Chương 165: B3. 13.3 - The Clash of Back-up Plans

The tiny light at the end of the USB stick blinked green. It was doing its thing, whatever it was. And Dario wasn't stopping me, an Adumbrae, from achieving my goals. Kind of sinister. He didn't know what I really wanted, so he shouldn't let me get it, right? Instead, Dario was tinkering with other computer stations. He also ordered the rest of the hero wannabes to gather important-looking documents and items. They were filling the bags they brought along. It's just this peaceful?

I knew that Dario had a plan prepared to deal with me, but letting me do what I want shouldn't be it. Was he going to attack me afterward? Why not do it now? Either Dario had a secret weapon or a secret backup. Maybe both. Probably both. It couldn't only be a secret weapon because where the fuck was that thing during the docks mission? It'd also be super risky to rely on a secret weapon, not knowing what my abilities, as Pino, were, and those of my imaginary allies.

More likely, the Professor would send reinforcements to Dario to secure the precious PCM data. We couldn't be the only team of experimental superheroes created for field testing artificial Cores. If not other hero wannabes, the Professor should still have some muscles to send, right? Maybe augmented people. Or regular people with electroshock weapons. Anybody at all. Unlike at the docks, the fight wouldn't be out in the open—less risk for the Professor to mobilize the rest of his organization.

The rewards were too high; the Professor wasn't going to let the Adumbrae win. And so, I had my own reinforcements. Could be just singular. A couple of hours ago, I managed to slip away from Deen, transform into Pino inside a comfort room, and call Tower Cop about a tip. Given his nosy nature, he'd surely come here. Since we didn't spot any cars outside the house, he listened to my warning not to come earlier than the time I told him.

The Professor's reinforcements, if there were any, would also arrive after our group had dug into the tunnel below the house. If the timing went right, Tower Cop would come at the same time or soon afterwards to disrupt them. I grinned inwardly, picturing the Professor's team freak out with the arrival of Tower Cop. What would they do? Kill Tower Cop? They'd take care of one of my problems while also delaying their own movements. If not, Tower Cop might still spook them into backing out.

It'd be really funny if Tower Cop called his own reinforcements. Hopefully, by the time BID agents arrived, we'd already be away. Deen was here to warn us anyway. Not that I expected much from Tower Cop. The universe had a hobby of ruining my plans, so it might just be a dud. And that was fine. Accept the unexpected—that was the saying or something.

"Pino," Dario said while still hacking a different computer.

"Are you perhaps… planning a coup against Red Hood?"

"Why do you say that?" Thankfully, Dario picked up the very obvious crumbs I had strewn around. The more factions he thinks there were, and the more complicated the plotlines were, the less he'd think it was just me all fucking along. Also, he'd be sold on this being the truth. Something this complex couldn't be all fake, right? After investing brainpower to puzzle over the weird pieces and trying to put them together, he'd be unconsciously vested in keeping it as the truth.

"Who else are you going to fight if not the top Adumbrae controlling this area?" Dario asked.

"In the end, you're just like us humans. That might be why Adumbrae can take over humans. Work with us. We'll help you win against Red Hood." This was why Dario wanted Deen, whose powers would be very useful inside this base if the PCM had any traps remaining, to stay outside. Deen would definitely oppose Dario's suggestion. Reo and Everett had misgivings, too.

"That's way too dangerous, man," said Reo.

"Can't you just drop this thing? Working with Adumbrae should already be off the fucking table. Under any circumstance. You now want to join in their fight?"

"I'm in favor of Adumbrae killing each other," said Everett.

"I'm opposed to siding with any. We should just watch the show." (Do your thing, Myra. I'm still downloading.) I didn't want to use my alliance spiel just yet. It was for before I'd leave these idiots, securing our exit, and I needed some setup first. Well, I could just remove my mask and disappear. It was more for Kelsey's benefit that no one chased us, or that Dario wouldn't go through with his back-up plan that I still didn't know about.

"I'll do anything to get my sister back," Myra said, poking her head up from behind a pile of dusty machines. I pointed at Myra.

"What if I told you to betray your friends here? Would you do it?"

