Fuck. I didn’t like being surprised like this. I should have gotten SpookyErind to hide the mask. Now, I was forced to improvise rather than plan out my 2nd clone’s introduction to Deen. Thankfully, I can think well under pressure.

“Oh, it turns out I can summon another clone,” I said to Deen.

“Wait, you can summon a second clone?” Deen asked.

“Yeah, I think my powers recently just got stronger,” I explained. “Here, let me show it to you.”

Now that my 2nd clone was in her mask form, I could feel a similar switch in my body to the switch that I felt when SpookyErind was in her mask form. But this time, when I hit the switch, it actually moved, and in an instant, my 2nd clone reappeared.

“And here’s my 2nd clone,” I said through her.

“This is just so crazy,” Deen said.

“Is it really?” I asked. “We both have superpowers.”

“No, it’s just that you’re way stronger than me, and your powers are already growing,” Deen pouted. Technically that was because I was also an Adumbrae. Anyways, it was great to be way better than Deen at something. Still, as her best friend, I had to comfort her.

“I mean your power is still pretty useful,” I said. “Your summon can basically tell you the future and warn you. I just have to be lucky.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Deen said.

“I mean think about it,” I started off. “You have already saved us multiple times. First, you saved me when I got knocked out by the 2M’s. Then, you warned us to split up when the monster came out of the 2M’s truck. And the same thing happened when the helicopters attacked us.” Although, you should really be thanking me for taking care of the last two.

“You’re right, but I can’t keep feeling like I should be able to do more,” Deen said. Does this bitch have some kind of superiority complex? Why does she need to always be the best at everything? I should ask her about her grades and see if she complains about not having a perfect A+ 4.0 GPA.

“You should worry about eating right now first,” I pointed out. “We haven’t eaten in quite a while.”

“Yeah, I’ll make sure to eat, but umm, I did have a question first,” Deen said. Ugh. What now?

“Hmm?”

“Can your 2nd clone also do a transformation like your first clone could?” Deen asked. Oh, I guess I could show her this.

I focused on the orb-like sensation in my 2nd clone’s left hand. Golden liquid materialized above her hand and solidified into a pair of science goggles. I had her put them on and she shrunk down to a kid size.

“I can turn into a kid scientist,” I said. “Anyways, let’s eat-“

Before I could finish, Deen rushed up to her and picked her up in a hug. It took all of my might not to punch and kick her a hundred times. Seriously, what the fuck was wrong with her?

“Oh my god, you’re so cute!” Deen said excitedly. “I never imagined this is what you looked like as a kid.”

“But I just look like myself but smaller,” I had my 2nd clone say.

“My god, your voice is so cute,” Deen chuckled, ignoring me. Some bad memories returned to me. When I was a little kid, Aunt Jemma would always come up and hug me. It was pretty ironic since she may as well have been a supermodel compared to the rest of us in the family and here was Deen doing something similar. But anyways, she would always pick me up in a hug and spend way too much time with me. My attempts to get her to release me were pretty useless. I swear she just was ignoring me and pretending that I was some crown jewel she stole from a museum. Anyways, that’s what it feels like to be hugged by Deen right now.

“You’re even more like a doll than your usual self,” Deen commented. What the fuck was this bitch’s obsession with dolls? She had compared me to a doll before, and now she was doing it again. Maybe I was truly the adult in the room (even though I was super short), and Deen was still stuck being a kid. Actually, I never really played with dolls that much as a kid. They didn’t really do much for me. At least the Corebring action figures and BID toy vehicles my parents bought me made cool noises and had several cool parts. Dolls were just dolls… nothing special.

“Why do like dolls so much and why do I remind you of being one?” I asked with my main body. Hopefully, she’ll take me more seriously now that my voice doesn’t sound like the highest pitch ever.

Deen took a couple of seconds before responding. “My bigger sister bought me some dolls when I was very young. They were always so fun to play with, especially since my parents… weren’t really there for me.” Oh dear god, Deen is about to explain a backstory that I had 0 interest in learning about.

“I’m not a doll though, and my 2nd clone is way bigger than a doll,” I pointed out.

