There was silence... with the kid looking as if I were his hero, Henry whimpering audibly and squeezing my hand, and Ethan cleaning his glasses until he spoke with his lips twitching.
"Well, Mrs. Howard, as the one receiving the first business card, has already told to get his birth certificate, passport, and other docunts. This matter is already in the midst of being taken care of..." Ethan inford , destroying my montum and deflating fully.
"..." The old dragon had acted and set my parade on fire, even going so far as to snatch the first business card, which sohow felt like a very valuable collectible.
"...Oh, okay." I sighed, continuing to eat while Henry squeezed my hand, this ti not because I more or less adopted a child, but because the kid was snatched away by an ancient mummy that served the Dark Lord.
Henry tightened his hold once more to prompt to look at him, and when I did, he showed a very compassionate puppy look that simultaneously complained of him not being enough for .
I chuckled and patted his thigh, with both of our hands intertwined.
So, although the world was becoming more apocalyptic with each day, there was still a need to get the kid’s paperwork done, because if the Lawrence family demanded the kid back with the help of authorities or public pressure, then we would have to at least show sothing.
Even at the mont a registration was wanted, computers and the internet still worked, data had not been lost, and even if everything went to hell, if the world were able to rebuild itself at so point, then official docunts might not be needed but would surely be preferred.
And last but not least, the kid needs them for building up his own identity in his new family—an assurance he might not understand now but that will give him security in the future.
"Nice. Then let’s all have a party when everything is done." I looked at the kid who hugged my body from the side, again overjoyed.
Pfft.
Ethan agreed, and when we finished eating, he took on Emma’s role and poured the still-hot chocolate over a chocolate cake that was just as heavenly.
The kid got a dessert as well, and he practically inhaled it, not at all eating slowly like he did with the rest of his al.
When looking at Henry, I found his portion had been inhaled as well.
So... we had so similarities there.
I was also soon finished, albeit not so fast, and leaned back with satisfaction.
"What are we doing about Chacha?" I asked at the table.
"You can’t save everyone." Henry leaned against , bumping his head tenderly against mine.
"Don’t even think of teleporting to him."
"True... What about Harry, Patrick, the twins, and Chelsea?" I asked Ethan and felt Henry sigh.
As if he knew the day would co that I would ask about them, and it eventually did.
"I tried to find them, but they disappeared. anwhile, I heard of a few people from the center that had made it ho; however, your group wasn’t amongst these cases." He pushed his glasses up.
"However, I agree with Henry. They are not your responsibility, and if you decide to look for them, do it after you are officially free."
"That still stands? Although the city is in chaos?" I thought the people had better things to do than dispatch soone to count rats for a deal that was nothing more than a joke.
"Yes. Although there is a civil unrest, the important people aren’t really concerned by that." He smiled condemnably.
"The warehouse is ready; we just need you to fill it."
"Alright, tomorrow?"
"No. Rest a bit more." Henry intercepted.
"It’s alright." I want to get this over with.
Ethan nodded.
"I will first contact my old acquaintance, and we will see if everyone who has to be there can make it so soon. Naturally, they will only hear about the warehouses’ location if we manage to fill the warehouse, and after you," he nodded at , "have left the premises. You can’t be anywhere near, or they will try to capture you by any ans."
I humd.
This felt so pointless... will the fact that I am officially free stop them from wanting or my power in the future?
While I don’t really want others to level up, because it is and will forever be a risk factor if you give random people random abilities, the more people leveled up, the more the authorities would surely lose interest in .
That reminded of the superpower forum online, the site that took so long to load that I never got to take a look at it.
"Do you know sothing about the ’superpower’ forum’?"
Ethan nodded.
"Yes, people discussed their newly discovered abilities there, including their eye colors becoming more intense. Users of the forum were either disappearing, or they left a notice that they were ’recruited’ and then disappeared.
Now since the civil unrest, the forum isn’t reachable; only a banner informs the citizens about the current situation."
"Mhm, I have seen that already." I forgot the eye colors; naturally, if this happened to Henry and just by visiting another world, then others would soon follow.
Maybe in the future, we could tell how strong soone was just by looking into their eyes.
However, the recruitnt part...
"Lawrence family or governnt?"
Ethan smiled helplessly.
"There is no shortage of people searching for soone powerful, especially in these tis."
True...
"Now that you have had your desserts, Mrs. Howard told to prepare sothing for you." Ethan slowly stood up and walked to the wall one and a half ters beside our bench before pressing against it.
A door opened like in so movie.
