Deen and I were hanging out at the dinner table with our laptops. It was more like the four of us since SpookyErind and my 2nd clone were helping out. All the public information we could get on Bianca would be helpful to us. Mainly, we needed information on where she would be and how to get to her. Which was a lot easier said than done.
After the attack last week, some places she planned on visiting closed down temporarily. So we needed an updated schedule. Some of the websites were not updated correctly, so that was a lot of wasted time. And then, there was another issue.
“How about the Celestial Plan Hotel?” I asked. “She’s going to be there tomorrow.”
“That’s not going to work,” Deen said. “That place doesn’t allow entry to guests. We’d have to pay and register to get in.” Wow, has Deen actually been there? Given how rich she was, I wasn’t surprised. That place looked like a five-star resort.
“And that’s bad because it’ll leave a paper trail of where we’re going,” I said.
“Yeah,” she replied. “We’re going to need free access.”
I kept scrolling through. Her schedule was very busy with lots of places booked. With my 2nd clone, I had managed to bring up a restaurant, but it didn’t seem like she was open to any conversations with guests. She seemed to be a pro at avoiding crowds whenever she didn’t want them. SpookyErind was searching for any fan photos of her outside the events she did. She didn’t find any. Bianca probably used some kind of tinted car.
“Oh wait, she just posted something new!” I said.
“Last week, I had a great time at the Arthouria Infinity!” The post started off. I showed it to Deen. “Originally, I was planning on going to the Celestial Plan, but instead I’ve decided to take a trip to the Epicenter Resort. Apparently, she’s going to the top floor.”
“Do we have a shot of getting in?” I asked.
“Probably?” She said. I raised my brows. “It’s another five-star resort, but they don’t gatekeep the top floor. Most of the fun stuff is in the floors below ground.”
“Fun stuff?” I asked.
“A bunch of tourism events that are probably way too expensive for even me,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Tourism? And why is part of the resort underground?” I asked.
“It was originally a bunker to defend against the Adumbrae. The entire building was designed to withstand Earthquakes. Even with some Adumbrae attacks a few decades ago, the building still stands strong today.”
“But, we shouldn’t have to go there right?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “I just wanted to point out a fun fact.”
“Anyways, so we should be able to meet her up in the afternoon?” I asked, bringing us back on topic.
“Mhm. We could wait there during lunch,” she said.
“They're serving drinks there,” I said, pulling up their menu.
“Do you plan on drinking?” she asked.
“No, will you?”
“No, I just wanted to see if my best friend drinks,” she said.
“Do I look like an alcoholic?” I asked. I gave out a short chuckle to indicate I was joking. She laughed with me.
“All right, I’ll contact the others,” she said. “If we get there early, we’ll be able to plan and eat lunch.”
“Got any ideas of how to talk to her?”
“Not yet,” she said.
Deen and I walked up onto the top floor of the balcony-styled bar of the Epicenter Resort. It was definitely more luxurious than any restaurant I’ve been to, and that was saying something because Mom took me to some fancy restaurants when Dad was still alive. The bar was outfitted with a Chic style, and there were so many things there. An arcade sat on the other side, its sci-fi aesthetic clashing with the Modern style of the bar.
If it wasn’t more clear how luxurious this place was, then the prices reinforced that. I could never imagine spending this much money on just food. Deen, however, found no problem with that. At least I still got free food.
My 2nd clone and SpookyErind were back at our secret base along with Dario and Johann. Myra still had classes at this time on Wednesday, and Everett and Reo were off doing something for Dario. Something about reinforcing our van.
“How’s it looking?” Dario asked.
“The line’s getting shorter,” I had my 2nd clone say. “We should be able to talk to her soon.”
“Good job on picking something in the afternoon,” Johann said. “I could not imagine doing this at night.” I nodded my 2nd clone’s head.
Back at the Epicenter, Deen and I were finishing up our lunch.
“Thanks for the meal,” I said.
“Thanks for coming with me,” she said.
“Just wanted to remind you to not buy any drinks to save money,” I said. She laughed.
“Are you ready?” I asked her.
