This was a super crazy night.
From pretending to be a rebellious minion of Red Hood, to pretending to be a Corebring, to now meeting a Corebring. I wouldn’t be surprised if I won the Powerball jackpot prize today without buying any tickets. That seemed like a likelier scenario than chatting with a Corebring about tourist spots in the city.
Glowy Erind, if you’re listening, calling for the Corebrings is a big mistake. Possible that she was the reason the Corebrings found us, not Deen. But there was no response. They’re not going to accept you. You’re an artificial Core. They’re going to kill me and destroy you.
I didn’t really expect Glowy Erind to say anything. Might even be better if she stayed dormant, for her safety and mine. Yep, Glowy Erind. Stay quiet. Good call.
But I’m still blaming you for calling the Corebrings.
The weird seagull above flapped its wings to get ahead of me. Even without the dirty scavenger bird—I have seen them dumpster-diving throughout the city—I could tell where the Corebring was. My hunger pointed the way.
Other birds came closer, flying in a loose formation with the weird seagull in the lead. The entire flock must be controlled by the Corebring. This was a show of force, a warning that there were many eyes on me. Possible that not just birds were turned into mobile CCTV cameras. Gabe probably couldn’t see a future where Deen could weave through the animals.
However, Gabe was fine with leaving Deen at the small park. These mind-controlled animals weren’t observing us at that time? Did they not see me transform?
If so, the animals saw me only after leaving the park. The Corebrings already detected Deen but didn’t have the animals in place for surveillance just yet.
Not just animals. Some things were climbing and jumping on the buildings.
Five of them. Seven, now. Probably some more that I couldn’t see. They moved parallel to me, all heading in the same direction. The smallest was the size of a husky, and the largest was like a vending machine with spider legs. Monsters with gravel for skin. Were these the ones that Deen had seen in her visions?
They didn’t feel like living beings. They weren’t Adumbrae, for sure. The birds could see them, and the Corebring wasn’t attacking.
Corebring? Or Corebrings?
This couldn’t be just one guy with all these powers. Would be super unfair. And I hadn’t heard about any of what was going on, especially this spear thing. Not that I was an avid Corebring fan, memorizing a bunch of details about them, including theories about who they were in their past lives before being called by the Mother Core. Most of the Corebrings were faceless to the public, operating in the shadows and preventing disasters to maintain normalcy.
So… why did the Corebrings reveal themselves to the BID? Why now?
The government could suspect Corebring's involvement all they want, but the Corebrings shouldn’t care about it. Did it have something to do with our commotions underground?
I had a bunch more questions. Adding to the pile was, ‘Who are those weirdos down there?’
Soaring across a narrow street, I notice a small crowd huddling below. I landed on the building across the street and continued running. If I turned back to look at them, the Corebring might assume I was running away and attack me.
With the short glimpse I had of those people, I noticed that they had cameras, big and small, and other equipment. One particular thing that caught my eye was the design on the black shirt of the girl in front of their pack—a face wearing a red hood and displaying a row of fangs.
Was that a depiction of Red Hood or something? Putting the art of an Adumbrae on a shirt? These were the content creators hunting for Adumbrae!
The same type of crazies as storm chasers. Maybe storm chasers were less crazy.
The Adumbrae content creators could be human shields for my escape.
Corebrings tried to protect humans as much as possible, but their primary job was killing Adumbrae. Some big scandals back then of too much collateral damage during Adumbrae extermination. The Labor Day Purge, for example. The Corebrings didn’t really care about public perception because they were humanity’s only saviors.
This time, though, I think that the Corebrings would be more careful. They contacted the government, for some reason. Why attempt to have a semblance of officialness, if that was an actual word, just to go murdering innocents?
Let’s see what I can find out from the Corebring.
And there he was, three buildings ahead, sitting atop the water tank on the roof. His spear rested on his shoulders, the blade high above him glowing an unnatural silver.
I wanted to bite his head off. But I could also sense that he was strong. Not a concrete feeling that I could describe, but this uncanny weight in my gut that the Corebring would be a very difficult prey. It was like those martial arts masters in Asian movies, sizing each other up. I should probably learn kung-fu because it’d look very cool with superstrength.
