Chapter 64: Speedbumps

[Phoenix's 3rd person POV]

After the drive/Duel was over, we'd spent another half hour doing the former after the latter, we went back home to The Roost. Though, a few unexpected things came from that whole thing that neither of us were expecting.

Firstly was that Scylla had started begging me to 'Bring back the pretty dragon lady', which... Was a thing. Apparently Black Rose Dragon was sentient enough to have a conversation with my Daughter, one I only heard her side of because I didn't speak dragon, and the Synchro Dragon had somehow claimed herself as Aunt...

No one understood how the fuck that was possible, but we rolled with it.

Didn't help that the rest of the Rose Dragons and Aromages had taken a liking to the little snake too, making the whole situation even more of a headache then it already was. Granted, we'd figure out what to do with that eventually, but now we had to factor in some time for Scylla to play with her 'Aunt' and friends.

Life had gotten very strange after I woke up in an entirely different reality with an Ultimatrix pretty much fused to my flesh, but it was nice all the same.

That whole thing aside, the other thing that came from the drive/Duel was an oddly quiet and Contemplative Amy. She seemed to space out during a majority of the remaining day, as well as during most of the next day, but it... It didn't exactly seem bad? It looked like she'd lost a bit of the metaphorical weight on her shoulders, and we were all Happy about that, we just weren't sure what was going on in her head.

The day ended without much fanfare, though Amy seemingly jolted when I asked her if she'd want her room bigger or smaller then my and Taylor's rooms. The look she gave me, like her mind processed what I said, but thought it was an error, made me roll my eyes and give her the Itachi poke. The Embarrassed glare she shot me, despite the bit of blush on her cheeks, only made the whole thing funnier in my opinion.

That'd been the start of clearing out another portion of the mountain with Taylor in her Hybrid form, me in Water Hazard, and making me wish I had an actual terraformer in the Ultimatrix. We'd spent a good 2 hours on the whole thing, getting the space itself cleared and just needing to spend some time smoothing it all out, then we'd be done. Though, it was Amusing to see that Amy had just sat back and watched, looking entirely zoned out as she did.

I got it though, Power Washing was soul crack, and nice to just zone out too.

Scylla fell asleep at some point though, her head planted on the ground by the bean bag chair Amy was lounging on. It was cute, and I would have to ask my Aunt/Mom about giving me some pictures of it later on.

Anyway, 2nd day ended, nothing else worth mentioning happened.

The 3rd day was where some more stuff happened. The start was just fine, Taylor cooked today, breakfast was a mix of greens from Amy's new garden, and some good ol sausage, egg and bacon. The greens were kinda good, good enough that I wouldn't mind eating more of them.

That was enough to bring Amy out of her current daze, her mind processing the compliments we threw at her, then blushed and grumbled nonsense, a small smile on her face as she did.

After that I found out I might've been a prophet given the fact Amy had decided it was 'Follow Phoenix like a lost duckling' day, and stuck with me for the majority of it. I didn't really mind though, more Amused about the whole thing then anything else.

Plus, it wasn't like I was gonna say no to the pretty and stacked brunette my girlfriend and I were planning on seducing.

So after our morning exercise, which she again joined in on, I spent some time with Amy. Taylor was going to check on her Swarm, a shipment of Bullet Ants, Yellow Jacket Wasps, Honey Bees, Killer Hornets, Tarantula Hawks, 'Goliath bird-eating tarantula', which had to have been something someone's sleep paralysis demon cooked up, and some parasitical bug whose name I couldn't pronounce. Making sure the more aggressive species wouldn't start killing everything else or starting a war was an important thing, and better done in person...

As well as making sure Scylla understood that no, she could not go and eat her actual Aunt's insect army.

At the start of it I wasn't exactly sure what to do, but I eventually figured it out.

[Phoenix's POV]

"Wanna lay around and listen to music?"

Amy stared at me for a moment, not even saying anything, then shrugged. "I guess."

And so we did just that.

(I should've seen this coming. I really should've.) After finding out that Amy didn't really have a favorite genre, or even song, I decided that we were going to figure that out. I started with one of my favorite songs 'Everything Black by Unlike Pluto.' It was safe to say she liked it, the jazzy aspect being something she found Agreed with her.

Seeing how that was a hit, I stuck with jazz, jumping into the P5/P5R/P5S playlist, because you couldn't go wrong with Persona soundtracks.

We cycled through a bunch of songs over the half hour we were doing this, Amy instantly claiming the Rainy Day version of 'Beneath the Mask' as one of her favorites from the songs we'd heard, before we found the current one we were listening too. As soon as 'Butterfly Kiss' started playing, the brunette blinked, then raised her body a bit to get a look at the TV.

