[REND] 12.3 - Adore Your Core

I blinked in surprise. I didn’t expect to cause this much damage because I consciously held back. I thought I’d just crack the concrete. My knuckles barely felt pain, though my skin was scraped and bleeding. It healed in a blink. The force of the impact that had shot up my arm reminded me of the satisfying feeling of biting hard with my monstrous jaws while transformed.

Could be low-quality concrete—I had no idea about construction and stuff. But I also felt that I had gotten stronger. Was the artificial Core helping out, or was Spooky Erind’s hold on me progressing? Whatever it was, being strong felt really good.  

“I agree with the ‘holy shit’.” Everett whistled as he picked up the concrete chunk. “Imagine if that was Reo’s ass that got hit.”

“Why are you imagining my ass?” Reo asked, laughing. “I should be careful around you.”

“That’s amazing, Erind!” Deen clapped like an excited child. “You’re so much stronger than me, and you don’t even have your special ability yet.”

“Just a few days after getting the Core at that,” Myra said, scratching her chin. “Erind’s already much stronger than me back then. If this continues, she’s going to be the strongest physically in the group.”

“Dethroning you, huh?” Reo said. “Erind’s gonna be even stronger once her unique power manifests.”

“I think… this is already it.” I added fake uncertainty to my voice. “Maybe part of it.”

“What do you mean?” Dario asked, with more intent in his tone than usual.

I shrugged. “I… um…” I gestured at myself, from head to toe, and awkwardly grinned. “Very obviously, I’m short. Thin. Really weak, physically. Well, I’d like to think it’s only the physical aspect that I’m lacking. Anyway, I’m saying that I’ve always wondered how it is to be strong… um, confident too. I think that my Core, uh—”

Reo snapped his fingers. “Granted you super superstrength? Yeah, I can see why you’d yearn for something like that. Your power could be just straight-up amplification.”

“Sounds boring and overly simple,” Myra said.  

“Maybe it’s something like I’ll get stronger if I’m around stronger people?” I looked at my hands. “I wasn’t this strong last night when I was testing stuff with Deen. She already has her invisible future-seeing pet. My special should appear now, right? This might be it.”  

I had thought about pretending that my sexy monster transformation was granted by the artificial Core. But it looked too evil; too much of a villain’s vibe. The group might think something’s wrong. What if I lost control of myself? I’d go for their brains. Then they’d gang up on me—that would be a stupid way to die. And I’d rather avoid transforming unless it was a life-or-death situation.

“Core-given abilities do not manifest at the same pace,” Dario explained. “Reo had mentioned during our first meeting that his fairies showed up a month later. Continue observing yourself, Erind. I don’t think your Core has manifested the power unique to you.” He placed a hand on his chest. “I can’t feel it.”

I tilted my head. “Can’t feel what?”

“A stronger connection with you,” Dario said. “Have you ever wondered why it’s called the Corebring Central Hive? Hive. Why not ‘Headquarters’ or ‘Base’ or anything else?”

“I don’t—” I touched my Core, too. “Are you saying that their Cores connect them to the Mother Core? They’re a hive mind or something? The Mother Core controls them?”

“The Corebrings are connected, though not a hive mind,” Dario said. “Through their Cores, they are bonded to each other and the Mother Core. I’m not certain what that entails, but that’s what I’ve heard. Perhaps they can sense each other’s emotions, even read thoughts. Only a Corebring can tell us the specifics. In our case, though, as the Core-melding progresses, we become more in tune with each other. After all, our Cores come from a singular Mother Fragment.”

“That’s why I’m friends with Reo,” Myra said. “Wouldn’t happen otherwise. I can somehow understand why he’s like that.”

Reo rolled his eyes. “I’m so grateful for your friendship,” he said in a monotone.

“What sort of connection?” I asked, perhaps too quickly. I didn’t want others to connect with me. That was ickier than physical contact! Oh, and they’d realize I was different—this was probably the bigger problem.

“You’ll eventually feel it,” Dario answered.

“Can we connect with… the Mother Core?” Deen asked. “If what we have are made from Mother Fragments—”

“The Mother Fragment from where our Cores came from was never part of the Mother Core,” Dario explained. “You don’t need to worry about linking to the Mother Core.”

Spooky Erind seems to have a different view, I thought, wondering how this’d be a problem in the future.  

“Even with discount Cores,” Reo said, “we can be a match for the lower ranked Corebrings.”

