[REND] 6.4 - Hero Wannabes, At Your Service

“An artificial Core?” A few days ago, I was only concerned with law school, sweet treats, and movies. Now, there was bullshit like artificial Adumbrae and artificial Corebrings.

Was someone playing a prank on me? I wouldn’t be surprised if I were in some kind of reality show, and everyone was using special effects to fool me. But this was unlikely since I had experienced for myself that I was no longer human. I wanted to return to my simple life as cute Erind, mooching off of Mom. However, this plot development was befitting of a main character.

“I-I don’t understand.” The stammer was just for added effect. I really couldn’t follow what was happening. “How is this possible? That… thing… gives you powers?”

“That is so,” Dario replied. “This artificial Core is made from copying the real one. Let me begin my story with—”

“Can you show us your powers?” Deen asked as she stood up. She wobbled a bit, so she held onto my shoulder. She squeezed my shoulder for a second, as if to transmit her thoughts to me through our ‘best friend’ connection.

My brain was too busy processing what was happening to get annoyed by her touch. Why was she suddenly interested in seeing their powers? It wasn’t out of curiosity. She had a different intention. Was it to buy time? But the police probably didn’t even know we were gone since only a few hours had passed since we were taken.

“I want to see your powers too,” I said. “It’s so much easier to understand the story if we have proof first. I mean, I’ve felt your power and seen Myra’s, but Deen doesn’t know anything.” I had to see what I was up against… if it did turn out they were enemies.

“I suppose that my story would be more believable if you’ve seen proof of our powers,” Dario said.  

“Demonstration time!” Reo cheered, clapping his hands. “Let’s all do it!”

“Why are you so pumped?” asked Everett.

“This is one of the rare chances I get to show off my awesome powers,” he said. “I go last this time. You know what they say, ‘save the best for last’. You know that other thing they say? ‘Reo is the best.’ Myra, you go first.”

“Delude yourself all you want,” Myra said, “but you’re wasting time if you don’t start your summoning now.”

“Ah, right, right.” Reo knelt on the ground. He made a face. “Forgot my kneepads in my saddlebag. Getting my pants dirty to provide a show for the ladies—the ultimate sacrifice.”

They agreed. Did that mean they were the good guys? At the least, they weren’t bad from our perspective.

“Don’t get weirded out,” Everett said, looking at Deen. Only Deen. My best friend’s beauty snagged the heart of yet another male of the species.

Looking up at the ceiling, Reo extended his arms to his sides, palms facing upward. Was he praying? He chanted words I didn't understand. A foreign language, maybe. Japanese? No, it didn’t sound Japanese. I had no idea what he was saying, but it did… something. Reo started to glow, as if he had a red backlight under his skin.

A few seconds passed, and he continued to chant and glow. And nothing else.  

“Uh, where’s the fairy?” I asked.

“Shush, Erind.” Deen squeezed my shoulder. “Let’s just observe.”

“It’ll come later,” Everett said, chuckling. “Sorry, it’s kinda anticlimactic.”

“This might not be what you envisioned for a showcase of powers,” Dario said. “Powers of both Corebrings and Adumbrae aren’t usually as straightforward as shooting lightning bolts out of fingertips or throwing fireballs. Out of us all, Reo’s power requires the most time to charge. On the other hand, I can activate mine easily.”

“The headache thingy,” I said.

“Correct. Be ready for it. Especially you, Amber. I won’t crank this to the maximum intensity.”

Deen nodded. “I’m ready.”

The atmosphere became heavier as if I were underwater. The headache started, as if someone were screwing a knuckle into my temple. The back of my eyes throbbed. Deen put more weight on my shoulder; she must be feeling woozy. I was about to tell Dario to stop when the headache disappeared.

“Apologies for the discomfort,” he said. “This, er, headache field—Reo promised me he’d think of a better name—”

“He’s too busy watching porn to search the internet for a name,” drawled Myra.  

“—it extends for several feet,” finished Dario.

What the hell was several feet? Could be five. Could be fifty. Calm-and-collected Dario should certainly know the actual range of his ability. Was he too lazy to tell us, or was he intentionally keeping it vague?

I prodded him a bit. “Ouch, the headache reminded me of our finals week last semester. If that was just the low settings, what’s the max like? No, don’t use it. I was just wondering.”

“Strong enough to incapacitate the average human,” he replied.  

“Is that why your codename’s Blank?” Deen asked. “Because you can knock out people?”

