REND

When we stepped out of the hotel, we didn’t go straight to Deen’s car and made our way to our hideout. I had the right to say ‘our’ hideout after all the effort I had exerted in this mission. Instead, Deen and I visited a fashion boutique across the street to appear like two ‘normal’ ladies out shopping. We may be overly cautious, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Bianca ordered someone to watch us for a bit.

I approached the nearest rack and pretended to look over the displayed clothes. They were kinda in my price range but not my style. Deen called Johann and Reo to update them on what happened. Obviously, I wasn’t ‘like other girls’—in a different sense than the normal use of the expression—but I was also like other girls since I did enjoy shopping for clothes…online.

Browsing online stores was a favorite hobby of mine. I'd add the latest arrivals I liked to my basket and have them shipped within the week. Voila! No need to wade through the seething masses of humanity at the mall; it always left me with a slight feeling of vulnerability. The thought of cute new outfits was appealing but the process of physically acquiring them?

Not so much.

Waiting for ages for the sales attendant to find your size—which always happened to be the one not in stock—and queueing for the fitting room; it was certainly packed during a mall sale day. If you’re going out on a shopping trip with the girls, it has got to be during a mall sale. That also meant long lines at the cashier. My god.

Deen sidled beside me and checked the clothes I rummaged through. “I called Johann. They decided to check out Eve.”

“With Reo’s fairy?”

“Yes. It’s Johann’s day off so he has time to guard Reo.”

“Our next problem is how to get in that place.”

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out later when we meet the others.” She picked out a light blue cardigan and held it up, comparing it with my body. “I bet this looks good on you.”

“Is this even my size?” I said, taking it from her.

“I have a Ph.D. in shopping so it probably is.” She picked another item. “We can buy a couple of clothes so it'll look like we’re shopping.”

“Hmm, I don’t have anything in mind I want to buy. I usually do my shopping online.”

“Sorry for my technologically backward ways, esteemed high priestess of online shoppers. My sincerest apologies for having offended you.” Deen pretended to bow before me.

I snickered. “It’s way faster to do it online.” The real reason I hated shopping at the mall was that keeping up my face for the entire day for the same group of people was mind-numbingly boring and disgustingly exhausting. People would normally zone out and endure through all that waiting time in long lines, maybe droningly browse their phone. As for me, I had to concentrate not to let my guard down and drop my face. I always wondered what would I look like to other people without a face up.

“It's faster, but you don’t receive it immediately.”

I made a face at Deen. “I'm mature enough to understand the concept of delayed gratification.”

“Careful everyone, we have a sophisticated adult here.” She tried to poke my side again but I dodged her finger. “That reminds me, I do have to buy something. Let’s go to a sportswear store.”

“What are you buying?” I followed her as she navigated the busy streets.

Towering buildings surrounded us, cased in glass, reflecting each other and the clear blue sky, full of offices with busybodies that didn’t have to deal with the bullshit I was suffering through. The lower floors of these buildings were comprised of stores and restaurants catering to the financials crowd working here, most of them young professionals. It was a kinda posh section of the city.

I tried to casually inspect my surroundings to see if there was someone following us. Then I realized I had spent more time looking over my shoulder for the past week or so than I spent in ever.

“Sports bras,” Deen said.

“Huh? For hiding that…um…thing? I thought you’re already wearing one for it?”

“I’m looking for a high-impact sports bra. Something I could move around in.”

“Eh? What for?”

She stopped in front of a sportswear store and stared at me. “For fighting,” she seriously said before entering the store.

“Fighting?” I said, puzzled. I hurried after her.

“I'll need a good quality sports bra to be able to fight comfortably. To keep things in...uh...place.”

“I don’t think I’ll have a problem like that,” I mumbled under my breath.

