Damian returned home just in time for lunch.

As he appeared, his daughters were coming down the stairs with their hair still wet, most likely they got quite dirty from playing.

Damian smiled at them before approaching and taking them in his arms; the smell of shampoo immediately reached his nose.

"Did you have fun playing? I'm sure you made a mess in the yard," Damian said, laughing at their attempts to look innocent.

"Hm, it's fun to play with Tyr," Alice said, nodding with a smile.

"Daddy, I used Mommy's phone and searched on the internet. It said that T.rexes are much bigger than Tyr is now. How long will it take for him to grow?" Ivy asked with curiosity.

"Sweetie, I'm not sure, but it will probably take several years. Since they're such large animals, they grow slowly," Damian explained to them.

"How about we watch a documentary about dinosaurs after lunch?" Damian suggested as he walked with the girls to the dining room.

All three of them nodded with a smile, liking the idea.

Damian reached the dining room and sat down with his whole family; only Natasha was missing as she was working.

"Where did you go?" Ophelia asked while they were eating.

"I went to Knowhere. The place has changed quite a bit and looks much more prosperous compared to before. There are many merchants and travelers," Damian said.

"And to think that used to be a shady place, more like a black market," Carol said, chuckling slightly.

"Isn't it possible for them to track Earth with all the constant traveling?" Ophelia asked, looking at Damian.

"It's possible, but it's not that Earth is a secret. It's just that no one has an interest in it. The average technology level of the world is too low to attract the attention of other civilizations," Damian casually explained.

"By the way, do you know about the movie 'Avatar'?" Carol asked, looking at Damian.

"'Avatar'?" Damian asked, confused, not sure what exactly she was referring to.

"It's a science fiction movie about the discovery of a new planet where they find a blue alien species. From the trailer, it seems to be a romance between a human and an alien. I want to watch it," Carol said, looking at Damian as if thinking about their relationship.

"You know I'm not an alien, right? If anyone were to be one, it would be you," Damian teased.

"I'm half human. You're not human, so you should count as an alien," Carol retorted.

"Mommy, am I an alien too?" Alice asked, surprised, thinking she wasn't green or tentacled.

"Sweetie, your mom doesn't dislike us because we're aliens. Let's go, I'll find you a green mom," Damian pretended to console Alice.

"One with tentacles?" Ophelia asked, teasing.

"Sweetie, you were born on Earth, so of course you're not an alien," Carol consoled Alice while laughing.

Damian was about to say that he was also born on Earth, but he eventually kept quiet because his own existence is a mystery in itself.

"It doesn't seem like a movie for kids," Ana said, checking on her phone.

"Well, we can leave the girls with grandma and go on a romantic date," Carol said, smiling as if the people she mentioned weren't present.

Sophia and the three girls looked at Carol with dissatisfaction, especially since Ana and Ophelia didn't seem to dislike the idea.

The whole family finished lunch with laughter and cheerful conversations.

As soon as they stood up, the three little ones quickly dragged Damian to the couch to put on the dinosaur documentary, secretly planning to note down cool dinosaurs to bring to the yard.

Damian chuckled slightly at their enthusiasm before starting the documentary. The three little ones sat on his lap as he hugged them; fortunately, he was still small enough to accommodate them.

The documentary discussed various types of dinosaurs and their habitats.

His daughters watched the documentary with interest for about two hours until it ended.

The three of them fell silent, lost in their own thoughts.

Damian looked at his daughters with a slightly worried smile. After all, the documentary lightly touched on the topics of carnivores and herbivores, showing the beauty but also the ruthlessness of nature.

"Daddy, why do herbivores have to be eaten by carnivores?" Ivy asked, looking at her father.

"Sweetie, that's a bit of a complicated question. You see, herbivores eat plants, right?" Damian began with a sigh.

"If there were only herbivores, would everyone be happy, and no one would eat anyone else, right?"

"But reality isn't that pretty. If there were only herbivores, they would eventually have offspring nonstop, which would cause an overpopulation... it would cause too many herbivores," Damian corrected himself with a slight smile, as his daughters might not understand.

"If there are too many herbivores, they would eventually consume all the plant life, leading to the death of the entire ecosystem," Damian explained.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"The existence of carnivores is a way to regulate the number of herbivore animals so that the ecosystem is perfectly balanced, as all things should be," Damian chuckled at his joke.

His daughters nodded as what their father said seemed to make sense. However, they couldn't help but feel sad for the animals that were eaten.

"It's not that it's not sad; it's just how the world is," Damian sighed, seeing their sad faces as he hugged them.

All three of them nodded slightly, still a bit disheartened. After all, they could still remember the herd of triceratops, which are herbivores.

"Come on, my little ones, give me a little smile at least," Damian said, acting childishly to cheer them up.

As he tried to cheer them up, he suddenly froze, his eyes turning intensely red as he looked to the side and saw Carol accompanied by Ana, Ophelia, and Sophia recording him.

"She wants to silence us, retreat," Carol said, disappearing in a golden flash.

The others followed suit and quickly disappeared, fearing Damian's "punishment" for witnessing his embarrassing moment.

Damian felt a bit embarrassed, but seeing that his act was effective and his daughters seemed better, he couldn't care less and continued to cheer them up until they showed their little smiles.

Seeing them in good spirits, Damian spent the rest of the afternoon playing with them, making sure they were in high spirits and not thinking about unpleasant things.

He only told them the truth because he would either have to lie to them or not answer them, and neither of those was an acceptable option for him.

....

Natasha pushed her ship forward on autopilot while resting her feet against the control panel.

If she looked to the side, she could see a screen displaying a vehicle moving below her ship.

