[REND] 6.3 Hero Wannabes, At Your Service

Amber Deen Leska

Amber Deen was jolted awake by a sharp smell up her nose. It was like bleach, some strong cleaning product. She coughed and rubbed her nose, her mind spinning as she came to. Her eyelids were heavy as she opened them. The first thing she saw was the worried face of her best friend looking down on her.

“Erind?” Amber muttered with a raspy voice. “The smell…” She looked down. She was wearing a jacket. It wasn’t hers. She didn’t own one, and this was several sizes too big, almost like a blanket. She found herself sitting on a lawn chair. Plenty of sunlight.

Erind suddenly hugged her.

Amber jolted. Erind hugged me? Erind the Untouchable? But this didn’t seem to be a dream because Erind’s hug felt real. It was also very comforting.

“Oh, Deen. It worked!” Erind exclaimed. “Thank the Mother Core!”

“Worked? What… worked?" Amber blinked several times, trying to focus her eyes. Her mind was only starting to concentrate, as if she had just finished crashing out after the break-up with her college boyfriend. What happened? What was this place? This wasn’t the park.

They weren’t outside, as she had assumed. They were in the middle of a half-finished building, with vines crawling up its concrete columns, and leftover construction materials scattered everywhere. The missing walls and windows let the sunlight in. And they weren’t alone in this mysterious place. Several people she didn’t recognize were looking at them.

Danger! Adrenaline zooming through her veins drove away the sleepiness. She needed to protect her delicate best friend.

“Who are you?” Amber demanded of the strangers. She hugged Erind and pulled her to the side. Then she tried to run away with Erind, but her knees buckled and she collapsed back into her seat.  

“No sudden movements,” a blonde man with a stoic face said in monotone.

Was that a threat, or was he concerned for her? It was difficult to read him. Amber guessed that he was a few years older than Erind and her. He wore plain clothes with muted colors, lacking any markings or design. Either he didn’t care about what others thought about his style, or he didn’t want others to notice him. Despite his baggy clothes, she could tell that he had a well-built body.

Amber’s heart began to race, and it wasn’t because of any physical attraction. She started to assume the worst. Was he a mercenary hired to kidnap her? This wouldn’t be the first time this happened. She couldn’t tell if he had a gun hidden under his shirt. Where did Erind find these people?

“Deen, they saved us,” Erind said. “We’re safe now.”

“Safe?” Amber frowned as memories flooded her mind.

They were in a parking lot. A black SUV. Then they were in a cage. That made it the second time she had been kidnapped. But this was different from the distressing experience of her childhood. This was much worse. Blood. A pool of blood. Bodies ripped apart. Many people dead. The smell of earth and iron and rawness.

There was an Adumbrae! A man and a monster. A mutant. The man opened the mutant’s skull.

Amber pushed away Erind as her stomach churned and bitterness came up the back of her tongue. She turned away from the people looking at her and gagged. Thankfully, she didn’t puke. She had already emptied her stomach at the warehouse.

“Deen, just take it easy.” Erind rubbed Amber’s back. “Here, drink this.” Erind opened a bottle of water and handed it to her.

Amber half-smiled as she drank from the people. She was already starting to feel better. Only Erind called her ‘Deen’, her second name. It made her feel special for some reason. Amber turned to Erind. “I’m fine. I… Is that blood on you? Are you hurt?”

“No, no. It’s blood that just splattered on me. No wounds or anything.”

Amber touched the tear on Erind’s sleeve. How odd. The frayed hole had dried blood. Could blood splatters end up like this? Maybe. She was overthinking this because she could see Erind’s smooth skin with no wounds. She couldn’t see any wounds or blemishes on Erind. 

“Wait a moment.” Amber held Erind’s head. “Did you lose your glasses?”

“Uh, yes. I was so desperate to escape that I left it behind somewhere. I was too focused on carrying you. More like laboriously dragging you.”

Amber paused. She glanced at the strangers, then back at Erind. “How did we…?" She wanted to finish the question, but words were elusive.

“I’m going to explain everything,” said Erind. “What was the last thing you remember?”

Amber straightened in her seat, the light-headedness still lingering. She reached for Erind’s right hand. Erind pulled away and grasped Amber’s hand with her left instead.

“The Adumbrae with purple hair….” Amber sharply inhaled. “That was an Adumbrae, right? We met an actual Adumbrae! Thank the Mother Core we’re alive. He… he was eating…” She couldn’t continue. She wanted to purge those revolting memories from her mind.

“Then he came over, opened our cage, and pulled you out.”

