The afternoon was chilly and windy and cool. The autumn breeze rustling trough crumbling leaves and barren branches as it passed through the forest. At the same time, the last dying lights of the day tinting the very sky a golden hue as darkness beckoned beyond the twilight.

It all came together to create the perfect picture of a solemn natural order in its waning days. Life giving way to death in preparation for winter. The orange and reddish-brown hues appearing as the last gasps of a passing season.

I felt the Magic in the air resonating with my own. Reveling in the defiance of the trees and the worms eating the leaves. Savoring their desire to live for another year and to preserve their own existences.

It made me want to sit against one of those trees with a cup of hot chocolate and take it all in. To slowly savor these last precious moments before he onset of the snows and the bitter cold.

Sadly, those plans didn't mesh well with what my girlfriend wanted to do.

"Come on Cecil! You're almost there!" She cheered me on. "Make that white stuff already!"

"Shut the frick up! You're making it sound weird! Also, they're black and white! Also also, where the frick did you get panda blood anyway!?"

"None of yer beeswax! Now get to [Spawning]!"

I cursed her under my breath, but kept moving the Magic all the same. Birthing a creature with as little Magic as possible to preserve the animal as it usually was. That is, to keep it from being able to burst out of enclosures like the Kool-Aid man. Something told me that whomever ended up buying these kinda, sorta counterfeits wouldn't be pleased if the Panda they bought ended up ramming its way through half a block.

The babies came out half-blind and squirming. A pair of genetically identical snowballs whimpering in the cold.

Elsie wrapped them up in a thick blanket and put them with the others.

"I take back everything I said about your great-grandpa. You're clearly the bad influence in the family." I almost spat. "Who even comes up with these ideas?"

"Clever entrepreneurs! That's who!" She giggled to herself. Almost salivating while caressing the little fuzzballs. "Zoos usually pay a premium of up to 1.1 million US dollars a year for a pair of these bad boys. A pair of pandas can literally bankrupt an entire zoo and getting them to actually make more of themselves is so flipping hard that breeders in China will bend over backwards to ensure any mothers breeze through their term. This..."

She brought up one of the little mewling balls of fur.

"This is an infinite money glitch if I've ever seen one. We're gonna be millionaires before you know it!"

"You say that, but I don't see how we're gonna sell them. I'm pretty sure even having one of these outside a licensed zoo means serious prison time."

Elsie waved me off.

"You worry too much. I know a guy in another town that has connections. These will be registered as if they came from a legit breeding facility and we'll get a nice chunk o' change in exchange for our services."

"And you think that'll work?" I asked skeptically.

"Of course it'll work! What are they gonna do? Not take in the pandas that we offer? After we've gone through all the trouble of running a successful and ethical breeding program?"

"I don't know about the ethical part." I murmured.

"Well, in that case, ask yourself. Did any pandas come to us from out in the wild?"

"No?"

"Were any pandas taken into captivity illegally?"

"No." I said. Now seeing where she was going.

"Did we happen to smuggle any breeding pairs across borders?"

"I'm pretty sure we're about to smuggle a bunch of babies across a bunch of borders." I pointed out.

Elsie made a rude noise with her lips.

"Whatever Triple C. Sit back down and give me a couple more babies. We've already got a buyer and they're expecting them by Monday."

She paused to inspect one of the cubs.

"Also, make sure you're making an even number of males and females. It'll look suspicious if they're all boys or girls."

I grumble a bit more, but ended up doing what she asked me.

"You know, it occurs to me that we are both filthy rich and that neither of us need the money." I commented after bringing another pair into the world.

"Not true. My dear Triple C. Not true at all. You are someone of means for your age thanks to your nightly trips to the farming town and I am a spoiled little princess with a huge allowance. I still have to get permission to get whatever I want to buy and I've been told no more than once. That and you can't afford as much as you think. The farm is one thing you do for all of us and for the world. It's a way to save lives. Not a way to make money. This..."

