We stared out onto the street. It was dotted by various streetlamps, some of which were broken. Abandoned buildings sat to our left and right. Our little alleyway was the perfect spot to launch an ambush on the unsuspecting truck of the 2M’s.

In front of us, Myra was acting as our tree shield in her giant eight-foot-tall monster form. Deen and SpookyErind were right next to me, and Dario was on Deen’s right. Everett was behind me as well. Oh, and there was also Blubber. The fat pixie-like creature was currently perched on Dario’s shoulder. It reminded me of those pirates that had parrots on their shoulders. Except, this was one messed up parrot and pirate.

Johann and Reo were in the van a couple of blocks back, also waiting in an alleyway. Maybe we should have gotten those cool earpieces in spy films. Sadly, it seemed we were really low budget. Perhaps Deen could fund our little group.

I could feel the tension in the air as no one spoke. It was really interesting how lively the group had been, but now we were intensely focused on the street ahead of us. That also made it easier for my face. I didn’t need to speak to anyone or engage in any conversation. Just wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Okay, this was getting boring. Seriously, when is this truck coming? Did Johann mess up? That would be really stupid. I should have just said no to coming to this mission. I could have attacked the docks on my own with SpookyErind.

Suddenly, the sound of motors entered the alleyway. Soon, high beams raced across the road. The truck was coming.

Myra tensed up in front of us. Oh wait, I should get ready to talk to everyone in codenames. Dario was Blank, Myra was Barb, Everett was Emcee, Deen was Pythia, and I was Synchron. That was the five of us here. Oh, and I guess there was also Blubber. Should I refer to it as Blubber or Oberon since Reo was controlling it? Could the fairy even speak? Nah. That’s too much to worry about. I doubt I’ll need its help and if Reo was in trouble, I didn’t plan on warning him.

“Okay, on my mark,” Dario said, breaking our group’s silence. He held up three fingers.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

“Let’s go!”

Myra charged out into the open street and quickly followed her. When I turned my head to the left, I was slightly blinded by the sight of beam lights.

The sound of tires screeching surprised me. Not the sound itself, but the number of tires seemed way too high. The beam lights scattered in different directions, and before me was not an eighteen-wheeler.

Several vehicles were before me, with an eighteen-wheeler in the middle. Several vans made a distorted snake in front of us. The doors to the backs of the vans opened and people in black emerged. Whirring was quickly followed by black machines flying out of the vans as well. They have drones?

Rather than feeling scared, I looked forward to fighting all these thug guys. Although, I did promise Deen to stay behind Myra. I imagine the rest of the group was pretty scared though. Sadly, we were all wearing balaclava masks, so it was pretty hard to gauge their reactions. Especially since it was dark.

A throbbing sensation entered my head. Fuck. Some of the thug guys at the front dropped down and released their weapons. How nice of them to surrender. Of course, it was Dario’s power doing that. Sadly, the drones didn’t submit and instead proceeded to fly higher in the air.

Maybe Myra took that as a challenge because she immediately began charging the cluster of enemies in front of us. Gunfire erupted as all our enemies immediately began attacking our tree shield.

“Come on,” Deen said as she charged to the thug guys on the left. “Let’s help Myr-Barb!”

Fireballs emerged from behind us and began targeting the drones. Thankfully, we had someone who specialized in ranged attacks. I and SpookyErind charged to the middle where Myra was pushing through the 2M’s vans. More of Emcee’s firebolts attacked drones around us.

More of the thug guys began to fall as Dario charged the right side. The ones further back fired their shots way off. I think one of them might have even shot another 2M. I really wanted to laugh, but I don’t think my ‘teammates’ would like it.

Myra had pushed all the way to the eighteen-wheeler and began demolishing its front cab. Meanwhile, I and SpookyErind began attacking some of the thug guys surrounding me.

A small trio of thug guys stood to my left. I charged the one in the middle. The three of them proceeded to shoot me, but their bullets felt like tiny ant bites rather than actual bullets. I launched a kick at the middle thug guy and his body went flying across the street into one of the other vans. Having super strength was so cool. As I turned around to hit the other two thug guys, I was met with two dead bodies. Blood flowed from them and they were filled with holes. Did they shoot each other? Dario’s field was probably messing with them. Awww. I wanted to be the one to kill them.

