[REND] 20.3 - Big Bad Wolf to the Rescue

My fangs pierced Snakey Head’s skull, and my powerful jaws effortlessly crushed the superhuman bones. She didn’t have an opportunity to scream. She probably didn’t even know she was dead. Blood and mushy gray matter flooded my mouth, filling it with a metallic and earthy taste.

But I didn’t like this much. Snakey Head wasn’t a prey that attacked me. I didn’t particularly crave her.

I could’ve killed her with a slash of my claws, but I wanted to eat her brain. See how consuming an Adumbrae that wasn’t my hunger’s target would affect me. Apparently, nothing happened.

With the death of Snakey Head, Everett was free from whatever power she had. He hastily tore his shirt, revealing a huge patch of purplish, tumor-like growth that stretched from his right shoulder down to his back.

Tentacle Pile, and now, this? Why did most of the 2Ms’ Adumbrae goons have yucky, uncool powers? Wouldn’t be surprising if Clay Coward had a disgusting transformation, too. Why couldn’t they transform into a croissant? Or a bar of chocolate, at least! So annoying.

“Get out of my body!” Everett feverishly dug the rotten-fruit-looking growths out of his flesh. “You fucking, sickening bitch!” Did he not know that Snakey Head was already dead?

Is that considered rhyming?

Gritting his teeth, Everett didn’t hesitate to excise the parasite Adumbrae’s body, even if it had merged with his own, muscles and veins and all. I would’ve acted the same way because that looked like a nightmarish invasion of personal space. For Everett, though, he had personal issues with Adumbrae or something. I couldn’t recall his exact backstory because he was just a bland side character.

Everett’s blood spurted as he continued to scoop Adumbrae bits away. His regeneration, which was way slower than mine, filled up the holes with his flesh. He twisted around like a madman trying to scratch unreachable parts of his back when he turned around and saw me.

He froze. He must’ve been so focused on regaining control of his body that he noticed me only now.

“Who the—?” He retreated several steps and placed himself in front of Deen and Reo.

It started to get warm. This dickhead was using his powers on me after I saved him? I was mulling whether to allow him to burn me, and I’d injure him back for kicks, or just leave since I didn’t have a specific grievance with him, when Deen shouted.

“Everett, stop that!” Either Deen forgot to use his codename, as was the rule for missions, or Gabe told her to use his real name to shock him into stopping.

Everett glanced behind him. “What do you—?”

“She saved you! She killed… she ate the Adumbrae who controlled your body.” Deen stood up and gently pushed Everett aside. “Let me talk to her. Look after Reo.”

How I wished I had mind-reading powers. I wanted to know what Deen thought of me. Did she think I was badass for suddenly appearing to save the day and dispatching the enemy they had trouble with in a blink? I was as tall as the tallest WNBA players and more muscular. My claws had grown longer, and my knife-like fangs on display didn’t particularly look friendly.

I walked towards them, maintaining eye contact with Deen. I’m looking down on Deen! This was our natural height! Well, unnatural, for me. Still, I never imagined this day would come. It was a whole new world up here, being tall.

Everett flexed his muscles as I approached, looking ready to start a fight. Deen shook her head at him. He nodded once and went to Reo while continuing to pluck away Snakey Head’s leftover parts from him.

“Thank you for saving us.” Deen looked up at me.

Her heartbeat betrayed her nervousness—it was awesome to have this effect on her. But she shouldn’t be scared because she got those bullshit Guardian Angel powers. I hoped that stupid pet wasn’t snitching on me. I shouldn’t think of harming Deen, or else it might just do that.  

“You must be Blanchette,” Deen said.

Uh… What do I do? Do I agree and get stuck with ‘Blanchette’? This was too short a time to decide on the name I’d use for this transformation. I wanted something intimidating, like Omega Werewolf Lord the Destroyer of Galaxies. Okay, that might be too long. But anything other than ‘Blanchette’. The name sounded too friendly and harmless.

And… sort of fun. I could go for an innocent-sounding name while being a monster that eats monsters. I nodded at Deen. From now on, I was Blanchette.

“Oh, you are?”

I tilted my head.

“I-I don’t know you! We do-don’t know each other, I mean,” Deen stammered in her haste to explain herself. “My power just told me to yell ‘Blanchette’ for help to come. It’s too long to explain. Are you… By any chance, are you Kelsey?”

“She’s Kelsey?” Everett said while supporting a groggy Reo, who seemed to be coming to.

