My Scumbag System - Chapter 260

Chapter 260: Light Me Up, Stray Dog
“Then what am I supposed to aim at? The walls? The ceiling? Give me something to work with here, Bubblegum.”

Her eyes locked with mine, those purple irises intense in the firelight. They held a fierce intelligence that cut through her usual bored facade like a knife through paper.

“Me.”

“What?”

“Trust me, Stray Dog.” She moved closer with her expression deadly serious and not a trace of her usual sarcasm anywhere to be found. Her voice dropped lower and became almost intimate in its intensity. “Light me up.”

I hesitated for exactly one second before doing as she asked. I created a controlled continuous plume of fire from my palm, close enough that she was illuminated in the orange glow but far enough that I wouldn’t actually roast her alive. The light caught in her hair and transformed the indigo and pink strands into a halo of flame colors that made her look like some kind of punk rock angel.

Skylar moved into the light with her body silhouetted against the flames. She spread her arms wide like a performer about to begin her routine, and then she activated her Aspect.

She exhaled a thick ethereal smoke from her mouth, but instead of being the dark fog I’d seen her use before something extraordinary happened. The smoke caught the light from my fire and absorbed it while transforming it into something else entirely. The particles seemed to crystallize in mid-air and became vessels for the light itself. What poured from her became a swirling cloud of luminous phantom shapes, identical copies of us that each glowed with inner light.

Perfect doppelgangers that moved with uncanny synchronization like a hall of mirrors come to life.

Holy shit. That was actually brilliant.

The shadow creatures hesitated while clearly confused by the sudden multiplication of light sources. They darted toward one illusion only to retreat when it burned them, then tried another and suffered the same fate. Their movements became erratic and uncoordinated as our luminous doubles circled them like predators surrounding wounded prey.

“Keep it steady,” Skylar said with her voice tight from concentration and a thin sheen of sweat forming on her forehead. “More fire. I need more light to work with.”

I increased the output and turned the flame into a continuous stream that painted the underground chamber in shades of gold and amber. Skylar’s smoke wove through it and created a vortex of light and illusion that spiraled outward while filling the subway platform. The illusions began to move independently with each one seemingly real and each one a perfect trap for our shadowy enemies.

To make this work properly we had to stay close. Back to back with my fire becoming her power source and her illusions becoming my shield. We moved as a single unit with four arms and two Aspects perfectly synchronized in a way I’d never experienced before.

This communion of power. This joint creation that was more than what either of us could do alone.

Her back pressed against mine as we rotated while tracking the movements of the shadow creatures. I could feel the curve of her body through her combat gear and the heat radiating through her clothes. Her hair whipped across my face as she ducked under a shadow’s lunge, and it carried the scent of cherry blossoms mixed with something darker. Clove cigarettes maybe, or expensive incense. The contrast was oddly fitting for someone like her.

This was insane. Her control was incredible since she wasn’t just making copies. She was weaving an intricate web of light and lies while using my power as the thread. Each illusion moved independently and confused the shadow creatures while drawing their attacks away from our real bodies. The shadows would lunge at what they thought was me only to find their claws passing through a phantom that burned them with concentrated light.

When the shadows attacked an illusion the light burned them and caused them to shriek in silent agony before retreating. Their forms would temporarily disintegrate like smoke caught in a strong wind before regrouping with diminished mass. Slowly and methodically we carved a path forward toward the tunnel where the subway car presumably waited with our objective.

“Not bad, Stray Dog,” she said with her voice close to my ear as we moved forward in our deadly dance. Her breath was warm against my skin and created a stark contrast to the cold air around us. “You follow directions better than I expected. Most men with your ego would be too stubborn to let a girl take the lead.”

“I’m full of surprises,” I replied while adjusting the angle of my flame as she created a new pattern of illusions. Our movements had fallen into a rhythm that was almost like a dance where we anticipated each other’s steps before they happened. “You’re not so bad yourself, Bubblegum. For a spoiled rich girl playing at being Hunter.”

“Call me that again and I’ll feed you to the shadows.” Despite her words there was almost a hint of amusement in her voice. “These simulation deaths are quite painful, I hear. Seventy percent pain reception means you’d feel most of it.”

“Noted. I’ll save it for special occasions then.”

“Special occasions like what?”

“When I’m feeling particularly suicidal.”

She actually laughed at that, a short sharp sound that was more genuine than anything I’d heard from her before. “At least you’re honest about your death wish.”

We reached a junction in the tunnel and paused to catch our breath. The shadows seemed to be regrouping while gathering in the darkness just beyond the reach of our light. They pooled together and merged into larger more menacing forms that pulsed with malevolent intent.

We took cover behind a wrecked ticket booth with both of us breathing hard from the exertion of maintaining our Aspects continuously. The metal counter was cold against my palms and years of rust flaked off onto my skin. We were still close with our shoulders touching as we crouched in the confined space. Her scent was stronger here in this small pocket of relative safety.

Now seemed as good a time as any to ask the question that had been bugging me since the day we met.

“Okay, Bubblegum.” I ignored her glare that could have melted steel at close range. “What’s the deal? At the entrance exam you looked at me like I was interesting. Ever since then you’ve looked at me like I’m something you scraped off your boot. What changed?”

She was silent for a moment with her expression unreadable in the dim light. Then surprisingly she took off her headphones, which were just a cosmetic item in the simulation anyway. Without them she looked younger and more vulnerable somehow. The tough punk rock exterior softened just enough to reveal a glimpse of the person beneath all that carefully constructed apathy.

“At the exam,” she began while her voice lacked its usual sardonic edge, “you were a mystery. A zero with a hidden power. An anomaly in a sea of predictable mediocrity.” She finally looked at me with her purple eyes sharp and honest in a way I hadn’t seen before. “That was interesting. Like finding a knife in a drawer full of spoons.”

She twisted one of her knives in her hands, a nervous gesture that was completely at odds with her usual composure. The blade caught the flickering light and sent brief reflections dancing across her face.

“Then I saw you at the draft. The way you looked at Natalia. The way Emi looks at you. The way Soomin flinches when you’re near.” Her eyes narrowed while becoming cold and calculating once more. “I saw the game you were playing. The web you were weaving thread by sticky thread.”

I felt something cold settle in my stomach that had nothing to do with the shadow creatures’ touch. It was the ice of recognition, of being truly seen. This girl with her bored expression and her combat knives had looked straight through my carefully constructed masks like they were made of tissue paper.

Shit. She’d actually figured me out.

“I grew up around men like you, Satori,” she continued while her voice stayed flat but carried an undercurrent of something raw.

“My father’s a rock star. I’ve spent my whole life watching charismatic predators collect and discard people. Girls who thought they were special. Boys who thought they were friends. All of them just stepping stones in someone else’s game.” Her lip curled slightly and revealed perfect white teeth.

“And you? You were just another one of them. The interesting anomaly was just another cliché. The mysterious bad boy with a dark secret.”

I didn’t deny it because I couldn’t. She had seen the truth or at least enough of it to make an educated guess. She was more perceptive than I had given her credit for, this tiny goth girl with her smoke and mirrors. Maybe that’s why her Aspect suited her so perfectly since she was accustomed to seeing through illusions.

“And is that what you see now?”