Imani Nanda (Tove)

This isn't good. Not good at all.

Imani Nanda, or Tove, as was her chosen codename, gritted her teeth as she lowered her hands from her lap. Hiding them by her sides, she slowly clenched her fists. She could feel her aug-arm exerting force that could pulverize bone as her frustration was translated into brain signals that commanded it what to do.

There was a distinct creak as her artificial hand continued to close itself forcefully.

Her teammate to her right, Boojum, lightly tapped her arm. ‘Snap out of it,’ was the look on his face. She looked down at his hand. He had put on gloves; the Suppressor must’ve already expired.

“Not your fault, okay?” he softly said. They knew each other before their team was formed, even before her hand was amputated, and he correctly guessed that she was blaming herself for their current situation.

And he was right. She was incredibly frustrated at herself for ending up in this trap.

Trap in our perspective, she ashamedly conceded.

Their enemy didn't even make an actual trap for them, much less know that they were there. Her team knew this was coming. They had also prepared for it—sort of, the little of their preparation that counted. Yet they stumbled headfirst into the worst scenario possible where they couldn't even act.

"We can't do anything right now, Tove," Boojum whispered, tapping her arm again. He used her codename to remind her that they were on a mission.

"Exactly," she said as she opened her fists. Trapped.

She and her teammates, Boojum and Snark, were sitting in the middle of the hostages. Tea Party goons surrounded them. If they tried anything, the enemy would immediately notice it. They'd also put other people in danger.

On the slim chance they’d succeed—doing what, Imani didn’t know—they'd be exposing their identities, not only to the Tea Party but also to other people. That included the police authorities who'd review the CCTV footage in this convention center. They couldn’t exactly just tie a handkerchief across their mouths and call it a disguise.

Snark, the towering ginger with augmented legs, leaned towards her. "Hey, Tove. You know what's funny about this whole thing?" he spoke with a low voice.

"There's nothing funny about this," Imani shot back. She clenched her fists again as her eyes traveled down to his legs.

Unfortunately, she and Snark couldn’t bring the combat mods of their augs. The guards wouldn’t allow aug-legs with hidden blades or her aug-arm carrying an electroshock module into a public event. The best she could equip was a stun gun.

"And don't talk to me,” she added. “They might see you and get angry." She nudged her head at the closest Tea Party grunt a couple of rows away to their right.

He didn't listen to her and continued, "These Tea Party guys probably expect us to come. It's hilarious as hell that they don't know we're already here."

"They weren't expecting that our idiotic plan was to get caught as hostages," Imani replied, despite not wanting to draw attention.

"Wait...that's our actual plan? I thought—"

"Of course not," she hissed. "Now, shut up."

Snark shrugged and straightened up on his chair. "I was just trying to lighten up your mood because you look constipated."

She stopped herself from answering back. Instead, she inhaled deeply, wiping any suspicious expression off her face. She should pretend to be a scared hostage.

I don't really need to pretend, do I? She was a hostage. And she was scared.

Imani had been in several life-or-death situations and had been afraid each time. Normal. A very human trait.

But she should let go of this weakness. Boojum didn’t seem to be afraid, no matter the challenges they faced.

Irritated at herself for being unable to control her feelings, she pushed away her thoughts of inadequacy. Snark's question about their plan needled her mind. They knew what they were getting into but were still woefully unprepared for what ended up happening.

Since she couldn't do anything right now, Imani decided to run through everything she knew—the powers and capabilities they had at their disposal, their mission goals, and the information the Professor gave.

They had two objectives.

First and foremost was to keep Amber Deen Leska safe.

According to the Professor, Amber also had an artificial Core like Boojum and Jubjub. She was a member of a group fighting an Adumbrae criminal organization in La Esperanza. There were plenty of Adumbrae attacks in that city lately—it was all over the news these past couple of weeks—and Imani was certain that Amber's group had a part in fighting them.

