Deen continued to drag me throughout her affluent neighborhood while running.

“What’s going on?” I asked, feigning panic.

“I don’t know!” Deen cried out. 

Was this the BID or the AIU? Were they coming to arrest us? The BID often captured suspected Adumbrae secretly. But that didn’t make sense. Why would they be coming after us? We hadn’t done anything worthy of suspicion. Both me and Deen did well on our tests. I guess there was that egg pod test that could make me suspicious, but that Professor lady could have just forced me to have more tests. Even more so, how would they know I was staying at Deen’s house?

Maybe they were keeping track via the traffic camera system? I still couldn’t figure out why the BID would come after us. 

But then another topic came to mind. What if it was the Adumbrae that were after us? What if Dario really was telling the truth? And for some reason they decided to attack us? I sitll doubted that, because “Myra” was the Adumbrae in Dario’s story. I highly doubt Dario’s group would try attacking us if they just gave us superpowers. So who the fuck could this be?

“Should we contact the others?” I asked Deen.

“Good idea!” Deen said as she pulled out her phone while still running to who knows where. I hoped she knew where she was going. It was getting dark out here. Although, if Deen’s summon could give her instructions, then it could probably tell her how to navigate in the dark.

“I don’t have any signal!” Deen cried out as she continued running. Wait, since we had superstrength, didn’t that mean we were running pretty fast. I took a peak behind us. The beamlights were still in the distance, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the vans were having problem catching up to us. If these guys were the BID, we are definitely screwed in the future.

I didn’t bring any of my emergency supplies with me. Shit. Even more so, Deen would probably want to stay with me. Although, maybe with her future sightseeing summon, she could hide me from the BID along with her.

“Just keep running then!” I told her.

Eventually, we wound up at the Verde Clubhouse. It was currently a dilapidated building built out of wood with a greenish tint. A sign on it read “Closed for renovations”. Construction tape and cones were littered across the lot, and some immobile construction vehicles sat between them.  

“Okay, so what now?” I asked. I really hoped Deen’s summon had a plan here, since we probably could have continued running.

“Umm.. it wants you to summon your clone,” she said.

SpookyErind? Can you hear me? I hope you can. Please help us!

The switch went off in my body, and the mask in my hand disappeared. Instead, SpookyErind stood next to me. At least she followed my orders. Could I order her to do other things?

“So what now?” I asked.

Unfortunately, Deen didn’t answer my question as the vans rolled in. From what I could tell, there were five black vans. They spread out to block the entrace to the Verde Clubhouse lot, their high beams blinding me and SpookyErind. What were they planning on doing? Fwip. Fwip. Fwip. Fwip. 

Little stings filled mine and SpookyErind’s bodies. What the fuck? I took a look and saw several darts sticking out of my body. It was as if I was a porcupine. Were these sleeping darts? Fuck. Why didn’t Deen’s summon just tell us to keep running. If this was the BID, I didn’t want to get captured.

A few shadows emerged from the beam lights. They were wearing balaclava masks and each had baton. I could guess it was a stun baton. Their outfit was weird though. It looked like a simple black jacket, rather than some fancy special operations armor. Also, didn’t the BID have long range stun weaponry? Why were they getting close to us?

Unless… They weren’t really BID agents. Were these just common thugs then? I didn’t see any Adumbrae here. Maybe they were trying to steal from Deen since she was so wealthy.

But since they were common thugs, I had no problem with beating them up if they tried to stun me. They had already shot me with sleeping darts - a violation of Rule #4. Hopefully, I’d be able to enact my revenge on them before I fell asleep. Thankfully, I didn’t feel too sleepy right now.

One of the shadows converged on me, while another headed toward SpookyErind. The third one headed to the middle of us, where Deen probably was. As the thug guy who approached me, he prepared to strike me with his baton. His movements, seemed slow for some reason. Anyways, I balled my hand into a fist and punched him in the crotch. 

He went flying backwards. Wow. I didn’t know I could punch that far. The other two thug guys stopped in their tracks to look at me. SpookyErind punched the guy closest to her and he also went flying. 

“Shit,” The middle guy said. I was so going to kill all these people for messing with me.

Before I could do that, I heard Deen yell “Erind, roll out to the sides!”

What? SpookyErind rolled to the right. Shit. What’s going to happen next? I rolled around to the left. 

The concrete I had just been on seemed to liquify. The fuck? These criminals had superpowers? So the Adumbrae Dario spoke of actually existed? Why were they after us though? 

The guy in the middle sunk into the liquid. He screamed and cried out for help. I would have laughed if not for the fact that we were being attacked by an Adumbrae.

