“Myra, can you take over while I contact the Professor?” Dario asked. Was it really necessary for him to always talk to the Professor? I guess he was the Professor’s only contact. Still, it was weird that he was our leader since he seemed to always defer his decisions to someone else. Does that mean the Professor is actually our leader?

“Sure,” she agreed. “Come on girls.” Dario left the room. I guess we’re with Myra then. 

She guided us to the raised stage on the opposite side of the room. Myra stopped at the side of the stairs.

“So, what are you going to teach us?” Deen asked.

“There are three main things you guys should keep in mind - evading, attacking from afar, and pushing the limits of your strength,” Myra answered.

“I get the first two, but what do you mean pushing the limits of our strength?” I asked. Wasn’t it funny that Myra was probably going to teach me skills that I’d used to kill her?

“Right, let me explain,” she said. “All three of us have an artificial Core right?” Duh. Deen and I both nodded. “We have super speed, super strength, super durability, and super regeneration. There are some slight variations between us, but most of these are pretty similar. And we also have our powers, which will grow over time. Sadly, we don’t really get significantly stronger physically, even if we say bench a thousand pounds daily. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

Deen and I both chuckled. 

“So, to get the point, we have to use what’s called hysterical strength to push our limits. The explanation is a bit complicated, so I’ll save it for next week.”

“Next week?” I asked. “What about if we try to infiltrate Eloycira this weekend?”

“The first two things I talked about are more important,” Myra said. “With pushing the limits of our strength, I’ll have to bring you guys to a different building.”

“Is it because you don’t want to be near Reo?” I joked.

“Haha. But seriously, we need to be able to damage the building we’re in, and it’s not a good idea to ruin our hideout.” What exactly would we be doing? Destroying a building? How could you hide that? But I guess we would only be damaging part of it then? I couldn’t see any of us tearing down a whole building.

“Back to the evading, how exactly are we going train on that?” Deen asked. Maybe Myra could throw her spikes at us, I thought sarcastically.

“I was planning on using my vines actually to try and push you guys over,” Myra said. Wow, she was prepared for that. I kept thinking that she would fumble her answers and reveal she was the attacker. On the other hand, it makes it better for me when I try to dramatically harm her. Dramatically harm, the fuck am I talking about? 

“Anyways, evading will probably be important since with Eloycira, we’ll be in enemy territory,” she said. “Additionally, you two will be alone during the Eve, so it’s best you’re ready for anything that happens.”

“The enemy didn’t seem that dangerous last time,” I said.

“And that’s your first mistake,” Myra said. I raised my brows. “We got lucky with our first mission. No electroshock weapons, no augmented, and no Adumbrae. The 2M’s were busy dealing with those werewolf experiments.”

Oh right, I’m pretty sure they did have those stuff when I attacked their base as Red Hood. The electroshock weapons and augmented guy were easy to deal with, but Ms. Statue Lady was way too strong for me. What if she appeared at our next mission?

I guess they really did want to save all their main stuff for their base. Because, if I were them, I would have sent some of the electroshock guys in the vans. Oh well, at least they were a nice meal.

“Anyways Erind, I know you’re pretty strong, but you have no idea what kind of stuff they might have,” Myra said. “We should have actually planned better at the last mission, but we were so into it that we just kept on fighting. They might have more Adumbrae that are nearly as powerful as the Titan near the docks.” Uggh. Even though I was both a Corebring and an Adumbrae, there were still Adumbrae more powerful than me. Why couldn’t life be fair to a cute Corebring Adumbrae like me?

“Anyways, who wants to go first?” Myra asked.

“I’ll volunteer,” Deen said. 

“I’ll just watch and take notes,” I said. I took out my notepad. 

“All right,” Myra said as she took off her shoes. She got up on the stage and pointed to some rocks that had been left near the edge of the stage. “Pick some of those up, you’ll need those to try and hit my legs.” 

Deen took off her shoes and then picked up a handful of rocks as she walked onto the stage. Myra walked to the opposite end, while I sat on my chair. 

Johann came up behind me with a couple of chairs. He put one down and gestured me towards the other.

“Want a seat?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said. At least unlike Everett, he actually gave me a chair. I could see why Myra might be attracted to him. Wait, what am I saying, the only thing he gave me is a chair! Our society has such low standards for men these days.

“Sorry I couldn’t get popcorn,” he said. I chuckled. “Should’ve asked Everett and Reo to get some while they’re modifying the van again.”

