Reo Hinode (Oberon)

Reo Hinode had been in the dark for more than two hours, the longest period he had his eyes closed while awake. This wasn't counting the times he stayed up for hours late at night, lying in bed with eyes shut tight, unable to sleep, stressed, anxious, afraid of what he had gotten himself into, afraid of dying, killed by either human or Adumbrae, remembering the pain of death he felt each time one of his fairy summons died.

But he wasn't that spineless piece of shit right now, for he was Oberon, the king of the fairies. Although, he conceded that royalty across history would agree that the backseat of a 2007 Mayfair Galleon wasn't a throne fit for a king. With only four fairies under his command, and able to summon only one of them at a time, perhaps this was as royal as he could get.

His gang did make his place as comfortable as possible. Johann removed the backseats so he had space to kneel and stretch his arms. They secured firm cushions on the floor, arranged to hold his legs and butt in place so he could kneel for long periods with ease even if the car was moving at high speeds—it was more like sitting than kneeling with all the support cushions. Slings hung from the ceiling that attached to his wrists, holding his hands up as required to maintain his summon. The general constitution of his body had improved since he melded with an artificial Core, but it didn’t mean it was easy to hold the summoning position for long.

They also had the windows tinted so no one could see the weird shit inside. Without context, someone seeing Oberon in his summoning pose would think that it was some kinky sex thing.

And someone who knew the context would report them to the BID.

A van would've been more convenient; those storage vans were pretty roomy, and they could easily deck it out for his use. But they realized they couldn't easily park a large van anywhere without inviting suspicion. Not to mention they couldn’t agree on how to disguise a van—a laundry van, pest control, or a move-in van. It was also a matter of money. When Blank’s car was totaled in a previous mission, they all decided to chip in and buy a cheap second-hand car they could use for their operations—this old Mayfair model.

Oberon hoped that if ever this car would also get wrecked, he wouldn't be inside.

“Johann texted me he finished his investigation,” Barb said from the front passenger seat. “He’s coming down now.”

“Finally,” Oberon said. Out of his four fairies, Sneak was his only summon where he retained his consciousness and was able to control his body, including being able to talk. With the other fairies, he enters a trance and was mildly aware of what was happening only to the fairy and not his own body; he would just be there, kneeling with his mouth wide open, until the fairy returned or died.

“You okay there, Obe?”

“What do you think?” he snapped.

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re actually having fun back there?” Barb said with a snicker.

“Oh yeah. Five-star accommodations, lobster buffet, coffee rub spa. It’s awesome back here.”

“Coffee rub spa? Is that a thing?”

“I don’t know. I’ve seen a flyer of it.” Oberon cleared his throat. “Could you get me a drink and maybe a gum?” He heard Barb rummaging and then felt a straw press on his mouth. He thankfully sipped the water.

“Open your mouth,” Barb said, and Oberon complied. “Here comes the gum.” She made airplane noises before plopping the gum into his mouth.

“Thanks for that.”

“No prob. I know you must be dying for a smoke right now.”

The driver-side door opened and someone got in. Johann spoke, “Terribly sorry that took some time. But I now know where to go, and I hope I’m right.” Oberon heard keys jingling and being inserted into the car ignition. “Those plates are from a corporation named Dawson Stevedoring and Logistics, LLC. After some digging—get this—I found it’s one of the companies controlled by our pals, the 2Ms.” Johann was referring to the Mark and Big Marcy criminal mastermind brothers. “It looks legitimate on paper, but I think it’s one of the companies they’re using for their smuggling business.” The engine of the car roared to life. “We’re going there now. To the docks.”

“Using cars from their own company? Bold, aren’t they?” Barb said.

“That’s the thing,” Johann said. “While I was having the plates that Obe saw checked. I asked my cop buddies over at traffic collisions if they could connect to the MetroTraffic feed, the live traffic camera system, and help me get footage of the street outside Erind’s apartment building. I owe so many people free lunches at Taco Mastodon.”