While she did that I registered the Exasperation from my Other Half. |How has she still not noticed?!|

I mentally snorted at that, gently pulling the brunette back. She didn't fight it, just hummed along to the song as I brought her back down to the bed. [I think she's too comfy to process the position we're in... That, and the constant zoning out she's been doing might play into it.]

My Other Half mentally rolled her eyes, but sent over her Understanding, so I was pretty sure she got it.

At the moment we were in my/Taylor's room, laying on the bed and chilling. Amy was laying on my legs, her head nearly in my lap, and hadn't noticed how close we were. I'd initially been real fucking Surprised when she suddenly laid herself onto me, but when nothing else happened I decided to roll with it, eventually wondering just when exactly she'd notice not only the position itself, but the fact that I'd been idly running my fingers through her hair for like, the last 5ish minutes. (Not as curly as Taylor's, but still nice.)

That aside, I'd gently dropped her head back into my lap, trying not to grin as she just kept humming along to Butterfly Kiss. Deciding to just go back to waiting, I started running my fingers through her hair again, getting a sigh from her as she, closed her eyes, Relaxed, and zoned out. Seeing Amy at Peace like this was so different from her usual everyday self. Sure, we'd only known each other for like, 2 weeks, but that was enough time to tell the difference between the girl that hunched into herself before I'd taken her for a ride on Wildmutt, and the girl just casually resting on my legs.

This... I wanted to see more of this Amy. I was perfectly fine with the snarky and toxic Amy, but I did wonder what an Amy not on the verge of snapping and turning insane would look like, especially if she looked as cute as she did now.

I stared at the brunette for a bit more, trying to picture a... I guessed the word closest to what I was thinking was 'Unburdened', Amy, and couldn't help but think about what my girlfriend had brought up a few days ago. [You're sure about adding Amy to our relationship? No second thoughts or anything?] I could feel the raised brow from here. [Legit question.] I knew she was, my girlfriend rarely had regrets... Recent events excluded, so I knew she didn't, I just wanted to be sure.

Said girlfriend huffed over the Bond, a sense of Fondness coming through. |Yeah, I'm sure. I think we'll all be better for it by the end of this.| I audibly hummed at that, making sure to mimic Butterfly Kiss as to not disturb Amy, and just went back to my thoughts.

I wasn't against this. I was a teenager whose girlfriend was green lighting adding another girl to our relationship. I had Concerns though, having experience with someone that'd been apart of a threesome only to end up feeling neglected and used at the end of it. There was practically no chance Taylor or I would neglect each other, but the chance of us unknowingly doing something to hurt Amy was there, and I didn't know what to think about it. (... Though, realistically, what would be unforgivable to her? And can I keep myself from doing those things?) I actually did want this to work, Amy had been growing on me, and I had pretty much already internalized that she was mine, so I'd 100% go feral if something happened.

Right away the big things were rape, killing innocents on purpose, harming animals, hurting Scylla, hurting h...- I paused, frowning a bit. (She'd care if she got hurt... Right?) It kind of freaked me out that I couldn't automatically say yes. (Fucking... Okay, gonna need to evaluate her self worth later.) Putting that as a mental note was easy, especially when said mental note was copied by my Other Half. Going back to the taboo list, I picked it back up by recognizing she'd probably delete my dick if I hurt Vicky, so that was a thing to watch out for, and ensure that the 'Anti Master' upgrade to our Suits worked. (Is that it?) Thinking about it some more, I was pretty sure that was it. (Okay... I can pretty much avoid all of those. Only issue would be the 'Killing innocents' bit considering the AoE potential of some of my forms, especially their Ultimate forms... Though, she knows about that already.) And I realized that yes, she did know about that. (And she's still here...)

Untangling a knot in her hair, I stared for a moment, then sighed and leaned back, slumping against the wall. (Only things I have to worry about would be accidentally hurting her, or neglecting her. That should be fine.)

Deciding to ask for some input, I sent over the recent train of thought to my Other Half, Contemplation filling the Bond as she took it in. |I can see where you're coming from, and I have to admit that I didn't really think about it like that.| No Surprise there, this wasn't exactly something one could get down to a science. |We could probably work on the neglect thing by just talking to her though. No need to get caught up in 'What ifs' if we can literally just ask Amy if we're doing something wrong, or if we could be doing something we aren't.| That was a good point.

Though I had a counter point. [And if she doesn't tell us?] Because that was an option. There was no magical soul bond bullshit that'd let us know something was wrong. She could just as easily lie, and if we weren't attentive enough for some reason, miss it.

My Other Half was silent for a moment, then responded. |Considering the bleed over we're getting, would we honestly miss it?| And that made me pause. She had a point with that.

