Erind Hartwell

3:06 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

“Paolo? Can’t you see I’m a little busy here?” I said after feeling a garbled jolt from our mental link. “What is it?” I repeatedly punched the eye of the barf-colored goblin gnawing my other arm. I recalled an advice to hit a shark in the eye if it bit you, but I wasn’t having much success using that trick on these monsters; I couldn’t shake this little bugger off even if its eyes were already bleeding.

“Kekekek,” came the annoying cackle from others of these tiny shits.

One yanked my gun away—it was out of bullets anyway—and clobbered me with it. A couple more pipsqueaks pulled on my legs, bringing me down. “Kekekekek.”

These ugly gremlins came from only one monster, a chunky abomination that could be a mascot for all diseases ever. It was lounging by the wine bar of the restaurant, literally birthing these goblins. Not a sight for the faint of heart.

(What is it?) I mentally asked Paolo. He might’ve not heard me the first time over the din of battle.

(Pino…I can’t…too painful.)

“These fucking…” More and more goblins jumped on top of me, recreating a miniature football pile-up, pinning me on my back. I pushed them away from my head and craned my neck, making sense of the upside-down view. (Where are you—)

There!

Four tables down from the stage at the end of the restaurant where the girls and my body were. Paolo held up two of the circular tables as if they were shields. Spikes as thick as my arm punched through the tables and skewered his body. He couldn’t move and evade or else the spikes would hit Julie and Lizzie, and my body too. This scene irked me, reminding me of Myra trying to kill me in the past.

Paolo staggered backwards and fell down, letting go of the tables.

(It’s going to shoot again!) I said, spotting the willowy zombie with fleshy tendrils for hairs that was attacking him.

He was too weak to respond. His mind barely there. Julie didn’t notice what was happening, still busy shooting at other monsters. It would be too late if I called out to her. She didn’t have time to move my body away.

No choice.

(Get up!) I squeezed my consciousness into his brain. (Up. Up. Up!)

The tall zombie shrieked. Several of its tendrils hardened and, with a wild whip of its head, the spikes soared across the air.

(Protect my human body!)

Paolo complied, jumping on his feet even as black blood pooled beneath him. He extended his massive arms to the sides, making himself as wide as possible.

After the spikes hit, I yelled in his mind, (Charge! Charge! Kill it!). I ordered him to pick up dead monsters on the way, remembering my fight in the underground arena against that acid bitch. (Use those as shields!)

(What’s happening?) Doms asked, my frantic thoughts probably spilled over my links with her.

The tendril zombie released another volley right before Paolo reached it. He smashed the corpses he used as shields down on the monster. He caught the tentacles and tore them off its scalp, and finished it by squeezing its head.

Almost spent, his green hue dimming, nearly turning to the grey of the monster he just killed, he dropped on his knees.

(Paolo?) Doms said. (He’s severely injured!)

Nice observation, Doms, I thought sarcastically. He wasn’t going to last long if I didn’t do anything.

I willed him to go to Julie, crawl if he had to. I concentrated on siphoning my powers back, hoping it would reverse his transformation and he could return to his healthy human body before he died. Please work. Given my experience with the fingers so far, I wouldn’t put it past my copy power to have some stupid consequence that the user couldn’t return to his original form or some shit.

“Kekekek…kekekek!’

The goblins were trying to pull me apart. I couldn’t focus. (Doms! Help!) The fucker who stole my gun kept on whacking my head. (Get them off me so I can—)

(On it!)

Something large blew past over me, snagging a couple of goblins. Flying monster corpse delivery courtesy of Doms. (Thanks for that!) A glance at Paolo and I confirmed he was shrinking. Phew. My arms freed, I headbutted the little turd and wrested my gun back. “Payback time, you fucklings.”

(Is Paolo going to be okay?)

(He’s already turning back to human.) I played whack-a-mole with the heads of the goblins, smashing their skulls with the gun’s butt. They ran back to their ‘mother’ or whatever I should call that vomit-inducing monster.

Let’s assess the situation. Were we winning? Only a few monsters remained. Doms and I could finish this—

A bloodcurdling scream!

Shrieks of terror from Julie and Lizzie followed.

“Woah! What the fuck?” I said as turned and saw an unexpected sight.

Paolo had returned to his human form…but…he was writhing on the floor covered in blood.

Red blood not black. His own human blood.

Screams of pain drowned out the annoying screeches of the goblins, the growls and roars of the other monsters. Then Paolo fell silent, his mouth remaining open. Trapped in mid-scream, he continued crawling to Julie, his barely conscious mind following my last order to go towards her.

Would you look at that, I pondered as I batted away the remaining goblin and made my way to Paolo. The injuries of the copied body carried over back to his human form. This was the negative consequence of the copy power. Unexpected. Or, maybe, I should’ve expected this. With all the monkey’s paw shit my powers pulled, all the fucking ironic twists, this was a pretty logical outcome. My uncaringness for others was creeping up again, turning to inattentiveness to detail. Mom would scold me if she knew I was lapsing again.

