“Still nothing,” I said. I pressed the down button a couple more times just to make sure. No blinking lights, no rumblings of the elevator moving, no ticking numbers. “Looks like the Adumbrae have really turned them off somehow,” I said.

We descended the stairs to check a couple more floors, killing some weak monsters along the way, and confirmed that the elevators were indeed disabled. I punched its metal door. I wasn’t angry or anything; I just though it would’ve been a cool moment if I could make a dent on it, but I was too weak to pull off cool moves. Wouldn’t cracking concrete be cooler? Note to self, punch a concrete wall until it cracks when I return to my not-so-normal body.

“They must be in control of the security room of the building,” Doms said while smoothing out Lizzie’s hair, careful that her blades didn’t hit her daughter. She surveyed our surroundings, her gaze stopping at the security camera on the right corner of the ceiling. “Who knows, they may already be looking at us.”

Paolo roared at the camera and did his stupid chest thumping thing again. (Come here, you fuckers!) he yelled in my head.

“Pao, stop making noise,” Julie said, kicking her brother’s legs. “So, um, Miss Pino, what do we do now?

“Continue going down the stairs?” Doms said.

I stared at the shiny metal door of the elevator, examining the reflection of the rag-tag band of survivors. behind me. Yeah, I think we can do it. Alone, I wasn't going to make it down the stairs fighting monsters while protecting my human body. Actually, I couldn't really fight back without puppets.

Now, with Doms and especially Paolo by my side, I had a realistic chance to escape with my human body unharmed using the stairs...unless we meet several monsters on the level of the gorilla monster.

What if we met Adumbrae?

If worse came to worst, I’d leave these guys behind as bait. Paolo would be especially easy to goad into fighting. Doms, on the other hand, would probably be the first to leave me if she had the chance to safely escape with her daughter; I’d just make sure to leave her before she could abandon me.

I turned to face them and nodded. “Yes, we don’t have any other way down except the stairs. We'll have to risk it.”

“Um…um,” Lizzie said, hopping on her toes while raising her hand.

Julie sighed. “Fortunately, we’re going down, not up. Imagine if we had to climb twenty floors—”

“Aunt Pino!” Lizzie frantically waved her hand.

“I’m sorry the elevators here don’t work,” I said to her. “I recall it was your suggestion to go here.”

“It’s still a good choice to come here,” Doms said, patting her daughter to comfort her, “because there are fewer monsters here.”

“True that. And we also saved Paolo and Julie.”

Lizzie stamped her foot in frustration. “No! The big elevator!”

“The big elevator?” I pointed at the two elevators behind me.

“Those are not big!”

Doms snapped her fingers. “The freight elevator!”

“Oh yeah! That one! We forgot about that. Sorry, Lizzie.”

“That’s my baby girl,” Doms said. “All that fighting and we became too fixated on reaching these ones that we forgot about the freight elevator.”

Lizzie folded her arms with a look of superiority. “Hmph. See, I’m helpful.”

"If we could get to it, it's a quick ride to the basement parking. We could get to my car and escape."

"Mommy, how about Daddy?"

"And if it's also not working," Doms said, raising her voice and ignoring Lizzie, "we can use the stairs there. There's practically no one in that area at this time, which means no one to turn into monsters."

"Unless some wandered over there," Julie said.

"Still our safest bet."

“Sounds like a plan," I said. "Where is it, anyway?” I wasn’t pretending not to know where it was because I was supposed to be an outsider who came to rescue Erind, I seriously didn’t know where the friggin’ freight elevator was. "Lizzie?"

“Uh…uh…I don’t know,” Lizzie said.

“I also can’t remember,” said Doms. She looked down at Lizzie who was on the verge of crying. “There, there, we’re not angry at you. We’ll go looking for it. It shouldn’t be hard to find.”

“Pao, didn’t dad have that massive bookcase delivered like three months ago? Weren’t you there when it arrived?” Her gorilla-brother nodded. “The delivery guys would’ve used the freight elevator. Do you remember where it was?”

“He said he does,” I told Julie, relaying what Paolo was saying in my mind. “He’s trying to remember…oh, he recalls the way, isn’t that right?” Paolo gave us a massive thumbs up. “Let's go,” I said. “I’d rather take the elevator than fight our way through, um—” I checked the floor number. “Eighteen floors of monsters.”

----------------------------------------

I led the way while Paolo gave instructions in my head. This wasn’t me showing a heroic side to build my face; this was simply the setup most beneficial to me. If I kept Paolo and Doms unscathed, then I'd have more firepower at my disposal; their safety directly benefited me. Furthermore, I preferred the two of them to be near my human body instead of being in front.

