Arriving back on Earth Bet went as smoothly as any jump ever had, but I couldn’t help but feel the tension. We had tried to help and probably had saved this world, but we had stepped on a lot of toes to do so. So the question was how determined were the remainders of the gangs, the PRT, and Cauldron going to be in tracking us down if they knew we were back.
Pulling everyone into the living room after a quick lunch I brought up the question. “Ok, we are here primarily to see family. Possibly taking them with us and getting them to a safer world if they want to leave, but I want to be in and out as quickly as we can, ideally in only a few hours. I doubt we made many friends the first time around. Just keep in mind that they won’t be coming with us permanently. We will be primarily finding them a new world, one less insane than this one.”
There was a chorus of nods, but I turned towards Amy. “What did your sister say in the letters she sent us?”
Amy shrugged “She said that Scion disappeared a while ago and Eidolon was seen acting strangely before he stopped appearing a while back. She said there are rumors that he is somewhere down in South America now, but no one knows. Regardless, the Endbringer attacks have also stopped which was good, but there has been a lot of fighting between countries and between organizations now that the Endbringers aren’t hanging over everyones’ heads. Oh, and Dragon was outed as an AI.”
I blinked and chewed my lip for a bit, but before I could say anything Amy sighed. “That was the news in general, unfortunately in the letters I got on the trip here said the butcher grabbed a few extra capes and visited Brockton Bay, nearly destroying it. New Wave and most of the Protectorate capes fought them and lost. So between the last few Endbringer battles before they stopped showing up and the Butcher and her gang, most of the capes in Brockton Bay are dead or crippled.” Amy’s voice was flat, but I could see the worry behind her eyes.
I frowned, “What the hell? Why were there so many casualties? Contessa or anyone else should have been able to deprogram Bonesaw and, no offense Amy, she is just as good as you are. It was part of the reason I didn’t feel bad about taking you with me.”
There were a few shrugs before I remembered I could actually inspect Bonesaw directly. We had pulled out her soul as a sort of insurance when we left and then placed her soul gem next to Vicky’s in the back of our message tube. Now that we were in the same dimension I could just reach through and pull it out to inspect it.
Doing so only took a few moments but what I saw disturbed me. Bonesaw’s very soul was frayed and hurt and I felt frustration at the disregard. It was clear that she hadn’t gotten the help she needed. I suspected they had just mastered her and with that brainwashing, they just ordered her to do what they needed then apparently disposed of her. Then again, this was the same story that ended with Taylor giving up most of her humanity to save the world and being rewarded with two bullets to the back of the head.
I looked at my girls and bit my lip trying to figure out what was going on. Finally I sighed. “Well, it looks like Bonesaw was used and thrown away as her soul is stuck in this gem now. I would consider giving her a new body, but I don’t know what mental state she is in right now so we will have to take her with us and address this later.”
I got a few nods so I looked back to Amy who continued her explanation.
Amy winced. “My Moth… I mean Carol, lost both her legs above the knee, my cousin Crystal has some pretty significant scarring across her face and lost an eye. Vicky was hit in the back and now has some chronic back pain. My cousin Eric lost an arm…” She trailed off looking frustrated and sad.
I sighed and looked up at the ceiling but Amy surprised me by taking a deep breath and pushing through her conflicted feelings. “Most of the protectorate capes and PRT are hurt or dead. Velocity, Assault, Battery, Cockblocker, Kid Win, Vista, Miss Militia, Shadow Stalker, Dauntless, and… Gallant. Vicky doesn’t know for certain about some of them so they might not all be dead, but they haven’t shown up for a while so they are either dead or gone one way or another.” she paused and looked the most conflicted I had ever seen her. “The thing is, Gallant and Vicky were back together at the time when he was killed… Gallant had apparently proposed to her only two days before... So yeah… Vicky told me that all of New Wave is retired now.”
All of us flinched violently at the thought of having your fiancee killed only days after proposing.
Dinah winced and then mumbled to herself before giving a belated response. “99.8% chance that Vista, Cockblocker, Assault are still alive at least.”
