Chương 162: B3. 12.2- Sisters Reunited Again

Our little group of weirdos trooped back to the area where Myra, Reo, and Dario had been digging before Everett called for them. I had to stop myself from hopping and skipping due to excitement. Not sure what other people daydreamed about, maybe winning the lottery or being successful in their careers, but this was my fantasy made real—being able to mess with people big time. Incredibly rare for this to happen. Both the situation and me being this happy. This is so much fun!

I kept reminding myself to hold back my joy so that neither Deen nor Kelsey would feel it. Thankfully, I was kept busy talking with my own voice while also separately conversing with the other 2Bs that my mind couldn't concentrate on celebrating. Deen was such a worrywart, though I could understand her concern. It was really bizarre that her Guardian Angel had nothing to say to her. Could the universe let me have my way this time? A bit impossible that there wouldn't be a hitch. Maybe I'd handle it well enough.

Kelsey, on the other hand, was laughing at Myra's crying. She swore to tease her sister when this was over. I had the wrong expectation for Kelsey to be nervous about our situation. Was she just happy to be out of their house? Shouldn't she be more worried about BID agents roaming around? The only other emotion I got from her was annoyance at Dario, which was very understandable. (This bastard is a fucking scammer!) Kelsey raged in my head. (Dario and the Professor, both of them. They got my sister to work for them, but they weren't able to do anything for me. It would've been much better if we met you before Dario.) Good that Kelsey recognizes my importance. (But I didn't have this power to counter seeding back then. I wasn't even an Adumbrae yet.) We didn't continue our conversation because we neared the end of the collapsed tunnel. I could see hints of a massive metal door behind piles of broken concrete slabs. The excavation team was about to reach our goal.

"I congratulate you on a job well done," I said.

"Like blind mice poking holes in cheese." I added that last line to confuse the group. Auron said it before, and I had zero clue what it meant. For sure, the hero wannabes would try to find meaning where there was none.

"Mice and cheese?" Reo mumbled. But none of them asked me to clarify what I meant.

"Very good, very good," I continued while gesturing at the cleared path.

"I didn't need to convince my comrades to help me dig and risk Red Hood knowing about this. As you can see, I'm very incapable of the task." I raised my thin arms. My statement bolstered Dario's suspicions about me. The more he thought he was correct, the further he'd be from the truth. It also made me sound less threatening since I was supposedly working alone.

"Once you get the shit you wanted inside, you'll heal my sister, right?" Myra asked. She cradled Kelsey in her arms.

"As I promised," I replied, nodding.

"And her, as well." I pointed at my original body that Deen helped walk.

"Though this Croissant doesn't need my help because she'll recover soon enough with her own regeneration. My little mind jolt on her would wear off soon."

"Did you do something different to Merge's sister?" Deen asked. Amusing how we were acting out our agreed-upon script, and the rest of the group was none the wiser.

"Of course it was different. It had to be," I said. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Dario leaning forward. I got the asshole's interest.

"You all know that I can affect the brain. For your short friend here, I interrupted her brain waves, making her lose control over her body. This meant that her regeneration is also impaired." The 'fact' that I hit the brain to disrupt Erind's regeneration meant that I knew how the artificial Cores worked. Dario's suspicions of a traitor in our midst would be amplified. Our goal was to make him think it was Reo, leaving Everett as our remaining issue. Myra was confident she could get Johann to our side.

"But as for our purple friend here," I continued.

"I had to target the Adumbrae in her mind. It's not the human part that's in control, if that isn't obvious enough. Suffice to say that I managed to push the Adumbrae to a corner for now."

"Push it to a corner?" Myra repeated. Her make-up, ruined by her tears, looked funny. She shouldn't have bothered.

"If Kelsey wakes up… And the Adumbrae is pushed back… Can I talk to her?"

"It's possible. I give no assurance because I haven't tried it before."

"Are you seriously going to trust Pino?" Reo asked.

"An Adumbrae suppressing another Adumbrae? Fucking, come on!" I turned to Reo.

"Feeling brave with comrades around, are we? Right after you broke our agreement."

