Ah, that was a good shower. I probably stayed in there for far too long, but I needed to get away from SpookyErind for a bit. I unsummoned my 2nd clone and SpookyErind did the same to herself. I put on some dark pants and the dark hoodie used for our last mission. I also put on black shoes. Instead of putting on the balaclava mask, I simply put on a dark gray face mask. I didn’t expect to run into law enforcement, so I wanted to be comfortable. Of course, it wasn’t wise to completely throw caution to the wind.

I opened up the window and crawled outside. I was waiting for some secret alarm system to go off, but nothing happened. I guess I was fine then. Hopefully, nobody would try invading this house later. All my stuff was here. Though, Deen did have her summon. Maybe it would be nice and stop any robbers from taking my stuff.

Speaking of robbers, I was heading to the precinct with the most crime around La Esperanza. It was southwest of here. I began jogging toward the nearest subway station.

One of the great things about having superpowers was that I didn’t get tired. Human Erind would have gotten tired running for so long, but for my current body, it felt like I hadn’t broken a sweat. Sadly, I wasn’t as good with directions so I kept wandering in circles a few times. But finally, I made it QualityMart across from the Riano station. Then, came the next phase of my plan. I didn’t want to be traced back to my human self, so I would use my Red Hood mask to hitch a ride on the top of the subway.

I held up my right hand and focused on summoning my Red Hood mask. Bright gold liquid rose out of the crystals into the air. It turned red and coalesced into a toothed snout. I took off my face mask and put the snout on.

I let out a satisfactory growl as I felt strength course through my body. But that was soon interrupted by the cold night breeze brushing against my bare skin. I should have brought a jacket for this transformation. A really big jacket.

While most of the subway was underground, sections of it did meet the surface. Which made it a perfect ticket to get to Gusta County. In front of me was a concrete barrier separating me from the tracks, which lay 15 feet below on the other side. However, the train would be way taller, so I wouldn’t have to fall as much.

Generally, I wouldn’t try a risky move like this, but there were two things that convinced me this was a good idea. Number one, people did this in the movies. If they can do it in the movies, then surely I could do it in real life. Number two, I was both a Corebring and an Adumbrae, so my body could take a lot of damage… not that I was expecting to get hurt at all.

A few minutes later, the sound of a train rumbling alerted me. I leaped on top of the concrete barrier and took a look down at the tracks. If I missed my landing, I could get seriously hurt. Thankfully, even bullets didn’t really harm me, so I should be fine. Exhilaration coursed through my body as I anticipated the train.

A bright light appeared before me followed by several metal passenger cars. I was correct, the difference in height was small. I held my breath and jumped down. Landing squarely on my feet, I bent down to maintain balance. It would be really stupid if I fell off right now. But I did it!

Then, the train accelerated. Shit.

I wobbled and fell back a bit. Using my claws, I dug into the roof of the train. Hopefully, nobody noticed that. Before I could take a sigh of relief, I saw the tunnel ceiling shrink. Fuck.

Flattening myself, I was met with the disgusting feeling of dirt and grime. Eww. The ceiling did raise after a while, but I didn’t want to risk it. I’d probably need to give my transformed self a shower.

After about a few stops, we were finally making it to where I wanted to be. At the next station, I’d get off. The train pulled in. I waited a few moments for people to get off the train. The cameras would probably be too focused on them, and the train would also help conceal my escape. I slid off the side not facing the station. Then, I jumped up back onto the surface.

I moved a couple of blocks down. My light skin was now covered in dirt, grime, and whatever filth was on that train. They should seriously clean that. As a hot girl, I shouldn’t have to deal with any of that.

I took off my mask and was no longer assaulted by feelings of disgust and discomfort. Two orb sensations were in my left hand. Time to summon both my 2nd clone and SpookyErind. I held out my left hand and summoned both of them. SpookyErind was summoned first, followed by my 2nd clone. Their masks floated over to the side and were instantly replaced by SpookyErind and my 2nd clone. SpookyErind put on her SpookyErind mask, while I had my 2nd clone transform into her kid scientist form. I needed to come up with a cool name for her.

