REND

“How dare you kill my trusted subordinate!” Rabbit Ears growled, standing in the bloodied pit he had cleaved. “I picked him and his brother off the streets and raised them to be fine young men of flesh and steel!”

Why was this fucker blaming me?

He couldn’t be totally positive I had offed his minion before he came crashing down like an impatient meteor. Yes, I substituted part of Twin Two’s head with my fist, but who was to say he was already dead by then? No one, because Rabbit Ears already squished Twin Two.

While Rabbit Ears spouted shit, I scanned my surroundings for anything to use. Only rubble was near.

I stole a glance up the elevator shaft. Boojum was having a hard time against White Beanpole, the latter slinking through the wide beams like a gymnast. I couldn’t see Deen or Twin One; they might be fighting on the other side because I could hear gunfire. I wasn’t too worried for my best friend because one thing I learned from Finlay was that annoying people were hard to kill.

Deen was annoying as fuck, so she should still be alive.

And was that Vanessa choking Silver Titties?

I snapped my head back to face Rabbit Ears before he could check what I was looking at. He continued his delusional accusations, oblivious to Vanessa’s betrayal. I examined his spiked arms. More like road rollers with a rock metal fashion sense.

So much for not using augs, I thought with a smirk. Seeing what happened to Bouncer Twin Two, I shouldn’t push my thrill-seeking tendencies.

Rabbit Ears noticed my stare. “You forced me to use this!” he yelled, shaking his wrecking ball of a fist at me, covered in furious electricity and flecks of Bouncer Twin Two. “You made me dishonor myself!”

He correctly guessed what I was thinking, but I couldn’t fathom his mental gymnastics. Was he seriously blaming me that he broke his promise not to use augs? This guy was fucking crazy, and that was saying something as Deen’s best friend. Blaming others for his faults—this must be why he was the Tea Party boss.

“I’ll have your head for this, Red Hood!” Rabbit Ears declared. “Nothing will be left after I’m done with you!”

He charged, hunched over and arms out, his horns pointed forward.

I sprang left, palming a couple of stones as I rolled. Gusts blew over me as if a semi-trailer raced past. Should I change his nickname to Chatty Bull? Chatty Bunny also sounded funny. Oh, it rhymed!

Rabbit Ears crashed into a stack of wooden crates. Dozens of canned goods rolled across the floor like a spreading puddle. A few reached my feet. Rabbit Ears emerged from the heaps of splintered wood with an angry roar. The wood around him caught fire, caressed by tendrils of electricity.

I hurled stones at him.

Rabbit Ears didn’t bother to evade, jutting his chin out as a challenge.

The stones hit his head—I should get a Girl Scout badge for my aim—and made him stagger back. The stones got pulverized upon hitting the metal half of his head. For sure, he was surprised by how hard I threw.

I didn’t aim for the blue device thingy. I was no longer wary of their Adumbrae abilities—Vanessa joined our side, so that was a big plus—but I wanted to rub in Rabbit Ear’s ugly face that he could use all the augs he wanted, and it wouldn’t save him. Blanchette wasn’t required. I was going to break this bastard's horns myself and shove them up his—okay, I’m not going to do that last part.

Rabbit Ears chuckled as he massaged his deformed chin. Electricity from his arms wrapped his head, but he didn’t seem fazed. Some of his installed bioaugmentronics countered the weakness of the Adumbrae.

“This is going to need a replacement,” he said, slurring his words a bit. The fire around him spread to the crates further back, the rising red glow reflected on his metal parts. “You have a good throwing arm. But is that all—?”

A metal can connecting with his nose interrupted his blabbering. The can burst open and bathed him with baked beans. Asparagus spears came next, and then mushroom soup. The Tea Party had nice provisions. I continued throwing every canned good within reach. Mom would be angry at how much food I wasted.

“You disrespectful little bitch!” he boomed, stomping for another pass.

I dove out of the way.

Again and again, he tried to ram me. More wooden crates caught fire, and metal ones crumpled. Food, mechanical parts, clothes, and whatnot scattered everywhere. I led him away from the elevator shaft, ensuring his back was to it.