"Hey, I thought we're all good now," Reo said, shrugging.

"All the betrayal stuff cancels out because both parties weren't truthful. That aside, I'm just concerned for my friend. This all sounds too good to be true. I'm just saying that it's a teensy-weensy bit suspicious that an Adumbrae will suppress another."

"Pino can prove the truth of her words later," Dario said. This asshole was holding himself back from asking questions. He couldn't appear too interested in me, or I'd gain the upper hand. So far, Dario seemed to think he had control of the situation—I was outnumbered, and he apparently expected me to catch the group digging.

"After we all take what we need inside the PCM base."

"I'll get on it!" Myra laid Kelsey against a pile of debris next to Deen. She then rushed to move the remaining blockage in front of the vault door. Reo and Everett helped her. I heard them talking about Everett's injuries.

"Looks like a giant cat redesigned your clothes," Reo said to Everett.

"Did it hurt?"

"Are you asking me if getting slashed and stabbed hurts?" Everett sarcastically asked.

"No man. It did not."

"Good to know." I didn't particularly like Reo's character—he was equal parts gloomy and snarky. But he was very entertaining. Hopefully, he could be a good pawn someday. I connected my mind with Myra when she came near, stacking another piece of concrete against the wall. I had found that my other fingers could also make links, not just my index fingers. So, that was ten links in total. Not that I had tried to connect to that many people.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. (Hey, Myra. It's me, Erind.) Myra paused in her steps, probably surprised when I talked in her mind. (It better be you.) Not sure what Myra meant by that. (How did Dario and Reo react to Everett's story? I bet they were wondering where Kelsey came from.) Myra explained that I was partly right. Reo aired his suspicions that this was a set-up, but Dario quieted him, quickly accepting the situation.

Dario probably didn't want to discuss it with Myra around, given that he was uncertain of her allegiance. It could also be that Dario expected something like this to happen. So… Dario would just let things be? He was quite chill with me. Hey, that rhymed! A good or a bad omen? Stuff was going according to my plan, which was weird.

"This is enough," Dario said, kicking a rock away from the entrance. Most of the door was exposed. It was about ten feet across, circular in shape, and looked very formidable, with many gears and bars along its side. There was a control panel by its side. Or, there used to be one. It had been gutted, exposing burnt wires inside.

"How do we open the door?" I had asked Auron when he gave me the USB thingy.

"Is there a secret button or something?"

"Nothing of the sort," he had replied, smiling broadly.

"You use your key that opens every lock—superstrength. It is a reinforced metal door, so it might hinder you. But only for a moment. I'm certain that ripping it off its hinges would be easy for you." Myra didn't even bother with the door's hinges. She placed her hands on the middle part of the door and absorbed her way through. Dario removed the metal carapace forming on Myra's back and threw them away. Soon, there was a human-shaped hole that we could pass through.

"That's it?" Reo asked, chuckling.

"We're in? I thought we'd have more problems than Emcee's muscles getting stabbed."

"Don't jinx it, man," said Everett. But Dario didn't immediately enter. Reo summoned a yellowish fairy that looked like a heavily armored beetle and sent it in. This was Reo's fourth fairy, which was supposed to survive any traps inside. With this, I now knew all of his summons. Only Blubber posed a significant threat in a fight, and that was if Reo could keep himself safe from my claws. Everett switched on a powerful flashlight that almost turned the darkness of the tunnel into day, and shone it into the hole.

"Uh, wires and broken screens. Yeah, those look like screens. A bunch of machines on the floor. I… I don't know what they are."

"The explosions when the PCM caved in this tunnel must've knocked equipment loose," I said.

"There shouldn't be any traps inside because the PCM intends to return here once the city has returned to a peaceful state, perhaps months or even years down the line. I wasn't sending you in as bait, if that was what you assumed."

"Good to know," Reo mumbled.

"It's what a rational person would've assumed," said Dario.

"Apparently, you're different from other Adumbrae, Pino."

