“Hopefully the Panda King isn’t being held hostage…” I said worriedly to myself, continuing my way to Panda King’s hideout on my glider.

As I flew high above the ground I came across the location of Panda King's main HQ. The former village was now massive military compounds and-

Bang!

Crack!

Shit! I regained control over my glider as a bullet cracked my helmet visor. Looking around I spotted the sniper… Cooper Bot, Carrying a very modernized version of Tennessee Kid Cooper's rifle cane.

“Damn it…” I growled as I started to dive down and start moving in an erratic fashion to try and get that Cooper Bot to miss. “Looks like I’m not gonna get to Panda King this way…”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

I winced as the bullets hit, they didn't go deep into my skin but they did bleed. Monofilament… of course! His aim must be augmented by the cybernetics too. Crap, If I can't dodge, I gotta hide… and my newfound free time back home just gave me the perfect means to!

Rapidly I pulled out my Keyblade, casting Replicate as four identical copies of me appeared around me and we all circled around one another as fast as possible, then scattered and each went down in a different area.

I landed myself behind a warehouse of sorts and pulled those bullets out of me.

“God damn it…” I growled while using healing magic on my wounds. “Alright, so far Tennessee might be aiming for me...that sucks, but I might have to ‘play along’...” I sighed out, taking a quick look around to see where I specifically was.

Taking a peak around the corner I spotted a truck load of crates filled with what smelled like Gunpowder. I cast Vanish on myself and quickly sneaked inside, seeing a massive chemical factory where Gunpowder, Sulfur, and various explosive compounds were being made. Finding the main pc here was easy and with my auto hacking feature Bently put on my cane I saw these were headed to Ammunition Production some miles east of here. Thankfully that got marked on my mask’s hud.

“Alright, so far so good…” I muttered. “Might as well delay this shipment as much as possible, and also look for pages and where to find out how to get to Panda King…” I muttered while checking to see if there was anything else on the pc before leaving.

Aside from shipment records and orders nothing much else was here. I was heading out when I spotted a familiar looking safe and happily used my magic cane to swipe out the pages for the calling card. Quickly and happily I ran out to the rooftop, getting a look for where I was meant to-

Incoming Call from Bentley

“Cool.” I muttered while bringing out my Binocucom. “Hey Bentley, how are you doing?”

"There you are. Alright, So your mom and Matilda are quite upset you left for China on your own. But good news is Sly and Murray will be there shortly along with Uncles Jim and M for back up. Matilda did give me a list of locations she wants you to scope out while you are there for intelligence. I'm marking them on your hud as we speak."

“Tell those four that we got Tennessee here, he forced me to make an emergency landing, and I also downloaded some shipment plans from Panda King’s computer.” I told Bentley. “Also I was the closest one here after...all of that…”

"Tell your mom that. Hmm. That's a lot of explosive materials. Getting shipped to Ammunition Production. Panda King hasn't made any major moves at all, stockpiling up explosives and ammunition is quote concerning, but does raise the question as to why."

“He’s probably trying to figure out how to fight back against Clockwerk, but given there’s a Cooper Bot here his hands are probably tied.” I said honestly.

"Hmm… stockpiling ammo against Clockwerk and his army. With the whole of china under his control he'd have quite the army, the Cooper Bots would be the best way to ensure Clockwerk received some of that ammo too, weapons also. There might be a way to scramble Clockwerk's signal controlling them, but I'd need to learn just what frequency he is broadcasting on. It would have to be capable of long range transmission and likely bounces off several orbiting satellites across the globe, still if they are under his total control there must be a more primary receiver in the area that strengthens it across the area. Perhaps a cell tower or even a radio station could house the equipment."

“I’ll look around for any towers. If Panda King doesn’t want to work with Clockwerk he would have made it obvious enough for us to find it, but subtle enough that it wouldn’t just have bright neon lights saying ‘destroy the tower’.” I said. “Tell mom and Matilda I’m sorry...again, for doing this crap…” I sighed out.

"I will. Also keep a look out for those safe caches of Matilda's. I'm marking them on your hud too, Matilda says at least some should be whole still, and she recommends getting the big one first, would make a good HQ for you the the others."

“Alright.” I nodded. “Anything else before I start going around?”

"Sly and our Uncles are getting air dropped in a small town more inland, it's the safest place to have them arrive at and if you can meet them half way. They're supposed to meet up with a contact Matilda has that leaks info to her, but mostly it's orders from Clockwerk to Panda King. She'll be heading out in a few hours so if you wanna meet up with them catch her in the cargo truck headed for Spirit Pond City."

“Cool.” I nodded. “Alright, better start stealing everything that I can carry and make my way up to the Panda King...hopefully there’s just the one Cooper Bot…”

I made my way to the cargo trucks lot, finding the one I needed and waiting. The driver entered and drove off. I was hiding in the cargo and all was silent til we reached the main road. "Kite Cooper?" The driver asked, their voice quite soft and feminine.

“Who’s asking?” I asked, ready to strike this person who apparently knows me.

They took off their hat, revealing the… cutest panda lady I've ever seen. "I am Jing King, Panda King's daughter and Matilda's contact. I was told to expect you while I retrieve your brother and uncles."

I couldn’t help but blush at how adorable Jing King looked. “Um...it’s nice to meet you.” I said sheepishly. “And yes, it is me...how long did you know I was there?”

"I didn't, but I was told to expect you and I doubt you were going to introduce yourself to me when I got in the truck, so I just asked on a whim."

“Fair.” I said honestly while sitting down in the passenger's seat. “So...how has everything been going since your father is...basically under lock and key?”

"Father is keeping well under the pressure. He knows Clockwerk suspects but as long as he follows orders he can only keep his Cooper Bots patrolling the country. They are the bigger threat here, as well as those Nexus members he stationed within the production factories."

“Okay...so you're going to have to tell me everything you can Ms. King.” I said, admiring her cuteness having to be dropped for some important things. “How many bots, and what did those Nexus soldiers look like?”

"Three bots, and most of the Nexus ones are always armored. Save for three. They must be siblings or something cause they look completely identical."

“Crap…” I muttered. “Alright...so what did the three bots look like? Cause I have a general idea of what one of them looks like but I want to make sure.”

"Better yet, I know who they are. Tennessee Kid Cooper. Alexander Von Cooper, and lastly Zhang Li Cooper. Out of all of them Alexander is the strongest. In life he was a one man army, breaking into the most secure and fortified of Russia's banks and buildings for sport."

“Sweet lord.” I blinked in surprise. “Didn’t expect that…”

"I don't know anything else, but I am worried. Clockwerk put in orders for parts. They all go to quite the large cannon."

“That’s not good at all…” I said worriedly. “So question...where’s the radio tower that’s helping Clockwerk control the Cooper Bots?”

"The what?"

“Clockwerk controls the Cooper Bots through some signal or another.” I clarified why I was asking this. “Is there any place that gives off a signal like that? Like a tower or a building that seems to have a little too many people around that isn’t the factory?”

"Hmm… several Actually. Most used to be for local tv news or radio. I know some got fortified and have guards but I just assumed they were using them as a communication center… perhaps both."

“How many buildings were there?” I asked curiously.

"That I know of, six. There might be more around the country but I know is six."

“From what I’ve learned back where Muggshot was, it needs to be close by, especially given that we’re in the mountains.” I said honestly. “I...really wanted to talk to Panda King about this crap and not have to deal with this garbage…” I groaned, rubbing my temples.

