[REND] 5.2 A Monster Among Monsters

Bruised Lover warily checked the floor of his cage with the tip of his foot. It had hardened. He exited his cage, stretching his arms and legs. “I’m not going down without a fight, you traitor to humanity,” he said. “If I win, if I take down this ungodly creature… you fucking promise me that you’ll release the girls.”

“You’re not in any position to bargain.” Purple Mohawk shrugged. “But, sure. Try your best, lover boy. You’ve witnessed what happened to the others. I expect you to fare better. It shouldn’t be that difficult.” He snapped his fingers.

Bigsby injected something into the mutant’s neck. He and the other goon then retreated, far behind Purple Mohawk. Did this mean they couldn’t control the decaying ghoulish freak?

Purple Mohawk seemed to confirm my guess. “Lover boy, I’ll give you a tip. Listen well. This failed experiment has no one up here.” He poked the mutant’s head as it began to awaken. “No human mind. No Adumbrae mind. It does have some level of mental functions. How can it move otherwise? Think of it as dealing with a rabid beast. Get those brain juices working to cook up a strategy. Prove that your human brain, forged by generations of evolution, can beat superior strength. Your ancestors have done it, driving mammoths to extinction.”  

The mutant shrieked. Its lower jaw stretched past its chest as its cheeks tore.

Deen flinched. My fake flinch was a half-second delayed.  

The mutant jumped out of its container. It turned to Purple Mohawk and lunged at him. Purple Mohawk ducked the mutant’s flailing arms and swung a punch to its flank, sending it flying to the mess of gore. The mutant moaned in agony as it picked itself up, trying to stand on uneven legs.  

“That’s one on the house, lover boy!” shouted Purple Mohawk. “Don’t waste it. Show your girlfriend, wherever she is now, what you’re made of.”

“Shut. The. Hell. Up!” Bruised Lover picked up a piece of metal bar that was torn off when Purple Mohawk opened his cage. He slowly paced to the side of the blood-covered area while facing the mutant. Good thinking to avoid slipping.

“Erind, I need you to listen to me,” Deen whispered. “After he dies—”

“Will he really die?” I asked innocently.

“Yes!” Deen hissed. “Look at all the fucking—!” She covered her mouth.

I flinched. I had never heard her curse before. She was definitely cracking.

Deen exhaled, shaking her head. “Sorry, sorry. We need to plan our next move. We can’t open the cage, so our only chance is when we’re pitted against the mutant. Note that there are no other containers. We pray to the Mother Core that this man will grievously injure this mutant. I may be wrong, but it doesn’t look like it’s regenerating. We can defeat—”

“They’re not going to let us go even if we win,” I said. “And I very much don’t think we’ll win.” I ramped up my breathing. “We-we’re going to die either way.”

“Do-don’t worry, Erind.” Deen rubbed my back like she did during Professor Gallagher’s class.

Physical contact again. I hated this. But I also found it amusing that she was trying to comfort me while barely keeping it together herself. Her voice was tightening. She was on the verge of breaking down but fought to keep it together. Definitely best friend material. But there was no way she was surviving this day, right?

“I’m not going to let you die,” Deen said. “Believe in me, okay? I promise. We’ll figure something out.”

So, Deen didn’t have an actual plan. She probably just wanted to yap to distract herself from her own fear. Though she was right about the mutant not healing its injury caused by Purple Mohawk. It limped toward Bruised Lover, and that wasn’t only because of its odd legs.

Only Purple Mohawk was the threat to me. My chance to strike would be when he opened our cage. I might have to use Deen as a meat shield later.

Purple Mohawk cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “Mr. Firio’s Battlegrounds is now open! Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets on how long this fine gentleman will last. One minute? Two?”

The mutant dropped to the ground and ran on all fours. It awkwardly moved, like a fish floundering on dry land, but it was damn fast compared to when it was on two legs. It charged Bruised Lover.

Bruised Lover followed the edge of the ‘arena’ and headed toward Purple Mohawk, likely intending to make the two monsters fight each other. The mutant easily caught up to Bruised Lover. It swiped with its longer arm. Bruised Lover ducked. The mutant slammed its arm down on him. He rolled away, into the crates.

As Bruised Lover shoved away the boxes that fell on him, the monster let loose a barrage of punches. Sickening thuds and cracking bones; the mutant had inhuman strength. Bruised Lover screamed but was still able to move. Some of the boxes softened the blows. He jumped out of the way as the monster dove into the crates and got momentarily pinned by some bulky machines.

