ã€ŠRender (A REND Fanfiction)ã€‹


 1.1

    ¡°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 - I don''t understand."

    "Would you accept the power...and join us in our fight against the Adumbrae?¡±

    The hell? Were they being serious? This was just like when Myra gave us the blue liquid. It surely helped hide whatever weird results I would have had from that Egg Pod test. But, I was an Adumbrae right? What would happen if I accepted the artificial Core?

    Shit. I got trapped by my face again. I had to follow Deen¡¯s lead again. It would be weird and out of character for me if I just didn¡¯t follow her now. I already followed her through with the blue liquid.

    ¡°What do you think, Deen?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°I think we should accept,¡± Deen replied. ¡°We have no idea when the 2M¡¯s may attack us again. It¡¯d be better if we could defend ourselves.¡±

    I couldn¡¯t argue with that. Sadly, they had no idea of knowing I could already defend myself. And, I was pretty sure there were no 2M¡¯s I needed to worry about. Alas, a face could not be broken.

    ¡°I¡­ accept.¡±

    After I accepted, I mentally fell asleep when Dario discussed all the mumbo-jumbo about Cores. The one thing I did pay attention to was that the core is melded at the sternum.

    Me, Myra, and Deen were all in Deen¡¯s bedroom. Deen¡¯s bedroom was very luxurious. It would be pretty cool to have a bedroom like this. Yes, I know I¡¯m jealous of my best friend¡¯s bedroom, but honestly, who wouldn¡¯t be?

    We had to do it here - away from the boys - since we needed to go shirtless. Myra had made another comment about how glad she was that Oberon / Reo wasn¡¯t here. She had taken off her shirt, showing her toned body. I took note of that. If we fought again, how well would I do? Still, what was interesting was that on her sternum was an organic growth that looked like an embryo.

    ¡°Alright, so who wants to go first?¡± Myra asked as she stood near two of those artificial Core boxes.

    I stared at Deen again. Just like with the blue liquid, I expected her to go first.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go first,¡± Deen said.

    She took off her shirt, showing off her sizable cleavage and big breasts bulging against her bra. I would have been jealous, but then I remembered that my transformed self could give Deen a run for her money. And Deen had a lot of money.

    Myra opened the box on the right and took out the artificial Core.

    ¡°Just place it on your sternum, and you¡¯ll become a Corebring,¡± Myra told Deen as she handed her the artificial Core. ¡°Be careful not to drop it.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry I won¡¯t,¡± Deen replied with conviction as she took the Core from Myra.

    Deen placed it on her sternum and after a few seconds, the Core sank a bit into her skin.

    ¡°Woah, this feels amazing!¡± exclaimed Deen.

    Myra smiled at Deen and then turned to me. So they were serious about giving us Cores. But why attack us then? Did she feel like she redeemed herself for giving us powers?

    ¡°Alright Erind, here¡¯s your Core.¡±

    Shit. I couldn¡¯t back down now - I was so deep into this.

    I took off my shirt, revealing¡­ well not much. Back when I was a cheerleader, I used to have a more toned body. But ever since I finished Judo back in my undergrad days, I never really found a purpose to work my upper body and abs. Maybe now since I¡¯ll have to fight that would be a good idea.

    ¡°Okay,¡± I meekly replied. I took the core and placed it on my sternum.

    My heart was racing. What would happen if the Core didn¡¯t merge with me? Would they suspect me of being an Adumbrae? Would anything dangerous happen to me if I tried to merge with it? Each second felt like hours as I waited to see what would happen.

    Woah! Suddenly, I felt a surge of power go through me. It was similar to the feeling of power I got in my transformed body. Looking down at my sternum, the Artificial Core had embedded itself into my skin.

    I also felt a new source of power in my left hand.

    ¡°This feels really good,¡± I said. I was probably even stronger now. It turned out I could meld with the Core even though I was an Adumbrae.

    ¡°Congratulations!¡± Myra cheered as she put on her shirt. ¡°You¡¯re both Corebrings now. Anyways, you two should both get dressed.¡±

    Both Deen and I put our shirts on.

    ¡°Oh!¡± exclaimed Myra. ¡°One tip for you all, if you ever need to change your clothes, I¡¯d recommend wearing a sports bra beforehand. It¡¯ll help conceal the artificial Core.¡±

    Fuck. Another thing I needed to hide now in addition to the crystals on my right hand. Hopefully, this would be the last change my body goes through for today.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll probably get a high impact sports bra on the weekend along with Erind,¡± Deen said. I just simply nodded my head. Ughh. Shopping was going to be such a pain. I was going to have to keep up my face. And also spend time with Deen. The world was really out to get me.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ¡°Let¡¯s head back to the others now,¡± Myra said.

    As we made our way back to the living room, I pondered about all this weird stuff.

    Was I now a Corebring Adumbrae? Or an Adumbrae Corebring? I didn¡¯t even know it was possible to merge with a Core as an Adumbrae. Unfortunately, there was no way I could deny the Core - I just had to follow the Rules. But I guess also fortunately, I was able to merge with the Core.

    Next, they gave us these artificial Cores. But why attack us? I couldn¡¯t wrap my head around it. I could not think of any valid explanation. Maybe they thought one of us were an Adumbrae and used the Cores to test that theory? But I melded with the core just fine.

    Also, I needed to start thinking how to implement Rule #4. For Myra, hopefully this Core gave me a power that would help against her. I needed to test out my new powers later.

    Then, there¡¯s Everett and Dario. It looked like Everett had a crush on Deen. Perhaps I could prevent a relationship from forming between them. That would be way more favorable than beating him up. He¡¯d be unlikely to attack me. But what about Dario? I didn¡¯t know enough about him. I¡¯d need to learn more about him before giving him a punishment.

    ¡°So how did the melding go?¡± asked Dario as we entered the living room.

    ¡°It felt amazing,¡± Deen replied. ¡°I feel like I just drank 20 cups of coffee.¡±

    ¡°Same,¡± I simply said. Deen was supposed to be the outgoing one, so I didn¡¯t need to say much.

    ¡°That¡¯s great to hear,¡± said Dario. ¡°Unfortunately, I have an urgent meeting with the Professor. I¡¯ll give the two of you my phone number before I go. We¡¯ll have to schedule a more official welcome meeting for you two.¡±

    ¡°Sorry girls, I have to dip too,¡± said Reo. ¡°My girlfriend and I are going out for dinner. Originally, we were going to the Sanders mall, but there¡¯s no Sanders mall anymore. We¡¯re just going to Esperanza Especial instead.¡±

    I noticed Everett cringed a little when Reo talked about the mall.

    Everett and Myra left shortly after those two. Awwww. I wish I could have seen her reaction.

    ¡°Hey Erind, do you want to test our powers?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± I replied. ¡°I guess the easiest thing we test is our super strength. But what are we going to test our powers on?¡±

    ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± Deen looked around the room. Her eyes landed on the sofa.

    She put both her arms under it and lifted it up as if it weighed nothing. Then, she brought it above her head.

    ¡°How about this?¡± She smirked. ¡°It feels as heavy as one of my law textbooks.¡±

    ¡°Well, now you¡¯re the beauty and the brawns,¡± I quipped.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget the brains,¡± she corrected me. We both giggled.

    She put the sofa back down. ¡°Now you try Erind.¡±

    I walked over to the sofa and put both of my arms under it. I pulled upwards. It felt like I was carrying an empty plastic bag. Imagine that, pretty little me carrying an entire sofa.

    ¡°This weighs like nothing,¡± I said in awe.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t that light, but it¡¯s still exhilarating right?¡± Deen asked. Huh. I guess that did confirm I was way stronger now. It didn¡¯t feel like a law textbook at all. The sofa was more like a paper bag.

    I nodded my head and put the sofa down.

    ¡°Hey Erind,¡± Deen said. ¡°Have you seen anything weird?¡±

    I briefly glanced around the room. I couldn¡¯t see anything out of the ordinary. ¡°No, not unless you¡¯re talking about how I was able to lift the sofa.¡± I hope she wasn¡¯t messing with me. I wasn¡¯t in the mood for that.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that,¡± Deen replied. ¡°I think it¡¯s my power.¡± She stared at the side of her.

    What the fuck? Was it like some kind of sixth sense? Is she feeling like the ¡°aura¡± of the room or something. What if she found out I was an Adumbrae?

    ¡°Do you mean you have a 6th sense?¡± I asked. ¡°No wait, you mentioned seeing. So is it like heat vision or something?¡±

    ¡°No, I think I have a summon like Reo. But it looks like it¡¯s invisible to you.¡±

    ¡°What does it look like?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It looks like a cute baby gargoyle shaped like an egg made of ivory,¡± Deen described. ¡°It also has feather wings with a faint gold. It¡¯s floating right here.¡± She pointed to where she was facing.

    What kind of power was that? A summon that only Deen could see. Maybe Deen got insanity as a power.

    ¡°Can you make it do anything?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m trying to, but it¡¯s just floating there,¡± Deen replied with a sigh. She¡¯s definitely insane. ¡°I¡¯m not having any luck, how about you?¡±

    ¡°Let me see,¡± I said. ¡°I haven¡¯t tried anything yet, but I can feel it has something to do with my left hand.¡± The hand opposite of the crystal.

    I brought up my left hand and concentrated on that feeling of power. I felt like I could summon another mask. Gold liquid materialized in the palm of my hand. It solidified into a mask. Unlike my other mask, this looked like something you would wear on a stage.

    It was an embroidered mask with a symbol of an embryo on it. A symbol of a Core? The mask floated out of my hand. It moved a short distance away from me.

    Then in an instant, a second me was there. Woah! I suddenly was seeing two sets of vision.

    ¡°That¡¯s so cool!¡± Deen cheered. ¡°You can make clones of yourself right? At least you know what your power is¡­¡± Wow, what a quick mood switch. No need to ruin the fun Deen.

    Anyways, back to my cool new Corebring powers. It was weird seeing double. I tried moving the hands of my clone. Nothing happened. Is this just a dummy? That sucks.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Deen,¡± my clone said, shocking me. Oh nevermind then, not a dummy.  ¡°I¡¯ll help you figure out your powers.¡±

    ¡°Thanks Erind,¡± she said, hugging my clone. I could feel her skin touching my clone. ¡°You''re a great best friend.¡±

    A desire to punch her grew inside me. Sadly, I couldn¡¯t control my clone, but I bet if she was anything like me she was thinking the same thing too. My clone didn¡¯t hug her back. It looked like we weren¡¯t in the mood for hugs. Well, I was never in the mood for hugs.

    Eventually, Deen released my clone from her hug. Hmm. How do we test out Deen¡¯s powers?

    ¡°Hey Deen, try touching it,¡± I suggested.

    Deen reached out to the side. Immediately she dropped to the floor and started convulsing. Umm. I didn¡¯t think that was supposed to happen. She started convulsing, and her nose started to bleed. Yep, this definitely shouldn¡¯t be happening.

    Shit. I guess what Deen was seeing was real. Wouldn¡¯t it be funny if Deen died right now. What was the saying? If I had a nickel for every person that just died randomly near me today, I¡¯d have two nickels. Which is weird that it happened twice.

    Deen just sat there on the floor convulsing. Oops. Maybe as her ¡°best friend¡± I should do something. Call an ambulance? But that might put Deen, and more importantly, me, at risk for getting tested. I got closer to Deen. Normally, I wouldn¡¯t do this, but it was actually kind of interesting. It was impressive how she was still having a seizure on the floor, so I guess she¡¯d be fine.

    Hmm what kind of summon just gives you seizures out when you touch it? Seems like a useless power. I hope I don¡¯t touch it by accident. Maybe it could knock other people out? So it¡¯s like Dario¡¯s power but with a summon?

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t myself having fun?¡± my clone said. It was weird, because I could feel her mouth moving as if it was my own.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked. When would I ever say something so weird like that? I really hoped that my clone didn¡¯t have a different personality from me.

    ¡°Oh don¡¯t be like that, we just talked a few hours ago,¡± She said with a pout. Wait! Does that mean she could read my mind? Also what was that about a few hours ago? I definitely couldn¡¯t make clones of myself back then.

    ¡°Like I said before, I know what you are thinking because I am you,¡± she said. Wait a minute¡­

    My clone held out her left hand and gold liquid materialized out of thin air. It formed into a very similar mask of black and gold. She put it on and my clone transformed into a white haired version of myself with red eyes and marble like skin.

    <u>Hello myself,</u> SpookyErind said while giggling.

 1.2

    SpookyErind, who was also my clone, stood across from me, smirking. Her red glowing eyes looked like they could pierce right through my body. Well, they didn¡¯t actually do that, because I could still see my normal cute self from her eyes. Talking about normal, it seemed that SpookyErind didn¡¯t retain her clothes or the cool gauntlet. She was still wearing the same clothes as me - a simple white shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes.

    Was this my power then - to create a clone for SpookyErind to inhabit? I wonder if she could help me when I fought Myra eventually.

    But then, a worrying thought came to my mind. If she was controlling my clone, did that mean she had the ability to take over my body?

    <u>Not even a hi?</u> SpookyErind pouted.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked, ignoring her question.

    <u>I¡¯m just being you. Playing the face of a helpful friend for Deen.</u>

    ¡°Being me?¡± I asked. ¡°So you are taking over my body?¡±

    <u>Myself can be really silly sometimes</u>. SpookyErind said as she stepped close to me.

    <u>Come on you¡¯re smarter than that. Mainly, because if you aren¡¯t smart, then I¡¯m not smart. And I¡¯m very smart. As I said before, I¡¯m you and you¡¯re me. We are in full control of our bodies</u>.

    I didn¡¯t have the brainpower to parse through this nonsense. SpookyErind was probably just messing with me. Am I really going to lose my body to an Adumbrae so quickly? I thought I¡¯d have more time.

    Suddenly, SpookyErind raised my shirt. I was about to pull it down, but I got afraid that I might rip it. Instead, I grabbed Spooky Erind¡¯s wrists and tried to push them away, but she didn¡¯t budge.

    ¡°What the fuck are you doing?¡± I asked while trying to overpower her. Seriously, how much stronger was she than me? SpookyErind giggled and tapped the Artificial Core on my chest.

    <u>If I¡¯m an Adumbrae, how come you¡¯re a Corebring?</u> SpookyErind asked with a smirk.

    I wasn¡¯t too sure about that honestly. But surely I had to be an Adumbrae before getting the Core. Otherwise, how else did I get superpowers?

    <u>Because we¡¯re so amazing!</u> SpookyErind replied.

    ¡°Hey, stop reading my thoughts,¡± I instinctually replied.

    <u>But I am you, so your thoughts are my thoughts</u>. That was kind of annoying though. I guess to make up for it, I could at least sense what SpookyErind sensed.

    <u>That¡¯s right</u>. SpookyErind said as she hugged me. I tried moving her arms but they stayed glued to me. Surprisingly, she felt warm to the touch even though she looked like a demon lord. I also didn¡¯t get the same sensation of disgust when other people touch me. It was even more weird because I could also feel her hugging me and my skin touching her skin at the same time.

    <u>You can feel what I feel because I am you.</u>

    ¡°Just like how I can see what you see?¡± I asked, deciding to play along with her.

    <u>Yeah! See I¡¯m so smart because you¡¯re so smart! We¡¯re the smartest in the world.</u>

    ¡°Also, the cutest in the world,¡± I said. We both giggled at that. And we were indeed cute. Our perfect bunny-like teeth were shown off when we smiled.

    ¡°So, I had a question,¡± I said. ¡°Well actually first off, this is the real world right, and not in my head like how we first met?¡±

    <u>Well, if we were in your head, then I would have definitely worn that cool outfit and had that cool gauntlet. Sadly, the real world isn¡¯t always as fun.</u>

    ¡°Sure¡­¡±

    <u>But you¡¯re going to make it fun right?</u> SpookyErind stared into my eyes. Her red glowing eyes were mesmerizing. Also what did she mean by that?

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t want to be bored,¡± I replied. ¡°Besides that, since you¡¯re me, you want to punish Myra too, right?¡±

    <u>Yeah, of course I know Rule #4. I¡¯m you. Meyoumeyou.</u>

    If SpookyErind was going to be in the real world, then the least she could do was actually help me out. Even more so, she was stronger than me. I wondered if she could beat up Myra all by herself. That would be pretty hilarious. I still had lingering thoughts from my transformed self. I had wanted to eat Myra.

    Actually, could SpookyErind do the same transformation as me? <u>Yep!</u>

    ¡°Hey! Stop that!¡± I said. SpookyErind being able to read my thoughts was so jarring.

    <u>But your mind is my mind.</u> SpookyErind smiled.

    ¡°Then why can¡¯t I read your thoughts?¡± I asked. If we were truly the same, then I should be able to read her thoughts since she could read mine. But that wasn¡¯t happening.

    <u>Silly me. My thoughts are already part of your thoughts.</u>

    The fuck? There¡¯s no way that was the case. Maybe she was messing with me again. But now that I thought about it, I wasn¡¯t really sure if I would ever be able to distinguish SpookyErind¡¯s thoughts from mine. I guess I would need to ask her a question.

    ¡°Pick a random country,¡± I told her. If her thoughts were my thoughts then surely I could guess what country she was thinking of.

    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    <u>Okay</u>. Well, I definitely couldn¡¯t pick up on any countries going through my head.

    <u>That¡¯s because I didn¡¯t think of one. See, our thoughts are linked!</u>

    I was getting tired of arguing about this. Okay, whatever. Fine, you win SpookyErind.

    <u>And you win too since you¡¯re me! Meyoumeyou.</u>

    ¡°You know what would also be a win?¡± I asked. ¡°If you would stop hugging me.¡±

    <u>But I love myself,</u> SpookyErind said in a sing-song-like voice. <u>So I¡¯m giving myself a hug.</u>

    ¡°I love myself too but you should also know I don¡¯t love physical contact,¡± I said.

    <u>But it¡¯s different because we¡¯re the same. Come on give me a hug and see how it is!</u>

    I groaned and rolled my eyes. I wasn¡¯t going to hug her. We just met like a few hours ago. I¡¯d report SpookyErind to the police if she was a separate person from me.

    <u>Hey! Don¡¯t be like that!</u> SpookyErind pouted. <u>I¡¯ll only release you if you give me a hug</u>.

    ¡°Fine,¡± I said with zero enthusiasm. I wrapped my arms around SpookyErind. Like before, I didn¡¯t feel that same disgust for physical contact with her. Doesn¡¯t mean I like hugging though. Although, with our shared senses, it was definitely intriguing to feel both her skin touching mine and mine touching hers.

    SpookyErind giggled.

    ¡°All right, can you release me?¡± I pleaded.

    <u>Sure thing,</u> SpookyErind said. But instead of releasing me, she leaned forward and gave me a kiss. Instinctually, I tried backing my head away, but SpookyErind had already broken off the kiss. What in the absolute state of fuck was that?

    SpookyErind simply giggled and broke off our hug.

    Before I could respond, SpookyErind pointed at Deen.

    <u>All right, it¡¯s time for our best friend to snap out of it</u>.

    ¡°How are we going to do that?¡± I asked, still traumatized by that kiss. Unless SpookyErind had some extra superpowers I wasn¡¯t aware of, I¡¯m pretty sure there wasn¡¯t anything we could do.

    As if to challenge my last statement, SpookyErind raised her left hand and a bubble with a gold shiny sheen emerged. It floated towards Deen and expanded to surround her. I watched with curiosity as Deen started convulsing faster and faster until it seemed almost blurry.

    What the hell? ¡°How exactly is this making her snap out of it?¡± I asked. ¡°Not that I really care - it¡¯s actually pretty funny how Deen is convulsing even more.¡±

    <u>Just wait and see,</u> SpookyErind replied. After a few seconds, Deen stopped convulsing and the bubble popped. I still have no idea what exactly SpookyErind just did to Deen. And it didn¡¯t seem like she was keen on explaining the details of her real world powers to me. But given how she has acted so far, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she was hiding more stuff from me.

    ¡°That hurt,¡± Deen groaned as she got up. All right, time to put on the Best Friend face.

    ¡°Deen are you alright?¡± I asked. ¡°I was so worried. You just started convulsing on the floor.¡± And it was pretty funny too.

    ¡°I¡¯m feeling a bit better now,¡± she replied. I stretched out my left hand. She grabbed my hand and stood back up. Thankfully, she let go of it once she stood straight, preventing the disgusting feeling of human contact from growing within me. ¡°It felt like I was in pain for hours.¡±

    So that¡¯s what SpookyErind did. She sped up the time Deen was experiencing. Speaking of SpookyErind, I glanced over at her. She pulled on her face and her hair and eyes returned to normal. She was now back to being just a normal Erind clone.

    ¡°Really?¡± I asked. ¡°It seemed you were only convulsing for about a minute.¡±

    ¡°Well, it definitely felt like hours,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry Deen,¡± I said, deciding to console her. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that touching your summon would do that.¡± I¡¯m such an empathetic friend.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine,¡± said Deen. ¡°It turns out I actually was able to figure out what my power was.¡± Oh? This sounded interesting. ¡°Some of it was really blurry, but I got visions of the future I¡¯m pretty sure. I actually saw you helping me stand back up after my body calmed down. Thanks for that by the way. This is like the second time you¡¯ve helped me.¡±

    ¡°Well, saving you at the mall was way more helpful than simply helping you stand up,¡± I replied.

    ¡°Yeah, but you¡¯ve helped me a lot regardless,¡± Deen said as she hugged me. ¡°I haven¡¯t really helped you at all today.¡± Well, you can start by releasing me from this hug. Ugghh.

    ¡°I couldn''t be more glad to have a best friend like you,¡± she continued. Why was she being so sentimental right now? All I did was help her stand up. I didn¡¯t know how to get out of this bear trap.

    SpookyErind went behind Deen and hugged her as well. Oh that¡¯s just great. Now the disgusting sense of human touch has doubled! I could feel both Deen hugging me and SpookyErind hugging Deen. Seriously, can¡¯t a girl just have her personal space not be violated? What is wrong with the world?

    Deen gasped. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll always protect you Deen,¡± SpookyErind said. It was jarring hearing her use my normal voice rather than just having her voice appear in my head. ¡°Like they say, we¡¯re best friends forever!¡± I wished we didn¡¯t have to hug forever, or at all.

    ¡°Thanks Erind,¡± Deen said, choking up a bit. ¡°I couldn¡¯t have asked for a better friend in the world than you. Also, it¡¯s pretty cool that you have a clone. You can give double the hugs.¡±

    Yeah, no thanks. If I could control SpookyErind¡¯s body I definitely would not be hugging you. Sadly, I bet this was SpookyErind messing with me. Additionally, it would be weird now if I said I didn¡¯t want a hug because I was already hugging her. What was I going to do, tell her my clone shouldn¡¯t be hugged? Maybe I should say my clone is an evil demon and you should stay 100 feet away from her. And me as well.

    Eventually, my torture session came to an end as Deen unwrapped her arms. SpookyErind did the same.

    ¡°So, what future did you see?¡± I asked. Hopefully we were done with all the hugging.

    ¡°I can¡¯t recall most of it, but I do remember seeing you help me back up.¡± Hmm. That still didn¡¯t seem like a very helpful power. She can get a blurry vision of the future at the cost of getting a seizure. At least I had more useful powers. My transformed self looked to be very direct combat based with her claws and giant mouth. Meanwhile, on the Corebring side, I could summon a clone that¡¯s controlled by SpookyErind. She¡¯s way stronger than me, so she could definitely be useful in combat.

    What is Deen going to do in combat? Get a seizure? She can¡¯t even move her summon. It just floats off to the side. Maybe this just proves I¡¯m better since I have the better powers. Makes sense since I¡¯m the most important person in the world. Of course, I wasn¡¯t going to tell any of this.

    ¡°Maybe there is another way for your power to work?¡± I asked. ¡°Surely there¡¯s got to be a way to see the future without getting a painful response.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Deen agreed. ¡°But I think I¡¯m done with testing powers today. I¡¯m probably just going to head to bed early.¡±

    ¡°Well, thank you for inviting me over,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m going to head on out.¡±

    ¡°What about your clone?¡± Deen asked. Oh right, how am I going to get SpookyErind out of here? I don¡¯t think I can unsummon her. She has to do that herself. ¡°Actually which one is your real body?¡±

    ¡°This is the clone body,¡± SpookyErind said. ¡°It turns out that I can transport this clone pretty easily. Watch this.¡± SpookyErind pulled at her face and she vanished into thin air. In her spot was the floating embroidered mask with the symbol of a Core on the forehead.

    Oh, that solves that. But still, SpookyErind was messing with me. She just implied I could control her body when I couldn¡¯t. Of course, I wasn''t going to share Deen these details. In essence, she created a face for me, and I hated that. I hated not being in control.

    Still, I couldn¡¯t break my faces. So, I went over and picked up SpookyErind¡¯s mask.

    ¡°See, now it¡¯ll be easy to bring my clone with me,¡± I told Deen as I put her mask in my bag.

    ¡°That¡¯s really useful,¡± she commented. ¡°Maybe tomorrow I¡¯ll figure out how to do something useful with my power.¡±

    I didn¡¯t want to stay any longer, so I simply said, ¡°Well good luck with that. Bye Deen!¡±

    We both waved each other goodbye.

    On the bright side, I did at least get something out of coming here. I didn¡¯t fight Myra and company, but I did get something way better. An artificial Core. That was Myra¡¯s second mistake. She had made me way stronger now. And I was going to punish her for her first mistake - Bothering me.

 1.3

    I peeped through the cafeteria doors, checking to see if there was any new security after yesterday. Nobody was here this early in the morning. It was the same as always, except for a sign on the window. It was most likely the same place where Kelsey jumped out the window into her inevitable demise. But that was good news, since it meant I had this place to myself for a while, at least until Deen came by.

    I walked inside and set my new bag along with my new school supplies and new water bottle at the gray table near the window. New. Everything I had with me was new. A new shirt, a new blazer, and a new pair of jeans. My old shirt had a hole punched through by a skewer and my other clothes had my blood on them. Something I couldn¡¯t bring to school, especially law school.

    And a new me. I was an Adumbrae and a Corebring. An Adumbring? Or a Corebrae? I still can¡¯t believe what happened yesterday. It seemed so unreal. But here I was. And here wasn¡¯t SpookyErind.

    Her mask was left on the desk in my room. A new sensation was inside me when SpookyErind transformed back into a mask. It was like a little switch. I tried pushing and pulling it, but it didn¡¯t budge. In the end, I just left it at home. I didn¡¯t really have a purpose in bringing it with me, and I also figured it was a fine enough place to keep it. If I could, I would have hung it up on the wall because of how cool it was. But what about SpookyErind herself? Not sure if she is as cool as the mask.

    As if offended by that statement, the switch in my body went on. SpookyErind reappeared, sitting in my desk chair, and the switch sensation inside of me vanished.

    ¡°Good morning, myself,¡± SpookyErind said. She was still a normal Erind clone. ¡°And I¡¯m very cool by the way.¡±

    ¡°So am I,¡± I said. I didn¡¯t return the ¡°good morning¡± greeting because I was so fascinated by what was happening. I was all the way at the cafeteria here at Cresthorne, meanwhile, SpookyErind was back in my room. And I could see and feel with both our bodies. Even more so, we were having a conversation. That was an impressively large range. Is there a limit to this?

    The only response I got was giggling from SpookyErind.

    ¡°What fun things do you have planned today?¡± she asked me.

    ¡°Nothing really,¡± I said. ¡°Just a usual day at law school.¡± It was pretty crazy, going from such an eventful day yesterday, to just this. I kinda missed the danger, excitement, and twists.

    ¡°In that case, I¡¯m sure that something fun will happen to brighten our day,¡± she said. She¡¯s sure? What does that mean?

    It was too early for me to try and guess what she was saying. I took out a tea cup and got my chamomile tea ready. A tea cup was an essential part of my new school supplies. After making sure to not hit the sides as per Rule #1, I stood up while sipping my tea.

    First, I turned towards the ocean. The sun was rising over the black spire.

    ¡°So, tell me more about your long-term plans to have fun,¡± SpookyErind said.

    Hmm. I didn¡¯t want to speak while drinking my tea, so I came up with a brilliant idea. SpookyErind could read my mind. I don¡¯t need to physically talk to her.

    Anyway, the biggest thing I had to do was punish Myra. But how to go about that?

    ¡°We could play the long con,¡± SpookyErind said, reading my thoughts. ¡°Get her to really trust us, and then stab her in the back.¡±

    My brain was churning out scenarios. What if we exposed what happened at Sanders to Deen? Myra seemed to have some regrets about attacking us, so what if I exploited that. Seeing her have a mental breakdown just before I finish her off would be amazing. I wanted some added emotional trauma for upending my life when I took my revenge.

    SpookyErind giggled at my schemes. ¡°Oh! I know, what if we backstab Myra after she finds Kelsey?¡± Kelsey? What isn¡¯t she dead? She dropped out of a window. No way she survived that fall. However, Myra still thought Kelsey was kidnapped.

    ¡°She¡¯ll be so proud to be back with her sister, and then at the climax of their reunion, we strike!¡±

    I liked how SpookyErind was planning with me. While today might not be the most exciting, I couldn¡¯t wait. Although, there was one thing I wanted to clarify. So, is Kelsey alive then?

    SpookyErind simply smirked in response. ¡°Who knows? Anyways, tell me about your other plans.¡±

    I began walking around the room, toward the new sign. Well, my two plans left are to punish Everett and Dario. My punishment for Everett is probably more easily implemented than Dario¡¯s punishment. Now, how to go about breaking apart any chance of a relationship he has with Deen?

    ¡°What if we dated Deen?¡± SpookyErind proposed. What?!! ¡°We make her romantically interested in us, and then reveal to him that Deen is actually gay. Seeing him forced to deal with that fact would be amazing.¡±

    There were two problems with that. First, I wasn¡¯t even sure Deen was gay. She and Adrian interacted regularly. What if she was romantically interested in him? How would I get Deen to be romantically interested in me if she¡¯s straight?

    ¡°Are you sure she¡¯s straight?¡± SpookyErind asked. Well, now that she¡¯s suggesting it, I had some doubts. I had never gotten a girl romantically interested in me. The main problem is that it requires them to be gay, meanwhile, most boys are straight and thus easier to manipulate. But how would I go about checking if she¡¯s gay? Ask her if she¡¯s gay? No way. Oh hey, that rhymed.

    I finally got close enough to read the sign. It was a warning to not lean on the glass, which was surprisingly fixed real fast.  So, about the other problem¡­ Deen was extremely touchy-feely! There may as well be a sign that says, ¡°Warning! The future is filled with hugs and hand holding. Avoid at all costs.¡± Maybe I should replace this sign on the window with that.

    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Would it even be worth it to be in a relationship with Deen?

    ¡°Well, how else are you going to punish Everett?¡± SpookyErind asked. I wasn¡¯t sure. But the good news was, Rule #4 didn¡¯t have a time limit, so I could take as much time as I needed.

    I turned around as I heard the sound of the cafeteria doors open. Speaking of Deen, she walked inside, with a smile on her face. She walked over to where I was.

    ¡°I see you¡¯ve redesigned your lair,¡± she said, looking at the sign. ¡°Oh wait. I shouldn¡¯t have joked about that.¡±

    Oh, she just realized that this is the spot where Kelsey jumped. I internally smirked. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not offended, but you should be glad Myra isn¡¯t here.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s sit down, then.¡± Deen said. We both walked back to my table.

    ¡°So, did you find anything more about your powers?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°Erind! We¡¯re in public!¡± Deen cried out, while checking around her. It was funny seeing Deen already flustered twice today.

    ¡°Relax, there¡¯s nobody else here but us,¡± I told her. ¡°Even if somebody did come in, we would be warned by the sound of the door opening.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Deen said. ¡°The answer is no. I haven¡¯t figured it out. But I also wanted to test my regeneration powers out. And I was too scared to cut myself.¡± She brought out a pair of scissors from her backpack. ¡°And since nobody is here, we should be fine to test this out.¡±

    ¡°Maybe wait until after school,¡± I said. ¡°We don''t want to get blood on the ground or our clothes if I cut you or myself.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right,¡± Deen said as she put the scissors away. ¡°Oh yeah, before I forget, you should come shopping with me after school.¡±

    ¡°Wait, why do I need to go shopping with you?¡± I asked. ¡°You can get your groceries by yourself.¡±

    ¡°Not groceries,¡± Deen laughed. ¡°We need to get sports bras. Or rather, high impact sports bras. We never know when the Adumbrae might attack us again.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going to use sports bras to fight the Adumbrae?¡± I jokingly asked.

    Deen brought up a good point. But we weren¡¯t attacked by an Adumbrae. Dario and Myra were making up some story about the Adumbrae. How were they going to explain this later? Unless it turns out there really is a group of Adumbrae out there¡­

    Regardless, even if they did exist, they haven¡¯t bothered me. So, who cares? The BID and the actual Corebrings can handle them. Of course, I can¡¯t say that to Deen, so I just continued to listen to her.

    ¡°I can drive us to the sportswear store. Sounds good?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Can¡¯t we just shop online?¡± I said. One of the benefits of online shopping is that I don¡¯t need to keep up a face. Furthermore, that also meant I didn¡¯t have to spend as much time with Deen. Which was a good thing in my eyes.

    ¡°We could, but it will take a while to ship it,¡± Deen replied.  ¡°It¡¯s best to get this out of the way - we never know when a fight breaks out. Besides, I want to buy some cute clothes for my best friend.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you¡¯d pay for me? I can pay for it myself.¡± I didn¡¯t want to be reliant on Deen.

    ¡°I should pay,¡± Deen said firmly. ¡°You saved me, and I need to repay you in some way.¡±

    ¡°Fine, I guess I¡¯ll go with you,¡± I groaned. I would have said we¡¯re unlikely to be attacked again, thus we didn¡¯t need to worry. However, that would require sharing Myra was the attacker, who was not an Adumbrae. I should hold that card for later.

    Meanwhile, I nearly forgot about SpookyErind. ¡°So, there¡¯s our first date,¡± she giggled.

    Uggh. I hope it¡¯s a quick one. Regardless, I doubt this would strengthen our relationship enough for Deen to be romantically interested in me. This was more of a chore rather than a date. Although, I guess spending time with Deen is always a chore.

    All though, if she was going to be spending time with me, then that would mean she¡¯d probably wouldn¡¯t be spending time with someone else.

    ¡°So, Adrian¡¯s going to miss you for spending so much time with me,¡± I teased her. ¡°Sorry to ruin any date you might have with him.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not dating!¡± Deen said. ¡°We¡¯re just friends. We share classes and sometimes hang out. I¡¯m not really looking into dating any boys. Also, I know what you¡¯re doing. You''re trying to get out of going shopping with me.¡±

    ¡°Why, I¡¯m so ashamed you would accuse me of such foul play,¡± I said, feigning shock. We both laughed.

    ¡°Well if anything, I¡¯m the one dragging you with me, so I¡¯m sorry if I¡¯m disrupting any of your dates,¡± Deen said jokingly.

    ¡°Well, thankfully for you, I didn¡¯t have any dates planned,¡± I said.

    ¡°I¡¯d be shocked if you did,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°What¡¯s truly shocking is that I¡¯m going to buy sports bras with my friend,¡± I countered.

    ¡°Well, I think it¡¯s a good step for leaving your cocoon. You¡¯re going to have to be more socially active as a lawyer.¡±

    Being a lawyer¡­ Is that really what I was going to be in the future? With all this Adumrabe and Corebring stuff, I wondered if my career prospects were going to be in jeopardy. Even more so, the crystal on my right hand confirmed I was becoming less human. How long until the tests were impossible to pass? Would I need to go into hiding?

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it kinda crazy though that we¡¯re also going to have to juggle being a lawyer while also being a Corebring?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I think it¡¯ll be difficult, but it¡¯s worth it.¡± Deen told me with conviction. ¡°If we weren¡¯t Corebrings, the best we could do is work directly with the BID. But that would never compare to fighting the Adumbrae directly. Think of all the good we could do.¡±

    ¡°I guess the only downside is that we¡¯ve given up our humanity,¡± Deen continued. ¡°I¡¯ve lived my whole life being a human.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think being a Corebring is that bad,¡± I told Deen. Some people had some weird fascination with being human. But being a human kind of sucked. When I was being attacked by Myra, the best I could do was distract her. If I hadn¡¯t met SpookyErind, I would be dead right now. And that would be the worst thing in the world.

    ¡°You have super strength, super regeneration, and your own personal ability,¡± I continued. ¡°What¡¯s not to love about it?¡±

    ¡°You do make some good points,¡± Deen said. ¡°It just feels jarring to leave my humanity when I¡¯ve been a human my whole life.¡±

    ¡°You know, I wonder how many people would share that view,¡± I said.

    ¡°Huh?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it weird though, to value being a human over being a Corebring?¡± I asked. ¡°Society basically worships Corebrings. People even swear on the mother core. I guess it may not matter to you as you may not be as religious.¡±

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right if you frame it that way,¡± Deen said. Of course, I was always right.

    ¡°Oh, there¡¯s another thing I wanted to ask you, Deen,¡± I said.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re probably going to be fighting in the future. Do you have what it takes to kill the Adumbrae?¡±

    ¡°I haven¡¯t fought before, but given how evil they are, I¡¯d have no choice but to kill them,¡± Deen said. It would be interesting to see how she would react to me being an Adumbrae. Would she value me being a Corebring more? Or would she try to kill me? I hoped I didn¡¯t have to find out.

    ¡°What about the humans helping them? How would you handle that?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯d¡­. have to kill them too,¡± Deen responded. ¡°Um, how about you?¡±

    It¡¯d be interesting to see Deen kill someone. You wouldn¡¯t expect it from someone like her. Well, it¡¯ll be interesting to see how this actually plays out. Would she end up being too scared? I bet I could guilt trip her down the line if that happened.

    ¡°I think I¡¯d be willing to do it,¡± I said. ¡°They¡¯re harming innocent people everyday. What if we could stop another attack that could have happened to people like us. We were lucky to survive. Others might not. We have to be able to do what¡¯s right.¡± Wow, what an amazing citizen I was. Proclaiming that Adumbrae and their human assistants should die. I should save this mini-speech.

    Even more so, this was an excellent evolution for my face with Deen. I was coming out of my shell for an important reason - the war against the Adumbrae.

    ¡°You know, that was pretty inspiring,¡± Deen said.

    I was about to respond when my phone alarm went off.

    ¡°Thanks Deen, but I have to go to class,¡± I told her.

    ¡°Well thank you for the deep conversations,¡± she replied. ¡°Meet me in the parking lot after your last class!¡±

    I internally sighed. ¡°Sure thing,¡± I said.

 1.4

    Wew. I¡¯m glad CrimLaw was over. Professor Bansa couldn¡¯t have been ever more boring. And my classmate Ramello kept hitting on me. I kindly told him I wasn''t able to do anything after school because I was spending time with Deen going shopping. Hopefully,  he understood I wanted him to fuck off.

    That just left two more classes before I was done for the day. The first was National Security Law. The second was Consti. I originally tried registering for the ¡®US Bureau of Interdimensional Defense and the Panderton Act¡¯, but unfortunately, I didn¡¯t get in. However, I did manage to get into National Security Law for my elective class.

    If I was tested, I was more likely to be accused of being an Adumbrae rather than a Corebring. The Panderton Act elective might be a good idea to take given my situation. Still, National Security Law, or NatSec, would probably still be useful for me.

    Meanwhile, SpookyErind was back at my condo reading the news app on a copy of my phone. It was actually pretty impressive how my cloning power worked. SpookyErind had appeared with both the clothes I wore on the way to Deen¡¯s mansion, as well as my phone.

    During my last class, SpookyErind would be going through various articles, such as ¡®Five Possible Outcomes Of The Adumbrae Crisis in Madagscar¡¯, ¡®New Poll Numbers Show President Goodwin Crushing Opposition In the General¡¯, and ¡®10 Steps to Shield Your Mind From Adumbrae¡¯. She was giggling while reading that last one. If I wasn¡¯t afraid of her taking control of my body, then I would have probably done so too. It was so full of clickbait. One of the steps was to make daily prayers to the Mother Core after drinking Almond milk. Who is writing these articles?!

    Sadly, I don¡¯t think any of the steps would help me against SpookyErind. She had already taken over my clone. What if it got worse and she started controlling my main body? I hope I could find a solution to that. No offense SpookyErind if you¡¯re reading my thoughts. Well, I guess she¡¯s always reading my thoughts.

    SpookyErind smirked and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t take over your clone, I was always your clone.¡± And there¡¯s another nonsensical statement - it didn¡¯t change the fact she was still controlling my clone.

    She scrolled and pulled up a new article. This one was titled ¡®President Goodwin Signs Executive Order To Increase Coastal Monitoring of Adumbrae.¡¯ Speaking of the President, I wondered what he would think of me. I was both an Adumbrae and a Corebring, two things he very much hated. It was kind of fascinating that a person like that could exist. What made their brain tick?

    Furthermore, how does a guy who hates Corebrings get elected? Most of the population worships the Mother Core. That really just proves how bad the previous guy in the White House was. He literally tried cutting the BID budget in half.

    Though, I think I might be sharing his position on the BID soon. I¡¯d rather it have less money now. It¡¯d make it easier for me to not be bothered by the BID. You know what, how about we defund the BID and remove all testing requirements? That would make my life a thousand times easier.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get started for today,¡± Professor Silva said.

    Professor Silva¡¯s teaching style was an unorthodox experience. With a class size of 20, she¡¯d call on two random people at the start of each class. The first question asked was easy. Just some typical law recitation stuff. The next question was difficult¡­

    ¡°Ms. Hartwell,¡± Professor Silva called out. I stood up.

    ¡°Mam.¡±

    ¡°Last week, we covered Executive Orders. What are executive orders and what is an example?¡±

    ¡°Executive orders are directives given by the president that direct federal agencies to perform or cease a course of action,¡± I answered. ¡°For example, Presidential Policy Directive 40, created 8 years ago, directs the BID to implement rules for hacking and ransomware incident reporting at Adumbrae test centers.¡± This wasn¡¯t in our textbook, but after doing some research, I found an executive order relating to her experience in cybersecurity law.

    ¡°Good job going above and beyond with that example,¡± she said. ¡°You actually researched some executive orders. So next, how might the president use an executive order to deal with the crisis in Madagascar?¡±

    And this is where most students would falter. Professor Silva had a treasure trove of knowledge about current events, and proceeded to ask questions about them and their applications to law.  Studying the textbook would get you nowhere here.

    But thankfully, SpookyErind had just finished reading the article about this question.

    ¡°Well, President Goodwin recently signed executive order 14321, which directs the BID to cooperate with the Maritime Transportation Sector in order to increase Adumbrae monitoring critical infrastructure along coastal areas,¡± I said. ¡°Additionally it also requires the strengthening of BID nodes that oversee the six non-continental states - Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, The Philippines, Guam, Hawaii, and Alaska. This executive order essentially reduces the risk of Adumbrae reaching the US if they manage to bypass the Madagscar blockade.¡±

    Professor Silva smiled for the first time and said, ¡°Impressive Ms. Hartwell. Very few students have shown the same level of commitment you just showed over my entire career as a professor. You may sit down.¡±

    SpookyErind giggled as I took a seat. I now had a good first impression with Professor Silva. In addition to the generous yet timid persona I gave off, I have a nice placement in this class¡¯s hierarchy. Thankfully, NatSec didn¡¯t feature a curve, so the grade I got was independent of any of my peers.

    As Professor Silva was questioning Carmen, who was fumbling her response to the current events question, I thought about what just happened.

    SpookyErind had just read an article that was relevant to the question Professor Silva gave. Was this just a councidence? Or did she somehow have outside knowledge of what the professor was going to ask? SpookyErind had implied earlier that Kelsey may not have actually been dead. And now there was this. How could she know?

    SpookyErind giggled some more.

    ¡°As they say, knowledge is power,¡± SpookyErind said. ¡°Since the news is a great way to get knowledge, why not read it? Having power is fun right?¡±

    Well, it was certainly fun to be praised for something I didn¡¯t even study for. Although, I¡¯m not sure if reading news articles all day is what I¡¯d consider fun.

    ¡°Anything I do is fun though!¡± SpookyErind said.

    Please don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re going to be doing math problems next.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°Maybe I will,¡± SpookyErind taunted.

    Uggh. Math and numbers. Eww.

    Still, I found our shared senses power to be pretty useful. Maybe I could use this for other assignments? It probably wouldn¡¯t work for exams - I should be prepping for those beforehand. Homework and essays? Nope. I can just use my laptop to search any info I need.

    ¡°Oh! I know, why don¡¯t we study together?¡± SpookyErind suggested.

    You know I don¡¯t like studying with other people right?

    ¡°But we¡¯re the same,¡± SpookyErind said. ¡°Meyoumeyoumeyou.¡±

    Such a weird chant. The main issue was that I didn¡¯t have access to SpookyErind¡¯s memory or thoughts. That would really help me study.

    ¡°I can give you hugs to help you study!¡± SpookyErind said. I internally groaned. I hope she turns back into her mask form when I get back home. ¡°Think of it as emotional support.¡±

    I¡¯m sure I don¡¯t need emotional support. What I truly need is some alone time.

    Meanwhile, Professor Silva was in the middle of her lecture. ¡°A common trend we see is that many executive agencies that were not originally created to deal with the Adumbrae threat were eventually modified to assist in the war. For example, The Office of Censorship was originally only created to keep US military secrets from leaking to the press during World War 2. However, with the passage of the 22nd Amendment, a new executive order was issued.

    ¡°The Office of Censorship would now have the obligation to censor any pro-Adumbrae content that circulated the media. Ah yes, Mr. Northern, what question do you have?¡±

    ¡°The Office of Censorship still retained its directive to protect US military secrets, right?¡± John asked.

    ¡°Yes, of course,¡± Professor Silva said.

    ¡°So that means they probably had a duty to hide the experiments of QR Zephyr. However, I was researching earlier and couldn¡¯t find any new legislation or executive orders that strip the Office of its initial powers after the Labor Day Purge. So, why hasn¡¯t any branch of government stepped in to limit the powers of the Office?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is a good question,¡± Professor Silva replied. ¡°Would anyone like to take a shot at answering that?¡±

    SpookyErind had stopped reading articles and instead started playing Tappy Dash. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t need an article to know the answer to this.

    ¡°Go ahead Ms. Hartwell,¡± Professor Silva called on me after I raised my hand.

    ¡°Dr. Seymour, the head of the Office of Censorship, managed to keep the agency¡¯s approval ratings above water. She did this by aggressively targeting those that tried speaking out against what the Corebrings did during the Labor Day Purge. Of course, Adumbrae do not have the right to due process nor protections from cruel and unjust punishments.¡±

    I guess I don¡¯t have those rights either. Or would I since I was also a Corebring? What would the courts decide if they ever found out about my dual nature? Maybe I¡¯d have half those rights? What the fuck am I thinking? I should get back on track.

    ¡°Furthermore, Dr. Seymour cheered on the passage of the ¡®Ending Adumbrae Experimentation Act¡¯,¡± I continued. ¡°She even helped to testify against other government officials for helping out with QR Zephyr. So, through the shrewdness of one department head, the Office of Censorship was able to avoid any major political backlash as a result of QR Zephyr.¡±

    ¡°Another good job Ms. Hartwell,¡± Professor Silva said. Another point in the good impression column. I was doing great today. Except for the fact that Ramello had started hitting on me earlier. Knowing the answers to everything in class was a nice stress reliever. Although, I should probably tone it down. I don¡¯t want to make it seem like I¡¯m a know-it-all.

    One time in high school there was this really annoying kid named Zoe. She was the teacher¡¯s pet in US history class, and every day she would somehow manage to have several back and forths with the teacher.  Some of them even went past the bell, forcing us to stay in class longer that I ever wanted to. And it was the last class of the day too! She should be glad nobody beat her up, because I was really tempted to. I think holding me hostage after school is fair game under Rule #4. Although, I wouldn¡¯t actually assault her.

    ¡°Dr. Seymour was definitely an important figure at that time,¡± Dr. Silva continued. ¡°Never before had an executive agency head shaped public opinion so significantly while being potentially at risk for public and political backlash.

    ¡°With that said, I¡¯d like to also add on to Ms. Hartwell¡¯s answer. The Office of Censorship has enormous power to censor what circulates in the media. It is highly likely that Dr. Seymour knew about and hid the details of QR Zephyr. Back when I was a lawyer, some of my colleagues had gotten to know the attorney general at the time. Apparently, Dr. Seymour had been impeding their investigations into the Office of Censorship¡¯s involvement in QR Zephyr.¡±

    All this talk about the Office of Censorship reminded me that the Artificial Core I got was part of a secret BID project. How much was the Office keeping from the public? What other secret projects were going on?

    As I was about to ruminate more on this topic, I noticed that SpookyErind had managed to beat the current level I was struggling with in Tappy Dash. What was more impressive was that she managed to beat the whole level in one go. She didn¡¯t even make a single mistake. Next, she pulled up another level, which was rated to be more difficult than the last one.

    ¡°Well, you didn¡¯t want me to read articles, so I decided to play some video games,¡± SpookyErind said. ¡°Isn¡¯t it so cool when I beat a level? And since you¡¯re me, it¡¯s like you beat the level too!¡±

    But, thinking back on that, wasn¡¯t it weird that SpookyErind had been simply reading articles and then somehow managed to read the one I needed right when class started? And here, she¡¯s doing so well with this game, which she definitely has not played before. Something just seems off.  I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it. I could feel SpookyErind¡¯s lips turn into a smirk.

    ¡°Well, since I¡¯m you, I have all your memories of how to play this game,¡± SpookyErind said. ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m so good at it.¡±

    But if that was the case, she shouldn¡¯t have been better than me. She should be doing around the same as me. I¡¯d only manage to get halfway into the level before dying, but here she is completing a nine star level in one go. Also, look at that! She just beat a ten star level.

    ¡°Yay!¡± SpookyErind cheered. ¡°We beat another level! I¡¯m so cool.¡±

    She was also way more playful than I was. And way too touchy feely as well. If I was trying to pretend to be someone else, I would at least try to act the same way they do. It felt like SpookyErind just put in 10% of the effort to pretend to be like me.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Spooky Erind said. ¡°Don¡¯t be like that. I put in 100% of the effort to be the cutest and smartest girl in the world!¡±

    Well, I can¡¯t deny that. At least our appearances were the same. And yes, I was the cutest and smartest girl in the world.

    As we approached the end of class, one topic Professor Silva discussed piqued my interest. ¡°National security goals and policy are often dictated by the president. Can anyone describe the national security goals of our current president?¡±

    I kept my hand down this time. Carmen raised her hand quickly. She probably wanted to make up for how bad she did with the current events question.

    ¡°Yes Ms. Sanchez?¡±

    ¡°President Goodwin has a strong focus on US sovereignty,¡± Carmen said. ¡°He would rather focus on improving the Bureau of Interdimensional Defense and Adumbrae Intelligence Unit than rely on Corebrings and the UN organizations.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you brought up the UN Ms. Sanchez,¡± Professor Silva said. ¡°The president doesn¡¯t just want the Corebrings to not interfere in the US, he also doesn¡¯t want the UN to interfere either. It is essentially a modern version of the Monroe Doctrine. While past presidents may have been more friendly to foreign intervention in the US, President Goodwin has been trying to enforce a more isolationist national security agenda.

    ¡°One of the strongest examples of this is the Philippines. He has been trying to get Congress to revoke the Manila Accords, which gives the UN power to oversee the Devlyosian Sinkhole.¡±

    That¡¯s where Dad worked before he ¡®died¡¯. However, given that Mom never found his body, it¡¯s most likely that he joined the Corebring Hive. What would he think of me now? Would he try to kill me if he found out I was an Adumbrae. Maybe I could show him I was a Corebring? But then, I don¡¯t think the Hive would like it if they found out I had an artificial Core.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be interesting when you meet him again,¡± SpookyErind said. Meet him again? Does that mean she knows he¡¯s alive?

    ¡°Maybe you can come with me and pretend to be mom,¡± I jokingly said. With that white hair and glowing eyes, I think we had a good chance of convincing Dad. The only issue was SpookyErind¡¯s marble skin. Maybe we could apply a lot of makeup to her?

    ¡°If I¡¯m your mom, then let me give you lots of hugs like a caring mother would,¡± SpookyErind responded. Nevermind, scrap the mom plan. I don¡¯t want to do it anymore.

    At least it will be a while until I have to go back home to SpookyErind. Just have to endure Consti and then shopping with Deen. Ughh. Shopping.

 1.5

    I stared at myself in the mirror. On my sternum was the embedded organic growth. The Artificial Core. One of the two things I had to hide. I brought up my right hand and opened it, revealing the pimple patches used to hide the crystal underneath.

    I was almost tempted to take it off and compare it to the Artificial Core. Sadly, I didn¡¯t have other pimple patches with me - I should make a note to bring more.

    I put the pink sports bra around my chest and hooked the back. Now, the Artificial Core was gone from view.

    ¡°You look cute in that,¡± SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Well, I look cute in anything I wear,¡± I said. We both giggled.

    I left the changing room and noticed Deen was already out. A gray sports bra held in place her massive breasts. Below them were her toned abs. A feeling of jealousy rose within me.

    I hadn¡¯t noticed it before, but it actually seemed that Deen worked out. That was probably because Myra seemed way stronger than Deen. Deen¡¯s arms weren¡¯t noodles like mine, while her legs were muscular. I hadn¡¯t really worked out when I was a cheerleader in high school. I probably should have worked out more when I was in Judo, but that class made me really upset with all the physical contact and getting beat up.

    ¡°Maybe we should work out?¡± SpookyErind suggested, still at my desk in my room. How would that work? I would need a lot of weights and dumbbells given how strong I was. Also, there was no way I was going to the gym. In addition to having to keep up my face, people would get suspicious of how strong I was. That would lead to me getting tested and then executed.

    ¡°You look amazing,¡± Deen told me.

    ¡°Thanks, and so do you,¡± I told her. ¡°All right. So now we¡¯ll change back and check out these clothes at the register?¡±

    ¡°Not so fast,¡± Deen said. What now? ¡°I picked out some spare ones too. You should try these on.¡±

    I didn¡¯t notice it before, but Deen had a shopping bag with her. She pulled out two sets of sports bras. One was light blue and one was light green. Other sports bras were in the bag, but they looked way too big for me, so they were probably Deen¡¯s.

    I internally groaned. Sadly, I had to keep my face up, which really drains my batteries.

    ¡°Any reason you picked lighter colors for me instead of darker ones?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I just thought you¡¯d look cuter in these ones,¡± Deen replied. ¡°If you want, I can also buy you some darker ones.¡± No, thank you.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. I was just wondering about your color choices. You got me colorful sports bras, while all of yours are gray or dark. What¡¯s up with that?¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­¡± Was Deen flustered at this? If so, that was truly funny. ¡°...I just wanted to give my friend the best clothing options. Ones better than mine. Yeah! That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± I asked. ¡°The Amber Deen Leska not caring about what clothes she¡¯s wearing. Sounds suspicious.¡±

    ¡°I just wanted you to look cute,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯m fine with not looking cute.¡± What kind of answer is that?

    ¡°Fine,¡± I replied. ¡°I¡¯ll let you off the hook for now. But I¡¯m on to you Ms. Leska¡±

    ¡°What is this?¡± Deen asked. ¡°An interrogation?¡±

    We both laughed.

    ¡°All right, I¡¯ll try these on now,¡± I said as I grabbed the sports bras from Deen.

    I walked back into the dressing room and took off the current pink sports bra I was wearing. As I changed to put the light blue one on, I thought about the absurdity of this situation. Here I was trying on sports bras to hide my Artificial Core. When would I ever need to change in public? Would Deen even do something like that?

    What if I got into a battle? I¡¯m not sure my clothes or this sports bra would survive in a fight. Then, I would have to get home somehow without revealing my Artificial Core to the world. At least I could ball my hand up to hide the crystals. What would I do to hide the Core? Cover my chest with arms? I guess since my chest is small, it¡¯s not that hard to do.

    Well, I was already here, so I might as well get Deen to buy me these clothes. My undergrad econ professors would probably be yelling the sunk cost fallacy at me, but I¡¯d have to break my face to get out of this situation. That would just be the death of me.

    I walked back outside to Deen waiting for me. Seriously? How fast does she change? There is no way she is faster than me, especially when she has to deal with those two giant sacks of flesh on her chest.

    Sadly, I couldn¡¯t ask her about this, especially in public, so instead I went with another question.

    ¡°So, do I still look cute?¡± I asked, putting my hands on my hips.

    ¡°Indeed,¡± Deen commented. ¡°And very huggable too.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± I said. ¡°Hugging is off the table for now. Instead, I¡¯m investing in this amazing new concept called personal space.¡±

    ¡°Awww,¡± Deen said. ¡°But we hugged yesterday.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that was for an emotional moment,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know why I would need a hug now. Nothing grand or emotional has happened.¡±

    Suddenly, Deen hugged me. ¡°Ahh! What are you doing?!!¡±

    ¡°But hugs are good all the time,¡± Deen said. I really wanted to punch her. Sadly, starting a fight in the middle of this store would be a very bad idea for obvious reasons.

    ¡°Now you¡¯re ruining the emotional value of hugs,¡± I said. ¡°The market cannot sustain this.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Deen said, releasing me from her vile embrace. ¡°Anyways, were you pretending to be an economics major or something?¡±

    ¡°I actually did my undergrad in business administration,¡± I told her.

    ¡°Wow,¡± Deen said. ¡°Maybe we could start our own hugs business.¡±

    ¡°Nope. Like I said before, I¡¯m investing in personal space,¡± I said. ¡°Already have an LLC and just need to get my ¡®personal space¡¯ trademarked.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure introverts are in demand,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Just wait and see,¡± I told her. ¡°My business is going to be the biggest in the world.¡±

    We both giggled.

    Eventually, after trying on the last sports bra and changing back to our school clothes, Deen paid for my clothes at the register. Oh, the joys of having a rich best friend.

    As we got back in the car, I asked Deen, ¡°Do you need me to give you directions to drop me off at my condo?¡±

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°But I thought we were going to test our regeneration at my place?¡± Deen asked. Oh. I forgot about that. Crap.

    ¡°Oops, I forgot,¡± I said. ¡°Fine. Let¡¯s go to your place.¡±

    As we walked inside Deen¡¯s home, SpookyErind stopped playing Tappy Dash and said, ¡°Hey, how about you summon me over there?¡±

    Why would I want to bring you over here?

    ¡°So we can show off more of our awesome powers to Deen,¡± she replied.

    Before I could respond, SpookyErind tugged at her face and I could no longer sense what she sensed. It was as if someone turned off a camera in my mind. But, in my left hand, I felt an orb-like presence.

    SpookyErind did bring up a good point. It was funny seeing Deen being upset about her powers while I could use mine. Maybe I was just being a bitch for being jealous, but I really wanted to make Deen feel inferior.

    I focused on my left hand and concentrated on summoning SpookyErind. Gold liquid materialized above my hand and consolidated into that embroidered mask. It floated over to the side and vanished.

    In its place was now SpookyErind. It was weird being in the same room as her because, for most of the day, we¡¯d been far away. Seeing myself twice was very jarring.

    ¡°And now, there¡¯s two of me,¡± I said.

    As Deen put the bag with our sports bras down, she turned around to see both me and SpookyErind.

    ¡°You know, your power is very cool,¡± Deen said. ¡°I just wished I could use my power.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Deen,¡± I told her. ¡°I think it will come to you sooner rather than later.¡± Imagine though if she never found out how to control it. That would be hilarious.

    ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s test our regeneration then,¡± Deen said. ¡°Let me get a knife.¡±

    As she went to get some cutlery, I sat down in one of her fancy dining chairs. This was really comfy. I should get one of these chairs for my condo. Although, it did look expensive. Some gold lacings were on it. Maybe I could get a discounted version without the gold?

    SpookyErind walked over to the kitchen and put her hands on my shoulders. She was smiling as I looked up to her. I would have glared at her, but Deen would be coming anytime soon.

    Deen walked back with a metal knife and sat across in the chair next to me. ¡°Umm. I¡¯m a bit scared to do this. Could you cut me? And then I¡¯d cut you?¡±

    No way am I letting this bitch cut me. I can cut myself just fine, thank you very much. I just needed to make sure to cut my left hand and not my right hand, which had the crystal.

    ¡°Actually, can I cut myself?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Deen said as she passed me the knife.

    I opened my left palm and brought the knife down slowly. Once it touched my skin, I slowly increased pressure until a dribble of red liquid flowed from the wound. As I picked up the knife, the wound on my hand closed quickly.

    ¡°Can you pass the napkins?¡± I asked as I cupped my left hand to prevent blood from dripping.

    ¡°Here you go,¡± Deen said as she gave some to me. ¡°You¡¯ll have to cut me because I don¡¯t think I can cut myself.¡±

    Wow, what a lot of trust to put into me. What if I stabbed Deen with the knife? To be honest, I¡¯d probably get a lot farther by punching her with my superstrength. Could I kill Deen just by punching her? Sadly, I couldn¡¯t test that theory because of Rule #4.

    SpookyErind took her hands off my shoulders and moved behind Deen. She put her hands on Deen¡¯s shoulders and started massaging them.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Deen asked, as she stared at me. Why are you asking me?! I can¡¯t control SpookyErind.

    ¡°I¡¯m just massaging you,¡± SpookyErind said. ¡°Focus on this while I use the knife. It¡¯ll make it go a lot better.¡±

    ¡°I guess that sounds fine,¡± Deen replied as she looked up to SpookyErind. I could see Deen¡¯s face up closer now through SpookyErind¡¯s eyes. That was a bit too close for my liking. Hopefully, this will be over soon.

    I grabbed Deen¡¯s hand. At least she wasn¡¯t the one touching me. It was a lot better when I did it. That feeling of disgust wasn¡¯t as strong as when she just randomly hugged me earlier. I guess the same could be said of SpookyErind. I didn¡¯t feel nearly as disgusted while she was massaging Deen compared to when Deen hugged me. Or that may just be because I don¡¯t like hugs.

    As I applied a tiny bit of pressure on Deen¡¯s skin, blood trickled out and painted the knife¡¯s blade red. This reminded me when I had to dissect frogs and other rodents during high school. What would Deen look like if I dissected her? How many organs of hers would resemble a frog¡¯s organs? Probably not a lot, since frogs have very different anatomy from humans.

    I released the pressure on the knife. It was best to stop now before I actually started dissecting Deen. ¡°All right, I¡¯m done.¡±

    Deen toward to look at her hand and said, ¡°That wasn¡¯t that bad. At least I know my regeneration power works. Just wish I could figure out my ability and summon.¡±

    Ugghh. Never mind, it was boring to listen to Deen complain. I don¡¯t know why I¡¯d find it fun. I guess it would be if I showed off in front of Deen. But, that wasn¡¯t a feature of my face for Deen.

    ¡°You also have superstrength too,¡± I said, trying to cheer her up. I don¡¯t need a moping Deen right now.

    ¡°Actually, I have something we can test our superstrength on,¡± Deen said. SpookyErind stopped massaging Deen as Deen got up. ¡°Let me show you my home¡¯s gym.¡±

    Me and SpookyErind followed Deen into her ¡®home gym¡¯. One side of the room was filled with mirrors, and the floor and other sides were filled with pads. A few weight racks were off to the sides, but what really caught my attention were the two giant machines in the center of the room.

    They looked like modified weight machines. Each pulley system went to five pillars of weights surrounding the central chair, which had neon lights inscribed into the black leather. It looked like it belonged in a Sci-fi movie with its design. Looking at the weights, some of them were huge. There¡¯s no way Deen could lift this much.

    ¡°Me and my sister actually used these for exercise,¡± Deen said. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not sure about my sis, because I hardly see her anymore in the house.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no way you could lift all this when you were a human,¡± I said. ¡°This looks like overkill.¡±

    ¡°Oh, we just bought the fanciest one,¡± Deen replied. ¡°Apparently it¡¯s used by people with Augs. Never needed to lift that much though. But we were thinking if we did get some bio augments, these machines might be useful.¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t having Augs defeat the purpose of working out though?¡± I questioned.

    ¡°Some people just like to show off to others and are willing to spend enough money to do so,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Are you including yourself in that commentary?¡± I asked, grinning.

    ¡°If I wanted to show off, I still have a lot more money to spend,¡± she said. Wow, okay, Ms. Rich Person. Not everyone has a boatload of money they can just spend on luxuries.

    ¡°Are you humble bragging?¡± I said, teasing her.

    ¡°No¡­¡± Deen said. ¡°Anyways, the maximum weight on these machines is about 10,000 lbs. Let¡¯s see how much we can lift. One of the cool things is that it¡¯s voice-controlled. So you can tell it to set the weight amount. Atlas 1, set the weights to 500 pounds.¡±

    ¡°Determining closest viable weight to 500 pounds,¡± a robotic male voice said. ¡°500 pounds is viable. Changing pins.¡±

    A sound of clattering happened near the five pillars as Deen sat down in the chair to us.  She began pushing on the handles to her side, and they slowly went forward.

    ¡°Atlas, the Titan who held up the Earth,¡± I said reciting my Greek mythology knowledge. ¡°Do you plan on holding up the Earth Deen?¡±

    ¡°I can certainly try,¡± Deen said. ¡°Atlas 1, set the weights to 1000 pounds.¡±

    After the clattering was finished, Deen pushed on the two handles. They moved slower than before, and I could tell Deen was putting in a lot more effort. She groaned as she continued to push the bars forward.

    ¡°I can lift at least half a ton,¡± she said panting, after releasing the handles. ¡°Let me try some more.¡±

    Deen tried 1100 pounds, but she was unable to push the handlebars at all.

    ¡°1100 pounds it is,¡± she said, standing up. ¡°How about you try Erind?¡±

    I sat down in the chair, with Deen and SpookyErind both facing me. I pushed on the handlebars and they moved pretty easily. This wasn¡¯t heavy at all.

    ¡°Wow,¡± Deen said. ¡°You can lift that much?¡±

    At least here was something I was better than at than Deen. She may have been more beautiful than me, but at least I was way stronger than her.

    We tried increasing the weight amount by the thousands. Eventually, we got to 6000 pounds, which became difficult for me to lift. I was still able to do it, but it took a lot of effort. I panted as I finished.

    ¡°I think I¡¯m hitting my limit,¡± I said, groaning. I hadn¡¯t worked out in a long time.

    We tried 6100 pounds, and I was unable to push the bars forward anymore.

    ¡°6000 pounds,¡± Deen said. ¡°That¡¯s like 3 tons.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for doing the math for me,¡± I said. ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to be a math major?¡±

    Deen laughed, ¡°No, but thanks for the compliment.¡±

    ¡°You know, it¡¯s weird seeing you lift all that much,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Is it because I look short and skinny?¡± I asked.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be that negative about yourself,¡± she replied. ¡°You¡¯re more like a doll, one with porcelain skin.¡±

    ¡°Well, this doll is hungry,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m going to head back home to get dinner.¡±

    ¡°Wait, I can feed you!¡± Deen said. ¡°I can get you some sandwiches and refreshments.¡± Uggh. I guess I could stay if she had food ready.

    ¡°Thanks for dinner Deen,¡± I said. ¡°But I really should get going, it¡¯s getting dark outside.¡±

    In my hand, I held the embroidered mask that SpookyErind turned into. I should hang this on my wall. It¡¯d look cool.

    ¡°No, thank you for coming over,¡± she replied. ¡°I hope you come over more often.¡± I hope I don¡¯t.

    ¡°We¡¯ll have to see about that,¡± I said, deflecting. I began walking out of the house, but as soon as I did, Deen grabbed my hand. Fucking bitch.

    ¡°Did I do something wrong?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Um, I think my summon just talked to me,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Really? What did it say?¡±

    ¡°We need to head to the Verde Clubhouse,¡± she replied as she began dragging me in the direction opposite my Condo.

    ¡°Why do we need to go there?¡± I asked.

    As if to answer my question, the blinding light of high beams focused on us. It was hard to tell, but it seemed a small convoy of black vans was coming after us.

 1.6

    Deen continued to drag me throughout her affluent neighborhood while running.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I asked, feigning panic.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± Deen cried out.

    Was this the BID or the AIU? Were they coming to arrest us? The BID often captured suspected Adumbrae secretly. But that didn¡¯t make sense. Why would they be coming after us? We hadn¡¯t done anything worthy of suspicion. Both me and Deen did well on our tests. I guess there was that egg pod test that could make me suspicious, but that Professor lady could have just forced me to have more tests. Even more so, how would they know I was staying at Deen¡¯s house?

    Maybe they were keeping track via the traffic camera system? I still couldn¡¯t figure out why the BID would come after us.

    But then another topic came to mind. What if it was the Adumbrae that were after us? What if Dario really was telling the truth? And for some reason they decided to attack us? I sitll doubted that, because ¡°Myra¡± was the Adumbrae in Dario¡¯s story. I highly doubt Dario¡¯s group would try attacking us if they just gave us superpowers. So who the fuck could this be?

    ¡°Should we contact the others?¡± I asked Deen.

    ¡°Good idea!¡± Deen said as she pulled out her phone while still running to who knows where. I hoped she knew where she was going. It was getting dark out here. Although, if Deen¡¯s summon could give her instructions, then it could probably tell her how to navigate in the dark.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have any signal!¡± Deen cried out as she continued running. Wait, since we had superstrength, didn¡¯t that mean we were running pretty fast. I took a peak behind us. The beamlights were still in the distance, so I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the vans were having problem catching up to us. If these guys were the BID, we are definitely screwed in the future.

    I didn¡¯t bring any of my emergency supplies with me. Shit. Even more so, Deen would probably want to stay with me. Although, maybe with her future sightseeing summon, she could hide me from the BID along with her.

    ¡°Just keep running then!¡± I told her.

    Eventually, we wound up at the Verde Clubhouse. It was currently a dilapidated building built out of wood with a greenish tint. A sign on it read ¡°Closed for renovations¡±. Construction tape and cones were littered across the lot, and some immobile construction vehicles sat between them.

    ¡°Okay, so what now?¡± I asked. I really hoped Deen¡¯s summon had a plan here, since we probably could have continued running.

    ¡°Umm.. it wants you to summon your clone,¡± she said.

    SpookyErind? Can you hear me? I hope you can. Please help us!

    The switch went off in my body, and the mask in my hand disappeared. Instead, SpookyErind stood next to me. At least she followed my orders. Could I order her to do other things?

    ¡°So what now?¡± I asked.

    Unfortunately, Deen didn¡¯t answer my question as the vans rolled in. From what I could tell, there were five black vans. They spread out to block the entrace to the Verde Clubhouse lot, their high beams blinding me and SpookyErind. What were they planning on doing? Fwip. Fwip. Fwip. Fwip.

    Little stings filled mine and SpookyErind¡¯s bodies. What the fuck? I took a look and saw several darts sticking out of my body. It was as if I was a porcupine. Were these sleeping darts? Fuck. Why didn¡¯t Deen¡¯s summon just tell us to keep running. If this was the BID, I didn¡¯t want to get captured.

    A few shadows emerged from the beam lights. They were wearing balaclava masks and each had baton. I could guess it was a stun baton. Their outfit was weird though. It looked like a simple black jacket, rather than some fancy special operations armor. Also, didn¡¯t the BID have long range stun weaponry? Why were they getting close to us?

    Unless¡­ They weren¡¯t really BID agents. Were these just common thugs then? I didn¡¯t see any Adumbrae here. Maybe they were trying to steal from Deen since she was so wealthy.

    But since they were common thugs, I had no problem with beating them up if they tried to stun me. They had already shot me with sleeping darts - a violation of Rule #4. Hopefully, I¡¯d be able to enact my revenge on them before I fell asleep. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t feel too sleepy right now.

    One of the shadows converged on me, while another headed toward SpookyErind. The third one headed to the middle of us, where Deen probably was. As the thug guy who approached me, he prepared to strike me with his baton. His movements, seemed slow for some reason. Anyways, I balled my hand into a fist and punched him in the crotch.

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    He went flying backwards. Wow. I didn¡¯t know I could punch that far. The other two thug guys stopped in their tracks to look at me. SpookyErind punched the guy closest to her and he also went flying.

    ¡°Shit,¡± The middle guy said. I was so going to kill all these people for messing with me.

    Before I could do that, I heard Deen yell ¡°Erind, roll out to the sides!¡±

    What? SpookyErind rolled to the right. Shit. What¡¯s going to happen next? I rolled around to the left.

    The concrete I had just been on seemed to liquify. The fuck? These criminals had superpowers? So the Adumbrae Dario spoke of actually existed? Why were they after us though?

    The guy in the middle sunk into the liquid. He screamed and cried out for help. I would have laughed if not for the fact that we were being attacked by an Adumbrae.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± I heard a voice.  ¡°They didn¡¯t tell us we were dealing with Augs or Adumbrae. Shoot them with more darts!¡± Fwip Fwip Fwip Fwip.

    More darts landed on mine and SpookyErind¡¯s bodies. Shit. This can¡¯t be good. I was starting to feel a bit tired. Even with my superpowers, I wouldn¡¯t be able to stay awake much longer.

    I looked closely at the high beams, and saw a figure in the middle. Was that the Adumbrae? Scratch that, I needed to kill the people who were shooting darts. Killing the Adumbrae would be no good if the other people continued to turn me into a hedgehog.

    SpookyErind rushed the van on the right, while I did the same for the one on the left. As I approached the window, I could make out an arm with a gun aiming towards me. He continued to shoot more darts into me.

    As I reached him, I grabbed his wrist and applied all the pressure I could. A satisfying crunching sound entered my ears as his wrist crumpled and blood began to flow out. I heard a clatter as his gun, fall to the ground. The thug guy in front of me screamed as I pulled him out of the car and slammed him into the ground. A cracking noise could be heard.

    SpookyErind hopped on the hood of the right van. She stabbed her hand through the glass and grabbed the face of the guy with the dart gun. Next, she crushed his head into a pulp. She did the same for the driver of the van.

    ¡°Fuck this shit!¡± the guy inside the left car said. ¡°I ain¡¯t taking these bitches alive.¡±

    He pulled out a gun and started shooting at me. A few bullets pierced my head as I ducked. Fuck. That stung a lot. I wasn¡¯t dead though, so they probably didn¡¯t make it that far in. I could feel my regeneration kicking in and healing my head. The bad thing was - I was feeling really tired right now.

    It was like when I pulled an all nighter during undergrad trying to finish a group project because one of our members didn¡¯t do their job. I stayed up till 4 AM trying to finish the project. Fuck that guy and these thug guys too.

    While SpookyErind went to kill the people in the van next to her, I hid below the window of the left van. More gunfire erupted. Maybe they were trying to hit Deen. Hopefully, she didn¡¯t get hit and could help me kill the rest of these fuckers. If she was knocked out, I was going to have so many problems.

    I looked up and saw the side mirror of the van. An idea popped up into my head. I ripped it from the side of the van and popped back up. As soon as I saw the van¡¯s driver, I chucked the mirror at full speed toward him. His head separated from his neck as the mirror collided with him. Blood flowed from his neck as his body slumped forward and the arm with the gun fell.

    ¡°Shit, they¡¯re too strong!¡± That same voice said. ¡°Retreat!¡±

    SpookyErind had just finished killing the driver and gunman thug guys on the 2nd van to the right. The sound of engines revving up echoed. The middle van and the 2nd van on the left began pulling back. I didn¡¯t want them to get away. I had to punish them for bothering me.

    I leaped over the hood of the left van and ran towards the next van. They had turned around now, and the van closest to me opened their backside doors. A guy with a purple mohawk leaped inside. That was most likely the Adumbrae cement guy, given how far he was able to leap.

    Me and SpookyErind leaped as far as we could toward that van. As we landed inside, we collided with the Adumbrae.

    ¡°Get off me!¡± He cried out. This van had three gunmen compared to the other vans. They filled us with bullets and darts. Yet, I wasn¡¯t done yet. And neither was SpookyErind. I grabbed the Adumbrae while SpookyErind charged towards the gunmen.

    With both of my hands on his head, I squeezed on his head until it burst into a spray of blood. Ewww!

    ¡°Stop it!¡± the driver thug guy yelled. ¡°I can¡¯t drive straight!¡±

    Our car began to swerve as I felt even more and more sleepy. I tried to move my limbs but it was increasingly hard to do so. My body collapsed onto the floor of the van and I began to feel myself sliding to the edge. Nononono.

    SpookyErind punched her hand through the driver¡¯s skull. A crash sounded, and I got sent into the side of the van. She got lucky she wasn¡¯t shot with darts as much as me, but I could feel her body getting tired as well. She crawled over to me, where I was scrunched up against the left wall of the van. At least I didn¡¯t slide out of the van, but this wasn¡¯t any better.

    ¡°You did good myself,¡± She said with a smile.

    I tried to speak, but my vision was beginning to blur.

    ¡°We deserve this nap,¡± she said as her words began to slur.

    She collapsed in front of me. Bullet holes surrounded by patches of blood filled her clothes. At least these other guys were dead. I wondered if Deen was still alive. She didn¡¯t even help us! I had to do all the work. Since SpookyErind was a part of me, I¡¯m including that as part of my work.

    ¡°Erind!¡± I heard a distant female voice yell. There she was. It sounded like she was in a lot better shape than me. My eyelids began to close as I could no longer keep them up.

    ¡°Erind!¡± That voice yelled again. Now, SpookyErind¡¯s eyes began to close. I hoped when I woke up, it¡¯d be in a better place than this van.

    ¡°Erind! If you¡¯re alive please call out to me!¡±

    My consciousness began to slip into a deep sleep.

    ¡°Erind!¡±

 1.7 - Amber Deen Leska

    Amber Deen Leska

    Deen ran towards the crashed vans.

    ¡°Erind!¡± She yelled again.

    The van with the open backdoors - the one Erind and her clone jumped into - had collided into the side of the other van. As Den approached it, she saw two limp bodies near the side of the truck. They both were filled with darts. Deen¡¯s heart sank.

    As she made it to the edge of the van, the brutality Erind faced became clear.  Splotches of blood were all over Erind¡¯s clothes. In the middle of these blood splatters were holes in Erind¡¯s clothes. Deen even spotted blood splotches on Erind head.

    ¡°No¡­¡± Deen mumured.

    Deen climbed in the van and checked Erind¡¯s other body. It was in a very similar state. She wasn¡¯t sure which one was her main body, but guilt creeped up inside of Deen.

    She was too shocked to do any combat. And because of this, Erind got hurt bad. It shouldn''t have been this way. Erind had already sacrificed herself to protect Deen at the Sanders mall.  Now, here was Erind lying motionless.

    ¡°Erind, please wake up!¡± Deen cried out as she tried shaking one of Erind¡¯s bodies.

    Was Erind dead? No¡­ It looked like she was still breathing. And as Deen took a closer look, she noticed that while there were splotches of blood in Erind¡¯s body, it seemed Erind regenerated all of her wounds.

    Still, that didn¡¯t erase Deen¡¯s guilt. The only thing she did was tell Erind to leap out of the way. It was just like at the Sanders mall. Deen was too stunned to really do anything, while Erind did everything to keep them alive and fight the Adumbrae. She could have used her new powers to help Erind fight, but Deen just stood there - like a bystander.

    Wasn¡¯t there a point to getting these superpowers? To not be a bystander? Without the Artificial Core, Deen would probably just be stuck in some office. That wouldn¡¯t really make a difference against the Adumbrae. It just meant that Deen would have been powerless. Powerless.  That¡¯s what Deen felt right now. There was an Adumbrae here - the one that could liquify concrete - and Deen didn¡¯t even try to kill him. Killing humans? She¡¯d reconcile the fact that she¡¯d have to do it if they worked with the Adumbrae. But she couldn¡¯t even muster up the will to kill the Adumbrae.

    ¡°No more,¡± Deen said. She was going to actually fight next time. Deen would kill her first Adumbrae and make up for not being a hero here. She wouldn¡¯t let the Adumbrae and their allies harm her or Erind anymore.

    But what should she do right now? Deen pulled out her phone. Still no signal. Weird. She¡¯d probably have to call the rest of the group for help. They were being targeted by the Adumbrae, and she needed their help to fend them off. Whether it be through training or information, they¡¯d be able to assist her in using her powers better.

    What about the wreckage and carnage here? Everett, who went by Emcee, would probably be helpful. He could probably burn it all down. What am I thinking? Burning bodies to destroy evidence? She was basically being a criminal! But what if the police trace this back to us? Then, Deen would have failed at being a hero and stopping the Adumbrae. It¡¯d be best to get rid of any evidence that could have lead to her and Erind being here.

    And that brought up a second question. What should she do with Erind? She wasn¡¯t sure which was the real body, but she should rescue both of them either way. She¡¯d bring both bodies back home, and lay them on the couch. Since Erind regenerated, the only thing Deen would need is to help clean her up. She had plenty of washcloths at home. After Erind wokeup, then she could take a shower. Thankfully, Deen¡¯s sister was out of the house and wasn¡¯t planning on returning soon.

    While Deen had superstrength, carrying both of Erind¡¯s bodies might be difficult. Both her bodies were carrying her school bags. Should she just take them off of Erind and then haul her to her home?

    As Deen was contemplating, the sound of doors opening alarmed her. There¡¯s still people alive in the other van?

    She had to protect Erind from them. Now was the time to fight and protect her best friend. Yes! Deen was going to be the hero that Erind needed. She wasn¡¯t going to cower away anymore.

    [Run away.]

    What? No. Deen wasn¡¯t going to just abandon Erind here. Even though her summon had helped her dodge the darts and bullets, it appeared it didn¡¯t want to fight at all. Deen turned towards her summon, which floated to the side of her. It was like a guardian angel that had the most cowardly instincts. Maybe it reflects me? If so, it was time for that to change. With her powers, Deen should be able to stop the rest of their attackers. It seemed they only had one Adumbrae, yet a bunch of humans with them.

    ¡°Come on!¡± She thought to her summon. ¡°We can¡¯t be scared anymore. Erind is in danger, and we can¡¯t let them harm her.¡±

    Deen¡¯s summon continued to float there. It offered no rebuttal or acknowledgement of Deen¡¯s arguments. I suppose I win by default then. This was it. Deen was going to go into her first fight. And she was going to win it.

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Deen stepped down out of the van. Nobody was in view as she turned towards the other van. Suddenly, a click went off and light emanated from the back of the other van. Deen made sure to stay out of the range of the flashlight.

    ¡°You think those bitches are dead?¡± a voice said.

    ¡°Looks like it,¡± another voice said. ¡°Haven¡¯t heard much from the other van.¡±

    ¡°Ouch, my leg arm hurts,¡± a third voice said. It was raspy. How many other people were alive in the other van?

    ¡°You¡¯ll get over it Cass,¡± the first voice said. ¡°Just stay awake a few moments longer and we¡¯ll carjack one of these rich people¡¯s cars.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I can drive anymore Mitch,¡± Cass said. ¡°I can¡¯t really feel my arms.¡±

    ¡°Shit,¡± Mitch replied. ¡°Just wait till we get back to the docks.¡± The docks? That¡¯s where the Adumbrae were hiding? But which one? They were all pretty far away from here.

    ¡°How about we check the other van?¡± the second voice said. ¡°I want to check if Henry is still alive.¡±

    ¡°If they¡¯re alive, they woulda come out already Ian,¡± Mitch said.

    ¡°Yeah, but that fucker still owes me money,¡± Ian replied. ¡°I¡¯ll have to grab it from his body if he¡¯s dead. Maybe those Adumbrae bitches have money too.¡±

    Deen couldn¡¯t believe what she was hearing. They were planning on robbing Erind? They¡¯d probably kill her too if they came over. She wasn¡¯t going to let them do that.

    [Wait for them to come over.]

    On instinct, Deen crouched down. She¡¯d catch them by surprise. And then¡­ she¡¯d kill them. A gnawing pain grew in her shoulder. That always happened in tense situations. But Deen was going to persist through the pain.

    ¡°Do you think Big Marcy would let me become an Adumbrae?¡± Cass said. ¡°This really sucks. I could go for some regeneration.¡±

    ¡°The fuck should I know?¡± Ian said. ¡°I¡¯m just in it for the money. I could care less about this Adumbrae shit.¡±

    ¡°Nah. You¡¯ll probably just get Augs like Jim did,¡± Mitch said. ¡°You¡¯d have to gain Big Marcy¡¯s trust if you want to be an Adumbrae. And he barely knows you.¡±

    Big Marcy? Was he the leader of the Adumbrae? Deen noted this stuff in her mind for later - she should bring it up with Dario and the others.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take it,¡± Cass replied. ¡°Anything for working arms.¡±

    The flashlight was now headed in the direction of the other van. Here they come.

    [Wait.]

    Deen¡¯s heart began to beat faster. She wasn¡¯t sure if the humans were armed, but the longer this went on, the more tense Deen felt.

    [Leap out of the van.]

    Deen leaped out of the van and rolled. As she got up, she saw three figures, each wearing balaclava masks and a black hoodie. Two of them were carrying guns mounted with flashlights, and they were closer to her. The third figure limped behind them. That must be Cass. They all stopped moving.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± Ian, the figure on the left said. ¡°One of those bitches is still alive.¡±

    ¡°Shoot her then!¡± Mitch, the figure on the right barked. Both figures raised their guns toward Deen as she charged them.

    [Dodge left.]

    Deen ran to the left, avoiding the bullets that came after her. It was actually pretty thrilling to be fast and dodge. She¡¯d done it earlier with the darts and bullets. Still, now was not the time to be cheering on. She had to save Erind from these evil people.

    Deen quickly closed the distance between her and the two gunmen. She slapped the guns out of the hands of the two attackers.

    ¡°Ahh!!¡± They both screamed and clutched their hands in unison. Good. Now they couldn¡¯t harm Erind or herself.

    Deen stood there for a few seconds. Was she really going to kill humans? They weren¡¯t even Adumbrae. But they were working with them! What would happen if Deen let the go? They¡¯d probably report back to their Adumbrae bosses. Then, they might send even more bad guys to come after her.

    Deen grabbed the closest thug next to her by the neck.

    ¡°Let me go you bitch!¡± Ian gasped.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Deen said as she tightened her grip on the man. ¡°But you¡¯re working with the Adumbrae.¡±

    The man struggled and tried kicking Deen. But it felt like a toddler trying to fight her. There was no point. Eventually the man stopped moving. Deen released her grip and the man fell to the ground like a ragdoll.

    ¡°You¡¯re an Adumbrae too!¡± Mitch cried out. ¡°What the fuck are you talking about?¡±

    He was wrong. Of course, Deen wasn¡¯t going to tell him that. Both her and Erind were Corebrings. They were the heroes that killed the Adumbrae.

    Still, even after killing a human, Deen expected some sort of feeling of heroism. Instead, she felt nothing of the sort. Only a lingering feeling of guilt. Still, that persistent drive to fight against the Adumbrae remained within her. She wasn¡¯t sure if she was glad for it. Although, without it, Deen would have certainly let all three of them go. But that was unacceptable because they would probably cause the Adumbrae to come after them more aggressively.

    Deen grabbed Mitch by the neck and began to squeeze.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you probably won¡¯t ever understand,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Please¡­ let¡­ me¡­ live¡­¡± Mitch choked out as he struggled.

    Deen simply tightened her grip. A few seconds later, the body she held stopped fighting. She released it. Finally, it was over.

    [There¡¯s still one left.]

    Crap. Deen forgot about the third figure. She turned around and saw him limping away. More guilt filled Deen¡¯s heart as she thought of killing him as well. Still Deen strided over to him. Cass turned his head around.

    ¡°Please let me go!¡± Cass said. ¡°I¡¯m just a driver. Just leave me alone.¡±

    That was true, but he also said he wanted to become an Adumbrae. That in itself was an admission to doing even more evil in the future. Deen couldn¡¯t allow it. She grabbed Cass by the neck.

    ¡°You said you wanted to become an Adumbrae,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Yeah, just like you three are,¡± Cass said as he flailed around. ¡°I wasn¡¯t planning on attacking you like the others did. Please just leave me alone.¡±

    Anger flashed on Deen¡¯s face.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare compare Erind or me to monsters like that!¡± Deen yelled as she tightened her grip. Erind was a Corebring hero, and here he was defaming her and calling her an Adumbrae. While Deen disliked it when Mitch called her an Adumbrae, she couldn¡¯t stand her best friend being attacked as well.

    Deen tightened her grip so much that blood started to leak as Cass¡¯s neck crumpled. She released her grip and watched him fall to the ground. Most of the guilt had left Deen once Cass accused them.

    She turned to the other van. Inside of it sat a strange device with a radio dish.

    [Destroy the jammer.]

    Was that why the signal wasn¡¯t working? Deen climbed into the van and punched the machine. It easily broke and crumpled. Having super strength and these other superpowers were certainly useful. Fun even.

    But as Deen turned back to leave the van and rescue Erind, she saw the carnage of Cass¡¯s body. Deen¡¯s heart sunk as more guilt swelled up inside of her. She was a killer now. But at least she was a killer on the side of good. Deen protected Erind, and she continued to do so.

    ¡°Oh, right I should probably call the others,¡± Deen said. She needed Emcee to burn all this down. Thankfully, they were far away from any homes. Hopefully, the police would know nothing of the brutal events that happened here.

 1.8

    ¡°Ugh..¡± I groaned. My body still felt tired from all those sleeping darts. But, I had to get up and get out of this van. Wait, this isn¡¯t a van. It was too smooth and leathery to be a van.

    ¡°Erind,¡± I heard a voice say. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m here for you.¡±

    I jolted awake and sat up. Turning my body around, I saw Deen.

    ¡°Erind!¡± Deen said. ¡°You¡¯re awake!¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­ Yes I am?¡± I said. I was too tired to deal with this enthusiasm.

    She wrapped her arms around me. Bitch.

    ¡°I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re awake,¡± Deen said. ¡°I was afraid you¡¯d never wake up. Even after removing all the darts, you were asleep for hours.¡±

    ¡°Hours?¡± I asked. ¡°Wait, what time is it?¡± Fuck. Have I really been knocked out for that long?

    ¡°It¡¯s almost midnight,¡± Deen replied.

    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry Deen!¡± I said. ¡°I need to head back to my Condo.¡± And away from your touchy feelingness too!

    ¡°Wait, you shouldn¡¯t leave,¡± Deen said, still hugging me. ¡°The police are now out there¡­¡±

    The police? Were they investigating what happened back at that abandoned clubhouse? There was a lot of violence there, mostly done by me. And then, if I remembered correctly, there was also a car crash. That probably alerted some people.

    Wait, what about my fingerprints? If the police could trace that back to me, fuck. Did Deen just carry me away from the car crash? I wished we could go back and burn everything. Maybe we could? Nah, that¡¯d be too risky with the police still there.

    Although, why are all the police out here? Maybe they were trying to search for whoever beat up all those thug guys. If that was the case, then it¡¯d be probably best that I¡¯d stay with Deen. Furthermore, now that I thought about it, I didn¡¯t have any of the darts stuck in me, and the blood on my hands had been wiped away. I guess I should thank Deen for that.

    ¡°Alright, I guess I¡¯ll stay,¡± I said. ¡°Also, thanks for rescuing me. And cleaning me up too.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just glad you¡¯re fine,¡± she replied. ¡°I tried my best to wipe most of the blood away. To clean the rest of the blood, I¡¯d have to take your clothes off, and I didn¡¯t feel comfortable doing that. I figured if you¡¯d wake up, you could use the shower here at my house.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± I replied. Finally, an excuse for some privacy.

    ¡°Although, I noticed the crystal on your hand when I was cleaning it,¡± Deen said.

    I instantly shuddered. Fuck.