Both SpookyErind and I put on our face masks. Thankfully, I wasn’t as small as a little kid, so no one would be able to trace my 2nd clone’s transformation back to me.

Before we began moving to find some robbers, I found a cockroach on the road. Perfect. It’ll be my first test subject. Using super speed, I had my 2nd clone catch the cockroach. She grabbed it with her left hand gently before it could jump away.

It’d been a while since I experimented with insects. Mom eventually found out was I was doing so I had to stop. I got a lot of scolding for how ‘sadistic’ I was. But I just found it so fascinating how the little bugs were easily maimed and killed in my ‘games’. Sometimes, I’d watch them wander and squirm without some of their legs. Other times, I’d collect some and put them in a container so they would battle each other. Sadly, I didn’t know that some insects weren’t carnivorous, so when I put a cockroach and a beetle in a container, it turned out that little me was bored by nothing happening. I ended up killing both and feeding their remains to a spider.

Anyways, I grabbed the bee syringe and brought it up to the cockroach. It was squirming and trying to get out of my hand. It should be grateful that it was the first bug in a while I had experimented on. I pushed the syringe handle and the red liquid disappeared into the cockroach. It started squirming even faster. Was it in pain? I had no idea. Bugs always squirmed when I caught them. During my attempts to torture them, they generally stopped squirming.

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“Do you know if it’s pain?” I asked SpookyErind.

It looks like it’s in pain, she said. Although, I wouldn’t know since I’ve never been a cockroach.

Hmm.

Let’s try the other syringes then. I dropped the bee syringe and took out the spider syringe from my pocket and brought it up to the cockroach. I injected it with the blue liquid. A few moments later, the cockroach stopped squirming. So the spider one does stun. If it was like the bee syringe, it wouldn’t have done anything. I dropped the spider syringe to the ground.

See, I told you, SpookyErind said triumphantly.

“Okay, I guess you were right,” I said. But I was excited to test the last syringe. I had no idea what it would do.

Golden liquid was materializing to the right of the ant syringe. My other syringes were regenerating. I took out the ant syringe and brought it up to the paralyzed cockroach. I pushed the handle on the syringe and the yellow liquid entered its body. A few seconds later, the cockroach started to shrink. Huh? It shrunk down in size, becoming smaller than an ant. I could barely see it. If it weren’t for the barely working streetlamps, it would have been too difficult to see.

“That didn’t do what I expected it to do,” I said.

What were you expecting? SpookyErind asked.

“Anything but that,” I said. “I can barely see it now. And like, what am I supposed to do with this? Now it’s even harder to observe the cockroach.”

Maybe it’ll be more useful on other insects, she smirked.

“I hope so.”

I dropped the extremely tiny cockroach, and we continued moving down the alleyway. Maybe a robber would show up. But, the streets were pretty empty. Fine. I guess I’ll look for more insects then. Stupid robbers, not even showing up. What’s it take for a girl to get mugged?

Eventually, I saw a wolf spider in the corner. I was surprised by how little bugs there were too. But here was another opportunity. I had my 2nd clone grab leap and grab the wolf spider. It tried jumping away but my reflexes were better. It bit my hand and broke through the gloves. But, it only felt like a tiny pinprick.

Ignoring the minuscule pain, I grabbed the spider syringe that had reformed and brought it up to the big spider. I was getting tired of its futile attempts to bite me. Injecting it, the blue liquid entered the spider’s body. It stopped squirming and biting me. Okay, now to test the ant syringe. Hopefully, something fun would happen rather than making the spider hard to see.

I took out the ant syringe. But before I could inject it, SpookyErind grabbed the limp spider.

“Hey!” I said from my 2nd clone.

She lowered her face mask and tossed the spider inside her mouth. What the fuck? She began chewing the spider. It tasted like chicken.

“What the fuck?” I said. “I was going to test the ant syringe on that.”

She swallowed. That’s the wrong type of insect to use it on.

“Well, don’t just go and eat insects,” I replied as she put her mask back on.