“Are you afraid of me, Red Hood?” Rabbit Ears yelled, spit mixed with bright blue liquid flying around. “Are the tales of the destruction you caused in La Esperanza a hoax?”

He leaped at me, slamming down his fists to create more craters. He redecorated his precious base with nothing to show for it.

“Answer me!” he demanded. “Show me the monster that destroyed my base!”

I didn’t rush to engage him—just a bit more of playing tag. Deen and the others were winning.

Vanessa and Deen were up against White Beanpole—the latter had regrown most of his severed arm. A crumpled metal ragdoll was stuffed into a corner of the steel structure—Silver Titties meeting an unfortunate end before I could give her a better nickname. Bouncer Twin One was still not in view, likely already killed by Deen.

A bloody Boojum struggled to climb back up to the fight from a few stories below. White Beanpole must’ve kicked him off the structure. Boojum’s healing seemed to be slow without his sucky-sucky ability.

“The fearsome Red Hood turned out to be a coward!” Rabbit Ears shouted.

I snorted while perched on a metal freight container, carefully watching his next move. Goading wouldn’t work if I didn’t care squat about others.

“If you don’t want to come,” he said, “Just stand there, and I’ll blast you!”

Rabbit Ears held his electrified arms aloft.

The lightning show ceased. Spikes receded into thick metal plates. Next to disappear were his hands into the barrels of his arms. A keen drone started as a drill screwed upwards to replace his left hand. His right arm remained an open hole stump—a hugeass cannon.

Rabbit Ears aimed at me. I jumped off the container.

KABOOM!

The blast smacked my back and sent me tumbling. I pushed myself up and sprinted. Wow, that was fucking powerful.

My entire back stung. A minty feeling told me my shirt and skin were torched. There were points with gnawing pain. Several shrapnel lodged into my flesh. I didn’t flinch; this was normal for me now.

I ran in a wide arc in front of Rabbit Ears. Explosions trailed me. My hair, previously cut by White Beanpole, had grown back, wildly whipped around. Unfortunately, my clothes couldn’t regenerate.

Though this wasn’t the time to think of my appearance or modesty. The fighting had been going on for several minutes; we were undoubtedly past any future that Deen’s Guardian Angel could’ve seen. Our victory wasn’t assured. Rabbit Ears was going strong.

A huge smile was on my face while running as the cavern was consumed by fire and the earth quaked from the continuous explosions. It’s like I’m in a movie!

I made Rabbit Ears angrier by doing a couple of cartwheels, making things more thrilling. I almost spun out of control, given how fast I was going and how little practice I had since my cheerleader days, but I managed to steady myself back to running. I continued left until Rabbit Ears had a view of the elevator shaft.

He stopped firing.

Rabbit Ears gazed up, spotting White Beanpole chased up to the cavern ceiling by Deen, Vanessa, and Boojum. He uttered a string of curses and pointed his cannon up. This was the opening I was looking for!

I sprinted to Rabbit Ears as he shot up at Deen. He noticed me coming with his peripheral vision and next aimed at me. I was too close—less than ten feet away—but he still fired. I leaped at him. Something fast whizzed below me, and a powerful explosion followed, pushing me closer toward him.

I slammed right into the icky brain device on his chest, toppling him over. The brain got squished but didn’t burst. Sturdy weird thing.

But that wasn’t my target. I sat on Rabbit Ears’ chest and punched his stupid metal chin.

A keen buzzing! The drill came from my left. Acting on instinct and feeling very much unstoppable, I grabbed the noisy drill. Not a very bright idea. It shredded the fingers of my left hand. I held onto it even as it stripped the flesh from my bone. My muscles were torn, and my fingers became powerless. The drill sputtered and sparked but continued to rotate.

“Yowshshtowpeedcunt!” Rabbit Ears managed to say despite his jaw all messed up. He tried to raise himself.

I grabbed his neck and pushed him back down. It was like trying to choke a tree trunk; his neck was too broad, and my hand too small.

“GRAAARGH!” Rabbit Ears bellowed. “DHAYSH!”

With my mess of a left hand, I push the drill away from my face. Couldn’t really call it a hand. It was mostly no more; frayed flesh and bits of bones. The drill shook me like a very bumpy ride.