“I’m getting kinda anxious,” she said. “But we can’t turn back now or we may never find Kelsey.”
What if Kelsey wasn’t even at the Red Island? Wouldn’t it be super funny that we spend all that time looking for her to not even be there? While I might be mad for having my time wasted, I had another reason for going to the Red Island. There’ll probably be a lot of Adumbrae there. I’m pretty sure they would be a nice meal for a cute Corebring Adumbrae girl like me.
Bianca was sitting on the other side of the bar at her own table. Her two bodyguards, Xazary and Zachary stood to the side as the last dozen or so of her fans came up to her. Wow. She was still going. I would have faked being sick. It didn’t seem like she wanted to spend too much time with them given how fast she was going. I’d needed to readjust my assessment of her. I thought she was just going to have the facade of charisma in public, but be a total primadonna when dealing with actual people.
It’s always safe to assume the worse in people. I can always readjust from there. Best way not to get backstabbed was if you assume everyone is against you. Not that I’ve ever been backstabbed. Or actually stabbed in the back.
“There’s only a handful of people left,” Deen said. “It looks like everyone else has gotten their photographs and autographs. Should we get in line?”
“We probably don’t have much time left,” I said. “Look at how fast she’s signing. She probably doesn’t want to stay here too long. Also, should we get an autograph for Reo?”
“I still haven’t thought of a plan,” she said.
I took a look at my plate. The remains of a high-class chicken cuisine were on it, along with a fork and knife. Wait, that’s it!
“Well, I got one,” I said standing up and putting the knife in my left pocket. “Let’s go.”
“Wait, what’s your plan?” she asked. I explained it. “All right, I’m not 100% sure, but I guess we’ll have to try it.”
“Okay, we’re going up to see Bianca,” I had my 2nd clone say to Dario and Johann. “I’ll keep updating you guys.” I didn’t want to reveal my plan right now, or they might get really upset at it.
“Good luck,” Dario said.
As we approached Bianca, she raised her head and offered us a smile. I couldn’t tell whether she was faking it or being genuine.
“Do you guys want to take a pic?” she asked. We didn’t have anything for her to sign, so if we were her fans, that’d be a good guess. Of course, we were after something else.
“We saw you at last week’s party,” I said. She raised her brow. I gave Deen a nudge. That’s your cue.
“Yes, don’t you remember Razzy’s Lights playing?” she asked, shivering a bit. Apparently, she was telling the truth. She left there last Thursday while I was relaxing. I wasn’t much of a party person so I just stayed home. Deen calmed down and continued to talk about the party with Bianca.
Somehow, Bianca talked to Deen as if they were best friends. Actually, you can keep her. They kept bringing up various nonsense about the party. I tuned some of it out. Nothing useful there. Sadly for Deen, it looked like she didn’t have much more to cover. Bianca would shoo us away and leave.
It’s my time to shine. “We actually wanted to talk to you about a different reason. If we could show you-”
“Wait a minute, who are you again?” Bianca said to me. Whoops, I should have introduced myself to her. But I had no idea what was going on at the party. “I don’t remember you being at the party she asked,” she stated with an irritated tone. Calm down bitch.
“I actually was at the party,” I said. “I’m besties with Deen, so I go wherever she goes. We also share the secret thing.”
“Secret thing?” she asked.
“Erm, I know we’re not supposed to know who each other are, but I wanted to make more friends with people like us,” Deen said.
“What do you mean?” she asked as Xaary approached us with her hands out.
I took out the knife from my pocket and held out my left hand. Xazary’s black-gloved hand started vibrating as she held it out. Beneath the leather, gold lines began to glow, burning brightly. She was about to blow our heads off. Sadly, nobody was recording at this time, so its awesomeness would only be offscreen. The ratings would be through the roof. Just like our bodies. Still, I’d prefer a peaceful resolution to this.
Stolen story; please report.
“Please observe,” I said as I began pushing the knife deeper into my skin. Xazary was only a few inches away from us. Blood leaked out of my hand. Deen wasn’t saying anything.