“I was just guessing,” said Deen, “since she’s an Adumbrae who’s helping us.”

“Ah, good thinking. I never knew what Kelsey’s Adumbrae powers were.”

I shook my head. Dammit, I won’t allow Kelsey to claim credit.

“You’re not Kelsey?” Deen said. “I’m sorry. I just thought—Anyway, thank you for saving us. We’re in your debt. Wait, have we met before? In another warehouse?”

“Is she the one who saved you back then?” Everett asked. “The mysterious woman who attacked the 2Ms?”

“I don’t know,” Deen replied. “I was unconscious at that time. Um, Blanchette?”

I nodded. That was me, the heroic Blanchette. I was liking the backstory forming for this face.

“Oh my gosh, this is twice you’ve saved me now,” Deen said. “I can’t thank you enough. My best friend, the other girl you saved, she’s grateful for your help too.”

I nodded again, not knowing how to respond to that. 

“Ugh, what’s… going on?” Reo asked. “What the…? A hot monster chick?”

“Reo!” Deen snapped. “Be respectful of Blanchette.”

“Blanchette, who? The fuck did I miss?”

“She just saved our asses, man,” Everett said. “She’s the Adumbrae who did in Rofirio. Now, she came by to kill the Adumbrae who controlled my body. And, uh, sorry for attacking you.”

“Eh?” Reo held his head. “This is too much for me. She’s on our side? Hella tall, isn’t she?”

I raised a finger and twirled it. Somehow, Deen understood what I meant. Our friendship transcended transformations, I sarcastically thought.

“We should get going,” Deen said, reaching for a duffel bag filled with stuff. They’ve also done their shopping like me. She started to jog towards the side of the warehouse opposite where I entered. “We’re finished with the mission. The box?”

“Got it.” Everett dragged a small crate while helping Reo stand up.

“I’m fine, man,” Reo said, untangling himself. “Damn, you really went wailing on my skull and—Huh?”

We stopped moving. We all felt it. The air changed. Something… changed. There was a slight floaty feeling, as if we were underwater. It wasn’t difficult to move. Just a bit odd. It reminded me of the dreamy state of Spooky Erind’s place, but this was much less pronounced. A normal person would barely notice anything.

“Go!” Deen broke into a run.

We all followed her. Not sure what I was supposed to do. Stick with them, I guess? It’d be fun if we met Dario. As for Myra, she could take care of herself so long as she didn’t open the gigantic metal box.

We passed several bodies, some of them burnt to charcoal. Lots of broken pottery, too. The inhuman-looking corpses should be the Adumbrae guarding the warehouse—kudos to these three for doing well. I wondered if Deen had killed regular humans. I’d bring this up later to traumatize her, remind her that they had families waiting for them, or something funny like that.

I was eager for this mission to be over. I had so many scenes planned out already that I needed to write them down before I’d forget them. We just had to deal with this thingy that gave this odd watery feeling. Based on my previous experiences, this wasn’t going to be easy. The universe always bothered me the most when things were going too well.

“This is so weird,” Everett said, waving his arm. “The Adumbrae doing this to us is hiding.”

“Dee—uh, Ambriel,” said Reo. “Any word from your lovable prescient pet?”

“Prescient.” Everett snorted. “That’s your favorite word now?”

“Gabe’s directing me where to go,” Deen said. “No urgent warnings. Yet.”

“Don’t sound so ominous there,” Reo said. “There’s the exit! But what’s that?”

We were heading toward one of the open roll-up doors along the side of the warehouse facing the sea. Ocean. I still didn’t know what the difference between sea and ocean was. The pink semi-transparent wall blocking our way probably didn’t have an answer.

As the others slowed as they neared the wall, I picked up a large piece of metal from an exploded machine to our side. I growled to warn the hero wannabes about what I was about to do, and then I chucked the hunk of warped metal at the pink wall.

“What the blazing meatballs is happening?” Reo asked.

“An Adumbrae’s power?” guessed Deen.

The metal object didn’t immediately hit the wall. It slowed when it was about a foot away from it, dragging out the seconds before impact. The sound of the crash, which was softer than I expected, was delayed by seconds too. And the metal piece didn’t bounce off or fall apart, given the strength of my throw. It dropped straight down as if all of its kinetic energy was gone.

Kinetic energy? Was that right? Cosmetic energy? What was the right term? I went to law school not to deal with science stuff.