Dario nodded, but I sensed that there was more to his codename than just his headache field.

Was I supposed to get knocked out when we met? He must’ve lessened his power when he saw that it was me. He didn’t seem to suspect anything was wrong. I didn’t have battle instincts whatsoever, but I would wager that Dario was the most dangerous out of this group. If I were to fight them someday, and that was a very possible possibility, I should know how to deal with this too-monotone, too-rigid-speaking weirdo.

“You have another power,” I said. “Uh, when we were in the van. You held Myra and…”

“He can weaken people, too,” Myra said. “Needs to touch them, though. Really useful fighting up close. Not so much in a gunfight. His headache field doesn’t stretch that far either.” Myra seemed to be telling the truth… of what she knew. If that was the actual truth was another question.

“We have you to be our shield, Myra,” Dario said. “How about you—hang on. Reo’s fairy is about to pop.”

As I thought of how to beat Dario, chills crawled down my spine, and the hairs on my neck stood on end.

Mournful singing in an unknown language flitted throughout the building’s first floor. I couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from. I turned to Reo. His mouth emitted shimmering red light. Mischievous laughter masked the singing. It wasn’t Reo laughing. It sounded like someone full of helium laughed in a cartoonish voice.

A small hand came out of Reo’s mouth, followed by a plump body. A fat, pixie-like creature struggled to exit. With a great heave, it pulled itself out and cheered in gibberish. It flew through the air, somehow managing to do so even with its disproportionately small wings. It looked at all of us and laughed again in that creepy way.

“That’s Blubber,” Dario said. “It won’t harm you. Obe, I mean Reo… he can control it.”

Reo opened his eyes and himself to stand. “Sorry for the wait, beautiful ladies,” he said, massaging his jaw. “I don’t know why my power works that way, but it does, and I don’t have the receipt to return it.”

“You must know why it’s like that,” Myra said, pointing at him. “That’s your power.”

“Yeah, well, no one’s paying me to confront my demons,” Reo said. “Anyway, ladies—” he gestured to Deen and me “—please direct your attention to my adorable and rotund subject.”

Blubber landed on the pile of blocks behind Reo. It stopped cackling as it sank its teeth into the topmost block, nibbling it. In a whirlwind of red, it began to chew through the pile as if it were a school of stone-eating piranha. Block after block got shredded into dust.

Deen covered her nose and mine from the billowing dust. “That’s so scary.”

Holy shit! How the fuck was I supposed to fight that? The only way might be to catch it before it decides to nom on me. There were three more of these fairies, right?

And Deen was treating me like a kid! Couldn’t I plan in peace? So far, the plan was to not fight these guys. How could I join their side?

“O-okay, tha-that’s enough…” Reo coughed. He had turned sickly pale. “My fairies… draw energy from me.” He inhaled long and stood straight, color returning to his skin. “I can summon two, three, or even all four at once, but I’ll be twitching on the floor if I do that. Pushing their powers makes me weak.”

“Weaker, you mean?” quipped Myra with a grin.

Reo ignored her. “Luckily, I can send my noble subjects far. For a king does not lead his army into battle.”

“Kings have led their armies,” Everett said.

“In the fucking past,” said Reo. “There’s a reason that’s not done anymore. Do you see President Garland lead the US army?”

“Do your other fairies have different powers?” I asked. Didn’t make sense to name this one Blubber if they were all the same. I’d need to know about all of his fairies. Reo turned out to be quite powerful, too, even if he was more of a clown. His weakness really wasn’t much of one.

“Indeed, my loyal subjects each have their own specialties.” Reo assumed his praying position. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to call Blubber, my adorable baby, back to my tummy.”

“Sounds gross,” Myra said. She shrugged as she stepped towards us. “I guess I’ll go next.” She took off her shirt and pants that she had gotten from their stash room in the building’s basement, returning to her prior sparse outfit of just a sports bra and cycling shorts. “If you’re wondering why I’m doing this, it’s because I’ll ruin loose-fitting clothes when I use my power.”

I noticed the bulge of the artificial Core on her sports bra. There was also a hint of its blue glow. Myra the Merge was the tank of the group, judging by the small tidbit of her fighting that I had witnessed. Dario needed to get close to the enemy to be effective. Reo needed to be safe while he pumped his fairies. Myra was the answer.

Myra picked up a chunk of the stone block that had tumbled away during Blubber’s feeding frenzy. It slowly sank into her skin and disappeared.

