Myra Fletcher (Barb)

“Argh! Dammit. I really hate this.” Myra Fletcher bit her lower lip so she wouldn’t scream again.

Her body immediately went into rapid healing mode, which was a good thing. The bad thing was it started by pushing the shards of her armor lodged amongst her innards out of her body. It was literal hell as their jagged edges scraped her insides on their way out. It wouldn’t be this painful if these were just bullets instead. Maybe it would’ve been better if she didn’t wear any armor.

However, the flip side was that Erind would’ve certainly caused more damage.

“Myra…you’re bleeding so much,” Erind nervously whimpered as she cleared the armor to get a better view of the wound. “Let me see—Ah! There’s a hole in your stomach! Oh my god, oh my god. What do I do?” She tried to put her hands on the gaping wound.

“Don’t,” was all Myra could say. She swatted Erind’s hands away or else they’d stop the shards she was expelling.

“Just tell me if you need me to do anything.”

“Nothing. Just chill.” Myra shallowly breathed, enduring the process of expelling the pieces in determined silence. As she sucked the rest of her armor back into her skin, she suspiciously eyed Erind. Did she intentionally do it?

If she did, then it meant she wanted to hurt Myra as some form of revenge. Very understandable. I’d hate me too if I was in Erind’s position, Myra thought. She couldn’t blame her for that, but she also didn’t want to get a surprise betrayal someday. Still, it didn’t feel like something the timid Erind she knew would pull off.

Was this the Adumbrae inside Erind rearing its ugly head? It could be influencing her to get angry…angrier at me.

Either case was dangerous. She should be careful not to get stabbed in the back someday.

Or maybe she was overthinking this. It was likelier Erind simply got caught up in the heat of the fight and got a lucky hit in. I did tell her to give it her all.

“Erind…”

“Yes? What can I do—?”

“Your cheek. My blood…sorry I coughed on you.”

Erind wiped her left cheek. “It’s okay. I’m sorry too, for doing this to you,” she sheepishly apologized.

Myra hissed through gritted teeth as she sat up. Catching Erind’s worried expression, she clamped her mouth shut to stop herself from making any more noises.

It reminded her of the aftermath of one of their earlier missions—their group was severely injured, and they all went to her house to recuperate because it was the nearest safe place. She didn’t expect Kelsey to be home that time because she was supposed to have a class, but it turned out it was canceled. Her sister had the same look of concern Erind was giving her. And it inexplicably irked her. “I’ve got the fastest healing speed out of all of us with artificial Cores. That'll be fixed in a jiffy, don’t worry.”

“I punched shards into your stomach! Of course, I’d be wor—”

Myra was starting to get irritated. I don’t want to be pitied. “I’m fine!” she shortly interjected. She grabbed Erind’s hand and pressed it against her wound. She stopped herself wincing from the pressure. “It’s healing nicely. Can you feel it?”

“Uh…”

“The hole already closed up. Just give me a few min—what?” She noticed Erind’s conflicted and slightly embarrassed face.

“Maybe you can let go of my hand now. It’s getting weird.”

“Oops…right, it’s weird. And I got more blood on you.”

There was silence. Their eyes met.

Myra’s brain scrambled to squeeze out a joke to stop the situation from becoming more awkward. “Not as weird as having your fist inside of me—oh god, that sounded so wrong. I can’t think straight right now.” Both of them giggled. She forced herself to take it further and laughed out loud to keep up a tough image. “If that perverted Reo is here, I’m sure he’d have something stupid to add.”

“You do seem to be okay,” Erind said, hesitantly smiling.

“I am,” she firmly replied. “You should clean your hands. I have some towels in the bag over there. You can use the large bottle of water to wash it off if it’s already sticking too much.”

“I’m really, really sorry—”

“I already told you it’s fine. I’ve experienced much worse.” Like fighting Bob, she added in her head. “This is nothing. It just feels like severe cramps now…not sure if that comparison is correct. I haven’t had cramps since I got the artificial Core.”

“Right, because you’re just healing any pain. I suppose that’ll happen to me too.”

“Girl talk,” Myra cheerily said. “Who would’ve thought. Anyway, you should wipe the blood off before it dries. Can you bring me a towel as well?" Erind brought over the bag and the two of them cleaned themselves. Myra took off her shirt and examined the bloody tear on its front with amusement. “I also had some injuries when I practiced fighting with the guys like Everett had burned me a few times.”

