Chapter Text
The Huntress could confidently say that the last 4 months had been absolutely wonderful for her. In part due to the PayDay Gang’s continued success in acquiring funds, small as it was at the current moment, but the vast majority of her joy stemmed from her adorable little brother. Not only was he shaping up to be a phenomenal combatant under the tutelage of his many teachers, but he was also incredibly affectionate when they were in a private setting. Something she had sorely missed and craved while she was living on Yautja Prime. Who knew a simple hug could feel so good?
As it currently stood, whenever he didn’t need to maintain his persona of an aloof, heartless killer around any subordinates that might cause an issue in the base, he would near immediately turn and latch onto her back or belly like one of those extinct ‘koala’ animals they’d seen in a pre-quirk documentary. She was all too happy to return the favor each and every time he did, much like she was doing now while they were snuggled up on his bed. Today was one of her free days, so she had asked if they could watch TV in his room, which he had readily agreed to. His other bodies could handle his paperwork and junk today. Right now, she had his main one all to herself, and she was going to take full advantage of it as much as she could.
“Serves you right, you vile traitor.” Andrew hissed at the TV as the dark mage Viren plummeted to his death.
“Truly a despicable man.” she agreed. “To think he would stoop so low as to murder young Azymondias with his wicked magic…”
She grumbled a handful of yautja swears under her breath, causing her brother to chuckle at her potty mouth. That was another thing that she loved about her brother. He was extremely studious towards his education in all things related to potential business, including learning as many languages as he possibly could to prepare for his eventual entrance onto the intergalactic stage.
In these short months alone he had mastered Spanish, German, and even Yautja thanks to her instruction. By no means was she a language professor, but she was able to help him learn the basics of her mother tongue, while using public extranet sources to fill in the gaps. Truly, he was a prodigy in every field he set his mind on. Even teaching the young Midoriya boy he favored came naturally to him!
The ‘Green Bean’ as Andrew called him had progressed by leaps and bounds in his studies, to the point that he had greatly surpassed his young classmates and entered highschool level material. Granted, it was partially because her brother snuck a level 10 Intelligence stat onto the boy over the course of the 2 months he’d lived in the apartment complex. But it was still impressive nonetheless. Now when young Midoriya got home from his school, he would relax for a couple hours before having lessons with Andrew over a video call. The child was joyful and determined to learn from her brother, who was all too eager to impart his vast knowledge onto the pup.
“Say, Sis…” Andrew started, pausing their show. “What would you say to going on a little trip into the city? We could do some shopping, hit up an arcade, and maybe grab some food on the way back.”
She chittered her mandibles in excitement. That actually sounded really nice to her. She’d been cooped up in the base and surrounding forest for a while now, and wanted to explore the city now that she’d come to appreciate Earth during her stay.
“I’d love to, little brother.” she happily replied. “Although… I am a tad concerned about people seeing my collar. I do not want them to get the wrong idea about our relationship.”
“Bah, don’t worry about it!” Andrew waved off while standing up from the bed. “I got the mist, remember? Those dumbass civvies won’t see sh*t unless I want them to!”
She flushed with slight embarrassment at that. She’d forgotten that he had animated the mystic veil for a moment, and felt rather foolish for her blunder. The little imp she called family didn’t hesitate to point it out and tease her about it, quickly scampering into his bathroom when she made a dash for his vulnerable noggin. Mark her words, she would give him a noogie by day’s end. Or she wasn’t the granddaughter of Clan Jade Scale’s Chief.
Clicking her mandibles with joy, the Huntress marveled at the mall she and her brother had gone to. It was positively enormous, and could likely hold a small yautja village within the main corridor alone by her estimates. Stuffed to the brim with just about every type of shop one could browse, Nagatoro Central Shopping Center was an amazing sight to her eyes. She saved several pictures of it to her mask’s internal computer for later filing once they returned home.
“What do you think, Sis?” he asked from his rightful perch atop her shoulders. “Big f*ckin’ place, ain’t it?”
Craning her head upwards to look into his mischievous eyes, she said, “I-indeed it is, Andrew. Where… exactly should we start first? I-I am a tad overwhelmed by everything here, and I don’t know where anything is.”
“Pssh, no worries. I’ll guide you to our first stop.”
Gently nudging her collar bone with his right foot, he pointed her towards an escalator that led to the third floor. Complying, she followed his directions, drawing a handful of eyes towards them as they went due to her relatively extreme height compared to the other people. After a couple minutes of walking, they were in front of a clothing shop that had items for various quirk needs. Perfect for a yautja like her to find something that fits. Ducking under the entrance so Andrew didn’t smack his face, she was greeted to the sight of several other customers perusing the store’s wares. Some were in the fireproof section. Others were browsing items that had increased durability. More still were in a section for those with aquatic quirks, and the list went on.
“Ancestors above, it’s like a bazaar during a festival…” she mumbled in Yautja.
“You’ll get used to it.” Andrew replied. After hopping down with a slight flourish, he said in Japanese, “I’m gonna see if there’s an All Might shirt knocking around somewhere for Zuzu. Meet you by the fitting booths in 10?”
“Agreed.” she said with a nod.
Separating, she went over to the activewear section to start browsing. Flicking through the selection, she plucked a dark gray sports bra from the rack and held it up. They were a newer concept for the (relatively) young yautja, since females of her kind normally either bound their breasts with cloth during physical activity, or more commonly, just allowed them to be free under their traditional chest mesh. She fell into the latter category while she was on Yautja Prime, and had been rather confused about the difference in what counted as ‘modest’ during her first few months on Earth.
Now, after almost 3 years of living here, she had a firm understanding of the cultural differences of the 2 planets, and had even come to enjoy the variety of clothing that was available. Right now, she was wearing a blue summer hoodie with the middle partially unzipped, exposing the upper half of the pink t-shirt that she was wearing underneath. Further down were some gray jeans with some decorative tears across her thighs, and on her feet she was wearing a pair of large pink work boots. She’d have preferred to go barefoot, but decided against it once Andrew warned her about street gum and other such revolting things.
Giving the sports bra one last look, she shook her head and returned it to the rack. It was far too small for her. To be hyperbolic for a moment, attempting to wear the tiny thing would be like trying to cover a mountain with a parachute. A futile endeavor, and one that would no doubt cause her much pain if she tried it.
“Excuse me, miss?” she heard a voice say from her left. “Can I help you with anything?”
