All You Can Eat!

Due to the unforeseen incident with the hippo, the group could not enjoy the premade meals that were made for them so instead they had to compromise.

John had offered to buy them meals no matter where they had decided to go, so Edith taking advantage of the situation volunteered to choose the restaurant.

And now the group had arrived in San Francisco, California utilizing portal travel.

Edith was so excited as this was one of the many places she always wanted to go to.

"Everyone, welcome to the Asian buffet restaurant serving meat & spicy sauces, along with unlimited refills of soda. This is the fiery hot pot restaurant.

Everyone was impressed with Edith's suggestion, if one were to look online this restaurant didn't have less than a 4-star review from their customers.

"Leave it up to Edith to know her way around food," Cyrus said with a laugh smile.

Edith would normally make a face or react to his small taunts but right now she was too focused on walking into the restaurant.

Walking in, the place was heavily filled with customers enjoying themselves and dining, there was an array of all sorts of groups from friends, family, co-workers, and even lovers. There seemed to be lots of those hanging around there that day.

Vito took notice of all of them and asked himself, "Is the world lovesick?"

"You could say that, with the uncertainty of tomorrow people are trying to make the most of their time with their loved ones. It's sweet. I would do the same if there was someone worth my time," Cyrus replied to satiate his curiosity.

"Nice observation Cyrus, though I wouldn't be so certain of your love for solitary. This world may surprise you," John said as he was standing beside him.

Cyrus couldn't help but let out a smile at John's comment. I was the first smile John ever got out of him. He didn't see himself as the romantic type and definitely wasn't the other way around. From how he saw it, he would die alone but hopefully, with friends, he cared about.

"Well it looks like Edith has already found her true love, look she's already left the group," Cyrus was now pointing at Edith was was in a completely different section of the building looking at good table seats.

"How did she leave my sight and move so fast at the same time?" John asked befuddled. "Can I not keep up with 4 kids?"

During this entire conversation, Terra was admiring the building they were in and hadn't said a word but he wasn't the only one quiet. Dawn had been silent as well but for a completely different reason.

He wasn't the type to eat with a crowd of people or to be in a room with so many at once. It's not like he hasn't been to school before, but years of isolation have damaged the way he sees and reacts to things. To him, this place was nothing but uncomfortable.

A waitress came and gathered the group and at first it looked like they would be sitting next to a family of 7, (extended family) but then they passed by the group and left the main room they were in. They had now entered a private room, similar to a backroom that was kept in this place for special guests.

The room was completely separate from all the others and was quite silent and peaceful, as everyone sat down Dawn asked John, "Did you do this? Why?"

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked.

"You saw Edith looking around the main building earlier, without a doubt she wanted to eat in the main room so why did you bring us back here?" he asked this time making his question clearer.

"It's because you were uncomfortable," John replied.

Dawn didn't understand. He wasn't on good terms with anybody here, so why would they change rooms just because of him? Doing a good thing to someone won't make them like you more. They might take advantage of you if you did that.

"Dawn, it seems you are having trouble understanding. These are your teammates now and I am one of your instructors. As people who are close to you, it is up to us to put aside what we want in order to compromise and make everyone happy."

"But in doing so we expect you to do the same. For as long as we are together you are not allowed to eat by yourself. Food always tastes better with those you care about."

Dawn was listening to what John had said. Still, he couldn't help but see everyone as strangers to him, just because John said so doesn't mean that he would have to listen to it at all. Still, he was a little bit happy that he wasn't in as much of a crowded place as before.

The group was seated and the food had arrived. The waiters and waitresses placed down multiple meals on the table for people to pick from as they pleased. They also brought in all sorts of drinks in case anyone felt like having a change of pace midway through.

This was due to Edith's suggestion to them. She didn't hold back on what she wanted because John was paying for them.

"Food tastes so much better when you don't pay for it," she said.

Meanwhile, John made a mental note to never do this again. His wallet was going through the stages of grief as the food was being placed.

"Can we even finish all this? It seems excessive," he thought.

As everyone was eating and enjoying themselves. the only one to not touch their food at all had been Dawn. He simply stared at it. Everyone was having fun and not holding themselves back, but eating in front of so many people wasn't something he had done for a long while.

He made up his mind to pack the food at the end of their stay and eat it at the base.

As he was considering how he would go about this, Edith snatched up one of his beef tendon meatballs.

"MHMMP!" This is so good! It's delicious," she said in bliss.

"What really?" Terra asked as he snatched one up for himself.

"H-Hey!! What are you doing?" Dawn asked shocked at this scene.

"Well you are not eating your food and it's getting cold so share. This is an all-you-can-eat. Don't be greedy." Edith lectured him on this point and he could not believe her blasphemy.

