“BID nodes ensure that each region of the US can be easily reached by the BID,” Professor Silva lectured. “Of course, more libertarian states have attempted to resist the arrival of BID agents. What argument have they used?”

I raised my hand.

“Yes, Ms. Hartwell?” She called on me.

“Posse Comitatus, which was passed in a bill in 1878,” I explained as I stood up. “The bill prevented federal troops from enforcing the law in local matters. The phrase Posse Comitatus comes from the Latin phrase “power of the county,” which means that local law enforcement should have jurisdiction rather than the federal government. Many states had independent militias to help deal with the Adumbrae before federal agencies such as the BID and the AIU were formed.”

“Indeed, and so how did the federal government respond to this legally?” she asked.

“The US Supreme Court ruled in 1963’s U.S. vs. Wyoming case that Adumbrae were a national security issue,” I answered. “Posse Comitatus did not apply even though Wyoming insisted it was a local law enforcement matter.”

“A good response,” she said. “You may sit down.”

I sat back in my seat. Last Thursday, I basically stayed quiet the whole class, so it was important for today’s lecture to continue making a good impression on Professor Silva. Since she only called on two to five people every class, I probably wouldn’t be called on until a few weeks for now.

Meanwhile, my 2nd clone was back at home on the phone playing Tappy Dash. One of the great things about having multiple bodies was multitasking. Now, I could be in class while still trying to beat some of the levels in the game.

I had my 2nd clone tap the screen to dodge past the pink obstacles coming for my blue square. A tap from one of her fingers caused the square to fly back up toward the top of the black void. Muscle memory was the goal of the game. And with a bit of concentration, I could easily beat this level.

And then my concentration was broken.

Hey, move up so I can sit behind you, SpookyErind said.

I ignored her and continued playing my game. I was so close. SpookyErind put her hands on my shoulders. A small pink orb crashed into my blue square. It exploded. No! I was like 95% of the way there!

I turned my 2nd clone’s head and glared at SpookyErind.

What’s the matter? She asked with a grin. I rolled my eyes at her. Hey, so I’m going to sit down here.

“I’m already sitting here though!” I had my clone say. “Get your own chair.”

There’s only one chair, SpookyErind said. And since we are the same, it’s our chair. You know, Meyoumeyoumeyou.

Fine. I scooted up a bit so she could sit behind me. Thankfully, this chair was kind of big. Otherwise, I would have fallen off if I moved. She sat behind my 2nd clone. Since I was already sitting there, she opened her legs as she sat down and used them to hug my legs. She wrapped her arms behind me and brought her head forward to nuzzle my cheek.

See, isn’t this much better now? She asked.

“No, because I just died before finishing the level,” I pouted.

Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll beat it on the next go, she said. I sighed as I pressed the replay button.

Back in class, Professor Silva was still lecturing.

“Over the course of modern history, we find that federalism has been declining in favor of centralism. Obviously, you all know what federalism is. But, if you haven’t guessed what centralism is, then it’s the idea that the central government should hold most of the power of a country. The Adumbrae threat has only enforced the requirement of a strong national force. Therefore, it should be of no surprise why this shift happened.

“Not to get too political here, but the interest in a strong national government has led to serious conflicts with the Libertarian Party. While their political desires for freedom from government may have been good prior to World War II, they simply do not apply now. Freedom from Adumbrae is simply more popular than freedom from government.”

I would have agreed with that before becoming an Adumbrae. When I was just a normal human, I already had so many worries. Adding Adumbrae on top of them was simply stupid. So, I supported the BID and AIU spending when it came time to vote. And that’s how I got to voting for the current president four years ago. Can I take my vote back now?

Now, of course, I knew politicians were greedy douchebags, and I may as well have saved my time, but there were a couple of things I accomplished by voting. Number one, it helped to create a good impression of my daily Erind face. When I sent in my mail-in ballot, I got a sticker saying I voted. It didn’t mean much to me, but with a bunch of my classmates being politically active, it showed I was an upstanding citizen. And given how we were all undergrad students in a densely populated city, they probably thought I had the same values as them.

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Second of all, politicians and ballot measures can majorly impact my life. While I liked to be the one in control, there was simply no denying the fact that politicians and ballot measures could affect me. I may as well have some input in trying to change the course of this country to benefit me. Still, I doubt my vote mattered too much. Thankfully, I only did mail-in voting. If I had to wait in line to vote, I don’t think I would have gotten that sticker nearly four years ago. That’d just drain my energy too much to keep up my face.

And how do you plan on voting for this year’s election? SpookyErind asked with her head still attached to the side of my 2nd clone’s head.

“I’m not sure,” I said with my 2nd clone. “I don’t like either of the top two presidential candidates.” It looked like the top two candidates were going to be Goodwin and Vos. Goodwin, the current president, was currently having the BID send more troops to the docks area, which was way too close for my liking. And then, I read in an article that Vos was blaming him for the Adumbrae attack. He said he’d double BID spending, which was a big no-no since I was an Adumbrae.