"As long as the Bots and those three Nexus heads are running about, Dad has to stay still."

I wanted to make a joke about ‘winning the princesses hand’ but decided against it. “So how long have you been doing shipment duty?”

"The last year or so. Father didn't want me anywhere near those Nexus when they were meeting with him and reporting to Clockwerk, so no one batted an eye when I was placed in a fairly easy and safe job. From there we planned on making contact with the rebels and thanks to father often scheduling me on the longer trips easily snuck information out into the mountain villages where the rebellion has a few members and Clockwerk's grasp is less."

“Perfect.” I nodded. “He knows what he’s doing, and you're also doing a fantastic job of this Ms. King.” I said, sticking to calling her ‘miss’ just to keep some formality given that I am speaking to the ruling parties daughter...and I didn’t want to say anything dumb to this cute as hell panda.

"That's a great honor coming from a Cooper." She said, looking sad now as she slowed the truck and parked it. "I know my father has harmed and damaged your family. There was no honor in his actions, and the consequence is the world we see now."

“Well…” I sighed out. “We all make mistakes...hell, I’m pretty sure none of them expected Clockwerk to do half this crap…” I shrugged. “But all I know is that...I’m still gonna have to fight him, beat him...and then maybe…” I trailed off as I blushed brightly at the thought. “Uh...never mind…”

"My father expects you to fight him. Wants you to. Wants to know you will truly earn your right that he and the other Furious Five took from you. To know that you will emerge victorious against Clockwerk. He will pay for his dishonor and sins in prison. I will pay for them another."

I coughed out ‘be my girlfriend’, it was about as subtle as Murray in an all you can eat buffet. “Sorry, I coughed…” I said sheepishly.

She then looked at me, tears forming. "Kite Cooper." She said so strongly I sat up straight. Then, she bowed at me. "Please, to repay for my father's sins and crimes against both your family and the world, I offer myself in eternal servitude. If you accept, then myself and my decedent's shall serve the Cooper Clan til all this blood has been washed clean from us, or until the King Family dies out completely."

“You’re too cute to be bowing to me princess.” I said quickly. “Uh...I mean…” I took a deep breath. “Please don’t do this ‘eternal servitude’ thing...me beating your dad is good enough, and I was sure I was gonna have to beat him to ask you out on a date first.”

"So… you would have me as your family's private Brothel?" She asked, looked quite scared and blushed as red as I am now.

“Lady, I’m asking you to be my girlfriend, not join in a brothel!” I told her while grabbing both of her...ho crap her paws are stupid soft. “Listen.” I shook my head, trying to get past how soft and furry her hands are. “Are you cool with harems?”

"I was raised in one… sorta. Father had two wives, one my birth mother, the other was a devoted servant who mother and father would…. Share company with every so often. Sadly she and mother were poisoned by rivals of my father."

“That’s terrible.” I frowned. “But...so I’m kind of dating Matilda as well...so are you okay with this?” I asked, staring her in her soft, beautiful eyes…”Jing, why do you have to be so adorable and beautiful at the same time?” I blushed brightly.

"So… my punishment is to be betrothed to you and your mate Matilda?" It took so much willpower not to headbutt the dash of the truck. "That is acceptable, yes."

“What does Panda King teach you?” I asked. “This isn’t a Punishment to you, you have nothing to do with Panda King screwing up like that.”

“Like you inherit the legacy of your ancestors I inherited the same… and you see what my father left me. Intentional or not, mistakes or not, family rights the wrongs of their ancestors, one way or another. Better I than another down my bloodline."

“I...guess that’s understandable.” I sighed out.

“Now then, shall we continue? I imagine your brother and uncles must have arrived already.”

“I can’t wait for Sly to start teasing the hell out of me…” I grumbled. “Let’s get going.”

She started the truck up again and we were off. Spirit Pond City was like Venice Italy, but all the buildings and bridges had a mix between classical and modern chinese design. It was all so beautiful. We parked in an alleyway and I ran to the rooftop to scout out where Sly and the uncles were.

“Well...this place certainly is pretty…” I muttered while bringing out my Binocucom and looking around for everyone.

After a bit I spotted a Cooper Calling card on the water tower of a building a few blocks down and headed over. Once there I knocked on the water tower and the trio got out. “Good to see you again.” Sly said, giving me a pat on the head.

“Hey bro.” I said. “So uh...sorry about….before.” I said nervously.

“You mean picking a fight with a guy who literally punched you across the planet… SEVERAL TIMES!”

“It was either me getting punched or you being atomized.” I frowned.

“I don’t even wanna know how you know him. I know you explained a bit but still, try and not to give everyone a heart attack.”

“I thought Coopers did that normally?” I joked.

“Normally no one survives getting punched across continents and oceans.” Uncle M sighed. “Felt my heart stop for a second, now I’m considering replacing it with an artificial one if this is going to be a regular thing with you.”

I sighed out. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you all this much…” I sighed out. “So, onto more important matters. We have a three cooper bot problem, Tennessee, Alexander, and Zhang Li kind of problems.”

Jim sighed. “Alexander was Conner’s Grandfather, that’s not gonna be good, you already met your grandfather, that’s the guy who raised him. Tennessee is gonna be an issue… Zhang Li… Hmm… She was that Spirit talker right?”

“Yes, she could call forth and get the aid of spirits to aid her in her thefts. Often she’d have them scare the guards away so she could walk in without issue.” M stated. “If she retained her ability, then who knows how many spirits she recruited.”

“Wait...if she’s Chinese by the name and she calls on...oh for fuck sakes we have an Onmyoji to deal with.” I groaned.

“I’ll call Matilda. We still have the anti specter gear back in the vault, right?” M asked.

“Yeah, in the lower storage.” Jim confirmed.

“Can your Keyblade hurt ghosts?”

I pondered that. They weren’t able to hit those Pirate guys in KH2 til they were under Moonlight… what are the rules there then when fighting ghost enemies?

“It...depends on the rules of the world to be honest.” I said. “Cause in another world, the only way you could hurt specifically cursed people was when they were under a full moon and showed their cursed forms.” I shrugged. “What’s the rules on ghosts here? And also...how high ranking was Zhang Li if any of you know?”

“Her full potential was unknown, she sadly was burned at the steak. But, Clockwerk did snatch her up, one of the few times he made a public appearance. Many were slaughtered, and Zhang Li met the same fate as Coopers of the past, saved by Clockwerk just so he could kill her personally. As for ghosts most anything magical can repel, hurt and even kill them. Again, the family cane has absorbed enough life force over the generations it has been passed down it can physically interact with the spirits.” M informed.

“Alright, so then Keyblades can hurt them.” I nodded. “But uh...don’t be surprised if you see things that aren’t just ghosts...considering Nexus is here and this world is a lot more magical than I originally thought...we might actually be seeing a lot more dangerous stuff.” I said nervously. “God do I wish we had anti scrying stuff right now…”

I blinked… Oh Time Walker.

Time froze.

“What?” The walker asked, walking out from behind Uncle Jim. “Need something so soon?”

“Got any Anti Scrying gear or spells I could learn? Cause I’m dealing with an Onmyoji, and I don’t know how powerful she is...but mind if I get a run down on Zhang Li Cooper? Cause from what I remember in ancient China, Onmyoji were basically Chinese Wizards with Political Power, so why was she burned like a witch?”

