Chapter 127 A Shape Shifter
Erin was taken aback by Mako's words. "What do you mean he's an imposter? That's Andrew!" she exclaimed, pointing at her boyfriend who Mako had in his grip.
Mako's eyes glowed with intensity as he spoke. "No, Erin. This person has been impersonating Andrew ever since we "rescued" from the burning hut. I figured it all out and even have the evidence to back it all up." he explained.
Erin's mind was racing as she tried to process this information. She looked at the person Mako was holding and studied his face. He did look exactly like Andrew, but Mako wouldn't do something like this at random. For the short amount of time that she had spent with Mako, she understood that Mako was a very kind and smart person who would always try to think ahead.
She trusted his judgment as she backed off and allowed Mako and the imposter to figure things out.
"You wanna start talking buddy? We can do this the easy way or the hard way." Mako said as his hands crackled a little bit of electricity.
"Erin... WHAT THE HECK!? You are just going to let him do this to me, after everything we have been through?" The fake Andrew shouted at Erin trying to play the emotional card.
However, Mako was anticipating this move and he replied," Oh really? If you two are so close then you should also know everything about Erin, right?"
Andrew had a look of hesitation on his face as he replied "Yes" to Mako's question with a stutter. A big smile appeared on Mako's face as he turned to Erin to ask him some personal questions that only they would know.
The truth was clear within a minute as the fake Andrew failed to answer any of the questions correctly. With every question answered wrong, Erin's heart began to break piece by piece as she could visualize it shattering into a thousand pieces like glass. She started to become angrier and angrier by the second.
Her emotions were going wild as she could not believe that she had spent the entire night cuddling with a fake person who impersonated her true love. Moreover, her previous emotions began to flare back up again as she was now once again worried as to what had happened to the real Andrew as well as Sven, and Finn.
A heavy aura began to emanate from Erin's body so much so that it made the rest of the group back up subconsciously. Erin's emotions were going completely out of control and shooting through the roof, but her face reflected none of it as there wasn't even a single tear or lip gesture.
All that pent-up frustration, anger, sadness, heartbreak, and tension began to pool inside of her as she began to undergo a fundamental change. The surrounding temperature suddenly dropped by about 30 degrees and everyone started to feel chilly all of a sudden. The winds started to blow fiercely and everyone looked confused all the while Erin's aura continued to deepen.
After a few moments, all of the supernatural activity came to an abrupt stop and Erin contained all of her aura inside herself again. She took a deep breath and exhaled chilling fog and then she looked up to stare at the fake Andrew dead in the eye.
"Let him go, Mako," Erin said firmly, trying to keep her voice steady. "I want to do this part myself."
Mako hesitated for a moment before finally releasing the person he had been holding. The imposter stumbled forward, gasping for breath and rubbing his neck.
"Now, I am not going to be as patient as Mako, tell me what happened to Andrew!" Erin demanded while walking toward the imposter.
As she walked over, several spikes of ice started to form around her and floated in mid-air following Erin.
Iris gasped as even though she was dealing with the pain of the bite, she was more shocked to see her best friend use a new ability and a strong one at that.
The imposter who was impersonating Andrew was on all fours and even as Erin walked over with a threatening aura, he just smirked at her. The fake Andrew's face began to melt and bend in different ways. The sounds of tearing and bones grinding against each other could be heard as the imposter began to change his appearance right in front of everyone.
"HaHaHa! I am amazed you caught on so early, this has got to be a record!" The imposter said as finished changing his appearance.
Now standing in front of everyone was an unfamiliar boy with long and wild jet-black hair with deep blue eyes and a sharp long face. He had a weird wide creepy smile on his face which were showcasing his row of sharp pointy teeth. He had weird black spots on the side of his cheek which looked like some ink was splattered in, but it was definitely part of the skin.
"Shape Shifting Ability!" Bill shouted with disgust as he immediately recognized the ability right away and now all the pieces start falling into place for him as well.
Now that the imposter had revealed his true form to Erin, she became even angrier as she aimed all the ice shards at him and launched them with full force.
"ANSWER ME!!" Erin shouted as multiple ice shards flew threw the air like bullets.
The imposter continued to maintain his creepy grin as he wasn't bothered one bit by what was coming for him. He quickly got on his feet and cracked his neck as he prepared for the incoming attack.
The ice shards came at him but he didn't dodge any of them. He simply took a stance and attacked the ice shards themselves with his bare hands as they came to him, smashing them right into impact.
The imposter moved swiftly and with great precision and was able to deal with all the ice shards without even breaking a sweat.
Everyone watched with their mouths wide open as they had never seen such strength and great technique. Mako had been trying to learn basic fighting techniques by watching videos on his holophone, but his fighting skill was still like a toddler compared to the imposter.
"Chill Babe, are you really going to treat me like this after all that cuddling you did with me tonight?" The imposter taunted Erin who just stood there in shock as she couldn't believe that even her newly awakened ability was no match for this guy.
"Who are you?" Mako asked, still startled from watching that great display of technique.
The imposter didn't reply and instead reached into his back pocket and quickly pulled out a small ball that looked like a metallic marble.
"It's been fun, but I got what I came for! Adios!," he said, before smashing the metal ball on the ground which released a bright light, blinding everyone temporarily.
It was a small flash grenade that blinded everyone in the vicinity. As soon as Mako regained his vision, the imposter was already gone.
Erin and Mako exchanged a look before taking off in different directions to look for him. They searched the area for any sign of him, but he had vanished without a trace.
As they made their way back to where they had left Iris, Erin couldn't shake the feeling of anger and incompetence. Who was this imposter, why was he so strong, and why had he been pretending to be Andrew? She just wanted to know the truth and find out where his real boyfriend is.
"Mako... How exactly did you realize that he was an imposter? You said you had evidence," Erin asked as they walked back to where the rest of the group was.
"I had my suspicions from the very start. First of all, in a survival competition where cadets receive points for defeating other cadets, why would that supposed group of super-strong cadets spare Sven and Finn? Also, the fact that he kept pausing whenever he used their names in his story showed that he didn't know them, and that is why he kept on forgetting." Mako explained.
"Secondly, did you notice the way he fought the wolves? Not only did he not use any ability, but also refrained from dealing damage to the wolves in any critical positions which lead me to believe that he was the one who launched the surprise attack in the first place." Mako added.
"Why do you think that? I mean, if he just wanted to blend in with us, releasing a surprise attack isn't really a smart move," Erin said.
"He didn't have a choice," Mako replied.
Erin was now confused as she had no idea what Mako was referring to and so Mako narrated the entire series of events about how he caught him sneaking around the camp and then left him in charge after Leon discovered the tablet, which both went to check out.
Mako believed that the fake Andrew intended to release the wolf beasts on the group as a distraction to make them ditch the tablet and come to help and not stumble across the main piece of information that could blow over his whole cover, but unfortunately, he was too late as Mako and Leon had only learned the truth.
"What did you find on the tablet?" Erin asked with worried anticipation.
Mako sighed before saying," The event logs said that Sven, Finn, and Andrew had been defeated early this afternoon and were removed from the island,"