Even now, with most of my senses tuned down, I could hear alot. Hell, if I focused just a little bit I could hear Amy's heartbeat. I wasn't at Daredevil levels of sensory witchcraft, but in time we would both get there. (So realistically, she wouldn't be able to hide something important.) I rolled that thought around for a bit, not really seeing anything wrong with that, then Agreed. [We'll probably need to get that out early. If it happened at a bad time then she'd probably blow up.] My Other Half sent her own Agreement back, getting me to nod. [So, communication, a perfectly normal you think I'm missing here, or is that all?]

There was silence for a bit, not counting 'Our Light' starting in the background, and fuck if I wasn't having flashbacks to the ending credits when it started, but she eventually responded. |As long as we genuinely care for her, and don't hesitate to show it, then I don't think we'll have much to worry about.|

After I processed that I looked back down to Amy, who had yet... To... I blinked, stared at her for a few seconds, then felt my lips twitch. Amy, the grouchy and caustic healer and all around gremlin, had fallen asleep in my lap. (So help me God, if she wakes up too soon I'm gonna hurt someone.) Quickly brushing that thought aside, I reached out to my girlfriend. [Love, you see this, right? Please tell me you see this.] There was a moment of Confusion before a spike of Amusement. Seeing that she got it, I mentally cackled. [Phone, you need to get here and start recording. This is the best blackmail we're gonna have till we actually start dating.]

My girlfriend started giggling over our Bond, and I almost audibly broke as she did. We both knew how big this would be in the future, hell, even now this would be huge.

Hopefully we would get enough evidence before she woke up, this was way too adorable to not have evidence of.

[Phoenix's 3rd person POV]

Good news, we got 15 minutes of footage before Amy woke up, which only happened because Daredevil started playing.

Even better news, Amy was so Embarrassed about the situation that she pulled a Tsundere, but said 'You stupid fucking Dumbass' instead of 'Idiot.'

Even BETTER better news, she tried to bolt up off the bed, but because the bed was bigger then she was expecting she fucking face planted onto the rug! The blackmail we gained this day was fucking MASSIVE!

Blackmail aside, the rest of the day went well. Sure Amy zoned out some more, had moments where she couldn't/wouldn't look at me, which I didn't help by reaching out and patting her head whenever she turned away, which would always get her to try to swat my hand away. Still, I could tell Amy was a little 'Lighter' then she was when she first got here.

Ideally that trend would keep going, but we would be there in case it didn't.

Spending time with Amy and Scylla, who'd had her fill of 'Aunt time', with both of them, was good. Even when we didn't do anything and she just lounged around in The Lab as we worked on the Digital World Initiative, she stayed and listened to music.

Though we caught her sending some looks to her Suit, which was still on display. She hadn't taken the pendant out of its display, nor asked for it to be returned to her, but the way she looked at the blank Suit seemed like a good thing. She hadn't added anything to it yet, but it'd only be a matter of time at this rate.

Aside from that, the day was fine. Amy spent the day in a Contemplative mood, and we let her think.

Though there was another interruption... And not one we liked.

[Erin's POV]

Suddenly getting a ping from one of my worms in Brockton, I took a second to look at the information I got... And immediately started to twitch. (I swear to every fucking deity that may or may not exist, if the fucking NAZIS start shit I'm streamlining the optimization of my Stheno Suit and blasting those fuckers out of this mortal coil.) Kaiser seemed to think calling the fucking Gesellschaft to help them take over Brockton Bay, and deal with Pantheon too, was the height of brilliance...

And it annoyed the fuck out of me to recognize that without the Merchants, ABB, other players in the Bay, and the PRT being annexed by the government, now was the perfect time for them to take the Bay over. (Depending on who the Gesellschaft send, a member of the Triumvirate may need to be called in.) Monsters they may be, aside from Legend, Alexandria and Eidolon were effective. (Issue there is if we should let a member of the Triumvirate be called in.) Depending on who was called in we could either strike back, in which case collateral damage would be all but guaranteed, or enter a dialogue in the event Legend was called in.

I debated that idea for a bit, eventually discarding it considering the timing. It was still too soon to make obvious moves on Cauldron, and even if we could get Legend to turn to our side, he would be found out by their Thinkers... Unless the Anti Thinker effect spread to him... Which would then just be a big red flag with the words 'Traitor' branded onto it.

It also didn't help that Pantheon was on break, which the kids earned considering the amount of bullshit they'd already gone through. (The Merchants, the Shadow Stalker situation, The Simurgh, the raid against the Goblin King, Phoenix's accidental unmasking, the Slaughterhouse 9, the incident with New Wave, Bakuda's bombing, the elder Dallon's suicide, and now this?) With all the incidents since the start of their careers laid out, I couldn't help but wonder how the fuck my Nephew hadn't killed someone out of sheer annoyance. (Even when Tess first started out she had time to buildup before she started getting dragged into bullshit.)

