As I arrived in the astral space, it was still empty. It had only been about five minutes since Sim had sent the message to everyone. I glanced at the table and noticed it was still big enough to fit about 100 people. “Sim, don’t teleport the hero candidates for this part. Tell them there will be a slight delay. I want to meet with them all separately from my family and friends.”
The table shrunk down immediately, and I only heard her response. She didn’t appear this time. “No problem.”
As I walked over to sit at the table, I started to remember the first time I was here. When I met Mia and the events that followed. I was still so mad that I had let her down. That I wasn’t here when she needed me. “I could have saved her,” I said right before shaking my head to pull myself out of the mental funk I was heading back into.
Part of the reason I wanted to get everyone together was to discuss Mia. We have many details to work out before integration, but the main thing on my mind is bringing back Mia. Even without our bond, if she has all her memories, if she is the same person and I can bring her back, I feel like I have to.
I sat there contemplating everything as the table filled up with everyone. Almost everyone looked over at me, and with wide eyes, they each tried to speak. It was a jumbled mess, but the common consensus was “he’s back.”
Jeff got up from his seat and came over to give me a hug. It shocked me at first because our relationship as he got older became less and less emotional, but in this instance, I could actually feel his mana circulating faster. I instantly understood that using his bloodline for so long had altered his personality. He was much more in touch with his feelings, so I went along with it. “I’m sorry, Dad. I wish there was more I could do.”
Alec was right behind him and wrapped us both in a big bear hug. He wasn’t nearly as emotional. He didn’t say anything.
As I pulled away and smiled at them, I began to speak. “I may have a solution.” As they both looked at me with confused looks, I gestured for them to take their seats.
“Okay, so the reason we’re all here is because we’re gonna activate the system sooner than we thought. Sim is ready now, and we need to get everything rolling. We still have just over a month because Sim needs to integrate the hero candidates into their capsules for processing. Is everyone here that was offered to be a hero still willing to go through with it?” I waited for just a split second before I cut everyone off. I didn’t want them all to speak at once.
“Wait, I’m gonna ask each of you one by one, and I just need a yes or no. If you have concerns, when it’s your turn, let’s address them then. I should also explain that anyone with an original bloodline will not be a part of this. Jeff, your power will already be expanded at integration if it’s not already above master tier. Alec, I can tell yours has already expanded past what this would give you. You've obviously been utilizing it the entire time I’ve been gone. Good job! I’ll explain that to the other candidates like Gabriella as well when I bring them all up here.”
I started with the ones I knew would accept and went down the line.
“Chris?”
“Of course, it’s a yes!” he replied.
I gave him an evil look. “See, I knew you couldn’t follow directions. Just say yes or no!” As I tried to hold my laughter in, he flipped me off, and I busted out laughing.
“Okay, Riley, I’m assuming it’s a yes?”
“Yes.”
“Who do you have looking after the kids while you’re gone for the month before integration?”
“I agreed to do it, Dad,” Jeff responded. “When I’m busy, Isabel will help too.”
“Okay, then that’s set.
Juan?”
He stood up and made a little speech. I wasn’t expecting it, so I had a confused look on my face when he started, but I hadn’t ever had an actual conversation with him, so I let him continue with the entire thing before I spoke.
“Admin… Sorry, Mike. Jeff told me just to call you Mike, but it’s hard for me because, in my culture, we need to show respect to those who have earned it. I never got the chance to thank you for what you did for my family. Jeff told me that it was you who told Sim to reward us. My wife has never been as happy as she has been the past two years. We owe that all to you. Without the constant reminder of what happened, she has been able to mostly move on and look towards the future.”
At this point, Isabel stood up and clasped her hands together in a prayer-type motion. She then bowed and kept her head down for a few seconds before standing back up and returning to her seat.
Once she sat down, Juan started speaking again. “I would have died in the fire if you hadn’t stepped in. I will forever be grateful to you. We will forever be grateful to you. If I have the chance to be able to protect my family and other families like mine better than I can now, I absolutely accept this, and I thank you for it.” As he sat back down, his wife had tears in her eyes. I began to speak before she was able to stand up again.
“I only did what you deserved. To be so willing to help others is exactly what this program is about. It will not be easy. I have no idea how powerful monsters and invaders will be, but now that my full power is activated, you guys won’t be doing it alone either. I just don’t want to try to be everywhere and deal with everything. I want a simple life too. I’ll never get it, but I’m going to do my best to have one. After a while, I’m going to completely stay out of all earthly affairs. I have a much greater calling and need to continue on a much larger mission. The multiverse is far too powerful for us. I need heroes to protect Earth while I stave off mass destruction from others who already have the power to destroy us. That actually brings me to something I want to discuss.”
