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.

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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?”

This body also has a cool voice, 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–ms 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–ing too… fa–st,” 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.”