Run?

Stupid idea! This guy could easily stop me if he wanted to. If I wasn’t mistaken about his power, he could skewer anyone and anything he could see, even if it was through the TV. As long as he got his eyes on me, I was cinnamon crusted French toast. How I wished I had plenty of extra brains like my snake mutant buddy.

Stay?

Better idea. Rather, there was no other option. If he wanted to kill me, he already would’ve. Which meant he wanted something from me and I was safe…but I didn’t know for how long.

I dropped my clawed hands to my sides and tried to appear as unthreatening as possible. But I also tried to give off an air of confidence, standing with a hint of swagger, my hips swayed slightly to the left with my hand on it. Sass could go a long way with impressions. The only card I held was that he didn’t know what my abilities were. I should capitalize on that and try to gain an equal footing in this encounter.

Could I draw his eyes somewhere and make my escape?

Just relax.

Wait for an opening.

He dusted his butt as he stood up, then stepped out of the shadows to present himself. He wore a blue and yellow striped t-shirt with the bearded smiley face logo of QualityMart on it, stylishly atrocious calf-length trousers, and a bandana tied across the lower half of his face. The spear he wielded was silver in color with serpentine carvings that looked almost like they were alive. I could’ve sworn they were slithering beneath the gaze of the moonlight. With his left hand, he held his spear behind his back. Did he want to tell me he meant no harm? “Are you supposed to go there?” he asked pointing north, in the direction of Rob’s garage, but keeping his eyes on me.

I simply shrugged. My mind flipped through the possibilities of his identity. BID? Surely not. An Adumbrae? One of the goons of the 2Ms? How about a Corebring? If he was a Corebring, why the stupid outfit? They usually wore uniforms with helmets to hide their identities rather than this gaudy bandana. Please don’t let him be a Corebring.

“The shy type, I see.” His eyes narrowed. “There are ways I could make you talk.”

I tensed for half a second when he said that, adrenaline kicking in, but I forced myself to calm down.

He chuckled and said, “Don’t worry, I'm just kidding,” apparently noticing my minute reaction. He had an accent I couldn’t place; I guessed English wasn’t his first language but he learnt it in an expensive school abroad. The way he spoke was like an English teacher with exaggerated pronunciation, but I could tell he was attempting to mask his original accent. “Just trying to make conversation in this beautiful night,” he said, gesturing at the sky.

Would he get annoyed and attack me if I continued keeping silent? But it would be stupid of me to open my snout and show him why I couldn’t answer because then he’d know I wasn't human, most likely an Adumbrae. Judging by his attempts to kill my snake mutant buddy, the possibility was high he’d also want to kill me once he knew what I was.

Does he already know who or what I am?

He wasn’t there at the Serenade Bazaar, otherwise he would’ve have continued attacking the mutant even after I broke the TV news crew’s camera. The camera couldn’t have caught a glimpse of me. But what if he saw the video posted by Reginus on Snippet?

That must be it! Why else would he confront me?

“You’re ignoring me?” He melodramatically tutted, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “Stop trying so hard to think of how to escape and just focus in the moment.” He opened his eyes and winked at me.

Could have I made a run for it? His spear was still behind his back, although I had the feeling he was baiting me.

“Or are you not answering me because I didn’t introduce myself first?”

I nodded, going along with the conversation.

“I see. It was ungentlemanly of me to suddenly accost a girl this late of an hour without at least telling her my name.”

I nodded again while tilting my head coyly to the side. It was so hard to try and fish information from him without being able to speak.

“With this bandana on my face, I do look like a mugger. Did you think I’m a mugger?”

I shook head and waved my hand down to indicate that it was a silly thought.

“Where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself.” He bowed low, super low, making it really obvious he was no longer looking at me. He drew his right leg back, scraping the ground, like that fancy way to bow in a medieval royal court, accompanied with stretching his right hand to his side. “I am Corebring—”

As that word registered in my brain, another word popped up. RUN!!!

I pivoted and dashed to the edge of the building away from him. I only took a couple of steps when a spear burst out of my left kneecap! It embedded itself deep into the concrete rooftop. But I was already prepared for this.

“—Initiate—”

Bam! I stomped my right foot down to stop myself falling over from my momentum while, at the same time, tried to extricate myself by jumping up with the force of the stomp. The concrete cracked, but the spear held firm, nailing me down, as if someone was continually exerting force stabbing it downwards.

