[REND] 21.3 - Little Golden Hood

Really noisy around here, I thought, clenching and unclenching my claws. People shouldn’t bother me while I'm figuring stuff out. I, the main character, was having an internal monologue, so the scene should stop.

In the span of thinking about all that, the world barely moved.

The hell was this? My mind was on overdrive or something…

Huh, Overdrive. Was that dude still alive, or did he get caught? I hoped his car was okay. I really liked the leatherwork inside. After escaping this place, I’d ask Mom her about buying a car. Wait a nanosecond. I didn’t like parking, especially reverse parking. And parking fees were too expensive downtown. I could just buy a leather couch. Golden leather to match my new hoodie from another dimension.

Neat, my mind’s going fast! I was trying out my newfound ability by thinking of a bunch of stuff. The asshats charging at me were moving in slow motion with how fast I perceived the world.   

I didn’t mind the weaklings coming to attack me. Instead, I looked down at my arms. These shackles felt surprisingly heavy. Like, I could really feel them dragging my arms and neck down. Even my legs could feel the weight around my ankles. Given that I had superstrength, how heavy were these pesky things?

And what was the difference between a shackle and a manacle? They were probably interchangeable terms. Both sounded fun to say.

Why did I suddenly have these shackles on? I didn’t know what their effects were, but they were cold. Almost stinging my skin, particularly the largest one clamped around my neck. It became awkward to turn my neck because the shackle-manacle thingy was around a couple of inches thick. I grabbed it with my claws and tried to open it with a mighty tug. All I got was my upper body shaken by the force, while the collar bullshit didn’t even creak.

Having a tail was pretty awesome. Swish, swish. I swayed my hips while moving my tail. I could clean the floor with this!

“Are you spent now, you dog freak?” A bald guy with tattoos on his scalp was closest among the incoming idiots. Didn’t smell human.  

Right, I’m in a fight. I cracked my neck—this was how a badass showed they were badass. That was a main character move to show badassery. Side characters should take that as a sign to flee.

I felt the power swirling in my muscles—the shackles didn’t hinder my superstrength. If anything, I felt stronger. Way stronger than my previous Blanchette self. More energy churned inside me, waiting to be released. My chest also had this burning sensation. Were these changes caused by the artificial Core? That might explain why I suddenly shrank from my giant werewolf body. The Core counteracted my ‘Adumbraeness’… something like that.

Or did one of my shopping items inside the pickup truck cause it? Too bad, I wouldn’t know which one because I ate them all in one go.

The bald guy, whom I decided to call Rushing Death, was several feet away. The arm that he drew back to wind up a punch ballooned many times its original size, the fist becoming as large as his body. He aimed an uppercut at me, his humongous fist digging the ground beneath my feet as it punched me.

I chose not to evade that very obvious punch. It was a very solid impact, a wall smashing the entire front of my body. The force dissipated through my flesh and… didn’t hurt at all. Red Blanchette would’ve felt some pain and gotten enraged. Contrast that with my super zen mind right now.

But the punch did send me soaring. I enjoyed my longer and lusher golden hair waving in the air. Was I a blonde now? I didn’t want to be. Blondes usually die early in movies.

I also didn’t care for another idiot hovering above me. Widely grinning with her lips slathered in black lipstick, the weirdo gathered some sort of purple energy around her fists.

“Eat this!” shouted Flying Clown, even though I wasn’t hungry. She shot thick beams at me, forcing me downward.

I smashed into the paved ground below. The radiant beams washed over me with heat that made the edges of the broken concrete glow. And yet, it could barely damage my skin—I could feel only a tiny fraction of the extreme temperature.

My regeneration made it look like I wasn’t getting hurt at all. It was as if I was protected by a forcefield.

Speaking of force fields, despite the purple beam pouring on me like waterfalls, I could see that pink barrier with bizarre effects rising around me. It appeared that the 2Ms’ goons were desperate to catch me, the powerful Adumbrae that trashed their base. Thinking I had gotten weaker, they were confident in springing this trap. The pink material enclosed an area around the size of a half-court with a dome.

Flying Clown stopped her beams. “How did you like that?” she smugly asked, floating down inside the area encircled by the pink thingy. “I wanna fricking melt you for killing my buddies, but you’re in for a fate worse than death. You’re going to have so much fun at Red Island… as a test subject.” She cackled like a lunatic.

