[REND] 19.2 - Blonde and Dangerous

Amber Deen Leska Deen touched her chest, feeling the warmth of the Core and the strong thumps of her heart. She mentally berated herself for

Amber Deen Leska

Deen touched her chest, feeling the warmth of the Core and the strong thumps of her heart. She mentally berated herself for not paying closer attention during the planning for the docks mission—back then, she didn’t expect to join it. They were now waiting for Myra to ambush the guards and begin the actual attack. That’d be the sign for Dario to start setting off bombs.

After chaos would ensue, it’d be the time for Everett and Reo, with Deen added now, to enter the main warehouse. Everett and Reo could attack the remaining guards from afar. Myra was expected to join them soon, barreling through any opposition as a tank, and Dario would return from the Red Island ship. Eventually, all of them would reunite outside the main warehouse and flee to the waterside as a team.

Dario would use his boosted headache field to incapacitate those chasing them, and they’d swim away as the mutants they had released would spread all over the burning base. There were many pieces to the plan, and many ways it could go wrong. Deen started to suspect that it wasn’t only Dario who wanted her to join the attack after she got her power, but also the rest of the team. Everett might’ve been just pretending to be protective of her.

“We should’ve all gone for face masks,” Reo said. “Dee—uh, Ambriel—still looks like a robber with her despite wearing that uniform. At least, I look like a worker here.”

“The ski mask hides her hair,” Everett said. “And it’s not really part of the plan that we’ll steal uniforms. We were slated for some regular sneaking around.”

“If Ambriel took off her mask, she’ll be a supermodel in—”

“Oberon, can you summon Sneak?” Deen asked.

Reo and Everett suddenly tensed. Everett peeked over the crate they were hiding behind, thinking that there was danger.

Reo quickly said, “Did your Guardian Angel say that I should do that??”

“It’s not Gabe,” Deen said. “I thought that while we’re waiting here, you could scout ahead. It beats doing nothing. You can quickly summon Sneak, right?”

“Yeah…” Reo glanced at Everett.

Deen didn’t need mind-reading powers to know that he didn’t want to follow her idea because she had no experience fighting. She was just an unproven addition to the team. This was annoying. Maybe she should’ve told them that it was Gabe’s advice.

Thankfully, Everett backed up Deen. “It’s a good idea. Do it quick, Obe. Ambriel’s not detecting danger yet.”

“Gabe can see further into the future with the booster,” Deen said to assure Reo, not knowing if it was true. As Reo knelt on the ground, Deen turned to Everett. “Later, you can set fire to… uh—” she looked around for something flammable “—that stack of wooden pallets over there. Those crates to the left might also provide a good distraction.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am!” Everett saluted her while grinning. “I’m a distraction machine. I’ll set everything on fire for you. You’re getting into this now, huh?”

“I’m just thinking how to up our chances of survival,” Deen said, blushing. “Oh, here’s Sneak.” The gray-man-from-Mars-looking fairy made a figure-eight in the air before becoming transparent. If Deen focused enough, she could make out its outline.

“I’m going in,” Reo said, still kneeling with his eyes closed. Sneak’s hazy form zipped over to a vent above them to enter the warehouse. “Too bad the booster didn’t remove this stupid restriction while using Sneak. They say you can’t improve perfection, but Sneak has gotten sneakier. Hehe. Get it?”

Reo explained to them the new abilities of Sneak, like becoming partly invisible even if moving—previously, it was visible unless it stayed motionless. Sneak could also fool certain kinds of cameras, according to Reo, having tested it previously. He sounded like a kid bragging about a new toy.

Moments later, Reo switched to a serious tone as he rattled off what Sneak spied on inside their target warehouse. As they had expected, there were around a dozen containers that should hold mutants. Deen recalled when they were kidnapped, and Reo’s description of the large metal cylinders matched her memories.

“That’s our distraction right there,” Everett said. It’d be his role to free the mutants, burning open their containers. “I bet it’s going to be a different truck that’d bring those nasties to Eve.”

“Yeah, there’s no way they’d fit in the UPN truck,” said Reo. “There’s a whole lot more stuff here. Metal boxes with locks and shit—those are probably for the UPN truck.”

“Those are our targets,” Deen said. “We’ll grab some of them.”

“There’s like fifty fucking guards here,” Reo said. “A whole bunch of regular guys with guns. Let’s see… One, two, three—”

“Any Adumbrae?” Deen asked.

