.

 4.36 - Jacobin Castan

    Jacobin Castan

    Detective Jacobin Castan was on the floor, his body hurt all over, his nose assaulted by the foulest smell he had ever experienced. Using one of his crutches, he struggled to unravel the tentacle wrapped around his left leg. He whacked the disgusting appendage using every ounce of strength he could squeeze, struggling to stay conscious.

    But it was futile.

    The other of the pair of crutches he had was lost to the tentacles, already broken into pieces. And his already injured leg was going to be next¡ªhis body as well¡ªif he couldn¡¯t escape soon.

    ¡°Let go of Jacob!¡± Linette yelled. She quickly emptied her gun into the main body that sprouted the mass of tentacles. Her gun clicked empty. She didn¡¯t have any more bullets to reload, all used up in killing the other Adumbrae. ¡°Why won¡¯t this frigging thing die!¡± It lashed towards her, catching her midsection and flinging her against the wall.

    ¡°No! Lin¡ª!¡± he began to exclaim, but the coil on his leg tightened. His cast cracked in several places. ¡°Ahh! Help us!¡±

    ¡°Here they are.¡± Lt. Tetterton showed up at the end of the corridor, a red firefighter¡¯s axe raised over his head. ¡°There¡¯s another bastard here!¡± He charged at the tentacle monster writhing on the floor, leaping over Castan, avoiding the grotesque limbs that tried to catch him. Swinging the blade down at its center, a war cry left his lips as if he was on an ancient battlefield.

    The tentacle around Castan¡¯s leg loosened. He immediately inserted the end of his crutch into the coil to try and stop it from closing again. Pulling out his leg should be his next move, but the pain was too great. He was nauseous, his breathing shallow.

    ¡°Take this! And this!¡± Lt. Tetterton didn¡¯t let up with his attacks. He swung his axe at the tentacles that reached for him. Black slime gushed from the cuts. A couple more cops showed up, peppering the dying monster with more bullets.

    Castan felt hands up his armpits. Linette pulled him up and dragged him away, freeing his leg right before the Adumbrae¡¯s body convulsed in its death throes; the crutch left behind in its grasp was snapped in half.

    And then it finally stopped moving.

    ¡°Man, that was close,¡± said Linette. She sat beside him, inhaling deeply. Then she gagged at the terrible odor that filled the corridor.

    He wiped away the filthy slime on his face, steadying his shaking hand as best as he could so Linette wouldn¡¯t notice. He wore a brave face and controlled his wavering voice. ¡°Thanks for the save, Linette.¡±

    ¡°Friggin¡¯ hell. I never imagined I¡¯d face this crap when I woke up this morning.¡± She took out a handkerchief and helped him wipe off the black goo. ¡°It might be dumb to ask, but are you okay?¡±

    ¡°Still living.¡± That really wasn¡¯t an answer to the question. To change the topic, he said, ¡°Sorry for what happened to the crutches. Those are your brother¡¯s, right? I¡¯ll pay for¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about that; those were just gathering dust in his garage. What¡¯s important is that we¡¯re alive¡­¡± Her voice trailed away, her expression showing the unspoken words, ¡®for now.¡¯ She slowly shook her head. ¡°Between this tentacle guy, that frog-looking thing, and the huge mouth ball, I thought we were done for.¡±

    Lt. Tetterton barked orders at his men, ¡°What¡¯s in this room? You two, get that large bookshelf and pull it out here. Use it to cover the broken windows. Elmer, check the Admin people. See how they¡¯re doing. Shem, make sure this thing and that thing over there are dead, then all of you work together and store their bodies in this room. Ah, there¡¯s another one by the potted fern. We don¡¯t want the other bastards who might get in eating these corpses.¡±

    ¡°Sir, thank you for saving me,¡± Castan said, managing to sit up and lean against the wall as the axe-wielding police officer passed. ¡°Me and Linette both; we were toast here on our own.¡± Linette echoed his words of gratitude.

    Lt. Tetterton waved it off. ¡°We got each other¡¯s backs. I say you detectives did a hell of a good job fighting three of these creatures, even killing two.¡±

    ¡°That was all luck, sir,¡± Linette explained. ¡°The frog-thing somehow got in this floor through the window, and the mouth ball chased after it to eat it. We shot at them while they were busy fighting each other. I don¡¯t think we did as much damage as they did to themselves.¡±

    ¡°It was that tentacle guy who gave us trouble,¡± Castan said, jabbing his thumb in the direction of what was nearly the cause of his untimely death. Cops were pulling it by its tentacles into a side room.

    ¡°That reminds me,¡± Lt. Tetterton said. ¡°I must also extend my gratitude on behalf of Saffy and the other secretaries. I passed by them hiding under the tables of their cubicles. They told me what you did, and to hurry and help you.¡±

    ¡°We owe them too then,¡± spoke Linette. ¡°Swell that they¡¯re safe.¡±

    Castan nodded. ¡°I was worried some other Adumbrae managed to get inside.¡±

    ¡°Adumbrae?¡± Lt. Tetterton said in an amused tone. ¡°These are not Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re not? What do you¡ª?"

    ¡°Hold it!¡± Professor Deslys, the fair scientist and teacher working for EFU, followed the cops that showed up.

    Castan came to know her when everyone in the AIU department of the building gathered to defend themselves as the PCM members broke in followed by monsters, but they weren¡¯t able to talk to each other. From conversations, she was apparently the wife of Dr. Cornelio; he had talked to him a couple of times for help in past investigations, but he didn¡¯t know anything else about him other than that. Professor Deslys, from what he had overheard, seemed to be looking for her husband and had the misfortune of being in this precinct when they were attacked.

    ¡°Let me examine it,¡± she told the men dragging the body. They turned at Lt. Tetterton, who gave them a nod of approval. She took some gadgets out of her coat and searched the monster corpse, not minding the gruesome sight and odor.

    ¡°Sir, what do you mean this isn¡¯t an Adumbrae?¡± Castan asked as he observed Professor Deslys'' work while muttering to herself. ¡°This obviously looks like one.¡±

    ¡°An Adumbrae?¡± Lt. Tetterton tapped his foot on the tiled floor, the hard soles of his boot making a loud noise. ¡°Looks like a monster to me,¡± he growled, ¡°but a monster doesn¡¯t automatically translate to an Adumbrae.¡± He picked up a limp tentacle that had a couple of cuts from his axe. ¡°See this? It didn¡¯t regenerate these wounds. I noticed this with the other creatures we fought on the first floor. They grow and mutate, but they don¡¯t regenerate. I have my share fighting Adumbrae before I transferred to this city, and these bastards, the smaller ones like our pals here, are way easier to kill than your average SBM. They also don¡¯t seem to have a brain and the works.¡±

    ¡°I kept shooting its head,¡± Linette said, ¡°but it was still moving. I thought this was a Spontaneous Breach Manifestation, so I shot where the brain was likeliest to be.¡±

    ¡°I see why you assumed that, detective,¡± Lt. Tetterton said. ¡°And you had the appropriate response of aiming for its head; SBMs, especially the low-level ones, retain a humanoid nervous system, including its orientation inside the body. These creatures, on the other hand, don¡¯t appear to have a central nervous system.¡±

    ¡°So that¡¯s why it didn¡¯t die. What should we do then?¡±

    ¡°Just inflict sufficient trauma to this¡­growth,¡± Professor Deslys said, stretching her hands over the pile of tentacles. ¡°I might be wrong, but I believe this is the ¡®brain¡¯¡ªyes, that¡¯s one way of looking at it. This growth is likely a different entity that latches on to a host, this person, for example¡ªwhoever he was before this dreadful thing happened to him¡ªand mutated, almost like an Adumbrae, but not quite.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re providing an artificial conduit to have a pseudo-seeding?¡± mused Lt. Tetterton, with a frown on his face.

    ¡°A possibility. Frightening if true. That¡¯s a feasible explanation to the madness that¡¯s happening.¡±

    The two of them discussed technical terms. Castan and Linette looked at each other; she shrugged at him and rolled her eyes. ¡°Pardon me,¡± he cut in. ¡°You¡¯re saying this isn¡¯t a seeding outbreak like what happened at that condominium building a few days ago?¡±

    ¡°Given what we¡¯re seeing now, that incident might not be a seeding outbreak either,¡± said Lt. Tetterton. He kicked the deceased monster beside them. ¡°Our tentacle pal over here, we killed two like it on the first floor and four that were running across the parking area. I heard they also found similar monsters under the ruins of that condo you mentioned. People don¡¯t mutate in a similar way when they succumb to the Adumbrae. It¡¯s like our fingerprints; no two are the same, just like no two people are the same, even identical twins.

    ¡°My take on the situation¡ªan educated guess if you will; I did have BID training¡ªis that there¡¯s an Adumbrae out there, one powerful sunnovabitch, turning people into¡­this. I swear, if some goddamn bastard is trying to make a Cocoon in my city¡ª¡±

    ¡°Interesting theory,¡± Professor Deslys said. ¡°And the mind-controlled protestors? You reckon those are connected to all of this?¡±

    ¡°Mind control?¡± Castan blurted out. ¡°That is just crazy talk.¡±

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    ¡°They¡¯re trying to avoid prosecution by saying they didn¡¯t know what they were doing,¡± Linette added.

    Before the monsters came, the hordes of protestors, mostly consisting of PCM members, stormed the police station. They used their numbers to break through the barricades, not batting an eye at their dead comrades piled high after the captain ordered the officers under his command to use the necessary force to defend themselves. And when they finally entered the building, the monsters followed them, feasting upon them.

    Auron Cohenn, the leader of the Protector¡¯s of the City Movement, was among those who broke into the precinct. With the monsters¡¯ appearance, he had a timely change of heart and led his people to join forces with the police and drive out the monsters. After repelling the first wave, Auron and the survivors of his group surrendered themselves and were now crammed into the detention cells of the main building. Some of them said they didn¡¯t know what was happening and how they ended up here. Others insisted they were mind-controlled. All too obvious excuses to disclaim any criminal responsibility for their acts.

    ¡°But what if they¡¯re telling the truth?¡± Professor Deslys said. ¡°If there¡¯s an Adumbrae creating these monsters, one controlling the minds of people isn¡¯t too far-fetched.¡± She drifted to scientific talk that only Lt. Tetterton could understand. Castan and Linette simply listened, nodding every now and then to show interest. The professor concluded, ¡°The people under this hypothetical Adumbrae¡¯s control might also be the same that transform into monsters.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case,¡± Lt. Tetterton spoke, ¡°I should go¡ª¡±

    A cellphone beeped. Various ringtones going off followed it. All of them checked their phones.

    They were all surprised because they couldn¡¯t use their phones before due to some sort of jammer was blocking the signal. Telephone lines were also cut by the protestors, isolating the precinct from outside help. They tried looking for the signal jammer among the protestors, and they found two metal boxes, which they sent off to be investigated by the technicians of the AIU.

    ¡°The signal is back?¡± Castan said. ¡°Linette, look at Mulberry¡¯s message. He¡¯s saying the EFU Hospital is under attack by Adumbrae! We haven¡¯t questioned Julie¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know! I also received his message. And Cheska, my brother¡¯s officemate, is asking me for help because a cousin of hers is confined there. I don¡¯t know what to tell her!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the same thing that¡¯s happening to us.¡± Castan turned to Lt. Tetterton. ¡°Sir, there has to be a connect¡ªSir?¡± The lieutenant was focused on his phone. It kept on beeping as it received more and more messages. Professor Deslys was also receiving a slew of messages. Her expression change from confusion, to surprise, to worry. The mass messages warning system of the city did send several advisories, but these seemed to be different.

    ¡°Kenneth?¡± Lt. Tetterton said. ¡°What the hell are these messages from him? These are all saying the same thing.¡±

    Professor Deslys grabbed Lt. Tetterton¡¯s sleeve. ¡°We should go to his office! Tell me where it is.¡±

    ¡°Sir, what¡¯s happening?¡±

    ¡°My husband! He sent me dozens of messages that we¡¯ll find help in his office.¡±

    ¡°He sent the same to me,¡± Lt. Tetterton said. "This means Kenneth is alive." He tried to push away the hysterical Professor Deslys. It was a surprising transformation from calm and collected, analyzing monster corpses like it was simply routine, to an anxious wreck after a mention of her husband. The lieutenant stammered, ¡°Professor, calm¡ª"

    ¡°Sir! Lt. Tetterton, sir!¡± One of the technicians of the AIU was running towards them.

    ¡°Out with it, Johann. What have you found out about those darned metal boxes?¡±

    ¡°Nothing much, sir. They were generating an energy field. We were able to turn it off, but we¡¯re not sure what it does. I have a hunch that it affects the monsters, it might be drawing them to us. I say monsters because I don¡¯t think they¡¯re Adumbrae. We tested some of the bodies¡ª¡±

    ¡°I came to the same conclusion myself. Back up to that other thing you said. Do you mean to say that those crazy PCM clowns had a device that attracts the monsters?¡±

    ¡°Kenneth¡¯s office!¡± Professor Deslys interjected.

    ¡°Sir, it¡¯s just my hunch about the metal boxes. We can¡¯t exactly capture one of the monsters outside and test it. We might end up calling a bunch more of them. That¡¯s why we turned it off.¡±

    ¡°I see. Let me¡ª"

    ¡°Let¡¯s go to his office!¡±

    ¡°Everyone shut up! Let me think for a minute. If that metal box has a connection to the monsters and some of the protestors are also related to the same monsters¡ª"

    ¡°Sorry, sir, but there¡¯s something more,¡± Johann meekly said, flinching as he interrupted his superior, already expecting to get yelled at. But Lt. Tetterton let him continue. ¡°While we were testing that box, something exploded in the next room,¡± he said.

    Castan tried to recall the layout of the building that he managed to visit as they were fighting for their lives. That was the room where Ramello and the SVS were. Obviously, they couldn¡¯t stay in the main building where the PCM group was held; that was just looking for trouble. ¡°Did something happen to Ramello?¡± he urgently asked. ¡°And the SVS members too,¡± he threw in as an afterthought, although he didn¡¯t care for them. ¡°Are they okay?¡±

    ¡°It was just a small explosion,¡± was the technician¡¯s reply, allaying his fears. ¡°Some had minor injuries. The source of the explosion is what¡¯s important. One of the SVS members had a signal jammer. Our testing with that metal box might''ve had affected it somehow.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Lt. Tetterton scratched his temple. ¡°They¡¯re working with the PCM? I thought they were enemies. This is getting¡ª¡±

    ¡°We should go to Kenneth''s office!¡±

    ¡°Johann, lead Professor Deslys here to wherever she wants to go. I¡¯m going to the holding cells and check if those PCM clowns are up to something funny. Detectives, how about you? I assume you want to go and check your boy, Ramello? Jacobin, you better stay with Saffy down the hallway seeing your sorry state.¡±

    ¡°I can¡ª¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Linette firmly said. ¡°I¡¯ll go. You stay. You lost your crutches. I¡¯m not going to carry your ass down the stairs, you¡¯ll slow me down. And you¡¯ll be safe here.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll just guard the windows in case other monsters try to come.¡± He never felt this helpless.

    ¡°Since we already have the signal back, I¡¯ll call you and tell you what¡¯s happening.¡±

    And then they all split up: Castan staying on the corridor on the second floor, peeking outside through a small part of the window not blocked by shelves; Lt. Tetterton and his men rushed to the holding cells; Linette followed Johann and Professor Deslys because Dr. Cornelio¡¯s office was on the way to the labs and the other rooms in the basement.

    Linette told Castan over that phone that she left Professor Deslys and Johann, who was forced by the former to help her search the office for anything suspicious, and continued down to the lower level. ¡°Ramello!¡± he heard Linette call out, having put the phone on loudspeaker. ¡°Ramello, where are you?¡±

    ¡°Here!¡±

    Castan let out a deep sigh of relief. It was faint, but he was sure it was Ramello¡¯s voice. Thank the Mother Core. He wondered if perhaps he should go back to church if he survived this day. He had too many close encounters with death.

    ¡°Linette, is that you? I¡¯m here!¡±

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± Linette gasped. ¡°What happened to your forehead?¡±

    ¡°What happened to Ramello?¡± Castan shouted on the phone. ¡°Ramello, can you hear me? Are you¡ªLinette let me talk¡ª¡±

    ¡°Calm down there, Jacob,¡± she shot back.

    ¡°Ugh, my head," said Ramello. "One of the SVS was a traitor. That guy with the jammer¡ªReginus said he¡¯s a new member¡ªhe attacked the people working here and went off with a metal box. I¡¯m not¡­I don¡¯t know what it is. I tried to stop him. He hit me with the box. The cops and other guys here chased him.¡±

    ¡°We didn¡¯t meet anyone,¡± said Linette. ¡°Isn¡¯t this the only way up or¡ª?¡±

    ¡°You probably just missed them. I stayed behind to protect the SVS.¡±

    Castan pinned his phone between his ear and shoulder. Then he grabbed the window sill and forced himself to stand up, but he fell in a heap, his body too weak. The phone dropped to the floor. He looked at both ends of the hallway. There was no one to help him.

    And he couldn¡¯t help himself.

    He wanted to find the man who stole the mysterious metal box. If it was indeed some sort of signal to the monsters as the technician had surmised, then they should find it as soon as possible before it was turned on.

    ¡°I¡¯m going back up there, Jacob,¡± blared the phone on the floor. ¡°Wait for me! Don¡¯t do anything stupid, you hear me?¡±

    But Castan wasn¡¯t able to immediately respond. Cries and roars were coming from outside the window. In a kneeling position, supporting himself by hooking his arms around a window bar to keep himself upright, he looked out and saw another wave of monsters gathering.

    ¡°Jacob? What¡¯s going on there? I¡¯m on my way.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re coming!¡± He shouted as loud as he could so that not only Linette but also others nearby would hear. ¡°The monsters are coming again!¡±

    The police officers on the first floor opened fire. Castan couldn¡¯t hear his own voice. He couldn¡¯t hear Linette¡¯s voice on the phone. The battle raged on, the gunfire and explosions, the roars of the monsters, it swallowed the sound of everything else.

    Several of the monsters fell dead before they could reach the building, but still more came. From the corner of his vision a huge tree monster appeared pushing a pick-up truck. It came right up to the building. He couldn¡¯t see what it was doing below. Then he heard helicopter engines.

    ¡°BID!¡± he exclaimed, relief was in his voice, although he was sure Linette couldn¡¯t hear him. ¡°The BID is here!¡± He heard a helicopter land on the roof, while the other one joined the fight. The BID agents were shooting the monsters below.

    ¡°Jacob!¡± Linette finally returned. "Jacob, are you okay?!"

    Behind her were Ramello, Johann, and Professor Deslys. Castan frowned, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. What was the professor carry¡ª?

    CRASH!

    Something huge smashed through the broken windows, destroying the bookshelf covering it. Castan crawled away, gritting his teeth as pain shot up his body. A shower of splinters. Growls and snarls behind him. He didn¡¯t dare look back. Crawl! Crawl away!

    ¡°Jacob!¡± Linette tried to fire her gun, but it was out of bullets. She cursed and threw it. Without any hesitation, she sprinted to him. ¡°Get away from it!¡±

    He didn¡¯t know what ¡®it¡¯ was. And he didn¡¯t want to know. There was a roar. A large shadow gliding on the floor caught up to him. It was right above! Descending upon him...

    Time crawled to a snail''s pace. He closed his eyes tight. It was finally his end¡ª

    Fwoom!

    He was covered by copious amounts of viscous liquid. His nose told him it was the black slime from the monsters. Two heavy thuds on either side of him. He gingerly opened his eyes. There were two large lumps of flesh on his left and right side, the halves of the monster that was about to kill him. "Holy Mother Core," he whispered.

    ¡°What the hell was that? Jacob!¡±

    He looked up. Professor Deslys had overtaken Linette, running past him and the monster corpse. He twisted his body to see where she went, catching a glimpse of the professor as she jumped out of the building through the hole on the wall, carrying a massive object that had a long pole and a wide circular head.

    Was that an axe?

 4.37

    Myra! No!

    ¡­was what I would¡¯ve exclaimed if I actually cared for her well-being.

    Nonetheless, it¡¯d be a huge loss of a very useful asset if she died, not to mention I hadn¡¯t sufficiently bothered her yet under Rule #4.

    I made my way to her, slinking from the cover of one destroyed car to the next, avoiding the attention of the BID above and the other monsters heading for the station. My left hand still held the megaphone. The protestors were mysteriously missing; they might¡¯ve gotten in the precinct. There may be some other use for this megaphone. With my right hand, I already started to prepare to transform into Blanchette. But I didn¡¯t will the floating gold liquid floating to turn into the red mask because an idea crossed my mind.

    What if, instead of helping Myra, I slipped past their fight and snuck inside the building? I closed my right hand, the gold liquid dissipated. Don¡¯t mind me, people. Just continue your business there. She was doing fine on her own anyway.

    The moment the BID opened fire, spikes erupted from Myra¡¯s armor, impaling the monsters gathering around her. The spikes extended and curled upwards in the direction of the BID helicopter, holding the parasite assholes above her¡ªan umbrella of flesh against the rain of bullets. Some of the bullets tore past the bodies and hit her armor. Chips and shards got knocked off, but the bullets didn¡¯t seem to have penetrated her body within.

    From the back of the left side of the building where the AIU department and labs were located¡ªand most likely where Johann was¡ªMyra stomped to the center part while under constant fire. An overhanging roof jutted out above the main exit; a large slab of concrete was the perfect cover from the BID.

    Some monsters followed Myra; those just got added to her meatshield. But most of the uglyass creatures assaulted the now undefended left-wing¡ªor I guess right-wing if looking from the front.

    They tried to break through the barricaded windows, getting blasted by the defending cops for their efforts. Unfortunately, an eight-foot slimy ghoul with snake-like limbs broke through. It yanked a police officer through the small opening it made, ripping his body into chunks, flinging him to the expectant hungry mouths of its fellows like throwing candies at a children¡¯s party. A few monsters stopped to eat, but the rest crowded at the new entrance, clambering over each other, eager to gorge on the feast that awaited them inside.

    Fuck! I have to get in. I broke into a sprint, glancing at the BID helicopter that descended to have a better angle to shoot Myra. They didn¡¯t notice me. Why are they so focused on her?

    I was getting close! A patrol car blocking my way suddenly flipped to the left, revealing a hairy, many-limbed shitface hiding beneath. It attempted to catch me with its fat legs like a trapdoor spider, but I parried them with punches and kicks, taking care not to damage the megaphone. Flesh burst, black blood sprayed. A satisfying squish each time I hit monster flesh.

    Parting aside the cage of limbs, I squeezed through, hopped over its disgusting head that tried to bite me with its lopsided human mouth, and onto the van behind it.

    Huh? I tittered on the roof of the van, stopping myself going forward. Someone¡­or something familiar showed up further ahead. A woman wielding an enormous metallic lollipop¡ªits pole handle nearly as tall as her, its double-bladed head wider than her shoulders¡ªjumped from the second floor down to the monster jamboree below.

    ¡°Why is tha¡ª? Shit!¡± WHAM!

    A jumbo spider leg slammed down. I evaded left. The van¡¯s roof crumpled down like tin foil. I wobbled, ducked to avoid another leg, then slid down the windshield. The spider tore apart the van, looking for me, but I already escaped, trying to find cover.

    ¡°What the fuck is that axe doing here?¡± I complained to the world. I was having a peaceful time, then that fucking thing just had to show up and ruin my day. I peeked from my new hiding spot under a surprisingly not-destroyed car¡ªI really don¡¯t want to get noticed by the fucking axe¡ªto assess the situation.

    The axe, with its mind-controlled wielder, was defending the left side of the building.

    Was Axe Lady¡ªalready the second one, I suppose¡ªsomeone I knew? It might be my imagination, but she looked familiar. I couldn¡¯t clearly make out her appearance because she moved too fast and was covered with monster guts and black goo. Axe Lady cleaved through the monsters, kicking up a small tornado. A flurry of wind blades formed a circular barrier around her. Any monster that came close was shredded as if they were stuffed inside a meat grinder.

    I wasn¡¯t sure if the Adumbrae controlling axe was protecting someone inside the building or just saving people in general. Probably the latter? I really didn¡¯t have any information about these guys. Were they with the 2Ms or not? Saving people definitely wasn¡¯t on the 2Ms priority list though.

    Axe Lady, with a huge swing, sent three tentacle zombies flying. In mid-air, they broke up into cubes, perfect for a hearty monster stew.

    Another swing sent a powerful gust towards the BID helicopter hovering near Myra. But it didn¡¯t chop it up, only made it shake in the air a bit. The agents shot at Axe Lady, but she used the disproportionately large head of the axe to shield against the bullets. She zigzagged to get out of the line of their fire and hurled another wave of wind. The chopper wildly tilted right; the agents fell back inside.

    She just wants to scare off the BID. Definitely not something the 2Ms side would do. The BID got the message and flew away. This still didn¡¯t tell me which side Axe Lady, or rather the Adumbrae controlling the axe, was on.

    Having eliminated the monsters near her, she turned her attention to Myra.

    Don¡¯t kill her, please. That¡¯s my job.

    The creepy whistle I¡¯d heard several times yesterday rung loud and clear, a formidable yet mellow note. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. A couple of wind blades surged Myra¡¯s way. It hit the decaying flesh golems wrestling her, allowing her to easily throw them off after they were sliced into many pieces. She then grew massive shields on her arms and hunkered down, expecting to be attacked next.

    But there were no more whistles.

    Instead, Axe Lady pointed Myra to the other end of the building.

    Did she know who Myra was? Probably not. More likely, she just considered her a temporary ally with the same goals.

    Myra didn¡¯t move.

    Axe Lady shot down a small gremlin trying to enter one of the second-floor windows with a whistling strike¡ªa demonstration of her good intentions. And she did her pointing thing again.

    Myra gave her a nod, almost imperceptible in her bulky tree armor. She turned around and headed to the opposite wing to fight the monsters there.

    Eh? They agreed to work together? What the hell, Myra? We were supposed to be training buddies, but here she was making friends with the Adumbrae that tried to murder me. I¡¯m hurt, I thought sarcastically.

    At any rate, I was lucky as fuck I didn¡¯t transform into Blanchette and join Myra in fighting, or else that stupid axe would¡¯ve gone for me and filleted my ass. I didn¡¯t think I, as Blanchette, was one of the people it wanted to save. It failed to kill me yesterday, it would certainly try again today if it knew I was here. And I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d be able to win again. There were too many people around here it could use as ¡®host¡¯.

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    What if Johann or Ramello got ensnared by the axe? What about Myra? I winced at the thought of her as the axe-wielder. That was going to be a huge pain in the ass.

    But this situation is also good.

    Myra and Axe Lady had no problems taking care of the small fries and the occasional bigger potato wedges that showed up. Did I even need to get inside? Nah, I could just chill and¡ªsunlight? Hey! Where did the car above me go? Someone lifted it up!

    ¡°Ghrooh, hrrwwoagh!¡±

    A large shadow loomed from behind. I dove and rolled aside as a hulking monster slammed the car back down. I picked myself up and faced my new enemy. A familiar bulky grey form. I grinned, almost giggling with excitement. ¡°Gorilla! I was hoping to meet one of you!¡± I kicked the megaphone away so it wouldn¡¯t get destroyed in our fight. It emitted a keen note similar to microphone feedback that annoyed my gorilla buddy.

    ¡°GHROAA!¡±

    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll take you on,¡± I said. Sorry, Deen, I might have to throw away this set of clothes later too. I just couldn¡¯t let this opportunity pass.

    My fight with the gorilla monster in my condo was one of my top ten most favorite fights ever. It was especially memorable because I did it in my Pino body with no super strength. Having another fight, this time in my original body, could be fun too. I glanced back at Axe Lady. As long as I didn¡¯t turn to Blanchette, it should leave me alone.

    A foot taller with craggy pieces of bone plating covering random parts of its body, this gorilla monster didn¡¯t exactly look like the previous one I fought. It issued a challenge to me, fiercely beating its chest armor. Then it hunkered on its knuckles and bared its teeth.

    As it took a deep breath to roar again, I leaped at its head and pried its mouth wide open. I placed a foot on its lower jaw to stretch it wider. With my free leg, I kicked away its massive hand about to grab me. But it caught me with its other hand.

    I stomped its jaw down before it could squeeze me. Its fangs went through my shoe and pierced my foot. The pain was nothing. I kicked down again with more force, at the same time pushing up the roof of its mouth with both hands. A distinct crack; its jawbones gave way.

    One more time! ¡°Yaah!¡± I shouted, stretching my leg straight until I felt no resistance, its flesh and skin completely torn.

    It cried out in pain, a weird sound with its lower jaw separated from its face. Its large tongue amusingly flapped around. A waterfall of black blood streamed down.

    Still dangling from its upper mouth, my fingers buried in its gums, I pulled myself up. My body strained as it tried to tug me. Muscles stretched, bones about to pop¡ªI didn¡¯t care. I was getting pretty good at ignoring pain. I reached the front of its face. Struggling to hang on with one hand, I pulled back my other for a powerful as fuck punch.

    ¡°Eat this!¡± I yelled, immediately cringing at my clich¨¦ line. I punched its eye, its closed eyelid barely any protection. Its massive squishy eyeball burst. Gel-like liquid mixed with the black goo and splashed on me. My fist went in deeper, hitting the back of its eye socket, breaking through inside the skull. My entire arm up nearly up to my shoulders was buried inside its head.

    I thought of cool one-liners while slushing its brain with my hand in it. Dunno why I still felt calm. The rush of battle I expected to excite me was missing. However, the feeling of strength even in my Erind body was very satisfying. And just being powerful was enjoyable in and of itself.

    The gorilla monster flailed around but couldn¡¯t get me off. I extracted my arm and punched, again and again and again. Its head was comically flattened like in those old cartoons. Too easy.

    It dropped to its knees.

    Was it giving up? Was it dead? No!

    It smashed its head to the ground before I could react. Too bad for me, I was between its face and the hard parking lot pavement.

    ¡°Aaah! Fucking shit!¡± A concrete bumper was beneath me. It was parallel to my back. A jolt shot through my body when my spine folded over it. This time, the pain got to me.

    My muscles seized up. I released my hold on the gorilla monster¡¯s head; it immediately backed away. Terrible twitching began. It became stronger and turned into rocking convulsions. My fingers uncontrollably curled; my arms contracted close to my body. What was happen¡ª? A stroke? My back. Shit. My spine! Heal! Heal! Heal!

    My body wasn¡¯t listening to me. It was so fucking hard to straighten out my limbs. The gorilla monster lucked out big time. Getting slammed to the ground shouldn¡¯t cause me this much problem if it was any other situation. My powers were affected.

    I managed to bend up a bit to see what happened to my opponent. Its head was squished. It retreated a few steps and fell, apparently dead. Which was the problem.

    Tentacles grew from its body and turned to tear apart its host, consuming it to fuel another mutation.

    I can¡¯t have that. Even with tremors rocking me, I willed myself to crawl forward. Go Erind! I had to kill it now. Time to heal was a luxury I didn¡¯t have. Push¡­push myself¡­push past the limits. Hysterical strength wasn¡¯t just getting stronger at the cost of straining the body; its core was ignoring pain.

    I reached the gorilla tentacle thingy. It attacked, its appendages hammering me. I fought back, disassembling it with brute strength, breaking it down one fistful of flesh at a time. I zeroed in on the task, focused solely on killing this parasite.

    There is no pain.

    Kill. Kill. Kill.

    The shaking ground snapped me out of my murderous trance. Pain consumed me. I keeled over the remains of the gorilla monster, faceplanting on the mass of tentacle pieces. There it was again. Shaking. Earthquake? Don¡¯t tell me¡ª

    BAAMM!

    I was in the air. Spinning. Surprise momentarily overtook pain. I spotted Myra fighting. And there were more monsters. Then the ground came up fast.

    CRASSHH!

    I landed on the roof of a car.

    ¡­

    Woozy¡­

    My head hurt. Everything hurt. But it was muted, the pain was¡­not here. As if I was it was just a hazy memory even though I was experiencing it now.

    I opened my eyes to a swimming world. Deafening white noise was all I could hear. I pushed myself to half-sit up with my unbroken left arm and looked down at myself.

    My clothes were ripped, the fabric over my abdomen torn away. I hadn¡¯t tried a bare-midriff style before, not counting my Blanchette outfit. But that was a different body. Maybe showing some skin could be a nice change of pace. If only I had skin left. Innards spilled out the wide gash across my lower torso. My innards. I held a thick strand of my intestines. My blood flowed nonstop, pooling beneath me. This shouldn¡¯t be outside my body¡­right?

    I looked around, hoping someone would answer me.

    There seemed to be no one close enough to ask the correct place for intestines.

    To my left, many monsters were spilling into the parking lot. Behind them, a formidable figure, almost like a building walking¡ªthe mammoth monster I met earlier. It got bigger. A lot bigger.

    Facing right, I saw Myra fighting off the resurgence of monsters. She worked together with the Axe Lady to protect the building, to keep the monsters away from entering it. But there were commotions inside the building too. I saw through some of the windows the clash of blue against yellow. Cops fighting PCM members. Even on the rooftop, there seemed to be fighting. I wasn¡¯t sure what was going on up there because I didn¡¯t have a good view from where I was.

    Lastly, I faced forward.

    About half a basketball court away was a four-legged creature. It was pretty huge that I could see it even with cars between us. It reminded me of the buffalos I saw when I visited Yellowstone National Park with Dad. Buffalo or bison? I never figured out the difference between those. The creature raised its head and turned to me. Buffalo or bison, this monster¡¯s face certainly wasn¡¯t either of those.

    It lowered its head, pawed the ground, and began its charge. Cars, lampposts, it plowed through them like they were just cardboard boxes.

    Hmmm¡­I¡¯m going to die, aren¡¯t I?

    And then the world came back.

    The smell of the black blood that drenched my balaclava mask made my headache worse. I tasted my own blood in my mouth. The piercing car alarm was annoying. And the pain. The fucking pain! Agony and suffering that I had never felt before.

    I exposed my lower face, pulling up my mask with my left hand. I could barely move my right hand, but I turned my palm upwards and summoned the Blanchette mask. Fuck yeah, my power still worked. I was anxious that I might not be able to do it. My arm hadn¡¯t sufficiently healed to bring the mask up to my face. So, I curled down, squishing my exposed innards, so I could wear the mask.

    And the mask becomes a face.

    There are a lot of fuckers that need to be fucked up!

 4.38

    One moment I was literally fucking dying, my consciousness wavering into darkness, the next I was super energized, raring to wildly rage with power. My brain that was on the verge of shutting down was suddenly bombarded with a cacophony of information. Blanchette¡¯s enhanced senses simultaneously picked up everything around me: the movements of monsters entering the parking area, the humans through the building¡¯s windows, the helicopter above, the assortment of smells of varying disgustingness, sounds from the minute to the explosively loud, all in between minuscule vibrations and large tremors.

    So overwhelming was the mental shift that I simply forgot where I was, like the times I opened the fridge and blanked out on what I was supposed to get. A crash a few yards away snapped me back to reality.

    And barely just in time.

    I kicked up to a squatting position and dove forward, smoothly transitioning into a front flip to avoid the buffalo monster ramming the car I was on. It furiously threw back its head, attempting to snag me with its wicked curved horns as I passed a couple of inches above its reach.

    I landed behind it and watched as it tried to stop its mighty charge. It ended up tumbling into more cars.

    Shit! I crouched down, expecting whistles. However, there were no wind blades and I was still in one piece.

    Axe Lady was preoccupied fighting, but I was positive she saw me. I really had no other choice than to transform because Mr. Buffalo wasn¡¯t generous enough to give me time to heal back to fighting shape. Fortunately, protecting the humans inside the police station was apparently a higher priority for her. I had to thank these new monsters swarming the place that I wasn¡¯t sashimi yet.

    Which hole did this new batch of fuckers climb out of anyway?

    If the mammoth was coming, then the horde it brought along should be from SaveValue Depot. But shouldn¡¯t they be heading in another direction since I ordered the PCM members to distract them? And why weren¡¯t these fuckers attacking and eating each other?

    I narrowed my eyes and scanned the building. That stupid metal box! The weird box I found in my condo that could control the monsters. There should be one inside there attracting these monsters. That meant someone from the 2Ms organization was¡ª

    ¡°Hroaaghh¡± A throaty bellow signaled that Mr. Buffalo wanted another pass at me.

    This buffalo-looking abomination reminded me of the one that killed my best friend and best puppet, Cesar Pintor, during the condo attack. Well, technically, I was the reason he died¡­because of my Pino powers and whatnot¡­buuuut the buffalo monster did deliver the fatal blow. Weird that a lot of these monsters had similar features. Did it have something to do with the parasites in them?

    Mr. Buffalo shrugged off the pile of wreckage on its humped shoulders and aggressively pawed the ground once again. With a lowered head, it began its charge, kicking up a cloud of dust. A couple of tentacles zombies heading to the precinct had the misfortune of being in its path and were unceremoniously trampled.

    Evade or stand? Stand! I snarled, squatted down, and extended my arms. Come on! I¡¯m colored red!

    ¡°Ghgrooaw!¡±

    I caught its horns a fraction of a second before its boulder-sized head could hit my body. My arms buckled, bones threatening to snap, muscles straining to keep my body intact. I was able to stop it from slamming against my torso.

    The familiar hunger, like froth overflowing a boiling pot, started to swell inside me. Relief came over my aching muscles; relief and strength. I must¡¯ve sustained small injuries that triggered my Blanchette powers. All according to plan.

    Boosted by a tiny surge of strength, I dug my heels into the ground. I grunted as I tried to push it back; my bitchy competitive side didn¡¯t want to lose.

    Mr. Buffalo was unfazed.

    The pavement under my feet broke, my heels plowed two deep furrows into the soil as the hulking monster continued going forward like I wasn¡¯t there. This wasn¡¯t a contest of strength. I¡¯m too fucking light. This stupid monster was basically just pushing against the ground with me in between.

    I tightly gripped its horns and turned its head sideways in a bid to twist its neck. It might¡¯ve sensed what I was planning to do. Several small horns grew all over its face and pierced the front of my body like I was locked up in an iron maiden.

    ¡°Grrwaaarr!¡± Wrong move, big guy! Injuring me was a bad idea. I opened my mouth wide¡ªthe small horns pierced deeper into my chest and neck as I came closer¡ªand chomped its forehead. I crunched through the small horns and its skull. Black blood filled my mouth, pouring through the gaps of my fangs. The formerly disgusting blood was now scrumptious. Hey, I¡¯m not being a sore loser by eating it.

    Mr. Buffalo furiously bucked and shook its head, and me, wildly in the air. I kept holding onto its horns and enjoying my meal. Desperate to be rid of me, it tried smashing its head on the floor as the gorilla monster did.

    That trick won¡¯t work twice. I landed on my feet instead of my back. Next, I leaned backward, dragging Mr. Buffalo forward and down, pulling it off-balance. I fell into a backward roll, sliding beneath the huge monster as it tipped headlong. I then kicked its belly upwards with both legs.

    I succeeded in launching the massive buffalo monster in the air and flipping it on its back. Yes! It was just something I saw on a judo video on the internet; I didn¡¯t expect it to work on a four-legged creature, although I probably did it wrong. Good enough.

    Mr. Buffalo squirmed to return to its feet. I pounced on it, pushing it down and biting its throat. I tore out huge chunks of meat with each bite, swallowing it without chewing. Bones were a minor annoyance, ground to dust by my jaws. It was as if I was almost drinking Mr. Buffalo with the speed I ate.

    My snout stretched out, lengthening fangs jostled each other. My braided hair unraveled, growing longer and wilder; parts of my red hoodie also sprouting fur. There was also fur on the back of my hands as my claws extended. I flexed my muscles, feeling them enlarge. I was slowly growing, my injuries healing. The holes poked by the small horns were closing.

    Hang on...where did the large gash on my stomach go? Did it disappear when I transformed?

    I thought my injuries as Erind got carried over to Blanchette? That was what happened when I first transformed after Myra skewered me at Sanders. Or was I missing something here? When I return to my original body, it would be a problem if I still have that injury.

    A group of monsters interrupted my musings. They crashed into me, wrestling me away from the dying buffalo monster. They swarmed me but I easily took care of them. One downward punch cut a zombie in half, a swipe of my claw severed many tentacles, my strikes caused bodies to explode with its force.

    I was hoping for stronger monsters to attack me to fuel my growth so when all of these fuckers were cleaned up, I¡¯d be more than prepared for another round versus Axe Lady. Too bad, these ones I was killing barely did any damage to me. Useless pieces of shit. Don¡¯t bother me while I eat!

    I let out a growl of surprise. My craving for a Mr. Buffalo patty disappeared.

    What was going on? Did it die?

    Tentacles were growing out of its corpse, it should still¡ªoooh! It dawned on me. The host, the actual buffalo monster, had died. The parasite hitching a ride on it had taken over and was consuming its body. Those two were supposed to be separate entities. Technicalities, technicalities¡­my power had so many rules. I wonder why, I thought sarcastically.

    I headed to the buffalo-tentacle hybrid and the other larger monsters approaching. Mammoth Buddy was stomping on cars. Let¡¯s work up the food chain.

    ¡°Red Hood!¡± shouted a woman¡¯s voice. That it gave me pause. ¡°Move aside!¡±

    I followed the order without a second thought.

    Fwoom!

    The fuck?

    Fwoom! FWOOM!

    Wind blades carved a valley across the monster throng. Mr. Buffalo¡¯s corpse with its tentacles and the other monsters near it exploded into minced meat confetti and a mist of black blood.

    Axe Lady ran through the path she made, glancing my way as she passed me. She wiped her face and gave me a nod before continuing to meet the monstrous crowd.

    Huh¡­are we supposed to be allies now too? I shrugged my muscular shoulders covered by my untamed reddish-gold mane. Sure, why not? Our goals overlapped¡ªokay, I had no idea what her goals were. And didn¡¯t she look familiar? I felt like I had met her somewhere before. Probably one of the secretaries at the police station I saw a few days ago.

    Before I could figure out Axe Lady¡¯s identity, all the monsters rumbled in a deafening chorus. They suddenly became more aggressive and ferocious, breaking into a full charge to the police station. I roared and met them, using my fangs and claws to dispose of them wholesale while keeping an eye on Axe Lady.

    Mammoth Buddy swept away the cars as well as other smaller monsters with its trunk. Axe Lady jumped to avoid it and climbed up its trunk. She hacked its thick flesh in a whirlwind of blades on her way up to the monster¡¯s face. But her cuts were noticeably shallow, barely drawing blood. It might be that she was weakening or that the monster¡¯s skin was super thick.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Undeterred, she leaped up, high above the mammoth monster, and then spun downwards, looking like a gigantic pizza cutter. Dozens of tendrils reached out to her, weaving themselves into a wall of flesh to catch her. She burst through the tendrils and buried the axe¡¯s blade on the monster¡¯s forehead.

    Mammoth Buddy didn¡¯t mind, continuing its earth-shaking stroll across the parking lot. Axe Lady was just an annoying pest to it.

    ¡°Blanchette! Blanchette!¡± Myra fought her way to me. Good that she remembered not to call me by my real name. But then again, who the fuck would be listening in on us in this situation? ¡°I sure do hope that¡¯s you somewhere in there.¡±

    It¡¯s me, I replied. She stopped approaching, holding up her armored arms decked with spikes and blades. I realized I didn¡¯t answer her with words but with a growl. Not sure how I looked now, but it certainly wasn¡¯t friendly. Taking a page out of Axe Lady¡¯s book, I squashed a couple of monsters and waved at her.

    ¡°Are you in control?¡± she called loud enough to be heard through her bark helmet and the noisy monsters we were killing, not knowing I could already hear her clearly.

    I vigorously nodded my head.

    ¡°Come closer to the building!¡±

    I nodded again and followed her.

    Just then, the tail of the BID helicopter flying over the roof of the precinct exploded. Myra spouted curses in shock. The chopper spiraled out of control, going down on the other side of the building out of our view. An explosion rocked the ground. I guess that¡¯s it for those BID agents.

    I noticed it was a large object that hit it, probably a piece of rubble. Its trajectory had a slight arc, making me suspect it was thrown, having experience throwing stuff myself. Someone with super strength was up there, like a heavily augmented human¡­or an Adumbrae.

    There was gunfire on the rooftop and inside the building interspersed by smaller explosions. I yelped to get Myra¡¯s attention¡ªit was the most unthreatening sound I could make¡ªand gestured at the barricaded entrance, tilting my head to ask her if we could break in to see what was up. She was like fifteen feet away from me; it was obvious she was wary of coming closer. Which was funny because this was the most I was in control of myself this far in a transformation. I was actually surprised at my progress.

    I tried to mime that someone dangerous was up there. But I had no idea how to act it out¡ªespecially with monsters simply begging to be killed scrambling around me¡ªso she didn¡¯t get my full message.

    ¡°Professor said we should fight here,¡± Myra told me as she skewered greyish goblins clambering over her.

    Professor? The Professor who was helping their hero wannabe group? I thought he only contacted Dario and no one else. Or was she referring to a different person?

    ¡°If we go inside,¡± she continued, ¡°we¡¯ll fight the police and might injure them. But damn, I want to go in and help. Sounds like hell¡¯s breaking lose inside. Johann might be¡ª¡±

    I jabbed my thumb back at the door, slowly retreating to it while continuing to defend it.

    ¡°Wait a bit!¡± Myra turned to the mammoth that was coming closer and closer, the building was within reach of the numerous tendrils coming out of its trunk. Axe Lady couldn¡¯t stop it, the wounds she caused rapidly healed. It must be feeding off the corpses it stored in those green bulbous sacs growing on its back. ¡°But Professor¡­¡± she began to say. A huge tendril whacked Axe Lady while she was doing her spinning thing mid-air, sending her flying towards the building. ¡°Professor Deslys!¡±

    Deslys? The annoying professor from Melchor Institute? What was she doing here?

    Even without an answer to the questions that crossed my mind, I already climbed the side of the building. Reaching the second story, I kicked off the wall to catch the seemingly unconscious Professor Deslys.

    It¡¯s really her, I realized as I landed on top of a tentacle zombie.

    Her husband, that grouchy doctor¡ªhe must be the reason why she was here. I didn¡¯t particularly like Professor Deslys, but I saved her because she might provide some answers to the mystery of the axe and that weird boy I met last night.

    She still grasped the axe even in her nearly lifeless state. Should I grab it and throw it away? But I didn¡¯t want to touch it. With its wielder out of commission, it would try to find a new one. Maybe I should throw Professor Deslys and the axe inside the building. People inside might be able to save her, and the axe could change wielders and get back in the fight. I wasn¡¯t that confident in taking down Mammoth Buddy without pushing my transformation more¡­and that could be the point I¡¯d lose control of myself.

    Mammoth Buddy raised its trunk, about to slam the building. But it stopped and lowered its trunk.

    All the monsters stopped moving.

    The air became heavier. A wave of¡­something¡­passed through me. The world became a whirlpool as if I was super drunk on the verge of passing out, and then, just as suddenly as the sensation came, it disappeared.

    I¡¯m weak! I staggered, dropping Deslys. In turn, she let go of the axe, splaying out on the ground. I knelt on my knees beside her, hugging my stomach tightly. Searing pain radiated from my abdomen¡ªit was my wound from earlier. My guts weren¡¯t spilling out of my body anymore, but the wound hadn¡¯t finished healing. Sticky blood coated my arms.

    ¡°I¡¯m back?¡± I gasped. It was hard to speak with the pain I was experiencing. I was still rapidly healing; I could feel it. I clenched my fist, sensing the super strength I possessed. It was just my Blanchette transformation was reversed, hence the extreme weakness I felt as I returned to my original body. ¡°How could this be?¡±

    ¡°What the hell?¡± Myra looked down at her body. Her bark armor had dissolved. She was left with her balaclava mask and sports bra top; her shirt might''ve gotten torn when she summoned a massive armor. She only showed a moment''s hesitation before she held up her fists and faced the immobile monsters, ready to fight despite losing her power.

    ¡°Testing. Hello¡­hello¡­¡± An echoey voice like it came out of the radio, spoke above us. I pulled down my own balaclava mask to cover my mouth before looking up. A man peered over the roof fence. This fucker could be the one who brought down the BID helicopter and was likely an Adumbrae.

    Was he the one who stopped our powers? And did he control these monsters with that mysterious metal box?

    Myra rushed to check Professor Deslys¡¯ condition and then faced me. "Ah! What the fucking hell happened¡ªAre you okay?"

    I nodded. "Just give me time to heal." I looked up.

    She followed my gaze. ¡°That guy...Isn¡¯t he with the PCM?¡±

    ¡°Can you hear me down there?¡± He talked through a megaphone, the same used by the PCM leaders, as he was in fact one of them. Not just a low-ranking PCM officer, but the leader of them all.

    Auron Cohenn. I had only seen him a couple of times on TV, and I got sketchy vibes the moment I saw him.

    He said, ¡°This is a pleasant surprise, all of you are working together. Truly unexpected.¡±

    It¡¯s a surprise to me too that I¡¯m working with this axe. What wasn¡¯t a surprise was that Auron Cohenn was connected to the 2Ms.

    ¡°No sudden movements now.¡± He dangled a metal box over the fence. ¡°I assume you know what this is? The giant elephant over here is going to destroy this building and kill everyone in it with a press of a button. And I don¡¯t think you¡¯re in a position to help the humans inside.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re listening!¡± Myra shouted.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I had to do this to you. It¡¯ll wear off after some time, no worries.¡± Auron had a very punchable sneer on his very punchable face. ¡°My plan worked to draw you here, even if I wasn¡¯t sure who was going to come. Which means you¡¯re not over at the hospital.¡± His previously haggard visage demeanor changed to a relaxed, a bit of playful expression, from an impassioned leader of a cult-like organization to an annoying smugfuck. ¡°Have you figured out our goals yet?¡±

    (Hey¡­)

    My eyes widened. I looked around without making it obvious. I thought Auron did some shit that shut down our powers. Why was this axe still talking inside my head? And where was the Adumbrae controlling it? Maybe he could help us out here.

    (Hey¡­pick me up¡­)

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to do that,¡± I snapped in a low voice.

    ¡°What?¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Not you.¡±

    Auron Cohenn¡¯s laughter boomed on the megaphone. ¡°Of course, you haven¡¯t. You are as clueless as ever. So many times you tried to thwart us, but you are no closer to figuring out what¡¯s happening. And none of your attempts have succeeded.¡±

    (As much as it pains me to say this¡­)

    ¡°Shut up,¡± I hissed. No way I was going to pick him up.

    (¡­I propose a truce.)

    ¡°In fact, our plans are progressing way faster than we could have imagined,¡± Auron continued to blare. ¡°Now, I¡¯m not one to gloat, but allow me this one time. Or perhaps I was already gloating from the start. No matter. I simply wanted to tell you that what we were doing at the hospital was a success¡­and we didn¡¯t even expect it to succeed.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to hold this weapon of yours,¡± I murmured. I couldn¡¯t concentrate on what Auron was talking about; not that I had any clue what it was supposed to be. We knew the 2Ms were experimenting with the patients at the hospital, and nothing else. Myra gave me a weird look. She was about to say something but closed her mouth. I told the axe, ¡°How about you show yourself and help¡ªwait. Are you¡ª?¡±

    (Yes¡­)

    ¡°All thanks to the specimen we acquired a few days ago,¡± Auron said, his voice cracked trying to hold back laughter. ¡°Can you imagine the luck we have? And now the successful Cocoon at the hospital? I have received reports that it''s Bridging¡ª¡±

    ¡°Bridging?¡± Myra shouted up at Auron. ¡°The hell? You mean to say that¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes, Ms. Tree, whoever you are,¡± Auron replied with mirth. ¡°I believe this is the first time we¡¯ve met? An Adumbrae, an intact Manifestation will be born¡­being born as we speak. It¡¯ll be a weak one considering the short gestation period, but it¡¯s a tremendous success in an experiment that we originally expected to fail. We were supposed to merely record data but¡ªah, I¡¯ve blabbed enough. I¡¯m going there now to witness it firsthand.¡±

    ¡°Blanchette, what are we going to do?¡± Myra said, shaking my shoulder, continuing to use my alias. ¡°Oberon and Emcee are there! We also have to save Johann inside the building. And¡­and Professor Deslys isn¡¯t moving.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re an Adumbrae?¡± I said, at the axe, ignoring Myra and not caring about Auron and the 2Ms plans. I needed a plan not to lose now! ¡°But you¡¯re an object. I mean¡­ah¡­¡± Was this possible? Adumbrae could materialize into all sorts of monsters. Why not an axe?

    (Yes, I am an Adumbrae.)

    ¡°Wha¡ªwhat do we do?¡± I said, throwing Myra¡¯s question at it.

    (Use me. I¡¯m not going to take over your mind.)

    ¡°That sounds like something a mind controller would say.¡±

    (I promise¡ª)

    ¡°The BID was gracious enough to lend us a ride,¡± said Auron, probably referring to the bigger BID helicopter that landed on the roof. ¡°It may not be, their intention, but here we are. What luck! Luck just raining left and right. Can it be divine providence? After all, we¡¯re making a god.¡± He threw his megaphone to someone behind him, and exaggeratedly pushed several buttons on the metal box. He jovially waved his hand and disappeared. We could hear the helicopter engines starting, the sound of its blades rotating.

    Mammoth Buddy trumpeted. I covered my ears. Its tendrils roped the monsters scattered in the parking lot, shoving them in its gaping mouth.

    (This is the only way.)

    ¡°I know,¡± I said. My brows furrowed in thought. My heart was pounding, not with fear, but with the thrill of a gamble. And of a fight with low odds.

    (You resisted me before, I promise¡ª)

    I picked up the axe. ¡°Pleased to work with you.¡±

 4.39 - Johann Martin Fischer/ Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    Johann Martin Fischer

    ¡°You¡¯re going to live, you hear me?¡± Johann Martin Fischer said. Using both hands, he pressed down the gunshot wound on Albert¡¯s chest.

    The young cop, just a year out of police academy and assigned for about two months to their precinct, didn¡¯t respond. His face was getting paler and paler. Blood spread beneath him.

    ¡°Yo-you¡¯re going to li-live,¡± Johann insisted, choking on his words. He didn¡¯t talk with this man other than a few greetings along the hallways or when they occasionally were in the same line at their small precinct cafeteria. However, Albert saved his life a few minutes ago.

    A PCM member was about to shoot him, and Albert leaped to block it. The cop dropped his gun. Johann picked it up and quickly retaliated, dropping the PCM member to the floor with a headshot. Then he dragged his savior to hide from the ongoing firefight between the BID and police on one side, and the PCM and several monsters¡ªwhich inexplicably followed their orders¡ªon the other for the helicopter.

    Johann did help out in the ¡®main¡¯ fight. During the small skirmishes all over the building, he realized the megaphones could control the PCM members, which really didn¡¯t need a genius to figure out. After managing to take one megaphone with the help of his fellow lab technicians, he rushed to the rooftop. The PCM held some of the SVS members captive¡ªhe didn¡¯t know why¡ªand that included Ramello.

    With Johann¡¯s assistance, the tide of battle turned. He compelled the PCM members, using the megaphone, to destroy the metal boxes and interfere with their signal, causing the monsters to turn on each other. That prompted Auron Cohenn, the PCM leader, to reveal his Adumbrae nature, and save the last box. The BID didn¡¯t have any Adumbrae-fighting weapons; they were only supposed to escort the SVS group to their temporary base of operation besides the LEPD headquarters.

    The fighting ended quickly after that.

    Johann couldn¡¯t do anything other than hide behind the water tank and vainly try to stop Albert bleeding to death while praying to the Mother Core that the Adumbrae wouldn¡¯t look for him. If he did, Johann would immediately bolt and leave Albert behind.

    But Auron wasn¡¯t interested in killing them all. After he neutralized the BID, he used the megaphone to talk to some people below. Everyone could hear it.

    Johann guessed Auron was chiding Myra. She should be somewhere in the parking area; he did see her earlier wearing her bark armor, doing her best to protect the building. But Auron seemed to have been talking to several people, not just one. Myra must be with other people, likely Erind because she mentioned she was with her during their call.

    If Erind was there, it meant she was forced to use her Adumbrae powers to join the fight. Another person who could be with them was Professor Deslys. The last time he saw her, she was possessed by the great axe they found in Dr. Cornelio¡¯s office. He didn¡¯t understand what happened back then, but it turned out she was still on their side.

    Johann shifted his position, placing his knee on the wound. It¡¯d give more pressure to stop the bleeding and buy time for help to come. But what help? Where would it come from? Everyone here needed help.

    He heard Auron leaving, the helicopter lifting off the ground. But they weren¡¯t safe just yet.

    The humongous mutated elephant trumpeted and began to attack the building. Tendrils crept over the roof, grabbing anything it could, be they living or dead.

    Johann at first tried to pull Albert away, but he felt that the body was already limp. He muttered a quick apology and abandoned the cop who saved him. He instead went for the gun on the floor and shot the approaching tentacles.

    They weren¡¯t particularly bothered getting shot. Some grabbed Albert¡¯s corpse, pulling it off the roof. Others continued on to capture Johann.

    He rounded the water tank and ran to the stairs. He jumped over the deceased and ducked under the tentacles whipping at him. One of the monster bodies he thought was dead suddenly jerked, surprising him. He jumped right and tripped over a corpse. One misstep and he tumbled on the floor.

    ¡°Get up, get up,¡± he urged himself. But he couldn¡¯t pull his left leg up. Something wrapped around it. He groaned as the coil grew tighter. He was dragged by the tentacle to the edge of the roof. ¡°Nooo!¡± he yelled. He tried to hang on, clawing on the rooftop flooring with all his might. Some of his fingernails were broken or ripped off.

    The pull stopped.

    He rolled on his back, breathing heavily. A person wearing a mask and torn clothes, possibly a woman from her figure, landed on the roof fence, balancing on it with her feet. She was holding the foreboding great axe with creepy carvings from Dr. Cornelio¡¯s office. What happened to Professor Deslys? This woman wasn¡¯t her.

    ¡°Erind?¡± Johann whispered as the woman sprinted past him.

    She spun on her toes, holding the end of the axe¡¯s handle, its blade far out, and gathered momentum and air. Twirling faster and faster, she flew as if drilling up the sky. Something shot forth from the helicopter above, connecting with her, and exploded. A smoking Erind fell back down, about five yards from Johann.

    He tried to crawl to her but she already got back to her feet.

    One wide swing of the axe sent a massive gale at the helicopter that was getting further and further away.

    ¡°Don¡¯t!¡± Johann called out.

    The burst of wind that almost solidified into a crescent-shaped blade faded away before it hit the helicopter.

    Erind looked back at him.

    ¡°They have hostages,¡± he blurted out. He was about to mention Ramello''s name, but there were other survivors within earshot. "Don''t kill them, whoever you are." Erind turned to the helicopter, back at him, and nodded.

    The building quaked. The gigantic elephant battered it. It raised its massive trunk and curled it backward, its tall shadow covering them. And then it descended. Johann scrambled to move away, but Erind stayed.

    He saw she stood still, almost smugly, staring up at the trunk in defiance. It slammed down on her with great speed. At the last second, she raised her axe, not to cut it, but to block it with the face of the wide blade.

    ¡°No!¡±

    The trunk lifted. Johann saw there was a hole. It smashed Erind right through to the floor below.

    Before Johann could think of worrying about her, she jumped back up as if nothing happened. And the great battle between Erind and the elephant monster began.

    Johann¡¯s mouth gaped as Erind zipped across the rooftop, his eyes barely able to catch her, sending wind blades at the furious titan. She slowly chipped away at the mountain of flesh like a sculptor whittling down a slab of marble. She also saved other survivors from getting taken by the tentacles.

    He rushed to help the nearest person limping to the stairs, Detective Linette Klein. She was just visiting their precinct and got dragged into this crisis. He offered his shoulder to her, and they both hurried to escape the increasingly dangerous battle between two powerful monsters.

    Yes¡­Erind is also a monster.

    An Adumbrae.

    He shouldn¡¯t forget that even if she helped him. But he was still grateful to her. Very grateful.

    He looked back just as she managed to chop off the trunk. It landed with a mighty crash on the rooftop. He and the detective stumbled. Would the building collapse? The elephant bellowed in pain, nearly shattering his eardrums.

    Very grateful¡­and very afraid of Erind.

    <hr>

    Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    ¡°Dammit, there¡¯s no end to these disgusting things,¡± Myra Fletcher exasperatedly grumbled as her fist connected with the rubbery flesh of the hundredth tentacle.

    That probably wasn¡¯t an exaggeration as they kept on coming for her and the unconscious Professor Deslys lying on the steps to the precinct entrance behind her. She lifted a large piece of concrete that got knocked off the building when the colossal elephant monster slammed against it, and chucked it at three more tendrils snaking towards her. They were squished under its weight, putrid flesh and black blood splattering everywhere.

    ¡°What the hell do I do now?¡± she wondered out loud, yelling at more tentacles coming. They reminded her of the multiplying heads of the mythical hydra. The problem was that these weren¡¯t mythical at all.

    After Erind had climbed to the roof using that freaking axe with mysterious powers¡ªif it could even be called a climb, more like spinning through the air¡ªMyra was left to take care of herself and her severely injured teacher. She guessed Erind tried to catch the PCM leader, Auron Cohenn, who turned out to be behind the ongoing insanity around them. Judging by the BID helicopter flying away, Erind failed.

    The revolting elephant monster Myra estimated to be about twice as tall as ¡°Marco¡±, the bull African elephant that was the local attraction of her hometown zoo, worked up a fury and attacked. Definitely not like the zoo elephant Kelsey loved to feed when they were kids. It repeatedly hit the roof with its trunk, rammed the side of the building with its head, and raked the walls and windows with its trunk.

    A silver lining in the face of this behemoth of destruction was that it captured the other monsters with its numerous tendrils, lessening Myra¡¯s problems, and began to swallow them in its weird lamprey mouth, a black hole lined with rings of jagged teeth. The diet consisting of its fellow monsters was very different from the fruits and vegetables Marco loved to eat. Myra had a feeling they were next on the menu.

    Amid the chaos¡ªraining debris, unrelenting tentacles, and smaller monsters that escaped the elephant monster¡¯s grasp wanting to get a bite of human flesh before they were eaten¡ªMyra carefully picked up Professor Deslys, hoping she didn¡¯t injure her any further, and looked for a nearby safe spot¡­relatively safe spot. She found cover beneath the sturdy and thick cantilevered roof over the main back entrance of the building.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    And now, here she was fighting while mulling over whether she should break inside. Professor Deslys definitely wasn¡¯t going to be okay out here, and she just couldn¡¯t carry her and run away far from the elephant monster¡¯s grasp.

    I actually can.

    But Myra wanted to stay and fight, and also find Johann. She gritted her teeth¡­if he¡¯s dead, I swear, everyone is going to pay!

    If only they could take shelter inside the police station¡­which would just result in a bullet fiesta. To say the cops inside would be unwelcoming was an understatement. There was already some shooting going on the other side of the roll-down security shutters blocking off the doors. Myra was sort of confident she¡¯d survive running through gunfire unless there was a lucky headshot, but Professor Deslys wouldn¡¯t.

    She did want to save her teacher. I¡¯m one of the good guys, she reminded herself.

    The earth trembled. Myra nearly fell on her butt with the ground jumping up and down. Pillars that were the legs of the elephant monster passed by. One of them hit the overhanging roof, partially crumbling it. She shielded Professor Deslys with her body. The monster trumpeted in anger. Loud crashes above. The building shuddered each time.

    ¡°They¡¯re still fighting up there?¡± Myra stepped outside the shade of the cantilevered roof. She craned her neck, struggling to get a view of what was going on above. But she was too close to the building and couldn¡¯t see.

    Those eerie whistles again! Deep gashes streaked the behemoth¡¯s body seemingly out of nowhere. Copious amounts of black blood sprayed forth, a foul rain shower. Accompanying it was a heavy hail of chopped-up pieces of flesh.

    That had to be Erind. Was she winning?

    Myra couldn¡¯t tell because the titanic monster was mutating nonstop, sickening growths of flesh and wiggling tendrils covered its wounds, its body beginning to look less like an elephant, deforming into a grotesque blob.

    The constant thrashing of the tentacles dislodged an outcropping of the second-floor wall. The huge piece of rubble fell straight down on Myra.

    She quickly moved aside, cursing, ¡°Dammit! Can¡¯t watch in peace without getting turned into a pancake.¡±

    Since the elephant monster was focused on Erind, its nasty appendages retreated. Myra vigorously shook her hand as if it would bring back her powers. She didn¡¯t know what that bastard Auron Cohenn did, but he said it would wear off¡­ as if anyone could trust him.

    ¡°Come on, come on,¡± she said, stamping her foot in frustration. She took a deep breath and concentrated on producing bark. If only she could make an armor again, she could cover herself and Professor Deslys and barge in the building.

    She heard more crashes, wood breaking, glass shattering. The tendrils were trying to get in the building through the windows! Lots of screaming and shooting. This was the perfect opportunity to sneak in; the cops should be busy with the tentacles.

    She carried Professor Deslys to the nearest window. Tentacles were thrusting inside, having broken through the barricades. Stupid Reo would surely have a joke prepared for this situation. That thought somehow just made her more irritated, and she kicked the tentacles so hard their flesh tore. She climbed through the opening they made.

    ¡°Eaah!¡± she exclaimed, nearly slipping when she landed. She fumbled to keep Professor Deslys steady. ¡°Sorry, professor. And what is¡ª? Someone dead.¡±

    The floor was slick from the blood pouring out the upper torso of a woman.

    Just the upper torso.

    The other body parts were flung to the ceiling and the walls. The tentacles had been busy, and this poor woman was at the wrong place at the wrong time, if she wasn¡¯t already just by reporting for work today. She might be a secretary here from her outfit.

    ¡°Hold it right there!¡± An angry voice barked from the end of the hallway. A police officer with a frail frame but a formidable and experienced presence had a gun trained on Myra. She had an inkling she had met him before in the few times she had visited Johann while he was at work. A few more harried police officers arrived.

    ¡°Lieutenant, was that Marissa calling for help?¡± said the woman on the older man¡¯s left. ¡°Is that¡ª? Marissa!¡± She also aimed her pistol at Myra. Others followed suit. ¡°What did you do to her?¡±

    With cops about to shoot, Myra thought of throwing Professor Deslys back outside, but she might¡ª

    ¡°Stop! Don¡¯t shoot!¡± someone frantically said.

    ¡°Joha¡ª?" Myra clamped her mouth shut. Others were around; Johann worked here. She didn¡¯t want them to question why she knew him. His normal life would¡¯ve been ruined by one stupid slip-up. Thank the Mother Core you¡¯re alive, she silently prayed. ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything to this woman,¡± she loudly said, pointing at the corpse at her feet to distract them from what she was about to say earlier. She made her voice more rounded to disguise it. Fortunately, she wore a mask beneath her bark helmet so people still wouldn¡¯t recognize her after her power fizzled out. ¡°And I¡¯m just trying to save one of you.¡±

    ¡°Who is that she¡¯s carrying?¡±

    ¡°Shoot her! We have to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t act rashly.¡±

    ¡°But sir, she killed¡ª"

    ¡°I didn¡¯t!¡± Myra protested.

    ¡°Liar! Sir, we shouldn¡¯t believe her. She¡¯s one of them for sure.¡±

    ¡°Lt. Tetterton, sir,¡± Johann interjected. ¡°The person on her shoulders¡­that¡¯s Professor Deslys.¡± Murmurings among them. Myra turned over her teacher so they could see her face. She slowly walked away from the corpse on the floor and lowered the professor to a clean spot.

    ¡°Dr. Cornelio¡¯s wife! I saw her earlier.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s really her.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s shoot! We can¡¯t let that woman get away. She might be an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Johann yelled. The cops turned to him. He fumbled for an explanation. ¡°Ah¡­ah, you might hit Professor Deslys. Yes, that¡¯s it! You might hit her.¡±

    ¡°But wasn¡¯t she controlled by that axe? She could be under the influence of an Adumbrae as well.¡±

    ¡°Is she even still alive? The Adumbrae is going to escape. Sir, give your orders¡ª"

    ¡°Everyone shut your traps,¡± the older cop who seemed to be in charge growled. ¡°You!¡± Myra jerked up. ¡°Leave the way you came if your business is done,¡± evenly ordered the man. ¡°And thank you for bringing Kenneth¡¯s wife to us.¡±

    Myra held up her hands to show she meant no harm and stepped away. Her eyes met Johann¡¯s. He subtly nodded. She dryly said, ¡°I¡¯m going out now, back to those tentacles. Yeah, guys¡­it¡¯s great out there¡ª¡±

    CRASH! Half a dozen tendrils smashed through a pile of office chairs that covered a window. They roped Myra¡¯s body. She tried to pull away, but they dragged her outside. Her head hit the window sill.

    ¡°Aaaah!¡±

    Down on the ground. She bounced a couple of times on the pavement. Before she could forcefully free herself, she was going up.

    And then she got stuffed into a slimy opening.

    Hemmed in all sides. She got squished. Strong forces pushed her down. Sharp objects cut into her skin. Dozens and dozens of them pierced her flesh, scoring her like a slab of roasted pork. Tumbling and tumbling she went as if she was inside a washing machine.

    The elephant bastard swallowed me? She dropped down something wet. A puddle a couple of inches deep.

    It was total darkness. All she could hear were sounds of throbbing, beating, and grinding. And the smell; she breathed through her mouth because she couldn¡¯t take it. She was about to puke her lunch out, but the adrenaline rush made her focus on her current predicament. A very stupid one at that.

    What the hell was this liquid around her?

    Is this water? No¡­

    It was too thick. And hot. It got into her fresh wounds that were still healing. Her skin started to itch.

    It burned! Her whole body burned in pain!

    She furiously scratched herself. Melting threads of clothes stuck to her fingers. And her skin. It was falling off. The acid was getting to her bare muscles. ¡°I¡¯m getting digested!¡± she screamed in panic.

    A bunch of heavy things fell on her. More bodies? They were squirming.

    She lashed out at them. Her panic turned to anger. She punched and kicked everything she could reach. ¡°You¡¯re not eating me!¡±

    The space was becoming smaller, the walls closing in, pressing against her. Rotting corpses of humans and monsters jostled her; she didn¡¯t know what else was in there with her. They were all packed tight like sardines in a can. All she knew was that her body was slowly broken by the stomach juices.

    The walls of flesh spasmed, and there was an ominous rumbling. The stomach muscles contracted, pushing her into another hole to Mother Core knows where. And she literally wasn¡¯t going down without a fight.

    She urgently tried to find something to grab on. Her agony was pushed to the back of her mind as desperation gripped her heart. She tried to claw her way out, tearing the walls. This is the perfect time for hysterical strength and her lessons with Erind to apply, her brain told her even if it wasn¡¯t the time to have such thoughts. She was going into shock. Focus! Focus or you¡¯ll die!

    Air¡­. Air? Air!

    She gasped, trying to inhale as much as she could through her nose and mouth. Oxygen was running out! She had to make an opening soon.

    Digging through the stomach walls with her bare hands wasn¡¯t progressing fast enough. The stomach acid was vicious, burning the flesh off her fingers, the muscles needed to keep on digging deteriorating. Her healing couldn¡¯t keep up.

    She was getting weaker and weaker, the lack of oxygen affecting her. Her amazing regenerative abilities could do nothing in the face of asphyxiation. Once her brain shuts down, that was it. She survived her fight with the Adumbrae, Bob, her hardest and most dangerous encounter to date¡­only to get eaten by an elephant monster.

    No! I¡¯m not going to end up as elephant feces!

    She furiously started to dig again. She was going to escape. She had to find Kelsey. Dying here wasn¡¯t allowed.

    Something sharp poked her. It was some sort of bone. Many of them in a row. Could be a ribcage of a monster corpse. She ripped out two and held them tight in each hand with the remaining muscles that could still grasp it.

    Kelsey, wait for me! Squeezing out her last ounce of strength, she furiously scooped away the flesh. Her mind was becoming deranged. I hate elephants! That stupid Marco won¡¯t accept the hay I gave to it. It only eats the food Kelsey gives. I really hate elephants! Dig! Dig!

    Incredible tremors. The elephant monster must be feeling the pain. She kept on digging. She didn¡¯t know anymore which way was up or down, or if this was the path to freedom. Just dig straight, she egged herself on.

    And then she couldn¡¯t breathe anything anymore.

    Her lungs begged for air. Needles were inside it. Her whole body pleaded for oxygen.

    Is this it?

    Light!

    Intense pain erupted on her shoulder. Her right arm felt weird; she couldn¡¯t move it. But all that mattered was there was light.

    And air.

    She stretched out her working left arm out the hole. Someone grabbed her hand and pulled her out. They both fell to the ground. Her savior started running while cradling her. She blinked trying to see who it was. Only one eye worked, the other blinded by the stomach juices. Her vision was hazy, but she could see a figure with an axe.

    ¡°Myra!¡± Erind said. ¡°Are you still alive? Yes! Just rest and heal, I¡¯ll find a place to hide you.¡±

    Myra stirred, remembering this was the situation with her and Professor Deslys moments ago. She wanted to smile but her face hurt so bad.

    Erind continued, ¡°Sorry it took a while. I just couldn¡¯t cut its belly open because I might kill you inside.¡±

    Myra tried to say thank you. What came out was a raspy croak; her throat was damaged by the acid.

    But Erind understood. ¡°Johann¡¯s the one you should thank,¡± she replied. ¡°He shouted at me that the mammoth ate you.¡±

    Thank you, Johann, Myra thought. In the end, he saved her instead of the other way around.

 4.40

    Ewww! I shuddered as I ran with Mammoth Buddy after my ass.

    It was extremely awkward carrying Myra over my left shoulder because she was bigger and taller than me, and I had to hold her right arm dangling by a few sinews from her shoulder bones in a specific way¡ªcollateral damage of yours truly when I gutted Mammoth Buddy¡ªso it wouldn¡¯t tear off before it could heal, while at the same time lugging the massive weapon on my other side. Like Myra, the axe¡¯s double-bladed head was wider than my torso, its length from one end of its pole to the tip of the blade longer than my body.

    But I was fine with it, no problemo, just slightly annoyed with the bulky luggage¡ªmy usual gripe at the airport. Weight wasn¡¯t a concern either; I could feel pulsing strength flowing through every fiber of my muscles even though I hadn¡¯t transformed.

    My fucking issue with this world was the repulsive feeling of Myra¡¯s skin, or rather lack of it. She looked like the creepy human model we had in science class back in high school. Most of her clothes were dissolved by what I suspected to be stomach juices of Mammoth Buddy. Pretty fucking strong stuff to have melted clothes and clumps of her hair¡­and her skin¡­and flesh.

    She was soaked in the nasty substance when I pulled her out. It continued to break her body down as her regeneration struggled to fight back in her weakened state, resulting in vomit-inducing gunk coating her and getting on my hands and arms. The stupid acid even burned the upper left part of my shirt. I could feel streaks of liquified Myra running from my shoulder down to my chest.

    Really gross! Did I already say ¡®Ewww¡¯?

    (Erind, don¡¯t think that way of your friend. She¡¯s suffering, be considerate.)

    And here we go, the annoying mind-reading antics of my new partner. He had introduced himself as Penemoo or something like that.

    Weird name, I thought as I hopped from one flattened car to another, leading Mammoth Buddy away from the police station. I wasn¡¯t sure how that was spelled because it was the first time I had heard of a name like it.

    (Penemue), he calmly repeated, and then spelled it. His cadence was like someone announcing flight schedules over the airport PA system, but I received the entire statement instantaneously in my head, very unlike someone actually talking to me. (And I told you, it¡¯s not mind reading.)

    Or so you say.

    Earlier, the moment my fingers wrapped around the handle of Penemue¡ªinsert a joke from Reo here¡ªhe was gracious enough to immediately warn me of the connection we¡¯d have. Of course, that gave me a pause because of¡­reasons¡­

    But I was forced to ally with him because Mammoth Buddy was going squish us. I also wanted to try to take down Auron.

    Penemue had elaborated our link wasn¡¯t mind reading per se; he couldn¡¯t dig through my memories and stuff like that. All he could ¡°hear¡± was my ¡°inner voice¡±, or the thoughts going through my mind, so he cautioned me to be careful of what I would think about.

    Sounds like fucking mind reading to me.

    (Fine, you win. It¡¯s mind reading), he conceded.

    Mammoth Buddy made noises of frustration, something between a rumbling growl and an airy bellow because it couldn¡¯t catch me¡­us. It probably couldn¡¯t trumpet anymore because I lobbed off like half of its trunk. The ground continued to tremble.

    (Can we focus on dealing with the main problem behind us instead of arguing about this?)

    ¡°Mind reading and controlling,¡± I said pointedly. I scanned down the road where I could leave Myra behind, preferably a place with clothes. I''m a very considerate person.

    (I¡¯m not even attempting to control you. By the way, good job drawing the attention of the monster and saving the precinct. Thank you.)

    I noted his use of the word ¡®monster¡¯ instead of Adumbrae. Was that because he was an Adumbrae himself trying to be a good guy and didn¡¯t want to be associated with actual monsters doing monster stuff? Or did he know the true nature of these parasite things, and that they weren¡¯t Adumbrae?

    Probably both.

    (Brilliant job spotting and destroying the XR-Field Generator covered by the monster corpses), he said, referring to those peculiar metal boxes. He didn¡¯t directly reply to my musings, but still did confirm my suspicion. (There should be another generator with Auron. However, you successfully drove him away, and now the elephant creature is simply following its instinct to attack you since you badly hurt it. And thank you again for not killing the innocent people also on the helicopter.)

    ¡°I was expecting for you to dispel the wind blade when Johann told me they had hostages,¡± I said. ¡°But you waited for me to do it. Were you going to let them die to maintain the truce with me?¡±

    Penemue didn¡¯t answer my question. (There¡¯s a clothes store coming up on your right. See the sign on the next block?)

    I spotted it two blocks away and hastened my pace. I was already running fast, but not fast enough to leave behind Mammoth Buddy; Penemue wouldn¡¯t want this guy going somewhere else and killing more people.

    Mammoth Buddy directed dozens of tentacles my way. I evaded them all perfectly without seeing them coming from my back. Penemue sent images, or rather impressions, of everything happening around me. This must be how he saw the world as an inanimate object¡ªoh, he¡¯s alive, so just an object then.

    I zigzagged down the hard pavement, hopped on top of trashed cars, and then over buildings, enjoying the wind whipping my head, going through the threads of my mask, and cooling my face. The rush of wind also felt good on the wound on my abdomen that had now mostly healed. Holding Penemue noticeably helped the recovery of my grievous injury.

    I landed on top of the roof of a two-story building with the clothes store on its first floor. I dropped down the edge and entered the store through its broken display window.

    The place was a mess. Many display shelves were emptied, some of them toppled over. Clothes were strewn across the floor, unwanted by the looters who probably have been chowed by the monsters. Further inside, I found a couple of half-eaten human corpses. I continued and found the back room open. These dead people weren¡¯t able to hide like my homies. I kinda wish that entertaining bunch survived.

    (You do care for people.)

    ¡°This should be a good spot,¡± I said, ignoring Penemue. I placed Myra at the corner of the back room. Her eyes were still closed. She was breathing normally but moaned in pain when I arranged her into a more comfortable position. Only a few patches of exposed muscles remained; her skin had mostly grown back and healed.

    (She wouldn¡¯t be in this state if you saved her much sooner. I was teaching you how to use more of my powers.)

    I shoved the clothes on the shelves down to cover her. As long as her brain was intact, she¡¯d completely recover given time. ¡°See you later, Myra.¡± I rushed out of the store to lead Mammoth Buddy in another direction.

    (Can we stop with these tests if I¡¯d try to control you? I¡¯m not going to do it. I¡¯m not going to break my promise, and you¡¯re just putting people in danger.)

    ¡°No one around now to put in harm¡¯s way.¡±

    (I hope you¡¯ll cease with this charade then.) Penemue ¡®sounded¡¯ angry and annoyed¡ª''felt¡¯ might be the apt word¡ªbut the way he spoke was still calm and even like he was calling for a cleanup on Aisle 10. (I know you¡¯re doing this to assert dominance. I can read your mind, you know?)

    Mindreader, I taunted him. I stood in the middle of the street. I held the axe up high and waved with it. ¡°Over here! Come here and die!¡±

    Mammoth Buddy was rampaging towards me¡ªI really didn¡¯t need to do anything to get its attention. It whipped its lowered head left and right, raking the buildings on the sides of the street, destroying them.

    It was looking less and less like a mammoth. Humongous tumors, as large as boulders, burst through its thick hide, eating its main body to fuel their growth. Mammoth Buddy was beginning to decay, almost melting like ice cream as myriad tentacles sprout all over like weeds wiggling in the air. It reminded me of the dope-ass science experiment we did in middle school of growing maggots on fresh meat.

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    With one jump, I got on top of the hardware store opposite the place I left Myra. I waved again to make sure it saw me, before dropping down to the other side.

    Mammoth Buddy followed me. It turned left, smashing through a squat brick building as if it was a mere sandcastle, and stepped on the street I was on.

    We faced each other with about a block¡¯s length between us.

    The sun was high up in the sky.

    The only thing missing was some old Western music for our duel. Oh, and tumbleweeds! I recalled Deen teaching me the name of those balls of branches rolling through the wilderness.

    (What nonsense are you thinking?) Penemue scolded me in a very calm manner. (Use my full power now and end this. We have to chase Auron. We don¡¯t have time to waste here.)

    ¡°Not sure if you¡¯re going to believe this, but random things just go through my mind.¡±

    (Fine, you win. Have it your way.)

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± I said with a grin. I tightly gripped the long pole of the axe with both hands, propping the blade above me. ¡°We have the perfect dramatic moment here. I''m not going to waste this.¡±

    Mammoth Buddy furiously stomped with its decaying legs. The stump of its trunk split down the middle, continuing both ways up to its forehead and down to its mouth. The flaps stretched wide open, its whole face becoming a sideways mouth filled with hundreds of dagger-like teeth.

    ¡°The full power you mentioned¡­¡±

    The axe burned like hot coals in my hands, not that I had ever held hot coals.

    I didn¡¯t let go.

    I looked back at its double-bladed head. The creepy human face on it seemed to be sobbing, which I couldn¡¯t wrap my head around. I could see it wasn¡¯t moving because it was a fucking carving on metal. Yet, I felt it expressing anguish. I almost felt pity for it as its sadness flowed into my heart.

    Almost.

    Glowing green tears streamed from the sides of its eyes, branching outwards through the whole surface of the blade into intricate patterns. The lines continued down the pole. I was about to let go of it but resolved not to. The weird liquid touched my hands.

    ¡°Oh my god!¡± I was energized. Energized!

    JUICED THE FUCK UP!

    It was like I drunk a gallon of energy drink plus coffee mixture. My heart pounded as if I was right next to a stack of concert speakers booming bass music¡ªI don¡¯t even like concerts. Blood rushed to my head, to my hands, every part of my body. The tingling sensation became more intense, almost electrifying. My pale skin turned pink and then became darker and darker going red as the veins were pushed to their limits.

    Mammoth Buddy began its charge, leaving chunks of flesh in its trail.

    I took a step forward. The ground cracked beneath my feet. Swirls of wind kicked up the dust and enveloped me.

    POWERRR! I yelled inside my head because it was too embarrassing to yell it out loud. The feeling was so overwhelming that I forget that Penemue was there. Whoopsie. I even almost forgot who I was.

    (I see you¡¯re enjoying yourself. It¡¯s been some time since I released this much.)

    The gigantic-mouth-flesh-blob-tentacle-monster, barely an elephant, came closer and closer.

    (Are you going to yell out something when you attack?)

    ¡°I¡­uh. No time!¡±

    Mammoth Buddy bent its head down, shoveling the pavement into its expansive mouth that could fit a house. The mouth covered me and clamped shut.

    And then everything went black.

    Just one jump.

    A teensy-weensy jump¡­and a swing¡ª

    (Don¡¯t swing me!)

    I blinked my eyes.

    Light.

    I was still holding the axe up, a fourth of a way mid-swing. Eh?

    (It¡¯s over.)

    ¡°What do you mean it¡¯s over?¡± I relaxed, lowering Penemue. I turned to look around. ¡°Where did Mammoth Buddy gooo...¡± My voice trailed away when I saw the aftermath of the battle behind me.

    Four enormous legs remained standing. Just legs.

    The rest of Mammoth Buddy was turned into minced meat confetti that coated the street and buildings. It was as if a heavy snowstorm passed¡ªwhich doesn¡¯t happen in California¡ªand buried this area in snow¡­snow made out of disgusting mutated flesh and black blood. Mists of the black blood were still drizzling down.

    ¡°Holy shit¡­Di-did I do that?¡±

    (Ehem.)

    ¡°We.¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°Did we do that?¡± Penemue didn¡¯t need to answer because I already knew. But I still couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°Oh my god, this is so awesome! But I don¡¯t know what happened! No one recorded this shit?¡±

    A news chopper flew into view. It might be the same one I saw earlier.

    (Very impressive, Erind. It¡¯s rare for someone to draw that much power out of me in such a short time.)

    ¡°I hope those news people recorded it. Better if they are broadcasting live.¡±

    (We have to go to the hospital now.)

    ¡°Huh? How are we going to do that? Like a car? I¡¯m not sure if we can find¡ª¡± Most of the vehicles in this area had been destroyed by either monsters or humans. ¡°I guess we can run.¡±

    (This is what we¡¯re going to do). He transmitted his plan to my mind.

    ¡°Eh? That¡¯s insane,¡± I said. I gazed up at the news chopper flying above capturing footage of the¡­not sure what I should call the shit that happened here. ¡°Is that going to wor¡ª? Hang on, why are you even suggesting this? That¡¯s dangerous for those people.¡± Erm, was I becoming the good guy?

    (It¡¯ll work. And I¡¯m not putting them in danger.)

    ¡°You are though.¡±

    (Fine, you win.) It was funnily becoming his catchphrase. (It¡¯s not my catchphrase. And we have no other choice. It¡¯s our best option to get as fast as possible to EFU Medical Center. You also have your allies there, correct?)

    ¡°Uh¡­yeah.¡± Reo¡¯s call crossed my mind when we were discussing how to follow the Auron¡¯s helicopter going to the hospital¡ªthat was when we were fighting on the rooftop¡ªwhich was how Penemue found out about them. He also picked up how I felt about Myra and the others. Oopsie.

    (I know you don¡¯t exactly consider them your allies, but we should help them.)

    ¡°Sure, sure,¡± I mumbled. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m going to do this. It¡¯s your fault if those people die.¡± I swung the axe upward, feeling the air flowing around me, coaxing a moderate gust.

    The wave of wind buffeted the news chopper. It wobbled in the air.

    I threw the axe up to it, giving it a twirl to coat it with a wind shell to control its angle. It was more like a very strong toss instead of hurling it at the helicopter. It reminded me of the ring toss game I played as a kid at the State Fair we visited every year when Dad was still around.

    Only this was tossing an axe¡­into a small helicopter.

    The winds tilted the chopper away from me. At the same time, the axe arched above it and dropped down its open door. Hopefully, it didn¡¯t destroy anything important inside or hurt the pilot Penemue was aiming to mind control.

    My connection with Penemue gone with him out of my hands¡ªthere¡¯s a dirty joke here somewhere¡ª there was no more power controlling the winds and they dissipated. But the helicopter still wasn¡¯t steady. They were having a slight commotion inside.

    I allowed myself a deep sigh.

    What a chore controlling my thoughts when linked with Penemue. I couldn¡¯t recall doing something like this ever¡ªusing a face that shared traits with my inner personality.

    The moment I realized what was happening, that was the option left to me. Just like the defenders of a castle abandoning a breached outer wall and retreating to inner walls, I had to ¡®retreat¡¯ to another layer of face. There was no point trying to build a different personality; Penemue would just notice it. I had to stop him at the inner wall of my castle, while not showing anything further inside.

    Just blank out any deeper thoughts while distracting him with the ¡®tests¡¯ he thought I was doing.

    Really weird experience. The only other ¡®person¡¯, if she could be called that, who knew the different side of me was SpookyErind.

    I disliked the feeling. Was it worth it for the cool fight sequence?

    Depends on the video I¡¯d check out later.

    The small chopper started to descend. It had the XYTV logo on its side. I walked to the spot it was going to land.

    Once it touched the ground, two people clambered out¡ªa hassled news reporter with a torn red dress and a cameraman. The reporter broke her heels as she ran, falling. Her partner assisted her while still carrying the camera. Both of them limped away from the helicopter, crouching down as the rotor blades blew wind outwards.

    Funnily enough, they were still trying to continue reporting the news as they escaped. Commendable work ethics.

    ¡°What a long day,¡± I said, adjusting my mask. It was crusty from dried black blood and reeked of that disgusting smell, but I was getting used to it. I was also tired as fuck, but I had another matter to attend to at the hospital. After this, I was going to relax inside the small steam room at Deen¡¯s house.

    I hope she brings me some pastries from that event she attended.

 4.41 - Amber Deen Leska - Part 1

    Amber Deen Leska

    [I would not continue if I were you.]

    ¡°Will it hurt you to tell me why?¡± Amber Deen Leska grumbled. She peered from under the bill of the baseball cap she wore low to hide her face, shooting an irritated glare at the ball of feathers floating over her shoulder. ¡°It¡¯d be really helpful if you did.¡±

    As expected, Gabe, the Guardian Angel didn¡¯t answer her. It never did. It leisurely rotated in the air with its eyes tightly closed, unstirring and peaceful except for an occasional shifting of its blindingly white wings.

    Deen didn¡¯t turn back despite the warning. Instead, she focused on Gabe with her brows furrowed as she waded through the sea of yellow that was the rallying crowd of Protectors of the City Movement members. She tried to mentally will her Guardian Angel to give her more information. It was fruitless.

    The woman to her right, wearing a yellow shirt just like most others and carrying a placard with a crude fist symbol on it, jerked in surprise upon meeting her intense gaze. Before she reacted, Deen hadn¡¯t noticed her behind the floating Guardian Angel¡ªwhich was disconcertingly both opaque and transparent at the same time. The woman gave her an offended huff and walked briskly to get ahead.

    ¡°I should¡¯ve packed a yellow shirt.¡± Deen bowed her head and pulled her cap¡¯s visor lower. ¡°I hope I¡¯m not standing out too much.¡±

    [I would not continue if I were you.]

    Gabe had been repeating that same message for the last couple of minutes, but she wasn¡¯t concerned. The Guardian Angel¡¯s tone wasn¡¯t pressing like at Eve club when it warned them to stay away from the undercover BID agent. Deen settled with using the urgency in its ¡®voice¡¯ as an indicator of the level of risk for not following its advice.

    Yes, it¡¯s just a piece of advice.

    Not an order.

    I¡¯m not constrained to follow everything it said, she reminded herself.

    Paranoia was getting to her. She didn¡¯t want to be confined in a downward spiral of being constantly wary of the future. Ironic that knowing the future¡ªher powers weren¡¯t exactly foresight but, in some ways, even more powerful¡ªonly made her fearful of¡­everything. She grimaced in annoyance when the realization came that she was second-guessing herself more now than before she had this special ability from the artificial Core. Really ironic.

    She also didn¡¯t want to be reliant on Gabe, constantly checking with it before doing anything. It was free to give her advice. She was free whether to follow it or not.

    And that¡¯s that.

    [I would not continue if I were you.]

    ¡°I already told you, I¡¯m following this person,¡± she hissed back at her feathery companion. The large man wearing a maroon beanie was about a dozen people ahead of her. ¡°So just back me up.¡±

    Gabe was likely just giving her general advice to be safe. Her solo tracking mission was admittedly venturing into risky territory no matter how she tried to frame it, and her Guardian Angel obviously didn¡¯t want her to be in any danger at all.

    However, there were many levels of danger.

    Not following Gabe¡¯s instructions didn¡¯t automatically mean she was walking into a ¡®Dead End¡¯¡ªthat was the term she came up with for a situation wherein her Guardian Angel¡¯s could no longer save her.

    A Dead End would occur when her impending doom was outside the range of her Guardian Angel¡¯s future sight. Meaning, no matter how Gabe juggled future possibilities, there was no way out for her, all choices leading to death. Like what if a nuclear bomb was going to be dropped on La Esperanza in a little over ten minutes? Once Gabe glimpses the future of an incoming nuclear bomb, she wouldn¡¯t have enough time to escape the destruction¡ªa Dead End.

    I have a feeling Gabe can find a way to save me even in that hypothetical bomb scenario.

    She really should have more confidence defying its more cautionary bits of advice and trust it to save her from the direst situations. Here she was with a power that could pick out the best future; it was hilarious she became more cautious because of it.

    Deen shoved past a few people to get closer to her quarry.

    The man she followed wasn¡¯t doing anything particularly suspicious. He was just going with the PCM masses protesting down Marshall Avenue. He didn¡¯t seem to have noticed he was being followed.

    After Deen changed her clothes inside her car, she went off to find this man she suspected to have hurt Erind yesterday night. It took her less than five minutes to spot a maroon beanie cap a head taller than the rest of the crowd. Gabe helped by giving an order¡­no, advice.

    Goes to show just how strong her power was, pulling information from futures that weren¡¯t supposed to happen.

    As she had guessed, the PCM rally turned right down Marshall Avenue and headed to EFU Medical Center, the hospital where the patients related to the recent Adumbrae attacks were confined.

    Though not her main goal, Deen was curious why they were going there and was half-decided to find out. The PCM leader, Auron Cohenn, did give an ultimatum to the previous mayor that his ballooning organization was going to storm the hospital if the Adumbrae-related patients weren¡¯t relocated. However, the deadline for that demand should be the next day, if she wasn¡¯t mistaken.

    There was a new mayor too. That was the reason they were protesting in front of city hall earlier, wasn¡¯t it? To force him to give in to their demands that the previous mayor didn¡¯t? Why did they leave city hall and head to the hospital?

    There¡¯s something big going on here.

    She passed by buses and vans unloading more and more people, some wearing PCM paraphernalia, most not.

    Were they even protesters?

    If they were, where did they all come from? She didn¡¯t notice anything on social media calling for people to attend a mass protest at this time and place; she would¡¯ve seen it because she browsed Snippet the moment she woke up every single day. A gathering this large should have traces on social media. Actually, it should be front-and-center and shared everywhere online if their purpose was to call attention to their cause and persuade people to join them.

    But there wasn¡¯t even a pip about this. Then, hundreds, probably a few thousand people, suddenly showed up? That¡­that just didn¡¯t happen without any preparation.

    I should warn the others, Deen decided.

    But who?

    Not Erind obviously. She took out her phone and texted Dario¡ªhe was their leader, he should know what to do, and maybe he already had intel on what was happening. She kept her phone steady while the crowd jostled her. Her fingers stopped tapping the screen. What am I warning him about exactly?

    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    There was something wrong here, but she couldn¡¯t pinpoint what it was. If their group came here because she called for help, what were they going to do? While pondering this, she spotted a hint of maroon move away from the corner of her eye.

    She lost him while she was distracted. Fuck!

    Deen¡¯s eyes grew wide, surprised with herself that she cursed in her head. Erind would¡¯ve laughed at her if she blurted that out loud. She shook her head and scrambled to find her target again.

    ¡°Where did he¡ª? Is that him?¡± She noticed the man disappear into an alleyway.

    Pushing people left and right, she made a mad dash for the sidewalk. She peered down the gap between a small pawnshop and a laundromat. Sure enough, her quarry was there, walking down the path in a relaxed way, still unaware of his tail.

    Deen allowed herself a sigh of relief. She waited for the man to turn right before sprinting down the narrow alleyway. Reaching the corner, she paused again for a peek.

    He disappeared once again. The back door of the building was swinging.

    That way?

    She entered the building, unconsciously glancing to her right at her Guardian Angel. She clenched her jaws and faced forward. There was no need to check with it for her every move. It was going to warn her if this was a trap. This was the time for assertive and aggressive Deen to show herself.

    Stairs to her left, a door ahead of her.

    The door was locked. She didn¡¯t force it, instead choosing to go up the stairs.

    She slowly ascended, part of herself expecting a trap, but not that slow that it¡¯d be obvious she wasn¡¯t supposed to be here. She hummed to appear nonchalant.

    On the next landing, she found an open door. Since she didn¡¯t see or hear anyone else going up, that man surely went inside this room. She nodded to herself and entered.

    The room was empty except for an unknown machine in the middle of the floor. It looked like a metallic box with knobs on its surface. It had wires connecting it to what appeared to be a partially disassembled megaphone.

    [Fall when you get hit. Pretend to be unconscious.]

    Deen raised her brow.

    A thud and a dull pain blossomed from the back of her head.

    ¡°Ow! Wha¡ª?¡± Another blow. Quickly comprehending the situation, she dropped to the floor, faking a groan before becoming motionless. Someone hid behind the door and ambushed her. Why did Gabe tell her to do this instead of evading?

    [Pretend to be unconscious], her Guardian Angel repeated the last part of its previous instructions. And then added, [Relax your body.]

    Easier said than done.

    She had already tensed up, adrenaline made her heart beat like a drum. She controlled her breathing and tried to slow it down, relaxing her muscles as she exhaled to disguise she was faking it. The image of an ice cream melting on the floor was in her mind.

    The man who hit her stepped close to her head. She assumed he was wearing a maroon beanie cap. There were no other footsteps; he was alone.

    He held her wrist and picked up her hand.

    Deen did her best to resist her instinct to pull away.

    The man let her hand go, and it fell to the ground with a slight thump. That apparently satisfied him because he walked away. It seemed he only intended to knock her out. He wasn¡¯t even interested in finding out who she was.

    She had her left cheek on the rough oak floor, her eyes still closed. Her face was getting itchy. The dust tickled her nose. She held her breath and tightened her abs until the urge to sneeze passed. Then she relaxed once again in case the man came back to check on her.

    What am I waiting for?

    Wasn¡¯t she supposed to beat up¡ªer, interrogate this man about what happened to Erind? Beating him up would follow if he did something bad to her best friend. He¡¯d meet the same fate if he wasn¡¯t going to answer her.

    Deen found it ridiculous she was just lying down and doing nothing. He was a mere normal human, alone and with no chance for his fellow PCM members to help him.

    There were metallic noises. Clinking and clanking, add in a minute hiss of air. The man was tinkering with the machine.

    She opened her eyes a slit. She couldn¡¯t see him; he was behind her. There was no way to tell if he was facing her or not.

    Being prudent, she assumed he had a gun. But since he was busy with whatever he was working on, she had the element of surprise on her side even if he faced her direction. A single pistol wouldn¡¯t work on her anyway with Gabe around. Hopefully, it wouldn¡¯t tell her to get shot.

    I¡¯m just wasting time here. She recalled what Dario and Erind said. Since her Guardian Angel was silent, then she could do¡ª

    [Wait.]

    Deen deflated. She relaxed her coiled muscles that were ready to spring into action and steadied her breathing. Her intuition told her she shouldn¡¯t ignore Gabe this time. She did confirm the man was turned away from her, otherwise, he would¡¯ve noticed her stir a bit.

    ¡°Smaller hands will probably be better.¡± The man¡¯s deep voice was clear in this small room. The noises of the rally ongoing out the streets were muffled.

    There was a burst of purple. Deen had her eyes closed, but the light was so bright it pierced through her eyelids. Despite the surprise, she remained motionless on the floor. She had no idea what just happened. Did the machine explode?

    ¡°It¡¯s definitely way easier to tinker with this using my own hands,¡± said a child¡¯s voice, likely a boy.

    ¡°Who do you think this woman is?¡± This time, it was a little girl¡¯s voice.

    Deen reflexively closed her eyes tighter. Who were these two kids? This room only had one door, but there could be a secret passage. Was the man with the maroon beanie still here?

    ¡°This wire to that¡­hmmm,¡± mumbled the boy with a hint of frustration. ¡°Or is it this?¡±

    ¡°She was following us, correct? Or was I imagining it?¡±

    ¡°She was. But that isn¡¯t our problem now.¡± More clanking. ¡°This is.¡±

    ¡°What if she¡¯s the enemy?¡± There were light footsteps. The girl was circling Deen.

    ¡°The likelier case is she knew the body we were using and followed him. If she¡¯s his friend, she should be concerned about what happened to him last night.¡±

    ¡°Our story of what happened to him,¡± she corrected him with a giggle.

    ¡°No one has any reason to doubt our story. We disposed of that other body¡ªthe PCM assumed he was eaten by Red Hood¡ªand you absorbed our current skin while I was babysitting Penemue. No trace.¡±

    ¡°Penemue must be seething we left him in the office.¡±

    Deen nervously swallowed. These children were related in some way to the Adumbrae wearing a red hoodie that could transform into a giant werewolf. Were they allies or enemies of Red Hood? Were they connected to the 2Ms? Whatever the case, they weren¡¯t on her side.

    And they were talking about¡­are they Adumbrae?

    She knew children couldn¡¯t become one, but nothing was preventing an Adumbrae from having the power to take the form of the child. From their conversation, they might be shapeshifters that took on the form of the man she was following.

    She now understood why her Guardian Angel didn¡¯t want her to fight them head-on. Which was probably a good idea¡­

    ¡­but she wanted to ask them something.

    The man wearing a beanie was looking for Erind last night. He chased her and probably found her. Was he still himself at that time, or was he already this shapeshifting Adumbrae? It was more plausible that an Adumbrae wanted to meet Erind.

    Deen wanted to confirm that.

    And what happened during their meeting?

    Were they going to take Erind and help her become a full-fledged Adumbrae?

    [Don¡¯t fight them.]

    You know I¡¯m not going to follow you.

    [Pretend you¡¯ve just regained consciousness.]

    Deen slightly jolted, surprised by the changed advice of her Guardian Angel. The kid near her made an inquisitive sound and came closer. She had to act fast.

    ¡°Ughhh¡­¡± She moaned, massaging the back of her head. ¡°What happened?¡± She opened her eyes to the face of an innocent-looking girl with sapphire-like eyes and red hair tied in pigtails.

    ¡°Wow! You¡¯re so beautiful,¡± the little girl gushed.

 4.42 - Amber Deen Leska - Part 2

    Amber Deen Leska

    Amber Deen¡¯s eyes darted around the room. Only three people inside¡ªher, the girl in front of her, and the boy with his back turned to them, feverishly working on the enigmatic machine. With the room¡¯s lone window closed and the door behind her, one of these kids had to be the man with the maroon beanie. They probably also had a stealth ability because she didn¡¯t see anyone else enter, but two of them were here.

    Dario and the others hadn¡¯t mentioned having fought shapeshifting Adumbrae, but Deen assumed these two worked for the 2Ms. That was the most logical explanation. If she was wrong, they were still Adumbrae and certainly up to no good. She had to stop whatever they planned to do.

    ¡°Though you¡¯re not in Radi¡¯s memories,¡± the little girl continued with a finger on her temple and a raised brow. ¡°I can¡¯t access it now, but I¡¯m sure that if someone as beautiful as you were related to him; you¡¯d be forefront on his mind and I¡¯d remember you.¡±

    ¡°Ugh, I don¡¯t know¡ª¡± Deen began to say, still feigning she was hurt. Outnumbered and clueless of their powers, she shouldn¡¯t act rashly.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on back there?¡± said the boy. A spark and a puff of smoke; he cursed and more mechanical sounds followed.

    ¡°The woman following us woke up.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand this wir¡ªWhat? I thought you knocked her out?¡±

    ¡°Apparently not.¡± The small girl tilted her head to the left and gave Deen a playful smile. ¡°I¡¯m going to fix that.¡±

    [ Jump back.]

    Deen pushed herself up and rolled through the door. The little girl¡¯s punch landed where she laid moments ago, the tiny fist breaking through the floorboards. Gabe continued to give instructions.

    Splinters flew. Deen raised her hand to cover her face, palm out as Gabe instructed. A piece of wood landed in the middle of her hand. She hid that she grabbed something as she studied her opponent.

    Their eyes met, then they both stared at the hole on the floor. The girl¡¯s hit would¡¯ve killed a normal human¡ªshe had realized Deen wasn¡¯t one. ¡°You¡¯d make a precious addition to my wardrobe,¡± the girl said.

    ¡°Can you keep it down?¡± the boy called out. ¡°I¡¯m concentrating on the instructions here.¡±

    [Throw it. Fake aim girl. Aim window.]

    ¡°I¡¯m just greeting our new¡ªoh!¡± The girl shifted left. The piece of wood flew past her and hit the window on the other side of the room.

    Broken glass showered on the boy and his machine. There were sparks. ¡°Hey!¡± the boy exclaimed. ¡°Watch it¡ª!¡±

    [Run.]

    Deen bolted, the red-haired girl was hot on her heels. She followed her Guardian Angel¡¯s instructions on where to run. She went inside the next room and closed the door. The girl kicked down the door. Already knowing what was going to happen, Deen ducked below the girl¡¯s kick and exited the room.

    She dashed down the corridor, turned left into a large room full of boxes, likely a storage room, and picked up the first box she passed as she headed for the other door.

    [Go low. Throw box left.]

    She complied, crouching as she ran, and hurled the box she held at the tall stack of more boxes. Just as the box tower teetered off-balance, her pursuer burst through the wooden wall. The girl¡¯s hands were stretched out, trying to grab her. But since Deen already preemptively stooped, the girl overshot and was covered by the boxes that fell.

    Deen went out and continued to the end of the floor. She could hear the girl rampaging. Checking behind her, she saw the little girl destroy more walls to get back to the corridor.

    ¡°Am I just going to run?¡± she asked her Guardian Angel as climbed the staircase, skipping several steps with each stride. ¡°They¡¯re already separated. I can fight her.¡±

    [Jump.]

    As she did, tiny hands pierced through the floor.

    [Don¡¯t let her touch you.]

    The little girl smashed the rest of the wooden planks and climbed to the floor Deen was on. Her hands glowed purple, emitting heavy smoke of the same color that seemed to solidify into wiggling tendrils. A mischievous smirk was on her face.

    ¡°Help me fight her,¡± Deen furiously whispered at Gabe. Those hands were obviously dangerous, but from what she¡¯d observed, the little girl wasn¡¯t especially strong or fast, or even well-versed in fighting¡ªjust indiscriminately destroying everything. ¡°I can¡¯t run forever. I need to stop these Adumbrae.¡± With her Guardian Angel¡¯s guidance, she could defeat this girl, and then move on to the boy. To defeat an Adumbrae meant killing them¡­she was prepared to do it.

    ¡°What are you mumbling over there?¡± said the girl. ¡°Come on, show me your ability. Fight back.¡±

    Gabe told Deen to weave through the rooms again. She resigned herself to following the instructions for now even though she couldn¡¯t see their point. What if she stood her ground and fought the girl so Gabe would be forced to help her?

    Notwithstanding her small size, the kid was a mini-wrecking ball, ignoring walls and closed doors to catch her.

    I¡¯m really going to fight her! Deen yelled in her head as she evaded the girl¡¯s grasp yet again. The boy might be done fixing the machine and come too. With or without your¡ª

    [Next room. Fight her there.]

    Did Gabe just respond to her? That counted as a direct response, didn¡¯t it? Deen couldn¡¯t remember that had ever happened before. She had a grin on her face as she rushed to the next room.

    Sure enough, the girl burst through the wall. Deen was waiting with a kick, catching the girl in the stomach, sending her flying upwards.

    The girl¡¯s body smashed against the ceiling. She buried her fingers into the wood, stopping herself from falling back down. Then she flipped herself over and scuttled all cockroach-like across the ceiling before diving down at Deen with her hands forward.

    Deen avoided it thanks to Gabe¡¯s promptings.

    Upon landing, the girl crawled up the wall and leaped at Deen. She repeated this again and again, inhumanly scurrying to another position, finding a different angle, before diving, becoming faster and faster.

    Although Gabe taught her how to evade, Deen was still grazed a few times. This was the weakness of her power¡ªa straight-up fight. Gabe could warn her only when the attack was about to happen, otherwise, the enemy would change her actions. Furthermore, her Guardian Angel gave short instructions. Combined with the delay in understanding and following them, it was inevitable she¡¯d still get hit.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    Fortunately, the wounds were shallow and beginning to heal. They did sting a lot. The purple smoke seemed to erode whatever it touched; a slight contact easily wounded her.

    The girl climbed the wall directly opposite the door, kicked off it, heading straight for Deen.

    Deen was prepared. She bent back, intentionally falling, grabbing the girl¡¯s arms that missed her just below the fists coated with the dangerous purple miasma. The girl kicked her, the tiny feet digging into the sides of her chest, probably breaking a couple of ribs. Deen clenched her teeth, stopping herself from crying out; she already expected this. Ignoring the pain, she kneed the girl¡¯s stomach with everything she got and threw her out the corridor.

    Coughing out blood, the girl picked herself up.

    Deen wasn¡¯t done. She jumped up and, with both feet, kicked down the girl.

    Both of them shot through the floor down to the level below.

    Deen quickly got back to her feet. ¡°Huh? Why here?¡± she said. They landed right outside the room with the boy and the machine. Doubtless, this was part of her Guardian Angel¡¯s plan. But she didn¡¯t know how it could be a good idea to bring the two children back together. She had enough trouble with just one.

    The girl shoved off the debris that covered her. ¡°You know how to fight,¡± she said, wiping off the blood dripping down the side of her mouth.

    ¡°Hedley, you still haven¡¯t taken care of her?¡± The boy approached them. He had a similar shade of red hair and deep blue eyes as the girl. Actually, their faces were eerily similar that they could be twins. The machine behind him was damaged, emitting more smoke, minute sparks exploding all over it.

    ¡°I was just having fun with¡ªhuh? What happened to that?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not certain, other than it¡¯s certainly busted. Pieces of glass from the broken window lodged into the wiring and I¡¯ve given up trying to fix it. You shouldn¡¯t have fought near the generator. But that¡¯s it for that, what did you learn about our beautiful friend?¡±

    The girl, apparently called Hedley, said, ¡°She¡¯s definitely not human. An Adumbrae?¡± Her eyes lingered on Deen¡¯s wounds that had healed.

    Deen was about to protest, but stopped herself, realizing she didn¡¯t have any plausible excuse.

    Hedley continued, ¡°Following us, trying to stop us, an enemy for sure. Did Auron Cohenn send you?¡±

    ¡°Auron? The PCM leader? I¡¯m not part of the PCM!¡± Deen truthfully exclaimed. Were the PCM enemies of the 2Ms? Their leader did say they were going to attack the hospital, and the 2Ms were conducting terrible experiments there. ¡°And I wasn¡¯t trying to stop you or anything. I was just following the man with the maroon beanie, that¡¯s why I was in the rally. I really don¡¯t have any connection to the PCM or Auron.¡±

    ¡°Following Radi?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know he was you two¡­that you were, uh, using his appearance.¡±

    The boy held out his hand to the girl. ¡°Hedley, let¡¯s merge and quickly dispose of her. We still need to look for another field generator and megaphone.¡± Their clasped hands gave off purple light.

    [Say you¡¯re an Adumbrae. Tell the truth and make peace.]

    ¡°Wait! Yes, I am an Adumbrae.¡± Deen held up her hands to show she meant no harm. ¡°That¡¯s why we shouldn¡¯t fight because we¡¯re all Adumbrae here, right?¡±

    ¡°Other Adumbrae don¡¯t necessarily like us,¡± the girl said.

    Deen didn¡¯t know what that meant, but the good news was they didn¡¯t continue attacking her. ¡°I-I don¡¯t know anything about that. I only know one other Adumbrae, my best friend. She¡¯s just beginning to get seeded, and I¡¯m protecting her. That¡¯s the reason I was following this man called Radi because I thought he hurt her last night.¡±

    The boy turned to the girl. ¡°Why aren¡¯t we merging yet?¡±

    Deen tensed up. The machine was destroyed; these two couldn¡¯t continue with their evil plot. As much as she wanted to kill them, she knew there was little chance of that succeeding now. It was apparent Gabe wanted her to befriend them and then wait for an opening to escape.

    ¡°Wait a moment, Kow,¡± said Hedley, letting go of the boy¡¯s hand. ¡°She might be telling the truth. The woman Radi was chasing last night¡ªshe turned out to be an Adumbrae, remember? She killed Radi¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind killed someone?¡± Deen had been expecting her best friend to kill humans, but the revelation still caught her off-guard. This would explain the lost hoodie; it was covered with blood and she had to ditch it¡ªnot the first time Erind had bloody clothes. Oh no! I shouldn¡¯t have said her real name.

    ¡°Left him for dead, is what I meant. I just hastened his death because we needed his body. She did kill Radi''s friend. What do you know about it?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­all I know is that man was after her, and I¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind?¡± asked the boy called Kow. ¡°Is that her name? It sounds familiar.¡±

    Deen waited a couple of seconds for her Guardian Angel to speak. Nothing came, so she nodded to Kow. ¡°Yes, Erind is my Adumbrae friend.¡± She assumed this was still covered by her Guardian¡¯s Angel¡¯s advice to ¡®tell the truth.¡¯ However, if they knew Erind¡¯s name, didn¡¯t that mean they were really with the 2Ms? But they weren¡¯t acting with hostility.

    ¡°If you¡¯re her friend, then we probably met before,¡± Kow said. Deen raised a brow. The way he talked, it was as if they weren¡¯t enemies. He grabbed Hedley¡¯s hand. ¡°I¡¯m going to check something. I¡¯ll use my wardrobe. Don¡¯t go to sleep.¡±

    ¡°Owhkaaay,¡± Hedley replied.

    Deen readied herself to fight. Gabe was quiet.

    A flash of light and the twins were gone.

    In their place stood someone she recognized¡ªDr. Cornelio, the man in charge of the laboratory Johann worked at.

    Deen gasped. ¡°It was you back then?¡±

    Dr. Cornelio bowed as a greeting. ¡°I go by Hedley Kow. And yes, we¡¯ve met.¡±

    ¡°Yo-you¡¯re¡­you¡¯re just one person?¡±

    ¡°Correct. The power I received from the Adumbrae split me into two bodies with different personas. Hedley and Kow can each absorb dead bodies, storing their data¡ªappearances, memories, and all¡ªin their respective, what I call, wardrobes. I can only access the memories of a specific person by wearing their skin as either Hedley or Kow, depending on who absorbed who. That¡¯s why I wasn¡¯t able to immediately recognize you. I only saw you as Dr. Cornelio for a couple of minutes, and at that time, I was focused on your friend, Erind Hartwell. I didn¡¯t know you¡¯re an Adumbrae too, and significantly further along into seeding than her it seems.¡±

    ¡°How did you know about her condition?¡± Deen said, following Gabe¡¯s script. She herself wanted answers. ¡°Erind hasn¡¯t begun to change. That¡¯s why I was confident she¡¯ll pass the tests.¡± Was this Adumbrae, Hedley Kow, not with the 2Ms after all? Could they help Erind? Did she even want them to befriend Erind?

    ¡°You¡¯re right, all her tests turned out fine. The BRF Umbrella, however, had an anomalous reading. Using Dr. Cornelio¡¯s brain, I deduced your friend was about to start changing pretty soon. And that¡¯s why I extended her some help.¡±

    ¡°What help?¡±

    ¡°I inserted a bookmark among her certificates. If she researched into it, assuming she¡¯s smart enough, she¡¯d be able to find a safe haven for Adumbrae.¡±

    That explains the mysterious bookmark. ¡°The hot coffee that spilled on you¡­¡±

    ¡°Was a surprise,¡± Hedley Kow replied. ¡°But then I realized I could use it to signal to your friend that the one who gave her the bookmark wasn¡¯t human like her, which was why I chose not to react.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Deen processed everything she just heard. She didn¡¯t know what direction to go next. They weren¡¯t with the 2Ms, which was good news. But she didn¡¯t know what group they belonged to, or what their intentions were. She still didn¡¯t have an answer whether she should try to ally with them or not.

    ¡°This is truly unexpected to meet like this.¡± Another flash of light and the twins were back.

    ¡°Are we taking her with us?¡± Hedley said. ¡°And her friend too?¡±

    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Deen said in alarm.

    ¡°It¡¯s for your own safety,¡± Kow said. ¡°Your friend lived in the condominium building that was attacked by Adumbrae, right?¡±

    ¡°Uh, yes¡­¡±

    ¡°Long story short, those weren¡¯t Adumbrae that attacked the place but humans forcefully turned into monsters...by Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°How do you know about something like that? Are you¡ª?¡±

    ¡°No, we¡¯re not the ones responsible for it,¡± Hedley said. ¡°In fact, we¡¯re trying to stop something similar from happening again. That¡¯s why Kow was trying to do something with that machine. It may be hard to believe, but we¡¯re good guys. And you¡¯re extremely lucky that you met us.¡±

    ¡°You see,¡± Kow said, ¡°we can help you¡ªyou and your friend. Not only to survive as an Adumbrae but also to try and keep your human mind even if your body is taken over by the Adumbrae. The two of you are the perfect candidates for us to help because your seeding is in the initial stages.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± Deen said, unsure of what path her Guardian Angel led her into. These two seemed to be misunderstanding something, but then again, she did lie to them.

    ¡°We have driven the Adumbrae within us to the corners of our mind,¡± both Hedley and Kow said in unison. ¡°Fully controlling our bodies and powers, exercising our free will as we see fit. We may no longer be human, but our¡­my original human mind is still intact. We can help you and Erind achieve this, that¡¯s why we want you to come with us.¡±

 4.43 - Amber Deen Leska - Part 3

    Amber Deen Leska

    Amber Deen hadn¡¯t heard of another group fighting the 2Ms, much less a different bunch of Adumbrae.

    Shouldn¡¯t Adumbrae be united in¡ª? She actually didn¡¯t know what the ultimate goals of these monsters were. It wasn¡¯t far-fetched there¡¯d be in-fighting among them, especially given Hedley Kow¡¯s claim that he retained his human mind. Hard to accept even if she didn¡¯t know why he, or rather they, would make it up¡ªthey have just met her several minutes ago.

    Which parts of their story were true and which ones weren¡¯t, Deen couldn¡¯t tell for sure.

    However, she genuinely believed the part that Erind had attacked¡­killed people. The bloody clothes in the washing machine she found the other day were evidence it had happened, and on more than one occasion it seemed. This was confirmation Erind was changing because of the Adumbrae inside her, and it was all Deen¡¯s fault¡ªshe wasn¡¯t able to protect her best friend from the attack on the condo she lived in that definitely caused her to be seeded.

    Erind had risked her life to save Deen from the Adumbrae chasing them at Sanders parking lot. But Deen, in turn, had failed her best friend. She was supposed to be the heroic one, sacrificing her humanity to meld with the artificial Core, risking everything to obtain the power to fight Adumbrae. And what did she have to show for it?

    Her savior, the person she owed her life to, became an Adumbrae.

    This was why Deen resolved to stick with Erind, to protect her no matter what, even if her best friend would eventually forsake her humanity and become an evil incarnate. Deen was fine with all of that, for it would be her penance and duty.

    ¡°You found a way to keep your human mind?¡± Deen asked in almost a whisper. It sounded too unbelievable. Were they lying to entice her to join them? They could¡¯ve just offered her protection from the BID; a newly seeded individual would already be grateful for that. But if this was true, and she sincerely hoped it was, could this be the way to help Erind? Something concrete, not her band-aid solution of trying to protect and hide Erind¡¯s true nature for as long as she could.

    ¡°Yep, yep,¡± Hedley cheerily replied. ¡°As you can see, we¡¯re way past the seeding stage¡ªno trace of our original human body. The Adumbrae has taken firm root. But we¡¯re fine and dandy.¡±

    ¡°Well, Hedley, she¡ªour friend here¡­¡± Kow questioningly tilted his head to Deen.

    ¡°Amber Deen,¡± she replied. ¡°Just call me Deen.¡± It was pointless to give a fake identity because they knew about Erind.

    ¡°Deen here has no way of knowing if what we¡¯re saying is true.¡±

    ¡°Oh right.¡± Hedley stuck her tongue out.

    ¡°We can leave that discussion for later,¡± Kow said. ¡°It¡¯s going to take a time to explain everything, and also to prove it; we can¡¯t spare much right now. What¡¯s important to know is that there¡¯s going to be a repeat of the incident at your friend¡¯s condominium building¡ª¡±

    Hedley snickered. ¡°¡®Incident¡¯ is an understatement.¡±

    ¡°¡ªon a much bigger scale. We suspect it¡¯s going to be tomorrow at EFU Medical Center, during the time Auron Cohenn said the PCM will attack the hospital to remove the patients related to the previous Adumbrae attacks.¡±

    ¡°Whatever that entails.¡±

    ¡°All of that is a cover to gather as many people as possible to feed the monsters they¡¯ll unleash. An act of terrorism to force out a seeding outbreak.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ª? I-I don¡¯t understand,¡± Deen stammered in reply. ¡°That¡¯s horrible!¡± Contrary to the facade of cluelessness her Guardian Angel advised her to have, she already knew something suspicious was going on inside the hospital. But she didn¡¯t think it was going to be this. It¡¯s starting to make sense. I should tell the others about it!

    ¡°Like I said,¡± Hedley chimed in, ¡°we¡¯re trying to stop it. That¡¯s what that toasted machine back there is for¡ªsupposed to be for.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s made from two types of field generators we stole from the PCM,¡± Kow explained. ¡°We suspect those could turn humans into monsters and control them, and I was tinkering with it, checking if it¡¯d elicit some reaction from the passing protestors outside, and perhaps find a way to counteract their signal when they¡¯re going to be used tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°This should be Euphonia¡¯s job,¡± murmured Hedley as she folded her arms with a huff, probably referring to another Adumbrae.

    ¡°Since these are out of commission,¡± Kow said, ¡°we have to find replacements. And soon.¡± He took out a bulky gadget from the front pouch of his sweatshirt; it appeared similar to a satellite phone with a sausage-looking antenna and a greenish blinking screen. ¡°Although, I¡¯m not sure if we¡¯ll be able to find any unless somebody turns one on and we can trace the signal it emits.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s really lucky,¡± Hedley said to Deen, ¡°for you and for us, that we met each other. More for you, because you did accidentally destroy the generators we were working on, and that''s a bummer for us. But I¡¯m sure you can make up for it by assisting us in our mission. It¡¯s only me, Kow, and Penemue in this city, a real struggle on manpower.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m not sure what to do,¡± Deen cautiously replied. Were they guilting her into helping? How long was she going to stick with them? She could glean more information, but she¡¯d also increase the risk of getting found out.

    ¡°You should stick with us,¡± Kow said. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be of help looking for more generators. And it¡¯s better than being alone when whatever Auron Cohenn is planning comes to fruition.¡±

    ¡°What about Erind?¡±

    ¡°You can tell her to prepare. After we¡¯re done with our mission in this city, we¡¯ll take both of you¡ª"

    ¡°Wait! We¡¯re going to leave?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Of course, we¡ª¡±

    ¡°Like leave our lives? Our families?¡± Deen was elated earlier that she might¡¯ve found a way to help Erind, but it now dawned on her it¡¯d mean Erind going with these people forever. ¡°Leave everything behind?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re seriously not saying you''ll stay with your families?¡± Hedley said. ¡°You might be thinking you could go back to your normal life if you succeed in pushing the Adumbrae in your head to dormancy¡­but we are Adumbrae¡­there¡¯s no normal life for us anymore.¡±

    ¡°There is also the service you¡¯ll render for the help we¡¯ll extend,¡± Kow said in a foreboding tone.

    ¡°Kow, you¡¯re making it sound like we¡¯re an evil organization taking advantage of people,¡± Hedley said with a chuckle. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Deen. I told you we¡¯re the actual good guys. We¡¯re going to fight Adumbrae inside of us and those around. Think of paying it forward. Pretty noble, right?¡±

    ¡°And now, we should get going.¡±

    ¡°No, no. I¡¯m not going with you.¡± Deen was no longer so sure of asking for their help. Gabe hadn¡¯t given any more instructions. ¡°I-I have to think first, and then, uh, talk to Erind. I don¡¯t even know what to say to my family, um¡ª¡±

    Hedley and Kow looked at each other. ¡°We¡¯re going to insist you come with us,¡± they said at the same time. ¡°We can¡¯t risk you and Erind¡ªreal Adumbrae specimens¡ªfalling into the hands of Auron Cohenn.¡±

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°That¡¯s not going¡ª¡±

    ¡°And if they¡¯ll flood this city with monsters,¡± Hedley said, ¡°we don¡¯t know what¡¯ll happen if you get eaten by them.¡±

    Kow grabbed Hedley¡¯s hand. ¡°We¡¯d have peace of mind if you¡¯re with us.¡±

    Uh-oh. Deen didn¡¯t like her chances fighting both of them at the same time. Gabe, what do I¡ª?

    Beep! Beep!

    Kow¡¯s gadget was flashing. He glanced at it and then turned to the open window. Screams filtered in from the streets outside. There was something that could be gunfire and a couple of muffled explosions. ¡°They¡¯re doing it now?¡±

    ¡°Seems like it, yeah.¡± Hedley tutted as she scrolled through her phone. ¡°Posts about Adumbrae all over Snippet.¡±

    Kow went over to the smoldering machine and kicked it as if that¡¯d fix it. It sputtered a cloud of rancid black smoke before a small explosion scattered its pieces all over the floor. ¡°We can¡¯t even try to¡­If only Euphonia was here.¡±

    ¡°Monsters attacks in this area,¡± said Hedley, ¡°and¡ªoh! Auron is at the precinct we left Penemue at. It''s on the news a while ago.¡±

    Kow rummaged through his pockets. ¡°Did I leave it behind? Here it is!¡± He took out a phone. ¡°I¡¯m going to message everyone in Cornelio¡¯s contact list. Maybe we can get one of them to Penemue; he¡¯d want to save as many people as he could over there.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, you did tell those SVS people to surrender themselves at that precinct for safety. Funny how that went.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Deen asked. ¡°Are the monsters¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Auron Cohenn apparently moved the schedule of their attack,¡± Kow replied. His brows furrowed. ¡°We¡¯ll be forced to fight.¡± He pointed at her. ¡°Deen, you contact Erind. The two of you should hide. You can stay in this building until we come back for you.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s not going to stay put here,¡± Hedley drawled, giving Deen a wink.

    ¡°We have too much on our plates right now,¡± Kow said with a sigh. Their clasped hands glowed purple. ¡°Your Sloth or my Veneer?¡±

    ¡°Veneer is going to light up BID sensors.¡± Hedley shook her head and sighed. ¡°But it¡¯s not like this is the time for subtlety. Let¡¯s get this over and done.¡±

    ¡°Veneer it is.¡±

    A flash of purple light, and once again, the two children were gone.

    Deen involuntarily took a step back.

    Replacing the twins was a ten-foot-tall humanoid creature with an appearance that reminded Deen of the pictures of the devil from Christianity her hyper-religious aunt used to show her before she changed her religion to worshipping High Overseers. The demon creature, who was probably named Veneer before Hedley Kow absorbed it, as they did with Dr. Cornelio, had a flaky dark reddish skin, almost like a cockroach¡¯s exoskeleton, covering its incredibly muscular body. Six large horns jutted symmetrically from the sides of its head, curling forward into drills; it added a couple more feet to its height that it had to stoop or it¡¯ll hit the ceiling. Giant bat-like wings, their leathery membrane torn in places, grew from its shoulder blades.

    Its red-hot coal eyes fixed on Deen. She gulped, a bit nervous and intimidated. Then she put on a brave face. Gabe would tell her if she was in danger.

    ¡°Stay hiding here¡­or go¡­just don¡¯t get in our way,¡± said Veneer, or rather, Hedley Kow. It had a silvery voice that seemed to come from everywhere and made Deen¡¯s heart pound faster. ¡°Use the time¡­decide if you and Erind will come with us¡­we¡¯ll offer our help only once¡­then you¡¯re on your own.¡±

    Hedley Kows¡¯s vast wings covered its body and it suddenly dissolved into a black puddle on the floor. The puddle zipped to the wall, up to the window, and disappeared outside.

    Deen exhaled, her whole body slumping down.

    She didn¡¯t realize her hands were shaking uncontrollably, and the hairs on her arms standing straight up.

    ¡°Oh my gosh. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening anymore.¡± She stared at the floor for a few seconds. More screams from out the street snapping her out of her stupor. Phone! She fumbled checking her pockets. She needed to contact¡­just anyone. And also check up on Erind.

    She had dozens of missed calls and unread messages, most of them from her sister. They started as furious messages, asking her where she went. Deen grimaced reading them; she had anxiety dealing with her when she got angry. Then the messages turned into concern, telling her about the attacking monsters.

    ¡°The BID is protecting us,¡± Deen read. The LEPD headquarters was near city hall, and there was a temporary BID base there. Her sister should be safe. She hastily sent replied with an apology for suddenly leaving along with an explanation that she had to go home to attend a make-up class online that she had forgotten about. ¡°I¡¯m safe at home,¡± she texted her sister. ¡°There are no Adumbrae here. May the Mother Core keep you safe. Keep in touch.¡±

    The other messages were from her friends and schoolmates, blasting group messages, sharing about the ¡®Adumbrae seeding outbreak¡¯. She knew it wasn¡¯t what was happening, but it might as well be. There were no messages from Erind or Myra, only from Reo and Everett. They were a block away from the hospital, asking for help.

    Deen tried calling Erind, but she couldn¡¯t connect. Next, she tried Myra¡¯s number. Same result. Dario''s phone was ringing, but he wasn''t picking up.

    Did something bad happen to them? Were they near an area with monsters? Maybe Reo and Everett knew about something. She decided to find those two since she was near them.

    <hr>

    ¡°Help!¡± yelled a woman inside a car. She had crashed into a metal fence, the front of the car crumpled, likely pinning her legs inside. A monster with a clump of tentacles for a head tried to pull her out.

    Deen jumped on top of the car, right behind the tentacle monster. It whipped its tendrils at her. She caught them. ¡°Oh no, you don¡¯t.¡± She pulled the creature off the roof and slammed it down the decorative spikes lining the top of the fence. The spikes burst out of its chest, holding it in place, but it still wasn¡¯t dead. Tentacles grew all over its body, wrapping around the fence and the car.

    These weren¡¯t Adumbrae¡ªthat was what Hedley Kow said¡ªbut humans turned into monsters. As she fought them, she did notice they weren¡¯t regenerating. But she had no idea how to kill them. They were very resilient, continuing to move even if she had ripped off their heads and limbs.

    Before the tentacle monster could free itself from the fence, Deen jumped down the car. She yanked off its door, then punched away the pieces of metal that had bent inwards because of the crash.

    The woman yelled in pain. Deen wanted to assure her, but she didn¡¯t want anyone to hear her voice. She had pulled up her hoodie and made sure to hide her blonde hair; she also fashioned a mask from torn strips of her hoodie to cover the lower half of her face.

    Thankfully the woman passed out so Deen was able to focus on freeing her. She carried the woman out of the car and ran down the street. Gabe, find me a safe place for her.

    [Next block, red building, third-floor balcony.]

    Thanks, I see it.

    She was glad her Guardian Angel was becoming more responsive. Following its instructions, she effortlessly climbed to the small balcony in front of an open window. The room appeared to be empty, but she could hear someone trying to muffle their crying. The cabinet was shaking.

    ¡°Get out of here!¡± An angry man wielding a shotgun popped up from behind the sofa. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you fucking climbed up here, but we got no place for you!¡±

    Deen gently placed the injured woman on the floor. Raising her hands to show she meant no harm, she slowly backed out of the balcony and jumped down to the streets.

    She tried to save as many people as she could on her way to meet up with Reo and Everett. Unfortunately, most humans she passed were dead. She felt pangs of guilt in her heart.

    This was the work of the 2Ms¡­but somehow¡­some way¡­she had a hand in their deaths.

    The machine Hedley Kow was working on...she destroyed it. Not accidentally. It was her Guardian Angel¡¯s contingency plan to distract Hedley Kow from forcibly taking her. If it wasn¡¯t destroyed, could it have stopped the carnage going on around her? Hedley Kow seemed to think it could.

    ¡°Gabe, is this my fault?¡±

    There wasn¡¯t a pip from her Guardian Angel.

    ¡°So, now you¡¯re not answering me.¡±

    [Stop going forward.]

    Deen halted in her tracks. The pavement was slightly quaking. A giant creature that was a pile of rotting corpses squeezed through the narrow alleyway between two buildings a few yards ahead. A step of its squat, yet humongous legs shook the ground. It had a lopsided grin on its face as it chewed a dead body, mangled legs dangling from its lips.

    Before she could hold her breath, the terrible smell of this abomination hit her nose. She pulled down her mask and puked on the street. Wiping her mouth, she looked around for another way. Reo and Everett were somewhere up ahead.

    Where do I¡ª? She began to ask Gabe in her mind, but then the disgusting monstrous mound in front of her convulsed.

    It trembled and deflated, spewing out half-digested body parts. Boils all over its body exploded. Deen was about to run away when something erupted out the head of the monster¡ªa small chubby creature with disproportionately tiny wings.

    ¡°Blubber?¡± Deen said. ¡°It¡¯s Reo!¡±

 4.44 - Everett (Emcee)/ Reo Hinode (Oberon)

    Everett (Emcee)

    ¡°Ma¡¯am, are you alright?¡± Emcee hurried to a middle-aged woman who fell on the floor of the subway station, papers from her briefcase scattered like confetti. He shielded her from the stampeding masses that didn¡¯t care if they¡¯d trample someone in their haste to save themselves. ¡°Can you stand up?¡±

    Her answer was a groan of pain. She didn¡¯t trip because of the water from the activated fire sprinklers as he had assumed. It was the tendrils from a multi-eyeballed bulbous creature several feet away that had wrapped around her legs, their coating of tiny spikes sinking into her skin and drawing blood.

    ¡°That thing¡¯s still alive?¡± Emcee had fried the monster¡¯s beachball-sized body a few moments ago, but it seemed he mistakenly thought it dead.

    Its branching tentacles grabbed burnt monster carcasses as well as people running past it, drawing them to its body to feed on them and heal itself.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t good.¡± He tore the fleshy limbs binding the woman and helped her up. ¡°Your wounds. Can you still run?¡±

    ¡°Thank you so¡ªOh my god!¡± the woman exclaimed. The black ski mask he wore didn¡¯t exactly present a good impression on people. ¡°Please don¡¯t rob me!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to¡ª¡± Emcee started to say, but she recoiled from him and limped to the stairs, trying to keep up with the crowd jostling her. ¡°¡ªhurt you,¡± he finished. ¡°Ah, never mind.¡±

    Hopefully, she could ride the train; he doubted she¡¯d get far trudging down the tunnels with her injuries. The rumbling told him the next one had arrived. The noises of people fighting to get on the train echoed up the stairs. It didn¡¯t sound like they were helping each other down there.

    Desperate people being desperate. Nothing he could do about that.

    ¡°But I can do something about you.¡± He glared at the eyeball monster. Ignoring the pain that gnawed his stomach, he focused more of his power on the monster¡¯s body. He needed to put it down for good.

    Despite lacking a visible mouth, the monster shrieked in pain as it began to smolder. It released the people it captured¡ªthey all ran past without batting an eye at him. Patches of the diarrhea-colored membrane that covered the monster¡¯s body blackened from the extreme heat; it crackled like pork skin roasted in the oven. The bubbles burst, and the foul black blood that came out boiled and evaporated.

    Small flames sprouted all over the eyeball monster¡¯s body, growing until it became a bonfire that reached the ceiling. A shower from the fire sprinkler right above tried to beat back the flames. Emcee kept the heat going.

    The monster withered amid the blaze and steam.

    And Emcee fell to his knees.

    Bitter bile and salty blood rose from the back of his throat. He clamped his mouth shut, but the bloody vomit still forced its way out his nose and the sides of his mouth, drenching the front of his mask.

    His stomach was empty¡ªit might not even be there anymore.

    The sandwich he bought from a hotdog stand for lunch didn¡¯t last long as fuel. When he left his apartment this morning, he didn¡¯t know he¡¯d be forced to use his power to the fullest so he just ate a bowl of oatmeal with his cup of coffee. He and Reo were supposed to be on a boring and uneventful reconnaissance mission. He didn¡¯t even bring an emergency energy bar to snack on. Big mistake.

    ¡°Need to hold on¡­¡± he groaned. It felt like piranhas in a feeding frenzy were chewing his innards. ¡°Save people, urgh, and wait for Deen.¡± He inhaled deeply, enduring the pain, waiting for his regeneration to patch him up.

    With the smoke clearing, the sprinklers putting out the small fires he caused, he saw that the people had managed to get to the train platform downstairs. He was all alone.

    Not exactly alone.

    Monstrous corpses littered the wet floor, most of them burnt to a crisp, several riddled with bullets. There were also dead humans, their bodies more numerous than the monsters. Emcee¡¯s heart ached at the number of people that didn¡¯t make it to the train platform.

    The wide tunnel staircase that descended from the street level was coated yellow and red. Dozens of PCM members probably clogged the stairs in their confusion to escape and got feasted on by the monsters. There were also those not wearing any of the protesters¡¯ yellow¡ªaverage La Esperanza citizens going about their day, trying to keep up normalcy during unrest in the city, but instead meeting their untimely end.

    The monsters that were shot¡ªthose were the handiwork of the cops and a few National Guardsmen who were somehow in this area instead of their post around the hospital. They tried to hold back the monsters aiming for the survivors below. When Emcee arrived, all that was left of these brave guys were their half-eaten bodies and dismembered limbs. If not for them, then the train platform would¡¯ve been overrun.

    Now, it was on him to hold the line.

    This was the first time he had seen so much death.

    Was this also the first time he fought to save others?

    Their battles with the 2Ms¡¯ men, disrupting their operations¡ªthat saved people, right? Or so he¡¯d like to think. And he had saved his teammates on several occasions during their missions too.

    This was different.

    He felt like he was a hero.

    If he let these monsters get past him, many innocent people would die. Reo, who was in a summoning trance inside a small room full of dusty electronics downstairs, would also be in trouble¡ªI guess I should continue calling him Oberon. They were still on a mission after all.

    Although what exactly was their mission now? Mission not to die?

    Emcee had a grimace on his face as he shuffled to a nearby headless body. He recalled all the persuading he did to get Obe to summon Blubber. Obe was going to be pissed that he was here instead of standing guard outside the door of the electrical room as he promised.

    But he couldn¡¯t freely fight in that cramped train platform. He¡¯d just be a danger to the people there. The moment Blubber zipped away to look for Deen, Emcee also left his post. Better head off the monsters as they came down. He¡¯d just apologize later¡­when they all got out of this alive. I¡¯m sure Obe will understand.

    Emcee bent down, angling himself away from the view of the security camera he spotted earlier and removed his dirty mask. He wiped his mouth with his shirt as he examined the body in front of him. The sight of the mangled corpse didn¡¯t affect him anymore. The smell of dried vomit and blood around his mouth did make him want to puke again. There was going to be plenty more puking later if he continued to use his power.

    Not that he had much of a choice.

    Just relying on brute superstrength to fight was going nowhere. Their enemies were no Adumbrae. Yet, in some ways, they were more annoying to deal with. He didn¡¯t know how to quickly kill them. Even if he removed their heads, they just kept going. And they were also eating each other to recover, with some merging and turning to new monsters.

    He had to use his power and barbecue these monsters to quickly get rid of them wholesale. Blubber could also quickly shred them to scraps of flesh. If it was just escaping from this mess, there would¡¯ve been no problem. He could easily do it without using his power. However, every second these bastards roamed freely meant more innocent people were going to die.

    After uttering a quick apology and prayer for the dead guy, he tore large swathes off his sports jacket and wrapped it around his head, fashioning a sort of full head mask.

    The ground rumbled again. The next train. They were lucky the monsters hadn¡¯t penetrated down the next subway station at Hollister Street.

    The ground continued to slightly shake. The train should¡¯ve already stopped.

    A large group of people came down the stairs from the streets above. They were screaming, shoving each other in their panic. It wasn¡¯t them causing the small quake.

    A man-sized pincher claw like that of a lobster¡¯s appeared and grabbed at the panicked pack. The last person pushed the others out of the way and ended up getting caught.

    The owner of the claw forced its way down the subway station¡¯s stairs. A massive head with a decaying human face crying in anguish emerged, filling up the whole tunnel staircase. Its giant centipede body followed.

    Emcee clenched his teeth. He couldn¡¯t do anything to help the one who was caught.

    There was a decision to be made here. And he chose to start gathering heat inside the monster¡¯s head, focusing his entire attention on it instead of trying to save individuals. Sorry, for all the people that were going to die here. The priority was to kill this monster. If it reached the train platform¡­

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Just then, from the corner of his eyes that were focused on frying the colossal monster, he noticed the person caught in between the monster¡¯s claws throw something red into its gaping mouth.

    As if that person still surviving wasn¡¯t enough of a surprise, he then pried open the claws and escaped the monster¡¯s grip.

    ¡°Is that¡­?¡± Emcee whispered. A woman, not a man. Her covered face threw him off at first. Now that he had a good look at her, a couple layers of clothes, including a loose hoodie, wouldn¡¯t stop him from recognizing her figure; he had spent so much time staring at it than he¡¯d be comfortable to admit in court. He swam against the current of fleeing people, yelling, ¡°Deen!¡±

    One of the monster¡¯s eyes exploded. Deen expertly avoided the waves of black blood that gushed forth. A flash of red flew out the deflating eyeball and then burrowed into the other.

    ¡°Blubber!¡± Emcee called out. If that was Blubber, then this was certainly Deen. Oberon found her. Good job!

    The monster thrashed in pain. The tunnel staircase was collapsing.

    Emcee held his arms open. Deen was running towards him. Their eyes met. It was her wondrous pale grey eyes that seemed to shine like diamonds. ¡°It¡¯s really you!¡± he said.

    She ducked under his expectant arms and tugged at the back of his shirt, pulling him along. ¡°Run!¡±

    A stack of bricks dislodged from the ceiling by all the shaking fell where he stood a split-second before. He stared at them as he ran backward, dragged by Deen. He kind of wished those bricks fell on him and gave him amnesia so he¡¯d forget about that embarrassing attempt at a hug.

    <hr>

    Reo Hinode (Oberon)

    ¡°Remind me again why we¡¯re running to the hospital and not away from it?¡± Reo Hinode yelled at the backs of Everett and Deen. ¡°We were there earlier, and I can say that it¡¯s a sucky place to be.¡±

    The two continued running. This was the fifth time he asked them the same question, and, by now, he was just pestering them with it because they were all heading to their deaths.

    He and Everett already had a good thing going with their genius plan to escape via the subway; the dumb monsters were focused on their human buffet aboveground. But then Everett ruined it with his whole protect-the-subway-so-others-can-escape bullshit. And now, it was Deen¡¯s turn to cook up something to get them killed.

    After the three of them met up, Deen explained how she got there. She was hanging out at city hall because of some political fancy pants event with her sister when she saw some suspicious people who joined the protesters rallying on the streets. Her story wasn¡¯t clear, but one thing led to another and she trailed them all the way to Marshall Avenue.

    Reo couldn¡¯t understand how she just suddenly decided to follow some random guys for several blocks just because of a ¡®feeling¡¯. If it were him, even if there was concrete evidence of Adumbrae shenanigans, he wouldn¡¯t be bothered to move his ass.

    It turned out that Deen¡¯s stupid ¡®feeling¡¯ was right¡ªthose suspicious people she followed were connected to the 2Ms. She overheard their plans for another attack like what happened to Erind¡¯s condo to trigger a seeding outbreak.

    Reo argued that shit like that didn¡¯t just happen. Many terrorist groups in the past tried to use all sorts of terror attacks to cause seeding outbreaks, and nothing came of it. Just because people were stressed and scared didn¡¯t mean one of them would answer the Adumbrae toll-free hotline.

    Deen countered that the suspicious experiments with the hospital patients were supposedly the special ingredient of the 2Ms¡¯ recipe that could make this work. And that was how she forced them to go back to the hospital.

    To be fair, she didn¡¯t actually force them to follow her.

    They did have a vote. A vote that was more of a sham than the presidential elections.

    Deen was obviously up for it. That meant the lovestruck Everett would be too.

    Reo tried to guilt-trip Everett into siding with him, bringing up the broken promise of guarding the electrical room door. Normally, that would be enough to persuade Everett; not this time. It was dick over friendship now. He knew Everett went upstairs mainly to wait for Deen, and he begrudgingly couldn''t blame him. The power of boner was too strong.

    Those two idiots tag-teamed to pressure Reo for a unanimous vote with their talks of bravery and not being a coward in the face of death.

    There was a huge difference between being a coward and not wanting to die. Any sane person knew that. Unfortunately, Reo was stuck with two insane people who thought otherwise. And he just couldn¡¯t live with himself if he let the two of them go and be suicidal heroes. Someone had to be the voice of reason accompanying them.

    ¡°Okay, you guys don¡¯t want to answer me,¡± Reo said. ¡°That¡¯s fine, that¡¯s fine. Cool, cool, cool. How about answering this? Why us?¡±

    Deen turned to look back at him. ¡°We need to stop¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, we don¡¯t. I mean, yeah, these fuckers wanting to start a seeding outbreak need to be stopped. But like, why us? We know jackshit how to stop them.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll figure it out when we get there,¡± Everett said. ¡°We have to adjust. We adapt¡ª"

    ¡°We¡¯re over our fucking heads here!¡± he loudly said, almost screeching as his frustrations got to him.

    ¡°Some people are over there!¡± Deen totally ignored him, pointing at a tall building coming up the next block. Through the glass windows, they could see many of the employees gathered on the upper floors. Those people managed to block the stairs or something because no monsters were partying with them.

    ¡°They¡¯re safe,¡± said Reo. ¡°Go, go, they don¡¯t need saving. We can¡¯t stop and help everyone.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°You were talking big on focusing on objectives? Let¡¯s do that now. Haul ass to the hospital so we can stop something we don¡¯t know anything about.¡±

    Reo was up to here with these two idiots.

    It wasn¡¯t the last time they wanted to start a side quest of saving this or that person they passed along the way. He got the arduous task¡ªphew, I¡¯m using big boy words now, that was how stressed he was¡ªof keeping them on track. And he was the one who didn¡¯t want to do this in the first place! Some dumbfuckery going on here.

    He wasn¡¯t some heartless bastard. They passed many dead people, and he felt for them.

    He really did.

    The loss of life was sad. Nonetheless, he also didn¡¯t want to end up as a dead guy. It was a normal human feeling to be scared of dying. And he was happy he still had normal human feelings though his body was no longer normal. The fact that he was going in the direction of danger while being scared shitless made him proud of himself, and at the same time, he wanted to punch himself for being a dumbass.

    ¡°Where did all the monsters go?¡± Everett said as they approached the hospital. He slowed down, cautiously looking around.

    ¡°There were tons of them around here,¡± said Reo. They had a hard time escaping this place earlier. To him, it seemed this area had the highest concentration of monsters. ¡°No dead bodies of monsters or humans. That¡¯s weird.¡±

    ¡°They probably moved away after eating everything, including the corpses of their fellow monsters. I¡¯ve seen them do it.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, could be.¡± Reo shrugged. ¡°Maybe they¡¯re all at the hospital now.¡±

    ¡°We should hurry¡ª"

    ¡°These black puddles¡­¡± Deen stopped next to a small pool of black liquid, about a couple of feet wide, in the middle of the sidewalk. She bent down to get a closer look.

    Of course, Everett had to stop too. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°So many of these puddles. Here, the street, and it just continues. I wonder what this is.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s just monster blood.¡± Reo scrunched his nose. ¡°I don¡¯t have a full mental link of senses with Blubber like I do with Sneak, but I can vaguely remember their smell and taste. Fucking disgusting, man.¡±

    "This doesn¡¯t smell bad,¡± Everett said. ¡°Doesn¡¯t smell like anything.¡±

    ¡°The hell? Don¡¯t smell that.¡± He pointed at the wall beside them. ¡°Look, red human blood.¡± He pointed at the black puddle. ¡°Black monster blood.¡±

    ¡°Veneer.¡± Or that was what Reo assumed Deen said because she spoke barely above a whisper.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°Nothing,¡± she said, standing up and dusting her knees. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the hospital.¡±

    They hid in a small alley right across the street from the hospital to survey the place. There were no soldiers, no protesters, no people whatsoever. There were also no dead bodies like before, just the weird black puddles. But there were monsters. They were inside EFU Medical Center.

    Many hospital windows had splashes of red. A number of them were broken. Through these openings, they saw monsters chasing humans. A person jumped from the fifth floor.

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± Deen gasped.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to see that,¡± Everett said, reaching to cover her eyes.

    Before he could touch her, she pushed him away and acted as if nothing happened. Reo snorted as he tried to stop his laughter. Everett¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, then he glared at Reo, who just gave him a smirk in return.

    ¡°Uh¡­I¡¯ll try to call Dario again,¡± said Everett. He had to fill the embarrassing silence with something. ¡°You guys can, uh, think of a plan.¡±

    ¡°We can continue what we¡¯re doing and rush inside without plan,¡± Reo sarcastically remarked. ¡°It¡¯s done us good so far.¡±

    ¡°Veneer isn¡¯t inside?¡±

    ¡°Who?¡± he asked Deen.

    ¡°Nothing," she shortly answered. "Just, um, maybe my imagin¡ª¡±

    ¡°Dario!¡± Everett exclaimed from behind them. ¡°Guys, he finally picked up. Dario, you see what¡¯s going on in the news? There¡¯s a¡ª¡±

    LUB DUB

    Reo was certain all three of them felt it. It was like the reality itself was shaken by a heartbeat. He swore he saw double for a moment as if everything shifted and went back in place. Just like standing right next to huge woofers during a rave, his heartbeat synchronized with that beat. His heart thumped so hard that one time he was worried he was having a heart attack.

    A sense of dread filled his heart...something was coming. Something he didn''t want to meet.

    LUB DUB ¨C LUB DUB ¨C LUB DUB

    The world warped, his vision swirled. Deen beside him was on all fours, coughing intensely like she was trying to expel her lungs. No sound. She was spitting out blood, but he couldn''t hear anything. He could only feel warm liquid flowing from his ears down the sides of his neck.

    Reo tried to bend down to help Deen, but a sharp pain in his chest stopped him. It was as if someone drove a red-hot metal spike deep into him. He also dropped to the floor. He tore his shirt open and scratched at the almond-sized artificial Core on his sternum. It was throbbing. And with each pulse, a shock jolted his muscles.

    LUB DUB ¨C LUB DUB ¨C LUB DUB

    It¡¯s here.

    He thought that inside his head. Why did he think of that?

    What was here?

    He looked up at the hospital. His vision was still out of focus.

    There was a large explosion at the side of the tallest building. No sound reached his ears.

    Out of the building, a large hand the size of a car reached out.

 4.45

    It¡¯s gone?

    I yanked the helicopter door to the side, crumpling the alloy where I held it and almost knocking it off its sliders in my haste to open it.

    Roaring winds rushed in. The racket of the rotors above increased to deafening levels. I stuck my upper body out of the chopper, the wind slapping my cheeks through my mask and shoving my hair into my mouth, and gazed at the city around five hundred feet or so down. ¡°What was that?¡± I yelled at no one in particular. Penemue probably couldn¡¯t hear me over the noise.

    The weird sensation lasted for only a few seconds; I wasn¡¯t sure if it really happened or was just unnatural turbulence.

    A whooshing feeling as if I was getting sucked in a whirlpool¡ªnot that I tried jumping in one. My only experience with ¡®whirlpools¡¯ was back when I was a kid, sticking my hand in the waters of a washing machine. It was sort of the same, a wave of something sweeping reality along. Or that dropping feeling in the stomach when the car was going downhill, like a part of my being ¡®dropped¡¯ towards the direction of the hospital for a couple of seconds before snapping back.

    ¡°I can¡¯t see anything!¡±

    Absent the enhanced senses of my Blanchette form¡ªI didn¡¯t want to suddenly transfer and spook Penemue who was busy flying the chopper¡ªI couldn¡¯t clearly discern what was happening on the ground. Fucking city pollution and the smoke from all the fires weren¡¯t making it any easier. I supposed those ants moving below were humans and the monsters killing them. I did notice we were over Marshall Avenue; a few blocks ahead and we¡¯d reach EFU Medical Center.

    ¡°I can¡¯t even see Auron,¡± I loudly said, turning my attention to the sky. That annoying haggard-faced Adumbrae bastard had quite the head start, especially with Mammoth Buddy playing tag with me. There were no other helicopters around. He must¡¯ve already landed somewhere.

    And where was the BID? Many agents were in the city because of all the recent Adumbrae incidents. Shouldn¡¯t they be heading over here?

    From my vantage point, I spotted pillars of smoke rising from the area where city hall should be. Wasn¡¯t Deen attending a political gathering there? Her Guardian Angel should keep her safe. But I guess that¡¯s that for the food she promised to bring me from the event.

    The BID¡¯s temporary headquarters was somewhere around there too. Must be some shit going down and keeping them busy.

    I had a small window of time to find and kill Auron before the BID came over¡ªbe it the guys fighting at city hall finishing their clean-up, heavy reinforcements from the Palomar Node flying in, or both¡ªand I¡¯d have to bail to avoid getting my ass caught.

    I really, really wanted to kill Auron.

    Sure, he appeared to be with the 2Ms; that was one point against him. He gloated at me, and I¡¯d love to punch his face in. He also ruined my day with all these monsters and protesters. And he might¡¯ve gotten Ramello killed as collateral damage because of his shenanigans, not sure with this one. Rule #4, yes. But I had another intention.

    I want to eat him.

    When was the last time I consumed the brains of people with power? Was it at Serenade Bazaar when I ate the living heads stored inside snake mutant buddy? Yeah, I think so.

    I already used up that¡­juice, fuel, not sure what term to call it¡­to bring out Pino when my condo was attacked by those stinky monsters. And I wasn¡¯t able to replace it by eating anything as Blanchette. It would¡¯ve been cool if I was able to take a bite of Stella.

    This time, there was someone with powers I could eat. Not one of those failed mutant experiments. Not those foul parasite thingy monsters. An actual Adumbrae like Rofirio. I felt Auron was magnitudes stronger than that purple-haired pervert. Maybe SpookyErind would give me more stuff to borrow if it turned out he was a powerful Adumbrae?

    With Penemue by my side, who didn¡¯t seem to be affected by Auron¡¯s power canceling ability, this should be an easy win¡ªgain power and impose a Rule #4 penalty in one swoop.

    ¡°Auron is probably at the hospital,¡± I said as I went back inside. ¡°We should hurry.¡±

    The massive bladed head of Penemue¡¯s axe body had sliced the helicopter¡¯s backseat, cutting down the foam cushion, continuing a couple of inches into the floor. Its pole was angled diagonally to the pilot''s seat, the end part was held by the pilot between his arm and body.

    Penemue had explained earlier that the moment he took control of the pilot, he made him tear open the side of his clothes and clip the pole this way so there was secured contact with the skin while keeping both hands free. Apparently, two hands and two feet were needed to pilot a helicopter. Something new to learn each day.

    It made me curious about Penemue¡¯s past before he became an¡­object.

    He was someone who knew how to operate a helicopter. That or he lied about not being able to mindread the memories of his user. He could also be threatening the pilot in his head to continue flying, but that didn¡¯t sound like something up his alley.

    ¡°What?¡± said Penemue as the pilot. He couldn¡¯t do his telepathic communication thing when he was controlling someone. He could only hear and talk through his wielder.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what caused that feeling,¡± I said. ¡°And I can¡¯t find Auron.¡±

    ¡°Did¡­see it? It¡­Bridge¡­cut of¡­¡±

    The noise was too much. Couldn¡¯t hear shit.

    I pulled the door back shut. It was still noisy but just a bit louder than the blender I used to have in my kitchen, so it was more tolerable. Poor blender that was lost during the collapse of my condominium building¡ªI made a lot of smoothies with it.

    After ducking under the axe¡¯s handle, I scooted next to the pilot¡¯s seat. ¡°What did you say?¡± I spoke, half-yelling.

    ¡°Did you see it?" he said. "The Manifested Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Manifested Adumbrae? Auron did mention something about that. I haven''t seen anything, not even Auron. Anyway, he¡¯s probably at the hos¡ª¡±

    "An Adumbrae that came through the Bridge.¡±

    ¡°That was what that feeling was?¡± I said. ¡°An Adumbrae crossing the Bridge into our world?¡±

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°I thought you knew? You should¡¯ve experienced the sensation when the veil between worlds is pierced by Adumbrae since you can control your own body like me. Bridging...that''s a necessary step for us.¡±

    ¡°I might¡¯ve felt something like that before.¡± I went along without knowing what he was talking about.

    ¡°Keep an eye out for it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s an Adumbrae that comes out of a Cocoon right? So, like an upgraded Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°What? No. What upgraded Adumbrae are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°I thought¡ª"

    ¡°Its strength depends on the Bridge through the veil and the Cocoon that formed its base. This one shouldn¡¯t be that strong based on the reality displacement we felt. How do you not know about this?¡±

    ¡°The hospital should be over there,¡± I said, changing the topic. There was a misunderstanding here somewhere and I sensed I shouldn¡¯t let the conversation continue and reach about SpookyErind. ¡°And still no trace of that helicopter Auron used. Are we just going to fly in?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to take us low,¡± said Penemue, ¡°and land once I find an open space on the road. There could be someone among Auron¡¯s cohorts who could shoot us down. We¡¯ll also conceal our angle of attack if we approach from a distance.¡±

    I snorted. Cohorts? Who the fuck uses that word? Was he someone''s grandpa? Could also be some highly educated posh prick from an old-money family. That¡¯d explain his helicopter piloting skills.

    Penemue lowered the helicopter¡¯s altitude to probably a couple of hundred feet¡ªI wasn¡¯t good in judging distances¡ªflying into the valley between the buildings lining either side of Marshall Avenue. I now had a better view of what was going on below.

    Which was to say, nothing much.

    A few monsters here and there, sunbathing, chewing corpses, fighting and eating each other. These were on the smaller side; the bigger mutations must¡¯ve moved somewhere else. Lots of dead bodies, small fires, overturned cars, uprooted trees, destroyed shops¡ªno sign of the Adumbrae Penemue was sure had Manifested. It was kind of peaceful on the street level. We were late for the party.

    Through the windows of the buildings we passed, we saw many surviving humans. Good thinking, these guys, hiding away on the upper floors. Many of them waved at us, some shouted for help. I thought Penemue was going to suggest we try to help them, but he continued, looking for a spot to land.

    ¡°Once I land, we¡¯ll find a safe place for this man.¡± He pointed his thumb at himself. ¡°And we go to¡ª"

    A chain of explosions, disgustingly sounding wet and extremely loud that we heard them over the noisy rotors.

    ¡°What the fuck was that?¡±

    A crash! I checked outside the window on my side. An almond-looking pod the size of a large boulder squished a car parked by the sidewalk. It had smashed down with so much force the car became a metal pancake with a mini-crater beneath it.

    More crashes. I had no idea what was raining down. A pod decimated a line of trees and streetlights. A couple more smashed into the building to our left, one knocking off a balcony that had a person waving on it.

    ¡°Land this thing!¡± I exclaimed as something flashed dangerously close near us. We only avoided it because Penemue tilted the helicopter so the wind blades didn¡¯t get swiped. That fucking almond meteor dug a deep furrow on the pavement as it careened down the street. ¡°We need to find cover!¡±

    ¡°I am! Wait¡ª¡±

    Guttural rumbling. The buildings shook, several windows shattered, and people screamed in panic.

    ¡°What the hell?¡± I had my right hand out with an open palm, focusing on summoning my mask. I hoped whatever Auron did would¡¯ve worn off by now.

    Thunderous thumps became louder and louder. Something incredibly huge was approaching, its gigantic form peeked over the ten-story office establishment up ahead. A blanket of its shadow covered the street and the buildings across it.

    ¡°Yes!¡± I triumphantly yelled. Golden liquid flowed out of the crystals on my palm and started to form into my Blanchette mask. I¡¯m back in business! Just in time too. I was excited to savor the heights of power I could attain as Blanchette using Penemue. I eagerly pulled up my baclava mask.

    ¡°The Manifested is here,¡± said Penemue.

    Our colossal new enemy squeezed past the building blocking it, toppling tons of bricks to the street, and stepped into view. An unbelievably wide umbrella? A circus tent? No, it was a¡­

    ¡°A giant fucking mushroom,¡± I whispered.

    It had four squat legs sprouting from under its barreled-shaped body, equally spaced around it to comfortably support its weight as it ambled on. Four arms sprouted from its torso, mirroring the positions of its legs below. It had no recognizable face. A hugeass mushroom cap, fifty or maybe sixty feet across in size, sat on top of its body. When it moved, its mushroom hat or whatever that shit was called hit the buildings, shaving off their top floors.

    Its body was covered with what I assumed were plants, mostly looking like mushrooms or spores. Wait, mushrooms and plants are different. It had a freaking mini-ecosystem all over it. Myriad of mushroom creatures of varying appearances and sizes clambered all over, living amongst the weird plants or fungi.

    The only part devoid of these alien forms of life was its expansive mushroom cap. Instead, it had hundreds and hundreds of cells arranged like a honeycomb.

    Mushroom Buddy moved towards us, awkwardly moving with its four legs. A haze of orange powder followed it. And within this sinister-as-fuck dust cloud were people, probably a hundred of them. PCM members with their yellow clothes, police, soldiers, patients with hospital gowns, and many others.

    A genius thought popped into my mind.

    Why go for Auron? This creature here was a bona fide Adumbrae. And it was made through Bridging. While I didn¡¯t know much about the difference between a Manifested Adumbrae and a ¡®normally-made¡¯ one like me, I was sure this could be a new source of power. Auron could be dessert.

    Power was¡­nice.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to transform,¡± I said, holding my Blanchette mask that had solidified. ¡°Then, we¡¯ll¡ª¡± We were now flying away from Mushroom Buddy. ¡°What the¡­? Hey, Penemue?! Why are you turning us around?¡±

    ¡°We must avoid that Manifested.¡±

    ¡°Why? We should kill it!¡±

    ¡°Are you out of your mind? I¡¯ve been in your mind, so the answer is yes,¡± Penemue replied, breaking his even demeanor and showing some sass I didn¡¯t realize he had in him. ¡°We¡¯ll leave the Manifested to the BID. Our focus should be finding Auron Cohenn and stopping any other plans he has.¡±

    My food! ¡°Many will die back there. It controlled those people on the street. The ones inside the buildings are trapped. I thought you want to save¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s for the greater good we avoid it.¡± He turned to me, or rather the pilot did, with an incredulous expression. ¡°Are you seriously considering taking on a Manifested?¡±

    I waved my red Blanchette mask at his face. ¡°I can now use my powers. If we work together¡ª¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll likely win because it¡¯s an incredibly weak newborn. However, risking a sliver of a chance of being consumed by a Manifested¡ªthat possibility, no matter how minuscule, should be avoided. If only my friends are here...¡±

    The disgusting diarrhea fireworks resounded. I opened the door to check what was happening with Mushroom Buddy.

    It had fired dozens of those almond pods from the top of its mushroom cap, orange smoke trailed the projectiles hundreds of feet in the air. The fucking oversized almonds arced backed down to earth and increased in speed.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to get hit!¡± I warned Penemue before I put on the Blanchette mask.

    I didn¡¯t feel the surge of power that much because adrenaline had already pumped through my veins as Erind. I did notice the strength of my jaws. There was no opportunity to do my traditional snapping of fangs whenever I changed into Blanchette because one almond smashed the end of the helicopter, knocking away the tail rotor.

    We uncontrollably spun. I tumbled inside the helicopter. The thought that crossed my mind was, So, this is what being inside a washing machine feels like?

    And we crashed into a building.

 4.46

    ¡°Grrwaaa!¡± I exclaimed, a mix between a roar and yelp.

    I grabbed the bench-sized piece of the rotor blade that bit four inches deep into my mid-torso. The amount of blood dribbling out wasn¡¯t much compared to what I expected from having my abdomen slashed open¡ªagain. Talk about unlucky. Fucking weird this shit happened twice on the same day. I¡¯m tired of seeing my own intestines!

    My claws dug into the metal blade to get a firm grip. I steeled myself for pain¡ªsteeled, metal, get it? Applause, please, for my stupid joke. Despite the severity of my injury, my guts getting minced and all, the pain was tolerable. I could even think of random jokes just after a helicopter crash.

    Just another day for Erind.

    I clenched my fangs while dislodging the rotor blade from my body. How did this even get here? Everything was a swirl of metal, concrete, explosions, and fire. I was thrown out of the helicopter when it smashed into the building. It had fractured into many parts as it tumbled through the office floor, sweeping cubicles, cabinets, tables, and chairs. I think I even heard people screaming.

    I didn¡¯t lose consciousness through all of that, a testament to my body¡¯s resilience. It felt good to be this invincible, kinda, and I could really understand why people let themselves get taken over by Adumbrae. My stomach wound itched as the skin and flesh mended themselves back together.

    Now, to get Penemue¡ª

    Shit! Ouch. My right leg was busted, twisted like a corkscrew with my foot pointing backward. I only noticed it when I tried to stand and searing pain shot up my hamstrings and butt. Without hesitation, I forcefully rotated my leg the correct way, allowing myself only a small whimper. Several seconds of rest should be good enough for my regeneration to heal me a bit before I dived into danger again.

    I scanned my surroundings, the sound of my bones crunching back into place provided background music. The whole place looked like a helicopter crashed into a building, obviously, duh.

    The main body of our former ride slammed into the walls on the opposite end of the floor. Its front part was flattened like a pug¡¯s face. A severed hand dangled from its dented side. It wasn¡¯t attached to the pilot¡¯s body; I couldn¡¯t see where he was. The copious amount of blood painting the shattered windshield confirmed he went splat inside the cockpit.

    So, where was Penemue then?

    I gingerly put weight on my right leg. The pain was bearable.

    Time to dig out a stupid axe.

    I scrunched my snout as I made my way to the smoking helicopter. Smell of humans?

    Yep, that was definitely humans, different from the dead pilot. It wasn¡¯t body odor. I couldn¡¯t really put the smell in words. Like I could recognize the smell of cooked chicken or pork in my cute Erind body, I could also tell these were humans with Blanchette¡¯s keen sense of smell. My ears prickled. Rattling noises, sobbing, chattering teeth. Hiding humans, scared office workers. One was under a table twenty feet away, another inside a cabinet somewhere behind me.

    I ignored them and started digging through the wreckage. Penemue should be inside unless he also got thrown out like me. He was fairly large¡ªReo could¡¯ve squeezed a joke out of this¡ªso it should¡¯ve been easy to find him. However, after tearing off the metal sheets that covered the helicopter¡¯s frame, exposing its insides, he wasn¡¯t there. He couldn¡¯t have been broken apart by the crash because he seemed to be tough as hell, and I didn¡¯t spot any of his parts.

    Where the fuck is that guy...object?

    The broken window walls.

    Was he thrown somewhere outside? That was going to be quite the fucking chore to find him.

    Huh? A peculiar odor mixed with a human¡¯s put me on guard.

    Not the disgusting stench of the parasite monsters; I¡¯d recognized that vomit-inducing smell instantly. This new one was different but not completely unfamiliar. Earthy, kind of funky, slightly fatty meat smell¡ªit was at the tip of my tongue¡­or snout. It irritated me that I couldn¡¯t pinpoint it.

    Whatever this creature was, it was approaching fast. From the sound of its footsteps, it likely had two feet and about a human¡¯s weight. A couple of others like it were coming. The first one was almost here.

    It barged through the entrance at the far-left corner of the office space, popping the door off its hinges.

    A human.

    Some random office worker wearing a rumpled dress shirt and tie.

    It would¡¯ve been great if it stopped at that.

    The biggest mumps I had ever seen ever was on this man¡¯s neck. It was almost as big as his head, and it was still growing. And from the bulge that was threatening to burst, sickeningly mutated mushrooms sprouted, climbing up to the top of his head.

    ¡°Rwaarghh.¡± I rolled my eyes and threw up my clawed hands. Oh, come on! A mushroom man? This was obviously Mushroom Buddy¡¯s work. Did this have a connection to the parasitic tentacle monsters? Can I have those guys back instead?

    Upon seeing me, the man and the mushroom growing on him¡ªapparently, they had creepy small humanoid body parts, including mouths¡ªbellowed at me like a herd of angry bulls. The mushroom mumps bump deflated as if it was pushing liquid back into the man¡¯s body. His arm on the side of the paranormal growth burst into a massive mushroom colony like a magician suddenly conjured a bunch of flowers at the tip of his wand. This mushroom colony melted into itself, flowing past the man¡¯s arm, nearly down to the floor, and formed a straight barrel. This whole growth calcified into an organic gun or something. All of that happened within three seconds.

    It raised the gun. I charged.

    There were continuous minute bursts like someone cooking popcorn. Dozens of projectiles flew at me. I zipped in erratic angles to avoid them, coming closer and closer to the mushroom man. I got hit on my thigh. The bullet inside my leg exploded. I staggered because of the burst of pain but picked myself up and continued evading. A quick glance down and I saw a fungi wreath blossomed out of the small crater on my quads. Before it could grow any bigger, I excavated the diseased chunk of my leg with one swipe of my claws.

    This bastard had triggered my power and I hungered for mushrooms! With a swift leap, I closed the distance between us.

    He leveled the gun at my face.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Ghrwarr!¡± My jaw opened wide, I chomped on the end of the barrel, consuming its length like a wood chipper shredding a tree trunk. His punches and kicks felt like a baby hitting me. I held my prey, claws hooking his skin, his flesh, hesitating only for a moment before biting down on the bouquet of mushrooms.

    The agonized screams of the tiny mushroom half-people thingies didn¡¯t deter me from eating them and the man they were attached to. Two more mushroom fuckwits arrived, interrupting my meal¡ªa middle-aged man in a janitor¡¯s uniform and a woman who looked like a secretary. They had giant malignant growths on different parts of their bodies along with the spreading mushroom gremlins.

    The secretary lady grew blades, reminding me of Myra, and jumped on me. I threw away the carcass I was eating and met her attack. It was as if her blades were in slow motion and I could¡¯ve easily avoided them, but I allowed myself to get stabbed. After an injury, it was time to eat. Was I turning into a masochist eater or something?

    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something coming at a curve at me. I hopped out its way but still held on to the woman I was eating.

    A ball covered with spikes the size of a watermelon hit the floor where I had stood. This spiked ball was connected by a long tendril to the janitor¡¯s arm. His other arm also had another overly long flail. He began to rotate his arms like a pinwheel, whipping the mace-balls thingies around.

    Running on all fours, I weaved through the destructive balls like a kid running through arcing water sprinklers and avoiding getting wet¡ªI did play that game a few times when I was little. Still clamped between my jaws was the corpse of the mushroom secretary. I chewed on it as I charged the mushroom janitor.

    I didn¡¯t bother to get hit anymore.

    I rammed the mushroom janitor and wildly thrashed with my claws, tearing both him and the already dead woman to shreds. I took my frustration of eating weak prey out on them. On a positive note, these mushroom people were much easier to kill than their tentacle parasite counterparts.

    Before any more mushroom people could show up, I stopped playing with the blood and guts, and went to the broken windows. Looking down the street, there was no huge axe in sight. And my sight was pretty freaking good. I could count how many tentacles are on the zombie monster beside the overturned red sedan, how many eyes the rolling flesh heap had¡ªweird things to count, but I could do it.

    I stuck my head outside and looked to the right, checking if giant Mushroom Buddy was still chasing after us.

    Apparently, it had turned around¡ªor not. I wasn¡¯t sure which way it faced because it didn¡¯t have a face and an actual front side. But it was walking away, going up the northern part of Marshall Avenue followed by its mushroom people army.

    Mushroom Buddy released another volley of its giant almond pods up in the sky. Several rained down in the area around me, one of them landing on the street right below and crushing a couple of tentacle zombies. Other parasite monsters close by ambled towards it. Some climbed on it, others attacked and tried to eat it.

    I curiously stared, wondering what would happen.

    Cracks ran down the length of the pod as it began to open with an ominous hiss that I could pick up from my height. It released orange smoke, the same as the haze around Mushroom Buddy, enveloping the parasite monsters around it.

    So that¡¯s how it spreads¡­

    Patches of mushroom colonies instantly bloomed on the bodies of the monsters. Those controlled by the parasites had a new master.

    The monsters under the new management of Mushroom Buddy went after their former pals, trying to turn them over to their side by infecting them with the spores. The fuck was this? Mind-control battles?

    This is a huge problem, I thought as a realization came to me.

    The parasite monsters were finite. Yes, they were numerous, but their numbers depended on how many parasites were available to latch onto human hosts. They didn¡¯t multiply. Actually, many of them combined with each other. I bet, between attacking my condo and this huge monster army wreaking havoc in this part of the city, the 2Ms had nearly depleted their parasite inventory.

    The mushroom people, on the other hand, spread and multiplied, turning everyone into creatures like them.

    If Mushroom Buddy continued with its almond pod meteor shower, it could slowly take over the city. Which was bad. I live in this city! That was kind of an important detail. The fates weren¡¯t contented with destroying my condominium building. Would this string of misfortune not stop until I transferred out of La Esperanza?

    I really needed to bring down Mushroom Buddy and eat it.

    A whistle rang in my ears.

    My head snapped in the direction of the sound. The building to the left of that across the street from me. Just then, one of its floors exploded, all of the window walls shattered into a spray of glass. A wave of wind blew out. It carried with it mushroom monsters along with several pieces of office furniture.

    Penemue!

    Could I just jump down and climb up there? What was this? Like ten floors down? Maybe more. I didn¡¯t want to break my legs and get caught in the middle of the monster gang war.

    ¡°Crekkekkk.¡± One of the office workers came out of hiding. She was a mushroom woman now. I noticed the filing cabinet behind her that she used for cover had holes in it. The mushroom spore bullets had punched through and infected her. ¡°Kekekerekk.¡±

    Her head had turned into a bunch of pulsating orbs filled with Mushroom Buddy¡¯s spore, appearing like a bunch of orange grapes the size of Christmas balls. This was the first time I encountered a mushroom person with this form, but I already knew what was coming. The orange grapes that bubbled to greater sizes confirmed my suspicions.

    Jump out it is.

    BOOM!

    A cloud of spores threatened to engulf me, but I was already falling down the building. My hoodie fluttered, my hair whipped wildly. The pavement below rushed to give a warm welcome of hard concrete. This is going to hurt.

    I landed on my feet. The pavement cracked. My left ankle broke. I went down on my knees with a grimace because of the pain. Several of the monsters fighting each other noticed me and decided they wanted me instead. I crawled forward as fast as I could, careful not to put pressure on my injured leg until it could regenerate back.

    I didn¡¯t bother fighting the monsters. I kept low and zigzagged across the road to elude them. They tried to stop me, diving at me, trying to tackle me like I had the football and going to the end zone¡ªsomething like that, I didn¡¯t know how football worked.

    I reached Penemue¡¯s building and leaped on its wall before the monsters could blink. Maybe some of them did¡ªI didn¡¯t check; someone had to take me to court for that. Most of these monsters didn''t even have eyes.

    ¡°Penemue!¡± I called out as I climbed up the walls of the building. Or that was what I wanted to say to prevent him from going away, but what came out was, ¡°Ggrwaaarr!¡± I thought with all my might. Penemue! But this also shouldn¡¯t work if somebody held him. I just hoped he was still there when I arrived.

    A few seconds later and I reached the floor with the blown-out window walls.

    Penemue was in the hands of a man in an expensive business suit. Several chopped-up mushroom people were strewn at his feet. He directed a group of frightened employees to safety, but they were understandably hesitant to follow their boss wielding a humongous lollipop axe. The employees saw me and ran away screaming, accomplishing what Penemue had a hard time doing.

    I extended my right arm at him with an open palm.

    He got the message and threw the axe at me¡ªthrew himself, to be more accurate. Penemue landed beside me and I immediately grabbed him. If we don¡¯t stop the giant mushroom, I told him in my head, it¡¯s going to turn people into those! I pointed at the mushroom people he killed.

    (I already told you we should stay clear of the Manifested. And it¡¯s suspicious that you suddenly care for people.)

    Are you going to read my mind now? It wasn¡¯t like I could hide my thoughts from Penemue. The moment Mushroom Buddy came up in my head, the thoughts of consuming it surfaced.

    (We need to find Auron. The BID will take care of the Manifested. What is this about eating¡ª?)

    What? I considered separating from him. I was about to suggest it when his sudden pause surprised me. Hey! What are you doing? I could feel him rummaging through my head. I¡¯m going to throw¡ªHis presence disappeared. Penemue?

    (Adumbrae!)

    Blades of winds engulfed me.

 4.47

    Pain. Immense pain!

    Deep cuts covered my body in a blink, chunks of my own flesh tumbled in the air, strings of my blood swirled around as if someone was doing rhythmic gymnastics with a bright red ribbon. Smoothie! I was getting turned into a smoothie! After tumbling in a washing machine of a crashing helicopter, I was now in a fucking blender. ¡°Grrhwaa!¡± What are you doing? I demanded of Penemue.

    (You deceived me!) he blasted in my head. (The Adumbrae within you is still awake!)

    Before more of my muscles were sliced and I could no longer move, I flung the fucking axe as far as I could. It was a feeble throw because I was severely injured; Penemue really did a number on me in the few seconds I was consumed by the blades of wind. All of it dissipated when I let go of it, and I collapsed. I kept my sight on the axe¡ªmy one still working eye partially blinded by blood.

    The lollipop axe slid across the floor, its oversized head jutting through the opening of a shattered glass window wall. I didn¡¯t specifically aim to chuck it out, I just desperately threw it in a random direction and hoped no one else was nearby to pick it up.

    A familiar hunger erupted from deep inside me. Hunger and rage replaced the agony wracking my body. Rapid regeneration rushed to stitch my body back together; furious power spread as muscles, tendons. and bones reconnected; my fangs and claws lengthened. I salivated in anticipation. The hunt was on.

    But my prey was going to get away! That axe teetered on the edge of the floor, the weight of its bladed end threatening to pull the rest of it out the window.

    I half-squirmed half-crawled over the floor to reach the axe like a mudskipper on land having a seizure while trailing copious amounts of blood.

    (Don¡¯t come near me, Adumbrae! I know you¡¯re there!)

    I hastened my pace. I wasn¡¯t going to make it!

    Hold on a fucking minute, you stupid bitch. I stopped and slumped down on the floor about five feet from the axe. Rational thoughts took over the ravenous cravings forefront of my mind. I rested as I pondered: should I even try to eat this fucking bastard?

    The moment I made contact with any part of the axe, I¡¯d certainly plunge into a meat grinder again. No way to eat it without my mouth and teeth touching it unless I figured out how to telepathically chew something. And I didn¡¯t think it was also possible to finish eating Penemue before I died. Or maybe I could¡ªwoah?

    Gravity decided for me, pulling Penemue down to the street far below.

    I shrugged. Oh well¡­Not like I was confident my teeth could bite through that axe anyway.

    After managing to sit up, I considered why Penemue attacked me.

    From his ravings, it seemed he found SpookyErind. If only he chilled the fuck out, I could¡¯ve explained that SpookyErind was a friend¡ªokay, I myself didn¡¯t believe that. And to be fair, from his perspective, he was in the same body as an enemy. I understood his surprise and drastic reaction. Still rude to attack me though. Have fun with the monsters, I thought as I stared at the window the axe fell through. I was just going to relax and heal a bit¡ªOh shit! Could monsters wield that stupid thing?

    Fuck, fuck, fuck, I continually cursed in my head, scrambling to the window.

    I kept my newly-regenerated ears, which Penemue snipped off earlier, peeled for any whistling sound. Nothing. Only noises from the monster gang war. Sensing no attacks coming up, I carefully peeked over the edge.

    A bunch of monster corpses speckled the sidewalk below. Both mushroom and parasite monsters scattered whichever which way.

    I turned my head right, following the trail of carnage.

    There! A tentacle zombie monster with mushrooms growing on its back and shoulders shuffled to the next block, its right hand grasped the handle of a giant lollipop axe with creepy carvings, dragging the heavy and unwieldy blade across the pavement. That answered the question of who could use it. I suspected that even animals, like a dog or something, also could, although that¡¯ll be awkward.

    I was lucky Penemue didn¡¯t come back up while I was recuperating. He was really serious in avoiding giant Mushroom Buddy, heading the opposite end of Marshall Avenue. He could also be avoiding me. Or SpookyErind maybe? I wondered what he¡¯d seen inside me that set him off like that. Mental note: ask SpookyErind about it the next time we meet.

    Seeing Penemue, the feral hunger welled up once again.

    I gnashed my teeth in anticipation, but at the same time, I tried to suppress my appetite. If I fought Penemue and won, I still couldn¡¯t eat his body. And he''d just call more monsters to wield him. So, what was the point? A useless risk and a massive waste of time better spent going after Mushroom Buddy. I buried my claws into the floor to stop myself from jumping down the building and chasing after the stupid axe. I¡¯ll eat him¡­Rule #4 and all, but not now.

    I slammed my head on the floor to knock some sense into me and shoo away my cravings. I still sorely needed to feed after what I¡¯d gone through.

    I sniffed the air. That smell!

    ¡°Crekekekek¡­¡±

    ¡°Ghwaaghh!¡±

    ¡°Hwroaw hrrwaaa.¡±

    A bunch of mushroom people showed up, wielding an assortment of organic weapons made from hardened mushroom sludge. I grinned with my growing fangs crowding my snout. Fate was finally turning to my side, serving me a silver platter of fresh provisions.

    Their clothes looked familiar. Granted, they wore generic formal attire for work so I might be imagining shit, but were they the employees Penemue protected earlier? Their faces were messed up by mushroom spore posies. But they did smell familiar.

    So much for Penemue¡¯s hard work. Serves him right for cutting me!

    These people must¡¯ve run into an almond spore pod that infected them. As they say, ¡®one man¡¯s misfortune is another man¡¯s fortune¡¯¡ªor in this case, woman, me. Not sure if that was an actual saying, but I¡¯d leave that question for later because it was time to eat.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    <hr>

    Invigorated by a quick snack of about twenty-odd people, I chased after Mushroom Buddy. I mostly just ate their heads and the shrieking mushroom spore-folk growing on them, not bothering to finish the feast because they didn¡¯t provide much power. Still, they did fully restore my body, and more.

    My limbs lengthened, muscles bulged out. Claws sprouted through my boots, my clothes and skin merged, sprouting lush fur like a time-lapsed video of grass growing. I could move the ears on the top of my hoodie now. My braids unraveled, my hair spreading like a wildfire of gold and red in the wind.

    I jumped from building to building, enjoying the exhilarating speed, savoring the cool wind. This was almost too soothing that I could fall asleep. Very different from the thrilling chase after I escaped from Serenade Bazaar, the police helicopters and drones shooting at me¡ªgod, that felt such a long time ago already.

    Police and BID presence was now in the air, but they were far away and didn¡¯t target me, seemingly busy with stopping the spread of the mushroom infection. They mostly steered clear of Mushroom Buddy¡ªI saw a police helicopter get shot down by one of the spore pods¡ªfocusing on the small fries and waiting for BID reinforcements from the Palomar Node.

    With no one bothering me, I was just feeling calm and content, the top predator in this concrete jungle¡­besides Mushroom Buddy. I¡¯d settle for rank two predator then.

    The titan fungus had turned left into another street, I think that was Tenth Avenue, the tall buildings mostly hiding it from view. But it was obvious where it was because of the orange cloud that followed it, as well as the spore-missile barrage it loved to do every few minutes or so.

    Although I bravely headed towards it, I had no idea what to do. I might really need to transform into my giant werewolf mode to have a chance of bringing it down¡ªand that presented a different set of problems. If I lost control of myself in the middle of a feeding frenzy and the BID big guns from the Palomar Node arrived, I¡¯d get blasted to bits. If only I still had Penemue with me this would¡¯ve been an easy job.

    Speaking of Penemue, I had successfully quelled my hunger for that stupid axe, a significant development in taming my transformation¡¯s feral instincts. Funnily enough, I wasn¡¯t angry with him even if it was set in stone I¡¯d eat him someday. Must be the time we spent together inside my head? Ewwww!

    Perhaps it was because my layers of faces were pointless when we were connected.

    That was kind of relaxing too.

    With a powerful leap after a running start, I soared over Marshall Avenue. Even though I jumped from a much taller building than my target, I still couldn¡¯t land on its roof, grabbing onto its wall instead¡ªthe six lanes of Marshall Avenue was too wide for one jump. I climbed up and resumed my journey. To reach Mushroom Buddy faster, I travelled diagonally to its location instead of following Marshall Avenue and then Tenth Avenue; hypotenuse-shortest-distance bullshit back in high school, god, I hate math.

    I spotted a modest apartment building, one of the many that dotted the side streets branching out of Marshall Avenue, with a group of survivors on the rooftop. Former survivors. An almond had crashed onto the building and infected them with its spores. So¡­technically, they didn¡¯t survive at all.

    Another quick snack before I fought the final boss.

    As soon as I landed, a mountain of mushroom people piled on me like it was grade school and I had just opened a bag of candies. I stood still so they could do their utmost to injure me; their blades, spikes, and projectiles could barely penetrate my skin. It was frustrating as fuck!

    Anyone who at the least nicked me was instantly devoured. I had grown to a size that with two hands, I could fully grasp a man¡¯s torso. Someone jabbed my butt with a spear. I turned around to grab him, bit off the upper half of his body¡ªthe head and the parts with mushroom colonies¡ªbefore throwing the leftover carcass away.

    The horrendous whirlwind of violence I inflicted on these monsters did nothing to spark the excitement of battle I sought; I almost zoned out because of how boring it was, just going through the motions of eating these weaklings. I didn¡¯t finish them all because the remaining ones were too weak to hurt me since I became stronger after eating most of them. Resuming my hunt of Mushroom Buddy, I was still uncertain if this was enough to take on the giant Adumbrae.

    Combat drones swarmed the colossal walking mushroom, shooting at it and pelting it with small explosives. It did as much damage as you¡¯d expect shooting a building would. Some of the masses of mushroom folk living on Mushroom Buddy sprouted wings. These flying fungi attacked the combat drones and brought them down.

    Keeping a safe distance of a couple of blocks away, three military-looking helicopters launched missiles at the Adumbrae, aiming downwards at what I assumed to be its feet. It seemed to be ineffective because Mushroom Buddy maintained its pace and the ground kept shaking with each step. Another round of missiles was met by the winged mushroom creatures, blocking it from reaching the main body that spawned them. The military fired their machine guns at the flying mushrooms flocking after them, before turning around to flee as more and more monsters came.

    Hmmm? A police chopper zipped past.

    It caught up to Mushroom Buddy, flying parallel to it, not shooting or doing anything else, before speeding ahead and landing on top of a building that was likely on the Adumbrae¡¯s path. There was no one on the building¡¯s rooftop to evacuate. People alighted, unloading a bunch of equipment.

    Sketchy as fuck.

    Why would a police helicopter hang out here when others stayed away? And what were they doing over there? Didn¡¯t look police-related to me. They could¡¯ve helped people somewhere else. My keen eyes spied from several buildings away that the men were in full military gear similar to the National Guard protecting EFU Medical Center. Why were they here? And riding a police helicopter?

    I¡¯d bet the next kitchen blender I¡¯d buy this was connected to Auron Cohenn, that gloating slimy ass. This wasn¡¯t the BID helicopter he hijacked, so this could be his minions. The 2Ms did have police connections.

    I didn¡¯t have to wait long for my suspicions to be confirmed. The bunch of military men parted as they went about their suspicious task, revealing a familiar fuckface in their midst.

    Auron! I growled. I slowed my pace and kept my jumps low so they wouldn¡¯t spot me coming closer, a building at a time.

    He looked worse for wear, his torn clothes were bloodied and covered in what was likely soot. I¡¯d like to congratulate whoever hurt him. Could it have been Reo and Everett? They did say they were near the hospital. I almost forgot about them. A small part of me wondered if those two were still alive.

    Whatever injuries Auron had, most of it already healed. He directed his men to set up their equipment at the edge of the roof. They were quick in their work as Mushroom Buddy came closer and closer to their building. A couple of the winged mushroom creatures spotted them. They were quickly dispatched by gunfire from the military guys when they got close.

    Auron and Mushroom Buddy in one place. Two assholes with one stone.

    Fate is truly on my side!

    I thought about how to approach this. What was the range of Auron¡¯s power to negate abilities? And what was its extent? It did zilch to Penemue, so I considered if it could still do anything when I had powered up to this state. It was going to suck if I jumped in just to be reverted to Erind and turned to swiss cheese by the guns.

    Mushroom Buddy shooting off another wave of its spore pods gave me an idea. You¡¯re a fucking genius, Erind, I cheered myself. Excitement pumped through me.

    I decided to position myself atop a building that was a few floors taller than the one Auron was on. A couple of smaller streets separated us. They still hadn¡¯t noticed me. I grabbed a piece of concrete off the roof as easily as breaking off a piece of biscuit. I steadied my breathing and judged Auron¡¯s distance. I had no idea how strong I was now, but I was certain my throws could reach them.

    Here goes! I lunged, my clawed foot cracking the floor as I stepped forward, my body followed, and lastly, my arm. I whipped the rock forward using with so much force that it¡¯d surely reach Auron before arching down and missing. The rock zoomed across the air and was about to hit its target.

    One of the fake Guardsmen jumped in the way.

    Both the rock and the Guardsman broke into pieces. Yes. A human shattered like it was made of ceramics. It wasn¡¯t a human at all.

    Finlay!

 4.48

    Finlay doing his trick with fake armed men again? Never expected that he''d survive my condo¡¯s destruction. I would¡¯ve forgotten about this sketchy asshole were it not for him killing the people my heroic Pino face tried to protect.

    The last I¡¯d seen of him and his brother, Calder, was when we had a truce, and they taught me how to mess with Stella¡¯s stupid metal box controller before abandoning her. They were Stella¡¯s enemies, but that didn¡¯t make them my friends. The fact that they were working with Auron meant they didn¡¯t turn on the 2Ms. Just some in-fighting amongst them.

    If Finlay was here, his brother might be here too. Finlay was always with his clay men while Calder could use illusions. I should be on guard for bullshit trickery. Too bad I didn¡¯t have my Pino form to see through fakes or illusions.

    ¡°GHRROAARWW!¡± I throatily roared at the assholes. Our truce was no more. Those twins were also on the menu if I caught them!

    The Finlay Terracotta Army rushed to form ranks to cover their equipment and, more importantly, Auron. It was just a flimsy wall of plaster or ceramics or whatever shit they were made of. They raised their rifles at me. Before they could shoot, another big piece of concrete already hurtled towards them.

    My aim hit right in the center of their lines, blasting two of them into dozens of shards and punching a hole in their formation. Auron hiding behind them had jumped out of harm¡¯s way. They opened fire.

    The bullets chiseled away at the edge of the rooftop, chipping off fragments of concrete. The windows of the topmost floor shattered below me.

    I didn¡¯t run.

    I didn¡¯t hide.

    I stood strong and proud in front of these weak attacks, savoring the bullets pelting my body as I held over my head a particularly large slab I broke off the roof. The bullets penetrated, at most, a couple of inches deep into my flesh, if at all. A few pinged right off my skull. My body simply regenerated the wounds almost instantly, pushing the squished pieces of metal out before the holes healed shut. It was almost like a relaxing massage, the hot lead adding to the enjoyable experience.

    And with the injuries, laughably minuscule as they were, the power-up began along with the cravings for the insolent puny creature that dared harm me.

    This was what I waited for.

    Hunger.

    My insatiable hunger was directed at the group of phony National Guardsmen. This meant Finlay was somewhere there among his fakes. Even without Pino¡¯s special eyesight that could detect life force, I had my own way of finding my prey.

    I threw the slab at the left end of the Guardsmen formation, the place where my instincts told me my prey was located. The slab crushed a few more clay men and punched down through the building. The other fakes scrambled away from the collapsing part of the roof.

    ¡°Rwaargh?¡± The real one wasn¡¯t among them. My cravings redirected to the other end of their formation. What happened? Was I imagining shit?

    Auron jostled the terracotta Guardsmen aside, brandishing a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. He fired it, along with yelling curse words at me. This proved that his power, whatever it was, couldn¡¯t reach me.

    The missile missed its mark, whooshing into a window of the floor below me.

    BOOM!

    I wobbled a bit as the building shook. The blast shattered windows, flames flared out followed by billowing black smoke. Part of the roof to my back was pushed up by the explosion like a disgusting growing pimple, the concrete cracking before it deflated and began to crumble into a hole.

    So, that¡¯s it?

    I kind of wanted to get hit by that. Not sure if that was a good idea, but it would¡¯ve made me hunger for Auron too. Yep, it was a good idea.

    One of the clay men handed Auron another loaded rocket launcher before joining his brother in their useless effort of trying to kill me with laughable metal pellets. I could see Auron¡¯s face. He had an arrogant expression, with a dash of condescension and mocking, as he lined up his sights with me.

    As a challenge, I opened my arms wide, presenting myself as a big unmoving target. I would¡¯ve painted myself with a bullseye if that¡¯d help him. Hit me this time, you idiot!

    His cocky grin turned into an angry scowl and he fired.

    BOOOOMM!!

    I blanked out. My vision blinded. Only a single white note rang in my ears.

    And then everything came back.

    The sky above me. My body splayed out in the air. I was flying across the rooftop.

    Like a bowling ball, I rolled into the exhaust vents of the building¡¯s air conditioning system. The metal crumpled as I tumbled among them, their blades breaking off when meeting my body. I picked myself up from the wreckage of the ventilation units.

    Blood frothed through the gaps of my fangs. Everything was hazy but starting to refocus. I checked my body. Most of the fur on my front side got burned off. Thankfully, my chest and abdomen were a mangled mess of bloody flesh¡ªa weird thing to be grateful for, but it¡¯d be uncannily disgusting and awkward to be stripped of hair as a werewolf, and my injuries hid that.

    And for fuck¡¯s sake! I complained in my head as I saw my shredded innards hanging out like it was Saturday night at a bar. My god, again? What was this? The third time I got gutted open on the same day? And in various forms too.

    I stomped back to the end of the roof to look for Finlay and Auron, kicking away broken machines in my way. My body was quickly healing. The heavier the damage I received, the faster I became stronger. It was the same when I first turned into a giant werewolf at the docks. Although my food was just weak humans, I rapidly grew because of the heavy weaponry they used to fight me.

    The difference was, this time, I had more control over myself.

    The place where I had stood was demolished by the explosion. It was like a landslide¡ªor a building slide¡ªoccurred there, caving to the floors below from the power of the blast. Something that strong couldn¡¯t even put me down for long. I chuckled. It came out like a wheezing camel.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    The pain.

    The possibility of dying.

    This feels AWESOME!

    The terracotta Guardsmen were back to their original number; Finlay must''ve remade them. They continued tinkering with their sci-fi equipment setup bullshit as Mushroom Buddy lumbered by. They shot something at it with the rocket launcher. It wasn¡¯t with an explosive missile as they did to me, a different kind of drill-looking projectile. It couldn¡¯t hit Mushroom Buddy¡¯s body because the hundreds of pint-sized mushroom gremlins living on it blocked the shots.

    The colossal Adumbrae paid Auron¡¯s shenanigans no mind.

    It did stop once, directly in front of their building, to release a barrage of its spore pods into the air. Only the flying mushroom thingies came over to harass them. Whatever PCM Leader was planning, it didn¡¯t appear to be going well. He was frantically yelling orders as he punched away a munchkin with leathery wings that landed on their machine.

    The audacity to think that they already took care of me. You assholes should¡¯ve taken the opportunity to escape!

    One of Finlay¡¯s men noticed I was back. The rest stopped fighting the mushrooms and turned in my direction. They fired, but all of us knew that''d amount to nothing.

    A panicked Auron Cohenn chose to scurry back to the helicopter with his tail between his legs.

    I resumed catapulting shit at them, smashing the clay men shielding the fleeing PCM leader, destroying them one by one in rapid succession, scaring the shit of the smug asshole who dared gloat at me at the police station. When he reached the helicopter door, I finally threw rubble at him, catching his lower body. I didn¡¯t aim for the helicopter to give him something to hope for. His legs got swept and were folded forward under the helicopter¡¯s body. He spun back to the roof, bounced off once, his back and head slamming down, and laid squirming in agony.

    The wide triangular ears high on my head wiggled when his sweet screams of pain reached me. He grabbed his contorted legs and yelled for help from Finlay.

    Finlay?

    Yeah¡­where was that guy?

    I destroyed all terracotta Guardsmen. He couldn¡¯t be hiding behind illusions because my cravings for him weren¡¯t directed anywhere. Only at the injured Auron. That Finlay asshole just disappeared. Poofed away. He must have a secret ability to escape, and that could be how he survived the destruction of my condo building. Finlay at it again with abandoning his colleagues.

    I stared at Mushroom Buddy turning left down Compton Street¡ªthis road was narrower and so the giant Adumbrae sort of squeezed itself through, toppling buildings left and right¡ªthen back at Auron who was starting to heal but still in immense pain.

    His cries drew a stray winged mushroom weirdo over. I knocked it out of the sky. Fucker trying to dirty my food with its spores.

    This was pathetic. I thought Auron had more mettle in him since he orchestrated this elaborate plan and manipulated a huge organization that bordered a cult. He had an Adumbrae body and wasn¡¯t used to this kind of baby stuff pain? I doubted he had been through a pinky finger¡¯s worth of what I¡¯ve been.

    Speaking of babies, this hunt was as easy as taking candy from a baby, I mused while examining a piece of debris held between my wicked claws. Or throwing rocks at babies¡ªwait, what? I hurled the piece of rubble at Auron, hitting his arm. It exploded like he was hit by a shotgun, almost tearing it off.

    Annoying desperate pleas for his life.

    This wasn¡¯t fun.

    Better get this over with.

    I planned to knock him out with pain, then I¡¯d hop over to eat him to finish this¡ªif I came now, he still might be able to turn me back to Erind. I had to be careful not to go overboard and accidentally kill him; I shouldn¡¯t hit his heart and especially his head. I should also be wary not to get tricked if he feigned fainting. I threw a smaller concrete fragment, injuring his legs again.

    My left ear twitched to the side.

    Faint noises of movement. A strange smell, the disgusting odor of the parasites.

    I turned and spotted a small black blur heading at me. I raised my hand to block it.

    The thing shallowly pierced my skin. It burrowed amongst my thick red fur covering my arm¡ªa pulsating black ball with tiny boils all over. It sprouted tentacles from underneath its body and coiled around my arm. With the tightened grip, it continued drilling into my flesh with a beak or some shit, trying to penetrate deep.

    I could feel it sucking my blood. No, not just my blood. My energy too.

    Boils on its body engorged with each gulp. I reached to grab it, intending to chuck it into my mouth. But as my platter-sized palm closed around it, the fucking thing exploded.

    It excavated a bit of my flesh and streaked my hand with superficial cuts. I didn¡¯t hunger for it anymore because it was¡­already gone. The smoke burned my nostrils though. Pretty foul with my super sense of smell.

    ¡°There¡¯s more where that came from!¡± A mysterious large man had climbed onto the roof from the side of the building and hurled more parasite balls at me.

    I dug the front of my right foot into the roof, the sharp claws growing from my hairy toes piercing the concrete. I kicked up, shoveling a large chunk off the roof and flinging it upwards. The parasite balls slammed into the flying piece of concrete. Then, in one fluid motion, I kicked it forward to the newcomer.

    The man headbutted the concrete slab without hesitation, breaking it apart. ¡°I¡¯ll take ya on, ya big furball!¡±

    He was very tall, probably more than seven feet and gradually growing, his legs and arms longer than normal human proportions. He wore beach shorts with cartoonish coconut tree art and an open trench coat that fluttered behind him in the wind. The most peculiar thing was the bandages wrapping his body¡ªhis entire body, including his whole face, like an Egyptian mummy.

    As his muscles enlarged and his limbs lengthened, the bandages unraveled, revealing green scales covering him. His forearms and hands ballooned to cartoonish proportions.

    Reptile Man rushed at me. I snarled at him. When he reached me, I was amazed that I was taller than him! He punched my head with his scaly sledgehammer fist. My head turned right but I stood firm. I broke into a wide grin, displaying my fangs.

    ¡°Ya think yar tough, huh?¡± He continued to rain punch after punch, roaring a battle cry while giving it his all. I felt the impact of each blow¡ªhe was pushing me backward across the roof, the concrete beneath me cracking¡ªbut they didn¡¯t hurt.

    I swiped at him, tearing off strips of bandages as well as removing the hardened scales that protected his body. My one attack sent him flying as if he got hit by a rocket launcher.

    ¡°Arggh! Fuck!¡± Reptile Man managed to dig his claws into the ground to stop himself from careening off the building.

    ¡°Slinky!¡± A frail old man climbed out of the hole caused by the first missile. ¡°Are you all right?¡±

    ¡°As dandy as the day I was born, Mister,¡± was the reply. Reptile Man, who was apparently Slinky, touched the deep gashes on his chest. He felt the blood with his fingers and gazed up at me. I couldn¡¯t tell his expression because of the bandages, but I felt murderous intent. "Just having a great day!"

    ¡°The situation is dire. Let me help you.¡± The old man was really wrinkled, probably looking older than his actual age. His skin was sort of tanned and dried out like he had been working for decades under the sun. He picked one of the large canisters attached to a sling over his shoulder and handed it to Slinky.

    Slinky cracked open the canister and out came a small creature, one of those vile parasites like from my condo building based on its smell. It climbed up his arm and moved to somewhere on his back.

    KABOOM! BO-BOOM! BOOM!

    The shockwaves from massive explosions on Mushroom Buddy reached us, kicking up dust and debris.

    Were those BID assault ships?

    ¡°Lookie here, furry bitch!¡± Slinky said. ¡°We''re not done yet!¡±

 4.49

    Several more explosions bathed Mushroom Buddy, drowning the voices of the old man and Slinky planning some shit. The Titan Adumbrae had progressed a few blocks into Compton Street, shaving the faces of buildings in its wake. The blasts also helped bring structures down. Earlier missiles didn¡¯t do much to Mushroom Buddy, but these were apparently different.

    The force from the detonations reached me. I tensed my feet, digging my claws into the concrete to anchor myself. But I was still pushed back a step, my fur covered with a blanket of dust. My two opponents crouched down and held tight onto the roof so they wouldn¡¯t tumble forward. My hearing was filled with thousands of glass windows shattering all at once.

    And then it came.

    Whatever it was.

    An inexplicably massive pull, reversing the initial shockwaves and sucking the air back to Mushroom Buddy''s direction severalfold in strength. I had to bend down and grab the roof to steady myself.

    What the fuck was that? I couldn¡¯t understand what was going on, but the bombs¡­they were doing¡­something. Car-sized chunks of Mushroom Buddy¡¯s fleshy umbrella head were seemingly compressed, the vacuum force even pulling parts of the surrounding buildings into the point of explosion.

    ¡°The BID twats from Palomar Node are here!¡± Slinky yelled, his voice distorted by the warped air.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get Auron,¡± the old man said. He took another canister from his belt and rolled it to me before leaping off the building.

    As he soared over the narrow side street, I shot forward, using my claws hooked to the ground for speed like a sprinter kicking off the blocks at the start of a race. The corner of my eye caught the canister on the ground burst open. A silvery blob expanded and enveloped me like a net. I ignored it attempting to wrap my body as I followed the old man.

    He landed on the peaked roof of the smaller building on the other side and kept running. I jumped after him. My leg suddenly felt heavy. Something clamped tightly around my right ankle, weighing me down. I lost height. My trajectory had descended to the windows and walls instead of the roof. Before I crashed, I checked my leg and saw that reptile mummy asshole hanging onto me.

    Both of us smashed against a window, which was too small, so we ended up breaking through the whole wall as well.

    ¡°Ghrrwaaa!¡± I roared, shoving away the wreckage of sofas, tables, and chairs.

    The stupid slime shit made my limbs stick to my torso. Layers and layers of silvery membrane kept on stretching to cover my body, wrapping me like luggage at the airport. I furiously scratched it off, snarling in frustration. Even though I was hunched over because of massive back muscles curving my upper body forward, my head was still too high for this room, hitting a ceiling fan as I thrashed about and splintering the wooden planks it was attached.

    Slinky was on the floor, still holding my leg. He pulled it as he got up to put me off balance. ¡°I¡¯m not letting ya go¡ªArgh!¡±

    I pulled my leg back down, dragging him to me. My fist met his face. Go back to a fucking pyramid! ¡°Rhhrwaa Hroaarr!¡±

    His head followed by his upper body went through the floorboards. The moment I felt his grip weaken for a split second, I kicked him upwards with my other leg, catching his midsection. He smashed through the ceiling to the floor above.

    I went back out of the hole on the side of the building and climbed upwards. The annoying slime plastic cover thing persisted in its quest to incapacitate me, but my continuous growth in power and size rendered it negligible. Flexing my muscles as I climbed tore the sticky membrane it weaved over my fur. The creature, whatever it was, sputtered profuse amounts of slime on my fur and just unceremoniously peeled away from my body.

    Annoying little shit. Couldn¡¯t even be useful and hurt me to be my food.

    I had gone a few floors up¡ªjust one more to the roof¡ªwhen a massive fist broke through the brick wall in front of me, almost knocking me off the building.

    ¡°If ya think ya got rid of me,¡± Slinky yelled through the collapsing rubble, "think again!" He was winding up for another punch.

    I gritted my fangs. I wanted to eat this toilet paper-wrapped lizard, but I should get to Auron first before he could escape. With one hand still hanging on, the bricks I latched on slowly becoming loose, I pulled my humongous body up to the sloping roof, evading Slinky¡¯s blow that removed another portion of the wall of the floor below.

    The reptile mummy asshole didn¡¯t give up just yet.

    The shingles ahead burst upwards and drizzled me with roofing shards. Slinky popped up like a jack-in-the-box no one wanted to see. Most of his bandages had been torn away, showing more of his reptilian body. Patches of his scales looked diseased, blackening and peeling, allowing disgusting black tendrils to poke through and wiggle in the air like he was a rotten apple housing hungry worms.

    Behind Slinky, I spotted that the old man had reached the roof of the building the next street over¡ªAuron¡¯s building.

    KABO-BOOM!! KABOOM!!

    The weird sucking bombs!

    Slinky lowered himself, obviously wary of the incoming shockwave.

    I dropped on all fours so I wouldn¡¯t get swept backward. Hey, wait a sec. A brilliant idea popped into my head. I took this opportunity to rush Slinky. ¡°GROAARRGH!¡±

    The force from the blast came. Another blanket of dust, broken glass, and this time, tiny asphalt pieces from the dislodged shingles.

    I dug my claws past the roof shingles, into whatever material was underneath. I didn¡¯t know what I held onto, but it was weak and I was starting to get lifted off the roof! I scrambled to regain some hold, looking like a cartoon character running in place on slippery ground. I somehow dug through the roof and reached its thick wood beams.

    Okay, that was a fail. Who thought it was a good idea to put this kind of roof on an apartment building in the middle of the city? This should be on a house in the suburbs. Why couldn¡¯t this building just blend in with the crowd and have a simple flat roof?

    Slinky¡¯s shoulders heaved as he chuckled after he saw what happened to me. He had also grabbed the roof beams for support, tentacles sprouting from his arms to help him hold on. ¡°Too big for ya own good, ya crazy she-wolf?¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    The start of my charge may have failed, but I wasn¡¯t done just yet. I leaped just as the returning shockwave got sucked back to its source. The force propelled me forward, right into a surprised Slinky¡ªI just assumed he was surprised because bandages still covered most of his face.

    ¡°The hell¡ª?¡± He raised his ballooning arm to block me. I stabbed down at his elbow, cutting off his forearm, and piercing his chest. ¡°Ya bitch!¡±

    I snagged his severed limb twirling in mid-air between my jaws and chewed it with gusto. My clawed hand continued burrowing into his body. It exited his back. I pressed forward with my charge, bringing him along, a knight who had won the jousting match but didn¡¯t want to stop.

    ¡°Let go¡ªurgk¡­arghk!¡± Slinky violently coughed. The bandages hiding his face were drenched with dark reddish blood that had the foul odor of those cursed parasites. He punched me with his remaining arm. He did become stronger by merging with the old man¡¯s parasite gift. Still a mere inconvenience. ¡°Damnit! Let go of me, ya hear?¡±

    I jumped over to Auron¡¯s building. And as I did, I flung Slinky down, sliding my arm out of him. He screamed as he fell. I hit the building¡¯s side. My claws punctured the textured concrete finish.

    I pooled all my concentration into eating Slinky¡¯s arm while scaling the walls. I focused on breaking the overlapping armor-like scales, chewing the tough sinews, crunching the bones, drinking the black liquid from the parasite that mixed with his blood¡ªeverything was delicious to me. Just eat, just eat, just eat. Don¡¯t go crazy, I coaxed myself like calming a baby on the verge of a temper tantrum.

    Surprisingly, I was still in control.

    Barely.

    I thought I¡¯d lose my sanity and be fixated on consuming Slinky that I¡¯d forget about Auron. It felt so refreshing to have this much control given how far I was into my werewolf transformation. Judging from the height of the window wall opening, I was nearly ten feet of muscle, fur, fangs, claws, and destruction.

    The rage was there. I could feel it bubbling just beneath the surface, about to overflow at any moment if I made a mistake. But, so far, the lid had stayed on the boiling pot.

    Something cracked in the air. I shifted a window¡¯s width to the side.

    A thick tentacle slammed my earlier spot. ¡°I missed you,¡± Slinky called from about four levels below. His stump of an arm had grown into this tentacle¡ªthe work of the parasite inside him. "You get it, huh? Missed me too?"

    I looked up. Was that the engine of the helicopter?

    That old man!

    I climbed faster while slashing up the tentacles that tried to grab me.

    Upon reaching the roof, I was greeted by the scene of the old man pulling an unconscious Auron with mangled legs into the helicopter. Its blades were rapidly rotating, sending ripples of air. Its windshield was shattered and it had holes and dents all over its body. The explosions damaged it, but it was still working. I should¡¯ve just destroyed this thing earlier.

    No matter. I¡¯d just knock it out of the sky.

    Something extended upward from behind, its expansive shadows streaking across the roof. A bunch of tentacles seized me. They almost covered my entire body with their coils. I tried to spread my arms, stretching the tentacles. Blood spurted from the disgusting appendages as they tried to keep themselves together. I bit the topmost coil. Chomp after chomp, I ate them.

    ¡°That fucking hurts!¡± Slinky screamed from behind.

    I turned around. The asshole had also reached the roof. He pulled me to the edge using the remaining intact tentacles holding me.

    I didn¡¯t budge.

    He lunged with a furious roar. A long scaly snout tore through the bandages covering his lower face. With a wide open mouth, he displayed rows of sharp teeth.

    ¡°Grrooarrh!¡± I roared as his teeth sunk into the side of my neck. Enough of this shit!

    After I freed an arm from the tentacles, I grabbed the back of his head and squeezed it. He stubbornly wouldn¡¯t loosen his bite even if his skull cracked. I forcefully yanked his head back. He took strips of flesh from my neck with him.

    That hurts you fucking bastard! I opened my jaws as wide as I could and clamped on his snout. I gnawed on his snout like a pretzel, continuing to eat his whole face. And then, I was no longer sure of what was going on.

    I only knew I must eat.

    Eat!

    Eat!!!

    Fuck¡­I¡¯m losing it¡­so dumb, Erind¡­

    The tiny squeak from the corner of my mind didn¡¯t matter. Food was in front of me! EAT!!!

    I gorged on the head, taking bite after bite without pause, as fast as my wide maw could open and close. Pieces of the skull broke like chips between my fangs. The brain was so soft and mushy that I was almost drinking it. In my ravenous hunger, I decimated the head in a couple of seconds and moved down to the neck. Mouthful after mouthful of meat.

    Tentacles growing out of the exposed spine tried to stop me. I ate them all. My head bent lower and lower as I ripped chunks of meat off the muscular shoulders. Eating was the only thing in my head. I was going to consume the entire body of any prey stupid enough to fight me.

    Hey! Knock it off!

    Those who hurt me were all food!

    BOOM!!! BO-BOOM! BOOM!

    Eh? I swayed to the left along with the body I was eating. Then back to the opposite side, but much more forcefully. I stepped in the direction of my fall. What¡­what?

    As the reverberating noise of the blasts cleared, the sound of a blender touched my ear.

    Blender? I continued eating, but I was bothered. I had a kitchen blender. I lost it, didn''t I? My poor blender. Someone was using a blender around here. A very, very loud whirring blend¡ªWake up!

    I turned in the direction of the noise. Helicopter?

    Helicopter!

    Auron!

    My other food. And it was escaping!

    The helicopter hadn¡¯t gone up that high or that far yet. They were having problems¡ªthe shockwaves from the BID explosions must¡¯ve messed up with its flight. It was violently tilting back and forth in the air, almost about to just roll out of control.

    I looked down at the body I was eating. It reminded me of a banana, the thick scaly hide was the peeled skin, and the middle part an unexplainable mess of flesh, bones, and helpless tentacles. I rummaged around and yanked out a long and sharp bone, maybe one of the ribs. Dunno, I wasn''t an orthopedist.

    And away we go! I launched the monster rib at the helicopter. It was wobbling too much. Please hit!

    The rib pierced through my target. A small black puff followed by a tiny explosion on its side.

    Yes!

    I dropped Slinky¡¯s half-eaten body and ran after the smoking helicopter. It was slowly spiraling down.

    I raced over rooftops, leaping from building to building using my four limbs. My success at regaining my consciousness had me celebrating in my head. However, my elated mood was disturbed by a new sound. A slight hum in the distance that was gradually catching up to me.

    Trusting my instincts, I zigzagged as I ran.

    Blinding beams lanced various spots on the rooftop, burning holes on the concrete. A water tank I passed was destroyed, its contents turning into steam. A line of ventilation units was obliterated.

    A man in sleek black armor set with engines flew to chase after me. Emblazoned on his chest was ¡®B.I.D.¡¯. Two more agents in flying ComExos were coming. They must¡¯ve separated from the main force fighting Mushroom Buddy and spotted an Adumbrae that appeared to be chasing an innocent police helicopter.

    The three gate-crashers raised their arm cannons.

    Adios. I dove off the building.

 4.50 - Amber Deen Leska

    Amber Deen Leska

    Please, Mother Core, Amber Deen prayed in her head, keep Everett and Reo safe. The Mother Core was real¡ªshe had a supposed piece of it stuck on her chest, giving her powers. But she wasn¡¯t sure if it¡¯d listen to her plea. She¡¯d never forgive herself if something happened to the two she left behind. The gnawing pain on her left shoulder blade was hard to ignore like the guilt on her mind. She stopped and looked behind her, considering if she was on a fool¡¯s errand and should just go back to them.

    [Take cover, left.]

    ¡°Again?¡± she groaned. Following her Guardian Angel¡¯s instructions, Deen crouched beneath one of the arched decorative stone roofs evenly spaced along a skyscraper¡¯s side, flattening herself as much as possible against the wall.

    The shockwave from the bombs came. It knocked off everything that wasn¡¯t securely fixed, ripped off leaves and branches from trees, knocked down streetlights.

    Dust clouds rolled over, sweeping along all sorts of trash¡­maybe even body parts¡ªshe shuddered at the thought. Deen closed her eyes and covered her nose with the top of her shirt. The sides of her hood flapped incessantly from the wind blowing through the streets.

    After the initial blast pushing outward came the reverse wave that was worse. Stronger force, more destruction. The sound was also awful. Echoey howling. The car alarms continually wailing gave her a headache. A silver lining was it confirmed her ears had fully regenerated. She couldn¡¯t forget the icky feeling of warm blood pouring from her ears when that¡­something¡­called out to her.

    CRASH!

    ¡°Ah!¡± she yelped in surprise. Shards of glass showered her. Huge window panes dropped from the heights of the skyscraper, tugged loose by blast waves returning to their source. Falling guillotines that could¡¯ve chopped her body if she was still waking on the sidewalk.

    As soon as the winds died down, she jumped back on her feet and continued on her way.

    The bombs¡­this meant BID forces from the Palomar Node had arrived.

    Deen had seen on a documentary, which also doubled as a recruitment video, how the BID combat the more powerful Adumbrae and she recalled seeing this bomb among their destructive arsenal¡ªthere was a time she wanted to join the BID as a combat agent, but her parents shot her down. She was certain the BID should be able to take care of the Adumbrae Titan soon.

    She still couldn¡¯t believe the 2Ms had managed to summon that massive abomination in such a short time. An average Adumbrae took ages to change the person they latched onto¡ªlike Erind, she painfully reminded herself¡ªthat a Titan Class Adumbrae suddenly appearing was something she hadn¡¯t heard of unless it was made by a Purple Bloom.

    But there was no Purple Bloom here. That monstrous colossus just suddenly materialized and emerged out of EFU Medical Center after the agonizing sensation that nearly knocked her unconscious from the pain. No doubt, this was the result of 2Ms'' experiment inside that suspicious hospital.

    I was too late to stop them! Deen berated herself. Too much time wasted dilly-dallying, trying to save people¡ªno! She shouldn¡¯t regret saving others.

    But¡­dozens maybe hundreds had died or were dying because of the appearance of the Adumbrae Titan. The time it took to save a handful of people would¡¯ve been better spent stopping the 2Ms. The moment she saw monsters that looked like those Erind had described that attacked her condo, everything should¡¯ve clicked in her head. She should¡¯ve immediately rushed to the hospital!

    Should! Should! Should!

    She slowed her pace down, closing her eyes and vigorously shaking her head.

    No!

    Regret saving people was the worst! She shouldn''t think that. And she also helped Everett and Reo fight the monsters at the subway station. If she wasn¡¯t there, those two would¡¯ve been in trouble, as well as the dozens of people hiding there.

    At the least, she shouldn¡¯t regret saving her teammates.

    They both saved her too.

    All of them were incapacitated when the Adumbrae Titan appeared.

    Everett was the first to recover. He held back the horde of mushroom creatures the Adumbrae Titan birthed. If not for him, they¡¯d be marching behind the Titan now, implanted with its infectious spores, a part of its mind-controlled army. Wave after wave of mushroom creatures chased them through the streets as they fled from the hospital. Everett struggled to burn them all. He also ignited the air to turn the spores to ash.

    Reo, the second to get back on his feet, also did his part. He tossed Deen over his shoulder since she couldn¡¯t stand on her own because she was non-stop coughing up blood. He fought off any mushroom monsters that got past Everett. And when Everett fainted, he also carried him.

    They, or rather Reo, managed to break into a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in a cramped alley. It was closed due to the protests, so they were alone. Reo made his way to the pantry where he deposited them before collapsing.

    Only then did Deen manage to get herself together.

    And she saw the sacrifices of her teammates to keep her safe.

    Everett was barely conscious. Huge patches of skin on his arms and legs turned purple, signs of severe internal bleeding that wasn''t healing. She could be wrong, but he appeared withered a bit. Reo, on the other hand, got hit on his back by a couple of projectiles from a mushroom creature. These were probably headed for her, and he blocked them. His regeneration tried in vain to fight off the encroaching infection. But his body was failing, small mushrooms sprouting out of his skin started to cover his back.

    ¡°If only I listened to Gabe,¡± Deen muttered to herself as she recalled what happened to them. She bit her lower lip until it bled and she tasted its saltiness. Her shoulder ached even more. Gabe obviously told her not to go anywhere near the hospital.

    She ignored it.

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    But then again, she fervently reasoned with herself, it would¡¯ve said the same thing even if she could arrive on time to stop the 2Ms. Her Guardian Angel would always err on the side of caution. She¡¯d be held back from doing any heroic acts if she kept following it. She had to force herself into dangerous situations to get Gabe to side with her decision. And what if she did timely reach the hospital¡­? Right?

    I decide when to listen to my Guardian Angel!

    Deen knew how helpful it could be, like when it taught her how to cut out the spores on Reo¡¯s back with a kitchen knife. She cried a fair bit while doing it, at the same time holding back the urge to vomit as Reo¡¯s blood splattered on her clothes. After a grueling five-minute bloody session, she succeeded thanks to Gabe.

    However, Deen chose to ignore her Guardian Angel¡¯s next instructions. As she stacked tables and chairs to barricade the restaurant¡¯s entrance, she noticed a howl. A sound she had heard before that had haunted her nightmares. It had the same effect as the first time she heard it, making her stop in fear like prey that didn¡¯t want to be spotted by a passing predator.

    Madame Blanchette!

    She quickly explained to Reo and Everett that there were cries for help and she was going out to find those people; she couldn¡¯t tell them the real reason was related to Blanchette. Reo was conscious, although weak, and should be able to take care of Everett. Or that was what she told herself before rushing out. She didn¡¯t give him time to argue with her.

    Am I going in the right direction?

    She followed roars, gunfire, and smaller explosions¡ªwithout the usual heavy traffic of cars and people, the sounds clearly echoed amidst the concrete jungle of the city¡¯s heart. Madame Blanchette must be in a fight.

    Deen was certain she was near where Blanchette was but didn¡¯t know where to go next. The BID bombs and the grating car alarms made it hard to hear other sounds now. And she couldn¡¯t rely on Gabe because the instructions it gave would surely lead her away from danger¡­and Madame Blanchette. Despite knowing the risks, she still wanted to meet with her.

    There were so many things she wanted to ask her, like how to stop Erind hurting or even killing people, how to slow down an Adumbrae¡¯s transformation, and so on. Anything to keep her best friend¡¯s mind intact and appear as human as possible. And perhaps she could also get answers why Blanchette specifically helped Erind. The mysterious Adumbrae wearing a red hood had shown up twice to save Erind¡ªat Sander¡¯s mall and again at the docks.

    Madame Blanchette owed her¡ªI saved her at Eve! Combined with Blanchette¡¯s propensity to help Erind and her history of fighting the 2Ms, Deen was sure she¡¯d finally be able to make friends with her. If only they¡¯d have the chance to meet.

    Fighting the 2Ms? Something bothered Deen.

    Hedley Kow and his mysterious group were also fighting the 2Ms¡­and they were also in this area. As for Blanchette, why was she here? Likely to fight the 2Ms as well.

    Could those two be connected?

    Deen¡¯s hunch was Hedley Kow and Blanchette didn¡¯t know each other. Otherwise, Hedley Kow would already know Erind¡¯s true identity before meeting her at the police station. Come to think of it, the shapeshifting Adumbrae should also know Deen¡¯s real identity too if he was really connected to Blanchette.

    Something whooshed overhead.

    Deen caught a glimpse of it.

    A flying ComExo. Black, sleek and compact. It was about the size of a man unlike the military¡¯s which were gargantuan. The BID!

    What was a BID agent doing here instead of over at the Adumbrae Titan?

    Her eyes narrowed. He¡¯s after Blanchette.

    [Don¡¯t follow it.]

    ¡°Yeah, right,¡± Deen sarcastically replied. She hurried while looking up at the sky. The BID agent flew too fast for her to keep up. Two more BID agents soared above her. And the sounds of battle flared again. An angry roar and smaller explosions. Madame Blanchette, where are you?

    She reached the street corner and stopped to peek at what was ahead. She wasn¡¯t all gung-ho to rush straight into BID agents fighting especially after ignoring Gabe¡¯s warning not to go here. Three flying ComExos shooting a building on the next block. Further on, a smoking police helicopter in distress was gradually going down. The pilot was probably controlling the crash landing to a safe spot.

    What was there? The small park in the middle of the high-rise apartment buildings?

    Something burst from the building the agents were shooting. It shot out so fast it was only a huge red blur to Deen, like a red car going two hundred miles an hour casually sideswiping one of the BID agents in mid-air before smashing into the building across the street.

    Deen gasped. Pieces of the agent fell from about thirty stories high to the ground below. Mixed with her horror was also joy. She found Madame Blanchette! The red-furred beast climbing the building was smaller than the one she saved at Eve, but it was Blanchette¡¯s power to grow bigger and bigger.

    The two remaining BID agents didn¡¯t try to save their fellow who was hit. Perhaps he was beyond saving. They were also busy evading the rocks thrown by Blanchette.

    Deen ran forward as the battle raged on from building to building, hoping the agents wouldn¡¯t notice her. What do I do here? Her heart was conflicted by the situation.

    On one hand, Madame Blanchette was killing BID agents. They were the good guys, brave and hard-working men and women putting their lives on the line to keep the country safe from the Adumbrae threat. On the other hand, Blanchette just couldn¡¯t let them kill her. If only there was something she could do to stop them¡­but that might be impossible even with her Guardian Angel. Madame Blanchette just hit one of the agents with a rock, damaging his armor.

    Were they heading to the small park? Did Blanchette want something from the downed helicopter? Deen couldn¡¯t see it as the building blocked it from view, but the black smoke rising from it rose higher and became thicker. The wind spread it along the street, making it hard to see.

    Maybe I''ll just wait after Madame Blanchette kills the agents and then try to get her attention?

    [Hide. Danger from behind.]

    She dashed to the left and concealed herself behind a car with smashed windows. This better not be a trick to get me away from Blanchette, she warned her Guardian Angel. Or it could be real danger, in which case, wouldn¡¯t it have been better if it was a trick? What was coming? Mushroom people?

    A police van drove into view, almost tilting over as it rounded the corner with blazing speed. It continued driving to the battle between the BID and Madame Blanchette. Deen followed it as soon as it passed her.

    The police van stopped by the body of the fallen BID agent¡ªwhat was left of it. Police officers came out and took the pieces of armor and the body parts on the street, and hauled them into the back of the van. Deen noticed an ominous machine the size of a car engine with a barrel on top inside the van. It didn¡¯t look like something the police would have, but more like a BID weapon to fight the Adumbrae.

    Deen narrowed her eyes as she examined them from behind the cover of a wide tree. Suddenly, one of the cops pulled off his hand. ¡°Oh my¡ª!¡± She covered her mouth. The hand came off!

    The cop tossed it to the ground and it grew into a full-sized plaster model of a man in a matter of seconds. The mysterious cop continued plucking chunks from his arm, and soon he had a small squad of plaster men. These men gained color, turning into realistic-looking cops. The cops inside the van passed weapons, guns and grenades, to the fake ones. Or maybe they were all fake. They were also activating the large machine in the van.

    Deen had no idea who they were, but she was sure of two things: one, they weren''t real cops, and two, the man making this puppet army was an Adumbrae. An Adumbrae in police gear with a weapon that might be for killing Adumbrae? Were they after Madame Blanchette too?

    [Move ahead. Behind bus stop.]

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    [Hide. Wait for them to pass before following.]

    ¡°Oh! You¡¯re helping me?¡± Deen had a grin on her face. Finally! I''m going to be a hero.

 4.51

    ¡°GHRAAAWR!¡± Cut that out, you flying piece of shit!

    The floor and ceiling trembled from my roar. Cubicle dividers, tables, and chairs tumbled away, anything glass shattered, and papers scattered in the air. The smell of burnt hair and flesh tickling my nose was infuriating. My own burnt flesh! I tried to look over my shoulder to check the damage but my boulder-sized muscles crowded each other and my really long snout was in the way. Searing pain. But I wasn¡¯t suffering.

    Just annoyed. Really annoyed.

    I sensed with my super sensey sensing sense the remaining metal man flying outside, his burning intent to kill me reeked from his armor, a grossly mistaken prey thinking he was the predator. Or did he want to avenge his comrade I tore apart? Whatever his desire was, he continued to pester me.

    The BID agent¡ªyes, at last, I remembered what to call that flea¡ªdidn¡¯t want to follow me inside the building, afraid of getting caught. All he could do was send annoying hot light my way¡ªmy mind on the brink of going absolutely ballistic could barely find the word ¡®laser¡¯ to describe it. Shoot lasers! That was what I meant! Fuck, it was so hard to think straight.

    Although I could predict where he¡¯d shoot, I was too big to evade in time. I didn¡¯t know my exact size now, but I had to be on all fours to move or I¡¯d break straight through the ceiling if I stood. I was more comfortable in this position anyway, with all my claws on the ground.

    I ran and continued my hunt. The entire floor was a huge office space, so it didn¡¯t have any concrete walls dividing it into rooms that could slow me down. All drywalls, office panel partitions and dividers; I easily went past everything as if I was running through a field of grass.

    Explosions lit my way like I was a rock star making an entrance in a concert. Painful spots blossomed on my body where the lasers hit. It took all of my willpower to keep myself on track hunting my original prey. The flying asshole outside could wait. He couldn¡¯t hurt me much even with his powerful lasers. My flesh rapidly healed and a fresh layer of fur immediately covered it as if nothing happened.

    Where the fuck are those two?

    My wide ears twitched, facing whichever which way to detect their movement, my nose vigorously sniffed the air to follow their smell. Auron the smug bastard¡ªI should eat him before anything else¡ªand the old man with the parasite canisters. It was becoming harder to track them because of the fires and spreading smoke. The sprinklers also came on and gave me a bath. I was more annoyed with my drenched fur becoming heavy with water than the lasers.

    They couldn¡¯t have already left, could they?

    While fighting the BID agents, I spotted Auron and the old man escape the wreckage of the crashed helicopter. They headed into this building to hide. To my surprise, the BID agents detached boxy metal thingies from their backs and dropped them to the ground. The two boxes sprouted legs and guns, scuttling after the 2Ms¡¯ Adumbrae goons.

    Scuttled, scampered, skittered¡­Skitter! That was right. ¡®Skitters¡¯, the name of those frickin'' spider robots that nearly killed me when I escaped the tunnels below the Eve club. These couple that the BID had deployed were smaller though. And why were they also chasing the 2Ms? Did the BID know about them?

    Whatever. Those Skitters better not mess with my food!

    Faint pops. It became an angry droning sound. Gunfire? The floor vibrated from the explosions below. I paused. Lasers found their mark. The fallen cabinet beside me burst in flames and the sprinkler above activate. Huge lesions formed where the lasers burned my flesh.

    I didn¡¯t care.

    I dug at the floor with my claws. My hands were like excavator buckets scooping out chunks of concrete. I growled as I reached the reinforced steel frame. I tugged at the rebars and bent them out of away, hoping it¡¯d be a huge enough hole for me. I crawled down the hole to the floor below while the BID agent relentlessly tried to kill me.

    As soon as I dropped down, I wrinkled my nose.

    Trace scents of my Adumbrae prey. The sounds of gunfire became louder, and two male voices were yelling. I bounded in their direction. I hoped those fuckers hadn¡¯t died yet to walking scraps of metal.

    I swept a row of cubicles out of the way and spotted Auron and the old man running to the side of the floor. A Skitter burst into view. It dug its spiky legs into the ground to stabilize itself and the gun mounted on its back whirred into action. The two Adumbrae dropped to the floor and laid flat as the robot spider strafed the windows and walls.

    ¡°Rhrwaaa!¡± My prey! If this stupid spider killed them before I¡ª

    The Skitter turned its turret in my direction, deciding I was the bigger threat it should destroy first. Auron and the old man hastily got back on their feet, bloodied and injured with several bullet wounds, and made a run for the windows. I raised my arm as the Skitter¡¯s heavy machine gun rambled. Hot metal pellets tore into my thick skin and muscles, ripping off bits and pieces of my flesh like a sculptor chipping away at the marble.

    But unlike marble, I could regenerate. And at a very rapid rate too. I rushed at the Skitter and clamped at its massive gun with my jaws. I violently shook it like an overexcited dog destroying its toy.

    Sudden sharp pains on my back, hot skewers buried deep into my muscles. What the¡ª?

    A massive shock went through my body. I clenched fangs, crunching through the metal, as I uncontrollably shook. My muscles seized, my arms and limbs curled to my body. I couldn¡¯t control myself. The other Skitter had latched onto me and was electrocuting me!

    The partially destroyed Skitter on the floor jabbed its remaining working leg into my abdomen and coursed electricity to me. Sparks came out and it suddenly exploded, perhaps already too damaged to move. The blast knocked some sense into my head.

    I forced my arm to move and reached over my back to grab the other Skitter. ¡°Hroooagrh!¡± Get off me! I pulled it, with its spiky legs and all, and slammed it on the ground right on top of its brother robot. Then the ceiling. The ground. Ground again. Ceiling, floor, ceiling, floor.

    I chucked away the postmodern metal art piece that was the Skitter before charging at the window. But I skidded to a halt before I broke through the concrete wall¡ªno way I could fit through the window. I stuck my head outside and scanned the surroundings before deciding what to do next. I was amazed at myself to still have some presence of mind left after all this time. The burden to keep the crazed feral creature at bay inside my head was becoming harder and harder. Great was the temptation to let it go and enjoy the destruction.

    No! That was suicide if I went out of control in the middle of the City.

    And that¡¯d break Rule #8.

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    I spotted Auron and the old man lying in the middle of the street, trapped by some kind of energy forcefield dome whatever.

    Were they dead? Fuck!

    Oh, wait. Nope, just stunned by an electroshock weapon. Phew. They were starting to move. The old man fumbled through his remaining canisters, the ones that contained various kinds of parasites, while Auron yelled orders and flapped his arms like a drama queen. I wasn¡¯t sure any parasite could help them out of their predicament because a BID agent hovered above them.

    Noises of a firefight filled the air. It was nearby; definitely not the battle going on over at Mushroom Buddy. What did happen to that big guy? The BID had stopped using their weird bombs for some time.

    Multiple rifles shooting. More BID agents? Police? This commotion was somewhere along the part of the street on the front side of this building. It was out of my view since I was on its left. And was that another laser gun thingy? It sure sounded like it. Must be the BID agent I had hit with a rock. I damaged his ComExo and he had to land somewhere.

    Maybe I should be concerned about this new fight, but all of that wasn¡¯t my problem.

    I was just going to kill this BID agent, then move on to Auron and the old man. I had to thank the agent for serving them to me on a silver platter. How to properly extend my gratitude? A big-sized helping of concrete to his face? Oh yeah, I should eat him too since he hurt me. I wanted a big bite of that flying pest.

    My eyes widened upon hearing a hiss and whoosh. A missile flew into view, heading for the BID agent. He was able to react at the last second, deploying some kind of shield to deflect the missile. It instead exploded a couple of feet above his head. The blast still pushed him down and destabilized his flight.

    Taking that as my cue, I burst out of the building. I had a running start along the walls, my claws burrowing deep into the sides of the building for a hold, before making a giant leap at the floundering agent.

    I caught both of his legs in my mouth and dragged him down. He managed to shoot me in the face a few times as we fell, boiling my eyeball off. I crunched his legs in retaliation. He screamed. We both landed; I stayed on my feet while his upper body bounced off a few yards away. I chewed swallowed parts of his legs, including his metal armor, as I crawled after him. My gaping mouth closed in on him.

    There was ominous beeping.

    And the agent exploded.

    KABOOM!

    White filled my vision. I got blasted backward, my back and head hit the ground hard. The blast forced my mouth open, breaking my jaw bones and tearing my muscles. Flames burned holes through my cheeks. The heat scorched my whole mouth and my throat.

    That asshole self-destructed on me! Was this a standard BID tactic when they were about to die? I pushed myself up, growling with anger. Since my snout and throat got shredded, I could only make an airy grunting noise.

    The BID agents I fought at Eve also did this. Fortunately, the explosion here was a teensy-weensy tiny fraction of the overloaded Greaves Reactor at Eve. This agent probably didn¡¯t have a Reactor, or those agents that led the raid of Eve were just different from the rest. If an overloaded Greaves Reactor exploded right in front of my face, I¡¯d be gone and a huge crater would swallow this block.

    My body worked hard to heal itself. I felt it push out the shrapnels that penetrated my chest and throat. There was cool relief as my internal wounds stopped bleeding. Both my eyes got rearranged into their rightful place as the cracked pieces of my skull put themselves back together like a jigsaw puzzle.

    I finally saw the fighting I heard moments ago. Armed police officers were shooting the BID agent with the damaged suit who had taken refuge behind a pillar of a building. I couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of it until the agent fried one of the cops with his laser¡ªor the cop should¡¯ve been fried if he was a normal human, but instead, he shattered into dozens of shards like a broken pot. Finlay versus the BID?

    A police van with screeching tires braved the crossfire. The Finlays threw grenades at the agent to keep him back and let the van pass safely. It was heading straight for me. I held my hands out in front, prepared to catch it as it crashed, but it swerved, stopped, and presented its back. Its back doors swung open and a bulky machine, a weapon of some sort, manned by more Finlay puppets was pointed at me.

    Noises and strange smells from behind made me turn my head. Auron walked out of the electric field with an irritating smirk and a pulsating blue slug the size of a cucumber stuck on the side of his head. The parasite¡¯s tendrils injected disgusting stuff I didn¡¯t want to know about straight into his brain.

    Behind him, two cops, probably Finlay¡¯s clay men too, had disrupted the BID trap with a machine they carried. They were helping the old man stand up.

    ¡°You¡¯re still alive?¡± Auron said with his hands on his hips. He had trouble speaking straight and his breathing was ragged. The veins of his head were pronounced, his face was becoming blue, and his eyes almost bulged out. ¡°Let¡¯s fix that and put an end to you.¡±

    A wave of nausea washed over me. It was similar to the sensation I felt at the police station. This bastard was trying to cancel my power!

    I lunged at Auron. A clay man pulled him back while the other one jumped in the way. I ended up catching the fake cop, which I crushed in my grip.

    ¡°Hold this giant bitch!¡± Auron yelled, his voice breaking into a screech. ¡°And I need more power! I can¡¯t get through¡ª¡±

    I didn¡¯t hear the rest of it because a massive electric shock paralyzed me. Muscles in my body twitched nonstop, even muscles I hadn¡¯t felt before. This was the most powerful shock I¡¯ve experienced yet, stronger than that when I fought the 2Ms forces at the docks. I burned from the inside, flesh and innards cooked, patches of my fur caught fire, smoke rose from every part of my body.

    I thrashed on the ground, forcing my arms and legs to move. Then I dug my claws into the pavement to steady myself. The power of the electricity running through me increased. My consciousness barely held on.

    And then the electric shocks just stopped.

    There was yelling from the van. Someone was shooting them?

    Losing no time to think about what happened, I ripped off a slab of concrete from the street, spun around, and threw it like a frisbee at the van. The clay men dove in front of the machine to save it, but they were too late. The slab crashed into it.

    I breathed deeply in relief, but even just breathing was agonizing. My entire body hurt. But it should be over, right? I should just get Auron and¡ªI was wrong! Auron¡¯s power came back with the dial cranked up to eleven.

    A massive migraine hit me. My vision was all blobs like some abstract watercolor painting. Colored blobs, some of them moving. Forms, details, lines, everything was blurred. And it just made my headache worse if I tried to focus my eyes.

    The words I heard became garbled. All I knew was that Auron bastard was gloating in front of me. I picked that the parasite was doing something to his powers, and something about that machine Finlay gave him, but I couldn¡¯t decipher anything now. He continued talking, but white noise gradually became the only thing I could hear.

    My sense of smell hadn¡¯t betrayed me yet. It told me he was within my reach, coming closer because he thought he won.

    I extended my arm. A huge swath of red field my vision. That was my arm!

    I was about to reach him¡­

    ¡­huh?

    The pain had disappeared as if it was all a bad dream. Instead of a red blob, I could finally see my arm, my human arm.

    I also saw Auron was less than five feet away, and I could clearly hear his maniacal laughter. The blue slug attached to him had grown twice in size; his head also appeared swollen. He held a circular machine with blinking lights. Wires extending from the machine connected to spikes jammed into his arms.

    ¡°Not feeling so strong now?¡± he said.

    I touched my face. Yep, I got forced back to my Erind body. I still had the balaclava mask on I wore before I transformed into Blanchette. It was smelly as fuck from the blood and guts from my previous battles. And my day wasn¡¯t done just yet.

    ¡°You¡¯re alone," Auron said. "Surrounded.¡±

    I pulled my mask down over my mouth. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist. I''m super irritated and tired of everyone''s shit right now. And I''m not even a plumber!

    ¡°You don¡¯t have your powers. So, you better surrend¡ªhey, what¡ª?!

    I rushed him and punched his jaw.

 4.52

    During my fighting lessons with Myra, one of the first things she taught me was to keep my distance when up against an Adumbrae and just throw stuff from afar. She had explained that while I may be strong with a super durable body, I wouldn¡¯t know if my opponent was stronger severalfold until it was too late¡ªduking it out face-to-face with someone like Bob or Stella wasn¡¯t advisable, to say the least.

    However, I do know that Auron Cohenn is a weak piece of shit!

    My knuckles connected with his chin. There was a satisfying crack as his jaw moved sidewards away from the rest of his face, the skin of his cheeks nearly tearing. His eyes became unfocused. No yell of pain escaped his lips. He let go of the orb machine thingy; it dangled from the wires attached to his arms.

    As his knees buckled, I threw another punch, shifting his jaw back to the other side. Some of his teeth flew out. I grabbed his collar with my left hand to stop him from falling and hit him again. The next blow connected with the blue slug on the side of his head. Its disgusting goop squirted on my arm. The splat of the squished parasite was covered by the anguished wail it made.

    ¡°Finlay, stop her!¡± It was the old man. ¡°Shoot her!¡±

    A burst of gunfire. The pavement next to my feet exploded. Sharp hot pain on my calves. I pivoted to face the fake cops, holding Auron in front of me as a shield. Several bullets thudded against his back. His body twitched even though he was unconscious.

    The fake cops stopped firing; Finlay was probably wracking his brain about what to do next. I had the initiative. I quickly retreated to the door of the nearest building, brandishing Auron¡¯s limp body in front of me, while keeping both the fake cops and the old man in my vision.

    I transferred my grip from Auron¡¯s clothes to his neck. He wasn¡¯t a large man, quite thin actually, but my hand was too small to get a good hold. I forcefully dug my fingers into his flesh, tearing into the skin and reaching his neck muscles. If he was a normal human, I could¡¯ve already broken his neck. I continued closing my grip as I resumed punching and rearranging his stupid face with my right fist.

    Auron¡¯s nose was flattened, his cheeks caved in. His forehead cracked, pieces of his skull probably driving into his brain. Tendrils from the blue slug spread over Auron¡¯s face to heal the damage and protect him. Auron¡¯s red blood and the parasite¡¯s black slime showered me. How I wished to just put his body down and work on ripping his head off, but then the Finlay terracotta army would shoot me.

    ¡°Auron¡¯s dying!¡± the old man cried out. ¡°Finlay, do something!¡±

    I was expecting Finlay to abandon his teammates again. However, unlike Stella, he seemed intent on saving Auron. The clay men fanned out in a half-circle. They held their rifles like clubs and charged at me all at once.

    I swatted them away with kicks and punches, even using Auron¡¯s body to smash some of them. I may not know any forms and stances in fighting, but these terracotta fuckers were as slow as a normal human and way easier to destroy. Their hits didn¡¯t bother me one bit.

    A couple of assholes tried firing from the cover of their fellows, shooting through their bodies to catch me off guard. And they did succeed in hitting me. But I always had Auron¡¯s head in front of mine, and that was the important thing. My body slowly spat the hot pieces of lead out of the gunshot wounds.

    ¡°Hey!¡± I exclaimed, feeling a sudden massive tug of Auron¡¯s body.

    The old man! Somehow, he managed to sneak up on my huge blind spot, a consequence of using Auron as a shield, with the help of the clay men as a distraction.

    ¡°Finlay!¡± he barked. ¡°I need help!¡±

    ¡°Oh no, you don¡¯t,¡± I said through gritted teeth. I struggled to maintain my grasp, the flesh on Auron¡¯s neck beginning to tear. I reached out with my other hand to grab him, but all the remaining fake cops wrestled it back. I forcefully flailed my right arm to shake off the pests.

    ¡°You need to come here!¡± yelled the old man. I had no idea what he was on about.

    ¡°I¡¯m here!¡± Someone yelled in my ear. ¡°Quit your yapping, Mister.¡±

    For some weird reason, all the clay men suddenly crumbled to dust. But my right arm wasn¡¯t freed. Whoever was behind me twisted it behind my back. He was strong. Probably not as strong as me, but I couldn¡¯t use my full strength with my arm in a lock. What the hell was this? An upgraded Finlay puppet? I couldn¡¯t recall these fuckers being able to talk.

    ¡°Let me go, you¡ªWhat?¡± My left hand closed on a handful of flesh and I teetered backward to the man holding my arm. The old man succeeded in pulling away Auron.

    Most of Auron¡¯s face had been consumed by the parasite. It looked like a slimy bright blue stingray had wrapped around his head. Disgusting tendrils covered the profusely bleeding hole on his neck, stitching his flesh together as the old man dragged him to the van.

    ¡°Shoot! Shoot her!¡± he called out. ¡°I have Auron, you can shoot now!¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t make more!¡± The man behind me grabbed my waist and pulled me away from the two fleeing Adumbrae. ¡°Auron¡¯s power is blocking mine, dammit.¡±

    I froze, my eyes widened. What the fuck did he say? Was this Finlay? The real one? That explained all the terracotta cops disappearing; Auron also canceled Finlay¡¯s ability when he got close enough.

    ¡°I can¡¯t hold her for long,¡± Finlay groaned as he did his best to hold me back. He tried to pick me up. ¡°You help¡ª¡±

    ¡°I HATE BEING TOUCHED!¡± I shrieked, my voice quavering with sheer rage. The hair on the back of my neck and arms stood on end as a shiver of pure disgust coursed through me.

    ¡°That was loud, lady.¡± He reached for my other arm. ¡°You surprised me there. Just be a good girl¡ªurgk!¡±

    I jabbed my left hand up at his head that was over my shoulder. My straightened fingers stabbed through the bottom of his mouth. Blood dripped on my clothes. Wriggling my fingers, I pried open his teeth from the inside and got a good grip on his lower jaw. ¡°No one touches me without my permission!¡± I yelled as I forcefully pushed my right arm forward with my fingers inside his mouth.

    He almost went over me, and then tumbled backward as his lower jaw tore free. Finlay cried out in pain, managing to make a guttural bellowing sound. His grip on my right hand loosened, but before I could turn around, I felt a kick on my back and I tumbled forward, faceplanting on the rough pavement.

    ¡°Finlay, come quickly,¡± I heard the old man say. Agonized cries were the reply.

    I heard a clink on the ground of something that sounded like glass. I looked up and saw Finlay running to the van. His tongue flapped freely in the air, flinging blood everywhere since I had just removed the bottom part of his face. Auron had been loaded up on the van. The old man waved for Finlay to hurry.

    I turned to the right. About five feet away, a canister was rolling towards me.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± I pushed myself back up.

    The canister exploded and out came another parasite.

    It shot forward in the blink of an eye. It coiled around my arms, rapidly lengthening as it continued to wrap my legs as well. Rubbery and sticky, it felt like a gummy worm snake. I was getting off-balanced as it pinned my legs together. I tried to spread my limbs to tear apart the fucking parasite, but it hardened like cement, rooting me in place. I stood there on the street, coated from my feet up to my neck with this hardened material.

    ¡°What the fuck is this?!¡± I could barely move. I struggled to break free. The cocoon shook, small cracks running through it, but it held strong. The van revved its engine as Finlay reached it.

    I gnashed my teeth at the thought of these bastards getting away. If only I could get out¡ªI have an idea! I grabbed my left wrist with my right hand, a hardass job inside the tight cocoon, and pulled it down with all my might. Pull! Pull!!

    Pain radiated from my shoulder as the joint popped free. I couldn¡¯t remember how many times I dislocated my unusually loose shoulder joints before¡ªmaybe a couple of times in the gym, and also in my judo class¡ªbut this was the first time I had intentionally done it. Lowering my left shoulder gave me some wiggle space to reposition my right hand. I managed to get my fingers on the lip of the cocoon.

    The van hadn¡¯t driven left yet. Finlay jumped off it carrying a rocket launcher. He screamed something at me which just came out as incomprehensible hollering.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    Shit! I pushed the top of the cocoon with all my might and broke it off. I scrambled to free the rest of my body as Finlay knelt on the ground and placed the rocket launcher over his shoulder, lining me up on his sights.

    I grabbed a large piece of the cocoon and threw it at him before diving away.

    He fired.

    The projectile and the cocoon shard met.

    KABOOM!

    The blast forced me to roll across the street as dust covered me like I was a chicken fillet getting breaded. As my ears recovered from the noise of the explosion, I heard the van driving away. And there was another clunk.

    I swear if this is another parasite, I thought as I tried to peer through the dust and smoke looking for what was thrown at me. A cylindrical object rolled into view. Not the old man¡¯s canister. A grenade. I curled up and raised my arms to protect my head.

    BOOM!

    <hr>

    ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I slowly came to. My mind was foggy as if I just awoke from a twelve-hour sleep. A massive headache spiked when I tried to remember what happened, making me close my eyes even tighter. How many times have I gotten knocked out by an explosion?

    Stinging and itching plagued my body, a sign that my skin was healing. That meant the flesh beneath had already regenerated. I was still in pain, but it was the good kind of pain, like that I¡¯d feel a day after an intense workout. However, even if I could regenerate back to a completely healthy body, I was tired. I had been through a lot today. Jeez.

    My thoughts were drifting off. Really tired.

    I want to sleep¡­

    If only this stupid street wasn¡¯t rough and hard so I could¡ªhang on. I should be lying on the pavement. I tossed my head a bit. I definitely wasn¡¯t lying on something hard. It was rather soft.

    ¡°Erind?¡± a woman¡¯s voice softly asked. ¡°Are you awake?¡±

    My eyes instantly opened with shock. I jerked up and tried to attack the person who spoke. But I found my hands were bound. I stared up at the woman above me¡ªmy head laid on her lap¡ªblinking my eyes several times to clear away the haziness. She removed her cap so I could get a good look at her.

    ¡°Erind¡­Erind¡­¡± she soothingly said. Her beautiful and gentle face calmed me down a bit. Her eyes were red and puffy. Did she cry? Drops of her tears fell on my face. She''s still crying. Strands of her golden blonde hair dropped down on me, caressing my face. She cupped my hands as I tried to break my bonds. ¡°I thought I lost you. It¡¯s me, Deen. Amber Deen.¡±

    ¡°De-Deen?¡± I groggily replied.

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m Deen. I''m so happy you finally woke up.¡± Metal crackled as she bent apart the steel rebar that circled my arms. Where did she get this thing? This bitch restrained me with steel rebar? She massaged my wrist as she cooed, ¡°I¡¯m here for you, Erind. You¡¯re safe.¡±

    "Wha-what?" I said, still getting my bearings.

    She held my hands, opening my balled-up fists and entwining her fingers with mine, and lowered it. ¡°No need to be afraid.¡±

    I inhaled sharply. I wanted to rip off her face for excessive physical touching, but I calmed myself down. Her Guardian Angel was here, I reminded myself. No stupid moves. I freed my right hand from her grasp and felt my face.

    Crusty and stiff. Blood had dried on my face. Mine? Maybe Auron''s too.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t wipe it off,¡± Deen said. ¡°I thought it could disguise you as you healed.¡±

    I didn¡¯t respond. My balaclava was gone. Did she take it off? Or maybe it got torn up by the grenade blast. Not that it mattered since Deen could recognize me even with it on. And she was already calling my name.

    I looked down at my body. She had draped a hoodie over me like a blanket. I peeked underneath. I was half-naked; most of my clothes got shredded or burned away. Skin and flesh were in various stages of healing, but most of the wounds had closed. I let go of the end of the hoodie with a sigh. It fell back down on my chest.

    Holding up my arm, I realized it was severely scarred like the rest of my body. Actually, way more so because I held up my arms to shield myself from the blast. The scars were fading away like how a detergent in a TV commercial quickly removed stains from clothes. My gaze traveled up my arm and rested on my palm, specifically the crystals on it. The pimple patches that were supposed to cover it were long gone. And I think these fucking crystals grew a bit and multiplied.

    Fuuuuuck.

    Deen reached for the crystals with a finger. I recoiled from her touch. Our eyes met.

    Okay¡­the jig is up. I was strangely calm inside my head, analyzing the situation carefully. This wasn¡¯t the first time I got caught in a lie. It was an occupational hazard with using faces, and I was well-versed in dealing with this situation¡ªjust modify the face and mix truth with the exposed lie.

    Also, I had expected Deen to eventually uncover my secret. I just never expected our confrontation to be this way. I also thought it would happen later, way, way later, than this soon.

    The more I got to know Deen, the more I realized I couldn¡¯t get a good read on her. I wasn¡¯t sure which of her sides would win if pitted against each other¡ªher will to fight Adumbrae or our friendship. Now, I had my answer. After knowing the truth, she could¡¯ve just run away or she could¡¯ve killed unconscious me. Instead, she chose to stay and took care of me as I regenerated. She also gave me a lap pillow¡ªsomething that I did to her before, although she shouldn''t know about that because she was asleep that time.

    Granted she had bound my hands, but that was probably more of a precaution advised by her Guardian Angel. I bet her future-seeing pet told her to leave me and she chose to ignore it. I¡¯m so touched, I sarcastically thought.

    Friendship wins, just like in the movies. I was going to see how far this friendship went. Time to whip out scared and embarrassed Erind.