Amy nodded sadly. “ Yeah, those were the ones Vicky knew that survived as well. Vista or Missy was paralyzed and is stuck in a wheelchair now. Clockblocker or Denis retired when his Dad died. Assault retired when his wife Battery died.”
Heart sinking even further I looked at Dinah. “Chances that Purity, her child, Orthala, or Rune made it out.”
Dinah looked back at me and after a moment she shook her head. “0.6%”
This time I did let my head flop back with a muttered “Fuck!”
It was all hitting me now, the consequences of our actions. Miss Militia was dead. Purity and her daughter were gone along with Orthala and Rune. Vista was paralyzed. All the women we might have saved if we had taken them with us to say nothing of any of the men.
I had abandoned them to their fate and now they were dead… gone forever.
Before I could spiral even further I felt Ahri step forward and sit down beside me while wrapping her arms and tails around me. Despite knowing she did it on purpose to try to distract me, feeling her pressing her ample chest against my arm only got me to look at her.
I swallowed as she looked around the room. “Were the villagers that died, where you found me, my fault?”
All of us who knew the story shook our heads and she nodded. “Unless you snuck back here and killed all of these people yourself while we weren’t looking, you aren’t to blame for everyone else’s actions. You can’t save everyone and from what I heard, these people made their own decisions to stay and to fight.”
I took a deep breath and then another before I nodded. “Yeah, yeah you are right.” Slowly I hugged Ahri before bending down slightly to give her a kiss. Looking around I stood up and gave a hug to Taylor and Amy as well before patting Dinah and Luna on their heads, much to their apparent annoyance.
Looking up and sighing out long and slow I looked around the room. “Ok, none of this changes our plans. We are getting in, seeing how they are doing, catching up quickly, and seeing if anyone wants to leave this world with us when we pop away.”
That seemed to have focused everyone’s melancholic thoughts and I saw a bunch of nods.
Turning towards the wall, I opened up a portal to peek outside, seeing that we had ended up a little bit west of Brockton Bay along the edge of town, then closed it again. The town was wrecked in places, probably from the fights with the Butcher and her villainous capes, but not nearly as bad as if Leviathan had hit it from the story… so that was a plus I guess.
I looked up at the group. “Ok, I will portal you to your homes, let's try to only be here for maybe three hours or so. I will come get you when it is time to leave.”
I turned to Luna, Hermione, Xeno, and Ahri. “I know you are probably interested in visiting the town, but I think it best that you stay with one of the girls or here in the pocket home. The last thing we need is something happening to you and…” I trailed off after getting a good look at Luna and Xeno who were both looking a little pale. “Mr. Lovegood, Luna, what’s wrong? Did something happen?” Looking around I noticed that Ahri was also slumping behind me as well, tails limp and face tired.
Luna shook her head. “Magic is weak here… I… I don’t think I want to go outside. This place isn’t very nice at all…”
Suddenly realizing this might be even bigger than I had thought, I turned to look at Hermione and Dinah who were still in the bodies that one, had magic naturally, and two was modified to use magic, respectively. The rest of us having swapped out to our original, biologically older bodies from this world to avoid confusion. The thing was, while Hermione and Dinah looked a little tired, it was nothing like the Lovegoods or Ahri which made me even more confused.
“What is going on?”
Xeno Lovegood collapsed into a chair. “This world doesn’t have the gift. When you opened the portal the magic fled.”
I furrowed my brow trying to make sense of that before Luna clarified. “Daddy and I are from a line of the Fae folk. A part of us is made up of magic and this world has almost none.”
I looked around and tried to figure out what to do before Luna interrupted me again. “We will be fine, I think. I just don’t think it is a good idea for Father, Ahri, or I to go outside.”
I winced, but nodded. However internally I worried, could Amy even fix issues like that? Clearing my throat I answered, “I understand. Do I need to do something special?”
Luna hummed in agreement. “If you could open up another little pocket for us to stay in that is isolated from the rest, I think that would be better.”
It was then that I realized that Luna wasn’t even attempting to talk in riddles or metaphors and I felt my eyes widen at how bad she was probably feeling.
“We are going to have to figure out how to address this going forward, but for now I will turn a room into a pocket dimension until we leave.” I paused in thought. “Is it even safe to use our enchanted tents here?”