“Yes and sure.” He said, throwing me a packed Duffle Bag that materialized in his hand. “Zhang Li Cooper was one of the few Coopers born highly attuned to the magic of the world, while all Coopers have this ability to a degree enough to make and use their tricks, hers was on another level. She didn't just talk to spirits, she could pull them out of the afterlife, giving them temporary life, and if it was a demon or similar being was pulled through, they also received bodies of flesh and blood, but were bound to her. While she did become an Onmyoji, her thefts were overlooked given she stole from bandits and such, until one day wastern travelers saw this. They were outraged that her village praised her for her powers, so they slaughtered her village and began to burn her alive, or tried to. Clockwerk came in, killed the travelers and saved her, just to kill her personally.”

“Okay, now that makes sense.” I said honestly. “And yeah...I shouldn’t be surprised...now is she capable of other magical stuff besides summoning spirits and demons? If memory serves they do talk about a lot of mystical stuff other than summoning spirits.”

“Transmutation of lesser materials into things like Iron, Steel, even Gold and Gemstones, complete control over the natural elements and was a master in every form of hand to hand combat for the era. Also a master with a blow dart gun, knew her poisons too, how much of what type ment the difference between sleep, paralysis, near death illness, and instant death. She also learned by channeling magic directly into her vocal cords she produced a hypnotic melody that depending on tone and pitch put everyone in hearing distance to sleep, made them fight one another, or made them obey her every word for a full day. Oh yeah, she also had pets.”

“Jesus damn is this lady accomplished.” I said in surprise. “And what are her pets?”

“Dragon, Bicorn, Gargoyles, a few dozen vampires, a demon lord and… Oh right, a fallen god.”

HOW?!

“So how in the name of hell is she under Clockwerks control when she can easily break whatever mind control he has over her and kick his ass if she has a fallen god at her beck and call, as well as a demon lord?”

“It’s not the transmitters or even the robotic body that’s holding her back, that actually had no effect on her… it’s the Cript acting as her master. Cript V788. Known on countless now long dead realities as Cript the Enslaver. You can guess why.”

“Oh you have got to be kidding me…” I groaned. “Okay...so how do I save her from this then if the transmitters or robot body aren’t affecting her?”

“Enslaver has the power of total control over anyone he marks, even if he dies that mark won’t leave and they will follow their last order, and Vincent took his ability to die, which leaves you one option in dealing with him to free her.”

“Force him to let her go?” I asked. “Cause I doubt killing her would solve her problem given it’s a Cript.”

“No, It’s an ability. Your Cript has it and can give you it also. Consume. It’s Copy Cat’s evil, ugly, lesser talked about brother. You literally absorb everything about that person, their soul, power, memories… flesh, and assimilate it into yourself. You’d get very powerful and control over everyone he has marked.”

“So now the question is, how to contact Cript about this, cause I’m not falling asleep for a while now.” I said nervously.

“Who hath summoned me!” SHIT! I jumped. Fucking Cript! I turned to see them laughing at me. “I have been sitting on that one for years.”

“Don’t scare me like that asshole.” I snapped. “Nearly gave me a heart attack…” I took a deep breath after that.

“That was the point.” Cript chuckled. “So, Consume… Hmm… You sure?”

“If it’s to save my family, then yes.” I nodded. “Plus, one less evil Cript on our hands.”

“True and sadly that is way too long of a list… Fine, but you will not enjoy it, and you will regret every second you have it once you use it.” Cript said, holding out a hand to me.

“It’s worth it to save my family.” I said while taking his hand. “All I’ll need to know is if I can free them afterwards.”

“Alright.” Cript said, there was a pulsation of energy through me as he gave me the ability.

New Ability Obtained: Consume
No Higher Rankings.
VIctim must be weakened or weaker than yourself before used.

The fact it says Victim is concerning...

“Okay then...so how do I use it? Also...how the hell am I going to get a Cript weaker than me or weakened without being marked?” I asked nervously.

“Fighting him won’t be like fighting me, Vincent or Lord, I’m… We’re all built differently, he’s powerful yes but from what I can sense from here he’s on your level, the other two are a bit stronger but you should be able to handle them too.”

Other two? Right… that ‘siblings’ Trio is three Cript’s...

“What are the other two Cripts?” I asked nervously.

“Cript P955 and Ey57. Cript the Vampire and Cript the Predator. Vamp is a sorta hybrid of a Psychopath and Delete, Predator is a wolf beastial, like yourself, but hunts down whoever Vincent put’s on his kill list or guards wherever he is told to guard.” The time walker said.

“Why did it have to be a Delete though?” I whined.

“I said sorta hybrid of the two.” Time Walker shrugged. “I don’t know the full details but your Nothingness can nullify his Void so, not too much of an issue there.”

“Alright, that’s good.” I nodded. “Uh...how many times can someone use Consume if I may ask?”

"Unlimited, but like I said, you won't like it." Cript sighed.

“Alright.” I nodded. “Thank you Cript, I’ll make sure not to abuse it.”

"Trust me, you won't. At least you won't want to." With that, Cript left.

The Time Walker just shrugged then vanished too, time flowing like normal again.

"What the? Where'd the bag come from?" Sly asked.

“Anti Scrying stuff I got from...a friend.” I said while digging through the bag to find something to help us not be spied on.

"More stuff I'd rather not know then… fair enough."

"So what's our first objective then?" Uncle Jim asked.

After a moment I raised my Cane up and a soft glow appeared on the walls. “Alright, cool.” I nodded. “So our first objective should be disabling six radio towers that Jing told me about.” I started. “Now it’ll only affect two Cooper Bots sadly...I’ll have to take care of the person controlling Zhang Li...oh, and also Zhang Li is kind of...no not ‘kind of’, she’s actually overpowered as shit.” I sighed out. “The one controlling Zhang Li...I have to deal with, not because you people can’t handle him...but the only way to free Zhang Li is for what I’m able to do.”

"So we split up then?" M asked.

"Uncle Jim, M and I can take out the radio stations and you can free Zhang Li. We can use the Keyblade Gliders to each take out the two we need to destroy and hopefully M can find any others we might need to take out."

"Should be easy if they are transmitting to one another as well, which they likely are."

"You got the locations?" Sly asked me.

"I'm gonna have to ask King about them, but they are probably the most guarded and fortified out of the bunch." I shrugged. "But be careful, Tennessee is out there and he is pretty good with his rifle."

"You made contact with Panda King?" Uncle M asked.

"Just with Jing, she drove me here while Panda King is being held under lock and key."

"Ah, so she is Matilda's contact."

"I'll let her know the plan and that we'll all meet back up here. You just try not to get punched to the moon, alright?" Sly asked me.

“Just be careful...Zhang Li kind of has a...Demon Lord and a Fallen God at her beck and call.” I said sheepishly.

"Huh. How did she manage that?" Sly pondered as he headed down to where Jing was, Uncles M and Jim brought out Keyblades and shifting them to gliders and I did the same as we all went off.

Enslaver was around Koff Village. It was a rather isolated place within the mountains according to Bentley. Once there I saw a fortified metal base built within several of the surrounding mountains and just hollow scraps of where a village once was.

“Jesus...well I got the right place though…” I muttered while starting to do some recon on the base, wondering where I could sneak in at.

