“Yeah, sure,” Myra said. “Mine is simple enough.” She took off the Melchor sweatshirt she wore leaving only her sports bra on. “I don’t want to rip my clothes,” she explained. “Thank god this jackass is chanting.” She jabbed her thumb towards Reo. Then she hugged herself and took a deep breath.

I instinctively moved back a bit, belatedly disguising it like I was just curiously worried about Myra. Idiot, you shouldn’t know she has the spiky power thingy, I scolded myself.

Some sort of bark-like substance bled out of her skin, covering her upper body. It didn’t form spikes but, instead, turned itself into a thick and formidable armor.

Interesting. Was this her actual power and not just throwing spikes? Did she choose to cover her body in armor instead of growing spikes to trick us into thinking she wasn’t the one who attacked us?

But she didn’t know I got a close look at her spikes. I even ate them. That was the same material, I was sure. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what were the chances I would meet another person who could make this bark-like material and had a friend who could burn things on the same day, within a span of a few hours?

“It’s pretty straightforward,” she said as she retracted her armor and put on her clothes again. “I can cover my entire body with armor in any design I choose.”

“Not just a simple armor,” Dario said. “It can be huge, like some of the bigger ComExos.”

“That’s hard to do now with some Suppressor still swimming inside me.”

I was right, she was way underpowered when we met. If we fought head-on with her full power, things might’ve gone differently. As I thought of what I was going to say next, chills crawled down my spine and the hairs on my neck stood on end.

Mournful singing flitted in the room, although I couldn’t tell which direction it came from. I turned to Reo. His mouth emitted golden-red light. There was mischievous laughter. It wasn’t him laughing. It was as if 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, 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. “Don’t be scared, it won’t harm you. Obe, I mean Reo…he can summon four fairies so far. And this is the fairy that can fight. Can we give it something to destroy?”

“I got a pen,” Myra said. She threw it to the red fairy. It caught the pen and chewed it to dust, literally, in one second. “Blubber’s nasty. It can chew through everything, bore through your stomach, and come out your mouth. Flesh or metal, it doesn’t matter. It will chew through it.” The fat fairy stuck out its tongue at her.

“In you go,” Dario said. “Go on, go back in.”

The fairy complied and squeezed itself back in Reo’s mouth. After it returned to his body, Reo collapsed. Everett caught him and placed him on one of the chairs. “He’s usually like this after he finishes a summon. He’ll come to in a few minutes.”

Dario turned to me. “That leaves me.” He took a fighting stance, adjusting his sling and bandaged left arm. He held his right fist in front of him. “Throw a punch at me.”

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Punch me with all your strength.”

“Is something bad going to happen to me?”

“Nothing bad will happen. It’s for a demonstration of my power.”

“Okay then,” I said. “I don’t know how to fight though.” Control your strength, I thought. I was very aware of how much stronger I had gotten. I swung my fist at Dario with as much strength as I thought old Erind would have. Undoubtedly an experienced fighter, he easily caught my fist...

…

…

…

“Dario, my man, you could’ve just explained your power.”

“Is Erind going to be fine?”

“What?” I mumbled. Bright light. I blinked my eyes. Many people around me. What happened? Where was I?

“She’s already awake? That was fast.”

“You shouldn’t have done that, Dario.”

“I controlled my power. And don’t forget I still have the Suppressor in me. There’s no need to get all worked up.”

“Erind? Are you ok?” A woman’s voice.

“It’s disconcerting the first time it happens.” This time, a guy was talking. Talking to me?

I looked at the person who spoke. A handsome man with blue eyes. A bandaged arm. Was he injured? Wait a minute. He was called Dario, right? Codename…something. What was it? Blank? All of the memories of the past hour or so came back. “The f—what’s going on?” I barely stopped myself cursing. Everything was still blurry and I couldn’t concentrate on a face.

“Less than five minutes,” Myra said, checking her watch. “Awesome job even though it was just a small poke from Dario. When he first tested that on Reo, he stared at the sky for fifteen minutes. Or he was just coked out of his mind? Hard to tell the difference.”

“Everyone, laugh at Myra’s joke, quick,” Reo dryly said. “I swear, Dario didn’t hold back that time.”

“I apologize for that, Erind,” Dario said. “They’re right, maybe that was too much.”

“I’m fine. Just caught off guard.”