“I… ye-yes.” That moment of absolute terror was renewed in Amber’s heart. A deep gnawing pain in her left shoulder blade, as if someone was drilling straight into her bones. She breathed slowly, trying to keep her face from wincing while her muscles knotted in anxiety. This always happened during her most stressful moments. And she was near death then. “I must’ve fainted. I’m sorry.”

Erind blinked. “What are you apologizing for?”

“I fainted and left you alone. I should’ve—”

“You didn’t faint. You put up a fight.”

“I fought?” Amber was surprised. She thought she froze up, just like last time.

Erind nodded. “They had to shoot you with a dart thingy. It knocked you out. You were awesome, Deen.” Erind gave her a comforting smile.

Amber’s heart relaxed. She was right to choose Erind as a friend. Erind didn’t care about her status and wealth, like most people did. Erind wasn’t intimidated by her looks. Everyone must think that being beautiful was all perks and privileges, but it was the opposite. Jealousy and fakeness abound. Erind was as real as could be, and Amber was grateful for that.

“Then, uh.” Erind paused and looked at Amber’s jacket.

“Oh yeah, where did this…?” Amber unzipped the jacket. Her shirt was torn, revealing her bra. She quickly zipped it back as she looked at Erind, her voice caught in her throat, fearing the worst.

“They didn’t do anything to you,” Erind hastily added, knowing what Amber’s question would be. “They weren’t able to do anything because someone stopped them.”

“Them?” Amber nodded at the blonde man and his group.

Erind shook her head. “Somebody else. A woman with superstrength. I don’t know who or what she was, but she definitely wasn’t a normal human. She killed the purple mohawk Adumbrae and his other goons. Happened so fast. She left without saying a word. I got that jacket from, uh, a dead guy… sorry. Then I pulled you along as I looked for a way to escape. That was when—”

“Thank you.”

“Huh?”

Amber tightened her grasp on Erind’s hand. “Thank you for not leaving me.” The day of her first kidnapping surfaced in her mind, though she had worked hard to bury it. Her classmates ran away and left her behind. In contrast, Erind must’ve struggled to carry her away. Erind even thought of covering her. I chose the right friend.

Erind awkwardly smiled. “Eh? Of course, I won’t leave you, duh. We’re best friends. Anyway, yeah. Dario over there—” she pointed at the blonde man “—found me. His group was attacking the place.”

“Attacking… the Adumbrae?” Amber furrowed her brows. These six individuals didn’t look like the authorities, and the police wouldn’t bring people they rescued to an abandoned building. Her eyes stopped on a woman with blue hair. Where had she seen her before?

“They have powers and stuff,” Erind said. “I know that’s hard to believe, but that’s how it is. They’re like a secret superpowered vigilante group or something.”

“Vigilante group,” said an Asian guy with a ponytail. He was smoking while perched atop a pile of stone blocks. “I like the sound of that.”

“What do you mean by superpowers?” Amber evenly asked Erind.  

Only two groups had superpowers—Corebrings and Adumbrae. These strangers were no Corebrings. Were they yet another group of Adumbrae?

The pain on Amber’s shoulder flashed again, as she worried that she and Erind were caught in the middle of a fight among Adumbrae. The purple-haired man at the warehouse mentioned their enemies were ‘Adumbrae bandits’.

“We were waiting for you to wake up,” Erind said, “so they can start telling us what’s going on.

This is a dangerous situation, Amber thought. Superpowers? She and Erind weren’t supposed to know about something like this. Would these strangers let them go alive? She should just play along for now. Take care not to offend them. “I’m ready to listen.”

“Let us begin with introductions,” said the blonde man. “I’m Dario. I go by the codename Blank, which we use during missions. We have codenames because—”

“We are superheroes, at your service,” said the man with a ponytail. “Have no fear, for, uh, our group doesn’t have a name yet. But we’re here to save the day.”

“I don’t see you doing any saving,” said the blue-haired woman.

“Have your banter later,” said Dario. To Amber, he said, “We picked our codenames based on our powers.”

Blank? Was he blanking out something? Or did his codename mean differently? Amber resolved to learn of their powers so she could report them to the BID. Escaping with their lives was a different problem.

“I guess the second-in-command goes next,” said the man with the ponytail.

“Who appointed you to that position?” asked the blue-haired woman. “I can’t remember any voting that happened.” Amber was sure she had seen her at Eloyce, though the name escaped her. Something starting with an ‘F’.

“I and my four fairies voted for me. Now, shush, subordinate.” He jumped off the pile of blocks. “Reo, at your service, beautiful madame,” he said, twirling his hand as a greeting. “My codename is Oberon, king of the fairies. ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. William Shakespeare.”

Amber subtly looked around for fairy-like creatures. She assumed that Reo meant he could summon fairies with his power. If he was telling the truth, anyway. Would they agree to show her if she asked them to demonstrate their powers?

