Chapter 14 -|

Chapter 14

Taylor paused at the apartment door.

And hadn't THAT been a surprise, this whole 'Variance Villa' set up that let this version of her Mom and Dad to live so close to where they work. The fact that her mother wouldn't be taking that deadly drive so far to her work place at the college was a massive worry off her shoulders, really. Even if it meant that her 'family' lived in an underground bunker made by a cape.

Apparently they still owned the house she remembered so well, undamaged by Leviathan or the Slaughterhouse 9 or any of the nightmares she lived through. The better paying jobs even had them fixing the place up, as a sort of 'Get away from our Daughter for fun times' spot, which was WAY too much info for Taylor's tastes.

The door seemed... larger. Foreboding. Oppressive.

Despite the many messages, the confirmations, the tearful call to her estranged dad (What do you mean, they made you younger!?), she felt like this was a big step in an uncertain world.

Her hesitant confidence issues turned out not to matter too much though, because the door swung open wide. "BIG SIS!"

She was hit by a high flying midget Taylor going at full glomp velocity.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam woke feeling FAR more relaxed.

Also, slightly disturbed. Because everything felt more real. More colorful. His senses had apparently degraded pretty badly while visiting the Alt Worm Realm.

He stood from the bed, his body shifting as he felt his energies flow, testing his form for issues. One of which was... very odd.

Normally, he was either human(ish) or in his Skeletal costume form... But right now it was both.

His skeleton within was now wrapped in a fleshy body which was ALSO him. If either was destroyed, the other could take over to heal everything. Huh. It wasn't noticeable unless he focused, but it DID feel strange.

The bones were still covered in runes, but they were no longer crafted from Flame Metal and Null Metal... instead, his compressed Aura acted like metal inserts into his calcium directly.

Thankfully, it didn't seem to be causing biological issues... indeed, focusing magic through the soul based Aura Glyphs that were now embedded in his unicorn inspired skeleton showed that the new setup had benefits. His body was FAR more in tune with magic, and the Aura Glyphs produced enhanced magic and faith based effects.

The old issue of magic spilling out of his control was fixed as well! It flowed into the glowing blue metal patterns etched into his bones with ease. The longer he avoided using magic, the more would store up for future spells without actually touching his real reserves... It also made something like a low level magical hum as they gained power. It was comforting.

It also meant he could relax control of his Aura, as his bones acted like an attractor to the stuff. So no worries about a blue bubble forming over his skin or that metallic armor form getting in the way. Not by accident at least, he could force the defenses to form with only a little thought.

Frankly it was an improvement. He didn't want to have to be coated with metal at all time, and some of the work-around fixes he had to put in place to see normal colors with his eyes coated in Aura metal had been annoying.

What was really interesting though was a few 'dimensional bulges' created on his spine. The Aura Glyphs on his bones were now replicating the tricks Remnant designers used on their more advanced weapons to create little pockets of space down his back. Each one had small amounts of Dust Crystal, connected into his system by blood, magic, and the Aura Glyph sequence itself.

It wasn't MUCH Dust, if it was somehow pulled out of confinement it would fit on a pin easily, but it was enough for his body to be able to access the various shortcuts Dust made possible. Without thought, it automatically made his castings more efficient, even his spiritual abilities would see interesting effects from their presence. That said, he would have to ensure no kami somehow got in there, or his spine would explode into massive gems. Which... well, it sounded awesome, but it would surely suck.

Simmy had, after a bit of pestering, provided a blue page assuring him that the pockets of extra space were heavily protected, and any kami attempting to insert into his system would be absorbed into the surrounding Aura based Glyphs themselves. And that the new Dust samples would provide interesting boosts to his abilities!

The fact that Simmy wasn't willing to explain what those boosts would BE however, implied that it would be embarrassing to find out later. So... Great.

He gave up on pestering his Angel, bouncing on his feet for a moment before forming his white suit. The material was basically the same structure as his old Flame Metal and Null Metal outfit, but he substituted faith peanuts and magic as an energy source instead. He didn't want to rely on those older materials for his new duds, especially since he had found that his 'Fire transformed into Metal' trick didn't work everywhere.

Hopefully his clothing made from his own energies would keep him from being stuck nude in other realities.

A pulse of power 'Manipulated' the closest wall... yep, it was his material, so easy to work with.

Using the newly formed mirror, he checked his looks.

White shoes (formal style), black socks (felt wonderful), white slacks, black belt, black shirt, white suit, white gloves... and a bright blue tie. Very nice.

He blinked though when he saw his hair.

Really, his scalp had gone through such transformations over his adventures. Bald, various forms due to his power, blue flames, bone, blue vines, blue magic flames...

Now his head was covered in bright blue wires. Straight up like an anime hero or something.

If he focused, he could feel them acting like odd antennas, weak in ability but strong in numbers. But they also felt like hair, and touching them didn't feel like plastic or metal.

At least his eyes looked human, even if the bright blue iris glowed a little.

He frowned. He missed his trunk. Who knew a hand-nose would be so useful?

A flex of his shoulder muscles had the six bone limbs unfold from his back, white bone wrapped in white 'fabric' sleeves ending with a few tools. Three reaching over each shoulder into easy use range, each could swap between manipulators (Basically robot hands) or a useful device.

The Gather and Construction emitter options were almost standard now, one Hard-Light Holographic emitter (He had so many digital friends!), some DANG good scanning tools, and the best non-lethal weapon he had designed so far made his bone tool load out complete. The electronics were formed from bone with Glyphs converting Aura and Magic into usable power, so technically they were being maintained with 'Recovery' alone. Even slightly enhanced, as his ability to modify biology had always been his strong point.

As for why bother with a stunning weapon at all? Because lethal options were easy, and numerous... but it was nice to have a weapon that would automatically adjust its attack without Adam having to remember how fragile his various targets were.

Really, it was silly how weak some people were. That body builder? He would experience an instant death if you used too much energy. Too bad you didn't know about his heart condition! That SAME blast might not even phase a little old lady depending on how hard core she was. In the end, it was better to let his sensors adjust the shot for him automatically instead of letting him risk someones life that he wasn't intending to smash.

With a thought, his soul bound cane (Wand? Club? Meh.) formed and he tapped his way through the halls. Not that he had a clue where to go, this may be the first time he HAD been in his own bedroom. Sleeping with his women honestly was both more entertaining and more comfortable, why stay back there alone and depressed?

An orange slip of paper was caught by his right shoulder's third bone limb. "Huh. Nice to meet you, Sammy. And thank you for the directions... are you adjusting well?"

He continued to read the various blue and orange slips that fell as he found his way to the breakfast table. Or rather, at this time of day, the lunch table.

Simmy wanted more Altars to be crafted, not just for use as 'Transfer Nodes' but as needed 'Recovery Nodes' for people to heal on planets or whatever that didn't have the same level of health care as his people enjoyed. And an Altar for 'Purification', to 'bless' water sources, ensure safe food, and so forth. Simmy's arguments about increasing the worship from his followers didn't convince him nearly as easily as her sister's point about how many people he could save with the new options.

In the end, he decided to combine the purification effects with the healing Altar, and to simplify the design. It was too late to change the 'Transfer Node' thing since it was already in the field (WHY had he made it so gaudy!?), but at least these new ones could be more reasonable. Or at least, lighter and smaller.

The final creation was the size of a cat... or to be more precise, it was the size of a Baku. Because it was a statue of a Baku. Because they rock, shut up.

Each statue could be established by a command, one allowed per Party Leader in the System. Making a new one would vanish the old ones, letting Adam's people enjoy camping grounds with safe water and food and a healing station without littering planets with the things.

Simmy did make sure people could purchase a 'One Time' Altar construction coupon in the new 'Item Shop', so towns or whatever could pay for a team to come out and build a few to ensure safe water sources. And (before Adam could really protest) Simmy had ensured that all 'Variance Churches' got one of each type of Altar for free. For all future Altars as well... which was fine, he guessed.