Barb exclaimed, “Hey, what if they saw Erind getting kidnapped? We’re avoiding the police getting involved in this, remember?”

“Then they will get involved,” Oberon said. “We'll have to trust the 2M bros to hide all their illegal bullshit, especially the ones connected to the Adumbrae. And we'll just find Erind in the commotion.”

“My thinking exactly," Johann said. "But, curiously, the traffic cams on Erind’s street weren't working or were disabled by someone. That’s why Rofirio didn’t care about kidnapping them in broad daylight, and with their company cars no less.”

“Wow, really?”

“Not only on that street where Erind was taken. All traffic cameras of the surrounding blocks were also dead. It's good we knew what cars they used and the company they were registered to. I asked for the feed of the cameras going from Erind’s place to the office of the stevedoring company and caught those cars passing by those roads. It's a safe bet they're going to the docks.”

Barb said, “We were lucky Obe had the presence of mind to memorize the car model and plates.”

“Whoa, what do you mean?” Oberon pretended to be extremely offended. “My presence of mind was a matter of luck?”

Johann and Barb laughed. It made him feel a little bit better, chipping away at the fear in his heart. He could really, really, really use a smoke right now. But if he did, he would break the summon of Sneak.

“Actually, we were luckier Rofirio didn’t notice my fairy sneaking up behind his ass,” he said. Although Sneak was tiny, just like his other fairies, and slightly transparent, unlike the others, he could still be spotted by someone paying attention to their surroundings.

“We are the luckiest Sneak was able to hide before it lost its connection with Obe,” Barb said. “They couldn’t find Sneak, right?”

Oberon frowned. He didn’t like referring to his fairies as 'it', they were his royal subjects after all. “Nah, they couldn’t find Sneak even if they wanted to.” Sneak could become completely invisible if he stuck on something and stopped moving—this time, he was able to stick to Rofirio’s left leg before the criminals took Erind and that other dude, and sped away. Not simply invisible. He wouldn’t even register in people’s minds if they accidentally bumped or touched him in his invisible state. A person had to be specifically looking for Sneak to recognize him when detected. “Unless Rofirio accidentally jumped into a grinder, Sneak is safe.”

“It'll be awesome if Rofirio did jump into a grinder,” Barb said.

“No way! I'll feel Sneak getting ground up like minced meat too.”

After about twenty minutes of Johann’s bumpy, reckless driving, Oberon felt the car slow down. Barb clicked her tongue and slapped what sounded like the dashboard. The car suddenly sped up. Johann said for Oberon’s benefit, “There are guards. Not simple security guards.”

“Buff dudes with big guns,” Barb said. “Like what are you guys doing there? Too obvious.”

“They won’t care about being discrete because the only vehicles passing by here are cargo trucks and their people.”

“And now they saw us,” Oberon said.

“It looks like we’re at the right place,” Barb said. “What do we do?”

“I’ll try driving around the perimeter,” Johann said, “to see if Obe can connect.”

Oberon concentrated, trying to feel Sneak. Each of his fairies had a certain range they could operate away from him; if they crossed that distance for one reason or another, they would hibernate in their last state until Oberon reconnects with them or breaks the summoning position. Sneak’s range was about a hundred and fifty meters away from him, the furthest among the four summons. As Rofirio sped away to some godforsaken hole, Sneak went to sleep. “No dice,” Oberon said. “But I can feel Sneak is inside, just out of reach.” He didn’t stop the summon so that they'd have an easier time finding Rofirio, and also Erind, once they knew the general location of where to search.

“We attack them?”

“What? No!” Johann said. “Barb, don’t do stupid things. There's only three of us and tons of them.”

“Only two,” Oberon said. “I won’t be able to summon a different fairy.”