I landed on the building where the Corebring was at and dropped my clawed hands to my sides, trying to appear as unthreatening as possible. But I really couldn’t do anything about my fangs that were always on display.
And I was also becoming taller and bigger; my claws, fangs, and fur lengthened. I really couldn’t stop this. Would the Corebring assume that I’d try to buy time to power up?
The birds landed on the railings, tracing the roof’s perimeter. I could hear the gravel monsters climbing up here. Surrounded. Maybe I shouldn’t look like I was cowering.
I walked toward the water tank with a hint of swagger. I stopped in front of its pedestal, swayed my hips to the left with my hand on it, giving off an air of confidence. Impressions could go a long way.
The only card I held was that the Corebrings didn’t know how my abilities truly worked. Safe to say that they have information on Red Hood, same as the BID. They probably assumed I could control my size, not that I needed to be hurt a lot first to fuel my growth spurt. Let them think that I had my giant transformation as the ace up my sleeve, which was why I was fine with meeting them.
The Corebring stood up and dusted his butt. One of the seagulls landed next to him.
Spear Guy didn’t look like I’d expect a Corebring would. For one, he didn’t wear their usual uniform of blue, white, and gold.
Instead, he had donned a yellow shirt with the bearded smiley face logo of Quality Mart and stylishly atrocious calf-length trousers. He also had a bandana tied across the lower half of his face. Part of his fashion or an attempt to hide his identity from me? If it were the latter, why bother?
It wasn’t like the Corebring was hanging out around the city where we might actually meet, and I’d recognize him? Or maybe… he was? The Quality Mart uniform. Was he undercover, pretending to work at a convenience store? Where was he hiding his spear while doing shifts?
The silver spear looked too pretty to be a weapon. It had serpentine carvings that looked almost like they were alive. I could’ve sworn they were slithering beneath the gaze of the moonlight.
Why was his power a weapon? Shouldn’t he manifest his power with his Core? Maybe he summoned this like Reo and Deen with their powers.
With his right hand, Spear Guy held his spear behind his back. “Hello there, Red Hood!” He waved at me. “I didn’t expect to see you this fine evening.”
He knows? The Corebring must’ve investigated about me. This meant that they came to the city because of the Adumbrae attacks caused by the 2Ms. Maybe even the docks incident reached them. I’d be super pissed if some gangsters blabbed to the Corebrings about their new boss.
“She’s Red Hood?” asked a squeaky voice, something like how a mouse would sound if it could talk. But this was loud and clear.
Where did the voice come from? There was no one else here besides me, the Corebring, and… The bird? It had something in its mouth. Food, my nose told me. Cheese puffs or something. Two Corebrings at a minimum. Maybe three, assuming someone else was controlling the gravel monsters that had reached the roof. The only real problem was Spear Guy.
Spear Guy jumped off the roof, landing in front of me. “Isn’t it obvious who she is? She wears a hood the color of blood.” He pointed at my head. “Furthermore, she has a very conspicuous monster mouth full of fangs. The latter is a more telling sign of her identity.”
“You do know that birds don’t see color the same way as humans do,” replied the seagull. “Also, it’s night, if you haven’t noticed. I have to push this stupid bird-brain and eyes hard to track Red Hood here. But, yeah. Her mouth’s a little obvious.”
Their little exchange gave a lot of information. Only Spear Guy was here. Seagull Controller wasn’t nearby. Still not sure who was in charge of the gravel monsters.
“What brings you around these parts, Red Hood?” Spear Guy asked.
I raised a brow. Did he not realize that I couldn’t talk with this mouth?
“The shy type, I see.” His eyes narrowed. “There are ways I could make you talk.”
I tensed for half a second when he said that, adrenaline kicking in, but I forced myself to calm down. He was laughing.
“Don’t worry, I was kidding,” Spear Guy said. “If you don’t mind, may we ask for your time to answer some questions?”
He had an accent I couldn’t place. Likely, English wasn’t his first language, but he learnt it in an expensive school abroad. The way he spoke was like an English teacher with exaggerated pronunciation, but I could tell he was trying to mask his original accent.
I tilted my head. Then I pointed at my left knee, where Spear Guy had attacked me.
“We’re not going to kill you if you answer our questions,” said the seagull. I was certain that the sounds came through the beak of the bird. This was some insane control to make a seagull speak English, compared to a parrot or something.
