Slinky was definitely growing. His muscles were ballooning out as if someone was pumping helium into him. If I stick one of Ento’s needles in him, will he pop like a balloon?

I took a look at Myra. It looked like she was also growing, but nowhere near as fast as Slinky. I became kind of jealous. Everyone else could grow on their own, but I had to actually eat stuff or get hurt in my Red Hood form to grow. Just another day of superpowers being unfair to me.

It looked like I had to follow Myra’s training again. Funny how this became so relevant to this mission. Maybe Myra knew the future like Deen’s Guardian Angel and SpookyErind. Nah. If that was the case, she probably wouldn’t have attacked me at the Sanders Mall. Seriously, why did she do that?

Innocent Little Me was just trying to have a normal life. Actually, Deen was tugging me along to go to the Sanders Mall. Maybe I should have gone home without her. Would Myra have attacked me then? Unfortunately, I couldn’t change the past, but I could change the future. I don’t remember where I got that cringe inspirational quote.

Slinky began charging Myra. Maybe I could flank him from behind? He didn’t seem to really notice me.

Slinky began launching punches at Myra. Myra was slightly taller than him, but that wouldn’t be true for long.

As I made it to the other side of the room, I began launching clay fragments at Slinky. They pelted his scaled head but didn’t do anything else. Wait, never mind, he turned around.

“Agh!” Slinky said. “You’ll pay for that ya twerp!”

I’m not a twerp. I’m actually a 23-year-old woman.

Suddenly, the doors to the side of me opened, and a clay soldier on each side came out. Fuck. And they had electroshock guns. How many electroshock guns does this place have??!!

I had to go somewhere so I went left. I threw a pebble at the Finlay clone on the left. He exploded into clay fragments. But there was still the other guard.

Maybe you can shoot Slinky instead. Slinky was catching up to me, but he was just dumbly chasing me in a straight line.

I began running even more to the left, to put Slinky in between me and Finlay. A couple of seconds of firing later, Slinky was spasming in place.

“Argh!” He cried out. “Finlay, what are you doing you bastard?!” Aww, it didn’t have as much of an effect on him.

“Get out of the way you dummy,” Finlay cried out. “I’m trying to shoot them.”

“I’m trying to hit them!” Slinky countered.

The Finlay clone was about to respond when a twig crashed into him. He burst into pieces.

“Eh?” Slinky said.

“He was talking too much,” Myra said. “Reminds me way too much of Calder.”

“That’s what yar doing,” Slinky said as he charged Myra.

Slinky was now taller than Myra and still growing faster. They kept trying to attack each other. Slinky launched punches, while Myra pierced him with her spikes. Myra’s spikes started emerging from Slinky’s scales, but Slinky didn’t seem affected at all.

I doubt the clay pellets would work, so what could I do? SpookyErind and Ento were still presumably coming to me, but they were still in that other warehouse.

I took a glance at the Finlay clone corpse next to me. It was broken into several shards of clay. Its armor was cracked. I doubt throwing that would be any more useful. The electroshock gun was partially buried by the clay.

Wait a minute, that’s it! The electroshock gun was able to temporarily stun Slinky. I was pretty sure he even stopped growing. If I can stun him, then Myra can help kill him. Look at that, teamwork. Eww.

I grabbed the electroshock rifle from the clay rubble. I’ve never practiced shooting a gun before, so it can’t be that hard right? Just aim and shoot.

“Barb, get away from Slinky!” I called out.

“Sure,” Myra said. It looked like she was eager to get out because of how big Slinky was.

“Take this you lizard bitch!”

Ento was busy following SpookyErind. She just started going in random directions again. I was presuming she was heading towards the edge of the warehouse closest to where my main body was. Because otherwise, this would be pretty boring. And I don’t think she likes boring things.

Unless it was to mess with me of course.

After a few minutes, I asked, “So how long is it going to take to reach my main -”

The sound of whirring filled the halls. Drones?

Several drones appeared in front of us. Unlike the normal gun drones, these drones had those scary-looking sci-fi electroshock guns. A couple of them seemed to also have way bigger guns.

SpookyErind got on all fours and growled. Wait a minute, where was Ento going to go? She wasn’t immune to bullets. I had to walk under SpookyErind to get behind her.

The drones started launching a maelstrom of electroshock bullets and even bigger energy bullets at SpookyErind. She growled again as if she wasn’t scared. Pain and shock filled her body as the drones hit her. But soon, rage filled her body. I could feel the vitriol and hatred towards the drones. How does she manage to control the rage so easily?

But suddenly, I heard more whirring behind me. The fuck? Why are there more drones?

Some of the normal drones appeared, along with electroshock ones behind Ento and SpookyErind. Fuck. Ento had nowhere to hide.

Was she really going to feel so much pain again? I didn’t want that to happen after what happened with Acid Guy.