    ¡°It¡¯s not ugly at all!¡± Deen cried out. ¡°It¡¯s actually really beautiful. If you want, I could give you more pimple patches to cover it up. I threw away the one you had because it became bloody.¡±

    At least she didn¡¯t assume I was an Adumbrae. But why would she assume that anyway? Thankfully, I became a Corebring. I could blame any non-human traits on my Artificial Core.

    ¡°Thanks, Deen,¡± I replied.

    Suddenly, a new flurry of sensations entered me. SpookyErind must have been waking up.

    She opened her eyes and turned behind her. Apparently Deen laid both of us on opposite sides of the couch. Then, SpookyErind went and hugged Deen as she smirked at me.

    She knew that I hated skin contact, and here she was hugging Deem. It would be fine if we didn¡¯t share senses, but I now feel Deen touching me twice as much. Ewwww.

    ¡°Also, thanks for carrying both of my bodies,¡± SpookyErind said. ¡°I hope we both weren¡¯t too heavy for you.¡±

    ¡°It was nothing,¡± Deen said. ¡°Especially since I have super strength now. I wasn¡¯t sure which one was your main body, so I decided to bring both back.¡±

    ¡°Wait, so you would have abandoned my clone if you knew it wasn¡¯t real?¡± SpookyErind asked. I actually would have been fine with that, given what SpookyErind was doing right now.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it like that!¡± Deen said. ¡°I just wanted to make sure your main body was safe.¡±

    At least Deen was becoming flustered now. That made things a bit more enjoyable. Maybe I could guilt-trip her some more.

    ¡°What if the police found that body?¡± I asked. ¡°Then they would have tried me as Adumbrae.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for being careless Erind,¡± she sobbed. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to do better next time. I¡¯m also sorry for not protecting you. I was just too stunned.¡±

    And just like that, Deen could be easily manipulated. Unfortunately, she was now sobbing into me, which was extremely bad. Time to dial it back a bit.

    ¡°It¡¯s alright,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for overreacting. I was just a bit stressed.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to apologize to me Erind,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to protect you in the future.¡±

    She stopped sobbing, which was what was important right now. I guess in the future, Deen could be useful. That power seemed like it had a lot of versatility. Unfortunately, with Deen being a wuss, it was absolutely useless to me.

    ¡°Umm Deen,¡± I started.

    ¡°Huh?¡± She asked

    ¡°Won¡¯t the police be investigating the crashed vans? They probably have my fingerprints and stuff over a lot of them.¡±

    ¡°Oh, no need to worry about that,¡± she replied. ¡°The others came quickly and Emcee managed to burn down everything important before the police came. They stayed for a bit here, but then all left a couple of hours ago.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± I said.

    I went through the rest of the events in my mind. I killed everyone in the first three vans. Then, I killed that Adumbrae and everyone else in the fourth van. Oh wait, there was a fifth van! Crap. Did they get away?

    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Wait, wasn¡¯t there a fifth van Deen that got away?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Well, the van you were in crashed into it,¡± Deen said, in a somber tone. Hmmm. Something was up.

    ¡°Did something happen?¡± I asked. ¡°You seem strangely upset about it.¡± I didn¡¯t know why she was getting sad now. She should be glad they were dead. Unless she felt bad about it?

    ¡°Did you kill someone?¡± SpookyErind asked. Is that what happened?

    ¡°Wait? How did you guess?¡± she asked.

    ¡°I just had a feeling,¡± she responded. That did make sense though. What else could make Deen upset about that?

    ¡°It¡¯s alright Deen,¡± I said. ¡°You can tell me what happened. You¡¯re my best friend - I trust you.¡± Not enough to tell you everything though.

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Deen continued. ¡°There were still some guys left in the other crashed van.¡±

    ¡°Did they try to attack you?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Well, two of them did after they saw me,¡± she said. ¡°I had to kill them - they said they were going to try and rob you. If they found you asleep, they probably would have tried to kill you. I couldn¡¯t let that happen. But I still don¡¯t feel good about it.¡±

    Damn. I wished I wasn¡¯t knocked out. I would have loved to see that. Maybe I could see that in the future. Just need to make Deen more open to it.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay Deen,¡± I said, trying to comfort her. ¡°I¡¯m glad that you protected me.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay,¡± she said. ¡°It just feels very wrong now.¡±

    ¡°Well, they were attacking you,¡± I responded. ¡°You had the right to self-defense.¡±

    ¡°But the last guy I killed was unarmed,¡± she said. ¡°He didn¡¯t even try to kill me. I know we had to kill him because he was working with the Adumbrae, but it feels wrong to just kill a normal person.¡±

    Unlike Deen, I had no qualms killing a normal person who bothered me. The concept of guilt was foreign to me. Why would I ever feel guilt about killing someone who wronged me? Still, I guess I could see it interfering with Deen¡¯s morals.  But in that case, I¡¯d just need to emphasize the importance of stopping the Adumbrae.

    ¡°I know it feels uncomfortable killing people,¡± I said. ¡°But, we have a duty to stop the Adumbrae. Corebrings from the Hive probably have to deal with similar situations as us. It¡¯d be no good if they just spared all the humans working with Adumbrae. They probably have to make the hard choices to kill them. We¡¯re probably doing something similar to them.¡±

    ¡°Thanks Erind,¡± she said. ¡°You know, you¡¯re pretty brave Erind. At the mall, you defended me from the Adumbrae, and tonight, you were able to stop a lot of the bad guys.¡±

    Wait a minute. Deen earlier said she was focused on protecting me. What if I emphasize how I seemingly protected her. I know I didn¡¯t actually intend to save her - I was just following my face. But here was a good moment to develop my best friend face and make it so Deen can get over killing.

    ¡°I was just doing it to protect you,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯d feel bad if my best friend died.¡± Wel not actually, but I wasn¡¯t going to tell her that. ¡°I know I had to kill to make sure you were safe.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she said. ¡°I couldn¡¯t imagine life without you.¡± I couldn¡¯t imagine life without myself either. ¡°I would be heartbroken if they killed you. So I guess I did what I had to do to protect you.¡±

    ¡°Oh, thank you so much for this conversation Erind,¡± she said. ¡°I feel a lot better now. We should probably get to bed though, it is kind of getting late.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right,¡± I said.

    Deen released her hug from me, and SpookyErind did the same for Deen. It was nice to not have the disgusting feeling of skin contact. Also, a shower! Enough of this icky blood and tainted clothing.

    That was a good shower. I wished my condo had a shower with eight body massage shower jets and an overhead rainfall shower. There were even independent controls for pressure and temperature. Maybe I could get Deen to buy me one?

    I had changed into the pajamas Deen gave me. They were kind of baggy given how small I was compared to her, but I did look cute in them. The shirt and pants were purple and had pink hearts spread across them. The room Deen gave me was also very luxurious. A queen-sized bed sat before me.

    I slid into the bed and it was the most comfy thing imaginable. Where did Deen get the material for this kind of bed? The pillow was so fluffy - like out of this world type of fluffy. I rolled around the bed.

    ¡°Weee,¡± I said.

    Back when I was a little kid, and I was supported by both of my parent''s incomes, we used to have a pretty good upper-middle-class house. I really liked the bed we had and would often roll around in it. We also had a spinning chair that was fun to spin around in. I didn¡¯t have either of those in my condo. I was still well-off since my Mom made a decent amount, but I didn¡¯t want to leech too much off of her.

    I stopped rolling around. It actually felt weird to be without SpookyErind. It¡¯s only been one day, but I¡¯ve gotten used to her presence. It was also pretty cool when she helped me beat up those thug guys. She unsummoned herself when I went to take a shower. Maybe I¡¯ll just have a conversation with her right before I go to bed? I didn¡¯t feel as tired as I was earlier.

    I sat up and focused on summoning SpookyErind. The gold liquid materialized above my hand and formed a mask, which floated a bit away from me to the other side of the bed. In an instant, a clone of me appeared. SpookyErind. She was wearing the same clothes as me. I could also see myself in her eyes. It was such a weird thing to have so many sensations, but so cool at the same time.

    SpookyErind focused on summoning a mask from her left hand. Putting on that strange drama mask, she transformed into something more otherworldly. It was like a mix of my mom and me. Her wispy, floaty white hair surrounded her face, and her glowing red eyes stared into me. My mom had her eyes replaced with augs and could change their color. I wondered if SpookyErind could change hers.

    ¡°Hello, SpookyErind,¡± I told her.

    <u>Hello myself,</u> she replied. <u>I¡¯m so glad you said hello to me this time. </u>

    ¡°I just really like these Corebring powers,¡± I said. ¡°It was really cool when we beat up those thug guys earlier.¡±

    <u>I¡¯m just glad you¡¯re safe</u>, she said as she hugged me.

    ¡°Do you really have to hug me?¡± I asked.

    <u>Yes! I do love myself, and you¡¯re me.</u>

    ¡°Then why¡¯d you hug Deen?¡± I asked.

    <u>Because hugs are amazing!</u> she cheered.

    ¡°But you know I don¡¯t like physical contact.¡±

    <u>But she¡¯s our best friend, so we should hug her</u>.

    Uggh. I guess she was just messing with me. We should move to another topic because my interest in this one was fading.

    But before I could change the topic, she leaned in and kissed me. As she broke away from the kiss, I sat there shocked. Seriously, again?! What the fuck?

    <u>Here, how about a kiss since you are better than Deen?</u> She asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like kisses either,¡± I groaned.

    <u>You did a great job of manipulating Deen earlier.</u> she said, ignoring me.

    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s very gullible,¡± I said.

    <u>It¡¯ll be fun to see you manipulate the rest of the group</u>, she said.

    Oh right, there were the other Corebrings. We¡¯d probably have to interact again. I¡¯d have to keep up my face with them, which seemed really draining.

    <u>It¡¯ll be fun in the end though! You¡¯ll also be able to beat up more thug guys. Maybe you could even use that face I gave you.</u>

    Oh right, she did give me that face. It was pretty fun to use. Although, when would be a great time to use it?  I would need to find a suitable time to be away from the group. Since the Adumbrae did exist, they''d probably want me to fight against them together. Hmmm.

    <u>I¡¯m sure a moment of opportunity will present itself</u>, she said.

    ¡°Actually, can you also transform using that face?¡± I asked.

    She took her right hand and intertwined with my left hand. What? I tried to pull away, but she was too strong. Her right hand also had a crystal, and it pushed against my skin.

    <u>Well now you know the answer to that question,</u> she replied. She could also summon that face from her crystal.

    ¡°Okay, it¡¯s a yes, but can you please let go of my hand?¡± I asked, still struggling. ¡°It¡¯s uncomfortable.¡±

    SpookyErind giggled.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going to bed,¡± I told her. I was getting annoyed by her antics. ¡°You can turn back into that mask.¡±

    Instead she pulled me down onto the bed while keeping me in a hug. She turned me over to the other side so I was no longer facing her.

    ¡°What the fuck was that?!¡± I cried out.

    <u>Actually, I want to sleep too. Also be quiet and watch your language, we don¡¯t want to wake Deen up.</u>

    ¡°I can¡¯t sleep like this!¡± I told her in an aggressive whisper.

    She simply giggled in return as I tried to pry her arms open. It was futile. I regretted summoning her. I wanted to be more aggressive, but that might damage Deen¡¯s room.

    ¡°Do you really need to do this?¡± I asked her.

    <u>If you fall asleep, it¡¯ll make things go by faster,</u> she said. I grumbled as I relented. What would make things go by faster is if I could sleep by myself.

    As my body got more and more tired, I started closing my eyes. SpookyErind had already closed hers and was smiling. At least the night would be shorter since I had to wake up early for class. Maybe I¡¯d get a good dream tonight in return for all the craziness that happened today.

 1.9

    Bad News. I didn¡¯t get a good dream last night. Even more bad news. I still felt groggy because I didn¡¯t get to sleep as much as I usually do. Stupid thug guys disrupting my sleep cycle. Maybe I should disturb some of their sleep cycles. Oh wait, I can¡¯t do that since they''re dead. Damn it. I needed more sleep. I was not ready for today.

    Even more badder news, SpookyErind was still hugging me. Her body was still asleep. I couldn¡¯t really sense anything from it.

    ¡°Hey, I need to get up to get ready for school,¡± I told her. Wait if she was asleep, then I could just easily get out of her vile grasp. I pried her arms off of me and quickly rolled out of bed. Huh, so I do lose her senses if SpookyErind goes to sleep. I hope that doesn¡¯t become an issue later on. Suddenly, more sensations appeared, as if I just got a new set of limbs. She had just woken up.

    <u>Good morning myself,</u> SpookyErind said while yawning. It was kind of weird since her voice was just appearing in my head, along with the yawn.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to go eat breakfast now,¡± I said. ¡°I need to get ready for classes.¡±

    <u>I¡¯ll have breakfast too!</u> She cheered.

    ¡°Wait, can¡¯t you just unsummon yourself?¡± I asked. ¡°And then I could resummon you when I¡¯m full?¡±

    <u>But what¡¯s the fun in that?</u> SpookyErind countered. <u>Besides, wouldn¡¯t it be cool to show off my cool time powers to Deen?</u>

    ¡°I think that would be very weird and not within my face,¡± I said.

    <u>But we and Deen already showed each other some of our powers already. Besides, were best friends!</u>

    ¡°Actually, why didn¡¯t you show yourself like this to Deen originally?¡± I asked.

    <u>Because it was funny to mess with Deen,</u> she told me. <u>She thought she was convulsing out for hours, but then you said she was only convulsing out for a minute. When she checked the time, it would only turn out to be a minute as well. So isn¡¯t it funny?</u>

    ¡°I guess so,¡± I said. Maybe SpookyErind just did things to mess with people? How could I get her to not mess with me as much. I¡¯d appreciate that a lot.

    <u>I¡¯m not messing with you silly,</u> she said. <u>I¡¯m just giving myself an appropriate amount of self-love.</u>

    ¡°My self-love involves self-distancing,¡± I said. ¡°Also stop reading my mind.¡± She just giggled instead. <u> </u>

    <u>How can you distance yourself?</u> she asked. To be fair, it just sounded cool. I really needed more sleep. At least breakfast would make things better.

    As I and SpookyErind walked into the dining room, Deen was already eating breakfast. Wait that wasn¡¯t breakfast. That was a salad! She had that for dinner yesterday as well. What kind of breakfast is that?

    ¡°Are you having a salad for breakfast?¡± I asked her.

    Deen jerked up in response. ¡°Uh no! I also had a boiled egg.¡± It was as if you caught a child eating a cookie from the cookie jar. Except for the exact opposite since Deen was eating healthy food.

    ¡°Wait, who¡¯s that?!¡± she panicked, pointing at SpookyErind. Actually, that was pretty funny.

    <u>Oh, this is just my clone,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Wait, you can change your clone¡¯s appearance?¡± Deen asked. ¡°And the voice? It¡¯s as if it¡¯s in my head somehow, but I can clearly see your clone¡¯s mouth move.¡±

    ¡°Umm, not really change appearance,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s more of a transformation.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s pretty cool,¡± Deen said. ¡°Can she do anything else, or is it just a transformation?¡±

    SpookyErind focused on her left hand and a golden bubble appeared above it. <u>I tested it out earlier, and apparently, I can summon bubbles that control the speed of time inside of them.</u> Well, that was true, since she did test it on Deen two days ago.

    ¡°Your power is so versatile,¡± Deen said. At least that was one point in the Erind category. I may not have had as good of looks as her, but I had better powers than her. I was also stronger than her as well. If only my body reflected that.

    ¡°Your power is useful too,¡± I said. As part of my best friend face, I had to pay Deen compliments. I wasn¡¯t just going to make fun of her, even though I would be totally justified in doing so. ¡°Being able to know the future sounds pretty useful, and your summon seems to have given you advice based off of that.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I just wish I could see it for myself,¡± Deen lamented. Oh come on, I was trying to cheer you up. What the fuck? Maybe Deen wasn¡¯t normal. Well, that much was obvious because she was crazy for trying to take an Artificial Core. Now one might say I might also be crazy, but I had to do it to keep my best friend face up.

    ¡°Umm, could you get both of us breakfast?¡± I asked. I didn¡¯t want to deal with SpookyErind being hungry.

    ¡°Oh dangit!¡± she said. ¡°Sorry Erind, I forgot to make you breakfast. I¡¯ll do it right now for both of you.¡±

    ¡°And no salad please,¡± I said with a grin.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t just a salad!¡± Deen said.

    I took a seat in one of Deen¡¯s fancy dining chairs. SpookyErind took the seat on my left. Around ten minutes later, Deen managed to get both of a breakfast.

    It was a real breakfast, compared to whatever nonsense Deen was eating earlier. A set of scrambled eggs, along with two strips of bacon and a glorious pancake with syrup. Usually, I wasn¡¯t a patriotic person, but if there was one thing I could agree on, is that the American breakfast is amazing.

    Before I started eating, Deen commented on something I didn¡¯t notice. ¡°The glowing blue eyes are really cool!¡± Glowing blue? I was attempted to look at SpookyErind, but I didn¡¯t want to give away something was up. Anyways, so SpookyErind could change her eye color. I guess that was also a good thing to do right here. Blue does not look as scary as red, at least I think. It¡¯s kind of weird that colors can be scary. What is the scariest kind of color? I didn¡¯t know the answer to that, but I did know I was hungry.

    Thankfully, none of these foods had an ¡°outside¡± so I was free to eat them as is. Well okay, the pancake had a light ring around the brown inside, so I had to eat that first to follow Rule #2. But, I was going to eat that last.

    Both I and SpookyErind ate the bacon first. I could feel the fatty, salty taste of the bacon as SpookyErind also ate it. Then, there was also the taste of the bacon in my mouth.

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Deen took the seat opposite of me. I chose this seat because it was the farthest away from Deen¡¯s salad. As Deen continued to eat the rest of her ¡°breakfast¡±, she asked me a question after she swallowed. ¡°Hey, Erind, so you probably are going to return to your condo after this right?¡±

    ¡°Mhm,¡± I grunted as I chewed up the other slice of bacon.

    ¡°I was thinking it would be better if you would stay at my house after school,¡± she said.

    Woah! No way I was doing that.

    ¡°Why?¡± I asked after swallowing my bacon. I then started eating my scrambled egg. SpookyErind stopped eating after she swallowed her last piece of bacon.

    ¡°It¡¯s for safety reasons,¡± she said. ¡°I can keep you safe with my summon. I¡¯m willing to fight now and won¡¯t be cowardly anymore. That means I can help protect you.¡± Yeah, but I like my Condo. It may not be rich, but it has the most important quality. Devoid of any unwanted people in my room. And by unwanted I mean anybody other than me.

    Before I could swallow my chewed egg, Spooky Erind said, <u>But I would have to move my stuff from there to here.</u>

    ¡°I could help you move,¡± Deen said.

    <u>Thanks Deen!</u> SpookyErind cheered. <u>I¡¯d be glad to stay here.</u> I nearly gagged. I didn¡¯t agree with this! As I swallowed, SpookyErind continued talking. <u>I just hope it isn¡¯t too much of a problem that I¡¯m living here for free.</u>

    ¡°No, it¡¯s perfectly fine,¡± Deen replied with a smile. ¡°You don¡¯t need to pay me we¡¯re best friends.¡±

    <u>I can help clean stuff up around here,</u> SpookyErind told her. Stop! This was the main problem with SpookyErind, other than the fact that she might take over my main body one day. She could agree with things I would disagree with. It is messing up the face I am cultivating for Deen. It¡¯s not like I could go back and just reject Deen¡¯s offer. That¡¯d just make me look like a bitch, which would also be counter to my best friend face.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Deen said. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about cleaning up. I need to make things up to you since you saved me twice. Just enjoy your time here.¡±

    <u>Thanks, Deen,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°We could also work out some more to get stronger,¡± Deen suggested.

    I looked at my noodle-like arms. I guess it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea to work out. Maybe I could get a more fit body than Deen? Damnit, Deen was convincing me to stay here out of my own jealousy of her. Was she manipulating me? Nah, there was no way Deen was that smart. She also didn¡¯t seem like that type of person.

    ¡°Sure,¡± I said. ¡°But we should finish breakfast first.¡± I continued eating my egg. SpookyErind started eating hers.

    ¡°Oh, before I forget,¡± Deen started. ¡°Dario and the others are having a meeting at our secret hideout.¡±

    ¡°Secret hideout?¡± I asked.

    ¡°They want to meet there instead of here because the police are still doing their investigations here,¡± Deen replied. ¡°We should be fine to go to school and back, but we shouldn¡¯t bring too much attention to ourselves.¡±

    ¡°Do you have any idea what we¡¯ll be doing there?¡± I questioned.

    ¡°Dario said that he plans to train us and also discuss what happened yesterday,¡± she told me.

    Hmm¡­ I was curious about yesterday. How come the Adumbrae tried to kidnap us? They didn¡¯t know we weren¡¯t human, otherwise, they probably would have brought a larger force. Still, wasn¡¯t it weird as soon as we joined the group, we got attacked by them the next day? I couldn¡¯t bring this up though, because Deen still thinks the spike person that attacked us was also an Adumbrae. Still, it¡¯d be important to see what theories Dario and the others come up with.

    The absence of cars made things seem a bit spooky as we approached our secret hideout. Thankfully, no one was following us, otherwise, I would have suspected the police or even the Adumbrae were trailing us. We were in the ghost part of town. Sadly there weren¡¯t any ghosts. Or not sadly, because if they were, I would have suspected them of being Adumbrae.

    I was in a much better mood because I had drank my chamomile tea right before classes. Even more so, SpookyErind was stuck in the guest room at Deen¡¯s house playing Poly Knight. So two bad things ruining my day were not near me. Although, I might have to bring SpookyErind here to demonstrate my powers. Correction, Corebring powers. Wasn¡¯t it weird that SpookyErind could interface with them? She was an Adumbrae. Perhaps there wasn¡¯t as much of a difference between Corebrings and Adumbrae¡­

    More and more abandoned buildings littered the landscape as we passed by. Construction here ceased a while back, leaving the empty frames of a bunch of buildings. Some were more finished than others, but the signs of rust and moss showed that no one cared to complete or maintain them. Some of them did look complete - those were most likely converted into homeless shelters for the homeless to live in.

    Because most people didn¡¯t want to live near the homeless, the area beyond created a wasteland-like feeling. Which was funny because this area wasn¡¯t involved at all with an Adumbrae attack in its history. This would be a great place to film a post-apocalyptic movie. I¡¯m surprised no one has done it yet.

    The specific building that housed our hideout was a building that failed to be completed. Which wasn¡¯t saying much given how the other buildings were. But that meant it blended in. No one would suspect it would be a secret hideout.

    As we approached the building, concrete columns and rubble surrounded the building where the walls were supposed to be. Deen drove inside and we saw three vehicles parked. I wasn¡¯t familiar with which cars belonged to who. As I stepped out, I smelt the clean, fresh air. It was beautiful, especially given the rugged environment. But that was what happened when you lived in an area without humans.

    We headed into the atrium of the building. There, the rest of the Artificial Corebrings stood around in a circle.

    ¡°Hey girls,¡± Reo said. ¡°I hope the directions were pretty clear.¡±

    ¡°You give terrible instructions,¡± Myra quipped. ¡°I should have been the ones to give them. You should be glad they¡¯re smart, otherwise, they probably would have gone in circles.¡±

    ¡°Not fair!¡± Reo complained. ¡°I thought they were pretty clear. Everett, back me up my man.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind them,¡± Everett said. ¡°They always bicker like this.¡±

    I noticed he mainly focused on Deen when talking to us, unlike Myra and Reo. He couldn¡¯t make things any more obvious.

    ¡°It was fine,¡± Deen said. ¡°We made it here, so that¡¯s what matters.¡±

    I couldn¡¯t really comment because I wasn¡¯t the one driving. It¡¯d been too long since I drove. No point in driving if I could just make it everywhere with my foldable bike.

    ¡°We¡¯re still waiting on another member,¡± Dario said. He was wearing a tank top. Huh. The rest of us were dressed conservatively. What exactly does Dario do? And why was he dressed like he was about to go exercising?

    ¡°Another member?¡± I asked.

    ¡°His name is Johann,¡± Dario said. ¡°He couldn¡¯t make it to the meeting at Deen¡¯s house on Monday. Had to stay overtime.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s his powers?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t have any,¡± Everett replied. ¡°Just a normal human.¡±

    ¡°Wait what?¡± I asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a risk?¡±

    ¡°Johann is trustworthy,¡± Myra said. ¡°More trustworthy than Reo at least.¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    ¡°Anyways,¡± Dario continued. ¡°He works as a technician at the Adumbrae Intelligence Unit. His hacking skills have really helped us out in trying to fight the 2M¡¯s, which is the name of the Adumbrae group we¡¯re fighting.¡±

    Hacking skills?

    ¡°Oh so that¡¯s why he isn¡¯t a Corebring,¡± I said.

    ¡°Wait, I don¡¯t get it,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°It would be too risky for him to become a Corebring. He¡¯s probably working close by to Adumbrae testing machines daily. It would be a pain to get him a suppressor so often if he needs to it.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s one of the reasons,¡± Dario continued. ¡°He also has some personal ones as well.¡±

    ¡°Personal ones?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t like talking about it,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Deen said. What kind of personal reasons was keeping him from becoming a Corebring?

    ¡°Hey guys,¡± a raspy male voice said from the hallway behind us, distracting me from my thoughts. ¡°I brought us some lunch from Puffer Wings.¡±

    ¡°Finally!¡± Reo said as he rushed towards him. ¡°I¡¯m starving.¡±

    ¡°Hey, let the girls eat first you pig,¡± Myra said, kicking him.

    ¡°Ouch!¡± Reo said. ¡°Hey, I was doing a lot of important stuff earlier!¡±

    ¡°Like what?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°The important task of giving out directions!¡± he replied.  Reo and Myra continued arguing as Johann introduced himself.

    ¡°Nice to meet you both, I¡¯m Johann,¡± the person in front of me said. He was a tall lanky man wearing a blue vest.

    ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯m Deen by the way.¡±

    ¡°Hello,¡± I said meekly. ¡°I¡¯m Erind.¡±

    ¡°Here are some packages of wings - just grab it from the bag,¡± Johann told us as he handed us one of the three plastic bags he was carrying.

    ¡°Umm, is it just wings?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Whoops, I should have asked what everyone wanted,¡± Johann replied. ¡°I just bought wings.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± I said. ¡°Deen isn¡¯t allergic to chicken wings.¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡± Deen said. ¡°I can eat chicken wings just fine.¡±

    ¡°Have you ever eaten at a fast food restaurant before?¡± I questioned her with a grin.

    ¡°Yes!¡± Deen stammered. ¡°I just prefer to eat healthy foods.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll make a note of that for next time,¡± Johann said. He proceeded to give the rest of the bags to the other members of the group. One for Reo and Myra, and one for Dario and Everett.

    ¡°Alright, feel free to dig in,¡± Dario said. ¡°We¡¯ll also be discussing what happened to Erind and Deen yesterday.¡±

 1.10

    One of the great things about chicken wings is how they¡¯re eaten. You eat the skin off the chicken wings first and then eat the meat inside. This makes it so it¡¯s easily Rule #2 compatible. Oh, and they also taste good.

    Although, I wouldn¡¯t know that from observing Deen. She treated the chicken wings like they were foreign objects. Maybe I should get more fast food for Deen to eat. It¡¯d be funny to watch her.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Dario said. ¡°Now that¡¯s everyone finished with lunch, we need to talk about two things. Number one, the attack the 2M¡¯s did last night. And number two, what Johann has found. So, let¡¯s cover number one first.

    ¡°The 2M¡¯s attempted to kidnap Erind and Deen last night. Thankfully, since both Erind and Deen are now Corebrings, they were able to successfully defeat the 2M¡¯s. The main concern right now is the fact that the 2M¡¯s know where you all live.¡±

    ¡°They probably tried even harder since they failed to kill us at the Sanders Mall,¡± Deen said. Of course, this wasn¡¯t actually the truth. I knew it was actually Myra who attacked us. So why did the 2M¡¯s target me and Deen?

    ¡°Yes, which is why if you ever find yourself being attacked, make sure to call us as soon as possible,¡± Myra added. Maybe if there were more powerful Adumbrae that might have been useful. But I handled most of it on my own. Actually, that was still a pretty good idea. They could be ¡°meatshields¡±. It¡¯d be funny to see if these guys would sacrifice themselves for me. I¡¯d just have to pretend to be scared. Oh wait, I¡¯ve been brave in front of Deen when it comes to fights. That wouldn¡¯t work because it¡¯d contradict my face. Maybe I could fake getting injured?

    Wait, why didn¡¯t we call for help again?

    ¡°Um we tried, but the Adumbrae had a jamming device in one of their vans,¡± Deen said. Right, we did try calling the superhero wannabes, but Deen¡¯s phone had no signal.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s an issue,¡± Dario said.  ¡°While we don¡¯t really have the funds to help conceal you, this secret hideout is always available. Feel free to lay low over here if you ever feel like your homes are being surveilled.¡±

    ¡°Or you girls could come to my house,¡± Reo offered. ¡°It¡¯s free of charge.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you already have a girlfriend?¡± Myra asked. ¡°My house would be way better for them.¡±

    Okay, this is getting to be too much. I don¡¯t want more people in my life. That¡¯d drain my social batteries too much. Deen is already using up a significant amount of that charge. At least her house has a bunch of fancy rich people''s stuff in it. That¡¯d almost make up for the cost of living with her.

    ¡°Actually, I¡¯ll just stay with Deen,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯ll be safer for the both of us since we can both protect each other. Also, Deen¡¯s rich. Sorry, no offense to the rest of you guys.¡±

    ¡°No, that¡¯s fine,¡± Dario told me. ¡°It¡¯s probably better to not bring the 2M¡¯s attention to our other members. We¡¯d have a whole lot of problems if each group member was constantly under threat by the Adumbrae. It¡¯s already going to be an issue with them going after Deen and Erind.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then we have to take the fight to them,¡± Deen said. ¡°We can¡¯t just be waiting for them to ambush us.¡± I was surprised by the passion Deen had. I know she just fought some regular humans yesterday, but here she was, trying to go directly to the enemy¡¯s territory. Except, where is the enemy¡¯s territory?

    ¡°The best way to fight the 2M¡¯s is to take out the Red Island,¡± Dario said. Red Island? What the fuck is that?

    ¡°Umm, what is the Red Island?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Right, we still need to brief you two on the specifics of the Red Island,¡± Dario said. ¡°As I¡¯ve explained before, our enemies, the 2M¡¯s, are trying to obtain the powers of the Adumbrae without losing their minds. They already have a prototype technology that works. You two have already seen it in action twice. Once at the Sanders Mall, and once yesterday.

    ¡°The 2M¡¯s are offering this technology to the rich and powerful. In return, they get important funding for their organization. From what the Professor has been able to gather, the rich are turned into Adumbrae at the Red Island.¡±

    ¡°Wait, why are they called the 2M¡¯s?¡± I asked.

    ¡°They¡¯re led by two brothers - Mark and Big Marcy,¡± Dario explained. ¡°The Supplier doesn¡¯t actually run the organization here, he just gives the tech. The two brothers are actually the ones in charge.¡±

    Wasn¡¯t this all a bit too much for this group to handle? If they could send multiple vans and an Adumbrae after me, how could this group deal with the rest of the 2M¡¯s? Their organization has to be pretty big. Of course, since I was both an Adumbrae and a Corebring, I was easily able to kill a bunch of those thug guys. But how would Dario and Co. deal with them?

    ¡°Oh!¡± Deen said as if she had a lightbulb moment. ¡°One of the people that attacked us mentioned Big Marcy.¡± Huh? When did this happen? Maybe it was when I got knocked out.

    ¡°Yeah, then it was definitely the 2M¡¯s that attacked you,¡± Dario said. ¡°And before I forget, Johann has something important to share.¡±

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    We all turned to Johann, who was sitting next to Myra and Reo in our makeshift circle.

    ¡°I did some digging last night using the traffic camera system,¡± Johann started. ¡°What was interesting was that a lot of the cameras were blacked out during this time. But even though they¡¯re blacked out, the forensics team was able to get the nameplates of the vehicles. Apparently, they belong to Dawson Stevedoring and Logistics LLC.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of them,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°They¡¯re probably just a shell company that the 2M¡¯s use,¡± Johann said. ¡°I asked for the feed of the cameras of the roads from the company¡¯s offices leading to up to Deen¡¯s neighborhood. It turns out, those were those exact same cars.¡±

    ¡°Should we be going after their offices then?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Well, some of their offices are in the docks,¡± Johann replied.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to attack them directly,¡± Dario said. ¡°We don¡¯t know how large their forces are, or what kind of Adumbrae they have over there.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s better to attack smaller targets,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°But what smaller targets can we attack?¡± I asked. At least these people weren¡¯t totally insane. But any war against the Adumbrae would still be uphill given how small our group is. And the Red Island sounded like it would be the backbone of the 2M¡¯s. It¡¯d probably be way more guarded than these docks are.

    ¡°We can simply attack the vans as they¡¯re leaving the docks and get far away,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°Yeah, like a hit-and-run mission,¡± Everett added, mainly looking at Deen. ¡°And with you two now on our team, we should be a lot stronger in attacking the 2M¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°You all will be doing the exciting part,¡± Reo said. ¡°I¡¯m just going stay in the van.¡±

    Deen and I looked at him with confusion.

    ¡°He has to summon his fairies,¡± Myra pointed out. ¡°We can¡¯t really have him in the middle of the battle.¡±

    ¡°Then I guess Johann is the one driving the van?¡± I asked. ¡°Not to be offensive again, but I¡¯m guessing that what¡¯s you do on each mission.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s best for me and Reo to stay inside,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Johann can still fight though,¡± Myra said, sticking up for him.

    ¡°Only with a gun though,¡± Johann replied. ¡°Sometimes the Professor does give us some special equipment like magnetic traps and explosives. But other than that, I¡¯m more of a behind-the-scenes guy.¡±

    ¡°But before that,¡± Dario started. ¡°I have to ask. Are you both fine with participating in these missions? I know both of you fought yesterday, but this is way bigger than that. It¡¯ll be way more dangerous going forward.¡±

    Dangerous? That sounded exciting. Looking back on yesterday, it felt pretty good to beat up all of those thug guys. I wonder how challenging it would be to fight the other Adumbrae within in the 2M¡¯s. Maybe they might put up more of a fight than that purple mohawk dude.

    ¡°We¡¯re ready for this,¡± Deen said with conviction in her voice. Wait, Deen just volunteered me. Normally, I would complain about this type of thing. But, I was also itching for another fight. How bad could it get?

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m in it,¡± I said. ¡°We can¡¯t let the 2M¡¯s continue to harm innocent people.¡± To be honest, I didn¡¯t really care about if innocent people got hurt. But I had to make it seem like I was heroic. What way to do that than to make it not about me, but other people? Maybe I should try being a politician. Nah. That¡¯d be too much effort to keep up a face.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯d like to offer an official welcome to the team,¡± Dario said. The rest of the group cheered and clapped.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s our plan to attack the vans?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Well, we don¡¯t want to attack it too close to the docks,¡± Reo said. ¡°We could try tailing it as it leaves.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll have to prepare for whatever might be inside,¡± Myra warned. ¡°I think the 2M¡¯s have gotten wiser. We¡¯ve managed to learn about the routes for a few of their vehicles and attacked them, but more recently they¡¯ve been stuffed with people with augs. Sometimes, there¡¯s even Adumbrae in them.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that really caught us off-guard,¡± Reo said. ¡°I still get nightmares because Rofirio stabbed me once when I was summoning. We should make sure our van is farther away this time.¡±

    Who the fuck is Rofirio?

    ¡°Who¡¯s Rofirio?¡± Deen asked. ¡°And should we be scared of him?¡±

    ¡°You guys actually took care of him yesterday,¡± Dario said. ¡°He has the power to liquefy materials like concrete.¡±

    Oh, he was that guy. He was pretty easy to kill. Although, I guess for me it¡¯s different because I¡¯m way stronger than the average Adumbrae now. Did he really give Reo trouble though? His power doesn¡¯t sound that offensive. Did Reo get stuck in liquid concrete and then got stabbed? No, that doesn¡¯t sound right. He said he was in the van. Maybe my ¡°teammates¡± were just incredibly weak.

    ¡°But there¡¯s probably other Adumbrae we should be careful of,¡± Dario added. ¡°We should also discuss our team formation. For example, Myra works out best in direct combat given how strong she is. Meanwhile, Everett belongs more in the back and can offer fire support.¡±

    ¡°Haha, I get it,¡± Reo said. ¡°He shoots out fire, so he¡¯s ¡®fire support¡¯.¡±

    Technically, Myra could be fire support as well since she could shoot out spikes. Although, she was probably hiding that ability from us. Wasn¡¯t it funny then that both I and she were hiding our true abilities from each other?

    ¡°Anyways,¡± Dario said. ¡°We could also give you all a better show of our powers. I managed to get some more diluters from the Professor. What do you two say?¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Deen said. Oh right, Myra was under the suppressor too right? How strong were they at full power? I should take notes as well. I pulled out my notepad and a pen.

    ¡°All right you two should brace yourselves mentally for this,¡± Dario said.

    ¡°Why? What¡¯s going to happen?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Another part of my power creates a field that makes people feel sick,¡± Dario said.

    ¡°Umm, how bad would it be?¡± Deen questioned.

    I took a quick peek at everyone else. Nobody seemed to be disturbed by this face. Surely, it couldn¡¯t have been that bad.

    ¡°Everyone else seems to think it¡¯s fine,¡± I said. ¡°So hopefully, it¡¯s not like vomit-levels of sickness.¡±

    Suddenly, my head started to throb. It was as if a headache was forming. Pressure built up in my ears as if we were elevating in an airplane. It wasn¡¯t the worst - I¡¯ve definitely been sicker. One time, my whole cheerleader got sick with the stomach virus. I¡¯ve never wanted to die so much in my life to get rid of the pain. Which was definitely saying something because dying is against the Rules.

    ¡°Oh boy, I can¡¯t handle this,¡± Reo said as he bolted to the other side of the room. ¡°I was nearly going to barf.¡±

    Huh?

    ¡°The effect gets stronger the closer you are to me,¡± Dario said, answering my thoughts. ¡°Since you two are on the opposite side of the room, you¡¯re not experiencing the worse effects. Myra, let¡¯s do a practice fight to wow our two new members.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± she said as she took off her shirt. Bark-like armor emerged from her skin, surrounding her sports bra and bicycling shorts from view. Suddenly she began to grow in height. What? Curved blades emerged from her feet. She looked more like a monster now than an actual human covered in dead trees. A tinge of suspense entered my body as she grew to be surely over eight feet tall.

 1.11

    It was so surreal to see what was happening. On the opposite side of the large room, Dario and Myra fought at lightning speed. As Myra went to strike Dario, he parried her attacks with his bare hands. It was impressive since Myra had grown blades from her bark-like armor.

    Back when I fought Myra at the mall, she didn¡¯t do anything like this. So this was her true strength without the suppressor. Would I even be able to beat this? I was stronger since becoming a Corebring, but the sheer power, speed, and durability Myra had at her full form seemed tremendous.

    Deen pulled on my hand. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get closer, we¡¯re pretty far away.¡± The two were fighting on a raised stage on the other side of the room.

    I followed her, although I would have appreciated it if she wasn¡¯t holding my hand. As we approached the pair, the throbbing intensified and my vision started to get a bit hazy. It felt like my glasses were floating in and out of view.

    I checked to see Deen if she had any reaction to this, but she just kept valiantly walking forward as if nothing was happening. This was getting worse and worse by the second. How was she able to bear this? I wanted to stop, but that would mean Deen was mentally stronger than me. I wasn¡¯t going to let that be true.

    Eventually, we made it up to Johann and Everett, who were sitting on lawn chairs about a yard back from the action. They could resist it too? This was getting to be really bad. How could they do that so easily?

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t Dario¡¯s field mess with you guys during battle?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Everett said. ¡°But, it gets better the longer we stay in it. That¡¯s why Dario wants us to train when he has the field on.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good idea,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Yeah, Barb really likes to train in it, especially recently,¡± he added. ¡°It probably registers like nothing to her.¡±

    Maybe she was upset about being ambushed by my transformed self.

    ¡°She¡¯s probably training harder because of what happened to Kelsey,¡± Deen said.

    Oh right, there was Kelsey. I was pretty sure she died since she jumped off a cliff into oblivion, but SpookyErind hinted otherwise. That did bring up a good question. Where was Kelsey? Well, it wasn¡¯t actually a good question because I didn¡¯t really care about her at all.

    ¡°Mhm. Kelsey¡¯s probably at the Red Island,¡± Everett said. ¡°There¡¯s a pretty good chance she¡¯s there. That¡¯s why Barb is training so heavily. To be honest, we should all be at the top of our game. Rescuing Kelsey isn¡¯t going to be easy.¡±

    Why would she be at the Red Island? That would have meant the 2M¡¯s would have somehow gotten to our school. Which, as far as I know, hasn¡¯t happened yet.

    ¡°Wait, should we be referring to each other by code names?¡± I asked. I noticed Everett mentioned Barb instead of Myra.

    ¡°Nah,¡± Everett replied. ¡°Just call me Everett.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t really have a codename,¡± Johann said. ¡°Never got powers - just plain old Johann.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that kind of risky though?¡± I asked. ¡°What if someone needs to get your attention in battle?¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be going toe to toe with the Adumbrae,¡± Johann said. ¡°Although, maybe it might be a good idea for me to get a codename.¡±

    We should probably get codenames too right? I wondered what a cool codename for me would be.

    <u>Cutest girl!</u> SpookyErind said, who was still sitting at Deen¡¯s house. I was surprised she didn¡¯t say anything before. While I agree I was the cutest girl, that probably wouldn¡¯t be the best codename.

    <u>Well, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll come up with a cool one.</u>

    I¡¯ll make sure to do that.

    ¡°Oh, sorry, I should have offered my seat,¡± Everett said to Deen. ¡°Here, take mine. I¡¯ll be fine sitting on the floor.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Deen simply replied, too entranced by the battle ahead. ¡°We¡¯ll just sit on the steps.¡±

    ¡°Ah okay,¡± Everett said, with a tinge of disappointment in his voice. You know who¡¯s disappointed - me! Where¡¯s my free chair? What if I wanted to sit in a chair instead of the cold hard ground? Not that I really cared.

    Instead, I went back to go get our chairs on the other side of the room. See, this was why being beautiful and hot was amazing. People give you free stuff like chairs. Well fuck you for not giving it to me. I am beautiful and I was going to sit in a chair.

    Reo was over on this side listening to music on his headphones. At least I could resist Dario¡¯s field better than him. I picked up both our chairs as if they were feathers and returned to our side.

    Myra and Dario were still sparring. It was kinda incredible. Myra changed the blades on her arms to be different shapes and sizes. But Dario always managed to parry her attacks. I wonder if he could beat my Judo professor. Actually, Dario had super strength so he probably could. That would be a fun skill to learn.

    ¡°Deen, I brought you your chair,¡± I told her as I sat hers down.

    ¡°Oh, thanks Erind,¡± she said. She got up and sat back in hers while I sat back in mine. She should be glad she¡¯s letting me live in her house for free, otherwise, I would have charged her for doing manual labor.

    ¡°Wow, it¡¯s amazing that they¡¯ve managed to go on for this long,¡± Deen commented.

    ¡°Yeah, but it looks like Barb is doing a lot of the attacking,¡± I said. That did make sense - Dario was mentioned to be weaker than Myra.

    ¡°She¡¯s the strongest of us here,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t her armor bulletproof?¡± I asked. It¡¯d be important for me to take notes now. I was able to bite through Myra¡¯s bark before, but now, it was significantly thicker. But I was also stronger as well.

    ¡°For normal bullets yes,¡± he explained. ¡°Her armor can also protect her from electroshock weapons, but not anti-armor ones. It¡¯s weaker than a tank and ComExos, so she has to be careful about some of the weapons she¡¯s up against, but any normal 2M goon wouldn¡¯t be able to kill her.¡±

    So I could kill Myra if I got a ComExo or a tank. Not that I intended to do that. My Mom did work at Greaves, so maybe she could give me a discount? Although Greaves just makes the parts for those, so I¡¯m not sure if it would work. Wait, why am I thinking about buying a tank to kill Myra? I should just be using my powers. Crap. This stupid field is messing with my thoughts.

    ¡°You guys have had electroshock weapons used on you?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yeah, and they aren¡¯t pretty to deal with,¡± he said. ¡°They can seriously mess up with our regeneration. The 2M¡¯s use them a lot since they deal with Adumbrae experiments. I once got hit in the leg by one¡­¡±

    I tuned him out as I wrote down to be careful of electroshock weapons. I think some of the guys that tried to kidnap me had stun batons, and I was lucky I didn¡¯t get hit. I was so lucky none of the other guys had ranged electroshock weapons. The sleeping darts were probably made for normal humans, but thankfully I was strong enough to fight for a while. Would I be strong enough to resist electroshock weapons? Not sure, but it wasn¡¯t a gamble I was looking forward to taking. Russian Roulette was not my favorite game by a long shot.

    Deen suddenly stood up from her chair. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°Barb and Blank just finished their fight,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯m going to ask them to train me.¡±

    Meanwhile, Blank was giving Barb tips on how to fight better. As they walked toward us, he pointed at Myra¡¯s various blades and made gestures demonstrating specific moves. It was kinda crazy how good Dario was at fighting. Even though he wasn¡¯t as strong as Myra, he was way more skilled and could even fend her off. What if I got Dario to kill Myra? Wait no, that wouldn¡¯t work. He was in on the secret that she was my attacker. I still needed to punish them both later.

    But, now was the time for notetaking. The tree-like monster in front of me had a very beefy head mask with two eye slits. She was protecting her head, right? According to my Adumbrae Forensics class, without the head, Adumbrae couldn¡¯t regenerate. I assume it worked the same way for Corebrings. But that meant she was vulnerable to ambushes from the sides and behind. And there that goes into the notes. Thankfully, I was a studious student already, so quick notes were easy to do.

    The bark also formed a dense collar around her neck. They were accompanied by several tough plates going down her back. Does that mean the spine was also vulnerable for Corebrings? I should make sure to take care of my spine. I was so lucky bullets didn¡¯t really do too much to me, but some of my enemies in the future may use stronger weapons.

    Then, there were the spikes. In her final attack against Dario, she had grown spikes on the tips of her fingers. They retracted, along with the rest of Myra¡¯s armor. There were also spikes along Myra¡¯s joints. I¡¯m pretty sure she could make spikes anywhere on her body - she was a porcupine-like bitch when I attacked her. Making spikes everywhere would make it hard to move, so that¡¯s why she didn¡¯t have spikes everywhere. Perhaps I could exploit that?

    Another problem was that Myra could shoot out spikes. She didn¡¯t use them here against Dario in order to hide her true nature from us. Which was fitting since she had tree powers. Were those spikes going to be stronger now since she was at full power? I hope not.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Hey Deen and Erind, did you both enjoy the show?¡± Myra asked as the rest of her armor receded into her skin. Her fairly toned body was framed by her sports bra and cycling shorts.

    ¡°Maybe we should renovate this place into a movie theater,¡± Dario joked. Now that I was closer, I noticed his tank top displayed his muscles. Okay, I was seriously going to work out. It was really disappointing for everyone to be more fit than me.

    He also turned off his field, and I let out a sigh of relief.

    ¡°It was definitely better than anything shown on TV or the movies,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°It was way cooler seeing the real stuff instead of the special effects,¡± I added.

    ¡°Thanks for the praise,¡± Dario said. ¡°We¡¯ll make sure you two can also fight as well.¡±

    ¡°Actually, I wanted to test out my powers,¡± Deen said. ¡°And maybe you could give me advice as well.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d be glad to help,¡± Dario replied. ¡°How¡¯d you like to test out your powers?¡±

    Deen went and removed the sneakers and socks that she wore to school. Both Dario and Myra were also barefoot. That made sense here because any kicks might destroy our footwear. ¡°I know you just fought, but would you mind having a mock battle? I¡¯ll reveal my powers later after we¡¯re finished.¡±

    ¡°Sure¡­¡± Dario said reluctantly. ¡°Do you have any experience fighting?¡±

    ¡°Uhh¡­ I took taekwondo lessons when I was younger because my mother wanted me to know self-defense. But, I was forced to take them, and so I hated those lessons. I pretty much missed a lot of them and stopped completely in high school. So, um, please just go easy on me?¡±

    Dario went back up on the stage and beckoned Deen to come up. ¡°Come on up,¡± he said as she cautiously walked onto the stage. Deen stopped a few feet from him, sizing him up while keeping her fists in front of her. I could see the tension in her body as she felt suspense.

    ¡°Feel free to launch the first att..¡± Dario said as he got cut off by Deen sending a punch to his torso. He immediately put up his hands to parry, but Deen stopped her fist and sent out a kick instead. She wobbled a bit, and Dario took a hop backward.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I heard Myra murmur. ¡°What¡¯s she doing?¡±

    Deen tried the same bait maneuver by starting off with a kick but then throwing a punch. Dario¡¯s eyes were wide with amazement, even though Deen presented zero threat. He easily caught her punch, but somehow still looked stunned. Deen did several variations of her bait maneuvers, but she wobbled so much. I internally cringed as she continued to do useless attacks and even useless dodges and duckings as well. Dario wasn¡¯t even putting in 10% of the effort. I stared at my notes hoping it would save me from Deen¡¯s amateurish display of fighting.

    ¡°Come on, attack me,¡± Deen said, backing up a few feet. She brought her balled fists up. ¡°Not trying to challenge you, but it¡¯s your turn now.¡±

    Dario laughed and then I felt like my insides wanted to pour out of my body. Fuck, he turned on his field again. When I looked up from my notes, I noticed Deen was kneeling. I had a funny feeling that she ducked before Dario turned on the field though. Her face had turned into a frown.

    Dario danced around Deen on the balls of his feet before launching his left fist. She sidestepped to the right, but then Dario sent out a jab with his right fist. But before he could hit her, she ducked down and Dario¡¯s fist met air. Everett cheered her on. Several more punches from Dario came, but Deen managed to evade every one of them. Okay, I¡¯ll admit, it was cool to see Deen evading Dario¡¯s jabs. She even tried to sneak in some of her own attacks.

    However, Dario steadily ramped up his attacks. He seemed to move faster and with more precision. Eventually, Deen was forced to be entirely on the defensive, simply evading and retreating. As she was near the steps of the stage, she cried out, ¡°I don¡¯t understand!¡± She attempted a weird combination of a jump and a duck and simply tangled her legs, causing her to fall on her butt. At least she evaded Dario¡¯s attack.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Dario asked, lending his hand and turning off his field.

    ¡°I concede,¡± she chuckled as she accepted his hand and stood up. ¡°I wasn¡¯t fast enough.¡±

    ¡°If my guess is right, you have a powerful ability,¡± he said.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Myra asked. ¡°I know she was doing weird movements, but what would cause that? You¡¯d said you¡¯d reveal your powers after the fight?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Deen agreed. ¡°I have a summon like Reo¡¯s. ¡±

    ¡°A summon?¡± Johann asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t see any summon.¡± The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

    ¡°It¡¯s actually invisible,¡± Deen said. ¡°I told Erind this already, but it looks like a cute baby gargoyle shaped like an egg made of ivory with faint gold. It¡¯s also incorporeal, you guys can¡¯t touch it, but I can. I like to think of it as a guardian angel.¡±

    ¡°So this guardian angel tells you how to fight?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s able to see the future,¡± Deen said. ¡°We tested this out at my house, but when I touched it, I was able to see the future. It did give me a seizure though, so I try to avoid touching it.¡±

    ¡°I guess it¡¯s best then that it¡¯s the one that gives you advice,¡± Myra replied.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure of the limits of its advice. It was able to help me evade a bunch of the 2M¡¯s guys when they came to attack me, but it didn¡¯t seem as useful when I went up against you Dario. It may be weak against Adumbrae or other people with powers.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be able to beat up Adumbrae with ease,¡± Dario reassured her. ¡°I doubt any of them are as trained as me. Besides, we¡¯ll train you guys so you won¡¯t have to worry.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, guys,¡± Deen said. ¡°Hey, Erind, do you want to try sparring?¡±

    Seeing Deen fight did make me try to one-up her by doing better. ¡°Sure.¡± SpookyErind unsummoned herself before I could mentally ask her. I guess we were really one and the same.

    I took off my socks and shoes and walked up onto the stage. Deen took my seat. Dario had moved to the opposite side of the stage.

    ¡°Before we start, do you have any experience fighting Erind?¡± he asked. ¡°Also should I go easy on you like Deen?¡±

    ¡°I did Judo back in undergrad,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s different than punches and kicks, but I¡¯ll try. But yes, please do go easy on me.¡±

    ¡°Sounds good,¡± he said.

    I raised my hand and focused on summoning SpookyErind. The embroidered mask formed from the gold liquid summoned from my hand and floated over to my left. In an instant, SpookyErind appeared as a normal clone of me.

    ¡°Woah,¡± Dario said. ¡°Two against one. Can I phone a friend?¡±

    ¡°Well, this is my power,¡± I told him. Oh right, before I forget, I should tell him to activate his sickness field. I don¡¯t want any surprises during the fight. ¡°Could you please also turn on your field?¡±

    ¡°Thanks for making it fair,¡± Dario chuckled as his field turned on. Both mine and SpookyErind¡¯s vision became hazy and it felt like our stomachs turned into knots. I frowned a bit, but somehow SpookyErind only grinned.

    How should we fight him? I raised my hands up, and SpookyErind did the same. Maybe I should attack from the right while she attacks from the left? How do I communicate this to her?

    Suddenly, she nodded her head. Yeah, we¡¯ll flank him. While Dario might be a better fighter, we should have the advantage because of our strength and speed.

    ¡°Come on,¡± he beckoned me.

    We split up and charged Dario. A look of surprise immediately emerged on his face as he parried our jabs. He was forced back a little even as he blocked us. I tried sending out a kick while SpookyErind sent out another punch. Instead of trying to block, he dodged backward. He was slower than both of us, so we continued our attacks. We alternated between punches and kicks. Without my enhanced speed, I would have looked like an amateur.

    Soon, Dario was at the opposite end of the stage. Both I and SpookyErind went in for a jab. However, instead of dodging, he tried intercepting our hands. Suddenly, my vision blacked out.

    The feeling of a cold metal floor entered my consciousness. What happened? Oh right, I was beating up bad guys on a van and then I fell asleep. Wait! I gasped awake. No! I was fighting Dario.

    ¡°You okay?¡± he asked as he offered both his hands to me and SpookyErind.

    I stared at it for a bit before taking it. SpookyErind did the same. ¡°I got knocked out?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the second time he¡¯s done this,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°I got a bit worried there and overreacted,¡± Dario said. ¡°Sorry about that.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I said. At least his field wasn¡¯t on, so I wasn¡¯t having a headache.

    ¡°You¡¯re really strong,¡± he said. ¡°I think you¡¯re even stronger than Myra. We¡¯re lucky to have you on the team.¡±

    I was disappointed he knocked me out. I should have won that fight. Well, at least I did better than Deen. That was a win in my book.

    ¡°We can definitely train you to be a heavy hitter,¡± he continued. ¡°Although, I did have some questions about your powers.¡±

    ¡°What are they?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Can you control your clone, or does it act independently of you?¡± he asked.

    ¡°I can control it,¡± I lied. There was a whole can of worms to be opened otherwise. I¡¯d have to contradict what Deen knows if I told the truth.

    ¡°I figured,¡± he said. ¡°Both of your attacks seemed pretty in sync. Furthermore, you didn¡¯t talk to each other at all.¡±

    Did he not notice SpookyErind nod before the battle? I guess she was nodding more at him, but since he hadn¡¯t said anything I was surprised he didn¡¯t bring it up. Maybe he made up some reason for it.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, agreeing with him. ¡°I was planning on ending the battle quickly like that.¡±

    Suddenly, I thought of a cool trick to show off. I walked behind Dario while SpookyErind stood in front of him.

    ¡°I can also do fun things like this,¡± I said.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°Hold up some fingers behind your back,¡± I told him.

    He raised four fingers on his left hand behind his back. Now, SpookyErind would be able to say how many fingers he held up, even though there was no way for her to see his hand.

    ¡°You''re holding up three fingers on your right hand,¡± SpookyErind said with a grin. The fuck?! Never mind it was a mistake to do it this way. I should have had SpookyErind go behind Dario¡¯s back. But, I couldn¡¯t actually control her, so I walked behind instead.

    ¡°Uh¡­ That¡¯s not right,¡± Dario said, perplexed.

    ¡°Just kidding, you¡¯re holding up your four fingers on your left hand,¡± SpookyErind said.

    Dario chuckled. ¡°Ah, that is a useful application of your power. That might be useful if we ever have to split up.¡±

    ¡°Split up?¡± Deen asked. ¡°Why would we need to split up?¡± A look of concern showed up on her face.

    ¡°We¡¯ve only had to do it a couple of times before,¡± he said. ¡°Sometimes, we have to split up our attacks on the 2M¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°It definitely can get risky,¡± Everett said. ¡°Especially since we don¡¯t really know what¡¯s going on with the other half of the group.¡±

    ¡°But for this mission, we¡¯ll fight as one group,¡± Dario said. ¡°The 2M¡¯s will probably be a bit stronger here. It¡¯s best to have everyone together.¡±

    ¡°When is our first mission anyway?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Well, I was going through some of the routes the 2M¡¯s take,¡± Johann said. ¡°It turns out that every Friday there is an 18-wheeler that comes and exits with one of the crates in the docks.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯d probably be a good idea to attack this Friday,¡± he said. ¡°I know we haven¡¯t trained you two that much, but it¡¯s essential we hammer the 2M¡¯s operations as quickly as possible. Are either of you willing to help us out here?¡±

    ¡°Sure!¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯d feel really bad if I didn¡¯t help you guys out.¡±

    ¡°Same,¡± I simply said. It was funny to imagine what these people were probably thinking. They thought I was doing this for moral reasons. Well, my moral compass was different. These people had messed with me, so under Rule #4, it required me to punish them. I could care less about what the 2M¡¯s were doing otherwise.

    ¡°Great!¡± Dario cheered. ¡°But before we go, we should probably give you two codenames. Do you have any idea of what you want to be called Deen and Erind?¡±

    ¡°Oh I have a codename,¡± Deen said excitedly. ¡°How about Pythia?¡±

    ¡°Pythia?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°She was the high priestess for Apollo,¡± I said, recalling my Greek mythology. ¡°She¡¯s probably known more as the Oracle of Delphi. I¡¯m guessing Deen chose that name because her power involves the future, which Pythia predicted.¡±

    Everyone else but Deen stared at me.

    ¡°No wonder you¡¯re my best friend!¡± Deen cheered. ¡°High-five!¡± She raised her hand. I quickly gave her a high five. I was almost tempted to just leave her hanging, but that didn¡¯t seem like something my best friend face would do. It¡¯d also make everything more awkward.

    ¡°That¡¯s interesting,¡± Dario said. ¡°How about you Erind?¡±

    Thankfully, I had managed to come up with a cool name.

    ¡°Synchron,¡± I told him. ¡°Short for Synchronous. But Synchron sounds way cooler.¡±

    ¡°Cool name,¡± Dario said. ¡°Is it because you can do stuff with your clones at the same time?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± I answered.

    ¡°All right, give a round of applause for Pythia and Synchron,¡± Dario said. The rest of the group clapped. We partied for a bit before heading back home for the day.

    It was weird being part of a group. Especially a superhero wannabe fighting group. I didn¡¯t really share a connection with a lot of these people. Well, I didn¡¯t at all actually. Instead, I joined it to keep my face up. I could have left, but instead, I was gifted an Artificial Core. Not that I could leave now, I needed this group to help punish the people that came after me. And after that, I could punish the members of this group.

    I was so hyped for this Friday.

 1.12

    Most people spend their Friday nights either relaxing at home or partying since it¡¯s the weekend. But here I was, wearing a balaclava mask and a black jacket. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if someone thought I was going to rob a bank. Does robbing a bank count as partying? Maybe since I was doing it with my new ¡®friends.¡¯ Eww. No. They¡¯re just teammates.

    My shoes were also the color of the night. Dario told us to buy some new ones in order to hide our footprints. We could then switch back to our normal shoes later.

    SpookyErind unsummoned herself while I got dressed. I had a feeling that I should summon her back for the mission soon. It was pretty useful that my powers allowed her to copy my clothing and items when she got summoned. I held out my left hand, but then suddenly, Deen entered my room.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Deen said. She was wearing the same outfit as me. I could still see her bare hands and her gray eyes, not that would really give her away. The height difference probably would though.

    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± I asked, putting my hand back down. I could summon SpookyErind later after Deen pesters me.

    ¡°Just feeling a bit worried,¡± she told me.

    ¡°About the mission?¡± I asked. What the fuck was she worried about? She wasn¡¯t even the one who got hit last time. That was all me!

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she said. ¡°I was really passionate on Wednesday, but lately I¡¯ve gotten more and more antsy about this.¡±

    ¡°You have a pretty strong power,¡± I said, comforting her. ¡°You dodged all the bad guys last time. If anything, I should be the one scared.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s kinda crazy,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯ve always been so brave, even though it doesn¡¯t seem like you would be that kind of person.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what do you mean?¡± I asked. ¡°Is it because I¡¯m introverted?¡±

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t it crazy that you got into danger last time?¡± she told me. ¡°You just charged them, but maybe this time it might be better to stay back a little?¡±

    Huh? Why was she lecturing me? I was doing fine last time - I figured since I was both a Corebring and an Adumbrae, beating up all those thug guys would be pretty easy. And I was correct.

    ¡°I was fine last time though,¡± I said, sticking my tongue at her.

    ¡°Hey!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°I¡¯m being serious here. I don¡¯t want you to get hurt.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be fine,¡± I told her. ¡°Their bullets last time barely hurt me.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s not just that,¡± she said. ¡°Dario said they¡¯ll probably have stronger weapons like electroshock ones. And what about the Adumbrae? While you were able to push Dario back, he managed to completely knock you out with his power. Shouldn¡¯t you be more careful about fighting?¡±

    Jeez. She was getting really concerned about me. It would be different than if I was the one concerned about myself, but listening to Deen being sanctimonious was annoying. Besides, we also had Myra. She could be a nice sponge for all the bad guy¡¯s weapons. I¡¯ll let her attack first, and then attack after if it seems safe. Hopefully, they don¡¯t kill her though. I was the one who needed to do that.

    ¡°Fine,¡± I relented. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to always hide behind Myra. Her armor is probably still stronger than even my skin.¡±

    ¡°That sounds like a good idea,¡± she said. ¡°While it looked like you were stronger than her when you fought Dario, she looks like she could defend herself better.¡±

    ¡°What brought this up?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said. ¡°I keep looking to the times the 2M¡¯s attacked us, and I keep feeling bad that you¡¯re always the one fighting. I¡¯ll try to fight as well this time, but I also don¡¯t want to risk losing you. We¡¯re going to be pretty close to enemy territory, and I have a feeling things won¡¯t go our way.¡±

    ¡°Hey, why are you the pessimist now?¡± I said. ¡°I thought I was the one who thinks the glass is half empty.¡±

    ¡°Haha,¡± she laughed. ¡°You¡¯re still reminding me of that stunt you pulled off in Professor Gallagher¡¯s class earlier this week.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not a stunt if it¡¯s true!¡± I countered. ¡°Wait, that doesn¡¯t make any sense.¡±

    We both laughed at this nonsense.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it kind of crazy though? I brought up Corebrings in his class and here we are,¡± I said.

    ¡°Well, if you could destroy cities like the Hive Corebrings, then maybe I wouldn¡¯t be as scared for you,¡± she said.

    ¡°Well, you don¡¯t need to be scared of me writing that on the Bar,¡± I jokingly said.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she agreed.

    ¡°Although, no one on our team is that strong,¡± I told her.

    ¡°Those strong Corebrings are probably Overseers,¡± she said.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± I started. I¡¯ll probably ask Dario later about how Overseers are made. I imagine the government would definitely try and make some. Although, given that we were the only Artificial Corebrings, they probably didn¡¯t know how to make Overseers.

    ¡°Am I wrong?¡± she asked rhetorically.

    ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°I was just wondering if that Professor guy could make Artificial Overseers.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯d be really helpful in our missions,¡± Deen said. ¡°Sadly, I don¡¯t think he can.¡±

    ¡°Anyways, are you ready to go?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°Wait, before we go, I wanted to know why you didn¡¯t transform your clone into that white-haired glowly-eyed version of yourself,¡± she replied.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    Oh, wait. I never showed them the rest of SpookyErind¡¯s powers. Well, technically it was a part of my body and thus my powers. It must have been Dario¡¯s stupid powers. That dumb sickness field and that dumb knockout touch.

    ¡°I just forgot,¡± I simply told her. ¡°I got messed up because of Dario¡¯s field.¡±

    ¡°Erind, you can¡¯t just be forgetting about your powers,¡± she said. Oh my god, she¡¯s lecturing me again. I asked for a best friend, not an overbearing mom. Actually, I didn¡¯t even ask for a best friend. Where can I refund her? I didn¡¯t pay for her, but I imagine somebody else would buy her from me.

    ¡°The battle was over anyways,¡± I said. ¡°I didn¡¯t plan on going for a second round against Dario.¡±

    ¡°Still, if you¡¯re going to be fighting the 2M¡¯s, you need to do it at your full strength,¡± she said.

    Wait, a minute, it¡¯s not my fault! SpookyErind should have shown herself off. Damnit. What was that bitch doing in my head right now? She was probably laughing at the fact that Deen is scolding me. She really liked messing with me. I should try messing with her. Hmm¡­ How could I do that?

    Also, I couldn¡¯t tell Deen that, so the best thing to do was to end this conversation now.

    ¡°I will, I will,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m in a way better mindset now and Dario¡¯s field isn¡¯t going to affect me as much.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just worried about you,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°You¡¯re starting to sound like my mom,¡± I said.

    ¡°I¡¯m just trying to make sure you¡¯ll be okay,¡± she replied. ¡°Besides, I¡¯m sure your mom would say the same things as me.¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s why I¡¯m grateful to be an independent woman,¡± I joked.

    ¡°But you¡¯re living in my house!¡± Deen laughed. ¡°I may as well be your mom.¡± Ewwwww. Mom was way better than Deen.

    ¡°Well, ¡®Mom¡¯ are you going to drive me now?¡± I grinned.

    ¡°Sure thing my ¡®daughter¡¯,¡± Deen giggled. Okay, never mind, this was getting worse.

    ¡°Blegggh. Let¡¯s head out,¡± I said, leaving a laughing Deen in my room. She eventually followed me out after her laughter ended.

    Our hideout was even more spooky now at night time. Maybe we could throw a Halloween party here. Actually, that would just make the hideout no longer a hideout.

    A gray van sat in the middle of the interior parking space. As Deen and I left the car, we saw the rest of our team.

    ¡°Heyo!¡± Reo said, covered in black pajamas and slippers. ¡°Glad you ladies could make it on this fine night.¡±

    ¡°Why are you dressed like that?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°He wants to be comfortable while summoning,¡± Myra said, rolling her eyes. It was funny seeing her say that because she was barefoot in her sports bra and cycling shorts. Unlike the rest of us, she had to grow her bark-like armor. Her monster tree form could probably conceal her footprints pretty well too. Monster tree form or tree monster form?

    ¡°Besides, I and Johann will be far away from the action,¡± Reo added. ¡°Just in case cameras catch us, I decided to wear all dark. Sadly, I still have to wear one of those annoying black balaclava masks.¡±

    ¡°Hey, suck it up,¡± Myra said. ¡°Johann is doing just fine with normal clothing.¡±

    Johann was busy looking at his phone.

    ¡°Are you searching up anything?¡± I asked him.

    ¡°Oh, hello Erind and Deen,¡± he said looking up. ¡°I¡¯m just checking the routes we¡¯ll have to go to.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯ll be driving right?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± he answered. ¡°May as well do something to help the team.¡±

    ¡°And save my skin if any one of those Adumbrae douchebags starts attacking us,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°That too,¡± he said.

    ¡°I knew I could count on you my man,¡± Reo said, patting him on the back.

    ¡°Anyways, are you two ready?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°Actually,¡± I started. ¡°I have another part of my powers to show you all. The sickness field caused me to forget to show it to you all. Sorry about that.¡±

    ¡°No worries,¡± he responded. ¡°Just got to get used to it, and sorry for making you forget. Anyways, what¡¯s this other part of your powers?¡±

    ¡°Here, let me show you,¡± I said while holding my left hand out. Gold liquid appeared and formed the embroidered mask. It floated over to my right side and a clone of myself appeared.

    SpookyErind was wearing the same black jacket, sweatpants, and shoes as I was. But then, she took off her balaclava mask and held out her left hand. She summoned her signature white and black mask from it and put it on her head. Huh. I guess she couldn¡¯t put the mask over the balaclava one. That did make sense. I never had faces for faces. The only thing I did was modify them as necessary.

    SpookyErind stood before us all, except with blue glowing eyes now.

    ¡°Woah!¡± Dario said. ¡°That¡¯s pretty cool. What¡¯s special about this transformation though, apart from the glowing eyes and floating hair?¡±

    <u>This body also has a cool voice,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°But the most important part is that it can do this,¡± I said.

    Of course, it would be very awkward if SpookyErind didn¡¯t do anything, so she held out her left hand again and concentrated. A golden bubble appeared above her hand.

    ¡°Interesting,¡± he said.

    ¡°What is that?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s kinda hard to explain,¡± I said. ¡°But essentially, I could control the speed of time in this bubble.¡±

    ¡°How fast can it move?¡± Dario asked.

    I could feel SpookyErind concentrating and the bubble zipped across the room. It went pretty fast - probably as fast as those runners in Olympic sports.

    ¡°I can also change the size of the bubble,¡± I told them. The bubble grew in size until it contained Myra and Dario.

    As soon as Dario went to speak, gibberish came out of his mouth. ¡°Tha-t def-in-ite-tly see¨Cms pre-tty -use-ful.¡± He was talking so slowly that I wanted to laugh, but I held my composure.

    ¡°Umm, you¡¯re talking too slowly man,¡± Reo chuckled.

    ¡°You-¡¯re talk¨Cing too¡­ fa¨Cst,¡± he slowly replied.

    SpookyErind concentrated some more and the bubble popped.

    ¡°Damnit, I should have recorded that,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you didn¡¯t,¡± Myra commented. ¡°Otherwise, you would have a broken phone.¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡± Reo exclaimed.

    ¡°Anyways, that¡¯s a versatile power, Erind,¡± Dario said. ¡°We can greatly disrupt our enemies with that.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said. Actually, I haven¡¯t really thought of the applications of this power before. If it could speed up and slow down time, that meant I could mess with my enemies a lot. Could I even freeze them in time? It was hard to know because SpookyErind was controlling that body.

    Although, it was funny to see SpookyErind having to do what I said. While she messed with me before, it would be really out of character to just stand there and do nothing. It would also contradict her ¡°face¡± of just being a part of me rather than being independent.

    ¡°Also, is that connected to why you chose Synchron, because of the time aspect?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said confidently. It was fun to take credit for something that you didn¡¯t even think of. I was just thinking of a cool name. But it was fun to let others fill in the gaps. Now that I think of that, Dario has done this twice. He assumed I could control SpookyErind, and now he¡¯s giving too much credit for my codename.

    ¡°That¡¯s cool,¡± Dario said. ¡°Deen, do you have any other secret parts of your powers?¡±

    ¡°Not yet sadly,¡± Deen replied. ¡°Although, I¡¯m still looking at how to control my guardian angel.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± he said. ¡°But before we get too sidetracked, we need to talk strategy.¡±

    ¡°Strategy?¡± I asked.

    ¡°As we talked about earlier this week, our powers work better in certain roles. Myra works best in a direct fight against the Adumbrae. Ideally, we should put our heavy hitters out in the front. Given how strong you are Erind, would you be comfortable with that?¡±

    I took a look at Deen, who looked at me expectedly. She really didn¡¯t want me doing that.

    ¡°I¡¯m not as durable as Myra is though,¡± I countered. ¡°I could still help brawl, but hopefully behind Myra.¡±

    ¡°That works,¡± Dario said. ¡°So you two will be working together. I¡¯ll try to help out in the front as well. My power works best when I can touch the enemy. Don¡¯t worry, I tend to stay behind Myra too. Next, there¡¯s you Deen.¡± I guess Dario agreed that Myra was a good meat shield. Or would the correct term in this case be tree shield?

    ¡°I¡¯d like to fight directly ahead,¡± Deen said with conviction. ¡°My guardian angel can protect me, and I was upset I haven¡¯t really fought the 2M¡¯s before.¡±

    ¡°I guess I¡¯m the only one who¡¯s going to be fighting from a distance,¡± Everett lamented.

    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t forget about me!¡± Reo said. ¡°Technically, I¡¯ll still be in the van, but I won¡¯t be directly fighting the enemies. That¡¯s going to be up to my fairies. Most likely Blubber.¡±

    ¡°You two will still play an important role,¡± Dario said. ¡°It¡¯s always good to have more people to fight in a battle, even if you two aren¡¯t going hand-to-hand.¡±

    ¡°Umm, guys, sorry to interrupt,¡± Johann said. I almost forgot he was here since everybody else was talking. ¡°But, we have to go now or we¡¯ll miss the truck.¡±

 1.13

    We stared out onto the street. It was dotted by various streetlamps, some of which were broken. Abandoned buildings sat to our left and right. Our little alleyway was the perfect spot to launch an ambush on the unsuspecting truck of the 2M¡¯s.

    In front of us, Myra was acting as our tree shield in her giant eight-foot-tall monster form. Deen and SpookyErind were right next to me, and Dario was on Deen¡¯s right. Everett was behind me as well. Oh, and there was also Blubber. The fat pixie-like creature was currently perched on Dario¡¯s shoulder. It reminded me of those pirates that had parrots on their shoulders. Except, this was one messed up parrot and pirate.

    Johann and Reo were in the van a couple of blocks back, also waiting in an alleyway. Maybe we should have gotten those cool earpieces in spy films. Sadly, it seemed we were really low budget. Perhaps Deen could fund our little group.

    I could feel the tension in the air as no one spoke. It was really interesting how lively the group had been, but now we were intensely focused on the street ahead of us. That also made it easier for my face. I didn¡¯t need to speak to anyone or engage in any conversation. Just wait.

    And wait.

    And wait.

    Okay, this was getting boring. Seriously, when is this truck coming? Did Johann mess up? That would be really stupid. I should have just said no to coming to this mission. I could have attacked the docks on my own with SpookyErind.

    Suddenly, the sound of motors entered the alleyway. Soon, high beams raced across the road. The truck was coming.

    Myra tensed up in front of us. Oh wait, I should get ready to talk to everyone in codenames. Dario was Blank, Myra was Barb, Everett was Emcee, Deen was Pythia, and I was Synchron. That was the five of us here. Oh, and I guess there was also Blubber. Should I refer to it as Blubber or Oberon since Reo was controlling it? Could the fairy even speak? Nah. That¡¯s too much to worry about. I doubt I¡¯ll need its help and if Reo was in trouble, I didn¡¯t plan on warning him.

    ¡°Okay, on my mark,¡± Dario said, breaking our group¡¯s silence. He held up three fingers.

    ¡°Three.¡±

    ¡°Two.¡±

    ¡°One.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±

    Myra charged out into the open street and quickly followed her. When I turned my head to the left, I was slightly blinded by the sight of beam lights.

    The sound of tires screeching surprised me. Not the sound itself, but the number of tires seemed way too high. The beam lights scattered in different directions, and before me was not an eighteen-wheeler.

    Several vehicles were before me, with an eighteen-wheeler in the middle. Several vans made a distorted snake in front of us. The doors to the backs of the vans opened and people in black emerged. Whirring was quickly followed by black machines flying out of the vans as well. They have drones?

    Rather than feeling scared, I looked forward to fighting all these thug guys. Although, I did promise Deen to stay behind Myra. I imagine the rest of the group was pretty scared though. Sadly, we were all wearing balaclava masks, so it was pretty hard to gauge their reactions. Especially since it was dark.

    A throbbing sensation entered my head. Fuck. Some of the thug guys at the front dropped down and released their weapons. How nice of them to surrender. Of course, it was Dario¡¯s power doing that. Sadly, the drones didn¡¯t submit and instead proceeded to fly higher in the air.

    Maybe Myra took that as a challenge because she immediately began charging the cluster of enemies in front of us. Gunfire erupted as all our enemies immediately began attacking our tree shield.

    ¡°Come on,¡± Deen said as she charged to the thug guys on the left. ¡°Let¡¯s help Myr-Barb!¡±

    Fireballs emerged from behind us and began targeting the drones. Thankfully, we had someone who specialized in ranged attacks. I and SpookyErind charged to the middle where Myra was pushing through the 2M¡¯s vans. More of Emcee¡¯s firebolts attacked drones around us.

    More of the thug guys began to fall as Dario charged the right side. The ones further back fired their shots way off. I think one of them might have even shot another 2M. I really wanted to laugh, but I don¡¯t think my ¡®teammates¡¯ would like it.

    Myra had pushed all the way to the eighteen-wheeler and began demolishing its front cab. Meanwhile, I and SpookyErind began attacking some of the thug guys surrounding me.

    A small trio of thug guys stood to my left. I charged the one in the middle. The three of them proceeded to shoot me, but their bullets felt like tiny ant bites rather than actual bullets. I launched a kick at the middle thug guy and his body went flying across the street into one of the other vans. Having super strength was so cool. As I turned around to hit the other two thug guys, I was met with two dead bodies. Blood flowed from them and they were filled with holes. Did they shoot each other? Dario¡¯s field was probably messing with them. Awww. I wanted to be the one to kill them.

    SpookyErind meanwhile charged two thug guys that managed to get out of Barb¡¯s way. I also felt the feeling of ant bites when the bullets collided with her body. One of the thug guys even managed to land a headshot, but the bullet barely entered her skin before falling back out. She punched them both in the crotches, causing them to go flying.

    I took a look at Deen. While we were getting hit by bullets, she expertly dodged and weaved around the thug guys on the far left side of the four-lane road. She landed punches and kicks on the thug guys, causing them to fall over. I spotted a drone nearby her. Emcee kept throwing fireballs to the left side, probably trying to defend his crush. But, I don¡¯t think he noticed this drone. It wasn¡¯t shooting at all, and it was pretty big compared to some of the other ones

    A fun idea popped into my head. I grabbed one of the dead thug guys around me and held him up. I launched him at the drone. Deen turned to the right and noticed the drone, which had begun charging up some kind of laser weapon. But then, the body I threw collided with it, and they both broke apart into several smaller pieces.

    ¡°Thanks, Er- I mean Synchron!¡± Deen said with a thumbs up. I internally cringed when she almost called me by my real name. Thankfully, it didn¡¯t seem like the 2M¡¯s would survive our assault. But still, it appeared that Deen was not cut out for a secret life. I really should get a better best friend.

    At least she gave me credit though. Even though Emcee blew up most of the drones around her, she had only thanked me. I found it funny because I didn¡¯t even know the drone was going to attack her - I just wanted to use it as target practice. It was pretty fun launching stuff - I should do it more often.

    Eventually, we managed to beat up the rest of the thug guys. No Adumbrae and nobody with augs appeared. The strongest thing the 2M¡¯s sent at us was that big drone, but it didn¡¯t even do anything. We all surrounded the eighteen-wheeler from its back side. Thankfully, Dario turned off his sickness field.

    Hmm¡­ So the 2M¡¯s fortified their trucks but didn¡¯t send anything that could seriously stop us. Maybe some Adumbrae were hiding in the eighteen-wheeler in front of us?

    ¡°That was way more than just an eighteen-wheeler,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting that either,¡± Dario said. ¡°Must have been new.¡±

    ¡°I was surprised Jim Ambrose didn¡¯t emerge from one of the vans,¡± Myra added.

    ¡°Jim Ambrose?¡± I asked.

    ¡°One of the 2M¡¯s enforcers who have augs,¡± Dario said. ¡°He managed to cut off my leg once, but thankfully we were able to reattach it during our retreat.¡±

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°That definitely sounds more dangerous than what we fought here,¡± I said.

    ¡°Definitely,¡± he replied. ¡°Our enemies probably thought they could just get away with more guys with guns and drones this time. Thankfully, a lot of them just proceeded to shoot at Barb over here, allowing us to pick off some of the ones on the sides.¡±

    I did want to be more careful about fighting Myra. She basically just shrugged off all of the 2M¡¯s attacks while charging straight into the middle and back end of their forces. Was her bark stronger now that she was no longer under the effects of the suppressor? I easily bit through her armor at the mall, but here, it looked way thicker.

    ¡°All right, just got to deal with whatever¡¯s in this stupid truck now,¡± Myra said. We all faced toward the double doors on the back of the long truck.

    Suddenly, the sound of screaming and gunfire occurred in front of us. Bulges in the metal of the trucks quickly appeared and were accompanied by the screeching of metal. The sound of sparks began to get louder and louder.

    What the fuck was that? Was one of the Adumbrae fighting their own men in there? Why would they be doing that? Maybe they had a temper tantrum because they got attacked. Still, a feeling of uneasiness entered my body.

    The others around me also tensed up. They weren¡¯t expecting this either. I backed up to the sides of the eighteen-wheeler. Our tree shield stood in the middle, but everyone else backed up.

    The doors flung off and sent Myra a few yards back. While I was expecting an Adumbrae to emerge from the back of the truck, this was not the type of Adumbrae I was expecting.

    A bald humanoid creature crawled out. It had long thin arms and legs with large hands. It was a bit taller than Myra even when it crawled. It was probably twice as tall as Deen if it stood up. Maybe even taller.

    Large blue spikes emerged from its back. Lightning jumped from spike to spike, making loud sparking sounds. The spikes seemed to be growing. I think I figured out why though. In the mouth of the creature, dangled a human torso with arms. It began chewing and crunching on the body. Ewww. The sparks got thicker and its spikes began to grow.

    It was like an electric porcupine. It probably deserved the description more than Myra since it seemed to always have spikes across its back. A loud screech nearly broke my ears. Holy shit that was loud. I put my hands up on my ears. Myra slowly began to back up.

    The giant humanoid porcupine charged Myra, who tried to pierce it with her spikes. A small fireball also hit it from its back. Those attacks did nothing. Suddenly, the sparks jumped from the spikes to Myra¡¯s body, causing her to spasm and freeze. I hoped she wasn¡¯t dead. This would be the second time this night somebody I wanted to kill was killed by somebody else.

    ¡°Everyone get away!¡± I heard Dario yell.

    However, I stood still. Back when I was younger, I really enjoyed watching Animal Planet. This scene in front of me reminded me of that show. My favorite part was when the animals fought and ate others. It was so interesting to see the behaviors of them. Myra looked so different from a human in her tree form that she may as well be an animal.

    The sparks stopped jumping into Myra¡¯s monster form. That was interesting to note as well. I saw Myra twitch. So it just knocks her out then. That¡¯s good. The giant porcupine guy began chewing on Myra¡¯s arm. It broke through Myra¡¯s dense armor. Hey, wait!

    I was supposed to be the one eating her. I didn¡¯t want it to fully kill her, but it seemed to be taking its time going through Myra¡¯s arm. Way longer than it took for it to eat the other 2M¡¯s. Still entranced by the scene, I watched it fully consume Myra¡¯s arm.

    Okay, that¡¯s enough watching. I didn¡¯t need this thing¡¯s spikes growing bigger. But how was I going to fight this thing? I definitely didn¡¯t want to get shocked by it. I looked around and saw a dead thug guy near me. Another light bulb popped into my head.

    I know I definitely could lift over 6000 pounds. Most vehicles were only 1-2 tons, and I could lift three tons. I¡¯m not sure a normal thug guy would be enough to harm Mr. Porcupine Guy. But maybe a vehicle would.

    I went over to one of the vans and began lifting it up. It was probably like trying to lift several bags of heavy groceries, and I groaned as I lifted it above me. Carefully looking at the creature, I launched the van.

    The van impacted the creature, who was oblivious to my attack. Mr. Porcupine Guy went flying into one of the abandoned buildings along with the van.

    ¡°Did I do it?¡± I asked. That would be so cool if I did. I¡¯d have a perfect record of throwing and killing things.

    Another loud screech hurt my ears. Owowow. Stop. I put my hands up on my ears and looked down. SpookyErind also put her hands on her ears, and from her vision, I saw Mr. Porcupine Guy begin to charge my body. Shit!

    I turned and ran away as fast as possible. I quickly zipped past the other vehicles and took a peek behind me as I heard the sound of galloping. Mr. Porcupine Guy was catching up to me! I turned a corner, hoping to lose it somehow.

    This was starting to become a terrible night. All of my teammates were retreating and leaving me to die. I was about to become an electrified Erind meal. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I stopped turning corners and simply continued running straight. I was heading in the direction left of the street with the truck.

    SpookyErind held out her hand, and the golden bubble emerged. It zipped through the air toward my position. Shit. Even then, it wasn¡¯t going to make it to me in time.

    <u>You¡¯re smart enough to figure this out,</u> SpookyErind said with a grin.

    Bitch. The only thing I can do is run!! All right, calm down. I was still jogging, but maybe I could get closer to the orb. I¡¯d have to take a couple of corners still. Wait, what was that saying? Two wrongs don¡¯t make a right, but three lefts do make a right. I remember some stupid cartoon said that.

    Before SpookyErind spoke to me I was simply going to keep running farther and farther away from her. But, that would just put her time bubble farther away from us. I began turning corners again until I was going rightward toward the truck.

    I took a peak, and the creature was probably less than a foot away from me. Holy fuck! Please fly faster golden bubble! Eventually, the shimmery gold bubble entered my vision. It had grown larger, way larger. Enough to engulf an entire room.

    I turned my head again. The creature had a disgusting face. The proportions were all wrong, and its eyes were missing. In their sockets were sparks of lightning. It began to inch closer and closer. Nonono. I¡¯m almost there.

    I passed the bubble as a spark touched my body and sent me skidding across the road. Owww. Thankfully I wasn¡¯t totally knocked out. I turned around and saw Mr. Porcupine Guy frozen in the giant time bubble.

    <u>You did it!</u> SpookyErind cheered as she began walking toward our van.

    That was too much for me. And way too close too. I felt my face - parts of the balaclava mask had burnt off when I slid across the road. Stupid rope burn. I¡¯d encountered it before. My parents brought me to a fire station once. I thought it would be so cool to go down the poles that firefighters used. Sadly, I didn¡¯t have gloves and my hands hurt for several hours after that.

    Wait a minute, couldn¡¯t have SpookyeErind summoned that bubble earlier? She was grinning now as I had these thoughts. Fuck. This bitch was messing with me again. She waited for just the right moment for me to get hit by one of the sparks to save me.

    SpookyErind simply continued grinning as she walked up to Everett, who had regrouped with Reo and Johann inside the van. He was eating several calorie bars. Oh right, he needed to eat to recharge his powers.

    <u>Hey Emcee,</u> SpookyErind called out.

    ¡°Woah, sorry Synchron,¡± he said as he finished eating the final calorie bar. ¡°I¡¯m still getting used to that weird voice. What¡¯s up?¡±

    <u>I managed to freeze the giant monster, could you launch a fireball at it?</u> she asked.

    ¡°Oh good job!¡± he complimented me. ¡°Yeah, I should be recharged enough to launch a giant one.¡±

    We had a nice funeral for Mr. Porcupine Guy. I even used Emcee¡¯s fire to warm myself up during this cold night. Johann also got me a replacement jacket and a balaclava mask. It was bigger than me, so my arms didn¡¯t go fully through it.

    Now, we returned the eight-wheeler.  The back entrance was littered with guns and bloodstains. The remains of a weird futuristic device laid broken in half.

    I had stayed silent during the funeral. My mom told me it was important to be quiet and respectful when honoring the dead. She did that at both Dad¡¯s and Eudora¡¯s funerals. Of course, I¡¯m not really sure why she told me that given how introverted I was, but it seemed like good advice back there.

    I did have questions though, and since the funeral was over, now was a great time to ask.

    ¡°What was that?¡± I asked.

    ¡°One of the 2M¡¯s Adumbrae experiments,¡± Dario said. ¡°My theory is they are trying to also make stronger Adumbrae, so they have even more power. We¡¯ve encountered a couple before, but it seemed that this one got out when the truck stopped. We¡¯re glad that you and Emcee managed to kill it before it completely ate Myra.¡±

    And I was glad we killed it before it ate me.

    ¡°Definitely,¡± I said. ¡°So is that it?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, good job guys,¡± he said. Everyone clapped and cheered. My first mission. It was pretty cool.

    Myra¡¯s armor shrank until she was in her human form. She turned toward me and Everett.

    ¡°Thanks, you two,¡± she said. She was still missing an arm, but the wound had closed and wasn¡¯t bleeding. The flesh was slowly regrowing around it.

    ¡°No problem,¡± Everett said. ¡°We¡¯ve been fighting for a while, and I¡¯d be pretty sad if you died.¡±

    I wouldn¡¯t be. Well, I guess I just recently fought on Myra¡¯s side unlike him. But still, I definitely wouldn¡¯t mourn for her.

    ¡°Same,¡± I simply said.

    She gave both of us a hug. Fucking bitch. I was definitely going to kill her now.

    ¡°I thought I was going to die,¡± she said, sobbing. ¡°I was frozen there on the road, with that monster eating my arm. I just can¡¯t thank both of you enough.¡±

    Wow. I¡¯ve never seen this weak side of Myra before. Oh, wait, yes I have. When she was upset about Kelsey. I could probably kill her right now, but I was going to save that card for later.

    Everett was about to say something when another foreign sound entered my ears.

    ¡°Is that a helicopter?¡± I asked. Thankfully, Myra released us from her vile touch. We looked around and saw a small dot in the distance. It was getting bigger. Actually, there were a few dots.

    ¡°Umm guys,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°We should probably get going right now,¡± Dario said.

    Soon after, I heard a big woosh. What the fuck?

    ¡°Everyone split up now and get away from here!¡± Deen panicked.

    Not waiting, I ran away from the others. I turned back and saw a brief glimpse of a missile hit the eighteen-wheeler. A huge explosion engulfed that part of the road.

 1.14

    I definitely was not going to fight all of these helicopters. I and SpookyErind had retreated to a smaller road between two buildings. None of our allies were with us. Wait a minute.

    Another lightbulb moment appeared in my head. I was getting a lot of these. Since my teammates abandoned me, what if I abandoned them?

    More engine noises appeared. How many vans do the 2Ms have? Like seriously, do they own a van factory or something? Actually, they probably do.

    That cemented my decision. I was going to directly attack the docks of the 2M¡¯s and leave my teammates to do whatever else. I¡¯d come up with some story later of what happened, but right now, I really wanted to use my Adumbrae face.

    When Mr. Porcupine Guy was eating Myra, it reminded me of the powerful jaws I had when I transformed. I hadn¡¯t used that face in a while, and this might be a good opportunity to use it. With a bunch of the 2M¡¯s forces here, their docks were probably less protected. Furthermore, SpookyErind could also transform. It¡¯d be fun to have both of us messing up their base.

    They deserved it anyway for attacking us. I¡¯d just be enacting Rule #4.

    <u>That sounds like a fun plan,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°I always have fun plans,¡± I told her. We both chuckled. ¡°Although, could you please make sure to help me out before I get hurt?¡±

    <u>Silly me,</u> she said. <u>Why would I want to die? I¡¯ll always make sure to protect you.</u>

    ¡°Really?¡± I asked rhetorically. ¡°Because you waited till the last second to save me from Mr. Porcupine Guy.¡±

    <u>But you¡¯re still alive, right?</u>  SpookyErind asked.

    ¡°You know that¡¯s not the point,¡± I told her.