    ¡°Deen, um, I can explain,¡± I stammered. I pushed her hands away and got up from her lap. I scooted a few feet away. For a second, she wanted to keep me still, but just let me go. I sat across her, holding her hoodie to cover me like I was ashamed of what I had become. ¡°This isn¡¯t what it looks like. I¡­I can ex-explain.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Erind,¡± she said as she wiped her eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. There¡¯s no need to explain anything if you don¡¯t want to.¡±

    Typical Deen to act this way. This was my comfort zone if she behaved normally. "But I kept it a secret from you. I''m sorry."

    "You have nothing to be sorry for. I understand you. And...I accept you."

    ¡°Ho-how did you find me?¡± I needed to know how much she saw to make a well-crafted story to back the modifications to the default Erind face. ¡°And why are you here? I thought you were attending that event thingy at city hall?¡±

    ¡°I was. But I received a message from Reo and Everett that¡­uh, they needed help investigating the hospital.¡± She explained that the parasite monsters attacked her on the way to EFU Medical Center, how she met up with Reo and Everett, how they fought to survive the horde of mushroom people, and where those two were now. While telling her story, she tried to get closer to me, slowly inching across the floor as if I was a squirrel that would run away if spooked. She stopped when our knees almost touched. ¡°I just had a feeling I should go out and look for something¡­someone.¡±

    ¡°A feeling?¡± I asked. I got busted by a ¡®feeling?¡¯ What a load of fucking bullshit!

    ¡°Yes. I-I can¡¯t explain it. Maybe it was the Mother Core guiding me to¡ª"

    ¡°But how did you find me?¡± I asked my first question again.

    ¡°I was just looking for anyone who needed my help. And then I heard explosions. Different from the large ones with the BID bombing the Adumbrae Titan. Closer too. I just had a feeling in my heart I should go there. I was right¡­I found you lying unconscious on the street.¡± She closed her eyes. The waterworks turned on again. ¡°Your body¡­it was in a horrible shape. Wounds, lots of blood. I¡­I¡­¡±

    ¡°Did you see a van on your way to me?¡± Those fucking bastards chucked a grenade at me before leaving!

    ¡°I didn¡¯t. Why? Who were you¡ª? No. Never mind that.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to ask¡ª?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± she firmly interjected. ¡°Focus on healing. When you¡¯ve fully recovered, we¡¯ll move."

    "O-okay...I''m sorry again."

    "Enough of that. We can talk later¡­or not if you don¡¯t want to tell me anything.¡±

    "Thank you," I said, adding in a little sob.

    "Just rest for now."

    As I mulled what to make of the situation, I looked around for a topic to fill the awkward silence. Deen had made a mini fort with various pieces of furniture to hide us from view. An office of some sort? ¡°Where are we?¡±

    ¡°The first floor of an office building, a block away from where I found you. I saw a dead BID agent there and I thought we should move away from that place.¡±

    ¡°I¡­yeah¡­that,¡± I hesitantly spoke, as if I was conflicted over explaining about that BID guy. I wasn¡¯t going to volunteer anything unless she asked me for it.

    ¡°I destroyed the security cameras here. There¡¯s no one here. I made sure. Well, a few mushroom monsters were hanging out on the street, but they suddenly died.¡±

    ¡°They did?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Just fell on the ground and stopped moving. I didn¡¯t do anything to them. I think the BID took care of the Adumbrae Titan.¡±

    ¡°I see. It¡¯s over.¡±

    "Yes, it''s over." She held my shoulders. I shuddered. ¡°And you¡¯re safe with me,¡± she said, perhaps misinterpreting my reaction. She leaned forward. ¡°Can I¡­can I hug you?¡±

    I nodded.

    She wrapped her arms around me and nestled her head against my neck. I controlled my breathing and stopped myself from instinctively pushing her back. She normally couldn¡¯t put our heads this close together because we were standing on the rare occasions we hugged and she was taller than me. ¡°You¡¯re safe with me,¡± she repeated. ¡°I¡¯ll be here for you. And I¡¯ll protect you no matter what it takes.¡±

    I nodded again. Wow, this problem got resolved pretty easily. And I had a new ally. A powerful one. What a wacky end to a wacky day.

    Too bad Deen didn¡¯t bring me anything to eat from the party.

 4.53.1 - Epilogue I

    Jeremiah Hall

    Lieutenant Jeremiah Hall of the La Esperanza City Police Department¡ªalthough, he might no longer be a police officer for long¡ªpressed a button on the side of his hospital bed to elevate his upper body so he¡¯d have a better view of the TV. He had tried sitting but his muscles weren''t up to the task. There was tenderness on his lower back, and a sensation of spikes shooting up his spine flared if he forced himself to get up. He took care that the wires attached to his body wouldn¡¯t get entangled while changing his position.

    The XYTV Channel was playing a video of yesterday¡¯s battle between the BID forces from Palomar Node and the Adumbrae Titan that took the form of a building-sized mushroom monster with limbs. The news station had invited an expert to their studio to analyze the video and explain it to the viewers.

    ¡®Professor Ezra Gallagher¡¯ stated the caption, a faculty member of Cresthorne Law at EFU. That alone would barely suffice as credentials to be an expert. However, the anchor explained in his introduction of their guest that Gallagher used to be with the anti-Adumbrae NGO, the Free Will Initiative, and had spent years with its private military arm in missions all over the globe.

    Hall was interested in hearing Gallagher¡¯s insights but he had muted the TV out of respect for his visitor. If he wanted to hear an expert¡¯s opinion on what was happening on TV, who better to ask than the giant of a man sitting beside his bed?

    ¡°I can¡¯t imagine a news chopper getting close enough to shoot this,¡± Hall said to him. He would¡¯ve turned his head to show respect in their conversation, but the neck brace he had on prevented him from doing so. The brace elevated and cushioned his neck to protect the wires plugged into the base of his skull. It was probably for a neck injury as well¡ªhe suspected that was what caused his coma and paralyzed his body.

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Credit to our drone pilots for the amazing angles. Very cinematic, wouldn¡¯t you say?¡±

    ¡°I...yeah, sure. Did you provide XYTV with this?¡±

    ¡°Provide? We had the video uploaded on the BID website. Everyone is free to copy it. Small local news stations, international ones, those online personalities making videos on Snippet, even your grandma could download¡ªoh, your files did say that both your grandparents are dead. I apologize.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t mind,¡± Hall grunted, doubting the sincerity of the apology. Was that a hint that they did a background check on him? ¡°They barely knew how to use the internet. Does the BID normally do this? Share videos of your operations to the public?¡±

    ¡°I hate to use the word ¡®propaganda¡¯,¡± the man replied. As he turned to look at the TV and scratch his chin in thought, the plastic chair beneath him nervously squeaked. ¡°Promotion? Ads? Let¡¯s go with TV promotions of the BID image.¡±

    ¡°Why do you need to promote your image? The Bureau is doing a good job in keeping the country safe from Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for that. It¡¯s nice to have some appreciation around here,¡± said the BID agent. Hall couldn¡¯t tell if he was sarcastic about it. ¡°And to answer your question, it¡¯s to counter the side effects of doing a good job. If the BID carries out its duty effectively, it¡¯s as if we aren¡¯t even there. The people feel safer¡ªbecause they are¡ªbut they wouldn¡¯t know it¡¯s because of us. What happens then if many people die¡ª?¡±

    ¡°How many?¡± Hall interrupted.

    ¡°Including those killed by the mutating slugs¡ªright, you don¡¯t know about that. So far, about four hundred and fifty people who died yesterday have been identified. A true count may be impossible because many were consumed. I estimate that it¡¯ll reach a couple of thousand, hopefully not three.¡±

    ¡°That many?¡± gasped Hall, jerking his head in surprise causing his neck brace to rattle.

    ¡°Add to that the casualties from the Eve raid, the Adumbrae attack at Serenade Bazaar, which would¡¯ve nearly included you, and another few hundred from the condominium building seeding outbreak that happened after you went into a coma.¡± The man tapped his foot on the floor. ¡°Supposed seeding outbreak. You¡¯ll know about it in the future.¡±

    ¡°Holy Mother Core¡­so many¡­so many innocent lives lost.¡±

    ¡°It might be insensitive of me to say this¡ªyes, it is insensitive to say this, but you should be relieved it¡¯s only that given already four separate incidents here in your city. Remember when tens of thousands died every year because of the spate of those damned Adumbrae cults cropping up? We have progressed far from those times, the last major Adumbrae-related loss of life being that touristy town near Boulder, Colorado that disappeared from the face of this earth a year and a half ago.

    ¡°However, your reaction is warranted. If only it¡¯ll stop at that. There¡¯ll be protests about BID incompetence, with politicians jumping in the fray to fuel the fire and farm votes. This is exactly why we decided to disseminate information about yesterday¡¯s Adumbrae extermination. People wouldn¡¯t realize how much death and destruction we have prevented by doing a good job. When something like this happens, people will be out to crucify us even if we¡¯ve done all we could. You¡¯re in the police, you should be able to relate to this.¡±

    ¡°Those are still lives¡ª¡±

    ¡°Each minute the Adumbrae Titan is still walking meant dozens of lives lost. The forces from Palmor took it down in less than ten minutes from first contact. I¡¯d say that is already the best-case scenario. But the public wouldn¡¯t view it that way.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right,¡± Hall somberly replied.

    ¡°The Director decided it¡¯s best not to fight the publicity of this incident. At this point, there¡¯s no way to keep a lid on it. Better if we ride the wave and spread propa¡ªpromotions. I meant promotions. So, here we are.¡± The BID agent gestured at the TV.

    Hall found it disconcerting how nonchalantly this man viewed deaths¡ªit could be that emotional disconnection was required to be a BID agent¡ªso he decided to ask something else, ¡°How do you take down an Adumbrae Titan? That bomb that sucks up everything, what is that?¡±

    ¡°Chunkers, that¡¯s what we call them because they take large chunks off the target. I¡¯m not sure if I can provide an adequate explanation of the science behind it, but their purpose is to destroy Adumbrae flesh to expose its nervous system or the equivalent since most Adumbrae don¡¯t have conventional body structures, with as minimal damage to the surroundings as possible.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why you want the public to see this?¡±

    ¡°Correct. Next, we deploy the Gooper.¡±

    ¡°Gooper?¡± Hall incredulously asked.

    The agent¡¯s booming laughter reverberated in the small hospital room. ¡°I swear I¡¯m not in charge of the names. There! Those bombs that burst into smoke? It looks like a giant fire extinguisher exploded.¡±

    Hall squinted his eyes at the TV. ¡°It¡­it melts the flesh?¡±

    ¡°The most powerful corrosive in the BID arsenal. If a human is inside that cloud, he¡¯ll turn to goop in seconds, hence the name. Goopers are used to combat an Adumbrae¡¯s regeneration after the Chunkers have opened them up. And then we¡¯ll drop the¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shockers,¡± said Hall. ¡°I know those.¡± The TV screen lit up and the footage cut off.

    ¡°And there I was, praising the drone pilot.¡± The BID agent chuckled. ¡°Maybe we should fire that guy."

    Another video was shown. This time, it was shot from a block or two away from the Adumbrae Titan. Its flesh was turning bleach white and hardening. Then it slowly crumbled like a sandcastle in the wind, flooding the streets with waves of white ash. Hall and the BID agent stared at the dying Adumbrae in silence.

    ¡°If I become a BID agent,¡± Hall finally said when the news cut to commercial, ¡°will my¡ª"

    ¡°If?¡±

    ¡°Are you going to blackmail me?¡±

    ¡°That is highly confidential and top-secret BID tech allowing you to wake up and move a bit right now, but I¡¯m not blackmailing you. It just looks like it. The BID has no need for reluctant agents. I¡¯m confident you¡¯ll join us.¡±

    A side of Hall¡¯s lips curled in a smirk. The BID did have files on him.

    When he was in college, he had tried to apply to be a BID agent. However, life had other plans, pulling him back from his dreams. He settled for joining the police force which required only several months in the academy. He did promise himself he¡¯d try again to join the BID someday. Decades passed, and he was a well-respected lieutenant in the police with an unblemished record. Not an ounce of regret was inside him, but there were days he wondered what could have been.

    Fate moved in mysterious ways. Was this the start of a new life Castan talked about? What would he think of this situation? How about Ramello? Hall closed his eyes and nodded. He already knew what the response of those two would be. And it¡¯d be the same as his. The Adumbrae threat never ends, and as long as Hall can move, he¡¯d continue.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    ¡°When I become a BID agent,¡± Hall said. ¡°Will I be augmented?¡±

    ¡°The works, yes.¡±

    Hall exhaled slowly. ¡°That¡­that is a lot to take in. But that should explain why you survived the explosion at Eve.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re mistaken.¡±

    ¡°Pardon?¡±

    ¡°I died at Eve.¡±

    ¡°Why are you saying you died if you¡¯re in front of me? You¡¯re Matt, aren¡¯t you? A different face, but I¡¯m sure you¡¯re Matt. You¡¯re the one I talked to about Mark and Marc¡¯s organization."

    ¡°We did talk at Danny¡¯s. I liked the pastrami sandwich there."

    "And you were leading the raid. I heard you were in the underground area of the club when the massive explosion happened."

    "That was me...but also wasn¡¯t. In fact, I¡¯m¡­Tim now. Yeah, let¡¯s go with Tim.¡±

    Hall frowned. ¡°I-I don¡¯t understand.¡±

    ¡°Wait, I like Matt better. Let¡¯s go back to Matt.¡±

    Hall clenched his teeth and tightened his core. Ignoring the pain, he forced his body to lean to the right and face the BID agent. There was pain and stiffness despite the medications, but what bothered him was the weakness of his muscles. That should be expected from being in a coma for almost a week.

    He finally saw Matt, the BID agent in full. Almost seven feet tall, his knees came up to his wide chest as he hunkered down sitting on a small plastic chair. It wasn¡¯t Hall¡¯s imagination; this Matt did have a different face. More agents stood guard outside the room, standing with their backs to the glass wall.

    Hall struggled to ask, ¡°Are you¡­are you still human?¡±

    ¡°What do you think?¡±

    ¡°How would I know? Why don¡¯t you answer it?¡±

    ¡°Because I don¡¯t know either.¡±

    ¡°Would I still be human after...after the BID''s done augmenting me?¡±

    As Matt gave him a smile, his skin that had an odd gloss unnaturally wrinkled as if he was a wax figure. Golden-colored eyes seemed to bore into Hall as pupils rapidly alternated dilating and constricting as if scanning him. Matt then said, ¡°That¡¯s for you to answer.¡±

    <hr>

    Hedley Kow

    Kow stepped to the side of the window as a BID surveillance drone hovered by, its buzzing hum competing with the honking cars on the street below. The evening rush hour was in full swing despite the Adumbrae attack that had just happened yesterday. This area was far from the hospital so people probably felt safe here. The only indication something was different was the drones flying around.

    Dozens of those pesky things were deployed by the BID trucks that rolled into the city yesterday night, looking like a disturbed hive disgorging angry bees. Police helicopters patrolled the skies. The National Guard, more of them called by the governor after declaring martial law, had set up multiple checkpoints on all the roads leading to the city.

    But Kow, Hedley, and Penemue didn¡¯t need to worry about finding a way out of La Esperanza and onto their next mission. He had already told Euphonia that they were ready, and she was pinpointing their location so Legba could fetch them.

    He examined the modified satellite phone Euphonia gave them. Part of the uneasiness he felt was because they didn¡¯t fully understand her power. It seemed she was just gifted in tinkering with machines and gadgets to the point of almost being magic. He just didn¡¯t know when her inventions would work and when they¡¯d fail.

    If she could track them with this, would the BID be able as well? He spotted a BID Sentry, a slim plane with a huge dish on top, zipping overhead this morning. A missile heading straight for them was a surprise he didn¡¯t want.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Hedley pranced to him. ¡°Euphonia knows what she¡¯s doing.¡±

    She had correctly guessed what was on his mind even if their thoughts weren¡¯t connected. When merged, they still had separate minds, with only the pilot being fully awake. They used to be one person, despite the passing years since the split, so they could gauge what the other was thinking although their personalities had long since diverged. It was like they were twins.

    Just like my twins.

    ¡°It¡¯s just that¡ª" Kow turned to Hedley, gazing at the face of his redhead daughter that had died during the riot of a large Adumbrae cult in their town. He couldn¡¯t shake off the eerie feeling of talking to another part of himself in his daughter¡¯s body. Did she have the same feeling too, talking to him who was using the body of his son?

    ¡°Is anything wrong?¡± she asked, raising her brow. Her blue eyes met his.

    ¡°Nothing,¡± He shook his head. ¡°You¡¯re right. We should trust Euphonia.¡±

    ¡°Were you thinking about something else?¡±

    ¡°No, just hoping Legba will get us soon.¡± To stir clear from his existential musings, he called to the axe lying on the bed of this vacant run-down apartment they had broken into. ¡°Penemue, are you going to tell the others about her?¡±

    ¡°Erind?¡± Hedley piped up.

    ¡°The Adumbrae inside her.¡±

    (No. I don''t think so. They¡¯d suspect I¡¯ve been compromised,) Penemue said in their minds. (I don¡¯t want to cause unnecessary worry.)

    ¡°That or you just don¡¯t want Satori reading your mind?¡± Hedley teased him in a sing-song voice.

    ¡°No one wants Satori in their minds,¡± said Kow, referring to one of the original members of their group who checked those who joined if they truly put the Adumbrae inside them to sleep. ¡°But you mentioned that her Adumbrae has some sort of purposes in thought?¡±

    (Yes. That¡¯s what I felt. Maybe I was imagining it? The Adumbrae inside Erind didn¡¯t have the curious innocence we¡¯re familiar with. And Erind¡¯s mind was still separated from it. That¡¯s another thing I don¡¯t want the others to know¡ª)

    Kow interjected, ¡°An Adumbrae and a human getting along¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªis impossible,¡± Hedley finished.

    (I know, I know,) said Penemue. (But if it was truly the case, then, and I have thought about this, it''s better that we leave them be. They seem to be fighting the underlings of the Supplier so it indirectly benefits us if they continue what they¡¯re doing.)

    ¡°Owhkaaay,¡± Hedley said, ¡°I¡¯ll keep mum about it. But I do want to see Erind¡¯s friend again. She¡¯s so pretty!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll eventually meet them,¡± Kow said. ¡°If they become our business then, so be it. For now, our business in this city is over.¡±

    "This place is crawling with BID. I hate it here."

    (If only we stopped the Bridging.)

    Kow¡¯s eyes narrowed. Penemue had used the word ¡®we¡¯ instead of ¡®you¡¯, but he was sure the former school teacher was specifically blaming him for all the deaths caused by the Manifested Adumbrae. Veneer was part of his wardrobe, hence he was the one piloting the body during the Bridging. They had already argued about this yesterday and he didn¡¯t want to start another altercation right now.

    He replayed in his head the events that transpired to convince himself he made the right choice even if the holier-than-thou Penemue disagreed. Using Veneer, he easily took out the fake Adumbrae guarding it¡ªprobably members of a criminal organization under the influence of the Supplier¡ªand had the choice of either trying to stop the Cocoon from Bridging or letting it connect and cutting it off afterward.

    The first choice carried the risk of getting himself sucked into the Cocoon. If that happened, he¡¯d just contribute to its growth and no one would be there to stop it. The second choice was safer¡ªhe¡¯d let the Bridge finish then immediately cut it off to make sure the Manifested was as weak an Adumbrae as possible, before fleeing far away from it. And he masterfully carried out the second option. It only took the BID a few minutes to bring down the Manifested that came out.

    Yes, many people did die.

    But the alternative was so much worse.

    ¡°I¡¯m sooo bored,¡± Hedley said. She had noticed Kow¡¯s troubled expression and probably wanted to break the tension.

    Kow checked Euphonia¡¯s phone again. ¡°Just wait a bit more.¡±

    ¡°You know what¡¯ll be funny?¡± she said. ¡°What if the old man gets the wrong door in this apartment building? Imagine a random guy going out for the day and ending up¡ª¡± The sound of a bell ringing made her stop. She threw her hands up. ¡°Finally! I¡¯m getting tired of this place. I want to sleep in a nicer place tonight.¡±

    The old PVC door of the room had transformed into an even older wooden one. Cracked in several places, rotting with age, and covered with dust, it looked like the door of a long-forgotten cabin in the woods.

    Hedley picked Penemue up from the bed. Kow opened the door for her. She carefully maneuvered the large unwieldy axe into the door without damaging its sides. Then he followed her through.

    They exited on the rooftop of a building.

    Surrounding them were much taller buildings, their sides plastered by towering billboards replaying blindingly bright commercials. Neon lights wherever Kow faced assaulted the senses. Drones also flew everywhere, but they weren¡¯t BID drones. These projected 3D ads around them. A city of information overload, at least in the middle of it.

    There was no time difference between here and La Esperanza, but this place looked as if it was daytime from all the lights.

    The three of them walked¡ªtwo of them, to be more accurate, with Hedley lazily dragging Penemue¡ªto the edge of the roof where two persons were waiting for them.

    A small hunched-over old man, just a head taller than Hedley Kow, perched on top of the parapet. He carefully balanced his frail body as the humid night breeze blew, causing the tattered cloak draped over his back to flutter. His shriveled hand was extended to the side, gnarled fingers grasped the handle of a golden bell that seemed to give off its own light, more beautiful than any of the neon signs and the holographic ads around them.

    Legba stopped ringing the bell.

    Kow looked over his shoulder. The ancient oaken door closed and turned back to the original door to this rooftop.

    The willowy woman beside the old man did a little twirl as she turned to face them. Her appearance couldn¡¯t be any further than the sinister Legba. With mismatched flip-flops, rugged jeans, and checkered long sleeves, she looked like a random person mistakenly running into their meeting.

    She was about to speak when the wind blew her frizzy long hair into her mouth. She spat out the hair and exaggeratedly gagged, her circular glasses falling off.

    Kow turned to Hedley and shrugged. She rolled her eyes in answer. They were already used to this crazy woman¡¯s antics.

    ¡°Fucking bull¡ªsorry about that, guys!¡± she said in a jolly voice as she adjusted her glasses. Those were likely fake as she had bionic eyes. Two mechanical arms came out of the backpack she wore, pulling her hair back. Two more arms emerged to tie up her wild mane with a frayed polka-dotted ribbon. She spread her arms, the four mechanical arms following suit, and bowed. ¡°Euphonia welcomes you to my domain! Las Vegas, the land of bioaugmentronics!

 4.53.2 - Epilogue II

    Marc (Big Marcy)

    Marc, or ¡®Big Marcy¡¯ as everyone insisted to call him, a name he despised yet let slide to differentiate himself from his brother, stood in front of a cylindrical vat, examining its contents through its glass wall.

    It could not be denied that the moniker ¡®Big Marcy¡¯ was simple yet perfectly encapsulated the first thought anyone would have upon seeing him. His towering height and immense physique made people think he was an enhanced human or augmented with leg extensions and the like, but it simply was not so. He was naturally tall enough to look Auron in the eye¡ªor rather the part of his face where his eyes should be, were it not for his misfortune¡ªas the latter floated in the regenerative fluids inside the vat.

    One of the prized artificial Adumbrae of their organization was now more monster than a man in appearance; he was already a monster before. Vivid blue tumorous growths covered half of Auron¡¯s body and threatened to engulf the rest of it. Dozens of tendrils instinctively reached for Marc as he came closer like plants growing towards the sunlight, wiggling in the liquid and tapping on the glass.

    ¡°This is safe, I presume?¡± Marc said to the frail old man beside him.

    Mister looked up from the tablet held. He gave a quick glance at Auron, muttering, ¡°Yes, yes,¡± before returning to analyzing data. He did not attempt to veil his annoyance at the interruption.

    The sheer disrespect, Marc seethed in his mind. If this was his brother, Mark, inspecting the laboratory, Mister would be courteously catering to him. The old man certainly was on his brother¡¯s side.

    Marc chewed his tongue to calm himself, not showing any outward sign of his irritation. He asked Mister, ¡°Will Auron be able to recover? Does your child control this body now?¡± He used the term the old man called his disgusting creations.

    Mister slowly shook his head. ¡°Unfortunately, there¡¯s no more Auron to recover. He had died and my child has taken over, yes. Assuming his brain hadn¡¯t shut down due to blunt force trauma caused by that wretched girl, this much interconnection is irreversible at this point, and would eventually still lead to his death. This is why I have misgivings using my children in combat to augment one¡¯s abilities. Severe injuries are unavoidable and it¡¯ll trigger this reaction. Let me put it this way¡­¡± And the old man continued with complicated scientific jargon.

    Bringing up a topic Mister was interested in was a sure way to get him talking. Marc did not care for any of it for he had read the reports. He only wanted Mister to give him his attention.

    As everyone in this organization should.

    Losing Auron was a huge blow. Not only was his ability incredibly useful, but he also had unparalleled skills in working behind the scenes to set up everything the organization needed, from bribing officials to organizing grassroots movements that they would twist to their plans.

    A huge blow¡­but to whom?

    Marc was not bothered by it for he considered his brother¡¯s loss in the same way Stella¡¯s death was his.

    He clenched his teeth upon remembering Stella¡¯s and Dekano¡¯s deaths. He turned away his face so Mister would not see his tensed cheek muscles, evenly breathing until his face relaxed. Everyone who survived the attack on the condominium building where Erind Hartwell lived was on Mark¡¯s side.

    The old man continued to drone on about his planned experiments in an attempt to save Auron¡¯s precious power by having his slug creation control this corpse¡ªMister was an enemy, no doubt about it.

    Slinky should be as well. How Marc wished the reptilian man had joined his side for he had a good impression of him even from the time he was a normal human. Fortunately, Slinky was also killed by Erind; that was another problem taken care of.

    As for Bob, that simple-minded giant buffoon who could not think for himself only followed strength and power. That meant Stella when she was still alive. But now that she was gone, Bob had taken a liking to that bastard Teruna, one of the main guards of Red Island. Nonetheless, Marc counted this as a small win for it meant Bob could only be safely kept at Red Island and was thus temporarily out for the count.

    And then there was¡­ ¡°Finlay,¡± Marc said, interrupting Mister. ¡°How is he?¡± It was rare for that crafty maggot to be severely injured for he had an extreme aversion to danger. Finlay was probably afraid of Mark¡¯s anger if Auron was lost. His power was so valuable that the sly fox forced himself to go against his cowardly instincts. In the end, Auron still died and the lower half of Finlay¡¯s face was ripped off¡ªa very satisfying outcome.

    Mister exasperatedly exhaled, waving his hand. ¡°Finlay¡¯s doing fine. I¡¯d prefer if he didn¡¯t regenerate his mouth. He''s raving inside his room about how he¡¯ll kill that girl.¡±

    ¡°Is he certain that this Erind and the giant wolf beast are the same?¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t see her face but he was ¡®eighty percent sure¡¯, although I¡¯m not going to trust Finlay in math.¡± The old man unceremoniously turned away from Marc and walked to a computer terminal. ¡°But isn¡¯t it too much of a coincidence for that girl and Red Hood to be in the same place at the same time?¡±

    Marc narrowed his eyes as he stared at Mister¡¯s insolent back. ¡°Three instances are too much of a coincidence,¡± he said, maintaining a neutral atmosphere. ¡°Is it not interesting that the three of us here were witnesses for each of those events? Me, at the docks. You, for yesterday¡¯s fight. And¡­¡± He looked over his shoulder at the brunette woman staring intently at one of Mister¡¯s experiments. ¡°And Vanessa here for the night the club was destroyed.¡±

    Vanessa Minnows was an unexpected ally that Marc was still unsure could be trusted. She tucked her hair behind her ear and faced them. As she raised her hand, the loose sleeve of her dress fell, revealing metal bands with heavy locks around her arm. ¡°Is Mark going to order another attempt to kidnap Erind?¡± she asked. There it was, the reason she allied with Marc and not his more powerful brother. ¡°We now know about her true nature.¡±

    ¡°No, we are going to leave her be,¡± Marc replied. ¡°It is¡ª"

    ¡°Did Mark say that?¡± Mister interjected. The loud tapping of his fingers abruptly stopped.

    ¡°It is too dangerous,¡± Marc finished his sentence with an edge to his tone. ¡°We have lost too many men for no gain. The same holds true now, we have nothing to gain. It is not good business to expend resources on a losing venture.¡± He glared at Mister in the eye until the latter dropped his gaze to his computer. ¡°And I am sure my brother is of the same mind.¡±

    Then he looked at Vanessa. She gave him a subtle nod.

    This was one of his promises to her: keep Erind safe.

    And it was nearly broken when Erind fought Auron and the others. Marc had not anticipated that possibility and was not able to make preparations to save her if need be. Fate was on his side as Erind handily defeated the ungrateful traitors who sided with his brother.

    ¡°I¡¯ll miss Slinky,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°He was always nice to me whenever I visited the Red Island.¡±

    ¡°And we are in the process of transferring our operations out of this city due to BID presence,¡± continued Marc. ¡°Some of our men have already gone back to the Red Island, while the rest will be on guard duty. After our massive losses, other groups like the greedy good-for-nothings from Las Vegas might take this opportunity to push us out of the table and take our seats.¡±

    Mister continued working, apparently no longer listening to his ramblings. However, he was sure the old man had an ear open to later report whatever he said to his brother.

    And for that, Marc wanted to remind him that he had a share in the control over the operations of their organization. ¡°Of course, we are simply not forgetting Erind. She did try to kill me.¡± He nodded at Vanessa. ¡°Given we cannot spare anyone, I am going to send Vanessa to investigate her.¡±

    They had discussed the matter beforehand. She replied, ¡°Should be easy with my familiars.¡±

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    He was certain his brother would not countermand this order. There was no way Mark would realize his true intentions. His brother would simply assume he wanted to track Erind for possible revenge in the future, think no further of it, and focus on more pressing matters¡ªafter all, he did not have the manpower to fight Erind.

    Marc had wanted to kill Erind Hartwell.

    But not anymore.

    They had kidnapped her¡ªhe could not blame her for fighting them, he rationalized to himself. Furthermore, that mysterious Adumbrae girl had killed so many of his brother¡¯s men. She had done him a huge favor without knowing it.

    An unwitting ally.

    How much more could she accomplish for him if she was an actual ally? She had proven her worth in fighting his brother. With her on his side, he would certainly be able to topple Mark.

    Marc covered his mouth to hide a smirk he could not control. ¡°We will leave to your work.¡±

    ¡°Uh-huh,¡± grunted the old man.

    ¡°Thank you for having us, Mister,¡± Vanessa said as she followed Marc.

    Vanessa was a powerful asset to have; she had demonstrated her abilities to him and he was impressed. In return, she wanted to have Erind by her side¡ªMarc readily promised her so. Their goals aligned. He personally did not care about her reason to want to be friends with someone who shot her point-blank in the head. But then again, Erind had also tried to eat him. Both of them were kindred souls, nearly killed by the person they want to ally with.

    However, Vanessa would not be enough if Marc wanted to make a power play. His brother had too many Adumbrae loyal to him, especially among the guards for their assigned sector in Red Island. Other than Erind, there was someone else he could try to get on his side.

    Marc veered to the left section of the vast laboratory so he could pass by a specific line of vats on his way to the exit. Out of the ten containers in this row, seven of them were occupied.

    Six held corpses of normal-looking humans. Mister had told him that his ¡®children¡¯ could not connect to the nervous systems of these people, somehow resulting in both the parasite and the person dying. The old man could not, or probably chose not to, explain the significance of this. At any rate, it was apparent there was something important with these dead bodies because the Supplier was more interested in them than the Adumbrae that Manifested at EFU Medical Center.

    I will discover their secrets someday, Marc promised himself. For now, his focus was on the person inside the seventh vat¡ªa half-mutated man with a large blade for an arm. His brain worked on a plan to set him free without inviting suspicion, while at the same time wondering if he had not yet gone mad thinking of ways to defeat his brother.

    No. Decisive action was needed.

    He was going to show he was the superior Marc¡­even if he had to throw in his lot with Ramon, a true Adumbrae who wanted to take revenge on all of them.

    <hr>

    Ramello Staten

    ¡°Again, thank you so much,¡± Ramello Staten said on the phone, his voice cracking towards the end. ¡°I¡­I hope to meet him soon.¡± His grip on the phone tightened as he continuously repeated a prayer of gratitude to the Mother Core inside his head. He had just received news that his uncle was safe during the Adumbrae Titan attack and that he had woken up from his coma with experimental treatment at the hospital.

    ¡°Just passing on the message, sir,¡± replied the police officer on the other end of the line. Ramello had seen this man a couple of times during his visits to Uncle Jerry¡¯s precinct and could recognize him by face, but he hadn¡¯t spoken to him before. The cop had explained he was Castan¡¯s friend visiting the hospital as a favor since the latter couldn¡¯t¡ªCastan, like Ramello, was also held by the BID for testing and investigation. ¡°I¡¯m sure Lt. Hall will be delighted when you visit him.¡± And there was the beep of the call ending.

    Ramello felt his eyes water. He had told the cop that he hoped to meet his uncle, and not that he was going to visit soon¡­he didn¡¯t know when he¡¯d be able to do that¡­or if that was still possible.

    ¡°Is everything alright?¡± said a mellow female voice.

    ¡°Uh, yeah.¡± Ramello wiped the tears on the side of his eyes before looking up at the BID agent in front of him. ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am. I¡¯m fine,¡± he said firmly. He handed her back the phone she lent him and murmured his thanks.

    She wore a glossy angular black helmet fully enclosing her head except for an opening at the back allowing her long hair to flow down. Like other agents he had seen here at Palomar Base, she wore a nondescript black suit, except that hers was more tight-fitting. A rectangular metal object was attached to her back.

    Lexis, that was her introduction and nothing else¡ªno, title or rank or whatever. Judging from other agents twice her size following her around, Ramello surmised she must be quite important. So, why did she personally come to tell him his uncle was alright? There was no need to allow him a call, especially given that he was under investigation. They were suspiciously accommodating.

    But Ramello didn¡¯t want to think too deeply about that now. He massaged the spot on his head where that traitorous dirtbag hit him with a metal box¡ªBID nurses had treated his wounds and bandaged them. Served that guy right to be eaten by the monsters at the hospital for joining the SVS to rat them out to the PCM.

    ¡°Is your injury hurting?¡± Lexis asked, pointing at his forehead. ¡°You can rest at our hospital. We¡¯ll just call you for your turn.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll just wait here for my friend,¡± he answered, referring to Reginus.

    ¡°It might take some time.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Ma''am. I promised her I''d stay here.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s nice,¡± she said. ¡°If you need anything, just tell Sid over there.¡± She nodded at the burly agent with a frowning face and a gun guarding the door to the room; Ramello definitely had no plans of talking to that guy. ¡°Water or coffee or whatever. Make yourself comfortable. We¡¯re just doing routine checks.¡±

    Ramello stared at her leaving followed by her entourage of bodybuilders. He sighed and looked down at the metal rings around his wrists. Routine, huh? And make himself comfortable? Then why did they slap this kind of cuffs on him?

    He didn¡¯t know what they were called, but he knew what they could do because Uncle Jerry had told him about them when they watched an Adumbrae arrested on the news. These were used on humans suspected of being Adumbrae, those who hadn¡¯t transformed yet and obviously still had wrists¡ªand that was the majority of people arrested by the BID. Those¡­too far gone¡­were executed on the spot.

    The rings had trackers in them and could be magnetized to stick to each other to be proper handcuffs. And these rings could also be made to stick to metal. The room he was in appeared to be covered in metal. If they turned the cuffs on, his wrists would probably get pulled down to the floor.

    The contradictory messages of the restraints and Lexis¡¯ attitude towards him bothered him. Were these cuffs necessary or simply standard procedure? He clearly wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae¡ªI have a wound on my head! In any case, the tests later would show he was a normal human.

    And why bring him here? He could also be tested in La Esperanza like Castan, instead of transporting him all the way to the BID base at Palomar. They wanted something from him. He just couldn¡¯t figure out what.

    Were they going to question him about what he knew of the operations of the criminal brothers, Mark and Marc? That was the most logical explanation. They were interrogating Reginus right now, and he was supposed to be next. Both of them were digging for dirt on those scumbag brothers and their organization.

    Could the BID want information about Red Hood? Ramello had met her twice¡ªfirst when he was kidnapped and next at the warehouses of a company controlled by Mark and Marc. The BID shouldn¡¯t know about the first one because he only told Reginus¡ªdamn, they were questioning her!

    What about that mysterious boy they met at the warehouses? He just appeared as they were running away from the murderous PCM members and helped them find a hiding place. Then he told them to surrender at a specific police station because they¡¯d be safe there. However, they still ended up getting attacked by the PCM. Who was that kid?

    Or was the BID interested in witnesses to what happened at the hospital? Ramello supposed that most of them probably died. He and Reginus only survived because they were saved by a shadowy demon-like creature. That could probably be signs of in-fighting among the Adumbrae. The BID would surely be interested in that, although he didn¡¯t know any useful information he could give.

    Too many possibilities.

    Ramello shrugged. I guess they¡¯re justified cuffing me. Fortunately, his cuffs weren¡¯t turned on and locked together like Professor Deslys¡¯¡­if that was her that he saw.

    The night before, when he was being led to his room, or more like cell, he briefly saw someone dragged by agents down the other side of the corridor. He briefly glimpsed her face and she looked like a professor he had met at Melchor. He had a knack for recognizing faces, but he may have made a mistake this time.

    Why would Professor Deslys be here at the BID base as well? And why were her hands and legs restrained?

    Ramello slowly shook his head. I don''t know what to think anymore.

    He ran his finger over a ring on his index finger. It was designed with runes of protection that Reginus said she inscribed while chanting prayers to the Mother Core. She gave it to him as an apology for her brash attitude when they first met; he accepted it out of politeness, trying to keep his face straight and not judge her. This should supposedly not only protect him from harm but also give him good fortune.

    His fortune sucked badly right now¡­

    But I am alive.

    He was alive, surviving the deadly insanity he went through, coming out with only a wound on his head. Thousands of people had died, but he, right there beside the Adumbrae Titan, managed to survive. And Uncle Jerry had woken up and was recovering.

    Maybe the ring was working after all.

    I should thank Reginus later.

 4.53.3 - Epilogue III

    I felt around the bottom of my jaw, looking for the seams separating the indestructible red material and the softer flesh. Finding it, I dug my claws in and pulled. The strength coursing through me disappeared in an instant. I intently looked at the person in front of me as I let go of the Blanchette face; it disappeared in the air, returning to the crystals on my palm. ¡°This is my secret. I¡¯m showing you because I trust you.¡±

    It was Sunday morning, a day after Mushroom Buddy¡¯s parade in downtown La Esperanza. We were sitting by the small breakfast nook of her house; chairs and tables with a rustic picnic set design beside a wide window that overlooked the backyard garden. The two of us had just finished breakfast when I dropped the bomb that not only was I an Adumbrae¡­I was also Madame Blanchette.

    When I woke up after the grenade explosion, Deen had told me that she found me lying on the street, severely injured. I had accepted her story back then, but after more time to think, tendrils of suspicion came creeping in.

    The rebar. She had bound my hands with steel.

    Why?

    At that time, I thought she was worried I might do something unpredictable when I woke up. She might not know about my powers, but she had seen my regeneration and realized I was an Adumbrae. It could also be her Guardian Angel¡¯s instructions. Maybe be a mix of both.

    Those were valid reasons.

    But what if she did it because she knew about my true power? What if she had arrived earlier than she claimed and saw me as a giant werewolf?

    A rebar binding seemed to be excessive, especially given Deen¡¯s personality. I had been living with her for some time and hadn¡¯t done anything bad. Furthermore, she also had super strength and her Guardian Angel, so she shouldn¡¯t be that cautious if she thought I was just a new Adumbrae.

    However, if she already knew I was Blanchette, then why hide it?

    I had no answer.

    Deen¡¯s eyes were wide open after seeing my transformation. Her gaze flicked back and forth from my right hand, which had held the Blanchette face, to my own face. Breathing evenly, she slowly leaned back in her seat. Her arms were stiff, her hands tightly grasping the edge of the table. ¡°Yo-you¡¯re Madame Blanchette,¡± she shakily said, her voice was almost a whisper.

    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± I examined her body language, looking for signs that her surprise wasn¡¯t genuine. Not that it was any help in confirming my suspicions; these were all just normal reactions I could fake in my sleep. For all I knew, the Guardian Angel could be telling her exactly what to do so I wouldn¡¯t become aggressive.

    How was one supposed to react to a revelation that their friend could turn into a giant werewolf? I had no personal experience with this, obviously, and I didn¡¯t know or witness anyone react to a similar situation. It was kind of rare for someone to admit they were an Adumbrae, duh.

    My only guide was those cheesy romantic drama movies where one of the couples became an Adumbrae and they told their partner the truth. Those movies were horrible and unrealistic. And they didn¡¯t even apply to this scenario. I hated these moments when I had no reference for predicting approximate normal human behavior.

    Deen shook her head to snap herself from the shock¡ª''supposed shock¡¯ that I wasn¡¯t still sure I believed. ¡°Sorry...Blanchette is just a name I made up for her, for you. Um, Red Hood¡ª¡±

    ¡°Not that. I like Blanchette better.¡±

    ¡°Oh, Blanchette then.¡± She massaged her back while looking away. ¡°Er, I-I don¡¯t know what to say.¡±

    ¡°Well, then. Allow me to go first. I¡¯m sorry for keeping everything a secret from you¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, you don¡¯t have to apologize for that,¡± Deen empathically said.

    ¡°¡ªand I¡¯ll understand if you want me to go away because¡ª¡±

    ¡°No!¡±

    ¡°¡ªbecause I killed and ate¡ª"

    "You stay here with me.¡±

    ¡°Deen¡­I can¡¯t control myself when I transform. I¡¯m a monster.¡± Playing the victim card, a favorite from my deck of manipulation.

    She stopped massaging her back and reached for my hand. ¡°Erind. Listen¡­listen to me¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m listening.¡± It was an immense struggle not to pull back from her touch. Seriously, there¡¯d come a day when she¡¯d surprise me with her touchy-feeliness and I¡¯d just slap her or even punch her out of reflex. Her Guardian Angel would probably just tell her to evade. And I had the ever-handy excuse that my ¡®evil¡¯ Adumbrae side was getting to me.

    ¡°Let¡¯s calm down.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± I kind of wanted to emotionally blitz her to catch her in a lie, but I relaxed so I could observe how she¡¯d react on her own.

    ¡°Give me a moment to process this.¡±

    I nodded. I really want to pull away!

    She closed her eyes, shrugging her left shoulder a bit before sitting up straight, still holding my hand.

    Unlike Myra¡¯s situation, where I had to admit to her I was Blanchette to guilt-trip her that she was the reason I became an Adumbrae, I needn¡¯t tell Deen about this. However, this was the way to know if Deen was lying. Even if I couldn¡¯t tell if she was just pretending now, by revealing the truth, I could eventually catch inconsistencies in her words and actions. I could offhandedly drop wrong information about my fight with Auron and all those assholes, checking how she¡¯d react.

    And if I was wrong to doubt her, this was still an incredible offer of trust which, knowing Deen, she¡¯d reciprocate severalfold. It¡¯d also be easier to manipulate Deen, Myra, and Johann, and make them work together for my benefit if they all knew about my power. My Blanchette power.

    I was going to keep Pino up my sleeve, especially because it had the power to control bodies.

    Whether or not Deen lied about not knowing I was Blanchette wouldn¡¯t really matter much were it not for that stupid grenade that knocked me out of commission.

    I replayed that moment several times before I went to sleep yesterday, trying to remember as much as possible of what happened before the explosion. I threw a large piece of the parasite''s hardened cocoon thingy at Finlay. He fired a rocket launcher. The projectile and the shard connected. The blast blew me away. Next, I heard the van¡¯s tires screeching off before a thunk of the grenade on the pavement. And then, boom!

    Who threw that grenade?

    The old man was driving the van. Auron was a potato. Finlay? He had just fired a missile at me. Assuming it was him, then he had to jump into the van, grab a grenade, correctly guess where to throw it because there was smoke everywhere, and that was all while the van was driving away. Still possible, but a very long stretch.

    However, if I was right that Deen knew I was Blanchette¡­then she would¡¯ve been there during the fight. But why didn¡¯t she help me then?

    Grenades were lying around from Finlay¡¯s terracotta army that got poofed away because of Auron¡¯s power. Could she have thrown one at me? The thought sounded stupid. But there was just some stuff that didn''t add up that made me suspicious of her.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°Okay.¡± Deen tightened her grip on my hand and opened her eyes after several seconds of silence. ¡°First, I want to say thank you for being honest with me. Really, this takes a lot of courage, and know that I¡¯ll accept you no matter what.¡±

    Her speech sounded like it was for something else. ¡°Uh, yeah. I-I don¡¯t want to hide from you anything.¡±

    ¡°Second, I¡¯m going to repeat what I said to you yesterday: There¡¯s no need to explain anything if you don¡¯t want to.¡±

    ¡°But I want to tell the truth,¡± I insisted. ¡°Sanders. That was when I became an Adumbrae. It was a lie that I met a mysterious woman. She was me!¡± I essentially told her what I had told Myra about Blanchette, including that I couldn¡¯t fully control the transformation and that it was a defense mechanism if I was hurt.

    However, I didn''t tell Deen that it was Myra who had injured me, just brushing it off as an unknown Adumbrae. I couldn''t gauge how she''d react to the truth. Would she be angry with Myra? Probably. My plan to use Deen, Myra, and Johann wouldn''t work if they''d mistrust each other. I also kept Myra''s information about Dario''s sketchiness a secret. It might be better if both Myra and Johann were present when I''d tell Deen about it.

    ¡°Erind,¡± she interjected in the middle of my explanation about what happened at the docks. ¡°There¡¯s no need to justify yourself to me. I know you¡¯re a good person.¡±

    ¡°Bu-but, I¡¯m an Adum¡ª¡±

    ¡°Nothing has changed between us.¡±

    Deen was so fucking nice that she was making me rethink my suspicions. What if she was there during the fight, but Auron¡¯s powers nullified her Guardian Angel and she became paralyzed with fear? That¡¯d explain her tears¡ªguilt gnawed her conscience that she didn¡¯t help me. And she didn¡¯t want to admit she stood by without lifting a finger so she just lied about how she found me.

    As for the grenade, it could¡¯ve been Finlay with a lucky throw. Or Deen with an unlucky throwing, aiming at the van but somehow chucking it at me instead¡ªthis could also be why she was crying a lot.

    Maybe, just maybe, I should stop assuming the worst of people?

    Nah.

    ¡°At least¡±, I said, ¡°let me tell you about what happened yesterday.¡± I was already armed with a fake story and didn¡¯t want it to go to waste.

    I told Deen that Myra and I split up, with Myra going to the police station where Johann worked while I made my way to Marshall Avenue to find Everett and Reo. I ran into the 2Ms¡¯ men, got injured, my powers activated, the fight escalated, and the rest was history until I got super hurt and she found me.

    I didn¡¯t need to lie to her about this. And it meant I had to talk to Myra and Johann to coordinate this fake story. However, this was another test of trustworthiness. If Deen investigated what happened at the police station and I heard about it, that''d set off alarm bells. If she confronted me about it, I¡¯d act hurt and all that, gaining the emotional upper hand. I wanted as many early-warning ¡®devices¡¯ as possible if it turned out I was right to assume the worst of Deen.

    ¡°Thank you for trusting me enough to share your secret,¡± Deen said. She ramped up her violation of my personal space by entwining our fingers. I relaxed my hand even though I was burning with the urge to break her bones into dozens of fragments. Continuing her emotional spiel, she said, ¡°I knew there was a reason why I wanted to trust Blanchette in that underground arena.¡±

    ¡°You saved me there,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t think I thanked you for it. Without you, I¡¯d probably be dead.¡± And I did my best to add sincerity to my expression of gratitude. A hundred percent of my ass would¡¯ve been toasted by the Greaves Reactor explosion. Yet, I couldn¡¯t squeeze genuine sincerity out of my body, so an approximation it had to be.

    ¡°That reminds me!¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°My blood.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t¡ªhuh?¡±

    ¡°You drunk it.¡±

    Well, this is awkward. ¡°I¡­I¡¯m so sorry! The¡­ Adumbrae¡­it was the Adumbrae inside me. It influenced me during my transformation. You see, I grow stronger when I eat parts of people who hurt me. But if it was solely me, I¡¯d never ask for your blood. Again, I¡¯m sorry¡ª¡±

    ¡°Was that why you told me to stab you with a knife if you get severely hurt? I recall you couldn¡¯t eat the monster you were fighting.¡±

    ¡°Uh, yeah. Really sorry I couldn¡¯t control myself there. I know you think it¡¯s disgusting.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Erind.¡± She held my hand tighter. I almost hissed. She said, ¡°It did help you, right? And then you did beat them. I¡¯d be devastated if you had died because I didn¡¯t give you my blood.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said. The possibility that she threw the grenade was becoming more unlikely in my head. She did save me as Blanchette. Twice. First during my fight with Mr. Ogre, and the second time when I was on a rampage before the BID agents decided to blow up the place. Was I too paranoid? ¡°I¡¯m blessed to have you as my friend. But I¡¯ll make sure I won¡¯t ask for blood from you again.¡±

    ¡°Erind,¡± Deen said firmly, her expression determined. ¡°Anything you need, like my blood again, I¡¯ll give it to you. Or my arm, or¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to do that!¡± What was up with her? She seemed to be super willing to help that it was almost disturbing. ¡°I¡¯m not going to eat any part of you, okay? Not one drop of blood.¡± I had been wrong about Deen before. Many times, in fact. Perhaps, I was wrong again to doubt her. She really might be my most trustworthy and useful ally.

    ¡°Just saying, that¡¯s what regeneration is for.¡± She let go of my hand, patting it a couple of times before standing up. ¡°That¡¯s enough talk of the heavy stuff. I got you something.¡± She walked to the fridge and took out a couple of containers.

    ¡°What are those?¡±

    ¡°Ice cream. I remembered you wanted pastries, but I wasn¡¯t able to bring any from the party at city hall because, you know. I had a couple of pints delivered yesterday while you were resting in your room.¡±

    ¡°Aw, you didn¡¯t have to,¡± I said, but my mouth was already watering. Whenever I was stressed or tired from dealing with a lot of shit, I craved sweets. My previous go-to was the milk tea packed with tons of sugar from the vending machine at my condo. Ice cream was a fine alternative. It made me remember my short stint as a looter.

    ¡°Strawberry or chocolate?¡±

    ¡°Chocolate.¡±

    ¡°Okay then.¡± She returned the other one to the fridge.

    I rushed over to her. ¡°This might sound weird, but I actually prefer melted ice cream.¡± This was in accordance with Rule #10, I¡¯d only eat melted ice cream, a Rule that had a dumb origin. We had an ice cream maker at home and used to make ice cream every weekend when I was a kid. I liked the mixture before it was turned to ice cream and my stupid kid brain thought it would go back to that if I let it melt.

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Yep, I¡¯ll just microwave this if you don¡¯t mind.¡±

    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Deen gave me a judgmental raised brow before returning to the breakfast corner.

    The downside of microwaving ice cream was that it wouldn¡¯t be evenly softened. The center would remain rock hard while the edges would already be watery. But it wasn¡¯t like there was a better way of melting it fast short of chucking it into a boiling pot of water.

    Back to the table in front of Deen, I tried fitting my spoon between the ice cream¡¯s still solid middle part and the walls of the tub to scoop out the melted goodness. ¡°Can¡¯t get¡­spoon in¡ªoops!¡± I accidentally bent it with too much force. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Deen. I¡¯ll fix this.¡±

    ¡°You have peculiar eating habits,¡± she said, smiling as she nestled her chin on her palms with her elbows on the table. ¡°Very interesting to observe.¡±

    ¡°You make it sound like I¡¯m an animal at the zoo.¡± I tried my best to fix the spoon back to its original shape. ¡°Does this look okay?¡±

    ¡°It does look a bit straight, I guess. I don¡¯t mind. We have plenty of spoons in the drawer if you want.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll just use this one.¡± I stood up with the pint of ice cream and said, ¡°But I think I¡¯ll heat this again.¡± I sloshed the tub around, checking how much had melted. With both hands, I turned it bottoms up to drink everything that had turned liquid before I¡¯d put it back in the microwave. Rule #10 was one of the rare occasions my taste and Rules coincided. And I deserved all these sugar and calories after having nearly died several times and living with possibly a murderous best friend.

    ¡°If only Everett is here,¡± Deen said as she snickered at what I was doing, ¡°then he can¡ª¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± I put down the tub and wiped my creamy mustache. ¡°You were say¡ªuh, Deen?¡±

    She wasn¡¯t moving in her seat. Frozen more like, her mouth open mid-sentence, eyes unblinking. I walked over to check her. There was something wrong if that wasn¡¯t obvious already. My movements felt sluggish, weirdly hazy with my legs a bit rubbery. Getting to Deen was like traversing an unending corridor in a dream though she was just a few feet away.

    I poked her cheek. It felt tough. This shouldn¡¯t be even if she had an artificial Core stuck to her chest. My flesh was still soft and only became very durable when it came to injuries¡ªI truly had no idea how that worked. I moved my finger away. The small dimple from where I had poked her remained as if her face was play dough.

    Then I ran my hand through her hair, which was weirdly heavy and stiff, lifting strands and letting them fall from my fingers. Her hair stayed in the air for a few seconds before dropping down like golden stage curtains closing in slow motion.

    I should probably stop messing with Deen. Given the extremely bizarre scenario, I should¡¯ve been worried and on my guard, maybe adding in a bit of panic. However, I was calm. This sensation was familiar. I was sort of expecting this. Taking ages to turn around in this woozy atmosphere, I finally saw the person I begrudgingly half-wanted to meet again.

    SpookyErind.

 4.53.4 - Epilogue IV

    A woman in a black suit accented with gold line designs was behind the kitchen counter. Her right hand wearing a gleaming golden gauntlet ending in sharp claws held the tub of strawberry ice cream she got from the fridge. She seemed to be reading its nutrition facts label. Her white wispy hair floated in the air like she was underwater as she moved to the microwave by the cabinets.

    Her shoulders were heaving. I couldn¡¯t tell if she was giggling or sobbing because of the black and white mask with a huge smile covering her face. Who am I kidding? She was obviously laughing.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I demanded, putting my hands on my hips.

    <u>Hello there, my dear Erind¡­</u>¡± SpookyErind sang with a childish melody. She waved the ice cream pint at me before putting it inside the microwave. Her claw poked the control panel and it turned on, its hum peculiarly muffled and slowed. <u>Just helping prepare your treats.</u>

    ¡°That¡¯s nice,¡± I dryly said.

    <u>You¡¯ve been through a lot so you deserve to eat a lot</u>, she said, repeating what I was thinking moments ago, perhaps intentionally doing it to unnerve me.

    I narrowed my eyes. Two can play that game, I thought as I put on the friendliest smile that I could ever make, and said with a cutesy, high-pitched voice, ¡°I missed me so much. Miss you! Me you?¡±

    <u>Meyouyouyou</u><u>,</u> continued SpookyErind, giggling. She threw her head back, breaking into fits of laughter. Her mask¡ªor rather, the face she didn¡¯t want me to borrow¡ªcrumbled into light particles and faded in the air, revealing her face that was a demon version of mine. Her mesmerizing eyes of burning ruby met my gaze. <u>Do you really miss me?</u> It was eerie watching her speak, a disconnect between her moving mouth and the sound, which wasn¡¯t coming from her since her voice directly popped inside my head. <u>Miss meyoumeyoumeyou¡ª</u>

    ¡°Honestly? Yeah¡­I guess so.¡± I shrugged. I somehow truly missed her. My short time wielding Penemue made me remember the freeness whenever I was with SpookyErind. I didn¡¯t need to have my guard up because my mind was already open like a book. ¡°You can read my mind. You know I¡¯m telling the truth.¡±

    She melodramatically put her hands to her chest, clasping them together as if in prayer, exaggeratedly saying, <u>Is that so? I¡¯m touched you feel that way.</u>

    ¡°And it kinda felt like ages since we last met. How long ago was it again?¡±

    <u>Time? You¡¯re asking me about time?</u>

    ¡°Oh yeah<u>,</u> time is meaningless to you. It was just several days ago, not even a week, yet it felt like such a long time has passed.¡±

    <u>Probably because you¡¯ve just been up to a lot. Busy, busy, busy, pretty little other me.</u>

    ¡°There¡¯s just so much nonsense going on,¡± I exclaimed, my voice rising at the end. I exasperatedly threw my hands in the air. ¡°The world just wouldn¡¯t let me be. So annoying.¡± The microwave dinged done. Watching SpookyErind get the strawberry ice cream from inside it, I continued, ¡°To be fair, this time, it was mostly me looking for trouble.¡±

    <u>Did you have lots of fun?</u>

    ¡°I guess I did.¡± I stared at the tub of ice cream, zoning out in deep thought. ¡°Probably the most fun I¡¯ve had. Yeah, I can¡¯t remember any other time I had this much fun ever.¡±

    <u>And that¡¯s what''s important.</u> She gave me a thumbs up.

    ¡°I think I¡¯m getting used to it though.¡±

    <u>Eh? I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find new ways to have fun.</u> She opened a drawer, took out a spoon, and walked to my side of the kitchen counter. The clicking of her heels on the floor sounded as if it was coming from several rooms away.

    When I commented I was ¡®getting used to it¡¯, I didn¡¯t mean the fun itself but the nearly-dying-a-lot part. The latter was the reason for the former, but those were still different. SpookyErind knew what I meant because she could read my mind. So, what was she trying to tell me by ¡®find new ways to have fun¡¯?

    Before I could decide whether to ask her for clarification or not, she opened the tub and scooped out a spoonful of melted ice cream, shoving it into her mouth. ¡°Hey! That¡¯s mine,¡± I protested.

    <u>Relax, will you? Think of it as I¡¯m eating on your behalf. </u>

    ¡°Can you even eat like normal food? What do you eat?¡±

    <u>We¡¯re one and the same, so melted ice cream should be fine.</u> She went in for another scoop with a teasing grin on her face. <u>Meyoumeyou¡ª </u>

    ¡°Meyoumeyou¡ªwhatever, yeah, yeah. Just don¡¯t eat my stuff.¡± I tried to grab it from her, but I moved so fucking slow that a geriatric snail could beat me in a race.

    <u>Tell you what,</u> she said as she leisurely pranced away from my reach and stood behind Deen¡¯s chair. <u>In return for the ice cream, I¡¯ll lend you a new face.</u>

    ¡°Huh? A new one?¡± That made me a bit thrilled. I rarely got excited when my parents gave me gifts that I had to approximate the emotion to keep up with the expectations of the specific occasion. This time though, I was eager to see what SpookyErind had for me. But I was also wary. ¡°Wait, what¡¯s the catch here? Why the new face?¡±

    <u>Because you¡¯re not being very careful, you reckless girly you</u>, she said in a tone that made me unsure if she was seriously scolding me or just kidding around. She balanced the ice cream pint with a spoon in it on top of frozen Deen¡¯s head. Then she opened her clawed gauntlet. Golden liquid rose from the numerous crystals on its palm.

    I held my breath. The swirling liquid turned to glossy deep blue, reminding me of sapphire. It solidified, settling on SpookyErind¡¯s hand. ¡°Wow, that looks pretty,¡± I said, ¡°and also pretty normal.¡±

    It was sparkling blue with a design similar to those worn at masquerade parties. The clients of the 2Ms attending the fights at Eve¡¯s underground arena had used masks like this to hide their identities. Its surface was like a tiled mosaic, each tiny square with a different shade of blue, seemingly individual gems put together. Incredibly beautiful. It was also very tame compared to the other two faces SpookyErind had lent me.

    This was something I could wear to a ball, although I couldn¡¯t recall the last I had attended, probably back in high school. ¡®Masquerade mask¡¯ was what I always called this design even if its proper name was ¡®domino mask¡¯. Domino? That sounded like a cool name for my new transformation.

    <u>Normal? You can say that</u>. SpookyErind chuckled suspiciously. I swore I detected a mischievous glint in her mesmerizing eyes. <u>Look at you, already thinking of a new name.</u>

    ¡°Shoo, stop reading my mind,¡± I said. ¡°Anyway, didn¡¯t you already give me Pino to protect myself? It has an indestructible body and is great at supporting others with its powers so I won¡¯t be at the front¡ª¡±

    <u>But did you use it that way?</u>

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Ah¡­no.¡±

    <u>See? You suck. </u>

    ¡°Ouch. In my defense, I don¡¯t like relying on others and you gave me that mask to enjoy watching me fumble around with other people.¡± She glared at me, her red eyes burning. Did I push too far? I backtracked a bit; I didn¡¯t want to get stuck in this limbo. ¡°Uh, you¡¯re right! I suck at using Pino. Is that why you¡¯re giving me a new face?¡±

    <u>I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll eventually figure out how to use Pino the right way</u><u>.</u> Her features softened in the blink of an eye. <u>You have eaten enough that you should be able to use Pino.</u>

    ¡°Maybe I could test some of the fingers on Deen?¡± <u> </u>

    <u>However, since you like having fun so much, I decided to give you another face to help you along. You¡¯re doing fine so far. Hopefully, you¡¯ll last longer than the last. </u>

    Reading between the lines, SpookyErind disapproved of my propensity to put myself in dangerous situations for the thrill of it. The good news was that she appeared to truly care about my survival. The bad news was she wanted me to stay alive for some reason. The badder news was that there were others she had used before who ended up dying. She had already hinted before that there were other people before me. Was there a way to know about them?

    Then I thought of a better question to ask her. ¡°What¡¯s the condition for that face? I had to consume Adumbrae to power Pino, so how about that one?¡±

    She held up six fingers and told me, <u>Use once every six hour, can last up to sixty minutes, and have fun for six seconds.</u>

    ¡°That sounds like an ad for sex enhancement supplements.¡±

    <u>You¡¯re planning to transform for bonking purposes? </u>

    ¡°Bonk? Hey, you use that term too. Meyou. And no, gross.¡± I stuck my tongue out at her. ¡°So there is no precondition to using this other than I can use it once every six hours? That seems more accessible than Pino. Still, this all sounds very sketchy¡­I still don¡¯t know what¡¯s the catch.¡±

    <u>Why do you have to be suspicious of my help all the time?</u> She folded her arms across her chest and pouted. <u>So far, you¡¯re still alive, aren¡¯t you? </u>

    ¡°That¡¯s true. You¡¯ve told me when I can use it, but how do I use it?¡±

    <u>Bah, you¡¯re asking too many questions.</u> She was giggling, which wasn¡¯t a good sign. If the Pino face was funny to her because it forced me to do something I detested¡ªrelying on others¡ªthen this face should also have some similar twist to it. <u>Live life, you know? Why fret about nitty-gritty details if you can just go out and experience the world?</u>

    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll put on a good show,¡± I said with a sigh.

    <u>Just remember that this mask is for your survival¡­although I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯ll be able to use its full power.</u> She picked up the ice cream on Deen¡¯s head. <u>I¡¯ll be taking this then and¡ª</u>

    ¡°I have one more question! Don¡¯t leave just yet.¡±

    <u>Sure.</u> She resumed eating the strawberry ice cream.

    ¡°Penemue. I mean, did you meet¡­someone inside my head?¡±

    <u>Yeah. I said hello.</u>

    My gut feeling was Penemue¡¯s group was the one Bianca was looking for¡ªAdumbrae who could control themselves. SpookyErind knew I was aiming for something like that, but she didn¡¯t care since she was certain I couldn¡¯t achieve it. Perhaps that was the fate of the ¡°others¡± before me? I wanted to ask more about Penemue and try to pry for clues, but she could read my mind and know my intentions. Maybe she¡¯d get angry if I ask¡ª

    <u>I will,</u> she said in between scooping melted ice cream into her mouth.

    I jerked in surprise. ¡°Um, sorry. I¡¯ll give you this chocolate ice cream too if you won¡¯t get angry with me.¡±

    <u>I want a hug instead!</u>

    ¡°A hug? You know that I don¡¯t like¡ª"<u> </u>

    <u>We¡¯ve hugged before. And you did it with Deen.</u> Spooky Erind spread her arms wide. <u>¡°Compared to Deen, I¡¯m you, so it shouldn¡¯t be a problem</u>. I¡¯m you¡­meyoumeyou¡ª

    ¡°I¡¯ll give you a hug if you stop chanting.¡±

    <u>Come here, you reckless girly, you. </u>

    ¡°Please don¡¯t let that be a new thing,¡± I said as I put my arms around her. She was a tad taller than me because of her heels, my chin could barely reach above her collar. Somehow, I didn¡¯t feel repulsed being close to SpookyErind. With Deen, I had to control my impulse to push her away whenever we hugged.

    <u>Ice cream hug!</u> SpookyErind embraced me tightly, even pushing my head into her cotton candy hair.<u> </u>

    Some of her wispy hair tickled my nose. I couldn¡¯t hold back the oncoming sneeze.

    ¡°Achoo!¡± Cold stuff flecked my face, surprising me. ¡°The¡ª¡± The fuck?! I continued in my mind. I nearly cursed out loud, and I would¡¯ve done so since I was just with SpookyErind. But I suddenly sensed something different so I clamped my mouth shut.

    ¡°If only Everett is here, then he can¡ªErind?¡± It was Deen. She looked at me with concern, no longer frozen. ¡°Are you alright?¡± she asked.

    I wiped the ice cream splatters off my face with the front of my hand. Haha, very funny, SpookyErind, I thought sarcastically. She returned me to the real world¡ªor at least, my world¡ªat the moment I was drinking melted ice cream. ¡°Just, um, probably too much cold making me sneeze. What were you saying?¡±

    ¡°Everett can melt that ice cream quickly,¡± she said. ¡°Maybe you should lay off it for a bit if the cold is getting to you?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s another reason why I¡¯m going to microwave it.¡± I stopped and held up the tub of chocolate ice cream, trying to make sense of the needling sensation I had. There was something I should remember.

    Deen waved at me to catch my attention. ¡°Earth to Erind.¡±

    I stared at her. There was an ice cream pint on her head earlier.

    ¡°What¡¯s up with you?¡± she said.

    ¡°Strawberry!" I blurted out. I rushed to check the fridge. The tub of strawberry ice cream was there and still unopened. I removed the lid to check inside¡ªnot one scoop missing.

    It did seem SpookyErind couldn¡¯t affect reality other than through me using the powers she gave me. She mentioned the strawberry ice cream was the payment for the new face. That might¡¯ve been a joke, but perhaps I should eat this one on her behalf.

    ¡°Erind¡ª¡±

    ¡°I was just thinking if I should taste this flavor too."

    ¡°It''s not that. You have a message.¡± She waved my phone at me. Technically, it was her phone, another one that she lent me since the other phone I was using got destroyed yesterday. ¡°It¡¯s from your mom.¡±

    What a coincidence. I was just thinking of buying a new phone, among other things, when I meet Mom. Yesterday, I had texted her the first moment I got, letting her know I was safe. I¡¯m a good daughter. Plus, I didn¡¯t want her to worry that she couldn¡¯t contact me through Deen¡¯s other phone.

    Later that day, she told me her flight was canceled because a lot of bullshit¡ªnot her actual words¡ªwas going on at the airports of La Esperanza. Something about the BID testing everyone, redirecting flights, all of that stuff, to give the public the impression they had control of the situation. It was mostly for show since it was impossible to check the city''s half a million residents, plus the thousands of tourists.

    ¡°How¡¯s your mom?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Doing well. She found a new flight scheduled this Wednesday.¡±

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s lucky she got an available flight. I can¡¯t wait to meet her when she arrives here.¡±

    ¡°No, not here. She says it¡¯s impossible to book a flight to La Esperanza within the month. Everything is either fully booked or canceled. She opted for Vegas instead. We have a condo unit there because, you know, she works with Greaves and that place is the center of the bioaugmentronics industry in the country. She wants me to go there, instead of her coming to La Esperanza, which is way more difficult. She¡¯d eventually leave to go back to her job abroad, but she wants me to stay there in Vegas for a while until stuff in this city calms down.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Deen¡¯s face fell.

    ¡°Mom also has a message for you.¡± I was hesitant to tell her about it that I half-considered pretending it wasn¡¯t there. However, Mom would eventually want to meet or talk to Deen and she¡¯d know I didn¡¯t tell her about this.

    ¡°For me? What is it?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­she¡¯s asking if you want to stay at our condo in Vegas too. You know, to, um, repay for letting me stay here?¡± Pleasesaynopleasesaynopleasesayno.

    Deen¡¯s face perked up like the strongest searchlight getting switched on. ¡°I¡¯d be delighted to!¡±

    Fuck¡­

 Authors Retrospective - Arc 4

    After nine months, we finally finished Arc 4. In comparison, it took us six months to complete Arc 3. As I''ve mentioned in the last chapter, the follower count of REND in RoyalRoad doubled, while in Scribblehub it tripled.

    This is incredible because the popularity of web novels is often decided at the start; if they''re not popular, they''re not going to be popular in the future, and vice versa. There are web novels that are "late bloomers", but those are cases really rare. That''s why I''m amazed a huge burst of growth happened this late into REND''s life.

    In this Retrospective, which is going to be very long, I¡¯m going to briefly discuss my previous experience writing web novels. My three older works in hiatus were supposed to be the start of different worlds connected to REND, so you might find that interesting. It also influenced how I crafted REND and Erind. Since I¡¯ll talk about my past work, might as well share some things about myself.

    Next, I¡¯m going to talk about the history of REND from the start, the ups and downs, and all that. I feel the need to share this because REND has many new readers (the majority joined in during Arc 4) that don¡¯t know its very challenging past. I¡¯m not even sure if there are surviving readers from way back from Arc 1. I hope that talking about its nearly two-year journey can bring a new sense of appreciation for it, especially for those who came when there are already plenty of chapters.

    I¡¯m also going to talk about my learnings from arc 3 that I¡¯ve applied in arc 4, stuff I noticed about negative reactions from readers, perhaps a section about Erind and Deen, Patreon, and the future of REND.

    <hr>

    Writing Web Novels Before Rend

    Almost seven years ago, I started writing my first web novel in RoyalRoad after being inspired by all the light novel translations I had read. The novel was an epic fantasy following multiple characters, but one of the main characters was overpowered, so it drew in a lot of readers even if it was a multi-pov story which is generally disliked. The story was set five hundred years after the great war against the Adumbrae invasion (they weren¡¯t called Adumbrae there) that destroyed many kingdoms.

    That was the start of my ¡°signature¡± style of having a non-traditional MC (the character was really peculiar for epic fantasy or even the OP MC trope), unconventional fight scenes, and multiple plot lines. I had already toyed with the idea of a world helping other worlds fight against the Adumbrae, although the story was very far from that reveal when I dropped it.

    About a year after starting my first story, I began my second, a VR litrpg. It was my first experiment with an MC that wasn¡¯t meant for self-inserts (like Erind) because I made him a narcissistic asshole with a comedic side. The litrpg side of that story was barebones. It was mostly the MC carrying the story through sheer force of personality, so I already had proof of concept that a different kind of MC can work in web novels. Erind has traits from the MC and a female character of the litrpg story, so you can say that she is sort of their child. That story also had weird fight scenes because the game character wasn¡¯t humanoid.

    Since players are using virtual reality pods to play the game, I got the idea of the brain being related to the creation of Adumbrae. My litrpg had people dying from being connected with the game, as a hint of possible Adumbrae reaction. But, like with my first story, it hadn¡¯t reached the point to really explore it before I stopped writing.

    I then wrote a third story that was supposed to be a collection of short stories, but it ended up having only one chapter because I had quit writing by then. This third story was the precursor of REND. It was set in an alternate history of modern earth where beings from another dimension come to ours through tears in the veil of reality and take over people. The main cast were members of an organization that was sort of a cross between the Corebring Hive (super-powered people) and also sort of a government force with technology (like the BID). Their job was to exterminate monsters and close these reality tears.

    Tear¡­Rend¡­Hey, that¡¯s where we got the title!

    After twenty months (this will come up again later) from the time I published the first chapter of my first story, I had to stop writing because of real-life issues.

    <hr>

    Getting Back Into Writing

    After about three years since I stopped writing my old stories, my life sort of stabilized, and I had a bit of free time. I wanted to get back into writing. However, I was ashamed of continuing my old stories because I just disappeared without telling my followers what was going on. I know, web novel authors just poof without a trace all the time, but still, that was my feeling.

    I had started a Patreon about a month before I stopped writing, which I also regretted. It only had two or three patrons if I recall correctly because I couldn¡¯t spare the time to make advanced chapters, and I got a few dollars from that which I wasn¡¯t able to cash out. (I can¡¯t recall why, Patreon probably had a minimum amount to withdraw back then.) I¡¯m really sorry to those patrons and the money they shelled out.

    Bottom line, I was ashamed of going back to my old account so I made a new one. I also wrote REND to be as far away as possible from my old stories to distance myself from the thoughts of it. That¡¯s why REND is very different from mainstream RoyalRoad or Scribblehub stories. I intentionally made it so.

    This is also why I haven¡¯t mentioned the titles of my previous works. My goal was to build this account without any help from my old account. REND will probably be popular if I had used my old account to shout it out at the start. However, I think REND has done well solo flying. When I¡¯m ready to rewrite my old stories (starting with the litrpg one because it¡¯s easier), I¡¯ll reveal their titles.

    <hr>

    A Bit of Background About Myself

    A little segue before discussing the writing part of REND. I debated with myself whether I should do this or not¡ªI want to separate the author from the writing. But then again, it¡¯s not like I want to keep it a secret because followers of my old novels know a few things about me anyway, and I¡¯m going to reveal my old works eventually. It''ll also put in context the challenges I''ve faced writing.

    I¡¯m a Filipino living in the Philippines. English is my second language. Not actually second. I¡¯m from a minor ethnic group, so my first language is not even the national language of the Philippines¡ªEnglish is my fourth language. Many Filipinos can speak conversation-level English. I had English subjects in high school, and that was about all the English lessons I¡¯ve had. In college, I didn¡¯t take any English subjects at all and certainly not any creative writing or literature-related subjects.

    Being able to converse in English is very different compared to writing a story in English. I got to this point by self-study alone¡ªI¡¯m very proud of this achievement. And I admit that I¡¯m sharing this as a sort of flex. Nevertheless, I hope this might inspire others because I know a lot of authors in RR and SH aren¡¯t native English speakers.

    There were a lot of happenings in the Philippines around the time I stopped writing that readers of my old stories (including from sites that pirated and illegally translated them funnily enough) thought I was injured or even killed. Well, something bad happened to me, but I didn¡¯t die. I had no idea why the rumor I died became rampant. I only learned about it when I recently checked on my old stories.

    I¡¯m sharing this information to put in context the effort I exert in writing REND, or rather writing in general, and also to explain the delays of Arc 4, like the supertyphoon that destroyed parts of the Philippines (including the city where I live) that severely affected my writing and nearly made me quit again. Actually, another massive storm had just passed, and I''m having intermittent electricity and internet connection now.

    <hr>

    Rise and Fall and RISE of REND

    Arc 1¡ªMay 20, 2020, I finally published the first chapter of REND on RoyalRoad after a long time of trying to push myself to return to writing. I started with I think one backlog chapter, a rudimentary outline that I eventually didn¡¯t follow, and that¡¯s it.

    For the benefit of SH readers and new RR users, a couple of years ago, RR had Trending on its front page and no Rising Stars. RS now is kind of like the RR Trending back then.

    REND has above average grammar for a web novel and a unique main character, even if the story itself isn''t mainstream, so it gained a modest following, a new reader or two whenever I posted a chapter.

    About a month and a half later with maybe fifty RR followers, REND hit RR Trending. More readers tried it out. Its initial popularity was mainly due to the premise of a psychopath main character.

    In its short stint in Trending, REND breached a thousand followers, although I can¡¯t remember what number it peaked at. Any new story should be happy with that. But instead, it presented a challenge to me because those are mostly readers who had a different notion of what the story was about. I¡¯ve talked about the ¡°psychopath issue¡± in previous Retrospectives, so let¡¯s move on.

    Arc 2¡ªA couple of months after starting, Arc 1 ended and readers realized that it wasn¡¯t the psychopath story they expected. In the following months after REND got kicked out of RR Trending, the reader base slowly dwindled away. Every chapter release, some readers would unfollow (probably remembering they followed the wrong story), while a few new ones came. The turnover was high, and it always ended up negative (more people left than joined).

    Then there were the negative comments and reviews/ratings. I am fine with helpful feedback even if they are very harsh or critical; it may sting, but it helps me improve. The problem is that many negative feedbacks aren''t helpful at all, for example criticizing Erind for not following the psychotic killer trope and some other more that I''ll discuss below.

    Writing Arc 2 was a disheartening time. My twice-a-week release rate became one chapter a week because I didn''t have the motivation to write. A week sometimes became ten or more days, at times once every two weeks, in between releases. But I still pushed on because of a few vocal supportive readers. I tried to look for other places that may be accepting of a very different story like REND.

    I went to Webnovel.com. In the past, uncontracted stories had a chance to be seen there, now, they don¡¯t have any visibility with the site pushing contracted stories. The comments I got at WN were looking for OP MC or psychotic killing sprees. Then someone recommended I try SH because readers there are more open to different things than RR people.

    Hoping REND might have a chance at SH, I worked hard to fix parts of the story. I pushed myself to go through it and, taking into account all the feedback I had so far, both negative and positive, make plenty of minor changes to improve it and a few major ones like adding two new chapters to the early part of Arc 1. I didn¡¯t change the plot but mostly explained things more. In the case of 1.12, I actually overexplained (I¡¯ll cut that down when I have time to edit).

    Arc 2 ended December 2020, and by Jan. 1, 2021, I was ready to also start uploading in SH as I started Arc 3.

    Arc 3¡ª New year, new hope...and things didn''t go well. True, SH is more open to other stories, but they are open to a different kind of different. REND had frequent updates at SH at the start since I was transferring Arc 1 and 2, but only a few SH readers came because it barely had anything that¡¯d grab SH readers just based on its synopsis and tags. Ten readers to twenty to thirty took a very long time. When a new reader comes, it''s actually a surprise.

    Over at RR, the completion of Arc 2 brought in a resurgence of readers. However, Arc 3, as you know having read it and its Author''s Retrospective, had a mixed reception to put it mildly. It had plenty of side chapters that many didn¡¯t like, Erind showed more of her disturbing side (had about 20+ followers leave that chapter where Erind killed Julie¡¯s dad), and the plot of the building survival thing was also weird. In short, REND at RR during Arc 3 was bleeding out followers while it barely got any at SH.

    I didn¡¯t get discouraged that time around because it was my own choice to experiment, I know my shortcomings with such an experiment that I can improve upon, and I know that some people will like it when I eventually finish the Arc. So, I just hunkered down and continued writing.

    Past the halfway point of Arc 3, people understood what I was going for and gave reviews representative of REND. This enticed more people to try. The hardcore followers also stuck with REND through thick and thin, further encouraging me. REND climbed to around 1.5k readers probably towards the end of Arc 3.

    Arc 4¡ªThis is the beginning of the second RISE of Rend. I capitalized all the letters because it is a huge rise. The end of Arc 3 brought a new wave of readers. Over at SH, I think REND hit the front page Trending for the first time and brought in more readers. Applying my learnings from Arc 3, I strived to make Arc 4 better. And it showed as the steady trickle of readers came, reaching about 2.3k-2.4k by December 2021.

    Then disaster struck. As I mentioned, a supertyphoon passed by the area in the Philippines where I live and destroyed a lot of infrastructures. REND has some Filipino readers both in RR and SH, so they know what I¡¯m talking about. You can also search the news because it was a very powerful supertyphoon that took hundreds of lives.

    It took a couple of weeks to restore electricity and water in my city and a couple more weeks to make it stable. Furthermore, my dog got terribly sick and needed an operation. I was ready to pay for it because I really love my dog, but because there¡¯s no electricity and water, there¡¯s no available veterinary clinic open. Some clinics were even damaged. And my dog died.

    For those already reading REND around December 2021, this was the reason the chapters were delayed. I had to be creative about where to find places to charge my laptop and to find internet connection. Plus, I was struggling with motivation since my dog died. This was twenty months after I had started REND¡ªjust like when I first started writing and I had to drop my old stories after twenty months because of real-life problems. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s just a coincidence, but the timings are so eerie. The delays in January were because I had Covid.

    But enough of that. I was resolved I wouldn¡¯t drop my story again and I pushed on. Around January 2022, Thundamoo, writer of Vigor Mortis, gave REND a shoutout out of the blue. I thanked her for this huge help. It brought about a couple hundred more readers and then pushed REND to Trending where it gained more readers. At SH, REND also got to Trending front page again. REND was in an upward trajectory after the challenges in December and January.

    I can¡¯t recall how exactly many RR and SH followers REND had right after Arc 3, but I¡¯m sure RR followers have doubled during Arc 4 to three thousand. As for SH, REND followers tripled during the same period to a thousand¡ªyes, tripled.

    And I¡¯m hopeful that REND will keep growing as we continue on to Arc 5.

    <hr>

    Learning From Arc 3 Applied to Arc 4

    Rend is a psychological story¡ªThe way the Arcs are structured is that the first half is mostly character/world-building, while the latter half is where the action happens. There are criticisms that this is slow-paced, especially compared to how other web novels are structured, and that is correct. However, the main goal of REND is to affect readers on a mental and emotional level, so I''m fine with taking it slow for some parts. Other parts, however, are mistakes when it comes to being slow-paced, like parts of the condominium-survival arc.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Anyway, when I used to read a lot of web/light novels, I binged through them and then forget them afterward. The memories that stuck with me are the impactful psychological scenes. For example, I¡¯ve read hundreds of chapters of Coiling Dragon several years ago and forgot about it. The only part I remembered was when his heart was broken and he sculpted his masterpiece. There¡¯s also Pact by Wildbow (author of Worm) that¡¯s probably the most emotionally draining story I¡¯ve read. I haven¡¯t forgotten it even if I had forgotten much of Worm.

    This may sound cheesy, but my intention is that REND will stay with you. And this is what REND is geared towards.

    Building side characters-¡ªSelf-assessment of the first time I tried using a lot of characters (which was in Arc 3) is that it didn''t really turn out well. I admit that Arc 3 had many problems when it came to side characters. As for Arc 1 and 2, I wasn¡¯t really trying to build side characters at that time.

    Arc 4 also has plenty of side characters, probably more than Arc 3. This time, I¡¯m confident that I¡¯ve improved in writing them. I may be tooting my own horn, but I feel that in Arc 4, the side characters and the side pov chapters are better written this time around. A great example of this is Deen, who had grown to be a fan favorite from just some generic side character in Arc 1. I just let her character grow in this Arc and it led to this development.

    You might¡¯ve noticed by now that I reuse side characters a lot (both good and bad guys), barely killing off any of them. And that¡¯s because of Deen. If I had killed off Deen early (and it¡¯s pretty easy to do that for dramatic effect, like have her die in the Sanders parking area) then we wouldn¡¯t have her development now. I¡¯m interested how the side characters will grow if they¡¯re developed in the future given that Deen is such a success.

    Handling side character chapters¡ªArc 3 side chapters sometimes have poor reception. I learned that was mostly because they¡¯re not that connected to Erind. Arc 4 side chapters are at least tangentially related to Erind to make them interesting to read. And because of improved characterization, readers are even looking forward to POVs of some side characters, like Deen for example.

    A good example of my improvement in writing side chapters is Johann¡¯s chapter, which turned out pretty great. It¡¯s just some low-stakes plot about faking documents and he''s is a pretty minor side character, but I think many of you will agree that chapter was pretty stressful.

    <hr>

    Some More Inspirations and Ideas

    Static main character ¨C Usually, characters have development arcs. However, there are characters that do not change, and intentionally so.

    The old Superman has a pretty static character. Superman is Superman no matter what happens. And most old versions of comic book heroes are like that. It was only in recent years that superheroes have arcs. Villains also usually don¡¯t have arcs¡ªif they¡¯re evil, they¡¯re evil. It was also recent that it became popular to have greyish villains, or villains that change over time. When it comes to anime/manga, there are the shounen protagonists that really don¡¯t change. Naruto, Goku, Luffy, the usual, they don¡¯t change no matter what, while side characters change.

    Erind is intentionally a static character. Her psychopathic traits can¡¯t change or disappear because that¡¯s just how her brain is. Erind has gone through a lot this past four Arcs, but she¡¯s still the same Erind, while the side characters changed a lot, Deen being the primary example.

    Gory action scenes¡ªNow, you may think that I was inspired by Invincible (both the comics and the series), and you¡¯d be right. The Boys (the comics; I haven¡¯t seen the series) as well. Both stories have gory fights between super-powered beings, and Invincible especially has super regeneration as well. But those aren¡¯t my main inspirations for REND¡¯s gory fights.

    Animorphs is the story that influenced me the most for the fight scenes. I¡¯m not expecting a lot to know about Animorphs because those books were published back in the 1990s, around the same time as Goosebumps books. Even though it was marketed as a children¡¯s book, it had really gory fights (censors didn¡¯t check it). And the main characters there could fully regenerate if they return to their human form after each fight. So, the fight scenes could really get away with chopped limbs or ripped bodies, and have the main characters in one piece for the next book, assuming they survived. Animorphs is said to be the Gantz for kids. Gantz, Berserk, and other gory manga had also inspired me.

    World slowly going insane¡ªA peaceful city that slowly goes insane with each passing incident is inspired mostly by Monster, a psychological manga. It¡¯s kind of hard to explain Monster, so much better if you experience it by reading it or watching its anime. Essentially, La Esperanza¡¯s fabric of society is breaking down with each passing Adumbrae attack, with the people doing more and more illogical things.

    Each Arc feels different¡ªObviously, each Arc is different, but I also want them to feel different, trying and exploring different ideas each time. And I got this idea mainly from Hunter x Hunter¡ªthis is pretty famous so I assume most know about it. Each arc of HxH is different from the last, and if you change the character faces and names, each arc could be a different manga/anime altogether.

    Stories usually maintain their story structure and themes throughout, as they should because that¡¯s what they sell. However, you know me, I don¡¯t want to do that, and thus I was inspired to do whatever comes into my head instead of just redoing each arc but with new and stronger enemies.

    Use all the coolest ideas as soon as possible¡ªI got this one from a Brandon Sanderson lecture on Youtube. I¡¯m just super paraphrasing this, he said something like don¡¯t hold back your cool ideas for later in the story if you can use them earlier. Essentially, the point was to implement cool ideas early to hook the readers, otherwise, they may not even reach the latter parts of the story.

    My original plan was for Arc 4 to end with the police station fight. Arc 5 was supposed to focus on the hospital, with the ending being protesters attacking and then followed by the monster parasites. The Adumbrae Titan was supposed to be in some other far away Arc. However, taking Brandon Sanderson¡¯s advice¡ªnot sure if that¡¯s how it was supposed to be done¡ªI mashed all those ideas together for Arc 4, and I think it turned out pretty well.

    <hr>

    Observations on Some Problematic Reader Reactions

    In the past two Retrospectives, I¡¯ve focused on the problems with writing a psychopath main character, mostly the reaction of readers when their expectations of mainstream psychopath characters aren¡¯t met. There are other lesser issues that became more apparent during Arc 4 with the massive wave of new readers that I decided to talk about them now.

    Readers that don¡¯t read tags/warnings/disclaimers¡ªI suppose this is more of an amusing observation. Some of us are guilty of doing this, let''s be honest guys. This isn¡¯t usually a problem since web novel reading is genre-based. If you¡¯re going for litrpg for example, you know what you¡¯re getting into without the tags or synopsis.

    I didn''t have warnings or disclaimers for REND in the past, and I had complaints with readers'' differing expectations, so I put up some after learning my lesson. However, issues regarding this still crop up. We already know the primary example¡ªthe expectations of what a psychopath MC should be, as Erind is very different from psychopath MCs in web novels or in popular media in general.

    I''ve received also complaints back then and now (with the new wave of readers) about Erind being unlikeable, or that she''s hard to empathize with¡ªand that''s true. I can''t tell them they''re wrong with that. Doesn''t that prove I''m doing a great job then because that''s her point?

    Another thing is the gore element. There are those that ignore the gore tag and then complain about things getting disgusting later on. You might be interested in knowing that when it comes to gore, the chapter with the most complaints is the one where Rofirio ate brains. So, people with issues about gore drop it at around that part, and they don''t reach the more gorey stuff later on.

    Non-mainstream stories are held to a higher standard ¨C I have mentioned I wrote mainstream stories before (although they have twists). Five years in hiatus later, they still get comments and reviews every now and then. And those feedback are generally positive. With the five year gap between those two and REND, I can say the writing quality is vastly different. I admit it''s frustrating for me to see the huge difference in reception between my stories, with REND really having a rocky treatment to say the least.

    I noticed comparing my works, and also asking the experience of other authors who have both mainstream and non-mainstream stories, that readers are usually more forgiving when they¡¯re reading the preferred type of stories on a site, be it RR or SH, and more critical with others. And that''s normal, I suppose. Unfortunately, as collateral damage, stories like REND have a harder time competing with the mainstream because they are judged on a higher standard.

    Difficulties of building mysteries in web novels¡ªFor litrpgs, the game system has to be explained; for rebirth/isekai, the new world; for xianxia, the cultivation system; if the world has magic and the like, that has to be explained as well. Generally, mainstream web novels explain to readers what is going on as that''s what the story structure requires. That¡¯s not the case with REND.

    There are many who dropped REND because they don¡¯t have the information they want after barely reading a few chapters in. I''ve seen a number leave REND since they don¡¯t immediately get an answer to what Myra is doing. I''m really thankful for those who continue reading REND despite it just presenting more questions and mysteries. I know you''re probably not used to this approach.

    To illustrate the challenge in making mystery elements in a web novel, I¡¯ll discuss a couple of examples here:

    1) The sun rising in the wrong direction in Chapter 1.1. That is actually a nod to the book ¡°1984¡± using weird occurrences to signal that something is wrong with the world. In that famous book, it began with: ¡°It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.¡± Clocks have twelve numbers, so this is obviously not possible. I had the same intention with making the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean¡ªnotice that several paragraphs are devoted to it plus there¡¯s the unnatural Black Spite in the mix¡ªand I went even further, with SpookyErind hinting in the ending of Arc 3 that something was wrong.

    Many think I made a mistake with the direction of the sunrise that I now placed an explanation in the Author''s Notes of 1.1. I thank those readers who politely point it out with the good intention of wanting to help. However, there are also readers who think I¡¯m an idiot author for supposedly making a ¡°mistake¡± and then rating REND negatively.

    2) The first meeting of Erind and SpookyErind. Recall that Erind ingested the Suppressor that Myra gave her, so how was she able to meet SpookyErind and then transform to Blanchette? Myra was affected by it too that she had to take a Diluter. The answer is Erind¡¯s injury. She lost so much blood, flushing the Suppressor out of her system, allowing SpookyErind to save her in the nick of time.

    We know that SpookyErind loves funny coincidences like that. With that in mind, if you revisit the starting chapters of REND, like meeting Professor Deslys and Myra, you''ll probably view them with a different perspective. This is something a reader won¡¯t be able see in the early chapters.

    Furthermore, Arc 1-3 are just supposed to be the introduction to REND. I think most, if not all negative reviewers haven¡¯t made it past Arc 3. But for you who made it to Arc 4 know how REND really is.

    Web novel writing is not a good medium for a mystery story¡ªThis is more on the problem with medium itself rather than reader reactions. Web novels are released chapter by chapter on a schedule. This means clues are spread over weeks or even months of releases, so readers, through no fault of their own, will forget certain parts of the story, especially if they¡¯re also reading plenty of other stories.

    <hr>

    Plans For Arc 5

    The Epilogue has set up quite a lot of story points. My original plan was for Arc 5 to be about finding the Red Island and then Arc 6 will be about the Red Island itself. However, that was with just the 2Ms as the final boss. Now, the story had progressed differently and there are so many different things we have to resolve. The 2Ms are just a small part of something way bigger, so I decided to push away the Red Island plot further away, make it a huge organization and the big bad boss someday.

    Arc 5 will set up a lot of things, with the latter half being the start of a huge storyline that¡¯s going to be fun. At least it sounds fun in my head, and usually, my plans work out. There¡¯ll be the return of old characters and old plot threads. The entwined plot is going to be intriguing, that much I can say.

    I think we¡¯ll have some use of the new mask, and perhaps also bring Pino back, but their heavy usage will be in Arc 6 since, as I¡¯ve said, Arc 5 is to set up a huge storyline that will reveal the deal with Dario and a bunch of other questions which I¡¯m sure you¡¯re interested in getting answered.

    By the way, a huge thank you for the suggestions for the new mask. We have some pretty cool ideas.

    Don¡¯t hesitate to give suggestions in the message below or you can message me. Can be about anything. I¡¯m also open to suggestions for new Rules, both minor like the food Rule, and major like Rule #4. Just keep in mind that it shouldn¡¯t clash with any of Erind¡¯s earlier thoughts or actions.

    Erind and Deen ¨C The ending of this Arc provides a nice set-up for building a relationship that will be full of drama and manipulation between the two of them. I know many readers are shipping them, but know that whatever relationship they¡¯ll develop, it won¡¯t be a romantic one. I intend to keep the characters consistent. However, for the shippers, I''ll be making a sort of non-canon spin-off that can probably be considered fanfiction (of my own story?) featuring these two.

    We all know Erind. She hasn¡¯t shown any capacity to love other people so far. And she¡¯s straight as far as we can see in the story. However, we also know she¡¯ll fake anything, even a romantic relationship if it suits her. Take Ramon and Ramello. Erind knew they like her, and she¡¯s quick to manipulate them even in just small things that don¡¯t really even give her benefit, but mostly to mess around with them.

    As for Deen, she¡¯s clearly obsessed with Erind¡ªand it isn¡¯t love. Deen is focused on the idea of something, the idea of being a straight-laced student, the idea of being a hero, the idea of protecting Erind, and so on. And she¡¯ll do everything to protect that idea, not necessarily the person who¡¯s the object of the idea. For example, she¡¯s very interested in being a hero, and not necessarily saving people¡ªshe¡¯s actually a caricature of shounen protagonists who have long speeches about being a hero, even though it¡¯s the acts that define a hero and not the other way around. Erind is sort of a ¡°project¡± in Deen¡¯s eyes.

    Initially, I was hesitant bringing Erind and Deen closer because there¡¯ll be plenty of emotional manipulation that¡¯ll probably border on abuse, and it might disturb some readers. However, readers who had come this far are probably not going to be bothered by that. And Deen could actually ¡°fight back¡± Erind, so the relationship is sort of ¡°equal¡±. This is a psychological story first and foremost, as I always say, so we¡¯ll go with this route.

    <hr>

    Ongoing Edits and Improvements

    For each chapter since the start of REND, I usually have Author¡¯s Notes. However, I have a habit of deleting it after a couple of weeks or so. My thinking was for readers to have a cleaner reading experience. However, it seemed like a dumb idea when I thought more about it. Explanations enhance the reader¡¯s experience, which is why I¡¯m rereading REND and adding Author¡¯s Notes here and there.

    I¡¯m also doing minor edits, mostly cosmetic and proofreading. I also changed things like Erind referring to ¡°my kind¡±, because that¡¯s really not something she would think. Those spiels were mostly there to give more explanation as some readers were rating low because they couldn¡¯t understand or wanted more info dump. REND is big enough now to shrug those off, and I think it¡¯s a better reading experience if I smoothened those out.

    It''ll be good to reread REND when I¡¯m finished with all of those corrections, but it¡¯ll take time because I¡¯m prioritizing Arc 5 and the advanced chapters for Patreon. For new readers, this is why Arc 1 and parts of Arc 2 and 3 have A/Ns while other parts still don¡¯t.

    <hr>

    Patreon

    As I talked about somewhere up there, I had a Patreon before when I wrote stories years ago. It earned a few dollars, and I wasn¡¯t able to cash it out anyway before I had to stop writing. I still do feel really guilty about that, which is why I wanted to make sure to myself that this time, when I start Patreon, I¡¯m not going to drop REND. Nearing two years in, I think I have already proven to myself and to you as well that I¡¯m not going to poof away, so I¡¯m more confident in starting Patreon, which I''ll do by the next Arc.

    Another reason why I waited this late was that I didn¡¯t want to be influenced by readers in plotting the story. It isn¡¯t unheard of for readers to pressure the author to change the direction of the story, and the pressure might be greater if there is money involved. I wanted to avoid that. However, by now, I think readers are on board wherever REND will go.

    Lastly, I¡¯m a very slow writer. All of my free time is spent on just keeping up with release (and it is very stressful). But I¡¯ll push myself now to write advanced chapters in hopes that Patreon can support me enough, even as a part-time thing, that all my free time won¡¯t get eaten up writing REND to avoid stress and burnout, and also to ensure I¡¯ll be able to continue writing it for the long time.

    REND is plot-heavy so it¡¯ll be difficult to have a lot of advanced chapters. Furthermore, as you know, I change my mind a lot regarding the plot of the story. So I''ll probably settle for five advanced chapters, then add in bonus Erind/Deen content that many people ask for.

    <hr>

    Supporting REND

    It''ll really help REND if you (for those who haven¡¯t done it yet) could rate or review (if you have time to write), or those who already have reviewed can update theirs. Another way to support REND is by recommending it. This''ll be a really great help because I personally suck at marketing. If you can, do share and recommend REND wherever you think there can be readers, like in reddit or discord servers. I really have no idea how to market REND.

    Once again, a huge thank you to those who spread REND after I asked for help in the last chapter.

    And that brings me to the end of this very long Author¡¯s Retrospective. I hope you didn¡¯t get tired of reading all of this. REND is really lucky to have supporters like you, otherwise, it would¡¯ve gone the way of stories that aren¡¯t mainstream, just buried and dropped. For example, I never imagined REND will have a fan like Crimson Blade who commissioned an acrylic glass print of the REND wallpaper. I¡¯m going to put it below because I don¡¯t think many have seen it.

    I hope you continue supporting REND in the future, and thanks for everything once again! Let¡¯s see how much growth REND will have in Arc 5. Many thanks in advance to those who¡¯ll help REND going forward.

 5.1

    Humans were social creatures; it was impossible not to rely on others. Mostly impossible. And those were my profound thoughts of the day. Thanks for coming to my speech, folks!

    One could try to be independent, but you¡¯d still hope the driver of that car on the end of the road wouldn¡¯t run over you as you walk across. You¡¯d be at the mercy of the chef preparing your food at the restaurant not to poison it, you¡¯d be dependent on construction workers you haven¡¯t met that the building you were in wouldn¡¯t collapse. It was next to impossible not to rely on others not to be assholes while living in a city.

    Transferring to a cave in the middle of nowhere, foraging and hunting in the forest, might probably work to isolate oneself. Just that one would still rely on other humans not to be stupid and summon a Purple Bloom that could destroy their entire country like what was happening in Madagascar.

    This sort of ¡®reliance¡¯ on others I was completely fine with.

    I wanted the comforts of life, making compromises necessary. People around me generally delivered on their societal duties so it wasn''t a problem. For example, I relied on Mom sending me money for my education and all other needs because my strong, independent, twenty-something ass was broke as hell. But if my intuition was correct, the time might be drawing near for me to disconnect myself from Mom.

    Then there was the other reliance like¡­like relying on Deen for example.

    So far, other than my suspicion she threw a grenade at me¡ªa very shaky one¡ªDeen was mostly fine. Sure, I would''ve preferred to live alone, and she habitually invaded my personal space like an Adumbrae taking over the mind, but I could still get away from her whenever my social energy got drained. I also wouldn¡¯t say no to a free roof over my head and free food, like this strawberry ice cream I was eating.

    And perhaps now, more than ever, with a concrete threat looming, I should make sure Deen would stay on my side.

    Just figuratively; literally is too much.

    <hr>

    I stirred the pink slush back and forth with my spoon while I listened with one ear to Professor Gallagher yap on TV as he pointed at a map of the southern part of the African continent near Madagascar.

    Sunday had come and gone without the BID dropping a bomb or the 2Ms sending their Adumbrae or whatever else coming to attack me, and Monday morning seemed to be a bright new day full of possibilities. It was time to be normal again. I should savor this opportunity because it might not last long.

    The mayor, our new one, had announced on the 6 a.m. news that the lockdown was lifted, but still advised people to stay at home if possible. Not that I had any plans to go out. The city was also preparing to give preliminary aid packages to everyone affected and, when they received the shipment from the state, would also begin distribution of the pills.

    I hadn¡¯t lived in a place that had suffered a massive Adumbrae attack¡ªthat was, until now¡ªso I hadn¡¯t been personally offered those pills. Mom had told me about them though and I had seen on TV what they looked like. It was a set of seven colored tablets, kind of like how Grandma arranged her maintenance medicine for the week, that a person should take once a day.

    They were special antidepressants to sort of make the population docile for a period, along with some other chemicals supposed to suppress parts of the brain susceptible to Adumbrae attack.

    Unsurprisingly, many people were resistant to a forced administration of the drug because of whatever funky shit it would do to the mind. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, something we had discussed in Constitutional Law class back in the first semester, and it was deemed unconstitutional. The result: it was only distributed if an Adumbrae attack had widespread effects, and it was voluntary for the citizens if they wanted to take it or not.

    If there was a huge incident, like what happened here in La Esperanza, everyone panicked and did all sorts of things to ¡®protect¡¯ themselves from Adumbrae, something right up Reginus¡¯ alley¡ªwhat did happen to that weirdo?¡ªso the people didn¡¯t need much convincing to take the pills anyway.

    In the end, the government somehow got what it wanted.

    As for me, I had no intention of taking them. Even if I wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae I still wouldn¡¯t touch those pills, or any pills. I preferred it if no one bothered my mind. I¡¯m perfect and cute, just the way I am.

    In any case, it was a good idea to curb rising stress levels that could affect the psychology of people and lead to someone new getting seeded. The police officer who interviewed me for my testing, Hogan or Hardy, had explained that to me. And it kinda came true with Mushroom Buddy popping out in the city. Officer-H Something unknowingly predicted the 2Ms'' plans.

    Unfortunately, conditions in the city weren¡¯t really conducive to reducing the stress and anxiety of the people.

    Martial law was still in effect with most people staying indoors, a number fleeing the city, the National Guard manning multiple checkpoints, several roads blocked, reconstruction efforts, hasty funerals and cremations for the hundreds of dead, and the BID scouring the city for Adumbrae.

    Our whole university was expectedly closed once again. Physical classes were suspended for an indefinite period and the online classrooms were opened. I saw some posts on Snippet¡ªyep, social media girl, that¡¯s me¡ªclaiming that one of Mushroom Buddy¡¯s almond pods hit a university building. I doubted it was true because EFU campus was too far away from the city center.

    A piece of real news though was that several EFU students had been killed or injured, either by the parasite monsters or by Mushroom Buddy and his mushroom folk army. Deen, ever-present in Snippet chat groups, told me that Carlos from our International Law class got his legs squished by falling debris when an almond pod hit his apartment building. More tragic, as Deen put it, was a couple of fellow first-years¡ªMeryl from my Criminal Law class and her boyfriend, Deen¡¯s classmate in a different subject¡ªwere turned into mushroom people and killed by the BID.

    Of course, I had to pretend to be devastated about this while we ate breakfast. Super annoying.

    More annoying was International Law class not getting canceled¡ªto be fair, no one expected otherwise from Professor Gallagher. Yeah, classes were online, but most professors didn¡¯t continue with their schedules out of consideration for the students, a lot of whom were currently stuck in the hours-long heavy traffic going out of the city.

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Many of us at Eloyce university were from out of town, and when the news hit about another Adumbrae Titan in La Esperanza, Stella being mistaken for the first one, most families wanted their precious babies out of the city. The students had the same mind.

    Mushroom Buddy was more of the final straw than the trigger for the exodus. We already had the BID-versus-2Ms raid that ended in a massive underground explosion, snake mutant buddy killing a bunch of people the following day, and who couldn¡¯t forget the crowd-favorite, my condo getting destroyed.

    Deen and I were also leaving the city. Thinking of the drive to Vegas in a couple of days made me anxious. Stuck in a car with Deen for several hours? It might be the time I¡¯d finally snap, break my Rules, and break her neck. Just kidding. She was my precious ally and I''d feel safer if I was out of the city. If she got too touchy-feely though, I might still break her neck.

    Speaking about breaking somebody¡¯s neck, Professor Gallagher might be a better candidate. He sent an email to the class this morning to confirm our schedule, including a pretentious like that, ¡°now, more than ever, you need to focus on your studies.¡±

    Sure¡­only that he wasn¡¯t actually lecturing us. He was getting interviewed on TV about Madagascar¡ªor, by now, it was the African Adumbrae crisis.

    Given the professor¡¯s past as a member of the Free Will Initiative, XYTV invited him over yesterday to explain the BID footage of exterminating Mushroom Buddy. They probably liked him so much that they invited him over again today for some international news analysis. Our ¡°class¡± then became watching his live interview bullshit.

    And to make sure we did tune in, we were tasked to submit a paper before the end of the class¡ªpick any topic about International Law that was discussed during the interview, including concepts we hadn¡¯t touched upon, and give our reflections on it.

    Overall, this was quite easy and way better than if we had an actual class. I still thought he should¡¯ve just canceled our class today because I wasn¡¯t in the mood to use my brain after spending the whole night thinking, probably overthinking, a lot of stuff.

    Deen wanted to watch the show together in the living room, but I deflected her clinginess and told her I wanted to focus so I was going to stay in my room instead. I also did some emotional speech about wanting to take my studies seriously even though I was no longer human, which seemed to be the wrong move. She became teary-eyed and I hastily retreated to my room along with the strawberry ice cream from yesterday before she could think about hugging me.

    ¡°Let¡¯s write this stupid paper,¡± I said, putting the tub of ice cream aside and completely focusing on the TV. The topic was a bit interesting, and it was probably the last big talking point before the program ended so I better listen carefully otherwise I''d have nothing to write. After this, I had an hour left to finish my paper and email the paper to the professor.

    Contrary to my speech to Deen, I was tempted not to do this assignment because I was starting not to care about law school. But here goes.

    I hadn¡¯t paid attention to the happenings in Africa these past few days.

    The good news was that the Corebrings and the UN forces are pushing the Adumbrae out of mainland Africa and back to the sea, where they assumed the Purple Bloom was hiding. UN forces had also secured large portions of Madagascar island, protecting millions of people remaining there, while evacuating tens of thousands per day through secured routes across the Mozambique Channel.

    The topic for the latter half of the news had been focused on the humanitarian aspect of the war, the refugees, food and water, and reconstruction. Professor Gallagher was now talking about a particular topic I hadn¡¯t considered could be a problem in a situation like this.

    ¡°There is a balancing act here,¡± he said. "All of the countries involved are signatories to the 1955 Convention on Refugees, the countries of the Central African Union, the RSA, Madagascar, and France. However, all of them have reservations when it comes to Adumbrae-related refugees.¡±

    ¡°Reservations, professor?¡± interrupted Frank, the male news anchor for XYTV¡¯s Good Morning California. ¡°Can you tell the audience in simple terms about what it is?¡±

    ¡°A reservation is essentially a caveat to a treaty, in this case, the UN Convention on Refugees. This UN multilateral treaty sets out the rights of refugees and the responsibilities of nations accepting them. Almost all signatories have a reservation when it comes to REAAs or ¡°refugees escaping Adumbrae attacks.¡±

    ¡°And why is that?¡± Frank asked.

    ¡°The prevailing thought back then,¡± Professor Gallagher animatedly answered with his hands in gesturing in the air, ¡°that continues up to the present, is people infected by Adumbrae don¡¯t have human rights. If refugees are fleeing from Adumbrae ravaging their country, many of them could likely be Adumbrae as well. And countries don¡¯t want their hands tied in weeding out possible sources of seeding outbreaks. Thusly, each country wants to craft its own rules on how to deal with this issue. And that''s where the problem comes in.

    "On one hand, we have the Central African Union taking in the majority of the Malagasy refugees. Within the Union, they have their own procedure on how to process refugees, check for Adumbrae, and make sure there''s no possibility for a seeding outbreak. The Malagasy refugees implicitly agreed to these rules by crossing the borders into mainland Africa. They didn''t have a choice, mind you. On the other hand, we have the French accusing the Union that their procedures are too harsh."

    "Videos are circulating of groups of refugees summarily executed," said Lisa, the other news anchor.

    "There are those, yes." Professor Gallagher nodded. "Now, the League of European Nations has its own rules for REAAs, and France wants to implement that in processing Malagasy refugees. The French government is arguing that since Madagascar is a French Protectorate, they have control of its foreign interactions. This is a very tenuous argument as the concept of protectorates hasn''t been historically extended to policy in relation to refugees, be it from war, political persecution, or Adumbrae attacks."

    "Hmm, what do I say here?" I wondered, tapping my fingers on the laptop''s keyboard. I understood the basics of what the professor was talking about, but I didn''t know enough about the topic to delve into the legalistic side of it.

    So why bother then? I had an idea of how Professor Gallagher''s mind worked. I was sure he wouldn''t care if we gave an opinion based on the law as this was something we hadn''t discussed in class. We were just supposed to discuss our impressions anyway. Recalling how he liked my no-nonsense response in class about Corebrings not being bound by the law in practice, I decided to go that route and provide a ¡®realistic¡¯ reflection.

    Thirty minutes later and I had a big pile of word vomit, hot and fresh from the oven. Bullshitting was a relaxing hobby. The gist of my paper was that the Union was taking in the refugees, so their land, their rules. A childish answer, but that was oftentimes the case in International Law.

    I also pointed out that the League would have a very different view if the Purple Bloom cropped up in Europe. It¡¯d probably also implement draconian measures to stop its spread, especially if the Purple Bloom hadn¡¯t been found in nearly a month already.

    Proofreading. Some cosmetic touches. And send.

    Now what?

    I had fifteen minutes to go before the deadline for submitting the paper, and I didn¡¯t want to go out until then. For sure, Deen would come by to bother me when the time was up. I could watch a movie while eating the rest of my ice cream. But getting interrupted watching the first parts of a movie would suck.

    I turned over my right palm. I didn¡¯t need to use pimple patches or makeup to hide the crystals anymore. That was a definite advantage to Deen knowing my secret. The crystals were growing bigger and they were becoming more difficult to hide. And they were annoying too, scraping against each other if I closed my hand.

    Crystals¡­what if I try on the new mask?

 5.2

    ¡°This is really super pretty,¡± I whispered, admiring the blue domino mask I had summoned.

    It had crescent-shaped sides, the right curving down to a point while the left part went up. I ran my finger over the edge and tried pricking myself on the tips. Either they were dull or my superhuman body wouldn¡¯t allow me to get hurt.

    I set it on the table and tapped the mosaic comprised of dozens of small sapphires covering the entirety of the mask. I kind of wanted to try plucking one. They¡¯d go well set on a ring or a pair of earrings. I wasn¡¯t an expert on jewelry or anything, so I didn¡¯t know if these were actually gems. Probably not? These did come from SpookyErind, whatever dimension she was supposed to be in.

    SpookyErind told me I could use this mask every six hours. Why the limitation? Did it have powerful abilities?

    I tilted my head, listening for any weird sounds. Everything was silent. Deen was probably still inside her room. Her older sister stayed at her boyfriend¡¯s house last night, I dunno which one, and hadn¡¯t come back home yet. There was no one to disturb me. I went to the bathroom to try the mask out in front of the vanity mirror.

    Holding the mask with both hands, I dramatically put it on, closing my eyes to surprise myself with the result. And the mask becomes a face.

    ¡°What the fuck is this?¡± I muttered, feeling the exact opposite of wearing the Blanchette face. An immediate sensation of weakness. If this was something stupid like Pino¡ª¡°Woah!¡± I opened my eyes, and my new appearance derailed my whiny thoughts.

    The mirror showed a woman in a blue long-sleeved blouse matching the color of the sapphire mask and a black skirt over similarly dark leggings.

    I had gotten taller than my original body, an inch or so shorter than Deen or maybe the same height, but definitely shorter than my Blanchette form. Twisting around, I saw that my slightly wavy hair was so long that it reached the small of my back even though it was tied in a high ponytail. It had a smoky brown color with softy ashy tones. ''Cool brunette'' was the term if I wasn''t mistaken¡ªsorry, I don''t have a degree in fashion.

    Leaning forward while pulling my left cheek down, I inspected my eyes through the slits of the sapphire mask. I had alluring whitish-blue irises as if lightning was trapped inside. My upper face was covered by the mask, but judging from my features, I could say I was generically good-looking, maybe just a bit above average. Blue lipstick though? I¡¯m not a fan of that.

    The blouse I wore was slim fit, hugging my curvy body¡ªjust kidding, my new form was far from a head-turner like Deen¡¯s. But since my cute Erind self had a plank of wood as its shape, I tended to view anything that had any amount of curves as ''curvy'', when in fact I now had a pretty normal body.

    My attire wasn''t as outlandish as Blanchette''s. The blouse was quite comfy and felt like some kind of stretchy cotton material, its sleeves were very long, wrapping around my hands and fingers. Not sure if this was trendy, but nothing that strange. I had seen a few celebrities wearing clothes with long sleeves and finger covers. My mini skirt was bell-shaped, sitting tight above my waist, flaring out from my waistline, and falling straight to about a couple of inches above my knee. The black leggings were just black leggings, no hint of any weirdness, and my dark blue ballet shoes were something I¡¯d probably buy myself if it was on sale.

    On my hands, however, was the first sign that something wasn''t normal.

    A black oval crystal the size of an avocado seed sat on each palm, poking through the fabric of my sleeves, embedded into my skin. The left one had the number ''0'', or maybe it''s the letter "O", written in gold. The mysterious number appeared to be floating inside the crystal, like a magic eight ball, and not on it. The crystal on my right hand displayed ''60''¡ªwait, it became ''59''.

    A countdown? To what? It must be related to my power.

    Another peculiar thing was around my neck. My dress had a very high neckline, reaching about an inch and a half below my chin. And above that was a choker¡ªa metal collar with a lock. The band around my neck was glossy black, while the lock was gold and carved into a monstrous humanoid face. I fiddled with it, trying to unlock it. It didn''t have a keyhole unless the gaping mouth of the golden head was supposed to be it.

    ¡°Hmmm, it¡¯s not so bad,¡± I mused, doing a little twirl. In all, I surprisingly looked quite normal that I could tour downtown La Esperanza and no one would bat an eye at me.

    Sure, I had a mask on, but people would simply assume I came from a masquerade party or some event. Better this than the Blanchette one. Chokers weren¡¯t really in style and did look a bit out of place, but it wasn''t too thick to be that conspicuous, and I could just lower my chin to hide the weird face on the lock. Lastly, the black crystals with numbers on my palm could easily pass as accessories.

    "Maybe I can walk around¡ªHey! I can talk! Hello, hello. Testing, testing. Wow, this is super useful." I had a mellow and assuring voice, perfect for reading a children''s book at the library. A voice and a normal-looking body¡ªfinally, something not stupidly restrictive.

    But how normal was I?

    Grabbing the edge of the sink, I tried my best to destroy it. ¡°Grrr¡­crushhh this shit,¡± I grunted. Nothing happened. This is the bad kind of normal. ¡°This suuuucks¡­I¡¯m weak as fuck!¡± If I was in my Erind body, I certainly could crack the tiles; Blanchette would be able to remove chunks of the concrete beneath.

    No biggie, it was just the same restriction as Pino. Good thing, I wasn¡¯t required to drag my practically dead body around as added liability.

    Exiting the bathroom, I heard a car outside pulling into the driveway. That should be Deen¡¯s older sister. We were supposed to tell her that Deen would accompany me to Las Vegas and stay there for a while. I needed fate to be on my side so she¡¯d allow Deen to go. If not, I had to think about some other plan because I wanted my future-seeing best friend to stick with me for protection.

    Now¡­what could my other weaknesses be?

    And what were my powers? SpookyErind didn¡¯t tell me anything useful. When I received Pino, she gave me a clue about the pointing thing, but with this new face, she only told me about the time conditions and nothing else.

    I punched and kicked the air, hoping for something to trigger. Come on! Anything at all?

    Next, I waved my hands around like I was casting magic, trying different poses, saying random stuff like ¡®Power!¡¯, ¡®Shoot!¡¯, and ¡®Fucking shit!¡¯ I hastily covered my mouth, realizing that Deen might come barging in here if she heard a different person¡¯s voice. Whoopsie.

    What if this was like Pino¡¯s abilities? This was going to be super shitty if I needed others to activate my powers. It wasn''t like I could ask Deen to be my guinea pig. I mean, yeah, she''d agree to it, but I didn''t want her to know I had other transformations.

    How about testing this on random people out there? I looked like a normal person. It should be easy to walk around late at night in the bad part of town, bait some perverted criminals or something, and experiment¡ªhang on, you dummy, I was as weak as an average human and had no idea what my powers were. How could I hope to fight back against thugs possibly carrying guns?

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Back to square one.

    I had a hunch SpookyErind wouldn''t pull the same trick twice. Forcing me to cooperate with others would get stale fast if this was also this face''s gimmick. She had such an impish vibe that it made me certain she had something unexpectedly devious planned to make me suffer for her enjoyment. What stupid thing did she come up with this time?

    SpookyErind, if you''re listening, forgive me for thinking your plan is stupid!

    Pino¡¯s weak strength was a tradeoff for a body that was practically indestructible. Sure, Pino''s mannequin-like body could be easily disassembled by an above-average fart, but it also could fix itself. And I hadn''t noticed even a tiny scratch on me during the three hours I was Pino, fighting for my survival in my condo that was turned into a hellhole.

    I rummaged through the drawers, searching for something sharp. A pen? Too crude. I didn''t have a cutter here. Going downstairs to get a knife from the kitchen wasn''t an option because I had to return to my Erind body; if I did that, I had to wait six days to be able to use this face again.

    Here, a pair of scissors! This should do the job.

    I pressed the sharp tip of one of the metal blades against my index finger.

    For some reason, I was hesitating, my hand involuntarily trembling. I focused on steadying it. After all the bullshit that I had gone through, stabbing myself shouldn''t faze me. I held my breath, closed my eyes for some reason, and jabbed the scissor downwards.

    "Ow!" I yelped. The skin on my finger turned red. It throbbed and was sore, but there was no wound.

    It wasn¡¯t that my body was tough. On the contrary, the reddish skin told me I had the soft and vulnerable flesh of a human being. I must¡¯ve held back. That was the only explanation¡ªI chickened out.

    What was going on? Even before I had experienced several life and death battles, I had no qualms with pain. I didn''t think twice about attempting to dig out the crystals on my palm with a knife when I returned to my condo after escaping the Sanders fire. A little kid could stab someone with a pair of scissors¡ªI saw that on the news a few years ago¡ªso, why was I having problems now?

    Of course, I generally didn''t want to get hurt. That was the default inclination of people¡ªthere were some outliers, I know. But I wanted to hurt myself now to check if I had a durable body and super regeneration like an Adumbrae. If not durability, perhaps my healing power was still available.

    Pull yourself together, I scolded myself. I took a deep breath, tightly grasping the scissors. My heart pounded in my chest. No closed eyes this time! And STAB!

    "Oh, my fucking¡ª!" I started to exclaim before I gathered my wits together and willed my mouth to clamp shut. A stream of red ran down the side of my finger. I dropped the scissors on the floor and held my trembling hand. Droplets of blood were on the table. "Oh my god, oh my god,¡± I hissed through clenched jaws, my teeth grating each other starting to hurt. ¡°What do I do? What do I do?¡±

    The sharp pain made me panic. The sight of my own blood wasn''t any help calming me down. My heart''s loud beating reached my ears. I frantically turned left and right, looking for something to stop the bleeding.

    I grabbed one of the papers on the table¡ªit had some scribbles of my notes from Professor Gallagher''s interview¡ªand wrapped my finger with it. The paper turned red. More and more of it became soaked with blood.

    Fuck! How do I stop this?

    Not knowing what else to do, I removed the paper and stuck my finger inside my mouth. Saliva healed wounds, right?

    Salty liquid filled my mouth. I almost gagged from the taste and thought of my own blood. I flicked my tongue over the wound. I saw animals on nature documentaries do it, so I hoped this worked for me too. Each lick caused stinging pain. Water gathered on the side of my eyes.

    I hadn''t seen the wound because it was covered with too much blood. But with my tongue, I felt it. There was a fucking mini crater on the tip of my finger, with a small chunk of flesh dug out. A couple of flaps of skin remained, making me wince with pain each time my tongue passed over it. Licking wasn''t any help at all!

    I removed my finger and started coughing. Puke was rising up the back of my throat. Tears rolled down, tracing the eyes slits of my mask. The mask! I realized what I should do. Just remove this stupid face! Duh.

    But I wasn¡¯t done testing¡ª

    ¡°Erind?¡± Deen¡¯s worried voice came through the door. Knocking followed. I flinched at the sound. I hated knocking since the tentacle zombie parasite knocked on my condo unit¡¯s door. "Is everything fine there?" she called.

    I grabbed the sides of my face and pulled. Then I flexed my muscles the moment it came off. I breathed a sigh of relief as the familiar and comforting sensation of strength had returned. What¡¯s up with that mask? It felt weird when I wore it, like I wasn¡¯t me.

    ¡°Hello, Erind?¡± More knocking.

    "Yeah, yeah, everything''s okay," I loudly said as I chucked the stupid blue mask in the air. It shattered in a cloud of light that swirled back to my hand.

    "I''m coming in."

    I crumpled the bloodied piece of paper and put it in my pocket. "Just wait a bit!" I kicked the scissors to the bottom of the cabinet beside the table, then picked up my glasses and put them on before meeting Deen.

    She greeted me with a raised brow as I opened the door. "What were you doing?" she demanded.

    "You know, just Adumbrae stuff," I said with a shrug.

    Deen jerked back. "Don''t joke about it like that," she sternly whispered. "My sister is here!"

    "I''m sure she won''t care."

    "Still!" Deen frowned, wrinkles forming on her forehead. "Let me in. It''s better to be safe."

    I stepped aside for her. As I checked the room to make sure nothing was out of place, I spotted the blood splatters on my desk. I hurried over and covered it with a book. "Actually," I said, to distract Deen from my weird behavior. "Sorry if I was noisy. I was practicing how to fight, punch and kick and stuff."

    "Fighting?"

    "Yeah. Remember you wanted me to take self-defense lessons with you? And I also recalled that you were practicing with Dario before. I...I just thought I need to learn how to fight without, you know, using my Blanchette face."

    "Why? Is anything wrong with it? I like you as Blanchette."

    "But that''s not really me."

    "Don''t say that."

    "Never mind." I shook my head as if I had conflicting thoughts. Not only have I distracted her from the suspicious raucous I was making earlier, but I also planted the foundation of opening up to her about my meetings with Myra; I was going to tell her in the car later. "Have you talked to your sister that you want to go to Vegas with me?"

    "Yeah. Her exact reply was: ¡®sure¡¯."

    "That''s it?"

    "That¡¯s it. I told you there was nothing to worry about. She won''t kick up a fuss."

    "Maybe she thinks it''s just a weekend thing? Did you tell her that you''ll stay at my condo for some time? Like, I dunno, a week or two?"

    Deen nodded. "She was fixing some stuff in her room while I explained about it, but I think she was listening and understood I¡¯ll be away for some time."

    ¡°That''s great then," I said with genuine relief. I had to thank Mom for inviting Deen over. At first, I wasn¡¯t sure about bringing her along, but after I analyzed my situation last night, I concluded I should keep Deen with me. This was a prime example of big-time ''reliance''. "I thought she''d say no. She doesn''t even want you to have your own place so you won''t bring guys home."

    Deen grinned. "Sis probably thinks you''re not the type of girl who''d have boys over."

    "Ouch. Doesn''t have the capability to, or doesn''t want to because I''m prim and proper?"

    "The latter," she replied with a laugh. "And you''ve been living with us for long enough that you''re practically family. Sis isn''t here most of the time, but I''m sure she trusts you." She held up a finger as we heard Deen''s sister''s car leave the driveway. "And there she goes, off to work. I think it''s time for us to get going too. Are you ready?"

    "Yes. Let''s go meet Myra."

 5.3

    ¡°Remind me again why we¡¯re meeting with Myra,¡± Deen said as the car slowed to a stop in front of a National Guard checkpoint.

    Before we left Deen''s house to go to Cindy''s Fastfood Place where Myra would be waiting for us, we mapped our route to pass through as few checkpoints as possible. It took a bit of snooping around the internet, but social media came to the rescue. Snippet was full of posts of people complaining about the heavy traffic caused by the new checkpoints, mentioning their locations and even posting pictures, giving us enough information to pick the streets that didn''t have those mobile testing trucks whatever where they pick random passersby to test.

    Technically, people had the right to refuse those tests. It was the subject of a famous constitutional case that went all the way up to the Supreme Court¡ªthe ruling was that it didn¡¯t violate the protection of the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination, but it did encroach on the right to privacy that the American people cherished so much.

    Now, while people could refuse without explaining themselves, it¡¯d be pretty suspicious if someone did. They''d probably be placed on a suspects list or something, which was why we just avoided those places.

    The checkpoint up ahead comprised of just a few Guardsmen passing mirrors below cars, rummaging through trunks, and a dog sniffing around for I had no idea what. They were probably looking for weapons because the 2Ms were heavily armed. I was kinda sure dogs couldn''t smell an Adumbrae...or could they?

    "You saw it on the news yesterday," I said while observing a black Labrador outside the window. "All the roads leading out of La Esperanza have testing sites set up. Assuming we don''t get randomly selected, the BID had placed those huge scanners over the roads. I don''t know how those things work, but they might detect us. If not you...definitely me. We need to ask Myra for Suppressors to leave the city safely. You already have one, would be great to have more."

    "Are you any good at swimming?¡± said Deen.

    ¡°Wha¡ªhuh? Swimming? Like you plan to swim across the river instead of passing over the bridge? You can¡¯t be serious.¡±

    ¡°Have I told you I used to be a varsity swimmer in high school?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± I replied, wondering if she had gone insane. ¡°And I suck at swimming, so there''s that.¡±

    ¡°I think I can pull you along with super strength"

    "There are patrol boats. Even if we successfully get to the other side, we won''t have our stuff, like clothes and all that. "

    "We''ll manage," Deen said with a shrug. "How about we put our things in a backpack, wrap it with plastic, and then¡ª"

    "We also won''t have a car. Unless you plan to make an exodus to Las Vegas on foot?"

    "Stealing a car is an option."

    "Deen..." I evenly said. "I can''t believe we''re talking about stealing a car with soldiers around."

    The Guardsman in front of our car stepped aside and gave us a thumbs up. Well, not exactly ''us'', more like to Deen. She flashed her perfect smile at the stupidly grinning guy, giving him a wave to remember her by. He saluted her, which I think, was the appropriate reaction to Deen''s beauty. As for me, I waved at the dog. It excitedly wagged its tail, drool dripping from its lolling tongue.

    "Okay then," said Deen. "We''re going to drive out of the city and we''ll need Suppressors. Sooo...going back to my original question, why Myra? How about you tell me the real reason we''re meeting with her?"

    I raised my brow at her question, realizing that I forgot that she was really smart¡ªafter all, she did get into Cresthorne Law. Modifying my earlier plan, I switched to rattled, panicky Erind. "Wha-what do you mean? I, uh, we''re going to ask her for Suppressors, that¡¯s all. There¡¯s nothing¡ª"

    "We should''ve asked Dario for that then," she sternly retorted. Shaking her head, she sighed and continued in a softer tone, "Erind, you know you can trust me. I won''t get angry with you if you tell me the truth. Why are we meeting with Myra? If you want to talk about it later with her around, that''s also fine with me."

    "I...I''ll tell you," I said, acting like I was forcing myself to admit a secret. I initially wanted to be the one to start this conversation, but now that Deen confronted me about it, I could tell she had sensed something didn¡¯t add up. There was no point stretching this any longer. "Remember when I mentioned I was practicing fighting in my room?"

    "Did you ask Myra to teach you how to fight?" Deen gave me a sidelong glance. "Was that why you went with her that time I attended the event at city hall?"

    "Er, yes..." I replied. Impressive that she had quickly put two-and-two together. Wait, were her grades higher than mine? I¡¯m going to be annoyed if they were. "I did. And I¡ª"

    "That means she knows that you''re an...she knows about your secret."

    "Deen, please don''t take this the wrong way," I hastily said. And I truly hoped Deen¡¯s feelings didn''t get hurt that Myra knew I was an Adumbrae before she did¡ªI hated dealing with people who were emotionally offended. This was why I wanted to be the one to open this topic, but here we were. I gave her a watered down version of the attack on my condo, explaining that Myra and Johann discovered I could quickly regenerate as we fought our way through the hordes of parasite monsters.

    ¡°So, that¡¯s what happened while you guys were escaping.¡±

    "I got injured and I couldn''t hide my super healing," I said. "And I couldn''t just stand by and pretend I was a normal human. I had to join in the fighting or they would''ve died. We all would''ve died."

    She continued facing forward as she drove. Her face was neutral and her voice was relaxed so I couldn''t tell if she was angry or not. "She knows you''re Blanchette." It wasn''t a question.

    I nodded. "Like I told you, my powers activate as sort of a defense mechanism. I was gravely injured, and the...the...Adumbrae, um, I think I can say it sort of took over. I can''t really recall much of what happened. But we managed to get out of that place alive because of my transformation."

    "I see."

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    "I guess your next question is why I haven¡¯t told you that Myra and Johann already knew about my secret?¡±

    "I¡¯m not asking that. I get why you didn''t want to tell me, so I¡¯m going to say right now, I¡¯m not angry. And it¡¯s your business who to tell that you''re, um, how do I say...¡±

    "An Adumbrae," I said, chuckling a bit. Deen gave me a quizzical stare. "What? No need to skirt around the topic. I''m an Adumbrae. That''s it."

    She scrunched her nose at me. "I''m just being considerate, you know?"

    ¡°My plan was to tell you later about it when we get to Cindy¡¯s. I just wanted Myra to be there to help explain what happened during our escape from my condominium building.¡± I gave Deen an apologetic grin. ¡°And I was sort of going to hide behind her if you did get angry at me.¡±

    ¡°Is she your mom?¡± Deen snickered as we turned into the street lined on both sides with restaurants. Cindy¡¯s was a couple of blocks further.

    ¡°No, you are!¡± And we both laughed at that. Everything was handled perfectly. Moving on to buttering up Deen a smidgen. I wanted her to feel I really needed her. It wasn''t like I absolutely did, but knowing her personality she''d be more committed to helping me if she thought I was heavily relying on her¡ª''reliance'', there it is again. Ugh. "So now, you, Myra, and Johann know about my secret¡­know that I''m dealt with a fate worse than death¡ª"

    "Erind, don''t be like that."

    "¡ªbut a silver lining in all this doom and gloom is that you''re helping me keep my secret. Yes, Myra and Johann are like a big help, especially Johann during the tests at the police station. I''m sure you''ve figured out by now why we were panicking a bit back then with me taking a Suppressor. He also did some hocus pocus on that sensor thingy so it won''t detect anything wrong with me. However, having you, my best friend, on my side, is something I''ll never trade for anything in the world."

    ¡°How about a cure?¡± She muttered as turned left into Cindy¡¯s parking. I questioningly tilted my head. She gave me a melancholic expression. ¡°A cure for your condition as an¡­Adumbrae. You said you¡¯ll never trade me for anything. I¡¯m saying you can trade me for a cure.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no cure though?¡± I weakly smiled. I wasn¡¯t sure if this was an attempt at a joke to make the situation lighthearted, but it was getting awkward.

    Deen reached out for my hand resting on the side of my seat. I pulled it out of the way, and she grabbed air. As she turned to me with a surprised face, I poked the side of her stomach. She yelped, jerking the steering wheel. ¡°Erind! My god, I nearly scraped that van¡¯s bumper.¡±

    ¡°Sorry! I¡¯m really so sorry. I thought your Guardian Angel would tell you something.¡±

    ¡°It did tell me to drive straight,¡± she said. ¡°And I was wondering why. I didn¡¯t imagine you¡¯d nearly cause us to crash.¡±

    ¡°Really sorry,¡± I repeated. ¡°Everything got so serious and¡ªand you were about to touch me again! I always tell you I¡¯m not a touchy-feely person. Poking back is my defense mechanism against touching.¡±

    Deen expertly fit the car into a rare empty parking space in one try. It reminded me of my hatred for parking¡ªboth for finding an empty spot in the busy downtown and the actual parking itself which I sucked at. She unbuckled her seat belt and opened her door. ¡°I just thought you¡¯d eventually get used to me if I kept doing it.¡±

    ¡°Are you training me like a dog?¡± I got out of the car and continued, ¡°What was that again? Pavlov something? An experiment that had something to do with training a dog? Eh, whatever. I see Myra¡¯s blue hair.¡±

    I assumed there''d be many customers because the parking area was a bit packed and we wouldn¡¯t be able to find a nice free spot to chat. It turned out that because it was freakin'' humid and hot outside, everyone was inside the restaurant, basking in the cool air conditioning.

    Myra, Deen, and I were protected from the sun by a red patio umbrella, but it still felt a bit stuffy with my clothes slowly sticking to my body because of perspiration. Pristine Deen didn''t mention anything even though I spotted stray beads of sweat on the side of her neck. If she wasn''t complaining, I wouldn''t either.

    Thankfully, Myra had ordered the Ice Cream Extravaganza on Cindy''s menu¡ªthree gigantic scoops of different flavors covered with assorted sweet toppings. She bought it so the three of us could share while we suffered from the heat.

    Three girls eating a giant bowl of ice cream? Nothing sketchy here, people. I suppose it was a tad bit suspicious a plain girl like me was hanging out with someone like Deen. If circumstances were otherwise, I wasn''t sure if we''d become close¡ªapproximately friendly close.

    "And I told Deen how I became an Adumbrae," I said after I caught Myra up to speed about Deen saving me last Saturday and everything that happened since, including our plan to go to Las Vegas. Myra''s eyes widened. She opened her mouth, but I headed her off, talking with a raised voice, "Someday, when I find out the identity of the guy who attacked me at Sanders, I''ll beat him up. Right, Deen?" I jokingly added. "Do I sound tough?" Deen chuckled in response.

    Myra visibly relaxed when she comprehended I hadn''t told Deen it was her who attacked me. "Whoever that guy was", she said. "It''s going to be hard to find him with the 2Ms going into hiding. Dario''s last message was for all of us to chill out and wait until he gets new information on what to do from the Professor. It does sound like good news that they''re stopping their operations in this city with all the BID guys around, but it''s actually not good at all since we have no idea where those bastards will go next."

    "Speaking of Dario," I said. "You haven''t told him that we''re meeting?"

    "Of course not."

    "What''ll be our story to Dario to ask for more Suppressors?" Deen asked. "Something that won''t make him suspect we''re using them to hide an actual..." She hesitantly glanced at me. I rolled my eyes. "Hide an actual Adumbrae," she completed.

    I breathed a sigh of relief that Deen didn''t try to argue for some bullshit like we should tell Dario¡ªor Everett and Reo, for that matter¡ªthe truth and ask for his help. This was what assured me she was committed to being my full-fledged partner-in-crime.

    "Oh, that''s a piece of cake," Myra answered Deen. "We''ll just say we need a few vials to move around the city. Maybe you have something to do at city hall." She snapped her fingers and triumphantly pointed at Deen. "Right, you can just make up a story you''d need to attend some important shizz at city hall again. Lots of BID guys are there, so you''ll need Suppressors since it''s a long event. He''ll buy that explanation."

    ¡°That¡¯ll work I guess," said Deen as she gingerly scooped a clump of ice cream. "How fast do you think we''ll get it?"

    "Not sure. I don''t even know where Dario is right now, and how fast he''ll be able to give you some. It''s kind of my fault that he only left us with one vial each to use in case of emergency. You remember when I gave you all the extra Suppressors we had back at Melchor? Might take a few days to get extra vials from him."

    "We''re leaving for Vegas in a couple of days,¡± I said. ¡°Very early morning of Wednesday to hopefully avoid the super heavy traffic."

    "Then I don''t think you''ll be able to get some in time."

    Deen put her hand to her mouth. ¡°Oh no.¡±

    "It''s okay, Deen,¡± I said. ¡°I wasn''t planning for you or Myra to ask Dario for more blue vials for our trip. I was actually going to ask Myra for her Suppressor to safely get through the checkpoint when we leave La Esperanza. We¡¯ll only need one each, and, Deen, you already have yours.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sure. That works,¡± said Myra with a shrug. ¡°I¡¯ll just ask Dario for a replacement.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell him you gave your Suppressor to me. Actually, don¡¯t tell anyone, even Everett and Reo, anything about me and Deen until we¡¯ve gone to Vegas, or longer than that if possible. I guess you can tell Johann if you want to since he¡¯s with us, but I really don¡¯t want Dario knowing about my movements.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Myra paused mid-scoop. She let go of her spoon and leaned forward, speaking in a whisper. ¡°Why? Is there something I should know?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s time to tell Deen about all the sketchy stuff you and Johann discovered regarding Dario, then I¡¯ll share my concern with you.¡±

 5.4

    Myra started her tale from where it all began for all of us here, albeit in different ways¡ªwith her sister, Kelsey. She admitted to Deen that her story about Kelsey''s terminal illness was a lie, profusely apologizing for it, and explained that their parents'' membership in an Adumbrae cult might be the cause of her sister¡¯s seeding. And because of Kelsey''s condition, Myra accepted Dario''s offer to join his group and Meld with an artificial Core in return for a supply of Suppressors.

    "Dario and the Professor may have kidnapped Kelsey," revealed Myra, intently peering at Deen through her curtain of blue hair.

    Deen gasped in shock, her golden locks shimmering as she lurched in her seat. "What?! I-I don''t understand. Why Dario? Didn''t the 2Ms take Kelsey? They also sent someone to kill Erind and me. Cleaning up witnesses of her transformation is my guess."

    Myra subtly grimaced when Deen brought up the ''mysterious'' person who attacked us at Sanders Mall. "Yes, my first thought was also the 2Ms," she said with an edge to her voice. Our eyes met. I was tempted to smirk at her because, technically, she suspected us first. She quickly looked away. "But I found a note handwritten by Kelsey in her locker that made me think it was Dario and the Professor.¡±

    She explained that the Professor had given Kelsey a sort of concentrated Suppressor that worked for several hours longer than the normal one. Her sister had taken it on the day she disappeared so she shouldn''t have begun to turn into an inhuman form the time we met her at the law school cafeteria. It was either an intentionally ineffective Suppressor or somebody administered a Diluter to her.

    "Dario and the Professor must have a hand in it," Myra insisted. "There''s no one else! They''re...they''re part of a secret organization. These artificial Cores, Suppressors, Diluters...everything. We''re guinea pigs in a secret experiment."

    She repeated to Deen the things she had explained to me last week. Stuff about the Suppressor''s almost miraculous ability to suppress the powers of artificial Corebrings like them and Adumbrae¡ªsuper emphasis on the latter one¡ªand yet we hadn''t heard anything about it. All countries should be working to develop this fucking thing to become a cure. Given the value of the Suppressors and Diluters, it should¡¯ve raised eyebrows that the Professor could easily supply them with dozens of vials if his story that he was just a rogue scientist aiding a ragtag band of randos was true.

    "I see why you''re saying that they''re experimenting on us," Deen said, her forehead wrinkled in deep thought.

    "And that''s not all," Myra said. Next, she brought up the disappearance of various evidence related to us, like parts of video recordings from Eve on the night of the raid got cut if we were in them.

    As the two of them talked, I eyed the bowl of ice cream, waiting to pounce at the right time. The hot La Esperanza weather was doing a good job melting it. In the valley surrounded by the mounds of pistachio, buttered pecan, and mint chocolate chip ice cream was a pool where the three flavors swirled together. I wasn''t too keen on tasting the mixture, preferring the individual flavors, but I had no choice because of Rule #10.

    I dipped my spoon into the middle of the bowl. Deen and Myra stopped their intense chat and stared at me.

    "Just pretending we''re normal girls innocently enjoying a cold dessert," I said. I raised my spoon, encouraging them to continue eating too. They chuckled, breaking the serious atmosphere of their conversation.

    It didn''t take much for Deen to be convinced that everything was not as it seemed. Perhaps it wasn''t that easy to notice while in the thick of it, but once she took a step back and analyzed the situation, it became clear that we were being manipulated by¡­someone. The stupid balaclava masks weren''t much of a disguise if up against the technological capabilities of the BID, it was a wonder none of Dario''s group had been caught¡ªthey had been a thorn on the 2Ms side long before Deen and I showed up.

    ¡°And that¡¯s not all,¡± Myra said. ¡°Dario also ordered us to capture Erind so he could wipe her mind.¡±

    ¡°What?! He promised me he wouldn¡¯t do that.¡±

    ¡°Why do you think we were at the docks? We were trailing Erind. I guess we were lucky to be there, yeah, but Dario was planning to break his promise to you that time.¡±

    The expression of anger on Deen¡¯s face was something I didn¡¯t expect her capable of making. ¡°And to think I trusted him,¡± she whispered, more to herself.

    "Deen, I think it''s time for me to say my piece," I said, waving my spoon at her. "Myra and I...we have decided to work together. If she''s right that Dario took her sister, she''ll need help to fight him someday, and she had no one else to turn to¡ªnot Everett, not Reo, and also definitely not you back then.

    ¡°As for me, obviously, I''ll become Dario''s enemy if ever he finds out about my secret. My choices were either to just sit this one out and try to survive on my own as an Adumbrae, or join Myra''s side. In return, Myra and Johann will also help me, like Myra teaching me to fight and, as you know, Johann faking my test results. Like Myra, I really don''t have anyone to turn to."

    "But now you also have me," Deen said, her face full of conviction. "I promise¡ª"

    Fucking Deen, ruining my speech when I''m not done yet! I puffed myself and talked over her, "Even if Myra won''t give me anything in return, I''ll still help find and save Kelsey. Just because I''m...I''m an Adumbrae, doesn''t mean I''m evil, although everyone thinks that way. I want to prove to myself that I can do good in my state." And there, my speech was done. I locked eyes with Deen, hinting that she could now speak.

    "That''s...that''s so inspiring." She placed her clasped hands near her chest. "I know deep in my heart that you''re a good person."

    "Deen, helping an Adumbrae isn''t what you signed up for when you Melded with an artificial Core. I''ll completely understand if you don''t¡ª"

    "Erind!" Myra and I leaned back, weirded out by Deen''s sudden outburst. "What are you talking about?" she demanded, her eyes intensely glaring at me. "You know I''m on your side. I don''t care if you''re an Adumbrae. I''m on the side of good, and it is good to help my best friend." Facing Myra, Deen added, "It¡¯s also the side of good to save Kelsey. After all, she''s my classmate and I can also say friend, though we''ve only talked a few times. And I will not stand for anyone getting experimented on, be it Kelsey, or us."

    "Thank you, Deen. That means a lot." Myra''s voice cracked from emotions. She noticed it and blushed, looking away. "I...um, it''s just I didn''t expect anyone else to help me," she continued with a firmer tone, putting up a tough facade.

    The three of us sat in awkward silence for a few seconds, staring at the bowl of ice cream which had melted halfway.

    I exaggeratedly exhaled. "Phew, glad everything proceeded smoothly. So now, we''re a team." Deen and Myra nodded, murmuring their agreement. I stretched out my hand to the middle of the table, my palm facing downward over the ice cream bowl. I nudged my head toward it, inviting them to put their hands on it. "We should have a team name or something?"

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Deen quickly placed her hand over mine. "Since there¡¯s the 2Ms, we can be the 3Bs. Black, Blonde, and Blue."

    "3Bs? Black, blonde¡ªoh, our hair colors?" Myra sheepishly grinned as she shyly joined our team''s hand-stack. She was trying to hide her happiness, and possibly also relief, that Deen came over to our side, but I could see it in her eyes and her uplifted cheeks in mid-smile.

    "And..." I lowered my hand, theirs above mine, and threw our hand stack upwards. "Go team 3Bs!"

    Deen made cheering noises and enthusiastically clapped. Myra just scratched the side of her neck in embarrassment, unsure of what to do. A Cindy''s employee fixing the umbrellas a few tables away frowned at us. Three guys seated inside the restaurant, on the other side of the glass wall nearest us, also stared, mostly looking at Deen.

    Myra also noticed them. She huffed, "Just focus on eating, you creepy fucks," as she flipped them off with both hands. They couldn¡¯t hear her, but her message was clear. They grudgingly faced a different direction. ¡°Damn right, look away!¡±

    Was she normally this brash or was she sort of being overprotective to show Deen her gratitude for committing to help her? Either way, I felt like she reacted a bit on the extreme side.

    Deen seemed to think the same. "No need to get so worked up, Myra," she said. "They''re not doing anything weird." Nonetheless, she combed her hair down to hide the side of her face and she shifted the angle of her chair.

    Myra clenched her fist. "I''m just so annoyed with guys like that...ugh, whatever." She opened her hand, slowly exhaling. "I''m good now. Anyway, Erind, you mentioned that you don''t want Dario to know you''re going to Vegas. What¡¯s up with that?"

    "Is there something wrong?" Deen said in a worried voice.

    "I think Dario might know soon I''m Blanchette."

    "What makes you say that?"

    ¡°This is the reason I want the three of us to meet.¡± First, I recounted to Myra about my fight against the 2Ms, and that I was forced to transform into Blanchette, then my giant werewolf form right in the middle of the city. Next, I told her about Deen rescuing me.

    "The traffic cams," Myra said, quickly understanding what I was getting at.

    ¡°Wait!¡± Deen raised her hand like she was reciting in class. ¡°I don¡¯t get it.¡±

    "The people behind Dario, whoever they are, they''re embedded in law enforcement and would surely see my giant werewolf becoming undone by Auron''s power."

    "You were wearing a mask," she pointed out. "With just the street cams, they won''t have seen our faces.

    "What about after that?"

    "After? I was careful¡ª"

    "It''s easy to trace the movements of people with the cameras lining the streets," I said. "They don''t have to see our faces, they just need to spot the same clothes or even just the body shape." I held up one finger. "Imagine this is unconscious me after fighting the Adumbrae of the 2Ms." I raised another finger. "And this is you saving me." I paired my two fingers and moved them across the air, symbolizing the two of us traveling. "We entered a building and rested for some time."

    "Okay? But I also destroyed the security cameras inside that office while I waited for you to regain consciousness."

    "And then we went out," I said. I wiggled my two fingers. "It''s still the two of us, there''s no mistaking it. We''re like the only two people there. After that, we went to¡ª"

    "The city hall," Deen whispered, her eyes narrowing as she gradually figured out the glaring problem. "The traffic cams recorded where we went. Then we snuck into the city hall¡¯s parking area where I hid you in my car while I went to find my sister."

    "And when you came back, we drove back to¡ª"

    "My house."

    "Oh man, that¡¯s a concern," Myra groaned. "''Concern'' is actually putting it lightly. Damn. More like a giant pain in the ass."

    "Do you think they can trace us all the way from..." Deen trailed off, already knowing the answer to her own question. "They can."

    I nodded. "This powerful group combs through all sorts of evidence gathered by law enforcement, no doubt including street cam footage, videos from building security cameras¡ª"

    "Also parking area cameras," contributed Deen, "like those in city hall."

    "And scrubs them clean to make sure our little group is safe," I said. "Well, they''ll see that it was you who carried me. They''ll keep you safe...I think. The problem is, it¡¯s easy to put together that I¡¯m the infamous Red Hood. It¡¯s either me or your sister; the security footage of city hall will rule her out."

    Myra said, ¡°So that''s why you want to leave La Esperanza."

    "Exactly. They''ll have a ton of stuff to go through. I''m sure it''ll be some time until they''ll discover my secret. And after that...I''m not sure what they''ll do. Maybe...maybe they''ll, um..." I looked at her.

    "Maybe they''ll also take you like what happened to Kelsey," she said with an understanding nod.

    "I-I''m not sure what my fate afterward will be. I''ll prepare to hide in Vegas. That city is way bigger than La Esperanza. I¡¯m also more familiar with it since we did live there for some time. My family also has a few friends there who I can ask for help. Deen, you can help me prepare to disappear¡­and you can go back¡ª"

    She slammed the table with her palm. ¡°I¡¯m not going to leave you all alone! We¡¯re in this together.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to leave your life too,¡± I said, in a fake attempt to dissuade her. But Deen should be smart enough to know this wasn¡¯t only about me.

    ¡°What will they think when they see me helping you?¡± she said. ¡°They¡¯re not just going to let me be.¡±

    Eh? She¡¯s going down this route? And here I was, assuming Deen got everything figured out. She wasn¡¯t as intelligent as I thought her to be. Although to be fair, I only thought about this stuff last night as I brainstormed instead of sleeping. It was going to be fucking fun and full of drama when Deen would eventually realize that I was going to blame her for having my cover blown!

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what they¡¯ll do to me for hiding an Adumbrae,¡± Deen went on, oblivious of my plans for her. ¡°But I¡¯m sure it¡¯s not good. Maybe Dario will attack me.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­um, that¡¯s not, uh¡­¡± I intentionally faltered in my speech as if I was trying to come up with an excuse for her but couldn¡¯t. My trump card of blaming her wasn¡¯t needed for now. ¡°I¡¯m fine on my own, really.¡±

    ¡°Erind, I¡¯ll be with you,¡± Deen said. ¡°How many times do I have to tell you this?¡±

    As much as I hated the thought, Deen should stay with me. For her safety¡ªyeah, sure there¡¯s that¡ªbut especially for my own too. I wouldn¡¯t want her pitted against me. And now, more than ever, with the prospect of Dario¡¯s secret organization figuring out my secret, I needed all the allies and advantages I could gather. Deen would definitely help me big time when the time of reckoning came, not only with her power but also with money.

    ¡°And me too!¡± Myra chimed in. ¡°I¡¯m not going to Vegas now, I mean. I¡¯m going to stay here and observe how things go, investigate Dario with Johann¡¯s help maybe, see what he knows. I¡¯ll alert you if something bad is coming your way. And if you need help, just call me. It¡¯s like a four, maybe five-hour drive to Vegas, but I¡¯ll be there as fast as I can. If they come to get you because you¡¯re an Adumbrae, maybe we can capture them and they¡¯ll lead us to Kelsey.¡±

    ¡°Everything suddenly became so serious,¡± I said with a weak smile. ¡°I¡­I don¡¯t know what will happen in the future. Whoever is behind Dario, they¡¯re a big organization¡ª.¡±

    ¡°This means we need more help,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Who?¡± asked Myra. ¡°There¡¯s no one else. Fat chance we can convince Everett and Reo. Or like you have some family connections or something?¡±

    Deen chewed her tongue as she pondered what to tell us next. ¡°Family connections, no. I¡¯m thinking we ask help from Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Adumbrae? What the hell are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve met a true Adumbrae who might help us. His name is Hedley Kow.¡±

 5.5

    I expected that Deen was just spouting random nonsense when she claimed she knew an Adumbrae. Maybe she''d suggest we approach Bianca for help or something? Though that scheming, silver-haired bitch wasn''t an Adumbrae¡ªthat reminds me, I should find a way to check up on her, my supposed lifestyle mentee.

    But it turned out I was wrong. Deen had indeed met a true Adumbrae, not those fake ones made by the 2Ms.

    She told us that last Saturday, on her way to EFU Medical Center to answer Everett''s and Reo''s call for help, she spotted a suspicious person. Her explanation of why this random man caught her attention was sort of jumbly and vague, making me think she was hiding something¡ªI filed it away in my mind. She narrated that as she followed this man, he surprisingly transformed into two children.

    ¡°Two kids?¡± Myra asked with incredulity.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Deen confirmed. ¡°There was a flash of purple light, and then there was a boy and a girl.¡±

    Those pesky shits! I clenched my fist under the table. Those kids she had seen, I knew them.

    When Deen, Dario, and the rest of the hero wannabes had their fun little mission investigating EFU Medical Center, I had waited at a dingy pub. PCM assholes, accusing me to be part of Reginus'' stupid SVS group, chased me away from my comfy resting spot. Wandering the streets with nothing to do, I decided to make good use of my time and followed another PCM member to investigate what was their beef with the SVS.

    The PCM guy I picked to tail turned a corner and there was a burst of purple light. Two children walked out onto the street, a boy and a girl just as Deen had described. Nothing too suspicious. Except that when I checked that corner, I found that what I thought was an alley was actually a dead-end.

    Later that same night, while I was busy saving Ramello and the SVS from murderous PCM people, the boy appeared again, that time holding Penemue. The girl might¡¯ve gone somewhere else. The boy threw the giant lollipop-shaped axe at me, leading to my first encounter with that annoying mind-reading object-person thingy. And after our fight, the boy picked up Penemue and left.

    "Hedley Kow is his name," Deen told us. "His, her¡­they? Apparently, his body was split into two children when he became an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± Myra said, scratching her head. ¡°He¡¯s one person, but with two bodies? Does that mean his mind is shared between the bodies?¡±

    ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t know. And I didn¡¯t ask¡ª¡±

    ¡°Deen,¡± I interrupted her in a steely tone. The information about this friend of Penemue was interesting and all, but an opportunity for drama arose, sweetly calling my name. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me about this? You left out something this important?¡± Not that I was one to talk with all the bullshit I was hiding from her. Just wanted to make a deposit to my guilt-tripping Deen bank account for the day I might be required to withdraw from it.

    ¡°I¡­I¡¯m sorry,¡± she whispered, trying to lock eyes with me to show her sincerity.

    ¡°It¡¯s not like you have to tell me everything. But this sounds like something I should hear.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t tell you about it because I thought it was better if you didn¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°And why not?¡± I demanded, folding my arms across my chest.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure what you¡¯ll do if you knew about them.¡±

    ¡°Like you¡¯re concerned I was going to join them?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± she admitted with a deep sigh.

    ¡°Okay, so what¡¯s the big deal with that? It¡¯s not like I have many options to turn to.¡±

    ¡°Hedley Kow is an Adumbrae who has progressed far into his infection. He already lost his original body. I thought that if you¡¯d go with them, it might, uh, it might speed things up. And I don¡¯t want that to happen to you.¡± She expectantly stared at me, waiting for words of forgiveness and reconciliation. Instead, I kept silent because I wanted her to stew for just a bit more. After a few seconds of not getting a response from me, she said, ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to lie to you, promise. It¡¯s just that¡­¡±

    ¡°I understand,¡± I icily said. I truly did, but I wouldn¡¯t let this possible emotional manipulation ammunition¡ªcool term, I should copyright it¡ªgo to waste. Deen looked a bit conflicted, her eyes down. It made me feel happy to bully her, and also a bit regretful since she had fed me ice cream. I should tone it down because this wasn¡¯t the time to create a rift between us.

    In a vacuum, going with my fellow Adumbrae was probably the best option in terms of long-term survival. But I didn¡¯t like change; I wanted to continue with my normal life as much as possible. I even left Deen¡¯s house and returned to my condo, and look how that turned out. So maybe I wasn¡¯t the best person to ask for survival tips.

    With the threat of my Adumbrae nature getting exposed by the secret organization behind Dario, I was starting to think I should¡¯ve made friends with Penemue. Or probably not. I had a hunch they wouldn¡¯t accept me in their exclusive club with SpookyErind in my head for some reason¡ªPenemue giving his best to kill me was proof of that.

    Deen¡¯s original decision to keep me away from them was the correct call, and she didn¡¯t know it.

    ¡°So why do you want to ask help from this cow guy now?¡± said Myra, asking a sensible question. ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t want Erind to be with them?¡±

    ¡°Hedley Kow,¡± Deen corrected her. And to answer the question, she said, ¡°Asking an Adumbrae for help¡ªan iffy idea, I know. I¡¯m not sure about this myself, but I¡¯m just throwing this out there. Hedley Kow and his allies Adumbrae will surely accept Erind and are powerful enough to protect her. This might be hard to believe, and I didn¡¯t back then, but Hedley Kow¡¯s group isn¡¯t pure evil like we¡¯d assume Adumbrae are.¡± She nodded at me. ¡°Erind isn¡¯t evil.¡±

    I faintly smiled but didn¡¯t look at her, pretending I was still hurt. I¡¯m such a melodramatic bitch. And what was that about not being ¡®evil¡¯? That was true. It wasn¡¯t like I was intentionally malicious or anything like that.

    Myra pressed, ¡°That¡¯s Erind though. We know her. What about this guy you¡¯re talking about? What makes you so sure he won¡¯t attack us? Hey, why didn¡¯t he attack you?¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t attack me because¡­¡± Deen deeply inhaled. ¡°Because I pretended I¡¯m an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± Both Myra and I exclaimed.

    ¡°That¡¯s what my Guardian Angel told me to do to survive. I wouldn¡¯t have done it otherwise. Outwardly, besides the artificial Core on my chest that I obviously didn¡¯t reveal, we¡¯re the same as Adumbrae. Healing, regeneration, superstrength.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t let Everett hear you say that,¡± Myra said.

    I met Deen¡¯s eyes, offering a reconciliatory smile. ¡°The important thing is you¡¯re safe. And thank the Mother Core you have your Guardian Angel to protect you.¡±

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    Deen beamed at me. ¡°My lie calmed Hedley Kow down. And as we talked, he realized he had met me before.¡± She went on to explain his powers, something about absorbing dead bodies to gain the person¡¯s appearance and memories, and then the two kids would fuse together and become an exact clone of the deceased. One of the persons Hedley Kow copied was¡ª¡°Dr. Cornelio,¡± she revealed.

    "That doctor at Johann''s office is an Adumbrae?" I asked. The fuck was going on? "He''s Professor Deslys'' husband, right?"

    "Yeah, he is," said Myra. "Johann mentioned something about his boss disappearing off the face of the earth. And now, we got our explanation. He¡¯s an Adumbrae."

    "No, no, Dr. Cornelio isn¡¯t an Adumbrae," Deen patiently clarified. "I''m not sure, but I think the real Dr. Cornelio is...is dead. The man who signed Erind¡¯s test certificates was already Hedley Kow who had taken the doctor¡¯s place."

    "The coffee," I muttered. "The hot coffee.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± said Deen. She told Myra how our meeting with Dr. Cornelio went.

    ¡°He didn¡¯t flinch at the hot coffee,¡± I explained to Myra. ¡°By the way, Deen, do you know why your Guardian Angel told you to do that?¡±

    ¡°I actually don¡¯t. At that time, I wasn¡¯t aware of your plans with Johann, but it was obvious to me something went wrong. Knowing the truth about Hedley Kow now, wouldn¡¯t he have protected you even if your test results showed something abnormal?¡±

    ¡°Or not,¡± I said. That fucking kid! He owed me for stressing me the fuck out. ¡°Why did your Guardian Angel tell you to do that if everything was going to be fine?¡±

    ¡°Hedley Kow told me he didn''t react to the hot coffee to signal to you that he was an Adumbrae,¡± said Deen with a quizzical expression. ¡°Maybe the coffee did change his mind about something? He also mentioned he left you a clue among your documents that''ll help you find a safe haven for Adumbrae."

    ¡°Safe haven?¡±

    ¡°Those are his exact words. And that¡¯s why I decided to bring him up now because he might help you against Dario. You don¡¯t necessarily need to go with them. I don¡¯t want that¡ªer, I mean, do you know about the clue he mentioned?¡±

    "I''m not sure," I said, racking my brains. Was it that stupid bookmark? "I''ll have to check it later."

    "Hang on," Myra said. "He may have helped Erind at that time, but we can¡¯t say he''s not dangerous. He is an Adumbrae. And what happened to the real Dr. Cornelio, huh? You mentioned his power was to absorb dead bodies.¡±

    Good catch, Myra! ¡°Did he kill¡ª¡± I began to say.

    Myra continued with her point. ¡°He must¡¯ve killed the real Dr. Cornelio to take his place!¡±

    Deen''s eyes narrowed and then widened like an umbrella opening as she realized she missed something important. She frantically stammered, "He di-didn''t sa-say. Dr. Cornelio might''ve..." And she didn''t finish her sentence because we all came to the same conclusion about what likely happened.

    ¡°We give him one point for helping Erind¡ªif doing nothing is counted as help nowadays,¡± Myra grumbled. ¡°But his single good guy point is canceled for doing in Dr. Cornelio. If you ask me, he¡¯s still pretty much in the red in my book.¡±

    ¡°I admit that he might¡¯ve¡­¡± Deen closed her eyes as she deliberately sighed. ¡°¡­killed Dr. Cornelio. But I know they¡¯re fighting the 2Ms, and he probably needed that disguise to do something important at the police station.¡± She held her hands up before Myra could speak. ¡°I¡¯m not defending him, okay? I¡¯m saying they have the same goals as we do.¡±

    ¡°Fighting the 2Ms? What makes you say that?¡±

    ¡°They have this machine,¡± she began. Apparently, the boy was tinkering with a metallic box and talked about a generator of some kind and a megaphone. Deen didn¡¯t know I had encountered those blasted thingamajigs plenty of times that they were near the top of the list of objects I absolutely wanted to break apart, with probably Penemue at the top two.

    ¡°And this machine was supposed to stop those monsters the 2Ms made?¡± I asked after Deen finished her explanation.

    ¡°Did you actually see them use it?¡± said Myra.

    ¡°Erm, no,¡± Deen conceded, scrunching her nose. ¡°It¡­it was broken. They weren¡¯t able to fix it.¡± There was something with the way she spoke that made me think she was the reason it broke.

    ¡°That kid could¡¯ve been lying about it then. Maybe they¡¯re with the 2Ms?¡±

    ¡°No, they¡¯re not. When the monsters of the 2Ms attacked, Hedley Kow transformed into a creature of shadow and fought them. Everett and Reo can attest to that. We didn¡¯t actually see Hedley Kow fight, but the area around the hospital was cleared of monsters. I¡¯m sure it was Hedley Kow¡¯s work because there were traces of his shadow powers throughout Marshall Avenue.¡±

    ¡°Sounds sketchy, man,¡± Myra said. ¡°Don¡¯t really know what to think about that. But I won¡¯t deny the possibility of real Adumbrae fighting the fake ones. That reminds me of something weird that happened during the fight at the police station that might be connected with your Hedley Kow guy.¡±

    Deen leaned forward. ¡°Something weird?¡±

    Myra narrated about seeing Penemue at the police station while he was controlling Professor Deslys. I was surprised to learn that Penemue talked to Myra, using Professor Deslys, of course, and told her that he was an Adumbrae and they should work together. She said, ¡°He must¡¯ve thought I was an Adumbrae like him.¡±

    I had never thought much about why that fucking prick of an axe was there at the precinct, but now I knew: Hedley Kow, taking on the form of Dr. Cornelio, hid Penemue there in anticipation of the PCM attack.

    Wait a fucking minute. I sensed where this conversation was going to lead, and I may have made a mistake earlier. Maybe a few mistakes. Fuuu...

    ...udge cake, I finished my thought as my eye caught the colorful poster on Cindy''s window about their new ice cream flavor¡ªchocolate ice cream with fudge swirls and chocolate cake crumbles. What if I just left these two here, went inside the restaurant, and ordered that? The line at the cashier was long. That was fine though because I really, really preferred to be anywhere else than at this table.

    It might''ve been a huge blunder that I had lied to Deen that only Myra went to the precinct to help Johann while I made my way to the hospital and got tangled with the men of the 2Ms.

    During the chaotic battle at the police station, I had fought as Erind because of Auron''s power-canceling abilities, even saving Myra from the stomach of Mammoth Buddy. I wouldn''t be clueless and timid Erind in Deen''s eyes if she knew all the shit I did there. And if she did snoop around for more information, Myra and Johann could alert me about it, and it could mean Deen wasn¡¯t as trustworthy as she seemed.

    Now, I was half-regretting that lie. Never had I expected Deen to meet Penemue¡¯s friend. To make matters worse, I called her out for hiding shit from me just a while ago. If I hadn''t done that, it would''ve been smooth sailing to admit I also hid stuff from her. I¡¯d just look like a massive bitch if I admitted to lying now.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what to make of that axe,¡± Myra said. ¡°Taking over Professor Deslys. That thing¡ªAdumbrae?¡ªwas for sure connected with Hedley Kow who killed Dr. Cornelio. Sketchy bunch. And poor Professor Deslys. Johann told me she got carted off by the BID. Maybe Erind knows¡ª?¡±

    ¡°So, an ally of Hedley Kow showed up at the police station,¡± I said

    ¡°Yeah, you were¡ª¡±

    ¡°I could¡¯ve met another Adumbrae like me if I went to the police station instead of getting into a fight with the 2Ms¡¯ men.¡± I intently glared at Myra, almost hoping that I had telepathic powers. Her shifting expressions told me she got my message to shut the hell up. ¡°But I really don¡¯t know if we should contact them. Deen, I think your first decision to keep me away from them might be the correct one. I¡¯m sorry I got angry.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be,¡± said Deen. ¡°I understand where you¡¯re coming from. And as for Hedley Kow¡¯s group. I¡¯m also not sure about them, but there may come a time we¡¯d be up against our backs fighting strong enemies. I mean, we¡¯re¡­just¡­¡± She gestured to us with an apologetic grin.

    ¡°Small fries?¡± Myra offered.

    ¡°Well, not exactly that.¡±

    ¡°We are though,¡± I said.

    Deen cocked her head in subtle agreement. ¡°And Hedley Kow and his group are the big fries. Is that the correct term?¡±

    ¡°It''s true they''ll be a huge help," Myra said, "But this is Erind¡¯s call if we''ll try to reach out to them. She¡¯s the Adumbrae.¡±

    Deen angrily whispered. ¡°Myra!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the truth Deen,¡± I said. ¡°No one¡¯s around to hear her.¡±

    Myra grinned. ¡°What do you think about these guys, Erind?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­I don¡¯t know what to think because I haven¡¯t met them.¡±

 5.6

    Our drive home was pretty quiet and uneventful. It was about two in the afternoon, so most people had returned to their offices after their lunch breaks. The streets were also way emptier than usual because many chose to stay at home.

    We retraced the same route we took on the way to Cindy''s and met the same bunch of National Guardsmen. Deen chatted up the soldiers about how awful it must be to work under this scorching sun while wearing their stuffy gear. The young men were so eager to talk with her that they stopped inspecting our car halfway. They shared their experiences that were supposedly worse than this, trying to one-up each other with their tales.

    Mr. Doggy circled the car once and found nothing. It followed its handler back to hide under the lush shade of a tree by the sidewalk. I lowered the window on my side a crack and waved at Mr. Doggy as we drove forward; its tail eagerly thumped on the ground.

    And then it was back to awkward silence.

    Before we ended our little get-together at Cindy''s, the three of us had agreed that looking for Hedley Kow and his group would be our last option.

    To be more accurate, the three of us didn''t have a vote. It was more like me deciding on it.

    Myra, probably still puzzled why I didn''t want Deen to know I had fought at the police station, had a hands-off stance. She agreed with Deen that Hedley Kow and the mind-controlling axe were powerful potential allies, but she reasoned they were going to specifically help me because I was a fellow Adumbrae, and not her in finding Kelsey. She might be able to save her sister if those Adumbrae fought Dario''s organization, but the decision to contact them was up to me because they certainly wouldn''t care about her.

    Although Deen was the one who had brought up Hedley Kow, she, herself, was hesitant in approaching his group for help. I got really weird vibes from her, like she wanted to help me, but was afraid of what¡¯d happen if we met real Adumbrae. In the end, she followed Myra and also deferred to me.

    It wasn''t like I''d decide any other way. ¡°They are Adumbrae,¡± I had explained to them, ¡°and not to be trusted.¡± I even went on a whole speech about how I no longer trusted myself, that there were times I wasn¡¯t sure my mind was my own¡ªand, of course, Deen instinctively wanted to comfort me.

    I also added that if we did manage to find these Adumbrae, what would we tell them? We had no idea what threat was coming our way, or rather my way when, not if, Dario would find out about my true nature. And the more important reason to stay away from them was, of course, I didn''t want Penemue to fillet me again¡ªbut Deen and Myra needn''t know about that.

    Deen cleared her throat. ¡°Um, Erind?¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡± I was looking at the side mirror, watching the dog under the tree get smaller and smaller.

    "Are you sure it''s okay to eat ice cream again?"

    On my lap, inside a white paper bag marked by the Cindy''s logo, was a tub of the chocolate fudge ice cream I was eyeing earlier. Atop the tub was a blue vial¡ªMyra¡¯s Suppressor.

    Deen insisted on coming with me to buy Cindy¡¯s ice cream¡ªnever had a person been more out of place in a line at a fast-food cashier than her. The three guys from earlier had ogled her. Sadly, Myra had already left, or she would''ve probably raised a scandal inside the restaurant. "I had a grenade blow up in front of my face." I nonchalantly shrugged as I examined my sweet treat. "I''m sure ice cream is fine."

    "Erind, don''t joke about something like that," said Deen in a disapproving tone.

    "What? About the grenade?"

    "Yes. It was a serious thing. I was so worried about you."

    "Yes, mom," I drawled. She frowned while focused on the road in front. I leaned forward a bit so she could see me in her peripheral vision, and gave her a playful grin. "I guess it''s fine to eat this. Would we get sick if we ate too much sugar? Or we''ll just regenerate if we get like diabetes or something?"

    "I''m not sure how our regeneration works." How nice of Deen to say ''our regeneration'' even if our situations were different¡ªshe was an artificial-Core holder, I was an Adumbrae. She carried on, "My nails grow at a normal rate after I trim them. But the time I broke a nail while punching one of the goons the 2Ms sent to my house, it quickly fixed itself back to what it was before."

    I held my fingers up; I also had cut my nails a few days ago. "I never thought of that."

    ¡°And Myra had her hair cut and dyed a deeper blue like a week ago. It stayed cut. Weird, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Yep, it¡¯s weird alright.¡± It was weirder than Deen had observed. She didn¡¯t know that most of Myra¡¯s hair, and also parts of her body, were melted by Mammoth Buddy''s vicious stomach acid when it swallowed her. I recalled that as I carried Myra to safety after saving her, patches of her blue hair were growing back. I could understand the hair regenerating. But keeping its dyed color? I spoke, "Maybe I''ll get fat if I eat too much ice cream?"

    "If our body is maintaining most of its normal functions, you probably will."

    "I''m not going to finish this pint anyway. Just a small cup."

    "That''s good."

    I provided the perfect stereotypically girly topic of weight, and it fell flat on its face. A ¡®mom¡¯ joke could keep the conversation going, but it might get stale if I kept using it. And so, the radio played "Awkward Silence" once again. I thought of actually turning on the music, but Deen seemed to be thinking deeply about something. I wasn''t big on music anyway.

    We were driving along McDouglas Street, circling Green Meadows Park on the way to the entrance of Poblacion Verde Hills, when Deen spoke, "You may be wondering why I told Myra about Hedley Kow."

    "No, I''m¡ª"

    "I know you''re hurt I didn''t tell you about it before, and you may also be confused that when I finally decided to reveal it, Myra was also there. It''s an Adumbrae matter and you probably feel like I shouldn''t have included her in the conversation."

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    "Deen, it''s not an issue, okay?" I told her with a sprinkling of curtness, keeping up a hint of my hurt face. The truth was I really didn''t care about her Hedley Kow secret and whoever she¡¯d tell it to. I actually found it a bit sweet she hid it from me so I wouldn''t think of going with other Adumbrae.

    "Let me just explain myself to get this off my chest. The reason I also shared it with Myra was to show we also trusted her. We need her on board so she''ll keep us updated on Dario''s movements."

    "Um, okay," was all that I said because I was so surprised at how Deen was acting. Funny how she made it sound like Myra was the later addition to our group when it was the other way around. Like we were the ''core'' members, and Myra was just third-wheeling along. And she was also using manipulation tactics! I''m so proud.

    "Listen to me," Deen continued in a serious tone like we were in a drama movie. "Myra has a different reason to fight. We can''t be sure of her help because she''ll prioritize her own survival. I''m not saying she''s planning to betray us, but her priority is saving her sister and not helping you. As for me, I''m with you no matter what."

    "Tha-thank you," I timidly said. Wow, Deen is so fucking scary. I didn''t know she had it in her to think this way. I might even get her to punish Myra for me someday. That sounded like a lot of fun and drama in my head.

    Deen¡¯s profession of loyalty delighted me, even if it was a little creepy. It must be guilt that was behind this. Guilt that she wasn''t able to protect me when the 2Ms attacked my condo. Guilt that she must¡¯ve felt that I was an Adumbrae.

    "Other than Hedley Kow,¡± she said, ¡°there¡¯s someone else who might be able to help us. And I don''t want to tell Myra about this."

    "Bianca."

    Deen turned to me with her mouth open in surprise. "How did you¡ª?"

    I winked at her. "We''re thinking on the same wavelength. Besties forever?"

    "Forever, yeah," she repeated with a smile. "And also, you¡¯re right, I''m talking about Bianca. We were thinking of reaching out to her last time."

    "To find Red Island, I remember it. The 2Ms already knew about me, so we might as well take the battle to them. Though we didn''t really get around telling Dario and the others of your plan because of, um, everything else that happened. How can Bianca help us? And why would she do it?"

    "She saved me."

    "Wasn''t that more like a spur of the moment thing though? And why would she care about Dario and whatever secret organization that''s floating out there?"

    "She won''t," Deen admitted. "But do you know who will? The 2Ms. Bianca can help us find them."

    "You can''t be serious?!" I almost snorted in disbelief at the audacity of what she was suggesting. Then the cogs in my head turned as I gradually grasped there was merit to her plan. "You''re going to pit Dario and the 2Ms against each other? Oh wait, they''re already against each other. Erm, do you plan for us to change sides?"

    "No, not change sides. We''re on our own side, the side of 3Bs, or 2Bs if it''s only the two of us.¡±

    ¡°We play both sides?¡±

    ¡°Exactly. The 2Ms would love to get Dario, so we can set him up as an offering to them. We¡¯ll also reveal that they¡¯re actually up against a vast organization with plenty of resources, including connections in the government. We do know that the people behind Dario aren¡¯t all-powerful since they usually had incomplete intel. The 2Ms do have a chance of taking them on. And I¡¯m sure the 2Ms would love to get revenge.

    ¡°We can take advantage of the chaos, inflict as much damage as possible to both sides. And after we''ve used them, we''ll also take them down by reporting the 2Ms to the BID and exposing the experiments of Dario¡¯s secret organization to the public. In the end, we''ll walk away safely."

    Holy fucking shit! Deen was a genius! My plans sounded idiotic in comparison like it was made by a five-year-old. I was focused on manipulating that I failed to think big, way bigger. But I did get her on my side. So, by relation, I was a genius too. Yey! I hesitantly told her, "Is...is that going to work? Manipulating two sides to destroy each other?

    ¡°I can¡¯t say if it¡¯ll work.¡±

    ¡°And they want to kidnap me for some reason.¡±

    "Maybe Bianca can help us find out why and it can be a chip when we deal with them. Yes, a chip. It¡¯s a gamble after all.¡±

    Fuck, Deen thought of a better plan than me. For some reason, I was suddenly annoyed by it. I¡¯d have to show her up someday. I said, ¡°I can''t tell whether this or the Hedley Kow plan should be our last resort.¡±

    ¡°Desperate times call for desperate measures."

    To show I also knew how to use my brain, I said, "Bianca is the perfect person to ask for help. We know she''s not connected to Dario because we had a mission to investigate her. She''s also human, so she won''t be that attached to the 2Ms."

    "And like I mentioned, she did help me." Deen reached for my hand on my lap and held it. "I''m sure we''ll be able to think of more plans."

    "Thank you," I said, keeping as still as possible. Fortunately, we had to turn into the main gate of Verde Hill. She needed both hands on the steering wheel so she let go of mine.

    Deen''s plan to use the 2Ms might work. Annoyance that she had a better idea gave way to excitement. The prospect of manipulating so many people resulted in an electric tingle rising from my sides up to my neck. Adrenaline pumped through my body at the thought of all the scrumptious drama I''d cause!

    First things first. I had to contact Bianca before Deen did to have control of the situation.

    When I met Bianca after I escaped Eve, I felt like I was on the losing end of dealing with her. She held the upper hand because she could report me to the 2Ms, and she could also expose my secret to Deen. Now, she had neither of those advantages. The 2Ms knew who I was¡ªif that bitch was the cause of my condo getting destroyed, I''d make her sorely regret it¡ªand Deen was game to commit crimes to keep me safe. The only advantage Bianca had over me was her two bodyguards, Xazary and Zachary, who could certainly kill me.

    However, I had an ace so fucking massive it couldn''t fit up my sleeve. I had what she was looking for: people infected by Adumbrae who managed to keep their own minds. Deen thought Bianca could only help us find the 2Ms. If I dangled what that silver-haired bitch was looking for in front of her, she might even go to war against both Dario and the 2Ms at the same time. I just had to make sure Bianca wouldn''t know Deen also had the same information.

    "Sis, are you here?" Deen loudly called as she entered the house. Her sister''s favorite car wasn''t in the driveway or garage, but sometimes she was around like a freaking ghost popping out of nowhere. There was no answer. But then again, she usually didn''t answer. Deen threw her keys into a golden bowl full of knickknacks on the minibar.

    A curious sparkle caught my eye. "Deen, what''s this thing?" I said as I peered into the bowl. I fished out a rose gold bracelet set with several beautifully cut white crystals. "A diamond bracelet?"

    "Oh, that? Sis found it a few feet from our front door, by that circular green bush. Someone must¡¯ve dropped it while jogging.¡±

    ¡°By the weird bush? That¡¯s too far from the sidewalk for anyone to accidentally drop this. Are these real?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I reckon those are real diamonds. Sis told me to look for its owner. I¡¯ll probably ask around the neighbors before calling the management.¡±

    ¡°Whoever the owner is,¡± I said, ¡°They¡¯d be frantically looking for this, especially something this expensive.¡±

    ¡°We can order lunch and visit the other houses while waiting for the delivery to arrive.¡± Deen frowned as she took the bracelet from my hand. ¡°I really don¡¯t want to talk to Mrs. Grundy though, that grumpy old woman across the street. Can you go with me?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, no prob,¡± I said with a shrug. ¡°Kind of weird just to lose something this expensive so carelessly.¡±

 5.7

    The Guardian Angel is such a bullshit cheat!

    I fiercely swung my fist. Deen leisurely moved away as if she had predicted my move¡ªwhich she obviously fucking did. Her face showing intense concentration, she hit me back from the side as the momentum of my punch carried me forward. Her blows barely hurt because she wasn''t able to gain a firm footing before she attacked, likely unable to keep up with her Guardian Angel''s instructions.

    It was about half an hour past midnight, the humid breeze of February had turned cool with the sun asleep. The sliver of the moon I had spotted as we jogged to this secluded spot had gone into hiding behind thick clouds along with the stars.

    Or maybe that was the city''s egregious amounts of pollution rolling across the sky above. The evening news had reported multiple fires caused by separate riots in the poorer parts of the city¡ªthose probably added a lot of smoke to the air. Dozens of vehicles caught up in the heavy traffic along the select roads going out of the city that remained open, even at this late of an hour, certainly made things worse.

    Deen and I sparred under a dim light post on the furthest street corner at the back of Poblacion Verde Hills. The road followed the side of the actual hills that weren''t so green despite their name before snaking back into the premier gated community of La Esperanza. I heard the hills were protected by city laws for some wildlife and heritage reasons, otherwise, there''d be mansions on top of them. Rich people really liked to live on the heights.

    It was only the two of us here, plus our audience, a bunch of frogs hidden amongst the tall grass, cheering for us with their incessant croaking. Well, they were probably cheering for Deen, because I still hadn''t landed a hit on her for the fifteen minutes or so we were fighting.

    This was supposed to be a quiet and peaceful place for us to practice, but I was steadily getting more and more irritated, and the loud frogs weren''t helping things. Stupid amphibians with their mating calls, fucking each other in the darkness while Deen''s Guardian Angel was fucking me over with its powers.

    With each miss, I''d curse myself in my head. I wanted to beat her in our fight because I was so pissed that she had a better plan than me. Even more annoying was that it was a big-brained plan too. A plan that¡¯d cause a lot of drama. That was supposed to be my thing, yet she came up with it. Grrrrr!

    I''m a petty bitch, so what?

    Sue me.

    If only I could land one hit, I''d be so freakin¡¯ happy. An arbitrary mini-goal, but already a tall order against Deen and her bullshit Guardian Angel.

    Remember her fight against Dario, I coached myself. I nudged the frustration out of my head, calming down almost instantly; I always had a firm grasp on the meager emotions I could muster.

    Just be better, stronger, faster.

    Create a situation where she couldn''t keep up with her Guardian Angel''s instructions, a situation where the only correct path was for her to run. At that point, she wasn''t going to follow her future-seeing pet but would stand her ground. That would be my only chance of getting her.

    My downward kick harmlessly sliced empty air; Deen shifted to my left to counterattack. Holding my arm up, I blocked her incoming fist. It was heavy and a bit painful. She was using her superstrength but held back enough not to seriously injure me. I kicked sideways. She scooted left, throwing another punch at me. I was waiting for it this time around, reaching out to catch her hand. But she pulled it back. I chased after her; one attack followed by another and another.

    She just kept on evading while retreating.

    From the pavement, onto the sidewalk, then we were on the grass. I was relentless, attacking faster and faster, not letting her have a chance to fight back. Her Guardian Angel should know I was also using superstrength. I wasn''t sure if it''d risk Deen getting injured for a chance to hit me. Probably not.

    Deen panicked a bit, her eyes wide in alarm as my flurry of attacks came for her.

    I''m going to get your pretty blonde ass¡ªokay, that...that didn''t sound right.

    A few more feet and we¡¯d reach the side of the hills, her back would be against the wall of earth, giant rocks hemming her in. She¡¯d have nowhere to run!

    Deen tried to dive to my left to escape my trap, but I lunged at her, hoping to grab her. No amount of foresight could save her once I got a hold of her.

    Huh? She fell backward to the ground just as I reached her. My arms ended up hugging nothing.

    Did she trip? No! Her determined expression told me it was intentional. Lying on the slightly sloping earth, she rolled down past me. I noticed she picked something from the grass before she pushed herself back up. I had a fist ready to greet her as she stood. She chucked the dark baseball-sized thingy she held at me.

    Something sticky went splat on my face, covering my eyes and nose.

    What is this shit? I yanked it off in a hurry, expecting Deen to take advantage of my momentary blindness. I was ready to kick her if she came close. But she just stayed away, wearing an expression like she was trying to hold back laughter. Confused, I checked my hand.

    A frog? She threw a fucking frog at me?

    The fat slimy animal wiggled in my grasp, flailing its webbed feet in a feeble attempt to escape. It croaked. I felt the vibrations of its throat and belly on my fingers. Other girls would probably scream by now, but I was far from normal. I was super irritated that there was gooey stuff on my face and hand.

    As I was about to crush it and return to the fight, I realized I should act like¡­like the timid Erind face I supposedly had on.

    "Eeek!" I yelped, tossing the frog away, playing into Deen¡¯s expectations of my character. I furiously scrubbed my hand and face with the end of my shirt while she giggled.

    "Sorry, Erind," she said in between fits of laughter. There was no indication she sensed something was off with me. "I blame Gabe for that."

    Touch¨¦, you bastard pet. It had chosen the perfect way to make me stop without hurting me, that way Deen would assuredly follow its instructions. It trapped me there, no doubt. "Throwing a frog?" I nearly shrieked, feigning exasperation. The two of us walked back to the streetlight. "What are you twelve? Jeez, Deen."

    "I already said sorry. I didn''t know you''d be so scared of frogs."

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    "Not scared. I¡¯m just grossed out, okay?" I stuck my tongue out at her. That was a pretty good performance. This wasn''t the first time I had to pretend I was disgusted by something.

    When I was a kid, my older cousins used to tease me with bugs and cockroaches. I wasn''t scared of them; my hobby was playing with various critters to see how long they''d survive my ''games''. But even at that young age, I knew I''d stand out and be labeled weird if I didn''t react appropriately to their teasing¡ªI¡¯d cry and call for Mom so she¡¯d scold those twisted brats.

    And when everybody had left, I¡¯d find those insects to make them fight each other. The ones I had caught were likely different from the insects my cousins used to bother me, but my kid brain didn¡¯t know any better.

    ¡°It¡¯s just a frog,¡± Deen said with a shrug. ¡°I used to hold those I¡¯d find in our garden in my childhood days because I didn¡¯t have anyone to play with, but my nanny would scold me.¡±

    Whatever, Deen, I thought in my head. No one cares about your backstory; this isn¡¯t about you. ¡°Yeah, I know it¡¯s just a frog,¡± I said, frowning at her. "And I¡¯ve experienced more disgusting things than this¡­¡± I let my words trail into silence to make it clear what I was referring to. As payback, I thought I¡¯d make her remember everything I had gone through. She didn¡¯t have any fault in my sufferings; she just weirdly blamed herself for them¡ªillogical heroic mindset¡ªso I thought I could rattle her a bit for the frog.

    ¡°Uh, yes you have,¡± she somberly replied as her eyes stared at the ground. ¡°You have¡­¡± She shook her head and said in a forced energetic tone, ¡°That¡¯s why you shouldn¡¯t have been bothered by the frog. In serious fights, nothing should distract you. Treat our practice like one.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Wow, she turned that around on me.

    "Shower it off later. I don¡¯t think we¡¯d get sick if the frog carried like bacteria or something." She raised a brow as I raised my balled fists. "We''re going to continue?"

    "I''ll have to get revenge for the frog," I said with a cocky grin as if timid Erind was coming out of her shell. "And we had barely fought. I''m not sweating yet."

    "You were going at it so intensely, I''m worried that¡ª"

    ¡°This was supposed to be a serious practice, right? You said it yourself. We need to get stronger and better at fighting for our survival."

    Deen gave me one firm nod. "Let¡¯s get it on.¡± She grimaced at her words. ¡°Did I sound cool or cringe?¡±

    ¡°A bit cringey,¡± I sheepishly said. Then I rushed at her.

    __________

    Another ten minutes, and no progress on my front. Deen was reading me like an open book, and it turned out I was a very simple children''s story. Although I had an overwhelming advantage in strength, maybe a tiny bit on speed, I didn''t have the fighting experience and tactical knowledge to make good use of it. In contrast, Deen was reading ''Classical Electrodynamics'' or something during her fight with Dario¡ªthere was simply nothing she could do despite knowing his future moves.

    Throughout our practice, Deen seemingly became more confident in evading and attacking. Her movements were crisper, smoother¡ªcan something be crispy and smooth at the same time? She had gotten used to following the snap instructions of her Guardian Angel, executing them as cleanly as possible. So annoying that our practice session was benefiting only her. It was as if she was the main character of the show, getting stronger during a training montage almost at an unreasonable rate.

    To be fair, putting us side-by-side, it was obvious who was the protagonist and the side character between the two of us.

    "I think that''s enough for now," I said with fake heavy breathing.

    "Are you tired?"

    "A bit, yeah" I wasn''t but I didn''t like to continually lose, so I had to make a plausible out. "And I think...I think if I get too focused on fighting, some feelings surface inside me that...that..."

    "Feelings?" Deen gave me a worried glance. "What feelings? Are you okay?"

    "Rage, anger, that kind of stuff. But I''m okay!¡± I hastily added to calm her down. ¡°I just feel like if we kept it on, I might unconsciously draw my Adumbrae power and transform." That should be a cool enough excuse, compared to the truth that I just sucked big time against her Guardian Angel''s ability. I''ll get you next time, I thought, looking at the space over Deen''s right shoulder.

    "Time to go home then."

    __________

    During our jog on the way back to Deen''s house, she brought up the clue that Hedley Kow supposedly gave me. She had kept silent about it since our meeting at Cindy''s this morning, but I was sure she was pretty interested in it even if we agreed that asking Adumbrae for help would be our last option. "Have you checked your test documents?" she asked.

    "I didn''t find anything," I nonchalantly lied. I took out the bookmark and hid it somewhere else.

    Good thing I hadn''t given it to Johann because I thought back then that Dr. Cornelio just misplaced it. I''d try to figure out that clue maybe when I get really bored with nothing else to do. No rush. It was best I didn''t show my pretty face to Penemue again or he''d cut me into cubes. But there might come a time I''d need to find them.

    "Oh, is that so?" Deen slowed down her jog. "I thought there might be something there, like a small piece of paper with a clue?"

    "No, there''s nothing."

    "Can I check it later? Maybe the clue is written on the papers themselves. Invisible ink and such. "

    "Sure, no prob," I said, holding back the urge to roll my eyes. She really didn''t trust me that I thoroughly checked the documents. Yeah, I¡¯m lying to her, but that wasn''t my point. Oh well. It was in Deen''s personality to take charge, and it was the character of the face I had on to be the sidekick.

    But that didn''t mean I''d let her have actual control of the situation. It was my ass on the line here, not hers.

    I had to figure out a way to take back the steering wheel without her noticing. I could start with something small. Assert myself a bit, contribute a minor idea that she''d have to agree with, make her think all of it was her plan. Deen would be happy she was the leader, while I''d be happy I was manipulating someone. Win-win.

    Now, what''s the plan?

    Was there something I could do at this time? It''d be nearly one in the morning by the time we got back to Deen''s house. I guess I''d have to leave it for later since we''d be going to bed. Most people were already asleep, except those stuck in traffic exiting the¡ªI got it!

    "Deen," I faintly said, almost a whisper. "I just thought of something."

    "What is it? Is it about the clue?"

    "No, not that. It''s about our trip to Vegas."

    "I think we''re all set for it. Our packed bags are already in the car. The mini-cooler with your ice cream is there too. We have prepped breakfast that we''ll just microwave and eat on the road. What else do we need?"

    "Everything is complete," I confirmed. "It''s just that...instead of leaving tomorrow¡ªer, I mean later, it''s already one¡ªwhat if we left now?"

    "Now, like really now? Why?"

    "Just to throw off anyone who might be watching us," I said. What a lame justification. "And there might be fewer cars tonight. Our original plan was to leave around five to avoid the deluge of vehicles throughout the day. But what if we go now? Like about two we''d be in line for the checkpoint. There are a lot of people there for sure, but so much fewer compared to if we leave much later."

    "I''m not so sure," Deen said. "Don''t you want to rest? You did say you''re tired."

    "I can sleep in the car," I replied. Yes! I have an excuse not to talk to her for an hour or two. My genius was astounding. "And then, when I wake up, you can have your turn to sleep while I drive."

    "Hmm, I guess..."

    "Maybe two or three, we''d be out of the city and free driving in the desert. On the road at that hour, isn''t it exciting? I haven''t tried that before."

    "Fine, we''ll go now."

    "We can stop at a diner for breakfast. Have you ever eaten at one?"

    "Nope." She gave me an embarrassed grin. "I''m sure you''ll have a blast teasing me with the food there."

    All the more reason to do this. "It''ll be a fun road trip!"

 5.8

    It was not a fun road trip.

    I was wrong to assume there''d be fewer cars around this hour. We were stuck in traffic, as expected, but it seemed to be as heavy as during the daytime. Hmm, daytime? I looked at my phone. It displayed, "2:23 a.m."

    Was two in the morning considered daytime? Or was it considered night because it was still dark? Well, not that dark because the massive floodlights dotting the sidewalk and the center islands lit up the entire road as if it was a sunny afternoon. The searchlights of the drones patrolling overhead were rendered redundant by how bright everything was.

    I was about to type ¡®Can morning be dark?'' in my phone''s search engine when I stopped myself, thinking, what a dumb question. Boredom was getting to me.

    I was usually fine if left alone with my thoughts even if for hours on end. My thoughts were awesome. The problem was if I was stuck in an irritating situation¡ªlike sitting in this traffic under blazing lights, feeling like I was food on a buffet left under heat lamps. The windows of Deen¡¯s car weren¡¯t that heavily tinted. I was tempted to ask Deen about my stupid question just to mix things up, maybe joke around a bit. However, she was still talking to the cop checking our car.

    This was the third time police officers had stopped us during our mind-bogglingly snail-paced journey out of La Esperanza. Just routine stuff; they didn''t single us out for being sketchy or whatnot.

    And all they did was ask questions, check documents, and cursorily search cars. I knew why they weren¡¯t doing anything that could specifically expose an Adumbrae intent on hiding himself¡ªor herself, in my case. This was more to assure the public and maintain order, maybe also to pick out suspicious people for the BID to further examine up ahead.

    Each cop could have a pin and just poke everyone here¡ªokay, that was unconstitutional in the first place¡ªbut if that was allowed, what would they do next if there was an actual Adumbrae? That was why they left the actual Adumbrae detection to the final checkpoint up ahead where the BID opened only a few lanes. A buttload of agents and ComExos were waiting to swiftly eliminate any Adumbrae caught by their scans and tests.

    A chokepoint and a killzone.

    And, hopefully, not my grave.

    "Everything appears to be in order," said the cop. I clutched the folder containing my test certificates, ready to whip them out if he gave a sliver of a hint that he suspected anything was wrong. Deen and I hadn''t yet taken the Suppressor because we weren''t sure how long it''d take until we reached the ginormous BID scanners. He adjusted his sunglasses and took one last look at our IDs before giving them back to Deen. "Thank you for your cooperation, Ma''am."

    "Just doing our part, officer," Deen said with a smile. There was a bit of relief in her voice.

    "Thank you for your service," I chimed in. The fuck? Such a random ass thing to say. Was it okay to say that phrase to police officers or was it reserved for military personnel only? Maybe I should¡¯ve stayed quiet.

    The paunchy cop took a small black flashlight from his belt and shone it into the car. "Just going to have a quick look, Ma¡¯am, if you''re hiding any bodies," he jokingly said. "I hope you don''t mind the bright light."

    "Which one officer?" Deen replied, humoring him. "The flashlight or the sun outside?

    He frowned as he peered into our backseat. I thought he had found something wrong, but he was just as pissed as we were of being here. "Sun? Right you are, Ma''am," he mumbled. "These blasted lights are¡ª"And we didn¡¯t hear the rest of his sentence.

    Booming rap music, mumbling unintelligible words that wouldn¡¯t be out of place in a demon summoning ritual, drowned out his voice. The bass was so fucking loud it shook the car¡¯s windows and my heart inside my ribcage. It also signaled that the night, or day, was about to get more annoying.

    "It''s them again," I groaned. Deen couldn''t hear me, but her deep sigh of exasperation showed that she shared my sentiments. I thought these bastards got stuck way back, a couple of blocks away, because they got into an argument with a couple of cops. Too bad the fuckers weren''t arrested.

    An expensive-looking muscle pickup truck¡ªa good indication of the minuscule genitals possessed by the guys riding it¡ªstopped in the next lane, right beside our car. Four rowdy frat boys sat in the back of the truck, drinking beer. They waved and howled like animals in a zoo to get our attention. Well, probably not my attention, but rather Deen''s. Animals were probably better behaved than them.

    "Wooo! We caught up to you, girls! Woohoo!"

    "Hey, ladies!" a ratty idiot sporting a goatee pushed away his friends and leaned over the side of the truck. "Want something to drink? Come over here!" He chucked an opened can of beer at the side of our car.

    The clank made Deen grip the stirring wheel tighter. Then she released it before she could bend it out of shape in view of a cop. She kept looking forward, but I could see the frothing infuriation in her eyes. She tightly pressed her lips together until they were pale¡ªpaler because she wasn''t wearing any lipstick.

    "Yow, blondie!" yelled a moron with a bad haircut. "Blondie, how about you look over here?"

    "Show us your pretty face!"

    "Where are you girls going?"

    The cop turned around. "That''s enough!" he barked at them. He picked up the beer can on the street and threw it into the bed of the truck, splashing the four jerks sitting there. All of them yelled to complain, trying to be louder than each other. "Move along! Move along!" The cop knocked on the pickup''s roof. "Get going, move on up, you rascals."

    They didn''t budge an inch. The window of the pickup rolled down to reveal a buff asshole with a skull tattoo on his shoulder sitting on the passenger''s seat. He took out a camera and pointed it at Deen. "Lookie here, blondie," he called out. "Give me a pretty pose!"

    The police officer blocked his view. "That''s enough, young man!"

    "Oh, come on! What the hell?" yelled Skull Tattoo Bro.

    The cop faced us and bent down. "Ma''am, move over there," he said. Probably? It was hard to tell with all the fucking noisy music. He did point to another lane with an open space for us to merge in. "I''ll teach these guys a lesson. You can roll up your windows now. Have a nice day."

    "Thank you, sir," Deen said and followed his instructions.

    The music''s volume turned down a couple of notches after she closed the car windows. But it was still incredibly loud, rattling the car. It faded away as the new line of vehicles we joined slowly moved forward. Or perhaps the cop managed to make them turn it off.

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    Deen continued to drive in silence. I could feel her seething that I could probably cook an egg on her head from the heat of her anger.

    "Are you okay there, Deen?" I said after a couple of minutes of awkwardness. I supposed I should be a good friend.

    "What? Uh, yes. Yeah, I''m fine," she said through gritted teeth. "Here''s your ID. I forgot to give it back to you."

    "Thanks," I said. It was my Eloyce University ID. Fortunately, I was able to get a new one the other day so I''d have something to use¡ªin some situations, an EFU ID, a law student one at that, was better than any government ID. All of my IDs and my credit cards were gone in the torched ruins of my condo. It was going to be a pain in the ass to process a new passport, driver''s license, all that crap that I didn''t bother because I was a lazy bum. "Are you sure you''re okay? Want to talk about it?"

    "I''ve encountered plenty of those sorts of guys," she said. "I''ve learned that the best way to deal with them is to ignore them.¡±

    I mulled over whether I should say, ''that''s because you¡¯re so beautiful you attract unwanted attention''. I hadn''t encountered a situation like this before, but I had an inkling it was the wrong thing to say. It was the truth, and I was going to deliver it in a joking way, but I suspected it was insensitive to blame her¡ª'' victim blaming'' I think was the term. Holding my tongue, I let her continue venting.

    ¡°If I give them any attention,¡± said Deen, ¡°they¡¯d take that as a go signal. Even a clear rejection would shoot just right out of their ears. They¡¯ll think that because I¡¯m talking to them, they¡¯ll be able to change my mind.¡± She clicked her tongue in annoyance.

    ¡°I hope that¡¯s the last we¡¯ll see of them,¡± I said. ¡°Thankfully, a cop was present.¡±

    "Yes, he was very helpful."

    "I hope those...creeps...get arrested." I was about to say ''asshole'' but I couldn''t recall if I ever used that word in front of Deen.

    "I won''t bet on that," Deen said.

    "Why not?"

    "I recognize one of them. The guy with the messy-brown hair sitting beside the one who threw the beer can at us¡ªhe''s the nephew of the mayor, our new one."

    "Wow, you''re pretty well-connected to know him," I said. The nephew of the mayor? Didn''t I know someone who was the niece of our previous Mayor? Vanessa or something? The girl I barbecued after I escaped from the tunnels leading out of Eve''s underground arena. So many people connected with this or that mayor. "Have you met him before?¡± I asked Deen. ¡°Was it during the event at city hall last Saturday? You should''ve told him to tell his friends to stop being jerks."

    "I don''t personally know him. I just remember his face. Adrian pointed him out to me before when he invited me as his plus one to the ACO ball last semester."

    "ACO?"

    "Alpha Chi Omega."

    "So that''s what the Greek letters on their shirts stand for. I just know they were members of a fraternity, but not which one. Hang on, a frat ball? That means Adrian is in the same frat as them?"

    "ACO is huge in our university. Most of their members are undergraduates like those guys, but they do have members in Cresthorne Law. Adrian is one, Carlos too. If I recall correctly, the mayor''s nephew is a first-year engineering student, so he should be a new member of their fraternity. Could be still applying. Even if I knew him enough to talk to him, I don''t think the more senior members would listen to him."

    "How are things with you and Adrian, by the way?" I nonchalantly asked. I recalled Deen was slightly interested in him. On the other hand, Adrian was mega interested in her; no surprises there. It''d be bad news if she was secretly telling Adrian about our secrets or something.

    "There''s no ''thing'' with me and Adrian," Deen said, raising a brow at me. "He does message me from time to time to check how I am, especially after the Adumbrae attacks. But so do other friends. I just tell him I''m fine. Like what I reply to all other friends."

    "Oh, I see."

    "Why do you ask?"

    "Nothing. Just curious."

    "Are you jealous or something?"

    "No, I''m not." Obviously, I wouldn''t admit I was weighing the chances of her betraying me for a guy. I had seen too many movies, across multiple genres, where that happened.

    "I''m not going to leave you."

    "I know," I replied, in the sincerest way I could say it. "Thank you."

    "At this pace, we probably have half an hour until we reach the scanners and the ComExos. Try to get some sleep. I''ll wake you up later so we can drink our Suppressors."

    ----

    "Here you go," said Deen, handing me a yellow box cutter.

    "We don''t need to do this if you don''t want to," I told her, understanding why she was handing it to me instead of doing it first. She still hadn''t gotten over her squeamishness? Didn''t she fight against the parasite monsters as well as the mushroom folk last Saturday? "I can already feel I''ve gotten weaker. And I also easily get hurt." I pinched my arm and showed her the reddish patch of skin.

    "We just need to make sure," she insisted.

    I tried to stop my eyes from rolling as I took the cutter from her. Annoying that she¡ªokay, calm down, Erind. I had been annoyed by the asshole fratboys, but I was once again annoyed by my sudden weakness. I shouldn''t take it out on Deen. Maybe a bit more on the jittery side. I also experienced this when I took the Suppressors for my tests at the police station. I hope I don''t act weird like when I wore that stupid new face, I thought as I pressed the blade against the skin of my palm.

    Deen leaned closer. "Be careful."

    "I''m cutting my hand. What do you mean, be careful?"

    "Hey, don''t give me sass," she said with a nervous giggle.

    "And move back a bit. You''re covering the light." I put some strength into pushing down the blade until I felt a tiny snap as it broke the skin. Then I pulled it down. There was a small line. And then it became red. Droplets of blood formed and slid down my hand. "There. No problem." I didn''t only mean that the Suppressor was working well, but that I was mentally fine. No issues wounding myself, no bizarre reactions to pain, just no-nonsense normal me.

    Deen, quick with a piece of tissue, wiped away the blood. She then put a band-aid over my wound. "Now, can you cut mine?"

    "Fine," I said with a sigh. Whatever, Deen. I grabbed her wrist, holding it in place. The blade of the cutter hovered half an inch over her skin. "Calm down, okay? I''m just going¡ª" And I nicked her hand while I was talking to her. "¡ªto do that."

    "Ow!" She tried to pull her hand away, but I held it firmly. "Why did you do it so suddenly?"

    "It''s like pulling out a tooth. You just have to surprise the person."

    "Well, I was surprised." She watched me put a band-aid on her wound in turn.

    "And we''re good to go."

    "Let me see your hand," said Deen. I presented my left hand. "No, the other one. Your right hand. I want to check the crystals."

    "They''re hidden," I said. "Kind of. It''s really hard to conceal them now with how big they''ve gotten."

    Deen ran her fingers over the crystals. Despite covering them with several pimple patches and heavy makeup, they remained conspicuous. Even from afar, it looked like a had a huge welt on my palm. At this point, I should probably just cover it with band-aids and claim I had an injury. She observed, "They don''t disappear even with the Suppressor?"

    "I guess not," I replied. I hadn''t thought about that before. If I could get my hands on more blue vials maybe I could experiment with trying to remove these.

    The cop in front of our car holding glowing sticks signaled for us to move into the lane with cars lined up to pass through the BID scanners. A block further on were the biggest ComExos I had ever seen.

    There was ringing in my ears and tingling in my hands as adrenaline rushed throughout my veins. I hate being weak. I took a deep breath and said, "Let''s do this."

 5.9

    Fucking shit! I exclaimed in my head as a Skitter half the size of our car scuttled past. With the massive gun turret on its back, it was about the same height as the car. This was even bigger than the ones that prowled the tunnels I had traversed to escape Eve''s underground arena. Can I just have the Labrador back instead?

    Fortunately, it didn''t pay any attention to us, moving to the next lane into formation with two others of its kind. Despite their size, they were dwarfed by the boxy-type, four-armed ComExo behind them. Their group looked like a robot taking its robot spider pets out on a walk.

    "Don''t be scared," Deen whispered gently. She might''ve noticed my surprised jolt at the giant mechanical spider. As was her nature, she reached out for my hand to give me comfort. I already knew what was coming so I pulled my hand. But Deen still caught it. She gripped it, saying, "Nothing bad''s going to happen, okay? The Suppressor is working."

    My brows furrowed at the realization that I was slow as fuck and super weak. I wasn''t able to move my hand out of the way, and now, I couldn''t pull it from her grasp. I stopped struggling, letting out a sigh. Deen took it to mean I was trying to relax. Rather, it was a sigh of disappointment at the weakness of normal humans. Aren''t I supposed to look for a cure? Whatever.

    The cars on the twelve-lane highway were funneled to four evenly spaced open lanes¡ªthe main reason for the heavy traffic. In between the lines of cars were BID agents, Anti-Adumbrae combat drones like Skitters, and ComExos ranging from man-sized to house-sized.

    This felt like I had my neck on a guillotine, waiting for the blade to drop if they detected I was an Adumbrae. Just one burst from all of these ComExos and combat drones would turn our car to scrap metal, assuming there''d be anything left.

    To be fair, even if I still had my Adumbrae-bestowed durability, super strength, and insane regeneration, I''d still be gone in a second. My Blanchette form would also get deleted instantly. Perhaps Pino would survive, but my Erind body would be destroyed so I''d be still dead as...um...dead as something not alive.

    Nonetheless, I preferred not to die as a feeble human.

    "We are innocent...we are innocent," Deen said in a sing-song way. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel in tune with the melody. "Please don''t kill us...we''re innocent...don''t¡ª"

    "What are you doing?" I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice. Couldn''t she just shut up while I wallowed in disgust at being weak?

    "Just trying to lighten up the mood." She shrugged and then continued singing. "We are innocent...we are innocent..."

    If I wasn''t on edge, I''d find this funny. I ignored her, concentrating on the BID agents patrolling the side of the lane. They flagged down the silver minivan ahead of us in the line. I swallowed my saliva. Deen stopped singing. Both of us closely paid attention to what was going to happen next.

    A BID agent with a clipboard talked to the driver of the minivan who seemed to be arguing back. We couldn''t hear what they were saying, but we could see the arm of the driver, furiously gesturing. The passenger windows of the van opened and a woman stuck her head out. She began yelling at the agents, flipping them off. We could hear the muffled profanities.

    "They were selected for random testing," I said.

    "I''m not sure if trying to argue with the BID is a good idea," said Deen.

    And indeed it wasn''t.

    One of the bigger ComExos left its post and walked over to the van, passing by our car. The ground shook with each step it took. One foot landed right outside my window; it could''ve squished me if I was under it. "The roads are really well-built," I muttered sardonically, as I leaned closer to the window to check if the pavement was cracked.

    The two-story-tall ComExo grabbed the van using its three-pronged claw hands and picked it up. The people inside it screamed. The woman from earlier tried to escape out of the window, something she probably didn''t think through, before her companions pulled her back inside. The ComExo delivered the slightly crumpled van to the BID tents in a cordoned area on the side of the highway.

    The BID likely had obtained special clearances to do forced testing of random citizens. I knew there were certain exceptions to the unconstitutionality of mandatory testing, but we hadn''t tackled them in class yet.

    "If they were chosen¡ª" Deen started to say.

    "¡ªthen they¡¯re going to skip us!" I finished. To confirm it, the BID agent with the clipboard waved for our car to go ahead. We high-fived each other. Deen sung her stupid song as we inched forward, and I sang along with her. "We are innocent...we are innocent...please don''t kill us..."

    Our remaining hurdle was the scanners. The BID installed something that looked like a car wash entrance on the road, but instead of the huge rotating brushes, we had a curtain of blue laser to pass through. Actually, instead of a car wash, it looked more like the scanner at a grocery store cashier, or even those fake money detecting thingies. Nice, my random thoughts are back. I was feeling less stressed.

    ¡°Want to hold hands?¡± Deen offered.

    ¡°Do you think I¡¯m a kid?¡± I said with forced laughter. Typical Deen. A big challenge was coming up; I didn¡¯t want any distractions. ¡°And my hands might get sweaty. You¡¯ll get disgusted.¡±

    ¡°What? No, I wo¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shhh, our turn is coming up soon.¡±

    I became hyper-focused as we came closer and closer to the scanners. It was the annoying waiting part that made it worse. Five more cars¡­Four cars¡­My heart thumped hard that I could hear it over the noise of the engine and air conditioning. Three cars... Two...

    Deen also quieted down, her eyes glued ahead, back hunched. She was bouncing her leg. I didn''t have the brain capacity to spare to be annoyed at her shit. Not sure if she was doing it to relieve her anxiety or if she was readying to floor it if alarms suddenly blared. One car¡­Our turn was next.

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    I wanted to close both eyes but ended up only closing one. I looked over at Deen. She was mumbling something, maybe a prayer. We both stopped breathing as our car drove into the blue laser curtain thingy. The static in the air made the hair on my arms and neck stand on end. Or maybe it was just the stress. There was a slight scent of burnt paper.

    "Uh? Is that it?" I whispered.

    A police officer waved at us and then pointed to the gap between the barricades. We kept quiet as we passed through parked patrol cars, still wary that something unexpected might happen.

    "Yes, we''re free!" Deen yelled, breaking the silence and nearly destroying my eardrums. She held onto the steering wheel with one hand and shook my shoulder with the other.

    "Concentrate on driving." I couldn''t help but grin at her enthusiasm.

    "Don''t worry, my Guardian Angel will¡ªwhoops. I forgot he''s not around for a couple more hours. Wow, it''s really nice to have this much peace."

    "That''s why you should focus on the road."

    She didn''t listen to me. "Yehey! We''re free as a bird! And peace for a couple of hours! Las Vegas, here we come!"

    It was really hard for me to get super excited at anything, but I would admit I was relieved as hell we got through without any issue. So relieved that I didn''t bother to push Deen away as she continued to celebrate by poking me while singing her ''we are innocent'' song.

    The traffic severely thinned as we drove onwards to Riverside, the other cars exiting La Esperanza going to our various destinations. Deen turned off the air conditioning and opened the windows. She played relaxing jazz beats on the radio as we savored the cool early morning air, the sun a long ways away from waking up.

    It was almost half-past three and we were cruising through the sort of empty streets of Riverside. With the music in the background, we might as well be in a music video¡ªDeen, the lead singer, and me, the random extra the director picked from the streets last minute because they lacked people.

    It took no time to get to San Bernardino. I became so relaxed, any sense of vulnerability as a weak human gone, that I chatted with Deen instead of trying, or at least faking, to fall asleep. We avoided serious stuff like Adumbrae, Dario''s organization, and how I was going to hide in the future if they hunted me down.

    The topic of anything school-related soon dried up and we moved our conversation to my Mom. It was a pretty easy subject to talk about; I had already worn the face of a dutiful daughter plenty of times.

    "How about your parents?" I asked Deen. Only now did I realize I barely knew anything about them other than that the Leska family was very wealthy with plenty of business ventures and political connections. What kind of monstrous friend am I? I sarcastically thought. At least I was trying to show that I cared about Deen''s family now.

    "They''re there," she simply replied. By her tone, I knew she didn''t want to continue. And so, that was the end of that topic.

    We eventually entered I-15. From here, it was just straight driving, following the interstate through the desert and we''d reach Las Vegas. I went to sleep, telling Deen I''d take over driving later.

    <hr>

    BEEEEP! BEEEEPPP!!!

    "Ugh, what''s going on?" I groaned as I was woken up by the blaring horns. There was a car following us, its lights reflected in the side-view mirror. "Why so loud? I was sleeping..."

    "It''s them," Deen said. From her tone, I already knew who she referred to.

    The blaring music was a good indication we got assholes up our own asses. The prospect of a threat immediately drove my sleepiness away. "Did they intentionally follow us?"

    "All the way from La Esperanza? I don''t think so. They caught up to us only now."

    "They remember your car."

    "I''m sorry. If not for me¡ª"

    "Oh, shut up, Deen," I snapped at her. She stared at me, shocked at my reaction. I told her, "It''s not your fault they''re jerks okay? It''s also not your fault that somehow they found us. We''re in this together so don''t blame yourself for anything."

    I pinched my leg and felt a sting. A pinkish patch expanded on my pale, vampire-like skin. The Suppressor was still in effect. Fucking hell! Being a normal human sucked so much ass. This was the time I''d be justified in the eyes of society¡ªI knew my usual standards on what was right weren''t usually in line with public opinion¡ªwith putting these assholes in their rightful place.

    And that place was six feet below the ground. Okay, that''s too extreme. But we were in a dangerous situation here. Two normal girls versus like six guys? We didn''t have any weapons with us except for a box cutter. This scenario seemed like one of those true-crime documentaries Mom and I used to watch about women disappearing while on long stretches of an empty interstate. I took a look at the time on my phone.

    Apparently having the same thought, Deen said, "About an hour, and hour and a half more. We can''t be really sure."

    "That''s a long time. Maybe these creeps will leave us alone?" The pickup truck following us rapidly switched from its high beam headlights to low beam, as if they were trying to communicate with us in Morse Code. The constant honking that followed told us that they were doing it to be annoying, not to share a secret message. I said, "Or I guess not?"

    The assholes maintained their distance. If we sped up, they also matched our speed. Then Deen tried slowing down, prepared to accelerate if they were going to catch up to us. But they also decreased their speed. These fuckers just tailed us through the desert, occasionally honking their horns and flicking their headlights. We didn''t pass any other vehicle. With a sluggish internet connection this far out into the desert, I analyzed the map of the surrounding area.

    "They want to harass us," Deen said with a frown. "They''ll probably just stay like this. Best if we ignore them."

    "At some point, they''ll get bored with their games," I pointed out. "And those guys are drunk, maybe even on drugs. We don''t know what''s going through their minds. Maybe they''ll escalate things if we don''t react."

    "Yes, that might happen. But what are we going to do? Just speed up and try to lose them? Their truck should be faster than my car."

    "Continue like this so they won''t get angry at us or think something''s up. Luckily, a little over four miles from here, there''s a diner and a gasoline station." I showed her my phone. "The pictures look old, but it said it''s open twenty-four, seven. There''s a review complaining about the food dated a couple of weeks ago."

    "Let''s hope it''s open," Deen said. "Then we can ask for help there."

    "No need for that," I told her with a grin. "We''re strong independent women, just not that strong right now. We just need to wait until the Suppressors wear off and we can continue our journey." Deen chuckled, lowering her tensed shoulders. I continued, "This is also a good opportunity for you to try some good old true American diner food. I''m really hungry."

    About six minutes later, we saw the sign "MR. BEEFY''S", with the lights for both E''s busted and the S dangling upside down from the bottom of the sign but somehow still lit. The creeper squad, likely realizing our plan despite their boozed-up state, suddenly sped up. Their truck dangerously weaved in and out of the opposite incoming lane.

    Fortunately, we were already near the diner. Deen, ever the parking expert, slid our car in one try into the open spot nearest the diner''s entrance. We got out and briskly walked to the door. There was a screeching skid, then tires crunching gravel. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the truck drive past us. I thought they were already going to leave us alone, but they turned around.

    "Go in, go in," urged Deen, opening the door for me.

    If these bastards keep this up...

 5.10

    The diner wasn''t what we expected. In contrast to its dilapidated signage and rundown exterior covered with peeling paint from ancient history, the inside was well-lit and fairly clean. Its age did show, with some tiles cracked, a couple of light bulbs dimmer than others, and patches of the ceiling stained with mildew. But it was cozy and reminded me of the diners my family used to visit when I was a kid.

    Another surprise was the number of people here. It had a lot of customers. I didn''t really note the vehicles parked outside, just that there were a couple of trucks and cars.

    The old lady wearing a patchy yellowed apron making coffee could be the owner. A younger woman with a similarly-designed newer-looking apron, logo, colors and all, must be her daughter based on their looks.

    On the other side of the counter sat a stout middle-aged man reading a newspaper. At the end of the row, a couple of old men conversed with each other over cups of coffee. A family occupied one of the diner booths. I couldn''t see how many children the parents had with them because the back of the booth blocked my view. Lastly, on the furthest table sat three burly men in checkered shirts who were probably truckers.

    All of them stared at us when we entered. We did look out of place, two girls who could be on their way to some college party that got lost. I suppressed a grin as I realized Deen and I appeared like the perfect cast for a slasher horror flick¡ªthe clueless girls who usually got murdered first by the deranged serial killer.

    We looked at them too, Deen standing strong and confident as if she frequented this diner for years. The people all went back to what they were doing and ignored us.

    I raised a brow. No one was rude? Not even a single catcall at Deen?

    Wow, I''m really a judgmental bitch, aren''t I? Sorry, trucker guys.

    Hearing the blasting music and a loud engine coming closer, the two of us hurried to find seats. I hoped those assholes wouldn''t mess with Deen''s car.

    We picked the furthest booth, two places down from the family with kids, and near the table of the truckers. They might be of help if the drunk fratboys harassed us in our weakened state.

    The waitress with extensively curled hair came to our table and handed out menus. "What''ll it be, girls?" she drawled, taking the pen tucked behind her ear and poised to write on a small notepad.

    Deen stared at the menu then looked at me. She did it a couple more times, hinting that I order for her.

    It''s all food, I thought exasperatedly, everything is edible. Of course, she didn''t have telepathic powers to know what was on my mind. She kept doing that stupid eye-flicking thing. I gave her a slight nod to confirm I got her message. Looking up at the waitress, I asked, "Do you have tea?"

    "None of those fancy tea leaves kind of stuff," she replied with a shrug. "Probably a box of teabags left in the cabinet.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine with that.¡±

    ¡°Is that tea for two?"

    "Just one. My friend will have coffee."

    "Do you have honey?" Deen said, raising her hand as if to recite in class. "Can you please use honey instead of sugar to sweeten the coffee?"

    "Honey? We ain''t no bee farm, dear."

    "Oh, just sugar then. Wait, I''ll have it black."

    "What else?"

    I adjusted my glasses as I ran a finger down the offerings on the menu. "We''ll have a grilled cheese sandwich. Can you slice it into two, please? We''ll share it. Waffles too, just a plate, the option with chickens on top."

    "We ain¡¯t got no honey to go with that, okay?" the waitress interrupted. Deen looked away, a hint of an embarrassed blush on her cheeks. "Only maple syrup." She pointed at a bottle in the middle of the table beside the hot sauce. ¡°The hot sauce too, if that¡¯s your thing.¡±

    "I love maple syrup," I assured her. Scratching my chin, I wondered what else to get. I hadn''t been inside a diner in ages. It made me feel a bit nostalgic about the family road trips we used to have before Dad disappeared, and we became a family of two. A bit surprising that this was on my mind. "I think we''ll also get hash browns and a slice of apple pie."

    "You girls hungry?"

    "A bit, yeah. And we''ll be resting here so might as well enjoy the good food." I gave her a smile like the polite and well-mannered lady that I was. "That''s all we''ll get. Or maybe we can¡ª" And I didn''t get to decide whether to ask if milkshakes were available because of a loud crash.

    Everyone in the diner jolted in surprise as the door opened with a bang. The tiny arch windows rattled, threatening to pop off. The wooden door frame creaked as if it was about to break.

    Six assholes piled in. In the lead was the guy with the skull tattoo on his arm. What did I decide to call him again? Skull Tattoo Bro or something?

    The twig-like man sporting a disgrace of a goatee followed him, still holding a beer can, its contents dripping on the floor. I also spotted the unkempt brown-haired kid that Deen mentioned was the nephew of the mayor trailing their group, timidly shuffling his feet. His eyes were cast on the floor as if he didn''t want to be with the other idiots.

    If I were to guess, I''d say the three older guys in front were upperclassmen and senior frat members, while those three at the back were all freshmen and pledges of their organization.

    The old lady behind the counter peered over her glasses at the newcomers. She grabbed the mop and told them, ¡°Don¡¯t be making a mess here.¡±

    "Hey, girls!" Skull Tattoo Bro loudly called out to us, ignoring the old lady. He waved with a creepy leer on his face. "Where are your manners, guys?" he said to his bastard pack, his words slurring. "Say hello to Blondie and her friend." All of them greeted us with varying levels of enthusiasm, the freshies less so than the older guys.

    So, I''m the ''friend'', I thought, mildly entertained and surprised that they noticed me.

    Deen didn''t share my amusement. She pursed her lips and intently stared at the menu, letting her golden hair fall to partially hide her face.

    "If you''re not gonna eat here, then you better scram!" The old lady quickly left the counter and strode forward to block Skull Tattoo Bro and the rest of the rabble. She tightly grasped the handle of the mop, shoving it towards them. She surprisingly had a loud and clear voice and was quite spry despite her age. "Don''t be staying here if you''re not customers!" The two older men sitting on the barstools turned to face them too, ready to help her out if the situation got out of hand.

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    The leader of the asshole pack raised his hands and put on an innocent face. "Calm, down granny. We''re customers. We got money, and we¡¯re buying food. Isn''t that right guys?" he said, looking over his shoulder. There was a murmur of agreement. "See, granny? We''re here to eat. You must have good food if Blondie over there chose to go here."

    "Then what''re you having?" grumbled the old lady as she parted the group with her mop, cleaning up the mess of Goatee Guy. ¡°And throw that can away.¡±

    The jerk squad gathered by the counter to read the menu above the red-tiled backsplash of the sink. Skull Tattoo Bro said, "I''ll be having a cheeseburger. That''s six cheeseburgers, yeah. Wings? Uh, what else do you guys want?¡±

    Deen heaved a sigh. This must be a common problem for her. While I couldn¡¯t sympathize with her specific situation¡ªoh wait, I didn¡¯t know how to sympathize at all¡ªI could relate to her annoyance at being bothered. The world had been doing that to me a lot lately.

    "Do you know them?" asked the waitress, nudging her head towards the monkeys trying to order food.

    "No," I said. "Those drunk guys saw us like ten, maybe fifteen minutes from here, and decided to follow us. We don''t know why."

    "I can guess." She winked at me then cocked her head at Deen who was determinedly reading the menu over and over. "We have all kinds of nasties visitin'' ''round these parts," the waitress continued. "If they misbehave, if they stick even one toe out of the line, Momma''s gonna kick them out. She may be old but she knows how to handle rascals. And we can also rely on the chunkers back there for help." She nodded at the truckers, the ''chunkers'' she called them, enjoying their burgers. One nodded to acknowledge her.

    "Um, thanks," I said, uncertain of the appropriate response.

    "Thank you very much," said Deen with sincerity in her voice. "Really, it means a lot."

    The waitress gave us a salute. "Just your friendly diner in the middle of nowhere. I''ll be right back with your food."

    After they finished ordering, the six dumbasses somehow managed to reach a table despite their drunken state. To be fair, it was the upperclassmen who were mostly wasted and may be high on drugs too. The freshies could still walk straight; one of them was probably tasked to drive, otherwise, all of them would''ve taken the highway to the afterlife.

    They picked the spot right across us, one table away from the truckers who eyed them suspiciously.

    At first, I thought they truly did intend to go to this diner, and we just assumed the worst of them. They didn''t call us or try to take pictures of Deen or something stupid. Everything was going to be peaceful it seemed.

    But it turned out I was wrong.

    They conversed loudly as if they owned the place. Their drunken laughter was annoying as fuck. Skull Tattoo Bro even placed his dirty boots on the table. More often than not, being a judgmental bitch was the right call.

    From what I could gather, they were all engineering students on their way to the week-long Greaves Technology Fair in Las Vegas. They were taking advantage of the cancellation of classes at Eloyce University because of the Adumbrae attacks, and also to escape the stifling state of our city with all the security and checkpoint stuff.

    The idiots talked about the newest bioaugmentronics developments they''d find there¡ªlike engineering students¡ªand were arguing about having merits of having augmented penises¡ªlike guys normally did...I think? Then their conversation shifted to the newest ComExo models, including military ones, slated to be displayed at the fair.

    Guys talking about giant robots and giant dicks? So typical. They could talk about whatever they wanted so long as they didn''t bother us.

    I had attended the Greaves Fair at Vegas like four times if I wasn''t mistaken.

    I accompanied Mom to that event whenever she had to give a speech in some forum or present new Greaves products. I wasn''t a technology nerd, and I never understood Mom''s explanation about the stuff there, but I still behaved like a very supportive daughter and showed fake interest.

    Augmentations were never my thing. However, I did know that ComExos weren''t usually included at the Fair, much less heavy military models. If there were any, they were displayed for their augmentation integrations.

    If Mom would invite me to attend the event, I''d be forced to agree because of my dutiful daughter face. I sure did hope I wouldn''t meet these fuckers there.

    Our order arrived, and it unexpectedly looked good. Even Deen seemed to agree as her stressed face relaxed at the different kinds of food in front of us.

    "The waffles are great," I said. Normally, I hated small talk about food, but I really didn''t have any topic in my pocket.

    And I wasn''t lying about the taste. If only these EFU undergrad gits weren''t here, these would''ve been a fun road trip. It really did bring back a lot of memories. Carefree days. Normal days.

    Was I becoming...what''s the word...sentimental?

    I wasn''t sure what that was supposed to feel like. Perhaps I was just missing the days I was a normal human and had normal human concerns.

    Or was that what being sentimental was about?

    "Yes, it''s good," Deen agreed, cutting into the chicken with her knife. She placed the piece of meat on a slice of waffle and ate it. "Maybe we could return here someday to eat peacefully," she added, mirroring my thoughts.

    "How''s your coffee without the honey?" I grinned at her.

    She rolled her eyes. "I can drink it black just fine."

    I half-expected the bastards at the next table to bother us. Maybe they''d ask for a taste of our food or something. Deen was also a bit tense as she ate. But the fuckers didn''t come. Instead, they played gratingly loud music while complaining about how their orders were taking a long time to serve.

    One of the truckers went over to their table and told them to turn down the music. There was an argument and the other two truckers backed up their friend. The fratboys deflated and lowered the music''s volume. Although it was six against three, their bitchass knew they were in no condition to start picking fights.

    The family eating in the other booth had their food wrapped and left, the mother herding her kids away from the "bad men".

    "Hey, kids! We''re not bad!" Goatee Guy called out, apparently overhearing her. But the family was already out the door.

    "I''m so ashamed of bothering these people," Deen said to me in a low voice that others wouldn''t hear.

    "Bothering who? The customers? You''re not doing anything here." Bothering is my middle name. This was my field of expertise, and Deen was incorrect with her interpretation of the law of bothering. "These jerks are the ones inconveniencing everyone here."

    "Yes, but if it wasn''t for me. I mean, we know why they''re here. If I didn''t come¡ªum, we shouldn''t have gone here."

    "We came here for our safety." I raked the skin of my arm with the fork and showed her the red marks. "They''re harassing us, and now they''re harassing others. It doesn''t have anything to do with you."

    "Because of me¡ª"

    "It''s not your fault, okay?" I felt some kind of deja vu here. We have had this conversation in some shape several times already, but the roles were now reversed.

    "Maybe we should just leave."

    "Deen, do you want me to yell at you?" Time to pull out the ''real talk''. "You need to stand your ground here. And so what if you''re super beautiful?"

    "Uh, I''m not¡ª"

    "Yes, you are. And I was saying that just because you''re beautiful, you can''t be blamed for the actions of others. Like those creeps bothering the customers here. Was Helen of Troy blamed for the Trojan War?"

    "But she was," Deen said with a quizzical look. "Remember the saying, ''the face that launched a thousand ships'' to refer to Helen''s beauty? She was blamed for the war. Not everyone did, but still."

    "Huh..." I needed to brush up on my Greek Mythology. "Those Ancient Greeks were wrong to blame her then." From the corner of my eye, I noticed one of the asshole squad stood up¡ªthe mayor''s nephew. He looked extremely uncomfortable, clenched fists by his sides. Goatee Guy and Skull Tattoo Bro were forcing him to do something, pointing at our table. Were they ordering him to hit on Deen as some sort of hazing? "What is it this time?" I muttered as the messy-haired freshie hesitantly walked towards us.

 5.11

    "Uh, hello?" said the mayor''s nephew, timidly raising a hand as a greeting. His eyes, which were partially covered by his messy brown hair, darted in every direction, except ours. "My name...I''m Yves. Yves that''s spelled with a ''Y''."

    "Hello," Deen curtly replied. She faced the other way, making it clear he wasn''t welcome.

    "I''m Yves," he repeated. "What''s your name?"

    She refused to answer, choosing to keenly examine the wall to her side filled with black and white photos from the diner''s past. I followed Deen''s lead and didn''t reply either, poking my waffle with a fork. Not that I was the one being asked the question. I doubted if this Yves guy cared for my name.

    This did confirm these guys didn''t recognize Deen.

    Undoubtedly, The Amber Deen Leska was familiar to every guy going to Eloyce Field University, whether they be undergrad or grad students¡ªevery guy who cared about beautiful women anyway, which was most of them. However, Deen was always in her corporate attire for law school, with fall on makeup and hair divinely styled. I already had a hard time recognizing her when she didn''t wear any makeup and just donned casual clothes, how much more would guys who didn''t have the expert skills required to see through women¡¯s makeover capabilities?

    "The hell, Yves?" yelled Goatee Guy, furiously thumping their table with his palm. "What the fuck kind of limp-dick opening is that?"

    "Go on!" said another upperclassman¡ªYves¡¯ upperclassman, not mine¡ªwhom I hadn''t made a nickname for yet. I decided to go with Coconut Head because of his atrocious haircut that made him look like he had half a coconut husk as a hat. He continued egging on the timid kid. "Don¡¯t be shy. Ask for her number!"

    I tilted my cup. It was half-full, but it wasn''t that hot anymore. Still good for splashing on people. Deen''s cup of coffee was mostly untouched. How I dearly wished they bothered us some more so I could throw tea at them. That was a cliche move in drama movies¡ªI didn''t usually watch those, but I couldn''t deny there was an oomph to it. Very dramatic.

    Yves scratched the side of his neck. "Um, sorry for the...sorry for bothering you. If it''s alright with you, can I¡­can I¡­¡±

    "No," Deen shortly said.

    Yves flinched at that. He gave a panicked glance at the other guys, turned back to Deen, and tried his question again. ¡°Um, can I ask fo-for your nu-number?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    "We''re eating here," I added in. I almost felt sorry for this kid. And yeah, he was a kid in my eyes. He was a first-year undergraduate student, so I was like an ancient dinosaur compared to him.

    I could tell he wasn¡¯t scared of Deen specifically, perhaps a little intimidated, but he was extremely uncomfortable with bothering her. He was really scared of the other guys though, that much was clear, which was why he was doing this despite not wanting to.

    "Oh, right," said Yves, stepping away. "Sorry about that." He returned to his friends¡ªif they could be considered that¡ªwho laughed at him. They slapped his back and pushed him around a bit before allowing him to sit again.

    They shouted tips at him on how to get girls; their advice had dubious applicability. The old lady tending the counter came over with a mop and told them to shut up. One of the truckers stood to help the grandma if trouble cropped up, but the jerk squad already quieted down.

    "I thought they already did away with pledging," Deen muttered. "Or are the first years already considered part of the fraternity, and this is just the usual bullying by more senior members?

    "ACO did? They removed pledging?" As far as I knew about fraternities, and I knew very little, applicants would start as a pledge, a probationary member, and they''d be accepted as a regular if they passed all the challenges. I was aware of the dark side of pledging, the hazing, drugs and alcohol-related incidents, all the bullshit dumb guys could come up with.

    "There was an incident like six or seven years ago¡ªI''m not sure if you''ve heard of it, but it was all over the news that time¡ªabout pledges forced to do Adumbrae-summoning rituals."

    "Huh? Do those work?" Okay, that probably isn''t the right question. "What kind of pledging system is that? Why not the usual nonsense hazing they do?"

    "Well, I don''t think those rituals work. Likely, they''re just urban legends. I have no idea why they chose to do that though."

    "So what was that incident about?"

    "Rumors were that they actually summoned an Adumbrae," said Deen. "A pledge turned into one and killed everyone else in the room. The school covered it up, saying there was a gas explosion¡ªthis wasn''t the Eloyce Chapter of ACO Frat, by the way. Videos of BID agents investigating the school circulated after that, so there was probably something connected to Adumbrae that happened. Anyway, so that''s why, last I''ve heard, ACO removed the pledging process."

    "So, they''re fraternity brothers now, right?" I said, tilting my head at the screeching baboons.

    Deen nodded. "Supposedly¡­"

    "But they''re still treating him like that?" During my first year in business school, I had a few classmates who were pledges to a fraternity. There was a drastic change in how they were treated by the fraternity they applied to as a pledge and as a member.

    What was the appropriate reaction here again? Oh, yeah. Poor kid...I finally managed to think, looking at Yves with his shoulders hunched, sitting at the edge of the bench.

    That was the emotion of pity, wasn''t it? A nice approximation. I deserved a pat on the back. It was rare to find myself in these sorts of social settings; my curiosity was slowly taking over the intense annoyance that filled my head. Perhaps the great food helped to lift my mood too.

    So, let me get this straight.

    Pity for the bullied kid, check. Annoyance at the senior frat members, um, check?

    Or should I be annoyed at their group as a whole? Remembering Myra''s reaction to the guys at Cindy''s ogling Deen, I realized I had fallen short as a best friend. I should be popping these guys'' heads off as soon as I got my Adumbrae power back¡ªand that was just a joke even though I wanted to do it.

    Deen wouldn''t be on board with offing these bastards. It''d be funny if I managed to convince her though. I say I''d be doing her a favor, finally being able to fight back against those harassing her. What was the word? Cathartic?

    But then again, killing them was too much.

    Not just for Deen, but also Rule #4.

    Although¡­if they keep this up, I just might find justification.

    The asshole brigade wasn''t done with their antics yet. Skull Tattoo Bro sent over the other two first years, one by one, to try their luck with us. Or rather, to make fun of them while harassing us.

    Their names were Tahir and Lee, or something like that. I wasn''t really paying attention because I was busy enjoying the apple pie¡ªI did have to rake off the crust to eat it first. Both the crust and the apple filling were so great that I had thoughts of ordering a whole one for takeout. Not the time, Erind.

    Unlike Yves, Tahir and Lee were more confident; they had the looks and charisma to pull it off, compared to the mayor''s nephew. But Deen shot them down just the same, a veteran of shooting down probably dozens or even hundreds of guys¡ªI don''t know if there were any gals¡ªhitting on her. They all returned defeated to their table to the entertainment of their seniors.

    About a quarter of an hour had passed and things settled down.

    Or so we thought.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Deen and I were right about finished with our meal, with most of the eating done by yours truly. It was also the time the truckers left the diner to resume doing trucker stuff. And with them gone, Skull Tattoo Bro and the dick troop were probably emboldened to resume bothering us. This time, it was Skull Tattoo, Bro Goatee Guy, and Coconut Head that came over, ready to show the freshies what they got. I placed the dinner knife on my lap and out of view.

    "Hey, girls," Coconut Head said, in between mouthfuls of his burger. "Where you headed to? Want us to accompany you?"

    Deen shook her head. She looked me in the eye to signal we shouldn''t talk to them.

    "Come on, Blondie," said Goatee Guy. "Don''t treat us like we''re not here. How about you scoot over there, so I can sit beside you?"

    Deen tensed up. She looked around for help. But the only ones here were the guy reading a newspaper at the counter, who seemed to purposely ignore what was happening, and the two old men. The granny and her daughter weren''t there. Where they inside the kitchen? The backroom? So that was why these fucking assholes decided to approach us.

    "That''s ungenlet-un-ungentlemanlike...fuck, I''m stumbling over my words." Skull Tattoo Bro draped his hands on the booth divider behind Deen. "That''s because you''re so pretty, Blondie. Why don''t you talk with us?"

    I checked my tea. Fuck, I drank it all. I couldn''t do the splashing-people-with-liquid-move. I gripped my fork. Superstrength wasn''t back yet. But I was prepared to stab these fuckers if they pushed their luck. Gotta watch out for my bestest friend ever.

    "You got a boyfriend, Blondie?"

    "Want one? We got three eligible ba-ba¡ª" Goatee Guy puked something nasty on the floor. "What was I saying?"

    "We''re three bachelors."

    "But you''re not available?" Coconut Head said to Skull Tattoo Bro. "Don''t you have a girlfriend?"

    Knife and fork, I could probably remove some eyeballs even though I was a short and petite woman. The element of surprise would be on my side, and these guys wouldn''t be in a condition to give chase. Stab, stab, pull Deen.

    And then go where? They might''ve slashed Deen''s tires. But we could still drive away with busted tires. Or, we could run to the kitchen and lock ourselves in?

    "Bachelors...means not married...I''m not fucking married...so I''m available." Skull Tattoo Bro tried to reach for Deen''s hair. She recoiled from him and moved further to the end of the bench. They laughed after getting a reaction from her. "Don''t be shy now..." He tried to sit on the bench but fell down.

    The time for action was coming close. They weren''t looking at me. I gripped a knife and a fork under the table. It''d be hard to pull Deen out and run because they were blocking the way.

    Maybe I could guilt the first years into stopping their seniors? Yves wasn''t looking at us. Tahir was talking to him about something. Lee was filming us with a huge stupid grin on his face. Scratch that plan then. I''ll just attack first and see how things¡ª

    "Hold it right there, young men," a sandpapery voice said. The old men chatting at the counter came to help us. "Leave these nice ladies alone."

    Good, some distraction. A scuffle between the grandpas and the assholes would provide an opening for us to escape. But I still wanted to stab some eyes.

    "We''re just trying to have a good time here, gramps," said Goatee Guy. "Just return to a retirement home, will you?"

    "You disrespectful rascals!" The old man''s quivering finger pointed right at Goatee Guy''s ratty face. "Didn''t your mothers teach you to be respectful to your elders?"

    "But we''re being respectful," Skull Tattoo Bro said as Coconut Head helped him off the ground. "Ugh, the world''s fucking spinning. Need some coffee."

    "If you brats don''t have anything else to do here, get out!" Grandpa One said. "Get out and don''t bother these ladies!"

    Grandpa Two added, "Or we''ll call the police!"

    That''s useless, I thought. Threatening to call the police wouldn''t work to stop these guys. There was no police station nearby. Cops would be coming from outer space, taking ages to arrive, if there were any to send here. These assholes wouldn''t cave to something like¡ª

    "Fine!" Skull Tattoo Bro said. "We''re leaving. Happy now, gramps?"

    Excuse me? Just like that, they were giving up? They couldn''t leave! I didn''t have my dramatic moment yet. I didn''t have any justification to stab them. And I did want to stab them for bothering us all the way here. I needed something for Rule #4.

    "You heard the big man," Goatee Guy said to the freshies. "Off your asses. We''re going."

    "Yeah, we don''t want these old guys here to have a heart attack. No issues here, gramps."

    "Move along." Grandpa One gestured his gnarled hands towards the door. "Glad you have some sense left in you."

    "We''re just getting to know Blondie here." Skull Tattoo Bro said, winking at Deen. "See if she has a boyfriend. You didn''t have to make a big deal out of it, gramps."

    And then it clicked in my head. The perfect way to escalate the situation.

    "She doesn''t have a boyfriend," I blurted out. All of them¡ªDeen, the dick squad, and the grandpas¡ªlooked at me in surprise as if I had just popped into existence. "She doesn''t have a boyfriend, because she already has a girlfriend. And that''s me!"

    ¡°Huh? Wha-?¡± Deen''s eyes widened in shock. Then her forehead wrinkled in confusion. "What are you...?"

    The eyes of the three cockroaches also widened, but I knew what was going on in their heads. Skull Tattoo Bro rubbed his hands. "Nice! Got some girl-on-girl action going on? Love me some of that."

    "Love to be between that!" Goatee Guy chimed in. The three dirtbags laughed their asses off.

    "How about a picture with you, girls, huh?" Coconut Head took out his phone and moved forward, but Grandpa One stopped him. "Chill with the cockblocking, old man!"

    "You damned brats disrespect your elderly, and women, you should¡ªhow dare you raise your hands at me!"

    Skull Tattoo Bro clenched his fist and was poised to punch Grandpa One. "I got enough of your shit, gramps."

    "Hey, what''re you doing?" said Tahir.

    Lee tried to pacify Skull Tattoo Bro. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t do¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut the fuck up!¡±

    It was at this moment the freshies realized things had gone too far. Kind of late already.

    Better late than never I supposed.

    Once the shitstorm started, I was going to stab these bastards. A fork and a knife. That was two eyeballs at the least. Weirdly, I was extremely calm through all of these, enjoying myself a little. My experiences as an Adumbrae really changed my perspective. I was a normal human right now, and very weak, but so long as I didn''t die before the Suppressor wore off, I was good.

    "Get out of the way, gramps. I swear imma hit your wrinkled face!"

    "Stop! Stop!" Deen exclaimed, raising her hands. Such a good person, worried about the elderly. She wanted to get out of the booth to get in between them but Goatee Guy tried to grab her so she retreated.

    "Irene! Natalie!" Grandpa Two was probably calling out to the owner and her daughter. The man reading the newspaper had hurried out of the restaurant. "Back off, you bastards!" He swiped a fist at Goatee Guy who stepped back and stumbled into Tahir and Lee.

    "The fuck?"

    "Knock down that old man!"

    "Stop that!" Deen threw her coffee at them.

    Aw, I wanted to do that, I exclaimed in my head. Fucking Deen, stealing my limelight. No matter. I''d have my moment. I just needed the actual fighting to start. Just a bit more until fists connected. A bit more¡ª

    "Grayson, back off!" a commanding voice boomed. Skull Tattoo Bro, who was apparently named Grayson, jolted in shock upon hearing the voice. He retreated away from the old men. All of us turned to the diner''s entrance to gaze at the knight in shining armor who came to save the day.

    Action Hero¡ªthat was what I decided to call him¡ªwas born to be on the poster of all action movies. He was more than six feet tall, muscles straining against his white Alpha Chi Omega shirt, a squared strong jaw and a typical stoic expression. I wouldn''t be surprised if fans suddenly showed up to ask for his autograph. Or if explosions suddenly flared behind him.

    "Enrico? I thought you were at the party?"

    "Hey, Enrico! Check out these girls¡ª"

    "Dude, don''t tell him that!"

    Action Hero marched forward. If this was a movie set, all lights would be on him. "What do you think you''re doing here, Grayson? I''m tired of covering up for you." He glared at the other ACO members. They cowered before him. "And that goes for all of you! Don''t stir up shit and stain ACO''s name. How many times this has been already?" He pointed at the door.

    For a moment, Skull Tattoo Bro looked as if he was going to start fighting again. But he lowered his fists and sullenly told his brothers, "Come on. Let''s bail."

    Enrico, the Action Hero, stared at their backs before turning to us. He apologized to the old men and asked how they were. After making sure they weren''t hurt, he faced Deen and me, bowing low. "I sincerely apologize this happened."

    "Thank you for helping us," Deen said. She was still holding her cup.

    "You''re a good young lad," Grandpa One said. "You tell your hard-headed friends to respect women and their elders!"

    "I will. Again, I''m sorry for everything." And he strode off, the proverbial spotlight following him.

    Huh? That''s it?

    What just happened there? In a couple of minutes, he smoothened out everything. And also derailed my stabby-stabby plans.

    I looked down at my arm and poked myself with the dinner knife. It slightly bent as I exerted force. My super strength and durable body were back.

 5.12

    "Action¡ªerm, I meant Enrico, was it?" I asked Deen. "The guy who looks like an actor in an action movie? He''s the grandson of the governor?"

    "A former governor," she corrected me. "Milandro Haynes. I¡¯m sure Enrico Haynes is his grandson. My father had contributed to his campaign¡ªum, nothing. Never mind. Anyway, Enrico''s also an engineering student like those creepers, I guess for their family business in ComExo parts. So likely, he¡¯s a senior in their fraternity too, and that¡¯s why they listened to him. And I bet it didn''t hurt that he has high social standing and political connections.

    "There''s a lot of important people around tonight," I said with a grin.

    Deen shrugged. "Well, that''s EFU for you. I heard from Adrian that Enrico is generally a great guy. Definitely not like his fraternity brothers."

    "What do you think of him?"

    "Nothing," she simply said, raising a brow at me. "I guess I''m grateful he stepped in to help us. And no, I don''t think of him that way either," she added, noticing my teasing smirk. "I have you, don''t I?"

    "What do you¡ª? Oh, I get it. Because of what I said a while ago."

    "Yeah¡­why did you tell them we were together?" Deen whispered so that the old woman mopping the puddle of coffee near our table wouldn''t overhear us. "It just encouraged them to¡ªah, I''m not blaming you or anything, by the way. Was it because you thought they''d stop harassing us if I was in a relationship?"

    "Uh...kinda." I scratched the back of my head while giving her an apologetic grin. "I''m really sorry I made the situation worse. Now, I know what I did was wrong. My bad. Really sorry."

    "Like I told you before, it''s best to ignore guys like that."

    "But they were already trying to¡ª"

    "Are you alright, dearies?" Granny had finished cleaning Deen''s mess on the floor. Such a waste of a powerful dramatic move of throwing coffee and not hitting anyone. If only she left the dramatics to me.

    ¡°We¡¯re fine, ma¡¯am,¡± Deen respectfully replied. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    Granny said, "I''m so sorry you had a bad experience here. Natalie and I were checking supplies in the back; we shouldn''t have left the front with those disrespectful rascals around."

    We assured her that it was no big deal, that we enjoyed our meal despite what happened, and that we''d certainly return someday to eat again for a nicer experience. Bla, bla, bla¡­

    She kept going that she would''ve whacked them with the mop if she was around. I would''ve paid to see that. I also would''ve paid for a chance at stabbing at least one of them. On second thought, my superstrength was already returning and I might''ve ended up burying a dinner knife deep into their skulls. It might''ve been for the best that Enrico, the Action Hero¡ªhey, that rhymed nicely¡ªarrived to save the day.

    After Granny went away, Deen continued with her gossip about the ACO fraternity members. "I''m not sure of this, but the man with the skull tattoo on his shoulder might have a record of sexually harassing some girl at a bar. Grayson, it''s a familiar surname. It was covered up though, the last I''ve heard, that''s why I don''t know much about it."

    "Wouldn''t surprise me," I said. Was I being a judgmental bitch again here? Nah, I think I was justified to assume the worse of Skull Tattoo Bro. "Did you hear that from Adrian?"

    "No, no, he wouldn''t speak badly about his frat brothers like that. Just some gossip my radar picked up here and there. From what Enrico was saying, it seems to be true."

    "Yep. Looks like it''s not the first time he did something like this. And Enrico''s the one cleaning up their mess...with his connections, no doubt."

    "It appears that way," said Deen.

    "I''m not sure if Enrico¡¯s still considered a ''generally good guy'' if he does that." Wow, am I standing on some moral high ground here? Of course, not. I was priming Deen for the future, testing how she viewed their situation. Checking her perspective, gauging her loyalty.

    "I suppose not," she admitted. "It was Adrian who said that though, not me. I don¡¯t condone what they did, assuming it¡¯s true.¡±

    Deen¡¯s statement sparked a new idea in my head about how to test her loyalty. I slowly said, ¡°But I understand Enrico protecting his fellow member¡ªthey''re fraternity brothers. It''s wrong but I can see why he¡¯d help that creep with the skull tattoo if he committed a crime."

    "That''s not a very nice view for a lawyer to have."

    ¡°Just another view.¡±

    "Prosecution or defense?" Deen said, winking at me.

    "It''s not like I can judge them," I said, looking down glumly at the table, ignoring her law joke. I heaved a deep sigh. "I''m also benefiting from your protection." Stroke Deen''s ego, but also make her conflicted. "I know you can turn me in¡ª"

    "Erind, hush..." she fiercely hissed in warning. Then she looked behind me. The old lady probably must''ve returned to the counter because Deen continued talking in a low voice, "Someone might overhear us. We don''t talk about that in such an open place."

    "It''s just that I can''t judge Enrico bailing out Grayson¡ªfiguratively, or maybe literally, we don''t know¡ªbecause I''m worse. I''m a¡ª"

    "Don''t say it," she muttered, glaring at me.

    "¡ªa you-know-what and¡ª"

    "And you''re not worse. Just¡ª"

    "¡ªyou''re protecting me. Aiding and abetting someone like me is, um, you know the penalties and how the law views this. Okay, you''re not technically abetting me with anything, you''re just not reporting me. And I''m grateful for that."

    "I''ll aid you, abet you, whatever term the law uses. I''ll protect you, no matter what, okay?" She met my eyes and gave me a reassuring nod. "Enough of this. We''ve had this sort of conversation so many times already that I feel like we''re a couple." She grinned at me, joking about what I said earlier. I rolled my eyes at her.

    Deen is interesting. Very interesting indeed.

    No hint of conflict in her demeanor at all. I expected her to have a wavering crisis if I brought up that she was breaking the law by helping me. She already knew that, but juxtaposing our situation with the case of the fraternity brothers might make her change her mind.

    It didn¡¯t, and that delighted me.

    Unless Deen was the best actress ever, I was now more certain of her resolve to help me. She didn''t even try to justify that she was in the right doing this¡ªI mean we''re not, but it felt like something she would do. Her moral compass was really weird. Or perhaps, this was just how normal people were?

    Even in the same situation, people would use a different moral standard if they were personally involved. And that¡¯s just with the same situation. I didn¡¯t know what crime Skull Tattoo Bro had committed, but if I polled the people in America, I¡¯d bet they¡¯d say being an Adumbrae was much, much worse.

    "I think we can leave now," I said.

    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    "Now?" said Deen. "I haven''t heard their loud truck drive away yet."

    Exactly, I thought.

    I wasn''t done testing Deen just yet. And I wanted to teach those bastards a lesson¡ªnot sure what. But they should learn about something¡­

    Perhaps I could antagonize them some more so they''d tail us again¡ªor not if Action Hero would stop my plans again. Antagonize? No, that was the wrong term to use and went against Rule #4.

    The jackass squad already had the ''predisposition'' to bother us; I was very much included in that us. What I was allowed to do was present them with an opportunity¡ªusing the words of legal sting operations¡ªto make the biggest mistake of their lives.

    Deen craned her neck to the left, out of our booth, looking at the front part of the diner. "From the lights through the windows, I think they''re still there. And shadows are moving about. People are by the entrance."

    "We can just leave." I held a fork at both ends and easily bent it like those fake psychic tricks famous on TV when I was a kid. "Have your powers returned?" I asked as I straightened the fork back to its original shape.

    Deen looked at her fist. "I think so."

    "Then we have nothing to be afraid of."

    "But¡ª"

    "No buts,¡± I interjected. ¡°We couldn''t do anything earlier because we were powerless to fight back. Just two girls versus six guys. Now, we can beat them up if we want to."

    "Uh...yes. I was helpless.¡± Deen shook her head. ¡°But that doesn''t mean I want to hurt them now. I don''t want to stoop to their level."

    I almost asked, why not? Wouldn''t a normal person want to bash the ugly mugs of those bastards after what they did? I supposed, yes. Or no? This was sort of untested waters for me.

    I didn''t know if I was losing my touch predicting how people''s minds worked or if it was just that Deen''s morality was all over the place. It might just be me. Or it could be that the setting had changed; we were the way more powerful side now. My thinking did change knowing I could squish their moronic asses.

    But to be fair, Erind, the best friend of Deen, wouldn''t suggest something so audacious and brutal as beating up people, even if they were perverted creeps.

    "That Enrico guy should be out there," I said. "It should be safe." For them, I added in my head.

    Deen closed her eyes and breathed deeply. When she opened her eyes, she had a calmer expression. "Okay, let''s go."

    <hr>

    We were able to peacefully return to Deen''s car¡ªwhich was a pretty big disappointment.

    She was right, the bastards were waiting for us outside the front door. But they didn''t do anything other than bullshit catcalling. By the end of the parking area in front of the diner, two people were talking beside a sports car. With the flickering lights of the diner sign above them, I saw that it was Action Hero and Skull Tattoo Bro.

    I tried to get a rise out of the bastards by looking at them in the eye¡ªI knew that tough guys, or those pretending to be one, would easily get offended by it.

    Still, they didn''t do anything. It was just Goatee Guy and Coconut Head yelling obscene shit about me and Deen being girlfriends. The three freshies were sitting in the back of their truck discussing something. I couldn''t do anything drastic that''d provoke them because it would be against my face.

    Boring, I thought as we drove away.

    <hr>

    For about fifteen minutes, we drove peacefully through the desert. Deen and I didn''t talk with each other, savoring the unpolluted air blowing through the open car windows. Slow hip-hop music played and I was slowly falling asleep. But before I could completely close my eyes, I saw something. I sat straight up and turned down the music.

    "What is it?" Deen asked.

    "Is that them?" I said, working hard to keep the excitement from my voice. The side view mirror displayed headlights coming up from behind. I wasn''t sure if it was those bastards¡ªfucking high beams, it was really them back again.