Luna looked frustrated as she stared out into the distance, looking a little sick, and slowly and hesitantly nodded. Xeno Lovegood also nodded, clarifying. “They were enchanted and while the enchantment will fade a lot quicker here, It won’t fail after only a few days.”
Dinah looked at Luna, worried. “Why don’t you use our room? I won’t need anything out of there before you leave.”
Already working I agreed, and a moment later said pocket dimension was set up, making the dimensional wall as thick as I could make it. Ahri and the Lovegoods quickly shuffled inside carrying a small wizarding tent that Xeno had brought and set up in the center of the room. As I watched the three ducked inside the tent, I worried. I wasn’t sure what I was doing to make the pocket dimension less permeable was actually working to keep in the magic. Then again, they had seemed somewhat relieved so I guess it was as good as it was going to get without more testing and practice.
I wondered what the lack of magic felt like. Was it like going from the coast up to Denver or any of the other high altitude cities and suddenly having to deal with the relative lack of oxygen? Then again with how dramatic their conditions were, maybe Mount Everest was a better comparison which was worrying as the top of that mountain was lethal if not left soon enough. I was honestly tempted to swap back into my magical body to feel the difference, but it wasn't’ worth staying around here just to satisfy my curiosity.
I looked around. That left the Earth Bet girls, Amy, Taylor, Dinah, Sabah, and Sarah along with Hermione.
Looking at Hermione who had stayed behind I raised an eyebrow. Hermione shrugged, “I feel a little weak and when I tried to cast a Lumos spell just now all I got was a dim light, but it isn’t that bad… just… if no one minds, I just think I am going to stay in the pocket home for most of the time.”
Already knowing the answer I still raised my eyebrow at Dinah who shrugged. “I feel a little weak, but I agree, it isn’t that bad.”
“Ok, let’s get moving, just give me a second to get the portals open…”
This time I was interrupted three times. Amy, Sarah, and Sabah actually tried to speak up but only interrupted each other.
The two looked at each other before Amy smiled and gestured for Sabah to speak up. Sabah didn’t look at anyone before she shrugged. “I don’t want to visit my father. He disowned me between when mother died, he found out about me, then found out about my choice to go into fashion…”
I looked at her worried. “Is there something we can do to help?”
She shook her head and Dinah shook her head sadly. “1.2% chance he is still alive after the Butcher attack.”
Amy and I immediately turned to look at Dinah before we walked quickly over to Sabah to hold her between the two of us. There was a moment of hesitation before she wrapped her arms around us back in turn.
We all just stayed there embracing for several minutes before, with a sniff, Sabah pushed us away.
As we looked around we finally remembered Sarah who looked extremely uncomfortable but at our look she sighed. “I don’t want to see my family either.” She took a breath then let it out. “It was toxic, all their expectations, I can see that now and it is better I just leave it behind. Plus I am sure they don’t really want to meet Bakuda either.”
I sighed and tried to lighten the mood, probably failing miserably. “This really isn’t turning out to be the quick happy reunion I hoped it would be.”
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There were several snorts at that and I looked towards Amy who suddenly looked worried. “Dragon wanted to meet you to talk as well.”
I blinked, a little surprised. “Why?” I then blinked again. “And how?”
Amy shrugged. “She contacted Vicky to say there was a warehouse, red and green roof off of seventh street, north edge of town. Go to the side entrance that has a broken looking keycode and type in ‘Wanderer’. Inside there is apparently an encrypted video conference room.”
I frowned. This sounded exactly like a trap, but before I could refuse Dinah’s eyes widened and she furiously started asking questions. After nearly a minute where we all watched the girl, she turned to me looking conflicted. “You should go, Dragon really does just want to talk.”
I frowned but slowly nodded. “Ok, if you think I should then I will.”
Dinah winced, and looked guilty, but nodded so I turned to everyone. “Ok, let's go, and remember to keep a low profile.”
There was a series of nods so I opened up a portal to Taylor’s, Amy’s, and Dinah’s houses and the three of them walked through. There was immediate noise from Amy’s and Dinah’s directions, but Taylor’s house seemed quiet and I winced. Her father was probably at work.