SpookyErind meanwhile charged two thug guys that managed to get out of Barb’s way. I also felt the feeling of ant bites when the bullets collided with her body. One of the thug guys even managed to land a headshot, but the bullet barely entered her skin before falling back out. She punched them both in the crotches, causing them to go flying.

I took a look at Deen. While we were getting hit by bullets, she expertly dodged and weaved around the thug guys on the far left side of the four-lane road. She landed punches and kicks on the thug guys, causing them to fall over. I spotted a drone nearby her. Emcee kept throwing fireballs to the left side, probably trying to defend his crush. But, I don’t think he noticed this drone. It wasn’t shooting at all, and it was pretty big compared to some of the other ones

A fun idea popped into my head. I grabbed one of the dead thug guys around me and held him up. I launched him at the drone. Deen turned to the right and noticed the drone, which had begun charging up some kind of laser weapon. But then, the body I threw collided with it, and they both broke apart into several smaller pieces.

“Thanks, Er- I mean Synchron!” Deen said with a thumbs up. I internally cringed when she almost called me by my real name. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like the 2M’s would survive our assault. But still, it appeared that Deen was not cut out for a secret life. I really should get a better best friend.

At least she gave me credit though. Even though Emcee blew up most of the drones around her, she had only thanked me. I found it funny because I didn’t even know the drone was going to attack her - I just wanted to use it as target practice. It was pretty fun launching stuff - I should do it more often.

Eventually, we managed to beat up the rest of the thug guys. No Adumbrae and nobody with augs appeared. The strongest thing the 2M’s sent at us was that big drone, but it didn’t even do anything. We all surrounded the eighteen-wheeler from its back side. Thankfully, Dario turned off his sickness field.

Hmm… So the 2M’s fortified their trucks but didn’t send anything that could seriously stop us. Maybe some Adumbrae were hiding in the eighteen-wheeler in front of us?

“That was way more than just an eighteen-wheeler,” Myra said.

“I wasn’t expecting that either,” Dario said. “Must have been new.”

“I was surprised Jim Ambrose didn’t emerge from one of the vans,” Myra added.

“Jim Ambrose?” I asked.

“One of the 2M’s enforcers who have augs,” Dario said. “He managed to cut off my leg once, but thankfully we were able to reattach it during our retreat.”

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“That definitely sounds more dangerous than what we fought here,” I said.

“Definitely,” he replied. “Our enemies probably thought they could just get away with more guys with guns and drones this time. Thankfully, a lot of them just proceeded to shoot at Barb over here, allowing us to pick off some of the ones on the sides.”

I did want to be more careful about fighting Myra. She basically just shrugged off all of the 2M’s attacks while charging straight into the middle and back end of their forces. Was her bark stronger now that she was no longer under the effects of the suppressor? I easily bit through her armor at the mall, but here, it looked way thicker.

“All right, just got to deal with whatever’s in this stupid truck now,” Myra said. We all faced toward the double doors on the back of the long truck.

Suddenly, the sound of screaming and gunfire occurred in front of us. Bulges in the metal of the trucks quickly appeared and were accompanied by the screeching of metal. The sound of sparks began to get louder and louder.

What the fuck was that? Was one of the Adumbrae fighting their own men in there? Why would they be doing that? Maybe they had a temper tantrum because they got attacked. Still, a feeling of uneasiness entered my body.

The others around me also tensed up. They weren’t expecting this either. I backed up to the sides of the eighteen-wheeler. Our tree shield stood in the middle, but everyone else backed up.

The doors flung off and sent Myra a few yards back. While I was expecting an Adumbrae to emerge from the back of the truck, this was not the type of Adumbrae I was expecting.

A bald humanoid creature crawled out. It had long thin arms and legs with large hands. It was a bit taller than Myra even when it crawled. It was probably twice as tall as Deen if it stood up. Maybe even taller.