    "Really?" Deen asked, her voice now more annoyed than worried compared to when the Suppressor was still in effect. Power truly did change how people acted in a given situation. "I thought everything was already sorted out?"

    "Apparently not. It''s just their noisy truck. No other cars. Enrico wasn''t with them earlier, probably arriving in another car.¡±

    "Then they ditched him to chase after us," Deen grumbled. "I''ve had plenty of guys chase me over the years, but not as literally as this."

    "Wow, you''re joking now? I''m glad you''re feeling fine."

    "Gabe isn''t telling me anything, so there''s no need to worry. And, you''re right back at the diner. If they try something funny, we can always beat them up."

    I bet her Guardian Angel was silent because it was aware of my plans.

    How was it going to react knowing what I was going to do next? Would her Guardian Angel risk a confrontation with me? Not only would Deen lose to me in an actual fight despite having a stupid future-seeing pet, but she also would probably not listen to her pet at all. It was in her Guardian Angel''s best interest¡ªwhich was to protect her¡ªnot to get in my way.

    I gave Deen a side-long glance, specifically staring at the space above her shoulder. Then I examined her face. She didn''t look anxious anymore, just mildly annoyed.

    While I was somewhat certain of Deen''s Guardian Angel''s actions, I had no idea how she, herself, would react to what I planned to do.

    Time to find out.

    Okay, what did a person whose mind was plagued by Adumbrae look like?

    Imagine someone was annoying inside my head¡ªSpookyErind was there, but she was chill most of the time. I pictured other Adumbrae whispering temptations, messing with their hosts'' minds, those sort of stuff. Anger, hatred, perhaps something like the primal instincts of Blanchette. Recall the time I first transformed into Blanchette; I could barely control myself. And when I got hurt, anger and hunger followed. The feral rage...

    "Deen..." I said in a strained voice, forcefully gnashing my teeth so loud that she''d hear it. "I feel...I feel..."

    "Erind?" She turned to me and leaned closer. "Are you okay? What are you feel¡ª? Oh my god, your hands are shaking!" She leaned closer to me, the car zigzagged a bit. I clenched my fists tighter until there was a faint snap. "What''s that?" she asked, noticing the dark liquid trickling from the side of my hands down to my legs. "Erind, open your hands!"

    I did, revealing deep wounds on my palm. I had dug my nails into my skin. Did it look like I was having a hard time controlling myself? "Deen...I...I''m hungry..." That was lame, but it was the only thing I could think of trying to emulate losing my mind as Blanchette.

    "Oh my god, oh my god," Deen said repeatedly. She drove with one hand on the steering wheel, barely looking at the fortunately empty road ahead, as she opened the glove compartment and rummaged for something to wipe the bloodstains on my hands and legs. The wounds were already healing. "What¡¯s wrong, Erind?" She pulled out a few pieces of crumpled pieces of paper and dabbed them on the drying blood. "What''s going on?"

    "I''m feeling hungry...the Adumbrae inside me..."

    "Hungry?"

    "It must be¡­so much anger at those creeps harassing us. The Adumbrae is trying to take hold¡­of me. I''m sorry Deen, you should just leave¡ª"

    "No! Gabe isn''t telling me anything. Nothing bad is going to happen to¡ª"

    "He...he might be silent because everything would be fine if...if you just left me. Just drop me off."

    "No way I''m going to do that. I''m not going to leave you."

    "Just for a bit...Leave me alone just for a bit." I''d say I was doing a good job pretending to struggle to speak. I was rocking back and forth in my seat, tensing my arms. I curled my fingers, threatening to close my fists again. Deen held my left hand as she tried to steady the car. The bastards following us probably noticed something weird was going on. I said, "Come back later. Just leave me. Later...Return...I''ll have control of myself again."

    "If I leave you, then those ACO fratboys will go to you. I don''t think they''ll continue following me if they see you all alone by the side of the street."

    "Exactly..." I whispered. The perfect opportunity. I wouldn¡¯t even do anything and they¡¯d shrug off the protection of Rule #4 on their own.

    "Exactly?" she slowly repeated. My plan dawned on her. "Yo-you said that you''re hungry? What are you going to do to them?¡±

    "I...ugh...It''s...it''s better if you don''t know," I mumbled, my words barely understandable as I gritted my teeth. I held the sides of my head as if I had a massive headache. "Drop me off, Deen. This is for your own good." Now, what are you going to do? With this, I''d be taking back control of our group of two without her realizing it. Plus, I was really interested in what the asshole platoon would do if they saw me on my own.

    "I''m not going to leave you."

    "Drop me off or I''ll open this door and jump out on my own! Don''t you understand what I''m trying¡ª?"

    "I know!" she loudly interjected. "And I''m saying I''ll be with you if you do that."

    Eh? That gave me pause. Did she misunderstand what I was implying? Should I clarify what I meant by ''hungry''?

    "Look!" She pointed at something in the distance. "That looks like an abandoned gas station over there. It''s better if we lead them there so that we''re out of sight from the road."

    She did know what I was implying to do. And she was going to help me? The fuck?

 5.13 - Yves Garland

    Yves Garland

    Yves Garland opened and closed his clammy hands to stop them from getting numb. They tingled, the blood rushing away from his fingertips due to the stress and anxiety. The cool desert air drying his sweat made him more uncomfortable, and a bit nauseous too. It was weird he was sweating when he wasn''t doing anything.

    He was only sitting at the back of Grayson''s pickup truck, hugging his knees to make himself as small as possible so Miles dancing like an idiot wouldn''t accidentally snag him. Barely moving so they wouldn''t notice him. If they weren¡¯t thinking of him, they wouldn¡¯t make fun of or force him to do anything moronic.

    I''m not doing anything here.

    Nothing at all. Just following along with whatever Grayson and the others told him to do. It was their fault if anything bad happened.

    His fellow first-year and long-time friend, Tahir, had assured him several times this was normal because they were new members. Hunker down and ride it out, his best friend constantly told him whenever he noticeably wavered during their application process. Pledging was only gone on paper; everyone knew that. As long as they were freshmen, they were considered lower-class fraternity members even if they were already called ¡®brothers¡¯.

    That was just it.

    Think of the benefits later on, was another thing Tahir repeatedly mentioned, and the connections.

    Benefits of being a criminal? Yves wanted to yell at his best friend earlier while they argued about what to do when Grayson and the others were about to fight the old men trying to stop them from harassing the ladies at the diner.

    Should they have held back their fraternity brothers?

    Obviously, yes. The three of them agreed on that.

    But no one wanted to do it. The confident and well-built Tahir wouldn''t dare to lift a finger against their seniors, concerned about his future standing in the brotherhood. Lee, who was very close with Miles and Bridger, didn''t want to try convincing them to stop, fearing that they''d think he was lame and weak. As for Yves, what was he supposed to do if Tahir and Lee didn¡¯t want to move?

    I¡¯m such a coward¡­If only I¡¯m like Tahir¡ªno, he was also scared to do something¡­anything¡­Yves closed his eyes as he remembered the scenes during the incident at the diner.

    If Enrico didn''t arrive at the diner on time, who knew what these guys would''ve done to the old men? To those two ladies?

    Yves knew the answer to that.

    He knew what could''ve happened because he had heard of the rumors about Grayson¡¯s past, rumors that were likely true as Lee had told them. Miles and Bridger weren''t saints either when it comes to women. Their three seniors would clobber the old men and probably force themselves on the women. And they''d call on Yves and the two other first-years to join them.

    What would I do if that happened?

    Likely nothing. Probably just follow orders.

    What about now?

    Yves tried to stop himself from vomiting as Tahir drove Grayson''s truck off the road, heading to what appeared to be an abandoned gas station with a convenience store on the side.

    The blue car the two ladies drove was parked in front of the rotting store. He couldn''t understand why they went here. Didn''t they notice that they were being followed? Yves feared what Grayson and the others would do to them in this isolated place.

    I should stop them this time. His rapidly beating heart already told him he wasn''t going to follow that thought.

    This was supposed to be an uneventful drive to Las Vegas for the Greaves Technology Fair. Four hours ago they were all hanging out in their frat house at EFU Campus, having a small party with their affiliated sorority. Their sisters were leaving because it was already late, but Grayson complained loudly that he was bored. Bridger, his right-hand man, with the signature goatee twirl he did whenever he came up with what he thought was a great idea, suggested they all go to the Fair since they didn''t have any classes for the week.

    An impromptu road trip, an exciting and safe idea that Yves thought he might actually enjoy something with his new brothers. Furthermore, he was excited to visit the Tech Fair. Every year he''d always go there with his parents on the weekends.

    But with the Adumbrae incident, they scrapped all their plans until the situation calmed down. He was supposed to stay in his rented apartment near the campus while his classes were canceled¡ªhis parents made him promise that. They didn''t know he was staying at the ACO fraternity house; they didn''t even know he joined a frat. And they also didn''t know he had left La Esperanza and was on his way to Las Vegas.

    Grayson''s group decided to leave at that moment, hoping there was less traffic at the checkpoint and also wanting to enjoy driving through the desert in the dark. Enrico thought that was a good idea and said he''d follow them too; he was just waiting for another one of their brothers to arrive.

    And it was good luck that Enrico did catch up to them. Actually, it was incredible luck that he knew where they were.

    Did someone text Enrico? The thought crossed Yves'' mind. That was the only explanation Enrico would stop at a random diner; he couldn''t have spotted Grayson''s truck if he was just cruising along the road. And when he entered the place, it was as if he already knew that Grayson was about to do something stupid again. Was it Tahir? Or Lee? Why didn''t I think of trying to contact Enrico?

    Yves stared at his cellphone screen. The upper right portion showed there were no bars. They were so far out in the middle of nowhere that no signal could reach them. With that option gone, he prayed that Enrico was racing after them at this moment.

    While they were gathered outside Mr. Beefy''s Diner, Enrico told Grayson¡ªcould probably even consider it strictly ordered¡ªto wait for him while he went back inside. Bridger explained to them first-years that Enrico was going to check if there were any CCTV cameras. He''d also order food and leave an enormous tip, and maybe also try to pay off the two grandpas as an apology. Not only was it to smooth things over, but Enrico''s main goal was to take names and details in case the police were going to be involved later on.

    It seemed to Yves that this wasn''t the first time this happened. Lee''s stories about Grayson''s past became more of the truth rather than rumors.

    Enrico should be really angry right now, Yves thought. He should be looking for them after they ditched him when he entered the diner. But would he notice them here at this gas station a bit of a way off from the side of the road? Probably not. "What if I just walked away?" he whispered to himself.

    "What''d ya'' say?" Miles said, combing back his bowl cut that Lee always trash-talked behind his back.

    "Nothing," Yves muttered. If he did walk away, where would he go? He could walk back to the diner and then call some of his friends for an extremely huge favor to pick him up. That was better than being here with these guys and getting entangled in something illegal.

    He really didn''t want to know what these guys would do to those two girls. Thoughts of helping them barely had a space in his mind as he didn¡¯t even dare to help himself.

    They reached the gas station. Tahir parked the truck on the other side of the pumps and not near the girls'' car. Yves would like to think that his best friend had some sanity left in him and did it so the girls would notice their approach, giving them a chance to hide.

    He still couldn''t understand why they went here. Maybe they thought they''d find some help here like at the diner? But it was obvious this whole dump had nobody around.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    If there was a time to say ''no'' and leave the group, this was it. As he jumped off the right side of the truck and his feet touched the gravel-strewn ground, he knew in his heart that there was no way he could simply walk out on them.

    "Should I just keep the truck running?" Tahir asked.

    "Yeah!" Grayson said as he jumped out. "And don''t turn off the fucking headlights. It''s as dark as Bridger''s ass here."

    "How would you kno¡ªah! That time with the whores at brother Gio''s bachelor''s party? Why are you looking at my ass?"

    "Oomph!" Miles tripped over something, probably a rock, and tumbled to the ground. "Argh, blasted crap! Lights! Enough of that ass talk and lights...phones...phone lights!"

    Everyone except Yves laughed at Miles spitting out dirt as Lee helped him stand up. Then they all turned on the flashlights of their phones to see where they were at.

    "Creepy ass place if you ask me," Bridger said, stroking the long goatee that he was proud of.

    The gasoline station looked like it hadn''t been used for more than fifty years. Only a few patches of dirty paint were all that were left covering the pumps and the roof overhead. Even the graffiti sprayed on the pumps was peeling off. Rust covered most of the metal sheets on the roof, reminding Yves of dried blood in this dim light.

    "No one asked you," Grayson snapped. "Now, where did Blondie and her twig of a friend go?" A loud creak that echoed through the night over the loud noise of the truck''s engine made them all look at the store. With Grayson leading the way, they all trooped to it, stopping for a few seconds to make sure no one was inside the girls'' parked car.

    "This place gives me the nasty vibes."

    "It''s just an old crappy building."

    "Shut up both of you!"

    As they stepped inside, they found four empty shelves running the length of the store¡ªone of them had fallen on its side. There was dust and cobwebs everywhere. The windows had been boarded up by planks of wood. All of them entered. Grayson shined the light of his phone towards the end of the store. Someone stood there.

    "Uwaah!" he let out a yelp that turned into laughter. "Fucking hell...It''s just you, Twig Girl." That was what their group ended up calling the friend of the attractive blonde lady. "What are you doing here all alone?"

    The girl with the slightly wavy long black hair was petite, but Yves wouldn''t call her a twig. From her pale youthful face, he guessed she was probably near his age. She simply stood still with her hands at her sides, defiantly glaring as if daring them to approach her.

    There was another creak and the door behind them closed. Yves, who was at the back of their group, gasped and turned around.

    "Good idea closing the door," Miles said.

    "But I didn''t¡ª"

    "Nice to have privacy, man." Bridger rubbed his hands together.

    "Where''s Blondie?" Grayson demanded. The girl didn''t say anything but only shrugged. "Is she offering you up to us? Throwing you to the wolves? Or you want to have some fun with us?"

    The three seniors laughed. Tahir and Lee looked at each other. Lee had a half-hearted grin on his face and nudged his head toward the girl, sort of saying they should play along. Tahir turned around. Meeting Yves'' eyes, he mouthed, What should we do?

    Yves shook his head. He didn¡¯t even know what he meant by that.

    "Sure, we can have fun with you first," Miles said. "But Blondie has to join in later."

    "You gals are together right?" Bridger said. "Did Blondie want you to have a taste of men that''s why you''re here? Doesn''t she want to see what''ll happen to you?"

    "Yeah...why isn''t Blondie here?" mumbled Grayson.

    "How about the two of you give us a show and¡ª"

    "Wait a goddamn second," Grayson loudly said. He extended his hands to stop Miles and Bridger from going forward. He turned his head left and right, shining the light of his cellphone all over the room. "Where is Blondie? Is this some kind of fucking setup?"

    "What are you talking about, man?" Bridger tried to push past Grayson. "Don''t cockblock a brother."

    "You imagining shit now?" Miles said with a tinge of nervousness in his voice. Unlike Bridger, he stepped back and also looked around the room. "Setup? Like other people are hiding here?"

    Grayson ignored them both. Instead, he furiously pointed at the petite woman standing at the end of the room. He yelled, "You''re with that fuckin'' bitch, Aubrey aren''t you?" Yves recognized her name. She was the girl Lee mentioned that Grayson had assaulted at some party that led to his arrest. Enrico raised hell and beat up Grayson after getting him out of jail using all of his family''s connections. Grayson continued his outburst, "You''re baiting me to do something illegal? I''m fucking on to you!"

    The rest of them looked at each other, unsure of what was going through Grayson''s mind. Yves slowly moved back to the door, carefully shuffling his feet so they wouldn''t hear him.

    "What do you mean, Gray?" Bridger said. "They got cameras here? You''re overthinking shit, man. They just want a good time and¡ª"

    Grayson threw up his hands in frustration. "Why else did these bitches drive here? Unless you believe your ugly mug made their panties wet for you. That blonde bitch especially wouldn''t touch any of us here with a ten-foot pole. This twig whore here might go for us if she''s desperate. But no way in fucking hell they''d just go here in this ancient ass store without any goddamn reason!"

    Yves noticed the black-haired girl raise her brow at Grayson''s statement. He might be imagining it, but she seemed to slightly sneer at them. But why would she have that expression, unless Grayson was correct that they were really setting them up?

    I can''t get caught by the police here! Was his first instinct. What would his Mom say? She''d be devastated. He shouldn''t have come here.

    "I don''t think that¡ª" Miles began to say.

    Grayson cut in, "Lee, you go check her!"

    "Check for what? Why me?"

    "Don''t ask questions. Just go! She might have wires on her or a small camera." Grayson pointed at Yves. "You! Check this place if there are hidden cams."

    Yves didn''t know how to do that but he complied, going for the windows to see if he could leave through that way. If he went out the door, they''d notice and most likely stop him. But if he could find an unbarred window or at least lose planks he could remove, he could escape while the store shelves blocked him from the view of the others. He kept his ears peeled.

    "Yeah, go on Lee! Don''t be shy. She won''t bite you."

    "What if she will?" Miles laughed out loud. "What if she''s like an Adumbrae?"

    "Go check if she''s an Adumbrae too!"

    "Uh, guys? How do I that?"

    ¡°Cut her!¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    "Touch her! You''ll already check for wires. Don''t tell me you''re fucking shy of touching a girl?" There was laughter.

    Yves stopped trying to pry off the wooden planks covering a window when he heard a girl''s voice speak. It was Twig Girl. But he wasn''t able to hear what she exactly said because of the loud laughter. They did quiet down after hearing her talk.

    "Bitch, what did you say?" Grayson raised his voice.

    "I''m asking what is the thought process here," she said. Her voice was surprisingly gentle and soft that it made Yves guilty he was leaving her alone with them. "You''re from EFU, right?¡± she continued. ¡°You should be smarter than this."

    "Smarter than¡ª? Hey, how did you know we''re from EFU? This is really a setup! You''re Aubrey''s friends!"

    "I don''t know who that is. I know you''re from EFU because of your frat shirt. And I also know you''re dumb."

    "Dumb? Says the cunt in a room full of guys who are going to¡ª"

    "You''re going to check if I''m an Adumbrae. And then what if I am?"

    "Huh? The fuck¡ª?"

    "What if I am an Adumbrae? Do you guys have a backup plan?"

    "You got to be shitting me." Grayson laughed. Miles and Bridger joined in. Yves continued removing the boards, trying to hide the faint creaks in the raucous. "Is that all your fucking plan to scare us off?" Grayson asked. "You led us here just to tell us you''re an Adumbrae?"

    "Well, no. I wasn''t going to tell you that if you didn''t ask."

    "Are you an Adumbrae?" This time, it was Tahir''s voice.

    Yves couldn''t make out her answer because Grayson and the others laughing and jeering at Tahir. Did she say yes? What were the chances of meeting an actual Adumbrae? But then again, why did these girls lead them here?

    They might be like those stories of beautiful women enticing men only to transform into monsters to eat them. As batshit crazy as it sounded in his head, the explanation that they were an Adumbrae would fit into everything here.

    Nah¡­that sounds stupid. "Please let this be a comedy prank show," Yves whispered as he successfully removed one wooden plank. He stared outside in the darkness that the high beams of the truck by the pumps couldn''t pierce. Where are the cameras? Don''t tell me that she''s telling the¡ª

    Lee''s bloodcurdling scream filled the decrepit store. "ARGH! My hand!"

    There was a thud as an object hit the ceiling above Yves. He fell on his butt as he tried to avoid it falling. He scrambled for his phone and pointed the light on the floor.

    It was a severed hand.

 5.14 - Charles Grayson

    Charles Grayson, usually called by his surname because he had a senior fraternity brother also named ¡®Charles'', abruptly stopped laughing as Lee''s screams reverberated in the air. He and his brothers all looked at each other. What was that about the hand?

    He was shining the light of his phone right on Twig Girl and Lee at the end of the store¡ªTahir and Miles also did¡ªbut he still couldn''t make out what was going on. His foggy brain was struggling to form coherent thoughts. Still, he knew that the shit happening wasn''t any fucking good.

    There was a thud somewhere behind them to their left. Twig Girl had her hand raised; it was coated with some sort of dark liquid. She had thrown something away. A pathetic yelp to their backs told Grayson that the weak punk Yves found out whatever it was.

    Another thud.

    This time, it was Lee falling to his knees. His screams made Grayson''s headache worse. Then Lee turned to them, holding his arm. It ended in a bloody stump. Grayson''s brain finally processed that the Twig Girl had literal blood on her hands.

    Lee was about to drop to the floor, already curling in a fetal position from the pain, but Twig Girl grabbed his hair with her bloodied hand and kept him upright. He feebly struggled to break free but didn''t seem to completely understand what was happening to him, more focused on his chopped hand.

    "The fuck is going...?" Grayson mouthed. He had kept his light on them¡ªit reflected a bit off Twig Girl¡¯s glasses¡ªhis hands uncontrollably shaking as blood rushed away from his extremities. It was as if his head was in a vice grip slowly closing, pressure pounded on his ears. Think, you bastard! With the small clump of common sense he had left in his brain, he raised the back of his shirt with his free hand and reached for the gun tucked in the waistline of his pants.

    It was the turn of Bridger and Miles to scream like little girls as they processed what had happened to Lee. Tahir called his friend''s name and ran past Grayson to help him. But Grayson reached out to stop the stupid first-year, accidentally dropping his phone to the ground as he yanked back Tahir''s shirt.

    "Lee!¡± Tahir cried out. ¡°Grayson, let go! I need to help¡ª"

    "You''re not helping anyone if you''re fucking dead!" He yelled as he started to retreat in between the store shelves, dragging Tahir with him. The first-year tumbled from all the pulling. "Get up! That''s an Adumbrae. Get up and run!"

    "Adumbrae? But Lee¡ª"

    "Shut the fuck up and come with¡ªhuh?"

    Golden light suddenly filled the room. It came from some sort of bullshit floating above Twig Girl''s hand. She still tightly grabbed onto Lee''s hair with her other hand, raising him off the floor. Her captive seemed to have regained a semblance of thought as he struggled to escape, trying to pull his head away.

    As Lee begged for his life, he punched and kicked her. But it was just like he was hitting a concrete post. Twig Girl didn''t budge an inch.

    She wants to toy with us, it dawned on Grayson. Shivers ran up his spine as thoughts of what she could do to them crossed his mind. A vile bitch of an Adumbrae!

    But that also meant she wouldn¡¯t instantly kill them. I¡¯m going to use the others as bait to survive!

    Bridger fell on his ass while continuing to scream. He just laid there on the ground, paralyzed by fear. Then he just started bawling like a baby instead of trying to flee.

    "A-Adu-Adumbrae! Help!" Miles turned and ran, but he tripped over Bridger''s legs in the dim light and slammed headfirst into the side of a store shelf. He fell back to the floor beside Bridger. They no longer had any cellphone lights. The only illumination came from the mysterious floating blob next to the Adumbrae, its golden color was turning red as it took on a more solid form.

    "Miles! Bridger!" Tahir finally managed to break free of Grayson''s grasp and run to their other fraternity brothers.

    "Dumbass," Grayson said, shaking his hurt hand. He was about to turn and leave them, but he was surprised that half his heart told him to help.

    He pointed his gun at the Adumbrae. Blowing off her head might stop her. That was if he could land a hit, a tall order given his state. Shooting any other part of the body wouldn''t do shit, he knew that much. His hand continued trembling.

    Blam! Blam! Flashes of light brightened the store, showing just how much blood Lee was losing from his severed hand.

    "Fuck! Fucking fuck!" Each time Grayson''s finger pulled the trigger, he instinctively knew he was going to miss.

    Twig Girl''s face bathed in red was strangely calm despite getting shot at, almost as if she didn''t care about any of them. But she moved Lee''s slowly weakening body in front of her, shaking it as if daring him to shoot again.

    Should I? He might hit Lee, or he might hit jackshit because he couldn''t see straight. I¡¯m going to save my bullets.

    There was scrambling and shouting as Tahir helped a limping Miles to get away. Bridger wouldn''t go with them, tightly hugging a store shelf and literally crying for his Mom.

    "I''m not going to die here!" Grayson ran to the entrance of the store.

    "You forgot your friend," the calm voice of Twig Girl could barely be heard over their raucous escaping.

    "Argh!" He exclaimed as something heavy hit him, knocking him against a wooden column.

    It was a whimpering Lee. The first-year squirmed while groaning in pain, barely conscious.

    The overpowering metallic smell of so much blood climbed up Grayson''s nose. The sticky liquid was all over his arms. He could feel bitter vomit rising up the back of his throat, but he swallowed it down. Rage and despair filled his heart.

    "Piece of shit," he spat out as he kicked the useless sack of potatoes that was Lee off of him.

    "Grayson! Lee!" It was Tahir. His voice came from the other side of the store. "Where are you?"

    The door was only a few feet away. Grayson hurriedly continued on all fours towards it.

    The red light disappeared. Everything went black. He didn''t know what happened and he didn''t want to know. There was an ominous striking sound as if metal hitting metal. A guttural growl followed, filling his heart with dread.

    "Help!" Bridger shrieked.

    "Bridger!"

    "Leave him!"

    Grayson didn''t stop crawling. The others were somewhere to his far right. But the exit wasn''t that way. "Where''s the fucking door¡ªOw!" His hands fumbled over the wooden surface in front of him. "Yes!" he said in triumph as his hands closed on a rough circular object¡ªthe doorknob, probably covered with rust. Shit, I should stay quiet.

    Could the Adumbrae see in the dark? That Twig Girl bitch probably could. Monsters always had that ability in the movies. For now, the Adumbrae seemed to be eating Bridger from his screams punctuated by growling.

    Grayson turned the doorknob and pulled. The door moved only about an inch. There was a rattling noise and he couldn''t open it more. Complete darkness greeted him through the gap. Wasn''t his truck''s lights supposed to be on?

    He tucked his gun back into his pants and pulled at the door with both hands. There was that clinking noise again, sounding like chains. Did someone close it outside? It must be Blondie! Her friend was an Adumbrae and she was going to feed them to her. They must''ve done this plenty of times, probably prowling this empty stretch of the desert road for victims.

    "Mommy! Mommy! Urgkk!"

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Is Bridger dead? Where were the others? Grayson couldn''t hear them, only Lee who was still moaning several feet behind him. His hands grew cold as he realized that they were the ones who left him. Those limp-dicked bastards! And to think he tried to fight the Adumbrae for them. He had done so much for them and this was how they repay him? That scrawny Miles and those two ungrateful first-years!

    How did they escape this store? Grayson could feel a breeze.

    He should follow it, just like finding the way out of a cave. Drafts can also lead deeper into the cave, he remembered his brother''s words when he joined his group exploring the Carlan Tunnels. But there was no ''deeper'' part of a store and so he resumed crawling.

    Bridger had quieted down. Probably dead, that poor bastard. It was only Lee making noises now. Grayson prayed that none of the old floorboards beneath him would creak. Where was the Adumbrae?

    Footsteps!

    It was somewhere to the shelves to his back. She was going to where he was several seconds ago. Was she following him? No, she was walking to Lee.

    "Grayson..." Lee feebly called out, his voice clear in the silent store. "Grayson...where are you?"

    Shut up, you dumbass! The dick couldn''t just die on his own.

    Then a small gust of wind washed over Grayson''s face, making him also cry out in relief. It was hard to see, but one of the windows had its boarding removed. He could faintly make out the sky outside with a few dots of stars¡ªnot much else. The others went out this way.

    "Argh! It hurts!" shouted Lee.

    Good! That would cover the sounds of his escape. He quickly climbed through the opening. His sleeve snagged a protruding shard of wood. He forcefully pulled it, making more noise than he intended. But what was important was that... "I''m free!" he celebrated as he rolled to the ground outside.

    Lee''s pitiful pleas for help filtered out the window. That meant the Adumbrae was still busy torturing him. He had a bit of time.

    Where''s the truck? He hurried back to the front of the store, keeping his hands on the wall so he wouldn¡¯t lose his way and accidentally run off into the desert. Other than the sprinkling of stars above, he could barely see a couple of inches from his face. I shouldn¡¯t have dropped my fucking phone!

    His hands reached a corner, and he turned left. It was still dark as fuck.

    Didn''t Tahir leave the truck running with its lights on? Whoever locked them in the store tampered with his pick-up truck. I''m not alone here, he concluded as he pulled out his gun again.

    Lee''s screams faded away as he presumably died. After Lee, Grayson knew that he was next.

    Miles, Tahir, and Yves had abandoned him.

    Wait! Did those guys take the truck?

    His heart pounded even faster at the thought of being left alone. They couldn''t have! He would''ve heard the engine. And they left the store barely a minute before he did. At the least, he should see them driving away...right?

    "Don''t fucking leave me here," he whispered through gritted teeth.

    Even in the dark, he rushed in the direction of where he thought the truck was going to be. That stupid Tahir parked it so far away.

    Something hard, probably a rock, caught the tip of his front foot. He lost his balance and fell to the rough ground. The skin of his face and arms stung. He ignored the pain as he felt around the dark for his gun. As his hand closed on the textured surface of the gun''s handle grip, he let out the biggest sigh he ever had.

    Picking himself up, he continued on.

    Am I going the right way?

    Then he broke into a huge grin as an idea popped into his head. "I''m a genius," he shouted with relief. He raised the gun and shot it in the air a couple of times. From the flashes of light, he noticed he was about twenty meters left of the gas station. Thankfully, he wasn''t running off into the desert. He also noticed Blondie¡¯s blue car by the store.

    One more shot to confirm the direction of the truck and he ran as fast as he could, laughing all along the way. The gun already gave away his location, what harm did laughing do? And he had the right to laugh because he was going to fucking get out of here alive! The Adumbrae must be eating Miles and all those idiots who abandoned him.

    A few more shots to light his way. He was so near his truck.

    "Yes!" he triumphantly yelled as his hand touched the cold exterior of the door. He felt for the handle and then pulled it open. Jumping inside the driver''s side, he paused for a second. Aren''t I forgetting something?

    The keys! Of course, the keys. He searched for it below the steering wheel.

    It wasn''t there.

    No! No! No! He scrambled looking for it, feeling for it on the dashboard, the passenger seat, on the floor. He exited the truck and started feeling for it on the ground. Should he shoot again? Then he remembered the important thought at the back of his mind.

    Someone turned off the lights and the engine. It should be Blondie.

    Light shone on him.

    "Tahir?" he said as he turned to his left.

    "No," answered a female voice.

    Blondie! She was approaching him with a shovel over her shoulder.

    Grayson momentarily paused as the gears in his brain ground to a halt from her beauty and figure. She has the keys, you dumbass! His mental outburst shocked him into action. He raised his gun, hesitating only for a second, and shot. At this range, he shouldn''t miss. And his hands weren''t shaking anymore.

    But Blondie had raised the head of the shovel to block the bullet going for her face.

    Or that was what he thought he saw. That''s impossible shit! "Die, you bitch!" He continued shooting. The blonde girl appeared to have stopped all the bullets, preemptively moving the shovel head where he was aiming at.

    "Wow," she said with a chuckle. "This is amazing. The bullet blocking thing, not what''s about to happen to you."

    "Why won''t you fucking die?" He kept on firing until his pistol clicked empty. With a snap decision, he climbed back into his truck, thinking he could protect himself inside. As soon as he locked the door, a hand punched through the window and grabbed his face. "Let go of me!" He screamed as he grabbed the steering wheel and the driver seat''s headrest to stop himself from getting pulled out.

    Blondie''s fingers dug into the sides of his head, punching through his skin and flesh down to his skull. She was incredibly strong and he was losing consciousness from his head slowly getting crushed.

    She was an Adumbrae! Both Blondie and Twig Girl were Adumbrae all along. They must''ve planned to eat them from the start!

    Don''t let go! Don''t let go! he chanted repeatedly. "Arrrgghhh! Noooo!" His fingers strained to hold on. Blondie had already pulled his head and upper body out through the window.

    Maintaining a death grip on his head, she grabbed his left arm and yanked it off the steering wheel. There was a crack and a pop. Insane pain traveled up his arm to his neck. Because of it, he also let go of the headrest and he was thrown out of the car.

    "Shit!" He cradled his trembling injured left arm. There was light again. Blondie had turned on her phone and was now picking up the shovel. Can I fight¡ª? No! She was an Adumbrae. Half of her shirt was bloody from the bullet wounds he caused earlier, but she didn''t seem to mind it. He picked himself up and tried to run.

    Wham!

    A massive force hit the side of his legs. He folded like a tree that was chopped down. "Yeaargh! Fuck!" The pain shooting up his thigh was too much. He could feel his bladder emptying hot, his pants soaked in hot liquid. He breathed shallowly, trying to keep conscious.

    "I don''t want any of this to be personal," Blondie said, standing over him with her phone''s flashlight.

    Grayson wanted to respond but couldn''t. Pain overcome him.

    He hugged his injured hand and rolled on his side to vomit. His face hurt like hell when he puked. It was like he was dunked into a vat of acid. He could feel the flaps of his shredded flesh wiggling because of the cool desert wind. Blood snaked down to the ground, gathering into a pool beneath his face. His legs wouldn¡¯t follow his thoughts.

    "You''re a perverted harasser and you should be in jail," she continued. "But that doesn''t mean I have the right to torture you or even kill you. Perhaps others might think so, but I don''t. It''s not justified."

    Am I going to die here? Grayson tried to speak, ignoring the searing pain in his facial muscles. "Ple-please..."

    "Whatever wrongs you have done in your life, and I''m sure there are many, including to me and Erind...I''m not the one who should judge and punish you for them."

    "Do-don''t...Please...don''t..." Another wave of puke came out of his mouth.

    "And I know that what I''m doing here is wrong," she said. She wasn''t listening to him but more like talking to herself. It was as if she couldn''t hear him. "So...that''s why I allowed myself to be hit by your bullets. Granted, that''s not much to me, but it''s some form of penance for what it¡¯s worth."

    He forced himself to turn over. I need to get away. He dragged himself across the ground with his hands. His legs could barely move. Pain radiated up to his abdomen. Still, he clawed his way forward.

    "But I have to feed my best friend," she said, slowly walking beside him as he squirmed across the desert like a lost slug. "I have to protect her, no matter what. That''s my promise to her. I failed her before, and I can''t fail her again. I can''t fail. Period."

    "Live..." he said as he pulled himself onward with his right hand. "Live..." His left couldn''t grab anything so he used his elbow. "I...live..."

    "I think she''s hunting your friends over the small hills there," said Blondie. "I''m going to tie you somewhere she can see you, then I''m going to leave you. I shouldn¡¯t be around when she comes. I don''t think she wants me to see her eating. That''s going to be awkward."

    "Do-don''t le-let me die...please..." He inhaled through his clenched teeth and braced himself for the pain, yelling with all his might. "I don''t want to die!"

    "I''m sorry," Blondie said. He felt something grip his ankles. He was getting pulled up. "I''m really sorry, but Erind comes first."

 5.15 - Amber Deen Leska

    Amber Deen Leska

    ¡°This is for Erind,¡± Amber Deen Leska whispered through clenched teeth. I¡¯m not going to fail her this time. I don¡¯t fail.

    Despite herself, she pressed her ear to the store¡¯s door, hoping to get a clue of what was happening. She wasn¡¯t exactly telling the truth when she told Erind that she had full confidence in her. Male voices were talking and laughing on the other side, but she couldn¡¯t make out what they were saying.

    After they had alighted her car several minutes ago, Erind told her that she was going inside the store alone.

    Naturally, Deen didn¡¯t agree even if she was aware her best friend was incredibly powerful and wouldn¡¯t have any problems even if there were a thousand of these jerks. She didn¡¯t want to let Erind out of her sight¡ªshe was her responsibility.

    However, Erind told her she didn¡¯t want ¡®that side¡¯ of her to be seen.

    Deen knew what her best friend meant. She was confident she could stomach witnessing¡­whatever was going to happen. However, she realized it might affect their relationship. Not on her part. But Erind would certainly be ashamed of herself, and Deen didn¡¯t want her best friend to be uncomfortable.

    Maybe it was for the best if she distanced herself in this situation.

    And so she went around the back of the store and returned to the front after hearing all of the creeps had already entered.

    I hope everything is okay inside, Deen thought as she heard shouting¡ªnot yet screams of terror.

    She tightened the rusty chain she coiled around the door knob of the store and tied it to one of the wooden posts holding up the portico above the entrance. Giving it a test tug, she confirmed it was secure. That should stop them from escaping so Erind could¡­eat¡­them all inside the store.

    It was going to be much cleaner that way.

    The only remaining problem was their pickup truck. Deen looked to her left. The vehicle was parked on the other side of the gasoline station. Its lights were on and it was noticeable from the road.

    The truck was alone following them. So where were Enrico and his red sports car? Did these guys leave their senior fraternity brother at the diner?

    Given what happened there, Deen supposed Enrico would not be too happy they went off on their own. He might be looking for them right at this moment, driving in this direction.

    She grabbed the shovel leaning against the door. This old thing was with the chain she found inside a small storage cabin behind the store. She didn¡¯t know how it¡¯d help¡ªperhaps to bury any leftover bodies?¡ª but she brought it along just the same. How about burying the vehicle?

    Would it be too far-fetched to dig a hole in the ground deep enough to bury the evidence?

    I can do it, she thought. With her super-strength, it was possible. But it would take too much time. Better hide the truck behind the store, away from the view of the road, and leave it at that.

    Deen pressed her ear against the door again. She wanted to turn the truck¡¯s lights off, but she was concerned about leaving Erind.

    Someone inside the store screamed. A bloodcurdling scream. Unlike the muffled talking voices from earlier, she heard what it was. Erind seemed to have bitten someone¡¯s hand.

    Deen tightly shut her eyes as if that would silence the world. She didn¡¯t want to cover her ears with her hands because that was disrespectful to the people who were going to die. The guys may not be exactly good people, but they were innocent and didn¡¯t deserve this kind of end.

    And yet, she wasn¡¯t doing anything to stop Erind.

    The truck! Tightly gripping the shovel¡¯s rough and rotting handle, Deen walked briskly to the pickup truck. Running away from the store, running away from the screams. At the least, she could prevent Enrico or anyone else from being drawn to this location. I can save someone¡­That should count for something.

    Darkness swallowed everything after she turned off the truck''s light¡ªsunrise was still an hour or so away.

    The only thing she could clearly see was Gabe, a feathery white ball floating over her shoulder. Although Gabe was visible, it didn¡¯t illuminate anything around her.

    She pocketed the keys and stared back at the store, wondering what to do next. She should just wait here, right? How long until Erind would be done¡­eating?

    Gunfire! Two pops echoed in the deathly silence of the desert.

    ¡°Oh my gosh!¡± She grabbed her shovel. They had guns? Erind might get hurt! With her cellphone lighting the way, she started marching to the store.

    [Stay.]

    The surprise of her Guardian Angel talking again after hours of silence made her stop. The instruction itself? She was going to disobey that. A bullet to the brain could kill an Adumbrae. She had to check on Erind.

    [I would stay away from the store if I were you.]

    ¡°Why?¡± Deen asked, giving Gabe a sidelong glance. Expectedly, there was no answer. But she relented and followed its instructions. She stood in the middle of the gas station. Now what?

    No more shots followed.

    She breathed a sigh of relief.

    Erind must be okay, or else there¡¯d be more gunfire. Deen would be surprised if only two were enough to stop her best friend¡ªshe had survived a grenade explosion right in front of her.

    "Huh? What''s that?" Deen tensed up as she spotted light at the side of the store. She turned off her cellphone''s light and hid behind a gas pump, observing the situation.

    Someone had thrown out their cellphone through the window. From what she could make of the shadows, it seemed that a person was trying to climb out.

    Deen had done a quick lap around the store before chaining the door and see the windows were all boarded up. Which was why she thought securing only the door was enough. Some of the boards must''ve been loose or rotting away. It was no surprise considering how old this place was. I''m so careless!

    In total, three people exited the window.

    Deen''s first thought was to worry about Erind''s safety. Could they have done something to her? No. There were six of them. Erind must be busy with the other three, and these guys took that opportunity to escape.

    What should she do about them?

    Of course, she wasn''t going to let them escape alive. These guys knew their faces. It would be easy to trace hers and Erind¡¯s identities all the way to the BID checkpoint at La Esperanza where they first met.

    A dreadful thought crept into Deen¡¯s mind¡ªShould I just kill them myself?

    The awful gnawing pain around her left shoulder blade had returned. It was more a psychologically-induced pain than anything else. If it was physical, her abnormal regeneration should take care of it. And she was indeed stressed with the problem in front of her.

    She had killed before.

    But those were men sent by the 2M to kill her, so she was only acting in self-defense in that situation. This was different. Different¡­

    How?! she yelled inside her head. "How is this any different?" she asked the gas pump beside her. Not exactly self-defense, but it was also for self-preservation. There was no way she should let them go.

    [Let them go.]

    She raised her brow. Did those three guys have guns? Was her Guardian Angel saving her from getting shot? It could also be keeping her away from Erind who was eventually going to come out of the store.

    Deen took a deep breath and relaxed. Thinking logically, chasing them in the desert would be next to impossible in this darkness, especially if they split themselves up. The best choice was to guard the truck because some of them might return to it. She was then going to restrain anyone she caught for Erind to eat.

    I can''t believe I''m feeding an Adumbrae. Deen vigorously shook her head. No! I''m helping a friend¡ªa very precious person to me.

    Erind was the first best friend she had, a true friend. Someone who didn''t care about her appearance, her family, social connections, and all those things external to her. Erind was relying on her, not as ''Amber Deen Leska'', but as her own person, and Deen wasn''t going to fail her.

    Deen knew Myra had helped Erind ''satisfy her urges'', as evidenced by the bloodied clothes she found in the washer. Who was Myra in all of this anyway? She only did that because she wanted Erind''s help in finding her sister¡ªa selfish reason. In contrast, Deen was doing this for the sake of her friend. That''s right. I''m the worst if I''d abandon my friend here.

    Noises snapped her out of her thoughts.

    There were no lights, and she didn''t dare use her cellphone to not give away her position. She crouched down, taking care not to make any sound, and squinted at the darkness. There seemed to be a dark form lurking by the store. Erind? One of the guys?

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Footsteps hit the ground hard and headed somewhere to her far left. Somebody was there. It was too heavy to be Erind unless she had transformed into Blanchette.

    [Hide on the other side.]

    Other side of what? Deen just assumed Gabe meant the gas pump so she transferred her position.

    Whoever was running was getting further away into the desert. Deen wanted to follow the sounds to check if it was Blanchette. Part of her wanted to meet the Adumbrae side of Erind again. How in control was Erind if she was in her Blanchette body? Would Deen be able to talk to the Adumbrae?

    It might just be wishful thinking, but she wanted to try to convince it to leave Erind alone. Could she offer her own body to save¡ª?

    Blam! Blam!

    ¡°Oh my¡ª!¡± Deen bit her tongue as she covered her head with her hands. Gunfire? It wasn¡¯t Erind. Who was this guy shooting at? Now, he was running towards her from the sounds of it.

    [Move to the back of the pump.]

    She did as she was told.

    A few more gunshots disturbed the peace of the desert. Is he using his gun as a light?

    That person headed to the truck. Deen poked her head out the side of the pump, just in time to see him shooting up in the air again. From a brief second that the gun¡¯s flash fought back the darkness, she saw that the person was the man called Grayson. She couldn¡¯t mistake him with his skull tattoo for anyone else.

    She was surprised that Erind let him go. Shouldn¡¯t she be angriest at him the most? Maybe her best friend couldn¡¯t control her hunger to direct it to a specific person.

    ¡°Yes!¡± yelled Grayson. He must¡¯ve reached the car.

    Deen looked over her shoulder, back at the store. She heard wood getting torn apart followed by a low growl. It was unmistakable even if faint. Something not human came out the window by the left side where the other guys had exited. She couldn¡¯t see that part now because she had changed positions, but she was certain it was¡­

    ¡°Erind!¡± she excitedly whispered, pushing down the urge to call out loud. And by the sounds of it, she did transform into Blanchette.

    Should she find another hiding spot? Deen intently peered at the corner of the store, trying to see if a shadow was going to show up. Even if it was mostly the Adumbrae in control, Blanchette should remember about her, shouldn¡¯t she?

    ¡°No¡­no¡­I¡¯m going to keep my promise,¡± she mumbled to herself. It was up to Erind if she wanted Deen to interact with her Blanchette transformation. Furthermore, if Blanchette lost control of herself in her feeding frenzy, Deen didn¡¯t want to be around.

    Instead, she should get Grayson and put him somewhere visible so Blanchette wouldn¡¯t miss him. It would make Deen feel so much better if it was Blanchette who killed him rather than herself or Erind in her normal body.

    Deen went to the pickup truck. With her cellphone¡¯s light, she found Grayson digging the dirt right outside the driver¡¯s side of the truck. He must be looking for his keys.

    ¡°Tahir?¡± he said, facing Deen. He blinked his eyes to adjust to the light.

    ¡°No,¡± she replied.

    [Use shovel to cover your face.]

    Grayson fired his gun at her. Deen felt a tingle race from her hand up her arm as she steadied the shovel shaking from the bullet¡¯s impact.

    "Die, you bitch!"

    More bullets came, but Gabe was ready to tell Deen which way to lean and how to angle her shovel to avoid or block them. ¡°Wow, this is amazing.¡± She chuckled at what just happened. ¡°The bullet blocking thing, not what''s about to happen to you," she clarified to Grayson.

    "Why won''t you fucking die?"

    The desperation in Grayson¡¯s voice got to Deen.

    [One step left. Raise shovel to your right shoulder.]

    No¡­ Deen let the next few shots hit.

    There was a searing pain in her shoulder joint. A bullet must''ve lodged in between her bones. Parts of her arms stung. The oozing blood warmed her skin from the cold desert winds. I''ll need to change my clothes later.

    Grayson jumped back inside the pickup truck and slammed the door shut. Was he going to escape out the other door?

    Without any hesitation, Deen punched the driver''s side window¡ªher fist went through it like it was paper. She grabbed the front of Grayson''s head and tried to drag him out of the car. He held on inside the car and pulled away from her hold. She slowly closed her grasp so that he couldn''t escape. Her fingers pierced skin and flesh, and soon her nails were scraping his skull.

    Don''t think about it. This was like the time she was punching the men sent by the 2Ms to capture her. She should ignore the sensation of human flesh and bone. The memories of cracking skulls under her knuckles made her sharply breathe. I don''t want to remember that!

    In frustration, Deen reached with her other hand into the truck to pull Grayson''s hand holding onto the steering wheel. Some use of super strength and some broken bones later, and she finally got him out.

    Deen bent down to pick up her shovel and phone. When she turned back to him, he had stood up and was trying to run. Extremely irritated that he wasn''t following her plans, she chased him and whacked his legs with the shovel.

    "Yeaargh! Fuck!"

    "I don''t want any of this to be personal," Deen explained to him.

    Grayson vomited on the ground while groaning and rolling in pain. From the smell, he must''ve peed himself. She tasted bile at the back of her throat. Swallowing hard and breathing evenly, she pushed down the urge to puke. Perhaps, she should''ve just killed him and spared him this suffering¡ªsuffering which she was causing.

    No! No, no, no... She already decided to help Erind. And she was going to see this to its end. "You''re a perverted harasser and you should be in jail," she lectured him. "But that doesn''t mean I have the right to torture you or even kill you. Perhaps others might think so, but I don''t. It''s not justified."

    She continued talking.

    To him? To herself?

    Probably the latter.

    Deen went on about how she wasn''t supposed to be the judge of Grayson''s actions in life, much less punish them for it. Even though Grayson wouldn''t care, if he was even listening to her, Deen told him that she wasn''t going to fail Erind again.

    "I''m sorry," she eventually said as she seized his ankles and pulled him.

    Her words rung hollow. But what could she say to a man she was bringing to slaughter? She tried to remember all the harassment he did to her and Erind to make herself angry. It just didn''t work; her heart still felt heavy in her chest. She was feeding him to an Adumbrae¡ªthat Adumbrae was her best friend. But still.

    "I''m really sorry, but Erind comes first," was all she could say in the end. Her shoulder pain returned.

    She ended up tying his legs to a wooden post by the store''s entrance with the chains she earlier used to lock its front door.

    "Don''t scream so you''ll live longer," she said. He quieted down, probably accepting his fate. Did her words sound too threatening? She was honestly trying to be helpful, but it came off as something morbid.

    [Turn lights off.]

    Deen complied, tensing up at the possible danger. Was Erind coming?

    "Help! Help!" Grayson suddenly screamed. "I''m here! He¡ª!"

    Surprised at the outburst, she instinctively swung the shovel at his face. He crumpled in a heap. "Oh my god," she said as she knelt beside him. "Are you still alive?" His body fell limp as she tried to pull him into an upright position. Even if she wanted to check if she killed him, she didn''t want to turn on her cellphone''s lights.

    She looked around to check what her Guardian Angel was warning her about.

    Are those headlights?

    A car had veered off the main road and headed towards the gas station.

    As it approached, Deen noticed its red color. She still couldn''t clearly make out its form, but its lights were positioned very low. A sports car and other similar models had low ground clearance. How many sports cars drove through this stretch of the desert at this time of the day?

    It meant only one thing. It was Enrico and perhaps other ACO fraternity members.

    "How did they know to come here?" Deen said as she slinked away into the darkness. She didn''t bother to hide Grayson''s unconscious¡ªmaybe dead¡ªbody because they could see the truck anyway. There was blood there if they''d investigate. Her Guardian Angel also didn''t tell her to do anything about it.

    Gabe did guide her on how to avoid being seen. Two men alighted the car, one from the passenger''s side and one from the back, and rushed to the pickup truck. Sure enough, they found traces of struggle, specifically the broken window and the blood. Mostly my blood, Deen thought from behind a gas pump.

    The two rushed to the store. Deen wanted to stay and check their reaction when they found Grayson because it might give her a clue if she really killed him. But she had a more important thing to do. And it''s better if I didn''t know, she added in her head.

    Deen sprinted to the cover of the truck, careful not to get seen by the light from the sport''s car. That was her target¡ªshe should prevent their escape. The driver should still be there and it was up to her to incapacitate him.

    Looking behind her, she saw Enrico and his friend run in the direction where their fraternity brothers had fled earlier. They must''ve seen or heard something that made them go there. This meant that they didn''t know there was an Adumbrae here.

    Erind chose this place because there was barely any signal here. So how did they find us? Did they decide to randomly check this abandoned gas station and saw the pickup truck? I''m just going to ask the driver of the sports car.

    An engine revved, followed by the sounds of tires crunching gravel.

    [The car is going to leave.]

    Deen''s eyes widened at her Guardian Angel giving her information instead of an order. "Are you going to let me decide what to do?" she whispered as she rounded the back of the truck. "You could''ve told me about it much earlier."

    She would''ve preferred actual instructions in this situation. She surmised that the car was driving back somewhere with a cellphone signal to be able to call the police. She couldn''t allow that.

    "Help me!" she hysterically screamed as she popped into the car''s view. She waved her hands and jumped up and down to make sure she was seen. "Help! Help me, please!" A girl with bloodied clothes asking for help? The driver was bound to help her.

    The car didn''t stop. It continued reversing back to the main road. In fact, it was gradually picking up speed.

    "What the...?" She rushed to get the shovel she left beside the truck and then sprinted towards the car. "Am I going to make it?"

    [Throw shovel.] Gabe rattled off instructions on how to do it with a perfect form.

    "Yah!" Deen yelled as the launched the shovel. It pierced through the air, giving off a slight whistling side, and penetrated the passenger''s side of the car as it righted itself on the road. The shovel entered the window and most likely hit the driver.

    This time, the car stopped.

    "Oh my god...oh my god..." she said with each exhale. Her arms tingled from the adrenaline rushing through her body. "Gabe, what was that supposed to be?" she snapped at the feathery orb floating over her shoulder.

    It was silent. Was it trying to teach her how important it was to listen to its instructions?

    "I''m not going to let this one pass, Gabe," she said as she marched to the car. She was trying to be angry, but couldn''t. A huge smile was on her face. This car could''ve called for help if not for her. What would Erind do without me?

    Deen was going to tell Erind about this later so she''d recognize how important it was that they were together. Her best friend had to understand that she could rely on her. Just like when Erind woke up after the grenade explosion¡ªDeen was immediately there for her.

    It didn''t matter that it was Deen who threw the grenade.

 5.16

    A girl who turned out to be an Adumbrae? Isn''t that super fucking cool?

    I was so excited to try out this new face that I had goosebumps all over while waiting for the asshole crew to enter this abandoned store. My enthusiasm for the drama that¡¯d ensue deflated a bit when the bastards basically trash-talked me saying I was a twig and couldn''t get a guy.

    True, I was extremely petite and short, but elementary was the last time someone called me a twig or some similar insult. I did put on a bit of muscle in high school when I became a cheerleader. And excuse me, I can get a guy if I wanted. That was my favorite hobby during high school¡ªdestroying relationships of girls who crossed me. Sometimes it panned out, sometimes it particularly failed.

    However, I had long left behind that shameful past when I was a petty bitch. I was now a mature woman with carefully considered hobbies. Yes, stirring up drama was still my priority, but I had formulated a more sophisticated face for it. Instead of manipulating people from the sidelines, I was now front and center with my first ever villainous face.

    My heroic Blanchette face didn''t really find much success, with only Reginus and her loony followers believing I was a good Adumbrae. But then again, it was a tough pill to swallow for an average person that an Adumbrae was trying to save people.

    So, how about an Adumbrae killing people?

    The Eloyce University first-year student who dared to touch me had the surprise of his life when I ripped his hand off. I was also surprised by how easily I tore it that I almost yelped and ruined the theatrical moment. I only wanted to break his arm, intending to draw out the moment and slowly build up their terror.

    But it worked out anyway because their pathetic screams followed. How amusing it was to see how fast these creeps changed, from supposedly being in control of the situation, bullying a lone girl, to absolute crybabies.

    I summoned Blanchette''s mask. I didn''t want to dirty my own hands, and I certainly wouldn''t try to eat them with my own body. If I could get them to attack me as Blanchette, then that''d be great. Leaving behind half-eaten bodies for Deen to find later would also cement the image I wasn''t in control of my Adumbrae side. I''d have plenty of excuses to do ''bad stuff'' in the future.

    I grabbed the freshie missing one hand by his scalp and held him up. I was so much shorter than him so even if I raised my hand, his feet still dragged on the floor. Fucking annoying.

    What irritated me further was that he kept trying to get away, kicking me and punching me, even using the bloody stump of his arm. I have to change my clothes later. He also kept on begging that I let him go, which was understandable. But he didn''t have to yell it at me. I was just right next to him.

    To my delight, Skull Tattoo Bro¡ªI assumed that was him because it was hard to tell in the dim light¡ªfired a gun...probably at me. I figured guys like these would have weapons.

    He didn¡¯t hit me though. I didn''t even notice him pull out a gun because I was busy enjoying the panicked reactions of his fraternity brothers. If he was lucky, he could''ve landed the headshot of his lifetime, and also my lifetime because I could''ve died.

    I wiggled his friend''s body at him, daring him to shoot again. I could''ve already worn my Blanchette mask to reduce the risk of dying, but it was fun to gamble every once in a while. And I bet a normal-looking frail girl waving a bloodied body like a ragdoll looked terrifying. Maybe I should¡¯ve brought Deen along to record everything.

    Skull Tattoo Bro didn''t want to risk shooting his friend. "I''m not going to die here!" he yelled as he run away. The others also fled.

    "You forgot your friend!" I called out, throwing their first-year brother amongst the shelves.

    I couldn''t see it, but it sounded like I scored a hit.

    "Oh, they left you here?" I used the glowing Blanchette mask floating over my right hand as a light to illuminate the trembling body in front of me. It was Goatee Guy curled up on the floor, hugging the bottom of a store shelf with all his might.

    He was horribly sobbing, with tears, snot, and saliva pooling into a puddle around his head. He kept on repeating ''Mommy'' or something like that as he tightly shut his eyes. I wasn''t sure if he realized I was beside him.

    This guy was such a let-down. I thought they''d put up more of a fight to make this whole thing enjoyable. A horror movie wasn''t fun if the characters just rolled over and waited for their turn to be killed by the monster. The audience would walk out of the theater if that was the case. I hoped Goatee Guy''s frat brothers would be more proactive.

    From the very heavy traffic going out of La Esperanza when I expected there to be fewer cars, to my tea-splashing plan that didn''t come to fruition. I already had plenty of disappointments for the day and didn''t want to add any to the list. I''ll just kill this guy and move on to better prey, I thought as I brought Blanchette''s mask to my face.

    And the mask becomes a face.

    It was like someone turned on the lights in the store¡ªalthough the actual lights probably no longer worked. My Blanchette eyes could easily see in the dark. All my other senses were also heightened. From the noises and the smells, I could tell how many people were inside the store with me. One was heading to the front door. Three were escaping through a window, the cool but dry desert air flooding in.

    As for Goatee Guy in front of me...

    I sniffed the air a couple of times to check. Did he pee himself? Ewwww!

    I had seen this many times in horror movies, and it was meant to convey the utter horror felt by the character. It should flatter me since that was what I was going for, but what crossed my mind was, Fucking disgusting!

    This was not a good time to have a super sense of smell. Of course, it wasn''t disgusting to me as Blanchette; I had eaten far more revolted things. It was the thought that sickened me. In my annoyance, I stabbed Goatee Guy with my straightened fingers.

    "Help!" he yelled out as my claws pierced his chest. His blood sprayed me. There was a moment of clarity in his eyes when everything probably returned to him and he remembered what was going on. He tried to scream again, but I closed my hand, crushing his ribs and sternum, shredding his lungs and heart.

    "Bridger!"

    "Leave him!" It was the voices of the guys by the window. By the sound of it, they were already outside. I could clearly hear their footsteps as they run away. They might just provide the dramatic moments I was looking for.

    I do hope Deen had the presence of mind to stop them from escaping using their truck. It would be easy for me as Blanchette to hunt them across the desert, but I was sure I couldn''t fucking chase down a car.

    For a couple of seconds, Goatee Guy surprisingly still managed to feebly struggle. He tried to pull his body away from my claws, but I had hooked them inside his body. His efforts to speak failed, with copious amounts of blood pouring out of his mouth as his lips moved.

    He violently coughed to clear his thought and cried, "Mommy! Mommy! Urgkk!" Then his whole body fell limp with his last breath.

    With my other hand, I grabbed his head, not to close his eyes but to crush his skull. If Deen would decide to check their bodies later, I wanted her to be horrified by the carnage she''d see. I quickly dismantled his body like I was shredding chicken to mix with salad.

    Then I left Goatee Guy''s mangled body¡ªwhich looked like a kid had played with his spaghetti meal¡ªand moved on to my next victim.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    The One-Handed Freshie was still somehow conscious despite the blood loss from his severed hand; his skin was already turning pale, although not as pale as my original body¡¯s complexion yet. He''d eventually beat my naturally pale skin if I just left him alone to bleed out. He had managed to prop himself up against a store shelf. He intermittently groaned in pain while nodding his head as if he was sleepy.

    Skull Tattoo Bro was crawling to the windows where the others had escaped through. His nervous breathing was very loud. I was going to leave him for later.

    "Grayson..." the One-Handed Freshie weakly spoke. He looked up at me even though he shouldn''t be able to see my form in this darkness. "Grayson...where are you?"

    Grayson? Oh, yeah, that''s Skull Tattoo Bro''s name.

    Since this kid was mostly only following his senior fraternity brothers, I decided to give him a quick death. He had suffered enough, and there was nothing for my evil Blanchette Adumbrae face to terrorize here. What was the most efficient way to do it? Break his neck?

    I held his head with both my hands, wondering how the people in martial arts movies do it, and swiftly twisted it to the side.

    "Argh! It hurts!" he shouted.

    Bones cracked, but I obviously did something wrong because he was still alive. Next, I bent his head back, hoping that would do the trick. It didn''t. He cried out more. I could''ve continued bending his head until he died. However, that wasn''t what I was aiming for. How do they do it in the movies?

    I tried different ways, moving his head around like it was a stick shift¡ªfor the record, I hated manual transmission¡ªcareful not to accidentally kill him with brute strength. It reminded me of experiments as a kid removing the legs of beetles to check if they could still walk.

    "I''m free!" someone outside yelled. Skull Tattoo Guy had apparently escaped the store. That snapped me out of my focused fascination with human anatomy experimentation.

    Oh, that''s right. I was supposed to give this kid a quick death. I snapped his head around until his face turned straight back. Too bad for this guy that he wasn''t an owl. This was what I should''ve done right from the start. Then I also proceeded to tear him apart while thinking about what to do about the bodies.

    Put them inside the store and burn it all down? What about their truck?

    We could also burn that. The problem was that such a fire could be seen from the road. It would only take one passing car who''d care enough to phone the police about a mysterious fire. Or we could just leave them all here and do nothing¡ªwhat was that?

    I dropped the clumps of flesh from One-Handed Freshie¡ªnow, the Several-Pieces Freshie¡ªand stood up, curiously cocking my head to listen to the gunfire outside. There it was again. Who was that jackass shooting?

    Deen? With narrowed eyes and gritted teeth, I rushed to a window and tore away the wooden planks blocking my path.

    I let out a low growl as I climbed out of the store. Deen had her Guardian Angel to protect her; there was next to no chance that she''d get hit. But one could never be too sure with Deen. She could have a change of heart and try to help those fuckers escape from me. And if she wouldn''t listen to her Guardian Angel, she might get shot.

    The distinct sweet scent of Deen¡¯s soap or perfume¡ªI still hadn¡¯t asked her what this product was¡ªwas noticeable in the breeze. I couldn''t detect any new smell of blood other than what I had on me. I had smelled Deen''s blood before; I even drank it. If she was wounded, I''d surely notice it.

    She must be fine. The wind blew through the hills behind the store and down to me, carrying traces of the smell of the three who escaped. Skull Tattoo Bro wasn''t with them. He must''ve gone for the truck instead.

    I leave that to you, Deen. She wouldn''t let us get caught, would she?

    I dropped on all fours and ran, sniffing the ground as I followed the tracks of a three. There was someone with a brain among the three of them because they eventually split up as they continued running¡ªwell, two of them did.

    One was hiding behind a weird rock formation. His breathing was faint; I could tell he was trying very hard not to make a sound. Unfortunately for him, his pounding heartbeat gave him away. And also his smell. I must be imagining it, but I think I could smell fear. It was hard to describe.

    I stood up and walked around the pile of boulders, making noises with each footstep to add to his dread. He didn''t move.

    I looked around but still couldn''t see him.

    A large rock that was perched on top of the formation wiggled. He was behind it, pushing it with his legs. He successfully dislodged it, and the rock rolled down at me. "Fucking die, Adumbrae!"

    This was something straight out of a movie that the main character would do to kill a monster. Good job!

    But not good enough.

    I caught the wide rock as it fell, grabbing it with both hands, and burying my claws into its surface. It was fucking heavy. I locked my elbows and bent my knees to absorb the impact. Stepping out of the way was something a horror movie monster shouldn''t do.

    "Grwaargh!" I roared as I hurled the rock back to the top of the stack of boulders.

    Main Character Guy yelled in surprise, not expecting me to throw it back at him. Sliding down the side of the boulder formation, he avoided getting squished. He tumbled to the ground, picked himself up, then ran. The noticeable limp told me that his fall hurt him bad.

    There was a flicker of light as he seemed to have turned on his cellphone for a second and then turned it off. He must''ve realized that I could simply follow the light. He was doing all the things the main character should do to survive a horror movie. Too bad I couldn''t let him go.

    I could see him bright as day as he blindly ran, his hands stretched out in front of him.

    I should''ve let that rock hit me, I thought in annoyance at myself. The chance was already there. I didn''t take it. If I got hurt by the falling rock, even a teensy-weensy bit, my ability would''ve activated and I could chomp Main Character Guy without vomiting my guts out. Stupid, Erind.

    Since the moment had already been ruined, might as well quickly dispatch these three lost rats, dismember them, and then kill Skull Tattoo Bro to finish off the night...or day? I''m going to ask Deen about this night-day thing later.

    I sprinted at Main Character Guy who was still floundering in the dark and swiped my claws at his neck. I wasn''t able to completely lop his head off¡ªit hung on by a few strings of muscle and a stretch of skin¡ªbut I had severed his spine. I grabbed his hair as he fell and kicked away his body to completely separate his head.

    There, a quick death, I thought as I threw his head at his crumpled body. He deserved that much for being the main character of my horror movie. I wouldn''t be surprised if it was his plan that they all split up. And then he stayed behind to try to kill me while his friends fled.

    Such a swell guy.

    But where are the other two?

    I managed to pick up their scent again, but I couldn''t hear them nearby. There were also marks on the ground showing where they had run. I followed their tracks around a small hill when I realized that they must''ve circled it and headed to the abandoned gasoline station...to their truck. I ran on all fours for more speed and cut over the hill while looking for them.

    As I made my way back to the station, their smells greeted my nose. I also spotted their tracks on the ground. Soon enough, I spotted their forms running with all their might. I growled to let them know of my presence.

    "Fuck! It''s behind us!"

    "Tahir? Tahir? Did he¡ª?"

    "He''s fucking dead and we''re next!"

    "Mother Core, help¡ªAaah!"

    The taller guy pushed his friend to the ground and left him behind¡ªI supposed that was the extent of their brotherhood. I briefly glanced at the kid who fell, recognizing him as the freshie whom the others had bullied into hitting on Deen, and continued to chase the one who betrayed him. This is also in horror movies, and it makes me really happy there''s drama.

    "Shit, shit, shit!" cried out the guy who turned out to be Coconut Head, as he looked over his shoulder. "Don''t fucking come closer!" He couldn''t see me, other than probably a dark form, but he could hear me. "I don''t want to--yeaargh!" He tripped on his way down a sloping path and rolled on the ground.

    "Fucking Grayson didn''t kill you?" Coconut Head said, his voice on the verge of tears. "That good for nothing..."

    I stood back on two feet and leisurely walked around him while snarling. His imagination coupled with the darkness would do the rest. If he could see what I actually looked like, he probably wouldn''t be as scared. Bent over, with his hands covering his head, he looked like a snail that was terribly trembling.

    "Please don''t kill me," he continued. "I''ll do whatever you want. I''ll worship Adumbrae!"

    I snapped my jaws at the air.

    "Oh my fucking god! I''ll do it! I''ll worship Adumbrae every day! Just let me live!"

    There was a waft of a couple more new scents. Hard soles of shoes hit the ground. Two people were running towards us.

    "Bridger! Yves!" shouted a familiar voice.

    "Tahir? Where are you guys?" called out another, someone I hadn''t heard before.

    "Enrico!" cried out Coconut Head. "I''m here¡ª!"

    I kicked his head and he fell silent. So we got Action Hero now too? This was shaping up to be a complete horror movie experience.

 5.17 - Enrico Haynes/ Yves Garland

    Enrico Haynes

    "Was that Miles'' voice?" Enrico Haynes whispered to his best friend and fraternity brother, Charles Monde. He immediately switched off his light and elbowed Charles to signal him to do the same.

    "Why are¡ª?"

    "Shhh! Keep it down," Enrico hissed as he crouched to hide behind the slope of the hill. He pointed his gun further up the hill, fruitlessly trying to spot if someone was coming down in the near-total darkness.

    "Okay, man. Chill." Charles matched the low volume of his voice and also bent down. "Shouldn''t we go looking for Miles? That was his voice, right?"

    "Yeah, and he got cut off. Someone else is out there."

    "Shit, really?" Charles took out his gun from inside his jacket. "The ¡®someone¡¯ who tied Grayson to a post?" Before they rushed to these sandy hills because of the screams they heard, they had found Grayson¡ªalso known in their fraternity as the second ''Charles''¡ªunconscious and chained to a wooden post by the abandoned store.

    Grayson''s face was covered with blood from his severely broken and almost flattened nose. Enrico would like to think that he felt Grayson''s breath on his cheek as he checked him, but he wasn''t too sure. From the angle of his legs, they seemed to be fractured. Maybe his arm as well. He must''ve been tortured moments before they arrived because the blood was still fresh.

    And what¡¯s the connection of those girls to all of this?

    Enrico was certain that the blue car parked near the store was driven by the two girls he saw at the diner. Tahir did text him that Grayson had the idiotic idea to continue chasing after them. He couldn¡¯t contact Grayson or Tahir afterward because of the weak signal in this area. Actually, he was incredibly lucky that they decided to check this abandoned gas station instead of continuing down the road trying to catch up to a truck that wasn¡¯t there.

    One of his guesses was that the girls had friends who came to help them. For them to leave Grayson in that state¡­that dumbass probably did something really bad.

    "Maybe ¡®someones¡¯,¡± Enrico said to Charles. ¡°A single person can¡¯t have done this." He crawled on the ground with his knees and elbows, taking care to make as little sound as possible. Fortunately, the hill was mostly sand with random shrubbery he could use to hide. The fine grains barely made any noise as he moved. "Come, let''s try to find where our brothers are."

    "Find? We can''t even see squat," Charles derisively whispered. But he still followed Enrico.

    "Then these bastards, whoever they are, also can''t see us."

    "Man, this is dangerous as hell," Charles muttered as he crawled faster to be beside Enrico. "I think we should just wait for the police," he tried to persuade him. "Corey should¡¯ve contacted them by now. Maybe¡­"

    After they saw the broken window of Grayson''s truck and the traces of blood, Enrico immediately told Corey to drive somewhere with a signal so he could call the police for help.

    "And how long will it take them to come here?" Enrico shot back. "We''re in the middle of nowhere at an ungodly hour."

    "Err...yeah..."

    "Our brothers could be dying right now. Let''s hurry," he said with gritted teeth. I¡¯m going to kill these fucking bastards who dared do this to our fraternity!

    Enrico didn¡¯t care much about Grayson. In fact, he thought Grayson deserved a good beating. But he was his brother, and the brotherhood came first. He didn¡¯t want the police to arrive before he could take care of these cowards who tortured his brothers.

    A few years ago, when Enrico was still a new member, a rival fraternity jumped on his brothers as they came out of their favorite club. He was supposed to pick up the drunk seniors¡ªexpected duties of a first-year¡ªand saw the whole thing happen while he was waiting in the parking area.

    He hid behind his car and didn¡¯t do anything to help them. What could he do? He didn''t even have a gun or know how to do any sort of first aid to help his brothers after their attackers left. All he did was call the cops and waited. As years passed, he realized he could¡¯ve done so much more back then rather than just twiddle his thumbs.

    Now, he was resolved to uphold the brotherhood no matter what.

    He believed something similar was happening right now¡ªsomeone had a beef with his brothers and jumped on them. But this time, it shouldn''t be a rival organization. They had mostly been at peace with everybody he could think of for the last year or so. No, this was somebody else. This wasn''t a fraternity issue.

    But it is now.

    If these guys who attacked Grayson and the rest weren¡¯t friends of the girls they harassed, Enrico could think of other possibilities.

    It wouldn''t surprise him if this was related to other women Grayson had ''harassed'' in the past¡ªfor his own conscience, Enrico had decided to stick with this term even though his brother had done a wide array of acts beyond harassment.

    Perhaps an angry father who rounded his friends together to get revenge for his daughter? Or could they be Aubrey''s brothers? Those guys did try to attack them in court when they had the case dismissed using their connections.

    Enrico wasn''t proud of covering for Grayson. But he was certain his brother would do the same for him. Of course, the difference was that Enrico wasn''t doing anything that needed covering¡ªother than his covering for others. In the end, they were fraternity brothers, and they were brothers to the end.

    "So, what''s the plan here?" Charles softly said.

    "Get behind them," Enrico said. "And shut up." These mysterious assholes had certainly heard them and knew they were somewhere nearby. Both groups were in the dark. Both groups were armed¡ªEnrico thought it was prudent to assume that these guys also had guns. It was an even fight.

    Everything was quiet. If only Miles or their other brothers could make another sound so Enrico would know where to go. Were they all unconscious? Were they dead? Maybe he should crawl forward and¡ªhe tensed up. There were faint noises of shifting sand. Someone was approaching.

    "Hear that?" whispered Charles.

    ¡°Quiet.¡±

    That someone was getting closer. Very light footsteps. This person was shuffling his feet.

    "He-help me..." called a weak girl''s voice. "Please help...anyone..."

    ''Her'' feet, not ''his''. And she sounded hurt which explained the weird way she walked. Charles lurched up, but Enrico pulled him down and also stopped him from turning on his phone. "Wait," he told Charles.

    This must be one of the girls from the diner. Was she trying to trap them for her friends? Or was she a victim herself and used as bait to draw them out? In either case, he decided it was better to wait and see, or rather listen for more clues. As long as there was no light and they didn''t make noise, their enemies wouldn''t be able to find them.

    Suddenly, Charles pulled away from his grasp. "Hey!" Enrico whispered in surprise. This idiot!

    Then there was light; Charles had turned on his phone. Enrico quickly crawled away so he wouldn''t be seen. He clenched his teeth in annoyance as he surveyed their surroundings. He was ready to shoot anyone who''d attack Charles. If he also revealed himself, they¡¯d both be caught in this potential trap.

    "Help me please..." the girl weakly said as Charles approached her. She was short, thin, and had black hair.

    Enrico was sure he''d seen her at the diner. She must be the friend of the stunningly gorgeous blonde woman Grayson was trying to hit on. Her clothes had tears and were bloodied. She also had blood on her arms and face¡ªa victim used to bait them out. And Charles stupidly fell for the bait.

    "Show yourselves, you bastards," Enrico hissed under his breath. He laid flat on the ground, his hand tightly gripping the handle of his gun.

    Charles approached the girl. Enrico tensed, expecting an ambush. But nothing happened. Charles said, "Miss! Are you hurt?"

    Enrico shook his head. Charles and his stupid questions.

    "I am...yes. Ugh, they hurt..." was what she probably replied. Enrico couldn''t clearly hear.

    Charles tried to get the girl''s arm to put around his shoulder, but she violently flinched and pushed him away, probably in pain. She fell to the ground. Charles rushed to her aid and kneeled beside her. "Enrico! She''s hurt, man!" he shouted as he helped her up.

    Motherfucking dumbass! Enrico cursed in his mind. After seeing Grayson''s state, Charles still didn''t have a sense of the danger they were in?

    "Adumbrae!" someone shouted.

    Enrico jerked in surprise. That was definitely Yves'' voice even if he had heard the timid first-year talk only a handful of times. And what was he warning them about?

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    He craned his neck, looking for Yves. He was tempted to use his phone, but he stopped. Did Yves say Adumbrae? What the hell?

    It was a warning that Enrico would''ve scoffed at a month ago, but after what had happened in La Esperanza, including his own experience narrowly escaping some of the mushroom monsters a few days ago, he didn''t immediately dismiss it.

    "She''s an Adumbrae!" Yves yelled again. Enrico wasn''t mistaken about what he heard. ¡°RUN!¡±

    "Huh? Yves!" Charles shouted in the darkness. "Yves! Come here! We''re here to¡ªUrgk!" A sickening crunching sound followed. The light dimmed as Charles probably dropped his phone and it pointed away from them.

    Enrico turned to his friend with his gun and phone raised. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, his finger over the trigger. He was met with a gruesome sight.

    Charles was facing Enrico, his blank eyes reflecting the phone''s light.

    But his whole body faced the other direction. The black-haired girl stood beside Charles, holding his head with both her hands. The rest of Charles'' body hang limply from his head in an almost kneeling position because the girl was much shorter than he was.

    She shook his head like it was a magic eight-ball. His ragdoll body swept the sand. Then she turned his head left and right like she was using a steering wheel, seemingly experimenting with something while muttering to herself words Enrico couldn''t hear. She still hadn¡¯t looked in Enrico''s direction, focused on whatever she was doing with Charles'' dead body.

    Charles¡¯ lifeless eyes continued to stare into the empty desert.

    The most logical thing to do was to run. However, rage filled Enrico''s heart and clouded his judgment. Charles wasn''t only his fraternity brother, he was a close friend even before they joined the fraternity.

    "I''m going to kill you!" the usually calm and collected Enrico shouted with all the anger bursting inside him. The girl¡ªno, the Adumbrae¡ªfinally looked at him. "Die!" He fired his gun.

    -----

    Yves Garland

    Tahir... Enrico... Dead. Everyone is dead! Yves Garland thought that despite hearing Enrico''s angry cursing echo through the dark desert punctuated by gunshots. He counted the only senior brother who was actually nice to him in the fraternity as a goner. There was no way he¡¯d survive the Adumbrae.

    Should have I not warned them? What if he didn''t yell that Twig Girl was an Adumbrae? Would they have lived?

    Probably only for a little longer. The Adumbrae was going to kill them all.

    There were no more screams.

    Yves ran faster back to the store, back to the gasoline station.

    "Sti-still no signal?" His voice cracked as he checked his phone. He sporadically turned on his phone''s light to make sure his path was clear. If he left it on, the Adumbrae would easily find him.

    Tears ran down the side of his eyes, and he felt like he was about to puke from desperation and anxiety. Just keep running!

    Everyone was dead.

    Lee, Bridger, and Grayson¡ªthose three they left behind at the old store. There was nothing he could do to save them. Even Grayson with his gun wasn''t able to do anything. Yves had heard Tahir scream; the Adumbrae found his best friend. And he had seen Miles die. Charles...And now Enrico.

    Everyone was dead.

    And he was next.

    No...not everyone. There was still someone else alive beside him.

    Earlier, after Yves had climbed out of the store, he was faced with two decisions: run back to the pick-up truck or flee to the hills behind the store. The truck was the no-brainer answer.

    Except that its lights were turned off.

    Someone had gotten to it¡ªprobably the blonde friend of Twig Girl. He didn''t know if she was an Adumbrae worshiper or an Adumbrae herself, but meeting her wouldn''t do him any good. The pick-up truck was a trap.

    And so, he chose the hills. Tahir and Miles, who were also able to escape the store, followed him.

    "Please, Mother Core," Yves prayed as he ran. "Please...I pray that I made the right choice!" It was a split-second decision while he was on top of the hill looking down at Charles and the Adumbrae.

    Running deeper into the desert seemed like the best choice for survival. But Yves didn''t immediately follow his instincts¡ªthe Adumbrae had managed to find them once, even in the total darkness. She would certainly find him again. However, going back to the gasoline station sounded like a worse idea. And Yves wasn''t even considering it until he spotted something from his vantage point atop the hill.

    He caught a glimpse of light from the gasoline station. It wasn''t from Grayson''s truck. It wasn''t from the car that the Adumbrae girls drove either.

    The headlights were from Enrico''s sports car. And the light was moving¡ªsomeone was driving! Yves recalled that Corey and Charles were riding with Enrico to the Fair. Since Charles and Enrico were dead, Corey must be the one driving it.

    He only had to get to the car first before Blondie would show up, and then they could quickly escape!

    In his haste descending the hills in the darkness, Yves tumbled twice. And twice he quickly stood up, not minding his aching body.

    He flickered his phone to check where he was. He had returned to the back of the store. His dead fraternity brothers were inside¡ªNo! Don''t think about that! The urge to vomit returned as his mind was filled with images of dismembered corpses. There was a hint of blood in the air.

    Run! Run! It was faint, but from the corner of the store, he could see the beams of the headlights. That was his ticket out of here. He turned the corner and saw¡ª

    "Grayson?" His senior brother was lying by the entrance of the store. Grayson''s face was covered with blood, chains coiled around his legs.

    Yves paused for a second, shook his head, and then rushed to Enrico''s car. He was unwilling to waste one more second looking at someone he couldn''t help. If he didn''t leave this place soon, his fate was going to be the same as theirs.

    The red sports car stopped beside the pick-up truck. Yves frantically waved his hand holding his lit phone as he crossed the gas station, almost running into a rusty pump. Did Corey see him? Where was Blondie?

    "Help! Help!" he shouted. "Corey!" He couldn''t make out who was in the driver''s seat. Something was coating the windshield, or was that his imagination?

    He swallowed hard as he neared the car. Something was wrong. He shone his phone''s light on the windshield.

    "AAAH!" Yves tumbled back in surprise and fell to the ground. Blood! Blood had splattered the windshield from the inside of the car! Corey was dead. How was the car still moving?

    "Hello," said a female voice as if to answer the question in his mind.

    Yves heart, beating hard like it would burst out of his chest, abruptly ground to a stop. There was a tingling sensation as his blood drained from his hands and face. Everything felt very cold, colder than it was before. The light shook as his hand holding the phone incessantly trembled. He pointed his phone at the person walking forward from behind the car.

    "Is...is he dead?" Yves asked Blondie as she came into view. Somehow, he wasn''t surprised that she showed up.

    Her stunning beauty almost beat back the sheer terror coursing through his veins. But the blood on her clothes and arms brought him back to reality.

    She didn''t answer his question; the answer was already obvious. Yves didn''t know why he even asked it.

    The blonde woman stopped beside the passenger''s window and pulled out something from inside the car. It was a bloody shovel. Yves didn''t need to be told it was Corey''s blood on it.

    He tried to stand up and run, but his legs wouldn''t listen to him¡ªthey just spasmed beneath him without any strength as if he had an intense leg workout the day before.

    As certain death stared at him in the face, his mind cleared and everything clicked. Why did I come here?

    Even before descending the small hills, he should''ve known that this wasn''t the way to escape. In his fear-stricken mind, Yves didn''t wonder why the car was moving toward the gasoline station from the street. Enrico and the others wouldn''t have parked that far by the road just to walk all the way here.

    It was clear to him now that Corey probably saw something that scared him, and he tried to escape. But Blondie caught up with him¡ªYves had no clue how that happened¡ªand killed him. She was pushing the car back to the station, probably to hide it, when Yves saw its headlights.

    His lips and jaws trembled as he spoke, "Are...are you human? If you''re human, maybe you can¡ª" He stopped himself. That''s a stupid question. She definitely wasn''t.

    He could be dead in a few seconds, and he was the most scared he had been in all his life, but there was a wave of bravery he never thought he had in him. It calmed him down and allowed him to think more clearly.

    I¡¯m not dead yet! Maybe there was a chance he could plea for his life with this Adumbrae. He prayed in his head, Mother Core! If you''re real, please let me get out of this alive!

    Yves took a deep breath and tried again. "I-I''m sorry about...about back then at the diner. They told me to, I mean I was scared of them, so I followed them. I di-didn''t mean to offend you, I swear! And I''m really sorry!"

    The blonde woman didn''t respond to his words. Instead, she asked him, "What''s happening over there? What happened to my friend?"

    "Your friend?" She must mean the other Adumbrae, the thin girl with black hair. He decided to answer truthfully. "Um...um, she turned into a monster¡ª"

    "DON''T CALL HER A MONSTER!" She stabbed the shovel into the hood of the car.

    "I''m sorry!" With trembling arms and legs, Yves bowed down low. His phone was by his side, illuminating Blondie¡¯s legs. "I''m really sorry, I''m really, really sorry. I didn''t mean to call her that." His forehead was sticking to the ground. He closed his eyes as he continued apologizing, expecting any moment to be his last.

    "Did you see her transform?"

    "No! No, I-I didn''t! Everything was dark, and...and I only saw her again when she turned back."

    "Back?" She walked closer to him. He still had his eyes closed but he heard her footsteps.

    "Back! Back to her, um, body before, with the black hair." Yves didn''t want to mention the word ''human'', because it might offend the Adumbrae.

    "Hmm? Then that means she''s not Blanchette anymore." She sighed in relief. There was a loud noise of tearing metal. Yves guessed she pulled the shovel from the car. "That''s good...that''s good...." she muttered. "She has herself under control again."

    "I''m sorry, I''m sorry for everything," Yves repeated. "Sorry, sorry..." He clenched his fists. Should I make a run for it? No. She would catch him with her enhanced physical capabilities. On foot, he had no chance.

    "But she''s not hungry anymore?" Blondie mumbled as she paced beside him, dragging the shovel around. He flinched as it rattled on the stones. "So she doesn''t need you guys anymore."

    Yves swiftly gathered his resolve. If there''s a time for me to be brave, it should be now! He should surprise her, get in Enrico''s car, push Corey''s dead body aside, and then...then run her over.

    Yes! He was going to crash into her, then reverse back to the main road and drive away fast. She should be incapacitated enough not to chase him down as she did with Corey. First, I''m going to grab her legs and pull¡ª

    "Instead of grabbing my legs," she said, interrupting his feverish planning, "you better close your eyes, and I''ll give you a quick death."

    What did she say? Yves saw with the corner of his eye that she raised the shovel she carried. He was still bent down on the ground. Now or never! He reached for her legs.

    And the shovel head''s edge bit into the back of his skull, continuing down to roughly cut his head in half.

 5.18

    I think I got the hang of snapping necks...or not? Was there any video on the internet about this? Was I using the correct technique? I suspected that I was sort of brute-forcing it rather than doing it correctly as I had seen in movies.

    But then again, I didn''t know if it was possible to do in real life or if it was one of those things that only happened in movies. Kinda like cars always exploding when they crashed, or guns only need to be reloaded when a scene called for dramatic tension.

    These random thoughts floated around in my mind as I walked back to the store and the gas station using my phone to light the way.

    The darkness and the whistling wind were creepy¡ªwhich was weird to think. I was the monster around these parts. A dirty monster that needs to change.

    My clothes and skin were crusty due to dried blood¡ªsome were mine because Action Hero did manage to shoot me. It felt like I had a mud mask applied all over my arms and abdomen. I wanted to take a bath so bad, but we were miles from my family''s condominium in Las Vegas.

    Good thing Deen brought a large jug of water with us.

    Before we left her house, I was teasing her for her over-preparedness like we were going camping for a few days instead of going on half a day of driving. It turned out it was fortunate we had water with us. Mixing it with alcohol should be an effective way of wiping away all the blood since bathing was out of the question.

    The cool wind that was soothing and comfortable earlier now made the ickiness of the blood covering me more pronounced. Or it might just be that it was too cold with my thin torn shirt. It was the feeling of an incoming stomach ache. The small hills behind me seemed to be blasting the wind straight at me.

    Nearing the rotting store, I chased away my random musings and focused on the problems at hand: Deen, and these frat boys¡ªboth the living and the dead.

    Deen was reliable...probably?

    I hoped she restrained anyone trying to escape. It should be only Skull Tattoo Bro and that pathetic freshie left alive unless Action Hero had other friends hanging around. I''d have to think of a way to finish off the survivors that would be palatable to Deen.

    Transforming back to Blanchette might be the way to go because she viewed us as two different people.

    I was going to be very pissed if Deen was suddenly bothered by her conscience and chose to let Skull Tattoo Bro and the freshie go. Chances were slim that she''d be forgiving to them, maybe to the freshie, but she might deem death too much punishment.

    She had a strong sense of justice. An annoying trait at times, but also occasionally useful as she defined her own justice and didn¡¯t simply follow what was socially acceptable. Like she decided it was the right thing to help me, an Adumbrae, due to our friendship.

    Deen wouldn''t jeopardize our safety because of morality and pity, would she?

    As for the dead bodies, I wasn''t sure what to do with them.

    They were Eloyce University students; a bunch going missing would be newsworthy. Furthermore, some of the frat boys were related to very important people, so the police would care about if they were missing. If only they were random nobodies, then this situation wouldn''t be such a headache.

    It would be easy to find the scene of the crime. My crime.

    Let''s see...if it were me¡ªand I didn''t have any knowledge of police methods¡ªI¡¯d track the last signal of the cellphones of these boys.

    The police would most likely come upon the diner. From there, it was a simple matter of following the road. The interstate really didn''t go anywhere else other than just fucking straight through the desert. This old gasoline station was along the way. Anyone with half a brain would search this place.

    Oh well...impulsiveness.

    It wasn''t like I could turn back the time now.

    Risk? Danger? I couldn''t say I was prudent about stuff like that when I was still human.

    But now, even less so.

    It was just that...everything...everything around me, everything I had experienced since that fateful day at the Sanders Mall parking area, changed how I viewed the world.

    I had fought, and sometimes killed, several Adumbrae, from normal to building-sized. Same with BID agents, mutants, and monsters, whatever those fuckers who trashed my condo building were supposed to be. I also met a couple of Corebrings. Death had come knocking at my door more than I could count.

    Okay, I could count my near-death experiences, but they were so many times that the threat of death was becoming stale.

    If the police showed up at my condominium in Vegas, suspecting me as an accomplice for the murder of these frat boys¡ªthey''d never consider my cute and pretty face to be the actual perpetrator¡ªmy reaction would be...seriously?

    Just like how university life and careers, those normal stuff crap, were the furthest thing from my mind, I just didn''t care about the mess I made here.

    Which was bad.

    Apathy could lead to death.

    Fine. I should exert some effort cleaning this stuff up.

    "Deen and I can probably come up with something since we''re both intelligent girls," I said with an amused snort. Then I gagged as the strong smell of blood and funkiness of organs from the corpses inside the store wafted in my direction. Maybe I shouldn''t have eaten a lot at the diner.

    I stepped out from the side of the store and gazed at the gas station.

    Beyond the pumps were two vehicles¡ªthe pickup truck of the creeper troop and the car of Action Hero. I could see them somewhat because the headlights of the sports car were turned on.

    Against the lights was the silhouette of a woman. I couldn''t mistake that figure for anyone else. And her blonde hair shimmered against the headlights.

    It was Deen.

    But what was she doing? She bent down and was dragging something on the ground. It was hard to tell because of the distance and a couple of pumps obstructing my view, but I think it was a body from its form. A dead one? Must be one of these ACO guys.

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    As she pulled it up, I became more certain that it was a corpse, or at the least somebody unconscious given its limply hanging limbs as she carried it to the passenger''s side of the car. Passing by the left headlight, part of what I assumed to be the head of the body simply fucking fell off.

    Fucking shit! Deen actually killed someone!

    It wasn''t a surprise that Deen killed a human because I knew she had done it before. Or rather, I was just assuming killed some of the 2Ms'' goons that came for her the night my condo was attacked. That was a different scenario though. These guys were just innocent...well, not exactly innocent.

    But they were far from armed men wanting to kill¡ªhmm, they had guns and were going to do nasty shit to us. Not so different then. Huh, I really shouldn''t be surprised Deen killed them.

    She must''ve gotten all of them if she was moving leisurely, as leisurely as stuffing a corpse into a car could be.

    We''re partners in crime now, I happily celebrated in my head. It was one thing to hide a criminal family member or close friend¡ªmany would do that instinctively despite knowing it was wrong, especially if the criminal was an Adumbrae. It was a whole different matter to actually kill someone; that was an insanely huge leap that most people wouldn''t take, even for a loved one.

    But Deen did it for me.

    She''d surely be a very, very loyal pawn. And useful too, especially with her Guardian Angel.

    Elated with something finally going my way, I flashed my light around to see if I could find someone else Deen had killed. I wasn''t sure who was the person she decapitated, but there should be at least one more person around here.

    "Skull Tattoo Bro?" I whispered as I spotted a body lying by the entrance of the store. It had a familiar arm decorated with an ugly tattoo. "Well, well, what has Deen done to you?"

    His face was unrecognizable¡ªnot that I could recall what he looked like. His features were rearranged by a powerful blow and obscured by blood, and his ankles were bound together by chains tethering him to a wooden post of the store.

    Deen did this? She must¡¯ve been really angry with him.

    I looked over in her direction. She was pushing the red sports car with the dead body inside. Bodies. The driver''s side of the windshield was covered with something that might be blood. She still hadn''t noticed that I was already here.

    As much as I wanted to be the one to beat up this bastard who insulted me, Deen probably had more right to his life than I did. If he was still alive.

    I kicked him, but he didn''t move. I stepped on his knee¡ªit felt a bit weird like some stuff were out of place, loosely moving around¡ªand put pressure on it. Gradually, I increased the force until I heard bones crack. Still no reaction.

    Would someone unconscious wake up from pain? Someone under anesthesia wouldn''t wake up if they were cut open during surgery. Although that probably didn''t work the same way in this case.

    I shone my phone''s light on Skull Tattoo Bro''s chest to check if it was moving. But since I couldn''t really tell, I decided to kneel beside him to check. As I bent my knees, someone called out to me.

    "Erind! Erind!" Deen exclaimed as she ran around the car. "Oh my god, you''re back!" Her arms were wide open.

    I wanted to avoid the impending hug but decided to give her this moment as a congratulatory gift. Her arms wrapped around me, and she held me close like we hadn''t seen each other in years. I wasn''t sure if she''d realize she was exerting a bit of her superstrength. "Agh, Deen, you''re hugging me too tight."

    "Sorry!" She loosened her hug. "Sorry, sorry. Did I hurt you?"

    "No..." My head was bowed down, as if ashamed of what I had become.

    When my arms could wiggle a bit, I hugged her back. Not as intensely as she did, but a hug nonetheless¡ªshe should know this was a big deal coming from me. I wanted to convey that she was the only one I could rely on. Deen was the type of person who wouldn''t let anyone down, more so if they were desperately dependent on her. I should reinforce this personality of hers.

    We hugged for several seconds. To me, who disliked physical contact, it seemed like millennia.

    Fucking speak up! Come on, Deen! I raged in my head. I really wanted to break the hug, but I shouldn''t be the one to interrupt a moment like this. A vulnerable and distraught Erind, that was me. An Adumbrae had just taken over my mind, I killed and ate several people, I was battling to keep my sanity, and I had no one else to turn to.

    "Erind," Deen softly said. She stroked my hair to comfort me. "Are you, um, okay now?"

    At fucking last. I feebly nodded like I was still recovering from the whole ordeal.

    She held my shoulders and stepped back. Looking over my body, she said, "There''s blood on you. Were you hurt?"

    "They shot me...and that''s why I turned to Blanchette...my anger." That wasn''t exactly what happened, but it sounded cooler that way. I closed my eyes to seemingly push away bad memories.

    "These tears on your shirt...did they do anything to you?"

    I looked down. Right. I tore my shirt to look injured and helpless when I approached the backup frat boys. And now Deen thought that they assaulted me or something.

    ¡°No, no,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s not what happened. I tore my shirt when I transformed back to my original body. I was still struggling with the anger and rage in my mind and¡­and just sort of clawed myself as I tried to regain control.¡±

    "I see. I''m glad you have turned back. Are you still feeling anything weird?"

    "No...I don''t think so." Then with a firmer voice, I assured her. "I''m fine. I''m in control now."

    "That''s good to hear. I was so worried about you."

    "Deen, what do we do about...about all of this?" I whispered as I stared around in a bit of a panic, allowing my voice to rise in panic at the end.

    "First, let''s calm down." She patted my shoulder. Taking charge, as was the natural thing for her to do, she continued, "Let''s check if everyone is accounted for. Six people were from the pick-up truck. Three from the red car. So that''s nine in total, right? Can''t believe I''m doubting my math for something so simple."

    I weakly chuckled at her joke. "Yeah, there are nine of them I think." Action Man had one friend left by their car.

    "How many did you kill¡ª? No! Uh, I mean¡ª"

    "Deen." I looked up at met her eye. I gave her the most determined gaze I could muster, putting the facade that I was trying to be strong. "I know what I did. Don''t dance around the topic. This is my life now. I can''t keep running away from it forever."

    "Er...yeah." She faltered at my intensity.

    "If I face reality, maybe I can control myself more," I told her. "So, yes. I killed them. Even though I had transformed, I can vaguely remember what was going on. The six guys from the pick-up truck entered the store. I killed two of them. Four escaped."

    We reconstructed a timeline of events and confirmed that all nine guys were accounted for and dead. I gave her a sanitized version of what I could ''remember'' while the Adumbrae had ''taken over'' my mind. If I wasn''t wrong, Deen probably wasn''t telling me the complete side of her story either.

    "They''re all dead," Deen said. "Let''s now decide what to do with¡ª"

    "Deen, wait a bit. Is he really dead?" I pointed at Skull Tattoo Bro. According to Deen, she hit his face with the shovel because he was screaming when Action Hero and his sidekicks arrived.

    "I''m not actually sure," Deen said. "It doesn''t look like he''s still breathing."

    Yeah, he''s probably donezo, but I wanted to mess around with her a bit. "We should make sure," I said. It was easy for me to do it¡ªjust a quick stomp on his head. But I was interested in what Deen wo¡ªHoly fucking hell!

    She stomped on his chest with such force that it caved in. Several bones cracked like we were inside an ad on TV for the crunchiest chips. She removed her foot as blood soaked Skull Tattoo Bro''s shirt. Some of his fractured ribs must''ve pierced through his skin when his chest got compressed.

    "There," she said, giving me a reassuring smile. "He''s dead."

    Why the fuck did you do that? Was that supposed to make us closer by showing we were on the same boat with regards to killing people? "Ah...ye-yeah, he is," I stammered. Timid Erind face was my default since I wasn''t sure how to react to Deen. And to think I''m supposed to be the not-so-normal one between the two of us.

    "Anyway, let''s go back to deciding what to do here," she said. "I propose we burn everything."

 5.19

    Where''s the nearest fire station? I tilted my head to the right, gazing at the blaze in the distance reflected in the side mirror.

    Eventually, a passerby would report the random fire in the desert. We hadn''t seen any other cars on the road so far. If we were lucky, no one would bother calling the police or the fire department before everything burned down. If someone would call the authorities, I hoped that a firetruck would take a long time to get here in the middle of the desert.

    "Our traces would be burned before anyone can put out the fire," Deen told me, guessing what I was thinking about.

    "Ah, right..." I trailed off, pretending I had plenty of worry frolicking in my mind.

    "The only evidence left behind is the tire tracks of this car. Maybe some of our footprints too? That''s too little to lead any investigation to us, I think. There''s no need to worry."

    "You''re right," I said, slowly shaking my head as if to clear my fake troubled head. "It¡¯s just¡­okay, I''m not going to overthink about it anymore."

    Remembering what happened at the Sanders mall after we were attacked in its parking area, Deen suggested that we burn everything. She surmised that back then, our ''mysterious attacker'' had set fire to the mall to cover their tracks, and that sounded like a good idea for our situation.

    Of course, Deen still didn''t know that it was Myra who tried to kill us. But she was right about the reason that the stupid group of hero wannabes, Emcee especially, burned down the mall.

    I agreed with her plan. It wasn''t like we could hide everything here. The bodies, maybe yes. But the truck and car? Definitely no. Unless we dug a very, very deep ditch for the two vehicles or something? But that was such a fucking hassle. It was also next to impossible to wipe away all the blood stains, hairs, fingerprints, and whatever other evidence was out there.

    So, with the presumption that the police would eventually find the site of the massacre anyway, give or take a few days depending on how soon those frat boys were reported missing, might as well burn everything. The only downside was having the place discovered by the authorities earlier.

    By burning everything, I meant the vehicles, the bodies, and the store.

    Deen drove the pickup truck into the store, just crashing it through the wall. Then we worked together to push the car through the hole the truck made. There was a mangled body in the car''s driver''s seat; no way either of us was getting inside to drive it.

    I wanted to ask Deen what the fuck she did to the poor guy, but that probably wasn''t a good idea. I wouldn''t want things to get awkward between us.

    Next were the bodies by the hills.

    Deen told me to wait by her car while she collected the corpses. I wanted to go with her because it was really difficult to describe where they were located. But she adamantly told me to stay¡ªsomething about not getting traumatized further. Fucking hilarious she thought of that given everything I had gone through since I became an Adumbrae.

    If anything, it should be me who should shelter Deen from traumatic sights.

    At any rate, it cemented my belief that my best friend was super reliable and was indeed my best friend. Although there was just this nagging feeling that something wasn''t exactly right with her. She killed three people, three normal humans at that. And she didn''t really seem that bothered at all.

    Given what I knew of Deen, I''d expect her to agonize over this. Perhaps she was dealing with this issue inside her mind, sparing me all the drama? That sounded like something she¡¯d do.

    Fortunately, I didn''t do my shtick of being a rabid, hungry Adumbrae when it came to the four guys I killed by the hills. It would''ve been a huge mess dragging them back to the store if I had torn them into dozens of pieces. Deen dragged them two at a time, only having a bit of trouble with Main Character Guy, the one whom I decapitated; the rest were in sorta one piece.

    That''s why she was asking me if I wasn''t hungry anymore! It puzzled me back then since we had just eaten at the diner. I thought she wanted us to eat at another restaurant to calm my nerves down or something.

    Only now did I realize the meaning of Deen''s question. She noticed that I didn''t ''eat'' the bodies outside the store. I told her that I wasn''t hungry, and I now knew why she was so relieved by my answer.

    After Deen dumped the bodies into the back of the truck, we wiped the blood on our skin and changed our clothes. The mixture of rubbing alcohol and water did the trick. The cool minty feeling left by the rubbing alcohol made me forget the disgusting crustiness of dried blood.

    We threw our bloodied clothes and towels into the store and lit it on fire. The gasoline cans we found inside the pickup truck surely came in handy. The rotting dry wood made our work easier.

    Driving away from the large blaze was sort of like the equivalent of walking away from an explosion in movies. In all, I was very satisfied with the ending to this night.

    Night or day? Should I ask Deen about it, or would I sound stupid?

    "Have you completely healed?" Deen asked

    "Yeah," I said. "In a few seconds, my bullet wounds were already gone." She was probably just concerned with me. Typical Deen.

    "Even if we heal really fast, it''s still painful if we get injured. As your friend, naturally, I don''t want you to get hurt."

    That''s true...should I ask about her injuries too like a good friend?

    When we were changing clothes, I noticed that the blood on her shirt didn''t look like splatters. I was no forensic blood expert or whatever those crime scene investigation people were called, but I could tell she had bled. With her Guardian Angel, there was no way she would¡¯ve gotten shot.

    Unless she allowed herself to get hit.

    I didn''t inquire about it because I bet it was something stupid like her conscience and stuff. And that was fucking annoying. I remembered when we were at the Eve underground arena¡ªat that time, I was using my Blanchette body¡ªDeen forced herself to look at the people getting killed by the mutants even if it was obviously causing her distress.

    She probably let herself get shot as penance for killing some of those frat boys back there. Well, if that''s her thing, I won''t judge her stupidity.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    "Just forget about everything here, okay?" Deen softly said.

    I meekly nodded. The fire disappeared on the horizon.

    "Look, the sun is starting to show up." She nodded ahead. There was a hint of light in the sky. "It''s been a long night."

    So, it really is considered night, I thought. And then the day would begin when there was light. Another random question was answered; this might be a sign of good things to come. "Yeah, really a long night. And we still have probably an hour until we reach Vegas."

    "Maybe an hour and a half."

    I groaned. "I really want a hot bath and then have a nice long sleep."

    "You should take a nap for now. I''ll wake you up when we''re in Vegas."

    "But what about my turn to drive? That was our agreement when we left La Esperanza, right? We take turns? I should drive¡ª"

    "No, no, it''s fine," Deen said. "You need some rest. And I''m not sleeping."

    "Um, just a thirty-minute nap then," I said as I took off my glasses. I wore them while we were searching the sand for stuff that we might''ve missed like cellphones and other items that the ACO guys could''ve dropped. I placed my glasses in the glove compartment and shut my eyes. "I''m going to take over later."

    "Sure," she replied. "We might be somewhere near civilization by then," she added with a chuckle.

    I breathed a contented sigh as I slumped in my seat.

    Overall, it was a fun new experience. Well, I had experienced a ton of new stuff since that stupid day I met Myra''s Adumbrae sister. But I didn''t mean that kind of new.

    I was referring to a new face I wore¡ªthe face of a normal girl who turned out to be an Adumbrae. It was such an exciting face.

    However, I still wasn''t certain of the interaction of my Rules. Wearing the face of an Adumbrae, I was expected to be an evil monster, killing people and that kind of stuff¡ªRule #7: Don¡¯t do anything that would break the character of the face I have on. But how should I act in relation to Rule #4: I wouldn¡¯t bother the world if it wouldn¡¯t bother me?

    Those two Rules seemingly clashed with each other when it came to my girl-secretly-an-Adumbrae face. Good thing those jackasses earlier had bothered me first, so any conflict was averted. But I should settle this problem for the next time I wore that face.

    I had lots of fun with it that I might try it out again someday...

    <hr>

    "Wha-what''s going on?" I grumbled. My voice was hoarse from having just woken up. The incessant honking of horns made my head hurt. I blinked away the sleepiness from my eyes as I stared outside.

    Cars, buildings. Lots of cars, and lots of buildings rising way up in the sky. Attached to these buildings were dozens and dozens of screens displaying brightly colored ads. They sold products ranging from the latest phones to the most advanced bioaugmentronics. Services were also shown like limbs extension and replacing organs with mechanical ones.

    It was like the buildings were trees in a concrete jungle and the screens were the canopy.

    "Oh, you''re awake?" Deen said. "It was the noises from the traffic, huh? Anyway, welcome to Las Vegas, the bioaugmentronics center of America!¡±

    "We''re in Vegas already?" I said. The drone flying above our car, projecting a commercial about a cleaning robot, was enough to tell me where we were. Most cities wouldn''t allow anyone to fly drones over main roads, but here, everyone with a permit could do it¡ªand they gave almost everyone a permit. It was such a crazy place.

    ¡°And we''re just in time to catch the start of the early morning rush.¡±

    "Hey, you didn''t wake me up!"

    "You said you were going to take a thirty-minute nap. And then it became an hour and a half. Was I supposed to wake you up?"

    "Yeah. I was supposed to take over driving from you."

    "You were having such a good sleep, I didn''t want to interrupt you."

    "Um...thanks. I did have a good sleep."

    "So, where are we going?" Deen asked. "I remember you mentioned the name of the condo building was ''Premier Highlofts''. But when I checked the map, there are four of them, One Premier Highloft, Two Premier, and so on. One and Two are on the same, but the last two are in different addresses."

    "Let''s switch seats," I said.

    "Huh?"

    "I''m going to drive there."

    "No, just tell me where to go."

    "Oh, come on. Switch seats with me," I insisted. I squeezed myself between the two front seats to get into the back of the car. "The traffic''s not moving."

    "Whatever," Deen said. But she did transfer to the passenger''s seat.

    I climbed back to the front and plopped my butt on the driver''s seat. "You''re supposed to be my guest here, so I''m the one who should drive and show you around town."

    <hr>

    "This looks pretty nice," Deen said as we entered the main lobby of the condominium building.

    Nothing had changed since the last I''d been here, but it wasn''t like I was gone for a long time. Last December, Mom and I stayed here during Christmas. And that was like only two months ago.

    I wasn''t sure if this lobby was bigger than my condo at La Esperanza¡ªif one was going to be technical about it, this place was indeed bigger due to the fact that my other condo had burned down. This place looked a bit newer though. But that was probably because it was brighter, with all the off-white tiles, the massive chandeliers that were turned on even during the daytime, and the lofty floor-to-ceiling windows lining the facade.

    There were also more plants here. Palms bigger than me were inside ceramic pots so large they could be cauldrons for witches. Each pot had a unique tribal-looking carving.

    "Yes, it is nice," I said.

    "Do you have an ID or something?" said Deen. "How do we get into your room?"

    "Mom called them in advance. They know I lost my ID and keys. Plus, they know what I look like anyway."

    "Awesome!" she cheerily said. She pulled her luggage and walked ahead. "Let''s go. I''m excited to see your room. This is the first time¡ª"

    A loud crash made us turn to our right. A person wearing a hoodie had walked into one of the potted palms, probably distracted by something. He hugged the pot to steady it and moved it back into place. Then he briskly headed to the front door and exited the building.

    I bet he was staring at Deen, I thought with a smirk. That was the reason he quickly left in embarrassment. "What were you saying, Deen? First time doing what?"

    "First time having a sleepover at a friend''s house," she said with a huge smile. "I mean, I''m not really sleeping over at your place. More like actually staying here for some time. But I''d like to think that it''s a sleepover."

    "Are you really serious that you haven''t been to a sleepover before? You haven''t been invited to one? You''re like a queen bee. Everyone should be honored to have you over."

    "I do have sleepovers at my house," said Deen. I noticed she didn''t try to refute that she was a queen bee. "But my parents won''t let me go to a friend¡¯s house.¡±

    Ugh, her parents. I seriously didn''t care whatever family issues she had. "I guess for the first night at my place, you can sort of think of it like a sleepover. It¡¯s going to be fun."

    Cue in generic pop music blaring to a wide camera shot of the building. Then it¡¯d slowly zoom out to the whole bustling city, kicking off a movie about two girls partying in Las Vegas, ending in them finding their true selves.

    I wasn¡¯t a fan of coming-of-age movies¡ªDeen and I were more than two decades old; we had come of age a long time ago. But after a horror movie escapade in the desert, with me starring as the monster, I was hoping for something more relaxed.

    I¡¯m jinxing myself, aren¡¯t I?

 5.20

    "So, you won''t be getting the security deposit of your leased condo back?" Mom sternly asked on the phone.

    "Um, I haven''t asked them yet, Mom," I replied. The truth of it was I hadn''t even thought of stuff like my lease contract, the security deposit, unpaid utility bills, all those things connected to my destroyed condo unit.

    It had been hectic lately with all the fighting and killing that those things just slipped my mind. I''d think most people would agree that an Adumbrae Titan was a more pressing matter than a security deposit. Obviously, I couldn''t tell Mom that.

    Barely ten minutes had passed from the time Deen and I entered my family''s condo unit when Mom called. The two of us were lounging by the living room, watching the news for any possible breaking news about the murders we had committed when my phone rang. Mom was about to board her flight in fifteen minutes and wanted to check up on me.

    "Well, you should ask them for your deposit, dear," said Mom.

    "I will when I have the time," I replied. Which is probably never. I didn''t even know how to contact the lessors. I couldn''t remember their number, and my phone with my contact list was gone in the burnt ruins of the condominium building. I might have emailed them before; I had to check my accounts for that. "It''s just kind of awkward to ask them about it. I mean their property is destroyed and all that, so I feel bad asking."

    "Money is money, Erind sweetie. You should be more assertive about things like these. That''s two months of rent you should claim. And they should have insurance to cover property damage due to Adumbrae attacks. What does the law say about those? That they''re not acts of God? Or acts of the devil, as your Aunt Jenna would say."

    "Adumbrae attacks are still considered fortuitous events, Mom. They''re usually not covered by insurance. There are special insurance contracts for Adumbrae-related events, but those have a high premium so most people don''t get those. Like nobody was expecting that Adumbrae would show up at La Esperanza." I also wasn''t expecting to get turned into one, I wanted to add.

    How would Mom react if she discovered I was no longer human? That I was an Adumbrae who had killed many people? What would Dad think if he was still alive? If my suspicion was correct that Dad was taken by the Corebrings to work for them, then it''d be insane if he found out his daughter to be the enemy of humanity.

    Mom tutted. "If they''re responsible owners they should''ve taken out insurance that included Adumbrae attacks even if it''s more expensive. And whatever type of insurance they have, you''re still entitled to your security deposit because your lease contract was terminated because...because..."

    "Because the place was destroyed?"

    "Yes, dear. That reminds me. We should go find you a new place to stay when you eventually move back to La Esperanza. I hope the BID do their job well and clear that city of Adumbrae. Cheryl gave me a list of places you could pick from. I want you to have a nice and secure place when you return to Eloyce University."

    If I won''t go into hiding, I thought. There were too many possible threats that wouldn¡¯t poof away. The BID, the 2Ms, the organization behind Dario, maybe the Corebrings wanted to hunt me someday too. "Sure, Mom," was all I could say. Now that I was talking to Mom, I wasn''t so sure anymore that I could easily leave and forget about her. To put an end to our conversation, I said, "Isn''t it time for you to board your plane?"

    "In a couple of minutes, dear. Thank goodness my flight wasn''t delayed. Or worse, canceled."

    "Deen and I will pick you up at the airport. But I think we''ll get some sleep for now since we haven''t had any yet."

    "Okay then, get some rest. I''m so excited to see you later, Erind sweetie. And also your friend, Deen. I''ve brought you two gifts from Switzerland and also some things I bought here at the airport. Bye, bye. Love you, dear."

    "Okay, Mom. Goodbye." I paused for a few seconds "I love you too." I added.

    I stared at the phone''s screen for a few seconds. Wearing the face of a dutiful daughter wasn¡¯t too bad. Perhaps it''d be nice to do something normal after the craziness of the past few...hmm. Actually, since I became an Adumbrae, everything had been crazy.

    Deen was curled up on the sofa chair on the other side of the coffee table. She had her eyes closed, probably trying to sleep or maybe pretending to sleep so she wouldn''t seem to be eavesdropping on my call. She opened her eyes after hearing me say ''goodbye'' to Mom and raised her brow at me.

    "Mom is at the Singapore airport," I told her. "She says her flight will arrive here around ten in the evening."

    "Oh, it''s going to be fun to fetch her from the airport," Deen excitedly said as she sat straight up.

    "Fun?"

    "Aren''t you happy to meet your Mom again? And I also want to meet her."

    "Oh, that''s what you mean. Yeah, I guess it''s going to be fun."

    "Are you worried?" Deen softly asked.

    "About what?"

    "About your Mom finding out that, um...like what happened to you? That you''re not human?"

    "That I''m an Adumbrae?" I said. Deen nodded. "No beating around the bush between the two of us, remember? Just say it straight. And to answer your question, yes, I''m worried about Mom knowing that I''m an Adumbrae. I think any daughter wouldn''t want their mother to know that they became a monster."

    Deen quickly responded with a passion, "No! You''re not a mons¡ª"

    "But I am!" I shouted her down. Her eyes were wide open, shocked by my uncharacteristic outburst. I closed my eyes and shook my head like I was having internal turmoil. Somehow, talking to Mom and pretending to be normal made me crave some drama. "Sorry, Deen. I shouldn''t have yelled. It''s just...it''s just that there''s no point fooling myself. After what I did to those guys at that gasoline station, I can''t be anything else other than a monster." Wow, award-winning line, right there. Give me a nomination for Best Actress already.

    Deen got up from her chair and knelt beside my leg. She held my hand on my lap. I flinched but didn''t pull away. After all, I was supposed to be distraught, and I''d naturally be open to the only person I could rely on¡ªthat was Deen''s view of the situation anyway.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    "Erind, no matter what you are," she said, ¡°I''ll be here for you."

    "I feel like we''ve had this conversation several times already," I said with a weak smile. "How about we don''t talk about stuff like this anymore? No sugar-coating stuff, no more hesitation, and all that? I''m going to accept who I am."

    "And I''ll be by your side no matter what happens. Don''t forget that." Deen patted my hand before returning to her chair. "What else did you talk about with your Mom?" she said, probably trying to steer the conversation to something normal. "It seemed like a long call."

    "A bunch of stuff," I replied. "And she just really misses me."

    Then I told Deen that Mom lectured me about the dangers of driving at night, like accidents and dangerous men. We had a good laugh about the ''dangerous men'' part. It was awkward at first, and in really, really, really bad taste, but we eventually viewed the whole incident with those frat boys as a joke.

    I couldn''t tell if Deen was pretending to find it funny because I was also pretending to find it funny or if she genuinely thought it was. For all I knew, she assumed I was slowly turning evil due to the Adumbrae inside me and decided now wasn''t the time to try to change me. And so, she was just going with the flow to avoid any conflict between us.

    But I also wouldn''t be surprised if she was becoming bloodthirsty given how mercilessly and violently she killed those guys. I was shocked when she finished off Skull Tattoo Bro with no hesitation, pressing down his rib cage with her foot. Did Deen have this scary side to her all along?

    We chatted about all sorts of random things while watching the news. There was nothing about missing assholes, nothing about mysterious fires in the desert, nothing about suspected Adumbrae. Eventually, we just drifted off to sleep in the living room.

    <hr>

    I opened my eyes to a dimly lit room. The TV was turned off and the only source of light was the sun''s rays peeking through a small gap between the heavy blinds covering the windows.

    "Huh, why do I have this on me?" I muttered. I was lying on the sofa with a blanket over me.

    Turning to my left side, I saw that Deen was still curled up on the sofa chair with a blanket also covering her. She must''ve rummaged the cabinets to find blankets for both of us because I didn''t give her any¡ªI was such an awful host. And she also covered me, such a nice friend.

    My phone''s clock told me it was almost ten. That meant we slept like babies for four hours.

    I do feel fucking refreshed, I thought as I stretched my arms out. And also hungry. Not for humans, as Deen would probably think. I was in the mood for something sweet, maybe a cake or frosted donut.

    If I wasn''t mistaken, there was a caf¨¦ or a bakery nearby. Mom and I had bought a cake there before when it had just opened. Hopefully, they continued their business. I did like the stuff they sold.

    "Deen..." I quietly called to her, not really intending to wake her up. "I''m just going out to buy food."

    She didn''t stir.

    Was her Guardian Angel also asleep or how did their whole thing work? Would it wake her up if there was danger? I was tempted to try to punch sleeping Deen to test her powers. But then I relented because I was supposed to be nice to my first ally. She did cover me with a blanket.

    "I don''t think we have any food here," I said as I stood up. The pantry should be empty, and so was the freezer. Mom wasn''t living here, and neither was I, so we didn''t stock the place. I''d buy Deen some proper food, and then maybe we could go do some grocery shopping before Mom arrived.

    <hr>

    As I walked across the lobby, I noticed a couple of janitors struggling to move one of the potted palms in line with the others. I didn¡¯t realize it was that heavy. That hoodie guy ogling Deen earlier bumped into it.

    It must''ve been my imagination that he moved it. Could also be that some of them were just not that heavy.

    I walked out into the busy and gratingly noisy street outside. After about five minutes of circling, I managed to find the store I was looking for. ''Divergent Boulangerie'' was its name. It was a caf¨¦ selling baked goods. I could also get coffee for Deen and tea for me to perk us up.

    "Wow, there''s a lot of people here," I mumbled as I stepped through the black-tinted glass door with a fancy coffee cup and croissant decal.

    It was a small store with a long wooden table by its window overlooking the street and four circular tables in the middle. All the seats were occupied and there was a long line to the cashier. There was also a bunch of people in front of the display cases, choosing their orders. This must mean that they served excellent food and drinks here.

    But I hated crowds, so I was out of here. Adios, people packed like sardines!

    I turned around to exit the door just when someone was entering.

    A woman was rushing to get inside, and we were about to crash. This bitch apparently didn''t notice I was by the door because of the tinted glass. At the last second, I had the presence of mind to relax my body. If I tensed myself and resisted the force as we slammed into each other, she would''ve been hurt for sure.

    "Oh my god!" she exclaimed as she hit me.

    Since she was taller and bigger, I decided that I should fall on my ass. "Ouch! That hurt," I said. The people lining at the cashier looked at me. My debut performance in Las Vegas. I finally made it to the big stage, I dryly thought to myself.

    "I''m so sorry!" the woman exclaimed as she extended her hand to me. "Are you hurt? I didn''t see you."

    I hope so, I mentally vented as I accepted her hand. It would be worse if she saw me and still bumped into me, I sarcastically wanted to tell her. I was hungry and not in the mood for social interaction, yet she forced me into this situation.

    I even had to fall.

    But all I said was, "It''s okay. My butt just stings a bit." I smiled at her to show I was being humorous.

    "I''m really, really sorry," she said as she pulled me up. She had long black hair¡ªeven blacker than mine, and it was straight in contrast to my natural waves¡ªand South Asian features. "If there''s anything I can do to make it up to you."

    "I''m fine," I said, dusting off my behind more to remind her about her mistake rather than my shorts being dirty. "You don''t need to do anything. It was just an accident."

    If this was a romantic comedy movie, I would''ve bumped into a guy. I wasn''t too sure how those went since I rarely watched them. The last time I did was during a movie party in college I had to attend because of societal obligations. Even this cafe was the perfect setting for a destined movie encounter, right down to her offering to make it up to me.

    "I insist," she said. "I can get you a coffee."

    Are we getting filmed here? It was just one cliche after the next. "I was just about to leave," I said. "The line is too long. Thanks for the offer though." I hurriedly exited the store before she could reply. Okay, time to find food and¡ª

    "Excuse me!" It was that woman again, and she followed me. It was going to look weird if I ran away after seeing her, so I waited for her to catch up. "You''re right. The line is long and I''m already hungry. I know a place with also good food, but fewer people. I can treat you there as an apology."

    "You don''t really have to," I said. What was wrong with this person?

    "My name is Imani, by the way," she said. "I don''t think I''ve introduced myself. Come, the other store is just a block away."

    I don''t care and don''t want to know who you are, I grumbled in my head. "My name is Erind," I said, wearing the face of a polite average girl one''d find on a warm day in Las Vegas. "Okay, I''ll follow you." I''d just accept her offer to not go against my generic face and then go back to the hotel and finally eat in peace.

    Oh, wait! Deen is there. So not in peace. Urgh.

 5.21

    "Sorry for the wait, Erind," Imani told me as she returned, putting away her phone in her purse. "I just had to take a call from work. Busy, busy, busy," she added, tilting her head back and forth.

    "I can understand." I gave her a sympathetic grin.

    We didn''t walk that far. Three busy blocks from Divergent Boulangerie, we entered an alley to find a small caf¨¦ hidden at the end of it. Just a hole-in-the-wall store that turned out to be pretty chic.

    Before I saw our destination, I half-expected that Imani¡ªI like her name¡ªwas going to pull out a knife or a gun to rob me. Or maybe she was going to scam me or something in a dark backstreet. I even imagined that she might be leading me to a group of criminals who kidnapped pretty girls like me, cough, cough, for their human trafficking business. Las Vegas was prosperous and an extremely modern city, but I had heard of many criminal syndicates operating here.

    But no, it turned out that Imani didn''t have any nefarious plans and was telling the truth about treating me to coffee. And pastries too.

    Getting kidnapped and having the opportunity to freely snap necks without the constraints of Rule #4, probably even trying on my girl-is-actually-an-Adumbrae face again, sounded fun. But free food and drinks were a close second. Actually, I preferred food right now because I was hungry.

    Imani examined the tray I held. "Have you already picked out what you want to buy?"

    "Um, I have," I said. This place, while tiny, had a pretty good selection of bread and pastries. It was tempting to fill the tray with tons of food that''d cost Imana a lot to get back at her for bothering me, but that wasn''t for the average random girl face I had on. After thinking it over, I simply settled for about twenty dollars worth of food, a cup of tea for me, and coffee for Deen. I''m such a good friend for not forgetting about her. "Really, a big thanks for this," I told Imani.

    "Just making up for bumping into you." She held up her finger. "If you''re going to say that I don''t need to do this, then you can just think of it as the famous Las Vegas hospitality on display."

    Las Vegas hospitality? I wasn''t sure if that was an actual thing.

    I had seen a friendliness ranking of all the states before; it was a yearly list if I wasn''t mistaken. Nevada was nowhere at the top of that list. It wasn''t in the middle either. And among the cities in this state, I wouldn''t bet that Las Vegas would be voted to have the most hospitable people.

    Apparently, Imani was an exception. It seemed that the fast-paced and assertive lifestyle required to thrive in this city, plus the different valuation of humanity with the backdrop of aggressive augmentations prevalent here, hadn''t warped her personality.

    Wow, the value of humanity¡ªthat was rich coming from me.

    While we were waiting for my order to get wrapped for takeout, we continued our chat from when we were walking. Imani said, "I know the Tech Fair is a big thing here, but I haven''t been there. What''s the point of seeing the latest and fashionable augs if I don''t have the money for them, am I right?"

    "Definitely," I politely replied before joining her in laughing.

    I gave the fake story that I was in the city for the Tech Fair, stealing it from the dead frat boys. It sounded believable and already came neatly packaged, so I decided to go with it instead of cooking up something new.

    On our way here, Imani endlessly blabbed about her life, her work, her boyfriend, her mom, her dog, her rent, just a lot of crap I didn''t care about. It was a bit unsettling that she would share those things with a complete stranger. But then again, my appearance probably helped her feel at ease¡ªI was short, petite, had an innocent face, and a soft voice. I also told her I was from out of town; that probably helped her become more open to me.

    In return, and to not look like an antisocial bitch, I decided to tell her the fake Tech Fair story¡ªwhich might eventually turn out to be true. I realized only just now Mom might want to attend it. And she¡¯d probably pull me and Deen along with her. Anyway, to make my tale to Imani complete, I added that I was here with a friend who was interested in augmentation.

    "Did your friend force you to go to the Tech Fair?" Imana said.

    "Not really forced. I admit bioaugmentronics or any enhancements aren''t really my thing, but she promised we''d go visit other places afterward."

    "That does sound like a good escape from La Esperanza," she said. I did tell her where we were from. "It was my dream to find a job and transfer over there because it''s a much more chill place than Vegas. But given what''s happening there..." She made a face and shook her head.

    "I get you," I said. "That''s part of the reason I agreed with my friend to come here. I hope everything is safe again by the time we return."

    "In the meantime," Imana excitedly said, "Do enjoy your stay here. There''s a lot more to Vegas than augs and technology. For example, you can check out the Natural History Museum downtown." Then she listed off tourist attractions in the city; some of these I had already visited with Mom. She was also upfront that there were some parts of the city that I should avoid, especially since these past couple of weeks there was a rise in crimes.

    I simply nodded while flicking my eyes to the counter to see if they had finished packing my food. This was plenty enough social interaction for the day. My batteries were going to run low and I wouldn''t have any opportunity to recharge with Mom and Deen around.

    "Where are you staying in the city?" Imani asked. "I can accompany you there if it''s not too far."

    And here was the scam. Or was she just being friendly? I wasn''t really used to Las Vegans being friendly. I might also be assuming the worst in people like I usually did. "I can walk there by myself," I said, dodging her question. "Isn''t this area safe?"

    "It normally is safe in these parts, but you never know if the Tea Party expands its operations here. Gang wars, stuff like that, you know?"

    "Tea Party?" What a weirdass name for criminals. I wondered what the actual name of the 2Ms'' organization was? Didn''t Stella mention that they had connections in Vegas? I even pretended to be hired by their counterpart in this city.

    "They''re one of the tech gangs," Imani explained. "A syndicate involved in illegal augmentations and enhancements. A really huge business. Of course, they do have a lot of smaller rackets, and wherever they extend their tentacles, all sorts of unsavory people appear. I heard someone was arrested here last week who might be connected to them."

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    "I''ll keep an eye out for trouble." Then I timidly pointed at the counter. "Looks like they''re done.¡± The cashier gave me a large paper bag and that cardboard cupholder thingy for the drinks.

    "You don''t want to drink here and¡ª" Imani started to say. She turned left and right, and instead said, "No seats. Oh well, everywhere¡¯s full around this time anyway. I''ll walk with you out."

    She accompanied me through the alley and back to the busy street. Then we parted ways. She told me she had to get back to her work at this or that place¡ªI didn''t really care what she was going to do.

    This made my trip longer than it should be, I thought as I stared at Imana''s back as she walked away. She was on her phone again.

    "Oh, that''s right," I said, checking my own phone. If Deen woke up without seeing me, she might panic and assume the worst. I forgot to leave her a note that I went out. But even if I did, she''d probably still overreact anyway that I was out of her sight.

    I had no text messages or missed calls, which meant she was still asleep.

    I set a reminder to pick up Mom at the airport later. We should leave two hours before then to have plenty of time to wade through the bullshit Vegas traffic even at around ten in the evening. Every hour was rush hour.

    Next, I checked a map on the internet. "This is the right direction, isn''t it?" I mumbled to myself.

    The sounds of heavy footsteps, slightly discernible over the noises of the crowd, made me look up. Someone went past me, jostling me to the side. A tall man wearing a jacket and a cap pulled low. I regained my balance, automatically apologizing to the middle-aged woman in corporate attire that I bumped into.

    A tall blur disappeared into the throng of people up ahead. I stared at him with a frown. Then I looked down at my hand which felt a bit lighter.

    My phone was gone.

    Did I just get robbed? For a split second, I thought of shrilly shrieking for help.

    But I doubted any of these people around me would help catch the thief. Not sure how effective the Las Vegas police were, but I didn''t want to wait and find out. I also didn''t want the hassle of filing a complaint and that shit. And the chance was slim I¡¯d be able to recover my phone if I let the guy go now.

    Deen bought that phone for me; I should personally retrieve it¡ªand that was my excuse for dealing some vigilante justice. For the record, this wasn¡¯t what was taught in law school. Quite the opposite actually.

    "Someone is asking to die,¡± I said, setting down the drinks on the sidewalk. Then I bolted after the fucker who dared bother me and forced me to leave behind my tea and Deen''s coffee.

    ¡°Hey, you left your¡­¡± someone called after me, but I ignored him.

    I easily slipped between the herd of people, keeping my eyes on the disturbance up ahead as the thief shoved people aside to escape. He turned down an alleyway free of people, and I followed him. He looked over his shoulder and saw me. He pushed down the trashcans he passed to slow me down before increasing his speed.

    Is this guy a racetrack runner or what? He was incredibly fast. He might have had leg augments.

    Not that I had any problem keeping up. But I just couldn''t catch him. Should I transform to Blanchette and finish this shit, so I can eat? The stuff in my paper bag were already squished!

    "Stop! Thief!" I originally didn''t want to draw attention to myself by yelling for help. The fewer people who noticed me, the fewer potential witnesses if ever I''d be forced to use my Adumbrae powers.

    But there were no people here. And I wanted him to know I was alone so he''d stop.

    My plan worked. The bastard pulled out a switchblade and spun around to face me. "Don''t make me hurt you," he said, his voice muffled by a bandana covering the lower half of his face. He threateningly waved his blade. "Your life isn''t¡ªurgh!"

    I didn''t stop running and threw my fist at his stomach, remembering Deen''s martial arts practice a couple of days ago. I did use a bit of super strength, but not so much that my fist would go right through his body. Walking back to the condo splattered in blood would be a tad too noticeable.

    But it seemed I held back too much because the bastard was up again. My phone was still in his hand.

    Oh, fuck, I mentally groaned as I continued the chase. He ran out of the network of alleyways into a wide sidewalk with food trucks. People lining up to buy lunch were surprised at our sudden appearance.

    "Watch it!"

    "The hell? Don''t touch my food!"

    The asshole grabbed the food tray of someone who had just ordered at a taco stand and threw it at me. I ducked. The tacos hit a couple of guys in suits talking to each other. The thief then grabbed a woman and shoved her towards me. She fell to the ground. I jumped over her and followed the thief into the traffic.

    We played who''ll-get-runover as we crossed the street. Horns blared and tires screeched as cars tried their best to avoid us.

    "Erind!" someone called to me as I reached the other side of the road. "What are you¡ª?" Up ahead, Imani was about to enter a building.

    She didn''t finish her sentence and stopped waving at me when she noticed something wasn''t right. She looked at me with wide eyes, and then at the guy who ran past her. There was a flicker of understanding on her face.

    She extended her hand and something shot out of it, straight to the back of the thief. His body became rigid, and he dropped to the ground like a plank.

    "Sto-stole my phone," I pretended to pant as I slowed down. "That guy stole my phone."

    "Oh my gosh," Imana said, bringing her hand that shot the thief up to her mouth. Her index finger had opened up with a string sticking out that connected to the asshole''s twitching body. An augment? It reminded me of Pino''s power.

    "I-I chased him," I said. He must''ve gone around in circles trying to lose me because we somehow ended up where Imani was headed to. And she couldn''t have gone far from the caf¨¦ where we bought my food from. Food that was now pancaked inside a crumpled paper bag.

    She looked down at the guy twitching a bit on the concrete. He had let go of my phone. "Is this yours?" She picked it up and handed it to me.

    "Ye-yes," I said. "Thanks for the help. I don''t think I would''ve¡ª" Imani pushed me back and shielded me with her body.

    The guy had taken out a syringe from his jacket and jabbed it into his leg. With a trembling arm, he grabbed the projectiles Imani buried in his back and pulled them away. He got up, still shaky on his legs, and wobbled away.

    "Don''t chase him, Erind," she said, stopping me from going forward. "You shouldn''t have been chasing him in the first place. Why didn''t you just call the police?"

    "I didn''t want to lose my phone," I stubbornly replied.

    "I understand," she said. "But it''s still quite dangerous. You were lucky I was here to help you."

    "Tha-thanks for the help," I said, continuing to pretend I was trying to catch my breath. "Is that an augment?" I asked, pointing at her hand. Of course, it was, I berated myself. That was such a stupid question. The last time I checked, babies weren''t born with a built-in stun gun.

    "This?" she said, raising her hand. Now that I had a closer look, I noticed that it was a bit shiny and had the texture normal flesh shouldn''t have. "I had an accident before...and lost my hand. I replaced it with this."

    "Ah, I see..." Would it be offensive if I said that she now had nifty storage for hidden weapons?

    "I''ll accompany you to your condo," she said, breaking the awkward silence.

    This time, I relented and agreed with her offer. "Okay," I said. "Super thank you for taking the time to help me." The face I had on should be shaken with the whole ordeal. It was natural that I''d want her along for protection until I returned to safety. Wait, did I tell her I live in a condo?

 5.22

    "Is that her?" Deen energetically pointed at a black-haired, middle-aged woman pulling a large pink suitcase. "Is she your mom?"

    We arrived at the airport after a grueling two-hour drive through the bullshit that was Las Vegas traffic.

    It would''ve been fine if it was just regular heavy traffic¡ªplenty of those in La Esperanza and all other huge cities¡ªbut it was a whole another experience here. Driving through downtown was an assault on the senses, with advertisements and bright lights bombarding us. The tinted windows of Deen''s car barely offered any protection. This whole city was one big epileptic seizure warning.

    "Nope, wrong guess," I answered. It was almost embarrassing to be beside Deen because she was acting like an overexcited kid at the zoo pointing at animals, drawing unnecessary attention to us.

    But then again, Deen could do anything she wanted and it wouldn''t count as embarrassing. She¡¯d also always become the center of attention even if she stood still. Covering her head with a paper bag would be less conspicuous.

    ¡°Oh, she¡¯s not?¡± Her hand limply fell, disappointed at her mistake. The woman she was pointing at was thin and short like me; I could see why she¡¯d assume we were related. ¡°Can you give me any clue what I should be looking for?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t want to,¡± I said shaking my head.

    ¡°Just one!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s going to make it too easy to guess if I did.¡±

    Deen narrowed her eyes. ¡°Then that means she¡¯s easily recognizable if one clue could give it away. So I was right that she looks like you.¡±

    I didn''t tell her what my Mom looked like, turning it into a game. This was a stroke of genius on my part¡ªa ploy to distract Deen from discussing not seeing her own mother for quite some time. I''d rather not open that can of worms.

    Or any can of worms at all.

    Worms didn''t gross me¡ªI dissected a ton of them as a kid, much to the annoyance of Mom. But I knew that I, a timid young woman, was supposed to be revolted by them.

    And so, it was better not to encounter them because I couldn''t be assed to put on a hysterically disgusted face in front of my old toys. Wait, how were worms connected to Deen''s mom again?

    Random thoughts floating in my head.

    Oh yeah, there was another reason I was playing this guessing game with Deen.

    I wondered what her reaction would be when she''d finally see my mother. Never in a million years she''d correctly guess¡ªokay, a million years was too much. She could just point to all the people here at the airport in that timeframe. But realistically speaking, I didn¡¯t believe Deen could correctly guess who my mother was from the arriving passengers.

    "Hmm, let''s see," Deen said, twirling her finger in front of the glass window like she was about to cast a magic spell. People disembarking from the planes entered the airport and passed below us. We watched them from the viewing deck above. "Who could your Mom be?"

    "She''s probably still waiting for her luggage or something," I said, checking the display above us. Her flight had just arrived about five minutes ago. "I''m not even sure if her plane had already started unloading people or if it¡¯s still up there.¡±

    Earlier, we saw a long line of planes on the runway, waiting for their turn to take off. I bet there were also planes flying above, having already arrived several minutes ago, but couldn''t land yet because of the heavy air traffic.

    This airport was incredibly fucking busy. Busier. Way busier than it should be at this time of the year.

    That was saying something because McCarran International Airport was already super congested compared to our airport back at La Esperanza on a normal day. Las Vegas, being the prime technological hub of the world when it came to bioaugmentronics naturally would have bazillions of people flying in and out every hour. Not to mention that it was the Greaves Tech Fair this week.

    But it was even busier than previous years during Tech Fair week¡ªI had attended the Fair a few times with Mom, so I should know¡ªfor one reason.

    The Adumbrae attacks at La Esperanza caused the cancellation or rerouting of many flights there as the BID tightened restrictions and tests on the people entering and leaving the city. Similar to Mom''s case, many people instead chose to fly to Vegas, the nearest major airport.

    The inside of the airport looked like a mall during a mega sale. It was probably more packed than that. If someone showed me a video of the throngs of people here and told me it was the Rose Bowl, I''d believe them.

    In a way, it was lucky to have Deen with me because she projected an aura around her that deflected people from coming too close to us. I wasn''t sure if they were intimidated by her or thought she was an actress or what, but it was nice to have a sort of bubble around us while wading through the crowds.

    The downside was that several people were discreetly, or sometimes not so discreetly, taking pictures of us¡ªor of Deen rather; I wasn''t sure if they even noticed me.

    "You''re probably right," Deen conceded, also checking the display of the flights. Mom''s plane wasn''t assigned a gate yet for disembarkation. "But I''ll remain vigilant and watch out for anyone who looks like an older you."

    "You''re more excited to see my Mom than me," I observed, chuckling at her behavior.

    "She sounds like a nice person and I want to meet her," Deen said. "Why aren''t you also excited?"

    "Um, we were here last December for the holidays. It was just a couple of months ago."

    "Don''t you miss her?"

    "Of course, I do. But I''m a strong independent woman trying to find her destiny in the big city," I said, grinning at her. "Cue in pop music to start the romantic comedy movie." Both of us giggled.

    "Romantic comedy?" Deen said. "Does that mean you''re going to find yourself a guy here?"

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    "No," I snorted at her. "I was just referencing romcom movies as a joke." I was reminded of my meeting with Imani this morning. It was clich¨¦ after clich¨¦, from bumping into each other to stopping the thief that stole my phone.

    Everything was too convenient, almost to the point of feeling that it was all arranged. Or am I just being paranoid?

    I didn''t tell Deen about Imani. Furthermore, I also lied about going out of the condo, giving the fake story that I ordered the food through my phone¡ªit was the delivery guy''s fault that the bread got squished.

    What would my best friend''s reaction be if she knew about my encounter with Imani? She''d probably raise hell if she heard that I was almost robbed. Technically, the robber¡ªor thief? I needed to check my notes on Criminal Law¡ªsuccessfully took my phone, even if I retrieved it afterward, so it shouldn''t be considered a mere attempted robbery but a completed crime.

    Before I became an Adumbrae, I wouldn''t have thought much about what happened¡ªa coincidence, as with so many other things in life. Imani probably had a lucky guess that I lived in a condo. She knew that my friend and I were visiting Vegas, and there weren''t that many options where we''d be staying. Still, a condo was not at the top of that list.

    But if Imani was observing us, which faction was she connected to?

    And more importantly, how the fuck did she know we''d be here in Vegas? She knew where we were staying, and presumably was already staking out our place because she seemed to have followed me into the bake shop earlier today. That could only mean she already anticipated we''d be arriving.

    Again...how?

    Only Myra was aware of our trip, but we told her that we''d be leaving early today. Well, we did leave La Esperanza today...but told her a different time. Who else did we tell about our trip to Vegas?

    The cops manning the checkpoint on the bridge out of La Esperanza? Could one of them be connected with Dario''s secret organization? Or was Deen''s house being monitored or something? I wouldn''t put it past a secret organization involved in experimenting with artificial Cores to monitor their test subjects.

    Actually, it should be expected that they''d keep tabs on their experiments, especially Deen with her very useful powers. I should''ve been more prudent with observing our surroundings.

    Whatever the truth of it was, people who I didn''t want to know where I was...knew where I was. Fucking annoying.

    I shuddered at the thought of cameras and shit like that in Deen''s house. Once we got back to our condo, I was going to turn the place upside down for cameras and bugs.

    "Do you watch romcoms?" Deen asked, returning my thoughts to our conversation. "You don''t look like the type."

    "I don''t," I replied. "I''m more a horror movie type of girl."

    ¡°Is that so? Then I hope that means you won¡¯t looking for a guy here.¡±

    I rolled my eyes. "That¡¯s the farthest thing from my mind right now."

    Deen didn''t continue talking. She had a goofy grin on her face as she expectantly waited for me to get her joke, which was...I have no idea.

    "What are you on about?" I said. "What''s the problem with a guy? Is it because I might fall in love and then confess that I''m actually an Adum¡ª"

    Deen''s hand flew to my mouth. With wide eyes, she hissed at me, "There are so many people here!"

    "Yeah, I know," I mumbled behind her palm. Pulling her hand away, I continued, "That''s why they won''t hear me. I can barely hear you."

    "But it''s too risky. You should be more careful."

    I sighed. "Fine, I''ll be careful...Mom." Deen''s stern face cracked and she smirked at me. "What were you on about with me finding a guy anyway?" I said. "I don''t understand what you were trying to tell me."

    "Oh that," she said. "I was trying to jokingly remind you that we were supposed to be together."

    "Together?" I said. She tilted her head, indicating that I should know what she was talking about. I raised a brow at her while the cogs in my brain ground against each other. I bet this was something inconsequential to me that slipped my brain. We''re together? "I remember! Back at the diner¡ª"

    She tried to cover my mouth again. I parried her away. "I haven''t been to any diner," she vigorously whispered. "But yeah, I was referring to your very misplaced lie that we were together," she added in her normal voice.

    "Very misplaced?" I grinned at her with embarrassment. "Sorry for that. I really didn''t think that one through. And...um...we should go visit a diner sometime." She glared at me. "I''m sure you''ll enjoy the food there."

    Deen opened her mouth, about to reply.

    But then, her head snapped to the window beside us, spotting something below that got her attention. "Is she your Mom?" she said, referring at another wrong person.

    Our guessing game continued for ten more minutes. Deen wouldn''t stop pointing to every short woman with black hair she''d see. Eventually, I got tired and told her that although I wouldn''t give her a clue, I''d tell her if I saw Mom.

    Deen then switched her questions from, "Is that her?" to "Is she around?"

    Several more minutes passed and waves upon waves of passengers arrived. And then, fucking finally! "Mom''s here," I told Deen, straightening up and leaning forward closer to the glass.

    "Really?" Deen said. "Is that her over there? The woman with the animal print pants?"

    "Three more guesses," I said, "and we''ll go down to meet her." Deen didn''t choose correctly and Mom had already walked out of view. We hurried to the escalator as other people waiting for their families also rushed down to meet them.

    "Deen, remember what I told you, okay?" I said after we extracted ourselves from the sardine can that was the escalator.

    "About what?" she asked as she locked her gaze with mine. I tapped the side of my eye. She nodded. "Right. About your glasses?"

    "Yep. Don''t forget that Mom doesn''t know that I''ve worn glasses. My eyesight deteriorated last semester, and I kept it a secret from her. She''s big on protecting eyesight."

    "But you''re healing now, aren''t you?" She waved her hand in front of my face. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

    "Two. You do know I can see those clearly even before? I told you that I only needed glasses for reading. And yes...I started healing when I became..."

    "Shhh."

    "I wasn''t going to say anything. Don''t be so uptight."

    I was faced with a face-inconsistency problem. Hahaha, I didn''t intend that wordplay. I only started wearing glasses¡ªfake glasses¡ªfor my law school face. In fact, Mom always reminded me to take care of my eyesight in law school; she had many lawyers friends who wore glasses. That was also the case even for law students; most of them had glasses. And that was the reason I decided to copy them.

    So I had to concoct a story to fix the inconsistency between what Deen knew¡ªor thought she knew¡ªabout me, and the actual truth that Mom knew. My prized work of fiction that would soon be sold in every bookstore was that turning into an Adumbrae healed my eyes. I was extremely proud of fabricating this story on the fly.

    Deen would take care not to mention that my eyes ever had a problem or Mom would be suspicious. If Mom insisted I''d go visit the doctor to get checked, then we''d be screwed because we didn''t have a dose of Suppressor with us. By becoming my ''accomplice'' in supposedly covering up my eye problems to protect the secret that I was an Adumbrae, Deen and I strengthened our bonds. This was killing two birds, probably more, with one stone.

    Deen elbowed me then nudged her head in the direction of a passenger. "Look at her. The tall woman with mirrored sunglasses. White hair? Do you think she bleached that?"

    "Maybe," I said with a shrug. I controlled myself not to show any reaction.

    The woman with white hair took off her sunglasses. Deen gasped. "Her eyes are glowing blue! Augs?"

    "Erind sweetie!" The woman waved at us.

    "Welcome home, Mom!"

 5.23

    ¡°Erind dear, I¡¯m so happy to finally see with my own eyes that you¡¯re safe,¡± Mom loudly said as she marched towards us. Her voice and her peculiar appearance¡ªalthough not as weird as other people here in Vegas¡ªmade heads turn.

    "How''s the flight, Mom?" I said as I hugged her. She had to bend down to return the gesture because she wore high heels even though she was almost as tall as Deen without them. She explained that she did it to have a more authoritative air and subliminally command respect given that bioaugmentronics used to be a male-dominated industry. Probably still is.

    ¡°It¡¯s such a hassle, dear,¡± she replied, heaving an annoyed sigh. ¡°My flight had a thirty-minute delay leaving Singapore airport¡ªshocking it was only that¡ªso I was hoping you girls wouldn¡¯t have to wait too long for me in a crowded airport. But when we arrived here, we needed to wait again because our plane had no place to land!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re lucky with only about an hour in total of delay, Mom. That¡¯s basically nothing, considering how things are here,¡± I said, gesturing to the hordes of people. ¡°And we didn¡¯t wait too long, so it¡¯s fine.¡±

    Through the curtain of Mom''s white hair, I could see Deen standing awkwardly, waiting for me to introduce her.

    ¡°Mom, by the way, this is Amber Deen Leska,¡± I said as I pulled away from her arms.

    ¡°Deen sweetie, how are you?¡± Mom greeted my best friend as if they¡¯d known each other for ages. ¡°You do look like your mother. I¡¯ve seen Mrs. Leska in a couple of gatherings maybe a few years ago, although we haven¡¯t personally talked.¡± Deen slightly flinched at that; Mom didn¡¯t seem to notice it.

    "I''m fine, Mrs. Hartwell." She didn''t address Mom''s statement about her own mother.

    "Erind never told me she had a supermodel for a friend."

    "Mom, if we''re talking about a supermodel body, then I''m much closer to it than Deen," I said, grinning at my best friend. "I mean, add a foot, or even just half that, to my height, and we''re good to go. Deen''s too curvy for the job."

    "Hey, what do you mean by that?" Deen protested.

    "Models are supposed to be super thin like me," I said with a giggle. "Unfortunately, I didn''t inherit Mom''s genes and I won''t make it to the runway even if I wore stilettos."

    "You took after your Aunt Jemma, dear," said Mom, patting my hair as she always did when talking about my height. "And no, don''t comment on what you didn''t inherit from Jemma," she hastily added as she saw me look down my chest with a smirk on my face.

    "I wasn''t going to," I said, grinning at her. Just inside jokes between mother and daughter. Duties that I had to tick off whenever we met. It kept Mom happy, and I kept my face consistent. Everything was in order if I did my part as was expected of me as her daughter.

    ¡°Presents!¡± Mom excitedly said, raising her finger as if she just had a brilliant idea. "I have plenty of presents for you, girls." She tried to open her luggage while we were in the middle of the floor with everyone passing around us. ¡°I have chocolates and gingerbread from Switzerland¡ªCheryl told me it is better compared to the gingerbread we have. Then I got this ''kaya'' thing, some sort of coconut jam, I don''t know¡ª"

    "Mom, we can do that later at the condo," I said, closing her suitcase and standing it back up.

    Once Mom set her mind on doing something, she wouldn''t care about what others would think. It was kind of amusing that I''d be the one who''d care that we wouldn''t bother other people.

    This wasn''t even about my Rule #4; I just didn''t want us to clog the path for the arriving passengers. We were already conspicuous as it was, with Mom and Deen''s appearance. She didn''t need to hand out presents here like she was Santa Claus.

    "The condo!" Mom blurted out as if I had just pointed out something important. People looked at her as if she was getting robbed. "Before you get your presents, Erind dear, I have to be a mother here and ask if you cleaned our place."

    I was tempted to say, it didn''t get burned down like my other condo, but that didn''t feel like something a traumatized Erind would say. "Yes, I did fix it up," I said, shooting Deen a mischievous look. "And our empty pantry is also stocked."

    Mom would get angry at me that I had our ''guest'' help with the cleaning and groceries. However, Deen''s mind was wandering off somewhere and didn''t get my joke. She was staring wistfully at the floor.

    Oh, come on, Deen. I don''t want to deal with your own family issues.

    <hr>

    "Bugs, bugs, bugs," I said as I flipped over my mattress to check if something was amiss with my bed. "If I was a hidden camera, where would I be?" I wasn''t even sure what I was looking for. What did bugs¡ªthe camera and microphone kind, not the actual insects¡ªlook like? Something small that looked electronic?

    I had already gone through my cabinet and study table. There was also nothing wrong with the windowsill, the floor, and the ceiling. And I didn''t find anything in my bathroom. I swear I''d fucking rip out the heart of anyone who''d dare bug my bathroom.

    Mom had to attend an important video conference or something, so I had time to conduct counter-espionage operations in my room. With how much searching I did since we returned home from the airport, I might as well have thoroughly cleaned my room.

    Deen wanted to chat with me, but I wanted some peace and alone time before my battery would get drained by living with two super intrusive people¡ªsorry, Mom, but it''s true. I rebuffed Deen, saying I wanted to rest because I was tired from all the heavy traffic.

    I scanned my room once again, wondering where I should search next.

    How about the lamp on my desk? I had seen in spy movies that they''d put bugs inside appliances because it''d be unnoticeable among the electronic parts. What about my air conditioning unit? It''d be hard to spot a small camera hidden behind the slits. One might be staring at me right now.

    Should we just move out of this unit?

    Hold your horses, bitch!

    I was getting irrationally paranoid¡ªor was paranoia already irrational by default? What''s the worst thing that can happen if someone were out to kill me? Dying wasn''t too bad. But I''d rather not get captured for experimentation or shit like that.

    My eyes settled on the bags I still hadn¡¯t unpacked. That could be a good hiding spot for a bug. Bag bug, bag bug.

    I set about throwing all my clothes out of my bags and onto my bed. Forcefully shaking each piece of clothing, I peeled my eyes for anything suspicious that might drop.

    And something did.

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    "A bracelet?" I said as I picked it up. It was a rose gold metal band with several diamonds set along its length. "Why is this here?" This was the expensive bracelet that Deen''s sister found near their house at Verde Hills.

    We did try looking for its owner yesterday but came up with nothing. Deen told me she was going to leave it for her sister to drop at the Home Owner''s Association to find who it belonged. She might''ve gotten mixed it up with her things and ended up bringing it with us. But why was it inside my bag?

    "Erind dear!" Mom''s voice pierced through my room''s door. "Dinner''s ready."

    That made me smile. It was funny that it was already past midnight, yet Mom insisted we have dinner so we can then eat the desserts she brought afterward. How long would these normal times last? Not forever, that was for sure.

    There was a knock on my door.

    "I''ll be right out, Mom!" I loudly said.

    "It''s me." Deen knocked again before opening the door. "Do you need help with¡ª? Eh? What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised at all my scattered clothes.

    "I, uh, I''m just trying to fix my stuff before Mom checks it." I had a sheepish grin on my face.

    "Do you want me to help you? Seems like you made more of a mess.¡±

    "I''ll deal with it after dinner...super late dinner," I said, waving away her concern. "By the way, Deen, what''s this thing doing here?" I asked, showing her the diamond bracelet. "Your sister found this outside your house, didn¡¯t she?"

    She took it from my hand. "I think so...wait, why is this here? Did you bring it from my house?"

    "No. I just found it inside one of my bags."

    "Really? That''s weird. I left by the kitchen counter with a note for Sis."

    "I bet it got snagged onto your shirt or something. Then it dropped into my bag when we were packing our stuff into the car."

    "Must be," Deen said with a clueless shrug. "I''ll have to text Sis about this in case the owner comes looking for it."

    "Erind, Deen!" came Mom''s call. "Girls, where are you?"

    The two of us stared at each other, then at the piece of jewelry I held. "I guess we should get going," I said, tossing the diamond bracelet onto my pile of clothes. "Just tell your sister about this tomorrow."

    <hr>

    "Mom''s hair started graying when she was like...in her early twenties?" I turned to Mom for confirmation.

    She nodded at me. "I think I was twenty to be exact when I first noticed that the number of white strands I had wasn''t¡­average. It was around the time I started dating your father. Imagine my embarrassment." Deen and I looked at each other and awkwardly chuckled. "By the way, Erind dear. Speaking of dating, do you have any boy¡ª"

    "And so, Mom decided to bleach her hair," I loudly interjected. Deen giggled at that. "Isn''t that right, Mom?"

    Presented with another topic, Mom expectedly latched onto it, dropping her bullshit ''mom'' talk about guys. "In retrospect, perhaps I shouldn''t have done it because it did damage my hair. It would''ve been much better if I dyed it hazel brown instead of trying to uniformly turn it all bleached blonde.

    "After a few years, I accepted my fate and I just let my gray hair be. That was when I realized that people didn''t care about it at all; any self-esteem issues I had were all in my head. So, that''s a lesson for you, girls. And as the gray strands multiplied, it turned out to be a fashionable accent of sorts. That''s what your father told me, anyway."

    I wanted to comment, that''s just how Dad was, but I could barely recall my father. My memories of him were hazy because he had been gone from my life for the past decade. "Your hair looked great with the gray streaks, Mom," I said, ever the supportive daughter. Facing Deen, I added, "I''ll show you pictures of it."

    "A few years ago," Mom continued, "there was this new treatment for easily dyeing hair white. I thought, ''why not?'' I decided to revisit my old look without the need for bleaching, and here we are." She fluffed the ends of her locks.

    "I''ve heard of that," Deen said. "Your hair looks beautiful, Mrs. Hartwell."

    "And that''s the story of Mom''s hair color," I told Deen. "Next up are her eyes."

    "Erind sweetie, you''re making it sound like there''s a dramatic story to them. Have you been watching too many movies again?"

    "I barely have time nowadays with all the law schoolwork," I said. And all the fighting and killing and surviving. "Do tell Deen how you got your eyes. She seems to be interested in them.¡±

    "I''m sorry if I''ve been staring too much, Mrs. Hartwell," said Deen. "It''s rare to personally meet someone with augmented eyes."

    "It''s fine dear," Mom said. "It''s only been a few years since more affordable models have been made available for the public. Full bionic eyeballs have mostly been reserved for the military and BID agents." She tapped the side of her head as she changed the color of her irises from blue, to red, then to violet. "But these are not available anywhere. This pair is a prototype model made by a dear friend of mine, Eudora. She was one of the top engineers of Greaves."

    "A prototype? And why ''was'' an engineer? She''s no longer working for Greaves?"

    "She had passed away in an unfortunate accident in one of the Greaves'' laboratories. That''s why only a prototype of this product exists. Eudora wasn''t able to complete the final product."

    "Oh! I''m so sorry, Mrs. Hartwell."

    "My eyesight has been getting worse over the years. I was going to have laser surgery to fix them, but I decided to change them with Eudora''s final work to show that she did succeed in completing her prized work."

    "That''s...that''s an amazing tribute to your friend, Ms. Hartwell."

    "And so, that''s the story of my eyes. Back then, about six years ago, people had differing reactions to...abandoning my eyeballs...as they''d phrase it. However, Erind has been very supportive of my decision. I have no regrets. They''ve been working great all this time and are very useful for my work."

    "Of course, I''ll support you Mom," I chimed in.

    "Speaking of bioaugments," she said, "what do you girls think of going to the Greaves Tech Fair this Friday?"

    I knew this was coming. "There''s going to be too many people there," I said, ready with my excuse.

    "For sure, there will be many people, Erind sweetie. More so than in previous years because Greaves will unveil its prototype remote-controlled ComExos made for the military. They have made several of those in years past, but nothing of this scale and control. It''s as if they have human pilots in them."

    "How about we tour the, um, Natural History Musem instead," I suggested, remembering what Imani had told me about tourist spots in the city. "I don''t think that place will be packed."

    "We can go there tomorrow," said Mom. "But for Friday, I have to be at the Tech Fair. I have to deliver a talk at the forum."

    I blinked in surprise. "A talk? I didn''t know you were going to speak at the event. Weren''t you planning to fly straight to La Esperanza before your flight was canceled? If you already had this scheduled¡ª"

    "It was a last-minute thing...very last minute, sweetie. I accepted the assignment just a few minutes ago during my conference with the Greaves people."

    "Wow, you weren''t kidding about it being last minute," I said. "Why? What happened? Their designated speaker can''t make it?"

    "Unfortunately, she had important matters to attend to. It seems that her son went missing. I''m a bit fuzzy on the details, and I didn''t inquire further as it wasn¡¯t my business. Since I''m already here, and I''m familiar with her topic, they tapped me to take her spot."

    "We''ll be there, Mom," I said. "It''s just like old times."

    "Thank you, Erind sweetie. I know you don''t like crowds, but I''m sure you and Deen can find something interesting there. Maybe you have a thing for engineer guys?"

    "Mom!"

    "Just kidding, dear."

    A tiny sacrifice for Mom. As her daughter, I was going to the Fair to support her. It was inevitable that I''d be forced to go into hiding when SpookyErind''s hold on my body grew, and I could no longer keep a human facade. I should cherish the times I was still normal and doing normal things.

    Right. It would be nice for a change to do something completely normal after everything I''d been through lately. Even our supposedly normal road trip was anything but.

    Normal...at that time I didn''t know how wrong I was.

 5.24

    "I think I like the Natural History Museum more," I grumbled as I folded my arms across my chest, annoyed at the number of people in this place.

    It was Friday, and, as I promised Mom, I went with her to the Greaves Technology Fair at their convention center, which was supposedly as large as seven football fields; that was what the brochure mentioned. I got them at the entrance because I wanted a map to find the food section¡ªmy favorite waiting spot during every Tech Fair while Mom did whatever important thing she had to do.

    And Deen went along with me. No surprises there.

    My plan to hang out by the food stalls while watching movies on my phone was dashed. I thought this would be my chance to escape from the watchful eye of my self-proclaimed best friend.

    I tried persuading her to rest back at the condo or shop at the mall, just fuck off somewhere else.

    But she insisted it was her duty to protect me. I wanted to sarcastically ask her if that was written on the law or something, but I decided to be nice and held my tongue. Or maybe, Deen actually thought that she should protect others from me. I got a hunch that she was wary I''d suddenly go ''berserk'' again. Maybe I shouldn''t have pretended to lose control because she was now sticking to me like a tick.

    The two of us stood at the least crowded corner of the Greaves Tech Fair beside a display for a cleaning drone that could instantly analyze the dirt in one''s house. I supposed some people like to learn the composition of their house dirt. I didn''t.

    To be fair¡ªfair, we''re in a tech fair, random thoughts¡ªto the sleek robot the size of a frisbee plate, it could clean dog poop in contrast to most cleaning robots that would just smear that pile all over the floor. It also had a powerful suction that could¡ªwait, I can now memorize their whole marketing spiel.

    For the past ten minutes or so, Deen and I have been staring at the cleaning bot and the projected advertisement for its supposed features. I was sure I could sell this piece of shit to the masses if I wanted to.

    Mom had texted us that she was going to deliver her hastily written speech soon, and we were waiting for her message. I didn¡¯t want to wade through the crowds before then. Mom¡¯s talk still hadn''t started yet despite several minutes passing. What¡¯s the fucking hold up?

    "You did seem to enjoy yourself at the museum," Deen said. "I didn''t know you were a science girl. With the glasses, you do look like one."

    I jolted when she mentioned the glasses part. My hand flew to my eyes to check if I had accidentally worn them. I didn''t. Fuck Deen for giving me a mini-heart attack.

    "What''s wrong?" she asked, noticing my sudden movement. "Do you have problems with your eyesight?"

    "No, uh, something flew into my eye," I nonchalantly said. "And I do look like a science girl, don''t I? Can add quiet and introverted to the description. But I''m not really into science. I just enjoyed the peace at the museum, escaping the craziness of this whole city. The displays were cool though."

    "I''ve only been to museums during school field trips...I think when I was in elementary." Deen deeply sighed. "The dinosaur skeletons gave me nostalgic feels."

    "I was just wondering why there were Adumbrae models," I said. "Sure, they were fake, but isn¡¯t it kinda weird to have Adumbrae displays there?"

    "I guess so..." Deen disapprovingly frowned at me as her eyes darted around us, checking if anyone could overhear me.

    "I mean, it''s a natural history museum. There''s nothing natural about an Adumbrae. Maybe I should be on display¡ª"

    "Erind..." she sternly whispered through clenched teeth.

    I innocently fluttered my eyes at her. Annoying and teasing her was fast becoming my new hobby. Might as well do this because I couldn''t watch movies. "Will you visit me if I''m on display there? It''ll be cool if they put me in between the mammoths and the¡ª"

    "Okay, that''s enough." She squeezed my arm, exerting some super strength to signal she was serious. "Maybe we should go check if Mrs. Hartwell is already speaking?"

    "You don''t have to call Mom Mrs. Hartwell," I told Deen. It did sound a bit weird. "Call her Ms. H like the cool kids," I jokingly added.

    She snorted at my suggestion. "Maybe I can just call her ''aunt'' or¡ª" She stopped talking because some guy was coming towards us.

    "Hello there, ladies!" He looked tall enough to be a basketball player and conventionally attractive to boot. He was probably an athlete based on his University of Nevada varsity jacket. Minus points for his haircut with shaved sides that was all the trend nowadays. I couldn''t get behind it, but I wasn''t sure he cared about my opinion. Although this guy mentioned ''ladies¡¯, he had his eyes only on Deen.

    Deen murmured something that could be a ''Hi'' or just clearing her throat. She turned her attention back to the cleaning drone.

    "Haven''t seen you girls around town before," Varsity Guy said as if he had taken account of all the inhabitants of Las Vegas. Why do so many guys open with this line? I supposed it was such an easy way to follow up, depending on the girl¡¯s answer. "Did you come to this city for the Tech Fair?" he added.

    "Yeah," Deen curtly replied.

    Varsity Guy looked over his shoulder. A few yards behind him was a group of guys wearing the same jacket cheering him on. Turning back to us, he said, "Bioaugmentronics is my interest too. I''m an EE student and also with the football varsity team." He continued to list out his resume like a knight listing his achievements to have a chance to court the princess.

    Deen and I gave each other a sidelong glance. The same thing crossed our minds. She even mouthed something that looked like ''Deja vu'' to me.

    A few days ago, she was also hit on by a bunch of engineering students on their way to this Tech Fair¡ªthey didn''t reach their destination though, unlike these guys.

    As the guy was trying, and spectacularly failing, to convince Deen to join their group in touring the fair, I realized something funny. This was the third time that guys hit on Deen while I was around¡ªand the other two times didn''t end too well for the guys. They all died within a few hours.

    The first instance was at the Eve Club. A couple of assholes tried to hit on us, and one of them even touched me. I never knew what happened to them, but they probably died when the BID agents self-destructed their Greaves Reactors. The second time was during our road trip, and those guys also died because of...me. Varsity Guy here should be writing his last will if the past was any indication of the future.

    Was it Deen, or was it me who was the bad luck?

    Hmmm...I vote for Deen. I should probably get her to wear a shirt that stated, ''Don''t hit on me or die.'' There were too many people dying when she was around.

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    "Could you at least tell me your name?" Varsity Guy said to Deen. "I told you mine, so you must tell me yours." He must''ve introduced himself, but I didn''t notice because I was too busy getting entertained by my thoughts. "I''m sure it''s a beautiful name for a beautiful girl like you."

    I nearly vomited at that. It¡¯s times like these that I think that we should just let the Adumbrae destroy our world.

    And what kind of disrespectful douchebag was he to call Deen a ¡®girl¡¯? We were older than him, just that we didn¡¯t look like it.

    "I really don''t have to tell you," Deen replied. Her arms were folded across her chest; her body was turned away from him. It couldn''t be more evident that she wanted him to scoot away. She glanced at me, probably asking me to step in and give her an excuse.

    "We need to¡ª" I began to say but was interrupted by a PA announcement.

    I listened to it, expecting it was about Mom''s talk. But it was about the demonstration of the remote-controlled ComExos. I passed by those humongous things earlier when we made one round of the entire convention center. I wouldn¡¯t want to go up against those unless maybe I was in giant werewolf Blanchette form.

    "It''s the demo!" the guy excitedly told us. His friends were calling him over. "You girls have to see it."

    "We''re fine here," Deen said.

    "Suit yourself," he said before joining the massive exodus to the middle of the convention center.

    "Huh, he left...just like that." She tilted her head left while wearing an amused expression. "Back to peace¡ªwhat?" she asked, noticing the massive grin on my face.

    "Robots beat bombshell," I said, my voice wavering as I giggled.

    "Robots beat¡ªhuh?"

    "Beat blonde bombshell." I poked her side. "I''m talking about you. In a guy''s heart, a giant robot with big guns will always be above even the most beautiful girls on this planet."

    "This is an event about technology. Naturally, the people coming here will want to see the most advanced¡ª"

    "Are you trying to justify why you lost to a robot?" The lessened population density of our area made me feel happy. Instead of returning to cleaning-drone-watching, I decided to tease Deen to pass the time. "And you didn''t even try to refute what I said about you being a bombshell."

    "Oh, I thought that was a general statement rather than referring specifically to me."

    ¡°I was referring to you,¡± I said. ¡°And even if it was a general statement, you were included in the set of bombshells of this world.¡±

    ¡°Well then¡­I¡¯m not going to refute that.¡±

    We both laughed. Having Deen along wasn¡¯t so bad; I was starting to get used to her company. This was becoming a fun trip.

    However, I did feel like something was going to go wrong soon enough. Things had been too quiet for the past few days, and I was starting to get weirded out by it. I had learned to expect that peace didn¡¯t last too long since I turned into an Adumbrae.

    By now, it was just another Friday to me if there¡¯d be monsters and bloodshed. But I didn¡¯t want anything crazy to happen with Mom around.

    Speaking of Mom, my phone vibrated in my pocket. It should be a message from her. I read it out loud to a quizzical Deen, ¡°My talk is scheduled after the delayed ComExo demo.¡± I shrugged. ¡°So that¡¯s why it hasn¡¯t started yet. She¡¯s also asking about where we are. I think we should go over there.¡±

    ¡°Okay then,¡± Deen said. Then she raised a brow at me. ¡°Why are you grinning?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s time for a showdown between robots and bombs¡ª¡± She elbowed me.

    <hr>

    Even if we couldn¡¯t get to the front of the crowds, we still had a good view of the robots because of their size, towering a good twenty feet in height.

    I whistled in amazement. "They¡¯re as big as the ones we saw on our drive out of La Esperanza. Those guarding the final checkpoint at the bridge?"

    Deen nodded. ¡°Yep, I remember them.¡±

    The two units displayed their array of weapons, showing their huge guns, unloaded, of course, that should probably be considered cannons at this point. They also had electroshock weapons. The bombastic presenter even boasted that they could deploy Reality Wedges to combat Kreggan class Adumbrae.

    The floor shook as it demonstrated its agility in performing almost human-like movements instead of blocky like most of the colossal ComExos that were more akin to moving turrets. They deployed blades from their wrists and displayed fantastic swordplay. The energy running through the blades charged the air, causing plenty of hairs among the crowds to fray upwards.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure why they¡¯re still considered ComExos,¡± I said, combing my hair using my fingers. ¡°ComExo is short for Combat Exoskeleton. It¡¯s no longer an exoskeleton if the controller is outside it, right?¡±

    I observed the man, supposedly controlling them, inside a sleek egg-shaped pod that reminded me of Professor Deslys¡¯ machine. What did happen to her? I should probably ask Myra or Johann, but I was sure I didn¡¯t care whatever it was.

    ¡°True,¡± said Deen, following my gaze to the man piloting the unit. ¡°Remote-controlled ComExo is a misnomer. Or it just means that it''s still a ComExo¡­just that it can also move without someone inside. Clothes are still clothes without anyone wearing them. If they can move independently, they¡¯d still be clothes.¡±

    ¡°Wise words from the blonde bombshell.¡± And that earned me another elbow shove from Deen.

    The quick-talking presenter explained that they had solved the problem of delay regarding drones. And that this would preserve pilots¡¯ lives without any danger of control disconnection when a Kreggan warped an area¡¯s reality.

    Well¡­good for them. Just don¡¯t use that on me.

    After the demonstration, we trooped to a section of the convention center walled off with movable dividers. We took our seats and watched Mom along with ComExo bigwigs getting introduced as a panel.

    "Erind! Erind, is that you?"

    I turned to the voice calling for me. A woman with long straight hair that was blacker than mine and a caramel complexion waved as she approached.

    ¡°It is you,¡± she said. ¡°Imagine meeting you here. You really attended the fair. And you must be her friend,¡± she told Deen.

    "Hi, Imani," I said. Fuuuck. Why was she here? ¡°Just listening to the talk.¡± Go away!

    ¡°I¡¯m also here with my friends.¡± She gestured to a couple of guys following her. ¡°We¡¯re just going to find seats. Talk to you later, okay!¡±

    ¡°Um¡­who is she?¡± Deen¡¯s brows furrowed.

    ¡°Imani,¡± I said. ¡°Someone I know.¡±

    ¡°From where? Why did she know you¡¯re going to attend this event?¡±

    I¡¯m trapped here, aren¡¯t I? ¡°I met her a couple of days ago,¡± I said, deciding there was no point in lying.

    Deen was fuming as I revealed what happened while she was asleep¡ªthe first part of it, anyway. I didn¡¯t tell her that my phone got snatched. Her nose was already flaring in anger that I escaped her watchful eye, that she¡¯d probably explode if she knew I chased the robber to get it back.

    ¡°Sorry for not telling you,¡± I said at the end of my incomplete story. ¡°I was trying to avoid this¡­this, I mean you getting angry at me.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t avoid it, did you now?¡± She placed her hands on her hips, which was awkward while sitting down, and glared at me. ¡°Don¡¯t just go somewhere without telling me.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mom, I won¡¯t,¡± I said, rolling my eyes at her. I held up a finger as she opened her mouth. Then I pointed toward the stage. ¡°Real Mom is about to talk now. Let¡¯s talk about this later.¡± Yeah, we really should talk about this. I mulled over my suspicions that we might be tailed.

    I didn¡¯t realize it at first because I was just annoyed at Imani being here and my lie getting exposed, but it was fucking suspicious that she was here. I distinctly remember that Imani mentioned she didn''t attend the Tech Fair because she didn''t have the money for the products here.

    And that bitch showed up now? Out of all the days the Tech Fair ran?

    ¡°Fine. Later then,¡± Deen grumbled. ¡°Don¡¯t wiggle out of it later. I thought we already promised each other that no more sec¡ªwhat was that?¡±

    ¡°An explosion?¡± I said. ¡°Gunfire?¡± Then there were screams and people running.

    A group of men, guns slung over their shoulders, climbed the stage.

 5.25

    "Oh my god!" I gasped, my hand covering my mouth. The first thing that came to my mind was, What the fuck? But I religiously stuck to the face I had on despite the bullshit happening. Not that anyone could''ve heard me cuss over the noise of gunfire, screams, stampeding feet, and crashing stuff.

    "Wha-what''s going on?" Deen said, her voice cracked with uncertainty. Didn''t her Guardian Angel forewarn her about this? Her disconcerted face told me ''no''. She leaned towards me, perhaps on instinct, partially shielding me with her body as chaos erupted around us. ¡°Let¡¯s just calm down, Erind. Don¡¯t draw any attention to us.¡±

    Duh. I remained still in my seat, pretending to be frozen in fear as I surveyed the armed men around us. I had been through so much crap that puny humans with guns didn''t faze me.

    These assholes were securing everyone inside this makeshift hall for the talks, about one hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty of us seated on the rows of chairs, preventing any from going out.

    They hit the stupid people using words versus bullets with the butt of their guns. I didn''t know what was happening to the rest of the convention center on the other side of the divider walls, but it sure was noisy over there too.

    Was it too late to go back to the Natural History Museum¡ªMom!

    I almost forgot that she was also here and very vulnerable, unlike me.

    My extreme annoyance, with a dash of quippy amusement at the ridiculousness of the situation, disappeared. An almost alien sense of danger filled my heart as I craned my neck over the taller heads of the audience in front of me to see what was going on with Mom.

    She and the rest of the would-be speakers were rounded up and made to sit on the floor in the center of the stage. Four of the terrorists¡ªfor what else could they be¡ªsurrounded Mom and the other people I didn''t care about.

    Three terrorists carried bigass guns, their identities completely hidden by balaclavas and high-tech visor thingies. The fourth bastard was a weird one, looking more out of place in the tableau than a penguin in the desert.

    Presumably their leader, he wore a magenta tailcoat with both sleeves torn off, looking like a down-on-his-luck circus ringmaster missing his top hat. His metal-plated arms boasted combat bioaugmentronics, so he probably didn''t carry any guns. Unlike his subordinates, he didn''t bother to wear a mask to conceal his distinctly angular face sporting a twirled mustache.

    I was going to rip off his dumb mustache and shove it up his pointy nose if he''d hurt Mom.

    On one knee, Circus Mustache was talking to one of the captured Greaves officials¡ªMom pointed this man out to me before; I couldn''t recall his name, but he was supposed to be important or some shit. Circus Mustache apparently received an answer that he didn''t want from the Greaves big wig and electrocuted him with a touch of his finger.

    The man in the suit convulsed on the stage floor. Murmurings and a couple of screams emanated from the audience. Another Greaves person tried to come closer to help him, but a terrorist kicked him back.

    My eyes darted to Mom. She was sitting still like I was, trying to be inconspicuous despite her very noticeable look.

    She mouthed something to me. I sucked in lip-reading, but it should be something like, ¡®stay put''¡ªthe same stuff Deen was hissing at me. I decided I had the correct interpretation because Mom lowered her downward-facing palms a few times while intensely looking at me.

    Yes, Mom, I thought to her. This was a good time to develop telepathic powers; I wasn''t sure if SpookyErind would suddenly give me those. I''m not going to transform to Blanchette and shred these fuckers for ruining my day. At least, not yet.

    A terrorist passed by her. She stopped gesturing and deflated, lowering her bionic eyes. Other than her eyes, she didn''t have any other augments I knew of, certainly none that could help our situation. Even her eyes didn''t shoot lasers or whatnot.

    "Erind...don''t worry about your Mom," Deen whispered. She noticed where I was looking.

    I glared at her.

    She balked. "Uh, we should worry about her, and ourselves¡­and all the people here too. But don''t let worry cloud your judgment. We should be careful of our next moves." And here we go with Deen taking charge.

    I grabbed her arm, pulled her closer to me, and whispered in her ear, "What did your Guardian Angel say?" I tried to keep my tone from being accusatory. This was a fucking dangerous situation, and her future-seeing pet should''ve alerted her to this.

    "Nothing," She whispered back. "It didn''t say anything. I''m just as surprised as you are at what''s happening."

    "Really?"

    Deen nodded while examining a terrorist that passed by our row. "And it isn''t saying anything now. Which is a good sign."

    Only a good sign for you, I wanted to retort. Given that her Guardian Angel didn''t bother to give any advice, we had around a ten-minute window that we were safe.

    Correction. Not ''we'', only Deen. The Guardian Angel definitely didn''t care about me, much less about Mom. I wasn''t sure if Deen realized that it was only her who was safe.

    I had to convince Deen to put herself in harm''s way for my and Mom''s sake so we''d also benefit from her power''s protection. Surely, that was easy enough since Deen was only too eager to be the hero.

    "Four on the stage," she said. "Seven amidst the audience...I think. I don''t want to check behind me, but more should be there."

    "Also more outside," I added. This convention center was expansive as fuck. Even if the terrorists concentrated only on this portion of the place, eleven people sounded too few to me. I hadn''t organized a terrorist attack before, so I wasn''t on point with logistics. But I bet there were maybe more than twenty fuckers for me to murder for bothering my mother and me.

    Deen said, "What do you think they want?"

    Circus Mustache was interrogating other Greaves people on stage. He didn''t bother Mom. Maybe he knew she wasn''t an officer of the company; she was before, but she was just a consultant now.

    "I don''t know," I answered Deen. That was a good question. Why did these fuckers come here?

    Did they plan to steal some pieces of technology on display? Couldn''t they steal that like while it was being transported to or away from this place? There was no need to attack the convention center and restrain a buttload of people while they stole the shit they wanted.

    Or maybe the people were their target? Hostage for ransom? Hostage for trade secrets? Someone specific they wanted to capture? This was an excellent place to nab a bunch of Greaves people if that was their goal.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Deen kept yapping in my ear about not getting angry and not doing anything rash. Clich¨¦ lines in movies with hostages like I''d risk other people¡¯s lives, including Mom. I was getting pissed trying to discern her barely audible words while the lady beside her was sobbing like a baby.

    "You''ll be in danger too," Deen added, more as an afterthought.

    ¡°I know, I know,¡± I said in exasperation.

    We both knew getting shot was at the bottom of my list of concerns. And I also knew what was on top of Deen¡¯s list. Her main concern was preventing the Adumbrae inside me from ''breaking free''.

    She knew what I was capable of; memories of my transformation into a giant werewolf in Eve''s underground arena should be fresh in her mind. It wasn''t in mine because I could barely recall what the hell happened there. To Deen, me going berserk in the middle of Vegas was worse than anything the terrorists could do.

    So...what did they want to do?

    By now, the well-equipped Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, a large percentage of whom had city-funded augments unlike the police forces of other cities, should be on their way. They also had ComExo units that could rival those that the BID use, bought with donations from the Greaves Foundation, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

    These terrorists weren¡¯t going to shoot their way out of here, that was a certainty. They could try; they weren¡¯t going to win.

    But I was sure these assholes had prepared an escape plan that didn¡¯t involve them leaving in coffins. It wasn''t nabbing their target and quickly getting away before the police could surround the building. For now, their intention seemed to be hunkering down for the meantime and fortifying this place.

    Several terrorists moved a few panels of the divider walls and carted a couple of huge steel containers through the opening. The containers were a good head taller than the average man and had the Greaves logo splashed on their side. Either these were stuff they stole, or they faked the Greaves logo to get their equipment into this place.

    "What are they doing now?" Deen muttered.

    "I don''t know," was all I could say again. I''m not the one with future sight here. Why are you asking me?

    The terrorists started unloading machines from inside the containers. They placed one of them, a human-sized black cylinder, in front of the stage. With a push of the button, the cylinder expanded, with support legs stretching out and its top part revealing antennae and other stuff.

    A signal jammer?

    I checked my phone. The signal bars disappeared just as a red light on the machine started blinking. And what could be the other machines they were deploying?

    "Put your phone away, miss." The stern middle-aged man to my left covered my phone with his hand until I returned it to my pocket. "We don''t want to antagonize them."

    "Ah, yes," I said. "You''re right, thank you." About five rows ahead, a terrorist had snatched a laptop from one of the hostages.

    Hostages.

    Yep, that was what we were. And that was their plan. The terrorists were going to use hostages to escape this place in one piece. The hostages might not remain in one piece once the dust settled.

    It wouldn''t surprise me if some of the strange bulky contraptions they were setting up turned out to be bombs. I had watched too many hostage movies not to predict stuff like these. The terrorists would threaten to barbeque everyone if the police didn''t let them get on a getaway plane to, um, I dunno, the Caribbean or something.

    Where do criminals run off to anyway? I should make a catalog of destinations for when it is my turn to flee from the authorities.

    But that was a problem for future Erind. Right now, I should figure out a way to save Mom. Deen could take care of herself with her Guardian Angel. From the hostage movies I had seen¡ªvery nice reference, I know¡ªthe killings would be at the start of the attack and when the criminals were going to make their escape. Maybe some in between, like killing a few hostages to prove a point or to make the police back off.

    I was sure the terrorists had already killed a bunch of people. By now, they weren''t going to until perhaps the hostage negotiations were underway. That meant I had plenty of time to make my move.

    Perhaps I could go to the restroom so Mom wouldn''t see me transform into Blanchette. But could I ensure that Mom would be safe during the fighting? What about my own escape plan afterward? The BID would come once they heard there was an Adumbrae around. They might even drop a bomb here to kill me. I might survive, but Mom wouldn''t.

    I needed a way to fight these assholes while keeping Mom safe and ensuring I wouldn''t get hunted by the BID. What should¡ªmy thoughts were interrupted by the piercing feedback from the speakers.

    "Test...Mic test." Circus Mustache tapped the microphone on the ornately carved wooden lectern with the Greaves logo in front. He had a silky-smooth voice that was very punchable. Upon hearing it, anyone would expect that the speaker would con them. "Can-can you hear¡ªYou guys over there, you hear me?"

    No one answered.

    "The noise isn''t too disturbing?" he asked. There was a still smattering of screams and cries for help echoing throughout the convention center. A few gunshots too. "Can I get even just a nod, please?" He cupped his hand over his ear. "You guys can hear me, right?" He held a thumbs up and nodded. "Right? Right? Cool then."

    I stole a glance at the people behind me. Some hesitantly nodded.

    "Splendid! Extremely splendid." Circus Mustache clapped his hands. "If there''s open communication between us, then we can get through the night with no one getting hurt." He looked down at the twitching Greaves official he had electrocuted earlier. "Except him...and some others of you who have already been hurt or killed. They don''t count. We''ll start from a clean slate. Okay, people?"

    Again, none of us replied.

    He smashed his fist on the large lectern like a karate master chopping a board. It crashed right through, splintering the heavy wood. "OKAY, PEOPLE?!" His smooth voice became low and furious. Even with the microphone destroyed, we heard his shout loud and clear.

    Several people nodded, and others mumbled, "Okay."

    I wanted to groan. Can''t I get a normal enemy for once?

    Just a generic bad guy would be easy to predict. I could gauge how people would act based on approximations of my knowledge of normal human behavior. Someone not-so-normal enough to be unpredictable vexed me.

    "We are from the Tea Party," he continued, using his normal voice again. One of his henchmen handed him a new microphone. "A small, non-profit, civic group that serves this city through our...activities that not everyone might like. But such is life. We can''t please everyone. You shouldn''t try to please everyone."

    Tea Party? I narrowed my eyes. I tried to scan the audience subtly. Where''s that bitch, Imani?

    She had mentioned the Tea Party when we first met. They were a criminal syndicate dealing with illegal augmentations and enhancements.

    Was Imani part of their group? Was she a scout for them? It''d be a massive pain in the butt if she were connected to these terrorist assholes. That''d mean that they knew about me. Am I their actual target? But they hadn¡¯t bothered me yet.

    As if to answer my question, Circus Mustache said, ¡°People, stay behaved while we do our shopping of all these wonderful technological inventions around us. We only want the inanimate objects, not you.¡± He gestured to all of us. ¡°If you¡¯re going to remain in your seats and pretend nothing is happening around you, then everything will be fine and dandy.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be like those people who stand up just as the airplane had landed after being expressly told to remain seated. Flight attendants aren¡¯t legally allowed to shoot you, but I will¡­I mean to say, I¡¯m also not legally allowed to shoot any of you, but I will do it if you bother with our shopping. Got it?¡±

    There was a vague hum as some people weakly answered.

    He flung his arm, smashing the rest of the lectern. Wood splinters showered the front row. ¡°GOT IT?¡±

    ¡°Got it!¡± The audience replied before the deranged terrorist could decide to make good on his threat of shooting someone.

    Circus Mustache sighed while shaking his head. ¡°You don¡¯t need me to prod you each time to answer. You¡¯re big boys and girls. You¡¯re not puppets that I need to shove my hand up your asses to control your mouths to answer. Let¡¯s try again. Got it?¡±

    ¡°Got it!¡± Everyone replied.

    Including me. ¡°Got it,¡± I also said. I got the beginnings of an idea. Puppets? Control? Maybe it was time I used Pino. And I could leave behind my real Erind body to show I wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae!

 5.26 - Imani Nanda (Tove)

    Imani Nanda (Tove)

    This isn''t good. Not good at all.

    Imani Nanda, or Tove, as was her chosen codename, gritted her teeth as she lowered her hands from her lap. Hiding them by her sides, she slowly clenched her fists. She could feel her aug-arm exerting force that could pulverize bone as her frustration was translated into brain signals that commanded it what to do.

    There was a distinct creak as her artificial hand continued to close itself forcefully.

    Her teammate to her right, Boojum, lightly tapped her arm. ¡®Snap out of it,¡¯ was the look on his face. She looked down at his hand. He had put on gloves; the Suppressor must¡¯ve already expired.

    ¡°Not your fault, okay?¡± he softly said. They knew each other before their team was formed, even before her hand was amputated, and he correctly guessed that she was blaming herself for their current situation.

    And he was right. She was incredibly frustrated at herself for ending up in this trap.

    Trap in our perspective, she ashamedly conceded.

    Their enemy didn''t even make an actual trap for them, much less know that they were there. Her team knew this was coming. They had also prepared for it¡ªsort of, the little of their preparation that counted. Yet they stumbled headfirst into the worst scenario possible where they couldn''t even act.

    "We can''t do anything right now, Tove," Boojum whispered, tapping her arm again. He used her codename to remind her that they were on a mission.

    "Exactly," she said as she opened her fists. Trapped.

    She and her teammates, Boojum and Snark, were sitting in the middle of the hostages. Tea Party goons surrounded them. If they tried anything, the enemy would immediately notice it. They''d also put other people in danger.

    On the slim chance they¡¯d succeed¡ªdoing what, Imani didn¡¯t know¡ªthey''d be exposing their identities, not only to the Tea Party but also to other people. That included the police authorities who''d review the CCTV footage in this convention center. They couldn¡¯t exactly just tie a handkerchief across their mouths and call it a disguise.

    Snark, the towering ginger with augmented legs, leaned towards her. "Hey, Tove. You know what''s funny about this whole thing?" he spoke with a low voice.

    "There''s nothing funny about this," Imani shot back. She clenched her fists again as her eyes traveled down to his legs.

    Unfortunately, she and Snark couldn¡¯t bring the combat mods of their augs. The guards wouldn¡¯t allow aug-legs with hidden blades or her aug-arm carrying an electroshock module into a public event. The best she could equip was a stun gun.

    "And don''t talk to me,¡± she added. ¡°They might see you and get angry." She nudged her head at the closest Tea Party grunt a couple of rows away to their right.

    He didn''t listen to her and continued, "These Tea Party guys probably expect us to come. It''s hilarious as hell that they don''t know we''re already here."

    "They weren''t expecting that our idiotic plan was to get caught as hostages," Imani replied, despite not wanting to draw attention.

    "Wait...that''s our actual plan? I thought¡ª"

    "Of course not," she hissed. "Now, shut up."

    Snark shrugged and straightened up on his chair. "I was just trying to lighten up your mood because you look constipated."

    She stopped herself from answering back. Instead, she inhaled deeply, wiping any suspicious expression off her face. She should pretend to be a scared hostage.

    I don''t really need to pretend, do I? She was a hostage. And she was scared.

    Imani had been in several life-or-death situations and had been afraid each time. Normal. A very human trait.

    But she should let go of this weakness. Boojum didn¡¯t seem to be afraid, no matter the challenges they faced.

    Irritated at herself for being unable to control her feelings, she pushed away her thoughts of inadequacy. Snark''s question about their plan needled her mind. They knew what they were getting into but were still woefully unprepared for what ended up happening.

    Since she couldn''t do anything right now, Imani decided to run through everything she knew¡ªthe powers and capabilities they had at their disposal, their mission goals, and the information the Professor gave.

    They had two objectives.

    First and foremost was to keep Amber Deen Leska safe.

    According to the Professor, Amber also had an artificial Core like Boojum and Jubjub. She was a member of a group fighting an Adumbrae criminal organization in La Esperanza. There were plenty of Adumbrae attacks in that city lately¡ªit was all over the news these past couple of weeks¡ªand Imani was certain that Amber''s group had a part in fighting them.

    It was a huge shock to Imani and her friends that they weren''t alone, that other groups were secretly fighting the Adumbrae. More surprising, a member of the wealthy Leska clan was part of their ''secret resistance'', as Snark liked to call it, and was¡­no longer human.

    I will also become a non-human if I meld with an artificial Core. Imani was still on the fence about whether to undergo the transformation or not. But if someone like Amber, who had beauty, brains, and wealth, basically the world at her feet, had given up her humanity to fight Adumbrae¡­then what excuse did Imani have?

    It made her feel inspired but also ashamed.

    She also found it somewhat comforting that it wasn¡¯t just the four of them and the Professor secretly fighting Adumbrae organizations in the fabric of society. Jubjub had hinted to them before that there could be others, but gave them no concrete information. But Imani was also wary of what other important details the Professor and Jubjub kept from them.

    Jubjub, their sole contact with the Professor, awakened them very early last Wednesday morning with this explosive revelation. She explained that the Professor only told them about other artificial Core users then because he didn''t want the different groups to know about each other, implying there were more than two groups to keep them safe in case one group was caught, exposed, or compromised.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    However, that changed when Amber drove out of La Esperanza in the wee hours of Wednesday without a word to her teammates.

    It wouldn''t have been such an urgent matter¡ªBoojum also leaves Vegas on the weekends to visit his girlfriend in St. George¡ªwere it not for Amber''s power. The Professor didn¡¯t want to reveal what it was. Still, they assumed it must be quite a valuable ability for the Professor to break his security policy and immediately tap Jubjub¡¯s group to shadow and protect Amber if necessary.

    They now know that Amber and Erind came here for the Greaves Tech Fair. That was all.

    Erind''s mother was going to speak at this event; she was on the stage right now. It was only normal for her daughter and her daughter¡¯s best friend to attend.

    Amber and Erind must''ve left La Esperanza city early to avoid the traffic of the BID checkpoints, which was horrendous, as Imani had seen on the news, and didn''t tell their friends about their trip because...why would they? It was just a regular trip.

    Erind had told Imani that Amber had forced her to come here. Amber probably wanted to relax and get away from the city, and she used the Greaves Tech Fair, specifically Erind¡¯s Mom talking here, to guilt her friend into going.

    It all made sense in Imani''s head. Maybe the Professor thought Amber would sell them out or join the Adumbrae? But it turned out that there was no cause for worry.

    If only Amber and Erind came to the Tech Fair on literally any other fucking day instead of when the Tea Party was going to strike! Now, there was a lot to worry about!

    The second objective of their group was to thwart the Tea Party''s plan to steal essential pieces of technology from the Tech Fair. The Professor tipped them off about this impending heist a week ago, which was their priority before Jubjub scrambled them for the Amber issue.

    There was no information on what the Tea Party intended to steal nor when they would come¡ªthe Greaves Tech Fair was a week-long event. The Professor''s only assurance was that the Tea Party would do it at the Fair. That could mean plenty of innocent casualties, which Imani wouldn¡¯t allow.

    But the Tea Party¡¯s planned robbery did come to fruition without Imani and her friends being able to do anything to stop it. Many people had already died.

    Imani could glimpse the rest of the convention center through the opening in the divider walls made by the Tea Party grunts when they carted in the enormous crates. She spotted two corpses lying in their blood next to a robot arm. Another man was slumped over a booth, his white dress shirt partially bloodied red.

    Everything¡¯s going wrong! If only¡ª Imani shook her head, berating herself for fixating on what could''ve been.

    She didn''t have time powers¡ªthat was what her late Mom always told her whenever she complained about her mistakes or failures. She couldn''t undo the past; she could only continue forward. Maybe, once she had an artificial Core implanted in her, it might manifest time manipulation abilities. Only then could she literally dwell on her past mistakes and have a chance to fix them.

    She should focus on what she could do now. On what¡­they¡­could do. She wasn¡¯t alone; she had Boojum, Snark, and Jubjub.

    Even without combat modules, she and Snark could kill someone with one hit using their aug-limbs. The Professor had also supplied them with chemicals that temporarily boosted their strength, speed, and healing.

    That still wouldn''t do much against guns firing at them from all directions. Snark might argue for using the other hostages as shields, but Imani was ready to punch him if he''d bring it up.

    As for their artificial Core users, there were Boojum and Jubjub.

    Boojum was their big gun. He could absorb biomass¡ªboth living and dead¡ªthrough his hands.

    ''Absorb'' was the term he wanted to use. The usually calm and collected Boojum would get agitated if someone used the word ''vacuum'', ''suck'', or anything similar. But that was how his power worked¡ªhe had a large hole on each palm, usually hidden by gloves or bandages, that had an unbelievable suction force when in contact with organic matter.

    He could easily shred humans and ''absorb'' them, healing any injuries he had almost instantaneously. With his inherent super regeneration after melding with an artificial Core, it was virtually impossible to kill him other than cutting his head off.

    Using the hostages as food for Boojum had certainly crossed Snark''s mind, Imani guessed. But he wouldn''t dare suggest it out loud. Boojum would immediately punch him even if it exposed them to the Tea Party around them.

    Jubjub should be lurking outside the convention center, on lookout duty with her shadowy crows.

    She didn''t detect the Tea Party until a couple of minutes before their attack began. She immediately contacted the rest of the group while trying to slow down their enemies. Her last message before the signal jammers was activated was that she spotted Red Head, a Tea Party enforcer whom they suspected to be an Adumbrae. Imani and her friends rushed to protect Amber but became hostages.

    I hope she''s okay, Imani thought.

    "Tove..." Boojum was using his low serious voice. She sensed an incoming lecture. "Listen to me, Tove."

    Yep, it''s lecture time. Imani narrowed her eyes at him. "What is it?"

    "Our main goal here is...protecting Amber no matter what."

    Her eyes widened. From the Professor''s actions, they could glean that Amber''s power granted by her artificial Core was extremely valuable. Boojum was telling her the Tea Party could steal anything, kill anyone, but they shouldn''t get hold of Amber. Although she disagreed with it, that way of thinking wasn''t too surprising coming from Boojum.

    Imani''s surprise was how he said, ''No matter what''. Did he mean he was going to use innocent hostages as fodder for his power if the situation escalated? "Hopefully, they''ll just leave after getting what they want," she said. The Tea Party had no idea that Amber had an artificial Core. To them, she was just another hostage.

    "Don''t think so." Boojum tilted his head towards what might be bombs that the Tea Party was rigging.

    "What are we going to do?" Imani said, concerned that his answer might be that they start fighting.

    "We wait for now," Boojum said. "If my hunch is correct, the hostage negotiations are ongoing. I haven''t seen¡ª"

    "Hey! You over there!" A Tea Party grunt pointed at them. "Shut the hell up!" Boojum and Imani lowered their heads as he passed by cursing.

    After he left, Imani craned her neck as she subtly checked Amber and Erind. They sat four rows in front of her. While staring at the back of Amber''s head, she wondered what her powers could be.

    She wanted to introduce herself and ask her, but the Professor had cautioned them that it was better to protect her without revealing themselves. Like them a few days ago, Amber also had no idea of other groups with artificial Cores working with the Professor. It was better to keep her in the dark if she was captured.

    But we''re going to make sure she''s not going to get captured, Imani argued in her head.

    If they all worked together, they could defeat the Tea Party and save the hostages. Amber''s power might be what their group needed to tip the fight in their favor, especially with a possible Adumbrae in this building.

    It wasn''t only Amber whom they could add to their numbers. There was also Erind.

    Imani knew Erind was also part of the La Esperanza group but didn''t have an artificial Core. She should have something up her sleeve if she joined the fight against the Adumbrae.

    Snark had told Imani that Erind ran way faster than an average person as she chased him after he stole her phone. She punched his stomach so hard that he almost passed out were it not for his augmented nervous system kicking in. Erind might have had secret augments since her mother seemed connected to Greaves.

    We can win this, Imani convinced herself. First things first was to contact them. But how was she going to do that without getting detected by¡ª

    "Boys and girls!" Everyone jumped at the loud voice blasting from the speakers. Black Spade held a microphone as he jumped back up the stage after coming from only Mother Core knew where. "Kindly form lines! We''re going to transfer to a smaller venue. On your feet!"

 5.27

    Could this be the opportunity I was waiting for? I looked at Mom as I stood up with the rest of the hostages.

    She met my gaze and said something that could be, ''I love you, sweetie.''

    Uncertain of her actual message, I mouthed something gibberish that ended with an apparent ¡®Mom¡¯ word. That seemed to work because she nodded at me before following the Greaves¡¯ corporate suits down the stage as one of the Tea Party men beckoned for them with a wave of his gun.

    It was a bit disconcerting, but I was concerned about Mom leaving my sight¡ªsuch a foreign feeling. At the same time, I was relieved that we were separated. I banked on Mom being somewhat important that the terrorists wouldn¡¯t kill her, at least for now.

    It would be kind of a huge hassle for me if she died. There¡¯d be plenty of stuff to handle¡ªgovernment stuff, her work stuff, on top of her funeral. A funeral would be annoying as fuck, with all the relatives I didn¡¯t want to see coming.

    And she¡¯s my Mom. That¡¯d undoubtedly count as bothering me for Rule #4.

    ¡°Walk, walk, walk!¡± Circus Mustache blared on the microphone. The tails of his magenta tailcoat¡ªare those called tails?-¡ªswished behind him as he marched in place. ¡°Be organized, people! You¡¯re not children anymore. Oh, is that an actual kid over there? Mother Core bless you, ma¡¯am, for taking your boy to an educational event.¡±

    ¡°Move along, miss,¡± said the man to my left. He gestured for me to follow Deen walking out of our row of chairs. ¡°We don¡¯t want these clowns to get any ideas.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right,¡± I replied as I tore my gaze away from the stage. I could no longer see Mom because of the wall of people in front of me.

    Circus Mustache had just announced they were moving everyone to the other side of the building.

    About an hour had passed since the terrorists attacked the Greaves Technology Fair. Before this, we stayed in our seats while the Tea Party assholes carted the various machines on display to Mother Core knows where.

    I had caught a glimpse of what they were doing on the other side of the partition walls before they moved the panels back into place and blocked my view. I still heard all their raucous. They might have also taken control of the large ComExo units because there were loud stomps and the floor slightly quaked.

    As I was sitting on my ass moments ago, my mind ran through various plans on how to kill these fuckers, simultaneously making sure that Mom wouldn''t get caught in the crossfire.

    Unfortunately, everything I came up with started with me putting on a mask. That wasn''t a great thing to do right here in the middle of the crowd. That¡¯d be a sure way to start a fight while Mom was nearby. Also, while Pino was indestructible, my original Erind body left behind might suffer a very unlucky headshot when the shooting started.

    I tried to think of ways I could leave and transform somewhere else. But I came up with nothing. These terrorists weren''t born yesterday; they wouldn''t fall for a needing-to-go-to-the-restroom excuse. One guy did try that earlier. The terrorists told him to pee on his chair.

    Next, I considered stabbing myself, another trick I saw in movies. But these assholes probably wouldn''t care if I bled to death. Not that¡¯d happen. I''d regenerate my injuries, exposing myself as an Adumbrae.

    There was also the problem of the bombs.

    I assumed the boxy metal things they unloaded from the Greaves containers were bombs. What else could they be? If I were a terrorist, I''d bring a bomb or two along as an insurance policy.

    But now that we were changing locations, there could be an opportunity to use my ability safely.

    Mom was also out of the way. I''d have to save her later, of course. Maybe Deen could get her while I stayed here and be a humongous distraction. Distraction and destruction.

    Fuck Pino. I could turn into Blanchette instead and rip everyone¡ªI bumped into Deen''s back.

    She abruptly stopped walking. Looking over her shoulder, she glared at me, obviously trying to tell me something. Too bad neither of us had telepathic powers.

    "What is it?" I asked in a low voice. Did her Guardian Angel have a message?

    As we shuffled out of our row, Deen let me go ahead of her and walked close behind me. She tightly gripped my arm and bent down to whisper right at my ear. "Whatever it is you''re planning, don''t do it. That''s what Gabe told me to tell you."

    "But I''m not planning anything," I said. Technically that wasn''t a lie. I was just entertaining the thought of berserking as Blanchette; I wasn''t going to do it because I might lose control and crush Mom if I brought down this building.

    "Erind, we''re going to save your Mom," she continued. "I promise you that. But now''s not the time. We should listen to Gabe so that we''ll be safe."

    "We? We will be safe?" I questioningly repeated her words, emphasizing ''we''. I was hinting that her Guardian Angel''s advice was only for her safety; it didn''t include Mom and me. Or the other hostages when it came down to it. I was laying the groundwork for possibly manipulating her later.

    "Yes. We," Deen firmly said. I wasn''t sure if she picked up what I was implying. "I''m going to make sure that all of us, and I mean all, will make it out alive and well."

    Her claim was a tall order even if she had a future-seeing pet. But it was a good thing her ''hero'' instincts kicked in. It was easier to push her in the direction I wanted if I could market it as being heroic and selfless.

    We followed the stream of people shuffling out of the makeshift hall. The terrorists had removed some partition wall panels at the end of the aisle to allow us to move out faster.

    Packed crowds irritated me to no end, so I tried to entertain myself by people-watching, or rather hostage-watching. I hadn''t been in this situation before; it was interesting to see the different reactions of people.

    Most had gaunt faces, heads bowed, and shoulders slumped. Others had blank expressions, probably shocked at the misfortune that had befallen us, their eyes staring into nothingness. Some looked like they had been crying, with runny makeup and puffy eyes. A few stood tall, striving to appear confident and unfazed.

    "Look, there are others," Deen said as we exited the hall into the wider event area.

    It turned out that we weren''t the only ones taken hostage. Smaller groups from other parts of the convention center merged with ours, swelling our numbers to more than two hundred.

    This telegraphed that there were more than just a dozen or so terrorists. If they had to guard all these people in different locations for the past hour, there had to be at least twenty of them, likely more.

    "What do they need so many hostages for?" wondered the woman in front of me.

    "Shut the hell up," someone rebuked her.

    Her voice cracked as she started to get hysterical. "They must be planning something bad for us!" she insisted. That was already obvious, but I knew she meant that the Tea Party might have something worse in store for us than simply holding us hostage. "When are the police going to come and save us?"

    "Quiet down, lady," barked a gruff man. "I don''t want to get fucking sprayed with bullets."

    The woman''s friend, probably her boyfriend, calmed her down.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    She did have a point. The more hostages, the better for bargaining with the police, but it''d also be harder to manage.

    Speaking of managing hostages, why were these dickfucks transferring us? Wouldn''t it be better to lump us all together in the middle of the convention center, surround us, and just shoot whoever stands?

    "Mother Core, in our time of need¡­" The middle-aged man sitting beside me earlier was mumbling a prayer while holding beads. I didn¡¯t take him as someone religious. ¡°Be our guide, our strength...¡±

    "Oh my god, Jeff!" cried out a girl. Her voice sounded young; I couldn''t see her because she was further ahead in the crowd. And I also didn''t know who Jeff was. From the wailing and shouting, I''d say he was one of the dead bodies.

    We passed several of them. It was easy to tell if a corpse was coming up because there''d be a wave of murmuring. Next, the mass of people would push against each other, parting to give a wide berth to the corpse.

    Deen tapped my shoulder. I raised a brow at her.

    She pointed to a corpse lying in a fetal position behind a table. It appeared that the man tried to hide behind it for cover, but it wasn''t as bulletproof as he''d like. The shot was pretty lucky, blowing away a quarter of his head off¡ªwell, the terrorist was lucky, not him.

    I was about to ask Deen what was up with this specific corpse when I noticed he was wearing a University of Nevada jacket.

    "There''s another guy with a UNLV jacket,¡± I said, pointing to a dead body splayed on the other side of the table. It only came into view when we passed by it.

    ¡°Yes¡­I think that¡¯s them,¡± Deen said. She didn¡¯t need to explain who ¡®them¡¯ was.

    If this was the same guy bothering her earlier, then let this be proof that an ancient curse would fall upon those who''d hit on Deen while I was around.

    It was surprising how calm Deen was seeing all of these. After pointing out the dead UNLV guys, she continued walking and didn¡¯t say anything else. Compared to when we were at the Eve underground arena, she was highly agitated seeing innocent people getting fed to the mutants. I was expecting her to get stressed in this situation and fixate on how to bring these terrorists to justice.

    She had more control of herself now. Good for her.

    But I might have been premature with my assessment because I felt her clasp my arm again.

    She had an edgy look as she murmured through clenched teeth, ¡°Don¡¯t react to anything that¡¯ll happen. Just stay calm and keep walking.¡± This must be her Guardian Angel¡¯s instructions.

    ¡°Um, okay,¡± I said. ¡°What¡¯s going to happen?¡±

    The world immediately replied to my question. Shouting erupted about a dozen paces behind us. ¡°Fight them! Let¡¯s all fight together!¡±

    ¡°Go back in line if you don¡¯t want to die!¡±

    ¡°Rise, you sheep!¡±

    ¡°Be brave. We can take them on!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re asking for it, brave guy!¡±

    Loud voices layered on each other, and I could no longer understand what was happening. I just knew that someone was going to get hurt soon. Sure enough, gunfire put an end to the racket. Deen¡¯s grip on my arm tightened, and it was beginning to hurt slightly.

    I turned to her to tell her to cut that shit out, but I noticed she had closed her eyes. She was chanting to herself as if that would drown out the shooting and cries of pain. This was the Deen I was familiar with. It was kind of nostalgic, bringing back memories of our Eve shenanigans.

    From what the terrorist was yelling, it sounded like a few people attempted to grab their weapons. And when that didn¡¯t work, some tried to make a run for it.

    ¡°I know you want to help the people too,¡± Deen passionately whispered. ¡°But now is not the time.¡± She sounded like she was trying to convince herself, not me.

    ¡°Okay,¡± I replied, pushing down the urge to giggle. Her Guardian Angel told her not to blow our cover, and she shared the message with me as if I was the one who might cause an issue.

    ¡°We¡¯re heading to the conference rooms, right?¡± she said.

    ¡°I think so.¡± I hadn¡¯t visited that part of this vast building. Mom went there earlier for a meeting. She told us when she returned that several function rooms of various sizes were there, from meeting rooms for a dozen people to something for a modest wedding or birthday party.

    ¡°If so, they¡¯ll split us up.¡±

    ¡°Unless they¡¯re planning to cram us all into one small conference hall or something,¡± I pointed out.

    Deen shook her head. ¡°If they only wanted all the hostages in one place, they would''ve stayed back there,¡± she explained, echoing my thoughts. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what they¡¯re planning, but I''m fairly confident they will split us. They didn''t even gather all the hostages before this.¡±

    ¡°I hope so,¡± I said. It¡¯d be a nightmare for me if they were going to pack more than a couple of hundred people in a place meant for half that. I might just decide to go with my berserking Blanchette plan and say ¡®fuck this¡¯ to the world.

    ¡°Dividing the hostages equals fewer guards per group,¡± Deen said. "Or no guards at all. They can just put us in rooms and lock it.¡±

    "And just leave someone to watch the corridor?" I wondered. "They''d free up manpower for their plan, whatever it is." It was a plausible reason why these fuckers wanted to move the hostage horde elsewhere.

    "If my hunch is correct, it''s going to be our chance to¡ª"

    The tall man in front of me suddenly turned and bent down. Deen and I jolted in surprise. I tried to stop myself from punching him.

    While walking backward, he talked to us. ¡°You girls planning to escape?¡± A neatly trimmed full beard covered his face, and he wore a fitting dress shirt that emphasized that he was jacked to the max. He also had a Greaves employee ID.

    ¡°Um¡­yes,¡± I said to the eavesdropping fuckface. It wasn''t like I could deny it. We weren¡¯t as quiet as we thought we were.

    ¡°I think most people are thinking of escaping,¡± Deen chimed in with steel in her voice. "It''s only normal." I sensed she wasn¡¯t too keen on this man and was probably trying to make us appear less serious with what we were talking about.

    ¡°Me and the missus want to join.¡± The man jabbed his thumb at his chest and then pointed to the woman with curly hair beside him.

    ¡°Tesh, what the hell?¡± said his wife. ¡°Face front if you don¡¯t want to be obvious about it.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, ma''am!¡± he said as he spun around.

    ¡°Might as well paint yourself neon green if you want to draw attention to yourself.¡±

    "I''ll frigging do just that if we get out of here in one piece." He continued our conversation over his shoulder, "Stay close to us, got it? We''ll aim to be in the same group if they do split up everyone."

    His wife added, "I''m Kiera, and my hubby is Tesh. Just say we''re relatives. I''ll have a mega-crying sesh about losing my nieces if they try to separate us."

    "Okay, we will," I wasn''t going to refuse them¡ªfodder for me. I gave Deen a sidelong glance, asking for her thoughts.

    She furrowed her brows. I shrugged. After a couple of seconds, she tilted her head, giving me the go-ahead. However, she was making apparent her displeasure, or possible distrust, of working with these people.

    And I found that extremely weird. Shouldn''t she be happy that we have teammates in our quest to be heroes and save people? Her Guardian Angel didn¡¯t appear to have said anything, so this must be a good choice.

    "I''m Erind, and this is Deen," I told the couple of prospective puppets. Fate must be on my side for sending them for Pino to use. In some ways, the world must be done with fucking me over. "Let''s see what we can do."

    Tesh gave us a thumbs up, while Kiera simply nodded.

    The turtle''s pace of the crowd¡ªwere there any fast turtles?¡ªslowed to that of a snail''s. The choke point was the wide double doors leading to the function rooms. The terrorists seemed to divide people into groups before sending them in, causing heavy traffic.

    Deen and I looked at each other, our eyes glinting in celebration.

    But others weren''t as happy as us. Some were worried that the Tea Party was making smaller groups of hostages to execute us efficiently.

    That was kind of dumb if that were the case; they could''ve just released some hostages if we were too many to handle instead of making this elaborate setup just to kill people. So far, we also hadn''t heard any gunshots or cries of pain. If they were really killing people, I could just fight them.

    "Eighteen, nineteen, and twenty," said the terrorist at the door. He blocked the way with his gun like a parking lot gate, those swinging arm thingies. The twentieth guy in the line followed the rest of his group through the doors. "Next!" the terrorist called, and he began counting again.

    In my estimate, Deen and I would be part of this group.

    The middle-aged man with the prayer beads suddenly cut the line in front of Tesh, becoming number fifteen. Tesh and Kiera followed as sixteen and seventeen, respectively. Deen and I stuck close to them, jostling other people away so we''d be counted next. Fucking Praying Man almost separated the two of us.

    "Short girl, you''re nineteen," the terrorist said, even though I wasn''t that short. Unfortunately, he wore a balaclava with a visor covering his eyes, so I couldn''t note his appearance to ''shorten'' his life later. "Next¡ª"

    "Wait for me!" The familiar female voice made me turn. Imani dove out of the crowd to reach me. "I''m their friend!" She unceremoniously pushed back the next person in line and took his place. "We-we''re friends. Ple-please don''t separate us. I''m going to have a panic attack if¡ª"

    "You''re twenty," said the terrorist to her. "Shut it and go."

 5.28

    What is this bitch up to? I quickly glanced over my shoulder to check Imani. She was looking right at me. Creepy weirdo¡­

    Our band of twenty hostages trooped up the stairs to the second floor of the convention center¡¯s east wing. I was the nineteenth in line while the suspicious as fuck Imani was behind me. She tried to talk to me about something a couple of moments ago, but a terrorist asshole told her to shut it.

    Not sure if I should even listen to anything she¡¯d say.

    There was no way Imani was an innocent hostage at the wrong place and wrong time like me. I may not be innocent in many things, but I was a hundred percent innocent this time. I came here expecting a boring ass event with nothing happening, but it ended up like this through no fault of mine.

    Foe? Or definitely foe? I took inventory of what I knew about Imani.

    She seemed to be shadowing me; there was no other logical explanation for everything that had happened.

    Bumping into me at a bakeshop wasn''t sketchy in itself. But the thief bastard who stole my phone afterward, leading me back to Imani during the chase, was absolutely super suspicious.

    I bet that guy was part of some kind of setup to make me feel grateful to her for helping me get my phone back. Then I''d become friends with her, and...I dunno what was the next step of their plan. She knew I was staying in a condominium while I was here in Vegas, so they were tracking me.

    For what reason? I had no clue. But it was undoubtedly nothing good for me.

    Granted, the condo thing could be just a lucky guess. However, this bitch showed up at the Greaves Tech Fair even though she told me she didn''t want to visit this event.

    Fine, she could have a last-minute change of heart, but why now when I was also here? Why now when this fucking Tea Party¡ªa stupid name for a criminal organization even if I liked tea¡ªattacked this place?

    Was this like an even more elaborate ruse for Imani to save the day and endear herself to me?

    If it was, it meant Imani was connected to these pieces of shit. When we visited that hole-in-the-wall cafe, she had mentioned that the Tea Party was expanding its criminal activities. And then they showed their ugly faces here? Metaphorically¡ªthey were wearing face masks except for Circus Mustache.

    I wasn''t new to coincidences; a shit ton has happened to me since I became an Adumbrae because of coincidences and misunderstandings. But this was just too much.

    A Tea Party member with a gun waited for us at the top of the stairs. He pointed us down the hallway, telling us the room number of our holding cell of sorts. It was the only room with an open door. Another Tea Party goon stood outside of it with a gun trained on us.

    Walking through the corridor, I intently listened for any sound coming from the rooms we passed. Nothing. Either the rooms had good sound insulation, probably a must-have for hosting an event, or there were no people in these yet.

    In any case, Deen and I had guessed right that they would split us up.

    They were dividing like a couple of hundred people into groups of twentyish. There might be rooms with a capacity for bigger groups. Assuming we''d end up with ten groups, there was no way the Tea Party would put a guard in each group. Even if there were a couple of guards per room, some groups of hostages might still try to overpower them.

    Better not to have any guards inside the rooms at all. Instead, I expected them to lock the rooms from the outside and have someone guard the corridor. This was what Deen also thought was going to happen.

    And that was exactly how it unfolded.

    When we reached our assigned room, I checked the door across from ours. A black contraption secured it with a huge metal bar placed there by these terrorists. The rooms behind me didn''t have it, but those further ahead did. They filled the rooms with hostages starting from the furthest one.

    "Get inside quickly!" barked the terrorist near the door. He stood a few feet away from us, ready to shoot anyone who''d try to jump on him and try to wrestle his gun away. "We don''t have all fucking day."

    "Okay, okay, man." Tesh held his hands up. "We''re following your instructions."

    "Don''t hurt us," Deen chimed in, trying to sound like a damsel in distress. Unfortunately, her charming magic did not affect the Tea Party member who kept his gun pointed at us.

    "Hey!" Imani exclaimed as the terrorist shoved her inside the room. She bumped into me, and I hit Deen''s back. "Watch it, you¡ª!" she started to yell.

    The terrorist shut the door in her face.

    "That jerk!" Imani turned to me, her frustrated expression that was probably faked softening into a friendly one. "Sorry for bumping into you, Erind," she said. "That''s the second time that happened. I swear I''m not doing it on purpose."

    "Yeah...I guess this is twice now," I said. And probably intentional again. "But it''s not your fault. He pushed you." After a second of thought, I added. "Are you okay?" Friendly and caring Erind reporting for duty. Imani''s plan was obviously to get close to me, and I was going to give her that to know her true intentions.

    "Yes, I am. Don''t worry about¡ªwah!" She flinched at the banging and metallic clanking on the other side of the door.

    The terrorist was presumably installing that lock mechanism thingy to shut us in. Whirring sounds and keen whining followed. The door vibrated a bit. We skipped back as three tiny drills breached the thick wooden door. The drills expanded into hooks, securing the entire contraption to the door and locking it in place.

    "Thank the Mother Core they''re not executing us!" a woman exclaimed, her voice wavering as she broke into tears.

    "Fucking scumbags," grumbled an old man with great posture for his age, wearing an expensive suit. "I''ll ensure all of them will rot in jail for this.¡±

    The other hostages spread out in the room, leaving me and Deen, Tesh and his wife, and also Imani by the door. The Praying Man walked a few paces away, stopped, and then returned to our huddle. He must''ve heard us talk about escaping earlier and wanted to listen more about our plans.

    Do you know who''d also be interested in our escape plans? I quickly glanced at Imani to check her reaction.

    She was chewing her lips, deep in thought about something. Probably thinking about how to rat us out. Rather than assigning guards to each hostage group, it was better to plant a mole to watch us.

    "That''s that, I guess?" Tesh sighed, throwing his hands up in resignation. "We''re locked in here."

    "Without any of them with us," Kiera pointed out. "That''s definitely progress on the not-getting-shot part, and also the trying-to-escape part."

    "This looks pretty secure though," her husband said, thumping the door with the side of his fist.

    "I''m sure we''ll be able to figure out how to get out," I said, looking over at Deen.

    She subtly nodded. We were both thinking the same thing: we could easily fucking bust down this door with super strength. That stupid ass fancy lock contraption couldn''t hold us here. Well, not maybe exactly the same thought¡ªDeen probably didn''t curse in her head as much as I did.

    Deen nudged her head to the door and raised a brow. I shrugged in response, signing that I had no idea how we were going to destroy the door without exposing our not-so-human secret. She narrowed her eyes, looked at the door in thought, and firmly nodded as she faced me again. I took that to mean that we''d eventually figure it out.

    Really weird and a bit amusing that I could non-verbally communicate with her to this extent.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    Could it be, I sarcastically thought, that I finally found a true friend? We spent a lot of time together, and I might be better at reading her actions and predicting what she was thinking.

    But if I could do that, could she, in turn, also read my mind? If I wore my face well, she shouldn''t be able to.

    "Nothing that elbow grease can''t open." Tesh half-heartedly laughed at his joke.

    "Yeah, right," scoffed Kiera with her hands on her hips. "You haven''t been to the gym for half a year, and you want to force this open?"

    "It''s best not to antagonize these criminals," warned the Praying Man. "That''d only draw attention to us. If we''re unlucky and make a mistake, they''d closely watch our specific group, making it harder to escape. That is...if they don''t kill us."

    "Right..." Tesh looked at his wife, then at Deen and me.

    He must be weirded out that the Praying Man suddenly inserted himself into our group even though we hadn''t invited him over. Not that we would reject him¡ªwe''d probably end up trying to convince everyone to join in on the plan anyway.

    "We need to make a foolproof plan before acting," said the Praying Man. "Let''s check this room and talk to others. Maybe we''ll learn something." He walked away, stopped when we didn''t follow him, then waved for us to come.

    Tesh followed him, and so did the rest of our group. I was getting the vibe that Prayer Man wanted to be our leader. He didn''t even introduce himself to us. Drama in a crisis movie? I had seen plenty of those.

    We were in a fairly spacious conference room. There was a long oval-shaped conference table with twenty seats¡ªeight on either side plus one chair on each end.

    On the far wall, the white projector screen was rolled down. The projector on the ceiling was turned on, displaying a picture of Circus Mustache with a speech bubble above his head saying, ¡®Wait for the video to start!''

    Four people sat down by the table. But most didn''t, wary of the large object on top of it.

    It was a black metal box, similar to the others I saw at the fair. It was about the size of an ice cooler chest. A bomb per room? Okay. Why do they have so many of these things?

    If I transformed into Pino, would the Erind body I¡¯d leave behind survive a bomb? I did live after a grenade exploded in front of me. But if the explosion were strong enough to pulverize this entire room, then I would no doubt die.

    Can¡¯t we just chuck this thing out the window?

    The blinds on the window were closed, but through the slits, there were flashes of red and blue lights. Half a dozen people were by the window, peeking through the blinds to check what was happening outside. Someone tried to open the view fully, but another person stopped him.

    "The police are positioned across the parking lot!"

    "We''re gonna get saved! At last!"

    "Hey, stay away from the windows, you idiots," said the man who didn''t want the blinds opened. "Do you want to become swiss cheese?"

    "What do you mean? It''s the police, they''re gonna come and save us."

    "Yes, they want to save us," said the Window Guardian. "But they can''t save all of us. And you better pray they don''t come here."

    "Why the hell not?" demanded a woman who looked like a bossy principal. She folded her arms and tapped her heels on the floor tiles to complete the whole vibe. "How do you expect to be saved? Hmm? You''re waiting for these animals to simply release us?"

    "That''s exactly what I''m waiting for, lady," the Window Guardian replied. "If the police attack, there''ll be shooting. When, not if, when the shooting starts, we better not be in view of either the police or the terrorists because they won''t know who''s fucking who.

    ¡°It''s not that I don''t want to draw the short straw, I''d rather not have any drawing of straws. The best-case scenario is that the Tea Party releases us because we''re unimportant. I know I''m not. Sit tight if you want to live."

    "They''re not going to let me go!" cried the dapper old man. I¡¯d say he was indirectly showing off how ¡®important¡¯ he was.

    "Let''s do what he says and just wait. I''m sure the police are already negotiating with¡ª"

    "Open the goddamn window so the police can see me! Maybe TV people are out there? I want my family to see me!"

    "Stay away, I say! Don''t open the fucking blinds and stay away from the window!"

    And then the arguments erupted. I had seen this many times in zombie movies, disaster movies, survival movies, those sorts of shows¡ªpeople always argued instead of working together, and it always ended badly.

    I groaned in exasperation. Can''t these people just wait for their turn to die with their mouths shut?

    On one hand, I was delighted that the movies I watched were realistic. It was kind of not possible to study and practice how to act like an average person in situations like this one because it wasn''t every day I got taken hostage by terrorists. On the other hand, everyday people in a group were annoying as fuck.

    "Should we step in?" Deen whispered to me.

    "They won''t listen to us." I wanted to add that hot blondes usually weren''t picked as the leader-type character in movies, but Deen might pick up that I wasn''t as distraught as she¡¯d expect I should be about my mother getting taken by terrorists. I shouldn''t drop my face and break Rule #7 even though I was getting used to Deen.

    At any rate, these people wouldn''t pay attention to two young women. That was just the reality of how groups worked. I turned to Tesh, expectedly looking at him. Deen followed my lead. His wife was already urging him to stop the ongoing shitshow.

    He hesitantly stepped forward. But Praying Man had decided it was his time to shine, confidently striding in front of Tesh while waving his hands to placate everyone.

    "People, people, let''s calm down." Praying Man raised his voice to get everybody''s attention. "Before we decide on anything, how about we wait for the video? Let''s listen to the Tea Party''s message and¡ª"

    "I''m not going to watch that piece of shit! They must''ve put some of those, whatchamacallit? Subliminal messaging stuff there!¡±

    "Indoctrination. That¡¯s what it will be about,¡± claimed the Principal. ¡°Radicalization propaganda.¡±

    "I''m sure the video is about their terms. We should know¡ª"

    "When¡¯s the show going to start?"

    "We should destroy the projector before their devilish message begins! Keep our eyes and ears pure for the Mother Core to¡ª"

    "To hell with the Mother Core! Play the goddamn video so I''ll know how much my family should pay to get me out of here!"

    Can I get transferred to another group? I sighed. Deen''s expression showed she was thinking the same thing. I could probably summon my mask and change into Pino, and no one would notice me.

    Oh wait, Deen would. What would be a good story about why I''d suddenly pass out and a peculiar mannequin poof into existence?

    "Uh, excuse me, Erind." Imani tapped my shoulder. Here was another person who''d notice if I whipped out a mask. An annoying thorn in my butt that I should carefully watch out for. "Can I talk to you for a bit?" she said in a low voice, pointing to the far corner of the room.

    "What are you guys whispering over there?" Deen came closer to us.

    "Hi there! I''m Imani Nanda." She readily offered her hand to Deen. "Sorry I haven''t introduced myself to you earlier."

    Deen shook her hand. "Amber Deen. Are you Erind''s friend?" she asked, even though I had already told her about Imani.

    "Um, I suppose I am," Imani said. She gave me a sidelong glance.

    You''re not, I thought as I timidly grinned.

    "What were you two going to talk about? Can I join in?" Deen made a face as she pointed to the arguing idiots. "I just want to get away from the noise."

    Fuck off, Deen. I was this close to finding out what this snitch bitch was up to, but my snoopy best friend had to barge in. I was Imani''s target; she wouldn''t feel comfortable talking about whatever she needed from me if Deen was listening in on us.

    "Sure, you can," Imani excitedly said, her eyes brightening. "I also wanted to talk to you, actually. But I wasn''t sure how to approach you, so I thought of asking Erind first because we already know each other."

    Wait, what? Was Deen her actual target, or was Imani just making conversation? Guy or girl, everyone wanted to talk to Deen. Guess I''ll have to find out what Imani''s true goal is.

    "I have something important to say to both of you," Imani said. She had to raise her voice to fend off the rising noise from the shouting match of the idiots. Tesh, Kiera, and others had joined in the fun. "Don''t be surprised, okay? What I''ll say will¡ª"

    A booming drumroll shut everyone up in the room.

    The Tea Party''s video was starting.

    We all looked at each other. Then the arguments restarted, even louder than before. Those who didn''t want to stop the video wanted to tear down the projector screen, while others tried to stop them. They eventually managed to drag the white cloth down, which obviously did nothing. The projector continued to display Circus Mustache''s mug on the wall.

    I kind of preferred the group of survivors when the 2Ms'' attacked my former condo building back at La Esperanza.

    The drumroll faded, and Circus Mustache spoke, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Now for the much-awaited portion of the evening! More waiting!" He laughed at his stupid joke before continuing, "I do hope you''re well-behaved enough not to try to escape your respective rooms. But if you did, you''d have already found out what the box in front of you contains. Now for the big reveal!"

    The sides of the metal box divided into slats and folded sideways, revealing the glass walls beneath them. Through the glass, we could see what was inside the box.

    It turned out it wasn''t a bomb. It was filled with canisters the size of my arm, each containing liquid and...

    "Worms?" I said. "No...parasites."

 5.29

    Can they just be worms?

    Maybe the Tea Party liked collecting worms, slugs, or whatever these things were. Circus Mustache definitely sounded like he had overgrown maggots crawling up his ass, feeding on his assholeness. That''s an excellent line; I did come up with the most creative things when stressed out. And the thought of wading through hordes of parasite-infested tentacle zombie bullshit...AGAIN...was super fucking annoying.

    Of course, these are the same fucking parasites in my condo!

    I hadn''t seen how the attack on my former condo back in La Esperanza began, but I figured it would''ve been something like this. I spotted tons of broken canisters inside an elevator on my floor. They were on the pushcart I used to move my original Erind body around while in my Pino form.

    And how many worms in canisters were there in the world? It wasn''t like these were sold at the local grocery store. These were the same parasites the 2Ms were using¡ªthat they created, according to Stella¡ªwhich meant that the Tea Party and 2Ms were connected.

    "Quiet down, everyone!" Praying Man said, pushing away the idiots who tore down the projector screen. "For the love of the Mother Core, quiet down! We should watch the video because this is a matter of life and death.¡±

    "Erind, is something wrong?" Deen whispered. Her brows furrowed as she leaned close to me.

    Something must''ve shown on my face. Probably my annoyance peeked? "Uh...ye-yes," I stammered. Fearful? Anxious? Let''s go with a worried expression. "I-I think I know what those things are."

    "Really? What?"

    "My condo...my old condo..." I shivered as I trailed off. I didn''t need to elaborate. Deen''s eyes widened, realizing what I meant.

    "Settle down, settle down, children," Circus Mustache said. "But if you are already settled down because you''re well-behaved, then ignore that. I assumed the reveal of our special guests on your tables would cause some of you to react, perhaps violently, so I paused to give you time to digest the situation and compose yourselves."

    "Are you sure?" Deen said. She noticed Imani subtly shuffling closer toward us, trying to listen to our conversation. Deen lowered her voice. "They''re...those things in your condo?"

    I shrugged. "I guess so? I''m not sure...but what else could they be?"

    "Listen to me if you want to leave this building," Circus Mustache continued. "Leave alive, mind you. I''m not doing some wordplay trick that you''re leaving this building in body bags or in pieces. I''m a man of my word, and I swear you¡¯ll be able to leave alive if you listen to me."

    There was murmuring among us; those words made our whole group calm. No more outbursts or fighting. These people wanted to learn how to survive. But it was stupid of them to believe that this terrorist was telling the truth.

    Leave alive?Yeah, right. More like leaving the building as zombie-parasite thingies¡ªthat counted as alive.

    And then the police would open fire. They''d also call the BID to help scrub this place clean of inhuman beings. I supposed that Circus Mustache would still be a man of his word, as he claimed, if the people-turned-monsters died outside the convention center.

    "I bet you like to hear that, don''t you?" Circus Mustache winked at the camera. "I''m sure you''re all listening to me with both ears now."

    With a frown, Circus Mustache looked to his side; someone off-camera was talking to him. The microphone didn''t quite pick up what that person said, but it sounded like a female voice.

    Circus Mustache scowled and faced the camera again. "Fine, fine, I''m not going to play around anymore. I''ll keep this simple, people. We''re doing something in this building that''s none of your business. A couple of hours? Maybe more? No matter how long it takes, we only ask you to stay in your assigned rooms, put your hands on your laps, and be good boys and girls. You can sing songs if you like."

    "We should stop what they''re doing." That was Deen, of course. It was in her DNA to say that kind of stupid thing.

    "Mom first," I reminded her.

    "Uh-huh, we''ll get your Mom. Then we''ll save these people and stop the Tea Party''s evil plans, okay?"

    I nodded. I didn''t clarify that I agreed only to the first part of what she said to me. After getting my Mom, I wouldn''t give a rat''s ass about anybody else. Rat¡¯s ass? Was that the first time I used that idiom? What¡¯s a rat¡¯s ass?

    Circus Mustache spoke, "You''re very much welcome to try breaking the doors and windows of your rooms. But I have my eye on you. There''s a camera on top of the boxes on your tables watching your every move." He must be referring to the small bump on the metal crate flashing red light. "You''ll find out soon enough what these disgusting darlings can do. The same thing will happen if you try to break the camera or do anything to the box. And what will happen? It''s a secret...but no one''s stopping you from finding out."

    "No one touch it!" Praying Man loudly said. "I''m sure they can remotely control it and release those ungodly creatures if we don''t follow their instructions."

    "No one''s dumb enough to touch that," someone called out.

    Window Guardian took the seat right in front of the metal box. He leaned back on the swivel chair and placed his feet on the table. The thick soles of his boots thumped on the hardwood. "And I''m making sure it goddamn stays that way." He must really like guarding stuff.

    "But I hope you don''t try to find out," Circus Mustache said. "We had to pay through the nose for those ugly fat slugs. And we''d rather not use them on you, so kindly don''t give us a reason to. No offense, but you are not worth the money we paid for those disgusting creatures. You get to keep your lives, and we don''t waste resources. A good deal, right?"

    These fuckers bought parasites from the 2Ms?

    When I encountered Stella in my Pino form, she mentioned that they were ''field-testing'' the parasites at my old condo, may my condo rest in peace. She also told me they were weapons smugglers before or something. Perhaps other bad guy organizations, impressed by how the 2Ms'' parasites ''performed'' in La Esperanza, bought some for themselves?

    Wait...is the Tea Party the 2Ms'' rival organization in Vegas? Stella''s underlings accused me of being sent from Vegas, and I sort of went with that misunderstanding as Pino. I supposed business was business, and the Tea Party really wanted the parasites.

    Not sure what these parasites were supposed to be for, but these assholes should¡¯ve gone for bombs instead of these creepy things. Bombs sounded cheaper, from what Circus Mustache said. But then again, I had no idea what their aims were other than stealing hi-tech stuff.

    Maybe it was a bad guy thing? If they wanted to terrorize people, these parasites would undoubtedly be the top choice compared to a bomb.

    Circus Mustache went on, "After the Tea Party is done with our business, we will release you batch by batch to keep things organized. There are so many of you, and we lack human resources, so please understand our situation. You will hear the ringing of a bell when it''s time for your group to exit this place. Think of it as the school bell ringing for class dismissal time.

    "The door of your respective rooms will open, and voila! You''re free to go! Leave the building and continue going about your day. If you want to stay around and check if your loved ones are among the dead, be my guest. I¡¯d even suggest taking pictures on your way out as souvenirs of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Anything you want! But before that, just stay in your rooms and be well-behaved."

    Everything sounded sketchy as fuck.

    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    Before, Circus Mustache spoke of ¡®shopping¡¯ for stuff here, which meant stealing. But now, he was talking about this mysterious ¡®business¡¯ of theirs. They had something else planned.

    Furthermore, the Tea Party wouldn''t go through the trouble of dividing all the hostages into groups and putting them in rooms with parasites if they only wanted to secure us, as Circus Mustache claimed. A hundred percent, they were going to turn people into zombie mutant thingies.

    I know what their escape plan is! I gasped a tiny bit which made Deen glance at me.

    Shaking my head and then flicking my eyes back to the video, I wordlessly told her that we continue watching until the end before I shared my thoughts. Circus Mustache wasn''t saying anything important, mostly just rants about how the Tea Party was doing the world a favor. I took the time to consider if I was right about my suspicion.

    The Tea Party was going to stall hostage negotiations, or whatever was happening with the police right now, until they built up a vast monster army¡ªthe parasite zombies did mutate into stronger creatures given time. I think they also evolved when they ate each other. When these asshats were ready to leave, they''d let the monsters out into the city.

    The police, expecting to fight a group of terrorists, would be ill-equipped to fight a horde of monsters. Maybe the police could handle a couple dozen of them, but not a couple of hundred. And I wouldn''t be surprised if the Tea Party released parasites in other locations too, mimicking the 2Ms setting monsters loose around EFU Medical Center and the police station where Johann worked.

    Amid the chaos, the Tea Party could easily escape.

    With monsters rampaging in the city, the police would have their hands full. They would be hard-pressed to chase a criminal organization with a stupid name when their priority should be saving innocent civilians getting chomped by monsters.

    Fortunately, the Tea Party hadn''t turned people into monsters yet; they weren''t done with their ¡®business¡¯.

    But what could it be? The goal of the 2Ms at La Esperanza was to make an Adumbrae Titan or something evil villainy like that. Escaping the police after a heist seemed incredibly tame in comparison.

    Is the Tea Party also planning to make an Adumbrae Titan? They surely lacked originality if they¡¯d go for the same thing as the 2Ms.

    Deen might be right that we should stop the Tea Party from doing...stuff.

    Mom and the Greaves corporate bigwigs were separated from the rest of us. I was hoping that''d keep her safe, that she wouldn''t get turned into a parasite because the Tea Party deemed her important. But if an Adumbrae Titan were going to show up here, Mom would be in grave danger.

    And if I find Mom as a zombie...

    "Erind?" Deen nudged me with her elbow, snapping me out of my thoughts. "It''s over. Are you okay?"

    I didn''t notice that the video had already ended. A picture of Circus Mustache¡¯s face with a speech bubble saying, "Wait for your turn," continued to be projected on the wall.

    No more shouting, no more arguments. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement that everyone would follow Circus Mustache''s instructions and simply wait for our group''s turn to be ''released''. Promising safety and freedom if no one attempted to escape was a genius idea to keep hostages pacified.

    Tesh and Kiera were whispering to each other, probably thinking of calling off our plan. Plan to plan¡ªwe didn¡¯t have an actual escape plan yet. Praying Man was telling people to relax; he tried to get people to start praying to the Mother Core with him. Window Guardian told off some curious guys who wanted to examine the metal crate with parasites.

    Imani, her hands clenched, sighed as she examined our group. What could she be thinking about?

    She turned to me and met my eyes.

    I dropped my gaze and said to Deen. "Ye-yes, I''m okay." After a pause, I honestly added, "I''m just thinking about Mom." That went without saying, but this was more of a reminder for Deen because I could guess what she was thinking.

    Deen grasped my arm and led me away from the others. "We need to be careful how we act." Behind her, I noticed Imani tentatively approaching us. "I know you''re worried about your Mom, Erind. But we shouldn''t act rashly because we''ll endanger these people."

    I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes. This was precisely what I expected from her. If it were just me, knowing what the Tea Party had in store for us, I''d be busting out of here to find Mom. Fuck these other people. I had my own life to worry about.

    But in Deen''s eyes, my Mom''s life didn''t outweigh eighteen others. She wouldn''t agree to sacrifice everyone else to save only Mom. And I needed Deen''s cooperation to protect my Erind body after I turned into Pino and for her future-seeing powers to navigate this situation as safely as possible.

    "Tell me what you know about those worms," Deen said. "We''ll figure out¡ª" She stopped talking because I was shaking my head. She looked over her shoulder. "Imani? What is it?"

    "Um, sorry for interrupting," Imani said. "But I have to continue what I was about to tell you earlier before we were interrupted. It''s really, really important. You see, I''m also¡ª"

    "I think that can wait later," Deen interrupted her. "Erind and I need to talk¡ª"

    "Deen, it''s fine," I said. Before planning anything, we should first find out what Imani truly was. Depending on what she''d say, I''d know if she was a spy, as I suspected, or not. And we''d also be alerted if the Tea Party already knew about us. "Let''s hear it, Imani."

    "Okay, this might come out of left field," she said, "And I really don''t know how to start this, but here goes." She took a deep breath. "We''re all on the same side."

    "Huh?" I said. She needed to be more specific than that because I was on a lot of sides. Pino was even on the Tea Party side because I pretended to be hired by the criminal syndicate here in Vegas.

    Imani leaned closer and whispered, "I''m working with the Professor too. I also fight Adumbrae like the two of you."

    "What?!" Deen exclaimed. Some hostages looked at us. I wanted to cover my face with my palm in exasperation. She bent down and whispered, "Uh, I mean...what are you talking about?"

    "It''s kinda late to play dumb, Deen," I said with a nervous laugh, even though I wanted to wrangle her neck. Way to expose us, my stupid best friend.

    I didn''t immediately react to Imani''s revelation because it wouldn''t surprise me if the Tea Party had intel about the Professor, and she was using it to get closer to us. We were a threat to the Tea Party. If she could fool us into thinking we were allies, she could neutralize us when we least expected it. More than half of me still suspected her of being a mole.

    But another possibility arose¡ªthe secret organization behind Dario could''ve sent her. They wouldn''t care about me, but they''d certainly care about Deen. This would explain why Imani was interested in Deen over me.

    "You and Erind are part of a group in La Esperanza that fights Adumbrae," Imani told Deen. Somehow, it irked me that she faced her instead of me. "You are working with the Professor. He gives you supplies such as weapons...and also Suppressors and the Diluters¡ªyes, I know what those are, the blue and red vials. Unfortunately, I don''t have any on me to show as proof.¡±

    Deen¡¯s forehead wrinkled, but she didn¡¯t say anything. Good thing she was guarding her words now.

    As for me, I wasn¡¯t still sure which of my two guesses was correct. There was another possibility¡ªcould Imani be someone innocent that this Professor asshole tricked into becoming a ¡®hero¡¯ like Myra and the rest?

    ¡°I know this is a big shock," Imani pressed on. "Believe me; I was just as surprised as you were when I knew there were other groups. Unlike your situation in La Esperanza, my friends and I fight the Adumbrae in this city¡ªmostly just the criminal gangs dealing with the Adumbrae black market. We do our best, but we''re not as accomplished or experienced as you guys.¡±

    "Do you also have...?" Deen placed her hand on her chest where her artificial Core should be. She didn¡¯t finish her sentence, possibly testing Imani if she knew about it.

    "An artificial Core?¡± Imani shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t have one. There are four of us in our group. Only two have artificial Cores. Yes, I know about artificial Cores because we also work with the Professor. And I also know that you have one while Erind doesn''t. I hope that¡¯s enough to convince you.¡±

    Hearing her story, it was probably safe to say Imani wasn''t with the Tea Party. Not sure if that was a good thing though. I asked her, ¡°But why now?¡±

    ¡°Erind¡¯s right,¡± Deen agreed. ¡°Why weren¡¯t we told that there are other groups like yours? All this time, we thought it was only us at La Esperanza and the Professor fighting the Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°I also only recently knew about this,¡± Imani said. ¡°Just a few days ago, in fact.¡± She explained that the Professor didn''t want the different groups with artificial Cores to know about each other for security reasons. "The Professor decided to tell us about you guys in La Esperanza because¡ª"

    "Because of Deen," I finished. Everything was starting to make sense.

    Different groups with artificial Cores bolstered Myra''s theory that there was a huge secret organization behind Dario and that the story he sold to us was bullshit. It''d also make sense that they''d look for Deen, given that she had a powerful ability. They probably had a mini-heart attack when Deen suddenly left La Esperanza.

    But how did they know so fast? Imani already knew about us just a few hours after we entered Vegas.

    "Uh...you''re right," Imani said. "We were tasked with protecting Deen from the shadows and not reveal ourselves, but..." She gestured around us. "We''re in this situation now. I choose to talk to you and tell you the truth because we should work together.¡±

    ¡°Work for what?¡± Deen cautiously asked.

    ¡°We should work together to fight the Tea Party and save the hostages."

    Damn it! She''s a Deen clone!

 5.30

    "The Tea Party is a criminal syndicate based here in Vegas,¡± Imani said, ¡°that deals with illegal augmentations and enhancements."

    It was grating that she was mostly talking to Deen.

    This was nothing new. My presence lowered whenever I was next to my beautiful best friend¡ªI wouldn¡¯t be surprised if invisibility were the superpower I had all along. Given that Imani knew that Deen had an artificial Core while I didn¡¯t, she probably readily assumed I was the sidekick, which was kind of true.

    Imani tilted her head towards me. "I think I had mentioned the Tea Party to Erind when we were at the caf¨¦ buying food and drinks."

    Deen glowered at me, conveying with piercing eyes that she was still pissed that I kept my meeting with Imani a secret from her. She was more of a mom than my actual mother.

    I squinted at the ceiling, pretending to have trouble remembering our caf¨¦ conversation. "I guess so? Weren''t we chatting about whether it''s safe around here or something? Vegas isn¡¯t like the safest place to live, but I didn¡¯t know it was this dangerous here."

    "I''m sorry you experienced this during your visit." Imani gave us an apologetic grin. "Vegas isn''t like this usually, I swear. But now that we''re in this situation, we have to act. We can''t let the Tea Party get away with what they''re planning to do."

    "And we have to save the hostages too," Deen said. Her eyes flicked towards me. "All of them."

    Imani perceived the meaning behind Deen''s words. "Don''t worry, Erind." She proceeded to repeat the same tiresome assurances Deen had told me several times already. Those were empty words until I saw concrete action.

    "What else do you know about the Tea Party?" I interjected. Now that we knew Imani''s deal, it was time to question her and perhaps wheedle out the truth. I wasn''t simply accepting her story. "Your group is fighting with them, am I right?"

    Imani''s eyes widened. "How did you know?"

    I didn''t say anything further because she might pick up some stuff and pretend she knew about it all along, like a fortune-teller making general predictions to give an air of credibility. Instead, I waited for her to explain herself.

    Deen kept her mouth shut and didn''t give Imani more clues about us.

    After a few seconds of awkward silence, Imani realized she should continue talking. "You''re right; my friends and I are fighting the Tea Party here in Vegas, just like your group is fighting...the Adumbrae...in La Esperanza." She looked over her shoulder when she mentioned the word ''Adumbrae''. "The Tea Party is the biggest tech gang in the city, probably the whole state. Quite famous here.

    ¡°But people know only about the tech aspect of their illegal business. Their other operations¡ªblack market Adumbrae body parts trading, protecting actual Adumbrae, those sorts of crimes¡ªare not so well known. They even have Adumbrae among their ranks too. Though I know the Tea Party¡¯s Adumbrae activities are far below what you¡¯re up against in La Esperanza, I can see that on TV.

    ¡°However, we had some successes against them. The biggest one was exposing their laboratory a few miles outside the city. A small group of BID agents came to investigate the information we leaked. Fighting ensued, and the outnumbered agents would¡¯ve all died if we weren¡¯t there to save them. We also trapped their previous leader until BID reinforcements arrived. Too bad he offed himself before he could be arrested.¡±

    Pride oozed from Imani as she told us that story.

    Was she trying to show that their group could also pull their weight? She was probably intimidated because we were so much more ''accomplished'' in her mind.

    "And the Professor told you about the Tea Party doing, um, Adumbrae stuff?¡± I asked. ¡°Then you formed a group to¡ª"

    "No, not me. Our contact with the Professor is Jubjub. That''s her codename, by the way. We agreed to use codenames when on a mission. Jubjub says it''ll be safer if someone overhears or eavesdrops on us and that it''ll also help foster group cohesion."

    I gave Deen a side-long glance.

    She closed her eyes a second too long for a blink, telling me she got it. The codename story was the same thing Dario told our group; this must be part of the modus operandi of this secret organization making artificial Cores.

    For sure, codenames would contribute to the feeling of being sort of a resistance movement, the secrecy thing, being heroes and all that. Other groups with artificial Cores¡ªand I was sure there were more of us¡ªmust also be using codenames.

    Sadly, Deen and I never got to pick ours. A lot of things happened after we joined Dario''s group that everyone sort of forgot about it¡ªproof that the codename thing was just for show.

    "The Tea Party got its name from Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland," Imani explained. "You know the book written by Lewis Caroll? Most people think that it''s from the Boston Tea Party and that they¡¯re a terrorist movement against the government, but that isn¡¯t so. The previous leader of the Tea Party went by the alias ''Mad Hatter''. The current leader calls himself ''March Hare''. Those two characters are part of the tea party scene in the book."

    "Oh, Jubjub bird!" Deen blurted out. "It''s also a character from Alice¡¯s Adventures in Wonderland, isn''t it? My nanny read it to me when I was a kid. I remember¡ª"

    "Did you also get your codenames from the same book?" I asked before Deen could reminisce more about her childhood that nobody cared about.

    While I was allergic to emotional stuff, I was actually doing Deen a huge favor here.

    Everybody knew that if the side character in a movie talked about their backstory, they would die soon. And, yes, I was the main character here, even though it didn''t look like it. Once I turned into Pino and started my not-yet-formulated plan of saving Mom and kicking Tea Party ass, I was going to be the star of this show...this shitshow.

    "Not the book," Imani said, "but from the poems also written by Lewis Caroll. My codename is Tove, our leader is Jubjub, and Boojum and Snark were the two guys you saw earlier with me. Those are the names of mysterious creatures that Lewis Caroll only vaguely described in his poems.

    "And they didn''t actually appear there. Lewis Caroll himself wanted them to stay unimaginable; he even wouldn''t confirm if they really existed in the world of his stories besides being mentioned by the characters. We thought they''d be good names for a group that operates in the shadows."

    "That''s a cool theme," I said, mildly impressed. The names Blanchette and Pino were from fairy tales too. But the whole Lewis Caroll reasoning for Imani''s group''s codenames was so much better than mine. My process was just a step above picking names from vaguely related stories to my powers.

    "Yep, it is," Deen agreed. "Should we call you Tove, or is Imani fine?"

    "Just call me Imani so there''s less confusion."

    "Anyway, back to the Tea Party," I said. "There''s something I want to ask. Your group is fighting them, right? Do you know what they want here?"

    "We don''t know exactly what they''re planning this time," said Imani. "Stealing the items in this Fair is one, but it seems that''s only a cover for their true goals. Those worms on the table¡ªI guess it''s connected to that? Something this big, attacking an event like this, and also taking into account what''s happening over at La Esperanza recently, I''m sure they''re going to do something Adumbrae-related."

    "You didn''t know the Tea Party was going to come here?"

    "Uh...no," Imani said after a suspicious pause. Then she spoke more firmly, "If we knew beforehand, we could''ve prepared for it, maybe even alert the police. I don''t think only the four of us could do anything to stop this from happening."

    "So, why are you here?" I asked, trying to keep an accusatory tone out of my voice.

    "Oh, right. I told you I didn''t go to Tech Fairs while we were at the caf¨¦. We were tailing you and Deen for your protection and followed you here. Not protect you from the Tea Party or anything like that; just protect you in general. And thank the Mother Core we did because now we can work together to fight the Tea Party."

    "It''s a lucky coincidence," I said, mentally smirking. Three out of the four members of their group just so happened to be here? That didn''t sound like a simple protection duty.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    With only four members, it would be hard to keep an eye on us all the time¡ªthey''d need to have solo shifts, just like our group did when we were observing Bianca.

    Imani wasn''t telling us the truth. There was a reason that three of them were here, probably even all four. I wouldn''t be surprised if they knew the Tea Party was going to come but just didn''t know the extent of the attack.

    "Can I also ask a question?" Imani said. Deen and I nodded. "How did you know we were fighting the Tea Party? Do you have information about their Adumbrae operations? Did you learn something from your missions in La Esperanza?"

    "It''s because I know what those things are," I said, jabbing my thumb toward the box of parasites on the conference table.

    "You do?" Imani said. "That''s great that we have intel! I''ve been puzzling about what we should do about them. What are they? What do they¡ª?"

    Deen stepped forward and said, "Before we go any further, can I talk with Erind privately?"

    "Um, sure. Go ahead. I''ll...I''ll just keep an eye on the worms."

    "I hope you don''t take this the wrong way."

    "No, no, I get it. It is pretty suspicious that someone like me just shows up. I¡¯m not offended at all."

    After Imani walked away, Deen asked me, "Are we going to believe her or not?"

    She shared my thoughts that Imani''s knowledge of the Suppressor, artificial Cores, and those kinds of stuff were points in her favor. And Imani also knew that Deen had an artificial Core while I didn''t; she could''ve only gotten that information from the Professor.

    "They''re also doing that codename thing," I added.

    "Yeah, I''m like ninety-nine percent sure she''s on the Professor''s side."

    "But is she on our side?" I asked. "Is she a Dario Vegas counterpart? Or is she like us before, unaware there''s more to this thing than just the Professor?"

    "We can''t know for sure," Deen said. "She did say it was this Jubjub was their contact with the Professor¡ªnice quick thinking there, by the way. Did you set her up with that one?"

    I grinned at her. "I did. It''d be too suspicious if I asked her directly, so I pretended to assume she could contact the Professor, and she corrected me. She could still be lying, but probably not."

    "I agree. She¡¯s just like us." Deen''s eyes sort of glazed over. "Recruited to fight the Adumbrae but are actually just...experiments. I¡¯m an experiment." Her voice trailed away as she stared at the floor.

    "Deen? Are you okay?¡± Why was this bitch having an existential crisis now? Couldn''t she wait until after we had saved Mom? Nonetheless, part of me was interested in seeing this.

    I had asked her why she decided to meld with an artificial Core. In response, she gave a grand speech about doing her part in the fight against the Adumbrae. Much time had passed since then, and we eventually realized that Dario must be lying to us. But this was the first time Deen expressed that she was duped, that her entire reason for joining Dario''s group was false.

    Although Deen didn''t say it outright, by admitting she was an experiment, she realized she had given up her humanity for nothing.

    Not exactly nothing. She had a superhuman body and powers now. If she wanted to be a hero, she could be. This might be why her insufferable side was popping up more lately. Maybe unconsciously, she was pushing herself to be a hero to justify the artificial Core on her chest and prove that she didn''t make the wrong choice.

    Well, this was her time to shine¡ªplenty of opportunities to become a hero here.

    "Deen, so agree we¡¯re teaming up with Imani?" I spoke a bit louder to get her attention. "We can save more people if we join forces and work together."

    She shook her head to clear her mind. Good that she had a grip on herself again. "Yes, let''s make a plan with her."

    <hr>

    "Let''s take stock of our forces," Imani said, all business-like as if we were the SWAT team on a rescue mission.

    I had just finished explaining the parasites and sharing my suspicions that the Tea Party assholes would use them for their escape. Deen and Imani agreed with my assessment. The problem was that these two bitches wanted to act carefully so that the Tea Party wouldn''t see us doing anything suspicious and release the parasites in this room.

    Should I just engineer an ''accident'' to force the Tea Party to ''press the button''?

    I did not need the hostages now that I was going to work with Imani''s group; I bet they''d make for nice puppets. And in the cover of commotion and death, lots of death, I could transform into Pino.

    "Snark and I have augs," Imani explained. ¡°Unfortunately, we don''t have combat mods for our augs. Otherwise, we couldn''t enter this event. I only have a stun gun inside my arm right now."

    She also explained about the powers of her friends with artificial Cores. This Boojum guy had vacuum thingies on his hands and could heal himself while sucking up people or something like that. He was like my Blanchette form, just that I ate people to regenerate and become stronger.

    Sucking or eating: which was worse?

    Jubjub, their leader, could make shadow familiars to fight and spy for her. She also had other shadow abilities to confuse the enemy, disorient them in darkness, and help her hide. Imani told us Jubjub was somewhere in this building the last they contacted her, hiding while observing everything with her familiars.

    Familiar familiars...that did ring a bell. Not sure what bell it was though.

    Anyway, I was right that all four of these weirdos were inside the building. They did know the Tea Party was going to come. We wouldn¡¯t have been caught up in this bullshit if they had told us to leave.

    "Jubjub will act and reveal herself when the time is right," Imani said. "We can trust her. As for you guys. Deen has an artificial Core while Erind has augs."

    I elbowed Deen to shut her up preemptively.

    Imani noticed it. "Are you not allowed to tell me what your power is?" she asked Deen, completely misunderstanding the situation. "I know it''s supposed to be really powerful, that''s why the Professor wanted us to guard you."

    Guard Deen? More like make sure she didn''t escape. And why did Imani think I had bioaugmentronics? Had she seen me display superstrength?

    "It''s better if I know what your power is," Imani said, "so we take it into account when planning."