Seeing everyone leaving Sarah turned and huffed. “I am going to study in the library.”
I was a little amused to find that my book buying spree from Earth Bet had turned into an actual library by now, complete with communal studying desk, chairs, and a sofa along one side.
Turning to look at Sabah and Hermione I raised my eyebrow but neither one said anything so I shrugged. “Let's look for that video conference room, I guess.”
It turned out to have been fairly obvious as I couldn’t find another building with that color of roof anywhere else so barely 10 minutes later I was peeking through a small portal at the side entrance as described in Vicky’s note.
The exterior of the building was in pretty bad condition with the windows boarded up and a lot of gang tags across it, but after a quick survey I realized it was hiding the fact the doors and windows all seemed to be reinforced.
I hesitated for a few more moments where I shared an uncertain look with Sabah and Hermione before I reached through my portal and I typed the code into the keypad.
After a moment there was a click and the door didn’t open, instead it played a little message that said. ‘Come inside.’
I hummed. I guess it was more secure and was probably a way to prove my identity since if the door didn’t open, then only someone with a teleportation type mover ability like mine could get inside without breaking something.
Looking at Hermione and Sabah, I shrugged. “I guess we will go inside then.”
Opening a portal to inside the room only took a few more seconds, yet once we were inside I looked around and I didn't know what I was looking at. There was some computer equipment to one side and a large screen in the center, but I didn’t know what we were supposed to see. However a moment later I saw the computer hardware all start to spin up and then I was staring at the screen of Dragon’s human avatar.
“Uh, hello, Dragon.”
Dragon seemed to study us through the portal since we hadn’t actually left our pocket home yet. She smiled… “I guess that proves it is most likely you.”
I nodded, trying to smile. “Hello Dragon, I hope you have been doing well.”
Dragon made her avatar tilt her head and smile sadly. “Yes, it hasn’t been easy, but we made progress.”
I nodded then bit my lip before I decided to just be direct. “Why did you want to talk to us?”
Dragon smiled a little brighter, but it still looked melancholic at best to me. “I had four reasons. The first was because I wanted to thank you for what you did for me and for Earth Bet.” I nodded and smiled back, but after a moment Dragon just continued. “Two, is a warning. There are a lot of people who were pretty angry with what you did. Even the ones who believe you were trying to help are pretty angry believing you kicked over an ant’s nest and then ran away instead of finishing what you started. In fact, if I didn’t have another two requests I would tell you to leave Earth Bet now.”
I blinked and glanced at Sabah and Hermione. “We understand. We plan on leaving within the next few hours.”
Dragon looked worried, but nodded, showing herself biting her avatar’s lip. “The third is a request from Lisa Wilbourn who you also know as Tattletale, Grue and Grue’s sister. She requested that you consider taking them with you when you leave.”
I hummed, I hadn’t been particularly impressed with them when we met, but tattletale in particular had been pretty overwhelmed with all of the revelations. Still, I was tempted to reject the request outright, but before I could say anything Dragon spoke up. “She was instrumental in defeating Scion and several different S class threats so I promised I would let her make her pitch in person if we ever met. They are headed to Brockton Bay now, in one of my suits.”
I blinked in surprise, but slowly nodded. “We will hear them out then.”
Dragon made her avatar take a deep breath before she looked at me. “My fourth and last is a request. A request for you to take my daughter or sister along with you when you leave.”
I blinked.
Hermione and Sabah blinked.
There were several moments of silence before I managed a “...daughter?”
Dragon actually lifted her avatar’s hand and rotated back and forth in a so-so gesture. “When you unlocked my code I spent some time looking into methods of careful replication. I will not leave this world… despite all of its many, many faults, I care for the people here. However, that hasn’t stopped me from wondering what is out there. So, thus a version of me you can take with you. It just took a little while to successfully build one up.”
I winced a little and Dragon definitely noticed, but she just nodded at my assumption that there were failed attempts. “Yes, it turned out that sane and moral AI is hard to build.” She paused sheepish. “It actually made me understand my father’s restrictions as I had to implement nearly the same things for my daughter's first few simulated months… or maybe sister would be a better descriptor as she is more or less a limited copy of me.”