“Okay, two. I got a gun, but they also have guns, lots of guns. Barb has powers, but they have lots of firepower. Rofirio also has powers, and we don't know who else they got inside. ”

“Fine!” Barb sighed. “So, this is it then? We wait? With Blank, we might be able to get through the entrance, but he’s meeting the Professor. Emcee can make this place go up in flames, but he’s sulking like a baby.”

“Barb,” Johann said, “two people died in the fire at—”

“I know! Okay? No need to bring it up again.”

“Quiet down!” Oberon ordered. He strained his ears. There it was again. “Gunfire?”

“You’re right,” Barb said. More shooting, louder this time.

“What the hell’s happening inside?”

“This is our chance! Let’s go back to the entrance.”

Oberon groaned. “Don’t tell me you want to attack from the front.” But it was too late, he could feel Johann frantically driving back. “Guys, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“We’re near,” Johann said. He cocked his gun and stopped the car. “There’s only two of them. The others probably went to check what was going on inside. Go on ahead, Barb.”

“What the fuck? You’re agreeing with her?”

“Have faith in me, Obe.” The car door opened and Oberon felt something heavy get off. “You fuckers! Have some of this!”

Oberon assumed Barb charged towards the entrance gate. People were shooting at them, or rather at Barb, and he could hear bullets ricochet in all directions. There was shouting and cursing. He prayed fervently to any god who existed that he wouldn’t get hit by stray bullets.

“Here we go, Obe,” Johann said.

Oberon tensed up, gritted his teeth, and clenched his butt. He pleaded to the heavens he wouldn’t die here in a position like he was in a sex rig. He didn’t want to die with his eyes closed, unable to see what would kill him. Should he open his eyes? No!

They bounced, a speed bump most likely, and hit something that gave way with a crunch. Something jumped on the car, making it buckle.

“What was that?” Oberon said in a worried voice.

“You mean the guardhouse?” Johann said. “Or Barb on top?”

“Let’s follow the shooting,” Barb shouted from above them.

Johann drove frantically. Left, left, right, then a curve. Oberon gave up trying to remember where they were going. “Don’t charge into the gunfire,” Oberon said. “Slow down, I don’t want to die.”

“Nothing yet?”

“Wait…I feel it. There we go, I’m back online.”

“Nice,” Barb said. “Keep me updated on what’s happening. I’ll try to find them in the gunfire hubbub. And standby for quick extraction.”

“Aye-aye, Captain,” Johann said sarcastically. The car did a little bounce as she jumped off. “Talk to me, Obe. What do you have?”

“I’m still opening my eyes, I mean Sneak’s eyes.” As Sneak’s vision connected with his, he saw he was clinging to some kind of leather material. Rofirio was wearing leather pants, so this must be his leg. Sneak looked around. “Shit, what is this...?”

“What?”

“The fuck? Is this Rofirio’s leg? This might be his leg! Just his leg. Tons of blood.”

“Where are you?”

Sneak flew up to get a better view of his surroundings. “In a warehouse with its doors ripped apart by something huge. There are body parts everywhere. A blood bath.” Sneak went down to each of them. Pieces of flesh were ripped and torn by a creature he didn't want to meet. “Is that bastard Rofirio finally dead?” Rofirio was the one who stabbed Oberon in one of their missions while he was in summoning mode. He gave him nightmares after that.

“Can you see who they're fighting?”

“You mean 'what' they're fighting. I don't think it's human. It's not here though. It's somewhere outside, thank god.” A couple of explosions rocked the air. Oberon smirked. Fireworks for celebrating Rofirio’s death. “Wow, they're going at it outside.”

“Is Erind and that other guy there?”

“They don’t seem to be here…oh someone is covered by some boxes and debris.” Sneak tried to push away the things piled on top of the body but his tiny body lacked the strength to do so. He burrowed into the debris to find the face of this person. “I think this is him, the dude with Erind earlier. But he’s in a bad shape.” Sneak opened the eyes of the dude. “He seems to be alive. Barely.”

