I sighed in contentment as I sank into the frankly massive hot tub which was basically the size of a small pool. Yeah, getting out of Brockton for a few days was definitely the right move.

I got several days to teach Carl, Gloria, and Amy the basics of their powers without interruption. Sam, Alex, and Clover got to bully the new members with the same flight lessons they went through. And the New Wave kids got some time away from the disaster that was their current family situation. All while enjoying the sights and amenities you would expect to find in some millionaire's mountain vacation house. It was actually kind of crazy the kind of things people would put in places they didn't live for eight months out of the year.

The Elvis room was creepy as fuck though. I wasn't going near that room without good reason.

"This place is totally amazing. I'm shocked you don't stay here more often, Rias." Clover said as she and the other girls sank into the water with me, sounds of contentment coming from all of them.

'You going to tell them that you don't actually own this place?' Ddraig asked in my mind and almost made me laugh out loud.

'And ruin the relaxing atmosphere with arguments about trespassing in the get-aways of the super rich? I don't think so. I'll deal with it if it comes up, but I'm just going to keep quiet unless I have to say something.' Besides, I was pretty sure everyone except the Dallons and Pelhams knew I didn't own this place. Carl definitely did because I asked him to help hack the utilities so no one would notice activity in the house until we left.

'Heh, bet that's going to go over well when your hero friends finally put two and two together. Although considering how much they've got on their plate you might get away with it.'

"I prefer living closer to people." I deflected truthfully and immediately changed the subject. "So we've only got a few more days before we should head back home. Anyone got something planned besides what we've been doing?"

"We're going to check out the town nearby." My original Pawn trio said. "The mountain house is sweet, but we want to pick up some souvenirs."

"Oh, that sounds neat. Let me know if they have a good chocolate store when you're there." Crystal perked up. "As for me, I'm gonna paint some of the scenery I saw out during flying practice. You don't mind if I raid your art room, do you Rias?"

"Oh, no, of course not." I laughed nervously and fought the urge to rub the back of my head. This place had an art room? "But you paint?"

"She watches Bob Ross tutorials." Vicky snorted. "I think she's used her own paints like twice."

"Still counts!"

"But, yeah. I was going to bring it up earlier but Eric and Carl are setting up a fishing trip and invited anyone who wants to come."

"Oh, I haven't gone fishing in a while!" Gloria added. "And if you're going I'll grab the volleyball net. We can find a field and play after we're done fishing."

"Sounds cool, I'm down for that."

I smiled seeing everyone getting along. We really needed the time to destress. And it sounded like everyone had their own thing to keep them entertained.

"I'm going to do nothing." Amy groaned and sank further into the water. "You are all slave drivers. I have super strength now and my body still feels like jelly thanks to what you had me doing."

Well, as uncharitable as it was - Amy did have the furthest to come physically compared to the rest of us.

It wasn't a surprise she was still feeling it even if she was getting better. It had only been a few days.

"What about you Rias? You can join us if you want." Sam invited me, but I had other ideas.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Thanks, but I want to do a bit more spell practice while I've got the space to mess around without worrying about blowing up someone's house. You go ahead without me." I replied.

With plans made, we devolved into small talk and just took the opportunity to relax. Yes, we were all ignoring the issues waiting for us back in Brockton Bay. And it probably wasn't the healthiest way to deal with everything, but I would take that over forcing a resolution with New Wave with emotions still running hot.

And I'd definitely take throwing magic around over dealing with Amy's mom!

-o-

[Sam POV]

"Anyone notice the people in this town are kinda weird?" Alex asked out of nowhere as the trio left another shop.

"Phew, glad it wasn't just me. This whole place is just one big creepfest." Clover exclaimed as she slouched forward.

"Guys, don't insult people like that." Sam scolded, but yeah, something was off in this town.

She knew the outsiders sometimes stuck out in small towns, especially close knit ones where everyone seemed to know one another, but there was being standoffish with strangers and then there was staring almost unblinkingly at the three of them the entire time they were in the store.

Clover was right, it was super creepy. But Sam didn't want things to escalate if someone overheard them and got offended.

"It's not an insult. A guy back there asked if I was 'a new member come to join the spectrum' - whatever that means - and then got really weird when I didn't know what he was talking about."

"I got asked that too." Alex commented. "The lady said I'd be welcomed as an 'honored indigo'. You ever hear anything like that before?"