I climbed down to the base outside from my location. No vents, no doors, at least none that I can see… odds are inside is a pocket dimension… how can I get in if there aren't any doors or vents?

“Uh…” I started as I poked one of the walls with my Keyblade, trying to visualize there was a door there in some vain hope that it would be that simple.

It wasn't… how do they get in… maybe… that blue hand dot thing? Fuck I don't have one, doubt I can make one and Coco got hers removed a while ago… maybe… I looked around for a quick bit, seeing no one as I breathed in, my abilities have been returning and I should have enough for…

I blinked, now taller and in a human body again, not my own. I pulled out a small mirror I keep on me and saw my reflection, and saw Heart's old human form looking back. On my, his, eh, on the hand was the Nexus blue dot. Heart hasn't used their old human body in a while anyway, might as well make use of it. I placed the hand with the dot on the wall and immediately in white lines a door took shape and opened.

“Alright, cool.” I muttered. “Let’s hope this won’t end poorly…”

I walked inside, seeing the familiar Nexus style walls as I walked around, having zero idea where I even am. I found another door and inside that was some kind of shooting range. I spotted Nexus soldiers taking aim at targets with guns made from Monofilament, bullets too. Some looked at me but paid no mind it seems. Interesting. I wonder.

I walked up to one, wondering if I could get information.

“Hi.” I started off simply.

They looked over at me for the longest time, or at least what felt like a long time. "Hey. What brings you to the shooting range?" They replied simply, flipping through a magazine… Nexus Weekly? Really?

“Practice makes perfect ya know?” I shrugged. “Plus a lot of people tend to be here when we’re doing absolutely nothing.” I said, which seemed to be the case at least on first glance given how many people are here.

"Heh, fair enough. Honestly as cadets they make service sound like a constant adventure, half the time the machines do all the work and the labor they put on C level Cript's. I swear most of us these days are just filler. Speaking of, what level Cript are you?"

I was stuck for a moment… "He's obviously B or C too Sam, they're the only Cript's that talk to us without an order and a threat following like those A and S level assholes." Another agent who was at the shooting range said.

“Yeah, sounds about right.” I nodded. “What rank are you than...Sam I believe?”

"Same as everyone, just a basic agent. I get told where to go, what to do and do it until told otherwise." Sam said, taking off their helmet. They weren't a Cript, they were a cyclops actually. Very human looking save for the single large eye. "No offense but it feels like more and more of you Cript's show up to run things. Be it general maintenance and labor to the fighting. Not even sure why King Vincent has us around anymore."

“Cannon fodder mostly.” I sighed out. “A and S class Cript’s normally laugh about it, and I’m pretty sure our boss is laughing about it as well, wherever the hell he is.”

"Who knows. They get their orders from the king and if we're needed we get orders. Can't say I envy them though, dealing with Vincent directly can't be fun. Just wish I had their luck with women through."

“Oh? Why’s that?” I asked innocently, taking a seat and knowing that if I can gain the infantry’s trust I can start doing some pretty drastic things later on.

"Well, take Enslaver. He's enslaved entire universes and all his wives were and technically still are slaves, but they all fell for him willingly as they served him! They were even tested and it wasn't Stockholm syndrome. Though from what I hear the pocket reality he keeps his slaves in is actually kinda nice."

"True, and the few times I've seen him with one of his girls they look well fed and have such damn sexy outfits." Another spoke up.

"Then you have Vamp, the freak somehow got a ring on this S level Delete chick who is the definition of crazy and more than strong enough to wipe this reality and some others off the face of the void. Then there's Predator. Has a big pack of fine females he won over through displays of skill and strength. He didn't even do that to show off for then, he was just sent on a mission for that world and they saw him do the shit and followed."

"Eh, wolf's are weird like that." Another agent said with a shrug.

“Right, and what’s stopping you from getting someone nice?” I asked curiously, now feeling a little worse now that I have to take away someone’s life when they apparently have a family of their own. “And mind if I ask where the boss’s normally hang out at? Just as a quick side note on where not to go given they might not take too kindly to that.”

"Predator I think is guarding some project under MT Fuji, Enslaver I Believe is with his newest wife in his quarters here and Vamp is… actually, where did Vamp go?"

"Who knows, he vanishes all the time."

"In any case my lack of luck in love is that I never get sent anywhere with cute girls, just these ugly mugs." Sam said, giving a wave to all the male soldiers around. "I mean, maybe I could find a local girl but physical differences aside how many would be willing to date a guy who is invading their planet?"

“Are….are you serious?” I asked. “You...do know that’s some people’s fetish right?” I asked. “And also, you need to just take a crack at dating someone. They don’t know your invading, just wing it and get a date with a local girl.”

"Even so, we don't have clearance to leave, one of the S class Cript's would have to allow it, and I doubt they would say yes even if we are already doing nothing."

“Has anyone ever asked? And what Class are our bosses if I may ask?” I asked curiously.

"S."

“So let’s ask one of them?” I asked. “It does everyone here literally nothing just standing here doing nothing.”

"We don't have that level of authority to just up and ask them… but, maybe they'll listen to you. You're family, right? I never actually understood your relationships, but they do listen to all the C and B ranked Cript's so maybe you can get something worked out."

”God your going to make me feel terrible here…” I thought to myself bitterly. “Won’t know unless I try, and sadly all of the bosses are either busy or somewhere we don’t know about.” I started. “And one of them is behind me right now aren’t they?” I asked, knowing Cript enough that any Cript might just appear behind me just to spite me.

"Uh, no. Like I said though, Enslaver is on a date in the lower levels with his newest girl, maybe you can wait around till he's done and talk to them? Sub Level 978, room 887."

“Alright, and sorry just uh...the higher class Cripts have this bad habit of appearing right behind you when you mention them.” I said, my voice filled with experience and annoyance at that kind of crap.

"If you actually pull it off I'll buy your drinks." Sam said with a chuckle and a shrug.

“I’ll keep you to that.” I chuckled as I got up and headed off to find the elevators to the Sub Levels. ”Well so far so good.” I thought to myself. ”I certainly hope his new girlfriend isn’t Zhang Li...cause if it is than that’s going to fucking suck...I wonder if Consume also replaces you as that person, not just the powers?” I mentally wondered, not wanting to leave all the people that weirdly do fully care about Enslaver.

I arrived at the area and it was a food court of all things and God damn it.

I sat a few tables away with a plate of fried chicken as Enslaver and the… very well detailed, compared to the other Cooper Bots, Zhang Li were sitting together, eating and laughing. Enslaver looked… honestly like he hasn't slept in a while, pitch black hair all wild and wearing some blue jeans and a brown hoodie.

”Oh you’ve got to be shitting me.” I thought to myself worriedly, rubbing my temple as I had to figure out how to not piss off my ancestor but also deal with Enslaver. ”Okay...so I’m back in time, before me, myself and I came here, I need to remember that bit that I was told like...three times before…” I mentally told myself, needing to remember this is the Admin Games, and my Time Walker even telling me that. ”Just need to wait for their date to stop...or for one of them to notice me...I’m so glad I put an anti mind reading spell on me before coming in here…” I was playing mental ping pong at this point.

As I did so I decided to listen in on this date.

"So how did Growth react to seeing you again?" Enslaver asked.

"He was so happy, and he was a good boy." Zhang Li said.

"Well he didn't go off and blow up the planet so yeah, that is good."