“Don’t touch that!” Everett exclaimed.

“Oh really?” Reo said. “I was thinking I should touch the pink wall after seeing what just happened.”

“Be sassy another time,” said Everett. “Is there another way out?”

“Groaargh,” I said, climbing on top of yet another shipping container. From where I stood, every opening to the outside had a pink glow. “Rhaarr… crooarrk,” I added, shaking my head.  

“Blanchette’s saying no,” Deen said. Based on her response, her Guardian Angel didn’t warn her of this. But that stupid pet must be confident that Deen was safe to lead her here.

“We’re fucked,” said Reo. “Ambriel, what are—?”

“We hit the wall.” Deen rushed to the pink wall and threw a punch. Just like the object I threw earlier, Deen’s fist slowed down before hitting the wall. “It has a limit!”

“Limit to what?” Everett asked as he followed Deen’s lead. “To the force it can absorb?”

“Yes! We can break this. Give it everything you got!”   

“At last, we’ve successfully rounded you up, Adumbrae bandits!” blared an ominous voice from the PA system. This guy should narrate the prologue to an old-school fantasy movie.

“Adumbrae bandits?” Reo repeated, clicking his tongue in frustration. Though I was above them, I could hear their conversation with my keen hearing. “So much for our plan to make them think we’re Tea Party assholes,” he added as he also went to the wall to hit it.

“Once they see the aug parts we’ve scattered,” Everett said, “they’ll think we’re together.”

“Doesn’t matter what they’ll think if we end up dead now,” said Reo. “Dammit, I shouldn’t have skipped my shift.”

“Try all you can, you little rats,” said the voice. “But you won’t break the wall in time.”

In time for what? I scanned the surroundings. I couldn’t see anyone else. And I also couldn’t hear the sounds of other people, other than loud bangs in Myra’s direction. Either she was fighting someone or trying to break the wall like us. The speaker was likely outside this pink barrier, watching us through cameras. What was the danger inside…?

It was the creature that giant ass metal box.

Deen turned to me. “Please give us time. We’re in your debt.”

I just realized that her Guardian Angel pulled a fast one on me! It lured me into committing to this heroic Blanchette face, and now I should put my life on the line to buy time. That was what a hero would do. I couldn’t break Rule #2. I appreciated the schemes but hated that I was part of it.

What could I do? Duty calls for Blanchette, the main character of this action movie.

I nodded at Deen and was away. If Myra and I teamed up, we might be able to win. Victory wasn’t assured, however. I couldn’t trust Deen’s Guardian Angel not to throw me away so Deen could survive.

The voice once again reverberated throughout the warehouse. “Either you will die in here, or you’ll die outside once our reinforcements arrive. One thing is certain, you bottom-feeding vermin—this is your end.”

It didn’t take long to find Myra. Wielding a long piece of metal girder, she poked the pink wall that blocked the hole in the wall that was our entrance.

“There you are!” she said as I landed close. “We’re trapped! Do you know what Adumbrae fuckery is this?”

I shook my head, then I pointed in the direction of the metal box.

“What? I thought that I shouldn’t touch that?”

Wordlessly, I headed toward the box to meet our opponent. I could already hear pistons hissing and gears grinding as the box unlocked itself. Myra and I stayed a respectable distance away as its thick metal door opened a creak.   

A meaty hand grabbed the door, denting it with its powerful grip. The steel groaned as the creature inside pushed it open. A large foot stepped out of the shadows, followed by thick legs, a heavy and bulky torso, and a misshapen head.

“Say hello to your doom!” boomed the voice, ruining the scene with a cheesy line.  

The ugly-as-fuck, ogre-like mutant stood twice taller than me. It was packed with so many muscles that it looked like a mountain of buns, except that the buns were boulders of flesh wrapped in thick hide that was almost a coat of gravel rather than skin. I was far from an expert in anatomy, but even I could tell it had muscles that a normal human didn’t have.

Massive pieces of metal that looked like they came from a scrapyard were linked together by thick iron rings into a hastily put-together armor to protect its body. Not that it needed additional protection.

It didn’t have hands. Or perhaps it did before, but they were replaced with brutish metallic contraptions that appeared to be a cross between a heavy machine gun, or even a cannon, and a bludgeoning mace with dozens of spikes jutting out in odd directions. Our colossal opponent raised one of its gun-mace-whatever-fist above its head and bellowed so loud I could feel the sound.  

This… this is the finale of the movie!