“Stop,” Bianca said curtly. Her voice imposed authority, which was different than the charismatic extroverted celebrity persona we were just talking to. Xazary pulled back her hand, with her black glove still smoldering gold. I could make out bits of silver machinery through the holes where the gold came out.
“We’re members of the you-know-what club,” Deen said. “I’m a bit squeamish about blood, so I had Erind over here cut herself. There were rumors going on that you came to the city because you also wanted to become a…member…too. ”
I took the knife out of my hand and the wound healed quickly. The blood stopped flowing as if I turned off the knob on a sink. Thankfully, the cut I did was deep enough to be unnatural. There was no other explanation other than supernatural regeneration.
“Sorry for introducing ourselves in such a creepy way,” I said.
Xazary leaned down and whispered something to Bianca’s ear. A brief moment of irritation flashed on Bianca’s beautiful face.
“Can’t you see I’m talking to my friends? Just move the next place on the schedule. Call the waiter and brings something for my newfound friends. Don’t bother me with anything else.”
I internally smirked. So it was true. Bianca was like me. But she was a novice at this game. Rule #7 existed for a reason. You never break your face no matter what, you stupid bitch. Someone like you might notice who you were, and that’s game.
It reminded me of those crime documentaries I watched as a kid. Not that I had any choice. Auntie Carla would force us to watch one episode every time she came over. Little Erind had a bit of… not connection, but understanding with the people featured. I think Auntie Carla brainwashed my Mom because she also got addicted to watching these shows. Maybe it filled a gap when Dad left.
It was because of these shows that I learned of other people… similar to me. But still very different. I found watching them very interesting. I don’t know what it was, but observing insects, animals, and other people fascinated me. Understanding their behaviors took up so much of my time I was surprised I didn’t become a psychologist.
The main point was that these shows often showed imprisoned criminals in the spotlight. I haven’t actually seen a show with someone like me going to a psychologist. Why go to one if we were we had no problems? At least, from our point of view.
One of the main issues with these shows is that they always showed the not-so-normal people with their masks off. I’d be surprised if anyone in prison actually cared to keep them on. But once you take it off, it becomes a ‘mask’. You never take off a ‘face’. Mainly, because there’s nothing underneath, other than the flesh and brain bits inside.
Faces were tailored to people. A well-crafted personality to keep them from knowing what’s truly there. And here, this girl was taking her face off in front of us. Which was an especially dangerous thing to do given that she knew we were Adumbrae. We could easily kill her later. So irritating.
While we were waiting for the waiter, Bianca switched back to her amiable and up-beat personality that she used for her show. She ordered us sandwiches and allowed us to choose our drinks. I ordered something a bit fruity, while Deen decided to get something with a bit more alcohol than me. I hope she didn’t become easily drunk.
After the waiter took our orders and left, Bianca leaned back in her chair. She crossed her legs and turned to Xazary.
“Xaz, How are they?” Bianca asked her. She simply shook her head. “Cool!” she said clapping her hands.
Deen and I raised our brows. “I hope you two aren’t bothered by me having Xaz scan for bugs and wires. I wasn’t too sure if I could trust you. Better safe than sorry.”
“Oh, you don’t worry about us being from the BID or Corebrings,” I said. Time to show off, this time my law knowledge. “If we were either of them, then trying to disguise ourselves would be completely unnecessary.”
“Why so?” Bianca asked.
“The Panderton Act for the BID, and the Corebrings simply are above the law,” I said. “If they suspected you of being… you know, they would just take you away. I had a friend who was careless, and she got suspected of being an Adumbrae. She vanished and later her family was rounded up for testing.”
Bianca nodded. “That does make sense.”
We needed a reason for Bianca to trust us. What if she suspected us of being Corebrings or part of the BID? Then we needed to show that the only possible conclusion was that with we were part of the 2Ms. Then, we let Occam’s razor do the work. If we were truly from a powerful extrajudicial organization, then we would just be wasting our time trying to befriend her.
The only other explanation would be that we were with the 2Ms. I highly doubt the 2Ms would discuss Dario’s gang with her. They wouldn’t want to scare off potential customers.
Thankfully, I could take over the rest of the conversation from here. I mainly needed Deen to introduce ourselves.