Dario performed some martial moves as he explained, “I am physically weak—stronger than a normal human, but especially weak in the world of superhumans. This is why I have to strategically use my power. Surprise the enemy.”

“You didn’t have to surprise her with it,” Reo said.

Deen rubbed my back. “How are you feeling, Erind?”

“Uh…I’m fine…I guess.” My wariness levels lowered. I was now a hundred percent certain they had no intention of killing us. If they did, Dario could’ve incapacitated Deen and me, and killed us right then and there. Dumb move, Erind. This was very dangerous…coming here. But I just couldn’t resist myself.

Hey, this is my first time in this situation, give me a break. My kind did suck when assessing the danger in a situation. I was still alive, so no problemo in the end.

Their little show made me realize I couldn’t take on all of them at the same time.

But I didn’t need to.

The only one I intended to kill was Myra.

How about Everett? He did try to burn me. Scratch that. He unintentionally cleaned up my trail at the mall with the fire he caused, burning my bloodied shirt I left there. Same with Dario. He did try to help me, but he couldn’t stop Myra from going after me.

Purely from an application of Rule #4 standpoint, killing them both was uncalled for. They did bother me, so penalty still had to be meted. It wasn’t a simple case of beating them up when I get the chance. That was a stupid form of punishment and they could take revenge on me after.

Reo, I had no personal grievance with. As for Deen, I didn’t want to drag her into this. That'd violate Rule #4. Both of us were innocent bystanders that got dragged into this mess against our will. Poor us.

Motion to momentarily suspend application of Rule #4 until more favorable circumstances arise.

Granted.

“I…this…this is all too much to take in,” I said. “I never imagined in my entire life I would get attacked by an Adumbrae. When I was hiding in my condo before Deen called, I was thinking I just could move on with my life…just keep quiet.”

“We can’t turn back time,” Dario said. “Like it or not, you’re part of this world now.”

“Harsh, man,” Reo said. “Could’ve cushioned that a bit.”

“I should know about this world I was dragged into,” I said. I sniffled, threatening to burst into tears. What do you idiots want with me anyway?

Deen noticed it and put her arms around me. “I think Erind is now ready to listen to your story, Dario.” Then she directed me to a seat and went to fetch me a glass of water. Such an awesome friend.

Even if it turned out the fate of the world hung in the balance, like some cliché action movie, it wouldn’t matter to me. All I wanted was information I could use to protect myself, and information to formulate a fitting penalty for Dario and Everett, as well as to find a good way to kill Myra. The Rules must be upheld no matter how long it took. Rules above all.

“What do you know about Corebrings?” Dario said. “You and Amber are both students at Eloyce University so you must know about them.”

“I just know as much as the average person,” I said. “Information about their actual workings isn’t exactly widely known. Uh…the hidden headquarters of all Corebrings is called the Hive; I don’t know where that is. I also only have a general idea of their structure. The Corebring Initiates have weapons made from the Mother Core, their CoreQuips. Even though they haven’t absorbed a Core into their bodies, just by wielding these weapons, they are bestowed with superhuman bodies that could match someone with augs or wearing ComExos.

“When they absorb a Core into their bodies, they are then called Melded Corebrings, or just Corebrings. There are the Overseers that manage the Corebrings and the workings of the Hive. And there are the High Overseers, the most powerful of them all, who are awoken only in extreme cases. That’s about it. Even if Eloyce University and Cresthorne Law are geared towards the field of Adumbrae, we rarely deal with Corebrings directly. Our professor even said he doubted if one of us would ever get the chance to meet a Corebring face to face.”

“How about where they came from?” Dario said. “The Mother Core? The Adumbrae War after the Second World War?”

“A history exam?” I grinned half-heartedly, pretending like I was trying to compose myself. “I can’t recall the exact year…but in the middle of World War II, some Nazi experiment broke through the higher dimension somehow and we got noticed by the Adumbrae. And they’re now trying to get our bodies through our gestalt subconsciousness,” I said, adding in what I learned from Professor Deslys. “World War II abruptly came to an end as we got lots of Purple Blooms all over the world, spewing out monsters like the one they spotted roaming around Madagascar right now.