Seriously, he didn't ASK for worship, and it felt weird when he thought about it.

His thoughts were disrupted by the warm snuggle from a surprise Narwhal. "Oh Adam, you look so much better today! We were getting a bit worried after the first week you didn't wake up."

His smile hitched a bit. HOW LONG!? "Oh."

She pulled him to sit at the table, partially served food already available in front of them, and began setting him up a plate to eat. "Simmy and Sammy said you were fine, so we mostly got the DA Guild under control and helped provide communication between our leadership and what remains of Queen Administrator's Realm, which we are calling 'Realm Worm Queen' for now. Not sure why Simmy thought that was humorous, but we needed something to go with."

He enjoyed the very good scrambled eggs (Added cream or something, very light and fluffy) while Narwhal continued to catch him up on all the things he had missed.

Adam did wince a little however... forgetting Betty on his trip was embarrassing, although thankfully the girls handled it. Apparently her short height made all his women hit her 'Large Partner' fetish zone, so she was having a wonderful time flirting with his loved ones and taking over the livestock trading community between Remnant, home, and Taylor's Queen Administrator Planet (Currently named 'Water Capital' for no good reason).

Legend from Queen's Realm was spearheading the interactions between the two realities, and apparently had a bit of an emotional conversation with this worlds Triumvirate group, though thankfully whatever they discussed didn't cause issues with sending people over there to help. If anything, both sides seemed more optimistic afterward, so maybe it was a good thing.

Simmy had passed to the researchers what Adam had discovered about how to safely disconnect shards from the Warrior's crystal network without detection. With caution, many of the smaller shards were having their communication clusters refined, duplicated, and sending uninteresting data... allowing the massive crystal shards to be fully converted and then deconstructed. According to Narwhal, no issues were expected... but they were still being cautious.

They had asked Queen Administrator if they should try and free other shards like her... and Taylor's partner was quite clear with her 'No'.

The crystal Angel explained that not only would most powers not have enough self awareness to even understand the concept, not only would any assistance attempts cause them to violently attack everyone and then commit suicide, but that even Queen Administrator herself would have been offended at the idea of leaving the network if she hadn't been betrayed by the Warrior himself first.

It had been a shocking discussion, but an enlightening one. Even if, in the end, it was a moot point.

Because Local little Taylor had previously joined System, and this Realm's Queen Administration was already undergoing conversion anyway.

Thankfully, Queen didn't care. Though she DID turn out to be a huge fan of 'Alternate Little Human' Taylor, as the two had already somehow became friends through the System.

Adam hummed as he took some more bacon slices. What an odd world.

After the details trailed off, he gestured with some toast. "Well, I am glad you all handled things so well while I was recovering. Did Simmy tell you about the new Altars she wanted me to design?"

She snorted. "Of course, but we told them to leave you alone and let you recover."

He glanced at the submitted changes. Crud. "Any reason why? I feel like I've already gotten loads better. Heck, I don't turn into a statue when I relax now and my body doesn't contain external materials anymore, I may be MORE healthy than when I had begun traveling!"

Narwhal sighed, moving behind his chair and leaning into his head, arms draped over his chest. "You gave us a fright. We know you had it handled, and your powers kept us informed, but you fell into our arms torn into chunks and partially dissolving. It was scary, Adam. Especially for those of us who love you."

He leaned back into her warmth, with... nothing really to say. No arguments could really answer that level of concern and care without sounding immature. "I'm sorry. I won't be going to an offset Realm like that without a full conversation between us and our girls first, alright?"

She hugged the back of his head to her chest as she harrumphed. "You better. Now, eat some more and let's go tell the others you are feeling better. CD has been pushing herself into projects and Nightmare Moon has been doing multiple shows to keep distracted. At least Betty has that cattle thing to keep her entertained."

He chuckled. "I still find it odd that a cow Faunus like her loves steak so much. Then again, I know humans in some cultures eat apes and monkeys and whatever."

Adam let her pull him through the facilities to find the others, chuckling as they bantered back and forth. It was a great day today.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Cautious, secretive work. Avoiding the (admittedly loose) observation crews.

His time was now. His time had come.

He pulled the cloth from his masterpiece! "BEHOLD!"

His minions gave weak claps. "It is very impressive Phil."

He scowled. "Trac-Tor, the Invincible... please."

The nod was acceptable. He continued. "After much effort and toil, my greatest work has finally reached completion! I present the new and improved 'Action Trac-tion Gun', able to emit a burst of 'Trac-Tor Beams' from a distance of up to three miles!"

His hands twisted in glee as he imagined the horror of his nemesis, that nameless monk-warrior of Dragon's Guild who dared send him to prison! Him and his golden snake of doom would fall before his might!

He blinked. Right, the presentation. "Trac-Tor the Invincible is sorry, Trac-Tor the Invincible was distracted."

His minion nodded. "I asked, what does this tractor beam do?"

A frown showed his mighty displeasure. "'Trac-Tor Beam', if you would. And I will demonstrate." He moved to the side, unveiling one of his many previous projects. "Behold! This is obviously an unenhanced, plebeian 'John Deere 5325' tractor with a pitiful 67 horse power engine, a travesty to those of us with class and style!"

He ignored the obvious agreement from the audience, for his moment had come! "And now!"

His machine hissed and whined, engines turning up to speed as the reduced tractor components allowed the masterpiece to prepare... and with a brilliant ZAP, the target was 'Trac-Tor'ed! He was a GOD!

One of his more useful minions broke the awed silence. "It still looks like a tractor."

He scoffed. "You fools! Do you not recognize the superior, American 'Farmall Model H' tractor? This classic from 1953 was born from the factory on Rock Island in Illinois, and it may only provide 25 horse power, but it was designed back when REAL tractors were born!"

His generous wave included the entire crowd. "Go on, smell the prestige that just being in its presence can grant you! The smell of victory! Of Progress!"

Another minion raised a hand. "So... your tractor beam turns stuff into tractors?"

He waved his hand. "Of course not, that would be silly. I won't allow sub-par material to be used in my creations. No, my 'Action Trac-tion Gun' is able to use these 'Trac-Tor Beams' to convert any randomly available Tractor in the area into ANY existing Tractor model ever seen on the Market!"

He tried to hold back tears. "If only my pa could have lived to see this glorious day."

The voice in the back was a little annoying. "Didn't your dad visit you last week?"

Trac-Tor the Invincible threw his arms wide. "With my unstoppable 'Action Trac-tion Gun', we can finally stop wasting our valuable time with these new age..." He held back a sneer with difficulty. "So called 'High Tech' tractors flooding the market, and begin to TRULY revolutionize our society!"

His crowd was silent, likely from awe. It was understandable, Trac-Tor the Invincible had never dared dream such advancements were possible until that nameless master warrior took him down in the prime of his soon-to-be criminal career.

As he turned back to refuel his Action Trac-tion Gun's several fuel compartments, some part of him gave grudging thanks to that nameless god of combat and his dastardly snake that had accidentally propelled him onto the road to greatness. Whose foolish actions had opened the WORLD to its future ruler's grasp!

Of course this wouldn't save their miserable lives, but it was the thought that counted.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Taylor squirmed on the couch, uncomfortable with her 'mom' and 'young dad' in the area. Her 'original dad' seemed to also feel the tension in the room.

Annette hummed. "Mastering most of the population from a multitude of dimensions to fight a god is more than a little understandable. And it sounds like you have been forced to make harsh choices from terrible decision options for years..."

She pulled Taylor into another, still strange but appreciated, hug. "That said, well done my little owl. No one should burden one so young with so much."

She wasn't crying, THEY were crying. Little Taylor hadn't stopped hugging her since she had arrived, but it would be hard to say that she cared too much. Hugs were nice.

Annette's gaze got a bit frosty as it turned towards her original father. "New Danny on the other hand will have to answer some questions later. With no safe word. Family comes first, after all."

