“I must say,” I said as I sat cross-legged on the wooden floor of the stage, “I’m surprised you guys jumped in to save, Ramon. Yeah, that’s his name, right?” Ramon, the pizza delivery guy turned monster, who, by sheer good fortune, knew and even liked me.

Like as in like.

My human self anyway.

After a tense standoff with their group, we were able to talk it out and understand each other’s situation. Doms handled the discussion pretty well. Note to self, have a cute kid like Lizzie around to look less threatening. They also had a kid in their group, Vince’s son. He popped from behind his father’s back and stared at me with nervous curiosity.

We were gathered around Ramon’s body, waiting for him to wake up. I didn’t heal him—giving the perfectly valid excuse I was focused on healing Paolo—because I wanted to talk with his group first. There were seven of them, eight including Ramon. And they said there were more of them before. However, through various unfortunate events, about half their group died along the way. I was still impressed Ramon was able to protect this many people while navigating this god forsaken place.

“He saved us many times,” said Benitez, the buff man with the shotgun. “No brainer move to save him now.”

“That’s true,” Vince said.

“We don’t abandon people, unlike that dumb bitch, Cassandra,” added the dude named Greg or Gregory.

Aiyani, his girlfriend elbowed his side. “Don’t talk like that.”

No brainer? Did that mean many people in life-or-death situations would still try to save others? Shouldn’t their own survival be the priority?

They told me Ramon mentioned he met some of the 2Ms’ people, so they, like my group, all knew the bad guys were specifically looking for me. If we allied with this Ramon guy, everyone here would eventually abandon me and go with him because that was the best choice for survival. Like just freaking sacrifice me and my human body to the 2Ms as bait, right?

But maybe I was wrong.

These guys wanted to try and save Ramon even after seeing us bring him down. Weird people. Or maybe they were just the exception?

In any case, I still had the trump card of Ramon liking me, so I was sure he wouldn’t leave me behind.

That said, contrary to popular belief, my kind weren’t that big on our own survival either. Sure, we probably had stronger self-preservation instincts than the average person, but we’d prioritize our rules over anything, even if it pushed us to reckless behavior.

Very interesting realization. It’s fun to learn more about how people think.

“Should we look for her?” Samantha said. “Cassandra can’t have made it far.”

“Leave that bitch to die,” Greg said.

“Stop calling her that. Ramon would want us to look for her.”

“But where the hell would we look?”

“It’s better for everyone to stick together,” I said, taking on the leadership role. Apparently one of them, this Cassandra woman, left when they decided to save Ramon. In her position, I would’ve stuck with the group and do all I could to ensure success. The fuck were my chances surviving on my own without powers? Weird woman.

“Uh-huh, we should do that,” Benitez said. “By the way, uh, Pino—is that short for Pinocchio or somethin’?”

“From that children’s book,” I said.

“Because you want to be a real girl?” piped up Vince’s son.

“Tommy!” Vince exclaimed. “That’s not, er…Sorry for that Pino.”

“It’s fine.”

“We’ve been watching old cartoon movies made by Walt Disney," he explained. "Tommy didn’t mean anything bad.”

“Mommy, can we watch cartoons too?” Lizzie said.

“We will,” said Doms, “when we escape here.”

“We’ll watch with Daddy.”

I saw Dom’s cheek muscles twitch. I said, “Oh yeah. Pinocchio did have a movie, but I haven’t watched it. Too bad Walt Disney went bankrupt after just a few movies.”

“Got sidetracked there.” Benitez cleared his throat. “Continuing what I was saying, Pino, about this young lady here, Irish—”

“Erind.”

“My bad. Erind here is a Corebring?”

“Not yet, but she will be if she’s brought before the Mother Core.”

“I suppose she got some special qualities, this or that?” Benitez said. “That’s why this Adumbrae organization, the uh—”

“2Ms.”

“That’s why these 2Ms want her?”

“Yes. But let’s wait for Ramon to wake up before I explain more.” I noticed Ramon was already stirring. “I don’t want to repeat myself again.” The burns on the not-so-mutated side of his body caused by the high-voltage electric shocks were starting to heal.

Weird. Other monsters we encountered couldn’t regenerate their body, even the gorilla monster. Lots of weird things, huh?

Ramon’s eyes suddenly opened. “Wha…what’s going on?” He sat up and waved his blade. We all instinctively backed away. “Vince? Greg? Where—” Then he saw me. “You! You’re still alive!”

“Stop!” Benitez stood in front of me, his hands held up. “It’s okay, Ramon. It’s okay. They’re not the enemy.”

