I grabbed the tentacles coming at me and sliced them with the rock. Full caveman with primitive tools! More chopped tentacles followed. This rock was sharper than expected. Probably more accurate to say everything was fucking sharp with enough super strength.

My limbless opponent screeched as it retreated.

Behind it, I saw Deen sprint through the parasite monsters attacking Vacuum Hands. She avoided and parried their attacks. She didn’t stay to fight any, instead rushing past them to Tall Ginger.

A squat humanoid with long claws had pounced on shirtless Tall Ginger. Splashes of red. He screamed for help. Vacuum Guy shouted something but got enveloped by several monsters. The other survivors were useless, stuck to the walls, paralyzed with fear. They didn’t raise a finger to help.

Deen tackled the parasite monster attacking Tall Ginger.

I couldn’t see what happened next because a bastard with scythe blades blocked my view. I raised my arm to stop its slash. The edge bit an inch into my arm.

“That fucking hurts, you praying mantis shit,” I cursed in a low voice. I caught the next blade with my left hand. I gripped it tight—the blade went deeper into my palm. Then I pulled it down and brought my foot on the joint connecting the weapon to its arm.

“Skrreeea!” my opponent squealed, its stumpy limb spraying black slime.

I cut its other arm with its own blade. “Thanks for this gift!” Another swing and its head went flying.

Of course, it wasn’t dead yet. Parasite monsters were hardy weeds. To put them down for good, one had to kill the host and the gross slugs within. And I couldn’t see where those were without Pino’s x-ray, life force, whatever vision.

Headless and armless, the praying mantis bastard still stood. Tiny tentacles wiggled out its neck and severed arms.

“I don’t have time for this,” I grumbled, kicking its exoskeleton-covered torso. It went tumbling into more monsters, clearing a way for me.

With my shiny—and smelly, and slimy—new weapons, I cut through the disgusting crowd to help Vacuum Hands. He had a peculiar codename related to Alice in Wonderland, but I couldn’t recall it.

Apparently, he and Tall Ginger, still alive and screaming somewhere I couldn’t see, had been teleported here too. I hadn’t noticed them when Deen and I, as Pino, found the hostages imprisoned by the Tea Party in the heart of their base. I was too busy looking for Mom’s white hair among the dozens of people.

That and I didn’t care about them.

Vacuum Hands managed to surface from the monster pile.

“Damn you all!” he shouted, reaching for any part of his attackers he could grab.

The hole in his palms sucked parasite monsters, tearing them into small chunks to forcibly fit them through the tiny opening. Flesh, bones, and even black slime went down the drain. It was like the worst pool drain accidents combined in one.

Vacuum Hands stood his ground despite several monsters biting, stabbing, and clawing his body. I thought it was some suicidal tactic—though his power was neat, there were too many monsters—but then his injuries healed at a surprisingly rapid rate. A gaping wound from a slash stitched together the next second. It had something to do with his sucking thing. Imani must’ve explained it when she revealed herself to Deen and me, but much of what she said had left through my other ear.

And that brought back the question of what to do with these two.

If we let them reunite with Imani, they’d be additional headaches when we’d kill her. This place should be their tomb. Wow, that’s a badass line!

“Snark! Snark, answer me!” cried out Vacuum Hands. “Are you okay?”

Snark! Right, that was Tall Ginger’s name.

Vacuum Hands should be more concerned with himself. Tentacles caught his arms and drew them to the sides, rendering his powers unusable and threatening to rip him apart. A squad of scaly gremlins clambered up his body and gnawed his shoulder and elbow joints. The parasite monsters seemed to have a few brain cells for strategy.

“Why can’t we just leave them to die?” I groaned before jumping into the monster mosh pit, my blades ready. Unfortunately, I had to go along with Deen’s heroic antics. She probably couldn’t handle the guilt of watching people die.

Yet.

She’d eventually come around, just like she did with the frat boys. Deen wouldn’t let her poor Adumbrae best friend get exposed, would she?