    "The Professor didn''t tell you?" Deen glanced at me. "Then I''m not sure if I should..."

    I shrugged. "I think we can just say that when Deen tells you something, it might be a good idea to follow it."

    Imani raised a brow. "Okay then, our priority is teaming up with Boojum and Snark to add to our fighting strength. They should be in one of these other rooms, so finding them shouldn¡¯t be hard. The problem is leaving this room and checking the other rooms without putting the hostages in danger."

    "That''s right," Deen chimed in. "But how can we do that without attracting the Tea Party''s attention? Is there a way to disable the camera on the box?"

    "Maybe I can do it. But if they see that it isn''t working, they''ll know that there''s something wrong and release the parasites anyway."

    I tried to think of a suggestion to contribute but got distracted by shouting. And here I thought our fellow hostages could peacefully sit on their asses for more than five minutes.

    "Fucking let go!" said the man who wanted to open the windows earlier. He held a chair above his head. "I''m getting outta here!"

    Window Man held one of the chair''s legs, trying to pull it down. "You idiot! You''re putting all of us in danger!"

    "It''s every man for himself!"

    And then other people piled on the fun, most wanting to stop Chair Guy for obvious reasons. From the bits and pieces I picked out from all the yelling, Chair Guy wanted to try his luck jumping out the window. The others left behind would be in danger because of what he''d do, but he would be safe.

    We were just on the second floor, and the police were across the parking area. He could probably survive the fall with minor injuries and limp away from the building. But yeah¡­others would die, and they didn¡¯t want that¡ªagain, for obvious reasons.

    Tesh strode through the crowd and punched Chair Guy, knocking him to the ground. Then he took the chair away. "If you do that, you''ll kill the rest of us!"

    "Don''t you see? They''re not gonna let any of us live! At least imma try to save me."

    "Tie him up," ordered Praying Man, bringing extension cords he found inside a cabinet. "All of us will survive if we follow their instructions."

    "Why the fuck are you listening to them?" cried out Chair Guy as they bound him to a chair. "What they''re doing makes no sense if they''re gonna let us go!"

    Oh, we got someone with a brain here. Maybe I could use him for something. As I started formulating a plan, Deen ruined my concentration when she grabbed my arm and pulled me back into our huddle.

    "Deen?"

    "Erind, listen to me," she intensely said. From her furrowed brows and tensed voice, I could tell her Guardian Angel had an urgent message. "Erind, Erind, you should take care of yourself, okay?"

    "Wait, what?" Imani blurted out in confusion. "Is this your power?"

    "Take care of myself?" I asked. Adrenaline coursed through my body because of Deen''s warning. "What''s going to happen?"

    "I don''t know. Just that you should be careful because something bad might happen to you." Deen placed herself in front of me, shielding me from the parasites and the other hostages. "You stay here with me." Then she pointed at Imani. "And you need to destroy the camera when I give the signal."

    "The camera? On the box? Why are we-?" Imani abruptly stopped talking, noticing the horrified look on Deen''s face.

    We all followed her gaze and saw a random guy sitting quietly the whole time¡ªI hadn''t even given him a nickname yet¡ªpick up his chair and rush to the windows. The words of Chair Guy must''ve gotten to him, and he decided to try solo escaping.

    Kiera noticed him too and ran to stop him. "Tesh!" she called out. "Tesh, I need some help here!"

    But it was too late. Chair Guy the Second was already swinging his sitting apparatus at the window.

 5.31

    A large bang echoed as the wheels of the chair connected with the glass.

    Surprisingly, the window held firm. Deen, Imani, and I deflated at the anticlimactic turn of events. It was funny hearing all of us loudly exhale at the same time.

    Did Chair Guy the Second not swing hard enough? Or was the window like those high-impact ones used in hurricane-prone areas? It wouldn¡¯t be surprising if the Greaves convention center installed expensive windows. The crash sounded different from what I''d expect from hitting like ordinary glass or something.

    The rest of the room stopped.

    The people trying to tie the Original Chair Guy turned to look at the new fuckery behind them. Tesh was first to react, extracting himself from the crowd to come to his wife''s aid. As he ran, shouting from everyone erupted.

    "Kiera! I''m coming!"

    "The hell are you doing?"

    "Hey, someone stop that guy!"

    "That''s my fucking plan! You stole my plan, asshole!"

    Chair Guy the Second pulled back the office swivel chair for another try. But its wide base and legs got tangled with the blinds, the wheels eating the slats. He tore a section of the blinds as he pulled the chair away. Kiera, who was trying to wrestle the chair away from him, fell down.

    Bright searchlights flashed by the room, and we could hear the muffled sound of rotors as a helicopter passed by.

    Blinded by anger at his wife getting hit, Tesh charged Chair Guy the Second and slammed him against the window. Kind of dumb if the goal was to not break the glass and anger the Tea Party. Others told him to stop being an idiot.

    Fortunately, the window remained intact. I could see why the Tea Party kept us here¡ªthese rooms would act like holding cells for the monsters they¡¯d make. Only when the parasite creatures had mutated into something stronger could they break out. I bet I''d need to exert a bit of super strength to punch through it if I wanted to.

    "What are you doing?" cried out Praying Man. "Just tie him up!"

    "Let go of me!" The Original Chair Man wasn''t done just yet and tried to escape again with his captors distracted. He shoved the Dapper Old Man and Window Guardian before trying to get another chair and heading for the windows. He didn''t get far as others piled on him like he had the football.

    "Is the box secure?" Praying Man said, nervously checking it.

    ¡°They can see us, right?¡± said Dapper Old Man, adjusting his expansive clothes as he stood up. He waved while approaching the box. ¡°We are following your demands! Do not harm us!¡±

    "Don¡¯t worry ¡®bout it," Window Guardian replied as he got up. "We¡¯re not escaping. We even stopped these two morons. They have no reason to kill us."

    "One can hope," said Praying Man. "Okay, everyone, let¡¯s all calm down now! Wait for our turn to be released. Everyone will be¡ª"

    The Original Chair Guy screamed, "They''re not going to let us go, I tell you! Why aren''t you listening to me? Everyone should try to escape now! Why are you trusting what terrorists¡ªargh!"

    Window Guardian punched his face to shut him up. And probably also as revenge for the attempted violence on windowkind.

    "Everyone, just stop it!" Kiera said. "Tesh, you too. Tie that guy and leave him to the side."

    "We got everything under control here," Praying Man said to the camera on the crate.

    The Tea Party must be enjoying watching our group''s shenanigans. I could picture them snacking on popcorns of evil or whatever terrorists ate while having a good laugh. Or they might be disappointed that the show didn''t last long.

    I shared their sentiment¡ªor the sentiment I was making up for them.

    If only the two Chair Guys continued with their escape plan, the Tea Party would¡¯ve been forced to release the parasites to stop us. I say ''forced'' because I was sure these terrorists would instead save up every tentacle-parasite-zombie they could make for their escape breakout plan. They wouldn¡¯t want to release the parasites before they were done with their mysterious business.

    And when those worms would come out of their canisters, it sounded based on Deen¡¯s warning that they¡¯d come for me.

    Was it because I was an Adumbrae? Did they prefer to take over Adumbrae?

    I had only encountered them after they were already inside people, so I didn''t know if they wanted my body more than others¡ªEwww! But if a majority of them headed my way, and that was a disgusting picture, I could easily slip into Pino during the commotion with Deen none the wiser. She''d be too busy trying to protect me. Everyone else would be preoccupied with surviving.

    Sure, I had to cook up an explanation for why a metal mannequin suddenly appeared, and my Erind body got knocked out cold. But I''d cross the bridge once I got there.

    The most important thing was that I needed an opening to summon my Pino face and put it on. And I couldn''t do that right now because this bitch best friend of mine was watching over me like I was a child that could accidentally get lost in an amusement park.

    "Deen," I whispered as I tapped her shoulder. She still held me back with her arms like she was guarding me in basketball or something¡ªI sucked with sports analogies. "Deen, did your Guardian Angel say anything else?"

    "No...¡± She shook her head. ¡°Nothing more for now."

    "What was that about me destroying the camera?" Imani asked Deen. "Seems like a false alarm, huh? Did your power get it wrong?"

    I found myself half-agreeing with Imani that Deen, or rather her Guardian Angel, made a mistake. The two Chair Guys were securely tied and sat on the floor, far away from anything they could break. The windows were safe, although a section of the blinds was ripped off. The worm box was also untouched.

    Flashes of red and blue lights from the police vehicles across the parking lot accented the room. Several of our group peered through the glass, waving their arms as the helicopter passed by overhead again, but Praying Man shooed them away.

    The other half of me trusted Deen¡¯s invisible pet. This wasn¡¯t the end of it.

    "I-I don''t think I¡¯m wrong," Deen said. She anxiously looked left and right, remaining super on alert. "Just be prepared, okay? Trust my Guard¡ªI mean me. Trust me that something''s about to happen, even if I can¡¯t say what it¡¯ll be."

    "Can''t you tell me what your power is?" insisted Imani. "Is it future sight¡ªor, I guess not. Is it more of a sixth sense type of power? Can you feel¡ª? What?"

    Deen suddenly jerked and pointed at the box of worms. "Now''s the time! Imani, you have to destroy the camera!"

    "You know what? No." Imani stomped her left foot and placed her hands on her hips. "First, tell me what''s going to happen."

    "I-I don''t know! But I''m sure it''s bad, okay? Just destroy the camera. Please!"

    "Deen, it''s not like I don''t trust you. But you have to give me a reason why I should do this. How does your power work?"

    "Girls, calm down over there," Praying Man called out.

    "Just sit down and wait for our turn to get out of here," Window Guardian said.

    "Follow Deen''s instructions, Imani," I emphatically said from behind my best friend. "You can think of it as some kind of future sight if that''d make it simpler. Though it¡¯s not. The important thing is you can¡­and should trust Deen."

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    I doubted explaining about the Guardian Angel would convince Imani; it¡¯d just make everything more confusing. She still probably wouldn¡¯t believe us without a demonstration. And we couldn¡¯t do that right now.

    "If I follow her, I might put everyone in danger," she countered. Locking eyes with Deen, she said, "I''m not saying you''re lying, but I don''t have any experience with how your power works. Nothing''s happening right now. What if I''m the one who''ll make it worse?"

    I could see Imani''s point. As Window Guardian commented earlier, the Tea Party had no reason to kill us, given we had things under control.

    Maybe the Tea Party assholes would release the parasites anyway, and the Guardian Angel was warning us about it? They might think our group would try to escape again, and turning us into monsters would prevent future headaches. Or perhaps they''d want to punish us for trying to break free. Who knows how fucking terrorists think?

    But it did bother me that the Guardian Angel warned us to prepare for danger after Chair Guy the Second tried to break the windows. According to Deen, her pet could see around ten minutes into the future. Shouldn''t it have instead told us to stop the two Chair Guys several minutes in advance?

    If it was somehow better to let the Chair Guys be, then the Guardian Angel should''ve alerted Imani, through Deen, to destroy the camera while the commotion was happening. She¡¯d readily comply in the rush of everything. With time to think, she was expectedly doubting Deen.

    And why wasn''t the Guardian Angel helping Deen to convince Imani to follow her instruction? It should be a breeze for it to do so.

    I¡¯m missing something...

    What was that about the Guardian Angel telling me to be careful? Kind of an out-of-the-blue advice. It was the first time it had a message specifically for me. I didn''t believe for one second that its main intention was to save me. It never cared for the well-being of others unless it affected Deen.

    Furthermore, I was the hardest to kill out of everyone in this room. Maybe Deen, actually. But she was cheating with her powers, so she didn''t count.

    So, what¡¯s her annoying prescient pet up to this time by telling me to be careful? Narrowing my eyes in thought, I stared at Deen''s bouncing golden locks while she argued with Imani.

    Suspenseful background music was needed here. It was like when the main character in a mystery movie was about to figure out the whole plot. Everything was in slow motion; sounds were becoming distant and muffled, the sound of a heart beating slowly taking over everything.

    ''What if I''m the one who''ll make it worse?'' That was what Imani had said. The Guardian Angel should''ve taken this into account. But what if that¡¯s the Guardian Angel''s plan all along?

    "Imani!" I blurted out as I shoved Deen to the side. "Deen''s pseudo-foresight power has never been wrong. Never. That''s why it''s super valuable, and the Professor wanted to protect it."

    "I don¡¯t want to gamble people¡¯s lives,¡± she said. ¡°I can¡¯t just believe¡ª"

    "We know that the Tea Party''s going to turn everyone into monsters," I said, "and they''re about to do it soon. That''s what Deen is sensing! You have to destroy the camera! If they see us killing their expensive slugs and saving the hostages, they will send their guys up here to stop us."

    Deen eagerly nodded. "With the camera gone, they''ll have to assume the parasites will get all of us."

    "Yeah, they''ll just think one of the hostages smashed the camera in desperation or something. They won''t suspect we''re here.¡±

    ¡°And they shouldn''t see what we¡¯re going to do,¡± Deen said. ¡°As soon as the camera is off, I¡¯ll break down the door, and everyone in this room can escape.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Deen can do that with her super strength. She has an artificial Core, remember?¡±

    "Are you sure that''ll work?" Imani said. "If you''re wrong..."

    Uncertainty was still on her face, but she did take a couple of steps back. Her body was already half-turned to the conference table. She needed just a bit more prodding and less time to think about stuff like why were we pushing her to destroy the camera instead of doing it ourselves.

    The obvious answer was that I had to transform into Pino while Deen should be distracted enough not to notice. I obviously couldn''t tell Imani that.

    Instead, I told her, "Then we¡¯ll find your teammates and save other rooms too. We shouldn''t mess this chance up." I hoped my face was very convincing. I didn''t normally do persuasive and desperate because I was supposed to be a minor side character; Deen should pick up the slack.

    Sensing the chance for some heroism, Deen got fired up. "Imani, we¡¯re wasting precious time arguing about this. Destroy the camera before the Tea Party releases the worms. I don¡¯t know how much time we have¡ª"

    "What are you talking about over there?" Praying Man was approaching us. "Camera? What camera?" We had been loudly arguing for a couple of minutes. It was surprising that he only heard us now. "Don''t do anything¡ªHey!¡±

    Imani suddenly rushed past him. He tried to grab her, but she shoved him away with her right hand, her aug-arm. Praying Man tumbled across the floor from the force, crashing into a potted plant.

    "Everyone, to the door!" Imani shouted as she leaped on one end of the conference table. She ran on top of it, heading for the metal crate.

    Confused murmuring was the only reply. People didn''t move.

    Except one.

    "What the hell do you think you''re doing?" Window Guardian said as he clambered on the table, ready to intercept Imani. "Stop that¡ª"

    His body seized up, his arms straightening by his sides. He fell on his face like a tree, not that trees had faces, and rolled off the table like a log, keeping with tree similes.

    Imani had the index finger of her right arm pointed at Window Guardian. She shot him with her stun gun. Then she balled her hand into a fist and raised it high above the metal crate.

    Only then did the other people near the table realize what she planned to do. Most fled in panic to the walls. Two guys stayed and tried to stop her. But they were too late. Imani''s fist hammered the camera.

    We lied to Imani. I lied to her¡ªDeen actually thought I was telling the truth when she backed me up. The Guardian had to go this route, from giving me a weird message to causing Imani to doubt Deen so I''d understand what it was going for. And it had to indirectly communicate with me because Deen would never agree to this plan.

    The Tea Party wasn''t going to release the parasites. But now that we destroyed the camera, they would sic those disgusting slugs on us.

    "Why did you do that?" yelled Praying Man, almost screeching.

    "Stay near me," Deen said, "so I can protect you." She rushed to the door, ramming it with her shoulder.

    The top of the door sort of bent back a bit, but it remained shut¡ªtough door. And the metal bar thingy the terrorists used to lock was doing its job well.

    I opened my hand and concentrated on summoning. The golden liquid rose out of the crystals on my palm. It slowly formed into a humanoid face. But instead of changing into a deep red color, as with my Blanchette face, it turned silver. I bowed, keeping my hand low and covering the faint light with my body.

    Deen was so focused on making an escape route for the hostages that she didn''t notice what I was doing behind her. She even forgot she could''ve just asked me to open it for her, given I was way fucking stronger.

    Her fist smashed through the thick wood. The door still didn''t open; it only gained a new hole. Next, she tried to push against the horizontal metal bar, but it remained firmly attached to the walls, barring our escape and holding the door together. Then she tried breaking the door piece by piece, grunting in frustration.

    Was her Guardian Angel telling her to do this? How the fuck was it going to explain her handiwork to the others? Luckily for her, and me, no one was watching us.

    "You''ve doomed us all!" Praying Man lamented. "The Tea Party will get angry at us!"

    "I''m saving you guys!" Imani explained.

    "We''re all gonna fucking die!" cried the Original Chaircrouched Guy. "Untie me, you fuckers!"

    No one cared to free him, but he gave the rest an idea of how to escape. They all flocked to the windows, bringing their own chairs to attack it. Most of them hit other people instead of glass. I had seen sports riots more organized than this.

    "No! Don''t go there! To the door!" Imani ordered them.

    I thought they were all going to face us, but several hissing and mechanical noises silenced the room. I had no idea how we all heard it over the fucking raucous, but we all did. Perhaps it was so distinct, and everyone subconsciously expected to hear it that we all managed to pick it out.

    Deen instantly turned around, her eyes on the table.

    I was crouching low to her left side, hiding my summoned Pino face.

    She shoved me behind her, instinctively protecting me. I didn''t get to see what happened next to the metal crate. But as she pushed me back to the door, I noticed that she had made some progress breaking it down.

    There were now three holes. The middle one was the biggest, large enough to fit my head through. There it was, the slow motion when the main character was about to figure something out.

    I stood up, putting on my Pino face while aiming my head at the hole. The last time I transformed into Pino, which was also the first, I did it through a dream with SpookyErind. I didn''t know how I became two bodies.

    But with this setup in front of me and the knowledge that the Guardian Angel prepared everything, I felt this was the correct course of action.

    My head shot through the hole in the door just as Pino¡¯s face covered mine.

    The next time I opened my eyes, I faced a door with holes. Through them, I saw Erind--pretty and cute as usual, but a bit pale because I didn''t bother to put on makeup. My original body, outlined by a faint gray hue, closed its eyes and fell back--unconscious, temporarily dead, or whatever.

    Deen''s concerned voice filtered through the holes. "Erind! What happened to you?"

    I stepped forward, about to speak, but some asshole interrupted me.

    "Stop right there, scrap metal!"

    Turning to my left, I saw two Tea Party members down the hall pointing their guns at me.

    "That won''t work," I told them with my robotic voice.

    They opened fire.

 5.32

    A cloud of bullets slapped my body. Staggering backward, I fell on my ass. I may be indestructible, but I was as weak as normal human Erind.

    The fuckers continued shooting.

    Instead of raising my arms to shield myself, I splayed my body on the floor, pretending to be dead. They fired a couple more times to make sure I was down. I could somehow feel the slight vibrations on the floor as they cautiously approached me.

    Turning my lone eyeball to the right, I noticed that our room door had several tiny new holes from the ricocheting bullets. Deen''s Guardian Angel should''ve told her to get away from the door. And no way she would leave my unconscious body behind.

    Given that I was still Pino, I assumed everything was good.

    Good for me.

    The rest of the hostages weren¡¯t fairing that well, judging by all the shouting and shit. Instead of trying to discern what was happening inside, I tuned out the hostages and focused on what the two Tea Party members were mumbling to each other.

    "¡ªgot out?" I didn¡¯t wholly catch what Bastard One said. Their masks and tech gear stuff covering their faces stifled their voices.

    "Are they supposed to look like this?" Bastard Two kicked my head.

    "Dunno, man. Reckon they¡¯ll get pissed we killed one?"

    "Let''s just shove this back in."

    "In the room?" Bastard One peered into the biggest hole in the door. "You crazy? The worms are already fucking out!"

    The other terrorist knelt to examine me closely. He poked my eye with the end of his gun. "This thing really dead? No bullet holes¡ª"

    I raised my right arm and pointed my index finger at his chin. The tip of my finger opened with a slight hiss as an ethereal projectile shot into his body. As soon as I felt our thoughts link up through the blue thread, I blasted him with a command. I concentrated on imposing my will on his body before he realized someone else was inside his head.

    "Should we report¡ª?" Bastard One didn''t get to finish his sentence as a few rounds entered the back of his head, splattering his brains on the door.

    (Todd! What the hell?) Bastard Two exclaimed in his head and also in mine.

    Todd doesn''t sound like a terrorist¡¯s name, I mused as I ordered Bastard Two to shoot his own head.

    It didn''t quite work because it was difficult to point the end of his long arm at himself. The seconds he fumbled with his gun gave him time to gather his thoughts. Jolted by the death of his friend, Bastard Two fiercely resisted my order. Perhaps his instinct of self-preservation also kicked in.

    (No! Get the hell out of my head!) He tried turning the gun towards me.

    (Shoot yourself), I repeated as I got up. I didn''t expect him to be able to do that; I just wanted him to get locked, resisting my thoughts.

    Bastard Two¡¯s horribly shook as his muscles received contradicting commands.

    I punched him right on his chin¡ªthe best way to knock out someone. Nostalgia filled me as I remembered the night the 2Ms attacked my old condo. Good times.

    (Help! Help me!) Unfortunately for him, he didn''t get immediately knocked out. I was too weak. He was still standing, trying to point his gun at me, forgetting I was bulletproof. (Get out! Don¡¯t control me!)

    (You¡¯re making this difficult for both of us.) I continued hitting him.

    Even though I was literally punching like a girl, I had metal knuckles. He shrieked in my head, calling for help from other Tea Party members. Next, he thought I was an Adumbrae trying to control him¡ªwhich was kind of true, just not the way he assumed.

    He blared a prayer to the Mother Core in my head. Too dramatic. The noises from the room beside me also irritated me, and I took it all out on Bastard Two.

    As he fell to his knees and his consciousness faded, silence in my head returned. (You still awake there? No? Time to kill¡ª) Wait¡­I should make him a puppet instead of killing him! After all, that was the point of turning into Pino. A puppet would help me deal with whatever the fuck was inside the room.

    I hurriedly pumped him with my power. I felt the energy in my chest flow down my arm and through the blue thread connecting us. Everything felt natural as if I should be doing this all along.

    Bastard Two''s clothes and balaclava mask started to rip as he rapidly grew like a balloon. A very muscly balloon. Through the tears on his clothes, I observed his skin turning red. The striations of his engorged muscles became prominent as they pressed against his thinning skin. Webs of veins enlarged and began to pop.

    His visor cracked as his head widened; its broken pieces fell to the ground. His deranged bloodshot eyeballs bulged out of his head. There was something poetically ironic about people turning others into monsters but ending up also becoming monsters themselves. I live for dramatic moments like this.

    I stopped the flow of my power. If I didn¡¯t let up, he¡¯d become stronger but would also die faster from his body getting pushed to the brink.

    ¡°Your name is now Todd.¡± As my puppet, I decided to call him something more decent. The name of the colleague he killed sounded like dramatic fun. ¡°Destroy the door, Todd,¡± I commanded him. ¡°And go inside.¡±

    Todd grabbed the metal bar securing the door and forcefully yanked it away. Chunks of wood and concrete flew. Then he backed up a bit before ramming the door, shattering it into matchsticks. As he entered, the shouting inside grew louder.

    I picked up one of the guns on the floor and followed him.

    "Aah! More monsters!"

    "Help! Don''t let me die!"

    "Just stay calm, everyone! Stay behind me!" It was Deen who said that.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    She and Imani were in front of a small group of hostages bunched on the far side of the room. They must''ve fled to the opposite end to avoid the gunfire in the hallway. Among them were Tesh, his wife Kiera, and the annoying Praying Man. Through their feet, I saw my Erind body on the floor, shoved against the wall.

    In total, nine of them, including my body, were in the corner. They positioned themselves there to have an easier time defending against the incoming parasites. They used two squat tables as barricades.

    A few squished parasites were on the floor near them, a couple more on the tables. Imani was squeezing a fat slug to death with her aug-arm while Deen was holding up a chair coated with the black slime from the parasites. They seemed to be doing well for themselves.

    The rest of the hostages weren''t so lucky.

    Window Guardian was lying on the conference table next to the metal crate with empty canisters. His body convulsed as tiny tentacles wiggled out of his mouth. He did manage to kill some parasites, evidenced by the black pools around him.

    Other than a couple more unconscious people here and there, the rest of the hostages were by the window. The glass was bloodied and full of cracks, but they never did manage to break it. The tentacles that burst out of their piled bodies slowly entwined each other.

    I confirmed with Pino''s unique vision that, other than Deen''s group, the parasites got everyone else in the room.

    The green glow covering the victims¡¯ bodies, indicating health, was fading and slowly turning to gray. Focusing on the less fortunate hostages, I saw the red outline of the parasites burrowing inside their bodies, connecting to their spines and brain.

    How long would the parasites take to gain complete control of these bodies? I hadn''t seen anyone infected from the start¡ªOh, I have! The kid living a couple of units down my room. Lisa or something? Stella and her goons infected her with parasites out of spite. I did recall that the little girl grew scales instead of tentacles, so that might¡¯ve been a different kind.

    In any case, my heroic Pino face would take charge of the situation.

    Seeing me approach, Imani raised her aug-arm. Funny how her stun gun and my powers shoot out of our fingers. Deen held her back, whispering something to her. Hopefully, the Guardian Angel was telling her not to be stupid.

    "Don''t be afraid. I''m here to save you!" I announced. Kind of difficult to convince people not to be scared of a metal mannequin with a gun accompanied by a muscular hulk.

    With the wide view of my cyclopean eye, I spotted a slug zipping as fast as a rat toward Deen''s group. This was my chance to demonstrate that I was on their side. I pulled the trigger and strafed the floor. I didn''t hit the worm because my aim sucked.

    But Todd was there to help.

    Moving at a shocking speed, given his size, he rushed to head off the worm. He stepped on it with his oversized foot that had burst out of his boot. Along with crushing the worm, he also cratered the ground with his stomp.

    The hostages screamed in terror; it might''ve looked like Todd was charging them. They cowered further into the corner. Someone even stepped on my Erind body.

    These fucking people are all going to be fodder later! Except for Kiera because she hurriedly hugged my body to protect it.

    "My name is Pino," I said to them. I mentally ordered Todd to back away. He was ruining my heroic moment. "And I''m here to save you. Is everyone okay?"

    "Yeah, right!" Imani said. She furiously pointed her finger at me. ¡°Don¡¯t come any closer!¡±

    The disbelieving faces of the hostages behind her showed they had the same sentiment. Pretty understandable. Or maybe their expression was disgust at the smell of the parasites. I almost forgot how nauseating their stench was.

    Nah, that''s not it. They just don''t buy what I''m saying.

    Deen put her chair down. "Imani, let¡¯s listen to what this¡­uh¡­has to say first." Yet, she looked conflicted as she tried to lower Imani''s arm. She didn¡¯t think I was a friend at all, but her Guardian Angel must''ve whispered something to her.

    She shouldn''t know anything about Pino. I never told Deen about the actual events of the night the 2Ms attacked my condo, only broad strokes of it. Something along the lines of Myra and Johann saving me. And that was it.

    Deen never asked for more details, probably thinking about my mental health. She tried to shield me from trauma whenever she could, even if it was overreacting.

    ¡°Are you a member of the Tea Party?¡± Imani demanded. ¡°And what in Mother Core¡¯s name are you?¡±

    I gestured with my gun at the slug Todd had killed. "As you can see. I''m on your side." I tried to make my creepy metallic voice sound affable. "I''m an enemy of the Tea Party and want to stop their plans." I pointed to the hostages with tentacles growing out of them. "We don''t have much time, so you should¡ª"

    "But what are you?" Imani repeated. "You didn''t answer my question."

    And it''s an excellent question. Should I pretend that I was a Corebring? No way they were going to believe that, right? My old story that I was an Adumbrae on the side of good¡ªwhich was close to the truth¡ªwas more plausible. But would Imani agree to work with an Adumbrae? That was like against her whole thing.

    Then the perfect story came to me.

    "I am," I dramatically said, "a top-secret android made by Greaves and the government." Bullshit spewing was off the charts. But this story was more palatable than the truth. Without a better explanation, they would have to accept what I told them.

    "Holy shit!" Tesh exclaimed.

    "An android? Wha-? I don''t understand." Imani stopped struggling to free her aug-arm from Deen''s grasp.

    That gave me another idea. I extended my right arm. (Todd, remove my forearm.)

    He grabbed my limb with his meaty fists and separated it at the joint. The people gasped. Todd let my forearm fall to the ground. I concentrated on pulling it back in place.

    "Yes, an android,¡± I said. ¡°But not just any android. My AI was developed with technology stolen from the Corebrings." That elicited more surprised reactions. I put a finger to my temple and intensely stared at them as if I was reading their minds. "You must think I¡¯m the Tea Party¡¯s target."

    Some of them nodded.

    "You''re only partially right," I said. "There are other valuable pieces of technology hidden in this building that the Tea Party wants to get their hands on. That''s why they locked you in these rooms." Despite the situation, I enjoyed making up stories. "And the full extent of their plans are far worse than robbery. With those parasites made from Adumbrae parts, they plan to turn you all into monsters!"

    "What the fuck was that about Adumbrae parts?" cried out a guy at the back of their group.

    "Mother Core bless us..." Praying Man started praying.

    "Are you saying these are Adumbrae?" Tesh said, pointing at one of the worms they had killed.

    "No. But they are made from Adumbrae bodies collected by the Tea Party from their black market trade." I nudged my head to Window Guardian, who sat on the conference table. It looked like a bunch of spaghetti that came to life was trying to get out of his mouth. "The Tea Party is going to turn all of you into that and release you into the city. While the police are distracted fighting the monsters, the Tea Party will make their escape."

    "Just like what happened in La Esperanza," Imani said, recalling what I told her earlier as Erind. I was certain that telling her the same thing as Pino upped my credibility.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to turn into Adumbrae too?¡± Kiera said.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I replied. Sure, let¡¯s go with that.

    ¡°Mother Core!¡± Praying Man exclaimed. ¡°That can¡¯t be!¡±

    Other tentacle zombies were standing up. The group of hostages by the window was merging, turning into a weird-ass ball of bodies bound by tentacles. A fight was coming right up.

    "Listen to me," I firmly said. "Anyone infected by the parasite is already gone. Do not think that they are still human, do not try to save them, and do not let your conscience bother you. We will kill any infected creature, or they will kill you. Understand?" I said that to the whole group, but that was meant for Deen.

    All of them nodded, including Deen and Imani.

    "Now, go to the door and leave this room. I''ll take care of these creatures." I sent a command to Todd. (Throw that ball of people out the window!)

 5.33 - Black Spade

    Black Spade

    "The police are such comedians, aren''t they?" Black Spade said to Josh walking beside him. "They want us to release a few hostages as a sign of goodwill?" He dramatically raised his arms, making sure that the ends of his magenta tailcoat swished as he yelled at the concrete ceiling. "We''re the bad guys here! What part of that is hard to understand? If we had an ounce of goodwill inside us, we wouldn¡¯t be doing this at all!"

    "Sir, uh, I think..." Josh hesitantly said.

    "Spit it out! Share your thoughts. This is a free country. That¡¯s what they want you to think anyway."

    "Sir, maybe they want proof that we can be trusted during negotiations?"

    "If that''s the case, it''s the police that should show proof that they can be trusted! Corrupt bastards leeching off the system while building a facade of being the good guys. Everyone knows they receive more money from Greaves than their government salaries!"

    "Uh, yes, sir," Josh hurriedly replied. "I was just saying¡ª"

    "I know, Josh. And your assessment is correct; I was pointing out the hypocrisy. A gold star for you!" Black Spade drew the shape in the air with his finger. Josh looked left and right, seemingly confused. "Wait a sec," Black Spade said. "It''s hard to tell because I made you all wear masks, and I apologize if I made a mistake. But, are you Josh?"

    Josh, who turned out to be Not-Josh, shook his head. "No, sir, I''m¡ª"

    "I''m not asking who you are. Who the hell is Josh?"

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we have a Josh, sir.¡±

    "Hmm..." Black Spade twirled his mustache as he racked his memory. ¡°That¡¯s true, though I never did care for your names.¡± His heavy footsteps were like gongs echoing in the massive parking area beneath the Greaves convention center.

    They set up their command post here so they''d have a tinge of safety if the BID decided to bomb them. And if the BID sniffed what was happening here, they would want to pulverize this place. Black Spade''s job was to ensure this would remain only a police matter until they managed to transfer all specimens through Legba''s doors connected to their hideout.

    To that end, Black Spade played the part of a crazed terrorist. He made ridiculous demands to the police negotiators, such as having a plane land next to the building that they could use to escape.

    But the situation shouldn''t appear too much bullshittery, or the police might suspect some funny business going on. Releasing hostages didn''t seem that bad of an idea to make the police think they were making progress. Maybe even a Greaves corporate officer or two to make Sheriff Bernardino feel like he was showing his worth to his Greaves overlords.

    "I remember who Josh is!" Black Spade snapped his metallic fingers. It made a weird clang instead of the satisfying smack a normal palm would make¡ªa downside of his bioaugmentronics. "He''s from that romcom series I watched the other day." He turned to Not-Josh. "What was I talking about again?"

    "My name, sir?"

    "Before that."

    "The hostages?"

    "That''s right. Another gold star for you." Black Spade held up five fingers. "We''re going to release five Greaves employees. Just rank-and-file, grunt people, not the higher-ups. You go collect five and present them to me." Not-Josh gave him a clumsy salute before running off to the elevator.

    Five sounds like a good number.

    If they were all Greaves employees, it would keep the hopes of the police up that they''d eventually release officers. It would present a nice progression on the whole hostage negotiation matter, buying time before the police realized something fishy was going on.

    Of course, they wouldn¡¯t actually release important Greaves people because Euphonia wanted them for herself¡ªshe did have a revenge thing with them from what Black Spade heard.

    Not my problem, and it wasn¡¯t polite to pry into the personal business of others. He should stick to his own business, the business of gathering test subjects for the Supplier for reasons that weren¡¯t his business. That was why they targeted the Greaves Tech Fair¡ªthey needed a large number of people from all walks of life, not merely random people they could kidnap off the streets.

    Black Spade smirked, imagining the aftermath of this operation. The police storming in with their special forces, the ComExos stomping around, brandishing their weapons. Those idiots would charge through the building, breaking down doors, searching rooms.

    And they''d find...nothing.

    Everyone would be gone!

    Black Spade would pay a hundred thousand dollars to see the sheriff''s stupid perplexed face when he''d get the report that dozens and dozens of people vanished into thin air, including the Tea Party.

    "Instead of paying that amount, we could just leave more cameras to see what''ll happen," he muttered to himself.

    "Black Spade, sir!" another Not-Josh called out as he approached the food delivery truck that was their command center. "You have to see this!"

    "What is it? Something not according to my marvelous plan?"

    "One of the monsters got out!"

    "How is that possible?¡± Black Spade frowned. Then his eyes went wide, and he grabbed the man who just spoke. ¡°And what the hell did you just say? Don¡¯t you dare call them monsters, even though they are. They¡¯re test subjects, get it?¡±

    This other Not-Josh hurriedly answered, ¡°Yes, sir! Test subjects.¡±

    ¡°In this day and age, we have to be politically correct in referring to others. Now, you¡¯re telling me one of the test subjects got out of its room?¡±

    The man nodded.

    Black Spade exhaled in exasperation, pushed aside the panicking man, and strode inside the truck. Those inside were yelling at each other, pointing at screens. They instantly fell silent when they saw him enter. "Settle down, children,¡± he said. ¡°Show me what the fuck is happening.¡±

    They retreated to give him space. One pointed at the screen in the upper left, showing part of the corridor of the wing where the hostages were kept. The last time Black Spade had seen that area, it was empty, the hostages secured in the conference rooms.

    Now...it wasn''t.

    A large humanoid with reddish skin, more muscular than any bodybuilder Black Spade had ever seen, was tearing down the door of one of the rooms. This man easily ripped apart the metal and thick wood as if they were made of cardboard. Then it ambled down the corridor and stood in the middle to block it with its huge body. Its raised arms were riddled with small bursts of red; someone outside the screen was shooting at it.

    Another screen showed three of his men¡ªthe guards assigned to that floor¡ªby the stairs, emptying their magazines at something further ahead. Obviously, the mysterious monster was their target. Bullets weren''t working at all. They might as well be shooting a wall, a very beefy wall of flesh.

    "What in Mother Core''s name is going on?" Black Spade hurriedly covered his mouth. "Apologies. How insensitive of me to invoke the Mother Core when we''re working with Adumbrae. Don''t tell March Hare or Red Head that I mentioned the Mother Core, okay?"

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    His men behind him nodded.

    Black Spades furrowed his brows as he glowered at them. How many times did he need to remind these idiots? It was impolite to only nod. His mother always told him to speak up. "Okay, people?" He repeated in a low voice through gritted teeth.

    "Yes, sir!"

    "We won''t say anything, sir."

    "Sir, okay, sir!"

    "Back to the problem at hand, or on the screen," Black Spade said. "Guesses on what that thing is?¡±

    "Uh, sir...I think it''s one of those parasite monsters¡ª"

    ¡°Test subject!¡± loudly interjected the man that Black Spade lectured outside. ¡°A test subject somehow escaped, sir.¡±

    ¡°A test subject? That guy?" Black Spade pointed at the screen with the fleshy hulk. It disappeared from there. "That guy?" he repeated, pointing at the next screen. ¡°I don¡¯t think so, although it awfully looks like one.¡±

    Two women entered the room with the destroyed door. A few moments later, several people came rushing out. Another camera pointing at a different part of the corridor showed that it was packed with more scared-looking people. Black Spade surmised that at least a couple of other rooms had been broken into, with their prisoners freed.

    This fleshy hulk was freeing the hostages. Intentionally at that. It would¡¯ve already attacked the people if this was a test subject. This was someone whose consciousness wasn¡¯t controlled by the unconscionably expensive slugs that should¡¯ve had a discount because of how putrid they were.

    An enhanced human, perhaps? This guy should sue the morons who did his operation because he looked like he was stung by a trillion bees, not even looking remotely human anymore.

    Or maybe this party gatecrasher was no longer human. An Adumbrae?

    If this guy was an Adumbrae, he might be a new member of those blasted clowns who attacked their laboratory and had a part in Mad Hatter¡¯s death. The Supplier told them that the pompous louts operating in La Esperanza also had a run-in with a group of Adumbrae playing heroes.

    The fleshy hulk suddenly rushed down the corridor to the guards by the stairs. It caught two of them, tearing them to pieces like a hopeless romantic removing petals from a flower stalk.

    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s gross,¡± Black Spade said, acting nonchalant despite the rage boiling inside him. ¡°I take it back that we need higher resolution cameras. Oh wait, we¡¯re just jacking into the building¡¯s security feed, right? I expected more from Greaves.¡±

    The last man didn¡¯t take his chance to escape. Instead, he continued to shoot while the others were getting ripped apart. When he ran out of bullets, he whacked the monster with the butt of his gun with apparently no care for his safety.

    But Black Spade couldn¡¯t praise him for bravery, for he wasn¡¯t actually a man or even human.

    The fleshy hulk lashed out with a backhand, sending the not-human slamming against the wall. The punch that followed shattered the not-human into pottery shards, revealing its true nature¡ªone of the flimsy, plaster men made by Finlay.

    ¡°Low-quality dregs. Only good for bolstering numbers like a fake crowd paid to attend a political campaign.¡±

    ¡°Sir, what should we do?¡±

    Black Spade groaned as he stretched his neck. Extraordinarily irksome. Fucking life, throwing wrenches into the cogs of his well-laid plans. If his plans were to be ruined, might as well ruin it further himself. I should be in control.

    ¡°Which room is this one?¡± He tapped the screen with the escaping hostages. ¡°Release the slugs in there.¡±

    ¡°Sir?¡± The man who spoke had his finger hovering over a button. ¡°But they¡¯ll spread and¡ª¡±

    Black Spade pressed the button himself. He allowed a slight smirk on his face as total pandemonium ensued. The parasites were too tiny to see on camera, but it was clear from the absolute riot in the corridor that they were loose and doing their best to burrow into people¡¯s bodies. Fun, but smelly little shits, those slugs.

    ¡°Continue with the operation,¡± he said. ¡°Keep in contact with Legba. Let¡¯s transport as much as we can.¡± Black Spade exhaled as his anxiety fell. Things weren¡¯t going well at all, but he threw the wrench right back at this bastard who popped out of nowhere.

    Maybe they should try to capture this guy too, whoever this was? The Supplier might be interested in such a peculiar specimen.

    The fleshy hulk didn¡¯t seem perturbed by the whole mess. It had stopped destroying the door, dumbly looking at the people scrambling over each other.

    ¡°Wait a splendid minute.¡± Black Spade leaned forward and examined the monster on the screen. Then he looked over his shoulder and noted his men from head to toe as they looked at each other in confusion.

    It was hard to tell because the fleshy hulk¡¯s clothes were torn and stretched like the latest fashion craze the youngsters at the club wear, but he was sure it was the same attire as what his men had on. The clincher was that a ripped balaclava partially covered the monster¡¯s bulbous head.

    ¡°Did you see where this guy came from?¡± Black Spade asked his men. Fleshy hulk here probably stole someone¡¯s clothes and mask, and strolled here like he was part of their group. The plan to have his men conceal their faces to hide the presence of Finlay¡¯s dummies spectacularly backfired.

    ¡°Uh, no, sir. I swear it just showed up on that floor!¡±

    ¡°This huge asshole? Look at how huge it is! You¡¯re telling me he just showed up like a teleporting dick out of nowhere?¡±

    ¡°It-it¡¯s the truth!¡± his underling stammered. ¡°We di-didn¡¯t see it-it on any other ca-camera. Our boys by the stairs also didn¡¯t notice it.¡±

    Another guy spoke up. ¡°There was this room with crazy people. They were fighting each other, and we were all watching¡ª¡±

    ¡°In case they tried to escape!¡±

    The other man eagerly nodded. ¡°Yes, we were watching closely because they might do some stupid shit like escaping.¡±

    ¡°The room with the hot blonde¡ª?¡±

    ¡°No! We don¡¯t know about any hot blonde.¡± All the Not-Joshes elbowed the Not-Josh who just spoke. These idiots weren¡¯t doing their jobs. ¡°Those crazies there destroyed the camera, so we released the worms in that room.¡±

    ¡°Yes, just like you told us, sir!¡±

    ¡°Sir, the instructions you left us were to check the mutations before calling Legba so he¡¯ll know where to send it. We tried to get the camera back online, but no dice¡ª¡±

    ¡°The sensors were also picking up something weird. And¡ª¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s your excuse why you didn¡¯t see what happened?¡±

    Black Spade sighed while staring at the screen. Some of the parasites managed to find hosts. The hostages who got lucky retreated further down the hall, leaving behind the convulsing bodies of their short-term roommates on the floor. In the next minute or so, the slugs would have complete control of their hosts, and the mutations would start.

    ¡°Then we saw that on the cam! It also appeared out of nowhere! That big musclehead and this walking robot poofed there and started busting down doors!¡±

    From the crowd, another curiosity emerged. ¡°What fresh weirdness is this?¡± Black Spade sat up straight as a chrome figure strode forward.

    ¡°Swear, that robot was simply there the next moment we looked!¡±

    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t, you idiot.¡±

    ¡°Shut the hell up. You were just looking for the blondie!¡±

    Black Spade¡¯s first thought that it was someone wearing armor, but it was too slim. This metal lady, for it seemed to have a feminine form, pointed its finger at the fleshy hulk standing idly the whole time. Was it giving a command?

    The fleshy hulk surged forward, almost diving at the infected bodies, and smooshed them to paste. Black Spade jolted at the brutal sight despite having witnessed much violence and perpetrated much of it. The Not-Joshes stopped bickering, watching in horrified silence.

    The rest of the hostages fled the other way.

    Black Spade chewed his tongue. I don¡¯t know what to make of this. They had transported a hundred people already. That might be enough. It was probably unsafe to continue, for the enemy might be able to get inside Legba¡¯s doors.

    ¡°Okay, people,¡± he clapped his hand to get their attention. ¡°Change of plans. We¡¯re going with Plan C. Pack up your shits and tell Legba what we¡¯re doing. As for our two uninvited guests, contact Red Head and tell him to capture them.¡± They¡¯d make an excellent gift to the Supplier if they were Adumbrae. Even if not, they looked like they were valuable specimens.

    ¡°Having a wee bit of trouble there, my twirly mustached friend?¡±

    Black Spade turned to the door of the truck. One of his men stood there. No, it was Finlay¡¯s puppet. It removed its visor and pulled down the front of its mask to reveal a ratty face. It was no longer a puppet¡ªit was Finlay. This must be what Finlay told him earlier about being able to teleport freely among his puppets.

    ¡°A small hiccup, yeah.¡± Black Spade shrugged.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t sound like a small hiccup to me,¡± Finlay said as he got on the truck. He was probably eavesdropping for some time.

    ¡°I suppose not so small if we¡¯re going Plan C.¡± Black Spade might be misreading things, but he thought he saw a glint of recognition in Finlay¡¯s eyes when he looked at the screen. ¡°Do you know anything about them?¡±

    Finlay shook his head. ¡°A robot of Greaves? Don¡¯t know anything about those. Anyway, so we¡¯re going Plan C, right?¡±

    Black Spade paused, mentally noting that Finlay was a lying piece of slime, before answering, ¡°Yes. Plan C. We¡¯ll try what you guys did in La Esperanza.¡± Then he pressed the button to release the smelly slugs in all the remaining rooms.

    ¡°Uh¡­your guy is about to die.¡± Finlay pointed at the screen showing the stairs. Someone was going up to their doom.

    Black Spade gasped when he realized it was Not-Josh that he sent to fetch Greaves employees to be released. ¡°Oops. Too late to save him.¡±

 5.34

    Those ungrateful little shits, I internally raged as the crowd of people packed in the corridor surged away in panic, screaming and trampling each other.

    The ones who stayed were Deen with my Erind body, Imani¡¯s group, and, surprisingly, Tesh and Kiera.

    I get it...Todd, my trusty puppet, ripping apart unconscious humans infected with parasites before they could transform was a nasty sight. Fine, it was downright terrifying and vomit-inducing to an average person. But we did save the sorry asses of the people running away from this same fate. And I even used my power to heal a few of them.

    The least they could do was stay around to cheer us on.

    "Mother Core¡¯s Grace!" exclaimed Snark, a tall ginger and a teammate of Imani. His voice sounded vaguely familiar. "What is he doing?" His voice wavered as he turned his head away from Todd¡¯s carnage.

    "The parasites burrow into the spine and brain of the victim," I explained, "and will mutate them into the horrible monsters like what you saw in that other room. We have no choice but to destroy their bodies before that happens."

    That didn''t really answer why Todd was tearing bodies piece by piece like he would make modern art with their bones and innards. He could¡¯ve just squished them and been done with it. The hosts and the parasites were already dead¡ªI couldn¡¯t see any red forms, and definitely no green¡ªbut my puppet continued redecorating the corridor for Halloween.

    It must be Todd''s subconsciousness interpreting my generic order to destroy the bodies this way. He was definitely super destroying them beyond my expectations. Next time, I should be more specific.

    "They''re still humans!" said Boojum, another of Imani''s friends. ¡°This isn¡¯t right!¡±

    He ran a few steps forward with his hands in front of him. I half-raised my arm, ready to shoot. Imani had mentioned he had an artificial Core; he might use his powers to stop Todd.

    But he lurched to a halt when he realized there was no one left to save. With slumped shoulders, he hastily retreated to avoid the splashes of blood while Todd continued to do his task.

    (Stop), I mentally commanded Todd. I should''ve done that earlier, whoops. The whole scene was so fascinating that I kind of just let it go on.

    Todd was a few sizes bigger now; his body was pockmarked with bullet wounds. After receiving my commands, he stood straight and dropped the clumps of flesh in his hands.

    I probably pumped a bit too much of my power into him; I wasn''t sure how long he''d last. I connected my healing finger to him to counteract the effects of turning him into a bulky muscle freak. But I couldn¡¯t heal him that much, or his body would also begin to break down from an overdose of my power.

    "It is impossible to save someone,¡± I told Boojum, ¡°once parasites are embedded in their spine and brain. Removing the parasites means killing the person. I already explained this to those two." I pointed at Deen and Imani. "If we let them be, they''ll turn into monsters. You''ve seen what they look like in that room we passed?"

    Boojum hesitantly nodded.

    "And you humans would like to die as humans, am I right? Not a horrible mutated beast?"

    "I..." Boojum turned to Imani. She didn''t back him up.

    I already had an extensive discussion about this with her and Deen while Todd fought off the tentacle zombies in our room. Imani saw the entire transformation, so she understood my point. Boojum and Snark only saw a couple of dead monsters in one room we broke into.

    "Think of this as mercy," I said. Wow, such a cool line. If this was a movie, this scene should be in the trailer. But would it be too spoilery? "Let me handle them so you won''t get your hands dirty. I know that humans are fickle with their conscience. That nonsense does not burden me." I was just busting out one cool line after the next.

    "Is there no other way? We can''t just¡ª"

    "Aren''t you going to do anything about them?" I pointed to the fleeing people. A few found unlocked rooms to hide in. But most stuck with the herd and continued running to the stairs on the opposite end of the floor. "They''ll eventually meet Tea Party members."

    Imani looked at her teammates. "Someone needs to protect them."

    "Alright, we''ll split up," Boojum said in an authoritative tone. He sounded like their team leader, but Imani mentioned that a different person was their contact with the Professor. "Snark and I will gather and guard the survivors. You continue freeing more people."

    "Got it! Be careful."

    ¡°We¡¯ll try to find a way out of the building if possible.¡± He glanced at Tesh and Imani. "Do you want to come with us?"

    "We''ll stay with the robot," Tesh said, pointing at me.

    Kiera nodded. "I think it''s much safer with, um, her...yeah."

    Good choice, I thought. But then again, maybe not when I¡¯d need a new puppet.

    Then Boojum turned to Deen. "How about¡ª?"

    She shook her head before he could finish his question. "I''m also staying with Pino. She might be able to cure my best friend." She nodded at my original Erind body that she carried princess-style in her arms.

    I wanted Deen by my side. She was supposed to protect my original body, and both of them should be near me. So, I made up a story that I might be able to ¡®cure¡¯ whatever was wrong with unconscious ¡®Erind¡¯ if I could retrieve particular stuff, like power cells or whatever, that the Tea Party had stolen.

    I demonstrated my healing power on minor injuries earlier, explaining that I had experimental features that bordered superpowers because of stolen Corebring tech that Greaves reverse-engineered. And she readily believed me because¡­what other explanation did she have?

    As for Todd, I explained that he was an unfortunate victim of the parasites. The 2Ms controlled the parasite monsters with a boxy gadget, and that became the inspiration for Pino''s new backstory¡ªthe Tea Party wanted to capture me because I could also emit signals that somehow influenced these parasites. I came across Todd and controlled him.

    It sounded plausible enough that they''d have to buy my bullshit. This was the advantage of truth being way crazier than lies.

    Now, Pino, the sentient android with inexplicable abilities, was on her way to wreck Tea Party ass...and also save people because I was supposed to be on the side of good. I fit in with the group, with two wannabe heroes already present¡ªDeen and Imani.

    Boojum and Snark chased after the people who fled. They had their work cut out for them in gathering those idiots. Half of those who reached the faraway stairs went up; the rest went down. But that was their problem.

    I waved for my group to follow me. "Come, let''s check more rooms," I said. We had to pass by the flesh and blood bonanza section of the corridor that was Todd''s making. "Take care of your steps," I cautioned them. But that also applied to me. It was going to be embarrassing as fuck if I slipped in the blood.

    Ah, the memories... I did slip in blood and guts in my old condo. And the hallways back there looked so much more brutal when I fought with the hordes of parasite monsters using a puppet. Such a weird thing to feel nostalgic about.

    Deen had no hesitation crossing the gore while carrying my not-so-human body.

    Imani followed, almost closing her eyes while covering her nose as she passed.

    "Oh my god," Kiera said. She made puking noises. "I can barely handle the horrendous stench, and now this?"

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Tesh gave his wife his handkerchief to cover her nose and aided her in following us. "Just close your eyes. Close your eyes and breathe through your mouth."

    Imani pressed her ear on the next door with a metal bar securing it. ¡°Something¡¯s going on inside.¡±

    Even though I didn''t have an ear and wasn''t right next to the door, I could hear muffled screams in the room. They became louder, followed by crashes and other noises. Next, there was pounding on the door; Imani jerked back in surprise. The people in the room were trying to open it, pleading for help.

    "They released the worms inside!" Imani exclaimed.

    Then pounding and the screams stopped. We all looked at each other in surprise.

    ¡°Open it!¡± Deen yelled, breaking the silence.

    "Prepare yourselves for what''s coming out," I said as I raised my finger, about to point at the door to order Todd to open it. But something caught my eye. Instead, I pointed down the corridor.

    "Everybody get down!" Deen called out.

    (Todd, kill that guy!) I had barely finished my command when a Tea Party member who had just climbed the stairs opened fire in our direction. Todd barreled down the hallway. I spread my arms wide and covered the others with my indestructible body, just like a true hero would. Bullets pinged off my body and ricocheted to the walls. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Deen had pulled them to the floor.

    The terrorist stopped shooting and jumped over the railings to the floor below. Todd followed him, but he tumbled down the stairs because of his size and awkward gait.

    I looked at the door and then at Imani. "You open it!" Every second that passed meant more people getting infected. Wow, I got this thinking about others thing going on.

    She threw herself at the door. It didn''t budge. Next, she tried pulling the metal bar. There was a creak. She yanked it a couple more times with her aug-arm. That uprooted the drills inside the hardwood about half an inch.

    The room remained silent. Did the parasites get all of them?

    "No! No! No!" Imani yelled as she placed her foot on the door for more leverage.

    Deen grabbed the metal bar and pulled along with her.

    Oh, fucking Deen. Don''t leave my body alone. But I didn''t need to worry because Tesh and Kiera were pulling it away as they distanced themselves. They realized that it was about to get dangerous, and Todd wasn¡¯t here with us.

    The two hero wannabes succeeded in removing the metal bar. Deen kicked the door near its lock, forcing it open. She should be more careful with her displays of strength. Our story that she had an augmented body like Imani could only go so far before it becomes unbelievable.

    "Ready!" I said as the door swung open and revealed¡ª

    "Empty?" Imani lowered her raised fists.

    "What the...?"

    ¡°Where did everybody go?¡±

    The conference room had no one inside it. But we didn¡¯t imagine the sounds and shit; the whole room looked like it had been wrecked during a frat party. Maybe? I haven''t been to one.

    Blood and black slime were on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Parts of the conference table had gashes as if clawed by some beast. A few chairs were disassembled, and a cabinet was smashed. A few body parts littered the floor¡ªa tentacle here, a human hand there. This was similar to another room we broke into, where we only found a couple of half-eaten monster corpses and no one else.

    "Again?" I said. "There were people here moments ago."

    "Yeah, I heard them."

    Tesh and Kiera came closer, curious about what was going on.

    "How is this possible? An illusion?" Deen stretched her hand past the door.

    "Be careful," Imani said, forgetting what we told her about Deen''s powers. "We don''t know if this is a Tea Party trap."

    Deen walked inside the room. Turning her head left, she informed us, "The windows aren''t broken. I can¡¯t see any way out."

    Oooh! A locked room mystery? When Mom and I used to watch true crime documentaries, we¡¯d occasionally come across cases with locked rooms and try to guess how it happened.

    In this instance, I had no clue how humans and monsters could suddenly disappear. Was there a trapdoor or something? It must be connected to why the Tea Party transferred the hostages to these rooms instead of leaving us in the event area.

    "How did they get out?" Tesh wondered.

    "There''s something more to the Tea Party''s plan than turning people into monsters," Deen said. "It can''t be just for their escape."

    "Let''s check more rooms," I said.

    I had a slight hope that Mom might be in one of them, but it was more likely that the Tea Party kept her and the rest of the big wig Greaves people in another place. The mysteriously empty rooms were concerning. I agreed with Deen that there was more to this, and I had to find Mom before she¡¯d disappear like all the other people.

    "What was that?" Deen said.

    A crash? I felt slight vibrations beneath my feet.

    Imani looked down. "Below us?"

    She was right. Something was happening down there.

    "Where''s Todd?" I said. He should''ve gotten the terrorist who ran away by now. (Return to me.)

    BAM! The floor violently shook.

    Was my stupid puppet trying to climb through to get up here? (Stop that, you idiot. Go to the stairs.)

    BAM! Part of the floor bulged upwards. BAM!

    This wasn''t my puppet. And this something was trying to break through the floor!

    "To the stairs!" I led the group to where Todd descended, hoping to meet him. I could still feel that he was alive through our connection. "Everyone stick together, and don''t forget your unconscious friend!"

    "What the hell was that?" Tesh asked.

    "A bomb?"

    My link with Todd was suddenly cut. "A new enemy!¡± I told them. ¡°The parasite monster I was controlling got killed!"

    "An enemy? Someone that could destroy fucking concrete and steel rebars?"

    "It must be the Adumbrae of the Tea Party!" Imani said. "Uh, I heard rumors that they have an Adumbrae." She probably added that so Tesh and Kiera wouldn''t be suspicious about her.

    We reached the stairs, trudging past the body parts of Tea Party assholes that Todd killed earlier. I also stepped on some hard pieces that seemed to be ceramic shards. I didn¡¯t pay it any mind as I peeked downstairs.

    No Todd.

    Whatever was trying to bust through the floor had stopped. I couldn''t hear loud crashes anymore. Instead, the beating of a drum was becoming louder and louder.

    "Go! Go! It''s coming here!" I urged my group. I stayed by the stairs while they passed me. "I''ll distract it!"

    Outwardly, it was fucking noble of me to sacrifice myself to delay this bastard who killed my puppet. But I wasn''t sure how much of it counted as altruistic or brave, given that I literally couldn''t die in my Pino form. And my goal in doing this was to ensure that my real body could flee to safety.

    "Come with us." Deen stopped running to look back at me. She left my body with Tesh and Kiera.

    "Go on!"

    "We can''t let the Tea Party have you."

    Oh, come on, I thought. Obviously, she wanted me to be with them to ''heal'' my Erind body. But it might be better that she was here. With her Guardian Angel and my powers, surely we could defeat an Adumbrae? As long as it wasn''t someone unfairly overpowered like Stella. Is it time for a Pino and Deen team fight?

    The stairs shook. I looked down again.

    This time, someone looked up at me.

    The Adumbrae, for what else could he be, looked like a humanoid lion with ferocious red mane. He was bigger than Todd and occupied the whole width of the stairs that could comfortably fit three people side by side. He bared his dagger-like teeth and roared with spit flying around.

    "RHWAAOOR! I''m going to rip you apart!"

    "You don''t even know me," I answered as I raised my right hand in Deen''s direction.

    She was running toward me. "We have to work together!"

    Was this her Guardian Angel''s message? Did it see a future where we''d succeed in killing this zoo escapee? I pointed my index finger at Deen. Would the Guardian Angel consider this a threat? Deen''s regeneration should counteract its adverse effects.

    With a short leap, Lion Ass latched on to my landing with his claws.

    I changed my mind and shot Deen using the middle finger of my right hand. My next view of Deen was upside down as Lion Ass climbed to this floor and started swinging me. He smashed me against the railings and the walls.

    "Pino!" Deen cried out. "No!" She picked up a gun still held by the severed arm of a Tea Party member.

    Darkness. Lion Ass covered my entire head with his palm. I felt a pop as he disconnected my head from the rest of my body. When I could see again, the world was swirling. I was tumbling through the air and hit someone.

    "Pino!" Deen said as she caught my head. She fell back and rolled across the floor because of the power of Lion Ass'' throw. "Pino! Oh my god, what do I¡ª?"

    "Don''t worry; I¡¯m still alive." I stared at her with my lone eye. "Let''s kill this guy."

 5.35 - Amber Deen Leska

    Amber Deen Leska

    I¡¯m going to stay and fight! Amber Deen mentally shot back at Gabe.

    Her Guardian Angel had been blaring nonstop at her to escape. It only yelled when there was an extreme emergency; given its tone, Deen knew that her death was a possible future.

    All the more reason she shouldn¡¯t run. For if she, a superhuman with future-seeing powers, was in grave danger, what chance did the others have? Erind was sick and fainted; the other three were only humans.

    More importantly, Deen didn''t want to leave Pino behind. The Greaves android told her that it might be able to wake up Erind.

    To save everyone, only one choice remained¡ªshe had to defeat this enemy from the Tea Party!

    But after seeing the Adumbrae who had just removed Pino''s head, Deen''s heart wavered.

    "What''s this supposed to be?" the towering lion man rumbled in a guttural voice as he held up Pino''s headless body by its feet. He dangled it in front of his face to examine it. His disproportionately massive back muscles, partially covered by his crimson mane, caused him to hunch forward. He was so tall that the roundish ears on the top of his head touched the ceiling. ¡°Not working anymore?¡±

    Her Guardian Angel had fallen silent. Did it abandon her because she wouldn''t listen to its instructions?

    Deen¡¯s heart started beating faster. Or did I reach a Dead End?

    A ''Dead End'' was what she called a situation where there was no going back¡ªall future possibilities led to her death. She disobeyed her Guardian Angel. Maybe it wasn''t talking now because it had no more to say. That can''t be...right?

    She tried to steady her breathing. She hugged Pino''s unexpectedly warm chrome head close to her chest. It was strangely comforting.

    Finding courage in the fact that Pino was still functioning, which meant that she could heal Erind, Deen set her eyes on the gun a few feet away from her. She had dropped it when she caught Pino''s head. The humanoid lion was still preoccupied with dismantling Pino''s body.

    ''Let''s kill this guy,'' Pino had told her. Deen wasn''t sure if they could do it, but she had to.

    It didn''t matter if her Guardian Angel wouldn¡¯t help her. Allowing herself to grow reliant on its instructions was a huge mistake. She had to be proactive. She had to do things on her own. Most importantly, she had to be brave.

    For herself¡­and Erind.

    Erind saved her when she was about to get killed by the Adumbrae at the Sanders Mall parking area. Her best friend used herself as bait to draw away the Adumbrae. It resulted in Erind inadvertently becoming an Adumbrae herself, her desperate pleas to survive attracting the malevolent beings in the worlds beyond.

    Deen was far from paying her debt to Erind, but she could chip away at it now. Tucking Pino''s head under her left arm, she crawled toward the gun.

    "Is this made of toy blocks?" asked the lion man. Only Pino''s torso remained in his palm; the pieces of its limbs were scattered on the floor. "Where''s the wiring? The machinery? How does it move?" With a throaty growl, he slammed the metal body against the wall with so much force that it punched a hole through it.

    The Adumbrae turned to her, baring his teeth. He made grunting noises, his massive shoulders heaving. He''s chuckling at me, Deen realized.

    She hurried forward to grab the gun. Pino¡¯s head slid from under her arm and rolled across the floor.

    Oh no! She couldn¡¯t get Pino back! The lion man was near.

    Instead, she yanked away the severed arm still grasping the gun. Peering down its sights, she aimed between the lion man''s eyes. The head, the weakness of Adumbrae. Her arms were shaking; she''d undoubtedly miss.

    "What do you think you''re doing, little girl?" The lion man leisurely approached her, continuing to chuckle. His bare clawed feet scraped the floor, making a grating noise with each step. "You''re not going to kill me with that. Shoot if you dare!"

    Deen''s finger was on the trigger. Still no message from Gabe. She frowned as she internally yelled, stop relying on it!

    "If you run away now, I won''t chase you. A few more minutes, an hour, you''ll eventually die...but until then, you live."

    "That''s how living works, you overgrown cat," Pino quipped from a couple of feet away in front of Deen. "You''re alive until you''re not."

    What is she¡ª? It dawned on Deen that Pino was trying to distract the Adumbrae. The lion man halted and looked down at the talking head. Deen collected herself so she could steady her aim. If she could land the perfect headshot, she could kill this Adumbrae.

    [The head.]

    Deen''s eyes widened. Her heart fluttered hearing her Guardian Angel. She mentally responded, yes, I''m aiming for the¡ª

    [Throw Pino''s head.]

    "That scrap metal is still talking?" The lion man snarled. His claws outstretched, he stomped closer to Pino, reaching for her. "Now, I''m very interested¡ªeh?"

    Deen dove for Pino''s head. Then she threw it with all her might up at the lion man. He caught the head before it hit his face. His view partially covered by his massive hand, Deen slid between his legs as instructed by Gabe.

    "That felt too strong¡ªhey! Where did you¡ª?" Lion man looked down just as Deen passed beneath him. She pulled the trigger. Bullets hit his groin. The lion man roared as he instinctively closed his legs and knelt from the surprising pain.

    [Don''t pick up Pino. Keep running.]

    Deen was about to reach for Pino''s head the Adumbrae dropped.

    I hope you can save Pino, she thought to Gabe as she clenched her fist and pulled her hand back. She was also tempted to shoot at the Adumbrae while it wailed in agony but stuck with Gabe''s instructions. After scrambling to get up from the floor, she dashed down the hallway. Just moments ago, I told myself I was fine without Gabe.

    "Your dick got blown off?" Pino yelled. Even if just a head, she continued to help Deen by diverting the Adumbrae¡¯s attention. "Get neutered, you stray cat!"

    "Shut up! I''m going to destroy you!" roared the lion man. Deen looked behind her and saw the lion man stomp on Pino''s head. The sturdy android didn''t get flattened. Instead, the head cracked the flooring, burying itself partly into the concrete.

    [Prepare to shoot.]

    Deen dropped to the floor to stop her momentum. Her knees and feet skidded along the smooth tiles as she turned around. With her left hand, she grabbed onto a door frame.

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    The lion man again brought down its foot on Pino''s head which was continuing to heckle him. Deen fired her gun, hoping she was following Gabe''s instructions correctly. She didn''t know what happened, but she must''ve done whatever it was because the lion man''s foot hit Pino''s head at the wrong angle.

    "You blasted¡ª!" raged the lion man as he lost his balance and fell back against the wall.

    Deen continued to shoot even though most bullets weren''t hitting their mark. Pino jeered at the Adumbrae who stumbled. Deen couldn''t clearly hear what it was saying because of the gunfire and frustrated roars.

    The Adumbrae jumped back on its feet, causing a small quake. "Shut up!" He stepped hard on Pino''s head.

    The floor gave way, and Pino''s head fell through the hole. The lion man''s foot followed, sinking to his knee, causing him to lean forward suddenly. His head slammed against the wall. Curses punctuated his roars.

    The lion man angrily punched and clawed the wall in front of him. With his superhuman strength, he effortlessly broke down a part of it. "To hell with all of you! I''m going to tear you all to shreds!" He turned to Deen. "And you, little girl! You''ll pay with your life for annoying¡ª! Rraogh!"

    A tentacled creature¡ªsomeone mutated by a parasite¡ªslithered out of the hole in the wall and latched on to the lion man. More monsters followed, squeezing themselves through the opening to join the riot.

    Deen''s gun clicked empty; she threw it away. She now understood that its purpose was to annoy the Adumbrae so that he''d lash out in rage and accidentally free the mutated creatures in the room beside him. To what end? She still didn¡¯t know.

    "Disgusting wretches!" The lion man tore the monsters attacking him like water balloons. Black goo and blood covered his fur. Through the mass of mutated flesh, the lion man locked eyes with Deen. "You''re next, little girl!"

    The lion man ripped the parasite monsters off his body and then charged. Deen froze like a deer caught in headlights at the terrifying sight barreling toward her. In a couple of blinks, the Adumbrae was already halfway to her. She regained her wits and sprinted away as fast as she could.

    [Lie down.]

    She immediately obeyed, not even bothering to stop first. She rolled across the floor like a log with her body straightened out. A gigantic red comet passed over her and crashed several feet further ahead.

    "You puny human!" The lion man spun around and leaped to attack her.

    [Stick to right wall.]

    [Duck.]

    [Roll forward.]

    [Shift left, then jump back.]

    A flurry of claws, flying splinters, chunks of cement, and ear-splitting roars! It was like she was in the middle of a tornado. Deen couldn''t comprehend what was happening around her. Everything was so fast!

    Gabe was a machine gun, rattling off instructions for her survival. She had to focus on everything it told her. This was the most concentrated she had been in her entire life.

    Follow Gabe, follow Gabe, she coaxed herself as she was somehow able to do a mini-somersault by complying with its directions. The lion man''s claws harmlessly passed above and under her.

    Faster, faster, faster! The attacks relentlessly came. In the next second, blood and black slime were added to the blender. The parasite monsters from the other side of the staircase had reached them. Or this could be monsters from rooms nearby. Deen didn''t know and had no time to check her surroundings.

    On top of avoiding the fangs and claws of the lion man, she also had to be watchful of the tentacles and other disgusting limbs trying to catch her. An incredibly thick tendril, almost the size of an anaconda, was about to close in on her body. She escaped just in time, jumping out of the constricting coil before it tightened. Then she pushed the fleshy mass into the lion man''s mouth as he lunged down to bite her.

    How long can I last?

    She had to fight back!

    But this Adumbrae was far stronger than her that she might as well be a normal human. Even Gabe didn''t tell her to be on the offensive. Was this going to continue until she reached an actual Dead End?

    The weakness of her power was starting to creep up on her. She found it harder and harder to follow Gabe. The instructions jumbled together; it sounded like more than one voice was talking.

    (Think protect self.)

    [Tuck head, push off wall.]

    (Think armor.)

    [Watch front. Next from above.]

    She didn¡¯t imagine it! Two voices were talking to her! Gabe must be working on overdrive to keep her alive. She strove to follow them, thinking of protecting herself even though she didn''t know what that was supposed to do. Suddenly she felt heavier; her movements slowed down. It was only because of Gabe''s instructions that she avoided the lion man''s palms trying to flatten her head.

    She felt something close around her chest. A white material was covering her torso! She pushed down her shock as she focused on staying alive. Half her mind wondered what it was while the other kept following everything Gabe said to a tee. She wanted to remove it, but her hands were busy as she parried attacks and clambered all over the walls, even reaching the ceiling, in her valiant crusade to survive.

    (Think protect self. Think armor.)

    And she did. She felt her body become heavier again. The white armor thickened and weighed her down whenever she thought of protecting herself. Was it a new power of her Guardian Angel?

    [Brace for hit.]

    This is it. Her Guardian Angel couldn''t see a future where she could evade. Through the swirl of debris, of flesh from the parasite monsters, Deen peeled her eyes. What is going to¡ª?

    WHAM! A strong impact on the left side of her body slammed against the wall. She tried to steady herself; another strike came. She rolled down the hallway. She was jogged by the hits but was surprised it didn''t feel as painful as she expected.

    [Don''t stop.]

    Deen let herself continue to slide. The lion man bounded after her, the ground shaking with his heavy but quick steps. As she slowed down, she looked at her surroundings and tried to get her bearings. She stopped right next to a room with a destroyed door. It was the same as others but still felt seemed familiar to her.

    Is that our original room?

    "Dratted creatures!" Even more parasite monsters attacked the lion man from nearby rooms. "I''m not supposed to kill you, but you leave me no choice!"

    A large form blotted out the lights on the ceiling. Lion man stared down at Deen. His eyes blazed with anger. His fangs were on display, gritting against each other as he heaved. Parts of his fur had been ripped out; its red color was obscured by black goo from the parasite monsters.

    "End of the line, little girl!" He raised his hand with straightened fingers. His claws were a line of spears, the row of spikes at the bottom of a castle portcullis.

    [Don''t use arms.]

    Deen was about to cross her arms in front of her chest. The claws came down. No hesitation in following Gabe; she stuck her arms to her sides. The claws hit the bony covering on her chest. Her body shook inside her new armor. She descended an inch into the hard floor. Cracks of the tiles and the concrete were like gunshots.

    There was pain, but, again, not much. She looked at her chest. The claws didn''t penetrate her armor. The lion man''s eyes widened in surprise. Before he could process what just happened, the side of his face was peppered with bullets.

    "I''m back!"

    "Pino?" The Greaves android had somehow managed to piece itself back together. But it was missing both lower legs and couldn''t stand. It crawled through the dismembered body parts of monsters while firing a gun.

    "You scrap metal!" The Adumbrae stood straight. Deen tried to scoot away, but he held her down with his foot. "How the hell are you back?"

    [Break his toes.]

    Deen grabbed his sausage-sized pinky toe and bent it upwards. The lion yelped in surprise in pain. His foot lessened its pressure. She pushed it up and rolled away before it came back down. As directed by Gabe, she entered the room where they were held.

    She picked up a monster corpse and flung it at the window, making sure it hit the remaining unbroken pane at its far side. The corpse crashed into the glass, pivoted, and dropped outside the building. The incredibly sturdy glass had cracks on it but remained intact.

    Next, she gathered more bodies, or rather body parts, and dove under the table. The lion man barged into the room, squeezing his colossal self through the small door.

    "Little girl, you can''t escape me!"

    Deen stared at his feet through the tentacles she covered her body with.

    "I can smell¡ª! Window?" Furry feet hurried to the window side of the room. "That crazy girl jumped out? The hell¡ª?!"

    An explosion followed. The room violently shook. The conference table above her was torn away like a roof peeled off a house by a hurricane. Heat and winds buffeted everything.

    White. She could only see bright light as the explosions continued.

    Deen closed her eyes and hugged the floor. Her Guardian Angel wasn''t saying anything. But this time, she knew that she wasn''t at a Dead End.

    She was confident she wasn''t going to die.

 5.36

    Where the fuck is that idiot Deen?

    As if the world was paying attention to my question, it gave me an answer. Lion Ass forced himself into one of the rooms, destroying the door frame and walls to fit through its entrance. There was only one reason why he''d go in there¡ªDeen.

    Wouldn''t it have been better if she continued running down the hallway instead of getting herself cornered inside an enclosed space? Her Guardian Angel must be cooking something up. But I couldn''t see what it was because I had difficulty following them.

    If the world was still game to answer more questions, tell me: Where are my legs?

    Some annoying fucker ate my lower legs, and I couldn''t find them. I waded through blood and black slime, rummaging through shredded corpses¡ªremnants of Lion Ass'' battle with the parasite monsters. My missing limbs were somewhere around here; I could sense them. But they weren''t coming to me even when I concentrated on pulling them back.

    "They''re like stuck or whatever," I grumbled.

    With the gun I had picked up, I pried open a large humanoid skull thrice the size of an average human''s head. I peered through its cage of fangs. Nothing metallic looking. Then I prodded the tentacles to my side, like a fussy kid picking at spaghetti, to check beneath.

    "This is annoying as fuck! Where are my¡ªWoah!"

    BO-BOOM! BOOM!

    I was standing on my knees as the world violently shook. I lost my balance and fell forward. Stretching my hands, I tried to stop my fall but slipped because of the blood. I ended up splaying on the ground. Dust from the ceiling sprinkled me. Then larger chunks started to drop.

    A football-sized piece of concrete bounced off my head as I tried to get up. It nearly knocked my head off my neck. I decided to stay down and wait it out.

    A couple more explosions rocked the building. Strings of muffled pops followed. Gunfire?

    The BID? They¡¯re already here?

    If this was them, then they reacted so freaking fast!

    Not much time had passed since I ordered Todd to throw parasite monsters out the window so that the police across the parking lot would know some weird shit was going on here.

    I hoped that someone with enough brains would figure out that a repeat of what happened in La Esperanza was about to unfold here and call the BID over. The authorities would contain the situation and prevent the Tea Party¡¯s escape¡ªif they end up killing these terrorist bastards, even better. I was going to ruin the Tea Party¡¯s plan, whatever it was, because they ruined my night.

    I had already transformed into Pino and had Imani and Deen with me, so I thought I¡¯d be able to find Mom before the BID arrived.

    Yes, we¡¯d also be in danger when the BID came, but I was sure we could escape with Deen¡¯s bullshit powers. Plus, we had that Jubjub person¡ªthe Dario counterpart of Imani¡¯s group. She''d certainly have a way out of this mess with her connections to the Professor and the secret organization they were working for.

    But I had to get Mom first!

    It would be so much of a fucking hassle if she died. I wasn''t as much of an independent woman as I made myself out to be¡ªI didn''t know how to pay property taxes, insurance bills, and shit like that. Plus, organizing a funeral would be monumentally grating. I had plenty of relatives I didn''t want to see.

    And she''s my mother¡­I kinda don''t want her to die.

    Smoke filled the corridor. I couldn''t see shit. But my special Pino vision should be able to detect the green hues of living beings if BID agents were filling up this place¡ªeverything was clear. They could''ve sent in combat drones, but I couldn''t hear the annoying scuttling of Skitters. The explosions and gunfire died down.

    Maybe this wasn¡¯t the BID? Must be something else.

    Could this be explosives the Tea Party had stashed that Lion Ass unwittingly set off? It wouldn''t surprise me if Deen''s prescient pet found a possible future where that happened.

    Hurrying forward, I crawled with my hands and upper legs to where I estimated Deen went. I ditched the gun because it wouldn¡¯t do much good against a strong Adumbrae like Lion Ass. If he was still alive, Deen had to finish him off herself.

    I thought of communicating with Deen through our link.

    However, now wasn¡¯t the right time. I had to slot my message in whenever her thoughts were hectic so she wouldn''t have the space to process something that might be wrong.

    How long until she figured out I wasn¡¯t her Guardian Angel? She wouldn''t trust me if she knew I could access her head.

    (Thanks, Gabe. I know...rely...help me...)

    That was Deen! It sounded like she was talking to her pet.

    Being linked with someone didn''t automatically mean I could read their minds. I could only pick up ''out loud'' thoughts¡ªnot sure what term to use for those. Usually, I''d ¡®hear¡¯ something if my puppet was directly thinking at me or had strong thoughts and emotions. It wouldn¡¯t be always clear as if someone was talking; more often than not, it would be just feelings.

    When it came to Deen, her thoughts were awfully unguarded in contrast to my previous puppets like¡­um¡­ Too bad, I can¡¯t remember any of the people I used during the attack on my condo.

    Deen blared everything that passed her mind, even if she wasn¡¯t specifically talking to her Guardian Angel. My hunch was that she was super used to internally conversing with her Guardian Angel that all her thoughts also became ''out loud.'' Most of it wasn¡¯t clear, but I could somewhat decipher what she might be actually thinking.

    It could also be that things were just that way in her head. I hadn''t surveyed how people ran their minds so I couldn''t say for sure. All I knew was that Deen was a weirdo and that some funny things pranced in her brain.

    For example, she thinks she owes me for saving her at Sanders. I giggled at such absurdity.

    Or tried to. My metal body couldn''t do something like that. I also couldn''t smile or have a huge goofy grin on my face.

    Finally, I understood why Deen was so protective of me. It wasn''t just her usual heroic instinct, or she''d treat me the same way as other people. She wouldn¡¯t break the law and help an Adumbrae kill people if her only motivation was to be a hero; that¡¯d be fucking contradictory.

    I never thought she owed me for what I did back in Sanders Mall. I didn''t even consider that as saving her¡ªwell, at first, that was my original intention.

    Rule #7: Don¡¯t do anything that would break the character of the face¡ªas involuntary her best friend, it was only normal to try to save her. But I wasn''t required to put my life on the line for her. I jumped in because I was pissed as fuck that the Adumbrae, who turned out to be Myra, was bothering me.

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    Rule #4: I wouldn¡¯t bother the world as long as it didn''t bother me. A lot of things happened that day. I was at the tipping point and wanted to kill the fucker trying to kill me. Saving Deen was the furthest thing from my mind at that time.

    But Deen assumed the opposite. Everything was starting to make sense. From her viewpoint, I wasn''t mooching off her when I lived in her house and ate food for free¡ªshe was repaying me.

    I had plenty of experience manipulating and roping in people so they''d owe me a favor, or at least think they did. This was the first time somebody owed me their life. I didn''t know this had many benefits. It''s so much fun too!

    If I could make Deen owe her life to Pino as well, I''d have a ready puppet to use whenever I''d transform into this body.

    I followed the muffled, earthy groans.

    Someone large was in pain. It sounded like he was covered by rubble. Lion Ass¡ªwho else could it be? The Guardian Angel failed to kill this guy with the explosions. We should finish this bastard before he could regenerate.

    Is this room where the sound is coming from? The next one? Many parts of the wall on this side of the corridor had broken down, all of them might as well be just one long room.

    Just go in to find out, I told myself as I clambered over a pile of broken concrete to enter a room. I have to get close to this fucker.

    There were no more direct thoughts from Deen. But there was something irritating I could sense. She projected sentiments of bravery like she was psyching herself up to do something. Her Guardian Angel might be instructing her to prepare for battle. Or it could be telling her to flee, but she disobeyed it again to stay and fight.

    I had half-expected to be able to detect her pet when we linked up, but that didn''t happen. Similar to how only Deen could see it, perhaps only she could hear it. I''d have to settle with interpreting her responses to it.

    Feelings of bravery continued to be amplified until it was almost too annoying to bear. Then they pooled together, merging and transforming, bursting into an entirely different emotion. Everything from Deen''s end suddenly flat-lined, which was unnerving.

    A murderous thought.

    Despite no express words, I understood that Deen had decided to kill Lion Ass.

    It wasn''t a raging emotion like what I''d expect from ordinary people turned murderers in true-crime documentaries I had seen. Neither was it a robust sensation like Deen''s courage. It was calm and collected. This was all going to be business for her. I suspected this was what went through her head when she killed some of the frat guys.

    I''m going to back you up, bestie! I mentally cheered, taking care that I wasn''t transmitting it to her. Let¡¯s make this Adumbrae pay for killing Todd.

    "Ggrroarh!" The roar was so mighty that my body vibrated. Ferocious thrashing shifted rubble, causing more dust clouds to roll. "The pain! You fucking¡ªugh¡ªfuckin'' blasted hell!"

    I stayed as low as possible as I crawled over the debris.

    Through the heavy smoke, the dark silhouette of what I assumed to be Lion Ass became larger as he sat up. The green hue coating him wasn''t as bright as before and had a noticeable gray tinge in places. If I wasn''t wrong, based on the green outline of his body, he was missing his arm.

    His Adumbrae powers kicked in. The green color pulsed as he regenerated. Fucking bad luck that he didn''t just die.

    We''re going to fix that soon enough.

    From the corner of the very wide vision range of my cyclopean eye, I spotted another green form. Deen raised her hands. I couldn''t see it, but she must be holding up something. She zipped across the room and leaped at Lion Ass.

    "Little gir¡ª?¡± A loud crash. Sounds of breaking concrete. ¡°Yeargh! The hurts¡ªGrooarhh!"

    It was like a fight in old cartoons where there was just a ball of a dust cloud. But instead of heads, fists, and legs coming out of it, green lines swirled like a flushed toilet. The two tore up the already destroyed room like a demolition team.

    Deen was going at it with everything she got. Her sizzling focus transmitted to me. A dozen rappers had a live concert in my head with a broken TV in the background, constantly flicking through different channels.

    (Left, duck, punch, roll forward, left¡ªno, right! Punch him!)

    The projections were way more intense than their earlier fight. Her stress and anxiety were bleeding into my mind. Yet, she tried to control her emotions as she fought the humongous Adumbrae.

    (Kick down, then drop down, roll left, push off floor.)

    If I was in Deen''s place, I might go mad with how fast she was processing things. Gone was the fumbling Deen during her first sparring with Dario. Over time, she had adjusted her mind to get used to her Guardian Angel, and this was the result.

    It was hard to see the fight while I pressed myself against the floor, and I only caught glimpses of them through the smoke, but Deen was a fucking martial arts master! She weaved around a disconcerted Lion Ass, landing blow after blow on the Adumbrae''s body. Satisfying thuds and thumps punctuated the roars and groans of the dying Adumbrae.

    "Ho-how? How are you so strong¡ªurgk!" Crunching bone interrupted Lion Ass''s whining.

    Deen continued to punch his jaw, shifting it to a place where a jaw wasn''t supposed to be. Broken fangs flew. Lion Ass'' face was already messed up from the explosion, with half of it burned away. Was that an eyeball hanging from his¡ª?

    Deen grabbed and squished it before it could pop back into its socket. Lion Ass tried to grab her while screaming in pain, but she climbed behind his head and pummeled the back of his skull.

    Oh, my fucking god, I''m just a side character again. Pushing my envious bitchiness to the side, Deen looked like the main character of an action movie. She wanted to be a superhero? She really looked one now.

    If only I was actually a robot and had a record feature or something. Deen would''ve appreciated a video of her awesome fight. Hey, I''m a supportive bestie.

    The Adumbrae wildly swung his arms in desperation. He wasn''t trying to catch Deen but was flailing, hoping to shoo her away. Despite his injuries, his movements were so powerful that they blew back the dust and smoke, giving me a better view of the fight.

    He''s so fucking messed up. Lion Ass was hardly recognizable as a furry beast.

    Vast swathes of bald spots where his fur was yet to return. Sizeable slabs of flesh had been blown off his body. Some of his ribs were exposed, the side of his stomach gaped open, his entrails hanging out. His regeneration worked overtime to repair his injuries but was having a hard time with Deen continuing to bash his head.

    I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to link with Lion Ass and paralyze him. Was the Guardian Angel taking my decisions into account? Should I just like go ahead and do¡ªAh! So fucking hard to tell with this pet!

    The important thing was that I should capitalize on the element of surprise for the finishing blow. Yes, the finishing blow. I shouldn''t waste the first chance of incapacitating Lion Ass because he''d push back my mind control afterward.

    And for the finishing blow¡ªshould I telepathically tell Deen? No, I shouldn''t risk muddling her Guardian Angel''s instructions. "Think of a blade!" I boomed.

    Lion Ass turned to look at me in surprise. Deen kicked his head. He hit the ground, but he wasn''t out. His eye was locked with mine. We both have one eye, so fun. Enraged, he crawled towards me.

    "Think of a blade on your arm!" I yelled as I crawled away. The fuck is going on here?

    "I got it, Pino!"

    "You fucking scrap metal!" snarled Lion Ass. His words slurred with all the facial rearrangements that Deen had done. He reached for me with his bloodied and bare forearm. "I''ll crush¡ª" Lion Ass''s remaining eye widened. He looked over his shoulder.

    Behind him, Deen held up her right arm. The bleached bony armor protecting her body crept up her arm as if it had turned liquid. It formed into a blade.

    Lion Ass roared; fear was evident in his voice. Knowing what was coming next, he abandoned chasing me and lunged at Deen.

    I pointed my finger at him.

    (Stop! Stop, you bastard!)

    He froze. (Wha¡ª? I can''t move!) His outstretched arm shook as he tried to regain control. Deen wavered, holding her blade arm close to her chest. Was she hesitating because he was helpless? I felt conflict in her mind flowing to me.

    (Yeah, because I told you not to.)

    (Get out of my head!)

    (You don''t want your head?) "Chop his head off!" I ordered Deen. "You need to do it now!"

    Deen swung her bladed arm at the neck of Lion Ass.

 5.37

    A severed lion''s head flew, spraying blood in a beautiful arc as it rotated once in mid-air before dropping to the ground. The death of Lion Ass was badass enough to be the finale of the boss fight in a movie. Real life should have a slow-motion button for times like these.

    It reminded me of that pool hair flip thing that became trendy a couple of years ago¡ªa long-haired woman would toss her head back, whipping her hair and the water in an arc as she emerged out of a pool. This was like that, except with mane and blood.

    Some drops of blood splattered Deen''s face. It didn''t break her expression of pure conviction. Crimson streaked her white armor, and the edge of her blade arm was lined with blood as well. She looked so fucking cool compared to me, a frail weirdo robot with missing limbs.

    This proved what I always knew: Life was unfair.

    Some people are destined to be main characters, and others as mere side characters.

    If I made Lion Ass a puppet, maybe I''d be the main character of this show. We could rip through the Tea Party goons and save Mom.

    An Adumbrae was the perfect specimen to turn into a hulking muscle berserker. Oooh, I''m using the term ''specimen'' like an evil scientist.

    Adumbrae could regenerate the severe toll on their body in return for overwhelming strength I''d impart. I could continuously pump them with power from the energy core within my metal body. Add the natural superhuman strength and superpowers of an Adumbrae, and I''d have a trump card!

    Sadly, it wasn''t as easy as that. I''d need a willing Adumbrae¡ªwhich Lion Ass definitely wasn''t¡ªbecause I couldn''t do my usual shtick of knocking people out and then piloting their bodies. An Adumbrae''s regeneration would heal their concussion and help them quickly regain consciousness.

    Ackchyually... technically with quotations... I already have a superhuman puppet. What would happen if I tried to control Deen''s body? Her Guardian Angel had no issues with our link?

    I could try to kill her or something. I could bring the battle of our wills to a standstill, paralyzing her. Shooting her in the head would be an easy thing to do next. But I bet her Guardian Angel already knew that there was no way I was going to do that in the future.

    "Pino!" Deen leaped over Lion Ass'' headless body and hurried to my side. "Are you okay?"

    "I am," I replied as I pushed myself off the floor.

    ¡°I saw the Adumbrae, um, break you¡ª¡±

    "My individual body parts are near indestructible. If my parts are fine, especially my head, I could reassemble myself with selective polarity magnetism. Essentially, I can draw my body parts back to myself and establish wireless connections." The fuck made-up sci-fi mumbo shit I''m spitting?

    "I didn''t know modern technology has advanced this far. I can see why the Tea Party wants to steal you.¡±

    ¡°Good job eliminating the Adumbrae,¡± I said, diverting the topic away from my fake backstory. She nodded at the praise. Her super serious face broke into a hesitant smile, her eyes still wary of danger.

    I followed her gaze, looking at what was behind me.

    The dust settled, revealing a large hole in the wall. The explosion didn¡¯t cause this; it was toppled because of their fight. The room where the explosion happened was two units or so away.

    I couldn¡¯t get a clear view of it. Smoke was thick back there, with pieces of furniture smoldering. Faint flashes of red and blue lit up the smoke like some rock concert effects. Intense light beams occasionally pierced through the haze to scan the wreckage.

    ¡°The police?¡± I said.

    ¡°I think so,¡± said Deen. ¡°The lion Adumbrae stared out the window, thinking I had jumped¡­¡±

    And got his fucking ass lit on fire, I mentally finished Deen¡¯s trailing sentence. ¡°That¡¯s extremely lucky,¡± I said. Obviously, it wasn¡¯t luck. Rather, it was her Guardian Angel at work, turning luck into certainty.

    It was surprising that the police had weapons this powerful. I knew they had ComExos and combat drones to fight Adumbrae. I had an unfriendly encounter with some of them back in La Esperanza. But I didn¡¯t expect them to have stuff as if they were going to fucking war.

    And they blew up part of the building just like that? They didn¡¯t care about the hostages? Las Vegas police are insane.

    ¡°Lucky¡­ yeah.¡± Deen slowly nodded. ¡°We should get going in case there are more explosions.¡± She looked down. ¡°What about your legs? What happened to them?"

    I shook my head as I tried to balance myself on my knees. "I can detect their signal outside. I surmise a mutated creature must''ve eaten them. Can you aid me in retrieving them?¡±

    ¡°Sure, I will.¡± Deen helped me up. She didn¡¯t move with urgency. We were safe for the immediate future.

    I tried walking with my shortened legs, but it was too slow and awkward. It would¡¯ve been better if I still had a crutch like the gun from earlier. I lowered myself back to the floor and crawled. She offered to carry me, but I refused¡ªI didn¡¯t want to get cradled like a child.

    Also, it¡¯d make Deen look more like the main character than she already did.

    ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re still, um, working.¡± Deen followed me out of the trashed room and into the corridor. ¡°You can heal Erind¡ªI mean, once we find those power cells you mentioned, I hope you can figure out what¡¯s wrong with my friend and heal her.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m ninety-seven percent sure that I can.¡± A robot would answer with numbers and shit. Earlier, I was talking smack to Lion Ass to distract it, but I wanted to convey that it was just an act.

    I look really pathetic crawling on the floor right now. Should I tell her to carry me? No, it''d be awkward if I said anything after I refused her offer. Just continue crawling, crawling, crawling.

    ¡°Here, let me,¡± Deen said, kicking aside monster corpses out of my path.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said. Huh, she¡¯s not asking questions? That was a relief. I assumed she¡¯d have many things to ask me.

    ¡°Um, thanks too.¡±

    I might have spoken too soon. ¡°For what?¡± I asked despite knowing the answer.

    "For this." Deen held up her blade arm. With a raised brow, she tilted her head at it. "This is your doing, isn¡¯t it?" The white material softened into a gooey liquid that receded to the armor plating that covered her arm. She was quick to learn how to control the power I granted her.

    "Yes, it is." I had no choice but to admit it because I had told her how to use it. And it was probably meant to be this way.

    Her Guardian Angel could''ve instructed her how to control the bony armor since it could provide information that she couldn''t have otherwise known in any possible future, branching into new possibilities¡ªfucking overpowered pet. But it chose not to, waiting for me to do it. I assumed it was signaling me to tell the truth.

    The alternative was that I could try to convince Deen that it was her artificial Core giving her new powers or some shit. That''d be a complicated story to keep consistent. Also, I wasn''t sure if her Guardian Angel would play along.

    Speaking of artificial Core, I can use that to parry the incoming problematic questions.

    "What''s this?" Deen asked, rapping at her chest plate with her knuckle as she walked beside me. "It''s so strong that the Adumbrae couldn''t pierce it with his claws. It saved my life."

    Yeah, you owe me, I thought. If I could grin, my face would be split in half with how wide my smile would be. "They are nanomachines that rapidly self-replicate, forming into microscopic super-structures following the user¡¯s thoughts.¡± Bullshit spewing commences.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    My sci-fi expository moment would''ve been cool if I wasn''t crawling on the ground like a cockroach.

    ¡°It¡¯s another top-secret project of Greaves,¡± I continued. ¡°But they couldn¡¯t be used by anyone. Fortunately, you are a perfect candidate for it, so I programmed them to latch onto you. You see, they are made from hyper pseudo-alloys charged with energy from Cores.¡±

    "Cores?" Deen stopped walking.

    "Yes. Cores from Corebrings. I assume you''re well aware of what I''m talking about."

    She gasped. A jumble of thoughts came from her.

    I gazed up at her. Her eyes were wide, her cheek muscles shifting as she gritted her teeth. Then she tried to blank her expression after she noticed me looking. But I could sense the turmoil and worry in her mind.

    ¡°Are you going to say you managed to fight that lion Adumbrae with bioaugmentronics?¡± I locked eyes with her. ¡°I scanned your body,¡± I said. She looked away. ¡°And I can tell you don¡¯t have any such augmentation. But you¡¯re also not normal¡­far from it.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re saying.¡± Deen clenched her fist. She was gathering resolve in her mind.

    ¡°Those nanomachines draw energy from Cores to multiply and harden,¡± I explained. ¡°If they¡¯re bonded with a normal human, that person would die. In a way, I was lucky to meet you here. Luck is such a human concept. Yet, here we are.¡±

    Deen¡¯s more concrete thoughts flowed into me. (Destroy¡­Pino. Protect secret¡­Erind¡­safe.)

    This bitch didn¡¯t hear what I said that I was indestructible? She just saw an Adumbrae tear me apart, and now I was back. However, I couldn¡¯t afford to fight with her¡ªI needed her on my side.

    "I''m not programmed to stick my nose in the business of others.¡± I blinked my eye. She didn¡¯t understand that was supposed to be a wink. ¡°Not that I have a nose like yours. Don¡¯t worry, your secret...and also your friend''s...are safe with me. My goal is to save as many people as I can. That''s it."

    ¡°Um¡­thank you.¡± She sighed in relief and unclenched her hands.

    But that was all an act because her expression didn''t coincide with what was on her mind. I expected her to be cheery, full of hope, inspired that I had the same heroic goals as her. This was the moment in a movie where all the important characters would team up to fight evil.

    Instead, she was so full of suspicion that it was oozing over our connection to me. My best friend wasn''t as naive as I thought.

    "I can sense my legs here," I said, gesturing at a pile of corpses. Let us postpone the betrayals for later. "If you can open these up..."

    "No problem," Deen said, wrinkling her nose. The awful stench of the parasite monsters must be getting to her. She flung her arm to her side and out came a long sword like a gigantic switchblade.

    "You don''t have to be cautious," I told her as she slowly sliced chunks off the disgusting heaps of flesh. "I told you that my body is near indestructible. You won''t accidentally cut them."

    Deen nodded and hacked away faster.

    (Need to... Erind. Help... Pino?)

    Fucking cut it out, I wanted to blast to her brain. Couldn''t she focus on digging out my legs so we could look for my real body next?

    Conflicted thoughts with a sprinkle of tension and anxiety¡ªDeen was arguing with her Guardian Angel. A strong urge to find my Erind body coupled with a suspicion of me as Pino. Both were understandable emotions. My hunch was that her invisible pet told her to continue working with me, but she didn''t want to.

    I may have found the weakness of Deen''s power.

    Only after our minds linked did I realize how much Deen didn''t want to follow her Guardian Angel''s instructions.

    Previously, I assumed it was a pretty straightforward power¡ªsome mysterious voice tells her to do or not do something. Knowing Deen, I wasn''t surprised that she¡¯d resist being told what to do. I could sorta understand she''d want a different path if her Guardian Angel''s instruction weren''t palatable to her, like maybe sacrificing someone else for her safety.

    That got me thinking: why would her Guardian Angel tell her to do something she wouldn''t follow?

    Deen had explained to us that her pet could see into the future. If that were the case, her pet should know if she would reject what it was going to say and tell her something else. Something wasn¡¯t lining up about her power.

    A distinct clink snapped me out of my thoughts. Deen had hit something hard.

    I concentrated on pulling. Out came my lower right leg, flying back to my joint. A few moments later, we found my other leg covered by rubble.

    "Thank you," I said, finally standing up. "Let us go."

    ¡°Wait.¡± Deen was looking down the hallway in the opposite direction of where Imani and the others fled.

    ¡°What is it?¡± I wanted to raise my brow but remembered I didn¡¯t have any. Even if I did, that facial expression wouldn¡¯t work with only one eye. Her Guardian Angel must be telling her something.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡±

    ¡°What about your friend?¡± I didn¡¯t like not knowing where my original body was.

    ¡°Just wait a bit. I think something¡¯s going to happen.¡±

    ¡°We shouldn¡¯t stay here for too¡ª"

    A bloodcurdling scream interrupted my sentence. ¡°Mother Core! Help!¡±

    Deen crossed both her arms in front of her defensively. This time, she wielded two long blades. She was getting too comfortable with her new ability. "An enemy?"

    Someone ran out of a room further down the hallway. He was a middle-aged man wearing a nondescript gray suit that was all crumpled up. Splashes of black slime and blood painted him.

    He wiped his face as he continued to run towards us, waving his arms to get our attention. "Mother Core''s Grace! Please save me!" Beads dangle from his right hand.

    Praying Man.

    He didn''t go along with the rest of the survivors and must¡¯ve hidden in one of the open rooms. Somehow, he survived the gore fiesta after a bunch of parasite monsters escaped their rooms during Lion Ass and Deen''s fight.

    ¡°Help me, ple¡ªyahhh!¡±

    Tentacles burst out of the wall next to him. He tried to escape, but one tentacle coiled around his legs and pulled him to the rest.

    Deen sprung into action, her blade arms at the ready. The tentacles were trying to pull Praying Man¡¯s limbs off when she reached them. She swung her blade so fast that it looked like a blur¡ªchopped-up bits of tentacles scattered like confetti.

    More fleshy tendrils appeared as parasite monsters squeezed themselves out of the walls. Deen avoided their attacks with such grace that it looked like she was swimming through the waves of tentacles. She got this whole Guardian Angel thing down.

    Prayer Man didn¡¯t continue running. He chose to curl up like a baby on the floor while blood and guts showered him. He closed his eyes and mumbled non-stop as he fiddled with the prayer beads.

    I hurried toward them. ¡°The heads and spine!¡± I called out. ¡°Destroy their heads and spine!¡± Easier said than done because it was hard to tell which body part was which with some of these mutated fuckshits.

    Deen didn¡¯t have any problems killing the monsters. I pointed out the ones still alive so she could dice them into smaller bits. We made a pretty good team. Ewww.

    "Thank you! Thank you for saving me!" Praying Man knelt on the floor, his hands clasped together, still holding onto his prayer beads. He bowed low to Deen. "Praise the Mother Core for sending a Corebring to save us!"

    "A Corebring?" Deen said. Her eyes flicked toward me.

    A Corebring? That was a possible explanation for Deen¡¯s powers and fighting ability. To a normal person, she did look like a Corebring coming to save them from Adumbrae.

    "Yes! I''ve seen you fight!" Praying Man ecstatically waved his hands. "You must be hiding your identity. Are you on a secret mission?¡±

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t¡ªyes, I¡¯m a Corebring on a mission.¡±

    ¡°A Corebring!¡± Praying Man bowed again. ¡°A blessing to meet a servant of the Mother Core. A silver lining in this horrid experience.¡±

    ¡°Uh, yeah¡­¡± Deen looked at me again as if asking what to do next.

    Was her Guardian Angel not giving her any instructions?

    Her troubled thoughts told me that she did know what she should do. But Deen, being Deen, didn¡¯t want to do it. I supposed that the situation with the frat boys was different. She couldn¡¯t just murder Praying Man right after saving him to protect our secret.

    I guess it¡¯s my time to shine.

    It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if the Guardian Angel wanted to ally with me to help with situations like this.

    Praying Man was getting up from the floor, his arms and legs shaking with excitement at meeting a Corebring. He had the purest smile on his face. His eyes were only on Deen¡ªhe didn¡¯t bat an eye at me. Earlier, when I saved them, he was super suspicious of me, raving about how I was a blasphemy to the Mother Core.

    He didn¡¯t notice my metal fist coming for his chin.

    Praying Man collapsed to the floor. I placed my knee on his chest, pinning him down with my weight. Then I continued to pummel his head.

    (I can¡¯t move? Help!)

    ¡°Pino! What are you doing?¡±

    (Corebring! Save me!)

    ¡°He is infected by the parasite!¡± I said. Prayer Man¡¯s thoughts quieted down. My knuckles were bloody.

    ¡°Infected?¡± Deen said. ¡°How can you¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Look! The mutation is beginning!¡± I should thank Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel for giving me a new puppet.

 5.38

    (Hello there!) I yelled in Praying Man¡¯s head. (Are you still awake?)

    No response, not even a stray thought.

    I punched his head twice more for good measure. I would¡¯ve continued, but the flesh around his head had thickened like a helmet of callus. I stood up and retreated as if it was getting dangerous, but continued to pump power into his body.

    Veins bulged and pressed against his thinning skin, his muscles expanding rapidly. He was becoming larger and buffed, but not in an aesthetically proportionate bodybuilder way. It was like his individual muscles decided to grow as much as they could without a care in the world.

    The pain that Praying Man suffered as he mutated into a freakish muscle monster wasn¡¯t something an ordinary person could endure. If he were still conscious, he¡¯d react by now. But I wasn¡¯t doing this to check if the lights were out in his head. This was to show Deen I was right.

    ¡°Oh my gosh!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°He¡¯s becoming one of them!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve told you that I can detect the parasites. They emit specific delta-waves akin to Adumbrae infection that disrupt normal human brain patterns.¡±

    ¡°What do we do? Is there a way to save him?¡±

    How many times do I need to tell¡ªugh! ¡°No, it¡¯s impossible. The parasite has taken root in his brain stem. Any attempt to remove it will render him brain dead.¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t stop him from turning into a monster?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no reversing the process.¡±

    ¡°Then he¡¯ll lose his mind and attack us like the others?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is inevitable.¡± What¡¯s up with her line of questioning?

    A flood of relief came from Deen, and I got my answer. She was repeating these questions because she wanted to make sure that Prayer Man was gone for good, along with the knowledge of her ¡®Corebring¡¯ abilities. My best friend was such a hypocrite.

    And it was so entertaining.

    ¡°The-then what should we do?¡± Deen asked, already knowing the answer.

    Her thoughts were turbulent. It was similar to when I paralyzed Lion Ass, and she hesitated to chop his head. Rewinding to Deen murdering some of the frat boys, I realized that she wanted someone to nudge her off the path of righteousness before she¡¯d commit¡ªthis way, she¡¯d somehow keep her ¡®moral high ground.¡¯

    ¡°Either he¡¯ll go after us or the other people in this building,¡± I said. I focused on her with my eye, wordlessly asking her to decide our following action.

    Her forehead wrinkled. ¡°Maybe we should kill¡ªwait! Pino, you can control the mutated humans, right?¡±

    There we go, shifting the responsibility to me. ¡°I¡¯m hijacking its brain waves as we speak. It¡¯s not always a certain process, but¡ªgot it, I¡¯m successfully patched in.¡±

    Praying Man grunted as he sat up. Twice as wide as before, his reddish skin showing through the tears of his clothes, he was now unrecognizable. As his fist expanded into the size of a ham, the prayer beads that coiled around his hand snapped, the individual pellets scattering on the floor.

    ¡°We should hurry and¡ª¡± I began to say, but Deen suddenly pulled me down.

    Something whizzed above us. She pushed me to hide behind Praying Man and crouched beside me. I turned to where the mysterious projectile landed. Three darts were buried in the wall. Those were supposed to hit Deen.

    ¡°What was that?¡± I ordered Praying Man to kneel and spread his arms to form a wall.

    ¡°The police,¡± Deen said a moment before the shooting began. Praying Man groaned as bullets hit his flesh. She talked louder over the gunfire. ¡°A combat drone. Four legs, white with red and blue markings like what the police use.¡±

    ¡°It tried to knock you out,¡± I said, pointing at the darts. ¡°They¡¯ll check later if you¡¯re human or not.¡±

    ¡°But now, they¡¯ve decided I¡¯m probably no longer on the human team.¡± She jabbed her thumb at Praying Man. His blood dripped to the floor, forming puddles. She ripped patches off Praying Man¡¯s gray suit and fashioned them into a mask to cover her face.

    ¡°Good thinking,¡± I said. The gunfire became more intense.

    I peeked from behind my puppet¡¯s shoulder and received a couple of rounds to the face as a prize. Before hiding again, I saw a police officer in anti-Adumbrae gear exiting the room that was blasted earlier. And then another combat drone followed him.

    The police were finally moving in, and it didn¡¯t look like rescuing hostages was their priority.

    Ordering Todd to throw the monsters out the window was premature on my part, probably even a mistake. It forced the police¡¯s hand. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the authorities assumed that an Adumbrae outbreak was happening because of the parasite monsters that attacked them outside.

    Whoopsie.

    ¡°We should get going.¡± Deen tapped my arm and pointed where Imani and the others went.

    I nodded. ¡°Before more of them come.¡±

    ¡°And we should avoid fighting them,¡± Deen said.

    She crawled away in a straight line directly behind Prayer Man. His pool of blood was spreading. Stronger blasts ripped out chunks of his hardened flesh. I connected my healing finger to him. It wasn¡¯t exactly healing, more like patching things up at the cost of a person¡¯s life force.

    (Hang in there, Praying Man), I thought as I crawled after Deen.

    Looking back at me, she said, ¡°We shouldn¡¯t kill the police,¡± as if she knew what I planned to do.

    ¡°But they might kill you.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not going to happen,¡± she matter-of-factly replied. ¡°Door to the left. That¡¯s unlocked¡ªI mean, let¡¯s hope it¡¯s unlocked.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll go first,¡± I said. ¡°If I can¡¯t open it and the police shoot me, I¡¯ll be fine.¡± Deen was guided by her Guardian Angel, so she couldn¡¯t be wrong that the door was unlocked. But I wanted to build trust between us.

    I lunged at the door. It opened, and I rolled through the doorway.

    Deen dove in after me. Wood splinters and chunks of concrete showered her.

    We were inside an empty conference room that wasn¡¯t used to imprison hostages. But there were holes in the wall¡ªa large one and several smaller ones that looked like tentacles had poked them. A person had climbed through from the neighboring room, presumably escaping the parasites there. Unfortunately for him, he was severely wounded and died due to blood loss on the floor of this room.

    An intense explosion shook the floor. Praying Man roared in pain. Should I tell him to follow us?

    ¡°Order the monster you control into another room on the other side,¡± Deen said. Then she tilted her head towards the opening on the wall and hurried to it.

    ¡°To provide a distraction?¡± Was this the Guardian Angel¡¯s idea? I mentally commanded Praying Man to play hide-and-seek with the police.

    ¡°If it comes here, we¡¯ll be in danger.¡± Deen paused before climbing through the hole. ¡°And, uh, a distraction, yeah, that¡¯s it.¡±

    ¡°What danger?¡± I asked as I followed her into the next room.

    This was another one of those rooms with a closed door, but the people and monsters inside had poofed away. They couldn¡¯t have gone through that hole we just passed¡ªonly the dead guy next door ¡®survived¡¯ the mass disappearance. The Tea Party had some funny business going on here.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    Deen distractedly said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡ªlose control?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    (Pino will lose control of the monster? Thanks for telling me, Gabe,) was Deen¡¯s reply to her pet that she thought ¡®out loud¡¯ to me. Sensing a sort of relief and joy from her, I surmised that her Guardian Angel usually didn¡¯t tell her the reasons for its instructions. She had told us that it would give only simple and short orders.

    She clarified, ¡°If the monster breaks free of your control, we¡¯ll have to deal with it while escaping from the police. Better send it elsewhere as a distraction.¡±

    ¡°I get it.¡±

    Then Deen raised her arms. The bony armor coated her hands and extended sideways until they connected to each other, making a handle of sorts. At the end of the pole, the head of a sledgehammer materialized. From blades, she had progressed to forming tools.

    Watching as she demolished the wall so we could get into the next room, I pondered what she said. There was no way Praying Man would break free of my control. This must be her Guardian Angel sending me a message. Too bad it couldn¡¯t just outright tell me what it was.

    Explosions and gunfire continued, this time muffled and distant.

    Praying Man must be doing a good job entertaining the police; I¡¯d love to pay to get a video of what was going on. But my puppet¡¯s ¡®signal¡¯ was weakening. He¡¯d eventually succumb to his injuries or his life force draining to ¡®heal¡¯ his wounds.

    Such a waste if I let him die like this. What does the Guardian Angel want me to do?

    We entered the neighboring room. Deen barely paused to check our surroundings¡ªanother holding cell that was empty other than blood and black slime¡ªbefore attacking the opposite wall.

    Lose control? I examined my fingers, looking at the blue threads that only I could see. There was no way I would¡ªthen I decided to do what I initially planned. (Praying Man, destroy everyone and everything attacking you!) I didn¡¯t know if he could still carry out my command. I could barely hear the sounds of fighting with Deen demolishing the wall.

    But if he could kill the police, that would keep them off our backs for a bit. They wouldn¡¯t send in more men just to get mowed down by a dangerous ¡®Adumbrae.¡¯ I¡¯d have enough time to look for my Erind body and Mom. Why is my list of objectives growing?

    The next room was neat and clean. But instead of breaking down the walls, Deen gestured for me to exit through the door. ¡°It¡¯s safe now,¡± she said.

    I didn¡¯t bother asking how she knew.

    We found ourselves a room past the staircase by the spot where Deen and Lion Ass had started their fight. Smoke and dust obscured the hallway. No more noises, but Praying Man was still alive. Barely. I¡¯d have to get him back so I have a puppet to use before finding a replacement.

    ¡°Wait,¡± I called out to Deen. ¡°I lost control of the parasite monster! The distance of the waves¡­¡± I made up some explanation so that it wouldn¡¯t be my fault Praying Man killed the police officers. ¡°I can detect it is coming here!¡±

    ¡°Can you reestablish control?¡±

    We stopped running and stared back at the smoke. Praying Man emerged. He was missing a quarter of his torso¡ªhis arm, the right part of his chest, just torn away. His head was an unrecognizable lump of flesh and blood. Twisted metal jutted out of his stomach, the bladed legs of combat drones. His remaining hand gripped a severed human hand covered in metal plating.

    Praying Man limped down the hallway, heavily hemorrhaging like a snail leaving behind a crimson slime trail.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m not sure,¡± I said. I¡¯m not even sure if I can still save him.

    (Red blood¡­) That was the strong thought coming from Deen. Gnawing distrust directed at me. The appearance of Praying Man triggered something in her.

    ¡°The parasites got to him, right?¡± Deen said, brandishing blades on her arms.

    ¡°Yes, they did,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s why I can control him.¡± Indirectly, I was telling her that I couldn¡¯t control normal humans.

    His green hue dimmed fast, no matter how much power I injected into him. Boils grew on his body while clumps of his flesh fell off like melting ice cream¡ªa side effect of my healing energy. The boils burst, spewing disgusting yellow pus mixed with blood.

    Which smelled worse? That or the black¡ª?

    Black! Red! This was why Deen suddenly became suspicious of me¡ªmore than before, anyway. My puppet didn¡¯t ooze the black slime of the parasite monsters.

    (Praying Man! Run away from us! Go as far away as possible!)

    He did an about-face and ambled back into the smoke. I didn¡¯t know how far our link could stretch, but he¡¯d be nowhere near us when it¡¯d break. Or dead. Yeah, he¡¯d likely be dead before he reached the end of this floor.

    ¡°He¡­left?¡± Deen lowered her weapons. The white material unraveled and was reabsorbed by her armor.

    ¡°Lucky us,¡± I said, jogging past her. ¡°We should hurry and find your friends.¡±

    <hr>

    Up or down? Left or right? We traversed a labyrinth of rooms and corridors.

    I didn¡¯t know where to go, and neither did Deen. But she overtook me and led the way, guided by her Guardian Angel. She told me some vague shit that she could find traces of where the others went. It wasn¡¯t like I had a better idea, and I didn¡¯t want to split up, so I went along with her.

    We went up another floor, running past office cubicles littered with a few corpses here and there¡ªjust random employees killed by gunshots, nobody we recognized. The absence of parasite monsters was also good news.

    Then there were more rooms¡ªsome doors were open, but most were closed. No sign of Imani, those two nobodies whose names I forgot, or my Erind body.

    Our silent jogging session was interrupted by faint sounds of explosions.

    ¡°Is that the police?¡± Deen guessed, warily looking left and right. ¡°The BID?¡±

    ¡°Could also be the Tea Party setting off traps,¡± I said. They might be self-destructing this fucking place because of my stupid decision!

    The police were constrained to attack because of the parasite monsters I set loose. No doubt, the BID was also on its way. But that meant the Tea Party assholes had to move their plans forward. With hostages, they had all the time in the world for shenanigans. Not anymore.

    It¡¯d be a disaster if they blew this whole place up. My Erind body and Mom would be gone! Disaster is a fucking understatement.

    I was beginning to think that while Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel was leading her to safety, it wasn¡¯t the same place as my body. This fucking pet was using me to keep its master safe.

    How do I convince her to find the security room?

    In thriller movies, that was always the answer. The main character would replay security cam footage telling them where to go next. A bonus if some Tea Party assholes were there¡ªwe could torture them for more information.

    ¡°Are you sure we¡¯re going the right way?¡± I asked Deen as a pretext to hinting we head elsewhere.

    ¡°Uh¡­yes, I think so.¡± Feelings of wavering were transmitted to me. She was also doubting her Guardian Angel. It had been a few minutes, and we hadn¡¯t found a trace of my sort-of-human body. Then excitement welled up inside her. ¡°Look over there!¡±

    Just as when I was ready to criticize Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel, it led us to a possible clue¡ªa guy in a Tea Party get-up lying on the floor. Blood seeped through his balaclava and coated the white tiles. He was convulsing a bit. I could see Imani using her stun gun on him and bashing his head with her aug-arm.

    ¡°This must be them!¡± Deen gestured for me to pick up the pace.

    ¡°Yes, I hope so.¡±

    After we turned the corner, we found another Tea Party goon slumped against double doors with an upper half made of glass. Through the windows, we could see that the doors led due to a wide office area filled with cubicles.

    Deep gashes covered the Tea Party guy¡¯s body, including a slit across his throat which might¡¯ve ultimately killed him. Other than the red of blood, splashes of black painted the walls and ceiling. It wasn¡¯t the slime of the parasites, but something much darker, almost like scorch marks.

    ¡°I suppose you don¡¯t have any more friends with superhuman abilities?¡±

    ¡°You mean Imani? Didn¡¯t you scan her?¡±

    ¡°I did. She has a normal human body. The only remarkable thing I found is her bioaugmentronics limb attachment. It has a built-in electroshock weapon module.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what she told us too.¡±

    ¡°This¡±¡ªI pointed at the fucked up corpse¡ª¡°doesn¡¯t look like the work of an electroshock weapon.¡±

    Deen nodded. (Imani friends¡­Core¡­Jujub?) ¡°She had mentioned that she has friends that are¡­like me.¡± She placed her hand on her chest where her artificial Core should be. ¡°I think this is the work of one of her friends coming to rescue her.¡±

    ¡°That may be the case.¡±

    This wasn¡¯t the police, that was for sure. This wasn¡¯t the work of the disgusting parasites either. Furthermore, some of the black streaks on the ceiling looked like feathers. Imani had mentioned that their leader, Jubjub, could make shadow crows or some shit.

    We pushed open the double doors and found murals of black feathers on the ceiling and two more dead guys dumped among file cabinets.

    Three, actually.

    But the third one didn¡¯t count as a guy. His¡­its¡ªits head was separated from its body, showing a hollow core. It didn¡¯t bleed; it didn¡¯t even have flesh or bones. It was like a husk, a shell, an empty pot. I had seen this before.

    ¡°A trail of blood!¡± Deen leaped over the corpses and pointed at the floor. In her eagerness, she overlooked the peculiar not-corpse. ¡°One of them got wounded. Let¡¯s follow¡ª¡± Her eyes widened. She rushed at me.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I said as she carried me over her shoulders, back through the double doors.

    ¡°Someone¡¯s coming.¡±

    ¡°But I don¡¯t detect anything.¡±

    Deen held the handles of the door to keep it steady so that it wouldn¡¯t betray us hiding behind it. ¡°I can hear it with, uh, my superhuman senses.¡± She slowly raised her head, carefully peeking through the window. ¡°Tea Party! Coming from the door at the left corner.¡±

    I also checked them out, careful not to be spotted.

    There were two of them, likely out to investigate their nonresponsive buddies. The guy in the lead had drawn his gun, prepared to shoot any threat as he kicked down cubicles. Healthy green outlined his form.

    The second man was leisurely walking as if he was in the park. No outline at all, not green, red, or even just gray. I had gotten tricked by this before¡ªa clay puppet of Finlay.

    That guy has been alive for way too long.

 5.39

    The Tea Party goon and the clay man headed in our direction, stopping when they found the corpses. The actual human squatted to check his dead friends while the clay man stared at the ceiling, seemingly examining the broad streaks of black.

    Finlay could hear and see through his clay puppets. If I wasn¡¯t mistaken, he could also teleport to their bodies ¡ªthat was how he came to help Auron the time I fought them as Erind.

    ¡°Tell me what they¡¯re doing.¡± I slid down out of sight. Better to have Deen keep watch because her Guardian Angel got her back. I preemptively raised my fingers, ready for some pointing action. ¡°Are they coming here?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re done checking the dead guys,¡± Deen whispered, bobbing by the bottom of the window. ¡°But they¡¯re not coming here. They¡¯re going to the right.¡±

    ¡°Right?¡± They don¡¯t know about us two lurking around? I scanned the hallway for security cams; I had spotted one by the earlier bend. This could signify that the Tea Party was packing up, or they¡¯d still be watching the cams. So, what were these two still doing here?

    ¡°I think they¡¯re following the trail of blood.¡± Deen took one more peek to confirm it before stooping to my eye level. ¡°We should attack them now.¡±

    The Tea Party might¡¯ve spotted us but prioritized Imani¡¯s group. She mentioned they fought the tech gang a few times¡ªthey must¡¯ve gotten recognized when Jubjub used her powers. However, these two idiots would be a joke trying to stop someone with an artificial Core.

    When one of Finlay¡¯s dummies finds Imani, I bet he¡¯d switch to fight them.

    We should get to them first. I wanted to be reunited with my precious body before¡­ my body! Imani¡¯s group wasn¡¯t their target.

    It¡¯s me.

    The Tea Party was bound to observe the rooms with hostages on the security cameras. They even had cameras inside each room.

    It was probably hard to spot me, as Erind, among the crowd because there was no way they¡¯d just let me go with the other hostages¡ªFinlay knew I was an Adumbrae. But Imani¡¯s group separating from the rest of the survivors would¡¯ve drawn attention to them. And a body dragged around like luggage was super conspicuous. That should remind Finlay of the first time he saw my Erind self.

    A bunch of reasons why the Tea Party would go after me despite the police and BID knocking on the door.

    I fought the 2Ms the two times they released the parasites in La Esperanza¡ªthe Tea Party assholes would rightly assume I was why their plans were going awry. They might even think I was working with Imani¡¯s group to fuck them up. In a way, I kind of was.

    Finlay, for one, would want to have his revenge for his jaw that I removed, though he should¡¯ve regenerated it by now.

    Since the Tea Party was connected to the 2Ms, it wouldn¡¯t be farfetched to assume their group was also in contact with the Supplier¡ªStella had mentioned it was that mysterious bastard who ordered me kidnapped in the first place.

    ¡°The moment we open the doors,¡± Deen said, ¡°they¡¯ll know we¡¯re coming for them.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll go first.¡±

    ¡°No need. I¡¯m fast enough¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not about the bullets. You¡¯re safe with this.¡± I tapped her chest plate. ¡°But I¡¯m detecting an Adumbrae.¡±

    Deen¡¯s forehead wrinkled. ¡°Like, who do you mean?¡± (Erind¡­ Mean Erind¡­?)

    I rolled my lone eye at her thoughts. ¡°There¡¯s another enemy Adumbrae here,¡± I clarified. No point hiding about Finlay. But explaining to Deen why I¡ªsupposedly a Greaves android¡ªwas at her best friend¡¯s condo the night the 2Ms attack was going to be a bitch. Best if we didn¡¯t meet him. Just immediately destroy all the clay dummies we find and move on.

    ¡°Another Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m picking up faint anomalous brain waves from one of those men. I go first. When they shoot at me, you attack the man I point at¡ªhe¡¯s probably an Adumbrae. You need to hit him as hard as possible. Do it quickly before they can react.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±

    I barged through the double doors and turned right, down a row of cubicles. Deen had no choice but to follow me. The two guys were at the far end of the sea of workspaces¡ªthe human stopped when he heard the noise. We bent down below the level of the partitions as we zigzagged through the maze, hurriedly shuffling our feet.

    ¡°Who the hell is there?¡± shouted the Tea Party asshole.

    Deen grabbed my arm and led me past a water cooler. Gunfire strafed our previous location. There was pinging as the bullets hit filing cabinets. A computer also got hit and fell where I would¡¯ve been.

    ¡°Fuck this shit! I¡¯m outta here!¡± A man cried out, followed by hurried footsteps.

    ¡°He¡¯s getting away!¡± I stood up. The man ran for the double doors while the clay man remained. Finlay¡¯s stupid creation started shooting at me. I ran forward, staggering from the impact of the bullets while looking at Deen and pointing the other way.

    She nodded and took the opportunity to charge from the other side, sprinting with an inhuman speed that she caught up with the human, kicking him back before he could reach the exit. He sprawled into a stack of documents and got covered by a shower of papers. She picked up the gun he dropped, hesitantly raising it.

    ¡°Shoot that guy!¡± I pointed at the clay man.

    Deen pointed the gun at the clay man¡¯s head, thinking that this was the Adumbrae I was referring to. But then, she shifted to holding it like a club¡ªshe just wanted to knock the guy out. Bothersome turmoil in her mind was there again. Was shooting too brutal for her?

    ¡°Just hit him¡ªit! Hit it!¡± Oh, Mother Core, please give me a different best friend! I was already shifting the moral blame to me if she hurt the guy, but she still didn¡¯t follow me. Was her Guardian Angel telling her something else? That fucking pet!

    The clay puppet dropped its gun and faced Deen, raising its hands. That made me raise a phantom brow. This thing was up to no good.

    ¡°Attack now!¡± I yelled. Before Finlay thinks of coming here, I added in my head. ¡°It¡¯s not a human!¡±

    ¡°But he¡¯s surrendering!¡± Deen yelled back. ¡°We can ask him questions.¡±

    She misunderstood what I meant. To be fair, her plan to interrogate the guy was a good one if the circumstances were different. I ran to her. ¡°That¡¯s just a dummy! It¡¯s not going to answer any questions! Shoot it¡ª¡±

    ¡°Calling me a dummy?¡± the clay man suddenly spoke. No, not a clay man. He took off his goggles and pulled down the mouth part of his balaclava, revealing one of the top ten annoying faces I¡¯ve ever encountered. ¡°That¡¯s not very nice of you.¡±

    A green outline that wasn¡¯t there before. ¡°Finlay¡­¡±

    ¡°Hello, there!¡± he cheerily greeted me, twirling his hand in the air. ¡°Pino, am I right? How¡¯s it going, my friend?¡±

    My eye flicked to Deen. Her mask covered much of her expression, but her brows furrowed. Fuck, her suspicions of me are rising. Taking the conversation¡¯s steering wheel into my hands, I demanded, ¡°What are you planning to do here? The innocent people you¡¯re turning¡ª¡±

    ¡°Blah, blah, blah!¡± Finlay loudly interrupted me. ¡°Hey, Pino buddy. Did you know that my brother died?¡±

    ¡°Your brother?¡± I could only remember that they were twins with different powers. He could be messing with me, buying time until other assholes reached us.

    ¡°Yes, my beloved brother from¡­ the same mother. The same fertilized egg, actually, since we¡¯re identical twins.¡±

    ¡°How¡¯s that related to what¡¯s the Tea Party doing here?¡±

    ¡°Nothing,¡± Finlay said with a shrug. ¡°Just thought you¡¯d want to know of his passing because you¡¯re one of his friends.¡±

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°I¡¯m not his friend.¡±

    ¡°He died in that stupid condo building,¡± Finlay talked over me, pretending to sob. ¡°Couldn¡¯t even give him a proper burial.¡±

    ¡°Let me guess,¡± I said. ¡°He got covered by rubble? Not my fault.¡±

    Behind Finlay, Deen was frozen with the gun held high in a baseball player¡¯s pose, bullshit thoughts in her head.

    My best friend was distrusting me to the max with Finlay¡¯s ¡®friends¡¯ talk that I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she¡¯d suddenly bolt and leave me behind. The mention of a condo also troubled her¡ªshe grasped what we were talking about.

    (Condo¡­ Erind¡¯s condo¡­? Parasite, enemy, Adumbrae? Pino, enemy?) Deen was starting to piece the puzzle together, and I was sure she¡¯d get the wrong picture. Much doubt and plenty of missing information from her perspective. I was too untrustworthy in her eyes.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Pino, my friend,¡± Finlay said. ¡°I¡¯m not blaming you. It was mainly Stella¡¯s fault.¡±

    (Know each other¡­ Pino keeping secrets¡­ Enemy¡­ Who?) Deen was inching back to the double doors behind her, unconsciously lowering the gun as her mind raced. (Erind¡­ save¡­ priority.) She was finalizing her thoughts of ditching me to look for Erind.

    And her plan might be for the best.

    She should meet up with Imani¡¯s group while I entertained this jackass, Finlay¡ªnot sure how I would keep him here, but that should be doable. Then later, I could remove my Pino mask and poof to my original body.

    ¡°Hello there, Pino¡¯s friend,¡± Finlay said, injecting his voice with a fake surprised tone as if he had just noticed Deen. The moment he faced her, I shot his back with a finger. ¡°My name¡¯s Finlay. I¡¯m also Pino¡¯s friend. By extension, you should be my friend¡ª¡±

    ¡°Go now!¡± I shouted at Deen. ¡°I¡¯ll hold him!¡±

    Deen gave me a nod before turning around. There was no hesitation because she had already made up her mind to leave us two sketchy as fuck people. But before she went through the doors, Finlay shouted something that made her stop.

    ¡°We have Erind¡¯s mother!¡± Finlay declared.

    ¡°What did you say?¡± I asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, we know Erind¡¯s here, and her mother too. White hair, those weird eyes¡ªwe have her.¡±

    Holy fuck! Only now did I realize how the Tea Party knowing I was here would also affect Mom. ¡®Hartwell¡¯ wasn¡¯t a common surname at all. From just another Greaves person to the mother of their Adumbrae enemy¡ªdid that make her safer or not?

    Finlay said, ¡°Back away from the door, blonde girl. All of us should be friends.¡±

    ¡°Where is she?¡± Deen demanded. ¡°Where¡¯s Erind¡¯s mom?¡±

    ¡°I was right that you¡¯re Erind¡¯s friend too,¡± he said, snapping his fingers. ¡°Too bad Erind didn¡¯t want to be friends with me.¡±

    ¡°Tell us!¡±

    ¡°Or what? You¡¯ll shoot me? But since we¡¯re friends¡­ I can lead you to where she is.¡±

    ¡°Lead us to a trap, you mean?¡± I weighed my options. We could ignore this bastard, find Imani and hopefully the rest of their gang, and then try to save Mom later. Or we could play along with Finlay into an apparent bad end.

    But there was another option! If they had Mom hostage, we could hostage Finlay too. Hopefully, my link with him would stop him from escaping.

    ¡°Trap?¡± Finlay smirked. ¡°Not like the trap you¡¯re planning to set for me.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°Your fingers.¡± He wiggled his own. ¡°You¡¯re doing something weird with them.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re insane¡ª¡± I began to say as someone tackled me straight into a cubicle. ¡°What the fuck?¡± I tried to shoot his side, but my threads wouldn¡¯t come out.

    ¡°Adios!¡± Finlay yelled. ¡°Follow me if you want to find Erind¡¯s mother!¡±

    ¡°Pino!¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Get off, you¡ªhuh?¡± No head? It was the headless clay man we saw with the dead guys. It was still working, and Finlay used it as a distraction.

    ¡°I got you.¡± Deen kicked the dummy off me, breaking its body into two large pieces and many smaller ones. She thrust her gun into my hands as I sat up and then carried me on her back before I could say anything. ¡°Hold tight, I¡¯m going to catch him.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± I said, hugging her neck as she zipped through the cubicles.

    The double doors from where we had entered were still swinging. Finlay hadn¡¯t gone far. I had thought of stopping his movements with our link earlier, but I didn¡¯t want to ruin the element of surprise. I probably had only one shot with it, and I wanted to use it when it counted. He wasn¡¯t going to teleport away because he¡¯d like to play games with us¡ªfucking over people was his whole thing, even his teammates.

    I was betting on Deen catching him before he could reach whatever trap he prepared. Her Guardian Angel wouldn¡¯t allow her to be in harm¡¯s way.

    True to her word, we found Finlay. Deen chased him down the hallway we had passed before. We would¡¯ve noticed if there were traps here. We were three rooms behind him. Two. Finlay entered an open door.

    ¡°Huh? He¡¯s cornering himself?¡± I blurted. We were in the center of the building; no windows for escape. And there appeared to be no danger because Deen followed him inside.

    We entered a smaller room that was somebody¡¯s office. Finlay jumped over the oak table and stopped when he reached the wall at the end of the room.

    ¡°End of the line!¡± I was so focused on capturing this bastard that I forgot to cringe at my generic one-liner.

    Finlay raised his hands again. ¡°Such a friendly reunion we have here,¡± he said, still facing the room¡¯s far wall.

    ¡°Not so friendly as you might think,¡± I replied, climbing off Deen¡¯s back. I didn¡¯t return the gun to her, instead marching forward and taking charge of dealing with Finlay.

    ¡°Congratulations for cornering me,¡± he said, slowly turning around. His stupid grin made me wary; he wasn¡¯t worried about his predicament. ¡°Are you planning to trade me for Erind¡¯s mother?¡± he asked, correctly figuring out my intentions.

    ¡°That¡¯s right. So, just come with us.¡± I aimed the gun at his ugly head, positioning its butt correctly against my shoulder.

    His jaws again? Should be his lower head¡ªan injury that was serious but wouldn¡¯t kill him. No mistakes this time. Only one chance to paralyze him and get the shot to knock him out of commission. Then Deen could bind his hands with something sturdy we could find, like what she did to me before.

    Deen approached me, her hands outstretched, obviously planning to take the gun away. ¡°Careful. You might kill him,¡± she said as if this was the first time I had taken someone hostage.

    ¡°Yeah, listen to her,¡± Finlay chimed in. ¡°Don¡¯t kill me, my friend.¡±

    Ignoring Deen, I followed it up with another staple from the movies. ¡°Finlay, we can do this the hard way or the easy way.¡±

    He chuckled at my cheesy sentence. ¡°Pino, come on. I¡¯m not going to¡ª¡±

    (Don¡¯t move!) I mentally blasted him.

    His eyes widened. With sights lined up, directly covering his gaping mouth, I pulled the trigger.

    ¡°No!¡± Deen shouted. She dove for the gun and yanked it from me.

    ¡°He switched out?¡± I let her have the gun as I hurried to Finlay, or what was once his body.

    Instead of blood and flesh, ceramic shards scattered. The body slumped against the wall had a shattered head, its holes showing the dark emptiness inside¡ªno Finlay around here. My power couldn¡¯t stop him from teleporting out¡ªour link disappeared the moment a clay man took his place.

    I rummaged through the pockets of the clay man to see if there were any clues on where the Tea Party took Mom. A phone with messages? A map or something?

    ¡°Wait, what happened?¡± Deen approached me.

    ¡°The Adumbrae switched with this dummy,¡± I explained. ¡°There¡¯s nothing here. Let¡¯s go back to find the others.¡±

    ¡°Hello!¡± someone called behind us. ¡°Looking for me?¡±

    A Tea Party member was outside the door, doing a little tap dance. He didn¡¯t need to remove his mask because we could tell from his voice that it was Finlay. ¡°I¡¯m supposed to get Erind Hartwell,¡± he said, closing the door, ¡°but before that¡­¡±

    (Shoot him,) I ordered Deen.

    ¡°Huh?¡± She pointed the gun¡¯s barrel at the door and pulled the trigger. She fired a few rounds before she fought for control of her body.

    I relented. The door had already closed.

    ¡°What just¡ª? Pino, wait! Something happening. The sound?¡±

    I ignored Deen, rushing past her to the door. I ignored the weird ringing noise. I ignored the door looking weirder. The world was bothering me to the max, and I was nearly done tolerating it. I grabbed the huge doorknob and pulled a heavy metal door lined with bolts.

    ¡°Wha-what?¡± I stepped back in surprise. Instead of the bland hallway we had just left, I opened the door to a dim tunnel with flickering fluorescent lights. ¡°This door? Eh?¡±

    ¡°Pino! What did you do?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡±

    Deen waved her hand at the doorway to check if it was an illusion. ¡°It must¡¯ve been that Adumbrae,¡± she said. But her thoughts paraded her distrust of me. She didn¡¯t bring up her involuntary movements even if that was front and center on her mind.

    This wasn¡¯t the time for a fight between us. ¡°A trap,¡± I said as if it couldn¡¯t be more obvious. ¡°Some kind of teleportation power.¡± I tried closing the door again, but it wouldn¡¯t budge. No way we¡¯re going through here. I stepped back, examining the room. ¡°Deen, can you break the wall down? We might be able to pass through back to the Greaves Convention center.¡±

    She wasn¡¯t listening to me. Her left foot passed the doorway and stepped on uneven earth on the other side. ¡°I think this is where they¡¯re keeping the hostages.¡±

    We don¡¯t have time for nobodies! ¡°But your friend. Erind¡¯s her name, right? If we go there¡ª¡±

    ¡°Her mother might be here.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ is possible.¡± If this was where the Tea Party was taking the parasite monsters and people, then, yes, Mom could be there. Should I trust Imani with my Erind body and explore this place to find Mom? I had Deen with me. And in an emergency, I could return to my body by taking off the mask. ¡°Let¡¯s think about¡ªwait, what¡¯s that?¡±

    Something was rolling down the tunnel toward us.

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know,¡± said Deen.

    It stopped directly below one of the light tubes.

    I questioningly tilted my head. ¡°An eyeball?¡±

 5.40

    Despite being Ms. Save the Hostages, Deen stepped back into the office and aimed her gun at the eyeball. She projected a sense of disgust I didn¡¯t share. How many eyeballs had I stabbed? More than one, for sure. And eyeballs moving on their own? Nothing I hadn¡¯t seen before¡ªI¡¯d met an Adumbrae who could control eyeballs, though a bit weird to encounter similar abilities.

    ¡°Don¡¯t waste bullets. It¡¯s harmless.¡± I nudged the gun¡¯s barrel to the side. A nice feeling one-upping Deen, even if only in the not-creeped-out-by-eyeballs category.

    The tennis ball-sized eyeball had a green outline¡ªit had a mind I could control? Where the fuck was it keeping its brain in its small body? Didn¡¯t feel safe shooting it.

    It rocked back and forth like a beckoning hand.

    ¡°It¡¯s telling us to follow,¡± said Deen, echoing my thoughts. ¡°I¡¯m not getting anything from Gabe¡ªI mean, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s dangerous¡ª¡±

    ¡°This is dangerous,¡± I said as pointedly as I could muster with a robotic voice.

    ¡°Uh, sorry. Of course, it¡¯s dangerous,¡± she hurriedly clarified. ¡°But we don¡¯t have a choice here. We can¡¯t close the door.¡± She first tried tugging the door and then pushing against it. Didn¡¯t work. The creaks of metal, like the mating calls of a whale, proved she wasn¡¯t faking her attempts. ¡°The walls are probably the same. We¡¯re trapped. The only way is forward. This thing is telling us exactly that.¡±

    ¡°Or we can stay here.¡± I tapped the tiled floor with my feet. Clearly, Deen was set on going through and looking for the hostages. She didn¡¯t want to try punching through the walls for fear we¡¯d break this portal or whatever this was supposed to be.

    While we¡¯d probably find the missing people if we went through this tunnel, this was also a trap set by Finlay. Likely that we¡¯d end up captured too. Deen, anyway. I¡¯d just return to my Erind body and leave her stupid ass behind. On the flip side, if this were the base of the Tea Party, Mom would be here along with the Greaves bigwigs they ferreted away. If this portal closed, we¡¯d have no other way of finding this place.

    ¡°Weren¡¯t you going to fight the Tea Party and save the hostages?¡± Deen said. ¡°That¡¯s why we teamed up and¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m being cautious,¡± I cut in. She was right¡ªI am the hero, Pino. The main character of this whole gig.

    The ending of this movie would be me leading the hostages, including my Mom, in escaping this place as it explodes. Then the police would arrive late to the party, and try to arrest me, the suspicious robot. As the ending music played and the credits rolled, I¡¯d take off my mask and disappear.

    Good thing I had a metal face, or I¡¯d be grinning like an idiot.

    ¡°It¡¯s leaving,¡± Deen said, snapping me out of my daydreams. The eyeball rolled away, diving into darkness before emerging again when it reached the next working light.

    Jostling past her, I stepped through the doorway without hesitation to take charge. ¡°Let¡¯s follow it.¡± Diving into danger without putting myself in trouble¡ªthe benefits of my Pino body.

    Nothing happened as my body passed the doorway. The tunnel was ahead, and the office was behind me. Deen followed, pausing for a second as her two feet stepped on the uneven earth. She awkwardly hugged herself, cumbersomely holding the rifle between her thighs, and rubbed her upper arms.

    ¡°Cold?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Very. Humid too, but that¡¯s probably just my sweat from the fighting.¡±

    ¡°Good job back there.¡± I would¡¯ve showered more praises to ease her distrust were it not for the metal door swinging shut with a loud bang. No need to try opening it¡ªwe both knew that even if we could, the other side wouldn¡¯t be the convention center anymore. ¡°Only way forward, like you said¡­¡±

    Uneven walls with rocks jutting along its length looked odd for a tunnel, as if it wasn¡¯t dug by a machine. But it looked roundish enough not to be naturally formed. Other than the exposed wires running on the ceiling and the wonky fluorescent lights they powered¡ªoh yeah, and the metal door behind us¡ªthere was nothing else other than earth.

    This didn¡¯t appear to be a holding cell if this was a trap, though this could lead to a dead end, and we¡¯d be stuck here¡ªrather, Deen would be. But she mentioned that her Guardian Angel didn¡¯t warn her of any danger. Her thoughts were also calm, unlike when she argued with her pet.

    Did Finlay make a mistake?

    I couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that there was a problem here¡­ other than the many obvious ones. I was forgetting something. Something important. Or maybe it wasn¡¯t important if I couldn¡¯t recall it.

    Eyeball¡­ This could be the sensation of being watched. Every roll, it would look at us. Whenever it reached a dark portion of the path, it paused and waited for us to catch up. I could see its green outline, so there was no way I¡¯d lose it.

    The Adumbrae who controlled this eye would have the best-decorated house for Halloween, unlike ours. The past few years, Mom just drizzled a smattering of the not-too-destroyed decorations stowed in the attic¡ªthat was if she wasn¡¯t abroad for work. When Dad was around, our family would turn the house into the aftermath of my puppet versus the parasite monsters.

    Nostalgia for Halloween. That must be the peculiar feeling I had¡ªan unexplainable fondness for the eyeball. Like it was familiar¡­

    Our short journey ended in front of another metal door with a bright bulb on its upper left. Was this finally the trap?

    Deen stopped behind me, saying nothing but wafting airs of distrust my way. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she had the gun pointed at my back. She was troubled over my split-second mind control, forcing her to shoot the gun, unsure if it had something to do with me or if her nerves were getting to her.

    A takeaway was that there was no immediate danger if she was thinking about me.

    The eyeball wiggled in front of the door. I pointed a finger at it, about to shoot. Suddenly, it sprouted several spindly legs. Deen gasped and shuffled back. I didn¡¯t move. Memories crawled from the depths of the stuff-I-don¡¯t-care-about zone of my brain.

    Wait a minute¡­

    The spider eyeball creature scuttled towards my right foot and looked up, locking gazes with me as if it was trying to tell me something. Up close, I recognized the light blue iris against the black backdrop of its pupil. The way the pink veins spread across the whiteness of the eye was familiar.

    Eye familiar! She¡¯s alive?

    ¡°Impossible¡­¡± I whispered.

    ¡°What did you say?¡± Deen tinkered with the door latch. ¡°Is it locked? I can try¡ª¡± A click. The door shifted an inch. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s open.¡± The eye familiar scooted through the small gap. She carefully pulled it, ensuring it didn¡¯t make more sound than needed. ¡°Let¡¯s go. Careful not to hit the door.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. With you,¡± I absentmindedly replied, still preoccupied with replaying my escape from the tunnels beneath Eves club.

    It wasn¡¯t that long ago, but I had buried my memories of that night since all of my fellow escapees from Eve¡ªif I could call ourselves that¡ªdied back then, mostly because of me. That whole Eve bullshit was a done deal, the box closed and tied with a neat string. I deleted it from my mind because nothing would come back to bite my butt.

    Contrast Eve with my escape from my crumbling condo building. Up to now, its consequences remained, like that Finlay asshole teleported us to this fucking place for one.

    And what was this place supposed to be?

    Deen and I exited into a neater tunnel, more like a hallway, with finished concrete floor and walls, bright lighting, and similar metal doors spaced along its length. Pipes lined the lower parts of the walls and the ceilings. Still no sign of a trap. Maybe the eyeball did something to mess up Finlay¡¯s plan.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    As the eyeball moved faster with its spider-like legs, more memories returned.

    It¡¯s really her¡­ But how? She was super-duper dead!

    I watched even after her body was engulfed in flames, only leaving after the garage collapsed from the fire, unlike movie villains who left before they made sure the hero was truly dead. Hang on, was I the villain? After what I did to her, I probably was. I recalled the stench of her burning body¡ªfucking gross, by the way, especially burnt hair.

    ¡°She¡¯s gone¡­¡± I said under my non-existent breath. She had to be.

    Though some of her familiars must¡¯ve survived the Skitter carnage. This little guy had a green tinge, so it had some semblance of a mind. They could probably continue existing without the main body. This didn¡¯t mean that she had survived the fire.

    False alarm.

    There was still the question of why we were following this thing.

    ¡°Camera.¡± Deen cocked her head upward as she adjusted her mask that was part of Praying Man¡¯s coat. As we turned left, a fisheye security cam was at the corner of the ceiling. ¡°We¡¯re on a timer.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°We need to find the hostages soon.¡± So that I can get a new puppet.

    The eyeball stopped and turned to us. It tapped the ground with its front legs, then waved it left.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hide,¡± Deen said, pulling me to the door nearest us. She tapped the button, and it opened to a regular storage room full of boxes. The door whooshed shut as we heard another door open.

    ¡°You¡¯re good at interpreting what it¡¯s saying.¡± It was probably her Guardian Angel telling her what to do, but a compliment didn¡¯t hurt.

    ¡°Huh? Uh, yeah,¡± she distractedly replied, pressing her ear against the door. ¡°People outside.¡± Several seconds after, she said, ¡°Scratching¡­ I think it¡¯s the eyeball telling us it¡¯s okay to leave.¡±

    ¡°Why are we still following it? How about we go our own way?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s helping us so far. But yeah¡­ it isn¡¯t safe to trust it.¡± Her thoughts were clear that I was more untrustworthy than the eyeball. ¡°I don¡¯t know why this eyeball is saving us, but we take what we can get. We¡¯ll stick with it until we find the hostages. Let¡¯s just watch out for danger and react accordingly.¡±

    With the eyeball as our ready guide, we traversed more passageways and dodged other guards. One time, the eyeball provided a distraction for us, revealing itself to a couple of dudes in sweaty clothes lugging crates on their shoulders. Were they Tea Party grunts? Maybe men of the 2Ms? They did have pistols strapped to their belts, and it seemed like they were doing illegal stuff.

    Or I¡¯m assuming the worst of people. Deen and I hid behind more crates, listening to their conversation to gather information.

    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s that eye spider,¡± one man said.

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s her pet,¡± the other guy replied. ¡°Don¡¯t mind that thing.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s really hot, isn¡¯t¡ªow! Why did you hit me?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t let it hear you talk like that!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s an eye, not an ear, you fuckface. And good job for making me nearly drop my crate. You don¡¯t want slugs up our ass, do you?¡±

    ¡°Just be mindful of what you say with Adumbrae around.¡± Fading footsteps and another whooshing door told us the coast was clear.

    Deen snorted. ¡°That wasn¡¯t helpful at all.¡± She rounded the stack of crates and went after our eyeball guide.

    Not helpful in finding the hostages, but those bozos confirmed that she somehow survived getting roasted. How? Could she have regenerated¡ªno, that wasn¡¯t important. I should first decide if we should continue following the eyeball familiar. It was leading us to her, specifically me.

    Just a guess¡­ a slight hunch¡­ I bet she was angry as fuck at me.

    We stopped in front of yet another door. ¡°Deen, we should split¡ªwhat are you doing?¡±

    She crouched by my right, holding the butt of the rifle up. ¡°Stand still,¡± she said. ¡°The door is going to open.¡± And it did¡ªthe power of foresight and all that.

    What she didn¡¯t tell me was that there was a guy on the other side.

    His mouth gaped as he saw me, the cigarette in his mouth teetering on his lips. Deen hit his chin with the gun¡¯s end, shutting his mouth before the cigarette could fall. ¡°Argh!¡± he grunted as he retreated, trying to unsling his own gun. Deen kicked his stomach. He fell on a metal grating.

    ¡°Come!¡± She grabbed my arm and pulled me through the door, hitting the touchpad to shut it. Then she bashed the guy¡¯s head with the gun a couple more times. He stopped moving.

    Yey! A puppet for¡ªmy thought was cut short when I looked around. ¡°What the¡­¡± It was my turn to gape. The door didn¡¯t lead to another boring hallway. Instead, it opened to a steel walkway high above a cavern that was as large as the underground arena of Eve.

    ¡°They have the hostages!¡± Deen hissed like an angry snake. She dragged the unconscious guy to the end of the bridge and motioned for me to stick to the door, hunkering beside it so that we wouldn¡¯t get spotted. ¡°So many¡­ They¡¯re all here.¡±

    Leaning over the railings, I saw throngs of people and formerly people¡ªnow parasite monsters¡ªheld in rows of transparent cages. They were those that disappeared from the Greaves convention center, and there were more of them than I had estimated. Perhaps, while we were held at the convention hall, those in the side buildings were already whisked away.

    Dozens of clay men carrying guns, not wearing any clothes or body armor to hide their true nature, patrolled the cages. Vats and machines like those Stella set up in my condo littered the ground far below.

    I was wrong. The parasite monsters weren¡¯t for a diversion for the Tea Party¡¯s escape. They have already escaped! And they were helping the 2Ms with their experiments, probably trying to summon an Adumbrae Titan again like the giant mushroom in La Esperanza.

    ¡°Is Mom¡ªis Erind¡¯s mother there?¡±

    ¡°Not sure,¡± Deen said, kneeling and peering through the slats of the bridge. ¡°Could be.¡±

    ¡°How can we find¡­?¡± I turned left, looking at the eyeball. It was tapping the walkway, trying to get our attention. I could just ask her where Mom was. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she kidnapped her as revenge. ¡°Deen, we should split up,¡± I continued what I intended to say earlier. My best friend shouldn¡¯t meet my former best friend.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s hard to make out faces from this distance, but some people look familiar. I suspect the other hostages we had saved were caught again. Imani¡¯s friends who went with them might also be there. Boojum and that other person? You find a way down and try to save them.¡±

    ¡°And what will you do?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll make a distraction for you,¡± I said. ¡°Perhaps, by following this eyeball, I¡¯ll get deeper into this facility and find their control room. I can hack into the main frame and destroy what I can.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound¡ª"

    ¡°Look! They¡¯re turning more people into monsters! You have to stop them. I¡¯ll do what I can on my end to help you.¡±

    Deen nodded. A determined but curt ¡°Okay¡± was her only response before going through the door.

    With my finger, I shot the guard with the bloodied face, took his gun, and went to the other end of the walkway, trailing the eyeball. Behind me, my new puppet got on his feet.

    <hr>

    The eyeball looked at me, then at the door. The message was clear.

    Time for a confrontation. My link to Deen had severed¡ªshe was too far away. Could also be dead, but that was very unlikely. But I had a new puppet. He stayed behind the corner of the corridor, far enough that the eyeball wouldn¡¯t spot it but not too far that I¡¯d lose control. I was beginning to pump him with power.

    I opened the door and entered a dark room, with only the light from the corridor illuminating part of it. I didn¡¯t close the door behind me. In the shadows, I could make out a figure moving.

    ¡°Hello, Rachel,¡± a female voice said. The sound of heels tapping the ground echoed as a woman at the end of the room approached. ¡°Or should I say¡­ Erind?¡±

    ¡°Vanessa,¡± I said, calling her name before she stepped into the light, demonstrating that I figured out her plan, even though I had no idea what was happening here. Rachel¡ªthat was the fake name I gave when she and her two friends found me in the tunnels below Eve club after I survived the BID agents¡¯ self-destruct bullshit. No one but her group should know about that name.

    A brunette woman stood in front of me. Vanessa Minnows, the niece of the former mayor. Phew, it¡¯s really her. It would¡¯ve been so fucking embarrassing if I had been mistaken.

    There was something different with the way she carried herself. Gone was the anxious and frightened girl who faced the gun barrel before I pulled the trigger. Now, she was full of confidence, thinking she had control of the situation. Her much longer hair tied in a high ponytail added to her poised look.

    She wore a black sleeveless shirt. Easy for her familiars to move in and out of her bare arms. I caught a couple of eyes on her left arm, staring at me before closing tight and blending into her skin. Her right arm was a curiosity. Overlapping metal rings covered it like armor, but with locks as if she wasn¡¯t ever going to take them off. Scared of using her mouth familiars?

    I adjusted my grip on the gun I stole from my puppet. My finger was on the trigger, but I didn¡¯t aim it at Vanessa. ¡°Would you believe me if I told you I¡¯m not Erind?¡±

    She chuckled. ¡°Nope. I saw your metal body emerge out of your face. My familiar was peeking through the grates of the central air conditioning.¡±

    ¡°I suppose you¡¯re after revenge.¡±

    ¡°Revenge? For what? I¡¯m just happy to meet my friend.¡±

 5.41

    Friend?

    Was Vanessa doing the same bit as Finlay? She didn¡¯t seem like the type to bullshit like that asshole¡ªoh, a fun play on words.

    ¡°Speaking of friends, where¡¯s the blonde woman with you?¡± Vanessa¡¯s tone was calm and amiable, and her face was relaxed with a slight smile. Totally not what I expected from someone I betrayed and barbecued.

    ¡°We split up in case this is a trap.¡± Hardly moving my eye, I scanned the room for the familiar that led me here. No other green besides Vanessa. It must be outside. Difficult to bring my puppet closer with it watching the corridor. And what could my puppet do against Vanessa¡¯s mouth familiars? It¡¯d be shredded in seconds. ¡°But you already know that, don¡¯t you? I bet one of your pets¡ªfamiliars is following her.¡±

    Vanessa¡¯s cheeks moved, her smile widening when I corrected myself and used her preferred term for her excess body parts. ¡°I¡¯m keeping watch for her safety. Even with superhuman abilities, this place is still dangerous. She shouldn¡¯t have gone on her own. But I¡¯m also relieved she isn¡¯t here so we can talk freely. I think you agree with me?¡±

    I didn¡¯t say anything. How much did she know about me keeping secrets from Deen?

    ¡°There¡¯s a lot between us,¡± Vanessa said, ¡°but nothing we can¡¯t iron out with a sincere friend-to-friend conversation.¡±

    ¡°After what happened¡­¡± I trailed off, deciding it wasn¡¯t a good idea to recount what I did to her. ¡°I¡¯m the last person you¡¯d consider a friend.¡±

    ¡°You did what you had to do to survive.¡± She changed her expression into something like concern for me, an attempt to look empathetic. It didn¡¯t fit with the situation. ¡°Like me, like all the people on this planet do every day. I¡¯d be a hypocrite if I got angry at you for it.¡±

    The fuck? That wasn¡¯t how that worked. She couldn¡¯t just chuck what I did to survival instincts. Even then, she still should be angry at me. I was familiar enough with normal-people-thinking that I could confidently say revenge should be the first thing on her mind.

    This bitch was scheming something.

    As much as I wanted to ask about Mom, it was better not to. That¡¯d give her the upper hand.

    Vanessa knew I was an Adumbrae¡ªI could always pretend I didn¡¯t care for Mom¡¯s safety if Vanessa dared use her as a bargaining chip. Not talking about Mom would sell that angle later. Better wait for Vanessa to bring it up.

    For now, I¡¯d look for the opportune time to shoot her. Finlay suspected my fingers were dangerous. If Vanessa spied on me all this time, she should be cautious too.

    After a few seconds of silence, waiting for a reply that wasn¡¯t coming, she said, ¡°You¡¯re probably wondering how I survived.¡±

    I didn¡¯t need to prod her because she seemed eager to tell me.

    ¡°Just like you,¡± she said, ¡°we also die when our brain is destroyed.¡± She knew I was a real Adumbrae, in contrast to them. ¡°Guess I don¡¯t need to explain about that.¡± Vanessa closed her eyes, sighing. I pointed my finger, but she opened her eyes before I could shoot and looked straight at me. ¡°Because you killed Dominic in a way that he couldn¡¯t regenerate his injuries.¡±

    Dominic? Can¡¯t recall his face. Was he the guy I killed in the car? ¡°You are angry at me,¡± I stated.

    ¡°I¡¯m not. But recalling it¡­ is painful.¡± She shook her head. ¡°Where was I? Right. You also shot me in the head. I would¡¯ve died if my brain had stopped. I guess my brain did stop. But not all of them.¡±

    ¡°The familiars,¡± I guessed. The eyeball thingy had a green outline. I vaguely recalled Vanessa explaining that they could act independently after being given instructions. They were probably like the tentacles of an octopus with mini-brains controlling each of them¡ªrandom info from the Animal Channel. ¡°You regenerated from your surviving familiars?¡±

    ¡°Not really that way. My mouth familiars dug themselves out of the caved-in tunnel, returned to their sockets on my arm, and helped me regenerate. It takes hours for a body to burn completely, so they had plenty of time to save me. ¡®Resurrect me¡¯ might be a better description of what happened.¡±

    That¡¯s one question I didn¡¯t care about now answered. Mental note: I should stay for a few hours the next time I¡¯d burn an Adumbrae. The frat guys Deen and I roasted were humans, though¡ªnone of them should be able to return to pester me like Vanessa here.

    ¡°That eye,¡± I said, recalling a weird detail after I returned to Deen¡¯s house from Eve. ¡°It wasn¡¯t my imagination.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Your eye familiar followed me after I¡ªfollowed me to where I was staying.¡±

    Vanessa raised a brow. ¡°No. All of my eye familiars were killed by Skitters. Don¡¯t you remember?¡±

    How the fuck would I know that? And I didn¡¯t believe her. A weirdo pet spying on me would explain a lot. ¡°My condo was attacked¡ª"

    ¡°I didn¡¯t have anything to do with it,¡± she interrupted. ¡°I know your face but nothing else. I don¡¯t know how they found out where¡ª¡±

    ¡°You expect me to buy that?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s hard to believe, but I really swear I didn¡¯t know where you lived. Stella¡ªshe¡¯s the leader of the group that attacked your condo¡ªjust showed me your picture, and I told them, yeah, you were the one I met. That¡¯s it.¡±

    Just like it was normal for me to kill her for my survival, as she argued, it should also be normal for her to exact revenge on me. So, why was she acting like she had no part in attacking my condo? What was this good cop bit for? I stared at Vanessa again, waiting for her to reveal more.

    ¡°Believe me, I only knew about what happened at your condo afterward.¡± She took one step forward. ¡°Then I convinced the organization to leave you alone. No one attacked while you were at your friend¡¯s house, right? You fought Auron and the others only because your group interfered with their plans. If it weren¡¯t for that, you would¡¯ve been safe. Because of me.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± Some truth in her words.

    ¡°After you killed Auron, no one came after you.¡±

    Auron¡¯s dead? Woohoo! Some good news from this crappy night. And Vanessa¡¯s making a good point. But it still didn¡¯t make sense looking at the big picture.

    She stepped closer. ¡°Remember the bracelet?"

    "Bracelet?"

    ¡°The diamond bracelet you took from me. Maybe you assumed it was lost, buried in the rubble of your condo building along with your other things.¡±

    Holy. Fucking. Shit. I forgot about that! While Vanessa explained how her mouth familiar excavated the ruins for days to find it, I cringed at the realization that she knew I stole from a dead body. Her body.

    Awkward.

    I thought of collecting ¡®trophies¡¯ from my fun escapades, copying what the people on true crime documentaries did to their victims to see how it felt. But it didn¡¯t click, whatever was so great with it, so the bracelet just slipped out of my mind. Must¡¯ve chucked it in a drawer and got covered by junk.

    ¡°I was giving you the diamond bracelet back,¡± Vanessa said.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Where did I put it after I found it again? More awkward if I misplaced it. ¡°I, uh, thought it was a different bracelet that someone dropped. I mean, I did think I lost it forever.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s supposed to sign that I¡¯m fine with you keeping it. Yeah, also a sign that I¡¯m alive.¡±

    ¡°I really find it hard to believe you¡¯ve forgiven me this quick¡ª¡±

    ¡°Not forgive. That¡¯d mean you wronged me.¡±

    ¡°But I did. And you should be angry with me.¡± It was grating that she wasn¡¯t behaving as I expected her to.

    ¡°You might not believe me when I say this¡­ but rather than anger, I pity you.¡±

    Pity me? What kind of mind games was she playing? Though I did agree with her. I was looking for a relaxed night of being a supportive daughter to Mom¡¯s speech, a typical night hanging out with my best friend, and I ended up in this situation. Poor me.

    ¡°I chose this life.¡± Vanessa gestured to her right arm covered in metal. ¡°But you didn¡¯t ask for yours. People hate Adumbrae, real ones, thinking they chose to betray humanity. I know the truth. And I pity you because you didn¡¯t have much of a choice.

    ¡°Me? What happened¡ªwhat you did to me, I think it¡¯s the Mother Core¡¯s punishment. Plenty of people died¡ªcontinue to die, for my sake. For my choice. You already know how Mark and Big Marcy¡¯s operations work, am I right?¡±

    ¡°The brains of innocent people,¡± I said with emphasis. Did her own brain not regenerate properly? Was she seriously thinking that her intense sauna session was some sort of divine punishment? She probably went cuckoo and tried to use her death to clear her conscience. ¡°What about your friends? I killed them,¡± I pointed out. Come on, gloat that you have my Mom for revenge.

    ¡°I¡¯m sad that Dominic and Rob¡ªRob was the alias I gave you, right? Really sad they¡¯re gone. But I would¡¯ve done the same thing in your position. The same as them if they were in yours.¡±

    ¡°This doesn¡¯t make any sense,¡± I blurted my thoughts.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a trap, Erind. Even if it was, you don¡¯t have anything to worry about because your real body isn¡¯t here.¡± Her eyes glazed over as if she was staring something past me.

    ¡°Are you also observing my real body?¡±

    ¡°Finlay is trying to get it, but your other friends back at the Greaves building are doing a good job escaping him. So far. If Finlay succeeds, I¡¯ll pay Legba to divert the teleportation to somewhere safe.¡±

    ¡°Divert? You¡¯re not working with Finlay?¡±

    ¡°Not really. That¡¯s what I want to talk about with you. I wasn¡¯t supposed to approach you yet, but circumstances changed.¡±

    ¡°Approach me about what?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m inviting you to join our side.¡±

    Internal conflict? Finally, something that I could understand. ¡°Let me guess. The brothers are fighting. Which side are you?¡±

    ¡°Big Marcy¡¯s side. He wants to take over the¡ª¡±

    Big Marcy? Wasn¡¯t he the bastard at the docks? Too bad I wasn¡¯t able to kill him because I was berserking. ¡°What did he offer you?¡± Their in-fighting didn¡¯t interest me. It certainly had an unoriginal and boring reason.

    ¡°He offered me to keep you safe,¡± Vanessa said. My eye probably wiggled in disbelief because she added, ¡°I know how weird that sounds, but I want to keep my friend safe. We have a bond. I can feel in my heart you¡¯re the only real friend I can make now that I¡¯m¡­ this.¡± She rapped at the metal bands on her arm.

    This bitch is nuts. ¡°And what can he offer me to take his side in something I don¡¯t care about?¡±

    ¡°Anything that money can buy.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not enough to convince an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Research. You know we¡¯re experimenting on Adumbrae. If we¡¯re successful, we can help you, um, maybe take full control of your body and¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a huge maybe.¡±

    ¡°Our techniques for keeping the Adumbrae in our mind at bay. Maybe¡ªuh, we can try¡ª¡±

    ¡°Big Marcy¡¯s brother can also offer that too.¡±

    ¡°Protection! Many people want a real Adumbrae. Even Mark! Big Marcy can protect you.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Big Marcy also wants me, I thought.

    ¡°Not only that. Cover, disguises, and whatnot. Everything you need to live comfortably among humans. An island with a mansion to hide away as an Adumbrae if you like. Whatever the group you¡¯re with is providing, we can do it ten times better.¡±

    Did she mean Dario and the others? I asked, ¡°I suppose you want me to surrender them if I join you?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know much about them, do you? Information. Big Marcy can also give you information about what he thinks they are. He has investigated the Supplier and suspects that your friends are connected to him. They¡¯re not the allies you think.¡±

    ¡°The Supplier that¡¯s helping your organization is also helping them?¡± That¡¯s news to me. I knew there was something sketchy with Dario, but this was on another level of insanity.

    ¡°Big Marcy knows about it,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°You can talk to him later. Sorry, I¡¯m a bit unorganized in presenting our side. I really didn¡¯t expect to do this now. What else? Um, your mother.¡±

    I kept my tone even, easy to do with a robotic voice. ¡°What about her?¡± I nonchalantly asked.

    ¡°We have her. Like the Tea Party has her, but I might be able to get her for you. What do you want to do with her? We can make her disappear so you¡¯ll have an easier life¡ª¡±

    ¡°No! Uh, no, I want her returned to me.¡± This is why Vanessa wasn¡¯t using my Mom as a bargaining chip? So funny. I relaxed my voice. ¡°It¡¯ll be a hassle if she dies. Best if she¡¯s alive, and I can continue with my normal life until I no longer can. It helps control my sanity that I¡¯m still living as normal Erind.¡±

    ¡°Got it. I understand you. I really do.¡± She extended her hand as she approached me¡ªa friendly gesture, especially given that she used her left hand. Etiquette dictated the right was for handshakes, but that housed the mouth familiars. ¡°Join us.¡±

    ¡°Is this like a villain convincing someone to join the evil side?¡±

    ¡°Evil?¡± She stopped about five feet from me, still holding her hand out. The left tip of her mouth curved up and formed a sly smirk. ¡°You¡¯re the real Adumbrae. I know I¡¯m evil, not making excuses, but I think most people will say you¡¯re eviler between the two of us. To be honest, I¡¯m scared of you.

    ¡°But I also know that deep down, you¡¯re also scared of your new life, just like I¡¯m with mine. If we met in some other circumstances, we¡¯d instantly bond. If nothing else, I offer friendship. You felt a connection between us, right? I know I¡¯m not the only one who did.¡±

    I wasn¡¯t buying Vanessa¡¯s story, even if it was on a promo discount. I wouldn¡¯t buy it even if she threw a free cookie bag with it. Two people I nearly killed wanting me on their team? Bullshit.

    Though the 2Ms fighting for control of their organization sounded like a good reason Big Marcy was willing to forget what I did¡ªif I were in his place, I¡¯d want a real Adumbrae on my side. And Vanessa¡¯s point that they could¡¯ve continued attacking me if they really wanted to was a good one.

    Looking past that, their offers weren¡¯t all too attractive, other than freeing Mom.

    The biggest benefit I could think of by joining them was being part of a criminal organization. Mafia movies were pretty cool¡ªimagine a black limousine with muscled bodyguards wearing black tuxedos picking me up from university or something.

    I stared at her hand, mulling things over. She¡¯ll keep it up? Was she going to force me to take her hand through awkwardness? ¡°Do I have to decide now?¡±

    ¡°Preferably,¡± Vanessa replied. ¡°I don¡¯t want to rush you, but there¡¯s this thing¡­ Finlay would eventually know that I saved you.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t you cover it up?¡±

    ¡°We might have to kill Finlay for that. It¡¯ll be a huge mess exposing Big Marcy¡¯s plot to topple Mark.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Having Finlay killed should¡¯ve been on top of the list of their offers. Would¡¯ve preferred it if I could rip that asshole¡¯s asshole myself.

    ¡°And your mother, too,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Saving her might mean killing a few Tea Party people because they¡¯re holding her hostage along with other Greaves corporate officials for their own thing. I don¡¯t know what their plans are. I just know that if we get your mom, it¡¯ll be messy.¡±

    ¡°I should choose now, so it¡¯ll be worth it for you guys to burn bridges?¡±

    ¡°Uh. I¡¯m not putting it that way, but Big Marcy won¡¯t put himself in danger for nothing. So, yeah. It¡¯s best if you choose now.¡±

    Join them now to get Mom and leave future problems for future Erind? Sounds like a good plan to me. Then I realized something. I grabbed her hand. Vanessa jolted in surprise, not expecting me to accept her invitation.

    ¡°You¡¯re joining us?¡± Her eyes sparkled with happiness.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I confirmed. ¡°Not just that. I can also offer something to you in return. How about I do the burning of bridges?¡±

    ¡°What burning¡ª?¡±

    Oops, I shouldn¡¯t mention anything fire related. ¡°You can direct the portal?¡± Vanessa nodded, puzzled about what I was getting at. ¡°I want my real body here,¡± I said, ¡°and Mom through that portal to safety.¡±

    ¡°For what? Why are you coming here?¡±

    ¡°Just leave everything to me.¡± I wasn¡¯t just going to cover their betrayal. I was going to flatten this whole fucking place! A test. If Vanessa told the truth, they shouldn¡¯t mind if I destroyed everything here. The danger¡­ this is going to be so much fun.

 5.42 - Eudora (Euphonia)

    Eudora (Euphonia)

    ¡°Senior Technology Manager Niyam,¡± Euphonia said, emphasizing each word of the trembling man¡¯s title. ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t recognize me?¡± She gripped the edge of the metal table with the mechanical hands growing out of her back, effortlessly crunching its surface as part of the show, staring into his teary eyes with her own bionic eyeballs. She made them glow red for an extra intimidation factor as she hissed, ¡°You¡¯ve risen to such a grand ol¡¯ position in Greaves and forgotten about me? The people you¡¯ve stepped along the way not worthy of a space in your memories?¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry!¡± Niyam cried out, putting his hands together as if in prayer, the chains of his handcuffs clinking together. ¡°Please, please, please, don¡¯t kill me.¡± He repeatedly bowed to her. ¡°Is this about the Denzer account? I¡¯m so sorry if you were fired because of that. Are you one of the people who went to prison? I had no idea that would¡ª¡±

    Euphonia rolled the lip of the table as if it was a picnic blanket. The frightened man let out a hilarious squeal that might take first place in a mouse-imitation contest. ¡°Don¡¯t take me for a tool. That¡¯s not what I¡¯m talking about¡­¡± she growled.

    ¡°Please just tell me who you are. I¡¯ll make sure to do everything in my power to make it up to you.¡± He waited for a response, but Euphonia simply glared at him. ¡°Is this connected with the previous CFO? I know he¡ªI don¡¯t know what he did! I had no part in it, I swear to the Mother Core!¡±

    ¡°Swearing to the Mother Core in front of an Adumbrae,¡± said Crocker, the muscly imitation Adumbrae standing beside Euphonia.

    While it might appear to Niyam that the Tea Party skank was guarding Euphonia against danger, the actuality was that the heavily-tattooed Crocker was keeping an eye on her in case she betrayed them. The first time they met, Crocker inexplicably branded Euphonia a chancer¡ªnot a wrong impression, but it made Euphonia¡¯s job harder that Crocker was already predisposed to judge her as dodgy.

    ¡°A-Adum¡­ Adumbrae?¡± Niyam¡¯s hands shivered uncontrollably. ¡°Yo-you¡¯re an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Both of us,¡± Crocker said with a laugh.

    Euphonia engaged her override systems to divert all energy to stop her eyes from rolling into her skull. The audacity to claim we¡¯re the same! Like a bogger trying her best to guess city matters to mask her rural background. Someday, when the time was right to take down the Tea Party, Euphonia promised to personally capture Crocker as a test subject.

    If Crocker weren¡¯t around, Euphonia wouldn¡¯t have to put on a show terrorizing the Greaves corporate cogs, who were, in some ways, less human than her. A sore grievance with the giant company sounded a sufficient justification for Euphonia to ¡®betray¡¯ her group and team up with the Tea Party. Capture all the important muppets at the Tech Fair, kill or torture a few to sell her angle, and release the rest for a ransom to look neat and tidy.

    But the insufferable skank beside Euphonia didn¡¯t buy the story despite witnessing her beat up several hostages, infecting them with the parasites, then tearing apart their mutated forms. No, Crocker had to be a nosy twat and prod about the specifics of Euphonia¡¯s motivations like a Classical Literature professor dissecting the protagonist in a long-dead guy¡¯s boring novel.

    ¡°Remember the old Carlow Plant?¡± Euphonia mentally crossed her fingers, hoping Niyam had heard of it. She shouldn¡¯t have killed the more senior officers earlier because they were more likely to know of the Carlow incident. Sometimes, her mechanical hands get carried away.

    The Tea Party needed a large group of people with varied demographics¡ªit was Euphonia¡¯s mission to find out for what. Euphonia and Legba came to them, offering their services and ready with a plan to attack the Tech Fair. Too convenient¡ªshe could scarcely blame Crocker for being suspicious.

    Euphonia chose the Tech Fair because it¡¯d fit the plans of the Tea Party, and she¡¯d have control of the situation if she picked the target in advance. But she had to come up with a reason why the event instead of the Greaves¡¯ head office or some other important place if she truly had a beef with them.

    Her explanation was that several of the displayed items were derived from her works, and she wanted to teach Greaves a lesson not to continue using data from her files. If the Tea Party knew about her works, they¡¯d detect this blatant lie. She wasn¡¯t an unevolved slug to come up with children¡¯s toys like those at the Tech Fair, touting them as technological advancements.

    That alone was too shallow of a motivation.

    So, she revealed that many of the Greaves officers in attendance were part of why she became an Adumbrae. Unlike March Hare, Red Head, Crocker, and the other fake Adumbrae, she was forced by circumstances to become an Adumbrae. Revenge was her goal, and such a public event would announce to the others that she was coming for them. Not to mention the business ramifications of hundreds of people getting kidnapped at a Greaves event.

    March Hare believed her. Black Spade, the pompous tool leading the operation, also believed her. And so did other Tea Party executives.

    Crocker didn¡¯t. And now, Euphonia was squeezing anything she could from the hostages to stitch together a believable backstory, like rushing to finish a forgotten homework just as the teacher was collecting it.

    ¡°Carlow Plant?¡± Niyam¡¯s forehead wrinkled, doubtless racking his brain of anyone who¡¯d have a grudge against him in Ireland.

    Euphonia said, ¡°Eight years ago, the plant¡ª¡±

    ¡°You mean that explosion!¡± He grasped his hands tighter, his eyes growing fearful. He quickly rattled sentences, almost blending them in his haste. ¡°I was a rank-and-file employee then. No knowledge of anything worthwhile, that was all above my clearance. The-the controls¡­ and there was a breach, and the police¡ªI told them everything! I was just following orders. Please don¡¯t eat me. Please! It was the fault of the plant director! Everything was his fault. Are you one of the victims? I lost friends there too, I, uh, many friends like, like¡ª¡±

    Euphonia slammed one of her metal fists on the table. She was mildly surprised they captured someone who knew about Carlow in addition to her friend. ¡°Can¡¯t even remember the names of those who died? Some friend you are.¡± She also couldn¡¯t remember anyone from that time.

    ¡°It¡¯s so long ago! I-I was new back then. Just migrated to Ireland. Didn¡¯t know anyone, tha-that¡¯s why I can¡¯t give you names. You can check my records. Believe me, I had zero part in that explosion.¡±

    I believe you, Euphonia replied in her head. Because the explosion was all on me.

    She did have a past with Greaves that led to hearing the voice and accepting its invitation, though it wasn¡¯t the Carlow plant incident¡ªthat was several months after she decided not to be human anymore. She engineered the explosion to cover evidence that she was using Greaves facilities to experiment on her powers.

    ¡°Would you look at that,¡± Crocker said. ¡°Someone with a connection to your story.¡± The previous two they had interrogated didn¡¯t give Euphonia enough material for her ruse.

    Each of your organs is going in separate containers¡­ with no labels, Euphonia thought as she met Crocker¡¯s gaze. Backing down would raise suspicion. I¡¯ll turn each of your tasteless tattoos into wallets I¡¯ll give to the other Adumbrae. Except for Penemue; he didn¡¯t have any use for a wallet.

    Destroying this entire place would be cathartic. None of these off-brand copies could hold a candle to her biomechanical creations, should she choose to unleash them. Legba could open the door to the zoo and give Crocker a view of hell on earth¡ªthat was if the slag survived long enough to process what was happening.

    But it wasn¡¯t the time for that.

    If this place were destroyed, they¡¯d have nothing to go on about the actual plans of the Supplier. Nothing to give their Corebring patron¡ªEuphonia didn¡¯t know what to call him¡ªto keep them hidden from the Hive. Hedley Kow and the others might be doing this for moral reasons, but Euphonia only wanted to stay alive to continue her projects.

    Legba? She didn¡¯t know what that bizarre grouch wanted. Luckily, he went along with her plan; no one else did.

    ¡°No part in the explosion?¡± Euphonia asked the man, who seemed to be getting smaller in his seat every second. He shook his head. Stopped. Nodded. Then a mixture of shaking and nodding. ¡°Curious how you¡¯re alive even though most people died that day.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t there when it happened.¡± He sharply drew in his breath, realizing how that looked. ¡°I-I was¡­ uh, I was probably late to work! Yes!¡±

    ¡°Why were you late?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t recall. It¡¯s been years. Traffic? Nothing to do with the explosion! Please don¡¯t eat me, I beg you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m done with you.¡± Euphonia pointed at the door with her three right hands¡ªone organic, two mechanical. ¡°Take him away to the dungeons!¡±

    The two burly men behind Niyam looked at each other and then at Crocker, who shrugged, nudging her head towards Euphonia. The bigger man respectfully bowed and asked Euphonia, ¡°Dungeons, ma¡¯am? You mean back with the¡ª¡±

    ¡°I just wanted to say that,¡± Euphonia said, chuckling. ¡°Put a parasite in him and do with him what you want.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Niyam exclaimed. ¡°Mercy! Please, I¡¯ll do anything you want!¡±

    ¡°Is that enough for you?¡± Crocker said as her men dragged the Greaves manager away. ¡°Didn¡¯t feel like enough revenging happened.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to waste more energy than necessary,¡± said Euphonia. ¡°It¡¯s enough that they know what they¡¯ve done before dying.¡±

    ¡°But what exactly did he do?¡±

    ¡°Something small, inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. It¡¯s just fun to work up the ladder of revenge.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? I can¡¯t believe you betrayed your friends for this.¡±

    ¡°Friends?¡± Euphonia said after a pause meant to show conflict brewing inside her. ¡°Hardly.¡±

    ¡°Teammates, comrades, cohorts, whatever you want to call them.¡± Crocker sat on the table, peering at Euphonia like she was a cop interrogating a captured suspect. ¡°Is it so easy for you to betray them? Maybe you¡¯ll do the same with us someday.¡±

    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    ¡°Betrayed? No, I¡¯d view it as going our separate ways.¡± The voices of Hedley Kow, Penemue, Culpa, and the other goody-two-shoes in their group with their holier-than-thou attitudes rung in her ears. Those supposed good guys, each with a way higher body count than her, dared lecture her on the morality of her plan.

    Morality wasn¡¯t even the question. They were Adumbrae. In the end, it boiled down to a disagreement on how many innocent lives they were comfortable with as collateral damage. For Euphonia, a few hundred was very low, considering they haven¡¯t made any progress in finding out the Supplier¡¯s ultimate goal.

    Yes, they had stopped many of his operations all over the country. But they were no closer to finding out what they were trying to stop. A few hundred for the greater good¡ªSatori and the rest agreed, shouting down Penemue and the others.

    ¡°Seems so abrupt, changing sides,¡± Crocker said.

    ¡°Are you trying gauge an Adumbrae¡¯s thinking?¡± Euphonia replied.

    Crocker¡¯s nose flared at the insinuation that she wasn¡¯t Adumbrae enough. ¡°One moment you¡¯re fighting the Supplier, the next you¡¯re helping us with our plans.¡±

    Is this a trick to ask them what their plans were? ¡°No, not helping you.¡± Euphonia poked at Crocker¡¯s chest with a metal finger. ¡°You guys are helping me. It just so happens that our plans overlap in places. I¡¯m on my side¡­ always been that way from the beginning.¡±

    ¡°Okay then.¡± Crocker nodded. That answer seemed to satisfy her somewhat. ¡°Anyone else you want us to fetch for you?¡±

    ¡°Call in that woman,¡± Euphonia said. ¡°I¡¯m ready to talk with her.¡±

    ¡°Your friend from when you were still human?¡± Euphonia nodded. Crocker waved at the remaining guard. ¡°Go fetch the one with bleached white hair.¡± As the man closed the door, Crocker jumped off the table. ¡°Is she also connected to how you became an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Euphonia slowly nodded, letting her erratic mood drop into something more somber. No, was the actual answer. Her friend was one of the reasons she staved off the voice for so long¡ªthat may sound like a good thing, but it wasn¡¯t. Euphonia would¡¯ve preferred if she had become an Adumbrae much earlier.

    ¡°I¡¯m interested in how someone becomes a true Adumbrae¡­ Would it be possible for me?¡±

    ¡°Why would you want that?¡±

    Crocker shrugged. ¡°More power.¡±

    ¡°For what?¡±

    ¡°For power¡¯s sake.¡±

    Boring answer. Engage eye-rolling prevention protocol. Not the first time she¡¯d heard that load of unimaginative crap from those wanting to leave their humanity. The handful of true Adumbrae she met never mentioned anything close to that motivation for answering the voice. Such a narrow view of the world.

    ¡°Like getting rich for the sake of getting rich?¡± Euphonia said.

    ¡°Yeah, I suppose you could put it that way,¡± Crocker said. ¡°But not really. Those billionaire dudes¡ªgive them a hundred million dollars more, and nothing would change their lives. Maybe another yacht to show off to others how rich they are? That¡¯s not the case with becoming stronger as a true Adumbrae.

    ¡°The change from human to this body¡­ it¡¯s amazing. I knew there was something different. Becoming richer? That¡¯s an outside thing. Even money¡¯s value is external. The internal value of a dollar bill is just that paper a little kid can easily tear. Wealth, political power, and influence are all external. The power of an Adumbrae is intrinsic. My value is my strength, no matter what the world says.¡±

    We got a philosopher on our hands here, people. Euphonia struggled to stop her mechanical hands from sarcastically clapping¡ªsomething she¡¯d do if Penemue or Hedley Kow said something like this. She settled for tapping the floor with her flip-flops.

    The door opened, and one of the guards from earlier led a tall woman with pure white hair into the room. Here was the reason Euphonia wasn¡¯t trying so hard with her lies¡ªsomeone who could lend some credibility to her fake story. Adumbrae were the enemies of the Mother Core, but it appeared that the Mother Core, or some other deity out there, blessed her by sending someone she didn¡¯t think she¡¯d ever see again to help her unknowingly.

    Euphonia¡¯s scanner immediately analyzed the newcomer¡¯s body, detecting the bionic eyeballs. Her scanners zeroed in on the small implants, breaking down the material components and detecting minute emissions. She always left a signature in her works, which was readily evident here.

    She replaced her eyes with my work? Euphonia wanted to burst out laughing but managed to keep her composure.

    ¡°Where are the other people?¡± the white-haired woman demanded. ¡°I want to see my daughter! Just keep me with her. I have nothing to do with Greaves.¡±

    Euphonia waved at Crocker. ¡°Can you all leave us alone? Some privacy for old friends?¡± Crocker hesitated, grumbling about security¡ªthis was just for show. There was a recorder and camera in this room. ¡°And remove her cuffs. No need for that.¡± Crocker eventually relented and left with her men.

    ¡°Are you the leader of this Tea Party group?¡± the white-haired woman said. ¡°I¡¯ve been saying this to your men, but I don¡¯t know what you want with Greaves. I wasn¡¯t supposed to be here! I¡¯m just filling in for someone. Please, I just want to see my daughter.¡±

    ¡°Your daughter who barely cried when she was a baby? She also experimented with insects, didn¡¯t she?¡±

    ¡°Wha-what?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s been years, but I recall your stories about her. They¡¯re just so funny that I sometimes smile when I remember them. Like how she swung her toy drum at another kid¡¯s face like a flail mace when he told her he liked her?¡±

    ¡°How did you know about that?¡±

    ¡°I remember you told me you were scared when your daughter just had a blank face when you and your husband scolded her and that she didn¡¯t seem to understand why you were angry.¡±

    ¡°Who are you?¡±

    ¡°Lendina¡­ Lendina¡­ Sup? It¡¯s been a long time, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°I do-don¡¯t know¡ª¡±

    ¡°Should I say, Len-Len?¡± Euphonia turned her bionic eyes blue to match hers. Then her mechanical hands produced a bow with a polka dot design to tame her frizzy hair.

    ¡°The only one who called me that¡­ it can¡¯t be.¡±

    ¡°But it is.¡±

    ¡°Eudora?¡± Len-Len covered her mouth in shock.

    ¡°Aye! Although, I go by Euphonia now.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re dead! I was there at your funeral!¡±

    ¡°A casket with no one inside. Not the first time you¡¯ve seen something like that, am I right?¡± It was proof that she was indeed Eudora, a former colleague from years ago. Len-Len had asked her help to track down her husband, whom she believed to have faked his death to join the Corebring Hive.

    ¡°The explosion¡­¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t kill me.¡± Euphonia recounted other things that¡¯d prove to Len-Len her identity, like when they wore the same costume for an office Halloween party, buying it together at the dollar store on the way to the office. Slowly, Len-Len came to accept that Euphonia¡ªEudora was alive. ¡°You kept my eye as you promised.¡± Eudora pointed at Len-Len¡¯s head with her aug-arms.

    ¡°I did. And I used them to replace my failing eyes to remember you by.¡±

    ¡°I feel honored.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re with the Tea Party?¡± Len-Len asked. ¡°They, the other hostages¡ªwe were talking about why we were taken. Is this for revenge for what happened?¡±

    ¡°In a way.¡±

    ¡°I¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know you don¡¯t have anything to do with it,¡± Euphonia interrupted.

    ¡°No¡­ I was going to say¡­ I¡¯m so happy to see you.¡± Len-Len¡¯s shoulders trembled as she sobbed. She wiped her nose. Her tear ducts must¡¯ve been redirected when the augs were implanted. Then Len-Len shook her head. ¡°My daughter. Eudor--Euphonia, my daughter¡¯s here. She doesn¡¯t have anything to do with what happened to you.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s with the rest of the hostages,¡± Euphonia said, which wasn¡¯t technically a lie. She didn¡¯t elaborate that her daughter likely now had a parasite in her and was no longer human. She wouldn¡¯t see Len-Len after this, so she wouldn¡¯t deal with the drama of lying to her old friend.

    ¡°Thank you, thank you!¡± Len-Len said. ¡°That¡¯s all I ask. You can do whatever you want with me. Just keep my daughter safe.¡±

    I probably should¡¯ve watched out for her daughter. But she didn¡¯t know that Len-Len would attend the Tech Fair. She only realized when Legba started teleporting people, and she picked up the signal of her old bionic eyes nearby. Eudora said, ¡°I like what you did with your hair. Did you bleach it?¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s a new treatment. I had too many white strands¡ª¡± She shook her head again. ¡°Euphonia, why are you doing this? We can go to the police and expose the people who caused that explosion. You don¡¯t have to be with the Tea Party.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that simple.¡±

    ¡°You can get your life back. You¡¯re a genius with no comparison. The government would hire you in a heartbeat. If you¡¯d ask that several Greaves higher-ups be jailed for their crimes, the government will do it. You can try for Greaves again. Those shadowy folks of the Greaves Board would skewer their hand-picked officers to get you back.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that simple,¡± Euphonia repeated.

    ¡°For ordinary people, no. But for you, anything is possible. I¡¯ve always looked up to you, to your accomplishments.¡±

    ¡°I wonder if you¡¯d still think the same of me if¡­¡± Euphonia paused. She already had enough material for Crocker; she should send her friend away and help Black Spade continue with the operation to wrap this up. ¡°What if¡­ what if someone you thought you knew, someone close to you, turned out to be completely different?¡±

    ¡°Are you talking about yourself?¡±

    ¡°Take your husband. You were surprised when your suspicions were confirmed. Funny how that worked. How about something different? Completely the opposite direction. Instead of the Corebring¡­ the Adumbrae. Let¡¯s say¡­ how about your daughter? What if she¡¯s an Adumbrae?¡±

    Len-Len locked eyes with Euphonia¡ªboth pairs of aug-eyes, both creations of Euphonia, scanned each other. Len-Len slowly grasped what she was trying to say. ¡°Are you an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Answer my question. What if your daughter became an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll love her and do everything I can for¡ª¡±

    ¡°Lie.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not lying!¡±

    Euphonia tapped her eye. ¡°Lie.¡±

    Len-Len said, ¡°Of course, I¡¯m conflicted about it. That¡¯s what you¡¯re detecting. But I¡¯ll be there for my daughter. And I¡¯ll be there for you if you come¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going anywhere. An Adumbrae has no place on your side of the fence.¡± Silence fell between them. ¡°Just stay put. You¡¯ll eventually see your daughter.¡± A lie¡ªEuphonia considered that it might be better if Len-Len wasn¡¯t alive.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Crocker!¡± Euphonia shouted, keeping up the play that she didn¡¯t know a recorder was picking up their conversation. ¡°Can you hear me? I¡¯m done over here!¡±

    Euphonia slumped down in her seat. She massaged her temples with one of the upper mechanic hands, switching its metal claws with foamy fingers, as Crocker entered and Len-Len was taken away.

    ¡°Had a good time talking with your friend?¡± Crocker said.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ let out a lot of feelings.¡±

    ¡°What do you want to do with her?¡±

    ¡°Slug her.¡±

    ¡°Huh? She¡¯s your friend.¡±

    ¡°Was.¡± Acting this cold-blooded would leave a good impression on Crocker.

    ¡°If you say so.¡±

    Euphonia remained in her chair for a couple of minutes, reminiscing about the days she was human. They were fun but a passing moment. Len-Len was a good friend. She¡¯d suffer if she continued living with her husband gone and her daughter dead. This was for the best.

    ¡°Maybe I should witness her last moments as her friend,¡± Euphonia said, remotely tapping into the Tea Party''s surveillance system, pushing aside the security walls made by a monkey. Len-Len did visit her supposed funeral. This was the least she could do. Cycling through cameras, she eventually found Len-Len, still very much human, running through the corridors. ¡°What the hell?¡±

 5.43 - Vanessa Minnows/ Imani Nanda (Tove)

    Vanessa Minnows

    ¡°I got your mom away from the man guarding her,¡± Vanessa Minnows said, rapidly blinking. Each time she opened her eyes, the view changed¡ªpeering through grates, peeking from behind a box, perched on top of a stack of crates, moving at floor level¡ªshe tracked the journey of Erind¡¯s mother through the Tea Party base.

    If Erind¡¯s mom went the wrong way, a mouth familiar was there, snapping its powerful jaws and scaring her back to the right track. If someone were en route to intercept her, they¡¯d meet the mouth familiars along the way. Vanessa coordinated her familiars to protect and drive the white-haired woman to the right door.

    Then she switched to the view of the eye familiar, watching the guard her mouth familiar attacked. The man squirmed on the floor, hitting the giant almond-looking creature latched on his leg like a leech with the butt of his gun. Blood everywhere. The eye familiar couldn¡¯t hear sounds, but it could see the man¡¯s mouth wide open, shouting in pain.

    Only bite! Don¡¯t swallow! Vanessa firmly repeated the orders to her mouth familiar. The metallic taste of blood overcame the disgusting saltiness of the fabric, masking the bland flesh. She struggled not to vomit, focusing on reining in the ferocity of the mouth familiar. After Erind¡¯s mom had run some distance away, Vanessa ordered it to return to her.

    ¡°Everything clear so far,¡± Vanessa said. She closed her own eyes, reorienting herself, before looking at Erind standing beside her. Erind didn¡¯t seem too concerned for her mother¡¯s safety, though it was hard to gauge from her metal dummy face. ¡°Your distraction must be working,¡± Vanessa said in a louder voice, hoping to get a response.

    ¡°It¡¯s something they can¡¯t ignore,¡± Erind replied.

    Vanessa switched to her eye familiar shadowing the man Erind had taken over. A puppet, Erind had called it.

    Bigger than Slinky, skin red from bursting veins, torn open in place due to bloated muscles growing out of control¡ªthe man looked more of an Adumbrae than most of Adumbrae at Red Island. The muscle monster demolished a storage room with canisters holding the experimental parasites. Guards came from all directions, trying to kill Erind¡¯s puppet to no avail. The beast leaped at the men, squishing them like dough. Many parasites escaped the broken canisters. Some attacked the incoming reinforcements; most slithered off to cause havoc elsewhere.

    How many abilities does Erind have? Vanessa wondered. This reinforced the fear and respect in her mind for a true Adumbrae. There was the giant werewolf that attacked Eve, and now this metal body that could control people. Vanessa spared a glance at Erind before returning to following her mother.

    Erind¡¯s form reminded Vanessa of her godfather, Rob¡ªthe alias Vanessa jokingly gave him, the name of her favorite cartoon character. He could absorb any material and turn it into armor. He protected them when they escaped from the tunnels underneath Eve, chased by BID combat drones, absorbing metal as their shield. Ultimately, he couldn¡¯t last against the Skitters¡¯ heavy weaponry.

    If only he were as durable as Erind¡¯s metal form. Vanessa saw Erind fight Red Head, an enforcer of the Tea Party. Red Head tore Erind apart, but she put herself together as if nothing had happened. Her pieces didn¡¯t have any scratches from the claws and fangs of the humanoid lion Adumbrae.

    Can Red Head scratch diamonds? Vanessa¡¯s thoughts returned to that fateful night, zeroing in on the moment she threw the diamond bracelet to Erind to pass to Rob. Vanessa was cycling through her eye familiars, but that scene was the only thing she could see. Erind gave something else to Rob, not the diamond bracelet. Rob made his armor out of a different material and was killed by the endless stream of bullets from the Skitters.

    That was why Erind played dumb about the diamond bracelet. She was avoiding the topic of Rob¡¯s death¡­ of killing Rob.

    Erind didn¡¯t know that Vanessa was thankful it happened that way. If Rob caught the diamond bracelet and made an armor of diamonds from it, he¡¯d still die, and Vanessa would be tormented with guilt. She had tested shooting a diamond ring her mother gave her with a gun¡ªit simply shattered.

    Thank you, Erind. One less thing to feel guilty about. Vanessa had more than enough that she might break apart if Rob¡¯s death was on her too.

    The Skitters tracking her eye familiars in the tunnels, leading the combat drones to their group¡­

    Telling Stella about Erind¡¯s identity¡­

    ¡°Is there something on my face?¡± Erind asked.

    Vanessa didn¡¯t realize she was unconsciously staring. ¡°Uh, no. I was going to say your mom is only a couple more corridors away. No guards in sight.¡±

    They couldn¡¯t use the door of the holding cells of the hostages because it was a sliding door that opened with a keypad. Legba¡¯s power only worked with a doorknob or a latch, something a person could hold and operate to open the door. Same reason why Erind was teleported far from the room where Vanessa met her. Only the doors in the older section of the Tea Party¡¯s base had door knobs¡ªmost were touchpad operated or locked.

    ¡°Good.¡± Erind nodded. ¡°The sooner my mother escapes, the sooner we can transport my real body here. He can make only one portal something at a time, right?¡± She nudged her head at a tiny old man, not much bigger than a fifth-grader, sitting cross-legged on a wide pushcart in the middle of the room.

    ¡°Yes, I think so¡­¡± Vanessa hesitantly glanced at Legba. The old man didn¡¯t move, his eyes hidden behind the hood of his cloak. On his lap was a large handbell with an aged wooden handle.

    All this time, Legba hadn¡¯t said anything to Vanessa, much less nod or make any other gesture of communication. She hadn¡¯t seen him talk to anyone else, just following the woman named Euphonia¡ªan eccentric Adumbrae with four large robotic arms attached to her back. ¡®Follow¡¯ might be the wrong term. Euphonia carried Legba with her mechanical arms. If Vanessa hadn¡¯t seen the old man shake the bell, she¡¯d have thought he was a garden gnome.

    When Vanessa first talked to Legba, offering to bribe him to teleport Erind to a different door, he waved his bell once as an answer. Vanessa gambled that meant yes. The other half of her considered killing the old man to cover her betrayal if it turned out that he wasn¡¯t on board. Fortunately, Legba transported Erind to the correct door.

    Several minutes ago, Vanessa sort of kidnapped Legba from the control room, killing the Tea Party guards there and putting Legba on the cart to transfer him into a room several doors down the parasite storage area. Erind had to be near it to command her puppet to create a diversion to save her mother.

    Legba waved his bell once after Vanessa explained the plan, so she assumed everything would be fine. How am I supposed to pay him later?

    Vanessa blinked again. ¡°Erind, your mom is nearing the door. We¡¯ll transport her to a building near the Greaves center where the Tea Party gathered before the attack.¡± Vanessa picked that spot because Legba wasn¡¯t answering when asked if he could connect to any other location in Las Vegas. That was the only place, besides the convention center, where Legba teleported the Tea Party. Vanessa didn¡¯t know if he had portals in other areas. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± she told Erind. ¡°It¡¯s safe there. No one¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Erind nonchalantly said. ¡°Just get Mom out of here so we can move on to my real body.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll try to get an eye familiar at the convention center over to that place to watch her.¡±

    ¡°Is she out already? My puppet won¡¯t last long. Several augmented men and, I think, an Adumbrae showed up.¡±

    ¡°Not yet. She¡¯s running to the door now.¡± Vanessa turned to Legba. ¡°Can you, um, do as we planned?¡±

    From the long and baggy sleeves of Legba¡¯s cloak emerged his frail hand, his bony fingers were unnaturally long like tree branches. When he grabbed the bell¡¯s handle, it began to glow bright gold. He swung it once; beautiful ringing started, the sound coming from all directions. Vanessa might be imagining it, but the sound was like waves washing over her.

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Vanessa said, unsure what else to say. She bowed to him as an afterthought. It probably wasn¡¯t all that respectful to put him on a pushcart.

    ¡°My real body,¡± Erind said. ¡°It¡¯s still at the basement parking of the building?¡±

    ¡°Yep, still there with your friends,¡± Vanessa said, blinking to check it. ¡°They¡¯re safe¡­ for now. They¡¯ve destroyed Finlay¡¯s ceramic soldiers, though more should be coming soon. I think they¡¯re trying to find a tunnel to get out.¡±

    ¡°How¡¯s the rest of the building?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a battlefield between the police, BID agents, and the mutants the last I saw. I don¡¯t have eye familiars left to watch¡ªshe¡¯s through. Your mom¡¯s through the door.¡±

    ¡°Okay then,¡± Erind said. ¡°I¡¯m not good with directions. Up two floors, then the men¡¯s restroom near the emergency stairs?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see each other again soon.¡± Vanessa intently stared at Erind¡¯s single eye.

    Erind placed her fingers beneath her chin, along her jawline. ¡°Vanessa¡­ Sorry for what I did to you. And, yeah, see you later.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t apologize for¡ª¡± Before Vanessa could finish her sentence, Erind disappeared.

    <hr>

    Imani Nanda (Tove)

    They had shaken off the clay bastards. Some breathing space.

    Imani Nanda didn¡¯t know where they were, but it seemed to be some mechanical room. Maybe? There were large machines. Could be generators. And there were lots of pipes. They went down here, hoping there was a large enough pipe for them to pass, maybe something connected to the sewer system.

    She stared at her hand. Her palm was covered in blood¡ªnot hers. She had plenty of bruises from brawling with the clay men, but she was sure this blood wasn¡¯t hers. She felt it with her fingers to make sure it was real.

    Rough. It had already dried.

    But it was real.

    ¡°No way,¡± Imani whispered, turning to examine Erind¡¯s face. Imani had propped Erind in a sitting position against the wall while they¡ªincluding the other people they rescued¡ªwaited for Jubjub¡¯s return, scouting for a way out.

    Erind¡¯s eyes were still shut tight. No air flowed in or out of her nose, and her chest wasn¡¯t moving. Imani had assumed Erind was dead and thought of leaving her body, maybe hiding it in a cabinet to retrieve later for a proper burial. But she didn¡¯t.

    Imani touched Erind¡¯s skin. Warm. They¡¯d been running for so long that Erind should¡¯ve gone cold if she was really dead. Imani felt for Erind¡¯s pulse on her wrist. There was nothing. Next, Imani raised Erind¡¯s arm and slightly shook it. It was limp. Rigor mortis didn¡¯t set in.

    Erind seemed dead, but she wasn¡¯t.

    Lastly, Imani turned Erind to the side to look at her back. A patch of dried blood stained the lower part of Erind¡¯s shirt. Imani clenched her teeth, remembering her stupidity. She was carrying Erind on her back as she ran away from the Tea Party men¡ªcould be human, could be those clay puppets¡ªshooting at them when a bullet managed to hit Erind.

    Imani lifted Erind¡¯s shirt. She had checked the wound earlier but wasn¡¯t sure, or rather couldn¡¯t believe, what she saw. She couldn¡¯t take a closer look because the Adumbrae was chasing them.

    She scratched away the dried blood to reveal smooth, pale skin. No hole, no scars, no hint of any wound. It wasn¡¯t a hallucination when she saw the bullet getting pushed out of Erind¡¯s injury before it healed.

    When Snark stole Erind¡¯s phone to set up a situation for Imani to step in and save the day, Erind could keep up with Snark¡¯s running speed despite his leg-augs. Snark also mentioned that he nearly got the wind knocked out of him when Erind punched his stomach. Imani assumed Erind was augmented. Reasonable to think, given that Erind¡¯s mother worked for Greaves.

    Imani missed the mark on that one. Erind has an artificial Core.

    Jubjub told them that only Amber Deen had an artificial Core in her. Erind was supposed to be a normal human. Either Jubjub purposely lied to them, or she didn¡¯t know¡ªmaybe the latter case, as Jubjub had suggested leaving Erind behind too.

    Was Erind an even bigger secret than Deen¡¯s power? Was this why the Adumbrae wanted Erind?

    He called himself Finlay¡ªan Adumbrae with the power to create clay puppets masquerading as humans. Those clay puppets also led the black goo monsters to them. He told them to surrender Erind, and he¡¯d let them escape. Of course, they didn¡¯t believe him. He wasn¡¯t that powerful of an Adumbrae, but Jubjub couldn¡¯t kill him because he could transfer between his creations.

    ¡°Is Erind okay?¡± Tesh limped up to her.

    Imani allowed herself a smile seeing Tesh¡¯s ridiculous look. The sleeves of his dress shirt were torn off; one arm sleeve was used to wrap his wounded leg. I shouldn¡¯t smile here. Wearing a straight face, she said, ¡°Yes, she¡¯s fine. Just a small wound. It¡¯s not bleeding anymore.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Tesh looked around the room. Kiera was tending to an old man with a wounded arm. Tesh¡¯s other sleeve went to that wound. They had picked up several more people during their escape and lost a few when Finlay attacked. ¡°Everyone¡¯s fine so far. Still alive.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, still alive.¡± Erind included, probably?

    ¡°You think we can trust her?¡± Tesh asked. ¡°The shadow woman?¡±

    ¡°Yes, we can,¡± Imani said. ¡°I can feel it.¡± When she reunited with Jubjub, the latter decided it was best that they pretended not to know each other. ¡°It¡¯s not like we have a choice.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Tesh said. ¡°She saved our asses many times. We¡¯d be dead without her.¡± He looked at Erind. Imani could guess what was on his mind. A few of their group wanted to give up Erind to Finlay. Tesh opened his mouth but was interrupted by the rattling in the vents overhead.

    The others also jolted in surprise. And fear. A few tried to hide behind the large machines.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry!¡± Imani called out. ¡°I can see the shadows! Jubjub¡¯s back.¡±

    Dark liquid, not unlike the black goo from the parasites, just not smelly, gushed through the metal slats in the ceiling. It formed into a large puddle that congealed into a blob. Then that blob took on the form of Jubjub, dressed in all black, with dark straight hair covering half her face.

    ¡°Bad news, and badder news,¡± Jubjub said.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Kiera asked, stepping forward.

    ¡°Those clay men are back with a few monsters in tow. Few, but huge ones.¡±

    ¡°Large enough to break the door?¡± Imani already knew the answer from Jubjub¡¯s face. Jubjub nodded. The others gasped and exchanged worried looks. Imani scanned the frightened people before asking, ¡°Is that the worse news? No?¡±

    ¡°The sewers are a no-go,¡± Jubjub said. ¡°There¡¯s no way for us out of here. We have to barricade¡ª¡±

    ¡°You can get out of here!¡± shouted a man wearing overalls with a Greaves logo on his chest. ¡°We¡¯re the ones who can¡¯t get out. You lead us to a trap!¡±

    ¡°Hey, shut up,¡± Tesh growled. ¡°She saved you back there.¡±

    ¡°Barricade the doors,¡± Jubjub said. ¡°I¡¯ll try to delay them.¡± She liquified into a dark sludge, zooming across the floor to a part of the room covered in shadows.

    ¡°She¡¯s gone again!¡± the Greaves employee said. ¡°I was right. This is a fucking trap!¡±

    ¡°She might even be an Adumbrae,¡± said another person.

    ¡°Yeah, definitely a trap. The black goo. So obvious.¡±

    ¡°We shouldn¡¯t have trusted her.¡±

    ¡°Go out if you don¡¯t want to be with us,¡± said Tesh. ¡°Everyone else who prefers living, grab something to¡ª¡±

    ¡°And who made you the leader?¡±

    Another shouting match erupted, reminiscent of when they were held in the conference room several floors up. Why couldn¡¯t people just get along? It seemed so obvious that everyone should work together for the best chances of survival. But scared people do stupid things, hoping to save themselves at the expense of others. Imani couldn¡¯t blame them because she was also afraid¡­ as usual, as expected.

    What made the feeling worse was knowing that Jubjub could escape the place on her own while leaving the rest of them to die, just like the guy in overalls said. If only Boojum and Snark were here. Where did they go? As morbid as it sounded, life and death situations were made better if suffered as a group. Imani could draw from Boojum¡¯s confidence in the face of danger or Snark¡¯s sense of humor even when staring at death.

    Fear crept into Imani¡¯s mind. What if Jubjub was on her way out of the building? Imani looked at Erind¡¯s body. Somebody shouted what she was thinking.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just give the Adumbrae that girl!¡±

    ¡°No one¡¯s giving anyone to an Adumbrae!¡± Kiera rushed to Erind¡¯s side, shielding her. Tesh took his place in front of his wife, fists raised.

    Imani shook her head. What the hell was I thinking? She wasn¡¯t this weak! She stood beside Tesh. ¡°How dare you offer up someone to an Adumbrae? Have you no shame?¡± The last line was also meant for herself.

    ¡°We¡¯re all going to die if the tentacle creatures get in here!¡± a woman wearing corporate attire cried out.

    ¡°Just give up that girl!¡± someone piled on.

    ¡°One life for ours!¡±

    The others were closing in. Imani was confident she could fight them off, but she¡¯d rather they prepare to defend this room.

    ¡°You idiots!¡± Tesh shouted. ¡°The monsters are coming, and you want to do this?¡±

    ¡°We want to live!¡±

    ¡°Give up the girl!¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ so noisy¡­¡± It was only a small voice, but everyone quieted down. Erind was awake. ¡°Can¡¯t get some sleep around here. Too noisy. I¡¯m going out.¡±

 5.44

    ¡°Stop fighting!¡± I held my hands up, standing between two factions. ¡°Stop!¡±

    Imani, Tesh, and Kiera were on my right. The couple pleaded with me to stay. Imani silently lurked behind them. I wasn¡¯t sure what Imani¡¯s deal was. She only mentioned that Jubjub, supposedly the Dario of their group, was trying to delay the monsters coming here. Nothing else after that.

    Random people I hadn¡¯t seen before were on my left¡ªsurvivors who wanted to throw me out of the room for their safety. Trying to make sense of the rabble, I gathered that Finlay promised to stop attacking if they gave me up. Amusing that this has happened twice¡ªFinlay also did this exact same thing in my old condo.

    ¡°We should secure the door instead of arguing!¡± Tesh limped forward, his fists ready to rumble despite his injury.

    ¡°The girl goes out first. Then we barricade the door!¡± A guy wearing overalls said.

    ¡°The woman with the shadow powers will protect us,¡± Kiera added.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know that for sure!¡± cried a woman in a secretary¡¯s outfit. ¡°Just give her to the Adumbrae so all of us can live!¡± Others in their group voiced their well-thought-out arguments about why they should sacrifice a cute girl like me to save their asses.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you people hear yourselves?¡± Kiera hugged me protectively. I flinched, about to punch her for impermissible touching. It was one thing for people to carry my lifeless body and a wholly different matter if my soul¡ªif that was how it worked¡ªhad returned inside it. Kiera shouted at the others, oblivious to how close she was to losing her head, ¡°We¡¯re no better than Adumbrae if we throw her out to die!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve made it this far.¡± Overalls Guy produced a wrench out of nowhere. He waved it menacingly. ¡°I¡¯m not going to die trapped like a fucking rat!¡±

    ¡°I have a family,¡± a sobbing woman said. ¡°Please, they need me back.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going out,¡± I declared, extracting myself from Kiera¡¯s arms. Because I need to reach the door to teleport to the Tea Party¡¯s base.

    ¡°But you¡¯ll die!¡± Kiera said.

    ¡°If that Adumbrae specifically wants me for some reason, then he won¡¯t kill me. I¡¯m sure of it. I¡¯ll find an opening to escape. What¡¯s important is that all of you are safe.¡± The other survivors cheered me on. Erind doing protagonist things? Deen would be so proud.

    ¡°You bastards are fine with letting an injured girl go out to those monsters!¡± Kiera pulled on her husband, who had a frown on his face. ¡°We can¡¯t let Erind¡ªTesh, Imani, say something!¡±

    ¡°Injured?¡± I checked my body. Blood stains on my back. Didn¡¯t hurt. Duh. ¡°Who was carrying¡­¡± My eyes locked with Imani¡¯s. She blinked and turned away, hiding bloody hands behind her back. As if it couldn¡¯t be more obvious.

    Why didn¡¯t she kill me if she knew I was an Adumbrae? Imani wasn¡¯t like cuckoo Deen who had a reason¡ª got it.

    Not an Adumbrae. She thought I was an artificial Core holder like Deen, and we were keeping it a secret for some reason. This was the most plausible conclusion from Imani¡¯s perspective.

    And now, Imani wasn¡¯t stopping me from going out because she thought, more like hoped, I¡¯d save them with my secret artificial Core powers. It might be too much for her to outright join the people wanting to sacrifice my pretty self, so she decided to shut up on the side.

    ¡°Hear that?¡± someone at the back of the left group yelled. ¡°Growling and shit!¡± Everyone fell silent. Faint and distant, but definitely a large and inhuman commotion was happening.

    Everyone stared at each other for a few seconds as the noises grew louder. Panic-stricken faces stared at me. It was evident from their conflicted expressions that they wondered if they should forcibly grab me. Ashamed but also desperate to survive, it was hilarious how people behaved when faced with death. New knowledge of normal human behavior was always welcome and interesting.

    ¡°I¡¯m going out,¡± I repeated. ¡°And that¡¯s that.¡± Kiera lunged toward me, but the others stopped her. Even her husband pulled her away as I walked to the door. The rest parted to let me pass. ¡°This is the only way.¡±

    Literally. There was no other exit.

    ¡°Thank you from the bottom of my heart.¡± a nobody said. He was pushing a crate, ready to barricade a door.

    ¡°Yo-you¡¯ll be able to escape,¡± said the secretary. ¡°Do-don¡¯t worry. The Mother Core is watching over you.¡±

    ¡°Here, have this.¡± Overalls Guy handed me his wrench, which I accepted with a raised brow. ¡°I have a daughter. I¡¯ll be able to see her thanks to you.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re all fucking crazy!¡± Kiera shouted. ¡°You¡¯re just gonna let her go out there?¡±

    Looking over my shoulder, I tried meeting Imani¡¯s eyes again. She looked at me. I nodded. She nodded too, probably thinking I confirmed I had powers¡ªthat I would fight. Fortunately for them, I had no choice but to do precisely that. While it was so much better if the parasite monsters killed everyone here, including Imani, I also wanted to be ready and power the fuck up when barging into the Tea Party base.

    Two people rushed to open the wide metal double doors, one guy pulling each wing. I expected to see the tunnels of the Tea Party base on the other side, but only a bland corridor greeted me. Walls painted half white, lower half blue, and working lights ran down the middle of the ceiling. That weird old man¡¯s powers might work only on that specific door Vanessa told me about, a couple of floors up.

    I stepped out. Everything was clean and normal except for a few smatterings of blood on the floor and streaks of black on the ceiling. I was yet to meet this mysterious Jubjub person. What should I do about her and Imani? Deen and I could cook up something later.

    We could add a few more murders to our list of crimes.

    Roars echoed from the left end of the passage. Jubjub was fighting them.

    The people behind me nervously murmured as they hurried to close the doors. Kiera¡¯s screams for my name were instantly muffled as the doors slammed shut. Her voice was further covered by banging sounds as the others barricaded the door.

    Show time!

    I opened my right hand.

    Liquid gold rose from crystals on the palm, its golden glow reflecting on the white walls and floor. Gold turned red as the floating blob took shape. As much as I¡¯d like to stretch my sleepy body and brawl with the parasite monsters as Erind, gauging how I¡¯d fare compared to Deen¡ªchildish shit, is all¡ªI needed a good meal after a nice nap.

    I threw the wrench Overalls Guy gave me upward. As it twirled mid-air, I placed Blanchette¡¯s mask on my mouth, fitting it snugly against my chin. And the mask turns into a face. A gloved hand with clawed fingertips caught the falling wrench. I had no idea why I did that, but it was cool.

    As customary, I snapped my jaws, relishing the impact coursing through my skull as my sharp fangs clashed against each other. I missed this so much! It could be this form¡¯s predatory instincts or just my eagerness to fight after getting bullied as Pino, but shivers of excitement ran through my body while I savored the power of my muscles.

    I held the wrench between my teeth and crunched down. The metal was deformed. Another bite, stronger this time, and it broke. Really cool.

    I spat out the nasty-tasting pieces. Not so cool. The stench of something nastier went up my hyper-sensitive nose¡ªa huge downside of Blanchette¡¯s enhanced senses. Smelly and noisy. Parasite monsters were coming.

    I sprinted down the corridor. Shadows up ahead, peeking from the corner. But it wasn¡¯t the tentacle bastards that appeared.

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    A couple of gun-toting men wearing masks and goggles, the attire of Tea Party grunts, ran out of the corner. I didn¡¯t need Pino¡¯s vision to know they weren¡¯t humans¡ªthey had a different odor. Couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on it, but nothing here smelled human.

    They stopped for a second upon spotting me; Finlay must be surprised seeing me awake and transformed. Then they opened fire.

    Without hesitation, without slowing down, I charged at them. Pinpricks in various points of my body. Some bullets nicked my cheeks. A couple pinged off my bared fangs. These dummies were good shots. Small injuries were still injuries. My power kicked in. Power and rage bubbled from within me.

    Letting loose a throat-tingling roar, I leaped, arms out, mouth wide open. Eating clay wouldn¡¯t benefit me¡ªI just wanted to let loose and destroy stuff.

    But a split second before my claws reached the clay dummies, a river of tentacles surged from the side and enveloped them. I bounced off the squirming mass of flesh and landed on my feet. Who dared take my trash prey?

    The owner of the tentacles loomed to my right¡ªa squat humanoid blob that nearly filled the whole corridor, its head squashed against the ceiling. The yawning hole across its distended abdomen spewed tentacles. It pulled the clay dummies to its stomach.

    ¡°Grrroaargh.¡± This¡¯ll be disgusting, though I had a different standard for that as Blanchette.

    The Blob glowered with beady eyes peeking through folds of face fat. Several tentacles burst out of its stomach, coming for me. It was as if they moved in slow motion. I could discern the individual tentacles, predict where each would land. My muscles tensed, ready to evade.

    Then I recalled how my powers worked. Fuck!

    I crossed my arms as a shield and didn¡¯t move away. I couldn¡¯t do the martial arts evasion shit like Deen!

    I skidded a foot back from the impact. Tentacles pierced my legs, abdomen, and arms. None went through my body. Such a weird sensation feeling them inside my muscles like an itch I couldn¡¯t quite scratch because it was beneath my skin.

    ¡°Rwaarh!¡± I slashed the tentacles and pulled their wriggling severed ends out of my flesh. Black goo sprayed me, making me more irritated.

    The Blob sent all of its tentacles in one mass, a gigantic punch slamming me against the wall. I tore the mass of tendrils, biting and swallowing mouthfuls of flesh. I grabbed the tendrils, shredding them, shoving handfuls into my mouth.

    They¡¯re just spaghetti, I told myself. Nothing to be disgusted about¡ªactually, I was fine eating it. I had to fill the void in my stomach. Need to consume. Need the prey that dared attack me to be in my stomach.

    The Blob waddled awkwardly as it tried to retreat. I held on to its tentacles, slurping them like a competitive pasta eater. The Blob forcefully pulled back, tearing its own tentacles. I jumped on it and chomped its flat head. My fangs pierced its skull. Crushing bones was like munching on crispy chicken skin¡ªalways enjoyable.

    Snap out! Snap out of it, you bitch!

    In the few seconds I allowed myself to binge, I had already devoured half of the Blob. It wasn¡¯t dead yet¡ªI still hungered for it¡ªbut I had places to be. This monster could go wherever it wanted, maybe a stroll to the room with Imani and the other survivors. I moved to the next-in-line in the freakshow¡ªa massive mouth, large enough to swallow me whole. It was sort of a giant version of Vanessa¡¯s almond babies, but this one had human legs.

    I dove straight into its gaping maw. It chomped down, a powerful bite. Its incisors, as large as books, sliced into my back and reached my bones. Not minding the pain, I scrambled its insides, eating and clawing myself through its body.

    Light! I emerged on the other side. Just to meet more monsters.

    ¡°GRROOWWR!¡± I stood much taller. My snout had lengthened, filled with dagger-like fangs pushing against each other. The back of my muscled arms had bright red fur. Claws grew out of my boots, scraping the floor tiles.

    The parasite monsters tried to back away, a rare display of intelligence from their usual mindless attacks. Like a weedwhacker, I shredded through them until I reached an intersection of hallways.

    Chopped-up monster corpses were strewn around. They were sliced into neat cubes, unlike how I dismembered my prey. The area had a paint job courtesy of the black goo from the parasite monsters and the mysterious dark streaks that were manifestations of Jubjub¡¯s power. But where was she?

    I sniffed the cocktail of odors. The usual blood, black goo, the body parts. And something else¡ªhumans. Not-so humans?

    My ears perked up and faced the passage to my left, picking up faint voices. Only now did I notice that my hoodie had merged with my head. One of the voices sounded familiar. It was not the way to the next floor, but I decided to make a little detour.

    No more eating, Erind, I scolded myself. I was getting too big. I had to crouch, almost walking on all fours, to avoid hitting the lights on the ceiling. Eating or crushing, I was okay with anything so long as I could kill my next prey. He was going to be a slippery one.

    ¡°My friend, I caught you!¡± Finlay sounded much clearer.

    ¡°You¡¯re so happy with just that, asshole?¡± A woman¡¯s voice replied. Jubjub, I presumed.

    ¡°You were trying to catch me. I was trying to catch you. I won our friendly competition. Hooray!¡±

    The corridor was clear. The two were in a room further ahead.

    Two? Maybe more.

    Finlay knew I was here. Suspicious that he didn¡¯t post a clay man as a lookout. Could he run out of whatever material he squeezed out of his ass to make those dummies?

    I stalked closer and closer, careful not to make any noise. Even though I was huge, I stealthily moved, carefully coordinating my muscles to control the heaviness of my steps. The fleshy padding on my hands and feet¡ªmore like paws at this point¡ªdeadened the noise.

    ¡°Just kill me. I¡¯ll die with no regrets,¡± Jubjub said. Her voice sounded breathy. She groaned, probably injured. ¡°Yo-your plans are already ruined.¡±

    ¡°Ruined?¡± Finlay laughed. ¡°You don¡¯t know anything, my friend.¡±

    An open door. Their scent wafted from there. My ears prickled at the sounds of movement. I rushed forward. Four people¡ªone woman wearing all black and three identical Tea Party goons with their faces covered. Two men pointed guns and strong flashlights at the woman while a third held her hands behind her. Their scents, their movements. Jubjub¡¯s eyes widened as I reached into the room and grabbed one of the men.

    Tough like a well-done steak with a bit of crunch. A yelp. I squeezed tighter. The man shattered into dozens of pieces.

    ¡°You bitch!¡± The man to the right pointed his gun at me and opened fire. I backhanded him. He turned into broken pottery.

    With no more guns trained on her, Jubjub broke free of the clay dummy holding her. She knocked its head off with an expert back kick. Then she caught one of the flying shards and threw it at the light on the ceiling, turning it off. That¡¯s her weakness? There was still light from the dropped flashlights and the corridor, but Jubjub had enough shadows to cloak herself, and she disappeared.

    Not even a thank you. Jubjub might¡¯ve thought I was a parasite monster, given all the black goo covering my fur. She must be heading to Imani. Now, where¡¯s Finlay?

    Footsteps! A bit of a struggle, but I managed to turn around in the cramped corridor. A man stood at the intersection I had passed, waving at me. I rushed toward the clay man, running over it as I stepped into the intersection. Another clay man positioned himself by the hallway going to the stairs. I smashed him too.

    More clay men dotted my paths, leading up the stairs to the next floor, then again one more level. I destroyed them all and the monsters that stood in my way.

    I knew where these walking ceramic pots were leading me. After Finlay saw me, he must¡¯ve devised a plan to lure me to the Tea Party¡¯s base, to what he thought was a ready trap. He drew attention to himself and Jubjub so his clay men could position themselves as breadcrumbs to the right door while I was distracted. Unfortunately for him, he didn¡¯t know I wanted to enter their base anyway.

    Too bad he didn¡¯t kill Jubjub before I arrived¡ªhe really wanted to do his ¡®friendship¡¯ shtick with her.

    ¡°Hey, you bitch!¡± Finlay was now using himself as bait. He stopped to spray his gun at me before running again. ¡°You¡¯ll never catch me.¡± I could run much faster to catch him, but he¡¯d switch to another clay man.

    His whole act was so blatant. But this showed he didn¡¯t know what was going on. This also confirmed Vanessa¡¯s story about in-fighting in their group. Maybe I could ask Vanessa to help me kill Finlay as payment for joining their side?

    Finlay entered a door. I checked the signs. Men¡¯s restroom. And that running stick man poster on a metal door nearby probably meant the emergency staircase. An eyeball familiar scuttle across the floor and parked itself in front of the door Finlay entered. It was the right place.

    The bell started ringing, and the restroom door changed.

    What does the eyeball familiar taste like? I was about to reach for the tiny eyeball when I recalled that it was a part of Vanessa. I¡¯d rather not eat that. Back to the mission. The door opened, revealing the tunnel that Deen and I had passed before.

    This was going to be a tight squeeze. Both my arms first, then my head. My chest was my widest part¡ªit couldn¡¯t fit. I struggled to pull myself through, ignoring the pain. Hopefully, the doorframe wouldn¡¯t break and cut me in half during teleportation. Fur got torn off, then skin, then flesh. I continued through myself, breaking some ribs to compress my chest. My legs and swishing tail followed.

    I crawled down the tunnel. Then I sniffed the air. Humans nearby. I ran to them.

    ¡°What the hell was that? An earthquake?¡± One of them said, likely referring to my very forceful teleportation.

    ¡°Dunno, man. Alarms wailing everywhere. We should¡ªhey, you feel that?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. What¡ªAAAAHHH!¡±

    I emerged out of a passageway and chomped on them.

    Blanchette is in the house! And that house was the Tea Party¡¯s base.

 5.45

    The rain of bullets barely reached the threshold of a mosquito bite; it felt like actual rain massaging my face. Couldn¡¯t even make me bleed. Bring out the strong prey for me to eat! Adumbrae! Augmented humans! I advanced down the corridor toward the squad of Tea Party men positioned on the other end, snarling my displeasure at their pathetic efforts to stop me. Ordinary people were not worth the energy to chew.

    Bullets couldn¡¯t do the job, so grenades came. The metal pinecones lazily arced across the air. I saw the precise moment they burst open, fragmented, expanding fire and force. I was blinded for a second¡ªidiotic to stare directly at them.

    Explosions in such a compact space finally managed to hurt me. The side of my face smoldered. My muscles were sore from the blast waves. The smell of my burnt hair and flesh infuriated my nose. The tunnel also partially collapsed, with rocks and soil falling on me, pissing me off more.

    I continued my crawl, not speeding up but also not slowing down, plowing through the earth and crushing rocks beneath my hands and feet, an unflinching unstoppable monster. Those were always cool in horror movies. The guards screamed and broke ranks as I came closer and closer.

    However, one guy was particularly brave.

    He remained standing in my way, lugging a metal tube on his shoulder. He shouted something at me¡ªI could clearly hear his words, but my mind chose to ignore the squeaks of a creature about to die. There was a flash of flames and puffs of smoke. A projectile came for my face.

    I didn¡¯t look away, cocky and feeling indestructible in my werewolf body.

    BOOM!

    ¡°GHRAAOGRH!¡± I roared in pain. Fucking hurts like shit! Red overlapped my vision; my left eye was bloody. Stinging pain surged up the side of my skull. My regeneration kicked into action, and my hunger was reignited.

    I charged at the man who fired, biting down on his torso. Only his lower body remained standing like a leg mannequin modeling pants in a department store. The rest of him got chewed in my mouth, the pieces of flesh and bones, then flushed down my gullet.

    Blood, smoke, metal, earth, the odors of many different people that have passed through these corridors¡ªmy powerful nose took them all. Wading through the mesmerizing mess, I zeroed in on a specific scent¡ªAmber Deen.

    Ewww. The sane Erind part of me was weirded out smelling my friend in this much detail, but the predator Blanchette part had no issues tracking a scent.

    I was trying to find my own trace when I was Pino, but I couldn¡¯t pinpoint what it should be. Plastic? Metal? There were tons of metal around here. When it came to Deen, I knew her signature scent¡ªher soap, probably shampoo, could be her perfume¡ªof cotton candy. It jumped out from the earthiness of the surroundings.

    I followed it, squeezing myself through narrow corridors like a hairy slug, ignoring the attacking men trying to stop me, looking for the way to the heart of the Tea Party base where they held the hostages and the parasite monsters. More prey for me¡ªthe parasite monsters. As for the hostages¡­ Deen better have a plan to save them because I certainly fucking didn¡¯t.

    My Mom was already out of here; the rest could just roll over and die for all I care.

    I¡¯d trash this place, disrupting whatever shit the Tea Party was doing, which was undoubtedly evil, and saving the day. That was my official press release.

    My real intention was to fight the Adumbrae scurrying around this hole that would be their grave.

    I had more control of Blanchette¡¯s werewolf form than ever before, but I couldn¡¯t entirely suppress certain aspects of it. Or did I not want to fully stamp out this form¡¯s animalistic and feral side? An altogether different experience of rage when hunting strong prey, anger, and ferocity on a level I could never as Erind. I didn¡¯t consider myself a thrill-seeker¡­ but maybe I was.

    Strong prey¡ªI needed to find that first.

    Prey that¡¯d fight back. Prey that¡¯d cause me great pain, make me feel the risk of dying, the thrill of a fight with my life on the line.

    But I wasn¡¯t going to die. Many times I had toed the line between life and death, but I never thought I¡¯d actually die.

    Fear of death¡­ The people in that room in the basement of the Greaves building feared for their lives enough that they were willing to sacrifice me. These men running away from me were also afraid. Very much so. I had read books and watched movies mentioning that fear had an odor. A clich¨¦ line for monsters and serial killers hunting the protagonist that they could smell fear. A mere horror trope? Scrunching my nose, I sniffed the air.

    Still trying to figure out what fear was supposed to smell like. But there was¡­ something there.

    Something.

    It oozed out the pores of a man crouching between two large crates. Smell of his tears. Smell of his piss. And then an odor that was nothing but also something¡ªlike tasteless water that tasted like water. It was more of an aura telling me there was no threat from him. Weakness. Submissiveness.

    I stopped next to him.

    The man faced the wall, like a dog thinking it was hidden if it couldn¡¯t see its owner. He covered his ears as if not hearing me would make me disappear. He sobbed, mumbling nonsense like family and about the pay not being worth it and regrets¡ªrandom stuff.

    I pressed him against the wall, my hairy palm as wide as his curled-up body. Gently at first. His muscles tensed, and his heart pounded so hard I felt its beating through his back. His breathing became harried as he needed more oxygen, but he was also trying to stop himself from making any noise, terribly failing at that.

    Amused, I continued pushing him to the rough wall. He whimpered. I pressed and pressed, interested in how long he could hold a scream. Cracks from bones and wet popping noises. Warm blood spread across my palm. One tiny yelp, and that was that.

    Props to him for keeping quiet until the last second. I would¡¯ve let him live as a reward¡­ if he wasn¡¯t already dead.

    His buddy, on the other hand, was very loud.

    ¡°You¡­ monster! I¡¯ll¡­ pay!¡± Another man came at me with a sling of grenades across his chest. Their pins were removed. His mouth was opening and closing, shouting irrelevant words. I couldn¡¯t bring myself to care what he said. His smell of fear radiated more than his friend. And yet, he waved his arms, trying to get my attention. Interesting difference in reaction, and quite a heroic one¡ªI award him the Deen badge of stupidity.

    I opened my mouth wide, and he willingly jumped into it. My teeth pierced his mid-section, but I didn¡¯t completely bite down. He struggled inside my mouth while his legs wiggled outside as if I had a snake¡¯s tongue.

    Some of the men stopped running and looked back. Did they think their buddy¡¯s plan would work? The wiser ones continued to flee.

    Explosions forced my jaws open! The man in my mouth disintegrated. My jawbones got dislocated. My cheeks stretched and tore; my neck and chest experienced the same. Flames rushed down my throat and heated my chest. Smoke gushed out my nose.

    I was disoriented for a couple of seconds, seeing all white and hearing nothing other than a high-pitched whine. Great agony overcame me. I furiously coughed, wildly shaking my head, hitting the walls and ceiling as if it¡¯d make the pain disappear.

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    People cheered. I roared, drowning their voices. Annoying little shit!

    Pain! Pain! Pain, pain¡­

    What was the pain? My jawbones clicked back in place. The flesh of my throat and cheeks stitched shut. The voices of the cheering men died down, and their faces fell. These idiots seriously thought I¡¯d die from this childish antic? False hope. Fun to crush it.

    Despair¡ªthat¡¯s what they¡¯re feeling, isn¡¯t it? I swiped the men. My hand moved so fast that their bodies exploded. Some of them barely resisted, standing dumbfounded, perhaps accepting their fate. Others tried to shoot me, knowing they couldn¡¯t run away fast enough.

    Despair. What did that feel like? I doubted I was capable of such emotion. I could mimic these men''s facial expressions and actions, but I couldn¡¯t wrap around my head what despair was. Happiness, sadness, anger, those sort of shit¡ªI didn¡¯t experience them as an average person did, but I felt them nonetheless, just in low doses. It was easy to approximate how others would act.

    Despair, on the other hand¡­

    I went deeper and deeper into the network of tunnels. From hapless normal humans with guns, the resistance leveled up to augmented people and combat drones as the alarms wailed and the base was roused to the threat of a giant furry bitch wanting to do some remodeling. Demolishing was probably the better word.

    From flesh and bone, I now crunched flesh, bone, and metal. These Tea Party people had a lot of tech stuff to throw at me. I preferred attacking the base of the 2Ms below Eve¡ªthe food they served was edible. I spat out bits of metal. Disgusting crap ruining my meal.

    ¡°This way¡­ this¡­ quick!¡±

    ¡°Gather! We fight¡­ here!¡±

    ¡°Electro¡­ trap¡­ kill it!¡±

    Shouting. Many different voices. All insignificant. Clouds of fear rolled through the people. I breathed deeply, hoping that inhaling their fear would give me a glimpse of the sensation. Such a weird thing I did there. I chuckled, but it came out as harsh and guttural noises.

    Everyone ran to an artificially dug cave with a semicircular opening¡ªit looked like an airplane hangar built underground, like a hidden base of a villain. Wait, this was the hidden base of a villain¡­ Cool. These people probably had a plan for drawing me there. Were they concentrating their forces in one place for me to eat faster? I doubted they were that considerate.

    They probably wanted to try new ways of failing to kill me.

    Deen and my Pino self didn¡¯t pass through here earlier. The way we took following Vanessa¡¯s pet led to the upper levels of the base, circling the periphery of the great cavern at its center. If I continued on that path, I¡¯d get stuck in smaller tunnels. And I wanted to go straight to the buffet, not above it. Though a titanic werewolf falling out of nowhere was a hilarious image.

    I entered the cave. Gunfire and explosions greeted me. My fur burned away and regrew like a timelapse video of growing weeds replayed continuously. Most bullets bounced off my flesh. Those that could penetrate were immediately spat back out as the wounds healed. The acrid smell of gunpowder filled the air.

    ¡°Hrwaaogh!" My powerful half-roar half-howl blew away the smoke.

    The sides of the cave were stacked with metal crates, freight containers, machines unfamiliar to me, and heavy equipment that was probably used for digging out this base. At the center of the cave, the Tea Party men had used forklifts to arrange several crates into a sort of barricade, taking up positions behind it, and added the forklifts into the wall.

    Three containers weren¡¯t aligned with the rest, their ends instead pointed at me. Through their open doors, I saw each had a whirring cannon-like machine inside with glowing parts operated by frantic people. Probably Adumbrae-killing weapons or some bullshit. The Tea Party got plenty of fabulous toys, and their base looks way basier than the 2Ms.

    They didn¡¯t have plenty of Adumbrae in their ranks so this probably made up for it.

    Blue beams fired out of the sci-fi cannons and hit me.

    ¡°Rrwhaaa!¡± My muscles painfully seized as if the crampiest cramps plagued my whole body. I gnashed my teeth, saliva frothing as I endured the pain. I tried to regain control of my body and continued moving forward despite my muscles not listening. I couldn¡¯t think straight¡ªI just focused on those machines shooting at me. Destroy¡­sci-fi shit! Destroy the sci-fi shit!

    But before I could reach the beam cannons, they started fizzing and clanking. The Tea party people operating them scattered. Did something go wrong? The power of the beams weakened, and the pain was subsiding.

    Wrong for them.

    I leaped at the machines, tearing through the metal container like ripping open a present and smashing its contents. Disappointingly, the machines just sputtered and broke apart. No explosions? I destroyed the other crates, squishing the men who didn¡¯t escape quickly enough. I lifted a forklift between my jaws and gnawed it into several pieces.

    Again, no explosions.

    Dammit! This went against what I learned from scientifically-approved action movies where everything destroyed exploded. I wanted explosions and destruction! I wanted to burn this whole fucking place!

    What should a girl do to get some explosion around here?

    I noticed three objects flying toward me from the corner of my eye. I just had enough time to raise my arms to block them. The missiles exploded and hammered me to the ground. The blast was so powerful that the floor beneath me broke as I slammed into it. Strips of flesh got torn off my arms, leaving bare bones behind.

    I want to cause explosions, not the other way around!

    ¡°Raoooargh!¡± I roared at the augmented assholes with giant spider legs growing from their backs, scampering across the ceiling of a large cavern. They had missile launchers attached to their shoulders, shooting me from above.

    I grabbed a loose tire from the forklift and threw it at one of the spider bastards like a frisbee. It hit the missile he had just launched, causing an explosion right in front of him. It also caught a couple more of his multi-legged buddies.

    Explosions! I stood tall on my hind legs and howled in celebration.

    Then I picked up slabs of cement that was once on the floor and threw them at everything that looked like it¡¯d explode. I also tried hitting the crates to see what was inside them. I got lucky and hit what might¡¯ve been a bunch of ammo. It went off and caused a chain of detonations.

    Soon enough, everything was on fire. The ground shook from blast after blast. My acute senses were overwhelmed by it¡ªthe smell of everything burning occupied my noise, and explosions and screams melded into one noise, deafening me. I only saw red and orange as the fire raged. I blended in the blaze with my crimson fur¡­

    Nah¡­ I¡¯m just on fire too.

    The cave storage whatever turned into an oven. I walked to the opposite side of the cave, leisurely observing my handiwork. I was a giant werewolf with patchy burning hair and skin bubbling from the heat, and I was feeling giddy, the pain a simple footnote in my mind.

    Sirens blared. Heavy metal doors appeared from the sides of the exit, threatening to lock me here.

    I rushed to stop them from closing. I gripped the metal doors, crumpled them, and pushed them open. Their mechanisms tried to push back but failed and gave out.

    ¡°Hraaaohhh!¡± I howled as I bent the doors open like they were cardboard, allowing the fire to spread. Destruction! Fun!

    A strong gust of wind blew away the fire that had spilled into the tunnel outside the cave oven.

    Cold? Very cold. I stopped in my tracks, surprised at the sudden temperature change. Raising my arms, I noticed my fur had turned into icicles, the frost spreading on my skin. At the left end of the tunnel, a floating woman appeared, swirling blue particles wrapped around her, braiding into her floating white hair.

    She opened her glowing blue eyes and mouth and said, ¡°I¡¯m here to preserve the specimen. Hardy, make sure you minimize the damage to its body when you neutralize it.¡±

    ¡°Ya¡¯ got it, ya¡¯ frosty bitch!¡± a hoarse voice shouted in reply. ¡°Just stop its movements, and I¡¯ll do the rest!¡±

    Coming out the bend at the right end of the tunnel, a shirtless muscular man appeared carrying a sledgehammer with its head ending in a curved spike. His hairy chest could rival mine¡ªanother weird observation¡ªand his thick arms were laced with threads of burning ruby.

    Finally. A challenge.

    Instinctively, I knew they¡¯d last longer than any enemy I had, especially because I had seen Hammer Man before. He was the one who killed the puppet I used as a distraction when we kidnapped the old man with teleportation powers.

    Could these two make me feel despair?

    Likely not, though an approximation would be nice. It was like an ice cream flavor with a peculiar name that I was sort of willing to try because I was particularly adventurous on a particular day. I was really interested in it because I had seen it several times this day.

    Then I¡¯d eat them to satiate my intense hunger! Eat and grow stronger!

    I drooled at the prospect of tasty food, flowing down my mouth and dripping along the ground. I snapped my jaws as a challenge to them. Ice Woman waved her arms, sending a cascading hailstorm toward me. Hammer Man charged, his sledgehammer crackling with black electricity.

 5.46 - Black Spade/Vanessa

    Black Spade

    Plan A, B, C, up to Z, continuing to the Sumerian cuneiforms, Black Spade had a plan for every plausible eventuality, including their base coming under attack. But he never imagined a giant doggy mascot showing up out of thin air like his pesky relatives when his wealthy father died. How was he supposed to consider this improbable scenario? What plan could he pull out of his bag of tricks to save their base that March Hare entrusted to him?

    To make matters worse, Vanessa told him this doggy was a true Adumbrae.

    Not only that¡­

    ¡°Better be fucking sure this is the same Adumbrae that destroyed Eve,¡± Black Spade spat at Vanessa. His tone was far from respectful for talking to an Adumbrae.

    If March Hare were here, he¡¯d smack the back of Black Spade¡¯s head for his impropriety. But the stress of the situation was getting to Black Spade, the likelihood of losing another base¡ªthis time, their actual headquarters¡ªweighing heavily on his mind. And he never respected anyone from Mark¡¯s organization, human or Adumbrae, including the asshole Mark himself.

    Vanessa didn¡¯t take issue with Black Spade¡¯s raised voice or how he addressed her, unlike other Adumbrae primadonnas who thought of themselves as demigods. She calmly answered, ¡°I¡¯m certain of it. I was there that night, the same night the BID raided Eve. In the end, the BID decided to¡ª¡±

    ¡°To overload their Greaves Reactors to bring the whole place down,¡± Black Spade completed through gritted teeth. ¡°Yeah, yeah, everyone knows that.¡±

    Only the top BID people had Greaves Reactors¡ªthe top of the fricking top. And they couldn¡¯t get rid of one Adumbrae! One! It spoke of how big a headache this giant doggy was that the BID caused a mini-nuke explosion under a densely populated city, killing dozens as collateral damage, in a desperate bid to kill it¡ªwhich failed.

    How in the Mother Core¡¯s ass did this overgrown mutt get here?

    Black Spade swept away the dead body slumped over the controls. His fingers flew over the keys slick with red blood, operating the security cameras. It wasn¡¯t as if he was utterly clueless about what to do. There was Plan CF for when their base was completely fucked, and they had to abandon it. Black Spade hoped it wouldn¡¯t come to that, but if it did, they¡¯d evacuate and save as much as possible.

    ¡°Geely, can you hear me? Plan CF, got it?¡± Black Spade called his men on the intercoms, instructing them what to do.

    ¡°Sir, what about the hostages and those smelly¡ª¡±

    ¡°Are those part of Plan CF? Huh? Do you want me to Plan CF again while our base is fucked doggy style?¡±

    ¡°No, sir! I¡¯ll get right on it!¡±

    ¡°You do that.¡± Black Spade paused for a few seconds, chewing his tongue while pondering the Supplier¡¯s reaction. March Hare was meeting the Supplier right now. But what could they do in this situation? Available information indicated that they couldn¡¯t stop the giant doggy. Black Spade might be eccentric, but he wasn¡¯t delusional.

    Next order on the menu was buying as much time as possible for Plan CF.

    ¡°Excavation team?¡± Black Spade checked if he was broadcasted on the correct speaker. ¡°Wake up, you idiots!¡±

    ¡°Sir, reporting here, sir!¡± replied the foreman of the workers for base expansion. ¡°The alarms and shit, we dun¡¯ know¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut up and listen to me,¡± Black Spade barked at the microphone. ¡°Set up demolition charges along tunnels TA-1 to TA-3C. We¡¯re going to cut off Sector A.¡±

    ¡°Dun¡¯ think we have enough explosives, sir. The construction needs¡ª¡±

    ¡°Fuck the construction! Transfer the demolition charges to TA-1 up to TA-3C, got it? If that¡¯s not enough, use your eyes to look for more. You¡¯re not a child. Take the initiative. How long you reckon it¡¯ll take?¡±

    ¡°About an hour?¡±

    ¡°Wrong answer!¡±

    ¡°Uh, forty¡ª¡±

    ¡°You have twenty minutes. Don¡¯t need anything fancy. After running the lines, dump all other explosives there.¡±

    Collapsing Sector A on top of the giant doggy might be enough to delay it, though doggies were known for being good diggers. It had to do! Twenty minutes¡­ Black Spade knew the store that sells twenty minutes. The problem was that the only currency accepted was lives, which was okay with him so long as it wasn¡¯t his own.

    ¡°You see that giant doggy?¡± Black Spade called the head of the mercenaries guarding the base. Technically, the man Black Spade was talking to was already the third in the line of command, the previous two heads already in the doggy¡¯s stomach. ¡°Bait it into Storage A-1! Do whatever you can!¡±

    Black Spade then directed the formation of defenses at Storage A-1, calling up everything they could muster on short notice¡ªthe Eights Squad, their augmented spider team, their activated combat drones, and even the prototype electroshock cylocannons. But these weren¡¯t enough to buy twenty minutes at the store.

    He dialed up the discount coupons.

    ¡°Hardy? Hardy?¡± Static replied. Black Spade frowned. Hardy, the hairy, serial chest displayer, should be somewhere in their base. Did that musclehead go ahead and stupidly die on his own? If only Red Head were here¡ªthe short-tempered, animalistic Adumbrae was trustworthy in comparison. ¡°Hardy, you idiot! Are you there?¡±

    ¡°BS, relax,¡± Hardy finally replied. ¡°I know what¡¯s going on. And don¡¯t ya¡¯ call me an idiot, ya¡¯ magenta-wearing peacock bullshit!¡±

    Black Spade held a clenched metal fist over the coms but exerted enough self-control not to smash it. It wasn¡¯t the time for a tantrum. ¡°Hardy, you need to head over to Storage A-1. We¡¯ll draw the enemy there. If everyone works together¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll get Renais, and we¡¯ll break that enemy to pieces, alrighty!¡±

    ¡°No, listen to me! You should head¡ª¡±

    ¡°Sit tight, BS. Let the big boys deal with this, yeah?¡± And then there was static.

    ¡°The exact opposite of splendid!¡± Black Spade dramatically cried out, raising his hands to the heavens. ¡°Do Adumbrae get pea-brains filled with concentrated ego after losing their humanity?¡± He looked over his shoulder. ¡°Not you, Vanessa, dear. You¡¯ve been an absolute darling, the nicest of the bunch I¡¯ve met.¡±

    ¡°Uh, thanks?¡± Vanessa was strangely calm. ¡°What do we do next? Should we escape? What¡¯s that plan you were mentioning?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll escape later,¡± Black Spade said. ¡°Before that, we need to find the helpers of our doggy friend. A dog can¡¯t get in the house unless somebody lets it in.¡±

    From the giant doggy pissing their base to destruction, the main screen changed to show captives escaping their cages. Finlay¡¯s poor-quality wares, supposed to be on guard duty, were failing the guarding part. A short but well-built man smashed them to bits, unfazed by the bullets riddling his body. Only after he destroyed the last clay puppet did he drop to his knees, blood pooling beneath him.

    ¡°What do we have here?¡± Black Spade mumbled.

    He crawled to a woman lying on the ground¡ªprobably dead, caught by the earlier crossfire¡ªand laid his hands on her. It wasn¡¯t clear from the camera¡¯s angle, but the woman¡¯s body appeared to shrivel, her clothes flattening. Then the man stood up, instantly well again. Not a human.

    Sucking up flesh and bone¡ªBlack Spade had seen that ability in action before. ¡°Those blasted clowns are here!¡± he furiously pointed at the screen.

    ¡°Do you know this person?¡± Vanessa asked.

    ¡°He and his buddies attacked us before,¡± Black Spade said. He briefly explained his suspicions that rivals of the Supplier sent them. These clowns went after the Mad Hatter, at the same time leaking the location to the BID. A three-way fight ensued, resulting in Mad Hatter¡¯s death. ¡°If we¡¯re going to get technical, our old boss killed himself not to get captured, though they were the ultimate cause of it.¡±

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°Is he with the werewolf Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°You tell me!¡± Black Spade said.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen him before. The werewolf was alone when¡­ he¡­ when he attacked Eve.¡±

    ¡°Bah! Doesn¡¯t matter if they¡¯re allies or they just led the stray doggy here.¡± Black Spade returned to scanning the cameras. ¡°There should be other clowns crawling around. That man came from the cages. He stayed there, blending with other hostages until somebody released them. The same somebody who killed my men¡±¡ªhe gestured to the violently mauled corpses in the control room¡ª¡°and took Legba too. Did you see who it was?¡±

    ¡°A blonde woman,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°She ran away after I came across them. I had no clue what was happening with the blaring alarms, so I decided to protect Legba instead of chasing her. We can ask Legba.¡±

    ¡°Not worth the bother. Haven¡¯t seen that antique prune do anything besides wave his bell.¡± A sliver of Black Spade¡¯s mind distrusted Legba. With teleportation powers, the midget old man could¡¯ve been the way the doggy entered their base. Black Spade should be careful not to let his suspicion show.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure of the blonde woman part,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°She¡¯s quite tall, uh, long hair, and¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know who you¡¯re talking about,¡± Black Spade said. The metal lady at the convention center who ruined Plan A had a blonde friend tagging along. He stopped scrolling through the camera feeds, zeroing in on a woman tearing electrical wirings in the power room. A couple of dead guys with smashed heads were at her feet.

    ¡°That¡¯s her!¡± Vanessa said.

    ¡°So many clowns clowning around,¡± Black Spade grumbled. ¡°We need a clown-repellant spray.¡± This was the same woman who fought Red Head. She survived. On the other hand, where was Red Head? The last time Black Spade saw Red Head was before the explosions preceding the police assault on the Greaves convention center.

    If blondie was here, did that mean Red Head was dead? Blondie was like darling Vanessa over here¡ªno longer human. Black Spade twirled his mustache. He rarely did this because it felt too clich¨¦, though it calmed him down and helped him concentrate.

    Priorities, priorities¡­ They had to delay the giant doggy. They also had to stop the two superhumans from wreaking havoc while evacuations were ongoing. Blondie released only the hostages, not the monsters¡ªshe wasn¡¯t using the hostages as a distraction but intended to save them. So why was she working with the giant doggy?

    A destroyed base meant dead hostages.

    Were they not working together?

    That didn¡¯t matter. One thing was certain¡ªthey had to direct all their troops to tame the giant doggy. As for blondie and her friend, as much as Black Spade wanted revenge on them for Mad Hatter¡¯s death, now wasn¡¯t the time. Black Spade had to neutralize them somehow without diverting their forces.

    If you clowns want to save people that much, I¡¯ll make your dreams come true. Black Spade released the monsters created by the stinky slugs.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Vanessa said.

    ¡°Distracting our enemies,¡± Black Spade. ¡°We¡¯re going to lose everything here anyway.¡±

    ¡°Yow, Sleeveless Magenta,¡± said a bored voice behind them. ¡°What¡¯s going¡ª? Oh, looks like a bad time.¡± Euphonia was by the doorway, clicking her mechanical claws.

    ¡°For the last time, the name¡¯s Black Spade.¡± He narrowed his eyes. Could he trust her? No. But did she have a part in this mess? That was a different question. ¡°Also, yes, this is a bad time.¡±

    ¡°You should wear something black to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Black Spade!¡± Crocker shoved Euphonia out of the way and rushed to the monitors. ¡°What the hell¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°Hell is going on right now,¡± he said, gesturing to the videos of the ongoing battles in their base. ¡°We have to evacuate. Plan CF. We¡¯re now shifting to delaying tactics¡ª¡±

    ¡°No! We¡¯re not leaving this place!¡±

    ¡°Are you going to fight this thing?¡± Black Spade enlarged the video feed of the giant doggy entering Storage A-1. ¡°Be my guest. If you lose, I¡¯ll have everything prepared.¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s Renais and Hardy?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re going to pet the mutt. You¡¯re welcome to join them.¡± All these self-entitled, nose-in-the-air, elitist twats who thought they were better than humans could all die together. What if he buried Crocker along with the doggy?

    ¡°You¡¯re going to come with us.¡± Crocker grabbed his arm.

    ¡°What? I¡¯m going to direct the evacuation!¡± Black Spade tried to pull away.

    The tattoos on Crocker¡¯s arm began to glow an angry red. ¡°You¡¯re going to direct squat!¡± she said. ¡°Everyone¡¯s going to fight, that¡¯s what I say.¡±

    ¡°March Hare put me in charge,¡± Black Spade countered, trying to sound calm despite the anger inside him.

    ¡°Look what¡¯s fucking happening with you in charge.¡±

    ¡°You bitch¡­¡± He thought of activating the electroshock weapon in his arm. But, assuming he¡¯d win, disabling Crocker meant one less body to throw at the doggy. No, he shouldn¡¯t fight. He was going with her and stroke her ego so she¡¯d jump in, thinking she had a chance of winning. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll go with you.¡±

    ¡°Everyone¡¯s coming with me!¡± Crocker barked.

    ¡°I¡¯m not included in that ¡®everyone,¡¯¡± Euphonia said. ¡°I¡¯ll sit right here and enjoy the show.¡±

    ¡°You traitor¡ª¡±

    ¡°Traitor? Our agreement was limited to the Greaves convention center.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll pay you! Name your price.¡±

    ¡°No, thank you. I had a long night.¡± Euphonia¡¯s eyes glowed red, hinting a dare at Crocker to strike first.

    Crocker grunted in resignation. She looked at Legba. The old man hadn¡¯t moved an inch since Vanessa placed him on a chair. Crocker shook her head. Next, she turned to Vanessa. ¡°How about you, pretty girl? Going to fight or hang back?¡±

    Black Spade raised a brow. Vanessa would surely refuse. She knew how strong their enemy was and wanted to stay as far as possible. Mark¡¯s people would also love to see the Tea Party destroyed. That dratted Finlay must¡¯ve already left them.

    But Black Spade was wrong with his assumption of Vanessa.

    ¡°I¡¯m going,¡± she said. ¡°I want to see this Adumbrae again.¡±

    <hr>

    Vanessa Minnows

    Is this still Erind?

    A mountain of muscle and fur emerged through the clouds of dust from a tunnel that collapsed, shrugging off slabs of rocks. ¡°HRWAOOORH!¡± The mighty roar made Vanessa and the others involuntarily step back.

    Vanessa felt the hair behind her neck stand. Her heart pounded like she had a caffeine high. The mouth familiars living inside her right arm chattered and stirred, banging against the metal bands keeping them in place. Vanessa breathed slowly and tried to calm herself. If she got agitated, her familiars became rabid.

    She focused on Erind, the giant werewolf.

    Erind chased the combat drones rolling away. Vanessa noticed Erind had a lopsided gait¡ªher left hindleg was a bloody ice-covered stump. This must be Renais¡¯ handiwork. Vanessa didn¡¯t know anything about Renais other than she had ice powers.

    ¡°Renais got the wolf!¡± Crocker cheered. ¡°She told me her powers could stop an Adumbrae¡¯s regeneration. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen it in action.¡±

    ¡°Got?¡± Black Spade said. ¡°Can barely consider that as ¡®got.¡¯ Where¡¯s Renais anyway?¡±

    ¡°Huh, I don¡¯t know. She should be here¡­¡±

    ¡°But she¡¯s not,¡± Black Spade said, his grim tone echoing what they were all thinking. ¡°I know where Hardy is.¡±

    ¡°Help! Help!¡± A hoarse voice pleaded through the drone of gunfire and strings of explosions. ¡°Help me!¡±

    Vanessa noticed only now that Erind had captured Hardy. His head poked up the side of Erind¡¯s car-sized fist. Hardy was still alive, screaming as blood gushed from his mouth and nose. Erind brought Hardy to her mouth, opened her hand, and munched.