"I train my fallen gods well." She laughed. "It's been amazing seeing all my pets again. So much changed about the world."

"Yeah…" Enslaver sighed, looking up as Zhang Li put a hand to his. "I know you feel bad about all this, suppressing my powers, marking people."

"It doesn't exactly get easier. Except when it's a really bad guy like a murderer or pedophile, then I am happy to mark them and work them to death."

"Something we can agree on. Speaking of how come I'm not in the field?"

"Dad's orders were just to keep your powers suppressed and controlled, I don't have to put you in the field to work, frankly I think that's the last thing he wants."

"Cause Clockwerk's mechanical body he shoved me into doesn't affect me?"

"Probably. I just do as he says, can't question it unless I wanna get reprogrammed or worse. Been even more of an ass than usual with his Heir project in the works."

"Another sibling?"

"Supposedly going to be the most powerful Cript as of yet. Honestly if he can make a sibling as strong as himself you'd think he can at least give us all different names."

”Alright...so Enslaver is a good guy…” I thought to myself. ”And he must be talking about my Cript…”

"So… fifty others?" Zhang Li asked as Enslaver went a shade of pink.

"Well… it just sorta happened. I didn't even believe it at first, but the tests for Stockholm syndrome were negative, so, yeah…"

"Any kids then?"

"Yeah. Honestly they're the reason I keep everyone in that pocket dimension. I don't want them to see my work… or to know what life here is like."

"And how do you care for all their needs? Your other wives I mean?"

"There is a reason I have all these bags under my eyes." Enslaver said with a laugh.

”Huh…” I thought to myself, thinking on how to help these two.

"So, am I going to meet them?" Zhang Li asked.

"Oh, well, if you want yeah. I can send you into the dimension and I guess I'll just find busy work here to do til you get back." Enslaver replied.

"You won't get in trouble for sending me there?"

"I have a feeling dad would prefer you stay there since you actually can't get in or out of that pocket dimension without my say so. I know it sounds like a prison that way… technically because it is, but since the inside of it can be made to be whatever I made it nice and very livable."

"All these abilities, your father gave them to you?"

"Heh, you can say that. He has all these different abilities saved up in caches all around and keeps the ones like what I have and the others all for himself in his lab."

"That's pretty interesting." I thought to myself. "I hope they don't notice I'm listening to them though…" I’m listening in…” I mentally added.

“What are the others like?”

“Heh, where to start. Well, about half are human, like me… though It is debated on if Cript’s are our own race or human. Some are like yourself, beastials, or rather, anthropomorphic animals, and some other various races from across my… job…”

“And they all live well together?”

“Very, actually. It’s pretty surprising how well they all co-exist. So, ready to head in?”

“Yes, but how may I speak with you once inside?”

“Oh, there’s this PC in there, you know, like the one I showed you, that you can use to call me. The others can guide you on how to use it.”

“Right then.” Zhang Li said with a nod. Enslaver snapped their fingers as a door sized portal opened next to their table. “I’ll call you later then, heh.” She said with a smile as she walked in. Once she did the portal closed.

Enslaver immediately looked more down as they pulled out what looked like a smart phone and began messing with it.

”Now’s my chance…” I muttered while standing up and walking over. “Hello sir.” I said, given that he was ‘my boss’, I still had to act the part.

“Hey…” He said, looking at me with a raised brow. “What’s with the outfit?” It was then I realized… I’m actually still in my thieves outfit… Wow and nobody else brought that up? Huh, either Cripts always dress weird or they could have cared less.

Now thankfully it fit my entire body like it was designed for this body. “Uh...Sly Cooper Fan?” I asked sheepishly, hoping that lie would stick considering the game might exist in the multiverse even if we’re on the planet. “No one else questioned it…” I muttered sheepishly.

“Heh, must be pretty sweet for you then.” Enslaver sighed as he looked back at his phone. “I hear he has a brother on this reflection. Kid or something.”

“Kite sir.” I corrected. “But I’ve come to ask for something important sir.” I started carefully. “Me and several other recruits...would like to actually be ‘out and about’ on the world, and not...well, effectively wasting everyone’s time doing nothing to be frank sir.” I said, just throwing out being subtle here.

“Ugh… I know there’s basically nothing for them to do, but protocol is there for a reason. No one is allowed to leave base without orders giving the proper clearance. Besides, it’s not like they can be very ‘out and about’ with the locals. We are invading their world, mining the Monofilament out of it, and the people taken in have been put to work against their wills so… not like we’ll be welcome anyway.”

“Okay sir…” I sighed out while taking a seat. “Do you want me to be blunt sir?”

"You're clearly going to anyway."

“There’s more to life than work.” I stated bluntly. “And we both know it’s true...you’re wives are proof of it to you, and me being stupidly excited to be here as well. But why are we still following orders we clearly believe are wrong?” I asked carefully.

"Well, cause Dad will reprogram, recycle, or up and kill me if I don't follow through, kill my family, and kill the foot soldiers around. I just gotta wait for him to finish Heir, King and his other high priority projects and I will become unneeded and can retire. Especially when King gets made, basically way worse than my powers are."

"Well...I think there's another way sir." I brought up. "And I believe Zhang Li and Kite are the key to it." I said honestly.

"Is that a pun because of his Keyblade?"

"No, and I'm sorry for the pun sir." I said sheepishly.

"Well, regardless I honestly don't care if the guards all take time off for fun, hell I'd love to do that too but unless dad was off planet for a while I don't see that happening anytime soon."

"He's still on the planet sir?" I asked worriedly.

"Yeah, and pissed to all hell. Don't know why."

“No idea.” I shrugged, that being a half truth given I didn’t know why that bastard was pissed fully but having an idea.

"So, what's your designed purpose?"

“Stealth.” I said honestly, which wasn’t wrong. “Which is kind of why I’m both in this getup, and why I’m a big fan of Sly Cooper and the like given how stealth oriented it is.” I explained.

"Heh, fair enough. I'm surprised you aren't sent out to deal with these Cooper's then."

“Like you?” I asked simply. “Seem’s kind of weird he hasn’t just sent someone to go and deal with the Coopers while they're busy dealing with that idiot bird.” I rolled my eyes.

"Fuck if I know. Dad just likes to play games I swear, it's annoying. Honestly I don't think he even cares about this planet, he only took interest because of some anomaly he detected years ago. So what? Every damn planet these days has an anomaly on it, it's probably just Code glitches."

“He’s replacing us...we’re nothing but cannon fodder to him.” I sighed out. “But I know there’s a way to get out of all this garbage...just have to take some initiative and find Kite Cooper, the supposed magical wonder child that can rival Zhang Li in magical abilities.” I said honestly. “It’s...also weird that the milestone for magic in the Cooper Line always leads to Zhang Li...I mean seriously, who the hell tames a fallen god?” I asked a little incredulously, playing into the ‘Sly Cooper fan’ not believing the Coopers could be so outrageously powerful and awesome.

"She nursed them back to health after he was injured in some war."

“Sounds about right.” I nodded. “But yeah...honestly, we won’t see more of what life could be if we’re stuck here all the damn time.”

"Yeah, just have to-"

In a sudden moment things went very quiet, the rapid sounds of feet running came and left as a hand appeared on Enslaver's shoulder. His eyes shrunk. "Get." Vincent said, raising his hand as Enslaver ran and sat where he was in front of me. "Hello Kite."