“What? Huh? But we’re fighting—”

“It’s over now. Lower your blade, there’s no threat. We’re all on the same side.”

“Same side? What do you mean?”

Benitez introduced us to him. He also told him about Cassandra running away. Ramon had a slightly conflicted, but almost impassive expression. He didn’t seem to want to look for her, opposite what Aiyani said.

Then I explained the situation to him, or rather I repeated the lies I told to Doms, Paolo, and Julie. That I was a good Adumbrae…kinda. That I was using my powers on Doms and Paolo. That Erind was a prospective Corebring. That the 2Ms wanted Erind, and that they were doing experiments on making monsters and stuff. “So, yeah, like Benitez said, we’re on the same side. I’m sorry we attacked you. We didn’t know—”

“Ah, that’s…I mean, you couldn’t have known,” Ramon replied, a mournful expression apparent on his otherwise half-monster face. “I look like this.”

“No, what I—"

He shook his head. “Never mind. Anyway, these 2Ms. Mark? The Adumbrae did mention that name,” he said, deep in thought, his violet-colored pupils staring intently at the floor.

“It’s the name of their boss. Two bosses actually. Mark and Marc, the other one spelled with a ‘c’. Hence, ‘2Ms’.” A morsel of truth mixed with a large helping of lies would make the entire story look palatable and easy to swallow. Wow, that sounded legit. I should make a compilation of my quotable quotes.

“I finally understand why they’re looking for Erind. I didn’t know she was going to be a Corebring.”

“You’re talking like you know her…”

“I…uh…she orders pizza a lot.”

Jeez. Don’t expose my unhealthy eating habits to this random crowd of people. “You’re friends with her?”

“No! No… we just sometimes talk when I deliver her order.”

“I see.”

“She’s a really nice person. I’m relieved people like her become Corebrings. I didn’t know what she was going through, why she disappeared for a couple of weeks.”

“It was good I saved her before they did anything to her.”

“But she ordered pizza tonight,” Ramon said. “I didn’t sense anything wrong with her. Why would she order pizza if you just saved her from that underground base of the 2Ms?”

Oops. When I made my fake story, I didn’t expect to meet the pizza delivery guy. “I think she was disoriented and was just going through the motions of what she usually does. She was unconscious when the 2Ms kept her in a vat in their laboratory, so she doesn’t really know about anything going on.”

“She was so cheerful and kind when I talked to her,” he said wistfully.

"You can talk to her when her power stabilizes and she wakes up."

“If only I asked her….”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing! Nothing. It doesn’t matter now.”

Would other girls find this gross? Or would they be flattered? For me, I didn’t really mind it. I wasn’t ‘Ms. Popular’, so I wasn’t approached by guys out of the blue. Any guy who liked me, any relationship I had, was because of emotional manipulations, and it was usually because I was being a spiteful bitch towards other girls. I was more mature now though, so I didn’t do any of that petty shit anymore.

Just when I’m bored.

I found it weird someone liked me even though I wasn’t intentionally trying to influence their emotions towards me. But, hey, if this guy liked me, maybe others did too? They were probably just too shy to say anything.

Was this SpookyErind’s goal in making me use this power and work with other people? Some self-reflection nonsense? Like what lesson was I supposed to learn here?

“Those bastards,” Benitez said. “Turning people into monsters. Truly evil, these Adumbrae. No offense, Pino. We’re working with Ramon, so it’s not as if we’re—”

“No offense taken,” I said.

Samantha snorted. “Is that some form of ‘I’m not a bigot because I have a gay friend’? I’ve heard that so many times already.”

“This is different because Ramon is not an Adumbrae,” said Benitez.

“Correct!” Vince said emphatically. “He only had the incredible misfortune of being turned into a monster by these Adumbrae terrorists. Not an Adumbrae. Isn’t that right, Ramon?”

Ramon hesitantly agreed with a slight nod.

“Julie, what’s the time?” I asked.

“It’s 3:21 a.m.,” she replied.

I blinked with my cyclopean eye. Hmmm. “I think we can already move Paolo.” His clothes were crusted with dried blood. Scars covered his arms and legs, and I assumed the rest of his was body too. “You okay there?”

“Yes, I’m good to go,” he said with a forced smile. He was probably suffering internal injuries because of my power, but he wouldn’t let his sister know that. The important thing was he could walk again.

“I’ll help you there, buddy,” Benitez said, offering his shoulder to Paolo.

“Thanks.” He stared intensely at me. (Are we still connected?)

