"The Tea Party is a criminal syndicate based here in Vegas,” Imani said, “that deals with illegal augmentations and enhancements."

It was grating that she was mostly talking to Deen.

This was nothing new. My presence lowered whenever I was next to my beautiful best friend—I wouldn’t be surprised if invisibility were the superpower I had all along. Given that Imani knew that Deen had an artificial Core while I didn’t, she probably readily assumed I was the sidekick, which was kind of true.

Imani tilted her head towards me. "I think I had mentioned the Tea Party to Erind when we were at the café buying food and drinks."

Deen glowered at me, conveying with piercing eyes that she was still pissed that I kept my meeting with Imani a secret from her. She was more of a mom than my actual mother.

I squinted at the ceiling, pretending to have trouble remembering our café conversation. "I guess so? Weren't we chatting about whether it's safe around here or something? Vegas isn’t like the safest place to live, but I didn’t know it was this dangerous here."

"I'm sorry you experienced this during your visit." Imani gave us an apologetic grin. "Vegas isn't like this usually, I swear. But now that we're in this situation, we have to act. We can't let the Tea Party get away with what they're planning to do."

"And we have to save the hostages too," Deen said. Her eyes flicked towards me. "All of them."

Imani perceived the meaning behind Deen's words. "Don't worry, Erind." She proceeded to repeat the same tiresome assurances Deen had told me several times already. Those were empty words until I saw concrete action.

"What else do you know about the Tea Party?" I interjected. Now that we knew Imani's deal, it was time to question her and perhaps wheedle out the truth. I wasn't simply accepting her story. "Your group is fighting with them, am I right?"

Imani's eyes widened. "How did you know?"

I didn't say anything further because she might pick up some stuff and pretend she knew about it all along, like a fortune-teller making general predictions to give an air of credibility. Instead, I waited for her to explain herself.

Deen kept her mouth shut and didn't give Imani more clues about us.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Imani realized she should continue talking. "You're right; my friends and I are fighting the Tea Party here in Vegas, just like your group is fighting...the Adumbrae...in La Esperanza." She looked over her shoulder when she mentioned the word 'Adumbrae'. "The Tea Party is the biggest tech gang in the city, probably the whole state. Quite famous here.

“But people know only about the tech aspect of their illegal business. Their other operations—black market Adumbrae body parts trading, protecting actual Adumbrae, those sorts of crimes—are not so well known. They even have Adumbrae among their ranks too. Though I know the Tea Party’s Adumbrae activities are far below what you’re up against in La Esperanza, I can see that on TV.

“However, we had some successes against them. The biggest one was exposing their laboratory a few miles outside the city. A small group of BID agents came to investigate the information we leaked. Fighting ensued, and the outnumbered agents would’ve all died if we weren’t there to save them. We also trapped their previous leader until BID reinforcements arrived. Too bad he offed himself before he could be arrested.”

Pride oozed from Imani as she told us that story.

Was she trying to show that their group could also pull their weight? She was probably intimidated because we were so much more 'accomplished' in her mind.

"And the Professor told you about the Tea Party doing, um, Adumbrae stuff?” I asked. “Then you formed a group to—"

"No, not me. Our contact with the Professor is Jubjub. That's her codename, by the way. We agreed to use codenames when on a mission. Jubjub says it'll be safer if someone overhears or eavesdrops on us and that it'll also help foster group cohesion."

I gave Deen a side-long glance.

She closed her eyes a second too long for a blink, telling me she got it. The codename story was the same thing Dario told our group; this must be part of the modus operandi of this secret organization making artificial Cores.

For sure, codenames would contribute to the feeling of being sort of a resistance movement, the secrecy thing, being heroes and all that. Other groups with artificial Cores—and I was sure there were more of us—must also be using codenames.

Sadly, Deen and I never got to pick ours. A lot of things happened after we joined Dario's group that everyone sort of forgot about it—proof that the codename thing was just for show.

"The Tea Party got its name from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Imani explained. "You know the book written by Lewis Caroll? Most people think that it's from the Boston Tea Party and that they’re a terrorist movement against the government, but that isn’t so. The previous leader of the Tea Party went by the alias 'Mad Hatter'. The current leader calls himself 'March Hare'. Those two characters are part of the tea party scene in the book."

"Oh, Jubjub bird!" Deen blurted out. "It's also a character from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, isn't it? My nanny read it to me when I was a kid. I remember—"

"Did you also get your codenames from the same book?" I asked before Deen could reminisce more about her childhood that nobody cared about.

While I was allergic to emotional stuff, I was actually doing Deen a huge favor here.

Everybody knew that if the side character in a movie talked about their backstory, they would die soon. And, yes, I was the main character here, even though it didn't look like it. Once I turned into Pino and started my not-yet-formulated plan of saving Mom and kicking Tea Party ass, I was going to be the star of this show...this shitshow.

"Not the book," Imani said, "but from the poems also written by Lewis Caroll. My codename is Tove, our leader is Jubjub, and Boojum and Snark were the two guys you saw earlier with me. Those are the names of mysterious creatures that Lewis Caroll only vaguely described in his poems.