“Miss Pino! Help! Paolo is—”

“I see him! Stay there, Julie.” I was going add ‘and protect my body' but that sounded like a selfish thing to say.

(You’re going to heal him?) Doms said.

(Yes! Uh, you’re still fighting—)

(I can continue—)

(No! You won’t be able to move.)

(I know. I’ll grab some of these monsters and draw them to me. Just don’t remove my armor!)

(Got it.)

“Mommy!” Lizzie said, concerned for Doms wrestling the monsters.

She hugged as many of the remaining monsters as she could before I stopped giving her super strength, using the weight of the armor to keep them all in place. The armor should protect her. Attracted by the commotion, the goblins also joined in and actually attacked the other monsters on Doms. Nice.

I disconnected my healing finger and pointed at Paolo while I weaved through the tables. Heal! Just enough so he wouldn’t die. Don’t forget, healing had consequences too, I reminded myself. I didn’t want to end up killing him; this was a different situation from his dad’s. I doubted if Julie would take it kindly if I let her brother die. Plus, I’d prefer to keep using Paolo than forcing his sister to be his replacement.

“I’m healing him. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you, Miss Pino! Please save him.”

“Where’s the electro gun thingy?”

“Here!” She pointed behind the podium on the stage. “But I don’t know how to use it.”

I didn’t either. Shit. It would’ve been awesome if we shot Doms along with all the monsters with it. “Just see what you can manage.” Wait. Wouldn’t Doms get hurt by that too? Uncaringness turning to inattentiveness again. Tch.

Someone else screamed. It sounded like a drunk guy starting a fight at the club.

A condominium resident who was still human?

No.

A new monster entered the restaurant.

Humanoid. Insect-like plates covered the left half of his body. His left arm was a hugeass blade that glowed purple, the air shimmered around it like it was pavement baked under the hot California summer's sun.

The goblin mother waddled over to him, calling her children to join in the attack. Purple blade guy sliced the tiny ugly fucks that came close, pieces of their corpses sizzling from the heat.

(This looks like trouble), Doms said. (I can barely hold these ones.)

(A bit more), I said. Touching Paolo’s chest, I felt he was still breathing. Barely. (Just a bit more time.) Should I just let him die and concentrate my powers on Doms? Cut my losses here and focus on what I could save?

Purple blade guy quickly got past the goblin family, leaving behind their chopped-up body parts. He charged and threw himself at Doms, crashing into her and all the monsters with her. For a second, it became a confusing ball of monsters tearing up each other, like those whacky cartoons fighting inside a smoky ball. But the blade guy got the upper hand and sliced every one of them with blazing speed, kicking up a fountain of black blood and ground up monster meat.

But he couldn’t slice through Doms armor. Sparks erupted each time his blade hit Doms. “Die! I’ll kill all of you!”

(What the hell—? He’s so strong!)

(You okay, Doms?) Did that monster just speak?

“Don’t hit Mommy!” Lizzie tried to throw a microphone she found, but Julie stopped her.

“Behind me, Lizzie!” Julie fired, but her gun came up empty after a few rounds. “Go away, you monster!”

Purple blade guy was unaffected by the bullets, but he did stop. “Wait. I’m here to save you!”

Excuse me? He did talk! We met other monsters that could speak, like the charcoal giant, but nothing as coherent as this. An Adumbrae? But he had torn clothes as if he transformed like the other people in this building. (Don’t move, Doms.) I pressed down on Paolo’s wounds, making him cry out.

“You!” Purple guy turned his attention to me. “Don’t touch him!”

Interesting, I mused as he ran to me. He wanted to save them? My mind raced, analyzing the situation. A wide slash sent me flying.

Perhaps sensing that his attack did nothing, he followed me as I tumbled through tables and chairs. Again and again came his blade. Wood shattered and blackened from the heat. Dark fumes came out the vents lining the back of his bladed arm. My body vibrated all throughout each time blade met armor.

He couldn’t cut through my body. But, with the force of his blows, I got disassembled. My body parts scattered, I stopped moving.

“Finally,” he said. He rushed over to Paolo. “Are you okay—woah!”

Julie was by her brother’s side. “Go away, you monster!” She held the electroshock weapon and threateningly waved it at him. It was powered up, but I wasn’t sure if she completely figured out how to use it. “Miss Pino! Are you okay? Continue healing my brother!”

Shut the fuck up, you stupid kid! Don’t ruin my bit here. He already believed he took care of me.

“I know this looks bad…that I look like this,” said the purple guy in a gentle voice. “But I’m not an enemy.”

“What are you talking about?” Julie craned her neck. “Miss Pino!”