“Uh, I can’t really be sure which dude is an Adumbrae if they’re not transformed. They might be the assholes swaggering around in regular clothes. Yeah, I bet my balls that those fuckers are Adumbrae. Oh, a guy over there has horns!” Reo described what the potential Adumbrae looked like and how many there were. He could be quite reliable when the circumstances required it. “I also see a beefy boy with bionic eyes, beefier than the UPN truck’s guard. There’s one with a canon for an arm.”

“We’ll EMP the shit out of them,” said Everett.

“Hang on, I’ll scout more,” Reo said. “I just need to get Sneak to the other—woah!”

“What is it?” Deen dug her nails into her palm. Her apprehension built up the longer they stayed in place. She couldn’t help but be jumpy even if she knew Gabe would warn her of danger far in advance. The fact that Gabe was silent meant she was safe for, like, the next ten minutes or so.

“There’s this fucking ginormous metal crate.” Reo whistled in amazement. “It’s like a frigging two-story house… What in the blazing meatballs is this supposed to be?” He narrated more about what he saw, like how secure the crate was that Sneak couldn’t find any gap to enter. He insisted that his guts told him they should find out what it was before attacking the place. “This is very important because—wait, something’s happening. Some of the guards are rushing out.”

“Are they going to Merge’s place?” Everett said, craning his neck while crouched. “Some are, I think. But look at that jeep going… where is it going?”

Deen frowned. She knew she should trust Gabe more, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were walking into danger. They were surrounded by danger. It wasn’t that. Could it be the giant box that Reo found? Was Reo’s worry starting to affect her?

“Why haven’t they checked up on the UPN truck yet?” Deen wondered.

As soon as she finished her sentence, there was a loud crash coming from the direction of Myra’s spot. Deen looked over their cover just in time to see a large object flying in the air—it was the UPN truck! Did Myra throw that? She’s gotten really strong!

“Holy shit!” Everett exclaimed. “Merge’s starting things off with a bang!”

A bang did follow. Dario had set off a bomb. And then another.

Deen felt the slight shockwave of the blast vibrate the crate to their side. A blanket of dust followed. Facing the oceanside, she spotted a couple of smoke plumes as shouting filled the air and piercing alarms could almost make them deaf.

Reo jolted in surprise at the explosion. He opened his eyes and lurched, ready to run. When he saw that they were safe, he loudly exhaled. “Fuck, that surprised the shit out of me. Don’t smell my pants now. I might not be joking.”

“Emcee, start the fires,” Deen said.

Everett nodded without questioning her taking charge. He gazed at the wooden pallets around thirty feet away from them. The air shimmered as if it were a scorching summer. The brown wood darkened and then burst into a tall flame.

Reo whispered a cheer, shaking a fist. “Burn it all!”

“Oberon, summon Blubber,” said Deen.

“Huh? Why?” He looked like he had more complaints, but stopped himself.

“We’re going in soon.”

“Just do it, Obe,” Everett said, targeting a tower of wooden crates next.

Reo sighed as he knelt. “Fine, Ambriel’s the boss of us, I guess.”

The flames quickly spread and smoke billowed, tossed by the ocean breeze. A couple more explosions rocked the base. Myra should be fighting somewhere—there were crashes and gunfire—but Deen couldn’t see her because of the smoke. Deen hoped that the explosions would prompt regular people to hide so they wouldn’t be swept up in the fighting of superhumans.

“We’re going,” Deen said, coming out of their hiding spot, pulling Reo and Everett as soon as the red Blubber emerged. Enough of waiting. She was taking action, forcing Gabe to help her. If she had continued hiding, Gabe wouldn’t have helped her with their mission.

Sure enough, Gabe spoke, [Go left, and then right].

But it wasn’t simple words, this time. It was an idea accompanied by rippling images in Deen’s head. She was seeing the future now. Distorted glimpses of it. It was disconcerting having images flash in her mind while figuring out which way to go, but she didn’t stop. She vaguely recognized her way even though this was her first time here.

This is an extremely useful power! She could even say that it was overpowered. She needed to keep this a secret from Dario’s group. Who knows what the Professor and his organization will do once they know about the potential of her power? They probably already suspected this possibility. And what if the Corebrings knew about her? She doubted they’d allow any government to have someone with future sight at their disposal.