SpookyErind bent her joints so she was closer to the ground. But there was still a bit of space for Ento to sneak under. I had her dive under SpookyErind. Bullets from the back hit SpookyErind.

Whoever was controlling these drones was a big idiot. They were just causing SpookyErind to grow. But SpookyErind stayed in place. She couldn’t attack otherwise Ento would get hurt.

SpookyErind turned her head to the right. Huh? What was she looking at? Through her peripheral vision, I could see a door to her right. Is that where she wanted me to go? So Ento would be safe and she could get rid of the drones?

I had Ento charge towards the door and crash into it. Thankfully, Ento had superstrength and the door just popped off its hinges inward. It looked like she was in some kind of janitor’s room. A giant mop and some cleaning supplies were next to her. A couple of shelves were also in the room. I had Ento go behind those.

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SpookyErind began charging the drones in front of her. They tried moving back, but SpookyErind was too strong. She swiped at some of them with her claws. They easily came apart as if SpookyErind was ripping pieces of paper. SpookyErind was also being fired at by the drones at the back, but she ignored them for now.

Each time the bullets hit, her rage increased, and she used this rage to push forward toward the drones in front of her. Her muscles had gotten even stronger. With longer claws and faster speed, SpookyErind made quick work of the drones in front of her.

Suddenly, the whirring got louder next to Ento. Were those fuckers trying to come into the closet with me? That sounded wrong.

Ento still had the slow reformation problem for her syringes. She wouldn’t be able to deal with the drones quickly enough. It sounded like a bunch of them were trying to come in here. It was like a swarm of angry bees.

Back when I was a kid, a self-studying entomologist, I had tried to capture some bees once. I figured they’d be no different from the flies, mosquitoes, and dragonflies I’ve captured. Oh, how wrong I was. They stung me so hard, it actually caused me to tear up. And I didn’t usually cry as a kid.

Mom had to comfort me. This was before she found out I was experimenting with insects. I don’t think she was as helpful as she thought, but she did manage to get rid of the bees. I think she used some kind of spray. Sadly, I didn’t have drone spray with me right now.

This wouldn’t solve all my problems since these drones could shoot bullets. Imagine if bees could shoot bullets. Humanity would probably be permanently cowering in caves.

Anyways, even though Ento couldn’t be constantly launching syringes, it didn’t mean she couldn’t be constantly launching stuff at the drones. This janitor’s closet was full of stuff to throw.

First, I’ll use my syringes. I took out all three syringes from Ento’s pocket and prepared to throw them. Peeking out of the left corner, I could see the edges of some drones. I launched my syringes at them and the sound of metal tearing filled the room. Nice. SpookyErind was busy dealing with the drones in front of her, and I could slowly take out the drones attacking Ento.

I had Ento grab some small towels to pelt at the drones. I took another peak, this time from the right corner, and saw some drones pointing their guns to the left. I threw the towels at them. Even though they were soft towels, they went so fast through the air that I could hear a tearing sound when they crashed.

This was too easy.

Suddenly, the sound of bullets filled the room. Fuck. The drones outside were probably just spraying everywhere in the janitor’s closet.

A couple of bullets breached the shelf Ento was hiding behind. They hit Ento. The bullets hurt a bit, but not as much as the electroshock bullets. Her body began to spasm and collapse on the floor. Ow. Why is poor Ento always getting hurt?

SpookyErind finished the drones in front of her and immediately charged back toward the janitor’s closet. The drones were still spraying the room with bullets. Thankfully, they hadn’t figured out that Ento collapsed because of the shelves. As SpookyErind was closing in on them, the drones started attacking her instead.

But by the time they started firing, SpookyErind was already swiping at them with her claws. She even bit a drone to chew it up. Eww. This tastes disgusting. She spat it out.

Eventually, all the drones were pieces of scrap on the ground. I couldn’t move Ento still. Those electroshock bullets really did fuck her up.

SpookyErind was too big to fit in the door, but she walked into the wall, and it easily gave way to her as if it was a sand castle that she was stepping over. She looked down on Ento’s body. I tried moving her limbs, but they barely twitched. Hopefully, she would be back up soon.

SpookyErind grabbed Ento’s limp body with her clawed fingers. I was scared she was going to pierce her skin, but somehow SpookyErind was very gentle. She put Ento on her back.

“Roargh,” she growled out. I had no idea what she was saying. But at least Ento was safe.

Was this the second time SpookyErind had saved me during this mission? Maybe I should give her a medal.

“Groaar,” she lightly growled. She gave out what sounded like a giggle afterward. I couldn’t really tell well.

But I truly was appreciative of her. I liked it when others did things for me automatically. Many people do things for others because they’re kind or they love them. For me, I couldn’t really feel any of that, and I didn’t have any morals either. But I did value myself. And so other people helping me out is good. If only they weren’t so annoying.

Maybe I’ll say thank you to her again afterward? Rewarding her for good behavior. Kind of like how people take their cars to get repaired. You want the car to keep working and doing good things, so you make sure it’s in good shape. That was my view of other people that helped me.