(Yes.) I still had my healing power linked with him. (Why?) I knew what he was going to say.

(When we find a strong monster, use your powers on me again.)

(But your injuries?)

(Before I copied the gorilla monster, I had a few wounds. But they disappeared when I transformed.)

(You mean they weren’t carried over to the copied monster?)

(Yes! I can transform and—)

(How about Julie?) I had to act like I was caring.

(She’d understand), he hastily answered.

(If you say so.)

“Where do we go now?” Samantha said. “Up or down? There are enemies either way. We’re trapped.”

“I say up,” Ramon said. “We should try again. There’s only one Adumbrae up there. We failed because he had tons of men with guns. Having Pino on our side, I’m sure we’ll win this time.”

“We have a stun pulser too,” Vince said. He did mention he was an engineer or something and knew his way around this kind of things. “An illegally modified one at that. This should pack quite a punch and help us fight Adumbrae.”

“What about that box?” Ramon pointed at the suitcase-sized metal box we nabbed from the 2Ms’ goons.

“I’m not sure what it is. I’d say some sort of field generator. Of what? I don’t know. Best recourse is not to bother with it.”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “I’m not so sure of going up.” Assuming we succeeded with their plan, it was going to be the absolute worst situation for me. When the BID comes to the rescue, I’d be fucking stuck on the rooftop. “The Adumbrae with the pillar. He’s above us.”

“What pillar?”

“The holes, have you seen them? Those large holes that goes through several floors?”

“We have,” Samantha said.

“Those were made by the giant monster,” Benitez said.

“The one that knew Ramon?”

“I…um…I guess I should explain.” Ramon’s eyes darted back and forth. “One of the security guards who knows me…you know, ‘cause of the deliveries…he turned into the giant monster and is chasing me.”

That explained one mystery I didn’t care about. “No, the giant isn’t the one who made those holes. It was an Adumbrae.”

Doms joined in. “Pillars as big as that one,” she said, pointing at a decorative column with fancy lights, “descended from above, punching large holes through the floors.”

“An Adumbrae, eh?” Benitez said. “You’re right. Those holes are too circular and uniform. Don’t think that giant could do that shit.”

Greg whistled. “An Adumbrae that could make swiss cheese out of a building? Glad we didn’t meet him when we went upstairs.”

“So down?” Aiyani said. “We go down?”

“If we went down, how will we break through the vines?”

“We still can’t escape.”

I tilted my head to Ramon. “He can.”

“Eh? I…I, uh, already tried,” he said, with a reluctant tone. “Many times. Sorry. I really can’t cut the vines.

“I’ll make you stronger with my powers. I’m just conserving it now. Kinda running dry after all the fighting and healing Paolo. But by the time we reach the ground floor, I’ll be ready. I’m a hundred percent sure if we combined our powers, we could escape this prison.”

I could pump Ramon to absolutely monstrous levels of strength because his body could handle the negative effects of my power. But I made up the excuse of conserving power because I didn’t want to make Ramon stronger until I was sure he was on my side. He might frickin’ kidnap my human body and run away with it - who knew what went inside the head of guys?

Everyone was suddenly in high spirits. We finally had a clear escape route.

About time too…because I was running out of time.

Less than forty minutes left.

We headed to the main flight of stairs at the center part of the building. Ramon easily handled the few monsters we encountered. I was becoming more and more confident it would be a breeze going down, so long as we avoid the huge pillar Adumbrae and the giant monster.

“The stairs!” Samantha said.

“Hold on,” Benitez said. “Stop. Everyone, stop!”

“What? Why?”

“There’s a person coming down the stairs,” Ramon said.

A woman.

Human?

Her leather skirt and jacket were torn in several places; her bare feet streaked with wounds. She obviously wasn’t having the best of days. Even her makeup was ruined with her tears. Orange eye shadow and thick cat eye eyeliner?

I've seen her before...How many people used orange eye shadow?

Samantha gasped. “Cassandra!”

“Are you okay?” Ramon said. He was about to go close to her, but Benitez held his arm.

“Look, there’s someone behind her.”

A thin man with a pasty complexion presented himself. He had an unnerving smile stretched across his face that never quite reached his cold slit-like eyes. “Hello there, friends of Cassandra! My name is Finlay. Congratulations! You just saved her life."

Armed men in full combat gear, armor and all that, marched out of the stairwell. They formed two lines, one kneeling and one standing, and aimed their weapons at us.

Finlay stroked Cassandra’s disheveled hair. “I did promise I won’t kill her if she showed us the way to her friends. I can’t say the same about you though.”