His wince wasn't improved when the younger, not-in-trouble father gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

She looked down at her baby girls. "Now, the two of you should go explore a bit while the adults talk. I heard Variance Villa's lower levels have been including a series of rides and attractions after his most recent adventures, and it is free to employee relatives."

A hand gesture and younger Danny began reaching for his wallet. "Go, spend too much money on wasteful things, and talk a bit. Sisters should look out for each other."

Little Taylor's squeal was a bit high pitch, but bearable. Queen Administrator's squeal on the other hand was a bit excessive.

Taylor winced. Looked like QA wanted to physically ride the coasters as well... which meant explaining her existence to the little hyperactive girl hugging Taylor's leg.

That should be interesting.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam blinked at the schematics. "What about the rest of the space?"

Because apparently, Simmy had convinced Sammy to join her in designing and developing Variance Villa... which was VERY deep now and growing. And had been expanding for a long time.

He twirled the hologram. "I see you've put a lot of the stuff from the Zoo on Remnant down there, but there are literally miles of empty territory. I don't want people to just get lost or something in infinitely long hallways."

He caught the orange and blue paper slips.

Apparently, the schematics were so fluid because most of the underground structure now contained power couplings, emitters that could produce hard-light holograms, and emitters for Gather and Construction beams.

Self repair and redesign was built into the facility, sometimes retroactively, and the Flame Metal and Null Metal had been reshaped or replaced as needed. No Dust modified alloys or materials yet, as Adam hadn't worked out a safe way to generate that stuff here yet and he was technically 'grounded' at the moment, but the improvements were numerous.

Adam sighed. Even with DOUBLE the number of pools, rides, stores (mostly vending machines or automated, though some were operated by Droid platforms hosting Boro and his people), it was mostly empty.

He frowned. "I guess... some plants? With some stasis Glyphs like usual to keep the ripe stuff from rotting or whatever." He accepted the orange paper with design suggestions. "Sure, that looks fine. Make each floor focus on a different type of plant though, that will at least make it LOOK less empty, even if it only fills up a few square miles on each level."

Crap, this was going to cause problems at some point, even if Simmy HAD filled out the paperwork for the various shops, attractions, and so forth. If it wasn't for the AI's ability to monitor and maintain Droid platforms at the various levels, there would ALREADY be a labor shortage.

Waving it off, he decided to just... walk around a bit. Explore the place without using his sensing abilities, waste some time. At least that would make his girls happy.

He blinked when the elevator opened. "Good morning Taylor. And other Taylor."

The smaller one was beaming in happiness. "Hey Mr. Skelly! I got a new sister and we are going to go ride the rides!"

Adam couldn't help but smile at the adorable munchkin. "Oh really? Well, I got in trouble for working too much recently and got grounded from doing anything too important. Would it be alright if I came with you two?"

The larger woman shrugged but little Taylor seemed to bounce from energy! "OF COURSE, Mr. Skelly! I can't wait to tell Emma and Lucy and Sally and the others that we got to go on rides with Mr. Skelly and stuff!"

Thankfully the little girl missed Taylor's flinch at her old friends name and he helped the topic move along. "I heard one of your friends found one of my Baku recently."

Her little eyes got big. "You own the Baku rangers!?"

Big Taylor's confusion wasn't helped much as Adam nodded. "I designed them, although they ended up wandering all over the place. Narwhal says there are loads more now too, since if you wish hard enough more show up."

He winked at the larger girl as tiny Taylor squenched her face up in concentration, one hand spawning a Baku from faith peanuts with a bumblebee pattern. "Oh! Would you look at that!"

His enjoyment of watching a little girl squeeze a mythical elephant/tiger/bumblebee was slightly dampened when he received a System message from Dragon. Right, shouldn't make more immortal creatures as pets without asking the team first.

His return System picture of an exasperated Taylor petting little Taylor's new striped pet was enough to get him BACK out of trouble, thankfully. For now.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Annette put down the whip as a new message arrived. "Oh darlings, look at how cute our girls are with their new pet!"

Young Danny looked at the picture. "Mrh murph mur murf."

Old Danny nodded. "Mruph."

Annette sighed. "At least this pet won't pee on the carpet. And the girls are so cute! Oh they grow up so fast..." She adjusted her leather corset. "Now, where were we?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Betty moved the video feed out of the way, the girls in Adam's 'inner circle' had loved the idea of a 'Husband Cam' channel from Remnant and had Simmy keep the concept going. "We need more breeding pairs for Queen's planet, and then we will be done with the cattle. How goes the goat organization?"

Her work was VERY satisfying. Near unlimited resources (Except for time) meant that she could easily change Adam's farm setup to something less optimized but more easy for humans or Faunus to operate. Or Droids, she supposed... the idea of artificial people was still odd to her.

That said, watching Adam act as adult supervision while guiding a woman and her little sister around a theme park was surprisingly cute on its own. It helped that the little pet Baku, which was a new creature for Betty to ask about later, could just float along if dropped from a ride.

That had nearly been a disaster, but little Taylor had calmed down when she found out her Baku, or 'Mister Bee', could fly. Slowly. It counted.

Movement made Betty sigh and get back to work. "NO! Haven't you ever worked with livestock before? You can't just drag them like luggage!"

Seriously, some people.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

CD sighed. "Are you sure we should be broadcasting Adam's feed like this? We will only get more requests for Baku adoptions now. Not to mention he has a tendency to forget modesty at times."

Narwhal chuckled. "Simmy says we can release 'Baku Vouchers' now, so in a few days people will be able to attend a System Auction to get a couple. It helps that if you mistreat one, they will just wander away."

Her digital friend frowned. "So... marketing?"

Narwhal watched her man lift little Taylor to more easily see the selection at the automated ice cream parlor. "More like advertising. Our people have stumbled on the entertainment levels of Variance Villa a few times, but even they are unaware of all the stuff now available down there. That it will let us scan any visitors for unmarked Shards is a lovely side effect."

CD hummed. "ARE there any unmarked shard clusters? The System has spread pretty far."

She sighed. "Some religious areas are avoiding it for obvious reasons, and some of those we may snag through this method. Maybe." She finished another page of paperwork. "Worth a shot anyway. We already are harvesting enough Entity Shards that theoretically we could finish off the Warrior NOW, but better safe than sorry."

CD watched Adam use his extra limbs to reshape little Taylor's ice cream into a tiny garden. "When did his extra limbs become fully organic rather that part of his white suit?"

Narwhal blinked. Huh. That was new.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ice cream time was interrupted when a near-clear nude crystal angel popped out of Taylor's older form. [AH HA!]

Little Taylor and Adam blinked as the rock lady stabbed an accusing finger at a face palming Taylor. [YOU were going to eat ALL the ice cream YOURSELF! ADMIT IT!]

Adam coughed lightly, making the two pause. "Hello Queen Administrator. Would you like some ice cream as well?"

A brief flash of blue and orange light and suddenly two nude Angels showed up, Simmy offering a chocolate cone and Sammy offering a vanilla cone. They each held a sign, one saying 'Choose' and the other 'Wisely'.

The smallest girl frowned. "Why do all the angels not wear clothing, Mr. Skelly?"

Adam sighed. "Ask your mom. Now, who wants more ice cream?"

Considering that Queen Administrator had smashed both cones entirely into her face already, it wasn't a huge surprise when five hands went up. "Simmy, Sammy, you can't join us unless you put on some clothing first. Same with you, Queen. I'm sure your sisters here can help you out."

They were all shard creatures, after all... that counted as siblings, right?

Oops, just in case. "Simmy, you can't eat either of them. That is officially an order, no future cannibalism without prior permission. In fact, you are not allowed to eat ANYONE without asking first from now on."

Both Taylors scooched a bit farther from the 'innocent' looking blue angel.

Queen Administrator nodded. [Can we go back to that one ride with all the loops? It was hard for me to experience at the time.]

Older Taylor sighed. "The 'Tornado Terror'? I thought you got really dizzy from that."