You are going to fucking die! I gritted my teeth, enduring the pain.

I held on tighter to Rabbit Ears’ neck, stabbing my fingers through the overlapping metal bands protecting his flesh. He roared again and tried to point his cannon arm at me. I stomped down on the barrel, playing the most painful and risky twister game.

The drill weakened. I felt it in the vibrations rocking my body. I stopped blocking it with my stump of an arm, letting it pierce my left shoulder.

“Shiiiit!” A hiss of agony escaped my lips. Tears pooled at the edge of my eyes. I reached forward with my left arm—my two forearm bones were exposed—and stabbed Rabbit Ears’ bionic eye.

He thrashed and twisted his body and actually managed to stand, with me hanging on to his front.

I relentlessly force my left arm into his eye socket. I had his cannon arm in an awkward leglock and kept it away from me. Rabbit Ears retaliated by jabbing his drill into my side.

Cramps are worse than this! I raged inside my head. I closed my right hand, taking a chunk from his neck. Rabbit Ears gargled a screamed. Then I pulled myself up to reach my goal. The horns!

I managed to grasp Rabbit Ears’ right horn. I tugged and broke the upper half off. Then I drove my new-found stake into his other eye. Rabbit Ears milled about before falling to his knees.

“You’re going to die the same way as your subordinate,” I told Rabbit Ears. My left hand regenerated inside his head. I pushed his horn deeper into his brain. “How sweet…”

He stopped groaning. His muscles relaxed.

Did I win?

Rabbit Ears fell forward and pinned me to the ground.

“Fucking gross!” I pushed him off me, pulling my arm out of his much-enlarged left eye socket and crawling away.

I stepped hard on the back of Rabbit Ears’ neck, crushing his spine to ensure he was dead. Then I bent down and snapped off his other horn. Another souvenir? I shouldn't forget or lose this one, unlike Vanessa's necklace.

Or should I shove this horn up—? Naaah.

I stared at my left hand.

It was a fascinating sight. Bones formed and lengthened like hardening plaster. Muscle followed, its strands thickening as it coiled up the bones like vines climbing trellises. Then a blanket of skin covered my flesh.

“Aaaaaah!” A nasty scream from above.

White Beanpole was falling, his outfit now more red than white. His arms flailed at a funny angle. Bright sparkles, like an army of fireflies, appeared out of nowhere and balled around him as he fell.

“Is he slowing down?” I mumbled. The power-canceling device on Rabbit Ears’ chest had stopped working.

I threw the horn I held at White Beanpole. And that was my souvenir gone.

The horn struck him with such force that he slammed against the edge of one of the angular pillars supporting the structure. The horn nailed his stomach to the metal. His upper body violently folded over the edge of the beam. Unless his power was to bend his body in inhuman ways, I was pretty sure his spine was majorly fucked.

Confirming my hunch, the fireflies around him dissipated.

I raised a brow. “That’s… it?”

White Beanpole didn’t move. I didn’t get to see what his powers actually did.

“There should be a line here about his boss being the end of him,” I whispered. Maybe I should try my hand at one-liners next time. I was never good at being quippy. “You’re permanently fired… from life. Okay, that was lame.”

“Erind!”

Deen, Boojum, and Vanessa descended from the top of the elevator shaft. Deen wasn’t exactly climbing down, but more like letting herself fall from beam to beam without losing her footing or hurting herself. She was furthest down. Her Guardian Angel must be back online.

I slowly exhaled. It’s over… time for credits to roll.

“Erind, Erind, Erind!” Deen leaped off the metal structure, about a story off the ground. She had lost her mask. Then she ran to me with arms wide open. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

She hugged me. “Thank the Mother Core you’re alive.”

“Mother Core…” I muttered. “I don’t think you’re supposed to say that to me.”

“Oh my gosh!” Deen gasped. Her eyes went wide. “You’re right. Is-is it offensive to you?”

“Of course not.” I smiled. “Just messing with you.” I patted her arm with my newly regenerated left hand.

“You look awful—” She began to say.

“Not everyone can be as beautiful as you,” I interjected with a mischievous grin.