We encountered a few monsters. None of the dangerous eldritch-looking horribly mutated assholes, just mid-sized ones. Having had experience dealing with these guys, we had no problems taking them out and clearing the way. We also came across a few human corpses, but fortunately no more survivors. I say ‘fortunately’ because I didn’t want to add to our number. It would be harder to manage a bigger group.

“Left? You sure?” I said, peering down the hall. “This looks just like more empty rooms.”

Paolo scratched his head. (Er…hang on.)

“Is everything okay, Pao?”

“He said he’s getting confused because he knows the way, but on the 23rd floor. He’s trying to work out the way here.”

“Different layout?” Doms mused. “If you know the general direction…”

“You should’ve told us that earlier," Julie said.

“Don’t stress your brother,” said Doms. “Take your time, Paolo. We’re safe here. Let’s have a break while you collect your thoughts.”

“What if we returned to the 23rd floor?”

“That would take some time.” I looked around for any signs that would point us the right way. “Maybe if we could find a floor map or something—” Right above Paolo was an open vent. Spiky things were poking out of it, followed by the huge head of an insect monster. In a split-second, I decided against hijacking his body and moving him out of the way but instead I yelled, “Look out! Above you!”

The monster stabbed his back with its mantis-like blades. Paolo cried in pain, but he was able to grab the monster’s arms and pulled its blades out of his body. More guttural hollers came from him as the blades that were lined with hooks ripped out chunks of his flesh as he removed them. He threw the monster away and stumbled backward, apparently shocked by the pain.

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Doms charged at the human-sized mantis, stabbing it before it could get up on its numerous spindly legs. The insect monster tried to stab her back, but its blades couldn’t penetrate her armor.

Julie pulled Lizzie away from the commotion, then rushed behind the cart. She seemed to consider helping her brother, but he was flailing his arms from the pain, so decided to stay put and hide with Lizzie.

Yo! What the fuck, you kids? Don’t use my body as a shield.

“Paolo!” Julie yelled as he rolled on the floor from the pain. Black goo gushed out of his wounds. The gorilla monster wouldn’t have minded these kinds of injuries, but it was obviously the first time Paolo felt pain of this magnitude.

(Stand up, Paolo!) I blasted in his mind. (Fucking stand up and fight!)

I couldn’t heal him just yet because my healing finger was connected to Doms; it was counteracting my strength finger that was giving her the power to move in her heavy armor and fight the mantis monster.

There was a thud as another monster dropped from the open vent. This time it was a cockroach, about the size of a Rottweiler, with human legs sprouting from its underbelly. It scuttled towards my human body and the two girls hiding behind it.

Doms was fighting the mantis monster while Paolo hadn’t noticed the new insect, still preoccupied with his injuries. I couldn’t get to it in time. I stretched my hand, lined up the cockroach bastard with a random finger, and fired. As soon as I felt the connection, instead of using the untested power of this finger, I thought with all my might, (STOP!)

And it did stop!

Its legs beneath it seized up, folding to its stomach. Due to its momentum, it continued skidding across the floor, hitting the cart and toppling it over. But because I concentrated on keeping it immobilized, Julie and Lizzie were able to run away from it.

(DON’T MOVE!) Then, to Paolo’s mind, I broadcasted, (Get your ass up!) In that brief second I switched my focus to Paolo, the cockroach jumped back to its gross human feet. I quickly went back to trying to keep it paralyzed with my thoughts. Oh man, this is getting hard to keep track of everything.

A dark presence lurked in the mind of this bigass cockroach.

Jumbled, overwhelming, oppressive.

"What is this...?" I said.

That something threw me out of the cockroach monster’s mind.

“The hell?” I actually fell down after receiving the mental assault even though no one physically pushed me. It was like dreaming of falling, and then suddenly jerking awake, but ten times more jarring. Was that the parasite taking back control of its host? That was dangerous; I wouldn’t want it to connect to my mind.

The cockroach was up and about.

“Mommy!”

“Run away!” Doms yelled at the girls while still entangled with the mantis monster.

Lizzie didn’t listen to her mother but went back to the cart. She tugged at the white blanket covering my human body. “We have to save sleeping Erind!” Julie pulled her away and ran down the hall. The cockroach opened its carapace and unfurled gross leathery wings.

(Paolo! Stop that cockroach!) I said as the insect monster flapped its wings and went after the two girls.

Crunch!

Paolo moved with jaw-dropping speed for his size and caught the cockroach mid-flight, squishing it between his palms. He slammed his palm with the cockroach stuck on it against the wall. I felt a slight tremor. (You pieces of shit!) he raged inside my head.

(That’s already dead, enough of that!) I told him. (Help Doms!)