"And they didn't actually appear there. Lewis Caroll himself wanted them to stay unimaginable; he even wouldn't confirm if they really existed in the world of his stories besides being mentioned by the characters. We thought they'd be good names for a group that operates in the shadows."

"That's a cool theme," I said, mildly impressed. The names Blanchette and Pino were from fairy tales too. But the whole Lewis Caroll reasoning for Imani's group's codenames was so much better than mine. My process was just a step above picking names from vaguely related stories to my powers.

"Yep, it is," Deen agreed. "Should we call you Tove, or is Imani fine?"

"Just call me Imani so there's less confusion."

"Anyway, back to the Tea Party," I said. "There's something I want to ask. Your group is fighting them, right? Do you know what they want here?"

"We don't know exactly what they're planning this time," said Imani. "Stealing the items in this Fair is one, but it seems that's only a cover for their true goals. Those worms on the table—I guess it's connected to that? Something this big, attacking an event like this, and also taking into account what's happening over at La Esperanza recently, I'm sure they're going to do something Adumbrae-related."

"You didn't know the Tea Party was going to come here?"

"Uh...no," Imani said after a suspicious pause. Then she spoke more firmly, "If we knew beforehand, we could've prepared for it, maybe even alert the police. I don't think only the four of us could do anything to stop this from happening."

"So, why are you here?" I asked, trying to keep an accusatory tone out of my voice.

"Oh, right. I told you I didn't go to Tech Fairs while we were at the café. We were tailing you and Deen for your protection and followed you here. Not protect you from the Tea Party or anything like that; just protect you in general. And thank the Mother Core we did because now we can work together to fight the Tea Party."

"It's a lucky coincidence," I said, mentally smirking. Three out of the four members of their group just so happened to be here? That didn't sound like a simple protection duty.

With only four members, it would be hard to keep an eye on us all the time—they'd need to have solo shifts, just like our group did when we were observing Bianca.

Imani wasn't telling us the truth. There was a reason that three of them were here, probably even all four. I wouldn't be surprised if they knew the Tea Party was going to come but just didn't know the extent of the attack.

"Can I also ask a question?" Imani said. Deen and I nodded. "How did you know we were fighting the Tea Party? Do you have information about their Adumbrae operations? Did you learn something from your missions in La Esperanza?"

"It's because I know what those things are," I said, jabbing my thumb toward the box of parasites on the conference table.

"You do?" Imani said. "That's great that we have intel! I've been puzzling about what we should do about them. What are they? What do they—?"

Deen stepped forward and said, "Before we go any further, can I talk with Erind privately?"

"Um, sure. Go ahead. I'll...I'll just keep an eye on the worms."

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way."

"No, no, I get it. It is pretty suspicious that someone like me just shows up. I’m not offended at all."

After Imani walked away, Deen asked me, "Are we going to believe her or not?"

She shared my thoughts that Imani's knowledge of the Suppressor, artificial Cores, and those kinds of stuff were points in her favor. And Imani also knew that Deen had an artificial Core while I didn't; she could've only gotten that information from the Professor.

"They're also doing that codename thing," I added.

"Yeah, I'm like ninety-nine percent sure she's on the Professor's side."

"But is she on our side?" I asked. "Is she a Dario Vegas counterpart? Or is she like us before, unaware there's more to this thing than just the Professor?"

"We can't know for sure," Deen said. "She did say it was this Jubjub was their contact with the Professor—nice quick thinking there, by the way. Did you set her up with that one?"

I grinned at her. "I did. It'd be too suspicious if I asked her directly, so I pretended to assume she could contact the Professor, and she corrected me. She could still be lying, but probably not."

"I agree. She’s just like us." Deen's eyes sort of glazed over. "Recruited to fight the Adumbrae but are actually just...experiments. I’m an experiment." Her voice trailed away as she stared at the floor.

"Deen? Are you okay?” Why was this bitch having an existential crisis now? Couldn't she wait until after we had saved Mom? Nonetheless, part of me was interested in seeing this.

I had asked her why she decided to meld with an artificial Core. In response, she gave a grand speech about doing her part in the fight against the Adumbrae. Much time had passed since then, and we eventually realized that Dario must be lying to us. But this was the first time Deen expressed that she was duped, that her entire reason for joining Dario's group was false.

Although Deen didn't say it outright, by admitting she was an experiment, she realized she had given up her humanity for nothing.

Not exactly nothing. She had a superhuman body and powers now. If she wanted to be a hero, she could be. This might be why her insufferable side was popping up more lately. Maybe unconsciously, she was pushing herself to be a hero to justify the artificial Core on her chest and prove that she didn't make the wrong choice.

Well, this was her time to shine—plenty of opportunities to become a hero here.

"Deen, so agree we’re teaming up with Imani?" I spoke a bit louder to get her attention. "We can save more people if we join forces and work together."

She shook her head to clear her mind. Good that she had a grip on herself again. "Yes, let's make a plan with her."

---

 

"Let's take stock of our forces," Imani said, all business-like as if we were the SWAT team on a rescue mission.

