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.
Cutest girl! 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.
Well, I’m sure you’ll come up with a cool one.
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.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“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.