Chương 111: B2. 12.2 - A Very Angry Sister

Cecilia (Mad Scientist) Cecilia breathed in long for several seconds, savoring the mixture of gases that sustained her diminished form. Her chest rose as her lungs expanded—but those were all phantom sensations. Her chest was gone. She didn't have lungs or any organs below her neckline. If she weren't hooked up to various machines, she'd die within a couple of hours, a jellyfish-looking, helpless creature. A very pitiful state, not befitting someone of her genius.

"Be a head to be ahead," Euphonia had told Cecilia while operating on her. The grating laughter of the Adumbrae made of machine and flesh bounced around Cecilia's head. Someday, Cecilia vowed revenge. She'd separate Euphonia's metallic and organic parts, mold the metal into a bowl, mash the flesh into paste, and pour it into— what the hell am I thinking? Cecilia usually had a joyful disposition, even in the worst of situations. When she awoke a mere head in Euphonia's vat years ago, she thought the situation funny.

The explosion was Cecilia's own fault, that much she could admit to herself. Euphonia could have managed a much better job than leaving her as a head and neck. Cecilia would have appreciated her heart not beating inside her head, but she couldn't demand from the Adumbrae. Things were just what they were. Hoping for an outcome different from reality was folly, distracting from the now with improbabilities. Revenge was a waste of mental faculties better directed to progress. Cecilia knew why she was quite moody.

Hormonal imbalance and fluctuations. She needed to merge with a body soon. Her brain acted up without the usual connections. She needed signals from various body parts to ensure her brain pumped the correct chemicals.

"Alan, how many hours until my next vessel is ready?" A robotic voice spoke as Cecilia controlled a speech device via the wires connected to the end of her much-shortened spine. No lungs. No talking. She congratulated herself for preparing in case it would take her some time to change bodies.

"Not very soon, ma'am," was the monotone reply of Alan, whose muscular physique stretched the limits of his lab coat. Cecilia sometimes wondered how he could move without tearing his clothes. And that was one of the simpler puzzles about this stoic man. He was bound to have many more as one of the chimera creations of Euphonia lent to them.

"Stressful times, stressful times," Cecilia said, the speech device not capturing her sigh.

"I have this urge to smoke a cigarette, though it has been years since I last had one. Unfortunately, my new lungs are not yet ready."

"That's not the only unfortunate thing going on," said a deeply rich voice. The man sounded cheerful and worried at the same time. Cecilia ordered the right wheels of her platform to roll forward, and the left wheels to roll in the opposite direction. Her platform turned so she could face the man who entered the room. Dreyfus, the second-in-command of the PCM organization, at least on paper, strode over to her with long strides. His charming face made many people assume that he was a former actor.

In actuality, he was a conman who had supposedly changed his ways after hearing Auron's sermon at a bar years ago. Cecilia couldn't be sure if Dreyfus truly believed their cause or was playing a long game to someday take over the organization. There was something not funny about this man.

"Are you alright, dear Cecilia?" Dreyfus asked, leaning down to observe her.

"This is my first time seeing you as… erm…"

"As an imitation jellyfish?" she suggested with a snort. Or she would've snorted if she had lungs to push air up.

"I thought of my appearance as similar to a tadpole, or even a sperm cell. But the skin and flesh flaps below my neck make me look closer to a jellyfish. What do you think?"

"I'd have a heart attack if I saw a jellyfish in the ocean that looks like you. Are you well enough to discuss serious matters?" Some wavering in the voice of Dreyfus. Beads of sweat on his forehead. Things had not calmed down.

"Let me guess," Cecilia said.

"The escaped test subject remains an escapee. Perhaps the BID had gotten to our quarry first, and now you're scampering to cover up things? Or does Red Hood continue to send her minions to pester us?"

"The second one. We have nothing on your escaped test subject. And pester is a mild word to describe what's happening. A shitshow won't even suffice. There was a hell of a lot of trouble while you were resting and stabilizing yourself. I don't think we've heard the last of it." Dreyfus told her about their offices getting attacked by an Adumbrae. It started very early morning, before sunrise, and had been going on for a few hours already. The main office didn't immediately know about it, given the early hours.

Not to mention that they were focused on evacuating their Marsh Row base while hunting for the loose Adumbrae. People coming in for the morning shift raised the alarms when they found their fellow members dead. Some of them had called the police, as was the normal reaction. Dreyfus had to put a clamp on that.