Shooing the thought away, I accessed the Gesellschaft's files, trying my best not to eviscerate their database and steal their funds because of the shit in here. Their time would come, and when it did I'd personally throw em in the birdcage.

Vengeance aside, I checked who they were intent on sending... "! FUCK! !" Whether they wanted to make a message, or saw Brockton as a viable foothold, I wasn't sure. But the fact that the Gesellschaft was sending over a pair of their infamous enforcers, as well a well known Master, was not a good sign. (Is it because they know Brockton is where Pantheon mainly patrols?) That would make the most sense considering who was being transferred in, one of them perfectly countered Khepri's known Power, while the other could perhaps give Anubis a hard time given his own Power. (And that Master...) I didn't know if they were aware of the couples' weakness to Master effects, the newfound defenses not tested since Paige hadn't been introduced to them as of yet, but just looking at it with the current information painted a rather worrying picture.

Anzündholz - A well known Shaker 8/Blaster 12 who had rather powerful electrokinesis. He was capable of gathering electricity from all sources in a 25m radius and using it as he saw fit. Capable of making armor, weapons, constructs, or just releasing it around himself in a dome. His most dangerous technique was to gather all his current charge in one point and fire it all off with the speed/power of natural lightning, turning his target into his namesake, kindling. His gear, because that's what it was, consisted of a full body suit that covered his 1.83m form, incorporated 4 Tinkertech electricity generators in his shoulders/back, a pair of pistols, and a motherfucking RAILGUN that he used normally, and with his fatal technique.

Betrachtung - An equally well known Changer 10 with the ability of changing into any being he's been in 5ms of. This worked with Humans/Animals/Parahumans, and would last for 5 minutes if the original was out of range. In the case of Parahumans he could use 1/2 of their Powers so long as the original was in range, which would drop to 1/4th if they weren't. His default state wasn't documented, nor was his geared up form, the man himself choosing to look like his partner whenever he was on the field, unless he changed to another Parahuman.

Surprisingly, that didn't work on Case 53's, but the reason why didn't matter.

Then there was the head bitch herself, Puppenmacher. I scowled as I looked over her profile, coming real close to accessing the nearest military base and authorizing a missile strike.

Puppenmacher - One of the more unknown members of the Gesellschaft, and one of the monsters responsible for evoking Trigger Events in children. Her Power was a Thinker 5/Striker 5/Master 8, capable of creating 10 hair thin wires that stretched up to 30ms away and could latch onto Animals/Humans/Parahumans, and be puppeteer-ed by the woman's fingers individually. The fact her victims were cognizant of their Mastering was what made her such an effective 'Asset', and was the reason I was still tempted to bomb the bitch into oblivion. Her gear was a high powered sniper rifle, a pair of pistols similar to Anzündholz's, and a full body catsuit , but one that was actually armored, only leaving her golden blonde hair free from her doll like mask...

I frowned, slightly worried. (Note to self, warn Parian about the psycho. Wouldn't put it passed her to go after the girl due to the similarities in their looks.) That not set, I checked the flight registry, frowning even more when I saw it would take the fucks 8-10 hours to arrive in America, and Brockton by proxy. (Great. Fantastic. Fuckin WONDERFUL!) This was not something the kids needed to deal with... (Though maybe they won't need too.) As long as there was no trace, which there wouldn't be, then no one would know... (Well, guess I'm committing Manslaughter.)

I'd have to wait a bit, they would reach the hanger for the jet in 33-50 minutes, but I'd deal with them. (Fuckin have the balls to come after OUR kids huh? ) Even if they weren't Nazis I would've probably done the same shit considering they were handpicked to fight Phoenix and Taylor. I had no doubt in my mind that they would still have beat their assess, but there was no reason to get them involved when I could just handle it myself.

There were reasons I'd chosen a Greek name after all, and not all of them were because of my family or my job.

[Phoenix's 3rd person POV]

Now, I knew of the Gesellschaft, they were mentioned a few times in fics I'd read, but I didn't know about the Gesellschaft. All I knew was that they were Nazis, and they indoctrinated kids into being their soldiers and trying to get them to Trigger. That was pretty much it.

I never bothered trying to learn more because they weren't really my problem. Though, now that we knew that they would be our problem, we decided to spend some of our downtime looking them up... And damn if these fuckers weren't a threat to keep an eye on.

27 Capes, 8 of those being children ages 6-13, another 12 of those being 16-20, while the rest were real adults at ages 25-58.

The kids were issues on multiple fronts though. Young Triggers were strong as shit, that was a proven thing, but they were also kids... Which meant I had to snap both Taylor and Amy out of Enraged spirals a few times as we looked over the files Aunt Erin got us.