“I bet even Corebrings wear them, or more likely a specialized suit to stop boobs bouncing around while they fight against the Adumbrae. Unless being superhuman prevents that? I guess some powers do stop that like Myra’s armor. She said it’s hugging her body that she doesn’t have any problems, but she still wears a sports bra underneath.”

“No, I didn’t mean that,” I said. “You’re going to fight? Like fight against people with guns and monsters?”

“Yes,” she simply said.

“What's your power anyway?” I asked innocently. "I've been trying to guess it." The only instance I knew she used it was when we looked for Ramello at the hospital, but that wasn’t enough for me to get a start on. I wasn’t ready to give up on my mini-game just yet though. “Can you just give me a clue?”

She placed a finger on her cheek and looked at the ceiling. “It’s hard to think of a clue. How about you watch me later? I’ve asked Dario to teach me how to fight. I’ll try to use my powers. You can’t see it though; it’s not visible like Myra’s or Everett’s or Reo’s powers.”

“Something along the lines of Dario’s then?”

“Yep, try to guess what it is later,” she said playfully. 

Never in my short mortal existence here on this terrestrial plane did I expect to help a friend choose sports bras for fighting interdimensional monsters and armed men from the criminal underworld engaged in illegal human experimentation. Then again, a lot has happened that I didn’t expect.

It was just so funny to me that the store employees we were asking about the various features and advantages of this or that brand couldn't have guessed in a million years what Deen was buying it for. They were probably thinking that she was some ditzy blonde who was over her head trying extreme sports.

Our second mission for the day completed, albeit an impromptu one, Deen and I were on our way to meeting with the others to discuss our next move.

On the drive, Deen animatedly talked about how she planned to go about learning martial arts, like watching videos on the internet and trying to copy them at home as if it were some home yoga for fitness tape. For the practical part of learning, her only options were to fight against either Myra or Dario. Controlling her inhuman strength was easy for normal day-to-day tasks, but she didn’t trust herself to be able to do it if she enrolled in a self-defense course or something.

My mind went back to earlier musings about Bianca and impulsivity. I could somehow accept Bianca’s actions were logical but I still couldn’t understand Deen’s line of thinking.

To me, this was the correct example of impulsivity.

I interrupted Deen’s lecture about why learning to fight was so important and that I should practice with her. “What are you going to do after this?”

“After what?” She raised her brow while keeping her eyes on the road. “After the meeting? Want to go eat somewhere? I can call Adrian and the others. Just doing normal social stuff would be nice.”

“I meant after this, like let’s say you guys stop the experiments on the innocent citizens here in the city. Or after that. Like you find who’s the big bad boss behind all this and…kill him, I guess? Not like you’re going to surrender him to the government or the Corebrings.”

She pursed her lips as I mentioned the only option of killing. “I suppose you’re right.”

“So…after that? What do you do after you win?”

Deen didn’t answer immediately. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel and stared unblinkingly at the road. Did she hear me? She did. Was she ignoring the question? I was thinking of changing the topic when she said, “Then my fight will be done. I go back to my old life knowing I've done my part.”

“Part? Meaning part in the fight against the Adumbrae?”

“Yes. Part in the service of humanity.”

“But you don’t have to do this. Can you even go back to being a human?”

“Who knows,” she said, her voice trailing off wistfully. I didn’t say anything, waiting for her to continue. “I haven’t thought about it. Likely not.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“Sacrifices have to be made. I'm in a very good position to hide my condition. My family is sufficiently well off that I wouldn’t have to place myself in a situation where I need to get tested. So long as I keep a fairly human form, I don’t think I’ll have problems later.”

“I guess you’re right.” I looked out the window so she wouldn’t see me smirk. She spoke as if she was a superhero in a movie. And I could tell she had thought about it even if she wouldn’t admit it. But I still couldn’t understand her at all.

Deen and Bianca were similar in some ways. Deen was a stickler to the rules, the model student, potential student government president. Someone who, after a decade or so, was probably going to give a commencement speech to future Eloyce graduates, giving them motivational quotes and crap like that. And she did something completely unthinkable and opposite to what I knew of her.