“Multiple Cores cropped up all over the world around that time too, giving people superpowers to fight the Adumbrae monsters rampaging everywhere. I’ve read many theories on what those Cores are or where they came from, but I don’t know anything definitive because Corebrings keep that a secret. Anyway, the first Corebrings brought these Cores together because they are, I think, fragments of something bigger? These Origin Cores formed the Mother Core, and the Mother Core chooses who gets a Core and becomes a Corebring. That’s about all I know. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” Dario said. “The Mother Core is the source of the power of the Corebrings.” He glanced at Everett for a moment before speaking again. “And to complete the background of our story, what do you know of the Labor Day Purge?”

“The Labor Day Purge?” I stared at the ceiling, gathering what I could remember about it. “That was like…uh…over forty years ago. It was about government experiments or something right? Adumbrae in the government—politicians, people in high places—carried out experiments using government resources which were eventually uncovered.”

Everett said with a strained voice, “First Monday of September 1973, those abominations gathered thousands of their supporters on Capitol Hill to protect themselves…mostly ordinary people who didn’t know what was going on. They didn’t even transform or use their powers. Just made a human shield out of all the people they managed to fool.”

“I recall documentaries about it,” I said. “The army was trying to find ways how to differentiate who was the enemy and who was not. They couldn’t attack—”

“The Corebrings didn’t care about any of that. They swooped in and killed everyone they could find,” Everett said. “My grandparents were killed on that day, and my father, still a teen, had a hard time afterward. The stigma of being associated with the supposed ‘traitors of humanity’ compounded with being the son of an immigrant. I understand why the Corebrings did that. But not one of the Adumbrae even transformed!”

"The Adumbrae didn't transform because they intended to retain their human consciousness," I said. "If they transformed, they'd lose themselves, fully turn into berserking monsters. They probably realized it was over when the Corebrings showed up and decided to die in their human forms."

"Are you sympathizing with them?"

"No—”

“If they transformed then the military could’ve acted, picking the actual targets, and perhaps the Corebring wouldn’t have killed everyone.”

There was an awkward pause before Dario went on with his story. “Let’s focus on the experiments that led to the Labor Day Purge. Project QR-Zephyr.”

“The illegal human-Adumbrae experiments,” I said, snapping my fingers. Most documentaries about that point in history were about the Labor Day Purge itself, but I watched a show about Project QR-Zephyr a long time ago. Well, Dad was watching it and I, being a kid, was just playing while vaguely paying attention to it. Dad also had a lot of books about it. I had no idea where they were now, probably with all the belongings he left in the Philippines. We weren’t able to recover most of his stuff after he died.

“Illegal?” Everett said with hatred in his voice.

“That’s incorrect, it wasn’t illegal,” Dario said. “Most people think it was the Adumbrae that clandestinely started the experiments. However, Project QR-Zephyr was officially sanctioned by the government. The experiments were carried out on American and even Canadian citizens. Basically, they were trying to figure out how to trigger an Adumbrae transformation. How to control it. Can the power of the Adumbrae be wielded by super soldiers? Their thinking was that it should be tested on the general populace and not in a lab because it would affect how a person’s ego breaks down and how they eventually invite in an Adumbrae.”

Sounds interesting. I didn’t recall inviting SpookyErind in my head. Why the fuck was that bitch in there?

Dario continued, “The goal was to eventually make our own Corebrings because the government didn’t want to rely on the Hive.”

“The US may be the most powerful country,” Myra said, “but the Corebring Hive is the most powerful. Period.”

“Most powerful period?” Reo said, grunting as he tried to control his laughter. “That’s gonna need a lot of tampons.”

“Shut the fuck up, Reo.”

Dario ignored his bickering teammates. “Project QR-Zephyr was top secret. It wasn’t going to be pretty if the Corebrings found out about the experiments given the government was actively trying to trigger Adumbrae transformations. And there would, understandably, be a huge public backlash if and when the people found out what the government was doing.

“Somewhere down the road, the Adumbrae began to infiltrate the project. When it was all exposed to the public, the government blamed it all on the Adumbrae. That it was them all along. Which wasn’t the case at all. The Adumbrae didn’t even change the experiments when they eventually were able to control Project QR-Zephyr.”

“Makes you wonder,” Everett said, “what’s the difference between Adumbrae and some people other than superpowers.”

"The Adumbrae were also interested in the results of Project QR-Zephyr. They wanted to retain their sanity, their free will. They wanted to be in control of their bodies, keeping the higher dimensional entities at bay, while enjoying the powers they bestowed."

"Like a Corebring," Myra said.