Spiked tendrils wrapped around my waist and legs. A tingle of disgust ran up my spine. As the tendrils tightened, the spikes bit into my skin.

“Don’t touch me!” I went into a rampage.

I swung my blades as hard as I could, not caring if the edge was angled the right way. Swords became blunt weapons as I hammered anything that moved. Soon, my weapons broke from too much whacking. I switched to using my fists and legs, remembering my lessons with Myra.

Not really. I didn’t bother to punch correctly. I wildly thrashed as if a cockroach had crawled into my shirt, sending parasite monsters, or pieces of them, flying away.

“Calm down! We’re allies!” Vacuum Hands shouted at me. He got free from the tentacles and was removing the little gits gnawing at his body. I was doing the ancient martial arts helicopter style, and my fists nearly connected with him. “You’re Erind, correct?”

I touched my mouth to check if my mask had fallen off.

“We met at the Tech Fair,” Vacuum Hands said. The gremlin he held disintegrated, its pieces disappearing into his hands. “I remember—” he looked in Deen’s direction, then back to me “—your shirt.”

My shirt? I was covered with dirt and black goo. “You’re Imani’s friend.” I bet he recognized Deen—anyone could recognize her body even if she got dunked in mud—and assumed who I was.

“Good to see that you’re fine now. I didn’t know you had an artificial Core.”

I didn’t reply, punching the shell of another insect-like monster to fill the silence. I could pretend to be an augmented human, but he’d know the truth sooner or later.

Or never, if he died here.

“Appreciate the assist,” he said. “I really do. You saved our toast asses.”

“We’re on the same team,” I replied.

“Let’s get Snark so we can escape!”

The survivors—five of them—were crawling at the far end of the room, taking advantage of our arrival to make their escape. They headed for a small tunnel partially blocked by a pillar that fell diagonally across it. I was surprised that they didn’t wait for us. Were they seriously going on their own?

Turning to the left corner on that side, Deen tended to Tall Ginger—Snark, rather—on the floor. She tore his shirt into strips and tied his wounds. Did she know how to make a turn-bouquet, turn-a-coat, or whatever was that stopping bleeding thing? Tourniquet?

Vacuum Hands made his way to them. I followed him. His power was well-suited for dealing with parasite monsters. Once vacuumed, they were gone for good. In contrast, the ones I tore or squished were putting themselves back together.

“Is Snark okay?” I asked—stupid question. But I wanted to appear caring to mask future betrayal. I even used Tall Ginger’s codename to sound sincere.

“This will have to do until we get medical help.” Vacuum Hands redid Deen’s handiwork. Snark groaned in pain as Vacuum Hands tightened the wraps before knotting them secure.

“Sorry if I got it wrong, Boojum.” Deen looked at her bloody hands.

Boojum’s the codename of Vacuum Hands? Such a funny-sounding word.

“I just tied the strips of cloth around the wound,” Deen continued. “I don’t know what to do to the wound on his chest.”

“Don’t worry, you did great,” Boojum said, lying through his teeth. I stopped my eyes from rolling. “For limbs, we tie above the wounds. For anywhere else, like the gas chest wound. We’ll apply pressure.”

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“Can you do the pressure thing while moving?” I looked over my shoulder. Some of the parasite monsters had stood up. They grabbed pieces of their friends with their tentacles and assimilated those into their bodies.

“If this was any other situation, we shouldn’t move Snark.” Boojum rummaged around his pockets and brought out a small pen. He jabbed Snark’s neck with it. “But you’re right, we can’t stay here.”

“What was that?” I asked.

“Adrenaline concoction. Helps with bleeding. A gift from the Professor.”

“Handy for normal people.”

“Normal people?” Deen scanned the room. “The survivors! Where did they go? They were just—"

“Through there.” I pointed at the tunnel. “Dunno why they were in such a hurry to leave.”

Boojum carried Snark in his arms and nudged his head to the exit. “You girls go first.”