The blue-haired woman snorted derisively. “Reo, don’t make it sound like you read Shakespeare. The only thing you can read is the menu of Burger Queen. You just searched the internet for that name.”

“And four subjects hardly make you a king,” chimed in a bronzed man with Mediterranean features. He wore a fitted shirt that highlighted his muscular physique.

“Well, I don’t see your fairy subjects,” Reo countered. “That makes me king by default. I even grew my hair long to build the motif. Would help a lot in theming if I were a white guy, like a Scandinavian or something. Take Dario, my man. Grow his hair long, and he could sell this whole fairy king setup. Unlike me. I don't think the Japanese have fairies like the Western ones. More like spirit creatures.” He pointed at the man with the fitting shirt. “Next in rank, your turn to introduce yourself.”

“Cut that out with the rankings,” said the blue-haired woman.

“My name is Everett,” said the muscular man. He flexed his muscles as he moved forward.

No thanks, Amber thought. A blatant attempt to catch her attention. She wasn’t into muscles or physical appearance in general. She was plenty beautiful for herself and her would-be partner. All she wanted was someone to see past the superficial elements of her identity and find the inner her. So far, she felt most at ease with Erind. If she could find a guy version of Erind, that’d be great.

But Amber shouldn’t think about relationships. There were possible Adumbrae in front of her, and she should keep up a naïve front so they wouldn’t suspect she’d betray them. A concrete plan was yet to come. But she had to step up; she doubted Erind had it in her to think rationally in a situation like this.

“Codename’s Emcee,” added Everett.

“Em… see?” Deen asked. She could manipulate Everett’s attraction to her.

“Emcee. Master of ceremonies. ‘M’ and ‘C’, right? My codename’s something like that. Short for E-equals-m-c-squared. Einstein’s equation? Emcee. My power has something to do with mass-energy equivalence.”

Amber couldn’t guess his power, but it sounded scary. “A pretty clever nickname,” she lied. Everett’s face lit up at the praise.

“Okay, next up is Ride,” said Reo, clapping his hands.

“Wait, do you mean to save me for last?” asked the blue-haired woman. “I’m not the lowest rank of anything.”

“Go on, Myra,” said the man who hadn’t spoken up before. Amber assumed that he was ‘Ride’.

What did he say? “Myra?” repeated Amber. “Myra Fletcher. I remember now.”

“Kelsey’s sister, yeah,” said Erind. “Who would’ve thought that they have superpowers? Both Kelsey and Myra.”

“Merge is my codename,” Myra said. “Because I merge with things and turn my body into that material.”

“Very well-thought-of codename, last-in-command,” said Reo. “It’s like you spent less than five minutes on that. Give my internet search some credit here. Oberon, fucking king of four fairies.”

Ride raised his hand. “And last, and definitely without any powers, me, Johann.” He sounded tired or bored. He sat on the ground, leaning on a column, as he stretched his legs as long as stilts on the dusty floor. “My codename is Ride because I’m the getaway driver since I don’t join their fights. It’s not a place for a normal human. I sometimes go by the codename Police Insider because that’s what I do. As a technician in the police station, I can pick up the goings-on that we should be aware of.”

“That is how we were made aware that Erind was targeted by the 2Ms,” Dario said. “They’re a criminal organization that offers the wealthy a way to become an Adumbrae while keeping their own minds. For a very sizeable fee. As you can surmise, many people—”

“What are you?” Erind suddenly asked. She covered her mouth, surprised at herself for interrupting Dario. “Erm, sorry. I was just wondering, before you talk about all those other things, what are you? Are you… Are you an Adumbrae? Is Kelsey an Adumbrae too?”

“We’re not Adumbrae,” Everett somberly said.

“Don’t accuse me of being a traitor to humanity,” Reo said, turning serious. “I may be a piece of shit, but I don’t make deals with otherworldly beings.”

“Adumbrae killed my family,” Everett added. “I’d rather die than become one.”

“So-sorry.” Erind bowed her head and focused on the floor, hugging her knees.

Amber thought of a turtle. She had witnessed Erind’s timidness many times, so she wasn’t surprised by this. “Erind didn’t mean to accuse anyone. Isn’t that right, Erind?”

Erind nodded.

“It’s reasonable to assume we’re Adumbrae since we’re not Corebrings,” Dario said. “We shouldn’t be offended by such a misunderstanding. I assure you that we’re not Adumbrae.” Dario took off his shirt and pointed at a bizarre growth on his chest—a lightly pulsing gem surrounded by bulging veins. “This is an artificial Core. If the 2Ms make Adumbrae, think of us as man-made Corebrings.”