She brought up another cub.

"This is gonna make us rich." She put it with the rest. Tittering to herself all the way.

"Besides, don't go around looking so glum. Spending time with me isn't all that bad. You get to make money, you get to make a positive impact by preserving an endangered species, you get to train up Instant Activation while hanging out and you get to spend time with me! Honestly, you'd think a guy would be happy."

She poked my side.

"Not like you have any other friends to hang out with after all. Not after your debut as Triple C."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Well that was true enough at least.

Whatever progress I had made towards getting my friends back after my first fight with Julian had more or less evaporated like morning mist after my rematch.

Turns out people got a little nervous when they saw a fellow student drowning in a swarm of giant cockroaches.

That stunt had landed me in detention as... apparently... people were fine with being electrocuted and set on fire, but sending a couple hundred roaches their way was too much. Not only that, but I was also on the hook for Julian's therapy bills.

AND I had ended up with a new nickname.

Creepy Crawly Cecil.

Not that anyone had the nerve to say it to my face.

Indeed, these days it was hard to find anyone with the nerve to say anything to my face. Including half my teachers. I had only found out about a few of the failed quizzes through after-school phone calls and even the teachers that did speak to me did so from a respectable distance.

The old me would have been mad, but I honestly had to side with Pool-Cecil on this one.

Julian moved so fast that my eyes literally weren't able to track him half the time, Yuann could stop time around him at will and Emma could turn a green field into a smoking crater in the span of a single blink. I had to do what I had to do to get ahead and no one could deny that the tactic had been effective. Even coach Homer had been screaming like a little girl, after all.

Matter of fact, I was already thinking up plans to use the Roach Tide in tandem with my other units. Kind of like a grounded version of the Swarmlings.

'That, and I'm training my Free-Form Magic to the point of Elsie calling it masochistic. They can all make fun of me as much as they want. We'll see who's laughing after the winter tournament.'

I heard a buzz then and I turned my head to Elsie's pocket. She picked up her phone and scrolled through some messages. Frowning a bit and then sighing.

"Okay, come on Cecil. Duty calls."

"And by duty you mean?"

"Grandpa James. I think I'm tagging along to one of your little expeditions."

She picked up the basket of adorable fluffballs and made her way towards her family home. The little cuties reaching out over the edges with their soft paws as if begging for attention.

The sky had become pitch black by the time the lights of the Robertson estate came into view. The windows of the uber-mansion sparkling like diamonds stuck in the sides of a mighty mountain.

An apt comparison, because while the place was ostensibly a residence that resembled a palace, its actual walls were those of a renaissance era star-fort. The kind that could eat cannon shells for breakfast, lunch and dinner without so much as a dent.

Say what you like about the Robertson clan, they took the safety of their own very seriously. To the point where I wouldn't be surprised if the underground levels were as secure as the secret bunkers of major world leaders.

'Or more, considering how much Magic went into the bloody place. It isn't anything like the cheapo-mansion I got as a bribe or the house we got when we moved here. Each one of those bricks has more Magic in them than the entire foundations of both my homes combined. I wouldn't be surprised if it could take a couple of nukes without so much as a scratch.'

I felt my mind going back to the notions of safety I currently had for my family and once more determined that we had to move.

'They may call me paranoid, but the old man isn't stupid. If he thought going this far might be necessary, then anything less is taking undue risk.'

I clenched my hands into fists and vowed to get a fatter payment for all those tones of food I was growing each passing day, in addition to the bribe that would undoubtedly come as payment for whatever escapade Carlyle had in store for tonight.

'Maybe the panda smuggling wasn't such a bad idea after all.' I mused. 'Should probably ask Elsie to cut me into whatever scheme she thought of next. If pandas were possible, then I'm fairly sure I could do the same for other endangered animals.'

Those ploys would have to wait until later though.

We entered the house through the front door after being buzzed in. Elsie handing off the basket of pandas off to a serving man with the air of a refined lady giving up her coat or the keys to daddy's car. The employee then passed it along to another, younger girl. One who looked to be about mine or Elsie's age.