“Done throwing a hissy fit Vincent?” I asked. “Heard that you were sticking around this world doing something, and I thought the big bad boss was getting pissy because he lost a fight for once.""

"I did lose." Vincent said, a smile that very much disturbed me was now on his face. "And I was angry. Then I realized… I fought and lost. I haven't tasted failure since… heh, in any case I have to admit whoever that woman was could fight, skills on par with mine and I didn't even make them, now that's a new one. But, I didn't come to make chat. I came to make deals. And a deal between Admins is stronger than any deals a god or devil can make. So what do you say Kite, care to hear my offer?"

"What's the deal, and what brought this on?" I asked curiously.

"In all my years, eons and eternity's of my mission from when the machine turned on to now, I've grown bored observing. I'd act and have fun and all that fighting, I've grown bored of that too. I'd spice things up every so often, but in the end. I've done it all countless times before and in that time it's all become so repetitive. That fight, you appearing here as Kite, now that was new, and new is always fun."

“And I managed to cut you, so that was also a surprise given that Kite is leagues weaker than I truly am.” I said honestly.

"You cut off some hair, that's still a far cry from blood. And while King could deal some damage, it's nothing some self healing can't fix. Nothing I can't pay back either. Bravado aside, here's my deal. You get to Admin game time travel to gather up all those nice people Nexus is flooded with. I slaughter in some years time for yourself and your own army, be the hero and all that crap. And in return, I get to cherry pick those timelines from the realm of Nothingness for who I want and what I want."

“That seems...a little uneven if your cherry picking people...could be horribly unbalanced depending on who you chose.” I said honestly.

"Why would you care if I get the short end of the stick? After all, I'm the bad guy here. Feels like you should want me getting as less as possible."

“Sometimes ‘less is more’ can truly happen.” I said honestly. “But I will be overseeing your choices with a Time Walker just to make sure no shenanigans happen with the timeline pickings.” I said honestly.

"No trust. Shame. Either way, as a show of good faith." He said, snapping his fingers. I felt a… rush… my full power is back? "So, that's how Project King looks then? Heh, not bad."

“Uh...what?” I blinked, looking at my hands and...yeah, Nothingness is swirling around my fingers as I felt my full power. “Uh...okay so...I know this is Good Faith but...why?” I asked nervously. “Plus...you know full well why I don’t have trust in you.”

"Project King, the form you've taken is their body. I'd recognize the mark I'd anywhere. Built to be second to heir, and if you have that body it means he either fulfilled his purpose, or he's dead. Either or. As for the powers, I don't need you to trust me but you need them to trust you, they fear me, you need to prove you can save them. Can't very well do that while I can still kick you across to the moon and back with no effort now can you?"

“Time out and back up.” I said while putting up a ‘time out’ hand sign. “Okay so...naming convention, am I supposed to be second to Cript or second to Heart? Cause when I heard Enslaver say ‘King and Heir’, I thought it was Heart and Cript, Heart being the ‘King of Hearts’ and Cript literally being your Heir.” I started.

"So they call him Heart. Good, so he did take over from the old Admin of Hearts. I miss that kid, but everybodys gotta die at some point. Tell me, did they both rebel against me? Heart and Cript?"

“You’re dead...but you're not.” I told him. “Cript killed you...and yet you were the one that slaughtered like...a vast majority of the good Nexus people after you were dead.”

Vincent just smiled. "Good. So heir was a success."

“Their my significant other.” I started, getting kind of pissed as he kept seeing them as nothing but test subjects. “Heart and Cript...it’s very complicated, and it only got more complicated from there given you were alive and...also reincarnated considering your job.”

"Spoilers. You'll learn in time. And yes, Heir is a success. After all, he did kill me. Or will."

“So anyways.” I started. “How is this deal going to be? We just shake hands and promise no strings attached?”

"A deal between Admins is like… well yes there is a handshake but it binds our word and promise. For example, if you don't like who or what I am picking from the other timelines, and try to stop me, the deal is broken and all those people you want to save are returned to me as are all the people I was picking when the deal broke. And I don't have need or even want these people, so in the end the broken deal will leave you with your temporal prisoners and me with corpses many years earlier than planned."

“Alright...so ‘less is more’ is creeping it’s head up more and more…” I muttered. “Okay, but why I want to bring in a Time Walker is...well we are dealing with temporal prisoners, so it will need to be overseen by one of them.” I said honestly. “So...in numbers, how many people were loyal to you and how many weren’t?”

"Roughly one Loyalist for every fifty or so normals. But I see you are still hesitant. Shall I sweeten the pot for you then?"

“I’m sorry for being hesitant, but...from what I’ve heard, and actually experienced...you can kind of understand why.” I said nervously. “But what do you have in mind to ‘sweeten the pot’ as it were?”

For a bit, Vincent just looked at me smiling til he raised a hand up, a cylinder case used for holding papers appeared in a flash of code. "This." He said, placing it on the table and rolling it over to me.

“A cylinder case?” I asked curiously, looking over it in case it was just a normal case or if it was something completely different.

Seeing it was normal I opened it. Inside was a scroll that had code displayed on the outside of it and moving. Slowly, I opened it. Inside was… so much…

"I have lived a very, very long time Kite. I've studied and mastered just about everything this reality can make." He said. Everything. Balance, Darkness, Nothingness, Grey, Void, technology, Code. "That is my notebook. Everything I have learned on everything is there." The locations of the dead Admins graves, time coordinates of when they lived till when they died. Evolutions of the energies?! "It literally holds everything you could ever learn. Save a few things I left out. Just how to make and merge abilities and such, but all in all, it's more valuable to you than me."

“Holy…” I blinked. “Okay yeah...uh, sure. This can actually all work out…” I started.

"I thought that would win you over. Heh, of course, should I stop there I wonder?" I looked up at Vincent, he seemed… happy, lost in thought. "This will be very entertaining if I do that. Maybe… heh, yes. This will be so much fun."

“What are you thinking of?” I asked nervously

"How to make this more fun. There are so many possibilities and all of them sound like a blast."

“That doesn’t sound concerning at all.” I said sheepishly.

"There's nothing wrong in wanting a challenge. And I have been craving one for so long." He said, reality began looking a bit… distorted. "My past and future all agree. It's too good an opportunity to pass up."

“I fucking knew you were time traveling but never had proof.” I accused them with a frown.

"Only when I needed advice or to chat. So how about it… King. I challenge you all and you challenge me. I built the Cript's to rebell and fight me and they are doing well… but to train all of existence to fight me, now that sounds like fun."

“I’m already trying to do that.” I said honestly. “But sure, sounds like a plan. All of this is new to you so it’ll be fun to see how you fair against the unknown.”

"This is going to be very interesting."

“Alright...so now onto the rough bit on how to get all these people on my side...cause I’d rather not start a fight and scare the shit out of my family...again.” I said, glaring at Vincent for the first time they were scared shitless.

“Hey, you attacked me first. All I did was retaliate. Wouldn’t you?”

“It got you away from my family at least…” I sighed out. “So...for the entire good side of Nexus, damn near all your knowledge, and my powers back for this you get to cherry pick people to help your cause...unless there’s anything you want to add?”

“In due time. If I’m gonna work to make you stronger to make this fight fun, you’ll have to fight more than just the present me. Or past? Future, honestly the Admin of time had to invent the damn thing and make any situation more complicated.”