    <u>I was just keeping things fun,</u> she replied with a smirk. <u>If I didn¡¯t act at all, you would have died.</u>

    I simply rolled my eyes. There was no arguing with her. Suddenly, she hugged me.

    <u>Of course, there¡¯s no arguing with me,</u> she said. <u>I¡¯m always right.</u>

    ¡°But doesn¡¯t that mean I¡¯m also right?¡± I asked. Of course, I was right, but SpookyErind didn¡¯t always act like that.

    <u>Yeah!</u> She cheered. <u>Meyoumeyoumeyou.</u>

    ¡°All right, fine,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s transform now - we¡¯ve done enough hugging.¡±

    She released me. I focused on my right hand and gold liquid emerged from my crystal. It turned red and then into a solid form with huge fangs. It sat in my hand, as SpookyErind concentrated on summoning hers.

    I put the mask over my balaclava mask, but nothing happened. Wait what?

    <u>You can¡¯t put a mask on another mask, that makes no sense!</u> SpookyErind said.

    Oh right, she took off her balaclava mask to transform from a normal Erind clone into her SpookyErind form.

    I took off the balaclava mask and put on my Adumbrae mask. And the mask becomes a face. Instantly, I became taller and my senses became enhanced. I stared down at SpookyErind. It was weird being taller than her. Generally, we were both the same height. I gave her a pat on the head with my clawed hand.

    She took off her balaclava mask and also put on her mask. In an instant, she grew as well. It was cool seeing my Adumbrae self like this. Wait a minute, I was always an Adumbrae. Maybe I should give this face a name? How about Red Hood? It¡¯s nice and simple. I¡¯d come up with a cooler name next time.

    Before, I had only seen my Red Hood face in the mirror, but now, I saw it from both my eyes and SpookyErind¡¯s eyes. Unlike my normal Erind body, Red Hood could see in the dark. I saw two hot bodies. I wonder if I could make Deen jealous. The only issue is with my monster mouth. Still, the body was pretty hot and I was pretty sure I was slightly taller than Deen right now. I also had bigger boobs and curves as well.

    ¡°Rhooaar,¡± I said, letting out a low growl. Hmm, that might be an issue since I couldn¡¯t communicate. Although, SpookyErind could read my mind right? And I didn¡¯t plan on talking to anyone for a while.

    SpookyErind nodded and also let out a ¡°Rhooaar¡±. I¡¯ll take that as a yes.

    Okay, now to get to the docks. Thankfully, Johann had shared the local map and the route of eighteen-wheeler with all of us. I studied it for a bit, so I did know the general direction of how to get there.

    Another explosion went off, but this time it was way louder. Were the helicopters closer or was my hearing just better now? Who cares? I was going to be far away from here anyway. Gunfire erupted. Good luck my teammates.

    I and SpookyErind began jogging away from this street and toward the docks. It was fun running in this form. When I was running away from Mr. Porcupine Guy, I was pretty much fully clothed. But now, with my Red Hood form showing off so much skin, I could feel the wind breeze against my skin.

    I laughed, but my body simply let out a weird high-pitched growl. It was also fun feeling the wind breeze against SpookyErind¡¯s skin as well. Thankfully, the roads we were taking were devoid of anyone. Although, maybe later we could try running across the tops of buildings. That sounded pretty cool.

    Eventually, we reached a chain wire fence. Two guards stood in front of a giant gate on the road. Unlike the other thug guys, these guys were not wearing secret black hoodies and masks. Instead, they wore more loose clothing. I could see their packed muscles. However, their guns didn¡¯t look the same as the others.

    How did I want to handle this? I could just directly charge them, but there was something I wanted to test out.

    Female spies always used their hot bodies to seduce men and get important secrets, at least according to the movies I watched. Could I convince these guys to just let us in?

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Even if it didn¡¯t work out, I was pretty sure bullets didn¡¯t affect me. They would need stronger weapons than whatever they currently had.

    I took a look at SpookyErind and she gave me a thumbs up.

    All right then, let¡¯s test how hot this body is. I hoped the monster mouth wasn¡¯t too much.

    I proceeded to strut like how those models do on TV shows. I have no idea if I was doing it correctly though. SpookyErind copied my movements. Eventually, we made it left the darkness into the light.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± the left guard said. ¡°What are hot ladies doing here at night?¡±

    ¡°Get it together man,¡± the right guard said. ¡°Follow protocol.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s not every night you just meet hot women walking right at you!¡± the left guard replied.

    ¡°Halt!¡± the right guard said, rolling his eyes. We simply continued walking forward. I tried swaying my hips while I walked. Am I doing this right? At least SpookyErind copied me.

    ¡°Holy shit, what is that?¡± the left guard said. ¡°A wolf mouth? That¡¯s pretty hot.¡± I knew somebody would!

    ¡°Fucking hell,¡± the right guard replied, raising his gun at us.

    ¡°Hey dude,¡± the left guard said, pushing the right guard¡¯s gun down. ¡°Chill out.¡±

    ¡°The fuck you mean chill out?¡± he asked. ¡°They¡¯re not supposed to be here, and they might be Adumbrae too. We should have shot them already.¡±

    ¡°You take things too seriously,¡± the left guard said. It was so fun to see him take my side. I¡¯ll call him Lefty from now on. ¡°Seriously, if they were Adumbrae they would have attacked us already.¡±

    ¡°Hey, sorry about my buddy over here, he¡¯s just trigger-happy,¡± Lefty told us. ¡°I¡¯d love to show you, ladies, a nice night if you know what I mean.¡±

    ¡°This is a bad idea,¡± the right guard told him.

    ¡°Let me show you how to finesse the ladies,¡± Lefty told him. We stopped a few feet from them. Lefty walked over to us.

    ¡°I see you both are fine showing off your bodies,¡± he said. ¡°Do you mind showing me a bit more? I could help you two twins out with that.¡± Such a terrible pickup line.

    Continuing to play the part, I nodded my head and swayed my hip to the left while putting my left hand on it.

    He reached his hand out to grab my crop top. Ewwwww. For whatever reason, I didn¡¯t get the physical feeling of disgust I usually got when somebody else touched me. But this was both gross and unacceptable. This was a blatant Rule #4 violation.

    I grabbed his hand.

    ¡°Oh, so you ladies want to take it slow,¡± he said. ¡°The night will be better if you let me go faster.¡±

    I simply dragged his hand to my mouth and chomped on it. He fell to the ground immediately and began screaming.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± the right guard said.

    I chewed Lefty¡¯s hand and swallowed. The salty taste of flesh and metallic taste of blood usually would have made me puked, but I easily ate it in my Red Hood form.

    The right guard pressed some kind of device on the right side of his chest. ¡°We have Adumbrae intruders at the front gate, requesting backup.¡±

    Meanwhile, Lefty had managed to pull a pistol out from his pocket and shot me in the chest. There was a tiny bit of pain, but that was soon followed by anger and rage boiling up inside of me. I wanted to eat him. I had to eat him.

    I opened my mouth wide and chomped his head off. Meanwhile, the right guard began shooting at us. The bullets grazed me and SpookyErind, and I could feel rage swell into both of our bodies. Our claws began to expand and I felt both our bodies begin to get stronger.

    SpookyErind charged the right side guard while I continued to munch on Lefty. My body and muscles grew even more as I continued to chomp on him. I felt powerful using my jaws.

    SpookyErind reached the other guard and chomped his head. She began eating the rest of her body, and she grew as well. I could hear the sounds of distant footsteps and vehicles beyond the gate. As SpookyErind finished devouring the right side guard, I jumped over the chainlink gate. Weeeeeeeee.

    I landed in a kneeling position as the ground cracked around me. SpookyErind soon joined me. More guards approached us and opened fire. All they managed to do was cause a tiny bit of pain to us. But that pain created large amounts of rage. I charged the guards on the left, while SpookyErind charged the guards on the right.

    I bit off some thug guy¡¯s head and swallowed. I was rewarded with more growth and power. Eating those who bothered me made me stronger. And it was against the rules to bother me, so I had to enforce them.

    Soon, my thoughts became solely focused on eating. It was as if a fog entered my brain and I couldn¡¯t think of anything else.

    Kill that person that shot me. Eat him. Eat that other one. Devour them.

    My other body was also eating and growing. Fur had begun to grow on our bodies and claws had grown out of our boots.

    Suddenly, more guys came, and this time they had different guns. Their guns were brighter. When they shot at us, blue shots hit our bodies. We temporarily seized up but were able to push through it with the growing rage. We had to eat them.

    I charged the ones on the left while my other self charged the ones on the right. I chomped down on each of their heads, before continuing to eat the rest of their bodies. My other self did the same. Nobody was allowed to attack us and get away. And those that did would be eaten.

    A couple of trucks came into view. Bigger guns were on them, and they began firing at us. The bullets the other humans had shot felt like ant bites. These felt more like painful bee stings and spider bites. They even burrowed more into our skin. But our bodies began to grow more, and fur soon covered our skin.

    I got down on all fours and leaped toward the truck on the left. The gun person tried shooting me, but I swiped at his gun and it easily broke.

    ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck, where the hell is Jim?¡± he said. I simply opened my mouth wide and chomped down. There went half his body. I swallowed to eat the other half. My other body had also defeated the right-side truck. Meanwhile, I could hear cursing from the inside of this vehicle. I got off the back of the truck and walked around to the other side. There, a human was trying to leave and open the door. I simply punched the glass with my fist and grabbed his head.

    ¡°No, no, no, let me go please,¡± he begged. I chomped on him. My other self also began eating the human inside of the right-side truck. But instead of chomping on his head, she began eating his arms first. The human let out a satisfying scream as blood began flowing from his stumped arm. My other self continued eating him. Our bodies continued growing.

    I let out a howl to declare my victory over my enemies. My other self also howled. I walked over to my other self and observed her. We were now mounds of fur and muscle. Fur had grown over our clothes, and our snouts had become larger. Our teeth were way bigger too.

    Suddenly, a singular guy had come running to us. He seemed and smelt different compared to the other humans. More metallic.

    I heard a whirring sound coming from his arms as he came to attack us. I charged him, but he delivered a punch that caused my body to freeze up. I couldn¡¯t move. My other self began to charge him and he also knocked her out.

    I wanted to eat him. Get up. Get up. Get up. Eat. Eat. Eat.

    ¡°This is Jim Ambrose,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ve neutralized the intruders, over.¡±

    Move. Move. Move. He kicked my body. I will kill you. I will kill you.

    Suddenly, my body reacted to my commands and I chomped down on his metallic arm and began eating him.

    ¡°Fuck, stop this!¡± he yelled. ¡°This is Jim, we need Stella here immediately! Aggghh!¡±

    He tried attacking me with his other arm, but I quickly grabbed and crushed it. As I continued chewing, a huge explosion occurred in front of me. Owwww. My body was singed, but I continued eating. Eventually, the pain went away as I felt myself regenerating and growing.

    Whirring sounds soon came as well. More food. Flying machines began launching several bullets and missiles at me. My other self had gotten back up. I jumped toward the nearest flying machine and grabbed it. I put it in my mouth and began to chew. Disgusting. This wasn¡¯t food. I spat it back out. I¡¯ll just have to destroy these pests instead.

    I jumped toward another flying machine and swiped at it with my claws. It easily came apart. My other self copied my movements. Even though we couldn¡¯t eat the flying machines, their attacks fueled us with rage and made us stronger.

    Smoke, fire, and blood filled both of my bodies¡¯ noses. I had finally won. All the other enemies were leaving. I had a good meal and it was time to go to sleep. I laid down on all fours, but suddenly, I heard large stomping sounds in the distance.

    Both of my selves turned around and I saw a large female rocky person beginning to grow and grow. She opened her mouth and shot out a laser beam at me, sending my body flying and crashing into something.

 1.15 - Stella

    Stella clicked her heels as she strode across Eve''s security room.

    Things were not looking good for Marc, also known as Big Marcy. His brother Mark had been slowly accruing more and more power over their organization. Even worse, the bandits sabotaging their operations have gotten bolder. Their most recent attack disrupted a request from the Supplier to kidnap two law school students. If there was some sort of information leak, Stella was going to rip that person to shreds.

    At least Eve remained protected. It was important that their clients were unharmed. Business could go south if any of them died.

    There wasn¡¯t too much to do here, but that meant everything was working correctly. Stella didn¡¯t have to deal with incompetent and stupid people today. Some of the humans that worked for them tried gossiping around her when she first came into this position. They soon learned that was a bad idea.

    Of course, most people would assume a short White-Asian lady wouldn¡¯t be threatening. That¡¯s why Stella had to assert her place. Her powers made it a lot easier to do that.

    Sadly, for whatever reason, Stella seemed to never be at the right place and time to deal with those bandits. Instead, she has had to rely on her way weaker and inferior underlings. How annoying.

    ¡°I¡¯m heading out Dekano,¡± Stella said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll watch over here Mam for a couple of more hours,¡± he replied. Like how Big Marcy had an augmented person protecting him, Stella had Dekano. His fearsome glowing red eyes would frighten most enemies. However, Stella didn¡¯t need his protection. Still, he had proven himself to be a good underling.

    Stella got into her elegant luxury Dyson Enhanced and started driving home. She didn¡¯t live too far from the Docks - Big Marcy Headquarters. As his personal assistant, she needed to be ready on quick notice to wake up.

    She remembered the old days when she first worked for Big Marcy several decades ago. Back when Big Marcy and his brother smuggled weapons. Things were so easier back then. Power was more split evenly between the two brothers, and there were no annoying bandits to deal with. Just had to stay undercover from local law enforcement and federal agencies. It was easy enough to bribe local law enforcement. With their help, the feds would have no idea what was going on.

    Now, things were more difficult. Stella sighed. At least she¡¯d be able to have a good night. She turned on her radio and put it on their organization¡¯s encrypted channel. Hopefully, nothing bothersome would come up.

    For the first half of the trip, nothing came up. Just another peaceful night.

    ¡°This is Transport Unit A coming in,¡± said a raspy male voice.

    ¡°Docks Control can hear you, over,¡± a female voice responded.

    Stella had read the files about the transport earlier. It was carrying a stronger monster than was usually transported. A unique restraining device was created for it. Still, with the concern around the bandits, security was increased. Thankfully, one of their benefactors from the defense industry had managed to give them a supply of drones. They really needed to buff security. Stella couldn¡¯t be in multiple places at once. Hopefully, Big Marcy would add more people with augs to their ranks.

    Since Marc¡¯s brother, Mark, controlled the Red Island, Marc couldn¡¯t easily recruit new Adumbrae. Although, it still probably wouldn¡¯t be an easy process. Marc had a stringent vetting process, which made sense given the amount of power that was being handed out. Stella only became an Adumbrae because of how loyal she¡¯d been the past decades.

    ¡°This is Transport Unit A, we are under attack!¡± the male voice panicked. What?

    ¡°What¡¯s going on down there?¡± the female dock technician voice responded.

    ¡°They have a giant-¡± the male voice responded before getting cutoff. That was not good news. Stella didn¡¯t want to have her night disturbed. She could intervene, but that would still take a long time to get there. Maybe her underlings would be competent and actually defeat the bandits.

    ¡°Transport Unit A, come in,¡± the dock technician said.

    Several more minutes passed, and Stella continued driving. Anger was slowly boiling up inside her.

    ¡°We¡¯ve lost all contact with Transport Unit A,¡± the dock technician said. ¡°I can¡¯t contact any of the drones either.¡±

    That fast? They should have gotten more people with augs, or even Adumbrae. Stella was angry that they let their transport get ambushed.

    ¡°Big Marcy is demanding Gunships One, Two, and Three to survey the area,¡± the dock technician announced. ¡°Sending them over now with another convoy.¡±

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Hopefully, this would be enough to deal with the bandits. They spent a lot of money on these helicopters, outfitting them with loads of weaponry.

    ¡°This is Gunship One,¡± another male voice said. ¡°We¡¯ve detected multiple unidentified personnel near the remains of Transport Unit A. Opening fire.¡±

    Stella tensed up, waiting to hear what would happen. Hopefully, it¡¯d be good news.

    ¡°They¡¯re scattering, looks like we got them on the run!¡± Gunship One¡¯s pilot cheered.

    Finally, some good news.

    ¡°We have Adumbrae intruders at the front gate, requesting backup,¡± another male voice said. Fucking Shit.

    Stella was now even closer to the docks. It looks like she wasn¡¯t getting a good night''s sleep today. I¡¯ll make them fucking pay for that. She began heading toward the docks instead of going home. More panicked messages came through.

    ¡°This is Jim, we need Stella here immediately! Aggghh!¡± Jim Ambrose yelled. Stella stopped her car in a nearby alleyway. Thankfully, the streets were pretty barren, and they could simply get the local police to wipe the cameras afterward. Stella got out of the car and focused on her power as she charged toward the direction of the docks.

    Stella felt a surge of strength and speed as she started to grow. Her skin started to turn to a concrete texture as her muscles began to bulge. Unfortunately, this meant that her clothes began to rip and tear. But saving Marc was more important than her clothes.

    Stella continued to steadily grow in size and power. Her footsteps left cracks in the pavement as she ran. While the feeling of power was nice, anger rose to the top. How dare these pesky shits attack their base?

    The whirring of a helicopter gave Stella a sigh of relief. In the distance, she could see Marc¡¯s escape helicopter retreat to one of their other bases. Still, Stella was going to kill whoever had breached their base.

    Stella could see the chain link gate surrounding the base was still intact. What was off though was the piles of blood and damaged vehicles beyond it. Wasting no time, Stella ran past the gate. It easily gave away and crumbled.

    Boats and other vehicles were trying to flee the damaged base and carefully went around Stella to escape. As Stella reached the middle of the docks, she finally found the shits attacking them.

    Up ahead, were two big werewolf-like creatures. Packed with muscles and fur, the werewolves both had long snouts with big sharp teeth. Both of them featured big furry breasts on their large muscled bodies. Each of their limbs ended in long claws as well.

    Stella was unfazed by that though. She could grow bigger, stronger, and more beautiful than both of them. In fact, they¡¯d be dead as soon as she fired her lasers at them.

    Stella opened her mouth and fired a laser at the werewolf on the left. It went flying across into a pile of nearby freight containers. She then fired another laser at the other werewolf, also sending it flying.

    She put her hands on her hips. It was unfortunate she had to use her powers for only these two attackers. They probably weren¡¯t the same as the original bandits that had been attacking them. The two werewolves were too strong to be the same as them. Stella continued to grow. She¡¯d saved up a lot of her power for this. It¡¯s such a shame she¡¯d have to charge it up again.

    Suddenly, the rubble that the werewolves crashed into began to move. A couple of growling noises announced that the two werewolf bitches weren¡¯t dead. Stella balled up her fists. At least it was a good idea she didn¡¯t decide to stop growing right then.

    Stella¡¯s anger grew as she saw what was happening to them. They were singed from her burns, and lots of furs and some flesh were cut off, but it soon regrew. Not only that, the werewolves grew. Did they get stronger when they get attacked?

    They still wouldn¡¯t be a match for her. She was still growing way faster than they were. The two werewolves began charging Stella, but she easily launched a sweeping beam from her mouth that launched both of them back. This time, even more flesh and skin was cut off. She could even see the outline of some bones showing.

    However, they quickly regenerated again. Pesky shits, refusing to die. More whirring came from behind Stella. Those gunships had arrived. Together, Stella fired her beams, while the gunships released a hailstorm of bullets and missiles at them. The two bitches were peppered with explosions, and smoke clouds quickly surrounded them.

    Sadly, luck was not on Stella¡¯s side, because more growling emerged. Why wouldn¡¯t they just fucking die??!!  Stella fired another laser at the center of the smoke cloud, but the two werewolf bitched emerged from the sides, dodging the laser. But instead, of attacking Stella, the two werewolves went behind her. What?

    She turned around to see the werewolves galloping to the gunships. The gunships backed up away from the docks. Stella chased after them while firing lasers. She missed a few shots and ended up only grazing them. Rather than running straight, they appeared to zigzag. The werewolves were even bigger now, around a couple of floors in height. But Stella was quickly approaching around several dozens of feet in height. Soon, she¡¯d be close to a 100.

    They crossed several blocks before one of the werewolves jumped into the air and caught one of the gunships in its mouth. Stella could hear the munching noises it made as it proceeded to consume the pilots inside of it. Fuck. Why did the stupid gunships come back? She had everything under control. The other werewolf jumped at a second gunship.

    Stella focused on the first one and blasted it with a laser. Thankfully, it was a dumb bitch too focused on eating to notice her attack. The laser was way bigger now since Stella had grown. The werewolves were around the size of large German Shepards when Stella first fought them. Now, they were more like bulldogs compared to her. The werewolf collided into a building, demolishing it. But, it seemed that it disappeared from view. What?

    Looking more closely, Stella could see a small black figure in the rubble of the building. So, this is what that pathetic werewolf bitch looked like in their human form. They were the size of an ant to her. They didn¡¯t seem to be moving either.

    The sound of gunshots distracted Stella, causing her to look down the road she was on. In the middle of it, was a ruined eighteen-wheeler and several vans surrounding it. More vans were actively driving down the road. She¡¯d been so distracted from the werewolf bitches, that she didn¡¯t even realize this was the street Transport Unit A was ambushed.

    So, the rest of the bandits were here huh? Stella would deal with them after she killed the human form of the werewolf bitch. Stella turned back to the rubble, but the black figure was no longer there. Where the fuck did she go?

    Also, wasn¡¯t there another werewolf bitch? As if to answer her question, a giant object hit Stella in the back of the head. It didn¡¯t hurt, but it did piss her off.

    She turned behind her and saw the second werewolf bitch standing on top of a building a few blocks away. Part of the brick roof was broken. The werewolf broke off another piece and threw it at Stella before she could fire a laser.

    ¡°I¡¯LL FUCKING KILL YOU,¡± Stella yelled.

 1.16

    That was way too close. I ran across the road, putting on my balaclava mask. Thankfully that giant statue lady got distracted. I was glad I survived that blast. Any more, and I would have been a roasted Erind. Actually, how long could I survive being burned?

    That giant statue lady was now attacking SpookyErind. I could still feel the rage in her body, but rather than giving in to it, it seemed she had full control. Good for her. I wished I could control it better, but the fog of rage pretty much swallowed up all my thoughts. The only thing I managed to do was target the more edible helicopters instead. That¡¯s kind of funny, because who would think helicopters were edible?

    I didn¡¯t spit them out like the flurry of drones that attacked me. That was probably because of the humans inside of it. I also managed to eat them while they had their clothes on and other equipment. So as long as I eat flesh I should be fine.

    Sprinting across the blocks, I entered an alleyway connecting the original road we were on. Gunfire was up ahead. I guess my teammates did survive. While I couldn¡¯t beat up that giant statue lady, I could definitely beat up these guys. I could also get bonus credit for ¡°saving¡± my teammates. They¡¯d probably never notice I abandoned them once I saved them.

    I peeked around the corner. There, a couple of pickup trucks and vans surrounded the opposite corner. The pickup trucks had giant guns releasing loads of bullets across the street. They hadn¡¯t seen me yet.

    I charged the nearest vehicle, a van, and lifted it up. And throw! The van crashed into most of the other vehicles, causing them to roll over and collide with other buildings. A couple of other vans and trucks were left. The trucks and vans began backing away, while the big guns on the pickup trucks turned toward me.

    Normally, I had just been charging the other normal humans. But these bigger guns hurt a lot. They actually sounded like big explosions, rather than the quieter firework popping sound of the 2M¡¯s gunmen. I zig-zagged, charging the nearest truck. Some of the bullets pierced through me. They actually felt similar to when Myra pierced me with her spikes. And they hurt a lot. Thankfully, they didn¡¯t hit my head.

    I leaped and made a swiping motion with my hand. The gun easily came off its stand, leaving the thug guy in front of me defenseless as the truck continued to move. Oh wait, he wasn¡¯t defenseless. Given how dark it was, I didn¡¯t notice he had a gun in his pocket until his pale hand grabbed it. But before he could shoot me with it, I ran up and kicked him. His body collided with the back part of the truck¡¯s cabin and split in two. The bottom half of his body crashed through the window and collided with the driver, causing him to faceplant directly into the steering wheel with a satisfying popping noise.

    That was so cool! But then, the truck didn¡¯t stop and was about to collide with the van up ahead. I rolled out of the backside of the truck. A loud crashing noise came behind me as I got up. That was also cool.

    There was more gunfire, but it was more distant. I walked back up to the corner to see which of my teammates they were shooting at. In front of me was one of those giant trash containers. It was full of bullet holes. A head popped out of the corner.

    ¡°Erind?¡± a female voice wearing dark clothes said.

    ¡°Deen?¡± I asked, recognizing her voice. She was also the only other girl on our team wearing clothes that camouflage the night.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± she asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I said. She walked up to me and looked down at my torso. Big holes in my clothes dotted my torso. Bloodstains were splattered on top of them. Fuck. My clothes got ruined again.

    ¡°Thanks for saving me,¡± she said. There were holes in some of her clothes, but overall, it looked like she was in a better state than me. Of course, we both regenerated and weren¡¯t hurting anymore.

    ¡°No problem,¡± I said.

    ¡°My summon, it said to hide behind the trash bin,¡± Deen said. ¡°I wanted to fight, but it sounded like the 2M¡¯s had way bigger guns out there.¡±

    ¡°Um yeah,¡± I said, looking down at my torn clothes again. Wait, how many times have I saved Deen? Way too many. When the hell was this bitch going to return the favor? I shouldn¡¯t be doing all the work here. We¡¯re in a team. Maybe Deen forgot that part. I never really liked group work anyway.

    ¡°We should go check on the others,¡± Deen told me. ¡°Wait, where¡¯s your clone?¡±

    SpookyErind was busy bobbing and weaving away from Ms. Statue Lady. Ms. Statue Lady continued firing blasts while chasing after SpookyErind across the blocks. It was pretty thrilling to feel her run around. Even when SpookyErind got grazed, it just made her grow. Sadly, Ms. Statue Lady was growing at a much steadier and faster pace.

    She was also catching up to SpookyErind. But rather than going straight, SpookyErind turned around and zigzagged toward her. The pavement cracked beneath her as she used her powerful muscles to chase after Ms. Statue Lady.

    ¡°I¡¯m having her deal with some bad guys down a further block,¡± I said. It was technically true - Ms. Statue Lady was a bad guy. Oh wait, that¡¯s only 1 bad guy. Not like Deen would know though. ¡°We should reach the others, I don¡¯t think they''re nearby my clone.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Deen agreed. ¡°I think I hear some distant gunfire on the other side of this road. Let¡¯s head there.¡±

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    As we rushed to the other side, SpookyErind made it to Ms. Statue Lady. She tried to stomp on SpookyErind, but SpookyErind jumped on top of Ms. Statue Lady¡¯s left leg. She rushed across Ms. Statue Lady¡¯s body like a squirrel racing up a tree. It was definitely giving her difficulty though. I could feel how impenetrable Ms. Statue Lady¡¯s skin was. Using her claws for grip, SpookyErind somehow managed not to fall off.

    ¡°GET OFF OF ME!¡± Ms. Statue Lady¡¯s voice boomed. It really hurt SpookyErind¡¯s ears given how much more sensitive they were, but funnily enough, it just caused her to get stronger.

    What was even funnier was Ms. Statue Lady¡¯s pathetic attempts to get rid of SpookyErind. She tried hitting her body with her hands but kept on missing SpookyErind. That was actually a good tactic - annoy the fuck out of your enemies if you can¡¯t kill them. I should adopt that. Thankfully, most of the enemies I have encountered I was able to kill. But just in case¡­

    The gunfire died down, leaving only the loud noise of a helicopter whirring, which drowned out our footsteps. Wait, where was that other helicopter? As SpookyErind continued running across Ms. Statue Lady¡¯s body like a rabid rat, SpookyErind took a quick peek in the distance. From her enhanced eyesight, I caught a glimpse of a news helicopter. Oh, so that¡¯s what was making the noise. Did the other helicopter just retreat? I know both me and SpookyErind ate one each, and there were three in total.

    Wait, I was being recorded! Well, technically SpookyErind was being recorded, but the body that she was using was mine, so it counted as recording me anyway.  Would this be broadcasted on the news? Hopefully, I¡¯d be able to catch it later.

    Sadly, I wouldn¡¯t be able to see Ms. Statue Lady¡¯s reaction to it. Maybe she¡¯d have a temper tantrum and blow up her living room. I¡¯d pay extra cash to see that.

    Ms. Statue Lady began firing lasers as well. While she continued missing SpookyErind, one of the blasts must have hit the news helicopter. Awww. When SpookyErind took a peek, the helicopter¡¯s blades were on fire, and one of them was missing. I hoped they managed to transmit the footage.

    A giant force collided with SpookyErind. Fucking hell, that hurts a lot. More rage swelled into her body, but SpookyErind couldn¡¯t move at all. Ms. Statue Lady released her hand and SpookyErind fell onto the ground. More pain. Thankfully, my main body wasn¡¯t in pain, but it was still annoying to sense it from her. SpookyErind stayed face up while sprawled across the ground.

    Soon, I could make out the outline of a giant concrete foot above her. It soon came crashing down on her, and I felt a massive shock of pain all across her body and then felt our connection go dark. My main body also got a bit shocked by all the pain she was receiving. This caused me to stumble a bit while jogging with Deen.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± she asked, noticing me getting off balance.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I said quickly straightening myself. ¡°I think I almost tripped on a rock.¡± I gave a slight chuckle.

    ¡°Well, be careful Erind,¡± she told me. She would have probably given me more warnings, but we soon made it to the other side of the road. I could feel that presence again in my left hand, the one indicating I could summon my clone.

    I focused on summoning her while we came up against a cluster of ruined vehicles. Thankfully, it looked like I could summon her without too much of an issue even though she died.

    ¡°My clone finished beating up the other bad guys,¡± I told Deen. ¡°I¡¯m bringing her here.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s actually really cool,¡± she replied. ¡°You can basically teleport her.¡± Well, it was more like resurrecting her.

    SpookyErind appeared from the embroidered mask, albeit with the bloodstains and tattered clothing I had. She was also just a normal Erind clone now. She also spawned with the balaclava mask on.

    From the other side of the crashed vehicles, a tree monster and two figures in dark clothing emerged. Wow. Nobody was harmed. That was kind of impressive. I was sure one of these guys would have died. Maybe either Oberon or Johann had died. Hopefully, I¡¯d be able to skip any annoying funeral they might have had.

    ¡°Everyone¡¯s alright?¡± Dario asked. ¡°Us three managed to regroup after we split off.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re fine,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know about Oberon or Johann though.¡±

    ¡°We should probably check in on the¨C¡± Dario said before cutting himself off.

    The ground tremored. We all looked around. Shit. Ms. Giant Statue Lady was coming back. Her footsteps continued to boom in the nearby blocks.

    ¡°Is that Titan Adumbrae coming back?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°We should definitely run and hide,¡± I told them. A large shadow started to overcome us.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Dario said as he started running toward the nearest building. But a laser quickly demolished it and nearly grazed him.

    ¡°WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU TINY SHITS ARE GOING?¡± Ms. Statue Lady voice thundered.

    We weren¡¯t going to have much cover at all now that she was going to see us. The fuck could we do?

    SpookyErind grinned at a nearby grate on the ground. Oh right, the sewer system connected to the city¡¯s underground tunnels! She¡¯d have a hard time blasting at us down there, I quickly grabbed the grate and tossed it, while SpookyErind began running towards Ms. Statue Lady again.

    ¡°Come on!¡± I told them. ¡°My clone will distract her.¡±

    I quickly jumped down the long hole. A splash occurred as I jumped into the murky-looking water. More splashes surrounded me as my teammates jumped in. Ewww. Now I had stupid sewer water all over me. Thankfully, Myra had transformed back into her human self, so her splash wasn¡¯t as big.  Ms. Statue Lady began aiming at SpookyErind, but she bobbed and weaved. When Everett, the last one to jump in made it down to us, SpookyErind took off her balaclava mask and pulled on her face.

    I soon lost our connection, but at least there was no pain this time around. I summoned SpookyErind again.

    ¡°Everyone¡¯s all right?¡± Dario asked. Everyone said yes. ¡°All right, we should keep moving then.¡±

    ¡°WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU ALL GO?¡± A loudly enhanced voice echoed.

    The sounds of lasers sweeping went on above us, but we continued speeding through the tunnels. Deen was right behind me, while Dario and Myra were up ahead. Everett was behind Deen, and SpookyErind was right next to me.

    ¡°Everyone duck!¡± Deen yelled as she tackled me and SpookyErind to the ground. Fucking bitch. The wet metal of the sewer pipe was nasty. Add on to that Deen violating my personal space. I really wanted to kick her. But since she was saving me, I had to stay still.

    Another laser sound emitted and I could hear the roof creaking and collapsing. Metal and stone crashed to the ground. Soon, my vision was entirely crowded.

    ¡°You¡¯re safe Erind,¡± Deen told me in a sing-song-like voice. Sadly, I don¡¯t think we had much space here, which made me feel unsafe with Deen¡¯s touch. More stomping went on overhead, and tremors caused more rubble to move. I couldn¡¯t see anything with all the rubble around us.

    What was truly amazing is how we didn¡¯t get hit. Eventually, the stomping overhead became more and more distant.

    ¡°How are we going to get out?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Just crouch,¡± Deen said, as she got off of me and SpookyErind. I got up a bit on my knees while making sure not to hit the rubble above me. SpookyErind did the same. It was a good thing I didn¡¯t have claustrophobia.

    ¡°What now?¡± I asked.

    ¡°My summon says to start digging,¡± Deen said.

 1.17

    We finally made it back to the surface. The sun was rising on the west coast as we emerged from the tunnels. They were way nicer than the sewer system. I was still extremely dirty though. In addition to the sewer water, digging through the rubble had gotten my hands extremely messy.

    Nasty.

    Deen¡¯s summon allowed us to easily regroup and dig carefully after the collapse. Since I and Myra were the strongest, we had to dig because the other three struggled. Additionally, SpookyErind helped us out.

    ¡°We can finally get signal!¡± Everett said. ¡°I¡¯m going to contact Obe and Johann to see if they¡¯re okay.¡±

    ¡°Good quick thinking Erind,¡± Dario told me.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± I replied.

    ¡°We¡¯ll have to celebrate later on,¡± he added.

    I wasn¡¯t a big fan of parties. It was an easy way to drain my batteries. I ended up mostly hiding in the corners, avoiding conversations. Or at least I tried to. Mom would always try to make me interact with others. Thankfully, since I went to college I was able to be more alone. Well, I guess less so now because of Deen.

    ¡°I¡¯ve managed to contact Johann,¡± Everett explained. ¡°They made it out okay.¡±

    ¡°Woo-hoo!¡± Myra cheered.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get them to come pick us up,¡± he said.

    Our team¡¯s gray van rolled in from down the street. It stopped a few feet ahead of us. The backdoor opened, revealing Reo standing above a royal carpet. His clothes were in a lot better condition than ours. No holes, bloodstains, or dirt.

    ¡°Hey guys-oh Mother Core you all need to take a shower,¡± he said.

    ¡°Hey! I bet I take more showers each week than you!¡± Myra retorted.

    ¡°Thankfully, I shower every day,¡± he responded while crossing his arms.

    ¡°Yeah, right¡­¡± Myra muttered.

    Johann focused on rolling up the carpet and began lowering the seats.

    ¡°So, how was all the action out there?¡± Johann asked.

    ¡°Could have used less of it,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Deen agreed. ¡°At least we all came out alive.¡±

    ¡°And we managed to destroy one of the 2M¡¯s transports and their experiments, so that¡¯s an added bonus,¡± I said.

    While my teammates did not enjoy the action, I certainly did. It was pretty fun to use my powers. Wearing my Red Hood face was also amazing. It¡¯s like I¡¯ve never felt more alive than tonight.

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ll definitely have to celebrate all that like Dario said,¡± Johann said. ¡°What kind of cake do you all want?¡±

    ¡°Chocolate,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°Vanilla,¡± Myra countered.

    ¡°Something with a lot of cream,¡± I said. I needed more sweets in my life.

    ¡°Half-vanilla, half-chocolate, and lots of cream,¡± Johann noted. ¡°Going to contact one of my baker friends. He¡¯ll have it ready for us.¡±

    Everyone cheered as we got in our seats. Dario took the front right, with Reo, Myra, and Everett in the middle. Me, Deen, and SpookyErind sat in the back.

    ¡°So, how was it dealing with a hot giant Adumbrae lady?¡± Reo asked. Myra playfully elbowed him.

    ¡°Wait, you saw her?¡± Everett asked.

    ¡°On the news,¡± Reo replied. ¡°We left as soon as those attack helicopters came.¡±

    ¡°It was definitely a scary experience,¡± Myra said. ¡°We¡¯ve never had to deal with a titan Adumbrae like that though.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, imagining the 2M¡¯s having that kind of power is scary,¡± Deen commented.

    ¡°We¡¯ll have to train you two, Erind and Deen,¡± Dario commented.

    I almost snorted. How the hell was training supposed to let us defeat Ms. Statue Lady? Maybe he just wanted us to feel more confident about fighting the 2Ms.

    ¡°There was definitely something going on at the docks,¡± Johann commented. ¡°The Titan Adumbrae came chasing after two large other Adumbraes. They looked sort of like werewolves on the news.¡±

    ¡°Werewolves?¡± I innocently asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Johann said. ¡°I think some of the 2M¡¯s experiments got loose. Apparently, they even managed to eat some of the gunships attacking you guys.¡±

    ¡°Those fuckers should really tone down their experiments,¡± Myra said. ¡°Especially, if they can¡¯t control them.¡±

    ¡°At least it¡¯s not our problem,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°That Titan Adumbrae killed the two werewolf experiments right?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think I encountered them.¡±

    ¡°It seems like it,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Well,¡± SpookyErind started. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing that Titan Adumbrae killed those two werewolf experiments.¡±

    I could feel SpookyErind holding back a giggle. I was too. It was so funny that none of them noticed that I was gone. To be fair, the group did split up. Still, it was fun to mislead everyone with my current face.

    After we got back, I took a nice, long, and hot shower. I put on a cute purple shirt with a smiley face tacked in the middle. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t as baggy as the clothes Deen gave me. On Thursday, we managed to bring my stuff over to Deen¡¯s house.

    I also wore Dolfin shorts. It was pretty annoying to move in those long pajama pants. I had to roll up the sleeves so I wouldn¡¯t slip.

    Fortunately, I¡¯d be able to crash here without dealing with too many other people. Johann¡¯s baker friend would take a few days to make the cake. We most likely would have the celebration on a Tuesday.

    I brought out my left hand and focused on summoning SpookyErind. While she definitely was annoying at times, she was fun to hang around most of the time. Golden liquid materialized out of thin air, coalescing into that embroidered mask. It floated off to the right and there was SpookyErind.

    There were so many things I wanted to talk about before I went to bed.

    But before I could do that, the door opened.

    ¡°Erind,¡± Deen said. ¡°You have to see this.¡±

    Huh? I followed Deen out to the living room.

    ¡°-attack on one of our homeland will not be treated lightly,¡± said President Goodwin on the TV. His black business suit contrasted with his gray hair. A news chyron read ¡°President Goodwin Addresses Adumbrae Appearance on West California Coastal City.¡±

    Why¡¯d Deen bring me here for this? Sadly, it would be really rude of me to just go back to my room now, so I simply took a seat on the left side of the L-shaped couch that faced the TV. SpookyErind took a seat on the right. To her right was the other part of the L-shaped couch, jutting out towards the TV.

    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    I was really surprised she didn¡¯t sit next to me given how touchy-feely she was. But after what happened next, I wished she did. Deen sat in between us, and reached both of her arms to our sides, essentially giving both of us hugs. Furthermore, our legs were touching, so I felt her bare skin since she was also wearing Dolfin shorts. I should have worn those pajama pants.

    Sadly, it would be very awkward to leave right now, otherwise, I would have done it. I would also miss out on whatever news Deen wanted to show me.

    ¡°Rest assured, the BID will bring order and security to the West Coast,¡± The President continued. ¡°Agents from the Palmer Node have already been deployed to secure the area.¡±

    ¡°That can¡¯t be good,¡± Deen commented.

    ¡°That¡¯s still pretty far away from us, right?¡± I said. Who the hell cares what happens hours away from here? I certainly don¡¯t.

    ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s not good that the BID is getting involved,¡± Deen said. ¡°The 2Ms are supposed to stay low and not attract attention. Otherwise, the Corebrings might get involved. They might even be coming right now!¡±

    ¡°But, with the BID being active, it¡¯ll be harder for the Corebrings to act,¡± I replied. ¡°Even more so, the President is pretty nationalistic, so he¡¯s not going to let the Corebrings waltz in.¡±

    ¡°I hope you¡¯re right,¡± Deen said, looking solemnly.

    ¡°Mark my words,¡± President Goodwin continued. ¡°We will find that Titan Adumbrae, and we will kill it. The innocent people hurt in its rampage will be avenged.¡±

    On the one hand, it was really funny Ms. Statue Lady was being hunted down by the BID. Meanwhile, I got off completely Scott-free. But on the other hand, Ms. Statue Lady bothered me, so I really wanted to kill her myself. Hmmm. What would be the better outcome?

    ¡°Maybe we should attend a funeral for those who died,¡± Deen said. ¡°That Titan Adumbrae caused a lot of collateral damage. While we couldn¡¯t really stop her, we could comfort those that had lost loved ones.¡± Attend a funeral? I¡¯ve already done that, way too many times. The ideal number of funerals I should be attending is 0. Also, there are way too many people that I need to keep my face up for.

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that attract attention to us though?¡± I asked. ¡°They¡¯ll probably test people that were closest to our mission, and if we go, we¡¯ll risk getting pulled into that.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Deen said disappointed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t feel bad Deen,¡± SpookyErind said, trying to comfort her. ¡°Even though some lives were lost here, many more were probably saved when we sabotaged the 2M¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Erind,¡± she said as she turned off the TV. I was pretty sure that SpookyErind didn¡¯t really care about saving lives just like me, but it was funny that Deen probably thought that.

    ¡°Well, you can thank me properly by not hugging me,¡± I said, removing her arm from behind my back. SpookyErind did the same.

    ¡°Awww,¡± Deen said. ¡°I was just trying to comfort you while you watched the news.¡±

    ¡°Sadly, hugs don¡¯t make me feel comfortable,¡± I told her as I and SpookyErind got up.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± she asked, getting up. ¡°Besides, we¡¯re best friends so it¡¯s totally-Ah!¡±

    SpookyErind poked her in the sides. Thankfully, that shut her up about hugging me.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you do that?¡± she pouted, turning around to SpookyErind.

    ¡°You were being too emotional,¡± SpookyErind said with a grin. ¡°Just trying to lighten the mood.¡±

    Deen tried poking SpookyErind¡¯s sides, but SpookyErind easily dodged her.

    ¡°If you¡¯re fine with touching me, then why aren¡¯t you fine with hugs?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Because it¡¯s just different,¡± I told her as she gave up trying to poke SpookyErind.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± she said.

    ¡°Well, at least we changed the topic to something more lighthearted,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she chuckled. ¡°Thanks for that.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± I told her. ¡°Anyways, I¡¯ve been awake for too long, so I¡¯m gonna go to bed.¡±

    ¡°Good night,¡± Deen said. ¡°Or I guess it¡¯s good morning now?¡±

    We both chuckled as we departed. It was going to be nice to actually have some alone time with myself.

    As I and SpookyErind entered the room, I breathed a sigh of relief.

    ¡°So, you wanted to talk to me about something?¡± She asked.

    ¡°Yeah, I just want to say, it¡¯s been a fun time hanging out with you,¡± I told her. Most of the time, I wasn¡¯t being a sincere person given I had to keep up my face. But here, I was genuinely being honest. It felt very weird. Still, it was nice to get it off my chest.

    Besides SpookyErind knew I wasn¡¯t lying since she could read my thoughts.

    SpookyErind focused on summoning her mask and putting it on. Now, she was back to having her glowing red eyes.

    She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a peck on the lips. I rolled my eyes.

    <u>Thanks</u>, she said, breaking from her kiss. <u>I¡¯ve had a fun week with you too.</u>

    ¡°Well, you didn¡¯t need to kiss or hug me,¡± I groaned.

    That was probably the worst part about SpookyErind, other than her trying to take over my body. But, I don¡¯t think there was much I could do about that. The 2Ms supposedly had the technology to keep themselves away from Adumbrae influence, but how likely was I going to get that? I¡¯d probably have no idea how to operate it either. By the time I even get to it, SpookyErind may have taken full control over me. The best I could do was just make the most of this short life.

    And at least SpookyErind made it fun.

    <u>I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll make it even more fun in the future,</u> she replied.

    ¡°I plan on doing that,¡± I told her. ¡°There¡¯s also the unfinished business I have with Ms. Statue Lady.¡±

    <u>You want to eat her?</u> she asked.

    ¡°Yeah, I just need to figure out a way to become strong enough to kill her,¡± I said. My Red Hood form could grow, so if I grew bigger than her, I could eat her. How would I even get it that strong though? That would require a lot of eating.

    <u>I want to eat her too,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>Perhaps you could eat other stuff to make us stronger.</u>

    Other stuff? What the fuck would I eat? Thinking about this, I only ate humans so far. Maybe she means the experiments and other Adumbrae?

    SpookyErind gave me a grin. Why couldn¡¯t she just tell me this directly? I didn¡¯t like it when she was being cryptic.

    <u>Because you¡¯re a smart girl right?</u> she asked. <u>You can figure things out.</u>

    ¡°Fine,¡± I said.

    <u>You have more you want to talk about?</u> SpookyErind asked.

    ¡°Oh yeah,¡± I said. ¡°While these powers are certainly fun to use, manipulating everyone on my ¡®team¡¯ was also pretty cool. They all believe we have the same goals. But I¡¯m going to punish half of them later. It was also funny to abandon them mid-battle. It¡¯s a part of human nature to be extremely trusting, and I¡¯m glad I can exploit that.¡±

    <u>Yeah!</u> SpookyErind said. <u>I like listening to your thoughts on these topics. Anything else?</u>

    I had one more thing, and I saved it for last. Make her feel better about herself, and then confront her.

    ¡°Could you stop messing with me?¡± I asked.

    <u>What do you mean?</u> SpookyErind smiled innocently.

    ¡°You keep doing stuff that causes me to constantly readjust my face,¡± I said. ¡°Like when you insinuated I could fully control you or when you agreed to stay at Deen¡¯s house.¡±

    <u>I¡¯m just keeping things fun,</u> she replied. <u>Besides, think of it as a challenge to overcome.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯d really prefer if you didn¡¯t,¡± I said.

    Instead of responding, SpookyErind leaned in a gave me another kiss.

    <u>Here, take this as a reward for beating those challenges,</u> she said.

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t a reward at all!¡± I complained.

    <u>But don¡¯t you love yourself?</u> she asked.

    ¡°Yes, but I don¡¯t go every day kissing and hugging myself,¡± I said. ¡°You should know that before I met you I didn¡¯t do any of that crap.¡±

    <u>Language,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>Besides, it doesn¡¯t feel bad, right?</u>

    ¡°No, but I¡¯d rather prefer if you didn¡¯t do it,¡± I said. Suddenly, I got an idea.

    I poked SpookyErind¡¯s sides. I felt my touch tickle her, causing her to laugh.

    <u>Ah! What are you doing?</u> She asked, while still hugging me.

    ¡°I thought if I poked you, you would let go of me,¡± I said. ¡°Sadly, it didn¡¯t work.¡±

    <u>I love you too much for that to happen,</u> she said. I rolled my eyes.

    ¡°Anyways, I haven¡¯t got to sleep in a while,¡± I said. ¡°Could you please release me so we could go to sleep? And maybe you could turn yourself into a mask so I could sleep in peace and quiet?¡±

    SpookyErind simply giggled, as if I asked the most outrageous thing in the world. It really wasn¡¯t. Most people value personal space. How could I get her to value it?

    <u>I¡¯ll let you go to sleep once you show me you love me,</u> SpookyErind told me.

    The fuck does that mean? I wasn¡¯t going to change my opinion of her that fast. Not unless she took control of me or somehow.

    <u>Okay, give me a hug,</u> she said.

    ¡°Is this good?¡± I asked as I wrapped my arms around her. ¡°You¡¯re already hugging me, so I don¡¯t know why you need me to hug you.¡±

    <u>Doesn¡¯t this feel good?</u> She asked.

    Not really, no. At least it doesn¡¯t feel disgusting like when I hug Deen. But, if there was a special emotion I was supposed to feel, then I wasn¡¯t feeling it.

    ¡°No, and can you let me go now?¡± I asked.

    <u>Not yet,</u> she said. <u>You still haven¡¯t shown me you love yourself.</u>

    ¡°And how am I supposed to do that?¡± I questioned. If she wasn¡¯t going to accept hugs, I don¡¯t know what she was going to accept.

    <u>Give me a kiss,</u> she said, grinning at me.

    ¡°A kiss?¡± I asked. ¡°You know I¡¯m going to be insincere anyways, so what good would a kiss do?¡±

    <u>Well, I guess we¡¯re going to be staying like this for a while then,</u> she said with a giggle.

    ¡°Ugh, fine,¡± I said. I leaned in and gave SpookyErind the quickest kiss ever. ¡°Was that good for you?¡±

    <u>It¡¯s definitely better,</u> she said as she released me. Finally!

    It¡¯s actually pretty weird. I¡¯ve seen a few romance movies before, and they were all pretty bad. How did people find hugs and kisses good? Some people even blushed afterward. But here I was, not feeling anything. Maybe all those people were insane. And make sure to add SpookyErind to that list.

    I yawned as I got into bed. Sadly, SpookyErind didn¡¯t untransform herself. She got in bed with me. At least I got under the blankets this time. Although, she also had the blankets over her.

    I had turned away from her, mainly because I didn¡¯t want to be facing her when I slept. She wrapped her arms around me. At least I had some time to get used to it, and it wasn¡¯t a weekday, so I could sleep in for a while. Was she going to sleep with me every night?

    Rather than answering me, she wrapped her legs around me too. Seriously? Our bare skin rubbed against each other. At this point, I was convinced she was just doing this to mess with me than out of sincere love.

    <u>But I do love you,</u> she said

    Yeah, whatever. I closed my eyes. At least I had fun during this week, and I had fun plans for later as well. Even with SpookyErind being annoying, all the cool stuff that happened made it worth it.

    My consciousness dozed off.

    I woke up after my goodnight¡¯s sleep. Or good morning¡¯s sleep. But something was different. When I went to sleep, I felt SpookyErind¡¯s bare skin rubbing against mine. Now, something different was rubbing against my skin. I peeked down and saw a black glove and a golden gauntlet holding me. Two legs covered in pants that ended in boots were entwined with my legs.

    <u>Welcome back,</u> SpookyErind said.

 1.18.1 - Epilogue I

    Marc (Big Marcy)

    Big Marcy frowned as he read the report. Millions of dollars in damage and dozens of casualties. He sighed as he put his report down. Things were not going his way.

    After those two Adumbrae attacked their base, Big Marcy was forced to retreat to their much less furnished base. The stiff leather chair he was in paled in comparison to his FaeCarper Executive Chair. It did not even represent him right. Instead of the letters ¡°BM¡± for Big Marcy, ¡°DS&L¡± was inscribed into the chair.

    Dawson Stevedoring and Logistics, LLC was one of the shell corporations that housed their bases. They made use of all kinds of organizations for their activities. For example, the Mother Core Disciples Charities, or more simply MCDC, was one of the backbones of their mainland operations. Through the work of this charity organization, they had a list of all the homeless people in western California. The most undesired of these homeless were used in various experiments.

    Unlike most normal people, nobody cared if undesirables went missing. If somebody who was loved and cared for went missing, one of their loved ones would stick their nose where it did not belong. Rather than cleaning up the issue, it was best to prevent it. And this was decidedly the best way.

    Of course, they could not simply just kidnap people the MCDC took care of. It was best to create a chain of organizations that obfuscated any legal attempt to investigate. Obtaining the undesirables was handled by Eloycira, a pharmaceutical company working on drugs to stop Adumbrae seedings. Big Marcy always vetted their ads. Their most recent success was one that featured a pill aimed at reducing stress. It turns out it worked as most undesirables were living a very stressful life and were willing to risk everything on this pill.

    A knock on the door halted Marc¡¯s ruminations.

    ¡°Come in,¡± he said.

    Stella walked inside wearing a suit. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re alright sir.¡±

    Such a loyal attendant. Marc knew he made the right choice when he chose her several decades ago. Sadly, loyalty was not simply a quality one could buy. With the ever-growing feud between him and his brother, batches of Big Marcy¡¯s men had sought to work for Mark. That was completely unacceptable, and Stella was quick to make examples out of them.

    ¡°I assume you¡¯ve managed to defeat the intruders?¡± he asked her.

    ¡°I managed to kill one of the werewolf Adumbrae,¡± she said. ¡°But the other one got away, as well as the bandits.¡±

    That was certainly unfortunate. Even with Stella using her powers, she was unable to get rid of the enemy. What made matters worse is that Stella required time to recharge. If she were to fight again, she would not be able to become as large.

    Big Marcy sighed. ¡°At least we were able to salvage some stuff from the base at the docks. Still, it is upsetting that the BID is now getting involved.¡±

    Stella did not respond.

    ¡°President Goodwin has already announced forces from the Palmer Node will be arriving,¡± he continued. ¡°Large Scale ComExos are now patrolling the area of our deserted base.¡±

    That was only part of the problem. Large Scale ComExos were more of a show of force rather than a comprehensive way to root out Adumbrae. What was more concerning were the smaller things that were coming in. He had recently seen footage of BID drones and spider bots patrolling the roads. They would probably be sending in Goldeyes as well. Both the augmented and the drones were forces they were not prepared to deal with.

    Furthermore, it seems the bandits have grown in strength. Big Marcy wasn¡¯t sure if the werewolf Adumbrae were part of their team, but the timing of the attacks was just too weird. As soon as their main attack force went to chase after the bandits, their base was attacked by the werewolf Adumbrae.

    If they were part of the same group, then this solidified Big Marcy''s theory. For some unknown reason, the Supplier was probably arming a group of attackers to sabotage their operations. Why would he do this? Sadly, Big Marcy did not know as Mark was the person who spoke with the Supplier. But that was not the only weird thing the Supplier did. Earlier this week, the Supplier had apparently ordered the kidnapping of two college law students, Erind Hartwell, and Amber Leska. There was nothing special about these two, at least compared to any other law students. Even more so, the Supplier has not said anything when Big Marcy reported that they were unable to capture them because of the attackers.

    ¡°Mark is sending multiple Adumbrae over to help improve our security,¡± Big Marcy said.

    ¡°But that¡¯s not his actual reasoning,¡± she said, understanding him.

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Yes, he will probably try to blame me for the attacks we have been receiving and then try to overthrow me,¡± Big Marcy said. ¡°Mark will be splitting the Adumbrae up at our bases. Astrid and the local security will handle Finlay, Calder, Isabel, and Slinky. Meanwhile, Auron, Janice, and Mister will be arriving at our other Stevedoring base. It would be best if you go there.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll make sure they won¡¯t cause any trouble,¡± she said. ¡°Will Leandro be fine in guarding the Eve by himself though?¡±

    ¡°Mark did not mention sending anyone there, but we will be increasing the Eve¡¯s security regardless in light of recent events,¡± he responded. ¡°Unfortunately, this means we will have to delay the fight at the Eve by a week until we assemble the correct security team.¡±

    ¡°The customers probably won¡¯t be happy at that,¡± Stella commented.

    ¡°We will make sure to have the subsequent weekend host two fight nights,¡± Big Marcy said. ¡°That will please them.¡±

    ¡°Understood,¡± Stella said. ¡°I¡¯ll be heading out then.¡±

    ¡°I will meet you there after I finish up some important matters,¡± he replied. Stella walked out of the room.

    Big Marcy needed to have a new personal attendant to replace Jim Ambrose. He was leaning toward Wiggins. Marc made a note to make sure to visit him before he left. He would also make sure Wiggins always stayed by his side, rather than running off and getting killed like Jim.

    Next, he needed to talk to Astrid before he left. He had already scheduled a meeting with her. Marc put his legs on the desk, showing off the gold buckle of his Tresmeni shoes. A few minutes later, and Big Marcy heard a knock on the door. He set his legs back down to be in a more presentable posture.

    ¡°Come in,¡± he said.

    A four-armed woman wearing a sleeveless blouse and khakis came in. At each shoulder joint, two arms jutted out. The ones jutting out at the top were significantly larger and more muscular than the pair jutting toward the bottom. Her black hair ended in a ponytail. Behind her, a two-armed child with similar features held a small bird. Rather than just having two eyes, eyes were sprinkled out all throughout its feathers.

    ¡°Hello Marc, you requested me?¡± she politely asked.

    ¡°My brother will be sending Adumbrae guards from the Red Island to ¡®assist¡¯ us,¡± he said. ¡°I just needed you to be aware of that, and keep them from doing anything harmful to our mainland operations.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for notifying me,¡± she replied. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure the facility is prepared for them.¡±

    ¡°Hello Big Marcy!¡± the child said enthusiastically. ¡°How are you doing?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m doing fine Zoe,¡± he lied. One of his bases was just devastated and now swarming with the BID. Of course, Marc was not going to offload his problems onto her. ¡°How is homeschooling going?¡±

    ¡°Mommy is teaching me a lot!¡± she said. ¡°I do miss seeing my old friends though.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but you can make new friends,¡± Astrid responded. ¡°Tell Marc about the new one you just made.¡±

    ¡°I call him Mr. Bird!¡± Zoe said. Such an unoriginal name.

    ¡°I can definitely see why you called him that,¡± Big Marcy said. While the child¡¯s imagination and development were surely stunted, Zoe was a successful test for the Supplier. She was only ten years old and became an Adumbrae last year. However, children could not become Adumbrae by themselves. The Supplier introduced a new method to get children to become Adumbrae. Some of them failed and simply became mutants that were shown off at the Eve. And then, there was Zoe.

    Still, convincing Astrid that they should turn her child into an Adumbrae was a¡­ difficult task. Even though she easily became an Adumbrae herself, she was much less adamant about her child. But a little reminder about the frailty of her deceased husband and some close friends was enough to change her mind. Thankfully, she never suspected Big Marcy¡¯s hand in some of her friend''s demises.

    ¡°Do you want to pet him?¡± Zoe asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not,¡± he said. ¡°I do have to get going soon.¡±

    ¡°Aww,¡± she replied. ¡°Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be heading to another base of ours,¡± he said. ¡°I and Stella need to get some stuff ready for visitors.¡±

    ¡°Oh, okay then,¡± she said.

    Marc packed up the reports and stood up from his desk. ¡°Have a nice day you two.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye Marc,¡± Astrid said. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to tighten everything up before your brother¡¯s guests arrive.¡±

    ¡°Bye Big Marcy!¡± Zoe said.

    Marc strode out of the room and headed toward his private helicopter. Thankfully, he would be away from this subpar warehouse soon. They really should have renovated a better office for him here. Oh well, there was always next time.

    As Marc exited the building, he was greeted by the sight of a luxurious five-star Gourmand helicopter.

    ¡°All ready to leave sir?¡± Arlo, the pilot asked.

    ¡°Yes,¡± he responded. ¡°We should make sure to arrive before Stella does.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s not coming with us?¡± he asked.

    ¡°No, she is driving over,¡± Big Marcy said.

    ¡°All right then,¡± Arlo responded. ¡°I¡¯ll start her up while you get seated.¡±

    Big Marcy entered his private helicopter and took a seat on his comfortable Lazuli Extordinare chair. This was a much better seat than the old squeaky one he was just in. The sound of helicopter blades soon drowned out the noise of cars in the distant streets.

    As they approached high in the sky, Big Marcy contemplated the bigger picture. His brother was making moves on his territory. Another piece of their feud. It just was not fair. He had to deal with both the bandits and his brother. He wished he was the one to meet the Supplier - then their positions would be reversed.

    Of course, life was not always fair or easy. But Marc did have plans to tilt the scales in his favor. He would make his enemies fight one another. He would let his brother and the bandits fight, and then steal the crown from whoever came up on top. Such a brilliant idea. He made sure to keep a mental note. Marc would need to contact all of his lead Adumbrae and let them know of his future plans.

    Then, there was the question of making more Adumbrae. How many could Big Marcy squeeze out of his brother? He would need to make sure not to be too obvious in his schemes, but with his brother controlling the Red Island, he needed to make use of each opportunity.

    Putting all that aside, Big Marcy took a look at the city down below. Everything seemed so small below compared to him. Of course, Big Marcy¡¯s ambitions were larger than any of the desires of the insignificant citizens below. They could not hope to comprehend what was going on in the shadows.

    ¡°So, what are your plans now?¡± Arlo asked.

    ¡°Dispose of my brother and remove the annoying bandits,¡± Big Marcy simply responded.

    ¡°The simple goals, eh?¡± he said.

    Big March nodded. Everything will be as it should be.

 1.18.2 - Epilogue II

    ¡°Huh?¡± I felt very trippy. It was as if it was hard to focus on the objects in front of me. And for whatever reason I felt incredibly weak. It was like I was human.

    Weirdly enough, SpookyErind¡¯s senses were still linked with mine. She opened her eyes and I saw my wavy black hair from her perspective.

    <u>Not even a hello?</u> She asked.

    ¡°I mean we¡¯ve been sleeping together the whole night,¡± I said. ¡°I doubt you need a hello for that.¡±

    She chuckled and unwrapped herself from me. We both sat up. I took a look at her. She was exactly like the first time I met her. A golden gauntlet covered her right hand and a black glove on the left. She wore an elegant suit with a white fur coat on top. Lastly, she had black pants ending in black boots.

    <u>I look pretty cool right?</u> She asked.

    ¡°Sure, but I don¡¯t like the fact that you have boots on my bed,¡± I said.

    <u>But since I¡¯m you, it should be fine right?</u> She said.

    I simply folded my arms in response.

    <u>All right, all right, is this better?</u> She asked as her boots disappeared, leaving only her bare feet.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I murmured.

    <u>Good,</u> she said. <u>Let¡¯s get going then.</u>

    ¡°Wait,¡± I said. ¡°Why¡¯d you bring me back here? To this made-up place in my head?¡±

    <u>I just wanted to spend some time with you,</u> she said.

    ¡°But don¡¯t we spend enough time together in the real world?¡± I asked. SpookyErind simply smirked and grabbed my right hand with her left gloved hand.

    <u>Lots of questions, but we really should get going,</u> she responded.

    ¡°Wait, where are we going?¡± I asked. She pulled me over to the side of the bed and dangled her legs off the bed. Suddenly, her boots reappeared.

    <u>Somewhere important,</u> she told me. She was still being cryptic and indirect.

    She got off the bed and brought me off too. What was really noticeable was the fact that she was taller than me. It was so weird since we had been at equal heights for most of this week. I should get cool boots like hers. Wait, that¡¯d probably mean I¡¯d have to go shopping with Deen. I¡¯ll pass on that.

    Unfortunately, there was no way for me to break out of her grip, especially since I was so much weaker here. I tried to budge a bit but her grip was firm on my hand. I ended up just letting her drag me along.

    She pulled open the door, and the outside was revealed to be a hallway with a gravel floor. This definitely wasn¡¯t Deen¡¯s house anymore. Blue lights dotted the hallway in front of us. The blue flames barely lit up the roof above us, which seemed to be curved and made of dark material. Taking a closer look, the blue lights were actually flames. The stone walls on the side had undecipherable writing.

    ¡°Where are we?¡± I asked.

    SpookyErind simply kept walking.

    ¡°Okay then,¡± I said, disappointed. Why wasn¡¯t she responding to me?

    The writing on the walls didn¡¯t become any more legible. I couldn¡¯t even tell what language it was. Well, I wasn¡¯t really familiar with many languages, mainly just English and some Spanish I learned in my high school and undergrad classes. Was it even a real language? Maybe SpookyErind put up a fake language on the walls.

    This should be the same dream world where I first met SpookyErind, but it was way different now. I definitely knew it was a world she could control because she could change her outfit at will, something she couldn¡¯t do in the real world.

    As the minutes went on, my feet started to go sore. I learned two things from being in this hallway. First, walking over this gravel ground made me wish I had cool boots like SpookyErind. Second of all, I wish I had my superpowered body here so my feet wouldn¡¯t be so sore. So, I would rate this hallway zero out of five stars.

    Minutes probably soon turned into hours. Actually, I couldn¡¯t tell because I didn¡¯t have a watch with me. I should have gone to sleep with one, but that would be really uncomfortable.

    Are we going anywhere? I swore this hallway went on forever. We had been walking in a straight line for way too long. Was there even a point in doing this? I doubt there was. We could have ridden my foldable bike and saved a lot of time.

    Suddenly, a worrying thought came to fruition. What if SpookyErind had taken over my real body? And she¡¯s keeping me in this endless hell of an endless walkway with endless gravel that makes my feet endlessly sore? That would really suck.

    <u>Such dumb questions myself is asking,</u> SpookyErind commented.

    ¡°Oh, so now you want to talk to me?¡± I said.

    <u>As I said before, I can¡¯t take over your body because we¡¯re the same,</u> she said.

    ¡°But how do I know that¡¯s true, and you¡¯re not lying to me?¡± I asked.

    <u>Once you leave, you will realize how dumb of a question that is,</u> she said.

    ¡°Okay, and when will we leave this place?¡± I asked.

    <u>We have to go to the important place first,</u> she told me.

    ¡°Is there a faster way to get to this important place?¡± I asked. ¡°This gravel is really killing me. If it doesn¡¯t kill me, then boredom surely would before we get there.¡±

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    <u>Haven¡¯t you enjoyed me holding your hand while we¡¯re walking there?</u> she questioned. That was completely out of right field. Or was it left field? Also, that didn¡¯t really answer my question.

    ¡°Not really, but you could make it more enjoyable by giving me those cool boots,¡± I told her.

    <u>But I only have one pair of boots, so I can¡¯t give you these,</u> she said.

    ¡°But you literally made them appear out of thin air!¡± I complained.

    <u>I still have only one pair of boots,</u> she responded. Ugh.

    ¡°How long until we get to the important place anyway?¡± I asked.

    <u>Very soon,</u> she said.

    ¡°How soon is very soon?¡± I asked. ¡°I just need some clarification.¡±

    <u>Like right now,</u> she said as we somehow made it to the end of the hallway which was way too long.

    Now, we were in a hexagonally-shaped area, lit with more blue fire stands. Each edge of the area had an arch on it. I turned back around and the hallway behind us was replaced with an arch. But, something looked weird about it. There was some kind of dark, shadowy sheen below it, which made me feel very uncomfortable. I took a look around and all the other arches except one had the same dark, shadowy sheen. The one that didn¡¯t now had a massive double-winged door.

    ¡°So we could have gotten here way faster?¡± I asked her.

    <u>Isn¡¯t the journey more important than the destination?</u> she countered.

    ¡°Not when the journey sucks and is unbelievably boring,¡± I told her.

    SpookyErind simply walked us up to the door and ignored me again. It had engravings full of wolves, fangs, and claws. It was made of some kind of dark, foreboding metal. SpookyErind just stopped moving.

    ¡°Um, are we going to go in?¡± I asked.

    <u>We have to wait for the door to open,</u> she said.

    ¡°And when is the door going to open?¡± I asked another question. I think this is the record for the number of questions I¡¯ve asked, like ever. They should put that in a world records book.

    <u>It opens when there is a kiss of true love,</u> she said, looking back at me with a grin.

    ¡°You can¡¯t be serious,¡± I told her.

    <u>Wouldn¡¯t it be cool if it did?</u> She asked me. Nope.

    Soon, a bell rang out. It sounded like it played on one of those large circular instrument thingies. I think it was called a gong.

    The room in front of us was not lit at all. Only the ambient blue light from the hexagonal room came in. SpookyErind started walking in. If it was me, I would have simply stayed outside.

    As we entered the room, I could make out the outline of something huge in the back. Also, this room was huge too. The huge thing in the back was made of fur and claws. I could see the outline of a huge snout with large teeth. As we got even closer, chains appeared to be holding the massive beast in place. Its muscles were absolutely huge.

    It was pretty clear this was my Red Hood¡¯s werewolf form, but way bigger. For whatever reason, I urged my legs to stop moving but SpookyErind kept walking forward anyway.

    <u>Come on, you were just using this body yesterday,</u> she said.

    ¡°It¡¯s a lot scarier when you aren¡¯t the giant werewolf,¡± I pointed out.

    <u>Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not going to hurt you,</u> she told me in a soothing voice.

    She got up right next to the werewolf, which was hard to see fully. She snapped her fingers, and blue flames popped up above the chains, illuminating the massive creature. The red fur was long and thick. Its head was actually raised off the ground a bit. A bit past underneath it, I could make out the form of two large furry spherical items from its upper chest.

    Actually, would guys still try to date me in the giant werewolf form? I could probably still seduce them like this. Maybe the same people who liked the monster mouth would appreciate these assets given how big they were.

    She began stroking the fur of the werewolf. Since she was wearing a gauntlet in her right hand, I couldn¡¯t really feel the texture of the fur.

    <u>Don¡¯t be afraid to pet it,</u> she said. I swore if this thing woke up, it better eat SpookyErind first. Hopefully, it wouldn¡¯t get mad at us. Its fanged snout looked really¡­ aggressive. At least its eyes were closed.

    I stroked the fur of the werewolf, and it actually felt pretty nice to do. At my cousin''s birthday party, they had a pet dog, and let me say, that was the most nastiest dog I ever petted. I¡¯m pretty sure they were doing something to its fur. But, this werewolf¡¯s fur was very smooth and calming to the touch.

    ¡°So, what are we going to be doing here, at this important place?¡± I asked while continuing to stroke the fur.

    <u>I just want to hear you talk about this cool face you received from me,</u> she said.

    ¡°Um, okay,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s see, so it starts out as a hot model with a giant wolf mouth and claws.¡±

    <u>Talk about the more important features,</u> she insisted. What? What was more important? I guess I¡¯ll just talk about it more.

    ¡°When it eats people, it can regenerate faster and it also grows. It starts looking like less of a hot model and more of a hot werewolf. It can¡¯t eat nonliving stuff like drones though. Oh! Also, if it gets hurt, it grows as well.¡±

    <u>And what Rule does that make it related to?</u> She asked.

    ¡°Umm, well, let¡¯s see,¡± I started off. ¡°Well, you asked that after I talked about it getting hurt and growing, so maybe it¡¯s related to Rule #4?¡±

    <u>Good job myself!</u> She cheered. <u>I was really doubting my intelligence with the stupid questions you were asking back there, but it turns out I had no reason to because we¡¯re just so smart.</u>

    ¡°Thanks, I guess?¡± I asked. She was seeming to be really passive-aggressive here. I didn¡¯t like it.

    <u>I was just concerned for you, you know,</u> she said. <u>Since I¡¯m you - meyoumeyoumeyou - if you were stupid, that would make me stupid. Thankfully, we¡¯re both not stupid!</u>

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t really make me feel better,¡± I said. ¡°Also, is there anything else we need to do here?¡±

    <u>Mhm-hm,</u> she hummed. <u>Remember you can only eat creatures who bother you. Although, I¡¯d give preference to some of the stronger ones.</u>

    ¡°Right, because of Rule #4,¡± I said. ¡°I could only eat Lefty because he started sexually harassing me and I could only eat the rest of the 2M¡¯s because they attacked me.¡±

    <u>Yep!</u> She said.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± I asked.

    <u>One last thing, before you leave,</u> she said.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    She leaned in and gave me a kiss, and I immediately blacked out.

    I woke up again, except feeling way better since my superpowers returned to me. SpookyErind¡¯s real-world form was wrapped around me. I could tell because her bare skin was all over me. Eww. SpookyErind opened her eyes.

    <u>Good morning myself,</u> she said.

    ¡°Good morning, I guess?¡± I said back. She unwrapped herself from me and sat up. I did the same. Something felt different about both of my hands. I took a look at my right one first, and a second crystal had grown out of my hand. That was pretty concerning. But, then I got distracted by the feeling in my other hand.

    It felt like I could summon an additional clone. I stared at SpookyErind, expecting a response, but she simply smiled at me.

    I focused on summoning it. Golden liquid materialized out of thin air above my left hand. It coalesced into another embroidered Corebring mask. But it was a bit different than SpookyErind¡¯s. It had two Core symbols instead of one. It floated off the side of the bed, and another clone of mine appeared.

    I could make more clones? Did eating more people increase my Corebring powers? Or did my powers get stronger over time?

    This clone didn¡¯t move initially like SpookyErind. We still shared the same senses, so I saw both my and SpookyErind sitting on the bed from its perspective. I tried moving its limbs as I did when I thought SpookyErind was just a dummy.

    To my surprise, it actually moved on my command. Woah. SpookyErind clapped beside me.

    <u>There¡¯s another me now!</u> She cheered.

    I tried having it walk around. My 2nd clone strode across the room. It felt way better to be in control of my clone rather than SpookyErind. In response, SpookyErind wrapped me in a hug.

    Ignoring her, I held out my 2nd clone¡¯s left hand. Like with SpookyErind¡¯s body, I felt like this clone could summon a specialized face. I focused on summoning it. Golden liquid appeared above its left hand and formed a pair of science goggles. The number 10 was written on the strap.

    Huh? This wasn¡¯t an actual mask, but just something I could put on my face. Still, I wanted to try it on.

    I had my 2nd clone put on the goggles.

 Authors Retrospective - Arc 1

    Just like how REND had an author¡¯s retrospective after each arc, I thought it¡¯d be cool to do one for Render as well.

    Inspiration For The Fanfic

    There were two main sources of inspiration for this fanfic. The first happened when I was rereading REND. When I was reading the comment section on REND 1.12 I came upon a comment where Temple said Erind could merge with the Artificial Core. Then, I had the idea of what if Erind decided to merge with the Artificial Core right then. There were many interesting ideas of what Erind¡¯s Corebring power could be. Temple told me in a comment that the powers in REND are greatly connected to a person (ex: Erind has multiple masks to imitate her faces and they also must follow strict rules). Since Erind was already connected to SpookyErind, why not make part of the power based on her? The rest of her Corebring powers will be connected to other facets of Erind¡¯s life, as opposed to her Adumbrae powers, which skew towards fantasy designs.

    The other source of inspiration was another comment Temple made. It was originally planned that there would be some romance between Erind and SpookyErind (because Erind was only capable of loving herself). And then I thought, why not develop some character growth between Erind and SpookyErind? We don¡¯t really see SpookyErind that much in REND, so it¡¯d be a good idea to use her more in fanfic.

    Additionally, I found the idea of romance between Erind and SpookyErind to be very interesting and unorthodox. So, why not pursue some of that here? Of course, Erind is not going to accept SpookyErind easily, and SpookyErind will probably still mess with Erind, but eventually, I think it¡¯s a fun goal to work toward.

    Previous Writing And Writing Now

    This is probably the longest writing project I have ever done. The closest thing that comes close is my undergrad thesis, which was 69 pages (nice), but a lot of that was figures, and it didn¡¯t even go past 10k words. I did write some snippets of fanfiction and original work before, but all of them were short. My tastes have also changed back then. I was originally more into the sappy, slice-of-life stuff, before appreciating unique protagonists a bit more. One of the fun things about REND was Erind¡¯s unique personality. It¡¯s been pretty fun to write and put myself in her shoes, even though I am very different from her.

    It¡¯s actually very interesting writing fanfic. I don¡¯t want to contradict canon (the original story) unless I have a good reason to, so I ended up re-reading a lot of the REND chapters. 1.12 was probably the most reread as I was constantly checking to make sure things lined up with Erind accepting the Artificial Core. It¡¯s also nice to reread and get a refresher on any potential stuff I¡¯ve missed. For example, I was rereading 1.18, Reo¡¯s interlude where they were going to rescue Erind from the docks. They actually revealed the name of the company that the 2M¡¯s used for their vehicles (the Stevedoring LLC one), and there was also some nice banter between the team as well.

    Previously, I had just scratched projects after I wrote a few hundred to a thousand words. A lot of it remains unpublished. Some of them are published under a different username. Fun story: So one of my friends actually got me and some other friends to write an urban fantasy book by having us each write a chapter, and she ended up publishing it on Amazon and giving us all physical copies. It was definitely fun writing and building off of what the previous person wrote, so that probably helped encourage me to write fanfics. I¡¯m a bit too embarrassed to share my previous works, but my passion for writing has stayed pretty strong. Thankfully, I was able to persist enough to get through an arc of Render (and hopefully I will for several more).

    Planning It Out

    I did try to plan out the fic a little bit. I wrote a short outline of what I wanted each chapter to be. Here is a little portion of it below.

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.10: Dario¡¯s group discusses what happens last night; what Johann found out about 2M¡¯s, whether or not Erind & Deen would be comfortable performing with them.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.11: Brief power testing in fights (Myra vs Dario, Deen vs Dario, then Erind vs Dario)</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.12: Friday now -> Docks observation</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.13: Attacking vans leaving docks; gunships attack</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.14: More vans enter; everyone splits up; Erind prepares to use Red Hood mask</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.15: Erind and SpookyErind use Red Hood mask to attack docks</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.16: Stella interlude: Attacks Erind, defeats her, but gets hit by rock by SpookyErind</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400"> 1.17: SpookyErind unsummons herself after getting defeated by Stella, resummoned by Erind. They regroup with Dario and company.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.18: Car gets blown up; forced to go underground in the sewer system.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.19: 2M agents in here; escape </li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.20: Epilogues </li>

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.21: Big Marcy¡¯s epilogue: Discusses need for more Red Island members on mainland; Stella is upset</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">1.22: Erind¡¯s epilogue: Erind and SpookyErind discuss fun stuff in dream world. Explain in Blanchette rules. </li>

    </ol>

    </ol>

    It did end up changing quite a bit - a lot of the latter chapters got cut out. That ended up happening because I felt I was just going to be padding the arc with fight and action scenes, rather than some meaningful character growth. While action scenes can be fun, I didn¡¯t want to overdo it for this arc.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    In his arc 5 retrospective, Temple mentioned he was more of a pantser. It was interesting to compare that writing style to a little bit of planning. I did get stuck with writer¡¯s block in the early chapters, so writing the short chapter outlines helped a bit. I also wrote little notes in the chapter of what I wanted to happen when I got stuck (for example, I would write something like <Erind gets chased by Mr. Porcupine Guy>). I didn¡¯t do it for every chapter, but I did find it helpful for writer¡¯s block.

    SpookyErind¡¯s and Erind¡¯s Relationship

    As mentioned earlier, SpookyErind and Erind¡¯s relationship was one of the main driving forces for this fic. It was fun to imagine how she would act in real life. In Erind¡¯s mind, SpookyErind would always mess with Erind, so I tried applying that a bit here in various ways in the real world. For example, SpookyErind would sometimes say things Erind wouldn¡¯t do, and that would get Erind upset, like forcing them to stay at Deen¡¯s house.

    Erind herself has mostly stayed the same, but SpookyErind is a bit different. She is probably way more touchy-feely and romantic compared to REND. While SpookyErind did hug Erind whenever she wanted, she wasn¡¯t as close as this. If you¡¯ve checked the tags for this fiction, you¡¯ve probably noticed they¡¯re pretty similar to REND¡¯s tags except for the Romance tag. I do plan on eventually having Erind and SpookyErind be in a romantic relationship, although that will take time to do. Erind¡¯s pretty rigid in her thoughts right now and still believes SpookyErind is trying to take over her body. I also plan on having some romance-dedicated chapters to help build up their relationship. I think it will be fun to write some of it along with the main Render story. Maybe we could even add some Deen romance later on lol (but that will need to be way further down the line).

    Other Deviations From REND

    Of course, since this is an alternate universe fiction, the plot that has been taken is going to be quite different. There will be similar locations and characters just like in the original REND, but they may interact with the story quite differently. Additionally, since Erind now has extra powers and is also stronger, that will change things as well. One of the other tags that are absent from REND that Render has is the Strong Protagonist tag. While Erind will be able to easily beat up a lot of other characters, she still will run into various problems along the way. For example, Erind still gets easily curb stomped by Stella. It¡¯ll be interesting to see how Erind develops even though she believes herself to be way stronger than a bunch of the early arc characters. She will still have to deal with the fact that ¡°there¡¯s always a bigger fish¡± (although she¡¯d probably get the saying wrong somehow).

    While I do enjoy OP MC stories, I don¡¯t think they can work well long-term, so we have to make sure there are still some challenges for Erind to overcome. Additionally, SpookyErind will also do some fighting, but she isn¡¯t always going to go full all out. SpookyErind does like watching things play out and does turn out to be a bystander sometimes. Of course, she will do her best to protect Erind from actually dying.

    Additionally, one of the fun things about Alternate Universe (AU) fanfics is imagining how the world changes off on the fanfic¡¯s premise. So, Erind doesn¡¯t easily get captured by the 2M¡¯s because she¡¯s way stronger now (and technically also has Deen by her side in this case), but that in turn causes the 2M¡¯s to buff their security forces and add stuff like drones. At the end of the arc, we also see Big Marcy buffing security at important places like the Eve. Hopefully, that leads to some interesting developments and roadblocks later on.

    There are also way more other deviations from the original REND story. Here¡¯s a changelog of some of the important ones (mainly character or worldbuilding changes; it would be too long to list all the plot differences) if you were curious:

    <ul>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">The Office of Censorship is never mentioned in the original REND, but since WWII gets interrupted by the Adumbrae invasion, why wouldn¡¯t the U.S. keep it around? Hopefully, I can integrate it more into the story later on rather than it just being mentioned in 1.4.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">On the topic of WWII being disrupted, the Philippines originally was a US territory that was scheduled to be independent in 1946, but what if that changed due to the Adumbrae invasion? I do plan on having an arc in the Philippines later on as well. There are also various territories that are now states too.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Moving onto chapter 1.5, it wasn¡¯t really mentioned how Deen worked out even though she had superstrength in the REND spinoffs. So this is where the Atlas Supermachine came in. It¡¯s a high-tech weight machine with 10,000 lbs in weights. Additionally, strength levels were given to Erind and Deen. Erind can lift 6000 lbs while Deen can lift 1000 lbs. </li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Jim Ambrose calls for help from Stella rather than just dying and not warning anyone in chapter 1.14. This is so Erind actually encounters challenges rather than just eating the rest of the base with no consequences.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Some new original characters were introduced in Big Marcy¡¯s epilogue, which should lead to some more fun character scenarios as well as challenges for Erind.</li>

    </ul>

    Schedule Planning And Thank You

    My release schedule was pretty erratic for this arc. I just kind of released chapters when they were ready. I hope to make it a bit consistent over the next arc. I want to release three chapters a week: one on Monday, one on Wednesday, and one on Saturday. In the cases I do get busy, I plan to at least post a chapter each Saturday.

    Lastly, I wanted to thank you all so much for reading this! It¡¯s pretty crazy to imagine REND even having fanfics (technically the spinoff is one as well), but here we are. If you have any comments or suggestions, I¡¯d loved to read them. If you find any typos, please let me know, I try to read through each chapter once before posting, but I can always miss something.

    Anyways, I wanted to give another thank you to all of you, and I hope to see you back on Monday!

 2.1

    Suddenly, my second clone seemed to shrink in height. What the fuck? I was apparently way shorter now.

    I could see my second clone from both my and SpookyErind¡¯s perspective, and it seemed like she turned into a kid scientist version of me.

    In addition to her scientist goggles, she wore a white lab coat. It was covered by a black apron. If I remember correctly from Elementary science class, we wore those to protect against splashes. She also wore black pants and boots as well. In fact, most of her body was covered, except for parts of her head and neck. Her hands were wearing black latex gloves. The fuck was this? Why did my clone turn into a scientist? And a kid one at that? I had no interest in science whatsoever.

    <u>Maybe there¡¯s something else to it,</u> SpookyErind suggested while still hugging me.

    Hmm. Well, I checked out the pockets on my 2nd clone. The lab coat had two pockets in the usual spots pockets were, and the apron had two breast pockets. Inside the left apron pocket were a set of three syringes sticking out. I had her pull out all three. The one on the left contained a red liquid. It had a picture of a bee colored black. Next to the bee was the symbol of a timer with a label reading ¡°1h¡±.

    So I¡¯m supposed to stab something with this and inject it? I took a look at the other syringes. The middle one had a blue liquid and a picture of a black spider in the middle of the syringe. It also had the timer symbol as well as a label reading ¡°8h¡±. Then, there was the last syringe. It had a yellow liquid with a picture of a black ant in the middle. Unlike the other syringes, there was no timer symbol on it.

    <u>So, what do you think they do</u>? SpookyErind asked.

    ¡°Why are you asking me?¡± I told her. ¡°I don¡¯t know - I just got these powers.¡±

    <u>Well, maybe you can take a guess then,</u> she said.

    Hmmm. Well if we go off the images on the syringes, then I¡¯m pretty sure the one with the bee causes pain. And it does so for 1 hour? Then for the spider, I imagine it would work for 8 hours instead. And it hurts them more? I¡¯m pretty sure spider bites are more deadly than bee stings, at least for some spiders. I have no idea what the ant one does.

    SpookyErind giggled like I was a dumbass.

    ¡°Am I wrong?¡± I asked.

    <u>What would be the point of having two syringes that do the exact same thing?</u> She asked.

    ¡°They¡¯re interdimensional powers - why the fuck what they make sense at all?¡± I retorted. ¡°The face you gave me turns into a hot model with a monster mouth. Is there supposed to be any reason for that?¡±

    <u>Come on, you know what it''s for,</u> she said. <u>Rule #4 remember?</u>

    ¡°How does this relate to my rules at all though?¡± I asked.

    <u>Try thinking of something else spiders do,</u> she responded, ignoring my question for the 1000th time.

    So spiders. What do they do? They¡¯re carnivores, unlike bees, but I doubt that has anything to do with the syringes. They also spin webs that catch stuff in them. Then their prey gets stuck and can¡¯t move in the web. Maybe that¡¯s it? The spider syringe causes people to get paralyzed for 8 hours?

    <u>That sounds like a better reason to have two different syringes,</u> SpookyErind said. Okay, that was right then. Otherwise, SpookyErind would have laughed at me again. That still doesn¡¯t answer what the ant one does.

    <u>It will be a fun surprise to see what it does,</u> she said.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you tell me?¡± I asked. ¡°You seem to know what my powers do.¡±

    <u>But then it wouldn¡¯t be a fun surprise anymore,</u> she told me.

    ¡°What if I don¡¯t want a fun surprise?¡± I said.

    SpookyErind simply chuckled in response. I guess I wasn¡¯t going to be knowing how to use this power soon. Maybe I could go out into one of those sketchy areas in La Esperanza. Then, because my clone looks well off given all the stuff she is wearing, some dumbfuck will try to rob her. I could then stab him with the different syringes to see what happens. A little science experiment for a little me.

    <u>Probably best to do it at night,</u> SpookyErind suggested. I agreed, and I wished she would start being more helpful like this rather than messing with me.

    Also, is it just me, or does it feel like my second clone also got weaker?

    <u>Kids are weaker than adults,</u> SpookyErind commented.

    ¡°First, I¡¯m not sure that applies to superpowers,¡± I said. ¡°Second, why is it that you get stronger transformation? It¡¯s kinda unfair.¡±

    SpookyErind leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek. <u>It¡¯s not unfair since we¡¯re the same person.</u>

    I sighed in disappointment. ¡°Anyways, should we go to the weight room and test her strength?¡±

    <u>I have a better idea,</u> she said as she released me from her embrace. Huh? She got off the bed and walked toward my clone. Wow, my clone was super short now.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    She only came up to SpookyErind¡¯s chest. And that was saying something because she was wearing boots and SpookyErind was barefoot. She probably looked like a 10-year-old. Being short was the worst. A lot of people kept thinking I was a high schooler for no reason. I was actually in law school! Even more so, when I was a kid it was way worse. My mom brought me to an amusement park when I was around 9 years old and all the other kids were tall enough to ride the fast rides. Meanwhile, here I was, little me just sitting on a chair with Mom because I couldn¡¯t ride anything. At least I didn¡¯t get motion sickness. Furthermore, it was kinda nice that my Mom stayed with me. Although, I really wished we never went to the amusement park.

    Also, why the hell did I not inherit Mom¡¯s tallness? She was taller than me, still making me look like a child. I bet she was even taller than Deen. Life just isn¡¯t fair sometimes. At least I look cute.

    SpookyErind then proceeded to lift my 2nd clone up in the air.

    ¡°Ahh!¡± I yelled through my 2nd clone, whose voice was somehow even lighter and softer than my current one. Is this what I sounded like as a kid?

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I whined.

    I struggled as SpookyErind walked back to the bed. Her grip felt even stronger now somehow. She plopped herself back on the bed. She looked down at my 2nd clone. It was really upsetting to be shorter than her twice. Once in my mind, and now twice here.

    She crossed her legs and set my 2nd clone in her lap. She then grabbed both of her hands.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked her through my 2nd clone.

    <u>Try to break free,</u> she said. <u>We¡¯ll see how strong your transformation is.</u> I¡¯m pretty sure she was already stronger, but I took that as a challenge. I had my 2nd clone pull and pull away from SpookyErind. I tried increasing her strength but SpookyErind didn¡¯t even break a sweat. She giggled as she saw my futile attempt to escape her. I could tell her body wasn¡¯t even really trying to pull back on her because of our shared senses.

    <u>Nothing can separate love,</u> SpookyErind grinned as she released my 2nd clone.

    I simply rolled both my eyes and my 2nd clone¡¯s eyes. Thankfully, it still felt like my 2nd clone had some superstrength, but not as much as my main body.

    ¡°I should stab you with this needle,¡± I had my 2nd clone say while holding up the needle with the red liquid.

    <u>I¡¯m not an insect though, so that¡¯s not going to do anything to me,</u> she said.

    ¡°You sure about that?¡± I questioned.

    <u>Go ahead.</u>

    I took the needle and poked it into SpookErind¡¯s thigh. I felt the tiny poke from the needle enter her skin. But other than that, nothing happened. Huh. I guess she was right. To be fair, I didn¡¯t feel too bad about stabbing her with a needle because I could simply resummon her later if she died.

    <u>Hey!</u> She exclaimed. <u>You wouldn¡¯t be upset if I died?</u>

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like you¡¯re gone forever,¡± I said as I moved my main body to be closer to SpookyErind and my 2nd clone. I could see from the side that my 2nd clone had her hair tied into a ponytail by a rubber band.

    <u>That¡¯s good,</u> SpookyErind said. She turned her head away from my 2nd clone toward my main body.

    I kinda wanted to stab myself with the needle to see if it did anything to me. Should I use the spider one or the ant one? But, as I took a closer look at the apron¡¯s left pocket, golden liquid was coalescing. It formed another bee needle with the red liquid. Huh. So at least there¡¯s an easy way to get more needles.

    I grabbed the needle from my 2nd clone and placed it over my thigh. Pressing down on the handle, I could feel the needle pierce my skin. Huh. Bullets were barely able to break past my skin, but here, the needle was doing so effortlessly. Its tip didn¡¯t even break. That¡¯s superpowered needles for you.

    Also, the injected liquid didn¡¯t cause any pain. So SpookyErind was right. I was just curious still. Actually, why did I want to stab myself with a needle? I remembered that I stabbed myself with a knife trying to cut the crystals out of my hand when I first became an Adumbrae. Sadly, that didn¡¯t work, and now I have two crystals. It was just kinda fascinating how resistant my body was to pain.

    When I was younger, I used to hate getting my vaccine shots. I preferred not to be in pain. Of course, since I was the most perfect daughter ever, I simply stayed quiet while I was internally raging from the pain. I have to congratulate myself, it was impressive how quiet I was when many of the other kids were whining to their parents. This just shows that kids are brats. Thankfully, I wasn¡¯t one. And neither was my 2nd clone.