"GREDDY!? You Haven't Finished What's On Your Plate!!" he complained.

"And you haven't touched yours" Terra retaliated. "It's free pickings."

"Wait, those meatballs are good?" Cyrus asked.

"Now I want some," Vito said as he lightly pounded his stomach.

"Hey! Keep to your own food!!" Dawn yelled frustrated.

As he said those words Terra stole his drink.

"Hey, what's the big deal?" Dawn yelled.

"Don't worry dude, there's more over there" Terra pointed to the other drinks that were placed away from them.

"Oh I guess not," he said again after the whole group witnessed John create a new blend by missing them all together.

"Sorry, did I miss something? I simply wished to practice some bartending tricks that Alex taught me."

"Alright, alright! I'll eat!" Dawn yelled with a slight flush on his face as he chowed down on some Udon.

Everyone was laughing away as he did so.

"What's so funny?" he asked genuinely agitated at them as he stood up.

"It's nothing, you just looked so silly doing it!" Terra said laughing with tears in his eyes.

Everyone including John had a smile on their faces and Dawn couldn't help but realize that perhaps he was acting silly and not eating when he had the chance. He sat back down and started slurping on the Udon.

"It's good, isn't it? Edith asked with her hand on his shoulder. She was in such a good mood that she forgot how sour he could be.

"I-I guess," Dawn replied with his head down.

"Good, good, now give me your meatballs," she said pointing towards his plate.

"What!? But you already had some!" he complained.

"We are teammates, relinquish your goods to me."

As the two of them bickered over the remaining meatballs, Vito decided to ask John how the whole superpower thing worked. Both Terra and Cyrus were listening attentively.

Especially Terra as he needed to learn what he had in his arsenal for later.

"Well, staring off, you have the attributes of being superhuman and there is also the fact that you can heal which you already know. You are great swimmers and climbers. Basically, you are efficient in outdoor activities now. Even without knowing the basics you are naturally fast learners."

"If you want to know more, you should ask Alex as he was a representative before all of you. I wasn't so my knowledge is limited," he spoke as he poured out the now-finished soda blend.

"I have a question. Is our organization really called the Protectors of Gaia?" Vito asked.

"Why yes it is. You see Gaia was the earth's name before the dinosaurs were extinguished and Earth is what we call it now. But we still use Gaia as a way of honoring the name. Though everyone just calls us the Servants of Alex. Alec tried to stop the name from sticking but it was true. We are all loyal to him. We should consider changing the name to get with the times, it's a bit outdated now."

"Anyone else?"

"Oh, me, me!" Terra asked enthusiastically.

"When will you teach us how to fight?"

"You mean self-defense? We won't." John said earnestly.

"WHAT!?" Terra asked confused by the answer, "Why not?"

"Because you all already know how to fight. It would be silly trying to get you to learn something new in such a short amount of time. And stressful," he replied honestly.

"Wait, we all do?" Cyrus asked.

"Yes, in case you haven't figured it out, none of you grew up normally. So you have experience with fighting in your unique ways."

Of course, Cyrus figured out that they had special backgrounds, but to hear that they could all fight? 'Is that a qualification to be chosen?' he wondered.

"Alright then I have a question," Cyrus said.

"Why is it that we still have these symbols if the current representative," he said pointing at Terra who had some premium pork in his mouth.

"Well, that is a tricky one. It has to do with how dire the situation is. In the rush to choose a representative, the planet expended a lot of its energy to find him. So it's dealing with the process of reabsorbing the power it gave to you," he said with a smile.

"Wait! No! We will lose these powers eventually?" Edith asked with a frown, "but we just got them. And not even that long ago. I didn't even know we had them."

"Because it's supposed to be as natural to you as walking. Of course, you wouldn't find it weird but there would be moments when you felt a slight sensation," John replied.

"Is that from experience or are you speaking from guesswork?" Cyrus asked.

"Anyways, it is like this because Terra is going to need that power when he lives on the planet. He is fighting for us remember?" John was hoping that this would remind everyone how serious the matter was and to not feel bad that they would be losing their powers.

He never had powers and was doing just fine.

"Alright, I guess we can't complain much. But when you get back you have to reshare it with us," Edith said.

"I don't think it works like that!" Terra replied.

"Of course, it does, here, have some meat as the bargain"

"Huh? You are not even paying, how does this affect you at all?" Terra asked surprised at her greed.

"It's from my plate. Of course, it affects me."

She was now trying to persuade him to say yes to the deal.

Meanwhile, the only one who was a little unsatisfied at the table was Cyrus. He was growing to be a bit trusting of John but that boat started sailing after John had given his answer to Cyrus's question.

"The answer he gave me was not true. He lied."

This was the only thought lying in Cyrus' mind right now.