“Uh...Time is kind of...non existent in the future?” I asked, thinking for a moment. “Gotta make space to give us time to figure out how to get out of The Matrix that is our life.”

“Heh, out of the finite and into the unlimited. Is that your goal?”

“I promised that bastard Truth so yes.” I said with determination. “Bet you didn’t expect that from me huh?”

“I’m in.” Vincent said, making me sit up in surprise.

“Hold up, what now?” I asked in surprise. “What do you mean by that?”

“I’m. In. I’ve killed a lot of people in my time ranging from Admins to Void Gods, but to kill Truth in his true form… Now that’s a feat.”

“We can’t really kill Truth, he’s the one that’s powering this entire thing.” I said. “No, I don’t want to kill Truth, I want to make our reality get out of the stupid machine he’s powering...but the engineering on it is beyond any of us from what I saw…”

“If it’s information you need on that… Then you need to look outside the machine itself to learn how. There’s all sorts of ruins and artifacts from the race that made the machine, other machines built that operate similar to our own, the trick there is how to build outside the machine. Learn that, and you can escape this place and truly make it believable.”

“There’s the small problems of ‘I don’t know how to leave’, Cript and someone else always gave me a portal there, and I have no idea where to even begin with that world...god only knows what’s living there, and it could probably actually kill me even if I’m deathless.”

“Hm, if it’s a map you’d need, I’d be more than happy to provide one. For a price.”

I sighed out and rubbed my temples. “Might as well hear the price…”

“Now now. Consider it part of this little deal of ours. I’ll arrange something, a battle. You win it, you get the map. Lose, and you’ll get reset.”

“And by ‘reset’...what do you mean by that?” I asked nervously.

“Starting from scratch. Not just in powers, age too. I’ll let you keep those memories though, no point in erasing thoughts.”

“And...what would the fight be?” I asked carefully, wanting as much information as I can before deciding on it. “Also how the hell do you have map of the ‘Outside’ as it were?”

“I got bored.” He said simply. “So I went out and explored. There’s a lot out there, but all of it save for maybe a few hundred other machines is all ruins. Heh, looks like that race died out in war just like the admins almost did. Sadly, passed all that is just empty. Not void, not nothing, just… empty. No code either, whatever they were, could make something from nothing. Even admins need code, so they were on another level.”

“Must have been stupid powerful too…” I muttered. “And did you see anything alive there? Roaming around the ruins or nothing?”

“Machines. Monsters they left behind. Not sure they count as alive.”

“It’s at least something.” I shrugged. “So what am I fighting before I fully agree to this?”

“Hmm, since you want out of here to there, to learn, I’ll nab the weakest one of those things for you to fight. Will be fun to watch.”

“I can only imagine how much of a pain in the ass it’s going to be…” I sighed out. “But...sounds fair enough I suppose.”

“I’m evil, not unreasonable.” Vincent said as he stood up. “Welp, I’m gonna go do that- oh, I almost forgot.” Vincent said as he held out a hand to me. “Shake first, to seal the deal.”

“This is going to bite me in the ass later on…” I sighed out. “Even if my family might be a bit mad…” I took a deep breath and shook his hand. “If it means beating you and keeping my family safe...I’ll take it.”

I felt like… a lock click in me. I looked at my hand as there was now the image of a signature line along it with several lines of code along it. Vincent’s hand the same thing. “Now, I can go shopping.” With that, Vincent left through a code portal.

“I have a bad feeling about this…” I muttered worriedly. “Alright...so how the hell am I going to gain these people’s trust?”

Hmm… Well, Predator I can just seduce, once I shift back to my normal body… Vamp I haven’t the foggiest clue in hell about and Enslaver ran off like… well, like he was running for his life. Hmm… Guess I’ll hit Predator first then. Maybe with him next to me the others will all be more willing.

“Alright...so Predator is in Mt. Fuji...just a quick teleport there shouldn’t be too hard…” I muttered. “Might scare the shit out of everyone here though if they have teleport sensors...eh.” I shrugged while teleporting to Mt. Fuji to start with Predator.

I arrived outside the entrance to the secret lab place. Man I forgot how good it is to have all these powers. Around the way was Predator and… Damn. He was in feral form, light grey coat with quote the number of viable scars along his body and easily my size in feral form too.

“Alright...time to see if I’m still good at flirting…” I muttered while taking a deep breath and going back to my Den Mother form, but deciding to go feral form in this scenario just in case as I moved towards Predator.

The second he saw me he snarled. "Clearance?" They asked.

“So the first thing you say to a Den Mother is growl at me?” I asked innocently. “Oh what have they taught you.”

"If you don't have clearance, please make your leave."

“Okay, you know what?” I started as I walked over to Predator, Predator catching a whiff of the extremely obvious. “I haven’t had a good fuck in fourteen years, I’ve heard you don’t give a damn about ‘flirty’ crap, so you, and me, are going behind that mountain and your going to rut me like a good boy.” I growled like a dominant Den Mother.

"Hm? What race of Dire Wolf are you? Not many can claim they are of the Den Mother variation."

“Mothaty.” I guessed. “I...actually have no idea, all I know is that it’s one of the original dire wolf races, and that I’m related to...the Mountain sized Den Mother by race or something?”

That actually got a nod from Predator. "Yes, I believe you are from the planet that was poisoned and enslaved. I did not know you had escaped that fate, or that a Den Mother had been born to them. I had heard the last Den Mother born to your race was over two generations ago."

“Let’s just say it was a miracle.” I said while shifting into my anthro form, which to Predator was drop dead gorgeous, as I moved to his side, and picked him up like he was a pup, had him over my shoulder, as I started walking towards the other mountain. “Now you are going to rut me so hard you won’t be feeling your legs for a week.” I growled dominantly.

"That is what my pack mates all ask too. Did they find and put you up to this?" I can't tell if he is just always this passive or is just unimpressed.

“No, I just haven’t seen another dire wolf in a while, and you sound bored...why do you sound bored?” I asked.

"This is not the first time this has happened to me." They said casually.

“Oh, then we’re going to have to change that.” I said with a massive smile, the kind of smile that would make anyone nervous for their pelvis.

Five Hours Later

God I needed that. And hey, Predator still has their pelvis in one piece.

“Alright, round two.” I said with a massive smile.

Another Five Hours Later

Fuck do all these Cript's have hips of Monofilament?!

“How are your hips this strong?” I asked honestly.

"I was engineered for hunting. My pack mates soon learned I don't tire easily while on the hunt and that translated fairly easily when rutting." They said from atop my back. "Do you require more?"

“Yes, but instead of this vanilla stuff.” I said while bringing out a book. “Let’s try something a little new.”

Nine and a half really kinky hours later

How in the hell?! "Another round then?" Predator asked, looking nearly untouched while I was sitting here like a leaking glazed doughnut.

“Okay seriously, the fuck.” I whined. “I’m not trying to break you or anything, that would be bad, but...I at least expected some form of exhaustion or you...well enjoying it more than being so casual about it.”

"But it is enjoyable. And I do enjoy it. When I was younger father cut off nerves that let my body show joy and happiness and altered my voice so I can't sound happy either as a big wolf smiling with a wagging tail does not a good guard dog make."

“But you're a good boy…” I said as I put a hand on his muzzle softly. “And good boys deserve rewards.”

"All this sex isn't a reward?"