Rushing Death and three more people joined Flying Clown, dropping in from above before the pink barrier fully shut the large dome. None of these morons was the Adumbrae making the barrier. The three random addons were regular people who smelled like a lot of metal. Augmented assholes that were no good as food.If they were here, that meant they didn’t go after Deen and the hero wannabes.

Deen’s Guardian Angel would make sure she’d get out of her safely, anyway. I had to wrap this up and leave. Deen would certainly call me once she was in the clear.

A quick test of what my golden form could do, and that was it. I climbed out of the shallow, smoldering crater and stood up to face the 2Ms’ goons.  

I wasn’t angry at them for attacking me. Not hungry either. I was a confident predator with a full stomach who didn’t mind the ants posing no threat to me. With this durability and strength, I had nothing to fear. Except for raisins. My weakness would be a raisin monster because I wasn’t touching that.

“We’re going to rough you up a bit, you goddamn mutt,” said Rushing Death, licking his lips like a stereotypical creepy villain. “Just making sure you’re not going to break through this barrier again.”

“She won’t be able to,” said Flying Clown. “Valora’s covering a much smaller area this time. The barrier’s thicker.”

“Rhraaogh?” They’re not afraid? Were they not around for the earlier carnage? Must be the reinforcements. No one gave these soon-to-be-a-statistic the memo. They were in for—

I stopped my thought as a hot object pushed out of my chest. It was hard to look down because my chin hit the stupid shackle. Manacle. Whatever!

This could only be the artificial Core.

I held up my hands. A kaleidoscope of lights covered them, reminiscent of the opal-like quality of my Core—white with a sprinkling of rainbow.

This made my enemies stop.

“What the hell?” Rushing Death frowned as his fists started to enlarge.

My Core had stopped emerging halfway through. My chest began to cool down. But the weirdness wasn’t over.

A wave burst out of my Core. A circle around me. No, a dome. I could see the wavering, almost transparent border of this second dome as it expanded past the pink one. The 2Ms’ goons weren’t looking up. They felt the force of the wave, but didn’t notice that they were enclosed in it.

I could sense every movement of the individuals inside my dome. There was one more outside the pink barrier that was hiding behind the shipping containers. This must be the pink barrier maker.

Okay… what was this dome supposed to do? Super powers should come with instruction manuals.

I couldn’t see or hear anything different, despite my enhanced senses. But I could tell that there was an air of difference separate from that given off by the pink barrier. The five idiots knew that something had just happened because their cocky expressions became puzzled.

“What was that?” asked Flying Clown, looking up as if a voice from the heavens would answer her.

“Just attack!” shouted Rando-Aug one as his arms transformed into guns and fired.

The bullets hit my midsection. They didn’t hurt, of course. But to my surprise, the other four people jolted, as if someone set fire to their asses. Their torsos began bleeding with many points of wounds, the two augmented guys more than the Adumbrae. I could sense that the hidden Adumbrae also reacted to the sudden wounds.

Holy shit! This was how my Core power worked?

“Argh! You bitch!” Rushing Death punched with both hands, his fists growing larger as his arms extended like rubber.

I dug my feet into the ground as I got hit by the wall of flesh for the second time. It was like slamming on a tatami mat while getting thrown in judo. Not really painful.

I swatted Rushing Death’s fists away to see the effect of my Core power. The three Rando-Augs tumbled away, swatted by an invisible force. Flying Clown remained on her spot, but she had staggered, sporting a bloody nose and bruised face.

“What the hell’s going on?” asked Rushing Death, stepping back.

A distant sound caught my attention.    

Is that trouble? I cocked my head and wiggled my long ears.

The wailing of sirens. The rapid ones must be those of firetrucks. The others were police sirens. Not surprising that emergency services would be called, given the ton of fighting happening here. I doubted these guys were on the 2Ms’ payroll.

Did they know that monsters were running around this place? Probably not, or they would’ve stayed away and waited for the BID. That said, the authorities would eventually know that the explosions weren’t caused by accidents. And I should be away when the BID gets called.  

“This is your fault, you idiot!” Flying Clown shouted at Rushing Death, wiping the blood from her nose. “Our attacks get reflected back to us!”

“Is that what that was? Let’s fucking get out of—”

Rushing Death wasn’t able to finish his sentence because I had slashed his throat. In a blink, I closed the gap of more than a dozen feet between us. The spurting blood didn’t even land on me as I quickly moved behind Flying Clown and grabbed her neck before she could fly.

I thought it was a cool move. She got startled that she was still on the ground.