    ¡°Yearggh!¡± Hardy yelled. ¡°Just fucking kill me!¡±

    Vanessa couldn¡¯t take it. She placed her hands on her ears and turned away.

    Through her familiar, Vanessa had seen Erind¡¯s colossal werewolf form eat people at Eve¡¯s underground arena, but she couldn¡¯t handle seeing it with her own eyes.

    Brutal. Terrifying. Different from Erind in her original body. This must be the Adumbrae taking over whenever she transformed.

    Or¡­ this was Erind¡¯s true self all along.

    In that case, Vanessa must accept it. She and Erind were the same. They were monsters. No reason to pretend they were still humans. Vanessa took a deep breath and faced Erind, half hoping she was done eating.

    ¡°Hardy¡¯s still alive!¡± Crocker said.

    Erind lowered her hand, still holding Hardy¡¯s body. He continued screaming for help.

    ¡°The mutt isn¡¯t finishing him off,¡± Black Spade said. ¡°But why? Hey¡­ the frozen leg! It¡¯s regrowing its leg! You said Renais can stop regeneration?¡±

    ¡°It-it must¡¯ve worn off,¡± Crocker stammered.

    ¡°Must be connected with Hardy and why the mutt isn¡¯t swallowing him whole,¡± Black Spade said. ¡°We should figure out the powers of our enemy first before¡ª¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going to attack!¡± Crocker said. ¡°Order the drones to soften up the werewolf.¡±

    ¡°Will you be able to take it on?¡± Black Spade asked. ¡°Hardy¡¯s down for the count. I¡¯m not sure how much stronger you are compared to¡ª¡±

    ¡°I can do it,¡± Crocker smugly said. ¡°But we¡¯ll save Hardy first. Vanessa, you attack from the left. I go from the right. Black Spade, you aim for the wrist of the hand holding Hardy. Got it?¡±

    Vanessa nodded as she unlocked the metal bands on her right arm. She didn¡¯t know why she was doing this, but she wanted to¡­ hurt Erind¡­ even for a bit.

    Erind wouldn¡¯t mind, would she? After all, Vanessa pretended she was on the Tea Party¡¯s side.

    Just a tiny bite.

    Crocker¡¯s tattoos came to life as tendrils of fire. ¡°Let¡¯s fucking go!¡±

 5.47

    Itchy, itchy, fucking itchy! I growled, scratching my arm. A tiny missile exploded and slapped my left cheek. Never mind that or the stream of lead the metal cockroaches pissed at me. Vanessa¡¯s stupid gnats gnawing on my arm were the most annoying!

    Gnawing on my arm and in my arm.

    Those raisins were easy to spot in my sea of fur¡ªthere was a tiny bald spot around each one. They sheared off my crimson hair with their piranha-like teeth before trying to penetrate my thick skin. My senses had improved to such a degree that I could count the veiny ridges lining their bodies and isolate their gibberish babbling from all the noises around.

    Maybe they were actually saying something. Didn¡¯t care.

    Despite the mouth familiar¡¯s best efforts at chomping my fur and hide, depositing the tiny chunks they consumed into some mysterious dimensions¡ªthey certainly weren¡¯t pooping them out¡ªmost of them barely harmed me. Only the biggest and most determined of Vanessa¡¯s angry raisins successfully drilled through my skin and burrowed into my flesh¡ªthese were the annoying ones.

    Like a pebble in a shoe, the itch was barely noticeable until I noticed it.

    And then I couldn¡¯t unnotice it.

    ¡°Grrrrooargh¡­ hroaarrr?¡± Where are you, Vanessa? I stomped forward, flattening the drones scampering on the floor. Disappointing. They didn¡¯t explode.

    Everything should explode! That was how it worked in movies!

    My ears twitched.

    ¡°This¡­ for Hardy!¡± The tattooed muscle bitch who looked too chewy was back from I couldn¡¯t remember where I swatted her away. She rocketed through the air, flame serpents swirling around her like a ribbon dance routine. Flying was pretty cool, but she was just a glorified firefly. ¡°Burn, you dog!¡± Fire Tattoo cracked the flaming snakes like a whip, sending arcs of fire at me.

    I raised my arm infested with the mouth familiars. Fierce flames turned my lush fur to ash. The stubborn raisins remained¡ªfucking warts on my burnt skin. And the fire definitely didn¡¯t do anything to the raisins buried in my flesh. I didn¡¯t know how to get them out.

    ¡°GRRAAORGH!¡± Fucking idiot Vanessa! She complicated things by joining the fight!

    Did she betray me? Too late for that; I was already turning their base upside down. More likely, she didn¡¯t want her cover blown, so she joined the Tea Party attacking me. Obviously, she didn¡¯t know my powers made me want to use her bones as a toothpick. Annoying!

    ¡°How¡­ that? You¡­ colossal mutt?¡± were the only words I heard from Fire Tattoo. She landed and materialized another creature of fire from her tattoos¡ªa bull was what it looked like, with oversized horns and a flat face. ¡°¡­ gonna¡­ you!¡±

    Unlike my sense of sight and smell, it was much harder to discern words. I could hear minute movements, a prey¡¯s frightened heartbeat, squeals and groans of pain, but my predator side didn¡¯t care for what weaklings had to say. I could focus on understanding words. But my Erind part also didn¡¯t want to¡ªthat was boring.

    I raised my snout, detecting a tempting scent. The void in my stomach called for food.

    On a metal bridge ringing the upper wall of the cavern, there stood Vanessa, hiding behind a magenta-colored weirdo. Magenta Cannon¡ªfor the ends of his metal arms opened into shooty thingies¡ªfrantically barked at Vanessa. This time, I concentrated on his voice.

    ¡°¡ªdistract this giant mutt!¡± he shouted. ¡°We need more time!¡±

    Time for what? Whatever their plans may be, nothing could stop me! Insert twirling mustache villain moment. Magenta Cannon had a funny mustache¡ªI¡¯ll let his insult pass because he looked funny. And he didn¡¯t look appetizing at all.

    ¡°Go left,¡± he told Vanessa. ¡°Let¡¯s play tag with this stupid dog.¡±

    ¡°Got it!¡± Vanessa traversed the bridge to the other side of the cavern.

    Since Mom was safe, I had time to play with these ants. What were they planning? Did they want to fail? Overwhelming power surged through my pumped muscles. Indestructible and immortal. I welcomed them to throw everything they had at me.

    Despair. I¡¯d like to see it on their faces to study that elusive emotion. Funny seeing people despair. Curious too. I didn¡¯t need to understand normal human emotions to get why people despaired when up against a giant werewolf Adumbrae.

    But what did that feel like?

    I turned to Vanessa. Sure, I¡¯ll play catch¡­ my friend. Her heart pounded faster. Her stomach grumbled. I could hear everything. She covered her mouth as she ran, violently coughing and gagging. I could see individual globules of tears pooling on the sides of her eyes.

    Didn¡¯t Vanessa mention she could taste whatever her mouth familiars ate? My memory of the night at Eve was fuzzy. She could¡¯ve been talking about her eye familiars¡ªshe could see what they saw. If it worked the same for the mouth counterparts, I¡¯d understand why she struggled to hold back a puke. I¡¯d imagine my werewolf flesh didn¡¯t taste good at all.

    Was this punishment enough for Rule #4? She seemed to be suffering, and that made me smile. I pulled back my lips and bared my fangs; a wolf couldn¡¯t really smile. After what I did to her at Eve, maybe I should allow her a few hits in? Like in the movies, enemies offered a free punch before becoming allies.

    However, my Blanchette werewolf part didn¡¯t agree with that.

    ¡°Roooagrh!¡± Just a bite! Prey that dared fight back, prey that hurt me¡ªthey were food. All food. Vanessa was food. A taste might lessen Blanchette¡¯s hunger. Bothersome trying to rein in it. A leg, an arm. Both? Vanessa shouldn¡¯t mind. She could regenerate it.

    ¡°Get your bone, doggy! Face here!¡± Magenta Cannon aimed for my eyes, trying to get my attention.

    I didn¡¯t pay him any mind. My senses homed in on Vanessa. The more the raisin ticks nibbled my flesh, the more I wanted to eat her in retribution. My stomach grumbled with hunger, sticky drool streamed through my fangs, and feral instincts to feed on prey jostled my Erind consciousness away from the driver¡¯s seat.

    And I let it.

    Vanessa zoomed across the walkway and swung over the railings, dropping to a lower and wider bridge. I loomed over her and chomped the metalworks, intentionally letting her escape a split-second before my fangs clamped shut. Fear. I could smell it from her. Fun, fun, fun!

    Weird sensation in my mouth. Raisins. Vanessa must¡¯ve chucked them inside when I bit down.

    I swished my tongue around like trying to get a stuck fishbone. I scooped the angry raisins to my teeth and ground them. Vanessa staggered, the slits on her right arm spewing blood. Smelled sweet. Holding her bleeding arm, she zoomed up a staircase, going over several steps with each stride and climbing onto another bridge that ran straight over the gap of the cavern.

    A small door was at the end¡ªher goal. I should let her go¡ªI had enough presence of mind not to kill her¡ªbut not before messing with her a bit more.

    I buried my claws into the ground, breaking slabs of concrete flooring. I scooped rubble and flung it at Vanessa. Covering her head, she ducked to avoid the debris. Big ones hit the walkway, knocking out the supports beneath. She managed to leap across the yawning gap and continue her escape.

    I hurled another handful of rocks at her. With my hand the size of a car, it was more of an avalanche.

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    She screamed in terror. Music to my ears. She was saying stop or something.

    Why stop? Playtime was just getting started.

    I could pretend this was the werewolf¡¯s mind at work. But no. A predator wouldn¡¯t play with food. I could catch Vanessa and throw her into my mouth right now. This was me, Erind¡ªwith maybe a touch of Blanchette¡¯s wildness tearing down my usual controlled predisposition¡ªbeing a sadistic bitch.

    Sadistic¡ªmy Mom used that word once when she caught me playing with insects as a child. I pestered her about what that meant, and she never repeated it. Seeing people so tiny in comparison to me, insects really, I thought this was the best way to distract my Blanchette part from the hunger.

    Run, Vanessa, run!

    Magenta Cannon and Fire Tattoo kept up their attacks to draw me away from Vanessa.

    My left eye stung, it burned, and it was fine again. Pokes on my flank. The fire bull slammed against me¡ªa tiny hammer, a tiny pointy hammer. These two were next on the menu. Or maybe not. They scarcely hurt me, so I didn¡¯t care for them.

    Ice Woman and Hammer Man did a much better job than these two. However, comparing them might not be fair as I was much weaker minutes ago. Eating Ice Woman and Hammer Man fueled my growth spurt to become a building of muscle and fur¡ªthose two were super dumb fighting me in a cramped tunnel. So easy to catch them, especially Ice Woman, who wanted to get close to my face even though she could fly and rain ice from afar.

    Dumb, dumb, dumb.

    Vanessa was near the door. I reached out to stop her, my hand a big rig slamming against the wall, blocking her way. She jumped down as I flattened the bridge. Claws out, I raked sideways, shredding the door and bringing down rocks on the opening.

    Vanessa landed on the ground. My shadows¡ªmultiple of them cast by the raging fires¡ªcovered her and the entire floor. She picked herself up. Terror filled her eyes. The scent of fear wafted up my nostrils.

    Despair? Was this it?

    Itchy. Itchy! Fucking itchier!

    The mouth familiars inside my arm went insane as Vanessa¡¯s heartbeat thundered. Right, her emotions affected them. They wanted to protect her by hurting me¡ªthat was going as well as a guy with a spoon trying to bring down a building. But fuck, it was so itchy!

    ¡°GRROARRGH!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m on your side! I¡¯m on your side!¡± Vanessa shouted¡ªshrieked was the better term¡ªnot caring who heard her. She likely thought I had lost myself to the Adumbrae inside me. ¡°Erind! Remember¡ª"

    I roared to cover her voice.

    She turned tail and headed to the main exit of the cavern. A fairly large door, but I doubted if I could fit through it. Digging required. I went after her, intentionally lagging, throwing a swipe or two to give her some exercise. Would be fun if I snagged a limb¡ªblood, fun, blood, fun.

    My arm itched like hell. Not fun, not fun!

    ¡°Don¡¯t go that way, Vanessa!¡± Magenta Cannon had jumped down to the floor as well. He didn¡¯t dare come near, hiding behind an overturned forklift while taking potshots at me. ¡°They¡¯re coming from there!¡±

    Who¡¯s coming?

    An intrusive scent was in the air. Something familiar. But I couldn¡¯t focus because the raisins inside my arm were bugging me!

    ¡°HROOOAR!¡± I munched on my arm, biting off the portion where the mouth familiars had invaded¡ªpain, pain, pain, but also instant relief from the itchiness. I quickly chewed my flesh along with the raisins before they could start burrowing inside my mouth.

    More blood spurted out of Vanessa¡¯s arm. She veered left toward Magenta Cannon. Fire Tattoo headed me off, sending a whole zoo of fire summons at me. I didn¡¯t move as a blazing rhino bumped my hairy butt.

    Hmmm¡­ weird. My hunger was partially alleviated.

    The raisins were part of Vanessa! They were eating me, and I ate them. Still, they were Vanessa¡¯s body. The absurdity of the situation made me giggle while watching Vanessa and Magenta Cannon escape through a utility hole previously hidden by heavy creates.

    I made no move to stop them, satisfied with terrorizing and hurting Vanessa. I wasn¡¯t hungry for Magenta Cannon; he didn¡¯t hurt me enough. He also had plenty of inedible parts. Annoying. I was content to sit on my haunches and wait for the next wave of enemies.

    Their thick scent permeated the air.

    Movement caught my eye. Fire Tattoo headed for the open utility hole. She was still around? I was mulling whether to catch her when a sudden blast threw her against a pillar. A stray explosive?

    That means you¡¯re unlucky, I thought as I grabbed her. She struggled between my index finger and thumb, yelling boring stuff. An Adumbrae brain. Better not let it go to waste. I tossed her into my mouth. Hot and smoky. She must be using her powers. After a couple of seconds of chewing, I swallowed her.

    Then I got up on all fours, towering in the middle of a spacious cavern. If I stood straight on my hind legs like a human, my head would bump into the ceiling. Like the thunder of an approaching storm, the noises of my next meal arrived after the scent¡ªparasite monsters.

    Not that they were making any sound specific to them. Just generic monster stuff.

    The Tea Party must¡¯ve released them in a last-bid attempt to stop me.

    More food. Most of my Erind part sunk to the depths of my mind, deciding to sit this one out. In my current form, I wasn¡¯t disgusted by the thought of eating parasite monsters. And their scent? Didn¡¯t bother me at all. Overpowering and pungent, but I had eaten worse. Frankly, it wasn¡¯t that bad. There was a hint of sweetness mixed in¡­ like candy.

    Cotton candy?

    My ears prickled. As the din of the monster horde grew louder, a lone female voice stood out. Upon hearing it, my Erind consciousness came to the surface, pushing away the feral instincts of werewolf Blanchette.

    ¡°Erind! Erind!¡± Deen called. I tilted my head, my ears moving to catch her voice better. ¡°Erind, where are you?¡±

    ¡°Ghooorggh...¡± I forgot about my best friend¡­ Awkward. How did she know I was here? Did Vanessa tell her?

    A blonde woman came running into the door, her hair, clothes, and skin coated by dried red blood and black slime. She gasped when she saw me, almost tangling her feet as she stopped. Gazing upward, she exclaimed, ¡°Erind! You¡¯re here! I was right that they were talking about you!¡± She looked over her shoulder.

    Shadows peaked at the corridor. Parasite monsters were near. Deen hurried to me, jumping over my claws and latched onto my fur. She scaled my arm¡ªor foreleg, whichever was which.

    ¡°I hope it¡¯s you in control, Erind,¡± she said. ¡°Gabe is telling me to go to you, so it probably is you.¡±

    I growled in response. I wondered how she was going to interpret that.

    ¡°I overheard Tea Party people talking about a giant werewolf with red fur,¡± Deen shouted from somewhere below. ¡°It had to be you; I can feel it. Erind, listen to me. They¡¯re planning to kill you. I couldn¡¯t let that happen, so I tried to find you. If we¡¯re together, Gabe will also protect you.¡±

    Parasite monsters of all shapes and sizes rounded the doorway, tumbling into the cavern in a wave of mutated flesh. I roared and swiped the front row, scooping a bunch and bringing them to my mouth. Deen took the chance to leap from my hand to face while I munched the monsters.

    ¡°You must be wondering how I got here.¡± She clambered across my forehead, pulling on my fur. ¡°There was this guy who teleported us here¡ªme and Pino. A door that turned into a portal. I don¡¯t know where Pino went, and I don¡¯t really understand what happened. Did the same thing happen to you?¡±

    How the fuck am I supposed to answer that? I didn¡¯t know sign language.

    Did she expect me to scratch words on the floor? That option wasn¡¯t possible because the floor was parasite monsters right now. They crowded around like it was grade school, and I opened a bag of candies. None were strong enough to hurt me. I forced myself to eat them, ingesting their powers as offerings for SpookyErind.

    Deen clung to the back of my ear and loudly spoke, ¡°That man was looking for you. Did he find you?¡±

    I nodded. She hung on my ear as I bent down and then scrambled back up as I straightened my head to continue eating.

    ¡°So that¡¯s how you got here.¡± Deen clung tighter to my fur. Her heart was beating fast. ¡°Your mom¡­¡± she whispered. ¡°Anyway, there¡¯s something I have to tell you,¡± she hastily changed in almost a shout.

    This bitch was glossing over Mom. She probably thought Mom was one of these monsters, and we had no way of saving her. Deen wanted to hide that ¡®fact¡¯ until we were out of this place. She didn¡¯t know Mom was already safe. I was going to play dumb and blame Deen later.

    The thought of emotionally abusing Deen excited me. I consumed the parasite monsters faster, bending down to the ground and chomping them left and right.

    ¡°I came across several men setting up explosives.¡± Deen dangled from my ear like an earring as I ravenously gulped down parasite monsters. ¡°They¡¯re going to blow up the tunnels to bury you! I, uh, asked them.¡± There was something in the way she said that last sentence that made me think there was more involved in her ¡®asking.¡¯

    I listened with only half an ear while picking up running food. The parasite monsters, like those I met in the basement of the convention center, sensed they were up against something they couldn¡¯t consume and reversed directions, fleeing from me. I¡¯m at the top of the food chain here!

    Deen continued, ¡°Erind, we have to get out of here! Follow my directions, okay?¡±

    KABOOM! BO-BOOM! The string of explosions continued, and the floor quaked.

    ¡°ERIND HARTWELL!¡± Deen shouted with all her mouth. ¡°Turn around and enter that tunnel over there!¡±

 5.48

    Such a bossy bitch, I growled. Disturbing my meal. Just because Deen could see the future didn¡¯t mean everyone had to bend to her will. Makes me want to not move. That¡¯d teach her. I continued munching parasite monsters.

    Stronger explosions. More quaking. Rocks and dust falling. A few parasite monsters remained; most had scattered. An annoying blonde pest yelling in my ear. She pulled on my fur to get my attention. Itchy, itchy, itchy.

    My meal was already ruined. Fine, I¡¯ll do what she says.

    I headed to the tunnel behind me, picking up items Deen pointed out along the way like we were shopping. I say ¡®items,¡¯ but they were more of heavy machinery and construction materials. All the while, rocks fell on my back and head. Too bad they didn¡¯t hit Deen. I shook my head, trying to catch more rocks.

    ¡°Erind, hurry!¡± Deen climbed down my cheeks to be safer. ¡°We don¡¯t have much time!¡±

    Shopping done. I had a small backhoe between my jaws, sections of reinforced concrete columns in my left hand, and a few long steel girders in my right. I hadn¡¯t really looked at this place, but it seemed the Tea Party was busy with construction. Sore losers destroying their stuff to get me. Their efforts would go to waste.

    Both in making this place and trying to kill me.

    I crawled through the tunnel, stacking my loot and pushing them with my head.

    Was this going to be safe? I enlarged this tunnel when I passed here earlier. I supposed it was less dangerous if we hid in a cramped space than staying in the open cavern if shit collapsed.

    ¡°Forward! Forward!¡± Deen continued to yell. ¡°Place one steel beam here, propping the ceiling.¡±

    Going to be a tight squeeze, but okay. I did as she instructed. She told me to do other things, like pushing a concrete column against a rock slab we passed. It irked me to obey Deen, but this was no time for me to be a spiteful bitch. Just remember she doesn¡¯t know that Mom is safe, I reminded myself to pacify petty Erind.

    Going to be so much fun blaming Deen for losing Mom.

    Bonus points if I could make her cry.

    Several seconds of furious crawling later, the tunnel opened up into a wider area. A few lightbulbs still worked. Surprising. This was an intersection if I wasn¡¯t mistaken. Just that I covered the side tunnels with rubble as I passed.

    ¡°Put that yellow scoop machine there.¡±

    The backhoe? I stacked the rest of the ¡®items¡¯ I brought in various places according to Deen¡¯s interior decorating plan. She pulled my fur whenever she wanted me to do something.

    ¡°Last girder over there,¡± Deen said. ¡°Place it diagonally against the ceiling.¡±

    What now?

    Strings of louder blasts. Close to us. Getting closer. Crashes of heavy objects. Everything shook so much that Deen wildly swung from the bottom of my ear like a dangling earring. Very itchy with her pulling my fur. Dust rolled through the tunnel¡ªthe cavern on the other side was collapsing. Dust and smoke.

    I plucked Deen from my ear and protected her with cupped hands near my chest.

    I curled next to a pile of rocks flanked by columns of reinforced concrete and steel girders. Clouds of dust covered me, obscuring my vision and clogging my nostrils. I cleared my nose with a mighty snort and blasted away the dust. Then I took a deep breath before bowing down, my chin to my chest, right above my hands.

    It turned dark as the earth covered me.

    Was this the second time I got buried? Third? I should find better activities.

    I sang in my head as the world turned upside down. This was one of the songs Deen played while we drove through the desert. Deen sounded like she was praying inside my hands.

    Half a minute later, the blasts stopped.

    The earth was calm. No more explosions but plenty of other noises. Creaks of bending steel, rocks grinding against each other, pebbles rolling. And then it turned silent except for Deen¡¯s and my breathing.

    Everything had settled. Boulders pressed on my head and back. Heavy. Couldn¡¯t crush me.

    I opened my eyes and raised my head. Rocks shifted. Some rolled down the sides of my neck and head.

    What the¡ª? Piercing through utter darkness, I realized the rocks and concrete conveniently broke and fell in such a neat way that there was a sort of crude hole in front of me. Beyond that, there were plenty of gaps in the rubble. Our way back was going to be easy. That Guardian Angel¡­

    Deen pried my fingers apart. My werewolf mind was calm¡ªprobably the same as a dog inside a covered crate¡ªso my Erind self was more or less in control. No urge to eat Deen. But, like Vanessa, I wanted to mess around with Deen. I thought of closing my palms like those trap walls in movies that squished people.

    Nah. She came looking for me. I didn¡¯t need any saving, though I appreciated the gesture. I opened my hands and let her go.

    A slight pang of regret in my heart. That¡¯s the closest chance I got to kill her. No way her Guardian Angel could save her if I¡ªhang on. Deen could do that bullshit she did back at Eve to snap me out of my frenzy. Touch¨¦, Guardian Angel, I thought. Deen wasn¡¯t in any danger all this time.

    ¡°Erind, are you okay? I can¡¯t see much.¡± Deen climbed over my palms and felt around my face. She touched my nose. I wanted to sneeze. She rubbed it like I was a dog. ¡°Are you hurt anywhere?¡±

    Uh, the earth just fell on me? Stupid question. I raised a thumb up and slowly nodded.

    Feeling it move in the darkness, Deen hugged my thumb. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re trying to hide your injuries from me. Thank you for saving me. I¡¯m sorry I got you into this mess. If only we had caught the guy with the teleporting doors, you wouldn¡¯t have been dragged here. Pino and I¡ªOh, you don¡¯t know Pino. I forgot.¡±

    I growled, trying to make it sound as unthreatening as possible.

    ¡°Pino, she¡¯s, um, she showed up after you passed out. I even thought she was the cause of it. Maybe she was, I don¡¯t know. She¡¯s a robot, basically.¡±

    I whined in surprise. At least, that was what I intended to sound like.

    ¡°Yeah, hard to believe.¡± Deen shrugged. ¡°You have to see her to understand what she is, but I don¡¯t know where she went. Anyway, she helped us escape from the room.¡± She narrated what I had done as Pino, inserting comments about how suspicious she was of me. Her story continued until the point we parted ways, and I went to meet Vanessa. ¡°At first, I thought she was in league with the teleporting door guy and lured me here. But that doesn¡¯t make sense. They should¡¯ve restrained me if this was a trap. I don¡¯t believe Pino¡¯s story, though I don¡¯t think she¡¯s with the Tea Party.¡±

    I grunted. So annoying that I couldn¡¯t talk.

    ¡°I freed the hostages with Gabe¡¯s help,¡± Deen said. ¡°Pino was supposed to provide a distraction¡ªmaybe she did. There was some commotion earlier, way before you got here. I haven¡¯t seen her since. Then the parasites escaped their cells, and everything just got way crazier!

    ¡°Or¡­ or the Tea Party must¡¯ve released those monsters. All of them got out at the same time and attacked the people I freed. It wasn¡¯t my fault because Gabe won¡¯t let that happen. Like, they also attacked me. Yes, the Tea Party released them. I¡¯m sure of it.¡±

    Again, I grunted. It might¡¯ve been her Guardian Angel¡¯s doing. Wouldn¡¯t be the first time Deen¡¯s invisible pet sacrificed others for her benefit.

    ¡°Everyone was running everywhere,¡± she continued. ¡°I didn¡¯t know what was going on. I focused on saving a few people from the monsters. Tea Party people also attacked us. As I said, I overheard them talking about you, I mean a werewolf, which is obviously you. Gabe guided me to you.¡±

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    Is the storytelling over? She left out the part about what happened to the people she was protecting.

    Deen walked across my palm with her hands out. I moved my head closer to her. She hugged the side of my snout while laying her head on it. ¡°Erind¡­ I¡¯m sorry. You need to stay in this form a bit longer. Be strong, okay? I¡¯m proud of you for staying in control. It must be hard to keep yourself from eating me.¡±

    I snorted. I don¡¯t want to eat you. Gross.

    ¡°I¡¯m really sorry. You have to remain as a giant wolf because you¡¯re our way out.¡±

    Our? My brows furrowed

    ¡°All of us here are counting on you to save us,¡± Deen said. ¡°Me and the hostages. I-I¡¯m sure there are many still alive. There has to be.¡±

    ¡°Ghroooar grrr.¡± I¡¯m not saving anyone. I just wanted to get out of here, return to my condo, and sleep. And find Mom. Or Mom was going to find me because I had no clue where the fuck this place was. I was going to be so pissed if this was Africa or something.

    Deen smiled as she patted my nose. ¡°I knew you¡¯d help me. We¡¯re their only hope. No¡­ You¡¯re our only hope to reach the surface.¡±

    ¡°Hggrraaargh¡­¡± Fuckkkk¡­

    ¡°Thank you, Erind. I trust in you. Now, let¡¯s get out of here.¡±

    I sighed and started digging. It was going to be much harder to make a new tunnel, so I followed the passage back to the cavern with the construction stuff.

    Deen hid in the thick fur lining my throat, grasping my hair tightly as I moved earth aside with my claws. I protected her further by tucking in my chin, using my face as a shield. Deen was like a baby monkey, hanging on to her mother while they traveled from tree to tree. I should get a show on the Animal Channel¡ªThe Giant Werewolf That Lives Underground.

    It was surprisingly easy to dig my way through.

    The girders and columns I positioned as per Deen¡¯s instructions affected the collapse of the tunnel. There were parts with minimal damage despite the powerful explosions. In one place, the girder broke the ceiling as it fell into easy-to-excavate chunks of debris.

    Eventually, we reached the cavern¡ªor what once was the cavern. I recognized the markings by the exit. The stench of the parasite monsters also strengthened. I spilled fountains of black slime while snacking on them.

    ¡°Erind, wait!¡± Deen climbed back to my head.

    I bent low so she¡¯d have space. Such a considerate monster I was.

    Light came on. It shone from atop my head.

    ¡°I need to see the rocks to give instructions on how to dig,¡± Deen explained. ¡°I was going to turn on my phone earlier to check on you, but Gabe told me to save my battery. I should¡¯ve charged my phone to full before leaving your condo. My phone¡¯s battery doesn¡¯t last that long anymore.¡± She patted my head, which felt like poking with her tiny hand on my broad crown. ¡°Since we¡¯re in Vegas, might as well get the latest phone, am I right?¡± She chuckled weakly.

    She was joking not only to lighten the situation but also to make herself braver. Her heart was beating fast, and I felt the coldness of her hands. Was she afraid of the darkness? Scared of getting buried underground?

    I grunted to join her chuckling, though it did make me think about what¡¯d happen if I ran out of Blanchette¡¯s power.

    How long after I stopped eating would my transformation last? Would I stay like this until I removed the mask? I hadn¡¯t tested it. I knew it was possible to get knocked out of this transformation, like when I escaped the explosion in Eve¡¯s underground arena.

    Deen and I were both fucked if I returned to my Erind body while we were buried.

    I resumed digging again.

    ¡°Erind, head left,¡± Deen said. ¡°Don¡¯t touch that roundish boulder. Go over it.¡±

    Having Deen telling me where to go was assuring. Also comforting.

    When digging to escape the Eve explosion, I got really lucky to hit a tunnel. If fate decided to fuck me over, I could¡¯ve ended up digging deeper, losing myself underground. It sounded stupid but was very possible. I had no idea how moles knew where to go when digging; I couldn¡¯t remember what the Animal Channel mentioned about them. Just a few degrees lower of an angle, I could be digging under the tunnel instead of into it, heading for hell or something.

    Okay, I¡¯m not going to bully Deen about Mom, I promised while I dug, following her directions.

    Deen positioned herself at the top of my snout, between my eyes. She¡¯d get squished against the ceiling if she stayed on my head. With her phone¡¯s light, it was like Deen was my miner hat, that one with the flashlight on the forehead.

    There were so many boulders in our path. I squeezed under one that was almost as big as my torso. Now, I understood why the Guardian Angel didn¡¯t want us to stay here. These huge things falling from the high cavern ceiling would be painful.

    Was it the plan of the Tea Party fuckers to draw me here and crush me? Impressive if that was so. I thought they were just running away. There might be someone with a brain among them.

    These massive rocks were difficult to move. Very. Although I had immense strength in such an advanced state of my transformation¡ªI could juggle these boulders if I knew how¡ªI didn¡¯t have the leverage or space to push them. I was also pushing them against tons of earth.

    Breaking these huge things might cause a further collapse. All I could do was rely on Deen to tell me the right way. I hate depending on her!

    Dig, dig, dig. We passed by several body parts of parasite monsters. Deen coughed from the smell concentrated in such a small space.

    ¡°Oh my god, that smells awful,¡± she said. ¡°Not you, Erind. I meant those monsters¡ªno, I¡¯m not calling you a monster. You¡¯re not smelly and not a monster. That¡¯s right. That¡¯s right. Not smelly.¡± She spoke rapidly. Her breaths were shallow. Did she have a panic attack?

    I shook my head a little and focused on her. She looked over her shoulder and chuckled, seeing my cross-eyed face.

    ¡°Sorry, Erind,¡± she said. ¡°Just¡­ never mind. Gabe¡¯s telling me you should go right between those rocks down here. Push the left one, but don¡¯t move the right.¡±

    Minutes passed. Our progress was slow. Even if the Tea Party didn¡¯t kill me, they bought a lot of time for themselves. Time to do what? If I were in their shoes, I¡¯d probably escape if an unkillable Adumbrae wanted to eat me.

    I planned to destroy the Tea Party base, but I honestly didn¡¯t know how to do that other than methodically smashing everything I saw. Sounded like a fucking hassle. In action movies, there was always a convenient way to destroy the evil mastermind¡¯s base, usually a stupid self-destruct button. I doubted if the Tea Party had that. If they did, Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel would warn us¡­ right?

    Should I go along with Deen¡¯s plan to save precious innocent lives, then? I already had my fill of destruction for the night, and there wouldn¡¯t be much to destroy after this.

    ¡°Erind?¡± Deen shifted on my snout and spread her arms as if measuring something. She scooted forward, near the tip of my nose, and looked around. I took care to balance her. Then Deen turned her phone¡¯s light on me. ¡°Erind, your nose¡­ did it become smaller? I swear it was wider before. Are you¡­ are you shrinking?¡±

    My eyes widened. I focused on my nose. It was shorter. And continued to shorten!

    Was I returning to my Erind body? Could I transform to Blanchette straight after? Even if I could, I didn¡¯t have any means of growing big again.

    Unless I ate Deen.

    ¡°Don¡¯t panic, Erind,¡± Deen said. She tried to keep her voice firm, but it was wavering. ¡°Just keep digging. We¡¯ll get out, I promise. Don¡¯t panic. Gabe foresaw this.¡±

    You sure about that? How long had it been since I started digging through the collapsed cavern? Felt like longer than ten minutes. Did her stupid pet see the future that I¡¯d return to my cute and pretty self in the middle of digging? Probably not at first. But when the Guardian Angel¡¯s future sight ¡®range¡¯¡ªor whatever it was supposed to be called¡ªsaw my transformation wearing off, it told us to continue anyway.

    If this fucking piece of shit had plans to sacrifice me to save Deen, I swear I would eat Deen.

    ¡°Left here,¡± Deen said, her voice a pitch higher. ¡°Le-left¡ªno! I mean, right! Sorry, so sorry. Go right. Over this rock.¡±

    My head had shrunk to the size of Deen¡¯s body. She couldn¡¯t ride on my head anymore. It would be better if she followed behind me, but she wouldn¡¯t see what was ahead to give accurate instructions. We settled in an awkward position where she pressed against my chest as I reached around her with my long arms to continue digging.

    Her heart raced. It pounded so hard I could feel it through her back. It also made my heart pound. This wasn¡¯t some romantic movie bullshit. Am I also panicking? Awesome! I drew my lips back, trying to smile. I sort of got my wish somehow.

    I continued to shrink. Deen and I were digging together.

    ¡°Trust Gabe, trust Gabe,¡± Deen continued to chant. She was on the verge of tears.

    We worked together to push a rock aside. A large pile of earth fell from the ceiling, covering us. The light went out. Deen cried out in a panic, thrashing about next to me. I managed to grab her arms and held her still.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do that or¡ªoh, I¡¯m back.¡± The transformation wore off. I couldn¡¯t see anything anymore.

    ¡°Oh my god, Erind!¡± Deen hugged me. ¡°It¡¯s really you! I-I do-don¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t panic,¡± I repeated what she told me earlier. ¡°Pull yourself together. Where¡¯s your phone?¡±

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t¡­ Here it is!¡± The light returned. ¡°Thank you, Gabe.¡±

    Two dirty-faced girls looked at each other. Deen¡¯s hair was messy, as if she had passed through a hurricane; I couldn¡¯t tell she was blonde with all the dirt. Her face was caked with earth. I was sure I didn¡¯t fare any better.

    ¡°Calm down,¡± I said calmly, trying not to laugh. I felt giddy because of my panic¡ªsuch a refreshing sensation. Getting buried was scary, for sure. ¡°What is Gabe saying?¡±

    ¡°We¡­ we continue digging.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Let¡¯s do that.¡± We were going to dig with the power of friendship!

 5.49

    ¡°I can hear something,¡± I stopped crawling. Deen accidentally headbutted my butt. I clamped the urge to kick back like a spooked horse. ¡°Shhh, quiet down a bit,¡± I hissed at Deen.

    There it was again¡ªsmatterings of what sounded like gunfire. I could hear better if I turned into Blanchette, but then I couldn¡¯t talk if I did. A muffled explosion, and then it was silent again. I resumed digging, intentionally shoveling dirt back at Deen.

    Deen said, ¡°We must be¡ªbleargh!¡± The beam of light from Deen¡¯s phone wildly strafed our cramped hole like we were at a rave party.

    ¡°What were you saying, Deen?¡± I asked, trying not to laugh. With the dirt cleared, I shifted rocks out of our way. The light steadied and focused in front of me.

    ¡°I was saying,¡± Deen said, punctuated by coughs, ¡°we must be close to an area that hadn¡¯t collapsed.¡±

    I rolled a rock aside to reveal a small hole the size of my head. ¡°Hand me your phone.¡± I had no idea where mine went. My phone probably fell out of my pockets when people lugged my unconscious body around. Time to buy a new one. Fucking again. How many phones had I lost? I didn¡¯t expect turning into an Adumbrae would be this expensive.

    I listened for a few seconds. The people shooting at each other had seemingly moved away. Then I poked the phone through the hole and examined what was on the other side. Other than some rubble here and there, the tunnel was mostly intact. There were also a couple of dead guys¡ªone crushed by fallen debris, the other half-eaten, likely by a parasite monster.

    ¡°Here.¡± I handed Deen her phone back. ¡°All clear. We¡¯re getting out of here.¡±

    ¡°Oh, thank you so much, Gabe!¡±

    How would I have fared on my own without Deen and her prescient pet? I might have dug into China if I didn¡¯t know where I was going. Could I die from starvation? I could eat and regenerate my flesh if I was desperate. As for water, I could drink¡­ I¡¯d rather not think about that.

    Thank you, too, Gabe, I guess.

    I leaned my back against a concrete slab, careful not to get skewered by the jutting rebars bent in odd angles, and positioned my feet flat on a boulder. Then I pushed with everything I got. It had been ages since I went to the gym, but I bet this was heavier than the last setting on the leg press machine. I felt the soles of my sneakers get squished like dough as my feet cracked the surface of the hugeass boulder.

    The tiny hole to freedom widened inch by inch.

    ¡°Erind, are you okay?¡± Deen asked. ¡°I can help¡ª"

    ¡°Go! Go! Go!¡±

    Deen dove under my knees and squeezed through the hole. It became dark again.

    Okay, so how do I get out of here? I didn¡¯t think this through¡ªif I released this stupid rock, it would roll back down. I hoped it wouldn¡¯t continue dropping and squishing my cute self.

    What other option did I have? I¡¯d slowly lower this, and then Deen and I could gradually widen the hole by digging from both sides. I was going to be pissed if Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel told her to leave me behind.

    ¡°Don¡¯t drop it!¡± Deen furiously punched the wall and scooped out the debris.

    ¡°The boulder?¡± My quads burned. My joints strained. I couldn¡¯t hold this forever. Should I transform?

    ¡°Yes! Hang on, I¡¯ll get you out!¡±

    My tiny burrow brightened bit by bit as the hole to my right widened. Deen suddenly grabbed my arm with both her hands.

    ¡°Huh? What are you¡ª? Hey!¡± She yanked me out of the hole. We stumbled on the ground. Without me holding it up, the boulder fell back into place with a loud crash and a slight quake. ¡°Ow, ow, you should¡¯ve warned me.¡± I massaged my shoulder. ¡°Feels like my arm was going to pop right off.¡±

    ¡°Sorry!¡± Deen helped me to my feet. ¡°I was concentrating on Gabe¡¯s voice. Really super sorry.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. It¡¯ll heal in a few seconds.¡± I looked at our exit hole. The boulder mostly covered it now. I chuckled. Deen looked at me with a puzzled face. ¡°It¡¯s like in the movies,¡± I explained. ¡°Those traps in ancient tombs? Big rolling boulders? And then the heroes will always narrowly avoid getting turned into pancakes right at the last second.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ you¡¯re right.¡± Deen nodded with a confused smile. ¡°The boulders, yeah.¡±

    ¡°You know those movies where there¡¯s a treasure and¡ªnever mind. What¡¯s important is that we¡¯re alive.¡± Even more important was that I nearly got squished, not Deen, solidifying my position as the main character between us.

    ¡°Oh, Erind!¡± Deen hugged me, bending down to put her head against my neck. I felt her warm tears as she sobbed.

    I rolled my eyes and hugged Deen back because I was the bestest friend in the world. And she did save me¡ªwhich meant I wasn¡¯t the main character. Fuck.

    Deen continued to cry. I reached up to pat the top of her dirty head. Such a drama queen.

    Getting buried alive wasn¡¯t too bad.

    Actually, I had fun¡ªa sense of thrill I couldn¡¯t experience riding roller coasters or getting shot by guns. There was something about the situation, something with helplessness, something with giving up because there was no way out. I was so close to finding the secret ingredient of despair. Someday, I was going to feel that emotion.

    The threat of death wasn¡¯t doing it for me anymore. It was like spice tolerance or maybe drug tolerance. I needed stronger stuff to have fun.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay¡­ It¡¯s all going to be okay,¡± I told Deen. I gave her a good squeeze and dropped my hands. ¡°We made it out alive.¡±

    ¡°Ye-yeah, we did.¡± Deen got the message and released me. Her tears, mixed with the dirt on her face, turned into a mud mask. The light from below¡ªDeen¡¯s phone on the floor¡ªcast creepy shadows on her face. Add in her hair that was an absolute mess. For possibly the first time in Deen¡¯s life, she appeared ugly.

    "You look awful,¡± I said, wiping her face. ¡°You don¡¯t want to get mistaken for a monster when we find other people.¡±

    ¡°I look awful?¡± She smirked. ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡±

    I grinned. Then we both broke out laughing. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re back to yourself.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for saving me,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how I would¡¯ve survived if it wasn¡¯t for you.¡±

    For one, you could¡¯ve followed your Guardian Angel, I thought.

    Deen¡¯s pet must¡¯ve told her not to look for me. If Deen had listened to her Guardian Angel, she would¡¯ve been safe. And I would still be digging my way to China. I wasn¡¯t an ungrateful bitch¡ªonly sometimes¡ªso I was going to help her stupid rescue mission as payment.

    But before that.

    ¡°Deen¡­ the guy who teleported me here¡­¡± I hesitated. Promise, just a dash of emotional abuse. I really couldn¡¯t help myself. ¡°I don¡¯t know if this is true, but he told me Mom¡¯s here. That¡¯s why I went through the door. Have you seen Mom?¡±

    If only I had my phone to take a picture of Deen¡¯s face. Streaked with mud and absolutely shocked, she looked hilarious!

    Deen slowly shook her head. ¡°No, I haven¡¯t. I checked all¡ªI mean, I tried to check all the hostages. Your Mom would be easy to see if she¡¯s here. Like her white hair is very, um, I can¡¯t say I¡¯m completely sure she¡¯s not¡­ bu-but¡­¡±

    SpookyErind, if you¡¯re listening, please give me the power to read minds. I¡¯d willingly give up sweets for an entire year¡ªno, that¡¯s too much; a month should be fine¡ªto know what was going through Deen¡¯s head right now.

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    I think I had a good grasp of Deen¡¯s thoughts.

    She released the captives. The parasite monsters got out and attacked the hostages. Whether the monsters accidentally escaped or were intentionally released by the Tea Party didn¡¯t matter¡ªit was technically Deen¡¯s fault either way. In Deen¡¯s mind, if Mom was here, she was likely inside a parasite monster¡¯s stomach.

    Deen continued to rapidly stammer, ¡°I really haven¡¯t seen her. I made sure, I tried to make sure, I wouldn¡¯t¡ª"

    ¡°If you haven¡¯t seen her, then she¡¯s not here,¡± I firmly said. That was enough fun. ¡°I¡¯m sure Mom is safe back at the convention center.¡±

    ¡°But the man said¡ª¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s an Adumbrae; he can¡¯t be trusted. Well, I¡¯m an Adumbrae too, but you get what I mean. He was trying to mess with our heads.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Deen said. Her tone indicated she didn¡¯t believe her own words. ¡°We¡¯ll find your mother once we get back.¡±

    I thought of letting it stand here, but I didn¡¯t want a distracted Deen in case of a fight. I shouldn¡¯t have messed with her in the first place. It was just so funny, though.

    ¡°The man who teleported us is with the 2Ms,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve fought him before. But I¡¯m not the target of the 2Ms in Vegas. We planned to go to the Tech Fair only a few days ago. The 2Ms people are helping the Tea Party with their evil plans¡ªit doesn¡¯t have anything to do with me.

    ¡°The man with teleporting powers saw me¡ªcould be the security cameras¡ªand recognized me. I don¡¯t know how they knew Mom was with us, but it¡¯s not hard to guess with her surname ¡®Hartwell¡¯ on the program list. That man was bluffing to bait us into wherever this place is.¡±

    Not exactly a good explanation¡ªit had many holes, actually¡ªbut Deen seemed to accept it. Anything to lessen the guilt in her mind.

    Deen nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right, you¡¯re right. He was just bluffing¡­¡±

    ¡°Now then,¡± I said, ¡°let¡¯s go save other people and escape this place.¡±

    I opened my right hand. Golden liquid rose out of the crystals on my palm. It might be fine by now to turn into Blanchette. I had yet to determine if I had to rest in between transformations. Mental note: experiment with my powers and learn more about them.

    ¡°Erind, don¡¯t do it.¡± Deen grabbed my wrist.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do what? Transform? I can control myself¡­ or I think I can.¡± I didn¡¯t want her to know it was a hundred percent my consciousness doing the killing and other nasty stuff. I needed the ¡®Adumbrae excuse¡¯ if I ever had to do something evil in her eyes. ¡°I didn¡¯t, um, eat you. There¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡±

    ¡°I trust that you won¡¯t eat me. But you might eat the¡ªwhat would the other people think when they see you? They¡¯ll assume we¡¯re the bad guys.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s for safety,¡± I said. ¡°There should be plenty of enemies around here.¡±

    ¡°Transform only when it¡¯s really necessary,¡± Deen said. She held the bottom of my right hand. ¡°I got Gabe. And we¡¯re pretty strong girls, right?¡±

    I nodded, closing my hand. The golden light disappeared, and the tunnel darkened. ¡°Will we go with the people we¡¯ll save all the way?¡±

    ¡°All the way where? We¡¯re not going to abandon¡ª¡±

    ¡°Like all the way to civilization or something. Until the police find us? Until we get rescued?¡± That was usually the end of the movie, and the credits will roll. But for us, that¡¯d be the start of the next set of headaches.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Deen looked at the ground pondering our situation. ¡°Probably not all the way. We¡¯ll get checked for injuries. Medics might notice something wrong.¡±

    ¡°Might? They¡¯ll definitely notice something¡¯s wrong. We look like this with zero injuries? Given what we''ve been through, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if we get tested for Adumbrae seeding.¡±

    ¡°Here¡¯s what we do: we¡¯ll help survivors escape to the surface,¡± Deen said. ¡°We¡¯ll make sure they¡¯re safe. We¡¯ll make sure the authorities are contacted. And we¡¯ll leave only once we see the police are coming.¡±

    I would¡¯ve been fine with just step one of her plan. ¡°Too bad we don¡¯t have a Suppressor,¡± I said. ¡°It will be easier if we get rescued along with everyone else.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Where is this place? Are we still in Nevada? Or even in the US? What if we¡¯re in a different country? If we¡¯re overseas, it¡¯s going to be difficult returning home without passports and stuff.¡±

    ¡°I hadn¡¯t thought of that,¡± Deen said. ¡°People here speak English, so I hope that means we¡¯re still in America, at least.¡±

    ¡°I hope so too.¡± I raised a brow. Deen was tearing off the bottom of her shirt. ¡°Crop tops are the trend nowadays, but this doesn¡¯t seem like the right time to¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m making a mask, silly.¡± Deen tied the strip of cloth to cover her mouth.

    ¡°You could¡¯ve asked for a piece of my jeans.¡± I bent down to rip my pants. I felt Deen poke my lower back. ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s blood. Were you wounded when I pulled¡ªno. It¡¯s dry. This looks like a neat hole, not a tear. When did you get shot?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I truthfully answered.

    This brought Imani back to mind. I hadn¡¯t decided on what to do with her. Was she going to keep her mouth shut? Likely not. If she told Jubjub, they¡¯d ask the Supplier and know I didn¡¯t have an artificial Corebring. I should rope in Deen and see what her suggestion would be. There was only one correct answer here.

    ¡°Must be when I was unconscious,¡± I said. ¡°No one shot at me when I awoke because I immediately transformed to fight. When I got teleported here, I was already in Blanchette form.¡±

    ¡°Who was with you when you woke up?¡± Deen sternly asked, realizing the problem.

    ¡°Imani, Tesh, his wife or girlfriend or something. Other survivors too.¡±

    ¡°Do they know you got shot?¡±

    ¡°Yes, they do.¡± I gasped as if I had realized the problem just now. ¡°Imani asked me how I felt when I woke up and was surprised when I wasn¡¯t in pain. I think she knows I¡¯m not¡­ normal.¡±

    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s a problem we¡¯ll have to deal with when we get back. Did Imani say anything else?¡±

    ¡°Nothing. She didn¡¯t act like someone discovering an Adumbrae. That¡¯s why I only thought of Imani¡¯s weird reaction now.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s because she didn¡¯t think you¡¯re an Adumbrae. She thought you had an artificial Core like me,¡± Deen said, coming to the same conclusion I did.

    ¡°But she¡¯ll eventually know that¡¯s wrong,¡± I said.

    ¡°We¡¯ll have to¡ª¡± Deen stopped talking.

    There was scratching nearby.

    I picked up Deen¡¯s phone and pointed it toward the weird noise.

    ¡°An eye?¡± I said. Vanessa¡¯s familiar! I must remember I hadn¡¯t seen it before.

    ¡°It¡¯s that eye again!¡± Deen exclaimed.

    ¡°You know what it is?¡± The eye raised itself on its insect legs and swayed its body. ¡°A small parasite monster?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but it guided Pino and me when we got here. It¡¯s on our side. Or at least not an enemy.¡±

    ¡°Looks creepy,¡± I said. ¡°What is it doing?¡±

    ¡°Signing we should follow. It did this last time too.¡±

    The eye familiar scampered down the tunnel.

    ¡°Should we follow it then?¡±

    ¡°I think so.¡±

    Makeshift masks secured, we jogged after Vanessa¡¯s eye familiar. Turning around the corner, we ran into dead guys entangled with dead parasite monsters. This must be the fighting we heard earlier. Further ahead, there was one monster ripping a corpse with its tentacles and shoving body parts into its beaklike mouth.

    It tried to grab the passing eye familiar, but I caught its tentacles. More tendrils reached for me. Deen slammed them all down with a rock. Then I leaped over Deen, kicking the monster¡¯s head. Deen tossed the rock at me. I caught it and brought it down on the monster so hard it broke apart.

    The whole bit was wholly unplanned, but it turned out pretty cool.

    ¡°Gross!¡± I examined my shirt, stifling the curses on the tip of my tongue. ¡°Slime got all over me¡ª¡±

    Deen pulled me. ¡°Let¡¯s go! We might lose the eye.¡±

    Vanessa, sorry for scaring you to death, I thought while looking at her familiar, by trying to cause your death.

    Was she angry with me? What could she be thinking after what I did? There was a chance this eye thingy was leading us to a trap, though Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel would be our counter. I confirmed that Vanessa didn¡¯t betray me when I heard cries for help.

    Survivors!

    Under a sputtering light bulb, a group of people who had seen better days huddled at the corner. In front of them stood a tall, shirtless guy wielding a gun like a bat, warding away a couple of parasite monsters. He was one of Imani¡¯s friends. He looked like he should be at the back of the group instead of the front.

    Tall Ginger¡ªI forgot his name¡ªlost one of his augmented legs. He leaned on a hastily-made crutch made of pipes, with his shirt padding the fork at the top. His gun ran out of bullets.

    Another of Imani¡¯s friends was in the middle of the room, fighting the bulk of the parasite monsters. He had an artificial Core, displaying bursts of super strength and speed, vacuuming chunks of flesh into his hands¡ªsomeone with an artificial Core. Let¡¯s call him Vacuum Hands.

    ¡°They look familiar,¡± I said, remembering I only saw them once as Erind before the fucking Tea Party showed up.

    ¡°They¡¯re Imani¡¯s friends!¡± Deen said. ¡°We should help them!¡±

    Really? I thought we were going to take out Imani. I figured it was better just to let her friends die. But Deen had already joined the fray.

    Whatever.

    I picked up a sharp rock and charged the nearest tentacled weirdo.

 5.50

    I grabbed the tentacles coming at me and sliced them with the rock. Full caveman with primitive tools! More chopped tentacles followed. This rock was sharper than expected. Probably more accurate to say everything was fucking sharp with enough super strength.

    My limbless opponent screeched as it retreated.

    Behind it, I saw Deen sprint through the parasite monsters attacking Vacuum Hands. She avoided and parried their attacks. She didn¡¯t stay to fight any, instead rushing past them to Tall Ginger.

    A squat humanoid with long claws had pounced on shirtless Tall Ginger. Splashes of red. He screamed for help. Vacuum Guy shouted something but got enveloped by several monsters. The other survivors were useless, stuck to the walls, paralyzed with fear. They didn¡¯t raise a finger to help.

    Deen tackled the parasite monster attacking Tall Ginger.

    I couldn¡¯t see what happened next because a bastard with scythe blades blocked my view. I raised my arm to stop its slash. The edge bit an inch into my arm.

    ¡°That fucking hurts, you praying mantis shit,¡± I cursed in a low voice. I caught the next blade with my left hand. I gripped it tight¡ªthe blade went deeper into my palm. Then I pulled it down and brought my foot on the joint connecting the weapon to its arm.

    ¡°Skrreeea!¡± my opponent squealed, its stumpy limb spraying black slime.

    I cut its other arm with its own blade. ¡°Thanks for this gift!¡± Another swing and its head went flying.

    Of course, it wasn¡¯t dead yet. Parasite monsters were hardy weeds. To put them down for good, one had to kill the host and the gross slugs within. And I couldn¡¯t see where those were without Pino¡¯s x-ray, life force, whatever vision.

    Headless and armless, the praying mantis bastard still stood. Tiny tentacles wiggled out its neck and severed arms.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have time for this,¡± I grumbled, kicking its exoskeleton-covered torso. It went tumbling into more monsters, clearing a way for me.

    With my shiny¡ªand smelly, and slimy¡ªnew weapons, I cut through the disgusting crowd to help Vacuum Hands. He had a peculiar codename related to Alice in Wonderland, but I couldn¡¯t recall it.

    Apparently, he and Tall Ginger, still alive and screaming somewhere I couldn¡¯t see, had been teleported here too. I hadn¡¯t noticed them when Deen and I, as Pino, found the hostages imprisoned by the Tea Party in the heart of their base. I was too busy looking for Mom¡¯s white hair among the dozens of people.

    That and I didn¡¯t care about them.

    Vacuum Hands managed to surface from the monster pile.

    ¡°Damn you all!¡± he shouted, reaching for any part of his attackers he could grab.

    The hole in his palms sucked parasite monsters, tearing them into small chunks to forcibly fit them through the tiny opening. Flesh, bones, and even black slime went down the drain. It was like the worst pool drain accidents combined in one.

    Vacuum Hands stood his ground despite several monsters biting, stabbing, and clawing his body. I thought it was some suicidal tactic¡ªthough his power was neat, there were too many monsters¡ªbut then his injuries healed at a surprisingly rapid rate. A gaping wound from a slash stitched together the next second. It had something to do with his sucking thing. Imani must¡¯ve explained it when she revealed herself to Deen and me, but much of what she said had left through my other ear.

    And that brought back the question of what to do with these two.

    If we let them reunite with Imani, they¡¯d be additional headaches when we¡¯d kill her. This place should be their tomb. Wow, that¡¯s a badass line!

    ¡°Snark! Snark, answer me!¡± cried out Vacuum Hands. ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    Snark! Right, that was Tall Ginger¡¯s name.

    Vacuum Hands should be more concerned with himself. Tentacles caught his arms and drew them to the sides, rendering his powers unusable and threatening to rip him apart. A squad of scaly gremlins clambered up his body and gnawed his shoulder and elbow joints. The parasite monsters seemed to have a few brain cells for strategy.

    ¡°Why can¡¯t we just leave them to die?¡± I groaned before jumping into the monster mosh pit, my blades ready. Unfortunately, I had to go along with Deen¡¯s heroic antics. She probably couldn¡¯t handle the guilt of watching people die.

    Yet.

    She¡¯d eventually come around, just like she did with the frat boys. Deen wouldn¡¯t let her poor Adumbrae best friend get exposed, would she?

    Spiked tendrils wrapped around my waist and legs. A tingle of disgust ran up my spine. As the tendrils tightened, the spikes bit into my skin.

    ¡°Don¡¯t touch me!¡± I went into a rampage.

    I swung my blades as hard as I could, not caring if the edge was angled the right way. Swords became blunt weapons as I hammered anything that moved. Soon, my weapons broke from too much whacking. I switched to using my fists and legs, remembering my lessons with Myra.

    Not really. I didn¡¯t bother to punch correctly. I wildly thrashed as if a cockroach had crawled into my shirt, sending parasite monsters, or pieces of them, flying away.

    ¡°Calm down! We¡¯re allies!¡± Vacuum Hands shouted at me. He got free from the tentacles and was removing the little gits gnawing at his body. I was doing the ancient martial arts helicopter style, and my fists nearly connected with him. ¡°You¡¯re Erind, correct?¡±

    I touched my mouth to check if my mask had fallen off.

    ¡°We met at the Tech Fair,¡± Vacuum Hands said. The gremlin he held disintegrated, its pieces disappearing into his hands. ¡°I remember¡ª¡± he looked in Deen¡¯s direction, then back to me ¡°¡ªyour shirt.¡±

    My shirt? I was covered with dirt and black goo. ¡°You¡¯re Imani¡¯s friend.¡± I bet he recognized Deen¡ªanyone could recognize her body even if she got dunked in mud¡ªand assumed who I was.

    ¡°Good to see that you¡¯re fine now. I didn¡¯t know you had an artificial Core.¡±

    I didn¡¯t reply, punching the shell of another insect-like monster to fill the silence. I could pretend to be an augmented human, but he¡¯d know the truth sooner or later.

    Or never, if he died here.

    ¡°Appreciate the assist,¡± he said. ¡°I really do. You saved our toast asses.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re on the same team,¡± I replied.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get Snark so we can escape!¡±

    The survivors¡ªfive of them¡ªwere crawling at the far end of the room, taking advantage of our arrival to make their escape. They headed for a small tunnel partially blocked by a pillar that fell diagonally across it. I was surprised that they didn¡¯t wait for us. Were they seriously going on their own?

    Turning to the left corner on that side, Deen tended to Tall Ginger¡ªSnark, rather¡ªon the floor. She tore his shirt into strips and tied his wounds. Did she know how to make a turn-bouquet, turn-a-coat, or whatever was that stopping bleeding thing? Tourniquet?

    Vacuum Hands made his way to them. I followed him. His power was well-suited for dealing with parasite monsters. Once vacuumed, they were gone for good. In contrast, the ones I tore or squished were putting themselves back together.

    ¡°Is Snark okay?¡± I asked¡ªstupid question. But I wanted to appear caring to mask future betrayal. I even used Tall Ginger¡¯s codename to sound sincere.

    ¡°This will have to do until we get medical help.¡± Vacuum Hands redid Deen¡¯s handiwork. Snark groaned in pain as Vacuum Hands tightened the wraps before knotting them secure.

    ¡°Sorry if I got it wrong, Boojum.¡± Deen looked at her bloody hands.

    Boojum¡¯s the codename of Vacuum Hands? Such a funny-sounding word.

    ¡°I just tied the strips of cloth around the wound,¡± Deen continued. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to do to the wound on his chest.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you did great,¡± Boojum said, lying through his teeth. I stopped my eyes from rolling. ¡°For limbs, we tie above the wounds. For anywhere else, like the gas chest wound. We¡¯ll apply pressure.¡±

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    ¡°Can you do the pressure thing while moving?¡± I looked over my shoulder. Some of the parasite monsters had stood up. They grabbed pieces of their friends with their tentacles and assimilated those into their bodies.

    ¡°If this was any other situation, we shouldn¡¯t move Snark.¡± Boojum rummaged around his pockets and brought out a small pen. He jabbed Snark¡¯s neck with it. ¡°But you¡¯re right, we can¡¯t stay here.¡±

    ¡°What was that?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Adrenaline concoction. Helps with bleeding. A gift from the Professor.¡±

    ¡°Handy for normal people.¡±

    ¡°Normal people?¡± Deen scanned the room. ¡°The survivors! Where did they go? They were just¡ª"

    ¡°Through there.¡± I pointed at the tunnel. ¡°Dunno why they were in such a hurry to leave.¡±

    Boojum carried Snark in his arms and nudged his head to the exit. ¡°You girls go first.¡±

    Girls? I thought with a smirk. Deen and I were stronger than this sucky asshole, but he had to be all protective while carrying his injured friend. This was one of the most predictable traits of men and the easiest to manipulate. I might goad Boojum into sacrificing himself for us, and then it was easy to ¡®accidentally¡¯ finish off Snark without Deen¡¯s suspecting a thing.

    We needed an enemy, a strong one, to force Boojum into becoming a macho hero.

    Deen crawled under the pillar barring the tunnel. ¡°Looks like it¡¯s safe. The other hostages aren¡¯t here.¡± I followed in after her.

    ¡°Pass Snark to us,¡± I told Boojum. Deen and I pulled Snark through the gap. He was unconscious but still breathing. Too bad.

    Boojum followed after. ¡°Block the way! Quick!¡± Through the gaps, we saw the parasite monsters had merged into a blob of spikes resembling a gooey giant sea urchin. Boojum rained punches on the middle section of the pillar.

    I joined in, taking care not to punch harder than him even though I could. Cracks spread through the concrete surface.

    ¡°Excuse me! Coming through!¡± Deen called from behind us.

    Boojum and I stepped aside as a huge rock flew and landed at the point where the pillar sagged. The post broke, and the part of the ceiling it held up fell. Just in time. The rolling sea urchin smashed against the rubble on the other side.

    ¡°Get right on moving!¡± Boojum said. He picked up his friend, who was turning pale. The sea urchin continued to slam against the blockage.

    Our group hurried down the passage while Deen called out for other people.

    ¡°Where are you?¡± Deen shouted. ¡°We¡¯re here to help!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother,¡± Boojum said. ¡°We¡¯ll find them eventually.¡±

    ¡°Why did they separate from us?¡± I asked. Boojum and Snark must¡¯ve done something that made those people think it was better to risk the monsters roaming the tunnels.

    After several seconds of silence, punctuated by Snark¡¯s groans of pain, Boojum sighed. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll tell you. Do you know how my power works? Has Imani told you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, she did,¡± I said. ¡°And I saw it in action too. You can suck¡ª¡±

    ¡°Absorb,¡± he curtly interjected.

    Whatever. ¡°You can absorb like bodies and stuff to heal yourself.¡±

    ¡°I suppose you can guess why those people are afraid to be near me.¡±

    Deen gasped. ¡°Did you absorb a person?¡±

    ¡°A dead body,¡± Boojum tersely clarified. Deen and I looked at each other. Boojum was behind us, so he couldn¡¯t see our expressions, but he could guess what we were thinking. ¡°A man shot by Tea Party. I ran past him when the earthquakes started. Both my legs got crushed by the falling ceiling¡­¡±

    And he droned on and on.

    It sounded like he was rationalizing more to himself than telling us the story. I personally didn¡¯t care if he vacuumed his own mother to save himself. If I had his power, would I vacuum Mom?

    Maybe if she was dead.

    Anyway, that wasn¡¯t the point.

    Boojum was still talking. ¡°¡­it was by the Mother Core¡¯s Grace that a dead body was there for me to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Have you seen Pino?¡± Deen loudly interrupted Boojum. She gave me a conflicted stare, clearly uncomfortable with his ramblings. ¡°Both of us got transported here, but we split up.¡±

    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen her,¡± Boojum said. ¡°I was inside a cell along with Snark and other people until the doors opened. It must¡¯ve been Pino who did it with advanced robot hacking.¡±

    Robot hacking? If only I had that power.

    I thought Deen would present herself as their true savior, but instead, she asked, ¡°Have you seen a tall, middle-aged woman with pure white hair.¡± She described Mom, including her clothes. Boojum hadn¡¯t seen anyone like her. Deen gave me an assuring smile.

    I nodded in return. I pictured Deen would bawl her eyes out when we met Mom. And I hoped Mom was safe wherever that creepy old gnome teleported her.

    If she ended up in danger, I would taxidermy that gnome and sell him as a garden ornament.

    Oh, and I¡¯d kill Vanessa again. And all her familiars too.

    Though we passed a few side tunnels, they had collapsed, leaving only one path. There were also traces of blood on the floor. The hostages were somewhere ahead of us. We hadn¡¯t caught up to them because Boojum had to take it slow, carrying his friend.

    Those people should die too, I thought.

    Snark was too recognizable¡ªtwo aug-legs, tall, red hair. Boojum, not so much; he was covered with monster grime from all the fighting. Deen and I had our masks on. And I doubted the surviving hostages got a good look at us.

    Once the police rescued them, they¡¯d be able to identify Snark. Countercheck him with security cam footage at the Tech Fair or something. Tracking Snark would lead to Imani and Imani to me. The list of people I had to kill was lengthening. Dammit!

    This would¡¯ve been easy if Deen wasn¡¯t around. I could force her hand, the same as I did when we killed the frat boys. Time to draw the possessed-by-an-Adumbrae card, I guess.

    ¡°There¡¯s some banging.¡± Deen, in the lead, slowed down.

    ¡°Enemy?¡± Boojum said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Deen said. ¡°My power would¡¯ve warned us.¡±

    ¡°Quite a helpful ability.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s them,¡± I said.

    ¡°They could be in danger,¡± Boojum said. ¡°Pick up the pace, girls.¡±

    This girl will kill you later, I thought.

    Echoes of banging grew louder as we reached the end of the tunnel.

    We entered a large room with crates and boxes stacked up to its two-story high rocky ceiling. A storage room of sorts? Past the corridor of containers, we came to a wide-open area and saw how big the place truly was, with the ceiling extending higher by a dozen more feet as we neared the center of the cave.

    A wide circular shaft, covered by glass on one side, stood in the middle, punching up the rocks, presumably into the world above¡ªan elevator. Our ticket out of here.

    The five people who ditched Boojum and Snark were gathered around the elevator door. One of them, a burly man, hammered the gears at the sides with a metal pipe.

    Besides us, no one was here.

    Neither the parasite monsters nor the quakes damaged this place. Also, the Tea Party was nowhere to be seen. They must¡¯ve left some other way.

    Three other tunnels led out of the cavern. On the other side of the elevator shaft was a boxy structure built next to the cave wall. It had doors and glass windows, probably for overseeing operations. Through the windows, I spotted desks and computers. Must be an office.

    Judging by the forklift and carts, this might be a cargo distribution center or something like that.

    Boojum gently settled Snark on the floor. His friend was paler than I was, which was saying something. Boojum¡¯s shirt was red with blood, and so were Snark¡¯s bandages.

    ¡°Snark, buddy¡­ we¡¯ll be out soon.¡± Boojum¡¯s voice cracked.

    He closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, placing his hands on Snark¡¯s unmoving chest. He bent down, probably to check for signs of breathing, but stopped and stood back up.

    Opening his eyes, Boojum looked at us, face full of determination. ¡°Stay here with him. I don¡¯t want to spook the people over there any further.¡± He tilted his head towards the survivors who had noticed us. ¡°I¡¯m going to tell you when it¡¯s okay to come help. We¡¯re all going to get out of here. I promise.¡±

    A Deen clone, I thought with amusement.

    Boojum jogged to the elevator shaft. Shouting erupted, the survivors wary of him. I wanted to try to listen in, but Deen grabbed my arm.

    ¡°Erind, prepare for a fight,¡± she said.

    ¡°Did your Guardian Angel say something?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Gabe told me you should summon your mask, the wolf mask, the red thing.¡±

    ¡°I should transform?¡± I looked around for signs of danger while summoning Blanchette¡¯s mask. ¡°What¡¯s going to come?¡±

    ¡°No, don¡¯t wear it yet,¡± Deen said. ¡°Gabe didn¡¯t say anything else.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why not? I thought¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Deen also turned left and right. ¡°Just wait for me to tell you when to put it on.¡±

    ¡°Okay. I trust you.¡± Dammit! I really hated when I was out of the loop about something. Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel better have a good reason for this. And we still hadn¡¯t seen our enemies.

    ¡°Look!¡± Deen said.

    She pointed at a crate. No. At what was on top of the box.

    Vanessa¡¯s eye familiar?

    I forgot about this little guy when we ran into Boojum¡¯s group. It must¡¯ve followed us all the way here. And what was it doing? It bobbed up and down on its legs. Then it tapped its front legs on the crate. A little dance of some sort?

    ¡°It¡¯s telling us to get down,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Down?¡±

    A familiar ringing reverberated in the cavern. Teleportation!

    Where was a door with a fucking doorknob? That was what Vanessa mentioned. The office? The office! It had doors!

    Deen dove on top of me and pulled me to the ground. ¡°Stay down!¡±

    One of the office doors had changed into a different one. It swung open and out charged several men with guns. They opened fire at the people tinkering with the elevator.

    ¡°No!¡± Deen cried.

 5.51

    Bullets ripped through squishy normal humans.

    Boojum rushed to shield them with his body. Shots thudded on his back. He grabbed the nearest person on the floor¡ªa lady in a torn business suit and slacks¡ªand used his powers to heal himself. It must¡¯ve tormented him to absorb her, even if she was dying, so he could save the rest.

    But was there a ¡®rest¡¯ to save?

    Three others lay unmoving in their own blood, twitching when smacked by bullets. The last person managed to crawl behind the elevator shaft, but he was bleeding heavily.

    I tackled Deen as she ran to them. I locked my left arm around her hips and heaved her over my shoulder. I held Blanchette¡¯s mask with my right hand. Should I wear this? No?

    ¡°Erind, let me go!¡±

    I ran with Deen flailing like a caught fish. ¡°I¡¯m saving you!¡±

    Tea Party bastards opened fire at us. Wood splinters and plastic shards scattered as boxes exploded. I managed to reach sturdier containers. Metal ones, probably. Bullets pinged off our hiding spot for a few seconds, then the gunfire stopped.

    I raised my red mask to my face, but Deen shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t!¡±

    ¡°Why not? We¡¯re in¡ª¡±

    ¡°Gabe said not yet.¡± Deen wriggled free of my hold. Her Guardian Angel must¡¯ve counted on me to save her stupid heroic ass.

    Grabbing Deen and running while getting shot was pretty cool and heroic. It made me forget my hatred of physical contact. Our monster gore coating acted as insulation.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Snark?¡± Deen hissed.

    Fuuudge cake! ¡°I got you and¡ª¡±

    ¡°You left him?¡± her voice rose. A flicker of anger in her eyes. Before I could explain further, she brushed past me and headed to the corner of the metal containers.

    ¡°We should find another way out.¡± I wanted to add that everyone we left behind was dead anyway. Maybe not Boojum, but the Tea Party would take care of him soon. He¡¯d be the distraction for our escape.

    Deen ignored me. ¡°Follow me.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re showing ourselves?¡±

    ¡°Gabe says so. Keep your mask in front of you.¡±

    ¡°Why can¡¯t I wear¡ª?¡± I stopped mid-sentence.

    ¡°Here you are!¡± Boomed an unfamiliar gruff voice.

    I froze. Deen dragged me along. I badly wanted to wear the mask if we were to meet the enemy, but Deen tightly held onto my right wrist, my red mask still in my hand. Trust in Gabe, I guess.

    The voice continued, ¡°I should¡¯ve expected you fucking rats to return! And what have we here?¡±

    Deen and I left the cover of the large metal containers and trudged through destroyed wooden crates.

    Snark¡¯s corpse was bloodier than before. Deen was ugly if this guy was still alive. Turning to the elevator, I spotted Boojum behind its crisscrossing metal structure. He snacked on a body with his sucky-sucky power.

    Further on, more than a dozen people stood outside the teleporting door of the squat office. A couple more walked out the door before it swung shut and reverted to its original form like the other doors in the row.

    ¡°Snark!¡± Deen released my hand and left me.

    ¡°Deen, don¡¯t¡­ fuck this¡­¡± I stood alone, showing off the red mask that I should be wearing. I didn¡¯t follow Deen in case they shot at her. I¡¯d run the other way.

    ¡°Hold your fire!¡± commanded the head of the pack of assholes. His minions lowered their guns trained at Deen.

    The one who spoke was an imposingly huge man with a pronounced underbite, highlighted more by his chiseled cleft chin. The upper half of his bald head was machine¡ªbionic eyes, metal plating, blinking lines, all sorts of stuff. He had two long horns, growing from a broad base out the metal sides of his head, thinning to a point as they curved up.

    The horns brought up images of rabbit ears to mind¡ªsuch garish and out-of-place augs to have.

    They might not be mechanical but somewhat organic parts of his body. Adumbrae mutations? Weird that this guy didn¡¯t take the chemicals or whatever stuff the fake Adumbrae used to look like ordinary people.

    Rabbit Ears had his hands on his hips; chest puffed while flanked by two heavily augmented men larger than him. The two bouncers had the same ugly face, identical twins, right down to their bioaugmentronics.

    Obviously, Rabbit Ears was the boss of the Tea Party. I was sure Imani mentioned his name, but Rabbit Ears he shall be until I recalled it.

    Behind the three beefy men were a couple of recognizable faces¡ªMagenta Cannon and Vanessa¡ªand two unfamiliar to me. Magenta Cannon and Vanessa were a mess, skin and singed clothes powdered by soot as if they crawled through a chimney. They must¡¯ve had a fun escape through the pipes when the explosions happened.

    A string bean of a guy stood right of Vanessa. He had ¡®pretentious¡¯ written all over his face. I might be wrong about his actual personality, but his all-white outfit, including white shoes and gloves, reinforced my assessment. Next to Magenta Cannon was a woman wearing a tight button-up shirt with the upper half buttons popped, revealing chrome-plated cleavage. Her slender hands and bare feet were also chrome.

    The rest of the group were armed men with balaclava masks and goggles covering their whole heads¡ªFinlay¡¯s clay dummies. I bet Finlay was hiding among them.

    I wasn¡¯t confident I could take on all of these buttwads as Blanchette. And I was a hundred percent positive I¡¯d lose if I didn¡¯t transform. I might not have the chance if I didn¡¯t do it now.

    But my pain-in-the-butt best friend was busy grieving over a dead body. A thing. Not worth crying over. Was her Guardian Angel telling her to tell me to transform?

    ¡°You monsters!¡± Deen shouted, cradling Snark¡¯s dead body.

    ¡°Are you the famous Red Hood of La Esperanza?¡± Rabbit Ears asked Deen. ¡°Or is she that woman over there?¡± He pointed at me.

    If we were in a movie, this would be the perfect moment to transform into Blanchette. Cinematic timing with rising battle music. But, no. I was staying as my cute self for some reason only known to the Guardian Angel.

    ¡°Look at what the small girl¡¯s holding,¡± said White Beanpole. He was begging to get killed by calling me that. ¡°A red mask!¡±

    ¡°Same one we¡¯ve seen in the files,¡± said Silver Titties. I probably should make a better nickname for her. ¡°But a different woman was wearing it then,¡± she added.

    ¡°That¡¯s Red Hood! That¡¯s her real body!¡± It was Finlay¡¯s voice, but I couldn¡¯t tell which of the masked dummies was him.

    ¡°You should stop her from transforming!¡± Vanessa piped up from the back of the group. Our eyes met. She intently looked at me. A signal of betrayal or was she telling me something else? ¡°Use it! Stop her abilities!¡±

    This traitor bitch!

    ¡°Right you are. Perfect time to test this!¡± Rabbit Ears ripped his shirt open to reveal a glowing boxy machine attached to his bare chest. A bluish brainy thing pulsed on the face of the device like his heart transferred outside his body.

    ¡°Don¡¯t fucking use that!¡± The masked dummy nearest Rabbit Ears reached for him. Bouncer Twin One smashed it with one swing of his arms. Another dummy on the far left pointed at me. Finlay had transferred to it. ¡°No need for that! Just kill her already!¡±

    All the masked men pointed their guns at me.

    Rabbit Ears stomped his foot. The ground rippled beneath him like a disturbed puddle as the earth quaked. The Bouncer Twins kept their balance while the others teetered. The shoots of the clay soldiers went wild.

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    ¡°Guests should remain quiet!¡± Rabbit Ears yelled.

    ¡°Erind, wear it!¡± Deen cried out.

    At fucking last! I fixed the mask on my mouth and felt an instant surge of overwhelming powers. Shivers went up my spine as I savored my coiled muscles brimming with strength. I snapped my jaws, teeth clashing¡ª¡°Ow, my tongue!¡± I bit myself. ¡°Eh? I can talk?¡±

    I looked down at myself.

    I was back to my original body, my skin and clothes covered in dirt and dried monster blood.

    Did someone shoot me with a Suppressor? No. Closing my fist, I felt my super strength present. I dug my fingernails into my palm, breaking the skin. The cuts rapidly faded.

    Rabbit Ears roared in laughter. ¡°A successful test! Worth every penny!¡±

    All but one of the masked men had disappeared, their guns cluttering the ground.

    ¡°Second time this shit happened!¡± In frustration, the remaining masked man removed his goggles and threw them to the floor. Finlay¡¯s ability got canceled too.

    This is Auron¡¯s power, was my first reaction.

    But I thought I had killed that asshole? Either Vanessa was lying, or the freaky box on Rabbit Ears¡¯ chest had something to do with it. The bluish clump of veins brought back images of Auron¡¯s sorry state when a parasitic slug merged with his head to boost his powers.

    I rushed to reunite with Deen. Boojum beckoned for us to join his hiding place.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Snark,¡± Deen mumbled, letting his body drop to the ground as she stood up. But she didn¡¯t budge, pulling me to stop. ¡°Erind, let¡¯s stay here.¡±

    ¡°What are you¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Gabe¡¯s last words before disappearing.¡± She seemed too calm, given she had just lost her Guardian Angel. I thought she¡¯d be freaking out experiencing Auron¡¯s power for the first time.

    ¡°Just stand here?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yes. Trust in Gabe.¡±

    I sighed and followed her. Time to die, I sarcastically thought. In my peripheral vision, Boojum waved at us two stupid girls to hide.

    If Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel foresaw this, there was a reason for everything. The problem was that we didn¡¯t have Gabe with us anymore. How could we be sure we wouldn¡¯t go ¡®off-script¡¯ past ten minutes into the future?

    ¡°An honor to behold Red Hood in the flesh,¡± declared Rabbit Ears. ¡°Even if only for a second.¡±

    None of our enemies picked up the guns on the floor. They didn¡¯t need to. Like Magenta Cannon, the augmented Tea Party people should have plenty of hidden weapons. However, no one dared attack without Rabbit Ears¡¯ permission. Finlay surely wanted to shoot me but didn¡¯t want to cross the Tea Party boss again.

    ¡°I¡¯m honored to be graced by the presence of such a powerful true Adumbrae.¡± Rabbit Ears bowed. I half-expected his horns to flop down like ears. ¡°I¡¯ve seen your feats and know the headaches you¡¯ve caused Mark and Big Marcy. And for that, I thank you for a job well done. We might work together now, but we are rivals no less.¡± His huge belly laugh echoed in the cavern.

    Oh, he¡¯s the chatty type? Thank you, jackasses who couldn¡¯t help but make shitty speeches.

    Though I wasn¡¯t such a type, I imagined many people find it enjoyable. It did feel nice when my schemes succeeded, but I didn¡¯t value others enough to care about their reactions. For me, gloating was a waste of time.

    ¡°But what a rude guest you turned out to be,¡± Rabbit Ears continued. ¡°Why did you have to destroy the precious base we built with sweat, blood, and money? Mostly money. Money that we acquired by shedding the blood of others.¡±

    I got the gist of the Guardian Angel¡¯s plan. If we ran, Rabbit Ears would¡¯ve immediately ordered us killed, like a dog chasing out of instinct. It was three versus eight. Not good odds.

    By drawing this out while he monologued, we might find an opening.

    Or, we could¡¯ve run far away already. Bottomline, I still didn¡¯t understand what the Guardian Angel was up to. I also couldn¡¯t fathom the point of not immediately transforming into Blanchette.

    ¡°Answer me, Red Hood!¡± Rabbit Ears demanded.

    ¡°Erind,¡± Deen said in a low voice. ¡°I think you¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± I whispered back.

    ¡°Be brave. I¡¯m right behind you.¡±

    I stopped puking at Deen¡¯s bullshit and faced my enemies as confidently as possible with my crawled-out-of-the-sewer get-up. I removed my mask made from strips of my jeans.

    A certain grandeur and mysticism surrounded a true Adumbrae from the eyes of the fake that they¡¯d, unconsciously or not, put me on a pedestal. Not only that, I did have quite the resume as Blanchette. I should capitalize on that fearsome impression.

    ¡°The name¡¯s Erind Hartwell,¡± I said, relaxing my muscles and steadying my breathing.

    I should show no fear¡ªthese augmented bastards with scanners in their bionic eyes would pick up if I were only pretending. They¡¯d find it unsettling if I was calm while Deen and Boojum were tensed, maybe even afraid.

    And it was easy to calm myself.

    After the initial shock of the ambush, I had pretty much adjusted to the situation. In a way, I was having fun, the chill sort of fun. Life and death struggles were par for the course after I became an Adumbrae. This was my natural habitat.

    ¡°To be accurate, that¡¯s the name of this body I inhabit,¡± I clarified. Deen inhaled sharply behind me. Couldn¡¯t she tell I was acting? This made me more interesting enough not to get immediately killed. ¡°Such a nice girl, this Erind Hartwell.¡± And pretty. And cute. And caring¡ªno, not that one.

    ¡°What is your real name,¡± Rabbit Ears asked, obviously hooked by my introduction. He pointed at me, then at his head. ¡°The ¡®you¡¯ inside of that girl.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have any,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve only recently awakened. However, people have been calling me Red Hood while I¡¯m out eating. You can call me by either name.¡±

    ¡°Well then, Red Hood, how about you tell me why you decided to turn this place into a restaurant? You have eaten so many of my people and caused much destruction. Pray tell, Adumbrae, what brings you here?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t know I was supposed to answer that question.¡± I placed my hands on my hips to mimic him. ¡°I thought it was rhetorical. And you¡¯ve said it yourself¡ªI¡¯m an Adumbrae. There¡¯s no point asking me about my motives.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Rabbit Ears nodded. ¡°That was a dumb question from me.¡±

    Vanessa peeked through the gap between the broad arms of Rabbit Ears and Bouncer Twin Two. She glared at me.

    This betraying cunt! Did she change sides again because of the prank I played on her while in my werewolf form? If she didn¡¯t attack me with her mouth familiars, I wouldn¡¯t have bothered with her.

    Another possibility¡ªwhat if she planned for this right from the start? But that couldn¡¯t be; I decided to come here with my real body. Also, she should¡¯ve alerted the whole place to prepare when I came here as Blanchette.

    Rabbit Ears paced with his hands still on his hips. ¡°A true Adumbrae! An Adumbrae in control of the body, unlike Euphonia and Legba. Comparable to an animal blindly following its instincts to consume. Or perhaps a force of nature is a more apt description.¡±

    While Rabbit Ears spouted shit, Vanessa mouthed a message to me, warily looking at the others beside her.

    Fuck, I wasn¡¯t any good at lip-reading. Vanessa pointed to her right, my left. What was that supposed to mean? What do I care about White Beanpole?

    ¡°Yes, Adumbrae are a force of nature,¡± Rabbit Ears continued. ¡°Force majeure, business contract terminology. You may not think so from my appearance, but I was a prominent businessman before I became infamous.¡±

    Vanessa tilted her head while continuing to point. She stopped when Magenta Cannon glanced at her. Then I realized she wasn¡¯t pointing at White Beanpole but at the man further left¡ªFinlay. He couldn¡¯t use his powers with the blue machine active.

    Vanessa had prodded Rabbit Ears to use the blue machine. Was she telling me to kill Finlay?

    My eyes focused on the blue box on Rabbit Ears¡¯ chest as his monologue dragged on.

    ¡°I recall a hurricane leveling my beachside mansion in Florida,¡± he said. ¡°There was no point getting angry at the weather. I suppose it¡¯s the same as an Adumbrae strolling in our base, looking to scourge some morsel of human flesh.¡±

    A light bulb lit up in my head. A fight would''ve erupted immediately if I was already in my Blanchette form. The blue machine would catch me off guard, and the Tea Party would kill me when I reverted to my lovable Erind self.

    ¡°Although I won¡¯t get angry at a hurricane or a hungry Adumbrae,¡± Rabbit Ears said, ¡°I won¡¯t simply turn a blind eye to you, Ms. Red Hood, standing right in front of me.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to kill me then?¡± I smiled and matched his pacing but in the opposite direction. As he walked to my right, closer to the elevator shaft, I walked left.

    Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel wanted us to stay¡ªthat meant we could win. Not just ¡®could.¡¯ We will win! It would''ve told us to run if we had lost in its future vision. But I should act soon. Any victory, or the start of it, should happen within ten minutes of the Guardian Angel¡¯s last words to Deen.

    ¡°Kill you? That is a possibility,¡± Rabbit Ears said. ¡°Though I¡¯d rather avoid such a harsh outcome. No one profits from further fighting.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the hold-up?¡± Finlay screeched, not able to hold his anger any longer. ¡°Kill her already!¡±

    ¡°Silence!¡± Rabbit Ears stomped as he roared in Finlay¡¯s direction. There were no more quakes or wiggly floor waves, but his foot cracked the ground. Finlay shrunk. ¡°Be respectful while I have a conversation with others. And that includes you!¡±

    Rabbit Ears pointed at the elevator.

    Only now did I notice that Boojum was climbing up the shaft¡¯s frame, cautious to remain in the cover of the wide metal beams.

    Was this dick just leaving us? I had assumed he was all heroic like Deen. Maybe he considered us dead and decided to escape on his own?

    ¡°Get him!¡± Rabbit Ears said. ¡°I¡¯m not done talking to Red Hood here. He¡¯s next. I have some words for him, especially after our previous meeting.¡± Bouncer Twin One and Silver Cleavage jogged to the elevator shaft. Rabbit Ears turned to me. ¡°Last time, that brat took a chunk off me.¡±

    I should attack now.

    But who do I go for?

    Those fuckers by the elevator shaft, and then team up with Boojum? No, too obvious. The rest would attack, and it¡¯d be three versus eight, maybe seven if Vanessa would stay out of it. I shouldn¡¯t let them all clump together. And I didn¡¯t want to babysit Deen and Boojum.

    Best attack elsewhere and split our enemy into manageable chunks. Rush straight at Rabbit Ears? Also too obvious. Someone else, someone the Tea Party wouldn¡¯t instinctively react to protect.

    ¡°Why are you working with¡ª?¡± Rabbit Ears began to say.

    I charged toward Finlay.

 5.52

    When I fought Auron, I ignored Myra¡¯s lesson to keep my distance against an Adumbrae. I was confident I could pulverize that pompous weakling without breaking a sweat. Finlay and another Adumbrae even joined the fight, but all they could manage was flee with a dying Auron. My super strength far surpassed theirs. I knew it before the fight began.

    In contrast, I was now rushing at several Adumbrae and augmented people.

    Not only did they have weapons, but I also had no clue how strong they were. Though unlikely, I¡¯d be fucked if they were as strong as Stella.

    But I didn¡¯t hesitate. I wasn¡¯t going off the script of the Guardian Angel. This is the script!

    ¡°You fucking bitch!¡± Finlay yelled as he fired his gun.

    Bullets nibbled my raised arms protecting my face. No pain, just itchiness. I didn¡¯t slow down. Finlay hesitantly turned, probably thinking of bolting for a split second. But he must¡¯ve realized he couldn¡¯t outrun me.

    Instead, he raised the gun like a club. ¡°Help¡ªoomph!¡±

    I headbutted Finlay in the stomach before he could swing his gun. Not caring about the shouting that erupted, I held Finlay¡¯s midsection, my head still compressing his innards, and continued running. I used him as a battering ram to break through the drywall of the office building behind him. Past chairs, tables, and cabinets; we plowed through all of them.

    ¡°Let go!¡± Finlay brought his elbow down on my back. ¡°You¡ªyeargh!¡±

    I smashed him against the bare walls of the cavern on the opposite side of the building. He would¡¯ve bounced off if I wasn¡¯t holding him. He coughed blood on my shirt. I released him.

    Finlay dropped. His knees touched the ground. His stupid, disoriented face was level with my chest.

    The head. The weakness of the Adumbrae. Those with heads, anyway. I didn¡¯t let Finlay fall to the floor.

    My fist landed squarely on his nose. His head banged back against the rock. My next punch collapsed his cheek into his mouth. I wailed away without a restrain, zoning out everything.

    Knuckles crunched bones and teeth and flattened flesh. Copious amounts of blood spurted as if I was pressing an orange with each punch. I blinked to clear my eyes as Finlay¡¯s blood bathed my face. I didn¡¯t let up, punching so fast that individual thuds flowed into a drumroll. No more teleporting bullshit from you!

    My fingers hurt. The skin on my knuckles burned. If my strike angled wrong, my wrists suffered. The impact of each hit raced up my arms and rocked my body. I punched so hard I felt the craggy wall through minced flesh. Flying chunks of meat became flying rocks. And was that an arm that twirled away?

    Soon, all I could see was red. White noise filled my hearing. I didn¡¯t stop punching, nearly forgetting what I was supposed to do.

    Great pain suddenly overcame me. My muscles uncontrollably seized. I had experienced this before! Electrocution!

    I gritted my teeth, refusing to scream. I resisted my muscles contracting. The pain snapped me out of my fixation. I finally processed what was in front of me.

    The wall was a cross-section of a wasp¡¯s nest. Blood painted the collection of craters. Where did Finlay go? A body was lying next to my feet. Everything above the stomach was gone as if a shark chomped it off.

    The intensity of the shocks increased. Convulsions rocked my body like goosebumps on steroids. I could barely focus my thoughts. With great effort, I willed my legs to kick off. I dove under a nearby table.

    Instant relief. But I didn¡¯t have time to feel relieved.

    I crawled across the white tiles, pushing aside chairs and partitions. Gunfire followed. Wood splinters sprinkled my hair. I was probably also hit; I wasn¡¯t sure.

    Reaching an open spot between two rows of cubicles, I pushed off the floor and ran. Something broad came up in my peripheral vision. At first, I stupidly thought the wall rushed at me, but it was a cabinet pushed by someone behind it.

    The cabinet sandwiched me against the cavern wall. Books and folders cascaded down on me. A fist burst out of the wood and hit my face. I caught the arm before it could retreat through the cabinet. My hand clasped around his wrist tight like a manacle.

    White sleeves? Gauging the strength exerted in pulling away, White Beanpole must be an Adumbrae¡ªmy next victim.

    I crashed through flimsy wood panels and wildly attacked White Beanpole like a pissed-off cat. A timer was ticking. I didn¡¯t know how long Deen could survive without her Guardian Angel. I should pick off as many enemies as possible before all of them could gang up on me. My plan wasn¡¯t going so well because White Beanpole was slippery as fuck!

    I was stronger than him, but he somehow slipped from my grasp. I should be faster, but I couldn¡¯t catch him again. He rained kicks on my body with fancy martial arts, keeping me at a distance with his long legs. I was like a kid getting toyed with.

    Glints of metal. The skin on my arms stung. Blades had emerged from White Beanpole¡¯s sleeves and the ends of his shiny white shoes. The swords flashed; I couldn¡¯t follow them. They cut my clothes and messily whipping hair but could only inflict shallow wounds on my body.

    ¡°This is for Renais!¡± White Beanpole snapped his leg at me, slicing my eye.

    Red filled my vision, but I could still see. My wounds rapidly healed. I didn¡¯t bother evading in my mad attempt to grab White Beanpole. This asshole was wasting my time!

    ¡°Get out of the way!¡± Magenta Cannon yelled. He stood several feet to my right, training a cannon arm on us. ¡°I can¡¯t get a clear¡ªWhat!¡±

    I charged Magenta Cannon instead of sticking to White Beanpole for safety. I picked up a foldable steel chair as my shield. Magenta Cannon roared a curse as he fired. I staggered but didn¡¯t fall. Another shot, and my knees buckled.

    Searing pain radiated from my sternum. I could smell my burnt flesh. I didn¡¯t want to check myself.

    This piece of shit! I threw the smoldering halves of the thin metal chair at Magenta Cannon like frisbees before he could fire again.

    The peacock-looking bastard ducked. I lunged at him and kneed his face¡ªno point keeping my distance if my enemies had guns. I had to get up close and personal to win.

    ¡°Ugh! You¡¯ll pay¡ª!¡± Magenta Cannon didn¡¯t finish saying what I¡¯ll pay because I stomped him to the ground.

    ¡°Black Spade!¡± shouted White Beanpole. Did he mean Magenta Cannon?

    Who cared about the real name of a man about to die? It was White Beanpole¡¯s fault, not allowing me to kill him, that made me go for his friend instead. I held both sides of Magenta Spade¡¯s head and raised him face front to White Beanpole.

    The Adumbrae pulled back his bladed kick that was about to slice Black Cannon.

    ¡°Put him down,¡± White Beanpole began to say, ¡°and we¡¯ll allow you¡ªNO!"

    I squeezed the head of Black Magenta between my palms. Magenta Cannon didn¡¯t have any metal bits in his head. After a small effort collapsing his skull, it was like squeezing a wet sponge. I closed my eyes and turned away as blood splattered me. Surprisingly easy how humans could die.

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    ¡°BLACK SPADE!¡± White Beanpole shrieked hoarse. He took advantage of my momentary blindness and drove his blade straight at my face just as I dropped his friend¡¯s pancake head.

    The blade penetrated my left cheek, entering my mouth. It was a grating feeling as it scraped my teeth. I bit down on the edge. White Beanpole gasped when he couldn¡¯t yank it free.

    I grabbed his arm, my fingers digging into his flesh. This time, I wasn¡¯t letting go.

    He yelped as I crushed his forearm bones.

    I stuck close so he couldn¡¯t use his stupid shoe blades.

    White Beanpole raised his other arm. There was a flash and a fountain of blood.

    I blinked, wondering what had happened. White Beanpole fled out of the wrecked office. I stared at the severed forearm I held, the white fabric covering it partially covered by blood.

    ¡°Just like a lizard cutting its tail,¡± I mumbled in amusement, recalling an episode in Animal Channel. That made me the predator.

    Two down.

    Five to go. Maybe six if Vanessa wanted a rematch.

    Finlay¡¯s really dead¡­ That guy was like a cockroach, escaping at every turn. It still hadn¡¯t sunk in that he was finally dead¡ªhe seemed like the sort of bad guy who¡¯d resurrect in a movie sequel. And celebrations were for later.

    I had to finish off the bigger cockroaches.

    I kicked down a door to exit the office. That was one less teleporting gateway bullshit for them to use.

    Another battle raged by the elevator shaft. Boojum and Deen weaved through the steel frame like monkies while Silver Titties and a Bouncer Twin¡ªI couldn¡¯t tell if he was One or Two¡ªpursued them with blades wrapped in blue lighting. I vaguely remember a BID agent wielding them during the raid at Eve. Another Bouncer Twin stayed on the ground, firing at Boojum and Deen.

    My eyes passed by Vanessa, standing uselessly away from everyone else¡ªgood news for me¡ªbefore landing on a very angry Rabbit Ears. He glowered, head slightly bowed as if he planned to skewer me with his horns. His metal jaw jutted further than before if that was possible.

    ¡°Three of you are no match for a little girl?¡± Rabbit Ears spat at White Beanpole by his side.

    His subordinate didn¡¯t reply. White Beanpole was busy tying a turn-bouquet or tourniquet whatever above the stump of his arm, biting down one end of a strip of white cloth as he tightened the knot. His regeneration wasn¡¯t as fast as mine.

    ¡°Do I have to do everything here?¡± Rabbit Ears grabbed the scruff of White Beanpole¡¯s clothes and threw him back. ¡°Make yourself useful and help the twins capture those rats climbing up. I¡¯ll handle this.¡±

    White Beanpole picked himself up and ran to the elevator shaft.

    Rabbit Ears beckoned at me with a finger as if I was a dog. ¡°Red Hood, come at me! You¡¯ll find I¡¯m more than a match for you.¡± He tapped the device on his chest, the blue brain thingy pulsing incessantly. ¡°Since we both can¡¯t use our abilities with this turned on, I swear upon my honor, the little I have of it, that I won¡¯t utilize my bioaugmentronics in our fight. Let this be a contest of strength!¡±

    One-on-one against the enemy boss? This was the climax of the movie.

    I could see Rabbit Ears¡¯ intent¡ªsave his subordinates while proving himself superior to a true Adumbrae. His horns told me that he didn¡¯t want to stay human. It must irk his huge ego that as strong and heavily augmented as he might be, he was just a fake.

    My reply to Rabbit Ear¡¯s challenge was to sprint toward him. I had my fill of cardio for the day with all this running. Fucking no way I was going to trust this asshole¡¯s word not to shoot me. And closing the distance might discourage him from using electroshock weapons.

    Rabbit Ears threw his metal fists. They whistled as they swooshed over my ducked head¡ªbeing short had its advantages. Gusts of wind followed his punches. They¡¯d undoubtedly hurt if they connected. I bobbed as I ran around him. He spun while trying to hit me.

    I eyed the machine on his chest. Too risky. If I went for it, he¡¯d catch me.

    Should I even destroy it? I needed to put on my mask, get hurt, and eat before my Blanchette power could start snowballing. Two enemy Adumbrae: Rabbit Ears and White Beanpole. I wasn¡¯t sure if Silver Titties was one too. The situation might flip if they had overpowered bullshit powers.

    I focused on evading, not bothering to counterattack.

    Rabbit Ears roared in frustration. It must¡¯ve looked like I was toying with him. And that was indeed what I was doing.

    He brought clasped hands down on me like a sledgehammer. I rolled left. Shards of concrete scattered as his fists dug a crater where I had stood.

    I was beside him, his head lowered to a foot above mine.

    Rabbit Ears had a raised brow, confused about something. Was there dirt on my nose? What was the expression I had on? I didn¡¯t think further, hastily uppercutting his jaw as the non-mechanical part of his face twisted in a fury. I hit him before he could stand straight. The metal crumpled, his head thrown back.

    But I couldn¡¯t budge him any more than that. I didn¡¯t punch hard enough. His weird face threw me off.

    ¡°That hurts!¡± Rabbit Ears swung his arm and caught my stomach, sending me flying in the direction of the elevator shaft.

    I clawed the ground as I slammed down to stop myself from rolling. A metallic taste filled my mouth. Pain shot up in my midsection like the monthly cramps girls know and love but situated a bit higher. I looked down at my body.

    The lower half of my shirt was burned away, its frayed fringes had melted and stuck to my skin. There were no holes or wounds on my skin, just an angry reddishness from Rabbit Ears¡¯ strike. Though that was fading, along with the pain.

    ¡°So that¡¯s why it feels so airy,¡± I mumbled. ¡°Joining the bare midriff trend, I guess.¡±

    ¡°Red Hood, do you feel pain?¡± Rabbit Ears balled his massive fists and shook them at me. ¡°Come! Don¡¯t tell me that¡ªOy! Where are you going?¡±

    I went for the Bouncer Twin¡ªlet¡¯s assign him the number Two¡ªstanding at the base of the elevator shaft. People usually complained about movie fight scenes where a bunch of bad guys took turns attacking the protagonist instead of going in all at once. But what about the opposite?

    Ignore the big bad boss and take down his henchmen one by one.

    Bouncer Twin Two was busy getting a clear shot of Deen and Boojum fighting other Tea Party fuckheads a few stories above. White Beanpole was climbing the metal beams to join the party. He moved surprisingly fast despite lacking an arm. There was someone else scaling the structure around the elevator shaft.

    Vanessa? What was she doing?

    ¡°Behind you!¡± Bouncer Twin One spotted me from his vantage point and warned his brother below. A weapon popped out of Twin One¡¯s back and swiveled to point down at me.

    I zigzagged. Balls of electricity burst in my path. The static made my hair stand.

    A dozen feet away from Bouncer Twin Two. He turned around and strafed my direction with deafening gunfire.

    Bullets tore through my clothes and penetrated my flesh. The impact actually made me stagger. What the fuck were these? Armor-piercing rounds or some shit?

    Ignore the pain! I was so close to Twin Two. I bent low as he made another pass with the roaring guns attached to his wrists. With each step, I dug the balls off my feet into the ground so I wouldn¡¯t get pushed back. My powerful muscles coiled and ready, I kicked off the floor and dove at Bouncer Twin Two.

    A flash of blue light. Electricity coursed through my body.

    Twin Two grabbed both my arms¡ªhis metallic hands so large they enclosed my forearms whole¡ªand dangled me in front of him like clothes on a line. Antennas had sprouted out of his shoulders, sending tendrils of lightning to envelope us both. It was out of a mad scientist¡¯s laboratory. Somehow, Bouncer Twin Two wasn¡¯t affected by it.

    ¡°You Adumbrae are nothing special,¡± he scoffed, his earthy voice drowned by crackles of electricity and the explosions of battle above us. He shook me as if I was a rowdy kitten.

    Crush his head! Don¡¯t mind the pain! Force your muscles to listen! Crush his head!

    I was on auto-pilot, desperate to carry out my single goal. Fighting spasming muscles, I contracted my abs and swung my lower body up. I caught his head with my legs.

    Bouncer Twin Two ¡°With technology, we can level the¡ªwhat are you¡ª?¡±

    I squeezed his head between my legs.

    ¡°Stop that!¡± He tried pulling me away by my arms, but I didn¡¯t let go of his head. His bionic eyeballs bulged out of their sockets. He cried blue tears, some sort of chemical, followed by blood. Sparks danced on his metallic bits as they got warped. I felt heat scorching my thighs. ¡°MOTHERFU¡ªGAAAAH!¡±

    Bouncer Twin Two let go of my arms and tried prying my legs off. I hung from his head, my legs a closing vise giving him an agonizing death.

    An upside-down Rabbit Ears was coming, screaming about fighting him like a man. His augmented arms sprouted wicked spikes, electricity dancing on the pointy ends.

    I raised my upper body¡ªabs and cardio day¡ªand stabbed Twin Two¡¯s left eye with straightened fingers. This was my favorite move. Twin Two wobbled as he screamed. I punched his open eye socket, burrowing my fist deep into his deformed head. He fell on his back with a loud crash.

    I scrambled out of the way just as Rabbit Ears slammed the ground where I had been. Flying pieces of Bouncer Twin Two accented the waves of electricity spreading out of Rabbit Ear¡¯s attack.

    One more down.

 5.53

    ¡°How dare you kill my trusted subordinate!¡± Rabbit Ears growled, standing in the bloodied pit he had cleaved. ¡°I picked him and his brother off the streets and raised them to be fine young men of flesh and steel!¡±

    Why was this fucker blaming me?

    He couldn¡¯t be totally positive I had offed his minion before he came crashing down like an impatient meteor. Yes, I substituted part of Twin Two¡¯s head with my fist, but who was to say he was already dead by then? No one, because Rabbit Ears already squished Twin Two.

    While Rabbit Ears spouted shit, I scanned my surroundings for anything to use. Only rubble was near.

    I stole a glance up the elevator shaft. Boojum was having a hard time against White Beanpole, the latter slinking through the wide beams like a gymnast. I couldn¡¯t see Deen or Twin One; they might be fighting on the other side because I could hear gunfire. I wasn¡¯t too worried for my best friend because one thing I learned from Finlay was that annoying people were hard to kill.

    Deen was annoying as fuck, so she should still be alive.

    And was that Vanessa choking Silver Titties?

    I snapped my head back to face Rabbit Ears before he could check what I was looking at. He continued his delusional accusations, oblivious to Vanessa¡¯s betrayal. I examined his spiked arms. More like road rollers with a rock metal fashion sense.

    So much for not using augs, I thought with a smirk. Seeing what happened to Bouncer Twin Two, I shouldn¡¯t push my thrill-seeking tendencies.

    Rabbit Ears noticed my stare. ¡°You forced me to use this!¡± he yelled, shaking his wrecking ball of a fist at me, covered in furious electricity and flecks of Bouncer Twin Two. ¡°You made me dishonor myself!¡±

    He correctly guessed what I was thinking, but I couldn¡¯t fathom his mental gymnastics. Was he seriously blaming me that he broke his promise not to use augs? This guy was fucking crazy, and that was saying something as Deen¡¯s best friend. Blaming others for his faults¡ªthis must be why he was the Tea Party boss.

    ¡°I¡¯ll have your head for this, Red Hood!¡± Rabbit Ears declared. ¡°Nothing will be left after I¡¯m done with you!¡±

    He charged, hunched over and arms out, his horns pointed forward.

    I sprang left, palming a couple of stones as I rolled. Gusts blew over me as if a semi-trailer raced past. Should I change his nickname to Chatty Bull? Chatty Bunny also sounded funny. Oh, it rhymed!

    Rabbit Ears crashed into a stack of wooden crates. Dozens of canned goods rolled across the floor like a spreading puddle. A few reached my feet. Rabbit Ears emerged from the heaps of splintered wood with an angry roar. The wood around him caught fire, caressed by tendrils of electricity.

    I hurled stones at him.

    Rabbit Ears didn¡¯t bother to evade, jutting his chin out as a challenge.

    The stones hit his head¡ªI should get a Girl Scout badge for my aim¡ªand made him stagger back. The stones got pulverized upon hitting the metal half of his head. For sure, he was surprised by how hard I threw.

    I didn¡¯t aim for the blue device thingy. I was no longer wary of their Adumbrae abilities¡ªVanessa joined our side, so that was a big plus¡ªbut I wanted to rub in Rabbit Ear¡¯s ugly face that he could use all the augs he wanted, and it wouldn¡¯t save him. Blanchette wasn¡¯t required. I was going to break this bastard''s horns myself and shove them up his¡ªokay, I¡¯m not going to do that last part.

    Rabbit Ears chuckled as he massaged his deformed chin. Electricity from his arms wrapped his head, but he didn¡¯t seem fazed. Some of his installed bioaugmentronics countered the weakness of the Adumbrae.

    ¡°This is going to need a replacement,¡± he said, slurring his words a bit. The fire around him spread to the crates further back, the rising red glow reflected on his metal parts. ¡°You have a good throwing arm. But is that all¡ª?¡±

    A metal can connecting with his nose interrupted his blabbering. The can burst open and bathed him with baked beans. Asparagus spears came next, and then mushroom soup. The Tea Party had nice provisions. I continued throwing every canned good within reach. Mom would be angry at how much food I wasted.

    ¡°You disrespectful little bitch!¡± he boomed, stomping for another pass.

    I dove out of the way.

    Again and again, he tried to ram me. More wooden crates caught fire, and metal ones crumpled. Food, mechanical parts, clothes, and whatnot scattered everywhere. I led him away from the elevator shaft, ensuring his back was to it.

    ¡°Are you afraid of me, Red Hood?¡± Rabbit Ears yelled, spit mixed with bright blue liquid flying around. ¡°Are the tales of the destruction you caused in La Esperanza a hoax?¡±

    He leaped at me, slamming down his fists to create more craters. He redecorated his precious base with nothing to show for it.

    ¡°Answer me!¡± he demanded. ¡°Show me the monster that destroyed my base!¡±

    I didn¡¯t rush to engage him¡ªjust a bit more of playing tag. Deen and the others were winning.

    Vanessa and Deen were up against White Beanpole¡ªthe latter had regrown most of his severed arm. A crumpled metal ragdoll was stuffed into a corner of the steel structure¡ªSilver Titties meeting an unfortunate end before I could give her a better nickname. Bouncer Twin One was still not in view, likely already killed by Deen.

    A bloody Boojum struggled to climb back up to the fight from a few stories below. White Beanpole must¡¯ve kicked him off the structure. Boojum¡¯s healing seemed to be slow without his sucky-sucky ability.

    ¡°The fearsome Red Hood turned out to be a coward!¡± Rabbit Ears shouted.

    I snorted while perched on a metal freight container, carefully watching his next move. Goading wouldn¡¯t work if I didn¡¯t care squat about others.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t want to come,¡± he said, ¡°Just stand there, and I¡¯ll blast you!¡±

    Rabbit Ears held his electrified arms aloft.

    The lightning show ceased. Spikes receded into thick metal plates. Next to disappear were his hands into the barrels of his arms. A keen drone started as a drill screwed upwards to replace his left hand. His right arm remained an open hole stump¡ªa hugeass cannon.

    Rabbit Ears aimed at me. I jumped off the container.

    KABOOM!

    The blast smacked my back and sent me tumbling. I pushed myself up and sprinted. Wow, that was fucking powerful.

    My entire back stung. A minty feeling told me my shirt and skin were torched. There were points with gnawing pain. Several shrapnel lodged into my flesh. I didn¡¯t flinch; this was normal for me now.

    I ran in a wide arc in front of Rabbit Ears. Explosions trailed me. My hair, previously cut by White Beanpole, had grown back, wildly whipped around. Unfortunately, my clothes couldn¡¯t regenerate.

    Though this wasn¡¯t the time to think of my appearance or modesty. The fighting had been going on for several minutes; we were undoubtedly past any future that Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel could¡¯ve seen. Our victory wasn¡¯t assured. Rabbit Ears was going strong.

    A huge smile was on my face while running as the cavern was consumed by fire and the earth quaked from the continuous explosions. It¡¯s like I¡¯m in a movie!

    I made Rabbit Ears angrier by doing a couple of cartwheels, making things more thrilling. I almost spun out of control, given how fast I was going and how little practice I had since my cheerleader days, but I managed to steady myself back to running. I continued left until Rabbit Ears had a view of the elevator shaft.

    He stopped firing.

    Rabbit Ears gazed up, spotting White Beanpole chased up to the cavern ceiling by Deen, Vanessa, and Boojum. He uttered a string of curses and pointed his cannon up. This was the opening I was looking for!

    I sprinted to Rabbit Ears as he shot up at Deen. He noticed me coming with his peripheral vision and next aimed at me. I was too close¡ªless than ten feet away¡ªbut he still fired. I leaped at him. Something fast whizzed below me, and a powerful explosion followed, pushing me closer toward him.

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    I slammed right into the icky brain device on his chest, toppling him over. The brain got squished but didn¡¯t burst. Sturdy weird thing.

    But that wasn¡¯t my target. I sat on Rabbit Ears¡¯ chest and punched his stupid metal chin.

    A keen buzzing! The drill came from my left. Acting on instinct and feeling very much unstoppable, I grabbed the noisy drill. Not a very bright idea. It shredded the fingers of my left hand. I held onto it even as it stripped the flesh from my bone. My muscles were torn, and my fingers became powerless. The drill sputtered and sparked but continued to rotate.

    ¡°Yowshshtowpeedcunt!¡± Rabbit Ears managed to say despite his jaw all messed up. He tried to raise himself.

    I grabbed his neck and pushed him back down. It was like trying to choke a tree trunk; his neck was too broad, and my hand too small.

    ¡°GRAAARGH!¡± Rabbit Ears bellowed. ¡°DHAYSH!¡±

    With my mess of a left hand, I push the drill away from my face. Couldn¡¯t really call it a hand. It was mostly no more; frayed flesh and bits of bones. The drill shook me like a very bumpy ride.

    You are going to fucking die! I gritted my teeth, enduring the pain.

    I held on tighter to Rabbit Ears¡¯ neck, stabbing my fingers through the overlapping metal bands protecting his flesh. He roared again and tried to point his cannon arm at me. I stomped down on the barrel, playing the most painful and risky twister game.

    The drill weakened. I felt it in the vibrations rocking my body. I stopped blocking it with my stump of an arm, letting it pierce my left shoulder.

    ¡°Shiiiit!¡± A hiss of agony escaped my lips. Tears pooled at the edge of my eyes. I reached forward with my left arm¡ªmy two forearm bones were exposed¡ªand stabbed Rabbit Ears¡¯ bionic eye.

    He thrashed and twisted his body and actually managed to stand, with me hanging on to his front.

    I relentlessly force my left arm into his eye socket. I had his cannon arm in an awkward leglock and kept it away from me. Rabbit Ears retaliated by jabbing his drill into my side.

    Cramps are worse than this! I raged inside my head. I closed my right hand, taking a chunk from his neck. Rabbit Ears gargled a screamed. Then I pulled myself up to reach my goal. The horns!

    I managed to grasp Rabbit Ears¡¯ right horn. I tugged and broke the upper half off. Then I drove my new-found stake into his other eye. Rabbit Ears milled about before falling to his knees.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to die the same way as your subordinate,¡± I told Rabbit Ears. My left hand regenerated inside his head. I pushed his horn deeper into his brain. ¡°How sweet¡­¡±

    He stopped groaning. His muscles relaxed.

    Did I win?

    Rabbit Ears fell forward and pinned me to the ground.

    ¡°Fucking gross!¡± I pushed him off me, pulling my arm out of his much-enlarged left eye socket and crawling away.

    I stepped hard on the back of Rabbit Ears¡¯ neck, crushing his spine to ensure he was dead. Then I bent down and snapped off his other horn. Another souvenir? I shouldn''t forget or lose this one, unlike Vanessa''s necklace.

    Or should I shove this horn up¡ª? Naaah.

    I stared at my left hand.

    It was a fascinating sight. Bones formed and lengthened like hardening plaster. Muscle followed, its strands thickening as it coiled up the bones like vines climbing trellises. Then a blanket of skin covered my flesh.

    ¡°Aaaaaah!¡± A nasty scream from above.

    White Beanpole was falling, his outfit now more red than white. His arms flailed at a funny angle. Bright sparkles, like an army of fireflies, appeared out of nowhere and balled around him as he fell.

    ¡°Is he slowing down?¡± I mumbled. The power-canceling device on Rabbit Ears¡¯ chest had stopped working.

    I threw the horn I held at White Beanpole. And that was my souvenir gone.

    The horn struck him with such force that he slammed against the edge of one of the angular pillars supporting the structure. The horn nailed his stomach to the metal. His upper body violently folded over the edge of the beam. Unless his power was to bend his body in inhuman ways, I was pretty sure his spine was majorly fucked.

    Confirming my hunch, the fireflies around him dissipated.

    I raised a brow. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ it?¡±

    White Beanpole didn¡¯t move. I didn¡¯t get to see what his powers actually did.

    ¡°There should be a line here about his boss being the end of him,¡± I whispered. Maybe I should try my hand at one-liners next time. I was never good at being quippy. ¡°You¡¯re permanently fired¡­ from life. Okay, that was lame.¡±

    ¡°Erind!¡±

    Deen, Boojum, and Vanessa descended from the top of the elevator shaft. Deen wasn¡¯t exactly climbing down, but more like letting herself fall from beam to beam without losing her footing or hurting herself. She was furthest down. Her Guardian Angel must be back online.

    I slowly exhaled. It¡¯s over¡­ time for credits to roll.

    ¡°Erind, Erind, Erind!¡± Deen leaped off the metal structure, about a story off the ground. She had lost her mask. Then she ran to me with arms wide open. ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine.¡±

    She hugged me. ¡°Thank the Mother Core you¡¯re alive.¡±

    ¡°Mother Core¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯re supposed to say that to me.¡±

    ¡°Oh my gosh!¡± Deen gasped. Her eyes went wide. ¡°You¡¯re right. Is-is it offensive to you?¡±

    ¡°Of course not.¡± I smiled. ¡°Just messing with you.¡± I patted her arm with my newly regenerated left hand.

    ¡°You look awful¡ª¡± She began to say.

    ¡°Not everyone can be as beautiful as you,¡± I interjected with a mischievous grin.

    ¡°I¡¯m not kidding around, Erind,¡± Deen sternly replied. She wiped my cheeks. ¡°There¡¯s blood all over you. And your clothes! We need to cover you.¡±

    I didn¡¯t listen to Deen¡¯s fussing. I leaned left and glanced behind her.

    Vanessa had reached the floor. She didn¡¯t approach us, standing awkwardly at the base of the structure. She rubbed her right arm while looking away from us.

    Boojum hesitantly dropped to the floor. Half of him probably wanted to leave after everything that had happened¡ªand he was leaving us before shit went down anyway¡ªbut he still came down. Probably had many questions in his mind. Boojum glanced at Vanessa, then at the dead Rabbit Ears, before running to another corpse.

    I wouldn¡¯t have noticed Snark¡¯s dead body if Boojum didn¡¯t check on it. The body had tumbled away from its previous spot because of all the explosions and was covered by debris and stuff.

    ¡°Erind, I think this¡¯ll do for now.¡± Deen found a wide cloth, maybe a tarp cover, with its lower half on fire. She slapped it on the ground, threw it down, and stomped on it to kill the flames. She brought the still-smoking blanket and covered my front.

    ¡°Thanks very much,¡± I said. Such a caring person. But I hoped she wouldn¡¯t be as caring for what we¡¯d have to do.

    She hugged me again. ¡°Looks like we both need to do some shopping after this.¡±

    ¡°Deen¡­ listen.¡± I gently pushed her away. ¡°I owe you a lot of explaining.¡±

    ¡°The woman with metal bands on her arm?¡± Deen glanced back at Vanessa. ¡°She told me she¡¯s helping us with the eye thing and that she¡¯s some double agent.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s sort of part of it.¡±

    ¡°She also said you¡¯ve met before. And that¡­ you¡¯re friends.¡±

    ¡°We met at Eve, but just once. As for being friends, it¡¯s a complicated story¡ª¡±

    ¡°You can tell me later,¡± Deen said. ¡°I trust her if you trust her.¡±

    That wasn¡¯t true at all. From how Deen shielded me from Vanessa, I could tell she was a hundred percent suspicious. She wasn¡¯t doing anything about it because her Guardian Angel was probably telling her to stay still. Vanessa could fuck Deen up with her mouth familiars.

    ¡°I promise I¡¯ll explain everything later,¡± I said. ¡°But for now¡­ we need to do something about him.¡±

    I didn¡¯t need to explain who ¡®him¡¯ was. Deen turned to Boojum.

    He approached us while cradling Snark in his arms. Judging by his narrowed eyes and tightly pressed lips, Boojum brought his dead friend along to snack on in case of a fight.

    Boojum stopped a dozen feet away and loudly said, ¡°So, you¡¯re Red Hood?¡±

    Deen walked over to him, her hands up to show no threat. ¡°We can explain! Erind is part of our team.¡±

    ¡°I can piece it together,¡± he said. ¡°Red Hood is with the La Esperanza team. Stories of Red Hood saving people and fighting Adumbrae¡­ everything makes sense now.¡±

    ¡°Yes, exactly.¡± Deen. She tore the neckline of her shirt, displaying more of her chest. I thought Deen would wipe Boojum¡¯s memory with a view of her boobs, but she was pointing at something else. ¡°Look, I have an artificial Core, the same as you. Erind and I both have artificial Cores.¡±

    So that¡¯s why she covered me with this tarp, I thought, holding onto my makeshift blanket.

    ¡°If my powers are something the Professor wants to keep secret from you,¡± Deen continued, ¡°then Erind is an even bigger secret. We couldn¡¯t just reveal she¡¯s Red Hood.¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡± Boojum said. ¡°If we knew she was Red Hood, we would¡¯ve been more prepared for the Tea Party.¡± An accusatory tone crept into his voice. ¡°Isn¡¯t she the reason why the Tea Party attacked the Greaves Tech Fair?¡±

    I stole a glance at Deen. She gave me a small nod.

    ¡°We can¡¯t say for sure,¡± I said. ¡°But you¡¯re probably right.¡±

    ¡°Probably?¡± He raised his voice. ¡°Probably! Is that all you can say? Hundreds of people have died because of you!¡±

    ¡°Boojum, please,¡± Deen stepped closer to him. He brushed her away. ¡°You have to understand¡ª¡±

    ¡°I understand that my friend is dead,¡± he came nearer, presenting Snark¡¯s body. ¡°I understand that the Tea Party would''ve gone elsewhere if the two of you didn¡¯t attend the Tech Fair. Why the hell did you have to come to Vegas?¡±

    ¡°We have a mission here,¡± I said. And that mission was to meet Mom. But, of course, Boojum would interpret my statement differently.

    ¡°Fuck your mission! Are all the deaths worth it? They are all on you! Do you¡ªUgh.¡± He staggered and dropped his friend.

    Deen pummeled the back of Boojum¡¯s head.

 5.54

    ¡°Argh!¡± Boojum stumbled forward but didn¡¯t drop. Deen looked surprised he wasn¡¯t knocked down. Boojum twisted back at her. ¡°What the fu¡ª?¡±

    I grabbed his right wrist.

    Deen caught his other hand and pulled his arm out. ¡°Take back what you said about Erind!¡± She punched his nose. It wasn¡¯t strong enough. She might be unconsciously hesitating.

    Boojum tried to pull free; we held onto him, keeping his palms facing away. He struggled in vain to touch us. I bent his hand back until his wrist broke. Deen¡¯s hits stifled his screams.

    ¡°Erind has been through so much!¡± Deen shouted as Boojum¡¯s face became flatter with each swing. Flecks of blood flew. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare blame her!¡±

    I¡¯m surprised it¡¯s not my fault this time, I thought, trying not to giggle at Deen¡¯s reaction.

    Her Guardian Angel had probably told her to nod at me, signaling to play along Boojum¡¯s misconception that I was the reason the Tea Party gatecrashed the Tech Fair. He wasn¡¯t thinking right with his friend dead, and the Guardian Angel took advantage of that to make him lash out at me.

    And that ticked off Deen.

    At this point, it was hard to tell who was the pet between the invisible bastard and Deen.

    I twisted Boojum¡¯s right arm behind his back. Deen¡¯s punches continued like a jackhammer. Her face was twisted in a fury; this was the angriest I had ever seen her. Boojum got heavier, and he sagged to the floor. Was he knocked out or just pretending?

    Boojum¡¯s head limply rattled around like an arcade joystick as the punches came. His head almost hit me as it snapped back after one particularly powerful blow. His neck was super fucked up.

    ¡°Deen, stop!¡± I pulled Boojum a step back. Her strike whiffed.

    ¡°Erind, we can¡¯t let him live! He knows that¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want you to be burdened by this.¡±

    ¡°Burdened?¡±

    I released Boojum¡¯s hand. It limply swayed. He was down for the count but still breathing. I held his head like it was a basketball.

    Deen¡¯s eyes widened as she realized what I was about to do. She reached out but stopped before she touched my arms. She sharply drew her breath as I began to squeeze Boojum¡¯s head. A curious puzzled expression flitted her face.

    Hang on, why am I squeezing? I¡¯d just get myself dirty. Dirtier.

    I rotated Boojum¡¯s head to face me. His body tried to follow, but Deen held onto his left hand. Then she grabbed his shoulders and held him in place.

    Boojum¡¯s face lost its human features; his mother wouldn¡¯t recognize him. Deen was so messed up for doing this to him. I continued to rotate his head full three-sixty degrees. Bones cracked, skin tore, and streams of blood spurted.

    He was dead, right? How about one more round? That should do it.

    Add in a half-turn so Deen wouldn¡¯t see Boojum¡¯s face she had ruined. I¡¯m so considerate.

    Deen and I looked at each other over Boojum¡¯s shoulder.

    With no word passed between us, we let go of him at the same time.

    He dropped with a thud. His head rolled away, trailing blood across the floor. I must¡¯ve rotated it too much that his neck¡ªskin, muscles, bone, and all that¡ªgot torn off.

    Deen yelped, doing a tiny dance to avoid the head.

    Best friends murder tandem, was what I wanted to say aloud. For some inexplicable reason, I was proud of Deen for helping me kill someone. Second time now, is it?

    But I held my tongue, distracting myself by calculating how many degrees I turned Boojum¡¯s head. Seven-twenty? No. One-eighty more, so nine hundred degrees in total.

    Killing Boojum myself made me appear selfless, wanting to spare my friend the guilt of murdering someone. Though pretty cool and badass, it might be more fitting for a brooding character. Usually, the guy with a dark past and grey morals would do this in movies.

    Anyway, I could play this up for a trauma schtick in the future.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Deen exhaled long. ¡°At least it was quick.¡±

    ¡°It had to be done,¡± I grimly said, nudging Boojum¡¯s headless body with my foot. He was now with Snark if there was really an afterlife, which there very well might be, considering the existence of Adumbrae.

    That left Imani. And maybe Jubjub, if Imani had told her about me. If they got the word to the mysterious Professor that I wasn¡¯t a normal human, my problem would get disastrously big. That was for future Erind to deal with¡ªafter kicking so much ass, I didn¡¯t want to puzzle about other stuff. I have plenty on my plate right now.

    ¡°We had no choice,¡± I said. ¡°We couldn¡¯t let him tell others I¡¯m Red Hood. I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll keep quiet no matter what story we tell him.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ But I was going to¡ª"

    ¡°It had to be me; it was for my protection. I¡¯m not going to pass others my responsibility.¡± That line sounded pretty cool.

    ¡°I hope you¡¯re not going to do the same to me.¡± Vanessa walked up to us. She kicked Boojum¡¯s head to the side as she passed it.

    Despite trying to appear nonchalant, her wavering voice and pale lips, colored red by the blazing fire around us, betrayed her fear. There was hesitation in her gait, like she¡¯d instantly bolt if we lunged at her. She massaged her right arm; she hadn¡¯t reattached the metal bands covering it.

    What was the purpose of those? A fashion thing?

    ¡°I thought this guy was with you?¡± Vanessa cocked her head at Boojum¡¯s corpse.

    Whoops, Vanessa saw me betraying someone. Did it bring up bad memories? If anything, I gave her a quick death. Almost death. Though I¡¯d imagine regenerating her toasted body wasn¡¯t a pleasant experience.

    That was on her for not actually dying back then.

    ¡°They¡¯ll become my enemies if they know I¡¯m an Adumbrae,¡± I explained. ¡°He didn¡¯t realize it yet, but he¡¯ll eventually figure out I¡¯m not one of them.¡±

    ¡°I thought you were saving¡ªnever mind.¡± Vanessa gave Deen a sidelong glance.

    My best friend was looking at my other friend¡ªI did consider Vanessa a friend¡ªwith her right brow raised as high as it could go.

    ¡°We¡¯ve fought together,¡± Vanessa went on, ¡°but we haven¡¯t had a proper introduction.¡±

    Flames crept over the rest of the piles of crap stacked toward the back of the cavern. We weren¡¯t in danger, but it was getting hotter, and the smoke tickled my nose. This might not be the best place for a serious chat, but I wanted this over with before moving on.

    ¡°Deen, this is Vanessa. Vanessa Minnows,¡± I said. Maybe Deen knew her through rich social circles. ¡°She¡¯s related to the mayor of La Esperanza. Like a niece or something, right?¡±

    ¡°The former mayor,¡± Vanessa clarified. ¡°I¡¯m his niece, yeah.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re from our city, not Vegas?¡± Deen asked. ¡°Are you with the 2Ms? Not the Tea Party?¡±

    ¡°Too-ems? What¡¯s that?¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°Marc and Big Marcy,¡± I explained. ¡°Two M¡¯s. You¡¯re right, Deen. Vanessa¡¯s an artificial Adumbrae and a customer of the 2Ms. I met her back at the Eve club the night we infiltrated the place. Um, not exactly¡ªwe met after the explosion, so Eve and the arena beneath it were already destroyed. I had returned to my human body¡ªerm, you get what I mean¡ªand was running lost in the tunnels when I ran into her group.¡±

    I gave Deen a vaguely truthful summary of how I pretended to be one of the 2Ms¡¯ clients and went with Vanessa¡¯s group. Then we got hunted by BID drones.

    ¡°We were separated while running from the Skitters,¡± I said, meeting Vanessa¡¯s eye. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened to Vanessa after that. I thought she¡­ died.¡±

    Vanessa blinked fast. Her left cheek twitched. I was ready to interrupt her if she spoke wrong.

    ¡°We, uh, I was able to escape,¡± Vanessa said in a raspy voice. Her eyes were watery from the smoke or remembering her deceased friends. ¡°Only me. The others¡­ all the others got killed¡­ by the BID.¡±

    Vanessa was quick on the uptake that Deen had no idea of our barbeque session. But she wouldn¡¯t be able to guess why I wanted to keep it a secret. It wasn¡¯t that I didn¡¯t want to look like a complete psycho in the habit of executing people and roasting their corpses¡ªthat was only a minor part of it.

    This was mainly for Vanessa¡¯s safety.

    If Deen knew I tried to kill Vanessa, Deen would assume to the absolute max that Vanessa was back for revenge. Hell, I was also thinking of that. Deen could get pretty unpredictable when it came to protecting me¡ªboth a good and bad thing.

    I brought Vanessa¡¯s story to the present. ¡°Vanessa and I met each other again when I got teleported here,¡± I said. ¡°She helped me escape my prison. She¡¯s on our side.¡± I turned to Vanessa. ¡°Right?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t really care about this or that side,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°I promised to protect you. I did that when we escaped Eve, and I do it now. That¡¯s all.¡±

    Dammit! A simple ¡®yes¡¯ would¡¯ve been enough. Vanessa didn¡¯t want Deen to know about recruiting me to help Big Marcy, and I agree with that, but this protecting me talk would trigger Deen¡¯s pesky side.

    ¡°You two haven¡¯t met each other¡ª¡± Deen pointed at me then at Vanessa ¡°¡ªsince escaping from Eve?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± It was true, not counting Vanessa¡¯s peeping familiars.

    ¡°And Vanessa got these eyeballs that can freely move around?¡±

    I inclined my head at Vanessa.

    She nodded. ¡°I call them eye familiars.¡± As a mini-demonstration, a couple of the eyeballs lodging in her left arm revealed themselves. Deen flinched at the sight. The lids shut, and Vanessa¡¯s skin smoothened.

    ¡°When Pino and I passed through the portal door,¡± Deen said, ¡°an eyeball led us on a safe path through this base. That should be before Vanessa met you, Erind. You got teleported later.¡± Deen put her hands on her waist and snapped at Vanessa. ¡°How did you know to help us? How did you know we were with Erind?¡±

    ¡°I was observing you through¡ª¡±

    ¡°How long have you been surveilling us? Do you know where Erind¡¯s condo is in La Esperanza? Did you lead¡ª¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t!¡± Vanessa protested. ¡°I can never do that to Erind. I learned about Stella and her group attacking Erind¡¯s condo long after it happened.¡±

    ¡°Deen, calm down,¡± I said. Funny that she had the same thoughts as I did about Vanessa. I could definitely count on Deen if I¡¯d ever need to lessen my circle of friends. ¡°If Vanessa¡¯s our enemy, she wouldn¡¯t have helped us during the fight.¡±

    ¡°I also convinced March Hare to use the Auron field device,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°That box with a brain on it? It was an advantage that no one could use any ability because you, Erind, are physically the strongest among all of us. March Hare¡¯s power could¡¯ve collapsed this cavern, but he¡¯s too proud to turn off the Auron field until he was already losing.¡±

    Nice one, Vanessa. That was a big plus point for her.

    ¡°Because of it,¡± I said. ¡°I managed to kill the man who makes those weird ceramic puppets. The man who baited me to go through the¡ªVanessa! Have you seen my mom?¡±

    ¡°Your mother? She¡ª¡±

    I held Vanessa¡¯s upper arms and pulled her to the side so I¡¯d be facing her, and my back was toward Deen. I widened my eyes into saucers as I glared up at Vanessa.

    ¡°Have you seen my mom?¡± I repeated, stressing each word. ¡°The man with the puppets told me she¡¯s here. Do you know what she looks like? How long have your eyeballs been following us?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what she looks like,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°I spotted you with my eye familiars only after the Tea Party attacked the Tech Fair. Were you with your mom at that time?¡±

    Another good answer. But before I could continue my skit, Deen cut in.

    ¡°Erind¡¯s mother was on stage.¡± Deen came closer. I kept my face turned away from her. Of course, Deen would be interested in this. She promised to save Mom and made zero progress on that front. ¡°She¡¯s not hard to miss in a crowd. She¡¯s very tall, has white hair, aug-eyes¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve seen her,¡± Vanessa said. She described Mom¡¯s clothes.

    ¡°That¡¯s her!¡± Deen exclaimed. ¡°Where is she? Is she okay?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve saved her.¡±

    ¡°Where is she?¡± Deen asked again.

    Vanessa looked at me.

    I squeezed her arms, hoping the mouth familiars wouldn¡¯t wake up and bite me.

    Vanessa explained, ¡°I freed a few prisoners and teleported them somewhere near the Greaves convention center in Vegas. Actually, I led them with my eye familiars, the same as I did with you, to the correct doors. Don¡¯t worry. They¡¯re in a different building and a bit far from the attack site. They should be safe, including Erind¡¯s mom. I didn¡¯t know she was¡ª¡±

    ¡°Teleport with the portal door?¡± Deen interjected. ¡°How? I thought that was the power of that jerk with the fake people. Why would he help you?¡±

    ¡°You mean Finlay? The door is not his power. It¡¯s someone else¡¯s. I bribed that guy to help me save some people.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s really lucky that Mom¡¯s one of them,¡± I said. ¡°Thank you for saving her, Vanessa.¡±

    ¡°If only I saved more,¡± Vanessa said. She shot me a puzzled look, probably wondering what was with all the secrecy and fake stories.

    ¡°By the way, did you see where Pino went?¡± I asked, giving Vanessa the same piercing stare. "She was with Deen when... " I trailed my words, looking expectantly at Deen. She obliged, describing Pino''s appearance.

    The wrinkles on Vanessa''s forehead disappeared, and her eyes brightened. I could almost hear the ding of the lightbulb in her head.

    ¡°The metal woman?¡± Vanessa said, her eyes flicking between Deen and me. ¡°So, her name is Pino? I don''t know where she is. When I went to free you, I lost track of her during the commotion.¡±

    Fortunately, Vanessa understood that I was pretending not to know about Mom because I was hiding from Deen that I was Pino.

    ¡°Pino can take care of herself,¡± Deen said. ¡°Her body¡¯s almost indestructible. We should worry about ourselves and how to get out of here.¡±

    Glad that Deen had gotten off Vanessa¡¯s back, even if begrudgingly.

    ¡°Vanessa, where is here, exactly?¡± I asked, releasing my grip on her arm. The red marks of my grip on her skin were fading. ¡°Are we still in the US?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re in an abandoned mine in the Nevada desert,¡± she answered.

    Deen and I breathed sighs of relief.

    I snapped my fingers. ¡°I knew it. Hell is under Nevada!¡±

    That got a chuckle out of my friends.

    ¡°It does look like hell,¡± Deen said, looking around.

    The flames grew taller, scorching the cavern walls, but weren¡¯t spreading toward us because there was nothing flammable nearby. It reminded me of a brick oven with a fire on one side. The heat was becoming unbearable. My sweat seeped through what was left of my shirt and made my skin stick to my tarp cape.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± I said, jogging to the elevator while adjusting my covering into a wraparound shawl. ¡°Does the elevator work?¡±

    ¡°Black Spade fried the system during our escape,¡± said Vanessa, punching the keypad beside the door. It didn¡¯t do anything. ¡°But we can climb up here. Your not-so-friend got the right idea. Our only obstacle is the platform of this elevator which acts like the door of the shaft exit. We can bust through it.¡±

    ¡°Is the exit rigged with explosives?¡± Deen bitchily asked. It was subtle, but there was an edge to her tone. She didn¡¯t bother to mask her narrowed eyes glaring at Vanessa.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to climb up with you,¡± Vanessa indirectly answered what Deen implied. ¡°The Tea Party guys were supposed to use the platform to carry Erind¡¯s body if she had transformed into a giant werewolf. Or parts of her.¡±

    ¡°You were going to cut Erind up?¡±

    ¡°March Hare¡¯s plan, not mine,¡± Vanessa testily told Deen. ¡°He expected to win when we came here. This is also supposed to be an alternative escape route in case we get stranded.¡±

    ¡°Erind destroyed the doors you could use,¡± Deen noted. ¡°I assume it has to be like a normal door for the teleportation to work?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Furthermore, we weren¡¯t sure if the old man who controls the doors was truly on our side.¡± Vanessa glanced at me before staring up at the metal structure. ¡°But that¡¯s a topic for when we get out.¡±

    ¡°Are there guards up there?¡± I wondered.

    ¡°Just normal guys with guns,¡± said Vanessa. ¡°The three of us can easily handle them. We¡¯ll steal a vehicle and maybe a map to figure out where we are in the expansive Nevadan wilderness.¡± She did a little bow at Deen, gesturing at the elevator shaft. ¡°You go first. I¡¯m just waiting for my eye familiars to return to me. I spread a few of them around the base. If you don¡¯t trust me, we can wait for them, and I¡¯ll climb¡ª¡±

    Vanessa winced. A red line appeared on her left arm. It thickened, and blood dripped down.

    ¡°Someone killed my familiars,¡± she hissed, looking around.

    Deen and I faced out, peering into the roaring fire. Why was Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel not warning us? Was Vanessa mistaken? Maybe her eyeball pet got squished by a random falling rock.

    It turned out we might have an enemy.

    A large form, about the size of a car, walked through the flames. It was hard to make out what it was, but it had legs. And was that a head? With horns, it looked like.

    An amplified woman¡¯s voice blared, ¡°Erind Hartwell, you cheeky brat! You always gave your mother a headache when you were a kid. Do you remember me, your Auntie Dora?¡±

 5.55

    ¡°Auntie Dora?¡± I might¡¯ve heard that name before but couldn¡¯t place it.

    I began summoning my Blanchette mask, ready for a challenge. Our enemy¡ªI assumed she was one¡ªknew that we, mainly me, trashed the Tea Party boss and his minions, but still came here. Either she was pretty strong or stupidly confident.

    The large beast with a woman¡¯s voice shrugged off the curtain of fire and smoke. It revealed its monstrous self, serenely plodding on six feet toward us. Feet or hands?

    Its muscular legs, disproportionately lengthy compared to its body as if on stilts, ended in human hands. Its massive bulk was covered in a rugged wrinkly hide. A cross between a rhinoceros and a giraffe came to mind. Antlers of rebar bent like abstract art adorned its large oblong head. No visible eyes, but several holes lined its nose ridge.

    Deen stood to my right, fists raised, looking scary with the dried blood on her face looking like war paint. Still no word from her Guardian Angel. Vanessa was on my left. The slits all over her right arm quivered, with some opening to reveal rows of fangs.

    I grimaced. The gibbering mouth familiars were uncomfortably close.

    Three not-so-human girls versus whatever this was. Can we win?

    The bizarre monster¡ªI guess all of us were monsters¡ªopened its mouth. Its wide jaws didn¡¯t move, neither did it have lips, but the same voice spoke, ¡°Howya doin¡¯, Len-Len¡¯s daughter? Fierce performance you got here.¡±

    Len-Len? Daughter?

    Was this thing talking about Mom? Her nickname was Lendy, not Len-Len, but it sounded close.

    And also familiar.

    The monster opened its mouth wider and wider, literally grinning from ear to ear. It didn¡¯t stop there. The split continued down its neck, through its flanks. Its front part opened like a hatch, and out came a woman, pulling herself out of wire and organic veins before dropping to the ground.

    She was the one talking, not the monster behind her. ¡°We meet at last,¡± she said. ¡°Or, again? Do you remember your Aunt Dora?¡±

    This Aunt Dora weirdo was almost as tall as Mom and thin as me. She had wrinkled clothes that looked like she randomly grabbed the first thing in a super-packed suitcase. Her hair was tied with a polka-dotted ribbon, taming the hair close to her head before it blossomed into a frizzy mess.

    ¡°Should I know you?¡± I inched my Blanchette mask closer to my face.

    ¡°Why, yes,¡± she said, adjusting her round glasses. ¡°Really sad you forgot about me.¡±

    The glasses were probably just for show because she had glowing bionic eyes. The eyes were like my Mom¡¯s; the wearing fake glasses schtick was like me¡ªfunny how that worked. I hadn¡¯t seen anyone who wore eyeglasses in front of their aug-eyes. What was the point?

    More importantly, have I met this woman before? She seemed too memorable to forget.

    ¡°Euphonia!¡± Vanessa exclaimed.

    ¡°¡­is what I go by now,¡± Euphonia said. ¡°Before, I was called Eudora. That¡¯s Aunt Dora to you, Erind brat.¡±

    Why does she keep calling me a brat? Did she really know me when I was a child? Mom always told me I was the perfect daughter, so I had no idea what she was on about.

    ¡°Is she with the Tea Party?¡± I asked Vanessa.

    ¡°She¡¯s with the old man who uses the teleporting doors,¡± she replied. ¡°Both of them aren¡¯t really with us.¡±

    ¡°Then who are they with?¡± I remembered Vanessa¡¯s explanation about Legba, the small old man with a peculiar handbell. A mercenary of sorts hired by the Tea Party. In turn, Vanessa bribed him to help us bring Mom to safety and open a way for my real body to come to this base.

    Could we pay my Aunt Dora to help us? Deen could foot the bill.

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know,¡± Vanessa said, eyes flicking to Euphonia.

    ¡°How can you not know?¡± Deen snapped. ¡°She might be an enemy.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not an enemy if you gals behave yourselves,¡± said Euphonia. Four mechanical tentacles ending in clamps emerged from her back.

    Three of us tensed, wary of attacks.

    Hero-wannabe Deen held her hand to shield me as if that¡¯d help. Deen wasn¡¯t telling us to run, so everything should be fine. For now. Would there be a future problem if we let this random woman live, given that she knew who I was?

    ¡°Don¡¯t be so uptight, Erind,¡± Euphonia said. ¡°Can¡¯t you recognize your ol¡¯ aunt? I told you to call me Aunt Dora when you were a kid, but you never did. Creepy kid you were. It was as if you didn¡¯t care about anything. Can you call me Aunt Dora now?¡± She spread her hands wide as if beckoning me to hug her. Her mechanical arms mirrored her movement.

    ¡°None of my aunts have augs.¡± I closed my right hand to dissipate the Blanchette mask. This mecha-octopus bitch was playing mind games, regardless of whether she was telling the truth or not. I had to act cool and confident, unfazed by her tricks.

    ¡°Are you like a long-lost sister of my mother or something?¡± I wondered. ¡°I never really paid attention at family reunions, so I¡¯m sorry if I can¡¯t remember you¡­ auntie.¡± I sarcastically stressed the last word.

    Euphonia laughed. Her tentacles wiggled like eels. ¡°We¡¯re not related by blood. I¡¯m your oul dear¡¯s co-worker from way back in Ireland. Remember your mother used to work there? You were a wee girl when you visited the office then, so you must¡¯ve forgotten about me.¡±

    If Euphonia knew Mom, was she the reason Mom got kidnapped? Couldn¡¯t be¡­

    According to Imani, they had intel that the Tea Party would attack the Tech Fair even before Deen and I left La Esperanza. They got diverted into tailing us. Also, it was only a couple of days ago that Mom got tapped to be a substitute speaker for some cursed bitch who couldn¡¯t show up.

    Mom had three people connected to Corebrings and Adumbrae? Talk about coincidence.

    ¡°Such a small world,¡± Euphonia continued, putting my thoughts into words. ¡°How fecking messed up Len-Len¡¯s life is? Her husband faked his death to prance away with the Corebrings. Then her daughter is an Adumbrae? Poor Len-Len can¡¯t catch a break.¡±

    This woman might be telling the truth that she knows me. My dad¡¯s death could be easily found on the internet. But the stuff about him possibly joining the Hive was a rumor only among friends and family, so Euphonia might be one. But, like, so what if she used to work with Mom?

    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    That didn¡¯t answer if she was an enemy or friend.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± demanded Deen. That should¡¯ve been my first question.

    ¡°Where do I begin?¡± Euphonia inhaled deeply before bursting, ¡°Erind brat! You destroyed this place that I was infiltrating. You killed the people with the information I wanted!¡± She pointed at Rabbit Ears¡¯ corpse with a tentacle. ¡°You burned, figuratively and literally, the leads of my investigation! I now understand why you gave Len-Len such a headache when you were a kid. She used to tell me stories about you. I¡¯d be knackered if I was your mother!¡±

    ¡°Wha-what?¡± I was going to ask about the stories my Mom told Euphonia, but then there was something more important to ask. ¡°What were you investigating?¡±

    ¡°Being nosy is rude.¡± Euphonia wagged a finger in sync with her metal arms. ¡°But it¡¯s for the greater good of the Corebrings, specifically their big gaffer, the head honcho guy. If that translates to the benefit of humanity¡­ then I think so. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m saying this, but I¡¯m on the side of good here. Anyway, I haven¡¯t even reached the worst part of the right bags you made. Do you know what it is?"

    ¡°Am I supposed to know?¡± I said. All this entangled stuff was testing the limits of my giving a fuck. And what was that about Corebrings?

    ¡°You ate Crocker!¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s a Tea Party Adumbrae,¡± Vanessa explained. ¡°You¡¯ve fought her. She has tattoos that come to life into fire monsters.¡±

    ¡°I remember, I think?¡± I tilted my head, struggling to recall what I did while in my giant werewolf form. I ate a lot of people, that was for sure. ¡°Sorry for killing your, um, target¡­ Aunt Dora.¡±

    ¡°I was supposed to cut portions of Crocker¡¯s skin with tattoos,¡± Euphonia said, her bionic eyes glowing fierce red, ¡°and make them into wallets! I can¡¯t do that with the skank digested in your stomach. You¡¯ve lost me my rightful souvenirs!¡±

    ¡°Are you going to kill me for that?¡± I still had no idea what this crazy bitch wanted from me.

    Wallets out of human leather? Was she some kind of psychopath? Maybe she was spouting shit to psych me out. I wondered why there were so many crazies in Nevada. Must be the desert.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you let me go since we¡¯re related?¡± I said. ¡°Sort of. You sound like good friends with Mom.¡±

    ¡°I was going to kill you¡­¡± Euphonia dropped her hands, her shoulders slumped, and her octopus arms lowered to the ground. ¡°But there¡¯s no point fighting another Adumbrae¡ªa naturally-occurring one, same as me, unlike the off-brand ones like Vanessa here. No offense, Vanessa. I like you out of all off-brands I¡¯ve met so far. Egotistical slugs who don¡¯t know their place.¡±

    ¡°None taken,¡± Vanessa said, nervously chuckling. She slowly breathed. Her mouth familiars have calmed down. She probably didn¡¯t want them threateningly baring their teeth.

    ¡°Did you say, ¡®same as me,¡¯ referring to Erind?¡± Deen asked. Her angry expression turned into a puzzled one. ¡°You¡¯re an Adumbrae too?¡±

    Good job picking that up, Deen. My caring levels were dropping so fast that I missed it.

    ¡°I¡¯m as natural as they come,¡± Euphonia said. She clicked her clamps as if testing tongs while barbecuing. ¡°Minus the machine parts, of course.¡±

    ¡°Does Mom know about you?¡± I asked. ¡°Does she know you became an Adumbrae? That you¡¯re working with, uh, the criminal underworld?¡±

    ¡°Criminal underworld?¡± Euphonia rolled her glowing eyes. ¡°When I became an Adumbrae several years back, I faked my death to go into hiding. Took a page from your father. Len-Len didn¡¯t even know I¡¯m alive¡­ until about a couple of hours ago. I met her before this whole place went crazy. A fateful reunion between friends.¡±

    ¡°You mean you saw her here? While she was held captive?¡±

    ¡°That must be why Legba helped us,¡± Vanessa blurted the next line of my thought.

    Euphonia shook her head. ¡°Wasn¡¯t me. No clue why Legba-grouch agreed to get Lendina out of here. I don¡¯t know what he was thinking¡ªno one does. Me? I just chatted with her for old-time¡¯s sake.¡±

    ¡°You were just going to let my Mom die?¡± I evenly said.

    ¡°Calm down, Erind brat.¡± Euphonia raised her hands and tentacles. ¡°If you put it that way, I sound like a massive tool. What did you expect me to do? Compromise my mission? Good for humanity, remember? It doesn¡¯t matter now, though, with you fecking up everything.¡±

    ¡°I thought you and Mom were friends.¡±

    ¡°From like a decade back.¡±

    ¡°But why¡ª¡±

    ¡°Legba saved her, so no harm done, right?¡± Euphonia waved her hand as if erasing a chalkboard. ¡°Enough of me; I¡¯m not a narcissist. I¡¯ll be a caring aunt and ask about how you cuttin¡¯ so far. When did you turn into an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°Just this January. On the twentieth, to be exact.¡±

    ¡°Your second birthday! We¡¯ll celebrate that next year if you manage to hang on ¡®till then.¡±

    ¡°Hang on?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re quite new, which is why you still possess your mental faculties. You¡¯re very powerful, though young. Fair play. But eventually, you¡¯ll succumb. Cherish your time with Len-Len. Do mother-daughter stuff. I¡¯m a mother, but a different kind, so I can¡¯t give suggestions.

    ¡°Once you feel like you¡¯re going to lose control, put yourself down somewhere no one can find your body. Leave a note for your mother. Not a suicide note. Tell her you got pregnant and are running away with a guy to start a family in India. Something that won¡¯t make your mom think you became an Adumbrae. Something that¡¯d give her peace of mind.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like that¡¯d give Mom peace of mind.¡±

    ¡°Erind will never lose herself!¡± Deen declared. ¡°I¡¯ll support her in keeping her mind strong against the Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Time will tell if that¡¯s merely wishful thinking,¡± Euphonia said. ¡°But now, it¡¯s the time to get you girls out of here so I can do my thing.¡±

    Several mounds of shadows shifted in the fire. Stepping out, it was more of the rhino-giraffes. They walked past us. One went for Rabbit Ears, scooping up his corpse with its detachable head and wrapping it with wires. The other creatures climbed up the elevator shaft, stopping to collect White Beanpole before ascending to get the other bodies.

    Using her tentacles, Euphonia reached toward the rhino-giraffe that stayed behind her. She rummaged through the disgusting insides of her pet, digging through machines and fleshy organs. Her mechanical arms pulled out a thin object¡ªa rectangular board that unfolded into a wider panel.

    ¡°Where¡¯s that knob?¡± Euphonia grumbled. ¡°There! I should organize my things.¡± A tentacle fished out a shiny object. She laid the panel on the floor and fixed the silver object on it.

    ¡°A door?¡± Deen said.

    It was a portable door¡ªNifty for the powers of Legba. The doors with doorknobs around us have either been destroyed during the fight or eaten by flames. ¡°You¡¯re helping us get out of here?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Unless you girls plan to leg it through a couple of kilometers of rock and wander the desert for a few days,¡± Euphonia said. ¡°This¡¯ll lead you straight to your mother. I did tell her that you¡¯re alive. I was lying then, but it turned out I wasn¡¯t!¡± She laughed as the familiar ringing filled the air.

    The door on the floor changed into a different one.

    ¡°Euphonia, Aunt Dora, wait a bit,¡± I said. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you¡¯ve been an Adumbrae for several years? How did you last this long? You seem to be in control of yourself.¡±

    Euphonia might know about Penemue, Hedley Kow, and the Adumbrae who could control themselves. I didn¡¯t ask it outright because it¡¯d be bad if she actually were part of their group. Penemue tried to kill me before we parted ways.

    ¡°That¡¯s because I am in control of myself,¡± she replied. ¡°As to how¡­ I can¡¯t help you there. I just did it.¡±

    ¡°Is it possible for me too? Are there other Adumbrae who have done it?¡±

    ¡°Possible? Yes. But very unlikely. Some Adumbrae has managed to do it, a minuscule percentage. I got no tips to give you. Either you do it or not. I¡¯ll check back after a few months to see how you¡¯re doing; a nice visit from your Aunt Dora.¡±

    Euphonia grabbed the doorknob and opened the door on the floor. The other side was mostly dark and oriented as if it was a door in an upright position. A gust swept over us, cooling my sweat¡ªan icky feeling. The blaze beat back the cold air.

    ¡°Tell Len-Len that I kept my word that you¡¯re not dead,¡± Euphonia said. ¡°Cancel that. It¡¯ll be hard to explain to her that we met. Think of a grand story of how you got out of the Greaves building. The elope with a guy to India story suggestion is pretty good.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll think of an explanation,¡± I said. ¡°Thanks for the help, Aunt Dora. And I remember now. You gave me a Greaves stationery as a souvenir.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Euphonia clapped her hands, and her aug-claws clamped their fingers. ¡°Helping you escape is a better gift, isn¡¯t it? Now, go. You and your off-brand friends have fun. Aunt Dora still has work to keep her head on her shoulders.¡±

    I turned to Deen, then at Vanessa. I held the tarp covering me as I ran to the opening on the floor and jumped into it.

 5.56.1- Epilogue I

    Imani Nanda (Tove)

    Imani Nanda checked her phone again, anxious to get a message from anyone. Jubilee, who went by Jubjub during missions, had sternly reminded her to turn off her phone because the police would be tracking signals. But Imani couldn¡¯t help herself. She had been waiting for Jubilee¡¯s return for more than half an hour and was desperate to know anything.

    The screen¡¯s light¡ªblue due to her wallpaper of a serene beach in Goa¡ªwashed her face in the darkness of the room. She blinked her eyes to adjust to the brightness.

    Notifications! Imani¡¯s heart jumped.

    She hissed a curse when they turned out to be government advisories. They told her to stay indoors and report anything suspicious. Just those messages over and over again. A couple of texts listed streets for commuters to avoid because they were blocked. She recognized those were in the area of the Greaves convention center.

    The whole city now knew something wrong, if they didn¡¯t already.

    Imani grasped her phone tight and held it to her chest. Everything went dim, with only the occasional red and blue light peeking through the small gaps between the boards on the windows, disappearing as sirens faded. She was in a room of a condemned motel scheduled for demolition, three streets away from the convention center. This was their team¡¯s agreed meeting point if the mission went awry and they had to scatter to escape.

    Only Imani was at the safe house, and she didn¡¯t feel safe at all.

    Many black goo monsters had slinked out of the convention center and were being hunted by the police and the BID. Imani knew she couldn¡¯t stay here long¡ªa few minutes ago, there were gunfire and a loud boom nearby¡ªbut she also didn¡¯t want to leave yet.

    What if Marco and Ronan came here needing help?

    Imani stopped referring to them by their codenames of Boojum and Snark in her head, superstitiously hoping that¡¯d cancel the mission and teleport them next to her.

    Part of her wanted to cry. Another part wanted to run out into the streets to look for them. There was also a bubbling urge to scream. She didn¡¯t know what to say¡ªshe just wanted to scream and scream until all her friends were safe by her side.

    ¡°Marco, I¡¯ll suffer through your preachy lectures,¡± she mumbled at the nothingness in front of her, feeling warm tears stream down her cheeks. ¡°Ronan, I¡¯ll listen to your stupid jokes all day. Just¡­ come back.¡±

    The last she saw Marco and Ronan was when their team split up. Imani went with Deen¡¯s group, while the two guys left to protect the crowd that fled when Pino¡¯s controlled beast fought the black goo monsters. Imani eventually reunited with Jubilee and met other survivors, but none of them knew what had happened to Marco and Ronan or the people they were with.

    That time, Imani didn¡¯t¡­ couldn¡¯t¡­ couldn¡¯t even think of Marco and Ronan.

    She was focused on protecting unconscious Erind while running for their lives. Their group was eventually cornered in the basement of the building, with only a barricaded door protecting them from the black goo monsters led by clay bastards. Imani thought that was her end.

    It was only because of Erind waking up that they survived.

    Imani didn¡¯t see how it went down, but Erind used her Core-granted ability to wipe out the incoming black goo monsters. And what fearsome power Erind had, though Imani couldn¡¯t tell exactly what it was. Tornado blades, maybe? Some sort of blast force?

    Confetti of inhuman fleshy parts splashed with black slime decorated the path to their hiding spot. Imani vomited when she first saw the gruesome sight and again while tiptoeing across the disgusting corridor.

    It was only after Jubilee directed them to a sewer opening that her shadow crows found when Imani realized they were leaving behind Marco and Ronan.

    But there was no going back at that point. The building and its surrounding areas were a battlefield between monsters and humans.

    What could I have done there? Imani thumped her chin with the top of her phone as if to rattle her brain. She didn¡¯t have her combat augs or any of the chemicals the Professor provided them that boosted physical performance. An average human¡ªthat was all she was. Less than average. Even a gun couldn¡¯t have helped her.

    She could only join Jubilee in escorting the few survivors they gathered.

    As they exited the stinky tunnels to a familiar street above, Jubilee separated Imani from the rest of the group with a wall of shadows. The swirling shades whispered to Imani what she should do next¡ªhead to their designated safe house while Jubilee led the people they saved to the police.

    Imani complied without question and bolted through the path between parting shadows. She didn¡¯t know how Jubilee would explain her sudden absence to the others, but Imani couldn¡¯t spare the energy to puzzle about that, relieved and thankful she got out alive.

    Guilt gnawed at that feeling now that she sat alone on the dirty floor.

    Jubilee will find Marco and Ronan. The shadows told her so. Imani kept chanting the same sentence to drive away the helplessness hugging her. The image of the four of them together was in her mind. Jubilee promised¡­

    Marco and Roman seemed to be the last people she¡¯d think of dying.

    The ever-serious Marco was a pillar of strength and self-assurance; Imani always turned to him whenever she wavered during missions. He had a heroic aura about him even if Jubilee was their leader. If this were a story, he¡¯d be the main character. Main characters don¡¯t die.

    Sometimes, she was scared of Marco because he absorbed corpses to heal himself. Not just dead enemies but dead anybody. It didn¡¯t sit right with Imani, making her slightly cautious around Marco. However, she still trusted him the most.

    Ronan was the opposite, joking around even in the direst of situations¡ªthe class clown. Imani felt closest to him because they were the humans of their group¡ªsquishy meat bags that couldn¡¯t regenerate, as Ronan always said¡ªand had aug-limbs. She knew that Ronan shared the same fears as her, but he only ever expressed his worries through jokes.

    ¡°Jubilee will find Marco and Ronan,¡± Imani repeated out loud.

    It wasn¡¯t working; she couldn¡¯t psych herself up. Her heart thumped faster and faster, and she didn¡¯t know why. Did something wrong happen to them?

    Her mother¡¯s voice rang in her ear¡ªin uncertain times, remember to pray.

    Nothing to lose if she tried.

    Imani bowed her head. Her long straight hair fell over her face like a black waterfall. She didn¡¯t bother sweeping it aside, preferring to hide behind the curtain.

    Closing her eyes, she prayed in a trembling whisper, ¡°Mother Core, I know I don¡¯t talk to you much these days, but this is for Marco and Ronan, not me. Please help them. Please keep them safe. They¡¯re my friends¡ªno, this isn¡¯t about me. They¡¯re brave guys, far braver than me. I know they¡¯ll save more people than I ever could. I swear, I¡¯ll do anything to have them back.¡±

    She stopped. Distant sirens and the noisy rotors of a helicopter passing overhead were all she could hear. The cell phone in her hand was still.

    Continuing her prayer, Imani mumbled, ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll merge with an artificial Core. I swear on that, dear Mother Core. I¡¯ll be brave like Marco and Deen, and also Erind. I won¡¯t be afraid of your power. I-I won¡¯t be afraid of¡­ of¡­¡± Her voice caught in her throat. She continued in her head¡ªof leaving my humanity.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    The phone vibrated. She hurriedly checked if it was Marco or Ronan texting her.

    ¡°Mom¡¯s still awake?¡± Imani blurted. She shrunk upon seeing the name on the message, the sudden excitement gone. It was too much to hope that the Mother Core would instantly answer her prayer or even care to listen to her.

    Mom was worried because of the flood of government advisories. All that Mom knew was that Imani was at a co-worker¡¯s house for a small get-together. Before attending the Tech Fair, Jubilee reprised her usual role and picked Imani from her house to sell the story.

    Imani didn¡¯t have the energy to reply. She wanted to curl under the table and wait until Jubilee returned with Marco and Ronan.

    And she did just that, letting herself slump to the floor.

    ¡°What would Mom say¡­ if I¡¯m no longer human?¡± Imani asked the rough floorboards. She was tempted to take back her promise to the Mother Core.

    Remember Amber Deen. The Leska heir had more to lose than her but still took on an artificial Core.

    Imani knew she had the strength to do it, buried somewhere in her. Where did all that talk of courage go? Was she going to give up at their lowest point?

    She pictured the face of her mother in the near darkness. That image shifted to the parents of Marco and Ronan. Marco¡¯s mother was nice; she gave Imani a box of cookies the one time she visited their house. Ronan¡¯s father, someone who tinkered with augs, helped her install some upgrades to her right hand.

    ¡°What will I tell them if their sons are dead?¡± she whispered. Then she answered herself. ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know.¡±

    She closed her eyes. Sleep could take away the utter defeat choking her.

    Their group had many wins. Some losses too. The biggest success was leading the BID to one of the Tea Party¡¯s secret laboratories, saving the small team of agents from getting killed, and trapping Mad Hatter until the BID reinforcements arrived.

    This was their biggest loss. Instead of saving Deen and Erind, they saved them. Imani didn¡¯t know if Deen and Erind made it out alive.

    She should care about them too, but her heart only wanted Marco and Ronan back.

    Maybe when she wakes up, they¡¯ll be¡­

    <hr>

    Guns?

    Imani¡¯s eyes opened wide as she promptly sat up, pointing the finger of her aug-arm at¡ª

    Nothing.

    She was still alone in the room, and it was still dark.

    Checking her phone, she had been asleep for around twenty minutes. There was another text from Mom and a bunch of advisories¡ªno word from Jubilee, Marco, or Ronan. The messages weren¡¯t what woke her up. She was sure she heard shooting.

    A wail of sirens made her flinch. She scampered to the corner of the room as red and blue lights passed; the police weren¡¯t coming for her. She was lucky that nothing had happened to her while she was asleep.

    ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have slept,¡± Imani scolded herself, hitting her temple with her phone.

    Five minutes. She would wait five more minutes. If there was no more noise, she¡¯d sneak out and go home.

    Imani curled up near the walls, humming church hymns her Mom would sing while doing chores. Usually, they annoyed her, but now, they comforted her.

    A creak!

    Imani shone her phone¡¯s light on her surroundings. The door was closed, the room empty other than rotting furniture. Was that a rat? The old building settling?

    Another creak made Imani start. The door rattled. Dark liquid seeped through its hinges.

    Imani chuckled in relief. It wasn¡¯t the black goo monsters. ¡°Jubilee¡­ Jubjub, you scared me.¡±

    ¡°Ssssorrryyy¡­¡± replied layered wispy voices.

    The liquid pooled in front of the door as a woman wearing all black. ¡°Tove, is everything okay here?¡± Jubilee said in her normal voice.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. But there was gunfire a few minutes ago. I was going to¡ª¡±

    ¡°That was me. I distracted the police up the street for our escape. Let¡¯s get out of here. I¡¯ll cover¡ª¡±

    ¡°What about Marco and Ronan?¡± Imani dusted herself as she stood up.

    ¡°I already tried looking for them,¡± Jubilee said. ¡°Came up empty.¡±

    Imani pushed back the tears.

    ¡°Damn hard sneaking,¡± Jubilee continued, ¡°with many scanner drones flying around. I eavesdropped on BID agents arguing with some suits from Greaves. Apparently, they couldn¡¯t find a bunch of people.¡±

    Imani furrowed her brows. While breaking the hostages free with Pino¡¯s help, they came upon a couple of rooms that mysteriously had missing occupants despite traces inside and being locked from the outside. It could be an Adumbrae¡¯s power at play.

    ¡°They couldn¡¯t have disappeared into thin air,¡± Jubilee said. ¡°I hope they weren¡¯t eaten or¡ª¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re still alive!¡± Imani snapped.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. Sorry. Marco and Ronan are strong and have good heads on them. They¡¯ll pull through.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯ll pull through,¡± Imani firmly repeated.

    ¡°If lucky, they might¡¯ve teamed up with Amber and escaped elsewhere. I don¡¯t know what Amber¡¯s power is, but it¡¯ll probably save them from the complete crap that happened.¡±

    Imani didn¡¯t want to theorize about the survival rates of her friends. To distract herself, she asked, ¡°What about the people with you? Are they safe?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I led them right to¡­ to some police officers,¡± Jubilee said. She walked to the window, peered through the gaps, and observed the outside. ¡°They should be fine now. Don¡¯t worry about them.¡±

    ¡°Did they ask about where I went? I should¡¯ve stuck with¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s better you¡¯re not with them so¡­ so the police won¡¯t investigate you. I just told them you must¡¯ve gotten lost in the sewers, and I¡¯d go find you.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re fine with that explanation?¡± Imani asked.

    Most, if not all, of the survivors didn¡¯t trust Jubilee because of her powers. They thought she was an Adumbrae despite helping them. When they saw the carnage that Erind caused, they thought Jubilee did it and became even more afraid. They only stuck with Jubilee because she presented the only way to escape, and they feared she¡¯d kill them if they disobeyed.

    ¡°Yeah. ¡®Course they are.¡± Jubilee shrugged, still facing the window. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t they?¡±

    ¡°I thought some of them would insist on finding me.¡± Imani had Kiera in mind. She was the only one who opposed sending Erind on her own.

    ¡°People are people. They¡¯re more than ecstatic they survived hell against all odds. They¡¯re not going back to risk their lives.¡±

    ¡°I guess so¡­¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t think of them anymore. They¡¯ll assume you¡¯re dead and forget about you too. They don¡¯t know your name and will forget your appearance soon enough. We¡¯re all clean on that part.¡±

    Jubilee was right. As things stood, it was better if she kept her distance.

    But Imani still wanted to check on the people they saved¡ªit¡¯d be motivating to see proof they did something right tonight. No life was too little. Each person that didn¡¯t die could do good in the future. It might not be wrong to befriend some of them¡ªKiera, for example. If talking about courage and standing for what was right, Kiera got mounds of those traits that Imani wished she even had half of.

    A thought occurred to Imani. ¡°Isn¡¯t it better if I¡­?¡± she began to ask Jubilee. She paused. Was she wrong that it would¡¯ve been better if she didn¡¯t leave the group? That wasn¡¯t a stupid idea, was it?

    Imani already pretended she didn¡¯t know Jubilee. There¡¯d be no problems if she was examined by medics or passed through BID scanners¡ªshe was human. Since she was outwardly innocent as could be, she could¡¯ve spied on the survivors and police for developments and looked out for clues regarding her friends. The numerous tests she¡¯d undergo would be a minor inconvenience.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Jubilee turned around, a severe brow raised over her round eyes.

    ¡°No-nothing.¡± Imani decided she¡¯d check the survivors without telling Jubilee. She didn¡¯t want to argue with her. It¡¯d be hard to find their names because the government would keep it a secret¡ªothers might persecute the survivors for¡­ surviving¡ªbut she was set on trying.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get you home, then I have to report to the Professor about the mess here,¡± Jubilee said. The pool of darkness underneath her rushed to the door, enveloping its knob to open it. ¡°Maybe Marco and Ronan would¡¯ve surfaced by then, not to mention Amber. We were supposed to protect the La Esperanza girls but lost Erind.¡±

    ¡°Erind should be safe because¡­¡± Imani didn¡¯t continue to reveal Erind¡¯s secrets. The Professor must¡¯ve kept them from Jubilee for a reason like Deen¡¯s power. She¡¯d need to ask permission from Erind. ¡°¡­because we didn¡¯t find her body.¡±

    ¡°Do you mean the couple trying to look for Erind among the monster corpses? Tesh and Kiera, right? Who knows, maybe Erind went out after whatever railroaded those monsters had passed. I think I saw what did that¡ªa huge beast with black and red hair. It saved me from Finlay. If I got lucky, then maybe Erind did too.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope so,¡± Imani said. Please, Mother Core. Make Marco and Ronan lucky too!

 5.56.2- Epilogue II

    Vanessa Minnows

    Vanessa Minnows was the last to go through the door on the floor. She wavered momentarily, thinking of asking Euphonia how to pay for helping them. But Euphonia was busy directing her monstrous creations; more emerged from the flames and dug out of the ground. Vanessa promptly jumped into the portal, anxious it¡¯d close. She didn¡¯t want to get stuck with Euphonia and her pets.

    She went down through the open door and shot out sideways, gravity abruptly changing directions. She fell on her left side, disoriented, landing on a polished concrete floor.

    A shadow fell over her.

    It was Deen, an unsmiling face offering a hand.

    Vanessa cautiously accepted it and mumbled, ¡°Thanks.¡±

    The three found themselves in the back area of a locker room with yellowing tube lights on the ceiling. Vanessa wrinkled her nose from the musty dustiness. She recognized her surroundings; her eye familiars had been here before. The ringing bell stopped, and the door they came through swung shut. It was an off-white PVC door with patches of old stains along its bottom.

    Erind grabbed its door knob.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Deen asked, pulling the tarp sheet draped on Erind¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Just checking.¡± Erind turned the handle. ¡°Why? Is there danger?¡±

    Deen shook her head.

    Vanessa blinked at their exchange. Why did Erind ask Deen that? A possible clue to Deen¡¯s power?

    Despite spying on them for some time, Vanessa had no idea what it was. It must be something not apparent, like seeing through doors and walls. A downside of the eye familiars was that they could share with Vanessa only what they saw. They didn¡¯t have ears and couldn¡¯t eavesdrop on Erind and Deen discussing the latter¡¯s powers.

    Erind pulled the door open. It was a janitor¡¯s closet. Inside were a yellow mop bucket, brushes, and empty containers with peeling labels of cleaning products.

    ¡°We really got out,¡± Erind said. She popped the door off its hinges with one firm yank and threw it aside. ¡°There. So that weird lady can¡¯t follow us if she changes her mind about letting us go.¡±

    ¡°Oh! Where¡¯s your mom?¡± Deen exclaimed. ¡°And those that escaped with her?¡± She rushed to check the other side of the locker shelves. Rounding the row of rusty metal on Vanessa¡¯s left, Deen came out of the far end, near the room¡¯s exit door. ¡°No one else is here! Are we in the right place?¡±

    ¡°Maybe we¡¯re in China,¡± Erind dryly said.

    ¡°This is where your mother got teleported,¡± Vanessa said. If Legba didn¡¯t mess up, she added in her head. ¡°The other people, too¡­ supposedly.¡±

    Erind stared at her. Vanessa gave a subtle head tilt in answer. She didn¡¯t know why she pretended to have saved others besides Erind¡¯s mom. Who was that story for? Erind knew she was lying. Was she unconsciously trying to make a good impression on Deen? Maybe she had wanted to be seen as trustworthy, but now there was a slight problem to fix with her story.

    ¡°That was a while back,¡± Vanessa continued. ¡°She¡ªI mean, they¡ªmust¡¯ve left to explore the building.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s find them!¡± Deen jogged out the door.

    ¡°Deen, wait for us!¡± Erind called. She pulled Vanessa to the exit, whispering, ¡°A small reminder that Deen shouldn¡¯t know I¡¯m also Pino.¡±

    ¡°Already got that,¡± Vanessa replied, wondering why Erind kept Deen in the dark. They seemed like close friends, even living together. It turned out they were not as close as Vanessa had assumed. Was Erind hiding some of her powers in case she¡¯d fight Deen?

    It wouldn¡¯t be surprising if Erind betrayed another ally.

    Must be the Adumbrae inside her. Erind did it to Vanessa and her friends. She decapitated that guy fighting with them earlier; Vanessa guessed he was one of those government test subjects helping Erind.

    Deen could be next on the chopping board if she was no longer useful or turned into a threat. Or what about her own mother? Deen appeared to care more about finding Erind¡¯s mom than Erind herself. Was Erind preparing to dispose of her mother too?

    It could also be me, Vanessa mused. Again.Though, knowing stuff about Erind that Deen didn¡¯t was some comfort. She had time to build up their relationship.

    After¡­ eating¡­ Rob with her mouth familiars and reviving her body¡ªshe was a charred corpse at that point¡ªit dawned on Vanessa that she truly was a monster. Then she corrected herself, I already knew that long ago.

    She became a monster after undergoing the procedures at Red Island. She was a monster for ingesting chemicals made from human brains. She was also a monster for doing nothing while innocent people got killed for sport in front of her. But everything sunk in only after meeting¡ªand surviving¡ªErind.

    In her second life, Vanessa accepted that she didn¡¯t have a place with humans anymore. She should be with her own kind. With other monsters. With Erind.

    Eyes piercing the darkness, Vanessa led the way, Erind¡¯s hand on her shoulder.

    ¡°Aunt Lendy!¡± Deen called, her voice echoing in the eerie quiet of the dilapidated building. ¡°Aunt Lendy, where are you?¡±

    Deen didn¡¯t get far because the lights outside the locker room were busted. Vanessa spotted her in the next hallway, hands stretched out, trying to feel what was in front of her. It was evident that Deen couldn¡¯t see in the dark, but she uncannily avoided piles of trash littering the floor.

    Another hint of her power? Was it echolocation?

    ¡°Deen, quiet down,¡± Erind hissed when they caught up to her. ¡°There might be enemies around. Vanessa, what¡¯s this place again?¡±

    ¡°A run-down building about a five-minute drive from the Greaves convention center,¡± Vanessa explained. ¡°The Tea Party bought it as a storage and parking space near their target because large pieces of equipment couldn¡¯t fit through Legba¡¯s teleporting doors. Most of the Tea Party¡¯s forces gathered here before going to the Tech Fair with their trucks. But I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anyone left here now.¡±

    Deen said, ¡°So, it should be fine to call out for¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t,¡± Erind interjected. ¡°Mom shouldn¡¯t know that we know she¡¯s here. Our story will be that we stumbled through portal doors while running away from monsters and miraculously ended up in the same place as her. We don¡¯t know anything else. Got it?¡±

    ¡°What about¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Oh, and we found Vanessa along the way,¡± Erind said, predicting Deen¡¯s next question. ¡°Vanessa¡¯s an innocent girl that also got swept up in the Tea Party attack. We helped each other survive or something like that.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to introduce me to your mom,¡± blurted Vanessa. ¡°I¡¯m not even supposed to be here.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Erind firmly said, squeezing Vanessa¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re our friend, and I¡¯ll introduce you to Mom as such. We¡¯ll tell her you snuck out of La Esperanza to party in Vegas or something and got caught in this mess.¡±

    ¡°Eh? It might be less complicated if we don¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, no. Here¡¯s the plan. We¡¯ll tell her who you are, niece of the former mayor and all that, so you don¡¯t want your name plastered on the newspapers as related to an Adumbrae incident. Mom will keep quiet, I¡¯m sure of it. I want the two of you to meet. You did save her, after all, though let¡¯s keep that part a secret.¡±

    ¡°Vanessa¡¯s right, Erind,¡± Deen evenly said. ¡°She can go away once we find your mom.¡± Deen didn¡¯t know Vanessa could see her frowning face as if the lights were on.

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    It was immature, but Vanessa couldn¡¯t help herself getting ticked off. Changing her mind, Vanessa said, ¡°I think it¡¯ll be fine if we go with Erind¡¯s plan.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ll all meet Mom,¡± Erind cheerily said. ¡°Plus, we can use Vanessa as an excuse not to go to the police. Mom will insist on going to the authorities, but we can delay that¡ªsay that we¡¯ll help Vanessa hide first or whatever¡ªuntil we can contact Myra for help.¡± To Vanessa, Erind explained, ¡°Myra¡¯s our friend from La Esperanza who knows I¡¯m an Adumbrae.¡±

    Deen curtly said. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t say you¡¯re you-know-what out loud, Erind. You don¡¯t know who might be listening here in the dark.¡±

    ¡°Oops, you¡¯re right,¡± said Erind.

    ¡°So, how will we find your mom if we can¡¯t call for her?¡± Though she was talking to Erind, Deen had a death glare as she faced Vanessa¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Just shout generic stuff,¡± Erind said. Then she yelled, ¡°Hello! Anyone here?¡±

    ¡°Fine, let¡¯s do that,¡± Deen relented with a sigh. ¡°I was thinking of splitting up to cover more ground, but it¡¯s super dark, and we don¡¯t have any light.¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s your phone?¡± Erind asked.

    Deen dug into her pockets. ¡°I-I don¡¯t know. I must¡¯ve dropped it while fighting.¡±

    ¡°Story of my life,¡± Erind muttered. ¡°It didn¡¯t have much battery left anyway, right? Let¡¯s just continue walking in the dark.¡± Erind tapped Vanessa¡¯s left arm.

    ¡°Let me handle looking for your mother,¡± Vanessa said, taking the cue. She prayed Deen would forget about the imaginary other saved captives. ¡°My eye familiars can see in the dark just fine.¡± Vanessa omitted that she could as well, with her own eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t move while they come out, or you might step on them.¡±

    There were several popping sounds, like a stuck plunger getting pulled, as the eye familiars left their sockets. Erind took a few steps back as Vanessa leaned down, extending her left arm so the eye familiars could gently drop to the ground. Scratching followed as they crawled in different directions.

    Erind had a mildly amused look, while Deen had contemptuous disgust on her face.

    Vanessa rolled her yes. Was Deen grossed out by the eye familiars, or hate her in general? If the latter, Vanessa couldn¡¯t figure out why. One would think they¡¯d be on good terms since they were both non-humans and were mutual friends of Erind. It couldn¡¯t be that Vanessa was an Adumbrae because Erind was one too.

    I have to prove I¡¯m trustworthy, Vanessa thought as she held Erind¡¯s arm.

    Erind jolted but didn¡¯t pull back.

    ¡°You two stick with me,¡± Vanessa said, ¡°while my eye familiars search the building.¡± She rapidly blinked, slipping into the vision of a different familiar each time she opened her eyes. ¡°Deen, do you want to hold¡ª¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Deen replied shortly. ¡°I¡¯ll follow behind you two. Just tell me if I have to watch out for something.¡±

    Vanessa chewed her tongue. It was best not to be pushy with Deen for now. Vanessa switched back to Erind, ¡°We¡¯ll find your mother in no time.¡±

    ¡°I hope Mom stayed inside the building,¡± Erind said. ¡°But knowing Mom, she¡¯d try to look for me everywhere.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up and get out of this place,¡± Deen said from behind. ¡°Then we can split up. Vanessa can stay here and continue to search the building.¡±

    Why do you dislike me so much? Vanessa thought at Deen, gritting her teeth. Then she relaxed, conscious that Erind could feel her tensing up and heard her teeth.

    ¡°What will you do after this, Vanessa?¡± Erind asked in an attempt to change the topic. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you were doing with the Tea Party, but I bet you weren¡¯t supposed to fight them.¡±

    Deen quipped, ¡°She was helping them with those slugs turning people¡ª"

    ¡°The Tea Party is pretty much done for,¡± Erind loudly continued, talking over Deen. ¡°Like, what will you tell your, uh, boss? Do you call the 2Ms boss?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know about those slugs,¡± Vanessa snapped over her shoulder, mustering an affronted tone so her lie wouldn¡¯t be blatant. ¡°I¡¯m just one of the clients of Mark and Big Marcy, so I don¡¯t call them ¡®boss.¡¯ They asked for those willing to help the Tea Party in this joint project because they lacked people. I joined to¡­ to know more about what¡¯s going on.¡±

    ¡°Just curiosity?¡± Deen asked, her voice rising at the end, indicating absolute disbelief.

    ¡°And also to make friends,¡± Vanessa hesitantly shot back, as if partly ashamed. ¡°I mean, to get acquainted with others like me.¡±

    Another lie. Vanessa was, in fact, spying for Big Marcy on what the Tea Party was up to. But her story made her sound more sympathetic. Let Deen interpret that as she liked. Erind, too.

    Vanessa had already told a few lies; what wrong was more? Really though, it wasn¡¯t a complete lie. I want to be with others like me.

    ¡°What will I do when I return to La Esperanza?¡± Vanessa continued. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ I don¡¯t know. I have to make up a story for Mark and Big Marcy, but I don¡¯t want to think about it now.¡± Big Marcy would have her back¡ªVanessa was sure of it. He¡¯d be delighted that she managed to get Finlay killed. Let him handle Mark and the others who¡¯d be suspicious.

    ¡°Do you have to return?¡± Erind said, gazing up at Vanessa even though she couldn¡¯t see. ¡°What if you hide? Run somewhere super far away? You can save money and¡ª¡±

    ¡°Won¡¯t work,¡± Vanessa cut in. She had thought of that many times the nights after she became an Adumbrae, and her body turned healthy. Not human, but no longer dying. ¡°I have to return to them.¡±

    ¡°Are you afraid of what they¡¯ll do if you leave?¡±

    ¡°We can help protect you,¡± Deen said with a much gentler voice.

    ¡°Wha-? It¡¯s no-not that,¡± Vanessa stammered in surprise at Deen¡¯s offer. ¡°Yes, they¡¯ll hunt me down if I run away. But that¡¯s the least of my worries. If I don¡¯t regularly return to Red Island to have what I call ¡®maintenance,¡¯ I¡¯d lose myself to the Adumbrae in me.¡±

    ¡°Is that the same thing Euphonia told Erind?¡± Deen excitedly asked. ¡°She mentioned that she could control her Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°No, it isn¡¯t,¡± said Vanessa. ¡°Euphonia is a true Adumbrae like Erind. She can control herself without the treatment for the clients of Mark. That shouldn¡¯t be possible¡­ she¡¯s a special case from the rumors I¡¯ve heard, but I don¡¯t know anything beyond that.¡±

    ¡°But can those treatments, the ones for artificially-made Adumbrae like you, work on Erind? What are they anyway?¡±

    ¡°There are pills. I¡­ I don¡¯t know what they do or what they¡¯re made of¡ªthe people at Red Island keep the formula a secret because that¡¯s their business. We take the pills as prescribed. Then there are psychological conditioning sessions each month. That reminds me, I¡¯m due next week. Will those treatments work on Erind? I honestly can¡¯t say.¡±

    ¡°If we can get to Red Island, maybe we can find something for Erind.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯ll be hard because of the memory-erasing thing I mentioned,¡± Vanessa replied. But in her mind, she mentally noted that she¡¯d ask Big Marcy about it. ¡°And the Red Island¡¯s location is a complete secret, even to most higher-ups.¡±

    ¡°So, our other option for Erind is Euphonia,¡± Deen said, ¡°and other Adumbrae like her. If we can find their secret, we can keep Erind from becoming a monster.¡±

    ¡°But Erind is already a monster,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Just like me. There¡¯s nothing wrong¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind is not a monster!¡± Deen burst out. The floor shook, and the walls rattled.

    Vanessa saw from through the eye familiar trailing them that Deen stomped her foot. Vanessa bristled at the possible fight. Adrenaline coursed through her body as she balled her fists. She wanted to turn around, but Erind held her still with surprising strength.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about you,¡± Deen continued. ¡°You may consider yourself a monster, but don¡¯t lump in Erind with you. You chose what you became¡ªErind didn¡¯t.¡±

    Vanessa wanted to point out to Deen that Adumbrae, like Erind, also chose their fates. ¡°Are you forgetting¡ª?¡± She started to say, but Erind elbowed her.

    ¡°Shut up, you two,¡± Erind said.

    She didn¡¯t snap or shout. She just talked straight, without raising her voice, but it was enough to make Vanessa frightened. Deen also faltered.

    ¡°But she¡¯s¡ª¡± Deen said after composing herself.

    ¡°Shut up.¡±

    Vanessa saw Deen lower her hands.

    ¡°And Vanessa¡­¡± said Erind.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Your mouth familiars are noisy.¡±

    Vanessa jerked back and then checked her right arm. Some mouths opened, whispering words she didn¡¯t want to listen to. Her agitation affected them. She tried to calm herself so that they could go back to sleep. She¡¯d need to have new metal bands made to secure them.

    ¡°Let¡¯s focus on finding Mom,¡± Erind said. ¡°Vanessa, anything?¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°I wasn¡¯t paying attention when¡ªfootprints!¡±

    ¡°Footprints?

    ¡°I sent some familiars upstairs. Nothing on the upper floors, so the Tea Party members don¡¯t go up. But the dust on the floor was recently disturbed.¡±

    ¡°Is it Mom?¡±

    ¡°Possibly. I¡¯m sure there are no Tea Party members here.¡±

    ¡°It might also be the other hostages,¡± Deen said. ¡°They might know where your mom went.¡±

    ¡°Okay, we¡¯re going up,¡± decided Erind. ¡°Don¡¯t forget our story. Also, yell out generic stuff so Mom won¡¯t get surprised. And, uh¡­¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± asked Deen.

    ¡°I just realized a problem. It¡¯ll be hard to explain why I look¡­ like this. My clothes are half-burnt, but I don¡¯t have any injuries. If we can find something for me to wear first.¡±

    ¡°I know where the rooms used by the Tea Party are,¡± Vanessa said. ¡°Maybe they had left behind a shirt, a vest, anything.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll tell Mom I was pretending to be them! Nah, that¡¯s a bad story. I¡¯m too short to be¡ªanyway, let¡¯s find me a shirt first.¡±

    ¡°And we better do it fast,¡± Vanessa said, barely able to control her voice. She hugged Erind¡¯s shoulders. ¡°Because I found your mother!¡±

 5.56.3 - Epilogue III

    Eudora (Euphonia)

    Euphonia touched her face. Her cheeks had risen, and her lips had curved up. She didn¡¯t realize she was smiling while reviewing old videos and pictures in her files. Perhaps she did miss the good ol¡¯ days when she was human.

    Or not so good.

    Being human sucked more than a black hole. So brittle, so fleeting. If she hadn¡¯t become an Adumbrae, she might¡¯ve turned herself into a cyborg. She had begun her research into digitizing human brains at that time.

    But there were moments Euphonia had fun back then. Mostly when Len-Len was around; they were different departments, so that wasn¡¯t often.

    Euphonia conceded that some of their co-workers were also okay. A couple of the lab technicians were amiable enough¡ªshe killed them before destroying Carlow Plant so they wouldn¡¯t suffer. There were engineers in her team that she tolerated¡ªthey were near the explosion, so a mercifully quick death for them. And her immediate superior, whom she turned into one of her first biomechanical creations as a sign of gratitude, was moderately agreeable.

    Into the trash, you go. Euphonia deleted each file from her Greaves days after viewing them. She should¡¯ve done this when she faked her death.

    The remaining few were pictures of her holding a mug of Irish coffee. She was sure what it was because of the disgust on her face; she never liked alcohol in her coffee. How did Len-Len convince her to drink it? That was such a long time ago that Euphonia couldn¡¯t recall.

    She paused at the last photo. She and Len-Len clinked their mugs together. Len-Len¡¯s hair was mostly grey, while her irises were solid black¡ªher real ones. Euphonia made a face as she zoomed in on herself. One of her eyes was already bionic. They both looked like total muppets, grinning broadly at the camera.

    And delete. There was no point retaining these. If she could excise part of her brain to forget her human past, she¡¯d do it. Such a gammy waste of existence that was.

    Euphonia opened her eyes after the jaunt down memory lane and a small cleanup to pass the time. She adjusted her glasses as she scanned the warehouse to check if her creations were done with their work. The podlegs had detached their heads and left them on the ground before trooping back to the trucks, folding themselves inside for transport. The pods containing bodies were on the right half of the floor, and those with machines, samples, and other items that might be of interest were on the left.

    This was Euphonia¡¯s best effort to salvage the mission. She had something. But she wasn¡¯t sure if this was enough for Thirteen.

    She groaned, giving Legba a sidelong glance. ¡°Sure look, what can I do? Nothing, that¡¯s what.¡±

    The hooded ornament stayed perched on top of a crate, silent and still. The only hint he was alive was his cloak occasionally stirring from his breath.

    Euphonia ranted, ¡°That brat Erind had to destroy the good thing I had going on! She should be thankful Len-Len¡¯s her mother, or I would¡¯ve turned her into a wallet! That might do Len-Len a favor, saving costs on raising her daughter. The tuition at Eloyce University should be an off the rails capitalism nightmare! Having a wallet for a daughter is much better.¡±

    Expectedly, Legba didn¡¯t say anything¡ªEuphonia hadn¡¯t heard a word from him since they first met, though Satori swore Legba could speak¡ªor do anything else. Euphonia usually had to guess his response from how he shook his bell. So far, she¡¯d been right¡­ she supposed. Legba had been reasonably cooperative with her plans.

    But she couldn¡¯t understand why Legba helped Len-Len escape.

    Euphonia doubted Legba did it as a favor for her. She wasn¡¯t particularly grateful or relieved that her old friend¡ªshe did consider Len-Len as one¡ªwas still alive. She was ready to have Len-Len slugged to cleanly break from the past and prevent any dramatic mishaps involving Len-Len¡¯s daughter in the future.

    It could be that Legba had taken a liking to Vanessa.

    That Euphonia could understand. Vanessa was the most tolerable of all the off-brands. Betraying those peasants with overblown heads pushed her to fondness territory in Euphonia¡¯s eyes.

    Through hijacking cameras inside the Tea Party¡¯s base, Euphonia had a good grasp of what happened. Vanessa drove Len-Len to Legba¡¯s door¡ªand to safety¡ªusing her fascinating mouth pets. And then, Vanessa somehow convinced Legba to bring Erind into the Tea Party¡¯s base to wreak havoc. Fair play, that one. She could prove to be a resource someday.

    On the other hand, Len-Len just had the most extraordinary luck to get out alive when so many others didn¡¯t.

    Maybe lucky wasn¡¯t the right word to describe her life.

    Euphonia noted that Len-Len seemed to have an uncanny sense of being right that something was fecking wrong. Len-Len believed her husband¡¯s death was a load of lies, and it turned out she was correct. Len-Len thought there was something wrong with her precious daughter. Voila, Erind brat eventually became an Adumbrae.

    ¡°Poor Len-Len,¡± Euphonia sighed, shaking her head. ¡°But her daughter is interesting. Don¡¯t you agree?¡± She cocked her head at Legba. This time, Legba showed his bell. Euphonia nodded. ¡°She is quite the bizarre specimen. A new Adumbrae, but she already has a grand time unleashing destruction. Might even be considered a Titan.¡±

    Legba shook his bell. A mellow ring echoed.

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m also surprised she could return to her original body. She might be able to control herself¡­ very possible.¡±

    Two rings.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not going to help her.¡± Euphonia snorted. ¡°I¡¯m no one¡¯s babysitter. I did it on my own, and so should she. And I¡¯m having a bang on time detached from my past. Having that brat around would remind me of her mother.¡± Though Euphonia just said that, a minuscule part of her was touched Len-Len installed the bionic eyes she had made.

    Legba shook his bell. But it didn¡¯t ring.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to check on her again.¡± Euphonia waved her hand. ¡°That was just a¡ªstall the ball a second, am I correctly interpreting what you¡¯re saying, or am I having a delusional conversation with myself here?¡±

    Legba returned his bell inside his sleeves and lowered his head, hiding his face in the shadows of his hood.

    Euphonia shrugged. ¡°For all I know, you could¡¯ve been asking me for a midnight snack. I don¡¯t have anything to eat here. I don¡¯t even know what you eat.¡±

    There was no more response from Legba.

    Euphonia took a quick gander at the rows of pods before turning around and pacing to the door. ¡°I¡¯m fecking pissed off that slag, Crocker, didn¡¯t die by my hands,¡± she said. ¡°But I had wanted to destroy their base, and that did happen¡­ just not in my planned timeframe. I¡¯ll take that as a win. Let¡¯s see if Thirteen will think the same.¡± A light flashed in her augmented reality vision. ¡°Speaking of that Overseer arse¡­ Legba, he¡¯s coming.¡±

    Legba¡¯s bell rang, its familiar notes merging into one peaceful stream. The door in front of Euphonia changed.

    She clenched her teeth. There was always the chance that the Corebrings would decide this was the last day of their arrangement. But she didn¡¯t have any other option. If she refused to work with them, she¡¯d be hunted down¡ªan unsavory proposition.

    There¡¯s a risk to everything in life, she told herself as the doorknob turned. It wasn¡¯t her fault that things ended up the way they did. What was she supposed to do? Fight Erind in her giant wolf form?

    ¡°I¡¯d waste so many of my beloved creations,¡± Euphonia muttered. And she didn¡¯t want to kill Len-Len¡¯s daughter.

    The door swung open.

    An eight-foot-tall humanoid ducked through the too-short opening. Euphonia intentionally chose the small door with this in mind. If this was to be her last day on this pile of crap of a planet, she¡¯d slightly inconvenience the Corebring that¡¯d kill her.

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    Though more than a couple of feet taller than Euphonia, Thirteen¡¯s torso was about the same size as hers. But he had a much longer neck and limbs, looking like the disproportional figures in fashion sketches. Interlocking silver metal and yellowish bone plates protected most of his slender body in an abstract exoskeleton, including a smooth, holeless mask on his face. Uncovered flesh showed rough skin in a pastel red color.

    Euphonia was surprised that Thirteen didn¡¯t come alone.

    A young girl with Japanese features, probably in her teens, followed him out the door. There was nothing remarkable about her. She looked outwardly human as could be, and she wore plain clothes, like any girl one would find in the mall, not a Hive uniform. Curiosity gnawed Euphonia¡¯s mind.

    Against her better judgment¡ªvery, very good judgment, as proven numerous times¡ªEuphonia was tempted to scan the girl to find out if she was indeed human. But before she could do it, Thirteen blocked her view as if reading her mind.

    ¡°How ya¡¯ getting on, Thir¡ª?¡± Euphonia stopped, noticing the number on Thirteen¡¯s mask. Her heart stopped. ¡°Eight?¡± She blinked. ¡°You scumbag! That¡¯s fecking duct tape!¡±

    Thirteen¡¯s muffled laughter reverberated as Legba stopped ringing his bell. ¡°You should¡¯ve seen the look on your face,¡± Thirteen said with an affable voice fit for a talk show host, contrasting heavily with his alien appearance. He peeled away the black duct tape that formed an eight on his mask to reveal the actual number¡ª¡®12.¡¯

    ¡°Can I get a different Corebring to liaise with?¡± Euphonia folded her arms across her chest. ¡°Someone not as childish, please.¡±

    ¡°I think that was a good joke.¡± The Corebring twisted his body to look behind him, revealing his spine that had grown several times its original size, protruding out his back. He asked the girl, ¡°What do you think, Pando?¡±

    The teenage girl replied, ¡°A good payoff for your efforts.¡±

    Pando? That meant ¡®I spread¡¯ if Euphonia¡¯s Latin wasn¡¯t rusty. She had enough of Latin and scientific names to last a lifetime. Was that a clue to the girl¡¯s identity? But Euphonia had another question before that.

    ¡°What¡¯s the deal with your number?¡± Euphonia asked, tapping her face and then pointing at Thirteen. ¡°Did someone kill you?¡±

    He tilted his head. ¡°You know how my powers work?¡±

    ¡°Nothing that couldn¡¯t be found in the local library,¡± Euphonia said, downplaying her extensive research on Thirteen. She spouted common knowledge about him, even if it was inaccurate. ¡°You get stronger each time you croak, and that on your face is a countdown. The lower the number, the stronger you get.¡±

    ¡°And what¡¯ll happen when this number¡ª¡± he pointed to his mask ¡°¡ªreaches zero?¡±

    ¡°No one knows because it has never happened.¡±

    Thirteen snapped his fingers. ¡°You got that right! It never happened because this number can never become zero. But it did reach one before.¡±

    The time you betrayed the Hive, Euphonia snidely thought. According to the information she had delved from top secret government records, Thirteen rebelled against the Hive after the Adumbrae War. Thirteen was at his strongest, while the Hive was at its weakest, with many Corebrings dead. Peak Thirteen¡ªwith the number ¡®1¡¯ on his mask¡ªwas reportedly stronger than several High Overseers combined.

    Eudora couldn¡¯t fathom how the Hive brought him to heel. It might have something to do with this girl.

    ¡°I¡¯d hate to be the guy who brought your counter down to twelve,¡± Euphonia said. ¡°So, do I call you Twelve now? Still Thirteen?¡±

    ¡°Thirteen¡¯s fine. Thirteen minus one, if you want to be accurate.¡±

    ¡°You should get a less confusing name.¡± Euphonia stepped to the side to get a better view of the girl behind Thirteen. ¡°Hello there! Pando, right? I¡¯m Euphonia.¡±

    ¡°Her real name¡¯s Eudora,¡± Thirteen said. ¡°But it¡¯ll be a feat having that changed in her birth certificate with her death certificate already filed.¡±

    ¡°I hardly had a say in my name when I was born,¡± Euphonia replied with a humph. ¡°My Mam picked it. I have my choice now.¡±

    ¡°Euphonia¡­ the mid-nineteenth century talking machine.¡± Pando looked straight into Euphonia¡¯s eyes. ¡°An interesting choice. The unappreciated automaton that led to its impoverished creator taking his own life.¡±

    ¡°And I am reborn anew,¡± Euphonia said, mildly surprised that Pando knew about the source of her name. ¡°Creator and creation become one.¡±

    ¡°Did you take revenge on those people who didn¡¯t appreciate you?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re making me sound like a stock-standard mad scientist character,¡± Euphonia nonchalantly said while assessing the situation. Why was Pando here? The way this girl spoke was unsettling; it was as if she had a mind beyond her years. ¡°If you really want to know¡­ then yes, they¡¯re dead. All dead. Same as old me.¡±

    Pando walked out from behind Thirteen. The towering prankster held out his arm to stop her. She gently tapped his bony plate, signing to lower it. Thirteen complied, standing aside.

    I¡¯m right. Euphonia was elated. Pando could somehow control Thirteen; maybe she held something over his head. If Euphonia could find out what it was, she might be able to guarantee her safety.

    ¡°Tell me, Euphonia,¡± Pando said, tilting her head. ¡°Before your old self died, did you leave behind a seed for, perhaps, a tree of progress in the future?¡±

    ¡°A seed? What are you talking about?¡±

    Pando didn¡¯t have a threatening air, so Euphonia decided to risk a cursory scan. A second later, she had all the information to conclude that Pando was fully human. Of course, physical readings were just the tip of the iceberg. There were plenty of explanations for Pando¡ªa Corebring could be controlling this girl from afar.

    ¡°Euphonia, the talking machine,¡± Pando said. ¡°Ignored though she might¡¯ve been, did inspire the father of the telephone¡¯s inventor. Is there someone you¡¯ve inspired with your previous life?¡±

    Len-Len¡¯s wearing my bionic eyes, Euphonia sarcastically thought. What bloody nonsense could that lead to? She shook her head. If Pando¡¯s power was related to the brain, Euphonia better take care not to get sucked in mind games.

    Ignoring Pando, Euphonia nodded at Thirteen. ¡°Mind introducing me to this lass here? Is it bring your kid to work day?¡±

    ¡°A simple answer is that Pando is my boss. Ultimately, your boss when it comes to this,¡± Thirteen said, waving to the rest of the warehouse. ¡°I¡¯m just the middle guy. Subcontractor, you know?¡±

    ¡°The big gaffer, eh?¡± Euphonia wondered if Thirteen was playing another rotten prank.

    ¡°Gaffer means boss, right?¡± Thirteen asked. ¡°More than that, Pando is the foremost line of defense of the humans against the Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°The Corebring controlling you must be powerful.¡± Euphonia stepped forward, staring at Pando. Assuming what Thirteen said was true, then Pando was stronger than him. Was this supposed to intimidate her for failing her mission?

    ¡°Combat-wise?¡± Thirteen said. ¡°No. I am the strongest.¡±

    ¡°Humility is a virtue,¡± said Pando.

    ¡°Not for me.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t let Nanny hear you say that.¡±

    Nanny? Euphonia was familiar with the name. Nanny was the High Overseer taking care of Corebrings in Deep Sleep. ¡°Well, Pando, sir¡­¡± said Euphonia. ¡°Thanks a million for not having me killed. That was swell of you. But I¡¯ve got bad news.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re aware of what happened,¡± Pando said. Hands clasped behind her back over her long straight hair that went past her waist, she strolled past Euphonia and went to the pods. She gave the statue-like Legba a nod.

    Euphonia raised a brow at Thirteen, who only gestured at Pando.

    This is not my night, Euphonia mentally fumed. First, Len-Len showed up. Next, Len-Len¡¯s daughter put a period to Euphonia¡¯s mission. Now, a new Corebring was bringing fresh headaches.

    ¡°Almost everyone in the convention center died,¡± Euphonia said, following Pando. ¡°You should¡¯ve known that by now, I assume. And I did tell Thirteen that¡¯s going to happen. But that¡¯s not the bad news I¡¯m referring to.¡±

    ¡°The Tea Party is mostly eliminated.¡± Pando stood beside one pod. ¡°Were you going to tell us that leads have fizzled out?¡± She tapped the pod with her shoe. ¡°Are these from the Tea Party base?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± Euphonia replied. ¡°To both questions. But stall the ball and rewind. How did you know?¡± She looked back at Thirteen. ¡°You got eyes on me? Other agents in the Tea Party¡¯s ranks?¡± Vanessa came to Euphonia¡¯s mind, but she didn¡¯t blurt out her name in case she was wrong. ¡°I thought we had a deal here? This isn¡¯t going to work if you don¡¯t trust me. Is the next thing you¡¯ll say that you can¡¯t trust an Adumbrae?¡±

    Thirteen¡¯s face was completely covered, but Euphonia suspected he was smiling behind his mask. He said, ¡°I don¡¯t trust you. Not at all. But Pando does.¡±

    ¡°We trust you,¡± Pando said.

    ¡°Subcontractor Guy here just said he doesn¡¯t,¡± Euphonia pointed out.

    Thirteen raised his hand. ¡°I wasn¡¯t included in the ¡®we¡¯ there.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Euphonia snapped her head back to Pando.

    ¡°We are many,¡± Pando said, putting her hand on her chest. ¡°We can see many things. Several of us attended the Tech Fair. Some died; the Tea Party took others.¡±

    ¡°Are you mind controlling many people?¡±

    ¡°I am many people. And I am more every passing day.¡±

    ¡°Mind control, puppeteer, possess, whatever term you want to use,¡± Euphonia said, her mind racing, connecting the dots. ¡°I¡¯m not into semantics. What I¡¯m asking is, are you taking over the human race?¡±

    ¡°We are not taking over anyone.¡± Pando shook her head. ¡°We are born as is, only taking time to awaken to who we are.¡±

    ¡°Sure, if you want to couch it that way. Thirteen mentioned you¡¯re the main line of defense against the Adumbrae. My next question is, can this body of yours¡ªuse whatever term you like¡ªbecome an Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Pando said as she strolled down the row of pods.

    ¡°What will happen when a Cocoon absorbs you?¡±

    ¡°It will be destroyed.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ so that¡¯s what the Supplier is trying to prevent.¡±

 5.56.4 - Epilogue IV

    I subtly eyed the police officers in the room. Four. None of them looked my way. Three more were in the adjacent room, and two should be by the lobby. How many were in the rest of the building? How many were outside?

    The answer: not enough.

    I could kill all of them. They couldn¡¯t do anything to stop me. No one here could. They didn¡¯t even know what I was capable of. Blanchette wasn¡¯t needed; transforming would only delay me.

    My eyes flicked to the clock.

    This was taking too long. Should I just kill them? Kill all the cops in my way, escape from the building, and¡ª Were Deen and Myra outside? Where was Mom? Fuck Deen for leaving me behind here. If we had gone together, I wouldn¡¯t have gotten separated, now surrounded by cops.

    My plan was excellent and all, except for two problems.

    One, Mom was somewhere in this building. She¡¯d see me running amok, squeezing people¡¯s heads¡ªmy new hobby.

    And two, if I killed the cops¡­

    ¡­no one would process my certificates that I had cleared the tests.

    ¡°Fuuuudge caked,¡± I muttered under my breath.

    Mom was tested first. Then she pranced around the police station, being Ms. Congeniality. She pulled me aside to introduce me to cops working in the ComExo unit of the station¡ªsome were former Greaves employees. I lost my place in the line right after Deen.

    Because of the boring chat session, a buttload of people arrived for the test¡ªhigh schoolers who had a field trip at the Tech Fair yesterday morning¡ªlengthening the line. Understandably but annoyingly, their school admin wanted them tested even if they missed the parasite party in the evening.

    It was mayhem a couple of hours ago, mostly the parents of the kids drumming up a fuss. I half-hoped the police would put all of them in jail. They shouldn¡¯t be allowed to raise children with that immaturity. I had to wait until all of the kids and parents¡ªmany of the latter insisted to join¡ªto get tested before my turn.

    ¡°I should¡¯ve pretended to be their schoolmate and cut the line.¡± I tutted at the missed opportunity.

    Rechecking the clock, I noted that two and a half hours had passed since I drank the Suppressor Myra provided. We didn¡¯t have to call her for help. She was already on the way to Las Vegas when she saw shit going down at the Tech Fair on the news and arrived two hours past midnight. Her instincts prodded her that I had something to do with it.

    Myra was wrong. I didn¡¯t have a connection with the Tea Party¡¯s plans.

    But for future reference, it should be assumed that if there were an Adumbrae-related mess, I¡¯d be inadvertently around as if fate pushed me there. Maybe SpookyErind. Who knows?

    ¡°Um, excuse me, officer,¡± I timidly said, raising my voice a pitch higher. I slumped my shoulders down and hunched a bit to appear even smaller. ¡°Are my test results out?¡± This was the third time I had approached the Walrus.

    ¡°Not yet, miss,¡± said the muscular but plump officer behind the desk.

    ¡°Um, can you check?¡± I asked. They should finish assessing my tests first because I was actually there when the attack happened. Well, not exactly.

    Our official story was that when the Tea Party goons started piling into the Greaves convention center, the Mother Core, by Her Infinite Grace, guided us to hide and escape. We weren¡¯t there when the parasite crap started. Our story was a proper mess, and Mom didn¡¯t stick to the nitty gritty details we agreed on. She sucked at lying, which made both of us more believable.

    I gambled that the Tea Party had destroyed or taken over the security cameras, so nothing would contradict my tale.

    But even if the police eventually unearthed evidence exposing our lie¡ªthere were other buildings with cams nearby¡ªI¡¯d be on the run soon, anyway. Too many jackasses after me.

    Not run away. Run to them.

    I just wanted Mom to get her clearance and fly back to her job in Europe as soon as possible while I cleaned up this mess like a good daughter, unlike what Auntie Dora said. It wasn¡¯t even my mess¡ªI just slipped on it and dived head-first splat on the dirty floor. When Mom would return someday, I¡¯d have already reclaimed my everyday life.

    If that was possible.

    Or I could be dead.

    The Walrus wiggled his wry whiskers while looking at the small TV on the wall. ¡°Just sit and wait,¡± he mumbled behind his mustache. ¡°It¡¯ll be out before you know it.¡± He didn¡¯t bother to check the pile of papers on his desk.

    Of course, it¡¯ll be out before I know, I mentally grumbled as I returned to my chair. That¡¯s why I was asking.

    I examined my right hand. A fingerless glove made of stretchy cotton wrapped it¡ªDeen¡¯s gift. It was supposed to be a stylish way to cover my hand. Not sure about fashion, but it was comfy as a soft sweater.

    The crystals on my right palm had grown more. Strands of metal threads radiated from them, weaving into my skin. My entire palm would look inhuman as fuck if I didn¡¯t drink the Suppressor. Eventually, SpookyErind¡¯s clawed gauntlet might materialize in the real world¡ªwhat else could this be turning to?

    Materialize in my world, anyway. There were multiple worlds from how SpookyErind spoke.

    I dug the nail of my index finger into my thumb.

    Painful. A small reddish indent remained on my skin.

    I could also feel how weak I was¡ªthe Suppressor was still in effect. Puny, frail, squishy human. Must be why I was cranky and antsy. Annoying to be weak. I didn¡¯t want to say it out loud¡ªnot that this was a good place for it¡ªbut I had less and less intention to become a normal human again as time passed.

    If that¡¯s even possible.

    Likelier that I was pissed because I¡¯d have to abandon my normal life soon. After going through all that to save Mom and preserve my surface-level way of living, I¡¯d end up overturning it myself. But I didn¡¯t have a choice. This had to end on my own terms.

    The TV caught my eye. A break from the nonstop news about the Tech Fair.

    The reporter narrated that the missing college students from a few days ago had been confirmed to be the bodies found in the burned shack along the Mojave highway. She continued that the BID was on the case because it was suspected that an Adumbrae was involved, given the mangled state of the bodies.

    Another cop stood beside Walrus¡¯ desk, watching the TV. Shrugging, she said, ¡°Positively not a mountain lion goin¡¯ ¡®round burning bodies.¡±

    The TV screen flashed a picture of Action Hero with his movie star¡¯s square jaw and brooding eyes. The next was Skull Tattoo Bro. I couldn¡¯t forget his ugly mug, even though his parents provided a decent pic of him wearing a dress shirt to hide his tattoo. The following images must be the other dead frat guys. After that fun night¡­ or day¡­ I was ashamed to admit I couldn¡¯t remember the rest of them.

    ¡°Poor lads,¡± Walrus said. ¡°Eloyce students all¡­ bright futures gone. I¡¯d love my boys to get into such a prestigious university. Gonna set them for life.¡±

    Poor lads? I raised a brow. They surrendered their bright futures when they bothered me. Rule #4 no longer protected them. I did egg them on a bit to bother us more, but that was ultimately on them.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°How do you reckon they got lured to that ancient gas stop?¡± the female cop wondered.

    ¡°They went in there for a dare, my guess,¡± someone said. ¡°Some stupid game, for sure.¡±

    ¡°And then found an actual monster?¡±

    ¡°Right out of a friggin¡¯ horror movie,¡± a passing cop gruffly said.

    Precisely what I was going for, I cheerily piped in my head.

    Was that pride I felt? My handiwork was on the news! Partially Deen¡¯s too. Ugh. I didn¡¯t want to share the glory with her.

    The Tech Fair was a bigger thing, but that wasn''t mine. As for wrecking the Tea Party base, while that was awesome, it''d probably be only known by government authorities. If they¡¯d even find it.

    I intently listened to the reporter describing the torn and burned bodies. Violence and fear sell. From the blood in different locations, it was apparent the victims were killed separately, she said. Then their corpses were brought to the old store and set on fire with their car.

    The news switched to interviews of supposedly nearby residents¡ªI didn¡¯t know where the hell they lived in the empty desert¡ªspeculating there was some demonic ritual going on with the burning. Then there was another shot of a priest praying outside police lines with several onlookers behind him.

    ¡°Man, not a good way to die,¡± said another person waiting for his test three seats away from me.

    I supposed he was talking to me, so I timidly nodded. If I recall correctly, the frat boys were attending the Tech Fair. Technically, they were going to most likely die there too. I just gave them a better death.

    Arguably.

    Wow, I¡¯m a good person. I caught my grinning face reflecting off a computer screen. I lowered my head, willing my cheeks to go down. I kept smiling as the cops chatted about how awful the crime was, one of the worst Adumbrae-related incidents in recent years, they said. And it would¡¯ve been top news if it wasn¡¯t for the Tech Fair.

    Fucking Tea Party, stealing my limelight. Served them right that their base was destroyed.

    ¡°Bet the Adumbrae that did this was at the Tech Fair,¡± the female cop said. ¡°Stopped for a chow on the way. Had half a mind to burn evidence.¡±

    Evidence?

    My blood was there. Deen¡¯s too. Not human blood. The investigators would confirm something inhuman did it but couldn¡¯t trace it back to us.

    What about cloth scraps? Fingerprints? Did the customers at the diner remember us? The police might track us for questioning in the days to come. My history of getting involved in way too much Adumbrae stuff was getting suspicious.

    It¡¯d be hard to do what I planned if government authorities were coming for me.

    Should I accept Vanessa¡¯s invitation? I scrolled through the contacts on my phone to the number she gave me. I snorted at the name¡ªRoasted. I should change that.

    She gave me a means of contacting her before we parted ways last night, saying I should meet with her ¡®boss at work¡¯ soon. Mom was listening, so Vanessa couldn¡¯t say she meant Big Marcy.

    Good thing Vanessa quickly left after we escaped the police ring with the powers of Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel. While her pet was helpful, Deen was annoying as fuck, pestering Vanessa about the other people she had allegedly saved.

    Why did Vanessa lie about that? Weird.

    On the topic of weirdness, Vanessa said that another person wanted to see me¡ªRamon.

    I played along that I knew the name, only remembering this morning while brushing my teeth that Ramon was the pizza delivery guy who had a crush on me.

    He¡¯s alive? A mini-surprise I didn¡¯t care for.

    Last I¡¯d seen him, he was part monster. Or full monster. Can there even be a half-monster? Once part of a human turned into¡ªanyway, what was he doing with the 2Ms? And why would he want to see me? Shouldn¡¯t he hide because of what he had become?

    Maybe Vanessa told him I was an Adumbrae, and he thought he had a chance.

    Heh.

    I¡¯d have forgotten about Ramon if not for Vanessa bringing him up. Who else did I forget from the condo?

    If I forgot, how could I remember? Duh.

    Given that Ramon was still in the land of the living, Kelsey might be as well. Suppose Myra¡¯s suspicion was correct that the Supplier kidnapped her sister. In that case, the best Myra could hope for was that the Supplier recruited Kelsey as an Adumbrae soldier, sort of like Ramon with the 2Ms.

    My finger hovered over the message button next to Vanessa¡¯s phone number. I was interested in what Big Marcy had to say about the Supplier and his connection to Dario. Now, I had to know¡­ because I was coming for them.

    Big Marcy might be able to protect me from the police and BID as I¡¯d lose the Professor¡¯s sinister hand wiping away evidence. So many enemies. Allies were also enemies. I would take them all out until no one bothered me anymore.

    ¡°Aunt Dora¡­¡± I muttered, noticing a cop with bionic eyes. Would she help me? She mentioned working for Corebrings, probably in return for her life.

    Can I get a deal like that from Corebrings? Didn¡¯t sound too bad.

    The door of the adjacent office opened, interrupting my thoughts. A police officer holding a bunch of papers stepped out. Some of those had to be my certificates. She didn¡¯t immediately go to the Walrus, stopping to watch the TV.

    I couldn¡¯t blame her. I was also interested in what was being reported¡ªworkers from the Corebring Hive had arrived in the city.

    Humans employed by the Hive, not Corebrings themselves.

    The mayor spoke on a pulpit about not letting Corebrings into the city because that was akin to a foreign military force coming in. He strongly supported the President and shared his views on rejecting Hive interference. But in this instance, the mayor allowed Hive researchers to lend their expertise in the investigations.

    Then the news switched to a bunch of reporters crowding around a tall man in a crisp white uniform with blue and black borders. He had a smooth silver helmet fully covering his head. His identity was kept a secret for both the safety of the Hive and the relatives and friends he left. I should know. Even his voice was altered as he answered questions from the reporters.

    In the background was a Corebring ship, its mouth open.

    Do ships have mouths? I didn¡¯t know what to call that door thingy under the ship¡¯s belly that doubled as a ramp. The ship was hard to make out because the Hive spokesperson and shrubbery of microphones partially covered its view.

    People in similar uniforms and helmets descended the ship, accompanied by sleek drones carrying heavy equipment.

    Is that? My eyes widened. The outline and gait of the man third in line were familiar.

    I shot up, almost toppling my chair. ¡°Dad?¡±

    ¡°Ms. Hartwell?¡± The cop with the papers jolted in surprise at my sudden movement. She handed me an envelope. ¡°These are yours. Apologies for the delay. Our labs are swamped.¡± She grinned. ¡°Also, the director¡¯s chatting with your mother, so she didn¡¯t immediately sign these.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ Mom¡­¡± I checked the TV. Ads were playing. That was probably just my imagination.

    ¡°If you can follow me here, Ms. Hartwell,¡± said the cop. ¡°We¡¯ll need your signature on a few things.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°So, we¡¯re all agreed that we¡¯re going to try recruiting Imani to our side?¡± I said after Myra had started the car. I sat by the passenger¡¯s seat while Deen was behind me.

    Mom was going to visit Aunt Mikaela, who taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Not an actual aunt, but a family friend who used to work with Mom. I had many ¡®aunts¡¯ and ¡®uncles¡¯ in the city, and Mom wanted to visit as many of them as possible before leaving. She knew I hated social nonsense and didn¡¯t persuade me to accompany her.

    ¡°Worth a try,¡± Myra said. ¡°But it¡¯s really up to you guys ¡®cause I haven¡¯t met her. I can¡¯t judge her character just from your story.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll ask Imani,¡± Deen said, ¡°and see her reaction.¡±

    ¡°What about this Jubjub person?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s the Dario of their group,¡± I said. ¡°Totally an enemy.¡± I wanted to suggest that if we could kill Jubjub, we should do it before she¡¯d regroup with the Professor.

    ¡°Maybe we don¡¯t need to do this,¡± Deen said. ¡°Maybe¡­ maybe Dario still hadn¡¯t found out that you¡¯re an Adumbrae. That you¡¯re Red Hood.¡±

    ¡°The Professor having us tailed is proof.¡± I locked eyes with Deen in the rearview mirror. ¡°I was wrong to think that Jubjub¡¯s group was tasked with protecting you. Maybe that¡¯s what the Professor told them, but by tailing you, they¡¯re tailing me. Or maybe it was to protect you from going rogue because of me. Whatever the truth was, it¡¯s awfully sketchy how frantically they reacted with us leaving La Esperanza.¡±

    ¡°Dario¡¯s acting suspicious as hell when I asked him for Suppressors,¡± Myra said. ¡°He did give it to me. Then I exchanged it with Everett and Reo¡¯s Suppressors to be safe.¡±

    ¡°Now that Jubjub¡¯s team is down for the count, the Professor would send others,¡± I said. ¡°To do what, I don¡¯t know. Follow us? Get Deen away from me? Kill me? We should take the initiative and act first.¡±

    ¡°What if¡­¡± Deen leaned forward in between the two front seats. ¡°What if Imani rejects us? We can¡¯t have her telling Jubjub on us.¡±

    I turned left to look at Deen, staring into her eyes to push her to answer it herself.

    After a few seconds of awkward silence, Deen said, ¡°We-we¡¯ll kill her.¡±

    There¡¯s the Deen I know and love. Scratch that last part. I nodded, echoing her. ¡°We¡¯ll kill her. And that¡¯s a minus one for their team, too.¡±

 5.56.5 - Epilogue V

    Earlier this morning, the lobby receptionist at the condo handed me an envelope as we were about to leave for the police station. Inside were two pieces of paper¡ªthe first was a flyer for a cruise ship, and the second was a note from Imani. She wrote that she wanted to talk face-to-face about something.

    Did it cross my mind that this could be a trap?

    Yeah. But I had Deen around. Traps were so pass¨¦ nowadays that bad guys should come up with something new.

    And what was up with the cruise ship promotion? Did the receptionist slip the flyer into Imani¡¯s envelope? Rude much. I doubted Imani was inviting me for a cruise to forget the traumatic¡ªfor her¡ªincident we survived.

    Myra parked her car across the street from the meeting place Imani had set¡ªa small decrepit park in a much less crowded section of Vegas, long left behind by the city¡¯s progress. Might be too late to be cautious, but whatever.

    I stopped in front of the vine-covered arches by the park¡¯s entrance. Myra and Deep were behind me.

    With my back turned to them, I pretended to be the main character in an action movie¡¯s finale and said, ¡°Before going any further, I want to make sure everyone is on board. We¡¯ll risk the normalcy of lives¡ªwhat little is left¡ªand might never return to it. Actually, we¡¯re risking our lives. Period.¡±

    ¡°Erind¡­¡± Deen started to say.

    I pressed on, ¡°I¡¯m going to be honest here. If I could back out and hide and just forget about everything, I would. But that¡¯s not possible. I¡¯m in the center of this. A lot of people are after me or will be after me. And I¡¯m going after them first.¡± I slowly turned around, picturing myself sitting on a swivel chair. ¡°What about you? Are you really, really sure you want to help me?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to get my sister back no matter what it takes.¡± Myra shook a determined fist. Her hair, dyed metallic blue, shimmered under the sun. ¡°The way to do that is by joining forces with you guys.¡±

    Deen said, ¡°I¡¯m also with you, Erind.¡±

    ¡°But you don¡¯t need to be,¡± I replied. ¡°You don¡¯t have a personal stake in this.¡± We¡¯d had this conversation a bajillion times. But like a pretty girl constantly saying they were ugly to farm compliments, I wanted to hear someone was ready to sacrifice their life for me.

    ¡°I¡¯m willing to put my life on the line for my best friend,¡± she replied.

    ¡°Thank you very much, Deen,¡± I said. That¡¯s my fix for the day. ¡°Thanks for the help too, Myra, though you also have your own quest. It means a lot that you delivered the Suppressors. Anyway, let¡¯s go in and see what we¡¯ll find.¡±

    We found exactly what we saw outside¡ªa park masquerading as ancient ruins, partly reclaimed by nature. No Imani or anyone else around. It would¡¯ve been quite a scenic place were it not for the rampant vandalism.

    ¡°Nothing, Deen?¡± I asked while trying to read graffiti scrawled on the butt of a headless cherub atop a fountain that had seen better days. I tried to distract myself from picking at my new glove or flexing my right palm with the crystalline growths on it¡ªthe Suppressor had just worn off.

    ¡°Gabe is silent,¡± she replied. ¡°It¡¯s not a trap.¡±

    ¡°For now,¡± Myra grimly added.

    ¡°Gabe will say something at the first sign of trouble,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°We¡¯ll find out soon,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s do some, I don¡¯t know, sightseeing while waiting for Imani.¡±

    ¡°The ugly side of Vegas.¡± Myra followed my gaze. She kicked an empty beer bottle, one of the many littering the ground, into the dried-up pond surrounding the fountain. ¡°Very different from what tourists expect when they come here.¡±

    ¡°After what happened to us,¡± I said, tilting my head to Deen, ¡°I can say that Vegas can only be described as a horrible tourist destination.¡±

    ¡°Erind, can I read the note again?¡± Deen asked, not joining my joke as required of a best friend. She was in all-serious mode as if this was an important matter. I handed the paper slip to her. ¡°I don¡¯t doubt you,¡± she clarified. ¡°But I want to double-check if we¡¯re at the right place.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, why¡¯s your girl, Imani, not here yet?¡± Myra looked around. ¡°I¡¯m gonna stand close to Deen in case this turns out to be an ambush.¡±

    ¡°This should be our meeting spot,¡± I said, glancing at the note after Deen returned it. The writing was in insanely neat block letters that one could mistake as typewritten. ¡°This is the angel missing its head. Unless this is supposed to be a code or something.¡±

    ¡°Any guesses what she wants?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°We¡¯re survivors of such a harrowing experience,¡± Deen said. ¡°It¡¯s a normal human reaction for Imani to seek fellow survivors.¡±

    That sounded like nonsense. I wracked my brain about what Imani¡¯s game could be. Her note didn¡¯t say much other than she feared something terrible had happened¡ªthat could encompass a lot of stuff¡ªand she wasn¡¯t sure who to trust. Imani decided that it was us.

    I reread the end of the note, focusing on the last word. Trust.

    At first, I found it funny that Imani came to me looking for someone trustworthy. But after a bit more thought, I realized that Imani unknowingly stumbled on the correct choice. What did the Professor and Jubjub plan for Imani¡¯s future? The other test subjects too?

    Something no good, for sure. But if Imani went with our mini-revolution, she might save herself.

    That was why I wanted to try inviting her.

    I¡¯m such a good person.

    Deen continued her theory, ¡°Imani wants comfort, especially after¡­ um¡­ losing her two friends.¡± She hesitantly glanced at me.

    I stared back blankly. What was up with that look? I killed Boojum so Deen couldn¡¯t do her usual morally tormented heroine shtick. Was she moping about losing that opportunity?

    Deen shook her head. ¡°I won¡¯t be surprised if Imani just wants a shoulder to cry on.¡±

    ¡°We can ask her ourselves.¡± Myra gazed at something behind me. ¡°That her?¡±

    A slender figure wrapped in a black jacket appeared behind an overgrown hedge. Taking off the hood, she revealed herself to be Imani. Part of me was surprised it was her, not some Tea Party dregs out for revenge. But that didn¡¯t mean this wasn¡¯t a trap.

    Imani timidly approached us but stopped upon seeing Myra. Imani probably assumed I¡¯d come alone¡ªshe might be okay with Deen, but Myra was a new face.

    I walked toward Imani, holding my hands up. The two other Bs¡ªBlonde and Blue¡ªfollowed. I hissed like a cat and shooed them away.

    ¡°Imani?¡± I softly said, stepping closer. Let¡¯s start with a stupid question. ¡°Imani, are you alright?¡±

    Reddish sunken eyes peered through a thin curtain of stray hairs. It was as if Imani had cried until no more tears came out. I couldn¡¯t remember the last time I cried¡ªfake cried. Real tears probably last dropped from my eyes when I was a kid. I wasn¡¯t even sure if my tears during Dad¡¯s ¡®funeral¡¯ were genuine.

    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m not,¡± Imani said.

    I kept silent, encouraging her to continue talking.

    She bowed, staring at the unkempt grass. ¡°My mother always says whenever I complain about bad things happening to me¡­ that we can¡¯t undo the past, only continue forward.¡±

    I nodded but didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°But I don¡¯t want to continue forward,¡± Imani whispered, nearly inaudible.

    Oh, I get it. Was this what Imani wanted to discuss? Boring. I should¡¯ve gone with Mom instead of dealing with this crap.

    ¡°Are they okay?¡± I asked. ¡°Boojum and Snark?¡± Congratulations to me for remembering their names.

    Imani shook her head. Her hands by her sides balled into fists. They trembled.

    I moved even closer, approximating Deen-like behavior appropriate for this situation. ¡°What happened? Tell me.¡± I reached for Imani¡¯s right hand and cupped it between mine. Not much issue if I was initiating physical contact, though a hug might be too big a leap for me.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t heard from them. They¡¯re not among the survivors. The-they might¡¯ve been eat¡ªno! I don¡¯t want to think that! But if they¡¯re alive, they should¡¯ve shown up by now, right? Tell me I¡¯m wrong!¡±

    Right? Wrong? Can you repeat the question? ¡°Don¡¯t lose hope,¡± I said, trying to keep down my puke. ¡°I¡¯ve heard from Deen of hostages mysteriously disappearing. Something like that. She mentioned there were no signs they were eaten. Just vanishing without a trace.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying the same thing happened to Marco and Ronan?¡± Imani¡¯s face twisted into absolute fright. ¡°Then they¡¯re really gone!¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not saying that,¡± I said. Deen was better at this than me. ¡°Think about it.¡± I gave Imani¡¯s hand a squeeze with my right hand.

    She jolted a bit, feeling the bumps on my palm.

    ¡°If the Tea Party had an Adumbrae that could make people disappear,¡± I continued, ¡°then why bother segregating us into rooms? What was the point of taking hostages if their goal was to kill? It¡¯s not. The Tea Party had transported the missing people elsewhere. That might be where an Adumbrae¡¯s power comes in.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    ¡°Not sure,¡± I said, though I was. ¡°I slept through the latter half of what happened,¡± I reminded Imani. ¡°Thanks for being by my side throughout, by the way. But I can certainly say to wait before jumping to conclusions.¡± I already threw Imani an opening there if she wanted to admit she had discovered my secret.

    ¡°Marco¡¯s mom called me this morning,¡± Imani said. ¡°I told her I didn¡¯t know where her son was. What should I say if she calls again?¡±

    ¡°Tell her that you don¡¯t know. Because that¡¯s the truth. From what I¡¯ve heard of them from Deen, I know that they¡¯re tough people. Don¡¯t write them off just yet, okay?¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡±

    I patted her hand. ¡°You¡¯re going to be okay. They¡¯re going to be okay.¡± I was waiting for anyone to give me a medal for being such a great comforter. ¡°Are you worried about anything else?¡±

    ¡°Ye-yeah.¡± She grasped my right hand, feeling what was under the glove. ¡°I know about¡­¡±

    I smiled. ¡°I know that you know.¡±

    ¡°Was this on your hand yesterday?¡± she asked, running her fingers over the bumps under the cloth.

    ¡°Yes. But they were far smaller then. They grow each time I use my power.¡± Actually, I wasn¡¯t sure what affected them.

    ¡°Using your power?¡± Imani¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Thanks for saving us. I¡¯m sorry that it caused, uh¡­ that, to expand.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± I took off my glove.

    Deen stepped forward. I glared at her, nudging my head to hint that she should wait. She backed off.

    I presented my hand to Imani. ¡°There. It wasn¡¯t like this yesterday. I covered it with flesh-tone bandaids and makeup. Now, I just went with a glove. Too conspicuous. I¡¯ll think of something better.¡±

    ¡°You have an artificial Core like Deen.¡±

    I nodded, putting my hand on my chest. I hoped she wouldn¡¯t ask to see it.

    Imani gingerly touched the crystals. ¡°They¡¯re so beautiful.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d rather it¡¯s not there.¡± If I could get rid of them but keep my powers, that¡¯d be great. I could tell Imani interpreted what I said differently.

    ¡°You have a visible side effect?¡± Imani frowned. ¡°Jubilee¡­ Jubjub told me there¡¯d be no mark other than the artificial Core itself that¡¯d be attached to the chest, out of sight.¡± With gritted teeth and blazing eyes that pushed back the sadness, she growled, ¡°She lied to me. Again.¡±

    What was this reaction? I should take my advice about jumping to conclusions. I had thought that Imani set this meeting to admit she had discovered my secret. That didn¡¯t seem to be it.

    Something to do with Jubjub.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry that we kept it a secret from you.¡± I motioned for Deen to come closer. Imani didn¡¯t protest. ¡°Deen¡¯s powers are known to our team,¡± I explained to our Imani. ¡°But most of them don¡¯t know I have an artificial Core too.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t tell Jubjub,¡± Imani said. ¡°Your wound. You were shot, and I saw you regenerate. Sorry I couldn¡¯t protect you. But Jubjub doesn¡¯t know about it. The Professor wanted to keep it a secret, so I did.¡±

    ¡°Is this what you wanted to tell me?¡±

    Imani shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s about something else that happened after I escaped from¡ª¡± Her eyes flicked to Myra. ¡°Who is she, if I may ask?¡±

    ¡°A fellow artificial Core holder,¡± I replied. ¡°Myra is a teammate from La Esperanza who came here when she heard the news of Adumbrae at the Tech Fair.¡±

    ¡°Is she¡­ is she the leader of your group?¡±

    Another clue as to Imani¡¯s problem. ¡°Our leader¡¯s name is Dario. He doesn¡¯t know that Myra came here.¡± I beckoned for Myra to come closer. ¡°Well, Dario¡¯s not supposed to know, the same way he shouldn¡¯t know Deen and I are in Vegas. But we know what happened to that.¡±

    ¡°Are you trying to hide from your leader?¡± Imani warily eyed Myra. ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Not exactly hide,¡± I slowly said. ¡°But we didn¡¯t want him to know our whereabouts because we have some¡­ suspicions.¡±

    Imani¡¯s eyes danced, her brain running fast.

    ¡°Suspicion that something¡¯s not right about this whole thing,¡± I added. ¡°The Professor, our teams fighting the Adumbrae. Don¡¯t you feel the same way?¡±

    ¡°Ye-yes. Knowing that there were other teams relieved me. Made me happy we¡¯re not alone. But it is suspicious that there seemed to be multiple groups scattered in cities. There are also other things¡­ Jubjub, she did¡ª¡± Imani stopped herself and shook her head.

    ¡°To show you can trust us,¡± I said. ¡°How about Myra tell you about some stuff about Dario and the Professor that you¡¯ll find interesting.¡±

    ¡°Hi, there!¡± Myra cheerily waved, coming on a bit too strong.

    ¡°Tell her about Kelsey,¡± I said.

    ¡°Okay then. I¡¯m not sure how to begin my story, but here goes.¡±

    Myra started with Kelsey becoming an Adumbrae which led to joining Dario¡¯s team in return for help from the Professor¡ªthe Suppressors. Blah, blah, blah. Deen listened intently; this was her first time hearing about this.

    We reached the part where Kelsey transformed at the law school cafeteria, jumped out the window, and disappeared without a trace. ¡°There was no body, blood, nothing at all,¡± Myra said. ¡°If¡ªa very big if¡ªmy sister died, the waves would¡¯ve washed her to shore. But she didn¡¯t die! She¡¯s an Adumbrae¡ªa stupid fall wouldn¡¯t get her. Someone took her, and I think Dario and the Professor had something to do with it.¡±

    ¡°The man who attacked us at Sanders,¡± Deen butted in, looking at me. ¡°The Professor could¡¯ve sent him to kill witnesses of Kelsey¡¯s transformation? We might be wrong that he¡¯s an Adumbrae¡­ he could be someone with an artificial Core!¡±

    Hey, that¡¯s a good, wrong theory. Why didn¡¯t I think of that?

    I glanced at Myra¡ªshe was concentrating on the angel sculpture¡ªbefore picking up the story and tacking how Deen and I joined the Professor. ¡°That¡¯s a gist of our part. Back to Kelsey and why Myra thinks the Professor has her.¡±

    ¡°This may sound crazy, but just keep an open mind.¡± Myra laid out the bases for her suspicions, from the special Suppressor Kelsey took that should¡¯ve worked for hours, to the surprising resources of allegedly one rogue scientist, to the Professor¡¯s mind-boggling reach in erasing our traces.

    ¡°And managing multiple groups,¡± I added, a fact we only knew yesterday.

    Myra then highlighted the insane implications of the artificial Core and the Suppressors. Not only did the Professor give them out like candy, but the world¡¯s governments weren¡¯t focusing their resources on almost miracle inventions like these. It was apparent that those with artificial Cores were test subjects of a sinister project.

    ¡°Again, with the multiple groups,¡± I said. ¡°Makes it easier to see there¡¯s some experimenting stuff going on.¡±

    ¡°What you¡¯re saying is that Jubilee told me is a lie,¡± Imani said after Myra was done with her sales talk.

    ¡°Not everything,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Most things,¡± I chimed in. ¡°I¡¯m sure this is hard for you to believe, but we¡ª¡±

    ¡°I believe it,¡± Imani said. ¡°Parts of it. Erasing evidence of us¡ªI know about that.¡±

    Myra, Deen, and I looked at each other. ¡°Can you tell us more about it?¡± I asked Imani.

    ¡°The people with me when we escaped¡­¡± Imani looked into my eyes with despair. ¡°They¡¯re all gone.¡±

    ¡°Gone? You mean the Tea Party got to them?¡±

    ¡°No, that¡¯s not it.¡± Imani narrated how they escaped the Greaves convention center through an underground passage¡ªa large sewer pipe or something¡ªand that they did reach safety. ¡°Jubjub was supposed to take them to the police. She separated me from them. I didn¡¯t understand why¡ªI¡¯m human and had nothing to fear from the authorities¡ªbut I still followed her.¡±

    Imani swallowed and closed her eyes. A couple of teardrops rolled down her cheeks. Deen, being Deen, patted Imani¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°They¡¯re dead, aren¡¯t they?¡± I softly said. That was the only conclusion for how Imani acted. ¡°They didn¡¯t make it to the police?¡±

    Imani nodded. ¡°The police published names and pictures of recorded survivors for the public to easily find friends and relatives. I checked and checked all night long. Until the morning, I checked. I didn¡¯t sleep. Every time there¡¯s an update¡ª¡±

    ¡°Tesh and Kiera?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°They¡¯re not there!¡± Imani cried out. ¡°I remember all of their faces!¡± Deen hugged Imani. ¡°None of the-them. No one.¡± Imani broke down and sobbed while talking. ¡°I checked again before coming here¡­¡±

    My brain didn¡¯t bother understanding her blathering nonsense.

    I gave Myra a sidelong glance, closed my eyes briefly, and shook my head once. It¡¯s not time for our recruitment drive, I was trying to tell Myra.

    We had to do this carefully. This needed time, but we also couldn¡¯t take too long, or Imani might try to meet Jubjub and get herself erased as well. With Boojum and Snark gone, and Imani, just a human, Jubjub might restart her team.

    After a few minutes, Imani calmed down.

    Deen led her to a bench, or what was left of it, the iron backrest mostly stripped away, and sat beside her.

    ¡°There¡¯s a voice in my heart that I should talk to you, Erind.¡± Imani looked up at me. ¡°I continuously prayed to the Mother Core while waiting for the police bulleting to update. This morning¡­ something prodded me to write a note to you. Thank the Mother Core that it reached you. I wasn¡¯t sure if you were still staying in that building or if you maybe left the city.¡±

    ¡°The receptionist gave me your envelope,¡± I said.

    ¡°Envelope?¡± Imani tilted her head.

    ¡°This one.¡± I fished the envelope from my pocket. ¡°Did you put a flyer here too?¡± I unfolded the red paper with golden borders. It was for a cruise to Mexico on a ship called Islas de Sangre.

 5.56.6 - Epilogue VI

    ¡°It¡¯s in the same envelope as your note,¡± I said. ¡°Just asking if you put this here or maybe the¡ª¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t have an envelope,¡± Imani replied, brows pressed together as she examined the flyer. ¡°I gave my folded note to the woman at your condo¡¯s front desk. She probably placed it in one to not get lost.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re right.¡± I turned over the envelope and found the condo manager¡¯s logo on the upper right. I must¡¯ve missed it while puzzling over its contents. ¡°Weird that the receptionist included a flyer.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that about?¡± Myra peered over the paper Imani held. ¡°A cruise with a newly remodeled ship from New Los Angeles to Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico. Fancy, eh?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve he-heard of this.¡± Imani paused, closing her eyes. We waited for her to explain. Her lips trembled for a couple of seconds. ¡°Marco¡­ He¡¯s Boojum. Ma-Marco and his girlfriend wanted to get on this cruise. They were looking forward to it.¡±

    ¡°Sounds enticing.¡± Myra grinned at me. ¡°This Marco guy got the right idea. Maybe he can recommend us an island for Erind to hide in.¡±

    ¡°Boojum is one of her teammates,¡± I whispered, not so subtly elbowing Myra. ¡°We told you about him.¡±

    Myra hastily bowed to Imani. ¡°Oh, fuck! I¡¯m so sorry!¡± Myra turned left, glaring at me. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you mention his name when telling me about them?¡±

    ¡°Can I see that?¡± Deen pulled the flyer from Imani¡¯s hands and folded it partially crosswise to show only the top part. She underlined with her nail the line in a smaller font beneath the name of the cruise and other details.

    ¡°Royal Ceressa Cruise Lines,¡± I read. My eyes flicked to the name of the ship. Cogs in my brain turned.

    This wasn¡¯t an obnoxious promotion by the receptionist. This is a message. A message from a particular silver-haired and silver-eyed bitch who had been jostled off my mind by the amount of crap drowning me recently.

    ¡°Ceressa?¡± Myra said. ¡°Am I crazy, or does that sound familiar?¡±

    ¡°Bianca Ceressa,¡± Deen said. ¡°Their family owns this cruise ship line. Dario told us about this when we planned on getting close to her.¡± She explained to Imani. ¡°Long story, but the short is that Bianca was trying to become an Adumbrae.¡±

    Myra whistled. ¡°A freaky coincidence you got an ad for this, Erind.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ a coincidence,¡± I echoed, though I didn¡¯t think so.

    In the many times I had passed through the condo¡¯s lobby through the years, no one had ever given me any flyers or ads or whatever. And what would the condo manager have to do with cruise ships? The true coincidence was that Bianca and Imani delivered their messages around the same time. The receptionist placed them in the same envelope to give to me.

    I took the flyer back. ¡°The Islas de Sangre finished renovations three years¡­¡± I mumbled, my eyes crawling through every inch of the paper.

    The ship was to dock at New Los Angeles, the smaller twin city of La Esperanza. A vast gorge separated the two cities¡ªthe path of the Adumbrae Titan, one of the most powerful in history, that sunk a chunk of California during the war. Together, La Esperanza and New Los Angeles used to be the old Los Angeles City several decades ago.

    I had visited New Los Angeles for my work before law school. It was a far more relaxed place than the cramped concrete jungle of La Esperanza. I say relaxed in terms of buildings and development, but that didn¡¯t mean it had fewer people. It was touristy as hell¡ªnot that hell would be a nice tourist spot¡ªwith the beaches packed by as many people as the grains of sand there.

    An automatic no-no for me. Just the thought of the masses of bodies made me want to lash out.

    But it seemed I had to go to New Lost Angeles and get on board this cruise, another activity I hated for the same reason.

    ¡°Islas de Sangre,¡± Deen said. ¡°Islands of Blood. An odd name for a ship.¡±

    ¡°You speak Spanish?¡± Myra wondered. ¡°Are there language classes in your fancy prep school or something?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t speak Spanish and didn¡¯t go to prep school. Just a normal high school.¡±

    ¡°Normal?¡± Myra scoffed. ¡°Yeah, right.¡±

    Deen ignored Myra, continuing to explain, ¡°Islas means islands, obviously. And Sangre probably has something to do with blood. Like the drink, Sangria? Islands of Blood¡ªreally odd. And creepy too.¡±

    ¡°An odd name¡­¡± I nodded, nonchalantly folding the flyer.

    Islands of Blood.

    Blood was red.

    Red Island.

    A stretch? Maybe.

    If it wasn¡¯t for Bianca offering to help me take down the 2Ms in return for teaching her how to become a true Adumbrae while retaining her human mind. Then it wasn¡¯t so stretchy anymore. I was almost sure Bianca sent me this flyer¡ªnot personally; she was too conspicuous to walk around Vegas unnoticed. She was telling me that this cruise ship was connected in some way to Red Island.

    What if Red Island wasn¡¯t the actual name of the place of freaky Adumbrae experiments? What if it just came to be known as that because of the ship going to it? I didn¡¯t want to share my theory with the other B¡¯s¡ªwhat B should Imani be?¡ªbecause I couldn¡¯t reveal my connection to Bianca.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get back to the topic,¡± I said. ¡°Imani, I know this is a hard time¡ªImani?¡±

    She stared at me with unblinking eyes. I waited for a couple of seconds. She still hadn¡¯t blinked or said anything or moved whatever. It was like she was frozen in place.

    Deen beside her was the same, turned into a wax statue. Myra too.

    I clicked my tongue in annoyance. This had happened a couple of times before. She was going to show up soon.

    From an overcast day, the clouds parted to reveal not the sun but endless stars in a sea of black. Gossamer ribbons of different colors weaved above, overpowering the smattering distant lights, turning the momentary night bright. It was as if I was inside a kaleidoscope.

    Turning around to observe the sky drastically change, I noticed the headless angel statue detaching from its pedestal on the fountain.

    It levitated and crumbled like a cookie, the dozens of fragments reforming into a mask.

    Her mask. The mask she didn¡¯t want to lend to me.

    It was half-white and half-black, a broad smile cut into both sides. Golden rays radiated out of both eyeholes. Ancient cracks¡ªcobwebs of darkness¡ªmarred its surface. It gently rotated as it ascended.

    The fountain on the ground also broke apart. The debris put itself back together, rearranging into something different¡ªa chair. It was only briefly that the chair, adorned with beautiful, symmetrical carvings, was in one piece. Sharp lines divided it anew as stone aged thousands of years in seconds. However, the parts still held the shape of a chair, individual pieces floating about half an inch from each other.

    ¡°Wow, such an extravagant entrance,¡± I dryly said as the mask descended to the chair.

    I blinked.

    A woman now sat on the chair, wearing the mask.

    SpookyErind.

    She wore a fitting black suit and pants threaded with golden lines in geometric designs. Underneath the suit, she had a white dress shirt and a black tie. And on her shoulders settled a snowy white fur coat as if clouds surrounded her. A heavy gauntlet made of interlocking plates of gold wrapped her right hand. The fingers of the imposing metal glove curved into wicked claws.

    <u>What do you think of it?</u> SpookyErind asked. She removed her mask, revealing my own face with a few minor differences.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Her burning ruby eyes were like lasers firing through her ghostly white hair, lazily flowing about her head as if blown by the wind in slow motion. The polished, marble-like skin of her cheeks reflected the array of lights swirling around us on its unearthly complexion.

    SpookErind let go of her mask, leaving it hanging in the air, then gestured at our surroundings. <u>Do you like it?</u> Her lips shaped words, but there was no sound. Her voice popped inside my head as if it was my own inner thought.

    ¡°Very cinematic,¡± I truthfully said. ¡°Too bad you don¡¯t have background music that goes with it.¡±

    She held up a claw and tapped her temple. <u>Nice idea, me! I¡¯ll try working on that next time.</u>

    I narrowed my eyes. There was something different with SpookyErind¡¯s gauntlet. It had a sprinkling of dents and cracks, with a few notches chipped away. It looked old and weathered, like her mask and chair.

    I might not be an expert on otherworldly shit, but I could guess what was happening. I had expected this when we first met, but seeing SpookyErind¡¯s gauntlet in this state really hammered in that there was a countdown for me. Knowing the deadline for an important project was one thing; checking the calendar as days went by was totally different.

    ¡°Are you taking over my body?¡± I bluntly asked.

    <u>You mean our body? I¡¯m already in here. </u>

    ¡°Oh, come on,¡± I pointed at her gauntlet. ¡°That thing is slowly bleeding into the real world and¡ª¡±

    <u>How do you know which one¡¯s the real world?</u>

    I snorted. ¡°My world, whatever. I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s real or if there are other worlds. Anyway, your gauntlet thingy is changing. I bet that¡¯s forming on my hand in the real¡ªI mean, my world¡ªisn¡¯t it?¡±

    <u>You don¡¯t want it?</u> SpookyErind said, pouting with fake hurt as if I had rejected a heartfelt gift. <u>It looks cool, doesn¡¯t it? And it has many uses like you can scratch your back with it.</u>

    ¡°Yeah, it looks awesome. But I don¡¯t want something like that permanently welded to my hand. Super obvious it¡¯s not normal. People will call me out on that.¡±

    <u>They¡¯re just jealous that they don¡¯t have a cool backscratcher.</u> SpookyErind waved her golden gauntlet.<u> </u>

    ¡°That¡¯s not it.¡± It was excruciating trying to get a straight answer out of her. I tried a different question. ¡°What happens if your whole glove materializes on my hand in my world?¡±

    <u>A new backscratcher!</u>

    Though SpookyErind was bullshitting me, she indirectly confirmed it¡¯d eventually happen. I followed it up, ¡°Then you¡¯ll take over my body after that?¡±

    She wrote in the air with her finger as if conducting a choir. <u>Sing it with me! Meyoumeyoumeyou!</u>

    ¡°Meyoumeyoumeyou,¡± I joined in with a random melody, my cheeks raising in a half-smile.

    Right. There was no point worrying about this. SpookyErind was already in my head. As people with delusional disorders couldn¡¯t recognize their delusions, figuring out if my thoughts were still my own was a wasted effort.

    But that didn¡¯t mean I was giving up. Our game was still on.

    <u>Isn¡¯t it fun to sing?</u> SpookyErind placed her fingers on her cheeks and pushed up a smile.

    I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not much of a singer.¡±

    <u>Debatable. </u>

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not.¡±

    <u>I¡¯m going to debate it. Meyou are a good singer. </u>

    ¡°Even if you give me the ability to sing well, my soft voice¡¯s not cut out for it.¡± I absentmindedly checked my dysfunctional dream team, still frozen solid. I had thought of punching Myra, wondering if it¡¯d have any effect after SpookyErind left. Probably not.

    SpookyErind snickered. <u>I must say, the start of our little get-togethers has improved a lot. You¡¯re no longer leading with dumb questions like if you¡¯re dead.</u>

    ¡°Am I dead?¡± I turned to her with a mischievous wink. There was a level of relaxedness I could reach only when with SpookyErind. Hard to explain. Getting trapped in another dimension with a sinister entity wasn¡¯t a vacation, but I was incredibly at ease.

    <u>Hey! I was praising you.</u> SpookyErind playfully tilted her head left. <u>Well, asking if I¡¯m taking over your body is also a dumb question.</u> She snickered, parting her lips as she laughed, revealing cute bunny teeth¡ªthat also applied to mine. <u>Narcissist, much?</u> she said.

    ¡°I¡¯m a very down-to-earth person, you know?¡± Before, I¡¯d be wary and irritated if she read my mind, but I got used to it.

    <u>No, we¡¯re not.</u> SpookyErind leaned back over the left armrest of her chair, almost spilling out of it as she energetically waved her outstretched arms. <u>We¡¯re in space! Look!</u>

    ¡°Very funny,¡± I said, scrunching my nose. ¡°Anyway, what¡¯s up with the visit? I was in the middle of a small meeting.¡±

    <u>Just checking up on you.</u> SpookyErind righted herself in her seat.

    ¡°Did you have to bring them here?¡± I jabbed my thumb in my dysfunctional team¡¯s way.

    <u>They¡¯re not really here, duh. You do know we¡¯re in your head. But I wanted an audience, so¡­</u>

    ¡°So, you brought them along here? Just ideas of them, I guess. Speaking of bringing along, did you send Imani my way?¡±

    <u>No?</u> She raised a brow at me. <u>I can¡¯t affect your world¡ªyour ¡®real¡¯ world, as you called it¡ªexcept only through you. It¡¯s just that you¡¯re good at making friends. And I¡¯m proud of you for that.</u>

    ¡°What about my Dad? Did you have something to do with that?¡±

    SpookyErind rolled her eyes. Fascinating to see the crimson glow partially dim as she did. <u>Didn¡¯t we just talk about dumb questions? I¡¯ll retract being proud of you if you keep asking them.</u>

    ¡°Was that him?¡± I insisted, figuring I had enough rapport with SpookyErind to pester her a bit. She could confirm by reading my mind that I was just messing with her.

    <u>How about you check if you¡¯re that interested instead of asking me? Do you want to know if it was him?</u>

    I looked up, taken off-guard by the counter-question. Okay, SpookyErind was reading my mind right there. ¡°Hmmm¡­ not really, I think¡­¡± I trailed, unsure of my stance. ¡°It¡¯s just that if that was Dad, then isn¡¯t that too much of a coincidence?¡±

    <u>Dunno.</u> SpookyErind replied. Her face didn¡¯t give away anything. <u>I sense you have other dumb questions lined up. Get it out of your system. </u>

    ¡°On the topic of coincidence, I met another Adumbrae who could control herself. Not sure, but I just assumed, from the way she acted, that her human brain was pretty much at the helm. It¡¯s not an actual question.¡±

    <u>What is it, then? </u>

    I approached SpookyErind to show confidence. Each step was like wading in pancake syrup, bringing me no closer to her even though she was just right there. I smirked as our eyes met. ¡°I¡¯m just saying I¡¯ll win our game. I will get control of my body.¡± This was the most direct I¡¯d been with her, and I was steeling myself for her reaction.

    SpookyErind grasped the blocky stone armrests of her chair and leaned forward. Her eyes blazed as the world dimmed. Like a brain freeze, I could physically feel her following words in my head, distinctly different from my thoughts. <u>You think you have a chance of winning this?</u>

    ¡°Showing your true colors?¡± I said, trying to keep my head high as intense pressure compressed me from all sides. But I wasn¡¯t scared. I knew she was having fun. Because I was having fun.

    <u>Yeah, I¡¯m kind of light purple.</u> SpookyErind swung her legs as she chuckled. Everything returned to normal. Rather, what it was before, which wasn¡¯t normal. <u>And you¡¯re right, dear Erind. It¡¯s fun! Everything that has happened so far has been fun. Meyoumeyoumeyou!</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re entertained.¡±

    If we were the same, shouldn¡¯t I get that high of happiness too? Still, a sense of impending excitement was at the back of my mind¡ªanticipation and excitement for what was coming next for me. Perhaps, I could find the thrill I was looking for there.

    <u>Tell me about it,</u> said SpookyErind, poking inside my head again. She propped her left elbow on her seat¡¯s armrest and cupped her chin with her palm.

    ¡°Life-and-death situations are getting stale,¡± I said. ¡°They can¡¯t give me the same kick as before. I¡¯m not sure¡ªI suck at psychoanalyzing myself¡ªbut I think¡­ it¡¯s because I¡¯m reacting to things. Bullshit comes, and I try to stay above the flood. It might be different if I start shit myself.¡±

    <u>And how do you plan to go about that?</u>

    ¡°For starters, going on a cruise ship will be fun.¡± I made a face. ¡°I hate cruises, but if I could get enough people on board with it, literally and figuratively, I might change my mind. I can probably make it fun.¡±

    SpookyErind raised a brow. <u>Oh? Is that so?</u>

    ¡°Maybe I can get Dario and other people from the Professor¡¯s side there. I can also pit Big Marcy against his brother Marc. Not sure if I could get Corebrings there, but a few BID agents might be fine. We¡¯ll have to see what I can wrangle up. I¡¯m going to do some major cleaning operations.¡±

    <u>Such a responsible person you are,</u> she said. <u>You¡¯re making me even prouder!</u>

    ¡°The middle of the ocean will be a great place for it. No one can escape.¡± I smiled at SpookyErind, also feeling proud of myself. ¡°Then it¡¯s a whole new thing once we reach Red Island. I don¡¯t even know what to expect there. For once, I¡¯m excited about a surprise¡­ which is surprising. Meyou are going to have so much fun.¡±

    <u>I bet.</u> SpookyErind left her seat. Her gauntlet disappeared, and she raised her bare right hand.