There were also 3rd party candidates. The two main other 3rd parties were the Green Party and the Socialist Party. Sadly, the Libertarian Party didn’t have ballot access in California. Otherwise, I would have voted for them. Maybe they’d somehow get lucky, and their president would defund the BID for me. Obviously, I wasn’t going to vote for the Socialist Party. They shared the same stance on the BID as the two main candidates. I guess that just left the Green Party. They didn’t really focus too much on the BID, and making the Earth cleaner would be nice I guess.

“Who would you vote for?” I asked SpookyErind.

I’d vote for us, she said. I think we should have the power to control the US, right? We both laughed. I guess I could also write in myself. But that’d be weird, and some people might notice an “Erind Hartwell” getting a vote in the presidential election. And I’d prefer not to get attention that way. Or at all, really.

On the topic of power, didn’t it feel nice to experiment on those insects last Saturday night? She asked.

The spider and the cockroach? Well, -

No, not those ones, the other ones, she said. The other ones? Did she mean the group of 2M’s I shrunk down?

She smirked. I guess they technically were insects. They were really small like them. Wait, I don’t think that’s how the definition of an insect works. Pretty sure they need to have six legs. Would that mean if an ant was the size of a human, it would still be considered an insect?

“Yeah, I enjoyed experimenting on them,” I had my 2nd clone say.

I enjoyed it too, she said. They were pretty tasty too.

Indeed. Who knew vanilla ice cream-flavored humans would taste so good? I had eaten other humans in my Red Hood form, but they just had the generic taste of metallic blood and salty flesh. Which was kind of funny to say since who would consider the taste of humans generic? Do Adumbrae ever get bored of eating the humans that have the same flavor? Probably not, since they keep eating them.

Anyways, it was great to pretend to be a kid again. I got to make up two different faces. The first was a valiant kid sticking up for the homeless. The second was an Adumbrae kid who experimented on people. The only bad thing about it was being short. I didn’t like being short, and I still hate being short.

Oh, and I guess another bad thing was I didn’t collect any of them. Back before Mom found out, I had a collection of insects. There was just something fascinating about taking them and having them for myself. I could have them do battles, torture them, and kill them.

From tiny beetles all the way to large spiders, I had everything. I was basically an entomologist. I think I heard that on Animal Planet or some other show. They were the people who studied insects. I made it my goal as a kid to study them. Of course, the modern science community may have disagreed with my methods, but their methods were boring.

Entomologist… Ento. maybe that’s what I should call my kid scientist’s face.

That sounds like a cute name, SpookyErind said. It’s just as cute as ours.

I did have a cute name. Although, it would be really nice if some people would stop thinking it’s a boy's name.

Anyways, maybe on your next mission, you could collect some insects for us, she said. Imagine having a human insect colony!

That sounded pretty difficult to do. While I could definitely show off my new powers to my team, they’d probably be pretty disturbed if I tried to take some of the 2M’s thug guys with me home. I’d have to do it discreetly.

Maybe you should try using the apron’s other pocket, SpookyErind suggested.

What? That didn’t really solve any issues. As a kid, when I tried to collect insects, they all squirmed. After Mom scolded me, I tried transporting some large beetles in my pockets, but they wiggled, and Mom had a talk with me. And that was the end of my entomologist career. I didn’t want to make Mom angry–I was the perfect daughter who could do no wrong.

Also, it wasn’t like I was living alone. Deen was also here. I’d have to somehow keep it a secret from her. She liked to barge into my room. Maybe I should just keep this door locked. I’d still be afraid of her busting through the window.

I’m sure we could figure it out, SpookyErind said as she nuzzled my cheek again.

Maybe so. Anyways, I had more important things to do, like beating this level and paying attention in class.

“So how does this apply to Palmer Node being deployed here in California?” Carmen asked.

“Well, in this case, the Standard Operating Procedure would be to secure the area,” Professor Silva said. “While we do not know what happened to the Titan Adumbrae, BID agents will continue their search. The expansion of the search area will happen slowly.”

“But what happens if the Titan Adumbrae isn’t found?” Carmen asked.

“This sort of strays away from the concept of national security,” Professor Silva started off. “But I imagine if that happened, it would be because the Corebrings managed to eliminate it. It is unlikely to evade detection for long.”

The funny fact of it was I was pretty sure that Titan Adumbrae, Ms.Statue Lady, was a member of the 2Ms. She could clearly talk to us, so she had some control over her body. She’d be able to hide pretty easily from the BID if she could grow and shrink at will. I wondered how many other 2Ms members were as strong or stronger than her. It would be a fun challenge to eat them all. Maybe Ento could help with that. Although, I wasn’t sure if her syringes could pierce Ms. Statue Lady’s skin.

The class came to an end shortly after that. And I managed to beat that level! Just had Consti next. And after that, there was the celebration with my “teammates.”