Turning her head, she looked down to see a petite woman that could best be described as a ‘sheep centaur’. With the upper body of a human, her lower half was that of a domestic sheep, covered by a light dress-like garment of some sort, likely to keep her cool during the hot summer. On her human half was a vest shirt, colored the same white as her fluffy afro of hair. Pinned on the right of her chest was a nametag that read ‘Miko Takahashi, 21’.
“Hm? Oh, uh, do you have any sports bras in a larger size than what is available here?” she asked the employee. “I am afraid that these would crush my breasts if I attempted to wear any of them.”
“Of course.” the woman replied. “Right this way, please.”
Following behind the short woman, her hooved feet making soft ‘click-clacks’ as she walked, the Huntress was led a tad further into the store towards an aisle where some other large-chested women like herself were perusing the wares. Coming up to one of the racks built onto a wall, she saw a row of bras in the ‘G-cup’ range that would fit her rather well. She was a tad small compared to other females of her homeworld, but she had learned that by human standards she was positively enormous. She… May or may not have gotten an ego boost from that little tidbit…. Moving on!
“Do any of these speak to you, miss?” the small Takahashi asked.
Deciding to have a bit of fun, she grabbed one from the display racks and held it up to her ear.
“No, they seem rather quiet.” she said, shaking the item a bit before placing it by her ear again. “Do they have a power switch on them somewhere that I could turn on?”
Takahashi blinked for a moment, then burst into a fit of giggles at her joke, failing to cover them up with a hand.
“N-no, no, they don’t.” she tittered. “B-but we are currently having a sale on them. 2 for 3K, if you’re interested?”
She hummed in thought for a moment. That did sound like a reasonable deal in her opinion, and would leave some room in her spending money for a new hoodie. Or perhaps some new boots? Choices, choices…
“Yes, I think I’d like to try some on, if that would be permissible?” she asked while grabbing 2 more from the rack.
“Certainly!” Takahashi replied, waving the Huntress to follow her to the fitting booths with a noticeable pep in her step.
“She’s cute.” she absentmindedly thought to herself. “Wait, what? Where did that come from?”
Shaking off her odd thoughts for the moment, she listened to the instructions of the security attendant that was posted by the fitting booths. Simple enough to understand. The real tricky part was figuring out how to put the stupid bras on. She spent several minutes fumbling around with them, until she gave up and searched for a YouTube video on her mask. Honestly, she felt that they were needlessly complex contraptions, but that was likely just her inexperience with them talking. She would get used to them the longer she used them.
Doing a small twirl in the mirror, she had to admit that she rather liked the way she looked. The beige one she was wearing now complemented her olive scaled skin nicely. They supported her breasts quite comfortably, pushing them up a tad to emphasize them and her toned abdomen. Flexing an arm, she posed in the mirror and took a picture of herself. Just a little something to boost her ego a touch more.
Deciding to pick the maroon bra over the blue one for her second item, she spent a few minutes rebinding her breasts with the cloth strips she had originally been wearing, being mindful of the air filtration unit on her back as she did so. Clasping the safety pin shut on the final wrap, she put her shirt and hoodie back on before stepping out and handing the blue bra to the attendant for cleaning. Glancing around, she tried to spot Takahashi so she could thank the woman for her help, but wasn’t able to spot the employee. Switching her mask to thermal vision, she did another sweep of the store.
Spotting her in a secluded part of the store, the Huntress made to approach the woman, but paused when she saw that another person was crowding her. Frowning in concern, she used her enhanced stealth capabilities granted by her Overlord levels to mask her presence as she crept up behind the two people, commanding her mask to isolate their conversation.
“Come ooonn, little lady.” the new person, a man with a wolf mutation, said to her. “I’m hot, you're hot, what’s the issue? Let’s ditch this sh*tty joint and go have some fun!”
“As I’ve told you already, sir, my answer is a solid and resounding ‘no’.” Takahashi firmly denied, unable to squeeze past the man’s barricade. “I have work to do, and you are disrupting it. If you do not comply, I will have security escort you out of the store.”
“Oooh, a real feisty one, ain’t ya?” the pest chortled out with a light snarl, his voice more audible now that the Huntress was directly behind him. “I like that in a girl. Now, I think that’s enough chit-chat for today…”
“I concur, zabin.” she said with her own snarl as she revealed her presence.
The pest gave a startled bark at her voice, whirling around to see her clothed stomach. Slowly, he raised his gaze upward to see her masked face, his ears drooping down further and further as it rose. At 9ft 4, she positively dwarfed the man’s 5ft something. It made intimidating him that much easier.
“It seems to me that your parents failed to explain to you what the word ‘no’ means…” she started, bending down to firmly clasp her hand on his comparatively tiny shoulder. “When someone says ‘no’ to you, it means that they refuse. It does not mean that you continue to harass them. It does not mean that you continue to pressure them into doing what you want. It means that you stop, and back. Off. Do I make myself clear?”
Harshly gulping in terror, the pest vigorously nodded in understanding, remaining silent to not provoke her.
“Good. Now, I am going to release you. You are going to leave this store without causing any more trouble. If you don’t, I will forcibly escort you to the nearest security officer so they can detain you. Don’t try anything, whelp.”
Yanking him away from Takahashi, she roughly shoved him forward so he could scurry off with his tail quite literally tucked between his legs. Scoffing at the runt’s cowardice, she kneeled down to address Takahashi, speaking with a much gentler tone than what she’d used a moment ago.
“Are you okay, miss Takahashi?” she asked her. “Did the zabin hurt you at all?”
“U-uhh, er, no, he didn’t.” she replied, stunned. “Th-thank you for scaring him off, miss… W-what was your name again?”
“I do not have one.” the Huntress answered. “I come from a much different culture and people than what is here in Japan. For my people, we must earn our names through our hard efforts and the deeds we accomplish. As I have not yet earned mine, you may simply call me ‘Huntress’ if you wish.”
“R-right, uh, sure!” Takahashi stuttered, her face oddly flushed. “H-hey, umm… are you doing anything next Saturday?”
Raising a brow ridge under her mask, the Huntress did a quick scan of her agenda. Seeing that she had another free day then, she informed the woman of her empty schedule, curious to see where this was headed.
“Cool! Uhh, would you m-maybe want to see a movie or something? My treat!” she offered.
The Huntress thought it over for a moment. She could watch plenty of movies back in the base–good ones at that–although the vast majority of them were from pre-quirk times. She hadn’t yet seen a film from the modern age, nor had she visited a theater. She supposed that she wouldn’t mind trying something new. Getting permission from Andrew shouldn’t be much of an issue for her.