It was a huge shock to Imani and her friends that they weren't alone, that other groups were secretly fighting the Adumbrae. More surprising, a member of the wealthy Leska clan was part of their 'secret resistance', as Snark liked to call it, and was…no longer human.

I will also become a non-human if I meld with an artificial Core. Imani was still on the fence about whether to undergo the transformation or not. But if someone like Amber, who had beauty, brains, and wealth, basically the world at her feet, had given up her humanity to fight Adumbrae…then what excuse did Imani have?

It made her feel inspired but also ashamed.

She also found it somewhat comforting that it wasn’t just the four of them and the Professor secretly fighting Adumbrae organizations in the fabric of society. Jubjub had hinted to them before that there could be others but gave them no concrete information. But Imani was also wary of what other important details the Professor and Jubjub kept from them.

Jubjub, their sole contact with the Professor, awakened them very early last Wednesday morning with this explosive revelation. She explained that the Professor only told them about other artificial Core users then because he didn't want the different groups to know about each other, implying there were more than two groups to keep them safe in case one group was caught, exposed, or compromised.

However, that changed when Amber drove out of La Esperanza in the wee hours of Wednesday without a word to her teammates.

It wouldn't have been such an urgent matter—Boojum also leaves Vegas on the weekends to visit his girlfriend in St. George—were it not for Amber's power. The Professor didn’t want to reveal what it was. Still, they assumed it must be quite a valuable ability for the Professor to break his security policy and immediately tap Jubjub’s group to shadow and protect Amber if necessary.

They now know that Amber and Erind came here for the Greaves Tech Fair. That was all.

Erind's mother was going to speak at this event; she was on the stage right now. It was only normal for her daughter and her daughter’s best friend to attend.

Amber and Erind must've left La Esperanza city early to avoid the traffic of the BID checkpoints, which was horrendous, as Imani had seen on the news, and didn't tell their friends about their trip because...why would they? It was just a regular trip.

Erind had told Imani that Amber had forced her to come here. Amber probably wanted to relax and get away from the city, and she used the Greaves Tech Fair, specifically Erind’s Mom talking here, to guilt her friend into going.

It all made sense in Imani's head. Maybe the Professor thought Amber would sell them out or join the Adumbrae? But it turned out that there was no cause for worry.

If only Amber and Erind came to the Tech Fair on literally any other fucking day instead of when the Tea Party was going to strike! Now, there was a lot to worry about!

The second objective of their group was to thwart the Tea Party's plan to steal essential pieces of technology from the Tech Fair. The Professor tipped them off about this impending heist a week ago, which was their priority before Jubjub scrambled them for the Amber issue.

There was no information on what the Tea Party intended to steal nor when they would come—the Greaves Tech Fair was a week-long event. The Professor's only assurance was that the Tea Party would do it at the Fair. That could mean plenty of innocent casualties, which Imani wouldn’t allow.

But the Tea Party’s planned robbery did come to fruition without Imani and her friends being able to do anything to stop it. Many people had already died.

Imani could glimpse the rest of the convention center through the opening in the divider walls made by the Tea Party grunts when they carted in the enormous crates. She spotted two corpses lying in their blood next to a robot arm. Another man was slumped over a booth, his white dress shirt partially bloodied red.

Everything’s going wrong! If only— Imani shook her head, berating herself for fixating on what could've been.

She didn't have time powers—that was what her late Mom always told her whenever she complained about her mistakes or failures. She couldn't undo the past; she could only continue forward. Maybe, once she had an artificial Core implanted in her, it might manifest time manipulation abilities. Only then could she literally dwell on her past mistakes and have a chance to fix them.

She should focus on what she could do now. On what…they…could do. She wasn’t alone; she had Boojum, Snark, and Jubjub.

Even without combat modules, she and Snark could kill someone with one hit using their aug-limbs. The Professor had also supplied them with chemicals that temporarily boosted their strength, speed, and healing.

That still wouldn't do much against guns firing at them from all directions. Snark might argue for using the other hostages as shields, but Imani was ready to punch him if he'd bring it up.