Bruce and Betty had left their motel early and were traveling towards New York.

Natasha couldn't help but idly think that everything seemed to happen in that place. Besides, she really didn't know what to comment on about Bruce's plan.

She understood he was desperate and had no options left to find a cure, but trusting a stranger wasn't a very good idea.

Natasha knocked the back of her head against the seat with a small groan of complaint.

This was the part of being an agent she didn't like, having to follow objectives for long periods. She supposed she had softened up amidst all the sweetness with her family, although she wouldn't have it any other way.

Natasha followed them for a few hours until they finally arrived in New York. There was a long line of cars as several police officers were inspecting vehicles entering the city.

Bruce and Betty slowly left their van and walked to the edge of the bay. There, they rented a boat that would take them to the city.

"I'm a little worried about my father. I'm afraid that when we get to the other side, he'll be waiting for us with soldiers," Betty said, taking Bruce's hand as she looked at the small waves generated by the boat.

"It's possible. We can only move step by step and hope for the best," Bruce said, feeling helpless.

The two fell silent as the breeze caressed their faces. They could only enjoy this small moment, as they might not be able to return.

Minutes passed, and they soon reached the other shore. They paid the boat owner before getting off and stepping onto the street.

"Let's take a taxi," Bruce said as he looked at the bustling streets of New York. He couldn't help but think about what would happen if he transformed into such a place.

Betty nodded before raising her arm and hailing a taxi, which quickly began driving toward the university where Bruce's contact worked.

Both of them arrived at the university, and after Betty asked a few students, she learned the location of Sterns's laboratory.

"It doesn't seem easy to get through," Bruce said, looking at the guard who was asking for identifications to enter.

"We can only hope he comes out," Bruce said, looking around for a place to sit in the meantime.

"Maybe not," Betty said, looking at the guard thoughtfully.

"Go to that spot and wait for me to distract the guard. Then go in," Betty said before starting to walk toward the guard.

"Betty, wait," Bruce tried to stop her. When he saw her turn around and stick her tongue out at him, he couldn't help but sigh before getting into position.

"Identification, please," the guard said in a nearly monotonous tone.

Betty gave him a slight smile, nodding, before searching her bag for her identification card and pretending it was stuck. She applied a little force, causing her ID to fall to the side near the guard.

Betty let out a small cry of surprise before looking at the guard.

The guard leaned over to pick up the ID, temporarily turning his back to the entrance.

Bruce seized the moment and slipped inside quietly.

"Dr. Betty Ross, please come in," the guard said, handing Betty her ID.

"Thank you very much, sorry for the inconvenience," Betty said with an apologetic smile before passing through.

Betty moved forward to meet Bruce, who was sitting pretending to read a newspaper.

"That was easy," Betty said, smiling at Bruce.

Bruce merely chuckled slightly, reminiscing about his college days with Betty. She always led him into all sorts of adventures.

The two walked toward Sterns' laboratory and knocked on the door.

After a few seconds, the door was opened by a man in his thirties who looked at them with doubt.

"Hello, Mr. Blue," Bruce said, addressing him directly.

"Mr. Green," Sterns said slowly as if he couldn't believe it, before motioning for them to enter and looking around the corridor to ensure no one was there before quickly closing the door.

Sterns stared at Bruce for a few seconds, seemingly impressed to finally see Mr. Green in person.

"You know, I still found it hard to believe there was someone with that much power inside," Sterns said, looking at Bruce and sighing in excitement.

"Mr. Blue, time is running out. I need the cure now," Bruce said seriously.

"About that... It's not easy. Even if everything goes perfectly and I give you the exact dosage, we don't know if it will cure you or just suppress the sudden transformation," Sterns said, looking at Bruce and Betty while pacing back and forth in the room.

"What I mean is, we're dealing with substances with high levels of toxicity. Any mistake could be fatal," Sterns made the possibilities clear.

"At this point, we don't have any other option," Bruce sighed.

"Then let's do it," Sterns said excitedly before guiding Bruce and Betty to another room.

The three of them entered a room with multiple computers and a patient table in the middle.

Sterns quickly removed the plastic covers from the equipment and lowered the table, indicating for Bruce to lie down.

"I need you to bypass one of his veins while I prepare the antidote" Sterns said as he used various computers to calculate the dosage based on his previous experiments.

Betty nodded before taking out several needles and inserting them into Bruce's veins, connected to various transparent tubes.

After a few minutes, Sterns quickly filled the antidote into a dispenser connected to the tubes before triggering the transformation in Bruce.

Bruce quickly began to swell as his bones shifted, his skin turned green, and his body became denser, causing the table's base to creak as if it wouldn't hold up much longer.

Sterns watched in awe as a nearly three-meter-tall giant with enormous muscles emerged, embodying sheer strength itself.

"Quick, activate it," Betty shouted at Bruce, seeing him standing there like a fool.

Seeing that he wasn't reacting, Betty tried to calm Bruce with her words.

"Bruce, look into my eyes, calm down," Betty said, climbing onto Bruce and holding his face. She tried to move his head to make him look at her, but it was impossible, so she just positioned her face in his line of sight.

"Hurry," Betty shouted again, her expression annoyed.

Sterns seemed to snap out of it and quickly activated the mechanism, causing the blue liquid to flow through the tubes and into Bruce's veins.

Bruce, who had been screaming and thrashing, suddenly froze as he felt something cold entering his veins.

His struggles lessened until he became completely still. His body seemed to deflate, and the green receded until his skin returned to normal.

Sterns and Betty watched in amazement as the changes in his body unfolded.

Betty quickly checked his vital signs and sighed with relief when she saw that they seemed normal.