“Hmm… I will need to speak with my guardians about it, but I am willing to accept on the condition that I cover my half of the bill.” she proposed.
“Sure thing!” Takahashi agreed. Pulling out a pad of sticky notes and a pen from her pockets, she scribbled out a phone number and passed it to the Huntress. “Feel free to text me at around 6 or so. We can work out the details then, or just talk for a bit. Does that work for you?”
“Yes, that works just fine. I will talk to you then, miss Takahashi.” the Huntress said, standing up and walking off with an amicable nod.
Glancing at her mask’s clock, she realized that she was about 10 minutes late to her scheduled meetup with Andrew. Turning to head back for the fitting booths, she began a brisk walk through the aisles–
“What’s the rush, Sis?” the smug voice of her brother asked from her right as she passed a display of jeans.
“Bah!” she exclaimed, screeching to a halt. Spinning 180 degrees, she quickly made her way over to him, a scowl hidden under her mask.
“Don’t scare me like that, brother!” she huffed, waving an angry finger at him. “We are in a mall, not the stealth courses of the training grounds!”
“Alright, alright, I’m sorry.” Andrew replied while holding his hands up in mock surrender, his tone far from sincere. “Couldn’t help it. You’re just too dang cute when I spook ya.”
“Wha-I am not!” she denied.
“Yes you are.” he shot back.
“Am not!”
“You are.”
“Am not!”
“You are.”
“Am not!”
“Am not.”
“I am!”
“Not.”
“Am!”
“Not!”
“If I say that I am cute, then I am cute, and that is final!” she firmly said, shutting down the argument with her stubborn little sibling.
Huffing with irritation, she bent down to pick him up and set him on her shoulders before moving along to pick out a new hoodie. Soon enough they had gotten everything they wanted and passed through the cash registers. Exiting the store, she carried their bags for a brief moment until Andrew had managed to command the mist to hide her inventory portal from the civvies.
At his direction, she made her way to the escalators again, returning to the first floor and walking into the western wing of the mall, where a large arcade was located. It was quite unlike anything that she had seen previously, with blinding lights and blaring sounds coming from the myriad of games available for customers to play. She had to filter it out with her mask just to walk through the entrance, it was that intense.
“Are you okay, Sis?” Andrew asked with concern. “We can go somewhere else if this is too much for you.”
“N-no, I am alright.” she said. “I will adapt just fine. Don’t worry about me, okay?”
He scrunched up his face in worry, concentrating for a moment until he snapped his fingers, a puff of mist expanding outwards to further command the mystic vapor. Slowly but surely, the noises went down to a quiet whisper, and the flashing lights dimmed into faint blips of color. She turned her head this way and that, once again marveling at his prowess.
“I’m obligated to worry about you, Sis.” he calmly countered. “That’s what family’s for.”
Her heart got noticeably warmer at his words, feeling akin to a mushy bowl of her mother’s fruit stew in her chest. She turned her gaze to the side and grumbled. That was another noogie that she owed him today.
“Damnable little prick…” she grouched, her insult lacking any real heat to it.
Muttering a bashful ‘thank you’, she set him down so he could walk her through how to operate the arcade’s credit machine. Inserting a 2K bill into the slot, she typed away at the screen for a few minutes, getting an arcade card loaded with 10K credits at the end of it. Leading her over to a game called ‘skee-ball’, he tapped his own card–the item showing signs of age and wear from a long period of use–against a reader, which beeped as an opening on the game cabinet released a handful of plastic balls.
“Okay, this game is piss easy to do.” Andrew started, holding up one of the balls for her to see. “You just roll these balls up the ramp so they go into the numbered holes at the end of it. The bigger the number, the more tickets you win if you land the shot. You go too soft on the roll, and you’ll botch it. Too hard, and you’re liable to break something with your boosted strength. Just gotta give it a gentle, yet firm shove. Like so.”
Turning around, he demonstrated for her, landing the ball in the upper left slot worth 100 tickets. Clicking her mandibles in curiosity, she tapped her card on the next machine over to begin her own game. The plastic balls were rather light in her large hands, although that could simply be a matter of perspective. Eyeing the distance between her and the ball slots, she rolled her shoulder before sending the first ball forward. 50 tickets.
“Nice shot, Sis!” her brother complimented, his own score up to 600. “Keep it up with the 50s and you’ll win a bonus!”
Perking up at the mention of the bonus, she returned to her task with a renewed vigor. At the end of it, she managed to win 500 tickets with the allotted 10 balls, in addition to a bonus of 700 more on her card.
“1200! Not bad for a first try, Sis.” he again complimented her. “What do you wanna do next?”
After a few more rounds of skee-ball, they spent the better part of 4 hours going from game to game across the arcade. From a spacecraft racing game that was supposedly based on some discontinued shuttle models, to the infuriating claw games, to pinball, chance games that were scammed using their high Luck stats, and many many more that she thoroughly enjoyed.
The final game Andrew had wanted to play today was a VR shooter, where 2 or more people would compete to kill each other in a simulated environment. Using a motion sensing omnidirectional treadmill, slightly bulky headsets, and some customizable weapon-shaped controllers, players were able to ‘simulate the real thing’ as they fought. Currently, she was sitting out and watching her brother demolish a group of 4 teenagers who thought ganging up on him would see them victorious. Oh, how truly and utterly foolish the notion was…
“And for the crown jewel…” Andrew started, his character sprinting off the roof of a building in the game. “360 no scope!”
With that final, taunting cry, Andrew landed his trick shot in the face of the last surviving teen, blowing their virtual head to pieces and claiming victory for himself. Whooping in joy, he quickly extricated himself from the treadmill harness and returned his headset and rifle controller to the game clerk, who rolled his eyes in fond exasperation.
“It seems as if this is not the first time that Andrew has bested overconfident challengers.” she mused to herself as her brother did a victory dance.
“Oh yeah, I’m awesome!” Andrew gloated. “Uh-huh! That’s right! I’m the best! WOO!!”
“No kidding, little dude!” one of the teens, a boy with a spike of blond hair, amicably replied. “You really kicked our keesters back there!”
“Yeah, I’ll say.” another boy, whose hair was a long tangle of black strands, gruffly added.
“Oh, don’t be a sourpuss, Shota!” a girl with shiny purple hair chided.
“I’m pretty sure that’s impossible, Nem.” the final teen, a boy with a puffball of sky blue hair, snarked. “Sho’s natural state is just being a big grump. Ain’t that right, Sho?”