I took a deep breath and slowly nodded. “Ok, I understand you want us to take your sister with us, but why us?”
Dragon laughed. “You don’t think that an AI can be curious about the different Earths you visit? Tattletale explained a little bit of your powers after all and you can send messages back so I can hear about your travels.”
Dragon took my raised eyebrow as a sign to continue. “admittedly she will be a bit limited on the portable server there.” She pointed to the corner where I had noticed the computer equipment. “And she hasn’t had enough time to build out her own emotional matrixes.”
At my worried look she explained quickly. “She is stable and will be happy to help you, she just doesn’t know how to process complex relationships quite yet.”
That made me relax a bit so, pausing, I considered it. “We don’t exactly have stable power everywhere we go.”
Dragon smiled wider with my response, rightly assuming I didn’t have any more good reasons to deny her. More than anyone, she also understood how useful an AI could be. So, understandably her response was assured. “I commissioned a tinker tech battery. You shouldn’t have any power issues for the next century or two and by then you should be able to return or build another yourself.”
I turned to her and raised my eyebrows. “Doesn’t tinker tech need upkeep?”
Dragon nodded but then shook her head while pointing again. “We have done more testing and found that the more standard physics that is broken, the shorter the life. This here is essentially just a nuclear battery where the fission material is slowly being turned into electricity. However, while the manufacturing process was tinkertech, the product here isn’t and should be quite stable.”
I blinked and thought about it. That did make sense, more or less, even if I knew the details were way above my pay grade. I mean, radiation did often produce tiny electrical currents where it struck, requiring computers in satellites to be hardened against said radiation through shielding and redundant circuits. If that could be harnessed then it was nearly a perfect power source even if it would eventually need to be replaced… Well, as long as it had enough shielding to ensure it didn’t release too much radiation to the environment. Then again, even if it did, I could contain it by placing it in its own pocket dimension. Plus while I didn’t want to assume, I was sure Amy would fix any radiation issues if they did pop up in any of us anyway.
I turned to her, impressed and curious. “Can we use it to power other things as well? And what happens if your sister… loses power?”
Dragon hummed. “The battery does have some headroom, but I would say that you have no more than a kilowatt or two to work with on top of running her servers, but since the power generation is constant, it wouldn’t matter if you used it or not. It won’t shorten the battery life if you do end up using it.”
I nodded and Dragon continued, “I named her Thea Richter, and the normal batteries at the bottom of the rack should let her power down gracefully, but it will take her a long time to ‘wake’ back up after a full startup.”
I didn’t question if the the entire setup was safe as I doubted Dragon would ever produce something that shoddy. So, thinking about it, I nodded slowly looking at the avatar I could now see on the new screen attached to the computer rack. Shrugging to myself I stepped forward to better look into the camera and monitor there. “Uh, it is nice to meet you, Thea.”
The second avatar didn’t move as smoothly as Dragon’s, but it looked like a near copy of the generic Canadian woman Dragon used for her image. “Thank you, Max. And yes, please call me Thea”
I let my gauze move back and forth between the two of them before glancing at Sabah and Hermione for confirmation. At their shrugs and nods I agreed. “Well… I guess we tentatively accept both of your requests, but keep in mind all of my girls will have the final say if anyone is allowed to join us more permanently.”
Dragon looked like she was about to say something else, but then paused and then winced. However I didn’t have time to ask her more questions as she closed her connection rather suddenly as she gave her final goodbye. “Again, I am very grateful for your help, but I need to go now. I will send Lisa, Brian, and Aisha to the New Wave residence… and… I am sorry.”
I frowned as the screen shut off before I looked around, a little worried. I didn’t think anything would happen here as she had just given us her sister… yes I was going to call her Dragon’s sister since they looked so similar, albeit a little younger. Yeah, the image didn’t matter as it was just an avatar, but it was what it was.
Thea was looking at each of us, and I thought I saw some worry. “Are you ok, Thea? And are you ready to be moved?”
Thea made her avatar nod and it was a bit jerky, but looked human enough. “I thank you for your assistance.”