"I-I…" Myra gazed at the other hero wannabes with a conflicted expression. Kudos to her acting chops. And I was very jealous of her role. I bet I could do a better job than her. Jealous or envious? I had previously looked up the difference between the two, but couldn't remember it.

'Envious' was probably the correct term to use here.

"The fuckity-fucking hell?" Reo shook his head.

"Are you seriously considering that?"

"What would you do if your family member is seeded?" Myra shot back.

"You're just going to let them be?" I laughed while Reo stammered for an answer. Part of him probably considered abandoning a seeded relative; of course, he wouldn't say that out loud.

"I'm just kidding," I said.

"I don't want you humans… sort of humans… fighting amongst yourselves. Don't be like us, Adumbrae. But before I awaken your sister—" I tipped my head at Myra "—you should be aware and accept that it's not her in control."

"The Adumbrae, yeah," Myra grimly replied.

"We're prepared for that. We can get her out of here."

"What about afterwards?" I asked.

"The Adumbrae would still… be there. You won't be able to talk to your precious sister. There is no reversing seeding… Or that is what humans believe…"

"Are you saying that you have a cure?" It was Dario who asked before Myra could. Quite fast, given this was supposed to be Myra's line in the script. The asshole supreme was interested. Also, my 'power' to knock out both artificial Corebring users, like my original Erind body, and Adumbrae, like Kelsey, would certainly tickle his fancy. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"It depends on whether your sister's manifestation is what you humans call Unripe or Complete. If it's Unripe, then there's no one in control save for the baser instincts of the human mind. The personality is gone with the collapse of the bridge to our home." I made up that last sentence. Scientists didn't know what causes the Unripe Manifestations to lose their marbles.

"Merge's sister is an Unripe Manifestation," Dario said.

"Is that what you're getting at?"

"Her mind's gone?" Myra asked, her voice dripping with anguish. Girl, I didn't know you could act.

"No," I said.

"Wait, I mean no to your question." I pointed at Dario.

"Kelsey isn't an Unripe Manifestation. The proof is that I battled the Adumbrae in her head. If it were empty, I'd have had an easy time incapacitating her. Your muscular friend over here didn't need his clothes ripped." It was bullshit, of course. But it sounded somewhat logical.

"Are you saying that she's a Complete Manifestation?" Dario jabbed his thumb toward the entrance. Kelsey was outside.

"The Adumbrae has full control in a CM. As in your case. What is there to save?" Myra's face twisted into anger. Actual anger. Rage channeled through our connection. I realized that Dario essentially said that he didn't think Kelsey could be saved. Too focused on the situation at hand, Dario inadvertently admitted to being a scammer. He didn't appear to have realized it. But Reo did, judging by his eyebrow shooting up.

"That's where you're wrong," I said.

"Since the connection to the other world is maintained, the host's mind wasn't destroyed. It's pushed to a corner by the Adumbrae." That was what it felt like when I rescued Kelsey. Funny how I now know more than scientists.

"And so, I'm saying that I can save her."

"Please do!" Myra came over to us.

"I'll do anything you want!" Dario stretched his hand and held back Myra.

"Don't easily accept what this Adumbrae says." He nodded at me.

"How about you explain what you mean while we're waiting for you to download data?" Waiting… I glanced at the USB drive. Its light blinked more rapidly; it was halfway through doing its thing. Why was Dario simply waiting for me to get done? I could be deleting PCM data after copying it. I could be planting a virus in the files he'd copy later, and eventually infecting the computer system of his mysterious organization. Do something about this! Unless… what he actually wanted to do… was wait?

Cue dramatic music at the realization.

"You already have the answer," I said, pointing at my chest, then at Dario's chest.

"Your fake Cores. You call them 'Cores', but I know what they really are." Dario frowned. Did I get a lucky hit? But I didn't know what it was.

"Your Cores can combat seeding." Dario said, "What do you mean by that?"

"Should my sister meld with a Core?" Myra was laying the foundation of our plan to get a Core from the Professor.

"Is that possible?"

"I guess that kinda makes sense," said Reo.

"The Core might counteract the Adumbrae seeding. But I'm no scientist, though many people say that I'm a genius."

"It sounds insane as hell to me," Everett said, folding his arms across his chest. I focused my eye on Dario.

"Tell me. Has your organization tried it before? They have, didn't they? And it didn't work."

