“For one reason or another, you have been targeted by the Adumbrae. We don’t know why. But what we can offer you is protection…and a chance to gain some powers of a Corebring."

"I - I don't understand."

"Would you accept the power...and join us in our fight against the Adumbrae?”

The hell? Were they being serious? This was just like when Myra gave us the blue liquid. It surely helped hide whatever weird results I would have had from that Egg Pod test. But, I was an Adumbrae right? What would happen if I accepted the artificial Core?

Shit. I got trapped by my face again. I had to follow Deen’s lead again. It would be weird and out of character for me if I just didn’t follow her now. I already followed her through with the blue liquid. 

“What do you think, Deen?” I asked her.

“I think we should accept,” Deen replied. “We have no idea when the 2M’s may attack us again. It’d be better if we could defend ourselves.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Sadly, they had no idea of knowing I could already defend myself. And, I was pretty sure there were no 2M’s I needed to worry about. Alas, a face could not be broken.

 

“I… accept.”

 

After I accepted, I mentally fell asleep when Dario discussed all the mumbo-jumbo about Cores. The one thing I did pay attention to was that the core is melded at the sternum.

Me, Myra, and Deen were all in Deen’s bedroom. Deen’s bedroom was very luxurious. It would be pretty cool to have a bedroom like this. Yes, I know I’m jealous of my best friend’s bedroom, but honestly, who wouldn’t be? 

We had to do it here - away from the boys - since we needed to go shirtless. Myra had made another comment about how glad she was that Oberon / Reo wasn’t here. She had taken off her shirt, showing her toned body. I took note of that. If we fought again, how well would I do? Still, what was interesting was that on her sternum was an organic growth that looked like an embryo. 

“Alright, so who wants to go first?” Myra asked as she stood near two of those artificial Core boxes.

I stared at Deen again. Just like with the blue liquid, I expected her to go first. 

“I’ll go first,” Deen said. 

She took off her shirt, showing off her sizable cleavage and big breasts bulging against her bra. I would have been jealous, but then I remembered that my transformed self could give Deen a run for her money. And Deen had a lot of money.

Myra opened the box on the right and took out the artificial Core.

“Just place it on your sternum, and you’ll become a Corebring,” Myra told Deen as she handed her the artificial Core. “Be careful not to drop it.”

“Don’t worry I won’t,” Deen replied with conviction as she took the Core from Myra.

Deen placed it on her sternum and after a few seconds, the Core sank a bit into her skin. 

“Woah, this feels amazing!” exclaimed Deen.

Myra smiled at Deen and then turned to me. So they were serious about giving us Cores. But why attack us then? Did she feel like she redeemed herself for giving us powers?

“Alright Erind, here’s your Core.”

Shit. I couldn’t back down now - I was so deep into this. 

I took off my shirt, revealing… well not much. Back when I was a cheerleader, I used to have a more toned body. But ever since I finished Judo back in my undergrad days, I never really found a purpose to work my upper body and abs. Maybe now since I’ll have to fight that would be a good idea. 

“Okay,” I meekly replied. I took the core and placed it on my sternum.

My heart was racing. What would happen if the Core didn’t merge with me? Would they suspect me of being an Adumbrae? Would anything dangerous happen to me if I tried to merge with it? Each second felt like hours as I waited to see what would happen.

Woah! Suddenly, I felt a surge of power go through me. It was similar to the feeling of power I got in my transformed body. Looking down at my sternum, the Artificial Core had embedded itself into my skin.

I also felt a new source of power in my left hand. 

“This feels really good,” I said. I was probably even stronger now. It turned out I could meld with the Core even though I was an Adumbrae. 

“Congratulations!” Myra cheered as she put on her shirt. “You’re both Corebrings now. Anyways, you two should both get dressed.”

Both Deen and I put our shirts on.

“Oh!” exclaimed Myra. “One tip for you all, if you ever need to change your clothes, I’d recommend wearing a sports bra beforehand. It’ll help conceal the artificial Core.”

Fuck. Another thing I needed to hide now in addition to the crystals on my right hand. Hopefully, this would be the last change my body goes through for today. 

“Yeah, I’ll probably get a high impact sports bra on the weekend along with Erind,” Deen said. I just simply nodded my head. Ughh. Shopping was going to be such a pain. I was going to have to keep up my face. And also spend time with Deen. The world was really out to get me.

“Let’s head back to the others now,” Myra said. 

 

As we made our way back to the living room, I pondered about all this weird stuff.

Was I now a Corebring Adumbrae? Or an Adumbrae Corebring? I didn’t even know it was possible to merge with a Core as an Adumbrae. Unfortunately, there was no way I could deny the Core - I just had to follow the Rules. But I guess also fortunately, I was able to merge with the Core.

Next, they gave us these artificial Cores. But why attack us? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I could not think of any valid explanation. Maybe they thought one of us were an Adumbrae and used the Cores to test that theory? But I melded with the core just fine.

Also, I needed to start thinking how to implement Rule #4. For Myra, hopefully this Core gave me a power that would help against her. I needed to test out my new powers later.

Then, there’s Everett and Dario. It looked like Everett had a crush on Deen. Perhaps I could prevent a relationship from forming between them. That would be way more favorable than beating him up. He’d be unlikely to attack me. But what about Dario? I didn’t know enough about him. I’d need to learn more about him before giving him a punishment.

“So how did the melding go?” asked Dario as we entered the living room.

“It felt amazing,” Deen replied. “I feel like I just drank 20 cups of coffee.”

“Same,” I simply said. Deen was supposed to be the outgoing one, so I didn’t need to say much.

“That’s great to hear,” said Dario. “Unfortunately, I have an urgent meeting with the Professor. I’ll give the two of you my phone number before I go. We’ll have to schedule a more official welcome meeting for you two.”