“Unhand me, you bitch!” Flying Clown tried to pry off my fingers with her hands covered with purple energy.

I closed my fist, driving my claws deep into her neck.

That didn’t kill Flying Clown since her spine was still intact. Her flesh regenerated around my claws. She continued trying to break free, though she could no longer scream. I closed my hand some more. Her flesh got turned to paste as they were forced to pass between my fingers. Her spine cracked. Her arms fell limp by her side, their glow gone.

I threw her away and shook off the minced flesh sticking to my hands.

On the way to the pink barrier, I stomped on Rushing Death’s head. I almost forgot that I should kill him to justify his nickname.

The Rando-Aug trios were alive. I didn’t mind them. Today’s their lucky day.

As for the maker of the pink barrier, she had left the range of my own barrier. The pink dome was slowly disintegrating. Unfortunate. I had wanted to test my superstrength as Golden Blanchette on the pink wall.

With the police closing in, the main character should make her exit after trashing the enemy base. This was the last step before the credits rolled.

I had a Plan B for my escape. Taking a page out of Dario’s book, I sprinted to the waterside and dove into the ocean. I got it right, this time.

I was going swimming, but not to the rendezvous point of the hero wannabes. It’d be awkward hitchhiking a ride with them. I headed out into the open ocean.

Well, actually, my destination was a rocky beach along the coast of the city. I had researched this place and knew it wouldn’t have any people because it required a steep descent down a cliff wall to reach it. I had some landmarks in the distance as my guide, easily spotted by my super vision.

Swimming against the powerful waves was as easy as Golden Blanchette. And, damn, I was fast. One thing that was less than ideal was my wet tail. It was cumbersome to have it around while kicking my legs against the water.

Around halfway to my destination, I became Red Blanchette again. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. Ten minutes, maybe? Losing my tail made swimming more comfortable.

I dove down and continued swimming under the water since I could hold my breath for a long time. Didn’t want anyone observing the ocean to see me coming in. As expected, the beach that was my target was empty. I zoomed up the cliff and took off my Blanchette mask after reaching the top. Passing a slightly wooded area, I reached a street.

“And that’s a wrap,” I said, pleased with myself.

I was almost to the nearest bus stop when my phone rang—it was Deen. Talk about timing. What would’ve happened if she called my phone while my Blanchette body was out? Would Spooky Erind answer my phone in another dimension?

“Erind!” Deen almost yelled when I answered her call. “Oh, sorry. Where are you right now? I mean, are you with your relative? Cousin, was it?”

“No, no,” I said, smirking. “She cancelled our—”

“We’re fine! It’s a success!” Deen exclaimed. I could hear snippets of Myra telling her to tone it down. But Deen was ecstatic, as if she had passed the bar exams.

To be fair, surviving the docks mission was much harder than the bar exams. Though Deen had her Guardian Angel—that’s cheating. She was safe unless she went against its instructions, which she probably did when she went near my giant werewolf form.

Good job on that, Deen. I’d be extra nice to her for a few days.

“Dario didn’t want me to call you until later,” Deen continued. “Phone signals might get traced, you know.”

I thought of pointing out that she shouldn’t have used Dario’s codename. But she had also mentioned my name. And their mission was already over. What should the reaction of a best friend be in this situation?

“Thank the Mother Core you’re that you’re fine, Deen!” Was it alright for an Adumbrae to say that? “I was worried, but I also trusted that you know what you’re doing. I knew there’d be no problem with the mission with you along.”

“Problem? There were lots of problems! Like when we— Oh, Myra is telling me that we should talk later.”

“I’ll see you at your house,” I said. “I can’t wait to hear all about it. My day was pretty boring in comparison.”

(Author's Notes: Erind's Core power is an upgrade to her Adumbrae transformation. We'll eventually have more details about what it does, but on top of making her base transformation stronger, it comes with a preset AoE Rule and penalty. I relegated it as an upgrade for now, with requisites to be met, so that Erind will use it along with her Adumbrae powers.

If it were a separate power, more than likely, Erind would spam it and neglect her Adumbrae power. Furthermore, there's a narrative significance here of the Core and Adumbrae power merging. Another idea is that this scenario will force Erind to pretend that a (future) Adumbrae mask is her Core power. Do you have a better idea how to word the Rule, though? I didn't have much time to brainstorm the wording.

The next chapter will be the ending for Book 1, bringing it to a total of 69 chapters. Very nice. Thank you for your support!)