Chương 168: B3. 14.2 - Meeting New People Is Fun

Standing in the middle of the passage like some sort of guardian of a fantasy cave, I observed a distant speck of blue light. It twinkled. Must be dust clouds rolling about from a tunnel collapse somewhere back there. The blue light grew into the tiny outline of a man. A human, according to my Pino color coding scheme. This must be Dario's guy. He headed this way instead of to Dario, meaning that he didn't think the cave-in would stop Four Arms for long.

Otherwise, he would've destroyed the hole at the house and gone to Dario to high-five each other for a job well done. Four Arms really wasn't part of Dario's plan. Or mine, for that matter. The BID agent was trying to draw Four Arms away from Dario so that Dario could have more time to cartwheel inside the PCM base. What should I say to this BID agent? He might've already spotted me with his fancy bionic eyes, which all BID agents had.

If I were him, I'd shoot at anything that looked like a robot after fighting one. I dropped to the floor and pretended to be a pile of scrap. Not a very convincing disguise. He came closer. Running. Heavy footsteps hitting the floor echoed as the rumbling of rubble died down. I couldn't see much of the BID agent's body in the dark, but his outline was clear. Was he raising an arm? A burst of light. An explosion! My body got disassembled along all my joints, pieces of me flying everywhere.

I was scattered throughout the tunnel, though everything remained linked to the energy ball inside my torso. This asshole shot me before I could talk! He wasn't following the script, messing up my reveal. Then again, only a kid would believe that I was a broken-down robot randomly splayed along this tunnel. What was happening now? I blinked away the dust falling on my eye. I wasn't facing the right direction. Wriggling the small piece of my spine at the base of my head, I tried to reposition myself.

All my other body parts weren't near enough to be of use. The BID agent slowed as he approached, arm cannon still levelled at my head. He really was wary of me. Dario probably called his BID pal again after we left, warning him of another robot-looking Adumbrae. Another flash. The floor underneath me exploded. Really annoying, this Trigger Happy! The agent's blue outline became a streak as my head got launched to the ceiling in a fraction of a second. I fell back down but didn't bounce on the floor.

Fortunately, I landed somewhat facing his direction. This confirmed that Trigger Happy knew of me and my powers—at least, what Dario assumed were my powers. The agent stopped about five yards away, his eyes glowing gold. He looked at me, then at my other body parts. He pointed his arm cannon thingy at my torso a dozen feet away. More explosions. More shaking. Shockwaves sent my head rolling. I sensed my body parts being thrown around. But my connection to other body parts remained.

The shots were so powerful that I thought the tunnel might collapse here, too. So violent. And powerful enough that he could casually blow up the place. Four Arms must be very strong if Trigger Happy couldn't win. But why is Trigger Happy trying to kill me? I thought Dario was open to allying with me. Did their plan change? He wasn't Four Arms from Deen's visions. Just a normal-sized dude with a burnt suit and some wrecked mechanical thing on his back that sprayed sparks.

Was he a regular BID agent, not allied with the Professor, that somehow stayed here? Or he probably just thought that I couldn't be trusted and should be eliminated—a fair assessment. I couldn't see much through the dust, but Trigger Happy's blue outline was mostly clear. He picked up my torso. It pulsed with energy, catching his attention. I didn't really know what was inside my chest. Some sort of battery? A reactor? The Trigger Happy was scanning the energy ball. Don't tell me he'd take my torso as a souvenir?

I willed my body to put out energy. Its light seeped through the gap of my chest plates, brightening the tunnel with a green hue. Blood. Where was his red blood? I needed to hit his human flesh for my link. I doubted I could affect the machine parts, similar to how illusions didn't work on my Pino body. I needed to connect to his nerves and reach his brain. Turning slightly to check if Four Arms was coming, Trigger Happy showed that he was rocking a backless outfit, most of his suit burned off.

His mechanical backpack hid parts of his back, but the bloodied parts that I could barely make out in the shadows must be human flesh. My right hand was a few feet behind him, partially concealed by dust and debris. I raised my index finger and shot his back. Let it be flesh. A link! I held myself back from probing his mind. Trigger Happy didn't seem to have noticed it. He muttered something that I didn't catch, and jogged away from the direction of Four Arms and toward me, carrying my torso.

"Hello—" That was the only word I managed to say. Trigger Happy immediately fired at my head with his arm cannon. This bastard wouldn't let me talk! Up my head went again. Tumbling through the air, I ordered my body to reform. The threads connecting my individual pieces pulled them all to the torso.

"What the hell?" Trigger Happy yelled, noticing all my body parts moving toward him. My original intention was to talk with him and find out about stuff. Plant some goodwill to use for some future betrayal. We could've even worked together against Four Arms. I wanted a cool entrance and a chance to intimidate him. But now, after preventing me from having a cool moment, I was going to make him think that I was possessing him.

I sent Trigger Happy thoughts of eldritch abominations, nightmarish monsters, and my imagination of what the endless void would be. I pulled memories of Adumbrae movies and sent all of the monster parts to him. And I had seen a lot of Adumbrae movies. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. (I'll have your body…) I said in his mind, making sure my mental voice sounded spooky. But I didn't try to control his body yet so that he wouldn't resist.

"No!" He threw my torso forward. My other body parts came flying with it. My left hand caught my head before hitting the ground. Pieces of my left arm assembled themselves and connected below my left hand's wrist. I was able to hold my head off the ground like a periscope, checking on Trigger Happy. He had fallen to one knee. Grasping his head with both hands, he mumbled a chant. I couldn't hear the words, but his thoughts told me what they were. (Resist temptation. Focus on your being. Don't let evil take over you. Your faith will preserve you.) Not sure if this was a BID maneuver. More likely, it was his own thing because images of a Christian church and various religious iconography washed over our connection, drowning out my scary images of Adumbrae movies. And there was this emotion I wasn't familiar with. That I hadn't encountered before. A strong sense of conviction. Belief. It wasn't like Deen's so-called moral stance. This was something else that was insanely strong.

