Mika knew Brandon wouldn't let her and Orion deal with the crystalline dragonflies, so she only stood in silence. For some reason, her left leg moved by itself to knee Brandon's stomach- no, palm.

"Should've known that you're that sharp," Orion mumbled. "But at least I tried. Sorry for hijacking your leg, Mika."

Brandon released Mika's left leg, picked up his coffin and charged at the swarm. The humongous bludgeon slammed onto the insects and smashed them to smithereens.

A dragonfly sneaked through the slaughter and flew towards Mika.

"Brandon," Orion called out, "look at this."

"Wha-" Mika's left hand moved by itself to seize the dragonfly by its head. The insect screeched and thrashed, but the tightening grip crushed its skull to pieces and silenced it forever. It dropped down headless, and her hand tossed the remains of its head at the corpse.

"Orion-" Her eyes widened at her left foot, which went to stomp the headless insect by itself.

"I apologize for hijacking again," Orion murmured. "I thought Brandon would see this display of power and be impressed, but he didn't hear me. I guess he's just busy."

More like he didn't want to see it, Orion. Mika watched the last few dragonflies shatter courtesy of Brandon's swinging coffin. He could actually spare a few seconds to look at us because those insects were nothing for him.

"Anyway, you've seen how strong you've become, right? Trust me. You can even lift Brandon's coffin now."

Mika grinned, but Brandon - who was approaching with the coffin's chains wrapping around his arms - only frowned. He certainly heard about her newfound power; even if he didn't, he couldn't possibly miss the crushed dragonfly beneath her foot. She took a closer look at his scowl, which spelled out, "I taught you the basics of fighting, not Orion. Superpower is useless in the hands of a person who can't fight."

"I have to thank you, too," Mika told Brandon with a smile. "If not for you, I would've panicked when a dragonfly flew to me."

Brandon picked Mika up and rushed to the exit. His kick turned the door into a doormat.

A hazy blanket of white greeted them outside. A silver-skinned giant - or rather, bodybuilder on steroids - awaited them in the distance, its height almost equal to a one-story building. Mika had once seen this enemy - the orgman, or "Reorganized Man." The name came from how the low-quality Seed alien in the body transformed one into a mindless tool of destruction: it reorganized one's mind and physical appearance.

"Could you say 'low-class Methuselah folk' instead?" Orion quipped in her head. "It's a mouthful, I know, but the word 'alien' really bugs me."

Brandon set Mika down and brandished his coffin. The barrel of an assault rifle slid out of the weapon container, and bullets sprayed out of it. The incoming orgman - now a piece of humanoid Swiss cheese - stopped in its tracks and collapsed. Its body exploded into silver dust upon crashing to the ground.

The barrel retracted into the smoldering coffin, and the container's chains went to bind themselves around Brandon's upper arms.

"Your weapon is overheating," Orion said. "Take a break, Brandon. Let us deal with-"

Brandon seized Mika's blue hand and gave it a death glare. Silence enveloped the area, at which Mika gulped. It felt as though the fuzzy white tendrils - like a knot of snakes - were slithering along her skin...

Suddenly, her palm shot out a huge ray of light. Brandon pulled away with a groan, his hands making their way to his squinted eyes.

"Orion!" Mika hugged Brandon. "What have you done? You hurt him!"

"Don't worry. It's just temporary blindness," Orion replied. "He needs to learn that I've made you very strong."

"Why can't you just wait a little more? It's not like we won't find more dragonflies or orgmen in the way!" Hearing incoming buzzes, screeches and booming footsteps, she released Brandon and added, "You hear that, right?"

"Um, yes. We'd better deal with them before Brandon regains his vision. Pay attention to your left hand."

Gentle heat crept around her fingers and palm, growing hotter with each passing second. Mika glanced at her hand, above which a swelling orb of light floated. Once the sphere reached the size of a basketball and the heat began searing her palm, Orion commanded, "Throw it."

With a nod, Mika flung the radiant ball at the approaching dragonflies and orgmen. It collided with a dragonfly and exploded, sending crystalline fragments everywhere.