    Without thinking, I touched her hand with my right hand, palm to palm, fingers to fingers. Our hands were the same size. Warm like living human flesh.

    SpookyErind curled her fingers in between mine, grasping my hand. I did the same.

    <u>Know what¡¯ll make it even more fun?</u>

    ¡°What?¡±

    <u>Use the newest mask I lent you.</u>

    ¡°At the risk of asking a dumb question, what does it do? I kinda don¡¯t want to use it because¡ª"

    ¡°Erind?¡± Imani said. ¡°What were you saying?¡±

    I blinked a couple of times. The cloudy sky was above. Imani, Deen, and Myra were moving. The headless cherub with the graffitied ass had returned to its place on the reconstructed fountain.

    I was back.

    Not missing a beat, I continued my reality as if SpookyErind hadn¡¯t interrupted it. ¡°Imani, I know this is a hard time for you, but you have to make a decision.¡±

 Authors Retrospective - Arc 5

    REND started on May 20, 2020, and Arc 5 ended on May 21, 2023 (RR/SH). I swear, that wasn¡¯t planned at all¡ªI realized it only now. There might be some synchronicity going on with the universe, if you believe that. It has also been around a year, counting from mid-May 2022, since I started writing novels seriously with an eye for a career.

    In this Retrospective, I¡¯ll discuss more of REND¡¯s inspiration, history, and why I write this way, going further in-depth than previous Retrospectives. This is going to be more of the background thinking stuff. Connected to that, I¡¯ll talk about my writing style and its evolution. Lastly, we¡¯ll see the future of REND.

    <hr>

    Affecting the Reader through the Character

    In ancient times, even before RoyalRoad started as a translation site of Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, I was already reading tons of web novels, light novels, and manga. Though that was long ago, the popular tropes were the same as today¡ªOP MC, progression fantasy, power fantasy, the works. I was such a fan of them, especially OP MCs, that I had no problems sacrificing some brain cells reading machine-translated stories. (Barely any serious English translators back then.)

    As I went through dozens of OP MC stories, they all rolled into one that I can scarcely remember anything of them. I also noticed that I didn¡¯t care for the characters. I was simply waiting for the OP MC to show their OPness, and everyone will be amazed¡ªwhich isn¡¯t bad, as that¡¯s the goal of the genre.

    Eventually, I came across Vinland Saga. For those who don¡¯t know, it¡¯s a manga about a Viking lad who¡¯s really good at fighting¡ªessentially OP MC. But Vinland Saga developed to the MC becoming a pacifist, and the story became more philosophical and dramatic.

    I was expectedly pissed off at how ¡°lame¡± and ¡°uncool¡± he became. This was more than a decade ago, so excuse my reaction then. I dropped the manga and forgot about it.

    The Vinland Saga anime has reached this point at present if I¡¯m not mistaken. You can check the reactions to it, and many hate it. But its philosophical side also affected many people.

    A few months later, I visited an uncle living in a rural area without internet access. But my uncle did have many books, one of which was A Painted House. It¡¯s about a boy in a poor cotton-farming family in the US South during the 1950s¡ªit was mostly a coming-of-age drama and facing harsh realities of life. It was light years away from the usual stories I consumed. There was no OP MC, incredible powers, magical creatures, or action.

    I was just incredibly bored that I read it¡­ and finished it, pulled in by the strength of its character writing. It opened my mind to the idea that a strong (writing-wise) character can lead the reader wherever, and the reader will follow.

    Sometime later, I read Vagabond. It¡¯s a historical fiction manga about Miyamoto Musashi, considered the best samurai in history. Again, OP MC vibes. Incredible fight scenes and art.

    Then Vagabond went the same route as Vinland Saga. Musashi no longer killed people. He farmed and philosophized about life and death (the Farming Arc of Vagabond is considered one of the best arcs in any manga). But instead of getting pissed that the OP MC became ¡°uncool,¡± I realized there might be more to stories if readers cared about the characters themselves, not what they do.

    <hr>

    Readers Connecting to the MC Rather Than Self-Inserting

    I read Vagabond around 2014 (it went on hiatus in 2015). By mid-2015, I wrote my first web novel, A Dragon Gnawing Its Tail. This had an OP MC since I was hugely influenced by web/light novels like New Gate and Overlord, but I was trying to focus on the character more than others in the genre.

    Before moving further, I¡¯ll clarify that I still consume OP MC stories if being powerful isn¡¯t the point, like Mob Psycho or Hellsing. And there are some ¡°pure¡± OP MC stories I do like. Mujang is an example¡ªa straight-up OP MC martial arts manhwa, in contrast to Vagabond or Vinland Saga, which switches at the end.

    I¡¯m not saying I want to write a deep story to discuss the meaning of life or other philosophical subjects. I just want readers to care about the character as a separate person and not as a vehicle for self-insert. Not that there¡¯s anything wrong with the latter. I know that saying something is ¡°self-insert¡± is a derogatory term nowadays, but I think differently.

    If a story is intended for readers to self-insert into the main characters, and readers do that and enjoy it, then that¡¯s a job well done for the writer.

    My stance is that there are so many self-insert stories that I want to explore other avenues. There are way better reader self-insert stories out there than I can write. I¡¯m seeing if I can offer a different experience, and I hope I¡¯m succeeding in that aim.

    <hr>

    Exploring Characters and Emotions

    You may have noticed that I like testing different kinds of characters and emotions¡ªfor example, Imani breaking down about her friends. I¡¯m very much fascinated by emotions and the connections it makes with the reader. Related to the above discussion, I believe a story will forever be a part of readers if they have an emotional connection with the characters, not the scene or plot.

    Erind is a great character to explore. I¡¯ve shortly discussed in a previous Retrospective that part of my choice to have a female lead in REND is that I saw the state of strong female main characters in media, and they suck. They usually have a superiority complex, are mean, rough, manipulative, unrelatable, and all-around very unlikeable.

    Erind is exactly that¡­ but somehow likable.

    I can¡¯t fully express why that¡¯s the case¡ªmaybe you can share your thoughts on what makes Erind different below?

    My intention to put in the effort building characters extends to side characters and even to the Spin-Off. ExD may have started as a joke, but I¡¯m all in seriously developing the characters and relationships there instead of just letting it be some low-effort fanservice.

    What¡¯s the reason?

    I¡¯ll keep writing REND through thick and thin, through the years to come, but I can¡¯t be sure if you, the readers, will still be around. Maybe your tastes will change. Perhaps you¡¯ll be busy with life or work. Maybe something will happen to the websites¡ªlots of reasons. But what I can be sure of is that you¡¯ll remember REND if the characters are brought to life and you¡¯ve connected with them.

    In a way, you¡¯re bringing the characters to life, not me.

    <hr>

    Gaining Confidence in Writing REND

    Though I was set on a different path than mainstream in writing Erind and REND, I wavered a lot at the start. As you know, many early readers wanted a psycho-killer MC, and so I rushed Arc 1 to the part of the docks where Erind turned into a giant werewolf. I failed to develop the world, lore, Erind, Deen, and the hero-wannabe team¡ªthat could¡¯ve been a dozen or more chapters in the middle of Arc 1. And because readers hadn¡¯t yet grasped what REND was going for, Erind exposited a lot and acted weirdly to the story¡¯s detriment. I also wrote many Author¡¯s Notes, detracting from the reading flow.

    Many other issues plagued the early parts of REND because I wasn¡¯t confident about the path I wanted to take.

    I can''t deny the temptation to go mainstream and follow the trends. It¡¯s far easier, there¡¯s much support and validation, and I could¡¯ve avoided much toxicity if I didn¡¯t go against the flow. This isn¡¯t isolated to me or writing web novels but applies to other forms of content creation. Youtubers, Tiktoker, etc., follow trends. Views, likes, and all that will come if one makes popular content.

    It isn¡¯t just a matter of getting subscribers, viewers, or readers. A considerable following can translate to money, like ads and sponsorships. Or for web novels, patrons, and sales of books.

    REND is lucky that despite being quite different from mainstream web novels (or most stories as a whole, for that matter), it has a good number of followers. We have our small community here. REND¡¯s patrons may be few compared to the popular genre novels, but I¡¯m very thankful that the patrons make no demands on the story. If you¡¯ve been around web novels for some time, you probably know how much sway money can have on the plot. Maybe you¡¯ve heard of issues where the patrons demand this or that for the plot.

    To dissuade myself from thinking about numbers (followers, ratings, reviews, etc.), I¡¯ve stopped visiting the RR/SH/Patreon dashboard in recent months. I¡¯ve saved the drafts page and so on, so I¡¯d never have to use the dashboard. Might sound extreme, but I want to break free of the hold of numbers and preserve my mental health. I know of many authors (some are my Discord friends) who chased numbers and burned out, ending up dropping their stories.

    The last thing I want is to hate my own writing. But if I focus on REND, the goal is clear and free from distractions.

    I hope I¡¯m not imagining that my writing has improved in the last several months. I¡¯m writing faster than when I started, but I also put more effort into writing and polishing chapters before publishing, so it evens out in speed. I may write 4k words, then edit it into a 3k chapter at release.

    For web novels, quantity is a quality of its own. Quantity is actually preferred. If you search forums and posts, prominent authors recommend quantity as the best business strategy. Not to mention websites are geared toward spamming chapters for visibility.

    But my thinking is that readers come and go. I¡¯m not sure how many readers that were with REND since Arc 1 are still around. Ultimately, the one who¡¯ll undoubtedly stay with the story is me. And I¡¯ll be the one feeling regret if I rushed REND without being satisfied with it.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    I want to write REND the best I can with the limited free time that I have in between busy schedules. But time isn¡¯t the only challenge. My writing style also hinders putting out the best that REND can be.

    What do I mean by that?

    <hr>

    I¡¯m a Pantser

    Okay, so what¡¯s a pantser?

    A pantser is a writer who doesn¡¯t use an outline, unlike a plotter. It¡¯s a spectrum, not a black-and-white thing. Some may heavily use outlines, others only in certain parts of the story, and so on. There are many other terms for pantsers, like discovery writers and gardeners. The correct term is probably intuitive writing. Famous pantsers include Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.

    Knowing my writing style will put in context much of the story. I¡¯ll also add that being a pantser or a plotter isn¡¯t a choice. It¡¯s inherent to a person how they craft a story.

    George R. R. Martin is a pantser. He started Game of Thrones because he thought of a line about dire wolves in summer snow. Then, he basically made stuff up about why winter is coming in the summer. Think of Erind and the frat boy storyline that started just because someone commented, ¡°road trip!¡± in a chapter, and I thought, sure, let¡¯s have this whole story thread instead of a cutting to Las Vegas.

    Another pantser is the inspiration of G.R.R.M, J.R.R Tolkien himself. Tolkien¡¯s letters reveal that he doesn¡¯t know what a character will become, like when Frodo met Aragorn, Tolkien had no idea yet who Aragorn would be.

    You may assume that Tolkien is a plotter because he made such a vast and complex world full of details. But complexity isn¡¯t an indication of being a pantser or plotter. Pantsers might be likelier to make sprawling words. An example is Eiichiro Oda, mangaka of One Piece.

    Oda mentioned he has plans for the ending od One Piece (I also have planned REND¡¯s end since Arc 1), but plenty of his writing is pantsing. A good example is the Supernovas and Trafalgar Law¡ªthey were made a day before the chapter introducing them was written. They weren¡¯t supposed to be important characters, and Oda thought they¡¯d exit the narrative soon enough. He admitted he was surprised that Law continued to be an essential character.

    This is the same case as Deen. She was supposed to be a random side character but look at her now. The same can be said about the parasites. They were supposed to be a one-time thing in Arc 3 but are now crucial to the plot.

    Pantsers writing web novels have one huge challenge¡ªwe can¡¯t revise our work. I can¡¯t edit past chapters beyond proofreading and minor tweaks. I can¡¯t delete entire chapters or merge story threads because changes in previous Arcs will affect the future, and current readers will be confused about why suddenly massive changes are implemented.

    Fun fact: Tolkien changed his mind plenty on important plot aspects too. For example, in the original version of The Hobbit, the Ring was pretty chill. Gollum is also chill and willing to give the ring to Bilbo. But when Tolkien wrote about the history of the Ring in the Silmarillion, he changed it into the One Ring we know now, all evil and corrupting. And so, he had to change parts of The Hobbit¡ªnote that this was already published then, and his editor changed subsequent versions.

    I can technically revise and retcon now, but it¡¯ll be very messy and take a lot of time.

    A good illustration of this problem is in Hunter x Hunter. There¡¯s no actual confirmation, but I suspect that Togashi, the mangaka, might be somewhat of a pantser based on his interviews saying he lets the character write themselves (I can¡¯t remember the exact words)¡ªthat¡¯s a pantser¡¯s mindset. Anyway, have you ever wondered why Killua doesn¡¯t know about Nen? For those unfamiliar with HxH, its ¡°magic system¡± was revealed only in the third arc (or second, depending on how people count the arcs). Killua is a character who should be aware of it right from the start.

    Of course, there can be many explanations. It¡¯s like the Eagles to Mordor thing. For me, it¡¯s likelier that Togashi had ideas about Nen (the magic system) at the get-go but fully fleshed it out only in the third Arc.

    It¡¯s similar to how Adumbrae and Corebring lore isn¡¯t solid because I keep changing my mind about it. When I¡¯d eventually settle on concepts in REND, I can¡¯t go back and apply the retcon throughout, the same as Togashi can¡¯t retcon Killua¡¯s lack of knowledge anymore.

    Interesting tidbit, Tolkien had many retcons he wanted to do. He was even writing a new version of The Hobbit, but people stopped him because it was too complicated to change things.

    On my part, there are many things I want to revise/edit.

    A minor example would be Eudora. She showed up only in Arc 4. But it¡¯ll be better if hints of her were present in Arc 1, as she¡¯s connected with Erind¡¯s Mom. A significant change I want to make (but can¡¯t) is smoothing out Erind¡¯s kidnapping back in Arc 1. Revising that part has many ramifications that will cascade through the story, so I can¡¯t touch it.

    In my opinion, the true potential of a pantser¡¯s work can be attained only after writing the story and then looking back to revise and polish it, using the learnings gained from the journey. It¡¯s like I¡¯m presenting you with a roughly shaped block, and I¡¯m yet to settle on carving its final form.

    It¡¯s frustrating that I can¡¯t give you an even better story because of my writing style.

    There are two more challenges to writing that I want to discuss.

    <hr>

    Time and ADHD

    I¡¯ve mentioned several times in Author¡¯s Notes and comments that I¡¯m a slow writer¡ªnow, I¡¯ll explain why.

    I can concentrate on writing (or work) only for 5-10 minutes and have to stop for a few minutes to do something else, read a few pages of a book, watch a video, or walk around. I also suffer from ¡°waiting mode.¡± This is a psychological state where one can¡¯t get anything done because they¡¯re distracted by the awareness of something planned. For example, if I have a meeting in an hour, I can¡¯t concentrate on writing while waiting for it.

    I haven¡¯t been clinically diagnosed, but I suspect I may have adult ADHD. Waiting mode is a common symptom of ADHD. This probably bleeds into my writing as well. You can see the flow of the characters¡¯ thoughts going in different directions.

    Another thing is that I¡¯ve gotten busier these past few months. But first, let¡¯s roll back to the past year.

    Since May 2020, I¡¯ve been casually writing REND while working full-time. By May 2022, I decided to take the leap of faith and try to start an ¡°actual career¡± as a writer. I quit my full-time job and looked for a part-time job to have more writing time. This was also when I began ExD and Getting Hard, with a plan to revive my first web novel (which I¡¯m doing now). I¡¯ll also be editing books, if ever.

    Time was needed, and I sacrificed my full-time job with (a lot of) hesitation.

    I suppose the rest of 2022 went okayish, despite some hiccups. The help of patrons was vital; I live in the Philippines, and a couple hundred bucks a month goes a long way. I also managed to have a part-time job. I¡¯m single, so way fewer expenses (lol), and I have some savings to cushion me for several months.

    Going into 2023, I switched to a different part-time job. It¡¯s more demanding, affecting my writing schedule, but it also pays more for financial security. I¡¯m not a big Patreon author earning thousands of dollars a month, nor do I have published books, so I have to make do with what I can get so that REND can continue.

    I¡¯m explaining this to be open about the challenges I face in writing and to assure you that I¡¯m committed to continuing REND no matter what.

    <hr>

    Just Hang Around

    You can help REND continue by just hanging around¡ªthat¡¯s already tremendous support. As I said, readers come and go. I¡¯ll understand if people drop REND because of its erratic schedule. As a reader, I¡¯ve dropped many stories in the past for slow updates too.

    But I¡¯ll appreciate those who stay. That¡¯s all I ask.

    This isn¡¯t about money. If money was the goal, I would¡¯ve stayed at my full-time job, built my career, and not bothered with writing at all. The goal is for REND (and my other stories) to continue. I won¡¯t abandon Erind, Deen, and all the other characters.

    To the patrons who financially support REND, a huge thanks to you. It helps a lot. I subscribed to some premium editing tools with your help to improve my writing.

    Rather than set schedules that I can¡¯t keep, I¡¯ll cycle through my four stories, and they¡¯ll release in this order and quantities: 2 REND -> 1 ExD -> 4 GH -> 1 ADGIT. I¡¯ve released one REND main chapter, so I¡¯m still due for one more main and one Spin-Off. Pairing the REND chapters would save me time getting into ¡°the zone¡± for it.

    How fast I go through the cycle will depend on my real-life commitments.

    Now, you may think that maintaining four stories is an insane burden. You¡¯re right. It is.

    But I don¡¯t feel burdened or burnt out because the passion is there. If I turned writing into ¡°actual work,¡± I¡¯ll be burned out, which won¡¯t benefit me or the readers. Cycling through the stories also helps with my condition (I¡¯m unsure if it¡¯s ADHD) because I won¡¯t be forced to focus on one story.

    <hr>

    Turning REND Into a Book

    This idea came from a conversation over at our Discord. Someone was trying to train an AI to act like Erind. Of course, that wouldn¡¯t work¡ªthe sample size was too small. But someone jokingly said that an AI Erind might be possible if there are a million readers of REND to train the AI.

    And so, I thought, does REND have a chance of going mainstream?

    All this time, REND hides in its little corner in Royalroad and Scribblehub. I don¡¯t advertise, I don¡¯t post in forums, I don¡¯t do review swaps, and I don¡¯t reach out to other authors for shoutouts. Zero. REND just waits for people to find it. The only advertising done is by readers recommending it to others.

    But thinking more about it, I believe that REND has a chance to break into the mainstream, even if small. If Erind¡¯s mysterious ¡°magic¡± worked in RR and SH, it might work outside of RR/SH.

    What¡¯s your take on this?

    The goal I set to (hopefully) complete within two years is publishing REND Book 1.

    This isn¡¯t simply compiling REND chapters, converting them into an ebook, and voila. I plan to full-on edit and revise Arc 1 and part of Arc 2 into REND Book 1. There¡¯ll be lots of rearranging, changes, and new chapters. For one, I want to develop the hero wannabe team. Also, I want to set up Deen for her importance in the story later. Erind barely got to test her new self in Arc 1. Also, I can fix inconsistencies and so on.

    I want to bring out the best REND can be, remedying the inherent weakness of pantsers. Essentially, I''ll carve the rough block into a polished statue.

    Then I¡¯ll hire professional editors (yes, plural) to polish Book 1. This¡¯ll be costly, and I¡¯m starting to save for it now. Or maybe I¡¯ll start a Kickstarter for it a couple of years from now and release wide instead of going Kindle. Not going Kindle Amazon means lower sales, but I won¡¯t be required to pull REND from RR/SH¡ªa show of my thanks to you, the readers. As for Book 1 itself, it¡¯ll find some way to sail the seas (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) so that even those who can¡¯t buy it can read it.

    But why do this? Why make the enormous effort to turn REND into a book? Why not just compile and publish?

    Because REND deserves to be shown its fullest potential. You¡¯ll probably agree it¡¯d be a waste if I leave Erind and REND as is.

    What do you think? Isn¡¯t it fun if Erind somehow ¡°infects¡± way more people?

    For those who want to help in making Book 1, feel free to contact me here or in Discord. It¡¯s mainly just rereading through Arc 1 and parts of Arc 2, giving feedback on possible changes and fixes, then brainstorming ideas. I can¡¯t give anything in return other than a copy of Book 1 someday.

    <hr>

    Anyway, that¡¯s it for this Author¡¯s Retrospective. Chapter 1 of Arc 6 will be released in a couple of days. I¡¯ll try a different story structure from my usual one. There¡¯ll be fighting, but it will be shorter. We can focus on the plot and building more lore. Erind will also be proactive in Arc 6 instead of her usual reactiveness.

 6.1

    The scientific method was the process of finding out stuff through experiments. Tonight, I, Erind Hartwell, was going to be a scientist, experimenting with what the Domino mask could do¡ªcue sci-fi-ish intro music. Make sure there¡¯d be atoms and planets, maybe a lion and a dolphin too, in the opening theme of my show.

    It had been ages since my last science class. The second year of my undergraduate, was it? I feel so old.

    Fortunately, law school didn¡¯t have mandatory science units except the ones related to Adumbrae forensics.

    Pesky general education requirements. Who cared for the wholistic growth of college students if they were destined to be cogs in the capitalist machine saddled by debt? The president of our debate club would say that whenever she¡¯d get drunk during the rare parties I attended.

    And she had a point.

    It¡¯d be better if colleges offered practical subjects like taxes, starting a business, or how not to become an Adumbrae. The last would¡¯ve saved me the exorbitant cost of a five-day cruise ticket from New Los Angeles, California, to Ensenada, Mexico¡ªsix hundred freaking dollars.

    I had to pay a bit more because I wanted a room with an ocean view. A window was handy for an emergency, instead of getting boxed in by four walls in the middle of the ship. It was prudent to assume something terrible would happen on this cruise by my mere presence alone. History often repeats itself.

    I could¡¯ve stayed in the same room as Deen, splitting the costs with her¡ªshe even offered an upgrade to a suite with a balcony and to pay for the entire thing herself¡ªbut I went a separate way to find elusive solitude. I couldn¡¯t stand another night in the same room as my best friend. Sharing the bed with her while Mom was at our Vegas condo was torture.

    That, and I couldn¡¯t go on my personal mission if Deen could check on me.

    A bunch of pillows covered by a blanket wouldn¡¯t work. This wasn¡¯t a prison escape movie. Once Deen realized I was missing, she¡¯d tear this cruise ship open to find me. It was for the safety of everyone that I spent those six hundred dollars.

    People better be grateful.

    Back to the scientific method. I remembered it had five or six steps. Precisely what those were was fuzzy, but there should be hypotheses and experimentation steps. That was enough to go on with.

    Hypothesis: Domino mask was for infiltration.

    SpookyErind told me to use this mask. There had to be something to that.

    I wasn¡¯t barging on this ship guns blazing¡ªfangs and claws out, to be precise. There¡¯d be much sneaking around before I bared my sharp teeth. Blanchette probably wouldn¡¯t get an appearance until we reached Red Island in a couple of days or so. That was if this ship was actually heading there. If the Domino mask was supposed to help, it¡¯d be for snooping.

    When transformed, I was essentially human. The bio-scanners thought so, anyway.

    Islas de Sangre was a luxury cruise ship. It wasn¡¯t among the super luxury ones¡ªmy ticket would probably cost double if it were¡ªbut it had enough well-off passengers that the company felt the need to have scanners inside the ship itself, not just when boarding.

    The first order of business when our team¡ªthe whole La Esperanza group, plus the two remnants of the Las Vegas group¡ªboarded was to look for all the places with scanners. We only had a limited number of Suppressor vials¡ªI was mooching off Deen and Myra¡¯s supply¡ªand it was a five-day cruise. We needed to be thrifty and wise about using them.

    Reo almost cried when we found that the buffet was bio-scanner free. Most of the ¡®commoner¡¯ areas didn¡¯t have any. The expensive restaurants and bars, the stairs and elevators to the suites¡ªgo figure¡ªand the paths to the engine room, crew quarters, and the bridge were guarded by scanners.

    Surprisingly, the scanners couldn¡¯t detect the black crystals on my palms. They were so obviously inhuman, but there was no issue.

    ¡°I probably shouldn¡¯t have done that experiment. That was stupid.¡± I berated myself for going to the ¡®rich people¡¯ floor to test it. Then again, I was a scientist tonight, and I had plenty more experimenting to do. Here comes a test subject.

    A cabin steward with a pushcart rounded the corner of the corridor. Someone had ordered a midnight snack¡ªa second dinner, from the looks of it.

    ¡°Excuse me,¡± I said as he neared.

    I hesitated after hearing the sound of my new voice. It was stronger than my original, with a hint of patronizing kindness, perfect for reading books to children, though nothing out of the ordinary. Just that I hadn¡¯t adjusted to it yet. I found it far easier to get used to Blanchette¡¯s growls and Pino¡¯s robotic words.

    The cabin steward raised both brows, jerking back a bit. I was an inch shorter than him and about eight inches taller than my Erind self. His mouth slightly opened as he processed how I looked, blinking a few times.

    I bet he was surprised by someone wearing a mask from a masquerade ball or secret society gathering roaming the ship at midnight. While understandably out of place, the domino mask was nothing drastically conspicuous. It was mosaicked with tiny gems¡ªdifferent shades of blue sapphire. Its crescents sides hugged my face, the right curving down to my cheeks into a point and the left going up to my temple.

    Other than the mask¡ªokay, maybe my blue lipstick, too¡ªthe rest of me wasn¡¯t so weird. This cruise employee should¡¯ve seen much more bizarre crap during his work.

    I had my long brown hair, streaked with ashy strands, in a high ponytail. Nothing outrageous there. My blue blouse, form-fitting around the bust, was quite normal, except for its sleeves extending to cover my hands, my fingers poking out. It was fashionable¡­ I think. I had my palms turned away from the cabin steward so he wouldn¡¯t glimpse the avocado-sized black crystals on it.

    My lower body was in all black. From my bell skirt with a subtle flare ending above my knee to my leggings and ballet flats. There was nothing wrong with me, was there?

    The cabin steward¡¯s eyes settled on my neck. No. At what was on my neck.

    Dammit, the choker. My blouse had a high neckline topped by a black metal band around my neck, secured with a golden lock. What made it worse was that the lock was worked into the shape of a horrified human face with a mouth wide open mid-shout, likely the keyhole.

    I dipped my chin, attempting to cover it. Did he think I was into some kinky stuff?

    I pointed a finger at him, thinking with all my might, ¡®shoot,¡¯ ¡®fire,¡¯ ¡®power.¡¯ Still nothing? He stared at my finger. Before words left his mouth, I asked, ¡°Can you please tell me the way to the bar?¡±

    After hesitating, he turned around and gestured down the passage with a small bow. ¡°It¡¯s on the sixth floor, miss. You can take the elevator in the middle of the hallway, by the stairs, and¡­¡± As he explained, facing away from me, I stretched my arms, palms opened outwards at him as if casting a magic spell.

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    Again, nothing happened. I hastily put down my hands when he turned back to me.

    ¡°Not that one,¡± I said. ¡°The fancier bar. I¡¯m doing a vlog about my trip and looking for interesting things to include. I saw on Snippet that one of the bars here has this drink topped with purple flames.¡±

    I knew the cabin steward was directing me to the much bigger bar because we¡ªme and the hero-wannabes¡ªhad been there an hour and a half earlier, having a few drinks while discussing our next steps. I got a non-alcoholic beverage because I planned to stay up late being a scientist. We had a pleasant time as if friends chilling, not people who¡¯d betray each other soon¡ªI know I got a lot of betraying lined up.

    In any case, the cheaper bar didn¡¯t have the people I¡¯d suspect to be customers of the Supplier, Adumbrae-hopefuls. They should be rich and self-important people, looking down on humans. They could also be jittery and anxious about getting transformed on Red Island, looking for a more exclusive place to get plastered.

    The cabin steward told me how to get to the bar I sought. I touched my mask while he talked, thinking of taking over his mind, causing him to sleep, or making hallucinations. Any power at all. He didn¡¯t react to my thoughts.

    ¡°Is there anything else I can help you with, miss?¡± he asked, trying to meet my eyes.

    ¡°Nothing else.¡± I stood aside, gesturing for him to pass. He was probably trying to look sincere, but he creeped me out. ¡°Thanks for the directions.¡±

    With the cruise employee¡¯s back turned to me as he continued the opposite way, I pointed at him again. Then I tried waving my arms like swimming, then wildly kicking the air. I did random crap in a vain attempt to activate Domino¡¯s mysterious ability. Thankfully, no one else was around to witness my shenanigans.

    All I accomplished was giving whoever operated the security cameras a good laugh.

    My face heated up at that realization, and my heart beat faster. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I cupped my cheeks and fluffed them. Frowning, I looked around the hallway until I found a security camera by the corner. ¡°Am I¡­ embarrassed?¡±

    Please focus on the mission, I scolded myself, lightly slapping my cheeks to get a grip. Then I checked the crystal on my right palm.

    The number ¡®52¡¯ written in gold seemed to float inside of it. I discovered it was a countdown in minutes after timing it with the clock in my room before I left. Counting down to what, I didn¡¯t have a clue. Now, it turned ¡®51¡¯. The crystal on my left hand still displayed a big fat zero.

    I hurried to the bar¡ªthe really fancy one.

    Islas de Sangre was one of the older ships of the Royal Ceressa Cruise Lines. It underwent heavy renovations three years ago, including the addition of dozens of cabins, restaurants, and a new deck. Could they have added Adumbrae and mutants holding cells and other facilities for evil experiments? Possible.

    Last year, the ship had a new route of New Los Angeles, Catalina Islands, and Ensenada, Mexico. It was around the time 2Ms operation started in La Esperanza, and Dario formed his team¡ªthis was my pitch to Dario about why we should infiltrate Islas de Sangre.

    As further proof, I looked up many of the suspected Adumbrae who died in the Eve raid¡ªtheir families were currently involved in quite public cases, so that wasn¡¯t too hard¡ªand counterchecked if they had taken any cruises in the past few months. Some were active on social media, sharing their travels on Snippet, including photos and videos.

    Sure enough, I found that a couple of them had been on the Islas de Sangre last year. This was just surface-level research. Someone with tech-savviness, time, and resources could dig up much more.

    Still, it really wasn¡¯t much to go on. The rest of the hero-wannabes thought so. I couldn¡¯t tell them that I suspected Bianca had tipped me off.

    But with no lead after the Tea Party in Las Vegas seemed to have disappeared¡ªI ate and buried most of them¡ªand the 2Ms laying low, I persuaded Dario that he might as well check on it. He didn¡¯t know that I knew that he knew I was Blanchette, and I was acting like I was pretending to be the perfect teammate so he wouldn¡¯t outright declare war.

    Wow, that was hard to keep track of.

    Bottomline was that I didn¡¯t want to disappear like Kelsey, so I aimed to maintain the status quo until I could make the first move. Offering the possibility of finding Red Island was my solution. If Dario thought we were still on the same side¡ªthough just pretending¡ªhe¡¯d postpone making me an enemy and instead use me against the 2Ms. He should know that I, as Blanchette, was instrumental in bringing down the 2Ms and the Tea Party.

    My enemies wanting to use me against their other enemies was a common theme nowadays. Big Marcy thought it was a good idea.

    A few days passed after my suggestion, and Dario declared we were going aboard Islas de Sangre. His main reason was that Bianca Ceressa was rumored to be on this trip, filming an episode of her show.

    I didn¡¯t know that. How the fuck did he? The same intel source as when he told us Bianca would become the 2Ms¡¯ client? If so, this confirmed that it was really Bianca who sent me the flyer. But I should take care when meeting because Dario¡¯s spy might be onto her.

    And so, we were all here, our La Esperanza team plus Jubjub and Imani.

    I had thought of asking Vanessa if this ship was passing by Red Island. She didn¡¯t know its location¡ªan Adumbrae erased their memories every time they went there, she had mentioned¡ªbut maybe she could ask Big Marcy about it. Would he know?

    According to Vanessa, Mark and Big Marcy were having a little fight for power, and the latter seemed to be at the losing end. Mark might have been taking over the family business at Red Island. If Big Marcy knew how to go to Red Island, he wouldn¡¯t tell me anyway.

    It was kind of obvious what I was going to do if I reached it.

    ¡°If we don¡¯t pass by Red Island,¡± I muttered, ¡°at least I can vacation in Mexico.¡± I heard there were fabulous beaches in Catalina. Maybe this was finally the time to get a tan.

    An elevator ride and a few minutes of walking later, I found myself on the ship¡¯s starboard, gazing at the mainland USA. A sprinkling of lights in the distance traced the shore.

    Wait, was this port? Starboard? Which meant left, and which was right?

    I couldn¡¯t even tell if this was still the USA or if we had already crossed into Mexico. My suckiness at navigation and geography made me belatedly grateful for Auntie Dora teleporting us from the Tea Party base back to Las Vegas. If not for her, I¡¯d be dead in the desert with Deen and Vanessa.

    I couldn¡¯t bear the guilt of Deen and Vanessa dying because of me. Huh? What are these thoughts?

    ¡°Man, I can¡¯t wait for it,¡± came an annoying, whiny voice.

    ¡°A few days, and it¡¯ll happen,¡± said another.

    ¡°It¡¯s going to be awesome!¡± the first voice continued. ¡°Once we are¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re too loud,¡± cut in a third voice.

    Four guys in their late teens or early twenties exited the corridor I was going to enter. They stopped when they saw me, expectedly surprised by my get-up. All were above average in looks, especially the one in the lead, who had a few buttons of his beach shirt popped open to display his carved pecs.

    Handsome Guy, I decided to call him. He looked like he could be the lead actor in a romance movie. Strands of his copper hair curled about his eyes. The sides of his face squared into a strong jaw. He regarded me with a smile, a cute dimple on his right cheek cratering. His blue eyes, deeper in color than my light sky blue, searched me. My heart fluttered as our eyes met.

    Brain, excuse me? What the fuck?

    I broke off our eye contact, shyly staring to the side as I walked to them, trying to stick to the walls. I could also walk left and jump off the ship.

    ¡°You guys go ahead first.¡± My eyes peeked up for a moment. It was Handsome Guy who spoke. He nudged his head forward as his friends protested. ¡°Go on,¡± he loudly said, overriding their complaints. ¡°Don¡¯t wait up for me.¡±

    Handsome Guy? The hell? Couldn¡¯t I come up with a better nickname?

    ¡°Excuse me,¡± I said, looking away again. ¡°I¡¯m going to-to the¡­¡±

    ¡°The bar?¡± he finished. He combed his hair away from his face. ¡°What a coincidence. I¡¯m going there too.¡±

    ¡°No, you¡¯re not!¡± shouted one of his friends, walking away.

    ¡°We¡¯ve just been there,¡± another said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind them.¡± Handsome Guy waved his hand to shoo his friends. ¡°I¡¯ll buy you a drink.¡±

    ¡°Bu-buy me a drink?¡± I stammered. There was something wrong with me. My heart was pounding, and my stomach was in knots. I should remove my mask and abort this mission.

    No! I stuck my arms to my sides. I hadn¡¯t done anything yet. I would get inside that bar and uncover the secrets of this ship. Stupidly, I forgot to bring my wallet after I transformed. Excellent timing that Handsome Guy was here to pick up the tab.

    Right¡­ That was my plan. ¡°Okay¡­¡± I squeaked. ¡°I¡¯m okay with a drink.¡±

 6.2

    I checked the palm of my right hand as I followed Handsome Guy.

    Forty-four minutes to go until¡­ dunno.

    Was it a timer for this transformation running out, the same way Pino had a limit? Or was it counting down until I could use my powers? If something unfortunate happened to me, like going into stasis, as my Erind body does during Pino¡¯s transformation, I better be secure and out of sight.

    Whatever it was, I needed at least five minutes to find somewhere to hide. Could I return to my room that fast? I should escape with ten minutes left to be safer.

    But will this guy allow me to leave? That was the question.

    I wasn¡¯t na?ve. Bringing a girl to a bar? Even a monkey could guess his intentions. Or maybe not; monkeys didn¡¯t have experience with human hookup culture. And neither did I, personally. But I wasn¡¯t a monkey, and I knew I was walking into a shark¡¯s mouth. What¡¯s with all the animal references?

    I was trying to distract myself from the fear creeping in. Exploring the ship in my new body was chill, but it got all serious now. There might be Adumbrae around.

    For all I knew, Handsome Guy could also be one.

    What could I do in this form? I was as weak as a human. I¡¯m practically a human! One stab. One unlucky shot, and I was a goner. Even if there were no Adumbrae, I couldn¡¯t even fight off Handsome Guy.

    He slowed his pace so I¡¯d catch up and walk beside him. I matched his speed, staying to his back. I didn¡¯t want to look at his face, or I¡¯d have the same reaction as earlier. Embarrassing to think about how stupidly I behaved. From this position, I could still admire his¡ªCut that out, Domino! I berated myself.

    I refused to refer to myself as ¡®Erind¡¯ in this state. This wasn¡¯t me.

    Looking over his shoulder, Handsome Guy slowed down some more. It¡¯d be too obvious if I continued to trail behind, so I kept pace. We soon walked side by side.

    ¡°The name¡¯s Jeffrey Nickelson,¡± said Handsome Guy. Finally, I could stop using the awkward nickname. He gave me a sidelong glance, eyes with a sly squint. ¡°Nickelson, as in Nickel Solar up in Utah¡ªour family business.¡±

    I have no idea what that is. ¡°Oh, that Nickel Solar,¡± I whispered with fake awe, no longer stammering like a flustered groupie. His slimy stare and swagger of a walk started to turn me off. Why did I even find him attractive? ¡°The large company that makes solar panels?¡± I guessed, hoping they weren¡¯t selling tanning beds or something.

    ¡°You got that right,¡± Jeffery said. ¡°Third largest solar company in the country. Going to be the second soon, with a merger coming up. I¡¯m not supposed to tell anyone that.¡± He winked, leaning toward me. ¡°But I¡¯ll make an exception for a beautiful lady like you.¡±

    I nervously laughed. ¡°How do you know how I really look with this on?¡± I asked, tapping my mask, concentrating hard to make it activate. I imagined my eyes shooting laser beams. That¡¯d be a cool power, but I¡¯d rather it not be that because it¡¯d be hard to clean up its aftermath.

    With a wink, he said, ¡°I just know your beauty is waiting to be revealed.¡±

    I drew a breath. My cheeks were lighting up. He does look good.

    But somewhere in the depths of Domino, a slice of Erind struggled not to puke at the godawful lines. Tiny, shoved somewhere to the back, the real me was pushing to make its presence known. Somehow, this situation resembled my earlier experiences with Blanchette¡¯s giant monster form.

    Instead of struggling against feral urges and predatory instincts, I was consumed by¡­ normal feelings?

    I halted my steps.

    My Erind self momentarily surfaced at that realization, like the first time I regained sanity in my werewolf body. My mind wavered, confusion setting in. Swirling thoughts and emotions. Anxiety at the mission. Worry about the possible dangers. Physical attraction to Jeffrey too¡ªI couldn¡¯t deny that.

    There was also fear at the blankness inside me¡ªI didn¡¯t know how to describe it. Just something wrong. Like someone was looking at me, but I was also that person. Like something was trying to dampen who I was.

    Wait, this isn¡¯t me. This wasn¡¯t the real me.

    The other¡­

    Jeffrey also stopped. ¡°Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fi-fine.¡± I shook my head, forcing a smile.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry if I offended you or anything.¡± Jeffrey slightly bowed to peer into my eyes. ¡°I meant to say that you¡¯re beautiful now, wearing that. But I¡¯m sure you¡¯re much more beautiful without¡ªoh, hang on.¡± He scratched his head, grinning sheepishly. ¡°That also doesn¡¯t sound right too. I¡¯m just digging myself a deeper hole, aren¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°I get what you¡¯re saying,¡± I said. ¡°Thanks for the compliment.¡± He seemed like a nice guy. Acting quite cute too. No! Don¡¯t get reeled in again.

    I tried to devise believable excuses if he asked me to remove my mask¡ªI¡¯d return to my Erind body if I did. And I didn¡¯t even have an explanation for the mask. Good thing he hadn¡¯t brought it up yet. He probably assumed I was attending some masked event in another part of the ship and was just messing around, still keeping it on.

    ¡°Let me try again,¡± said Jeffrey. ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with your glasses.¡±

    ¡°Glasses?¡± Did I mishear him?

    ¡°Glasses or not, you¡¯re gorgeous.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± I said. There was a certain confidence in how he spoke¡ªit didn¡¯t come off as creepy. Slightly flattering even. He probably had lots of practice delivering that line to many girls¡ªthis thought kept me grounded. But I was puzzled why he suddenly brought up glasses. An unfamiliar expression from Utah?

    Jeffrey nudged his head down the hallway and resumed walking. ¡°Being honest with you,¡± he said. ¡°And don¡¯t take this the wrong way. I have a thing for glasses.¡±

    ¡°Glasses? What do you mean glasses?¡± I asked. He wasn¡¯t wearing any unless I needed glasses myself. ¡°Like you have a hard time seeing?¡±

    He smiled at me, his dimples revealing themselves again. ¡°You¡¯re quite funny¡­ um. I didn¡¯t quite catch your name.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s because I didn¡¯t throw it to you yet,¡± I quipped, putting on a mischievous smirk. ¡°It¡¯s Domino. There, catch it.¡±

    ¡°Yep, I got it. Is that a nickname?¡±

    ¡°My real name,¡± I said. ¡°My surname is nothing to brag about, unlike yours.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t bragging,¡± he said, blinking at the uncharacteristic pushback he probably seldom encountered from women. Either he would get turned off because things weren¡¯t going by his usual script, or he¡¯d get interested in the challenge. ¡°Anyway, Domino, I guess I¡¯m trying to say you¡¯re adorable with glasses on.¡±

    The fuck? Such a weird thing to say. What was up with the glasses bit?

    I touched my face. Did he mean my mask?

    ¡°Don¡¯t take them off,¡± he said. ¡°Not because I have a thing for them, but because¡­ you can¡¯t see.¡± He laughed at his joke. ¡°God, being creepy, then saying dumb stuff. I¡¯m just hopeless talking with women, aren¡¯t I?¡± He flashed another winning smile, absolutely not meaning any word of that sentence.

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    I hesitantly chuckled, growing more confused. ¡°I think you¡¯re funny,¡± I said, giving him the validation he wanted. But inner Erind strained to emerge again. My hands tingled, a sliver of me wanting to choke him for that terrible joke.

    ¡°This may sound cheesy,¡± Jeffrey said, ¡°and you probably heard this before from some guys, but I think our meeting might be fated.¡± He groaned, shaking his head. ¡°Okay, that¡¯s another bad line. I really need to get a drink.¡± With a slight dip of his head, he gestured for me to enter an open archway into the bar.

    It was smaller than the other bar I had visited, about half in size. It was dimmer, not helped by the excessive antique dark wood paneling. The old-timey feel was boosted by relief carvings on wood, though mixed with modern touches like an industrial finish on some walls, almost like a statement piece, and yellow mood lighting.

    Some twenty people were here, spread among tables and by the bar, a surprising number at this late on the first night of the voyage. I¡¯d imagine that passengers¡ªmostly old people, as with cruises¡ªwould want to rest early after the hectic boarding and the theater shows were done.

    I purposely strode ahead of Jeffrey and sat by an empty stretch of the bar so he wouldn¡¯t lead me to a corner booth. The bartender came over, dressed in all black, poised to take our order. Jeffrey¡¯s shoulders noticeably slumped as he followed me, his eyes flicking to the booths opposite us. He took the chair beside mine, to my right, and ordered two drinks for us. I wasn¡¯t familiar with their names.

    ¡°Wow, this place is so exquisite,¡± I gushed.

    ¡°First time here?¡± he asked.

    ¡°First time on this cruise,¡± I replied. ¡°It¡¯s not always I can afford this sort of luxury.¡± There, I gave him an opening to brag about being a rich kid. Domino or Erind, reading guys like Jeffrey Nickelson was easy.

    ¡°Me, I¡¯ve cruised on this ship twice before,¡± he said. ¡°Had visited Catalina and Enseda ¡®bout five times already.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m so jealous you get to travel all the time.¡±

    ¡°Nothing new to me. But Catalina does have fine bitch¡ªerm, beaches. White sands and clear blue water.¡±

    ¡°So, why are you here?¡± Time to do some fishing. It was weird that he and his friends were taking this cruise. This wasn¡¯t the place to pick up girls. ¡°Why not travel elsewhere?¡±

    ¡°My parents,¡± he curtly said in a low voice, obviously not wanting to talk about it. Traveling with daddy and mommy at his age did chip at his game. He mumbled, ¡°Business matters, they hold meetings here, don¡¯t know why¡­¡±

    That explained it. Could his parents be Adumbrae? Clients of the 2Ms?

    I wanted to ask, but it was apparent Jeffrey didn¡¯t want to talk about them. He soon changed the topic, going on about himself again¡ªthis or that famous person he knew, his travels the past couple of months, his car collection, the small business he had started all over the country, no doubt with daddy¡¯s money as capital.

    I tried to filter through the crap he spouted, waiting for an important detail, maybe a clue. There didn¡¯t seem to be any, just endless bragging.

    The allure of his good looks soon faded as I realized there was nothing much beneath, like the set backdrops of stage plays, just painted cardboard propped from behind. He was like a piece of white bread that learned how to talk¡ªgood to look at, like it¡¯d be super fun to see talking bread, but quite plain.

    I nodded and smiled, pretending to be impressed while subtly spying on my surroundings¡ªnothing much to see other than an expensive bar being expensive.

    What was I expecting anyway? People huddling to discuss evil plans?

    As Jeffrey droned on, I glanced at my right palm¡ªthirty-five minutes to go.

    ¡°Here are your drinks,¡± the bartender said, placing them before us when Jeffrey paused his sales pitch to womankind. The glass in front of me was copper, piled high with ice, topped with mint leaves, dried orange slices, and other stuff. Spices? Was that star anise?

    ¡°I got you a julep,¡± Jeffrey said, taking his drink¡ªa dark amber liquid with no pizzazz like mine.

    ¡°I¡¯m not familiar with this,¡± I said. ¡°You can tell I don¡¯t frequent bars. This isn¡¯t too strong, is it?¡±

    ¡°Consider it the bourbon counterpart of a mojito. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve drank a mojito before. Not strong at all. Maybe a bit sweet, like you¡­¡± He waited for my reaction, a smile ready.

    I exaggeratedly cringed at his words, as he expected from me.

    He laughed, raising his glass to me. ¡°I¡¯m terrible with lines. I hope the drink makes up for it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not so bad,¡± I responded with my part of the script.

    How many times had he used this setup with other women? Props to him because it was good. Capitalizing on his looks and social standing, then pretending to be socially awkward at times to disguise his forwardness, made him stand out from the usual bastards in bars. Many women would eat this up.

    Me included¡ªjust a bit.

    The protests of Erind from deep inside distantly echoed like the muffled noise of Vegas rush hour traffic trying to penetrate the windows of my condo. My? Her condo? Which was which?

    ¡°What¡¯s your drink?¡± I asked, distracting myself from the conflict inside me. I could tell Jeffrey was dying for me to ask. I bet he would¡¯ve explained the next second even if I hadn¡¯t.

    ¡°Vieux Carr¨¦,¡± he said, leaning in on the French accent to pretentious levels. ¡°It has rye whiskey, Cognac¡­¡± He rattled off a bunch of other stuff to show how well-traveled and sophisticated he was. If he cut half his words, he¡¯d instantly be more tolerable.

    As he continued to prattle, minutes continued to trickle uselessly.

    I came to accept that my first¡ªtechnically, second¡ªtime as Domino wouldn¡¯t result in anything useful. But I shouldn¡¯t rush. I had other opportunities. The mask was useable again after six hours. I¡¯d set the alarm for tomorrow. Actually, later, since it was already past midnight. I could snoop around for an hour as myself, Domino, then return to my Erind body and have breakfast with Deen.

    For now, I would establish a connection with this guy, string him along, and maybe schedule another date with a hint of something more from me. By then, I would¡¯ve come up with a better plan. If not, I could ghost him.

    I had to suffer a bit more of his bullshit before exiting.

    Maybe this julep could ease my suffering. I held the copper glass. It was cold, and condensation had set on its sides. I took a sip.

    There was only a touch of alcohol. It was more citrusy and sweet, making me feel minty fresh, rather than stinging. I set down the glass, bored out of my mind, my eyes wandering over its surface, looking for something interesting as if it were a shampoo bottle. Then I saw my yellowish reflection on the shiny copper.

    I gasped, jerking back on my bar stool. I would¡¯ve toppled over its low backrest if I hadn¡¯t grabbed the table¡¯s edge. Balancing myself, I glanced at Jeffrey, preparing for a story about how I wasn¡¯t sitting correctly.

    But I didn¡¯t need to explain.

    ¡°Right?¡± he excitedly said. ¡°I had the same reaction when they let me in backstage for Polly Dorama¡¯s concert. I got to meet her and take pictures. My pals couldn¡¯t believe that I managed to get in without an ID, without anything!¡± He continued about his shenanigans with his friends at the concert of a chart-topping singer.

    ¡°Pretty unbelievable, yeah.¡± I nodded, looking into Jeffrey¡¯s eyes to assure him I was listening. ¡°Awesome how you talked your way backstage.¡±

    His blue eyes didn¡¯t have the same effect on me as earlier, the shock still fresh in my system. My gaze traveled down to the side, back to the top of the bar, and onto the copper glass, examining my face.

    Is this me? I looked at the shelves on the other side of the bar, trying to find something reflective among the displayed bottles. I couldn¡¯t get an accurate image¡ªmy many faces on the curved bottles were warped¡ªbut it was enough.

    There¡¯s a new me.

    My mask was gone from my reflection. In its place were glasses. And I now had a thin face with high cheeks, very pronounced. My chin sharpened to a point, and my not-so-voluminous straight hair, no longer in a ponytail, was combed down to make me look even more slender. I also had different clothes on, something conservatively casual.

    This was the power of Domino¡ªcreating an illusion of a different person.

    But how did this work? What triggered it? And how do I control it?

    A bazillion more questions floated through my mind. Only half of my time remained. I had about twenty minutes to do more experimenting before I had to run like Cinderella when the clock struck midnight. Not that Jeffrey was my prince. Ugh.

    But where do I begin? Something that Jeffrey had said returned to me.

    ¡°So, do you like the Polly Dorama type?¡± I asked him. ¡°A thin oval face with high cheekbones?¡± I didn¡¯t ask if I was his type because, one, that¡¯d be awfully conceited, and two, he¡¯d say yes. But I noticed my new look could pass as Polly¡¯s sister or cousin.

    ¡°I just don¡¯t know what¡¯s with those sharp cheeks that get to me,¡± he admitted.

    ¡°What about glasses sitting on those cheeks?¡±

    ¡°Definitely my thing.¡± He raised his glass to me before drinking from it.

    New hypothesis: Domino could create an illusion that¡¯d fit the preferences of the person who saw me.

    That led to more questions. Did different people see different versions of me? Probably not. I had the exact reflection on the bottles. But then, who did my power pick from a crowd? Like among Jeffrey¡¯s group, why did I turn into the sort of woman he¡¯d like? Why specifically him out of his group?

    What about the cruise employee? When he looked at my neck, he probably saw something else that wasn¡¯t my choker.

    ¡°I think I¡¯ve talked enough about myself,¡± Jeffrey said, noticing I wasn¡¯t paying attention to him. I didn¡¯t have the head space to continue faking interest. ¡°Tell me about yourself.¡±

    ¡°My-myself?¡±

 6.3

    ¡°Two strangers meeting on a cruise, getting to know each other,¡± Jeffrey said. ¡°This isn¡¯t too prying, I don¡¯t think.¡± He winked over the rim of his glass. ¡°Unless you¡¯re not some secret agent?¡±

    ¡°Se-secret agent of what?¡± I asked, my voice quivering. It was apparent he was messing with me. But I was nervous. If I were Erind, I wouldn¡¯t have any problems continuously spouting lies. ¡°Is there anything to spy about on this ship? It¡¯s, uhm, it¡¯s just a cruise.¡±

    ¡°Oh, lots,¡± he replied with a nonchalant shrug. ¡°Really lots.¡±

    Did Jeffrey suspect something was wrong?

    He shouldn¡¯t. He approached me; I wasn¡¯t targeting him.

    Was he setting up another situation to show off? I gambled that this was the case. ¡°You seem to know a lot of important stuff¡­¡± I purred, touching my mask with my index finger and thumb, hoping my illusion looked like I adjusted my glasses.

    ¡°You¡¯d be surprised by the dealings going on here,¡± he said in a low voice, barely audible over the mellow jazz.

    ¡°Dealings? You make it sound so sketchy.¡±

    ¡°Nothing of the sort. Well, could be that some of them are. Depends on who¡¯s asking.¡±

    ¡°What if I¡¯m the one asking?¡± I glanced left at the display shelves as I sipped my drink, trying to appear indifferent. ¡°This julep tastes good, by the way. Refreshing. Thanks for the recommendation.¡±

    Jeffrey leaned close. Too close! He breached my personal space delineated by my knees. His perfume had a sharp scent that stung the top of my nose like spices. Hated it. Docking another point from him.

    But I didn¡¯t back away, tilting left instead and propping my elbow on the bar counter. I didn¡¯t want our faces that close. His blue eyes peered through slitted lids as he examined mine. He nudged his head to the booth directly across from us.

    ¡°Don¡¯t turn their way,¡± he said.

    I glanced at the booth sidelong. Two figures obscured by shadows sat on either side of the table. ¡°Who are they?¡±

    ¡°On the right is Spence Hugh, the CEO of HMCI. He¡¯s talking to Raphaela McHunter. Her rainbow fur coat is recognizable anywhere.¡±

    ¡°McHunter?¡± I blurted, familiar with the surname. I tensed my jaws, unsure if I should¡¯ve asked. Did I give away anything?

    ¡°The famously infamous McHunters of La Esperanza,¡± Jeffrey said. ¡°One of, if not the richest family over the gorge. Construction and property development. Practically owned the city. Got the politicians and cops in their pockets. Was, anyway.¡± He frowned. ¡°Where would I insert ¡®was¡¯ in all that?¡±

    ¡°Dunno with you.¡± I chuckled a pitch higher.

    ¡°I was going to say that was all in the past. Though they¡¯re still quite powerful and wealthy nowadays.¡±

    ¡°Remarkable you know a lot of important people.¡±

    ¡°Nah, I don¡¯t know, as in know, the McHunters. Probably not a compliment to know, know, them. Get me?¡±

    ¡°Uh, I guess?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just more informed than the average person. Actually, you may¡¯ve heard of the McHunters yourself. They were in that big scandal years ago. National news material.¡±

    ¡°What scandal? How many years ago was that? Maybe I was just a kid then. I¡¯m not the type to watch the news.¡± I donned a self-conscious expression. ¡°Erm, I hope you don¡¯t think I¡¯m a shallow girl, not keeping up with important news stuff.¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not thinking that,¡± Jeffrey assured me. ¡°And that was long ago.¡± He patted my knee.

    I flinched, abruptly moving my crossed legs a notch to the side, away from his touch. That wasn¡¯t me. I would¡¯ve done the same thing¡ªI didn¡¯t appreciate Jeffery¡¯s advances even if he was attractive¡ªbut that immediate reaction was specifically not mine. Something in the recesses of my being welled up¡ªa burst of disgust I knew wasn¡¯t mine either. I tried to keep a scowl off my face and resisted the urge to clench my fists and throw them at Jeffrey¡¯s ugly mug.

    Ugly? Jeffrey was handsome. But also arrogant.

    And creepy.

    And slimy.

    He retrieved his hand as he straightened in his chair. Brushing off my rejection, he went on as if nothing happened, ¡°If you really don¡¯t know, one of the McHunters was an¡ª¡± He mouthed the next word. Then he placed a finger on his mouth.

    Adumbrae? I silently spoke. He nodded.

    I already knew that. It was such a famous case that I, though living in La Esperanza for only two years, was fairly familiar with it.

    Raphael McHunter, the family patriarch, head honcho whatever of the McHunters, was an Adumbrae. The BID executed him, and a deluge of cases was piled on his family for benefitting from his powers and protecting him. Despite that, no one else was killed other than Raphael. Speaks volumes of the McHunter¡¯s money and power; the government would readily execute those aiding Adumbrae but spared them the death penalty.

    Various assets of the McHunters were caught up in protracted legal battles against the government, claiming them for damages, or among the family members themselves. One of the many properties the McHunters owned was the abandoned development project where the hero-wannabe hideout was located. The vast area, almost a city unto itself, filled with empty buildings and unfinished construction overtaken by nature, was like the remnants of human civilization thousands of years after the apocalypse.

    Judging by her name, Raphaela McHunter could be Raphael¡¯s daughter or niece. Was she here to charge us rent for squatting on her family¡¯s property?

    Likely not, I sarcastically replied to myself.

    It was a surprise that no other McHunter became an Adumbrae¡ªthe BID put them through rigorous testing and years of observation, but all were cleared. But with Raphaela here, that might no longer be true.

    As Jeffrey narrated to me what I knew about the McHunters in hushed tones, I tried to get a better look at Raphaela without moving my head. It was too dim. All I could pick up in my peripheral vision were the rolls of fur obscuring her, their multi-colored bristles catching the scant light. She handed something I couldn¡¯t discern to Spence Hugh of HMCI, a prominent construction company. When I interned at a law firm before enrolling in Eloyce, HMCI was one of the accounts I worked on¡ªworked on, as in, bringing coffee to the lawyers working on it.

    ¡°What do you think they¡¯re talking about?¡± Jeffrey said, evidently knowing the answer.

    ¡°Business stuff, I suppose? Unless you¡¯re hinting that those two are a romantic item?¡±

    Jeffrey laughed. ¡°Your first guess is correct. The second one is going to be insane if true. I heard Madam Raphaela freed some of their family lands from the government¡¯s clutches. My guess is that the McHunters are roping in the HMCI to develop their properties.¡±

    ¡°Sounds like a big deal.¡±

    ¡°If this place is filled with big deals, would they still be a big deal?¡±

    ¡°Huh? What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°Did you notice the people at the table near the door?¡± Jeffrey jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. Not waiting for me to answer, he went on, ¡°Edgardo Santos, brother of the mayor of New Los Angeles. The others with him are from Wilkens & Kingson.¡±

    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    My hands tensed. That was the law firm I had interned at. Small world.

    ¡°I recognized one of the lawyers,¡± Jeffery said. ¡°I bet they¡¯re discussing the misappropriation cases against Mayor Santos. They say the mayor funneled government funds to his brother¡¯s business.¡± Next, Jeffrey pointed to someone behind me. ¡°Down the counter¡ªdon¡¯t look at them¡ªare the owners of¡­¡± He whisperingly rapid-fired about more important people having important meetings.

    I took another drink, stealing a peek at my right palm. Nineteen minutes to go. Eighteen. Could time go faster? I wanted an excuse to ditch this talkative handsome prick. But I couldn¡¯t leave now because I might still learn something crucial.

    I cocked my head after Jeffrey finished, grinning at him all cutesy-like. ¡°Okay, so that¡¯s several deals that are individually big but not in comparison with each other.¡±

    ¡°You got that right.¡± He laughed. ¡°You¡¯re catching on pretty quick. Beautiful and intelligent.¡±

    I ignored my burning ears at his compliment. ¡°I mean, what you told me didn¡¯t sound sketchy at all. Very big deals, but like, nothing really weird with them. I suppose the weird thing is¡­ why here? This is a cruise ship. Not even a top-of-the-line one¡ªmy ticket just cost a few hundred bucks.¡± I grimaced. ¡°Ouch. Just. To them, maybe, but to me, it isn¡¯t just. Anyway, these people are all too important to be here. What¡¯s up with that?¡±

    This confirmed that I was on the right track. I should feel relieved things were going my way, but I wasn¡¯t. I wished I was wrong. The thought of a ship full of Adumbrae made the skin of my hands clammy. And I was shallowly breathing, anxiety rising.

    ¡°You¡¯re asking the right question, miss secret agent,¡± Jeffrey said, laughing. He was joking, but his words did make my heart stop for a moment.

    ¡°I was just wo-wondering,¡± I squeaked. Why couldn¡¯t I be brave like Erind? If she were in my place, she wouldn¡¯t be unnerved by this situation. ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯m, uh, I¡¯m outright asking. Just wondering. Nothing to it. We can talk about something else.¡±

    ¡°Oh, okay then.¡± Jeffrey blinked in confusion, taken aback by my sudden pivot. ¡°What do you want to talk about?¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m not sure¡­¡±

    You should¡¯ve pressed Jeffrey about it! I internally screamed.

    The fricking lead was smack in front of my face, and I chickened out right after inadvertently setting it up! Because I rejected Jeffrey¡¯s advance, he was unconsciously compelled to fan his peacock feathers more. This was his modus for picking up women; I could¡¯ve taken advantage of it to glean more information.

    But I just had to be scared. What¡¯s wrong with me?

    I was worried about Jeffrey catching on to my snooping. Understandable. But the risk was nothing compared to what I had been through. I had toed the cliffs of death so many times that it was a miracle I was still sane! Then came the answer¡ªit wasn¡¯t me who traversed all those dangers and faced off death more times than my fingers could count.

    It was Erind.

    I had nothing to my existence. How could I be like her? Do I even want to be like her?

    No. Why would I want to be so¡­ unnatural. I was fine being me. It was right to be me. She was the wrong one. I had no powers; I should err on the side of safety. And was there more to learn from Jeffrey? He was just the son of one of the 2M¡¯s clients. He probably had no idea of what was really going on.

    Yes, I was making the right choice¡ªbetter me than Erind at the helm. I checked the crystal on my palm again. Fourteen minutes. What if this was my transformation¡¯s duration?

    I don¡¯t want to be gone.

    ¡°Domino?¡± Jeffrey said, looking closer at the hand I was staring at. ¡°Excuse me, Domino? Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°Yes? Yes!¡± I jerked, closing my hand. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m Domino. Oh, I mean, yeah, I¡¯m fine.¡±

    ¡°Is your drink getting to you? You might find juleps a bit stronger if you''re used to mojitos.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, really,¡± I said. Then I took a few gulps to show him.

    ¡°You¡¯re probably bored I¡¯m still the one talking. Bizarre that the conversation keeps circling back to me. Please don¡¯t think that I¡¯m narcissistic. I¡¯m interested to know about you.¡±

    Again, he placed his hand on my knee. And again came the impulse to punch him. But I was going to react my way. Not Erind¡¯s. This was my body, and I¡¯d spend what possibly were my last minutes as Domino standing up for myself.

    I firmly grabbed Jeffrey¡¯s wrist with my right hand, moved it by the counter, and unceremoniously dropped it. He didn¡¯t resist, probably expecting something else, and was surprised by what I did.

    ¡°I¡¯m not the kind of girl you think I am,¡± I said shortly, rotating my stool to face the bar counter.

    ¡°No, I wasn¡¯t assuming anything like that,¡± he hurriedly said. ¡°I just thought we had a connection going on.¡±

    ¡°If we did, it¡¯s gone now,¡± I said.

    This was better than stringing him along. I knew he liked the illusion my Domino powers made for him. He¡¯d work harder to make it up to me. If I navigated this correctly, I could get him to spill actual secrets he might¡¯ve overheard from his parents. If Erind were in my shoes, Jeffrey would probably be dead. Better me at the helm.

    ¡°Come on, don¡¯t say that.¡± He leaned on the counter. ¡°No beating around the bush. I sincerely apologize for¡­¡±

    ¡°For?¡± I turned to him, bitchy face on. He examined his hand with unblinking eyes, turning it over and back down. Cold fear gripped my heart. Did he feel the crystal on my palm when I held him? ¡°Um, I can explain! That was¡­ um, where are you going?¡±

    Jeffrey clumsily left his seat, almost tumbling to me. I held out my hands to catch him, but he managed to find his balance. He had a blank gaze as he mumbled, ¡°Rest¡­ room¡­¡±

    He wobbled further into the bar as if drunk, though he had barely touched his drink. His mouth was busy yapping away earlier. And I assumed someone like him, who frequented bars, could hold his alcohol.

    No, this was something else.

    What should I do? Follow him or lead him out of here?

    I did neither, remaining glued to my seat, too stunned by the realization that another power had manifested. That was my power, wasn¡¯t it? He wasn¡¯t just suddenly feeling sick or employing an out-of-this-world convoluted trick to pick up girls?

    It is my power, I decided. Contact with the crystal had affected him. But I had no idea what it did.

    Jeffrey soon disappeared around the corner where the lines of blue mood lighting couldn¡¯t reach. I swiveled to face the bar again, subtly spying left and right. No one was looking at me. No one also seemed to have noticed something was wrong with Jeffrey. The bartender was at the left end, preparing drinks for other customers.

    I picked up my glass again as I strived to stay calm¡ªjust a normal girl drinking alone in the bar. My fingers grasped the copper so hard I would¡¯ve crushed it if I still had super strength. I brought the glass to my mouth but didn¡¯t drink, just feeling the ice on my lips. I swallowed my saliva. My heart pounded so hard it could¡¯ve jumped up to my throat.

    What the fuck am I still doing here? The thought jolted me.

    If something terrible happened to Jeffrey, I should be far away from here. With only twelve minutes remaining¡ªnow eleven¡ªI should be near my room. I glanced at the bartender. He had his back turned. I jumped off my chair noiselessly and tiptoed to the exit.

    I didn¡¯t have money to pay for the drinks. Maybe they¡¯d charge that to Jeffrey¡¯s room or something.

    ¡°Why am I worrying about that?¡± I muttered. But then, something that should make me worry was coming.

    ¡°You think Jeff¡¯s still here?¡± came a familiar whiny voice.

    ¡°Should be,¡± answered another voice I also recognized. ¡°He¡¯s interested in that girl.¡±

    Jeffrey¡¯s friends! I froze by the doorway. They were coming from the right, their footsteps getting louder. I bowed my head, ready to brush past them as they entered.

    ¡°He¡¯s gonna have to cut it short,¡± the first voice said. Closer, this time. I braced myself. ¡°Can¡¯t keep the big guy wait¡ªwoah!¡±

    The two turned to enter the arcing opening into the bar. I strode forward, head down, aiming right between them, hoping they wouldn¡¯t recognize me. A hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder. My heart skipped a beat, and not in a romantic way.

    I caught the scream climbing up my throat at the last moment. Drawing more attention to myself wasn¡¯t a good idea. Punching them would be downright stupid. ¡°Uh, excuse me,¡± I said, my voice of uneven pitch. If they weren¡¯t going to buy my excuse¡ªand I had no idea what I should say¡ªthen I¡¯d try using my crystal power. ¡°I have to get going.¡±

    ¡°Damn right, you have to get going,¡± Whiny Sidekick said. He held my shoulder. ¡°Big Marcy¡¯s looking for you.¡±

    ¡°For me?¡± Big Marcy? My terrified brain couldn¡¯t even begin to process that sentence. Was my cover blown?

    ¡°Yeah, your parents were calling you, but you weren¡¯t answering your phone,¡± said Backup Sidekick.

    ¡°My parents?¡± I couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of what was going on. D¨¦j¨¤ vu?

    ¡°Don¡¯t play dumb, man,¡± Whiny said. ¡°I know you¡¯re fixated on that girl. One look, and I immediately knew she was your type. But leave that for later. Where is she anyway?¡±

    ¡°Maybe she already ditched his ass,¡± commented Backup.

    ¡°The Jeffrey Nickelson?¡± Whiny patted my shoulder. ¡°Getting rejected? I never thought I¡¯d see the day. Oh, wait. We already saw that with Liza!¡± He cackled like a hyena, though I knew hyenas weren¡¯t really laughing¡ªhyenas were agitated if they made that sound.

    I learned it from the Animal Channel I loved to watch as a little girl. Rather, Erind watched that. I, Domino, didn¡¯t exist yet back then. Correction. I wasn¡¯t Domino right now.

    I was Jeffrey Nickelson, and I had less than nine minutes to meet Big Marcy.

    I can be braver than Erind!

 6.4

    The number of the side of the elevator ticked down to our floor. My reflection on the stainless steel doors stared back at me. I combed away strands of hair, the same color as the glass of julep, straying in front of my blue eyes. I blinked. My reflection did the same. I tensed my cheeks, highlighting the outline of my square solid jaws.

    I¡¯m majorly handsome, I thought with a smirk.

    I could be on a magazine cover with my Sidekicks beside me. I found this bizarre turn of events entertaining, even as my stomach churned with nervousness¡ªa weird way of coping. A dimple revealed itself when the right tip of my lips rose in a half-smile.

    Erind didn¡¯t have dimples. I fully grinned, discovering more dimples on both cheeks. Cute and handsome.

    In my next run as Domino¡ªassuming there was a next time¡ªI should try being a guy after figuring out how my powers worked. I got two confirmed already without knowing how to trigger them or how long they lasted. Might be interesting to be a guy.

    This is what I¡¯m thinking about? I rolled my eyes at my reflection.

    I got confirmation that at least one of the 2Ms was on this ship, and I was focused on dimples? I smiled again. Sure, I guess. Whatever to distract myself from the overwhelming fear that I was trapped on a ship with criminals who had tried to kill me several times before.

    ¡°Why are you smiling?¡± asked Whiny Sidekick.

    ¡°Nothing, bro,¡± I gruffly replied, trying to sound manly.

    Bro? I didn¡¯t know their real names. But people typically didn¡¯t mention each other¡¯s names during a conversation. I probably didn¡¯t need to speak like a demon with the flu, either. These two didn¡¯t comment on anything odd when I spoke earlier. Just as they saw me as Jeffrey, they could probably only hear his voice.

    ¡°He¡¯s thinking about the glasses girl,¡± said Backup Sidekick. He nodded at my reflection. ¡°I immediately knew she was your type. What¡¯s her name, Jeff? Got her number?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s called Domino,¡± I replied in my normal voice, warily eyeing their reflections. No reaction. ¡°She wouldn¡¯t tell me her surname. And I didn¡¯t get her number. I tried, but she was shy.¡±

    ¡°Shy? Yeah, right. Did she bail after you asked for it? Is your magic not working?

    ¡°She had to go somewhere. I didn¡¯t have enough time for my magic to do its¡­ magic.¡±

    ¡°Excuses, man.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s already past midnight, you know? She was exploring the ship, not really out for a drink. We¡¯ll run into each other again.¡±

    The elevator doors opened. I entered first, not only because Jeffrey seemed to be their group leader but so that I could stand at the back. The Sidekicks would have to stay by the door, or no one would push the buttons¡ªI didn¡¯t know which floor we were going. Also, they¡¯d be the ones to exit first, and I could follow them.

    There was a security camera on the corner of the ceiling. Could it see through my illusion? There¡¯d be scanners and all sorts of security crap on Big Marcy¡¯s floor. I dug the nail of my thumb into my index finger. Painful. Still human. Sort of.

    Next question: is this a good idea?

    Common sense would answer no.

    But I wanted to prove my worth now; I might never return. I could tell that Erind inside me wasn¡¯t too keen on using this form. That and it was too late to retreat¡ªthe only way was forward. I intentionally locked myself into this choice.

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing you creeped her out,¡± Whiny said, chuckling as he followed me. ¡°Asking someone we had just run into for a drink out of the blue? Too straightforward.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, Jeff.¡± Backup also entered the elevator. ¡°I was surprised when you did it. If you¡¯re at a bar, it¡¯s normal to offer to buy a girl a drink. Way different if you¡¯re both outside, and it¡¯s your first meeting.¡±

    I shrugged, recalling Jeffrey¡¯s words. ¡°We had a connection. She could feel it too, I¡¯m sure.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re thinking some love-at-first-sight shit? This isn¡¯t a movie. Looks have limits.¡±

    ¡°I know. You told me that before.¡± Here¡¯s hoping you did, I prayed as I leaned against the back wall of the carriage, folding my arms across my chest, acting like the cool kid. I spied my reflection on the mirror wall to my right. My eyes lingered on my chiseled pecs peeking from my unbuttoned shirt.

    Was this the counterpart to a woman¡¯s cleavage?

    Maybe Jeffrey was a model. I flexed my chest. My pecs hardened and bounced. I stifled a gasp. I had never done that before. I gazed down at my own body. Blue top, check. Nothing changed with me.

    ¡°Looks have limits,¡± Backup repeated as the door closed. ¡°But looks aren¡¯t only what Jeff, the man of the hour, got for the ladies.¡± He pressed the button for the eleventh floor.

    My brows furrowed as he pressed other buttons. I leaned right, trying to subtly check. Four, two, nine¡­ Was six the last button? His body blocked my view. A combination was needed to reach Big Marcy¡¯s floor. I was right that parts of the renovated ship were built for 2Ms ¡®business¡¯ purposes.

    Whiny, standing across the door from Backup, looked over his shoulder. ¡°Did you read this Domino gal your resume?¡±

    ¡°Muscles aren¡¯t the only things I flex,¡± I said, trying not to cringe at my dumb line. ¡°I made sure she knew exactly who Jeffrey Nickelson is.¡± I followed it by mentioning some of what Jeffrey had told me. This was going to be bad if I got any incorrect.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, we know that. And what was her reaction?¡±

    ¡°She was impressed, of course. Who wouldn¡¯t be? A nice-looking head that has something in it. Impressive family and connections. That puts me on top of the list.¡±

    ¡°Eh? What list?¡±

    ¡°Any list!¡±

    We all laughed.

    I couldn¡¯t believe how well this was going. I found it so easy to make up stuff now. Jeffrey¡¯s face on the mirror wall was full of self-confidence. To be accurate, I was making him look that way. This was literally, ¡®fake it until you make it.¡¯

    I placed my hands over my chest. Still looking at my reflection, I moved my fingers as if buttoning my illusional beach shirt. Jeffrey did it in the mirror world. This confirmed what I suspected.

    Earlier, I pretended to check my phone¡ªJeffrey¡¯s¡ªto supposedly message his parents that I was on the way to meet Big Marcy. I didn¡¯t have an actual phone. I just mimed that I was taking it out of a nonexistent pocket and typing stuff in the air. I did it to make my disguise more believable and have an excuse for Whiny and Backup to lead the way.

    I could play it off as a joke if it didn¡¯t work, but it somehow did. Whiny and Backup walked ahead to the elevators. They must¡¯ve seen an illusion of a phone. Recalling my interactions with Jeffrey, he probably did see me adjusting my phantom glasses.

    As the laughter died, Whiny said, ¡°Still can¡¯t deny she bailed on you, man. Need to rethink your opening lines. Some girls don¡¯t care who you are or who you know.¡±

    ¡°Those are the best ones,¡± said Backup. ¡°Girlfriend material.¡±

    ¡°She didn¡¯t bail on me,¡± I said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think Jeff is looking for a girlfriend,¡± Whiny chimed in, nodding at me. ¡°Not after what happened with¡ª¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t the time to talk about girls,¡± I interrupted in a serious tone. ¡°Got to focus on my meeting with Big Marcy.¡± I managed to say that without my voice cracking from nervousness. Amazingly, I gained more and more courage, as if a fire burned stronger inside me.

    It might be because I was running out of time. Worries flew out the window if I was right about the countdown and wouldn¡¯t exist after six minutes. As much as I disliked Erind, I would get her to Big Marcy as my last act. He¡¯d be expecting Jeffrey, probably to discuss Adumbrae transformation stuff, but instead, he¡¯d meet Erind.

    Not me, Domino. Erind. That¡¯s the real reason I¡¯m feeling so brave.

    If this countdown were something else, I would take my face off and give the stage to Erind.

    ¡°Don¡¯t sweat it, man,¡± said Whiny. ¡°Your parents are already in. This is just a formality.¡±

    ¡°And Mr. Mark invited you to that place, didn¡¯t he?¡± added Backup. ¡°It¡¯s already a sure deal.¡±

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    ¡°Yeah. Big Marcy¡¯s scary as heckin¡¯ hell. But Mr. Mark got the last say.¡±

    Last say on what? On Jeffrey turning into an Adumbrae? I couldn¡¯t see why Jeffrey would want that. He seemingly had a nice life going on. Then again, most of the 2Ms¡¯ clients probably had pleasant lives, being wealthy and powerful, and yet, they still wanted to reject their humanity. I couldn¡¯t get their line of thinking.

    Being human was nice. Like me.

    The doors dinged open. We were led to a receiving room, unlike the other floors with elevators along the corridor. The three of us stepped out, with me trailing our group. I observed the blinking detector we passed, tensed and ready to do¡­ nothing¡­ because I had nowhere else to run. The sensor didn¡¯t sound the alarm. I sighed in relief.

    Now what?

    I casually checked my surroundings, feigning that this wasn¡¯t my first time here. Behind me was only one elevator door. All others couldn¡¯t reach this place. This lobby of sorts was around the size of my Vegas condo, minus the bedrooms. Red velvet, threaded with golden tribal-looking patterns, covered the walls. The off-white marble floor caught the multi-colored shimmers of the crystal chandeliers above. Jeffrey¡¯s reflection stared back when I looked down.

    Alternating old-timey paintings and exotic potted plants lined my left and right. At the end of the room stood imposing double doors made of oak¡ªjust kidding, I knew nothing about the kinds of wood. An elegant cursive letter ¡®B¡¯ was inscribed on the left wing, and ¡®M¡¯ was on the right¡ªBig Marcy.

    Narcissistic much.

    To the side of this door was a woman behind a table. She wore a masquerade mask like mine or like those people in Eve¡¯s underground arena. Was she an Adumbrae? There were no guards around.

    Whiny and Backup weren¡¯t moving. They stood aside, intending for me to take the lead. Five minutes, my right crystal said. I confidently strode forward. My Sidekicks followed.

    ¡°I¡¯m jealous as heck, man.¡± Whiny patted my back as if I had won a championship. ¡°You¡¯ll get to see the fights.¡±

    Did he mean Adumbrae versus mutated human matches at Red Island? Must be similar to what was going on at Eve. When I was kidnapped¡ªmy first encounter with the 2Ms, and a frightening experience¡ªthe men who took me also mentioned something like it. They transported monsters to and from Red Island.

    ¡°We¡¯ll see,¡± I said, trying to sound tough.

    ¡°You might even get to join one,¡± said Backup.

    ¡°That¡¯s fucking insane if he does,¡± said Whiny. ¡°Are you allowed to record there? I want to watch.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± I replied.

    We stood in front of the receptionist. She regarded us with hazel eyes through the slits of her mask. A smile was the only acknowledgment she gave.

    ¡°Good evening,¡± I said to her, unsure of the protocol. ¡°Or is it already good morning because it¡¯s past midnight? Erm, anyway, I¡¯m here to meet Big Marcy. I¡¯m Jeff¡ªwoah!¡± I clamped my mouth shut, remembering not to be surprised about anything.

    The double doors hissed open as if mechanical pistons moved them, and that very might well be the case. From the labored way they swung out, they were heavier than they looked, like doors of a bank¡¯s central vault. The edge of each wing revealed thick metal sandwiched between wooden panels.

    The masked woman bowed, gesturing for us to enter. ¡°Welcome, Mr. Nickelson. Kindly wait inside until Big Marcy calls for you.¡±

    Wait? I nervously swallowed as I walked in.

    On one hand, it was a relief that Big Marcy didn¡¯t reschedule our meeting because he was going to bed or something. It was awfully late to still work, but that was probably what it meant to run a criminal organization. Plenty of evil stuff to manage. On the other hand, what would I do if I returned to my Erind self while waiting for my turn to meet him? What if the real Jeffrey came here?

    ¡°It¡¯s Erind¡¯s problem,¡± I muttered to myself. The thought was equal measures comforting and existentially dreadful.

    ¡°Did you say anything?¡± Whiny asked.

    ¡°Just talking to myself.¡±

    Through the massive doors, we passed. More sensors lined the top of the door frame.

    I blinked upon entering a dim room, twice wider than the one we left, trying to understand what I was seeing.

    The place was styled like a hunter¡¯s lodge, with rustic wooden wall boards, long beams forming a high vaulted ceiling dangling more chandeliers that weren¡¯t switched on, and animal hide rugs like that of bears splayed on the floor. Multiple stone fireplaces were spaced along the walls with roaring flames, the only light source. People lounged in plush high chairs in front of them, their shadows stretching long behind. Guards in black suits melded with the room¡¯s corners untouched by the light.

    While it looked like a fancifully over-the-top, log cabin-styled room, especially pretentious to put in a ship, with the fire going, I thought of a hunter¡¯s lodge because of the mounted heads decorating the walls. But they were not of bears or moose or boars¡ªthey were Adumbrae heads.

    I tried not to stare as we passed under one with several tusks jutting from its lopsided mouth. Its blank, dead eyes reflected orange flames. We headed to empty chairs by the end of the room. There was another ¡®BM¡¯ door on the other side, probably on the way to Big Marcy¡¯s office.

    The three of us looked at each other, our silence peppered by crackling flames.

    It didn¡¯t seem right to talk. Out there, Jeffrey and his friends were big shots. Here, they were the lowest in the food chain. Hmmm¡­ That didn¡¯t sound like a good analogy. Or maybe it did? Assuming the other people here were Adumbrae, then we humans¡ªyes, I counted myself as one¡ªwere bottom tier.

    A butler, also wearing a mask, approached us to offer drinks. I stared at the glass he handed me, looking through the pale gold, bubbling liquid, and into the fire. For a moment, I spaced out. I slightly opened my palm while still holding the glass. Four minutes.

    We drank in silence.

    Three minutes.

    The door that I assumed led to Big Marcy opened. We looked at it. My hands were cold despite the fire in front of me.

    Two hulking men, larger than the other stationed guards, their muscles straining against their suits, exited. They also wore masks, black, matching their attire. A young man and woman, probably in their early twenties, followed them.

    ¡°McHunters,¡± Whiny Sidekick whispered, leaning near to be heard.

    ¡°Raphaela McHunter was still at the bar when I left,¡± I said, pretending to be in the know.

    ¡°Their mother gives me the creeps,¡± Backup said. ¡°Old witch.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t let anyone hear you say that,¡± I said.

    ¡°But it¡¯s true. And so are her kids.¡±

    ¡°The gal¡¯s pretty okay, though,¡± said Whiny. ¡°And pretty, pretty. What do you think, Jeff?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s pretty, I guess.¡± I shrugged. I didn¡¯t get a good look at her because she and her brother hurried to the door.

    With our topic gone, we sunk back into silence.

    Two minutes.

    The guards led an old man, hunched over with age, hobbling on a cane for support, through the ¡®BM¡¯ doors. I could see why he¡¯d want to become an Adumbrae. Big Marcy was about to get another client.

    Contacting Big Marcy through Vanessa to try to find the location of Red Island would be a wasted effort. But now I was on this ship, I wanted to meet Big Marcy¡ªErind wanted to meet him, I mean. It was hard to keep track of whose thoughts were whose. I supposed it was all me. What was Big Marcy going to do to Erind? Chuck her out to sea? She¡¯d fight him. I¡¯ll fight him.

    He wouldn¡¯t want to fight me. Not until we brought down his brother first. Same situation as my unspoken truce with Dario. So¡­ might as well meet him and see what he got for me.

    One minute.

    My chest constricted as I saw the number change. I felt that I was going to vomit. Sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight¡­ I started counting in my head.

    I squirmed in my seat, thinking of running away. Erind was also trying to take over, making me stay. Her will was like a hammer. How could she be so sure of herself? So confident?

    I knew the answer. She was neither.

    She just didn¡¯t care about anything.

    Thirty-one, thirty, twenty-nine¡­

    Here goes. I downed my drink in three gulps to push down my rising nervous puke. Whiny and Backup had astonished expressions. I stood up. Their faces turned puzzled. Then I purposely approached the doors to Big Marcy.

    ¡°Jeff, where are you going?¡±

    ¡°They didn¡¯t call for you, man.¡±

    But Whiny and Backup didn¡¯t leave their seats. I continued.

    The guards eyed me.

    ¡°I¡¯m here to see Big Marcy.¡± I would like to pretend I said it confidently, but I didn¡¯t. I was bowed, speaking in a timid voice, cowering under the intimidating stares of men that were walls of muscles. Jeffrey was tall, and Domino wasn¡¯t short at all, but these guards were like mountains.

    ¡°Wait your turn,¡± said the one on the right, his voice deeper than the meaning of life.

    ¡°I have to see him now.¡±

    ¡°Sit down before we make you.¡±

    ¡°This is important.¡± I tried to force my way between them, continuing to count, sixteen, fifteen¡­

    One held my shoulder, his hand large enough to palm my head. I staggered under its weight. Determined, I grabbed his hand with my right, making sure the crystal touched him. His grip loosened. Gazing up, I saw his head wobble. My power was working!

    The other guard looked down at me, angry eyes behind his mask. I didn¡¯t become taller? My illusion didn¡¯t turn into his partner? The second guard¡¯s eyes turned from furious to confused as he checked his partner. He waved at his pal¡¯s face. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you?¡±

    I ducked under the arms of the first guard. He staggered in a daze, bumping into the second. I took the opportunity to push through the doors. Thankfully, they were just regular doors. The second guard shrugged off the first one, letting him fall to the ground, and followed me, his shadow darkening the already dark hallway.

    I tried to bolt, but it was too late. Thick fingers clamped on my head like it was a basketball. Then he squeezed.

    The pain! I reached up for his hand, but my heart fell as soon as I touched it. Metal. An aug-arm. I still pressed the crystal on my right palm against it even though it wasn¡¯t working.

    He raised me off the floor. I tried to pry his fingers from my head, but I was too weak. My feet dangled as I whimpered, about to pass out. But a new wave of pain rocked my body. My muscles uncontrollably spasmed as electricity shocked me. I couldn¡¯t think.

    I¡­ I¡­

    The pain lessened, becoming a mere nuisance. The overwhelming strength I missed so much returned.

    I¡­

    I gripped the bastard¡¯s fingers wrapped around my head¡ªone salami-sized finger with one hand. I yanked in opposite directions, ripping his metal hand in two. ¡°I don¡¯t like people touching me.¡±

 6.5

    As I dropped to the floor, I raised my arms and flung my head back, imagining myself a gymnast sticking a landing. Sparks and metal bits showered my long black hair.

    The guard threw his other hand back for a punch. ¡°Intru¡ªumph!¡±

    I jabbed his mid-section, which was level with my face. My fist crunched his metal-plated abs and compressed his stomach a few inches. He keeled over. His head lowered within my reach. I kicked up as high as I could. The sole of my beach sandal peeled down like banana skin as my toes stabbed past the guard¡¯s chin and into his head.

    I cursed as my thigh burned. Must¡¯ve torn some muscles. It had been ages since I stretched my leg head high.

    Blood rolled down my calf as I wildly shook to get my foot loose from the guard¡¯s jaws. I had intended to send him flying and bury him into the ceiling like in those cartoons, not get gore stuck between my toes.

    I pulled my foot free, kicking away the guard against the walls. He was still alive. Somewhat. I only destroyed the lower half of his face.

    The guard convulsed as he crawled away, gurgling in his blood while trying to call for help. I briskly walked beside him and grabbed his hair. Then I stabbed a finger deep into the crown of his head. My index finger penetrated his skull, and I felt the mushy brain beneath. He struggled. He fell silent. This was like I shot his head, I supposed.

    I let him go, and he fell to the floor, unmoving. Blood spread from beneath him, reflecting the pin lights above like stars in a red sky.

    ¡°This feels so¡­ routine¡­¡± I sighed, glancing at the door I came through. It had swung shut. I couldn¡¯t hear any sounds from the other side. The first guard was probably still out there, wandering, shit-brained. Whiny and Backup didn¡¯t follow me. Some friends they were.

    At the other end of the hallway was another door. No sign that anyone was coming out because of the commotion.

    I knelt on the floor and wiped my foot with the guard¡¯s suit. My torn hamstring had healed. But my right beach sandal was ruined, drenched in blood, with its straps snapped off. Deen gifted this pair to me for the trip. Not being sentimental about it, but I did find them cute and comfortable. And what was I going to wear going back to my room?

    Some Cinderella dilemma. Oh, that rhymed.

    I took off both sandals and dangled them from my fingers, walking barefoot down the hallway as I dusted scraps from my hair.

    My cheek brushed cold steel when I pressed my ear against the door with another stupid ¡®BM¡¯ engraving. I couldn¡¯t hear anything. I gave it a slight shove. Wasn¡¯t locked. What¡¯s the worst that could happen?

    I pushed it open.

    Another pair of guards flanked the entrance. They were chatting in hushed tones as I came in, definitely not expecting anyone. I glared at them with the air of an important person who should be there. The two raised their aug-arms but didn¡¯t attack. No way they knew every VIP around here. They had to assume anyone who came this far was on their side.

    Would they risk a bitchy rich person making a scene?

    About five yards ahead was a glass wall, probably bulletproof, sectioning off Big Marcy¡¯s office from the rest of the room. It was like some zoo enclosure. Four people were inside.

    Sitting on the guest armchair was the old man with a cane who entered before me. And that must be Big Marcy behind the curving black table wide enough to carry a buffet. He looked all big, bigger than any of his guards, and Marcy-looking in his pure white getup¡ªdefinitely, Big Marcy. A stretch of a window displaying the dark ocean framed his bulk. Two more guards stood at attention by the bookshelves on either side of the windows. One was a generic gorilla in a suit. The other piqued my curiosity¡ªhe wasn¡¯t tall or muscular, his clothes hanging from an average guy¡¯s frame.

    His left sleeve was cut off from the shoulder. It wasn¡¯t to mimic some rapper¡¯s fashion sense; it was because his left arm wouldn¡¯t fit in it¡ªa scythe-like blade, reminding me of a praying mantis with vents lining the spine that emitted soft puffs of dark smoke. The blade itself hummed a purple glow.

    Looks like I¡¯ll be fighting an Adumbrae. Weird that his appearance didn¡¯t stay human like the rest of the 2Ms¡¯ Adumbrae clientele. Might be in his contract to look scary beside the boss.

    My eyes traveled from the blade up to check if this guy truly appeared intimidating. Overlapping plates like a giant insect¡¯s exoskeleton covered his upper arm and shoulder before the suit hid the rest of his mutations. The left of his body was corrupted, evident from his suit straining to cover bumpy parts on that side. His face even had a mask clinging to its left half. Purple veins crept from under the mask to the caramel skin of the uncovered right. He looked fresh out of high school, seemingly too young to be a guard.

    He looks familiar¡­ My eyes flicked back to the guard¡¯s blade arm¡ªalso familiar¡ªand returned to his face. ¡°Ramon?¡± I whispered. ¡°The pizza delivery guy?¡± Vanessa had told me they got him on their side.

    Our eyes locked.

    He jerked back in shock. He pointed at me with his right hand, mouthing something I couldn¡¯t hear through the glass wall. Big Marcy turned to Ramon, then to me. The grandpa in front of the table continued talking and gesturing, but Big Marcy wasn¡¯t listening.

    A flicker of recognition. Big Marcy didn¡¯t yell or reach for a gun or anything, instead regarding me calmly as he leaned back in his chair. Was Big Marcy telling me to wait my turn?

    So, what now? I shrugged and stepped forward.

    The humanoid mountain on my right blocked me. ¡°The boss is busy for the moment,¡± he rumbled. ¡°Please wait outside, little miss.¡±

    Little miss? If he said ¡®cute miss,¡¯ it would¡¯ve been way better.

    I pushed away thoughts of killing him. I was getting too trigger-happy. Big Marcy was supposed to be an ally¡ªfor now¡ªand I had already killed one guard back there. Would Big Marcy mind that?

    ¡°I have to talk to Big Marcy because¡­¡± I raised my beach sandals. ¡°I¡¯m looking for something to replace these.¡±

    The guard¡¯s brow arched at my beach sandals, his aug-eyes glowing red as he scanned them. He must¡¯ve detected bits traces of blood because his expression suddenly changed from befuddlement to alert mode. He stretched an arm that reassembled into a gun, tearing his sleeves, and pointed it at me.

    ¡°Intruder! We got an¡ª!¡±

    Beep. A loud voice reverberated from unseen speakers all around.

    ¡°Wiggins, do not attack her.¡± Big Marcy¡¯s mouth was moving. He nodded at me when I looked at him. The echoing voice went on, ¡°She is an important guest.¡±

    The guard reluctantly lowered his hand. He pulled his lapel to his mouth. ¡°Got it, boss. Sorry, I wasn¡¯t aware she was coming.¡±

    ¡°Neither was I,¡± spoke Big Marcy like a revelation from the heavens. ¡°She did not set an appointment. At any rate, she is here. It would be unbecoming to turn her away. Treat her fittingly.¡±

    I pointed at myself, then at Big Marcy. ¡°I want to talk,¡± I exaggeratingly said because I didn¡¯t know if he could hear me.

    ¡°Bring her here, Wiggins.¡±

    ¡°This way, miss,¡± said the guard, bowing low but still taller than me.

    Standing right in front of the glass wall, I got a closer look at Big Marcy¡¯s old guest. I¡¯ve seen him before.

    He was Mr. G-Something Tussel, former chairman of Green Knoll Conglomerate. He was a guest speaker at Cresthorne Law once, talking about his life as a lawyer in the world of finance. I was amazed that he looked a decade or two younger than his supposed age of ninety-eight. During his talk, he mentioned that his secret was eating fresh vegetables from an organic farm.

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    Law school, surprisingly a hotbed of gossip, came up with wild rumors about Mr. Tussell¡¯s longevity. The nonsense ranged from harvesting babies for stem cells to eating Adumbrae remains. If Mr. Tussell was here, fiction might not be far from the truth.

    Ramon ran to the glass wall as if we were friends that hadn¡¯t seen each other in ages. He was dapper in a suit, though really young for me. I was a mature and sophisticated lady. Heh.

    I couldn¡¯t hear what he was saying. He turned back to Big Marcy.

    ¡°Boss, are you going to let her in?¡± asked Wiggins into his lapel. ¡°Should I check her?¡±

    ¡°Not if you value your life,¡± Big Marcy replied. ¡°I am letting her in because she will enter anyway. Go back to your post, Wiggins.¡±

    ¡°Got it, boss.¡±

    Part of the glass wall swooshed into the floor, revealing a rectangular opening.

    ¡°Erind! Is that really you?¡± Ramon rushed out, arms wide open. ¡°Vanessa told me about¡ª¡±

    I instinctively recoiled.

    Ramon blinked. He glanced at his monstrous blade arm. Retreating to Big Marcy¡¯s office, he tried to hide it behind his back. ¡°Sorry, I look like this¡­¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about, Ramon?¡± I said, intentionally mentioning his name and rolling the ¡®R¡¯ into a purr. I reached out and patted his plate-covered shoulder, feigning a bit of hesitance. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you this way before, and I didn¡¯t have any problems with you last time, did I?¡±

    ¡°No, you didn¡¯t.¡± He looked at me with bright eyes¡ªon the right was his regular black; on the left was a purple eyeball peering through the hole in his mask. ¡°But I just thought¡ª¡±

    ¡°I was surprised you came out to hug me. Like, what¡¯s up with boundaries and stuff?¡±

    ¡°Boundaries?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think just charging a girl with a hug is okay, do you?¡±

    He nodded. ¡°I guess not. Yeah, sorry for doing that. Doing it right out of the blue is¡ªit¡¯s not like we¡¯re close or anything of the sort.¡± He continued nodding, mumbling more to himself than me. ¡°What the hell was I thinking? We barely talked. You were asleep the entire¡ª¡±

    ¡°How about you invite her in, Ramon?¡± Big Marcy called. He had sat patiently, waiting for Ramon and me to chat a bit before interrupting. Did he want us to get close? Surely, he knew that Ramon liked like me.

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Ramon said, bowing. He really was on their side.

    It wouldn¡¯t be a surprise if Big Marcy planned to use Ramon as a honeytrap to bind me to his side. Firstly, gross as fuck. Secondly, two could play that game. I could try to get Ramon to my corner.

    ¡°Again, sorry ¡®bout that, Erind,¡± said Ramon, waving for me to enter. ¡°I missed you¡ªNo! That¡¯s not what I meant to say. Yeah, I missed you. But I¡¯m happy that you¡¯re here. That¡¯s why I¡­¡±

    ¡°I understand,¡± I said, touching his monster hand again. Let him dream of acceptance. I was kind enough to give him that fantasy. Stringing guys along was such a high school hobby of mine.

    ¡°Ah, you¡¯re not wearing your glasses? Watch your step. You might bump into the glass wall. I sometimes accidentally do that.¡±

    Oh, yeah. Before leaving my room, I had my Domino mask, so I didn¡¯t wear my fake glasses. A hassle keeping up the charade of having eye issues. Did I need to continue it? That face was supposed to be for law school.

    ¡°Please take a seat, Ms. Hartwell.¡± Big Marcy gestured to a chair opposite the old man. The bigger half of the 2Ms tried to put on an amiable face, but he still looked like someone who wrestled bears for a living. ¡°Would you like some coffee to perk you up? It is late.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I said, sitting down. Wow, this seat felt super cushy. Expensively cushy.

    Should I crouch to appear smaller? No. Timid Erind-face had no place here.

    I sat tall, arms confidently on the rests. I was the Adumbrae that trashed the 2Ms and Tea Party bases¡ªI am the boss. It¡¯d also be advantageous to pretend the Adumbrae had huge sway in my mind to keep Big Marcy on his toes. Like dealing with a wild animal, he¡¯d never know what to expect.

    ¡°Tea, then?¡± Big Marcy asked. ¡°Freshly squished lemonade? Or perhaps, just water? I promise there will be no poison in it.¡±

    I smirked. ¡°If there was, it better be strong enough to hurt me.¡±

    ¡°We can try. Mister will be interested in such an experiment. I believe you have met him?¡±

    Standing behind me, Ramon said with a concerned voice, ¡°Sir, you promised¡­¡±

    ¡°I am jesting, Ramon. I guarantee Ms. Hartwell¡¯s safety; that was my promise to you, after all. However, it might be too presumptuous of me to say that. Circumstances show Ms. Hartwell does not need any help.¡±

    ¡°Right, I¡¯m a strong independent woman.¡± I grinned at Ramon behind me as if sharing a private joke. It was a horrible night¡ªprobably day, already¡ªwith Domino being a pain at the helm. Nothing like doing some manipulations to entertain myself.

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Ramon kept his eyes on me, though talking to Big Marcy. ¡°She sure can take care of herself.¡±

    ¡°By the way, Ms. Hartwell.¡± Big Marcy gestured at the old man and his fancy cane. ¡°Let me introduce you to Goddard Tussell of Green Knoll. I believe you two have not met each other yet?¡±

    So, Goddard was the G-Something I couldn¡¯t recall¡ªa funny-sounding name. I nodded at Mr. Tussell. He was visibly perplexed at the sudden entrance of a random girl in the middle of his sinister meeting with Big Marcy. But Mr. Tussell had enough experience in his decades on this earth to know something was up, and he should observe before reacting.

    ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve met Mr. Tussell before,¡± I said, crossing my legs. My bare feet had to tiptoe to reach the tiled floor, which didn¡¯t add to the scary image I wanted to portray.

    ¡°You have?¡± Big Marcy questioningly inclined his head.

    ¡°Maybe ¡®met¡¯ isn¡¯t the right word.¡± I turned to the old man, innocently smiling. ¡°Remember when you visited Cresthorne for a talk last year, Mr. Tussell? I¡¯m a first-year law student there. You gave an inspiring speech.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, young lady,¡± he said with a clear and calming voice. ¡°I do remember that event. I may be pushing a hundred, and my faculties aren¡¯t what they used to be, but my memory can still hold up. And that¡¯s why I¡¯m here to see if Marcy can help this old man suffering the travails of age.¡±

    ¡°Sincere apologies for the disruption, Mr. Tussell,¡± Big Marcy said. ¡°But Ms. Hartwell is a guest I cannot turn away.¡±

    ¡°There seems to be more to you than meets the eye, young lady,¡± said the old man.

    I didn¡¯t say anything and stared at Big Marcy to prod him. Only superheroes announced themselves. Other types of main characters leave it to the side characters to behold them in awe. This was the rare occasion Deen wasn¡¯t here to steal my limelight, and I wanted to savor it.

    ¡°This is Ms. Erind Hartwell,¡± announced Big Marcy as if I was entering the ring. ¡°A true Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°A true Adumbrae?¡± gasped Mr. Tussell.

    ¡°Indeed, she is,¡± said Big Marcy. ¡°She is not part of the organization. Neither an ally nor a friend. Rather, an acquaintance that visits us when we least expect.¡± Big Marcy¡¯s temples tensed as he spoke. ¡°Her link to the world beyond is not artificially induced. As you can see, she displays a high level of control, with no visible mutations.¡±

    I nodded to acknowledge his words, closing my right hand to conceal the crystals on it.

    Fascination added more wrinkles to Mr. Tussell¡¯s face. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I¡¯ve spoken to a true Adumbrae. Granted, it was a speech to an audience, but I was in your presence, nonetheless.¡±

    ¡°She is quite a terrifying Adumbrae, Mr. Tussell,¡± continued Big Marcy. ¡°You may have heard of some of her exploits. For one, the destruction of Eve at La Esperanza was the aftermath of her battle with the BID.¡±

    ¡°Oho!¡± The old man nearly jumped off his seat. ¡°Terrifying, indeed. An honor to meet you, Ms. Hartwell. I hope to add more years to myself and witness your displays of power.¡±

    ¡°You might change your mind if you were there,¡± said Big Marcy.

    ¡°There¡¯s something I don¡¯t understand, Marcy. You say she¡¯s not your ally. But she protected your holdings from the BID?¡±

    ¡°Protect? Not so, Mr. Tussell. A three-way battle occurred at the crater that was once Eve. It is complicated to explain, but I can say Ms. Hartwell was hungry that night and went out looking for food. We cannot stop her. The BID failed as well, proven by her presence here.¡±

    ¡°Is she an enemy?¡± A frightened Mr. Tussell faced me, gripping his cane tighter. ¡°Are you going to eat us?¡±

    ¡°Nope,¡± I said. ¡°The buffet on this cruise is delicious.¡±

    Big Marcy roared in laughter. ¡°I should thank the chef, then.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s also useless to worry about getting eaten, Mr. Tussell,¡± I said. ¡°No one can stop me if I want to eat this entire ship. Best enjoy the cruise and not worry about it.¡±

    The old man threw an alarmed glare at Big Marcy.

    Big Marcy shook his head. ¡°Be calm, Mr. Tussell. It is merely Adumbrae humor. She would not have paid me a visit if she wanted to consume us. Clearly, she wants to discuss something. You will not mind her cutting in line, will you?¡±

    ¡°No-not at all,¡± Mr. Tussell stammered. He groaned as he pushed himself up using his cane. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll wait outside. Grab me a drink.¡±

    ¡°Thank you. This will not take long. Oh, and one thing.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Keep Ms. Hartwell¡¯s presence from my brother. You can surmise Mark is not too pleased with Ms. Hartwell here.¡±

    ¡°I understand¡­¡±

    ¡°If you do that, you will have a friend in Ms. Hartwell. She might not eat you if she changes her mind about the buffet.¡±

    Mr. Tussell feebly chuckled, almost coughing, as he shuffled through the glass wall.

    ¡°Now¡­¡± Big Marcy leaned forward, forming a hill of muscles on his table, steepling his fingers adorned with multiple gem-encrusted rings. ¡°Where were we?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re on a cruise ship,¡± I said, grinning broadly.

 6.6

    Big Marcy¡¯s eyes widened. My response caught him off-guard¡ªa small victory. He laughed with some uncertainty, on the fence if I was joking or if the Adumbrae inside me was a literalist. I needed to break his flow.

    ¡°Well, that is true,¡± he said. ¡°How are you enjoying the trip so far?¡±

    ¡°Eh¡­ so-so.¡± I rocked my head left and right. ¡°I¡¯m not a fan of cruises. Too many people packed in the same place. I¡¯m a bit of an introvert.¡±

    ¡°Though this entire ship is a cover for traveling to Red Island in luxury¡ªalso, to provide a visible excuse for our clients¡¯ absences from their high-profile lives¡ªwe tend to pack as many normal passengers as possible for economic reasons. The price of oil is running high, especially with the African Adumbrae crisis still unresolved.¡±

    I was right about where this ship was headed. But why did Big Marcy readily tell me? Given our sour past, lightly put, he should know what I intend to do if I ever found that stupid place. Was he giving me hints as a show of goodwill?

    Or a trap?

    ¡°I can arrange for you more private accommodations,¡± Big Marcy said, ¡°if you prefer, to help with your introversion.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡±

    ¡°What about your friends? How do they¡ª?¡±

    ¡°I know you¡¯re trying to rattle me that you¡¯re aware of us lurking on this ship,¡± I interjected to keep my hand on the ball. ¡°But before that, someone should do something about the dead guy back there.¡±

    Big Marcy¡¯s leather chair squeaked as he shifted in it. ¡°Dead guy?¡±

    Ramon gripped the headrest of my seat.

    ¡°On my way here,¡± I said, ¡°I passed a dead guy in the middle of the corridor going to this room. If he sees it, Mr. Tussell might get a heart attack.¡± I pointed at the old man hobbling to the exit.

    Big Marcy¡¯s eyes turned to slits. He pressed a button on the table. ¡°Wiggins. Check the hallway outside. There might be some¡­ obstacles. Clear it before Mr. Tussell passes through for his safety.¡±

    ¡°On it, boss.¡±

    Big Marcy inhaled long. His nostrils flared, making him look more like a gorilla. He laced his fingers and rested them on the table. With an eerily composed face, he asked, ¡°I do not suppose you are aware of how the dead body got there?¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°Maybe he did something that someone didn¡¯t like, and he got what was coming for him?¡±

    ¡°That is a likely scenario,¡± Big Marcy monotonously said.

    Ramon shook my headrest. ¡°Erind, is that blood on your slippers? Were you shot?¡±

    ¡°No, I wasn¡¯t. And that¡¯s not my blood.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not? Hang on¡­¡±

    I could almost hear the screws in Ramon¡¯s brain grind against each other.

    ¡°Di-did you¡­?¡± Ramon didn¡¯t continue his question.

    ¡°If you told me you were coming, Ms. Hartwell,¡± said Big Marcy, ¡°we could have ensured that you would avoid the unpleasant experience of running into a corpse. I do hope no new dead bodies will mysteriously crop up during your stay here. I am rather short on men. Furthermore, I want to provide you and your friends with a pleasant stay.¡±

    Bringing the hero wannabes up again? Dario assured us we wouldn¡¯t be seen in the passengers¡¯ logs or database whatever of the cruise¡ªI wasn¡¯t really listening to his explanation. Apparently, he failed on what he was supposed to do. Or it might be that Dario and Johann did their best in their hacking shit, but I was just too recognizable.

    A more dangerous possibility was that Dario intended for the 2Ms to know I was on board. It¡¯d draw enemies to me, leaving me no choice but to transform and fight. A repeat of what happened at Eve might be his goal.

    ¡°Provide us with a pleasant stay?¡± I snorted. ¡°Even if we stowed away¡ªoh, wait. We paid for our tickets; we¡¯re not stowaways. I guess we¡¯re entitled to a pleasant stay.¡±

    ¡°If you and your group want to dine in our exclusive restaurants at the top decks,¡± Big Marcy continued, ¡°just say the word. The finest food you will ever taste in your life. I make that claim, but I am unsure how it compares when you devour¡­ your prey.¡±

    ¡°Sir, Erind doesn¡¯t eat people! It was the Adumbrae inside of her.¡± That was Ramon, of course.

    It was fun to have someone who always saw the good side of me, even if it wasn¡¯t there. He was kind of like Deen in that way.

    ¡°Another jest, Ramon,¡± replied Big Marcy, waving to calm his mutated bodyguard. ¡°Ms. Hartwell did it to Mr. Tussell. I merely continued the joke.¡±

    ¡°Did what to that old man?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Tell me if I am right, Ms. Hartwell.¡± Big Marcy pointed with a sausage-sized finger at the empty seat previously occupied by Mr. Tussell. ¡°You realized he cares dearly about his mortality, so you played a cruel joke, threatening to eat him.¡±

    ¡°It was just a regular joke,¡± I said, striving to sound nonchalant. Big Marcy was right about what I did. I wiggled the toes of my swinging feet. ¡°I swear I wasn¡¯t being cruel about it. What do you think, Ramon?¡±

    ¡°Me? Uh, I think¡ª¡±

    ¡°Mr. Tussell was a few days from reaching Red Island,¡± Big Marcy pressed on, not letting me escape. His brutish facial features disguised intelligent beady eyes. ¡°Dreams of immortality within his grasp. But here you appeared, an imminent threat to it, as he was about to cross the finish line. Perhaps starting a new race is a more apt analogy. Did you threaten to eat him because he viewed you as a curiosity? Striking fear into the hearts of impudent humans?¡±

    ¡°Big Marcy, sir,¡± Ramon said. ¡°I don¡¯t think that was Erind¡¯s intention.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re looking too much into it.¡± I resisted the human urge to turn away if caught in a lie. But I also didn¡¯t maintain eye contact, or it might appear I was overcompensating to come off as honest.

    Uncanny how fast Big Marcy read me from a small interaction. I might be in for a challenge here. I had assumed Big Marcy was just some run-of-the-mill bad guy, those in movies that the heroes mow down wholesale. Big Marcy got muscled aside by his brother for the top spot in their criminal organization¡ªhe should be the weaker sibling, right?

    But I might¡¯ve guessed wrong.

    Big Marcy chuckled. ¡°Possible I am finding meaning where there is none. There is something I must confess, Ms. Hartwell. I have simulated how our meeting would play out many times in my head, and it was not this. Vanessa was right that you¡¯re interesting.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a compliment.¡± Was this a quippy enough response? Irritating that he viewed me as a novel attraction rather than someone above him.

    Wait, this was the same that Mr. Tussell did. Big Marcy continued to needle at me. This mountain of turd!

    ¡°Where¡¯s Vanessa?¡± I asked before Big Marcy could speak. I had to take the lead.

    ¡°Unfortunately, she is not aboard the ship,¡± replied Big Marcy. ¡°There are matters that require her peculiar espionage abilities. Had I known earlier that you would be our guest, I would not have sent Vanessa elsewhere. It would have been comforting for you to have your friend while we discuss.¡±

    Should I deny that Vanessa¡¯s a friend? She was a self-appointed one, like Deen.

    Nah. Better let Big Marcy think he had a hold on me through other people. Then I¡¯d snatch them and use them against him. To Big Marcy, I might be an Adumbrae, but I was still an ordinary girl before that¡ªjust a harmless, first-year law student whose life was upended by bullshit.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    He wouldn¡¯t suspect what I¡ªthe human part, not the Adumbrae¡ªwas capable of.

    ¡°There¡¯s still a familiar face in Ramon,¡± I said, batting my lashes over my shoulder. I hoped it looked flirtatious instead of trying to remove dust from my eyes.

    ¡°Nothing to worry about, Erind,¡± said Ramon, shifting to a taller stance. ¡°You¡¯re safe here. Big Marcy wants to help.¡±

    ¡°Yep, that¡¯s what Vanessa told me.¡± I turned back to Big Marcy. ¡°But it¡¯s a different thing hearing it from the man himself. I find it hard to believe you want an alliance after I tried to kill¡ªto eat you.¡±

    Actually, it was very believable. After all, I was here trying to make an alliance despite what they had done or tried to do to me. But let him think me na?ve.

    ¡°Let bygones be bygones,¡± Big Marcy said. ¡°We have never succeeded in killing you¡ªthat is why you are here!¡± A hollow laugh followed. ¡°Any injury we caused, you have regenerated.¡±

    ¡°My condo¡¯s not regenerating,¡± I said.

    ¡°That is on my brother. He ordered that attack. Nonetheless, I am willing to reimburse you severalfold for any pecuniary loss. I have a selection of La Esperanza penthouses for you to choose from.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just a jest,¡± I said, grinning. ¡°I can find my own place to stay.¡± If I¡¯ll ever return to La Esperanza after Red Island, I added in my head.

    ¡°Let it be on record that I offered you a reimbursement, and it stands until you claim it. Now, look at our side of the table, Ms. Hartwell. You have done plenty of damage to us in terms of lives and property¡ªpermanent damage. If someone were to tally the score, you would come out on top. But I am willing to consider it even and all debts erased¡­ if that is what it takes to dethrone my brother.

    ¡°Dethrone, yes. Mark is sitting on the throne of the empire our father had built and passed to us. Before this affair with the Supplier, I managed the family business. If it were not for me, we would not have survived. And yet, he snatched the fruits of my labor and claimed them as his own.¡±

    Too much backstory. Big Marcy was trying really hard to sell common ground between us.

    And was he not using contractions? So that was why he talked funny. It couldn¡¯t be his usual way of speaking, was it? He must be doing it on purpose to unnerve me.

    ¡°You¡¯re telling me all that,¡± I said. ¡°But I have no clue if it¡¯s true or not.¡±

    ¡°We have no quarrel, you and I,¡± replied Big Marcy. ¡°It was all my brother. My brother and the Supplier. He ordered me to capture you, and you escaped, destroying everything in your path, which narrowly included me. But again, that was on Mark. If it were up to me, I would offer you everything you want to work for me.¡±

    ¡°Why did Mark want to kidnap me?¡± I briskly asked.

    ¡°Firstly, I extend my apologies for¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, whatever. But why do it?¡±

    Big Marcy threw his barrel arms up. ¡°I am afraid I do not know the answer to your question. I surmise it must be connected to Mark¡¯s dealings with the Supplier. But I have no insight as to the Supplier¡¯s designs.¡±

    ¡°Really? Vanessa told me that you do have, at least, some insights into the Supplier¡¯s¡­ what did you call them? Designs?¡±

    ¡°Indeed, I do. Several you might be interested in. But they are on matters unconnected to your taking. I will be willing to share them¡ª¡±

    ¡°Later,¡± I curtly cut in. ¡°Let¡¯s focus on this taking first.¡± What a neat way he couched it, I sarcastically thought. That incident was the start of my connection with the 2Ms. There should be more to it. ¡°What did Mark and the Supplier want from me? Don¡¯t you, uh, take random people from the streets? Those in the underground arena¡ª¡±

    ¡°We never aim for specific individuals. Only those society wouldn¡¯t miss. There are exceptions, such as rivals who should know better than to be our rivals. But yours, Ms. Hartwell, was a different scenario. As far as I am aware, you are not an enemy of ours, and your disappearance will make news. If I had to speculate, you must be connected to the Supplier¡¯s projects handled by our organization. It would not make much sense otherwise.¡±

    ¡°Like the parasites?¡± I stuck out my tongue and fake gagged.

    What the fuck would my connection with parasites be? If I ever find out that Mark, the Supplier, or whoever else had planned to make me a host for those disgusting abominations, I would rip them apart, atom from atom, even if it causes a nuclear explosion.

    ¡°But why you specifically? I do not know.¡± Big Marcy looked at his watch in a not-so-subtle way¡ªan assertion of dominance. ¡°Ms. Hartwell, I can try to find out more about it. I am sure you would like to ask plenty of other matters of me, but I am strapped for time. I hope you will not eat us if I point out it is an hour past midnight, and I have to talk to Mr. Tussell and many others.¡±

    Scratch Jeffrey from that list, I thought, noncommittedly shrugging in response to Big Marcy.

    Big Marcy leaned forward, a small hill of muscle on the table, to whisper as if enemies could hear us. ¡°We should focus on your most immediate concern¡ªRed Island.¡±

    I allowed a flicker of interest to cross my face. I thought I had to be the one to bring it up. Was Big Marcy attempting to look sincere by offering up his brother?

    He held up four fingers. The rings on them glinted from pin lights lining the ceiling. ¡°On the fourth night of this cruise, from Ensenada going back to California, three small ships will depart from this cruise ship¡¯s bowels heading for Red Island. That is your target.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll allow us to get on?¡± Everything was suspiciously easy.

    ¡°Aiding you is what I will do,¡± said Big Marcy. ¡°My brother and I are supposed to be in equal control of the organization. He decided that I get the ship and operations in La Esperanza and elsewhere on the mainland, reasoning that it is much bigger in scope, while he gets Red Island.¡±

    ¡°I get it,¡± I said. ¡°He made himself appear the kind brother, sacrificing a large share but ended up controlling everything. I can see your problem.¡±

    ¡°I appreciate the sympathy,¡± Big Marcy said, even though I offered none.

    ¡°So, his men control the smaller ships going there? You¡¯ll be able to get us on?¡±

    ¡°I will do my utmost,¡± he replied, confidently nodding. ¡°On your end, you must find a way to get your group on those ships without revealing our connection. A far harder task, perhaps, than actually stowing away on them. Yes, you have to be stowaways that time¡ªI cannot manipulate the list of attendees this near the deadline. You came on such short notice, so we make do and adapt. I will be in touch with you.¡±

    This was proceeding too smoothly. This contractionless bastard must be on to something. ¡°Um, you know what we¡¯ll do on Red Island, right?¡±

    ¡°Either my brother will tell me that he has fresh specimens, or I can no longer contact my brother anymore¡­ or ever.¡±

    ¡°Not just your brother. I mean¡­ Eve wasn¡¯t technically my fault. But the destruction of the Tea Party base was¡ªI¡¯m guessing you know of it.¡±

    ¡°I would not expect anything less from Red Hood.¡± Big Marcy pressed his hand as wide as a plate on his chest. ¡°This is the sacrifice and assurance I present on my end of our alliance.¡±

    ¡°Huh? For what? Assurance that you won¡¯t betray me?¡±

    ¡°That is so, Ms. Hartwell. I am sure it is a that has crossed your mind.¡±

    I nodded. This guy was too clever. Not only was his body huge, but his intellect was also pervading an oppressive aura. Try as I might asserting control, he kept wrestling it back. When Domino learned that Big Marcy was here, I pushed her¡ªor myself¡ªto find him. Surprising Big Marcy with my appearance should give me the initiative.

    ¡°I want my brother out,¡± said Big Marcy. ¡°That is simply it.¡±

    ¡°And you will take his spot?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°And deal with the Supplier?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    I tilted my head, asking the obvious.

    ¡°The business must go on,¡± he replied matter-of-factly. ¡°This is where the assurance comes in. If you destroy Red Island, then I cannot go after you, even if I were ordered to do so by the Supplier. Do you see, Ms. Hartwell? Trample Red Island to your heart¡¯s content. The Supplier cannot spare a thought for you while rebuilding. We¡ªyou and I¡ªwill use that time to hide you¡­ wherever you want to go.¡±

    And they lived happily ever after, I added in my head. Big Marcy should know I wasn¡¯t buying his story. How could I? I didn¡¯t have my wallet with me. I kill his brother; then he kills me¡­ somehow. If Big Marcy managed to pull that off, he¡¯d gain favor in the eyes of the Supplier¡ªhis happily ever after.

    The logical thing for me to do was destroy both brothers. But from my short interaction with Big Marcy, he had contingency plans for that too.

    ¡°Vanessa told me something interesting,¡± I said. ¡°She mentioned that you think my friends and the Supplier are connected. Care sharing your insights?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes. A rather simple question started my investigation. Two, actually. Why does this small group of pesky bandits have powers? And how do they keep tracking us?¡±

    ¡°Them just showing up must¡¯ve been very surprising to you,¡± I said, recalling when Myra first wondered that something might be wrong with Dario and the Professor.

    ¡°Surprising, indeed,¡± said Big Marcy. ¡°Possible answers are limited. Corebrings? Cannot be. The Corebrings would not send cockroaches to annoy us. Other Adumbrae? Too weak. No motive. A rival organization? Perhaps. But backed by who? The Supplier was the only one with the technology to induce seeding artificially. What about the government? I could see that happening if they were testing experiments they could not admit to the public.¡±

    ¡°Same thoughts. Then what happened?¡±

    ¡°You already know of the next pieces, Ms. Hartwell. Over in Las Vegas, the Tea Party also experienced a similar infestation problem. Either it was a coincidence, or we were up against a large organization. Quite concerning.¡±

    ¡°I bet it was,¡± I automatically replied. Big Marcy had no idea about the artificial Cores.

    ¡°If that was the case, then how big was our side? I was eager to uncover how far the Supplier¡¯s reach extended. I have found eight other groups across the United States, connected in varying degrees with the Supplier. There are three in Mexico. And I am positive there are more.¡±

    ¡°Woah, that¡¯s new information to me. But also¡­ kinda expected. The Supplier doesn¡¯t seem like a small-time guy limited to a couple of cities.¡±

    ¡°Here is the unexpected part, Ms. Hartwell¡ªeach of them faces a small group of super-powered humans. The mother of all coincidences?¡±

    I slowly nodded. ¡°Okay, that¡¯s really unexpected.¡±

 6.7

    Several hero wannabe groups? If true, and I couldn¡¯t think of why Big Marcy would concoct this story specifically, it was more evidence that a sizeable clandestine organization was behind the artificial Cores. Not this mysterious, lone Professor we were yet to meet.

    I recalled Dario¡¯s story during our first get-together at Deen¡¯s house. He had told us we were fighting against Adumbrae, which had embedded themselves in the government, and that was why we couldn¡¯t report to the BID or police. These sneaky Adumbrae supposedly stole top secret government stuff for their evil plans, using them for experiments on the population carried out by criminal organizations like the 2Ms. Our group would secretly fight them without exposing the truth to the world, or else the Corebrings would get super mad about the artificial Adumbrae and Cores involved in the whole shebang and start a war with the government.

    Looking back at it, props to whoever came up with that big fat lie of a story. It was far from the truth but probably also close to the truth. It wasn¡¯t sold to just us¡ªseveral teams at that.

    Where did they all fit into this?

    I kicked out my leg and wiggled my toes, intently examining them. Was this too nonchalant? If I reacted like Big Marcy¡¯s revelation was a big deal, he¡¯d count it as a favor given. But I did wonder about something. ¡°Did they win?¡± I asked him.

    Big Marcy tilted his head. ¡°Win?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, did those, um, bandits¡ªthat¡¯s what you called them. Did any of them win against their pitted match? Win as in actually stop the Supplier¡¯s partner criminal organization, like what I did the Tea Party?¡±

    ¡°A good question, Ms. Hartwell. The same also occurred to me. I sense you know the answer.¡±

    ¡°None did. All they amounted to was annoying their opponents, not pulling off anything big.¡±

    ¡°Precisely. Their stories are all the same. The bandits and their counterparts, my colleagues in the business, so to speak, engage in a farce of a dance that merely maintains the status quo. The bandits have some successes here and there but nothing substantial in the grand scheme. The operations of the Supplier continue. It is almost like¡­ what do you call those? The episodic comedy shows with a live audience or the bothersome laugh tracks? The term is a portmanteau¡ª¡±

    ¡°A sitcom,¡± I said. It should be illegal to utter such a pretentious word as ¡®portmanteau.¡¯

    ¡°Yes, a situation comedy¡ªa sitcom. Thank you, Ms. Hartwell.¡±

    ¡°But why a sitcom? Isn¡¯t it more like a villain-of-the-week type of superhero show? The heroes never really ever defeat the bad guys who¡¯ll keep coming back until maybe there¡¯s a new bigger bad guy next season?¡±

    ¡°What you say is true. But I think of a sitcom because¡ª¡± Big Marcy rapped his knuckle on the table, showing a hint of indignation ¡°¡ªwhoever arranged this, whoever is pulling the strings, whoever is watching us¡­ is certainly having a good laugh at our expense.¡±

    I dropped my foot and sat at the edge of my seat so my soles could touch the ground. Cold. ¡°And that doesn¡¯t bother you?¡± I asked. ¡°Someone is toying with you. While you¡¯re experimenting with turning people into Adumbrae, someone else is experimenting on you. Doesn¡¯t that make you angry?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± The wriggle of Big Marcy¡¯s big nose told me he wasn¡¯t entirely truthful. ¡°I am a single-focused type of man, Ms. Hartwell. Multitasking is inefficient. Dethroning my brother is my main goal, and my eyes are on it alone. After that, I will ponder upon the next problem.¡±

    I mentally smirked. This arrogant hill kept emphasizing that he was only after his brother.

    Might be the truth. But that didn¡¯t mean he had no other goals. Offing me was one of them, for sure. Another might be to break free from the Supplier¡¯s control, maybe even replace that sketchy guy. Big Marcy seemed he wouldn¡¯t want to be under someone¡¯s thumb.

    Could our alliance continue beyond killing his brother?

    Wow, I¡¯m plotting and stuff, I thought, suppressing a giggle. In the middle of the night. Super cool. Would¡¯ve been cooler if I wasn¡¯t barefoot and wearing a plain shirt and shorts. But I¡¯d settle for this. Definitely main character material, in contrast to Deen, who was being useless, having her beauty sleep.

    ¡°What about you?¡± Big Marcy pointed at me with a finger as fat as the Cuban cigars I recalled someone gifted Dad. ¡°Are you not angry someone is toying with you? Make no mistake; you are caught on this web as I am.¡±

    ¡°Angry? Not really. More like irritated that my normal life is disturbed.¡± And that was the truth.

    Why did I tell Big Marcy that instead of making shit up? What shit should I have made up? To answer that, I should first know what face I was supposedly wearing¡ªI don¡¯t know. I wasn¡¯t actively conforming to a decided face.

    Am I just being myself?

    ¡°I believe Vanessa has extended my offer of helping you return to your human body. I reiterate it now.¡± Big Marcy nodded to Ramon behind me. ¡°Both to you and Ramon. My brother may have the means at his disposal, being in control of Red Island. But once I depose him and take his place as the Supplier¡¯s contractor, I will make sure our resources will be directed to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Nothing concrete.¡±

    ¡°That may be so, but eventually, we will successfully find the cure. You and Ramon will have your lives back. And more. That I promise. The experiments of Mister are going¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not into alternative medicine. Just offer it when it¡¯s a hundred percent ready.¡±

    Big Marcy rumbled a chuckle. ¡°Yes¡­ yes¡­ But it will take time. Who knows? By then, you might change your mind about it.¡±

    ¡°About what?¡± I asked, despite understanding his comment.

    He gave me a toady smile. ¡°About returning to human.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t let that happen, sir,¡± said Ramon, shaking my headrest again. ¡°I¡¯ll ensure that Erind won¡¯t forget about her human side. The Adumbrae will not get our bodies. We are going to become humans again someday. Right, Erind?¡±

    I gazed back at Ramon, doling a soft smile. But I didn¡¯t nod or say anything.

    I could make the excuse that I was building the image that the Adumbrae really was getting to me. That¡¯d keep Big Marcy on his presumably big toes. But that was outwardly. Let Big Marcy and Ramon think that.

    Inwardly, why would I lie to myself? Part of me is wavering about returning to normal.

    Everything so far was a ton of unnecessary hassle. And I wouldn¡¯t say I liked change; being no longer human was the least of it. And I¡¯d rather watch movies in my condo now in ruins, drinking overly sweet milk tea from the vending machine turned scrap metal, scheming about the social goings of my law school life.

    Simple times.

    But my life now was also fun. Actually, more fun than I had since, like¡­ ever.

    SpookyErind? Are you there messing with me?

    ¡°Another jest, Ramon,¡± Big Marcy said, ¡°I am sure Ms. Hartwell misses her human form. However, it cannot be denied that many want to escape the confines of their mortal body, be it through augmentation or shedding humanity altogether. That is our business, after all.¡±

    ¡°A booming business, it looks like,¡± I said. ¡°In more ways than one.¡±

    Big Marcy and I chatted for a few more minutes about how to sneak onto the small ships going to Red Island and what our group would expect arriving there¡ªvillas for the 2Ms¡¯ clientele, windowless buildings for the experiments, towers, walls, and a bunch of security to face, a fortress compound surrounded by trees in the middle of the island. Big Marcy promised to give me maps, details about the Adumbrae there, and other things he could think of before we leave, but couldn¡¯t promise those would be completely accurate¡ªthis would be another test of his sincerity.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°I hope I have given you enough of my time, Ms. Hartwell,¡± Big Marcy said, ¡°that no more corpses appear on this ship.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s up to the dead bodies if they want to show up randomly,¡± I said, swinging off my seat.

    ¡°Erind, you¡¯re not in any danger here,¡± Ramon said. ¡°Don¡¯t¡ª¡± Hands on my hips, I glared at him. ¡°Uh, violence isn¡¯t the answer to¡­ there¡¯s no need to fight.¡±

    ¡°I know, Ramon. Just jesting. I¡¯m safe with you around.¡± That didn¡¯t make any sense, but it made Ramon happy, the uncovered right half of his mouth lifting into a smile.

    ¡°Refrain from visiting me, Ms. Hartwell, whether announced or not,¡± boomed Big Marcy as I walked away. ¡°That is not to say you are an unwelcome guest. However, know that my brother has eyes and ears on this ship. I will keep in touch with discreteness.¡±

    ¡°Sure, just pass me a note under my door or something,¡± I said with a shrug.

    ¡°And do enjoy your stay,¡± he added. ¡°This is a legitimate cruise, lest you forget. Perhaps someday, you can take your mother on this trip for an actual vacation.¡±

    Couldn¡¯t help but leave a parting threat, huh? He should know from Vanessa that I wanted Mom saved from the Tea Party. I turned around and walked off, not bothering to reply. Maybe I should sink this ship.

    Ramon followed me out of the glass box, pausing for a second to get a nod of approval from Big Marcy. Ramon wasn¡¯t going to trail me back to my room, was he? I doubted Big Marcy allowed Ramon to prance through this ship freely.

    Midway between the glass wall and the corridor exit, Ramon said, ¡°I can¡¯t believe it. You really are special, Erind.¡±

    ¡°Special?¡± I stopped walking. I wanted my small moment with Ramon to be seen by Big Marcy. ¡°In what way?¡±

    Ramon blinked, unexpecting I¡¯d pry his compliment. His eyes darted to avoid my gaze. ¡°Yo-you¡¯re special be-because¡­ because you¡¯re kind and smart and beau¡ªhang on, not that. Also that! But I¡¯m not being a creep about this. All I¡¯m saying is there¡¯s something special about you, uh, physically.¡±

    ¡°Physically?¡± I playfully tossed a brow and smiled. ¡°Sounds like something a creep would say.¡±

    ¡°No, no!¡± He waved his blade arm, realized what he was doing, then hid it behind his back. ¡°I-I thought you were going to become a Corebring. That¡¯s what I meant by ¡®physically.¡¯ Pino told me if you¡ªoh, you were asleep that time.¡±

    Right, I almost forgot the story I peddled Ramon and the other survivors¡ªformer survivors, now dead¡ªof the parasite attack on my La Esperanza condo. To explain my sleeping body and the 2Ms after me, I, as Pino, told them that my Erind self had the potential to become a Corebring if brought to the Mother Core.

    Such a bullshit story. I could¡¯ve spun a more coherent tale.

    And I should have a notepad for all this shit. Juggling several faces and backstories wasn¡¯t new, but I hadn¡¯t reached this scale and complexity before. My faces usually didn¡¯t last a couple of seasons. This was like ten seasons plus three movies and a spin-off series.

    ¡°I bet that¡¯s why Mark wanted to capture you,¡± Ramon continued. ¡°Also explains why you¡¯re such a powerful Adumbrae. But I wanted to ask how you turned¡­ uh, you know?

    I clenched my teeth. Fuck! Stories clashing alert!

    Did Big Marcy or Vanessa tell Ramon I was an Adumbrae before my condo got attacked? If Ramon knew I was Red Hood, he could easily check on the news when I started popping up. With that backdrop, Pino¡¯s story didn¡¯t make sense.

    How could I become a Corebring if I was already an Adumbrae then? I wasn¡¯t human while ordering the pizza he delivered.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not talk about it,¡± I curtly said, contorting my face to repress a bad memory. Eyes on the ground, I made my way to the door.

    Wiggins opened the door with a slight bow.

    ¡°Erind!¡± Ramon hurried after me. ¡°Wait!¡±

    Wiggins held a hand out to stop Ramon. I stopped at the door but didn¡¯t look at Ramon standing to my left. Dramatic bitch.

    Me, not him.

    Also him.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for bringing that up,¡± Ramon said. ¡°I know it¡¯s not a pleasant experience¡­ turning into an Adumbrae. They¡¯re there¡­ in your mind.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll come with you when you go to the Red Island!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll do that for me?¡± I asked, glancing at him sidelong.

    ¡°Yes, I will.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯ll be dangerous.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why I want to be there. To protect you.¡±

    ¡°Will Big Marcy allow you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡­¡± Ramon turned to the glass box.

    I took the opportunity to leave and let him stew. ¡°Goodnight, Ramon.¡± I bit my tongue, holding back the words, Or should it be good morning?

    <hr>

    ¡°Ugh, it¡¯s just six-thirty in the morning, and Deen¡¯s already texting me?¡± My thumb hovered over the reply button. ¡°How sweet and all, but now¡¯s not really the time.¡±

    It was unwieldy holding my phone¡ªthe umpteenth one I had bought in a few months¡ªwhile in Domino form. It wouldn¡¯t stay still on the curved surface of the black crystal halfway embedded in my palm, its back slipping left or right. This time, I didn¡¯t forget to take my phone and wallet with me after transforming. If I placed them in my pockets before, they¡¯d get lost in some dimension-whatever.

    Deen invited me to have breakfast at seven. Our group agreed last night to gather at the buffet for planning at seven-thirty. Seeing that Deen wanted to meet me before that, she probably missed me or something. I bet she couldn¡¯t sleep without me next to her. It was fun having a roommate¡ªErind didn¡¯t share my sentiments.

    I rested my phone on my index finger and thumb to peek at the crystal beneath it. Forty-six minutes.

    No use pretending I was still asleep. Deen knew I woke up early no matter how late I went to bed. I decided to reply, ¡°Just got up. Going to prepare. See you at buffet. Thirty minutes.¡± Hopefully, this would stop her from coming to my room to fetch me.

    I¡ªor rather, Erind¡ªonly had a couple of hours of shuteye. Erind tossed and turned, thinking of schemes that¡¯d probably do more harm than good, as was always the case even on the rare occasions she intended to do good. She kept replaying yesterday night¡ªearly this morning, to be accurate¡ªin her head, awfully enjoying her conversation with Big Marcy.

    Verbal sparrings entertained Erind¡ªthey terrified me¡ªthough opportunities for it were rare as they entailed wearing a confrontational face. Most of Erind¡¯s faces were timid, standing-on-the-sidelines type. Maybe that had some effect on my Domino self? But since stepping into the world of Adumbrae, Erind had to be the main character and found it fun.

    I realized something interesting. Erind wasn¡¯t wearing a face while talking to Big Marcy. At least, partially.

    She sensed it then. I knew. But it had really sunk in only now, with me back in the driver¡¯s seat. I believe it was because I was more in tune with our mind than her.

    Big Marcy assumed that the Adumbrae had changed Erind or else she¡¯d be a regular twenty-three-year-old woman during their meeting, scared witless of walking right into the enemy base, much less talking to the big bad guy¡ªme, essentially. Yet, the truth was that Erind was only being herself. She made calculated responses, yes, flirting with Ramon to manipulate him and so on. But it was mostly her¡ªthe real her¡ªtalking to Big Marcy. Different from her word tussle with Bianca, where she had a face on.

    It wasn¡¯t the first time it happened. Several instances, Erind had shown her true self while hiding behind the excuse that it was the Adumbrae making her do it. The ¡®incident¡¯ with the frat boys, for example. Those poor boys. Unsavory characters. But they didn¡¯t deserve what Erind did to them.

    Funnily, Erind felt freedom. I could feel her contentment flowing through me.

    I¡­ Erind. I was supposed to lose myself to the Adumbrae. And yet, I was unveiling my true self.

    Good for Erind. Not good for the world.

    A sense of joy I couldn¡¯t recall experiencing before filled me. It was Erind¡¯s emotions affecting me. Such a weird sentence.

    I had a stupid smile, staring at my reflection in the elevator doors. Holding the phone tighter, I pressed it to my chest as if I could discern emotions by feeling my beating heart.

    ¡°Be real to yourself, Erind,¡± I told my reflection, staring at my eyes behind the sapphire-encrusted mask, hoping to pierce through and connect with Erind deep inside me. ¡°Why are you wearing faces?¡±

    I knew the answer. I wasn¡¯t separate from Erind, though I¡¯d like to pretend to be. Her memories were mine, and I could remember. I could remember being different as a child.

    Unlike other children, I wasn¡¯t an idiot. I quickly picked up that being different would make life difficult. And life being difficult¡­ was difficult.

    What started as a survival instinct became a tool. Like a baby learning that crying would reward her with milk, I knew I could gain stuff by wearing different faces. Then it became entertainment; the reward was my amusement. Fast forward to now, and I made faces automatically, complicated and varied, even if there was no need to.

    ¡°Being strong¡­ I can be myself.¡± My eyes widened. Was that me or Erind who said that?

    Ding!

    The elevator carriage reached my floor and opened. Inside was a woman in her late fifties wearing a wide-brim floppy hat made of straw, a flowing sundress, and shades even though we were indoors and the sun was barely up. She gasped when she saw me.

    I walked inside and stood beside her, examining my new reflection as the doors closed. I became¡­ a random woman? What was this about?

    But I didn¡¯t have the headspace to worry about the illusion I generated for my fellow elevator passenger. I pressed the button for the floor where the rest of the hero wannabes were. I felt static in my hands as nervousness started manifesting. If Dario caught onto me, he could kill me.

    ¡°Excuse me, dear,¡± Shades Lady said, pulling down her shades. Same hazel eyes as my illusion. ¡°This comment might sound bizarre, just blurting it, but you look like my daughter.¡±

 6.8

    ¡°Your daughter?¡± I asked.

    My eyes skimmed the shiny door¡ªI had an oval face and homely cheeks, exuding a very caring aura, wreathed with curly brown locks. I did look like I could be related to Shades Lady. Our only differences were her wrinkles and strands of silver hair accenting her brown. To top it off, my illusion also wore a sundress with a similar design that could¡¯ve been bought from the same store as hers. If someone saw us side by side, they¡¯d think we were on a family vacation.

    I had initially thought my Domino power conjured an illusion of someone the person I met would be attracted to, like what happened with Handsome Guy, ew, Jeffrey Nickelson. But that was soon debunked. I turned into Jeffrey when his Sidekicks¡ªWhiny and Backup¡ªcame to fetch him.

    Unless one or both of them got the hots for him?

    I got more clues several minutes ago. I met a male cabin steward after leaving my room and a random kid separated from his parents on my way to the elevators. I became a lanky man with a patchy beard for the cabin steward, who said I looked like his best friend he hadn¡¯t met since college. As for the kid, I checked my phone¡¯s camera and saw I was a Santa-looking grandpa. The kid followed me with wide eyes, babbling about presents as I led him back to his parents.

    Scratch out physical attraction as the criteria. Maybe I turned into somebody whom the other person would a hundred percent be open to talking to.

    But why Jeffrey specifically for his Sidekicks? I bet I¡¯d rather not know the answer. Still, I got some unbelievable good luck there, leading me straight to Big Marcy.

    ¡°Yes, your resemblance to my beloved Charmaine is uncanny.¡± Shades Lady nodded as she regarded me, the brim of her hat flopping up and down. She had a posh drawl. Then her eyes glazed over. ¡°Or what I imagine her appearance would be today if she didn¡¯t pass away all those years ago.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry!¡± I brought my hand to my mouth. This poor woman wanted to see her deceased daughter so badly that my powers granted her wish.

    A few more floors and I¡¯d be at my destination. Actually, Shades Lady would be alighting first. Could I leave her with some comforting thoughts of her daughter? It was a pleasant feeling to use my powers for good, even in a small way, like helping the lost boy earlier.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be, dear.¡± She dabbed her eyes with a white handkerchief and adjusted her shades back in place. ¡°I¡¯m the one who should apologize for bothering you, a stranger, with such a matter.¡± She sighed deeply. ¡°But as a mother, I can¡¯t help but¡­¡±

    ¡°I completely understand,¡± I said. ¡°And I¡¯m not bothered. I¡¯m sure your daughter was a charming woman. We might even be friends if we met.¡± I could only offer kind words.

    ¡°How pleasant of you to say that. You remind me more of my Charmaine. You even share her refreshing fashion sense.¡± Shades Lady sighed again, but this time with a slight smile. ¡°If only she didn¡¯t¡ª¡±

    Ding! The elevator lurched to a stop.

    ¡°They say fate works in mysterious ways,¡± I said, trying to sound wise. ¡°Think of this as your daughter¡¯s message of love from beyond.¡± I hoped it wasn¡¯t insensitive of me to say that.

    Her face hardened. Was I out of line? ¡°I refrain from religious discussions,¡± she said, clearly miffed. ¡°And even if the afterlife is real, my daughter won¡¯t send me such a message. Not after¡ª¡±

    ¡°Mother, there you are!¡± an annoyingly shrill voice blared. It belonged to a young woman, maybe around my age, standing outside the elevator. ¡°Time¡¯s ticking. Brother and I have plenty to discuss with you about¡­¡± Shades Lady¡¯s other daughter shot me a venomous glare.

    I stepped back in mild surprise. What the fuck was her problem? The daughter, with blonde hair bordering platinum, seaweed eyes, and a roundish face ending in a pointy chin, looked nothing like her mother or my illusion. But there was something familiar about her.

    Was it her hair? Where had I seen her before?

    ¡°Who are you?¡± she demanded with a tone like she owned the ship.

    I¡¯m the ghost of your sister, I wanted to retort. Adumbrae, I was afraid of. But I could stand up to uncouth bitches just fine.

    ¡°Let us go, Yara dearest,¡± said Shades Lady before I could start a fight, stepping off the elevator and brushing past her daughter. The blonde bitch stared daggers at me one more time before clinking her heels away.

    ¡°Yara?¡± I muttered. ¡°Such an uncommon name.¡±

    Assuming she was somewhat wealthy and had a social media account¡ªshe did look the type¡ªI might be able to find her online. I couldn¡¯t get rid of the nagging feeling that I had seen her somewhere important. And I wanted to check her Snippet posts to see if I was justified in hating her. Erind¡¯s pettiness was also mine.

    There was a ding, and the door closed.

    A different reflection stared at me¡ªmy illusion had dissipated, and I could see my Domino self again. That was barely five seconds after parting ways with Shades Lady. Thrice now I confirmed that I switched back when out of sight. The same happened with the cabin steward and the lost boy from earlier.

    But what about at the expensive bar? I changed from Jeffrey¡¯s love of his life to Jeffrey himself while in view of the whole place. Was no one looking at me then?

    I gazed at the security camera on the ceiling, wondering if someone was watching the screens and what they could have seen.

    The next floor was my stop.

    ¡°I¡¯m really doing this, aren¡¯t I?¡± I checked the room numbers on the wall and followed the arrow.

    I shuffled down the corridor, doors on my right and left, my heart beating thrice faster than my steps. Dario and Johann stayed in the same room. Next to theirs was Reo¡¯s and Everett¡¯s room. I took short strides to delay, hoping fate would intervene and derail my mission¡ªrather, the mission Erind wanted me to do.

    If against Adumbrae, I could rip my mask off and let Erind handle it. But Erind wanted me front and center for this one; she transformed despite her intense dislike of Domino.

    But could I fool Dario into trusting me? What information could I extract from him? My guts kept telling me I¡¯d mess up.

    Too nervous. I might puke!

    Would anything even come out if I did? This was a different body from another dimension. It shouldn¡¯t have anything in its stomach. But what if I eat at the buffet later? Could I vomit something out after eating?

    Get a grip, Domino! All sorts of nonsense thoughts to distract myself.

    ¡°Why are you so scared?¡± I whispered, clenching my fists. I had gotten over my fear of being on the same ship as the 2Ms and Adumbrae. But that was mostly due to allying with Big Marcy and Ramon being nice rather than newfound courage. This was different.

    I stood outside the door of Dario¡¯s room. The hallway was empty.

    ¡°Guess I¡¯ll just walk around until he comes out?¡± I asked the door. Standing here would be awkward. I shrugged and continued to the end of the corridor. Waiting was making this much worse.

    Erind¡¯s plan was stupid. That also meant I was stupid.

    While Reo went for glass after glass at the bar yesterday evening¡ªit was Deen¡¯s treat¡ªDario only had one and a half, the second he nursed until the end of our meeting, not finishing it. Dario wanted to be in tip-top shape for this mission, even if his superhuman body should help him handle alcohol. I doubted the other guys could or would even bother waking up for our seven-thirty meeting, but Dario would undoubtedly be there. Dario had also asked about the gym on the ship when we boarded. He seemed the type to have an early morning workout before breakfast, and I was hoping to catch him alone.

    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    Johann couldn¡¯t mess things up by appearing first and ¡®claiming my illusion slot¡¯ because he also drank a lot last night, tying for second place with Everett. As an average human, Johann was likely still knocked out. Those idiots ran the bill quite high, thinking Deen was a walking credit card.

    ¡°I¡¯m so ashamed of them,¡± I muttered as I reached the end of the corridor. I didn¡¯t pass through the swinging double door to another part of the ship, turning around to walk back to Dario¡¯s room.

    I pictured Dario coming out, seeing me, the woman of his dreams, his long-lost brother, or his beloved uncle look-alike. Whatever it¡¯d be, I¡¯d approach him with the illusion I¡¯d generate. Then I¡¯d wing it from there. I had seen what my power was capable of and was confident I could be a great spy.

    Okay, not so confident¡­

    In all, the plan wasn¡¯t really stupid. But my worrywart mind couldn¡¯t relax.

    What if Dario had already left? Was I too late? What if he decided to wait until the scheduled meeting to come out of his room? Or what if¡ªEnough! I stomped my feet.

    ¡°Oops!¡± I peeked over my shoulder with squinted eyes. Still no one around. ¡°Calm down, Domino. Calm down.¡± I knew perfectly well that I was just trying to find an excuse to abort the mission. If Erind were in my spot, she¡¯d be complaining about boredom, not being scared.

    I am Erind.

    Like Erind, I should be unafraid.

    I was going to add, ¡®and brave,¡¯ but Erind wasn¡¯t exactly brave. Being brave meant having the mental strength to confront scary stuff. Erind didn¡¯t think stuff were scary in the first place because of her wonky emotions¡ªsuch a cheat.

    Plus, she was strong. Anyone wouldn¡¯t be scared of anything if they were as strong as her¡ªanother cheat. In comparison, I was as weak as a regular human girl. Subtract Dario¡¯s powers and his fancy martial arts, and he could still hurt me if he realized I was an enemy. I should bring a weapon whenever I become Domino. A stun gun or something?

    ¡°What about a knife?¡± I suggested aloud. Did I have time to go to the buffet, steal a knife, and return here before Dario could leave? ¡°I¡¯m just making excuses ag¡ª¡± A clicking sound broke the silence. The opening door made my heart stop¡ªit was Dario¡¯s room!

    I should move forward to meet him. But part of me wanted to run away. What if I tripped up while talking to Dario and revealed myself? I couldn¡¯t lie and lie like Erind! Indecision turned my feet into pillars. I could only look at the person stepping out of the room.

    ¡°Everett?¡± I whispered.

    Sporting disheveled hair that looked like a black mop plopped on top of his head, Everett lumbered out of the room, stretching and yawning. He wore a fitting navy blue shirt, highlighting the sculpted muscles he worked hard for. I wanted to say he looked attractive, but I didn¡¯t want to break the Girl Code with Deen, my bestest friend ever. Everett liked like Deen, so I shouldn¡¯t think anything of him besides platonically, even if Deen didn¡¯t care for him. Ouch.

    But why did he come out of Dario¡¯s room? Were they¡­?

    The small shock unrooted me. I walked a few steps forward to check the room number. It was the room beside Dario¡¯s. That explained it. Mistaking the boys for having a slumber party made me giggle. Warmth spread through my extremities; my fingers tingled in relief.

    Everett stared at me as I approached, mouth gaping a bit. He rubbed his eyes and looked again.

    Think fast! Continue walking or talk to him?

    Executive decision! Abort the Dario mission and see what I could manage with Everett.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± I said, going for a neutral opening. I didn¡¯t know what my new illusion was yet.

    ¡°Good morning, sir,¡± Everett replied respectfully, slightly bowing. The perplexed expression remained on his face.

    Sir? I didn¡¯t turn into a Deen-look-alike? Check my phone¡¯s camera for my appearance? No. That¡¯d ruin the flow of our conversation. All I could conclude was that I became an older guy resembling someone Everett knew, a similar situation to Shades Lady.

    ¡°An exciting night you have with a lady friend?¡± I said, pointing at his hair, then nodding to the door ajar behind him. Reo snoring sounded like a cranky old engine.

    ¡°Lady friend?¡± Everett looked over his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sleeping with a guy¡­¡± Then he understood. ¡°No, no, nothing of the sort happened between us! My roommate is a guy. That¡¯s it! We were just plastered last night. That¡¯s why I look like this.¡± He closed the door and hurried to comb his hair with his fingers.

    ¡°Rare to see young lads like you on a cruise,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s usually older people like me frequenting trips like these. Or kids for carnival-type cruises. Don¡¯t lads like you prefer exciting adventures?¡± I almost burst out laughing at saying ¡®lads.¡¯ ¡°What about skydiving? Or surfing, perhaps?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t do those things, sir. They cost too much.¡± Everett scratched the back of his head. ¡°A friend paid for my ticket. And I like it here. I bet there¡¯ll be some¡­ unwanted excitement on this cruise.¡± He mumbled that last sentence as if chewing his tongue, staring off to the left. He caught himself and shook his head. ¡°Uh, we¡¯re having a great time with the drinks!¡± He laughed forcefully.

    ¡°The wine selection on this ship is quite extensive,¡± I said, despite knowing squat about those. ¡°I¡¯m on my way to the buffet. Are you going there too?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ later.¡± He glanced back at his room. ¡°I was just going to stretch my legs and breathe the fresh ocean air while waiting for my friend to wake up. We¡¯ll have breakfast together with our group.¡±

    ¡°Ah, several friends,¡± I said, nodding. ¡°You should cherish them. May this cruise prove a memorable bonding experience for all of you.¡± Was I overselling the respectable adult part?

    He snorted. ¡°It¡¯s going to be memorable, alright.¡±

    ¡°You can grab a cup of coffee from the restaurant and return to your friend. A coffee a day after getting piss drunk, that¡¯s what I always say!¡±

    Then I walked on, gesturing for him to follow in a bid to pressure him. He¡¯d find it hard to deny my invitation this way. I also relied on my illusion to pull him. I needed to get him away from here in case the others came out of their rooms. I swear I wasn¡¯t doing this to avoid Dario.

    ¡°Yeah, I can do with coffee,¡± Everett said. I heard his heavy footsteps.

    I quickly looked at my phone¡¯s camera¡ªI was a middle-aged man with Mediterranean features. The parts of my hair unclaimed by grayness matched my black eyes. A pair of round glasses sat on my narrow nose. I tilted my phone down, just enough that I could still peek at it, and checked my clothes¡ªa simple collared shirt and shorts that seemed expensive. I took one last look at my face before Everett reached my side.

    I had the same olive skin as Everett, maybe a shade darker, and a few similar features too, but nothing concrete to conclude he brought forth the illusion of a relative. Could be a family friend? In any case, what should I talk about with him? I wasn¡¯t sure what I planned to do here.

    ¡°It¡¯s peaceful at this time,¡± I said, gesturing at the empty hallway. ¡°People start showing up at around seven. The breakfast crowd doesn¡¯t go into full swing until eight¡ªusually the case for buffets in hotels and the like¡ªso I wake up early to eat. When you¡¯re at my age, you value peace.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t say I¡¯ve eaten in buffets much, sir,¡± said Everett.

    Fuck, the conversation is coming to a dead-end. ¡°It¡¯s only in my latter years that I¡¯ve experienced such luxuries,¡± I said. ¡°In my early twenties, I barely scraped by as an assistant to a local mechanic back in my hometown in rural Utah. We got this small workshop and a few customers. Eventually, I moved to Salt Lake and opened my own shop.¡±

    ¡°And it became successful?¡±

    ¡°At first, yes. Then financial troubles came. Economic downturn, you know? I had to close my business. Spent a couple of months living in my car until I found a job at this company run by the Nickelsons. Have you heard of them? They¡¯re one of the prominent families in Utah.¡±

    Bullshit stories kept on spilling out of my mouth. My fears were unfounded; I had no problems lying to people once I started. Somehow, it was fun making up stories. I did feel guilty lying to Everett; I was putting that on record. But there was no harm done really, was there? Like I was lying to get to know him better, but we already knew each other. And I¡¯m definitely not running away from Dario.

    Ultimately, it was like nothing happened other than I¡¯d leave Everett with a fond memory of a lovely gentleman he met during the cruise.

    Also, I didn¡¯t know anything about Everett, did I? He tried to kill me at Sanders Mall, but that was because he was trying to save Myra.

    I should get to know him better. He was a conflicted soul like me, trying his best to survive the world of Corebrings and Adumbrae. Better than me, actually. He was fighting for good.

    What was I fighting for?

    While we rode the elevator, I told Everett how I rose through the ranks of the Nickelsons¡¯ company and eventually helped them establish their solar power business. I recalled everything Jeffrey told me, weaving it into my own tale. It made me happy to¡­ lie. I am lying.

    Literally wearing another person¡¯s face was way better than whatever Erind usually did. It was as if a kid¡¯s toy suddenly came to life! Wait, that¡¯s a stupid analogy. That¡¯d be scary for the kid.

    ¡°Amazing, sir,¡± Everett said. ¡°I hope I could be like you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you could do it,¡± I said. ¡°If an immigrant like me, who started from nothing, can make it, then so can you.¡± Time to pry into Everett¡¯s life. I recalled him mention his grandparents were immigrants. I could start by making common ground, matching it with a rags-to-riches story that most people admire.

    ¡°Really, sir? Which country did you come from?¡±

    Fuck. I sucked at geography.

 6.9

    I should¡¯ve paid attention in geography class! As a kid, I figured I could look things up on a map when needed, like not listening in math class because calculators weren¡¯t illegal as teachers made them out to be. But how could I have known I¡¯d end up in this situation?

    ¡°Whi-which country?¡± The crack in my voice was unbecoming of my illusion. I pretended to clear my throat, adding fake coughs for good measure. My heart primed itself to panic.

    Spain should be along the Mediterranean Sea. Greece, too, I think? I recalled something Greek on the menu of a Mediterranean restaurant that Deen and I ate at a couple of weeks ago. Portugal was right next to Spain, but I wasn¡¯t sure if it was considered a Mediterranean country. Best if I could pick where Everett¡¯s grandparents came from to make the most impact and connection.

    How should I go about wriggling that information out of him?

    I¡¯m also Erind, I reminded myself. I should be able to come up with something. Consider this practice for when I¡¯d eventually talk to Dario. Erind would send me to try again next time. I could feel it.

    ¡°I can¡¯t recall much of it¡­ that place,¡± I wistfully said, staring off into space as we entered the spacious restaurant serving breakfast buffet. ¡°More accurate to say I chose to forget about the country I came from.¡±

    The restaurant was a long hall, tracing the ship¡¯s curve. One side opened to the ocean, protected by railings, with the gentle morning sunlight and salty breeze pouring in. The other side was lined with food stations, and tables and chairs took up the middle space. Delicious smells and slight chatter greeted us.

    Around twenty or thirty passengers were inside, eating or lining up at the counters. Everett slightly bowed, finger-combing his messy hair to tame it. He shouldn¡¯t have bothered because¡ªand I wasn¡¯t being mean here¡ªa few passengers looked like they should¡¯ve stayed in their rooms. I get that some went straight to breakfast right out of their bed. But, like, they should¡¯ve at least fixed themselves up a bit.

    I¡¯m not being mean, am I? I wondered if this feeling was my own or Erind¡¯s. I¡¯d like to think I was a good person, unlike her.

    ¡°Forget¡­ your home country, sir?¡± Everett asked,

    ¡°Home country?¡± I shook my head. ¡°My birthplace¡ªthat¡¯s all there is to it. I don¡¯t think of it as home. No pleasant memories from there; not many memories to speak of, anyway. My family left when I was about seven or eight. Haven¡¯t returned there since. And I don¡¯t plan to.¡±

    ¡°I, uh, how do I put this?¡± Everett scratched the back of his neck. ¡°But it¡¯s still the place you came from, sir. It should count for something.¡±

    ¡°All I can remember was that life there was tough,¡± I continued. ¡°Even harder was the journey to America. My family did reach the promised land¡ªthat¡¯s what everybody back there said of the U.S. Eventually, I discovered this country wasn¡¯t the paradise everyone made it out to be. But it¡¯s a hundred times better than where I came from.¡±

    I nudged my head toward the drinks counter and walked to it as if I had already dropped the topic. But I was laying the bait to keep reeling in Everett.

    Did that expression make sense? Like pulling the line or hooking him or something? I had zero knowledge of fishing to make accurate metaphors about it. Point was, I bet on Everett wanting to know if I was related to someone he knew, and he¡¯d eventually provide the information I wanted.

    I glanced at a wall clock we passed¡ªquarter to seven.

    I checked my right palm. Thirty-one minutes left as Domino. I was meeting Deen at seven, so cut that to fifteen minutes. Fifteen.

    A downcast pang stabbed my heart.

    I didn¡¯t want my existence to end. I didn¡¯t want to return to being¡­ her. Becoming Domino opened me to emotions practically alien before, allowing me to see and experience the world in a different light, almost like being reborn. I guess this is a literal rebirth.

    Though Erind was good at reading people, choosing correctly how to act to manipulate them to her wants, she viewed the world as an outsider looking in, not as one of the people living in it. Erind was so detached from the world, from everything going around her, that being Domino, in some way, felt like my true self. I was more human, ¡®realer,¡¯ if that was an actual word, than Erind.

    I had accepted that I couldn¡¯t stay for longer than an hour at a time and that each transformation might be my last. But I found it hard to cut my very short time even shorter. Could I stop Erind from asserting herself and yanking off this face?

    I peeped at my right crystal again. It ticked from ¡®31¡¯ to ¡®30¡¯. I heaved a sigh.

    Everett wore a concerned look. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir. Sorry for, uh, reminding you of bad memories.¡± He brought me back to the side mission I was no longer keen on doing. ¡°I should¡¯ve expected you didn¡¯t have a good experience back at your home country¡ªI mean, your birthplace country¡ªif you left it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, lad,¡± I said, regaining my bearings. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be the man¡ª¡± I suppressed a giggle ¡°¡ªI am today if I didn¡¯t go through such hardships in the past. You were right when you said it should count for something. The bad experiences, trials, and tribulations did count. They¡¯re part of who I am.¡± I blinked after finishing the sentence.

    Who am I?

    I was a manifestation of an Adumbrae¡¯s power. If Erind succeeded in becoming human again, that was it for me. Actually, I¡¯d be lucky if Erind would summon this face again after my rebellious thoughts. I gazed left¡ªstarboard or port, whatever¡ªlooking out at the endless sea.

    Or ocean. The Pacific Ocean.

    A sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu wriggled at me, pushing away the question of the difference between a sea and an ocean.

    This scene felt familiar. Why?

    ¡°My grandparents are also immigrants, sir,¡± said Everett, interrupting my existential crisis. Luckily, he was more interested in keeping up our conversation than I was. And it didn¡¯t take long for my bait to work, getting him to open up. ¡°They also moved to the U.S. when they were children.¡±

    ¡°Grandparents, eh?¡± I chose a tea bag among those displayed¡ªchamomile for the nerves¡ªand poured myself a hot cup of water while nodding intently at Everett¡¯s story. ¡°Then they must¡¯ve immigrated long before I did. A much harder journey than I took, no doubt.¡±

    ¡°You got that right, sir. Right on both counts. They left Algeria sometime after the end of the Adumbrae War when things got calm enough for shipping routes to be restored. Algeria got hit bad. Way bad. They survived both wars¡ªone caused by humans and the other¡­ also caused by humans, I guess¡ªbut got nothing to eat if they stayed longer. They had no choice but to find a way out.¡±

    Algeria? Something tugged at my mind like I had encountered this name before. But I sucked at geography, so where¡ª?

    The news!

    Whenever a map of Africa was displayed during reports about the African Adumbrae crisis, showing placements of UN forces and the spread of Adumbrae, Algeria was there. It was a pretty big country, so the name was quite prominent on maps. If I remember correctly, it was situated in the northern part of Africa. If it was right below Europe, then that meant it was along the Mediterranean Sea.

    I snapped my finger. I figured it out!

    Everett arched a brow.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t let me distract you,¡± I hurriedly said. ¡°I¡¯m a little familiar with Algeria, you see, and remembered something. I¡¯ll tell you after you finish your story. Go ahead.¡± I bobbed the tea bag into my cup, intently looking at Everett so he¡¯d continue.

    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± He chose an empty cup and filled it with coffee. ¡°I was talking about my grandparents surviving two wars. But I guess it was really the Adumbrae War that fucked up Algeria. They were mostly spared the horrors of World War Two, other than being under new management¡ªthe Nazi-friendly French, but the French just the same. Still under colonial powers, so nothing new. But the Purple Bloom that cropped up over there¡ª¡±

    ¡°The Great Maremoti,¡± I said with a forced Italian accent.

    Other countries had their names for the city-sized bouquet of tentacled hands with weird gravity powers. But since it formed in Italy and crawled to the Mediterranean Sea to reside there, compacting several towns and cities into balls like a dung beetle, the Italians got dibs on naming it.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Maremoti meant strong waves or something. The Purple Bloom wrecked the Mediterranean coast with tsunamis while it hid underwater. But I think it destroyed more of the African side, so shouldn¡¯t the African countries get to name it?

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Everett. ¡°You know of it?¡±

    ¡°The Great Maremoti, one of the Purple Blooms that appeared during the Second Wave,¡± I said, recalling Dad¡¯s lectures. ¡°Of course, I know of it.¡±

    Several times I had sat in the back of Dad¡¯s class at university, with Mom beside me, waiting for it to end so we could all go home together. Mom taught there, too, so no one complained that I roamed the campus. I was like a mascot of sorts. While waiting for Dad, who had a later schedule, Mom would give me paper and coloring materials to entertain myself. But there was no need.

    Most kids would get bored of sitting still for a couple of hours. Not me. I was fascinated by observing how typical college students acted. People-watching was entertaining, especially those made to stay in one place, very different from people walking about their day. And I did learn some interesting stuff about Adumbrae, though I didn¡¯t quite understand most of it then.

    Fun memories. Even Erind thought so.

    Right¡­ those were Erind¡¯s memories. Not mine.

    If I were in Erind¡¯s place and had control of this body back then, I would¡¯ve cherished my parents and the short years our family was complete. She didn¡¯t care about any of that. It was all about her and her tiny island, separate from everyone else. She even considered Dad¡¯s sudden disappearance as an inconvenience rather than a tragedy.

    I sighed again, gripping the handle of my cup tighter. I fabricated my fake life for Everett to distract myself from depressing thoughts.

    ¡°There were many Purple Blooms during the war,¡± I said, ¡°so it¡¯s not surprising most people won¡¯t know each one. Likely, they¡¯ll be familiar only with those of the First Wave, the really famous Purple Blooms. But you see, lad¡­¡± I took another sip, pushing down the temptation to check the clock or my palm crystal. ¡°I¡¯m also from Algeria.¡±

    ¡°Really? You¡¯re not joking, sir?¡± A wide smile crossed Everett¡¯s face. I imagined he¡¯d be this happy if Deen told him she liked him.

    ¡°I¡¯m telling the truth, lad. Several times I had seen the calcified tentacles of the dead Maremoti standing like a forest of ivory in the Mediterranean Sea. Small world, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why you look familiar! I bet you¡¯re related to our family friends living there.¡±

    ¡°I look like someone you know?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Perhaps, lad. Perhaps I¡¯m related to them. But as I¡¯ve said, I haven¡¯t maintained any connection in Algeria. I¡¯d rather forget about that place. Memories of hardships and all that. This isn¡¯t a contest or anything, and I know your grandparents had it harder, but I¡ª¡±

    ¡°Sir, I think life in Algeria was more difficult after the Adumbrae War,¡± Everett cut in. ¡°The Purple Bloom was destroyed decades ago, but the instability of the country, the bullshit economy, the anxiety and stress of its citizens¡­ Seedings are very common, and Adumbrae keep popping up everywhere. Then Corebrings come to¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a constant battlefield, alright.¡± I nodded as if I knew what he was talking about, swigging my cup to stir up the dregs. ¡°War officially ended long ago, but not really. Algeria¡¯s still a warzone to this day.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call it a warzone, sir. From the perspective of us humans, it isn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Why do you say so, lad?¡± Interesting. Everett still counted himself as human.

    A bit sad but also inspiring. I could count myself as one, too, despite, you know, my circumstances. If all the passengers and crew of this ship were polled to decide who between Erind and I was more human, I bet I¡¯d get the majority of the votes.

    ¡°Adumbrae feed on humans,¡± Everett explained. ¡°Then Corebrings come to sanitize the problem. Sanitize¡ªthat¡¯s the word a spokesperson for the Hive once used. A clean and neat way of saying torching the whole place down with no regard for collateral damage. It¡¯s the warzone of Corebrings and Adumbrae. They¡¯re both the same. Humans have no say in their fight other than to suffer.

    ¡°Even the French ended up leaving the Algerians, making themselves look magnanimous for granting independence, when they just didn¡¯t want to deal with a crumbling territory. Many Algerians fought for independence during World War Two¡ªmy great-grandfather was one of the nationalists¡ªbut I¡¯m unsure if they want what happened to their country. It¡¯s waist-deep in crap that the colonizers left it behind.¡±

    ¡°Have you been there?¡±

    ¡°There? In Algeria?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Have you ever visited?¡±

    ¡°I, erm, no¡­¡± Everett looked at the floor. ¡°I want to go there to meet the rest of my family, also the relatives of family friends, but my parents won¡¯t let me because it¡¯s dangerous. Also, we don¡¯t have money. But I do watch the news about Algeria any chance I get¡ªthere¡¯s a few available online.¡±

    ¡°Feeling homesick for a home you¡¯ve never been to?¡±

    ¡°Something like that, sir. And I can¡¯t just forget about my aunts, uncles, and everyone else. The world has mostly forgotten them. If there¡¯s no big Adumbrae Titan or thrilling fight involving a famous Corebring, the rest of the world doesn¡¯t care.¡±

    ¡°Attention¡¯s there again with the new Purple Bloom. Not exactly there, but in Africa as a whole.¡±

    ¡°Good news that¡¯s borne from bad news.¡± Everett drank from his cup while his brows furrowed in irritation. He continued ranting about the injustices of the world.

    Erind would¡¯ve shut these all out if she were on the fore. I could feel her grumbles.

    But I could understand Everett. I could relate to him because I was normal, unlike Erind. I could sympathize and empathize¡ªErind¡¯s ¡°understanding¡± of others wouldn¡¯t even count as empathy¡ªand connect with others.

    ¡°Come to think of it,¡± I said. ¡°Madagascar is a French Protectorate. The French will likely leave it to its own devices in the aftermath of this new Purple Bloom.¡±

    ¡°I think so too, sir.¡± Everett¡¯s face began to contort in anger. ¡°Abandoning people yet again.¡±

    ¡°Maybe there¡¯s something about the French that¡¯s bad luck,¡± I said, trying to lighten the mood.

    ¡°This world is unfair!¡± he yelled. A few drops of coffee splashed out of his cup as he shook.

    A man approaching the drinks station veered away, deciding omelets were a better choice to start his day. A family eating at a nearby table stared at us. I waved at Everett, signing to tone it down.

    ¡°Corebrings and Adumbrae are the same,¡± he went on in a lower voice, wiping the coffee on his arm. ¡°Powerful beings that don¡¯t care about those below them. Humans¡ªwe are below them. But among us humans, there are also those above and those below. We can¡¯t even be equal among ourselves. If we cared about each other more¡­¡±

    ¡°I know, son.¡± I put my cup down and patted his shoulders.

    Fingers of guilt clutched my heart. Erind enjoyed playing hero, trying to save people. But she had barely saved anyone. The innocent lives she ended far outnumbered those she saved. She didn¡¯t care. If it were me in control, I would¡¯ve saved many people. I know that I¡¯d care.

    ¡°Everything you said¡­ you¡¯re right,¡± I said. ¡°Perhaps I should visit Algeria again.¡±

    Everett jolted. ¡°Oh no, sir! I wasn¡¯t implying that you didn¡¯t care about¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t,¡± I interjected. ¡°You¡¯re right that I don¡¯t. I don¡¯t care about my relatives or all the people languishing in Algeria while I¡¯m already happy here in America. But I should care.¡± I met Everett¡¯s eyes. ¡°Thanks for reminding me, son.¡±

    Everett was a good person. Super unlikely he was in cahoots with Dario¡¯s nefarious plans. Cahoots¡ªsuch a funny word. If nothing else, our little conversation showed that Everett was a potential ally. If he saw Corebrings and Adumbrae as the same, he might not be bothered working with an Adumbrae if it was to do good.

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Everett. ¡°But I swear I wasn¡¯t making snide comments about you.¡±

    ¡°No offense taken. Anyway, I don¡¯t know how to start looking for my family in Algeria. I¡¯m surprised people still stay there.¡±

    ¡°They can¡¯t go anywhere, sir. My relatives¡­¡± Everett chugged down the last drop of his coffee. He placed the empty cup on the table and looked at me with resolute eyes. ¡°Someday, I¡¯ll find them and get them out of there. I don¡¯t know how, but I¡¯ll do it.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I might try to do the same thing.¡±

    ¡°I can help you,¡± he said. ¡°What¡¯s your¡ª? Oh, I haven¡¯t introduced myself! I¡¯m Everett Hamza. Erm, my name¡¯s not structured traditionally. My family followed American naming conventions for less confusion and easier integration.¡±

    ¡°I understand. Well, Everett, a pleasure to meet you.¡± I put down my cup and extended my hand. I was buying time to cook up a fake name. What Everett said about changing their name structure gave me an idea. ¡°The name¡¯s Farid Aubert,¡± I said, firmly grasping his hand and giving it a firm shake.

    ¡°Farid¡­ Aubert? Is that a French surname?¡±

    ¡°As you may have guessed, our family took on a French surname when we got to America. Made up some story that we were half-French or something like that.¡±

    Everett chuckled. ¡°Just say half-French rather than Algerian?¡±

    ¡°You got that right. But as far as I know, we don¡¯t have one drop of French blood.¡±

    ¡°My uncle thought of doing something like that.¡± Everett went on about the experiences of his family moving to the U.S.

    I sensed he¡¯d eventually get around to trying to learn more about me again. He might even ask for my number. Minutes continued to tick. Part of me wanted to stay around and chat with him. He seemed nice.

    Sure, Deen might break down my cabin door trying to find Erind, but let Erind deal with that. I wanted to maximize the time I have as Domino.

    ¡°Better not,¡± I muttered, shaking my head.

    ¡°Sir?¡± said Everett.

    ¡°I¡¯m starving,¡± I said, rubbing my stomach. ¡°Want to eat? Or are you going to go back to your friend now?¡±

    He looked around for a clock¡ªabout three minutes to seven. ¡°I better get back to my room, sir. Maybe my friend is already awake. Or probably not. But, uh, yeah¡­ I¡¯ll see you around, sir. I¡¯ll ask my family if they know of a secure way to Algeria.¡±

    I gave him a nod of goodbye. He walked out the open double doors while I turned around and walked to the railings to gaze at the sea¡­ ocean. I remember now why this felt familiar.

    ¡°Kelsey¡­¡± I whispered.

 6.10

    The ship sliced through the ocean, leaving its temporary mark on the blue expanse, waves fanning out in its wake like a sprawling white dress. Shimmers of the sun danced on the crests of the rising water. On the horizon were hints of the continent, silhouettes of buildings, houses, and trees against the rising sun. Thousands of people should be there, starting their day, and living their lives.

    All too beautiful. Life is beautiful.

    When was the last time Erind appreciated such beauty?

    Or the first time? No way she had ever bothered to stop and admire the wonders of the world around her.

    There was a sense of self with emotions. Sense of being, sense of completeness¡­

    It all sounded like philosophical mumbo-jumbo in my head, but it was true. I think. Erind liked observing people; I had a myriad of memories and experiences to base my conclusion on. I saw that people were more alive with emotions. When they become numb to them, their self slowly crumbles until only a husk remains.

    But on the other hand, Erind was far from a husk. She didn¡¯t have an issue with her¡­ incompleteness.

    How? Why?

    We were one, her memories were mine, yet I couldn¡¯t fathom how she ticked.

    I leaned further out over the railings, taking in the fresh air and savoring the warm sun, staring keenly at the waters dozens of feet below, trying to see past its surface. I hoped to spot a fish or two, but the frothing waves obstructed my view. Fishes probably wouldn¡¯t wander near the ship anyway.

    A gasp escaped my lips when a peculiar sensation churned in my stomach. I grasped the white rails, the crystals on my palm grating against metal, and pushed myself straight.

    I blinked, processing what happened, and then chuckled. Just a normal sensation when looking down from great heights, the weird thing in the stomach. Not sure of the scientific explanation, but I was sure it was nothing out of the ordinary. Erind, in all her wrongness, had felt it a few times before.

    ¡°Normal¡­¡± I peeked over the ship to see if the sensation would return. It hit the pit of my stomach again. My knees and my toes tingled. My lips quivered into a smile. ¡°I¡¯m a normal human.¡±

    Closing my eyes, I recalled when I had gazed upon crashing waves from a tall place. Many, many, many times. It was my morning ritual to watch the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean, with my chosen tea for the day, with the hideous Black Spire always ruining the view, its shadow extending to the shore. I¡¯d even set the alarm for¡ª

    ¡°Wait, what?¡± I opened my eyes.

    The land was before me and so was the sun. The ship¡¯s shadow wasn¡¯t on this side. The Pacific Ocean stretched out on the other side of the ship, all the way to Hawaii and on to Asia. The sun was definitely not rising from over there.

    I rubbed my eyes as if I had just woken up. ¡°I-I¡¯m just imagining things.¡± The sun had always risen from the East. I was mixing things up.

    Being this close to the ocean and seeing waves from a high vantage brought back memories of Kelsey. The traumatic experience of witnessing someone kill herself¡ªor maybe try to, given that a body was never discovered¡ªmessed my mind. It could fuck up anyone.

    Maybe even Erind, and she just didn¡¯t realize it.

    I replayed that scene in my head, analyzing how it could¡¯ve affected me¡­ affected my human emotions.

    Kelsey¡¯s body contorting into inhuman angles made me squirm. The thought of bending the wrong way was awfully grating, like fingernails scratching a chalkboard. Kelsey also clawed her face, drawing much blood. She screamed as she ran to the cafeteria windows, crashing through the glass and hurtling into the furious waters marred by jagged rocks far below the cliff where the Cresthorne building perched.

    Could Kelsey still be floating somewhere out here?

    We suspected Dario and the Professor had a hand in her disappearance, but other than that, we didn¡¯t have any further information. No concrete clue where she was or if she was still alive. The police found nothing¡ªclothes, hair, blood, or whatever¡ªon the rocks or along the shores.

    ¡°Falling from here is going to be fucking painful,¡± I muttered, staring at the waters again.

    Bellyflopping from this height would be like slamming on concrete. Even Erind would get hurt. She definitely didn¡¯t know how to dive gracefully. And it was evident from her ghostly complexion that she hadn¡¯t visited a beach or swimming pool in ages.

    Though Kelsey was an Adumbrae, there was a chance she died from the fall. If she impacted the water wrong, maybe broke her neck, or bashed her head against the rocks, that could¡¯ve ended her superhuman regeneration.

    If she did die, her corpse wouldn¡¯t necessarily get washed onto land. It could¡¯ve sunk to the bottom of the ocean, eaten by crabs and shrimps, or wedged between rocks or cracks.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Kelsey,¡± I told the waters, hoping the currents would carry my words. My Domino self hadn¡¯t done anything wrong¡ªI wasn¡¯t even around back then¡ªbut I was apologizing on behalf of Erind. ¡°I¡­ could¡¯ve saved you.¡±

    That time, Deen was on the floor after being surprised by Kelsey¡¯s violent outburst. Deen picked herself up to chase Kelsey but was too late. But I¡­ but Erind could¡¯ve stopped Kelsey if she were closer. However, Erind intentionally hung back, not wanting to deal with the bullshit that disinterested her. And when Kelsey ran to the windows, Erind stood still.

    If Erind cared about other people, she could¡¯ve saved¡ªno, too dangerous.

    ¡°I¡¯m just piling on Erind, aren¡¯t I?¡± I tapped the palm crystal on the rail, chewing my tongue.

    So obvious that I was trying to make myself look better than Erind to justify why I should be in control and not her. If Erind had tried to wrestle Kelsey away from the windows, Erind could¡¯ve been injured. After all, Kelsey was an Adumbrae at that point, while Erind was still a regular human.

    Human¡­

    I¡¯ll die a human! Those were Kelsey¡¯s last words.

    ¡°I¡¯ll die a human,¡± I repeated out loud.

    Since Erind was an outsider of this world, wasn¡¯t it better if I got to be the one to stay? There was no benefit to Erind¡¯s existence. She was¡­ wrong. I was the correct one. Without even counting the Adumbrae parts, I was more human than her. Seemed logical that I should replace her and set things right.

    Sadly, it didn¡¯t work that way. I had a timer.

    ¡®17¡¯ displayed the crystal on my right palm. My left crystal remained unchanged, simply showing the number ¡®0¡¯¡ªI still had no clue what it was supposed to be for. It might be another timer for something else. And now, I wouldn¡¯t have a chance to find out.

    I breathed deeply as the breeze caressed my cheeks. My eyes were a little wet. Could be from the wind.

    Could be tears.

    The chatter of passengers behind me, the clatter of their utensils on the plates, and even the hum of the moving ship, the sounds retreated far away.

    I held the rails. I placed my right foot on the lowest rung and tried a couple of hops on my left. I knew what to do next. I would put my left foot on the next rung, my right on the one above it, swing my leg over, followed by my torso, and let gravity take its course. I¡¯d go over so fast that no one would notice I was gone.

    No one could stop me¡­ or save me.

    The winds would envelop my body as I¡¯d fall. I¡¯d shut my eyes tight. And also, my mouth. I wasn¡¯t going to scream. Then I¡¯d hit the water, pass out, and slowly drown¡ªI¡¯d die human and in control of this body.

    However, my left leg wouldn¡¯t reach for the second rung. My arms wouldn¡¯t push my body up.

    It wasn¡¯t that I was afraid. That too.

    But what held me back was Erind, awakening inside me and pushing to impose her will. Predictably, she was furious. Not because I wanted to kill myself per se¡ªof course, that was bad for her¡ªbut more so because I was breaking a Rule.

    Rule #8: I can kill myself only after I have killed everybody else.

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    This Rule formed from many nights watching true crime documentaries with Mom. Funny how a vicious and morbid Rule came to be from such lovely moments. Further proof of Erind¡¯s twisted thinking and why she shouldn¡¯t be in charge.

    Episodes of that show¡ªI forgot its title¡ªwould start from detailing grisly crimes, then the investigations that followed, and eventually progress to the suspect getting identified. Most would get arrested. Some would get killed fighting the police.

    And a few choose to take their lives by their own hands¡ªthis small batch always puzzled Erind.

    Many possible reasons why those people did it. Guilt or regret, fear of facing the consequences, wanting to go out on their terms¡­ Erind couldn¡¯t understand any of those.

    For her, life shouldn¡¯t stop because someone made a mistake¡ªthat was how she¡¯d word it, though people wouldn¡¯t consider the crimes simple mistakes. She couldn¡¯t comprehend killing herself, no matter how fucked up the situation got.

    Which was a good thing, I supposed.

    It would¡¯ve been better if Erind¡¯s train of thought continued that those criminals should reform themselves instead. But no. That never crossed her mind.

    Rule #8 had two sides. One was for self-preservation¡ªErind sorely needed it given her wonky sense of danger¡ªand the other would trigger if she ever got backed into an absolute corner. Very concerning now that she was an Adumbrae. Plenty of possible situations that might drive her to do something desperate, and I shuddered to imagine what she was capable of.

    ¡°I can¡¯t let Erind continue existing in this world,¡± I said more firmly. ¡°Her stupid Rules don¡¯t bind me.¡±

    Still, I didn¡¯t move.

    Recalling the late nights watching TV with Mom after Dad was gone glued my left sole onto the wooden deck. If I died, Mom would be all alone. She¡¯d be heartbroken with two family members leaving her. And I didn¡¯t even leave a note with an explanation for some closure.

    At the least, I should¡¯ve said goodbye first.

    ¡°But I have no time,¡± I countered. The countdown was ticking.

    Mom would be in grave danger if Erind were around, either from Erind herself or her enemies. The Tech Fair was proof. And it wouldn¡¯t be the last incident. If I took Erind with me, Mom would be emotionally hurt but physically safe.

    I hoped my body wouldn¡¯t be found so no one would know I was an Adumbrae. I didn¡¯t want to burden Mom with the stigma of having an Adumbrae family member.

    On my part, I shouldn¡¯t be afraid. Think of how many people I¡¯d save by stopping Erind.

    ¡°I¡¯m brave¡­¡± I nodded at the Pacific Ocean.

    I pushed myself up, lifting my left leg off the floor and putting it on the second rung. If I genuinely cared for this world, I should¡ª

    ¡°Santa!¡± someone yelled.

    My eyes widened. I already had both feet off the floor. I dropped back to the ground upon recognizing the voice. Then I nonchalantly settled into a relaxed pose, elbows on the top of the rails and right hand cradling my chin. My heart pounded. Adrenaline was like electricity shocking my body. I couldn¡¯t believe that I was seconds from jumping off the ship.

    Was I really going to kill myself?

    The pitter-patter of tiny feet on the deck neared. ¡°Santa, you¡¯re here!¡±

    My hands and knees trembled as I struggled to stand tall. My legs almost tied themselves together as I turned around. I swallowed my saliva and cleared my throat, hoping I could talk straight. ¡°Hello there, my boy.¡±

    It was the lost kid I had helped find his parents. Notedly, he generated the same illusion as earlier.

    ¡°Do you remember me, Santa?¡± The boy vigorously waved his hand though he was right next to me.

    ¡°Of course, little Ethan,¡± I replied, putting on my best jolly grandpa voice. ¡°I didn¡¯t forget about you because you¡¯re a good boy.¡±

    He beamed at the praise.

    I raised my hands half a foot from my midsection, open palms facing inward, praying that my illusion looked like I was holding a large belly. I let out a hearty chuckle that entertained the kid. ¡°Having breakfast with your parents?¡±

    ¡°Yep, I am.¡± He nodded so energetically that his head might fall off. ¡°Lots and lots of food here! I can¡¯t eat all of them!¡±

    The boy¡¯s dad jogged up behind him, face all embarrassed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mr. Fischer. I hope Ethan¡¯s not bothering you.¡± He picked up his twice-lost child and shot him a stern look. ¡°His mother and I will give him a definite scolding, I promise that.¡±

    ¡°No worries, no worries,¡± I said. It took me a moment to recall that ¡®Fischer¡¯ was the fake name I gave their family. ¡°Kids being kids, eh? No need to get angry with him. A good reminder will suffice.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right, Mr. Fischer. I will remind my son not to talk to strangers. He¡¯s a bit excitable, often forgetting that lesson.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s very understandable why he came to me, with the white beard and all¡­¡± I didn¡¯t finish my sentence because I didn¡¯t want to ruin Ethan¡¯s childhood.

    ¡°I just want to see Santa,¡± said Ethan. ¡°Santa¡¯s not a stranger, right?¡±

    His dad had a conflicted smile. ¡°Of course, Mr. Fischer isn¡¯t a¡ª¡±

    ¡°Santa! He¡¯s Santa!¡±

    ¡°Er, yes, Ethan. He¡¯s Santa, and Santa isn¡¯t a stranger. But you might mistake someone for Santa even if they¡¯re not. You just can¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°No way I¡¯ll make a mistake. I¡¯m not dumb. Mom said I¡¯m smart.¡± He pointed at me. ¡°See? I found Santa, right?¡±

    ¡°Um, yes, you did, son.¡± His father hesitantly smiled at him, then glanced at me, asking for help. ¡°But that¡¯s not what I¡¯m talking about.¡±

    I took a step closer and bent to the eye level of the boy. ¡°I¡¯m Santa, yes. But you must remember¡ª¡± I raised a finger at him ¡°¡ªthat it¡¯s a secret.¡±

    ¡°A secret?¡±

    ¡°Yes. You have to keep the secret that I¡¯m here. Don¡¯t forget that Santa wants to hide ¡®till Christmas, or I¡¯ll lose my powers.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± His face became a confused frown as he processed my made-up story. ¡°I don¡¯t want you to lose your powers.¡±

    ¡°And you shouldn¡¯t bother Santa¡¯s vacation,¡± I said, ¡°or I won¡¯t have enough rest to continue making toys for good boys like you.¡±

    The boy jerked back as if he received the epiphany of his life. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Santa! Rest all you want to make toys. I didn¡¯t want to bother you. Please don¡¯t be angry with me.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, little Ethan. I¡¯m not angry with you. I know you just can¡¯t wait for Christmas. But it¡¯s still far away, so Santa has to continue hiding.¡±

    ¡°Do I still get presents?¡±

    ¡°If you continue being a good boy,¡± I said with a smile, ¡°then you¡¯ll get presents.¡± My smile was genuine, but it wasn¡¯t directed at the kid. I was amused at my situation. One moment I was about to say goodbye to the world, the next, I was pretending to be an old man pretending to be Santa. ¡°So, continue to listen to your parents because that¡¯s what being a good boy means. And don¡¯t talk to strangers.¡±

    ¡°But Santa isn¡¯t a stranger¡­¡± Ethan frowned as his tiny brain struggled to understand.

    ¡°After this cruise, I¡¯m going to hide again. You¡¯ll probably find me because you¡¯re smart. But don¡¯t blow my cover, okay? I have to hide, hide, and rest, rest, for Christmas.¡±

    Ethan¡¯s face perked up when I called him smart. ¡°I get it! Rest plenty, Santa.¡± He pushed to unravel his father¡¯s arms and jumped down. ¡°Have to tell Mom I saved Christmas.¡± His father let him go, and he dawdled back to the table where his mother waited.

    The father didn¡¯t immediately follow. ¡°I¡¯m grateful for your help, Mr. Fischer,¡± said the boy¡¯s father. ¡°That might just stop him from going up to strangers. It¡¯s hard to look after kids.¡±

    ¡°Sure is,¡± I said, chuckling. ¡°Thankfully, mine left the nest a couple of decades ago and now have their broods to raise. I¡¯m just living life, traveling with the missus. She¡¯s not an early riser, so it¡¯s just me having breakfast.¡±

    Ethan¡¯s father said, ¡°Well, my journey as a parent is just beginning. Children can be a handful. Oh, correction¡ªchild. I only have one, and I¡¯m already tired.¡±

    But you love him, nonetheless, I thought. I¡¯m also an only child. My mother also loved me, I told myself, blinking back tears. I shouldn¡¯t hurt her by leaving.

    ¡°Ethan runs out of sight every chance he gets,¡± the father continued. ¡°We might have to put a leash on him,¡± he jokingly added. ¡°It¡¯s so dangerous nowadays compared to when we could play in the streets without an Adumbrae appearing when you least expect it.¡±

    ¡°Ah, the Adumbrae attack in Vegas,¡± I said, tensing up. Surely, this was a mere coincidence. Given all the shit Erind stirred, it would be expected for parents¡ªand everybody else¡ªto worry a lot.

    ¡°Not just that, Mr. Fischer. It all started with La Esperanza. The botched BID mission, Adumbrae in the city sewers, seeding everywhere¡­ To top it all off, there was a Titan. Whatever started in La Esperanza is also spreading to New Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino. Then it reached Vegas and exploded again.¡±

    I kept nodding even as new questions formed. ¡°I hadn¡¯t heard of those other attacks.¡± What was that all about? The other groups Big Marcy had mentioned?

    ¡°My wife thinks there¡¯s a Purple Bloom behind all of this,¡± he went on, ¡°just like what¡¯s happening in Africa. I usually don¡¯t believe her theories¡ªshe gets wild ideas from Snippet¡ªbut I might think she''s right if there¡¯s another Adumbrae attack.¡±

    ¡°Everything on the news is horrifying lately,¡± I said. How do I get out of this conversation?

    ¡°We¡¯ll be blind if we rely solely on the news.¡± Ethan¡¯s father leaned closer, lowering his voice. ¡°I also heard that the terrorists who took over the Greaves Convention Center have some way to turn people into Adumbrae. There are a few videos online of it, but the government is deleting them. That¡¯s what my wife says, anyway.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± I guardedly said.

    ¡°Can¡¯t know who to trust these days if even the government is hiding things from us.¡± The father paused. Then he waved his hand as if swatting a fly. ¡°Bah! They can hide whatever they want so long as they eliminate the Adumbrae and keep my family safe.¡±

    ¡°The BID did resolve the issue in the end,¡± I said, recalling how Erind ended the Tea Party. But at the cost of many lives. Though I couldn¡¯t blame Erind for those, could I? If she weren¡¯t around, then there¡¯d be more deaths. ¡°But many people died,¡± I reminded Ethan¡¯s dad.

    ¡°Sometimes it can¡¯t just be helped, Mr. Fischer,¡± he replied. ¡°The government can¡¯t tiptoe on cracked glass while saving us. They better act fast to stop these terrorists with bio-weapons that can turn people into Adumbrae. My wife said that they can force even children to mutate!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s horrible¡­¡± I faked concern while my mind grappled with something else.

    Sensing our conversation had run its course, Ethan¡¯s father bid me goodbye and returned to his family with the promise that Ethan would never bother me again. I looked past him as he walked, examining his wife and son. Erind, in all her faults, was trying to stop the parasite thingies, though not for heroic reasons.

    I touched my face. ¡°Erind isn¡¯t going to use this mask again, is she?¡±

 6.11

    This is the last time I¡¯ll exist, I thought, trudging to the restaurant doors as if heading for the gallows. My lips quivered as my throat tightened. I struggled to hold back tears. It¡¯d be a miracle if Erind would tag out with me again. But I shouldn¡¯t be pathetic on my way out of the restaurant¡­ and out of existence.

    I held my chin up and walked confidently. Have some dignity in your last moments!

    It was a few minutes past seven, and Erind was due to meet Deen. No point delaying the inevitable. I should find someplace where I could remove this face without inviting suspicion. Difficult to have privacy here, even in the restaurant¡¯s restroom. People would see someone else coming out.

    I could return to my room and¡ª

    Still delaying the inevitable, I scolded myself. I bet I could remove this face in the middle of the restaurant, and no one would notice.

    Or maybe someone will. Ethan waved at me across the restaurant, sitting with his family at a table near the railings. I stopped to wave back. It calmed me somewhat to say goodbye¡ªwell, not actually ¡®say¡¯¡ªto someone before I was no more. The kid grinned broadly before returning to eating. The ocean stretched endlessly behind him, calling to me.

    Thoughts of running to the ship''s edge and throwing myself overboard ballooned in my mind, only to abruptly pop, pricked by the needle of fear. The bravado in attempting to take my life earlier had disappeared. It was severalfold scarier now after backing out the first time.

    I could try¡ª

    ¡°Erind!¡± shouted a female voice.

    It was as if spotlights materialized out of thin air and trained on the restaurant''s entrance. A woman stepped into view, so stunning that she looked heavily edited post-production, like how actresses were unrealistically perfect on the big screen. She wore a sky-blue sundress that fluttered in the ocean breeze, contrasting nicely with her braided blonde hair.

    Amber Deen Leska, Erind¡¯s best friend. In my heart, she was mine too.

    Everyone turned to look at her.

    Part of it was due to her beauty. No doubt people were wondering if she was someone famous; some might even recognize her. But there was a bigger reason she caught people¡¯s attention. She waved frantically with both arms as if my eyes weren¡¯t working, yelling my name at the top of her voice.

    My name?

    ¡°Erind, I¡¯m here!¡± Deen yelled.

    I froze, clenching my hands. The avocado seed crystals were on my palms, not the numerous crystals only on my right hand when I was Erind. I was still Domino. I had around ten minutes to go. Why weren¡¯t my powers working on Deen?

    Or they actually were working ¡­

    Deen sprinted across the floor and crashed into me. I was caught off-guard and wasn¡¯t able to brace myself. The wind left my compressed lungs as our bodies collided. I would¡¯ve gotten flung back if she didn¡¯t immediately hug me, her arms clamping like a giant fetter around me. I winced as my arms were squeezed against my ribs.

    ¡°De-Deen¡­¡± I whispered through clenched teeth. My weak Domino self was like a ragdoll as she lifted me off the ground and did a twirl. My black skirt whooshed out like a blooming flower. ¡°Put me down. Pe-people are looking.¡±

    ¡°Oh!¡± She lowered me to the floor. With an impish smirk, she patted my head. ¡°I just missed my little sister so much,¡± she loudly explained to the people giving us weird looks. ¡°We haven¡¯t seen each other for a long time.¡±

    As Domino, I was an inch or so shorter than Deen. Erind, in comparison, was about half a foot shorter than me. To Deen, it must¡¯ve appeared that her hand on my head was raised lower than my actual height. A pang of jealousy stabbed my heart when I realized the implication of my power generating the illusion of Erind for Deen.

    Erind didn¡¯t deserve Deen¡¯s care for her. Erind didn¡¯t even care for Deen.

    It¡¯d be better if it were me¡ª

    ¡°Cu-cut that out,¡± I half-gasped. My chest hurt when talking. I meant what I said for me more than Deen.

    ¡°You don¡¯t miss me, sis?¡± Deen¡¯s voice cracked from too much giggling.

    ¡°Not really, no. We¡¯ve seen too much of each other lately.¡±

    I would¡¯ve liked her to pat me for longer, but it wouldn¡¯t be consistent with Erind¡¯s personality. I raised my right arm. A sharp pain shot up the side of my ribs. I flinched, disguising it by swatting away Deen¡¯s hand. Good thing she didn¡¯t use superstrength to resist.

    But she held my right hand and turned it over¡ªthe black oval crystal displayed a golden number six glinted prominently on my palm. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. How do I explain this?

    ¡°You¡¯re wearing the glove I gave you.¡± She ran her finger over the black crystal.

    I breathed a sigh of relief. My power warped what Deen saw and felt, duh.

    Right now, Deen thought I was wearing the striped fingerless glove she gifted me to cover the super obvious crystals on my palm. It had alternating silver and white bands and was made of stretchy cotton.

    ¡°Of course, I need to hide the you-know-what,¡± I said. ¡°And I kinda like wearing it. Super comfy.¡±

    She released my hand and looked at my feet. ¡°You¡¯re also wearing the sandals I gave you.¡±

    ¡°Erm, yeah. I like these.¡± In reality, the pair was in my room. One had its straps snapped from Erind kicking one of Big Marcy¡¯s goons too hard. ¡°Thanks for the gifts, but these aren¡¯t payments for patting my head.¡±

    Deen pouted. ¡°There can never be too much bonding between best friends.¡±

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t bonding. You were treating me like a child.¡± I casually massaged my left arm, trying not to flinch as I touched a spot of spongey inflamed flesh. It was surprising how weak I was. Thankfully, my elbow wasn¡¯t dislocated¡ªotherwise, I¡¯d be writhing on the floor. So far, Deen didn¡¯t seem to notice something different about me.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t treating you like a child,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m treating you as my sister¡­ that¡¯s little.¡±

    ¡°Whatever, vertically blessed goddess of beauty,¡± I sarcastically said, approximating how Erind would react. Deen reached for my head again, but I parried her hand, flinching at another wave of aches. I hoped she didn¡¯t feel how weak I was. ¡°None of that,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s too early to annoy me. I haven¡¯t even had breakfast yet.¡±

    ¡°Erind, you shouldn¡¯t skip a meal so you¡¯ll grow¡ªoh, wait. You¡¯re not going to grow any taller, are you?¡±

    I rolled my eyes. ¡°Not going to stop bullying me?¡±

    Deen didn¡¯t reply to my question, only scrunching her nose. Then she combed her hair and draped the coiled golden flow over her right shoulder and down her front. ¡°Notice anything different?¡±

    ¡°You ask guys that question, not girl-space-friends.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m asking you, my girl-space-friend.¡±

    I sighed. My chest ached again. I didn¡¯t have the benefit of Adumbrae regeneration while in my Domino body. ¡°Um, your braids? I haven¡¯t seen you wearing your hair that way before.¡±

    ¡°I woke up pretty early and had nothing to do in my room, so I tried this.¡± She ran her fingers over the bumps of her braids. ¡°Not too bad for my first attempt. How do I look?¡±

    ¡°Compliment-fishing, I see. You should really do this with guys instead.¡±

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    ¡°I¡¯m not!¡± she indignantly protested. ¡°Is asking my best friend¡¯s honest opinion illegal now?¡±

    It took mountains of willpower to maintain my frown. My lips wrestled to curve up. Bantering with my best friend gave me immense joy. I thanked the world for giving me this as my last moment. I wanted it to stretch on, but it was wishful thinking.

    ¡°Fine,¡± I grumbled. ¡°It looks good on you. But I¡¯m no expert in hairstyles. Now, let¡¯s go eat.¡± Turning around, lumbering to the buffet stations, I allowed myself to smile. Tears threatened to flow.

    ¡°It really looks good?¡± Deen caught up and walked by my right side. I angled my head left in case I had watery eyes. ¡°Maybe you¡¯re just saying that because we¡¯re friends?¡±

    ¡°Take the compliment already,¡± I said. ¡°Oh, you know what you should do? Pull off the tie, let your hair unwind, and the strong winds will blow it free. It¡¯ll be like you¡¯re in a shampoo commercial. Try it out.¡±

    ¡°Nuh-uh. I worked too hard on this.¡± Deen playfully slapped my shoulder with the force of a regular human punch. ¡°I¡¯ll keep my braids for the entire day.¡±

    I staggered forward from the hit, almost diving face-first into a chafing dish of scrambled eggs.

    ¡°Sorry, Erind! Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°Just tripped my legs. Really hungry.¡± I picked up a plate at the end of the long table. Then I grabbed the handle of the first chafing dish but didn¡¯t open it.

    I noticed my reflection on the shiny metal cover. My most hated face stared back at me¡ªErind Hartwell. We were more different than apples and oranges. I wasn¡¯t like her and didn¡¯t want to be like her, but an illusion of her body would be my last form.

    Fate must be playing a cruel joke on me, I mournfully thought. But then again, I met Deen in my last minutes of existence.

    ¡°I thought of coming to fetch you from your room,¡± Deen said. ¡°But I figured I¡¯d just meet you here as we discussed.¡±

    I opened the container to the sight of hash brown stacks. I picked a couple of pieces with tongs and drizzled them with some sauce. The next chafing dish had sweet potato fries. And the next had lasagna. Carbs galore as my first¡­ and last meal. This would be my revenge in advance on Erind for not using me again.

    And if I continued scooping food onto my plate, I¡¯d have an excuse not to face Deen. One look, and she¡¯d know I was about to cry. I¡¯d probably really cry if I met her eyes.

    ¡°Be thankful that I let you keep a few more minutes to yourself,¡± she said. She didn¡¯t pick up a plate but just followed me. ¡°I know you¡¯ve grown tired of my clinginess, so you got a separate room.¡±

    After a moment¡¯s pause, I said, ¡°Deen, I¡¯m not tired of you.¡± This wasn¡¯t what Erind would¡¯ve replied, but fuck it. I didn¡¯t care anymore. I only had a few minutes left and wanted to be nice to my best friend. Praying that I could keep myself together, I turned to Deen and said with all my heart, ¡°I¡¯m lucky to have you supporting me and being there for me and stuff. So, um, be clingy all you want.¡±

    Deen narrowed her eyes at me. ¡°What did you do with the real Erind?¡±

    My heart skipped a bit. I returned to piling food. ¡°I-I¡¯m just¡ª¡±

    She chuckled. ¡°Is hungry Erind less grumpy about my touchy-feeliness? I¡¯ll take you up on that offer.¡± She took my plate from my hands and placed it on a nearby table.

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m not done¡ª¡±

    Deen opened her arms. ¡°You initiate. It¡¯s always me who does it first. Uh, well, you have a few times, but it was mostly me. Do it before you eat and energize your grumpy side.¡±

    ¡°Yo-you want me to hug you?¡± I took a step forward. Erind obviously wouldn¡¯t do this. Surprisingly, there wasn¡¯t much resistance from within me. I could feel seething annoyance, but nothing forceful.

    ¡°Yeah, hug me,¡± Deen replied. ¡°We haven¡¯t seen each other for hours. That¡¯s like a lifetime for ants.¡±

    ¡°Ants live way longer than that.¡± I pulled up the pertinent episode of Animal Channel from the recesses of my mind. ¡°Regular worker ants can live for five years, even more. Males live the shortest. Like only weeks, just long enough to mate with the queens. I used to watch many science shows as a kid.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± She still had her arms raised. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were an insect girl. It doesn¡¯t jive with my cheerleader-in-high-school image of you.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s unfair stereotyping,¡± I said. ¡°And I like animals¡ªinsects are also animals. Anyway, you probably meant mayflies. They only live for twenty-four hours.¡±

    ¡°Okay, we haven¡¯t seen each other like a third of a mayfly¡¯s lifespan.¡± Deen shook her arms. ¡°Come on, just do¡ªoh!¡±

    I lunged to hug Deen, my arms below hers, surprising her. Slowly, she enclosed her arms around my neck, her face disbelieving. I took it a step further and nestled my chin on her neck. She jolted as I pulled her for a closer hug. She didn¡¯t expect my forwardness. I wasn¡¯t sure what my illusion showed. Erind standing on tiptoes? I didn¡¯t think Erind could reach Deen¡¯s neck even if she did that.

    I didn¡¯t care if my illusion was showing inconsistencies. I wanted to bury my face in the curve of Deen¡¯s neck and bawl out my frustrations.

    But before the dam could break, I broke off the hug. Deen was confused about what I just did. She didn¡¯t hang onto me, and I easily extracted myself.

    ¡°There, your hug.¡± My voice cracked. I took my plate and half-ran to the next buffet table. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I wiped them off with the back of my hand while trying to balance my full plate with the other.

    ¡°Erind?¡± Deen chased after me. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    I picked up a table napkin from a stack I passed and wiped my eyes again, ending with a theatrical blow of my nose. I mumbled, ¡°I have an itchy nose,¡± as Deen peeked at my face. I was no longer concerned about maintaining Erind¡¯s illusion; I just didn¡¯t want my best friend to see me crying.

    ¡°Allergies or something?¡± said Deen. ¡°This ship should have a clinic. We can ask for medicine.¡±

    ¡°No need,¡± I said, trying to steady my voice.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll be okay¡­ soon,¡± I muttered. I bowed down over the row of chafing dishes and absentmindedly scooped each dish. My hair was tied in a ponytail, but my Erind illusion would show a curtain of hair covering my face.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re not okay now?¡±

    I shook my head. ¡°No¡­ because I¡¯m hungry and have allergies.¡± I didn¡¯t want Deen to worry about me, so I distracted her. ¡°Funny that I got a runny nose despite having an Adumbrae¡¯s regeneration.¡±

    ¡°Shush!¡± Deen grabbed my upper arm like I was a misbehaving child. It hurt plenty, her hand like an iron clamp. ¡°Don¡¯t joke like that,¡± she hissed. ¡°You promised me before you won¡¯t do it in public.¡±

    ¡°I-I did?¡± I shallowly breathed while adjusting to the pain. Was it part of my ability to get physically abused by my best friend? I was rethinking being thankful that Deen was the last person I¡¯d meet. Nah, I was delighted she was here.

    ¡°You did,¡± said Deen, reaching for a small plate. ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve extracted that promise from you.¡± We reached the station with the sliced fruits. She picked a few, and that was her breakfast.

    At this point, I already had two big plates filled to the brim¡ªwell, plates didn¡¯t have brims. We found a table and sat down.

    Deen raised a brow at the mounds of food I got.

    ¡°This is a buffet,¡± I responded. ¡°It¡¯s a waste not to eat a lot.¡± I was going to let Erind deal with all the food. ¡°Anyway, what did you want to talk about? Why did you want to meet me before the others?¡±

    Deen shrugged. ¡°I just missed you. No biggie.¡±

    I didn¡¯t quip up a snarky response, as Erind would¡¯ve in my place. I sensed Deen wasn¡¯t done.

    She poked a slice of white dragon fruit on her plate with her fork. ¡°Erind¡­ I was thinking¡­¡± Several seconds of silence passed before she continued, ¡°I was thinking, what if we just leave?¡±

    ¡°Abort the mission, you mean?¡± I asked. ¡°I know there isn¡¯t much evidence to go on that we¡¯ll find the Red Island, but we knew when we decided to ride this cruise ship that this¡¯d be a gamble.¡± Should I tell her about Big Marcy?

    What good would that do? Better let Erind handle this fighting thing.

    ¡°No, no¡ªnever mind.¡± Deen put the dragon fruit piece in her mouth and gave me a forced smile.

    I didn¡¯t know what she was conflicted about and didn¡¯t have enough time to find out.

    I had two missions before running out of time¡ªone, find out what I looked like, and two, cheer Deen up. I chatted about how fun the cruise was and if we could go to the spa later or maybe have a swim. That perked Deen up. She was ecstatic that I was willing to go to the spa with her.

    A forlorn smile crossed my face as Deen ticked off all the stuff we could do. I forced myself to eat. I couldn¡¯t taste anything, too nervous about my coming end. Deen¡¯s smile and energy stopped me from crying. Then I nonchalantly checked my reflection on my spoon, taking note of the color and design of my top and shorts.

    ¡°I heard they have a salon here, too,¡± said Deen. ¡°We can go there too. How about a new hairstyle for you?¡±

    ¡°Uh, sure¡­¡± I distractedly replied. Peeking at my right palm, my heart skipped a bit. The crystal showed the number one¡ªa minute to go. Actually, less than that. I didn¡¯t know how many seconds I had left.

    I reached across the table and held Deen¡¯s hand.

    ¡°I think short hair looks¡ªuh, Erind? What¡ª¡±

    ¡°I have to say goodbye now. I¡¯ll treasure our short time hanging out. It was really¡ª¡±

    ¡°What was that about goodbye? Is everything okay? Why are you frowning?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m frowning because I feel my stomach rumbling,¡± I said, completely deadpan. I pulled my hand away from Deen. ¡°And I said goodbye because I might need to do number two.¡±

    ¡°Number two, what?¡±

    ¡°Stay here and guard my food.¡± I grimaced, looking at the few thousand calories Domino had trapped me into eating. ¡°I just have to take care of some business.¡± I rushed out of the restaurant and hurried to my room before Deen could say anything or notice that my clothes suddenly changed.

    So much fucking hassle! I complained in my head as I sprinted down the hallway. Domino was a hugeass burden! It made me want to throw myself overboard. I swore never to transform into her again.

 6.12

    ¡°Good morning,¡± said a cabin stewardess through the open door of the room opposite mine. She stepped onto the corridor with bunched-up sheets and towels in her arms, dumping them into a hamper on wheels. ¡°I finished cleaning your room earlier, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°You did?¡± I blurted, angling my right hand so she wouldn¡¯t see my palm. I was about to press my key card on my room¡¯s door. Was there stuff in here that others shouldn¡¯t find?

    I made sure to clean the blood off my murdering sandals. Other than that, nothing was incriminating inside, I think.

    Still, I wasn¡¯t comfortable with people going in and out of my room. It was my sanctuary, my escape from the bullshit of the world, especially Deen. Its sanctity was violated if someone else could come in without my knowledge. Whenever I stayed at hotels, I always hung the ¡®Do not disturb¡¯ sign outside my door. No need for housekeeping¡ªI could make my bed because I was a strong and independent woman, thank you very much.

    Looking down, I confirmed I had hooked the sign over the intricately carved bronze doorknob. This bitch just ignored it. I could complain and be an absolute bitch myself, but I wasn¡¯t evil as Domino painted me.

    I was a nice¡ªokay, fine. I was a considerate person. Rule #4 was proof.

    Rather than complain, I graciously thanked the cabin stewardess. She was just too good at doing her job. My face was a pleasant passenger with no issue at all.

    ¡°You¡¯re welcome, ma¡¯am,¡± she replied. ¡°I¡¯ve restocked everything, including the drawers.¡±

    ¡°What drawers?¡± I couldn¡¯t recall using anything from anywhere except the stuff in the bathroom. I didn¡¯t touch the mini-bar at all. If I got charged for something I didn¡¯t consume, I would sink this ship. The lives of innocent thousands would be on this woman¡¯s head.

    ¡°If you need assistance,¡± she said, either not hearing my question or ignoring it, ¡°don¡¯t hesitate to call four-four-three-zero.¡± She nodded goodbye, pushed her cart down the corridor, and headed to the elevators.

    ¡°Huh? She¡¯s done cleaning all the cabins here?¡± I shrugged and rushed into my room.

    I threw my clothes on my bed, careful not to rip them in my haste to undress. Not going to make that mistake again. Then I excavated my luggage, throwing more clothes everywhere¡ªI hadn¡¯t unpacked yet¡ªlooking for something close to what illusion Erind wore. I had to quickly change and return to the restaurant before Deen hunted me down.

    Luckily, I had packed a blue shirt. It wasn¡¯t the exact blouse I saw in my reflection, but nothing I could do about that. The blue top was probably generated to match Deen¡¯s sundress.

    As for my bottom, the pants closest to the shade of beige of my illusion were those I wore yesterday when we boarded the ship. For some reason, Domino¡¯s powers chose to manifest those. I had draped them over the backseat of a sofa chair by the balcony. I took a quick sniff, didn¡¯t notice any smell, and jumped into them.

    Next, I wore the fingerless gloves that I had left on the bedside table beside my glasses.

    ¡°Was I wearing these on both hands?¡± I wondered. When I checked my reflection with the spoon, I held it with my right hand and saw that my left was covered. Deen mentioned that my right was gloves. ¡°So, both of them, then.¡±

    I tucked my hair behind my ears before putting on my glasses, then checked how I looked in the small mirror on the table. Nerdy, frail, pale as a vampire victim with the air of a side character. The glasses really helped with the non-threatening vibe. Zero indication that I had the highest kill count out of anyone on this cruise ship.

    I¡¯d rather not wear glasses¡ªthere were for my law school face¡ªbut my illusion had them on for some reason, even though Deen knew I didn¡¯t need them. She thought my Adumbrae powers cured my eyesight when I turned monster, not that it was fine all along.

    ¡°And to complete my outfit¡­¡± I bent down to pick up my ruined pair of sandals. The frayed straps of the right one hang loose.

    I looked around for what I could wear instead.

    The only other sandals I had were given by the masked woman outside the secret 2Ms lounge so that I wouldn¡¯t walk barefoot back to my room. Very considerate of her, especially after I had killed her co-worker. They were a perfect fit. Did their database about me include my feet size?

    Unfortunately, my new pair was from a luxury brand that didn¡¯t remotely look close to Deen¡¯s gift, bought from a small boutique across my Vegas condo.

    Besides them, I had two pair of sneakers and two pairs of flip-flops, one of which I was wearing now.

    ¡°Maybe I can stick the straps back¡­¡±

    I went to the other side of the room and yanked open cabinets and drawers, hoping for staplers or sticking tapes. When I opened the drawer beneath the study table, I was surprised to find several papers. I expected it to be empty or maybe have a notepad or a bible.

    The topmost paper appeared to be the layout of a ship, maybe this same cruise ship.

    At first, I thought it was a fire emergency escape guide for passengers. Arrows were showing the way¡­ somewhere. But it was too detailed, and the arrows pointed down to parts of the ship that passengers wouldn¡¯t wander to. I could be wrong, but was this showing crew spaces below the passenger decks?

    Curious, I shuffled through the other papers¡ªsome more maps detailing ways into the ship''s bowels. I was never good with appliance manuals, and I hated reading these instructions. These were definitely not flyers for tourists.

    There were also pictures.

    One was of a mechanical-looking place with big machines. Maybe the engine room? Another showed a hatch or a door with that steering wheel contraption to open it. There were signs on it. Lastly, there was a dim picture with blurry features as if it was hastily taken, the person stowing the camera away before the image was fully processed.

    But I could discern what it was¡ªthree small boats floating in an enclosed rectangular pool. They all had cranes attached to their back portions, and could probably fit ten people.

    ¡°So, this is where they¡¯re hiding,¡± I said. ¡°I just don¡¯t know where ¡®where¡¯ is.¡±

    According to Big Marcy, these small ships would depart for Red Island on the fourth night of the cruise. The cruise was for five days and four nights. That meant the trip to Red Island would happen on our return to California from Mexico. After a relaxing vacation, it was off to become monsters for the 2Ms¡¯ wealthy clients. Based on the picture, the ships were disguised as fishing vessels.

    My job was to lead Dario and the gang here without revealing that Big Marcy was helping us.

    I checked the other drawers to see if they contained anything more. Nothing. I also didn¡¯t find anything to fix my sandals.

    ¡°Oh, this is what she meant by the drawers,¡± I mumbled. Big Marcy must¡¯ve sent the cabin stewardess to communicate with me discretely. His brother, Mark, also had men on this ship.

    But it wasn¡¯t an excuse to enter my room without my permission! ¡®Do not disturb¡¯ included not delivering secret messages. She could¡¯ve just slotted them under the door.

    I repeatedly snapped my fingers. ¡°What was that number she mentioned? Four-four-three-zero?¡±

    I picked up a wide leather-bound booklet beside the phone and flipped through the room service menu. The food items didn¡¯t have prices next to them¡ªan obvious sign they were unconscionably expensive as fuck. On the last page were the telephone numbers of housekeeping, admin, and other offices. Four-four-three-zero wasn¡¯t listed. It could be a passcode for something.

    ¡°I wonder what will happen if I dialed the¡ªoh? What¡¯s this?¡±

    A piece of paper slipped from among the maps and pictures. It was torn from a nice-looking stationery. I scanned the ugly scribbles on it.

    It was a handwritten letter addressed to me.

    ¡°Dear, Erind¡­ Huh? Who is this¡ª?¡± My eyes flicked to the end of the note. I groaned. It was from Ramon. Good thing it wasn¡¯t a love letter, or I would¡¯ve vomited on it.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Ramon reiterated his offer to come with me to Red Island. He wrote crap like he wasn¡¯t afraid, and he¡¯d protect me from danger and use his strength to do it, those sorts of nonsense. He confessed that big Marcy didn¡¯t want him to go, but he¡¯d find a way to leave.

    He might prove useful. He had fought by my side when I was Pino and was intensely loyal because he liked like me. Slipping in this note amongst the papers Big Marcy sent displayed Ramon¡¯s resourcefulness. But how could he come with me without being spotted by Dario and the rest? No way they¡¯d agree to work with him.

    ¡°¡­ we¡¯ll be humans again, I promise¡ªUgh, whatever. I don¡¯t have time for this.¡± I hid the papers under the thick bed mattress and exited my room. I had no fix for the sandals problem. Just have to hide my feet from Deen.

    The corridor was empty. I sprinted to the elevators.

    One was open. I hopped in and pressed the button for the floor with the breakfast buffet restaurant.

    As the doors closed, my reflection stared back at me.

    My own face.

    And it contorted into a frown. A wave of irritation welled within me when I realized the meaning of Domino¡¯s power.

    I choose my face to present to people. To manipulate people. Or even just for fun.

    I never showed who I really was, and I always molded the face I¡¯d wear to the world to suit my purposes. Me, me, me.

    But as Domino, the people around me got to pick my face.

    That stupid power was a bullshit prank by SpookyErind! Boatloads more annoying than having Domino as my alter ego. My frowning reflection smirked when I realized I made a ship pun. Not really funny, but it made me giggle.

    ¡°SpookyErind must be laughing her head off about this,¡± I said, running my thumb over the crystals on my palm.

    Whether it¡¯d be Domino or me in the driver¡¯s seat, assuming I could assert control, not that I¡¯d try transforming into her ever again, the illusion would trap us with chains, not of our own choosing. Domino would go along with it because she wanted to bring joy and be nice to others.

    Me? I¡¯d be bound by Rule #7: Don¡¯t do anything that would break the character of the face I had on. Domino¡¯s power wasn¡¯t exactly what I had in mind when Rule #7 was made, but it would apply to it. Better not summon Domino¡¯s mask again because I didn¡¯t want her powers, despite how useful they were, even if I could learn to take control, like with Blanchette.

    I had misgivings about Domino after yesterday¡¯s run.

    Emotions I haven¡¯t felt before¡­ couldn¡¯t process¡­ couldn¡¯t comprehend, enveloped my consciousness, turning me into an altogether different person. I only realized it until after I returned as Erind. It was close to what happened when Blanchette first transformed into a giant werewolf¡ªall of my ¡®self¡¯ was squeezed to the back of my brain, and the feral instincts of a bloodthirsty predator took over.

    Despite my misgivings, I gave Domino another go today. I couldn¡¯t deny that her powers were super helpful. If I figured them out while uncovering Dario¡¯s secrets, then that¡¯d be a massive win for me. I hated her guts, just like she hated mine¡ªwe didn¡¯t share actual guts¡ªbut she did get me to Big Marcy.

    Emotions ramped up to eleven was¡­ unpleasant. Disconcerting. I wouldn¡¯t say revolting, but I didn¡¯t like it.

    But it also interested me. I was thinking of it like chilis. Spicy food was uncomfortable¡ªmy spice tolerance was way low. Sometimes, however, I did dip my toes, my tongue, rather, in spicy food. And it was also like people-watching, my favorite hobby. It was a novel experience having a first-person view of a normal person.

    ¡°Normal person?¡± I scoffed. ¡°Yeah, right. Normal persons want to jump off ships.¡±

    <hr>

    In the few minutes I had disappeared, the breakfast crowd had swelled. It was ten minutes past seven, and most of the ship woke up hungry. Among the sea of faces, I noticed a beautiful but very annoyed one staring serrated daggers at me.

    ¡°I¡¯m back!¡± I announced, sitting behind two food mountains.

    What was I supposed to do with these? Force-feed myself?

    I¡¯d get charged for leftovers if I didn¡¯t finish the food. No fucking way I¡¯d spend more than I already had for this cruise. It wasn¡¯t the attempt to unalive herself that made me angry at Domino, but her parting gift for me. She wasn¡¯t going to exist ever again.

    ¡°Where did you go?¡± Deen demanded, slamming the table with her palms. There was a metallic creak, and the table had a slight tilt. ¡°What took you so long?¡±

    ¡°I told you I was doing a number two, didn¡¯t I?¡± I giggled. It was the first thing that came to my brain as I switched back to Erind and stuck with it. Not that it was a lousy excuse, actually. ¡°It took some time to¡­ move things along. Hang on, do you know what number two is? Like I know you¡¯re sheltered and all, so let me explain¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know what number two is!¡± Deen loudly interjected, drawing stares. She lowered her voice. ¡°I¡¯m not some princess locked away in a tower, oblivious to the world. But why did you have to leave? There¡¯s a restroom right there.¡±

    ¡°Because¡­ too many people here,¡± I whispered.

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s impossible to have the restroom to myself. I might make, uh, loud noises. I mean, it was like a washing machine inside my stomach. If, uh, if it all comes rushing out and¡ª¡±

    ¡°I get the picture.¡± Deen reached over the table to cover my mouth with her hand. ¡°Jeez, I don¡¯t want that picture in my brain. Erase, erase, erase!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re best friends, right?¡± I said, leaning away from her. ¡°We¡¯ve gotten close since living together that we¡¯re practically sisters.¡± I almost smirked after saying that. ¡°We can talk about disgusting stuff.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t talk to my sister about this,¡± Deen huffed, pointing a fork at me.

    ¡°You barely talk to your sister,¡± I shot back.

    Deen sighed. ¡°Good point. Anyway, don¡¯t leave me like that next time. I was just sitting here with this bunch of food, and people gave me funny looks, thinking I would eat them all. It looks like I¡¯ve been stood up, and I¡¯ve never been stood up before.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not on a date,¡± I said, snorting.

    ¡°Are you okay with eating now?¡± she asked. ¡°Or do you still have stomach problems? We should go to the clinic and¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. I have to eat and refill after voiding my¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shush, you!¡± she hissed at me.

    ¡°Help me eat.¡± I pushed a plate to her.

    ¡°I¡¯m full. You know I don¡¯t eat a heavy breakfast, like ever. And it¡¯s your fault you¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what came over me when I took this much food,¡± I said, putting on a sad expression. ¡°I-I¡¯m just probably nervous about this whole thing.¡± I looked up at her, trying to get my eyes wet. ¡°Maybe the stress is also the cause of my upset stomach.¡± Lies going out so smoothly, like freestyle rapping.

    ¡°Oh, Erind¡­¡± Deen reached for my right hand with both of hers. ¡°I sensed right that you weren¡¯t yourself this morning.¡±

    I kept my fingers relaxed as she held them. Domino behaved too uncharacteristically. I shouldn¡¯t be surprised that Deen noticed something.

    She said, ¡°Your hug felt different. There was this cloud of worry above you. I think I know what you¡¯re thinking.¡±

    ¡°You do?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re scared because we¡¯re bringing the fight to the enemy,¡± said Deen, completely missing it. ¡°This is it. All our other fights were serious, of course. Several times we could¡¯ve died¡ªyou more than me. But this fight might be our last. If we win, then the¡ª¡±

    ¡°The credits will roll,¡± I said. ¡°Same as if we lose.¡±

    ¡°We won¡¯t lose,¡± Deen firmly said as she squeezed my hand.

    ¡°O-okay¡­¡±

    She let go of me and picked up an egg tart on my plate. ¡°I¡¯ll help you eat, so don¡¯t be afraid anymore.¡±

    ¡°Uh, it¡¯s going to be better if you help me in the fight, not in eating.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll help you in the fight, too. I¡¯m just saying, let¡¯s eat breakfast together.¡±

    I simply replied, ¡°Thank you.¡±

    If it were just me, on my own with no allies, I¡¯d probably not bother going to Red Island. I disliked trips that took days. I disliked cruise ships. I disliked people. Half of me wanted to steal the boat going to Red Island but instead head back to the mainland. I¡¯d rather stay in bed and wait for enemies to hunt me. But having Deen along somehow changed me. To some extent¡­ I now understood why girls went to the restroom as a group.

    ¡°Can I get another hug?¡± Deen grinned at me.

    ¡°Nuh-uh. That¡¯s all you get until I get another existential crisis,¡± I said. And what a literal existential crisis that was, with Domino planning to take me down with her.

    Would I also die if she did?

    My transformations and I had different bodies; I had tested this several times. While Blanchette, Pino, or Domino was on the stage, my Erind body was in limbo. If my transformation died, would I get stuck in some other dimension forever? Or did I have an extra life like in those video games?

    Deen said, ¡°Erind, know that I¡¯m always here for you. Don¡¯t bottle up your emotions. You can be real with me.¡±

    I stopped mid-scooping some baked beans. When Domino stared at her reflection in the shiny elevator doors, she told me to ¡®be real.¡¯ What a stupid advice that was. And she knew it was stupid, so she wanted to prevent me from returning.

    ¡°Really, Deen? Are you sure you can handle me if I¡¯m totally real with you?¡±

    ¡°I know you¡¯re carrying very heavy baggage,¡± she replied. ¡°I¡¯m here to help. Always. I promise I won¡¯t judge you, so feel free to share what¡¯s in your heart.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not.¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m an introvert.¡± I stuck out my tongue at her.

    Deen chuckled. ¡°I thought you were going to something serious. It¡¯s only¡ª¡±

    ¡°Good morning, ladies!¡± Reo approached our table. Everett followed behind him.

 6.13

    Reo Hinode¡ªcodename: Oberon, the ¡®king of fairies,¡¯ something stupid like that¡ªdidn¡¯t tie his long black hair in a ponytail. This might be the first time I¡¯d seen him with his hair down, but I couldn¡¯t be sure because his existence barely registered to me. Surprising how silkily straight his hair was; he¡¯d fit right in a shampoo commercial. He let a curtain of black fall over the left of his thin face¡ªmaybe some fashion trend I wasn¡¯t aware of¡ªcovering half of his Japanese features.

    I couldn¡¯t recall whether it was his father or mother who was Japanese. He must¡¯ve shared his backstory at some point, a sad one probably, but it wasn¡¯t worth a shelf in my memory. It wouldn¡¯t be too far off to guess it had something to do with Adumbrae and his loved ones, maybe losing the latter to the former.

    Nothing I haven¡¯t heard before.

    Wildly deviating from his typical grungy getup, Reo wore an aloha shirt, printed with pink flowers, and neon beach shorts. He had his collar popped and the first three buttons of his shirt opened, reminding me of Jeffrey. But unlike Jeffrey¡¯s chiseled pecs, Reo displayed a pasty white flat chest.

    Was he making fun of people wearing aloha shirts, like some contrarian fashion statement? Could be he was just dressed for the weather. He¡¯d get baked if he wore his usual leather rockstar outfit.

    ¡°Good morning, Deen,¡± said Everett, giving her a hesitant wave. ¡°Oh, and Erind too.¡±

    ¡°And Erind too, what?¡± Reo said with a snort.

    ¡°Good morning, too, Erind.¡± Everett nodded at me before returning his gaze to Deen like she was some eyeball magnet. Which she actually was.

    Reo said, ¡°Had a hard time spotting Erind, eh?¡±

    ¡°What are you on about? I said ¡®good morning¡¯ to both of them.¡±

    ¡°Sure, you did, pal.¡±

    Everett Hamza, codename: Emcee¡ªit stood for something I didn¡¯t care about¡ªhad swapped his earlier attire for an equally fitting polo shirt, a light red one, almost matching Reo¡¯s pink. Did they plan to coordinate outfit colors? Best of bros?

    Everett awkwardly smiled at Deen. He stood straighter, chest out, and noticeably flexing his muscles.

    It irked me a bit. Not that he didn¡¯t notice me; I was going for that as a general concept for my face anyway. Deen could have all the attention.

    But it wouldn¡¯t do me good if she fell for him¡­ or anyone for that matter. Was that icky situation possible? I used to tease Deen with this or that classmate in law school, but I had zero idea of her type of guy.

    Would love triumph friendship? No clue how to weigh them because I had neither felt what they called ¡®true love¡¯ nor had a real friendship with anyone. Domino¡¯s power generated for Deen an illusion of me. I took that as proof of loyalty. It might change if she fell in love with someone. I¡¯d poke at Everett¡¯s trauma later for trying to steal my pawn¡ªerm, I mean my bestest friend. Just taking on the mantle of a protective bestie.Girls gotta stick together.

    I mumbled a barely audible ¡®good morning¡¯ to Reo and Everett, maintaining my timid face.

    Out of the entire group, only these two minor characters remained clueless I was the famously infamous Red Hood.

    Well, unless Dario already told them, but I doubted it. No way Everett could stomach fake buddy-buddying with an Adumbrae.

    Oh yeah, Imani also didn¡¯t know about my secret. The La Esperanza and Vegas groups now merged into one for this mission so I shouldn¡¯t forget about her. Imani was aware I was no longer human but assumed I had an artificial Core. I had told her to keep mum about it, explaining we were keeping it a secret from others as per orders of the Professor.

    Didn¡¯t really make sense if she paused to think about it. Like we were supposed to betray the Professor, so why bother following his ¡®orders¡¯? I should¡¯ve thought of a better story. Then again, Imani¡¯s head wasn¡¯t in the right place after losing her friends, and then learning that the Professor, Dario, and Jubjub might be not-so-good guys after all. Easy to feed her anything.

    Barring those three, the rest knew who I really was, with Dario and Jubilee pretending they didn¡¯t.

    But none, including Deen, knew who I really, really was.

    ¡°Hello, Reo. Hi, Everett.¡± Deen took a bite out of the egg tart she got from my plate, then waved it at them. She should¡¯ve thrown it at Everett to stop him from staring. ¡°Let¡¯s eat. A long day ahead of us.¡± She had a polite smile that didn¡¯t reach her neutral eyes. Routine friendly behavior.

    Beyond that, what did she think of these two?

    They were our comrades in arms in the fight against the 2Ms and the Adumbrae. Knowing Deen, that should hold some significance for her. Fellow heroes were a step above normal friends. We were part of the same life-and-death struggle and shared moments that¡¯d bond people together.

    Most people. Deen was big on the bonding part. Me, not so much.

    If I wasn¡¯t mistaken, Everett came to help Deen when she was attacked by the 2Ms¡¯ grunts the same night they raided my condo. And Reo, along with Myra and Johann, came to save me from the docks when I was kidnapped. I didn¡¯t really need any help back then, but Deen might count it as a point for Reo.

    The time would come I¡¯d have to get rid of Reo, Everett, and the other hero-wannabes. My future was very hazy, but it wasn¡¯t with them. Good if they¡¯d get killed in Red Island.

    If not, I¡¯d do it myself.

    Would Deen be on board with it?

    She had killed to protect me before, cold-blooded murdering people to keep my secret like she did with those frat boys. If Reo and Everett knew I was an Adumbrae, I bet they¡¯d want nothing to do with me.

    Actually, they¡¯d want something to do with me¡ªkill me. Nine out of ten times Deen would off them first before they could spell B-E-T-R-A-Y. Though one couldn¡¯t be too sure with my best friend. She acts like a complete psycho sometimes.

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s some insane breakfast you got going on.¡± Reo pointed finger guns at our table.

    ¡°I just had some salad and fruit slices,¡± Deen hurriedly replied, nodding down at the small plate in front of her with specks of green on its white surface. Hilarious how she was concerned not to get mistaken as a glutton. ¡°Can¡¯t really give a food review of leafy greens and fruits¡ªthey tasted like how they¡¯re supposed to taste.¡±

    ¡°You can say if they¡¯re fresh or something,¡± I suggested.

    ¡°They¡¯re not really fresh,¡± she said. ¡°They have to be stored for the cruise, so that¡¯s understandable. Salad dressing is passable. I didn¡¯t get much because they can pack calories.¡±

    Typical Deen. I smirked while munching a mini-pancake. Still worried about calories though we were in the den of enemies and might have the fight of our lives soon. Didn¡¯t know whether I should laugh or be impressed at her dedication to her diet. Like, was it even working? An experiment on whether we burned calories differently given we were no longer human would be interesting.

    ¡°Either my eyes have gone funky,¡± Reo said, pointing at Deen¡¯s half-eaten pastry, ¡°or that¡¯s the weirdest-looking salad I¡¯ve seen.¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a salad,¡± she said with a chuckle. Again, her eyes didn¡¯t reflect her smile.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    The eyes were supposed to be the ¡®window to the soul¡¯ and other crappy sayings like that. Did looking into them actually reveal inner thoughts? Most likely not, else my true self would¡¯ve been exposed a long time ago, my faces peeled off. Still, there was something about eyes that helped me read a person. Might be for just me.

    Or I could be delusional.

    ¡°Yeah, you should get your eyes checked, Reo,¡± Everett chimed in. ¡°When¡¯s the last time you ate salad, huh?¡±

    Reo tossed his head back, flinging his hair off his face. ¡°Does rice count?¡±

    ¡°Rice isn¡¯t a vegetable,¡± Everett said. ¡°You should cut back on smoking and get some leafy greens in your system instead. Do you even remember what a lettuce looks like?¡± Laughing, he patted Reo¡¯s back.

    Trying to be the funny guy? I chomped on the cardboardy end of bacon that basked too long under a heat lamp to distract myself from rolling my eyes. It was obvious Everett was trying to one-up Reo, putting a performance for Deen. Guys striving to make the girl they like laugh was a tale as old as time.

    Deen did smile. Though it was out of social obligation rather than finding Everett¡¯s quip funny, I could tell. Good thing it was quite noisy in the restaurant or there¡¯d be crickets doing that kroo-kroo thing.

    Everett shouldn¡¯t make jokes. The muscle guy of the group shouldn¡¯t be the funny one¡ªthat was the law of stereotypical group roles. My basis: the many TV shows and movies I watched to study human behavior. Reo already took the comedian spot; Everett should stick with being the muscle guy. He got the body, even if he wasn¡¯t the strongest in our group. I am.

    ¡°I know my leafy greens,¡± said Reo. ¡°Tobacco¡¯s green and leafy before it gets processed into cigarette.¡±

    ¡°Are you eating a tobacco salad or something?¡± said Everett, weakly laughing. No one joined him. Sensing his ¡®jokes¡¯ were running out of steam, he immediately switched topics, asking Deen, ¡°Is the tart good? What kind is it?¡±

    ¡°An egg tart.¡± Deen took another bite. Still chewing, she added, ¡°This is Erind¡¯s. I¡¯m helping her eat. She got a bit excited with the buffet and got too much food.¡±

    ¡°I thought we were supposed to share these?¡± I winked at her. ¡°You persuaded me to come to the buffet early so we could eat lots before the others arrived.¡±

    ¡°Wha-! N-no, I didn¡¯t,¡± Deen protested, almost choking on the tart. ¡°You got all that because you¡¯re nerv¡ª¡± She blinked, pausing. She didn¡¯t want to reveal what I confided to her. ¡°You wanted to make the most out of what we paid for the trip, so you went overboard with the food.¡±

    ¡°Overboard?¡± I giggled. Unintentional boat pun.

    ¡°We did pay a lot for this damn cruise,¡± said Reo. ¡°We¡¯re not even here for a vacation! Erind¡¯s got the right idea. I¡¯ll help you girls eat.¡±

    Deen and I were sitting in the middle chairs of a six-seater table, the food between us. Reo pulled the chair beside Deen. But before he could sit on it, Deen left hers. She rounded the table on the end opposite Reo, got to my side, and sat beside me. We were all surprised at how fast she moved. Reo had his mouth gaping as he slowly sat down.

    Everett laughed. ¡°That¡¯s the correct reaction of girls to Reo!¡±

    ¡°I knew I shouldn¡¯t have worn a pink shirt,¡± Reo said, snapping his fingers. ¡°Hey, is it my new body spray? I need some feedback.¡±

    Deen shook her head. ¡°Nothing¡¯s wrong with you, Reo. It¡¯s just that¡ª¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s plenty wrong with him,¡± said Everett, still trying to wrest the clown spot from Reo. It was getting insufferable. People were either inherently funny or were not. Everett was the latter; he shouldn¡¯t try to change his place in life.

    ¡°I moved spots so Everett can have a space,¡± Deen told Reo. ¡°Move over here¡ª¡± she gestured to the middle seat ¡°¡ªthen we can all help Erind eat her food hoard.¡±

    I embarrassedly grinned. ¡°I-I didn¡¯t know what came over me. One moment I was lining up at the food stations, and the next thing I knew, I got plates of food. Nerves, I guess.¡± I glanced at Deen. ¡°Because of¡­ you know.¡±

    ¡°No further explanation needed.¡± Reo held up a hand. ¡°Nerves, alright. You and me both! And Everett too. He was crying for his mommy while sleeping last night.¡±

    ¡°What the hell are you talking about?¡± said Everett. ¡°I couldn¡¯t sleep because of your boombox snoring.¡±

    ¡°I was snoring?¡± Reo munched on gravy-covered fries. ¡°I got a good night¡¯s sleep? Imagine that. Yesterday, I was about to take one of the lifeboats and just nope out of here.¡±

    ¡°You wanted to¡­ leave?¡± said Deen.

    ¡°You don¡¯t?¡± he retorted with an edge to his voice.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Deen touched my leg under the table.

    Instinctively, I wanted to kick her, but I managed to not react or I would¡¯ve upended the table. Congrats me.

    Deen touched me because she said the same thing earlier¡ªshe wanted to leave. Kind of weird for her to think that. She was supposed to be the hero, the main character. Why would she leave all the action about to happen? Abandon her friends and fellow hero wannabes?

    For Reo, I get it. He had this aura of distancing himself from the group. He¡¯d join meetings and missions, but he¡¯d always put on an attitude that he was just forcing himself to be there.

    Was it true, though? Likely not, else he wouldn¡¯t have joined Dario¡¯s stupid group and got an artificial Core embedded in his chest in the first place. Pretty big commitment. My guess was that clowning around was a defense mechanism of sorts. He jokes to keep light of the situation, masking his fears to keep himself going.

    Could also be that Reo spouted half-truths¡ªpart of him really wanted to leave. His motivation, inspiration, whatever it was, in fighting the Adumbrae may be waning with each brush with death. Most people couldn¡¯t keep up being heroes for long. If it was the other way around, heroes would be commonplace, nothing special at all. Shouldn¡¯t be surprising that Reo would want to give up being one¡ªit was just a rare thing for main characters in movies to do, so it didn¡¯t immediately occur to me.

    ¡°I can understand if you want to stay, Deen,¡± said Reo. ¡°Your future mumbo-jumbo shebang is a comforting security blanket. A way out will always be there for you. Wish I had a power like that.¡± Resentment was in his voice.

    ¡°Gabe is helpful,¡± said Deen. ¡°But there can only be so many escape routes. Here on a ship, surrounded by the ocean, I don¡¯t have much space to run to if there¡¯s trouble.¡±

    ¡°You can still swim to run away.¡± Reo frowned, a limp fry sticking out of his mouth. ¡°Eh? What did I say? Swim to run away?¡±

    Deen chuckled. ¡°Running on water?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the wisdom of the king of fairies,¡± said Everett.

    ¡°Come, on, you know what I was trying to say,¡± Reo said. ¡°Deen, you can swim to escape. You¡¯re not as trapped as you make it out to be. And you¡¯d know when to leave and run on water and shit. Don¡¯t try to console me about my shitty powers.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t doing that,¡± she replied, though she was doing exactly that. It was like beautiful people telling others that true beauty was on the inside. She had pulled that shtick on me a couple of times; I could relate to Reo¡¯s irritation.

    ¡°From the ship to the shore is how many miles?¡± Reo wondered. ¡°Ten? Twenty-five? I have no idea; I suck at distances. A long way, but you can make it by swimming with super strength.¡±

    ¡°Is it okay for us to be talking about your powers like this?¡± I asked. ¡°We might get overheard.¡±

    Speaking of powers, what were Reo¡¯s again?

    He could summon weird winged creatures out of his mouth¡ªfairies he called them. When I was introduced to the hero-wannabe group and they demonstrated their abilities, Reo summoned a fat red fairy that could quickly chow down anything. Another of his fairies could turn invisible, good for sneaking around and stuff¡ªReo used it when we infiltrated Eve. He also had a healer fairy he mentioned in passing. Other than those three, he had one more which I knew nothing about. Shouldn¡¯t be powerful, whatever that last fairy was.

    Really side character abilities. One of Vanessa¡¯s many mouth familiars could probably match the red fairy. And though Vanessa¡¯s eyeball familiars didn¡¯t have invisibility, they were numerous and could get around just fine. Furthermore, Reo couldn¡¯t move while one of his fairies was out, practically trading himself for a summon. Compare that to Vanessa who could deploy dozens of mouth and eye familiars while being able to fight herself.

    I wish Vanessa was here, I thought, nibbling yet another cardboard bacon. She¡¯d be much more useful than Reo. Loyal to me too. Somewhat.

    ¡°Fuck the rules,¡± said Reo. ¡°We¡¯re on vacation. Not exactly, but you know what I mean.¡±

    ¡°This place is noisy enough, Erind,¡± said Everett. I thought he¡¯d side with me about secrecy. He was often a stickler to it. They¡¯d avoid talking about important things in public, and call each other by their codenames when on missions. Last I checked, we were on a mission.

    When it came to powers granted by the artificial Core, Everett was stronger than Reo. He had heat powers¡ªthe burnt husk of Sanders Mall was very well acquainted with it. This bastard also burned me when we first met. I hadn¡¯t forgotten about that. His powers were straightforward, nothing I couldn¡¯t handle.

    Okay, it might not be that straightforward. Everett burned food or calories or something to fuel his powers. He always ate a lot and mentioned that he might digest himself if he didn¡¯t eat enough, whatever that meant. Sounds like a weakness more than anything else, though Dario had mentioned Everett could cause explosions if he was efficient with burning his ¡®fuel¡¯. I had literally eaten explosions, so I wasn¡¯t worried.

    ¡°Yeah, no one¡¯s going to overhear us,¡± said Reo.

    ¡°I guess so¡­¡± I said, taking a look around to see if someone nearby might be spying. There was no problem with being overheard because Big Marcy already knew we were on board. But I wanted to catch if someone was tailing us.

    ¡°I¡¯m a couple of days from dying,¡± Reo shrugged. ¡°Just let me do whatever I want.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t say that!¡± snapped Deen with such strictness that Reo balked. ¡°No one¡¯s going to die on my watch!¡±

 6.14

    ¡°Deen, calm down.¡± I tugged the hem of her shirt. ¡°People are staring. You¡¯re drawing attention to us, like more than usual.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to die,¡± Deen hissed at Reo. She spun a pointed finger around the table. ¡°None of us are. I won¡¯t allow it.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean you won¡¯t allow¡ª?¡± Reo began to say, his voice rising.

    Everett cut him off. ¡°Let¡¯s calm down, guys. Mom always told me not to fight in front of food. I don¡¯t know why, but it sounds like good advice. Reo, you told me you want to feel the vacation vibes, so chill with the defeatism, man. And Deen, Reo was just¡ª"

    ¡°I was just telling it how it is.¡± Reo resumed eating. ¡°I¡¯ll drop it, okay? But I¡¯ll also point out it isn¡¯t defeatism¡ªit¡¯s realism.¡±

    ¡°I thought you were dropping it,¡± said Everett.

    ¡°Sure, yeah.¡± Reo waved a hand. ¡°No need to pile on me. And Deen didn¡¯t need to go off on me like that either.¡±

    Everett was quick to defend his blonde muse. ¡°She was just concerned about¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Reo,¡± said Deen, apparently needing no defender.

    ¡°Fine, I¡¯m sorry too¡­ for my realistic pessimism.¡± Reo grinned at Everett. ¡°Anyway, what were we talking about before this? Something about swimming to shore? I might just try it and bid you all adieu.¡±

    ¡°Sounds like defeatism,¡± I mumbled. That made Reo smile at me. And was that a wink? I didn¡¯t intend to catch his attention; I just wanted to have some minor presence to not seem like a statue during group discussions.

    ¡°We¡¯re all in this together, Reo,¡± Deen firmly said. ¡°Don¡¯t leave us.¡±

    ¡°Yes, we are,¡± Everett chimed in. ¡°Don¡¯t leave us.¡±

    Would be neat to have a yes-man like Everett at the ready. The power of beauty truly couldn¡¯t be underestimated, and the pathetic loyalty of a guy pining after the girl he likes knew no bounds. Ramon was a good example, though I prefer a yes-man to not be a half-mutated monster.

    ¡°No need to repeat it like a broken parrot,¡± said Reo.

    ¡°Broken parrot?¡± I chirped, seeing the opportunity to jump in. ¡°They¡¯re supposed to repeat stuff. Like a normal parrot, you mean?¡±

    Reo paused and looked at me as if noticing me for the first time. I couldn¡¯t recall the two of us having an actual meaningful conversation before. He laughed and nodded, his silky hair swaying. ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right, Erind. A normal parrot. Don¡¯t go joining them now and¡ª¡±

    I winked at him. ¡°Don¡¯t leave us.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m still here, aren¡¯t I?¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m helping you eat breakfast, and I¡¯ll help you get yourself kill¡ªoops, that¡¯s defeatism right there. Let¡¯s just focus on breakfast first. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t leave you. I¡¯m not going to swim back to shore.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re a swell guy for that.¡± Everett wagged a small breakfast sausage at Reo. ¡°I¡¯m honored to be your roommate for this trip.¡±

    ¡°Of course, you can count on me,¡± Reo said with exaggerated pride, thrusting his weak chest out. ¡°What would my ancestors say if I abandoned my helpless friends? Honor and samurai code crap.¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t understand your ancestors,¡± said Everett, ¡°because you don¡¯t speak any Japanese.¡±

    ¡°I know some words like tonkatsu. It¡¯s probably better I don¡¯t meet any of my ancestral spirits or they¡¯ll chew me out for being a dishonorable sack of potatoes. On a serious note¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re serious now?¡± I smiled at Reo to show I was messing with him. A nugget of a plan materialized in my mind.

    Reo could be the key to leading the hero-wannabe group to the ships going to Red Island. More specifically, his stealthy spy fairy. If I could bring him to the location of the hidden ships, and his stupid fairy accidentally found them, no one would suspect I had insider information. They¡¯d just think Reo succeeded in his usual role of being the scout. Compare that to if I found the ships¡ªDario would be suspicious for sure.

    The group would split up and search the cruise ship for clues, just like what we did yesterday. I should rope in Reo to partner with me. ¡®On paper,¡¯ I was a normal human; they wouldn¡¯t let me roam around on my own. Yesterday, my partner was Deen; I should ditch her now.

    Add that Reo needed a partner as a lookout when he¡¯d use his powers. The problem was that Reo wouldn¡¯t want to be with ¡®normal human¡¯ me. He¡¯d rather have someone with an artificial Core to defend him in his helpless state while his fairy was out and about.

    Would my ¡®feminine charms¡¯ work on him? Was there even a chance he¡¯d fall for me? He has a girlfriend if my memory serves me right.

    I sort of knew how to deal with Everett from my interaction with him as Domino. But I had no idea what strings to pull when it came to Reo. If only Domino had run into Reo instead of Everett. She would¡¯ve made herself useful before I shelve her emotional wreck of an ass.

    ¡°I¡¯m being very serious here, Erind,¡± Reo replied. ¡°I¡¯m not leaving because I know you guys rely on me. Normally, I advise people not to do that¡ªeven I don¡¯t want to count on me. However, when the going gets tough, and this is as tough as it is going to get, I¡¯ll be there.¡±

    ¡°How sweet of you,¡± I cooed a bit. Deen gave me a perplexed sidelong glance.

    ¡°Yeah, you know me,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m as sweet as this cheesecake. Call me, Japanese cheesecake.¡±

    ¡°Man, don¡¯t say disgusting things like that while we¡¯re eating.¡± Everett pretended to vomit. We laughed. I must admit, that was a predictable but good response.

    While the conversation turned to critique the food¡ªit was just average for a buffet, sub-par for a luxury cruise¡ªand the mounds of organic matter on my plates diminished, I gathered my thoughts in preparation for the group meeting.

    Our other members were going to arrive soon. How can I lead them to the three ships bound for Red Island?

    I had two more nights to prepare, not including the night of the trip to Red Island. Today, the ship would just be at sea. There¡¯d be events, like plays at the theater, concerts at the top deck, movies by the pool, random stuff to entertain the passengers. It¡¯d be the best time to snoop around the ship since it¡¯d be the busiest, with all the people on board and milling about.

    Tomorrow morning, the ship would stop at Catalina, where we could disembark and enjoy the island resort. That, or we could stay and continue snooping. However, it might be harder to move around undetected because there¡¯d be fewer people on board. A lone tourist stomping around where she shouldn¡¯t was pretty noticeable.

    By the third night, the ship would set sail again, arriving at Ensenada, Mexico on the morning of the fourth day of the cruise. The situation would be the same at the Catalina stop¡ªthe passengers could go down from the ship and tour the place, returning by evening for the journey back home. We should have found the three ships by then¡ªthat was the easy part¡ªand formulated a plan to sneak on board.

    It was going to be one hell of a plan. Nine stowaways? Jubilee had stealth powers, and maybe we could leave Imani behind. So, six people to hide.

    Going to be difficult not to get spotted in cramped ships full of snobby, rich people on their way to becoming monsterified. Mark¡¯s grunts would be there too. Too bad Big Marcy couldn¡¯t, or wouldn¡¯t, help us.

    ¡°Making good progress here, guys,¡± said Reo, putting aside one empty plate. The other plate was also nearly cleared. ¡°If only our mission would go as smoothly as eating food from a buffet. Can I just volunteer to stay here and stuff my face?¡±

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Have the last piece of pizza, Reo.¡± I rotated the plate and pushed it to him.

    ¡°You sure? But you didn¡¯t eat any.¡±

    ¡°The crust¡¯s too thick for me,¡± I said, though it had a thin crust. Stupid Domino getting this slice. As per my Rules, I had to eat the pizza¡¯s crust first. I wasn¡¯t in the mood to come up with an explanation for my eating habits. ¡°And I don¡¯t like pepperoni. I find it too salty.¡±

    ¡°More food to fuel my defeatism.¡± He folded the pizza slice and took a big bite. ¡°I need to fatten myself for slaughter.¡±

    Everett groaned. ¡°Why are you bringing that up again?¡±

    ¡°Just a joke, my good old chap,¡± said Reo. ¡°I can¡¯t reject food when a girl offers it to me.¡±

    ¡°Am I feeding the sacrificial lamb?¡± I wondered in a cutesy tone. In the corner of my eye, Deen shifted uneasily. I smiled at Reo while adjusting my glasses. Many guys liked nerdy girls. Or just girls with glasses in general.

    Also, I didn¡¯t need Reo to like, like, me. It was enough if I could appeal to his heroic side¡ªit should be there somewhere. He did sign up to be a hero-wannabe. Making him protective of me should be easier than making him fall for me, especially given that he thought I was a normal human. Even then, it might be hard to pull off when it came to Reo. If only I could use Domino to scope out his inner thoughts.

    But I¡¯m not going to summon you again, I thought, looking straight into the eyes of my reflection on the spoon.

    ¡°I like your gloves,¡± Reo said. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you wearing those before. Are you feeling cold? Summer¡¯s already peeking.¡±

    ¡°No, I, um, these are¡­¡± I nudged Deen¡¯s leg with my knee. Making up an excuse wasn¡¯t an issue, but I saw this as an opportunity to make Deen feel like I needed her. She knew I was far stronger than her, and it might alienate her, like a parent moping that their child was growing up, soon to leave the nest.

    ¡°I bought them for Erind as a gift,¡± said Deen. ¡°I dragged her shopping several times, but she didn¡¯t want to buy anything above bland¡ª¡±

    ¡°How dare you criticize my outfits,¡± I jokingly protested.

    ¡°¡ªso, I got those for her so she¡¯d have something setting her apart,¡± Deen finished. ¡°Fingerless gloves aren¡¯t really trendy, making them pair well with Erind¡¯s fashion style¡ªor lack of it.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re bullying me.¡± I bumped her leg again.

    Deen continued her fashion lecture. ¡°They go well with your slender hands and accent your nondescript outfits. The gloves may look out of place, but you¡¯re owning them as part of your style, becoming something iconic and recognizable. It could be your brand. I believe working on one¡¯s style helps build a sense of identity.¡±

    ¡°I agree with you there, professor.¡± Reo gestured to his aloha shirt. He opened one more button. ¡°Too much cleavage?¡± he asked Everett, who was pretending to puke. ¡°At least I¡¯m trying different styles, compared to you, Mr. Fitting Muscle Shirt. How about buying clothes that are not one size too small?¡±

    Everett opened his mouth. No witty comeback came out. He stood up, beet-faced, and mumbled, ¡°I¡¯m going to, uh, get more food. I¡¯m still hungry.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget salads,¡± called Deen over Reo¡¯s boisterous laughter.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to go with him?¡± I asked Reo, who stayed seated.

    ¡°I ate enough already,¡± he replied. ¡°My stomach¡¯s going to be all messed up when our fearless leader, Dario, arrives and we go into serious mode. Stress causes indigestion.¡± He delivered it in his usual joking way, but his eyes revealed he meant it. He knew he was about to get stressed, and he was stressed of getting stressed.

    Very unreliable for my plans.

    ¡°Oh, look.¡± Deen pointed at the doors. ¡°Myra and Johann are here.¡±

    They waved at us. Myra gestured they¡¯d get food first before joining us. Everett a plate in hand, headed to greet them.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Dario?¡± I asked. ¡°He¡¯s roommates with Johann, isn¡¯t he?¡±

    ¡°Maybe Dario traded places with Myra,¡± whispered Reo, leaning close to as with a conspiratorial grin.

    ¡°No way,¡± I said. ¡°Dario¡¯s probably just brushing his teeth or something and Johann went ahead to fetch Myra.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what a sane person would think,¡± Reo said. ¡°You can never be too sure. Workplace romance is pretty common.¡±

    ¡°Are they an item?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Maybe an item, maybe not.¡± Reo wiggled his head. ¡°There¡¯s something there, I guarantee it. I¡¯m never wrong when it comes to things like this¡ªit¡¯s on my resume if you want to check. Compared to before, those two are getting closer.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± said Deen. ¡°That¡¯s news to me. I thought Johann had a girlfriend.¡±

    I tuned out the gossiping¡ªDeen seemed invested in it¡ªsince I already knew the truth. Myra and Johann got closer because they were conspiring against Dario.

    Myra Fletcher, who went by the codename Barb, dyed her hair purple, changing its previous metallic blue. The ends of her bob cut traced her jawline, while her bangs covered her whole forehead up to her eyebrows. Were a new hairstyle and color indication of hidden romance? A baggy Eloyce University sweatshirt settled on her athletic frame, while her shorts stopped an inch above her knee, showing tanned skin.