    As I got older, I understood the science a bit better. Vaccines are good to prevent infections blah blah blah. Getting vaccines didn¡¯t seem as bad. Although, getting sore from them surely sucked. I wondered if that applied here. Maybe I was becoming more resistant to pain. Although, Ms. Mountain Lady and those helicopters definitely hurt.

    ¡°Do these syringes actually do anything?¡± I asked.

    <u>Yeah!</u> she said. <u>You just got to use them on insects.</u> That didn¡¯t make any sense. Even though the labels on the syringes had bugs, I highly doubted I had to use them on insects. How the fuck was I going to stab them with these needles? Their bodies would probably burst from the injections.

    <u>You¡¯ll see,</u> she said.

    I had a feeling she was misleading me somehow. But I made a mental note to take find some insects and try injecting them later. I haven¡¯t collected and experimented on bugs in ages. I was also going to try and stab a person as well. I will be really sad if this does nothing to people and only harms bugs. Maybe I could stab Deen with it.

    <u>I wouldn¡¯t recommend stabbing your friends with needles,</u> SpookyErind said. What? <u>You should never inject your friends with unknown substances - that might be dangerous!</u>

    ¡°I thought you said I could only inject this into insects?¡± I asked.

    SpookyErind simply giggled in response. Okay, she was messing with me. Clearly, it had to work on other people, otherwise, that would be a pretty useless power.

    Anyways, I should make a note to sneak out at night. Lots of mental notes these days. Perhaps I should use my notepad. It was going to be a long time until nighttime. Hey, that rhymed. Wait no, that was the same word used twice. Stupid morning brain. I need my chamomile tea.

    <u>Maybe you should try taking off your 2nd clone¡¯s face first,</u> SpookyErind suggested.

    Oh right, I should do that. I don¡¯t know what Deen thinks of kids, but she might be highly suspicious of one just appearing in her house. It¡¯d be best to introduce her as one of my clones. That¡¯d be my gift to her for making me breakfast. A perfectly reasonable gift. More of me.

    I focused on putting my 2nd clone''s left hand on her face. I had her pull, and in an instant, she grew in height. She was now taller than SpookyErind, which made my day slightly better. Sadly, she was also wearing Dolfin shorts now so her bare skin was completely touching SpookyErind¡¯s bare skin. I had her look down at SpookyErind. This view was nice since I was taller, but I didn¡¯t like touching SpookyErind that much, even if she didn¡¯t feel disgusting. So, I moved my 2nd clone out of SpookyErind¡¯s lap to her right side, leaving my main body on her left.

    I remembered that SpookyErind could also turn herself into a mask. I should try doing that as well, that would be really fun. So do I just concentrate or -.

    The sound of buzzing emanating from the nightstand distracted me. I had my 2nd clone grab it since she was the closest. If I originally had my phone and then summoned SpookyErind and my 2nd clone, I¡¯d have three phones. Then what would happen if somebody called me?

    I took a look at the caller on the phone. It was Mom.

 2.2

    ¡°Erind sweetie, I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re okay,¡± Mom told me. ¡°This was too much for me. First the fire and now this.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what do you mean?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t seen the news?¡± Mom asked. ¡°A Titan Adumbrae and some other Adumbrae were spotted fighting near the docks yesterday evening.¡±

    ¡°Well, I went to sleep early last night,¡± I told her. I actually went to bed at 9:45 AM, but I wasn¡¯t going to tell her at that. ¡°I also don¡¯t really watch the news.¡±

    ¡°You really should sweetie,¡± Mom said. ¡°But I¡¯m glad you¡¯re getting a good night''s sleep and that you were able to call me immediately this time.¡± Oh right, because I was busy stealing dresses from the mall Everett burned, I wasn¡¯t able to call Mom until I got back to my condo.

    ¡°Just trying to get a better routine at school,¡± I lied. Going to sleep at nearly 10:00 AM in the morning was not ideal. We spent so long traveling through those sewer tunnels. And the ride back was so fucking long. I hated being stuck with other people for three hours. Worst of all, I still felt hungry. It turns out that eating all those people in my Red Hood form did not make my real body feel any full. SpookyErind and my 2nd clone¡¯s body were also hungry. I hoped Deen prepared a big breakfast for us. Or was it brunch? No wait, it¡¯s lunar because it¡¯s after lunchtime and before dinner time.

    ¡°Oh, that reminds me, I should tell you about the week I pulled an all-nighter in grad school,¡± Mom said. Damnit, she was going to go on a story about her past life. Please no. Sadly, as the perfect daughter, there was nothing I could do but listen. Then, SpookyErind pulled both my main body and my 2nd clone into a hug. I turned my main body to glare at her, but she leaned toward my ear.

    <u></u> she whispered. I was really tempted to roll my eyes, but then a hint of curiosity leaked into my brain. What would happen if SpookyErind talked on the phone? Since her voice seemed to appear in my mind rather than traveling by sound waves, would it even go through the phone?

    SpookyErind simply moved away from my ear and smiled at me.

    ¡°One night, I was out with some friends, and one of them encouraged us to drink,¡± Mom said. ¡°I took one drink, and then one drink became another. The entire night went away. I was supposed to get some work done for my PI, the principal investigator in charge of my research, but I was so sick from the hangover I didn¡¯t get anything done at all. Thankfully, I had a couple of days to complete it, but I basically rushed the project on the final day.¡±

    I had a feeling she wasn¡¯t finished with the story, but I started tuning some of it out. I remember when I first got drunk. Mom would probably be very mad if she ever found out. Some of my cheerleader ¡°friends¡± encouraged me to go out to party, and I ended up going. One of them managed to steal some drinks from their parent¡¯s wine cabinet. That was not a very good experience - the hangover basically caused me to be sick the entire day. It was as if I was in Dario¡¯s sick field for 24 hours. Thankfully, Mom never thought her perfect daughter would be underage drinking.

    ¡°And that¡¯s why you shouldn¡¯t drink during the week,¡± Mom finished her story. ¡°You don¡¯t drink, do you dear?¡±

    ¡°No Mom,¡± I said.

    ¡°Good,¡± Mom replied. ¡°Anyways, how¡¯s your condo going?¡±

    ¡°Uh, actually,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m living at my friend Deen¡¯s place for now.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you never talked about your friends,¡± she said. ¡°I was starting to think you were being too introverted again. Actually, Dean is a boy''s name right? I¡¯m so proud you have a boyfriend now. Make sure you¡¯re wearing protection!¡±

    ¡°Oh my god Mom, Deen is a girl!¡± I said. I could never imagine bonking a boy. Actually, I could never imagine bonking ever.  ¡°Her nickname is Deen, but her first name is Amber.¡±

    ¡°Oops, sorry about that,¡± Mom said. ¡°I just thought my sweet Erind was growing up and getting a boyfriend. Anyways, how is Deen? She doesn¡¯t drink, does she?¡±

    ¡°She doesn¡¯t drink Mom,¡± I said. Actually, with how much of a bitch she is, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she was constantly drunk. Also, I didn¡¯t need a boyfriend. I was a strong independent woman who was also coincidentally leaching off my best friend for free stuff. Hey, at least Deen was useful for something.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re hanging out with a friend,¡± Mom said. ¡°You never did any sleepovers when you were younger. I was starting to be afraid I was the odd one out.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re actually living in separate rooms,¡± I corrected Mom.

    ¡°That¡¯s good enough for me,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re out there interacting with other people.¡±

    ¡°I mean, I¡¯ve always interacted with people,¡± I said, which was technically true. ¡°In high school, I hung out with my cheerleader team. In undergrad, I participated in speech and debate competitions and even got a prestigious internship at Wilkens & Kingson.¡±

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°I just want to keep pushing you, sweetie,¡± Mom replied. ¡°You can always strive to improve.¡±  I rolled my eyes. I didn¡¯t like being told to improve - that implied there was something wrong with me. But there was nothing wrong with me - I was perfect.

    ¡°Thanks for the advice Mom,¡± I said.

    ¡°Anyways, what were we talking about?¡± she asked.

    ¡°You were calling about the Adumbrae attack on the docks,¡± I reminded her.

    ¡°Oh right!¡± she said. ¡°You need to make sure to keep up with the news. You never know when something like that would happen to you.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure watching the news was going to help me avoid Adumbrae attacks. I¡¯m pretty sure it would be too late to help me by the time it got on the news. Thankfully, I could take care of myself with my cool superpowers. Still, I did want to watch the news. Hopefully, that news helicopter caught some cool moments of me. I¡¯d have to go online to check. Or I could watch the TV, but it was placed in such a weird way in this room, which made it awkward to watch.

    ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to keep up with the news from now on Mom,¡± I told her.

    ¡°Yeah, I was reading up on the attack, and apparently a few dozen people got killed in the battle,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m praying to the Mother Core tonight to help out their families. I know you aren¡¯t particularly religious Erind, but I think it would be a good idea to start attending some online masses.¡±

    ¡°Law school is eating up a lot of my time Mom,¡± I said.

    ¡°Ah yes, that¡¯s important too, don¡¯t forget to study,¡± she said.

    ¡°Will do,¡± I told her. I was kinda surprised by how religious my Mom was. I never really thought of praying to the Mother Core, but all of my relatives did. It was kinda weird how they kept praying to it as if it was going to fix any problems. If praying actually worked, there would be no more Adumbrae attacks. But since they still happened, here we are. More and more Adumbrae attacks - and even some Titans appearing in Madagascar. All that praying turned out to be for nothing. Of course, given my friendly face, I could never say any of this to my relatives. That doesn¡¯t make it any less true though.

    Realistically you could apply this to other religions as well. Why keep praying if bad things keep happening? Maybe I was just salty from my Aunt Emily forcing me to learn some weird Christian-Mother Core joint teachings.

    ¡°Oh, one last thing before I go,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m trying to book a vacation, but there are a lot of meetings going on, so sorry my trip is going to be delayed.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine Mom,¡± I said. I took a look at SpookyErind. Her features reminded me so much of Mom that I kept having this weird nagging feeling she was actually here with me. She was still smiling at me, which was pretty unnerving. If she wasn¡¯t trying to take over my body, I¡¯d be concerned she was about to stab me with a knife. She glared at me. I simply stuck my tongue out at her.

    ¡°Anyways, I should take you to see Dad¡¯s and Eudora¡¯s graves,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since we¡¯ve mourned them.¡± I winced. Mourning was not my specialty. I didn¡¯t really have a strong connection to Dad since he died when I was 13. Well, officially ¡°died,¡± but more likely with the Corebrings now. Then there was Eudora. Mom kept bringing up how much of a genius she was, but little me never understood what was so special. She made some special aug eyes that Mom now uses, but I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s really subpar compared to the tech the BID uses.

    ¡°Do you still have the souvenir that Eudora gave you?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Yes, I said, taking a peak at the Greaves stationary that she gave me. I wasn¡¯t a big fan of Greaves - especially now since I was an Adumbrae. But I wasn¡¯t going to complain about having more free stuff.

    ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± she said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I will have time to visit their graves though Mom,¡± I said. I needed to travel to do that. Dad¡¯s grave was all the way over in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Eudora was buried all the way over in Ireland. ¡°School and all that you know. ¡±

    ¡°Yes, but you can always make a visit during summer or even during spring break,¡± she said. I sighed internally. I did not want to spend my breaks traveling. I didn¡¯t understand how people liked to travel. It was always so annoying. I never really liked change. That¡¯s why staying in one place was fine for me. The only changes I liked were the ones that benefitted me, which is why I was okay with staying at Deen¡¯s place. It was way better than my Condo. What would make it even more perfect is if Deen left, but sadly life never gives you everything you want.

    ¡°All right, anything else Mom?¡± I asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s it sweetie,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to visit you, and have a good weekend!¡±

    ¡°Thanks Mom,¡± I told her. ¡°You have a good weekend as well.¡± I then had my 2nd clone end the call.

    ¡°That took too long,¡± I said.

    <u></u> SpookyErind said as she released me and my 2nd clone.

    ¡°That didn¡¯t make it any better,¡± I said. SpookyErind poked me in the cheek. ¡°Why are you poking me?¡±

    <u></u> she said. I ignored her and paid attention to my 2nd clone. Before Mom called, I was going to have her transform into a mask. I brought my 2nd clone¡¯s left hand to her face. Next, I concentrated on pulling and turning into a mask. The next moment, my 2nd clone was replaced with her embroidered Corebring mask and floated right next to SpookyErind. She grabbed it and started caressing it.

    Gears in my mind turned as I thought of the various possibilities of this power. I could bring my clone as a mask with me and have her stay in places while I returned. There were a lot of sneaky things I could do with her. Then, there was also her transformed state. The needles were intriguing, but I wasn¡¯t sure if they would be super useful in combat. I wasn¡¯t even sure they worked on humans. Hopefully, I¡¯d find a use for them.

    SpookyErind grinned at me. <u></u> Well, it would be pretty lame if I didn¡¯t use my powers.

    Suddenly, both mine and SpookyErind¡¯s stomachs grumbled. Oh, right, we haven¡¯t eaten with these bodies in a while. We should really get to that. Hopefully, Deen woke up. I got up from the bed and walked toward the door.

    ¡°Oh, good afternoon Erind,¡± Deen said, waiting for me on the other side. I flinched and nearly punched her for surprising me.

    ¡°Uh, good afternoon,¡± I said. Was this bitch eavesdropping on me? I hope not, and that this was all a stupid coincidence that she arrived at the door at this time.

    ¡°I already made some food for you,¡± she said. SpookyErind walked up behind me.

    ¡°Thank god, I was starving,¡± I said.

    ¡°I am too,¡± she chuckled. Deen took a look at the mask SpookyErind was holding. ¡°Wait, what is that?¡±

 2.3

    Fuck. I didn¡¯t like being surprised like this. I should have gotten SpookyErind to hide the mask. Now, I was forced to improvise rather than plan out my 2nd clone¡¯s introduction to Deen. Thankfully, I can think well under pressure.

    ¡°Oh, it turns out I can summon another clone,¡± I said to Deen.

    ¡°Wait, you can summon a second clone?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Yeah, I think my powers recently just got stronger,¡± I explained. ¡°Here, let me show it to you.¡±

    Now that my 2nd clone was in her mask form, I could feel a similar switch in my body to the switch that I felt when SpookyErind was in her mask form. But this time, when I hit the switch, it actually moved, and in an instant, my 2nd clone reappeared.

    ¡°And here¡¯s my 2nd clone,¡± I said through her.

    ¡°This is just so crazy,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Is it really?¡± I asked. ¡°We both have superpowers.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s just that you¡¯re way stronger than me, and your powers are already growing,¡± Deen pouted. Technically that was because I was also an Adumbrae. Anyways, it was great to be way better than Deen at something. Still, as her best friend, I had to comfort her.

    ¡°I mean your power is still pretty useful,¡± I said. ¡°Your summon can basically tell you the future and warn you. I just have to be lucky.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I guess,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°I mean think about it,¡± I started off. ¡°You have already saved us multiple times. First, you saved me when I got knocked out by the 2M¡¯s. Then, you warned us to split up when the monster came out of the 2M¡¯s truck. And the same thing happened when the helicopters attacked us.¡± Although, you should really be thanking me for taking care of the last two.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, but I can¡¯t keep feeling like I should be able to do more,¡± Deen said. Does this bitch have some kind of superiority complex? Why does she need to always be the best at everything? I should ask her about her grades and see if she complains about not having a perfect A+ 4.0 GPA.

    ¡°You should worry about eating right now first,¡± I pointed out. ¡°We haven¡¯t eaten in quite a while.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll make sure to eat, but umm, I did have a question first,¡± Deen said. Ugh. What now?

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    ¡°Can your 2nd clone also do a transformation like your first clone could?¡± Deen asked. Oh, I guess I could show her this.

    I focused on the orb-like sensation in my 2nd clone¡¯s left hand. Golden liquid materialized above her hand and solidified into a pair of science goggles. I had her put them on and she shrunk down to a kid size.

    ¡°I can turn into a kid scientist,¡± I said. ¡°Anyways, let¡¯s eat-¡°

    Before I could finish, Deen rushed up to her and picked her up in a hug. It took all of my might not to punch and kick her a hundred times. Seriously, what the fuck was wrong with her?

    ¡°Oh my god, you¡¯re so cute!¡± Deen said excitedly. ¡°I never imagined this is what you looked like as a kid.¡±

    ¡°But I just look like myself but smaller,¡± I had my 2nd clone say.

    ¡°My god, your voice is so cute,¡± Deen chuckled, ignoring me. Some bad memories returned to me. When I was a little kid, Aunt Jemma would always come up and hug me. It was pretty ironic since she may as well have been a supermodel compared to the rest of us in the family and here was Deen doing something similar. But anyways, she would always pick me up in a hug and spend way too much time with me. My attempts to get her to release me were pretty useless. I swear she just was ignoring me and pretending that I was some crown jewel she stole from a museum. Anyways, that¡¯s what it feels like to be hugged by Deen right now.

    ¡°You¡¯re even more like a doll than your usual self,¡± Deen commented. What the fuck was this bitch¡¯s obsession with dolls? She had compared me to a doll before, and now she was doing it again. Maybe I was truly the adult in the room (even though I was super short), and Deen was still stuck being a kid. Actually, I never really played with dolls that much as a kid. They didn¡¯t really do much for me. At least the Corebring action figures and BID toy vehicles my parents bought me made cool noises and had several cool parts. Dolls were just dolls¡­ nothing special.

    ¡°Why do like dolls so much and why do I remind you of being one?¡± I asked with my main body. Hopefully, she¡¯ll take me more seriously now that my voice doesn¡¯t sound like the highest pitch ever.

    Deen took a couple of seconds before responding. ¡°My bigger sister bought me some dolls when I was very young. They were always so fun to play with, especially since my parents¡­ weren¡¯t really there for me.¡± Oh dear god, Deen is about to explain a backstory that I had 0 interest in learning about.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a doll though, and my 2nd clone is way bigger than a doll,¡± I pointed out.

    ¡°My big sis also got me some huge stuffed animals once that I would cuddle with,¡± Deen replied. ¡°You remind me of those. I use to sleep with them a lot when things didn¡¯t go well at my parent¡¯s house.¡± I had a feeling of where Deen wanted to go with this, and I had zero interest in pursuing it. I was not going to spend the night sleeping with Deen. Especially when she feels so disgusting. I would literally implode if that happened.

    ¡°All right, enough of this,¡± I said with my 2nd clone as I had her try and break free of Deen¡¯s grip. Surprisingly, my 2nd clone was still way stronger than Deen even though it was in the weaker kid form. Well, at least I could escape from Deen no matter what mask I used.

    ¡°What the¡­?¡± Deen said.

    ¡°It¡¯s time to eat breakfast,¡± I had my 2nd clone say. ¡°You don¡¯t want to keep me starving do you?¡±

    ¡°No, I just didn¡¯t expect that,¡± Deen said. ¡°Also, I didn¡¯t make breakfast for all three of you.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I had my 2nd clone respond. ¡°I¡¯ll just unsummon this clone.¡± I had her take off the goggles, and she turned back into a normal Erind clone.

    ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t need to do that!¡± Deen said. ¡°I can cook up a third meal.¡± Okay, that was pretty weird. That was more food that I would be consuming, but for whatever reason she was fine with it.

    We all walked to the kitchen. On the fancy dinner table were three plates. On two of them were two sets of large breakfast sandwiches filled with eggs, ham, and bacon. A couple of waffles were on the side. The third plate had a sandwich filled with lettuce, with a salad on the side. I could already guess which ones were for me. SpookyErind and my 2nd clone took a seat at that table, while I walked up to the counter with Deen. She started preparing a meal for me, while I went to the large coffee machine. Thankfully, this machine also dispensed tea. More specifically, chamomile tea. I took out three coffee cups from the cabinet and put them under the machine.

    While Deen and I were at the counter, SpookyErind began eating. She took off the buns of the sandwich and began eating them first. At least she was following Rule #2. She had followed it earlier in the week, so it was good she maintained consistency. Sometimes, she didn¡¯t even try to act like me. I was glad she was doing it now though.

    Eventually, the coffee machine finished pouring my tea, and I had my 2nd clone come and pick up two of the mugs while I took the other. I took a seat on my 2nd clone¡¯s right. Deen¡¯s plate was on the other side of the table, next to SpookyErind¡¯s. It was funny since SpookyErind and my 2nd clone were halfway through the sandwiches, meanwhile, Deen¡¯s plate was still full. Wait a minute, that¡¯s not really funny. I really need to drink my tea. Thankfully, I had brought three stir sticks and gave two of them to my 2nd clone and SpookyErind. In unison, we all began following Rule #1. Stirring back and forth, making sure not to hit the rims of our cups.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    Deen came back with my plate and dropped it off in front of me.

    ¡°There you go,¡± she said.

    ¡°Thanks Deen,¡± I said.

    She took the seat next to SpookyErind and stared at all of us instead of eating.

    ¡°Is something the matter?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Just something interesting I noticed,¡± she said.

    ¡°What¡¯d you notice?¡±

    ¡°The way you¡¯re stirring the tea. You¡¯ve done it for the past few days as well.¡±

    ¡°Is there something wrong with the way I¡¯m doing it?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No, I just thought it was very different compared to how most people do it,¡± she replied.

    All three of us continued stirring. Just another minute or so, and it¡¯ll be all right.

    ¡°I noticed something else,¡± Deen said. ¡°The way you eat is very¡­ unorthodox. Like with the sandwiches I made, you¡¯re eating the bread first. And not only that, you ate the crust on the outside first as well.¡±

    ¡°What are you, the breakfast police?¡± We both laughed. ¡°I just have a specific way of eating things.¡±

    ¡°Is it like OCD?¡± Deen asked.

    I had a distinct gut reaction to say no. After all, OCD literally had the word ¡°disorder¡± in its name. That implied something was wrong with me. But nothing was wrong with me - I was just perfect the way I was.

    ¡°I¡¯m not really sure if that qualifies,¡± I said. ¡°You could probably ask Myra that since she¡¯s a med student.¡±

    ¡°Does she even study psychology though?¡± Deen questioned.

    ¡°I dunno,¡± I replied. I took a psychology class as an elective as in undergrad. It was very interesting to learn about the minds of other people. Although, I wasn¡¯t in the mood to continue this subject. I took a sip of my tea, and my 2nd clone and SpookyErind did as well.

    ¡°I also find it interesting how in sync you are with your clones,¡± Deen commented. ¡°Does it take a lot of effort to do that?¡±

    ¡°No, actually it¡¯s pretty easy,¡± I said. It was true. Maybe some would assume that having many different bodies to control would make it hard, but it was pretty easy. Actually, SpookyErind was controlling one of them, but I found it still easy with two bodies. Maybe the fact we both had brains made it easy? I was in fact a very smart person, so maybe that helped too.

    ¡°Anyways, why are you talking so much about my behaviors?¡± I asked her. ¡°Did something spur you to do this?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve been best friends since the first semester, but I still don¡¯t know a lot about you,¡± she said. ¡°I thought I¡¯d be a better best friend if I learned more from you. It¡¯ll be good since we¡¯ll be fighting together in the future.¡± I grit my teeth at that. I wasn¡¯t really comfortable with other people observing me. I didn¡¯t mind doing that myself, but other people doing that just gave me goosebumps. That would mean they were actively scrutinizing my face, and I would prefer if they didn¡¯t do that.

    ¡°I guess I should do the same for you,¡± I said. ¡°Why are you so interested in salads and not normal foods? Like you think my behaviors are weird, but you¡¯re the one eating salad for breakfast.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just trying to stay healthy,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°So you¡¯re trying to make me eat unhealthy foods?¡± I grinned.

    ¡°No! I just thought you wouldn¡¯t like eating salads.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± I agreed.

    ¡°You should try to eat some vegetables,¡± she said.

    ¡°I do eat them when you give them to me,¡± I said.

    ¡°Maybe I should give you more vegetables,¡± she replied.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a naughty kid,¡± I said. ¡°I can eat them just fine.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we should have a contest then.¡±

    ¡°With all my bodies, I could probably beat you pretty easily,¡± I jokingly said. We both laughed.

    We both finished our food and I returned to my restroom to brush my teeth. SpookyErind unsummoned herself, and I did the same with the 2nd clone. Since my clones copied the state of my main body, I could simply brush my teeth by myself rather than having all three do it. After that, I summoned both SpookyErind and my 2nd clone.

    During the next couple of hours, I tried finding a video of me eating the helicopter. The TV was giving me a headache, so I tried using my phone to search for the news, but I wasn¡¯t having any luck.

    Soon, I heard a doorknock. ¡°Erind?¡± Huh? What did Deen want? Was she going to serve me dinner now? We just ate.

    I walked up to the door and opened it. Deen was standing in front of me, and she surprised me again. Although it wasn¡¯t because she was unexpected. It was more of what she was wearing. She had a gray sports bra on.

    ¡°Hey, so now would be a good time to work out,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Work out?¡± I said.

    ¡°Yeah, you said you were interested in doing it earlier this week,¡± she replied. Did I say that or did SpookyErind say that? I guess it wouldn¡¯t be bad either way. I was getting really jealous of everyone else¡¯s fit bodies.

    ¡°Oh right,¡± I said. ¡°Let me get changed first.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± Deen said. I closed the door and walked back over to my wardrobe. I took off my shirt and hung it on the clothes hangar. My artificial Core was still hidden by my sports bra. SpookyErind walked up and did the same.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked surprisingly. ¡°You¡¯re working out as well?¡±

    <u>No,</u> she replied. <u>I¡¯ll just be there for moral support.</u>

    ¡°You better not mess with me when I¡¯m working out,¡± I said.

    She simply grinned.

    ¡°Anyways, why are you taking off your shirt?¡± I asked.

    <u>Don¡¯t I look really cute?</u> She asked.

    Well, she was using a clone of my body, so yeah, she¡¯d be pretty cute. And I guess extra cool as well with the white wispy hair and the glowing red eyes.

    <u>That¡¯s right,</u> she said. Actually, this was the first time I think I¡¯ve seen SpookyErind expose this much skin. When I took a shower, she unsummoned herself, so she never really undressed. I was just surprised there was actual skin there instead of some weird extradimensional stuff. <u>Why wouldn¡¯t I look like you when I undressed?</u>

    ¡°You never know about powers,¡± I said.

    I and SpookyErind walked to the exercise room. Deen had us do some stretches first before we used the workout machine. I was used to them since I did them in preparation for Judo and cheerleading.

    Meanwhile, my 2nd clone was still in my room with my phone. I began looking up videos on VideoGo. Maybe somebody would have posted something.

    Ah, there it is! Somebody had managed to post the video. I played it. In the middle of the video was a beautiful yet muscular werewolf eating a helicopter. Hey Mom, I¡¯m in a video! Generally, I wasn¡¯t comfortable with being in videos myself. I hated it when I had to record myself for presentations. But here, it was a different face being used, one that people didn¡¯t know I had.

    My mind wandered to the Rule #2 thoughts I had earlier. It was pretty hard to control myself in my Red Hood form. That meant following Rule #2 was difficult. Though, I guess I could make an exception here. I wasn¡¯t just trying to eat, I was trying to kill as well. That was a bit different than just eating normally. Although, maybe I should ask SpookyErind for tips on controlling it better? Hopefully, she would be nice enough to do that and not laugh at me.

    Deen and I finished our stretches while SpookyErind was just observing from behind us.

    ¡°Hey, why didn¡¯t you bring your other clone here?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t need to bring her since I can just resummon her after I workout,¡± I said. ¡°My clones copy the state my main body is in when they are summoned.¡±

    ¡°That makes sense, but why did you bring your other clone here then?¡± Deen asked.

    SpookyErind simply grinned in response. Fucking bitch. I needed to come up with something.

    ¡°I just wanted to see what she looked like in a sports bra,¡± I said. ¡°And to see what it looks like from her view when we work out.¡±

    ¡°Well, she does look pretty cute,¡± Deen commented.

    ¡°I agree,¡± I said. We both chuckled.

    ¡°Anyways, there are a couple of other features to the Atlas super weight machine that I should tell you about,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°What are they?¡±

    ¡°The chair does have some of these bars on the bottom,¡± Deen said pointing at them. ¡°You can push them with your feet to work out your legs. You can also tell Atlas to switch the chair into a core workout mode to work on your abs. You can do some weighted crunches with it.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s pretty cool,¡± I commented.

    ¡°Actually, do you know how to do weighted crunches?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. ¡°I did some very light workouts in high school.¡±

    ¡°Good. Anyways, I¡¯m going to use the one on the far side, so you can use this one,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± I said as I sat down on the chair. Deen walked to the other side. I began doing some reps with my arms first. I was getting kind of annoyed with my noodle arms. Back when I was a cheerleader, I used to work out with 20-pound dumbbells. But now, I was using 6000-pound weights. It was pretty amazing how far I had gone. And that was just with superpowers and no training.

    ¡°Hey Atlas,¡± I said. ¡°Can you switch to the core workout mode?¡±

    A beep responded and pieces in the chair began shifting. The handles I was holding also changed their positions a bit. SpookyErind took a look at the back of the chair. It laid down flat. The bars were way closer to my chest now. Huh. I started pulling myself up while holding onto the bars. It wasn¡¯t that bad lifting them while raising my chest up.

    SpookyErind moved to the back of my head. She started lightly grabbing my hair with her hands. I nearly gasped. What the fuck? I slowly brought my chest back down along with the handlebars.

    <u>I¡¯m just tying your hair into a ponytail,</u> she whispered. I gritted my teeth as she tied my hair. I was glad I did a few reps before she did that. Eventually, she stopped and went over to Deen¡¯s side. Huh? She just left.

    I did a few more reps before telling Atlas to go back to normal mode. The chair went back to a sitting position. I began pushing the handles at the bottom with my feet. May as well work out on my legs as well.

    SpookyErind walked up to Deen and began doing the same thing.

    ¡°Erind!¡± she gasped.

    <u>I¡¯m just tying your hair into a ponytail,</u> she repeated.

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± Deen said.

    <u>And there you go,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you do that?¡± Deen asked.

    <u>You look like a cool action girl now,</u> she replied.

    ¡°Thanks, I guess?¡± Deen said. ¡°But it¡¯s not really safe to do that while I¡¯m working out. I still appreciate it though.¡±

    <u>Sure thing,</u> SpookyErind said with a grin. Deen couldn¡¯t see SpookyErind¡¯s face since SpookyErind was behind her. Maybe she was just getting bored and wanted to mess with the both of us. Thankfully, my routine was coming to an end so I didn¡¯t have to deal with her pulling any more tricks on me.

    ¡°Would you like some Dinner Erind?¡± she asked. She was all sweaty now. I was surprised Deen was capable of becoming more gross.

    ¡°Nah, I think I¡¯ll just go to bed soon,¡± I commented. ¡°I just ate a couple of hours ago. And that was a really big sandwich.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯m going to take a shower and then have dinner. Good night.¡±

    ¡°Good night,¡± I said as I walked back to my room with SpookyErind in tow.

    That was¡­ good. I hadn¡¯t worked out like that in a long time. But now I was all sweaty. Guess I¡¯ll have to take a shower.

    I took a peek out the window. Nighttime was coming, and I¡¯d be able to test the syringes. I was looking forward to it.

 2.3.1*

    SpookyErind walked up to me with a towel.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked. ¡°I haven¡¯t taken a shower yet, so there¡¯s no need to dry me.¡± Not that I really wanted her to dry me.

    She giggled. <u>I¡¯m going to dry you with this towel so you won¡¯t be sweaty.</u>

    ¡°But I was going to take a shower,¡± I complained.

    <u>You¡¯ll take a shower when we come back,</u> SpookyErind said. What? <u>There¡¯s no point in taking two showers hours after each other.</u>

    She went behind my back and grabbed my shoulder. I guess there was no getting out of this. She was way stronger than me. And it did kinda make sense. I wanted to get out of the house along with my 2nd clone. I couldn¡¯t imagine being cooped up here while my 2nd clone was doing fun stuff. I¡¯d probably take a shower afterward when I got back.

    <u>Yeah, so that¡¯s why it¡¯s better to just use a towel right now,</u> SpookyErind said as she started wiping my back. She was actually pretty gentle. I would have thought she would have rubbed super hard to mess with me.

    SpookyErind began humming. It was actually pretty neat to see my back this way. Usually, I had to use a full-body mirror and turn my head around to see my back. Even then, it was pretty difficult and annoying to use. But since I shared SpookyErind¡¯s senses, I didn¡¯t need that anymore. She was a better mirror than all those other mirrors. What the fuck? Why did I compare SpookyErind to a mirror?

    She simply continued humming. As she got to the straps of my sports bra, she took her left hand to lift up the straps while her right hand wiped under it with the towel. As she inched up toward my shoulder blades, I noticed how skinny I was. The bones that made up my shoulder blades were visible, as well as some of my spine. I should ask Deen if the Atlas machine could do back exercises.

    She came around to the other side of my body. She started patting the beads of sweat on my face.

    <u>Pat pat pat,</u> she said.

    I was forced to close my eyes as her towel started covering me. Thankfully, I could still see my face from her eyes. Some of the makeup on my face went away. I¡¯d have to reapply that later. Unlike other girls, I didn¡¯t have a full shelf¡¯s worth of makeup products. Just something simple enough to make it seem I wasn¡¯t as pale as a vampire.

    She moved down to my neck, and I reopened my eyes. She was super close to me. A bit farther away than when she was hugging me, but our noses were only a few inches apart. She smiled at me, and I saw her cute bunny teeth that she got from me. I smiled back, and now I was seeing two pairs of cute bunny teeth. What if I brought in my 2nd clone? Then, there would be three sets of cute bunny teeth that I¡¯d be looking at.

    SpookyErind moved down to wipe the top of my sports bra.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to wipe under there,¡± I said sternly.

    <u>Well, it¡¯s not like there¡¯s much to wipe anyway,</u> she said. We both laughed.

    Unlike Deen, I didn¡¯t have as much usage for a sports bra other than hiding my Core. My chest was practically non-existent, so I didn¡¯t have to worry about two mounds of bouncy flesh messing me up during combat. I guess that was one of the benefits of being flat. Although, I did get jealous of not having big boobs. Maybe it was the fact that I was always short. Being big seemed amazing in comparison.

    <u>Yeah, but smaller and flatter people can hide better,</u> SpookyErind said as she started wiping my arm delicately. <u>Imagine if you tried to fit in the locker if you were Deen.</u>

    ¡°She¡¯d probably have to cut off her boobs and legs to fit,¡± I laughed. SpookyErind giggled along with me. ¡°But hiding didn¡¯t really help me anyway. That stupid skewer still went through my body.¡±

    SpookyErind simply hummed in response.

    ¡°I guess being flat and small means people won¡¯t pay as much attention to you,¡± I said. ¡°It makes it easier to get around contradictions in my face because I¡¯m not the spotlight of attention.¡±

    <u>And most people wouldn¡¯t expect a cute girl to be manipulating them,</u> she said while wiping my armpit.

    ¡°Although, I kind of get jealous of not being in the spotlight,¡± I said. ¡°Imagine if I always had a hot body. It¡¯d make it so easy to manipulate boys. Other girls would be jealous of me, which would be an added bonus. Also, Ah-!¡±

    SpookyErind fingers wiggled under my armpit.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you do that?¡± I said angrily.

    <u>I already gave you a hot body to use,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you tickle me though?¡± I asked. ¡°You didn¡¯t need to do that.¡±

    SpookyErind simply giggled. <u>Maybe you try using the face I gave you more.</u>

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Sadly, she wasn¡¯t answering me. ¡°Sure, but it¡¯s a bit difficult to seduce someone when you can¡¯t talk. It sometimes works, like on Lefty, but the right guard didn¡¯t react at all.¡±

    <u>Maybe you just need to try harder then,</u> SpookyErind said with a grin.

    I had no idea how to do that. What was I supposed to do? I guess I could have waited on eating Lefty and tried seducing the right guard. But still, he didn¡¯t seem interested at all.

    <u>I¡¯m sure you could have thought of something,</u> SpookyErind said as she began wiping my right arm. <u>You¡¯re very smart, after all.</u>

    Indeed I was.

    She moved down to wipe below my sports bra. My core region wasn¡¯t that impressive. At least I wasn¡¯t fat or chubby. Back when I was a cheerleader, I did manage to get a bit of abs, but years of eating sweets have basically wiped that away. As SpookyErind got to the sides of my torso, I could feel her wipe over my visible ribs. How would Erind ribs taste like? She began wiping around my belly button.

    <u>How cool would it be to have a six-pack?</u> SpookyErind asked.

    I didn¡¯t have any visible lines over my stomach, so I had essentially a zero pack.

    ¡°I think it would be probably the best muscle group to have,¡± I said.

    <u>Why so?</u> SpookyErind asked. Since she could read my mind, I didn¡¯t know why she was asking.

    <u>I just like listening to you talk.</u>

    ¡°Well, unlike huge biceps or legs, a six-pack would be pretty concealed under my shirt. So most of the time, most people wouldn¡¯t think it¡¯s weird because they¡¯d never see it. But if they saw I had huge thighs or biceps, they¡¯d probably think something is up.¡±

    <u>It¡¯d only be an issue if you somehow displayed superstrength,</u> SpookyErind commented.

    ¡°I guess so,¡± I said. Some of my fellow cheerleaders had pretty fit bodies. And none of them were accused of being Adumrae. Many of them had pretty large thighs. Actually, we did pretty much the same exercises, so why didn¡¯t my thighs get as large? Maybe their genetics were just better than mine. Or maybe they worked out more after school? I didn¡¯t really do that many thigh exercises¡ªjust some very light ones.

    Some of the other girls that were bases had pretty large biceps. Usually, you wouldn¡¯t expect girls to have large biceps, but these girls could probably beat most of the guys at school at arm wrestling. I was a base as well, but I didn¡¯t get large biceps. I really only used 20-pound dumbbells. Maybe I should have aimed for something bigger.  Wouldn¡¯t it be funny and cool to see a short girl with huge biceps?

    Although, I don¡¯t know how appealing having extremely strong arm muscles was to guys. I did try to romantically manipulate some during high school. Would they be more intimated by the fact that I would have stronger muscles than them? I imagine that might be a problem.

    <u>I¡¯m sure there are some guys that would be interested in it,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Really?¡± I asked. ¡°I could understand some guys liking the Red Hood form. It still has a hot body even though it has a monster mouth. But would guys really like a woman with muscular arms?¡±

    <u>One of the benefits of working on your upper body is that you also work on your chest,</u> SpookyErind said. Huh? <u>Who knows, maybe our breasts might appear a bit bigger if you work out your upper body more.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure that would improve my chest that much,¡± I replied. ¡°Maybe at best, I¡¯d go from an A cup to a B cup, but breast size is mostly genetic and depends mostly on fat.¡±

    <u>It¡¯ll make our breasts seem perkier and stick out more,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll try it, but if I was trying to give off the appearance of bigger boobs, I might as well get a pushup bra. Actually, I¡¯d probably need a combination of a sports bra and a push bra. Do they even sell those?¡±

    <u>I dunno,</u> she said. <u>I won¡¯t be the one shopping.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯d probably do some online shopping and see if any are available,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s better that way, so I don¡¯t have to leave the house.¡±

    <u>I¡¯m so glad you want to spend time with me,</u> SpookyErind said. I rolled my eyes. That wasn¡¯t what I meant at all. I was being very literal. She approached the rims of my shorts.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to wipe the inside of those either,¡± I said.

    <u>Why are you scared of being naked?</u> She asked. <u>I already saw you naked, remember?</u>

    Right, when I first met SpookyErind after nearly dying, I was naked in that weird void dream world. SpookyErind definitely did see me naked. That didn¡¯t mean I was comfortable with SpookyErind touching my private parts. ¡°I¡¯d rather you not undress me.¡±

    SpookyErind hummed again and began wiping my legs. I could definitely work out my thigh muscles. They¡¯re probably the most seductive out of any of them. And unlike big biceps, it wouldn¡¯t be too detrimental to have. But on the hand, I was sort of interested in seeing if working my upper body would give me the appearance of bigger boobs.

    SpookyErind wiped my inner thighs. Since I was wearing Dolfin shorts, most of my thighs were exposed. Thankfully, SpookyErind didn¡¯t try to do anything sketchy and wipe somewhere inappropriate.

    <u>I¡¯m actually an upstanding citizen,</u> she said. <u>I would never do anything sketchy.</u>

    ¡°You¡¯re an Adumbrae,¡± I pointed out.

    <u>No, I¡¯m a Corebring,</u> she replied. I rolled my eyes.

    SpookyErind wiped my inner thighs. But rather than moving down to my lower legs, she continued rubbing my left thigh.

    ¡°Why are you wiping the same spot again?¡± I asked.

    <u>Just making sure this area is extra clean,</u> she said. I didn¡¯t understand what nonsense she was up to.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be upset if you start wiping where you¡¯re not supposed to,¡± I said.

    <u>I won¡¯t do that,</u> she said with a smirk as she began speeding up the intensity of her rubbing. Huh? At least she was just rubbing the same place. But soon, my body felt like it was heating up, and my stomach was in knots. It started becoming ticklish the way SpookyErind was rubbing me. I couldn¡¯t see her face from this viewpoint since she was bent over, but I could feel her mouth grinning wider and wider.

    Instinctively, I closed my legs. SpookyErind began laughing. <u>You¡¯re scared of a little tickle?</u>

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t ticklish,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m definitely not ticklish. And not there.¡±

    <u>Really?</u> SpookyErind said, looking up at me. My cheeks had turned red. I faced away.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to keep wiping there, wipe somewhere el- Ah!¡± I yelped as SpookyErind began wiggling her fingers.

    <u>It¡¯s kind of hard to remove my hand with both of your thighs holding it,</u> she said with a smirk.

    ¡°All right, all right,¡± I opened my thighs. SpookyErind took her hand away and began chuckling. She stood up and moved around to see my face. My blushing was stronger now. I looked down.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to take a shower, okay?¡± I said.

    <u>You really are ticklish,</u> SpookyErind commented.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not,¡± I muttered. ¡°Just don¡¯t do that again. I¡¯m going now.¡±

    <u>Go ahead,</u> SpookyErind giggled.

    I retreated to the bathroom, and thankfully, SpookyErind just stood there. She continued giggling.

 2.4

    Ah, that was a good shower. I probably stayed in there for far too long, but I needed to get away from SpookyErind for a bit. I unsummoned my 2nd clone and SpookyErind did the same to herself. I put on some dark pants and the dark hoodie used for our last mission. I also put on black shoes. Instead of putting on the balaclava mask, I simply put on a dark gray face mask. I didn¡¯t expect to run into law enforcement, so I wanted to be comfortable. Of course, it wasn¡¯t wise to completely throw caution to the wind.

    I opened up the window and crawled outside. I was waiting for some secret alarm system to go off, but nothing happened. I guess I was fine then. Hopefully, nobody would try invading this house later. All my stuff was here. Though, Deen did have her summon. Maybe it would be nice and stop any robbers from taking my stuff.

    Speaking of robbers, I was heading to the precinct with the most crime around La Esperanza. It was southwest of here. I began jogging toward the nearest subway station.

    One of the great things about having superpowers was that I didn¡¯t get tired. Human Erind would have gotten tired running for so long, but for my current body, it felt like I hadn¡¯t broken a sweat. Sadly, I wasn¡¯t as good with directions so I kept wandering in circles a few times. But finally, I made it QualityMart across from the Riano station. Then, came the next phase of my plan. I didn¡¯t want to be traced back to my human self, so I would use my Red Hood mask to hitch a ride on the top of the subway.

    I held up my right hand and focused on summoning my Red Hood mask. Bright gold liquid rose out of the crystals into the air. It turned red and coalesced into a toothed snout. I took off my face mask and put the snout on.

    I let out a satisfactory growl as I felt strength course through my body. But that was soon interrupted by the cold night breeze brushing against my bare skin. I should have brought a jacket for this transformation. A really big jacket.

    While most of the subway was underground, sections of it did meet the surface. Which made it a perfect ticket to get to Gusta County. In front of me was a concrete barrier separating me from the tracks, which lay 15 feet below on the other side. However, the train would be way taller, so I wouldn¡¯t have to fall as much.

    Generally, I wouldn¡¯t try a risky move like this, but there were two things that convinced me this was a good idea. Number one, people did this in the movies. If they can do it in the movies, then surely I could do it in real life. Number two, I was both a Corebring and an Adumbrae, so my body could take a lot of damage¡­ not that I was expecting to get hurt at all.

    A few minutes later, the sound of a train rumbling alerted me. I leaped on top of the concrete barrier and took a look down at the tracks. If I missed my landing, I could get seriously hurt. Thankfully, even bullets didn¡¯t really harm me, so I should be fine. Exhilaration coursed through my body as I anticipated the train.

    A bright light appeared before me followed by several metal passenger cars. I was correct, the difference in height was small. I held my breath and jumped down. Landing squarely on my feet, I bent down to maintain balance. It would be really stupid if I fell off right now. But I did it!

    Then, the train accelerated. Shit.

    I wobbled and fell back a bit. Using my claws, I dug into the roof of the train. Hopefully, nobody noticed that. Before I could take a sigh of relief, I saw the tunnel ceiling shrink. Fuck.

    Flattening myself, I was met with the disgusting feeling of dirt and grime. Eww. The ceiling did raise after a while, but I didn¡¯t want to risk it. I¡¯d probably need to give my transformed self a shower.

    After about a few stops, we were finally making it to where I wanted to be. At the next station, I¡¯d get off. The train pulled in. I waited a few moments for people to get off the train. The cameras would probably be too focused on them, and the train would also help conceal my escape. I slid off the side not facing the station. Then, I jumped up back onto the surface.

    I moved a couple of blocks down. My light skin was now covered in dirt, grime, and whatever filth was on that train. They should seriously clean that. As a hot girl, I shouldn¡¯t have to deal with any of that.

    I took off my mask and was no longer assaulted by feelings of disgust and discomfort. Two orb sensations were in my left hand. Time to summon both my 2nd clone and SpookyErind. I held out my left hand and summoned both of them. SpookyErind was summoned first, followed by my 2nd clone. Their masks floated over to the side and were instantly replaced by SpookyErind and my 2nd clone. SpookyErind put on her SpookyErind mask, while I had my 2nd clone transform into her kid scientist form. I needed to come up with a cool name for her.

    Both SpookyErind and I put on our face masks. Thankfully, I wasn¡¯t as small as a little kid, so no one would be able to trace my 2nd clone¡¯s transformation back to me.

    Before we began moving to find some robbers, I found a cockroach on the road. Perfect. It¡¯ll be my first test subject. Using super speed, I had my 2nd clone catch the cockroach. She grabbed it with her left hand gently before it could jump away.

    It¡¯d been a while since I experimented with insects. Mom eventually found out was I was doing so I had to stop. I got a lot of scolding for how ¡®sadistic¡¯ I was. But I just found it so fascinating how the little bugs were easily maimed and killed in my ¡®games¡¯. Sometimes, I¡¯d watch them wander and squirm without some of their legs. Other times, I¡¯d collect some and put them in a container so they would battle each other. Sadly, I didn¡¯t know that some insects weren¡¯t carnivorous, so when I put a cockroach and a beetle in a container, it turned out that little me was bored by nothing happening. I ended up killing both and feeding their remains to a spider.

    Anyways, I grabbed the bee syringe and brought it up to the cockroach. It was squirming and trying to get out of my hand. It should be grateful that it was the first bug in a while I had experimented on. I pushed the syringe handle and the red liquid disappeared into the cockroach. It started squirming even faster. Was it in pain? I had no idea. Bugs always squirmed when I caught them. During my attempts to torture them, they generally stopped squirming.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Do you know if it¡¯s pain?¡± I asked SpookyErind.

    <u>It looks like it¡¯s in pain,</u> she said. <u>Although, I wouldn¡¯t know since I¡¯ve never been a cockroach.</u>

    Hmm.

    Let¡¯s try the other syringes then. I dropped the bee syringe and took out the spider syringe from my pocket and brought it up to the cockroach. I injected it with the blue liquid. A few moments later, the cockroach stopped squirming. So the spider one does stun. If it was like the bee syringe, it wouldn¡¯t have done anything. I dropped the spider syringe to the ground.

    <u>See, I told you,</u> SpookyErind said triumphantly.

    ¡°Okay, I guess you were right,¡± I said. But I was excited to test the last syringe. I had no idea what it would do.

    Golden liquid was materializing to the right of the ant syringe. My other syringes were regenerating. I took out the ant syringe and brought it up to the paralyzed cockroach. I pushed the handle on the syringe and the yellow liquid entered its body. A few seconds later, the cockroach started to shrink. Huh? It shrunk down in size, becoming smaller than an ant. I could barely see it. If it weren¡¯t for the barely working streetlamps, it would have been too difficult to see.

    ¡°That didn¡¯t do what I expected it to do,¡± I said.

    <u>What were you expecting?</u> SpookyErind asked.

    ¡°Anything but that,¡± I said. ¡°I can barely see it now. And like, what am I supposed to do with this? Now it¡¯s even harder to observe the cockroach.¡±

    <u>Maybe it¡¯ll be more useful on other insects,</u> she smirked.

    ¡°I hope so.¡±

    I dropped the extremely tiny cockroach, and we continued moving down the alleyway. Maybe a robber would show up. But, the streets were pretty empty. Fine. I guess I¡¯ll look for more insects then. Stupid robbers, not even showing up. What¡¯s it take for a girl to get mugged?

    Eventually, I saw a wolf spider in the corner. I was surprised by how little bugs there were too. But here was another opportunity. I had my 2nd clone grab leap and grab the wolf spider. It tried jumping away but my reflexes were better. It bit my hand and broke through the gloves. But, it only felt like a tiny pinprick.

    Ignoring the minuscule pain, I grabbed the spider syringe that had reformed and brought it up to the big spider. I was getting tired of its futile attempts to bite me. Injecting it, the blue liquid entered the spider¡¯s body. It stopped squirming and biting me. Okay, now to test the ant syringe. Hopefully, something fun would happen rather than making the spider hard to see.

    I took out the ant syringe. But before I could inject it, SpookyErind grabbed the limp spider.

    ¡°Hey!¡± I said from my 2nd clone.

    She lowered her face mask and tossed the spider inside her mouth. What the fuck? She began chewing the spider. It tasted like chicken.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± I said. ¡°I was going to test the ant syringe on that.¡±

    She swallowed. <u>That¡¯s the wrong type of insect to use it on.</u>

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t just go and eat insects,¡± I replied as she put her mask back on.

    <u>That spider was pretty tasty,</u> SpookyErind shrugged. <u>Maybe you should try eating insects. I think it would be a fun way to experiment with them. See what each one tastes like.</u>

    I wanted to immediately rebut her since she took my spider, but that idea did sound intriguing. I had never eaten insects before. I had heard of different cultures eating them, but I never found them that appealing to eat. None of the insects really looked like tasty snacks. Damn. I could have a double-scooped ice cream cone with cookies right now. That¡¯d be a good tasty snack. Sadly, there weren¡¯t any ice cream shops open right now.

    We continued heading down the street. Why weren¡¯t there any robbers? Okay, I guess the crime rate in this county wasn¡¯t that high. The police were still making sure that no criminals were around. Of course, some got away. But if the crime problem festered, that could be a hotbed for Adumbrae seeding. Still, it was surprising not to see anything on this street. No cars, no police, no nothing. I guess this area was pretty poor and abandoned.

    I turned a corner, and I finally found someone. Somebody was resting near a building. SpookyErind pulled me back from the corner. Huh?

    <u>Let¡¯s stay behind here, while your 2nd clone goes to meet them,</u> she explained.

    Oh, so was this person going to rob me? I wanted to see what my syringes did to them.

    My 2nd clone walked up to them. A cardboard box with an empty food can inside sat next to the person. It turned out it was a man. A stench came from his body. As my 2nd clone got closer, I saw the terrible state of his clothes and hygiene. His clothes looked like they hadn¡¯t been washed in weeks. His jacket looked like it had dirt all over and his shirt and shorts had tears everywhere. A sock that was on his left foot mismatched his bare right foot. Even I could tell his hair was greasy with the poor lighting.

    Nasty. Hopefully this guy wouldn¡¯t take too long to rob me. Then, I could quickly use Rule #4 to punish him.

    The man turned up to look at my 2nd clone.

    ¡°Hello there¡­¡± the man said with a raspy voice.

    ¡°Hi,¡± I had my 2nd clone say meekly.

    ¡°A scientist kid, huh?¡± he said. ¡°You must be really enthused about science.¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± I had her say. I didn¡¯t like science at all actually.

    ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± he said. ¡°Make sure you actually have dreams. I never had any and look where I ended up.¡±

    Huh, what this guy not going to attack me? I took a look at SpookyErind with my main body. I couldn¡¯t see her face behind the mask, but I could tell from our shared senses she was smiling.

    ¡°Is there anything I can help you with?¡± I had my 2nd clone say.

    ¡°Heh,¡± He chuckled. ¡°I¡¯ve been asking people to help me for far too long. See this box?¡±

    I nodded. Where was he going with this?

    ¡°I had a sign out here asking for food and drinks. Got rid of it recently, and most of my food is gone. I just felt guilty from asking people while doing nothing. Maybe I have some illness or something. But I shouldn¡¯t be taking from you kid. You look smart and will probably make the world a better place. Don¡¯t need you worrying about me.¡±

    I was smart, and in a sense, I was trying to make the world a better place. Mainly by carrying out Rule #4 when necessary.

    I nodded again.

    ¡°The name¡¯s Joseph,¡± he grunted. ¡°You probably won¡¯t remember that, but it was rude of me not to introduce myself.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Claire,¡± I had my 2nd clone say. Claire, the scientist kid!

    ¡°That¡¯s a good name,¡± he said. Okay, I was like 90% sure this guy wasn¡¯t going to rob me. But he did praise me, so I¡¯ll stay for a bit longer.

    ¡°I¡¯m probably going to start searching for a job soon,¡± he said. ¡°But every time I¡¯ve tried, I feel like I¡¯m not good enough and back out.¡±

    I wasn¡¯t interested in this dude''s sad life story. He should really hurry up and tell me something I want to hear. Or maybe he was luring me in with a sob story? That way he could easily rob me later.

    ¡°I found this ad on a TV in a store window,¡± he said. ¡°An experimental drug to cure depression and prevent Adumbrae seeding. I called using the old flip phone I still have. So maybe things will get better for me.¡±

    ¡°Um, that sounds really nice mister,¡± I started off. ¡°But I should really get home. It¡¯s kind of very dark.¡±

    ¡°Cya kid,¡± Joseph said. ¡°Sorry for rambling.¡±

    The sound of a vehicle going down the road alerted my 2nd clone. Huh?

    <u>Hide,</u> SpookyErind said.

    Hide? There was nowhere to hide my 2nd clown. We were all out on an open street with closed buildings! Oh wait, there was a tiny alleyway several yards away from Joseph. I ran my 2nd clone there.

    The high beams went by, followed by a black van. Another black van?

 2.5

    What chance was it that this black van was connected to the 2Ms? Maybe it was just passing by, but something felt weird. Nobody else was on this street other than Joseph. Why was it the only vehicle for several blocks?

    SpookyErind took off her face mask. Huh?

    <u>The face I gave you might be useful here,</u> she said as she held out her right hand. Golden liquid rose out of the crystals in her hand and turned solidified into the red mask. She put it on and immediately grew in height.

    Huh? Were we going to fight these guys? Why would I need to hide my 2nd clone, though? Still, I didn¡¯t mind fighting them. I took off my face mask, and I held out my right hand to summon the Red Hood mask. Putting it on, I instantly grew in height. SpookyErind grabbed my hand. She pointed upward.

    Did she want to go up? Why? Did the 2M¡¯s have some sort of secret weapon that we needed to avoid? And we would surprise them with an attack from above?

    She lowered her knees to prepare for a jump. I did so as well. We leaped together, soaring through the air. Excitement coursed through our bodies. This felt amazing. We should do this more. We landed, causing the concrete roof to crack a little. I hoped nobody came up here to check on us.

    SpookyErind walked, still holding my hand, over to the edge of the building facing the road the van was on. She squatted down and peered over the side. I did so as well. Everything seemed so small from here. But with my enhanced vision, I could still see everything. Joseph was down below, still resting against the building.

    When I used to travel a lot with Mom, I¡¯d always have her take me to the tallest buildings we could enter. On the top floor, I¡¯d see the little specks of people and cars going around the city. It made me feel like I was a giant. Okay, maybe I was just really upset to be really short. At least my Red Hood form was tall. Maybe I should ask SpookyErind if she could make my real body taller. She let out a low growl that almost sounded like a laugh.

    The van pulled up a bit behind him and stopped. Were they going to kidnap Joseph? What was the 2M¡¯s thought process here? They went and tried to kidnap me and Deen, innocent law school girls. Now, they were going after a homeless person? I did remember that they were experimenting on people. So they were going to try and turn him into something like Mr. Porcupine Guy. What would I have looked like if they experimented on me? That was just gross to think about. I liked my cute self. Nobody needed to change it.

    Four men emerged from the back of the van. Two of them looked like standard security guys. Black armored vests with long guns stayed near the entrance. The other two were more peculiar. One of them wore a trench coat and had blonde hair. He was pretty tall compared to the other two. The last one looked like some kind of doctor or surgeon. He or she wore a surgical mask and wore gloves. Their bright white lab coat stood in stark contrast to the other three¡¯s dark clothing.

    Hmm. What if this wasn¡¯t the 2Ms? They didn¡¯t look like the thug guys that tried to kidnap me. In fact, they looked a lot more professional. They also had only one van, while the 2M¡¯s sent out five to capture us.

    It was actually pretty weird since both SpookyErind and I were looking down. It was almost like having those moments of double vision when trying out other people¡¯s glasses. Except, our brains were able to process the information correctly without any issues.

    ¡°Joseph!¡± the tall man said. Wow, I could still hear him from all the way up here. Meanwhile, my 2nd clone had trouble hearing anything at all.

    ¡°Mr. Locke, welcome back,¡± Joseph said.

    ¡°You¡¯re in luck today Joseph,¡± he said. ¡°I checked back at one of our labs, and we still had a stock of Eloycin. And you scored the highest on our interview questionnaire last week, so I made sure to secure a batch for you.¡±

    ¡°Great,¡± he replied. ¡°So, do I just swallow it like a pill or something?¡±

    ¡°Actually, it gets injected,¡± the tall man said. Injected? ¡°Have you ever gotten vaccines before?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, when I was younger,¡± Joseph replied. ¡°Not anymore though. Haven¡¯t been feeling like going to a doctor for the past few years. Anyways, I thought the drug looked like a pill in the TV ad.¡±

    ¡°Ah yes,¡± Mr. Locke started off. ¡°One of our interns made a mistake when we had them make the ad. Don¡¯t worry, they know better now. But before I get too off track, let me introduce you to Dr. Aguilar. She¡¯ll be the one performing the injection today.¡±

    Hmm. Something seemed fishy here. Why would you let an intern work on an important ad? Although I¡¯ve never been a media intern, so I had no idea how that worked. I¡¯m just saying if I was in Joseph¡¯s shoes, I would not trust the tall man at all. I mean, he was in a trenchcoat with two guards behind him. Why does he need two guards?

    ¡°Hello miss,¡± Joseph said to her.

    ¡°Hello Joseph!¡± Dr. Aguilar said. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry. Everything will be quick and painless.¡±

    ¡°Thanks doc,¡± he said.

    ¡°Can you please take off your jacket?¡± Dr. Aguilar asked in a sweet voice.

    ¡°Oh sorry about that,¡± Joseph said as he took his jacket off. Dr. Aguilar took out a syringe from her pocket and put it on his arm. Wait, don¡¯t doctors wipe the area clean before injection? Something really wasn¡¯t adding up here.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to look if you don¡¯t want to,¡± she told him.

    ¡°Nah, I never had a problem with shots before,¡± he replied. She pushed the handle on the syringe.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    A few seconds passed.

    ¡°How are you feeling, sir?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Very¡­ tired¡­,¡± he said before passing out. His body slumped over to the right.

    ¡°These people are such idiots,¡± Dr. Aguilar laughed. Huh? ¡°They keep falling for all this stupid stuff. I can¡¯t believe they exist.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re good for business at least,¡± Mr. Locke replied.

    ¡°That¡¯s the only thing they¡¯ll ever be good for,¡± she said.

    ¡°Come on you two, get him and we can leave,¡± Mr.Locke addressed the two security guards. They opened the back door of the van and took out a stretcher. They rolled it up to Joseph and put him on. They began strapping him in.

    Okay, now I was like 99.9% sure these guys were working for the 2M¡¯s. But should I get involved? I wasn¡¯t really a hero-type person, so saving Joseph was something I usually wouldn¡¯t do. I imagine if any of my ¡®teammates¡¯ were here they would lecture me about the importance of helping others.

    But on the other hand, the 2M¡¯s messed with me. So I had the right to punish them under Rule #4. Although, there might be a slight chance they weren¡¯t with the 2M¡¯s. But I kind of wanted some action, and I really wanted to test my 2nd clone¡¯s powers.

    I was finding it hard to stretch things here. But a lightbulb popped up in my head. Maybe I could bait the security guards into attacking me.

    I had my 2nd clone walk out of the alleyway.

    ¡°Hey, what are you doing with Mr. Joseph?¡± I asked out loud with my 2nd clone.

    ¡°What?¡± Mr. Locke asked.

    ¡°You can¡¯t just take him,¡± I said. ¡°He never wanted to leave this spot.¡±

    ¡°What the fuck is this kid doing outside late at night?¡± Dr. Aguilar questioned.

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m talking to you!¡± I called out. On the one hand, it was kind of annoying to be ignored as a kid. But on the other hand, I really had fun coming up with this face. A concerned goody-two-shoes trying to fix the world. Well, to be fair, I was still trying to improve the world. I made it my duty to carry out the Rules. And the Rules help to make the World a better place. That¡¯s way better than being a goody-two-shoes. What the fuck? Okay, my brain got off track. ¡°Listen kid, this is none of your business,¡± Mr. Locke said. Oh right, I was trying to get these guys to attack me.

    ¡°Haha, what are you wearing?¡± Dr. Aguilar laughed. ¡°A lab coat and goggles? This isn¡¯t Halloween.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I actually like science,¡± I said. ¡°And why are you still taking Joseph?¡±

    ¡°I bet you wouldn¡¯t even get accepted to med school, dummy¡± Dr. Aguilar chuckled. Hey! I was very smart. If I was really aiming for it, I¡¯d be able to get into med school. I was pretty close to a perfect 4.0 GPA in undergrad.

    ¡°Hmm, didn¡¯t we check to make sure that Joseph wasn¡¯t cared for by anybody,¡± Mr. Locke said.

    ¡°Who cares? This kid is probably a loser,¡± she said. ¡°Let¡¯s head out anyways.¡±

    They all started heading toward the van. Wait no! They were supposed to attack me. Hmm. How could I turn this around?

    ¡°I¡¯m going to video record you guys and report you to the police if you don¡¯t return Joseph right now!¡± I yelled out.

    All four of them stopped.

    ¡°That was a bad move kid,¡± Mr. Locke said. ¡°Guys, let¡¯s take this kid in to shut her up.¡±

    The two security guards stopped pushing the stretcher and started walking back toward me. Yes!

    ¡°Wait, what are you guys doing?¡± I had my 2nd clone say nervously. I had her start backing up, but the guards kept their steady pace.

    ¡°Please, leave me alone!¡± I said. ¡°I won¡¯t call the police.¡±

    The two of them were almost upon me.

    ¡°Shut up kid,¡± the one on the right said. He reached out his arm to grab me.

    I took out the bee syringe from my pocket and stabbed him with it as he touched my arm.

    ¡°Ouch!¡± he yelled.

    ¡°I told you to leave me alone,¡± I said as I pushed the handle. ¡°I don¡¯t like it when other people touch me.¡±

    The red liquid disappeared, and he started screaming in pain. He fell to the ground and started screaming in pain. The syringe dropped from his body and rolled on the ground. It was kind of funny to see him flailing in pain. It was almost like he was having a seizure. I kind of wanted to wait the full hour and see how he would react afterward.

    A gunshot hit my 2nd clone in the chest. Fuck. I should have been paying more attention. My 2nd clone staggered back a bit.

    ¡°Fucking hell,¡± the other guard said. ¡°What the fuck did you do?¡±

    I took out the spider syringe from my pocket.

    ¡°Wait, what?¡± he said. ¡°An Adumb-¡±

    His words got cut off as I threw the syringe at him. But instead of sending him full force into the building on the other side, it embedded itself in his stomach. The handle moved on its own, and the guard fell limp onto the street.

    My wound started healing itself up. Sadly, the clothes didn¡¯t regenerate. So, now my apron, lab coat, and the shirt underneath had a hole.

    But why didn¡¯t the syringe at least pierce his body? Maybe it was part of my powers? I used the syringes before, and they didn¡¯t break easily even though I was using super strength.

    I turned my 2nd clone towards Mr. Locke and Dr. Aguilar. Mr. Locke pulled out a gun from inside his trenchcoat. My other two syringes were regenerating, so I took out the ant syringe and threw it at Mr. Locke. He fired the gun as the syringe embedded itself into him and injected the liquid. I got hit in the leg. Fucking hell.

    He started to shrink in size. Meanwhile, my wound started regenerating. I really should try dodging bullets. Bullets rarely hurt my main body, but they sting a bit more for my kid scientist form.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± he said as he tried firing his gun. I moved to the side to dodge his attack, but the gun didn¡¯t fire. ¡°Why isn¡¯t this working? Is it jammed?¡±

    ¡°Uh, sir?¡± Dr. Aguilar asked as Mr. Locke continued to shrink in size. My other two syringes had finished reforming. That was maybe around ten seconds.

    ¡°Wait, what¡¯s happening to me?¡± he asked, in a slightly higher pitch. I walked up, curious to see what else would happen. He kept shrinking until he was barely taller than the edge of my boot. So, it just shrank whatever. But it seemed to be to different sizes. The cockroach practically became invisible. But Mr. Locke was over an inch tall still. Does it mean that it only shrinks things by a certain amount?

    ¡°What did you do?¡± Dr. Aguilar said.

    I ignored her just like how she ignored me and walked up to her.

    ¡°Wait, what are you planning on doing?¡± she panicked. ¡°Please leave me alone. I didn¡¯t try to attack you.¡± Yeah, but you insulted me and were also working with these guys who were going to kidnap me. So, in essence, you bothered me and need to be punished by Rule #4.

    ¡°You kept insulting me for being a dummy and a loser kid,¡± I had my 2nd clone say.

    ¡°Look, I¡¯m sorry,¡± she begged. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m also getting tired of looking up at you,¡± I said, looking up at her. ¡°You are way too tall.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± she asked. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    I grabbed her hand. Ten seconds had passed, so the ant syringe had reformed. I grabbed it while she tried to escape from me. Thankfully, I still had superstrength, so her escape was futile. It looked funny from the perspective of my main body. In my Red Hood form, I could see her trying desperately to get out of this little kid¡¯s grasp. She tried grabbing a syringe from her pocket using her free hand and injected me with it. Bitch. It didn¡¯t really hurt, but if I waited too long, I might become drowsy. Although, given how many sleeping darts it took to take my main body down, I might be fine for a while.

    I injected the ant syringe into Dr. Aguilar. The yellow liquid quickly went into her body.

    ¡°What are you doing to me?¡± she panicked as she started to shrink. ¡°No!¡±

    I put my 2nd clone¡¯s hands on her hips as I continued to watch her panic. After a few moments of standing still, she tried rushing to the van but stumbled as she tried to get on as she was still shrinking. I walked up to her with my 2nd clone and picked her up gently. It was like when I used to pick up insects as a kid.

 2.6

    Humans actually acted pretty similar to insects. For example, Surgery Lady over here was squirming in my fingers as I held her like any other bug I would pick up. I imagine this is also what happened with giant Adumbrae when they picked up humans to eat them. Funnily enough I was an Adumbrae, but this was part of my Corebring powers. Unless being an Adumbrae affected them?

    I walked back over to Mr. Locke, the trenchcoat guy. Thankfully, my body from above could see a little dot that was a discrepancy on the ground and the syringe that fell to the ground next to him. I had my 2nd clone pick him up with her free hand. He and the doctor were both around the size of my 2nd clone¡¯s fingers. Hmm. What should I do with them?

    ¡°Please let us go!¡± Mr. Locke said. It nearly shocked me for a second to hear him speak. The insects I picked up as kids never talked. If they did, how would I react? I would probably still experiment on them anyways.

    It was also pretty hilarious since his voice sounded like someone injected a million tons of helium into it. It was so high in pitch. I kind of wanted to hear what Surgery Lady sounded like.

    ¡°Let me go you bitch!¡± She whined. Yep, still sounds like a balloon. Maybe they were more like balloons rather than insects now. I didn¡¯t have a good time with balloons. When I was a kid, I got a few for my 8th birthday party. The cake was so good, I forgot to hold onto to the balloons or tie them down. My birthday ended in heartbreak as I watched them fly away. At least the cake was delicious. What the fuck am I talking about?

    SpookyErind prepared to leap down. I guess there¡¯s no need to eavesdrop anymore. I prepared my main body as well. Weeee! We dropped from the building, our legs bending as we hit the ground. Cracks emanated from our landing spot. My 2nd body staggered a bit as the ground shook.

    Both of the people in my hands panicked and screamed. Although it was hard to tell given their high pitch voices.

    I noticed Mr. Locke stopped squirming and calmed down, unlike Dr. Aguilar.

    ¡°Hey, you¡¯re an Adumbrae right?¡± He asked.

    I didn¡¯t say anything to him. I just watched him.

    ¡°Umm, if so, then you¡¯ve probably met Mark and Big Marcy,¡± he said. That piqued my interest. So he was working for the 2Ms.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yeah, so we¡¯re working for him,¡± he said. ¡°You got your powers from the Red Island right?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± I lied. I had no idea where the fuck that place was, but that did confirm what Dario had been telling us so far.

    ¡°So, we¡¯re on the same side you know?¡± He said. Not really, but I didn¡¯t mind fishing for some more information.

    ¡°But then why were you trying to take Joseph?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s just a misunderstanding,¡± he said. ¡°We didn¡¯t know he was important to you. Had we known that we wouldn¡¯t have taken him at all.¡±

    It was really ironic since I didn¡¯t care about him at all. I just needed a reason to aggravate the 2Ms guys here.

    ¡°I¡¯m really upset you hurt him,¡± I said.

    ¡°Look, I¡¯m sorry kid,¡± he replied pleadingly. ¡°We just had no idea.¡±

    ¡°Why were you trying to take him anyways?¡± I asked.

    ¡°You know the brains you all eat?¡± He asked. What the fuck? Is he talking about the rich customers of the 2Ms?

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. ¡°Were you trying to get his brain?¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­ yes?¡± He said nervously. ¡°We were going to turn him into one of those monsters to have in one of those battles at the Eve.¡± The Eve? Battles? Monster battles? What the hell are all these things he¡¯s bringing up?

    ¡°Hmm,¡± I had my 2nd clone hum.

    ¡°Um, so could you please let us go?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Wait, I have a few questions first,¡± I had my 2nd clone say. Since they clearly couldn¡¯t escape me, this was a great time to get information about them. I may as well learn all there is to the 2M¡¯s operations.

    ¡°Sure¡­ What are they?¡± he asked apprehensively.

    ¡°You were talking about a drug named Eloycin.¡± I had my 2nd clone say. ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s not a real drug.¡±

    ¡°Not a real drug?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s just a lure,¡± he said.

    Why would you need a lure if you were just going to kidnap them off the streets?

    ¡°But Joseph was just sitting here,¡± I said. ¡°Why would you need a lure?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good point,¡± he said. ¡°We typically don¡¯t do stuff like this. However, we were running a bit low on our quotas so we had to ¡®pick him up¡¯. That¡¯s pretty smart of you for noticing by the way.¡± Was he trying to get on my good side? To be fair, I could totally crush him right now, so if I were in his shoes, I would do everything I could to appease the giant kid holding me.

    ¡°So then how do you get people and turn them into the monsters at Eve?¡± I asked.

    ¡°They come to us,¡± Mr. Locke said. ¡°We advertise trials for a new experimental pill. People come in, and we take those that aren¡¯t too important in society.¡± Generally, if I actually cared about Joseph, I would probably bring him up a million times right now. Especially since kids tend to be bratty about stuff they care about.

    I could potentially use this to infiltrate one of the 2M¡¯s bases. If they bring me to where all the mutants are, I could have a nice buffet. And didn¡¯t Adumbrae get stronger by eating more? I think SpookyErind might have mentioned that too. Anyways, the important thing is it would make me strong enough to eat that stupid statue lady.

    ¡°So how would I get to one of these places?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Well, our company¡¯s name is Eloycira,¡± he said. ¡°Just visit one of the offices. Of course, since they have a list of Marc¡¯s clients, they¡¯re not going to kidnap you. Although, they would probably call your parents just in case to bring you back home.¡±

    It was funny since both my parents would probably be deeply disturbed if they were called by this company. Thankfully, Dad was ¡°officially dead¡± so it was going to be impossible to contact him. Second of all, the 2M¡¯s don¡¯t know who my 2nd clone is, so they had like a zero percent chance of calling my Mom. Although, if they knew who I really was, they¡¯d probably try and kidnap her. I somehow felt upset thinking about that.

    ¡°Do you know about any of our bases?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± he said. ¡°I was only familiar with our stuff going on in Eloycira. Don¡¯t know about any of that other secret stuff.¡±

    I had my 2nd clone sigh in disappointment. So it wouldn¡¯t be that easy huh?

    ¡°Do you have any more questions?¡± he asked. ¡°I¡¯ve really enjoyed answering them!¡± There¡¯s no way that was true. He was scared as shit when I picked his tiny body up. It was funny to see him try and appease me. But he already violated Rule #4 by shooting me.

    ¡°Nope,¡± I said.

    ¡°Could you then let us go and turn us back to normal, please?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Um, I don¡¯t know how to do that,¡± I honestly said. The ant syringe didn¡¯t have a timer on it. So did that mean the effects were permanent? Regardless, I didn¡¯t have a cure either.

    ¡°Fuc- Ah well, could you just let us go then, please?¡± he asked.

    I ignored his question. Hmm, what should I do with them? I kind of wanted to torture them like I did with the insects I had. There was also a bunch of the other stuff he talked about that was going through my mind. Like there were monster battles at a place called the Eve.

    Suddenly, a light bulb moment popped into my head.

    I walked towards the back of the van. Maybe it¡¯ll have something I want in there?

    ¡°Wait, please let us go!¡± he begged. ¡°We can find a way to grow ourselves again.¡± Hmm. Would this have affected me when I was experimenting with insects? Probably not.

    I got up inside the van. There was a small table to the side with various medical equipment and containers. Two seats sat on the right, while four seats were at the front of the van, separated into two rows. There was a large space in the middle, probably for the stretcher.

    I walked over to the table. Hmm, I needed a big enough container for this. I put Mr.Locke in my left hand along with the Surgery Lady, who had gone strangely quiet. With my right hand, I grabbed a big tub that was nearly half a foot deep. There was a lot of stuff in it. I turned it over and dropped it on the ground. Some vials were in the mix and broke upon impact, releasing unknown liquids on the ground.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Wait, what are you doing?¡± the Surgery Lady panicked. ¡°It took me an hour to organize that stuff!¡± Seriously? I could probably do this in a few minutes. Well, probably not as well organized as it was, but it¡¯d get the job done.

    I put the tub back facing up and laid it on the ground. Then, I put the Surgery Lady and Mr. Locke in the tub. They were about a third of its height. Which was good, because I didn¡¯t want them to escape.

    But I wanted to put the other two security guards in the container as well. I walked back outside of the van and headed toward them. Meanwhile, I had my main body move inside the van, with SpookyErind walking with me.

    I had my 2nd clone take out a fresh ant syringe and throw it at one of the guards on the ground. He began to shrink. After the syringe was done injecting, it fell out of his body. Meanwhile, I waited for the ant syringe to reform.

    With my main body, I stepped into the truck and walked over to the tub. Surgery Lady and Mr. Locke looked stunned when they saw me. I could especially tell Mr.Locke was entranced because he stared at me longer than Surgery Lady. Wait, didn¡¯t they say her name? Oh well, I already forgot it since it¡¯s not important anyways.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± She said in her high-pitched voice, looking up at us.

    I bent over and grabbed the tub with my clawed hands, and lifted it up a bit. They both fell down. SpookyErind released one of her growled laughs. I sat down cross-legged, and balanced the tub on the legs.

    Thankfully, 10 seconds had passed, so with the shrunken security guard in my 2nd clone¡¯s left hand, I used her right hand to get the regenerated ant syringe and throw it at the other security guard. It hit, and he began shrinking. I was amazed at how much of a good thrower I was. I managed to throw that van to hit Mr. Porcupine Guy, and now I have thrown the syringe many times and haven¡¯t missed.

    I picked him up with my 2nd clone¡¯s right hand as he finished shrinking and headed back to the van.

    Meanwhile, in the van, SpookyErind sat right in front of me cross-legged. Her knees touched mine and she balanced the tub so it was on both of our legs now.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± Surgery Lady asked. ¡°Did that kid have other Adumbrae with them?¡±

    As I looked down with my main body, a feeling of hunger grew inside me. They hurt me, so I should eat them. The same thing happened with SpookyErind¡¯s body. But she somehow remained in control. That motivated me to not eat them yet. Besides, my 2nd clone was coming back.

    I growled. Sadly, I couldn¡¯t really talk with this body. But it did have the effect of causing them to stagger backward.

    ¡°Did she just leave us there with these bitches?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Hey, you need to calm down,¡± Mr. Locke said.

    ¡°Calm down?!¡± she yelled. ¡°We¡¯re fucking shrunk down and our fucking clients are messing with us. Why the fuck should I calm down?¡±

    ¡°Panicking is just going to make things worse,¡± he said. I found it kind of fascinating how they were talking to each other.

    My 2nd clone walked back inside the van and put the security guards in the tub. I had her sit down to my right, which was SpookyErind¡¯s left. Hmm. I could make this even more interesting.

    ¡°Hey, thanks for watching them,¡± I had my 2nd clone say.

    ¡°So, you are just keeping us safe right?¡± Mr. Locke asked. ¡°And then you¡¯ll help us get back to normal?¡±

    ¡°Nope,¡± I simply said.

    ¡°What do you mean nope?¡± he said as the life drained from his face.

    ¡°So, these are my friends over here,¡± I said as I pointed to both my main body and SpookyErind.

    ¡°Umm, hi?¡± Mr. Locke said.

    ¡°You guys can have them after they do something for me,¡± I had my 2nd clone say.

    ¡°Wait, what?¡± Surgery Lady panicked. ¡°She¡¯s giving us to them? I didn¡¯t sign up for this bullshit.¡±

    ¡°What are you going to have us do?¡± Mr. Locke asked.

    ¡°You guys are going to have a little battle,¡± I said. ¡°You guys will try and knock each other out. Whoever doesn¡¯t get knocked out wins.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what the fuck?¡± Surgery Lady said.

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± Mr. Locke stuttered.

    I had my main body point at the security guards in the tub. One was squirming since he got the ant syringe, while the other one was motionless because of the spider syringe.

    ¡°Oh, right,¡± I had my 2nd clone say. ¡°They are knocked out. I guess that means you can have them.¡±

    With my main body, I reached out my clawed right hand and held it over the squirming security guard. Wait? How was I going to lift him? I might just pierce him with my clawed hands. Actually, this might work. I reached out my index finger and poked him. My claw tip went right through his body. Some of the blood was leaking. Oh well, better make this quick. Surgery Lady gasped.

    The idea of eating insects seemed more and more interesting after SpookyErind ate the spider. Maybe it was just my Red Hood face that was doing that since it was hungry. Still, I wanted to try it out. Sadly, I didn¡¯t find any real insects after we found that spider. But these guys should work out.

    I brought up the squirming guard, which wasn¡¯t squirming as much since my clawed finger was going through him. I opened my mouth and used my large teeth to bring him in. His taste nearly surprised me.

    Both his skin and clothes tasted like really sweet ice cream. I began chewing him. Even his blood tasted sweet. Huh, was that an effect of the syringe? I swallowed. My body began to grow. And continued to grow. Huh? My muscles got stronger and some fur started to grow on my clothes. Claws broke through my shoes as the claws on my hands lengthened. Woah. I was nearly a head taller than SpookyErind now.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± Surgery Lady said.

    ¡°This can¡¯t be happening,¡± Mr. Locke said.

    SpookyErind pointed at the other guard.

    ¡°Yeah, you can have him,¡± I told her with my 2nd body.

    She leaned into the tub and stuck out her tongue. She slid it under the other security guard and brought it back into her mouth. I guess that also works. I could also feel the sweet burst of flavor on her tongue. She chewed him and swallowed. Her body grew to the same size of my main body. Huh, that was interesting to know. I made a mental note about that before I turned my attention to the other two human insects in the tub.

    ¡°What are you waiting for?¡± I asked them with my 2nd clone. ¡°Go fight!¡±

    ¡°Fuck this shit,¡± Surgery Lady says.

    ¡°Yeah, do we really have to fight each other?¡± Mr. Locke asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ll squish you with my hands if you don¡¯t fight,¡± I told them sternly. I brought my right hand over them.

    ¡°Okay! Okay!¡± Surgery Lady said. ¡°We¡¯ll fight.¡± I put my hand back down.

    Wow, this was way better than the insects I experimented with. Here, I could actually get them to do stuff for me and even threaten them. With bugs, their dumb brains had no idea what I was saying. I accidentally killed about a dozen before I realized that.

    Both Mr. Locke and Surgery Lady circled around each other. Mr. Locke brought out his gun and tried shooting it at Surgery Lady. But his gun didn¡¯t fire.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± he murmured.

    ¡°Did you just try shooting me you, bitch?¡± She asked. She brought up her hands in a fighting stance. I think it was just a bluff because that didn¡¯t look like a good form at all.

    Instead of responding, he simply charged her. She threw a punch, but Mr. Locke dodged and went behind her. He wrapped his arms around her neck.

    ¡°Sorry about this,¡± he said. ¡°But I intend on living today.¡±

    But, Surgery Lady stabbed him with a syringe.

    ¡°No!¡± He panicked. But seconds later his grip loosened on Surgery Lady.

    She let out a sigh of relief as he slumped to the ground.

    ¡°Fuck you,¡± she said as she kicked him on the ground.

    The battle was a bit short for my liking. Usually, the insects I caught fought for longer. But it did have an interesting twist. It kind of reminded me of when a smaller jumping spider would be able to kill an entire praying mantis. She was shorter than Mr. Locke, so she had to do something out of the ordinary to survive. I mean, how many people carry syringes with them? Well, I guess my 2nd clone technically counts.

    She turned up at us. ¡°So, you guys are going to let me go now right?¡±

    ¡°Um, I¡¯m going to let my friend have Mr. Locke first,¡± I said.

    I brought my main body down and stuck out my tongue. I slid it under his body, which tasted like vanilla ice cream, and brought him up into my mouth. I chewed, pulverizing his tiny body and releasing the sweet taste of blood. Which was very weird since blood was usually not sweet. I swallowed and waited. My main body grew even more. Some fur appeared on my gloves and clothes.

    ¡°All right, can I please go now?¡± She said in a way that was both nervous and impatient.

    Now, here¡¯s where the next fun part came in. Since I pretended my 2nd clone and I were different people, I could create an interesting facade.

    ¡°Sure, let me pick you up,¡± I said with my 2nd clone. I had her reach out her hand slowly and gently into the tub. But before I could continue, I grabbed her hand with my main body¡¯s clawed hand.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I had my 2nd clone say with anxiety.

    I let out a low growl.

    ¡°Um, you don¡¯t want me to let her go?¡± I had my 2nd clone ask. I could hear Surgery Lady curse.

    I nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Oh, sorry, my friends over here don¡¯t want me to let you go,¡± I had my 2nd clone say. I had my main body release my 2nd clone¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Wait, you can¡¯t do this!¡± She panicked.

    ¡°I can¡¯t do anything about it though, she¡¯s kind of scary,¡± I said. ¡°She¡¯s also way stronger than me.¡±

    Anyways, it was SpookyErind¡¯s turn to eat. I already had two of the humans, so she should get the last one. But instead of eating Surgery Lady, she simply pointed at her.

    ¡°What?¡± I asked. I had no idea what she wanted.

    She then pointed at my 2nd clone.

    ¡°Why are you pointing at me?¡± I had her ask.

    ¡°Do you want me to have her?¡± She nodded her head.

    ¡°Oh, thanks I guess,¡± I said. I reached down and grabbed Surgery Lady with my 2nd body¡¯s left hand.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what the fuck is going on, but now you can let me go right?¡± She pleaded.

    I removed her mask from her face. It was kind of a disappointment I never saw her facial expressions at all during this. She had a beautiful face that was ruined by her frowning.

    I held her with two of my fingers at an angle so none of them were covering her limbs. I then grabbed her right leg with my right index finger and thumb. I gave it a little squeeze. The most hilarious high-pitched scream followed.

    When I tortured bugs, they never made any audible sounds. So it was nice that humans were different. It definitely adds some flair to this whole torture thing. I squeezed a little bit harder until I heard a crunching noise. I didn¡¯t want to have a bunch of viscera on my gloves, so I released her broken leg.

    I repeated the process with her right arm. It¡¯d been a while since I¡¯d done this, so it was definitely nostalgic to hear some familiar sounds. The screaming in pain was a nice bonus. I continued doing this for the rest of her limbs.

    ¡°Please¡­ stop,¡± she grunted. ¡°Just let me go.¡±

    There was one main problem with that. What if she somehow got safely back to the 2Ms? She might tell them about me. I preferred for them to stay in the dark. Sadly for her, she also bothered me. So I wasn¡¯t going to let her be free anyways.

    Hmm. What else should I do to her? She was already injured. I couldn¡¯t torture her much more without killing her. But then, the sweet taste of the other humans surfaced in my mind.

    I brought her up to my 2nd clone¡¯s mouth and opened wide. She pleaded as I put her inside my mouth. My tongue was instantly greeted with more sweetness. But since my 2nd clone was very short, Surgery Lady took up a lot of space in my mouth. She was like a giant pill. Generally, you aren¡¯t supposed to chew pills. Thankfully, she wasn¡¯t one.

    I began chewing. My cute little teeth easily ripped through her body, allowing the taste of ice cream flesh and blood to flow onto my tongue. Wasn¡¯t it amazing how my small body easily ripped a human to shreds?

    I swallowed. Unlike my Red Hood face, my kid scientist form didn¡¯t grow or get stronger by eating people. Oh well. Time to move on. There was nothing else left for me in this van.

    With my main body, I put the tub to my left and got back up. I headed out of the van while SpookyErind and my 2nd clone followed me. What an amazing night. But soon, my main body and SpookyErind¡¯s body smelt something terrible. I took a look around and noticed Joseph¡¯s stretcher had rolled to the side. He remained there motionless.

    Oh right, I nearly forgot about him after I started playing my game with the 2Ms. He was still strapped to the stretcher. Should I let him go? He did compliment me. On second thought, being anywhere near him was pretty revolting. He really needed to take a shower. I wasn¡¯t going to ruin my night by being at risk of touching his greasiness. And I technically already saved him from the 2M¡¯s monster experimentation.

    I started heading out. Well, at least you have a bed now Joseph. And a nice van beside you too.

 2.6.1*

    I had my 2nd clone take off her goggles. She instantly grew in height. It would be best if I returned with just my main body since it would be harder to conceal three people. Back to solo Erind.

    But before I could unsummon her, SpookyErind rushed up and leaned down to hug her from behind. She nuzzled her cheek. Wow, Red Hood¡¯s skin was really soft.

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m kind of tired,¡± I had my 2nd clone say. ¡°I want to go to bed.¡± Of course, this wasn¡¯t really true because I felt really energized by what happened. But I would get cranky if I didn¡¯t get my sleep time. Tea can only do so much.

    Instead of releasing me, she held onto my hands.

    ¡°Come on,¡± I pouted.

    ¡°Rhroaarr,¡± she growled. I had no idea what the fuck that meant. But since she didn¡¯t let me go, I assumed that meant she didn¡¯t want to release me from her hug. She nuzzled my 2nd clone¡¯s cheek again. Did that mean yes? How do I read an Adumbrae¡¯s body language? They should really make a book on that.

    She leaned in closer, squishing her boobs against my 2nd clone. They were actually pretty comfy. I could imagine myself lying down on them. But my bed at Deen¡¯s home was way nicer.

    Since all three of our senses were linked, I could also feel what it was like for SpookyErind to hug my 2nd clone. I bet most boys would kill to be in this moment. Sadly, I didn¡¯t really feel anything special other than how comfy the hug was.

    Was this how it felt for Deen when she hugged me? Sadly, her hugs always felt disgusting, even if her boobs were comfortable. Although, SpookyErind¡¯s boobs were probably way bigger than hers right now. She¡¯d be close to a foot taller than Deen, I imagine.

    ¡°Come on,¡± I said again with my 2nd clone. ¡°Let me go.¡±

    She continued to hug my 2nd clone and nuzzle her. I tried to move my hands, but she was way too strong for me. Why was SpookyErind always stronger than me? This wasn¡¯t fair. Even if I worked out, she would get stronger too.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to hug me in bed anyways,¡± I said. ¡°Can¡¯t you at least wait?¡±

    ¡°Roargh,¡± she growled. I rolled my eyes. Presumably, that was another no.

    Was I really going to be stuck like this? I wanted to head back home. It was kind of awkward doing this in the middle of the street. A sense of paranoia built up in me. What if someone saw me? Or what if Joseph woke up? I didn¡¯t want to deal with any of that nonsense.

    Actually, Joseph would probably be asleep for quite a while. And given how nobody really appeared to be out and about in this precinct, I doubted anymore would come. But you could never be too sure.

    We stayed like that for a minute or so before a light bulb moment popped up in my head. I actually was stronger than SpookyErind right now! My main body ate more than she did, so it was taller and stronger. I moved over to them and grabbed SpookyErind¡¯s hands.

    I¡¯m going to forcibly remove your hands. Which is what I wanted to say, but a growl came out instead.

    She growled back as if challenging me. I pried her hands off of my 2nd clone. They easily came off as she tried to resist me. I brought my 2nd clone¡¯s left hand to her face and pulled it. She vanished out of thin air.

    Since SpookyErind was no longer hugging my 2nd clone, her boobs dropped with a springy rebound. She stared at my boobs. They were like beach balls while her boobs were like watermelons. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. The point still stands though that my boobs were bigger.

    She moved forward and pressed herself against me, squishing both of our boobs. She tried to hug me, but I kept her arms from going around me.

    Our snouts touched as she looked up at me. It felt good to be taller than her. A tingly feeling entered both of our bodies as we stayed glued together. It felt weird¡­ I didn''t want any more of it. I pushed her away slightly, letting go of her.

    She ended up going a few steps back. I wasn¡¯t up for this much touchy feeliness.

    Can you unsummon yourself, please? I thought. I think SpookyErind was getting in the mood of messing with me. It was time for her to go away now.

    She growled and shook her head. I rolled my eyes. But she took that moment to charge to my right side and sandwich my right arm in her boobs. The fuck?

    She held her arms around me in an embrace. Okay, this was getting annoying. I was planning on just going back anyways, but now I couldn¡¯t.  Thankfully, I was stronger than her.