As for their artificial Core users, there were Boojum and Jubjub.

Boojum was their big gun. He could absorb biomass—both living and death—through his hands.

'Absorb' was the term he wanted to use. The usually calm and collected Boojum would get agitated if someone used the word 'vacuum', 'suck', or anything similar. But that was how his power worked—he had a large hole on each palm, usually hidden by gloves or bandages, that had an unbelievable suction force when in contact with organic matter.

He could easily shred humans and 'absorb' them, healing any injuries he had almost instantaneously. With his inherent super regeneration after melding with an artificial Core, it was virtually impossible to kill him other than cutting his head off.

Using the hostages as food for Boojum had certainly crossed Snark's mind, Imani guessed. But he wouldn't dare suggest it out loud. Boojum would immediately punch him even if it exposed them to the Tea Party around them.

Jubjub should be lurking outside the convention center, on lookout duty with her shadowy crows.

She didn't detect the Tea Party until a couple of minutes before their attack began. She immediately contacted the rest of the group while trying to slow down their enemies. Her last message before the signal jammers was activated was that she spotted Red Head, a Tea Party enforcer whom they suspected to be an Adumbrae. Imani and her friends rushed to protect Amber but became hostages.

I hope she's okay, Imani thought.

"Tove..." Boojum was using his low serious voice. She sensed an incoming lecture. "Listen to me, Tove."

Yep, it's lecture time. Imani narrowed her eyes at him. "What is it?"

"Our main goal here is...protecting Amber no matter what."

Her eyes widened. From the Professor's actions, they could glean that Amber's power granted by her artificial Core was extremely valuable. Boojum was telling her the Tea Party could steal anything, kill anyone, but they shouldn't get hold of Amber. Although she disagreed with it, that way of thinking wasn't too surprising coming from Boojum.

Imani's surprise was how he said, 'No matter what'. Did he mean he was going to use innocent hostages as fodder for his power if the situation escalated? "Hopefully, they'll just leave after getting what they want," she said. The Tea Party had no idea that Amber had an artificial Core. To them, she was just another hostage.

"Don't think so." Boojum tilted his head towards what might be bombs that the Tea Party was rigging.

"What are we going to do?" Imani said, concerned that his answer might be that they start fighting.

"We wait for now," Boojum said. "If my hunch is correct, the hostage negotiations are ongoing. I haven't seen—"

"Hey! You over there!" A Tea Party grunt pointed at them. "Shut the hell up!" Boojum and Imani lowered their heads as he passed by cursing.

After he left, Imani craned her neck as she subtly checked Amber and Erind. They sat four rows in front of her. While staring at the back of Amber's head, she wondered what her powers could be.

She wanted to introduce herself and ask her, but the Professor had cautioned them that it was better to protect her without revealing themselves. Like them a few days ago, Amber also had no idea of other groups with artificial Cores working with the Professor. It was better to keep her in the dark if she was captured.

But we're going to make sure she's not going to get captured, Imani argued in her head.

If they all worked together, they could defeat the Tea Party and save the hostages. Amber's power might be what their group needed to tip the fight in their favor, especially with a possible Adumbrae in this building.

It wasn't only Amber whom they could add to their numbers. There was also Erind.

Imani knew Erind was also part of the La Esperanza group but didn't have an artificial Core. She should have something up her sleeve if she joined the fight against the Adumbrae.

Snark had told Imani that Erind ran way faster than an average person as she chased him after he stole her phone. She punched his stomach so hard that he almost passed out were it not for his augmented nervous system kicking in. Erind might have had secret augments since her mother seemed connected to Greaves.

We can win this, Imani convinced herself. First things first was to contact them. But how was she going to do that without getting detected by—

"Boys and girls!" Everyone jumped at the loud voice blasting from the speakers. Black Spade held a microphone as he jumped back up the stage after coming from only Mother Core knew where. "Kindly form lines! We're going to transfer to a smaller venue. On your feet!"