He grunted in acknowledgement and sauntered over to Doms. He pried open the blade arms of the mantis monster that was holding down Doms, and the two of them dismantled it. A creature that looked like an eel slinked out from the between chitinous plating of the monster.

(The parasite!) I pointed at it.

Doms stabbed its tail, pinning it to the floor to stop it from slithering into the crack beneath a door. Paolo flattened it on the ground with an open palm.

We didn’t move for a few seconds, as if expecting another monster to pop up.

“Okay, okay, we’re good,” I said. “That was a bit of a mess, but we’re good.” It just goes to show we had way easier time dealing with monsters if I used myself as bait to draw them to me.

Doms rushed to check on her daughter. Paolo slumped against the wall and slowly slid down to a sitting position, painting the wall behind him with the black goo from the wounds on his back.

Too bad I couldn’t move you out of harm’s way, I thought. “Hey, are you okay?” I wasn’t going to reveal that I could control him just yet. I was mildly surprised I was able to control the cockroach monster though, but I shuddered when I recalled what I assumed to be the mind of the parasite. It gave off an inexplicably disgusting vibe I’d rather avoid.

Julie knelt beside her brother. “Miss Pino, I think it’s better if you turn him back to human.”

Paolo vigorously shook his head while patting his sister’s shoulder. (Tell her I’m fine.)

“But you’re not fine,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “Your sister's right, you should—”

(No! We’ll lose this powerful transformation! I’m not going to copy that insect thing. It’s too weak.)

He was right. This transformation was our biggest asset. If we had no choice but to use the stairs, we'd really need this gorilla form with us. “If you want to stay that way, then at least let me heal you. But I need to focus my power on you. Where’s Doms—”

(No…no, no.) He stood up straight. (I said I’m fine. I was just surprised by the pain. But this body can take it, just needed some getting used to.) He pointed down the hallway. (I think I know where to go now. The pain jogged my memory.)

“Pao, are you really okay?” Julie asked, but he ignored her and continued walking.

(Tell her there's no problem. I don’t want to lose this body…its power…I don’t want to lose it.)

I shrugged and followed him. “He’s saying he knows the way. And, Julie, he wants you to know he’s doing fine.”

----------------------------------------

“Woah!” Lizzie said. “This is the way to the big elevator!”

“It’s the same on our floor…I mean your floor too?” I said to Lizzie, whom I was carrying in my arms. I hoped they wouldn’t notice my slip up there.

“Yup, it’s the same way. I remember this cor…corri…”

“Corridor,” Doms said. She was beside me pushing the cart with my human body.

"Corridor! It looks the same."

Julie rushed to the door of the freight elevator. “Oh my god, its on!” We hurried to get closer. “See, the lights are on. Yes!” She excitedly pressed the down button.

"Mommy, should we find Daddy so he can go with us?" Lizzie said.

"Oh, sweetie, um—"

“Wait a minute,” I said. “The numbers! I think it was already going down before Julie even pressed it."

“Wha—?”

"Someone is using it. Everyone, hide! Quick!” I gave Lizzie to Julie and shooed them away.

"Was I wrong to do that?" Julie said.

“Follow what Pino said. Hide over there!” Doms pushed the cart to the side before I even gave an explanation. “I get it. Are we going to fight?”

“I’ll be bait, as usual,” I said. “We’ll take them on. We have to try and take control of this elevator then decide what to do next.”

(Uh, guys…what’s going on?) Paolo said.

“If it gets ugly, you guys run. Don’t worry about me, I’m not going to die easily. But please do take care of Erind.”

“Will do,” Doms said. “Paolo, you stay at the right side. Keep yourself out of view. Wait for Pino’s instructions.”

(Er, guys…)

“Someone is using the elevator,” I explained. “Given that the Adumbrae have seemingly disabled the other elevators, there’s a chance the ones using this elevator are our enemies.”

(Ah! I understand now—)

“It’s here!”

Ding.

The elevator opened.

There were four assholes inside.

The guy nearest to the door carried what appeared to be a high-powered electroshock weapon. The two at his sides each had an assault rifle. The dude at the back touted a sawed-off shotgun and had some sort of machine the size of a briefcase slung over his shoulder. Most likely normal humans. They also didn’t look like the BID; I was slightly concerned the BID might already be attacking this place.

They were laughing loudly and chatting with each other. They weren’t expecting us.

Instant silence when they saw me.

“What the fuck are you?” The guy in the lead raised his weapon. “You don’t look like one of ours.”

An electric field enveloped me. “Ah!” I dropped to the floor. Streaks of electricity danced all over my body. “Please stop!”

“I'm gonna fry your one-eyed bitchass!”

Then I looked up at him. “Just kidding.”

I shot him with a finger and jumped in the elevator. Normal humans? I could easily fuck up normal humans.

Party time!