“—Clive—”

Next, I tried to back away from the spear. It grew out of me, so I should be able to just leave it behind if I couldn’t dislodge it, right? Wrong! I couldn’t move my knee back to where the rest of the spear should be. It wasn’t there, but it felt like it was.

“Corebring Initiate Clive,” he repeated. “You can just call me Clive.”

Escape attempt failed. See! He really was fucking baiting me to try and escape!

“That wasn’t nice of you to leave while I’m introducing myself.” I could hear his footsteps coming nearer.

I turned as best as I could from a half-lunging position because of the stupid spear growing out of my knee. I held up my hands in surrender while shrugging my shoulders as if to say, okay, you caught me, it was just a joke.

Internally, however, I was in full crisis mode, part of my brain was focused on thinking of what to do, as the rest of my gray matter came up with colorful swear words to berate my stupid ass. I still wasn’t dead, which meant my gamble paid off. I knew he was daring me to try to flee, as if it was a game, so I was sure he wouldn’t outright kill me if he caught me—and there was a high chance of him catching me.

Now, even if I knew his intentions, what was I supposed to do? When I heard ‘Corebring’ I had to try and escape even if success was just a tiny speck.

“Clive…You don’t have to tell me it’s an uncool name for a Corebring. I wrote my real nickname on the form. I didn’t know it was official and I couldn’t change it afterwards.”

What the fuck was this guy talking about? He’s just messing with me. Priority! Don’t let the rage take over. My powers kicked in because I was hurt, making my blood boil. Having encountered this sensation several times before, I was prepared to quell it. I didn’t want this Clive guy to sense any murderous intent from me.

“I was right. You do know how my power works,” he said. The spear was still behind his back but the bladed end was missing; it was jutting out of my knee.

I put my hands on my hips and gave him a feisty look. Then I gestured to my knee.

“Apologies.” He walked around to my front so I didn’t need to awkwardly turn to look at him. I felt the spear inside my knee disappear as soon as he no longer had a view of the back of my leg, and I could stand properly. His spear simultaneously reformed in an instant. “I had to satisfy my curiosity. You were able to figure out my ability in the short time you witnessed it earlier today. Awesome!” He gave me a thumbs up.

Okay, I’m still alive. I was right he had no intentions of killing me. Was he going to capture me and bring me to the Hive? Besides exterminating Adumbrae, I had no idea what else Corebrings did. Were they going to experiment on me?

Keep calm, Erind.

There would eventually be an opening for me. He did apologize for hurting me, even if perhaps mockingly. Just keep humoring him, I advised myself. If I acted fearful and submissive, he wouldn’t be interested in playing his ‘games’ with me anymore. I pointed to the regenerating wound on my leg and cocked my head.

“Sorry for that.” He bent down to examine my knee. “It doesn’t appear to inconvenience you so no need to fret. It will be completely healed soon.”

He was within striking distance. Should I attack?

Flapping noises from above made both of us look up. I considered to try escaping again, but I quashed that thought. I might anger him.

A seagull descended from the dark sky, a common enough bird in California especially for cities along the coast like La Esperanza, even if a bit rarer this far in the center of the city. The white bird landed on top of the water tank. It had something in its mouth which I couldn’t make out in this light. Food? Cheese puffs or something.

“What’s up, Clive?” said a squeaky voice like what I imagined a mouse would sound like if they could talk, but it was loud and clear. Where did it come from? There was no one else here besides me, the Corebring…and the bird. Was the seagull fucking talking? “Woah, woah, woah!” the voice exclaimed, “What are you doing to her? Sexual harassment alert! Police!”

“I wasn’t doing anything,” Clive said, standing back up. “And control your voice, Pan. The police are just over there, they might hear you.”

“Good, so they can arrest you for unwelcome sexual advances,” Pan, the seagull said. “Were you ogling her legs?”

“False accusations,” he said in a fake offended tone. “Such slander I’ve never encountered in my years as a beacon of morality.”

“I may be your junior, but let me give you a bit of advice on us girls. She may look really hot, but don’t forget she’s a monster.”

“Do you mean to say women are monsters?”

“Uh…I forgot where I was going with that thought. Let me get back to you on that. It’s hard to control this seagull’s mind and body while talking.”

“Or are you saying only the hot ones are monsters?”

“Maybe…if hot women are monsters, then I’m a monster for sure.” Both of them laughed. The seagull’s laugh was especially comical, and it would’ve elicited a genuine chuckle from me if this was any other situation.