"Reviewing the CCTV footage," continued Dreyfus, "they were attacked by a hulking Adumbrae. It would appear that the Adumbrae could change its appearance, depending on the material it covers its body with. Reminds me of a golem."

"Ah, I know who you're talking about," said Cecilia. She vaguely recalls the appearance of the Adumbrae girls.

"This is one of those that attacked you?"

"The one who destroyed my vessel, to be specific. Anything about the Adumbrae called 'Eren'? I'm unsure if I heard her name correctly." Dreyfus shook her head.

"We don't have time for that. Not now. First, we have to find out what Red Hood wants. We need to parley. Any ideas after relaxing on your little pedestal here? Any more recollections about what the invaders mentioned?"

"They're stopping us from curing Adumbrae," Cecilia said.

"Simple as that. What you should focus on is who the traitors are within our ranks, the ones who approached Red Hood behind our backs. They're the ones leaking the location of our offices and facilities to Red Hood."

"No leads on that yet," Dreyfus said, shrugging.

"It could be Benjie's crazy faction or Mendel's cozy little group of loudmouths. Or both working together. They wanted Red Hood for themselves, and look where that got us. Red Hood thinks we'll do to her what you do to your test subjects." Cecilia noiselessly laughed, moving her open mouth, though no air came out. In her robotic voice, she replied, "I'd want her to be my test subject, certainly. But I also know that we need her protection against Mark and Big Marcy.

In my genius mind, I'm picturing the fools Benjie or Mendel or whoever, trying to convince Red Hood to side with them, using promises of a cure. What foolishness! They're talking to an Adumbrae, not the human side!" The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I don't think that's what they said to Red Hood." Dreyfus walked over to the table, picking up a scalpel and examining its edge.

"What do you mean?" Cecilia asked. Speaking of traitors, was there a possibility of Dreyfus being one? Conrad, may he rest in the nonexistent afterlife, always voiced the 'bad vibes' he felt from Dreyfus. Unscientific, of course. But guts and instincts had also saved Cecilia many times before. What if Dreyfus tried to kill her? He may be a normal man, but Cecilia, in her current form, couldn't even fight off a very determined child. Would she be fast enough to slither away? Would Alan try to defend her?

They were both creations of Euphonia, after all.

"We have some informants," Dreyfus explained.

"Guys from the gangs. Offer them a bit of money, and they'll spill everything. Not every one of them is that disloyal to their bosses and loyal to money, but enough are. They're saying some very interesting things. Get this crazy bit—Red Hood is stopping our organization from making a Purple Bloom."

"They seriously think that? I thought it was a ludicrous joke." Dreyfus looked up from examining the tools on the table.

"Do you know about this?"

"I neglected to mention the invaders accusing me of making a Purple Bloom because it was laughably absurd. Even if we wanted to, we don't have a—oh, Red Hood thinks we'll use the Adumbrae we captured to make a sufficient base. Her subordinates saw our experiments. People linked up to an Adumbrae. What else could she be thinking?"

"Ah… that's probably what had happened," Dreyfus said, tutting.

"Red Hood might even believe that we're also targeting her, asking to meet with her, but instead are luring her into a trap. That explains why she considers us as enemies. She may no longer be human, but her sentiments are understandable."

"Understandable, huh?" Dreyfus stomped toward Cecilia, a rare display of instability.

"She's attacking us! Who's the idiot who put into her head the idea we're making a Purple Bloom? Once we catch the traitors—Bah! We don't have time for that now."

"The attacks continue," said Cecilia.

"Any idea what to do?"

"That's what I came here for. Auron's not here. The other officers are out there, busy cleaning up our ransacked offices. Frankly, I don't think they'll have much input beyond evacuating."

"It's not a bad idea. We can't defend against a group of Adumbrae."

"Definitely, not! Mother Core, what a crisis! Big Marcy had to flee the docks; even he couldn't stand up to Red Hood. We have to run, yes, but we don't have much time to pack our things."

"That… we don't," Cecilia slowly said, thinking of their laboratories.

"It'd take weeks to uproot everything. Months, even." She'd rather not move, but an unstoppable force was coming for them.

"Let's put your brilliant brain to good use. What do we do? Auron is meeting Euphonia's group right now. I'm not telling him because—""They can't know we're losing our grip on the situation," finished Cecilia. She fell silent for several seconds, chewing her tongue as she thought.