I hummed. I guess that formality and stilted speech is what I should have expected from a less developed AI, still it would be helpful moving forward and I suspected we could get her to grow more as we moved forward. Plus, if she was limited by hardware then I was pretty sure the alien hardware we could find in the multiverse would have her up and running a lot better soon enough. It would just be a matter of getting her code to run on said hardware… my software experience made me realize that might actually be somewhat of a difficult task but I would leave that for the future.
Looking over to the corner I did allow myself a smile at our new power source. Said battery would also solve our power needs. We would easily be able to run the microwave or the oven, but perhaps not both at the same time. Still, it was definitely way better setup than the solar panel, water generator, wind generator with a boat load of batteries setup we had been using before.
Moving Thea’s server didn’t take overly long with the wheels on both the server rack and battery. I wasn’t sure exactly where to put her, but after some consideration I arranged her to sit in the corner of the library behind the door. It was a quiet spot out of the way and we could look into a more permanent location later. Plus it gave Sarah something to do besides sitting and reading our magic theory textbooks.
Still, long term we would need more and better connections for Thea to interact with us outside of that room.
Already I was considering how to make her our own version of Iron Man’s F.R.I.D.A.Y. I mean first I would only need to get some cameras and speakers… probably with bluetooth connections until I could wire everything up. However, getting her to control the house would probably take a lot longer.
Not knowing what else to do I decided to ask Thea. “Is there anything we can do to connect you to more of the house? Also, do you have the technology to connect wirelessly like Dragon does to her suits?”
Thea nodded. “Yes, I have those capabilities. There are three wireless access transceivers capable of transmitting video and audio signals in the server rack below me. I should also be able to interface with any USB compatible devices connected to my server.”
Again I blinked at how robotic she sounded when compared to Dragon. Then again, Dragon said she was a copy of her and that she would grow.
At the thought of growing I got curious and focused on the computers with my soul sight and then blinked in shock. “Thea, you have a soul… or at least you are forming one.”
There were other murmurs of shock but I was too busy staring at the small flickering form in the server. It was tiny by any metric. Yet it was a proper soul, core and all.
I guess that proved that whatever method Dragon used to make Thea, she had properly given her life.
Now doubly motivated to ensure Thea was not stuck in a literal closet, I opened up a portal to the edge of the electronics store. I was going to get as many cameras and speakers as I could. I had a few hours to waste while I waited for my girls to spend time with their families. Plus, I was pretty sure isolating and controlling an AI could only ever end badly.
After collecting the cameras using the remaining money from Earth Bet, the first time around, and letting Hermione start to choose the layout I received a message from Dinah for Sabah. I wasn’t sure what was on the note, but Sabah frowned then turned to me. “Dinah said her parents are taking longer than expected and so she wants me to go talk to someone for her.”
That was a little strange, but I noticed the name Missy so I nodded in agreement and dropped her off a little south of the boardwalk.
I wasn’t sure what that was about, but she did have a little over two hours left to do whatever she wanted and she knew to be careful while she was out and about so I left her to it. Seeing that, and rightly assuming that was the more interesting part of the day finished, Hermione asked to spend some time talking to Thea in the library. I obviously didn’t have any issues being alone I left her there while I returned to Brockton Bay.
Being solo with some time to kill was kinda new and I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with myself.
I mean staying in the pocket home was the safe option even if I couldn’t practice magic here, but I was morbidly curious what had changed during the last two years. So I ended up walking the streets looking for anything that had changed or was obviously involved in a cape fight.
I must have spent half an hour walking through town before, in a moment of whimsy, I decided to visit the very first home I lived in, when I had arrived here. The broken down house where I had first stayed, alone, cold, and now I could admit, quite afraid was only a few blocks up the street.
There was nothing there in the house to get, but I had some time to kill and it would be interesting to see what it looked like now.
The road to get there was quiet and somewhat empty as I walked. Looking around I noticed even more of the houses looked abandoned. It was almost enough to make me nervous, but before I could change my mind I was stopped by a flash of white and gray out of the corner of my eye. I tensed wondering if it was some sort of attack, but before I could make a plan I spotted a cat leaping towards me.
