“Bring that smelly ass over here!”

Thud!

I rushed the Smokepire head-on. Our collision forced us to crash through the roof. We landed amid an ongoing party where numerous teenagers were indulging in mature activities. Of course, this immediately ended after they noticed the huge hole in the roof.

“Ahh! What the fuck???”

“Oh my God! The Roof collapsed!”

“That shit almost got me, bro!”

“What the heck caused it?”

A variety of screams began to unleash when they laid eyes on the monster on top of me. Among the swarm of cries, one voice in particular caught my attention.

“Smoke Pac? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Huh?” Bending my neck 67 degrees, I noticed Razi among the panicking crowd that was rushing to the exit. One of them had a camera and was filming everything despite the chaos.

“Oh, Shit!” I quickly flooded the surrounding with loads of vapour to conceal my identity. Afterwards, I bear-hugged the malevolent Smokepire then hopped back outside through the roof. I avoided prolonging a major scene that would have gone viral on Tick Tock Toe or any other bullshit social media platform that the kids are into these days.

“Grah! Grah!”

“Quiet down!” This ugly bastard was behaving very badly. He was shifting around in my arms with the strength and mannerism of a bull. I had to reinforce my Rigid Body skill to restrain him.

Seconds after leaping outside the house, we landed on a neighbouring rooftop. At least this one was a lot sturdier. Our combined weight wasn’t enough to collapse the roof.

Setting foot on solid ground again gave me the angle I needed to punch a hole in the Smokepire’s abdomen. I knew damn well that it wouldn’t die from this type of injury and death wasn’t my end goal.

With my right arm still poking through the hole I made in this creature’s abdomen, I withdrew it slightly then directed it upward through fleshy viscera until my hand was holding firmly onto the smoking Resurrection Rubik’s Cube.

“I got you right where I want you, shit face.” Saying this, I applied slight pressure to the Resurrection Rubik’s Cube, moreover, twisted the formation of blocks into a particular pattern that caused the Smokepire to immediately shut down like a computer.

This cube was similar to the operating system, without it, the Smokepire ceased to function at optimum. I came across this technique during the time I spent messing around with Rodent’s weird biology.

Right after losing consciousness, the creature stumbled backwards and crashed into the chimney’s wall. The small demolition caused many heads to turn my way. The crowd gathering below was getting too thick for my comfort, so I hurriedly picked up the heavy-ass corpse and skedaddled out of there.

I vanished in a blur of smoke before anyone could take any good pictures of me carrying the beast. I went back beneath the old overpass where the other Smokepire was still passed out on the ground.

“Here is your friend.” I dropped the Smokepire I was carrying beside the other one before I unlocked that one’s chest and matched the same unconscious block code. This was done to prevent either of them from spontaneously awakening which could have led to them escaping.

“Now that this is settled, it is time for me to see what I can do about those specimens.” My curiosity brought me back into the eerie tunnel where the gestation cocoons were present.

“Nice, they are still here. All I need to do now is find a way to take it back to my lab in one piece.” Aside from these gestation cocoons I also needed to bring back the 2 Smokepires who were sleeping outside. To make life easier I could have made 2 trips back and forth from the estate but I feared that by the time I leave and returned to Bark Point, someone would come and discover the bodies.

The spot I left recently was already crawling with cops. From where I was, the sirens were quite audible, hence I couldn’t risk it. As an alternative, I looked to the System for support. It just so happened that there was a way to store external objects in my inventory but there was only one of these slots available. Which means I couldn’t carry multiple objects.

I was left to decide between what I wanted to store in the special slot. Since the most volatile object was the gestation cocoon, I chose to store this in my inventory. My chest opened up and manifested a hand-sized Storage Rubik’s Cube. I had a high enough Permutation Key to operate it freely.

Pushing forth my hand toward the undamaged gestation cocoon, the blocks on the Storage Rubik’s Cube began to rotate into a unique pattern. It soon unlocked by separating and subdividing its blocks outwards around the targeted object for storage.

I watched as many tiny blocks encompassed the gestation cocoon until it was no longer visible. After absorbing the object, the Storage Rubik’s Cube came back together into a minimized version that got sucked into my chest.

A short while after this happened, I checked my interface and saw that the gestation cocoon was showing in the special inventory tab.

“Great. This is one task complete. All that remains are those 2.” I rushed back outside to where the Smokepires were. Seeing that no one else was around, I quickly picked up those mini trucks, tossed them around my shoulders then got the hell out of there.

It wasn’t easy physically carrying these overgrown monsters. They took a lot out of me you best believe that shit. A normal person would have their spine snapped in half on the first try at lifting one of these creatures.

Aside from their weighed, they were constantly giving off smoke. Their vapours were competing with mine on a subtle level. Due to this, I could hardly utilise my Smoke Dash ability to aid with my speed. As a result, my journey back to the estate was a long and arduous one.

By the time I arrive at the mansion, I noticed Razi’s car parked in the driveway. There wasn’t anybody inside.

“So she made it back before me.” On my way inside, I spotted Razi standing nearby the doorway, still dressed in her skimpy get-up.

Before I could get any closer, I heard her upsetting voice lashing out at me. “Hey, Smoke Pac. You’ve ruined my night! Thanks a bunch for that.”

“What happened back there was merely a coincidence.”

“I’m not so sure about that… Hey, what is that you’re carrying?” Razi’s expression changed from anger to terror immediately after I stepped into the good lighting. The Smokepires I was carrying gave her quite the scare.

“EEEK!” She tumbled on her bottom and said, “Are those the aliens you went hunting tonight?”

I nodded my head in response. She got up from the floor and came over to inspect my cargo. I issued her a warning. “Careful, they are still alive.”

“They are?” Razi quickly retreated when she heard me. “They are more grotesque up close. You’re very lucky that I went out tonight.”

What she said had me confused, thus I inquired, “How so?”

“Well…” She stayed at a distance and answered, “One of my friends captured footage of you crashing through the roof. Before he could post it on the internet, I took his phone away and deleted it. What do you have to say about that? Am I your saviour or what?” She had that smug look on her face as if she did something monumental to save my life.

“You’re bloody ridiculous.” I ignored her and continued towards the basement where my lab was stationed.

“Hey, don’t ignore me.” She sounded like she had that pouty look on her face. “Are you going to take them to the lab? Can I come with? You’ve never allowed me to go inside.”

“And that is for good reason.”

“Why do you say it like that as if you don’t trust a girl to keep your secret? Do I look like a bitch who loves to blob her mouth?”

What she said made me turn around abruptly to look at her. “You look exactly like a bitch who loves to run her mouth. That is all you ever do.”

“Fair enough, but I would never tell anyone about your secret. Remember that thing you put in my chest? It forbids me from ratting you out. Unless you override that function with a direct command it is nearly impossible for me to brag about you. I saved your ass from going viral tonight, so shouldn’t that be enough proof that I am trustworthy?”

“Let me consider it…” I purposefully remained silent for close to a minute before uttering, “I don’t usually allow women to see my deepest secrets.”

Razi protested against my decision by saying, “Come on, dude. Stop being such a misogynistic dick all the time.”

“Striking me with the ‘M’ word, eh?” Her face was red with malice and she looked like she was about to implode. “Alright, I’ll give you a pass this time.”

“Yes!” Razi jumped on the couch and did a victory shout as if she had accomplished something great.

I grew tired of her childish behaviour. “Stop behaving like a brat and follow me.”