“My big sis also got me some huge stuffed animals once that I would cuddle with,” Deen replied. “You remind me of those. I use to sleep with them a lot when things didn’t go well at my parent’s house.” I had a feeling of where Deen wanted to go with this, and I had zero interest in pursuing it. I was not going to spend the night sleeping with Deen. Especially when she feels so disgusting. I would literally implode if that happened.

“All right, enough of this,” I said with my 2nd clone as I had her try and break free of Deen’s grip. Surprisingly, my 2nd clone was still way stronger than Deen even though it was in the weaker kid form. Well, at least I could escape from Deen no matter what mask I used.

“What the…?” Deen said.

“It’s time to eat breakfast,” I had my 2nd clone say. “You don’t want to keep me starving do you?”

“No, I just didn’t expect that,” Deen said. “Also, I didn’t make breakfast for all three of you.”

“It’s fine,” I had my 2nd clone respond. “I’ll just unsummon this clone.” I had her take off the goggles, and she turned back into a normal Erind clone.

“Oh, you don’t need to do that!” Deen said. “I can cook up a third meal.” Okay, that was pretty weird. That was more food that I would be consuming, but for whatever reason she was fine with it.

We all walked to the kitchen. On the fancy dinner table were three plates. On two of them were two sets of large breakfast sandwiches filled with eggs, ham, and bacon. A couple of waffles were on the side. The third plate had a sandwich filled with lettuce, with a salad on the side. I could already guess which ones were for me. SpookyErind and my 2nd clone took a seat at that table, while I walked up to the counter with Deen. She started preparing a meal for me, while I went to the large coffee machine. Thankfully, this machine also dispensed tea. More specifically, chamomile tea. I took out three coffee cups from the cabinet and put them under the machine.

While Deen and I were at the counter, SpookyErind began eating. She took off the buns of the sandwich and began eating them first. At least she was following Rule #2. She had followed it earlier in the week, so it was good she maintained consistency. Sometimes, she didn’t even try to act like me. I was glad she was doing it now though.

Eventually, the coffee machine finished pouring my tea, and I had my 2nd clone come and pick up two of the mugs while I took the other. I took a seat on my 2nd clone’s right. Deen’s plate was on the other side of the table, next to SpookyErind’s. It was funny since SpookyErind and my 2nd clone were halfway through the sandwiches, meanwhile, Deen’s plate was still full. Wait a minute, that’s not really funny. I really need to drink my tea. Thankfully, I had brought three stir sticks and gave two of them to my 2nd clone and SpookyErind. In unison, we all began following Rule #1. Stirring back and forth, making sure not to hit the rims of our cups.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Deen came back with my plate and dropped it off in front of me.

“There you go,” she said.

“Thanks Deen,” I said.

She took the seat next to SpookyErind and stared at all of us instead of eating.

“Is something the matter?” I asked.

“Just something interesting I noticed,” she said.

“What’d you notice?”

“The way you’re stirring the tea. You’ve done it for the past few days as well.”

“Is there something wrong with the way I’m doing it?” I asked.

“No, I just thought it was very different compared to how most people do it,” she replied.

All three of us continued stirring. Just another minute or so, and it’ll be all right.

“I noticed something else,” Deen said. “The way you eat is very… unorthodox. Like with the sandwiches I made, you’re eating the bread first. And not only that, you ate the crust on the outside first as well.”

“What are you, the breakfast police?” We both laughed. “I just have a specific way of eating things.”

“Is it like OCD?” Deen asked.

I had a distinct gut reaction to say no. After all, OCD literally had the word “disorder” in its name. That implied something was wrong with me. But nothing was wrong with me - I was just perfect the way I was.

“I’m not really sure if that qualifies,” I said. “You could probably ask Myra that since she’s a med student.”

“Does she even study psychology though?” Deen questioned.

“I dunno,” I replied. I took a psychology class as an elective as in undergrad. It was very interesting to learn about the minds of other people. Although, I wasn’t in the mood to continue this subject. I took a sip of my tea, and my 2nd clone and SpookyErind did as well.

“I also find it interesting how in sync you are with your clones,” Deen commented. “Does it take a lot of effort to do that?”