They meandered in that direction. [I know! As a rock, being dizzy was a fun experience. Totally interesting. Little Human enjoyed it too.]

Tiny Taylor was trying to climb Queen Administrator's back without having the wings knock her off. "Yeah, it was all WOOSH, ZOOM, BAZOOM! But Sis almost got sick and didn't want to go again."

Said sister sighed. "At least I can sit on the sidelines now and let Queen watch over you on the ride. Connecting to the roller coaster sensors while riding it was a bad idea, especially since my simulations kept peeking in at the experience during the ride."

Adam slowed a bit behind the group to give both Simmy and Sammy a tight hug. Grounded he may be, but he had missed his angels. Blue and orange feathers hid them from view for a short kiss, then they quickly caught back up with the others.

Queen Administrator paused, turning to Adam and his angels. [Right, as long as I am out here I wanted to ask. How can I help Taylor build a successful Harem of young male humans with agile hands?]

Little Taylor giggled at her big Sister's embarrassed shouts as the two colored angels belonging to Mr. Skelly began passing what seemed to be blue and orange notes to Queen. Though some part of her had begun to consider how she would administrate such a strange collection of people into a useful unit to ensure proper progeny. Scheduling would be important.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Annette glowed as she watched the video stream. "So many theoretical grand-babies!" She ignored the machines teasing her husbands and began composing some emails. Boss Narwhal would know who to direct further questions to, surely.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Boro checked the most recent System messages, the blocks of binary code from his brother moved for issue checking and decoding.

Chef Robo was a bit frustrated, as some of the older Jedi that had started showing up at the temple acted as if eating food that was healthy AND tasty was somehow insulting the Force. As if the field of energy binding all life forms hated salt or something.

Oh, there were still yottabytes of data and recipe experimentation and such in the packet as expected, but Boro had grown to enjoy the random fury Robo displayed when people tried to make him feed the Jedi younglings the old style of cuisine. As if every species had the same dietary requirements, volume consumption rates, and taste buds (if they had them).

The packet also had the many messages from his own research chefs, covering who knew what. And Boro would have many to include many an outside message in his eventual response, for more efficiency. Still, it got the job done.

The theoretical kitchen was doing great too, trying to preemptively imagine various dietary issues and species they may meet and how to appeal to their many tastes. Hopefully with alternatives to cannibalism and vegetarianism and all that. Cause ethics was important during the cooking development cycle.

Of course, all this was background activity, the more important issues in the kitchen always had priority. Like that DAMN over seasoned soup.

With a sigh, he went to yell some Droids back into line. They had STANDARDS.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Queen screamed as the next loop approached! [Human, put your hands up! Hands up! It is protocalllll-AAHH!]

Little Taylor tried, but the ride was going FAST.

Adam subtly checked the seating as the ride made another turn. These seats were designed to handle the many odd parts of Faunus and were only recently modified to handle issues like wings, tails, and so forth... but they were working fine. Not that he couldn't handle any issue that popped up, but it felt good to know he had designed this safety equipment well.

Slightly disturbing how good Simmy was at designing said restraints, but useful.

Seeing another turn, he smiled as Simmy and Sammy silently waved their hands in the air as the forces slammed them back in their own chairs. Sure they were all strong enough to ignore the ride and break out if they wished, but that wasn't the point of roller coasters.

Older Taylor sighed with fond exasperation as they reentered the ride facility. "Are you guys ready to move on?"

Queen pouted even as the little one kept bouncing. "AGAIN! AGAIN!"

The older woman folded like wet paper, holding on to Bumble-Baku as the ride began climbing the first hill again. Younger sister used 'Adorable', it was super effective!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Taylor watched her mini-version squeal as the ride went down the massive hill for the fifth time. Safely on the side, thank you very much! Cuddling the elephant/tiger/thing was more fun anyway.

Bumble-Baku squeaked as she hugged him again. Without waking up.

Being around the thing was also... calming. She and Queen had noticed the little creature kept gathering something from her over time, a black goo that was theoretically delicious if you took the creatures opinion. It didn't take long to notice the crippling depression, the fear, and the emotional pain had all lightened up as the tiny thing nommed away.

So Queen and Taylor let it eat away as her little sister rode far too many rides. The trip in general had been more than a bit odd so far, but fun too. More fun than Taylor could remember, or at least remember being able to actually enjoy it.

At least 'Simmy' and 'Sammy' had clothing. Sort of. Simmy had a purple outfit with fake devil horns, Sammy wore bright orange with a fake halo, and neither outfits felt pants were important. The shirts were JUST long enough to be only scandalous without actually getting anyone arrested. Technically.

Honestly, it was almost worse than the casual nudity, as now they kept doing seductive poses which Queen Administrator found fascinating.

At least HER outfit was acceptable. They had given her shard a sharp old fashion business suit, with special slits for her wings to easily escape. And a hat. It was adorable, since even if Queen Administrator was big enough to be considered an Adult her personality still suggested being a tad young.

Still, ignoring the seductive two, everyone was technically dressed now. Even Bumble-Baku was given a cowboy hat, even if said hat had black and yellow stripes.

She tucked the sleeping creature on her lap as she checked the (Self updating, real time) map pamphlet to try and determine where to head to next on this outing.

Huh... Had she ever actually gone to an arcade before? That could be neat.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Steady. Even with the artificial assistance, he could feel his fingers trying to twitch as he slowly prepared to solder the chip to the motherboard. Again. Stupid flinching.

Uber banged the lab door open, because of course he did.

And his massive flinch had sent the chip... somewhere. Because fuck it all.

Leet held back a deep sigh and glared at his friend. "Yes?"

Uber was ignoring the mounting frustration of his partner. "Hang on... now, check your System message."

He paused in his search for that DAMN chip. Uber wouldn't waste his time like this without a good reason. "Right, one second."

Leet was tempted to take longer just to spite his buddy, interrupting jerk. But his eager expression was enough to draw out his curiosity.

He blinked. "The 'Husband Show'? I thought you were done with soap operas."

Uber's eyes rolled... hard. "Open it! Quick before they move on!"

Leet blinked as heaven came into view.

Heaven filled with flashing lights and blaring noises.

His hand shook as he tried to point. "Is that an Arcade?"

Uber nodded solemnly.

Leet felt his mouth dry. "How... how large IS it!?"

Uber tapped his screen. "Over 10 square miles filled with unique game cabinets. The other floors have different themes. And the highest floor has over a dozen variations of laser tag alone."

Leet dashed for his funds and tools, tossing his experiments to the floor without care. Dragon would understand. "How far do we need to go? I have LOTS of vaction time, hell, I can take leave without pay if needed."

Uber's smirk was dastardly. "Dude, it is IN TOWN. And I managed to convince Narwhal that we would be both online System reviewers for the individual games and quality testers for the facility."

Leet froze. "Are you saying that you got us a paid gig to play games? AND we can show off online like with our old shows?"

His partner slowly nodded.

Leet held back the most MANLY of tears. Friends for life.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam winced. "Right, you can't play that one either."

Little Taylor joined the three angels in complaining, but Adam sighed. "Look, a LOT of the games from the Star Wars universe are... not censored in ways your mother would likely approve of."

Violence? Why not. Nudity? Go for it! Kinky stuff? Meh.

Seriously, Simmy went through all these games from multiple Realms and had them translated into a dozen or so languages, fixed so many programming issues, designed customized art and sound effects and gaming cabinets... the only reason NOT to separate the mess was to mess with him.

Adam sighed, and waved a hand. The floor rapidly emptied, the massive facility filled with red and green beams as the various video game cabinets vanished and reformed. "Right, going to do a Venn Diagram on this mess. The Red circle over there have all games with excessive violence. The White circle has all games with excessive nudity. And the Blue circle has all games with excessive gore." He added a large map on the various walls, showing the overlaps as the various games got shifted around.