I had just finished explaining the parasites and sharing my suspicions that the Tea Party assholes would use them for their escape. Deen and Imani agreed with my assessment. The problem was that these two bitches wanted to act carefully so that the Tea Party wouldn't see us doing anything suspicious and release the parasites in this room.

Should I just engineer an 'accident' to force the Tea Party to 'press the button'?

I did not need the hostages now that I was going to work with Imani's group; I bet they'd make for nice puppets. And in the cover of commotion and death, lots of death, I could transform into Pino.

"Snark and I have augs," Imani explained. “Unfortunately, we don't have combat mods for our augs. Otherwise, we couldn't enter this event. I only have a stun gun inside my arm right now."

She also explained about the powers of her friends with artificial Cores. This Boojum guy had vacuum thingies on his hands and could heal himself while sucking up people or something like that. He was like my Blanchette form, just that I ate people to regenerate and become stronger.

Sucking or eating: which was worse?

Jubjub, their leader, could make shadow familiars to fight and spy for her. She also had other shadow abilities to confuse the enemy, disorient them in darkness, and help her hide. Imani told us Jubjub was somewhere in this building the last they contacted her, hiding while observing everything with her familiars.

Familiar familiars...that did ring a bell. Not sure what bell it was though.

Anyway, I was right that all four of these weirdos were inside the building. They did know the Tea Party was going to come. We wouldn’t have been caught up in this bullshit if they had told us to leave.

"Jubjub will act and reveal herself when the time is right," Imani said. "We can trust her. As for you guys. Deen has an artificial Core while Erind has augs."

I elbowed Deen to shut her up preemptively.

Imani noticed it. "Are you not allowed to tell me what your power is?" she asked Deen, completely misunderstanding the situation. "I know it's supposed to be really powerful, that's why the Professor wanted us to guard you."

Guard Deen? More like make sure she didn't escape. And why did Imani think I had bioaugmentronics? Had she seen me display superstrength?

"It's better if I know what your power is," Imani said, "so we take it into account when planning."

"The Professor didn't tell you?" Deen glanced at me. "Then I'm not sure if I should..."

I shrugged. "I think we can just say that when Deen tells you something, it might be a good idea to follow it."

Imani raised a brow. "Okay then, our priority is teaming up with Boojum and Snark to add to our fighting strength. They should be in one of these other rooms, so finding them shouldn’t be hard. The problem is leaving this room and checking the other rooms without putting the hostages in danger."

"That's right," Deen chimed in. "But how can we do that without attracting the Tea Party's attention? Is there a way to disable the camera on the box?"

"Maybe I can do it. But if they see that it isn't working, they'll know that there's something wrong and release the parasites anyway."

I tried to think of a suggestion to contribute but got distracted by shouting. And here I thought our fellow hostages could peacefully sit on their asses for more than five minutes.

"Fucking let go!" said the man who wanted to open the windows earlier. He held a chair above his head. "I'm getting outta here!"

Window Man held one of the chair's legs, trying to pull it down. "You idiot! You're putting all of us in danger!"

"It's every man for himself!"

And then other people piled on the fun, most wanting to stop Chair Guy for obvious reasons. From the bits and pieces I picked out from all the yelling, Chair Guy wanted to try his luck jumping out the window. The others left behind would be in danger because of what he'd do, but he would be safe.

We were just on the second floor, and the police were across the parking area. He could probably survive the fall with minor injuries and limp away from the building. But yeah…others would die, and they didn’t want that—again, for obvious reasons.

Tesh strode through the crowd and punched Chair Guy, knocking him to the ground. Then he took the chair away. "If you do that, you'll kill the rest of us!"

"Don't you see? They're not gonna let any of us live! At least imma try to save me."

"Tie him up," ordered Praying Man, bringing extension cords he found inside a cabinet. "All of us will survive if we follow their instructions."

"Why the fuck are you listening to them?" cried out Chair Guy as they bound him to a chair. "What they're doing makes no sense if they're gonna let us go!"

Oh, we got someone with a brain here. Maybe I could use him for something. As I started formulating a plan, Deen ruined my concentration when she grabbed my arm and pulled me back into our huddle.

"Deen?"

"Erind, listen to me," she intensely said. From her furrowed brows and tensed voice, I could tell her Guardian Angel had an urgent message. "Erind, Erind, you should take care of yourself, okay?"

"Wait, what?" Imani blurted out in confusion. "Is this your power?"

"Take care of myself?" I asked. Adrenaline coursed through my body because of Deen's warning. "What's going to happen?"

"I don't know. Just that you should be careful because something bad might happen to you." Deen placed herself in front of me, shielding me from the parasites and the other hostages. "You stay here with me." Then she pointed at Imani. "And you need to destroy the camera when I give the signal."

"The camera? On the box? Why are we-?" Imani abruptly stopped talking, noticing the horrified look on Deen's face.

We all followed her gaze and saw a random guy sitting quietly the whole time—I hadn't even given him a nickname yet—pick up his chair and rush to the windows. The words of Chair Guy must've gotten to him, and he decided to try solo escaping.

Kiera noticed him too and ran to stop him. "Tesh!" she called out. "Tesh, I need some help here!"

But it was too late. Chair Guy the Second was already swinging his sitting apparatus at the window.