On the other hand, Bianca absolutely hated any surgery or enhancement on her body, yet she also did something that contradicted what people knew about her. However, I only understood, or at least could somehow relate, to one of them.

Interesting.

“Can I also ask you something too?” Deen said.

“Sure.”

“What about you? Why are you helping us? You don’t have an artificial Core. We'll protect you, and you can still stay at my house even if you don’t want to help us.”

“I guess I’m just worried about you.”

Deen faced me and smiled. “Thanks for being a true friend, Erind.”

I returned her smile. True friendship?

I wonder what that feels like.

 

---

 

The road cleared as we made our way to the ghost town part of the city. An advantage of having the hideout at this location was we could easily spot if someone followed us. And if someone did, the plan was to circle the parking lot of the abandoned mall at the side of the main avenue, go back to the city proper via the side access road, and pretend as if we weren’t doing anything sketchy.

No cars followed us, so we continued onwards.

If the heart of La Esperanza could be described as a bustling concrete jungle, this place was a dead forest. Husks of buildings that were never filled grew out of the ground here and there, their empty frames slowly decaying through the years, a testament to the prospects of business and wealth that had gone to waste. Some of the lots didn’t even have the chance to grow their dead concrete tree. There were formerly empty lots that now supported thriving ecosystems of shrubbery and weed. Dug out foundations that have been hastily refilled. Steel columns hinting at a building that could've been.

This would be a good setting for a horror movie.

We drove further in. Our hideout was located inside of a building at the periphery of the former development project. There were no people there besides us.

At least, that’s what Dario had said.

Homeless people lived inside the empty buildings on the portion of the project that bordered the city proper. I think a couple of those buildings have been turned into shelters. The people residing there could easily walk to a nearby food bank set up by a charity. Those were the structures that were mostly completed, compared to the ones around us which were probably structurally unsound since their construction was halted halfway.

There was no reason for anybody else to venture further in.

We entered the first floor of a building. Stretches of the sides of the structure weren't covered by walls, just thick concrete columns propping the entire thing, and perhaps piles of rubble here and there which Deen carefully navigated past.

Inside, we found the two cars parked. Everett's and Myra's. I stepped out of Deen's car, smelling the fresh, clean air. This area was devoid of any graffiti or even a speck of trash.

No humans, no pollution.

The hideout was in a room below, but instead of going there, I followed Deen to the atrium of the building, bringing my bag with law school notes inside. I was going to pretend to study while they practiced fighting to show that I wasn’t interested in what they were doing, but I intended to study them. It'd be unavoidable I'd get into fights myself in the future, and since I didn’t know how to transform into my giant werewolf form, learning some fighting tips would be great.

“They must already be practicing,” Deen said, referring to the loud crashes we were hearing.

When the corridor opened up to the atrium, we were greeted by the sight of a human and a monster in combat. The human, Dario, wearing a tight-fitting, black tracksuit which showed his fit physique I hadn't made note of before, was going against a creature probably more than one and a half of me in height covered in darkish brown bark-like armor. I knew it was Myra even though her face was also covered. What surprised me was her form.

Her added height was due to curved blades jutting out from her feet, acting like the running blades prosthetics I had seen before watching the Paralympics, giving her insane speed as she whipped around the columns surrounding the atrium, then up the zigzagging staircase in the middle, trying to catch Dario. Her scythed arms lengthening, shortening, snaking through the air as Dario danced between them.

“Holy fuck,” I gasped.

“Don’t worry about it,” Everett said. He was sitting on a lawn chair he brought along, watching a video on his cellphone. He removed his earphones. “Blank’s not going to get hurt.”

But that wasn’t the reason I cursed. It was because I realized just now how strong Myra was at full power. If she didn't drink the blue vial, the Suppressor, back then when she attacked us at the mall, I would already be dead.