That spider was pretty tasty, SpookyErind shrugged. Maybe you should try eating insects. I think it would be a fun way to experiment with them. See what each one tastes like.

I wanted to immediately rebut her since she took my spider, but that idea did sound intriguing. I had never eaten insects before. I had heard of different cultures eating them, but I never found them that appealing to eat. None of the insects really looked like tasty snacks. Damn. I could have a double-scooped ice cream cone with cookies right now. That’d be a good tasty snack. Sadly, there weren’t any ice cream shops open right now.

We continued heading down the street. Why weren’t there any robbers? Okay, I guess the crime rate in this county wasn’t that high. The police were still making sure that no criminals were around. Of course, some got away. But if the crime problem festered, that could be a hotbed for Adumbrae seeding. Still, it was surprising not to see anything on this street. No cars, no police, no nothing. I guess this area was pretty poor and abandoned.

I turned a corner, and I finally found someone. Somebody was resting near a building. SpookyErind pulled me back from the corner. Huh?

Let’s stay behind here, while your 2nd clone goes to meet them, she explained.

Oh, so was this person going to rob me? I wanted to see what my syringes did to them.

My 2nd clone walked up to them. A cardboard box with an empty food can inside sat next to the person. It turned out it was a man. A stench came from his body. As my 2nd clone got closer, I saw the terrible state of his clothes and hygiene. His clothes looked like they hadn’t been washed in weeks. His jacket looked like it had dirt all over and his shirt and shorts had tears everywhere. A sock that was on his left foot mismatched his bare right foot. Even I could tell his hair was greasy with the poor lighting.

Nasty. Hopefully this guy wouldn’t take too long to rob me. Then, I could quickly use Rule #4 to punish him.

The man turned up to look at my 2nd clone.

“Hello there…” the man said with a raspy voice.

“Hi,” I had my 2nd clone say meekly.

“A scientist kid, huh?” he said. “You must be really enthused about science.”

“Yep,” I had her say. I didn’t like science at all actually.

“That’s good,” he said. “Make sure you actually have dreams. I never had any and look where I ended up.”

Huh, what this guy not going to attack me? I took a look at SpookyErind with my main body. I couldn’t see her face behind the mask, but I could tell from our shared senses she was smiling.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” I had my 2nd clone say.

“Heh,” He chuckled. “I’ve been asking people to help me for far too long. See this box?”

I nodded. Where was he going with this?

“I had a sign out here asking for food and drinks. Got rid of it recently, and most of my food is gone. I just felt guilty from asking people while doing nothing. Maybe I have some illness or something. But I shouldn’t be taking from you kid. You look smart and will probably make the world a better place. Don’t need you worrying about me.”

I was smart, and in a sense, I was trying to make the world a better place. Mainly by carrying out Rule #4 when necessary.

I nodded again.

“The name’s Joseph,” he grunted. “You probably won’t remember that, but it was rude of me not to introduce myself.”

“I’m Claire,” I had my 2nd clone say. Claire, the scientist kid!

“That’s a good name,” he said. Okay, I was like 90% sure this guy wasn’t going to rob me. But he did praise me, so I’ll stay for a bit longer.

“I’m probably going to start searching for a job soon,” he said. “But every time I’ve tried, I feel like I’m not good enough and back out.”

I wasn’t interested in this dude's sad life story. He should really hurry up and tell me something I want to hear. Or maybe he was luring me in with a sob story? That way he could easily rob me later.

“I found this ad on a TV in a store window,” he said. “An experimental drug to cure depression and prevent Adumbrae seeding. I called using the old flip phone I still have. So maybe things will get better for me.”

“Um, that sounds really nice mister,” I started off. “But I should really get home. It’s kind of very dark.”

“Cya kid,” Joseph said. “Sorry for rambling.”

The sound of a vehicle going down the road alerted my 2nd clone. Huh?

Hide, SpookyErind said.

Hide? There was nowhere to hide my 2nd clown. We were all out on an open street with closed buildings! Oh wait, there was a tiny alleyway several yards away from Joseph. I ran my 2nd clone there.

The high beams went by, followed by a black van. Another black van?