The black haired ‘Shota’ growled at his friend, his eyes flashing with a crimson light in warning. The other 3 just giggled at his reaction.
“I think you just proved his point, man.” Andrew said with his own giggle.
“Why you little…” Shota hissed, his apparent temper flaring as he made to grab Andrew.
Faster than any of the teenagers could blink, her brother zipped around to stand behind Shota and give the older boy a gentle tap on his back.
“You’re gonna have to be faster than that if you wanna grab me.” he calmly said, prompting Shota to try again. But it was for naught, as her brother’s superior speed made it laughably easy for him to avoid the frustrated boy’s attempts.
“How the hell are you using your quirk!?” Shota barked.
“What does my quirk have to do with anything?” Andrew curiously asked, a mildly confused expression on his face as he continued to dodge and duck around the teen.
“Because mine is a Nullification type!” Shota revealed. “You shouldn’t be able to zip around with yours while I’m looking at you!”
“Wait, really? Is that what that funny feeling in my gut is?” Andrew remarked, catching Shota’s arms when the teen made another pass at him. “Huh… neat. But I’m not using my quirk right now.”
At that, Shota paused in his struggle to escape Andrew’s grasp and gave her brother a dumbfounded stare, which his friends mimicked.
“You… You’re not?” the blond boy asked. “B-but then how were you going so dang fast?”
“Hmm… tell you what,” Andrew started, releasing Shota’s arms and backing away to a respectable distance. “How about we go to the food court and talk about it while we eat?”
While the teens considered his offer, the Huntress took notice of a particular gleam in her brother’s eyes. The one he got when he saw a potential opportunity he wanted to capitalize on. Knowing him, he wouldn’t let the poor fools go once he had his claws in them, even in death.
“Ancestors above have mercy upon your souls should you refuse him.” she silently prayed for the children.
“Eh, why not?” the blue haired boy eventually agreed. “I could go for some pizza anyways. Nem? Zashi?”
“I’ve been wanting to try out that new bubble tea place.” the ‘Nem’ girl chimed in.
“I’m down!” the last teen, ‘Zashi’ by process of elimination, agreed. “Come on, Sho! You need to eat more than those jelly packs if you wanna get into UA with us!”
Shota grumbled out some weak protests as he was dragged along by his friend, but she could see the burning curiosity behind his act. With an amicable wave goodbye at the VR clerk, Andrew did some acrobatic flips and twirls across the ground, ending his stunt with a strong jump into the air and back onto her shoulders. Barely even moving from the impact, she stood up from her chair to begin the trek to the food court.
“Holy crap, kid!” Nem exclaimed in astonishment. “How the hell did you do that!?”
“I’ll tell you at the food court.” Andrew deflected. “C’mon, Sis! There’s this spicy burger that I’ve been dying to get you to try since we got here.”
“I can’t wait, brother.” she replied, licking some drool from her mandibles.
Much like him, she had acquired a taste for spicy food. If only he could infuse the burger with his quirk energy to make it even better… Alas, as she was technically one of his guards while they were out of the base, she had to remain sober in the event that something dangerous occurred.
“Hmm… I suppose that I could order another burger online, and have it sent to his civilian house for him to infuse there.”
Yes, she felt that it was indeed a solid plan for a later date. For now though, she rubbed her hands together in hunger as they approached the food court. She was positively giddy with impatience to get her hands on some food.
Sitting down at the large table with his food tray, Shota Aizawa openly stared in curiosity at the child seated across from him. He had been training his speed and reflexes for close to a decade now, all in preparation for him becoming an underground hero after he graduated from UA Uni. And yet… This one, single, sassy brat had moved faster than he could ever hope to track, practically dancing circles around him while he tried–and miserably failed–to teach the tyke a lesson about being smart with him.
He’d been confused as all hell when his quirk didn’t shut down the brat’s speed. Downright insulted when this Deksikonan kid said it just ‘made his gut feel funny’. When it was revealed that he hadn’t been using his quirk in the slightest, Shota had wanted to call BS on the spot, since only a quirk could make someone move so fast it looked as if they teleported. But when he’d searched the kid’s face for any deceit, he hadn’t found a single ounce of it anywhere. Either the kid was a damn good liar, or the more absurd option, he was being genuine with Shota and his friends. His curiosity getting the better of him, he’d agreed to join the runt and his absurdly tall sister at the food court, if only so he could learn the truth by watching for any cracks in their facades.
“Alright, so!” Andrew started, clapping his hand together. “Before we start, I would like to kindly ask that none of you insult my sister’s appearance when she removes her mask.”
“Huh? Why would we do that?” Nemuri asked, pausing to take a sip of her drink. “It’s not like we haven’t seen people with mutant quirks before. Heck, my godmother has an osprey quirk, and I love her to bits!”
“My dads both have cat mutations.” Shota added with noncommittal hum. “I’d have zero room to be a quirkist jerk.”
“Yeah! You won’t get any crap from us, little dude!” Hizashi said with a smile. Oboro just nodded, too busy stuffing his face to speak.
“Oh, well, uhh… Cool.” Andrew sheepishly said, rubbing the back of his head. “Sorry, it’s just that we’ve had to deal with the CRC on occasion, and… Well, let’s just say that things get pretty ugly when dealing with them.”
Shota grimaced at the mention of the horrific cult, his food suddenly tasting of ash in his mouth. His Pops–a total jokester that loved bad puns–had lost one of his legs to the lunatics in his youth. After hearing his story from him, Shota had developed a strong hatred for quirkests, and a stronger still feeling of love for all people around him, regardless of whatever illogical, prejudiced nonsense that bigoted morons might spew. His friends felt much the same way as him, and treated everyone fairly no matter what.
“No problem, kid.” Shota replied, an understanding smile on his face.
Andrew returned his smile before turning to his sister, giving her an encouraging hug. She made a series of happy clicking sounds as she rubbed his back in gratitude. Separating from him, she reached up and behind her head to detach a pair of metallic tubes from her mask, each hissing with a jet of pressurized gas. Grabbing both sides with her hands, she shuffled it off her face and placed it on the table, revealing her slightly unusual head. It wasn’t the oddest thing he or his friends had seen. In fact, the most peculiar thing was the missing mandible she had. If anything it just made him curious about the story behind it.
“Ooh, I love the jewelry on your mandibles!” Nemuri, ever the fashion nut, praised. “They really compliment your scales!”