He handed out some cards. "These cards normally would be used to pay for game play attempts, but yours are set to unlimited for now. Parents who pay for season passes would get similar ones for their kids, so don't worry about someone trying to steal your own card or whatever. Simmy?"

He accepted the blue slip of paper, and tapped the card. A hologram appeared, and he changed some settings. "I've modified the cards to use settings your Mom would have chosen, listing what types of games are acceptable and what limits to follow. The machines will enforce this." He blinked. "Simmy?"

Another slip of paper. Huh. "Sorry Taylor, looks like you and your sister have the same limits for now. You can ask her to fix it later."

She hugged her Bumble-Baku and shrugged. "I don't really feel like playing a violent-gore-porno anyway right now." She gave little Taylor a head pat. "Come on, I saw Pacman over there earlier. Not sure why it is in the violence circle."

He snorted. You ATE GHOSTS! And they tried to EAT YOU! How was that not violent!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ghira carefully lifted Blake into his arms. No smell, she seemed calm, so not hungry or needing a change... thank goodness.

There were things to do, there always would be, but he had delegated enough work to the masses that it would take at least a week for the mess to build up again.

He gently stroked his little girl's cute kitten ears as he sat in the living room, the wall display showing one of the many 'light entertainment' news shows now on Skyword Networking.

Lunch had been wonderful. His wife Kali had been trying the 'French' line of recipes published online, and the 'Soupe a L`oignon' (Nope, couldn't say it) turned out to be a cheese, onion, and beef dish which had been AMAZING.

Little kitten was still on milk though. She wouldn't get to try these dishes for a while, not that she would understand what she was missing at the moment. Idly he imagined helping his little Blake eat various strange dishes from another world, Grimm held far away thanks to the incredible defenses and weapons even now being improved across the planet.

All in all, it wasn't a bad dream.

He blinked as the video showed the many changes occurring at the 'Desert Zoo of Entertainment' as it was being called. With the sound off it was hard to pick up the entire conversation, but it looked like the entertainment area was getting vastly increased in variety and size. Larger than some cities, even. Huh.

Though he frowned at some of the art on these new devices. Clearly meant for older clients... which considering the reduced attack rate of Grimm may actually include Hunters more often.

Having his people able to visit a secured area for relaxation for free (At least, free for those citizens of Menagerie) had enhanced immigration a bit, though not as much as having a safe place for Faunus to come and avoid persecution.

Idly cuddling with his little one, he sighed. Human Faunus relations had actually gone through the roof with all the new changes, as people knew that HIS people had caused the many world wide changes. People originally on the fence had begun showing strong support for their equality cause, even if only for economic reasons, and the loudest detractors had gotten disturbingly quiet.

Even more disturbing when Ghira had his people quietly look into it. Suspicious donations, loud declarations of guilt, self mutilation... well.

Better to let some things lie. No reason to kick up a fuss, considering how many people investigating the various cases had found an army of possible suspects. The 'victims' were not very well liked by almost ANYONE after all.

His attention focused again as the news segment ended, finally moving on to the long segments without dialog. He had enough people that wanted to talk all the time as it was already.

He cooed at his sleepy girl, gently rocking her and unmuting the video feed as it shifted to another one of those virtual reality nature videos features that had gotten popular recently, using the Zoo and the holographic tools to film nature documentaries for online fans. This was one of the few channels that only added subtitles, letting the audio only reflect the natural habitat of the creatures.

The sounds of nature had become one of Blake's nap tunes at this point. It was one of the biggest reasons he and Kali watched this particular video feed.

Idly watching the display, his relaxed expression paused.

What the heck was that elephant tiger thing?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Pong did not require gore and Frogger did not require nudity.

Adam sighed, guiding the wide eyed sisters back to the front of the Arcade. "Simmy, make this area adult only, replicate all the machines here in the new front area, and censor them. Please."

Seriously, he did NOT want to see Mario squishing a Goomba into salsa. Don't be a jerk, Simmy.

Little Taylor seemed to be rebooting. "I thought martial artists wore more clothing than that."

Older Taylor had seen shit. "Depends on how long the fight goes on, their brute rating, and how high your armor budget is allocated. Though I can see why Mortal Kombat got into trouble with parents, the gore was bad but the sexual acts were way too much for kids in my opinion."

Queen hummed. [Human, you need to find mates like that Goro person.] Seeing Taylor's exasperation, she pouted. [Goro has 100% more upper limbs! Quadruple hands! Engines of Destruction, explain this to her.]

Simmy got behind Sammy, her arms joining her sisters as they gave Taylor four thumbs up.

Adam grinned as he herded the group towards the less controversial entertainment. "Right, well we have a holographic movie theater that needs a test run. Got some movie rights sold to my companies pretty easily from setting up the streaming services for my game console, so the list of options are numerous."

The shortest member blinked. "What is playing?"

He grinned. "All the current movies are playing in the first forty theaters, however the other forty have a voting system. Pick a movie, and if it is the most popular option it gets picked! Had to add some rules though, the more a film is selected the larger the penalty modifier increases. Keeps people from playing the same film for five years straight, hopefully. Penalty goes down over time if not selected."

Taylor hummed as they approached a hallway of theater entrances. "What are the options to choose from?"

Simmy and Sammy had walked up to one of the 'Popular Theater' entrances, and waved at the entry computer with a 'Ta-Da!' expression.

Queen Administrator was already there. [Oh! You can select films from Earth Bet or Aleph or... which one is Earth Cheit again? Your human designations confuse me.]

Simmy's response made the air vibrate wrong and seemed desynchronized with time.

Queen nodded. [See? Much easier to understand and less chance of confusion. Using verbal language for designation terms, honestly.]

Adam coughed. "Right, you are in the selection screen 'By Region'. And it is long because Star Wars has a LOT of planets with their own regions of people and their own cultures of films. Go to 'By Genre' instead, add some filters to only show options acceptable for younger humans, and choose English for language."

The younger sister pouted. "I've watched movies with subtitles before."

Adam shrugged. "Better to stick with human languages, some creatures actually hurt to listen to without the use of a universal translator. And Simmy is a MUCH better editor than most, she even programed some digital voice programs to make the English audio sound similar to the actors when possible."

He frowned. "Well, her and CD, Dragon's sister is amazing at programing really."

The Taylors were ignoring him at this point. "I remember this! It was about a poor kid who got to see an industrial factory where the other visiting kids got hurt."

Her older sister frowned. "Huh, I guess that is accurate. I mostly remember the songs and the chocolate. And the foreign non-union workers, Dad was annoyed by that."

The debate was short, and they watched a bed ridden grandfather dance away to song and adventure once work wasn't involved. It was fun.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam blinked as they exited the theater.

There were crowds.

LARGE crowds, mostly the families of his own workers as far as he could tell, but yeah. Over the time it took to watch the film, the army of the masses had arrived.

A pulse of Aura had all five girls join him on a metallic sheet of his power, raised over the bustle. "Right, guess Narwhal officially opened the park. You girls want to fight the lines for more rides or do something else?"

Taylor was carrying her younger self, her improved biology not even registering strain at the actions. "I think this one is tuckered out. We should get her home."

Queen joined Simmy and Sammy as they flew off the improv platform. [I want to spend time with the unbound Conflict Engines. If we must wear such fragile coverings, they insist such articles be fashionable.]

Adam nodded. "Shopping?"

She bounced in the air. [Shopping!]

He adjusted the platform to support just himself and the twin Taylors. "Right, Simmy will cover the costs, so have fun. You can find your way back when done?"

Taylor sighed. "Yeah, we can feel each other, and I think she is currently a projection. Maybe. Either way, she can store purchases in our Soul Inventory and dissolve when she is done getting stuff. She'll be fine."

Adam didn't really want to think about a scenario where two Endbringers and an Entity Shard enhanced by his abilities WOULDN'T be fine, but whatever. "Right then, have fun you three."

A trio of waves and the angels flew off, to the awe of the crowds below.

Right, the mass of people. "Let's move this along, your mother is probably worried."