Sam wasn't hesitant to admit she had been briefly fascinated with cults and how they worked. She had read dozens of books and watched just as many documentaries about the subject from the more 'normal' ones like Scientology and the Peoples Temple at Jonestown to the far more psychotic ones like the Manson Family or the Fallen.

But she had never heard any of those use that term before. Though that wasn't exactly a surprise considering most of the material she looked over was about the highlights of how each cult operated and didn't always go into details about every aspect. And she didn't exactly consider herself an expert on every cult in America.

Still, the blatant hostility shown by the locals was weird. It didn't make sense for them to be so eager to drive off tourists or visitors when most of the businesses the three girls saw as they wandered around seemed to cater to outsiders. Sam, at least, didn't see the need for a small town looking to isolate themselves from people passing through to need three specialty chocolate stores and four soap stores. That seemed excessive.

"No, I haven't." She eventually replied. "But it's also not a whole lot to go off of."

"We should check it out." Clover decided immediately. "Make sure they aren't sacrificing girls to the devil or something freaky like that."

"We're devils now." Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, and I don't want random people being sacrificed to me." She paused and looked thoughtful. "Though if Derek from the coffee shop wants to sacrifice himself, I won't say no…"

Sam rolled her eyes at the mention of Clover's most recent crush of the month. "How would we even check them out? They aren't exactly rolling out the red carpet for us here."

"We could sneak into one of their secret meetings?"

"Okay, again, not being super friendly with us. How would we know where and when the meeting was, if they have them to begin with?"

"Maybe this flier they gave me has something?" Alex exclaimed and pulled out a piece of paper to Sam and Clover's surprise.

"Where did you get that?!"

"Hm? Oh, the lady who called me an Indigo gave it to me. Said I should drop by if I was interested in realizing my potential. Or something like that."

Sam took the paper and gave it a lookover, ignoring Clover who draped herself over her shoulder. The flier was pretty basic. Just an image and a small blurb about becoming more in tune with the world along with a handwritten note with the date, time, and some basic directions to a meeting place.

She bit her thumbnail for a bit while before coming up with a decision.

"Okay, let's give Rias a call so she knows what's up and check it out…"

-o-

"Who was that?" Gloria asked once I hung up the phone.

"Sam, Clover, and Alex are apparently going to investigate a cult they found." I replied, a little shocked they found something like that but completely unsurprised they wanted to check it out. This was the group that ran towards a fight when they were normal humans that led to Sam joining as my first Pawn. I didn't believe for a second turning into devils and getting superpowers would lead to them being less curious.

Still, it was nice of them to keep me in the loop.

"Um, isn't this kinda a big deal?" Shield- Eric, I mentally corrected myself, asked while raising his hand. "If they really did find a cult in town shouldn't we go help them or something? Call the FBI or PRT?"

"It's fine," I waved him down. "The girls are strong enough that they can deal with it or slip away long enough to call us for help. And most likely they'll find out it's just some weird group out in the mountains and there's not much we can actually do. Unless they are actually doing something illegal all we'd end up doing is cutting our little mental health break short and getting the PRT called on our heads and letting your parents know exactly where you are." Eric's scrunched up face let me know exactly how eager he was to deal with that right now. "So yeah, they'll investigate, either get bored when it's nothing big or find something we can leave to the cops later, and then we'll head back to Brockton Bay. Not every cult is as obviously criminal as the Fallen."

"What's this about cults?" Vicky asked as she, her sister, and her cousin walked into the room carrying pizza boxes.

I sighed and explained the situation for the second time, already getting a bad feeling when the blonde started looking really excited.

"So can we-"

"No, we cannot go help beat up a cult full of what I assume are normal people without cause." I interrupted the teen heroine and sighed again.

I was supposed to be the battle maniac! Why was I being forced to be the voice of reason and team mom?

Oh right, because I was the King and responsible for the wellbeing of my Peerage and didn't have someone I could delegate to right now and the other half of our group was dealing with some severe parental issues.

Note to self: find a SIC soon. Either that or beat up New Wave until they resemble functional adults instead of a humanoid bundle of issues.

'Good luck trying to find someone who wants to wrangle the herd of cats you're gathering.'

Ignoring Ddraig, I swiped a slice of pizza and wandered over to my chair.

"If the girls find something, then yes, we can help out. But until then we're just going to relax and not kick up any more trouble. Plenty of that waiting for us when we get back home after all."

Besides, how much trouble could a small cult in the middle of nowhere really be?