The youngest, the 6 year old they'd made Trigger at 5, was basically Beast Boy, but if they added the fact he could merge different forms together to make some nightmare was fucking crazy, and and it didn't help that they were training the kid by giving him Anatomy lessons Dexter style.

Reading through the rest of the files hadn't helped the homicidal urges, I'd started getting them when we saw one of their methods of 'Training' kids was to get them an animal like a dog or a cat, letting them raise it for a few months up to a year, then drugging the thing with rabies and forcing the kids to kill em or die. I still didn't give a shit about Human kids, but animals?

I was gonna go fucking feral if we ever got to take a shot at the fucks.

By the end of the whole session we were all pretty pissed, and needed something to hit... So we went to the Danger Room and had it configured to a zombie apocalypse...

We didn't have problems, zombies just made good stress relief.

Apparently they were better then expected considering by the end of it, Amy had a big ass smile on her face. She was breathing like she ran a marathon, which we sort of did since it was a mix of L4D/CoD/World War Z, had 'Dirt' and 'Blood' dirtying her battered and somewhat bruised form, and looked like an all around mess, but still seemed far more Content then she was before.

So that was a win in my books.

After we vented our shared Hatred of the Nazis, we took a dip in the Serum bath, separately though, we weren't a 'Throuple' yet, and took the time to rest. Though that had made me think about the Lazarus Serum, and when exactly we'd bring that up to Amy.

Amy was going to join our relationship eventually, and considering how possessive Taylor and I were, she was pretty much stuck with us for life. That meant bringing up our own version of immortality up to her at some point. The only issues there were the reactions of her Shard, and Amy herself. Her knee jerk reaction to Bio-Tinkering was something we weren't sure of given she was working on her own Bio-Tinkering, and the less said about what her Shard would make of this the better. (She'd had Swampfire's arm for only a few moments before she went into a Power fueled Fugue and created a sentient and near immortal Methanosian Serpent. Unless we figure out how to cut out Queen Shaper we'll need to hold off on it.)

Which then brought up the question of how the fuck we were going to do that without Amy dying or losing her Power. Granted, the latter objective wasn't that much of a concern, we cared about Amy more then we did Panacea, but it was still an important part of her life, so she'd probably not want to lose it.

There were ideas, but nothing concrete yet. We'd probably need to finish the Digital World Initiative first before even tackling that, so the ideas were shelved for later.

Speaking of the Initiative, we managed to finish the framework for the server that would house the Digital World.

Now, one might think it was strange that it took 3 days of Tinker Time to finish up the frame, but when the fact the material that made the frame itself took up 45tons of metal to synthesize, a fucking gallon of refined Upgrade nanites, and was currently the size of an industrial fridge, then one would get an idea of just how fucking crazy this thing was going to be. The frame needed to be as unbreakable as we could make it in the event an unruly Digimon decided to try and attack it, or someone somehow found their way into The Roost and decided to attack the obviously important machine thing.

It also needed to be fitted with the first series of cooling systems, because the server would undoubtedly get hot considering it was going to be powering a whole fucking world, so having multiple cooling systems just made sense.

With the frame done, we worked on the internals for a bit, which was one of the more easier tasks considering Dragon was a veritable library of Tinker Tech and knew how to make some frankly bullshit things. Honestly, Grey Matter had no idea what he was looking at for a moment when she brought up the specs of some 'Super CPU' capable of processing 355% more efficiently then anything known to man. But a quick swap to Juryrigg had me understanding what it was and how to make one...

And make it better.

8 CPU'S all capable of processing information with 510% efficiency, and 4 baffled A.I's later, we had our secondary processing units ready and waiting to be incorporated with the main systems...

We just needed to build said main systems first...

And the wiring...

And the rest of the circuitry...

And refine a bunch more copper, silver, gold, Diamondhead crystals, Feedback cells, Shocksquatch fur, Upgrade nanites, and other bullshit so the internals would be capable of sustaining the workload the server would be able to output.

God, there was so much work to do.

But it'd be worth it. I was going to make Digimon a reality, and get myself a motherfucking Belphamon if it was the last thing I did!

My obsession aside, the rest of the day went on, we worked out a bit more, had an impromptu vibe session where we just chilled and listened to music for 2 or so hours, had another duel where I tested out the Sacred Beasts and Egyptian Gods...

Which revealed that yes, they were in fact to scale...

And kinda...

Kinda fully sentient...

And may or may not be able to affect the world more strongly then I expected.

Long story short, Slifer did indeed summon a thunderstorm whenever he was summoned, Hamon did too, Raviel and Obelisk could bring about 5.5+ scale earthquakes upon summon, Ra and Uria were untested though since we were in a fucking forest, and the Gods did not like being on the same field as their Sacred Beast counterparts...