I raised my eyebrows and urged Henry to move by patting his arm.
When he did, and we both stood up to peer into what Ethan opened, we found a little room with two stools that looked exactly like the stool my grandma gave when I visited the throne room, and she refused to give a proper chair, together with two big barrels full of potatoes and an even bigger one that was empty.
"Ah," I nodded.
This was sothing like a dark and cozy little storeroom that would now turn into our punishnt room.
"Alright." I dragged Henry to the sink in the kitchen to wash our hands, especially his, as he hadn’t taken another shower after the cumbath, and then brought his laughing self back into the potato room.
We squeezed by the barrels and took seats on our little stools, with Henry pulling mine to his so we sat as close as possible next to each other.
Ethan handed each of us a potato peeler.
The kid leaned in and wanted to co to us, but Ethan held him back.
"They are being punished, and I fear it is ti for your lesson," he explained.
But Ren gripped the edge of the thin wall, adamant to peel potatoes with us.
"Go learn; later you’ll get the bribe I promised you," I chuckled.
From this little stool, everything seed so much bigger, Ren as well.
The kid sparkled again and let go, and Ethan closed the door slowly and a bit sadistically until we were alone in a small hidden potato room that would be completely dark if not for our superior eyesight.
"I like it here; it’s cozy." Henry took the first potato and rubbed his head against mine before starting to peel.
The empty barrel was clearly for the peeled potatoes, and we even had two garbage bags for the peels.
"Pfft, yeah, cozy. Be careful that you don’t cut yourself."
"You take such good care of ~" He purred and rubbed his head against , tickling into a chuckle.
So started our prison-like punishnt, and I peeled potatoes when I asked Henry what he thought about the high number of zombies that had attacked us, and he recounted his talk with Ethan, ntioning the idea about the collective.
"Fuck... It’s true; the worms could be really everywhere already, and the mont they latch onto a human, they could zombify them." I stared at the potato in my hand, hoping that they would leave our food alone.
Apparently first was the infection, then the spreading throughout the body, then the worms growing together, making them nearly invincible.
But worse, if they really had sohow saved the information of my blood and could pinpoint people with it, it would put another target on Henry, the kid, as well as .
Oh yeah, and Henrietta.
"Goddamn it." I cursed, with no clue how to get rid of them and also clueless about how to look for the others and Chacha without using my power and risking myself appearing in so parallel world.
Hmm...though there was always a cheat code in prison on which I could flip the coin to go through a few future possibilities, like ’What would happen if I teleported to Chacha?’.
And that was my dear, deranged counterpart Kenny3, though I really don’t want to enter a prison voluntarily, nor et him.
"I will protect you, don’t worry." Henry continued his peeling and his rubbing.
"This whole city needs to get evacuated and then sprayed with proper chemicals or sothing to get rid of each last worm, not like the useless chemicals they used before."
Henry humd in agreent.
"It would be easier...if we could work together with the governnt." It was clear that saying the last part cost him a big deal of willpower.
"Oh? Hadn’t thought I’d ever hear you say that."
Henry looked at before smiling slightly.
"To protect you, getting rid of the worms once and for all would be the best course of action, as they have tasted your blood and are crazy for it. We can’t evacuate a city by ourselves, and just stealing chemicals sowhere and distributing them... wouldn’t be what you want." He gave another puppy look, as if he was hoping I would say, ’No, no, we can do that; I don’t mind.’
"Pfft. No, mass murder doesn’t stand on the list for now." I threw another peeled potato into the barrel with slowly growing content, asking myself how we would all eat so many mashed potatoes after we finished the whole assignnt.
Though, with Henry’s and my help, we would surely succeed.
"We need to talk with Dr. Lawrence. She not only cos from the Lawrence family but also has her morals straight. Let’s throw that problem at her. Now would be the perfect ti to evacuate the city after we got rid of the walking, running zombies and rats."
The rats should have been eradicated completely, and the worms needed so ti to turn into invincible zombies, much more than a few weeks.
So the plan for now was getting the warehouse full and the governnt deal done, then talking to Dr. Lawrence to make the worm problem her problem, then taking a look at where the others were, though I don’t think I can find Chacha without visiting my counterpart, as teleporting to him could an teleporting into another world.
Henry whimpered again, clearly unhappy with the plan I also explained to him, but in the end, he complied.
"We’ll do everything slowly and together. And after the most important things are done, I have a present for you." He leaned against and chuckled darkly, while I elbowed him and ignored the last, very ominous part of his words.
"Pfft, yes, yes, what else?"
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