Taking his chance, Bruised Lover stabbed the metal bar he carried into the monster’s back. The monster wailed and thrashed, turning around to face him. Bruised Lover ran away.

Purple Mohawk and his grunts cheered for Bruised Lover while he dodged the mutant’s powerful, longer arm. Bruised Lover had to evade the mutant’s long arm while zigzagging across the bloody floor. He had a hard time leading the mutant to Purple Mohawk because it would catch him if he simply ran straight.

Sweeping legs won’t work with that one, I thought. Too bad, my signature move was useless. Bruised Lover was doing a good job so far.  

Purpled Mohawk vigorously clapped. “One minute already! Let’s go for two minutes! Any bets if he could hit it again?”

“You can do it!” Deen shouted. The encouragement of a beautiful damsel could surely invigorate the hero.

That meant I wasn’t the main character in this scene. Dammit.

Bruised Lover dove for a long piece of broken wood. He crouched and waited for the mutant to strike. Timing his attack between its raging fists, he buried the stake straight into its neck, putting his weight behind the attack.

I shouted a cheer, surprising myself. I was getting invested in the fight, and it was only natural to support the underdog. But I celebrated too early.

Bruised Lover got flung across the arena, straight back to the cages. The mutant had kicked him with its extra-long right leg that was folded beneath it. He slammed against metal bars and just lay there. Was he down for the count?

“Oh my god,” Deen gasped. “Get up!” There was desperation in her voice. If he was dead, we were next. More specifically, Deen would go first because she was just an extra. I was the actual target.

“Please, please, please… don’t die,” I muttered as tears rolled down my cheeks. Appearances had to be kept.

“Stand up, lover boy!” Purple Mohawk shouted. “It’s going to get the girls! Can’t you protect anyone?”

The mutant bled copious amounts of dark liquid as it scampered towards our cage. It was injured. It was angry. And it wanted to kill. Deen pushed me behind her. She held her useless phone in her hand, probably thinking to use it like a hammer. She had some fire in her. I thought she’d just cower and die, like most blondes in movies.

Movie blonde characters, especially the beautiful ones, were usually the first to die, even before the opening credits. But if this were a movie, the opening credits would have passed already, right? Oops, I needed to stay focused.

My mind was calculating whether I should already use my powers when a roar reverberated.

It wasn’t the monster. It was Bruised Lover.

Fueled by adrenaline and rage, he rushed headlong into the monster as if he didn’t have any injuries, tackling it. The mutant got caught by surprise and wasn’t able to attack. Bruised Lover grasped the stake embedded in the mutant’s neck, yanked it out, and stabbed the mutant again and again with his remaining strength.

Unfortunately for him, the mutant also didn’t care about pain. It grabbed Bruised Lover with both of its grotesque hands, pried him off, and threw him away. His head bounced off the floor, and he rolled like a ragdoll. The mutant hollered in triumph and lumbered towards Bruised Lover to finish him off.

“Stand up!” Deen shook the bars of our cage.

Figuring that I should show some reaction too, I banged on the cage. “Wake up! Please don’t die!” I had to remind myself to control my strength.

“That’s enough entertainment for now.” Purple Mohawk sprinted forward, covering several feet in a second, and knelt to touch the ground.

The floor shimmered and moved, easy to see as the dried blood cracked into many pieces and moved around. Just like what happened to Bruised Lover in his cage earlier, the monster’s feet sank into the floor, stopping it in its tracks. The mutant tried to dig itself out, but ended up burying its limbs. The more it struggled, the faster it descended into the ground. It stopped moving and let out a pathetic whine.

“There, I saved him,” Purple Mohawk said. “Don’t cry anymore, little girl. He did put on quite the show. A hero, this guy.”

Is Bruised Lover a hero? I guess so…

He tried to save us even though he should’ve escaped when the mutant was focused on us. Not sure if he’d succeed with Purple Mohawk around, but still, he could’ve tried. I didn’t quite understand helping others with no gain or even to one’s detriment.

People like Bruised Lover and Deen—she seemed ready to defend me— were practically aliens in my eyes. I would never be like them, nor could I truly understand them. Truly fascinating. They were like rare animals that should be protected.

Or was I the rare animal? Nah, I didn’t want to get petted.

I didn’t know if Bruised Lover would survive, but he should be honored to lay down his life for mine. All people should aim for such a noble cause. Let the world remember this man who sacrificed his life for me, even if I didn’t care for him.    

Purple Mohawk approached the mutant.

It was buried about a foot into the ground, with only its head and torso free. Since the blood on the floor no longer erratically shimmered, I assumed that the ground had solidified again.  