 “Erind’s already plenty strong this early,” Myra said with a crazed look. “With a bit of training, she’d be a heavy hitter. We also have Amber and her summon. Even if her summon isn’t interested in protecting others, it’ll have to by default if she’s with us. I’m feeling better for our docks mission.”

“Eh? You’re counting them for the docks mission?” Reo asked. “Bad idea, methinks.”

“I’m voting against that, too,” Everett added.

“We’re not going to join the attack on the docks!” Deen quickly exclaimed. “I-I had just gotten my power. There’s no way… Erind and I have no experience. We don’t know what to do—”

“Calm down, Amber,” Dario said. “You’re not going to join the mission.”

“Why not?” Myra asked. “Her power is an awesome security blanket. If there’s something bad that’s gonna happen to us—which includes Amber—her Guardian Angel will tell her what to do. We’ll follow that, and, boom, we’re safe.”

“Far too dangerous for Amber and Erind, nonetheless,” Dario said. “The mission is mere days away; there’s not much time to prepare.”

Excuse me? Why was Dario suddenly nice? Were they good cop, bad copping us? Were Everett and Reo on our side, or were they part of this bit?

Could also be that Dario genuinely cared for our well-being. Not because he had goodness in his heart, but he saw how valuable Deen’s power was, and he also wanted to check what my manifestation would be. In any event, Deen and I had already discussed the possibility of getting forced to join the docks mission. That was one problem down with no effort.

My eyes flicked to Deen. She was also looking at me. I nodded once.

Deen said, “I feel guilty that we won’t be of much help while you’re all risking your lives fighting our enemy. The docks may be too dangerous, but I could join you in taking the truck.”

I encouraged Deen to do this as a sign of goodwill. Of course, it was a ruse that we were warming up to the group. She’d also learn more about their powers.

“We’d have to gain their trust,” I reminded Deen early this morning, after testing her Guardian Angel. After all, this was her plan.  

“And learn how to fight from them,” she added. “But don’t forget that we also should keep ourselves safe.”

Attacking the truck was low-stakes enough that Deen agreed to my plan. And though having her Guardian Angel floating around creeped her out, she was grateful for the protection it offered. I didn’t mention that it was technically ordering her around, controlling her life on some level. It probably had something to do with her family issues.

“Yeah, that’s way safer,” Everett said. “Amber can alert us if the driver is an Adumbrae or if there’s enemy backup coming.” The rest of the group agreed with him. They seemed relieved that Deen volunteered to have a part in the mission.

“But only me,” Deen said. “Erind stays behind.”

“Huh? I’m joining too,” I protested. We had this conversation this morning, so I knew she’d bring this up. She probably felt guilty that she couldn’t ‘save’ me, this bizarre savior complex thing she had, so she wanted me safe for this part.

“We’ll already have more than enough firepower to take the truck,” Deen said to Dario, ignoring me. It was the same line she had told me. “There’s no need for Erind. She’s not going to the docks anyway.”

Dario nodded. “Erind, Amber’s right. I know that you want to fight the 2Ms, but there’ll be another chance for you. Wait for your power to fully manifest. Don't get overconfident, that might get you killed.”

“Okay…” I hung my head. I had no intention of joining them.

One of the goals of the docks mission was to steal samples that’d be brought by the Red Island ship and would be delivered to it. Some were processed brains. There’d be other stuff too for the 2Ms’ clients, helping them maintain their minds even though they were no longer human. If the Professor wanted those, then I wanted those too. Heck, I already tried this artificial Core on my body. I was literally game to try anything else that might help with my situation.

So far, Spooky Erind hadn’t visited to scold me about my plan. She should understand it was my survival instinct at play here. Though illegal in the US, it wasn’t a crime in other countries to escape from jail—not including attacking the guards or something. They recognized that there was a natural drive to seek freedom, so, no additional penalties if caught.

“Amber, Erind, though you won’t join our assault on the docks,” Dario said, “you should start training. You should go with Myra.”

Reo pulled Everett’s hand up. “Everett wants to be their teacher!”

“Wha-what? No!” Everett yanked away his arm. “They’ll be more comfortable with Myra.”

“Why? Are you going to make them uncomfortable?” Reo asked, barely holding his laughter.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do it,” Myra said. “Tomorrow, if you two are free. And you should make yourself free. It’s important that you start learning how to fight with superstrength. Who knows when the 2Ms will strike?”