“It’s definitely good I met you guys then,” she said. “I have to say, I’m a bit anxious about the procedure. But after seeing what you just did, it seems worth it.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. Deen nodded with me. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s like you improved in so many ways. The feelings of strength and energy makes us feel like bodybuilders. Never having to worry about dying from stupid diseases or accidents.” She seemed unfazed by her response. It was as if nothing of what I said interested her specifically. Was she looking for something else? Maybe a particular ability?
“There is one question I have though,” she said. “How do you know about me? Aren’t our identities kept secret from each other?”
I swallowed and hoped this was the correct response.
“We know a special person on the Red Island,” I said. “While they couldn’t get a list of other members easily, they were able to get us a list of potential new customers.” The ‘Red Island’ namedrop should help solidify we were part of the 2Ms.
The waiter came back with our food and pre-interrupted Bianca from speaking up.
“The person who helped us is way older than us,” I said. “So, it’s kinda awkward to be friends with her. You’ll get to know her eventually. She’s in her fifties but looks like she’s in her twenties because of all the plastic surgery done on her. They were even able to go past normal limits because of her enhanced body. Do you also want plastic surgery after you leave the Red Island? I can -”
“No,” Bianca hissed in rage. But a moment later, she was back to her friendly persona. “Modifying myself to look younger, that’s outrag… I’m definitely not doing that. It’s all nonsense.”
Interesting. So that part about not modifying herself was true. Add that to the fact that she didn’t really seem interested in any of the supernatural benefits, it seemed weird that she wanted to become an Adumbrae.
“By the way, thanks for the food and drinks you ordered,” she said, sensing that our conversation might get worse if we continued. “You didn’t need to pay for all this.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t mind. We might become close friends in the future.” Bianca took a sandwich. I also took one. Deen followed me.
“We’ll have more time to know each other after you go to the Red Island,” Deen said. Thankfully, Deen switched the topic away from us, since I was pretty sure Bianca was trying to get lots of free info out of us. Still, she was happy to play the rich people's socialization game. Maybe I should learn to play it too.
Deen and Bianca discussed more before she brought up a topic we weren’t prepared for.
“By the way, are you going to attend the fight on next week’s Saturday?” she asked. Deen tensed up and gripped my knee under the table.
“Next week’s Saturday, huh,” I said as I had my 2nd clone pull out her phone and start searching Bianca’s schedule. Bianca narrowed her eyes.
“What is it?” Johann said.
“Bianca says there’s going to be a fight two Saturday’s from now,” I said with my 2nd clone. “I’m checking her schedule.”
“Fights?” Johann and Dario asked.
“I’ll have to check if Deen is fine with going to the Eve,” I said. “You know how squeamish she is about blood.”
“You don’t really attend the fights?” Bianca said. “I guess I understand.”
The Eve was apparently a nightclub. But I had heard of that name before. Back when I shrunk Mr. Trenchcoat Guy, he revealed that monsters fight at the Eve. I wasn’t really familiar with it, and I thought it was just some secret place like the Red Island. But it all made sense now.
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s just not my thing.”
“My Xaz is going to fight there,” Bianca said with pride. “I’ll be so happy if you two come.”
“Wait, you’re fighting?” I said with fake fear. I brought my hand up to my mouth. “It’s dangerous - you don’t fight humans over there. You’re fighting enhanced monsters.”
Xazary opened her mouth, but Bianca shushed her. “She will fight and she will win. I have to show the others my capabilities.” So she wanted to establish dominance in a new environment. That wasn’t how I would do it. I’d like to keep all the cards up my pocket. Or was it sleeve?
“I guess we could come,” I say, taking a look at Deen. She was shivering when I saw her. She swallowed. Knock it off bitch or you’re going to blow our cover. “Is that alright Deen?”
“I guess I could go,” Deen said. “Just this once though.”
“It’s a shame though that they pushed the fight back a week,” Bianca said. “I really wanted to show off Xaz this Saturday. What do you think about them pushing it back?”
What the fuck is she talking about? Why would they delay the fight? Did something happen? It’s not like I would know- Wait a minute.