This night kept getting weirder and weirder. The seagull called Pan must be also a Corebring. Two of them. This situation wasn’t in the list of things I considered while planning for this trip, I couldn’t be blamed for getting myself in this! How the hell was I supposed to expect two Corebrings? Fuck, maybe I should’ve just stayed with Deen.

And these two were so weird. They were so far removed from my expectations of what a Corebring should be—a heroic warrior that regularly fought malevolent interdimensional beings. But these ones? I…I didn’t know what to make of them. However, with two of them here now, my chances of escape lessened.

“Seriously though, Clive, she’s not human. She ate the creature you were trying to kill earlier.”

“I know. You repeated it several times like you don’t think that I’m listening to you.”

“Most of the time you aren't.” The seagull hopped down from the water tank, glided over me, then landed on Clive’s head. With a closer look, I noticed something peaking from behind the gull, lodged in between its wings. A creature of some sort? The bird pecked at Clive’s head with the cheese puffs still in its mouth, dusting his black hair with yellow crumbs. “Were you attacking her?”

“She seems to know about my ability. I found it interesting.”

“So, you tested your powers on her?” the seagull said. Or was it the creature on its back speaking? The bird was munching on the cheese puffs. “Are we even allowed to do this?”

“Probably not. Who’s to say?”

“You? Because you’re like the senior in our group? You’re regrettably our leader with Corebring Delirium not here.”

“In that case, I don’t know what to say.”

Pan made gagging noises, perhaps to show her frustration, before making the seagull turn its head to me. “Hello, Miss Monster,” she said. “Sorry for Clive attacking you—”

“Attacking her? You make it sound like I’m a bad guy.”

“Sometimes I think you are,” retorted the seagull. “Anyway, good evening Miss Monster. I go by the name ‘Trepanner’. T-R-E-P-A-N-N-E-R, some people make a mistake in its spelling. Only Clive calls me Pan because he sucks, and I can’t do anything about it. Don’t call me Pan. I will hate you. Even boss Delirium calls me Trepanner.”

I bowed my head a bit as greeting. The new Corebring wasn’t hostile to me, best to keep it that way. She also didn’t know my name, but she certainly had seen the video Reginus posted.

“I’m a new Corebring Initiate,” Trepanner continued, “in contrast to Clive here who’s been stuck as a CI since the start of written history—”

“By my own choice,” Clive clarified.

"A stupid choice that's affecting me. Everyone knows you intentionally reject Faceting. Such a waste. Your CoreQuip is so awesome, imagine if you Meld with it."

"I want to make it clear to our friend here that I'm not a delinquent Initiate."

"Or imagine if your CoreQuip becomes Corebound to you and you receive a different Core from the Mother Core!"

"Pan, there's no reason to be jealous of my CoreQuip. Yours is very versatile and useful in various situations."

“But it's a support type. I thought I was already done with being support personnel. What's worse is I got assigned to your team to support you, and you don't even help me with developing my powers.”

“I thought I made it clear during orientation that our team is very independent. You do your own thing. It’s the real world out there.”

“Doing my own thing? Real world?” Trepanner said, almost shrieking in an inhuman pitch. “Like you got a part time job at QualityMart? Don’t tell me it’s your cover—"

“I’m going to be candid, the fried chicken there is awesome. I just wanted easy access to it.” He felt the top of his head where Trepanner was perched and touched her feet. “What a peculiar pair of feet. Seagulls don’t have clawed feet like other birds?”

“Gulls have webbed feet, but they do have small claws. Never mind all that! It’s time we get going, we’re not even supposed to be here.”

“True, the manager might be wondering where I am.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about! Are you done here? What did you want to do with her anyway?”

“I merely wanted to talk to her. But she won’t respond.”

“I guess she can’t talk in that form,” Trepanner mused.

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you see the video? That’s not a mask on her face. Those are real teeth, that’s her actual mouth.” There was a moment of silence and Trepanner made the gagging noise again and pecked at Clive’s head. “You didn’t watch it!”

“I was on duty at the convenience store, we can’t watch videos.”

“Ask her to turn back to her human form so you can talk to her.”

I almost took a step back when I realized she knew this wasn’t my original body. How could she have known that? That wasn’t in the Reginus video. She might’ve spotted me transforming, which would explain why Clive came here. Was she patrolling this place or did she follow me since I climbed out of the subway emergency exit? In any case, I didn’t have a way to wiggle out of this.

What to do? Should I just transform back?