“Thank you, miss Kayama.” ‘Huntress’, as she asked to be called, replied. “They were a birthday gift from my… ‘late’ aunt, as I believe the term is?”
“Well, if she were here with us, I’d definitely have to talk fashion with her. The girl knows her stuff!” Nemuri said with a small chuckle.
Huntress gave what he could only guess was an appreciative smile in thanks. Turning to her food, she fell silent and began to eat, her sharp teeth making short work of her burger. Returning his attention to Andrew, Shota asked the question that’d been burning in his mind for a while now.
“So, Andrew… If that crazy speed you were using earlier wasn’t your quirk, then what was it?”
Andrew hummed for a moment, gathering his words together until he’d figured out what to say.
“Before I tell you, I’d first like to advise you not to rely on your quirk so much.” he started, confusing Shota. “I intentionally left myself vulnerable throughout most of your little tantrum to test your combat awareness. You failed.”
Before he could make a retort, Andrew held up his hand to silence him. He reluctantly kept his mouth shut, even if he wanted to sling a few choice words at the brat.
“Just think for a second. You could’ve gone for a leg sweep to knock me down and gotten me in a grapple. Or maybe thrown some punches at me, adding some feints to trip me up. There was a nearby broom you could’ve used like a quarterstaff to bash my face in. Hell, I even gave you a golden opportunity to give me a nutcracker when I grabbed your arms! And yet… What did you do, Mr. Aizawa?”
“… I… relied on my quirk too much, thinking that it’d shut down your speed…” he slowly admitted.
“Bingo.” Andrew said, a weirdly mature air about him as he talked. “See, you and your friends here need to realize that quirks are tools, not the one thing that defines you. My short display in the arcade should be evidence enough that some people don’t need a quirk to kick some serious butt. With hard work and dedication, humans can accomplish downright absurd feats. Even before this damn planet got so oversaturated with all these powers and sh*t, we did some crazy stuff.
“We mapped out every corner of the globe with paper and pencils on foot or on boats. We made wireless information transmitting possible with artificial electricity. We made flying machines that can travel hundreds of miles. Incredible medicines that can treat diseases that were once thought to be fatal, only to nowadays be nothing more than an inconvenience. We went to the goddamn moon, for f*ck’s sake! And all of this was literal HUNDREDS of years ago, long before quirks ever started to pop up!
“So yes, you relied on your quirk too much, but only because you haven’t been taught how to use all of the many, many other tools that you have at your disposal. I have. I have learned, and am still learning, just about every fighting style that I can find a good teacher for. I am able to use close to a hundred different weapons of all shapes and sizes with extreme proficiency. I train until my body hurts and my joints are about to give out, then do it all over again. I learned highly advanced topics to prepare for a time when I might need the knowledge they grant of the world around me. From chemistry, to biology, engineering, mathematics of all kinds, psychology, medicine, and the list goes on and on. And do you want to know why I’ve gone to such extremes, Aizawa?”
“Whuh… Why?” he dumbly asked, he and his friends all equally stunned, their food forgotten.
Taking a deep breath, Andrew steadied himself. Staring deep into his soul, Andrew’s lifeless eyes conveyed nothing but an endless void. It… It was like Shota was looking at a zombie. Sure, Andrew’s eyes tracked his movements, but there was nothing in them. No joy. No sorrow. No anger. They were just… empty.
“It’s because… I lost everything…” the kid revealed, his voice dead and hollow. “3 years ago, a man I once called Uncle broke into my house to steal from me and my dad. I was getting some water from the kitchen at the time, and once he saw me, he bashed me in the face with the butt of his shotgun in an attempt to knock me out. It’s how I got this little beauty mark on my lip here.”
Shota heard Nemuri gasp in horror, but he didn’t pay it any attention. He was too transfixed on the talking corpse in front of him to do much besides watch and listen.
“My dad heard my scream of pain and came rushing down the stairs. When he saw what was happening, he rushed for the intruder to hopefully disarm him and protect me. They struggled for a few minutes, in which my dad managed to unmask the robber. The robber got the advantage and… and… and…”
Tears began to freely stream down the kid’s face, a strangled, broken sob escaping his throat as he tried to force himself to continue. Almost immediately, his sister pulled him into her lap and held him tight to her stomach, gently rocking back and forth with a soft purring sound. Shota bowed his head in respect at the sight, his friends copying him. Nobody should have to go through what Andrew did. Let alone at his age. They let Andrew mourn in peace, his sister scaring off a few nosy bystanders that tried to butt in, and eventually the kid had calmed down enough to resume speaking.
“I… hic… I’m sorry you had to see me like that.” he apologized, blowing his nose on a napkin. “It’s just… hard to talk about my dad sometimes, is all.”
“You don’t need to apologize for anything.” Hizashi, normally loud and bombastic, said with an uncharacteristically quiet voice. “You’re allowed to grieve and miss him. Anybody that says otherwise doesn’t know sh*t.”
“Thank you, Yamada.” he replied, a touch of joy entering his lifeless eyes. “I appreciate it.”
“Now, umm… You were saying something about why you learned all that stuff?” Shota gently prodded.
“Right… Well, to sum it up, I have become extremely selfish since the incident.” Andrew started, confusing him again.
“By that, I mean that I don’t want other kids to go through what I did. Ever. But to do that, I need to reach beyond being a glory hogging hero that’s only in it for the profits and crap. To do that, I need knowledge of everything that can even remotely help someone. A villain attack? I’ll beat the tar outta the punk, then help treat any wounded civvies that I can. Scientific fields? I’ll pour my heart and soul into my research if it means helping so much as a single person with it. Hell, even something as simple as math tutoring is on the table if it’ll make a difference!”
“Gotta admit, kid, that’s a pretty noble goal.” Oboro said with a smirk. “Doesn’t seem all that selfish to me.”
“Oh, but it is.” Andrew countered, a mirthless mimicry of Oboro’s smirk on his face. “For you see, I am just one little kid. What the hell could I do alone… when only a group could fulfill my desire to change the world?”
Shota raised a brow, blinking at the kid for several seconds until a lightbulb went off over his head, his other brow shooting up to join its twin.
“Hold up… w-wait a damn minute, do… Do you want us to help you?” Shota asked, bewildered.
“Hit the nail on the head, Aizawa.” Andrew confirmed with a nod.
“H-how the hell would we do that? We’re just teenagers, not All Might!” Nemuri spluttered. Shota couldn’t agree more with her in that regard.