“Your hand…” Deen said. “It’s turning into stone.” Indeed, Myra’s hand had turned a coarse gray.

“Not just stone,” Myra said. “This is much stronger.” She knelt and punched the ground. Her fist penetrated a couple of inches into the concrete. Cracks radiated from the hole she made. “If this were the same material as that block, my flesh-turned-stone would’ve shattered too.”

The hole on the ground continued to widen as concrete was siphoned into Myra’s hand. Her arm began to change color, her skin turning coarse. Several seconds later, she was kneeling at the bottom of a five-foot-wide crater, having sucked that much material. Her body had turned into stone, even her hair. She looked like a statue wearing a sports bra and cycling shorts.

And she didn’t stop absorbing the floor. Her stone flesh thickened, spreading over her clothes. She continued to bulk up.

“She’s huge,” Deen gasped.

“Too huge,” Dario said. “That’s enough of a demonstration, Myra.” He looked to his side. “Reo’s about to finish too.”

Blubber had landed on Reo’s mouth and began to squeeze itself back inside. Deen squirmed in revulsion beside me. I had almost forgotten that she was holding onto me. She had regained her footing, I was sure, but she still hadn’t let go. It wasn’t like I could push her away.

Endure, Erind. Main characters endured all the challenges that came their way.

After Blubber returned to his body, Reo collapsed. Everett caught him and made him sit on the floor and lean against a column. “He’s like this after finishing a summon,” Everett said. “He’ll come to in a few minutes. I’ll be showing my powers next. It’s safe here, right?”

“Just don’t target the plant,” Johann said.

“What will I focus on then?” Everett asked. “Plain concrete? I can’t burn that. I mean, I could heat it enough to make it crack, but I hadn’t eaten that much.”

His power needs food? Maybe he was the weakest among them. What was that about burning, though?

“Target that.” Dario pointed at a clump of weeds that had grown out of a crack on the floor. It was far from any other greenery.

“But my power display isn’t going to be as impressive compared to all of yours.” Everett sighed. “Alright then. I also don’t want to smoke up our place, especially with our guests here.” He winked at Deen. I wasn’t sure if he knew I was around too. Not that I wanted him to wink at me.

Everett looked at the plant. The air above it shimmered as if there was scalding pavement underneath. The plant turned from green to black before bursting into flames. Soon, the plant was ash.

“Is your power controlling fire?” Deen asked.

“It’s not really about fire,” Everett said, looking away as he scratched the back of his head. “Mine is a bit hard to explain. What do you know of that famous formula of Einstein, E=mc2?”

“Only heard of it,” I said. “I don’t exactly know what it’s about. I got into law school to avoid science.”

Deen chuckled. “I must’ve paid attention when that was discussed in class,” she said, “but I’ve long since forgotten. Can you tell us how your power works?” Deen was rolling her r’s in a purring way.

Was Deen trying to make the guy fall for her? For her safety? I wouldn’t be surprised if Deen has a manipulative side.

“I’m not a physicist by the way,” Everett said, “but a simple explanation would be that anything with mass has a huge amount of energy. But it’s very difficult to efficiently extract that energy. Take a burger, for example. You won’t last long with that as your only food. But if there was a way to extract energy with even, how about fifty percent efficiency, from a burger, I’m sure you could destroy a block of buildings with it.”

“Is that true?” Deen skeptically asked.

Sounds bullshit, I thought. But I wasn’t going to contest it because I didn’t like science subjects. I wanted practical stuff. I wanted stuff happening in front of me.

“An underestimation,” Dario said. “An average human contains energy equivalent to ninety thousand times the power of the explosion of the first nuclear bomb used back in the Adumbrae war—the one they dropped on the first Purple Bloom in Munich. I’m sure the energy in a burger extracted at fifty percent efficiency can destroy more than just a few buildings.”

Everett said, “I extract energy from what I eat, which we all do, I guess. But I can extract it more efficiently.”

“Seriously?” I asked. “You just eat a burger and then you can blow up a building?”

“No, no, no. That’s too much,” Everett said, laughing. “I’m just a tiny bit more efficient than the average guy. With the energy I extract, I can focus heat around my body or on specific points.” He held up his fist, and it shimmered and smoked.

This is another difficult opponent, I thought. “Um, thanks for showing us all of your powers,” I said. “But… I’m not sure if supposed to ask this… where did you get that, uh, core thingy?”

“Let me guess,” Deen said. “Is it a government experiment?”

Dario nodded. “Correct. It’s the result of a top-secret government project.”