Instead of walling up his mind, he projected a total confidence that he wouldn't be affected by my mental assaults. Faith? Was this it? Trigger Happy drew upon his religious beliefs to counter an Adumbrae trying to invade his mind. How fascinating! My grandmother on Dad's side was super religious, but my parents themselves weren't. During the few times we had vacationed at Grandma's place, she'd bring me to church and teach me about the Bible. She'd tell me that demons were real; we had concrete proof in Adumbrae.

"Now, more than ever, should we be faithful," she'd always say to me.

"I don't understand people stepping away from the church. Science explains nothing about Adumbrae! Those demons have been around long before the war, little Erind. It's in the Bible!" I went along with everything she wanted me to do because she baked me the best apple crumble pie I had ever eaten, may her god bless her peaceful rest. I didn't really care whether an actual god existed or not, and I was sure any god wouldn't care about me either.

There had been no scientific proof that religion could stave off seeding. In fact, a lot of seeding events started from cults. Was the problem praying to the wrong god? Trigger Happy appeared to be confident that he had chosen the right one.

"And deliver me from temptation…" His eyes snapped open in a blaze of gold. Anger wrinkled his dust-covered face. Straightening himself, he pointed his gun at me. But he didn't shoot, though I was piecing myself back together. It wouldn't do anything anyway.

"How strong a mind you have," I said, "to resist my incursions to explore your soul."

"The filthy touch of your evil doesn't affect me!"

"Are you sure about that?" Earlier, I was annoyed at this guy. But I changed my mind because this was a novel experience. I hadn't fought anyone like him before. Would it be fun to be worshipped by others? Should I try to make a religion?

"As certain as my faith in the Lord," Trigger Happy replied, stepping forward. He still wasn't shooting.

"Step aside, demon." How odd that someone like him became a BID agent. Hating Adumbrae was probably the top requirement, and he had plenty of that. That must be it. Even weirder that someone like him worked for the Professor.

"You're not shooting me," I said.

"You want to talk."

"I don't have time to talk," he said with clenched jaws. He stopped five feet away from me and waved his arm.

"Move out of my way, and I won't destroy you."

"You won't destroy me because you can't. And you won't shoot because you don't want me to attack you. Instead, you want me to delay the four-armed man chasing you." Trigger Happy narrowed his eyes. I was right. He quickly spoke, "Our asset proposed an alliance with you. It's not my place to disagree, even if I do. Shall we continue with this alliance?"

"Asking to work together after shooting me? A lot of times, I might add. You, humans, are worse than us demons." I should try to pry information from him, if that was even possible, but I found it entertaining to pretend to be a demon. Maybe I was a demon for doing this.

"Both of us will die if—""You'll die," I cut in.

"I won't. Even if you or the four-armed man find a way to destroy my body, my essence will return to the void. And, perhaps, I will look for your consciousness to infect next time."

"You wouldn't dare to—!" He looked over his shoulder. A slight tremor far away. Muffled sounds of breaking rocks. We both knew that Four Arms had gotten through the collapsed part of the tunnel. Trigger Happy looked back at me.

"Are you going to work with me or not?"

"We'll work together… Once I take over your mind. Kneel before the Devil, pathetic human!" I sent the command over our link. It caught him off-guard, and he did kneel. I cackled maniacally, spreading my arms. If I were in my original body, I'd have tingles of excitement. I never expected to play this role.

"Get out of my head!" Trigger Happy fired his arm cannon. I ordered his arm to move an inch left. The projectile missed. The ceiling a few yards behind me blew up. I didn't so much as flinch because I was in a struggle of wills. Rather than shutting down his thoughts and putting up walls, Trigger Happy pushed back at my commands with fervent praying. It was actually working! His will was so fucking strong that he was pushing himself to stand. Time to test this. I sent energy from my body to supercharge him.

What would its effect on a human be?

"Wha-what?" Trigger Happy's resolve wavered. Wonder. Fear. Pain. He fell into a convulsing heap in front of me.

"I-I re-reject you! I reject you!" To my surprise, not only did Trigger Happy fight against my orders, he also stopped my supercharge. He struggled to get back up. People could reject the power so they wouldn't die from the overload? Neat to know, but there goes my plan of literally blowing people up.

"Hello, there!" Four Arms' blue outline appeared in my vision. It proved that he was human. Heavily augmented that he looked like a robot. Was he sent by the 2Ms? Which other organization I had met could create someone like him? The voice of Four Arm's poked a hole through Trigger Happy's mental resistance. Trigger Happy was afraid of Four Arms. Very afraid. I took advantage of it, ordering Trigger Happy to get down on all fours. He was really against bowing-to-Satan thing, so his mental resistance went to that.

Then I pushed more of my energy into him. Blood flowed out of his eyes, nose, and mouth, illuminated by the green glow of the energy. I celebrated in my head for my first BID agent kill. (I'll have your body,) I said in Trigger Happy's mind.

"No. You. Won't!" He stood up with the last ounce of his resolve and pointed his gun at his head. BLAM! His head was gone. Fleshy bits and blood showered me.

"The… fuck?" Everything happened so fast that my brain was trying to catch up. That still counted as my kill, right?

"Oho! He killed himself?" Four Arms was coming closer. He didn't appear to be hostile.

"You saw him do it," I said.

"Not my fault."

"And who… or what are you supposed to be?" Four Arms asked.

"A Corebring? You naughty bastards are breaking the Washington Protocol again. Eh, I used the word 'naughty'. It's not fitting for me, won't you agree?"