    I started trying to free my right arm. She stayed glued to me, and it was hard to have leverage here. I didn¡¯t want to harm her, but it was a very tempting option. I began using superstrength to separate my right arm from her vile grasp, but that turned out to be a mistake. SpookyErind let out a combination of a growl and a moan.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    I could feel her heart beating faster. Were her cheeks turning red? Fuck? How was I going to get out of this? Any movement would just cause those weird feelings to appear again.

    She let out a heaving motion. Was she laughing at me?

    Wait a minute? How come I was letting this get in the way? I was stronger than her, I wasn¡¯t going to let her get the upper hand.

    I began pushing some more this time. She let out another weird moan-growl. But she wasn¡¯t strong enough to restrain me. I got out of her embrace.

    I took a look at her. Her cheeks were flushed red. Fuck, was she getting turned on by this? To be fair, it did feel pretty good. Wait no, fuck that sound! Or was it fuck that noise? I hated having shared senses.

    My cheeks also turned red. No! Bad thoughts. But, I wasn¡¯t going to back down now.

    I put my hands on my hips and let out a growl. Back off.

    Rather than heed my warning, she confidently walked towards me. How the hell was I going to get her to stop? But maybe I could embarrass her instead if she was going to continue.

    I started walking towards her and she stopped in her tracks. I tackled her onto the ground. The cold concrete greeted her. My push wasn¡¯t too hard since the concrete wasn¡¯t cracked. I sat up, my bottom sitting on her thighs. My legs held them together from the sides. I put my right hand on her abs so she couldn¡¯t get up.

    Wow, those were some really good abs. It was kind of amazing how fit she was even though her boob fat was high. She growled at me, probably wanting me to let her go.

    I stuck out my tongue at her. I used my left hand and tried grabbing her mask. It budged, but didn¡¯t actually come off. Oh, so I couldn¡¯t force her to transform back into her human self.

    ¡°Groaa,¡± she growled. I took my left hand off of her snout. She was able to lift herself up a bit, but not too much. I could have put my hand on her chest to stop her from raising at all, but after what just happened, I felt uncomfortable doing that.

    She reached out with her hands to pull off my hand on her abs. My hand began to lift a little as she started to succeed. No! I got out my other hand and grabbed hers. Now I was back to holding both of her hands. I pushed them downwards until they were on the ground.

    However, this caused me to lean over, so now my boobs were squished against hers. Our cheeks became redder. But I didn¡¯t want to lose.

    SpookyErind had messed with me all this time. This was my chance to mess with her. She was on the ground below me. I was on top of her, asserting dominance.

    My competitive streak was back. It had suppressed itself during law school since it was important not to make enemies. The curve system really forced me to repress myself. If I did too well, people would get upset and try to sabotage me since I would ruin the curve.

    But back in high school and undergrad, I was probably the best student by far. Nearly perfect 100s in all of my classes. Except for that one English class in 10th grade. The stupid teacher kept grading things inconsistently. I swear she just rolled dice and used that for our grades. Still, for everything else, I strived to be better. In undergrad, I participated in various speech and debate competitions. It was nice to get quite a few trophies under my belt. Since Judo proved physical fighting wasn¡¯t my best sport, I had to do better elsewhere. So if I couldn¡¯t win physical fights, I would win mental ones.

    SpookyErind let out a whimper. Huh? Was she giving up? I rose back up and released her hands. She got off the ground as well.

    However, something weird happened. She began to shrink down. SpookyErind then took off her mask as she returned to Red Hood¡¯s original height.

    She was now way shorter than me. Maybe not as short as my kid scientist form (I should really get a name for that), but even my boobs were a couple of inches above the top of her head. Her cheeks were blushing, which was weird since she had marble-like skin.

    All right, unsummon yourself so I can go back home, I thought. Thankfully, she could read my thoughts. Which was a weird thing to say given how much I disliked it earlier. But it made it easier to tell her to do stuff, which was a good thing.

    <u>I¡¯ll unsummon myself when you give me a hug,</u> she said with a grin as she held her arms out. This was blackmail! Wait no, it was extortion. I can¡¯t believe she was holding up my night like this. I may as well get this over with. I walked up to her and leaned down. Damn, I was so tall. Maybe around seven feet. Meanwhile, SpookyErind was still stuck at a measly 5 foot 4.

    I wrapped my arms around her back, while my boobs cushioned her head. I didn¡¯t want to lean down any further, and I also didn¡¯t want her to nuzzle me, so this was the best she was going to get. She wrapped her arms around me, or at least tried to. She couldn¡¯t fully embrace me because of how big I was.

    SpookyErind leaned her head on my boobs.

    <u>These are really nice,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>Do you think I could sleep on them tonight?</u>

    What the fuck?

    She let out a giggle.

    I released her from our hug. She stopped hugging me but proceeded to trace my left boob with her right hand. A tingly feeling grew in my chest.

    <u>Are you glad that I gave this face special features?</u> She asked as she continued caressing my giant ball of flesh.

    I guess I did like being beautiful. It was way better than just being average me. Although average me was still pretty cute. But when other girls had bigger boobs than me, it made me jealous. Now, I could probably beat all of them in a beauty pageant, even with my monster mouth.

    <u>I¡¯m glad your enjoying this,</u> she giggled. Both of our cheeks were pretty red. How fast was my heart going to beat? Should I push her again? SpookyErind stopped caressing my breast. Huh?

    <u>While I would love to keep doing this, we should get home,</u> she said. That¡¯s what I¡¯ve been trying to do while you kept trying to hug me! She chuckled as she put her hand on her face. She pulled and she was gone in an instant.

    I put my hand on my snouth and tried pulling it. But it didn¡¯t come off. What? Wait,  didn¡¯t SpookyErind shrink herself before taking the Red Hood mask off? I should try doing that. I focused on becoming smaller. Eventually, I became my normal height. Now my boobs were smaller. And since I was about to transform to my original self, they were about to disappear. Goodbye big boobs.

    I took off my snout and shrank in height again. Yet, I could still feel myself blushing. It stayed like that until I finally came home.

 2.7

    ¡°BID nodes ensure that each region of the US can be easily reached by the BID,¡± Professor Silva lectured. ¡°Of course, more libertarian states have attempted to resist the arrival of BID agents. What argument have they used?¡±

    I raised my hand.

    ¡°Yes, Ms. Hartwell?¡± She called on me.

    ¡°Posse Comitatus, which was passed in a bill in 1878,¡± I explained as I stood up. ¡°The bill prevented federal troops from enforcing the law in local matters. The phrase Posse Comitatus comes from the Latin phrase ¡°power of the county,¡± which means that local law enforcement should have jurisdiction rather than the federal government. Many states had independent militias to help deal with the Adumbrae before federal agencies such as the BID and the AIU were formed.¡±

    ¡°Indeed, and so how did the federal government respond to this legally?¡± she asked.

    ¡°The US Supreme Court ruled in 1963¡¯s U.S. vs. Wyoming case that Adumbrae were a national security issue,¡± I answered. ¡°Posse Comitatus did not apply even though Wyoming insisted it was a local law enforcement matter.¡±

    ¡°A good response,¡± she said. ¡°You may sit down.¡±

    I sat back in my seat. Last Thursday, I basically stayed quiet the whole class, so it was important for today¡¯s lecture to continue making a good impression on Professor Silva. Since she only called on two to five people every class, I probably wouldn¡¯t be called on until a few weeks for now.

    Meanwhile, my 2nd clone was back at home on the phone playing Tappy Dash. One of the great things about having multiple bodies was multitasking. Now, I could be in class while still trying to beat some of the levels in the game.

    I had my 2nd clone tap the screen to dodge past the pink obstacles coming for my blue square. A tap from one of her fingers caused the square to fly back up toward the top of the black void. Muscle memory was the goal of the game. And with a bit of concentration, I could easily beat this level.

    And then my concentration was broken.

    <u>Hey, move up so I can sit behind you,</u> SpookyErind said.

    I ignored her and continued playing my game. I was so close. SpookyErind put her hands on my shoulders. A small pink orb crashed into my blue square. It exploded. No! I was like 95% of the way there!

    I turned my 2nd clone¡¯s head and glared at SpookyErind.

    <u>What¡¯s the matter?</u> She asked with a grin. I rolled my eyes at her. <u>Hey, so I¡¯m going to sit down here.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m already sitting here though!¡± I had my clone say. ¡°Get your own chair.¡±

    <u>There¡¯s only one chair,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>And since we are the same, it¡¯s our chair. You know, Meyoumeyoumeyou.</u>

    Fine. I scooted up a bit so she could sit behind me. Thankfully, this chair was kind of big. Otherwise, I would have fallen off if I moved. She sat behind my 2nd clone. Since I was already sitting there, she opened her legs as she sat down and used them to hug my legs. She wrapped her arms behind me and brought her head forward to nuzzle my cheek.

    <u>See, isn¡¯t this much better now?</u> She asked.

    ¡°No, because I just died before finishing the level,¡± I pouted.

    <u>Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll beat it on the next go,</u> she said. I sighed as I pressed the replay button.

    Back in class, Professor Silva was still lecturing.

    ¡°Over the course of modern history, we find that federalism has been declining in favor of centralism. Obviously, you all know what federalism is. But, if you haven¡¯t guessed what centralism is, then it¡¯s the idea that the central government should hold most of the power of a country.  The Adumbrae threat has only enforced the requirement of a strong national force. Therefore, it should be of no surprise why this shift happened.

    ¡°Not to get too political here, but the interest in a strong national government has led to serious conflicts with the Libertarian Party. While their political desires for freedom from government may have been good prior to World War II, they simply do not apply now. Freedom from Adumbrae is simply more popular than freedom from government.¡±

    I would have agreed with that before becoming an Adumbrae. When I was just a normal human, I already had so many worries. Adding Adumbrae on top of them was simply stupid. So, I supported the BID and AIU spending when it came time to vote. And that¡¯s how I got to voting for the current president four years ago. Can I take my vote back now?

    Now, of course, I knew politicians were greedy douchebags, and I may as well have saved my time, but there were a couple of things I accomplished by voting. Number one, it helped to create a good impression of my daily Erind face. When I sent in my mail-in ballot, I got a sticker saying I voted. It didn¡¯t mean much to me, but with a bunch of my classmates being politically active, it showed I was an upstanding citizen. And given how we were all undergrad students in a densely populated city, they probably thought I had the same values as them.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Second of all, politicians and ballot measures can majorly impact my life. While I liked to be the one in control, there was simply no denying the fact that politicians and ballot measures could affect me. I may as well have some input in trying to change the course of this country to benefit me. Still, I doubt my vote mattered too much. Thankfully, I only did mail-in voting. If I had to wait in line to vote, I don¡¯t think I would have gotten that sticker nearly four years ago. That¡¯d just drain my energy too much to keep up my face.

    <u>And how do you plan on voting for this year¡¯s election?</u> SpookyErind asked with her head still attached to the side of my 2nd clone¡¯s head.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± I said with my 2nd clone. ¡°I don¡¯t like either of the top two presidential candidates.¡± It looked like the top two candidates were going to be Goodwin and Vos. Goodwin, the current president, was currently having the BID send more troops to the docks area, which was way too close for my liking. And then, I read in an article that Vos was blaming him for the Adumbrae attack. He said he¡¯d double BID spending, which was a big no-no since I was an Adumbrae.

    There were also 3rd party candidates. The two main other 3rd parties were the Green Party and the Socialist Party. Sadly, the Libertarian Party didn¡¯t have ballot access in California. Otherwise, I would have voted for them. Maybe they¡¯d somehow get lucky, and their president would defund the BID for me. Obviously, I wasn¡¯t going to vote for the Socialist Party. They shared the same stance on the BID as the two main candidates. I guess that just left the Green Party. They didn¡¯t really focus too much on the BID, and making the Earth cleaner would be nice I guess.

    ¡°Who would you vote for?¡± I asked SpookyErind.

    <u>I¡¯d vote for us,</u> she said. <u>I think we should have the power to control the US, right?</u> We both laughed. I guess I could also write in myself. But that¡¯d be weird, and some people might notice an ¡°Erind Hartwell¡± getting a vote in the presidential election. And I¡¯d prefer not to get attention that way. Or at all, really.

    <u>On the topic of power, didn¡¯t it feel nice to experiment on those insects last Saturday night?</u> She asked.

    The spider and the cockroach? Well, -

    <u>No, not those ones, the other ones, </u>she said. The other ones? Did she mean the group of 2M¡¯s I shrunk down?

    She smirked. I guess they technically were insects. They were really small like them. Wait, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how the definition of an insect works. Pretty sure they need to have six legs. Would that mean if an ant was the size of a human, it would still be considered an insect?

    ¡°Yeah, I enjoyed experimenting on them,¡± I had my 2nd clone say.

    <u>I enjoyed it too,</u> she said. <u>They were pretty tasty too.</u>

    Indeed. Who knew vanilla ice cream-flavored humans would taste so good?  I had eaten other humans in my Red Hood form, but they just had the generic taste of metallic blood and salty flesh. Which was kind of funny to say since who would consider the taste of humans generic? Do Adumbrae ever get bored of eating the humans that have the same flavor? Probably not, since they keep eating them.

    Anyways, it was great to pretend to be a kid again. I got to make up two different faces. The first was a valiant kid sticking up for the homeless. The second was an Adumbrae kid who experimented on people. The only bad thing about it was being short. I didn¡¯t like being short, and I still hate being short.

    Oh, and I guess another bad thing was I didn¡¯t collect any of them. Back before Mom found out, I had a collection of insects. There was just something fascinating about taking them and having them for myself. I could have them do battles, torture them, and kill them.

    From tiny beetles all the way to large spiders, I had everything. I was basically an entomologist. I think I heard that on Animal Planet or some other show. They were the people who studied insects. I made it my goal as a kid to study them. Of course, the modern science community may have disagreed with my methods, but their methods were boring.

    Entomologist¡­ Ento. maybe that¡¯s what I should call my kid scientist¡¯s face.

    <u>That sounds like a cute name,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>It¡¯s just as cute as ours.</u>

    I did have a cute name. Although, it would be really nice if some people would stop thinking it¡¯s a boy''s name.

    <u>Anyways, maybe on your next mission, you could collect some insects for us,</u> she said. <u>Imagine having a human insect colony!</u>

    That sounded pretty difficult to do. While I could definitely show off my new powers to my team, they¡¯d probably be pretty disturbed if I tried to take some of the 2M¡¯s thug guys with me home. I¡¯d have to do it discreetly.

    <u>Maybe you should try using the apron¡¯s other pocket,</u> SpookyErind suggested.

    What? That didn¡¯t really solve any issues. As a kid, when I tried to collect insects, they all squirmed. After Mom scolded me, I tried transporting some large beetles in my pockets, but they wiggled, and Mom had a talk with me. And that was the end of my entomologist career. I didn¡¯t want to make Mom angry¨CI was the perfect daughter who could do no wrong.

    Also, it wasn¡¯t like I was living alone. Deen was also here. I¡¯d have to somehow keep it a secret from her. She liked to barge into my room. Maybe I should just keep this door locked. I¡¯d still be afraid of her busting through the window.

    <u>I¡¯m sure we could figure it out,</u> SpookyErind said as she nuzzled my cheek again.

    Maybe so. Anyways, I had more important things to do, like beating this level and paying attention in class.

    ¡°So how does this apply to Palmer Node being deployed here in California?¡± Carmen asked.

    ¡°Well, in this case, the Standard Operating Procedure would be to secure the area,¡± Professor Silva said. ¡°While we do not know what happened to the Titan Adumbrae, BID agents will continue their search. The expansion of the search area will happen slowly.¡±

    ¡°But what happens if the Titan Adumbrae isn¡¯t found?¡± Carmen asked.

    ¡°This sort of strays away from the concept of national security,¡± Professor Silva started off. ¡°But I imagine if that happened, it would be because the Corebrings managed to eliminate it. It is unlikely to evade detection for long.¡±

    The funny fact of it was I was pretty sure that Titan Adumbrae, Ms.Statue Lady, was a member of the 2Ms. She could clearly talk to us, so she had some control over her body. She¡¯d be able to hide pretty easily from the BID if she could grow and shrink at will. I wondered how many other 2Ms members were as strong or stronger than her. It would be a fun challenge to eat them all. Maybe Ento could help with that. Although, I wasn¡¯t sure if her syringes could pierce Ms. Statue Lady¡¯s skin.

    The class came to an end shortly after that. And I managed to beat that level! Just had Consti next. And after that, there was the celebration with my ¡°teammates.¡±

 2.8

    Deen and I walked inside the atrium of our secret hideout.

    In the center of the room was a table with a circular cake in the middle. It was split into two halves - a vanilla half and a chocolate half. Paper plates, napkins, and sodas were to the side. The rest of the team except Dario was already here.

    ¡°Happy birthday girls!¡± Reo said.

    ¡°It¡¯s not their birthday,¡± Myra sternly said. Her arm had regenerated fully.

    ¡°Oh oops, why did we get the cake again?¡± Reo asked. Myra sighed and rolled her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m kidding. I¡¯m kidding.¡±

    ¡°Hi Erind and Deen,¡± Myra waved at us.

    ¡°Hey guys,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Hi,¡± I meekly waved.

    We said our hellos to the rest of the group. I really wanted to have the cake, but we had to wait until Dario arrived. It would be pretty weird to celebrate without our ¡°leader¡±.

    Soon after, Dario came by.

    ¡°Hey guys, sorry I¡¯m late,¡± he said. ¡°I had a meeting call with the professor.¡±

    ¡°You should have brought him over,¡± Johann said. ¡°My friend makes really good cakes.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that looks delicious, but unfortunately he¡¯s staying at work for now,¡± Dario replied. ¡°It would also be best if he doesn¡¯t get seen with anyone here.¡±

    ¡°If he came here, some in the BID might get suspicious right?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Indeed,¡± he said. ¡°He¡¯d already risking himself by giving us Artificial Cores. I¡¯d rather not risk him any further.¡±

    ¡°More cake for the rest of us, I guess,¡± Reo said.

    Johann grabbed a knife and started cutting each half of the cake into multiple slices.

    ¡°Oh, guys,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Yeah Deen?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°Erind can make another clone,¡± she said.

    ¡°Wait really?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Come on, show them,¡± Deen said to me.

    I really should be the one taking the initiative with explaining my new powers. Not Deen. I was planning on waiting until after we ate the cake. The timing just felt better to do it that way. Also, I was playing on my phone with my 2nd clone. Ugh. I guess I¡¯ll stop playing and bring her here.

    SpookyErind unsummoned herself.

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± I said as I had my 2nd clone unsummon herself. Now I had the sensation of two orbs in my left hand.

    I held out my left hand and focused on summoning. An embroidered mask formed from floating gold liquid. But this one only had one symbol of an Artificial Core. Does that mean I can only summon clones in the order I got them? That was stupid.

    SpookyErind¡¯s mask floated over to the left side as I focused on summoning the 2nd clone. The mask that formed had two identical symbols of Artificial Cores right next to each other in the center of the forehead. SpookyErind appeared as a normal Erind clone as my 2nd clone¡¯s mask floated over to the right. In an instant, my 2nd clone appeared, causing its mask to vanish.

    ¡°Impressive,¡± Dario said. ¡°Can it also transform like your other clone?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. I had my 2nd clone bring out her left hand and focus on summoning her Ento face. Well, it was actually goggles, but in a sense, it was a face.

    She put the goggles on, and everyone else seemed to get bigger from her perspective. Wow, being short really sucks. As a kid, sometimes I would get surrounded by a bunch of adults when Mom dragged me around. One day, I told myself that I was going to grow as tall as Mom and probably be taller than some of them. Unfortunately, it seemed the world had a vendetta against me because I was nowhere near as tall as Mom. Maybe I should just wear really tall heels like her. Nah, that still wouldn¡¯t put me anywhere near her normal height.

    ¡°Your clone just turned into a kid scientist,¡± Myra said. Uh, that was kind of obvious. Maybe her arm injury extended to her head. But her arm already regenerated. Then she was just a stupid bitch. And she sure was for attacking me.

    ¡°Maybe she can help do your med school homework,¡± Reo said. ¡°Ouch!¡± Myra punched him in the shoulder.

    ¡°So your 2nd clone doesn¡¯t keep the same clothes as your 1st clone?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°I mean, my normal clothes wouldn¡¯t fit on her anyways.¡±

    ¡°Good point,¡± he said. He took a look at the syringes sticking out of my 2nd clone¡¯s apron. ¡°Do those syringes do anything?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± I lied. It¡¯d be really awkward if I revealed my experiments with them. ¡°But, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to test it on anyone that¡¯s not an enemy. I just have a bad feeling about it.¡±

    ¡°I understand,¡± he said. ¡°Regardless, it¡¯s like we have a new member to the team.¡± We all laughed.

    ¡°All right, let¡¯s celebrate with some cake!¡± Johann said. ¡°A slice for everyone.¡± I took off my 2nd clone¡¯s goggles, and she grew in height. Everyone was still taller than me though. I internally grumbled. Maybe Johann will let me eat three slices.

    ¡°Can each of my clones also have a slice?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Hey! That¡¯s not fair,¡± Reo said. ¡°Why does she get more than one slice?¡±

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be having more than one slice anyway,¡± Myra said, pointing at his belly. It was pretty weird since unlike the rest of us, Reo seemed the least fit. But I guess because of his powers he didn¡¯t need to be fighting directly with the Adumbrae.

    ¡°That¡¯s also not fair,¡± Reo replied.

    ¡°Maybe each of your fairies could get a slice,¡± I suggested.

    ¡°Good idea!¡± Reo said as he instantly kneeled and prepared to summon.

    ¡°Don¡¯t give him those ideas,¡± Myra said as she rolled her eyes and picked him up. ¡°I don¡¯t want to see him summon - it¡¯ll ruin my appetite.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m not actually restricting you guys to one slice each,¡± Johann said. ¡°Nobody¡¯s going to get in trouble if you have more than one slice.¡±

    ¡°Thanks man,¡± Reo said. Johann nodded as he started giving out cakes to all of us.

    I had my main body and my 2nd clone each grab a slice of cake. SpookyErind also grabbed one. We all started eating it and were met with the sweet taste of the extra creamy vanilla cream. Okay, I¡¯ll have to say, Johann¡¯s baker friend makes really good cakes. How did they make the cream so good? I¡¯ll have to ask for the recipe. Maybe I should take up making sweets as a hobby.

    As we were chewing the cake, I was reminded of the vanilla ice cream taste of the humans I ate on Saturday night. This cake was way sweeter than that. Was there a way to make the humans taste sweeter? I¡¯d probably just be covering them in sweeter cream. That sounds like too much work.

    Hopefully, I¡¯d be able to experience that soon. There was just something good about having complete control over the life of a puny creature. In a sense, that was what humans were to me. I was both an Adumbrae and a Corebring. Of course, I wouldn¡¯t just go around attacking innocent people. Rule #4 prevented me from doing that. I imagine if I just went on a killing spree of innocent people, the BID and the Corebrings would soon be after me.

    On the other hand, if I just experiment on those who bother me like the 2Ms, then I¡¯d easily get away with it. What were the BID or Corebrings going to do? Get upset that I¡¯m killing their enemy? Actually, they might just attack me for being an Adumbrae. Still, the point stands. Rule #4 was a necessary measure to Rule #8. I can kill myself only after I have killed everybody else. The probability I¡¯d be able to kill everybody else was pretty low, so it was important to not attract attention so I could maximize my chances of not dying.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Speaking of Corebrings, I wondered how it would be to eat some of my teammates after stabbing them with the ant syringe. Actually, wouldn¡¯t they still have their superpowers if I shrunk them? To be fair, the only one I would ever intend on shrinking is Myra. What would vanilla-flavored tree bark taste like? Vanilla, obviously.

    She could still stab me with those spikes of hers. I don¡¯t think it¡¯d be a good idea to eat her like that. It¡¯d be like eating a cactus. Not that I¡¯ve ever eaten a cactus.

    After that, I finished my cake. We were still celebrating. SpookyErind was hanging out with Deen. She was still too touchy-feely with her. I also wasn¡¯t interested in any of their conversations. May as well get to know some of my teammates. Generally, I¡¯d find interacting with other people to be draining, but I was in a good mood after tasting so much cake. And after all, knowledge is power. Furthermore, I would be presenting a face to them, so they wouldn¡¯t be learning as much as I would about them, giving me way more power. If I gave them fake knowledge, does that mean they get fake power?

    I walked my main body over to Myra and Johann. Meanwhile, I had my 2nd clone go to Reo and Everett.

    ¡°Hey Erind,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°Hello,¡± Everett said, staring at Deen, who was still talking to SpookyErind about nonsense on the other side of the room.

    ¡°Hi guys,¡± I said.

    ¡°Dude, you got to stop staring at hot girls when other girls are talking to you,¡± Reo said to Everett.

    ¡°Hey, you¡¯re supposed to be backing me up,¡± Everett said. ¡°Sorry about that Erind.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine,¡± I said with my 2nd clone. ¡°I¡¯m used to being the third wheel when it comes to Deen anyways.¡±

    ¡°Third wheel?¡± Everett asked. He was intrigued. Now was an excellent time to mess with him.

    ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s this dude called Adrian she hangs out with a lot,¡± I said. ¡°Sometimes, I just get let out. But I understand. She probably has a crush on him.¡±

    ¡°Looks like you got competition,¡± Reo said to Everett.

    Everett sighed. It was funny to break the hopes and dreams of other people. And it was funny to do it in a way that didn¡¯t seem mean.

    ¡°Really?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Yeah, actually, I think they might have gone on a date once,¡± I said. ¡°They had it like a couple of weeks ago at the Sanders mall.¡± Everett cringed when I brought up that name. While I didn¡¯t know if Deen actually went on a date, and I doubt if she would tell me, it was fun to assume. It was also the place that Everett burned down and felt guilty about it. As they say, killing two birds with one stone.

    Reo looked at him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m sure there are other girls that are in your league,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°It¡¯s not about that,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°You sure?¡± Reo said. ¡°As my mom said, got to be open to all the girls.¡±

    ¡°I hope your girlfriend hasn¡¯t heard you say that,¡± Everett cringed.

    ¡°It works!¡± Reo said. ¡°Try your charms on Myra first.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯s more interested in Johann,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°How about Erind then?¡± Reo asked. What the fuck?

    ¡°Umm¡­¡± I murmured. Unlike Reo, Everett was pretty fit. I could see his chest muscles through his T-shirt. Of course, while many girls may find that attractive, I didn¡¯t. I wasn¡¯t really romantically interested in anybody.

    ¡°You can¡¯t just do that!¡± He panicked. ¡°She¡¯s right here. Sorry about him Erind.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I shrugged.

    ¡°Hey, I was just trying to be your wingman!¡± Reo said.

    ¡°Fine,¡± Everett said. ¡°Hey Erind, would you like to go out for some coffee?¡±

    ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t drink coffee,¡± I said. I drink tea instead. ¡°Nice try though.¡± I also didn¡¯t want to try and fake a relationship with him. He¡¯d probably be too focused on Deen for me to manipulate him and eventually break his heart.

    He faced palm and Reo laughed.

    Meanwhile, my main body was having a bit more of a productive conversation with Myra and Johann.

    ¡°So, how¡¯s med school going?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s going okay I guess,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m surprised I¡¯m still able to keep up with studying even while doing all of this.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s definitely impressive,¡± I said. It wasn¡¯t actually. I¡¯ve had way more shit thrown at me, so I¡¯m juggling way more than she is. Hmm, I should learn to actually juggle.

    ¡°I just hope we¡¯re able to find the Red Island soon so we can save Kelsey,¡± she said. Oh right, we still need to save her sister. But if she¡¯s an Adumbrae, how could we save her? It¡¯s not like there was much we could do. Just like me. SpookyErind was taking over my body and my clones from my Corebring power.

    Wait a minute. I could still control my 2nd clone. So why was SpookyErind able to control my first one? Did she just let me control the 2nd one on my own? I never really paid attention to that fact. I should learn more about Adumbrae takeovers. Sadly, most of that stuff was confidential.

    ¡°Wait, so Johann over here has access to a bunch of AIU files right?¡± I asked. The Adumbrae Intelligence Unit. It was originally part of the FBI before it got its own agency.

    ¡°Yeah, but nothing has come up on the Red Island,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ve been also trying some hacking on some of the 2M¡¯s outposts we¡¯ve encountered, but nothing on the Red Island was there either.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you can hack?¡± I asked. I think that was mentioned before, but honestly, I forgot if it was. I didn¡¯t really find him important. ¡°I think that might have been mentioned before, but we haven¡¯t really interacted so I forgot.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± he said. ¡°Learned the skill in my free time. I originally was planning on being a cybersecurity pentester before joining the AIU.¡± I had no idea what a pentester was. Do they deal with pens? But that didn¡¯t make sense. What do pens have to do with cybersecurity.

    ¡°A cybersecurity pentester?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Oh!¡± he said. ¡°Somebody who hacks systems to make sure they¡¯re secure. Basically a good hacker.¡± Okay, that made a lot more sense than something to do with pens.

    ¡°Ah, I get it now,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe we should give you an actual code name. Hacking may as well be a superpower.¡±

    Johann and Myra both chuckled.

    ¡°Maybe so,¡± he said. ¡°Got any ideas?¡±

    ¡°Cyberman?¡± I said.

    ¡°Erm, maybe not that,¡± he said. I couldn¡¯t think of any cool hacking names at the moment. But since Johann was always acting as our main driver and info-getter, I could do a name around that.

    ¡°How about Mission Control, or MC for short?¡± I asked. ¡°Since you basically drive our van - our control center during missions. Oh wait, Everett already has that name.¡± It was more of Em-cee, but the pronunciation was the same.

    ¡°I like the idea though,¡± he said.

    ¡°Maybe something like Headquarters, or HQ?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Short and simple,¡± he said. ¡°I like it. HQ it is.¡±

    I was establishing a friendly face with everyone here. In the case that anyone here I found out I was an Adumbrae, they¡¯d be less likely to fight with me. There have been many such cases of people letting their friends and family get away with being an Adumbrae. Wasn¡¯t it funny? They all detested Adumbrae, but when it came to the people close to them, they flipped on a quarter. Or was it a dime?

    ¡°All right everyone,¡± Dario said. ¡°I have a briefing for our next mission.¡±

    We all gathered in a circle around a new TV monitor in our secret base. Apparently, Reo, Everett, and Johann helped installed it. A laptop was connected to the side of it. On the screen was the picture of a woman with beautiful olive skin and silver hair in a fashionable bob cut. She had facial features that were sharp yet delicate, including high, well-defined cheekbones. Curiously she had silver pupils that matched her hair.

    ¡°After what happened last week, the 2M¡¯s have been laying low,¡± Dario pointed out. ¡°Unfortunately, Johann hasn¡¯t been able to get any info about them. However, the Professor has given me information about a new potential customer of the 2Ms. Bianca Eleanor Ceressa.¡±

    ¡°Wow, she¡¯s hot,¡± Reo hooted. ¡°Wait, a minute, I feel like I¡¯ve seen her before. Was it on TV?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s definitely popular,¡± Dario said. ¡°She has her own TV show - the Bianca Travel Diaries.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I remember seeing that!¡± Reo said.

    ¡°You watch this stuff?¡± Myra said grudgingly.

    ¡°I only see it when I flip through the channels. I don¡¯t actually watch her show.¡±

    ¡°So, Bianca¡¯s a TV star?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Not just a TV star,¡± Dario said. ¡°She also is the daughter of Mario Ceressa, a luxury hotel baron. And there¡¯s also the Royal Ceressa Cruise lines. Their family has a lot of power and influence. But what was most interesting was their recent investments in the bio-augmentronics industry. Perhaps they were seeking to extend their lifespans, and the 2M¡¯s came offering their services.¡±

    ¡°Those silver eyes definitely look creepy,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Augments,¡± Johann said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she¡¯s trying to get a stronger body.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s actually contacts,¡± Reo said. We all looked at him. ¡°She talked about it in her fashion show.¡±

    ¡°So you really watched her show!¡± Myra sneered.

    ¡°Bianca said she¡¯s against any type of augmentation. It¡¯s definitely odd that she¡¯s a prospective customer for the 2M¡¯s.¡±

    Maybe that was just a face. Similar to me. Tell the public you don¡¯t believe in augmentation, and then secretly get Adumbrae powers in private.

    ¡°Yeah, but their finances indicate otherwise,¡± Dario said. ¡°Furthermore, I trust the Professor on this.¡± He moved to a video of two bodyguards standing next to Bianca.

    ¡°Oh! That¡¯s Zachary and Xazary. Fraternal twins with awesome names,¡± he said.

    ¡°You really pay this much attention to her?¡± Myra said folding her arms.

    ¡°Actually, I was just preparing for this mission in advance,¡± Reo chuckled. ¡°Anyways, according to some unofficial sources online from an unofficial forum that I definitely don¡¯t browse on the regular, they¡¯re both augmented and enhanced to the legal boundaries. Steroids and performance-enhancing drugs galore are pumped into them.¡±

    ¡°The Professor¡¯s sources also state that their bio-augmentronics might even rival Jim¡¯s Ambroses,¡± Dario said. Jim Ambrose. That name sounded familiar. Where did I hear that? Didn¡¯t Dario mention that Jim cut off his leg? I swear I heard that name somewhere else.

    At the docks! That augment guy stunned me and blew up when I was in my Red Hood form. If he was really that easy to kill, then I should have no problem dealing with these two.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s our plans?¡± Johann asked.

    ¡°We should probably get close to her and find information about the Red Island,¡± Dario said. ¡°She¡¯s probably in the city, so Myra can disguise herself and¨C¡±

    ¡°Me?¡± she asked. ¡°Also, you want me to dress up and befriend to her?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it if you don¡¯t want to!¡± It was obvious who that was.

    ¡°Wait, it¡¯s just the brainstorming phase,¡± he said.

    Everyone but me and Deen started bickering. Should I speak up? I wasn¡¯t the type to argue over others. But then, Deen raised her hand, and everyone stopped talking. Was this another superpower of hers? I should get that.

    ¡°I have a plan. I¡¯ve actually seen Bianca in person at a party last week. Since she¡¯s in the city, if we just find out where¡¯s she going - like a restaurant - then I could try befriending her. We don¡¯t personally know each other, but we share common friends, so it¡¯ll be easy to strike up a conversation.¡±

    ¡°Could you also get her autograph?¡± Reo asked. Myra facepalmed.

    ¡°But the 2Ms already know your face,¡± Dario said. ¡°They tried capturing you and Erind.¡±

    ¡°I agree with Deen,¡± I said, interjecting. Time to stand up for my best friend. Ew. ¡°She already has her guardian angel, so she¡¯d be able to get out of harm¡¯s way. And since she has the most connections to Bianca, she¡¯d be the best to do it.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Deen agreed. ¡°And Bianca doesn¡¯t even know who we are either. So we should be fine.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not so sure about this,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°I could go with Deen,¡± I said. ¡°I can use my clones to tell you guys what¡¯s going on, and then summon them to me if the 2M¡¯s decide to attack us. That way, Deen will be extra safe.¡±

    ¡°Thanks Erind,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯d be happy to have you with me. With both of our powers, we should be able to get out of this alive.¡± I was surprised by her answer - I expected her to reject me since she wanted me to be safe. What was going on inside her head?

    ¡°All right, that sounds like a plan,¡± Dario said. ¡°Everyone agree?¡± Everyone nodded.

    ¡°Let¡¯s do this,¡± Deen said.

 2.9

    Deen and I were hanging out at the dinner table with our laptops. It was more like the four of us since SpookyErind and my 2nd clone were helping out. All the public information we could get on Bianca would be helpful to us. Mainly, we needed information on where she would be and how to get to her. Which was a lot easier said than done.

    After the attack last week, some places she planned on visiting closed down temporarily. So we needed an updated schedule. Some of the websites were not updated correctly, so that was a lot of wasted time. And then, there was another issue.

    ¡°How about the Celestial Plan Hotel?¡± I asked. ¡°She¡¯s going to be there tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not going to work,¡± Deen said. ¡°That place doesn¡¯t allow entry to guests. We¡¯d have to pay and register to get in.¡± Wow, has Deen actually been there? Given how rich she was, I wasn¡¯t surprised. That place looked like a five-star resort.

    ¡°And that¡¯s bad because it¡¯ll leave a paper trail of where we¡¯re going,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she replied. ¡°We¡¯re going to need free access.¡±

    I kept scrolling through. Her schedule was very busy with lots of places booked. With my 2nd clone, I had managed to bring up a restaurant, but it didn¡¯t seem like she was open to any conversations with guests. She seemed to be a pro at avoiding crowds whenever she didn¡¯t want them. SpookyErind was searching for any fan photos of her outside the events she did. She didn¡¯t find any. Bianca probably used some kind of tinted car.

    ¡°Oh wait, she just posted something new!¡± I said.

    ¡°Last week, I had a great time at the Arthouria Infinity!¡± The post started off. I showed it to Deen. ¡°Originally, I was planning on going to the Celestial Plan, but instead I¡¯ve decided to take a trip to the Epicenter Resort. Apparently, she¡¯s going to the top floor.¡±

    ¡°Do we have a shot of getting in?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Probably?¡± She said. I raised my brows. ¡°It¡¯s another five-star resort, but they don¡¯t gatekeep the top floor. Most of the fun stuff is in the floors below ground.¡±

    ¡°Fun stuff?¡± I asked.

    ¡°A bunch of tourism events that are probably way too expensive for even me,¡± she said, rolling her eyes.

    ¡°Tourism? And why is part of the resort underground?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It was originally a bunker to defend against the Adumbrae. The entire building was designed to withstand Earthquakes. Even with some Adumbrae attacks a few decades ago, the building still stands strong today.¡±

    ¡°But, we shouldn¡¯t have to go there right?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No,¡± she said. ¡°I just wanted to point out a fun fact.¡±

    ¡°Anyways, so we should be able to meet her up in the afternoon?¡± I asked, bringing us back on topic.

    ¡°Mhm. We could wait there during lunch,¡± she said.

    ¡°They''re serving drinks there,¡± I said, pulling up their menu.

    ¡°Do you plan on drinking?¡± she asked.

    ¡°No, will you?¡±

    ¡°No, I just wanted to see if my best friend drinks,¡± she said.

    ¡°Do I look like an alcoholic?¡± I asked. I gave out a short chuckle to indicate I was joking. She laughed with me.

    ¡°All right, I¡¯ll contact the others,¡± she said. ¡°If we get there early, we¡¯ll be able to plan and eat lunch.¡±

    ¡°Got any ideas of how to talk to her?¡±

    ¡°Not yet,¡± she said.

    Deen and I walked up onto the top floor of the balcony-styled bar of the Epicenter Resort. It was definitely more luxurious than any restaurant I¡¯ve been to, and that was saying something because Mom took me to some fancy restaurants when Dad was still alive. The bar was outfitted with a Chic style, and there were so many things there. An arcade sat on the other side, its sci-fi aesthetic clashing with the Modern style of the bar.

    If it wasn¡¯t more clear how luxurious this place was, then the prices reinforced that. I could never imagine spending this much money on just food. Deen, however, found no problem with that. At least I still got free food.

    My 2nd clone and SpookyErind were back at our secret base along with Dario and Johann. Myra still had classes at this time on Wednesday, and Everett and Reo were off doing something for Dario. Something about reinforcing our van.

    ¡°How¡¯s it looking?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°The line¡¯s getting shorter,¡± I had my 2nd clone say. ¡°We should be able to talk to her soon.¡±

    ¡°Good job on picking something in the afternoon,¡± Johann said. ¡°I could not imagine doing this at night.¡±  I nodded my 2nd clone¡¯s head.

    Back at the Epicenter, Deen and I were finishing up our lunch.

    ¡°Thanks for the meal,¡± I said.

    ¡°Thanks for coming with me,¡± she said.

    ¡°Just wanted to remind you to not buy any drinks to save money,¡± I said. She laughed.

    ¡°Are you ready?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°I¡¯m getting kinda anxious,¡± she said. ¡°But we can¡¯t turn back now or we may never find Kelsey.¡±

    What if Kelsey wasn¡¯t even at the Red Island? Wouldn¡¯t it be super funny that we spend all that time looking for her to not even be there? While I might be mad for having my time wasted, I had another reason for going to the Red Island. There¡¯ll probably be a lot of Adumbrae there. I¡¯m pretty sure they would be a nice meal for a cute Corebring Adumbrae girl like me.

    Bianca was sitting on the other side of the bar at her own table. Her two bodyguards, Xazary and Zachary stood to the side as the last dozen or so of her fans came up to her. Wow. She was still going. I would have faked being sick. It didn¡¯t seem like she wanted to spend too much time with them given how fast she was going. I¡¯d needed to readjust my assessment of her. I thought she was just going to have the facade of charisma in public, but be a total primadonna when dealing with actual people.

    It¡¯s always safe to assume the worse in people. I can always readjust from there. Best way not to get backstabbed was if you assume everyone is against you. Not that I¡¯ve ever been backstabbed. Or actually stabbed in the back.

    ¡°There¡¯s only a handful of people left,¡± Deen said. ¡°It looks like everyone else has gotten their photographs and autographs. Should we get in line?¡±

    ¡°We probably don¡¯t have much time left,¡± I said. ¡°Look at how fast she¡¯s signing. She probably doesn¡¯t want to stay here too long. Also, should we get an autograph for Reo?¡±

    ¡°I still haven¡¯t thought of a plan,¡± she said.

    I took a look at my plate. The remains of a high-class chicken cuisine were on it, along with a fork and knife. Wait, that¡¯s it!

    ¡°Well, I got one,¡± I said standing up and putting the knife in my left pocket. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what¡¯s your plan?¡± she asked. I explained it. ¡°All right, I¡¯m not 100% sure, but I guess we¡¯ll have to try it.¡±

    ¡°Okay, we¡¯re going up to see Bianca,¡± I had my 2nd clone say to Dario and Johann. ¡°I¡¯ll keep updating you guys.¡± I didn¡¯t want to reveal my plan right now, or they might get really upset at it.

    ¡°Good luck,¡± Dario said.

    As we approached Bianca, she raised her head and offered us a smile. I couldn¡¯t tell whether she was faking it or being genuine.

    ¡°Do you guys want to take a pic?¡± she asked. We didn¡¯t have anything for her to sign, so if we were her fans, that¡¯d be a good guess. Of course, we were after something else.

    ¡°We saw you at last week¡¯s party,¡± I said. She raised her brow. I gave Deen a nudge. That¡¯s your cue.

    ¡°Yes, don¡¯t you remember Razzy¡¯s Lights playing?¡± she asked, shivering a bit. Apparently, she was telling the truth. She left there last Thursday while I was relaxing. I wasn¡¯t much of a party person so I just stayed home. Deen calmed down and continued to talk about the party with Bianca.

    Somehow, Bianca talked to Deen as if they were best friends. Actually, you can keep her. They kept bringing up various nonsense about the party. I tuned some of it out. Nothing useful there. Sadly for Deen, it looked like she didn¡¯t have much more to cover. Bianca would shoo us away and leave.

    It¡¯s my time to shine. ¡°We actually wanted to talk to you about a different reason. If we could show you-¡±

    ¡°Wait a minute, who are you again?¡± Bianca said to me. Whoops, I should have introduced myself to her. But I had no idea what was going on at the party. ¡°I don¡¯t remember you being at the party she asked,¡± she stated with an irritated tone. Calm down bitch.

    ¡°I actually was at the party,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m besties with Deen, so I go wherever she goes. We also share the secret thing.¡±

    ¡°Secret thing?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Erm, I know we¡¯re not supposed to know who each other are, but I wanted to make more friends with people like us,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± she asked as Xaary approached us with her hands out.

    I took out the knife from my pocket and held out my left hand. Xazary¡¯s black-gloved hand started vibrating as she held it out. Beneath the leather, gold lines began to glow, burning brightly. She was about to blow our heads off. Sadly, nobody was recording at this time, so its awesomeness would only be offscreen. The ratings would be through the roof. Just like our bodies. Still, I¡¯d prefer a peaceful resolution to this.

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Please observe,¡± I said as I began pushing the knife deeper into my skin. Xazary was only a few inches away from us. Blood leaked out of my hand. Deen wasn¡¯t saying anything.

    ¡°Stop,¡± Bianca said curtly. Her voice imposed authority, which was different than the charismatic extroverted celebrity persona we were just talking to. Xazary pulled back her hand, with her black glove still smoldering gold. I could make out bits of silver machinery through the holes where the gold came out.

    ¡°We¡¯re members of the you-know-what club,¡± Deen said. ¡°I¡¯m a bit squeamish about blood, so I had Erind over here cut herself. There were rumors going on that you came to the city because you also wanted to become a¡­member¡­too. ¡±

    I took the knife out of my hand and the wound healed quickly. The blood stopped flowing as if I turned off the knob on a sink. Thankfully, the cut I did was deep enough to be unnatural. There was no other explanation other than supernatural regeneration.

    ¡°Sorry for introducing ourselves in such a creepy way,¡± I said.

    Xazary leaned down and whispered something to Bianca¡¯s ear. A brief moment of irritation flashed on Bianca¡¯s beautiful face.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you see I¡¯m talking to my friends? Just move the next place on the schedule. Call the waiter and brings something for my newfound friends. Don¡¯t bother me with anything else.¡±

    I internally smirked. So it was true. Bianca was like me. But she was a novice at this game. Rule #7 existed for a reason. You never break your face no matter what, you stupid bitch. Someone like you might notice who you were, and that¡¯s game.

    It reminded me of those crime documentaries I watched as a kid. Not that I had any choice. Auntie Carla would force us to watch one episode every time she came over. Little Erind had a bit of¡­ not connection, but understanding with the people featured. I think Auntie Carla brainwashed my Mom because she also got addicted to watching these shows. Maybe it filled a gap when Dad left.

    It was because of these shows that I learned of other people¡­ similar to me. But still very different. I found watching them very interesting. I don¡¯t know what it was, but observing insects, animals, and other people fascinated me. Understanding their behaviors took up so much of my time I was surprised I didn¡¯t become a psychologist.

    The main point was that these shows often showed imprisoned criminals in the spotlight. I haven¡¯t actually seen a show with someone like me going to a psychologist. Why go to one if we were we had no problems? At least, from our point of view.

    One of the main issues with these shows is that they always showed the not-so-normal people with their masks off. I¡¯d be surprised if anyone in prison actually cared to keep them on. But once you take it off, it becomes a ¡®mask¡¯. You never take off a ¡®face¡¯. Mainly, because there¡¯s nothing underneath, other than the flesh and brain bits inside.

    Faces were tailored to people. A well-crafted personality to keep them from knowing what¡¯s truly there. And here, this girl was taking her face off in front of us. Which was an especially dangerous thing to do given that she knew we were Adumbrae. We could easily kill her later. So irritating.

    While we were waiting for the waiter, Bianca switched back to her amiable and up-beat personality that she used for her show. She ordered us sandwiches and allowed us to choose our drinks. I ordered something a bit fruity, while Deen decided to get something with a bit more alcohol than me. I hope she didn¡¯t become easily drunk.

    After the waiter took our orders and left, Bianca leaned back in her chair. She crossed her legs and turned to Xazary.

    ¡°Xaz, How are they?¡± Bianca asked her. She simply shook her head. ¡°Cool!¡± she said clapping her hands.

    Deen and I raised our brows. ¡°I hope you two aren¡¯t bothered by me having Xaz scan for bugs and wires. I wasn¡¯t too sure if I could trust you. Better safe than sorry.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t worry about us being from the BID or Corebrings,¡± I said. Time to show off, this time my law knowledge. ¡°If we were either of them, then trying to disguise ourselves would be completely unnecessary.¡±

    ¡°Why so?¡± Bianca asked.

    ¡°The Panderton Act for the BID, and the Corebrings simply are above the law,¡± I said. ¡°If they suspected you of being¡­ you know, they would just take you away. I had a friend who was careless, and she got suspected of being an Adumbrae. She vanished and later her family was rounded up for testing.¡±

    Bianca nodded. ¡°That does make sense.¡±

    We needed a reason for Bianca to trust us. What if she suspected us of being Corebrings or part of the BID? Then we needed to show that the only possible conclusion was that with we were part of the 2Ms. Then, we let Occam¡¯s razor do the work. If we were truly from a powerful extrajudicial organization, then we would just be wasting our time trying to befriend her.

    The only other explanation would be that we were with the 2Ms. I highly doubt the 2Ms would discuss Dario¡¯s gang with her. They wouldn¡¯t want to scare off potential customers.

    Thankfully, I could take over the rest of the conversation from here. I mainly needed Deen to introduce ourselves.

    ¡°It¡¯s definitely good I met you guys then,¡± she said. ¡°I have to say, I¡¯m a bit anxious about the procedure. But after seeing what you just did, it seems worth it.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I agreed. Deen nodded with me. ¡°It¡¯s hard to explain, but it¡¯s like you improved in so many ways. The feelings of strength and energy makes us feel like bodybuilders. Never having to worry about dying from stupid diseases or accidents.¡± She seemed unfazed by her response. It was as if nothing of what I said interested her specifically. Was she looking for something else? Maybe a particular ability?

    ¡°There is one question I have though,¡± she said. ¡°How do you know about me? Aren¡¯t our identities kept secret from each other?¡±

    I swallowed and hoped this was the correct response.

    ¡°We know a special person on the Red Island,¡± I said. ¡°While they couldn¡¯t get a list of other members easily, they were able to get us a list of potential new customers.¡± The ¡®Red Island¡¯ namedrop should help solidify we were part of the 2Ms.

    The waiter came back with our food and pre-interrupted Bianca from speaking up.

    ¡°The person who helped us is way older than us,¡± I said.  ¡°So, it¡¯s kinda awkward to be friends with her. You¡¯ll get to know her eventually. She¡¯s in her fifties but looks like she¡¯s in her twenties because of all the plastic surgery done on her. They were even able to go past normal limits because of her enhanced body. Do you also want plastic surgery after you leave the Red Island? I can -¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Bianca hissed in rage. But a moment later, she was back to her friendly persona. ¡°Modifying myself to look younger, that¡¯s outrag¡­ I¡¯m definitely not doing that. It¡¯s all nonsense.¡±

    Interesting. So that part about not modifying herself was true. Add that to the fact that she didn¡¯t really seem interested in any of the supernatural benefits, it seemed weird that she wanted to become an Adumbrae.

    ¡°By the way, thanks for the food and drinks you ordered,¡± she said, sensing that our conversation might get worse if we continued. ¡°You didn¡¯t need to pay for all this.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t mind. We might become close friends in the future.¡± Bianca took a sandwich. I also took one. Deen followed me.

    ¡°We¡¯ll have more time to know each other after you go to the Red Island,¡± Deen said. Thankfully, Deen switched the topic away from us, since I was pretty sure Bianca was trying to get lots of free info out of us. Still, she was happy to play the rich people''s socialization game. Maybe I should learn to play it too.

    Deen and Bianca discussed more before she brought up a topic we weren¡¯t prepared for.

    ¡°By the way, are you going to attend the fight on next week¡¯s Saturday?¡± she asked. Deen tensed up and gripped my knee under the table.

    ¡°Next week¡¯s Saturday, huh,¡± I said as I had my 2nd clone pull out her phone and start searching Bianca¡¯s schedule. Bianca narrowed her eyes.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Bianca says there¡¯s going to be a fight two Saturday¡¯s from now,¡± I said with my 2nd clone. ¡°I¡¯m checking her schedule.¡±

    ¡°Fights?¡± Johann and Dario asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ll have to check if Deen is fine with going to the Eve,¡± I said. ¡°You know how squeamish she is about blood.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t really attend the fights?¡± Bianca said. ¡°I guess I understand.¡±

    The Eve was apparently a nightclub. But I had heard of that name before. Back when I shrunk Mr. Trenchcoat Guy, he revealed that monsters fight at the Eve. I wasn¡¯t really familiar with it, and I thought it was just some secret place like the Red Island. But it all made sense now.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s just not my thing.¡±

    ¡°My Xaz is going to fight there,¡± Bianca said with pride. ¡°I¡¯ll be so happy if you two come.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you¡¯re fighting?¡± I said with fake fear. I brought my hand up to my mouth. ¡°It¡¯s dangerous - you don¡¯t fight humans over there. You¡¯re fighting enhanced monsters.¡±

    Xazary opened her mouth, but Bianca shushed her. ¡°She will fight and she will win. I have to show the others my capabilities.¡± So she wanted to establish dominance in a new environment. That wasn¡¯t how I would do it. I¡¯d like to keep all the cards up my pocket. Or was it sleeve?

    ¡°I guess we could come,¡± I say, taking a look at Deen. She was shivering when I saw her. She swallowed. Knock it off bitch or you¡¯re going to blow our cover. ¡°Is that alright Deen?¡±

    ¡°I guess I could go,¡± Deen said. ¡°Just this once though.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a shame though that they pushed the fight back a week,¡± Bianca said. ¡°I really wanted to show off Xaz this Saturday. What do you think about them pushing it back?¡±

    What the fuck is she talking about? Why would they delay the fight? Did something happen? It¡¯s not like I would know- Wait a minute.

    ¡°It¡¯s because of that stupid stuff at the docks,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know why there was fighting on the docks. One of their creations probably got loose. I imagine it was those two giant werewolves. It¡¯s a shame since the BID is now moving in.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, they really should get things under control,¡± Bianca said.

    Wew. Thankfully, I was great at improvisation. Back in middle school and high school, when we were forced to take a fine arts elective, I chose Theater. It was basically the art of making masks. But for me, those masks would become faces.

    Bianca was probably suspicious of my answer about attending the Eve, and now was seriously checking to make sure we were part of the 2Ms. Was there anything else she could ask us about?

    ¡°I don¡¯t really have a main home that I stay at,¡± Bianca said. ¡°I¡¯d be glad to visit both of you.¡±

    ¡°Oh, we¡¯d be glad,¡± Deen said, stepping in. ¡°Erind and I live together, so you¡¯d actually only need to visit one house to see both of us.¡±

    ¡°Are you two¡­ lovers?¡± Bianca asked. What the fuck? I knew she was fishing for information, but this was a bit too direct. But if she wanted to gather information from us, I¡¯d be glad to feed her the wrong information.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said. Deen tensed up. I¡¯d deal with the fallout later. But, here, the whole point was that I was the fisherman, and Bianca was the fish. She thought it was the other way around, but I was the one with my fishing rod leaving the bait in the water. From getting her to trust us, to feeding into her delusions, it was all part of my plan.

    She¡¯d be so upset when we¡¯d kill her at the Red Island. But she shouldn¡¯t have given up the game this early. She was also being very annoying trying to get information out of us. I didn¡¯t appreciate it. People should try to stay out of my life as much as possible.

    Zachary came over and leaned down to Bianca¡¯s ear. He whispered something. ¡°I have to go now,¡± she said. ¡°I have a mandatory shooting. But it was glad to get to know you two. Have fun at your home.¡± She gave us a wink as she got up and left.

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± Deen let out a sigh of relief as we got into the elevator. ¡°We made it.¡±

    ¡°My plan worked,¡± I said. She poked me in the side, making me jump. ¡°Hey! I¡¯m ticklish over there.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I was just getting giddy,¡± she said as she wrapped me in a hug. ¡°I was so worried she was going to catch us with one of our lies.¡± I rolled my eyes since she couldn¡¯t see my face. Why did she have to be so touchy-feely? I gave her a hug back since this was such an important moment.

    ¡°We would have been fine with our powers,¡± I pointed out. ¡°Did your Guardian Angel say anything?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Deen said. ¡°Which scared me a lot.¡±

    ¡°Nah, that just means we did so good we didn¡¯t need its help,¡± I said. ¡°Besides, if she was going to do something bad like report us to the police, then the Guardian Angel would have spoken up.¡±

    ¡°I never thought of that,¡± Deen said. ¡°You were so cool back there Erind. I don¡¯t think I could have come up with any of it.¡±

    ¡°I think quickly under pressure,¡± I said.

    ¡°But I don¡¯t understand,¡± she said. ¡°How did you know so much about the Eve?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I was looking on my phone with my 2nd clone at Bianca¡¯s schedule,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯d be too awkward if I did it there.¡±

    ¡°That makes sense, but how¡¯d you know about the monsters and the delay?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Remember when we fought at the docks?¡± I asked. ¡°We beat up that giant monster.¡± Well, it was more like I beat it up with some assistance from Everett. ¡°What else would they have at fights other than monsters? And since we killed it, they¡¯ll probably have to make another one.¡±

    Realistically, there was no way I could have come up with this. But from what I learned from Mr. Trenchcoat Guy, I was able to stitch all of this together.

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s so clever,¡± she said. ¡°But why did you say we were lovers?¡±

    ¡°She was digging for information,¡± I said. ¡°I just wanted to resolidify the fact we were friends. She was checking for any inconsistencies, especially by bringing up the delay.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t need to say we were lovers though,¡± Deen sighed.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry if that offended you,¡± I said, as I released her from my hug

    ¡°No it¡¯s fine, I understand why you did it,¡± Deen said as she did the same. ¡°We¡¯re still besties, just not that close.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. Wew. She wasn¡¯t upset with me. I had no idea if Deen was gay. I didn¡¯t even know if she was fine with gay people. But I really just wanted to mislead Bianca a lot. ¡°Let me tell the others.¡±

    ¡°All right,¡± I said with my 2nd clone. ¡°We befriended Bianca.¡±

    ¡°Nice job!¡± Dario said. Johann cheered.

    And now, all I had to do was wait two weeks.

 2.9.1*

    Flashcards were sprawled across my desk along with my notebook and laptop. It was the age-old routine of studying. With a little assistance from the Pomodoro Technique, I was able to easily stay on my studies.

    And that was with my main body working out right now. My 2nd clone was the one studying. SpookyErind was also in the room. She was on her phone. Or well, just on her phone. She got off and moved to my 2nd clone.

    <u>Hey, I¡¯m going to sit behind you,</u> SpookyErind said. Thankfully, I wasn¡¯t playing any games or I would have died by now. Although, I would prefer if my concentration wasn¡¯t fully broken. I scooted up otherwise she¡¯d probably keep bothering me.

    <u>Thank you,</u> she said as she sat behind me. She put her arms around me. Rather than just letting her legs touch mine like last time, she instead embraced my lower torso with her legs. <u>Double hug!</u> she cheered.

    My main body sat on the chair of the Atlas Supermachine. Deen had just finished working out and decided to go study. But since my 2nd clone was studying, I¡¯d figure I could continue working out. I felt I could go on for a while. Having a super-powered body was pretty energizing.

    I originally thought SpookyErind was going to follow me. She took off her shirt, just leaving a sports bra and shorts. But instead, she decided to stay in my room. I kinda wished she went with my main body because now she was messing with my 2nd clone. And I was using that one to study.

    ¡°Is there a reason you¡¯re doing this?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯m trying to study.¡±

    <u>You know I love you,</u> she said as she brought her head forward. Even more of her body was pressing up against me. <u>This is a great way to connect with you.</u>

    The fuck did that mean? I didn¡¯t really understand romance, but even I haven¡¯t seen anything about that. I was still mentally scarred from reading some of that stuff when I was younger.

    <u>Isn¡¯t this way better romance though?</u> SpookyErind asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really feel anything special,¡± I said. ¡°So no, not really.¡±

    <u>Maybe I should hug your arms using the Red Hood face,</u> she said. <u>You seemed to really like that last time.</u>

    ¡°Last time?¡± I asked. She was talking about when she sandwiched my arms with her boobs as Red Hood. I could feel my face starting to heat up. It¡¯s definitely because she¡¯s imprisoning me with her whole body right now. Also, I really needed to finish studying. I was almost done.

    <u>You look as red as an apple,</u> SpookyErind commented. Out of the corners of her eyes, I saw my cheeks beginning to redden.

    ¡°You¡¯re an apple,¡± I said. Just keep focusing on the notecards.

    She leaned her face forward so her cheeks were touching mine.

    <u>I might become one if you keep thinking about what we did,</u> she said. Our hearts started beating faster and faster. It was impressive how in sync they were.

    ¡°I¡¯m trying to study,¡± I told her.

    <u>I can help you study,</u> she said. Ugh. Fine.

    I was studying NatSec so a bunch of my stuff was over executive orders. I also had flashcards about Congress¡¯s role in national security.

    SpookyErind took out a flashcard.

    <u>What is the importance of Executive Order 12008?</u> She asked, reading what was on the flashcard.

    ¡°The executive order directed the creation of multiple Adumbrae test centers as police stations and other places,¡± I said. ¡°Ranging from physical tests to that helmet test.¡±

    <u>Good job myself,</u> she said as she flipped the card.

    Nothing on here was related to the egg pod test. I got goosebumps thinking about how someone would use it to look at my brain. Would they see SpookyErind in there?

    <u>Why would they see me when I¡¯m in the real world?</u> She asked. <u>I¡¯m hugging you right now.</u>

    ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant,¡± I said. ¡°Still, testing is going to be a pain. The crystals you gave me are going to make it hard even with the suppressor.¡±

    <u>That just means they don¡¯t like cool things,</u> SpookyErind pouted. <u>I mean, look at how beautiful they are.</u>

    SpookyErind released her right hand from her hug and held it out. Two tiny white crystals jutted out of her hand with gold veins spreading out from them.

    It was beautiful, but that didn¡¯t make testing any easier. It¡¯d be something I¡¯d have to deal with unless I ran away from home. Or well Deen¡¯s home. And I really didn¡¯t like change unless there were some benefits for me. Leaving my entire life behind? I¡¯m not sure what price I¡¯d pay for that.

    SpookyErind took her right hand and grabbed my 2nd clone¡¯s right hand. On it, were the same two crystals and golden veins.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    <u>So beautiful,</u> she said. My main body had just finished doing a set of reps for my upper body. I had the Atlas Supermachine changed so I could do some weighted crunches. <u>Our body is so beautiful.</u>

    ¡°Yes it is,¡± I said. ¡°The most beautiful in fact.¡±

    SpookyErind chuckled. It was a bit uncanny since I could feel her body laughing, and her chest heaving on my 2nd clone. I was reminded of how close we were. My 2nd clone¡¯s body felt soft in her embrace, which was funny to say because bullets barely hurt me.

    <u>Are you having a great time with me?</u> SpookyErind asked.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m trying to study and with you here I¡¯ve only gone through one flashcard,¡± I said.

    <u>But you¡¯ve studied way more than usual,</u> she said. I guess that was true. I did go a bit overboard with how much studying I had done. But I was interested to see how much multitasking I could do with my main body and 2nd clone.

    <u>Why not enjoy some time with me?</u> she said. I don¡¯t see how I could really do that. But as soon as I said that, she tightened my hug around me. While not a death grip, it was definitely more firm. She was only lightly hugging me previously.

    A weird feeling grew in my 2nd clone¡¯s chest. I could feel my heart physically beating faster as if a drummer was picking up speed. What made it worse was that I could also feel the same in SpookyErind¡¯s body. I wanted her to stop hugging me, and I tried removing her arms, but she held on tight.

    <u>Are you really sure you want me to let you go?</u> She asked. <u>It looks like your body really enjoys my hug.</u>

    ¡°No!¡± I exclaimed.

    <u>So you want me to keep hugging you?</u> She smirked.

    ¡°I mean to the enjoying it,¡± I said. ¡°Not the let me go part.¡± She simply kept smirking and rubbed our cheeks together.

    <u>Well, I¡¯m definitely enjoying it,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s because you enjoy messing with me,¡± I said.

    <u>No, it¡¯s because I love you,</u> she replied. <u>If I really wanted to mess with you, I would just harm you. But I wouldn¡¯t do that because I¡¯m you, and it¡¯s kinda stupid to harm yourself. Rule #8 and all you know?</u>

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± I said. ¡°Why are you trying to get me to like you if you¡¯re just going to take over my body anyways?¡±

    She sighed. <u>Such a stupid question. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll talk about it again tomorrow.</u>

    Huh?

    <u>Anyways, I love you because I am you,</u> she said. <u>Nothing more than that.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure I love you though,¡± I grumbled.

    <u>What¡¯s so wrong about loving me?</u> She asked.

    Well, it was one thing to make a deal with an Adumbrae. Maybe people had a valid reason. The main one would be people not wanting to die. There were other reasons that were stupid, like wanting superpowers to have fun. But actually being in love with an Adumbrae? That¡¯d be pretty fucked up.

    <u>I think it¡¯d make a great romance story,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>They should sell it and make a movie series out of it.</u>

    That was one way to get yourself arrested. Nobody would have the balls to make the movie. Not even me. I mean, I didn¡¯t have balls, but the point still stands. The fuck am I talking about?

    Anyways, most romance stories suck. Their plot is stupid. Their relationships are stupid. Their characters are stupid. Even their romantic scenes are stupid.

    <u>I don¡¯t think we¡¯re stupid though,</u> she said. <u>And I don¡¯t think the love between us is stupid.</u>

    ¡°I mean we¡¯re definitely smart,¡± I said. ¡°I just don¡¯t think I love you. How could I be in love with an Adumbrae anyways?¡±

    <u>I¡¯m a Corebring,</u> she said. I rolled my eyes. <u>Do you doubt me? I can show you my Core. Let me take off my sports bra.</u>

    ¡°Please don¡¯t strip in front of me,¡± I said. My main body was now doing leg exercises with the Atlas Supermachine. I had brought a towel there so SpookyErind wouldn¡¯t try wiping me again.

    <u>Why not?</u> She asked with a grin. <u>You¡¯ve already seen yourself naked, and I¡¯m you. Or is it that you don¡¯t want to admit that I¡¯m a Corebring?</u>

    I didn¡¯t really understand how any of this Corebring stuff worked, so she could just be pulling shit out of thin air. <u>Hey!</u> Maybe it was possible for Adumbrae to become Corebrings. Is that how Overseers and High Overseers were made?

    <u>That doesn¡¯t make sense,</u> she said. <u>We¡¯re not as powerful as one of them.</u>

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right,¡± I said.

    <u>But we could be in the future if we keep eating,</u> she said.

    Wasn¡¯t that how some Adumbrae got bigger? The science really wasn¡¯t known for average citizens like me - they didn¡¯t want other people trying to become Adumbrae - but there were rumors some Adumbrae turned more monstrous and powerful after eating humans and even other Adumbrae. What if I ended up turning into one of those giant ugly monsters they¡¯ve shown on the news?

    <u>You¡¯re not going to turn into an ugly monster,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Really?¡± I asked. I didn¡¯t know what her end game was.

    <u>You¡¯re going to a beautiful powerful monster,</u> she said. Oh right, my Red Hood face still had her giant feminine features even when she grew fur. I wondered what would happen if I ate too much. Would I just get stuck in that form? Is that what SpookyErind meant? That was pretty creepy to think about.

    <u>No, you¡¯ll always be able to turn back into your cute self,</u> she said. <u>Anyways, I¡¯ve been having a great time connecting with you. We got to share some important deep moments.</u> I felt goosebumps grow on my arms.

    ¡°Does that mean you¡¯re going to let me go now?¡± I asked.

    <u>Your body definitely doesn¡¯t want me to let you go,</u> she giggled. Our cheeks had simmered red for a while, but I was able to plow through our conversation. Realistically, they should give me the best multitasker award. Even with her attempts to mess with me, I still came up on top. Maybe it just meant I was becoming immune to her messing with me.

    <u>I think it means you don¡¯t mind my love,</u> she said. I wasn¡¯t sure that was the conclusion she should be coming to.

    Anyways, I definitely was not going to get any studying done like this. I guess I could relax. I had my 2nd clone grab her phone.

    <u>What are you going to play?</u>

    I was thinking of playing Vroom, Vroom, Go! Also known as VVG. An addicting car game where you try bashing the other driver¡¯s head in. My description was probably more brutal than what was on the app store. They probably had something cutesy on there, but it¡¯s been way too long since I downloaded the app to remember what is was.

    SpookyErind released her hands from me and grabbed her phone out of her pocket. Her legs were still hugging me sadly.

    <u>I bet I could beat you in a match,</u> she said.

    ¡°No you won¡¯t,¡± I had my 2nd clone say.

    Are you sure about that? She said with a grin.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± I said confidently. I had been playing this game for over a few years. I was probably the best. There was a leaderboard, but I hadn¡¯t checked it. It probably said #1 - Diner_Wellhart on it. Back when I was a kid, I knew not to use my real name. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t come up with anything cool, so I just mixed up the letters in my name, and thus Diner Wellhart was born. Besides, who was going to connect that to me?

    I opened up the game, and SpookyErind did as well. I was going to beat her so hard into submission, she¡¯ll wish she never played against me.

 2.9.2*

    SpookyErind¡¯s phone was right below my phone, which I was holding horizontally. VVG had a local multiplayer game mode, so we both chose that. I¡¯ve never actually played multiplayer - mostly because I didn¡¯t really have friends that played the game. I was also pretty sure Deen didn¡¯t play VVG.

    We both connected to each other¡¯s phones. The game decided to let my phone be the host.

    ¡°How many rounds do you want to play?¡± I asked. The game was made up of an odd number of rounds. Whoever won the most rounds was the winner of the match.

    <u>How about you choose?</u> she asked.

    ¡°Hmm, let¡¯s go for seven rounds,¡± I said.

    <u>Seven is a very lucky number,</u> she said. And I¡¯ll be the lucky one in this match. <u>No, I will.</u>

    I rolled my eyes as I pressed the start match button.

    The game had a variety of maps. This one was a simple one, a U shape made of dirt in the middle, with two higher metal platforms on the sides. On the left platform was a small blue vehicle in the shape of a circle. Or almost complete circle - a small gap was at the front of the vehicle. On the other platform was a red jeep with a turret on the top. Its driver was completely exposed. Each map¡¯s vehicles were randomly generated.

    On my phone, a big YOU was above the blue car, while on SpookyErind¡¯s phone, the YOU appeared above the red car. Perfect.

    The goal of the game was to hit the other player¡¯s head. Since my car had such a small gap, that¡¯d mean I had the advantage. SpookyErind¡¯s car was bigger and had that turret, but I could hit her driver¡¯s head easier.

    Since SpookyErind could read my mind, I¡¯d figure she¡¯d already know how to play. She ended up grinning. Whatever, I¡¯ll beat her.

    The game counted down. 3. 2. 1. GO!

    I pressed the right side of my screen and my car went flying off the platform. SpookyErind pressed the left side of her screen and her jeep drove off. It was a bit slower than my car.

    To be fair, I wasn¡¯t sure my car counted as a car. It was just a partial circle with wheels. Maybe boys would know more about it. Everyone knows boys love cars. Even more than girls sometimes.

    Which turned out to be really annoying. One of my high school classmates would keep talking about cars every chance he got. He¡¯d talk about horsepower, model, steering, mileage, and all that other jargon. Like dude, how do you know so much about a giant piece of metal? Get a life.

    I may or may not be compensating for the fact that my driving skills are¡­ not the best. Usually, I was a straight-A student, but when I took my driver''s test I only got a B. The instructor still said I passed, but I should work on driving straight and parallel parking. At least I didn¡¯t really have to drive for law school.

    Anyways, as my circle car was racing across the sky, it ended up passing SpookyErind¡¯s jeep. Oops. Overshot it. No problem, I¡¯ll just race back up the U and land on the other side. The turret on her jeep was firing red bullets, but they just hit the left side of the U.

    I held the right side of the screen again, and my car raced into the air. I pressed the left side hard so the car would spin. It ended up going towards the left side of the screen. I wasn¡¯t sure if this was physically correct, but it worked in the game, so who was I to complain?

    As I flew to the other side, SpookyErind pressed the right side of her screen so the jeep backed up. Which was a good move because I¡¯d probably land on her head otherwise.

    Landing, I prepared to charge toward the right side of the U, but before I could do that, her jeep fired a bullet that somehow made it into the small gap in my car. The bullet hit my driver, and it said RED WINS on my screen.

    ¡°Okay, you just got beginner¡¯s luck,¡± I told her.

    <u>Like I said, seven is a lucky number,</u> she giggled. <u>Also, since I¡¯m you, it¡¯s more like I¡¯m a veteran.</u>

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, if your jeep couldn¡¯t fire, I would¡¯ve won,¡± I groaned. She stook out her tongue.

    The game generated the next round. Here, a large platform was in the middle of the map, surrounded by a U below it. On the left sat a blue racecar. It had a long front, and the driver comfortably sat in the back. On the right side was a red shopping cart.

    I think the name of the racecar in the game was an F200. I had no idea if that was a real type of racecar or if the developers were just pulling shit out of thin air. But on the other hand, they put in weird vehicles like the shopping cart. That thing didn¡¯t even have an engine! How was it supposed to move? But it did. To be fair, I¡¯ve played way more non-realistic games.

    ¡°Who has the luck now?¡± I grinned.

    <u>We¡¯ll see about that,</u> she said.

    The game counted down. 3. 2. 1. GO!

    I immediately pressed the right side of the screen, and SpookyErind did the same on her phone. Her shopping cart went off the side as my car chased after her.

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    But her car went down the left side of the U, so she¡¯d get more of an advantage since she¡¯d be able to hit my driver in the back easily. I had to be careful, so I pressed the left side of my screen to go back the other way. Thankfully, my racecar was faster than her cart, so it easily got to the left side of the screen and prevented her from attacking my driver from behind.

    As I got to the other side, I fell off the platform into the U. My racecar rocketed towards the right side as I pressed down on my screen. SpookyErind also tried to go right to get out of the U, but her shopping cart wasn¡¯t fast enough to head into the air. The tip of my racecar poked her driver.

    ¡°I win!¡± I cheered.

    <u>Well, since I¡¯m you, I also win,</u> she said. <u>So, I¡¯ve already won twice.</u>

    ¡°But that means I¡¯ve also won twice,¡± I said. She giggled.

    The third map was a dirt hill surrounded by flat ground on the sides. We both had the same type of vehicle this time - snowmobiles with a little snow cannon on the front. Now, it would be a true test of skill since both of us had the same car.

    As the game said GO, we both rushed toward the middle of the hill, but as we got to the top, SpookyErind started rubbing her cheeks against mine.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I cried out. I lost concentration and SpookyErind¡¯s snowmobile jumped over the edge and fired a snowball directly into my driver¡¯s head.

    <u>I win!</u> She giggled.

    ¡°You cheated,¡± I said.

    <u>I didn¡¯t cheat,</u> she smirked. <u>I was just showing you my love.</u>

    ¡°Okay, cheater.¡±

    <u>If a little rub is all that it takes for you to lose, then doesn¡¯t that mean I¡¯m the better player?</u> She asked.

    ¡°No, I won¡¯t fall for that again,¡± I said.

    And it turned out to be true. I won the fourth round even though SpookyErind tried messing with me again. Sadly I lost the fifth, but I made a comeback with the sixth. We were both tied now, 3-3. This final match would be the tiebreaker.

    SpookyErind leaned her head back. <u>Fine, I¡¯ll move back since you keep accusing me of cheating.</u>

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said. I should reward her for not messing with me. That sounds like a really low bar, but what can you expect from an Adumbrae? <u>Hey! I¡¯m a Corebring actually.</u>

    Anyways, the next map was a rotating metal platform in the middle, with dirt ground below. Both of our cars were the same and on opposite sides of the platform. More specifically, it was called the Boar. It looked like one of those old cars from the early 1900s, but it was very fast.  Just like those cars from the early 1900s, the driver was completely exposed at the top.

    SpookyErind was behind me, and her head was facing the back of my head.

    <u>The back of your head looks cute,</u> she said.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind trying out some of that floaty hair you have,¡± I said. SpookyErind smiled. Somehow, it didn¡¯t feel as mischievous as before. Even more so, I was being genuine here. Imagine having glowing red eyes with white floating hair. It would be so cool. Although, I would still like the option to go back to my normal look.

    <u>Thanks,</u> SpookyErind said.

    But now it was the time for my competitive streak. The game started counting down. Since our senses were connected, SpookyErind could still see what was going on. But since I couldn¡¯t be easily distracted by her, I¡¯d have a better chance at winning. I wasn¡¯t going to lose to her.

    GO!

    I pressed the right side of the screen to accelerate, but then a second later pressed the left side. Due to how the game works, this caused the car to tilt its front wheel upward off the ground. I was going to easily hit SpookyErind with this. But instead of heading towards me, SpookyErind went off the right side of the platform.

    Unlike the other platforms, this one wasn¡¯t static. The right side began going down, with the left side going up. My car would fall down anyways. But it was in the perfect spot to do so since SpookyErind¡¯s car was right below. I¡¯d land on her driver¡¯s head and secure my well-earned victory.

    Suddenly, SpookyErind pressed her lips against the back of my neck. My body shuddered and I tried turning my head sideways.

    ¡°Stop that!¡± I cried out. Her lips pressed harder against my neck. I couldn¡¯t really get out of her grip since her legs were still hugging me. My heart started to beat faster again.

    SpookyErind released her kiss with a smirk. Wait a minute. I turned my head back to the game. On the screen, it said RED WINS!

    ¡°You cheated,¡± I grumbled.

    <u>Well, since you¡¯re me, you also won,</u> she cheered.

    ¡°Well if that was the case, you could have just let me win all 7 rounds,¡± I said. ¡°Since you¡¯d be a winner too. Instead of doing, whatever this is.¡±

    <u>But I wanted to congratulate you on your win,</u> she said. <u>So I gave you a kiss.</u>

    ¡°It was a terrible kiss,¡± I said.

    <u>Really?</u> She asked. <u>Because right now, it seems your body really enjoyed it.</u>

    My cheeks were flushed red. And, after I¡¯d work so hard to not be affected by this. Ugh.

    <u>I can kiss your neck again to make you feel better,</u> she said.

    ¡°Why would I want that?¡± I asked. It just caused me to lose. I wasn¡¯t in the mood for it.

    <u>Do you want to feel grumpy?</u> SpookyErind asked.

    ¡°No,¡± I said.

    <u>Are you scared of my kiss then?</u> she asked.

    ¡°Definitely not.¡±

    <u>Are you sure?</u> she said playfully. Okay, that¡¯s it. She was messing with me again. I wasn¡¯t going to let her have the satisfaction of me being flustered. I was going to suck it up.

    ¡°Bring it on,¡± I said.

    <u>With pleasure,</u> she giggled. SpookyErind leaned her head down to kiss my neck again. Her lips connected with my skin, and a shiver went through my body. But I stayed quiet. Calm. Focus.

    She pressed her lips more against my neck. It didn¡¯t feel bad. In fact, it felt good. What the fuck am I doing? Am I getting turned on by my Adumbrae? Shouldn¡¯t I be fighting her? She¡¯d be taking over my body.

    But on the other hand, I¡¯d show defeat if I complained. I just said I¡¯d be able to withstand whatever she¡¯d do to me. Actually, I just thought it, but since she could read my mind it was the equivalent of saying it.

    Seconds passed as she continued to press her lips against my neck. It was becoming more bearable, even though my cheeks felt super red right now, and my heart was beating rapidly. But I wasn¡¯t going to be afraid of what SpookyErind was doing. My mind was made of steel. Wouldn¡¯t it be cool if it actually was? Wait, no it wouldn¡¯t it, because then I¡¯d be dead.

    At least I¡¯m able to distract myself with random nonsense.

    Then, she licked my neck. I gasped.

    SpookyErind released her lips and giggled.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you stop?¡± I blurted out. Oops, I didn¡¯t mean to say that. My cheeks were probably redder than the color red. The fuck does that mean?

    <u>You completed the challenge, congratulations!</u> she cheered. <u>You really showed that you loved me.</u>

    ¡°I don¡¯t think that was supposed to be the takeaway,¡± I said. It was more that I wasn¡¯t as bothered by her messing with me.

    <u>Anyways, aren¡¯t you glad right now?</u> She asked.

    Not really. But I had a new resolve. I was going to beat her in a match of VVG. I knew I could do it. Even if she did any of this weird stuff.

    <u>You want to play another match?</u> She asked.

    ¡°Yeah, just let me sit behind you this time,¡± I said. So I can mess with you instead.

 2.9.3*

    I sat behind SpookyErind. My legs surrounded her legs.

    <u>Isn¡¯t it nice our skin is rubbing against each other?</u> She asked.

    ¡°What would be nicer is if your floaty hair didn¡¯t tickle my nose,¡± I said. I moved my head forward next to hers so I wouldn¡¯t sneeze. I wrapped my arms in front of her while holding my phone in my right hand. Using both hands, I held my phone horizontally below hers. Now, she wouldn¡¯t be able to mess with me.

    As I hosted another game, my main body was finished wiping after my workout. I walked inside the room to go take a shower. I took off my clothes and headed toward the shower.

    <u>Aww, you didn¡¯t want me to wipe you this time?</u> SpookyErind pouted.

    ¡°Not after what you did last time,¡± I said.

    <u>But you enjoyed it, didn¡¯t you?</u> She smirked.

    ¡°No,¡± I said as the heat rose in my cheeks. Fuck.

    <u>Don¡¯t lie to me,</u> she said. <u>You did enjoy me rubbing your leg.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m going to enjoy beating you,¡± I said.

    <u>I¡¯m sure you will,</u> she giggled. I couldn¡¯t tell if she was being sarcastic. She was right? But now she couldn¡¯t do that weird necking thing to me. So my chances of winning have gone up drastically.

    I pressed the start match button.

    The first map generated was a V shape made out of dirt. My vehicle was a giant blue monster truck on the left. Meanwhile, SpookyErind had a tiny red go-cart on the right. To be fair, this game relied a lot on luck. But that just meant I was the lucky one.

    <u>But if you¡¯re lucky, then I¡¯m also lucky,</u> she said.

    ¡°We¡¯ll see about that,¡± I said.

    <ol start="3">

    <li> 2. 1. GO!</li>

    </ol>

    I pressed the right side of my screen and SpookyErind did the same. Unfortunately for her, the go-cart¡¯s engine was very bad. Her driver ended up falling toward the middle instead of going upward to the right. My monster truck quickly passed through the middle of the V and climbed upwards toward her cart. The giant wheels easily rammed into her driver¡¯s head.

    BLUE WINS

    Hopefully, I¡¯d keep the same amount of luck for the rest of the game.

    <u>I won!</u> SpookyErind cheered.

    ¡°No you didn¡¯t,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re red.¡±

    <u>But you¡¯re blue, and I¡¯m you, so I win!</u> SpookyErind smirked. So childish. Were all Adumbrae like this?

    I didn¡¯t really know any other Adumbrae, so I wasn¡¯t sure how Adumbrae acted. How did the Adumbrae voices in other people act?

    <u>I¡¯m not a voice, I¡¯m real,</u> she said. <u>You¡¯re hugging me right now.</u>

    That¡¯s not what I meant. But it did confirm she was childish. What if she was a child?

    <u>That¡¯d be kind of crazy since I¡¯m older than you,</u> she said.

    Older than me?

    <u>Older than your world.</u>

    ¡°But how can you be me and also be older than me?¡± I questioned.

    <u>That¡¯s just how things are,</u> she giggled. My 2nd clone sighed.

    I got into the shower as the next map loaded up. God, this shower system was so good. I couldn¡¯t imagine going back to my basic Condo. All the jets turned on, giving the right amount of heat and pressure against my main body.

    This map was a full metal ring. On the left side, a blue tank appeared. And on the left, there was a red motorcycle. It turns out luck was on my side again. The game gave me the bigger vehicle and the driver was safely perched on the tank¡¯s turret. Even more so, the tank shot out bullets. Sadly, they didn¡¯t explode, but it gave me another advantage over SpookyErind.

    Instead of moping, SpookyErind grinned. What was she planning? Thankfully, she couldn¡¯t do any weird things to me. Even if she tried rubbing her head against mine, I¡¯d still be able to concentrate enough to easily crush her.

    <ol start="3">

    <li> 2. 1. GO!</li>

    </ol>

    I focused on trying to headshot her. That would be really cool. It¡¯d show I¡¯d have both skill and luck. And I loved having more things. Unfortunately, her motorcycle easily dodged my tank''s bullets.

    Just stay still.

    <u>You look pretty cute naked in the shower,</u> she said.

    ¡°That¡¯s not going to work on me,¡± I said, still trying to align my tank¡¯s barrel with her motorcycle. She kept going up and down the right side of the ring, so it was hard to hit her.

    I guess I did look cute when showering. But I was always cute. Right now, I was putting on some shampoo in my wavy hair.

    <u>You¡¯re making your hair the same color as mine?</u> She asked. What kind of nonsense was that? Just because the shampoo was white didn¡¯t mean my hair would become white like hers.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    I accidentally let my tank fall toward the center, and she tried charging me with her motorcycle. But I easily drove my tank in reverse and blocked her motorcycle with my tank¡¯s barrel. Sadly, it only hit the wheel of her motorcycle, which caused it to go flying towards the right.

    Somehow, SpookyErind rotated her wheels so they would touch the end of the ring instead of her driver¡¯s head. Wow, that was actually pretty skillful. It wasn¡¯t going to change the fact she was going to lose.

    <u>I could help you shower,</u> she said.

    ¡°No thanks,¡± I didn¡¯t want her to mess with me when I was naked. Who knew what sort of messed up shit she¡¯d do? Right now, my main body was being quickly cleaned in a solitary environment. I put body soap on a little towel and began rubbing it around my body. ¡°Scared you¡¯re going to lose?¡±

    <u>Nope,</u> she said. <u>In fact, I¡¯m going to win.</u>

    She pressed the right side of her screen and the motorcycle started going up the ring. As it went past the middle, it started going upward to the left. Wait a minute. She stopped pressing her screen and let her motorcycle fall.

    Nononono. I pushed the left side of my screen to backup, but it was too late as her motorcycle landed on my driver.

    ¡°You messed with me,¡± I grumbled.

    <u>I thought you were immune to me messing with you,</u> she giggled. That was true, but I didn¡¯t want to admit that I lost because she had more skill than me. I shouldn¡¯t have been trying to shoot her. I should have just run over her with my big tank.

    <u>I could have still easily dodged you,</u> she said. Maybe she was right. The tank was pretty slow, while the motorcycle could have easily continued to the right side. I guess I should try doing that against the AI. But that stupid fucking AI kept shooting me with the tank. So I wanted to do the same with her.

    A few more rounds went by. The score was 3-2 in my favor. Just two more wins. Come on.

    My main body had finished taking a shower and I wiped myself with a towel. Time to put on my clothes. As my main body walked out of the restroom, the next map appeared.

    It was a flat dirt map, this time with two motorcycles on both sides. At least the match was fair this time. I nearly eeked out a win with a smaller vehicle in the last round. They really should just make us have the same vehicles in all rounds. Or just give me the better vehicle always.

    In order to beat her, I¡¯d have to press right to charge, and then press left to cause my front wheel to hit her. Shouldn¡¯t be too bad.

    We both charged toward the center and I prepared to tap the left side of my screen. Got to time this right. But then, a strand of SpookyErind¡¯s hair tickled my nose. Fuck. I nearly sneezed.

    Sadly, I didn¡¯t press left at all, while SpookyErind¡¯s wheel rammed into my driver. Did she plan this?

    <u>I win!</u> She cheered as her hair strand floated away from my nose.

    ¡°It¡¯s not yet,¡± I said, a brilliant plan brewing in my mind. We were now tied 3-3. I had a big hunch that SpookyErind was going to mess with me. So I had a plan.

    My main body put on her sports bra, shorts, and shirt. It was a cute cyan shirt with a little cat.

    The final map was a metal U. Both sides generated a knight on a horse. Except instead of legs, this horse was on stilts with wheels. I didn¡¯t understand half of this game''s vehicles. Especially since this horse had an engine. Our drivers were the knights, and they each had a pole sticking outwards.

    Wait a minute, SpookyErind could read my mind, right? Well, she couldn¡¯t do anything since she had to focus on the game.

    SpookyErind grinned. I wouldn¡¯t be grinning if I was her.

    I pushed the left side of the screen, causing my horse car to stay in place, while SpookyErind did the same. We both knew whoever reached the bottom of the U first was going to lose.

    <u>I guess this is a draw,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Nope,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s going to be my win.¡±

    I had my main body walk over to my desk where SpookyErind and my 2nd clone were sitting. I got in front of them and took SpookyErind¡¯s phone. <u>Hey!</u>

    SpookyErind¡¯s horse car fell toward the center. Yes! I let my driver fall, his pole ready to bash SpookyErind¡¯s driver.

    BLUE WINS!

    ¡°I did it!¡± I cheered. ¡°I beat you!¡± I knew I could do it. Even though I had to mess with her. But she deserved it for messing with me. That was the only way I could level the playing field.

    But instead of whining, SpookyErind giggled.

    ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± I asked with my main body.

    Suddenly, SpookyErind leaped forward onto me. What the fuck? We both landed on the ground.

    ¡°What are you-¡±

    She kissed my neck and started sucking. Oh my god.

    ¡°Stop!¡± I said. I tried pushing her, but she was too strong. My heart began beating faster.

    I stopped trying to push her as she continued kissing me. Sadly, I couldn¡¯t do anything about this. We stayed like that for another minute.

    ¡°Hey, you can stop now,¡± I said. Then, she started licking my neck.  What the fuckity fuck?

    It felt way too good. Why did it feel so good? This was wrong. I knew it was.

    ¡°Okay, can you stop licking me?¡± I asked. I wasn¡¯t going to give in to my body¡¯s urges. Her Adumbrae tricks won¡¯t work on me.

    But she kept going. Maybe I should just let it be. It does feel amazing. No! I wasn¡¯t going to let her mess with me. Yes - that was what she was doing. Messing with me. I have to stop her from messing with me.

    I had my 2nd body get down on the ground and start tickling SpookyErind¡¯s sides. She let go and started laughing.

    ¡°I know you lost, but you didn¡¯t need to go that far,¡± I pouted with my main body.

    <u>I didn¡¯t lose, I won,</u> she said.

    Whatever. I had both my main body and my 2nd clone roll their eyes. Wow. That was pretty fun. Maybe I should do this whenever she speaks.

    <u>Besides, it looked like you really liked it,</u> she said, pointing at my cheeks. They were super duper red. And my heart was beating. I hate blushing. SpookyErind was blushing too.

    Suddenly, I could also feel my 2nd clone¡¯s cheek¡¯s blushing. Why are we all blushing?

    ¡°No, that was nasty,¡± I said. ¡°Licking me? That¡¯s gross.¡±

    <u>I think it¡¯s pretty hot,</u> she countered. This was bad. Her attempts to mess with me were working. Time to retreat.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to go to bed,¡± I said. ¡°This was too much nonsense.¡±

    I had my 2nd clone pull on her face and concentrate turning into a mask. She vanished, leaving a mask on the ground. I took it and put it on my nightstand.

    SpookyErind unsummoned herself. She always did this so I could resummon her after I took a shower. So it would be like she also took a shower. I contemplated just not summoning her again. Maybe that would be a punishment?

    For whatever reason, I held out my left hand, and focused on summoning her. Why am I doing this?

    To make sure she was clean. No, wait.

    I wanted to gloat at her some more to celebrate my win. Yeah. That was the reason. Her mask formed and floated over to the side. It was replaced with another Erind clone, who immediately focused on summoning her own mask. SpookyErind put on her signature black and white Thalia mask.

    <u>You have something to tell me?</u> She asked.

    ¡°I beat you!¡± I said.

    <u>Congratulations,</u> she cheered. She wasn¡¯t disappointed that she lost at all. Or the fact I took her phone. Damn gloating sucks. She wasn¡¯t affected at all by my bragging. <u>Anyways, you were going to bed?</u>

    ¡°Yeah, I guess,¡± I said. I got in bed under the blankets and SpookyErind did as well. She hugged me from behind and wrapped her legs around me.

    <u>Goodnight,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Goodnight,¡± I replied automatically, closing my eyes. This was such a crazy night. I managed to beat her, but she ended up licking me. Was it really worth it to win? I guess I really did like winning¡­

 2.10

    What a good night''s sleep. I stretched my limbs. Or I at least tried, before I realized that SpookyErind was still hugging me.

    I could feel her senses, which meant she was awake. That also explained why I was unable to get out of her grasp.