I stood still for a moment without speaking.
“For those of you that don’t know, I have the power to bring Mia back.”
This made a few people’s faces turn up in excited surprise. “I didn’t do it the instant I got back because of a couple of reasons. First, I still do not understand if we each have a soul. I have seen no evidence to show that any type of spiritual beings or gods even exist. If it’s just based on power, then I have god-like powers. But I’m not a god, nor do I understand anything about souls. I can bring back Mia’s body, her memories, her personality, but if there is a soul, I can’t bring that back. At least not without understanding the nature of souls, where they are created, and where they go when we die. I also can’t recreate our bloodline connection. Mine has already solidified, so we won’t be linked like we were. I have no idea how this will affect her or myself.”
I paused again, trying not to start crying. I could feel the emotions starting to well up inside my throat. As I started to speak again, I had to cough to clear my throat. It was a weird sensation having my body react to my emotions instead of a true physical need. I could have controlled it and never shown anything I didn’t choose to again, but when I tried that, I felt too far from human.
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“I’m bringing this up because you are the people that not only know me the best in the entire world, but I also trust your opinions. Each of you interacted with Mia and had some kind of relationship with her. Should I bring her back, or should I wait and see if the beings from the universe that helped us stave off destruction have more answers before I do anything? It may be years before we can create the link, so either we do this now, or we live without Mia for a few years and maybe forever.”
Everyone looked at each other with shocked expressions. Alec was the first to talk. “Why not? Is there any downside besides your missing bloodline connection?”
I didn’t know what to say at first, so I just shrugged my shoulders. “No idea,” I finally said.
Alec looked at me with a confused look. “So why not just bring her back and see what happens? Even if there is no connection between your bloodlines, you guys still had months together. When the connection was there, didn’t you tell me you guys were connected in every way? You could tell how each other was feeling? You knew how she would react about stuff before she actually did. That’s more of a connection than anyone on Earth has ever had with anyone. Even without a magic link, you’re still connected. So if you can bring her back, do it. Do it right now.”
I stood there for a second, almost dumbfounded. Out of everyone, I didn’t think Alec would be the one pushing for this. I decided to wait to see if anyone else had an opinion before I spoke again. After about 30 seconds of murmuring, the general consensus was to bring her back. This was when Sim butted in. Her avatar appeared next to me.
“Mike, we actually need to wait. While you can bring her back along with her bloodline, because of the rarity and complex nature of her bloodline, it will consume a large portion of the remaining origin mana. Cookie’s tree is in a constant state of consumption. We will need the shield to drop in order to use that much origin mana at once. We need enough available to bring her back properly. If we lack the proper mana, her bloodline may not be as powerful, or we may miss something in the process.”
I looked at Sim before responding. I knew what I was planning, and I was pretty sure she knew too, but she didn’t mention it. Instead of waiting to answer, I decided to ask in front of everyone.
“Sim, you know that my core creates enough origin mana to do this. Why are you acting like I can’t do it without using the mana currently on Earth?”
“Because if you use that much origin mana, you will also push in other types of mana when it starts to strain your core. You are still new to having all of these mana types available, and the probability of you getting it perfect on your first try is not within ideal parameters. If you accidentally get any part of it incorrect, one of two things will happen. You will either push out too much mana and start causing issues on Earth, or you will add some of the other types of mana your cores create, which may mess with her bloodline. The margin for error is extremely small, and it would be easier if we utilized all origin mana without any contamination of other mana types.”
“Okay,” I told her. “If you don’t think I can get it perfect yet, then we’ll wait for integration, and I’ll have you do it all at once.”
I continued staring at Sim for a little longer. I could recognize a few facial expressions, and a confused look appeared on my face. It seemed like she wanted to say something else but held back. As I looked at her and contemplated asking what she wasn’t telling me, she just ever so slightly shook her head. No one else noticed any movement, but I could see it. I sent her a quick mental message. “I’ll wait, but you’re gonna tell me whatever it is you didn’t want to say.”
“Okay,” I continued. “So as far as the hero program goes, let’s continue. Juan, I am glad you’re going to go through with this. We actually need people like you helping the others as well. I didn’t tell any of the candidates any details about this, but many of you are very close to genetically accepting a bloodline.”