“So, here’s how it’s going to go,” Myra called out to Deen. “You’re going to try and knock me over, while I’ll try to knock you over.”

“Got it!” Deen said. Wait, what if they missed and the rocks came at us? They might hit Johann. At least I would survive. I’d be really angry though.

Myra took off her shirt, leaving her with just a sports bra and shorts. Soon, bark began to form, covering her. She didn’t grow to her monstrous eight-foot height, but her full body was covered in bark. 

“Go!” Myra said as vines began to grow from her body towards Deen.

Deen chucked a rock at her, but Myra easily dodged to the side. Myra’s vines approached her, and she was forced to weave through them. It was impressive how she didn’t trip. But the vines continued to grow, forcing Deen to try and kick some of them away. She ended up stumbling as she threw another rock.

“Come on, keep up!” Myra echoed from her bark helmet. More vines formed and snaked around the stage towards Deen. Deen continued throwing rocks, but she was running out. She’d be forced to retreat to the edge. 

 As Deen went to get more rocks, Myra continued to infest the stage with her vines. It was starting to become a full jungle. 

Still, Deen didn’t give up. Even though Myra was faster and more powerful than her, Deen had the willpower to continue. I found it fascinating human behavior. In the stories I read, the hero would always continue no matter the odds. It was like the World congratulated them for trying so hard. But would that really happen in reality? I’m pretty sure there are some times in history where the Goliath actually killed the David, no matter how hard they tried. The Europeans did that to the natives when they came to the Americas.

Although, Deen did have her guardian angel. But even with its help, it didn’t seem like Deen could overpower Myra.

“Keep your form tight!” Myra called out as another rock flew past her. Deen began to slow down as the vines kept surrounding her. “Huh?” Myra asked surprisingly. “Tired al-” 

Deen threw a rock at Myra’s legs, causing her to stumble over.

“Okay, well played,” Myra called out.

“Thanks, Myra,” Deen said. “Sorry for the underhanded tactic though. My guardian angel suggested it.”

“No it’s fine,” Myra replied. “We’ll need every advantage we can get if we want to beat the 2M’s. Let’s go for a couple more rounds?”

About twenty minutes later, they finally finished. Deen was sweating. Myra was - well I couldn’t tell since she was covered in bark. Deen didn’t manage to get any more hits, but she did manage to avoid ever getting knocked down.

“Good work,” Myra said as she retracted her vines. “Take a rest. All right Erind, you ready?”

“Yeah,” I said. I kind of wanted to show that I was better than Deen and actually hit Myra. I took off my shoes and picked up some rocks with my right hand.

“I can summon my clones right?” I asked.

“Yeah, go ahead,” she said. 

In my room, I had my 2nd clone pull on her face. And all of her senses were gone. SpookyErind took off her face twice - once to get to a normal Erind clone, and once to vanish into thin air. 

Then, I held out my left hand and concentrated. Golden liquid formed and coalesced into an embroidered Corebring mask. It floated over to the left as another mask formed above my left hand. SpookyErind appeared in an instant. My 2nd clone’s mask floated over to the right and also appeared. 

We all had rocks in our hands. Was this unfair? Myra did say we were allowed to use our powers to our advantage. 

“Three against one huh?” Myra asked. “Well, go!” She sent out vines.

Immediately, all three of us threw a rock at her. She ducked and easily dodged all our attacks as vines came to meet all three of us. But they felt slow. I continued to throw some rocks, this time staggering my attacks with my 2nd clone. SpookyErind did the same. It was like a machine gun. Except, we had like no bullets. And Myra was still standing even though she got grazed by a couple of rocks.

“Keep going!” she called out. Fuck. I needed to get more rocks, in fact, all of my clones needed to get more rocks. To be fair, I had been calling them rocks, but they were more like pebbles. All three of us headed back as vines came to intercept us. We easily got to the edge of the stage, but were surrounded by vines. 

I stomped on a vine but nearly fell when I tried throwing a rock at the same time. My short body was not prepared for this.

“Concentrate!” Myra said. I’m trying, but your vines are messing with me.

Actually, couldn’t I just get SpookyErind to transform into her Spooky self and freeze Myra in time? To my surprise, she actually followed my instructions and held out her left hand to summon her mask. She put it on and I instantly felt her body become stronger.

