Joyce Knightly February 22nd,20XX

The kids lined up in front of me with varying degrees of excitement in their eyes. Kaja, who never disappointed, was the most excited and bounced from step to step.

She and Tillo were in overalls again, but this time they were in a baggy cargo-style instead of the usual slim-fitting jean.

I figured that she’d gotten Tillo to change the clothes again, but wasn’t sure why they’d made them into such an ancient style of clothing. The style suited them, but combined with their increasingly similar appearances; it made it near impossible to tell them apart.

To top their appearances off, they had worn their hair in the same style, so the only way to differentiate the twins was by the shirts that they wore under the overalls. Tillo was in a black t-shirt top while Kaja was in a yellow one.

“Joyce, it’s getting late.”

Aaron, who sounded exhausted and reeked of sweat, gently urged me to start the tour. I’d honestly not expected him to make it back in time for the tour, but seeing how tired he looked made me appreciative on the kids' behalf.

He’d only known them for a few days, but he’d gotten so attached he was practically a parent. He’d always been a friendly person, but I’d never seen him with kids before. I debated arranging a kindergarten video for Squire, but was undecided.

On one hand, putting celebrities with kids was always a simple way to get positive attention, but on the other, I didn’t want to risk Aaron getting too excited and start messing around with his powers on camera.

He was a smart and intelligent person, but that recklessness of his.

I suddenly remembered my mother warning me about guys like him and buried the memory deep in my mind. Despite her best efforts, I’d never let my mother’s words mess with my life in the past, and I wasn’t about to start now.

“Okay, let’s go!”

It was currently seven in the evening, so most of the staff had gone home. There were a few employees that lived in the building on the first floor, but I’d told the manager to take everyone out for a paid staff dinner.

I brought my phone out to make sure all the cameras were on, before leading the kids to the front of the broom closet. While I was monitoring the security footage from the day I’d brought Aaron here, I’d found an adorable screenshot of him looking astounded by the setup.

I’d already sent it out to be printed, and I planned to have it framed for the main hall of the underground set up, but it would look too empty on its own.

“Okay, step back a bit, kids!”

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There were a lot of ways I could have done this, but I’d wanted to have a bit of fun. It had been a rough few days for me, and tomorrow I’d have to go back to work and deal with the company. This was the least I could do for myself.

They all shuffled back and waited with excitement as I placed a hand on the knob of the door. I tensed my upper arm and then flung it back with a flourish to reveal… a broom closet.

I quietly snickered as I took stock of the disappointed expressions on their face and waited before Kaja lost patience.

“What’s goin-“

Before she could finish her question, I slammed my hand into the side of the wall and flooded the room with the bright blue light. They squinted in response to the sudden lighting change and flinched when they heard the hydraulic lock release and the doors hiss open.

There was no way that such expensive doors would make so much noise, so I’d had to install speakers to make the sound. I would turn it off when the kids had to go back and forth to meet with the scientists, but it was a necessity for first impressions like this one.

Holographic lamps lit up the dark wooden hallways and created a gloomy ambiance. they looked intimidated and cautious, but that was exactly why I’d put them in. The more scared they were now, the better their expressions would be when they saw the actual building for the first time.

I let Kaja and Destia walk beside me and monitored their expressions. Destia looked worried, but the expression was quickly beaten off her face and replaced with anticipation. In contrast, Kaja looked like going down the hallway was the last thing she wanted to do. She was clearly afraid, but her feet continued to follow each other and she’d somehow ended up at the front of the pack.

“Watch your steps here!”

I warned them as we reached the dented floors Aaron had created the first time he’d visited. They weren’t that deep, but since most of them were on the smaller side, it might have been dangerous for them.

Aaron, the cause of the damages to my brand new hallway, avoided my eyesight at first but suddenly sent me a charming wink that made it difficult to hold back a laugh. He’d kept a straight face the entire time, so I hadn’t known what he was thinking, but the wink told me he’d play along with me.

I suddenly felt my body become slightly heavier. It wasn’t enough that I would have noticed if Aaron hadn’t suddenly winked at me, but it was enough to create a feeling of wrongness. That combined with the flickering lamps and the long hallway was enough to throw off even the brave Destia.

Archer instinctively reached out to hold Eva’s hand but ended up grabbing Tillo’s instead. To his credit, Eva would likely have been afraid in a situation like this, but the eight-year-old child was secure in Aarons’s arms, and a nod from him showed me he hadn’t increased the gravity on her.

Tillo looked surprised at Archer’s sudden actions, but must have figured the younger child was afraid and returned the gesture.

Aaron usually restrained his powers to single sources, so I’d never seen him use it to impact an entire area like this. I couldn’t imagine when he would have figured out he had such an ability. Maybe it was on a day I hadn’t accompanied him to meet with the scientists?

We finally reached the end of the hallway, and I pushed my palm into another scanner. I turned around as the gears slowly unlocked on the heavy doors and took a picture of all their surprised faces with my phone.

Yes, the security cameras would have captured it, but there was something special about capturing it myself.

Aaron completely released the increased gravity on them and let them gawk at the renovated rest area.

I’d decided against bringing in culinary staff and had made a snack bar. The kids would have to take turns in cleaning it out every week, but that much would count as a chore. After some deliberation, I figured that not giving them any chores would only spoil them, and spoiled kids were bad as they were, I couldn’t imagine unleashing spoiled superheroes into the world.

Between small chores like this; school, training their powers and their activities on Squire, I was determined to do my best and raise the most well-adjusted super-heroes ever.