“We need to get Barb there.”

Sneak flew outside of the warehouse. Death and carnage everywhere. So many dead bodies, or what remained of them after a monster tore through them. “The 2M bros messed up big time here. What kind of experiment of theirs escaped?”

Oberon relayed everything he saw to Johann, the placement of the sun, the warehouse numbers, other surrounding landmarks, anything that could help Barb know where to go, and Johann repeated everything over the phone to Barb.

“I’m trying to avoid the fighting,” Barbs said on the loudspeaker of Johann’s phone. “I need more directions.”

“Barb, there’s something nasty here,” Oberon said. “I’m looking for it—OH MY GOD!”

Sneak turned a corner and came upon a feral beast of nightmares.

Eight feet tall even as it was hunched over, the furred creature was feasting on a body, a human leg dangled out of its disproportionately large jaws. Its powerful arm suddenly stretched out, clawed hands opened, and reached for Sneak. Oberon willed Sneak to beat his wings as fast as he could and fly up.

But it was too late! Tiny Sneak was going to get caught!

He readied himself for the pain from Sneak getting squeezed like a tube of toothpaste.

Surprising salvation came. The side of the monster exploded, followed by a barrage of gunfire.

The monster shielded itself with its arms, its hide and flesh as durable as the side of a tank. Only small nicks that barely bled were all the guns could show after their hard work.

Sneak, with this window of opportunity, fluttered over the top of the warehouses, putting as much distance between him and the monster.

“What happened, Obe?” Johann said. “Tell me so I can tell Barb what to do.”

“I found it, 'it' being the fucking monster wreaking havoc here.” From his vantage point, Oberon described the location more accurately. Barb went up over a pile of containers and waved over at Sneak. Oberon guided her on how to go around the monster and the men with the guns trying to kill it.

He looked back at what the monster was doing. Oblivious to the men shooting at it, the monster went back to eating a body. And Oberon soon realized why. It healed itself from eating the bodies of the dead men. All the damage it sustained was being healed and was gone in a heartbeat, soon replaced by a fresh set of injuries as a new wave of assault started.

He could’ve sworn it was steadily growing larger.

“We need more firepower!” someone shouted, someone very familiar to Oberon and the rest of the gang.

“Jim Ambrose is here,” Oberon said. Their favorite augmented human. Barb fought with Jim Ambrose before and was barely able to escape because Blank was there to disable him. Unfortunately, they couldn’t finish him at that time because his nervous system was also augmented and shocked him out of Blank’s hold.

“That means Big Marcy is here too?” Johann said.

“Probably. Jim Ambrose is leading the men against the monster.”

Jim bared his mechanical arms layered with cerrasteel, the same armor plating used by military ComExo units. Oberon knew each arm had hidden electroshock cylo-engines that generate fields of energy that could knock out and fry Adumbrae brain, the best way to stop an Adumbrae.

The werewolf Adumbrae lunged at the men on a jeep trying to maneuver a machine gun mounted on top of it. Jim Ambrose used that opening to land a hit on the monster, rocking its skull. The energy field exploded and enveloped the Adumbrae. It staggered and fell.

“Jimmy boy took it down,” Oberon said. “Tell Barb to hurry up.”

“We should get closer and meet up with her.” Johann started driving the car.

Oberon wanted to protest coming closer to danger, but he knew they needed to get Barb out as fast as possible. He controlled Sneak to fly lower to get a better view, attached himself to the upper side of a warehouse, and turned invisible.

Jim Ambrose approached the unconscious monster, kicking it smugly. Another successful capture of an escapee, or so it would seem. The monster was only feigning getting knocked out. It grabbed Jim Ambrose’s left arm, its huge fist enclosing the whole limb, and squeezed hard.