“Who is a human man, just like millions of other people on the planet.” Andrew explained. “The hero worship everyone and their great granny forces down your throats is clouding your judgment of him. Despite his absurd strength, he is a mortal being like the rest of us. He gets hurt like us. He’ll grow old like us. And at the end of it all, he’ll die like us.”
… Shota had to admit, the kid had a point. He had let his irrationally positive view of the man get to his head now that he put a bit more thought into the topic. In fact… Why did he revere heroes in general so much in the first place? Sure, they did some good now and then, but just as often caused trouble for themselves to ‘solve’. There was one dickhe*d in particular that regularly gave his dads sh*t that skulked around his neighborhood, subtle as it was to the untrained eye. A nasty look here, an insensitive cat joke there, and there was even a time when he’d spotted the bastard shuffling through their mailbox. There wasn’t anything important in it at the time, thank God, but it still pissed him off to no end. What he wouldn’t do to give the sh*tstain a piece of his mind… Wait a minute…
“Say, kid,” he started, raising a brow at the boy. “When you said ‘change the world’ a second ago, what did you mean by that? Were you exaggerating, or…?”
“I said what I meant, and meant what I said.” Andrew resolutely answered. “I’m gonna change this planet we’re on for the better, one step at a time. Step one is getting some people, IE you four, trained up and into the public eye to help push for some reforms on the toxic hero crap that’s rooted itself into the country. Given there are certain… shall we say ‘opinionated’ people that can and will oppose you with potentially violent methods, it is necessary that I teach you a very special tool so that you can defend yourselves. Should you choose to accept my offer, of course.”
“And what exactly would that offer be?” he asked with suspicion.
With a none-too-subtle grin, Andrew closed his eyes and focused. Taking a deep, strong breath inwards, he held it for a moment before slowly releasing a cloud of hot steam from his mouth. From across the table, Shota could see how his muscles visibly bulged outwards with power, his veins pulsing from the increased pressure on them. Shota and his friends were stunned by the display as is, but Andrew’s next words more or less shattered their worldview of what humans were capable of.
“In exchange for you helping to make my dream of a better world come true… I will teach the four of you the forgotten art of Total Concentration Breathing, which will allow you to perform superhuman feats… And much, much more… without using any quirk to speak of.”
“Y-you’re bluffing…” Hizashi stuttered, unable to comprehend the idea. “T-th-there’s no way in hell you can do-do-do that without a quirk!”
“Well, if that’s the case, then Aizawa should be able to shut down my muscles with his, right?” Andrew prompted.
Hesitantly, Shota complied, his hair floating up as he stared at the kid. But… nothing happened. The kid didn’t so much as twitch funny, his muscles remaining in their amplified state despite Erasure hitting him in full force. With a slightly manic laugh, Shota closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. Rubbing at his itchy eyes with his hands, he took a shaky breath to calm himself down. The kid wasn’t joking. He wasn’t joking.
“To reiterate what I said previously, with hard work and dedication, we’re capable of downright absurd feats. The rest of the world has forgotten exactly what we can do when we put our minds to it, and all because some glowing Chinese kid was born 600 years ago. To which I say; screw that noise.” Andrew began, a roaring flame of passion clearly evident in his tone.
“So, let me ask you this… Do you want to learn what everyone else has forgotten? To be taught long lost secrets from ancient times? To make this world a better place for everyone here, one rescued person at a time, with this knowledge that I wish to impart on you? It will be a long and difficult journey, and one that you will not be able to quit once you start. I implore you to think carefully about your choice.”
As one, the four of them looked intently at each other. The offer sounded like something straight out of some cliché movie. Yet low and behold, sitting in front of them was physical proof that people didn’t need quirks to achieve what the kid could. If they were to pass this up… Who knows when, or even if they’d get another chance like this?
“I’m in.” Shota replied, matching Andrew’s passion. “I’m sick and tired of me and my dads getting shoved around because we don’t have ‘strong’ or ‘heroic’ quirks. I say it’s about time that somebody gave those pricks a good kick in the pants.”
“Count me in!” Hizashi agreed.
“Same here!” Nemuri and Oboro said at the same time.
“Wonderful.” Andrew said with a grin, releasing another puff of steam as his muscles returned to normal. “May I please see one of your phones for a moment?”
Hizashi complied with his request, unlocking his phone and handing it over. After typing away at the screen for a couple minutes, the phones of the remaining three pinged with a text message, revealed to be some contact info and the address of a house in the countryside.
“Please come to this address in three weeks so that we can begin your training.” Andrew requested. “If your parents or guardians need some assurance or what have you about it, I can set up a meeting to talk them into letting you go. Or, if need be, my Grampy can chat with them for a bit. Understood?”
“You got it, little dude! We’ll be there!” Hizashi replied with a bright grin.
Shota gave a more subdued grin, but was nonetheless as happy as him. He was very much excited for his lessons to begin. Eager to improve his abilities all the more. Determined to save as many lives as he could once they graduated UA. And most of all?
Giddy about finally having a way to get the prick harassing him and his dads to piss off.
Andrew huffed with a bit of discomfort, holding his distended belly with regret.
“Ugh, damn mall and its addictive junk food…” he grumbled, the vibrations of their drone chauffeur driving over the dirt road to his civvie home making him a tad queasy.
“I have to–BURP!–agree with you, brother.” his sister said from the passenger seat. “Even after having 3 of those amazing Volcano Burgers that you recommended, I still want to eat more of them despite my fullness. Not to mention how many crunches it will take to burn off the calories…”
“I don’t know, Sis…” he started, knowing he was likely to earn a third noogie for his teasing. “Some people actually like it when a girl’s got a bit of chonk on her belly.”
“What are you implying, Andrew?” she asked suspiciously.
“Oh, nothing.” he waved off. “Just saying that your date next week might go a bit further than expected if that Takahashi woman’s into it.”
She turned to stare at him in the backseat with confusion for several moments, uncomprehending of his words.
“… Date?” she finally murmured after an agonizing pause. “As in courtship?”
“Uhh… Yeah? Do… do yautja not do the whole ‘dating’ thing?”
“Not in the way that humans do, no.” she denied. “Given that you have animated my species, I assume that you are aware of at least some basic concepts of our courtship rituals?”
“It’s trophy based, right? The more a male has, and the more dangerous the quarry was, the more attractive they are to a female that’s in season.”