Okay, okay, some people might get upset if I compared them to inanimate objects, but I couldn’t really care what they think. They couldn’t even read my mind either. Although, SpookyErind did. Would she get mad if I thought of her as a car? It’s not like I could really control my thoughts around her anyways.

SpookyErind did one of those giggle growls again. I guess she’s fine with it? At least she wasn’t messing with me. How could I incentivize her to do that less?

SpookyErind walked over to the metal corpses of the drones. Also, where the fuck did all these drones come from. Didn’t SpookyErind freeze a lot of them?

Wait a minute, SpookyErind was currently in her Red Hood form. Does that mean the time bubble no longer exists? So all the drones came after us after they became unfrozen. I hope there weren’t any more drones left. If there were, I was going to start accusing the 2M’s of making drones out of thin air. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an Adumbrae that was doing that.

I tried moving Ento again, and finally, I could move her limbs. SpookyErind growled and began charging toward the left. Woah! She was so fast, I had to grab onto her furs to make sure Ento didn’t fall off.

It was like I was riding a horse. Not that I’ve ever ridden a horse. Wait a minute, I just compared SpookyErind to a car and a horse. At least a horse isn’t an inanimate object. She didn’t respond and kept charging.

SpookyErind broke out of the wall of the warehouse. A couple of trucks were around us. One on the left, and one on the right. They had guns mounted in the back. They immediately started firing on SpookyErind. I threw my syringes at the gunner in the left truck while SpookyErind roared in rage.

She charged the left truck and chewed the shrunken gunner. She rapidly began growing as she swallowed the sweet-tasting human.

This is so fun. The humans were too busy shooting SpookyErind, so I was able to throw my syringes at them. SpookyErind grew faster and stronger since she ate the shrunken humans. The trucks tried driving away, but SpookyErind grabbed them with her claws.

She began chewing on the front of the left truck. The taste of metal filled her mouth, soon joined by the salty and iron taste of flesh and blood. Thankfully, she didn’t need to spit the metal out since some flesh was in the mix. She didn’t grow as much though.

She did the same to the other truck. It was kind of weird since Ento was on top of her and couldn’t really see the car below her. It was like the horse she was on was grazing grass on the ground. Why am I still comparing SpookyErind to a horse?

SpookyErind dropped the remains of the pickup trucks on the ground. It was kind of sad that my Red Hood form couldn’t eat non-flesh stuff. It would be cool to see how much she could eat. Actually, since my Red Hood form just grew as soon as it swallowed flesh, what happened to the stuff she ate?

It clearly didn’t go to her stomach. Did it just get teleported somewhere? I guess I could ask SpookyErind later. Maybe it got dissolved instantly? And then that matter allowed her to grow? That didn’t sound very scientific, but given it was superpowers, any bullshit could happen.

I was still very thankful though for that bullshit. I’d rather grow fast rather than wait for my food to digest. Back when Ento was still lying in pain, it took quite a few minutes for SpookyErind to digest Acid Guy’s remains. Digesting and healing instantly would have been so helpful there.

My main body fired multiple electroshock bullets at Slinky. Myra had thankfully gone away, although I think it would be pretty funny if she got shocked as well.

“Arggghh!” he screamed out. He spasmed. But he turned away from Myra and towards me. The fuck? Why isn’t he stopping?

He was still growing. Uh oh. Was the electroshock gun no longer effective on him? He was growing since Finlay last shot him accidentally. I fired some more shots, but it was like his scales were absorbing them.

“I’m going to kill ya bitch!” he yelled. “That fuckin’ hurts!”

He started charging at me. Fuck.

SpookyErind was also charging now. I had no idea where she was. Was she going to come and eat Slinky? Because that would be very helpful right now.

I tried running away, but Slinky punched me in the stomach. He’s so fucking fast. I was sent flying toward the wall. My body crashed as I felt multiple bones break. I began coughing. Is that blood coming out of my mouth?

Fuck. That hurt so much.

“Synchron!” Myra called out.

I got up and saw Myra pelting Slinky with some twigs, but that didn’t do anything. He was still too focused on me.

Slinky ran up to me and grabbed my neck with his scaly sledgehammer hands.

“I’m going to make ya fuckin pay for that,” he growled at me. His head had grown a lizard-like snout.

I gasped as my neck was being squeezed. No. I tried kicking and punching him, but he was too strong.

He increased the pressure on my neck, and I was pretty sure I could hear some bones cracking. Was this it? I was going to fucking die to this stupid lizard thing.

My vision started getting fuzzy as my windpipe collapsed.

SpookyErind broke into another warehouse and continued charging in one direction. She broke through several rooms before getting to the one my main body was in.

“What the?” Slinky said, releasing some pressure on me. I still found it very hard to breathe. Please heal faster.

SpookyErind charged him as my main body’s consciousness began blacking out.