We were now moving faster too. SpookyErind began summoning the time bubble. But suddenly, I kind of wanted to beat her fair and square. It’d make me feel more superior that I’d be able to do it without manipulation, unlike Deen. 

Myra focused on firing her vines toward SpookyErind, but instead of sending the time bubble to her, she expanded the time bubble around herself. Suddenly, my senses became very weird. I could see through her body that Myra was moving at the speed of light, but to me, Myra was moving slower than I was, but still dodging. 

Did she slow time down for herself? I took a peek with my 2nd clone at SpookyErind and she and the vines seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace. Huh. Myra redirected her attention to us, and I sent my 2nd clone to the side of the stage near Johann and Deen. Meanwhile, I went to the far inner side of the stage. I’ll spread out as far as I can so she can’t focus on all of us.

SpookyErind’s time bubble popped and she moved back to the middle. She threw a rock at her, and Myra dodged to the side, but then I had my 2nd clone throw a rock. This is it. Myra weaved out of the way only to get hit by the rock I threw with my main body.

 “Ouch,” Myra said. Maybe I hit her too hard. Nah. She got up a few seconds later. “Good job Erind. You could have a better form, but we can always work on that.”

The fuck does she mean, better form? She really should have gone over this beforehand. Right now, it sounds like she’s spilling random training montage cliches.

 Myra’s bark receded and she was covered in sweat. Nasty. Although, my clones and I were also sweaty. “We should really get a fan in here,” I said.

“Heh. Yeah,” Myra said. “There are some towels over there though.” 

Deen also tossed us some water bottles. I began wiping myself as Myra took a sip. 

“Good work you two,” she said. “I’ll give a few pointers. Deen, you did pretty well not actually tripping. But you need to get better at both evading and attacking. If your opponent is stronger than me, you’re definitely going to have trouble even with your guardian angel.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Deen nodded. “I’ll try and get Erind to practice with me.”

“That’s a great idea,” Myra said. Eww. That sounds gross. Although, I wouldn’t mind throwing rocks at Deen. “And for you Erind, you were pretty smart with using your clones like that. Although, you do need a better strategy. You had to retreat and get rocks for all of your clones. You may not always have time to get ammo.”

Yeah, that was kinda embarrassing, all three of us going to pick up pebbles. 

“I’ll make sure to do that next time,” I said.

“Hey guys,” A male voice called out. “I’m back.”

“Hello,” Deen said. I gave a meek wave. “What did the Professor say?”

“He said he’s fine with it,” Dario replied. “We’ll need a good plan to go by tomorrow though. Eloycira is closed on the weekends. There is one office in La Esperanza.”

“Yeah, and I imagine they don’t keep the people they kidnap there,” I said, echoing what SpookyErind said earlier. “It’d be too dangerous if they got investigated for missing people.”

“Yeah,” Dario agreed. 

“Maybe we can interrogate them near closing time?” Myra asked.

“They might alert the rest of the 2M’s though before we’re able to do that,” Dario said. “Something more covert.”

“How about disguises?” Johann asked. “We could disguise one of ourselves as a homeless person.”

“They might drug us though,” Deen said. “Erind overheard that they knock people out before kidnapping them. Instead, is there a way to dress up as one of them?”

“Wait, I got it!” I said. It was all coming together now. “I can use my 2nd clone’s kid form - Ento, to act as bait. None of the 2M’s know who she is, and even if she gets drugged, there’s zero risk of finding out my identity. Besides, it took way too many sleeping darts to make me fall asleep when the 2M’s tried to kidnap us, so I can just pretend to be knocked out. Then, once Ento reaches the 2M’s base, we can go to her and rescue everybody there.”

“Wait, do you know geographically where your clones are?” Myra asked. Shit. No, I didn’t. Even if I got in, there would be no way for the rest of us or my main body to get there.

“Oh I know,” Deen said. We looked at her. “Your clone’s keep the stuff your main body has when you summon them right? So you just have to keep your phone on your main body. We can then use Snippet’s tracking feature to find out where she is.”

“Snippet?” I asked.

“You know I keep telling you to download it,” Deen said. Social media just wasn’t for me. Also, making a face was hard on social media - everybody could scrutinize you. I had to tailor it to everyone, which was impossible. That’s where Rule #16 came in to save me. No social media for me.

“I’m not really a social media type of person,” I said.

“You don’t need to post anything, we just need to use the app’s tracking features,” she said.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll do it.”