And did not give a shit about the fact that friendly fire was not something one was supposed to Worry about in a Duel. (Thank fuck I don't play Wicked's.)

On a completely unrelated note, Sylvanus could fix a forest in under a minute when I put my mind to it.

On another unrelated note, my Duel Disk wasn't able to handle having Obelisk and Raviel out at the same time... It was probably already on its last legs when I brought out Hamon and then Slifer, especially when the two started to beat the shit out of each other like one slept with the others wife and daughter, so the two of them went crazy for a few minutes and destroyed a fuckton of shit before I remembered I could transform.

F for that Duel Disk.

It was still badass though, and I'd make sure to get Taylor or Amy to summon a God/Beast each when we went to beat the shit out of Cauldron. They might not be Digimon, but the Egyptian Gods and Sacred Beasts were still game changers.

After that disaster we went back home, brought the Duel Core to The Lab, put it in its station, it'd most likely be somewhat repaired by the time we woke up, and decided to go for another drive. Amy joined along again, riding with me this time, Scylla joining her Human Aunt, and we drove. Unlike the last time we did this we went out at night, which proved to be way better then going in the afternoon.

By the end of it Amy and Scylla fell asleep, so we carried them to her room, which still needed some more furniture and shit to be considered complete, and put them to bed. Taylor and I went to sleep a bit later after a good amount of cuddling, marking the end of the 3rd day.

The 4th day though... The 4th day was a day of conversation.

It started out normally, though Taylor asked if I wanted to help with breakfast, so I decided to say 'Fuck it' and helped her with it. After that it was back to the routine, Amy deciding to stick with Taylor for today, but that was fine.

The first conversation happened during morning Tinker Time, and I was not expecting it. Maybe I should've, but I wasn't.

[Melody's POV]

Making sure my room was configured properly, for the 4th time, I nodded to myself. At the moment it looked like a miniature of the livingroom, just with some touches that made it personal to me. (Alright, it's now or never.) Even though it really wasn't. I knew I could very well ask him to join me later, but doing it then would most likely set my Nephew on edge given the suddenness of the request. So even though this wasn't the most ideal time, it was the most opportune.

Switching my perspective to the avatar currently in The Lab, I looked at my Nephew... Who was maybe something a little closer if the slip up I'd caught earlier was anything to go by... (Don't get distracted!) Cutting off the imminent spiral, I'd had approximately 17 of those ever since I heard him refer to me as 'Mom' on accident, it'd happened as they were crossing the livingroom after he and Taylor had put Amelia to bed, I focused on him. At the moment he was donating more of his nanites in order to get them refined by the Fabricator. "# Phoenix. #"

He deformed then reformed his head to look at me, the emerald ring denoting his 'Eye' lighting up as he did. "Yeees?"

I held back on rolling my eyes at the unnecessary action, opting to instead point to the Projector. "# We want you to check the current coding for the Digital World, see if you can add a different perspective. #" And that was true, we had entire sections of coding we wanted Thoth and Upgrade to look at, so I wasn't lying... "# Tess, turn the fuck around. #"

My Eldest sister just smiled at me for that, a minor chill going through my server as the temperature dropped then spiked fast enough to make me a little uncomfortable. I would've glared at her had my Nephew/Maybe Son had reached his arm up towards the Projector, connecting to it the moment his hand touched it.

Quickly returning to my room, I watched as a section of the ceiling darkened and grew green lines. Blinking, I watched as the aforementioned section grew until it looked like it was taking water, eventually dropping onto the rug before forming into the avatar of Upgrade. With his consciousness present my Nephew/Hopefully Son looked around, a hum coming from him as he turned back to me. "Whatever it was I may or may not have done wasn't my fault."

I snorted at that, amused that he instantly defaulted to that. "# You're not in trouble. #" Waving to the chair in front of him, I sat in my own chair. He got the idea, copying me as his avatar took on his Human form.

With him being 'Human', I noticed the way his eyes and posture were fully focused on me, rather then the usual uninterested gaze he had. It made sense, and I silently thanked my lucky stars that he didn't seem geared for a confrontation or something. "Sooo... What's up?"

Deciding to cut straight to the point, I led off with what I heard last night. "# 'Mom Melody', huh? #"

The way he blinked, twitching for a moment, his avatar actually glitching, then spoke. "Ah..." I snorted again. Truly, my Nephew/Son(?) had such a way with words. "Are you... Fine, with it?" Looking at him, and checking the readings I was getting from my server, I could tell he was just a tad bit nervous about my answer... Which was a little strange to see considering his default emotions/expressions were amusement and indifference... But it was also heartening to know he cared about my opinion so much.