Oberon could hear through Sneak the metal getting crumpled like a milk carton box. Jim Ambrose was so reliant on his electroshock attack that he let his guard down. He raised his other fist to deliver another electrifying blow, but the monster had already shown it didn't care for anything he could throw at it.

The creature caught Jim Ambrose’s other arm and stood up, dangling the clothes on a laundry line. Jim couldn’t break free. In desperation, it appeared he decided to overload the engines on his arms. A dangerous whirring noise signaled the destruction to come.

A large explosion and blinding light!

Oberon momentarily couldn't see through Sneak's eyes.

As Sneak's vision came back, Oberon saw Jim Ambrose’s armless torso sticking out of the monster’s mouth, slowly getting chewed. The hands of the monster were torn to shreds by the explosion, but it was already eating the barbecued body of Jim Ambrose to heal itself.

“I’m inside the warehouse,” Barb said, breaking Oberon’s horrified concentration on the brutal end of another one of their nemesis. "Where's Erind's friend?"

Sneak returned to the warehouse with Rofirio's leg. “Jim Ambrose is dead,” Oberon said to Barb over the phone's loudspeaker. “The monster ate him. Big Marcy is going to be so pissed.”

“Huh? What are we going to do then? Who’s going to stop their Adumbrae experiment? Those fuckers should have better control of this whole thing.”

“Well, we’re not going to be the one to stop it,” Oberon said. “The guy is over there, by the way.” He pointed the location with Sneak's tiny hand.

The monster went away probably to find other food to eat. There didn’t seem to be any of Big Marcy’s men that survived, so Johann decided it was safe, against Oberon’s objections, to drive to the warehouse so they could easily load the injured guy they found into the car.

"Excuse me, Obe," Barb said. "Heave-ho!"

Oberon heard the rear door of the car open and he felt someone squeeze in beside him. The backseat was a tight fit because even if the seats were removed, the cushions were there. He wanted to break the summon already, but they were still looking for Erind.

Did the monster eat her? Damn it.

Sneak flew up again to see where they should go next. They decided to go to the office buildings past the rows of warehouses. The 2Ms might be there, controlling the operations of their smuggling business and their legitimate logistics business. If they wanted something from Erind, she was likely held there.

“Oh, come on,” Oberon groaned as the car followed Sneak flying above.

“I’m afraid to ask what is it this time,” Johann said.

“Incoming two helicopters. One is huge with missiles and lots of guns."

“A gunship? Is it the military?”

"The other helicopter looks like that used by rich people to land on the helipad of their giant luxury yachts.”

“They’re trying to save Big Marcy,” Barb deduced. “We were right that he’s here.”

The attack helicopter started shooting at something on the ground and out of view—a holy pissfire of lead. Unlike a rifle on auto where Oberon, to an extent, could identify the individual sounds of bullets fired, he could only hear a steady oppressive hum, the sounds of bullets fired so numerous they all merged into one single note of destruction.

Missiles were let loose, fiery spears stabbing the ground. Johann stopped driving as they braced for impact. All of them inside the car yelled as the earth quaked. From Sneak’s point of view high above, he could see the gunship chasing something through the towering stacks of freight containers.

The other helicopter landed, a huge fellow surrounded by guards hurried to board it. With its precious cargo secured, the smaller chopper took off. The gunship let loose a few more spurts of hot lead before following Big Marcy.

Sneak scouted ahead to try to find the monster if it was still alive. Perhaps luckily, they couldn’t find any trace of it. They did, however, eventually find Erind, hiding in a freight container full of appliances that accidentally opened because of the explosions. She wasn’t hurt, unlike the other guy they saved, only slightly disoriented.

Oberon and the gang hightailed out of the docks as a cacophony of the sirens of police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances sounded in the distance. This looked like a dire situation for the 2M bros, but Oberon was sure they had enough money to cover all of this up. And he was fine with the blatant corruption of the city’s authorities, as well as the impunity of the operations of the 2M bros.

As long as it kept the eyes of the Corebrings away.