"What now?" Donny asked.

"Not much we can do, but leave it to the government." Will replied. He had never heard of Joseph Giles in the future and he hoped that despite the ripples he had made, it would end up the same way, especially with the information Norman had given him on Nirvana. Hopefully, it would cancel out the ripples he had made once he handed it over to the government.

The two left the plant once again, this time much earlier than they expected, and empty-handed.

Once they returned to the warehouse, they stared at the Metamorphosis Pod.

"What do we do with this thing now?" Donny asked with arms crossed.

"Might as well get rid of the bodies before they start to decompose, it might even be enough for the pod to reach Cat-1."

Despite a few of the Category 1 corpses being dead for a couple of days already, other than the wounds they received, they were all still in good condition.

They planted the Metamorphosis Pod into the gravel and dirt road just outside before feeding all the Category 1 corpses they had collected to it. A canvas was then set up over the pod to keep it from being spotted by anyone.

They returned to the compound afterwards.

"You're back early." Grandpa said from where he was enjoying tea on the porch.

"Something came up." Will said as he sat down and poured himself a cup, while Donny gave Grandpa a wave and went inside.

Grandpa nodded at Donny before turning to face Will. "When are we going to see my great-granddaughter?"

"I can take you anytime you want." Will raised his cup. "But you'll have to stay over there. I doubt the military will let you leave." He took a sip.

"Forget it." Grandpa waved his hand. "Your mother is with them, they're safe. I have to keep an eye on you to make sure to don't do anything stupid."

"Things should be calming down for now, we'll be laying low for a while."

"I'll believe it when I see it." Grandpa let out a snort.

"Where's Broski?" Will looked around for the giant husky.

"Playing with Diana. Which reminds me, it's time to feed her." Grandpa stood up as Karen came outside.

She looked like she had just woken up and was still in her sweat shirt and pants. She sat down where Grandpa had been sitting and poured herself a cup of tea.

"You're up late." Will said.

"You're up early." She examined the gear he still had on. "Did you go somewhere?"

"Monica didn't tell you?" Will looked at her messy bed head. "Never mind. Just checking on some things."

There was a moment of silence as they both drank out of their cups.

"Thank you." Karen suddenly said.

"For what?"

"Donny told me how you got that wound. How you fought off the ant so that we could escape."

"It's nothing."

"It's not nothing. You put yourself at risk to save me."

"Why did you put yourself at risk to save Gerald?" Will suddenly changed the topic.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"He's a good guy. He helped us out a lot, especially when Monica was sick." Karen said, tracing her finger around the cup.

"What about Monica?"

"What about her?"

"Why go so far for her?"

Karen looked up from the cup and pursed her lips before deciding to speak. "My family is all the way in Calgary. I grew up around three older brothers, so I was always trying to keep up and compete with them. But I could never win against them. That's where I learned how to fight, I took MMA classes with them when they got into it."

She had a fond look on her face as she reminisced about her brothers. Karen was reminded of something at that moment.

"Oh, by the way, I noticed that you and Donny have no clue how to fight. The both of you only swing your crowbars around like brutes. You're both only relying on your supernatural strength."

"It's not a crowbar..."

"Anyway, after we finish healing up, I'll be teaching you two how to fight. Monica too."

"Alright." Will agreed.

"Your Grandpa can join us too if he wants."

"I'll ask but I doubt he'll be interested in joining us."

That had been Will's plan. Because of his Bloodline abilities and the fact that he had always been in a support role, other than shooting and the basic mandatory two weeks of self-defense taught when they first entered the company he had joined, he had never learned how to properly fight.

He had been waiting to see what abilities he would gain and for the entire world to evolve first before he found a combat instructor who could change and adapt the current fighting styles into one more suitable for his abilities in superpowered fights. He especially needed to learn how to fight properly with a weapon—a skill that had fallen out of use ever since the introduction of firearms.

With his current abilities, there was one man in Hong Kong that Will wanted to learn from.

"Now where was I?" Karen tilted her head.

"Your brothers." Will reminded.

"Right. When it was time for me to choose where to go for university, I chose to leave Calgary and come over here instead. I guess I wanted to get away from under them and prove that I could make it on my own." Karen's eyes started to grow misty. "But now all this crazy stuff is happening, and all that stuff feels so small now. I don't care anymore. I just want to see them again, and I hope they're all okay."

She turned her head and blinked away the tears that had been building up.

"Monica is like my family over here." Karen said looking up at Will. "That's why I owed Gerald for looking out for her, and I'd like to think that I would put myself at risk to help if any of you guys here were in danger too, especially now that we both owe you."

Hearing all that, Will felt like Karen's situation was quite similar to his own during his first life. Because he had lost his family and Donny, Sara had been there for him. He would do anything for her.

Will shook his head. "You don't owe me anything."

"What about you?" Karen asked. "Why did you save me?

"Because I consider both of you and Monica friends."

Karen smiled when she heard that. "And I thought you were just Mister Grumpy all the time. I like you better like this. I know there's a Japanese word for people like you. Tsu-something. Tsunami? Tsu..." Karen began playfully testing words out loud.

Will grunted and stood up. He, of course, knew the word she was trying to say.

Downing the rest of his cup of tea, he left the table and went to the door.

"You don't have to be shy." Karen teased from behind him.

Inside, he found Broski rolling a ball at Diana. The ball slipped inside the cage and the former hen nudged it back towards the dog with her half-beak, half-snout. They continued going back and forth like that as Will went into the clinic to check on his wound.

----------------------------------------

That night, Will dreamt of an unforgettable time in his life.

Donny was just headhunted into the Golden Shield Guild that was starting to make a name for itself, and Will had been newly "promoted" to a dangerous driver position, transporting supplies to the front-line bases.

Because of these two reasons, Will had been in an extremely sour mood, even after he successfully reached the front-line base for his first shipment with no trouble.

He was still young back then. Looking back now, he was like a child throwing a tantrum.

So when he met the person receiving the shipment—an annoying young British woman with her long brown hair tied up in a ponytail, he wasn't in a talking mood.

"Oh, good. You're finally here. You must be the new driver?" She said once he finished parking by the medical tent and exited the vehicle. She was in scrubs and UN vest.

Will silently handed the papers for her to sign, while he began to unload the medical supplies from the truck.

"Ah, of course." She accepted the clipboard and signed the papers. "Terrible thing that happened to the last driver. I hope your trip wasn't unpleasant?"

Will continued to quietly transfer the boxes.

"Not one for words, I see..."

After he finished, he held out his hand for the clipboard.

"Well, you're rather grumpy, aren't you? You can at least say 'please'."

There was silence as Will kept his hand held out.

"It's just one word—'please'."

Will beckoned with his hand.

"Come on now, give it a try." She said, putting a hand on her hip.

Will let out an exasperated sigh, he beckoned with his hand once again as he impatiently grunted. "Mm."

"Well...at least that's something. Here you go then." She handed him the clipboard and gave him a smile. "And thank you for your hard work. I know how dodgy it can be out there but it very much helps us out all that way out here."

Will nodded and moved to enter his vehicle. The pretty young woman waved at him.

"See you again, Mister Grumpy."