“Sorry girls, I have to dip too,” said Reo. “My girlfriend and I are going out for dinner. Originally, we were going to the Sanders mall, but there’s no Sanders mall anymore. We’re just going to Esperanza Especial instead.”

I noticed Everett cringed a little when Reo talked about the mall.

Everett and Myra left shortly after those two. Awwww. I wish I could have seen her reaction.

 

“Hey Erind, do you want to test our powers?” Deen asked.

“Sure thing,” I replied. “I guess the easiest thing we test is our super strength. But what are we going to test our powers on?”

“Hmmm…” Deen looked around the room. Her eyes landed on the sofa.

She put both her arms under it and lifted it up as if it weighed nothing. Then, she brought it above her head.

“How about this?” She smirked. “It feels as heavy as one of my law textbooks.”

“Well, now you’re the beauty and the brawns,” I quipped.

“Don’t forget the brains,” she corrected me. We both giggled.

She put the sofa back down. “Now you try Erind.”

I walked over to the sofa and put both of my arms under it. I pulled upwards. It felt like I was carrying an empty plastic bag. Imagine that, pretty little me carrying an entire sofa.

“This weighs like nothing,” I said in awe.

“It wasn’t that light, but it’s still exhilarating right?” Deen asked. Huh. I guess that did confirm I was way stronger now. It didn’t feel like a law textbook at all. The sofa was more like a paper bag.

I nodded my head and put the sofa down.

“Hey Erind,” Deen said. “Have you seen anything weird?”

I briefly glanced around the room. I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “No, not unless you’re talking about how I was able to lift the sofa.” I hope she wasn’t messing with me. I wasn’t in the mood for that.

“It’s not that,” Deen replied. “I think it’s my power.” She stared at the side of her.

What the fuck? Was it like some kind of sixth sense? Is she feeling like the “aura” of the room or something. What if she found out I was an Adumbrae?

“Do you mean you have a 6th sense?” I asked. “No wait, you mentioned seeing. So is it like heat vision or something?” 

“No, I think I have a summon like Reo. But it looks like it’s invisible to you.”

“What does it look like?” I asked.

“It looks like a cute baby gargoyle shaped like an egg made of ivory,” Deen described. “It also has feather wings with a faint gold. It’s floating right here.” She pointed to where she was facing.

What kind of power was that? A summon that only Deen could see. Maybe Deen got insanity as a power. 

“Can you make it do anything?” I asked.

“I’m trying to, but it’s just floating there,” Deen replied with a sigh. She’s definitely insane. “I’m not having any luck, how about you?” 

“Let me see,” I said. “I haven’t tried anything yet, but I can feel it has something to do with my left hand.” The hand opposite of the crystal.

I brought up my left hand and concentrated on that feeling of power. I felt like I could summon another mask. Gold liquid materialized in the palm of my hand. It solidified into a mask. Unlike my other mask, this looked like something you would wear on a stage. 

It was an embroidered mask with a symbol of an embryo on it. A symbol of a Core? The mask floated out of my hand. It moved a short distance away from me.

Then in an instant, a second me was there. Woah! I suddenly was seeing two sets of vision. 

“That’s so cool!” Deen cheered. “You can make clones of yourself right? At least you know what your power is…” Wow, what a quick mood switch. No need to ruin the fun Deen.

Anyways, back to my cool new Corebring powers. It was weird seeing double. I tried moving the hands of my clone. Nothing happened. Is this just a dummy? That sucks. 

“Don’t worry Deen,” my clone said, shocking me. Oh nevermind then, not a dummy.  “I’ll help you figure out your powers.” 

“Thanks Erind,” she said, hugging my clone. I could feel her skin touching my clone. “You're a great best friend.”

A desire to punch her grew inside me. Sadly, I couldn’t control my clone, but I bet if she was anything like me she was thinking the same thing too. My clone didn’t hug her back. It looked like we weren’t in the mood for hugs. Well, I was never in the mood for hugs.

Eventually, Deen released my clone from her hug. Hmm. How do we test out Deen’s powers?

“Hey Deen, try touching it,” I suggested.

Deen reached out to the side. Immediately she dropped to the floor and started convulsing. Umm. I didn’t think that was supposed to happen. She started convulsing, and her nose started to bleed. Yep, this definitely shouldn’t be happening. 

Shit. I guess what Deen was seeing was real. Wouldn’t it be funny if Deen died right now. What was the saying? If I had a nickel for every person that just died randomly near me today, I’d have two nickels. Which is weird that it happened twice.

Deen just sat there on the floor convulsing. Oops. Maybe as her “best friend” I should do something. Call an ambulance? But that might put Deen, and more importantly, me, at risk for getting tested. I got closer to Deen. Normally, I wouldn’t do this, but it was actually kind of interesting. It was impressive how she was still having a seizure on the floor, so I guess she’d be fine.

Hmm what kind of summon just gives you seizures out when you touch it? Seems like a useless power. I hope I don’t touch it by accident. Maybe it could knock other people out? So it’s like Dario’s power but with a summon?

“Well, isn’t myself having fun?” my clone said. It was weird, because I could feel her mouth moving as if it was my own.

“Huh?” I asked. When would I ever say something so weird like that? I really hoped that my clone didn’t have a different personality from me.

“Oh don’t be like that, we just talked a few hours ago,” She said with a pout. Wait! Does that mean she could read my mind? Also what was that about a few hours ago? I definitely couldn’t make clones of myself back then. 

“Like I said before, I know what you are thinking because I am you,” she said. Wait a minute…

My clone held out her left hand and gold liquid materialized out of thin air. It formed into a very similar mask of black and gold. She put it on and my clone transformed into a white haired version of myself with red eyes and marble like skin.

Hello myself, SpookyErind said while giggling.