    Going by stereotypes, she¡¯d be the bubbly sports girl. In actuality, she had a brash and aggressive attitude and was the ¡®muscle¡¯ of the group.

    Super strength and regeneration, Myra was the strongest among the hero wannabes. Still far from matching my physical prowess, of course. When it came to abilities, she could grow bark-like material from her skin that she could mold into armor and blades. Quite sturdy as it could stop bullets. She could also form projectiles with it and shoot them like she did when she tried to kill me.

    I never forgot about that slight against me. Payback was required to keep things in balance, as per Rule #4, and it would be grievous once her usefulness ran out.

    Part of me hoped she and Johann had a thing going on so I could emotionally torture them before escorting them out of the living world. I just couldn¡¯t see her falling for Johann, though.

    Johann Martin Fischer¡ªsurprising that I recalled his full name¡ªwas a lanky beanpole. His wide shoulders made it worse because he had to wear a too-large shirt that highlighted his thinness as it draped over his body. If only he could transfer some of Everett¡¯s muscles onto him.

    Looks-wise, Johann was someone easily missed. If he and Dario were brothers in a fantasy story, Dario would be the famous one, the chosen hero or whatever going on adventures saving the kingdom, and Johann would be the brother left behind tending the farm in a backwater village. It was a fitting analogy as Johann didn¡¯t have an artificial Core, the only human in the hero-wannabe group, La Esperanza Chapter. He worked as a technician at a police station¡¯s Adumbrae investigation unit and fed the group with leads and movements of the police. He also helped me get police clearances, so I suppose I shouldn¡¯t emotionally torture him.

    Sometimes I was nice to people who were nice to me. Sometimes, not.

    ¡°You don¡¯t look so good, Johann,¡± Reo said. ¡°Hangover? Coffee is your answer.¡±

    ¡°Coffee is a diuretic,¡± said Johann as he sat down on the left of Reo while Everett sat on the right. ¡°It may further dehydrate me and prolong my hangover. I¡¯ll just stick to plain water and fruits. Are you guys fine after last night?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, ¡®course we are,¡± said Reo. ¡°Me and Everett here got inhuman tolerance for alcohol.¡±

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s right,¡± said Johann, massaging his temples, elbows propped on the table. ¡°It¡¯s times like this I wonder if I should¡¯ve joined you in your inhumanity.¡±

    ¡°It has its perks and downsides,¡± Myra said. She sat on the other side of Deen. ¡°Cute braids, Deen. Looks good on you.¡±

    ¡°Thank you so much,¡± said Deen, bouncing her locks in her palm. She sounded genuinely pleased with herself. ¡°If you grow your hair longer, you can try it too. Do the multi-color braid style.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll think about it. I¡¯m kinda tired of long hair, too annoying to manage, and sometimes gets too hot.¡±

    ¡°Erind said she¡¯ll try braiding her hair too,¡± Deen said.

    Damn, that fucking Domino promised Deen about that! ¡°We¡¯re not complete yet?¡± I asked to distract Deen. ¡°Where¡¯s Dario? Isn¡¯t he with you, Johann?¡±

    ¡°He left the room early,¡± Johann replied. ¡°Went straight to the gym to work out. Said he needed to clear his mind for this mission. I think he showered at the gym and went to Jubilee and Imani. Hey, he¡¯s here now.¡±

    Dario entered the restaurant, looking like a protagonist. He had an assured face, his blonde hair neatly combed right, and his bearing screamed confidence. If I was a director, I¡¯d cast him as the leader of the band of heroes. He should be front and center of every fight, wielding a sword and looking cool¡­ but his powers didn¡¯t reflect his looks.

    He had more of a support role, generating a field around him that gifted people with migraines at its lowest setting, up to straight-up knocking people out at maximum. And with his touch, he could erase memories, fitting for his codename¡ªBlank.

    He was practically hangover personified.

    That¡¯s a good one, I thought. I was going to reserve that line when we¡¯d eventually face off against each other.

    ¡°Oh, leader of the pack,¡± Reo said, bowing to Dario. ¡°How is your morning?¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s Jubilee and Imani?¡± asked Johann. ¡°Didn¡¯t you go to them?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t pass by their room,¡± Dario said. ¡°I intended to, but I spent too much time on the treadmill, lost in thoughts. I assumed they¡¯d be here already.¡±

    And just as he said it, Jubilee and Imani walked through the door. Jubilee waved at us, while Imani was just clinging to her side, her face a mess. She clearly had been crying.

    Deen and I looked at each other. This is bad.

 6.15

    Reo whistled. ¡°I always thought I¡¯d be the first to crack. Looks like someone beat me to it.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mention anything to her, Reo,¡± Dario said as he pulled additional seats to our table for a total of nine. ¡°Everyone, act like Imani is fine. Allow her space to pull herself together. Jubilee¡¯s best to console her; they know each other more than we do. I¡¯ll also try to talk to Imani later and see what I can help with.¡±

    Pretending like he has no idea what¡¯s going on, I thought while keeping my face passive. Did this bastard really have a morning workout? Or did he and Jubilee ¡®convince¡¯ Imani to spill what she knew about me?

    Either way, I sent Domino on a fool¡¯s errand trying to catch Dario earlier because he wasn¡¯t in his room anyway. Oops.

    ¡°Aye, aye, captain!¡± Reo saluted. ¡°I¡¯m not going to point out the obvious.¡± He pulled an imaginary zipper across his lips.

    ¡°Poor, Imani,¡± Deen said. ¡°She shouldn¡¯t have gone on this trip. She doesn¡¯t have pow¡ªshe¡¯s not like us.¡± Deen shot me another subtle glance. Then she flicked her eyes at Dario before wearing a concerned face for Imani again. Minus one member for our side, she meant to convey through our telepathy of friendship.

    I gave her a slight nod as I clenched my fist under the table.

    My morning wasn¡¯t going well. First, Domino was a pain in the butt, attempting to say goodbye to the world and trying to bring me with her. Next, Imani seemed to have betrayed me¡­ or was on the verge of it. Like, what the fuck? As preposterous as it sounded, I was more trustworthy than Dario and Jubilee. I looked more trustworthy too.

    I even had these cute fingerless gloves! How could anyone think pretty innocent little me was the bad guy?

    In comparison, Jubilee, codename: Jubub¡ªsounds funny¡ªwore all black from head to toe. From neck to toe, I mean. Would be weird if she covered her head too. Talk about the wrong outfit for a cruise. It wasn¡¯t goth or punk or whatever fashion style wore too much black. Rather, Jubilee looked like she was going to a funeral, donning a high-collared, long-sleeved blouse and slacks, both as dark as the night, matching her hair tied in a bun.

    I suspected Jubilee dyed her hair given that she had blue eyes. I knew it was genetically possible, black hair with blue eyes, but quite a rare combination. Could also be natural because she had black eyebrows. Or maybe she dyed them too, I supposed.

    Did wearing black have something to do with her powers?

    Jubilee had shadow-something abilities. She could hide in shadows¡ªlike, literally melt into darkness¡ªconfuse enemies with them, and make shadow creatures to fight or spy for her. I didn¡¯t know the extent of her powers, but I fortunately discovered her weakness¡ªdirect bright light.

    I witnessed it during her fight against Finlay. She got trapped with flashlights. What the pitiful silliness was that? She escaped only because I arrived and distracted Finlay.

    If that dummy-making dummy caught Jubilee, I should win against her easy-peasy.

    When it came to Imani Nanda, her hair was naturally black, even blacker than mine. Her complexion was a beautiful honey, her face showing prominent South Asian features. Easy for me to recognize because I had traveled around that part of the world when Dad was still officially alive.

    Imani¡¯s situation must be like Reo and Everett''s. Our country was one of the safest in the world when it came to preventing and controlling Adumbrae attacks, so it wasn¡¯t surprising many wanted to migrate here. The population¡¯s mental health was quite stable due to government programs¡ªsometimes heavy-handed they may be, but they weren¡¯t intrusive enough to cause the stress they aimed to prevent. It was a delicate balance; the environment and the citizens¡¯ likelihood of becoming Adumbrae, one affecting the other and vice-versa.

    Other countries, particularly poor ones, suffer Adumbrae seeding outbreaks on the regular. They would¡¯ve been wiped off maps long ago if it weren¡¯t for Corebrings.

    Though Imani had no superpowers, she wasn¡¯t a completely pathetic regular human. She had a bioaugmentronic arm she could outfit with weapons, though it was unlikely she brought anything lethal on board. It¡¯d be difficult to sneak it past security. Her aug-arm was well-made, looking all normal except for its unnatural sheen when catching the rays of the sun.

    Curiously, Imani had a codename¡ª¡®Tove¡¯¡ªeven if she didn¡¯t have an artificial Core. For our group, the codenames they picked were related to their powers, with Johann using none. Maybe the Las Vegas group had a different thing going on.

    Why Imani hadn¡¯t Melded with an artificial Core? She didn¡¯t seem to have issues with it, unlike Johann. Dario gave out artificial Cores without any loyalty test or probationary period¡ªDeen Melded with hers the day Everett rescued her from the fire he started¡ªso why didn¡¯t the Las Vegas group immediately turn their members into superhumans? Did they lack artificial Cores or was Jubilee picky with choosing her teammates?

    The codenames of the Vegas people were supposedly from the writings of Lewis Carroll, Imani had explained. I was familiar only with the book Alice¡¯s Adventures in Wonderland because my grandma had a copy; I read it while vacationing at her house. Imani told me that their codenames came from Carroll¡¯s other works, not the famous book. Too bad their creativity was wasted because I couldn¡¯t recall the codenames of their other two members¡ªneither their real names, for that matter.

    They were dead anyway, so who cares? If a side character didn¡¯t make an impact during their short appearance in a show, viewers would forget about them. Maybe I should¡¯ve gone to film school?

    ¡°Hello, everyone,¡± Jubilee said in a monotone, matching her perpetually bored expression.

    Imani didn¡¯t say anything. She rubbed her face as if to wipe off traces of her distraught. It just made her puffy eyes look worse. I pulled the chair beside me, but Imani instead sat far from Deen and me.

    ¡°Good morning.¡± I tried to catch Imani¡¯s eyes. She was intent on staring at the tablecloth, hiding behind her hair. It made me more suspicious. Dario and Jubilee weren¡¯t showing any indication they knew I tried to turn Imani on them.

    Like, duh.What was I expecting? I wasn¡¯t familiar enough with Jubjub to recognize her tells. Dario, on the other hand, was adept at masking his thoughts.

    After I rejected Dario¡¯s artificial Core offer and stormed out of our first meeting, he sent Myra, Reo, and Johann to capture me. It was a pure coincidence the 2Ms kidnapped me first, becoming the ¡®reason¡¯ that I changed my mind and joined the hero-wannabe group. Dario acted like he deeply appreciated my change of heart and didn¡¯t originally want to erase my memories. It was only because of Myra that I knew the truth of what happened. Part of the truth.

    Dario left our table to get food, heading to Myra and Johann to greet them as a proper leader should.

    Imani mumbled she didn¡¯t want to eat. I thought this would be our chance to talk to her, but Jubilee stayed in her seat too, saying she wasn¡¯t hungry either. I thought of inviting Imani to try this or that food so I could get her alone with me, but decided not to. Jubilee would go with her anyway.

    The time¡¯s not right. I should wait to glean more information about what Imani told Jubilee. No rush. The possible betrayal of Imani was inconsequential to my plans.

    Eventually, all of us gathered around the table, and it was fucking cramped. The armrests of Deen¡¯s and Myra¡¯s chairs bumped against mine. It didn¡¯t help that more people were arriving to eat breakfast as the morning marched onward. Some assholes passing behind me inadvertently pushed against my seat. Too much clinking of silverware and plates annoyed me more.

    We could¡¯ve met in a room¡ªDeen¡¯s was spacious enough for us. Moreover, we¡¯d have privacy compared to here. Privacy¡­ the thing that was important for secret planning.

    However, during our pre-trip planning stage, Dario insisted we shouldn¡¯t gather in any of our rooms¡ªehem, cabins¡ªbecause it¡¯d look suspicious to anyone watching. He reminded us to always assume someone was manning the security cameras, or spying around the corner. If we were a group of friends on vacation, he explained, we wouldn¡¯t pack ourselves in a cramped space for an hour or two. Instead, we¡¯d be out exploring the ship, drinking at the bar, or lounging by the poolside, the usual tourist stuff.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    I wasn¡¯t sure if Dario was right about that. Who cared if a bunch of people were inside one room? They could be just telling each other ghost stories. But in the end, we followed his instructions.

    The challenge was how not to get overheard discussing secret stuff in the open. And the solution was¡­ just not to discuss them at all.

    ¡°Good job yesterday, everyone,¡± said Dario, over-enthusiastically clapping his hands. Reo snorted on his drink. I agree that it was funny seeing Dario act all upbeat. Dario frowned at Reo for a blink before returning to his character. ¡°I¡¯ve reviewed the files you guys sent me. Thanks very much for your hard work. I spent all night just watching clips of your segments¡ª¡±

    ¡°Did you even get to sleep, man?¡± Reo asked with a twinkle in his eye.

    Deen raised her hand. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for sending my part late.¡±

    Should I join in? Would it be too suspicious? Yesterday, Deen told me she¡¯d play along with this bit so Dario wouldn¡¯t suspect that we knew that he knew that we knew he wasn¡¯t to be trusted. Pretty convoluted and vague summed up our situation.

    ¡°Most of the shots gathered yesterday are great for our cruise ship episode,¡± Dario continued. ¡°I¡¯m impressed. As for today¡ª¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± said Myra. ¡°I thought Reo¡¯s clips totally sucked ass. We might get censored on Snippet because our vids would show so much ass.¡±

    ¡°I poured my heart and soul into my craft!¡± Reo threw his hands up. ¡°Tell me I didn¡¯t review the hell out of the main lobby and the three theaters. I want to see you do a better job. But I¡¯m not going to see anything because you can¡¯t do a better job than I did.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t see anything because you¡¯re blind to great filmography,¡± Myra shot back, her voice wavering as laughter threatened to burst out.

    They¡¯re all really into this bit, I mused, grinning. I could relate. Wearing other faces was fun.

    ¡°Need I remind you I was a film student?¡± Reo stood up, his hand melodramatically on his chest.

    This was the opposite of not drawing attention to ourselves. Reo just couldn¡¯t help but clown around. For a fleeting moment, Dario looked annoyed. Did this confirm Reo didn¡¯t know the actual truth? That he wasn¡¯t in on the real plan of Dario? Probably? Hard to tell.

    ¡°But you didn¡¯t finish film school,¡± said Myra. Was this the real backstory of Reo?

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right,¡± Reo replied. ¡°However, let it be clear that I was kicked out not because of bad grades. In fact, I was running for honors.¡±

    ¡°You were kicked out because you were selling¡ª¡±

    ¡°I was an enterprising individual. And that doesn¡¯t negate the fact that I¡¯ve been to film school, in contrast to you.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s enough, you two,¡± said Dario. ¡°Our collab video isn¡¯t going to get done if we waste time bickering. We¡¯re yet to cover many more places, and we haven¡¯t even interviewed anyone, no crew or passengers. With them, our video is going a step above the usual cruise vlogging.¡±

    ¡°Yes, we need the people to share their experiences for authenticity,¡± said Reo.

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s go over what areas we need to film today,¡± Dario said. ¡°We have to speed things up because tomorrow we¡¯ll go down the ship and shoot in Catalina.¡±

    And that was our cover story¡ªwe were fledgling vloggers collaborating to document our cruise in the Islas de Sangre. Essentially, we were copying what Bianca was doing here.

    Our goal was to search the ship for clues about Red Island. Since we didn¡¯t know what those clues might be¡ªthat was before Big Marcy told me¡ªwe didn¡¯t need to talk about anything important. We could be out in the open, filming locations and stuff. If we found something, then we¡¯d go into secrecy mode.

    But was this all necessary? Did Dario really think the 2Ms wouldn¡¯t have any idea we were here?

    Maybe he did know, or at least assumed that the 2Ms were already aware of our presence. This could all be a show to pretend that he didn¡¯t know that they know that¡ªI¡¯m not going to bother continuing this.

    Even then, why did Dario not leave me on dry land? The 2Ms knew who I was¡ªthey had kidnapped me and also attacked my condominium. No way the 2Ms wouldn¡¯t notice I was on board, this being the way to Red Island and all that. I shouldn¡¯t be here with them if Dario wanted to be all sneaky. Also, wasn¡¯t I a great liability, being an Adumbrae? I was a straight-up enemy.

    For the others, Dario could just tell them I was a normal human so I had to sit this one out. What was I supposed to contribute that the rest of the hero wannabes couldn¡¯t do? They had Suppressors if they needed to be normal humans, and Reo had spying powers.

    The only reason I could think of why Dario didn¡¯t oppose me joining their mission was that he planned to use me for¡­ something. I should watch out for it, whatever it was.

    ¡°To cover more ground¡ª¡± Dario started to say.

    Reo chuckled. ¡°To cover more ground?¡±

    ¡°To get more clips, since we¡¯ll have several episodes on this,¡± Dario said, ¡°We¡¯ll have to split up, the same as yesterday. I want everything about this ship done by today. Our whole day tomorrow is reserved for the Catalina content.¡±

    So, that¡¯s his plan? And then, tomorrow, we¡¯d act like we weren¡¯t done with shooting on the ship, so we¡¯d have a story about why we¡¯d stay. It would be suspicious if a group of young tourists didn¡¯t want to go down to the resort island.

    ¡°I¡¯m excited for it,¡± said Deen. She looked at me. ¡°Aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Super excited,¡± I replied. The urge to roll my eyes was strong.

    ¡°For our assignments,¡± said Dario.

    Okay, this is it, I thought. How do I go about this? I couldn¡¯t say I wanted to pair with Reo. Dario would immediately be suspicious.

    ¡°First, Imani,¡± said Dario. ¡°I think it¡¯s better if you take a rest for now.¡±

    Imani said, ¡°But you¡¯ll have fewer people¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay, Imani,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯ll cover for you. I¡¯ll take on a more active role.¡± I didn¡¯t check Dario and Jubilee¡¯s reactions.

    Yesterday, I just roamed the safer parts of the ship¡ªa token duty for me because I was supposed to be a normal human. However, if I was a normal human, I should be assigned to look for the bio scanners on board instead of the others. Deen argued against it, wanting to keep weak me safe. Surprisingly, Dario agreed, which, to me, was further confirmation that he knew that we knew¡­ and so on.

    ¡°Where do you want to be assigned?¡± Dario asked me. There were so many layers as to why he gave me the option to choose instead of telling me where to go. He probably thought he was being clever about it, but it just made my job easier.

    So how do I get to Reo? Simple. ¡°I can go with Deen today,¡± I said. ¡°We can explore the lower parts of the ship. With Deen¡¯s charms, I¡¯m sure we can access many places.¡±

    ¡°Deen has many charms, alright,¡± Reo said, nudging Everett. ¡°Do you know what the future holds for the two of you, my good old chap?¡±

    ¡°Be serious, man,¡± Everett mumbled. ¡°We¡¯re planning here.¡±

    ¡°I think it¡¯s better if Erind went with someone else,¡± said Dario.

    As expected, he¡¯d want to break us up. I was sure he suspected that I already had Deen on my side, so it was difficult to move against me with her power on guard. He didn¡¯t know what Deen and I were up to, but at least he¡¯d try to stop it.

    ¡°Why can¡¯t Erind be with me?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s probably better to have a guy and girl pairing to host each segment,¡± said Dario.

    Idiot! Dario gave a very plausible reason, but he played right into my hands. ¡°Both of us aren¡¯t going to host,¡± I said. ¡°I was thinking it¡¯d just be Deen. I can be her cameraman¡­ camerawoman.¡±

    ¡°The host pair is a good idea,¡± said Jubilee, backing up Dario. ¡°It¡¯s different from what we did yesterday.¡±

    ¡°So, who¡¯ll go with me, if not Erind?¡± asked Deen.

    I looked at Reo. He spotted my gaze. I blinked, as if surprised he caught me. Then I turned to Everett. Reo shot his hand up in the air.

    ¡°I volunteer Everett for the job!¡± Reo said.

    ¡°Then Everett and Deen will be our first pair,¡± said Dario. He must¡¯ve thought he won with that, but he was so wrong.

    Deen tried to protest. I also complained a bit but didn¡¯t let it go on long. Deen took it as a sign we shouldn¡¯t be so obvious about it, so she stopped as well. Everett was blushing as Reo teased him. Onto the second part of my plan.

    ¡°Then what about me?¡± I said. ¡°I need a guy pair, so who would it be?¡±

    I didn¡¯t need to have a pair¡ªI already volunteered to just be filming them. It was obvious that Deen needed to be a host, but there was no need for me to be one. Even I wouldn¡¯t pick me. Dario could either say to my face that I shouldn¡¯t have my own segment, or he¡¯d pick a partner for me. If the latter, he had three choices¡ªReo, Johann, and himself.

    ¡°I¡¯m going with Johann,¡± said Myra.

    Thank the Mother Core. I wasn¡¯t sure if Myra knew of my plan or if she just wanted to be with Johann. Perhaps Reo¡¯s rumors had some truth to them.

    ¡°Then I¡ª¡± Dario began.

    But Everett cut him off. ¡°I volunteer Reo to go with Erind!¡±

 6.16

    ¡°Where did Reo go?¡± I wondered aloud upon reaching the place where I left him¡ªthe main-entrance-lobby-whatever of the cruise ship. Many people roamed about, but I would¡¯ve certainly spotted Reo if he were present. His neon beach shorts and pink shirt were like beacons.

    After our hero-wannabe huddle, the assigned pairs went our separate ways. Deen pulled me aside for a second, muttering quick reminders to take care of myself and always text her where I was and immediately call her if there was trouble. She also told me not to go someplace I¡¯d be alone with Reo. Some freaking parental advisory. Did she really think I suddenly liked him?

    ¡°Since we¡¯re going investigating,¡± I had told Deen, ¡°we¡¯ll go to places with no one else around.¡±

    ¡°You know what I¡¯m talking about,¡± she hissed before leaving with Everett to scout the fancy restaurants onboard.

    The thought for Deen¡¯s assignment was that the 2Ms¡¯ clients wouldn¡¯t have breakfast at the buffet like some plebeians. They¡¯d be elsewhere more exclusive, eating gold-flaked pancakes and drinking hot chocolate topped with caviar. Something like that. I didn¡¯t know what rich people had for breakfast because Deen rarely ate any. Dario instructed Deen to seek out possible customers of the 2Ms, socialize with them, and see if she could glean any useful information.

    Deen looked the part for it. Plus, she had the money to spend. Poor Deen. She should be reimbursed by the Professor.

    And Everett would supposedly pose as her boyfriend. Reo¡¯s idea, of course. Deen didn¡¯t respond to that suggestion, not even a nod or a shake of her head.

    As for Reo and me, we¡¯d be searching below deck¡ªnot sure what that meant since there were plenty of decks and plenty of below them. Probably everything past where passengers stayed? Like, we hadn¡¯t yet visited the crew living quarters. The ship¡¯s crew totaled over a thousand, according to a brochure I read. That was plenty of area to cover. Dario reasoned that if the 2Ms hid something, it¡¯d be away from the passengers. Reo¡¯s power was perfect for reaching off-limit places.

    All good for me since I aimed to reach the engine room, and that was going to be ¡®below deck,¡¯ wasn¡¯t it? Maybe not exactly the engine room. Someplace with lots of machines, judging from the pictures Big Marcy sent me.

    If someone would challenge our snooping, Everett suggested that Reo pretend not to understand English. Probably a joke, thinking about it.

    We¡¯d better stick with our cover story¡ªwe were shooting a vlog. We could even interview the cruise ship employees if they knew ghost stories or spooky happenings on board. Reo was personable enough to pull it off. I doubted all of the cruise ship employees were in the loop about the 2Ms¡¯ inhuman shenanigans. Maybe some innocent crew member witnessed something odd, like a band of passengers sneaking away in the bowels of the ship at odd hours.

    If we did get kicked out of some areas, we could have a closer look using Reo¡¯s fairy.

    But before we started our mission, I told Reo I needed to return to my room because I had forgotten something. I didn¡¯t have photogenic or photovoltaic or whatever memory to recall the stuff Big Marcy sent me after one look. Keeping Mommy Deen¡¯s advice in mind, I told Reo to wait for me in the lobby.

    ¡°This must be him,¡± I said, feeling my phone vibrate. ¡°No, dammit.¡±

    It was Deen, checking up on me again. I thought for a moment to ignore her, but that¡¯d make her nagging worse, so I replied that I was fine. Next, I checked the pictures I took of the maps and other pieces of paper from Big Marcy, trying to make heads or tails of them. And what was the significance of the number four-four-three-zero? I was never good with directions or clues, things that needed patience to decipher. The cruise ship was huge, like three football fields long. Even if I narrowed down the area where the small ships to Red Island could be hidden to somewhere near the water level, there were still a ton of places to search.

    I chewed my tongue, beginning to think we¡¯d never find it. I could barge into Big Marcy¡¯s office again to directly ask him. Fuck what he said about secrecy.

    Or maybe Reo might know where to look. Should I reveal these pictures to him?

    Nah, he¡¯d ask me where I got them. Though he usually messed around, he was intelligent¡ªhis fast quips and snide comments were proof. No matter what fake story I¡¯d make, he¡¯d be suspicious.

    I looked around the lobby. Where could he have gone? I hated waiting for other people, especially if I had to stand in a crowded place. The least he could do was message me.

    ¡°Oh, he doesn¡¯t have my number, duh,¡± I said, tapping my forehead with my phone. ¡°Well, he still should¡¯ve told me beforehand.¡±

    After about five minutes, someone called out. ¡°Erind! I¡¯m back.¡± It was Reo in a new look.

    He had his hair neatly tied in a ponytail, no longer covering his face. He also changed his clothes, donning a black shirt with what was probably a band¡¯s name written across its front in barely legible letters and khaki shorts.

    Noticing my stare, he explained, ¡°I was too conspicuous in my previous getup.¡± Just as I suspected, he could think if he spared the effort. He waved at me as he walked back into the corridor he came from. ¡°Come along, Erind, my new partner.¡±

    My cheek twitched. He didn¡¯t apologize for suddenly disappearing even if he had a valid reason. ¡°Where to?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m thinking we start our ¡®below deck¡¯ investigations at the general bar for the crew,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s daytime, so there¡¯d be scarcely anyone there. That¡¯s a good thing. I¡¯m hoping there¡¯s someone from the night shift hanging out there we can talk to. They¡¯ll be more open to spill suspicious beans if there¡¯s no crowd.¡±

    ¡°General bar for the crew? There¡¯s such a place here?¡± I asked, half-considering he was pulling my leg. ¡°Like a bar for employees only? Passengers aren¡¯t allowed?¡±

    ¡°You got it. Most¡­ probably all cruise ships have a bar, or bars, exclusive for the crew. These people are stuck here for months on end. They¡¯ll be out of their minds if not for booze.¡±

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right¡­¡±

    ¡°Beer and boats go together since ancient times. Vikings had ale and mead on their ships. When the British established their empire everywhere they could reach, their ships carried beer instead of water.¡± Reo shrugged. ¡°To be fair, their reasons back then for having beer on board wasn¡¯t for entertainment, like it is now. The crew bar is definitely for entertainment though.¡±

    ¡°Wow. You¡¯re a history buff or something?¡± A crew bar? I didn¡¯t even think of shit like this. Reo was actually a decent teammate. This must be why Dario got him into the group. It wouldn¡¯t make sense if he was a whiny coward who¡¯d back out when danger came.

    ¡°I did listen to some of my classes in college. Anyway, yeah¡ªI found the crew bar yesterday after we ended our drinking session.¡±

    ¡°After drinking with us¡­ you drunk with the crew? Were you okay?¡± Luckily my Domino self didn¡¯t run into Reo yesterday night. That stupid girl might¡¯ve been dragged into the crew bar and I would¡¯ve missed meeting Big Marcy.

    Reo gave me a sidelong wink with a smirk. ¡°Regeneration powers, baby! An upside of this stupid thing.¡± He thumped his chest. Good to know his artificial Core was in the same location as Deen¡¯s. ¡°But if I can turn back time, I¡¯d rather not accept this,¡± he said. ¡°I miss getting wasted¡­ among other normal human things.¡±

    Mental note for future manipulation, I thought. I didn¡¯t need Domino¡ªI could extract stuff from people just fine. But it wasn¡¯t yet the time to manipulate Reo.

    I put on an uncomfortable face, and stammered like I was hesitantly changing back the topic, ¡°Can pa-passengers enter the crew bar?¡±

    ¡°They didn¡¯t kick me out, and that¡¯s good enough,¡± he said. ¡°Technically, yeah, I shouldn¡¯t be there. The officers weren¡¯t present that time¡ªthey have their own bar, but they sometimes mingled with the lower totem pole¡ªso no one cared.¡± He leaned closer to me, stroking his chin. ¡°And how can anyone reject this pretty face? Lots of cute girls on board and they can¡¯t get enough of me.¡±

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Was he hitting on me? Or just messing around? In a snap, I internally debated whether to act intimidated, embarrassed or show no reaction. I continued looking uncomfortable while staying silent. After all, I was timid Erind.

    ¡°It helped that I couldn¡¯t get drunk, while they were getting canned,¡± Reo said. A cabin stewardess passed us. Reo greeted her, and she smiled at him. ¡°Must be hell to get stuck in here,¡± he said, looking over his shoulder to check her out as she walked in the opposite direction. ¡°This whole ship is an actual hell if you think about it because there are legit monsters on board.¡±

    ¡°Yo-you planned this yesterday?¡± I asked, entering an empty elevator.

    ¡°Planned what?¡±

    ¡°Get close with the crew so we can investigate their living areas today?¡±

    Reo blinked as he pressed a floor button. ¡°I didn¡¯t¡ª¡± He snapped his fingers and pointed at me. ¡°You got that right, Erind. I planned this. See how trustworthy I am? I didn¡¯t even rely on my powers. Just going to waltz right in.¡±

    <hr>

    And we did waltz right into the crew bar.

    As Reo had predicted, it was mostly empty. Actually, it was closed, with a sign saying so hanging from the door, but it wasn¡¯t locked, so in we went. Be confident, Reo told me. Four people were inside. Two guys were nursing a bottle, while a third was lying on a bench, busy playing a game on his phone.

    ¡°No passengers allowed here,¡± one of the Bottle Guys said. They wouldn¡¯t know Reo because they were on a different shift compared to the crewmates he partied with yesterday.

    The last person was a woman behind the counter, wiping glasses. She waved at Reo. ¡°Heyo, Obe! Isn¡¯t this too early for you?¡± Since she recognized him, the other employees invited us to their table.

    Reo was ready with stories about the crazy things they did last night, enthralling the three guys who missed it. They moped about how they couldn¡¯t join parties at the crew bar because of their shift unless they wanted to risk being absent the following day. Still, they did try it now and then.

    ¡°Just hell to pay,¡± said the guy on the bench, his eyes and fingers glued to his phone.

    ¡°Coffee for you and your girlfriend,¡± the lady said, giving us two cups. ¡°Helps you with your hangover.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not his girlfriend,¡± I timidly mumbled.

    I wasn¡¯t sure if she heard it because Reo simultaneously said in a loud voice, ¡°I don¡¯t have a hangover Sarah¡ªit¡¯s Sarah, right? With an ¡®h¡¯? Your blonde friend is the Sara without an ¡®h¡¯, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m the ¡®h¡¯- Sarah,¡± she replied with a flirtatious wink. She did hear what I said. ¡°And you got some alcohol tolerance there.¡± To her fellow employees, she explained, ¡°Obe here just downed bottle after bottle last night. Won a contest outdrinking Terry, so Terry coughed up to pay for Obe¡¯s tab.¡±

    ¡°Damn, you beat Terry?¡± said Bottle Guy Two.

    The conversation continued, with Reo carrying it well as if he had politician blood in his veins. I did my specialty of camouflaging my existence. Like what choice did I have? If I wore an extroverted face, I¡¯d clash with Reo. Only Sarah bothered talking to me, mostly to confirm that I wasn¡¯t in a relationship with Reo. As minutes of mundane chatter passed, I started to suspect Reo had no intention of investigating anything.

    Did this bastard just want to pass the time, dragging me with him?

    I seethed in my seat. Hey, that rhymed.

    Even if I could wiggle a smooth face transition, it was too late now with Reo hogging the spotlight. And it¡¯d be awkward if I tried questioning these people out of the blue. I¡¯d wait if there was an opening.

    A few more minutes later, Reo wove in questions about weird happenings on board or rumors about passengers. I wasn¡¯t sure if he was just gossiping or if he had laid the groundwork all along for sleuthing. Perhaps I judged him wrong.

    ¡°They say the gorgeous gal with Kirk Dickinson is his new girlfriend,¡± Sarah excitedly whispered, though no one was around to eavesdrop on us. She was talking about a famous actor. ¡°They¡¯re just not making it official yet because of his ongoing divorce in court.¡±

    ¡°Actors and divorces,¡± said another ship employee. ¡°Like peanut butter and jelly.¡±

    ¡°They also say Dickinson¡¯s girl is pregnant,¡± Sarah said. ¡°It¡¯s the cause of the divorce. Can¡¯t see the baby bump yet, though.¡±

    ¡°Looks like Kirk¡­¡± Reo began, looking around the table with a mischievous glint in his eyes. ¡°¡­got his dick in her.¡± The table erupted into laughter.

    I allowed myself a chuckle. Predictable but still funny. If Everett delivered that line, it would¡¯ve fallen flat. This bolstered my theory that people were either funny or not, and there was no changing that.

    ¡°I have something too,¡± Gaming Guy said, sitting up and finally stowing away his phone. ¡°The hot McHunter daughter is here. Kenny says he helped her with luggage yesterday. He tried to take a picture proof, but chickened out.¡±

    ¡°Probably for the best,¡± said Sarah.

    ¡°There are other McHunters on board too,¡± continued Gaming Guy. ¡°Confirmed. My friend was probably telling the truth.¡±

    ¡°He is,¡± I said, jumping into the opening. ¡°I saw Raphaela Mchunter yesterday.¡± To be precise, Domino saw her. To be even more precise, Domino couldn¡¯t see her well in the dim lights at the bar, but Jeffrey pointed her out. ¡°Is Raphaela the hot McHunter you¡¯re talking about?¡±

    ¡°Mother Core, hell, no! Not that old woman.¡± The Bottle Guys laughed.

    ¡°She¡¯s not that old,¡± said Sarah. ¡°Not like she¡¯s a grandma or something. She looks good for her age, actually.¡±

    ¡°I guess, if someone is into that,¡± Gaming Guy said. ¡°Many guys, many tastes. Anyway, I was talking about Yara McHunter.¡± My ears wiggled at the mention of the peculiar name. ¡°Man, she¡¯s fine like the sand in Bondi Beach.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s a McHunter, dude,¡± said Bottle Guy One. ¡°You¡¯re crazy enough to tap that?¡±

    They talked about the Adumbrae drama the McHunters were wrapped in, and how the family fell from being the wealthiest and most powerful in La Esperanza to still being wealthy and powerful, though no longer the top after their patriarch was discovered to be an Adumbrae. Funny how that worked.

    Raphaela McHunter¡­ She was the woman who met Domino in the elevator. The illusion generated was a clone of her dead daughter. Raphaela, in turn, was the daughter of the Adumbrae McHunter, Raphael. It made me wonder if Domino had luck powers. She seemed to run into important people.

    Speaking of important people, I asked for others connected to the McHunters. It wouldn¡¯t be weird now that I had a foothold in the conversation. Might as well make this productive. The crew members were all too willing to continue yapping. Must be pretty boring here during the daytime, so they snatched the opportunity for some change of pace. Then I changed the topic again to not sound like we were actively investigating stuff.

    ¡°We¡¯ll be at Catalina tomorrow, right?¡± I asked. ¡°How do we get to shore?¡± It was a sensible question, one that I already knew the answer to.

    ¡°There¡¯ll be smaller ships tendering passengers to somewhere near the town,¡± Sarah replied. ¡°Catalina doesn¡¯t have a large enough port to accommodate cruise ships.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a bit of a hassle, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m not too crazy about tendering. Waiting in line and all that.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just for Catalina,¡± said Bottle Guy Two. ¡°Even if they have the budget to build a huge port¡ªand I¡¯m sure they do¡ªthe shore¡¯s too shallow for this ship to get near. It¡¯d require a lot of dredging, and that¡¯d destroy the beaches.¡±

    I glanced at Reo, expecting a joke relating to destroying beaches. It was just right there for the picking. But he stayed silent. He must¡¯ve sensed I was going somewhere with this, so he shut his mouth.

    ¡°Ensenada has a large port,¡± said Bottle Guy One, ¡°so no issues there.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Sarah said. ¡°The tender ships run continuously. There¡¯ll be a line in the morning, when the bulk of the passengers come to shore, and the last trip is going to be packed. Just avoid those, and you¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    ¡°Good to know,¡± I said. ¡°And it looks like the weather¡¯s going to be fine, so no problem with tendering. I hate it when they have to cancel stuff because of choppy waves. Even if nothing¡¯s canceled, I still get seasick on small boats.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all good this time of the year around Catalina,¡± Sarah replied. ¡°You can get to shore, for sure.¡± I smiled at the rhyme. She went on, ¡°When the ship¡¯s anchored, it¡¯s quite stable for when you board the tender ships. Unfortunately, nothing we can do about the rocking once you get on them.¡±

    ¡°How small are these boats?¡± I asked. ¡°Is this ship going to use its lifeboats to get people ashore? Please say no. I had a cruise that did that, and I hated it. All cramped and stuffy and made me question if the lifeboat was really for preserving life.¡±

    They all laughed, including Reo. But he was fake laughing, an inquisitive squint on his face. He was guessing where I was going with this.

    ¡°Catalina has its own tender ships,¡± said Sarah. ¡°They are pretty roomy.¡±

    ¡°Oh, thank the Mother Core,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe all cruise ships should carry large boats for tendering. But I¡¯m not sure where they¡¯ll be located. They can¡¯t hang them from the sides like the lifeboats because they¡¯d be too heavy. Maybe somewhere inside?¡±

    ¡°Like some filthy rich dude who has a small boat inside their megayachts?¡± said Reo. ¡°This ship probably doesn¡¯t have a space for that.¡± He looked at Sarah with a raised brow.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any,¡± she replied, shrugging. ¡°We have thousands of people on board. And there are restaurants, theaters, all that. Probably no more space.¡±

    ¡°They could hide a ship in the weird bulbous bow,¡± muttered Gaming Guy who returned to his game.

    ¡°Bulbous bow?¡± I repeated.

    ¡°You know that strange protrusion on the front end of the ship?¡± he said. ¡°Ah, well you really can¡¯t see it because it¡¯s below the waterline. Which makes the bulbous bow of this ship weird since its quite large, extending above the waterline. You can put something there, I guess.¡±

 6.17

    ¡°Something?¡± My mind turned to the small ships to Red Island. Could I have found them this easily? Reo seemed to be a lucky charm. ¡°Hang on, where is this bulbous bow thingy?¡± I giggled. ¡°Sounds funny to say.¡± A touch of airheadedness to soften my inquisitiveness.

    ¡°The front of the ship is like a wedge, see?¡± Gaming Guy placed his phone on the table and then formed a triangular edge with his fingers. ¡°To cut through the waves.¡±

    ¡°Yep, and that¡¯s called the bow,¡± I said.

    ¡°And the rear end of the ship is called the aft,¡± Reo said, exaggeratedly tapping his temple. ¡°I know some boat terminologies too.¡±

    ¡°In a regular bow,¡± said Gaming Guy, ¡°the top is the farthest point.¡±

    I nodded. ¡°Where Joseph and Beatrice stood in the Titanic movie.¡±

    Gaming Guy laughed. ¡°That¡¯s right. From the topmost tip, it¡¯s a straight edge going down, with the bottom part recessed¡ªuh, how do I explain this? It¡¯s a diagonal line going inward to the bottom¡ªah, I¡¯m doing a bad job at this.¡±

    ¡°I sort of get it,¡± I said.

    ¡°In some cases,¡± he said, ¡°the bottom part of the bow extends outwards in a bulb or a sort of protrusion. Think of it like¡ª¡±

    ¡°Like the dick of the ship,¡± Reo interjected. Laughter. Sarah slapped his shoulder. Very predictable joke. ¡°Hey, it does look a dick, doesn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be childish,¡± I told him. ¡°You¡¯re always so immature.¡±

    Reo¡¯s eyes, the window to the soul, told me that he got the assignment. Make light of the situation while I pursued my line of questioning. These people wouldn¡¯t take us seriously and be suspicious, in contrast to if we played this straight. We make a good team.

    Gaming Guy continued his explanation about the bulbous bow. Something to do with changing how the water flows around the ship, adding speed to large ships. He might be a ship mechanic. At least someone knowledgeable enough about it. He explained that the bulbous bow of this ship was of a design he hadn¡¯t encountered elsewhere, disproportionately way larger than normal, both in length and height above the waterline.

    ¡°That¡¯s what she said,¡± Reo chimed in, chuckling.

    ¡°She said what?¡± I frowned at him. ¡°Penis joke again about larger than normal bow?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to start calling my dick the ¡®bulbous bow¡¯!¡± Everyone laughed again, except me. I noticed Sarah leaning against him.

    ¡°At least the bulbous bow of this cruise ship is useful,¡± I huffed with a disapproving glare. ¡°Compared to you. Would be even more useful if it stored a large tender ship so we could just hop in, and it¡¯ll open, and we¡¯ll be on our way to Catalina. I hate boarding tender ships while they¡¯re swaying.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s possible with enough money,¡± Gaming Guy said. ¡°But an unnecessary expense. At that point, just install a helipad on the cruise ship. But that takes up a lot of space on the upper deck, which could be another pool.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t get enough of pools,¡± Reo said. ¡°By the way, I heard Bianca is here. Bianca Ceressa? She¡¯s shooting a show on this ship, isn¡¯t she?¡±

    Is he seriously trying to find her? When Dario told us we¡¯d investigate Bianca for a possible connection to the 2Ms¡ªthe first mission for Deen and me¡ªReo outed himself as a huge fan. He followed her shows on TV and knew random tidbits about her.

    I was avoiding Bianca even though she had been helpful to me. I seriously didn¡¯t know what to tell her about becoming an Adumbrae the ¡®natural¡¯ way, in contrast to the 2M¡¯s procedure. Like, what the fuck? Even scientists couldn¡¯t agree on how people turned into Adumbrae. Not only that, Bianca wanted to be an Adumbrae who¡¯d retain her own mind.

    I could con her. But what would even be a believable ritual to make her do? Steal candies from babies? Tell her if she collects a hundred candies, she¡¯d mutate?

    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s here.¡± Sarah¡¯s smiling face abruptly turned into a scowl. Guess Bianca didn¡¯t have a good reputation with her family¡¯s employees. ¡°But we don¡¯t know where. Only specific people attend to her, and they keep their mouths shut.¡±

    ¡°Snobby pricks,¡± Bottle Guy One said. ¡°Think they¡¯re higher than us because they serve the princess.¡±

    Bottle Guy Two tipped a bottle to his friend. ¡°You know that does make them higher than us?¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re planning to get Bianca¡¯s autograph, the best chance is at Catalina,¡± Sarah told Reo. ¡°It might be next to impossible to find her on the ship unless she¡¯s shooting in the open, as she did by the main pool yesterday. But when down at the island, just follow the crowd. She¡¯ll probably do a meet-and-greet thing there. If on this ship, she only has a few fans.¡±

    ¡°Got you, babe,¡± Reo said, winking at her.

    With the topics trickling to a halt, we made our exit. Reo was impeccable in his timing for social interactions, making me a tad envious of his skill. It was like being envious of another person if a dog preferred them to you. There was a difference in how we dealt with people. Reo was a people person. I was a not-people-person, but very good at pretending to be one. This piqued my curiosity about what illusion would Domino generate for him.

    Such a fun power Domino has; it became more and more apparent as situations like these presented themselves. SpookyErind played a prank on me by presenting such an enjoyable ability but placing it behind an idiot, ship-jumping, crybaby gatekeeper.

    ¡°Are you going to look for Bianca?¡± I asked Reo as we walked down the corridor.

    ¡°Oh, that? I just asked about it for a clean exit. The last thing on their minds about us won¡¯t be your questions about hidden ships. It also would¡¯ve been awkward if we left right after the bulbous bow thing. Makes it seem like we were after that.¡±

    I blinked. Wow, he¡¯s more reliable than Deen. I should pretend to be clueless about how intelligent he was. ¡°But you¡¯re a fan of hers, right? Bianca? You don¡¯t want to meet her?¡±

    ¡°After knowing she¡¯s trying to become an Adumbrae¡ªor maybe she¡¯s already one now¡ªstill yes!¡± Reo snickered. ¡°A hot Adumbrae¡¯s still a hot¡ªhang on, no. I¡¯m not sure where I was going with that.¡±

    ¡°You can try to get her autograph,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s not like her handwriting will change if she really becomes an Adumbrae. Also, a picture. If she ever becomes a monster, you¡¯ll have a remembrance,¡± I added with a chuckle. ¡°Want to go looking for her?¡±

    ¡°Probs later, when you¡¯re not around.¡±

    ¡°Worried I¡¯ll ruin your style?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll never ruin my style.¡± Reo pointed a finger at me, his face suddenly turning stern. ¡°And did you forget Bianca knows who you are?¡±

    ¡°Oh, right¡­¡± Of course, I didn¡¯t forget that, but I was checking if he did.

    ¡°It¡¯s suicide if I try to see Bianca with you beside me. Actually, even without you, I¡¯d rather not dare be in her line of sight. Or her bodyguards. Especially them.¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be fine without me?¡± I said, continuing to play clueless.

    ¡°Too dangerous, man. People have seen you and me together. We¡¯re together now! I shouldn¡¯t risk going near Bianca ever¡ªno autograph for me, or a handshake, or a hug ever. That¡¯s it for my life as her fan. Thanks for that, Erind.¡±

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    ¡°Really sorry. There was the mission and Dario told us to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just yanking your chain. You were very brave doing that mission despite being a normal human. I mean it. But I don¡¯t know why Dario brought you along for this mission, though, no offense. This is much too dangerous for you.¡±

    ¡°I want to do my part,¡± I replied, channeling my inner Deen. What the fuck? I didn¡¯t have Deen inside me¡ªpretending to be Deen. There. ¡°Imani¡¯s here too, and she¡¯s a normal human.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t make it okay,¡± he said, his face strangely somber. ¡°Both of you shouldn¡¯t be here. I have this¡ª¡± he placed his hand on his chest ¡°¡ªand even I think I shouldn¡¯t be here. You¡¯re so reckless too, like tailing the McHunters.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t spy on them. A coincidence I saw Raphaela McHunter, that¡¯s all. She was in the elevator with me one time. I didn¡¯t know it was her at first. Only when she got off her floor and met with Yara McHunter, who¡¯s quite recognizable¡ª¡±

    ¡°Probably hotter than Bianca,¡± muttered Reo.

    ¡°¡ªdid I realize who she was. Raphaela seemed nice, unlike her daughter. I didn¡¯t even suspect she was a McHunter. Not a surprise they¡¯d be here. More confirmation that we were right to investigate this ship.¡± I said ¡®we¡¯ instead of ¡®I¡¯. Hopefully, Reo forgot it was my idea to come here.

    ¡°Too bad for hoping we were wrong. You make it sound great we¡¯re sure there are Adumbrae on board. Personally, I think you should stay behind at Catalina tomorrow. Buy a plane ticket back to La Esperanza and forget about all of this.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not doing that!¡± I snapped with conviction that could make Deen proud.

    ¡°You¡¯re still human. Just continue your life.¡±

    ¡°I already said I¡¯m staying.¡±

    ¡°Suit yourself,¡± said Reo with a sigh.

    ¡°Anyway, we should continue this thread of investigation,¡± I said, wondering if he truly cared about my well-being or was just being bitter about giving up his humanity. ¡°Good call visiting the crew bar. We learned a lot from them.¡± I learned a lot.

    We have a candidate for the hiding spot of the ships to Red Island. If we couldn¡¯t find it, tailing the McHunters was our next bet since they¡¯d certainly head there when it was time for their trip. That was Yara and his brother visiting Big Marcy¡¯s office when I was in Domino¡¯s Jeffrey illusion. What else could they be talking about other than becoming Adumbrae?

    A new problem dawned on me just now¡ªwhat was the departure time to Red Island? I just knew it was the last night of the cruise, but not the exact time.

    I couldn¡¯t wait for hours at the bulbous bow¡ªthat phrase sounds nasty¡ªbecause that¡¯d be boring and risky.

    But I had a clue. Same as when tender ships would pick up the passengers to go to Catalina, the cruise ship had to drop its anchor when disgorging its baby ships or risk ramming or sinking them with its wake. It¡¯d take place late at night or way early morning when most of the passengers were asleep to minimize getting noticed. Though the crew would most likely know about it. Probably not a fast process. I doubted the rich people would be quick boarding and so on. And given the cranes on the ships, I expected there was cargo too, some of them of a monstrous nature.

    I could''ve asked those guys if I only thought of this five minutes ago.

    The more I thought about it, the more questions cropped up.

    Like, why did the cruise ship bring its own transport to Red Island, instead of ships coming to fetch the 2Ms¡¯ clients? I guess they wanted to lessen the trips? And was the cruise ship going to wait for the return of the monsterified passengers? Probably not because that¡¯d be too long.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ we did learn a lot,¡± Reo replied.

    ¡°Where to next?¡± I asked. It¡¯d be awkward if we returned to the crew bar to ask more questions. Maybe there were other of Reo¡¯s newfound friends we could interrogate so our intentions wouldn¡¯t be obvious. Employees talk.

    Reo didn¡¯t answer me. Instead of returning to the elevators in the middle part of the ship, he headed forward.

    ¡°Uh, Reo? Where are we going?¡±

    ¡°To the front of the ship,¡± he finally replied.

    ¡°Oh, we¡¯ll investigate the bulbous bow?¡± I said. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be going down?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s another set of elevators up ahead if you want to go down. As for me, I¡¯m going up.¡±

    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± I hurried walking so I¡¯d be beside him. ¡°You¡¯re not coming with me?¡±

    He placed his hands behind his head and took a deep breath. ¡°That was enough for a day¡¯s work, don¡¯t you think?¡± he asked, still facing forward. ¡°You said it yourself. We learned a lot.¡±

    ¡°Yo-you¡¯re just going to stop?¡± Was this piece of shit serious?

    ¡°We have info that the McHunters are on board. We also have other rich people''s names for Dario and Johann to research. Most importantly, we have your bow-penis tidbit.¡±

    ¡°That was you comparing it to a dick. You can¡¯t just bail on me.¡±

    ¡°I can. And I will.¡±

    ¡°What are you going to do then?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to the bow of the ship,¡± he said. ¡°The crew pool is supposedly there. Just a small pool away from the passengers. Sara without an ¡®h¡¯ told me about it yesterday. Wish me luck I¡¯d find some chicks there.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t do that!¡± I was only partly faking annoyance. Which meant I wasn¡¯t. My pawn was abandoning me? Reo was asking to get thrown overboard. He¡¯d get his wish of swimming to shore.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to enjoy my last days because I might not survive until the end of this cruise.¡± He stopped walking and looked at me. ¡°As for you, go back to your room and watch TV or something. Don¡¯t show your face around here as much as possible. The 2Ms know who you are. I don¡¯t understand Dario¡¯s decision to bring you along.¡± He shrugged and went ahead. ¡°But I¡¯m not the leader.¡±

    Such a peculiar person, this guy. Hard to pin down his true personality.

    Did he agree to go with me, intending to make me avoid danger? Or was he using me as an excuse to not do anything dangerous, and all his yapping was a cover by making him sound concerned about me?

    Before I could think about how to convince him to continue our assignment, my phone vibrated. This is going to be Deen, I thought before checking. It was.

    My fingers flew over the screen as I typed a reply while stomping after Reo.

    He was approaching the elevators. There was a family¡ªhusband and wife and two screaming kids who should probably be at a different type of cruise than this¡ªwaiting for a carriage to arrive. How did they even reach down here? A ding and a set of doors opened. I was prepared to lunge and grab Reo, but he didn¡¯t go in. The dad gestured if we were going to come.

    ¡°We¡¯ll take the next one,¡± Reo said. After the doors closed, he told me, ¡°I hate loud kids.¡±

    ¡°Be serious here,¡± I said. ¡°Are you just giving up?¡±

    ¡°Giving up what? I¡¯m not giving up anything. I¡¯m taking a break after a job well done.¡± Another ding. ¡°Here¡¯s my ride. Or is it going to be ladies first?¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m going with you.¡± I could see for myself what the bulbous bow looked like from above. And if my luck continued, there¡¯d be employees to interrogate. Then I¡¯d try to convince Reo to go to the bottom levels of the ship.

    ¡°Good for you to pick life,¡± he said. His hand hovered on the elevator buttons panel. ¡°Huh, that¡¯s weird.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s weird? Did you forget the floor we should go to?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a button for zero.¡±

    I leaned left. True enough, there was a number zero. But there shouldn¡¯t be because this wasn¡¯t a numpad. What was floor zero supposed to be?

    ¡°Should I press it?¡± Reo grinned at me. ¡°Maybe it¡¯ll lead to a secret floor.¡±

    Secret floor?

    What numbers did Jeffrey¡¯s friend press to make the elevator go to Big Marcy¡¯s secret floor? Four, four, two, and¡­ eight or nine. Only one elevator could reach it. What if this one led to the secret ship storage?

    Reo pressed the number zero several times. The doors didn¡¯t close, and the carriage didn¡¯t move. He laughed. ¡°Nope, nothing.¡±

    ¡°Quit messing around. What floor to reach the bow so you can finally reenact the Titanic? Four or something?¡± I nudged him aside, partially blocked the view of the panel with my body, and pressed four twice. ¡°Or maybe three?¡± I pressed three and quickly pressed zero, hoping he didn¡¯t see it.

    ¡°Woah, Erind! Don¡¯t press random numbers! You¡¯ll make this thing stop at each floor.¡± He pushed my hand away and chose the floor where he wanted to go. But the doors were already closing.

    Four-four-three-zero. Was this the answer to the riddle?

    Well, it wasn¡¯t a riddle. Just a message that I didn¡¯t understand. If this was truly the way to the three small ships, then Big Marcy probably assumed I was some genius who worked out the secret of the elevators as I infiltrated his hideout on my own.

    ¡°The numbers¡­¡± Reo nodded at the display on top of the door. ¡°There¡¯s nothing¡­ Shouldn¡¯t it count up?¡±

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s broken.¡±

    He placed his hands on the door. ¡°We¡¯re moving down, not up. Quite fast.¡± He looked over his shoulder at me. ¡°Did you break something?¡±

    ¡°Why are you looking at me?¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re the one who kept pressing ¡®zero¡¯. Maybe we¡¯re going to a secret floor.¡±

 6.18

    ¡°Don¡¯t joke about something like that,¡± Reo snapped.

    ¡°You said it first,¡± I retorted. ¡°Now, your joke is becoming real.¡±

    From his voice, I could tell he was anxious. A freaking baby for panicking so fast. I should either be supportive or start to freeze into a frightened statue. But first, I want to get back at him for trying to back out from being my pawn.

    ¡°You kept pressing zero,¡± I said, forcing my voice to crack to match his panic. A blame game was perfect to stoke anxious flames. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have done that. It¡¯s so obvious there¡¯s something wrong with it¡ªwe¡¯re on a ship with Adumbrae! Like, there shouldn¡¯t be a number zero on that panel, and you pressed it.¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Erind,¡± he murmured through gritted teeth. ¡°I¡¯m trying to think here.¡±

    Rude much? I could make Reo¡¯s wish of swimming in the ocean come true. Too bad I couldn¡¯t off him because that¡¯d make Dario suspicious. Plus, I needed Reo to find the ships to Red Island. He was my lucky charm now, I decided.

    Reo¡¯s face reflected on the elevator door looked like he had heartburn and constipation at the same time. That made me realize he could see my reflection too. I put on a scared-powerless-human-girl face, complete with a hand covering my mouth. Nibbling my fingernails with chattering teeth might be too much.

    Why was he freaking out? Given the circumstances, he¡¯d be right to think we were headed to danger. But it wasn¡¯t like he was helpless. He had powers.

    I guess Reo couldn¡¯t use his actual powers in a face-to-face fight. But he still had super strength and regeneration for generic brawling.

    Reo¡¯s opened palms on the door clenched into fists. For a second, I thought he was going to punch his way out. That¡¯d put an end to our mission and draw attention to us. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t do anything stupid to stop the elevator.

    Turning around, Reo breathed deeply. ¡°Oookay¡­ Let¡¯s chill the fuck out so we can think clearly. No panicking, alright, Erind?¡±

    ¡°No panicking,¡± I repeated in a squeak.

    ¡°We¡¯re still going down. This isn¡¯t alright, dammit! We¡¯re going somewhere we shouldn¡¯t be.¡±

    Duh, our mission is to find suspicious shit, I quipped in my head. We needed to go places we shouldn¡¯t be. So¡­ like¡­ we should be going there.

    I couldn¡¯t tell him that, of course. So, I just retreated a few steps, looking up at the ceiling as if we were falling to hell. It might¡¯ve been better if I had gone with Everett. At the least, I had some inkling about what went on inside his head.

    ¡°This is an elevator!¡± Reo said, his eyes sparkling as if he had a major epiphany.

    ¡°Okay¡­?¡±

    ¡°What comes down must come up.¡±

    ¡°I think that¡¯s the reverse of the saying,¡± I said, wondering if Reo had gone cuckoo. ¡°It should be¡ª¡±

    Reo flapped his hand at me. ¡°Yeah, yeah. What I¡¯m saying is that we¡¯ll just stay inside here. We can¡¯t stop the elevator from going down. But after that, we¡¯ll just ride it back up. Get it? People use this thing, so it should have a way of going up. The buttons will probably work again.¡±

    ¡°I-I hope they will. We¡¯ll stay put and wait,¡± I said, though I was thinking of how to get Reo out without actually pushing him. I didn¡¯t want us to stay inside; we should explore whichever floor the elevator opened to.

    After a few seconds of silence and staring at each other, we felt the elevator slowing down.

    ¡°Stay behind me.¡± Reo held out his hand.

    ¡°A-are you going to fight?¡± I asked. Surprising how he was still protective of me. And such a whiplash of reactions from him. ¡°Can¡¯t we just pretend we-we¡¯re like lost or something?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not going to work, Erind.¡±

    ¡°Why not? Let me talk to¡ª¡±

    ¡°If we¡¯re lucky, we¡¯ll meet no one,¡± said Reo, not listening to me. ¡°But if we¡¯re not¡ª¡±

    The elevator dinged open. Reo tensed, hiding a fist behind his back. I craned my neck to see where we were. A tall man with a perplexed look stood outside. He wore overalls with the logo of the cruise ship on his chest.

    ¡°Who are you two?¡± said Overalls Man. He reached for something in his pocket.

    ¡°We pressed the wrong¡ª¡± I started to say. But Overalls Man didn¡¯t get to hear my excuse because Reo punched him in the chin.

    Reo stepped out of the elevator, catching Overalls Man as he slumped.

    The fuck? Should I scream? It¡¯d be too late now, so I just gasped and hoped that was an adequate reaction.

    ¡°We¡¯re as unlucky as my mother giving birth to me,¡± Reo grumbled.

    ¡°Why did you do that?¡± I demanded. Reo wanted to stay out of trouble, yet he pulled some dumb shit like this?

    Reo looked left and right. Presumably, everything was clear outside. He waved at me. ¡°Get out of there! Follow me.¡± And he dragged the unconscious man away.

    I wanted to go exploring, so I supposed this was fine. I quickly glanced at the security camera of the elevator¡ªit was pointed inward so it didn¡¯t capture Overalls Man getting whomped¡ªbefore stepping out.

    We hurried down a corridor, its metal walls painted gray. The way was well-lit and clean, with pipes and valves here and there. There were also signs¡ªnumbers, and arrows, and technical-sounding words. I didn¡¯t know what they meant. I failed to match my surroundings with the pictures Big Marcy sent me, but I¡¯d surely come upon somewhere familiar eventually.

    ¡°Why did you do that?¡± I repeated my question to Reo in hushed tones. ¡°Why did you attack him?¡±

    ¡°Look for doors, cabinets, anywhere we can hide this guy.¡±

    ¡°I-is he dead?¡± I stammered. Just going to keep up being timid and nice Erind until I make sense of this crazy bastard. ¡°Your super strength¡ª¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t kill him,¡± said Reo, finally answering me. He scanned the ceiling, probably checking for security cameras. ¡°He¡¯s breathing. There¡¯s some humanity left in me.¡±

    ¡°Humanity? What¡¯re you talking about?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t use much force behind my punch.¡± Reo briefly replied. ¡°I should¡¯ve.¡± He stopped by the corner, Overalls Man draped over his shoulder. I crouched beside them. ¡°My first strike should¡¯ve been full-forced,¡± Reo continued. ¡°If this guy was an Adumbrae, we¡¯d be toasty toast. Dead toast.¡± Then he leaned forward to check around the bend.

    ¡°But he¡¯s a normal human,¡± I said, stating the obvious. Fascinating how Reo thinks. I was trying to delve into who he really was, to get some consistency with his thinking. Presenting a moral question was a good poke. ¡°If you used your superstrength, he¡¯d be¡ª¡±

    ¡°Dead,¡± Reo finished as he looked back at me. ¡°Tch. A risk I shouldn¡¯t have taken¡ªno space to care for others when my life¡ªwhen our lives are on the line.¡± He cocked his head left. ¡°I see a door.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s inside?¡±

    He shrugged before standing up. ¡°Beats me. Another risk, heh. We¡¯re on a roll. But we can¡¯t stand here waiting to be found, can we?¡±

    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    I closed my eyes, as if steeling my resolve, and nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Reo continued to be a lucky charm. The room we entered was empty. It was a locker room twice as long as my cabin room, with narrow metal cabinets lining either side.

    Memories of the time Myra hunted me at Sanders Mall returned. I was a weakling, normal human back then, and I stumbled into a locker room too. It was in there I turned into an Adumbrae and first transformed into Blanchette.

    Wasn¡¯t that long ago, but insanely plenty of things had changed since. Not really that long¡­ yet, the sensation of my stomach getting speared seemed a distant memory. Like I couldn¡¯t remember how to properly feel pain. If I suffered that kind of injury now, it¡¯d be painful, duh, but nothing worth noting. I remembered what Reo said that he missed getting drunk because of his regeneration.

    Was that wistfulness I sensed inside me? Did I miss being a normal human? I missed the peace, I guess.

    Reo set Overalls Man on a bench in the center of the room. Reo threw his head back as he stood, flinging his ponytail. ¡°Safe for now,¡± he mumbled as he tried opening the lockers. ¡°What do I do next?¡±

    ¡°Reo, you still haven¡¯t answered my other question,¡± I said, injecting an edge into my voice. ¡°Why did you hit this man? I was about to tell him that we were lost. That¡¯s a believable excuse.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not,¡± he replied. He found an open cabinet and rummaged inside.

    ¡°Are you going to tell me why? Just because I¡¯m just a normal human and useless in this situation¡ª¡±

    Reo pulled out a uniform, the same as Overalls Man wore, from the locker. ¡°Come on, Erind. You¡¯re not useless.¡±

    ¡°I am.¡± I sighed, slumping my shoulders. Time to be a drama queen. ¡°I know I¡¯m useless. And I shouldn¡¯t have been on this trip¡ªyou were right about that. But I wanted to help. That¡¯s all.¡±

    Reo¡¯s eyes darted to the left. ¡°You¡¯re, uh, helpful¡­¡±

    ¡°I hope you won¡¯t treat me like extra baggage you cart around,¡± I said. ¡°Tell me about your plans so I can help too. Don¡¯t forget that I¡¯m a law student at Eloyce University. There¡¯s not much law stuff going on here, but I¡¯m intelligent, like, generally, for what that¡¯s worth. I hope I am.¡±

    ¡°More intelligent than me, for sure,¡± said Reo. ¡°I couldn¡¯t even finish film school. I lied to Myra about why I was kicked out¡ªit was my grades. Though, I did sell¡ª¡±

    ¡°Why did you punch this man?¡±

    ¡°I punched him because he knew we were intruders. Or he suspected, at the least. He was going to call security either way.¡± Reo pulled out a small handheld radio thingy from the pocket Overalls Guy was reaching for earlier.

    I raised a brow. How did Reo know? This fucker had x-ray vision or something? I glanced down at myself¡ªnothing to see here.

    Reo continued, ¡°That elevator¡­ the zero button wasn¡¯t supposed to be there if it was a normal ride. That elevator was placed in the same row as the others to give passengers who are the 2Ms¡¯ customers easy access here. It¡¯s such a public place. It should be secure enough that other passengers, the ordinary people, you know, wouldn¡¯t accidentally reach this level. Pressing zero isn¡¯t enough to get it to move down here.¡±

    Shit, is he onto me? Or was he making excuses for himself? If I continued to blame him, he might find that suspicious. I went the other way.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry for blaming you,¡± I said. ¡°I might¡¯ve pressed some wrong buttons too. I mean, they¡¯re the correct buttons for the secret code whatever, but they¡¯re wrong because we, uh, got here.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not blaming you, Erind. And, uh, sorry for telling you to shut up.¡± Before I could respond, he hurriedly continued, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m saying the code isn¡¯t something people would accidentally press.¡±

    ¡°But we pressed it somehow.¡±

    Reo hoarsely laughed. ¡°The most unluckiest coincidence fucking ever. In this guy¡¯s mind¡ª¡± Reo pointed at Overalls Man ¡°¡ªno one else but 2Ms¡¯ clients or employees should be here. That¡¯s why I had to punch him. Everyone we meet around here will assume we¡¯re the enemy. Making up stories wouldn¡¯t work.¡±

    I slowly nodded. What Reo said made sense. He really was a fast thinker. If given time to think, I would¡¯ve reached the same conclusion. But in the moment, my reaction was to hide behind a face since we were supposed to be sneaking around.

    ¡°He asked who we are,¡± I said, nodding down at Overalls Man. ¡°He didn¡¯t ask if we were lost or something. You¡¯re right, he already assumed we were intruders.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right, Erind-o, my friend-o,¡± Reo said, pointing a finger gun at me. ¡°And after knocking him out, we could no longer go back up because¡ª¡±

    ¡°Because we can¡¯t leave this man behind. If someone came upon him, they¡¯d immediately raise the alarm. Like, they¡¯d check the security footage and see us.¡±

    ¡°Right again.¡± Reo held the overalls from the cabinet to his shoulders, checking if it¡¯d fit him. ¡°No evil henchmen are flooding this place. We¡¯re good so far. They¡¯re not actively monitoring the elevators¡ªlaxity, because they¡¯ve been doing this operation for so long without hitches, is my guess. But if something bad happens, they¡¯ll come looking.¡±

    I nodded. Reo was wrong on this point.

    Big Marcy¡¯s men should be monitoring the secret elevator¡ªor elevators if there were others. Such an important location wouldn¡¯t be with no eyes. But Big Marcy knew I was coming here; he would¡¯ve ordered them not to bother with me. By them, I was thinking of only a few of his most trusted men. No way Big Marcy would¡¯ve told all of his men that he was helping me, the big, bad, Red Hood. His brother, Mark, likely had spies embedded here and there.

    The security cameras, I was confident were no problem. What I should be careful about were the people on this level. Most probably they¡¯d be under Mark¡¯s payroll. Reo was right to punch Overalls Man.

    Looking at the floor, I shifted my feet. ¡°Again, I¡¯m sorry, Reo.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re moving way past that,¡± he said.

    ¡°And thank you for protecting me.¡±

    He blinked. The curve of his ears poking out the sea of his black hair turned red. ¡°Uh, yeah. I wasn¡¯t doing any protecting. It was my own skin¡ªuh, it¡¯s just a random, human dude. No effort at all. Thank me if I actually beat off an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Beat off an Adumbrae?¡± I giggled. That was a genuine reaction. My humor was degenerating. I should try this joke with Deen.

    ¡°Okay, that came out wrong.¡± Reo shook his head, chuckling. ¡°Beat an Adumbrae. That.¡±

    ¡°I hope we don¡¯t meet any Adumbrae,¡± I said. ¡°But what do we do with this guy?¡± I pointed at Overalls Man.

    ¡°I have an idea.¡±

    <hr>

    After leaving Overalls Man inside the locker room, Reo and I went deeper into the bowels of the ship.

    ¡°Will that work?¡± I asked.

    We set up Overalls Man to look like he bumped his head into the door of a locker somehow and got knocked out. Reo reasoned that Overalls Man barely saw us, only for a split-second, before getting knocked out¡ªOveralls Man wouldn¡¯t remember us. If he awoke splayed on the floor, right in front of an opened locker door, he¡¯d assume the most logical thing.

    It wasn¡¯t exactly the most plausible scenario for him. Like why the hell would he run into the door? But he didn¡¯t have any alternative explanation for his state unless he remembered us.

    A simple plan that had a chance of working. Me, I was thinking of throwing him overboard. Damn that bitch Domino¡ªI had a fixation on going overboard now. But then I remembered we were likely below the waterline, so no opening to chuck Overalls Man out of the ship. Killing him and stuffing his body into a locker wasn¡¯t going to work either, for obvious reasons. Kinda hard to hide a dead body here.

    I didn¡¯t tell Reo about any of my plans, duh. I was surprised that he didn¡¯t suggest killing Overalls Man. I thought that¡¯d be on the top of his list after that ¡®humanity¡¯ and risk-taking talk.

    ¡°We¡¯ll have to hope it works,¡± Reo said. ¡°We¡¯re not Dario, so we can¡¯t just erase his memory. Slightly crumpling the locker door is a nice touch. Awesome suggestion, Erind.¡±

    ¡°Thanks. We make a good team.¡±

    ¡°If it doesn¡¯t work and we need to escape, you can ride on a lifeboat and I¡¯ll pull it.¡±

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s a nice gesture.¡± I chuckled, all cutesy. ¡°I know one thing that¡¯s not working¡ªthese overalls on me.¡± I gestured at the way oversized uniform I wore. It was the smallest size we could find in that locker room, and it looked like I was a kid lost in a circus tent. ¡°No one¡¯s going to believe I¡¯m an employee here.¡±

    ¡°Same goes for me,¡± said Reo. ¡°Not many Japanese among the crew. Haven¡¯t seen one, to be honest. They¡¯d recall if a Japanese guy is working with them.¡±

    ¡°So¡­ why are we continuing?¡± I asked. ¡°I thought you wanted to go back up?¡± I didn¡¯t manipulate him into doing this. He was the one who suggested we disguise ourselves and sneak around. Why the sudden change? Such a weird guy.

    ¡°We¡¯re already here. Might as well. And this is our job, remember?¡±

    ¡°I thought you wanted to avoid doing this mission.¡±

    ¡°Well, you thought wrong of me, Ms. Erind Hartwell.¡± He looked over his shoulder and winked. ¡°And you¡¯d continue to do this even if I left. It¡¯d be forever on my conscience if anything bad happened to you.¡±

    That sounded like a sleazy line, and it was, but I sensed some genuineness in it. I couldn¡¯t understand why. What was up with this guy?

    I checked the photos on my phone to see if I could figure out where to go.

    ¡°Are you calling for backup?¡± Reo asked. ¡°We probably should tell the others where we are.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I was thinking of doing,¡± I replied, angling my phone away from his sight. ¡°But there¡¯s no signal here. Can¡¯t even connect to the ship¡¯s wifi.¡±

    ¡°Just you and me then, Erind-o, my friend-o.¡± Reo stopped walking. I stopped behind him. We came upon a fork. On the wall in front of us were arrows and labels. ¡°Left or right? Or should I toss a coin?¡±

    I recognized the markings on the wall. ¡°Let¡¯s go right,¡± I said, walking first before Reo could stop me. ¡°Right¡¯s the right way, right?¡±

 6.19 - Reo Hinode (Oberon) â€“ Part 1

    Reo Hinode (Oberon) ¨C Part 1

    ¡°Right-o, it is, Erind-o,¡± Reo said with fake enthusiasm. He gulped before leading the way.

    What the fuck am I doing? he asked himself. Why was he still here instead of returning to the buffet, stuffing his face to challenge Everett¡¯s eating record?

    Reo wasn¡¯t a coward¡ªhe could say that to himself without shame. His ancestors would agree. Probably. There was a huge difference between being a coward and not wanting to die. That was practically his motto at this point. Same as the next person, he wasn¡¯t rushing to exit this mortal plane of painful existence, even if it was shitty.

    Those raring to jump into a fight against Adumbrae were the crazy ones, like Myra who always wanted to be at the front and center of every battle. Her bullshit wasn¡¯t bravery. It was stupidity.

    Reo had brains-tempered bravery. He was brave, he could claim. A coward wouldn¡¯t toss away his humanity and risk his life for¡­ nothing.

    That made him pause. Was his bravery also stupidity? What had their group accomplished so far?

    Not much was the depressing answer. The 2Ms¡¯ base getting totaled wasn¡¯t their work. Before that, all they had done was be a plug up the 2Ms¡¯ butt. Nothing they accomplished changed anything at the end of the day. This gung-ho mission of infiltrating this cruise ship was also a foolish errand that¡¯d result in a whole pile of nothing.

    Or maybe worse than nothing, if they died¡ªthat had a fat chance of happening. So¡­ nothing new.

    But this time, something was different. Reo didn¡¯t think he could hold up his motto. Each step he took required willpower to keep his knees from wobbling. His mouth was dry and his palms were sticky from nervous sweat. He was as stressed as the day he had to tell his parents he got kicked out of college.

    At that moment, he was a coward who didn¡¯t want to die.

    It¡¯s Erind, Reo realized.

    In all of the life-and-death situations he had been in¡ªexcept that fucking one¡ªhe was always with the others. At least one person. He had someone to rely on, someone stronger than him, someone to hide behind and push on all the blame if things went to hell. He wasn¡¯t the protagonist of the story, and he was happy about that. Less burden, less pressure, more security. No blame.

    The one time he was alone during a mission, he got stabbed by the parrot-mohawk Rofirio! Reo had a fairy out and was caught unawares. Luckily, Rofirio thought Reo was a normal human and decided to toy with him, stabbing him several times.

    Toy or torture?

    Both.

    If Rofirio had decided to chop Reo¡¯s head off while he was kneeling like some involuntary seppuku, Reo would just die immediately with no chance to regenerate or fight back.

    Memories of that time came flooding back now that Reo was again alone. True, he had Erind with him. But what could she do? She couldn¡¯t protect him. It was the reverse. He had to protect her¡ªthis was worse than if he was alone. Worser¡­ everyone would blame him if anything bad happened to her! This was a loser position if he¡¯d ever seen one, and being a loser for most of his years on this shitty ball of dirt, he¡¯d know.  With each passing second, the temptation to execute the sickest ankle breaker Erind had ever seen, and leave her behind became stronger and stronger.

    No, I can¡¯t leave Erind. Deen would kill him. Though that sounded preferable to everyone blaming him.

    What if he grabbed Erind and dragged her to the elevator? She wouldn¡¯t be able to resist. Okay, that sounded sketchier than an artist¡¯s draft.

    A sound plan. However, Reo pushed onward, further and further away from the elevator.

    Why?

    Erind was again the answer. Because of her, Reo couldn¡¯t retreat even if he wanted to.

    What he said about not wanting to leave Erind alone because she¡¯d continue investigating even without him was true. She¡¯d pull something crazy and dangerous like that after he would bring her back up. But the real reason was¡ªand he couldn¡¯t believe this was happening¡ªthat she inspired him to continue fighting the Adumbrae.

    Reo had mostly lost the will to fight that pushed him to Melding with the artificial Core, after no results to show for it. Then there was Erind, a normal human, experiencing shitshow after shitshow¡ªgetting kidnapped by the 2Ms, her condo leveled, her neighbors turned into monsters, and the Tech Fair she attended also got gatecrashed by Adumbrae-making terrorists. Despite all that, Erind was still hanging around.

    If it were Reo, he¡¯d think some Egyptian mummy curse was on him to have that much bad luck. He didn¡¯t know the Japanese equivalent. Malevolent samurai ghost curse or something?

    Reo looked over his shoulder. Erind followed him on tiptoes, warily looking around their surroundings. Concern glazed her eyes, her lips pressed together, her breathing shallow. She was stressed and scared, but still here.

    I¡¯m jealous of her, Reo thought. He felt like a burnt-out office working next to a wide-eyed fresh intern.

    She still had that drive. The drive to fight for what was right.

    Sounds cheesier than a four-cheese pizza.

    Reo lost his drive. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t return the artificial Core stuck to his chest and get his normal human body back.

    ¡°What?¡± Erind asked, meeting his eye. ¡°Is something wrong?¡±

    ¡°Uh, well, everything¡¯s wrong here,¡± Reo mumbled, facing front again. He fumbled through his pockets. Needed something in his mouth to distract him. He had cigarettes; he was supposed to smoke once he found the employee¡¯s pool. Cigarettes weren¡¯t what he was looking for. Gum. He forgot to bring any.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Erind asked.

    ¡°We¡¯re on a cruise with Adumbrae. To be more precise, we¡¯re in a disguise a third-grader can see through while walking through the secret part of this ship. Yeah, I¡¯m okay.¡±

    ¡°No need for that sarcasm,¡± said Erind. ¡°I¡¯m seriously asking if you¡¯re okay. Like if you¡¯re feeling sick or something, because you¡¯re walking funny.¡±

    ¡°Walking funny?¡± Reo stopped mid-step. He was so hesitant in his footing that he almost fell forward. ¡°I was just pretending to be drunk!¡±

    ¡°Keep your voice down,¡± Erind hissed at him, her brows bumping together. She looked like an angry cat. ¡°Let¡¯s go here,¡± she pointed down a path to their left. ¡°Looks like something¡¯s important ahead.¡±

    ¡°Something important? There¡¯s nothing¡ª¡±

    Erind pushed him to the left corridor. ¡°Why were you pretending to be drunk anyway?¡±

    ¡°Like I said back at the buffet, I missed being drunk.¡± Reo didn¡¯t dare look back at Erind. He didn¡¯t trust himself to keep the lie off his face.

    ¡°Is that why you drank lots yesterday? Poor Deen had to pay for all that booze.¡±

    ¡°Oh, come on. Deen said she didn¡¯t mind. I do miss being drunk, so I tried really, really hard yesterday. Someone should give me a medal for it.¡± Reo didn¡¯t tell Erind the other reason. The real reason.

    He wanted to get hammered so much he¡¯d pass out and be a sack of potatoes the whole night.

    He didn¡¯t want to stay awake, wallowing in all the scenarios he wasn¡¯t getting back to shore alive. And he wanted to prevent nightmares. Though Reo had no way of knowing, he suspected he sleep-talked. Just a hunch. No way he was going to let Everett hear that.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Passing out drunk should stop that¡­ right?

    It seemed his plan partly worked. He didn¡¯t pass out from the alcohol¡ªhis inhuman constitution wouldn¡¯t allow it¡ªbut he fell asleep fast enough. Waking up the next day, Everett didn¡¯t act weirdly towards him. Either no nightmares or embarrassing ramblings occurred, or Everett was a really good actor. Reo knew Everett was godawful at acting¡ªEverett couldn¡¯t even put a lid on his feelings for Deen, even if he had zero chance.

    Reo shook his head, snapping out of his reverie. He was walking in a dangerous place while deep in thought. His focus should be where they were going.

    Where are we going?

    ¡°Erind,¡± he began to say. ¡°Maybe we should backtrack and¡ª¡± He froze, holding his arm out to stop Erind too. A murmur of voices reached them. Footsteps echoed.

    Reo turned around. Erind had a fear-stricken face. Behind her was a straight hallway. Could they reach the corner before the approaching people found them? It was impossible unless they ran. But if they ran, they¡¯d make a lot of noise.

    They also couldn¡¯t stay. There was no way in hell their disguise was going to work! Judging from Erind¡¯s expression, she also thought the same thing.

    ¡°Go, go,¡± Reo urgently whispered. ¡°Be quiet. The pipes.¡±

    Midway through the corridor were thick pipes attached to the wall. They ran from the floor to the ceiling. A possible hiding spot. Reo and Erind hurried to the pipes. They then flattened themselves on the wall behind the pipes, Erind on the left side, and Reo on the right.

    Erind intently stared at Reo. If he had to guess, she was asking him if this was going to work.

    He was tempted to shrug his shoulders. That was the sort of question he¡¯d ask Dario.

    However, Reo was the ¡®leader¡¯ in this situation. He wore the most ¡®in-charge¡¯ face he¡¯d ever conceived and nodded at Erind. He couldn¡¯t have her panicking and revealing their location. Then he looked down and nodded at his feet, flicking his eyes to hers.

    Erind got the message and spread her feet open, trying to align their length to the wall. If she had her feet straight, they¡¯d stick out from the cover of the pipes. Both of them were quite thin. The pipes could conceal them. If he was with Deen, her humongous chesticles would give them away.

    Then again, if Deen were here, they could avoid this situation with her powers.

    ¡°Have you seen the game last night?¡± said a gruff male voice. The footsteps were getting louder. The man and whoever was with him turned the corner, traversing the corridor Reo and Erind were in.

    Damn, my fucking luck! Reo cursed.

    ¡°What game are you talking about?¡± It was another guy.

    Only two of them? The footsteps didn¡¯t sound that many. Human or Adumbrae?

    ¡°You know, the game?¡± said the first man.

    ¡°What game? Basketball? Baseball? I follow many sports and don¡¯t think there was any significant game last night.¡±

    ¡°No game?¡± The first man¡¯s voice cracked. Then he burst out laughing. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. You absolutely had no game trying to hit on Mercy last night!¡±

    That¡¯s a good one, Reo thought, stopping himself from snorting. He filed the awesome line in his memory, planning to use it on Everett. But he might not get the opportunity to do so if he made the wrong choice now.

    Fight? What other option was there? He had the element of surprise on his side. Attacking first, should he give it all he got? What if they were humans? Would Adumbrae joke around like this?

    Questions whirled in Reo¡¯s head. Part of him just wanted to get found to simplify things.

    He narrowed his eyes at Erind. Then he nodded.

    She shook her head at him. Was she telling him not to fight?

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t trying to hit on Mercy last night.¡± The second guy¡¯s voice was closer. They were about to pass Reo and Erind.

    Reo clenched his fist.

    Again, Erind shook her head. She didn¡¯t want him attacking the two people. Reo also thought they were humans too. But should he take the risk a second time?

    Erind pressed her body more against the wall, turning her head sideways.

    Does she seriously think this is going to work? However, Reo copied her. This isn¡¯t going to work, he kept repeating in his head. Adrenaline course through his body like an electric shock. He was raring to go. One wrong thing, just one, anything at all, and he¡¯d jump these two bozos.

    ¡°You were, don¡¯t deny it,¡± said the first man. ¡°You were telling her you got a summer house in Thailand.¡± He walked past Reo and Erind without stopping. From a sidelong glance, Reo saw that the first man didn¡¯t look left or right.

    ¡°It¡¯s true, you know that. What¡¯s wrong with sharing true things?¡± His companion came through next, also looking straight ahead, at the back of the first man. Both of them wore the same uniform as the other guy Reo knocked out.

    These two idiots didn¡¯t notice us? Reo thought the universe was bullshitting them. After the men passed, a wide-eyed and disbelieving Reo looked at Erind.

    She nudged her head down the corridor. She then shifted to the other side of the pipes and hid herself again from view. Quickly, Reo followed her, doing a twirl across the pipes. Were they in the clear?

    One of the bozos stopped. The other guy also halted walking. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± someone asked.

    ¡°I thought I saw¡­¡±

    Reo gritted his teeth. With narrowed eyes, he met Erind¡¯s stare. She nodded. If they came over to check, he¡¯d snuff out their very dim lights. But Reo still couldn¡¯t decide how much force to use.

    ¡°Saw what?¡± asked the other employee.

    ¡°I-I¡­ don¡¯t know. Must be my imagination, huh.¡± The footsteps resumed. ¡°I can admit if I¡¯m imagining things, unlike you who imagined he has a shot with Mercy!¡±

    The bozos continued their banter as they walked away, seemingly oblivious to Reo and Erind. Reo took a quick peep and saw the backs of the two disappear around the corner. He held a finger to his lips and shook his head at Erind. They stayed still until they could no longer hear any sounds.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Reo whispered. They continued where they were headed before. There was no use going back anyway, with those two there.

    ¡°I think they were humans,¡± said Erind.

    ¡°How unlucky we ran into them,¡± said Reo, changing the topic. He knew what Erind was getting at.

    ¡°We¡¯re lucky we got past them with no issues,¡± she replied. ¡°Maybe you¡¯re a lucky charm, Reo.¡±

    ¡°If we¡¯re talking about luck, those two are lucky I didn¡¯t¡­ knock them out.¡± Reo was about to say kill them, but he didn¡¯t want Erind to think less of him.

    ¡°And lucky for us too that you didn¡¯t have to knock them out. Like, where are we going to hide them?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ you¡¯re right,¡± Reo absentmindedly replied. He was focused on what was ahead.

    The corridor opened into a wider path that eventually branched into intersections. True, it did look important, whatever was there. Reo didn¡¯t know how Erind guessed it, but she was lucky, he supposed. Luck seemed to be the important ingredient of the day. Here came the unlucky part.

    ¡°Is that a bioscanner?¡± He pointed at the glowing frame at the end of the corridor. The space inside it shimmered as if a highway on a boiling summer day, the concrete giving off heat. It looked different than the other bioscanners they found on the ship.

    ¡°For humans or Adumbrae?¡± Erind wondered.

    ¡°No way of knowing,¡± said Reo. ¡°And no way we¡¯re going to test that. If only Adumbrae were allowed to pass, both of us couldn¡¯t get in anyway. I don¡¯t know what¡¯d register.¡±

    ¡°But someone can get in¡­¡±

    Reo sighed. ¡°Yeah, yeah. I guess I¡¯m really doing this.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m doing this out in the open,¡± Reo moaned.

    ¡°We¡¯re not out in the open,¡± Erind said.

    ¡°Fine, I concede that it¡¯s pretty closed,¡± said Reo, reminding himself to cut back on the whining.

    They found a small room, barely bigger than a closet, down another hallway. Boxes were stacked against the wall, and there was just enough space for Reo to set himself up while Erind tucked herself between the boxes. Luckily, they didn¡¯t run into anyone else while finding a spot for him to do his summoning.

    ¡°But I still can¡¯t believe I¡¯m doing this,¡± he added. A little whine to release pent-up stress.

    He didn¡¯t elaborate to Erind that he made a promise to himself not to summon without a guard. Erind could hardly be considered a guard. She¡¯d feel guilty and useless if he told her that.

    ¡°You should do it,¡± she urged him. ¡°I¡¯m feeling we¡¯re near something important we should learn about.¡±

    Or not learn about, Reo grumbled in his head as he settled into a kneeling position. His heart was doing a drum solo. His guts¡ªboth the large and small intestines and maybe his stomach counted too¡ªwere telling him not to do this in Japanese. His innards were speaking in Japanese, saying this was dangerous and stupid.

    In Japanese! And he didn¡¯t even understand Japanese.

    ¡°Just a quick scout of the place,¡± said Erind, peering at Reo with a concerned face. He blinked, looking away. She continued in a coaxing tone, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, nothing will happen to you. I mean, I know I¡¯m not much use in protecting you, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that,¡± he hastily said. It was that.

    ¡°Sneak should be able to do it fast enough before anyone comes here,¡± Erind said. ¡°I promise I won¡¯t push it after this. I¡¯ll come with you back up. Deen¡¯s probably worried about me not responding, anyway. Have to call her soon before she panics. There¡¯s no telling what she¡¯d do.¡±

    Reo stretched his arms. ¡°She really cares about you, huh? I¡¯m jealous.¡± Did he say it too seriously? He chased it with a chuckle.

    ¡°She cares about your safety too, I¡¯m sure of it,¡± said Erind. ¡°And I care about you too.¡± That did tug at Reo¡¯s heart.

    ¡°I¡¯m starting,¡± Reo said, before he blushed.

 REND - 6.20 - Reo Hinode (Oberon) - Part 2

    Reo Hinode (Oberon) ¨C Part 2

    Reo Hinode closed his eyes and stretched his arms. His hands brushed the walls of the small room on both sides. Fortunately, there was enough space for his ¡®pose¡¯. Such a stupid power he got from the artificial Core. He chased away memories of dumbass tests he had done until he got how his power worked.

    Time to be Oberon, the king of fairies.

    Tilting his chin up, he opened his mouth as he focused on Sneak, his loyal subject specialized in spying. Think of the little gray man, he told himself.

    Easier said than done. Extreme focus on a specific fairy was required to summon it, but his mind was filled with worries and fear. The image of Sneak was hazy. Faces of other people kept popping up. The phantom pain of getting stabbed by Rofirio was also there. It was hard to descend into a trance¡ªsome Buddhist zen meditative state, he¡¯d like to think, even though he didn¡¯t know much about Buddhism¡ªbecause the possible ways he could die clouded his mind.

    He suspected he unconsciously tried to get distracted so he couldn¡¯t summon Sneak. And what would happen if he didn¡¯t? Erind would continue her investigation. The longer they stayed on this level, the bigger the chance of getting found.

    Found and murked.

    Best get this over with.

    Sneak! With one forceful thought, he zeroed in on the gray fairy. He chanted words that he didn¡¯t understand. They just came to him.

    One time, Reo recorded his summoning session and tried to decode the words out of curiosity. Nothing came of it. He didn¡¯t pursue it further. His chant wasn¡¯t nonsense¡ªDario had told them that all powers, whether from the Cores or Adumbrae, had underlying meanings. Reo realized he was better off not knowing what.

    As Reo intoned bullshit, his whole body became numb. A sensation of falling into a hole followed, the same feeling when dreaming. He jolted when he ¡®reached the bottom¡¯. He could feel his body again, but could also feel another. An out-of-body experience was the best way to describe it. Something he had felt before when drugs could still affect him.

    The summoning was successful.

    He opened his eyes. It was total darkness.

    No, there was a small light above him. He willed ¡®himself¡¯ to reach it. In reality, he was ordering Sneak to climb out of his body while sharing its senses. But unlike his other summons, he was conscious when Sneak was out. Reo could speak, feel things, and think. He had control of his body, but he couldn¡¯t move, change his position, or open his eyes. Else, Sneak would disappear.

    Reo wasn¡¯t sure if he wanted to stay conscious. On one hand, even though Erind couldn¡¯t fight, at least she could alert him.

    On the other, it might be better if he was in a summoning stupor so fear wouldn¡¯t grasp his heart.

    Even if he wasn¡¯t in this situation, a downside of summoning Sneak compared to other fairies was always present. Reo could feel Sneak climbing out of his throat while also seeing the inside of his throat at the same time. He tuned this part out.

    ¡°Uh, hello?¡± Erind squeaked. ¡°Reo, you can speak when summoning this guy, right?¡±

    ¡°Sneak reporting for duty.¡±

    Reo looked around the room with Sneak¡¯s eyes. Everything was much clearer like a video on the internet suddenly turned from shitty to the highest resolution. He could pick out minute details¡ªthe fibers of the cardboard boxes, almost invisible dust mites on the floor, the individual pores on Erind¡¯s face. She had a horrified, maybe disgusted expression, though trying to hide it. An expected reaction to seeing a small humanoid crawl out of her friend¡¯s throat.

    I guess we¡¯re friends, Reo thought.

    ¡°Looks like you¡¯re fine¡­ish,¡± said Erind with a grimace. ¡°Sorry. Can¡¯t help it. I¡¯ve seen it before, but it¡¯s really disturbing. Sorry again.¡±

    ¡°Not my most flattering side,¡± said Reo. He ordered Sneak to look down at his body. ¡°Can¡¯t get girls with this pathetic pose.¡±

    ¡°Since I¡¯m the only girl around here,¡± said Erind, ¡°does that mean you¡¯re trying to make an impression on me?¡± She hesitantly laughed.

    Reo appreciated the attempt to make a joke. He had no intention of hitting on Erind. She was too plain, barely registering a blip on his radar. However, it made him think more about her. She was far from his type, but her grit and drive to do the right thing inspired him¡­ and also guilted him.

    ¡°If I was trying to make an impression on you,¡± he said, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have tried to back out in the first place.¡±

    ¡°But you¡¯re here,¡± said Erind. ¡°You didn¡¯t abandon me.¡±

    ¡°Nothing to it,¡± said Reo, somehow feeling embarrassed. ¡°I¡¯m going now. Can you open the door? Sneak is too weak to do it.¡± Erind nudged it an inch open, and Sneak flew out. ¡°Everything clear. I¡¯m going back to that hallway with the bioscanner.¡±

    ¡°Be careful out there.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m always careful,¡± he said.

    ¡°If something happens to your fairy, you¡¯ll also feel it, right? Like, if it dies¡ª¡±

    ¡°I can feel it,¡± Reo curtly cut in. Why did she have to remind him? Now, he was thinking of Adumbrae eating Sneak, like the narrow shave he had at the docks. To change the subject, Reo said, ¡°Don¡¯t do anything funny to my helpless body. You may be tempted, but I¡¯m pure.¡±

    ¡°Uh, I-I can put a mop on your head,¡± said Erind.

    That got a laugh out of Reo, a real one. And a laugh of relief. Erind was quite the perceptive gal. She knew he was nervous and kept trying to make the situation light-hearted. But part of Reo also didn¡¯t want Erind to think he was worried. A machismo bit going on. In the end, it felt nice that Erind cared for him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t distract me now,¡± Reo said, turning serious. ¡°Sneak¡¯s passing by the bioscanners. No one here.¡±

    ¡°Just wait for someone to pass by.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll park Sneak on the floor, by the corner. I¡¯ll have a view of who¡¯s coming from any direction and can sneak up on¡ª¡±

    Erind snorted, sounding like she was stifling a laugh.

    Reo raised a brow of his closed eye. ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°You said ¡®sneak.¡¯ Get it?¡± Erind said with giggles. ¡°That¡¯s the name of your fairy. It¡¯s like characters in movies mentioning the title of the movie.¡±

    Reo was tempted to open his eyes and give Erind an incredulous look. What was up with this girl? He didn¡¯t know she had this quirky side of her. It was adorable in a way. If this was any other situation, he¡¯d like to just chat with her and hang out. But they have a mission here.

    ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ll keep Sneak on the floor,¡± said Reo.

    ¡°If he doesn¡¯t move, he¡¯s invisible. I remember.¡±

    ¡°No, not invisible. What¡¯s happening is that once Sneak stays still, he doesn¡¯t register in the consciousness of anyone who sees him. He¡¯ll be like the social outcast in high school. Even if somebody bumps him, it¡¯ll be fine, so long as his body doesn¡¯t move. If he does, then, yeah, he¡¯ll get seen. This is why it¡¯s best to wait on the floor instead of the ceiling or walls for something to latch onto. No one¡¯s going to notice that brief moment he¡¯ll leap on a leg.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve really thought up a strategy for this,¡± said Erind.

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Reo felt his ears heat up from the praise. He wished he didn¡¯t tie his hair in a ponytail so his ears were covered. ¡°It¡¯s not much of a strategy. Just common sense. Now, we wait.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep you safe, I promise. I mean¡­ that doesn¡¯t mean anything, but I¡¯ll do my best keeping this door shut.¡±

    ¡°Yell if something bad happens.¡± Reo appreciated that Erind kept talking to him. ¡°That¡¯s your part. The moment you sense something wrong, just yell. I¡¯ll cancel the summon and take care of whoever it is.¡± As long as he¡¯s a human, he added in his head.

    After a minute of silence, Erind said, ¡°I forgot to say thank you.¡±

    ¡°You already have,¡± Reo said, sighing. Was she trying to chat because she was nervous? Likely. He was too.  ¡°Once again, I didn¡¯t do any protecting. It was just¡ª¡±

    ¡°I meant for saving me from the docks. Have I thanked you for that?¡±

    ¡°Probably.¡± Reo shrugged, arms still outstretched. ¡°But you have nothing to thank me for. To set the record straight, that also didn¡¯t count as saving. More on the side of finding you after the dust had settled. We didn¡¯t stop the monster that was Red Hood. We didn¡¯t do anything to the 2Ms¡¯ men. Nothing.¡±

    Reo wasn¡¯t one to shy away from taking credit. If he didn¡¯t find Erind when he did, who knew what bad things could¡¯ve happened to her? True, they didn¡¯t do any fighting¡ªexcept Myra, though that wasn¡¯t necessary¡ªbut they did find her. He found her.

    But Reo didn¡¯t want to take credit. Guilt stopped him. That time, they were tailing Erind on Dario¡¯s orders. They were supposed to kidnap her so Dario could wipe her memory. It was for the group¡¯s security. It was the most insane coincidence that Erind got kidnapped by the 2Ms, specifically Rofirio and his men, while they were watching her. What choice did they have? They had to go after Erind and get her because she might spill information about them.

    ¡°I¡¯m thanking you for finding me,¡± Erind insisted.

    ¡°It was more luck that we found you in the rubble,¡± said Reo. He was tempted to say, I found you. ¡°That doesn¡¯t count. You talk of movies¡ªthink of it like the scene where the police arrive after the climax battle is already over and they have nothing to contribute.¡±

    ¡°The police did arrive. If you didn¡¯t find me, they would¡¯ve taken me into custody and investigated me, especially because the 2Ms and Red Hood were there. I¡¯ll probably get locked up in quarantine and have tests done on me.¡±

    ¡°Fine, you win. On behalf of the group, I accept your thanks and say ¡®You¡¯re welcome¡¯.¡± Then it was silence again.

    They waited for several minutes more without anyone showing up. Reo started to think this was all a mistake. He relented to Erind¡¯s plan and used his powers, hoping this would be over soon. It would be neat and quick: Sneak hitches a ride on someone, gets a view of the other side of the bioscanner, and Reo and Erind rush up to safety. Reo didn¡¯t consider it might take time for Sneak¡¯s ride to come. This is the exact opposite of quick!

    Erind broke the silence. ¡°Any sec¡ªminute. Any minute now and someone will pass.¡± She must¡¯ve noticed him fidgeting in impatience.

    ¡°I caught that,¡± said Reo. ¡°You were going to say ¡®any second¡¯, but you realized it¡¯s not going to happen soon so you changed it to ¡®minute¡¯. Every minute that passes, the danger grows. We should abort this mission.¡±

    ¡°No! We¡¯re so close! Like, distance-wise. When it comes to time, I¡ªyeah¡­ I don¡¯t know when someone will pass.¡±

    Reo thought of the perfect plan to get out of this situation¡ªset a time limit. They couldn¡¯t wait forever; Erind couldn¡¯t argue with that. Another five minutes, and if no one showed up, they¡¯d leave. That way, it was up to fate, and it wouldn¡¯t seem like he was running away. ¡°How about this: if someone doesn¡¯t come in¡ª¡± Footsteps made Reo pause.

    Clear and distinct. He heard it through Sneak¡¯s ears. Fucking fate!

    ¡°Is someone there?¡± Erind asked.

    For a moment, he considered lying. But there was no danger. Sneak would be the one doing the infiltration. ¡°We have a target,¡± said Reo. ¡°Here he comes. Another guy with the same uniform. Here¡­ we¡­ go¡­ Agent Sneak has successfully attached himself to the target.¡±

    ¡°Finally,¡± said Erind. ¡°I was getting worried there with all the waiting.¡±

    Sneak needed to get up the leg to get a better view. He let go, zipped upward, and latched on again before the leg swung forward to step. Soon, Sneak grabbed onto the outer side of the man¡¯s knee. It¡¯d be too risky to go higher or the man might notice. Sneak clung sideways, facing front, craning his neck up to see as much as possible while holding that position.

    ¡°We¡¯re through the bioscanner,¡± said Reo. ¡°No alarms. This guy¡¯s passing secure-as-fuck-looking doors. There¡¯s a camera. We¡¯re not getting through here undetected even if we got past the bioscanner.¡± He was already preparing lines to dissuade their group from going down here for when they¡¯d meet later.

    ¡°What else? Where¡¯s Sneak now?¡±

    Reo narrated to Erind what Sneak saw. The corridor became narrower, and the steel walls were painted dark gray. Dim lights. More cameras. There were doors and side paths, but Sneak¡¯s ride continued walking forward. He read the signs to Erind as the man descended the stairs.

    ¡°Containment facilities¡­¡± muttered Reo. ¡°Containing what?¡±

    ¡°Adumbrae stuff, I bet,¡± said Erind.

    ¡°We reached a fork.¡±

    ¡°Go right. Same as last time¡ªright¡¯s the right way, right?¡±

    ¡°Go right, what? I¡¯m not controlling which way we go. Or do you mean Sneak will fly on his own and¡ªoh, the guy¡¯s picked right.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m telling you: right is lucky.¡±

    The man stopped in front of a door. Sneak heard beeping. The man pressed buttons on a keypad. Concerning noises from the other side. Groans and guttural moans. Scratching and banging.

    ¡°I¡¯m thinking we found where they keep monsters on the ship,¡± Reo said. ¡°Erind, you may be on to something with your right-is-right thing.¡±

    ¡°I-I told you so,¡± she distractedly replied. She lowered her voice to almost a whisper.

    ¡°Something wrong?¡±

    ¡°No. Continue telling me what you see.¡±

    Reo didn¡¯t immediately talk. Were those voices he was also hearing? And footsteps?

    He wondered for a moment if Sneak heard it or if it was on his side. They seemed distant and muffled, unlike what Sneak could hear. Must be the thick door. Erind would say something if danger was approaching.

    The door swished open and Reo returned his focus to Sneak. The monstrous sounds turned up, along with mechanical clinks and clanks. The man walked across a bridge over a wide pit, his heavy shoes banging on the metal with each step. Too much noise.

    But he was sure there was talking there somewhere. Coming from below, maybe?

    Since we¡¯re already taking risks¡­ Reo made Sneak look down. For a second, Sneak was visible. And there were a dozen possible witnesses right below them¡ªbut none were going to sound the alarm. About five feet from the bottom of the metal walkway were the roofs of large transparent crates, each one containing a monster. A mindless monster raving, banging on its cell to escape.

    ¡°The fuck!¡± Reo exclaimed. ¡°Monsters galore!¡±

    ¡°Shut up,¡± Erind hissed.

    Reo wasn¡¯t listening. He gagged at the pageant of abominations, his stomach churning. Sneak¡¯s vision was too good, even in the dim light. He could see the pus swirling inside the boils covering one monster¡¯s face. To head off Erind thinking he was pathetic, he described what he saw to her.

    Turned out to be a terrible idea because it made him want to puke more when he focused on each monster. There were some sounds that he was sure came from around him. Erind was probably trying to get away from him in case he vomited.

    Was that the door opening? She seriously wasn¡¯t leaving him here, was she?

    ¡°Hey, Erind. I¡¯m not going to puke,¡± he said, making Sneak look forward. He had enough of the monsters. ¡°Don¡¯t get away from me like I¡¯m the plague.¡± He laughed.

    Erind didn¡¯t reply. That was a lame joke, worthy of Everett.

    Reo cleared his throat, turning businesslike. ¡°If I have to guess what these creatures are, they must be mutants, failed experiments of turning people into Adumbrae. Either that, or they¡¯re Adumbrae that lost control of themselves. Maybe this is part of the process of getting their selves back. Just go all wild and let the ferocity out of their system.¡±

    Erind still wasn¡¯t answering him. He heard more noises, but he wasn¡¯t sure of what¡­ and where they came from. This was another problem when using Sneak. It was like not knowing whether a ringing doorbell was his own or his neighbor¡¯s because all of the apartments had the same ringing sound. This was also how Rofirio got him; Reo thought the sounds of that parrot creep were heard by Sneak.

    The man that Sneak clung to reached the end of the bridge and entered another door. As soon as the door shut behind him, it became way less noisy. Sneak could still hear the monsters. But Reo could now discern more of the sounds around him.

    ¡°Erind?¡± he said. ¡°Are you here?¡± He began to panic. Did something happen to her? ¡°Erind, I¡¯m going to open my¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t,¡± Erind said. Then there was a click. ¡°I¡¯m here. Continue the mission. We need to know as much as we can.¡±

    ¡°What was that sound? Did you open the door?¡±

    ¡°I was checking outside if someone heard you shout.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t shout,¡± he said. ¡°Okay, maybe I did. I would classify it as a yelp. But you shouldn¡¯t go out of this room. Wait for me to finish Sneak¡¯s snooping, and then we can both return to the elevator.¡±

    ¡°I think¡­ I think we should move,¡± Erind slowly said. Then she hastily added, ¡°Don¡¯t break your summon.¡±

    ¡°Wha-what?¡± Reo almost opened his eyes.

    ¡°When I poked my head outside, I heard some footsteps. People walking not that far from here. You¡¯re right, the longer we stay, the riskier it gets. But we also need Sneak to find out as much as possible. We should move while you continue investigating.¡±

    ¡°The hell? You expect me to walk on my knees, like doing penitence?¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t the time to joke,¡± Erind replied. ¡°Of course, you¡¯re not going to move on your knees. Way too slow. I¡¯ll push you while you kneel on this cart I found hidden behind the boxes.¡±

 6.21

    ¡°Carefully¡­ Don¡¯t make noise,¡± I whispered as I helped Reo get on the cart while still on his knees and holding out his arms. Not a comfortable task in this cramped space.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know there was a cart in this room,¡± said Reo.

    ¡°They probably use it to move these boxes containing whatever.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but widely grin when Reo bumped his knees on the side of the cart. He had his eyes closed anyway. This is fucking dumb.

    I glanced at the two bodies stacked against the closed door. This is super-duper, ultimate, tyrannosaurus rex dumb.

    The man crumpled on the floor wearing all black was a guard¡ªthe huge sci-fi gun and walkie-talkie thingy strapped to his hip confirmed it. I had given his radio a good squeeze to destroy it. Too many movies warned me about the dangers of radios suddenly buzzing on at inopportune times.

    He was patrolling the hallway in the last moments of his life. Not just the routine kind of patrol; it was as if he was looking for something. I decided to go out because I heard the door of the next room open and close. And I think this guy also searched the room before that. I didn¡¯t know then he was a guard; I just thought someone was looking for a mop.

    I felt some pushback when I rotated his head to see if he could mimic an owl. Could be an Adumbrae. Fortunately, his powers didn¡¯t involve being an owl or becoming rubber, so he died when he got internally decapitated.

    The other guy stacked on top of the guard was an employee wearing overalls. I got the cart from him. He passed by when I was killing the security guard. Wrong place, wrong time. Technically, with me around, everyone on this ship is at the wrong place and wrong time. Same as the guard, I also broke the neck of Overalls Man the Second before he could react. No blood.

    I opened the door. Then I coughed and cleared my throat to disguise the sound of the bodies getting shoved out into the hallway. With enough space, I pushed the cart out, adjusting Reo¡¯s position so his arms wouldn¡¯t get snagged on the doorway.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a good idea, Erind,¡± he said. ¡°Either we stay put or I stop the summon and we ditch this place. I¡¯m not comfortable¡ªerm, I mean it¡¯s not good to move around while I¡¯m¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re already on the cart, so let¡¯s do this,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯re escaping while you continue investigating. Once you¡¯re done, we¡¯ll already be on the elevator. Trust me.¡±

    ¡°No offense, but I¡¯m not sure about the ¡°trusting you¡± part. Are you sure you can push me?¡±

    ¡°I can,¡± I said as I bent down to grab the collars of the guard and Overalls Man the Second. Then I pushed the cart with one hand while pulling my corpse baggage with the other. ¡°We¡¯re moving, see? Wheels are a force multiplier. Simple machines are a grade school science lesson.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that dragging sound?¡± Reo asked, turning his head around though his eyes were still closed. ¡°Is that the wheels or what?¡±

    ¡°The wheels, yeah. You¡¯d think they¡¯d have money for maintenance. Anyway, where¡¯s Sneak now?¡±

    ¡°We left the monster pen and I¡¯m not sure where¡ªwe entered a room with lots of people. Some kind of party going on here. I¡¯m not sure if we should continue talking while walking. Someone might hear us.¡±

    ¡°Just talk in a low voice. Whether you keep silent or talk, or even if you¡¯re walking normally, if we run into anyone, they¡¯ll be suspicious of us. You said it yourself. I¡¯m interested in what Sneak sees so I¡¯ll know if we¡¯ve got enough.¡±

    Not only was it for distraction, but the conversation also partially covered whatever weird sounds pulling the two corpses would make. I could carry the bodies on my back, but I didn¡¯t want them dirtying me. What if they drooled or blood dripped out of their noses and ears? Worse, what if they voided their nasty insides? I knew from watching true crime documentaries that muscles loosened upon death¡ªthe bladder and bowels were muscles, I think. No, thank you to shit and piss on me.

    ¡°Wow, you¡¯re the one to decide if our mission is complete?¡± said Reo. ¡°Boss girl now, are you? I must say, you being more assertive is kinda hot.¡±

    ¡°Reo!¡± I furiously whispered, rattling the cart¡¯s handle a bit.

    ¡°Okay, okay. Sneak¡¯s in a room with a lot of shit going on. Two bouncer-type muscle dudes decked in all black by the door. One guy has aug-arms. The other got¡­ horns? The hell? Must be an Adumbrae. Both of them probably.¡±

    I looked over my shoulder to check the dead guard I was pulling. I wasn¡¯t imagining that he was a bit hard to kill.

    ¡°More people in that uniform we saw earlier,¡± continued Reo. ¡°People in lab gowns. Scientists, I¡¯m guessing. This is where the Adumbrae shit is happening. Sneak¡¯s ride talking to one of the lab gown dudes.¡±

    I frowned as I continued to trudge pushing a kneeling weirdo and dragging two corpses. Was I meant to pass that place to get to the three small ships? Did Big Marcy direct me there? I¡¯d end up killing everyone in that room! That¡¯d ruin my chances of getting to Red Island and could escalate to the entire cruise ship getting sunk¡ªBig Marcy wouldn¡¯t want that.

    ¡°Did Sneak pass an intersection after the place with the mutants?¡± I asked, trying to recall the pictures and maps Big Marcy sent me.

    ¡°I think so, yeah.¡±

    ¡°Could you investigate that other way?¡±

    ¡°How am I supposed to do that? This guy is already sitting down, reporting for work or something. He¡¯s not going anywhere. I think we¡¯ve got enough. We should¡ªwhy are we stopping?¡±

    Slight sounds of footsteps ahead. A shadow followed, peaking at the bend. I stopped pushing the cart and laid the corpses on the ground without making a sound. ¡°Going to check the path ahead quick to make sure we¡¯re safe,¡± I said. ¡°Don¡¯t break your summon, okay?¡± Before Reo could respond, I stomped onward to meet the next lucky winner of the grand prize of death.

    The incoming person wouldn¡¯t think someone noisily walking was an intruder. He or she wouldn¡¯t think much of me and Reo¡¯s conversation, if they overheard it. Also, I¡¯d mask any noise they¡¯d make if I messed up offing them.

    I reached the corner at the same time as¡­ Overalls Man the First?

    His eyes widened when he saw me. Recognition. His hand flew to his jacket to get his radio. I caught his wrist and pulled him down, and then grabbed his throat, crushing his windpipe before he could make a sound.

    He wasn¡¯t dead yet. I went back to Reo, the throat of Overalls Man the First in my grasp. I slowly tightened my grip so there¡¯d be no distinct crack of bone as I snapped his neck. Did he remember us when he woke up? That might explain the guard checking the rooms. So much for Reo¡¯s plan.

    ¡°Nothing there,¡± I said. ¡°I think we¡¯re clear on the way to the elevator.¡±

    ¡°Can I break the summon now, pretty please, boss Erind?¡±

    ¡°Denied,¡± I curtly said, thinking I should play along with his kink or whatever. ¡°Complete your mission and fully scout the other path.¡± I looked at my increased baggage. I couldn¡¯t carry three of them by the collar with one hand because they¡¯d crowd each other. Seeing no other choice, put the first Overalls Man on my shoulder¡ªplease, don¡¯t void your bowels¡ªand went back to my earlier setup.

    And we were on our way again. I took care that I wouldn¡¯t step that heavily. Superstrength made the weight trivial. It was the cumbersomeness of it that annoyed me.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°How do you expect Sneak to get to that other place?¡± Reo asked in an exasperated tone. ¡°If he flies off, he¡¯ll get seen, remember? Hang on, another guy is leaving. I think I can¡­ there we go. Sneak has a new ride.¡±

    ¡°Good work, Reo. Let¡¯s hope that guy is going the other path, and not back here.¡±

    ¡°Fingers crossed, Erind-o, my friend-o.¡±

    ¡°I thought I¡¯m your boss?¡± I said, chuckling all cutesy. Deen would elbow me if she heard it. ¡°Our path to the elevator is clear. You¡¯re not going to lose contact with Sneak, are you? Like, I remember you talking about a certain distance your fairies can fly away from you.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re good, Boss Erind-o,¡± Reo replied. He explained that the range of Sneak was the longest among all his fairies at a hundred and fifty meters.

    ¡°Why meters? The fairy kingdom signed the Metre Convention or something?¡±

    ¡°A hundred and fifty meters or four hundred and ninety-two feet¡­ I guess the fairy kingdom uses metrics.¡±

    ¡°I read in a brochure that this ship is three football fields long. One field is like three sixty feet. We¡¯re in the forwardmost fifth of the ship¡¯s length. Plenty of range for Sneak.¡±

    Reo sighed. ¡°I never thought this was going to happen. You, pushing me. Us talking about football fields¡­¡±

    Me, carrying a dead guy on my back and pulling two more dead guys, I added in my head. This was going to get super wrong if my plan wouldn¡¯t work. I might have to kill Reo. How the fuck would I explain that to the others?

    We passed a security camera. I stared intently at it, trying to send a message with my thoughts, you better come since this was your plan.

    ¡°We make a good team, you and I,¡± said Reo. ¡°I¡¯m glad we partnered up. I didn¡¯t think much of you before¡ªuh, I mean Sneak¡¯s new ride turned to that other path. We¡¯re going to finally know what¡¯s down there.¡±

    ¡°And we¡¯re on the elevator. I¡¯m pushing you in now. We¡¯re going to finish this mission with a ribbon on top.¡±

    I pushed Reo into the carriage and carefully deposited the three bodies so they wouldn¡¯t thump on the floor. I pushed the button for the lobby floor. For a moment, I thought we needed to press some code to make it go up. But it began to move up, causing Reo to celebrate.

    ¡°We made it!¡± he exclaimed.

    ¡°Finish your mission,¡± I sternly told him.

    There was another security camera here. I looked up and wagged my finger at it. Come on! I know you¡¯re watching. Send someone to¡ªI hadn¡¯t finished my thought when the elevator stopped probably just a couple of floors up. The doors opened. Big Marcy and two bodyguards, slightly smaller than him, stood outside, blocking the whole exit like a wall of muscles.

    My eyes widened. I didn¡¯t expect him to come personally.

    As if reading my mind, Big Marcy bowed as if to say, at your service. Then he cocked his head at Reo. Good thing Big Marcy didn¡¯t speak a word. He quickly analyzed the situation and knew something not normal¡ªif anything here could be considered normal¡ªwas going on. Likewise, lucky Ramon wasn¡¯t here. That guy would immediately talk to me and ruin everything.

    I put a finger to my lips. Big Marcy tilted his head. I supposed he was trying to say, I know.

    Help me out, I asked him with my eyes. I gestured at the dead guys.

    It was Big Marcy¡¯s plan to send me here with maps that bordered a puzzle. He should know there was a chance I¡¯d kill a few people along the way. My hunch was that the bioscanners were set to allow Adumbrae to pass, otherwise, it¡¯d be a dead end for me. Or they could be set to human, and Big Marcy was testing my capabilities. Never know with this guy.

    Knowing his part, Big Marcy pointed at the corpses. His bodyguards took them out of the elevator as silently as possible.

    ¡°Am I crazy or are we stopping?¡± Reo asked. ¡°Why are we¡ª? I found the small ships! You¡¯re freaking right, Erind. They¡¯re hiding here¡ªthe way to Red Island.¡± Reo had said enough that Big Marcy should know what I was up to here.

    Big Marcy raised a brow. I nodded. He waved goodbye as the doors were closing.

    I tapped my wrist, asking for the time the ships would depart. He shrugged. Was he saying he didn¡¯t know? Mark probably wouldn¡¯t tell him, or the schedule just keeps changing. He twirled his hands, probably telling me more information was to follow, and the doors shut between us. We were moving again.

    ¡°Sorry, Reo. Pressed the wrong button. You can open your eyes now. Mission completed.¡±

    ¡°Woohoo! We¡¯re alive!¡± Reo jumped off the cart and hugged me. I flinched and clenched my fists. He let go and backed away. ¡°Okay, I didn¡¯t mean to do that.¡±

    This low-life cockroach dared to touch me!  I glared at him. We were home free and this guy wanted to waste all of our effort by dying? He was lucky I didn¡¯t slap him¡ªthat¡¯d be a normal reaction for a girl like me. Too bad for Reo, a serious slap from me would remove his head.

    That was going to happen someday. I was filing this offense in my memory.

    ¡°Uh, I¡¯m sorry, Erind.¡± He looked away, scratching his head. ¡°I was just excited we¡¯re alive.¡±

    I turned to face the doors. The next several seconds of the ride was deafening silence.

    ¡°Leave that cart somewhere,¡± were my only words before I exited the elevator and returned to my room to rest. Dramatic bitch, signing off.

    I ordered room service because I wanted to pig out on pastries to wash away the disgusting memories of someone hugging me.

    <hr>

    It was nearly two in the afternoon, and we were outside, having a meeting under the umbrellas near the rails of the ship. We got our food from the bar beside the pool. The lunchtime crowd was clearing out, so there was less chance of getting overheard. Dario chose our spot downwind so the sound of our voices would be dampened. Before, I thought that the wind only affected smell, like the lions in Animal Channel hunting from downwind to hide their scent from getting detected by prey.

    Turned out, the wind also carried sound. Huh, the more you know.

    Reo sent everyone a sketch map of the secret area Sneak investigated through our phones. He surprisingly had a very good memory. I didn¡¯t look his way or talk to him. I was no longer pissed off¡ªholding strong emotions was tiring¡ªbut I enjoyed acting bitchy, so, there we go.

    ¡°Is this okay, Reo?¡± Myra asked. ¡°You sending this to us? What if someone searches our phone?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s your suggestion, chief spy?¡± sarcastically retorted Reo. ¡°Write on paper using invisible ink? Or do you want to memorize the sketch and then burn it?¡±

    ¡°Something like that,¡± said Mrya. ¡°Secrecy and shit.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand, Myra. If someone¡¯s checking your phone¡ª¡±

    I cut in, ¡°They¡¯re already suspicious of you anyway, so it wouldn¡¯t matter hiding it.¡± That was Reo¡¯s logic in punching Overalls Man the First. May his overalls rest in peace with the fishes.

    Reo looked my way. I decided to meet his gaze, and then quickly averted my eyes, playing coy. That should signal I forgave him¡­ which was a lie. His usefulness was running out after delivering the information about the ships to Red Island to the group, and he may soon find himself with Overalls Man the First and the Second.

    Reo smiled. And with that, we grew closer. In his mind. I¡¯d squeeze out some final use for him, maybe treating him as a meat shield during the inevitable Red Island fight.

    ¡°Our next concern is getting all of us to those ships,¡± Dario said.

    ¡°Even those without powers?¡± asked Deen, testing how Dario would answer.

    ¡°If they want to, then yes,¡± he said. A good response, passing the choice to us. ¡°They can only come along if it¡¯s safe. We will formulate a plan that will make it safe for all of us.¡±

    Taking all his words together, he basically answered ¡®yes¡¯. He must¡¯ve trained at the politician school for evasive answering. By wanting me to join them, he confirmed his obvious plans to use me. Otherwise, he¡¯d prefer if I was as far from their mission.

    ¡°But they¡¯re just normal humans,¡± said Deen. ¡°What can they do to help us over there?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll put that on the back burner for now.¡± Dario turned to me, definitely sending a message. ¡°Take time to think about it while we plan how to get on the ship,¡± he said, knowing full well I aimed to join them. ¡°Before that, we have the problem of when the ship is going to leave.¡±

    ¡°It sure as hell won¡¯t during the day,¡± said Myra.

    ¡°Yes, it could only depart at night,¡± said Johann, ¡°likely after the concert by the pool ends around ten. The window is from that time until sunrise. What are we going to do? Shifts?¡±

    ¡°I volunteer Reo and Erind to be one shift,¡± Everett said with a snort. ¡°He seemed to enjoy partnering with her.¡±

    ¡°What? So you and Deen can go together?¡± snapped Reo.

    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll organize shifts to watch the ship¡¯s bow,¡± said Dario. ¡°But it¡¯s not enough. By the time we see the ship going out, it¡¯s already zooming away.¡±

    ¡°We can swim after it,¡± suggested Jubjub. We didn¡¯t know if she was joking or not.

    ¡°Is that possible?¡± Deen wondered.

    ¡°Two plans,¡± said Dario. ¡°We¡¯ll have shifts watching the bow. And we¡¯ll have shifts trailing people we¡¯re certain are going on those small ships. We have the McHunters and Bianca. Erind can¡¯t meet with Bianca, so how about you go try with the daughter McHunter? Jubjub will pair with you.¡±

 6.22

    Since it wasn¡¯t nighttime yet, and it was super unlikely that the ships going to Red Island would leave, Dario decided we should all try to find out the possible time and date they¡¯d depart. I knew the date but not the time, so I was up for it. Tailing possible Red Island goers was the key. For now, the ¡®recognizable¡¯ people we were sure would join the trip were Bianca and the McHunters.

    If we¡¯d have nothing by the end of the day, we¡¯d do shifts watching for the Red Island ships. I couldn¡¯t tell them the schedule wasn¡¯t tonight. Tomorrow, Deen and Reo would return to the bowels of the ship for more scouting, something Reo really, really didn¡¯t want to do.

    Reo volunteered to shadow Bianca. Something about enjoying his time because he might die tomorrow. Weird that he still was a fan of hers. Bianca had some shoots lined up today, announced on her Snippet account, so it wasn¡¯t hard to find her.

    Myra and Johann went with Reo. Dario divided the rest of us among the decks to search for the McHunters or other possible leads.

    ¡°We really can¡¯t expect the McHunters to buy souvenirs,¡± I told Jubjub and Imani as we walked away from the shops.

    I was supposed to be with only Jubjub¡ªI liked her codename instead of her real name, Jubilee, because it sounded funny, so I called her that in my head¡ªbut I mentioned that having another person would make us look more like a bunch of girls hanging out. Just like the trick I used to get paired with Reo, I wanted Deen to go with me.

    And as expected, Dario wanted to separate us. He assumed I had a plan and wanted to prevent it.

    I then suggested what about Imani? Dario didn¡¯t want me to get my way without even knowing my plan and came up with bullshit about why Imani should sit this one out. However, he didn¡¯t have any real objection because it was just a trailing mission. No danger whatsoever. Supposedly. I reasoned that Imani would feel better if she moved around a bit. By dragging her with us, I planned to find out if she was a traitor. It¡¯d also lessen Jubjub¡¯s apprehension that I¡¯d do something to her if there was another person around.

    Deen had fortunately the good sense not to jump into the conversation and insist on coming with me. Surprisingly, Imani didn¡¯t need any pushing. She agreed to my proposal over Dario¡¯s hesitation.

    What was really up with her? Was I right to bring her along?

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure where we should look for them,¡± said Imani. She had mostly recovered her composure. ¡°It¡¯ll be too suspicious if we ask around. If it was Bianca or another famous person, it¡¯d be fine. But looking for the dangerously infamous¡­¡±

    ¡°True,¡± I said. ¡°Asking around for the family members of a confirmed Adumbrae would raise brows. I guess if we pretended to be wacko Adumbrae conspiracy theorists or something? We should¡¯ve brought Reo along.¡±

    ¡°We can check the bars¡ªno, wait.¡± Imani checked the time on her phone. ¡°It¡¯s too early to drink. If they¡¯re at the pool, the others will let us know. The theaters are next on our list. But if they¡¯re in their rooms or somewhere else off-limits to regular passengers, we¡¯re out of luck.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve been lucky so far,¡± I said, ¡°finding this ship¡¯s secrets. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll find our next step.¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t going to be an easy task,¡± droned Jubjub, as if talking about the weather. ¡°Deen and Everett didn¡¯t encounter any McHunters when they scouted the expensive bars and restaurants earlier.¡±

    I glanced at Jubjub. She had a neutral face, almost mask-like. She hadn¡¯t shown any strong emotion during the short time I¡¯d seen her.

    As she walked beside me, her eyes were half-closed like she was about to fall asleep. Her stark blue irises peeking from behind her lids looked very weird because she had black eyebrows and hair. Either she was wearing contacts or had dyed her hair.

    Dario wanting Jubjub to go with me was probably a message of sorts. I bet that Reo discovering the secret Adumbrae area and ships going to Red Island made Dario even warier of me. Sure, Reo technically found that stuff, but I was also there. At the back of Dario¡¯s mind, he must be wondering if it was too much of a coincidence.

    And he¡¯d be right.

    But what was Jubjub¡¯s part here?

    They knew I was Red Hood. They should also know Jubjub couldn¡¯t stack up to my pinky. Jubjub didn¡¯t seem too bright either since she got caught by Finlay with flashlights. Comparing the La Esperanza and Las Vegas groups, the latter was far lower in¡­ quality. My well-honed people-reading senses, which worked often enough, told me that Dario was the brains here.

    A morbid thought occurred¡ªcould Dario be offering his teammate as bait?

    If I harmed Jubjub or even killed her, he could use that to turn everyone else against me. But it wouldn¡¯t make much sense. Wouldn¡¯t he rather use me when we reached the Red Island rather than start drama on this ship?

    All this thinking was tiring. So much for a relaxing vacation. I enjoyed scheming how to manipulate people, and, yes, that was thinking. But that was the fun sort.

    Guessing what other¡¯s schemes were for me wasn¡¯t fun at all. Being on the defensive was tedious.

    ¡°So, we don¡¯t have a single lead,¡± I said. ¡°Not a very great start to our mission.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll continue going around and see what¡¯s what,¡± said Jubjub. ¡°Find other people to tail. We can assume the wealthy-looking passengers are possible leads.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re assuming that every rich person is a monster?¡± I said, chuckling. ¡°That¡¯s the way the world works, isn¡¯t it?¡± Lame joke, but that wasn¡¯t the point.

    I wanted to show these two I was trying to make the situation light-hearted. The same tactic I employed with Reo. No way Jubjub would let her guard down, but she might assume I was trying to be fake friendly with her. Then she¡¯d try to fake reciprocate, thinking I wouldn¡¯t know and¡­ Urgh, too complicated. This was why I hated it if the other person was also playing the game.

    At least, I got a giggle from Imani. ¡°You¡¯re right, Erind. I was going to say we¡¯re talking about real monsters here, but as Mark Twain said, ¡®Of all the creatures that were made, man is the most detestable.¡¯ Just allow me to flex my English Literature knowledge.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m jealous you can quote famous people like that,¡± I said, genuinely meaning it. Such a cool thing to do. Could be on the pretentious side, but also the badass side. ¡°What¡¯s Mark Twain¡¯s issue with humanity?¡±

    ¡°According to him, only humans have malice.¡±

    ¡°The Adumbrae weren¡¯t around during his time,¡± I said, hoping I got it right. I was clueless when it came to poets and writers. ¡°But that quote is probably still true today. I¡¯m not sure if the Adumbrae are truly malicious like humans. They could just be acting on instincts. Humans on the other hand¡­¡±

    ¡°Humans also act on instincts,¡± said Jubjub. ¡°Instinctually, humans want to do good¡­ good for themselves. Not necessarily for everyone else. Malice is the intention to do evil. Most people who do bad things don¡¯t think they¡¯re acting evil. They have reasons other than just being evil for the sake of it, even if the outcome results in harm.¡±

    Is that part of your explanation of why you killed the survivors of the Greaves Tech Fair? That was what I almost blurted.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    We already had Imani on our side. Why did she switch back to Jubjub¡¯s? Did Jubjub succeed in rationalizing killing the survivors we saved? Protecting their identities, probably.

    I could see Imani falling for it and forgiving Jubjub. Imani already lost her two friends, comrades-in-arms; she couldn¡¯t afford to abandon her last one. If it were me, I¡¯d also tell Imani that keeping their identities secret would also help their deceased friends'' families, shielding them from investigation as they grieve.

    Like, I get it. Why would Imani believe me, Deen, and Myra, over Jubjub, someone she had known for some time? 3Bs¡ªblack, blonde, and blue¡ªversus¡­

    I snorted as if holding back laughter, just loud enough to call attention to myself. Jubjub gave me a questioning look. ¡°This isn¡¯t about the evil humanity thing,¡± I said, stroking my hair. ¡°Look, the three of us have black hair.¡± We were also the 3Bs.

    ¡°All long hair too,¡± said Imani. ¡°We could be sisters.¡±

    ¡°But Jubjub has blue eyes, unlike you and me, Imani.¡±

    ¡°I sometimes wear contacts to make them black,¡± said Jubjub. ¡°To avoid prying questions. Some people accuse me of dying my hair black.¡±

    I gasped. ¡°That¡¯s really the natural color of your eyes and hair? I¡¯m sorry, I also assumed¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Erind. I get that a lot. This color¡¯s natural.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a super rare combination,¡± I said. ¡°You know, genetics-wise.¡±

    Jubjub could be the main character of a young adult, adventure fantasy movie. The audience self-insert lead always had a special physical trait, like red eyes or even purple ones. Black hair and blue eyes should be cool enough. The child part of me was happy to meet someone with this eye-hair color combination, reminding me of the days when I¡¯d be entertained by the exotic beasts on the Animal Channel.

    ¡°Rarer than blonde hair and blue eyes,¡± said Jubjub in the same monotone. I thought she¡¯d get excited about it. Was she annoyed?

    ¡°I hope you¡¯re not offended,¡± I said. ¡°I thought you dyed your hair black to help your powers. Like, black helps with the shadows? You always wore black, so¡­¡±

    ¡°It does help,¡± Jubjub said. ¡°If I had light hair, I¡¯d dye it black or dark brown to help with my powers. I also close my eyes when turning into my shadow form to hide my blue irises. Seeing dark helps me concentrate too.¡±

    Is she bullshitting me? If she didn¡¯t know I was an enemy, it¡¯d be easy to say that I successfully enticed her to share crucial information among friends. Given that wasn¡¯t the case, she must have been acting friendly towards me and feeding me fake information.

    Makes me want to transform into Domino and investigate Jubjub. I did save her when she was cornered by Finlay. She should know that was me in my werewolf form attacking that terracotta bastard and giving her an opening. She owed me. Was it possible to whittle some sympathy or gratitude from her?

    ¡°Are the theaters even open during this hour?¡± Imani wondered as we exited the elevator. ¡°They play movies in the morning and close after lunch to prepare for the afternoon shows.¡±

    ¡°Here¡¯s a schedule.¡± Jubjub leaned on a standing sign beside the corridor leading to the theaters. ¡°Two shows.¡± She bent down to read it. ¡°Not shows. Talks. One is about the world economy during Adumbrae turmoil.¡±

    ¡°Such a serious topic for a cruise,¡± murmured Imani.

    ¡°Sounds useful for the rich people here,¡± I whispered. ¡°The rich and the Adumbrae. I can see why they¡¯ll have something like that lined up.¡±

    ¡°The other is about the construction industry,¡± said Jubjub. ¡°A more random topic to have for a cruise. Would any of the McHunters attend either of these talks?¡±

    ¡°Construction?¡± I scrunched my nose. Was lady luck blessing me again?

    ¡°The construction talk is given by Spence Hugh,¡± said Jubjub, glancing at me. ¡°Ring any bells?¡±

    ¡°Not really,¡± I said.

    ¡°Says here he¡¯s the CEO of HMCI,¡± said Imani. ¡°It¡¯s a construction firm. Ronan used to do part-time at one of their construction sites before.¡± Her face turned somber as her voice fizzled towards the end of the sentence.

    Ronan? One of her friends who died? A distraction.

    What was important was this Spence Hugh guy¡ªI had seen him before. Well, I could barely make out what he looked like when I visited the exclusive bar with Jeffrey in my Domino form. Jeffrey pointed out Spence Hugh talking to Raphaela McHunter to show off that he knew important people. Jeffrey also mentioned that HMCI was interested in developing the lands of the McHunters that were embroiled in legal battles.

    ¡°Let¡¯s try this economy and Adumbrae talk,¡± said Jubjub. ¡°If the McHunters are going to attend any of these programs, it¡¯ll be this one.¡±

    ¡°Do we have to pay¡ªoh, it¡¯s free,¡± said Imani.

    ¡°We should split ourselves,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll go to the construction talk just to be sure. If the McHunters aren¡¯t in either, we can take note of the important people who might be Adumbrae. Imani, which one do you want to attend?¡±

    Jubjub placed a hand on Imani¡¯s shoulder. ¡°She¡¯s going with me.¡±

    Imani just nodded, not meeting my eyes.

    I smirked as I turned around and headed to the other theater. Jubjub must feel good for ¡®foiling¡¯ my ¡®plan¡¯ to be alone with Imani. My real intention was to go into the construction talk alone without inviting suspicion¡ªand it succeeded!

    Playing ¡®the game¡¯ with an active player was tiring. But small victories were sweet.

    ¡°Excuse me,¡± I said to the woman outside the theater. ¡°Can I still enter?¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am. It¡¯s only been fifteen minutes since it started. An hour more to go plus an open forum. Please go in.¡±

    I made the snap decision to break away from Jubjub and Imani instead of convincing them to come here. If I was right and some of the McHunters were inside, it¡¯d be good having those two along to corroborate anything I¡¯d learn. But! It¡¯d be so fucking suspicious, especially after Reo¡¯s discovery with me by his side.

    More importantly, the way I intended to get close to the McHunters was better off not witnessed by Jubjub and Imani. I was going to copy the way Deen and I approached Bianca. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

    Personally, I wasn¡¯t that invested in finding out the Red Island ships¡¯ departure time. If Big Marcy wanted me to trash his brother¡¯s place, he¡¯d find out and tell me about it. The problem was if he didn¡¯t tell me, maybe betraying me, or just knowing about it too late. And if Big Marcy eventually did tell me, how was I going to convey it to the others? I couldn¡¯t just say I heard it from somewhere.

    And so, I had to do this. If only I could swim to the Red Island.

    The theater was dim except for the stage, with spotlights focused on a well-dressed man talking animatedly on it. The place was slightly bigger than the lecture halls of Cresthorne. Maybe around three hundred seats divided into three groups. There were around fortyish people, most sitting in the first few rows of the middle group of chairs, and the rest peppered elsewhere.

    Jacked men in suits stood near the walls. Guards. I came to the right place.

    Some people turned to look at me when I entered, including the guards. This was why I hated being late. Didn¡¯t like the attention. Worse, I looked very out of place. It was like I entered a corporate meeting wearing a shirt, shorts, and flip-flops.

    Wait. Not like. This was exactly that situation.

    Most attendees were middle-aged people, with a few younger ones. I couldn¡¯t see old, old people, the white-haired, white guys expected to be present during stuffy business gatherings. If that wasn¡¯t proof these people were Adumbrae¡ªmost of them, anyway¡ªthen I didn¡¯t know what was.

    I craned my neck, looking for anyone recognizable, but my gaze settled on a seemingly familiar guard. Out of all the guards, only he glared at me, trying to make eye contact. I couldn¡¯t place where I had seen him before, but if I had to guess, he was probably with Big Marcy during our first meeting.

    Was he telling me not to start some shit? I wasn¡¯t going to.

    He also wasn¡¯t moving to head me off, just staring. Probably didn¡¯t want to provoke me.

    I waved at him while descending the stairs and continued scanning the audience.

    Jackpot! I spotted Raphaela McHunter in the front row. I should go to the casino and gamble with this much luck on my side. Or not, because such luck was bound to run out.

    And it might be running out because what was I to do next? I couldn¡¯t approach Raphaela. She had people sitting beside her. Why would she entertain a random girl like me?

    Then someone else caught my eye. To my left, five seats into a row, a woman sat alone, her almost white hair like a beacon in the dim theater. She turned to me when I stopped by her row, leafy green eyes looking questioningly. The screen on stage flashed a white slide, illuminating the place, and revealing the woman¡¯s pointy chin and roundish cheeks. I couldn¡¯t forget this bitch¡¯s face¡ªYara McHunter.

    I recalled Jeffrey¡¯s friends badmouthing the McHunters. I didn¡¯t quite catch what their actual issue was with them. They were all on the same side¡ªthe monster side. Could be general unpleasantness? The daughter has shown her bitchy side to me as Domino. If it was just that, then there should be no problem.

    I sidled into the row. ¡°Hello! I¡¯m Erind.¡±

 6.23

    Yara blinked. Then she looked around. No one else I could¡¯ve been talking to. Turning back to me, she softly said, ¡°Uh, hello. I¡¯m Yara. Pleased to meet you.¡± She gave me a little nod, almost a bow.

    A weird reaction. If I didn¡¯t know Yara had only one living sibling, her brother, I would¡¯ve thought the person I was speaking to was her twin or something. When I inadvertently met Yara as Domino, she glared daggers at me, demanding who I was. Back then, Domino wore the illusion of Yara¡¯s deceased sister¡ªprobably half-sister¡ªbecause of their mother. That could be a factor for Yara¡¯s nasty reaction.

    Now, she sounded¡­ nice. As I neared, she hesitantly stood up, offering a hand. But I already took a seat beside her. Hand still out, she sat back down, wearing a confused face.

    Grinning, I shook her hand. ¡°Nice to meet you too, Yara. This is the first time we¡¯re meeting, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    Yara should be assuming I was someone high up in the 2Ms hierarchy. A random girl walking into a program attended by the 2Ms¡¯ clients? The guards weren¡¯t stopping me or anything. More than likely I was an Adumbrae. And an Adumbrae on this cruise was someone important, especially with how I strutted about. Confidence does pay off when wearing a disguise, as Reo had said.

    This wasn¡¯t even a disguise. I am an Adumbrae.

    Just not the sort Yara was thinking.

    My hunch was that Yara wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae herself. Not yet, anyway. I was using use the same playbook as when Deen and I first met Bianca¡ªDeen pretended she wanted a friend her age in the 2Ms¡¯ organization. That was my idea, so why not recycle it? I was going to play it by ear if this¡¯d work on Yara.

    ¡°Yes, this is the first time,¡± Yara replied. ¡°Ms. Er-eren¡­?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Erind,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yara McHunter,¡± she said, nodding again.

    ¡°I know. And you¡¯ve already introduced yourself.¡± This bitch was baiting out my surname because she couldn¡¯t recognize my first name. I didn¡¯t bother lying since the 2Ms knew who I was anyway, but I didn¡¯t want Yara to be judgmental about my surname, or its unrecognizability, if that was even a word.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Ms. Erind. I was flustered at mispronouncing your name,¡± she said, not looking flustered at all. She had composed herself, probably realizing this was a great opportunity to rub shoulders with someone important. ¡°Let me apologize for that. I should¡¯ve listened carefully when you introduced yourself.¡±

    ¡°Many people get my name wrong. Really not surprising. It¡¯s not a common name, at least in this part of the world. So is yours.¡±

    She nodded, a bit too eagerly. ¡°When my father heard this name decades ago during one of his business travels in Brazil. He loved it so much that promised himself to name his first daughter ¡®Yara¡¯. My mother took some convincing, but she eventually gave in.¡±

    First daughter?

    Right, Raphaela was the McHunter, not her husband. Yara was from Raphaela¡¯s second marriage, assuming there weren¡¯t more.

    Was there even an actual marriage? Why was Yara carrying her mother¡¯s surname? In this scenario, under California statutes, it would either mean Raphaela wasn¡¯t married to Yara¡¯s father¡ªand that was a whole can of worms¡ªor Yara had a double surname but omitted using the first one. Could be that the surname of Yara¡¯s father didn¡¯t command prestige like ¡®McHunter¡¯. I was proud of myself for remembering some law stuff.

    ¡°That¡¯s a cool story,¡± I said, deciding it was tactless to ask about her surname situation. Also, I should already know about her background if I was with the 2Ms.

    ¡°Thank you, Ms. Erind. It¡¯s a fond memory of my father.¡±

    Did that mean her dad was dead? I don¡¯t care. After seeing how bitchy Yara could be, her fake politeness made me want to puke. She was obviously trying to butter up to me.

    Theory time¡ªthe McHunters were newcomers into the fold of the 2Ms. They could hardly risk getting involved with Adumbrae after Raphael McHunter was executed by the BID. But now, they were following in the illegal footsteps of their lost patriarch because they thought enough time had passed and the heat was off them. Maybe they needed money? More money. Power? The usual stuff.

    Or the McHunters could¡¯ve been in the 2Ms¡¯ outer circle and were now trying to join the more exclusive club of monsters after seeing an opportunity. Plenty of vacancies after the BID raided the 2Ms¡¯ base. There were high-profile arrests and investigations after that incident¡ªprobably an understatement to call it an incident¡ªbut there was nothing about the McHunters. They might not be important enough to attend the underground arena of Eve the fateful night I was also there.

    In any case, Yara didn¡¯t want to offend me and I found it very entertaining. I was more than half certain she was still human. Her family must be joining the trip to Red Island. Let¡¯s see if I can confirm my hunch.

    ¡°Enough about my name,¡± I said. ¡°Are you alone? Oh, wait. I see your mother down there. Your brother too, beside her. Why are you sitting away from them?¡±

    ¡°This is just not my¡­ thing. No offense to Mr. Hugh. His talk is very inter¡ª¡±

    ¡°Boring,¡± I cut in, smiling at her. ¡°Who cares about construction? Oops! I guess your family, because of that project you¡¯re cooking up.¡± Thank you, Jeffrey, for the assist.

    ¡°You know about it, Ms. Erind?¡±

    ¡°Not much. Just that your family might free up some of your legally entangled lands and Mr. Hugh¡¯s company¡¯s going to develop them. But that¡¯s boring to talk about.¡±

    ¡°It is.¡± Yara frowned. ¡°Even if I found it interesting, I have no part in its planning whatsoever. Sometimes, my brother is included in their meetings, but not me.¡± She sighed. ¡°You might even know about it more than I do.¡±

    Something spicy? ¡°Why did they exclude you? They think you¡¯re too young or what? Not good with financial stuff?¡±

    ¡°Too superficial, or so they say. I¡¯m not even sure what it means.¡± Yara tossed her hair back as she rolled her eyes. ¡°They raised me to be this way and now they¡¯re complaining about it. If they trained me in business, I could be just as good as anyone. But that¡¯s how the way things are. I¡¯m relegated to being the spoiled socialite daughter who has no real say in the family. Some of my relatives forget that I exist.¡±

    I wondered if her parentage had something to do with it. ¡°But you¡¯re here? You¡¯re not as unimportant as you say. I¡¯m assuming you¡¯re not just on vacation on this cruise.¡±

    Yara chewed her tongue while staring at the backrest of the seat in front of her. Several seconds ticked by. I listened to Spence Hugh discuss new construction materials for buildings in areas prone to Adumbrae seedings. Interesting. I wanted to test if I could punch a hole through this hyper-modern reinforced concrete stuff.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, Ms. Erind,¡± Yara finally said. ¡°But you already know I¡¯m not on vacation.¡±

    ¡°See? Your family trusts you if you¡¯re their representative,¡± I replied, hoping that I didn¡¯t misunderstand what she implied.

    ¡°To be candid, I¡¯m not sure trust is the right word. I don¡¯t want to speak ill of my family, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t?¡± I grinned to show she could freely speak.

    I detected hints of bitterness in her voice. Her resentment was an opening. I¡¯m friendly and lovable. Did I mention cute? Why wouldn¡¯t Yara want me to be her confidant, especially in this scary organization? I bet I could make her trust me over anyone else. This wasn¡¯t even about finding a way to bring the hero wannabes along to the Red Island. Manipulating people for no reason was fun. Gotta exercise my manipulation muscles.

    Yara glanced at the front row, a smirk flitting across her face. She could either continue pretending to obediently follow her family¡¯s wishes or reveal her true thoughts to me.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    I gambled that she was assuming that I knew her whole story¡ªeven though I didn¡¯t¡ªand would think it was useless to lie. She¡¯d probably rather go with the truth to show sincerity and endear herself to me since I could be a source of favor someday. Yara should have plenty of experience navigating these kinds of social situations; her buttering-up efforts were proof.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Yara tilted her head and then shrugged. ¡°Hmmm¡­ my situation is akin to getting married off to a foreign power for a political alliance.¡±

    ¡°You view yourself as a princess, then?¡±

    She smiled, but still had somber eyes. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I prefer this to getting hitched to someone I didn¡¯t know in a faraway country. If the marriage doesn¡¯t work out, there¡¯s always divorce. That option¡¯s not available here if I change my mind.¡± She let out a hollow, sarcastic laugh.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s speaking ill at all.¡± I turned to face her as if giving my full attention. ¡°Just seeing things how they really are. And your concerns are very much valid.¡±

    ¡°I want to help my family,¡± she said. ¡°This is the option¡­ available to me. It doesn¡¯t sound as grand when I put it that way. But if all goes well, this will have the most impact given our situation.¡±

    I didn¡¯t understand that last part, but Yara¡¯s words made me think she wasn¡¯t so bad after all. She might be a decent person deep inside, like those rich mean girls in movies who became that way because of family issues and ended up changing at the end, becoming friends with the protagonist they were bullying. Reminds me of Deen.

    However, Deen wasn¡¯t a bitch even though her family mostly ignored her. Granted, her family wasn¡¯t pushing her to become a monster, so there was that key difference. Maybe I should introduce Yara to Deen?

    ¡°So, how are you feeling about it?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s for the family, so I¡ª¡±

    ¡°Not that. I meant what are you feeling about your impending, uh, change.¡± This¡¯d be embarrassing if I got it wrong.

    ¡°I only have a couple of days as a human left,¡± said Yara, her eyes returning to the stage but unfocused. She clenched her hands on the armrests.

    Jackpot. I was right. She was going to Red Island to get monsterified.

    ¡°There¡¯s nervousness,¡± she said, ticking off a finger. ¡°What else? Anxiety. Hesitation. Those just go along with each other. Also, actual fear. Did you also feel any of those things, Ms. Erind?¡±

    ¡°Not really, no,¡± I said. I couldn¡¯t really feel those emotions, I added inwardly. ¡°What you¡¯re feeling is normal, especially given the context. But there¡¯s a difference between us. I went into this for my own¡­ reasons¡­ and not for others. I willingly did this.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m also doing this willingly.¡±

    I snorted. ¡°You know what I meant. External, internal thing.¡±

    She slowly nodded. ¡°Yes, there¡¯s a difference between our¡­ motivations.¡±

    ¡°Are you regretting¡ª?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not!¡± Yara briskly answered, suddenly sitting straight, drawing the attention of some guards. Was she worried about giving the impression she didn¡¯t want to be an Adumbrae like me? That I might take it as offensive or something? She continued, ¡°This is my choice and my choice alone. I could¡¯ve refused it, but I didn¡¯t. No one forced me into this.¡±

    Stupidly rationalizing with herself. Probably also protecting the image of her family. I bet I could talk her out of this if I wanted to. A fun challenge but too bad it ran counter to my plans.

    ¡°I understand what you¡¯re going through and¡ª¡± I stopped, noticing a hulking man enter the row we sat in.

    It was the guard staring at me earlier. As he approached, I realized he was the idiot at Big Marcy¡¯s office who almost attacked me after noticing I had blood on me. If Big Marcy didn¡¯t stop him, he would¡¯ve met the same fate as the guard who did attack me. He also cleaned up after my mess¡ªthe dead guard¡ªso he wasn¡¯t immediately deleted from my memory for being insignificant.

    ¡°Good afternoon, Ms. Hartwell,¡± he said, bowing. ¡°Do you need any assistance?¡±

    This motherfucker blurting out my name! I noticed Yara raised a brow. ¡°Hello there, Biggins!¡± I gave him a mischievous smile. That¡¯d make him think I was up to no good. ¡°My new friend and I were just chatting.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Wiggins, Ms. Hartwell,¡± he replied.

    ¡°You¡¯re big, so I remembered you as Biggins. Close enough, surprisingly. I usually suck at remembering people¡¯s names. You¡¯re Biggins.¡±

    ¡°Biggins, it is then, Ms. Hartwell.¡± His jaw muscles tensed. I noticed a vein throb near his temple. From his point of view, talking to me was like defusing a nuclear bomb. He continued, ¡°Perhaps I could entice you with a relaxing spa or afternoon tea at the Eden caf¨¦. Boss told me to make sure you get the full experience of what this cruise has to offer.¡±

    ¡°Maybe later. I¡¯m having fun here.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t imagine this talk is of particular interest to you,¡± he said. ¡°Perhaps you and Ms. McHunter can go to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m staying,¡± Yara said. ¡°Mother accepted Mr. Hugh¡¯s invitation for our family to attend his talk. It¡¯d be rude if I left.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Then, I¡¯ll accompany only Ms. Erind to the¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m staying too, Biggins,¡± I cut in. That was a good way to try to get me out of here. He likely knew Yara couldn¡¯t leave. The caf¨¦ offer did sound good. ¡°I want to learn more about construction. I only know about the other side¡ªdestroying stuff.¡±

    Understanding my thinly veiled threat, Wiggins the Biggins left us alone and returned to his post. A slight distraction but it gave me street cred. Did I use that term correctly? His intrusion bolstered Yara¡¯s image of me as being influential in the organization.

    Yara said, ¡°Ms. Hartwell¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just call me Erind.¡±

    ¡°Ms. Erind, then?¡± she asked. I shrugged. She leaned closer to me and whispered, ¡°What should I expect when I reach the Red Island?¡±

    Thank you for bringing that up, I celebrated in my head. ¡°I can¡¯t tell you.¡±

    ¡°I know it¡¯s a secret and I shouldn¡¯t know about it because I¡¯m still not a¡ª¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t tell you because I can¡¯t remember.¡±

    Yara raised a brow.

    ¡°Our memories are wiped before we leave Red Island,¡± I said, recalling Vanessa¡¯s explanation of why she couldn¡¯t give me any information. ¡°An Adumbrae stationed there has the power to do it.¡±

    ¡°That makes sense,¡± said Yara, nodding.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s painful or not. The operation or ritual or ceremony or¡­ I seriously have no clue what¡¯s being done to us there. Probably something medical because they give us pills for our maintenance and do some psychologist stuff with us afterward.¡±

    I got that information from Vanessa¡¯s friends, those idiots who found me in the tunnels beneath the city after I escaped the BID¡¯s nuke. I couldn¡¯t remember much of what they said, just that they were speculating on how that Adumbrae cocoon thing formed in Eve¡¯s arena. Heck, I couldn¡¯t even remember any of their names. Vanessa would be sad if I told her that.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been told that much,¡± said Yara.

    ¡°If it¡¯s medical, on an operating table and stuff, they¡¯re going to use anesthesia. If it¡¯s something super invasive, like major surgery levels, they have to knock us out. If you¡¯re worried if it¡¯s safe or not, I don¡¯t know of anyone dying during the procedure, whatever it actually is. Rumors would easily get around if this or that guy was supposed to, you know, change, and he doesn¡¯t come back to his family. The organization can¡¯t cover that up.¡±

    Yara frowned. ¡°Maybe they can¡­?¡±

    I tapped my temple. ¡°Think about it. If something went wrong with your operation, your family¡¯s going to raise hell if you¡¯re returned to them as a pile of mutated flesh, right?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ I¡¯d rather not think¡ª¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s say you died instead. Same case. They¡¯ll return your body¡ªor even not¡ªand your family will complain. There¡¯s no way to hide that. Maybe they can cover up some failures, but not all. I heard nothing whatsoever about people dying during the operation. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve asked around too.¡±

    Yara nodded. ¡°All I¡¯ve heard were success stories.¡±

    ¡°Bottom line, there¡¯s nothing to worry about in the safety department.¡±

    Yara drew a deep breath. ¡°Thank you for your assurance, Ms. Erind. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever get rid of my nerves, but I¡¯m feeling a lot better. I¡¯m glad I met you.¡±

    ¡°You know what will make you feel better? How about you hang out with us tomorrow at Catalina Island?¡±

    ¡°Us?¡±

    ¡°Me and a friend of mine. She¡¯s a Leska.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know someone from the Leska family has¡­ turned.¡±

    ¡°Oh, she¡¯s human. But she knows my secrets. I brought her along for the ride because it¡¯s lonely and boring if all I have to talk to are these people.¡± I gestured to the 2Ms¡¯ clients sitting in the tiers below us. ¡°I¡¯m not on this cruise to go to the Red Island. I just have some meetings here, and it¡¯s all vacation for me. That¡¯s why I have a friend along. Would you like to come with us?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be glad too.¡±

    I chatted with Yara for a few more minutes before leaving. Biggins the Wiggins approached me again, but I declined all the luxury stuff he offered. I had to find Jubjub and Imani after I cooked up a story about how I managed to connect with Yara McHunter.

    All in all, Yara wasn¡¯t so bad. Someday, she could become an ally¡ªa pawn. Someone I could use even after my planned party at Red Island.

    I hadn¡¯t thought much beyond destroying Red Island and burying the hero wannabes there. That wouldn¡¯t be the end of my worries. It was going to be the start of more troubles. Before, this prospect would¡¯ve annoyed me. But now, it sounded fun.

    ¡°Maybe I want the world to bother me¡­¡± I muttered.

    ¡°Pardon, ma¡¯am?¡± said the woman outside the theater that Imani and Jubjub entered.

    ¡°Oh, I was just talking to myself,¡± I said as I entered the door.

 6.24

    ¡°Wow, there are soooo many yachts,¡± I said while taming my long hair whipped into a frenzy by the sea breeze.

    It was the next day, and the tender ship that fetched us from the cruise ship made its way to the shores of Catalina Island, bouncing gently over the waves. The other passengers and I gazed at the waters accented with lots of parked boats mostly organized into rows. I think I spotted a couple of dolphins. There were also some people on jet skis.

    I hadn¡¯t been to this island before, but I knew what to expect. I researched about it yesterday when a complicated and probably stupid plan occurred to me while I was with Jubjub and Imani. Catalina Island was going to be the place for a gamble, mind games, and taking the initiative.

    A true vacation.

    Given that I¡¯ve started planning for after Red Island, trying to befriend Yara and stuff, it occurred to me that I should¡¯ve planned for what to do there. I got nothing beyond killing everyone and destroying everything. No specifics. I should prepare some ingredients.

    Mise en place, as they say in fancy restaurant talk.

    The waters around Catalina Island were super clean and blue. Going inland, sandy beaches turned into concrete, bricks, and wood, the beautiful buildings looking right out of a postcard. As a backdrop to the community by the beach, mountains rose, ringed with tiers carrying more buildings. Lots of fancy houses. Could be considered mansions, probably. I read that the cost of living here was far from cheap. Above the buildings on the mountainside was all earth and patchy grass accented by shrubs and trees. Not much shade.

    Interesting that the island wasn¡¯t foresty like those in the Pacific. It looked more like the desert grasslands of California turned into rolling hills and mountains. I didn¡¯t like that very much, but it suited my plans. The beaches looked nice though.

    Soon, there¡¯d be bitches on the beaches¡ªI was referring to Deen and me if that wasn¡¯t clear. Lame pun.

    ¡°Do you have a yacht?¡± I asked Deen.

    She shook her head. ¡°Why would I have a yacht? Those are for sailing and, uh, hosting parties. Mostly the second one. I don¡¯t do the former and barely any of the latter. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve hosted a party since I started law school.¡±

    ¡°Oops, wrong question. Does your family own yachts, with an ¡®s¡¯?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how many. Like, we have two or three docked at the La Esperanza Yacht Club. My sister stays at one of them sometimes.¡±

    I rolled my eyes. Deen said it in such a matter-of-factly way that it wasn¡¯t even bragging. And I expected as much. ¡°You don¡¯t even know how many of your family¡¯s yachts are there in La Esperanza?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t go to the Yacht Club,¡± Deen said, shrugging. ¡°I might run into my sister doing some business with her boyfriend or boyfriends, with an ¡®s¡¯.¡±

    ¡°The number of yachts that your family owns and the number of boyfriends your sister has¡ªthe last two unsolved math problems of our day.¡±

    We reached a pier that extended from the island like a ship¡¯s bulbous bow or the male organ Reo liked to compare it to. A gangplank was lowered¡ªwow, I know boat terms¡ªand we got out of our ship. It was only Deen and I with this batch of passengers because our rooms were much more expensive, so we got to leave first. The rest of the hero wannabes¡ªthe peasants¡ªwill come with the next tender ships.

    There wasn¡¯t an actual class system for going to Catalina; it was just by decks. It so happens that some decks have more expensive rooms than others. The really VIP people had separate ships taking them to the island. Reminds me of the Titanic, where the first-class people had dibs on the lifeboats.

    Dunno if that was what truly happened or if the movie took liberties.

    From the pier, we strolled along the promenade going to the heart of the small town of Avalon¡ªcool ass name. Birds chirped and dozens of boats lolled gently on the waters to our right. Besides passengers from the cruise ship, there were also people coming on ships from Long Island. This was a very touristy place.

    ¡°Why do rich people love yachts so much?¡± I asked Deen. ¡°Are they like diamond rings which were artificially pushed to¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Deen. ¡°I¡¯ll buy you a yacht if you want to test it out, but for now, are you sure about contacting Yara?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve been over this already. No danger here, especially with you along with me. We¡¯re going to join Yara for lunch, maybe a tour around the town. Be best friends. She¡¯s going to¡­ that place we want to go to, and we need the schedule of their departure. This is just a modified ¡®Bianca plan¡¯. I¡¯m the Adumbrae, which I really am.¡±

    ¡°Shush on that,¡± Deen hissed, pinching my arm.

    ¡°And you¡¯re the sidekick,¡± I said, giggling. ¡°For once. Just a joke, of course. I don¡¯t think you¡¯re legally allowed to be a sidekick. Maybe if we¡¯re in Mexico, because of like international laws and¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not taking this seriously, Erind. You¡¯re being reckless here.¡±

    ¡°Reckless? I don¡¯t think so.¡± I wriggled my nose at the salty air. Deen was being a helicopter parent again. I thought all this shit through. And more.

    ¡°You¡¯re so relaxed despite the danger. Like, you have no hesitation at all putting yourself in these situations.¡±

    Here we go. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    Deen lowered her voice as a couple of tourists pulling large luggage bags passed us on their way to the pier.  ¡°Erind, I dare you to deny you didn¡¯t have anything to do with Reo finding out where the ships going to the Red Island were hidden.¡±

    ¡°I had something to do with it because I was there when¡ª¡±

    She grabbed my arm like I was a misbehaving child. I was so thin that her hand fully encircled my arm like a manacle. ¡°You know what I¡¯m talking about,¡± she furiously whispered. ¡°Did you investigate on your own beforehand so you knew to lead Reo there?¡±

    ¡°Nooo¡­¡± I said in a tone that made it obvious I was lying.

    Deen narrowed her eyes.

    I matched her gaze. I didn¡¯t bother denying it because it was obvious anyway. This thing with Yara was also suspicious. Deen and Dario were definitely thinking about the same thing: I set it up in some way.

    Deen broke off our staring contest and looked left. I knew she was pissed that I kept secrets from her. This must be why she was a grouch the entire evening yesterday. But I had to do this¡ªI couldn¡¯t stay timid¡ªnot only to bring the hero wannabes along for the Red Island ride but also my facial development. I¡¯d find a better term next time.

    Like the protagonist following the three-act structure, my face was transforming from meek Erind to somewhat assertive, confident, and active. That last part was important. We were past the mid-point of the movie¡ªthere was no turning back here. The main character, yours truly, was going on the assault after being only reactive in the first part of the movie. I couldn¡¯t continue with my background character face as to Deen¡ªand Myra and Johann, to some extent¡ªbecause of my growing powers and the experiences I¡¯ve been through that she knew about. Character development was required.

    This was going to be difficult to keep track of my faces presented to many people.

    We walked past a playground with slides and swings, and then a basketball court. The guys playing hoops stopped for a moment to look at Deen, who was still sulking. Deen ignored their attention and looked forward.

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    What did she expect to happen by giving me the silent treatment? I wasn¡¯t like a boyfriend who¡¯d come to her on bended knees begging for forgiveness.

    ¡°Deen, I had a plan,¡± I said, following her as she veered away from the waterfront, taking the left path at the fork. We walked down a road parallel to the promenade. ¡°That¡¯s not being reckless. And it turned out to be a success. We found the way to Red Island.¡±

    I expected her to pry about what exactly happened. I was preparing a fake story, but it turned out that wasn¡¯t her issue.

    ¡°I know you don¡¯t need me,¡± she said, dramatically turning to me.

    So that¡¯s what this was about? I linked our arms together despite my disgust of human touch. A slight sacrifice for my friend. My pawn.

    ¡°Deen, don¡¯t be like that,¡± I softly said. ¡°That¡¯s why I keep on trying to get us paired. I¡¯m going to face a lot of dangers. I can¡¯t avoid them. Time to face them head-on. And I can¡¯t do it without you by my side.¡± Bile was rising; a vomit threatened. If the earth opened up and sucked me straight to hell for such I cheesy line, I couldn¡¯t complain.

    But it made Deen feel better. She smiled as she said. ¡°I¡¯ll be there for you. You may be stronger than me now, but I can do things you can¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Like, become a model?¡±

    She lightly squeezed my arm. ¡°Seeing the future.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ I can¡¯t do that.¡±

    ¡°Um, Erind. Do you feel yourself¡­ changing? I¡¯m not talking in a physical sense. Mentally.¡±

    I blinked. I am changing. For one, I was having fun as a not-so-human anymore. But I knew that Deen was talking about something else.

    ¡°I¡¯m not changing, Deen,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m reacting¡ªnot sure what word to use¡ªto my changing circumstances. My¡­ our surroundings are getting more dangerous, but I¡¯m also becoming powerful. Plus, I¡¯ve survived this far. I have more experience. It follows that I¡¯m less worried about what life throws at me. Very justified confidence isn¡¯t recklessness.¡±

    ¡°I understand that. But you should still exercise prudence. Be more careful because of your changing circumstances. Not care less.¡±

    ¡°I know, Deen. Thanks for the advice.¡± Getting lectured was annoying. I wanted to call her ¡®mom¡¯ and turn the situation into a joke, but I wasn¡¯t going to poke fun at her when she was this serious. I supposed I should appreciate her concern. ¡°What about you then?¡± I asked as I tried to disentangle my arm from hers. She wouldn¡¯t let me. I gave up. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you feel safer and confident because of your future-seeing pet?¡±

    She sighed. ¡°I feel more paranoid.¡±

    ¡°I can see that happening. Though, is it really paranoia if this or that dangerous thing was set to happen if you didn¡¯t avoid it?¡±

    ¡°I guess not. Still very stressful. Sometimes it¡¯s better not to have spoilers.¡±

    I patted her arm. ¡°As your best friend, I promise to not contribute to your stress. Let¡¯s focus on this mission, okay? I¡¯ll listen to your warnings, I promise.¡±

    ¡°Dario didn¡¯t stop us pairing up this time,¡± said Deen. ¡°Should we be worried about that?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s cuz he didn¡¯t have a legit reason to oppose it,¡± I replied. ¡°You¡¯re the perfect security blanket for me.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not a blanket. Unless you let me hug you.¡±

    ¡°No way. It¡¯s too hot for a hug.¡± I squinted at the sun. No clouds. Perfect for my plan. ¡°Maybe we can buy an umbrella or those beach hats with wide brims.¡± Or a flashlight, I added in my head.

    ¡°We can do some shopping before our¡ªoh, hang on.¡± Deen let go of me so she could get her phone from her purse sandwiched between us. ¡°Someone¡¯s calling. It¡¯s Myra.¡±

    I stared at the stores selling touristy stuff while Deen talked to Myra, wondering where I could get a flashlight. This town should have a hardware store. Maybe I should buy a hat too. A portable shade would be a good addition to my ingredients.

    I could tell from snippets of Deen¡¯s conversation that it was about Dario. While she was occupied on the phone, I took the lead and made a turn back to the shore. We came to a short strip of the beach that was full of people. There was a funny-looking seal statue. Were there seals around these parts?

    ¡°Jubjub is probably on her way,¡± said Deen after the call ended. ¡°Myra saw Jubjub and Imani head to the lower deck to board the tender ship. Myra couldn¡¯t risk checking the departing passengers without Jubjub seeing her, so she just waited after the ship left. Only Imani was left there.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s as good a confirmation as any. Jubjub could¡¯ve turned into her shadow form to board the ship, so watching that wouldn¡¯t matter.¡±

    ¡°Your suspicion is right.¡±

    I nonchalantly shrugged. ¡°It just makes sense. No way Jubjub¡¯s staying on board to investigate the bow like she was assigned during our meeting. I¡¯m sure of that. What about Everett? Did he leave on that ship with Jubjub? Or anyone else?¡±

    ¡°No. The rest of our group is coming on the next tender ships.¡±

    ¡°I see. Dario¡¯s going to ask about our location later. He¡¯ll say it¡¯s for Everett to find us¡ªI mean, that too¡ªbut it¡¯ll really be for Jubjub.¡±

    During our team meeting yesterday evening, Dario agreed that Deen should go with me. Even if Imani betrayed us, Dario still had to play to Reo and Everet. And maybe Johann¡ªnot sure if Dario was aware Johann was with us. I was a normal human in their eyes and Deen was the perfect protection. The Bianca mission was precedent.

    Everett was assigned to shadow us as a backup if things got hairy. Reo was teasing Everett about wanting to see Deen in a bikini on the beach, and Dario pounced on it, laughing as he joined in on the joke.

    That rang alarm bells. Dario barely jokes. The more serious the situation, the fewer jokes. I couldn¡¯t recall him joking or even laughing during this cruise.

    Jubjub was the logical choice for a tailing mission, but Dario didn¡¯t send her. Why?

    Dario reasoned that Jubjub¡¯s assignment was infiltrating the bulbous bow of the ship, staking out the special elevator until it went down to the secret level. Technically, a good idea. But Jubjub could¡¯ve done it that same night and tailed us now. Dario added that he was staying on the ship today too, just in case Jubjub needed backup.

    That clinched my suspicion. Dickhead Dario wanted to fool us into thinking that he and Jubjub were staying on the ship today. He assumed I¡¯d feel safe enough to do some shenanigans on Catalina while Jubjub spied on me.

    He¡¯s not wrong.

    ¡°Still a couple of hours until we meet Yara,¡± said Deen. She stretched her shirt out to show me the straps of her bikini top beneath it. ¡°You promised me we¡¯ll get a tan.¡±

    ¡°What-? Really?¡± Did Domino promise her that? ¡°But I¡¯m not wearing a swimsuit.¡±

    Deen cupped a hand around her right ear. ¡°Hear that?¡±

    ¡°Hear what?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the alarm for shopping time!¡±

    <hr>

    I stared at the sign above the counter that said ¡®Gus¡¯s Steakhouse and Seafood.¡¯ ¡°I really don¡¯t like an apostrophe and an ¡®s¡¯ after an ¡®s¡¯. Just feels wrong. Is that even grammatically¡ª? Hey, what are you doing?¡±

    Deen held my arm as she examined it. She gingerly scratched my skin. ¡°I don¡¯t think you got even one percent tanned. We should¡¯ve stayed under the sun a little longer.¡±

    ¡°I already kept my promise,¡± I said, taking my arm back.

    To keep Deen placated and cooperative, I agreed to sunbathe on the condition that there should be no one around. I thought it could be a way out, but Deen said she knew of a spot, having been to this island a few times. Too fucking bad.

    While Deen was distracted picking a swimsuit for me, I went to the next store to find a flashlight, mumbling that I was looking for a beach hat. I managed to find a keychain flashlight. Small enough to hide; I just hoped it was strong enough to be useful. I also bought a magnifying glass, a keychain one too. Not sure if this would help.

    We rented a golf cart¡ªfor some reason, there were barely any cars on the island¡ªand drove to the foot of a random hill. Some hiking later, we reached an outcropping ringed by bushes. I was ready with my excuse of not having sunscreen, but Deen pulled out a bottle from her purse. I took it from her before she could offer to apply it to me.

    The sunbathing part wasn¡¯t so bad. I used the time to go over my plans while Deen listened to music.

    ¡°I got a bit of shade,¡± said Deen, this time checking her arm. ¡°But you didn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°We already stayed there for twenty minutes,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe my regeneration has something to do with it?¡±

    ¡°I think so. That just means we have to do it again.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to turn me into a sun-dried tomato. That was enough¡ªoh, look. He¡¯s here.¡± I nudged my head to the beach.

    We were seated by a balcony, shaded by a thatched roof. Down below, standing next to a fruit shake stand was Everett. We told Dario we were at the meeting place a few minutes ago. That should mean Jubjub was around here too. I told Deen that we should talk about my inhumanness so Jubjub wouldn¡¯t suspect anything.

    ¡°And here¡¯s Yara.¡± Deen pointed at the stairs as a platinum blonde head popped up.

    I looked at the clock on the wall. ¡°Right on time. I thought she was going to be late. Bet she was scared to offend me.¡±

    ¡°You and your crazy plans,¡± Deen said, shaking her head. ¡°We¡¯ll have to talk about¡ª¡±

    ¡°Later, later. It¡¯s time to do a Bianca two-point-oh.¡±

 6.25

    It was amusing seeing Yara fumble her words as she introduced herself to Deen. Was she intimidated? My view of Yara as a haughty, nose-in-the-air, mean girl type from our first interaction could be wrong. She might be normally pleasant and just woke up on the wrong side of the bed back then.

    We called the waitress to order¡ªsurf and turf, the most expensive item on the menu. Just because we were girls didn¡¯t mean we should only eat salad. That was rabbit food. Since we were on vacation, we should treat ourselves.

    Deen¡¯s treat, to be accurate. I should act nice to her in return.

    ¡°I¡¯m also going to order my dessert now, please.¡± I pointed at a picture on the menu.

    ¡°Sure thing, ma¡¯am,¡± said the waitress. ¡°One large scoop of roasted milk ice cream with coconut shavings.¡± She turned to Deen and Yara, pen over paper, poised to take their chosen desserts too. They said they¡¯d order after the main course. The waitress nodded as she took the menus. ¡°Sure, no problem. I¡¯ll bring the ice cream along with whatever else you girls will decide later.¡±

    I raised a hand. ¡°Oh, wait. Can you bring the ice cream with the steak and lobster and stuff?¡±

    The waitress gave me a quizzical look. ¡°But, ma¡¯am, if I serve it early, it¡¯ll melt.¡±

    ¡°I like melted ice cream.¡±

    ¡°She has weird food preferences,¡± Deen whispered to Yara after the waitress left. Deen¡¯s eyes widened as she looked at me, realizing her words could also be a dig at Blanchette. My idiot best friend thought I was offended.

    ¡°People differ in their preferences,¡± I said to Yara, ignoring Deen¡¯s apologetic stare. ¡°And that¡¯s normal. Different is normal. You, on the other hand¡ª¡± I pointed at Yara ¡°¡ªchose to be the not normal sort of different.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Ms. Erind,¡± Yara said. ¡°I willingly chose this path.¡±

    ¡°Well, if it¡¯s really your choice, I won¡¯t try to change your mind. But you do have worries, so I thought finding friends was the answer. Think of it like you¡¯ve just transferred to a new school. Fitting in a regular school is hard enough, how much more a school of monsters?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­¡± Yara furrowed her brows.

    ¡°With me and Deen¡ªI call her by her second name¡ªyou have an Adumbrae friend and a human friend. It¡¯ll keep you anchored. Like, you¡¯re seriously going to have an identity crisis when you¡¯re trying to get used to your new body.¡±

    ¡°Is it safe to talk about that here?¡± Yara asked in low tones, stealing glances around to check if anyone would overhear us.

    ¡°The employees here are in on it. I mean, they don¡¯t really know, know, if you get what I mean. But they¡¯re in the employ of Big Marcy. This is a frequent hangout spot for us.¡± I was talking shit, of course. Sorry, Gus of Gus¡¯s Steakhouse and Seafood, for branding you a criminal accomplice.

    Yara became more relaxed. Deen talked with her while we waited for our order¡ªit was Deen¡¯s job to make Yara comfortable. Other than establishing contact for the Red Island trip, this would also show Yara we weren¡¯t so bad, so she should side with us after the 2Ms fall. Deen was on board with the plan, very enthusiastically so because it meant I was relying on her. However, Deen wasn¡¯t so sure we could or should rely on Yara¡¯s family for support.

    I didn¡¯t tell Deen, but I suspected the McHunters would be very happy to have a true Adumbrae friend. Anyone would appreciate powerful friends¡ªthis usually meant wealthy and connected people, but the concept should apply to me as well. Mr. Tussell was very respectful, in awe of me even, after Big Marcy introduced me. Given their history, I bet Yara¡¯s family would appreciate the brand of power I brought.

    Not surprisingly, Deen and Yara had plenty of common acquaintances. Deen adeptly navigated the conversation, wriggling out of Yara the names of other rich people connected to the 2Ms. Those were all potential allies.

    Allies might be too¡­ optimistic. Possible enemies too.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad I met you two,¡± said Yara as the waitress arranged the platter of meat and seafood in front of us. ¡°You can¡¯t believe how stressed I was these past few days¡­ weeks. Since I was told to¡ªsince I decided to go through with this.¡±

    Thankfully, Yara didn¡¯t blurt out anything stupid while the waitress was by our table.

    I cut a piece of steak. It was pink in the middle with reddish juices flowing. It sort of looked like blood; I knew it wasn¡¯t. Memories of tearing apart human and inhuman flesh, both as Blanchette and as my cute Erind self, resurfaced. I expected to be disgusted by the thought and lose my appetite, but it didn¡¯t disturb me at all. I just found it funny.

    I chewed on the piece of meat. It was very different from biting warm flesh off a living body when I was Blanchette. I¡¯d never bite anyone when not transformed. The texture, the taste, the smell. This steak tasted a bazillion times better than raw human meat was my conclusion. A no-brainer.

    ¡°Oh, the food is good,¡± said Deen, taking a teensy-weensy bite of the lobster before switching to the side of leafy greens. ¡°I thought this was going to be an overpriced touristy place with no regard for quality.¡± I looked at her. She added, ¡°¡­since this restaurant is just a cover.¡±

    To steer the topic from the price of the food, which I certainly wasn¡¯t paying, I asked Yara, ¡°Other than the procedure, you¡¯re probably also concerned about the changes afterward, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    She eagerly nodded. ¡°Yes, Ms. Erind. Is that something you can talk about?¡±

    ¡°Of course. It''s not some big secret among us compared to the location of Red Island.¡±

    My human days seemed so long ago even though it had only been a few months. Plenty changed. Plenty stayed the same. But I hadn¡¯t forgotten my former feebleness because of my Domino transformation.

    I told Yara that she¡¯d have to adjust to superhuman strength. She chuckled at my stories of accidentally destroying stuff because I couldn¡¯t control it, like my poor alarm clock. Having a different outlook on life because of her powers was a possibility, I added. Deen shifted in her seat, lips pursed, as I counseled Yara that she could become reckless or cocky.

    ¡°It¡¯s all upside, basically,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯ll have a superhuman body that regenerates, and you don¡¯t get voices in your head and that sort of crazy stuff. The Adumbrae won¡¯t try taking over your body.¡± Deen sat straight when I said that. ¡°Oh yeah, your body is also unblemished. No mutations whatever.¡±

    I closed my hand under the table. My fingerless glove was a permanent part of my ensemble now, at least for my right hand. If the trend continued, the crystals on my palm would cover my hand as it transformed into SpookyErind¡¯s gauntlet.

    How could I hide it at that point? Would cutting off my hand even work? An aug-arm was way more inconspicuous than wrapping my hand with a towel or wearing a boxing glove or something.

    Yara leaned closer as I paused to think, expecting more of my words of wisdom. Deen was also looking at me with a raised brow.

    ¡°I suppose you have other concerns,¡± I said. ¡°Like the BID¡­ um, maybe police clearances, documents that require Adumbrae screening like certain visas, things we have to navigate in normal life after you¡¯ll turn not-so-normal.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t view those as problems, Ms. Erind,¡± said Yara. ¡°Inconveniences at the most. It¡¯s nothing that money, connections, or both can¡¯t fix. We have experience with that.¡± She smirked, looking to the side. ¡°The only genuine threat is getting caught by the BID. And it already happened before.¡±

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°What happened to Eve was tragic.¡± I somberly nodded, looking at the lobster.

    Why the hell were these giant sea insects so expensive? Taste-wise, they were just overgrown shrimps. I bet it had something to do with demand and supply, and a newly-acquired taste of people in recent history. I¡¯ve read those oxtails used to be cheap as dirt, literally just thrown away. Now, they were delicacies and made even more expensive given that cows only had one tail.

    ¡°Many people we knew died during the BID raid,¡± Deen chimed in.

    She eyed me with concern. Did she assume I was traumatized by it? Come to think of it, she was also there. Was she traumatized by the BID raid?

    ¡°A number of our family acquaintances were also killed by the BID,¡± said Yara. ¡°In some ways, the explosion was lucky because it wiped out evidence that could¡¯ve been used to identify them. But I wasn¡¯t talking about that incident. The McHunter¡¯s history¡­ we have our own experience dealing with the BID. My grandfather¡­¡±

    I picked at the lobster. ¡°Right, right. So, you understand the situation more than¡­ more than me when I joined the exclusive monster club. More than most of us. I didn¡¯t think of the risks back then.¡±

    Yara nodded.

    ¡°But you still decided to choose this path?¡± I asked even though I knew she¡¯d never admit she was forced.

    ¡°Ye-yes. Yes, Ms. Erind. Erm, can I ask how you managed to survive the BID raid?¡±

    I whipped out the story of my escape with Vanessa¡¯s group, with only minor deviations. Both Yara and Deen intently listened, the food forgotten. I was a master of storytelling. Plus, Deen hadn¡¯t heard it in this much detail before.

    ¡°You can ask Vanessa about it when you meet her,¡± I said. ¡°Vanessa Minnows. Minnows as in the former mayor of La Esperanza? That guy has some BID problems himself.¡±

    Vanessa¡ªanother possible resource. And ally? Fortunately, she was far away so she wouldn¡¯t be forced to fight me at Red Island. She was crazy, plain and simple, but she seemed to think of herself as my friend. If the 2Ms were gone, she might join me. But if the 2Ms were gone¡­ how could Vanessa stop Adumbrae mutations?

    ¡°Ms. Erind,¡± Yara said, snapping me out of my scheming. ¡°Did you encounter Red Hood during the BID attack on Eve? I¡¯ve heard rumors. She can turn herself into this giant beast. I¡¯m not sure where she¡¯s from.¡±

    Deen looked like she wanted to stab Yara with the steak knife to silence her. I knew Deen had it in her¡ªshe showed that side when we disposed of the frat boys.

    ¡°I also don¡¯t know,¡± I said before Deen could increase her kill count. ¡°Just rumors here and there. They say she¡¯s a true Adumbrae that Mark and Big Marcy probably offended her in some way.¡±

    ¡°A true Adumbrae?¡± Yara gasped.

    ¡°And yes, I saw Red Hood¡¯s humongous werewolf form that fateful night at Eve. I just ran¡­ and ran¡­ the cavern was collapsing. I could¡¯ve died back then. No amount of regeneration would help if I was eaten.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for asking, Ms. Erind. If I was there, I-I don¡¯t know what I¡­ I¡¯ll just run away too, and hope for the best.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the only answer,¡± said Deen in a monotone. She was staring at the beach outside with blank eyes, probably reliving what happened at Eve¡¯s underground arena. If Bianca¡¯s bodyguard didn¡¯t save Deen, she would¡¯ve been dead.

    Yara shuddered. ¡°I hope the power I¡¯ll gain after my operation is useful for survival. Or something that can help me hide and flee. What are your powers, Ms. Erind? Forget my question if it¡¯s against the secrecy rule.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t mind answering,¡± I said. Making up stories was fun. But before I could say more, annoying laughter echoed up the stairs, souring the light jazz playing.

    Several guys emerged. I recognized Jeffrey and his friends. Was my made-up story true that this was a hangout spot for the 2Ms¡¯ clients?

    Weirdly, Jeffrey wasn¡¯t in the lead. They were following someone else. A tall and stern man around his thirties who looked like a very badass henchman, the guy who¡¯d be the final encounter of the protagonist. Most people would find him intimidating. But I found it funny he was wearing leather pants and a leather vest over his shirt on the beach and under the sun. He must stink. His swagger was also comical like he watched too many gangster movies and was trying to copy the most bullshit walk.

    ¡°That¡¯s Theodore Hugh,¡± said Deen. ¡°The son of Spencer Hugh.¡± She narrowed her eyes at me.

    I couldn¡¯t ask Yara if she knew if Theodore was an Adumbrae or not because I should know about it.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know he brought his son on the cruise,¡± I said. ¡°Then again, I¡¯m not going to Red Island this time.¡± That was enough of a hook for Yara. Based on her response, I could glean Theodore¡¯s status.

    However, Yara stayed silent. With a stony face, she looked down at her plate.

    ¡°Oy, Yara!¡± Theodore¡ªI don¡¯t like that name¡ªhad a deep voice. Sporting a huge smile, he came to our table.

    Jeffrey and his friends exchanged worried glances as they trailed behind him. They weren¡¯t acting like the usual backup of the dick antagonist. More like the reluctant grunts of a psycho boss. Why were they afraid of him?

    ¡°Hi,¡± Yara peeped.

    Theodore picked up a slice of the steak and popped it into his mouth. While noisily munching it, he said, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you come to my room last night? We get to meet after such a long time, and you¡¯re avoiding me?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not avoiding you,¡± she replied, barely audibly.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget that the fate of your family rides on the deal with my dad¡¯s company. If the negotiations are derailed, you can say goodbye to your life of ritz and glamour. You might not mind it, but your family does, and you mind that, don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°I-I know. Big Marcy scheduled a meeting with me and my brother. I can¡¯t just go¡­ somewhere. Big Marcy would¡¯ve been angry if I was late.¡±

    ¡°Who cares what Big Marcy thinks? He¡¯s just a human. Soon, you won¡¯t be. Anyway, you should come with me now to make up for last night.¡± Theo turned to Deen. ¡°And maybe your beautiful friend can come with us too. We have the full day here at Catalina Island.¡±

    ¡°No, thank you,¡± Deen replied, defiantly staring up at him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be like that, babe,¡± Theo the Trash said.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m going, Theo,¡± said Yara, standing up. ¡°Just leave my friends alone.¡±

    ¡°No, don¡¯t go, Yara. You¡¯re staying with us.¡± Deen glanced at me.

    I wasn¡¯t speaking because I was trying to keep down the tingles coursing through my body. Adrenaline. Excitement. I couldn¡¯t remember the last time I experienced this level of happiness. This was it, the moment I didn¡¯t know I was waiting for.

    The universe gifted me with a generic, perverted, low-level villain and the perfect situation to save the damsel in distress. My time to be a main character! A slight hitch in that the main characters in this kind of situation were usually men¡ªthey had to show off their badassery in front of the leading lady. When it came to female action stars, they were the ones getting hit on by perverts who were going to get their asses handed to them.

    But why shouldn¡¯t it work in my case? Why couldn¡¯t I ¡®save¡¯ Yara here? A twist to keep plots fresh¡ªthe twist was that Theo the Trash wasn¡¯t going to hit on me anyway.

    Oh, yeah. And I also got more information about Yara¡¯s situation. Kinda helpful.

    ¡°Why are you acting like that, babe?¡± Theo reached out for Deen, but she pulled back before he could touch her. ¡°You should feel honored to be with me. Don¡¯t you know who I am?¡±

    ¡°I know who you are,¡± Deen said. ¡°And I don¡¯t care.¡±

    ¡°You know me?¡± Theo the Trash slammed his hand on the table and glowered at Deen. ¡°Huh, you dumb bitch? You don¡¯t know the real me!¡±

    ¡°Calm down, Theodore,¡± I said. A good start. The main characters try to diffuse the situation because they are the good guys.

    Theo the Trash jolted. He looked at me as if it was the first time noticing me. ¡°Surprised me there, kid. Don¡¯t butt in when adults are talking.¡± He was painfully generically bad.

    Yara pushed Theo. ¡°Go on. We¡¯re going already. Leave them alone.¡±

    ¡°Yara, sit down,¡± I said.

    She looked at me then at Theo.

    ¡°Sit down,¡± I repeated.

    She did.

    Theo the Trash tried to grab Yara. ¡°Why are you listening to a¡ªArgh!¡±

    I caught his forearm and squeezed it. His eyes went from angry to confused to concerned as he realized how strong I was. He gritted his teeth and refused to make any more noise of pain, desperate to keep his macho image intact, especially in front of beautiful girls. He tried to pull away his arm, but I kept it over the table.

    I continued to squeeze. He tensed his muscles, refusing to yield, but I could feel him weakening. Bones began to give way. To his credit, he didn¡¯t yell. Grimacing, he clenched his other fist.

    ¡°Theo,¡± I said in the most intimidating way that I could. Which wasn¡¯t really scary at all given my soft voice. ¡°If you don¡¯t leave, I¡¯ll kill you. Oh, and your buddies over here too.¡±

    Theo frowned. Jeffrey backed a couple of steps, pulling his friends with him.

    I let go of Theo¡¯s arm. It was red and purplish and deformed. ¡°I¡¯m repeating myself only once,¡± I slowly said, looking at him in the eye. He breathed through his teeth. ¡°If you don¡¯t leave, I¡¯ll kill all of you.¡±

 6.26

    I could hear the gears grinding in Theo the Trash¡¯s head. I gambled that he wasn¡¯t high up in the 2Ms¡¯ organization enough to know my true identity.

    To his mind, I was an Adumbrae¡ªstronger than him, at that¡ªand part of the 2Ms¡¯ organization. Same as Yara, that was the most logical conclusion Theo could reach. Strength didn¡¯t always indicate seniority or importance in the organization. But I was so sure of myself and unafraid of the consequences of picking a fight with him that I could only be someone high up.

    I went for the maximum threat so he couldn¡¯t back off with his macho image intact. This really wasn¡¯t diffusing the situation. I was just having fun with my new face as Erind, the high-ranking Adumbrae whatever. After feeling our power gap, Theo wouldn¡¯t be stupid enough to see if I could go through with my threat.

    Theo shakily chuckled as he arranged his vest. The massive welts on his arms were starting to heal. His regeneration wasn¡¯t near my level, but faster than most artificial Adumbrae I¡¯ve encountered.

    ¡°Nice joke, there,¡± he said, his voice wavering. He was still in pain. ¡°Don¡¯t stir up trouble in this public place. Going to be a hell to clean¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll break your neck so there won¡¯t be any blood,¡± I cut in. I kept my face blank, looking straight into his eyes.

    ¡°Wha-what?¡± He stammered, taking a step back.

    ¡°Come to think of it, if I did that, you also can¡¯t scream,¡± I said, matter-of-factly. ¡°No trouble-stirring whatsoever. No clean-up needed. A good plan, don¡¯t you agree?¡±

    Theo blinked rapidly as if he got something stuck in his eye. ¡°Killing each other¡­ Tha-that¡¯s against the rules!¡± A lame retort. He sounded like a freaking kid losing an argument. He must¡¯ve realized it too. He drew himself higher, chin up, mustering up the toughest expression he could.

    Still not backing off? Given our difference in strength, his only choice was to tuck his tail between his legs and retreat. But he wasn¡¯t doing that probably because of how I looked. If I were a badass-looking guy, or at least looked older than him, I bet he¡¯d easily apologize in a gentlemanly way and keep his head high.

    Valuing pride over survival. Stupid.

    Or maybe he wasn¡¯t stupid. His powers might give him an edge in fighting a stronger opponent, just that he didn¡¯t know how strong I actually was. More likely, he was thinking I wouldn¡¯t actually push through with my threat. If the second reason¡­ he¡¯d be right. I didn¡¯t really want to kill him because it¡¯d be such a hassle.

    Calling my bluff? How far would he go?

    ¡°You¡¯re still not leaving?¡± I sighed, shaking my head as I stood up. The top of my head reached only around the middle button of his vest.

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave when Yara comes with me.¡±

    Yara stammered, ¡°I-I¡¯ll go with¡ª¡±

    ¡°Here¡¯s how it¡¯s going to play out, Mr. Theodore Hugh. I don¡¯t like your name, by the way.¡±

    ¡°My name? What¡¯s wrong with¡ª?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to break your neck, and your buddies here are going to keep you standing. Then they¡¯ll walk you out of here, moving your body around because you¡¯re, you know, dead. You¡¯ll look like a toddler learning to walk. It¡¯ll be funny. People will just assume you¡¯re drunk or something, so we¡¯re good.¡±

    ¡°You got some pretty wild imagination there, miss,¡± he said, nervously laughing.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really know what to do with your dead body after this. Then, uh, I guess we¡¯ll find a golf cart and drive out to the hills and bury you there? Dump your corpse into the ocean maybe? It¡¯s better to hide your body than make up a story about why I killed you.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re not going to do that,¡± he said, smirking. He was regaining bravado. It was freaking hard to be scary while looking like a scrawny high schooler.

    Continuing to talk lessened my scariness factor, not that I looked scary in the first place. I could crush Theo¡¯s arm again or grab his shoulder and force him to kneel to show dominance. But I was having fun with our dialogue. I really, really, really liked the banter between the protagonist and antagonist in movies, especially those with a smart-mouth vibe. I had never done anything like this before because I always played the timid face or I was Blanchette and talking wasn¡¯t an option.

    Banter made me feel like I was in a movie. The main character in a movie, to be precise. I was, dare I say, excited. I was enjoying myself. It was rare for these emotions to crop up. Maybe the real me was talkative. I was very loud in my head.

    Real me? I didn¡¯t know who that was since I¡¯d been wearing all sorts of faces since I was a little girl.

    So¡­ was this the real me?

    Theo the Trash stepped forward and leaned down, raising an eyebrow at me. ¡°Since you chose to become an Adumbrae,¡± he said in a low voice, ¡°you value your life very, very much. Kill me, and the same will happen to you. I¡¯m willing to bet that you¡¯re running your mouth like this instead of actually doing¡ª¡±

    ¡°If we hide your body,¡± I said, putting on an innocent curious expression, ¡°your papa will take several days to notice you¡¯re missing, am I right? Would he even care that you¡¯re gone?¡±

    Theo¡¯s cheek twitched. ¡°If I disappeared, there¡¯d be hell to pay. Do you think you¡¯re immune to retribution? My father makes substantial contributions to Mark¡¯s coffers, especially now that the majority of the others are gone and the BID is tracing the money trail. I don¡¯t know who you are, but you do know me and should know none of you can touch me.¡±

    I tapped his chest. ¡°There, I touched you.¡± I leaned to the right and nodded at Jeffrey behind Theo. ¡°Be ready to catch him, okay?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t want any trouble!¡± Jeffrey vigorously shook his hands.

    ¡°E-excuse me, Ms. Erind,¡± Yara said. ¡°Please forgive Theo. He¡¯s just like that because¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just like a piece of shit?¡± I was very proud of myself for that line.

    Theo¡¯s face contorted into a rage, seemingly forgetting how strong I was. He balled his right hand into a fist and raised his arm. The sound of a rattling chair behind me. Deen must¡¯ve stood up. Theo hesitated, looking at Deen. Then his eyes went back to me. A wrinkle of confusion flitted on his forehead as he probably wondered if he¡¯d hit a cute lady like me.

    With my left hand, I reached for Theo¡¯s chest, grabbing both sides of his ugly vest. His eyes widened. Before he could throw his punch, I jabbed his stomach with my other hand. A quick hit, but I made sure to bury my fist deep enough that I rearranged his innards somewhat. Not so deep though that I¡¯d punch a hole through him.

    He was about to fly from the force of my punch, but I held on to his vest. There were some tearing noises. I could feel the leather stretch from my fingers holding onto it. The vest was well-made enough that it kept Theo the Trash from shooting into outer space.

    I withdraw my fist and let go of Theo. He collapsed on the floor, hugging his stomach. I took some table napkins and threw them in front of him as he bent down. He gagged and retched on the floor some puke with blood mixed in.

    ¡°Oh my god! What¡¯s wrong with you?¡± I knelt beside him. His eyes were watering, but he still managed to glare at me. Tough guy.

    But he couldn¡¯t say anything. His lips quivered while he breathed raggedly.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have drunk all night,¡± I loudly said. ¡°I told you so!¡±

    A waitress was coming over.

    ¡°We can take care of this,¡± I told her. ¡°Just our stupid friend with a hangover. Up you go, stupid friend.¡±

    I bunched up the paper towels and thrust them into Theo¡¯s arms. Then I pulled him up, digging my fingers into his collarbones as I did so. He winced but didn¡¯t cry out in pain. Impressive for a generic douchebag. He was surprisingly tolerant of pain. He might have joined some fights in the arenas against mutants or other Adumbrae. That¡¯d also explain why he wasn¡¯t afraid of fighting me.

    I pushed Theo into his backup boys. ¡°I¡¯m being very nice here,¡± I said in a deathly tone. ¡°Don¡¯t push your luck.¡±

    Jeffrey caught Theo. ¡°I-I¡¯m¡ªwe¡¯re really sorry. We¡¯re going now.¡±

    ¡°Give him plenty of water and let him rest,¡± I said, raising my voice for the other restaurant customers to hear. ¡°There¡¯s really no cure for hangover, but I think lounging by the beach will help. The sun¡¯s nice. Just remove those leather stuff off him. Man, those are really ugly.¡±

    Theo stirred at what I said. I thought he was going to retort¡ªJeffrey and his friend exchanged panicked glances¡ªbut Theo held his tongue.

    ¡°Wi-will do, ma¡¯am,¡± said Jeffrey, walking away with Theo.

    Theo looked back at me with a deathly stare. It wasn¡¯t the last we¡¯d see each other. It was exciting I now have an antagonist for my new face. I hoped he¡¯d be at Red Island so I could show him the real me. Just imagining his reaction made me giddy.

    I¡¯m really changing¡­

    ¡°What was that about?¡± whispered Deen as we took our seats and resumed our expensive meal. ¡°You¡¯re really changing.¡±

    I frowned. Was this bitch reading minds?

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not,¡± I said while stabbing a piece of steak with my fork. It felt like I was getting told off, and I didn¡¯t like it at all. ¡°It worked, didn¡¯t it? Whatever was that I managed to pull off. It worked, so don¡¯t get angry at me.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not going to get in trouble, are we?¡± Yara gripped the edge of the table so hard her fingers were getting pale. ¡°I really can¡¯t afford to lose this¡ª¡±

    ¡°Relax, Yara,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re with me. Nothing¡¯s going to go wrong. You¡¯ll get to Red Island, have your operation, come back a new you, and be the hope of your family.¡±

    ¡°Hope of my family¡­¡± Yara nodded. ¡°Yes. I am. But I¡¯m worried that Theodore would make life hard for me in revenge. So much of our family¡¯s fortune lies in our partnership with their corporation. That¡¯s why I¡¯m going along with what he says.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t meet with that disgusting man anymore!¡± said Deen with such intensity I was worried she¡¯d exert superstrength and break the table, exposing our lie. She looked at me. ¡°Erind, you make sure that Yara is safe, okay?¡±

    Safe? That¡¯d be a tall order, but I did want her to survive as a potential ally.

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep watch over her,¡± I said. ¡°Theodore¡¯s father isn¡¯t stupid enough to mess with me over his son getting punched. It¡¯s a different story at Red Island though. I can¡¯t keep watch over Yara there.¡±

    ¡°You should go there too,¡± Deen said. ¡°I have a hunch that perverted asshole is going to try something at Red Island. Since he can¡¯t have his revenge on you, he¡¯d target Yara instead.¡±

    Was Deen making an opening for me? ¡°You¡¯re right¡­¡± I tapped my fork on the edge of the huge wooden board that held the lobster and steak. ¡°Say, Yara.¡±

    ¡°What is it, Ms. Erind?¡± Yara snapped out from looking at the lobster¡¯s shell, deep in thought. She must¡¯ve been worrying about what Theo might do to her.

    ¡°The ships are leaving on the fourth night of the cruise, aren¡¯t they?¡±

    ¡°I think so. That¡¯s what I¡¯ve been told unless there were some changes.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯d be tomorrow night.¡± I ignored the bewildered expression on Deen¡¯s face. This was the first she had heard about the specific date of the trip. She must be assuming that I did something reckless to obtain the information. She¡¯d be kinda right. ¡°Yara, any idea about the specific time?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, Ms. Erind. They didn¡¯t tell us.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I didn¡¯t expect you to know. They always do that, jumbling around the schedule. Security whatever. Just that I have some stuff to attend to and I¡¯m wondering if I could finish it before the trip. Another issue is that Mark will be hesitant to allow me on the ships¡ªI¡¯m quite disruptive whenever I¡¯m on Red Island, you see. What¡¯s the point of this godlike body if I don¡¯t test it out?¡±

    ¡°Disruptive? Are you fighting on Red Island?¡± Yara¡¯s eyes glittered with a new sense of respect for me.

    ¡°Inside and outside the arena. The latter is the disruptive part that irks Mark. I¡¯m unsure if I can get Big Marcy to allow me on board and join you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll feel much less anxious to have a friend by my side before the procedure. I hope Big Marcy can help you come with us.¡±

    ¡°What can they do to stop me?¡± I asked, chuckling. ¡°I¡¯ll sink their ships if they¡ªwhoops, you¡¯ll be on board. Just kidding about that. I can swim to follow the ships if needs be.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll swim the open ocean?¡± asked Yara.

    ¡°I¡¯ve tried it before. You¡¯ll be surprised at what our superhuman bodies can do. Well, I don¡¯t know about Theo¡¯s or the others, but mine is exceptionally strong.¡±

    ¡°Please don¡¯t do that, Ms. Erind. May I suggest clinging to the side of the ship instead? It¡¯s a terrible inconvenience to you, but I¡¯ll repay you in any way I can if you accompany me to Red Island.¡±

    Huh, that¡¯s a way better idea. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll do that,¡± I said. ¡°Once I step foot on Red Island, they¡¯re not going to send me back. Like, where will Mark expect me to go? No way I can find the cruise ship or swim back to land even if he tapes a compass to my forehead. What I need is the exact departure time.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll message you as soon as I know, Ms. Erind,¡± Yara said.

    <hr>

    After finishing our food¡ªI did most of the finishing because the two divas wouldn¡¯t break their diets¡ªand a few more girly chatty chats, we parted ways. Deen and I already planned this while we were sunbathing.

    To be accurate, I planned it and Deen didn¡¯t agree but went along because I guilt-tripped her. Some bullshit that she didn¡¯t trust me and she should be supportive of me and stuff like that.

    Deen went with Yara to find out more information and do some bonding¡ªthis was just a secondary, almost fake goal. Her main intention for separating from me was to draw the attention of Everett and the other hero-wannabes away from me.

    But not all of them. Jubjub would still tail me. No one was supposed to know she was here anyway.

    This would be the opportunity to talk to her alone.

    As expected, Deen thought that was too dangerous. But I reminded her that even if everyone on this island worked together to fight me, I¡¯d still win.

    I was going to reveal to Jubjub that I knew that they knew¡­ blah, blah, blah. The whole Red Hood, werewolf, Adumbrae matter. Jubjub would also realize that I knew that she knew I was the one who saved her. With that, I¡¯d ask her to help me because I was actually a good person, and I didn¡¯t want to be an Adumbrae, and this was all a big misunderstanding, and I didn¡¯t want to die and¡­ you get the picture.

    There were two outcomes.

    Jubjub would want to repay me in some way, like lying to Dario that we didn¡¯t meet, or helping me but not betraying Dario. Great if she¡¯d switch over to my side completely, but I doubted that¡¯d happen.

    The other possibility was that Jubjub would only pretend she¡¯d work with me. She wouldn¡¯t outright reject me because I could kill her. But even a fake alliance would be beneficial because Jubjub¡ªand also Dario¡ªwould cooperate with me until the point they¡¯d turn the tables. This¡¯d be useful for gaining insights about their operations, though some information they¡¯d feed me would be fake, and it¡¯d be easier passing along the information to them without going through all the bullshit as I did with Reo.

    Yara was just the backup. Even if she failed to inform me of the departure schedule, Big Marcy would find a way.

    My original problem was how to inform the hero-wannabe group without rousing any suspicion. It¡¯d be such a fucking hassle to set up another situation like Reo¡¯s.

    While I was getting cooked by the sun, it occurred to me that I could just¡­ tell them. Tell Dario through Jubjub faking to be working with me or with him, more like.

    Jubjub got a buttload of luck because my original plan for meeting her was to kill her. Her suddenly going missing would derail whatever Dario had planned for me on Red Island. That was it. I just didn¡¯t want Dario to gain the upper hand while I didn¡¯t have any clue about his plans.

    This new thing was a way better use of Jubjub¡¯s life.

    I rode a golf cart out of town, heading for the hills. Bicycles for rent were also available, but it had been ages since I rode one. I¡¯d probably faceplant if I tried, embarrassing myself in front of Jubjub.

    Jubjub should be here¡­ I thought, looking down. There were shadows beneath my seat.

    I¡¯d look pretty dumb if I was alone. But then, if I was indeed alone, there¡¯d be no one to know of my stupidity.

    I drove off the road, heading to a random hill with no people. This didn¡¯t have great views, and the sun was high up. Less chances of hikers popping up. I wore the hat I bought earlier. It provides shade for Jubjub to hide.

    Soon, I was out of view of the road. I kept far from any shrubs or trees. I also kept an intense watch around me. There was no opportunity for Jubjub to jump shadows.

    ¡°Come out now,¡± I said. ¡°I know you¡¯re there!¡±

 6.27

    Only the gentle whoosh of the wind answered.

    ¡°No need to be scared.¡± I held my arms wide open. ¡°I¡¯m not going to fight you. We have something to talk about, you know? Come out already.¡±

    The blaring horns of a distant car filled the silence that followed. Someone was having an unpleasant encounter on the road.

    I wanted the dramatic confrontation to begin already. Many lines lined up in my head, fake emotions and scenarios. I was excited to use them. The setting and the vibe were already set. But I could see Jubjub hesitant to reveal herself knowing I could kill her.

    Hesitant? That was mild a mild way to put it.

    She must be shitting herself in the shadows right now. Shadow-shitting. How would that work?

    There was no incentive for Jubjub to trust my words. After all, I was an Adumbrae. A real one; an artificial one was bad enough. The best and safest choice for Jubjub was to continue being a shadow until I got tired of this whole gig and returned to the golf cart. Then she¡¯d have more places to hide.

    She could also just be by the cart and I was talking to¡­ no one. But I didn¡¯t think she was smart enough to figure out I was going to confront her out here.

    Anyway, what next?

    I eyed the small magnifying glass I bought. I thought I could intensify the sun¡¯s rays and hurt Jubjub in the shadows. I¡¯ve burned quite a few insects that way as a kid. If a strong flashlight could forcefully reveal Jubjub, then magnified sunlight might too.

    A tiny flaw in my plan. The magnifying glass could only concentrate, not reflect or redirect sunlight. My plan wouldn¡¯t work targeting a shadow because, duh, it was the shadow¡­ in the shade. What sunlight would I be magnifying?

    Another option was to remove my hat. Would that instantly reveal Jubjub?

    Hang on. The shadow of the hat would remain. She¡¯d just follow it. I could fold the hat and make its shadow small. There had to be a minimum area for a shadow that Jubjub could squeeze into. Her only remaining refuge would be my own shadow, right beneath me. Stepping on liquid Jubjub didn¡¯t sound appealing.

    Shining the flashlight on my shadow was my best bet. That was my first idea anyway.

    ¡°Don¡¯t force me to make you reveal yourself.¡± I held up the flashlight. ¡°I just want to talk. If you¡¯re not going to answer in the count of three¡ªoh wait, that¡¯s too short. After I count to five and you still won¡¯t show up, then I¡¯ll force you to come out.¡±

    Before I could start counting, the ground about a dozen feet away from me stirred. The dry and powdery soil rose, becoming a small hill the size of a car.

    The fuck? Did Jubjub have a power like this all along?

    The surface of the mound bubbled and shifted as it grew, looking like it was going to explode. If not Jubjub¡¯s power, then was this a geyser or something? This stupid island could be a volcano for all I knew. I was confident I could survive it, whatever this was, but my outfit wouldn¡¯t. No way I was driving back to civilization with torn clothes.

    As I mulled over running away, something burst out of the enormous earthen zit¡ªa reddish hand large enough to completely enclose my torso. Unexpected, but I was expecting the unexpected so I guess I expected this all along.

    The hand slammed into the ground. Then another hand emerged from the mound, followed by an arm. The mysterious creature hidden below the earth pushed itself out of the ground.

    A giant deformed monkey with a super squat body the size of my golf cart and super long arms popped out. It looked like a spider monkey with its torso squished down.

    Sure, whatever. This might as well happen.

    I should be surprised, but I found it easy to accept this turn of events. After experiencing so much bullshit coming out of fate¡¯s ass that only a crazy writer could come up with, including the explosion of a Greaves Reactor rivaling that of a small nuke almost killing me, this mishappen monkey monster was¡­ quite tame. Also, I had such a good run of luck lately that part of me expected to run into bad luck soon.

    This qualified as bad luck, I think? I couldn¡¯t see how getting accosted by a subterranean primate benefited me.

    The monkey dusted itself off¡ªvery awkward with its long limbs¡ªand squatted with its long legs folded by its side, looking like a crab would sit. There was something off with its face. Less a monkey and more like those primitive cavemen I saw in the museum in Las Vegas, somewhere in between a modern human and a primate.

    And it somehow looks familiar¡­

    ¡°Theo,¡± I confidently stated, stopping the word from coming out as a question at the last second. Everything clicked. The next scene for my badass Adumbrae face was rolling, and I had a face to portray. New lines cropped up in my head. ¡°This transformation of yours. I can¡¯t say it¡¯s much of an improvement from your former face.¡±

    ¡°I follow¡­ you,¡± Theo the Trash Monkey said with much effort. I was surprised he could speak. ¡°You know¡­ I follow you.¡± He pointed to the ground. ¡°You lead me¡­ here.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know, know, you know?¡± I had to go with the flow or else this scene would be ruined. ¡°I just sensed something was off. No clue it was you. Heck, I¡¯m surprised this form of yours could travel underground. Nothing about it in the database.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ keep¡­ secret,¡± Theo said. ¡°No¡­ need to tell¡­ you. No tell¡­ anyone.¡±

    ¡°And we don¡¯t really care,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s not like we verify our customer¡¯s powers if they¡¯re lying or hiding stuff.¡± I was implying that I wasn¡¯t a customer like him but an actual part of the organization. ¡°You¡¯re not going to fight actual battles anyway¡ªthat¡¯s our job. But I always insisted that you guys should¡¯ve been trained to fight. Just look at what happened in Eve. Mark wouldn¡¯t listen though.¡±

    ¡°I can¡­ fight.¡± He pointed at me with a finger. ¡°I¡­ fight you¡­¡±

    ¡°Fight? Do you want me to pay for tearing your precious vest? That doesn¡¯t seem to be it. Or perhaps¡­ did I hurt your precious ego at the restaurant because I ruined your image in front of the beautiful ladies?¡±

    Phrasing it that way excluded me from the ¡®beautiful ladies.¡¯ I just roasted myself.

    Theo the Trash Monkey laughed. His throat inflated like a bullfrog. ¡°Wrong! I want¡­ fight¡­ you.¡±

    ¡°Fight me for what? Don¡¯t be stupid, Theodore Hugh. Didn¡¯t you hear what I said? I just want to talk to convince you not to do something stupid. No need to fight.¡± I gestured my arms outward. ¡°Rant all you want about how rich you are and more important than me to make yourself better. Berate and belittle me to repair your precious ego. Let it all out. No one¡¯s around to witness your childishness, so you don¡¯t have to be embarrassed.¡±

    His primitive face twisted into fury, just as I intended. After what I said, he could no longer back out. I never said I was good at diffusing situations. Drama was what I craved.

    Theo thumped his chest with his palms. ¡°Fight me! I will¡­ show! I¡¯m¡­ strong!¡±

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t about the girls thing then? You just want to show you¡¯re stronger than me? Still a matter of ego. I¡¯m guessing you understated the extent of your powers during the assessment at Red Island, and you¡¯re thinking you can take me on.¡±

    Assessment. Database. I was just guessing. It seemed logical for an organization making monsters to keep track of their clients. Theo the Trash Monkey didn¡¯t call me out for my lies, instead thumping his chest again.

    ¡°I can! We. Fight!¡±

    ¡°I assure you, if you fight me, you¡¯ll lose. The gap between us is too large. You should also know that I suck at controlling my strength and I might kill you. Do you want your papa to be sad about losing his son? Let¡¯s just talk about something random to relax. Where¡¯s your leather vest and pants?¡±

    Theo growled and stood up, raising his hands, making himself bigger to look more intimidating. He was anything but. That stout body with long legs made him look like an awkward insect. ¡°Shut up! Strong! I¡¯m¡­ strong!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re going to throw your life away to prove how strong you are?¡±

    Couldn¡¯t he see how much I cared about his life? Not. This wasn¡¯t a strategy to make him angry to destroy his focus or some Art of War shit. There was a term for this¡­ gas burning or something. It had been ages since I had done this to people, and I missed it. This was an opportunity I couldn¡¯t let pass.

    Yes, there was a chance Theo would die, but that was an unintended consequence. I wasn¡¯t a bloodthirsty, psycho bitch, wanting to murder people. I just wanted to have fun on this vacation.

    ¡°And you won¡¯t be proving much because I¡¯m way stronger than you,¡± I continued as I pointed a stern finger at him. I know you¡¯re above most of the rich idiots wanting immortality, so be satisfied with that.¡±

    ¡°Bluff! You¡¯re ¡­ bluffing.¡± He placed his wide palms on his chest. ¡°Important! Important¡­ not kill. But¡­ get hurt¡­ if I lose. Not afraid.¡±

    I smirked. He was right. So long as he wouldn¡¯t die, he could regenerate. There¡¯d be no long-term issue. However, the ¡®normal¡¯ Adumbrae client of the 2Ms should still be afraid of getting hurt. Maybe this monkey¡¯s not a generic bad guy after all.

    Technically, I was the bad guy. But Theo was a bad guy too.

    He was also right that I might not kill him because he was important. Just not in the way he thought. Too much of a hassle if he went missing, especially if he was slated to go to Red Island. I didn¡¯t want to risk changing the schedules or even canceling the trip.

    But I was going to play with him a bit before turning to¡ªI forgot about Jubjub!

    My shadow! Was she still there? A few feet behind me was a cactus with colorful flowers. I accidentally went near it because of stupid Theo showing up. Beyond that was a patch of shrubs.

    Jubjub could¡¯ve already left me¡­ if she was ever here.

    Fuck!

    Just me and Theo then.

    ¡°Look at me!¡± roared the monkey. ¡°No¡­ one¡­ see us. Not afraid¡­ to fight!¡± Theo misunderstood why I looked around. ¡°I¡­ force you. Fight!¡± He reached for a rock half buried in the soil. He gripped it with his long fingers, his sharp nails punching in the soil to dig it out.

    He found himself a nice projectile.

    Projectile? The best way to fight an Adumbrae was from afar, Myra taught me. Even though all Adumbrae had super strength, the differences could wildly vary. I recalled the 2M¡¯s attack on my condo. There was a small Asian woman¡ªand I forgot her name¡ªwho was insanely physically strong. Appearances were no indication of strength. I was also an example of that.

    Theo the Trash Monkey didn¡¯t want to risk fighting me up close. Not only was he unsure of my super strength level, but he also had no clue about my actual ability. By throwing stuff from afar, he could stay safe while learning about me. He could whittle me down and maybe even score a headshot.

    Or was I giving this monkey too much credit? Possible that this was just the way he fought by default. His transformed body gave this theory credence.

    Theo¡¯s long, multi-jointed arms were perfect for throwing stuff¡ªa sling and a catapult combined. He could somehow travel underground even though his form didn¡¯t appear suited for it, another ability I should watch out for. After throwing, he could go underground to flee and keep the distance between us.

    So, I¡¯m really fighting him then? Been some time since I had a proper challenge. And this one didn¡¯t seem to be a mindless chore of just crushing faceless grunts. Theo was a grunt, but a named side character. I wasn¡¯t whipping out Blanchette for this one.

    ¡°Fight! FIGHT ME!¡± he shouted.

    I stomped forward, burying my foot in the dirt. This was another of my signature moves, like the head-twisting thing. The soil, though dry, wasn¡¯t compacted. My foot descended about a foot into the ground. Funny.

    But Theo the Trash Monkey didn¡¯t think it was funny, mostly because he couldn¡¯t read my mind. He viewed my action as an acceptance of his challenge, swinging his arm back.

    I kicked with my buried foot as hard as I could, shoveling the ground upward. Sorry, sandals¡ªanother pair ruined.

    A wall of scattered earth obscured me. As I kicked, I let myself fall back, using the momentum to fall faster.

    Something punched through the floating dirt and passed over me¡ªTheo¡¯s projectile. I wondered how much it¡¯d hurt if I got hit.

    As I hit the ground, I rolled to the left, the dust starting to fall. I rolled forward and broke into a sprint, heading to where I last saw Theo. Out of the dust cloud. I wiped my eyes clean, in time to see Theo¡¯s feet slither into the ground.

    I stopped.

    No bulging dirt or shifting rocks. No sign of where the monkey was going.

    He should have a way of navigating underground and knowing what was above, for how else was he able to follow me to this place without getting noticed? He should also be moving quite fast for a large creature tunneling, at least the speed of a golf cart.

    Noise behind me! I turned around.

    Theo¡¯s upper body had come out of the ground, ready with another rock. I charged at him, zigzagging erratically as I ran. I didn¡¯t actively try to predict the rock¡¯s trajectory. A rock zoomed past, just as I jumped left to change course. Theo grunted in annoyance before twirling down into his hole.

    ¡°Is this the way you¡¯re going to prove you¡¯re strong?¡± I shouted, my eyes darting left and right as I kept watch for his next exit. This wasn¡¯t how I pictured our fight would turn out. ¡°Just throwing rocks? I can also throw rocks. But I sure can¡¯t run away as fast as you do.¡±

    There was a whooshing sound. Instinctively, I wildly whipped my arms. I hit something. Something hit me. Whichever was which, I tumbled back.

    I stretched my hand, grabbing onto anything as I rolled. My fingers tangled with a shrub. I pulled my body to it. Another rock hit where I was a moment before. I righted myself and surveyed where the rocks came from.

    On top of a small hill maybe ten yards away, Theo pumped the air with his fist, hooting in celebration as his weird throat sack pulsed. Was that some kind of echolocation organ? It must be the way he could ¡®see¡¯ underground and detect where I was to know where to safely pop out.

    ¡°Strong!¡± he yelled. ¡°Not stupid! I¡­ continue¡­ this.¡± He was gone again.

    He wasn¡¯t a hot-headed idiot, I¡¯d give him that. He was fine with winning whatever it took. Trying to rile him up with ¡®you¡¯re not a man¡¯ talk would go nowhere.

    Time for some martial arts master bullshit. Zen. Be one with the world. Detect the rocks. Catch the blade with my bare hands. Perform the secret technique I¡¯d been struggling with for years. The whole setup would be complete with a blindfold, but I wasn¡¯t going to do that.

    Half of my surroundings were higher than where I stood, mostly away from the road.

    The rest were lower.

    I slowly turned in place, craning my head to keep watch of my surroundings. I hoped it wasn¡¯t obvious that I was keeping more watch on the hills.

    The whistling sound of a throw!

    Theo wasn¡¯t in my view. I ducked. The rock flew overhead. Another rock followed, bouncing off the ground a few feet to my back. Theo was behind me, somewhere lower, and couldn¡¯t hit me since I crouched because of the angle. He returned to the ground with a grumble of curses.

    I evaded the next three waves of rocks.

    My plan worked somewhat but I was nowhere near defeating this guy.

    ¡°You can¡¯t keep this up forever,¡± I said.

    ¡°Same¡­ to you!¡± he said before going down into his hole.

    Fucking bastard. The initiative was on him because I couldn¡¯t catch him. If he found a way to hit me, then he¡¯d break the stalemate. I could just flee this place, but that was admitting defeat. I should think of a way to catch him before he broke the status quo on his terms.

    Too bad I couldn¡¯t follow him into his¡ª

    Why? What was stopping me from entering his hole?

    Awkward phrasing. His tunnels? Nope.

    I was going into the holes that he makes. There. That¡¯s the plan!

 6.28

    ¡°Come out and fight me!¡± I made my voice sound desperate and frustrated as I faced the road.

    That¡¯d force him to appear behind me, up the hills. He had fewer tunnels back there. Fewer issues of getting lost underground if I followed him.

    I detected movement in the corner of my eye; I immediately rushed toward it like a hunter hunting prey. Like, duh, what was a hunter supposed to do?

    Theo showed up to my far right, at the bottom of the slope of a hill instead of up on it for a better vantage point. Trying to outthink me by showing up in an unexpected place? He hadn¡¯t been there before, I was sure. Good for him that he was using his brain. But too bad he was playing right into my hands.

    Only Theo¡¯s upper body was above ground. After his first throw and escape, he never fully showed himself to have a faster exit. Both his hands flung back to wind-up throws. I was getting closer, not bothering to zigzag, going straight as fast as I could. He closed his grip, crushing the rocks he found probably underground.

    Why is he¡ª? He let loose a barrage of small rocks.

    So, that was his next plan to up his chances of hitting me.

    I crossed my arms in front of my face. I staggered when the rocks hit. They had much more force than I anticipated, the rocks breaking apart as they hit my body. It was like pellets fired from a shotgun. My skin and flesh tore. Just mere scratches, but annoying. And my clothes! If I knew the fight would turn up like this, I would¡ª

    I didn¡¯t get to finish my thought as Theo the soon-to-be-extinct-monkey, swung his left hand. Another set of rocks!

    I leaped forward and tried diving below the rocks that were spreading out. I rolled on the ground, evading most of them. Theo had sunk back into the earth before I could right myself.

    Oh no you don¡¯t! Without any hesitation, I jumped into the hole just a couple of seconds after he disappeared. This was the only way to catch him.

    The flashlight I bought for Jubjub came in handy. With a switched-on flashlight in my mouth pointed forward, I crawled as fast as I could along the tunnel. Its diameter was the width of Theo¡¯s body. Quite roomy for me. And as I went along, I left behind marks, gouging the earth deep with my fingers here and there.

    I could hear faint noises and feel vibrations through my palms. My prey was somewhere up ahead, but I still hadn¡¯t seen even just a strand of hair from his feet.

    The dim light showed the almost perfectly circular tunnel I was traversing. This confirmed that Theo was using some sort of superpower to dig. He couldn¡¯t have made a tunnel like this at the speed he did if it was just normal digging with his hands. His transformation wasn¡¯t even a mole or some other digging creature.

    My werewolf form was probably better than Theo¡¯s for normal digging. It just occurred to me that I had dug underground a few times already. Such a weird life I have.

    I came upon a crossroads. Three choices?

    Nope. Only one of these was the answer. The other two would only lead back here.

    I shone the flashlight around until I saw the marks I made earlier. My hunch was correct. Theo made a loop back to this tunnel in an attempt to confuse me into thinking these were old tunnels. Visibility was low so it was hard to get my bearings and realize I had circled back. Good thing I marked the path I took before.

    I continued crawling to the most recent tunnel Theo made.

    A small girl chasing the monster. I giggled at the thought.

    Where was my prey? There was no light source other than my flashlight. I was expecting Theo to dig up and flee above because I was going to catch him underground. But the path didn¡¯t seem to be going up. My orientation was all messed up without a reference point, just like how pilots wouldn¡¯t realize their airplane had flipped over if everything was white, but I swore the way seemed to be sloping downward.

    I couldn¡¯t tell if there was more force on my wrists from crawling down because my superstrength made it effortless. I couldn¡¯t use my long hair to check where gravity was pulling it because the strands were stuck to my face because of the dirt.

    I gently spat out the flashlight. After dropping to the ground, it rolled along down the tunnel. We were on a slope. Judging by the speed the flashlight disappeared from my view, the angle was steeper than I thought.

    Annoying but also entertaining. An easy victory was fine and all, but persistent prey was appreciated. Theo was providing me with some entertainment.

    The earth was shaking. I think. Just slightly.

    Dust fell on top of my hair and face. It wasn¡¯t my imagination. And it wasn¡¯t me doing it. Theo the Trash Monkey was trying to bury me¡ªthe perfect way to defeat me without even touching me. Once I ran out of oxygen, my physical superiority and whatever abilities I had would be rendered useless.

    Oh no, you don¡¯t! I had enough of getting buried alive.

    I squatted and furiously dug at the ceiling of the tunnel. One rake of my right hand broke it, and chunks of earth fell on my face. My left hand dislodged some rocks. I continued, standing up as space opened. Complete darkness. I said goodbye to my flashlight¡ªwe had a good run¡ªand forced my way up, wriggling through the tunnel of my own making.

    Right, left, right, left, I didn¡¯t stop digging. Theo was up there, I was sure. He could tell where I was. But how was he going to collapse the tunnel? By applying force from above. He wouldn¡¯t be expecting me to dig up to him. He could ¡®sense¡¯ me coming, but wouldn¡¯t be prepared with how fast I¡¯d get him. Didn¡¯t he know I had certifications for tunnel digging?

    I caught something squishy, definitely not rocks. Flesh. Unless I accidentally found a huge mole, this was Theo.

    I gripped tight, stabbing my fingers into whatever part of his body I caught. There was panicked shaking. I held securely on while my other hand snaked through the dirt and darkness trying to grab something too.

    Wham! I got hit in the head. Another blow! And another! Theo was trying to kick me off.

    Thanks for handing me your foot! I thought as I caught his next kick. More frantic thrashing about, but he couldn¡¯t shake me off.

    Suddenly, I was dragged up.

    Theo was shooting upward, very smoothly at that. This must be his power at work, and how he was getting around in the soil. Was he trying to go aboveground so he could transform back and beg for his life?

    Where are you going in such a hurry? That would¡¯ve been such a good one-liner. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t open my mouth and risk eating soil. I had more lines stocked up, but that could wait. I wasn¡¯t satisfied with our fight ending like this just yet.

    I kicked out, hoping to lodge my legs on some rocks, anything solid. As I slowed down, I pulled on Theo¡¯s big hairy feet. I imagined myself an anchor.

    Theo probably didn¡¯t like it. His leg bones cracked and got dislocated, his muscles tore, and flowing blood warmed my hands. I couldn¡¯t see it but I felt his legs twisting and stretching the way they shouldn¡¯t. Screams of anguish reverberated in the darkness, muffled by the earth, but vibrating through it as well.

    ¡°Stop! Hurts!¡± Theo¡¯s yelling was amplified by his disgusting throat sac.

    I finally made you scream, huh?

    Okay, that wasn¡¯t a good line.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Something better was, I¡¯ll bury you here!

    Hints of light. Theo was breaching the surface.

    I could see, but not much. Hair and earth. I continued kicking around, trying to find some leverage to pull him back down, but the rocks and soil were weirdly watery as if it was flowing fine sand. This was his stupid power.

    We momentarily stopped. My right foot got caught in a huge boulder that Theo wasn¡¯t able to push out of the way. He let out a squeal of panic and tried harder to move up. If he wanted to get away that much¡­

    In one sudden motion, I violently tugged his legs.

    Screams again. Nothing was pulling me anymore. I had torn off Theo¡¯s legs, and he left the hole like a lizard leaving behind its tail to escape.

    The last I saw of him was the remaining stumps raining blood on me. His beastly wails and moans were broadcast all over the hills. If tourists heard him, they¡¯d hopefully think it was an injured wild animal and stay away.

    I inelegantly scrambled out of the hole using Theo¡¯s legs as climbing axes mountaineers use. Dunno what those were actually called. I stabbed the sharp bones jutting out of the severed ends into the soil to have a good grip. Without Theo around, the earth seemed to have returned to its normal behavior.

    ¡°Okay¡­ that really wasn¡¯t much of a fight,¡± I sighed as I stood up on the ground. ¡°More like playing tag. You did try, I¡¯ll give you that.¡±

    Theo was crawling away with his long arms, leaving a trail of purple blood.

    Purple? I looked down. My torn clothes were dirtied with a disgusting purple mud-like substance. It was Theo¡¯s blood mixed with the earth caking me. How the hell was I returning to town in this state? This was why superheroes had costumes, besides the whole branding and hiding identity thing. I didn¡¯t need costumes, just a spare change of clothes¡ªmental note. This lesson I should¡¯ve learned long ago.

    ¡°Damn¡­ you!¡± Theo told the cactuses he passed. Or maybe he meant that to me.

    ¡°And you finally cracked,¡± I said in a sing-song voice, walking to Theo. ¡°I was thinking you had some experience with, like, actual fighting because you didn¡¯t show much reaction when I crushed your arm back at the restaurant. To be fair, a crushed arm is so much different than losing legs.¡±

    I tossed his legs in front of him. He swatted them away.

    ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ kill¡­ you,¡± he groaned as he continued to crawl.

    I was right behind him, casually walking. ¡°Some tourists are going to be in for a big scare when they find your legs. Or maybe the local wildlife can snack on them first. I just hope you don¡¯t have germs or something infecting them.¡±

    The stumps of Theo¡¯s legs had stopped bleeding. The ends disgustingly bubbled as muscle fibers repaired themselves and extended to cover the lengthening bones. This was a way faster regeneration than his normal body. Probably even faster than my Erind self. Soon, the pain would be more tolerable for him, and he¡¯d probably want to continue fighting. Could also be that he¡¯d drop the tough guy act and flee.

    I needed to decide what to do with him.

    Before, the question was whether to kill him or not¡ªI knew the answer now.

    Killing him might cause some problems. But not killing him would really cause a lot of problems.

    A guy with his ego wouldn¡¯t let this go. He¡¯d want to have his revenge. It would¡¯ve been great if he did everything straight, big on honor and shit like that. Like, he¡¯d challenge me sometime in the future after training. Wait, that¡¯d make him the protagonist, not me? I couldn¡¯t have that.

    He wasn¡¯t like that anyway. After spouting shit about wanting to show his strength, he played keep-away while hurling stuff at me. Yes, he prioritized his ego. But he¡¯d do it in any way possible. If he defeated me, he¡¯d call his posse over and show them my corpse, weaving a tail of some do-or-die battle instead of just throwing rocks.

    I looked down at my sorry state again. My messed-up clothes sealed Theo¡¯s fate. An unimaginable hassle.

    Theo was going to die. The question was how.

    ¡°Where did that ¡®you can¡¯t kill me¡¯ bravado go?¡± I tauntingly asked him. Was this the first time I¡¯ve worn a face like this? ¡°Just a small taste of pain, and you¡¯re screaming like it¡¯s the end of the world? It¡¯s just a pair of legs. You can regenerate it.¡±

    Theo placed his palms flat on the ground. The soil rippled outward. If this monkey was going sand diving again, I¡¯d remove some more limbs.

    But then he closed his hands into a fist. The soil stopped moving. He probably realized that was a stupid idea, especially since I already caught him once.

    Theo rolled over and pushed himself to sit up. A strained smile slashed his face. He belabouredly chuckled. ¡°A pair¡­ of legs¡­¡± he said while gritting his teeth. ¡°Right. You¡¯re strong.¡± He offered his hand. ¡°A pleasure to¡­ fight¡­ you.¡±

    Trying to save face? I wasn¡¯t giving him that. ¡°Oh, come on,¡± I said. ¡°Don¡¯t pretend like you weren¡¯t just running away from me the entire time. What fight happened there?¡±

    Angered flickered for a moment on his face before the smile returned. He laughed. He didn¡¯t retract his arm. ¡°Got me¡­ there. I¡­ new to¡­ this.¡± He wiggled his outstretched hand to draw attention to it. ¡°Teach me¡­ fighting. I can¡­ learn fast¡­ from you.¡±

    Yeah, right. Part of me did want to take his hand and test what he¡¯d do. But a bigger part didn¡¯t want to risk becoming Erind Jell-o. Deen¡¯s scolding voice was in my ear, telling me off for being reckless.

    ¡°If you want us to shake hands,¡± I said, ¡°turn back into human so we can¡ªhang on. If you turn back, will you be naked?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ yes.¡± Theo slowly dropped his hand.

    ¡°Gross. Just stay that way. I don¡¯t want to see your naked body when I kill you.¡±

    Theo tensed. His eyes darted left and right. ¡°Kill¡­ me? Joking. Bluff¡­ again.¡± As he talked, he casually pinned his arms to his flanks, subtly placing his hands on the ground again to the sides of his butt. But not so subtle that I wouldn¡¯t notice. ¡°Important! I¡¯m¡­ impor¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re important. But there¡¯s a huge problem that needs addressing. You bothered me.¡± That last sentence I spoke with much venom. Just released all my annoyance so I could focus on my business of implementing Rules. ¡°You ruined my¡­¡± My eyes widened.

    I should take care of the face I was wearing.

    ¡°My father¡­ will kill¡­ you!¡±

    The soil around Theo¡¯s hands began to swirl. He started to descend into the softened ground. Too slow.

    ¡°I¡¯ll kill all of you!¡± I shouted, putting anger into my voice. I grabbed Theo¡¯s upper arm and pulled him out of the sinkhole or quicksand whatever. ¡°You¡¯re going to pay!¡±

    Did I sound awkward? It was rare for me to use this type of face.

    Theo whipped his other arm at me. I parried it away. He lunged to bite, but I punched him. My fist met his fangs, breaking them, then his jaws. His head bounced on the ground as he fell.

    Please don¡¯t die, I prayed. This was the debut of a new face. I didn¡¯t want it to get ruined.

    Theo groaned. I breathed a sigh of relief. A few seconds to regenerate so he could really be bothered by what I¡¯d do to him. In the meantime, some dramatic dialogue for the audience.

    ¡°Since I¡¯ll be killing you,¡± I said, stepping on Theo¡¯s chest, just some pressure, taking care not to collapse his chest, ¡°it¡¯s fine to tell you the truth. I¡¯m not part of your organization.¡±

    ¡°Wha-what¡­?¡± Theo¡¯s eyes flickered open. His jaw clicked back into place.

    ¡°I¡¯m an Adumbrae, so it was easy to convince Yara and many others that I¡¯m one of you. Many of the senior members, the higher-ups, died at Eve. So easy to fool the newcomers.¡±

    ¡°Who¡­ are¡­ Yargh!¡±

    I stepped on Theo¡¯s right shoulder. Hard. Until I parted his joint. His skin tore as squished flesh poured out of the holes like toothpaste. His shoulder became mush. And my sandals were definitely no more. Man, my budget for clothes should be higher. I should ask Mom for more money.

    I bent down and yanked off Theo¡¯s right arm, which was still attached to his body by some threads of muscles and skin.

    I raised his severed arm. ¡°I am Red Hood!¡± Fucking cheesy. If only they had come up with a better name for me.

    ¡°Re-red¡­ Hood?¡± Theo said, donning a primitively shocked face. He forgot the pain he suffered because of the revelation.

    ¡°And I¡¯ll take my revenge on Mark, on Big Marcy, on all of you, for turning me into an Adumbrae!¡±

    ¡°Are you¡­ really¡­?¡± Theo wriggled away from me, his left arm grasping at shrubs. ¡°Don¡¯t know¡­ anything! I¡¯m not¡­ part!¡±

    ¡°You chose to be an Adumbrae, did you not?¡± I briskly walked to keep pace with his pathetic retreating body. ¡°A willing Adumbrae. Compared to you, I was forced by the experiments of Mark to become one. And boy, did he make a mistake.¡±

    That last line sounded goofy. I didn¡¯t prepare much of a script because this was impromptu. A stroke of inspiration.

    ¡°Mark had me kidnapped,¡± I said. ¡°For an experiment. Something I didn¡¯t understand. They said I was compatible with a new procedure they were testing.¡±

    Theo wasn¡¯t listening to me, but my words weren¡¯t for him. He rolled to his back and swung his remaining arm at me.

    I caught his wrist. My other hand caught his elbow. I stared into his eyes as I pulled his hand off.

    His throat sac bulged. One last trick up his sleeve? Collar?

    He opened his mouth and yelled. ¡°GHAAR¡ªurk!¡±

    A double-edged blade pierced out of the inflated sac, darker than dark, appearing to absorb the harsh sunlight. The sac deflated as blood seeped through the wound. Theo gurgled pained noises of disbelief. The blade parted in two, each side sliding to the right and left, cleaving Theo¡¯s head cleanly off.

    ¡°Teeell me moooreee¡­¡± came a spooky whisper.

 6.29

    ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked in a fake apprehensive voice, raising my fists. Jubjub¡¯s here!

    I did a good job hiding how pleased I was for correctly guessing she was tailing me. I¡¯d done some pretty dumb shit in my life¡ªokay, not some; a lot¡ªbut I was generally smart. My correct prediction about Jubjub was proof.

    I came to these hills to call out Jubjub and confront her. Theo the Dead Monkey ruined all the scenarios I planned. Since yours truly was generally smart, I cooked up a new scenario. In this one, I expected Theo to follow me but didn¡¯t know Jubjub was there too. Talking to Theo, I ¡®accidentally¡¯ spilled some info about my backstory, supposedly not expecting someone else to be listening.

    ¡°Dooonnn¡¯t beee afraaaid, Eriind¡­¡± said the weird voice I took to be Jubjub¡¯s in her shadow state.

    ¡°I¡¯m not afraid,¡± I said. ¡°You should be if you¡¯re not going to show yourself soon.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯sss meee¡­¡±

    Theo¡¯s body spasmed, making me wonder for a moment if he was still alive. Then he, or it, stayed still, just a corpse. Purple blood oozed out of his sliced neck, digging little furrows in the dirt as tiny streams rolled down the gentle slope¡ªno more regenerating for him. It was fascinating to see the very clean slice Jubjub made. The bottom of Theo¡¯s severed head showed a neat cross-section of his spine and neck muscles, looking like a fresh piece of steak.

    I should be disgusted by that thought, but I wasn¡¯t. Dunno if that was good or bad.

    From beneath Theo¡¯s large corpse, a dark sludge slinked away as if fleeing from the growing puddle of blood. The sludge zipped across the sand, almost a blur, not leaving any trace on the soil unlike the blood, and fled to the shade of a nearby short tree.

    Something, or someone, began to emerge from it. My hidden audience decided to reveal herself; all my theatrics weren¡¯t in vain.

    ¡°Jubilee,¡± I said. Her silhouette became recognizable as she rose out of the sludge as if on an elevator. Calling her by her real name should signal I wasn¡¯t in an antagonistic stance. Though I much prefer her codename, which sounded funny, using it might subliminally put distance between us.

    The dark form began to take color, and it was soon just Jubjub under the tree, the sludge gone. Her long black hair was tied in a bun behind her head, the first time I¡¯d seen her with that style. The heat was probably getting to her. Which meant she was super uncomfortable in her long-sleeved turtle neck and pants. All black, of course. She was trying to compete with Theo for the dumbest outfit to wear under the blazing sun.

    ¡°Do your clothes have anything to do with your powers?¡± I asked with a chuckle to show it was to poke fun and not to investigate for a fight.

    ¡°They might¡­¡± She had a blank expression, which was her normal expression anyway. Her tensed posture betrayed her wariness.

    How fast could she go back into her sludge form? And could I hurt her while she was that way? I bet I could.

    Shadows around were pretty scarce. She didn¡¯t have anywhere to flee towards even if she wanted to. Revealing herself meant she thought we could amicably talk¡ªa good sign for my plans.

    ¡°I suppose I¡¯m not one to criticize how you look,¡± I said to lighten the mood, gesturing at my body.

    My clothes weren¡¯t torn up to the point of being immodest, but they were practically write-offs. They were more earth than fabric, the blood mud caking me. I was also barefoot. My sandals, or what was left of them, were somewhere underground. That was now two pairs of footwear destroyed during this trip. My hand flew to my pocket. My wallet was still there; I could buy clothes later. As for my phone, I left it on the ship. Call it bullshit intuition that I sensed it might get trashed even though I didn¡¯t plan any fighting earlier.

    I held up my right arm¡ªthe fingerless glove from Deen was in tatters from the insane digging. I winced at the thought of the scolding I¡¯d get from her because I didn¡¯t take good care of it.

    Better just admit to Deen what happened rather than cook up a lie. She¡¯d super appreciate I told her the truth. She¡¯d definitely forgive me. Weird though that I cared about what she thought. It was a hassle if she¡¯d get angry, so there was that.

    More mud hardened on my cheeks. Not my greatest look. I wiped my face and then tried to comb my hair into something orderly. Very sticky. I wished I were an actress in a horror or action movie. They could bathe in gore and come out still looking great.

    There should be an empty beach somewhere nearby since this was an island, so I could wash up there. As for my clothes, there was nothing I could do about them. I could rob tourists or something. Desperate times.

    Unless Jubjub would buy clothes for me? In a way, I was lucky she showed herself.

    ¡°Was it true what you said earlier?¡± Jubjub refused to bite the side topics I offered as she looked me in the eye, her tone was all business-like.

    I walked toward her. She narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. ¡°I just want to show you something,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m not looking for a fight.¡±

    ¡°If we did fight, I¡¯m not going to put up much of one even if I wanted to,¡± she replied. ¡°I know how strong you are.¡±

    I smirked. ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°You know that we know about you. Dario suspected that you did.¡±

    ¡°Since when?¡± Discounting Imani, I hadn¡¯t done anything that¡¯d tip off Dario that I was onto him. I probably shouldn¡¯t ask about Imani. Low chance Jubjub would admit to anything.

    She shrugged. ¡°He doesn¡¯t tell me much.¡±

    They¡¯re not close, I thought. She¡¯s subordinate to Dario and doesn¡¯t seem to be trusted.

    I could use this. Was this tied to Jubjub¡¯s willingness to expose herself and talk to me? It¡¯d be good if her goal was to get promoted, however their promotions worked. But I should watch out if she intended to get information for Dario to trust her more.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°Dario was shocked when the 2Ms kidnapped you,¡± said Jubjub. ¡°No leads whatsoever that you were their potential target. They¡¯d nab homeless people, those no one would miss, for their experiments. Their organization may reach far with its claws, but they¡¯d prefer not to draw attention to themselves. To specifically go for you¡­ there had to be a special reason. If went someone like you went missing¡ªa well-to-do law student¡ªit¡¯d be all over the news.¡±

    Speaking of shock, Jubjub uttered more than a dozen words in one go.

    Was she always this much of a blabbermouth? Maybe she actually was with her Las Vegas group or when Dario wasn¡¯t around. Some exposition shit right here. I began to suspect this was to make me trust her more and lower my guard.

    As for what she said, I had the same thoughts and was no closer to any answer. Even Big Marcy didn¡¯t know why I was taken. The only thing certain was they did intend to get me.

    That, or there was a mix-up.

    I¡¯m going to be super pissed if the true explanation was something stupid, I thought as I stopped at the edge of the shade of the tree Jubjub was under. Another gesture I wasn¡¯t an enemy.

    Jubjub took a few steps back, nodding once. I took that as an invitation to share the shade. I enjoyed this stuff, the game of body language reading and discerning what was going through Jubjub¡¯s head. Keeping silent, I stared at her, encouraging her to continue.

    ¡°We investigated you and came up with nothing,¡± she said. ¡°Your parents are prominent in the field of science and technology, but so are the parents of many other people. The only thing noteworthy was that you witnessed a classmate jumping out of a window. If that was the only criterion, it¡¯d be far easier for the 2Ms to arrange a similar situation for someone else rather than kidnap you.¡±

    ¡°Well, they did kidnap me,¡± I said in an accusatory tone. ¡°They thought that was easy, despite you guys being around. I thought Dario and the others would protect me.¡±

    Jubjub looked away, an uneasy frown on her face. She agitatedly shifted as she said, ¡°I¡¯m¡ªwe¡¯re sorry it happened to you. We were supposed to protect people from Adumbrae, but we failed to stop it even though the 2Ms already attacked you and Deen the day before. We should¡¯ve known to guard you.¡±

    I stopped my brow from rising. Either Jubjub was a good actress or she didn¡¯t know it was Myra who almost killed me at the Sanders Mall. I was inclined toward the latter. Jubjub¡¯s delivery of her line was so smooth that, to my mind, she believed it was the truth. She didn¡¯t have time to practice this and didn¡¯t know I planned to talk to her. Also, she wasn¡¯t faking the embarrassment, and maybe some guilt, that their Dario failed to protect me.

    Jubjub added, ¡°If it¡¯s some consolation, you¡¯re very lucky that the La Esperanza group found out about it early and rescued you in time.¡±

    Her words made me conclude she wasn¡¯t aware that Dario also wanted to kidnap me to wipe my memories. Again, there was the chance she was disclaiming knowledge to not antagonize me. But she didn¡¯t give off scheming vibes, so I¡¯d go with my first guess. This neatly tied to the not-getting-trusted-much by Dario part.

    ¡°In time?¡± I icily said.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ In time. They did¡ªhuh?¡±

    I thrust my right arm to her and opened my palm.

    Jubjub jerked back. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± She peered at the crystal on my palm, her confused expression slowly changed as it dawned on her what it was. A mutation, an outward manifestation of my Adumbraeness.

    I didn¡¯t look at my right hand. I didn¡¯t want to.

    The last time I examined it was three days ago while taking a shower. The crystals had turned into discernable carvings rather than mere rough growths. My entire palm was fucking gold. My skin lost its fleshy feel, becoming hard and shiny. Metallic. There were even etchings on it. Staring at them for too long made me dizzy. The worst thing was I no longer had any sensation in my right palm.

    The pea-like crystal when this crap started was easy to ignore. Now, my hand didn¡¯t even feel like mine.

    I didn¡¯t know what triggered the rapid changes. Some veins of gold had started crawling up my fingers. Soon, I¡¯d need full gloves.

    Superpowers and being insanely hard to kill were amazing perks. My body changing wasn¡¯t. Like someone with a bad habit¡ªsmoking, eating unhealthily, whatever¡ªnot wanting to be reminded of the bad things happening to their body, I also didn¡¯t want to face the truth. I did say I was dumb sometimes. My recklessness might have been caused by these changes. Dumb and reckless. Not a good combo.

    ¡°What exactly did they rescue me from?¡± I asked, almost shoving my hand at Jubjub¡¯s face. ¡°The experiment was already done! I was already Red Hood by then, and I wrecked the docks. Your group was no help.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m so-sorry, I wasn¡¯t there,¡± said Jubjub. Her getting flustered was the most emotion I¡¯d seen from her. ¡°If I was, I¡¯d do anything to save you.¡±

    With that, I molted from an enemy to a victim. Jubjub also lost her confrontational initiative. She was on the backfoot because she ¡®owed¡¯ me, though she didn¡¯t have any fault.

    ¡°Forget it,¡± I said with a sigh, letting my hand that wasn¡¯t mine fall to my side. I slumped my shoulders and dramatically turned around. ¡°There¡¯s nothing you can do now.¡± This was to hide the wide grin on my face I wasn¡¯t confident I could push down, and also to show a vulnerable side by presenting my back.

    ¡°So¡­ it¡¯s true that the 2Ms experimented on you?¡± Jubjub said.

    ¡°You were eavesdropping earlier,¡± I said. ¡°I thought it was just Theo listening to me. I wanted him to know why I was killing him. Why would I lie to someone about to die?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for eavesdropping. Dario told me to¡ªI mean, I was tailing you because we weren¡¯t sure of your intentions.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t all Adumbrae your enemy?¡± I spun around. ¡°I¡¯m an Adumbrae. Ergo, I¡¯m your enemy.¡± A hundred points to me for using ¡®ergo¡¯ in a sentence. Sophisticated sounding.

    ¡°We weren¡¯t sure if you were an enemy because you¡¯ve fought the 2Ms and also destroyed the Tea Party of Las Vegas. With this new info I got from you, I¡¯m now sure you¡¯re not an enemy. You were just dragged into this mess. An innocent victim.¡±

    Innocent victim? Wow, I loved being called that. I faced away from her once again to smile.

    I heard Jubjub step closer to me. ¡°You mentioned a ¡®new procedure¡¯ earlier. This must be connected to the reason you were kidnapped. Can you tell me more about it?¡±

    ¡°Just heard one of the scientists mention it before passing out.¡± I grabbed my head and shuddered. ¡°I-I don¡¯t want to think about it!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t force yourself to! Sorry, I wasn¡¯t thinking when I asked you that. Of course, you¡¯d be traumatized. But this means you¡¯re not a true Adumbrae. You¡¯re also not a willing artificial Adumbrae. That makes me feel better.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± I shot her a questioning stare over my shoulder.

    Jubjub placed a hand over her chest. ¡°Because you saved my life. You¡¯re truly a good person. I haven¡¯t thanked you for it.¡±

    And thank you for mentioning it. I was wracking my brain on how to make her bring it up. If I did it myself, it¡¯d be obvious I was aiming to ask her a favor. ¡°No need. I didn¡¯t want to see you die though we don¡¯t know each other back then.¡±

    ¡°I owe you,¡± she said.

    Those are the magic words. But I didn¡¯t yet reel in the hook. Some fishing analogy. ¡°Oh, and also, I hate that guy who caught you. I killed him by the way.¡±

    ¡°Really? I was planning how to fight him the next time we met. That¡¯s twice I owe you.¡±

    ¡°Jubjub¡­¡± I faced her. ¡°You said if you were there when I was kidnapped, you¡¯d do anything to save me.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to use the word ¡®owe¡¯ because I had standards in manipulation. Not really. If I told her she owed me, our relationship would be transactional. I wanted to get closer to her. She already well knew she should repay me.

    ¡°Uh, yes?¡± She looked uncomfortable, sensing what was coming.

    ¡°I need your help.¡±

 6.30

    Jubjub blinked. ¡°M-my help?¡±

    ¡°I have no one to turn to,¡± I said, wielding puppy dog eyes.

    ¡°We can tell Dario about¡ªno.¡± She chewed her lip. ¡°No¡­ we can¡¯t do that.¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡± I simulated how the conversation would branch out and the replies I should give. Though my neurons whirred in overdrive for this enjoyable game, I noted that Jubjub didn¡¯t point me to Deen. Dario should suspect that Deen and I were in cahoots with each other. He didn¡¯t tell Jubjub about it?

    Perhaps not. I couldn¡¯t pinpoint what it was with Jubjub, but there was something¡­ odd¡­ with her.

    My read was that she was a decent person who thought straight. Simply simple, the vibes of a nice employee striving to do her best, even though her best didn¡¯t amount to much. I couldn¡¯t picture her massacring the innocent survivors from the Tea Party¡¯s attack on Greaves¡¯ Tech Fair to wipe out witnesses of her group.

    Or perhaps she could do it because she was very good at following orders and didn¡¯t have a complicated brain to agonize over morality and all that nonsense.

    ¡°Why not? Uh¡­¡± Jubjub checked the ground for an answer. ¡°Because there might be some misunderstanding.¡±

    ¡°You said I¡¯m a good person.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you are! But¡­ you¡¯re also an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°There, it comes out,¡± I said, sounding offended. ¡°Did you lie when you told me that you were checking if I was an enemy? You guys, whoever you are, already think I¡¯m the enemy.¡±

    ¡°They still don¡¯t know what happened to you,¡± Jubjub insisted. ¡°That it wasn¡¯t your fault. If I tell them, then they¡ª¡±

    ¡°Won¡¯t change their mind,¡± I cut in. ¡°That¡¯s why you don¡¯t want me to ask Dario for help. Have you at least told him that I saved you back in Vegas?¡±

    Jubjub shook her head, wearing an apologetic expression.

    I folded my arms across my chest. ¡°If he knew what I did, it could¡¯ve changed his mind, right? Or not. You didn¡¯t believe it¡¯d affect his view of me. You knew he was set on Adumbrae as the enemy.¡±

    ¡°That was because I didn¡¯t want him to think I was getting soft.¡± Jubjub handed me another chunk of her personality. Was this why she killed the Tech Fair attack survivors?

    ¡°Are you gonna tell Dario about¡ª¡± I gestured around us ¡°¡ªall of what happened here?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep our conversation a secret,¡± she replied. ¡°But I have to report what you said to that ape monster over there about what the 2Ms did to you.¡± She held up her hands. ¡°Please don¡¯t get angry! I¡¯m just doing my job. I can¡¯t betray the Professor and Dario.¡±

    Dario won¡¯t know if you won¡¯t tell him in the first place! I wanted to yell. Jubjub has a weird brain.

    However, I did want her to pass my made-up story to Dario. That¡¯d fuck up the Professor¡¯s mind, thinking the 2Ms has this revolutionary technology to make Adumbrae of my strength. Things were going so well Jubjub jumped parts of the script to the result I wanted.

    She also confirmed my theory that she was a good-employee type of person. I refrained from asking her why she couldn¡¯t betray Dario and the Professor; that¡¯d paint me an enemy instead of the ¡®innocent victim¡¯. What was important was that she took debts seriously, explaining her killing Theo¡ªeven though there was no need for her to ¡®help¡¯ me¡ªand talking to me despite the danger.

    One funny thing was that she didn¡¯t consider withholding from Dario that I saved her as a betrayal.

    ¡°If Dario only knew about your real story,¡± Jubjub said, nodding eagerly as if it¡¯d convince me, and probably convince herself too. ¡°If he changes his mind, then I¡¯ll tell him that we¡¯ve talked. If not, then¡­ But I promise to give it my all persuading him. That¡¯s all I can do for you.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not only that you can help me with, Jubilee. I frankly don¡¯t think Dario will listen to you anyway.¡± Indirectly, I was saying that her offer wasn¡¯t enough of a payment.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to turn you back into a human if you¡¯re going to ask me about that,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s not even possible to turn myself back. That¡¯s what they told me¡ªby ¡®they¡¯, I¡¯m referring to the Professor and Dario. Only those two talked to me, and it was mostly Dario who gave me instructions. I don¡¯t have information to share even if I wanted to.¡±

    ¡°Not that. I know you¡¯re just a lowly subordinate so you won¡¯t know the top-secret stuff.¡± By reminding Jubjub of her station vis-¨¤-vis their organization, I wanted to loosen the binds of her loyalty. ¡°I¡¯m asking for your help when we get to Red Island.¡±

    I was confident she¡¯d aid help in some way, as in genuinely help, not fake help to trick me into trusting her. If she had ulterior motives, she would¡¯ve volunteered not to tell Dario my fake story to show I could trust her. She could¡¯ve made shit up to appease me, but she didn¡¯t.

    Certainly, she¡¯d agree to feed Dario info from me about Red Island. She¡¯d also tell me about whatever Dario would tell her because I was a ¡°good person¡± and didn¡¯t have any evil motives. By knowing both sides, I could easily counteract Dario¡¯s plans and get him on board mine without him knowing he was dancing on my palm¡ªmy mutated golden palm.

    ¡°Why do you want to go there?¡± she blankly asked.

    I glared at her.

    ¡°Oh! For revenge. You want me to help with your revenge. But it¡¯s such a dangerous place. Dario¡¯s aim for this trip is only to get its location, not go there.¡±

    It was my turn to blankly ask, ¡°He¡¯s not going to attack Red Island?¡±

    ¡°Of course, not. That¡¯ll be suicide.¡±

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    ¡°Bu-but isn¡¯t that our purpose for this trip?¡±

    ¡°On paper, it is,¡± said Jubjub. ¡°According to Dario, he had to say we¡¯re attacking Red Island to bolster group unity and keep up our guard. If he told us the truth that this was a mere scouting mission, the others wouldn¡¯t take it as seriously as we should. He also said that the group would feel relieved and grateful to him if he¡¯d pretend to decide to cancel the mission¡ªthis last one might be the real reason. I¡¯m not really smart enough to figure out his brainy plans.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ a good explanation.¡± Did I plan for nothing? Was I dumb as shit?

    Mark¡¯s strongest and most loyal Adumbrae were stationed at Red Island, including some prick who could erase memories. There should also be tons of mutated creatures from their experiments. Jubjub was right¡ªit¡¯d be a suicide mission for the team to go there, even if only to spy and stuff like that.

    Recalling our Eve mission, Dario wanted to only scout the hideout of the 2Ms. We weren¡¯t attacking because it was too dangerous. Red Island was probably ten times, twenty times more dangerous than Eve¡¯s underground arena. I¡¯d even say fifty times worse if there were a bunch of Stella and Bob-level Adumbrae there. I think those were the names of the two very hard-to-kill now-dead shits who attacked my condo.