Amazing, but did Orion really have to dazzle Brandon just so that it could teach her this?

"Sorry, Mika. I'm really sorry."

Two orgmen made their way out of the blast, their bodies littered with cracks. Mika's left hand warmed up again, but the silver-skinned ogres soon collapsed and burst into dust.

Brandon stood behind Mika, smoke escaping from the muzzles of his twin handguns - Cerberus. He twirled them before storing them in the coffin that hung behind him.

Mika studied Brandon's face. Puckered brow. Gritted teeth. His expression was pretty much yelling, "I shouldn't have told her to give you a chance, impudent alien!"

"I apologize for blinding you, but I just want to teach her how to use my power," Orion muttered. "You want her to be strong, right?"

As robotic as Orion's voice sounded, Mika could sense a speckle of guilt in its speech. Her face crumpled as she looked at her left hand, hoping to somehow give the little guy a hug.

Without saying anything, Brandon picked Mika up and hopped onto a two-story shophouse. Up there, his well-built legs propelled him from one building to another.

"Uh, I've just extracted a bit of information from your brain, Mika," Orion suddenly spoke in her head. "Brandon used to date your mother, right? Did Brandon act like this when he saw your mother falling for another man?"

Mika gasped. "Privacy" was probably something alien to Orion.

"It's okay. I know what 'privacy' means, which was why I asked you instead of forcing my way into the batch of encrypted information in your brain."

It sure was a honorable hacker, but nobody liked a hacker anyway. Good thing Brandon had never told Mika anything about the problem in his love life, and she had never bothered asking him because, well, "privacy." Though if Brandon had been jealous, he wouldn't have adopted her when her parents died, would he?

"You think so? Why wasn't he upset about the relationship then?"

Mika shook her head. I wish I know.

"Make him tell you more about his love life? If I know what made him not jealous at your mother, maybe I can befriend-"

Brandon suddenly halted, his grip on Mika loosening. Mika landed on her feet and observed him. He stood still, slightly hunched with a gaping mouth and a widened eye.

Mika scanned the surroundings and found thick white wisps. They didn't smell and felt neither cool nor warm to the skin, yet small, prickly goosebumps broke out across her skin. Looking ahead, she could find only hazy whiteness. How tall was the next building? Were there enemies ahead, and what were they? Dragonflies? Orgmen? Other form of Seed abomination?

A crash and a thud drew her attention. Brandon was on his knees, his fingers clawing into the concrete floor of the rooftop. Groans escaped through his gritted teeth.

Mika rushed to the whimpering undead and wrapped her arms around him. His muscles were tense, which stung Mika's heart. "What's wrong..." She tried to call his name, but a "father?" came out from her lips instead.

"It seems like the Methuselah folk in him is surfacing," Orion explained. "The mist here is thick enough to rouse it."

"Thicker mist?"

"Mika, my assimilation with the aggressive folk in you makes me more sensitive to the mist. That's why I can surface with just a little mist, not like the 'pure' folk in Brandon." A pause. "Something's coming from the right."

Mika released Brandon and whirled, her left arm moving by itself to block an incoming silver fist. No, this smaller, leaner guy wasn't a regular orgman. It had a pair of curved horns and leathery wings.

A gargoyle.

Silver knuckles met glossy blue - and occasionally fleshy - arms again and again. The blocked blows slowly pushed Mika to the edge of the roof. Heart pounding hard and fast, she gulped. It's okay. Brandon has taught me how to fight barehanded. I can do it.

The gargoyle pulled back a fist, at which Mika only stood still. Time to put Brandon's counterattack lessons in a good use.

The fist came and landed in Mika's hands. With a roar, she spun and hurled the gargoyle away. Gentle heat wormed around her left hand as a glowing sphere materialized above her palm.

A boom echoed from behind, and something whirred over her head. Mika looked up, the heat around her hand vanishing. A stout missile rammed into the helpless gargoyle and blasted it to bits.

Mika turned around. A poker-faced Brandon stood in the distance, threads of smoke rising from the coffin in his hands. His jacket and dress shirt were unbuttoned to show off the lustrous blue line that ran down his ripped torso.