"And you're different from other humans," I replied, "being this relaxed with an Adumbrae." This'll be the second time this asshole has tried to ally with me, I thought. It made me wonder about the actual goal of the Professor's organization if Dario was this open to working with Adumbrae. Deen's thought popped into my head. (Erind, Dario is asking me if it's safe.) We had established beforehand some hand signals so that Dario could give us commands when we couldn't openly talk. (Good. This means he doesn't think you're collaborating with me.) Funny how everyone had their own conversations.

"Anything, Reo?" Myra asked.

"Thick Boy's still alive," said Reo.

"Pino seems to be telling the truth that it's safe inside."

"I'll go in and prove it's not a trap," I said.

"No. I'll go." Dario walked towards the hole.

"Ambriel, you stay behind with… Croissant. Is that right? And Merge's sister, too. The rest of us will go in."

"I want to stay with Kelsey," Myra said.

"Ambriel can go with you."

"We might need your powers, Merge," Dario said. I could guess what he was thinking—if he left Myra outside, she might run away with her sister. And it was too cramped to bring Kelsey in. Would be crazy if a fight started in the PCM base with all the important stuff that Dario wanted to investigate.

"Your sister is safe with Ambriel," he added before entering the hole.

"Fine…" Myra said, glancing at Deen. I entered after Myra, followed by Reo and Everett.

"It is… quite a mess here," I said, examining the PCM central base, which was a small dome. Everything was as I expected—it looked like the headquarters of an evil organization doing monstrous experiments. There were computers everywhere, even screens dangling from the ceiling, cabinets brimming with files, and sci-fi equipment connected to anaconda-like cables. I approached the computer terminal that Auron had described to me and took out the USB drive that I hid inside the hollow part of my arm.

"What are you doing?" Dario asked.

"Isn't it time that you told us what you're truly here for? Perhaps we can help you."

"The hell?" Everett punched one of the machines.

"Are you seriously pushing for this?"

"If our goals align…" said Dario.

"Then, yes. If I'm not mistaken, you are after the PCM's plans for their anti-Adumbrae technology? The machines they used to capture and hold Adumbrae." Dario bought the theory that I, as Erind, sold to the group. Someday, when reviewing what had happened, Dario might eventually realize that the cute and timid Erind was the traitor all along. That I planted the idea of what he assumed to be the truth. But that would be far in the future. I was too lovable and harmless to be thought of as a traitor.

"That's right," I said.

"Some of those machines have broken down with the PCM driven out of the city. You might have heard of Adumbrae attacking the populace anew?" I was making this shit up. Auron had told me that the Adumbrae they had imprisoned should've been killed by BID agents. I had no idea of this new wave of Adumbrae attacks when we last met so I couldn't have asked him about it. But my hunch was telling this was a different problem altogether.

"So that's where they came from!" Reo exclaimed.

"It makes perfect sense."

"And what are you going to do when you get the PCM data?" Everett asked.

"Point the anti-Adumbrae weapons against your own kind?"

"Who else am I going to point them at?" I coyly asked.

"It's in the name."

"She got you there, man," said Reo.

"It's an Adumbrae eat Adumbrae world out there. We shouldn't join their civil war. As much as I signed up to fight Adumbrae, I'm on the fence helping an Adumbrae fight another."

"I'm not asking you to side with me," I said.

"What I'm asking now… if you'll let me take the data?" I held the USB near the port but didn't insert it. Myra was ready to stir trouble if Dario wouldn't allow me. For the sake of her sister and all that. And I was prepared to 'sell out' Red Hood, giving Dario information that he'd want in exchange for this. If not that, Deen was prepared to warn Dario about my reinforcements coming or Kelsey waking up to go into a rampage. We had thought a lot about this, surprisingly enough.

My plans usually didn't involve more than five minutes of thinking.

"Go ahead. We're going to check these documents." Dario turned around and busied himself ruffling through the dust covered cabinets of the PCM. Seriously? He'd just let me plug this in? What if I destroyed the data so that he couldn't have it? Something was definitely not right. Would my backup plan be sufficient to counter his? My backup plan should be arriving by now.