“Who are you?” I asked in a fake apprehensive voice, raising my fists. Jubjub’s here!

I did a good job hiding how pleased I was for correctly guessing she was tailing me. I’d done some pretty dumb shit in my life—okay, not some; a lot—but I was generally smart. My correct prediction about Jubjub was proof.

I came to these hills to call out Jubjub and confront her. Theo the Dead Monkey ruined all the scenarios I planned. Since yours truly was generally smart, I cooked up a new scenario. In this one, I expected Theo to follow me but didn’t know Jubjub was there too. Talking to Theo, I ‘accidentally’ spilled some info about my backstory, supposedly not expecting someone else to be listening.

“Dooonnn’t beee afraaaid, Eriind…” said the weird voice I took to be Jubjub’s in her shadow state.

“I’m not afraid,” I said. “You should be if you’re not going to show yourself soon.”

“It’sss meee…”

Theo’s body spasmed, making me wonder for a moment if he was still alive. Then he, or it, stayed still, just a corpse. Purple blood oozed out of his sliced neck, digging little furrows in the dirt as tiny streams rolled down the gentle slope—no more regenerating for him. It was fascinating to see the very clean slice Jubjub made. The bottom of Theo’s severed head showed a neat cross-section of his spine and neck muscles, looking like a fresh piece of steak.

I should be disgusted by that thought, but I wasn’t. Dunno if that was good or bad.

From beneath Theo’s large corpse, a dark sludge slinked away as if fleeing from the growing puddle of blood. The sludge zipped across the sand, almost a blur, not leaving any trace on the soil unlike the blood, and fled to the shade of a nearby short tree.

Something, or someone, began to emerge from it. My hidden audience decided to reveal herself; all my theatrics weren’t in vain.

“Jubilee,” I said. Her silhouette became recognizable as she rose out of the sludge as if on an elevator. Calling her by her real name should signal I wasn’t in an antagonistic stance. Though I much prefer her codename, which sounded funny, using it might subliminally put distance between us.

The dark form began to take color, and it was soon just Jubjub under the tree, the sludge gone. Her long black hair was tied in a bun behind her head, the first time I’d seen her with that style. The heat was probably getting to her. Which meant she was super uncomfortable in her long-sleeved turtle neck and pants. All black, of course. She was trying to compete with Theo for the dumbest outfit to wear under the blazing sun.

“Do your clothes have anything to do with your powers?” I asked with a chuckle to show it was to poke fun and not to investigate for a fight.

“They might…” She had a blank expression, which was her normal expression anyway. Her tensed posture betrayed her wariness.

How fast could she go back into her sludge form? And could I hurt her while she was that way? I bet I could.

Shadows around were pretty scarce. She didn’t have anywhere to flee towards even if she wanted to. Revealing herself meant she thought we could amicably talk—a good sign for my plans.

“I suppose I’m not one to criticize how you look,” I said to lighten the mood, gesturing at my body.

My clothes weren’t torn up to the point of being immodest, but they were practically write-offs. They were more earth than fabric, the blood mud caking me. I was also barefoot. My sandals, or what was left of them, were somewhere underground. That was now two pairs of footwear destroyed during this trip. My hand flew to my pocket. My wallet was still there; I could buy clothes later. As for my phone, I left it on the ship. Call it bullshit intuition that I sensed it might get trashed even though I didn’t plan any fighting earlier.

I held up my right arm—the fingerless glove from Deen was in tatters from the insane digging. I winced at the thought of the scolding I’d get from her because I didn’t take good care of it.

Better just admit to Deen what happened rather than cook up a lie. She’d super appreciate I told her the truth. She’d definitely forgive me. Weird though that I cared about what she thought. It was a hassle if she’d get angry, so there was that.

More mud hardened on my cheeks. Not my greatest look. I wiped my face and then tried to comb my hair into something orderly. Very sticky. I wished I were an actress in a horror or action movie. They could bathe in gore and come out still looking great.

There should be an empty beach somewhere nearby since this was an island, so I could wash up there. As for my clothes, there was nothing I could do about them. I could rob tourists or something. Desperate times.