“You make us sound threatening,” said Spear Guy, looking up at the seagull.
“Threatening? You’ve speared her,” the seagull said. “That’s beyond threatening.”
He faced me and bowed. “I apologize for attacking you. There are many enemies tonight. Many unknowns. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I didn’t realize it was you, Red Hood, until a few seconds had passed.”
He didn’t intend to kill me? But he was a Corebring, and I was an Adumbrae? Well, part Adumbrae. It should be an instant attack, just like if a gangster accidentally wandered into the territory of a rival gang. Maybe Spear Guy’s mission was to lie low and investigate stuff, not kill Adumbrae?
Well, he was out in the open now. Why not kill me? Also, the way he mentioned ‘enemies’ made it sound like I wasn’t part of that group. It was so hard to try to fish information from him without being able to speak.
“Perhaps the beginning of our interaction isn’t the most pleasant,” Spear Guy went on. “And where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself.”
He bowed low. He drew his right leg back, scraping the ground, like that fancy way to bow in a medieval royal court, accompanied by stretching his right hand to his side. With a bow that low, he was no longer looking at me.
Was this a trick? Like, I’d try to escape because I might assume he couldn’t spear me without looking at me?
I remained where I was.
“I am Corebring Initiate Clive.”
“Graogh?” Initiate?
They were Corebring trainees or something. There wasn’t much information about them. I didn’t even know they were let out of the Hive, probably why Clive had to be undercover.
“Clive… You don’t have to tell me it’s an uncool name for a Corebring. I wrote my nickname on the form. I didn’t think it was official, and I couldn’t change it afterwards.”
What the fuck was this guy talking about? Corebrings filling up forms? The universe was messing with me. I should just go home and go to bed. They wouldn’t mind if I walked out of this nonsense, right?
“Your injury is healed,” Clive said, bending down to peer at my leg. “No permanent harm done. No enmity between us, I hope?”
Flapping noises from above. The seagull descended from the pedestal of the water tank and balanced itself on top of Clive’s spear. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing? Sexual harassment alert! Police!”
Clive stood back up. “I wasn’t doing such a thing.”
“Were you ogling her legs?” asked Seagull Controller. “I should go over to the police so they can arrest you and put your lecherous ass in jail.”
“False accusations,” Clive replied in a fake offended tone. “Such slander I’ve never encountered in my years as a beacon of morality.”
“I may be your junior, but let me give you a bit of advice on us girls.” It turned out that Seagull Controller was a woman. “Red Hood may look really hot, but don’t forget that she’s a monster.”
“Do you mean to say all women are monsters? Or are you saying only the hot ones are monsters?”
“If hot women are monsters, then I’m a monster for sure.” Both of them laughed. The seagull’s laugh was especially comical, and it would’ve elicited a genuine chuckle from me if this were any other situation. Seagull Controller continued, “But don’t forget about her mouth with very sharp teeth. You don’t want that anywhere near you.”
“Noted. Anyway, Red Hood. Did you sense something… off… a while ago? I’m uncertain if you could even sense it, but it was very distinct to us Corebrings.”
“It’s not around now. It disappeared right when I saw you,” added Seagull Controller.
That bastard Gabe! It was becoming clearer. Corebrings were in town—or city, to be accurate. Four Arms was probably right that the Corebring’s mission was to investigate the 2Ms and the PCMs. But the Corebrings noticed the energy of boosted Gabe while passing through here. They were more interested in that than me, an Adumbrae in front of them.
If my assessment of the situation was right, then I should’ve taken the tunnels and separated from Deen. The Corebrings had already locked onto Deen, searching for her with mind-controlled animals and gravel monsters. Getting knocked out was Deen’s only exit—this was half of the plan.
The other half of the plan was for me to attract the Corebrings so they wouldn’t find Deen’s unconscious body. Thank goodness it wasn’t my fault this time.
But I was super pissed this mess, not my mess, was dumped on me!
(Author’s Notes: First meeting of Erind and the Corebrings. Some things are similar to what happened in the Prior Cycle, but there are also differences. And it’ll become very big differences in the following chapter. We also see how devious Gabe’s plan is, probably formulated when it was boosted, to make sure Erind got the attention of the Corebrings and not Deen. Thanks for your support!)