“With that, I’m proceeding to our present situation.” Dario took out something from the pocket, a small silver box. “I’m now going to show you something neat.”

“Neat and illegal,” Reo murmured.

Dario placed the box on the table and tapped it with his finger. It glowed and gradually became transparent, revealing a curious object suspended in the middle of it. “Take a closer look.”

I knelt beside the table and bent down to examine it. It was something organic, reminding me of an embryo in its early stage of development. About the size of my fingernail, it pulsated, as if alive, in sync with the light flowing out of it. Maybe it was alive. “Looks so weird…What is it?”

“An artificial Core,” Dario said.

I blinked. “Excuse me? Like a core of a computer or…?”

He pressed the cube again and it went back to its opaque silver color. “Best to hide it. If it’s not Melded with anyone, Corebrings can detect it just like a real one. We’ll be dead before we know it if the Corebring Hive is made aware of what we’re doing.”

“Excuse me?” I repeated, with real incredulity this time. “Like a real one? What do you mean? Like a real Core from the Mother Core? Like the Cores inside Corebrings?”

“Yes.”

“How is that even possible? Like without the Mother Core?”

“It does need material from the Mother Core.” Dario nodded. “Many, many, many governments, organizations, secret or otherwise, have tried to get to their hands on a Core, and have succeeded. Maybe a Corebring got killed by an Adumbrae and they managed to get the body before it got eaten by the monster. Or they ambushed a Corebring to get a Core.

“But it is impossible to hold it long enough to try to synthesize an artificial Core. The Hive will know where the stolen Core is hidden and send their big guns to get it back at any cost. Which was the reason why Project QR-Zephyr went with the Adumbrae route in making super soldiers. The government didn’t want direct conflict with the Hive.”

“There’s a new top-secret project,” I said, taking a guess. “Making artificial Cores. They somehow found a new way to do it—not going the Adumbrae way—and succeeded.”

“Correct. There is a new program on making super soldiers that could rival Corebrings—”

“Backed by the government,” Everett said. “Again.”

“Yes, a new top-secret government program carried out by the BID. Or, more specifically, Division Proxy within the BID. The reason for the experiments' revival was that the BID somehow got its hands on an Origin Core, the ones that formed the Mother Core at the start of the Adumbrae War. Only this one wasn’t able to join the Mother Core.

“I don’t know how that happened, or where they got it. However, since it never became part of the Mother Core, the Corebrings couldn’t detect it. And that’s why Division Proxy could do their experiments in peace. They also carry out their experiments in labs. They’re using dozens of human test subjects, but they don’t experiment on the public like Project QR-Zephyr.”

“Which is still bad, by the way,” Myra said.

“Yes, it’s bad,” Dario said, annoyed. “But we can’t stop those… perhaps in the future. Not now. We have talked about this.”

“I assume you guys are the result of this experiment?” I said. “With your powers and all this stuff? Did you escape from the lab or something?”

Reo shook his head. “Not exactly. And no, we didn’t escape anywhere.”

Dario explained, “We are getting a repeat of the events leading up to the Labor Day Purge. You see, an Adumbrae has infiltrated Division Proxy. He’s using the resources of Division Proxy to test on the people of this city…among other places. At least, that’s what the Professor told us. The Professor is one of the lead researchers of Division Proxy, and he’s the one who discovered that one of them became an Adumbrae. He suspects there are many Adumbrae in Division Proxy as well as the upper echelons of the BID, which was why he couldn’t just report it.

“The Adumbrae are using criminal organizations engaged in the illegal Adumbrae trade, funneling resources and information from Division Proxy, to accomplish their goal of finding a way to retain their human minds while gaining more and more power. Essentially, the same goal as the Adumbrae involved in the Labor Day Purge.

"The Professor gathered us—and each of us has our own reason—to fight the Adumbrae. And that is how we have our powers. He provides us with artificial Cores, information, and other materials we may need in our missions.”

“To what end?" I said. "Why don’t we report this to the police—? Uh, I guess that would be difficult if there are Adumbrae in the government. How about exposing this to the media? Wasn’t that how Project QR-Zephyr got revealed to the public? Let’s bring this to the media! We got proof.” Needless to say, I didn’t want them to actually do that because that would land me in trouble too. I was simply giving the reasonable response of a normal person.