“It’s because of that stupid stuff at the docks,” I said. “I don’t know why there was fighting on the docks. One of their creations probably got loose. I imagine it was those two giant werewolves. It’s a shame since the BID is now moving in.”
“Yeah, they really should get things under control,” Bianca said.
Wew. Thankfully, I was great at improvisation. Back in middle school and high school, when we were forced to take a fine arts elective, I chose Theater. It was basically the art of making masks. But for me, those masks would become faces.
Bianca was probably suspicious of my answer about attending the Eve, and now was seriously checking to make sure we were part of the 2Ms. Was there anything else she could ask us about?
“I don’t really have a main home that I stay at,” Bianca said. “I’d be glad to visit both of you.”
“Oh, we’d be glad,” Deen said, stepping in. “Erind and I live together, so you’d actually only need to visit one house to see both of us.”
“Are you two… lovers?” Bianca asked. What the fuck? I knew she was fishing for information, but this was a bit too direct. But if she wanted to gather information from us, I’d be glad to feed her the wrong information.
“Yes,” I said. Deen tensed up. I’d deal with the fallout later. But, here, the whole point was that I was the fisherman, and Bianca was the fish. She thought it was the other way around, but I was the one with my fishing rod leaving the bait in the water. From getting her to trust us, to feeding into her delusions, it was all part of my plan.
She’d be so upset when we’d kill her at the Red Island. But she shouldn’t have given up the game this early. She was also being very annoying trying to get information out of us. I didn’t appreciate it. People should try to stay out of my life as much as possible.
Zachary came over and leaned down to Bianca’s ear. He whispered something. “I have to go now,” she said. “I have a mandatory shooting. But it was glad to get to know you two. Have fun at your home.” She gave us a wink as she got up and left.
“Oh my god,” Deen let out a sigh of relief as we got into the elevator. “We made it.”
“My plan worked,” I said. She poked me in the side, making me jump. “Hey! I’m ticklish over there.”
“Sorry, I was just getting giddy,” she said as she wrapped me in a hug. “I was so worried she was going to catch us with one of our lies.” I rolled my eyes since she couldn’t see my face. Why did she have to be so touchy-feely? I gave her a hug back since this was such an important moment.
“We would have been fine with our powers,” I pointed out. “Did your Guardian Angel say anything?”
“No,” Deen said. “Which scared me a lot.”
“Nah, that just means we did so good we didn’t need its help,” I said. “Besides, if she was going to do something bad like report us to the police, then the Guardian Angel would have spoken up.”
“I never thought of that,” Deen said. “You were so cool back there Erind. I don’t think I could have come up with any of it.”
“I think quickly under pressure,” I said.
“But I don’t understand,” she said. “How did you know so much about the Eve?”
“Oh, I was looking on my phone with my 2nd clone at Bianca’s schedule,” I said. “It’d be too awkward if I did it there.”
“That makes sense, but how’d you know about the monsters and the delay?” she asked.
“Remember when we fought at the docks?” I asked. “We beat up that giant monster.” Well, it was more like I beat it up with some assistance from Everett. “What else would they have at fights other than monsters? And since we killed it, they’ll probably have to make another one.”
Realistically, there was no way I could have come up with this. But from what I learned from Mr. Trenchcoat Guy, I was able to stitch all of this together.
“Wow, that’s so clever,” she said. “But why did you say we were lovers?”
“She was digging for information,” I said. “I just wanted to resolidify the fact we were friends. She was checking for any inconsistencies, especially by bringing up the delay.”
“You didn’t need to say we were lovers though,” Deen sighed.
“I’m sorry if that offended you,” I said, as I released her from my hug
“No it’s fine, I understand why you did it,” Deen said as she did the same. “We’re still besties, just not that close.”
“Yeah,” I said. Wew. She wasn’t upset with me. I had no idea if Deen was gay. I didn’t even know if she was fine with gay people. But I really just wanted to mislead Bianca a lot. “Let me tell the others.”
“All right,” I said with my 2nd clone. “We befriended Bianca.”
“Nice job!” Dario said. Johann cheered.
And now, all I had to do was wait two weeks.