“Correct.” she confirmed. “However, they have changed and evolved by a fair amount over the past 4000 Earth years. Now, in addition to the hunting prowess of a male, it is common that they must pass a trial set out by the female or females they are trying to seduce. Most of the time it is a simple, yet brutal test of strength where the males must quite literally beat the physically superior females into submission. Thank the Ancestors above that my clan doesn’t practice such horrific trials.”
“Yeah, I’m with you on that one.” Andrew said with a grimace. “I might be Aro, but I still wouldn’t wanna do something so damn violent to a potential partner. It just… doesn’t sit right with me.”
“What does ‘Aro’ mean?” his sister innocently asked. “Does it have something to do with the ‘Ace’ status that I have heard you speak about a couple times, or perhaps why I’m supposedly dating the store employee?”
Now it was Andrew’s turn to stare at her, his bewilderment clearly present on his face, while within himself the klyntar doctor that shared his body released a wave of awkwardness at the topic.
“I’m… Gonna take a guess and say that the MIB didn’t teach you about LGBT stuff, right?” he rhetorically asked.
“Pardon?”
“Aaand that’s a ‘no’, got it.” Andrew grumbled with a facepalm. “… You know what? f*ck it. Pride Month in August. I’ll give you a crash course after you’re done with your chores and studies tomorrow. Right now I just wanna chill out and play some games for a bit while my gut settles down. You wanna join me?”
“I’d love to, little brother!” she happily agreed, settling back into her seat afterwards.
They fell into a comfortable silence for the remaining 20 minutes of their journey to Andrew’s civvie house. A cozy little thing quite deep inside the forested regions of Nagatoro, it was the same house Andrew had been raised in by his late father for the first 6 years of his life. The ground floor consisted mainly of the American-styled living room, which had a large corner sofa facing the entryway and TV set. Past a small archway to the right of the couch was the simple kitchen and dining area, a medium sized window facing the fenced off backyard. To the right of the entryway were the doors to the guest powder room, backyard/porch area, and basem*nt. The upstairs area had a small-ish bathroom with a tub and shower combo, toilet, and sink, with a shelf above the toilet for the toiletries of the occupants. 2 small bedrooms, one for Andrew and one for a guest–being his sister in this instance–were facing the front of the house.
There was a master bedroom available, but nobody dared to enter it, as Andrew had strictly forbidden anyone from doing so without his express permission. The last fool who did was swiftly liberated of their head with Andrew’s bare hands, which was subsequently stuffed and mounted in the cafeteria of the base’s prison wing to serve as a grisly reminder of what happened when the scumbags disobeyed him. Hence, his Grampy instead claimed the basem*nt area as his private quarters and office to use whenever he stayed there. All in all, Andrew loved this place, and was eternally pleased that some mental f*ckery had worked wonders to transfer the ownership of the property to his Grampy. If only he hadn’t needed to transfer the ownership in the first place…
Shaking away his bad memories, Andrew stepped out of the drone and shut its door behind him, his sister doing the same. Waiting until the drone drove off, Andrew whistled a long, continuous, and high-pitched note into the surrounding forest.
“Zed!” he called out after he stopped. “Where’s my baby girl at, huh!? Daddy’s home!”
After whistling again–much to Suture’s chagrin–he heard a large dog of some sort rapidly barking, the sounds loud and deep as the source bounded up and tackled him to the ground to start slobbering all over his face. Laughing in joy, he tried in vain to shield himself from the Anubian Baskurr’s kisses, but it was for naught. Gently pushing her off, he stood up and [cleaned] himself before giving her a good scratch behind her ears, causing one of her back legs to thump on the ground.
With a body structure similar to a large dobermann, Zed stood at head height with himself, and roughly chest height with somebody like Giran, making her quite the big girl by Earth standards. Her shiny blue scales and piercing red eyes would surely frighten anyone that wasn’t familiar with his baby girl, but her gentle and friendly demeanor more than made up for it whenever they went out in public… Assuming that nobody drew her ire, that is.
For you see, attached to her spiky red collar was an extraordinarily dangerous weapon that had taken 5 long years for him to animate, due to its extreme power and complexity. Able to shift and mold her DNA into a slew of various animals, fictional or otherwise, it made her a strong and versatile combatant that could likely tear through a small army by herself before she went down. Indeed, animating the Nemetrix was one of his crowning achievements in his opinion. Given that she was more than able to take care of herself while guarding his house, Andrew let her roam free in the forest to patrol the area for intruders.
“Ha ha, good to see you too, girl!” he chuckled. “Go give Sissy some love too, will ya?”
At his request, Zed padded up to the Huntress to show her some affection, which his sister happily returned. While they were saying hi to each other, Andrew took a moment to disable the wards on the front door. Whistling over his shoulder, Zed trotted over and followed him inside, gently tugging on the Huntress’ hand with her mouth to bring the yautja inside as well. The Huntress chattered her mandibles with amusem*nt, used to the Baskurr’s antics. Setting their shoes aside–Zed wiped her paws on the shoe mat, just like he’d trained her–Andrew waved his sister over to the couch to wait, briefly going upstairs to his room to fetch the stuff needed to set up the game he wanted to play. Once everything was ready he began his explanation of the game.
“The basic gimmick of Skylanders is using the toy figures that I’ve set out to play the game.” he started, gesturing to the little menagerie of characters he’d placed on the coffee table. “The one I’ve opened on the Xbox is the third in the series, Swap Force. To start out with, you pick a character and place them on the portal, which sends them into the game for you to control.”
Placing his Fryno figure on the portal, its Magic Moment played out on the screen and sent the character down into Woodburrow, the display eliciting a curious purr from his sister.
“They’ve each got different moves and abilities, so you should be able to find one that you like after messing around with them for a little bit. Fryno, which is the dude I’m playing as now, is a CQC brawler that uses his fists to beat the sh*t outta baddies. The ‘X’ button makes him punch whatever’s in front of him, and is his primary attack.”
Moving over to the training dummies, he demonstrated for her, making Fryno repeatedly strike them with slow yet heavy blows.
“The ‘Y’ button is his third attack. Skylanders don’t have their third attacks initially, as it’s something that you have to buy from an upgrade station. In his case, it’s a charge attack that varies depending on whether or not he’s heated up–I’ll get back to that in a second.”
Holding down the button, he made Fryno run on all fours and ram into the dummies with his horn. He even chased some of the sheep around the training area for a quick laugh.
“The ‘B’ button makes him pound the ground with his hands to make a flaming AOE–area of effect–shockwave. The more you do it, the hotter he gets, which in turn makes him hit harder and faster with his primary. Best of all though? It makes his third attack switch to a flaming motorcycle!”