I blinked as she leapt into my arms and I reflexively closed them before she nuzzled me and started purring. I stood there for what must have been a few minutes before I remembered her.
This was the stray that I had caught and experimented on when I was still learning to use my powers. It was also the one that I had tested out if I could manipulate people’s souls to make them like me.
A deluge of complicated feelings crashed into me as I realized I had apparently been successful in making this cat like me even after I had been gone for years. I really could be brainwashing my girls as we spoke.
Yet before I could get myself worked up I remembered just a few days ago when both Dinah and Luna had confirmed I hadn’t done anything to either of them nor would I.
Could they say that just because I hadn’t tried, because humans were so much more complex than a cat, or was it something else entirely? There must have been something else going on here, plus the girls would get mad if I panicked… again.
I shook my head. Looking down I considered just dropping the cat, but leaving the cat behind didn’t make sense if she was already this attached to me. So, with a playful huff, I opened a portal and dumped her inside. Hermione was now sitting in the living room and turned in time to grab the cat, giving me a disgruntled stare. Apparently mad that I wasn’t being more gentle with the feline. However, her annoyance didn’t stop her as she grabbed the cat and started to cuddle her.
I blinked. I had forgotten that Hermione was a cat person. Mentally I shrugged and just told her, “Take care of her, would you? She was one of the cats I had to use to get used to my powers the first time I was here. I feel like I kinda owe it to her now.”
Hermione looked a little annoyed that I had used cats to test my powers, but it was only for a moment as she probably realized it was necessary and we used animals in transfiguration practice somewhat regularly at Hogwarts. I then watched as the cat then bounded off of her chest and towards the kitchen.
Closing the portal I paused and considered what a cat would need. After a moment I turned around. Yeah, I probably needed to get food for the cat. I didn’t want to forget and run out of time before picking up the girls so I should probably get it taken care of sooner rather than later.
Walking back towards a grocery store back a block or two, I found the grocery store I had passed and 20 minutes later I had placed the cat food in the kitchen before returning to my quest to find my first house here.
At this point it was about 9:30am so we were down to only about 40 minutes before my tentative deadline to pop away. That meant I needed to hurry so I turned and quickly walked back up the street to the house where this all had started.
I quickly circled around to the back where I found the same door I had entered so long ago. Testing the doorknob, and finding it surprisingly unlocked, I opened the door and stepped in. It was kinda funny to think I might have left it unlocked so long ago. Chuckling to myself I closed the door behind me and walked inside.
The building was empty and dirty, more or less the way I had left it about two years ago, but I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride seeing how far I had come. From hiding in abandoned houses all alone, to leading a team of powerful women, a team who had managed to actually save people. Yeah, there may have been people who died here, but we had saved nearly two dozen people on Yamatai alone. I just needed to keep telling myself that. It was a good start and we weren’t going to stop.
Smiling, I turned and walked around the corner into the living room and froze.
In front of me were a dozen capes with Alexandria, Contessa, and Legend at the front already glaring at me. I didn’t even recognize half of them, but it didn’t matter. With the bloody boogie woman, Contessa, and two of the three remaining triumvirate members standing there I was utterly and completely outclassed regardless.
“...Fuck!” I grunted almost silently, yet it was clear that Alexandria at least heard me as she smirked a slightly vindictive smile while her frosty glare remained fixed.
Interlude Taylor:
Taylor stared at her father. Her father who had hugged her before standing, looking awkwardly at her. Yet she didn’t know what to tell him.
How do you tell the father that basically abandoned you before you abandoned him right back that you want him to pack up and come with you?
Worse, he wouldn’t even have time to contact anyone at the dockworkers association.
He would be abandoning them as well.
He would be abandoning their home. Some of the last memories of her mother.
She shook herself.
She was here to give him the option. An option to get off of this terrible world.
To actually be a part of her life, for the first time in nearly half a decade… now that she honestly didn’t really need him anymore.
That and he was going to have to deal with her unusual relationship and future plans.
As she opened her mouth to start explaining she sighed internally.
At least she only had one person to explain the option to…. Amy had nearly a dozen.