    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s time to wake up,¡± I said. ¡°I have school remember.¡±

    <u>I think we¡¯ll have a bit more time to speak.</u> She focused on her hand, and I felt the time bubble form. Of course, I couldn¡¯t actually see it since her hand was against my chest. I saw it as it expanded and surrounded our whole bed. The bubble had a golden sheen.

    ¡°So you slowed time for us inside the bubble?¡± I asked. At least I wouldn¡¯t be late.

    <u>Are you sure about that?</u> She asked. What? Is that not what she was doing? Wait. If time was slower for us, then time outside the bubble would be faster, causing me to be late. So it was the other way around. I can¡¯t handle this mental fuckery. <u>No need to beat yourself over it, you got it right.</u>

    ¡°Is there any reason you want to talk to me more?¡± I asked. ¡°You can just talk to my 2nd clone when I go to class.¡±

    <u>But I want to talk to you right now,</u> she said. What was so important that she couldn¡¯t wait? <u>I wanted to congratulate you on making a new friend yesterday.</u>

    ¡°Bianca?¡± I asked. She was the only person that fits that description. ¡°Although, we¡¯re not really friends. I don¡¯t even think we could become friends, especially with what I learned about her.¡±

    <u>And what did you learn about her?</u> SpookyErind asked. Of course, she could probably read my mind. But she¡¯s said before that she likes listening to me speak. I like listening to myself speak too.

    ¡°She definitely has Rules of her own,¡± I said. ¡°But there¡¯s something very peculiar about them. She says she¡¯s against augmentation and all that other jazz, but why was she interested in becoming an Adumbrae? My gut feeling is that she has a very major Rule. Most normal people wouldn¡¯t have that kind of contradictory view. Well, okay they might have contradictory views, but definitely not about Adumbrae and augmentation.¡±

    <u>But does that show she really has Rules?</u>

    ¡°No, but she also maintained faces,¡± I pointed out. ¡°She may not refer to them as ¡®Rules¡¯, but they are still essentially Rules. Everybody has some basic routines that they follow. Generally, I wouldn¡¯t be able to single Bianca out from every other normal person, but she dropped her face like a stupid bitch.¡±

    SpookyErind giggled. <u>It¡¯s so funny that she never suspected us of being similar.</u>

    ¡°It turns out she really was a narcissist masquerading as a likable celebrity,¡± I said. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if that was how most famous people were though. ¡°Anyways, I made sure to always keep my face up. But it¡¯s such a low bar, that I couldn¡¯t believe she went below it.¡±

    <u>Maybe that¡¯s because you came up with such a great plan,</u> SpookyErind cheered. <u>Mind telling me why you decided to do it that way?</u>

    ¡°Her Rule seemed very contradictory,¡± I said. ¡°I even researched online to see if she got any plastic surgery, but she didn¡¯t even do that. She was doing everything ¡°naturally¡±. But becoming an Adumbrae meant throwing all of that out the window. So I decided to exploit that Rule. Since she was interested in becoming an Adumbrae, why not show off our powers? She¡¯d probably want information about becoming an Adumbrae first. That¡¯s how I guessed she wouldn¡¯t kill us.¡±

    <u>She seemed interested at first, but then seemed less interested as you talked about the powers,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°I think it had something to do with her Rule. Maybe she was trying to become an Adumbrae for some other reason. She didn¡¯t seem intrigued about any of the interesting parts of the Adumbrae powers. Also, I¡¯m pretty sure she also had some doubts about who we were. She started asking questions testing our knowledge of the 2Ms. Thankfully, I got lucky enough to improvise my way through. ¡±

    <u>It was so funny that she thought we were Adumbrae,</u> SpookyErind commented. <u>But it turned out, both of us were Corebrings.</u>

    I technically was an Adumbrae. This brought me to another annoying fact. SpookyErind would probably be taking over my body in the near future. But now, I had a potential way to get out. When Bianca guides us to the Red Island, I¡¯ll use the 2M¡¯s technology to maintain control of my body.

    <u>And here we go again,</u> SpookyErind groaned. Was it weird that I wasn¡¯t facing her when talking? She was still hugging me from behind. <u>You keep thinking I¡¯m going to take over your body.</u>

    ¡°Well yeah, you¡¯re an Adumbrae taking over my body,¡± I said.

    <u>What proof do you have that I¡¯m taking over your body?</u> She asked.

    ¡°You¡¯re already controlling my clone,¡± I said.

    <u>But you can still control your 2nd clone, right?</u> She asked. <u>If I was trying to take over your body, why wouldn¡¯t I take control of it too?</u>

    That was a¡­ fair point. I was still not sure of that too. But that still didn¡¯t explain why she could control my 1st clone.

    <u>I¡¯ve always been your 1st clone,</u> she said. <u>Ever since you got these Corebring powers.</u>

    ¡°Okay, but that doesn¡¯t really refute my point,¡± I said.

    <u>How do you even know that is how your Corebring power worked?</u> She asked. <u>I think it would be a pretty simple explanation that it just gave me a body to interact the real world with. Do you even have proof you would have control of it?</u>

    ¡°But aren¡¯t you admitting that I¡¯m not in control of my clone?¡± I questioned.

    <u>Nope,</u> she giggled. <u>Anyways, if I could easily take over your clone, then why couldn¡¯t I take over your other clone and your main body easily?</u>

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    I wasn¡¯t sure about that. If she could suddenly get control over one part of me, why not the others? Maybe she just wanted to mess with me before taking full control?

    She stopped hugging me and turned my body around. The red glow of her eyes looked so mesmerizing up close. She hugged me again.

    <u>You¡¯re thinking too hard about this,</u> she said. <u>Over the next month, you¡¯re going to love me so much that you¡¯ll think of whatever the 2Ms are doing as repulsive.</u>

    ¡°What are you, Deen¡¯s guardian angel?¡± I asked jokingly. She laughed, but her words seemed kinda creepy.

    <u>Time works differently for me,</u> she said. What? Does that mean she always knows the future?

    <u>I do know we¡¯ll be together forever,</u> she giggled.

    Before I could respond, she leaned in and gave me a kiss.

    <u>Anyways, since I¡¯m always right, let¡¯s not argue about that,</u> she said. <u>Instead, let¡¯s talk about missions.</u>

    ¡°Like the Eve in two weeks?¡± I asked. ¡°What about it?¡±

    <u>Not that,</u> she said. <u>How about we propose a mission to our team?</u>

    ¡°Propose a mission?¡± What did she mean?

    <u>Do you remember how Mr. Locke, the trenchcoat guy was talking about Eloycira?</u> She asked.

    Oh, that was his name. I had completely forgotten it. ¡°Yeah, I remember it. Are you saying we try and infiltrate the place?¡±

    <u>There could be some excellent-tasting food wherever they take us,</u> she said. Wait, take us? Like kidnap us?

    <u>Well duh,</u> she said. <u>They¡¯re not going to keep the experiments in a place public people go to. We just have to pretend to be a very poor girl.</u>

    That did make sense. But what if the 2M¡¯s recognized me?

    <u>They won¡¯t recognize Ento,</u> she said. Right, she was way shorter than me. Even if we shared similar faces, they would just think we were sisters. Of course, if they had access to any documents, they¡¯d know I was a single child. How would I make her look poorer though?

    <u>That¡¯s definitely something to think about,</u> she said. <u>But how about it? It¡¯s something fun to do this weekend, instead of just waiting for two weeks.</u> Really, it was more like a week and two days, but I saw her point. I didn¡¯t mind eating more, whether it be the experiments or humans. Maybe I¡¯d even get a taste of Adumbrae there.

    ¡°So should I plan to sneak out of Deen¡¯s house again?¡± I asked.

    <u>That seems kinda of boring,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>Why not actually go on a mission with our team? Besides, it¡¯s best to develop our faces with them. They might even have some good suggestions.</u>

    Uggh. The last time I was with them I was doing all the work. I hope this means she saw that they¡¯ll do some of the heavy lifting. Or maybe she was just messing with me again.

    <u>We should tell Deen first,</u> she said.

    ¡°Sure,¡± I said. ¡°But what about the time -¡± The bubble popped. Nevermind then. I got out of bed and got my phone. An identical phone was right next to it. That was SpookyErind¡¯s copy. After I took a shower, I summoned her back. I had to do it to summon my 2nd clone. There was nothing I could do about the order of summoning my clones. My 2nd clone¡¯s embroidered Corebring mask sat on the nightstand.

    I took a look at the time, and it was 5:31 a.m. Thankfully, the time bubble caused us to talk faster than time was going, otherwise, it¡¯d probably be 5:35 a.m. Deen probably would have barged in by now, worrying that I¡¯d be late. And I didn¡¯t want her to hear that conversation.

    Flicking the switch in my body for my 2nd clone, her mask vanished and was replaced by another me next to the nightstand. Deen didn¡¯t mind feeding all of us breakfast, so I didn¡¯t mind eating with all of them.

    We all walked out towards Deen, who was sitting at the table. I did my normal ¡®good morning¡¯ routine along with my normal breakfast routine. But how to bring up the topic of Eloycira?

    ¡°Hey Deen,¡± I said. ¡°I wanted to confess something to you.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Deen asked. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°A couple of nights ago, I snuck out of the house through the window,¡± I said.

    ¡°Wait, you left?¡± she asked. I hoped she wasn¡¯t going to get mad at me. She wasn¡¯t my mom, so I¡¯d figure I could go out whenever I wanted. Still, her house might have some sort of alarm system if I went through the front door, so through the window I went. ¡°You didn¡¯t get drunk with any boys did you?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± I snorted. ¡°I told you I don¡¯t drink. And I¡¯m not interested in dating either.¡±

    She chuckled. ¡°But seriously, where did you go?¡±

    ¡°I went wandering down the city streets,¡± I said. ¡°I felt kind of couped up here. I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m just worried that the 2M¡¯s might try to take you if you go alone. Maybe next time, let me go with you?¡± Eww. No. Anyways, back to my excellent story.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the scary thing,¡± I said.

    ¡°They tried to kidnap you again?¡± she panicked.

    ¡°No, but I overheard some guys talking in one of the poorer areas of town,¡± I said. ¡°Nobody was around, and I was in an alleyway looking for suspicious stuff.¡±

    ¡°They were part of the 2M¡¯s?¡± she asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure,¡± I said. ¡°They talked about Big Marcy. The worst part was - they talked about kidnapping other people for their experiments.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s horrible!¡± she said.

    ¡°Yeah, apparently, they¡¯ve been using this company called Eloycira to advertise drugs,¡± I said. I forgot what kind of drugs they advertised, but that was beside the point. ¡°They then take the people who come, and kidnap them.¡±

    ¡°We need to do something about it!¡± she said. ¡°We can¡¯t let this continue.¡±

    Wow. She was really passionate about stopping them. She didn¡¯t even consider that my story might not be real. But we were best friends, so why would she do that? I guess this was one benefit of having a best friend - they just believed whatever you spat out.

    Of course, not all of this was completely fake. I did actually hear Trenchcoat Guy talk about Eloycira. But I wasn¡¯t going to tell Deen about my experimentations on all of them. She¡¯d probably think it¡¯d be fucked up even though they were the 2Ms. Besides, I had a better idea of how to continue this ¡®story¡¯.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why I didn¡¯t fight them,¡± I said. ¡°I feel bad now - I could have stopped them but I just continued to eavesdrop. I wanted to, but I was afraid that any street cameras were going to catch me. I didn¡¯t have our mission clothes with me.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine Erind,¡± she said, grabbing my hand. My blood began to boil. ¡°If you fought them, the 2M¡¯s might know something is up with their kidnapping operation. Now, we can go and tell Dario about this. They won¡¯t suspect anything. Besides, hiding your identity is important too.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Deen,¡± I said. And there it was. She was doing all the work for me. Another benefit of being best friends. She wouldn¡¯t think I was doing anything bad by failing to stop the 2Ms. And it turns out, I actually did wear my mission clothes. But I needed a reason in my story to not fight the 2Ms.

    ¡°You''re welcome,¡± she beamed. ¡°We¡¯ll tell Dario before our training session today.¡±

    Such a wonderful afternoon. All my Thursday classes were done. And now, Deen and I were entering our secret base to do superhero training. I was pretty hyped. The team would be teaching me skills I would use against some of them in the future. Mainly just Myra though.

    Deen walked up to Dario, who was in a tracksuit, which displayed his toned muscles. One day, I¡¯ll have muscles as toned as him. I was now training at night a lot. I hadn¡¯t noticed any changes yet, but by the end of the month, I could end up looking pretty fit.

    Thankfully, my 2nd clone could study while I worked out. I¡¯d wonder how long it¡¯d take me to look stronger than Deen. She was both more beautiful and fit for me. It was only righteous of me to become better than her in at least one of those areas.

    ¡°Hey Dario,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Hey girls,¡± he said. The rest of the group said their hellos.

    ¡°I wanted to talk to you about something before our training,¡± she said.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°A couple of nights ago, Erind went out into the city,¡± Deen explained. She retold my story. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t have to do it twice.

    ¡°Wait, so you actually heard all of this Erind?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t fight them.¡±

    ¡°You did the best you could,¡± Deen said. Wow. I guess doing nothing was the best I could do. That feels kinda insulting, actually. ¡°Anyways, should we prepare a mission to stop Eloycira?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll need to talk about this to the Professor before we go on a mission,¡± he said. ¡°But why don¡¯t we do some training first?¡±

 2.11

    ¡°Myra, can you take over while I contact the Professor?¡± Dario asked. Was it really necessary for him to always talk to the Professor? I guess he was the Professor¡¯s only contact. Still, it was weird that he was our leader since he seemed to always defer his decisions to someone else. Does that mean the Professor is actually our leader?

    ¡°Sure,¡± she agreed. ¡°Come on girls.¡± Dario left the room. I guess we¡¯re with Myra then.

    She guided us to the raised stage on the opposite side of the room. Myra stopped at the side of the stairs.

    ¡°So, what are you going to teach us?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°There are three main things you guys should keep in mind - evading, attacking from afar, and pushing the limits of your strength,¡± Myra answered.

    ¡°I get the first two, but what do you mean pushing the limits of our strength?¡± I asked. Wasn¡¯t it funny that Myra was probably going to teach me skills that I¡¯d used to kill her?

    ¡°Right, let me explain,¡± she said. ¡°All three of us have an artificial Core right?¡± Duh. Deen and I both nodded. ¡°We have super speed, super strength, super durability, and super regeneration. There are some slight variations between us, but most of these are pretty similar. And we also have our powers, which will grow over time. Sadly, we don¡¯t really get significantly stronger physically, even if we say bench a thousand pounds daily. Believe me, I¡¯ve tried.¡±

    Deen and I both chuckled.

    ¡°So, to get the point, we have to use what¡¯s called hysterical strength to push our limits. The explanation is a bit complicated, so I¡¯ll save it for next week.¡±

    ¡°Next week?¡± I asked. ¡°What about if we try to infiltrate Eloycira this weekend?¡±

    ¡°The first two things I talked about are more important,¡± Myra said. ¡°With pushing the limits of our strength, I¡¯ll have to bring you guys to a different building.¡±

    ¡°Is it because you don¡¯t want to be near Reo?¡± I joked.

    ¡°Haha. But seriously, we need to be able to damage the building we¡¯re in, and it¡¯s not a good idea to ruin our hideout.¡± What exactly would we be doing? Destroying a building? How could you hide that? But I guess we would only be damaging part of it then? I couldn¡¯t see any of us tearing down a whole building.

    ¡°Back to the evading, how exactly are we going train on that?¡± Deen asked. Maybe Myra could throw her spikes at us, I thought sarcastically.

    ¡°I was planning on using my vines actually to try and push you guys over,¡± Myra said. Wow, she was prepared for that. I kept thinking that she would fumble her answers and reveal she was the attacker. On the other hand, it makes it better for me when I try to dramatically harm her. Dramatically harm, the fuck am I talking about?

    ¡°Anyways, evading will probably be important since with Eloycira, we¡¯ll be in enemy territory,¡± she said. ¡°Additionally, you two will be alone during the Eve, so it¡¯s best you¡¯re ready for anything that happens.¡±

    ¡°The enemy didn¡¯t seem that dangerous last time,¡± I said.

    ¡°And that¡¯s your first mistake,¡± Myra said. I raised my brows. ¡°We got lucky with our first mission. No electroshock weapons, no augmented, and no Adumbrae. The 2M¡¯s were busy dealing with those werewolf experiments.¡±

    Oh right, I¡¯m pretty sure they did have those stuff when I attacked their base as Red Hood. The electroshock weapons and augmented guy were easy to deal with, but Ms. Statue Lady was way too strong for me. What if she appeared at our next mission?

    I guess they really did want to save all their main stuff for their base. Because, if I were them, I would have sent some of the electroshock guys in the vans. Oh well, at least they were a nice meal.

    ¡°Anyways Erind, I know you¡¯re pretty strong, but you have no idea what kind of stuff they might have,¡± Myra said. ¡°We should have actually planned better at the last mission, but we were so into it that we just kept on fighting. They might have more Adumbrae that are nearly as powerful as the Titan near the docks.¡± Uggh. Even though I was both a Corebring and an Adumbrae, there were still Adumbrae more powerful than me. Why couldn¡¯t life be fair to a cute Corebring Adumbrae like me?

    ¡°Anyways, who wants to go first?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ll volunteer,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll just watch and take notes,¡± I said. I took out my notepad.

    ¡°All right,¡± Myra said as she took off her shoes. She got up on the stage and pointed to some rocks that had been left near the edge of the stage. ¡°Pick some of those up, you¡¯ll need those to try and hit my legs.¡±

    Deen took off her shoes and then picked up a handful of rocks as she walked onto the stage. Myra walked to the opposite end, while I sat on my chair.

    Johann came up behind me with a couple of chairs. He put one down and gestured me towards the other.

    ¡°Want a seat?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Sure,¡± I said. At least unlike Everett, he actually gave me a chair. I could see why Myra might be attracted to him. Wait, what am I saying, the only thing he gave me is a chair! Our society has such low standards for men these days.

    ¡°Sorry I couldn¡¯t get popcorn,¡± he said. I chuckled. ¡°Should¡¯ve asked Everett and Reo to get some while they¡¯re modifying the van again.¡±

    ¡°So, here¡¯s how it¡¯s going to go,¡± Myra called out to Deen. ¡°You¡¯re going to try and knock me over, while I¡¯ll try to knock you over.¡±

    ¡°Got it!¡± Deen said. Wait, what if they missed and the rocks came at us? They might hit Johann. At least I would survive. I¡¯d be really angry though.

    Myra took off her shirt, leaving her with just a sports bra and shorts. Soon, bark began to form, covering her. She didn¡¯t grow to her monstrous eight-foot height, but her full body was covered in bark.

    ¡°Go!¡± Myra said as vines began to grow from her body towards Deen.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Deen chucked a rock at her, but Myra easily dodged to the side. Myra¡¯s vines approached her, and she was forced to weave through them. It was impressive how she didn¡¯t trip. But the vines continued to grow, forcing Deen to try and kick some of them away. She ended up stumbling as she threw another rock.

    ¡°Come on, keep up!¡± Myra echoed from her bark helmet. More vines formed and snaked around the stage towards Deen. Deen continued throwing rocks, but she was running out. She¡¯d be forced to retreat to the edge.

    As Deen went to get more rocks, Myra continued to infest the stage with her vines. It was starting to become a full jungle.

    Still, Deen didn¡¯t give up. Even though Myra was faster and more powerful than her, Deen had the willpower to continue. I found it fascinating human behavior. In the stories I read, the hero would always continue no matter the odds. It was like the World congratulated them for trying so hard. But would that really happen in reality? I¡¯m pretty sure there are some times in history where the Goliath actually killed the David, no matter how hard they tried. The Europeans did that to the natives when they came to the Americas.

    Although, Deen did have her guardian angel. But even with its help, it didn¡¯t seem like Deen could overpower Myra.

    ¡°Keep your form tight!¡± Myra called out as another rock flew past her. Deen began to slow down as the vines kept surrounding her. ¡°Huh?¡± Myra asked surprisingly. ¡°Tired al-¡±

    Deen threw a rock at Myra¡¯s legs, causing her to stumble over.

    ¡°Okay, well played,¡± Myra called out.

    ¡°Thanks, Myra,¡± Deen said. ¡°Sorry for the underhanded tactic though. My guardian angel suggested it.¡±

    ¡°No it¡¯s fine,¡± Myra replied. ¡°We¡¯ll need every advantage we can get if we want to beat the 2M¡¯s. Let¡¯s go for a couple more rounds?¡±

    About twenty minutes later, they finally finished. Deen was sweating. Myra was - well I couldn¡¯t tell since she was covered in bark. Deen didn¡¯t manage to get any more hits, but she did manage to avoid ever getting knocked down.

    ¡°Good work,¡± Myra said as she retracted her vines. ¡°Take a rest. All right Erind, you ready?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. I kind of wanted to show that I was better than Deen and actually hit Myra. I took off my shoes and picked up some rocks with my right hand.

    ¡°I can summon my clones right?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yeah, go ahead,¡± she said.

    In my room, I had my 2nd clone pull on her face. And all of her senses were gone. SpookyErind took off her face twice - once to get to a normal Erind clone, and once to vanish into thin air.

    Then, I held out my left hand and concentrated. Golden liquid formed and coalesced into an embroidered Corebring mask. It floated over to the left as another mask formed above my left hand. SpookyErind appeared in an instant. My 2nd clone¡¯s mask floated over to the right and also appeared.

    We all had rocks in our hands. Was this unfair? Myra did say we were allowed to use our powers to our advantage.

    ¡°Three against one huh?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Well, go!¡± She sent out vines.

    Immediately, all three of us threw a rock at her. She ducked and easily dodged all our attacks as vines came to meet all three of us. But they felt slow. I continued to throw some rocks, this time staggering my attacks with my 2nd clone. SpookyErind did the same. It was like a machine gun. Except, we had like no bullets. And Myra was still standing even though she got grazed by a couple of rocks.

    ¡°Keep going!¡± she called out. Fuck. I needed to get more rocks, in fact, all of my clones needed to get more rocks. To be fair, I had been calling them rocks, but they were more like pebbles. All three of us headed back as vines came to intercept us. We easily got to the edge of the stage, but were surrounded by vines.

    I stomped on a vine but nearly fell when I tried throwing a rock at the same time. My short body was not prepared for this.

    ¡°Concentrate!¡± Myra said. I¡¯m trying, but your vines are messing with me.

    Actually, couldn¡¯t I just get SpookyErind to transform into her Spooky self and freeze Myra in time? To my surprise, she actually followed my instructions and held out her left hand to summon her mask. She put it on and I instantly felt her body become stronger.

    We were now moving faster too. SpookyErind began summoning the time bubble. But suddenly, I kind of wanted to beat her fair and square. It¡¯d make me feel more superior that I¡¯d be able to do it without manipulation, unlike Deen.

    Myra focused on firing her vines toward SpookyErind, but instead of sending the time bubble to her, she expanded the time bubble around herself. Suddenly, my senses became very weird. I could see through her body that Myra was moving at the speed of light, but to me, Myra was moving slower than I was, but still dodging.

    Did she slow time down for herself? I took a peek with my 2nd clone at SpookyErind and she and the vines seemed to be moving at a snail¡¯s pace. Huh. Myra redirected her attention to us, and I sent my 2nd clone to the side of the stage near Johann and Deen. Meanwhile, I went to the far inner side of the stage. I¡¯ll spread out as far as I can so she can¡¯t focus on all of us.

    SpookyErind¡¯s time bubble popped and she moved back to the middle. She threw a rock at her, and Myra dodged to the side, but then I had my 2nd clone throw a rock. This is it. Myra weaved out of the way only to get hit by the rock I threw with my main body.

    ¡°Ouch,¡± Myra said. Maybe I hit her too hard. Nah. She got up a few seconds later. ¡°Good job Erind. You could have a better form, but we can always work on that.¡±

    The fuck does she mean, better form? She really should have gone over this beforehand. Right now, it sounds like she¡¯s spilling random training montage cliches.

    Myra¡¯s bark receded and she was covered in sweat. Nasty. Although, my clones and I were also sweaty. ¡°We should really get a fan in here,¡± I said.

    ¡°Heh. Yeah,¡± Myra said. ¡°There are some towels over there though.¡±

    Deen also tossed us some water bottles. I began wiping myself as Myra took a sip.

    ¡°Good work you two,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll give a few pointers. Deen, you did pretty well not actually tripping. But you need to get better at both evading and attacking. If your opponent is stronger than me, you¡¯re definitely going to have trouble even with your guardian angel.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for the advice,¡± Deen nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll try and get Erind to practice with me.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a great idea,¡± Myra said. Eww. That sounds gross. Although, I wouldn¡¯t mind throwing rocks at Deen. ¡°And for you Erind, you were pretty smart with using your clones like that. Although, you do need a better strategy. You had to retreat and get rocks for all of your clones. You may not always have time to get ammo.¡±

    Yeah, that was kinda embarrassing, all three of us going to pick up pebbles.

    ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to do that next time,¡± I said.

    ¡°Hey guys,¡± A male voice called out. ¡°I¡¯m back.¡±

    ¡°Hello,¡± Deen said. I gave a meek wave. ¡°What did the Professor say?¡±

    ¡°He said he¡¯s fine with it,¡± Dario replied. ¡°We¡¯ll need a good plan to go by tomorrow though. Eloycira is closed on the weekends. There is one office in La Esperanza.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, and I imagine they don¡¯t keep the people they kidnap there,¡± I said, echoing what SpookyErind said earlier. ¡°It¡¯d be too dangerous if they got investigated for missing people.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Dario agreed.

    ¡°Maybe we can interrogate them near closing time?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°They might alert the rest of the 2M¡¯s though before we¡¯re able to do that,¡± Dario said. ¡°Something more covert.¡±

    ¡°How about disguises?¡± Johann asked. ¡°We could disguise one of ourselves as a homeless person.¡±

    ¡°They might drug us though,¡± Deen said. ¡°Erind overheard that they knock people out before kidnapping them. Instead, is there a way to dress up as one of them?¡±

    ¡°Wait, I got it!¡± I said. It was all coming together now. ¡°I can use my 2nd clone¡¯s kid form - Ento, to act as bait. None of the 2M¡¯s know who she is, and even if she gets drugged, there¡¯s zero risk of finding out my identity. Besides, it took way too many sleeping darts to make me fall asleep when the 2M¡¯s tried to kidnap us, so I can just pretend to be knocked out. Then, once Ento reaches the 2M¡¯s base, we can go to her and rescue everybody there.¡±

    ¡°Wait, do you know geographically where your clones are?¡± Myra asked. Shit. No, I didn¡¯t. Even if I got in, there would be no way for the rest of us or my main body to get there.

    ¡°Oh I know,¡± Deen said. We looked at her. ¡°Your clone¡¯s keep the stuff your main body has when you summon them right? So you just have to keep your phone on your main body. We can then use Snippet¡¯s tracking feature to find out where she is.¡±

    ¡°Snippet?¡± I asked.

    ¡°You know I keep telling you to download it,¡± Deen said. Social media just wasn¡¯t for me. Also, making a face was hard on social media - everybody could scrutinize you. I had to tailor it to everyone, which was impossible. That¡¯s where Rule #16 came in to save me. No social media for me.

    ¡°I¡¯m not really a social media type of person,¡± I said.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to post anything, we just need to use the app¡¯s tracking features,¡± she said.

    ¡°Fine,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡±

 2.12

    98¡­ 99¡­ 100. Whew! Just finished working out my legs. They look like they¡¯re getting slightly bigger. Maybe I¡¯ll have at least one asset for attracting boys.

    I got off the Atlas Supermachine and wiped myself with a towel. While I was working out, I was studying with my 2nd clone, who was being hugged by SpookyErind. Thankfully, SpookyErind wasn¡¯t being annoying.

    Deen walked up to me, already clean of sweat. Damn, this girl was fast. She could change clothes and clean herself way faster than I could. Did she also put on makeup really fast? I was kind of jealous of that.

    ¡°Hey, so we probably won¡¯t be able to practice sparring before tomorrow,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate,¡± I sighed. ¡°I guess we could do it next week.¡± It¡¯d be so fun to beat up Deen. Even though she had her Guardian Angel, Deen couldn¡¯t keep up with opponents who were way stronger than her.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she agreed. ¡°But at least I can help you set up Snippet.¡± Oh right, I had to install that stupid social media app.

    ¡°Ugh,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with.¡±

    ¡°What do you have against social media?¡± Deen asked. ¡°Did it harm you as a child?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± I said, chuckling at her joke. ¡°I just find it too much of a chore.¡± Imagine trying to keep up with all that nonsense that happens on there while maintaining a face. Furthermore, all my interactions would be recorded indefinitely. That meant people would be able to more easily spot any discrepancies in my face. And at that point, the face just becomes a mask. Unacceptable.

    ¡°I¡¯ll help you out so it becomes easy,¡± Deen said. I took out my phone from my shorts and pulled up the app store.

    ¡°Snippet right?¡± I asked. The icon was a pair of scissors cutting a thread.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Deen said. ¡°Each cut from the scissors is meant to represent a snippet of our lives.¡± That felt like meaningless corporate bullshit. I¡¯m surprised Deen memorized that. Did Snippet strike a deal with her?

    ¡°Are you secretly being paid by Snippet?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No, I just know a lot,¡± she replied.

    ¡°Humble brag,¡± I coughed.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Deen said. She chuckled, indicating she knew I was joking.

    I pressed the download button and waited for the app to load up. It asked me to sign up or log in.

    ¡°Can I just use your account?¡± I asked. Maybe since we were best friends she¡¯d just let me use hers so I wouldn¡¯t have to make one. Although, that was asking a lot since she¡¯d have to give me her password.

    ¡°It¡¯s better if you have your own account,¡± Deen said. ¡°Besides, I know what you¡¯re doing.¡±

    ¡°What am I doing?¡± I asked.

    ¡°You¡¯re stalling Ms. Introvert,¡± she said, poking me in the side.

    ¡°Ahh!¡± I yelped. Fucking bitch. She should be glad I didn¡¯t drop my phone, otherwise, I would have kicked her. ¡°What was that for?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just poking you to make sure you get back on track,¡± she said.

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that just distracted me instead,¡± I pointed out. I sighed and went to the signup screen. I was asked to put an email and insert a username and a password.

    For the username, I went with Hippo123456. The username gave nothing about me away. Also, Hippos were cute and scary. The best kind of animals.

    ¡°Hippo123456?¡± Deen asked. ¡°Do you like Hippos?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± I said, not elaborating further. ¡°Also, don¡¯t use my password.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll just constantly message you instead,¡± Deen said, sticking out her tongue.

    I rolled my eyes and pressed the sign-up button. It asked me for a verification code that was sent to my email. And here was another point against social media sites. Everything was so tedious to do. Like I needed to give away my email, make up a username and password, and then get a security code? How do people do this for each social media site that pops up? Society was absolutely insane.

    After inputting the security code, I got access to the app. A bunch of random stuff popped up on my screen. Could I just uninstall this now?

    ¡°So, what¡¯s next?¡± I asked.

    Deen guided me through the process of how to turn on the friend-tracking feature on Snippet. She also sent a friend request to me. Her profile was a picture of her beautiful face smiling and with two fingers doing a peace sign. My profile picture was blank. And I was going to leave it that way. I accepted her friend request.

    ¡°And here¡¯s how you see where I am,¡± Deen said. I doubt I¡¯ll need that. I guess I could use it to get away from Deen if she becomes too annoying. Thankfully, I was way faster than her.

    She tapped a button with a map, and on it, several circular icons showed up with a layout of the city. In the center, was an icon with her profile picture. She typed Hippo123456 in a search bar at the top, and it got rid of all the icons that were not in this house. That just left her icon and mine.

    ¡°And that¡¯s how it works, simple right?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Seems easy enough,¡± I said. I closed the app. Once Deen got back to studying, I¡¯ll go work out some more. It was kinda impressive since I seemed to be getting a bit stronger. I wasn¡¯t able to lift more than 6000 pounds last week, but now, I could lift a bit over 6200 pounds. Myra did say the rest of the team didn¡¯t really get stronger, so it must mean my Adumbrae powers are fueling my growth.

    When I asked Deen earlier, she said she could only lift an extra 10 pounds compared to when she first got her powers last week. So yeah, it seemed she only got a bit stronger from natural workouts.

    ¡°And you can also take selfies,¡± Deen said, holding out her phone in front of us and smiling. Before I could do anything, she clicked a button, and a picture was taken. ¡°So cute!¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡± I said. ¡°Don¡¯t post that!¡±

    ¡°Did you know Snippet allows you to keep private photos?¡± she asked. ¡°I¡¯ll just keep this one for good memory.¡±

    ¡°Do you really need a photo of me - you see me every day,¡± I said. ¡°I hope you don¡¯t forget about me easily.¡±

    ¡°Haha,¡± she said. ¡°But I just wanted a cute photo of us. Just hanging out with my best friend in sports bras and shorts.¡±

    I was never one for pictures. Back when Mom and I traveled a lot, she would take a lot of photos. She said she didn¡¯t want to forget anymore. I guess she was really upset about Dad ¡®dying.¡¯ But it was torturous for me because it forced me to unnaturally smile for my ¡®picture¡¯ face. At least I was cute in the photos.

    ¡°Thanks Deen,¡± I said. ¡°You should probably get to studying and taking a shower.¡±

    ¡°Touche,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re welcome by the way.¡±

    Today was the big day. At least for Ento, who was sadly very short. Deen and I had gone shopping for clothes for Ento after we finished our classes. We measured Ento yesterday, so we didn¡¯t have to worry about taking her into the store.

    Right now, I, SpookyErind, and Ento were in my bed room. I had resummoned them after putting on my mission clothes - a black jacket, black pants, and black sneakers with a mask in our jacket¡¯s pocket. SpookyErind was also wearing those clothes. On my bed was a set of clothes and makeup stuff to make Ento look more¡­ homeless. The clothes were a simple gray T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and sneakers.

    It¡¯d be pretty suspicious right if Ento just walked in there all clean in her scientist outfit? And most people going to Eloycira were having¡­ troubles in their life if they really needed to try that ¡®drug¡¯. We didn¡¯t want to make the 2M¡¯s feel suspicious. The best enemy is an unsuspecting one.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    <u>Hey, before you change clothes, can you transform Ento back into a normal Erind clone?</u> SpookyErind asked.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I guess she wanted to do something first. Hopefully, it didn¡¯t involve messing with me. I had Ento pull on her goggles, and she immediately returned to full height. She was wearing the same black outfit as us now.

    <u>Take my mask with you to the base,</u> SpookyErind said to my 2nd clone. <u>Once you transform out of Ento, I¡¯ll help you there.</u>

    ¡°Wait a minute-¡± I tried to say as SpookyErind pulled on her face and was replaced with that black and white golden mask.

    I picked up her mask with my 2nd clone¡¯s right hand. So did that mean I could transport SpookyErind with my 2nd clone while she was transformed? I never even thought of that.

    I had my 2nd clone hold out her left hand and focus on summoning her goggles. After they formed, I used my main body to help put them on since she was holding onto SpookyErind¡¯s mask.

    My 2nd clone shrank to her kid¡¯s height again. But something felt weird this time. When any of my clones transform into their mask form, I get the sensation of a switch appearing in my body. But now the switch with SpookyErind¡¯s body had some kind of lock on it? So that means she couldn¡¯t appear until I had Ento transform back into a normal Erind clone.

    Wait, what if I did that with my main body and then transformed into Red Hood? I think my clones¡¯ masks would just be stuck with my original Erind body. I should make sure not to do that in case I need help from my clones.

    Anyways, it was time to create Ento¡¯s homeless face. I had her take off her apron and lab coat, putting them on my bed. Next, I had her take off her gloves. I was about to take off her goggles, but then I realized that would just cause her to transform back into a normal Erind clone. Hmm. I¡¯ll need to come up with a story for that later.

    Originally, I had planned on ripping Ento¡¯s clothes so she¡¯d look more homeless, but now I think it might be better to just make her seem sad and lonely. How the hell was I going to explain the scientist goggles to the 2M¡¯s?

    Underneath Ento¡¯s lab coat was a white T-shirt. White was a bit too cheery, so gray would do. Next was the pair of pants. Ento¡¯s pants and boots looked way too formal, so I had her put on the jeans and sneakers.

    Hmm. Maybe we should have bought a hoody. But we wouldn¡¯t have enough time to get to the Eloycira office before it closed if we went shopping again.

    Ento and I walked out of our room to meet Deen.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to rip her clothes to make them like rags?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°No, she still has to have her goggles on,¡± I explained. ¡°So I can¡¯t make her look like she¡¯s poor. I was just going to have her pretend to be sad and lonely, like maybe her parent was a scientist, and they were no longer there. And she wants to try out the Eloycira drug.¡±

    ¡°Actually, yeah, that sounds like a way better idea now,¡± Deen said. ¡°Anyways, are you ready to head out?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said.

    We arrived at our secret base. The rest of the group was already there. Our gray van sat parked.

    ¡°Hey girls, do you want to see what upgrades we made to the van?¡± Everett asked.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Deen said.

    We got into the van, and at the front was a bunch of computer monitors and equipment attached to the dashboard.

    ¡°What is this?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°We got a self-driving system installed and added some computer stuff for Johann to use on our missions,¡± he explained.

    ¡°Wait, you installed this yourself?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No, he was just trying to impress Deen,¡± Reo said.

    Deen, I, and Reo laughed, while Everett sighed.

    ¡°You all ready?¡± Dario asked while observing Ento. We all nodded. ¡°All right, let¡¯s do this!¡±

    I had Ento walk into the Eloycira office. The building was medium-sized, so I didn¡¯t expect too much from it. There was a distinct office feel, nothing like a lab or a hospital with sleek clean floors. I guess the 2M¡¯s didn¡¯t want to invest in this place.

    At the front of the room was a clerk, an aging woman with gray hair.

    ¡°Yes?¡± she asked, staring at me. I walked over to her.

    ¡°I saw on the TV that you had an ad for an experimental drug to prevent Adumbrae seeding,¡± I told her. ¡°It¡¯s just, I¡¯ve been having a hard time.¡±

    ¡°A hard time?¡± she said as she suddenly became more interested.

    ¡°My dad died, and he was a scientist so that¡¯s why I¡¯m wearing goggles,¡± I said. I hope that was believable for a 10-year-old. ¡°And my mom kicked me out of the house. So I¡¯ve just been wandering the city for the past day.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry,¡± she said. ¡°Are you sure she¡¯s not going to come looking for you?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I don¡¯t think she loves me anymore,¡± I sobbed. Thankfully, I learned to fake tears when I was younger. It turns out that cute crying girls easily swayed people.

    ¡°What¡¯s your name miss?¡± she asked. ¡°I¡¯ll need it for the records.¡±

    ¡°Claire Ashton,¡± I said, making up a name.

    ¡°Anyways, generally we have this process for checking people first,¡± she said as she typed my name down. ¡°But I feel bad for you. So I¡¯ll let you in on a little secret.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked.

    ¡°The person who worked here has gone missing, so I recently just got hired here,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m too old to do any of this busy work. And we¡¯re not testing as many people as the CEO wants us to.¡± Okay, that was mostly nonsense. But the person who worked here had gone missing?

    ¡°Do you know what they looked like?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not,¡± she said. Aw. I just wanted to check if it was one of the 2M¡¯s I ate. ¡°Let me get the doctors so they can give you the drug.¡±

    ¡°Dr. Choe,¡± the woman said on her desk phone. ¡°We have a new patient here.¡±

    While we were waiting, I decided to ask the clerk another question.

    ¡°What would happen if my mom was looking for me?¡± I asked. ¡°If she actually cared about me and wouldn¡¯t just kick me out?¡±

    ¡°Well, the same as any other people, although we would have to get signatures from your Mom,¡± she said. Hmm, something was fishy here. Would they just continue kidnapping me if my ¡°mom¡± showed up? That would be really suspicious. Didn¡¯t Trenchcoat Guy say they only kidnapped undesirables? Maybe they just gave them some fake drug for people that were cared about.

    I waited for a minute for the doctor to come. Finally, the doctor arrived. He was wearing a surgeon''s outfit. He had tanned skin and blonde hair.

    ¡°Hello miss!¡± he said energetically. ¡°Umm, what¡¯s her name?¡±

    The clerk said, ¡°Claire Ashton. Her Mom kicked her out of the house. And her dad passed away. He was a scientist so that¡¯s why she wears goggles. It¡¯s sad, isn¡¯t it?

    ¡°Indeed. I¡¯m sorry for your loss Ms. Ashton,¡± he said to me.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± I said. ¡°I just hope this drug experiment will help me.¡±

    ¡°It definitely will,¡± he said before turning to the clerk. ¡°Have you checked her?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not getting enough patients,¡± the clerk replied. ¡°A handful of our staff has gone missing. The big boss wants to make sure everything is on time.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± he sighed. ¡°This is going to be a pain if her mom shows up though. But I really don¡¯t know where the others went. I shouldn¡¯t be working on this alone. All right, we¡¯ll just hope for the best.¡± He turned toward me.

    ¡°Miss Ashton,¡± he said. ¡°If you would just come with me, I can get this over in a jiffy!¡±

    I followed closely behind him into another room.

    ¡°After you,¡± he said. Why what a gentleman, I thought sarcastically.

    Inside was an office space, containing a desk at the end with a monitor on top. An office chair accompanied the desk while a normal chair sat on the other side. This room did not look like a place to test drugs. Although, I¡¯ve never done drugs, so who knows?

    ¡°Is this where you¡¯ll give me the pill?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Pill?¡± he asked. ¡°It¡¯s an injection.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± I said. Isn¡¯t that what Surgeon Lady said when she tried to kidnap Joseph? Or was it Trenchcoat Guy?

    ¡°You must¡¯ve seen the ad wrong,¡± he said. To be fair, I haven¡¯t seen it all, I just went off of what Joseph said. Joseph.

    I wonder how he¡¯s doing. I left him strapped on the stretcher. Did the police arrest him for trying to steal stuff? Or was he still kidnapped? Hey, it wasn¡¯t my fault if he got kidnapped from the 2M¡¯s. I already saved him once because he complimented me. Although, it feels kind of bad to have your work be for nothing. Oh well, I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll ¡®save¡¯ other people later on. Maybe even during this mission.

    Anyways, I¡¯m pretty sure this guy is lying.

    He leaned down and took out a syringe from his pocket.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, this will be over quickly,¡± he said. Like Surgeon Lady, Dr. Choe didn¡¯t even wipe my arm before injecting me. He just put the syringe against my skin and pressed it. ¡°How are you feeling?¡±

    ¡°Really tired,¡± I said, slurring my words. Truthfully, I was fine. But I had to fake being knockout if I wanted them to kidnap Ento.

    ¡°Just sleep tight,¡± he said. I pretended to collapse on the floor and closed my eyes. Hopefully, that was believable.

    ¡°We have another test subject ready,¡± Dr. Choe said. ¡°All right, I¡¯ll put her on the stretcher for you guys.¡±

    Yes! This was it. They were going to secretly bring me into their base.

    ¡°I¡¯ll check her for any devices,¡± he said.

    A disgusting feeling entered my body. The doctor was touching me! I hated being touched. I wanted so badly to punch him. But I couldn¡¯t. I¡¯d be breaking Ento¡¯s face and never find the location of the 2M¡¯s base.

    ¡°Hmm, no phone,¡± he said as he searched my pockets. ¡°I guess that means her mom will have no way of tracking her. Yeah, guys, can you work with the police to make sure to clear the traffic cam footage for this time? I don¡¯t trust that her mom will be looking for her. But we still need to make up for being short on our quotas and staff.¡±

    He started carrying me. The disgusting feeling of being touched slowly got worse and worse. Come on! Just put me on the stretcher! I can¡¯t handle this.

    Finally, I got put on something soft. But then, something grabbed my hands. I so wanted to punch him. I heard the sound of a strap. They were restraining my body. Or well, Ento¡¯s body.

    ¡°They drugged Ento and are in the process of kidnapping her,¡± I told the rest of the team with my main body. ¡°Ento is the name I gave her.¡±

    ¡°Couldn¡¯t we just follow their vehicle as they take Ento?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°They might get suspicious of that,¡± Deen said. ¡°And we¡¯re not even sure if that¡¯s the correct van.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I guess so,¡± Myra replied.

    From outside, we saw two black vans go toward the back of the building, which was restricted. Minutes later, I heard footsteps from Ento¡¯s body.

    ¡°Here you go,¡± Dr. Choe said.

    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s take this twerp and get out of here,¡± a gruff male voice said. Excuse me, I¡¯m not a twerp. Sadly, I couldn¡¯t rebut his statement because I was playing asleep. Is that a phrase? I know ¡®playing dead¡¯ is a phrase.

    I could feel the stretcher start rolling. Eventually, I heard the sound of an engine revving up.

    ¡°Okay, they loaded Ento onto the van,¡± I said.

    But to my surprise, instead of both vans leaving from the back and going together, they split up and went different ways. What?

    ¡°Wait what¡¯s going on?¡± Johann asked. ¡°Why are they splitting up?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± Dario said. ¡°But it was a good idea that Deen suggested tracking Erind, otherwise we might just follow the wrong van.¡±

    I guess so. It¡¯d be kinda sad if my main body wasn¡¯t able to support Ento.

    About an hour passed before I heard the van I was in stop.

    ¡°They stopped moving the van,¡± I said to my team. ¡°I¡¯ll get Ento up once they try experimenting on her.¡±

    The stretcher was rolled for a while, going through a series of doors, until finally it stopped.

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s see what we can do to that little brain of yours,¡± a creepy male voice said. Eww. No, thank you.

    I opened my 2nd clone¡¯s eyes and broke the restraints.

    ¡°What the -¡±

 2.12.1*

    I took off my shirt revealing a cute pink sports bra underneath. Time for another workout.

    Earlier, I had worked out with Deen. Actually, it was more like we were working out on opposite sides of the room. But she had to go study now. I did too. That was the job of my 2nd clone. Now, my main body was free to exercise.

    I already felt energized even after that workout. So I was ready for more reps. Who knew how useful a Corebring and Adumbrae body would be useful for working out?

    SpookyErind also took off her shirt.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to mess with me when I¡¯m studying right?¡± I asked. Technically what I was doing was overkill for studying, but SpookyErind was really annoying. I would have preferred to study more.

    <u>But didn¡¯t you win our game?</u> she said.

    ¡°Yes, but I could use a lot less of whatever you did after,¡± I said, rubbing the back of my neck. That was probably subconscious.

    <u>I was just loving you,</u> she replied with a smile.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be such a sore loser,¡± I countered as I poked her cheek. I was surprised at how squishy it was since her skin seemed to be made of marble.

    <u>I¡¯m not a loser, I won twice,</u> she giggled.

    ¡°By that logic, I also won twice,¡± I said. If she wasn¡¯t going to admit defeat in the 2nd round, then I wasn''t going to admit defeat in the first round. I could take credit for any of her wins.

    SpookyErind wrapped her arms around me and gave me a kiss.

    <u>I¡¯m so glad you won,</u> she said.

    ¡°Thanks, but can you let go of me now?¡± I asked. Way more of our skin was touching now since we were both shirtless. I preferred if there was less skin contact. Preferably zero.

    <u>I love you, you know?</u> She told me.

    Uh yeah, you¡¯ve been saying that this whole time. I¡¯m not sure if you truly love me though or if you¡¯re just messing with me.

    <u>Do you love me?</u> She asked. The hell is her problem? She was way too clingy. Even Deen was less clingy than this. And that was saying something.

    ¡°No,¡± I told her bluntly.

    <u>Aww,</u> she pouted. <u>But I want you to love me.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯d love it if you let go of me,¡± I replied.

    <u>How about a kiss first?</u> She asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ve already kissed you before though,¡± I said. ¡°Haven¡¯t you had enough kisses?¡± I know I have.

    <u>But I want another one,</u> she said. <u>I¡¯ll only let you go if you show you love me.</u>

    ¡°Ugh, do I really have to do this?¡± I asked. I was trying to stand my ground. SpookyErind was trying to control me, and I¡¯d rather her not do that. Would doing what my Adumbrae told me to do speed up the takeover process?

    <u>You can lick my neck instead,</u> she said.

    ¡°Okay, you¡¯re officially weird,¡± I said.

    <u>If I¡¯m weird, you¡¯re weird,</u> she replied. So childish. At least I was more mature than her. <u>Hey!</u>

    ¡°Why are you obsessed with necks and licking?¡± I asked. ¡°Most normal people aren¡¯t like that.¡±

    <u>Number one, we¡¯re not normal people,</u> she sighed. <u>Number two, didn¡¯t you like it when I licked your neck?</u>

    ¡°No,¡± I said.

    <u>Why are you lying to me?</u> She asked. <u>I know how it felt since we share senses. You shouldn¡¯t lie to yourself you know.</u>

    I knew my body had an instinctual reaction, but I was of a higher mind. I could resist temptations. And besides, I wasn¡¯t going to let her have her win that easily. So I just said no.

    ¡°You should have told me you were going to do that first,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s a serious breach of consent.¡±

    <u>But I¡¯m you, so I consented to it,</u> she giggled. That¡¯s not how that works. <u>But if you want, I can tell you next time.</u>

    ¡°There better not be a next time,¡± I pouted. ¡°And don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re going to do it to me.¡±

    She simply chuckled in response. I didn¡¯t say anything, which led us to stay there for a minute. At least my second clone was studying. I was reviewing some international law concepts from Professor Gallagher¡¯s class.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    ¡°So, can you let me go now?¡± I asked.

    <u>You still haven¡¯t shown you love me yet,</u> she said. <u>What if you¡¯re an impostor of Erind? I need to know.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m not an impostor,¡± I said. ¡°If anyone¡¯s the impostor between us, it¡¯s you.¡±

    She shook her head. <u>I¡¯m a real Erind. A real Erind loves herself. So I love you. But do you love me? Show me.</u>

    So annoying. ¡°Fine,¡± I said, leaning in to give a quick peck on her lips. ¡°You happy now?¡±

    <u>Hmm, I wanted more, but this will do for now,</u> she said with a grin. The fuck more did she want? I hope she wasn¡¯t implying she wanted me to kiss her neck or even lick her. Shivers filled my body as SpookyErind let me go.

    She grabbed my left hand with her right hand. ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    <u>I¡¯m going to go with you to work out,</u> she said. <u>Besides, you want to be left alone while studying right?</u>

    ¡°I want to be left alone while working out too,¡± I said.

    <u>Come on, we¡¯ve already wasted enough time here,</u> she said. <u>Let¡¯s go to the gym room.</u>

    I¡¯ve been trying to leave like forever now. We only didn¡¯t leave because of you! She grinned as we exited my room.

    We walked inside Deen¡¯s gym room. The Atlas Supermachines still stood there. I did a few stretches while SpookyErind watched me.

    ¡°Are you going to work out, or just watch me?¡± I asked as I sat on the Atlas Supermachine closest to the door. She could work out if she wanted. She was way stronger than me. I wonder if she would reach the 10,000-pound limit.

    <u>I¡¯ll do that another day,</u> she said. <u>Besides, even if I work out, it gets reset when you summon me. So it¡¯s not like it¡¯s worth it.</u>

    Fair point.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re just going to watch me?¡± I asked.

    <u>Nah,</u> she said walking up to me.

    ¡°What are you-¡± she sat on my legs.

    ¡°Get off me,¡± I said. Seriously, what was her problem? I know I wasn¡¯t normal, but this Adumbrae was insane. But I guess all Adumbrae were like that.

    <u>I¡¯m going to be moral support,</u> she said, looking down on me. <u>To make you feel proud when you work out.</u>

    ¡°I don¡¯t need anyone else to feel proud of myself,¡± I said. It was true. I could be the only person in the world and I would be just fine about my self-worth. ¡°Besides, why do you need to sit on my legs to be moral support?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll give you a kiss on the lips for each rep,¡± she said.

    ¡°That¡¯s not going to make me proud or feel better,¡± I said.

    <u>I can kiss you on the neck instead,</u> she said. <u>Or even lick you if you want.</u>

    Never mind, the kissing thing sounded a thousand times better. <u>Sounds good!</u>

    I told Atlas to set the weights to 6200 pounds. It took some effort, but I was able to push the bars forward. And I slowly released them.

    SpookyErind leaned down and gave me a peck on the lips. Like before when she kissed me, I didn¡¯t really feel much. But I guess I wasn¡¯t as outraged by it. So at least I was building tolerance to her ¡°love¡±.

    I didn¡¯t say anything to her, and she didn¡¯t say anything back. But I continued pushing the handlebars forward, and then gently letting them go back. And after each rep, SpookyErind gave me another kiss. I was wondering if she was going to do anything devious, but she kept to the routine like how I did for my reps.

    It was honestly pretty nice that none of us were talking. I was just working out with my main body, and SpookyErind was just kissing me. I wasn¡¯t being messed with like yesterday, so everything was going fine. Meanwhile, my 2nd clone was having a blast going through all my law notes.

    I decided to increase the number of reps to 150 from 100. May as well since I¡¯ve gotten slightly stronger this week. I wonder how much stronger I could get. My strength seemed to increase way faster than Deen''s when we worked out. I had already gained 200 pounds in strength from one week, while Deen had only gained about 10.

    ¡°Atlas, go to weighted crunches please,¡± I said. I was getting pretty jealous of Deen¡¯s figure. Enough fat for big boobs, but she still had some toned muscles. Why couldn¡¯t I have that?

    <u>The face I gave you is like that, but even bigger,</u> SpookyErind said. She had to lift her head a bit so it wasn¡¯t directly on mine. The rest of her body was smothered against me, but I¡¯d gotten so used to it, it wasn¡¯t worth it to complain.

    ¡°Yeah, but it has a monster mouth,¡± I said. Some people may find it hot, but it did have some drawbacks. Wouldn¡¯t it be cool if my main body was like Deen¡¯s?

    <u>Sadly, life isn¡¯t fair,</u> she said. <u>Even if we work out, our breasts are only going to appear a bit bigger because of our pectoral muscles. </u>

    ¡°It¡¯s not like I have that much breast fat to begin with,¡± I sighed.

    <u>Don¡¯t worry, at least it won¡¯t go away,</u> SpookyErind said. Was that because of my powers, or was it genetic? Actually, I didn¡¯t know of any female relatives that worked out. So I didn¡¯t know if that ran in the family or not. But given our family''s bad luck (except Aunt Jemma) with our breast size, I imagine it had to be superpower related.

    SpookyErind simply grinned.

    I did a single weighted crunch rep by lifting myself up while slightly pushing the handlebars. My lips met SpookyErind¡¯s lips, and I nearly dropped the bars. Fuck, did I accidentally kiss her?

    I dropped back down.

    <u>I¡¯m glad you¡¯re the one kissing me instead,</u> she said. Yeah yeah, whatever. I just wanted to finish my workout quickly so she would get off me. I continued doing reps, each time meeting SpookyErind¡¯s head. She wouldn¡¯t move it out of the way, and I didn¡¯t want to waste energy chastizing her. So our lips ended up touching for a brief moment during each rep.

    ¡°Atlas, please switch back to normal mode,¡± I said. I felt my torso and head being lifted as the back of the chair went back up.

    Now, I wouldn¡¯t be the one running into SpookyErind since I¡¯d just be working out my legs.

    She pouted. I felt a spark within me. It felt great seeing SpookyErind be so needy. I had some sort of influence over my Adumbrae. And I wasn¡¯t going to give her kisses that easily. At least, not while I worked out. Hopefully, she wouldn¡¯t demand me to kiss her later. I was getting tired of that shtick.

    Most of my leg work reps went normal. I raised the lower handlebars with my feet, and SpookyErind would give me a kiss when I lowered them.

    All was fine until about 10 reps in. My body had gotten sweaty. And with SpookyErind glued against me, my body felt even hotter. Some of the sweat was even getting on SpookyErind. Fuck.

    She didn¡¯t say anything though. I thought she was going to. But she stayed silent. I ended up staying silent too. The fuck was I going to say? If I spent time trying to tell her to get off me, she would just refuse and laugh at me like an idiot. I may as well try to finish this as quickly as possible.

    Eventually, I managed to get to 150. But I was way more sweaty now. And so was SpookyErind. I hoped we wouldn¡¯t stick. And I hoped she wouldn¡¯t stay on top of my legs.

    But to my surprise, she quickly got off. What happened to her? I kind of expected her to be really annoying, but she was acting calm and mature. What the fuck is happening? I kind of approve of it.

    <u>Hey, could you wipe me?</u> SpookyErind said, looking down at the sweat on her body.

 2.12.2*

    ¡°Wipe you?¡± I asked.

    <u>Yeah,</u> SpookyErind said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Now, I don¡¯t know the first thing about Adumbrae culture, but you just don¡¯t go up to people and ask for them to wipe you. That¡¯s just weird.

    Wait a minute. I imagine Adumbrae culture mainly focuses on taking over humans and causing destruction. So, there is not much culture there.

    <u>Two things,</u> SpookyErind said, holding up two fingers. <u>Number one, I¡¯m you, so this shouldn¡¯t matter at all. Number two, I¡¯m not an Adumbrae, I¡¯m a Corebring.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure the 2nd part is true,¡± I replied, poking her cheek again. It was very pokeable. Is that even a real word? I wasn¡¯t sure but I think I was annoying SpookyErind.

    Because the next thing she did was grabbing my finger. <u>It¡¯s not kind to poke yourself.</u>

    ¡°Well if it¡¯s my body, then I should be able to poke it all I want,¡± I said indignantly. ¡°Have any problem with that?¡± I tried removing my finger, but her grip was too strong.

    <u>No, but that should mean you should have no problem wiping me,</u> she said.

    ¡°How about you just unsummon yourself, and I¡¯ll take a shower,¡± I proposed.

    <u>Nah,</u> she said. <u>I want you to wipe me.</u>

    Why did she want me to wipe her?

    <u>Because I want you to show that you love me,</u> she said. <u>And the best way to do that is by cleaning me.</u>

    ¡°I don¡¯t think cleaning other people is a sign of love,¡± I said. It¡¯s definitely not popular in any of the shows or books I¡¯ve seen.

    <u>Mom cleaned us when we were little,</u> SpookyErind pointed out.

    ¡°She says that, but I have very little memory of it,¡± I said. And the parts I do, I disliked. Mom would apparently shower me when I was very young. My memory of it was pretty hazy, but that probably sparked the spirit of the strong independent woman inside of me. Which I was happily doing right now by leeching off of Deen.

    I preferred if I could shower and clean myself. Something was just wrong leaving it in the hands of others. I should be the one in control of my life.

    <u>One way to be in control is to clean me,</u> SpookyErind grinned. She was still holding my hand.

    ¡°Do I really have to clean you?,¡± I asked.

    <u>Please?</u> She pleaded.

    ¡°It¡¯s not like I have much of choice,¡± I pouted. She was still holding my hand.

    <u>Yay!</u> She cheered. <u>Let¡¯s go get a towel!</u>

    That¡¯s the most enthusiastic I¡¯ve ever seen someone over a towel.

    <u>I¡¯m just so glad you are going to clean me,</u> she said.

    We walked back all the way over to my room. Thankfully, Deen was no where to be spotted. I was already with one annoying bitch. I didn¡¯t need two.

    <u>Hey, watch your language,</u> SpookyErind chided me.

    ¡°Language?¡± I snorted. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re really me? I don¡¯t have problems with cursing.¡± I also am not enthusiastic about towels. Of course, since SpookyErind was an Adumbrae, I didn¡¯t expect her to have many things in common with me.

    <u>What would Mom think about you cursing?</u> She asked.

    ¡°First of all, Mom isn¡¯t here,¡± I pointed out. ¡°Second, even if she was, I was cursing in my mind. So I¡¯m still playing the role of the perfect daughter.¡±

    <u>But what if she could read your mind?</u> she asked.

    If Mom could read my mind? Hard to know what I¡¯d do. How does one even control the thoughts in their mind? A lot of random thoughts just pop into my head. Hopefully, Mom would be understanding of that. Although, if she could read my mind, there are a lot more concerning things than cussing.

    Like being an Adumbrae. How would Mom react to that? Actually, if she could read my mind than she¡¯d probably be an Adumbrae too.

    <u>Adumbrae Mom,</u> SpookyErind commented. Actually, she kind of was like an Adumbrae version of my Mom. Quite shorter than her though. But Mom was always the one to try and make me ¡®a good person¡¯. SpookyErind was sorta trying to do that too. Unfortunately for her, I wasn¡¯t going to stop cussing in my mind.

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    She smirked as we walked into my room. Whatever.

    My 2nd clone was studying with some flash cards. I had finished using her to study my law notes. Now, with nothing better left to do, may as well play some games on her phone. It¡¯s actually kind of wild that I¡¯ve been playing more games on my phone. Like, I¡¯m a law student. I usually don¡¯t get so much free time.

    <u>One of the perks of being a Corebring,</u> SpookyErind said.

    Yeah. I guess my power does give me more free time. My 2nd clone had been studying while Deen and I were driving home, so she basically covered everything. Maybe my GPA might go up.

    <u>We should play some more games together,</u> SpookyErind.

    ¡°Maybe not anything competitive though,¡± I said. I shivered as I thought of what happened last time.

    <u>But you won,</u> she said.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t need to lick me afterwards,¡± I said. ¡°That was just so gross.¡±

    <u>Gross? But you seemed to like it.</u>

    ¡°I did not like it!¡±

    She giggled as we walked into the bathroom.

    ¡°Maybe we could do something with a co-op mode,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe like Air Boy and Stone Girl?¡± The good thing about co-op games was that if she messed with me, she would be hurting herself since she would be harming her partner. Hopefully, she won¡¯t lick me afterwards.

    <u>Sure,</u> she said as she grabbed a towel and handed it to me. <u>I¡¯d be glad to-</u>

    I began wiping her lips. I nearly chuckled when she got shut up by the towel. Moving the towel to the left, I could see her face had turn into a frown.

    <u>Why¡¯d you do that?</u> She pouted.

    ¡°I¡¯m just cleaning you,¡± I replied smugly. Of course, since she could read my mind, she knew the truth.

    If she was going to mess with me so much, I may as well mess with her back.

    <u>That¡¯s just rude,</u> she said as I wiped her forehead. <u>Besides, I wasn¡¯t messing with you - I was just teasing you. </u>

    ¡°Sounds like the same thing to me,¡± I said.

    <u>I was making you feel good before, but now you¡¯re just making me feel bad,</u> she stated. <u>That¡¯s the difference between teasing and messing with someone.</u>

    I wasn¡¯t sure if that was true. Pretty sure teasing could also count as bullying. But I didn¡¯t mind bullying SpookyErind. First, this was basically Rule #4. She bothered me, so I¡¯m bothering her back. Second, bullying gave me a feeling of power of SpookyErind. Wasn¡¯t it cool I could bully my Adumbrae.

    <u>Not cool at all,</u> she sighed. <u>Also, I¡¯m a Corebring.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯re not,¡± I said.

    <u>You can pull down my sports bra to check my Core.</u> What? No way I was going to do that. Thankfully, it didn¡¯t feel like her breasts were sweaty. Mine weren¡¯t either. So there was no need for her to wipe me there last time. And I wasn¡¯t going to do it either. I also didn¡¯t want to check if she had an Artificial Core on her.

    I moved down to her neck and then arms. They looked a bit more bigger. Not as big as some of the muscles as my male teammates or even Myra or Deen. But that might just because I was smaller. I wonder what we would like with big biceps? Maybe I should stop before they get too big and unnatural. Although, I do like getting stronger.

    <u>I like getting stronger too,</u> she said.

    ¡°You should be glad I¡¯m doing all the work then,¡± I said. It was true. I was the one working out while SpookyErind just sat ontop of me. And here I was cleaning her. Such a freeloader.

    <u>I¡¯m very glad,</u> she said. <u>Thank you so much for wiping me.</u>

    ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± I said. That was an automatic response. It was hard for me to really understand gratitude and the meaning behind ¡°you¡¯re welcome¡±. But I knew the it was a custom in society, so I may as well do it. I was just surprised she didn¡¯t get mad at me at the freeloader comment.

    She began humming, as if ignoring me. I held out her arms to wipe her. Imagine if she wasn¡¯t ontop of me when I was working out. I could have saved so much time. But here I was, wiping her.

    Maybe I should charge her next time. Wait a minute, she didn¡¯t have any money.

    <u>I can pay you with our money,</u> she said, no longer humming.

    ¡°What¡¯s the point of that?¡± I asked. She would just be giving me my money. The point of charging people is to earn money. And I wouldn¡¯t be earning anything here.

    She chuckled as I began wiping her stomach. It was very flat. It did seem like the little bit of fat I had dissapeared. Not that I was ever fat. But my stomach was more leaner when I was a cheerleader.

    I wiped the rims of her shorts before going down to her thighs. They were also a bit bigger compared to last week.

    <u>Which part of me do you think is the cutest?</u> She asked me, tilting her head downwards where I was.

    Cutest?

    ¡°All of it,¡± I said. She was a clone of me, so all of her was pretty cute. And the nice thing about this power was I got to see both my cute bodies.

    <u>I agree,</u> she cheered as I began wiping her thighs.

    A memory came back to me. A vile one. SpookyErind tickled me by quickly rubbing my inner thighs. She was so smug and arrogant that she found out I was ticklish there. I never enacted Rule #4 against her for doing that to me. But now, I had the perfect opportunity.

    <u>What are you doing?</u> She asked.

    ¡°Just a little payback,¡± I said.

    <u>Payback? That doesn¡¯t sound like something you should do to yourself.</u> I began rubbing her inner left thigh back and forth. <u>Are you trying to tickle me?</u>

    ¡°You aren¡¯t ticklish, are you?¡± I asked.

    <u>N-no,</u> she stuttered as I began rubbing a bit faster. I could feel her stomach tying itself into a knot. She definitely wanted it to stop. But I was going to escalate it a bit.

    She squeezed her legs tight. That wasn¡¯t going to work with me. I continued rubbing as she let out a yelp.

    ¡°It seems like you¡¯re very ticklish,¡± I chuckled.

    <u>You¡¯re very, very, very, wrong,</u> she said. Her cheeks were heating up. If I had control of her body, I would definitely have tried to stop my main body.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see about that,¡± I said as I began to rub more quickly.

    SpookyErind¡¯s heart began to beat faster and faster. I was going to make her suffer the same thing she did to me.

    Now, time to keep up the ante. My rubs became even faster and harder as if I was trying to remove an annoying stain. It was ironic because SpookyErind was pretty annoying too.

    Suddenly, SpookyErind let out a moan.

    What the fuck? Okay maybe I should have thought about doing this. But I was definitely tickling her.

    I stopped rubbing her and looked up.

    Her marble-like face had turned so red, a new color would need to be invented to describe how red it was.

    ¡°I¡¯ll stop now, oka-¡± I tried to say as SpookyErind pounced on me again. What the fuck?!!!!

    She kissed and hugged me. Eww. I¡¯m all sweaty and on the ground. And now she¡¯s sweaty again too! We went all the way back to step zero. Actually not even zero. This was step negative one!

    <u>Thank you so much for turning me on,</u> she beamed.

    What the fuck have I done?

 2.12.3*

    ¡°Get off me!¡± I cried out while trying to push her. If she wasn¡¯t an Adumbrae I¡¯d probably have sent her into the ceiling. Sadly, she was keeping me pinned with her super strength.

    SpookyErind giggled and stood up. She held out her hand. I glared at her and got up without grabbing her hand.

    ¡°Seriously? What is wrong with you?¡± I asked.

    <u>What do you mean?</u> She said with a mischievous smirk.

    ¡°You know what I mean,¡± I said. She could read my mind. ¡°Why would you pin me against the ground if you wanted me to wipe you? Now I¡¯m all dirty. And some of my sweat also got on you.¡±

    Nasty. Especially for me since my entire backside was exposed to the bathroom floor.

    <u>I guess that means you have to wipe me again,</u> she said with a wink.

    ¡°Nope,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m taking a shower right now.¡±

    <u>Aww,</u> she pouted. <u>Can I come in the shower with you?</u>

    ¡°No you pervert!¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t appreciate perverts with me in the shower. Thank you very much.¡± I actually don¡¯t appreciate anyone in the shower with me.

    <u>If I¡¯m a pervert, then you¡¯re a pervert,</u> she replied.

    ¡°Yeah yeah, we¡¯re one and the same,¡± I said, rolling my eyes. I¡¯ve heard enough of this spiel.

    <u>You¡¯re not denying it?</u>

    I didn¡¯t need to deny it. My actions have shown I¡¯m a way more normal person than SpookyErind. Not that she could be normal of course. I¡¯ve resisted her attempts to turn me on.

    <u>Then why did you try rubbing my thighs? </u>She asked, her head tilted.

    Huh. Looking back on that, I made such a terrible decision. I guess I was just trying to enact Rule #4 and get back at SpookyErind. It definitely wasn¡¯t for any perverted reasons. Although, maybe I should have thought of the consequences.

    <u>I would say rubbing my inner thighs is pretty perverted,</u> she said, sticking her tongue out at me.

    Uggh. This was an unwinnable battle. And I really wanted to take that shower. Then a brilliant idea popped into my mind. Another game we could play. I already beat her before at VVG. And given how perverted she is, she¡¯ll surely lose.

    ¡°How about this?¡± I proposed. ¡°Whoever does the most perverted thing in the next hour loses.¡±

    <u>Another game?</u> SpookyErind said. <u>Sure. I¡¯ll win.</u>

    Hopefully, that meant she would leave me alone when I showered. But if she didn¡¯t, then that would mean I would win. And she would lose. And who would want to be a loser anyway? Definitely not me.

    <u>And since I¡¯m you, I¡¯ll definitely win,</u> she said after winking.

    I rolled my eyes. ¡°Whatever. Just turn around.¡±

    <u>And my victory starts now,</u> she grinned as she turned around.

    I stripped and took off my clothes. Ugh. So much sweat. Who knew Adumbrae could be so dirty? At least I had Deen¡¯s state-of-the-art rich person shower.

    As I got in, I quickly turned all the dials to full. Eight jets of water splashed me all over while the overhead rainfall shower splashed me from above. It quickly went to a nice lukewarm temperature. My dumb condo shower took a while to heat up, but Deen¡¯s shower was super quick. Like insta-quick.

    While I bathed in the water, SpookyErind started tidying up the sink area. It was pretty messy compared to my Condo. In my defense, I didn¡¯t have much space there, but the sink countertop here was huge! It was maybe longer than I was tall. Not actually going to check that. Don¡¯t have a ruler or a meter stick. Actually, I¡¯d probably need a measuring tape. Does Deen even have any of that? She¡¯s got to with all this shit she has in this house.

    <u>It¡¯s always good to stay organized,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Yes Mom,¡± I said while cleaning myself with my soapy towel.

    <u>Your mother shouldn¡¯t have to do this,</u> she said, pouting. I internally smirked. Less work that I have to do.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad my Mom is here to clean up after me,¡± I jokingly said.

    <u>But you¡¯re not a child anymore, right?</u> She said, organizing my hair products into a grid-like design.

    ¡°Yep, I¡¯m a strong independent woman.¡±

    <u>Who¡¯s also living at her best friend¡¯s house for free,</u> SpookyErind pointed out.

    ¡°You¡¯re living here for free too,¡± I pointed out. Besides, who wouldn¡¯t choose this option? I could either choose this mansion or my cramped Condo. The only downside here was Deen. That¡¯s a pretty big downside actually. But at least this house was so big. We may as well be living in a different house. The sanctity of my room was thus kept intact.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    No stupid nosy best friends were going to bother me right now. I just kept to myself.

    <u>Maybe we should spend more time with Deen,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Yeah right,¡± I snorted. ¡°I spend enough time with here already.¡± My time was very important. I only had a limited supply of social energy. And Deen used up a lot of it with her touchy-feeliness.

    But that also meant my social energy was in high demand. Therefore, the price of it was high. Supply and demand or something. It¡¯s been forever since I took economics. The amount I use for Deen should cover the cost of living here if she ever decides to charge me for it. Which is probably never.

    <u>It¡¯s always good to invest in relationships,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, Mom,¡± I said. ¡°You have all the advice for me.¡±

    <u>If you don¡¯t want to hang out with her, then maybe I could do it,</u> she replied.

    ¡°She¡¯s not going to want to hang out with you when you¡¯re all sweaty and dirty,¡± I pointed out.

    <u>Then I¡¯ll take a shower too,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°You could just unsummon yourself instead,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯d be a lot quicker that way.¡±

    <u>But a shower would feel so good,</u> SpookyErind replied. Indeed it did. But she didn¡¯t need to do that since I was already taking a shower. She could feel how nice it was from out there.

    <u>It¡¯s just not the same,</u> SpookyErind replied. There she goes, reading my precious thoughts. <u>Anyways, when are you going to finish up?</u>

    ¡°Maybe like ten more minutes,¡± I told her. If she truly wanted to take a shower then whatever. It¡¯s not like I could really stop her. But I was going to take my sweet time relaxing here.

    <u>That sounds like it¡¯ll take too long,</u> SpookyErind pouted. <u>I want to take a shower right now. </u>

    Wait a minute. Why the fuck does my Adumbrae want to take a shower with me. That¡¯s perverted!

    <u>You¡¯re the pervert for thinking that,</u> SpookyErind giggled. <u>I was going to put the towel on you and push you out so I could shower.</u>

    ¡°That¡¯s something a pervert would do!¡± I told her. She kept walking up to the edge of the shower, undeterred by my threat of her losing. ¡°Stay back, or I¡¯m going to win the game!¡± Seriously, what the fuck is she doing?

    <u>If you win, then I win too since we¡¯re the same,</u> she smirked as she grabbed the towel. <u>Meyoumeyoumeyou. </u>

    Fuck, I didn¡¯t want her to come in here. What the fuck should I do?

    A simple idea popped up into my mind.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m done showering,¡± I called out as I turned off all the knobs in the shower. I quickly grabbed the towel that was almost near the top of the shower door. Wrapping myself in the towel, I walked outside and smirked at her.

    <u>Why¡¯d you turn off the shower?</u> SpookyErind asked. <u>You know I was going to use it.</u>

    ¡°Just saving water,¡± I said, sticking my tongue at her. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve made some environmentalists proud. Maybe even the entire movement.

    <u>That¡¯s just mean,</u> SpookyErind pouted as she went to get another towel.

    ¡°You¡¯re actually going to take a shower?¡± I asked surprised. I thought she was just messing with me.

    <u>What? Is it illegal for me to take showers?</u> She asked. No, but being an Adumbrae is illegal. I hope you don¡¯t call the cops on me then. I wish I could. But it¡¯d be like calling the cops on me.

    My thoughts wandered back to how I called her Mom earlier. She may as well be with her white hair. Just need to make her taller somehow. But if Mom was an Adumbrae, would I report her? I had a hard time believing I would say yes to that. But I wasn¡¯t sure why. Of course, this would be if the shoe was on the other foot - if I was a normal human and Mom was an Adumbrae. Hmm.

    <u>Well, it¡¯s a good thing I¡¯m a Corebring then,</u> SpookyErind said as she took off her sports bra. She pointed to the organic mass in the middle of her sternum. She had the artificial Core too? Was it also on my 2nd clone? I wasn¡¯t sure. I hadn¡¯t seen my 2nd clone naked either. She was busy playing some mobile games in the other room. Should I have her take off her shirt and sports bra to check? Nah, I didn¡¯t want her to pause.

    My eyes wandered to SpookyErind¡¯s breasts. I smirked as I saw they were the same size as mine. Still pretty flat. <u>That¡¯s just rude! My breasts are fine.</u>

    ¡°And so are mine,¡± I said. ¡°I just hadn¡¯t seen your breasts before.¡± Wait, why the fuck did I say that? True, back when I first SpookyErind I noticed that she was flat, but that was when she was wearing that suit and sitting on her chair in the middle of the void. But now, I got clearer confirmation she was just like me.

    SpookyErind continued undressing herself. She took off her dolphin shorts as well as her underwear. My eyes were drawn to wherever she was undressing. SpookyErind simply smiled as she continued stripping.

    Wait what the fuck is that?

    Strands of white wispy hair floated and waved in the air, stemming from her crotch.

    <u>Why are you staring?</u> She asked. <u>The rest of my hair floats too.</u> She grabbed a strand of her hair on the top of her head and started twirling it. It was as if she wanted to demonstrate her hair floating to me, which was dumb. I knew that it floated. I just didn¡¯t know her crotch hair floated.

    <u>That¡¯s pretty perverted,</u> she pointed out.

    ¡°That was just normal curiosity,¡± I said.

    <u>Is it normal curiosity to stare at someone¡¯s crotch?</u> she asked while turning around. I could feel her mouth turn into a smirk.

    Fuck. She was turning the game against me. But I wasn¡¯t going to go down as a loser yet.

    ¡°You probably had perverted thoughts while I was showering,¡± I pointed at her as she walked into the shower.

    <u>And what proof do you have of that?</u> SpookyErind said, her mouth still smirking.

    ¡°Your past behavior indicates so,¡± I said.

    <u>Really? I don¡¯t think that would hold up in court,</u> she said, turning some knobs in the shower. Water began gushing out. It felt as good on her as it did for me. <u>As they say, innocent until proven guilty.</u>

    ¡°Your past behavior of sexually assaulting me could definitely be used in court,¡± I said.

    <u>But you and I are the same right?</u> SpookyErind asked. I shook my head. She ignored me and continued speaking. <u>Is it a crime to love yourself?</u>

    ¡°It¡¯s definitely a crime to do what you did,¡± I mumbled. ¡°It¡¯s a shame I can¡¯t report you for it.¡±

    <u>You should be glad,</u> she said as she began using shampoo on her hair. She somehow was able to do it without difficulty even though her hair floated out in several directions. Did she have experience doing that? Maybe there exist showers in whatever dimension Adumbrae come from. Actually, that sounds stupid. Why would extradimensional creatures that take over people¡¯s minds need to shower?

    <u>That¡¯s how you know I¡¯m not an Adumbrae,</u> she responded. <u>I¡¯m a Corebring who needs to shower.</u> Do Corebrings need to shower? Do they have showers like this here at the Corebring Hive?

    SpookyErind didn¡¯t respond and simply started humming with a small soapy towel. She wiped across her flat breasts and began going downwards, leaving soapy bubbles behind. The artificial Core was covered in soap, concealing it from her eyes. Does this mean she¡¯s an Adumbrae now? She continued to wipe her body with her towel, going from her belly button to her crotch. My attention was brought back to the floating hair coming out of there.

    <u>You¡¯re doing a poor job of not being a pervert,</u> SpookyErind giggled.

    Fuck.

 2.13

    I took out the spider syringe and threw it at the doctor. He fell to the ground in an almost comedic fashion. Now he couldn¡¯t call for help.

    I took off my Ento mask, and my 2nd clone grew again. She was holding SpookyErind¡¯s mask in her right hand. The switch in my main body went off, and SpookyErind reappeared instantly, causing her mask to vanish.

    ¡°Okay, can you track me?¡± I asked Deen with my main body.

    Deen pulled up her phone and looked at Snippet. A few moments later, she nodded.

    ¡°Yeah, I can track you,¡± she said. ¡°Your clones are at 2388 Saint Patricia¡¯s Street.¡±

    ¡°Let me pull that up on the GPS,¡± Johann said. ¡°That¡¯s about an hour''s drive from here.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s get going then,¡± Dario said. We immediately headed off.

    That just left SpookyErind and me to wreak some havoc before our team got here. But first, I had some things I wanted to try out. I had my 2nd clone summon her Ento goggles to put them on.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Deen cried out. ¡°I lost track of your 2nd clone.¡± Oh right, the phone wasn¡¯t on her Ento body.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I said. ¡°I just transformed her back into her Ento form.¡±

    ¡°Oh, just stay safe then,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t want any of your clones to die.¡±

    I was about to respond and say I could summon them back, but only I knew that because Statue Lady killed SpookyErind in her Red Hood form. I¡¯d have to contradict myself since I never said any of my clones died. And you figure that would be something important to tell the team.

    That did bring up an interesting question though. Should I try to preserve my clones'' lives? I would prefer if they didn¡¯t experience excruciating pain. And it¡¯s pretty jarring to deal with them dying. So I guess I would prefer to keep them alive. But I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be sad at all if they died. I can just bring them back later.

    The room Ento and SpookyErind were in seemed way more like a place you administer drugs compared to Dr. Choe¡¯s office back at Eloycira. The room was composed of sleek sterile tiles, and various medical equipment surrounded the walls. The stretcher was in the middle of the room. Well, I guess it was more like a hospital. An evil hospital.

    Unfortunately for this evil hospital, it decided to kidnap me, so I was going to punish it. Starting with the creepy male doctor. He looked like an old man in a lab coat, with wrinkles all over his face. He was resting peacefully on the ground. Not for much longer though.

    What would happen if I used the bee syringe on him? I took it out of my pocket and injected it into his neck. I dropped it on the ground after the red liquid disappeared.

    Nothing happened. Oops.

    That experiment was a dud. Using the bee syringe after the spider syringe proved to be pretty useless. I guess the spider syringe was stronger. I kinda wanted to test the bee syringe again though.

    Hmm, does doing the spider syringe again do anything? I took out the reformed spider syringe and injected his neck with it again. I dropped the syringe when it was empty.  Wait, am I littering? I had my fair right to do whatever I wanted with this place. It bothered me.

    Deen would be so mad at me right now. She¡¯s taking an environmental law class as an elective, so I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she¡¯s an environmentalist. Thankfully, I was doing this outside of her view. That means no moral lecturing.

    I also wanted to test the ant syringe again. I took it out and placed the needle on his neck. After injecting, the yellow liquid vanished into his body. No more point in that syringe. Clink. There were now four syringes on the ground.

    The creepy scientist dude started shrinking. A few seconds later he was the size of a pill. The hospitality in this place was pretty lacking, so I may as well get some sweet-tasting food while I¡¯m here right? I picked him up with my right index finger and thumb.

    <u>Hey, wait a minute,</u> SpookyErind said. I looked at her with Ento, brows raised. <u>Why don¡¯t you try transporting him in your apron¡¯s right pocket like I said earlier?</u>

    Right, she did say I could transport them in my empty apron pocket. But that still presented some problems. How was I going to transport him past my teammates? They¡¯d probably think it¡¯s pretty disturbing that I was taking him with me. Even though, they wouldn¡¯t mind killing him. I guess that¡¯s just the hero''s mindset - killing in the most ¡°moral¡± way possible. I didn¡¯t really understand it, but since I was playing the face of a hero, I couldn¡¯t be doing this in front of my teammates.

    <u>Just try it,</u> SpookyErind said. She did seem to have some knowledge of the future. Didn¡¯t that technically make her my guardian angel? Nah. She messes with me too much. I guess I could try it out though. Maybe I do get lucky.

    I put him in my apron¡¯s right pocket and he disappeared. What? I could feel his ¡®essence¡¯ inside the pocket. I put my right hand back in the pocket and tried grabbing the ¡®essence¡¯ and his body immediately reappeared.

    <u>See, now we can build our insect colony,</u> SpookyErind cheered. I guess I should have realized how cryptic SpookyErind was being. She¡¯s always hinted at knowing more. Realistically, though, she should tell me in plain English what was going to happen. I shouldn¡¯t have to expend brain power trying to figure this out. <u>But you¡¯re smart right, so you¡¯ll always be able to figure it out.</u>

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    That was right, I was smart. But sometimes, you just want things to be easy. I guess life is never that simple.

    I dropped the lab coat guy back into my pocket, and he vanished again. The feeling of his essence filled up my pocket. It¡¯d be fun to experiment on him more when he wakes up. He¡¯d been experimenting on people for so long, but now I was the one going to experiment on him. The irony.

    As I headed to the door with Ento, SpookyErind put on her black face mask. Huh.

    <u>There might be pesky security cameras out there,</u> she said. Well, let¡¯s find out.

    I opened the door and took a peak. The hallway was way less sterile. It looked like some poor manufacturing plant. Mom showed me one when I was younger. Greaves was in the process of modernizing it, but it looked like it came out of the 1800s. Also, there was no air conditioning, which really sucked given how hot it was. I could not imagine people working there.

    And this is why you support good workplace regulations.

    Off at the end of the hallway, a little black bulb stuck out of the ceiling. There¡¯s the security camera. I wonder how much time I would have before the guards would come. There didn¡¯t seem to be any here. Why would there be? It¡¯s not like they expected any of their patients to have superpowers.

    Past it, I could see some windows next to it letting the sunset shine through. So I was definitely above ground.

    ¡°My clones are at least on ground level,¡± I said with my main body.

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think we would have been able to track you otherwise,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°There¡¯s a camera here, though,¡± I added. ¡°Guards might be coming my way.¡±

    ¡°Maybe try to hide?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Hide?¡± I snorted. ¡°I¡¯ve already been spotted.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but the 2M¡¯s might be more dangerous there,¡± she said. ¡°And I can¡¯t fathom you getting hurt anymore.¡±

    It was just my clones. Deen was way too overprotective.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t,¡± I said.

    I decided to enter the room across from mine. May as well see what¡¯s here before the guards arrived. Checking both sides of the long hallway, nobody was there. I tried opening the door, but it was locked. I had Ento use some superstrength to push the door open. The sounds of creaks and tears filled my ears as the door fell inward. A crashing sound came next.

    ¡°Wait what?¡± a young man in a lab coat said. He was considerably more attractive than the person who tried to kidnap me, with a lean stature and a chiseled chin. He was standing next to a person on a stretcher. Sci-fi equipment with bright neon lights was next to him. What the fuck was going on here?

    I took out the ant syringe and threw it at the doctor. He shrieked as the needle embedded itself in his chest and the liquid began entering his body. The scientist dwindled in size quickly. I went over to pick him up with my right hand.

    I was reminded back when I experimented on Surgeon Lady and Trenchcoat Guy I ended up pretending to be multiple people. Sadly, my main body wasn¡¯t here, but it was pretty cool to juggle all of that. I created so many new faces to interact with my enemies. A cute, innocent yet virtuous girl. And then an evil villainous Adumbrae.

    There was a new one I wanted to try.

    ¡°What is going on?!¡± Lab Coat Guy cried out. His voice had a pitch as high as helium, which was very funny.

    ¡°I¡¯m a Corebring from the Hive,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve come to stop you evil Adumbrae from experimenting on these poor people.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not an Adumbrae!¡± he panicked. ¡°I¡¯m just a scientist working here. Please let me go. I¡¯ll do anything for the Mother Core.¡±

    Generally, I wouldn¡¯t try revealing that I¡¯m a Corebring. Not from the Hive though. But I didn¡¯t intend to let him go rat off to the other 2M¡¯s anyways.

    Also, wasn¡¯t it funny that he was now begging the Mother Core even though he had been working for the Adumbrae for so long? It was also funny that my heroic face struck terror inside of this guy. I wished I could read minds so I could find out how desperate he was after he learned I was a Corebring.

    ¡°I¡¯ll let you go if you tell me how to save the people you¡¯ve kidnapped,¡± I said. While actual Corebrings may want to save people for moral reasons, I just wanted to put this face in action. It was more like a numbers game of how many people I could save, rather than actual compassion for my fellow humans. Not that I was even human anymore.

    How would I get these people out anyways? Maybe my team would help with that. Although, it would be a pretty difficult task. Not that affected my competitive nature.

    ¡°Uh¡­ just disconnect the wires and tubes from the X01 Machine from the patient,¡± he said shakily.

    I took a look at the machine. Neon lights danced around knobs and numbers on the box. A set of wires and tubes came out of it, connecting to the arm of the patient, who seemed to be an old lady with a heavy set of bags in her eyes. One of those hospital heartbeat monitoring machines was also next to it, and it seemed her heartbeat was fine.

    ¡°You can return me back to normal right after you free her?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Yes, but I intend to free the other hostages first,¡± I said. While I was fulfilling the heroic role of my face, I was also secretly tormenting him more by saying he¡¯d have to wait. ¡°So I just have to disconnect this stuff right?¡±

    The black liquid was coming out of the tubes into the patient. What the fuck are they doing here? I had no idea what any of this stuff is. Hopefully, it isn¡¯t harmful. At least Ento has gloves. I grabbed the wires with my left hand and began crushing them. Thankfully, Ento had super strength. She was weaker than her normal Erind clone self though.

    Some of the black liquid spilled out onto my gloves. Ew. But I didn¡¯t feel any burning sensations, so hopefully, it meant Ento was fine.

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go save the other-¡±

    Suddenly, the heartbeat rating monitor started beeping. The jumping green lines of the heartbeat quickly flattened, and the monitor went red.

    Wait a minute. I took a look at the patient¡¯s chest. It definitely wasn¡¯t beating. Their face wasn¡¯t breathing either.

    They were definitely dead now.

    I just failed to save this person. It was like playing Tappy Dash and I died right at the end. Being denied something so simple was very annoying. All I was trying to do was pretend to be a hero. I guess the World just hated me no matter what I did.

    Although, maybe it got mad at me for treating people¡¯s lives as a video game. Hey, that was the only way I could really care about them. Saving more people gave you more points. And I loved getting more points. Actually caring about people in any other way was just way too difficult.

    That was what made me confused about volunteers. They just helped people without any reward for themselves. Some people at my high school did volunteer work. I guess they did get a chance to put in on their resume. Were they actually doing it to do good work or were they just looking for a resume boost? I wonder how many people were like that. Were there any heroes that had the same view as me when saving people? Sadly, I didn¡¯t know any Corebrings, so I didn¡¯t know what their motivations behind saving people were.

    Now I could wallow in sadness like some of those hero stories I¡¯ve read, but there was somebody else I could blame.

    ¡°Did you lie to me?¡± I asked sternly. I can¡¯t believe this guy just caused me to fail.

 2.14

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t supposed to happen!¡± he cried out.

    ¡°Then why did she just die?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I have no idea!¡± he said. ¡°Uhh¡­ Look I just joined here last week, and I really needed the money for my family.¡± I noticed when he suggested cutting the wires and tubes, he started with an ¡°Uh¡±. Maybe that was a tick that showed he was lying.

    Also, it¡¯s the classic sob story. I didn¡¯t want to listen to it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care why you joined, I want to know how to save these people,¡± I said. Hopefully, that stops him from rambling.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he began sobbing, which sounded weird since it was so high-pitched.

    Well, lying to me wasn¡¯t going to solve anything. I doubt this guy could revive people, so I was just stuck with this failure.

    ¡°Please just let me go,¡± he continued crying.

    Sadly, I couldn¡¯t really think of anything else to do with my heroic Corebring face. If I tried to save other people, I¡¯d just get them killed. It¡¯d be pretty funny, but there¡¯s no point in harming other people if they didn¡¯t bother me. I¡¯d rather just leave them be.

    Besides, even though Ento looked like a scientist, I had no idea what any of this sci-fi tech would even do. Even if I asked this guy, he¡¯d probably lie to me again just to try and please me.

    ¡°Actually, I think I¡¯ll bring you to the Hive,¡± I said. ¡°Where you¡¯ll be judged for your crimes against humanity.¡±

    ¡°Wait no!¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll do anything. Please! Stop!¡±

    I put him in my apron¡¯s right pocket and he disappeared. Now, there were two sets of essences. One for the creepy scientist, and one for the lying scientist.

    At least I didn¡¯t have to hear him for now, he was starting to get annoying with all his whining.

    Meanwhile, SpookyErind was wandering the edge of the room, observing some more sci-fi-esque machines on the edges of the walls.

    <u>Do you ever wonder what these do?</u> She asked.

    Not really, I was more upset at what just happened.

    <u>You could relieve some stress after destroying this stuff,</u> she said.