Deen and I looked at each other. Then we looked at Myra and nodded at the same time. “We’ll do it.”

“One important reminder,” Dario said. “Given that your powers are developing, be mindful of your actions in public. You might inadvertently reveal hints of your superstrength. Quite easy to get distracted and put out more force than usual.”

“You should tell that to Reo,” Myra murmured.

“Why is it always me?” Reo threw up his hands as he sighed. “I know I messed up one time. One time! That was three months ago, and I haven’t slipped since then.”

“We’re lucky we were able to fix it before it got out of hand,” Everett said. “A real mess, that one.”

Fix? Did Reo mean that someone saw him using superstrength? What did ‘fix’ mean? They killed a guy, or what? I noticed Deen shifting her shoulders—she always did that when stressed. She might be thinking the same thing. Dario all but confirmed our suspicions when what he said next.

“You two should realize that exposing our secrets is bad, right?” Dario asked Deen and me.

“Of course,” Deen said. “The BID might think we’re Adumbrae and kill us.”

“The Corebring might kill us too,” I added.

“Not only that,” Dario said. “If you were to compromise this experiment, the Professor and the organization behind us might be forced to act.”

Veiled threat right there, I thought, smirking mentally.  

-----

“Do you have your powers yet?” Deen asked while picking at her food. It was just the two of us again in this big house. Her older sister had just left, picked up by a new boyfriend, the executive assistant of the mayor, according to Deen.

“You just asked ten minutes ago,” I said. “No, I don’t. But I wish it would come soon. Hoping I don’t end up screaming in the middle of the night like you did.”

“What do you think about training with Myra?”

“It’s a good opportunity to get close to her,” I said. “Out of the group, I think she’s the most likely ally. Other than… Everett.”

Deen rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up. Don’t tell me to use my womanly charms to seduce him to help us break free of this organization, whatever, someday.”

“I’m just kidding. Back to Myra—I bet she joined the team because the Professor promised a cure for Kelsey. At least something to slow down the Adumbrae taking over her body. With Kelsey gone, Myra doesn’t have that much of a reason to be loyal to Dario. I also suspect that part of Myra thinks that the Professor can’t do anything.”

“She’s desperate to help her sister,” Deen said. “I wish my sister was a bit like Myra.”

“We’ll get to know more about Myra tomorrow.” I had my agenda with Myra. She really could be my ally, given that I was an Adumbrae like her sister. I couldn’t wait for our training. Plus, the chance to use my superstrength made me giddy.

Before that, I had some tiny preparations to make tonight.

Deen mentioned that she was usually asleep by around ten in the evening because she preferred waking up early to continue studying. By ten-thirty, I wrapped up my schoolwork. I exited my room and tiptoed past Deen’s room.

No lights. No noise.

I returned to the room, opened the window, and was away.

My destination was the end of Poblacion Verde Hills, where it was mostly empty lots and a few houses in the middle of construction. I chose one of them. From the looks of it, it was going to be a huge house, and would surely be as luxurious, if not more, than its fellows around it. No workers at this time of the night, so it was a perfect place for me for some privacy.

The only light came from the bright half-moon and the distant streetlights. I gingerly walked in, careful not to move anything out of place, until I reached an open space free from sawdust and gravel.

I took out the contents of my bag and set them on the workbench nearby. A knife, plastic sheets, an empty plastic container, those small microwavable ones—a container with a couple of raw chicken legs, another with fried chicken, and the last had my finger that I had bitten off.

In the very unfortunate event that Myra might suspect that I was an Adumbrae during our training—she might know some tell-tale signs not common knowledge to the public—I’d have to fight her. My cute Erind self wouldn’t be enough. I had to transform. Plus I had to transform for my personal docks mission.

Might as well do some testing now to learn more about the power given by Spooky Erind. This’d just be a quick test. I wouldn’t be eating any brains, so I hoped this wouldn’t give points to Spooky Erind or something.

I spread out a clear plastic sheet across the floor, the same one used for wrapping books; I bought some on our way back to Deen’s home. I also fixed across my hips the same plastic wrap fashioned into a skirt. My dark blue velvet dolphin shorts were short enough to be covered by the make-shift skirt. I took off my black sweatshirt and sneakers and set them aside to avoid getting blood on them.

I held my breath as I gripped the knife tightly with my right hand. I placed my left hand on my abdomen and clenched my jaw.

Here goes, I thought.

And I sliced myself.