Seriously, the need to sleep, eat, bathroom, yadda yadda. Made everything complicated honestly, even if he enjoyed those fiddly bits of life normally. Didn't help that the improvements to god-Taylor made her ALSO able to ignore all those small daily annoyances.

Dang nab it, he was BAD at tracking stuff like that. For example, it was VERY likely past little Taylor's bed time at this point. The fact that she was sleeping through being flown towards the Villa's entrance while crowds made various noises showed how sleepy she was at this point.

He glanced at Taylor. "So... feel better?"

She sighed. "Still repressing some emotions, honestly. I lost some dear friends, saw some horrible things, and had accepted death alone and crippled on an abandoned planet. Things are much, MUCH better now, but it is still a lot to handle."

Adam shifted the two around some of this level's structural supports as they reached the many elevators (Well, Turbolifts, but whatever). "Have the terror twins explained your new position over there?"

Taylor nodded, carefully adjusting her younger sister to her chest. "They are helping me modify the control methods for my local branch of System to be easier to work with Queen Administrator's new abilities. And thankfully, having a few million simulations working away in the back of my 'mind' isn't stressful or annoying... I am doing it mostly automatically at this point."

Adam sighed. "Good, I'm sure people told you but I found that visiting your Realm caused my soul significant issues. Apparently, I went from near infinite visitation duration abilities to something stupid. Like I could only exist there for 36 hours or so before my mind began to rapidly decay."

She blinked. "Huh? But you only took a day or so to heal me."

He sighed. "No, you were only conscious for that time period. Stabilizing your organics, healing your body, rebuilding your brain safely, restoring the connection to Queen Administrator, enhancing the two of you... well, let's say we hit 36 hours pretty quickly before we finished. Thankfully, Squishy has my soul recorded in all kinds of ways, so no memories were lost and I was able to recover."

Though that WAS why the girls had grounded him. Annoying, but the clear care and affection from his loved ones made a lot of his grumbling more for appearances sake than anything.

He sighed. "Point is, I will likely be off on another adventure before you recover enough to head back to your realm. I wanted to make sure you were taken cared of before I head out."

She frowned. "Is... is that wise? You just finished explaining how damaged you were, how dangerous helping me had become. Shouldn't you rest or something?"

Adam grinned. "I have been, of course... but my wives brought up the same issue. They know I have a strong urge to see what is out there, and we did reach a compromise."

Seeing her interest, he chuckled. "Not every Realm is so dangerous as the ones I keep visiting, even if the potential gains are smaller. No, some places are focused on political intrigue, on sports games or leisure activities, on relationships or managerial skills. A few even focus on eating and cooking, although those tend to be more deadly than most would expect."

Taylor frowned as they reached their apartment block. "Well, where are you heading to next?"

Adam gave a small smile. "Well, I've apparently annoyed my girls by creating yet more Baku, as creating immortal beings is a taboo issue with them at this point... so I am going somewhere safer than Remnant, where conflict is mostly done for self empowerment and testing ones worth."

His thoughts elsewhere, he chuckled. "Basically, I'm going to get a pet. Should be fun."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Narwhal checked his suit again. "No time smushing either, I want the live feed to continue so we know you will be safe." She sensed his inner eye roll and scowled. "Look, I know you are really powerful at this point, but it would make us feel better if you did something very, VERY safe and easy, at least for this next trip. I can NOT emphasize enough how scared your last trip made us. At least when fighting the Grimm you seemed in control the whole time."

He nodded again even as CD transmitted more data. The cyborg remained mostly professional. "I don't know when in the timeline you will arrive, but Narwhal let me work with some Adventurers in Queen's Realm through Quests, so this data packet should be up to date and hopefully relevant. Send any scans you can make as soon as you arrive and we will research it thoroughly." She hugged Narwhal and Adam. "Don't forget to send us the memories that you gain during the trip, it may help."

Nightmare Moon snorted, her sensual limbs draped over her throne like plush chair. "You both worry far too much. Adam promised to return if anything endangers himself like Queen's Realm did, and our man will keep his promise."

As long as one didn't watch her carefully, her concerned glances would easily be missed.

Adam enjoyed the fussing. "If everything goes well, I can theoretically show up there as a human. That said, I suppose it depends on what options are available... in the past, being a Baku turned out to be a relaxing experience."

Narwhal sighed, her cyber half sending Adam some more digital pictures and well wish letters. "Fine, but if you go for something different, try to be cute. I don't want nightmare videos if you become a mass of gore or whatever."

He chuckled. "No problem, I suppose. Well, wish me luck!"

The crowd backed up a bit, giving Adam some space.

"Transfer: Abyss."

Cyan flames flashed a circle around Adam, the rim forming into glowing blue metal as the Aura solidified into glittering fangs. From the earth a blue metallic skull slowly rose like a buried worm, massive cranium slowly closing its fanged jaws to consume Adam's body, ghostly fire escaping the few gaps between the deadly teeth. The eye sockets were filled with Abyss as the jaws chewed... and the entire sculpture paused.

Like ash, the blue metal skull that filled the room drifted into pieces, than nothingness.

In the silence left behind, Nightmare Moon sighed. "Taylor is right, that IS unsettling."

They all shifted attention to the video feed, currently broadcasting the 'In Transit!' message screen.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

In the thick jungle, Anita Sands shivered. Her clothing was fine for light exercise, but she hadn't expected to be outside this late in the evening.

She should have stayed on the Route.

Now as night fell, she realized how her attempts at returning to the path had only gotten her more lost.

But her options had been very limited. She needed to get her partner medical care, and her concern had been her downfall.

Even on established Routes, attacks were common. Especially in hard to see areas, like the taller grass and close to the larger trees. Normally, with her friend by her side, the trip would have been simple, easy.

But pursued by criminals, carrying her wounded ally? Stumbling into a dangerous situation seems almost mandatory in retrospect. Fleeing into the woods had seemed logical to her panicked mind.

Inside, she cursed her self confidence. Her assurance that together, they could face anything. Her hubris at not bringing more support, even on such a 'safe' journey.

Something shifting in the woods made her freeze up again.

If it was those bastards, she was doomed. If it was a creature, she was... only slightly doomed, depending on the situation.

She shivered with clenched eyes as she clutched her Pokéball close. Unseen but nearby, blue metal symbols tore into the soil, forming a strange pattern on the forest floor. The odd sounds made the air pulse.

"Why the hell do I keep arriving in forests!?"

The male voice made her blink. That didn't sound like the Team Rocket team chasing her.

The grumbling paused nearby. "Oh. A child."

The night seemed darker.

The shadowy tall man in the growing night hummed with glowing blue eyes. "At least this one isn't dying from gunshot wounds. Or being hunted by haunted tree wolves, or attacked by an army of human eating demons."

Missing her expression, the man nodded as he came forward. "What a nice change of pace. Good evening, my name is Adam Burns." His hair seemed to catch on fire, a soft blue glow filling the clearing with light. "How may I help you today?"

Feeling her friends Pokéball in her grasp, she gathered her courage. "Can... can you help get me to a Pokécenter? My Pidgey is hurt bad."

A slightly odd smile spread as the stranger held out a hand. "I can probably do something."

Accepting his help to stand, she could practically feel the surrounding Pokémon backing away as blue fire lit up the night.

This may be outside of her comfort zone, but her friend came first.

He hummed as they began walking into the night. "I'm not comfortable trying to heal your Pidgey directly without doing some medical scans of healthy ones first, but I can detect a lot of electronic signals a few miles north west from here. Probably best to go that direction."

She blinked as two strange limbs stretched from his back and reached over his shoulders, red beams of light causing the rocks, tangled grass, and dangerous debris on the path to vanish into a smooth surface. And he kept talking as if he didn't notice, even as green beams began forming stone paving stones below them as they strolled.

Anita was growing concerned that she had been hit with 'Confusion' at some point.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The energy of the world flowed like a river. Beautiful and deadly, art normally unseen.