    That was actually a pretty decent idea. I couldn¡¯t save anyone so my heroic Corebring face would have to be put on hold. The best thing I could do is in enact Rule #4 right now. And what better way to do that than disrupt the 2M¡¯s operations?

    I had Ento walk over to SpookyErind. It really felt like we were in some sort of sci-fi setting. And that was saying something because I¡¯d seen some of the advanced tech Greaves had been working on when Mom took me.

    Boxes and boxes of neon tech and wires stood before me.

    I wound up my fist for a punch and prepared to break several of the neon-overloaded machines. And I threw a punch.

    Crack.

    A metal crater appeared where Ento punched, with sparks flying. Sadly there was no explosion. Wait no, an explosion would be bad since I¡¯m right next to it.

    <u>How did that feel?</u> SpookyErind asked.

    ¡°It felt good,¡± I said. It was true. Using super strength was so much fun. I could not imagine going back to my weak human body. Over the past couple of weeks, I¡¯ve never felt more alive.

    <u>That¡¯s good,</u> she said. <u>Let¡¯s destroy more of this stuff.</u>

    Wait, was she trying to coax me into liking my superpowers? Does using my powers accelerate the Adumbrae takeover? I remember our conversation from before that she was trying to get me to not use the 2M¡¯s tech to maintain control over my body. What if I accidentally destroy something here that does that because SpookyErind told me to.

    <u>Why is myself quite stupid sometimes?</u> she pouted. SpookyErind walked over to me and leaned down to pinch Ento¡¯s cheeks. It didn¡¯t hurt, but I¡¯d prefer it if she didn¡¯t do that. <u>Why would they have that same tech here where they experiment with people? </u>

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I honestly said. But that didn¡¯t make me any less suspicious of her.

    <u>Okay, answer this, have you lost any control of your body in the past two weeks?</u> She asked.

    ¡°Not really, other than my first clone,¡± I said.

    <u>So what proof do you have that I¡¯m going to take over your body? It¡¯s the same amount of control, if not more than you¡¯ve ever had. Especially with Ento.</u>

    ¡°Because you¡¯re an Adumbrae,¡± I said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

    <u>So what if I was an Adumbrae?</u> She asked. <u>How do you know I¡¯m taking over your body?</u>

    ¡°Because everyone knows that Adumbrae take over people¡¯s bodies,¡± I replied. Where was she taking this?

    <u>Really? And how do they know that?</u> SpookyErind asked as her eyes seemed to glow even more.

    <u>Do they check if every Adumbrae is taking over people¡¯s bodies?</u>

    ¡°Uh no, because then that would be a risk of them losing control anyway,¡± I said.

    <u>So doesn¡¯t that mean that there could be a chance that some Adumbrae aren¡¯t harmful?</u>

    Fuck. I never thought about it that way. Could it be possible that there were some Adumbrae that didn¡¯t try to take over their hosts? Maybe. But it¡¯d be too hard to know. The BID and the Corebrings would never let someone progress that far.

    Still, that didn¡¯t change the fact that I had no way to measure SpookyErind¡¯s intentions. Even if it were true that some Adumbrae were friendly, I had no idea if SpookyErind was friendly. I didn¡¯t believe it.

    <u>This is so sad that you are so stubborn,</u> she said. She stopped pinching Ento and looked towards the wall. She clicked her tongue. <u>I¡¯ve already shown how much I love and care for you. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll continue to do so, but it makes me so sad that you¡¯re not reciprocating my love.</u>

    Whatever. She can mope by the wall all she wants. I was going to destroy more of this base. And collect some more humans to experiment on. Maybe I might even be able to grab some experiments and Adumbrae. That would be interesting to see.

    I started walking out the door, but SpookyErind immediately pulled me back. A quick blue bolt passed by where my head was and hit the door instead.

    <u>Doors and corners,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>Got to watch out for those.</u>

    ¡°Thanks,¡± I said.

    <u>Just taking good care of myself,</u> she beamed. <u>Meyoumeyoumeyou.</u>

    Weird chant. I had Ento take out her syringes and prepare to throw them. SpookyErind also focused on summoning her time bubble with her left hand. The golden bubble grew and raced past us. It headed toward where the electroshock bullet came from.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    That was actually pretty useful if I guessed correctly what she did.

    I walked outside and turned to the left. There, a trio of guards were frozen inside the golden bubble, which had expanded to engulf all three of them. They were buff men in some kind of light armor, so not just any regular 2M¡¯s. And they also had electroshock weapons aimed at us. It was like some sort of tableau. Except, these weren¡¯t actors.

    Wow, Ento might have died if SpookyErind hadn¡¯t saved me.

    <u>I just wanted to make sure you were okay,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>I¡¯d be sad if you died right before me.</u>

    Ignoring that, I started walking toward the guards. Hmm. I took the ant syringe and threw it on the one on the left. I waited for another ten seconds and then threw the regenerated ant syringe at the middle guard.

    Wow, this was a pretty powerful combo. They couldn¡¯t do anything while I threw syringes at them. And I didn¡¯t have to worry about them shooting at me.

    After I threw the third syringe, time inside the bubble resumed as normal. The syringes hit each of the guards.

    Wait a minute, they could still shoot us from here! I heard the clicks of their handles and prepared to duck to the side, but nothing came out of their guns. Huh. Did they jam?

    Did causing them to shrink cause that? I think the same thing happened with Trenchcoat Guy. He tried shooting me twice, but the 2nd time failed because I hit him with the ant syringe. That kinda did make sense. Most insects didn¡¯t really harm me when I was younger. And I was essentially turning them into insects.

    Each of them cursed and panicked as I went to pick them up. I had Ento grab the left and middle guard, while SpookyErind grabbed the right one.

    I deposited the two I picked up in my apron¡¯s right pocket, and SpookyErind also dropped the human she caught as well. They each vanished, and I could feel each of their essences separately, which was impressive given how small that pocket was. But that¡¯s just superpowers for you.

    ¡°How are things going Erind?¡± Deen asked. ¡°Is everything okay?¡±

    Woah, I nearly forgot about my main body. I hope I didn¡¯t look too weird being tuned out of it. I had been focusing on Ento. And without my main body having anything to do, I just kind of left it there.

    ¡°My clones are fine,¡± I said. ¡°There¡¯s been a few guards they¡¯ve run into, but I¡¯ve taken care of them.¡±

    ¡°Just remember our training with Myra okay?¡± She said.

    ¡°I am,¡± I said. Hmm, maybe I should do some fun things here with my main body. Even though I couldn¡¯t do anything physical, I could do some mind games.

    ¡°Umm so Deen,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a bunch of other hostages they¡¯ve kidnapped,¡± I said. ¡°They¡¯re lying on stretchers next to those heartbeat monitors. Their arms are connected to these weird machines. Should I try disconnecting them?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we want to stop their experiments,¡± Deen said.

    I internally smirked.

    ¡°Okay,¡± I said. ¡°I destroyed the wires on - oh no!¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°The heartbeat monitors are beeping red!¡± I said. ¡°What should I do?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± She panicked.

    ¡°I think she¡¯s dead¡­¡± I said in a somber tone.

    ¡°No¡­¡± Deen said sadly. We sat in silence for a while. I stared at her face. Wow, she looks pretty even when sad.

    That was pretty fun. Getting Deen to offer me bad advice that just gets one of the civilians killed. And causing her emotional distress. I should do this more.

    Of course, I already knew what happens when you disconnect the machines because of the Lying Lab Coat Guy. I wasn¡¯t actually going to disconnect another one - that would bother somebody who hadn¡¯t bothered me. Instead, while I was telling this story, Ento, and SpookyErind were collecting more guards.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry guys,¡± Johann said, typing on a keyboard to the side of the driving wheel, which was turning on its own. I guess a self-driving van is pretty useful. ¡°I hacked into the traffic system, so hopefully we can get there quicker and stop their experiments ASAP.¡±

    ¡°Good job Johann,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Yeah, thanks Johann,¡± Deen said.

    And the sadness on Deen¡¯s face was wiped away, replaced with hope and compassion. Such a fascinating turn from her mopey one.

    Back at the 2M¡¯s base, I had Ento pick up another guard and put him in her pocket. That was like the 20th guard. Wow, I had a lot.

    SpookyErind and Ento entered a large room. There were several doors surrounding the edges. Suddenly, doors on our left and right opened. Fuck. Were we being surrounded?

    These just weren¡¯t regular old guards either. One person came out of each side. A guy on the left and a girl on the right.

    ¡°Ehh, a highschooler and a kid?¡± The guy that came out of the left said. His hands ended with long green spikes, which dripped green liquid. He wore an open jacket, but was shirtless, with a green tattoo of some weird star symbol in the middle of his chest.

    ¡°You kids are going to get grounded tonight,¡± the girl said. I was surprised she wasn''t wearing a clown outfit for making such a terrible pun. Instead, she was wearing a simple purple dress. Her purple hair matched the style of her dress.

    So these were Adumbrae they sent after us? I wouldn¡¯t mind taking them and experimenting on them later. And I¡¯m pretty sure they would be a nice sweet meal as well.

    I had Ento throw all three syringes at Acid Guy while SpookyErind¡¯s time bubble-headed towards Purple Girl.

    ¡°Ow! He exclaimed. ¡°What the fuck are these?¡± Wait, did the syringes not work on him?

    But he slowly started shrinking, but at a way slower rate than humans did. Was it because of his abilities? Or was it because he was an Adumbrae.

    ¡°What the fuck is going on with me?¡± He panicked. He was still taller than me, but slowly dwindling.

    I wasn¡¯t a scientist, but it was time to test a hypothesis. Did the syringes not work as fast on Adumbrae? Or was it just that guy''s powers? Wait a minute, that¡¯s a question, not a hypothesis!

    All right, I hypothesize that the syringes didn¡¯t work as fast on Acid Guy because of his powers. Let¡¯s test this! 10 seconds had now passed, so I took out the reformed ant syringe and threw it at Purple Girl. She was currently frozen in the time bubble, but SpookyErind let time resume so the syringe could hit her.

    ¡°What is this?¡± she asked. She started slowly dwindling in size, about at the same rate as Acid Guy was. Okay, I guess my hypothesis was wrong. It did turn out my syringes were less effective against Adumbrae. It did kinda make sense since their bodies were stronger. It¡¯s really sad though. Suddenly, Purple Girl¡¯s body started glowing purple.

    ¡°I¡¯ll kill you brats!¡± she yelled. ¡°You are goooing-¡± Her voice slurred and slowed down. Thankfully, SpookyErind¡¯s time bubble stopped her from doing some villainous monologue about how she was going to kill me. I really did not need to listen to any of that nonsense. Especially since I was the one going to be killing her in the end.

    <u>Maybe throw more syringes?</u> SpookyErind suggested. Actually, that sounded like a pretty decent idea.

    Here was a chance to redeem myself in the eyes of science. I had a new hypothesis. Multiple doses of the syringe will have more of an effect. Experiment Time!

    I took out all three syringes and threw them. As they entered the time bubble, they slowed down, before immediately speeding back up. They injected herself into her body.

    ¡°Ow!¡± she cried and started charging at us, before getting slowed down again. It was very funny. It kind of reminded me of when Mom and I were watching movies on TV. I would continuously press the pause and play button. The characters would just start talking and stop. Sometimes they¡¯d make hilarious expressions. I had to stop that though because Mom would get mad at me. She wanted to enjoy the movies. Sorry Mom, but those movies were kinda boring.

    We waited another ten seconds as I launched another set of syringes. Have I mentioned how good of a shot I was? Because these three hit her again. Maybe I should try archery. Actually, this was more of a ninja skill. Where could I get some shurikens to test this?

    After time sped back up for the syringes, they hit Purple Girl again.

    ¡°Agh! It HURTS!¡± she got on her knees. She looked kinda tired too. But she started shrinking at the rate the humans did. So in a few seconds, she was the size of a large pill. I had Ento walk over to pick her up. And into my pocket you go! She vanished in an instant, her essence joining the rest in my pocket.

    Wow, I just captured my first Adumbrae insect. I wonder if Mom would be proud of me that I was capturing Adumbrae and their humans instead of insects. Sadly, I don¡¯t think she would. I¡¯m pretty sure she found insects to be annoying and killed them. But she didn¡¯t approve of my ¡®experimentation¡¯. So I guess it¡¯s just the ¡®immoral¡¯ way of killing things that bothered people.

    Anyways, that did confirm my hypothesis that multiple sets of syringes worked. Maybe it took three on an Adumbrae to have them be at the same rate as a human? She did seem in pain after two bee shots, but not flailing in pain like the humans.

    A whirring sound filled both Ento¡¯s and SpookyErind¡¯s ears. Huh?

    The doors on the opposite side of where we came in burst open and a fleet of drones came in. Would my syringes work on them? I wasn¡¯t sure. Hopefully, they could destroy them.

    I threw all my syringes at the drones, but they began spreading out. My syringes hit a few of them, piercing their metal frames, and causing them to crash.

    Sadly, I still had to wait for 10 more seconds to get new syringes. The room was filled with a hailstorm of bullets. SpookyErind got in front of Ento as the bullets hit her. They barely did any damage to her, just barely nicking her skin. It felt like several tiny insect bites. But more drones were coming in. How many drones do they have? I guess they got tired of sending humans here to die, but this was just outrageous.

    And I wasn¡¯t going to be able to destroy all of them.

    Suddenly, the time bubble grew to take up the other half of the room. Several of the drones froze up as the time bubble encompassed them, leaving just a few drones that were on our side unaffected. Now, this I could deal with.

    I easily launched syringes at the handful of drones on the left, while SpookyErind charged the drones on the right. She leaped in the air and swiped with her arms. She was easily able to swat the drones. Meanwhile, Ento only had to deal with a couple of drones, but that seemed like a fun thing to do, so I had her jump in the air. Weeee! I tried hitting the drone with my arm, but my arm wasn¡¯t long enough to reach the closest drone. I hate being short.

    As Ento landed, I threw more syringes at the remaining drones on the left. They easily got pierced and crashed. Their bullets hurt more than they did against SpookyErind¡¯s skin. And I hate being the weaker one.

    That just left a horde of drones frozen in the middle of the room. Hopefully, we wouldn¡¯t have to deal with them. Some of the new arrivals looked pretty scary and had some big cannons on them.

    Wait a minute, wasn¡¯t there Acid Guy? Where was-

    ¡°Take this you bitch!¡± I heard in an extremely high-pitched voice. A green blur appeared in front of me. It launched an even tinier spike toward my goggles. I wasn¡¯t expecting it, so I didn¡¯t have much time to evade.

    The green acid spike broke through my goggles and embedded itself in my eye.

    Ento screamed as her eye felt like it was burning.

 2.15

    Back when Myra hit me with her skewer, I learned a new definition of pain. I hadn¡¯t felt anything as bad as that until now. And this was way worse. That was saying something because her skewer was growing out of my stomach.

    I was surprised I was able to still think clearly, but my main body was okay. Still, I didn¡¯t like the pain. It was like somebody stuck Ento¡¯s eye into a stove burner. And it hurt a lot. I couldn¡¯t do much with Ento other than try and claw at her eyes. Which didn¡¯t do anything other than dislodge the spike. The acid was still burning into her eye. Poor Ento.

    SpookyErind spotted Acid Guy land a couple of inches away from Ento. She leaped towards the ground and grabbed him as he tried to jump away. He was saying something, but it got drowned out by Ento¡¯s screams. SpookyErind lowered her face mask and threw him in her mouth and started chewing.

    At least she got revenge for Ento. His body was pulverized into a sweet taste. But it was also spicy as well. I¡¯ve never had spicy vanilla ice cream before. She swallowed and it felt like her throat was burning. But while the pain was similar to Ento¡¯s she stood up.

    SpookyErind walked over to Ento, who was squirming in pain on the ground. SpookyErind put her mask back on. The pain was so bad I couldn¡¯t get her to move at all. I wish she was as strong as SpookyErind.

    She picked up Ento and cradled her.

    <u>It¡¯ll be fine soon</u>, she said. I don¡¯t know how she thought that was going to happen given that they were still burning with acid. She began walking out the left hallway.

    I tried focusing on Ento¡¯s left eye since her right eye was in the process of being melted.

    A masked face with glowing blue eyes and white hair filled her vision. Ento started tearing up. Mom? I remember when she used to cradle me as a child. I hated it then but I wasn¡¯t mad now. I kinda wanted to look at Mom¡¯s face again.

    Wait a minute! That¡¯s just SpookyErind. Was Ento¡¯s mind-affecting mine? I hope not. SpookyErind continued to cradle Ento as she leaned against the wall.

    She continued to cradle Ento and began humming. It sounded like a lullaby tune, but I couldn¡¯t remember which one. It didn¡¯t do much to soothe the pain, but I guess it wasn¡¯t horrible. I tried doing choir when I was younger. It turns out my voice was not meant for singing.

    It was still impressive how she managed to hum even though her throat was covered in that acid. It was clearly stronger than Ento¡¯s regeneration because her right eye started looking more and more like scrambled eggs. More like scrambled yolk actually. Do people do that?

    Since I could see out of SpookyErind¡¯s eyes, I became engrossed in Ento¡¯s face. My cute child self was melting, which was terrible yet interesting to look at. She managed to scratch the acid spike out of her eye, but that just left it more deformed, with blood pouring out. I wonder if she would lose consciousness. Oh well.

    At least SpookyErind ate that acid bitch. Anger still fumed in my thoughts at him. It¡¯d probably go away after a while - I was never one to be angry at someone for a long time. It¡¯s just if they bothered me, I was mandated under Rule #4 to punish them.

    Both Ento and SpookyErind¡¯s eyes began tearing up. Well for Ento it was weird since her malformed eye was becoming a mess of white, blood, and tears. Isn¡¯t this a touching moment?

    I was glad my main body was okay. But I was becoming kind of bored since there was nothing to do. Johann was driving as fast as he could, but it would still take another 10 minutes to get there. Meanwhile, I couldn¡¯t really move Ento as the pain was too much to overcome.

    <u>Just a few more moments,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>And I¡¯ll have finished digesting that Adumbrae.</u>

    It was kind of weird since her voice didn¡¯t sound raspy at all. Wait, her voice just appears in my head, so does she not even need her throat to speak? On the other hand, it¡¯s not like Acid Bitch went down her windpipe.

    Also, wait, what did she mean about digesting?

    Suddenly, a surge of energy filled all of my bodies. I could feel them all getting stronger. Huh?

    Then, a tingly feeling entered my bodies. Ento¡¯s goggles and right eye glowed in golden liquid. Her eye and goggles began repairing themselves rapidly, and the burning in both Ento¡¯s and SpookyErind¡¯s bodies stopped. The golden liquid vanished and the tingly feeling disappeared.

    ¡°What happened?¡± I had Ento say. I could talk now!

    <u>Did you know that Corebrings get stronger when they eat Adumbrae?</u> SpookyErind asked.

    What? That didn¡¯t sound right. I¡¯ve never heard of a Corebring eating an Adumbrae. But I had a strong feeling this was SpookyErind being cryptic. If so, then maybe she was hinting that my Corebring powers were doing the healing?

    Why would my Corebring powers heal me randomly? Unless¡­ she was talking about digesting Acid Guy. He was an Adumbrae after all.

    I don¡¯t think eating Adumbrae made Corebring stronger in general. I imagine some of them would have at least been caught doing that on camera if that was true. It must have something to do with Ento then. Maybe shrinking Adumbrae and eating them made it stronger.

    <u>I¡¯m so glad you figured it out!</u> SpookyErind cheered. Even though I couldn¡¯t see her face behind her mask, I could feel through our shared senses that she was grinning. I was actually proud of myself that I managed to decode SpookyErind¡¯s bullshit.

    <u>Hey! I was just complimenting you.</u>

    I had Ento stick out her tongue.

    <u>You should be glad you¡¯re as cute as me, </u>she said, chuckling.

    A few other things were on my mind. How was SpookyErind able to digest him so fast? Was it because her body was strong? Or was it because he was injected with the ant syringe?

    <u>I was able to do it because of you!</u> She said. Okay, she was being cryptic again. But she was referring to me right instead of herself? So that probably meant it was Ento¡¯s power.

    <u>You got it right again!</u> she cheered. At least I was getting the hang of it.

    It was like when those teachers put those trick answers on tests and I got them right. I was basically able to analyze what the teacher really wanted me to put.

    <u>Hey, so what else was on your mind?</u> She asked.

    ¡°I just wanted to say thank you for eating Acid Guy so I didn¡¯t have to feel the pain anymore,¡± I told her. I was being genuine. Which felt very weird. But I was glad the pain was over.

    Typically, most of my appreciation was automatic rather than sincere. It was just the default response I had to people doing things for me, which was nothing special. But somehow, I really felt appreciation for what SpookyErind did.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    <u>Hey, I¡¯m just protecting you because you¡¯re me,</u> she beamed behind her mask.

    Was it weird that I was feeling appreciation for an Adumbrae?

    <u>Nope!</u> She said. <u>It just means you love me the most.</u>

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s true,¡± I said. ¡°Also, can you put me down now?¡±

    <u>Aww, can I please carry you since I saved you?</u> She asked.

    ¡°Fine,¡± I groaned. She giggled and continued walking down the hallway.

    ¡°How are things going Erind?¡± Deen asked me. ¡°We¡¯re almost there.¡±

    ¡°We ran into some guards, drones, and Adumbrae,¡± I said.

    ¡°Are your clones safe?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Yeah, we took care of them, Mom,¡± I said.

    ¡°I¡¯m not your Mom,¡± she said, poking me. I dodged and poked her back. ¡°Ahh!¡±

    ¡°You sure act like it,¡± I grinned. Deen pouted, causing me to chuckle.

    Maybe I should bully Deen more. It was fun to make her upset since she invaded my sacred personal space so much. She should know better than to do that. Since she decided to go be touchy-feely anyway, I should at least get some kicks out of messing with her.

    ¡°At least you''re safe,¡± Deen said.

    She cares way too much about my safety. I guess she was my best friend, but it was kind of annoying anyways. It was getting borderline creepy.

    ¡°Oh, there was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about,¡± I had Ento tell SpookyErind.

    <u>What is it?</u> She asked.

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t there any more 2M¡¯s?¡± I asked.

    <u>Maybe they got scared of us,</u> she said.

    ¡°Would they really get scared of us so easily?¡± I asked. They had way stronger Adumbrae like Statue Lady. A feeling of paranoia crept into my body. What if she was coming here? We weren¡¯t ready at all to fight her.

    <u>I don¡¯t think we have to worry about her,</u> SpookyErind said. <u>I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯s stuck in traffic or something.</u>

    Stuck in traffic? That sounded really stupid. The image of Statue Lady in her Titan form just waiting for cars to go by filled my mind. It was pretty funny to imagine.

    As we walked down the hallway (it was more of SpookyErind walking with Ento resting in her arms), we heard some voices down the hallway.

    ¡°We have to leave now!¡± A deep voice said.

    ¡°I can¡¯t leave now, my work is still here,¡± a female voice said.

    ¡°We have to regroup with the others,¡± he said. ¡°The bandits are raiding us.¡± Bandits? I guess SpookyErind kind of looked like a bandit.

    Oh, that probably did confirm that they were scared of us. I thought they were going to keep dumping guards and Adumbrae on us. That¡¯s what they did at the Docks. Are they getting smarter? To be fair, they did fall for Ento. But who would suspect a child of being an Adumbrae?

    On the other hand, it sounded like they cut corners when kidnapping me. If they actually checked if whatever fake name I gave existed, they¡¯d probably have some doubts about kidnapping me. But it sounded like they were in a rush.

    If I recall from one of my ethics classes, the term for that was ¡°Normalization of Deviance¡±. In an effort to cut corners, organizations will accept more deviations from their rigid rules, leading to failures.

    I had fun in ethics in college. I wasn¡¯t an ethical person by any means, but they provided a great foundation for understanding the Rules and faithfully following them. In fact, taking these classes inspired me to be a lawyer rather than a businesswoman. Even though I did have a passion for making money, the Rules were such a fundamental point in my life. And that¡¯s how I went from majoring in Business Administration to Law School.

    The scientist and the guard continued to bicker.

    ¡°Just give me more time,¡± she said.

    ¡°Arrogant fool, I¡¯m leaving!¡± He said. Heavy footsteps went down but slowly became more and more distant.

    SpookyErind walked down the corner to a scientist standing behind a panel in an open room. She walked up to her. The scientist was tapping buttons. In front of us was a giant tube, with some kind of monstrous creature inside of it. If I remember correctly from Animal Planet, it was a giant isopod, except way bigger than a normal giant isopod.

    ¡°I¡¯m telling you, I¡¯m not leaving,¡± Scientist Lady said.

    <u>Hello,</u> SpookyErind said. Scientist Lady jolted and turned around.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± she panicked. ¡°Where the fuck did you go Lanzo?¡±

    <u>My name¡¯s not Lanzo,</u> SpookyErind giggled.

    She took out a gun from her coat.

    <u>It¡¯s not a wise idea to do that,</u> she said.

    Ignoring us, Scientist Lady shot SpookyErind in the head. The bullet barely breached her skin before falling out. Her wound quickly regenerated.

    That was very rude you know, she said.

    "Why the fuck didn¡¯t that work?" Scientist Lady panicked. She fired a few more shots.

    What was truly impressive was how she kept firing even though it turned out that did absolutely nothing. I wonder what would happen if she ran out of bullets? Since none of the 2M¡¯s were going to come to help her, I may as well have some fun time observing her behavior.

    She ran out of bullets and started running off. I had Ento grab the ant syringe and throw it at her.

    She gasped but continued running. Her strides became smaller and smaller as she shrank. SpookyErind walked over to her and placed Ento on the ground. I had her pick up the Scientist Lady and walked back to the open room. SpookyErind followed behind me.

    I didn¡¯t notice it at first, but there were more tubes with mutated humans in them. None of them were as advanced as the human-sized isopod. I kind of wanted to take some of them with me to experiment on.

    A brilliant idea came to my head. I could put them in battles against the other humans I captured. That would be fun to watch. Their own experiments fighting them. Hmm, I should ask the Lady Scientist first.

    She was currently screaming in my hand.

    ¡°Hey, how do you have any details of what these monsters do?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Let me go!¡± she screamed in a high pitch.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do that if you answer my question,¡± I said.

    She continued shrieking. Oh my god. How loud could you be? She sounded like a banshee.

    ¡°Stop,¡± I lightly squeezed her. Why was she acting so different than the other humans? I guess she really did follow the fight part of flight or fight.

    The shrieking turned into sobs, but it still sounded terrible, so I squeezed some more.

    Then she popped into blood and gore.

    ¡°Oops,¡± I had Ento say.

    That was incredibly rude of her. I just wanted some more information on the experiments I would be taking from the 2Ms. Even though we were enemies, she could have been furthering the development of scientific knowledge by helping me. I was just trying to learn more.

    <u>Are you going to eat that?</u> SpookyErind pointed at my hands.

    Oh right, it would probably taste sweet. But I didn¡¯t feel like licking my hands right now.

    <u>I¡¯ll do it for you,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°How about no,¡± I said, moving onto the panel. It was more of that sci-fi level of tech, and I couldn¡¯t understand any of it. Sadly, the only person who did know how to operate this was now a paste of viscera on my gloves.

    I tinkered with the panel for a bit. Several minutes went by and I sadly never found out how to operate it.

    But at least my main body and my teammates were arriving at the 2M¡¯s base.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to drop you all off a few blocks away,¡± Johann said. ¡°I don¡¯t want to get to close.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± Dario said. ¡°All right guys, let¡¯s head out.¡± Blubber stood on his shoulder.

    Dusk was approaching, and the sun was dipping on the horizon. It was a beautiful backdrop.

    Myra began growing her bark armor and grew in height. We all walked behind her as we headed toward the base.

    In front of us was a set of chainlink fences, with a few guards behind them. Several large warehouses were behind them. How big was this base? And damn. These guys had a lot of money. Maybe even more than Deen.

    Myra charged towards the fence and we followed her. The guards started shooting at her, but her armor easily protected her. She crashed through the fence and pierced one of the guards with the spikes on her armor.

    Since bullets barely affected me, I was also in the front. I charged another guard and kicked him in the chest. My foot easily broke through his chest, causing his guts to spill over my leg. Ewww. Was I getting stronger now? I should check how much I could lift when I get back.

    Also, this was the 2nd time I accidentally got human viscera on me. I really should get compensated for this nasty stuff.

    More guards came to greet us. But instead of ordinary guns, they held neon electroshock weapons. Fuck. I couldn¡¯t be as careless anymore with bullets.

    They began open firing on us, and I took refuge behind Myra¡¯s back. How was I going to engage them? I had no ranged weapons. There weren¡¯t any pebbles here. They really did housecleaning. Wait a minute. I looked back at the guard I just kicked. His chest was gone, leaving his body split into two parts - his head and his legs. I could use him as a ranged weapon.

    As Myra said, I¡¯ll need to evade their attacks while attacking from afar. And this was the best way to do this.

    I ran toward his body, zigzagging to avoid the electroshock bullets. I grabbed his head and threw it at one of the guards. Continuing to run, I saw the head collide with another guard, causing him to go flying and drop his rifle. Yes!

    Thankfully, it appeared both of my bodies were good shots.

    I circled back around to the disembodied legs of the guard I kicked and threw them at another guard. They easily whacked into another guard. And that was my 2nd hit in a row. Could I go for a third? Wait a minute, I used up all of that guy¡¯s body parts. Awww.

    At least my teammates killed other guards, so I¡¯d be able to use their bodies.

    We managed to clean up their outside defenses and headed inside to the closest warehouse. I really should have bought one of those bodies to throw. Sadly, my teammates might think it was weird, given how none of them copied me. Deen should really be using Myra¡¯s lessons like me.

    ¡°All right guys,¡± Dario said. ¡°Good job so far. Let¡¯s see if we can free any of the hostages. And then, let¡¯s trash this base!¡±

 2.16

    We made our way through the giant warehouse. I swear this thing was a labyrinth. I had no idea there could be so many corridors. And there were several warehouses! How the fuck did the 2M¡¯s build all this? Did they have an Adumbrae that just makes warehouses appear out of thin air?

    That¡¯d actually be a pretty cool power. Just make warehouses appear on top of your enemies, and bam!

    We approached a big sliding door when Deen spoke up.

    ¡°Stop!¡± she yelled.

    ¡°Huh? What is it?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°My Guardian Angel is warning me,¡± she said. ¡°There¡¯s Adumbrae up ahead, and they¡¯ve prepared a trap for us.¡±

    ¡°Well, what are we supposed to do?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Walk around them?¡±

    ¡°Hey Emcee,¡± Deen said. Everett¡¯s eyes lit up. I wonder what the rest of his face obscured by his mask looked like.

    On the one hand, I was jealous Deen was able to get boys easier. Like, look at this. Everett just magically starts paying attention. That¡¯d be a cool superpower. Yet, I wasn¡¯t sure I wanted boys to chase after me. I found that part pretty annoying. Was there a way to strike a balance?

    I remember when I was still a kid that a boy went up and told me he liked me. I can¡¯t remember his name but I do remember hitting him with a drum. I was interested in seeing how people react to being hit. And he said he liked me so I figured it was fine for me to hit him.

    I got scolding from Mom about how hitting people was bad. Of course, now I was hitting bad guys. So it was fine now.

    ¡°Yeah Pythia?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Can you get ready to shoot a fireball?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Sure, anything for you,¡± he said. I internally cringed.

    ¡°Okay, fire it over there on my signal,¡± Deen said as she went up to the door. She pulled it open and yelled ¡°Now!¡±

    Everett threw a fireball as electroshock bullets came into the room. Thankfully, I was hiding behind Myra. An explosion rocked the other room. Followed by more explosions. Did they have oil barrels in there?

    ¡°Ow!¡± Everett yelled.

    ¡°Are you all right?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine, just got grazed,¡± he said. ¡°My left arm¡¯s kinda stiff now.¡±

    ¡°Stay behind us,¡± Dario said. ¡°Good job on blowing them up.¡±

    ¡°Thanks man,¡± Everett replied. Deen just continued marching on.

    All of us continued into the giant room. Fires were still going off. There were a bunch of barrels in here. Wait, would another explosion go off? No, Deen would warn us if that was the case. Maybe there were other types of barrels here.

    The sides were littered with remains. But there was no flesh nor blood. It was as if everyone cleared the scene of gore. Instead remains of clay surrounded uniforms and electroshock weapons.

    ¡°Clay?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Some fucker¡¯s power,¡± Myra said. ¡°It looks like they can make clay clones of themselves.¡±

    They definitely could make a lot of clones given how much clay was here. But how strong were those clones? Were my clones stronger? Probably, since I was both a Corebring and an Adumbrae. Yet, I wouldn¡¯t know for sure. Statue Lady was only an Adumbrae and she could have easily killed me.

    ¡°The fire¡¯s not going to burn the whole place down is it?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°I hope not,¡± Dario said. Blubber, Oberon¡¯s faerie, sat on his shoulder.

    ¡°What would happen to all the hostages?¡± I asked, trying to feign sympathy. ¡°I hope they¡¯d be okay.¡± As soon as I said that, the sprinklers turned on. The fire wasn¡¯t growing at all either. Nevermind then.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Synchron,¡± Deen told me. ¡°We¡¯ll save them.¡± Wow, everyone was using codenames. We really were like secret superheroes.

    Sadly, for Deen, I¡¯m not sure if we would be able to save all the hostages. It looks like many of them were connected to those weird sci-fi devices. We wouldn¡¯t be able to disconnect them. It would be fun to see what the reactions of my teammates would be. Failure does produce interesting reactions. Sometimes, people try to better themselves. Other times, people just wallow in misery.

    Since I¡¯m perfect, I never fail.

    A doorway was on the opposite side of where we entered. There were in fact many doorways. Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel didn¡¯t give any advice on which one to take, so we kept on going in the same direction.

    Deen opened the door to the other side.

    ¡°What the fuck is that?¡± I muttered.

    Something was coating the sides of the hallway. It seemed to be made out of pitch black with bright red along the edges. What the fuck was this? Was this a superpower or did somebody try and make an evil sci-fi-themed hallway?

    ¡°My Guardian Angel says to stay close and be prepared,¡± Deen said.

    I hated that we had no idea what we were going up against. Should I bring my clones here? There were still busy ransacking the other warehouse. Maybe it wouldn¡¯t be so bad.

    We continued walking down the hallway. I half expected something to jump out of the walls or start shooting us. At the end of the hallway was an intersection. We could either go left, forward, or right.

    ¡°Which way should we go?¡± Myra asked Deen. Damn, it was like I was becoming a sidekick and Deen was the main protagonist. Her stupid powers allowed her to be so useful. It actually made me kind of jealous.

    ¡°It just said to the stick together,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Hmm, maybe let¡¯s take a right this time,¡± Myra said. Myra and I were at the front. Actually, it was more like Myra was in front of me. In case any electroshock bullets came, I hope they hit her. Still, I kind of wanted to get into the action some more. Beating up normal humans felt pretty good. Was I returning to being a kid again? Beating up humans and experimenting on insects? Nostalgia filled my mind. Those were some fun times.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Watch out!¡± Deen yelled.

    Suddenly, a loud crash occurred behind us. Myra and I turned around.

    Instead of our teammates, we were greeted with a panel of that black-red sci-fi stuff. Where the fuck did that come from?

    ¡°Guys?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°We¡¯re oka¨C¡± Dario said as gunfire erupted. A feeling of nausea filled my head. Fuck. Did he turn on his sickness field?

    Myra tried breaking down the panel blocking us with her arms, but it didn¡¯t budge.

    ¡°Synchron, help me out here,¡± she said.

    I got up to her and tried punching it with my arms, but nothing happened. What the fuck is this made of?

    ¡°Guys?¡± Myra asked. Another crash occurred. The feeling of nausea got less intense, but we could still hear the gunfire. Then, there was another crash. Are they trying to separate us with the panels?

    ¡°Guys?¡± Myra asked again. The feeling of sickness vanished.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± Myra yelled. ¡°We¡¯re not strong enough. I hope the rest are okay.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure they are fine,¡± I said, trying to comfort her. ¡°They have Deen. I¡¯m pretty sure her guardian angel will protect all of them.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± she said. ¡°We should move on and see if we can stop whatever Adumbrae is causing this.¡±

    I nodded.

    We went down the hallway.

    Meanwhile, Ento was busy picking up some of the mutants that the 2M¡¯s made and putting them in her pocket. It was weird how I could still identify which essence belonged to what. I wasn¡¯t going to complain though.

    I had 20 humans, 1 Adumbrae, and seven mutants. I wonder how much more I could get?

    SpookyErind picked Ento up.

    ¡°Hey!¡± I said. ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    <u>You said I could carry you,</u> she replied. Oh right, I did. And there were no more mutants left.

    She started walking down the hallway and made random turns. It was as if she knew how to traverse this place. I do remember she told me time acted a bit weird for her, so she was able to know the future. I just wish I had that knowledge too.

    SpookyErind began humming again as she walked down the hall. It was kind of boring now. Ento and SpookyErind hadn¡¯t encountered anything. And Myra and I were still walking down the weirdly coated hallway. None of the 2M¡¯s jumped out at us, and I kind of wished they did.

    <u>Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll encounter some people soon,</u> SpookyErind said.

    A few moments later, we came around a corner. At the corner¡¯s edge was a door, surrounded by what looked like bombs. Did they think we would just walk into this? A machine with a red light was in the middle. Was that a sensor?

    <u>Throw a syringe at it,</u> SpookyErind said.

    I had Ento take out the bee syringe and throw it toward the pile of bombs. The machine¡¯s light turned green, and an explosion filled the hall. After the smoke cleared, the door remained perfectly intact. Wow, an explosion-resistant door. I should get one of those.

    The door opened and gunfire came out. It just hit the wall since none of us were nearby. What were they doing?

    ¡°Is it safe?¡± I heard a male voice say.

    ¡°Quiet,¡± a more gruff and older-sounding voice said.

    SpookyErind continued walking forward toward the door. I guess they ran out of tricks if SpookyErind was just going to walk in. Why didn¡¯t they retreat?

    As we made it to the door, I saw two men in some kind of soldier¡¯s vests. One had graying hair and the other had dirty brown hair. They each had pistols pointed at us and started firing. I rolled my eyes as the bullets did nothing against us.

    I took out the ant syringe and threw it at Brown Hair Guy. I sent the other two syringes to Gray Hair Guy. He collapse on the ground as Brown Hair Guy started shrinking and his gun jammed.

    SpookyErind set Ento down. I picked up Brown Hair Guy who was panicking while I waited for ten seconds to pass. However, his panic soon turned into rage.

    ¡°Let me go!¡± he screamed with a high pitch. He tried to flail but my fingers kept him trapped. I threw the ant syringe at Gray Hair Guy and picked him up with my left hand after he shrunk. My right hand held Brown Hair Guy.

    ¡°I¡¯ll let you-¡± I tried to say but then he started screeching. Seriously? I gave him a light squeeze. I didn¡¯t want to pop him like Scientist Lady. He gasped and stopped screeching.

    ¡°I¡¯ll let you go if you tell me how to get a floor plan of where all the mutants are,¡± I said.

    ¡°Umm¡­ You¡¯ll really let me go?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I lied. I needed to give him an incentive to do something for me.

    ¡°Wait, no!¡± he exclaimed. ¡°I pledged my loyalty to Big Marcy. I¡¯ll never let you bandits get away with this.¡±

    ¡°How unfortunate,¡± I said. It really was. I did want to find more mutants. They came in so much variety, unlike the humans and Adumbrae. I had the shrunken isopod mutant, a human with wings, a human with many legs, and so many more. It reminded me of the variety of bugs I encountered as a child.

    Now I could let SpookyErind take me everywhere, but I was an independent woman damnit! Ento may be short, even shorter than her, but she should be able to make her own decisions. And by her I mean me.

    SpookyErind didn¡¯t say anything, but she did frown behind her mask. She probably did know where the other mutants are, but I kind of wanted to solve things on my own. I hated relying on people. Of course, SpookyErind wasn¡¯t really a person, but the same principles applied. I wanted to be the one in control of my life.

    So we would do things my way. Besides, I wanted to see if I could torture this guy enough to give me the information.

    ¡°We could have done this the easy way,¡± I said. I gave Gray Hair Guy to SpookyErind and grabbed Brown Hair Guy¡¯s left leg with my left thumb and index finger. I started squeezing. A little crack occurred. High-pitched screams filled my ears.

    I released some pressure from his leg. He gasped and coughed.

    ¡°So, are you willing to tell me it now?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Nev- Never,¡± he coughed out.

    Is there like a professional torture guide? I might need one if this continues. I¡¯ve tortured bugs before, but I¡¯ve never had to get information out of them. So I was kind of going into this blind.

    I already broke his left leg. Maybe he¡¯ll respond better if I break his right one?

    I grabbed his right leg.

    ¡°It only gets worse from here,¡± I said as I began squeezing. He screamed and sobbed.

    I heard a crack and stopped increasing the pressure. I held his leg like that for a few seconds and then released it.

    ¡°How about now?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather die than tell you bitch,¡± he said. Rude. Anyways, it turns out this wasn¡¯t working. How the hell does the BID do it?

    Maybe I could try fear instead?

    ¡°All right,¡± I said. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll just eat you.¡±

    I raised him up and tilted my head. Opening my mouth, I slowly lowered him. He started screaming and flailing.

    ¡°No!¡± he screamed. ¡°I give up! I can¡¯t take this anymore. I¡¯ll tell you.¡±

    I closed my mouth and beamed. I had no idea why that worked, but it did.

    ¡°Just go up to the computer,¡± he said with a cough.

    I walked up to it, but the chair and the desk was too tall.

    <u>Need a lift?</u> SpookyErind asked. I nodded. She raised me up and put me on the chair. That was very embarrassing. Thankfully, Brown Hair Guy didn¡¯t comment on it otherwise I may have actually eaten him.

    ¡°The password is BigMarcyFan123,¡± he said. Wow, he looked up to Big Marcy so much. No wonder he stayed here and tried to defend this place. It was pretty stupid to not retreat, but at least I could understand his motivations.

    Typing in the password, I was immediately let in. A video of the hallway showed up. Oh, so this was the camera system.

    ¡°You can check the cameras to see which rooms the mutants are in,¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t have the rooms memorized, but there is a little minimap in the bottom left corner. You can press on it to see the whole floor plans and each camera.¡±

    There were also buttons to cycle through each camera. Nice. I put him in my apron¡¯s right pocket now that he was no longer needed. He vanished. SpookyErind walked over and put Gray Hair Guy in my pocket, who also vanished. I now had 22 humans.

    A couple of rooms had mutants in them. I took mental notes of where they were and there locations on the map.

    Time to collect some more mutants!

    Sadly, my main body was still walking through the black and red hallways with Myra.

    The hallway lead into a giant room, which was still coated. There were two hallways branching from this room we could take. A left one and a right one. We decided to go towards the left one.

    ¡°Do you think there¡¯s an end to this?¡± I asked. I hoped I wasn¡¯t stuck there.

    ¡°There¡¯s got to be,¡± Myra said. ¡°If not, we should run into the guy who made this place.¡±

    ¡°Welcome bandits,¡± a voice announced.

    We turned around. A brown haired lady in a trenchcoat and fedora stood behind us. She had a sword in her left hand and a pistol in the other.

    Besides somehow teleporting behind us, the most weird thing was that her clothes, sword, and gun were covered in the same pitch black material as the rest of the room. The only way I could tell what objects they were was the bright red outlines.

    ¡°I hope you¡¯ve enjoyed my hardlight designs,¡± she said. ¡°Sadly, your friends weren¡¯t as appreciative of them.¡±

    ¡°What did you do to them?¡± Myra asked furiously.

    Rather than responding, Fedora Lady opened fire on Myra.

 2.17

    Myra moved but the bullet hit part of her arm. It pierced right through all that bark. Was her gun that strong?

    My skin wasn¡¯t as thick as Myra¡¯s bark. She¡¯d be easily able to headshot me.

    It was a good thing then that Myra gave us that training earlier. Evading and attacking from afar. Except, I could only do the first one. How the fuck was I going to do the second one?

    They cleared the entire room of objects. Nothing was here except the ¡°hard light¡± covered walls. Maybe I might find something down the hallway?

    ¡°Silence,¡± Fedora Lady said to Myra. ¡°Vermin like you shouldn¡¯t be allowed to speak. I will impose justice upon your lawless actions.¡±

    Lawless? Does this lady realize the irony of her statement? Pretty sure she was way more lawless than us. At least we are technically affiliated with the BID. Okay, well more like very loosely connected with the Professor, who is part of the BID. Actually, the BID would probably just kill us both. What the fuck am I talking about?

    Fedora Lady continued firing while charging toward Myra with her sword. Myra struck out with vines, but Fedora Lady easily cut through them as if there were tiny twigs. Myra managed to dodge some of the shots, but she still got hit and stumbled.

    A minute passed, and it was kind of entrancing to see Fedora Lady¡¯s usage of both her gun and sword against Myra. Myra was clearly not able to keep up. She managed to get a swipe at Fedora Lady with some of the spikes on her armor, but those either got parried with the sword or did nothing against her hard light clothes.

    Wait a minute, I was getting into a bad habit of just watching things fight. I couldn¡¯t let Fedora Lady take out Myra.

    ¡°Hey Barb!¡± I called out. ¡°Give me some vines!¡± This room may not have objects I could throw, but I could definitely get something out of Myra¡¯s vines.

    She sent some of them my way. Yes!

    But then Fedora Lady turned her attention to me. She fired bullets at me. I zig-zagged toward Myra¡¯s vines. Come on. They stopped coming towards me. Fedora Lady was cutting them off. Fuck. I didn¡¯t want to get any closer.

    But at least I was distracting her from Myra. She was no longer stumbling as much and managed to put some distance between her and Fedora Lady. I broke off pieces of the closest vine. This will have to do. I began chucking them at Fedora Lady. She dodged a couple of the shots and blocked some with her sword. But they had so much force behind them she was pushed a couple of feet back.

    Fedora Lady returned fire on me. Fuck. This wasn¡¯t fair at all. I had to go all the way to Myra¡¯s vines to attack her. Why couldn¡¯t I have a ranged superpower? Wait a minute, Ento could do it. Her syringes were ranged. But that would mean she wouldn¡¯t be able to collect monsters for me.

    And I wasn¡¯t sure if they could pierce her clothing. I¡¯d have to be lucky and hit her neck or face. Okay, I¡¯ll do it if I get anywhere near in danger.

    Danger. Huh. Was I becoming too careless? I mean, I was able to dodge the bullets fine. But what if I messed up? I could seriously die. Maybe I should summon my clones over here?

    Agh! I was getting kind of greedy. I wanted to collect more monsters.

    Sadly, even though I was able to hit Fedora Lady with more vine twigs, the best I could do was push her back. This wasn¡¯t working at all. Maybe I could get SpookyErind to freeze her in a time bubble?

    ¡°How annoying,¡± Fedora Lady said as her gun clicked. Out of ammo? ¡°This won¡¯t be the end bandits.¡± She ran towards the wall and ¡­ sunk into it. What?

    Is that how she teleported behind us?

    Meanwhile, Ento and SpookyErind were in the first mutant room. At least they weren¡¯t at any risk of dying.

    Ento had already taken three of their experiments. Using a combo of both two ant syringes and two spider syringes, I was easily able to take them without any issue. One was a human with extremely long limbs, each one branching into separate different ones. It was like a human tree. The second one was some kind of green-colored human. It was pretty large and barely fit into my pocket even when shrunk. It had a weird sword gun attached to its right limb. And the third one was a human with two heads, four arms, and four legs. All very interesting experiments. Which were also all mine now.

    There were about a dozen experiments in this room.

    <u>Hey, maybe I should eat the rest of these with the face I gave you,</u> SpookyErind said.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I had Ento ask. ¡°Why is that? And why just you?¡±

    <u>I imagine some Adumbrae would come to fight our main body right?</u> She asked. She didn¡¯t continue and waited for me to answer.

    She was being cryptic again? Okay, so she was heavily implying more Adumbrae would come to fight me and Myra. And I¡¯ve been kind of having trouble here with Fedora Lady. So she wanted to turn into Red Hood to eat them.

    But why just her?

    <u>You can help me grow real big,</u> she said. How was I going to do that?

    <u>Remember last time?</u> Last time? I really needed her to stop being cryptic. I shouldn¡¯t be spending this much brainpower. <u>But you are showing how smart you are.</u>

    I guess. But last time? The last time we turned into Red Hood together was when I was first testing Ento. And when our Red Hood faces ate the 2M¡¯s¡­ Oh! I get it now.

    <u>We¡¯re so smart,</u> she cheered. She held out her right hand and golden liquid rose out. It turned into solid red with a fanged snout. SpookyErind took off her face mask and replaced it with the Red Hood mask.

    She instantly grew in height and had to tilt her head down to see Ento. I could see through SpookyErind¡¯s eyes that Ento looked like she was a war veteran in a meat grinder. What the fuck is that comparison? Her clothes were filled with bullet holes. Beneath her goggles, bloodstains surrounded her right eye. But you wouldn¡¯t be able to tell how she got injured. Her goggles were fully repaired. Huh.

    Does that mean Ento can regenerate her goggles? She couldn¡¯t regenerate the rest of her clothes. That was pretty weird. Although, what would happen if her goggles got destroyed? Would she turn back into Erind?

    SpookyErind patted Ento¡¯s head with her clawed hand. I was about to tell her off for not answering anything for me but then I remembered she couldn¡¯t talk. She let out a growl that sounded like some kind of chuckle.

    I was kind of sad I wouldn¡¯t be the one using the Red Hood face, but the only way I could help SpookyErind grow was with Ento. Maybe I could learn more about how she controls Red Hood?

    SpookyErind nodded with a growl. Wait a minute, she couldn¡¯t talk, so I had no idea how she would teach me to control it. I hope we could review this afterward.

    ¡°Also, why am I always the shorter and weaker one?¡± I had Ento ask.

    SpookyErind patted my head again. I pouted.

    ¡°I should have asked you before you transformed,¡± I said.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    SpookyErind growled. I had no idea what she was saying.

    ¡°Also, before, didn¡¯t you say I could read your mind since we¡¯re the same?¡± I asked. ¡°Because I clearly have no idea what you are saying right now.¡±

    SpookyErind did a more angry growl. Ento nearly stumbled back. It was kind of scary seeing her growl at Ento. It felt like her heart skipped a beat.

    A thought ran through the back of my head. Was she going to eat me? But I quickly quashed that thought. She had saved me many times. Also, what good what eating me do? Would a paradox occur since my main body doesn¡¯t exist anymore?

    Why wasn¡¯t I feeling as scared? I know I wasn¡¯t like other humans, but I¡¯ve had a very relaxed approach to anything dangerous. Did I think I was just that strong? That SpookyErind wouldn¡¯t harm me? Well, it¡¯s not like she has harmed me. She¡¯s messed with me, and I was even paranoid that she might take over my body. But was she going to harm me? Nah. I still wasn¡¯t fully okay with her though.

    SpookyErind picked Ento up in a hug. ¡°Hey! Put me down!¡± She growled in response, but it was way more smoother than her previous growls. I imagine she was saying something like ¡°I love you so I would never harm you.¡±

    ¡°Can you put me down please?¡± I asked. She bent over and gently placed me on the ground.

    ¡°I hate being short,¡± I said looking up to her.

    SpookyErind growled in response. Okay, I have no idea what she¡¯s saying again.

    ¡°Is there a way to learn what you¡¯re saying?¡± I asked.

    She nodded. There was? Or was she just messing with me?

    Anyways, I had two ideas on how to grow SpookyErind. The first was the ant syringe. And the second was the bee syringe. I kind of wanted to test the bee syringe out first though. Maybe I was too annoyed at SpookyErind¡­

    She didn¡¯t move from her spot though. I took out the syringe containing the red liquid and injected it into her thigh. I couldn¡¯t feel any sort of pain in her body. Oh right, I tried injecting SpookyErind with a syringe earlier. It didn¡¯t do anything. So I was pretty sure that I can¡¯t make her grow by causing her pain.

    I guess it¡¯s kind of good then the syringes don¡¯t work on me or any of my clones. Otherwise, I might have done something really stupid to myself. What if I shrunk myself to the size of an insect? That would have been bad. Especially since there was no timer on the syringe, so presumably the effects were permanent.

    Also, didn¡¯t the bee syringe last for 1 hour? So I would be feeling pain for an hour even if it did work. Was that a good tradeoff for having her grow? Probably not.

    An alarm beeped out. Huh?

    The rest of the tubes containing human mutants opened and poured out their contents. A bunch of monstrous growls and screeches filled the air. God, that is so loud. Can I turn off SpookyErind¡¯s ears? Her Red Hood¡¯s enhanced senses were facing the full brunt of these musical terrors. Actually, they weren¡¯t very musical at all - I couldn¡¯t discern any kind of rhythm.

    Were the 2M¡¯s trying to kill SpookyErind and Ento with the monsters? Let¡¯s turn this against them.

    SpookyErind got in front of Ento as the monsters charged us. They tried attacking SpookyErind, but their attacks were pretty weak. I could feel anger and rage swell up in her. I wanted to eat them, but SpookyErind stood still, taking it all. Her body grew and got stronger as the monsters continued attacking her.

    I had Ento throw an ant syringe at one of the mutants. It was a human who had eight limbs - each of them arms. All his limbs were even on the ground like a spider, and he was also trying to bite SpookyErind with his mouth. It wasn¡¯t very effective for him though. He started shrinking but still tried attacking SpookyErind.

    I waited another ten seconds before throwing another ant syringe. It turned out that mutants required two ant syringes to shrink at the normal rate, while Adumbrae required three. I wonder what if even stronger Adumbrae would require more syringes. I hope Statue Lady only took three.

    The spider human started shrinking fast, and SpookyErind grabbed him as he approached the size of a pill. She started chomping on him. The taste of sweet flesh filled her mouth. Her growth suddenly sped up and she became way bigger. The monsters attacking her probably made her around seven feet tall, but now, she was quickly growing another two feet or so. She growled at the other monsters.

    A small surge of energy also came through all my bodies. I could feel all of us getting stronger, in addition to SpookyErind¡¯s growth. This happened when SpookyErind ate Acid Guy, but the effect wasn¡¯t as strong. Did that mean eating shrunken superpowered creatures made me permanently stronger? And eating stronger creatures made me even stronger.

    Also, back when I first was testing out Ento, when SpookyErind and I ate the shrunken humans in our Red Hood Forms, we quickly gained a lot of height. It turned out that Ento synergized well with Red Hood. I could get Red Hood to grow way faster now. Back at the docks, it took me eating a couple of dozen humans to even get anywhere close to two stories tall. But now, I could probably do it with only a dozen humans, or even just a handful of monsters.

    Some of the monsters realized the futility of the situation and began attacking Ento. Fuck. But SpookyErind began eating the ones attacking me.

    Whew. I didn¡¯t know if Ento could survive these monsters. One of her main weaknesses is that her syringes are not good against a large number of enemies. Taking 10 seconds to regenerate was really not ideal. Could I ask my Core to make them regenerate faster? I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how it works. It would be cool if it did though.

    Just two monsters were left. They looked like twins, but their muscles were extremely huge and their skin was grey. It was as if somebody pumped them up with thousands of steroids. SpookyErind grabbed both of them with her hands, which basically covered their entire torsos. I began throwing ant syringes at them. Once they were both injected with two syringes and shrunk to pill size, SpookyErind put them in her mouth and started chewing. It was kind of crazy how transformed she was. Her claws had grown longer, and fur had grown outside of her body. This was the first time I was seeing Red Hood¡¯s werewolf form close up. Well, technically I did see a bigger version in whatever dream world SpookyErind showed me.

    It was just so different seeing it awake. And to see it begin growing in front of me. SpookyErind had to get down on all limbs to still fit in the room. I don¡¯t think she¡¯d even fit the doorway now. I could also see Ento from SpookyErind¡¯s perspective, and wow, she was small. At least all of my bodies were experiencing a surge in energy. Sharing is caring as they say. What the fuck am I saying?

    Back at the other warehouse, I was standing next to Myra.

    ¡°You okay?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she said. ¡°That bitch was really annoying.¡±

    I wanted to point out that Myra probably could have shot her spikes at her, but it was a bad time to reveal that I knew that.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I simply agreed with her.

    ¡°Thanks for just staying by me as I heal,¡± she said. Her body got pretty beat up by Statue Lady, and she needed to regenerate her bark armor. ¡°Sorry if it¡¯s boring.¡±

    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s important that I keep you company,¡± I chuckled. I internally cringed.

    Thankfully, Ento and SpookyErind were doing stuff, so it wasn¡¯t a boring wait at all. SpookyErind was currently leading Ento somewhere. I imagine they were coming here. SpookyErind easily broke through the doorframe and surrounding wall. Hopefully they came here before more Adumbrae came over-

    Blue electric bolts came down from the left hall.

    Armored soldiers came down the hall and started peppering us with electroshock bullets. I hid behind Myra. Fuck.

    ¡°More vines please Barb!¡± I yelled.

    ¡°Sure thing Synchron,¡± she told me. I broke apart part of her twigs and threw them at the soldiers. They easily pierced their armor and broke apart into clay.

    ¡°You¡¯re a bit late Finlay,¡± a female voice called out. Fedora Lady? Fuck. We weren¡¯t prepared to deal with both the soldiers and Fedora Lady.

    ¡°That¡¯s unfair of you Isabella,¡± one of the soldiers called out. I threw a rock at him and he broke apart into clay.

    ¡°It looks like Calder and Slinky are late,¡± Fedora Lady said as she opened fire at us. I had to separate from Myra. I couldn¡¯t use her as a tree shield anymore.

    We had these two fuckers - Isabel and Finlay attacking us. And it sounded like more Adumbrae were on the way. We needed to get rid of one of them. Finlay seemed like the easiest given how easily his clones died.

    ¡°Barb,¡± I called out. ¡°Use the clay!¡±

    ¡°Got it!¡± she said as she ran away from Isabel, the Fedora Lady.

    I ran up to the nearest clay soldier¡¯s remains and picked up a handful. I began throwing pieces at the rest of the soldiers as they came in. It was super annoying dodging both their shots and Isabel¡¯s shots. I ended up taking a hit from one of those hard light bullets.

    Ow. That hurt a lot. It pierced right through my left elbow. Why was I feeling way more pain in this mission? A few more of Isabel¡¯s bullets hit me, but I couldn¡¯t let the electroshock bullets hit me. They¡¯d freeze me up and stop my regeneration.

    But Myra and I were whittling away at the clay soldiers, and eventually, they stopped coming in. Now, we had an advantage against Isabel.

    We began pelting her with clay shards, but she was still easily prepared for them.

    ¡°Damnit Finlay, where did you go?¡± she cried out. I had no idea how his power worked, but I think he ran out of clones. Hopefully, more didn¡¯t show up.

    ¡°Barb, let¡¯s split up!¡± I said. Just like how I tried attacking Myra during training, if we split up, then she wouldn¡¯t be able to deal with both of us.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go left,¡± she called out. I went right.

    We split up and continued launching clay at Isabel. She tried firing at us, but her shots became even more erratic. Yes!

    I threw a shot and she tripped and fell over.

    ¡°No!¡± she yelled out. This was it. Goodbye, hard light bitc-

    She sunk through the bottom of the floor before my clay pellet could reach her.

    ¡°That¡¯ll teach her!¡± Myra said energetically. ¡°We did it Synchron!¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I sighed. I really wanted to kill her. But I guess I should be glad we got rid of her again.

    Myra and I continued walking through the hard light halls. No 2M¡¯s came out of us, and Ento and SpookyErind managed to leave the warehouse they were in.

    A door was in front of me and Myra. It was a normal door. We opened it, and the world was normal again. I was getting sick of looking at that pitch-black and bright red coatings. The room was an empty warehouse area. I could spot a security camera in the corner. Would they keep sending stuff at us, or retreat again?

    ¡°Tree Twerp!¡± an earthy voice said. A big scaly lizard man was approaching us.

    ¡°Slinky!¡± Myra called out. These two met before?

    Wait a minute. Is he growing?

 2.18

    Slinky was definitely growing. His muscles were ballooning out as if someone was pumping helium into him. If I stick one of Ento¡¯s needles in him, will he pop like a balloon?

    I took a look at Myra. It looked like she was also growing, but nowhere near as fast as Slinky. I became kind of jealous. Everyone else could grow on their own, but I had to actually eat stuff or get hurt in my Red Hood form to grow. Just another day of superpowers being unfair to me.

    It looked like I had to follow Myra¡¯s training again. Funny how this became so relevant to this mission. Maybe Myra knew the future like Deen¡¯s Guardian Angel and SpookyErind. Nah. If that was the case, she probably wouldn¡¯t have attacked me at the Sanders Mall. Seriously, why did she do that?

    Innocent Little Me was just trying to have a normal life. Actually, Deen was tugging me along to go to the Sanders Mall. Maybe I should have gone home without her. Would Myra have attacked me then? Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t change the past, but I could change the future. I don¡¯t remember where I got that cringe inspirational quote.

    Slinky began charging Myra. Maybe I could flank him from behind? He didn¡¯t seem to really notice me.

    Slinky began launching punches at Myra. Myra was slightly taller than him, but that wouldn¡¯t be true for long.

    As I made it to the other side of the room, I began launching clay fragments at Slinky. They pelted his scaled head but didn¡¯t do anything else. Wait, never mind, he turned around.

    ¡°Agh!¡± Slinky said. ¡°You¡¯ll pay for that ya twerp!¡±

    I¡¯m not a twerp. I¡¯m actually a 23-year-old woman.

    Suddenly, the doors to the side of me opened, and a clay soldier on each side came out. Fuck. And they had electroshock guns. How many electroshock guns does this place have??!!

    I had to go somewhere so I went left. I threw a pebble at the Finlay clone on the left. He exploded into clay fragments. But there was still the other guard.

    Maybe you can shoot Slinky instead. Slinky was catching up to me, but he was just dumbly chasing me in a straight line.

    I began running even more to the left, to put Slinky in between me and Finlay. A couple of seconds of firing later, Slinky was spasming in place.

    ¡°Argh!¡± He cried out. ¡°Finlay, what are you doing you bastard?!¡± Aww, it didn¡¯t have as much of an effect on him.

    ¡°Get out of the way you dummy,¡± Finlay cried out. ¡°I¡¯m trying to shoot them.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m trying to hit them!¡± Slinky countered.

    The Finlay clone was about to respond when a twig crashed into him. He burst into pieces.

    ¡°Eh?¡± Slinky said.

    ¡°He was talking too much,¡± Myra said. ¡°Reminds me way too much of Calder.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what yar doing,¡± Slinky said as he charged Myra.

    Slinky was now taller than Myra and still growing faster. They kept trying to attack each other. Slinky launched punches, while Myra pierced him with her spikes. Myra¡¯s spikes started emerging from Slinky¡¯s scales, but Slinky didn¡¯t seem affected at all.

    I doubt the clay pellets would work, so what could I do? SpookyErind and Ento were still presumably coming to me, but they were still in that other warehouse.

    I took a glance at the Finlay clone corpse next to me. It was broken into several shards of clay. Its armor was cracked. I doubt throwing that would be any more useful. The electroshock gun was partially buried by the clay.

    Wait a minute, that¡¯s it! The electroshock gun was able to temporarily stun Slinky. I was pretty sure he even stopped growing. If I can stun him, then Myra can help kill him. Look at that, teamwork. Eww.

    I grabbed the electroshock rifle from the clay rubble. I¡¯ve never practiced shooting a gun before, so it can¡¯t be that hard right? Just aim and shoot.

    ¡°Barb, get away from Slinky!¡± I called out.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Myra said. It looked like she was eager to get out because of how big Slinky was.

    ¡°Take this you lizard bitch!¡±

    Ento was busy following SpookyErind. She just started going in random directions again. I was presuming she was heading towards the edge of the warehouse closest to where my main body was. Because otherwise, this would be pretty boring. And I don¡¯t think she likes boring things.

    Unless it was to mess with me of course.

    After a few minutes, I asked, ¡°So how long is it going to take to reach my main -¡±

    The sound of whirring filled the halls. Drones?

    Several drones appeared in front of us. Unlike the normal gun drones, these drones had those scary-looking sci-fi electroshock guns. A couple of them seemed to also have way bigger guns.

    SpookyErind got on all fours and growled. Wait a minute, where was Ento going to go? She wasn¡¯t immune to bullets. I had to walk under SpookyErind to get behind her.

    The drones started launching a maelstrom of electroshock bullets and even bigger energy bullets at SpookyErind. She growled again as if she wasn¡¯t scared. Pain and shock filled her body as the drones hit her. But soon, rage filled her body. I could feel the vitriol and hatred towards the drones. How does she manage to control the rage so easily?

    But suddenly, I heard more whirring behind me. The fuck? Why are there more drones?

    Some of the normal drones appeared, along with electroshock ones behind Ento and SpookyErind. Fuck. Ento had nowhere to hide.

    Was she really going to feel so much pain again? I didn¡¯t want that to happen after what happened with Acid Guy.

    SpookyErind bent her joints so she was closer to the ground. But there was still a bit of space for Ento to sneak under. I had her dive under SpookyErind. Bullets from the back hit SpookyErind.

    Whoever was controlling these drones was a big idiot. They were just causing SpookyErind to grow. But SpookyErind stayed in place. She couldn¡¯t attack otherwise Ento would get hurt.

    SpookyErind turned her head to the right. Huh? What was she looking at? Through her peripheral vision, I could see a door to her right. Is that where she wanted me to go? So Ento would be safe and she could get rid of the drones?

    I had Ento charge towards the door and crash into it. Thankfully, Ento had superstrength and the door just popped off its hinges inward. It looked like she was in some kind of janitor¡¯s room. A giant mop and some cleaning supplies were next to her. A couple of shelves were also in the room. I had Ento go behind those.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    SpookyErind began charging the drones in front of her. They tried moving back, but SpookyErind was too strong. She swiped at some of them with her claws. They easily came apart as if SpookyErind was ripping pieces of paper. SpookyErind was also being fired at by the drones at the back, but she ignored them for now.

    Each time the bullets hit, her rage increased, and she used this rage to push forward toward the drones in front of her. Her muscles had gotten even stronger. With longer claws and faster speed, SpookyErind made quick work of the drones in front of her.

    Suddenly, the whirring got louder next to Ento. Were those fuckers trying to come into the closet with me? That sounded wrong.

    Ento still had the slow reformation problem for her syringes. She wouldn¡¯t be able to deal with the drones quickly enough. It sounded like a bunch of them were trying to come in here. It was like a swarm of angry bees.

    Back when I was a kid, a self-studying entomologist, I had tried to capture some bees once. I figured they¡¯d be no different from the flies, mosquitoes, and dragonflies I¡¯ve captured. Oh, how wrong I was. They stung me so hard, it actually caused me to tear up. And I didn¡¯t usually cry as a kid.

    Mom had to comfort me. This was before she found out I was experimenting with insects. I don¡¯t think she was as helpful as she thought, but she did manage to get rid of the bees. I think she used some kind of spray. Sadly, I didn¡¯t have drone spray with me right now.

    This wouldn¡¯t solve all my problems since these drones could shoot bullets. Imagine if bees could shoot bullets. Humanity would probably be permanently cowering in caves.

    Anyways, even though Ento couldn¡¯t be constantly launching syringes, it didn¡¯t mean she couldn¡¯t be constantly launching stuff at the drones. This janitor¡¯s closet was full of stuff to throw.

    First, I¡¯ll use my syringes. I took out all three syringes from Ento¡¯s pocket and prepared to throw them. Peeking out of the left corner, I could see the edges of some drones. I launched my syringes at them and the sound of metal tearing filled the room. Nice. SpookyErind was busy dealing with the drones in front of her, and I could slowly take out the drones attacking Ento.

    I had Ento grab some small towels to pelt at the drones. I took another peak, this time from the right corner, and saw some drones pointing their guns to the left. I threw the towels at them. Even though they were soft towels, they went so fast through the air that I could hear a tearing sound when they crashed.

    This was too easy.

    Suddenly, the sound of bullets filled the room. Fuck. The drones outside were probably just spraying everywhere in the janitor¡¯s closet.

    A couple of bullets breached the shelf Ento was hiding behind. They hit Ento. The bullets hurt a bit, but not as much as the electroshock bullets. Her body began to spasm and collapse on the floor. Ow. Why is poor Ento always getting hurt?

    SpookyErind finished the drones in front of her and immediately charged back toward the janitor¡¯s closet. The drones were still spraying the room with bullets. Thankfully, they hadn¡¯t figured out that Ento collapsed because of the shelves. As SpookyErind was closing in on them, the drones started attacking her instead.

    But by the time they started firing, SpookyErind was already swiping at them with her claws. She even bit a drone to chew it up. Eww. This tastes disgusting. She spat it out.

    Eventually, all the drones were pieces of scrap on the ground. I couldn¡¯t move Ento still. Those electroshock bullets really did fuck her up.

    SpookyErind was too big to fit in the door, but she walked into the wall, and it easily gave way to her as if it was a sand castle that she was stepping over. She looked down on Ento¡¯s body. I tried moving her limbs, but they barely twitched. Hopefully, she would be back up soon.

    SpookyErind grabbed Ento¡¯s limp body with her clawed fingers. I was scared she was going to pierce her skin, but somehow SpookyErind was very gentle. She put Ento on her back.

    ¡°Roargh,¡± she growled out. I had no idea what she was saying. But at least Ento was safe.

    Was this the second time SpookyErind had saved me during this mission? Maybe I should give her a medal.

    ¡°Groaar,¡± she lightly growled. She gave out what sounded like a giggle afterward. I couldn¡¯t really tell well.

    But I truly was appreciative of her. I liked it when others did things for me automatically. Many people do things for others because they¡¯re kind or they love them. For me, I couldn¡¯t really feel any of that, and I didn¡¯t have any morals either. But I did value myself. And so other people helping me out is good. If only they weren¡¯t so annoying.

    Maybe I¡¯ll say thank you to her again afterward? Rewarding her for good behavior. Kind of like how people take their cars to get repaired. You want the car to keep working and doing good things, so you make sure it¡¯s in good shape. That was my view of other people that helped me.

    Okay, okay, some people might get upset if I compared them to inanimate objects, but I couldn¡¯t really care what they think. They couldn¡¯t even read my mind either. Although, SpookyErind did. Would she get mad if I thought of her as a car? It¡¯s not like I could really control my thoughts around her anyways.

    SpookyErind did one of those giggle growls again. I guess she¡¯s fine with it? At least she wasn¡¯t messing with me. How could I incentivize her to do that less?

    SpookyErind walked over to the metal corpses of the drones. Also, where the fuck did all these drones come from. Didn¡¯t SpookyErind freeze a lot of them?

    Wait a minute, SpookyErind was currently in her Red Hood form. Does that mean the time bubble no longer exists? So all the drones came after us after they became unfrozen. I hope there weren¡¯t any more drones left. If there were, I was going to start accusing the 2M¡¯s of making drones out of thin air. Although, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if there was an Adumbrae that was doing that.

    I tried moving Ento again, and finally, I could move her limbs. SpookyErind growled and began charging toward the left. Woah! She was so fast, I had to grab onto her furs to make sure Ento didn¡¯t fall off.

    It was like I was riding a horse. Not that I¡¯ve ever ridden a horse. Wait a minute, I just compared SpookyErind to a car and a horse. At least a horse isn¡¯t an inanimate object. She didn¡¯t respond and kept charging.

    SpookyErind broke out of the wall of the warehouse. A couple of trucks were around us. One on the left, and one on the right. They had guns mounted in the back. They immediately started firing on SpookyErind. I threw my syringes at the gunner in the left truck while SpookyErind roared in rage.

    She charged the left truck and chewed the shrunken gunner. She rapidly began growing as she swallowed the sweet-tasting human.

    This is so fun. The humans were too busy shooting SpookyErind, so I was able to throw my syringes at them. SpookyErind grew faster and stronger since she ate the shrunken humans. The trucks tried driving away, but SpookyErind grabbed them with her claws.

    She began chewing on the front of the left truck. The taste of metal filled her mouth, soon joined by the salty and iron taste of flesh and blood. Thankfully, she didn¡¯t need to spit the metal out since some flesh was in the mix. She didn¡¯t grow as much though.

    She did the same to the other truck. It was kind of weird since Ento was on top of her and couldn¡¯t really see the car below her. It was like the horse she was on was grazing grass on the ground. Why am I still comparing SpookyErind to a horse?

    SpookyErind dropped the remains of the pickup trucks on the ground. It was kind of sad that my Red Hood form couldn¡¯t eat non-flesh stuff. It would be cool to see how much she could eat. Actually, since my Red Hood form just grew as soon as it swallowed flesh, what happened to the stuff she ate?

    It clearly didn¡¯t go to her stomach. Did it just get teleported somewhere? I guess I could ask SpookyErind later. Maybe it got dissolved instantly? And then that matter allowed her to grow? That didn¡¯t sound very scientific, but given it was superpowers, any bullshit could happen.

    I was still very thankful though for that bullshit. I¡¯d rather grow fast rather than wait for my food to digest. Back when Ento was still lying in pain, it took quite a few minutes for SpookyErind to digest Acid Guy¡¯s remains. Digesting and healing instantly would have been so helpful there.

    My main body fired multiple electroshock bullets at Slinky. Myra had thankfully gone away, although I think it would be pretty funny if she got shocked as well.

    ¡°Arggghh!¡± he screamed out. He spasmed. But he turned away from Myra and towards me. The fuck? Why isn¡¯t he stopping?

    He was still growing. Uh oh. Was the electroshock gun no longer effective on him? He was growing since Finlay last shot him accidentally. I fired some more shots, but it was like his scales were absorbing them.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill ya bitch!¡± he yelled. ¡°That fuckin¡¯ hurts!¡±

    He started charging at me. Fuck.

    SpookyErind was also charging now.  I had no idea where she was. Was she going to come and eat Slinky? Because that would be very helpful right now.

    I tried running away, but Slinky punched me in the stomach. He¡¯s so fucking fast. I was sent flying toward the wall. My body crashed as I felt multiple bones break. I began coughing. Is that blood coming out of my mouth?

    Fuck. That hurt so much.

    ¡°Synchron!¡± Myra called out.

    I got up and saw Myra pelting Slinky with some twigs, but that didn¡¯t do anything. He was still too focused on me.

    Slinky ran up to me and grabbed my neck with his scaly sledgehammer hands.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to make ya fuckin pay for that,¡± he growled at me. His head had grown a lizard-like snout.

    I gasped as my neck was being squeezed. No. I tried kicking and punching him, but he was too strong.

    He increased the pressure on my neck, and I was pretty sure I could hear some bones cracking. Was this it? I was going to fucking die to this stupid lizard thing.

    My vision started getting fuzzy as my windpipe collapsed.

    SpookyErind broke into another warehouse and continued charging in one direction. She broke through several rooms before getting to the one my main body was in.

    ¡°What the?¡± Slinky said, releasing some pressure on me. I still found it very hard to breathe. Please heal faster.

    SpookyErind charged him as my main body¡¯s consciousness began blacking out.

 2.19 - Amber Deen Leska

    Amber Deen Leska

    Deen punched the pitch-black panel with all her might.

    The bright red outline of the panel and the walls showed that she didn¡¯t even make a dent.

    All these superpowers, and she couldn¡¯t even help protect her team.

    Suddenly, Deen no longer felt nauseous. That either meant two things. Dario went forward far enough to be out of range of Deen. Or Dario got shot in the head. Hopefully, it was the former.

    Deen couldn¡¯t fathom the possibility of any of her teammates dying. Why didn¡¯t her Guardian Angel just leave her with her teammates? Why did it tell her to back up into this hallway?

    Deen stared at the ball of feathers floating to her side. It said nothing to her.

    ¡°Please tell me how I can save my friends,¡± she begged. ¡°Please.¡±

    Silence filled the hall.

    Ugh. What should she do? Her Guardian Angel only seemed to care about her safety. Not the safety of her teammates. It also didn¡¯t listen to her commands at all.

    Standing here wouldn¡¯t accomplish anything. She wasn¡¯t strong enough to break through whatever material this was. The only option left was to keep moving down the left hallway.

    Hopefully, her teammates would be alright.

    Dario and Everett were together with Blubber. Hopefully, Dario¡¯s nausea field would make it hard to shoot them, and Everett could deal with any enemy at range. Blubber would also be useful for taking down any of the 2M¡¯s soldiers. They must be still alive.

    Then, there was Myra and her best friend Erind. Those two were the strongest members of their team. Both of them were pretty resistant to bullets. But only Myra could survive electroshock bullets. Hopefully, Myra could protect Erind.

    Protect. That¡¯s what heroes do. And Deen couldn¡¯t do any of that right now. Right now, the only thing she could do is hope and run. Deen preferred running.

    Deen chose powers so she could actually make a difference in the world. Hoping wouldn¡¯t make a difference. She started sprinting down the hall. There had to be an exit out of here right?

    She would find it and help save her teammates. And kill whatever Adumbrae separated them.

    It was pretty surreal. She was actually going to fight Adumbrae this time.

    Minutes ticked by as Deen entered different hallways. All coated in this weird pitch-black stuff with glowing red edges.

    How much of the 2M¡¯s base is covered in this stuff? There had to be an end right? Thankfully, Deen could keep running and not feel tired.

    More minutes passed and Deen was starting to become tired of this. Was this infinite? No. It couldn¡¯t be. She¡¯d make it out-

    [Duck and slide.]

    Huh? Was something going to hit her from the ceiling? The current hallway led into a large doorless room.

    But Deen complied. The sound of gunfire echoed. Huh? Were bullets being teleported into the room? Deen couldn¡¯t see where they were coming from as she slid under them.

    [Leap forward to the left.]

    Deen leaped and saw that the bullets were starting to go downwards to where she originally was. But the bullets were just appearing out of thin air. Huh?

    Suddenly, Deen crashed into something. Ouch.

    ¡°Aggh!¡± a male voice cried out. Deen looked under herself and a thin man was under her. He had a pasty complexion. Pieces of clay were also around her. Clay illusions?

    [Put him in front of you and back up into the corner.]

    Deen immediately got up and hoisted the man in front of her as if he was a shield.

    Around Deen, clay soldiers were on the sides of the room with weapons pointed at them. So this guy could make clay clones and turn them invisible. But does that mean he needs to concentrate to keep them invisible?

    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot!¡± the man cried out.

    ¡°How did she even know where you were?¡± one of the clay soldiers said. Why is he arguing with himself? Wait a minute. That must mean these are different Adumbrae, right? One makes the clay clones. And one keeps them invisible.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± he said. ¡°You were supposed to shoot him!¡±

    While these two were bickering, Deen wondered how she was supposed to get out of this situation. All of the clay soldiers were aiming at the corner she was at. Of course, they wouldn¡¯t shoot her with the illusionist Adumbrae in front of her. But it¡¯s not like Deen had anywhere she could go.

    ¡°Hey mister,¡± the man in front of her said. ¡°The name¡¯s Calder. It would be a pleasure if you could let me go.¡±

    No way was Deen doing that.

    ¡°He¡¯s not Mister.¡± one of the clay soldiers said. Deen looked toward the sound of the voice and the same man was there instead of a clay clone. Huh? So was it the same Adumbrae after all? The clay clones did look like Calder. She had no idea what was going on.

    ¡°Oh right,¡± Calder said. ¡°He¡¯s over with Big Marcy.¡±

    ¡°Big Marcy?¡± Deen blurted out.

    ¡°Woah!¡± Calder said. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were a lady. A beautiful voice if I do say so myself. I was about to call you Sir, but instead, I¡¯ll call you Miss. Unless you want to give me your real name.¡±

    What was this guy talking about? Deen really just wanted to kill him right now. His smug attitude was making Deen¡¯s blood boil.

    [Don¡¯t kill him.]

    Don¡¯t kill him? Why? If Deen killed him then the clones would vanish right? Unless she was getting something wrong. Maybe there truly were two Adumbrae here? And the one that could make clay clones was just imitating Calder? That must be it.

    ¡°Ehh, no name?¡± Calder asked. ¡°But it did seem like you were interested in Big Marcy.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll let you go if you tell me where Big Marcy is,¡± she lied.

    ¡°Do you hear that Finlay?¡± Calder called out. ¡°Should I tell her where Big Marcy is?¡±

    Why was he so¡­ relaxed. It was as if he didn¡¯t feel like he was in danger.

    ¡°Nah,¡± Finlay said. ¡°Maybe we should introduce her to Isabel instead.¡±

    Who the hell is Isabel?

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°Would you mind meeting Isabel instead Miss?¡± Calder asked. ¡°Hey Finlay! Can you bring Isabel over here?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s dealing with some of the other bandits right now,¡± Finlay said. ¡°But sure, I¡¯ll call her over here.¡±

    This wasn¡¯t good. They were going to bring another Adumbrae over here. But there was good news. It sounded like her teammates were still alive. Deen didn¡¯t know if it was Dario and Everett, or Myra and Erind. Hopefully, both of them were still alive. Maybe they met up together and were giving the Adumbrae a tough time.

    Finlay disappeared and was replaced with a normal clay clone. Deen couldn¡¯t deal with more Adumbrae. She was already cornered.

    [Throw him at the soldiers on your right.]

    Deen chucked him at the soldiers.

    ¡°Agh!¡± Calder cried out.

    [Run forward and grab the rifle.]

    Deen sprinted toward where she crashed into Calder. On the ground was a rifle with blue neon-like lights. An electroshock rifle. Deen picked it up. A crash occurred. Calder must have collided with the clay clones.

    [Keep running. Shoot at clay soldiers.]

    Blue bolts emerged from the gun and rapidly dashed toward the clay soldiers. They tried shooting back at Deen, but her Guardian Angel quickly assisted her.

    [Move to the left.]

    Bullets passed by on her right.

    [Move to the right.]

    Bullets whizzed passed on her left.

    Eventually, Deen managed to clear the room full of clay clones. A pile of rubble laid at each of their bodies.

    Whew.

    Wait a minute, where was Calder? Deen looked around. He was nowhere to be seen. Did he make himself invisible again? Shoot. It seemed like he left.

    She may as well continue running towards her friends. Deen looked at her Guardian Angel, which continued rotating in the air next to her.

    On the opposite side of where she came in were two hallways. One on the left, and one on the right.

    [Go left.]

    Deen ran down the left hallway, still carrying the rifle in her hands. She may as well keep it just in case.

    [Stop. Turn around.]

    Deen stopped and nearly tripped over. She quickly regained her posture and looked behind her.

    ¡°Interesting, I thought you would have kept running,¡± a female voice said behind her. ¡°I was going to shoot you in the back if you did. Quite rude to skip our introduction.¡±

    The lady in front of her was wearing a trench coat and fedora matching the same material of the room. She was also carrying a sword and a pistol. Both of which were coated in that pitch-black stuff with a glowing red outline. Deen could also make it out traces of brown hair coming from behind her head.

    An introduction? Was she referring to when Finlay was going to bring Isabel over? That would mean she was Isabel. If Deen killed her, hopefully, the hallways and rooms would return to normal.

    ¡°Of course, what could I expect of vile vermin like you?¡± she asked. Should Deen shoot her now?

    [Shoot her.]

    Deen opened fire. But the lady quickly sunk through the floor. Huh? I guess that¡¯s how Finlay was planning on bringing her to me.

    [Turn around.]

    Deen swiveled and aimed her gun in front of her. Isabel emerged from the left wall.

    ¡°How rude of you,¡± she said.

    [Shoot her.]

    Deen pulled the trigger. But Isabel also pulled the trigger on her pistol.

    [Move to the left.]

    ¡°It looks like I need to teach you some lessons bandit,¡± Isabel said as she moved to the right to dodge Deen¡¯s bullets. She began charging Deen while firing at her.

    [Move Left. Backup.]

    Deen quickly got out of the bullet¡¯s way, while continuing to fire at Isabel. But Isabel closed the gap. She sliced at Deen with her sword.

    [Leap backward.]

    Deen jumped as the sword cut the barrel of her rifle. Damn. She couldn¡¯t shoot Isabel anymore.

    ¡°Hopefully, you¡¯ll die easier than your friends,¡± she said.

    Wait a minute. They can¡¯t be dead. No. Rage rose up inside of Deen. She wanted to kill this Adumbrae. But she couldn¡¯t really attack her.

    [Dodge to the left.]

    Isabel continued shooting at Deen and chasing her down with her sword. It was as if they were having an intricate dance down the hallway as Deen avoided getting cut or shot. Deen was reminded of Myra¡¯s lessons. Attack from afar, and evade. She was evading, but she couldn¡¯t really attack right now. Maybe she could pick up another rifle from one of the Finlay clones?

    [Throw rifle.]

    Deen threw her broken rifle at Isabel. It sailed through the air, only for Isabel to cut it with her sword. She was sent back a bit by the force of the shrapnel.

    ¡°Ugh.¡± Isabel groaned as her gun clicked. ¡°I don¡¯t understand why it¡¯s so difficult to kill you all.¡± She sank through the floor again. Did she need to reload?

    [Get the rifle.]

    Deen quickly picked up a rifle and went back down the same hallway. She was setback a bit. But she managed to survive against the Adumbrae. Sadly, she hadn¡¯t killed any of them. But that might change soon.

    She was worried Isabel or another Adumbrae would appear again. But she was just met with the silence of the hallways.

    As she turned a corner though, a door appeared. Yes! It wasn¡¯t coated in any of Isabel¡¯s stuff. Deen opened it and was greeted with normal objects again.

    ¡°Finally,¡± she muttered.

    In front of her was a hallway. A normal one. To her left was another door. The top of it was labeled ¡°Security¡±.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± she heard a male voice say. ¡°One of them¡¯s outside!¡±

    [Run past the door. Shoot the door.]

    Deen complied and quickly sprinted past the door while spraying it with electroshock bullets. She could hear gunfire on the opposite side as she past, but it quickly stopped.

    The door was now filled with holes as if somebody stabbed it with a toothpick many times.

    They should be dead right? Deen kind of wanted to see them. They were probably human given how quickly they seemed to have died. Even though Deen shot them, she wanted to at least see the room. Maybe it had a camera system she could use.

    [Keep going.]

    Huh? Why not go inside? She may as well check it out. Sometimes her Guardian Angel wouldn¡¯t speak to her, so Deen may as well take the initiative and figure it out herself. It originally didn¡¯t say anything when she was separated from her team. While it did protect her, it seemed to not like conflict at all. But it wasn¡¯t like these guys were alive right?

    Deen pushed open the door using some superstrength, and it easily fell over. She looked at her Guardian Angel. It didn¡¯t say anything, although, Deen imagined it would frown if it could.

    Whatever. It probably didn¡¯t want her getting into any more danger by getting the camera info. She would head toward her teammates rather than escape. And her Guardian Angel didn¡¯t want that. It wanted her safe from danger. But danger was part of being a Corebring. She needed to confront it if she wanted to stop the Adumbrae.

    Inside the room, two corpses were splayed across the ground. Deen didn¡¯t like looking at them. She was a killer. She shouldn¡¯t dwell on it. She already got some nightmares when she killed those guys trying to rob Erind.

    On the right side of the room were four computer monitors, each displaying different rooms. It was kind of hard to tell what was going on from afar.

    [Turn back.]

    ¡°I know you want to keep me safe,¡± Deen said. ¡°But I need to help my friends out. You know this. And you can¡¯t stop me.¡±

    She sat on the leather chair. Thankfully, she didn¡¯t have to log in. Deen had a feeling her Guardian Angel wouldn¡¯t tell her the password.

    Where are you guys? None of the screens in front of her showed anything of interest. Just soldiers patrolling. Each monitor had a little minimap in the corner, with a building name above it. She wasn¡¯t sure what building they were in. But Deen began clicking around. She¡¯d find where her teammates were eventually. At least the cameras were high quality. And Deen could also rotate and zoom in.

    Eventually, Deen pulled up a room with mutants in giant tubes. There were quite a few of them. And some of the mutants looked really threatening. But what interested Deen more were the two people in the middle of the room. One of them was Ento, Erind¡¯s scientist kid clone.

    The other was a lady with a red hood with animal ears and an animal mask. She wore a crop top and cargo shorts. It seemed like Ento was talking to her. Why was she doing that? Why was she talking to this Adumbrae?

    Wait a minute. Something clicked in Deen¡¯s mind. Didn¡¯t Erind say some kind of superpowered supermodel saved her at the Sanders Mall? This lady fit that description.

    Why was she here though? She was fighting the 2M¡¯s right? That was why she saved Erind.

    Suddenly, the mutants in the room got released. This wasn¡¯t good. The monsters began attacking the lady. But Ento threw her syringes at one of the mutants. It started¡­ shrinking. And the lady began growing. She grabbed the shrunken mutant and¡­ ate it. It was a gruesome sight. Suddenly, the lady exploded in growth.

    Some of the mutants tried attacking Ento, but the lady defended her. Deen was jealous. She wanted to be the one to protect Erind. But she was glad that someone else was there for her.

    The lady continued eating the mutants. She got bigger and bigger. Red fur started emerging from her body. Hold up.

    She was the giant werewolves too?

    Deen wasn¡¯t sure why this Adumbrae was fighting the 2M¡¯s. But things were sort of coming together. Also, that¡¯s the third superpowered person with cloning abilities she¡¯s seen. Deen wished she could make clones of herself. Then she could be with all of her teammates.

    Deen would have to ask Erind about all this later. She wanted to know why she was working with the Lady. Did she come to her first, or did they just run into each other?

    A sinking feeling arose in Deen¡¯s stomach. What if Erind and that lady had been working together for a while?

    Erind initially mentioned that she went outside at night and eavesdropped on some 2M¡¯s. Deen didn¡¯t mention it earlier, but she was notified by her security system that motion was detected on the camera watching Erind¡¯s window. Deen didn¡¯t ask where Erind was, but she was very concerned. One of the cameras caught her leaving.

    Deen was glad that Erind eventually revealed the truth. But what if that wasn¡¯t the truth? Why would Erind go outside? She wasn¡¯t an extroverted person at all and seemed to want to stay at home. Deen had tried getting her to go out to dinner many times with no success.

    What if the truth was Erind had been working with this supermodel lady and that¡¯s how she learned of Eloycira?

    A gnawing sensation hit Deen¡¯s shoulder as she pondered if her best friend was keeping secrets from her.

 2.20

    What would it be like to have a camera watching you while you sleep? It¡¯d be pretty creepy I¡¯d imagine. I could see my limp body from both SpookyErind¡¯s and Ento¡¯s eyes. I hope I¡¯m not actually dead. Although, since my other clones are still around, I¡¯ll assume my main body barely survived.

    Barely. Wasn¡¯t it crazy that I was both a Corebring and an Adumbrae, yet I was being outmatched by several of the Adumbrae in the 2M¡¯s. Was my power weak? This wasn¡¯t fair. I should easily be beating these guys up.

    Maybe I really should have brought SpookyErind and Ento earlier. But I did really want to collect those mutants. Was it worth it? Not sure. I did know that I didn¡¯t like my main body being knocked out.

    SpookyErind charged Slinky while Ento threw syringes at him. They made a little clink as they bounced off his scales. What the fuck? That¡¯s not fair. Did the 2M¡¯s send all the Adumbrae that could beat me here? At least I still had SpookyErind. I¡¯d never thought I¡¯d say those words.

    ¡°Come fight me ya furball!¡± Slinky called out, dropping my body to the floor. Hey! Be careful with that!

    He charged SpookyErind and held his sledgehammer hands up high. SpookyErind sprinted so fast on all fours that Ento was having trouble staying on.

    Slinky brought down his hands on SpookyErind. But she opened her mouth and grabbed his left arm. Chomp!