Girls? I thought with a smirk. Deen and I were stronger than this sucky asshole, but he had to be all protective while carrying his injured friend. This was one of the most predictable traits of men and the easiest to manipulate. I might goad Boojum into sacrificing himself for us, and then it was easy to ‘accidentally’ finish off Snark without Deen’s suspecting a thing.

We needed an enemy, a strong one, to force Boojum into becoming a macho hero.

Deen crawled under the pillar barring the tunnel. “Looks like it’s safe. The other hostages aren’t here.” I followed in after her.

“Pass Snark to us,” I told Boojum. Deen and I pulled Snark through the gap. He was unconscious but still breathing. Too bad.

Boojum followed after. “Block the way! Quick!” Through the gaps, we saw the parasite monsters had merged into a blob of spikes resembling a gooey giant sea urchin. Boojum rained punches on the middle section of the pillar.

I joined in, taking care not to punch harder than him even though I could. Cracks spread through the concrete surface.

“Excuse me! Coming through!” Deen called from behind us.

Boojum and I stepped aside as a huge rock flew and landed at the point where the pillar sagged. The post broke, and the part of the ceiling it held up fell. Just in time. The rolling sea urchin smashed against the rubble on the other side.

“Get right on moving!” Boojum said. He picked up his friend, who was turning pale. The sea urchin continued to slam against the blockage.

Our group hurried down the passage while Deen called out for other people.

“Where are you?” Deen shouted. “We’re here to help!”

“Don’t bother,” Boojum said. “We’ll find them eventually.”

“Why did they separate from us?” I asked. Boojum and Snark must’ve done something that made those people think it was better to risk the monsters roaming the tunnels.

After several seconds of silence, punctuated by Snark’s groans of pain, Boojum sighed. “Okay, I’ll tell you. Do you know how my power works? Has Imani told you?”

“Yeah, she did,” I said. “And I saw it in action too. You can suck—”

“Absorb,” he curtly interjected.

Whatever. “You can absorb like bodies and stuff to heal yourself.”

“I suppose you can guess why those people are afraid to be near me.”

Deen gasped. “Did you absorb a person?”

“A dead body,” Boojum tersely clarified. Deen and I looked at each other. Boojum was behind us, so he couldn’t see our expressions, but he could guess what we were thinking. “A man shot by Tea Party. I ran past him when the earthquakes started. Both my legs got crushed by the falling ceiling…”

And he droned on and on.

It sounded like he was rationalizing more to himself than telling us the story. I personally didn’t care if he vacuumed his own mother to save himself. If I had his power, would I vacuum Mom?

Maybe if she was dead.

Anyway, that wasn’t the point.

Boojum was still talking. “…it was by the Mother Core’s Grace that a dead body was there for me to—”

“Have you seen Pino?” Deen loudly interrupted Boojum. She gave me a conflicted stare, clearly uncomfortable with his ramblings. “Both of us got transported here, but we split up.”

“I haven’t seen her,” Boojum said. “I was inside a cell along with Snark and other people until the doors opened. It must’ve been Pino who did it with advanced robot hacking.”

Robot hacking? If only I had that power.

I thought Deen would present herself as their true savior, but instead, she asked, “Have you seen a tall, middle-aged woman with pure white hair.” She described Mom, including her clothes. Boojum hadn’t seen anyone like her. Deen gave me an assuring smile.

I nodded in return. I pictured Deen would bawl her eyes out when we met Mom. And I hoped Mom was safe wherever that creepy old gnome teleported her.

If she ended up in danger, I would taxidermy that gnome and sell him as a garden ornament.

Oh, and I’d kill Vanessa again. And all her familiars too.

Though we passed a few side tunnels, they had collapsed, leaving only one path. There were also traces of blood on the floor. The hostages were somewhere ahead of us. We hadn’t caught up to them because Boojum had to take it slow, carrying his friend.

Those people should die too, I thought.

Snark was too recognizable—two aug-legs, tall, red hair. Boojum, not so much; he was covered with monster grime from all the fighting. Deen and I had our masks on. And I doubted the surviving hostages got a good look at us.