Large blue spikes emerged from its back. Lightning jumped from spike to spike, making loud sparking sounds. The spikes seemed to be growing. I think I figured out why though. In the mouth of the creature, dangled a human torso with arms. It began chewing and crunching on the body. Ewww. The sparks got thicker and its spikes began to grow.

It was like an electric porcupine. It probably deserved the description more than Myra since it seemed to always have spikes across its back. A loud screech nearly broke my ears. Holy shit that was loud. I put my hands up on my ears. Myra slowly began to back up.

The giant humanoid porcupine charged Myra, who tried to pierce it with her spikes. A small fireball also hit it from its back. Those attacks did nothing. Suddenly, the sparks jumped from the spikes to Myra’s body, causing her to spasm and freeze. I hoped she wasn’t dead. This would be the second time this night somebody I wanted to kill was killed by somebody else.

“Everyone get away!” I heard Dario yell.

However, I stood still. Back when I was younger, I really enjoyed watching Animal Planet. This scene in front of me reminded me of that show. My favorite part was when the animals fought and ate others. It was so interesting to see the behaviors of them. Myra looked so different from a human in her tree form that she may as well be an animal.

The sparks stopped jumping into Myra’s monster form. That was interesting to note as well. I saw Myra twitch. So it just knocks her out then. That’s good. The giant porcupine guy began chewing on Myra’s arm. It broke through Myra’s dense armor. Hey, wait!

I was supposed to be the one eating her. I didn’t want it to fully kill her, but it seemed to be taking its time going through Myra’s arm. Way longer than it took for it to eat the other 2M’s. Still entranced by the scene, I watched it fully consume Myra’s arm.

Okay, that’s enough watching. I didn’t need this thing’s spikes growing bigger. But how was I going to fight this thing? I definitely didn’t want to get shocked by it. I looked around and saw a dead thug guy near me. Another light bulb popped into my head.

I know I definitely could lift over 6000 pounds. Most vehicles were only 1-2 tons, and I could lift three tons. I’m not sure a normal thug guy would be enough to harm Mr. Porcupine Guy. But maybe a vehicle would.

I went over to one of the vans and began lifting it up. It was probably like trying to lift several bags of heavy groceries, and I groaned as I lifted it above me. Carefully looking at the creature, I launched the van.

The van impacted the creature, who was oblivious to my attack. Mr. Porcupine Guy went flying into one of the abandoned buildings along with the van.

“Did I do it?” I asked. That would be so cool if I did. I’d have a perfect record of throwing and killing things.

Another loud screech hurt my ears. Owowow. Stop. I put my hands up on my ears and looked down. SpookyErind also put her hands on her ears, and from her vision, I saw Mr. Porcupine Guy begin to charge my body. Shit!

I turned and ran away as fast as possible. I quickly zipped past the other vehicles and took a peek behind me as I heard the sound of galloping. Mr. Porcupine Guy was catching up to me! I turned a corner, hoping to lose it somehow.

This was starting to become a terrible night. All of my teammates were retreating and leaving me to die. I was about to become an electrified Erind meal. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I stopped turning corners and simply continued running straight. I was heading in the direction left of the street with the truck.

SpookyErind held out her hand, and the golden bubble emerged. It zipped through the air toward my position. Shit. Even then, it wasn’t going to make it to me in time.

You’re smart enough to figure this out, SpookyErind said with a grin.

Bitch. The only thing I can do is run!! All right, calm down. I was still jogging, but maybe I could get closer to the orb. I’d have to take a couple of corners still. Wait, what was that saying? Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do make a right. I remember some stupid cartoon said that.

Before SpookyErind spoke to me I was simply going to keep running farther and farther away from her. But, that would just put her time bubble farther away from us. I began turning corners again until I was going rightward toward the truck.

I took a peak, and the creature was probably less than a foot away from me. Holy fuck! Please fly faster golden bubble! Eventually, the shimmery gold bubble entered my vision. It had grown larger, way larger. Enough to engulf an entire room.