"The Adumbrae attacking our facilities—is it only one?"

"The hulking, golem Adumbrae covered with metal or concrete or whatever material it absorbed. Yes, only that."

"Alert me the next time it strikes. My plan… is to capture it."

"What? Are you out of your damn mind?"

"I'm always in my mind, dear Dreyfus," said Cecilia.

"Trust me on this, if you can gather any. Not that you have much of a choice." The three whores who rudely interrupted her experiments were looking for a specific Adumbrae, believing that the PCM had captured it. A friend of theirs, perhaps. Someone important to them, as opposed to the test subject with illusion powers that they killed. Given that those three didn't continue exploring the tunnels and wrecking the connected laboratories, their target Adumbrae must be the one who escaped.

In Cecilia's assessment, the golem Adumbrae believed that they had recaptured the escaped test subject. The golem Adumbrae targeted PCM offices to find higher-ranking members, those 'in the know'. Anyone who could say where the recovered test subject was taken to. The situation would've been advantageous to them if the golem Adumbrae's friend hadn't escaped. It could be used as a hostage to make Red Hood back off. But there was no point in thinking about what-ifs.

If they didn't have a hostage, then they should get one—the golem Adumbrae. It might enrage Red Hood, but they were already enemies at this point. They needed to buy time. A hostage was a key. Cecilia's impression of Red Hood's group was that they valued their members.

"In the meantime," Cecilia said, "we should prepare the trap while waiting for our prey. We need everything and everyone we've got."

"These are the times I wish I had never met Auron…" Dreyfus said with a soulless chuckle. They didn't have to wait long before the next attack. Angelus Heights. This was a new laboratory under construction inside another abandoned bunker. Unlike their satellite offices, they had access to the site's security camera from their headquarters. Dreyfus transmitted the footage to Cecilia's screens.

"Are you seeing this, head scientist?" Dreyfus chuckled on the speaker.

"I appreciate the pun," said Cecilia, smirking.

"It's the only laugh we have as our colleagues are killed." They watched the golem Adumbrae force itself into their base, destroying walls and squishing the few people left there. Dreyfus had already given a general call to evacuate earlier, but he didn't explain why. Announcing that they were being attacked by Adumbrae would sow panic and might even impel some members to call the police. The lack of an urgent reason for leaving meant that some people had stayed. Which was a good thing for Cecilia's plan.

"I need a phone to call," she said, interfacing with the speaker.

"We need contact within the bunker."

"Are you going to talk with the Adumbrae?" Dreyfus asked.

"Not directly. Make her think we're calling someone else with important information. Here's what you'll say…" She instructed Dreyfus to make it sound like they had captured the escaped test subject and were transporting her to the location where they had set up their trap. The golem Adumbrae rounded up the people she hadn't killed. Dreyfus managed to get the number of one of them, which he promptly called. The golem Adumbrae must've told her captives to answer it.

As soon as the call connected, Dreyfus immediately yapped.

"Where are you? We've captured the test subject. We're bringing it to the warehouse at…" Dreyfus mentioned the address.

"The boss needs a delivery truck."

"No-no, we don't know anything!" Cecilia and Dreyfus could hear their member captives disclaim knowledge as the Adumbrae demanded answers. But the captive members were telling the truth. The golem Adumbrae crushed the phone before crushing her captives.

"A pity," Dreyfus said on the speaker.

"We've lost too many people today."

"We'll find more once we've dealt with this matter. Ours is a noble cause. People will flock to it."

"True. But they won't necessarily want to be part of your program."

"There's a reason it's not voluntary. At any rate, the participants are helping advance the—""Sir! Sir!" Cecilia heard somebody burst into Dreyfus' room with harried steps. Cecilia didn't recognize the voice caught by the microphone on Dreyfus' end. One of Dreyfus's lackeys.

"An important message! Our informant just sent us this!" There was a pause. Dreyfus must be reading something. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat.

"Cecilia, are you listening?"

"What's the problem this time?" She needed the speech device to have a 'groan' feature.

"Red Hood… has your escaped test subject."

"What?" Cecilia clutched the wires beneath her with the tendrils of her neck.

"Since when?"

"Around midnight, according to our informant."

"Then what in the Mother Core's name is the golem Adumbrae searching for?"