“That’s the problem," Dario said. "The Corebrings will know the government has an Origin Core and that they’re making their own artificial Corebrings. This wouldn’t be just about the Adumbrae anymore. The Hive will take this as a declaration of war. This will be way worse than the Labor Day Purge.”

“You’re right…”

“And the government will not just give up the Origin Core and stop this project. So, it is in our best interests the Division Proxy project continues in secrecy. Unfortunately, the Adumbrae within Division Proxy is doing its experiments out in the open. Our group has two ultimate goals. Not only do we want to stop the Adumbrae experimenting on the public for obvious reasons, we also don’t want Division Proxy to be exposed, thereby preventing war between the US and the Hive.”

“It’s a really difficult situation,” Everett said.

“But what has this got to do with the two of us,” I said, gesturing to Deen and me. “I know all of this is important, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t do anything for Adumbrae to attack us at the mall. Is it because of Kelsey?”

“That might be the case,” Dario said. “We suspect they took Kelsey.”

“They?”

Myra tried to stand but Dario put his right hand on her shoulder. She stopped with her mouth wide open as if she was about to start speaking. Then she closed her mouth, blinked a few times, and looked around in a daze. Dario pushed her back down on the armrest of Everett’s. Myra sat still for a few seconds then recognition lit her face. “Why did you do that?” she said to Dario.

“Relax, Myra,” he said. “Let me handle this.” He turned to me. “There's this criminal organization connected to the Adumbrae in Division Proxy run by two brothers, Mark and Big Marcy. We have fought them on several occasions, trying to stop their operations in this city. They might’ve taken Kelsey then sent someone to kill the two of you because you might know something about Kelsey, even if you don't.”

Woah. Hold on! There were no other people involved in that incident at the mall beside us here in Deen’s house. No people from any criminal organization whatsoever.

I think I see what was going on…

There was this misunderstanding with Myra, whatever that was supposed to be. Then…Boom! A mysterious woman with a monster mouth—pretty little me—appeared and attacked her. Assuming Dario’s story was true, they probably suspected my transformation as one of their enemies. So, they wanted to keep Deen and me close. They either sincerely wanted to protect us or suspected we were connected with their enemies. Personally, I think it was the first possibility.

“So…what now?” I asked.

“For one reason or another, you have been targeted by the Adumbrae. We don’t know why. But what we can offer you is protection…and a chance to gain some powers of a Corebring."

"I don't understand."

"Would you accept the power and join us in our fight against the Adumbrae?”

The hell? Yeah…no, thank you. “I don’t want this.” I trembled, about to cry again. I needed to bail out of here. Enough of accepting strange shit from strangers. And if it was indeed an artificial Core, wouldn’t that be dangerous for me to accept because I was an Adumbrae?

“Erind…” Deen said.

“It’s just that I realized my normal life is over.” I bent down and started fake crying. It was hard to cry when I could barely stop myself from laughing out loud. This is all just misunderstanding upon misunderstanding! They wanted me to join them to fight my transformed self. Come on, this is stupid. I didn’t need anything here. I didn’t need anything from them.

“We don’t know when they’ll strike again,” Dario said.

“Maybe she’s afraid of what will happen when she Melds with it?” Reo said.

Everett cleared his throat. “This is a big decision, Dario. For both Erind and Amber.”

“I need to explain it some more—"

“No, this can’t be true!” I yelled. I stood up and pushed Deen away from me. “I refuse to accept this!”

“I think we may need some time,” Deen said, trying to calm me down.

“I don’t need time!” I stepped away from her, shaking my head. Sorry for the drama. I need a quick reason to get out of here. You continue with your superhero stuff while I plan how to carry out Rule#4. I couldn’t care less if war broke out between the US and the Corebrings. “I was supposed to graduate law school, get a job, start a family. I don’t want to fight monsters and play the hero.”

“Ouch, that stings,” Reo said.

“Not the time, Reo.” Myra stood up. Was she going to stop me?

“I'm leaving,” I declared. Dario stepped forward. Danger. “Don’t touch me!” I screamed with all my might. He was surprised and stepped back. I may have looked stupid, but it was a knee-jerk reaction. I didn’t want him near me as I had no idea of the range of his power. “Don’t use your stupid powers on me.”

“Erind, please,” Deen said. “Think about it."

“I’m out of your stupid superhero team. Save the world all you want. Don’t bother my life.” I stormed out of Deen’s house, and they didn’t stop me.

Peace out, guys.