Unless Jubjub would buy clothes for me? In a way, I was lucky she showed herself.

“Was it true what you said earlier?” Jubjub refused to bite the side topics I offered as she looked me in the eye, her tone was all business-like.

I walked toward her. She narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. “I just want to show you something,” I said. “I’m not looking for a fight.”

“If we did fight, I’m not going to put up much of one even if I wanted to,” she replied. “I know how strong you are.”

I smirked. “Really?”

“You know that we know about you. Dario suspected that you did.”

“Since when?” Discounting Imani, I hadn’t done anything that’d tip off Dario that I was onto him. I probably shouldn’t ask about Imani. Low chance Jubjub would admit to anything.

She shrugged. “He doesn’t tell me much.”

They’re not close, I thought. She’s subordinate to Dario and doesn’t seem to be trusted.

I could use this. Was this tied to Jubjub’s willingness to expose herself and talk to me? It’d be good if her goal was to get promoted, however their promotions worked. But I should watch out if she intended to get information for Dario to trust her more.

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“Dario was shocked when the 2Ms kidnapped you,” said Jubjub. “No leads whatsoever that you were their potential target. They’d nab homeless people, those no one would miss, for their experiments. Their organization may reach far with its claws, but they’d prefer not to draw attention to themselves. To specifically go for you… there had to be a special reason. If went someone like you went missing—a well-to-do law student—it’d be all over the news.”

Speaking of shock, Jubjub uttered more than a dozen words in one go.

Was she always this much of a blabbermouth? Maybe she actually was with her Las Vegas group or when Dario wasn’t around. Some exposition shit right here. I began to suspect this was to make me trust her more and lower my guard.

As for what she said, I had the same thoughts and was no closer to any answer. Even Big Marcy didn’t know why I was taken. The only thing certain was they did intend to get me.

That, or there was a mix-up.

I’m going to be super pissed if the true explanation was something stupid, I thought as I stopped at the edge of the shade of the tree Jubjub was under. Another gesture I wasn’t an enemy.

Jubjub took a few steps back, nodding once. I took that as an invitation to share the shade. I enjoyed this stuff, the game of body language reading and discerning what was going through Jubjub’s head. Keeping silent, I stared at her, encouraging her to continue.

“We investigated you and came up with nothing,” she said. “Your parents are prominent in the field of science and technology, but so are the parents of many other people. The only thing noteworthy was that you witnessed a classmate jumping out of a window. If that was the only criterion, it’d be far easier for the 2Ms to arrange a similar situation for someone else rather than kidnap you.”

“Well, they did kidnap me,” I said in an accusatory tone. “They thought that was easy, despite you guys being around. I thought Dario and the others would protect me.”

Jubjub looked away, an uneasy frown on her face. She agitatedly shifted as she said, “I’m—we’re sorry it happened to you. We were supposed to protect people from Adumbrae, but we failed to stop it even though the 2Ms already attacked you and Deen the day before. We should’ve known to guard you.”

I stopped my brow from rising. Either Jubjub was a good actress or she didn’t know it was Myra who almost killed me at the Sanders Mall. I was inclined toward the latter. Jubjub’s delivery of her line was so smooth that, to my mind, she believed it was the truth. She didn’t have time to practice this and didn’t know I planned to talk to her. Also, she wasn’t faking the embarrassment, and maybe some guilt, that their Dario failed to protect me.

Jubjub added, “If it’s some consolation, you’re very lucky that the La Esperanza group found out about it early and rescued you in time.”

Her words made me conclude she wasn’t aware that Dario also wanted to kidnap me to wipe my memories. Again, there was the chance she was disclaiming knowledge to not antagonize me. But she didn’t give off scheming vibes, so I’d go with my first guess. This neatly tied to the not-getting-trusted-much by Dario part.

“In time?” I icily said.

“Yeah… In time. They did—huh?”

I thrust my right arm to her and opened my palm.

Jubjub jerked back. “What’s that?” She peered at the crystal on my palm, her confused expression slowly changed as it dawned on her what it was. A mutation, an outward manifestation of my Adumbraeness.

I didn’t look at my right hand. I didn’t want to.