Like the older man, she had shining blond hair. Not unlike that of Mercy.

However, the two of them would never be mistaken for each other.

Mercy was someone who radiated Magic, even at level 1.

In contrast, neither of these two seemed to radiate anything at all.

I took a second look at the man in question and forced myself to maintain a neutral expression.

'Weak.' Pool-Cecil hissed in my ear. 'Pathetic. It does not even have a Core.'

'They are people. Neither of them are an it.' I chided.

'Less than a slave.' Pool-Cecil insisted. 'We should offer up some of our units to the old man. They can do anything these wastrels can, while being more or less as strong as we are right now. That, and we can make them more physically appealing if that is what the old man wishes. This is just sad.'

'He won't replace them.' I thought. 'In a way, them working here is kind of a favor. A kindness.'

'It would be kinder to slit their throats so that stronger seeds could blossom.' Pool-Cecil said condescendingly. 'That, or to breed them with stock of some worth. Though I personally wouldn't bother.'

I squashed the thoughts and kept moving. Going up the stairs and down a bunch of mostly-empty hallways. Until we reached the sound-proof study that belonged to the old patriarch.

Elsie touched the doorhandle and creaked it open.

And then we both wished she hadn't.

"... and you have to apologize yesterday! You can't say those kinds of things in public you decrepit old fart! Japan is one of the strongest economies in the world! Have you heard of social media!? Have you seen the clips that got out!? You're gonna tank the freaking company!?" James Robertson's voice rang out.

"I will do no such thing! I have nothing to apologize for!" Carlyle roared in indignation. "And how DARE you take their side! After all your mother and her family went through! After all I went through! You unfilial son!"

There was a groan of frustration and then a deep, sad sigh.

"That was almost a hundred years ago you senile imbecile! You're on Chirper picking fights with people whose parents weren't even conceived back then! You have to apologize right now before our stock tanks even further!"

"That doesn't matter! I'll never forgive the Japanese! Never!"

I thought that was the wildest thing I was going to hear that night.

I was wrong.

"And why would you want me to forgive them anyways!? Have you seen how they act!? Have you seen the filthy smut they watch!?"

Carlyle Robertson. Patriarch of the Robertson clan and one of the most influential and dangerous people in the world, picked up the cover of a lamp and placed it on his head. Then he went one step further by pulling on the corners of his eyes and doing a silly little dance.

"Herro! Rook at me! I wake up and deny war crime! Hu hiuck! I get sent to other worrd and get cheat powa and act rike entitred degenerate! Kya! Oni-chan!"

I fell forward on my face. Sent tumbling by the sheer audacity of the old man's words.

Both old men looked at me. James Robertson with a horrified expression. Carlyle Robertson with his fingers still pulling at the corners of his eyes and a lamp cover on his head.

I stared up at them both. Mouth hanging open in astonishment.

None of us spoke for a good two minutes.

Then, with a self-reproachful grunt, Carlyle Robertson took the lamp cover off his head, placed it back on the lamp and looked at his son.

"Is what I would say if the allegations were true. Which they aren't. I love and respect all people equally and I would never be prejudiced against anybody."

I blinked several times in quick succession, but otherwise said nothing.

Then I looked at James and saw that he had fallen backwards. Supporting himself against the massive oaken desk with a hand plastered on his face.

I looked back at Elsie and saw that she had both hands on her face. Her blush still managing to peek out despite that.

'Tell him that we want 20 million in exchange for our silence.' Pool-Cecil purred. 'No. Better make it 50 million. That gives us somewhere to go in the negotiations.'

"Anyway." Carlyle Robertson began again. "Hope you didn't have plans for Halloween Cecil! Because we're going to the saddest place on Earth for a wild party!"

"This room?" I blurted out.

Carlyle laughed.

"No silly! Much, much worse! Pack your bags cause we're going to Detroit!"