"It didn't," Dario confirmed with narrowed eyes. Oh, I'm right? And he was fine with admitting that? This meant that I hooked him! Maybe it should be done on a newly-seeded person, like in my case. Unlikely that the Professor could find a newly-seeded person to experiment on. It could also be that I was special. That was the most likely explanation because I was the main character of this show. This was why I didn't want Kelsey to try melding with a Core.

But I had to go along with this for now to keep the Fletchers in the 4Bs. And I was sure there'd be something funny to do to Dario and the Professor someday if we kept this up.

"Of course, it didn't work," I said, trying to snort even though I didn't have a nose to exhale with.

"Humans a bit smarter than the rest think that they're clever enough to unravel the secrets of worlds beyond your understanding. You're missing a key ingredient—control of the mind." I pointed at myself.

"Which I can do."

"You're baiting Merge!" Reo leveled an accusing finger at me.

"That's sick! You know she's desperate to get her sister back."

"Yeah, you're trying to make us fight each other," Everett chimed in.

"What I say is true," I said.

"The mind is a canvas. Who holds the brush is the question." I went on with absolute nonsense, pretending to be an old Chinese master spouting an indecipherable proverb. I rarely watched Asian movies because I was usually too lazy to read subtitles, but I also didn't want the cringey English dubbing. The few times I did watch, I liked the martial arts ones. While I was bullshitting the hero wannabes, I mentally messaged Deen, (Is everything alright out there?) (Gabe is silent, and I'm getting worried.) (Dario's stalling me here. He must be waiting for reinforcements. But they won't attack now, that's why your Guardian Angel isn't saying anything.) (They'll attack after you and Kelsey leave us. Take me—) (No, I won't take you as hostage. We've talked about this before.) I rolled my lone eye while talking to Dario, continuing my nonsense explanation about why I could cure Kelsey if I had an artificial Core. My eye movement must've looked weird.

Also, I was quite surprised how I could hold two separate conversations. (Kelsey and I will have to duke it out with the Professor's goons.) (Too dangerous! Let me help.) Deen's sincere worry flooded over to me. How sweet. And how odd that she cared so much about me. I could barely muster one percent of the care she had for me. Or probably a bit more than one percent. (Help me by stopping Dario and the others from joining the fight. Also, keep my body close so that I won't disappear. I have to back up Kelsey.) I was confident that Kelsey, juiced by my power, could handle almost anything the Professor would send. But this would be a very delicate situation, requiring different parts to go my way. I was already preparing myself to get fucked over by the universe. In my peripheral vision, I noticed the blinking light of Auron's USB drive turn solid green. I snatched it up and returned it to the hollow portion of my arm.

"Shut up, both of you!" Myra shouted at Reo and Everett, who were trying to convince her not to listen to me. Dario had been weirdly quiet after my explanation.

"Pino, you're done downloading data. Fulfil your promise. Undo what you did to my sister!" I began, "The Adumbrae will—" Myra punched a machine next to her.

"I know! That's our problem."

"But I might be able to—""No! It's. Our. Fucking. Problem." Myra was making Dario more confused about her allegiances.

"Wake up my sister. And go. It's better that we deal with only one Adumbrae instead of two."

"Are you sure that I can go?" I glanced at Dario.

"You—" Dario paused. He raised his hand.

"Wait a moment. I want to learn more about curing Kelsey." What's going on? Dario should let me go now. Then, Kelsey would rampage, and we'd make our escape with Kelsey as my pseudo-hostage. Deen was already prepared to warn the hero wannabes that they stood no chance against me. Did I get the wrong read on his plan? But Deen didn't see any fighting going on? (Deen?) She wasn't responding.

"Honest to god, are you buying this?" Reo asked Dario. Everett also chimed in. But Dario was adamant to supposedly save Kelsey by any means possible. The three of them argued. Myra glanced at me, probably wondering what to do. I shouldn't let myself get stalled by Dario here. Deen suddenly jumped through the door.

"We should escape!"

"What?" Dario sharply asked.

"Great danger! Something is coming that'll kill us all." Fear oozed from Deen. This was part of the script. Right? Deen immediately answered me. (Erind, I'm not faking this. We all have to leave!)