Deen also wondered whether she should tell Erind or not about her boosted power. Erind was the only person she could trust right now, but Deen might need to keep some secrets to herself. Erind wouldn’t knowingly betray her, but she might accidentally slip up and reveal this most important secret to others.

[Hide beside the lift.]

“Here,” Deen whispered. Everett and Reo followed her lead, and they crouched behind a forklift. They had a view of the warehouse side door.

It burst open, and several gun-toting men, their faces fully covered with masks and visors, came out running. Bringing up the end of their parade was an extremely large man with glowing red bionic eyes. His metallic arms shone under the sun. This was the guy Reo had spotted earlier.

“Do we jump them?” Reo asked.

“Minus one asshole right here,” Everett whispered. “And the armed guys can’t do anything to us.”

Deen couldn’t answer it because Gabe was silent. She had this feeling that Gabe was withholding information to stop her from putting herself in danger. Back to her plan of acting first to force Gabe to help. But instead of attacking the augmented man, Deen rushed to the open door.  

“We continue with the mission,” she said. “Leave that large man to Merge.”

“Wait the fuck up!” Reo angrily hissed, chasing after her. Everett followed too because he didn’t have a choice.

Once inside, Gabe’s instructions kicked into gear. Deen heard words while seeing images. Fighting back the dizziness from the information overload, she pressed onward. She picked up a wrench beside an open panel; someone was doing repair work before the attack began.

“Prepare to fight,” Deen said.

“What’re we up—?” Reo started to ask.

“Adumbrae,” Deen shortly said, throwing the wrench just as a woman rounded the corner.

The wrench bounced off the woman’s shaved head with a large bonk. “Ow!” she exclaimed, teetering back but still standing. Quite tough. A normal human would’ve been down. “Who the fuck—? Intruders!” The woman’s right hand turned into a curved blade as she flung it forward.

Her arm stretched, the blade dancing in the air instead of hurtling straight.

Deen yanked Everett and Reo to the floor to avoid the blade. “Grab her arm!” Deen shouted before rushing forward. The enemy’s rubber arm growing taut meant that the guys followed her instruction, preventing the Adumbrae from retrieving her arm.

“You messed with the wrong bitch!” The woman launched her other arm. It spiraled along the corridor, making it harder to dodge.

But Deen knew what to do. She no longer had problems deciphering Gabe’s instructions in a short span, because the visions told her the possibilities. Gabe gave her a way to run past the Adumbrae’s left arm and land a fatal blow.

Deen didn’t follow Gabe to the end. She wrestled the other arm, coiling it around her body to stop its movements. The bladed end sliced her back and shoulder before she could pin it against the wall. “Oberon! Finish her!” Deen shouted.

A blur of red passed her—it was Blubber zooming to the Adumbrae.

“Let go!” The Adumbrae tried to pull her arms, but couldn’t. She was stuck. “What the fuck is—? Ah!” The Adumbrae stretched her neck back to keep her head away from Blubber.

“That’s not going to work, dumbass!” shouted Reo.

Blubber shredded her neck while chasing her head. Screams echoed down the hallway as blood sprayed on the walls. Blubber eventually caught up with the woman’s head. She closed her mouth. Blubber tunneled into her cheek to enter her head. Presumably, Reo controlled Blubber to devour the woman’s brain.

Deen forced herself to watch the head at the end of a very long neck bang against the walls to shake out Blubber. She should witness this woman’s death. If Deen had followed Gabe’s instructions, she could’ve killed the woman while avoiding injuries. However, Deen still had conflicted thoughts about killing, which was why she told Reo to do it.

You have to kill, Deen told herself as the screams died down.

The next one. She promised that she’d kill the next enemy. The rubbery arm she gripped began to loosen. She let the tangled tentacle of flesh fall to the ground. The Adumbrae was dead.

“Let’s go! Augmented coming up!” Deen activated the EMP grenade, recalling Myra’s instructions. Deen led the charge, rounding the corner. She threw the grenade out the open door. The was a blast of sparks. “Go, go, go!”

Gabe told her that there was an enemy to the side after exiting the door. Deen jumped through the doorway and into the warehouse proper. The augmented man convulsed on the ground. With a grimace, he raised his machine arm at her. It sputtered. It didn’t whatever it was supposed to.

He’s just a human, Deen thought, raising her fist. She clenched her teeth and brought down her fist to his face.

“Don’t kill me! Plea—!”

She smashed his head.