“I’m not kidding around, Erind,” Deen sternly replied. She wiped my cheeks. “There’s blood all over you. And your clothes! We need to cover you.”

I didn’t listen to Deen’s fussing. I leaned left and glanced behind her.

Vanessa had reached the floor. She didn’t approach us, standing awkwardly at the base of the structure. She rubbed her right arm while looking away from us.

Boojum hesitantly dropped to the floor. Half of him probably wanted to leave after everything that had happened—and he was leaving us before shit went down anyway—but he still came down. Probably had many questions in his mind. Boojum glanced at Vanessa, then at the dead Rabbit Ears, before running to another corpse.

I wouldn’t have noticed Snark’s dead body if Boojum didn’t check on it. The body had tumbled away from its previous spot because of all the explosions and was covered by debris and stuff.

“Erind, I think this’ll do for now.” Deen found a wide cloth, maybe a tarp cover, with its lower half on fire. She slapped it on the ground, threw it down, and stomped on it to kill the flames. She brought the still-smoking blanket and covered my front.

“Thanks very much,” I said. Such a caring person. But I hoped she wouldn’t be as caring for what we’d have to do.

She hugged me again. “Looks like we both need to do some shopping after this.”

“Deen… listen.” I gently pushed her away. “I owe you a lot of explaining.”

“The woman with metal bands on her arm?” Deen glanced back at Vanessa. “She told me she’s helping us with the eye thing and that she’s some double agent.”

“That’s sort of part of it.”

“She also said you’ve met before. And that… you’re friends.”

“We met at Eve, but just once. As for being friends, it’s a complicated story—”

“You can tell me later,” Deen said. “I trust her if you trust her.”

That wasn’t true at all. From how Deen shielded me from Vanessa, I could tell she was a hundred percent suspicious. She wasn’t doing anything about it because her Guardian Angel was probably telling her to stay still. Vanessa could fuck Deen up with her mouth familiars.

“I promise I’ll explain everything later,” I said. “But for now… we need to do something about him.”

I didn’t need to explain who ‘him’ was. Deen turned to Boojum.

He approached us while cradling Snark in his arms. Judging by his narrowed eyes and tightly pressed lips, Boojum brought his dead friend along to snack on in case of a fight.

Boojum stopped a dozen feet away and loudly said, “So, you’re Red Hood?”

Deen walked over to him, her hands up to show no threat. “We can explain! Erind is part of our team.”

“I can piece it together,” he said. “Red Hood is with the La Esperanza team. Stories of Red Hood saving people and fighting Adumbrae… everything makes sense now.”

“Yes, exactly.” Deen. She tore the neckline of her shirt, displaying more of her chest. I thought Deen would wipe Boojum’s memory with a view of her boobs, but she was pointing at something else. “Look, I have an artificial Core, the same as you. Erind and I both have artificial Cores.”

So that’s why she covered me with this tarp, I thought, holding onto my makeshift blanket.

“If my powers are something the Professor wants to keep secret from you,” Deen continued, “then Erind is an even bigger secret. We couldn’t just reveal she’s Red Hood.”

“Why not?” Boojum said. “If we knew she was Red Hood, we would’ve been more prepared for the Tea Party.” An accusatory tone crept into his voice. “Isn’t she the reason why the Tea Party attacked the Greaves Tech Fair?”

I stole a glance at Deen. She gave me a small nod.

“We can’t say for sure,” I said. “But you’re probably right.”

“Probably?” He raised his voice. “Probably! Is that all you can say? Hundreds of people have died because of you!”

“Boojum, please,” Deen stepped closer to him. He brushed her away. “You have to understand—”

“I understand that my friend is dead,” he came nearer, presenting Snark’s body. “I understand that the Tea Party would've gone elsewhere if the two of you didn’t attend the Tech Fair. Why the hell did you have to come to Vegas?”

“We have a mission here,” I said. And that mission was to meet Mom. But, of course, Boojum would interpret my statement differently.

“Fuck your mission! Are all the deaths worth it? They are all on you! Do you—Ugh.” He staggered and dropped his friend.

Deen pummeled the back of Boojum’s head.