“Fuck,” I heard a voice.  “They didn’t tell us we were dealing with Augs or Adumbrae. Shoot them with more darts!” Fwip Fwip Fwip Fwip.

More darts landed on mine and SpookyErind’s bodies. Shit. This can’t be good. I was starting to feel a bit tired. Even with my superpowers, I wouldn’t be able to stay awake much longer.

I looked closely at the high beams, and saw a figure in the middle. Was that the Adumbrae? Scratch that, I needed to kill the people who were shooting darts. Killing the Adumbrae would be no good if the other people continued to turn me into a hedgehog.

SpookyErind rushed the van on the right, while I did the same for the one on the left. As I approached the window, I could make out an arm with a gun aiming towards me. He continued to shoot more darts into me.

As I reached him, I grabbed his wrist and applied all the pressure I could. A satisfying crunching sound entered my ears as his wrist crumpled and blood began to flow out. I heard a clatter as his gun, fall to the ground. The thug guy in front of me screamed as I pulled him out of the car and slammed him into the ground. A cracking noise could be heard. 

SpookyErind hopped on the hood of the right van. She stabbed her hand through the glass and grabbed the face of the guy with the dart gun. Next, she crushed his head into a pulp. She did the same for the driver of the van. 

“Fuck this shit!” the guy inside the left car said. “I ain’t taking these bitches alive.”

He pulled out a gun and started shooting at me. A few bullets pierced my head as I ducked. Fuck. That stung a lot. I wasn’t dead though, so they probably didn’t make it that far in. I could feel my regeneration kicking in and healing my head. The bad thing was - I was feeling really tired right now. 

It was like when I pulled an all nighter during undergrad trying to finish a group project because one of our members didn’t do their job. I stayed up till 4 AM trying to finish the project. Fuck that guy and these thug guys too. 

While SpookyErind went to kill the people in the van next to her, I hid below the window of the left van. More gunfire erupted. Maybe they were trying to hit Deen. Hopefully, she didn’t get hit and could help me kill the rest of these fuckers. If she was knocked out, I was going to have so many problems.

I looked up and saw the side mirror of the van. An idea popped up into my head. I ripped it from the side of the van and popped back up. As soon as I saw the van’s driver, I chucked the mirror at full speed toward him. His head separated from his neck as the mirror collided with him. Blood flowed from his neck as his body slumped forward and the arm with the gun fell.

“Shit, they’re too strong!” That same voice said. “Retreat!”

SpookyErind had just finished killing the driver and gunman thug guys on the 2nd van to the right. The sound of engines revving up echoed. The middle van and the 2nd van on the left began pulling back. I didn’t want them to get away. I had to punish them for bothering me.

I leaped over the hood of the left van and ran towards the next van. They had turned around now, and the van closest to me opened their backside doors. A guy with a purple mohawk leaped inside. That was most likely the Adumbrae cement guy, given how far he was able to leap. 

Me and SpookyErind leaped as far as we could toward that van. As we landed inside, we collided with the Adumbrae.

“Get off me!” He cried out. This van had three gunmen compared to the other vans. They filled us with bullets and darts. Yet, I wasn’t done yet. And neither was SpookyErind. I grabbed the Adumbrae while SpookyErind charged towards the gunmen. 

With both of my hands on his head, I squeezed on his head until it burst into a spray of blood. Ewww! 

“Stop it!” the driver thug guy yelled. “I can’t drive straight!”

Our car began to swerve as I felt even more and more sleepy. I tried to move my limbs but it was increasingly hard to do so. My body collapsed onto the floor of the van and I began to feel myself sliding to the edge. Nononono.

SpookyErind punched her hand through the driver’s skull. A crash sounded, and I got sent into the side of the van. She got lucky she wasn’t shot with darts as much as me, but I could feel her body getting tired as well. She crawled over to me, where I was scrunched up against the left wall of the van. At least I didn’t slide out of the van, but this wasn’t any better. 

“You did good myself,” She said with a smile.

I tried to speak, but my vision was beginning to blur.

“We deserve this nap,” she said as her words began to slur.

She collapsed in front of me. Bullet holes surrounded by patches of blood filled her clothes. At least these other guys were dead. I wondered if Deen was still alive. She didn’t even help us! I had to do all the work. Since SpookyErind was a part of me, I’m including that as part of my work.

“Erind!” I heard a distant female voice yell. There she was. It sounded like she was in a lot better shape than me. My eyelids began to close as I could no longer keep them up.

“Erind!” That voice yelled again. Now, SpookyErind’s eyes began to close. I hoped when I woke up, it’d be in a better place than this van.

“Erind! If you’re alive please call out to me!” 

My consciousness began to slip into a deep sleep. 

“Erind!”