Demonstrating for a third time, he first got Fryno nice and toasty by mashing the B button, then went cruising around with the bike attack to scorch the dummies, making sure to pick up any coins they dropped on the way. By now his sister was quite interested in the game, and was eyeing the rest of his figures in curiosity.
“Here, why don’t you try him out? Get a good feel for his playstyle.” he prompted while handing her the controller. “If you wanna try a different character, just swap Fryno’s figure for another one on the portal.”
Grabbing the controller, she did as he suggested and began to mess around with Fryno in the training area. First trying how he felt without any heat, she commented that she didn’t quite enjoy how slow he was without it. She quickly changed her tune once she got him warmed up. With how big the AOE was, it was sure to catch enemies in a large radius, potentially stunning smaller ones long enough for her to finish them off with the primary attack. If some big nasties got too close, she could use the charge attack to get out of dodge while doing some chip damage with its flames.
Swapping Fryno out for his S2 Cynder, she adjusted to the difference rather easily, blasting and dashing around with the undead dragon’s abilities. The only real downside they both felt the character had was her sh*t turn radius while in flight. Next she tried out the fan favorite Trigger Happy, the little gremlin cackling like mad as he pumped the dummies’ guts full of gold coins. Wrecking Ball got a good chuckle out of her with his goofy attacks. The grumpy Prism Break didn’t quite suit her tastes. Finally, she settled on Punk Shock, liking how the character’s electricity could be used to stun enemies.
“Alright, now we’re cooking!” Andrew snickered, turning on another controller and putting Scorp on the portal.
“This guy here can poison baddies with his tail. Mix that with Punk’s electro-shots, and we’ve got a helluva deadly combo.” he explained as he picked the first level from the selection screen. “Let’s get this party started!”
The oh-so familiar cutscene started playing on the TV, his sister watching on curiously as Master Eon explained the story behind the titular Swap Force. Once it shifted to show Flynn on the ship, she cutely tilted her head at recognizing his voice. She and Brock Samson often sparred together so it was no surprise. After the cutscene finished, they got to work clearing the wreckage from Flynn’s ship, and soon enough were popping chompies left right and center, being extra certain to soak up their juicy XP.
“Those greeble creatures are quite funny looking.” his sister commented.
“Yeah, they’re more of a joke baddie than anything else.” he replied, Scorp’s venom killing the last one on the ship. “They can be a bitch to deal with on Nightmare Mode though. They tend to swarm you, so it’s best to pick them off first so you can take out the bigger monsters without them nibbling your dick.”
She barked a laugh at his cursing, which Zed responded to with a bark of her own from her spot on the corner of the couch. Andrew barked at her himself, and it quickly devolved into a ‘shouting match’ between the three of them, each seeing who could bark loudervalidate their opinion over those of the others. After close to 10 minutes of heavy debate, Zed came out on top of the argument, earning a treat for her efforts. As his baby girl enjoyed her human thigh bone, they continued to play for a couple more hours, trying different characters every few levels.
Andrew could confidently say that today had been wonderful for him. He got to show his sister around one of his favorite hangout spots, and all around had an awesome time with her. Granted, his little display to those teens had hurt to do given that his dad was still a sore topic for him. But manipulating people tended to be a tad easier when you played with their emotions, stupid as they were, so he felt that it was an okay-ish tradeoff to get them on his side.
Now, laying in his bed at 11:40 PM, Zed cuddled up with him under the covers, he was silently scheming up some ways that he could further lure them into his trap. He wouldn’t do anything to their parents, that’s for damn sure. He had to take it slow while influencing them with the mist to avoid any severe mental issues. A loony teenager was a poor subordinate, after all. Maybe he could do a couple demos of Breathing Styles? Then again… none of them seemed like ‘sword’ types aside from Aizawa, but he’d likely prefer daggers to maintain a lighter gear load.
Quietly humming in thought, he gave Zed’s ear a gentle scratch, causing her leg to kick up the blanket in her sleep. He smiled at her dopey face, her tongue flopping out of her mouth as she snored. He was mildly excited to see their reactions to his baby girl and her abilities. She had a DNA catalog ranging from an Earth house cat, to some dragons, a couple different shark species from that one trip to the aquarium, the canon Nemetrix roster, and even some wyverns from Monster Hunter.
“Hmm… I wonder what scanning a pokémon would do?” he mused to himself. “Would Zed start at whatever stage she scanned? Or would she just jump straight to a fully evolved, lvl 100 perfect stat version of whatever she became? Well, either way, I’d need a pokémon for her to scan first. I could start up a Pixelmon world and start f*cking around in it. If nothing else, she’ll get herself a couple new friends to play with while she’s here… Hang on a tick…”
It might be a longshot, but… Could partnering the teens with some pokémon work? Possibly. They would develop emotional attachment to the pokémon that he could manipulate, and depending on what they were, they could serve as formidable assets for them if raised properly. Aizawa could get a froakie to raise into a greninja, which would suit his future role as an underground pro and/or assassin very well. Kayama and a meowscarada could go for a Phantom Thief shtick with her quirk gas, slipping in and out of a place before anybody knew what happened.
Shirakumo… Was gonna become a Super Saiyan, he decided. His damn quirk–which he saw after quickly snooping through Yamada’s photo gallery–reminded him too much of the Flying Nimbus for him to not indulge the idea. As such, he would undoubtedly get himself a chimchar partner, given both shared some inspiration. Yamada had a strong ‘music’ vibe to him, so Andrew felt that a grookey could be a good match.
The biggest and most glaring con to his plan however was the pokémon themselves. They didn’t exist in this universe. If the teens went snooping around for info and found nothing, they’d ask some rather difficult questions he wasn’t too keen on answering. Worse yet… If they DID find something, even so much as a tiny fraction of pokémon media that survived the data wipes from the Dark Ages… Well, he might just have to ‘disappear’ the unfortunate fools for reaching further than they should’ve.
“What to do, what to do…” he sleepily murmured. Glancing at his alarm clock, the time read 12:36 AM. “Blegh… It’s too late to deal with this crap. I’ll… *Yaaawn*… sort it out later…”
With that final, drowsy mumble, Andrew drifted off to sleep, pulling Zed closer to himself for snuggles. The alien lizard-dog happily reciprocated, shuffling further into her Master’s embrace with a contented snort. Truly, it had been a great day for the siblings, and they couldn’t wait to see what happened next.
To be continued…