“Hey, you two pretties! Do you want to see something interesting?” Purple Mohawk asked as he squatted beside the struggling mutant.  

Deen and I looked at each other but didn’t reply.

Purple Mohawk reached down. His fingers effortlessly stabbed into the floor as if it were soft butter. He swirled the liquified concrete streaked with blood and coaxed it into a blob, its consistency turning thicker. With nimble hands, he fashioned the concrete-turned-putty into the crude form of a knife. He pinched the base of the edge and smoothened it to its end, flicking away the excess material.

The clumps of mushy concrete turned solid after leaving his fingers, bouncing off the ground. He needed contact for his power to work.

Did his Adumbrae ability affect people? Could he liquify organic matter too?

Purple Mohawk waved his knife, slicing and stabbing an imaginary target in front of him. The knife had turned solid and didn’t break apart despite the vigorous thrusts and slashes. This guy’s power wasn’t like the Hand of Midas. He had to think while touching stuff to make it work.  

The mutant snapped its jaw at Purple Mohawk, straining its neck to take a bite. It came up an inch short.

Purple Mohawk stabbed the mutant, driving the knife deep between its eyes. The unfortunate former human spasmed and shrieked. Somehow, it didn’t instantly die from getting its brain stabbed.

“I’d rather not have my meal move about,” Purple Mohawk said, placing his other hand on the floor to soften it. Then he gradually pushed the mutant, submerging it into the ground until only the upper portion of its head remained.

The tiny shakes of the mutant’s head showed it was still alive despite almost its entire body getting encased in concrete. After a few seconds, it stopped moving.

Could there be people buried below us? Purple Mohawk’s power was very convenient for hiding bodies. If one weren’t aware of his abilities, he could catch them off guard and incapacitate them quickly. I knew of his powers, but wasn’t sure how to counter them other than move out of the squishy ground.

What if I convinced Deen to attack Purple Mohawk? He would see no threat. Just knock her out with a slap or something. I’d use that opening to attack. Aim for his head. If Deen would get knocked out, she wouldn’t see that I wasn’t a normal human. Coming up with a story later would be a hassle, but that was a way to preserve Deen’s life.

And I really didn’t want Deen to die here. I could see that Deen was ready to protect me. She could be so much useful later on.

“You, girls!” Purple Mohawk sat cross-legged with the mutant head in front of him. He pulled out the knife from the mutant’s head and waved it at us. “Look over here! I’ll give you a lesson in nature and the Adumbrae.”

“Close your eyes, Erind.” Deen covered my eyes as if I were a kid, and a sex scene showed up on TV. “He’s going to do something awful. I just know it.”

“Not just you, blondie,” said Purple Mohawk. “Both of you look at me. Don’t be disrespectful now.”

“It’s okay, Deen,” I said, pulling down her hand. “We don’t want him to get angry.” I looked Purple Mohawk in the eye. He was about a dozen feet away from us.

“What good girls you are,” Purple Mohawk said. “If you manage to watch until I’m done, I’ll release you.”

“He’s lying,” Deen whispered to me.

Of course, he is. There was no way he’d let us go. One word to the BID about the group behind the Adumbrae attack, and Purple Mohawk and his gang would be hunted to the last atom. And if the Corebrings got wind of Adumbrae experiments going on, they’d ignore the Washington Protocol and might just flatten La Esperanza to eliminate these terrorists.

“I’m not lying,” Purple Mohawk said.

Deen and I jolted. Did he hear us, or was he guessing? I could vaguely recall that some Adumbrae could develop hyper-senses as they transformed. That didn’t happen to me.

Purple Mohawk continued, “Lookie here at lover boy. He didn’t defeat the mutant. None of them did.” He gestured at the dead bodies. “And so, they all couldn’t leave. But I’ll make a special case for you because… I feel like it. You’re the last of those we were to, uh, interview for today. There’s no work in the city because of the memorial service. Let’s just take it easy, shall we?”

He used his knife to gently tap around the upper part of the mutant’s head. It reminded me of the posh way of breaking an egg open. Then, Purple Mohawk forcefully hit the mutant’s head. The cracking noise of the skull echoed in the warehouse. Deen gripped my arm tighter and tighter as Purple Mohawk continued to break the mutant’s skull until he could remove the top off.

“Nature…” Purple Mohawk said in a melodramatic voice, gesturing at the mushy mess that was the brain of the mutant. It was a dull purple. “The natural and the unnatural. This is unnatural. But by eating it, I can maintain my nature.”

“You’re going to eat… the brain?” I asked.