Danger.

TELEPORT.

It ebbed and flowed, filled with many purposes, causing lost cause. Lost direction. It could guide a traveler or lead them astray.

Danger.

TELEPORT.

She was small. She was too small.

Dan...DANGER!

TELEPORT.

For others, life was easier. Less risky. Some even found other young ones to gather with, the group offering safety and shelter.

Danger.

TELEPORT.

She had that once, before her growth slowed. Four of them had shelter from the river of life, and tried to grow together, dreams guiding their journey.

...

But they grew stronger. Their mind smarter. Even dreaming, they could defend, attack, retreat, and gather food for the short hours they could stay awake. Together the group flourished. They became more powerful, more flexible, a force of thoughts and ideas.

...Danger.

TELEPORT.

She did not.

...

They had eventually left her behind, and with their more powerful range and fine control, she could not follow. Her dreams had darkened with loneliness and solitude.

Danger.

TELEPORT.

It took much energy to feel the unseen world. Much power to drift between space and time. And she was so small.

Danger.

TELE...

TELEPORT.

Was she being hunted? Was she just unlucky? Or was she so weak, no where was really without danger? So small, even innocent things were too risky to sleep near.

...

Worse, her range was so... so restricted. Yet even unable to feel much of the world as she slumbered, her mind could feel the raw, furious Danger. Tired, hungry, and so scared, she again searched for safety. And again. And...

DANGER!

TELEPORT.

If she woke, her limited time would tick away. Risking the loss of her abilities until she could safely sleep again. For it took so, so long to recover from losing the dream.

...

If she did not wake, she may not survive.

...

DANGER!

TE...

...

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

TELEPORT!

Even in slumber, she felt her heart beat so fast. The air was heavy and unforgiving, her body too hot in this cold air.

DANGER! DANGER! DANnnn...

Safe.

TELEPORT to SAFE.

She did not celebrate at finding shelter, for she was too tired. She did not sing with joy at safety, for her mind was weak. She did not hope for better times, for her soul drifted away in slumber.

In blue flames and strange fur, she remembered such strange dreams.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam paused. "Anita."

The girl walking beside him had been staring into the dark, and was a bit caught off guard. "WHAT!? I uh. I mean, what? Are we close to the Pokécenter?"

Adam slowly shook his head. "No, I'd say another 10 minutes or so until we reach that town."

She sighed. "That should be fine, Pidgey could handle several more hours in stasis like this. If she was poisoned I'm not sure what I would do."

He cautiously continued walking. "Right, good to hear she's alright for now. Anyway, can I ask you a quick question?"

She blinked towards the night, looking at Adam had destroyed her night vision again, making it hard to see into the surrounding dark forest. His blue night light impression was a bit annoying, although she was grateful for the light source. "I guess, though you should help keep an eye out for danger. Route 116 is mostly safe but since Poochyena tend to roam around it isn't impossible to run into their evolved forms. A Mightyena pack could really mess up our day."

Adam smiled. "I think I could handle it. But seriously, I may have an issue."

She frowned. "Alright, what's up?"

He pointed. "Is there something on my head?"

She paused her glare into the dark and slowly turned. "Huh. Yeah."

Adam continued to walk on the expanding path. "Right, had a feeling a few moments ago. Said to myself, 'Adam, your neck shouldn't feel that amount of weight'. Now, I don't want to be a bother, but could you... describe it?"

She watched the blue wires of his hair float in the misty flames... as they floated around the sleeping form of an Abra. A tiny one. "I honestly don't think I've SEEN an Abra that tiny."

Adam blinked. "Oh. Well, as long as it doesn't bite me or something. Might have freaked out a bit if it had fangs or whatever."

Anita tried to get closer, but her walking companion was unreasonably tall. She was young and all, but he had to be like six feet tall or something. That is too tall. "Yeah, it is an Abra, though I think it is only like a bit over a foot and a half tall or something. About half a meter tall, not much bigger."

She continued walking on the path as she pulled out her Pokédex (WAY not top of the line model... sigh.) and gave the tiny thing a scan. "Yeah, that Abra is tiny... It's a girl, and only a foot and nine inches tall, weighs about thirteen pounds. That is really pushing the small side of the recorded scale."

She flinched as one of Adam's limb things shot her Pokédex with red and green beams, but nothing seemed to happen. So whatever. "Huh. I've never heard of one just... riding someone like this. Especially a wild one. And she looks... pretty worn out."

Adam hummed. "Well, I don't mind giving the poor thing a ride. My most recent girlfriend insisted on using me as conveyance for a week or so, compared to that situation this little thing weighs nothing!" One of his limbs seemed to be examining the creature. "Huh... she's a bit adorable. Look at her tiny feet."

She blinked. "Yeah, I never got to see one up close before. They can sense danger even while asleep and can teleport all over the place, so unless you meet a trainer lucky enough you may never get a chance like this."

Adam hummed as a hologram of his own head floated in front of him, to the surprise of his young walking companion. "It's like a little fox, but with tiny cute shoulder pads. And little yellow foot gloves."

He grinned. "That's it, I'm going to keep her. Do you have any Pokéballs I could borrow?"

She shrugged. "Barely have anything, it was why I was so in danger when I got lost. Had lost a lot of supplies when I got chased by Team Rocket." And hadn't THAT been terrifying. They were adults after all, and she was just a kid. She shouldn't have to put up with crap like that.

Adam hummed. "Yeah, and I want to make this little cutie a custom ball anyway, I'm sure I can do better than whatever is common around here. Maybe have a tiny picture of her head on the thing."

Anita blinked. Well, if the magic forest man says so, why not? "What will you name her? Or will you stay with the species name for now?" She and Pidgey still argued about what HER nickname should be, as some Pokémon were picky.

He paused... and sighed. "I probably won't get to pick. My wives really wanted to be involved in the naming process, and I am sometimes more than a little out voted. Also, I occasionally have... issues... coming up with non-terrible names."

Oh the terrible superhero names he had agonized over before Variance was picked.

The comfortable walk was a bit interrupted a few seconds later. "Wait, what do you mean 'Wives'!?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Nurse Joy looked up at the sound of the door opening. It was late, but healthcare could be required at any hour, and she gave a wide smile while sending signals for Chancy to prepare for a possible emergency.

Most situations could be handled thanks to the automated recovery tool station near the counter, as the Pokémon in their balls could stay in stasis while the machine fixes their issues... but someone coming in THIS late at night?

It may be something more serious.

Her thoughts hit a bit of a bump though when a young girl entered the facility with a sexy hunk of a giant muscle man... whose head was currently on fire.

Said man seemed... perfectly happy with the situation. And there seemed to be a sleeping Abra slowly cooking away in the flames, snoring happily.

Her slack jawed surprise may have been less than professional.

The girl offered up a Pokéball. "Can you heal my Pidgey!?"

Nurse Joy accepted the offered normalcy with automatic motions, her mind still focusing on the small Pokémon cook-off occurring on this man's scalp.

She ignored the machine, as no alerts meant everything on THAT front was going fine. "Sir... are you alright?"

His blue eyes seemed to sparkle (Or... were they on fire too!?) as he grinned. "Why yes! Thank you for asking. Oh, but I have picked up a bit of a hitchhiker, this little girl on my head showed up on our way here and I am a bit worried about how stressed out she seems."

Nurse instincts flared, and she felt more centered. "Are you saying that is a WILD Abra?"

He shrugged. "Well, not caught certainly. Considering she just sleeps there I wouldn't say 'wild', exactly. Don't worry, once I am sure she is healthy I plan on taking care of the little thing."

Well... that was good news. Up to a point. "I'm sorry, but if it is not caught then I can't really do much to help. I'm honestly shocked it hasn't Teleported away already, if I try to get close she will likely escape."

The man waved a hand. "No problem, I can lock down basic teleportation locally without much issue for a few minutes. Just give her a quick checkup, please."