“Calm down,” purple guy said. He gave a quick explanation of what he was. Some guy who was turned into a monster by the Adumbrae he met—the goons of the 2Ms, by the sound of it. And, somehow, he retained his consciousness. He’d been using his powers to help survivors. "You have nothing to worry about. We can help you."

"Shut up!" was Julie's reply.

(Is he telling the truth?) Doms said.

(I don’t know.) I honestly had no idea what to make of this. I pretended to lose—not that I could win against him if I wanted to—so I could hear what he had to say. The story that he was a random pizza delivery guy that got roped into this disaster sounded plausible; his clothes did look like the uniform of that pizza place I liked.

But most importantly, this confirmed he wasn’t a Corebring. I would breath a sigh of relief if I could. Corebrings wouldn’t bother with this shit if they were rescuing us. I was already entering mini-crisis mode when I thought Corebrings were here. Trepanner did warn me it wasn’t a good idea for me to meet other Corebrings. This situation was soooo much easier.

(Remove my armor), Doms said. (Just leave me with my bladed gauntlets.)

(You’re going to fight him?)

(No…I think…I think he’s telling the truth. I want to talk to him. Just leave me with a weapon.)

This was a problem if Doms was starting to think that way. I couldn’t have this. (He’ll notice if you change. It might provoke him. Let’s wait first before making a move.)

(But—)

(I’m still healing Paolo.)

“Miss Pino!”

“Who are you calling for?” purple guy said. “Your friend? Where? I can save them.”

“Miss Pino, I know you’re not dead. Please…”

FuckingshitidiotJulie! I was still thinking about my next moves because I wasn’t just going to team up with this guy even if it was true that he was a ‘good guy'.

“What do you mean not dead?” Purple guy turned around, following her gaze.

“Put yourself back together and heal my Paolo!”

Those words, it finally clicked in purple guy’s head; I could see in his demonic eyes staring straight at my own. I had to act now and bring him down! I rapid fired my plan at Doms. My hands were already near purple guy’s feet, having crawled on the floor while he told his story to Julie. I shot him with a finger and grabbed his ankles. Holding on tight, I thought, Pull! Reform!

“What the…?” he exclaimed, seeing my various body parts zipping towards him.

“Doms, go!” I stopped giving her armor power.

“No, you don’t,” purple guy said. He stabbed his blade down, anticipating where my body was going to be.

(Stop!)

“Eh?” He exclaimed, surprised by my thoughts entering his mind. “I can’t…?”

I assembled my body and held on to him. (Don’t move!)

His muscles trembled as two inputs fought over his body. (Get out of my head!) he said.

(DON’T MOVE!) I concentrated my entire mind to hold him. I even stopped healing Paolo.

(Adumbrae? You’re an Adumbrae!) "I’m not giving you my body."

“Doms!”

(This is my body!) He was able to take control of his lengthy bladed arm. But he couldn’t easily stab me because I was tightly hugging him.

“Now would be a good time!”

KKZZzrrttt! ZZzzt!

Electricity course through us. His body convulsed from the shock. But it didn’t affect me. I continued hugging him as his muscles seized up and he fell down. “No! No!” he screamed as he kept on fighting my mind control. Amazing resilience. (I can’t lose here! Erind!) He sent me a bunch of jumbled thoughts just as, like a lightbulb getting switched off, his mind went dark.

(We’re good. He’s out.) I hurriedly disentangled myself from him. Anything longer and it would’ve been weird. Especially after what I learned just before he passed out.

“I followed your instructions,” Doms said.

"Good work."

“But is he a bad guy?”

Julie jumped in front of Doms, her eyes red from tears. “Miss Pino, is Paolo going to be okay?”

“Yes, your brother’s going to fine. I’m healing him. He’s not bleeding now.”

“Thank you!”

“As I was saying,” Doms interjected, “is he a bad guy?”

“No...doesn’t seem so.”

“So why did we do this? We could just introduce ourselves to him?”

“It’s going to be hard to explain our situation to him.”

“It’s going to be harder now that we knocked him out.”

Doms was right, of course. But I didn’t want to team up with this guy in the first place. This was just asking to get betrayed. If I was in their shoes, I’d go with this guy instead of going with me. For one, they knew the Adumbrae wanted Erind and they were in danger if they stayed with me. The protection I offered…this guy could offer it as well. I really wanted to kill him and have Paolo copy him or something.

But after understanding who he was, I changed my mind. Perhaps this guy would become my greatest ally. At last! The world gave me an advantage instead of all the shit I’ve been running into tonight. A very unexpected advantage.

“Don’t worry, he’ll come to,” I said. “I wanted all of you guys together to explain—”

BAM!

Everyone except me crouched down. What was this now?

A couple of guys stood by the entrance of the restaurant. The biker-looking man with a shotgun had just fired it at the ceiling.

“We don’t know what’s going on here,” he said, “but we can’t have you killing Ramon.”