This made everyone perk up in surprise. They started looking at each other before everyone’s attention returned to me. “I can’t tell you which bloodline will fit each of you right now, but I’m going to have Sim also activate bloodlines in all candidates that will genetically accept them. If a small genetic alteration is required to activate one, she will perform the necessary alterations during integration.”
The murmurs started again. I hurried and cut them off before I lost control of the meeting. I still had to bring all the candidates up here and finalize the selection.
“Hey, calm down. These won’t be the same as the current bloodlines. Everyone who has a bloodline right now has an original bloodline. They activate on their own when the body is ready. We will be artificially activating what you’re capable of, so it may be a mixture of different bloodlines or less powerful versions of current bloodlines. We won’t know until integration and your body accepts one. I’m not telling any of the candidates or letting people know prior to integration. They will have to figure it out on their own. Sim has a little info in the tutorial, but most people aren’t compatible.”
At this point, Jeff spoke up. I was so happy to hear him taking so much pride in his purpose. I had hoped he would find his way for so long. “Anyone who needs help with bloodlines after integration can come to me. This is my specialty.” When he was finishing speaking, he waggled his eyebrows up and down. This got everyone laughing.
“Okay, okay.” I decided to end this and take care of the candidates. “Are there any candidates that you guys think should be included for sure and any that should be dropped?”
For the next few minutes, they talked about all the experiences they had working with the candidates. It was unanimous that Lucas should be included. There was another candidate from South Central Los Angeles that everyone wanted included as well. He was one of the candidates that I had not associated with at all. He grew up in a gang-controlled neighborhood and had managed to keep away from the lifestyle his entire family fell into. According to Juan, he had made it his life’s mission to help those affected by gang violence. Sim told me his Morality rating was a 9. That was all I needed to hear and added him to the approvals.
There were a few that had let the power go to their heads. Not only were they becoming more aggressive because of all the fighting, but they started to feel superior to the people they were protecting. I told Sim that after we cut them, we need to watch to make sure they don’t react badly and block their mana if they turn evil after rejection.
After sitting and discussing this with everyone, I started to notice my mood changing. I didn’t want to deal with any of this yet and had been forcing myself because we needed it done to start the process for the heroes. “Hey guys, I’m gonna let Sim finish all this. I need to be alone for a little bit.” As I stood there for a moment after I told everyone, I saw Chris and Jeff start to get up. I just held my hand up and gestured for them to sit back down. “I’m fine, I just have a lot to think about.” I smiled at everyone and teleported myself back to my house. Peaches was already waiting for me in the living room. I wasn’t sure how she beat me, but I could tell she had just teleported and changed to her puppy form right before I arrived.
As I sat on the couch, she jumped up into my lap. “Daddy, can I create a puppy world? I want a whole world full of just puppies so we can play all day and we don’t have to worry about stupid birds.”
As I looked down to see if she was serious, I saw the most adorable face I had ever seen. Peaches had learned that when she increases the size of her eyes and makes them glisten a little bit, she becomes one of the cutest things humans have to combat against. She then licked my nose, and a small hint of puppy breath tickled my senses. It was a sweet smell with a hint of tang that made my nose tingle just a little. I was in absolute shock. Not only did she perfect the giant bobblehead puppy eyes, but the puppy breath was dead on.
“What was that?” I said as I stood up. “Where did you learn to do the puppy face?”
Peaches jumped up and started bouncing around the living room as she excitedly explained. “Mia told me that when you come back, if I want something, I have to do that. She said there’s no way you could say no. We had to practice a lot. She even gave me this toy to help get the eyes right.”
Peaches then had a little puppy bobblehead toy appear next to me on the floor.
“Then she brought home a bunch of puppies to play with so I could get the smell right. She’s awesome. Sim told me you guys are gonna bring her back, so I’m not sad anymore. Mia is the bestest.”
I tried my best to show nothing but happy emotions, but the looming doubt of whether Mia could truly be brought back and whether it would feel the same kept creeping up.
“I agree, Mia is awesome. We just have to wait until we drop the shield so we have enough mana and Sim will bring her back.”
I leaned down and picked Peaches up. As soon as she was about chest height, she farted. I looked down with a disgusted look, but Peaches just kept smiling. As the smell hit me, I was in absolute shock. It smelled just like puppy breath. I couldn’t help myself and burst out laughing. I ended up dropping Peaches and fell to the floor. I am still not sure why I found it so funny, but as the tears rolled down my face and my cheeks felt like they were on fire from cramping, there was only one thing left that I could do. “I love you, Peaches,” I said between gasps of air, and I grabbed her in a hug and just lay on the floor.