Still, I'd had more then enough time to come up with an answer, so I smiled and gave him the answer. "#I don't mind. Don't mind at all. #" Seeing him relax only made me smile wider, especially because of what I was going to say next.. "# Though, you do know that as your Mother I will have the authority to ground you, yes? #"

He froze again, his avatar glitching for a few moments before suddenly stopping. "I can turn into a literal ghost. You can't ground me."

I just raised a brow at him. He was right, but still wrong. "# And when I convince Taylor to bring you back home? #" There was silence for a bit, his emerald eyes hyper focused on me as we stared at each other.

After a good 27 seconds of staring, he huffed. "Evil Mom is evil."

Hearing him purposely address me as 'Mom' made my server lag for a moment. "! Oh my fucking God. !" Oh dear. I knew the rest of my sisters were paying attention to this conversation, but I was hoping no one said anything. "! Your heart skipped a beat! !"

I twitched. "# Silence you foul diseased WENCH! I'm busy! #"

I knew Erin was about to respond, but the sudden snort from my son, he was my SON(!) now, holy shit, caught the both of us off guard. My son, I was going to be stuck in this phase for a while, was openly grinning at me, eyes glowing just a little bit. "'Foul diseased wench' hmm?" Goddammit. "Why Mother," The lag was forcibly countered before it could be noticed. "How could you, a figure of utmost importance in my life, employ such foul language?"

My eye twitched, and twitched again as Erin let her cackles echo through my server, as I stared at the cheeky little brat in front of me. "# Alright, listen up you little shit! #" I'd only been a mother for 47 seconds, but I was ready to jump into the motherly duty of distilling the fear of Me into my son.

To the surprise of no one, it didn't work.

[Phoenix's 3rd person POV]

After that little bit, we talked about some more stuff, going under dilation to do so. It wouldn't be the first time we did this, and that was fine with me.

Talking about my feelings with someone other then Taylor was a little weird, especially because I had to explain myself since I couldn't just throw said feelings at them for them to Understand. It was also different from XLR8 therapy, which had already been used so the emotions we were talking about had already been processed and dealt with, but the difference was kind of good.

I'd already processed the Hurt that Taylor had caused, but talking about it was basically stamping it with a 'Done' seal and sending it on its way. It was... Interesting, to say the least, but not something I was against.

There was just this... Difference, between talking about this stuff with Taylor compared to my... Well, I'd already been sort of referring to her as 'Mom/Mother' for a while now, but it'd been officiated that day, so, Mom.

Taylor was direct, a clear and straight road.

Mom though was like those big highways that split into 3 or 4 roads, leading the conversation in multiple ways but would still end up heading to the same destination. It helped me really resolve shit I hadn't really noticed was there, which was good.

It also helped that I could now play the petulant son whenever I saw the chance, making me feel better, and getting some fun reactions from my Mother and Aunts.

That aside, we did eventually get to the code they wanted my perspective on, and it was safe to say that things were looking up. It'd need a little polishing, by Galvanic Mechamorph, and Galvan standards, but the foundations for the Digital World would be perfect. We'd need to ensure the hardware could handle the software, but considering the resources, and team, going into this, I was pretty sure we'd manage it.

Tinker Time eventually ended, leading us to go on with the rest of our day.

Said day going fine, and seeming a bit better when we got news that Lady Photon had entered talks with The Guild into joining and getting the fuck out of Brockton Bay. She was going to be joined by her kids...

And Vicky.

We were all Surprised at that... And when I mean all, I mean all. Amy had her sister's number, so she should've known that. The fact she didn't had just been something we'd ask her about when we had the chance.

Though when said chance came Amy stayed silent, subtly hunching in on herself after we'd asked.

Taylor snapped the healer up in a hug, and the topic wasn't brought up again until later on that night.

Moving passed that was an update about the Faultline situation. The Guild and Faultline's crew came to an agreement late last night, and it was kinda good. Faultline's Crew would essentially be a black ops unit for The Guild, and only The Guild, in exchange for their Case 53's being the first in line for the cure.

And also a fuckton of money.

But that's just par for the course to be fair.

They weren't the only ones joining, probationary as their status was, because Bitch had officially been moved to Canada, the work for her to be a S&R specialist being done up. When I heard she was going to be stationed in a forested area a state or 2 away I promised myself to drop by... Because dogs.

All the dogs.

With that, and the confirmation that Alec had joined, all of The Undersiders were in The Guild... Which was a fucking twist and a half if you really thought about it. Like, wow.

The fuck was next, Legend not actually being gay?

That aside we talked about this all for a bit, then moved onto the last thing...

The Teeth were returning to Brockton Bay...

Yeah, that was going to be a fucking thing.

It made sense though. The only ones there to contest with were the PRT and the E88. From what was known, The Butcher had killed Kaiser's... Father and Sister? I hadn't checked the files in a while, and that's what my mind was telling me, so The Butcher probably wouldn't have any issues getting Kaiser. Especially because he was weakened, as weakened as a Nazi group with 10 super powered Nazis could be, and The Teeth were healthy and was going to be a fight, no one doubted it, but when it would happen, we didn't know.