    Why in a melted ice cream¡¯s ass did I think Dario would march to assured death? He was the master of playing safe. I just realized not once had I seen him put his neck on the line. When the going gets tough, he is gone or was never there at all. He was like a manager who never works the lines but still takes credit.

    I thought Dario wanted me and the 2Ms to destroy each other, employing some devious backstabbery. I was going to turn the tables and destroy him and the 2Ms instead. All that was just in my head. I was overcomplicating stuff.

    ¡°Thanks to you, we discovered the location of the transport to Red Island,¡± said Jubjub, snapping me out of thoughts. ¡°The next step is attaching a tracker on the ships¡ªa challenging task. But we have time. According to Dario, the ships will depart tomorrow.¡±

    How did he know that? ¡°They¡¯ll leave at night so they won¡¯t be seen,¡± I said, wondering if Dario was got lucky guessing. ¡°We can¡¯t be certain which night. I mean, yeah, the rich people don¡¯t want their vacation cut short, especially before being turned into monsters. But how can Dario be so sure?¡±

    ¡°He had them¡ªthe Professor and other people helping him¡ªreview past movements of the Isla de Sangre, comparing it with other cruise ships offering the same itinerary. Most offer only three nights compared to our four. It appeared that the Isla de Sangre took a longer time returning to California on its last day.¡±

    Interesting. ¡°What if the ship¡¯s just taking it slow on the return trip? Fuel¡¯s expensive.¡±

    ¡°Dario said they checked port records and social media posts of passengers about the time the ship leaves Mexico and reaches California in past trips. Then they cross-checked that with the last images of the ship caught by satellite. Something about its positions suggests it¡¯s going out of its way for¡­ something. Sorry for the poor explanation; I couldn¡¯t fully grasp what Dario had told me. At the least, he explained it to me. Usually, he¡¯d just tell me what to do, and I¡¯d follow.¡±

    ¡°Handy having so many resources, satellites and all that. Can¡¯t they just track the smaller ships leaving Isla de Sangre?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯ll point some satellites in this area tomorrow. But since the departure will be night time and there is going to be thick cloud cover tomorrow¡ªthe 2Ms likely took that into account¡ªthe satellites aren¡¯t helpful.¡±

    I hadn¡¯t even thought about clouds. My image of satellites having near-godlike tracking of people was colored by unrealistic spy movies. ¡°How about scanning this whole area for Red Island?¡± I suggested. ¡°Like, there can¡¯t be that many islands around here suitable for a base or something.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re looking at the islands, but nothing so far.¡± Jubjub shrugged. ¡°Dario suspects that the 2Ms have an Adumbrae that could cloak the area. His other theory was that the 2Ms¡¯ base is disguised from the sky.¡±

    Dario this, Dario that. Did Jubjub not have any independent thoughts?

    ¡°My only chance of reaching Red Islands is on those small ships,¡± I mumbled while stroking my chin, pretending I was talking to myself. ¡°I have to catch them tomorrow night.¡±

    ¡°Erind, no!¡± Jubjub reached for my shoulders but hesitated to touch me. She ended up awkwardly patting me. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t go there. You¡¯ll die. I know you¡¯re very strong, but this is different from facing the Tea Party. An Adumbrae-making facility is on Red Island.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for the concern, but I have to destroy them. They have to pay for what they did to me.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to be the one to make them pay. Finding the ships going there¡ªgood job to you and Reo¡ªis enough. The Professor will deal with it. This isn¡¯t our fight anymore.¡±

    ¡°It is my fight! They turned me into a monster.¡±

    ¡°Erm, yes, sorry. It is your fight. But you have to pick your fights, is what I¡¯m saying. Leading the Professor to the Red Island is where your revenge ends. I¡¯m guessing you know that it¡¯s not only the Professor supporting us. It¡¯s a whole organization. Let them destroy the 2Ms.¡±

    ¡°Fine¡­ I won¡¯t go to the Red Island,¡± I dejectedly said.

    ¡°Promise me. I don¡¯t want you to die before I repay you.¡±

    Strange choice of words there. Was it intentional? ¡°I promise.¡±

    I was going to the Red Island, even if I had to swim the entire Pacific Ocean looking for it. This massive bump in my plans egged me on. I was pissed at the wrong assumptions I made. Just my petty side. Also, I was already here. Might as well have fun. And I wanted to know how strong I had become. Was my recklessness surfacing again?

    I¡¯d consume all of Red Island first before the Professor sent forces there. I¡¯d grow stronger and stronger. That¡¯d be fucking awesome. Eliminating the 2Ms was for my safety and peace. Getting stronger was also for my safety and peace; the Professor would think twice about bothering me. My hand would become more golden, but who cared?

    ¡°I have a question if you don¡¯t mind,¡± said Jubjub.

    ¡°Go ahead,¡± I absentmindedly replied, puzzling over whether I should bring Deen to the Red Island.

    ¡°How did you know that Dario¡¯s cover story isn¡¯t true? You¡¯re not as surprised as I expected.¡±

    Obviously, I couldn¡¯t reveal that it was Myra who told me. ¡°The men of the 2Ms. Well, not exactly men. There was a woman with them. She was probably their leader. She told me a lot of stuff.¡±

    Jubjub nodded, her eyes bright. She seemed pleased with herself. ¡°The attack on your condo, I get it. That was why the 2Ms sent their forces there¡ªthey knew how strong you were and wanted muscle to convince you to join their side.¡±

    ¡°Something like that.¡± I didn¡¯t want her questioning me more, so I said, ¡°What becomes of me? Dario and the Professor think I¡¯m the enemy.¡±

    Jubjub looked like she was going to say something, but didn¡¯t continue.

    ¡°I can¡¯t go to the government and, uh, like just report I¡¯m an Adumbrae,¡± I went on. ¡°Even if your secret organization doesn¡¯t stop me with all its hidden connections, I¡¯ll still get experimented on by the military just the same. The Corebrings are out. I don¡¯t know how to contact any true Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t try to side with them!¡±

    ¡°They probably won¡¯t accept a fake like me. Anyway, that¡¯s that. I don¡¯t know what to do.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m not sure how to help you,¡± said Jubjub. ¡°But I¡¯ll find a way to repay you for saving my life. I can¡¯t help you now, but I will someday.¡± She looked around. ¡°We should get going. I need to talk to Dario about this. He¡¯ll think something¡¯s wrong if I miss a report.¡±

    ¡°Oh, there¡¯s something you can help me with,¡± I said. ¡°Can you buy me clothes? I¡¯ll bury the headless monkey here while waiting for you to return.¡±

 6.31

    Offscreen wardrobe changes in movies were very convenient. They didn¡¯t need to show how the actor cleaned himself in the aftermath of a huge action scene¡ªthe blood, wounds, soot, and dust were simply gone. And, cut. The next thing, the actor was in new clothes, looking fresh as a banana that was fresh or something. Didn¡¯t know what to use for comparison. Wish I had that as my superpower instead of becoming a giant werewolf. On second thought, becoming a giant werewolf might be cooler, by a very small margin, than magical offscreen wardrobe changes.

    I jogged to my meeting place with Deen, forty minutes late.

    There was no ¡®cut¡¯ and jumping to the next scene in real life. After Jubjub left with my rented golf cart to buy me new clothes, I stuffed Theo inside the holes he made, collapsing them with strong stomps to cover up any inhuman evidence. I didn¡¯t really want to bother with burying him, but it¡¯d cause quite a hassle if someone found Adumbrae remains.

    The BID would be called, Spencer Hugh would recognize his dead son and kick up a fuss, Mark might cancel the trip to Red Island, and so on.

    After resting Theo the Trash Monkey in pieces, I scaled the hill. I did a small cheer when I reached the top¡ªthere was a beach on the other side, down the slope.

    I washed myself the best I could but didn¡¯t take off my clothes just yet. Jubjub might abandon me. I waited in the shade of a giant cactus, smelling and feeling awful, wondering if I should¡¯ve asked Jubjub to buy soap too. And I also wondered if I should go through with my plans to wreck Red Island.

    Plenty of justification was available, but I settled on that it was going to be lots of fun playing over there.

    I was going to have so much fun I¡¯d reach a level of happiness I¡¯d never experienced before. That was reason enough. Actually, that was more than enough reason. It was like chasing a new high. No. I was exactly chasing a new high. I wondered what becoming that happy felt like. Recklessness at play?

    Jubjub did come back, bringing with her a pretty outfit that was my exact size, a blue sundress, and woven tropicalish-looking slippers. I somehow expected she¡¯d give me something black. Disappointing that she didn¡¯t want us to be goth sisters.

    Anyway, here I was, heading to the Catalina Casino, wishing I had the superpower to fast-forward time and skip the lecture Deen would dish out. There were so many better superpowers than what I¡¯d got.

    The Catalina Casino was hard to miss. It was the biggest structure on the island, a cylindrical building at the tip of the crescent that was the bay, opposite the port we landed on. This was the island¡¯s landmark, the first thing I spotted when the cruise ship approached the shore. And it wasn¡¯t an actual casino like those in Las Vegas. It was supposedly a theater and a museum or art gallery or something fancy. I read in a tourist guide pamphlet thingy that the term casino in Spanish meant a gathering place instead of a building for gambling. Super proud of myself for becoming more cultured than a yoghurt.

    ¡°Please let Deen be late, please let Deen be late,¡± I muttered, flying over the steps of the stairs. Some elderly tourists gasped as I zoomed past. Deen was nowhere in sight. Hopefully, she got distracted shopping with Yara.

    I didn¡¯t enter the building¡ªthere was an entrance fee. Deen wanted to tour the place, but I didn¡¯t have any artistic fiber in my body so I shot that down. I rounded the building, following its circumference to its side facing the ocean. If I got here before Deen, that was one less thing she¡¯d be angry¡ªfucking hell.

    There she was, turning around to face me as if she had eyes on the back of her head.

    Hands on her hips, the beautiful Pacific Ocean as her background, Deen smoldered in a good way and a not-good way. ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting here for over an hour!¡± she yelled, drawing a few stares. ¡°Why weren¡¯t you answering your phone?¡±

    ¡°Lower your voice, Mom,¡± I said, pulling her away from earshot of the crowd. ¡°I¡¯m only late by about forty¡­ forty-five minutes maybe? Anything beyond that isn¡¯t my fault. Your statement that you¡¯ve waited for over an hour is misleading.¡±

    Deen glowered at me so fiercely that I expected laser beams to come out of her eyes.

    ¡°Oh, and the phone thing?¡± I sheepishly grinned. ¡°I left it on the ship.¡±

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you bring your¡ª? Wait a minute.¡± She examined me head to foot. ¡°Those aren¡¯t the clothes you wore earlier.¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°I passed by some stuff that I thought looked cute. Just a little shopping.¡±

    Deen snorted in disbelief. ¡°Shopping at a physical store? On your own? I know you prefer to shop online, Ms. Introvert.¡±

    ¡°There are always exceptions in life. This is one of them.¡±

    Deen tapped the ground with one foot as she regarded me. ¡°Where are your old clothes? Don¡¯t tell me you donated them to charity?¡± She nodded down at my feet. ¡°New slippers, too, huh? And what¡¯s that you¡¯re hiding behind your back? What happened to the glove I gifted you?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re starting to piece together what happened, so I¡¯m going to come clean before you complete the picture.¡± I showed her my right arm wrapped in a shawl. Jubjub couldn¡¯t find gloves, so she bought me this to cover the mutations of my hand. She could¡¯ve found something better but she probably didn¡¯t want me to wait for too long.

    Deen¡¯s face became all frowns. ¡°You fought Jubjub despite assuring me you were just going to talk.¡± She began puffing herself up to scold me. ¡°What did you do with the body? How are we going to explain¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Relax, Deen. Jubjub¡¯s fine. I didn¡¯t fight her.¡±

    ¡°But your clothes? Did you get robbed?¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s going to rob me? I did fight and my clothes got messed up; I¡¯m not going to hide that from you. It was Theo whom I fought.¡±

    ¡°Theo, who?¡± A couple seconds passed and Deen¡¯s face lit up. I could almost hear the ding. ¡°Oh my gosh! Theodore Hugh? The asshole we met at the restaurant?¡±

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    I chuckled. ¡°You said ¡®asshole.¡¯ I find it so weird when you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, shut up,¡± she snapped. ¡°Don¡¯t change the topic. That asshole followed and attacked you?¡± She stepped closer and sniffed. ¡°Blood. Lots of blood that you had to get rid of your clothes. Did you kill him?¡±

    ¡°You can smell blood on me? That¡¯s an awesome talent,¡± I sarcastically said. ¡°I guess I should¡¯ve bought soap. I still feel sticky.¡±

    ¡°Answer me,¡± she said with tensed jaws.

    ¡°I had no choice, okay? Going to be a huge problem if I let him go. I hid his body somewhere out there, so don¡¯t worry about that. I chucked pieces of his body into¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not know what you did to him,¡± Deen said, groaning. ¡°I can¡¯t judge you because I wanted to kill him myself.¡± My brows shot up in the sky at her statement. She continued, ¡°But it wouldn¡¯t have come to this if you didn¡¯t keep aggravating him at the restaurant. I know what you were doing. Don¡¯t make excuses.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to,¡± I mumbled.

    ¡°What if his father looks for him?¡± she asked. I replied with a tilt of my head. She sighed. ¡°I guess you¡¯re right. He¡¯s not going to care. Just promise me that next time you¡¯re not going to be as¡­ uh¡­ violent.¡± She grabbed my shawl-wrapped right arm.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry about your gift,¡± I said. ¡°It got torn and bloodied because¡ª¡±

    ¡°I said I don¡¯t want to know what you did. Don¡¯t worry, I bought plenty of spare gloves. I packed them in my suitcase.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not angry?¡± That was a surprise. I keep incorrectly predicting things. Was I losing my touch? ¡°Why do you have lots of gloves?¡±

    ¡°My answer to both your questions is because I expected this to happen. I¡¯ll give you another glove later. Just one. If I gave all of them to you, I just know they¡¯re going to be ruined within a month tops.¡± She began unwrapping the shawl.

    I recoiled and took back my arm.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± she said, a bit taken aback. ¡°I just wanted to see¡ªno, I understand why you don¡¯t want to show me.¡±

    Unveiling the advanced state of my mutation would garner tons of sympathy. I could be a drama queen and bitch all I wanted, and Deen couldn¡¯t call me out on it. But I didn¡¯t want to be pitied. I didn¡¯t want her worries. And more importantly, I didn¡¯t want to know what was going on with my hand. Maybe subconsciously, I was recently avoiding my Blanchette form because every time I ate a lot of Adumbrae, changes followed.

    When I¡¯d attack Red Island, no way I could avoid transforming into Blanchette. Just one of those times I¡¯d do something I knew was super bad for me but also super fun. I didn¡¯t go partying hard and doing drugs and dumb things like that, so I should get a pass on this one. Not sure what was worse, crazy drugged-up parties or slowly becoming a monster devoid of personality.

    There was an awkward air between me and Deen. I didn¡¯t break it, still clutching my covered right hand. Deen realized the assignment.

    ¡°Ho-how did you get new clothes?¡± she stammered. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you robbed¡ª¡±

    ¡°What is it with you and robbery?¡± I said, smiling to show I moved on from the hand issue. ¡°Jubjub bought these for me. Turned out I was right that she¡¯d tail me. Just didn¡¯t expect there¡¯d be two people following me.¡±

    Deen¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°How can you be so sure Jubilee isn¡¯t listening to us right now?¡± We were in the shade of the building, the sun on its other side.

    ¡°Jubjub rode one of the ferries returning to the cruise ship,¡± I said. ¡°Something about needing to talk to Dario. I sent her off before coming here. Unless Jubjub¡¯s shadow form could swim the ocean, I very much doubt she¡¯s around. Better we talk here than on the ship where we¡¯re not sure if she¡¯s around.¡±

    ¡°You better do some talking then. What was that about Jubilee and Dario? Is she going to betray us?¡±

    ¡°Chill on the questions. Let me tell my story first, then you ask questions. At the end of my fight with Theo, or rather Jubjub ended that fight¡­¡± I narrated more or less what happened with no embellishments. ¡°You see, there¡¯s nothing to worry about betraying and stuff like that,¡± I finished the story. ¡°I fed her lies. All she did was confirm that we know that they know that we know¡ª¡±

    ¡°Jubilee thinks you¡¯re an artificial Adumbrae?¡±

    I nodded. ¡°So will Dario and the Professor. I don¡¯t know what benefit that¡¯ll ultimately give us, but I want to mess up their heads as much as possible. We¡¯re going to feed them a lot of nonsense through Jubjub.¡±

    ¡°And you trust her?¡±

    ¡°Trust her? No, duh. But I trust her to trust my words. If I¡¯m wrong about her, it¡¯s no huge loss to us¡ªwe¡¯re already enemies. Bottom line, we have the initiative here. I told you to trust me. See? It all worked out.¡±

    Deen stuck out her tongue. ¡°It¡¯s too early for you to I-told-you-so me,¡± she said, though it was obvious she was impressed with what I¡¯d accomplished. ¡°I¡¯m conceding this has improved our situation. It¡¯s fine that we have Myra, but it¡¯s a safeguard having Jubilee sort of partially on our side. Another good news is that we¡¯re really not going to Red Island. I was so worried that¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m still going there.¡± I wore a resolute expression. My justifications were ready to appeal to Deen¡¯s heroics side. The bad guys were right there! We were going maximum justice up their asses. ¡°Don¡¯t try to stop me. I know it¡¯s dangerous, but I¡¯m set on¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to try to change your mind,¡± Deen interrupted.

    ¡°You¡¯re not?¡±

    Deen smiled as she patted my head. I wasn¡¯t sure what she was going for, but I found the gesture annoyingly patronizing. ¡°Just like I knew you were going to ruin the glove,¡± she said, ¡°I knew you were dead set on going to Red Island even if alone. I¡¯m your best friend; I¡¯m not going to let you go alone.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s dangerous there?¡± For the umpteenth time today, my expectations were incorrect. The world might be pranking me.

    ¡°We have to check if the 2Ms have a cure for you. Anything that can help, even if temporary. We know from Vanessa that they have treatments and pills and all sorts of stuff to prevent the 2Ms¡¯ clients from losing their minds. Even a small lead will be helpful.¡±

    ¡°The cure¡­ Right.¡± I forgot about that. Maybe because I was no longer interested in it.

    ¡°How to get to Red Island though? Stowing away on the small boats is the answer, but not an easy one. Apparently, Dario and Jubilee have no clue how to do that. We don¡¯t have invisibility powers like Reo¡¯s scout fairy. I have my Guardian Angel, but he can¡¯t do anything about an impossible situation. There are scanners and security cameras all along the way. Any ideas?¡±

    I sensed Deen was trying to needle something out of me. ¡°I¡¯m thinking we wait for the transport boats to come out the bowels of the cruise ship and then hitch a ride. After that, we can¡­ swim after them? I mean not swim all the way to Red Island. I bet we can catch up and then just stick to the side like a barnacle. We should buy those skintight suits that divers use.¡±

    Deen pursed her lips while making severe eye contact.

    ¡°You think my idea¡¯s stupid?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s quite good. We¡¯d throw ourselves into the ocean, but it¡¯s a much safer alternative to sneaking down the cruise ship¡¯s lower floors.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re agreeing with me on that one.¡±

    Then Deen sprung her trap question. ¡°But how will we know when the transport boats will leave?¡±

    For a moment, I thought of telling her about Dario¡¯s reasoning for why he thought the boats would depart tomorrow night. However, I decided to go with my original plan. ¡°I¡¯m going to come clean about something else.¡± I took a deep breath and went on, ¡°Big Marcy told me.¡±

 6.32

    Deen didn¡¯t look surprised. ¡°This is because of Vanessa, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    I nodded. Sure, let¡¯s go with that.

    I didn¡¯t meet Big Marcy through Vanessa. Rather, it was because of Domino¡¯s nonsense with Jeffrey. Though Vanessa did plan to introduce me to Big Marcy and join their side, so Deen¡¯s guess could¡¯ve been true in another timeline. When Deen and I parted with Vanessa after destroying the Tea Party base and rescuing Mom, Deen thought Vanessa helped us as her own thing, without the 2Ms knowing about it. Not a stretch to then assume Vanessa eventually talked to her boss who wanted to recruit me.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to work backward here,¡± Deen said. ¡°So Big Marcy told you about the transport boats hidden inside the cruise ship, that¡¯s why you easily found them. That¡¯s suspicious.¡±

    I opened my mouth to explain, but Deen raised a finger to shush me.

    She continued, ¡°Sharing information meant he¡¯s trying to get on your good side. This also meant that, for some reason, Vanessa told Big Marcy instead of Mark about you. Analyzing this will give us the answer as to why Big Marcy is helping you reach Red Island, which is detrimental to their business¡ªthere¡¯s a conflict between Big Marcy and Mark, and Vanessa is on Big Marcy¡¯s side. Big Marcy wants Red Island destroyed because that¡¯s his hated brother¡¯s domain, am I right?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ right.¡± Amazing how fast she deduced the situation. She got close to the truth in seconds. Her crazy psycho antics made me forget she had higher grades than me in law school; she was definitely not the dumb blonde in movies. ¡°Big Marcy told me he knew only that those fake fishing boats would leave for Red Island on the last night of the cruise, which is tomorrow. Mark didn¡¯t tell him the exact time. Doesn¡¯t trust him for reasons. Completely justified, it turns out.¡±

    ¡°Big Marcy could be lying.¡± Deen tapped my nose. ¡°I¡¯ll play the devil¡¯s advocate. The tale of sibling rivalry is fake. It¡¯s a ploy to increase his trustworthiness in your eyes by making Big Marcy appear authentic. His true goal is diverting you away from Red Island.¡±

    ¡°He could just not tell me anything if that¡¯s the case,¡± I said. ¡°Or immediately tell me the wrong direction instead of concocting a fake backstory. I wouldn¡¯t know any better.¡±

    ¡°What if this is an elaborate ruse to kill you on Red Island?¡±

    ¡°The Red Island is extremely dangerous without Big Marcy doing anything,¡± I said. ¡°He could make Red Island more dangerous, I suppose, knowing that I¡¯m coming. Still, it¡¯s a life-or-death just the same. You seem to be enjoying this brainstorming thing.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m taking it seriously that you chose to reveal this to me,¡± she said with overboard sincerity it made me feel awkward. ¡°I¡¯m not simply guessing for fun¡¯s sake.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­ um, thanks. Since we¡¯re guessing possible ill motives of Big Marcy, assuming he hates his brother, there¡¯s a very large chance he¡¯d try to get rid of me after I, uh, dispose of Mark.¡± That¡¯s what I¡¯d do in his shoes, I wanted to add, but that wasn¡¯t who I was in Deen¡¯s eyes. I didn¡¯t even use the word ¡®kill¡¯. Premeditated killing was different from killing an asshole like Theo who attacked me. ¡°I don¡¯t need to worry about that happening because you¡¯re with me.¡±

    Deen suddenly hugged me. I didn¡¯t have time to react. She tightened her arms hard enough to grind a normal human skeleton to pieces. Then she lifted me off the floor while cheerily humming.

    ¡°Hey, stop that,¡± I furiously whispered. ¡°Don¡¯t treat me like a kid, and no using superstrength in public. You made that rule.¡±

    She set me down, though her arms were still wrapped around me. ¡°Thank you very much for being truthful and for trusting me,¡± she said teary-eyed, her voice cracking. ¡°I know you want to carry the burden by yourself and spare me your sufferings. Know that you don¡¯t have to do this alone. That¡¯s what friends are for.¡±

    ¡°For suffering together?¡± I struggled to control the urge to push her away and throw her off the balcony and into the sea. Or the ocean, since this was the Pacific Ocean. What was the difference between a sea and an ocean?

    Deen laughed. ¡°Suffering is a bit more bearable with friends. We¡¯ll find you a cure, I promise.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s do some shopping for our nighttime water infiltration,¡± I said, keen on avoiding any cure talk.

    ¡°We need to go somewhere before that.¡±

    ¡°Where?¡± I asked, frowning. ¡°I¡¯m sensing I don¡¯t want to go there.¡±

    ¡°To a salon!¡±

    <hr>

    I threw myself in bed, bouncing an inch above the high-quality mattress, before settling comfortably, my arms and legs splayed wide. I was exhausted after the end-of-the-day group meeting with the hero-wannabes. My hair tortured into braids wasn¡¯t helping. The clock told me it was twelve minutes past ten in the evening; this hair curse had been inflicted on me for a little over seven hours already. I didn¡¯t have the energy to untie it. I wasn¡¯t tired as in tired; my superhuman body regenerated fatigue away in seconds. Just so many things happened today that my give-a-fuck batteries were drained.

    After the salon¡ªI didn¡¯t know they offered braiding¡ªDeen and I went shopping. She got me two pairs of sandals, acting like a mother. She would¡¯ve bought more, but I reminded her we¡¯d be abandoning our clothes on the cruise ship when we¡¯d leave for Red Island. Not like we could sneak around with our luggage in tow.

    Would Big Marcy send my left-behind stuff home? If he did, I¡¯d give him a quick death when I¡¯d get to killing him someday.

    Our shopping continued to those suits divers wore. Plenty of those on Catalina. We¡¯d have regular clothes beneath the diver skinsuits. Once we reached Red Island, we¡¯d unzip them, revealing our outfits inside and easily blending in. It¡¯d be like that one spy thriller movie where the main character infiltrated a high-class beach party through the water, and he had a tuxedo inside his skinsuit. Smooth unzipping and reveal.

    We also bought waterproof bags to store survival stuff like flashlights, ropes, energy bars, and a few bottles of water. Deen¡¯s idea. Me, I was fine attacking Red Island in shirt and shorts, but sure, whatever.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Returning to the cruise ship, everyone gathered for more stupidity.

    Not surprisingly, Dario didn¡¯t show any sign he had new information about me. Jubjub was wearing her blank expression, as usual, not giving away that she was sympathetic to my cause. She wasn¡¯t also giving away if she had betrayed me. And I still had no clue what was up between her and Imani. Could I wriggle that in as my next project before the Red Island trip?

    Dario explained why he thought the fake fish ships would leave tomorrow night. Johann told us that he accessed publicly available satellite imagery to search for suspicious islands in this area.

    ¡°Free images range from months to years old,¡± Johann explained during the meeting. ¡°Oftentimes on the years-old end. There are sites where you can order recent images. I used the free sites to check which islands were interesting and then ordered specific pictures of them. And I found¡ª¡±

    ¡°Nothing,¡± Myra said. ¡°We found nothing. I helped him because this cruise is just not my thing. Bored out of my fucking mind here.¡±

    ¡°Er, yes. Myra helped me.¡±

    Possible that Dario put Johann on this assignment, despite knowing the answer, so he could organically communicate this information to us. The group shared ideas about where Red Island could be and how it was disguised. The illusion theory was brought up first. Deen suggested teleportation, probably remembering our Vegas shenanigans with those bullshit doors. I found it funny she was seriously contributing to the discussion.

    ¡°You guys talking about powers,¡± said Myra, ¡°but you forgot the strongest power of all¡ªthe power of lots of freaking money. Red Island could be an underwater facility or something.¡±

    I wished Myra was right. Big bad guys needed underwater lairs. Think of the action scene in such a setting. Destroying a place like that would be an explosively fantastic ending to a movie.

    Reo thought we were complicating it. To him, the simplest explanation was that Red Island was very far away from here, probably somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He was worried the trip would take days. We couldn¡¯t hide in a small space for so long.

    Dario scattered hints that we might not push through with our Red Island trip if it became too difficult. To learn more, he was sending Deen and Jubjub for the next infiltration mission. I was surprised at the pairing. At that point, I prayed to the Mother Core that the cracks in Deen¡¯s brain wouldn¡¯t widen and her wild logic would lead to a dead Jubjub.

    Deen was tasked to carry Jubjub in her shadow form as near to the transport boats as possible, likely up to the scanners. Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel would tell her which were for humans and which allowed Adumbrae to pass.

    Jubjub would continue and hide cameras, microphones, and trackers to collect data.

    ¡°I pressed a lot of zeros,¡± said Reo, when Dario asked him to recall how we got to the secret floor. ¡°Erind pressed some buttons too, so I¡¯m not sure what triggered the elevator to go there.¡±

    Dario turned to me. ¡°What buttons did you press, Erind?¡±

    ¡°I-I really can¡¯t remember,¡± I told him with a distraught face. The bastard was messing with me, so I repaid him with obvious fakery. ¡°Super-duper sorry. I was so surprised that it happened. Reo was being annoying because he wanted to go the pool and forget¡ª¡±

    Reo cleared his throat. ¡°It was just a joke that we should forget about our mission.¡±

    ¡°Deen¡¯s power would tell her which floor to go to,¡± I said.

    Dario nodded. ¡°There¡¯s a future where Deen would press the correct combination, and her Guardian Angel would simply lead her to that outcome. That settles it. As for the rest of us, we also have work to do.¡±

    Deen got a lot of names from Yara¡ªpassengers who were the 2Ms¡¯ clients and very likely to go to the Red Island. We were grouped and given assignments on who to look for and tail to maybe get some more intel.

    I preferred to shower for hours but didn¡¯t have a good excuse to leave. I got teamed up with Reo and Everett.

    Wasn¡¯t so bad. They mostly ignored me and chatted between themselves, with Reo non-stop bitching about staying behind because he didn¡¯t want to die. I thought he¡¯d talk to me more. I could be imagining things but it was like he was avoiding me. We did get closer during our mission, so I didn¡¯t understand the change. Did I do something wrong? Or it was not cool to talk to me when someone else was around? Everett did try to include me in their conversations.

    Deen and Jubjub¡¯s mission succeeded. We all had a late dinner and some drinks to celebrate, plus another meeting to prepare for tomorrow. Dario dropped a few more lines that he¡¯d study what the cameras and trackers would capture to decide whether the Red Island journey was a go or not¡ªReo was going to get his wish tomorrow.

    I was no closer to figuring out Dario¡¯s game. Big Marcy theorized that whatever was going on was so much bigger than us. Different criminal organizations pitted against different hero wannabe groups. Who was pulling the strings? To what end? Was Dario aware of the bigger picture or was he just a pawn?

    So many questions to think about while in the quiet of my room, my sanctuary of solitude.

    I stared at the ceiling.

    ¡°It¡¯s game time tomorrow,¡± I said, feeling my heart race with excitement. Impossible to sleep in this state. Tired but raring to go. This sucked.

    Facing left, I stared out the window. Darkness.

    So much happened today, and it was just one day. Many main character moments for me¡ªthe restaurant scene, fighting Theo, confronting Jubjub. Fun, fun, fun.

    The faces I wore were usually timid because standing out was disadvantageous when manipulating others. However, being the center of attention brought about a different kind of game.

    I reached for the ceiling with my right hand.

    Deen had given me a new fingerless glove. Yellow and black stripes, like a bee.

    I opened my palm to the ceiling, stretching my fingers wide. Nothing particular in mind. Just thought it was a cool move. What wasn¡¯t cool was the lack of sensation in my palm, like it had fallen asleep. Opening and closing my hand made some weird sounds, like grating metal. Sounds flesh shouldn¡¯t make.

    ¡°This is¡­ a problem,¡± I whispered the obvious.

    I could keep the glove while sleeping. When I wore it earlier, I had my palm down. I didn¡¯t want to see it. But I was also curious. It was like wanting to peel off a not-so-completely healed scab, knowing it was still nasty beneath. Even more curious about how my hand would look like after I¡¯d eaten a bunch of monsters at Red Island.

    Once it became a full gauntlet, would that be my end? Would SpookyErind take over my body?

    Would I find a cure before then? Probably not. Even if I could find the cure, I wasn¡¯t sure if I¡¯d take it.

    What if I just dropped this and went someplace far away and lived on a small farm or something? No eating Adumbrae, no using powers, just be peaceful and boring. And not fun. I want to have fun. But I also didn¡¯t want this fucking piece of metal in my hand!

    ¡°It¡¯s not like I can cut off my¡ª!¡± I gasped.

    After I became an Adumbrae, a small crystal grew on my right palm. I tried to dig it out with a knife. Painful as hell, though I wasn¡¯t used to pain back then. I didn¡¯t succeed because the growth was attached to my bone. I could¡¯ve continued. I could¡¯ve broken my bone to get the stupid crystal out. My hand would¡¯ve regenerated.

    And then what? Would the crystal return too? Maybe I could¡¯ve gotten rid of it way back then if I wasn¡¯t a wuss. Now, this golden crap had spread. I couldn¡¯t dig it out.

    But maybe if I cut off my entire arm¡­

 6.33

    I quickly sat up.

    Cutting my arm off¡­ I¡¯d never considered this option before. Time to seriously consider it now.

    Was there a knife in this room? Anything with a sharp edge? Likely nothing.

    Room service was twenty-four-seven. I could order something that came with a knife, like steak or ribs. Going to be expensive, but might as well spend my money because I just know I¡¯d lose my wallet on Red Island somehow. Also to celebrate being free of this annoying hand. Though I wasn¡¯t sure if a steak knife was sharp enough to¡ªYou¡¯re delaying it!

    In the forty minutes or so for the steak and the knife to arrive, I might back out of my plan. That stupid knife would probably break anyway. More reasons for delay.

    I balled my right hand into a fist. Difficult to close all the way. This was going to end now¡ªI was going to rip my hand off. I should have enough superstrength to overcome my super durability.

    But what if my hand regenerated and the gold and crystals were still there?

    Stop delaying, Erind!

    The answer was simple: I¡¯d remove my hand again, then figure out how to stop the regeneration. In a snap, I made peace with losing my hand. The trade-off was very convenient¡ªstopping myself from becoming a complete monster. And it wasn¡¯t like I¡¯d permanently lose it. I could attach an aug-arm. Shouldn¡¯t be so bad. Mom removed her eyes to replace them with bionic ones, so it should be no biggie.

    To stop the regeneration, maybe I could burn the stump like Hercules did with the necks of the hydra to prevent the heads from regrowing. Nah, I¡¯d just regenerate the burn in that case. What about wrapping the stump with metal, maybe custom a metal cage for it? Going to be insane trying to stop it from growing. I could imagine the feeling, like holding a poop in¡ªI was going insane with the similes.

    Or I could trick myself into accepting that having a severed hand was ¡®normal¡¯ to stop it from reforming, like how our cut nails didn¡¯t regenerate? We weren¡¯t regenerating, more like returning to our base state.

    Just do it already! I slapped my face with my right hand.

    Metal slammed hard against my teeth through my cheek. I dropped to the left side of the bed. Blood filled my mouth. I gargled pieces of my tooth. My cheek burned. Just as fast as it became inflamed, it healed and cooled down.

    ¡°I have to do this now,¡± I muttered as my broken teeth repaired themselves and sidled back into place.

    Sitting up again, I removed my glove.

    I stared at the back of my hand, not daring to check the other side. This was like knowing that you¡¯ve fucked up so much on a test you¡¯d rather not see the result and just throw the paper straight away. I grimaced when I spotted gold veins threading the skin of the back of my hand. It felt like glue that dried, pulling my skin taut.

    My heart skipped a beat, not in a romantic way. Were those there the last time I checked? Was it spreading even when I wasn¡¯t consuming other Adumbrae?

    No longer.

    I gripped my right wrist.

    Hang on. Should I do this in the bathroom? The blood was going to¡ªmore delaying shit!

    Fuck the blankets if they get bloodied. This was going to end now!

    ¡°One,¡± I whispered. ¡°Two, three, and¡­¡± I held my breath, tensed my abs, and gritted my teeth.

    Pull!

    My soon-to-be-gone hand twisted to face me and grabbed my throat. Sharp pain in my right elbow from the forceful movement; something got dislocated. What the fuck was this? I was choking myself! I fell backward as I tried to pull my right hand away with my left.

    Couldn¡¯t do it. Too fucking strong.

    I tensed my neck muscles and inhaled deep before my throat got crushed and the airway blocked. Knew what was coming next. My traitorous hand wasn¡¯t done, just as I predicted. Fingers broke the skin of my throat and dug into my flesh. Hurts like a bitch. Throat closing, running out of air. I¡¯d done the finger-stabbing thing to several enemies, so I just knew she¡¯d do it for ironic comedy.

    SpookyErind! I didn¡¯t expect her to make a move, but who else could it be?

    She wasn¡¯t just choking me; she was trying to rip out my throat! Warm blood soaked the collar of my shirt. My vision was woozy. Strength drained from my body. I willed myself to hang on. No way she was going to push through with killing me¡­ I think.

    A shadow fell over me. Out of nowhere, a masked figure straddled me the next I blinked, blocking the light. This person bent down.

    I was face to face with a half-black, half-white smiling mask¡ªSpookyErind decided to show up.

    Glowing red eyes peered through the mask¡¯s eyeholes, twinkling with mirth. Her ghostly white hair wove through the air as if they had a life of their own. Her shoulders heaved as she giggled, causing the silvery fur of the coat draped over her back to ripple. The thick coat made her look larger than her actual size. My actual size. Her formfitting black suit with gold geometric patterns showed how petite she truly was.

    She enthusiastically waved at me with her right hand, displaying her signature golden gauntlet ending in claws.

    Her right hand?

    I raised my right hand; it moved in slow motion as if I were underwater. We were in SpookyErind¡¯s funky dream dimension. Did I choke myself or did she? No one was choking me now though. The pain was gone.

    ¡°Neat trick with my hand becoming your hand,¡± I croaked, massaging my neck. No wounds, no blood. Everything was fine. I was just being dramatic with my voice. ¡°Meyoumeyoumeyou¡ªthere, I did it for you.¡± Did this weirdo show up because I could succeed in removing my mutated right hand?

    SpookyErind lightly poked my cheek with a claw. <u>If I¡¯m a weirdo, so are you, meyoumeyoumeyou.</u>

    ¡°Oh, right. You can read my mind. Our mind. Whatever. We¡¯re both weirdos, I guess. Now, get off of me.¡± I was about to shove her away but stopped before I touched her clothes. If she got angry, she could end me. The choking bit was a demonstration. Getting deleted was bad, but I also didn¡¯t like someone on top of me. ¡°Shoo!¡± I pushed her off, expecting either that to be my last act or my hands simply going through her body.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    To my surprise, I was able to shove SpookyErind. She rolled off me, laughing, and stopped at the edge of my bed. Her mask dissolved away, revealing her marble-like, inhuman complexion.

    <u>You have some questions for me</u>, said SpookyErind. Though her mouth moved, her voice directly popped into my head. <u>Thankfully, they don¡¯t seem to be stupid questions like if you¡¯re dead.</u>

    ¡°Since you¡¯re so willing to answer, what about my plan to remove my¡ª¡±

    <u>Wasn¡¯t going to work. Not sure if I¡¯ll count that as a stupid question. Kinda?</u> She playfully cocked her head. Something must¡¯ve shown up on my face because she then said, <u>Don¡¯t believe me? Try it after our little meeting. I¡¯m not going to stop you.</u>

    ¡°I believe you,¡± I said, with a sigh. ¡°Does this mean that you showed up to stop me from hurting myself in vain? How sweet,¡± I sarcastically added.

    <u>Not really. You¡¯re doing a good job of hurting yourself in vain.</u>

    ¡°Let me guess your big message with the hand-meyou-thing. It was supposed to impress on me that we were the same. Continuing that thought, there was no point removing a part of me because we were one whole. For all I know, if I cut off my hand and tried to stop the regeneration, your gauntlet would grow out of my ass or something.¡±

    <u>You could try that too,</u> SpookyErind said, wiggling her golden claws. <u>You¡¯d have a ready butt-scratcher if that¡¯d happen. Seems very convenient to me.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯d rather that not happen. You could¡¯ve told me to cut it out. Or left me alone to learn it myself. You didn¡¯t have to choke me.¡±

    <u>It was just a little prank. Don¡¯t be such a downer.</u> Tinkling laughter like clinking wind chimes filled my head. SpookyErind laughed uncontrollably as if someone was tickling her. <u>I got you good, didn¡¯t I? You should¡¯ve seen your face!</u>

    ¡°Of course, I¡¯m going to make a face while getting choked. That came out weird. You know what I mean. Choking that could kill isn¡¯t a prank in any dimension.¡±

    SpookyErind stuck her tongue out. <u>It is if I say it is. And you know I don¡¯t want you to die.</u>

    ¡°Whatever. Say, when you started choking me, was that like still in the real world? My world, okay? I know there are a lot of worlds out there, and I don¡¯t care about any of them. I was thinking if I was wounded and my blood got on the linens. I used my credit card to buy a ticket. I can throw the linens overboard, but they¡¯re still going to charge it. Although¡­ if I sink this ship, they wouldn¡¯t know to charge me.¡±

    <u>Always the violent route when it comes to you.</u> She laid out straight and stretched, purring as if she were releasing pent-up stress. <u>You should lighten up and have fun. I always want you to have fun. </u>

    My cheek twitched, but I held my tongue.

    SpookErind stopped stretching. She laid on her side, cheek propped on her hand, and gave me a tired look. <u>This again? I know you hate it if there are other people on your bed, but¡­ I was going to say we¡¯re one and this is our bed, but this is technically the cruise ship¡¯s bed. Well, I suppose you paid for the ticket so it¡¯ll be yours for a few days.</u>

    ¡°What was that about you wanting me to have fun?¡± I asked, not wanting to engage about side topics. ¡°I have some complaints about the latest face you gave me if you don¡¯t mind.¡±

    <u>And what if I do mind it?</u>

    ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m going to politely ask you to please not choke me or whatever. I want to say out loud, though you can read my mind, that Domino is super-duper fucking annoying. Yeah, she¡¯s also me, I get it. Normal human emotions ramped up. No, thank you. What¡¯s your return policy on faces? I¡¯ve used it only a couple of times, but it¡¯s not underwear so I should be able to exchange it, right?¡±

    SpookyErind shook her head. <u>I don¡¯t understand how you¡¯re still surviving this far even though you¡¯re dumb. Luck must be on your side.</u>

    Being called dumb irked me, but it was pointless picking a fight with SpookyErind over it. Focus on getting information about Domino. ¡°I know you won¡¯t give me a new face without any reason,¡± I said. ¡°Like having Pino was a huge saver, even if I¡¯m still not sure what you were saving me from. Just that my death was on the horizon if I went with Blanchette when my condo got attacked. Thinking back, becoming Blanchette saved me from Myra and Everett at Sanders Mall. You¡¯re not being straightforward with it, but you care for me.¡±

    <u>I want you to survive, if I haven¡¯t made that clear enough</u>, she replied with out-of-place sincerity I couldn¡¯t confirm to be real. <u>Caring, though¡­ there are many facets of caring beyond not wanting someone to die.</u>

    ¡°Still counts as caring. I don¡¯t understand how that works when it comes to Domino. I guess using your latest gift somehow led me to Big Marcy, but even without the Jeffrey thing happening, I¡¯m certain Big Marcy would¡¯ve found a way to contact me. He knows I¡¯m on this ship and has plans to destroy his brother. Is Domino supposed to teach me some life lesson or what? Simply the worst way to go about it because I don¡¯t want to do it. Like, I should, dunno, learn not to be a grouch and enjoy the Christmas spirit?¡±

    <u>You should watch less movies</u><u>.</u>

    ¡°I haven¡¯t gotten around to shortening my watch list. After you leave, I think I¡¯m gonna watch some. Might help me become sleepy. Another guess¡ªis Domino supposed to teach me a lesson about recklessness?¡±

    <u>I¡¯ve mentioned a few times that you¡¯re reckless</u>, said SpookyErind. <u>I could¡¯ve just told you that again. </u>

    ¡°Ugh, so Domino has a hidden profound meaning? I¡¯m not good with that crap. I avoid movies with deep messages and shit because I can¡¯t appreciate them in full. Not to mention I don¡¯t relate to their message anyway. Or is it only for your entertainment? Must¡¯ve been pretty funny for you when my brain got blended with emotions.¡±

    I almost forgot my game-slash-bet with SpookyErind. Originally, I planned to find a way to turn back into a human. Of course, I couldn¡¯t hide that from SpookyErind, so I bargained with her not to stop me because I¡¯d make it very entertaining for her. I wasn¡¯t sure how I was doing on the entertaining front. The part about turning back to a human was also getting abandoned. Whoops, SpookyErind should know about that too.

    SpookyErind kept silent, politely staring at me as if waiting for me to comment about the weather.

    ¡°Did you influence me to change my mind about becoming a human again?¡±

    <u>What do you think?</u>

    I shrugged. ¡°Probably, no. It¡¯s so fun having power that I can¡¯t resist. I mean, tons of other people want this too. Not like I can be blamed for this. Society has normalized all sorts of unhealthy habits just because they¡¯re addictive, like drinking and smoking. Yep. Addictive. Power is very much so.¡±

    SpookyErind changed her position, sitting cross-legged across me. <u>I¡¯m glad you¡¯re having fun. But you have much to learn to survive.</u><u> Learn your lessons or die, Erind dear.</u>

    ¡°That¡¯s all you have for me? I don¡¯t even know what the lesson is! What¡¯s going to happen if I keep on surviving?¡± I pointed at her golden gauntlet. ¡°If that thing fully forms on my hand, is it game over for me?¡±

    SpookyErind held my hand. The metal was oddly warm. <u>To be honest¡­ I have no idea. Isn¡¯t it fun to find out?</u>

    ¡°It¡¯s not fun for me if it¡¯ll be my end.¡± I paused for a few seconds, hoping SpookyErind would give me a hint of what was to come, but nothing. I found it hard to believe she didn¡¯t know what would happen to me. ¡°I haven¡¯t given dying a thought¡­ Guess I¡¯ll just have as much fun as possible before the end. Red Island is coming up soon.¡±

    <u>Having fun and being reckless isn¡¯t the same thing</u>, said SpookyErind, continuing to hold my hand. There was a hint of care in her voice. Her usual joking tone wasn¡¯t there. Even her eyes have¡­ something. Fondness?

    What was wrong with her?

    ¡°I need Domino for Red Island, don¡¯t I? Fucking great. I suspected this would be the case. Can¡¯t go stomping around as Blanchette in the heart of the enemy operations. Dammit. Makes me want to jump off the boat and swim to Hawaii or somewhere far and forget about all this.¡±

    <u>Enjoy, Erind dear</u>. SpookyErind let go of my hand and held my chin. <u>It¡¯s going to start now. </u>

    ¡°What¡¯s starting now?¡±

    There was a buzzing sound. The room buzzer?

 6.34

    ¡°Fuck,¡± I groaned, recalling the beginning of the end of my condo building¡ªa zombie parasite knocked on my door. A pretty polite zombie, thinking back. Now, someone else was outside. If this was another zombie, I¡¯d sink this ship. ¡°This better be a good sequel. Parasites II: Infested Cruise, just released in theaters. Or should this be the third¡ªhang on¡­¡±

    I blinked my heavy eyelids, trying to clear my suddenly watery vision.

    SpookyErind was no longer in front of me. And I wasn¡¯t sitting on my bed. I was lying down, staring at the ceiling. I felt a slight rocking of the ship. The waves outside must be strong to affect this hugeass ship. Bad weather?

    I sat up, feeling groggy with a slight headache. No more slow-motion bullshit. This was the real world.

    I rubbed the sleepiness away from my eyes and checked the clock. It had just ticked exactly midnight. Some dramatic shit concocted by SpookyErind? Time went on unlike the other instances she visited me. Around two hours. Or maybe, she visited me and then forced me to sleep to have some rest before this next nonsense. She did care, to an extent. How sweet.

    More importantly, who was at my door?

    That annoying person kept pressing the buzzer. Probably thought I was asleep and was trying to wake me up.

    ¡°Housekeeping,¡± came a woman¡¯s voice. Knocking chimed in between the buzz.

    ¡°Wha-what?¡± My brain, freshly-addled after waking from SpookyErind¡¯s dream world, was still trying to piece itself back together.

    Housekeeping? Adrenaline coursed through my body as I frantically searched the blankets around me. Wait, why was I so panicked? So what if they charged my credit card? There was no drop of blood anyway. My shirt was also clean. Feeling around my neck, I didn¡¯t find any wounds. Dumb. If I had any, it would¡¯ve healed by now. In any case, the entire choking bit seemed to be an illusion.

    ¡°Housekeeping!¡± The voice was louder, the knocking more urgent.

    I hurried to the door, a grim smirk on my face. I didn¡¯t call for anyone, and employees wouldn¡¯t bother passengers at this hour. I wasn¡¯t like seven years old not to put things together that this was trouble. The annoying kind, not the exciting fighting kind.

    Checking the peephole, I confirmed it was the woman who previously delivered clues from Big Marcy about the transport ships to Red Island. I had a hunch of the reason she was here again, and I wished I was wrong. Looks like my long day was extending to the next day. How was I going to look presentable next to Deen if I didn¡¯t have my beauty sleep?

    Well, I got two hours of shuteye thanks to SpookyErind. But getting woken up in the middle of a deep sleep made me cranky.

    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked the woman after opening the door, keeping the annoyance out of my voice.

    ¡°Sorry for the disturbance, miss. Here are the fresh linens you requested.¡± She handed me folded blankets, while intently meeting my gaze.

    ¡°It¡¯s tonight, isn¡¯t it?¡± I asked, hugging the blankets, hoping this was all a bad dream and people would leave me the fuck alone. I wasn¡¯t in the mood to do anything after SpookyErind¡¯s visit; my thoughts were quite a jumble from our conversation. ¡°Erm, it¡¯s past midnight already, so it¡¯s ¡®to-morning¡¯, if that¡¯s even a word.¡±

    The woman wordlessly nodded.

    ¡°That nod is probably not for agreeing that ¡®to-morning¡¯ is a word but for the other thing.¡±

    She nodded again. ¡°May you find what we provided to be helpful. We regret that your stay is shorter than expected.¡± She bowed and went away.

    Closing the door, I said to myself, ¡°The word I was looking for was ¡®today¡¯. What the fuck was that ¡®to-morning¡¯ crap? She must think I was an idiot. And what was that about my shorter than expected stay?¡± I took it to mean that I didn¡¯t have much time. The ships would soon leave. I quickly unfurled the blankets.

    There was a packet inside. It appeared to be waterproof, judging from the texture of the fabric. Big Marcy discerned my plan. I wasn¡¯t giving him points for this one though because we only had two options: either we sneak aboard the fake fishing boats or we swim after them after they departed. The first option wasn¡¯t happening in such short notice.

    ¡°What do we have here?¡± I unzipped the packet and found several papers.

    Some of them appeared to be blueprints of buildings. I peered closer, running my fingers over the line. I first thought it was printed because of how neat they looked, but they turned out to be drawings.

    The building floor plans had lots of scribbles, arrows pointing out where sensors and cameras were, denoted by tiny labels. There were notes of possible guard placements including names of, most probably, Adumbrae. I wasn¡¯t familiar with any of them. Some plans were labeled with ¡®Laboratories¡¯, with underscoring. Was I being told to target those? I assumed the labs held the secrets of how the 2Ms clients remained outwardly human and kept their personalities despite gaining the powers of an Adumbrae.

    There might be a cure for me. But did I want it?

    The last of the plans had a note at the end written in beautiful penmanship¡ª¡®Beware, might not be up to date. B. M.¡¯

    ¡°Big Marcy drew this? I¡¯m so touched,¡± I sarcastically said. ¡°His handwriting looks so feminine. And the letters are super tiny.¡±

    Amusing that he took time from his busy schedule entertaining snotty clients to prepare stuff to help me. He must really want to ensure my success in killing his brother. I imagined Big Marcy, hunched over a table, scribbling away, alone in his office. Only he could make these maps. There should be others who know the same information, but they were probably not on his side. Even among his men, he couldn¡¯t be too sure they wouldn¡¯t betray him.

    There was also a sketch of Red Island.

    Or islands¡­ And not only red.

    The picture was of several islands on drawn top of each other, the differing perimeters outlined in different colors. I counted four of them, with the last drawing only halfway finished. Landmarks and buildings were also drawn with the same colors like there was a green building labeled as the ¡®clubhouse¡¯. I assumed the clubhouse was on the green island, and so on.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Did this mean that Red Island was comprised of several islands? Makes some sense. A little island hopping for the guests while isolating the more dangerous experiments. But what was up with this illustration? Did Big Marcy run out of paper that he had to fit all the islands here? If so, why superimpose them on top of each other? Looks confusing.

    ¡°Hidden meanings again,¡± I grumbled. Big Marcy made the wrong call assuming I was a genius.

    I was smart but not like a detective character in an old-school mystery movie who could deduce how the entire crime played out just by looking at the dog poop the suspect stepped on. Big Marcy had such high expectations of me after I snuck into his secret office on the first night of the cruise.

    Big Marcy had more parting gifts other than his drawings. The next papers looked like resumes¡­ of Adumbrae.

    ¡°Bludgeon,¡± I read the name on top of one of them. ¡°Real name, Keith O. Mcintosh. Yeah, Bludgeon is so much better than that unthreatening name. Goes well with his ugly, grouchy mug too.¡± My eyes scanned the rest of the details. ¡°Abilities, enlarging fists, coating them with a hardened material, can form other melee weapons, blah, blah, blah, higher than average regeneration, shoots lasers out of his ass.¡±

    That last one obviously wasn¡¯t there. I was just so giddy realizing what Big Marcy gave me. Personal data sheets of Adumbrae on Red Island, almost a dozen of them!

    This was a huge help!

    If true. A very big fucking if.

    I should keep in mind that even if Big Marcy was a hundred percent set on helping me, stuff here wouldn¡¯t be unquestioningly accurate through no fault of his. Theo the Dead Monkey hid some abilities during his evaluation, for example. That could be the case for some of these Adumbrae. Or they could¡¯ve developed new powers in the meantime. In fact, Big Marcy scribbled warnings on some of the data sheets about powers that might¡¯ve been wrongly recorded. He also put a tiny reminder that there were more Adumbrae on Red Island I should look out for.

    I¡¯d love to pore over these data sheets and study them. Going to be super fun surprising an enemy that I was prepared for how his abilities worked or that I knew of his weakness. Even just saying his real name the first time we¡¯d met would be a cool scene.

    But I didn¡¯t have the time. I returned the papers in the packet, put the packet into a plastic bag from our shopping spree, and then chucked that into our waterproof bag for our mission. Time to get packing.

    ¡°Oh, but before that. Deen!¡± I almost forgot my most valuable asset.

    Just as I started to look for my phone, it rang. I found it under a pillow. Deen was calling me.

    ¡°Hello, Deen. You¡¯re staying up late? Anyway, we have to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind! Listen to me. This is very impor¡ª¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re leaving tonight.¡±

    ¡°How did you¡ª?¡±

    ¡°You-know-who,¡± I said. ¡°What about you? Did Yara tell you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. She also said they were supposed to surrender their phones before boarding the transport boats. We¡¯re not getting any more updates from her.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll be fine on our own. Let¡¯s prepare. We meet at the bow in¡­ I dunno. Just move quickly.¡± I ended the call before she could say anything else. She¡¯d shower me with reminders and waste our time. Plus, I didn¡¯t want her motherly antics when I was pissed off at the short notice of this mission.

    Mission. Yep, this was it.

    I stuffed a bunch of clothes and sandals into the small backpack. The flashlight, batteries, bottles of water, and other stuff we bought earlier were already inside. Thanks to Deen for thinking of this. I¡¯d never tell her that, of course.

    I wore some comfy clothes, just a shirt and shorts. Halfway through fitting myself in the diver¡¯s skinsuit, I realized that it might be better if I wore pants. Islands. Bugs and stuff. Could a mosquito even pierce my skin? Distracting thoughts. I zipped up the suit and examined myself in the mirror.

    ¡°Looks good.¡± I did a twirl. My clothes didn¡¯t bunch up beneath the suit. Pretty unnoticeable.

    I grabbed my bag, slung it over my shoulder, waved goodbye to my belongings I wouldn¡¯t see again, and left the room. I sprinted down the corridor barefoot. We were going swimming. Why bother wearing footwear? As I ran, I tied my long hair into a tight bun; it was going to be annoying being in the water with loose hair.

    ¡°A long time since I¡¯ve gone swimming,¡± I muttered.

    Swimming by the beach or in a pool was way different from swimming in the middle of the ocean, flung around by towering waves. I slowed my pace, having a sense of sanity for a moment.

    What if I drowned?

    Then I¡¯d be dead.

    Solution: Don¡¯t drown.

    ¡°Simple enough,¡± I said, focusing on all the fun things I¡¯d do on the Red Island instead of the chore of getting there.

    This is fucking it! I had a huge grin plastered across my face as I ran. Try as I might, I couldn¡¯t push it down. Gone was my irritation. Electric shocks tingled up my side. Excited was an understatement. This must be what kids feel when told by their parents they are going to a theme park. I wouldn¡¯t know because I¡¯ve never experienced this heightened giddiness before, though I¡¯ve been to many theme parks. I almost wanted to skip all the way to the ship¡¯s bow

    Fortunately, I didn¡¯t run into anyone in the corridor. Midnight wasn¡¯t that late¡ªthere were bars on board that people frequent¡ªbut most were probably tired of their day at Catalina Island. I envied them that they could rest.

    Don¡¯t be reckless, came the whisper in my mind. I imagined either an imaginary Deen or SpookyErind telling me that. Such a downer thought. Or it could¡¯ve been me, reminding myself that dying wasn¡¯t okay.

    Grating it might be being told not to be reckless like a stupid kid, it was sensible advice that I should heed.

    ¡®Should¡¯ didn¡¯t mean that I was going to.

    I was already locking in my bet that SpookyErind would be very disappointed that Domino if I¡¯d ever be forced to use that face, would teach me any lesson. Blanchette was supposed to help me learn control¡­ which I did until I got tired of controlling the urge to have fun. Pino was about teamwork¡ªI had zero learnings from that one. I was pretty much hopeless in this department.

    I met a couple of people in the elevator¡ªa drunk couple. They spoke to each other in slurred words while looking at me, wondering if I was real. I did look weird. I got out on the floor that led to the ship¡¯s railings. I had to pass by some stairs and a common area first. Some people were there, listening to a pianist.

    From the corner of my eye, I spotted a familiar figure.

    Was that Reo?

    He was alone, walking at the far end of the room. He turned to look at me as I passed.

    It was really him. And he certainly noticed me because I was running barefoot in a skinsuit. What would he do about it? Report me to Dario? They wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything because Deen and I would soon leave the ship.

    When I reached the northernmost point of the ship that passengers could reach, Deen was already there, wearing a shimmering blue blouse and dark green slacks, waiting for me. It was a starless night, the wind cold and strong. We could hear the waves slapping the hull. No one else was around.

    ¡°Erind! What took you so¡ª?¡± Deen scanned me head to toe. ¡°You¡¯re just wearing that suit?¡±

    ¡°I have clothes beneath it, and I also packed clothes in my bag. What about you?¡±

    She pulled up one leg of her pants, revealing the tightfitting dark fabric of the diver¡¯s skinsuit. ¡°I wore clothes over it so people wouldn¡¯t get suspicious of me. Didn¡¯t you meet anyone on the way here?¡±

    ¡°Some people,¡± I said, mulling over if I should mention that I might¡¯ve seen Reo. ¡°So, what if they¡¯re suspicious of me? I don¡¯t want to go for three layers. We¡¯re going to be gone soon. And you¡¯re going to take off your clothes anyway.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s prudent to avoid suspicion,¡± Deen countered. ¡°What do we do next?¡±

 6.35

    ¡°Have they already left?¡± I asked, peering down over the railings. Only darkness. The possibility of drowning loomed once again. I shook my head and then answered my question. ¡°Nah. If they have, you¡¯d already be chewing me out for being late.¡±

    Deen frowned, illuminated by the lights behind me. ¡°You¡¯re not taking this seriously.¡±

    ¡°I am. Thank you for being here. I¡¯m glad I¡¯m not doing this alone.¡± That deflated Deen quickly. And I meant that last line.

    Recklessness was my middle name by now, but I kind of wanted to erase it from my birth certificate. I may not be normal compared to other people, but my brain did work normally plenty of times. A normal brain would say this was fucking insanity. Deen¡¯s power was a reliable failsafe.

    More like a stupidity-safe.

    ¡°You¡¯re hopeless without me,¡± she said, patting my head.

    I leaned away from her hand. ¡°Nuh-uh. I¡¯ve done pretty well on my own. I¡¯m going to show you just how responsible I am.¡±

    ¡°Well then, Ms. Responsible, what¡¯s the plan? I don¡¯t know how long it¡¯ll take Yara and the other clients of the 2Ms to board those boats, but we have to be prepared when they leave. It¡¯s a long way from here¡ª¡± Deen pointed at our feet ¡°¡ªto the bulbous bow where they¡¯ll exit.¡± She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder.

    I shrugged. ¡°The plan is we make our way down the outside of the ship. Simple enough. Unless you¡¯re going to tell me that you¡¯ve been hiding teleportation powers.¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, no. My real power is telling me we shouldn¡¯t do this.¡± Deen melodramatically sighed. ¡°But I must accompany my best friend and watch her back.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll have plenty of back-watching to do.¡± We exchanged grins.

    ¡°You¡¯re more¡­ outgoing now,¡± Deen said. ¡°Assertive? Confident? There¡¯s just something different. You¡¯re really coming out of your shell.¡±

    I rolled my eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t have a shell. Anyone would change if they were in my shoes. Proverbial shoes because I¡¯m barefoot right now.¡±

    Her observation ticked me. Not sure if in a good way or bad. My timid Erind face needed to change with everything going on. It couldn¡¯t be stagnant for it was alive, its life being presented to Deen. Character development as I adjusted to my Adumbrae superpowers. Very cool story arc.

    However, my updated face was inadvertently nearing my true self. I wasn¡¯t sure what my ¡®true self¡¯ really was.

    ¡°You¡¯re changing too,¡± I added.

    ¡°I am,¡± Deen somberly said, staring at the darkness to her side. ¡°Anyway, how do we know when the ships are leaving so we can start our descent?¡± She was back with her business-like tone as she turned around and leaned over the railings. ¡°The bulbous bow is so far out there. I can¡¯t even see it. The waves must be covering it.¡±

    ¡°We won¡¯t know the exact time they¡¯ll leave. I only got information on the departure date¡ªtomorrow, supposedly¡ªand that turned out wrong. Weird that they changed the schedule, especially with these awful sea conditions. Heh, I sound like a veteran sailor.¡±

    ¡°If they have an Adumbrae that can hide an entire island,¡± said Deen, ¡°an Adumbrae with water powers to ensure the safety of the trip isn¡¯t too farfetched of a possibility. If those transport ships have lights, we can watch out for that.¡±

    ¡°Doubt that. They¡¯re trying to be sneaky about it.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we can hear them leave?¡± Deen cupped a hand next to her ear. ¡°Too noisy. Even if the sea was calm, the bulbous bow is too far.¡±

    ¡°Ocean,¡± I mumbled.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I was agreeing with you that we¡¯re way up here to hear them leave.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not what you¡ª¡±

    ¡°I doubt our flashlights can reach that far down too. And we¡¯d just alert them of our presence if we did that. I think our main problem is even if we do spot them, it¡¯ll take time for us to reach the bulbous bow. We should go down now and wait for those fake fishing ships to come out.¡±

    ¡°Do you mean to say that we¡¯ll hang onto the side of the ship till then?¡± Deen¡¯s expression couldn¡¯t be explained. I agreed with whatever she thought of my plan.

    ¡°Do you have any alternative? I doubt your Guardian Angel is particularly cooperative.¡±

    Deen massaged her temple. ¡°Gabe¡¯s constant warnings are giving me a headache.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s an issue,¡± I said. ¡°You may miss the helpful messages. I mean, telling us not to continue this is very helpful for our safety. But we¡¯re going to do this. Your Guardian Angel has no choice but to aid our mission. Think of your power like a traffic navigation app.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Deen asked as she took off her outer clothes.

    ¡°You know? Those apps that tell you the way to your destination? If you accidentally take the wrong turn, it¡¯ll tell you to U-turn or something. But if you continue with that path, it¡¯ll eventually map out a new route for you. When there¡¯s absolutely no going back, your Guardian Angel will help us. Mostly you.¡±

    I grasped the topmost rail and placed my right foot on the bar below it. Domino would get her wish of jumping off the ship after all. Technically, I was going to climb down. I was still going overboard.

    ¡°Wait, Erind!¡± Deen delved around her bag after stuffing her clothes and slippers inside. ¡°I don¡¯t think the rope I have is long enough. If we tie together our ropes, it¡ª¡±

    ¡°Still won¡¯t be enough. Save the rope. Not like you know rappelling, or whatever it¡¯s called. Just climb down.¡±

    She raised a brow as she zipped her bag. ¡°You say it so simply as if it¡¯s easy to do. What will we use? Like, how are we going to hang on?¡±

    ¡°Superstrength.¡± I swung over the rails. Then I lowered myself until a dangled from the lip of the deck with my fingers.

    ¡°Careful!¡± Deen leaned over the railing above me.

    ¡°And we make our handholds,¡± I said, looking up at her. I kicked the hull of the ship, burying the front half of my foot into the metal. I wasn¡¯t wearing any sandals to ruin; I was a true genius after all. ¡°Or footholds, since we¡¯ll make them with our feet. You get the idea. Oh, and point your toes down. One of my toenails almost got removed.¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. This is nothing compared to what I¡¯ve experienced before.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t help but worry about you though you¡¯re stronger than me,¡± said Deen as she climbed over the rails.

    I steadily went down the ship, puncturing its metal skin along the way. Deen followed me without any complaints. She made her own handholds instead of using mine because it was hard to see shit. She had to feel around the dark. That, and she was taller than me and found the spacing of my handholds awkward to use.

    ¡°I can have leg extension surgery and immediately heal it,¡± I mumbled.

    ¡°Did you say anything?¡± Deen called from above.

    ¡°Let¡¯s quicken the pace!¡±

    Only now did it occur to me that we were several stories above the water¡ªa super long way to go.

    Superstrength made it quite easy to climb down, but it wasn¡¯t a pleasant journey. The rocking of the ship messed with my balance. The massive vibration as it plowed through the waters shot up my arms; our fingers and feet were deep inside the metal, so we could feel it. We were also constantly sprayed with water and buffeted by strong gusts.

    Good thing I had tied my hair. It was going to be sticky later from the salt. I should¡¯ve brought shampoo.

    Another thing annoyed me. As I quickly climbed down, I made rapid thuds continuously kicking the ship¡¯s hull. Since Deen made separate holes, her sounds weren¡¯t in sync with mine! She tried to match my pace, but because she was taller than me, she descended faster and needed to stop now and then, or else she¡¯d hit me. She settled with climbing down a bit slower. The disjointed pair of thudding made me want to rip my hair out.

    I¡¯m just looking for anything to complain about, I grumpily thought.

    ¡°Go right!¡± Deen shouted over the howling winds and crashing waves, barely audible. ¡°To the center!¡±

    ¡°I know!¡± I yelled back.

    I looked down to see where we were headed. Darkness except for some crests of huge waves that caught whatever light came from the cruise ship. I moved diagonally to the right as I continued my descent. I reached the wedge-shaped middle of the hull and used it as a guide to go straight down. Lower and lower we went until sea foam reached us. Ocean foam?

    Soon, waves would slap us. If slaps were like getting hit by a wall of bricks. The roar of the wind and waves was overwhelmingly loud. I went on despite beginning to question the life choices that led me here.

    I had a creeping suspicion that Big Marcy never considered the possibility I was going to do this. I, myself, didn¡¯t think it¡¯d be like this. And this was my plan! Big Marcy probably thought I had devised a big-brained way to get past the bioscanners. Jokes on him, he was overestimating me.

    Jokes on me, I was gargling saltwater.

    ¡°It¡¯s starting to slope¡ªbleargh!¡± Water got into my mouth as a wave engulfed Deen and me. The force was stupidly strong that I had to grip the metal hard, crumpling it in my fists. My joints and muscles strained to keep my limbs attached to my torso. ¡°Slope forward. Careful!¡±

    My feet found a surface to step on. The weird bulbous bow of this ship had a large section above the water level. This wasn¡¯t supposed to be on a normal ship if my understanding was correct.

    ¡°This is it,¡± I said, letting go of the side of the ship. ¡°Crouch down and¡ª¡± Before I could follow my own instructions, another wave rammed me. I had nothing to hold on to. I flapped around wildly, unable to breathe. I was getting washed away by the current!

    Something wrapped around my neck. I felt it with my hands while holding my breath. Some stray rope from the ship? A bit squishy. The shape was like a leg. Deen managed to hook me with her leg.

    ¡°Thanks for the save, Deen,¡± I said begrudgingly as the wave subsided. I saw that she barely hung on to the ship with one hand.

    If she hadn¡¯t quickly reacted, I would¡¯ve gotten swept miles elsewhere and probably find myself swimming to Australia or somewhere because I wouldn¡¯t know which way to go. I wasn¡¯t sure if starvation or thirst could kill an Adumbrae. If I¡¯d survive without sustenance, there was a real possibility that I¡¯d swim in circles forever in the vast Pacific Ocean. I didn¡¯t know how to use the sun or stars as a compass.

    I don¡¯t even know where¡¯s the North Star!

    Deen pulled me low on top of the bulbous bow. ¡°Hang on,¡± she said. ¡°We need to endure the waves.¡±

    I punched my hands into the ship and grabbed some bars inside. I also buried my feet into the steel. The holes were small. The cruise ship wasn¡¯t going to sink because of this. Maybe.

    Deen positioned herself in front of me, our ears almost touching so we could somewhat hear each other. She linked her right arm around mine before finding something to grab on. She must be really worried I¡¯d get lost. Annoying that she thought me irresponsible.

    ¡°I feel like a sacrifice to the gods,¡± I said.

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± she yelled into my ear.

    ¡°Not so loud. I can hear you. There was this movie where the girl was going to be offered to¡ª¡±

    We were underwater for several seconds. After we came up, I shook my head to fling away my wet hair. The ties had come undone.

    ¡°Anyway, the girl was offered to a sea monster,¡± I continued. ¡°She was tied to a pole by the sea, and waves hit her as the monster appeared. But I¡¯m the monster here, so¡­ you¡¯re the offering? I¡¯m not sure where I was going with this. Just saying stuff floating around my mind.¡±

    Deen gently bopped my head with hers. ¡°You must be nervous. We¡¯ll talk about random things if it¡¯ll distract you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not nervous. I was just making conversation to pass the time.¡±

    ¡°What happened to the girl in that movie?¡±

    Another wave came over us.

    Surfacing, I had my face covered with my salted hair and seaweed. Deen yanked out a candy wrapper stuck in my hair with her teeth. How in this goddamn wide ocean did garbage manage to find me? In comparison, Deen had an immaculate wet look, her hair still tightly woven in a bun. That was some insane superpower.

    ¡°I can¡¯t remember what happened in the movie,¡± I grumbled.

    ¡°Don¡¯t sulk, Erind. I know you want to continue your story.¡±

    ¡°How long will we have to wait?¡± I wondered, ignoring her. ¡°The ship¡¯s still moving. It should stop to disgorge the fake fishing boats or it¡¯ll ram them as they come out. I hope it won¡¯t take too¡ª¡±

    ¡°Did you hear that?¡± Deen interrupted me.

    ¡°Hear what? I can barely hear anything else other than the waves.¡±

    Sure enough, we were once again submerged.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure I heard something odd,¡± said Deen after we surfaced. She craned her neck, pushing herself up as high as she could while maintaining her hold on the ship, and surveyed our surroundings.

    ¡°Ha and ha. I know you¡¯re making fun of me. Suddenly, there¡¯s a sea monster that¡¯s going to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shush! I¡¯m serious. Listen.¡± She closed her eyes and cocked her head. ¡°It¡¯s there again.¡±

    I turned left, trying to peer into the starless night to find anything. Those could be waves or sea monsters. Most probably just waves. I also peeled my ears.

    It was faint, but there was¡­ something¡ªan echoing hum.

    ¡°Sounds like¡­ a whale singing,¡± I said.

    ¡°You heard it too? Haunting. I can¡¯t quite place if it¡¯s near or far.¡±

    ¡°I know humpback whales pass through these waters. They¡¯re the ones who can sing. I¡¯m not sure what months they migrate, but they¡¯d naturally avoid ships this big.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re a whale girl now?¡± Deen tapped our heads again. ¡°It¡¯s cute when you randomly spout animal facts.¡±

    ¡°Just stuff I saw on TV¡­¡± I said, trailing the end of my sentence as I spotted glowing red orbs peeking through the blanket of darkness. ¡°What is that?¡±

    ¡°Did you see something?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s right there! Over there!¡±

    The orbs appeared to be attached to something because they maintained their position in relation to each other even as their whole group bobbed on the waters. A wave hit ¡°it¡±, hinting at its large size. It swam parallel to the ship. Some of the light from above washed over it, giving hints of a slimy surface with veins. And then it dove into the water.

    No more singing.

 6.36

    ¡°It¡¯s gone¡­¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s gone?¡± Deen pressed her cheek against mine so she¡¯d look in the same direction as me. ¡°I can¡¯t see anything. What did you see?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what it was, but something was there,¡± I said, pulling away from our contact. ¡°I guess it¡¯s not very helpful just saying ¡®there¡¯. But I¡¯m sure I saw points of light on a big¡­ thing. It dove back into the water. I won¡¯t chuck it off as an optical illusion or light trick reflection whatever because we heard that whale singing thing.¡±

    ¡°Maybe a whale was curious about the two of us,¡± said Deen, ¡°and thought we needed help. I¡¯ve heard of dolphins helping divers. The whale¡¯s body could¡¯ve caught light from the ship and made you think it was odd.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s plausible.¡± I pictured a random kid shining laser pointers into the ocean, tricking me into seeing weird stuff that was just supposed to be a helpful whale.

    ¡°Are whales safe?¡± Deen asked. ¡°Like, do they eat people? I¡¯m worried the whale, if it¡¯s truly a whale, would suddenly nab us from the depths while we¡¯re swimming after the transport boats.¡±

    ¡°They don¡¯t¡ªWatch out! Incoming wave!¡±

    It was stronger than the previous ones, managing to undo Deen¡¯s invincible hair bun. That was the last thing I saw before closing my eyes because the current was so strong. I adjusted my position to squeeze my bag beneath me.

    While submerged, Deen pulled on my arm and stuck to my side. The jagged edges of the holes in the metal dug into my palms and feet, threatening to wound me as I struggled to hang on. The water almost succeeded in peeling me off the ship if Deen didn¡¯t lead me to another spot to anchor myself. I moved with only one arm, relying on my feet to keep me stable because I needed to secure my precious bag with my free hand which wasn¡¯t so free anymore. I could feel the fabric of the bag I gripped starting to tear.

    Seconds continued ticking by, and we were still underwater. How long was this going to take? I wasn¡¯t able to prepare with a deep breath and my lungs were complaining.

    A worm of worry gnawed at me. What if this wasn¡¯t another wave? What if the part we were on got lowered below the waterline? Should we let go and surface? But we¡¯d be swept away if we didn¡¯t hold on. Maybe we should climb up the front of the ship while we were still conscious.

    The only thing that could stop an Adumbrae¡¯s regeneration¡ªwhich meant dying for good¡ªwas destroying the brain. Or the spine. Okay, that was two things. No oxygen to the brain equaled death. No regeneration to repair that damage.

    Deen wasn¡¯t moving though. Should be safe. She lightly squeezed the arm of mine she was hugging. I took that to mean she was assuring me that our oxygen-lacking bath would soon be over.

    Sure enough, we could breathe again.

    I shook my head like a wet dog, trying to get hair off my face, as I changed into a sitting position. Pushing my legs deeper into the bow to stabilize myself, metal bars gave way like clay to my feet. I had to check my bag, and quickly before the next wave came.

    ¡°Oops, I punctured it.¡± I showed Deen the holes.

    ¡°We can dry your clothes later. The other stuff too.¡± Deen fixed her hair, combing it back with a hand. I should¡¯ve done it her way. ¡°The flashlight I bought works underwater,¡± she added, ¡°so it should be fine.¡±

    ¡°I have an important packet here I need to keep safe,¡± I said, handing her Big Marcy¡¯s lovingly made gift.

    ¡°What is this?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later. Long explanation. Speaking of explanations¡ªwhales don¡¯t eat people.¡±

    Deen chuckled as she stowed the important documents in her bag. ¡°You¡¯re just going to continue that like nothing happened?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want you to have the wrong idea about the gentle whales. Perhaps it¡¯s more accurate to say whales can¡¯t eat people even if they want to. Physically impossible. Even the blue whales, which are larger than the largest dinosaurs, have teeny tiny throats. I don¡¯t think they could swallow even a melon.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re talkative when it comes to animals. This side of you is adorable.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not adorable,¡± I griped under my breath.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t there a bible story of a guy getting eaten by a whale? Name¡¯s Jonah, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know how true that is.¡± Jonah¡¯s tale was among the bedtime stories Mom told me as a kid. Odd story, if you ask me. But it did have a moral lesson¡ªobey God. Which should be a given if there was an all-powerful deity. Like, duh. ¡°It mentioned a big fish or something. Not a whale.¡±

    ¡°I have an animal trivia bit for you!¡± Deen excitedly said. ¡°If a whale isn¡¯t classified as a fish, then what is it?¡±

    ¡°Too easy. Whales are mammals.¡± I was enjoying our little chat, surprisingly. Talking about a topic that interested me was fun. Who knew? Was this what hanging out with a friend was supposed to be? We were holding onto a ship as waves tried to drown us, but this counted as hanging out. Quite literally.

    Deen clicked her tongue. ¡°I didn¡¯t really expect to get you with that one, whale girl.¡±

    ¡°My turn! Not like we have anything better to do, so let¡¯s continue this question game. If whales are mammals, they should have mammary glands, right? So¡­ where are their boobs?¡±

    Whales didn¡¯t have the usual boobs people would picture, like those the ¡®usual¡¯ mammals had. Instead of sacs with nipples, whales have slits that gush out milk into the water. Their calves had to nuzzle into those slits. No way Deen knew this one.

    And she wasn¡¯t answering.

    ¡°Uh, Deen? Come on, guess where a whale¡¯s boobs are located.¡± I narrowed my eyes. ¡°Are you hearing weird sounds again?¡±

    She shook her head. ¡°Gabe¡¯s giving instructions.¡± Then she started moving to the side, yanking at me to follow.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± I went along with Deen, doing a crablike walk across the bow¡¯s surface, punching more holes into it. The wares were unceasing. I clipped my bag to my body with an arm. I shelved my whale-boob question for now. When we¡¯d have downtime, I¡¯d ask Deen again. It was an awesome question and a winning point for me.

    ¡°Gabe said to get out of the middle area.¡± Deen lowered her body into the water as the edge of the bow sloped down. ¡°This structure might be opening soon,¡± she explained before going down some more. Only her head and arms clinging on to the bow remained above water. Somewhat. The motion of the water and the ship meant she kept going underwater.

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re right.¡± The metal trembled and groaned. Loud mechanical noises, clicking gears, whirring engines. I quickly took my place beside Deen, not forgetting to take huge gulps of air whenever I could. ¡°Is the ship slowing down? It feels like it is.¡±

    ¡°Hold tight,¡± said Deen. ¡°Breathe deep.¡±

    ¡°I am holding¡ªwoah!¡± Water rushed to the front of the ship, pulling us to the right.

    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    It¡¯s opening! At fucking last.

    Problem was that the strength of the water flowing to fill the new opening was stronger than the waves we had endured. A giant washing machine described our situation. Deen and I were like flags attached to a pole during a windy day, pulled this way and that by the current. A couple of times I slammed against the side of the bow. The metal probably has an imprint of my face.

    Then I got pushed flat against the ship by the force of the water. The wind got knocked out of my lungs. The massive bow was parting sideways was my guess. The wings or flaps pushed against the water. The wall of water pushed back. We were in between.

    And then everything calmed down. Before I could get my bearings, something clamped around my wrist. Deen was pulling me up with all her might, uprooting my hands and feet buried in the metal.

    ¡°Ugh, at some point, this should be considered torture.¡± I sat beside Deen, wary of what¡¯d happen next.

    I couldn¡¯t see what was in front of me, let alone a few feet away, but I felt something was different. Air whooshed to the front of the ship, getting sucked into a vacuum. Water continued to rush, streams hitting a roof of sorts that made weird sizzling sounds like an electric fly swatter killing bugs. The mechanical noises continued, adding in clangs and engines roaring.

    The transport boats to Red Island were getting deployed somewhere in the darkness.

    ¡°You lost your bag,¡± Deen said, as she expertly opened hers with one hand while her other was buried up to her wrist in metal.

    ¡°My bag?¡± I felt around my shoulders.

    No straps. Looking behind me, I didn¡¯t see my bag. Or maybe it was there hiding in the dark. I felt around, hoping to touch its sleek fabric. Nothing.

    It was fucking gone.

    A string of spectacular curses lined up behind my teeth, but I didn¡¯t let any of them out because that¡¯d clash against the character of the face I wore. Actually, I didn¡¯t want to cuss and bitch. I was simply done. ¡°You know what? I¡¯m going naked during the next mission,¡± I told the empty air in resignation. ¡°Capitalism is a trap. I¡¯m not going to buy any more clothes. I¡¯m not going to buy a phone. I¡¯m going to donate all of my belongings to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Erind, shut up,¡± snapped Deen.

    I blinked. She meant business.

    She shoved a bunch of ropes into my hand, as well as her¡ª

    ¡°Sandals?¡± I felt them to make sure. ¡°What am I supposed to do with your sandals?¡±

    ¡°Double those ropes and twist them to make them stronger. Tie one end on the sandals. Make sure it¡¯s secure enough to hold our weight.¡±

    ¡°Our weight? Excuse me? Am I supposed to make a grappling hook with your sandals?¡±

    ¡°Just do it,¡± she sternly hissed at me. ¡°We don¡¯t have much time.¡±

    I wordlessly complied. Deen had her own project. She appeared to be tying her clothes together, making a rope out of them. Dunno why we needed two ropes. Though given that her clothes would be used for her Guardian Angel¡¯s inexplicable escapade, they were considered gone. At least, we both lost our clothes. Made me feel less bummed about my lost stuff.

    ¡°Take this.¡± Deen handed me her much-deflated bag. It still contained the precious files. The other supplies were helpful too. ¡°Don¡¯t lose it.¡±

    ¡°I swear, I¡¯m not. I lost my bag only because¡ªhey!¡± I yelped as Deen suddenly pulled me to her. ¡°If you¡¯re going for an emotional hug, then count me out.¡±

    ¡°Climb on my back,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re disturbingly nonchalant about this whole thing.¡±

    ¡°Better than getting stressed out.¡± I followed her instructions without any complaints despite this entailing physical contact with another human. I¡¯d bitch about this later.

    I wrapped my arms around Deen¡¯s neck, her bag secured between her back and my chest. I dug my knees into her waist, clipping on her torso, but that wasn¡¯t enough for her. She pulled my legs to wrap around her midsection. I was like a baby chimpanzee clinging to her mother. Or a backpack.

    ¡°Ready?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Aye, aye, captain. I¡¯m not sure what to be ready for, but I am.¡±

    ¡°Follow my instructions for the rope later,¡± Deen said as she started running to where wind and water were sucked in. ¡°Gabe will help us get onboard those boats.¡±

    ¡°In Gabe we trust,¡± I said, hugging Deen tighter despite my instincts screaming at me to let go of her. The warm flesh of another human was disgusting unless I was stabbing or punching said flesh. The skinsuit dampened the wretched sensation. I didn¡¯t have time to air my issues with the universe because Deen jumped off the bow!

    Just fucking jumped into the abyss of what-the-fuck-I-couldn¡¯t-see-shit!

    For the few seconds that we were airborne, I was struck by an epiphany¡ªI should¡¯ve just gone back to bed and forgotten about all of this. I should¡¯ve just enjoyed the cruise instead of inconveniencing myself.

    Too late for that now.

    We landed, or rather Deen did, on something mid-air. It was technically no longer mid-air if there was an invisible surface beneath Deen¡¯s feet. Looking down, there were hints of a ship below us. Slivers of light peeked through the thin gap of doors and blinds covering windows. This wouldn¡¯t be seen from the decks of the cruise ship. We were three feet or so above its tallest point, a radar thingy.

    ¡°A forcefield? Adumbrae power.¡± I heard crashing and that weird sizzling sound. Must be the waves hitting the huge bubble protecting each Red Island transport ship.

    Plural. I assumed the others were there, inside their bubbles.

    Deen dropped on all fours to steady herself. I also stretched out my hands to help out; the forcefield had a tingly static feel. Deen and I weren¡¯t trying to win the centipede-impression contest. Rather, we were in danger of slipping off the top of the huge bubble because it rocked back and forth in the ocean. Behind us, the cruise ship gradually became smaller as it swerved away.

    ¡°The forcefield¡¯s collapsing,¡± Deen said.

    After saying another last goodbye to my belongings left behind on the cruise ship, I faced forward again and spotted what Deen meant. Several feet away was a shimmering wiggly line forming a circle. It outlined a rough hole on top of the bubble; air rushing towards it was the clue. The hole was growing wider, its shimmering edge nearing us. The Adumbrae was stopping his or her powers because the transport boats were already safe.

    ¡°Gabe is telling me to hook this¡ª¡± Deen was referring to the line of clothes she tied together ¡°¡ªon that part of the hole that projects outward. We¡¯ll ride it down as the hole widens.¡±

    ¡°You sure your designer clothes could handle both our weight? I don¡¯t think they considered durability when quoting exorbitant prices for those.¡±

    Deen ignored me, focused on her job. The shimmering wiggly line passed her feet, and we fell for a second before she snagged one of the curves that jutted out. Perfect timing. We dangled from it, slowly descending along with the dropping forcefield.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that worked,¡± I said. I want Deen¡¯s power. However, hearing a voice telling me what to do didn¡¯t seem pleasant. I changed my mind¡ªher power sucked.

    ¡°Don¡¯t celebrate just yet,¡± Deen said. ¡°We still have to get on the ship.¡±

    I looked down. The perimeter of the bubble was several yards away from the outline of the ship, lighter against the black water. If we didn¡¯t do anything, we¡¯d land on the water. And it might not be so easy to catch up to a ship by merely swimming, even with super strength. It wasn¡¯t feasible at all. A lot of my plans weren¡¯t really¡­ good.

    But I brought Deen along, nullifying my stupidity. I¡¯m a genius!

    ¡°Start swinging the grappling hook,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Sandal grappling hook,¡± I said.

    Deen continued giving me instructions as we went closer and closer to the water. She was telling me how to throw the sandals and just trust her. Trust. That was a very difficult concept for me. I¡¯d rather see what I was throwing it at, but that wasn¡¯t an option.

    ¡°Do it!¡± Deen ordered.

    I slung the sandals in the direction of the ship, letting the rope run through my fingers. There was a sound of fabric tearing, and I felt that we were soaring through the air. Deen must¡¯ve jumped right before her clothes gave up being a rope.

    ¡°Don¡¯t let go,¡± Deen said.

    Then we were underwater.

    I felt Deen paddling like mad. I wanted to help her swim, but I¡¯d have to let go of her and the rope. This isn¡¯t going to work! I wanted to tell her. Gradually, the distance between us and the ship would grow; we¡¯d never catch up to it.

    Or could we? I felt a strong tug on the rope. I kept my grasp on it. We were getting pulled to the ship. For a moment, I wondered if the rope got tangled by the propellers, and we¡¯d soon be sushi for the fishes. But we were getting pulled upwards. Soon, we were up against the side of the ship. Deen grabbed onto the hull and started climbing.

    ¡°Come up, quick, before anyone finds us,¡± a drawling female voice told us, her tone not matching the urgency of her words. She sounded familiar.

    I looked up at the shadow leaning over the edge of the ship, pulling the rope I held. ¡°Jubjub?¡±

 6.37 - Reo Hinode (Oberon) - Part 1

    Reo Hinode (Oberon) ¨C Part 1

    Was that Erind in a wetsuit, running barefoot across the lobby? Reo Hinode blinked, his neurons not wanting to process what he had just seen.

    That was possible trouble. He didn¡¯t want to see trouble.

    He examined the glass of whisky in his hand. It was only his third for the night but probably his last because it was more expensive than his spleen. Everything on this ship was overpriced to kingdom come. Whiskey¡¯s strong but he bet that even an entire bottle chugged in one go couldn¡¯t overcome his super regeneration and knock him out. He just wanted to feel something, which was why he tried whiskey.

    Reo finished the rest of his glass¡¯s contents in a gulp, feeling the burn rolling down his throat, as he examined the lobby. Other passengers were looking at where Erind went, muttering amongst themselves. He wasn¡¯t hallucinating when he saw her.

    In turn, that meant she was doing something suspicious.

    Suspicious. Reo was right that there was something not right with that odd girl. Whether that was a good or bad thing was a question he didn¡¯t want to ponder. A better question was whether he should pretend that he saw her or not.

    Reo shuffled to the bar and placed the glass on the counter, stopping himself from smashing it in frustration. ¡°Dammit, I celebrated too early.¡±

    Though Dario was certain the boats bound for Red Island would leave on the last night of the cruise, he still assigned Reo and Everett to stay up late and keep watch. He gave them a tablet that monitored the trackers Jubjub planted, a gift from the mysterious Professor. Reo pushed it to Everett. He was allergic to responsibility.

    No sleep for the two of them, but Reo was more than fine with it because of the following developments in their stupid mission to get themselves killed. Or lack of developments.

    Reo asked Dario what to do if something did happen that night. What if their targets moved? Dario gave Reo¡¯s most wished-for answer¡ªdo nothing. They wouldn¡¯t have time to infiltrate the cruise ship¡¯s innards and stow away on the fishing boats.

    Pressing his luck, Reo then wondered aloud about the plan they¡¯d execute the next day. Was there one? Dario confirmed Reo¡¯s suspicions and gave him his second most wished-for answer¡ªthere was no plan. It was very risky, Dario had explained. They didn¡¯t have the firepower to fight half the monsters Reo saw through Sneak¡ªmutated mutants, failed experiments most likely¡ªmuch more the powerful Adumbrae guarding Red Island. Dario told them not to share his decision with the others just yet, though he was resolved that they were going to forego their mission to destroy Red Island, settling instead for data collection.

    Reo squealed in delight like a girl getting asked out to prom by the handsomest guy in school. Yesterday, he was pulling his hair out trying to think of a way to escape the mission while keeping some sense of dignity intact. All that stress for nothing!

    On the flip side, he had nothing to be stressed about anymore!

    One more day for their cruise. And a half, counting the return trip. He could still have some semblance of vacation.

    But reality backstabbed him just when he thought he was safe, like what Rofirio did when he had his eyes closed summoning a fairy. Reo sighed, letting his exhalation roll into a resigned groan. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect the vacation portion of this cruise to be so short-lived.¡±

    The bartender turned his way, tilting his head to ask if he was ordering more.

    Reo looked past the bartender at two young ladies sitting at the opposite end of the counter. Rare to see women around his age on this cruise; they were usually twice as old or older. A retiree fest. One of them, a petite brunette with long fake lashes, glanced his way. He was tempted to raise his glass.

    He didn¡¯t.

    He faced the bartender again, shook his head, and left. Time to be an idiot.

    ¡°Where are you Erind-o, my friend-o?¡± Reo muttered as tried to trace her steps.

    His instincts screamed at him to do anything else. He could play rock-paper-scissors with his eyes closed against a monkey if there was one on board, and that would be a better use of his time. He could look for that monkey rather than trying to find Erind. A callback to when he was paired with Erind for the infiltration mission, he was once again violating his motto about not wanting to die.

    The threat of death wasn¡¯t really on the table. Hopefully. But he was actively looking for trouble.

    ¡°Nope, not here,¡± Reo said, peering down a hallway. And then another.

    He picked one path and jogged to the end. Empty. Maybe the other way? He wouldn¡¯t see her if she had entered a room. Unlikely that she did. He doubled back and went left. There was just this nagging sense he shouldn¡¯t leave Erind be. During his mission, he had grown to like her. Her passion for doing what was right was admirable. She kept pace with them despite being a normal human in a world of monsters.

    Reo considered himself a monster. Human society wouldn¡¯t accept him if they knew what he was¡ªa fake Corebring. An abomination. Some might even consider him a heretic. There was no more normal life for him. He had made plenty of wrong choices in his life. Too many to count; thinking about each of them made him want to punch himself.

    The wrongest choice of all was giving up his humanity to be something he wasn¡¯t meant to be¡ªa hero

    Erind ignited the spark that was once in Reo¡¯s heart. He was placed in a position where he was in charge of their survival. And they survived. He was a hero. Just give me this one.

    After completing their mission with flying colors, more than fifty percent of Reo¡¯s mind was convinced that he could do this. This, being putting himself in life-or-death situations and changing something in this bullshit world.

    Then that pesky thing happened¡ªtime passed.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Reo thought more about the situation before he slept the previous night. He slept for only one hour, staying up until three in the morning and waking up at four to continue his torture. Thought torture, worse than any physical torture. Gone was the motivation. His more logical side returned. Not coward side, he wanted to make that clear.

    No matter how much he wanted to be a hero again, there¡¯d be no heroics if he was dead. Dario canceling their mission proved him right.

    With that settled, one last thing bothered him. Reo replayed the infiltration mission many times to justify his choice to try to run away. While doing so, there was something odd about how it played out, especially towards the end, from the time he closed his eyes and summoned Sneak. Erind was¡­ too brave.

    Not recklessly brave like Myra. Not overconfident or arrogant. Or even na?ve.

    Unafraid was a better way of putting it.

    Erind showed signs of fear. Her trembling voice, the shaking hands. She showed bravery in pushing through that fear, wanting to complete their mission.

    But Reo couldn¡¯t feel that she was¡­ truly afraid. The vibe was missing from her. He was an expert in the ways of the vibe when it came to women, and in his expert opinion, there was this wrongness with Erind. He wasn¡¯t sure if he¡¯d go as far as to say she was faking it.

    Maybe she was.

    After this realization, other wrong things popped out to Reo. She seemed too strong to push him back to the elevator. Not knocking on Erind or anything, but he didn¡¯t expect her to be able to carry half her body weight. She was practically a stick!

    What about those strange sounds? Why did she go out of the room they were hiding in? And what was that about while she was pushing him? Was there something going on while he had his eyes closed? Was he crazy, or was it too much of a coincidence they didn¡¯t encounter any danger on their way back, while he was at his most vulnerable?

    Knowing his shitty luck, something wrong should¡¯ve happened. Could it be, that Erind fought without him knowing? If she could fight, then that means¡­

    ¡°Erind has an artificial Core,¡± Reo muttered as he jogged. That was the conclusion he reached during his thought-torture session

    Deen, Erind¡¯s best friend, readily accepted an artificial Core. Reo could imagine Deen convincing Erind to follow her example. Erind was the sort of timid person who¡¯d be easy to rope around with good old peer pressure.

    As to why they didn¡¯t tell him, Reo was sure Dario had his reasons. To keep Erind as a secret weapon? If she got kidnapped again, that¡¯d give the 2Ms a big surprise. That was their business.

    However, Reo hoped that he was wrong about Erind having superpowers. He¡¯d be sad if Erind had given up her humanity too. She was such a nice girl; she shouldn¡¯t be part of this.

    Was that why he was looking for her? What would he say if he did find her?

    A few minutes later, he was back at the intersection he started from.

    ¡°A wetsuit for¡­ water. Barefoot. I¡¯m so stupid!¡± He spun around and broke into a sprint, heading for a door leading to the outer part of the deck.

    There was a lot of ¡®outside¡¯ where Erind could¡¯ve gone, but Reo had a strong inkling which way to go. He headed to the front part of the ship. The bulbous bow was further forward.

    He stared at the darkness of the vast ocean as he exited to the front deck. No Erind. No monkey. No whiskey. Just the strong winds carrying the sounds of massive waves slapping the ship.

    Was he wrong?

    His ultra-reliable instincts that had kept him alive so far despite all of his stupidity was telling him that he was right. Reo held the sides of his head and closed his eyes. Drippings of the genius kid he once was before not giving a fuck about the world starting in high school slowly returned.

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s put the pieces of the fucking puzzle together,¡± he said. ¡°Assuming Erind has superpowers¡­¡±

    Their mission was canceled. Erind, however, has her own secret mission. Something that only she could do with her powers. Powers so special that Dario kept it under wraps. Her mission should be something along the lines of infiltrating the bulbous bow.

    Dario didn¡¯t want Reo and Everett to tell the others that their Red Island trip was canceled because they¡¯d find out Erind was missing. Everett would tell Deen, who¡¯d then look for Erind to share the news. Dario was probably going to spring this thing tomorrow so that none of them could stop Erind. Reo could see Deen raising hell.

    Reo ran out in the cold night, to the end of the deck, and looked over the railings.

    Mostly fucking darkness.

    He traced the railings, praying to the Mother Core he wouldn¡¯t spot anything. His prayers usually didn¡¯t work.

    Nothing. Nothing. And then something. His balls dropped. There was something there!

    He fumbled for his phone and turned on its flashlight, mentally punching himself for belatedly thinking about this. The light was swallowed by the darkness below, but it did catch a wisp of blonde before it disappeared, hidden beneath the curve of the ship. That looked like a head.

    Was he hallucinating?

    If not, then what the hell did he see? A mermaid that stuck to the ship? A phantom golden retriever? A random wig blown by the winds? Or¡­ the head of Amber Deen?

    The last option was a piece that snuggly fit the puzzle. Deen¡¯s power was great for infiltration, so it made sense she¡¯d go with Erind. She wouldn¡¯t let Erind go alone. Jubjub might be with them too.

    In sum, the real mission was still a go. Useless members like Reo would stay on the ship.

    Reo was relieved that he wasn¡¯t part of this.

    But this didn¡¯t sit right with him. It should¡¯ve been called off altogether. Those girls shouldn¡¯t risk their lives while the rest of them stayed back. He didn¡¯t have a chivalrous side, not counting the fake fa?ade he used three dates max before just dropping being gentlemanly. This was facing reality. This was a suicide mission!

    So¡­ what was he going to do about it?

    Was he going to stick his nose and neck, in this dangerous matter?

    ¡°I can¡¯t let Erind do this,¡± he said, surprising himself with his words. He didn¡¯t even know why he said that or why specifically her.

    He thought of climbing down after Erind and Deen but stopped himself. They wouldn¡¯t listen to him, and he might get dragged into their mission. Survival first. No heroics. And no beating around the bush, he was scared of getting swept away into the ocean.

    Reo ran back inside the ship to find Everett. Push the responsibility onto others, his patented technique.

    Then he remembered to check his phone. Thankfully, he brought it, though it was in silent mode. He didn¡¯t want to bother with his phone tonight because he was already in celebration mode. He didn¡¯t expect something like this to happen. Rather, he didn¡¯t want to know if something did happen.

    But now he wanted to know!

    He had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He knew what this was about when he opened the message.

    ¡°The ships are moving,¡± Reo read with gritted teeth.

    Did Dario know that this¡¯d happen? Was that ¡®last night of the cruise¡¯ explanation all bullshit? Or maybe Dario thought that but he was alerted that the departure was tonight. The thingamajigs that Jubjub installed must¡¯ve given him a heads-up. He then sent Erind, Deen, and Jubjub to sneak on the boats. What else would their mission be?

    ¡°They¡¯re going to the Red Island,¡± Reo said, his hands going cold.

 6.38 â€“ Reo Hinode (Oberon) â€“ Part 1

    Reo Hinode (Oberon) ¨C Part 2

    Reo was rooted to the floor, staring at Dario¡¯s message, his mind messier than usual. A string of texts from Everett followed, asking Reo where he was, doubtless wanting to talk about the development. This should be a huge celebration; it erased any possible change of plans to sneak on the boats to Red Island. Yet, there was a falling sensation in his stomach. He couldn¡¯t push out of his mind that Erind and the others were heading to their very highly possible deaths. He was safe, but they weren¡¯t.

    ¡°Why do I care?¡± he muttered, gripping his phone hard. It cracked. He wasn¡¯t a gentleman in any sense, but this didn¡¯t sit right with him. ¡°I guess a shard of a hero remains inside me. Stupid, stupid.¡±

    What should he do? Complain to Dario?

    Wouldn¡¯t work. Dario would either play dumb or try to convince him this was the right decision. It was possible he¡¯d come to blows with Dario. He sorely wanted to punch Dario for being so reckless. Bullshit sacrificing the ladies for this mission. And he¡¯d lose in a fight against Dario. That¡¯d all be a waste of time anyway, for every passing minute, the farther Erind would be from the cruise ship.

    Reo was already resolved he¡¯d get her back and away from danger. He didn¡¯t know how he¡¯d do that, but he should take it one step at a time. First order of business¡ªget to Erind.

    He hurried back to the lobby and took a brochure on a stand beside the information desk. It was about the cruise ship and its security features. Where were the lifeboats located?

    ¡°Reo!¡± someone called out to him. It was Everett. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to contact you. Did you leave your¡ª¡±

    ¡°I have my phone with me,¡± Reo said, started walking, following the instructions to reach the lifeboats. His instincts wailed alarms, but he didn¡¯t care. This was the right way not to care. He had done some pretty stupid things in his life¡­ and this might be the stupidest of all. But he didn¡¯t care.

    ¡°How many times have I told you not to put it on silent mode? You never know¡ª¡±

    ¡°I thought nothing¡¯s going to happen tonight,¡± Reo said, quickening his pace. ¡°But something did happen. I know that the boats are moving.¡±

    Everett hurried to keep pace with Reo. ¡°Where are you going? I thought you¡¯d be drinking your ass off by now.¡±

    Reo didn¡¯t respond. Should he rope in Everett with his stupid plan? Everett would be game because Deen was involved. Having someone else with him would make Reo less anxious. However, it¡¯d also make him feel guilty if something happened to Everett.

    ¡°What¡¯s with that look?¡± Everett asked. He grabbed Reo, pulling him to stop. ¡°Tell me what¡¯s wrong.¡±

    ¡°I think Erind and Deen are on their way to Red Island.¡± Reo narrated how he saw Erind and then looked for her, explaining why he concluded that she and Deen climbed down the side of the ship to jump on the transport boats as they emerged from the bulbous bow. ¡°Possibly, Jubjub¡¯s there too. I¡¯m going to get them back.¡±

    ¡°Tha-that can¡¯t be,¡± Everett stammered, letting go of Reo¡¯s arm. ¡°Dario didn¡¯t mention anything like that.¡±

    ¡°Why would he?¡± Reo said. ¡°You¡¯re going to object to his plan, right? Me too. He wouldn¡¯t put this up to a vote.¡± His eyes fell on the tablet Everett carried, pinned to his side with his arm. Reo realized that once he got the lifeboat, he¡¯d need a way to know where to go. Such an important thing he almost forgot because his brain was more addled than when he snorted unknown powders to show off to a hot girl in college.

    Reo took the tablet and broke into a jog. He had to hurry. The lifeboats were big and had motors according to the brochure; he had a chance of chasing the transport boats. If it were just paddles, he would¡¯ve given up on this. What he¡¯d do after he¡¯d caught up to the boats¡­ he¡¯d just figure on the way there.

    Technically, he was going to steal a lifeboat. But stealing from monsters didn¡¯t sound too bad.

    ¡°Are you sure that you saw Erind and Deen?¡± Everett had a phone to his ear. He was probably trying to call them. ¡°Maybe you were drunk.¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t get drunk. I¡¯m sure I saw Erind. And Deen¡¯s hair¡­ probably. There¡¯s only one reason why Erind would be in a wetsuit and heading outside.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a lot of other reasons than this insanity you¡¯ve cooked up! You¡¯re just guessing that Erind has an artificial Core. You¡¯re guessing that she went overboard. Haven¡¯t you thought you could¡¯ve just missed her somewhere? This ship is huge. And who knows what the hell you saw that was yellow? Maybe someone¡¯s blonde wig was blown by the wind.¡±

    ¡°Are they answering their phones?¡± Reo asked, descending the stairs, three steps at a time. Much faster than an elevator.

    All of Everett¡¯s very valid questions didn¡¯t occur to him. They didn¡¯t matter because he truly saw Erind. Wetsuit. Barefoot. Add to that Erind¡¯s weird behavior during their mission, and all the other mysterious things that happened¡ªReo didn¡¯t tell Everett about those. Granted, Reo still didn¡¯t have solid proof. Time, however, wasn¡¯t on his side.

    ¡°They¡¯re not picking up,¡± said Everett. ¡°But it¡¯s midnight. They¡¯re asleep.¡±

    ¡°Go check on them and tell me if they¡¯re in their rooms.¡±

    ¡°Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to steal a lifeboat and follow the Red Island transport boats,¡± said Reo, checking the brochure again. ¡°Go now, so you can tell me before I get too far from this cruise ship.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re fucking insane!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s nothing new.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to let you do this¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªalone.¡± Everett finished. ¡°I¡¯m not going to let you do this alone.¡±

    Reo turned to Everett, feeling embarrassed. ¡°Erm. Thanks, man. Appreciate it.¡±

    Everett was on his phone again. ¡°Hello, Myra?¡± Everett gave Reo a nod. ¡°Sorry for waking you up, but there¡¯s an emergency.¡±

    Reo knew that he shouldn¡¯t be surprised Everet was going along with his plan, though it sounded insane. They had been through a lot. Also, this was the first time in a long time Reo got this serious. Everett must¡¯ve felt that Reo wasn¡¯t messing around.

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    Reo listened while Everett told Myra to check Deen and Erind. It was hard to convince Myra, so Everett had to give in and tell her about what Reo said. Myra¡¯s voice didn¡¯t need to be on loudspeaker for Reo to hear.

    ¡°Reo thinks Erind has powers?¡± Myra blared. ¡°And she¡¯s on a secret mission we don¡¯t know about? Yeah, right. Anyway, I¡¯m going to check on them, so calm your asses. Then I¡¯m going to sleep. I don¡¯t care if you guys want to explore the Pacific Ocean.¡± She ended the call.

    ¡°As expected of Myra,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°I¡¯m surprised she agreed to help,¡± said Reo. ¡°I thought she was just going to trash me and laugh.¡±

    ¡°I can sense she¡¯s a bit worried,¡± said Everett.

    Everett next called Dario, asking if they had any plans to chase after the boats. It was a short conversation. Everett relayed to Reo that Dario said it was up to the trackers and sensors that Jubjub installed. Their mission was over, and it was time to relax.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you ask him about Erind and Deen?¡± Reo asked. ¡°Never mind, He¡¯s not going to admit anything.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not going to admit what isn¡¯t true,¡± Everett said. ¡°Look, I¡¯m not saying you¡¯re a liar or that you¡¯re hallucinating, but you have to admit that you¡¯ve been really stressed. Your mind is jumping to¡ª

    ¡°Are you backing out?¡± Reo jabbed his thumb at a lifeboat. ¡°We¡¯re already here.¡±

    Everett sighed. ¡°Someone needs to take care of you. I just hope Myra will give us an update before we get too far from the cruise ship.¡±

    ¡°Do you have any idea how to get this lifeboat down to the water?¡± Reo thought that the lifeboats were simply secured by ropes. Cut the ropes, and the boats would fall. That was what he saw in movies. Modern lifeboats worked differently. The lifeboat was secured by cranes, one in front and another at the back. The cranes would probably extend outward and lower the lifeboat with pulleys.

    ¡°Let me.¡± Everett clambered onto the cranes and melted their respective locking mechanism. Once dislodged, the cranes were free to extend with a bit of help.

    Both of them pushed the lifeboat outward. Superstrength made their work easy. The next problem was the pulleys.

    ¡°We can¡¯t just drop the lifeboat,¡± said Reo, realizing his earlier plan was stupid. ¡°What if it falls upside down?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m thinking that we could¡¯ve used the controls over there,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°It¡¯s destroyed now. It¡¯s probably locked anyway, so passengers can¡¯t fiddle with it. Here¡¯s an idea: we¡¯ll destroy the pulleys and lower the lifeboat ourselves. You take that side, I¡¯ll take this.¡±

    Everett chuckled. ¡°I know I signed up for something crazy when I joined our group, but I never thought I¡¯d steal a lifeboat.¡±

    ¡°Same, man,¡± said Reo, a smile flashing across his stressed face.

    Reo and Everett carefully climbed to the ends of their respective cranes. The swaying of the boat became more pronounced. It was dark below, so Reo couldn¡¯t see how far he¡¯d fall. Very fortunate. He dismantled the pulley and yanked out the thick rope inside. He coiled the rope around his arm, feeling the weight of the lifeboat.

    ¡°Fucking heavy,¡± Reo grunted, bettering his position so he wouldn¡¯t get dragged by the lifeboat. He pinned the precious tablet to the side of his body. ¡°Are you ready?¡± he yelled at Everett.

    ¡°Ready!¡±

    ¡°Slowly lower!¡±

    Their teamwork was pretty good. If Reo felt the load getting heavier, he stopped lowering the rope so Everett could balance it. If the reverse, Reo would lower his end of the lifeboat faster. It was taking longer than he¡¯d like, but they couldn¡¯t rush it and risk losing their ride. He was getting anxious at how far Erind could¡¯ve gone.

    Before the lifeboat could reach the surface of the ocean, Reo yelled at Everett to stop lowering. Using his brain¡ªit was working now¡ªhe foresaw that strong waves might smash the lifeboat against the cruise ship. The lifeboat was already swinging like a pendulum. He started descending the rope. Reo used only his arms and superstrength, his legs holding the tablet.

    ¡°What next?¡± Everett said as he landed on top of the lifeboat.

    ¡°Feels weird being in charge,¡± said Reo, landing next to Everett.

    ¡°This is your gig, you call the shots.¡±

    ¡°And get the blame if things go south,¡± Reo said. ¡°Take this tablet and get in the lifeboat. I¡¯ll cut the ropes.¡±

    Everett followed his instructions. Reo cut the rope attached to the end first. The boat tilted, but it stopped at a diagonal position instead of hanging straight from its front because its end hit the water. Reo scrambled to cut the front ropes to correct the lifeboat¡¯s position. He entered the lifeboat just as it roared to life.

    ¡°You know how to operate this thing?¡± Reo asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ve spent a few summers working on a fishing boat,¡± Everett explained.

    Reo took the tablet as Everett steered the lifeboat away from the hulking cruise ship. ¡°I call shotgun! I¡¯ll be your navigator for tonight, ladies and gentlemen. We¡¯ll go that way! The tracker is blipping over there. Northwest? Is that right?¡±

    ¡°You sound happy,¡± said Everett.

    ¡°It¡¯s the adrenaline rush. And the fear¡­ hiding that fear.¡±

    There was silence between them. Waves grumbled against their boat as they steadied themselves through the bobbing. The massive groaning of the cruise ship became dimmer as they separated ways with no.

    Without words, Reo and Everett shared their thoughts. This was going to be an insane ride. They might not even make it back. That was what went on Reo¡¯s head anyway. He didn¡¯t know if Everett thought the same.

    Everett¡¯s phone rang. They both jumped.

    Since Everett was on the wheel, Reo answered it. ¡°Greetings, Myra. What tidings do you¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Reo? Are you with Everett? Have you two gotten off the cruise ship?¡±

    ¡°After a daring mission that involved stealing a lifeboat, we have¡ª¡±

    ¡°Deen and Erind are missing. They weren¡¯t answering when I knocked on their rooms. I broke down Deen¡¯s door to get inside. It¡¯s empty. Johann¡¯s helping me check restaurants and bars¡ªmaybe they¡¯re just hanging out¡ªbut so far nothing.¡±

    Reo and Everett exchanged glances. ¡°We¡¯re going to look for them,¡± said Reo. ¡°And we¡¯ll bring them back.¡±

    ¡°Dude, it¡¯s so weird hearing you say responsible things,¡± said Myra, her tone gentler. ¡°Take care over there¡­¡±

    ¡°Erm, thanks.¡±

    ¡°Do you want me to do anything else?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, go find Dario and punch him¡±

    ¡°What did¡­ say? I can¡¯t¡­¡± Myra¡¯s voice kept getting cut off. Then Everett¡¯s phone lost signal. The cruise ship was too far away.

    ¡°Guess it¡¯s just us, buddy-o,¡± said Reo, putting his arm across Everett¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m going to apologize in advance if we¡¯d end up dying. Seriously, my bad here. I¡¯m not even sure why I¡¯m doing this.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s my choice to be here,¡± Everett replied. ¡°Also, I can¡¯t die until I save Deen.¡± They laughed. ¡°Kidding aside, I¡¯m not going to blame you one bit. I¡¯d do the same. I don¡¯t know why Dario did this, but I¡¯ll give him a piece of my mind when we get back. How far away are we?¡±

    ¡°Still far,¡± said Reo, looking at the tablet. ¡°I hope we don¡¯t lose the signal may be lost. Wait¡­ one of them is gone?¡±

    ¡°Out of range?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s back. And gone. I don¡¯t know why it¡¯s getting faint.¡± Reo continued to observe. His gut told him something bad was going to happen. He expected it, but he didn¡¯t know what. ¡°The other trackers are also behaving weirdly.¡±

    ¡°Are we losing them?¡± Everett asked.

    ¡°Now¡­ we¡¯re nearing them. They¡¯re coming to us.¡±

    ¡°What? They¡¯re turning around?¡± Everett craned his neck to look out the windows. Just darkness.

    Reo couldn¡¯t see anything either. ¡°Is this thing malfunctioning?¡±

    Then there was a huge thud, and their lifeboat was overturned.

 6.39

    ¡°This is not on my bucket list,¡± I said, carefully kneeling and sitting back on my calves.

    My legs were covered by my wetsuit, so they weren¡¯t slathered in slime. In this position, I could minimize the contact of my bare skin with the ground to only my toes. Even the squishy surface was disgusting though, feeling like a water bed that wasn¡¯t right. I¡¯ve had plenty of experience with gore and other monstrous stuff, but what was probably the inner lining of the stomach of the creature that swallowed us and the fake fishing boats was just ewww.

    At least there was no stomach acid. I¡¯d survive that but my clothes wouldn¡¯t. I preferred keeping my clothes after losing so many, thank you very much. And yeah, we had Big Marcy¡¯s notes to protect too.

    Safe to assume this monster was supposed to swallow the boats because the passengers were inside when Jubjub pulled us up. That was why whoever made this monster made sure there was no stomach acid. Most likely, an Adumbrae¡¯s power was involved here.

    This monster would then travel underwater to Red Island to make sure that the passengers wouldn¡¯t know how to get there. No one would see the ships too. However, that wouldn¡¯t be enough. Satellites and computers scanning the Pacific Ocean would find suspicious-looking islands with structures on them. The resources of the secret organization behind the Professor were huge; the Supplier should know that.

    There were more tricks to the hidden Red Island that we were yet to find out.

    ¡°Getting swallowed by a whale isn¡¯t on your bucket list?¡± Deen muttered next to me. I could tell from her strained voice that she was also disgusted with our situation. She hid behind acting tough and nonchalant. ¡°Too tame, Erind. Get a more adventurous list and explore the world.¡±

    Deen¡¯s breath wafting over made me want to lash out. It was worse than physical contact with another human, and there was presently plenty of that. But I managed to remain as still as a statue.

    Jubjub, Deen, and I were next to the hull of the beached ship, hiding under a shadow blanket Jubjub made. Well, this wasn¡¯t a beach, but the correct term was still ¡®beached¡¯, wasn¡¯t it? Or was an actual beach required?

    Our situation was a bitch. This blanket thingy was mostly solid, so all our exhaled carbon dioxide was mingling about. I didn¡¯t like that one bit. We also huddled close together, but somehow that didn¡¯t bother me as much. Deen, I had gotten used to. As for Jubjub, my body didn¡¯t recognize her as a person. She was too blank to be one; a regular NPC.

    The blanket¡¯s material was slightly translucent, allowing us to see hints of the outside¡­ which was mostly darkness. The boats turned on their lights after entering this monster, but the cavernous stomach was too cavernous to illuminate in its entirety. The most revealed to us were fleshy purply hills and gigantic pulsing veins. The smell was horrid, like dried barf mixed with rotten bananas.

    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll add getting swallowed by a monster to my list,¡± I said.

    ¡°Hey, whale girl,¡± Deen whispered as she elbowed me. ¡°I thought whales don¡¯t eat people.¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a whale,¡± I replied, rolling my eyes. ¡°And I told you that a whale¡¯s throat is tiny. Can¡¯t swallow a person, much more a frigging boat.¡±

    This was the monster with many glowing eyes I saw earlier while we were hanging out on the cruise ship¡¯s bow. Not sure if it saw us too, or if it was aware we were inside it now. After the cruise ship was out of sight, this creature swallowed the boat we were on, then the other ones.

    ¡°I thought of something,¡± Deen said. ¡°What about killer whales? They¡¯re pretty huge and eat seals, don¡¯t they? They can probably swallow a person.¡±

    ¡°Killer whales are part of the dolphin family.¡±

    ¡°Really? I thought I one-upped you. They should name animals properly to avoid confusion.¡±

    ¡°Killer dolphin,¡± I said, giggling. ¡°Actually¡­ it sounds scarier than ¡®killer whale¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Refrain from talking if unnecessary,¡± Jubjub piped up. I could tell she was gauging the best time to cut into the conversation. ¡°We can still be heard by other people.¡±

    I nodded, zipping my mouth. Could Jubjub see my gesture inside this cloak? She explained that we would be able to hear noises coming from the outside. It made sense if people outside could hear us too, if we were too loud. It was a different thing spotting us.

    So long as we were in the shadows, this covering Jubjub made would completely camouflage us¡ªwe¡¯d look like the side of the ship. Not sure if that was the right term. Maybe becoming ¡®invisible¡¯ was a better description?

    But if light hit us, we¡¯d materialize into someone¡¯s view, looking like three people under a black blanket. Fortunately for us, the light of the ship shone from above, the shadow cast by the hull was our umbrella.

    This ability was different from Jubjub turning into black slime and entering shadows. She couldn¡¯t do that with other people, she told us. I wouldn¡¯t agree to it even if she could; that was just giving her an opportunity to kill me.

    Jubjub¡¯s story was that Dario tasked her to stake out the special elevator in her shadow form. Around midnight, a lot of people started using it to reach the secret floors of the cruise ship¡ªclearly, the Red Island trip was a day earlier than expected. Problem was, Jubjub couldn¡¯t alert Dario because that¡¯d entail returning to her body. She could¡¯ve exited the elevator to safety, but she didn¡¯t. Taking initiative that might be considered dumb, she attached herself to someone and hitchhiked, thinking that Dario and the Professor would appreciate her gathering more info.

    She didn¡¯t meet any problems, surprisingly. The bioscanners must¡¯ve been switched off because of the influx of people passing through, both normal humans and Adumbrae. Her ride took her to the fake fishing boats. The passengers got scanned before boarding so she had to detach. As a shadow, she easily stowed away, sticking to the underside of the gangway to reach the boat.

    Once on board, she figured might as well go all the way to Red Island. She¡¯d be safe if she stuck to her shadow form. Plenty of places to hide on an island and lots of trees provide shade. As for the return trip, the 2Ms¡¯ clients had to go back to their lives after being turned into Adumbrae. She¡¯d hitch a ride back to the mainland.

    There were a lot of missing details in her plans like there could be Adumbrae with detection abilities. It was the stronghold of the Supplier where the most important aspects of his operation were located; they¡¯d anticipate super-powered beings trying to infiltrate the place. How long could she go without food and water? And she wasn¡¯t sure when or how she¡¯d leave Red Island.

    I could relate to the not-thinking-things-through part. Those same issues, I hadn¡¯t considered.

    I also thought I could get to the transport boats by jumping into the ocean. If it weren¡¯t for Deen, and also Jubjub being where she was, I¡¯d have failed. Assessing things fairly, Jubjub¡¯s solo mission could¡¯ve worked out.

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    Since the passengers were all inside the boat, Jubjub decided to stay outside, return to her human form, and try to contact Dario. She had a special satellite phone that worked even though we were far from land and any cell sites. But something blocked its signal. Must¡¯ve been the forcefield protecting the ships from the waves or a device inside the boat.

    Jubjub was looking for a way to get a signal when she saw Deen and me hanging on to the descending forcefield. And that was how we met each other.

    Of course, we couldn¡¯t rely on Jubjub¡¯s words. What if she was with us the entire time?

    I wouldn¡¯t put it past Dario to assign Jubjub to tail me, especially after she revealed our little meeting to him. Once she noticed I was packing my stuff to leave, she then stuck to me. And how did she get on the transport boat? Hmmm¡­ maybe by traveling across the rope of the sandal-grappling, transforming at the end, and landing on the ship. Then she thought it¡¯d up her chances of survival if the three of us were together, so she pulled Deen and me aboard.

    My version might be too far-fetched, but I should be wary of how much Jubjub knew about Deen and me. On the flip side, Jubjub didn¡¯t seem the type to scheme.

    Barely ten minutes after we climbed aboard the boat, it was swallowed by this gigantic not-whale monster. The two other boats followed the same fate. We thought that passengers might start coming out after things settled down, so we got off the boat and hid. Deen was here too, upping our security.

    ¡°Jubilee, can you contact Dario?¡± Deen asked in hushed tones.

    ¡°I still have no connection,¡± Jubilee replied, fiddling with her satellite phone. She could be bullshitting us, and we wouldn¡¯t know. But it was certain Dario couldn¡¯t do anything now.

    An earthy rumble echoed through the expansive stomach. The flesh beneath us convulsed and then tightened into a hard surface. We had felt this a couple of times before.

    ¡°It¡¯s swallowing something again?¡± I whispered. ¡°Weren¡¯t there only three ships?¡±

    ¡°Could it be burping?¡± said Deen. ¡°Can whales¡ª?¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a whale, and I don¡¯t know if whales can burp!¡±

    Jubjub nudged my arm. Did she gather enough courage to tell me off? However, she didn¡¯t complain about my noise. ¡°Listen. The sound of rushing water,¡± she said. ¡°Something else too.¡±

    Soon, we were wading in about a couple of feet of water. And it was continuing to rise. Deen wasn¡¯t saying anything. None of us moved. We could hear the banging of something large and metallic; it was becoming noisier. We couldn¡¯t see what was entering the stomach. A few more seconds and the water was up to my chin. I sat up straighter so I wouldn¡¯t have vile water touching my lips.

    The banging stopped. The massive thing had beached too. Water started to recede.

    Loud voices followed. Angry and arguing with each other. People were getting out of the boat, their footsteps on the deck echoing. It seemed like whatever entered the monster¡¯s stomach wasn¡¯t supposed to be here, and they were checking it out.

    ¡°We should see what it is,¡± I said. ¡°Any objection, Jubjub?¡±

    ¡°None. As long as we¡¯re careful to stick to the shadows and keep this cover over us.¡±

    ¡°Deen, what does your Guardian Angel say?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s guiding me how we should move,¡± she replied.

    ¡°Since you¡¯re not going anywhere,¡± I said, ¡°he probably decided to go along with our shenanigans.¡±

    ¡°Erind, put your hand on my shoulders,¡± Deen said. ¡°Jubilee, hang onto Erind. We¡¯re going to form a choo-choo train while remaining crouched.¡±

    ¡°Choo-choo train?¡± I said with a snort. ¡°Did your Guardian Angel actually say that?¡±

    ¡°Nope. It was just me,¡± said Deen, feeling in the dark for my hands and putting it on her shoulders. ¡°Everyone ready?¡±

    ¡°Ready,¡± I said, flinching when Jubjub held onto my shoulders.

    ¡°Ready,¡± Jubjub echoed. ¡°Please remember to keep your voices down.¡±

    We rounded the boat and reached the other side, keeping to the shadows. We saw what the monster swallowed¡ªa large, orange box, smaller than those freight containers. People armed with spotlights and guns surrounded it. Oh, there were Adumbrae in the mix too, easy to tell apart by the not-very-human body parts they sported.

    I spotted a propeller on one end of the box. ¡°Is that a lifeboat?¡±

    ¡°From the cruise ship,¡± Deen said. ¡°Maybe it got accidentally detached and this whale swallowed it.¡±

    I wrinkled my nose, stopping myself from correcting Deen. I knew she was doing it to tease me. Instead, I observed the 2Ms¡¯ goons. They were arguing what to do with the lifeboat. Some of the Adumbrae must be in the data sheets that Big Marcy has given me. One wanted to blow up the lifeboat. Another was calling for surrender.

    ¡°Someone is inside the lifeboat?¡± I wondered.

    ¡°Sounds like it,¡± said Deen. ¡°Gabe is telling us to stay put. We¡¯re not going to expose ourselves.¡±

    I noticed a familiar face in the crowd of enemies¡ªa familiar monstrous face and blade arm. Ramon! What the hell was he doing here? Judging from the other Adumbrae yelling that they have too many stowaways, Ramon shouldn¡¯t be here just like the lifeboat. Did Big Marcy send him, or did he come alone, expecting me to sneak on the boats to Red Island?

    An explosion momentarily illuminated the cavern. The lifeboat rolled across the stomachscape. As it settled, we saw a huge hole on its hull smoldering. One of the augmented men shot it.

    ¡°Come out!¡± he yelled, waving a cannon for an arm. ¡°We know you¡¯re in there!¡±

    And someone did come out.

    Deen gasped ¡°Reo and Everett?¡± It was them, raising their hands in surrender.

    I turned to Jubjub. ¡°Why are they here? Did Dario send them?¡±

    ¡°He shouldn¡¯t have,¡± Jubjub replied. ¡°That wasn¡¯t part of the plan¡ªthe plan that I¡¯m aware of anyway. Even I¡¯m not supposed to be here.¡±

    ¡°Did they see us?¡± Deen muttered.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I said, a bit too fast.

    ¡°What might¡¯ve happened was that either Reo or Everett saw us climbing down the cruise ship. They panicked and got on a lifeboat to search for us.¡±

    ¡°And then the monster found them?¡± I said. ¡°Yeah¡­ that could happen.¡± Is this my fault? Probably. But was this truly a fault? We might use this to our advantage. I couldn¡¯t see it yet, but I might find some benefit from this development.

    Reo and Everett weren¡¯t getting any benefit though. The Adumbrae were beating them up for answers. Reo played dumb, spouting wild stories that he was drunk and fell into a lifeboat. It was obvious they weren¡¯t just random people because they survived the heavy blows from Adumbrae torturing them. Plus, some scanners exposed their lies. And yet, Reo stuck to his story, almost out of spite for the Adumbrae. Everett was trying to say something, but Reo kept talking over him.

    Weirdly, Reo¡¯s strategy was keeping them alive. By being this defiant, the interest of the 2Ms¡¯ men was piqued. It seemed that Reo and Everett had plans even if the truth was that they were dumb enough to look for us¡ªmostly Deen, probably.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do anything,¡± Deen sternly said.

    That was surprising. I thought she¡¯d be the first to charge, her Guardian Angel¡¯s warning be damned. I was already preparing to choke her.

    ¡°Reo and Everett can survive this,¡± she said.

    ¡°How do you know?¡± I asked. ¡°Did your Guardian Angel tell you?¡±

    ¡°Gabe can¡¯t know what¡¯ll happen to them. I¡¯m saying we should trust that they¡¯re brave and strong enough to survive this. The longer they hold on, the likelier they¡¯d be taken prisoner. Rushing to save them won¡¯t do us any good. Even if we win, this whale could dive to the depths of the ocean and swallow water, drowning us.¡±

    Shocking to come from heroic Deen. Jubjub wasn¡¯t saying anything. Was this proof that Reo and Everett weren¡¯t in Dario¡¯s inner circle?

    As Deen predicted, Reo and Everett were electrocuted to knock them out. Then an Adumbrae wrapped them in a cocoon of gummy substance. Mechanic thingamajigs were placed in their head and they were taken to the boat furthest from us.

    I shrugged. ¡°I guess we¡¯ll just wait here until we reach the Red Island?¡±

 6.40

    Downtimes sucked. The silent ones, especially. They gave me an opportunity to think, to realize how little I planned for shit. Much better to jump into action and improvise later. That was my strong suit.

    Like, how do I fucking destroy Red Island? There were no guides online. I pictured an action hero, attacking the enemy base, plowing through grunts to take on the final boss. Victorious, the hero leaves the building as everything explodes. The end.

    So¡­ just stomp everything?

    There was also the question of what¡¯d happen afterward. The consequences of my actions, I was used to ignoring those. In movies, after the enemies were wiped out, the police would arrive to clean up things. The action hero rides into the sunset scot-free, despite killing a buttload of people, with the leading lady in his arms. No more problems as the credits rolled.

    I already had a leading lady available¡ªDeen was more than a match for any actress¡ªthough I wasn¡¯t going to carry her. But super doubtful that everything would end after the credits rolled. Big Marcy told me about other criminal organizations at the Supplier¡¯s disposal. Not to mention Dario and the Professor would be there. The Corebrings, the BID¡­ so many to think about.

    Returning to a peaceful life, my supposed goal, was impossible.

    I expected all that crap, really. I wasn¡¯t na?ve to assume this would turn out like a movie, with everything wrapping up neat and tidy after I killed Mark and Big Marcy. I was just being bitchy because of how much of a crap this mission turned out to be. Was this worth the trouble of leaving the cruise that I paid for? Shouldn¡¯t I enjoy every moment of respite I get instead of diving into danger?

    Why did I want to destroy Red Island again? I tilted my head, pointing my right ear up to listen to the chatter and laughter on the deck of the fishing boat.

    More people had come out, the rich clientele of the 2Ms presumably. They ate fancy snacks and drank wine served by the guards while marveling at the cave of a stomach they found themselves in. Weird hearing them talk like they were on a safari tour. How out of touch these people were to willingly become monsters for one reason or another?

    Though I wasn¡¯t one to judge. It was fun being a monster.

    Free from constraints of society and morality¡ªthis was why I loved using the Adumbrae excuse. I remembered now. I could do whatever without going against the face I wore because¡­ I was a monster. What did people expect? It was essentially a license to kill. Wasn¡¯t there a movie with that title?

    Add in the superstrength and other powers of being an Adumbrae; a very addictive icing on the cake. I wondered how many of the people above just wanted to feel invincible; with no frills about fear of death or evil motives. I¡¯d totally get them.

    The most important point of attacking Red Island¡ªI was bothering people who bothered me. Now that was the license to kill. It¡¯d be a freaking theme park!

    Yep, all this inconvenience would be worth it once I got there, I thought, feeling giddy with excitement. These were feelings rare to me. As always, the consequences were out of my mind until they became actual problems. Worked out well so far.

    ¡°Are you cold?¡± Deen asked in a whisper.

    ¡°Not really,¡± I replied. She probably felt me giggling. ¡°Just shifting around because I¡¯m bored. How many hours do you think have passed? Two?¡± Deen bought a waterproof watch yesterday; it should be inside her bag. However, turning it on to check the time would light up the inside of this blanket of darkness and blow our cover.

    ¡°Not sure,¡± she replied. Her shoulders rubbed against mine as she shrugged. ¡°This shouldn¡¯t take too long. I think another couple of hours or so.¡±

    ¡°How do figure that?¡±

    ¡°If the destination was far¡ªthe middle of the Pacific, for example¡ªthe 2Ms would¡¯ve figured out better transport for their clients. This boat isn¡¯t too big inside, plus there¡¯s cargo. They can¡¯t expect socialites to endure less-than-stellar accommodations for long. They could¡¯ve transferred the jumping-off point to Hawaii or other islands in the Pacific.¡±

    ¡°Right, right. The artificial Adumbrae also needs to regularly return to the Red Island for maintenance and stuff. I think the question here is how fast this whale monster can swim.¡± I just went with Deen¡¯s term for this big guy. ¡°I bet it is way faster than the cruise ship or these boats. It might get very far.¡±

    ¡°We wait here quietly,¡± Jubjub said with a steel to her voice. She must be pissed repeatedly telling us off from chatting.

    I continued talking but in a softer voice. ¡°What should we do at Red Island?¡±

    ¡°Yo-you¡¯re asking me?¡± Jubjub stammered. I felt her jolt in surprise. ¡°I, uh, what¡¯re you planning to do there? I¡¯m merely going to scout and gather information. That¡¯s not what you have in mind, is it? You¡¯re going to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Attack the place, yes,¡± I said. ¡°But what do you think?¡±  She was the leader of the Las Vegas group, and sort of second-in-command to Dario, but not really. I figured I should pretend to respect her authority. Make her lower her guard.

    ¡°I¡¯ve told you it¡¯s dangerous. But I¡¯ll also understand if you push through with it. What they did to you was horrible, and I sympathize.¡± Jubjub sounded so wooden when she spoke.

    ¡°You sympathize with my situation?¡± I asked. ¡°So, you¡¯re not going to stop me?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t stop you even if I wanted to,¡± she uncommittedly replied.

    Time for a little more push. ¡°Are you going to help me? Us? Deen¡¯s with me on this one.¡± I was certain I could bully Jubjub around, though I also shouldn¡¯t forget that she has no hesitation in killing innocent civilians to keep her and Imani¡¯s identity secret.

    ¡°Even if it¡¯s extremely dangerous,¡± Deen said, ¡°I won¡¯t leave Erind on her own.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll help as much as I can,¡± Jubjub said, bowing to peer pressure. Wasn¡¯t like she could say otherwise. ¡°Let¡¯s continue our discussion later.¡±

    And so, we returned to listening to rich people talk and eat. The smell of food wafted down to us. Annoying. I became the bored type of hungry, wanting to eat to pass the time. Deen had packed some food, granola bars, and other high-energy rations. Could I ask her for those? Probably too noisy to unwrap them.

    I closed my eyes and leaned on Deen¡¯s shoulder. Sleeping was a time machine. The next I opened my eyes, I hoped we would¡¯ve arrived at our destination.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    <hr>

    Trembling ground jogged me awake. Earthy rumbling reverberated throughout the stomach cave. ¡°Wha-what¡¯s happening?¡± Adrenaline rushed through my body. Jubjub and Deen weren¡¯t jumping into action. ¡°Are we there?¡±

    ¡°Most probably, yes,¡± Deen said.

    The boats turned on all their lights, illuminating the muscles of the cavern that appeared to be contracting. The three of us slinked further into the shadows. Chatters and thuds of footsteps on the decks above retreated; people aboard were returning indoors.

    ¡°Are we just going to stay here?¡± I asked. ¡°We¡¯ll probably get caught climbing back up, with all these lights.¡±

    ¡°We wait for now,¡± said Deen. ¡°Gabe will get us out of here safely.¡±

    ¡°Just a thought¡ªwhat if your Guardian Angel makes us stay here? Like, trick us into staying until this big guy goes back to the ocean and away from the Red Island.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll stick to the boats,¡± Deen replied. ¡°They have to float out again, the same way they got in.¡±

    ¡°That means,¡± said Jubjub, ¡°water will come in.¡±

    ¡°I can hear it rushing.¡± I wanted to point out to Jubjub that she could leave me and Deen behind, turn into her shadow form, and sneak aboard the ship to be safe. But I doubted she¡¯d do that even if she had thoughts of betraying us. Too early.

    Soon, the water was up to our waist. Still too shallow to make us float, much more the ship. The whale monster continued to gulp tons of water. Tons? What was the measurement of water? Cubic whatever?

    The water was up to our chin after several more seconds. As we started to float, we gathered Jubjub¡¯s blanket of darkness around us.

    ¡°Grab onto the side of the boat,¡± Deen said. ¡°Gently. Be careful not to make noise warping the metal. Don¡¯t poke your fingers through.¡±

    I chuckled. ¡°The people inside would be really surprised if it starts flooding.¡±

    Higher and higher the water level went. The boats swayed on the water while we clung on. Quakes again. Waves sloshed around the cavern like we were in a wave pool. Speaking of theme parks, we were about to get our first ride arriving on Red Island. With a thunderous groan and a powerful heave, the boats and water were sent through the tunnel that was the esophagus of the whale monster. That was the tube connecting the mouth and the stomach, right?

    A strong suction force combined with contracting muscles pulled the water back out of the giant creature. Winds and water wouldn¡¯t allow our hidey blanket to stay on. It got dissipated; we were exposed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother summoning it back,¡± I told Jubjub. ¡°Our boat¡¯s last in line. No danger of getting seen.¡±

    ¡°Be ready to jump off the boat when I say so,¡± Deen said. ¡°On the count of ten. Ten¡­¡±

    ¡°You could¡¯ve started with a smaller number,¡± I said. ¡°Like three or¡ª¡±

    ¡°Eight. You made me skip. Seven¡­¡±

    The water leveled off and became calm. The boat drifted lazily to what must be the monster¡¯s mouth. It was night outside, so we couldn¡¯t see the actual exit until the boat before us illuminated the edge of the mouth above as it passed through. The monster¡¯s teeth were compacted bristles, almost like a hedge. Very similar to a whale. Maybe an Adumbrae forced one to mutate?

    ¡°Two¡­ and one,¡± Deen said. ¡°Let go.¡±

    We followed her instructions and splashed down into the water. In the dim light, I saw Deen swim past me and head to the walls of the mouth. The cheek, duh. Jubjub and I followed Deen¡¯s lead. It became darker as the last boat left the mouth. Good thing we didn¡¯t remain attached to the boat because people came out and busied themselves, probably preparing for disembarkation.

    We stayed close to the whale monster¡¯s cheek as we swam to the exit. The mouth was beginning to close. Deen stopped swimming. She grabbed me and Jubjub. The monster expelled the last of the water in its mouth, spurting us out along with it.

    Deen hugged us tight as we tumbled in the water. Vortexes spread, left behind by the whale monster retreating into the ocean. Deen, likely guided by her Guardian Angel, dragged us to shore.

    I stood up and scanned our surroundings, relying only on the fairly bright not-so-full moon and stars. The sky was clear. This was far from the cruise ship¡¯s location, which was supposed to be covered by clouds, blocking the satellites from tracking it.

    We seemed to be at the mouth of a river. The waters reflected the sky above. I caught the red eyes of our monster ride sinking into the darkness of the open seas. Ocean. If it noticed us inside its mouth, it didn¡¯t appear to care.

    Turning left, I spotted the last fake fishing boat disappear behind the curve of the river flowing inland. A dense jungle surrounded us. Or forest. Though I watched Animal Planet a lot as a kid, I had no idea the difference between a jungle and a forest. The wind was cool and the insects were loud.

    ¡°We¡¯re probably somewhere to the south,¡± I said.  ¡°It¡¯s a bit too humid. How far could the whale monster have traveled? Past Mexico? Guatemala? El Salvador?¡±

    Deen gasped. ¡°You know what countries are next to Mexico? Did you gain geography superpowers?¡±

    ¡°Ha, ha, and ha. Typical American joke. You¡¯re the one not taking this seriously.¡±

    ¡°I understand what you were doing earlier,¡± Deen said. ¡°Talking about random stuff. The nerves are getting to me.¡±

    ¡°If you want a distracting topic, here¡¯s one: should we remove our wetsuits or not? Getting uncomfy.¡±

    ¡°Insects might bite us,¡± Deen replied.

    ¡°No way they can bite through our skin,¡± I said. ¡°But I¡¯m thinking that our clothes might get ruined traversing this jungle. Or forest. The suit stays on.¡±

    ¡°We should start moving,¡± Jubjub said. ¡°We have to trail the boats closely. It¡¯ll be a problem if they drop their passengers in an inconspicuous location without us knowing.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll catch up to them.¡± Deen waded through the waist-high grass, following Jubjub. Her waist height. Not mine. ¡°It¡¯ll take them time to unload their mutant experiments cargo.¡±

    ¡°Can we turn on some lights, or is that too dangerous?¡± I asked, following the two shadows taller than me. This wasn¡¯t like forests in movies where there was ¡®movie light¡¯ so viewers could see what was going on. It was freaking dark in reality, even with the moon out.

    ¡°Gabe is warning me not to,¡± said Deen. ¡°Danger must be nearby.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll scout,¡± Jubjub said. One of the dark forms ahead of me sunk into the ground.

    ¡°Let¡¯s not talk, Erind,¡± Deen whispered to me. I wasn¡¯t sure if she meant to be careful because Jubjub might be listening, or in general, as in being careful of enemies. She found my hands and placed them around her waist, guiding me through the thicket as we followed the riverbanks. The bag she slung on her shoulder kept hitting me.

    Deen couldn¡¯t see well in the dark either, but her Guardian Angel was guiding her. As for Jubjub, I bet the shadows were like daytime for her.

    I sorely wanted to transform into Blanchette. With my enhanced senses, I could navigate this darkness. I could even sniff out enemies. And there was a much more important reason I wanted to transform on top of seeing my path¡ªI didn¡¯t want to be barefoot. Rough rocks couldn¡¯t cut my soles. That wasn¡¯t the issue. I preferred stepping on stones rather than the soil because there might be animal poop there.

    However, I didn¡¯t want to reveal to Jubjub what my transformation looked like. Having to summon a mask to put on was quite a weakness.

    I distracted myself with planning. What should be my first act? Should I destroy the boats when they leave? It¡¯d be fun playing a monster in a jungle. Probably too early. When I start to make a move, I should take advantage of the element of surprise.

    A few minutes later, we rounded the bend of the river¡¯s curve and found more zigzagging paths farther inland. We wordlessly hurried, crouching among the tall grass until we glimpsed the last boat.

    Deen stopped. She was tensed.

    I squeezed her waist. She tapped the back of my hand, confirming that there was an enemy. Funny how we understood each other. Deen directed me back to where we came from. I was going to protest but decided to trust her. There was rustling in the bushes.

    ¡°What¡¯s the intel, Jubilee?¡± Deen asked.

    Jubjub emerged from the shadows. ¡°Three bends from where you stood before turning around, one enemy is perched on the tree right next to the river.¡±

 6.41

    ¡°Just one? Nobody else?¡± I asked, recalling the drawings made by Big Marcy. The island had three rivers flowing out to the sea. Each had arrows and notes about guards posted. They must be rotating the entrance they used. Smart. I wanted to check the drawings but didn¡¯t want Jubjub to know about them. My connection to Big Marcy was an ace Dario¡¯s side wouldn¡¯t expect.

    ¡°None that I detected,¡± Jubjub replied. ¡°It¡¯s possible an Adumbrae with stealth powers on par with mine is also lurking around.¡±

    ¡°If they have someone like you,¡± I said, ¡°there¡¯s no need for the guy on a tree. They don¡¯t have that many Adumbrae, much less those suited for nightguard duty, to sprinkle everywhere.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m here as an assurance.¡± Deen raised her hand. ¡°Gabe will warn us if there¡¯s more danger.¡±

    ¡°Which means that you have to stay as backup.¡± I turned to Jubjub. ¡°That leaves me and Jubjub to deal with the guy. I think it¡¯s better if I go and then¡ª¡±

    ¡°Why you?¡± Deen interjected. ¡°Gabe will¡ª¡±

    ¡°Will tell you to run away,¡± I cut in. ¡°We¡¯re not avoiding this guy. We need to capture him for interrogation, which is much harder than killing him. Trust me on this one. Here¡¯s my plan¡­¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Hello? Anyone there?¡± I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled. It was difficult to put a bitchy edge to my voice. I imagined myself to be a self-important, irate customer. ¡°I got freaking left behind! What kind of service is this?¡±

    Only insects answered me. To get even more noticeable, I used Deen¡¯s flashlight as I made my way to the tree Jubjub mentioned.

    The Adumbrae must be scratching his head about what to do with me. Problem was if he radioed headquarters to check if the boats were missing a passenger. That¡¯d alert the whole island to our presence before we could do anything. Jubjub was stationed near him to keep watch. If he didn¡¯t follow our script, we¡¯d dispose of him as fast as possible instead of trying to question him.

    Trying to question¡­ We did need information, so Deen went along with my plan that I should meet our friend on a tree. Deen might have her Guardian Angel, but she didn¡¯t have the strength to restrain a strong Adumbrae, which this guy would be. Even just fighting to survive might be too much for her. My true intention, however, was to be the main character and have some banter with the bad guys. The Red Island theme park experience would have a good start.

    Jubjub provided me with some intel about my prey. He had a beast-like form¡ªtall, long-limbed, and hairy. This guy must have a heightened predator sense to be assigned in the jungle. Or forest. He¡¯d be stronger and faster than other Adumbrae. I had to watch out for any special abilities.

    ¡°This is such bullshit!¡± I kept on yelling while stomping toward the tree.

    The less time the Adumbrae had to react, the less likely he¡¯d phone home for instructions. His initial impression of me would be an entitled rich girl having a fit. I had removed my wetsuit and was wearing casual clothes. My damned clothes were starting to get ruined by the brambles and weeds. I did look very much the part of lost.

    And then, the Adumbrae would continue to examine me and notice something wasn¡¯t right apart from the obvious. What¡¯d happen next was the gamble. From my encounters with other artificial Adumbrae, like Theo the Trash Monkey, I was confident I had the winning bet.

    The tree rustled and something massive dropped from its branches, noiselessly landing. I directed my flashlight the Adumbrae¡¯s way as he drew his fall height of ten feet. He had long dark fur and sharp claws. His glowing red eyes regarded me as he sniffed the air with his long snout, baring his fangs with a snarl. The triangular ears on top of his head wiggled, pointing this way and that to pick up sounds of threats.

    ¡°A werewolf?¡± I jerked back. This is absolute bullshit. Copyright infringement of the highest order!

    I badly want to use my Blanchette face and show this guy his place¡ªsix feet under the ground. But even if I could transform out of Jubjub¡¯s sight, this guy would avoid me instead. He should know about Red Hood. He¡¯d alert everyone to my presence.

    ¡°Scared, little girly?¡± asked the werewolf in a low growl as he swaggered towards me, swinging his lengthy arms that came down past his knees though he wasn¡¯t crouching.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a little girl, you smelly furball,¡± I shot back, haughty and annoyed. A lame comeback but fitting for my mask; this was a mask as compared to a face. Hands on my hips were mandatory. ¡°And I¡¯m not scared one bit. Now, take me to the others. The insects are biting me.¡±

    ¡°Sounding too demanding, are we, little girl? I don¡¯t like your tone¡­ Catty, catty.¡±  He made mocking clawing motions. His curved dagger claws gleamed under the moonlight. ¡°Know that we¡¯re in the forest with no one to hear you scream.¡±

    Thank you for confirming you don¡¯t have a backup, stupid copycat. Also, he didn¡¯t know I wasn¡¯t alone. Deen was staying far away, thankfully. Jubjub not revealing herself meant this bastard didn¡¯t try to contact anyone. This werewolf seemed quite bored and pleased with some break in the monotony of his duty¡ªI guessed right.

    ¡°My name is Erind Hartwell,¡± I said. Not sure why I went with my real name. Really feeling the main character vibes, I supposed. ¡°Big Marcy will have his foot up your ass if something bad happens to me.¡±

    The werewolf threw his head back and laughed. ¡°Big Marcy doesn¡¯t have power on this island. And neither do you, Ms. Hartwell. Did I hear that right? Your name doesn¡¯t ring any bell¡­ if that¡¯s even your real name. I¡¯ll introduce myself since my mother raised me well. The name¡¯s Romulus.¡±

    ¡°Romulus? As in Remus and Romulus, the guys raised by a wolf and founded Rome? Is that your real name or did you choose it after you gained the powers to be a stray dog?¡± I was trying to agitate him. Not that I had a better naming sense.

    ¡°I chose this name!¡± Romulus thumped his chest. ¡°The old me is no more. Now, I go by Romulus, and I¡¯m telling you my name as your opponent.

    ¡°Opponent? What¡¯re you talking about?¡± I struggled to keep the laughter out of my voice. He wasn¡¯t aware he was following the script.

    ¡°I know you¡¯re faking it, little girl.¡± Romulus took a few more steps forward, putting me in range of his claws. He stared at me; his irises swirled like a flushed toilet bowl. ¡°I can see you¡¯re not normal. You¡¯re lying that insects are biting you.¡± He pointed to his ears. ¡°I can hear your heartbeat, loud and clear. It¡¯s beating fast but not out of fear. Adrenaline¡¯s rushing through your veins. Readying yourself for a fight? Eager to die, eh?¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ¡°Cut that Little Red Riding Hood crap,¡± I said, furiously pointing a finger at him. ¡°And I¡¯m not looking for a fight. I¡¯m looking for my accommodations. My beauty sleep is out of schedule!¡± Maybe I should audition for movies. I wasn¡¯t fooling this guy, I was cognizant, but I felt I was doing a pretty good job of being the bitchy character.

    Romulus tapped the end of his snout. ¡°Lastly, I can smell that you¡¯re like me¡­ a monster.¡±

    I sighed. ¡°Okay, are you done with Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma?¡±

    Romulus wriggled his nose. ¡°I smell blood on you¡­ you¡¯re a killer.¡±

    ¡°Are you talking in, like, a metaphorical sense or something? Because I haven¡¯t killed recently. And I often take a bath.¡±

    ¡°Done with the charade, eh? So fast.¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°I already drew you out.¡±

    ¡°You finally admit you¡¯re an enemy?¡± Romulus snapped his jaws at me, stopping inches from my face. I didn¡¯t flinch. ¡°You¡¯re the first intruder I¡¯ve ever encountered. Mind-numbingly boring, this job. At long last, someone came along, an opportunity to stretch my muscles.¡±

    Like many other artificial Adumbrae, Romulus the Doggy would want to test how powerful he had become, I had guessed. Given that he was strong enough to be a guard, I doubted he¡¯d settle for some discarded mutants in the arena. He was raring for a real challenge. His predatory animalistic instincts stoked the fire; I experienced that urge as Blanchette.

    I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m not going to fight.¡±

    Romulus tilted his head, his ears flopping to the side. Confusion was apparent on his doggy face. ¡°What do you mean? You¡¯re infiltrating this island. Defeat me so you can move on. But you¡¯ll lose.¡±

    ¡°If I¡¯ll lose, better not to fight, right?¡± I walked forward. He observed me but didn¡¯t make a move. Too bad. I really wanted him to pounce first. I stopped parallel to him and beckoned. ¡°Come on. I¡¯m your prisoner now.¡±

    ¡°Thi-this isn¡¯t how it¡¯s supposed to play out¡­¡±

    I shook my head. ¡°You¡¯re not using your brain, Grandma. I want to get to your base. What¡¯s the quickest way to do that? Get captured and brought there, duh.¡± I was using Reo¡¯s tactic back in the whale monster¡¯s stomach. If I appeared coherent, Romulus the Doggy would be more guarded. ¡°Way less risky option for me too. Look at you¡ªyou¡¯re a freaking werewolf! Look at me. A little girl, as you said. I have powers, yeah, but I also don¡¯t want to get¡ªurgh!¡±

    I flew in the night sky, my stomach burning and stinging. Romulus hit me so fast, that I didn¡¯t see it. Mostly, because it was dark. Impossible for me to be all badass, standing still and absorbing the hit, surprising the enemy.

    Too bad I¡¯m too light, was my thought before slamming against a tree trunk.

    I tumbled down the branches, all the way to the forest floor. Jungle floor? This was going to be a hassle fighting him. Not hard; just a hassle. Like cleaning my room. The important thing was that he struck me first. No problem what I¡¯d do to him later.

    Don¡¯t help me, Deen, I prayed as I picked myself up. Don¡¯t fucking ruin my moment.

    Earlier, I made Deen promise not to butt in the fight no matter what happened. I needed to act beatable first so this bastard would get close to me. He must have stealth skills if he was assigned to watch over this area.

    I could barely see my front¡ªthe tree canopies blocked the moonlight¡ªbut I felt my shredded shirt wet with blood. The cuts weren¡¯t deep. They were already healing. No biggie. I was more annoyed about having yet another outfit ruined. Thoughts of buying a whole bunch of clothes from thrift stores were interrupted by a pair of red eyes glowing from the shadows.

    I flew some distance, and Romulus was already here. A special ability or just moving fast?

    ¡°You¡¯re quite durable, little girl,¡± he growled, holding up his right hand. It was hard to see what he was trying to show me. He pulled something from his fingers, and then his fingers extended.

    Oh, I broke some of his claws, I realized. He removed them so new ones would grow. I nonchalantly walked towards the river to get more light. No point pretending to be hurt. ¡°And you¡¯re quite rude. I was surrendering. Just take me to your base and you can continue your boring job watching grasshopper hop or something.¡±

    Romulus didn¡¯t move from his spot, his eyes trained on me. ¡°Who¡­ No. What are you, Erind Hartwell? You¡¯re not a Corebring. You don¡¯t have¡­ their smell.¡±

    He has met a Corebring before? ¡°Don¡¯t smell me, you freak,¡± I shouted. He wasn¡¯t a generic side character; his guard was up after hitting me. I should¡¯ve caught our first contact. Would he raise the alarm? Jubjub should be on him. Should we take him down fast?

    ¡°An Adumbrae¡­ I¡¯m ninety-nine percent certain.¡± As Romulus spoke, his eyes moved in the darkness as if he was teleporting, showing up here, then there, and suddenly, up a tree. He must be using his ability. ¡°Again, what are you?¡± He emerged to the left side of the tree line, walking out of the darkness, leaving after images like I was drunk.

    ¡°Your guess is right,¡± I said, pondering about what his power could be. ¡°I¡¯m an Adumbrae¡­ a real one.¡±

    ¡°Oho!¡± Romulus laughed. ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to fight a true Adumbrae.¡± With that, we were back to following the script. He slightly bowed, gesturing to the forest. ¡°True Adumbrae, Erind Hartwell, what brings you here?¡±

    ¡°Food,¡± I answered truthfully, though that was also the right response to egg him on. ¡°You¡¯re all food to me.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s do this then!¡± Romulus let out a powerful roar. He grew taller and wider, muscles bubbling under his fur, becoming an even bigger werewolf.

    That¡¯s my power! Super bullshit.

    Romulus became twice wider and added around five feet to his height when he stopped growing. That after-image thing was still there even if he was standing still. It was as if I was cross-eyed looking at him. The longer I looked, the dizzier I became.

    ¡°I already alerted them to our location,¡± he said, in a much lower voice that I almost didn¡¯t understand him. ¡°I did it before coming down to meet you.¡±

    ¡°Wha-what?¡± I rubbed my eyes and looked at Romulus the Doggy again. All his images merged into one. ¡°Alerted who?¡±

    ¡°Headquarters. That¡¯s what you wanted, isn¡¯t it?¡± Romulus proved yet again he wasn¡¯t a run-of-the-mill grunt. ¡°I¡¯ll defeat you before they arrive. Give me some entertainment here.¡±

    Did he really do it? Jubjub should¡¯ve stopped him if he tried to contact anyone. No incentive for her to betray us just yet. Since I was already gambling, I bet Jubjub must¡¯ve disabled his communications without him knowing. Likelier, Romulus was making up stories to trick me into fighting him, which I was going to do anyway.

    Something caught my eye by Romulus'' feet. Specifically, his faint shadow cast by the moon, darker than the darkness around. The shadow left the ground and crept up his right leg, a flattened tentacle of black merging with fur¡ªJubjub. Romulus couldn¡¯t sense it because what was there to sense from a shadow? Only sight was useful, and Romulus was fixated on me. Jubjub hadn¡¯t solidified the shadow yet into her dark slime form.

    I nodded. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s fight.¡±

    I barely finished speaking when Romulus roared and rushed forward. Or he tried to, but Jubjub broke his charge. His shimmering body solidified. Jubjub pulled down to off-balance him. She didn¡¯t have enough force to stop him, so she used his strength and momentum against him.

    Romulus fell to the ground, putting out his hands to support himself. I jumped on him. He caught me, his hand enclosing my torso. ¡°What cheating trick¡ª? Yargh!¡±

    I tore his index and middle finger to free myself, skin, muscles, and bones. His other fingers still gripped me tight. He pulled me to his open mouth, massive jaws lined with fangs bigger than my arms. What kind of idiot puts dangerous things inside his mouth? I caught his jaws as he chomped on my head. Then I tried to twist his mouth around. He resisted. He jerked his head back while pulling me away. I ended up tearing out the ends of his mouth.

    ¡°You bitch!¡± Romulus slammed me into the ground with a flattened palm.

 6.42

    This piece of hairy shit! It fucking hurt!

    The impact spread through my body, momentarily stunning me. I forcefully gathered my consciousness and grabbed onto anything after Romulus released me. As he raised his hand, I remained clinging to his fur. He dumbly stared at me, wide-eyed in surprise. I stabbed my right arm into his palm and clasped a bone or something.

    ¡°Get off, you bitch!¡± Romulus whipped his arm back, attempting to throw me off.

    That¡¯s rich getting called a bitch by a werewolf. I got flung around like a rag doll. It¡¯d take more than that to get rid of me. My right hand holding on strong, I began ripping off whatever I could reach with my left. Every rake removed chunks off Romulus¡¯ palm. Must¡¯ve been painful for him because he kept screaming.

    Then Romulus had the brilliant idea of slamming me to the ground again. Didn¡¯t work out the first time, so he tweaked this strategy by repeating it. Again. And again. And again.

    Shocks rattled my brain. Impacts were incessant; I couldn¡¯t think straight. I no longer knew which way was up or down. My vision was a blur of the world. Didn¡¯t fucking care. Shutting off the pain, I honed my focus into shredding his arm like chicken breast for salad. I don¡¯t know what the fuck I¡¯m thinking about. What I did know was that I made my way up his arm. Right hand hold. Left hand rips off anything within reach. Left hand grabbed onto something. Right hand tears everything.

    Repeat. Repeat. No rinsing, which I badly needed. I was coated in gore. Three seconds later, I was up to his elbow.

    His next display of genius was to pull me off using his other hand. I transferred to it as he tried to grab me, like a rabid tick the size of a human. A small human. Not very genius of Romulus, it turned out. Back at it with disassembling him, one fistful at a time.

    Romulus thought of something that did work¡ªbiting off the arm I was tearing apart above the elbow before I could reach further up. I didn¡¯t realize what he did until I fell to the ground, holding his severed left arm. The little that remained of it anyway.

    I wiped the blood and bits of flesh off my face and looked around. A hint of the sun crept up the horizon.

    Morning already? We must¡¯ve spent more than five hours inside that whale monster. In this meager sunlight, I couldn¡¯t see Romulus anywhere.

    Fucking stupid! I should¡¯ve jumped on his torso. Better yet, his head. I lost the chance to do my signature head-rotating move. Or even my older punching-through-the-eye-socket-to-reach-the-brain skill. My new schtick of tear-apart-piece-by-piece didn¡¯t prove very effective. It was supposed to be a slow and scary torture¡ªI wasn¡¯t planning on killing him yet¡ªbut it didn¡¯t incapacitate my prey.

    ¡°Now, where did that bastard go?¡± I muttered, heading to the trees. I picked up a couple of Romulus¡¯ fingers, and I passed. They were thicker than my wrist.

    The power of Romulus made him very hard to find. At least, it wasn¡¯t teleportation, that was certain. He should be deep in the forest.

    Or maybe not too deep? Another gamble, or more like a strong hunch¡ªthat armless mutt wouldn¡¯t flee far. He¡¯d want to spy on me, just hiding in the darkness. It was either to keep track of me for his comrades to find or, more likely, to find an opening for revenge.

    Sprinkles of purplish blood accented the green grass I passed. Not too helpful though. The drops were spread over a wide area because of how fast Romulus fled. They only gave a general direction of where he went.

    Darkness returned as I entered the shade of trees. I walked with a slight crouch, projecting wariness while carrying two of Romulus¡¯ fingers with still-intact claws.

    I was confident Romulus was observing me. He should be trying to guess what my special abilities were. I wagered that he couldn¡¯t accept that I was physically stronger than him. There had got to be a trick, he¡¯d think. I was a true Adumbrae¡ªit was natural I¡¯d be stronger¡ªbut my image as a weak woman would create a dissonance in his brain. A giant werewolf shouldn¡¯t lose to someone who looked like me.

    The trail of blood stopped. I backtracked and picked a new path. Ended up with nothing. I started circling.

    Romulus must be waiting for his arms to regenerate before engaging me. No way he¡¯d let it end like this. But if he didn¡¯t show up soon, I¡¯d end up lost!

    I didn¡¯t bother calling out to him or chiding him. That wouldn¡¯t aggravate him into revealing himself. By pretending I was taking this seriously, with my guard up and all, Romulus would think he had a chance at defeating me head-on.

    Or not. Still no attacks. Jubjub, help me out here!

    A rustle to the left. That tree with rings of leaves spread upwards its trunk. Some of its leaves were falling!

    I hurled a finger of Romulus like a spear. My target¡ªa bunch of branches swaying. Might be more accurate to say Jubjub was swaying them when I came close enough to notice. The clawed finger hit something with a fleshy thud, unlike the sound of a thick tree. A spurt of blood from seemingly nowhere.

    An anguished roar followed. Romulus came into view, his camouflage peeling off like that gray film on a scratch card. I hit him to the side of his abdomen, pinning him to the tree. I threw his other finger and impaled his shoulder. Then I sprinted to him before he could free himself.

    Romulus hadn¡¯t regenerated his hands yet, only his arms, and couldn¡¯t pull his fingers out of his body. What a weird thought out of context. All he could do was wildly thrash to dislodge himself. He grabbed the base of the tree with his feet, anchoring his lower body, and tried to do a weird ab crunch, bringing his upper body down. He might¡¯ve succeeded in tearing himself off the tree if it weren¡¯t for Jubjub.

    ¡°The hell?¡± Romulus angrily croaked as black tendrils emerged from the shadows beneath the leaves and wrapped around his neck.

    They choked him and pulled him back. He strained against the bonds. Some of them tore. But I was already standing in front of him with a raised brow.

    Romulus chuckled, relaxing and raising his stumpy arms in surrender. ¡°Okay, okay. You got me.¡±

    ¡°Time to answer some questions,¡± I said. His blood flowed down the tree, watering its roots and slowly spreading toward my bare feet. I couldn¡¯t move away because that was uncool.

    ¡°What¡¯s this power of yours?¡± Romulus asked, wrongly assuming that Jubjub wasn¡¯t a separate person. ¡°I¡¯m not the only one comfortable in the dark, eh? Is this how you detected me? Was this on me the entire¡ªrargk!¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    I cracked his shin with a punch. His lower leg was all I could reach. Annoying that he was looking down on me. ¡°That¡¯s for interrupting me earlier,¡± I said. ¡°And I¡¯m the one asking questions. First, can you turn back into a human?¡±

    ¡°Turn into a human for you to torture me easier?¡± he scoffed. ¡°I¡¯m not stupid to do that even if I could. This is my permanent form.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re lying,¡± I said, completely guessing. Good thing if he was stuck this way. Deen might object to my next actions if done on a human body as compared to a monster. I punched the same leg, once again breaking his currently healing bones. ¡°Return to your human form.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m telling you the truth, you bitch!¡± Romulus kicked me with his not-injured leg.

    I ducked, expecting that he¡¯d eventually do it. The log of a leg passed above me. I stood up and caught his leg in the return. I would¡¯ve preferred taking the hit. Much cooler. However, I learned my lesson that I was too freaking light for cool stuff. I¡¯d get lifted off my feet even though I had the superstrength to absorb the impact. I quickly twisted Romulus¡¯ leg several times, enough to rip skin and flesh and pop the joint off its knee socket.

    Romulus yelled as blood poured from his amputated leg. Funnily, he didn¡¯t try to kick me again. Some clear minds prevail. I noted his hands were starting to reform.

    ¡°My next question,¡± I said. ¡°Where on a fucking map is this place? South America? The Pacific?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t answer what I don¡¯t know,¡± Romulus replied, grinding his fangs.

    I jumped up and stabbed his stomach with his leg. The leg¡¯s flesh peeled off encountering Romulus¡¯ abdomen, but the bone continued, penetrating his body and driving into the tree trunk behind him. There. He¡¯d have a harder time removing himself once he got his hands back.

    ¡°Argh!¡± He spat out blood on me. I was already covered in blood, so it didn¡¯t irk me as much. ¡°Use your brain, little girl! Why the hell would I be told such an important information?¡±

    I was aware I¡¯d likely wouldn¡¯t get anything from him. ¡°You must know something,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re just trying to drag this out until rescue arrives.¡±

    Romulus laughed. ¡°Damn right, I¡¯m waiting for the others to arrive. But I also don¡¯t know anything of use to you even if you squeeze me. I just watch the river and report anything wrong. What now, little girl? Are you going to kill me?¡±

    Has he really called base? ¡°You¡¯re egging me on? Not afraid of death?¡±

    ¡°I willingly became a monster! Do you think I¡¯m afraid to meet my maker? Do your worst! You don¡¯t have much time to torture me and get nothing!¡±

    I narrowed my eyes. That was a good comeback. If I continued dismembering him, then I¡¯d be the sore loser. I did want to do it but not anymore after getting told to. It was like Mom telling me to clean my room though I already planned to, and that just made me resent the whole bit.

    ¡°How did you call for help?¡± I asked. ¡°Where¡¯d you hide your phone or whatever gadget you¡¯re using? Stuffed it up your ass? You¡¯re just naked under all that fur?¡±

    ¡°Willing to perform a cavity search on a werewolf?¡± Romulus snickered, blood dripping down the sides of his mouth. His fun was cut short when a small explosion puffed from his chest, followed by a tiny bloom of electric currents.

    Bits and pieces of machinery fell.

    I caught some. Must be a hidden radio that Jubjub had found. Did it mean that Romulus succeeded in calling for backup? ¡°So, that¡¯s where it was¡­¡± I said, holding up a piece of whatever up at him.

    ¡°Nifty trick, Adumbrae,¡± Romulus said. ¡°Congratulations on finding it. With your power, you knew I was up the tree. And that¡¯s also why you were confident revealing yourself. How did you even get here? You must¡¯ve snuck on Kevin¡ªthat¡¯s the name of the swimming big guy. But how did¡ªGAARGGH!¡±

    I stretched my arm, palm facing down, and sliced across his heel. His severed foot fell to the ground. I stabbed him with his foot.

    ¡°Kill me already!¡± Romulus roared. ¡°Kill me and get lost on this island! It changes. I¡¯m going to watch you struggle from hell, you Adumbrae! I¡¯ll wait for¡ª¡± He stopped mid-rant and sniffed the air. ¡°You have company?¡±

    Company? Fucking Deen is coming here to stop my fun! That, or she was warning me to wrap this up before trouble arrived. I turned around. My best friend, still wearing her wetsuit, emerged from the trees, walking quickly towards me. She was wearing an indecipherable expression. My friendship senses were tingling. She wanted to tell me something, but I couldn¡¯t guess what.

    ¡°What now?¡± I asked, retaining the face I wore for Romulus. This was what remained after I took off the mask of the lost 2Ms¡¯ client. ¡°Can¡¯t you see I¡¯m a bit busy here?¡±

    ¡°Erind, I have to tell you something,¡± said Deen. ¡°Come here. I¡¯ll whisper it to you.¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°Sure. Our friend here was doing a Little Riding Hood bit earlier. He forgot about his large ears. He¡¯d probably overhear¡ª¡±

    Deen punched me across the face. That was a fucking serious punch. My body was ready to react and fight her. A thought stopped me¡ªno way the enemy could¡¯ve mind-controlled her; her Guardian Angel was the ultimate counter to that. This also couldn¡¯t be an illusion for the same reason.

    Deen followed it up with a punch to my stomach. I got lifted off the ground. She grabbed me before I got sent flying away. Twirling for momentum, she launched me through the trees. As I soared, my mind raced. Why was she doing this? Was she angry at me for torturing Romulus? If so, she would¡¯ve just told me off.

    I slammed against a tree for the second time today. I flipped myself and landed the right way up, immediately running back to where Romulus was as soon as my feet touched the ground. A shadow kept up with me to my right. Not my shadow.

    ¡°Jubjub, cover me,¡± I whispered, crouching as I ran.

    The darkness complied. Jubjub reformed into her body as I went under the blanket. Slowing down, we continued on our way. ¡°Let¡¯s see what Deen¡¯s plan is,¡± Jubjub told me.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t think she betrayed us?¡±

    ¡°Why would I?¡± Jubjub answered with a tone that implied she thought I was asking a stupid question. ¡°The only explanation for her actions was that she had a plan. She sent you away with a throw rather than a blow¡ªshe wanted distance to perhaps trick the enemy. I followed you so we can return with my stealth ability.¡±

    ¡°Huh¡­¡± I blinked in surprise. Jubjub was insanely loyal. I would¡¯ve thought the same thing if I completely trusted Deen. ¡°Can the werewolf smell us inside here?¡±

    ¡°No. But he can hear us. Quiet now and watch your steps.¡±

    Nearing my launch point, we heard voices.

    ¡°Rommy, Rommy,¡± Deen loudly said. ¡°Looks like you got yourself in a pickle.¡±

    ¡°Rommy?¡± The werewolf grabbed his leg impaling his stomach and pulled it out with a heave. Some of his fingers had returned. ¡°That you, Laura? You shapeshifted into her friend, huh? Why are you here?¡±

    What¡¯s with that question? I wondered. Was Romulus bluffing about reporting my presence to his bosses? Or was this ¡®Laura¡¯ whatever not supposed to be part of the reinforcements?

    ¡°I sensed something weird earlier while on the boat,¡± Deen replied. ¡°Fortunately, I came to check on your sorry ass.¡±

    Ass? I giggled. That was something Deen wouldn¡¯t say normally.

    Romulus freed himself from the tree. He tried to balance standing on his amputated legs, looking comedic. ¡°Did you take care of this woman you copied?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Deen replied. ¡°She managed to get away from me. We should also run or that bitch who did that to you figures out I¡¯m not the cavalry.

    I frowned. Hey! She called me the B-word.

    ¡°To the safe zone by the tree,¡± said Romulus, walking briskly. ¡°It¡¯s going to change soon. We¡¯ll lose them in the Yellow Island. What¡¯s the time?¡±

    ¡°Time?¡± Deen grabbed Romulus as he passed, pulling him to the ground. ¡°Erind! Time for you to kill him!¡±

 6.43

    Before the last word of Deen¡¯s sentence entered my ear, I had already broken out of Jubjub¡¯s shadow blanket. I charged Romulus with no hesitation. In the corner of my eye, I caught a dash of darkness keeping up parallel with me. Jubjub was joining in.

    Deen was on Romulus''s back, pinning him to the ground. Or trying to do so. Their size difference was too big. She was also too light and weak to keep him down. Why didn¡¯t she bash his head in?

    The stupid werewolf pushed off the ground and tried to throw off my equally stupid best friend like an enraged bull. Deen held onto his neck from behind and tightened her embrace to choke him. Romulus clawed at his back, trying to reach her. With her Guardian Angel¡¯s guidance, Deen expertly avoided getting caught, clambering all over his body like a demented monkey.

    Romulus saw me closing in. He tried that shimmering bullshit. Deen on his body seemed to prevent it. He turned around and hobbled away on his still regenerating legs, but it was too slow. He dropped on all fours to flee in an awkward gait.

    ¡°Erind! Quick!¡± Deen grabbed one of Romulus''s hindlegs. Jubjub tied down the other with shadow tentacles.

    An important question popped up¡ªwere Romulus¡¯ hindlegs just regular legs because he had arms? Or were all of his limbs considered legs? I shook my head. Random thoughts, shoo!

    I dove for Romulus''s head. A wide-open mouth welcomed me, his jaws clamping my sides. Fangs pierced through my arms. Oopsies. Could anyone rewind this scene so I could avoid getting caught?

    Romulus violently shook me like a dog shredding his squeaky toy. The world merged and several times I was slammed to the ground. Bones fractures and muscles tore. My blood rushed to my head as my neck threatened to break. Pushing through the pain, I gathered my will and forcefully extended my arms, breaking his fangs and punching through the roof and bottom of his snout.

    I swung my arms and kicked around like a baby throwing a tantrum, taking apart anything I could hit. After a few seconds, I stopped when I realized the fight was over. It was as if someone stuck dynamite inside a watermelon and blew it up. And that watermelon was the head of Romulus.

    ¡°Erind, are you okay?¡± Deen jumped over the werewolf¡¯s headless carcass to reach me. She wiped the blood off my cheeks with her hands. She must¡¯ve predicted my thoughts through the power of friendship because she then said, ¡°Yeah, I know it¡¯s a stupid question. Sorry. You¡¯re obviously not okay.¡±

    She gingerly raised my right arm to examine it. There were three large holes where Romulus¡¯ fangs pierced through. The holes were stretched to an oblong shape, my skin and flesh frayed¡ªthe results of the shaking around. Similar holes were on my other arm. Smaller wounds dotted my flanks, where the fangs punched through my arms and stabbed my torso. Kudos to Romulus for inflicting this much damage on me.

    ¡°This is nothing,¡± I said. Obviously, it wasn¡¯t nothing. This was painful as fuck even if I had experienced worse. Still, I was resilient to pain even when I still had a normal human body. When Myra skewered my stomach at the mall parking area, I was able to limp away pretty far. ¡°I¡¯ll heal my injuries soon enough, Deen. Don¡¯t worry.¡±

    ¡°Your clothes¡­¡±

    I groaned. After the fight, my clothes were torn and bloodied. No amount of washing by the river was going to fix this. My stuff was just getting destroyed! Surely, this wasn¡¯t my fault. Right? The world hates me¡ªconfirmed. My only option was to wear my wetsuit, but I just knew that¡¯d get wrecked too. Whatever.

    It¡¯d be better to strip the bark off of trees and wrap those around my body. Or I could hunt a bear and use its fur as a cloak. I could probably work out how to skin it. If only I had¡­ Hang on, I had an available source of fur.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Deen followed my gaze and looked down at the corpse of Romulus. ¡°Is he still alive?¡±

    ¡°Nope. I¡¯m thinking of turning him into clothes. Do I need to dry his fur after skinning him? Or is that only with leather?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why do you want to¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Just spewing nonsense. Erase all that. I meant to ask you if there was no more information we could¡¯ve squeezed from this guy. You told me to kill him.¡±

    ¡°Probably none because that was what Gabe told me.¡±

    There was something with the way Deen spoke that made me suspect that wasn¡¯t exactly her Guardian Angel¡¯s instruction. And why should I be the one to finish off Romulus? I bet Deen¡¯s twisted sense of right and wrong was at play here. Maybe she didn¡¯t want me torturing Romulus anymore but couldn¡¯t bring herself to kill him, so she told me to do it.

    Deen must¡¯ve realized I sensed something odd because she hastily added, ¡°Anyway, this Adumbrae mentioned a safe zone by the tree. There was also something about time. And, uh, Yellow Island, if I heard¡ªwah!¡±

    ¡°To the tree we go!¡± I grabbed Deen and pulled her to Romulus¡¯ post by the riverbank. ¡°Jubjub, are you here with us? This is the tree where that werewolf hid in, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeesss¡­¡± Jubjub materialized from a puddle of black sludge hiding in the darkest shadow beneath the tree. ¡°He was up there.¡±

    I scanned the ground. ¡°This is supposed to be some kind of safe zone that the werewolf guy wanted to reach before a specific time. I guess we¡¯ll stay here and find out what¡¯ll happen. Jubjub, did he manage to contact other people?¡±

    ¡°He did, unfortunately,¡± Jubjub replied, looking away with a frown. ¡°He asked if the passengers were all accounted for, and someone answered that they had to check. I succeeded in disabling his communications device after that. I apologize for not doing it fast enough, but they likely don¡¯t know that intruders have infiltrated Red Island.¡±

    ¡°Probably, yeah,¡± I replied. ¡°The werewolf guy was just bluffing that backup was coming because he was surprised that Deen, pretending to be his ally, showed up. Oh, everyone, don¡¯t forget that they have someone who can shapeshift. Also, it¡¯s better to just assume that the jig is up. Someone will eventually check in on the werewolf and realize that he¡¯s not answering, so better if we¡¯re vigilant all the way. Jubjub, still no luck contacting Dario?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t get a signal.¡± Jubjub showed us her hi-tech-looking phone and pointed to a blinking indicator of whatever. ¡°Same as inside the whale monster, an interference is jamming communications.¡±

    Figures. It wasn¡¯t a big deal even if she could communicate with Dario. In fact, I wanted her to do so. That¡¯d be one of our possible tickets back home. It was a more precarious scenario if Jubjub was telling the truth.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡°Deen, can you please hand me my wetsuit?¡± Might as well get changed during our downtime. I bunched up my torn clothes and stuffed them into the exposed roots of the tree. ¡°I kind of want to wash the blood off my hair in the river, but I don¡¯t want to risk whatever¡¯s going to happen if I leave this tree. What did that werewolf say again?¡±

    ¡°That he¡¯ll lose us in Yellow Island. Probably another island next to this one?¡± Deen slung the bag higher on her shoulder while making eye contact. She wanted to check the papers that Big Marcy gave me. ¡°Did he mean that he planned to use this tree to reach Yellow Island and escape from you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m betting it¡¯s the opposite,¡± I said. ¡°This tree will keep him getting transported to Yellow Island if it¡¯s really a place. This is a safe zone, he said. Outside here¡­ we don¡¯t know what¡¯ll happen. Any more words from your Guardian Angel?¡±

    ¡°Gabe is silent. I think we¡¯re on the right path.¡±

    ¡°Which means the ¡®thing¡¯¡ª¡± I made air quotes ¡°¡ªis probably going to happen in around ten minutes from the time your Guardian Angel told you to pretend to be that werewolf¡¯s friend. We should experiment with this.¡±

    I stabbed my fingers into the tree next to us and tore off a wide chunk of bark. It was a normal tree, it seemed. Not sure yet what made this place special. I tossed the bark like a Frisbee some distance out of the tree¡¯s shade.

    Deen examined the exposed part of the tree trunk where I removed the bark. ¡°Are you testing the effects of the safe zone? What¡¯re you going to compare it with?¡±

    ¡°Myself.¡± I coiled the end of my hair. With my other hand, I made another coil about the first one and pulled. My hair broke between the coils.

    ¡°Why did you do that?¡± Deen exclaimed.

    ¡°My hair will just grow back. See? It¡¯s almost its original length again. Regeneration for the win. I guess this isn¡¯t regeneration though because hair is dead cells.¡± I tightened the knot of my hair and threw it, adding some force because it was incredibly light. It landed somewhere near the tree bark. ¡°Speaking of dead cells, maybe this won¡¯t work.¡± I stared at my hand.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re thinking of¡ªErind!¡±

    I grabbed my finger. Deen caught my wrist. ¡°It¡¯ll grow back,¡± I said. ¡°I had holes in my arm earlier. This is nothing.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want you harming yourself,¡± Deen said. ¡°Just because you can regenerate doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s fine to be hurt.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s for science. Pseudoscience. But this is real. Magical science? Paranormal science, if that¡¯s not an oxymoron.¡±

    Deen smiled. ¡°It¡¯s cute when you go into random tangents. But this isn¡¯t cute. I¡¯m not going to¡ªHey!¡±

    I wrestled my hands from Deen¡¯s grasp and twisted off a finger, snapping the joint and ripping my skin and flesh. I held my bleeding hand away from me. The wound was sewing itself shut, and a tiny nub poked out as it regrew.

    ¡°I could¡¯ve used my finger,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Context is for your words very important,¡± I pointed out as I tossed my severed finger near where my hair and the tree bark lay. ¡°I suppose my severed finger is also made of dead cells now.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m also willing to volunteer my body parts,¡± Jubjub said, probably trying not to be an outcast of the group.

    ¡°My finger is already fine, okay? If we need body parts again, the two of you can use yours.¡±

    Then something washed over us. It was forceful but wasn¡¯t the wind or a shockwave. The sensation was hard to describe. Falling in a dream? Not really. More like going downhill and having that feeling in the pit of my stomach. The world had moved, my body was telling me.

    But nothing seemed to have changed in our surroundings. I looked at my companions. They had also felt it.

    ¡°Is it¡­ safe to leave?¡± I glanced at Deen, offering her the opportunity to volunteer.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± she replied. ¡°Gabe isn¡¯t telling me to stop.¡± She headed to the stuff I had thrown. Since nothing happened, I followed her. ¡°Nothing¡¯s here¡­¡±

    I searched the grass to make sure that my hair, finger, and the piece of bark were all gone.

    ¡°Look at this!¡± Jubjub called from behind us.

    I turned around and saw her pointing at the tree trunk where I got the piece of bark. It was as good as new. Or good as how old this tree was. My mind was starting to work in hopefully not a dumb way. I beckoned at the others as I rushed to the forest.

    ¡°The werewolf corpse is gone too,¡± I said. ¡°Just like my hair and finger.¡±

    ¡°The marks on the ground of our struggle are wiped away,¡± Deen chimed in. ¡°It¡¯s like everything reverted to the way it was. Minus the werewolf.¡±

    Jubjub materialized several feet away from us, next to the tree where I had pinned Romulus. ¡°This tree has also repaired itself.¡±

    I snapped my fingers. ¡°Okay, time to list what we know and don¡¯t. Red Island rewinds itself whenever that happens. Anything that¡¯s not part of the island itself is gone. We have to assume that what the werewolf said about getting transported to Yellow Island is true. Problem is, we need to be in a safe zone to avoid it, and we don¡¯t know any other than the tree back there.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s also a specific time when the rewind happens,¡± added Deen, ¡°but we don¡¯t know when.¡±

    ¡°Phew, there¡¯s a ton we don¡¯t know.¡± I paused for a bit. Funny how I became the de-facto leader of the group. Was it because I was the strongest? The one with the most experience? I was just behaving with my new face, and this was the result. I jolted, realizing something. ¡°The passengers on the boats! Jubjub, lead the way and find them, uh, please.¡±

    Jubjub didn¡¯t complain that I was ordering her around, turning into sludge and zipping away to follow the river. She probably preferred following instructions to being in charge. To be candid, the Las Vegas group sucked ass in comparison to ours.

    ¡°The tracks of the passengers will be gone with the rewind,¡± Deen put my thoughts into words. ¡°We can¡¯t look for the next safe zone. We won¡¯t even know where to find their drop-off point. Oh, maybe the ships are next to it?¡±

    ¡°If the ships are still around,¡± I said. ¡°They must¡¯ve been transported to Yellow Island. Their disguise as fishing boats is probably for that place. They didn¡¯t use it getting here because we¡¯re inside the whale monster that¡¯s not really a whale.¡±

    Big Marcy¡¯s drawings were starting to make sense. The different outlines of islands layered on top of each other probably meant that they occupied the same space but different dimensions or whatever. That was a powerful as fuck power! Was it the ability of a real Adumbrae helping the Supplier? Reality bending seemed too much compared to the power levels of Adumbrae I had faced so far.

    Curiously, I didn¡¯t remember any markings for safe spots on Big Marcy¡¯s map. Did he not know about them? I couldn¡¯t recall any time indicated either. We knew about the tree because Romulus told us¡­  The guard posts!

    The guards had to stay in safe zones if they wanted to remain in their respective islands. As for the schedule, I guess we just had to torture the next Adumbrae guard we¡¯d catch. Hey, I was kind of a genius for figuring this out. Big Marcy was right to trust in my deductive skills.

    A few minutes of running along the riverbanks with no leads. I thought of consulting the maps that Big Marcy drew, no longer caring what Jubjub would think when we saw Jubjub in her human form up ahead waving at us.

    ¡°I¡¯ve found something,¡± Jubjub said as we approached. She held up a piece of cloth. ¡°This got snagged by a bramble. The people from the cruise ship passed by here.¡±

    ¡°Good work, Jubjub,¡± I said. ¡°Before moving on, we have to show you something because we trust you.¡± I glanced at Deen. She nodded. Of course, her Guardian Angel couldn¡¯t tell if Jubjub would betray us hours into the future. But I wasn¡¯t asking for a prediction. I wanted her agreement so I¡¯d share the blame if things went wrong. Deen handed me the bag.

 6.44

    I opened Deen¡¯s bag and rummaged through the waterproof packet, looking for a specific paper¡ªthe map of the island. Islands, plural, it turned out. The other papers had notes written by Big Marcy and addressed to me. I left those inside the packet. After showing Jubjub the map, she¡¯d suspect I was communicating with Big Marcy. But I didn¡¯t want it to be too obvious. I also wanted to keep secret the details about the Adumbrae of Red Island. I might be able to trick Jubjub into getting herself killed by one later.

    ¡°Here,¡± I said, flattening the map on the grass. ¡°I managed to steal this during one of my personal snooping missions in the bowels of the cruise ship. That¡¯s also how I knew about the fishing boats to Red Island and then led Reo there.¡±

    ¡°You stole this?¡± Jubjub asked. Her question wasn¡¯t laced with skepticism. It was delivered monotone as if she was just confirming my story. Her simple-mindedness worked in our favor.

    ¡°I did, yeah. I don¡¯t know who made this, but we¡¯re lucky I got it. Look here.¡± Four outlines of islands were drawn on top of each other with different colors of inks¡ªred, yellow, blue, and green. ¡°I was wondering why they were drawn that way. The teleportation thing to another island is the explanation. Right now, the werewolf corpse is in Yellow Island. Probably. Soon, someone will discover it. But that¡¯s not our problem, and we can¡¯t do anything about that. Figuring out this multi-island teleporting shenanigans is our priority.¡±

    Why the hell did Big Marcy not include any instructions here? He had detailed drawings of buildings and what was inside them but couldn¡¯t spare the time to write a paragraph to explain how this teleportation crap worked? Or did he expect me to go with the flow of teleportation until I reached the island I wanted to hit? Like, Green Island seemed to have facilities like a clubhouse and restaurants for their clients, or example. Would be fun to attack that place. Red and Yellow Island have laboratories, and Blue Island had a coliseum¡ªthis must be where the fights were held.

    If all-out destruction was the goal, then it wouldn¡¯t really matter where I was. That must be Big Marcy¡¯s thinking. And I bet he didn¡¯t have much of an idea how the island-switching thing worked anyway.

    ¡°The safe zones are not marked,¡± Jubjub said. ¡°We need to know where those are.¡±

    ¡°The spots where the guards are located,¡± said Deen, pointing to a small circle marking. ¡°Those are safe zones. They have to be.¡±

    Dammit! I wanted to be the one to reveal it and appear smart. I realized this about the guards earlier, though Deen thought of it quicker. I chimed in, ¡°Yeah going to be dumb to post a guard that keeps on getting teleported¡­ unless that¡¯s his role. Maybe some of these spots aren¡¯t safe zones.¡± There, I sounded prudent and wise.

    ¡°We¡¯re here,¡± Jubjub pointed at a spot on one of the rivers. ¡°See these curves? We passed them back there.¡±

    ¡°Uh, I guess so,¡± I said, not seeing it. I was useless when it came to maps.

    ¡°There¡¯s no red marking of a guard along the way,¡± Deen said. ¡°Where¡¯s the werewolf?¡±

    ¡°Here.¡± I triumphantly pointed at a small yellow circle. ¡°There¡¯s no name here, unlike the other guard markings, but I¡¯m sure this is where the werewolf was. This guard is supposed to be at Yellow Island. But is the safe zone only there or is it the same with other islands? That may be part of the reason why these islands are drawn on top of each other.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, guards can switch between islands,¡± said Deen. ¡°Good thinking, Erind.¡±

    I know I¡¯m good at thinking. This felt like I was in a detective movie. I wasn¡¯t a fan of those, Mom was, but the part where the detective had figured out the clues and was revealing everything to the crowd was my favorite. There were dopamine hits when pieces of the puzzle clicked in place. Very satisfying.

    ¡°Given that the fishing boats entered Red Island,¡± I said, ¡°the werewolf had to be here as a guard. If the boats would leave the river through the other islands¡ªthey¡¯re probably doing that now¡ªhe¡¯ll just switch. I¡¯m thinking that he really was supposed to go to Yellow Island if he didn¡¯t¡­ meet us.¡±

    I held back my musings about why the islands were called different colors.

    Instead, I said something more sensible, ¡°Our immediate goal is to find the next guard post here on Red Island.¡± I pointed at a green circle marking a spot in the forest, to the left of the riverbanks where we were. ¡°Like the werewolf, this guy is probably here, in Red Island. Then he¡¯ll go to Green Island or something.¡±

    ¡°We still don¡¯t know when the next teleporting wave will pass,¡± said Jubjub.

    ¡°We don¡¯t need to know the exact schedules,¡± Deen said. ¡°Rest assured, Gabe will warn us so long as we¡¯re not too far from a safe zone.¡±

    ¡°We could torture info about the schedule out of the next guard we catch,¡± I said, trying to hold back my laughter as I anticipated Deen¡¯s reaction.

    Concern and disapproval flitted across her face. Deen didn¡¯t look at me as she replied. ¡°There¡¯s no need for that. I already told you that we can rely on Gabe to keep us safe.¡±

    ¡°But that¡¯s the problem,¡± I said. ¡°Your Guardian Angel is intent on keeping you safe. Another thing¡ªwe don¡¯t know which island is safe. Like, is it safer on Yellow Island? Or maybe not. The fishing boats with their guards are there. Not sure why they dropped off their passengers here instead of somewhere closer to the buildings. Anyway, my point is we¡¯re sticking to Red Island because we have to save Everett and Reo, that¡¯s why we need the schedules to avoid getting teleported out of here.¡±

    I almost groaned at myself after saying that. Fun times were the selling point of the Red Island theme park. Saving those two idiots wasn¡¯t fun. A real vacation, just letting go of myself, wrecking everything, killing everyone. Okay, Deen was a teensy-weensy bit right that I was changing.

    ¡°Our goal isn¡¯t aligned with staying safe,¡± I continued. ¡°We can¡¯t necessarily rely on you Guardian Angel for that. And we have to do this fast. Once the 2Ms¡¯ goons have tortured information out of Reo and Everett, they¡¯ll kill them, or worse.¡±

    ¡°Experiment on them,¡± Jubjub said, her forehead wrinkled with worry. Was she thinking of killing Everett and Reo before they divulged anything that might reveal the Professor¡¯s operations? That was kind of on-brand for her.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°So, we need to torture information out of the guards,¡± I told Deen. ¡°Not only to extract the teleportation schedule but to also confirm that Reo and Everett are in Red Island. I know that you¡¯re a good person, Deen.¡± You¡¯re really not, I thought. She could be a psycho sometimes. ¡°But we¡¯re on a timer here. Leave the monstrous acts to a monster like me. I¡¯ll be doing it to a monster too. Your conscience should¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not a monster!¡± Deen grabbed my shoulders and shook me. ¡°We¡¯ll do it together, okay? Share the blame and moral guilt.¡±

    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s decided then,¡± I said. It was difficult to keep a smirk off my face. ¡°There¡¯s a name over the next guard post we¡¯ll pass. ¡®Druidon.¡¯ Is that an alias like ¡®Romulus¡¯? Druid or something? Maybe his power is to control the trees. Let¡¯s go, Jubjub?¡±

    She nodded and zoomed away as a shadow. Or she might double back to eavesdrop on Deen and me, which was why I didn¡¯t examine the rest of Big Marcy¡¯s papers to check who this bastard Druidon was. I shook my head at Deen¡ªI knew she was thinking the same thing¡ªand pointed in the direction where Jubjub went.

    We left the river and went deeper into the island, following a path with no trees. What this path did have was tall grass that we had to wade through.

    ¡°They must cut through this grass each time they pass,¡± I mumbled.

    ¡°Then it¡¯ll return to normal afterward,¡± said Deen. ¡°The perfect cover. Thank the Mother Core that Jubjub found the piece of cloth. She also seemed to be good at reading maps. We should also be thankful that the map you stole is drawn nearly to scale. We should check the other stuff you have stolen.¡±

    I shushed Deen. ¡°Later.¡±

    We continued in silence for several minutes, crouching to keep ourselves below the top of the tall blades of grass. This was how predators stalked their prey in the jungle. Forest? Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that my previous clothes were torn and I had to wear my wetsuit. These weeds were going to be awfully itchy if my body was covered. I knew that because they were tickling my face.

    ¡°I want to sneeze,¡± I hissed at Deen. ¡°Is it safe? Are enemies going to hear¡ª¡±

    Deen pinched my arm. I shut up and held my breath. It staved off the sneeze.

    Guttural grunting reached us. Then the earth shook. Something heavy and large had dropped to the ground from the treetops. The sun had already emerged but its rays still had difficulty penetrating the dense forest. I carefully shoved grass aside to get a better view of the hulk lurking in the shadows.

    ¡°Deen?¡± I whispered.

    ¡°We¡¯ll fight,¡± was her reply.

    ¡°Really? Huh.¡± Sometimes I was iffy with trusting Deen. ¡°Jubjub, are you here?¡± I spoke in hushed tones. No answer. She must be away, scouting for more enemies. No way she¡¯d chicken out just because of this monster. Didn¡¯t look that scary.

    It emerged from the darkness, pushing aside a couple of mid-sized trees. It was as large as a school bus and walked on six stubby legs ending in long claws. It looked more like a fat maggot that had grown legs. Very ugly as opposed to how cute I was.

    This thing wasn¡¯t Druidon, was it? A minion maybe, like Vanessa¡¯s familiars? Could also be a mutant experiment.

    It stomped towards us, waving its head filled with flowery tentacles back and forth. Its face could be some sensory organ because it seemed to know where we were. I wanted to take this challenge on. Not wanting to be accused of recklessness, I first asked Deen. ¡°Are we supposed to fight this big guy? No way to avoid it?¡±

    ¡°Gabe would¡¯ve warned us earlier if we weren¡¯t supposed to go here,¡± Deen said. ¡°It may help us in our goal, even though I can¡¯t see how we can interrogate it.¡±

    ¡°Well, then. Time to go Blanchette.¡± I held out my right hand and concentrated on summoning the mask that was to become my face.

    Deen held my right hand and closed it. ¡°Are you sure?¡± she asked. ¡°They may see it.¡±

    I nodded. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t reveal how I transform into Jubjub.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right. That¡¯s a problem. But I was talking about the Adumbrae of this island. Isn¡¯t it better to hide your Red Hood self from them? They¡¯ll underestimate us.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ that¡¯s a good point. But I wanted to change into Blanchette to avoid getting my wetsuit ruined. It¡¯s not like I have fingers to throw at this big guy like I did with the werewolf.¡± I scanned our surroundings; my eyes landing on a bunch of boulders at the base of a hill to our right. ¡°Those rocks are better than fingers. I¡¯m going to start the fight.¡±

    I sprinted to the boulders, revealing myself. The leggy worm monster already knew that we were somewhere around here anyway. It reacted to my sudden movement. Its tentacles pointed my way. Thunderous drumming as its many legs propelled its fat body after me. Looking over my shoulder, the sight of the giant worm bounding over the grass like an excited dog made me laugh.

    I jumped high, did a somersault, and landed on top of the biggest boulder. Woah, I pulled that off? Awesome action hero shit! Then I shattered its surface with a punch and picked two rock pieces, one in each hand.

    ¡°This is going to be so satisfying popping you.¡± I hurled a rock. It bounced off of the worm. ¡°What!¡± Was its hide really that thick? Or did it have a trampoline skin power? This wasn¡¯t satisfying at all.

    The leggy worm monster drew closer. I threw the next rock harder. Pushed into the worm¡¯s body, like punching a water balloon, and broke into pieces. It was just tough. No powers. I stomped on the boulder, making more cracks. With superhuman speed, I scooped out rocks and fired them in quick succession at the same spot¡ªthe middle of the bouquet of tentacles.

    Blood burst out of the worm monster¡¯s mouth if that was a mouth. It wailed in pain. As it flung its head upward to hide its mouth from me, stretching its neck and pulling the skin taut, I aimed at its throat. Many hits at the same spot pushed its skin to the limit.

    Yes! The neck skin of the worm broke.

    Some rocks shot through it. Didn¡¯t slow it down. It was getting nearer and nearer in its charge. I squatted and dug my fingers into the boulder, pulling out a sizeable chunk that probably weighed more than me. I hurled it at the worm¡¯s wounded neck.

    There was a gaping hole where the rock passed through. Still, the worm continued, its momentum propelling it forward.

    ¡°Buh-bye! Don¡¯t want to get dirty.¡± I jumped off the boulder and ran for a big tree.

    Behind me, the worm crashed into the boulder. Its massive body squeezed itself. Its sides tore open, purple guts showering everywhere. I managed to hide behind the tree just in time. Operation Keep Wetsuit Safe complete. Next up was Operation Beaver.

    ¡°I¡¯m a beaver, I¡¯m a beaver,¡± I sang as I rapidly clawed chunks off the tree trunk as if a giant beaver was chewing it. ¡°Wait¡­ I should¡¯ve removed the other side. Whatever.¡± I jumped high and delivered a powerful kick to the trunk, directing it to fall on the bloodied worm in the rubble.

    The tree splatted the already deflating monster. No more interrogating that, if that was the Adumbrae. But soon learned it wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae.

    ¡°Help!¡± That was Jubjub. She was soaring through the air. That wasn¡¯t her power. She hit the tree and fell.

    What sent her flying came into view¡ªa tree, like many others in the forest. But this one was walking, unlike the others in the forest. Jungle. This must be our pal, Druidon showing himself. Or was this tree his minion? And how did he notice Jubjub?

    A part of the walking tree bulged outward like a zit. The bark formed into a humanoid upper body. ¡°What do we have here?¡± said the tree man. ¡°What did you ladies do to my precious Wormy?¡±

 6.45

    I picked up a rock and hurled it at the literally wooden man growing out of the walking tree. The rock smashed him into matchsticks. Druidon¡ªthis had to be him¡ªgrew out another part of the tree. If his power was to regenerate out of wood, this was going to be an annoying as fuck fight. The forest was full of trees! Or jungle? Jungles also had trees, right?

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t nice of you, little lady,¡± Druidon said. The tree he was attached to changed course and headed towards me with bounding steps. Jubjub had melted into the shadows. ¡°You kill my precious pet,¡± he said, ¡°and now you hit me out of nowhere? Such unladylike beha¡ª¡±

    I destroyed his body with more rocks. Switching targets, I aimed for the many gnarled legs of the walking tree and destroyed its knees¡ªor the joints that could be considered its knees. The tree fell with a loud crash.

    I looked around for a way to destroy the whole tree in one go. I caught a blur zipping at the corner of my eye. It was Deen throwing a rock. At nothing?

    But something did come out of the no-longer walking tree and jumped to the nearest tree. Deen¡¯s rock hit that something¡ªit was a naked man. He fell to the ground, but quickly picked himself up.

    Was that Druidon?

    I sprinted toward him. But I couldn¡¯t reach him in time, and he dived into another tree. Dammit!

    The tree he entered shook. No, it was the entire forest shaking. A bunch of trees around us uprooted themselves. The bastard tree man emerged from a trunk of a tree different from the one he entered. Were the trees all connected? Druidon was there to answer my question.

    ¡°Trees are connected by fungi, my dears!¡± He spread his arms wide as he cackled. More than a dozen trees were heading towards us, swinging down their branches full of leaves like angry cheerleaders with pompoms. ¡°You should¡¯ve learned that from science class. Think of the whole forest as one organism. This is my domain! We are one!¡±

    So, is this a forest or jungle? I wondered, glancing at Deen.

    She was just standing with a conflicted expression. I bet she mentally wrestled with her Guardian Angel who wanted her to leave¡ªthat meant this Druidon asshole would be a pain in the ass to fight. I could see why. He didn¡¯t pose an actual threat if his power was just controlling trees and regenerating here and there. But it¡¯d bog us down if we stayed here. This guy must¡¯ve contacted his buddies about intruders. Not to mention the teleporting stuff going on; we didn¡¯t know the schedule for those.

    Jubjub was nowhere to be found. Was she trying to sneak into those trees to find the guy? He must have a solid form somewhere. Or did Jubjub decide to stay on the sidelines and just watch? She might not be necessarily betraying us, but she could be concerned about getting caught again. There was more to Druidon¡¯s power if he managed to detect shadow Jubjub.

    ¡°In the forest, surrounded by trees, I am invincible!¡± roared Druidon, forgetting that Deen managed to hit his real body once.

    A tree bent down to reach for me. I hopped on its sledgehammer of an arm that was many branches fused, and I traveled up to the point where it connected to the trunk. A cartwheel and a kick sliced off the arm.

    How the fuck did I pull that off? I was like a fricking action star! Too bad no one caught that on camera.

    The next scenes were pretty boring though. Deen and I got to work dismantling the trees. We couldn¡¯t really kill them¡ªit wasn¡¯t like they had a brain and a heart or something¡ªso our only option was to remove their limbs. Druidon popped up here and there, but he couldn¡¯t damage me. Deen, of course, had her Guardian Angel and wasn¡¯t in any trouble.

    ¡°And that¡¯s eight trees!¡± I yelled at Deen while walking away from a tree monster as it fell. ¡°How many have you taken care of?¡±

    ¡°Just three,¡± she said, frowning at me. ¡°You¡¯re treating this like a game.¡±

    I gave her a sheepish grin as I dodged giant roots trying to entangle me. Fine, I was mature enough to admit I was being childish. Red Island might be for enjoyment, but I couldn¡¯t have too much fun. Our time must be running short. I looked around for the weird tree man, wondering how to kill him.

    Druidon was trying to dethrone Finlay as the most annoying opponent. He popped sideways from an ancient oak that towered over us. I just guessed it was an oak; I had zero clue about trees. More tree monsters came from the distance, add in mutated monsters like the ugly ass wormy fellow I had killed. We could take care of these. I could destroy them all.

    But this was getting old. There was no actual danger. I wanted a real challenge, not a joke of an opponent.

    ¡°You ladies don¡¯t take care of the environment,¡± said Druidon from high above.

    ¡°Stop controlling the trees to kill us,¡± I shot back. ¡°We don¡¯t have any other choice than to destroy them. This is all on you!¡±

    Druidon¡¯s wooden features materialized back into flesh as he glowered at me. ¡°You¡¯re a particularly strong one, missy,¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re supposed to be, but I can¡¯t have you destroying more of the precious environment here.¡±

    ¡°Fight me yourself then,¡± I said. ¡°If you beat me, then that¡¯s it. Come down here and be a man¡­ tree. Tree man!¡± I didn¡¯t think he¡¯d fall for my bait. Which he didn¡¯t.

    He shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll let the others deal with you.¡±

    ¡°The others?¡± I tilted my head. ¡°Deal with me? Who are you talking¡ªwoah!¡±

    Massive poles of wood shot out of the ground around me, as trees further away sunk. Did those trees tunnel underground to sneak beneath me? They quickly formed a cage. Deen dove in through the gap in the trunks, doubtless ignoring her Guardian Angel¡¯s warnings. I kicked her stomach and sent her flying out before the cage fully shut.

    I immediately went wild raking at the walls of the cage. I managed to open a hole. Outside were tree monsters closing in, using their bodies to make the cage thicker and keep me in. Were these the others supposed to deal with me? One of them plopped over the hole I made, its heavy body crunching down on my cage. The space became smaller and rounder. Violent shaking followed. I fell on my butt. Did this cocoon of wood go up? Were we moving?

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Wood wasn¡¯t going to keep me contained. I had experience tunneling out of the earth.

    Each punch of mine blasted away chunks of wood. Unfortunately, they¡¯d quickly regrow to plaster over the hole I was trying to make. I had amazing super strength but didn¡¯t know how one punch could blast away concrete or something, like in cartoons. Cartoons. I supposed that explained that. Just continue digging my way out then. Not sure what else I could do.

    Problem was, my tiny space filled up with wood chips as I dug. Still, I didn¡¯t relent. Those walking trees couldn¡¯t keep this up forever; they had to run out of wood at some point. And I had to get out of here fast¡ªthe swaying and shaking told me this wooden cocoon with legs was carrying me far away from Deen. I left the bag with the maps with her. I was probably nowhere near the river that I could follow to lead me back to them. Consider my ass lost.

    My ride suddenly stopped. My momentum banged me to the front. That side of the cocoon opened and I tumbled out. My ride was much diminished, just a ball of wood on many spindly legs. Its massive buddies were also reduced to puny twig people. They crumbled into firewood, having used up their body to keep me caged until they got me far away from Druidon.

    So much for being a guard. He was supposed to kill or capture me.

    Or maybe he was just cognizant he was no match for me and split me off from my girl-space-friends.

    ¡°Where the heck am I?¡± I asked, looking around.

    I expected to see trees. There were still lots of those, and it looked like I was still in the forest. But the trees were far from me, ringing the sort of large crater I was in. It was around an acre in size and filled with all sorts of junk. From mounds of black garbage bags, rusted appliances and scrap metal, even wrecked cars.

    ¡°This is a landfill¡­¡± I climbed to a tall pile to get a better view. ¡°Is this still Red Island?¡±

    Must be. The tree monsters were quick, but the trip was short. Also, I didn¡¯t sense any teleportation wave. If it did happen, shouldn¡¯t the walking trees poof away and revert to normal trees? Then I¡¯d be on Yellow or Green or whatever island was next.

    ¡°Why is all this garbage here?¡± I asked no one, guessing this was the dump of all the colored Islands.

    Shouldn¡¯t the teleportation wave get rid of the trash? My hair and finger, and also Romulus¡¯ corpse, disappeared after it happened. A possibility was that it only worked on stuff that was once living. Or maybe all organic stuff? I didn¡¯t find rotten food or the like around me. No corpses or even skeletons either.

    I¡¯ll let others handle you¡ªthose were Druidon¡¯s last words. Maybe he didn¡¯t mean the walking trees.

    ¡°Is there some garbage monster guarding this place?¡± I shouted. ¡°Come out! I¡¯ve got plenty of questions.¡±

    But there was no one.

    I checked the sun and tried to figure out where was north. Wasn¡¯t helpful because I didn¡¯t know which way I came from anyway. I sucked so bad at survival stuff.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± I squinted at a shimmer in the horizon. It fast approached me. The teleportation wave.

    I shrugged and sat down on a television with a busted screen. Might as well get teleported. I didn¡¯t know where Deen was and this place was getting boring. Even if I wanted to avoid getting teleported, I didn¡¯t know the location of the nearest safe zone.

    Deen could take care of herself. Jubjub too. We¡¯d meet eventually, no biggie. Sometimes, it was fun to go my own way and try new things¡ªthat was what I used to tell my introverted cute self.

    And the wave washed over me.

    <hr>

    I was instantly in a different place, an unlit room. I closed my eyes for several seconds to adjust to the darkness. Opening my eyes again, I found snippets of light crawling from under the gap between the door and the floor. The room was tiny, barely a broom closet. It had tiny slats for air at the top, near the ceiling, that also let in light slivers. The door looked heavy. It had a small window secured by grills across, but it was shut from the other side so I couldn¡¯t see shit.

    ¡°Am I¡­ in prison?¡± I held out my right hand, mulling over whether to transform into Blanchette.

    A commotion made me stop. I pressed my ears on the door. The mystery piqued my interest¡ªI was warming up to this part of the theme park.

    Shouting. Panicked voices. Banging. Cries for help. Like me, the noisy people outside didn¡¯t have a clue where we were. Someone seemed to have broken out of their cell and was helping others escape. A few footsteps were getting closer.

    ¡°Is anyone here?¡± shouted a man¡¯s voice.

    What the fuck is going on? I expected to get jumped by Adumbrae as soon as I teleported. This was different, but might not be so bad. Just play along for now, I supposed. ¡°Help!¡± I cried out in the most damsel-in-distress impression I could. ¡°Help me! I¡¯m in here!¡±

    The window of my cell slid open. Stern green eyes peered in. ¡°We got someone here!¡± he told his companions. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, miss. We¡¯re going to get you out.¡±

    There were smashing noises outside. And something cracked. The cell door flung open, revealing a bunch of people, six of them. Green-Eyed Hero, tall and built like an NBA player, held a sledgehammer with a bloodied end. He must¡¯ve killed someone with it.

    ¡°Wha-what¡¯s going on?¡± I asked, cowering at the end of my room. ¡°I do-don¡¯t know where¡ªwho are you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Tristan,¡± said Green-Eyed Hero, lowering his sledgehammer as he entered the room. ¡°As to what¡¯s going on, I don¡¯t know. None of us do. We woke up in these cells. Phones, wallets, our belongings gone. I pretended to be having a heart attack and overpowered the guard who went in to check up on me. Come with us.¡±

    ¡°We have to escape this place before other guards come,¡± said a tanned shirtless guy who looked like he was on the beach when he was kidnapped by the 2Ms¡¯ men.

    This is a nice change of scene. The forest was bland, with annoying Adumbrae guards. Whatever was going on here could be more enjoyable. This could be a trap. But for what? Such an elaborate setup compared to just attacking me. Not that the bad guys of Red Island had the heads up to prepare this. Most likely, these were random people to be experimented on, and they had the good luck of escaping¡­ to nothing. They¡¯d just die soon enough.

    I might find some use for these people.

    Our little band made our way through the corridor lined with cells and up the stairs. We passed a couple of guards that Tristan, the Green-Eyed Hero, presumably killed. A nerdy girl with long hair¡ªI wasn¡¯t talking about myself; she had dyed her hair purple¡ªvomited at the sight of the corpses. A woman in her late fifties, with the face and mannerisms of a strict professor, pulled Purple Nerd along. Beach Man kicked the corpses, hurling profanities.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, Carmelo,¡± said Green-Eyed Hero to Beach Man. ¡°No point hitting the dead. You too, Francis. Don¡¯t waste time.¡±

    The ¡®Francis¡¯ that Green-Eyed Hero talked to was a middle-aged guy with too much white hair for his age. He also had weirdly frizzy hair. I labeled him Frizzy Detective because he was searching through cabinets.

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing here,¡± said Frizzy Detective. ¡°Odd. I expected files, weapons, and even food or drinks. Even if these scumbags intended to starve us, at least have provisions for the guards. Maybe the outside will give us clues.¡±

    The outside gave us nothing. We exited a squat, square building¡ªjust concrete. No defining features or logos, no other buildings around, just this structure plopped in the middle of a clearing surrounded by trees.

    ¡°Odd. Very odd,¡± said Francis, the Frizzy Detective. ¡°No electric lines, even pipes for this building. No solar panels. Water pipes? Roads are lacking. As isolated as could be. What is this place?¡±

    ¡°This is like the beginning of a bad movie,¡± said Purple Nerd, who might not really be a nerd. She was a bitch for bringing up movies though. That was my thing. She continued, ¡°A bad movie in the sense it¡¯ll be bad for us. It feels like a horror¡ªAh! Look over there!¡±

    We all turned around and saw something crawling up on the building¡¯s roof.

 6.46

    A ghoulish creature with many-segmented limbs, a decaying humanoid insect, perched on the roof as it surveyed us with several reddish eyes. Purple Nerd screamed. The monster opened its mouth and shot out its tendril of a tongue, catching the person nearest the building.

    ¡°Help!¡± cried the portly man I hadn¡¯t given a nickname yet. ¡°Please help¡ªurgk!¡± Fodder Guy got stabbed in the chest by the tongue that wrapped around him.

    ¡°Run!¡± Green-Eyed Hero shouted as he grabbed my arm and pulled me.

    Frizzy Detective was already far ahead even before Green-Eyed Hero shouted. Purple Nerd froze on the spot while wailing like a tornado warning. Schoolteacher and Beach Man practically carried her away. And just like that, our party was down to six¡ªa pretty good number for a group in a horror movie. Too bad for Fodder Guy getting devoured by the monster this early in the movie.

    ¡°I can run by myself,¡± I told Green-Eyed Hero. I detested getting pulled along by someone taller than me like Deen does a lot. Made me feel like a kid. Add that Green-Eyed Hero was freakishly tall.

    Frizzy Detective, poking his head from behind a tree at the end of the clearing, waved at us to hurry up. ¡°We should stick together. The jungle is thick.¡±

    So, this is a jungle? The vegetation was dense, unlike the earlier forest where there was space between the trees. Like, you¡¯d need a machete to cut through the undergrowth, which we didn¡¯t have. Lots of vines and other plants grew on the trees, drapes of greenery. A very tropical feel to it. Humid as an air conditioner¡¯s exhaust. This was a jungle, alright.

    Green-Eyed Hero marched up to Frizzy Detective and stared him down. ¡°Rich of you to say we should stick together after abandoning us.¡±

    ¡°Calm down, I didn¡¯t abandon you,¡± Frizzy Detective replied. ¡°The correct course of action when a man-eating monster shows up is to run. I expected everyone to do the same as me. Now, we¡¯re here. What¡¯s the problem?¡±

    ¡°The problem is¡ª¡± Green-Eyed Hero started to say.

    ¡°The problem is there¡¯s a monster eating someone over there.¡± I stood in between them. ¡°We¡¯re next on the menu if we stick around.¡±

    ¡°Where to, guys?¡± Beach Man said. The rest of the group joined us. ¡°Need to haul ass quick!¡± Purple Nerd was a sniveling wreck, clutching the blazer of Schoolteacher, who appeared mildly miffed about the whole situation.

    ¡°Anywhere but here,¡± said Green-Eyed Hero, leading the way into the forest. Or jungle.

    Probably really a jungle this time.

    ¡°Damn, this is going to be an itchy bonanza,¡± Beach Man groaned. ¡°Wish I had looted the shirt of the dead guard. You guys think that¡¯s a fucking Adumbrae back there? Are we getting pranked or some shit? Some kind of sick joke?¡±

    ¡°It is unlikely this is a prank,¡± Schoolteacher replied. ¡°All of us were kidnapped and brought to a place where Adumbrae roams. Yes, I do think that was an Adumbrae. Very much not a joke.¡±

    ¡°Less talking,¡± Frizzy Detective hissed. ¡°We¡¯ll discuss when we¡¯re safe enough.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not safe anywhere,¡± Purple Nerd said in between sobs.

    Pretty safe to be with me, I thought with a smirk. Just your friendly neighborhood Adumbrae in a wetsuit. I seriously didn¡¯t know what to make of this situation I got plopped into.

    <hr>

    We waded through dense vegetation. Thankfully, Green-Eyed Hero stomped a path for the rest of us. And also, many thanks to my wetsuit for saving me from itchiness. Beach Man was having a very bad time with the scratchy grass and insect bites. I imagined the insects were worse in a jungle than in the forest. They couldn¡¯t bite me though. Being shirtless was the least of Beach Man¡¯s worries; he was barefoot.

    I was barefoot too. Rocks couldn¡¯t cut my skin. But I had to pretend to be hurt to not raise suspicion.

    Green-Eyed Hero offered me his shoes, but they were too big and probably stinky. I settled with wrapping my feet with strips of Frizzy Detective¡¯s vest tied with his shoelaces. He wasn¡¯t such a bad guy as Green-Eyed Hero made him out to be.

    After around half an hour of fleeing from the humanoid insect, we found another boxy building similar to the jail we escaped from. It was just right there, in the middle of the jungle, with nothing else around it.

    What was the deal with them? Shouldn¡¯t the holding cells be connected to laboratories for easy transporting of test subjects? Or they could be right below the arena if these people were supposed to be killed for sport. Super random to plop them in the middle of¡­ a dumpsite for failed mutant experiments? Not sure if the monster we met was an Adumbrae.

    ¡°Should we go in?¡± I asked Green-Eyed Hero. ¡°There might be prisoners to save.¡±

    ¡°And guards that could kill us,¡± said Purple Nerd.

    ¡°Yes, they could kill us,¡± said Green-Eyed Hero. ¡°But I¡¯ve already killed two of them. Actually, we¡¯re not going to kill them. We¡¯re going to capture and interrogate them.¡±

    ¡°By interrogate, do you torture?¡± said Schoolteacher. ¡°I¡¯m not going to stand for that, young man.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no torture if they¡¯re going to cooperate,¡± he replied evenly. ¡°If they won¡¯t spill the beans¡­ Well, we don¡¯t have much of a choice other than to force it out of them.¡±

    ¡°They kidnapped us,¡± Frizzy Detective said. ¡°We¡¯re trying to survive. Morality is hardly on the table.¡±

    Green-Eyed Hero nodded with a smile, warming up to Frizzy Detective. ¡°Right, you are. Here¡¯s the plan.¡±

    He told us to make noises to draw the guards out. We banged sticks and rocks while remaining in the tree line. No one exited the building. Green-Eyed Hero, standing outside the doorway with his sledgehammer held high, vigorously nodded at us. The others talked loudly while I wondered if this was really a prank. They progressed to shouting before Frizzy Detective stopped them.

    ¡°We want to attract the guards,¡± he said. ¡°Not the monster. Let¡¯s come closer.¡±

    Our group left the trees and approached the jail. Feeling brave, Beach Man snuck to the back of the building and called at the cells, asking for anyone inside who could hear him. Still, silence. No guards or prisoners. No monsters either.

    Except for me.

    Frizzy Detective instructed Beach Man to boost him up to the tiny slats. With a mirror he looted from a guard Green-Eyed Hero killed, Frizzy Detective tried to check for people inside the cells.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ¡°It¡¯s empty.¡± Frizzy Detective and Beach Hero transferred to the next set of slats. ¡°Also empty.¡±

    ¡°Maybe this building isn¡¯t in use,¡± I said as we rounded to the front. ¡°I can go in to check. I¡¯m quite fast at running if¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± Green-Eyed Hero opened the front door with a kick and charged inside before anyone could stop him, sledgehammer in front as a thin shield. He must¡¯ve intended to surprise any guards waiting in ambush by barreling past them. ¡°All clear!¡± His shout echoed out the door. The tinge of a certain smugness made me think he enjoyed being front and center.

    The building was empty, but there were signs prisoners used to be there. Cabinets inside the guard room near the front were wide open as if someone searched through them. There were also angry red scribbles on the wall. Survival horror vibes.

    ¡°Don¡¯t trust anyone,¡± Beach Man read one line. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of exclamation marks.¡±

    ¡°They can turn into monsters,¡± Schoolteacher read the sentence written diagonally below it. ¡°How ominous. Turning into monsters should refer to Adumbrae. They. There are many of them.¡±

    ¡°This is hopeless!¡± Purple Nerd hid behind her hands. ¡°We¡¯re all going to die.¡±

    ¡°Dried blood,¡± said Frizzy Detective, picking at the peeling red stuff. ¡°It¡¯s clear what happened here.¡±

    Beach Man threw up his arms. ¡°Clear? Yeah, we¡¯re fucked¡ªthat¡¯s clear. You got some hocus-pocus vision to know what really went down with the people in this building?¡±

    ¡°Firstly, the same as us, the prisoners somehow managed to escape, judging from the empty cells,¡± said Frizzy Detective, ¡°and the very noticeable fact they¡¯re not around now.¡±

    ¡°Come on, man,¡± said Beach Man. ¡°Anyone can see that.¡±

    ¡°Secondly,¡± Frizzy Detective went on, ¡°there were no guards posted in this building or we would¡¯ve seen their bodies, whether dead or incapacitated. There are also no signs of a fight. Yes, there¡¯s blood. But that was intentionally painted on the wall.¡±

    ¡°Why would this place not have any guards?¡± I asked, already forming a hypothesis in my mind.

    Frizzy Detective shrugged. ¡°Plenty of reasons. The Adumbrae could¡¯ve killed them while they patrolled outside. Or the guards could¡¯ve been ordered to leave because there are monsters. However, given the placement and state of these buildings, I believe the guards are connected with the monsters. They¡ªI don¡¯t know who could be behind this¡ªbrought people like us to feed the monsters. This would make the most sense given that these cells didn¡¯t seem to be intended as long-term. The guard had left because this building was the next buffet to open. That¡¯s my third point.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, the prisoners might not have broken out,¡± I said. ¡°The doors just opened after a set time.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re offerings to Adumbrae?¡± Beach Man punched a cabinet door. ¡°That¡¯s batshit insane!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not as insane as you¡¯d think,¡± said Schoolteacher. ¡°Phrasing it better, it is insane but not unlikely. The Goldenfield massacre, the Memphis cult in Ohio, the Happy Day Ranch killings¡­ I can think of many other examples of people offering fellow humans to monsters. It appears that we¡¯re going to add to that list of examples.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m too young to die!¡± Purple Nerd exclaimed.

    ¡°We¡¯re sacrifices, got it,¡± said Green-Eyed Hero, nodding as he stroked his chin. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re just going to let ourselves get killed.¡± He turned to Frizzy Detective. ¡°The people here left and then¡­?¡±

    ¡°Fourthly, the escapees encountered an Adumbrae,¡± said Frizzy Detective. ¡°At least one of them was injured and returned here.¡± He pointed at the blood on the wall, then the droplets on the floor. He chuckled and shook his head. ¡°Who am I kidding? Many of them were killed, I bet.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to laugh at their misfortune,¡± Schoolteacher sternly said. ¡°Their fate could be our future.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s something I don¡¯t get,¡± said Beach Man. ¡°Why would this injured guy return to this dump? Did he think of holing up here to be safe from the monsters? Only one door. If an Adumbrae enters, there¡¯s no escape. We¡¯ve seen an Adumbrae visit the jail we came from.¡±

    ¡°That means we have a limited time here,¡± I mumbled.

    ¡°The person who left this message didn¡¯t die here,¡± said Frizzy Man, gesturing to the floor free of corpses. ¡°He must¡¯ve thought this place was a death trap as well. But why did he return? I hypothesize that his group split up when they were attacked. He hoped to reunite with the survivors, thinking they might come here. I¡¯m not sure if he succeeded¡ªprobably not¡ªbut he left this message for the others.¡±

    ¡°Which others?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Others,¡± Frizzy Detective said, looking with a raised brow. ¡°His fellow escapees. He¡¯s telling them not to trust Adumbrae masquerading as humans. I¡¯m picturing the scenario where his group met someone claiming to have escaped another jail, supposedly, who turned out to be an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°If so, then this message doesn¡¯t make sense,¡± I said. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t need to tell his group about that because they¡¯d already know. I think this is a warning to people from other buildings.¡±

    ¡°People like us,¡± said Green-Eyed Hero.

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s¡­ more plausible,¡± Frizzy Detective conceded, even if he looked pained doing so. ¡°Their group must¡¯ve seen other buildings, like we did, and deduced there were more of us out there. The person who left this message wanted others to avoid what happened to his group¡ªwe should be wise not to trust anyone we meet.¡±

    ¡°That message applies to us too.¡± I looked around the group with fake suspicious eyes. Dramatic music welled in my head. The camera should zoom on my face right now. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t trust each other. Maybe¡­ not all of us are prisoners.¡±

    ¡°The hell are you saying?¡± Beach Man demanded. ¡°There¡¯s an Adumbrae among us?¡±

    ¡°Oh my god!¡± Purple Nerd backed away from the group and pressed herself against the wall.

    ¡°Hang on, none of that talk,¡± said Green-Eyed Hero. ¡°This isn¡¯t the time to be pointing fingers at each other. We can¡¯t afford to fight and split up.¡±

    ¡°Yep, splitting up always ends up badly in movies,¡± I said.

    Frizzy Detective grabbed the door of the cabinet doors. ¡°It¡¯s possible to root out any possible Adumbrae.¡± He yanked off the door after some struggle. The hinges had loose screws. He picked out one and held it up. ¡°One prick is all it takes.¡±

    ¡°Absolutely no fricking way!¡± shrieked Purple Nerd, who I was now dubbing as Purple Banshee. She really should learn to control her voice. ¡°No one¡¯s going to hurt me.¡±

    Even if Purple Banshee was annoying, I was grateful she resisted Frizzy Detective¡¯s plan. I didn¡¯t need to come up with excuses for why I wouldn¡¯t want to get pricked.

    Frizzy Detective laughed. ¡°I was just joking. Of course, I won¡¯t do it. If it turns out that there was an actual Adumbrae, he¡¯d kill us all. We¡¯d be rushing to our deaths if we did test. The best course of action is to be watchful of everyone else while staying together. The trick is to notice the odd one out and escape before the killing starts.¡±

    His words brought silence to the group.

    Green-Eyed Hero cleared his throat. ¡°I, uh, I think we should get going. We can¡¯t be here when the Adumbrae checks this building.¡± Everyone wordlessly followed him.

    This is a hunting field. I have seen a few movies like this. The rich kidnap random people and release them into a jungle, making a sport out of hunting them. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if hidden cameras were watching our every move. The question was if the Adumbrae assigned to this island¡ªI bet this was Blue Island, because it had the Coliseum thingy¡ªknew that I was an intruder. Would they care enough about their victims to know there was an extra one?

    Another question was if we really had an Adumbrae among us. Besides me. Green-Eyed Hero¡¯s story about overpowering guards seemed fishy. Such a fan attraction to have an interactive event in this theme park.

    ¡°I¡¯m thinking we can introduce ourselves,¡± said Green-Eyed Hero. ¡°It¡¯ll make things less¡­ tense. We need to work together to survive. That includes trusting each other. I¡¯ll start. I¡¯m Tristan. I¡¯m an all-around handyman from¡­ uh¡­ we can skip specific details. I got this new client. A rich guy. I was supposed to fix his clogged pool. The last thing I remember before waking up in my cell was entering that guy¡¯s mansion.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll go next,¡± said Beach Man. ¡°The name¡¯s Carmelo. I was partying with my buddies. Some hot chicks invited us to the VIP section. Boom. Next thing I knew, I¡¯m here.¡±

    ¡°We can really say anything,¡± said Frizzy Detective, ¡°and no one can know if we¡¯re lying. But sure, I¡¯ll play along. I¡¯m Francis, as I¡¯ve said earlier. I¡¯m an accountant at¡ª¡±

    The scream of Purple Banshee interrupted the story. She pointed somewhere to the right. ¡°A body!¡±

 6.47

    Annoying bitch. I was prepared with my backstory and Purple Banshee interrupted this crucial part of the movie. Sharing backgrounds was essential because someone had to break out a sob story for their later death to have an emotional impact. Also, one or two characters would lie and get found out later¡ªthat could be me. Purple Banshee here just had to be a diva and deviate from the script.

    Green-Eyed Hero rushed over, sledgehammer at the ready. Kinda weird he found that item in jail. Another point of suspicion for him. And he was fine lugging that heavy thing around? Two points. Or was it three?

    ¡°Where¡¯s the body?¡± he asked Purple Banshee.

    ¡°Over there!¡± Purple Banshee pointed but didn¡¯t look. ¡°By those frilly leaves. I¡¯m sure I saw a foot.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a foot alright.¡± Green-Eyed Hero turned the sledgehammer around and used its handle to sweep away the grass. ¡°A foot¡­ and there¡¯s the rest of the body scattered. This man looks like he¡¯s been mauled badly.¡±

    ¡°Let me see.¡± Beach Man cleared more of the undergrowth, took a look at the corpse, and then gagged. ¡°Holy fuck, his face is gone!¡±

    ¡°Killed by an Adumbrae?¡± Frizzy Detective wondered. ¡°Or a wild animal?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think this is a wild animal,¡± said Green-Eyed Hero. ¡°Some body parts here and there. Only the face was eaten. It¡¯s tipping more into sadistic violence than a hungry animal having a meal. Take a look for yourself,¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not,¡± Frizzy Detective replied. ¡°I¡¯m man enough to admit my stomach can¡¯t handle that.¡±

    I walked towards the corpse. Green-Eyed Hero tried to stop me but I shot him a glare, daring him to say what was on his mind. He wasn¡¯t man enough to start a gender conflict, so he let me through. I discerned from his face that he expected me to bolt upon seeing the gruesome sight.

    ¡°Tha-that does look bad.¡± I pretended struggling to keep down a vomit. I took on the role of the girl trying to act tough because Purple Banshee was already the scaredy-cat even though I looked the part. ¡°This has to be the work of that Adumbrae we met. Those holes¡­ I remember its tongue could stab people¡­¡± Dramatic pause to appear like I was trying to compose myself.

    ¡°Francis, want to search this corpse?¡± Green-Eyed Hero asked with a smirk.

    ¡°No, thank you.¡± Frizzy Detective turned around and started to walk away. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t stay here. The Adumbrae might come back.¡±

    ¡°Like a criminal revisiting a crime scene,¡± I said.

    What should I do when we do get attacked by an Adumbrae? I had to reveal myself. My face would be back to Red Hood attacking Red Island. More accurately, my face right now was Red Hood pretending to be a normal human. When should I pull off my figurative hood and reveal I was an Adumbrae? That was an important scene. Do I let all these people die first and then kill the Adumbrae killing them?

    Boring. It¡¯d be best to see the reaction of my groupmates come revelation time. Surprising only the enemy Adumbrae would be underwhelming. I was here to enjoy myself; drama was the priority.

    A curious thing was that there had been no teleportation wave for some time now. Was it not its schedule yet? Or was everything outside the prison buildings not subject to teleportation? Would be annoying to have a human hunting game while the prey kept getting transferred to other locations.

    As we traveled to only the Mother Core knows where, Frizzy Detective went on with his backstory. He was an accountant coming home late from a company diner, he told us. Then he met a beautiful lady he assumed was from a different department. They hit it off and went to a bar. Same as Beach Man, he must¡¯ve been drugged and kidnapped. Not sure if I should be suspicious of his lame-ass story. It sounded too simple that it seemed made up. But the truth was usually mundane.

    Schoolteacher was hesitant to share that she met up with an online date. Boom, boom, pow, she got kidnapped. Oh, and she wasn¡¯t a schoolteacher. Some generic government employee; I tuned out her explanation. Her nickname remains.

    Purple Banshee, on the other hand, was adamant about not sharing anything, even a fake story to appease the group. Made her less suspicious in my eyes. Maybe that was her game plan?

    Of note was that none of these people were homeless. They weren¡¯t nobodies that nobody would miss.

    Why were they taken? Didn¡¯t the 2Ms target people whose disappearance wouldn¡¯t cause a fuss? What was the common thing that tied all of them? Frizzy Detective wanted to figure it out as well, badgering us with questions I was only too eager to answer. Fake stories stored in my head needed to be free. Consider this as a creative outlet.

    ¡°I have a theory,¡± said Frizzy Detective. ¡°The commonality among us is that we¡¯ve seen an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°Wha-what are you talking about?¡± Beach Man asked.

    ¡°Seen an Adumbrae with our own eyes,¡± continued Frizzy Detective said. ¡°Not on TV or a video recording or whatnot. I¡¯ll even go as far as to say that we¡¯ve all encountered an Adumbrae. Why do I say that? I¡¯ll be the first to admit¡ªI¡¯m a survivor of the recent Adumbrae Titan attack on La Esperanza. I was in a building that partially collapsed when the giant mushroom monster passed. Now¡­ am I correct or not?¡±

    ¡°I-I was a kid when an Adumbrae attacked my town,¡± Beach Man said, scratching the back of his head. ¡°Many people died, including my uncle. That was some twenty years back. I guess that¡¯s an encounter.¡±

    Frizzy Detective could be right, I thought. Finding people who had encountered an Adumbrae¡ªI was included in this category¡ªshouldn¡¯t be too difficult. There were government records and all that. But why gather them to just throw them away as fodder for the hunt? Could this be an experiment trying to trigger a seeding and summon a real Adumbrae?

    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m from Las Vegas,¡± I said, hesitantly raising my arm. ¡°I worked in a building with a view of the Greaves Convention Center. I watched the BID close in on the center and¡­ saw some monsters. I swear that I was super far. Can¡¯t even call that an encounter. But¡­ yeah, I saw them with my own eyes.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for your honesty, Helen,¡± Frizzy Detective said, calling me by the fake name I gave them earlier. ¡°Anyone else wants to contribute their own experiences? I believe we¡¯re making headway to finding out why we¡¯re here. Tristan, you¡¯ve got something to say?¡±

    Green-Eyed Hero had stopped walking. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve got something to say. There¡¯s something over there, by the trees.¡± He strode forward, sledgehammer at the ready. ¡°Get behind me.¡±

    The rest of us looked at each other. A rustling of leaves. Purple Banshee yelped, ¡°A person!¡±

    A man with a tattered tuxedo flecked with blood stumbled out from behind a tree. ¡°Thank goodness I found you! Please help¡ª¡±

    ¡°Stay where you are!¡± Green-Eyed Hero had his sledgehammer at the ready. ¡°Not one step closer.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t attack!¡± Tattered Tux raised his arms as he hobbled. ¡°I don¡¯t have weapons. An Adumbrae¡­ we were attacked by an Adumbrae! Me a-and, uh, others. Six of us! They¡¯re all dead and I¡ª¡±

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°I said don¡¯t come closer!¡± Green-Eyed Hero roared. ¡°Show us your injuries first.¡±

    Smart thinking. I just realized that zombie movies were the opposite of Adumbrae movies. In zombie movies, survivors had to be wary of people with injuries because they could be infected with the virus. In Adumbrae movies, people with no injuries could be the Adumbrae. Funny how that worked.

    Tattered Tux still approached us, even stumbling down the rocks. ¡°I¡¯m bloodied and hurt, can¡¯t you see¡ª¡±

    Bang! A gunshot.

    Tattered Tux dropped to the ground.

    Looking over my shoulder, I saw that it was Frizzy Detective who fired.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got a frigging gun all along?¡± Beach Man exclaimed.

    ¡°I found it from the guard that Tristan bludgeoned,¡± Frizzy Detective answered. ¡°It pays to be frisky sometimes.¡±

    ¡°Why did you shoot him?¡± Green-Eyed Hero reached for Frizzy Detective¡¯s gun, but the latter pointed it at him. Green-Eyed Hero retreated. ¡°The hell is this?¡±

    Frizzy Detective lowered the gun and gestured at the fallen Tattered Tux. ¡°Smash his head and make sure he¡¯s dead. Only a destroyed brain can stop an Adumbrae from coming back.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to do that! Are you out of your goddamn mind?¡±

    ¡°Remember the writing on the wall: Don¡¯t trust anyone. We have to assume any person we meet is an Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re going to believe those scribblings?¡± Green-Eyed Hero shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not going to be a murderer.¡±

    Frizzy Detective pointed an accusatory finger at him. ¡°You already killed two guards.¡±

    This is like watching a movie, I giddily thought. Would be good to have some popcorn to snack on, though I didn¡¯t like popcorn. Noisy crunching in the theatre. Been quite busy lately that I didn¡¯t have time to watch some good movies even just on my laptop. This scene was better than a movie because it was real life, and I was in it.

    ¡°That was different.¡± Green-Eyed Hero went to check on Tattered Tux. Despite not agreeing with Frizzy Detective, Green-Eyed Hero was still cautious, poking at Tattered Tux with the sledgehammer¡¯s head. ¡°This man was no threat.¡±

    Frizzy Detective shrugged. ¡°Better safe than sorry. Let¡¯s leave. The gunshot would draw attention to us.¡±

    Laughter filled the air. It didn¡¯t come from anyone in our group.

    Tattered Tux slowly sat up. ¡°You¡¯re much better than the previous bunch of people I ate.¡±

    Green-Eyed Hero was quick to swing his sledgehammer, hitting Tattered Tux in the head.

    I didn¡¯t get to see what happened next because Frizzy Detective grabbed me and yelled, ¡°Everyone, run!¡±

    Surprising that Frizzy Detective took me with him. He must¡¯ve remembered Green-Eyed Hero raising an issue when the first monster appeared and he ran off on his own. What wasn¡¯t surprising was that Tattered Tux was an Adumbrae. We were at the point of the movie when the monster should show up, and the appearance of Tattered Tux just screamed suspicious asshole.

    I checked the others as Frizzy Detective dragged me.

    Green-Eyed Hero wasn¡¯t dead yet? Tattered Tux was several feet away from where he had stood. Green-Eye Hero must¡¯ve managed to hit him far. Strong guy for a human. Tattered Tux spouted bullshit, but his words slurred and became unintelligible as he transformed into a large snake monster and wriggled out of his tattered tux.

    What should I call him now? Sneaky Snake? Suitless Serpent?

    My groupmates ran in different directions. Schoolteacher and Purple Banshee were together, disappearing into a brambly thicket. Beach Man was already gone. Green-Eyed Hero ditched his sledgehammer¡ªthat was sad to see¡ªand ran opposite where the women went. Suitless Serpent decided to chase Green-Eyed Hero.

    We fucking split up! In movies, this would be the beginning of the end. Each person would get picked off by the monster until it was only the main characters left.

    The bigger problem was that I couldn¡¯t do my dramatic reveal if the others had gone to get their idiot selves killed. I only had one audience left¡ªFrizzy Detective. He seemed like a downer when it came to reactions. Oh well¡­

    ¡°Don¡¯t look back,¡± said Frizzy Detective. ¡°Can you run on your own?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I can.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± He let go of my arm. ¡°Do your best to keep up with me. Alert me if you¡¯re falling behind. Does your feet hurt?¡±

    ¡°They do, but I can manage,¡± I said. ¡°Hard to feel pain when fearing for my life is the only thing in my brain.¡± Odd that he suddenly cared about me.

    Did this mean I was his love interest? He did have that vibe of a survivor, so he¡¯d have lots of screen time if kept this up. Be the main character even. And that meant he needed a leading lady. I was the only option. Not like Purple Banshee or Schoolteacher were particularly suitable for the role. They¡¯d probably be dead soon anyway.

    ¡°We¡¯ll head north,¡± Frizzy Detective explained. ¡°I saw mountains that way. We¡¯ll have higher chances of finding water springing from the mountainside. As for food, we¡¯ll try foraging for mushrooms.¡±

    ¡°The mountains?¡± I asked. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be, you know, hard to climb?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but the Adumbrae might think we¡¯ll go back, instead of circling and moving northward.¡±

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right¡­¡± Was everyone in our group suspicious?

    ¡°Unless we were trapped on an island, there¡¯s a high chance that the mountains are the borders of this¡­ whatever this place is. It could be just wild hope, but we might find civilization on the other side of the mountains.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not an accountant, are you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve taken some accounting courses.¡± He grinned at me. ¡°And I¡¯ve learned some survival things¡­ somewhere. I¡¯m not going to say more than that. You have your secrets too, don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Erm, yes,¡± I said, looking away. We now have some lies revealed. The time for my own revelation drew near. If only we could reunite with the others.

    But that might not be possible. Screams echoed through the trees. Birds chirped as they vacated the canopies above. It sounded like a female voice.

    ¡°Keep moving,¡± Frizzy Detective said. ¡°Ignore the shouts. Don¡¯t let them get it to you.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I know,¡± I said. ¡°I should keep focus on¡ªoh!¡± My foot wrappings snagged on a root exposed aboveground. The cloth tore. I almost tumbled.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Frizzy Detective caught me. Romance music started rolling. He let go of me, his cheeks blushing. He went down on one knee, not to propose but to check on my foot. The wrappings were falling off.

    I walked past him to avoid getting examined. ¡°We should continue. I¡¯m fine, really. The Adumbrae might be nearby.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± He slowly stood up, giving me a perplexed look. ¡°You must be in pain. I can help¡ª¡±

    ¡°Francis! Helen!¡± Purple Banshee was up a tree. ¡°Thank the Mother Core I¡¯m not alone. I can¡¯t find the others. I think Ms. Harper is dead.¡±

    Ms. Harper must be Schoolteacher¡¯s real name. I barely listened to her story.

    Purple Banshee descended from the tree, and Frizzy Detective helped her. ¡°Did you guys see the Adumbrae?¡± she asked. ¡°Are you both okay?¡±

    ¡°We didn¡¯t see the Adumbrae,¡± I said. ¡°And we¡¯re fine.¡±

    ¡°Too fine.¡± Frizzy Detective pointed his gun at me and fired.

    My foot gave me away, I managed to think before the bullet hit me in the chest. It was comparable to a strong poke, but I still enacted my theatrical fall. This would be turned slow-motion during editing. As my head hit the ground, I realized that I did the exact same thing as Suitless Serpent. I should¡¯ve remained standing to spook both of them. Too late now. What were they going to do next?

    Purple Banshee yelped. ¡°Why did you shoot¡ª?

    ¡°She¡¯s an Adumbrae,¡± Frizzy Detective hurriedly replied. ¡°Huh, why are you staying?¡± He must¡¯ve tried to pull her. ¡°Let¡¯s go before the Adumbrae gets up!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re wrong.¡±

    ¡°What? You have to trust me that she¡¯s an Adumbrae! Don¡¯t think I¡¯m shooting people for the fun of it. This time, I¡¯m sure¡ª¡±

    Purple Banshee laughed. Her voice changed from trembling to confident and strong. ¡°I¡¯m the Adumbrae, you moron.¡±

    Dun, dun, dun, I thought.

 6.48

    Huh, I really thought Green-Eyed Hero was the secret Adumbrae. Purple Banshee did a good job melting into the background despite being an obnoxious noisy bitch.

    Why did she act like a scaredy cat? She could¡¯ve taken a different role, like being the know-it-all or maybe the dumbass liability of the group. She didn¡¯t have to pick that one part that fit my appearance. I was going to make her pay later, and that¡¯d be part of the script.

    For now, I had to see how things would go and plan my dramatic reveal.

    Another bang. Frizzy Detective fired his gun with no hesitation or any stupid questions for Purple Banshee. Such a trigger-happy guy. No-nonsense too. A refreshing character in a survival monster movie. Too bad he wasn¡¯t going to survive long.

    There was a metallic ping after the gunshot. The power of Purple Banshee?

    Purple Banshee laughed in a grating high pitch. ¡°I actually felt, you piece of shit. You¡¯re a good shot, aren¡¯t you? If I didn¡¯t meld in time, you would¡¯ve damaged my beautiful face.¡±

    Several more shots. Several more pings.

    Then the empty clicking of the gun.

    A thud followed. Frizzy Detective must¡¯ve thrown his gun to the ground. No footsteps. He didn¡¯t bother to run away.

    ¡°That¡¯s it for me,¡± he said, chuckling. Accepting his fate with no drama. He was a side character who¡¯d somehow have a cult following years after the movie¡¯s release.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be like that,¡± said Purple Banshee in a condescending tone. ¡°You¡¯ll live longer if you entertain me. Mother Core knows I didn¡¯t have any fun because¡ªwhoops. Am I still allowed to say ¡®Mother Core¡¯ now that I¡¯m an Adumbrae? No? Anyway, I was saying that I didn¡¯t get to have fun because the others were too quick at killing you guys.¡±

    ¡°A bummer of a problem,¡± Frizzy Detective sarcastically replied. ¡°Now, kill me too so you can rejoin your monster friends. Don¡¯t drag this out, you murderous monster.¡±

    ¡°Why are you so quick to ask for death? Don¡¯t you want to live? You were first to run when danger appeared.¡±

    ¡°I want to live; that¡¯s a normal human desire. But if cornered, with no way out, the least I can do is not give you the satisfaction of toying with me.¡±

    ¡°What if I tell you there¡¯s a way for you to survive?¡±

    Heavy footsteps. Was this Purple Banshee? Did she turn into something heavy and hard that was impervious to bullets? I had my eyes closed as I fell¡ªI wasn¡¯t sure if I could pull off eyes open dead look¡ªso I couldn¡¯t see what was going on.

    ¡°What way?¡± Frizzy Detective asked. ¡°Becoming one of you? No, thank you. I¡¯ll die a human and that¡¯s it.¡±

    ¡°Still acting tough, I see,¡± said Purple Banshee. ¡°Or you¡¯re not acting. How about we start things fresh and go from there? Elaiza Mae Cayden is my real name. What fake name did I give you guys? I can¡¯t recall.¡±

    ¡°Cayden as in the Cayden family that manufactures cars?¡±

    ¡°Ugh, no. That¡¯s my uncle and his whore of a wife. Why is it always them that people think of? We¡¯re the Caydens with the restaurants. I¡¯m too miffed to explain more about me. But how about telling me who you really are, Francis? I promise that I¡¯ll let you join the next round.¡±

    ¡°Are you referring to the next round of your despicable hunting game? All I get is to live a bit longer. That¡¯s not incentive enough for me to join your little interview.¡±

    ¡°If you get another chance, you might find a way to escape. You don¡¯t want that?¡± Sounds of Purple Banshee cumbersome walking. She was probably pacing around Frizzy Detective. No other footsteps. Frizzy Detective stood still. Purple Banshee continued, ¡°The moment you wake up in your cell, you already know what¡¯s going on. Rally your group. Survive through the jungle and stuff like that. With your brains, you just might make it with a second chance.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re peddling the illusion of escape,¡± Frizzy Detective scoffed. ¡°We¡¯ll just prolong our agony. This is an island. We¡¯re not going anywhere.¡±

    Purple Banshee stopped walking. ¡°How did you know this is an island?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m right?¡± Frizzy Detective laughed. ¡°It just makes sense for this place to be an island. Easy to secure and hard to escape from. If this was connected to the mainland, random people might accidentally stumble here.¡±

    That was good logic, I thought. Earlier, he told me there could be a ¡®wild hope¡¯ we¡¯d find civilization over the mountains. Turns out he was just trying to keep my spirits up. He already knew then that we were trapped. He wasn¡¯t that bad a guy.

    ¡°Why are you so interested in me?¡± said Frizzy Detective. A couple of lighter steps. He must¡¯ve approached Purple Banshee in defiance. ¡°Kill me now.¡±

    But Purple Banshee wasn¡¯t easily provoked. ¡°Are you a cop? Did you serve time in the military? Or are you an undercover BID agent? I¡¯ve heard rumors that the BID is trying to find this place.¡±

    The BID? I had to remind myself a corpse couldn¡¯t raise a brow.

    Was this why Purple Banshee was interested in Frizzy Detective? Such an interesting tidbit that the BID was aware of Red Island. I should¡¯ve deduced that. The government wasn¡¯t dumb¡ªthey found the underground arena of Eve and trashed it. The operations of Red Island were massive. A lot of criminal organizations were involved. Add in a buttload of rich and powerful people as clientele. Not every one of them could be trusted to keep a secret. Also, the Red Island required a lot of kidnapped people to fuel not only its experiments but also these hunting games.

    Somewhere in that web of connections, the BID was bound to learn of Red Island. But was Frizzy Detective one of them?

    ¡°I wish I were a BID agent,¡± he said with a snort. ¡°But I¡¯m just a regular guy who joined the local gun club. There you go. Are you going to let me join the next round?¡±

    Purple Banshee tutted. ¡°You¡¯re not telling me the truth. Some of it, I guess. But not the juicy parts. If you¡¯re that adamant about dying, then fine. At least I¡¯ll reward you for entertaining me for like five minutes or so. Go on, I¡¯ll give you a head start of five minutes in return.¡±

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°I¡¯m staying here,¡± said Frizzy Detective. ¡°I¡¯ll have some dignity in my last moments and not be your toy. I should¡¯ve kept a bullet for myself. Kill me already.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t kill you¡­ But I will hurt you. I assure you that it¡¯s going to be incentive enough for you to run. That¡¯s the word you used, right? Incentive?¡±

    It¡¯s show time! I wanted to startle them with laughing, but that was what Tattered Tuxedo who eventually became Suitless Serpent did. Instead, I loudly said, ¡°You guys are so loud, and I¡¯m trying to rest here.¡±

    Fucking corny, dammit. I sucked at one-liners.

    Opening my eyes, I saw that Purple Banshee¡¯s skin had turned into a rough, glowing, silver material as if she had backlight inside of her. Frizzy Detective wasn¡¯t that shocked seeing me still alive. Rather, he was confused by the reaction of Purple Banshee.

    She yelped in surprise when she saw me sit up. She swung her arm at me. It extended into a whip.

    I rolled out of the way. The whip slashed across the ground, creating a shallow groove in the earth. Weighty and strong yet so bendy.

    Frizzy Detective took the opportunity to run. He didn¡¯t understand why Purple Banshee attacked me, supposedly a fellow Adumbrae, and he wasn¡¯t interested in finding out.

    ¡°Oh no, you don¡¯t,¡± Purple Banshee said, whipping at Frizzy with her other arm which also became a giant spaghetti strand.

    It snapped across Frizzy Detective¡¯s back, tearing his clothes and cutting a bright red wound in a blink. The force of the strike sent him flying to a tree. There was an unpleasant crunch as he hit the trunk. He fell to the ground and didn¡¯t move.

    Purple Banshee gasped. ¡°Whoops, did I kill him?¡± She turned to me, jolted as if I materialized out of nowhere, and covered her mouth with hands that had returned to their normal shape. ¡°Oh, my gosh! I¡¯m so sorry for attacking you.¡±

    I blinked. She¡¯s apologizing to me?

    ¡°I swear no one told me you were here too,¡± she said. ¡°There are supposed to be only four of us for this afternoon. Did you join in late?¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°Yeah, I guess you could say that.¡±

    I internally smirked. She thought I was one of them. What else would she assume? Also, what was that about the afternoon? We arrived at Red Island before sunrise. Not much time had passed since then. The teleportation also messes with time and not just location.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe they placed both of us in the same group! They could¡¯ve at least told me. This isn¡¯t fun at all.¡±

    What to do here? I could play along and try to gain information about the various islands. Or I could reveal my enemy Adumbrae infiltrator face and torture information out of Purple Banshee. Her screams would be annoying, I just knew it. But the second option seemed too abrupt. Go with the first. Right now, I was an infiltrator continuing infiltration. However, I didn¡¯t forget that Purple Banshee had to pay for taking my role.

    ¡°I¡¯m just new here so I don¡¯t know much about anything,¡± I said. ¡°I think there¡¯s been a mix-up. We should complain to someone. Make sure this doesn¡¯t happen again.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± said Purple Banshee, whose real name I already forgot. ¡°Were you listening in on us the entire time?¡±

    ¡°Just towards the end.¡± I nervously chuckled. ¡°The bullet knocked me out a bit. I should¡¯ve been more careful. That could¡¯ve been the end of me.¡±

    She offered me her right hand. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±

    Asking for my name instead of waiting for me to introduce myself? I nonetheless shook her hand. I gripped it tight to make her feel the crystalline and metallic growths on my palm that had expanded to cover it. I was stronger than her, no surprise. She flinched and tried to pull away.

    ¡°Should we head back now?¡± I asked, letting go of her hand. ¡°The round must be over by now. Good thing I ran into you because I¡¯m super lost.¡±

    Purple Banshee tilted her head and looked at me for a few seconds before replying, ¡°Uh, we¡¯re going to different places though. Go to the teleportation zone of your sector to return to your unit. You know that¡­ right?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the problem,¡± I said, walking towards her. ¡°I don¡¯t know the way back. Maybe I can go with you until we meet someone who can point me the right way? If you¡¯ll leave me on my own, I¡¯ll get even more lost.¡±

    ¡°Is that so¡­?¡± The eyes of Purple Banshee darted back and forth. I looked up at her with puppy dog eyes. She reached into her pocket. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, let¡¯s just call for help. You should¡¯ve done that when¡ª¡±

    I leaped up and punched her head. She wasn¡¯t good at keeping a poker face. She tumbled a few feet away from Frizzy Detective¡¯s dead body.

    Or not so dead body.

    ¡°You¡¯re still alive?¡±  Walking up to them, I spotted Frizzy Detective crawling away through the tall grass as his back wound bled.

    He wasn¡¯t as hurt as I thought he was. The tree he hit was mostly hollowed out by fungus or something, and the crunching noises earlier were the bark. He should¡¯ve left much earlier. He was probably concerned we¡¯d notice or was hoping we¡¯d leave instead.

    As for Purple Banshee, her jaw got torn off one end. Her muscles had started to stitch themselves. She was unconscious but still breathing.

    ¡°Francis, right?¡± I asked Frizzy Detective. ¡°If you¡¯re thinking of surviving, I¡¯m your best chance.¡±

    He looked back at me with a grimace. ¡°Helen. Who¡­ are you?¡±

    ¡°You do know I¡¯m just going to give you a fake name?¡±

    ¡°Wha-what are you?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the correct question¡ªI¡¯m an Adumbrae that¡¯s not connected to all of this game whatever.¡± I gestured to our surroundings. ¡°I just randomly dropped in and want to fight other Adumbrae. Congratulations, you¡¯re a human. You¡¯re not my target. If you help me, I won¡¯t kill you. Just hang around near me until I find a way out of here. Sounds good?¡±

    ¡°An enemy of my enemy thing kind of arrangement? Do you want us to work together?¡±

    I nodded. ¡°If you prove yourself useful, I¡¯ll protect you. I¡¯ve heard that you want to live.¡±

    ¡°I accept.¡±

    <hr>

    Half an hour later, the three of us were in a cave. Wasn¡¯t too long until we found a hiding spot. Frizzy Detective was quite good at this hiking-in-the-jungle thing. Purple Banshee woke up a few times on the way, so I had to put her back to sleep since I had nothing to restrain her with.

    ¡°You¡¯re still not telling me what¡¯s your real backstory?¡± I asked Frizzy Detective.

    He winced as he placed crushed leaves on his wound. He had to do some contortionist shit to reach his back. I could¡¯ve helped him but didn¡¯t. That¡¯d be like a romantic scene. Gross.

    ¡°You¡¯re not telling me your true story either,¡± he said. ¡®What makes you think I¡¯ll tell mine? And why do you care so much about it? I¡¯m just a normal human.¡±

    ¡°Not so normal it seems,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m interested in. All this survival stuff. You also have good aim.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not an undercover BID agent if that¡¯s what you think. I wish I were so I can call for backup. That being said, the backup for this Cayden woman would come soon. They¡¯re going to search for her. They''d know they have intruders once they find her phone that we threw away. Why are we staying here?¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t interrogate her out in the open. A little too obvious, don¡¯t you think? This cave could hopefully muffle her screams.¡±

    Frizzy Detective stopped reaching for his back. ¡°Are you going to torture her?¡±

    ¡°Perhaps. Are you going to apply your human morality to me?¡±

    He shook his head. ¡°You monsters have your own set of rules. I¡¯m interested only in my own survival. Look, she¡¯s waking up. We don¡¯t have much time to tarry in this area. Get started.¡±