I turned my head again. The creature had a disgusting face. The proportions were all wrong, and its eyes were missing. In their sockets were sparks of lightning. It began to inch closer and closer. Nonono. I’m almost there.

I passed the bubble as a spark touched my body and sent me skidding across the road. Owww. Thankfully I wasn’t totally knocked out. I turned around and saw Mr. Porcupine Guy frozen in the giant time bubble.

You did it! SpookyErind cheered as she began walking toward our van.

That was too much for me. And way too close too. I felt my face - parts of the balaclava mask had burnt off when I slid across the road. Stupid rope burn. I’d encountered it before. My parents brought me to a fire station once. I thought it would be so cool to go down the poles that firefighters used. Sadly, I didn’t have gloves and my hands hurt for several hours after that.

Wait a minute, couldn’t have SpookyeErind summoned that bubble earlier? She was grinning now as I had these thoughts. Fuck. This bitch was messing with me again. She waited for just the right moment for me to get hit by one of the sparks to save me.

SpookyErind simply continued grinning as she walked up to Everett, who had regrouped with Reo and Johann inside the van. He was eating several calorie bars. Oh right, he needed to eat to recharge his powers.

Hey Emcee, SpookyErind called out.

“Woah, sorry Synchron,” he said as he finished eating the final calorie bar. “I’m still getting used to that weird voice. What’s up?”

I managed to freeze the giant monster, could you launch a fireball at it? she asked.

“Oh good job!” he complimented me. “Yeah, I should be recharged enough to launch a giant one.”

We had a nice funeral for Mr. Porcupine Guy. I even used Emcee’s fire to warm myself up during this cold night. Johann also got me a replacement jacket and a balaclava mask. It was bigger than me, so my arms didn’t go fully through it.

Now, we returned the eight-wheeler. The back entrance was littered with guns and bloodstains. The remains of a weird futuristic device laid broken in half.

I had stayed silent during the funeral. My mom told me it was important to be quiet and respectful when honoring the dead. She did that at both Dad’s and Eudora’s funerals. Of course, I’m not really sure why she told me that given how introverted I was, but it seemed like good advice back there.

I did have questions though, and since the funeral was over, now was a great time to ask.

“What was that?” I asked.

“One of the 2M’s Adumbrae experiments,” Dario said. “My theory is they are trying to also make stronger Adumbrae, so they have even more power. We’ve encountered a couple before, but it seemed that this one got out when the truck stopped. We’re glad that you and Emcee managed to kill it before it completely ate Myra.”

And I was glad we killed it before it ate me.

“Definitely,” I said. “So is that it?”

“Yeah, good job guys,” he said. Everyone clapped and cheered. My first mission. It was pretty cool.

Myra’s armor shrank until she was in her human form. She turned toward me and Everett.

“Thanks, you two,” she said. She was still missing an arm, but the wound had closed and wasn’t bleeding. The flesh was slowly regrowing around it.

“No problem,” Everett said. “We’ve been fighting for a while, and I’d be pretty sad if you died.”

I wouldn’t be. Well, I guess I just recently fought on Myra’s side unlike him. But still, I definitely wouldn’t mourn for her.

“Same,” I simply said.

She gave both of us a hug. Fucking bitch. I was definitely going to kill her now.

“I thought I was going to die,” she said, sobbing. “I was frozen there on the road, with that monster eating my arm. I just can’t thank both of you enough.”

Wow. I’ve never seen this weak side of Myra before. Oh, wait, yes I have. When she was upset about Kelsey. I could probably kill her right now, but I was going to save that card for later.

Everett was about to say something when another foreign sound entered my ears.

“Is that a helicopter?” I asked. Thankfully, Myra released us from her vile touch. We looked around and saw a small dot in the distance. It was getting bigger. Actually, there were a few dots.

“Umm guys,” Deen said.

“We should probably get going right now,” Dario said.

Soon after, I heard a big woosh. What the fuck?

“Everyone split up now and get away from here!” Deen panicked.

Not waiting, I ran away from the others. I turned back and saw a brief glimpse of a missile hit the eighteen-wheeler. A huge explosion engulfed that part of the road.