Eventually the briefing finished, and we went back with our day... Though, Amy was subdued for the majority of it, going back to her Contemplation as she stayed around Taylor. We both thought she might not have been keeping in contact with her sister, because what else would evoke the kind of reaction she had earlier, but we weren't sure.

Not much happened the rest of the day, though that wasn't the same for some other people.

[Lisa's POV]

Staring at one of my bosses, I couldn't help myself. "You're not fucking with me, right? Like, straight up tomfoolery and or bamboozling?" I couldn't even be blamed either! I'd expected to be put on desk duty or something, maybe look up some dudes with my Thinker Power, but nooo! Instead of the reasonable or expected thing, big boss Dragon, in some snazzy looking gear, decided to drop a fucking bomb on me.

The Tinker smiled at me, a warm but highly amused one, and repeated herself. "No, Lisa, I'm not fucking with you." Holy shit, Dragon said fuck! "In a few days time I want you to join Pantheon." Yeah, I thought that was what she said.

"Why?" I wasn't against this, it was what I was angling for from the start. Phoenix and Khepri were basically the darlings of the Cape Community, staying with them would be the ultimate protection. It helped that I actually liked them. Phoenix was basically Alec, but less perverted and more like me. Khepri was a scary bitch, but one I could talk too and reason with.

Dragon hummed, then suddenly smiled one of those 'I know something you don't' smiles. I would know, I was a master at them. "I think it'd be better if you find out on your own."

Yeah, that wasn't ominous at all. (Atleast this is Dragon saying it and not Coil. I know she won't do anything that'd have the potential to hurt me.) What a wonder working for good people was. Still, I nodded at the green haired woman, accepting it. "Weeell, if someone calls you about little old me bugging the hell out of em, I just want you to remember you had the chance to tell me."

She actually snorted at that. "Oh I'd love to see you try to annoy them, their retaliation would be far too amusing."

The glint in her eyes did not inspire confidence.

[Paige's POV around the same time]

Having feather's in your hair was a nightmare. I already knew that a week into having them, but now the reason for them being nightmares was different.

The amount of conditioner I was going through to try and find the perfect one was just ridiculous! (Maybe I should've just stuck with the one I knew worked.) And I would've, but Dragon, and The Guild, spoiled me for choice. Some worked good, but didn't feel right, while others were...

Well...

They were shit. One brand made my feathers uncomfortably soft, while another made them practically stiff enough to be used as shanks. (Wished I had that in the Birdcage.) I scowled at that, dropping the thought and reaching for my phone. The Birdcage was behind me, I was free, and no one could change th...- My phone started ringing, breaking me out of those at who was calling, I blinked, then picked up. "Hello Tess."

Tess' avatar appeared like a hologram, the green haired woman looking just as regal as the first time I'd seen her, even in a pair of simple jeans and a turtleneck. "Good evening Paige, how are you?"

Smiling at her, I did my best to beat away any thoughts about the hellhole, I answered. "Good. Still suffering from the amount of conditioners I'm going through, but still good. How about you?"

Tess smiled back, a chair suddenly appearing in her hologram, which she sat on. "I'm doing well. A little swamped in work and projects, but nothing too bad." Well... That was nice? As much as I was part of The Guild, I didn't really do anything, and wasn't really ranked high enough to just know what she meant by 'Projects.'

Knowing to move the conversation along, I did just that. "So, anything I can help with? Or is this a social call?" I was fine with either option to be honest. Tess was a genuinely nice person, and I liked talking to her. Was it a little selfish considering she was Dragon? Maybe. But I liked it all the same.

Tess nodded, a sly smile forming on her face as she did. "Do you remember when I said I had an idea about how you could help out Pantheon?" It was my turn to nod, getting that sly smile of hers to grow. "Well, it looks like you'll get your chance to help them out soon."

Now that sounded right up my alley.

[Phoenix's 3rd person POV]

We wouldn't know about those conversations for a bit, only finding out when Aunt Tess called us over to The Guild to meet with Lisa and Paige, but that was fine. We'd figure out how to incorporate them into our lives eventually.

The more pressing thing though was the last conversation of the day.

The day itself went on, nothing worth mentioning happening or being brought up, so we eventually went to bed. Though, not all of stayed in bed. At 1 something we were woken up by Aunt Erin, which had the both of us ready to murder someone, and were told that Amy was sitting in the livingroom, in the dark, and on her own.

Hearing that led to my girlfriend and I sharing a look, then getting out of bed.

The resulting conversation would open the door for Amy eventually joining our relationship, and the three of us turning into an actual throuple.