“I don’t want to hurt you…or anyone.”

“But there are times you need to,” she argued. Erind going soft was not within her plans. “You should be prepared to fight at all times. Just like when you were caught by the PCM guys.” She didn’t want to bring up her next point because it involved Kelsey but decided it was important to impress on Erind that she should stick with her. “Kelsey…Dario’s group took Kelsey because she was turning into an Adumbrae. If they somehow discover your secret, and I’m sure they eventually will—”

“You’re right. You and Johann already suspected something was wrong with me.”

Myra eagerly nodded. She needed to continuously remind Erind that joining her side and fighting Dario was the best option. She didn’t want her to go to Dario seeking a cure. It was already bad enough that she and Erind had a rocky history—a severe understatement. “If someday they come to get you, you’ll be prepared to fight back.”

“Not if we get to them first,” Erind said in a wavering voice. It was so obvious that she was forcing herself to sound tough.

It almost made Myra grin, reminding her of herself. “Yeah…and save Kelsey.”

“When I first met Dario, you know, at Deen’s house with all of you except Johann, I already sensed something was off with him. I noticed he used his powers to make you stop arguing with me.”

“Er, yeah. He always says we’re democratic as a group, but he always has the last say on everything. He keeps saying he’s the weakest of us all, but none of us could actually beat him if he was serious. And you’re right something is off with him. He’s too mechanical sometimes…too clinical in his thinking. Really suspicious guy.”

“I should’ve known that he’s the one who told the 2Ms to kidnap me.”

Myra’s head jerked in surprise. She turned to Erind, her forehead wrinkled in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean only your group knows about me at that time. Like the 2Ms don’t have any idea who I was. Okay, maybe not tell them to kidnap me, but I figured Dario tipped them off or something to eliminate me…stop me from spreading your secret. Something like that? And you guys arrived because I trashed the docks.”

That gave Myra a pause. Should she tell her the truth? Yes, if she wanted to gain her trust. Then they could puzzle over the new question that popped—how did the 2Ms know about Erind? She explained, “It wasn’t Dario who told them about you. I’m sure of that. You’re right, he wanted to stop you from spreading our secret. That was why we were following you that day.”

“Hold on. Were you in the car following me and Ramello from the station near our university? I think that was a Mayfair sedan. Rofirio and his goons were riding black SUVs. I should've realized something was up. All this time I thought that was also them.”

“Yep, that was us. Although that car was destroyed when Everett and Reo were chased by the police the night of the Eve raid. Johann, Reo, and I were following you in that car, observing how you acted while we waited for Dario to meet up with us because we were going to capture you and, uh…”

“Let me guess, wipe my memories?”

“It was the group consensus—minus Deen, she was new at that time. She had no idea about all of this. Dario initially planned to wipe Deen’s memory too, but she voluntarily joined us. Dario was eager for more recruits. But you didn’t, so he was left with no choice. In a way, you got lucky that Rofirio kidnap—erm, sorry. I misspoke. I meant to say that…uh…”

“Something good came out of it?” Erind sighed. “You shouldn’t treat me like I’m overly sensitive. Deen also does that too, tiptoeing around certain topics. Don’t forget what I’ve been through.”

“You’re right. You’re a strong person. And, yeah, that was what I wanted to say. Because of what happened, you still ended up sort of joining us and we didn't fight each other. Dario was disappointed you didn’t agree to meld with an artificial Core, but having you around kept Deen happy, and he wanted to cultivate her power.”

“Her ability has a lot of potential,” Erind agreed.

“So, that’s that.” Myra wiped her body again before putting on a fresh shirt. “Dario wasn’t behind the kidnapping because he ordered us to get you. Unless this is some insane big brain fourth-dimensional chess plot to force you into joining us, I don’t really see that he had something to do with it.”

Erind nodded then bowed to the floor, deeply mulling about something. Myra guessed that they were thinking about the same thing. Erind, her eyes still on the ground, softly spoke, “So…why did the 2Ms kidnap me? Scratch that. If they knew I was connected to you, that’s plenty of reason to do something bad to me. But I only met your group a day before, and I didn’t even join you…so how did they know about me? Is there a traitor in your group?”