“No, actually it’s pretty easy,” I said. It was true. Maybe some would assume that having many different bodies to control would make it hard, but it was pretty easy. Actually, SpookyErind was controlling one of them, but I found it still easy with two bodies. Maybe the fact we both had brains made it easy? I was in fact a very smart person, so maybe that helped too.

“Anyways, why are you talking so much about my behaviors?” I asked her. “Did something spur you to do this?”

“We’ve been best friends since the first semester, but I still don’t know a lot about you,” she said. “I thought I’d be a better best friend if I learned more from you. It’ll be good since we’ll be fighting together in the future.” I grit my teeth at that. I wasn’t really comfortable with other people observing me. I didn’t mind doing that myself, but other people doing that just gave me goosebumps. That would mean they were actively scrutinizing my face, and I would prefer if they didn’t do that.

“I guess I should do the same for you,” I said. “Why are you so interested in salads and not normal foods? Like you think my behaviors are weird, but you’re the one eating salad for breakfast.”

“I’m just trying to stay healthy,” Deen said.

“So you’re trying to make me eat unhealthy foods?” I grinned.

“No! I just thought you wouldn’t like eating salads.”

“You’re right,” I agreed.

“You should try to eat some vegetables,” she said.

“I do eat them when you give them to me,” I said.

“Maybe I should give you more vegetables,” she replied.

“I’m not a naughty kid,” I said. “I can eat them just fine.”

“Maybe we should have a contest then.”

“With all my bodies, I could probably beat you pretty easily,” I jokingly said. We both laughed.

We both finished our food and I returned to my restroom to brush my teeth. SpookyErind unsummoned herself, and I did the same with the 2nd clone. Since my clones copied the state of my main body, I could simply brush my teeth by myself rather than having all three do it. After that, I summoned both SpookyErind and my 2nd clone.

During the next couple of hours, I tried finding a video of me eating the helicopter. The TV was giving me a headache, so I tried using my phone to search for the news, but I wasn’t having any luck.

Soon, I heard a doorknock. “Erind?” Huh? What did Deen want? Was she going to serve me dinner now? We just ate.

I walked up to the door and opened it. Deen was standing in front of me, and she surprised me again. Although it wasn’t because she was unexpected. It was more of what she was wearing. She had a gray sports bra on.

“Hey, so now would be a good time to work out,” Deen said.

“Work out?” I said.

“Yeah, you said you were interested in doing it earlier this week,” she replied. Did I say that or did SpookyErind say that? I guess it wouldn’t be bad either way. I was getting really jealous of everyone else’s fit bodies.

“Oh right,” I said. “Let me get changed first.”

“Sure thing,” Deen said. I closed the door and walked back over to my wardrobe. I took off my shirt and hung it on the clothes hangar. My artificial Core was still hidden by my sports bra. SpookyErind walked up and did the same.

“Huh?” I asked surprisingly. “You’re working out as well?”

No, she replied. I’ll just be there for moral support.

“You better not mess with me when I’m working out,” I said.

She simply grinned.

“Anyways, why are you taking off your shirt?” I asked.

Don’t I look really cute? She asked.

Well, she was using a clone of my body, so yeah, she’d be pretty cute. And I guess extra cool as well with the white wispy hair and the glowing red eyes.

That’s right, she said. Actually, this was the first time I think I’ve seen SpookyErind expose this much skin. When I took a shower, she unsummoned herself, so she never really undressed. I was just surprised there was actual skin there instead of some weird extradimensional stuff. Why wouldn’t I look like you when I undressed?

“You never know about powers,” I said.

I and SpookyErind walked to the exercise room. Deen had us do some stretches first before we used the workout machine. I was used to them since I did them in preparation for Judo and cheerleading.

Meanwhile, my 2nd clone was still in my room with my phone. I began looking up videos on VideoGo. Maybe somebody would have posted something.

Ah, there it is! Somebody had managed to post the video. I played it. In the middle of the video was a beautiful yet muscular werewolf eating a helicopter. Hey Mom, I’m in a video! Generally, I wasn’t comfortable with being in videos myself. I hated it when I had to record myself for presentations. But here, it was a different face being used, one that people didn’t know I had.