Once the police rescued them, they’d be able to identify Snark. Countercheck him with security cam footage at the Tech Fair or something. Tracking Snark would lead to Imani and Imani to me. The list of people I had to kill was lengthening. Dammit!

This would’ve been easy if Deen wasn’t around. I could force her hand, the same as I did when we killed the frat boys. Time to draw the possessed-by-an-Adumbrae card, I guess.

“There’s some banging.” Deen, in the lead, slowed down.

“Enemy?” Boojum said.

“I don’t think so,” Deen said. “My power would’ve warned us.”

“Quite a helpful ability.”

“It’s them,” I said.

“They could be in danger,” Boojum said. “Pick up the pace, girls.”

This girl will kill you later, I thought.

Echoes of banging grew louder as we reached the end of the tunnel.

We entered a large room with crates and boxes stacked up to its two-story high rocky ceiling. A storage room of sorts? Past the corridor of containers, we came to a wide-open area and saw how big the place truly was, with the ceiling extending higher by a dozen more feet as we neared the center of the cave.

A wide circular shaft, covered by glass on one side, stood in the middle, punching up the rocks, presumably into the world above—an elevator. Our ticket out of here.

The five people who ditched Boojum and Snark were gathered around the elevator door. One of them, a burly man, hammered the gears at the sides with a metal pipe.

Besides us, no one was here.

Neither the parasite monsters nor the quakes damaged this place. Also, the Tea Party was nowhere to be seen. They must’ve left some other way.

Three other tunnels led out of the cavern. On the other side of the elevator shaft was a boxy structure built next to the cave wall. It had doors and glass windows, probably for overseeing operations. Through the windows, I spotted desks and computers. Must be an office.

Judging by the forklift and carts, this might be a cargo distribution center or something like that.

Boojum gently settled Snark on the floor. His friend was paler than I was, which was saying something. Boojum’s shirt was red with blood, and so were Snark’s bandages.

“Snark, buddy… we’ll be out soon.” Boojum’s voice cracked.

He closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, placing his hands on Snark’s unmoving chest. He bent down, probably to check for signs of breathing, but stopped and stood back up.

Opening his eyes, Boojum looked at us, face full of determination. “Stay here with him. I don’t want to spook the people over there any further.” He tilted his head towards the survivors who had noticed us. “I’m going to tell you when it’s okay to come help. We’re all going to get out of here. I promise.”

A Deen clone, I thought with amusement.

Boojum jogged to the elevator shaft. Shouting erupted, the survivors wary of him. I wanted to try to listen in, but Deen grabbed my arm.

“Erind, prepare for a fight,” she said.

“Did your Guardian Angel say something?” I asked.

“Gabe told me you should summon your mask, the wolf mask, the red thing.”

“I should transform?” I looked around for signs of danger while summoning Blanchette’s mask. “What’s going to come?”

“No, don’t wear it yet,” Deen said. “Gabe didn’t say anything else.”

“Huh? Why not? I thought—”

“I don’t know.” Deen also turned left and right. “Just wait for me to tell you when to put it on.”

“Okay. I trust you.” Dammit! I really hated when I was out of the loop about something. Deen’s Guardian Angel better have a good reason for this. And we still hadn’t seen our enemies.

“Look!” Deen said.

She pointed at a crate. No. At what was on top of the box.

Vanessa’s eye familiar?

I forgot about this little guy when we ran into Boojum’s group. It must’ve followed us all the way here. And what was it doing? It bobbed up and down on its legs. Then it tapped its front legs on the crate. A little dance of some sort?

“It’s telling us to get down,” Deen said.

“Down?”

A familiar ringing reverberated in the cavern. Teleportation!

Where was a door with a fucking doorknob? That was what Vanessa mentioned. The office? The office! It had doors!

Deen dove on top of me and pulled me to the ground. “Stay down!”

One of the office doors had changed into a different one. It swung open and out charged several men with guns. They opened fire at the people tinkering with the elevator.

“No!” Deen cried.