The last time I examined it was three days ago while taking a shower. The crystals had turned into discernable carvings rather than mere rough growths. My entire palm was fucking gold. My skin lost its fleshy feel, becoming hard and shiny. Metallic. There were even etchings on it. Staring at them for too long made me dizzy. The worst thing was I no longer had any sensation in my right palm.

The pea-like crystal when this crap started was easy to ignore. Now, my hand didn’t even feel like mine.

I didn’t know what triggered the rapid changes. Some veins of gold had started crawling up my fingers. Soon, I’d need full gloves.

Superpowers and being insanely hard to kill were amazing perks. My body changing wasn’t. Like someone with a bad habit—smoking, eating unhealthily, whatever—not wanting to be reminded of the bad things happening to their body, I also didn’t want to face the truth. I did say I was dumb sometimes. My recklessness might have been caused by these changes. Dumb and reckless. Not a good combo.

“What exactly did they rescue me from?” I asked, almost shoving my hand at Jubjub’s face. “The experiment was already done! I was already Red Hood by then, and I wrecked the docks. Your group was no help.”

“I-I’m so-sorry, I wasn’t there,” said Jubjub. Her getting flustered was the most emotion I’d seen from her. “If I was, I’d do anything to save you.”

With that, I molted from an enemy to a victim. Jubjub also lost her confrontational initiative. She was on the backfoot because she ‘owed’ me, though she didn’t have any fault.

“Forget it,” I said with a sigh, letting my hand that wasn’t mine fall to my side. I slumped my shoulders and dramatically turned around. “There’s nothing you can do now.” This was to hide the wide grin on my face I wasn’t confident I could push down, and also to show a vulnerable side by presenting my back.

“So… it’s true that the 2Ms experimented on you?” Jubjub said.

“You were eavesdropping earlier,” I said. “I thought it was just Theo listening to me. I wanted him to know why I was killing him. Why would I lie to someone about to die?”

“I’m sorry for eavesdropping. Dario told me to—I mean, I was tailing you because we weren’t sure of your intentions.”

“Aren’t all Adumbrae your enemy?” I spun around. “I’m an Adumbrae. Ergo, I’m your enemy.” A hundred points to me for using ‘ergo’ in a sentence. Sophisticated sounding.

“We weren’t sure if you were an enemy because you’ve fought the 2Ms and also destroyed the Tea Party of Las Vegas. With this new info I got from you, I’m now sure you’re not an enemy. You were just dragged into this mess. An innocent victim.”

Innocent victim? Wow, I loved being called that. I faced away from her once again to smile.

I heard Jubjub step closer to me. “You mentioned a ‘new procedure’ earlier. This must be connected to the reason you were kidnapped. Can you tell me more about it?”

“Just heard one of the scientists mention it before passing out.” I grabbed my head and shuddered. “I-I don’t want to think about it!”

“Don’t force yourself to! Sorry, I wasn’t thinking when I asked you that. Of course, you’d be traumatized. But this means you’re not a true Adumbrae. You’re also not a willing artificial Adumbrae. That makes me feel better.”

“Why?” I shot her a questioning stare over my shoulder.

Jubjub placed a hand over her chest. “Because you saved my life. You’re truly a good person. I haven’t thanked you for it.”

And thank you for mentioning it. I was wracking my brain on how to make her bring it up. If I did it myself, it’d be obvious I was aiming to ask her a favor. “No need. I didn’t want to see you die though we don’t know each other back then.”

“I owe you,” she said.

Those are the magic words. But I didn’t yet reel in the hook. Some fishing analogy. “Oh, and also, I hate that guy who caught you. I killed him by the way.”

“Really? I was planning how to fight him the next time we met. That’s twice I owe you.”

“Jubjub…” I faced her. “You said if you were there when I was kidnapped, you’d do anything to save me.” I wasn’t going to use the word ‘owe’ because I had standards in manipulation. Not really. If I told her she owed me, our relationship would be transactional. I wanted to get closer to her. She already well knew she should repay me.

“Uh, yes?” She looked uncomfortable, sensing what was coming.

“I need your help.”