My mind wandered to the Rule #2 thoughts I had earlier. It was pretty hard to control myself in my Red Hood form. That meant following Rule #2 was difficult. Though, I guess I could make an exception here. I wasn’t just trying to eat, I was trying to kill as well. That was a bit different than just eating normally. Although, maybe I should ask SpookyErind for tips on controlling it better? Hopefully, she would be nice enough to do that and not laugh at me.

Deen and I finished our stretches while SpookyErind was just observing from behind us.

“Hey, why didn’t you bring your other clone here?” Deen asked.

“I didn’t need to bring her since I can just resummon her after I workout,” I said. “My clones copy the state my main body is in when they are summoned.”

“That makes sense, but why did you bring your other clone here then?” Deen asked.

SpookyErind simply grinned in response. Fucking bitch. I needed to come up with something.

“I just wanted to see what she looked like in a sports bra,” I said. “And to see what it looks like from her view when we work out.”

“Well, she does look pretty cute,” Deen commented.

“I agree,” I said. We both chuckled.

“Anyways, there are a couple of other features to the Atlas super weight machine that I should tell you about,” Deen said.

“What are they?”

“The chair does have some of these bars on the bottom,” Deen said pointing at them. “You can push them with your feet to work out your legs. You can also tell Atlas to switch the chair into a core workout mode to work on your abs. You can do some weighted crunches with it.”

“Oh, that’s pretty cool,” I commented.

“Actually, do you know how to do weighted crunches?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I did some very light workouts in high school.”

“Good. Anyways, I’m going to use the one on the far side, so you can use this one,” Deen said.

“Thanks,” I said as I sat down on the chair. Deen walked to the other side. I began doing some reps with my arms first. I was getting kind of annoyed with my noodle arms. Back when I was a cheerleader, I used to work out with 20-pound dumbbells. But now, I was using 6000-pound weights. It was pretty amazing how far I had gone. And that was just with superpowers and no training.

“Hey Atlas,” I said. “Can you switch to the core workout mode?”

A beep responded and pieces in the chair began shifting. The handles I was holding also changed their positions a bit. SpookyErind took a look at the back of the chair. It laid down flat. The bars were way closer to my chest now. Huh. I started pulling myself up while holding onto the bars. It wasn’t that bad lifting them while raising my chest up.

SpookyErind moved to the back of my head. She started lightly grabbing my hair with her hands. I nearly gasped. What the fuck? I slowly brought my chest back down along with the handlebars.

I’m just tying your hair into a ponytail, she whispered. I gritted my teeth as she tied my hair. I was glad I did a few reps before she did that. Eventually, she stopped and went over to Deen’s side. Huh? She just left.

I did a few more reps before telling Atlas to go back to normal mode. The chair went back to a sitting position. I began pushing the handles at the bottom with my feet. May as well work out on my legs as well.

SpookyErind walked up to Deen and began doing the same thing.

“Erind!” she gasped.

I’m just tying your hair into a ponytail, she repeated.

“Okay…” Deen said.

And there you go, SpookyErind said.

“Why’d you do that?” Deen asked.

You look like a cool action girl now, she replied.

“Thanks, I guess?” Deen said. “But it’s not really safe to do that while I’m working out. I still appreciate it though.”

Sure thing, SpookyErind said with a grin. Deen couldn’t see SpookyErind’s face since SpookyErind was behind her. Maybe she was just getting bored and wanted to mess with the both of us. Thankfully, my routine was coming to an end so I didn’t have to deal with her pulling any more tricks on me.

“Would you like some Dinner Erind?” she asked. She was all sweaty now. I was surprised Deen was capable of becoming more gross.

“Nah, I think I’ll just go to bed soon,” I commented. “I just ate a couple of hours ago. And that was a really big sandwich.”

“Sure thing,” Deen said. “I’m going to take a shower and then have dinner. Good night.”

“Good night,” I said as I walked back to my room with SpookyErind in tow.

That was… good. I hadn’t worked out like that in a long time. But now I was all sweaty. Guess I’ll have to take a shower.

I took a peek out the window. Nighttime was coming, and I’d be able to test the syringes. I was looking forward to it.