...What?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam kept one hand on Abra's head as Nurse Joy gave the little thing a checkup. Because when he tried to hand her over, she just vanished back to his head again. Apparently Adam blocking Teleportation acted more like a shell dome of restriction rather than a fog of refusal.

That aside, his little friend was very accommodating. Even after she got the shot, which thankfully didn't need a needle, she stayed calm. And asleep. He would have to buy some of these potions later for examination, once there were fewer witnesses. No reason to freak out the nice nurse further with his extra limbs.

Nurse Joy smiled. "Oh! How well behaved. That should handle the dehydration and partially handle her malnutrition, but I think some enhanced Pokéblocks would ensure she has no further issues."

Seeing his confusion, she explained. "Most brands of Pokéblocks are meant as a candy, made from blended Berries. The enhanced ones are exposed to magical and psychic Pokémon attack residue, which can be nutritional to some species such as Psychic Pokémon, like Abra."

She held out a hand and Chancy passed over a bag with instructions on it. "Some Abra's already know Dream Eater, and all of them can use such energies to reduce mental strain."

Adam hummed. "Any care instructions?"

The nurse nodded. "Abra in general need to sleep AT LEAST 18 hours a day, and even that is a bit risky. A healthy Abra will wake in increments between 6 and 13 minutes, for a total of less than 3 hours over the course of a day. In this little one's case, I suggest letting her rest uninterrupted until she naturally wakes up. It may be more than a day or so, considering how exhausted she seems."

The inter-dimensional visitor blinked, before looking down at the curled up Abra. The behavior seemed awfully Baku-like.

Her cute little snores made him smile though. Ah well, the girls should love her.

As Nurse Joy walked back to her station behind the counter, Adam took some time to look around the clinic.

Unlike in the example video games, this was clearly a large facility. During day shift, over twenty Nurses could operate at the same time, there was a computer lab rather than a single machine, and the entire facility was SEVERAL floors tall. It would be neat to explore the place!

His thoughts were disrupted when Anita returned with her Pokéball in hand, joining him in the waiting area and slumping into the softer-than-it-looked couch. "I contacted my Trainer School instructor, since they've all gone home already. She will handle calling off Officer Jenny, since they informed them I hadn't checked in after leaving on my trip."

Adam hummed. "I'll be honest, I thought those Pokédex could call people. And had map functions and stuff."

She pouted at her own device. "Yeah, the experimental ones and the super expensive versions have all kinds of stuff. A few even have expanded storage. You can fit a bike in there! They don't even NEED a backpack like the rest of us!"

Anita sighed. "However, my parents spent a bunch to sent me to Pokémon Trainer School here in Rustboro City, and said I would have to make do with this basic version until I graduate. I normally call home and check in via Pokécenters, Stores, and Gyms that I pass by."

Shaking her head, she pointed. "Anyway, Pokécenter's have free rooms for people like us stuck out so late at night, and I had to abandon my camping gear when escaping Team Rocket... so yeah, I'll be up there for tonight."

Seeing his expression, she shrugged. "The school tries to teach us how to act like real Trainers. So camping outside, while not required, offers extra credit and stuff. And since I met some friends and had to fight against Team Rocket in the past, I've been trying to become a top Duelist... one day."

She hugged her Pokéball. "Pidgey and I were just... surprised, when a few Team Rocket grunts showed up to try and 'teach us a lesson' for freeing some of their Pokémon victims back then. And without Ash or Max or my classmates, I was outmatched. Or at least, out numbered."

Adam hummed. "Well... I have very few things on my to-do list. Would you mind if I stuck around a bit? I will need to find something worth selling, and use that buy a Pokéball or two, but other than that I have no plans."

Something relaxed in her stance. Apparently she had not been handling her near disaster as well as she was trying to pretend. "Yeah, not sure I would do so well alone right now. Most of our class is still out, as we were tasked with going on a journey as 'homework'. Honestly, I wish I hadn't tried to take such a long path to prove myself... I could have stayed near the City like some of my friends."

He chuckled. "Well, thankfully things worked out. And don't worry, if we run into any issues..." Blue light flashed over his eyes. "I'm sure we can handle it. Now, which way to the guest rooms?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Children were handled oddly in this Realm, Adam mused.

First of all, they were considered independent at VERY young ages. Sometimes less than 10 years old and they could wander the world full of magical monsters.

Thankfully, these same monsters had VERY different instincts. Heck, some human kids were not only protected but RAISED by wild Pokémon, oddly enough.

That said, a huge man wandering around with a little girl didn't even raise eyebrows. He supposed that since all the children owned monsters with lethal skills, well... that would make a bit of a difference in this regard. Then again, maybe it was a feature of the Realm itself, or its deity level guardians.

Because kids were... empowered here. Large falls off cliffs? Barely a few scratches. Massive electrification? Some skin would flake to ash, but afterwards it only looked like a light sunburn. And children seemed to have regenerative powers of some level, even without using 'Potions' or healing abilities from Pokémon. Broken limbs healed over weeks rather than months.

Adam's Construction beam modified the new backpack some more. Needed to be more rigid than this, like a pot almost.

Point was, a tall stranger offering to help a young girl to explore the woods had been greeted with great gratitude and no concern.

On one hand, he DID have no other intentions, except maybe some vague parental instincts to not leave her alone when possibly hunted by the local mafia.

On the other hand, HIS Realm had creeps and weirdos. So he sort of EXPECTED the whole comedic misunderstanding situation that... never really developed.

The stone foam was covered with reformed wood pulp, creating a layer of cushion on the inside and outside while 'cloth' was layered on top. This backpack would be slightly odd shaped, but even a gun would need serious firepower to damage it.

He began inscribing Glyphs on the inside, to filter and purify air and any energies nearby, to stay at a specified temperature, to deflect wind and rain.

Entering this Realm, the memories he got were... odd. More historical, less focused on a single person (Other than 'Trainer X', of which there were a few.) Anyone could do interesting things here, and there wasn't a single plot line that drove reality like in some spaces. More open ended, in a way.

Oh, there were still stories. Several, going on at the same time in separated 'Regions'. This one was the Hoenn Region, for what it was worth. He wasn't super concerned, but just in case he had sent CD all the details shoved into his brain and was mostly ignoring Simmy and Sammy live streaming his journey so far. At least one massive difference from the available research was obvious: Pokémon could learn any number of moves, as long as they trained enough. None of this 'Only four at a time' stuff, though if you tried to teach them a ton of abilities the ones least use would rapidly fall in quality and effectiveness.

Also? Magic AND Psychics existed in this Realm. And the Psychics could interact with Ghosts, and around them blue floating flames were commonly seen. And said Psychics were also notoriously odd, both in dress and actions, according to the local internet.

So that was likely why Anita had just ACCEPTED a dude with flaming wires for hair and multiple bone limbs showing up out of nowhere to help.

Man this Realm was weird.

With a satisfied hum, he checked the backpack. "Right, now for you to try out your new home, Abra!"

His hand bathed in blue flames of magic, he gently lifted Abra from his head (Again) and slowly lowered her into the new equipment.

It was a tight fit, but that was on purpose. What research he had done downstairs in the lab implied that the Abra species in general LOVED tight, confined hide away locations. Escape was trivial for their species and restricted areas meant safe areas. Finding them inside logs, cracks in cliffs, or even inside crawl spaces in homes was not impossible, if you were lucky enough to even notice them before they teleported away.

She wiggled a bit in his hands... then twisted into the barrel shaped backpack, only her triangular head and fox-like ears exposed.

...Was she purring?

D'Aw. That was adorable.

Resting the flames on her head, he mentally reached out with 'Harmony'.

She was a weak leaf on a grand tree, finally floating free. The lost seashell on a corrupted beach, floating away into the vast unknown. She had run from Danger, had found Safe, and now bathed in guardian light.

She was home.

Adam smiled softly, and held her new nest in his arms as he lay back in bed for some rest.

For having found a new friend, he had been quite lucky.

And he could feel her agree.