“I don’t think so,” Myra quickly replied, finding the idea preposterous even though she considered it herself. “Traitor? As in someone siding with the 2Ms? If there was, then they’d have caught and killed us all a long time ago.”

“That’s true,” Erind conceded. “But how…”

Myra didn’t have an answer to the hanging question. Before, she assumed that Red Hood—or ‘Blanchette’ as Erind insisted—worked for the 2Ms. But since Blanchette and Erind were the same person, then that wasn’t the correct explanation. Even after Erind confirmed that she was Blanchette, Myra hadn’t revisited this question with this new information. “How…and who?”

A ringtone jolted them both out of their serious discussion.

Myra was almost thankful for the distraction because she really didn’t have any idea, and she was starting to blame herself for missing it. Another mysterious person…another missing piece of information. What if it had something to do with Kelsey’s disappearance?

She rummaged her bag, looking for her phone. “Oh, it’s Johann. Let’s hope this isn’t some bad news,” she said, shrugging at Erind. “Hello, Johann. What’s up? I’m hanging out with Erind like we did yesterday.”

Johann didn’t immediately answer. It might sound like she was just pretending to have a normal conversation, but she was actually giving him a hint not to discuss anything Erind shouldn't know about. “Oh, I see. I hope you guys are having fun there. I suppose you’re not watching the news there?”

“Uh, no. Why? Did something happen?” Myra raised a brow at Erind as she sat next to her to listen in. “Johann, I’ll put you on loudspeaker, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, no prob. She’ll find this interesting. You guys won’t be able to guess who came in our precinct to surrender.”

Myra and Erind looked at each other. “If Erind will find it interesting…”

“…then it’s Ramello,” Erind finished.

“Darn, it was that easy to guess?” Johann spoke. “Yes, Ramello and some SVS members came in to surrender themselves. I think they went here because we’re the only other place in the city with testing Adumbrae facilities, and HQ is a mess with crazy protesters outside who want to hang the mayor currently detained there upside down—former mayor, excuse me.”

"These guys are just trying to avoid getting lynched a second time—oops.”

“Lynched a second time? What do you—”

“Oh, I—” Dammit, Johann didn’t know about Erind’s story about yesterday night.

“A lot of people are angry at the SVS because of their radically different views on Adumbrae,” Erind chimed in, “so they might get lynched if they go to where the protestors are congregating.”

“Yeah, that’s what I wanted to say,” Myra said. She was going to explain everything to him later.

“Well, I think it’s good that Ramello came forward,” said Erind. “I’m sure he’s innocent. He’ll certainly clear his name.”

“I’ll keep you guys updated,” Johann said. “I’m going to tell Dario about this now. I just wanted to gossip with Myra first.” Upon hearing this, she turned her head away so Erind wouldn’t see her smirking. He continued, “I might be on the news later, so make sure to watch for me. There are already a couple of news vans outside. Unfortunately, some protesters are also starting to gather.”

“Take care of yourself, ‘kay?” Myra said. “We’ll swing by there later to see what’s up.”

“You guys might need to extract me from here if the protesters decide to surround our precinct,” Johann joked. He added a chuckle at the end, but Myra picked up a hint of nervousness in his voice. "See you later."

“That was unexpected,” Myra said as she put her phone back into her bag.

“I don't think so,” said Erind. “Ramello doesn’t have anything to do with this so coming forward is the best choice for him.”

“This guy really attracts trouble, huh?”

“He was mistakenly kidnapped along with me, and now he’s caught up again…okay, that sounds too much to be just a coincidence when I say it out loud. Maybe he has something to do with my kidnapping? Uh, no. He couldn’t have. He was beaten up quite badly. And he also doesn’t know about my connection to you.”

“We can discuss this with Johann when we meet up with him later,” Myra said. “Maybe he’ll have some ideas.”

“Oh, we’re going there?”

“Yeah, I’m worried about him. People are getting crazy as hell these days.” She picked up a rock and tossed it to Erind. “Let’s just do some throwing practice. I think we have had enough sparring for today. After thirty minutes, we'll head over to the police station where Johann is working.” Erind snickered. Myra inquiringly tilted her head.

“Ah, I just thought of something funny,” she said. “I was at that station just a few days ago, and I swore I wasn’t going back there again…until like my retest in six months.”

“We’ll just wait outside for Johann. No need to be nervous.”

“I’m not. I just think it’s funny. I hope there’s no hot coffee there.”