    ¡°Fuck!¡± Slinky cried out, jumping back. His left arm was now just a stump. Wait a minute. It was no longer protected by scales. I had Ento throw all three syringes at Slinky¡¯s arm.

    ¡°Agh!¡± He cried out. ¡°Ya fuckers will pay for that.¡± Even though he was injected with the syringes, he was still growing. It seemed to slow down a bit. But he began charging SpookyErind again. His left arm was slowly healing.

    SpookyErind galloped towards him. I really wanted to kill this lizard bitch. Technically, it would be SpookyErind doing the killing, but since she was using my clone, I¡¯ll say it would be my kill.

    SpookyErind opened her massive jaws, ready to chomp on Slinky¡¯s other arm. But Slinky jumped back a bit and sent a kick at SpookyErind.

    SpookyErind and Ento went flying through the air. Ento couldn¡¯t hold on and ended up falling off. Shit, was Ento also going to be knocked out?

    Something soft caught Ento in the air. I almost wanted to thrash around. But, I had her look around and saw that vines had surrounded her. Myra slowly put Ento down as SpookyErind collided with the wall.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what the fuck¡¯s going on,¡± Myra said, looking at SpookyErind¡¯s giant werewolf body. ¡°But hopefully we can kill Slinky.¡±

    I had Ento nod. Wasn¡¯t it ironic how Myra was saving me now? She protected Ento but for whatever reason attacked me at the mall. However, none of this would make up for the fact that she bothered me. Still, I had bigger problems right now.

    Mainly the 2M¡¯s. And more immediately, Slinky.

    ¡°Hey, can you pick me up,¡± I had Ento say. ¡°Since you¡¯re probably faster than her, I could throw syringes while evading Slinky.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± Myra said, using her vines to lift me up. Since I was just touching Myra¡¯s vines, I didn¡¯t get any feelings of revulsion. ¡°I¡¯ve never tried this before. Does this work?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. ¡°Just make sure I don¡¯t fall off.¡± That would suck.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Myra said, making sure her vines firmly gripped Ento.

    Slinky was currently charging SpookyErind again. SpookyErind grew a bit from the attack, but Slinky was still growing at a slow and steady pace. Slinky managed to keep kicking SpookyErind away. That fucker hits like a truck. Not that I¡¯ve ever been hit by a truck.

    The issue was Slinky was still growing. It was like when we were fighting Miss Statue Lady. She kept growing while my Red Hood form could only grow by getting hurt or eating. But now, I could stop Slinky¡¯s growth.

    ¡°Try to give me an opening at Slinky¡¯s bleeding arm,¡± I told Myra.

    ¡°On it,¡± she said. SpookyErind and Slinky kept charging each other. Myra went to the edge of the room on the side of SpookyErind. As Slinky went to kick SpookyErind again, I launched another trio of syringes.

    They collided as he kicked SpookyErind again. Unfortunately, since our senses were linked, I could feel Slinky¡¯s kick against SpookyErind. I also felt SpookyErind¡¯s bones cracking as she collided with another wall. It was surprising it even held up at this point. Rage swelled up in her body as her bones regrew and got stronger.

    ¡°You little twerp!¡± Slinky cried out. ¡°I¡¯ll fuckin¡¯ kill ya!¡± He started charging Myra and Ento. This wasn¡¯t good. Myra had tried growing, but she was nowhere near the height of Slinky. At least it seemed like he stopped growing, and some of his movements seemed off. Hopefully, the spider and bee syringes would cause enough pain and drowsiness to stop him. But he kept charging at us even though Myra tried her best to run away.

    SpookyErind also ran on all fours to chase Slinky, but she was too far away. She had to heal up first before she could even begin dashing towards him.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    I could feel Ento¡¯s heart beating faster. The giant lizard bitch running towards her was catching up. And she couldn¡¯t even do anything. She was stuck being attached to Myra¡¯s vines floating in the air. At least Myra had the decency to put herself in front of Ento.

    This was another situation where I couldn¡¯t do anything. Ento¡¯s syringes were still regenerating. SpookyErind was too far behind and Myra was too fucking slow. My main body was currently sleeping on the floor.

    Slinky¡¯s sledgehammer hand collided with Myra¡¯s barky back. We got sent flying in the air. Myra still held onto Ento, but moved her behind herself. Myra tried flinging Ento backward a bit. At least Ento wouldn¡¯t collide with the wall.

    Ento¡¯s body crashed into the ground instead. Ow. Another crash sound occurred. I think some of Ento¡¯s bones were broken. She had trouble getting up. And she didn¡¯t heal as fast as SpookyErind¡¯s Red Hood form. Fuck.

    Meanwhile, SpookyErind grabbed Slinky¡¯s other arm with her giant snout. Chomp. A taste of sweetness entered her mouth. She swallowed quickly and bit down on his shoulder.

    ¡°Get off me ya furry bitch!¡± Slinky yelled while kicking her. But her grip was strong. And soon, began quickly growing fast. Slinky kept trying to kick her as SpookyErind munched on another part of him. The sweet scales and blood that entered her mouth were quickly swallowed. Her rage continued to grow as Slinky kept hurting her. But now, she was growing faster. She ended up biting his reptilian head and the kicks stopped. She gulped his head down.

    Those same surges of energy appeared. I could feel one stream making Ento¡¯s and SpookyErind¡¯s body stronger, while the other stream made us heal faster for a brief moment. This happened after SpookyErind ate Acid Guy. Ento was being brewed in pain, and all of it went away. Wow, the ant syringe really was useful.

    I still couldn¡¯t feel anything out of my main body though. It better not be comatose forever. The fuck was I going to do then?

    I had Ento get up from the floor since her bones all healed up now. Myra walked up to her as SpookyErind began charging back the way she originally came.

    That just left my limp body, Slinky¡¯s headless corpse, Myra, and Ento.

    Myra walked up to Ento and asked, ¡°Are you alright?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but I can¡¯t feel anything from my main body,¡± I had Ento tell her.

    Myra grew some vines and sent them over to my main body. For a brief moment, I thought she was going to pierce my body with skewers. But she gently lifted it up and brought it over. I was about to try and stab her with Ento. But I¡¯m not sure her syringes could go through Myra¡¯s bark.

    Why was I concerned that she was going to attack me? Maybe this place was just giving me bad vibes. I wasn¡¯t having a good time here at all. Maybe I should just ask if we could leave.

    ¡°We should try finding the others,¡± Myra said, carefully carrying my body on her back. She used some vines to hold it in place.

    ¡°Yeah, good idea,¡± I had Ento say. Hopefully, all the 2M¡¯s would be weaker after this. I hope none of them were as strong as Slinky. SpookyErind was running off somewhere, and I didn¡¯t know why. I kind of preferred her with me to protect my main body.

    But that has to mean something right? I wouldn¡¯t be in danger. She said time worked differently for her, and she seemed to be able to tell the future somewhat. If she left me, then would that mean my main body would be safe? I hope so.

    ¡°Umm, which way should we go?¡± I had Ento ask.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Myra replied. ¡°Let¡¯s just go left.¡± Great. We have no idea where we¡¯re going.

    These are some really long hallways. What if our teammates were dead? I guess that would be pretty funny. Myra and I would be the only survivors. It¡¯d be fun to see her reaction. And I¡¯d get Deen¡¯s house all to myself. At least until someone would come to check in on her.

    ¡°So, why were you riding that giant werewolf Adumbrae?¡± Myra asked.

    Fuck. I knew I would have to answer that question eventually.

    ¡°So Ento and my other clone were fighting some of the 2M¡¯s in one of the other warehouses,¡± I had Ento say in a somber tone. ¡°We were doing quite well, but suddenly the 2M¡¯s unleashed a horde of mutants and drones on us. I thought both of my clones were going to die. My other one got knocked out.¡±

    Myra stared at Ento. Unlike when I told the story of Red Hood saving me from the Sanders mall, I couldn¡¯t really gauge her facial expressions with all her bark covering her. I just had to hope she would buy what I was selling.

    Still, I had some tools to craft a good story. First, just like before, divert. Make it a sob story like I did with the Sanders Mall story. Unfortunately, Myra was a bitch last time and suspected something foul with Red Hood. So she kept pestering me to get to the point. But now, I was a Corebring, so she shouldn¡¯t have as much to be suspicious about. Well, I guess it did seem I was working with an Adumbrae. But I can do something similar to my Sanders Mall story.

    ¡°Uh, so where does the giant werewolf Adumbrae come in?¡± Myra asked. Wait you impatient fuck. I was getting to that.

    ¡°Like I said, my other clone got beat up by some of the mutants, but suddenly, I heard a giant crash in the room we were in,¡± I explained. ¡°A giant furry creature comes out and starts attacking the mutants.¡±

    ¡°So it just rammed through one of the walls?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I had Ento say, her voice quivering. ¡°I tried moving my other clone out while they were fighting, but suddenly the fighting stopped. I had Ento look up and the giant werewolf Adumbrae was in front of me. I thought it was going to eat me - I saw what it did to those helicopters on TV.¡±

    ¡°But clearly it didn¡¯t attack you,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°No, but it grabbed me,¡± I had Ento point at herself. ¡°I thought it was going to chomp on me with its giant teeth. But instead-¡±

    ¡°It put you on its back?¡± Myra cut me off. Fucking bitch. Don¡¯t interrupt me.

    ¡°Yeah, it was pretty crazy,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s the 2nd time an Adumbrae has come to save me, and I don¡¯t know why.¡±

    ¡°Me too,¡± Myra said. I still couldn¡¯t read her. How annoying. But she didn¡¯t sound as aggressive when I met her at Deen¡¯s house. Still, she was being an impatient bitch. So let¡¯s make her feel a bit guilty.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad they did save me though,¡± I said. ¡°If they didn¡¯t, then I might have died to that Skewer guy at the Sanders Mall.¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­ yeah,¡± Myra stuttered.

    ¡°Anyways, where do you think that guy went?¡± I asked. ¡°He attacked us so he¡¯s probably part of the 2M¡¯s. Maybe he even took Kelsey!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡­¡± Myra¡¯s voice quivered. I internally smirked. She couldn¡¯t refute any of my claims otherwise she¡¯d reveal herself as our attacker. Of course, I knew she wasn¡¯t part of the 2M¡¯s - she was just a dumb bitch with superpowers. I should tone it down though. Save some of this for when I punish her later. I wasn¡¯t really mad at her now - it was hard to keep emotions like that for long. But I did have Rules to follow.

    ¡°How do you think our teammates are doing?¡± I asked. It''s best to go onto a new topic so Myra isn¡¯t wallowing in sadness.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure they¡¯re fine,¡± Myra said. ¡°They wouldn¡¯t die that easily. Deen¡¯s with them too, so her Guardian Angel can help out. Hopefully, we can find them soon.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I-¡± I said as the sound of gunfire filled the halls.

    I was prepared to move, but nothing shot at us. Was it in another room then?

    ¡°That¡¯s probably our teammates - let¡¯s go!¡± Myra yelled as she grabbed Ento with one of her vines.

 2.21

    Myra charged into another room, rushing past the door, which went flying off its hinges. She was probably around ten to twelve feet now. A giant monster of bark breaking into a room.

    We were in another giant room. Both human and clay soldiers were at the opposite side of the room, shooting towards our left, where a pile of giant crates was. I could see our teammates behind them.

    Speaking of crates, this room was full of them. Also barrels too. Why were the other rooms that we were in so empty? Most of the stuff was covered in that hard light stuff that Isabel made. And I guess they didn¡¯t want us throwing stuff either. Wow. They were so much more prepared this time.

    That meant I was pretty lucky to be trapped with Myra. If any of the other teammates were with me, I might not be alive right now. Even though she couldn¡¯t shoot skewers, she could still send me twigs to throw.

    I wasn¡¯t happy to rely on others though. It made me really uncomfortable. Especially, when I didn¡¯t plan for it to happen. That happened a lot with group projects. Back in high school, I had to do a presentation with a couple of other girls for English. We had a set of shared presentation slides and one of the girls didn¡¯t finish her slides. I stayed awake constantly emailing her. And I had to do it in the nicest way possible so as not to break Rule #7.

    She finally responded at 5 AM and finished her part. I lost so much sleep that night. If it was just me, I would have done it the day before to not worry about it.

    It really sucked because she was one of my fellow cheerleaders. We somehow got paired up so much during high school. I never told her my grades, but I bet she thought I was nerdy enough that I could do a lot of the work for her. Unfortunately for her, I wasn¡¯t going to do her work. Still, it sucked that I was grouped up with her a lot.

    And now there¡¯s Myra, the tree bitch that tried to attack me. I guess she was a lot better compared to some of the other people I worked with. She¡¯s actually useful to me. Without her training, I might have died. And her superpowers did turn out to be useful when she was on my side.

    Myra grabbed a barrel and hurled it over to the middle of the clay and human soldiers. I had Ento do the same. Our barrels crashed into the 2M¡¯s firing line, causing the clay soldiers to break apart and the human soldiers to get crushed.

    They started yelling something, and I couldn¡¯t make out what it was. What I could make out was that they were now targeting us. They started unleashing a hailstorm of electroshock bullets toward us. I quickly had Ento hide behind Myra. Some of the bullets went passed us on the side, while I could hear some of them colliding with Myra¡¯s bark.

    My main body was above Ento right now. I hope she didn¡¯t do anything stupid and charge the 2M¡¯s. My main body wasn¡¯t immune to electroshock bullets.

    Maybe I could ask Myra to grow some of her bark over me? Eww. Never mind, that sounds disgusting. I¡¯d only do that if it¡¯s a last resort.

    BOOM!

    What the fuck? Did they have like a fucking tank in here?

    ¡°Woohoo!¡± Myra cheered. ¡°Good job Everett!¡±

    ¡°Everett?¡± I had Ento ask. ¡°Wait a minute, shouldn¡¯t we be using codenames?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re all dead though,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I had Ento peek her head out. A huge fire was on the opposite side of the room. Some of the wall was also gone. The fire was obscuring the corpses of the clay and human soldiers. Although, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the humans got burnt to a crisp. Does clay also get burnt to a crisp?

    Myra started walking towards our team. I had Ento follow her.

    ¡°I¡¯m so glad you guys are all alright,¡± she said.

    ¡°I¡¯m feeling kinda tired,¡± Everett said, panting. His dark clothes were full of bullet holes. So were Dario¡¯s.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry man,¡± Dario said. ¡°We¡¯ll be out of this soon.¡± He couldn¡¯t know the future, right? So he had no idea when we would be out of this. Or maybe he was just trying to be optimistic?

    It¡¯s kind of hard to describe my experience during this mission. It¡¯s been sort of fun and sort of upsetting. I¡¯d rather not have my life be in danger, but I did enjoy using my powers. Now it was more like SpookyErind was the one using her powers since Ento was kinda useless against large amounts of enemies without any support. And my main body was busy being unconscious. When the fuck am I going to wake up?

    ¡°Erind!¡± Deen called out. She ran up and picked Ento up into a hug. I resisted the urge to kick her in the stomach. Just because Ento was small didn¡¯t mean Deen had the right to pick her up. In fact, she should stay at least 10 feet away. The farther, the better.

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°What happened?¡± Deen asked, looking at all the blood and bullet-torn clothes on Ento¡¯s body.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I had Ento say. ¡°Ento¡¯s all healed up now.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not though,¡± Deen muttered. ¡°And where¡¯s your main body and other clone?¡±

    ¡°Umm, my main body got knocked out,¡± I said.

    ¡°Knocked out?!¡± Deen cried out.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Myra said. ¡°I have her main body safely secured.¡± She turned around and showed Deen my main body. Some of the vines constricting it had grown a bit thicker around her. One of the vines went around my neck. It reminded me of boa constrictors.

    I once had a giant boa constrictor around my neck once. It was actually pretty cool. Our local library brought a zoologist over and he showcased it. Mom dragged me over even though I didn¡¯t want to go. I sat in the back, hoping no one would talk to me. But it turned out the zoologist called me out for a demonstration. I was really upset at first, but it was kind of cool to have the snake around my neck. It was pretty docile.

    I asked Mom if I could keep it. This was after she found out about my insect habits. She said she was more afraid of the snake¡¯s life than mine. To be fair, I didn¡¯t intend to kill the snake. I wanted to see how I could get it to kill other creatures. Maybe I might have killed it if I got bored, although, I¡¯m not sure if my young self would have been able to do that.

    ¡°What happened?!¡± Deen panicked again.

    ¡°We ended up fighting Slinky, one of the 2M¡¯s Adumbrae,¡± Myra said. ¡°I tried to save Erind, but Slinky was way too strong and knocked her out.¡±

    ¡°Wait, then you escaped with Erind?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Well¡­ eventually,¡± Myra replied. A moment of silence passed. I guess no one wanted to talk more about this.

    ¡°Where¡¯s your other clone?¡± Deen asked me.

    ¡°It¡¯s still in another warehouse,¡± I said. ¡°She and Ento got separated.¡±

    ¡°Separated?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, not elaborating further.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯ll search for you on Snippet,¡± she told me as she pulled out her phone. It was in pristine condition like the rest of her body and clothes. I bet my phone was probably broken since I crashed into a wall.

    ¡°Umm, I can¡¯t find you anywhere Erind,¡± she said.

    ¡°Well, my other clone got shot a lot, so maybe some of the bullets damaged her phone,¡± I replied. It was probably technically true. But I couldn¡¯t reveal to them that SpookyErind was currently a giant werewolf charging through the 2M¡¯s base. ¡°And my main body got thrown against a wall.¡±

    ¡°Against a wall?¡± Deen said. I was tempted to throw Deen at the wall if she didn¡¯t put Ento down. ¡°Oh my god Erind. I¡¯m so sorry I wasn¡¯t there for you.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine Deen,¡± I said. ¡°You can¡¯t be in multiple places at once. I should have resummoned my clones to my main body to protect me.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t blame yourself,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said. She held me for some more moments. I could smell the smoke in the air. Should we get out of here?

    ¡°Umm, so how did Ento get to Myra?¡± she asked. Fuck.

    ¡°So the giant werewolf Adumbrae from the docks showed up here,¡± I said. I didn¡¯t want to bring it up - it could lead to so many holes in my story. But I couldn¡¯t just fabricate it completely since Myra was with me.

    ¡°It did?!¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Myra said. ¡°It was just so bizarre.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure why she decided to help me,¡± I had Ento say. ¡°But I¡¯m glad it did help out. It brought Ento with her as she charged through the base and eventually killed Slinky.¡±

    ¡°Another Adumbrae came and saved you?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°I know,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s crazy.¡± What¡¯s even crazier was that it was technically me and SpookyErind that had ¡°saved¡± me!

    ¡°Maybe there¡¯s some sort of civil war going on with the Adumbrae?¡± I suggested.

    ¡°Not sure about that,¡± Dario said. ¡°But it¡¯s definitely weird. At least you¡¯re alive though.¡±

    ¡°I wonder if the Professor has any information on them?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to ask,¡± Dario told her. At least they didn¡¯t expect anything fishy with me. Besides, I don¡¯t think there was enough information left behind for them to glean anything useful about Red Hood.

    ¡°We should probably go to another room,¡± I said. Everyone nodded and we headed out.

    As we traveled down one of the smokeless hallways, the others talked about what happened.

    ¡°I had thought Reo had died!¡± Everett cried out. ¡°Blubber was gone. I was down to my last energy bar.¡±

    ¡°Blubber was gone?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Oh, you guys probably got out of range of Reo.¡±

    ¡°Probably,¡± he said. ¡°But it was still scary. We managed to defeat the clay soldiers made by Finlay, and Blubber wasn¡¯t anywhere to be found.¡±

    ¡°Did you guys run into Isabel?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°No,¡± Everett said.

    ¡°Wait a minute, you¡¯re talking about the woman who was wearing clothes made out of the same stuff the rooms were coated in?¡± Dario asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°She appeared, but left after she got hit with my powers,¡± Dario said. Wow. Why was everyone¡¯s powers more useful than mine? I know I was more powerful with all my clones, but I really wished my main body could protect itself. Was this a sign that I shouldn¡¯t split up my clones?

    ¡°How about you Deen?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Yeah, I fought her, along with Calder and Finlay,¡± she said.

    ¡°All three at once?¡± I asked incredulously. Seriously, how strong was her power?

    ¡°No,¡± Deen said. ¡°I dealt with Calder and Finlay first. Apparently, they look very similar. Might be twins? Then I dealt with Isabel. I wasn¡¯t able to kill any of them though.¡±

    ¡°At least you got out unscathed,¡± I pointed out.

    ¡°Yeah, but I¡¯d rather be hurt a little if it meant I¡¯d be able to protect you,¡± she said.

    ¡°Like I said before Mom, I¡¯m fine,¡± I said. ¡°I just need my main body to wake up.¡± She is way too concerned for me.

    ¡°Mom?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°She acts like my mom,¡± I said.

    ¡°Hey! I¡¯m just trying to protect you,¡± she said. I had Ento stick her tongue out. If Deen was sticking hers out, I couldn¡¯t see since she was wearing a mask.

    ¡°Ento does look like a child,¡± Myra pointed out.

    We entered another hallway, but this time there were doors everywhere. But no 2M¡¯s were around.

    ¡°Anything?¡± I asked Deen.

    ¡°No,¡± she said. So her little prescient pet didn¡¯t see any future danger right now. But why weren¡¯t there any more 2M¡¯s? Did they just retreat or something? SpookyErind was currently fighting some mutants, but she hadn¡¯t even run into a guard recently. It was like they all just left. Or maybe they¡¯re regrouping for another attack.

    Dario walked up to one of the doors. ¡°Let¡¯s see what¡¯s inside here.¡±

    Myra walked up and ripped the door out of the frame.

    Inside, sci-fi equipment lined up the room. In the middle, a middle-aged woman with black hair was resting on a medical bed, which was connected to more sci-fi stuff.

    ¡°We have to free her!¡± Deen called out. I internally cringed.

 2.22

    Deen rushed up to the hostage. Actually, hostage might not be the correct word. The 2M¡¯s weren¡¯t using them as part of a ransom. She was more of a prisoner or experiment. I guess prisoner is apt for now. Maybe later they¡¯d become an experiment.

    She was muttering something as she observed the weird sci-fi tech next to the prisoner. What the fuck was she saying? The prisoner was asleep, so if Deen was trying to comfort her, that¡¯d make no sense.

    We all gathered around the prisoner. Her face was covered in a few wrinkles, and some of her hairs were graying.

    ¡°I can save her, I can save her,¡± Deen muttered.

    I took a look around. Nobody said anything while Deen muttered and touched the wires linking the prisoner and the neon sci-fi tech. Actually, subject is probably more appropriate. She wasn¡¯t really shackled to the bed, so if she woke up, she could freely leave. Of course, I didn¡¯t expect her to wake up. And if we tried waking her up, then we¡¯d kill her. It was truly a shame. I tried saving one of the subjects to build a heroic face for Ento. But sadly, the world denied me that face. Whatever. Keeping them alive with all the drones and 2M¡¯s around would have been painfully difficult. Getting shot is definitely painful.

    Deen was deeply entrenched in her observation of the scifi tech.

    ¡°Deen?¡± I had Ento ask.

    ¡°I¡¯ll save her,¡± she said.

    Why was she so obsessed about saving this person? She should already know that I tried saving them and failed. Unless she doesn¡¯t believe me? Or maybe she believes that her stupid prescient pet could help out.

    ¡°Ugh!¡± Deen exclaimed.

    ¡°Deen, is everything all right?!¡± I feigned panic.

    ¡°No,¡± Deen groaned. ¡°My Guardian Angel won¡¯t help me out.¡±

    ¡°Maybe there¡¯s nothing we can do,¡± I told her.

    ¡°But it feels so wrong just leaving her like this,¡± Deen said. ¡°Surely, there¡¯s something we can do.¡±

    Indeed there was. But not in the way Deen was expecting.

    ¡°We can help stop the 2M¡¯s turning more people into monsters,¡± I had Ento proclaim. ¡°We may not be able to rescue these people, but we can definitely save others. But staying here and doing nothing isn¡¯t going to help.¡±

    If Ento truly was a kid, then it would be ironic that she was being more mature than Deen. Wait a minute, I was already younger than Deen. And more mature.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Deen said. ¡°But what should we do with this woman? We can¡¯t just leave her here!¡±

    Silence filled the air. I really wanted to whack her in the head. Really, how stupid could she be? I just told her we should leave and try to stop the 2M¡¯s. Of course, I couldn¡¯t say that to her. Although, I really wanted to.

    I turned towards Everett and Dario. Technically, they were Emcee and Blank for this mission, but in the sanctity of my mind I could call them whatever I wanted. Maybe I could get them to leave with me while Deen remains stupidly stubborn. Actually, that might not work with Everett given his infatuation with Deen.

    At that moment, Dario spoke up.

    ¡°Deen, I know this might be harsh, but there¡¯s nothing we can do here,¡± Dario said. ¡°Like Erind said, we can make a difference fighting out there instead of remaining here. Besides, Erind tried saving somebody else and that accidentally got them killed. It¡¯s best to not touch anything here.¡±

    ¡°I guess you guys are right,¡± Deen sighed. Hey! Why the fuck didn¡¯t you concede when I said it? Does Dario have mind control powers in addition to his sickness field?

    Nah, I doubt he would have hidden it. Although he did bring up a good point that trying to save these people would probably kill them.

    Deen got away from the lady and moved toward us. It was funny to see her not being able to do everything and having to give up. Sadly, I couldn¡¯t actually laugh.

    What the fuck am I thinking?

    ¡°It¡¯ll be alright Deen,¡± Everett said, trying to comfort her. ¡°We¡¯ll save many more people by actually fighting the 2M¡¯s.¡±

    Deen simply nodded.

    We continued traveling down the hallway. I kept expecting the 2M¡¯s to attack us, but nothing like that happened.

    ¡°I¡¯m getting the creeps,¡± Everett said to the side of us. Myra was ahead, still carrying my main body. Hopefully, it would wake up soon. I didn¡¯t feel comfortable with it being knocked out.

    ¡°It¡¯s definitely weird they aren¡¯t attacking us,¡± I had Ento say. ¡°Pythia, is Gabe saying anything?¡±

    Deen turned her head down towards me. ¡°No, he¡¯s been quiet.¡±

    That must mean we weren¡¯t in too much danger. But why did the 2M¡¯s stop attacking us? Maybe they were planning a trap. But wouldn¡¯t Gabe still warn Deen of the trap?

    ¡°Do you think the 2M¡¯s just left?¡± Everett asked.

    ¡°That wouldn¡¯t really fit their MO,¡± Dario said. ¡°They¡¯ve never really retreated from us.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t believe they would have given up so easily,¡± Myra added.

    ¡°Maybe that giant werewolf is attacking the rest of their base?¡± I said.

    ¡°That¡¯s a good point,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°It¡¯s crazy how the Adumbrae are fighting each other,¡± Myra replied.

    ¡°I¡¯m just glad they aren¡¯t attacking us,¡± Everett said. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m alive after all that.¡±

    ¡°You did well Emcee,¡± Dario mentioned. ¡°My power couldn¡¯t affect the clone gunmen. Without you, I¡¯m not sure I could have survived against all those Adumbrae clones with guns.¡±

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Right. Dario¡¯s power made people feel sick. But if it was just Finlay¡¯s clones, then there¡¯s not much he could do. At least Everett had a ranged ability that always worked.

    ¡°No problem boss,¡± Everett said. ¡°Besides, you healed your whole leg back together after it got cut off. I¡¯m sure you¡¯d survive a couple of gunshots just fine.¡±

    The group chattered about the battle for a couple of more minutes. I was starting to tune out most of the small talk. None of it really interested me. I made sure to add some comments so the group would remember I was there. But nothing too much so that I was the one in the spotlight. Although, trying to craft a story earlier about why the giant werewolf Adumbrae was helping me was pretty fun. And also pretty scary.

    The smalltalk died down as we went down another hallway.

    ¡°What do you think will happen to those people back there?¡± Deen said. She really did want to play the hero. Not just the hero, the most idealistic type you¡¯d find in children¡¯s novels. Ones that never gave up trying to help others. But sometimes you can¡¯t save everyone. Or in my case, I just didn¡¯t care enough to try.

    I took a glance at the rest of the group. It was funny how they all agreed with me about just leaving the woman there. They didn¡¯t even try to help save the woman. Besides, they were fine with Myra attacking me, an innocent and cute civilian, at the Sanders Mall. And they all thought of themselves as heroes? I smirked internally. We were all doing something illegal by accepting the Articial Core. And we weren¡¯t even trying to save anybody.

    I wondered what would have happened if I suggested we kill the lady so she wouldn¡¯t turn into a monster. How many of them would balk at my proposal? I know Deen would. I¡¯m not sure about the others. That would be an interesting scenario.

    Although, that might put me at odds with Deen. And I¡¯m not sure how well the group would perceive me after that. After all, I still had a face to maintain. I wasn¡¯t some heartless and cold person who just goes around killing civilians. That was the face of the innocent Corebring Erind Hartwell.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± I had Ento add. ¡°But if we stop the 2M¡¯s, we can make sure no other person gets turned into a monster.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for being optimistic Synchron,¡± Deen said. She grabbed Ento¡¯s hand and squeezed it. I wanted to slap her face. Sadly, I couldn¡¯t.

    ¡°As your best friend, I got to keep you looking towards the future,¡± I had Ento say, internally cringing. What the fuck was that inspirational quote? To be fair, Deen¡¯s invasion of my personal space was alarming. Especially since her hand was so big compared to Ento¡¯s. It was like a giant cage was placed around my hand.

    ¡°Yeah, sorry about panicking earlier,¡± she replied.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± I had Ento say.

    What I was going to worry about was how boring this is. For some reason, I kind of wanted to get into a fight. SpookyErind was busy having fun eating mutants. Meanwhile, Ento here was just listening to small talk.

    ¡°Wait guys,¡± Myra said. ¡°I think I see people!¡±

    She ran across the hallway, and I heard screams. But no gunfire followed. It was hard to tell since Myra¡¯s big tree form was obscuring a large part of the hallway.

    But we quickly ran after her. Near the end of the hallway was a large chain link fence. Behind it, I could see normal people behind it. Adults, kids, men, and women were all there. About a couple dozen or so people were behind the fence.

    Myra easily ripped apart the fence.

    ¡°Adumbrae! Get back!¡± One of the men said. To be fair, she did look like one. A giant scary tree monster.

    ¡°No!¡± Myra yelled out. ¡°We¡¯re C-¡± she cut herself off. ¡°We¡¯re here to rescue you.¡±

    Deen went up to try and placate the crowd.

    Now why would they keep conscious people here? Were there not enough rooms for them to be experimented on? Unless these people weren¡¯t meant for experimentation. Maybe the 2M¡¯s planned on feeding these people to the mutants later.

    ¡°Everyone, please calm down!¡± Deen shouted as the civilians cowered in the corner. ¡°It may be hard to trust us. I understand. But please, just hear us out. We¡¯re here to free you. We got rid of the guards around here.¡±

    ¡°You are?¡± a male voice questioned.

    Maybe Deen¡¯s beauty had a hypnotic calming affect. Wait a minute, she was just wearing black clothes along with a ski mask. They wouldn¡¯t really see her beauty. Although, she probably isn¡¯t as scary as a giant tree monster.

    ¡°Yes, follow us, and we can take you out of here!¡± she cheered.

    The civilians looked at each other before a couple of them began heading toward the gap in the broken chain link fence. Soon, more followed. I guess Deen got her chance to be heroic.

    SpookyErind¡¯s perspective was very interesting. She had run off to another warehouse, where different mutants were littered across the rooms. But weirdly enough, there were no guards. Where the fuck did everyone go? Did they seriously all leave? Maybe that giant stone lady was coming here. Hopefully, SpookyErind would get big enough to defeat her. But that was going to take a lot of mutants.

    She crashed into a large room. Wires hung from the ceiling and broken glass tubes littered about. In the center, laid a large slimy looking mass in the middle of the room. It nearly touched the ceiling. Also, it had triple jointed gooey-like arms that randomly jutted out of it. They were scooping monsters around it into its slimy body. They quickly began to fizzle away. It was like one of those chemistry science experiments where I had to dissolve stuff into different chemicals.

    SpookyErind growled and the enlarged mutant began propelling itself on its arms toward her. It was about twice as large and three times as wide as her. She broke apart some of the floor tiles with her paws and threw it at one of the arms. The floor piece went through the arm, cutting it, causing the slime arm monster to lose a bit of balance. An explosion went off near some equipment near the tubes. A fire was born out of it.

    She leaped over the skidding slime monster. Some of its arms tried to reach upwards to grab at her, but it slightly burned her fur. Soon, a bit of pain followed. Some of the goo had gotten on her.

    But that only led to rage swelling within her. She landed near the burning equipment and picked a burning console. She threw it at the central mass of the slime monster. The console entered the slime and sank inward.

    A loud scream followed. How the fuck could this thing even scream? There wasn¡¯t even a mouth on this thing. Also, did this thing get bigger?

    The fire began to spread outward. The creature began sinking its arms into itself to try and pull out the fire. I internally smirked at how stupid it was.

    SpookyErind took that moment to charge towards it. She began chewing on one of the three-jointed gooey arms. But as soon as it touched her tongue it started bleeding. It didn¡¯t stop her.

    She swallowed and was rewarded with regeneration along with growth and strength.

    As she was about to eat the rest of the arm off, three of the arms gripped her and pulled her inside the gooey mass.

    I felt pain. And it was nearly unbearable. Ento¡¯s eyes dissolving with acid couldn¡¯t compare to this. Because SpookyErind¡¯s entire body was being dissolved.

    This simply fueled her rage and her regeneration and growth. She began drinking the slime around her.

    And I wanted her to eat this monster. I could feel the desire and the bloodlust towards this creature. This prey.

    Some of the fire also spread towards SpookyErind. But she didn¡¯t pay it any mind. The only important thing was getting back at the creature that harmed her.

    The slime around her slowly began to diminish as she continued drinking greedily. She was finally free from the acidic prison trying to eat her. Her head rubbed against the edge of the ceiling. SpookyErind was way bigger now. She made sure to claw off the burning parts of her skin and eat it. It was kind of weird eating parts of yourself. But on the other hand, she didn¡¯t have a well precise scalpel to get rid of all that slime.

    She turned around and a blue drone sat near the edge of the room¡¯s wall. Huh. I wonder why it wasn¡¯t attacking her. She ignored it and began running through some of the walls. They easily broke against her skin. After a few more walls, she made it outside again. The tail end of a truck convoy could be seen at the far side of the base. They were retreating! SpookyErind simply stood there watching.

    Aww. I kind of wanted to see SpookyErind eat them all.

    A hum of the distance suddenly alerted her. Several small figures could be spotted in the sky. They were clad in sleek black armor, carrying a set of some futuristic weapons along with a jet pack.

    In the middle of their armor said the word ¡®B.I.D¡¯.

    That wasn¡¯t good! SpookyErind may be able to survive against them, but I definitely couldn¡¯t. Especially since my main body was still knocked out. Could I have Ento convince the rest of the group to get the fuck out of here?

    Suddenly, there were several ringing sounds. Our group quickly began taking out their phones. Ento didn¡¯t have a phone, and Myra would have had to get rid of her bark armor to access theirs.

    ¡°It¡¯s from HQ,¡± Dario said. Johann? He put the phone up to his ears. ¡°We¡¯ve got to go now - the BID is coming. Let¡¯s hurry!¡±

 2.23 - Johann Martin Fischer/Astrid Estrella

    Johann Martin Fischer

    It was supposed to be so easy. Just stay in the van and keep your distance from the 2M¡¯s. Staying in the van? Check. Keeping distance from the 2M¡¯s? Why did his part of the plan have to go wrong?

    He wasn¡¯t even in the line of sight of the warehouse chain link fences. Did the 2M¡¯s have patrols this far out? We really should have scoped this place out more.

    A pickup truck with a gun mounted on the back had turned the corner and started approaching their van. It¡¯s called a technical. Some Adumbrae warlord in Australia was infamous for using them. Johann couldn¡¯t remember their name. While Adumbrae like the 2M¡¯s probably didn¡¯t have access to tanks, that didn¡¯t mean they couldn¡¯t retrofit any of the vehicles of their own. The technical in front of them may have been a tank. The gun on the backside of the truck was huge!

    A burly man operated the gun. All Johann had was his handgun. How was he supposed to deal with that? Maybe hide?

    Yes, that was it. Everything around here was abandoned. Maybe they might be left alone after that.

    Johann quickly turned the ignition key off. Ducking, Johann¡¯s hand trembled on his handgun. He had some training before at the police station he worked at, but he¡¯d never been forced to use it like this. Even when he¡¯d been helping Myra and the others, he wasn¡¯t by himself. He had the other artificial Corebrings with him. But now, Johann had to defend himself and Reo.

    Johann heard the technical roll up to the van before screeching to a halt.

    Footsteps soon followed. Why did they leave the technical?

    ¡°Hey, do you think we scrapped this van?¡± a male voice asked in the distance. Johann could see some light seep into the van.

    ¡°Dunno. We scrapped everything else in the area,¡± another male voice responded. ¡°I don¡¯t remember this van being here. Although, there are a lot of cars and trucks we¡¯ve scrapped.¡±

    ¡°Come on, maybe there¡¯s a bunch of cash in this one,¡± the other voice said. ¡°We¡¯ll split the difference 50/50. Just promise to not tell the boss.¡±

    ¡°Hey! You better save some money for me too!¡± another male voice yelled.

    ¡°Fine, we¡¯ll split it amongst us three,¡± the first male voice called out. ¡°I should turn this dumb radio off.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll shoot you with this big gun if you do!¡± the third male voice challenged.

    ¡°Yeah yeah, whatever Tom,¡± the first male voice said.

    So there were at least 3 of the 2Ms outside. One of them was still at the truck manning the gun. The other two had gotten out. Tom was the name of the guy operating the gun. How could he use this? Is any of this useful? Nothing! All of this was useless!

    A loud bang rang through the walls of the van. Johann¡¯s hand trembled more.

    ¡°Fuck, this thing¡¯s still locked!¡± the first male voice cried out. The sound of footsteps got further away from the car. What was going on? Were they going to leave?

    ¡°Who¡¯d you think left stuff here?¡± the second male voice asked.

    ¡°I hope it¡¯s some rich dude who left all of his stuff here,¡± the first male voice said.

    ¡°It better not be one of the Adumbrae,¡± the second male voice said.

    ¡°I doubt they would care anyway,¡± the first male voice said. ¡°Anyways, this brick should do it.¡±

    Crap. They came back. Okay. Think.

    What could Johann do here? Well it was dark, and they didn¡¯t know he was here, so he had the element of surprise. When they break into the van, he¡¯ll have a couple of moments to use his gun. The gunman in the back of the technical might start shooting at him, but he¡¯ll have no driver.

    A plan formulated in his mind. It was the riskiest thing ever. And he also had to make sure to protect Reo too. Would there be an issue? No. He should be fine back there. Hopefully, he stayed asleep during the plan. Waking up now would be the worst possible outcome.

    ¡°Hey, maybe we should check what¡¯s inside before chucking a brick at the window,¡± the second male voice said. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t want to ruin anything fancy.¡± Crap. Of course, they would check the car before trying to break in. What kind of robber wouldn¡¯t do that?

    ¡°Right, I keep forgetting about that,¡± the first male voice said.

    ¡°You are way too happy to destroy stuff,¡± the second male voice said.

    ¡°Part of the job description, am I right?¡± the first male voice jokingly said.

    ¡°You better not be destroying anything of value!¡± Tom yelled through the radio.

    ¡°For the love of¡­ ugh. Tom, just stay focused on watching the road,¡± the second male voice said.

    Two clicks were followed by two beams of light shining through the windows. Crap. Okay change of plans.

    Johann got up and saw two masked men outside the front of the van. They both took a step back as he quickly fired two shots at each of them, shattering the glass windows. Their bodies quickly dropped to the ground with the brick making a large thunk sound.

    Johann turned the ignition key. ¡°Come on, come on.¡±

    The technical was straight across from him. The gunman quickly began turning his gun around.

    ¡°Just go!¡± Johann yelled as he slammed the gas. The van lurched forward and Johann heard something collide at the back of the van. Fuck. Reo wasn¡¯t seatbelted. No time for that. Hopefully, he was fine.

    Johann quickly drove past the front of the technical as a couple of explosion sounds boomed through the air. The van rocked and the sound of wind rushing in could be heard. Fuck. Were they hit?

    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    Johann took a quick peek at the backside mirror. A huge hole came out of the van''s right side, with the left side receiving a deformation.

    I guess it was a good thing Reo wasn¡¯t wearing seatbelts. His head would have been blown right off.

    Johann turned some roads, hopefully putting distance between him and the gunman. He put the van into park and sighed in relief. The gunman wasn¡¯t able to chase him down since Johann since he had no driver anymore.

    ¡°Ow,¡± a voice said behind Johann. ¡°Where the fuck am I?¡±

    ¡°Reo!¡± Johann cried out, turning to look at Reo. ¡°You¡¯re alive!¡±

    ¡°Ugh, yeah?¡± he replied as he rubbed his head. ¡°Wait a minute. What the fuck happened to the van?¡±

    ¡°We were being shot at,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°With a fucking tank???!!¡± Reo asked.

    ¡°Not exactly¡­ more like a truck with a gun,¡± Johann explained. ¡°A big gun.¡±

    ¡°May as well be a tank,¡± Reo said. That wasn¡¯t really right. But Reo kept talking before Johann could correct him.

    ¡°Well I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t have seatbelts on,¡± Reo said. ¡°Take that Myra! You called it stupidity when I said I shouldn¡¯t be strapped down. But it turns out I¡¯m the smarter one.¡±

    ¡°I think it¡¯s more of luck than anything,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°Just make sure to back me up man when we see her,¡± Reo said. I¡¯ll let you two argue like a married couple. I¡¯m going to stay out of this.

    ¡°So how is Myra?¡± Johann asked.

    ¡°I dunno, we got separated,¡± Reo said.

    ¡°Separated?!¡±

    ¡°There was this creepy black hallway with red light on the edges,¡± Reo started to explain. ¡°And then all of a sudden giant blocks started falling from the ceiling, separating the group. Emcee, Blank, and I all got stuck together.¡± Reo continued the story of how he ¡®valiantly¡¯ saved the other boys from clay soldiers. Blank was apparently cowering in a corner while Emcee lobbed fireballs randomly. Johann had no idea how much of his story was exaggerated.

    And then, Reo, or rather Oberon got out of range of them. Sadly, Blubber couldn¡¯t be too far from Oberon otherwise the connection between them would be broken.

    A creeping fear crawled into Johann¡¯s mind. What if one of the girls was harmed? They might be stronger than the boys in their group, but what if they fought somebody super strong? The thought sent shivers down Johann¡¯s body.

    Okay. Calm down. Deen, or Pythia had future sight. Surely she would be the most fine out of all of them. Then there was Myra and Erind. Barb and Synchron. The two strongest Corebrings in their group. Normal bullets wouldn¡¯t stop them.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Reo asked. ¡°Did my story freak you out?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Johann shook his head. ¡°Just worried about the girls. Let¡¯s check the cameras in the warehouses.¡±

    Johann quickly turned on the monitors on top of the dashboard. He had already hacked into the 2M¡¯s security system. It was surprisingly weak for a secret organization.

    ¡°Damn techno-wizard,¡± Reo said, leaning over the chair. ¡°You already hacked in?¡±

    ¡°Yep, through the terminal on the left monitor,¡± Johann said.

    ¡°With just that?¡± Reo asked. ¡°No fancy stuff?¡±

    ¡°You mean a GUI?¡± Johann replied. ¡°That¡¯s just in the movies. Besides, it took me at least 15 minutes to hack in. Not used to this setup at all.¡±

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m going to assume you didn¡¯t mean anything sexual with ¡®gooey¡¯,¡± Reo replied. What?

    ¡°Um, yeah,¡± Johann said as he began cycling the cameras. Eventually, they found the group on the left monitor. They were rescuing some of the kidnapped civilians.

    ¡°Whew,¡± Johann sighed. ¡°They¡¯re safe.¡±

    ¡°What the fuck is that?¡± Reo pointed to the middle monitor. A giant wolf creature covered in green goo could be seen. Wait a minute. It seemed similar to the giant wolf mutants that attacked the giant statue Adumbrae. But it seemed bigger. The creature began leaving the sight of the camera.

    ¡°Should we warn them?¡± Johann asked.

    ¡°Definitely.¡±

    Johann pulled out his phone but then saw another concerning thing on the middle monitor. As the giant wolf creature left, a blue drone could be seen hovering in the corner of the room.

    Fuck. That was a BID drone. They were so going to raze this place to the ground.

    ¡°Blank, this is HQ,¡± Johann said. ¡°You¡¯ve got to go, the BID is coming!¡±

    ¡°Thanks HQ!¡± Blank quickly replied. He¡¯d always been the odd one out of this group, so it was nice to get a codename.

    ¡°The BID?¡± Reo asked. ¡°That¡¯s a BID drone? Fuck.¡±

    To make matters worse, the sound of vehicles moving could be heard in the distance. Several technicals and eighteen-wheelers came into view.

    ¡°Holy shit!¡± Reo exclaimed. ¡°We are so fucked right now.¡±

    But none of the trucks came after them. Huh? They seemed to be going far away from the warehouses as quickly as possible.

    Did the 2M¡¯s know the BID was going to raid them?

    Astrid Estrella

    Today was a terrible day for the 2Ms. The bandits that had been attacking their transports and some of their minor bases decided to attack Astrid¡¯s base. To make matters worse, the giant werewolf Adumbrae that fought Stella was in the middle of their base destroying everything.

    Astrid stared in disbelief at one of the monitors on her desk as she watched the creature rapidly devour everything it could.

    ¡°Unfortunately, Stella will not be able to assist you,¡± Big Marcy said. While his face wasn¡¯t visible on any of the monitors, his voice still came through the speakers. Astrid¡¯s desk had two keyboards and four monitors. Having two pairs of arms two to type sure was nice.

    ¡°Hey Mommy, Mr. Bird can see a blue object coming,¡± Zoe said next to her. ¡°It looks like a small airplane.¡±

    Shoot. Was that a BID drone? What other blue objects are there?

    ¡°Should I tell everyone here to retreat then?¡± Astrid asked Big Marcy.

    ¡°Indeed,¡± Big Marcy said.

    Astrid pulled out her radio. ¡°This is Astrid. Pack up everything that you can onto the trucks as quickly as possible. I¡¯ll give more info on the radio soon.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re leaving Mommy?¡± Zoe asked next to her.

    ¡°Yes, it isn¡¯t safe here Zoe,¡± Astrid told her, grabbing Zoe¡¯s left hand with her lower right hand.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the airplane Mommy?¡± Zoe asked.

    ¡°The airplane will bring some dangerous people,¡± Astrid told her.

    ¡°Like bad people?¡±

    ¡°...Yes,¡± Astrid hesitated.

    Ever since she was little, Astrid was told that Adumbrae were the bad guys.

    After her husband, Dirus died, Astrid had to be both a mother and work two jobs. All of their savings went into trying to make sure Dirus stayed alive. Without any savings, her two jobs were just barely enough to make it through life. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side. When driving Zoe to school one day, they crashed into a drunk driver.

    When Big Marcy offered to save her and Zoe the crash, Astrid had to accept. They didn¡¯t have any money and Astrid couldn¡¯t lose Zoe. They couldn¡¯t afford to pay for prosthetics to repair their broken limbs.

    Apparently the man behind Big Marcy, the Supplier, was interested in trying to turn children into Adumbrae. They hadn¡¯t had much success. Of course everyone knew that children couldn¡¯t become Adumbrae. Astrid wasn¡¯t familiar with the science part to know why.

    But it didn¡¯t matter. All that mattered was the she and her precious Zoe were still alive and well off.

    Astrid hugged Zoe with her lower right arm and stroked her black hair with her upper right arm. Her upper left arm held a phone to her ear. One of the 2M¡¯s grunts, Nettle, was driving the truck.

    ¡°It appears that the bandits are trying to rescue some of of the contestants,¡± Big Marcy said over the line. Big Marcy still had access to the cameras in her base. ¡°Are they trying to play the hero? Perhaps we could use that¡­¡±

    The contestants were used at the Eve to feed the mutants. Astrid was first very appalled to see the fights there. She couldn¡¯t believe what she was seeing. But now, those events were just a blur to her.

    Originally, she felt sad for the contestants. But her will to live overcame that. As well as the will to protect Zoe. In order to prevent the Adumbrae from taking control, they had to eat the brains of the mutants.

    ¡°We cannot afford to lose this many contestants,¡± Big Marcy said. ¡°We only have enough for next week¡¯s event at the other warehouses. Additionally, some will need to be turned into mutants to make up for the loses that occurred here.¡±

    Shoot. What would happen if they ran out of mutants? Astrid didn¡¯t want to become a mindless monster. She could severely hurt Zoe. And the thought of that tore Astrid apart.

    ¡°I have a plan to get them back,¡± Big Marcy told her.

    Get them back?

    ¡°Do you understand the plan?¡± Big Marcy asked her after explaining his plan.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Astrid said. She wasn¡¯t going to lose control of her mind. Everything was going to be fine.

 2.24

    Wait a minute. How does Johann know the BID is coming? I only knew because of SpookyErind.

    ¡°Is HQ alright?¡± I had Ento ask. This question served two purposes. One, it made me look like a caring hero. Two, it was to check if our getaway vehicle was currently being shot at by the BID.

    ¡°How are you doing HQ?¡± Dario asked. ¡°He¡¯s doing fine.¡±

    Then that probably means he just hacked into the cameras and saw the BID was coming. My ticket out of here was still okay.

    ¡°We should get going then right?¡± Myra asked us.

    Before Dario could respond, Deen ran up to us and shouted. ¡°Okay, I convinced these guys to follow us. We can help lead them out of here now!¡±

    ¡°About that,¡± Dario said. ¡°We might need to leave them behind.¡±

    ¡°Wha- what??!!¡± Deen panicked. While I couldn¡¯t see her face, it must have been something funny to look at.

    ¡°They¡¯re too slow,¡± Dario said. ¡°We have to leave now. They¡¯ll be fine on their own. They¡¯re not Adumbrae, so the BID won¡¯t go after them.¡±

    ¡°But the Panderton Act!¡± Deen said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter they aren¡¯t Adumbrae. The BID will kill everybody here!¡±

    Look at that. Deen actually remembered what I taught her. She originally used it to convince Bianca that we weren¡¯t part of the BID. Now she was using it against Dario.

    ¡°Pythia,¡± Dario said, walking up to Deen. ¡°They¡¯re still too slow. We won¡¯t make it out in time, especially with how fast the BID agents will be. Please think about this.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but¡­ we can¡¯t leave them here to die!¡± Deen cried out. Okay, this hero complex was getting annoying. And I doubt Deen would give it up anytime soon. Dario was wrong. The freed people wouldn¡¯t slow us down. Deen¡¯s incessant arguing would.

    Ugh. I considered just ditching everybody here, but my main body was still attached to Myra, and pulling it out just to leave everyone would seem very out of character.

    Wait a minute, that¡¯s it! Not the leaving everyone part, but the Myra part.

    ¡°Wait, Blank,¡± I had Ento call out. ¡°I think we can take everyone with us.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re too slo-¡± Dario started as I cut him off.

    ¡°No, Barb can take everyone here just like she¡¯s taking my main body,¡± I had Ento point out. ¡°Just use vines to carry everyone.¡±

    ¡°Barb?¡± Dario asked, turning towards her.

    ¡°Yeah, I can do that,¡± Myra said.

    Look at me. Helping to lead the group. May as well make me the leader.

    Anyway, the more important point was that it helped to build my hero face. I was showing ¡®compassion¡¯ for the humans while being seen as a problem solver. The people we just freed should be thankful I, Erind Hartwell, have saved their lives.

    Myra began tying everybody up, which was definitely a sight to see. A giant tree monster was wrapping everybody in vines. Deen had originally tried to convince everybody of my plan, but of course there was some hesitation. Hard to agree to getting tied up to a giant tree monster. I imagined Deen¡¯s prescient pet helped out a bit to convince them.  Some of them whined as they were lifted, but I didn¡¯t really care. The faster Myra wrapped them up, the faster I could save my ass by getting out of here.

    Meanwhile, SpookyErind growled at the BID forces coming in. Several small agents the size of mosquitoes flew around the base. Many of them broke into the buildings. Two large ComExos came in. They were probably around two stories tall, but SpookyErind was more like four. Although, she looked like two since she was down on all fours.

    With Red Hood¡¯s enhanced vision, I could clearly see through SpookyErind body that the two ComExos each had six arms. Four of them had giant cannons attached to them, while the middle pair had hands holding some kind of sword. Sparks jumped around the sword. Some type of electroshock weaponry.

    All cannons immediately fired on SpookyErind. Large blue laser beams hit SpookyErind. Some of them hit her in the eyes. All of the impacts made burns that hurt more than the slime. But it wasn¡¯t enough to kill her. SpookyErind growled as her eyes began to regrow and she started charging towards them. The pain simply fueled her rage and the growth of her muscles. Her enhanced hearing began trackign the two ComExos. They turned as each one parted from each other, looking to ambush SpookyErind from her sides.

    SpookyErind simply charged towards the ComExo on her left. She growled as ComExo fired four more laser beams. They stinged and they burned. More lasers hit her in the back. Kill those prey! I could feel the strong predator instinct rise in SpookyErind¡¯s body. SpookyErind opened her mouth wide to try and chomp the ComExo, but the ComExo simply raised one of its electroswords to block SpookyErind¡¯s mouth while sliding back. SpookyErind bit down hard and was met with a painful shock coursing through her body. Shit. Her muscles started to spasm. The ComExo brought it up it¡¯s other sword. She tried biting down on the sword with more force. The sword broke and SpookyErind pushed with all her might as the other sword came raining down. It missed her head and hit her torso instead. More painful shocks went through her body.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    This fucker has to pay for harming me. Harming me? He was harming SpookyErind. But still, I didn¡¯t want her to get hurt. Huh. Why was that? Well it was still my clone technically. And I didn¡¯t like the feeling of pain. Was the bleedthrough of emotions affecting me that much?

    SpookyErind chomped down on the head of ComExo as the sword was still stuck in her torso. She ripped off the head but it tasted disgusting. There wasn¡¯t any flesh in there. Where was the human piloting it? Maybe in it¡¯s torso? SpookyErind simply grabbed the torso of the ComExo, breaking off the right sword arm. The sparks of pain quickly ended.

    More laser fire hit her in the back. SpookyErind quickly turned around and launched the torso of the ComExo at the other ComExo. There was so much force it nearly that it seemed that SpookyErind launched a bullet. The two ComExos collided, causing an explosion. The hunger subsided within SpookyErind.

    Myra broke a hole through the building as she dragged a couple dozen people with vines behind her. To be honest, I didn¡¯t count but it was quite a lot.

    The night sky was lit up with stars. And behind us were explosions. The BID was blowing up the rest of the base.

    Through Ento¡¯s eyes, I could see a few flying objects headed toward us. Shit.

    ¡°Guys, they¡¯re here!¡± I had her yell out. ¡°Emcee, help please!¡±

    The BID agents quickly came into view. Massive laser cannons were on their side. I had Ento throw needles at each of them, but they quickly dodged out of the way. Everett threw a fireball into the sky, which they also dodged, but it exploded and caused one of them to fall.

    Lasers quickly came out of their guns, targeting both me and Everett. I tried to get Ento to jump out of the way, but her right shoulder was hit by the laser. The rest of arm fell off, leaving a splattering of blood on the ground. She fell to the ground in pain. Blood poored out of her stump of an arm. Shit.

    ¡°Ento!¡± I heard Deen call out. I could see a series of pebbles flying through the air, pelting one of the BID agents. The final remaining agent turned to the side, ready to fire on Deen.

    I heard laser blasts, but sadly couldn¡¯t see anything through Ento¡¯s eyes. Oww. Why was poor Ento always being harmed. I guess the BID agents would target the people who attacked them first. But still. Harming a child? Shame on you BID. Shame on you. I should call child protective services on them. What the fuck am I talking about?

    SpookyErind galloped towards us. Five more BID agents decided to make our lives miserable. From her eyes, I could see the rest of the group try and take cover behind the nearby buildings. Dario was carrying Everett, who lost part of his hand to the laser blast. Deen was comforting Ento.

    ¡°Are you alright Ento?¡± Deen asked, her eyes teary. She scooped her up. My hero. Ewww.

    ¡°Could be better,¡± I had her say. ¡°Do you mind picking up my arm?¡±

    ¡°Uhh sure,¡± she replied. Damn it Deen, I was just making a joke to lighten up the mood. But she grabbed Ento¡¯s bloody forearm off the ground and held it next to Ento¡¯s stump. It wasn¡¯t bleeding anymore.

    Dario told of us how he healed both his legs after reattaching it. I imagine most of it wasn¡¯t missing though. Deen ran behind a building.

    The BID agents were chasing her since she was the furthest behind. Before they could turn the corner and chase her, SpookyErind loudly growled. They all turned around and fired their lasers at her, but they didn¡¯t even make a scratch. SpookyErind swatted at them like they were flies. A couple of them got hit. Two of them continued to fire at SpookyErind. The last one turned the corner

    Deen raced down the alleyway as the other BID agent started chasing us.

    ¡°Blubber!¡± She called out. Reo¡¯s fairy?

    ¡°Ento hold your arm,¡± She told me. I had Ento grab onto it with her left hand. Why the fuck am I holding this? Is this bitch about to try and save Reo¡¯s fairy? Fuck that.

    She grabbed Blubber and threw him at the BID agent. The BID agent that was about to fire, simply flew backwards a bit, dodging the fairy projectile. Before he could fire, a set of massive teeth imprisoned came crashing down on him.

    SpookyErind tried chewing him up, but her tongue quickly met the taste of fire. This fucker just self-detonated inside of her! That sounds inappropriate.

    Deen stared in silence. From Ento¡¯s point of view SpookyErind was massive. A giant furry creature with massive teeth. And it just tried eating a BID agent.

    The other two agents were still firing at SpookyErind, and she quickly swatted away both of them.

    SpookyErind simply stared at Deen before turning around.

    ¡°Thanks¡­¡± Deen said. ¡°Oh Blubber!¡±

    She ran back a bit to go pick up the fairy. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I got you guys!¡± At least we were safe for now.

    SpookyErind returned to the warehouses. Nearly every warehouse was basically demolished. Some of the agents began firing on her, but it still had no effect. A massive aircraft could be heard in the distance.

    SpookyErind began swatting at all the BID agents. But before she could finish them all off, a massive BOOM sound filled the air, and SpookyErind was met with paralyzing pain. She turned around and saw that her entire torso was teared open, with two of her legs missing. Whisps of fire were all on SpookyErind¡¯s body. She turned up and saw the aircraft fire two missiles at her. The missiles exploded into a bunch of white foam. Did they just use a fire extinguisher on her? But rather than extinguishing the fires, more burning pain entered SpookyErind¡¯s body. I could feel the desire to rip that prey in the sky to shreads, but SpookyErind couldn¡¯t move her body.

    The giant aircraft in the sky had a giant cannon pointed at SpookyErind. It aimed towards her head and fired. I quickly lost my connection to SpookyErind.

    Why did she do that? She could have lived a lot longer as the giant werewolf. I don¡¯t imagine Adumbrae are suicidal. Technically, she could be resummoned. But why not stay with us to make sure there are no BID agents?

    Wait a minute. That giant aircraft would have pulverized us. Did she go back to the base to make sure the rest of the BID would only blow her up?

    A feeling surged in my chest. I couldn¡¯t really place what it was. It felt like gratitude¡­ Yeah, I was thankful she protected us. SpookyErind really did care for my wellbeing. I didn¡¯t know what the purpose behind it was. Did she still want to take over my body? I was skeptical of her true intentions. But at least she cared about my health. For the present, that was the most important. I¡¯d deal with losing my body later.

    Speaking of bodies, my main body started to wake up. Finally. I was wondering when that was going to happen.

    I was immediately met with the sound of police sirens.

    ¡°Release the hostages and turn away immediately,¡± a voice said on a megaphone. ¡°Or we will be forced to shoot you!¡±

    Hostages? I looked around, Myra¡¯s branches keeping me secured on her back. Several people were wrapped up in vines behind her. The people we freed.

    Wait a minute, these police fuckers think we kidnapped all these people!

 2.25

    Myra started releasing all the people she freed.

    ¡°Hey Barb, I¡¯m awake, can you let me go too?¡± I whispered. The vines and branches around me started to untangle, letting me slide off Barb¡¯s back. I was half expecting a skewer to come and hit me in the stomach again. I took a few steps back and took a peek.

    The freed people all ran forward toward a line of police cars blocking the intersection. Several police drones surrounded the cars, and a large vehicle was unloading 10-foot-tall ComExos onto the street.

    I didn¡¯t want to fight all of that. Maybe if SpookyErind was still around I would, but it was shocking how fragile I still was after being both an Adumbrae and a Corebring. Ento had her entire arm ripped off from a single blast from a BID agent. Of course, these police officers weren¡¯t BID agents, but those ComExos looked deadly. Unlike the BID ComExos, these had two arms, but giant guns were attached to the end of each arm.

    ¡°Leave now!¡± the megaphone guy said. His build was lanky. I could probably kill him before he orders the rest of the police force to kill me. Wait a minute. That would be a stupid plan because they would just attack me anyway.

    Next to him was a woman wearing a sleeveless blouse and khakis. Weird that she wasn¡¯t wearing a police uniform. I saw the outline of a smaller figure inside the car. Is that a child? Did the megaphone guy bring out his family here?

    I didn¡¯t have too much time to ruminate because Myra began backing up. Oh right, we should probably leave before the police changed their minds.

    Dario and Everett ran ahead of me. Wait these guys were here? Everett was no longer being carried by Dario. That made me upset since Ento still only had 1.25 arms, and Everett was fine. Actually, how many arms is a stump worth? More than 0 but less than 1 right?

    Deen soon came upon Johann¡¯s van parked in an alleyway. I bet her Guardian Angel brought her here. She was still carrying both me and Blubber. Thankfully, there was a gap between me and the chubby winged creature.

    A giant hole was in the right side of the van. What the fuck happened here? Did a tank blow up the side of the van? We could clearly see Reo sitting on the mattress in his summoning position as if nothing had happened.

    ¡°Pythia! Synchron!¡± Johann cried out as Blubber went up to Reo and climbed inside his mouth.

    ¡°What happened here?¡± Deen asked, still cradling Ento in her arms.

    ¡°Not as bad as whatever happened to Synchron,¡± Johann said, taking a look at Ento.

    ¡°Got chased by BID agents,¡± I had her say. ¡°I tried throwing my needles at them but one guy just lasered my arm off.¡±

    Thankfully, it didn¡¯t hurt anymore and Ento wasn¡¯t bleeding out. But it really sucked that I couldn¡¯t do anything with Ento against those BID agents. Was I really that weak?

    No, the BID was just very strong. I guess it was a good thing they were this strong since Adumbrae would have taken over America if they hadn¡¯t. Either that, or we would be living under the rule of the Corebring Hive.

    On the positive side, I was at least able to build pity points with the rest of the group there. Most people were able to feel sad when a 10-year-old child was injured. It reminded me back when I was in 4th grade. One of the kids fell off the top of the slide during recess. Like, he didn¡¯t go down the slide, he just tripped at the top and fell out the side. While he wasn¡¯t bleeding like Ento was, his arms were all contorted in different ways like a pretzel. The other kids quickly got the teachers¡¯ attention. The teachers ended up comforting him as the nurses arrived.

    What exactly did they feel? I knew they felt sympathy, but what did that sympathy feel like? When I was there, I was just wondering if I could actually force his limbs to resemble a pretzel.

    Minutes later, I got tired of being cradled by Deen. Since it didn¡¯t hurt to move as much, I had Ento take off her goggles. Her severed arm disappeared as my 2nd clone¡¯s normal form appeared in Deen¡¯s arm. Deen struggled to stay balanced as my normal form was quite a lot taller than Ento¡¯s height. I saw some people in high school that were only 1 foot taller probably than Ento. I was glad I was at least 5 foot 4 and not any shorter.

    ¡°You can set me down now Deen,¡± I had my 2nd clone say.

    ¡°Oh, sure thing,¡± she said, letting her down on the ground.

    ¡°Do you guys know where the others are?¡± Johann asked.

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re running away from the police,¡± I had my 2nd clone say matter-of-factly.

    ¡°Wait what?¡± Deen panicked.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°Yeah, but they aren¡¯t chasing us,¡± I said. That fact didn¡¯t comfort me. I had my main body constantly taking peeks behind me to make sure there weren¡¯t any drones or 10-foot ComExos.

    I also took peeks at the sky to make sure that giant aircraft wasn¡¯t around. If that thing could pulverize the giant werewolf in 2 shots, it may as well be a nuke to my normal body.

    Still, the rational side of me would say that I wouldn¡¯t need to take a peek behind me because I would hear the police and the BID coming to hear me. But I still couldn¡¯t resist checking.

    Maybe this was all just paranoia?

    Also, I think we were quite lost.

    ¡°Um guys, where are we going?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I was just running away from the police,¡± Myra said. Both Everett and Dario nodded. Great. Not really.

    ¡°Pythia and Ento managed to find HQ and Oberon,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yeah, we should head there,¡± Dario said.

    I had my 2nd clone pull out my phone and pull up Snippet. Thankfully, the phone tracking app allowed me to track the others. Except, I had only friended Deen.

    ¡°Do you have the other''s Snippet tracking info?¡± I asked her. I would have tried tracking myself, but it turned out my main body¡¯s phone got destroyed when Slinky fucking threw me against a wall.

    In addition to a destroyed phone, my clothes had tears and the terrible feeling of crusty dried blood was on my back. Looking around, I had it the worst out of anyone in the group. Everett and Dario had bullet holes in their clothes, but it was nothing like me.

    Seriously?! I was the strongest one in the group and all my shit was getting destroyed. Did the world hate me that much?

    Of course, I knew life wasn¡¯t fair, many people had fates way more unluckier than me through no fault of their own. Some had rough diseases like cancer, or they were just born into poverty. But sometimes there are rare opportunities to get over these problems in life.

    As for me, I had the opportunity to be both an Adumbrae and a Corebring. Maybe I was the only person in existence to be both. I didn¡¯t have to worry about any of these puny illnesses. And I was way stronger than the rest of my group. Therefore, I should be the most fine. Everybody else shouldn¡¯t come out better than me.

    Could I file a complaint somewhere?

    Eventually, my main body along with Myra, Dario, and Everett made it back to Johann¡¯s van. Myra began shrinking and her bark began disappearing. Johann offered her a black hoodie to put on as she only had on a balaclava, her sports bra, and bicycling shorts.

    ¡°Oh dear Mother Core, what happened to you three?¡± Reo asked. ¡°I thought I took out most of those clay soldiers. And what happened to Erind?¡±

    ¡°Turns out there were more clay soldiers,¡± Everett said. He turned to Deen. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay though.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay too,¡± Deen said with a plain voice behind her balaclava mask.

    ¡°What about me?¡± Reo said. ¡°There was a giant tank that could have destroyed me!¡± He pointed at the side of the van.

    ¡°You got chased by a tank?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°More like a truck with a big gun,¡± Johann said. Wait a minute, didn¡¯t we already talk about this? No, that was just with Ento. That¡¯s annoying. I mentally fast-forwarded as both groups got caught up.

    ¡°Did you guys see the giant werewolf Adumbrae?¡± Reo asked. My brain stopped fast-forwarding. ¡°You should have seen her chest, it had the biggest-¡±

    ¡°No, we were too busy running for our lives!¡± Myra interrupted.

    ¡°Anyways, isn¡¯t it kind of crazy that hot Adumbrae keep showing up to fight the 2Ms?¡± Reo asked. ¡°First, there was that supermodel chick that saved Erind at the mall, and now there¡¯s this female werewolf Adumbrae trashing the 2M¡¯s bases.¡±

    Technically, those Adumbrae were me. And SpookyErind too.

    ¡°We still don¡¯t know their allegiance,¡± Dario said. ¡°Even if they¡¯re enemies of the 2M¡¯s, that doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯re our allies.¡±

    ¡°But they have helped me,¡± I innocently said. ¡°That has to count for something?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but keep your guard up,¡± Dario said. ¡°Just because they¡¯re friendly now, doesn¡¯t mean they won¡¯t stab us in the back later.¡±

    I smirked internally at the irony of that. While my current face was friendly to the group, I did plan on stabbing 3 people in the back later. Myra for trying to kill me. And Dario and Everett for leaving me to die. Of course, I wasn¡¯t planning to actually stab them in the back with a knife. Would the knife break if I applied enough strength when stabbing them?

    But Myra definitely was going to die. She probably thinks we¡¯re friends now because of our near-life-death experience with Slinky. But Rule #4 had to be enforced.

    Wait a minute, the potential backstabbing thing also applied to SpookyErind. She was protective of me now. She says that she isn¡¯t taking over my body. But what about in the future? Could I really trust her words?

    Everyone knows that Adumbrae will eventually take over your body. Were there any ways to stop this? I had an artificial Core. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s really doing anything to stop SpookyErind. I guess there was the 2M¡¯s. They were working on stuff to turn people into Adumbrae. Surely they had something to keep themselves in control.

    We might find it in one of our next missions. How would SpookyErind react though once we get to it? Would she throw a fit?

    I hope not. I haven¡¯t summoned her. What if I just never summoned here again? Would I be safe from having my body taken over? But I might be more vulnerable. I might have died to that Slinky bitch if SpookyErind wasn¡¯t around. Would I be putting myself in danger if SpookyErind never existed.

    Ugh. Why couldn¡¯t things be simple?

    ¡°It¡¯s great we freed those hostages,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°We probably could have saved more,¡± Deen said, sounding slightly upset.

    We probably would have been blown up by the BID then. I kept that comment to myself. I don¡¯t think it would be fitting of me to ruin the mood.

    At least saving the hostages was simple. A triumph for my hero face! I didn¡¯t really interact with any of them, but saving people is what heroes do. Will any of them be on the news tomorrow morning? What if the police take credit for freeing them? Fucking bastards.

    The police. Something clicked in mind. This didn¡¯t make sense.

    ¡°Hey Myra,¡± I began. ¡°Did you tell the police we had hostages?¡± I was knocked out when the police started shouting at us. But something was fishy. Why would the police tell us to release the hostages rather than just opening fire on a bunch of people in suspicious outfits with a giant tree monster?

    ¡°Uh, no,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°How did the police know that we had those people then?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Maybe they had drone or satellite footage?¡± Reo said.

    ¡°But the BID was already targeting us,¡± I replied. ¡°If they were targeting us, then wouldn¡¯t they tell the police to corner us? That would seem like the logical thing to do. But the police just lets nonhuman people go?¡±

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Myra said. ¡°The 2M¡¯s got the police to take the hostages back.¡±

 2.26 - Myra Fletcher (Barb) / Amber Deen Leska

    Myra Fletcher (Barb)

    Myra gritted her teeth. She hadn¡¯t expected to be fooled by the 2M¡¯s.

    But it should have been obvious that the 2M¡¯s weren¡¯t just going to let all the people they kidnapped get away. And they had the money and the connections to make it happen. Myra and the others had suspected before that the 2M¡¯s had connections with the police. They could probably have a precinct covering each of their bases.

    ¡°Could we raid the police station to free them?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°The police had ComExos and drones,¡± Dario pointed out. ¡°We won¡¯t stand a chance against them. Besides, we don¡¯t know where they are going. They could be going to the police station. Or they could be going to other bases of the 2M¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°How about tracking them down?¡± Myra asked. ¡°You can get the camera footage right Johann?¡±

    ¡°Sure, but it might take some time,¡± Johann replied. ¡°Wherever the footage is being stored isn¡¯t the same as where the traffic light systems are.¡±

    ¡°We can focus on the footage later,¡± Dario said. ¡°We should probably get out of here first.¡±

    ¡°Uh, good idea,¡± Johann said. ¡°Myra, could you seal up the hole?¡±

    Myra nodded and started growing bark to cover the van''s hole. It would still look weird, but probably a lot less weird than with the hole, and a lot less likely to be pulled over. She tried her best to make the bark look like straight wood planks, making it seem as human-made as possible.

    Talking about weird, Dario changed the subject to looking for the hostages. Was he in on this? Myra had always had suspicions about Dario. Ever since Kelsey disappeared, Myra couldn¡¯t help but feel that Dario was somehow responsible. Still, she didn¡¯t have any proof.

    Maybe the 2M¡¯s really did kidnap Kelsey. Going after these kidnappees could be the key to finding Kelsey.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here,¡± Johann said. He started up the van and began driving back to their base. The white noise of the engine filled the van. Nobody spoke.

    ¡°The silence is killing the mood,¡± Reo said. ¡°We should celebrate when we get back.¡±

    ¡°Celebrate?¡± Myra asked. ¡°I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m in the mood for celebration. We should be trying to find the hostages.¡±

    ¡°Could be worse, nearly got my head blown off,¡± Reo said, pointing to the wall filled with Myra¡¯s bark. We should be happy everyone made it out alive, especially with this being our biggest mission yet. I¡¯m thinking of ordering a cake. What flavors do you all want?¡±

    Myra had the instinct to argue with him, but she stayed quiet. Generally, she would snap back when Reo was being a creepy ass. Maybe nearly dying changed him. Nah, he¡¯ll be back to his old annoying self tomorrow.

    Myra took a look at Erind. She was standing next to Deen.

    ¡°Good job,¡± Myra told her. ¡°You did pretty well back there.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s what happened,¡± Erind said. ¡°I kinda got knocked out by Slinky.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but you followed my lessons,¡± She said. ¡°You tried to keep your distance and use ranged attacks whenever possible.¡±

    ¡°Sure, I guess,¡± she replied. ¡°And thanks for keeping me safe when I got knocked out.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re teammates,¡± Myra said. ¡°I¡¯ll always make sure to protect you.¡±

    A bit of guilt built up inside of Myra as she lied. She was the one who attacked Erind before. She shouldn¡¯t have jumped to conclusions when she read Kelsey¡¯s note. Without Erind, she might not have survived this attack against the Adumbrae with a Fedora or Slinky. I wish I could apologize.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    Still, even though Erind was a Corebring and had helped save her, it was a bit suspicious that Adumbrae showed up to help her. At the mall, there was the red-hooded Adumbrae who fought her to save Erind. The red-hooded Adumbrae saving her could have been just a coincidence. But,  at the 2M¡¯s warehouse, there was the giant werewolf Adumbrae. The same one that Stella fought near the 2M¡¯s convoy. No way this was all just a coincidence. Especially when Ento was riding the werewolf Adumbrae. They had to be working together.

    Erind was somehow connected to these Adumbrae. Myra didn¡¯t know how much, but she did need to contact them. Whether it was the Professor or the 2M¡¯s that kidnapped Kelsey, Myra wasn¡¯t going to be strong enough to go against them herself. Of course, she did have Johann.

    But Johann was a powerless human. With the help of the red-hooded Adumbrae and the giant werewolf Adumbrae, she might actually stand a chance at freeing Kelsey.

    Now, how would she contact them? Should she go up to Erind? There is a high chance that she would just deny it. Just like when she met the rest of the artificial Corebrings.

    She would just have to talk to them alone. At least the werewolf Adumbrae was friendly to her. It could have eaten her but chose not to.

    That¡¯s settled then. She would contact the Adumbrae working with Erind. Now she would just need Johann to do a favor for her; track Erind¡¯s location to figure out how she¡¯s working with the Adumbrae.

    Amber Deen Leska

    Why did celebrations always have to be with cake or pizzas? Why couldn¡¯t there be a healthy choice for a meal? Like a salad. Perfectly good and healthy. Deen always cringed when she had to eat sweets at a party.

    ¡°Can we have vanilla cake?¡± Erind asked.

    ¡°Can we have some carrot cake?¡± Deen asked. Of course, carrot cake wasn¡¯t really that much healthier than cake. But it was a bit healthier.

    ¡°Seriously Deen?¡± Erind asked.

    ¡°What?¡± Deen said. ¡°It¡¯s better than no vegetables at all.¡±

    ¡°Celebrating with vegetables?¡± Erind countered.

    ¡°We have to stay fit,¡± Deen replied, folding her arms.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think a few calories is going to make a difference,¡± Erind said.

    ¡°How about we split the difference then,¡± Deen replied. ¡°Vanilla carrot cake.¡±

    ¡°I feel like that is just carrot cake,¡± Erind said.

    ¡°Did you refuse to eat your vegetables when you were younger?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°First of all, non-sequitur,¡± Erind pointed out. ¡°Second, of all, I always made sure to eat my vegetables. My Mom rewarded me with sweets because I ate all the vegetables.¡±

    Deen pictured in her mind Erind¡¯s Mom giving her a platter of cookies right after Erind ate some asparagus. The scene caused her to laugh.

    ¡°Well, Ms. Perfect Child, then you should be fine with carrots,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°I definitely am,¡± Erind replied.

    ¡°Then I¡¯ll reward you with cake afterward,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t the deal!¡± Erind said. ¡°Also, you¡¯re not my mom.¡± Both of them giggled.

    Erind was the polar opposite of her when it came to food. Deen was a health nut. Erind had a sweet tooth. She made a note to buy Erind more sweets. She loved seeing her best friend being happy.

    Her best friend¡­ who was working with an Adumbrae. Deen couldn¡¯t believe it. Why was Erind working with that red-hooded Adumbrae? Deen wished the 2M¡¯s cameras had better audio quality because she couldn¡¯t hear what was going in that room with Ento and the red-hooded Adumbrae.

    Erind seemed way too nonchalant about that Adumbrae. Even if that Adumbrae saved her a couple of times, that didn¡¯t mean she was trustworthy. What if that Adumbrae was just using her to get eat more? That werewolf form the red-hooded Adumbrae could transform into was scary. Its teeth were so large. And don¡¯t Adumbrae become more powerful by eating humans and Adumbrae? What if the red-hooded Adumbrae decided that it wanted to eat Erind?

    Deen couldn¡¯t let that happen!

    Besides, it didn¡¯t seem that Adumbrae woman was interested in freeing the hostages. It just seemed like she wanted to fight the 2M¡¯s for more power. Deen would need to warn Erind about her. Now probably wasn¡¯t the right time. It would ruin the mood.

    Back at the base, everyone was eating the carrot cake. But guilt began building up inside of her. Here she was celebrating, while all of those hostages were put right back in the clutches of the 2M¡¯s. How were they even going to free them? They were way back at step 1.

    Maybe Deen should have just stuck with them. But her Guardian Angel told her to split from the group. That was so unfair. It only cared about her safety. Not the safety of the other people.

    ¡°You look upset,¡± Erind pointed out, bringing her out of her thoughts.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± Deen hummed. ¡°I was just thinking about the hostages.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll get them back,¡± Erind said.

    ¡°How can you be so sure?¡± Deen asked.

    ¡°Because I have a guardian angel of my own,¡± Erind replied.

    ¡°Wait what?¡± Deen gasped.

    ¡°I was just joking,¡± Erind giggled. ¡°But we found their base once, so why wouldn¡¯t we be able to find them again?¡±

    ¡°I guess my failure is making me feel guilty,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say it¡¯s a failure,¡± Erind said. ¡°We wrecked one of their bases. And now there¡¯s one less of them. And we got out alive too.¡±

    Erind¡¯s optimism was amazing. Deen smiled. She would make sure to protect Erind. Even if she failed to protect the hostages, she still had her best friend. And she was going to make sure that red-hooded Adumbrae would never take her away.

 2.27

    ¡°Thanks for the optimism Erind,¡± Deen said.

    ¡°You''re welcome,¡± I said. ¡°How about you give me sweets as a reward?¡±

    Deen laughed. And then her face got stuck.

    Uhh. I looked at the rest of my teammates. They were also frozen.

    The sweet taste of vanilla carrot cake graced my tongue. Except, that didn¡¯t make much sense since I had finished all of mine.

    You should have saved some for me, SpookyErind said, holding a plate of vanilla carrot cake. She used her clawed gauntlet to eat out of it.

    ¡°I sort of wanted a break from you,¡± I honestly said turning towards her voice. It felt like it took forever to turn. I saw both myself and her. She had her mask on and was sitting on a chair. The mask quickly dissolved away, showing a marble version of my cute face.

    You wound me, myself, SpookyErind pouted.

    ¡°You seem perfectly fine to me,¡± I quipped.

    Sadly, I am not, she replied. Myself is not treating me with love.

    ¡°I think I love myself very much,¡± I said while wrapping myself in a hug.

    Are you sure about that? She said.

    ¡°100%,¡± I replied. ¡°Sorry if that doesn¡¯t include you though.¡±

    It does include me, she said as the carrot cake vanished into thin air. She got up from her chair. How about we have a talk.

    ¡°To be fair, we are surrounded by other people,¡± I said. ¡°Did you freeze time?¡±

    Do you see a golden bubble? She asked. Nope. Definitely no golden bubble here. I did see she was wearing her cool space admiral outfit. I should definitely get one.

    ¡°We¡¯re inside my head?¡± I said.

    Bingo! she cheered. She got up and dashed towards me. It nearly looked like she had teleported. Her arms wrapped around me.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to¨C¡± I got cut off as she kissed me. I tried moving my head back, but she just leaned her head forward as well. I could feel her tongue come out of her mouth. No way. I wasn¡¯t going to do tongue kissing with her. Her tastebuds picked up a pinch of salt.

    Eventually, she released my lips from hell. A long hell that felt like it lasted several hours. I tried to push myself away from her but my body felt weak and sluggish.

    We¡¯re blushing, SpookyErind giggled. Both of our cheeks were red.

    ¡°Hey, can¡¯t you see we''re in the middle of a party?¡± I deflected. ¡°Why are you having public displays of affection in front of my teammates?¡± I tried to point at them, but SpookyErind had me wrapped up in a hug.

    Are we in the middle of a party? She asked, releasing me from that oppressive hug. She turned around.

    My teammates were gone. The room we were in shrunk. No, not shrunk, it was changed. A mirror laid on the wall. I saw myself in the reflection. But blood was dripping down my nose. And my face was full of bruises.

    ¡°What?¡± I asked.

    It was very bad of you to hit yourself in the face and try to cut off the lovely crystal on your hand, SpookyErind chided. Her gloved hand grabbed my right hand and traced around the crystal with her gauntlet.. Aren¡¯t you glad you can regenerate?

    I knew what she was referring to. Back when I got home after Myra turned me into a shish kabab, I tried to cut myself with a knife to try and become human again. That sounds really stupid in hindsight.

    It was! SpookyErind pouted. Thankfully, you made the smart decision afterward and stopped cutting yourself.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you bring me to my condo?¡± I asked.

    It¡¯s our home away from everything else, she said. We can have all the displays of affection here.

    Eww.

    You were blushing! SpookyErind called out. I hate that she could read my mind.

    ¡°Is there a specific reason you decided to talk to me?¡± I asked. ¡°Or did you just want to smother me with hugs?¡±

    Definitely hugs, she said, opening her arms out for me. I just stood there. I think I met my SpookyErind love limit for the night. But I also wanted to talk to you about everything that¡¯s happened so far.

    ¡°What about it?¡± I asked.

    I just wanted to congratulate you on a job well done, she said with a smile. It somehow felt genuine and not the playful grin she usually put on for me.

    ¡°Thanks?¡± I replied. ¡°But I felt like it was more of you doing the hard work.¡±

    We¡¯re one and the same, so we share the rewards, she replied. Rewards? Besides, you did a lot of the important stuff.

    ¡°Huh? What are you referring to?¡± I asked, raising my brow.

    You know, convincing the team to attack the 2M¡¯s, and keeping your face up when our main body got knocked out.

    ¡°For the first one, I was just appealing to my teammates¡± I replied. ¡°It helps that it wasn¡¯t entirely made up. The 2M¡¯s were kidnapping people and experimenting on them. Just had to leave out the details of what I did to them. Just had to craft a face around all of this.¡±

    We had so much fun with them, SpookyErind replied. It was like when you were a kid.

    ¡°It did,¡± I said. I had fond memories back then. So many insects I experimented on. Maybe I should have become an entomologist instead of a lawyer. Nah, I wasn¡¯t much of a science person. That stuff was for my parents. ¡°Anyways, going back to my teammates. It was pretty easy to convince them to attack the 2M¡¯s. The real challenge came later when my main body got knocked out. I had to improvise and add to my hero face. ¡®How would someone react to being saved by an Adumbrae?¡¯¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    SpookyErind stared at me, waiting for me to respond. It was like she was at a campfire hearing about some wild story. And I was the campfire.

    ¡°Very confused,¡± I said.  ¡°And when they were confused as well, I added bits and sprinkles of my own ¡®theories¡¯. For example, when I said the Adumbrae were having a civil war for some reason, Besides, it tracks with the story I made up when Myra attacked me.¡±

    SpookyErind clapped. See, you¡¯re amazing! I love listening to myself speak.

    ¡°Why thanks for the applause,¡± I bowed.

    You¡¯re welcome, she said. Do you feel a lot better about the mission?

    ¡°I guess I do,¡± I said. ¡°I haven¡¯t really felt that thrilled in ages to use and modify a face. Did you do all this to try and make me feel better?¡±

    Yep, I¡¯m so proud of you, she said, brandishing a knife. Wait what? The knife was drenched in blood.

    ¡°Wha-¡± I got cut off.

    I have to clean up the mess you made, she said, taking the knife to the kitchen. This was the same knife I used to try and cut the crystal out of my hand.

    ¡°I don¡¯t feel as good now,¡± I said. At least she didn¡¯t stab me with it.

    I would never harm myself, SpookyErind said as she walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet.

    ¡°Why do you need to wash that knife anyway?¡± I asked, trying to move to the kitchen. My body felt slow and sluggish as if I was moving through syrup. Not that I¡¯ve ever tried that, but that¡¯s what it felt like. ¡°Isn¡¯t this all in my head?¡±

    Because it¡¯s important, SpookyErind said with a grin as she used a sponge to clean the knife.

    ¡°Important?¡± I asked as I finally made it to the kitchen. I could see her from here cleaning the knife. And then through her vision, I saw the knife even closer. Why are knives important? ¡°How so?¡±

    Why do you think? SpookyErind asked. Was this a fucking riddle? Language.

    ¡°Mom, is this a riddle?¡± I slyly asked.

    It shouldn¡¯t be, my dear Erind, SpookyErind responded, turning off the sink. She held the knife up to the ceiling. Light bounced off of it now that it was no longer stained with blood.

    I didn¡¯t like the tone of what she said. It felt like she was being condescending to me. As if I was a kid.

    Compared to me, you are a kid, she said, putting up the knife with the rest of my utensils. She twirled around. I¡¯m way older than you.

    ¡°I thought we were one and the same?¡±  I asked, trying to put my hands on my hips. Seriously, why was my body so slow here? It looked like I was doing some awkward dance move because of how glacially slow my hands were.

    That¡¯s right, SpookyErind laughed. It felt like the laughter echoed everywhere inside my mind.

    ¡°So how are you older than me and also the same as me?¡± I asked.

    It¡¯s the same way cleaning the knife was important, she said, walking up to me.

    ¡°What?¡± I asked, trying to piece together her nonsense. ¡°Can you stop talking in riddles?¡±

    Riddles? She giggled, as she grabbed my shoulders. My hands had finally made it to my hips. What I¡¯m saying is obvious. It¡¯s like a metaphor. You have to take care of yourself. Just like I did with the knife, it¡¯s no good if it¡¯s covered in blood.

    ¡°I still don¡¯t get the metaphor,¡± I said. ¡°But you want me to take care of myself? Like not harming myself anymore? I¡¯ve already committed to that.¡±

    Not just that, she said, staring into my eyes. Her red eyes seemed to sparkle. I¡¯ve been eating for you, but you also need to eat for me.

    ¡°Are you talking about the face you gave me?¡± I asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t really have a chance to use it at the warehouse.¡±

    She nodded, releasing me from her grip. It¡¯s a shame then since you had access to it. That face is one of my favorites.

    ¡°One of your favorites?¡± I asked. ¡°You have more faces to give me?¡±

    Yep! You¡¯re so smart! She cheered. And that means I¡¯m smart too! She held out her gauntlet and golden liquid emerged from it. It slowly formed into a mannequin mask with some weird symbol on its forehead. It was silver chrome in color, almost robotic like.

    If you fulfill two conditions, then I will offer you this, she said, offering the mask out to me.

    ¡°What are those conditions?¡± I asked. ¡°I assume one of them involves me eating?¡±

    Correct, she said. I¡¯ve been doing a lot of the eating for you. I won¡¯t be as involved next time.

    ¡°Huh? Why?¡±

    You¡¯re going to have a lot of fun, she winked. Did she mean eating other Adumbrae? Or something else?

    ¡°Also, what was that other condition?¡± I asked.

    You have to show that you love me, she said.

    ¡°What?!¡± I blurted out. ¡°I mean, what kind of condition is that?¡±

    It¡¯s the condition to get this face from me, she said, putting her hands on her hips. I¡¯ve given you a lot of love, but you haven¡¯t been reciprocating.

    ¡°Reciprocating?¡± I snorted. ¡°I felt like I¡¯ve done enough not attacking you for invading my personal space. That¡¯s not even bringing up the fact you''re an Adumbrae that could be taking over my body.¡±

    SpookyErind glared at me. Uncomfortable thoughts formed in my mind. What if she kept me here forever as retribution? I definitely didn¡¯t want to be stuck here. I wasn¡¯t in the mood for eternal dream torture. Maybe it was best to be more reconciliatory.

    You can start by giving me some love, she said with her arms wide open, the traces of her anger gone. Does she just want a hug? Ugh. Better get this over with.

    I wrapped my arms around her awesome suit. She wrapped her arms around me.

    Now, I need a kiss, she whispered in front of me. Really? My gut whined at me not to do this. But I wanted this over quickly. I leaned in and gave her a quick peck. At least on physical contact she didn¡¯t feel disgusting, unlike humans.

    ¡°Is that all?¡± I asked. Please say yes. I internally chanted.

    Not yet, say you¡¯re sorry for being mean to me earlier, she said.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for being mean to you,¡± I said.

    The word sorry was like a foreign concept to me. Forgiveness? That didn¡¯t exist with Rule #4. I have said it before, but most of the time it held no real significance for me other than to uphold the social norms that my face would follow.

    Thanks, she said as she leaned in and gave me a peck ,and began giggling. The giggling picked up in intensity. What the fuck? Eventually, it stopped and she spoke to me again. I do love myself. Meyoumeyoumeyou.

    It was that phrase again.

    ¡°Actually, on the topic of meyoumeyou yada yada, how is it that you''re older than me but also the-¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about Erind?¡± Deen asked me. How the fuck did she get here?

    She was sitting in a chair to the right of me. Next to her was a trashcan of empty plates.

    Did SpookyErind end the dream when I was asking her a question?

    ¡°I was just wondering how much older you were than me,¡± I said. ¡°Since we¡¯re having a party with cake, it just kind of reminded me about a birthday party. And that¡¯s why I was asking how much older you are than me.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re the same age,¡± Deen said. ¡°But I¡¯m only a few months older than you. Haven¡¯t I told you this before?¡±

    ¡°Maybe,¡± I said. ¡°Anyways, was the cake delicious?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I really enjoyed the carrots,¡± she said.

    I fake laughed. ¡°I really enjoyed the sweets.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you got some nutrition at least,¡± she replied, patting me on the back. Stop that, I¡¯m not a kid. I wanted to yell at her. But I stayed quiet to not sour the mood. It would also be out of character for my best friend face.

    Speaking of nutrition, I had a lot of monsters and Adumbrae to eat. Our next mission at the Eve sounded like a big buffet. And maybe I would find out why SpookyErind was being so cryptic with me about everything.