AE 312.3.68.

Anthony Williams was travelling towards the southernmost territory of the Norden Alliance alongside his camera crew. He would have preferred to go alone but he had a job to do. The biggest annoyance his crew caused was that he couldn't yell at the supervisor while in front of the cameras, but he calmed himself with the thought that they couldn't film in the offices anyway so he'll get his chance.

When they finally arrived and the staff greeted them, Anthony noticed something was amiss and he decided to voice his concern.

"Wasn't the supervisor supposed to be here?"

The explanation was quick and clear, as if it was written beforehand.

"The Mr. Daniel decided to retire last week and we have yet to find a substitute."

Honestly, despite how fishy it sounded, the news came as a pleasant surprise. The guy was less than useless at his job. Anthony hoped that he could get them to find someone actually competent this time around.

Delighted by the opportunity, he went ahead inside the building despite everyone offering to open the door for him.

To understand what happened next we need to look at the previous day.

Peter asked Sarah to help with his escape plan since she would probably want to see the outside world the most. The plan was to throw a bucket of water at Mr. Williams and while everyone was preoccupied with checking on him, they would make a run for it with the help of a makeshift smoke bomb.

After coming up with the plan they realized there were no buckets in the building, at least not ones they had access to, so it was replaced with a pitcher stolen from the diner.

The smoke bomb was even harder since they had no idea how to make one. After much thought their solution was to get another pitcher and fill it with dry sand, hoping to achieve the smoke effect.

When the day finally arrived they were standing near the lobby door, pitchers in hand, in a way that it would hide them when opened. While the door was being opened Peter threw the pitcher filled with water over it.

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As expected everyone flocked around Mr. Williams to check if he was all right, so the two rushed around the open door and towards the outside world. While running Sarah threw the pitcher full of sand, which didn't create the desired smoke effect and just turned the wet reporter muddy as well.

The pair were already considering themselves successful since no one was chasing them and they would soon be impossible to notice. But a severely weathered Mr. Williams managed to get in front of them without them noticing anything.

Anthony was conflicted. He was supposed to bring the two kids back to the institute but he really didn't want to. He genuinely liked the orphans in there and wanted them to have a normal life.

Another reason to let them go was that if the kids hated the place enough to escape, they could help him find some dirt on the useless idiots he was forced to play nice with for the past twelve years.

His hopes weren't high, as the two in front of him seemed to be terrified after his earlier display of speed.

Meanwhile from another perspective, Peter believed the source of Sarah's fear to be her usually accurate intuition, but he had a much more substantial worry.

[Warning: Class 24 entity detected!]

[Caution is advised.]

An accidental hit from a class 2 individual put him in bed for a week, he didn't want to find out what the soaked reporter could do.

While one side was planning to turn the situation in his favour, and the other was hoping to get out of it alive, the rest of the television crew and the caretakers finally arrived.

Most of the crew tried to get their star back in shape while the caretakers were about to reprimand the two troublemakers. Fortunately for them, Anthony managed to find a solution to all of their problems just in time.

It was sudden and maybe not the most obvious, but its effects would be monumental.

"Actually, can I adopt these two?"

This question sets the rest of our story in motion.

This is how a poorly thought out plan, that inevitably failed, still ended up achieving the pair's goal of obtaining freedom even if they had nothing to do with the final decision.

This is how an idealistic reporter managed to outgrow the life he hated and the system that constrained him.

And this is how the children of that god forsaken day, at least in this part of the world, managed to get their life back.

But before any of that could happen, there was still one thing left to do. One thing that has been the bane of progress since time immemorial.

All that was left, was the paperwork.