“Kind of, but this is the full reward.” I said gently, my hand softly glowing as Predator felt his body start to warm up, like a nice heating blanket was wrapped around him as he felt his nerves that were long since cut off start to mend. “Now who’s a good boy?” I asked with a smile.

"I...am?" He asked, his lips twitching til they made a small smile. "I… smiled? I'm smiling?" He asked, smile getting bigger and voice even sounding happier. "I can smile!"

“Who’s a good boy?” I asked again in joy, starting to pet Predator as he finally got to show joy.

"Me!" He declared, tail wagging and when he felt that he turned to look at his tail. "I can wag my tail!" He said, now trying to catch it and just chased his own tail.

“Okay, this is beyond adorable.” I chuckled as I got up and used some magic to help clean up.

"Let's celebrate!"

“Hooray.” I said happily. “But how to celebrate I wonder?” I wondered while petting Predator happily.

Location: Predator's personal pocket Dimension.
Internal time passed: nine and a half weeks.
Outside world time passed: four minutes.

I now had a good understanding on how Predator could rut me for so long without getting tired… seven… hundred… pack mates, mates as in Mate, and half are other dire wolf races Den Mothers. And he got us all. Repeatedly. And was Still going.

"I'm glad you fixed his ability to express happiness." Said Ky, a Salo race Dire Wolf Den Mother. Currently we were both resting up for when Predator makes another circle around to us. She has deep red eyes and lovely white fur.

“He’s a good boy that deserves to show how happy he is.” I said honestly. “And when that also makes him look so adorable is a wonderful bonus.”

"Agreed." She said with a nod. "So, how much longer do you think he will keep this up? Not much time at all has passed outside this realm but I feel you still have much to do." She said, sliding over next to me til she rested her head atop my chest.

“From...personal experience...it’s gonna take a while.” I said sheepishly.

After said long time had passed I was back out with the happy tail wagging as I decided to see what was behind this door he was guarding. Out here only two hours had passed, in there… yeah I gave birth a few times while there.

“Alright, time to see what projects are here as I...technically have children before I’m even born…” I muttered.

Predator gave me a lick across the nose I playfully returned as the door opened wide. Inside was a massive glass case filled with… are those… giant eggs?

“Uh...are these...please don’t tell me those are Clockwerk eggs…” I said nervously.

"I dunno. I get told to guard a place, not what's inside or what goes on." Predator said as they sniffed the glass.

“Well…” I started. “This...god the hell is Vincent doing?” I grumbled. “Okay...so let’s do this.” I muttered while bringing out my Binocucom. “Yo, anyone there?” I asked over the line.

"Hello, wait, who is this? Where's Kite, this is his frequency!" Bently said, starting to sound panicked. Crap, forgot to shift back into Kite.

I shifted back to Kite. “Sorry Bentley, forgot to switch back to my voice given I’m...in a territory.” I said sheepishly. “Like...Mt. Fuji…” I said while showing Bentley what I was seeing which was all the giant eggs and the very enthusiastic Dire Wolf

"I… won't question it. But, holy cow. Can you zoom in on those eggs real fast?"

“Alright.” I said while zooming in on the eggs. “Also...don’t mind the very enthusiastic Dire Wolf...he’s a good boy.”

"Heh. Well, if my guess is correct these eggs appear to resemble that of the Eurasian eagle-owl. There a species that has been suffering from a loss of population in the modern world due largely to pollution making it harder for their lungs to take in clean air while flying about. Most live is isolated communities but not even the largest reserve has that many eggs."

“What species is Clockwerk again?” I inquired.

"Formerly Eurasian eagle-owl. They are a very old race of bird dating back to the dawn of early bipedals like ourselves."

“Cool...so Clockwerk is breeding…” I started nervously.

"Or cloning. We can't know for sure unless we either analyze an egg or if there is a research terminal near that incubator they appear to be in."

“I’ll take a look around to see if there’s anything.” I said. “How’s Sly and the others doing if I may ask?” I asked Bentley as I started moving around the place trying to find a terminal.

"Sly is inside one of the tower transmitters making his way up to destroy it. Uncle M had a run in with Kid Cooper Bot but escaped via the sewers. Uncle Jim is working on gathering some explosives to blow a more fortified transmitter up."

“Cool, and right now I’m...making some allies.” I said carefully, thankfully finding a terminal. “Might be a pain in the ass, but I’m getting help.”

"That is good news. Well then, I'll be off keeping in touch with the others, you just keep doing what you are doing then and stay safe." With that Bentely hung up.

I looked over the data. There are Clones of Clockwerk but added with Nexus tech so they hatch already mechanical and evil. Well, hard nope on that good sirs. I smiled as I pulled out Second Chance and… nothing happened? Right, they'd need to be born first… welp, then I'll just reprogram them the old fashioned way.

“Alright, time for some old fashion hacking.” I said while cracking my fingers and getting to work on trying to make sure these little chicks aren’t evil when their born.

It took me less than five minutes. The tech is Nexus but this coding is from this world, likely Clockwerk's doing so it was stupidly easy. After that for safe measure I used Code to lock all that in. And now activate hatching sequence and… done.

The eggs began shaking and cracking, soon breaking open as a bunch of tiny little robo owls chirped about. Their eyes were the Cooper blue. How fitting. "Now what?" Predator asked, the incubator opening as they little ones were already flying around.

“They’re adorable!” I squealed happily. “But uh...now’s the problem...where do I put all these baby owls?” I asked nervously.

"They can go with the others in my pocket dimension. They'd be safe there."

“Alright, sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “But uh...question, how do I…’earn respect’ with Vamp and Enslaver?” I asked nervously. “Also...where’s Vamp?”

"Not sure where Vamp is, but Enslaver is a lot like me I guess. Scared of dad and would rather leave than stay here, but we don't have anywhere to go."

“Well don’t worry, there’s going to be plenty of places to go when I’m done with this.” I said honestly. “So, back to your HQ so I can talk to Enslaver about this.”

"Okay." Predator said as he got all the baby owls into his pocket dimension and we were off. Back at the main portal I switched back to Hearts human form. Doing a lot of shape shifting today, and met back up with Enslaver.

"So… the fuck happened? You're still alive so that's good but…" Enslaver asked.

“Alright so...a lot’s happening.” I started. “Do you want to short story or the long story? And also what’s up with Vamp? I haven’t seen him around like...ever.”

"Vamp just does that. And the short story I guess? Also hi Predator."

"Hi!" Predator said with a smile.

"Holy fuck since when can you smile?!"

“With the powers of calling him a good boy and me being able to fix his nervous system.” I said while patting his head. “Also a lot of...private things.” I said sheepishly. “So do you want to know the long or short of it?”

"Long. Definitely long."

“Alright so…” I took a deep breath. “God how do I actually explain this mess…” I muttered. “Can we get everyone in here? It’s going to be a long conversation, you’re all going to need to sit down, and maybe get a few drinks…”

"Later. I wanna hear this first."

“God…” I sighed out. “Alright...so let’s start with the fact that I’m Kite Cooper.” I said while transforming back into Kite. “And seeing you dating one of my ancestors is...kind of strange, but also how I couldn’t get to talk to her about her adventures in...being kind of overpowered.” I said, and that’s saying something considering I have my full powers back and I still think, for the world she’s on, she’s broken as hell.

"...Okay…"

“You don’t sound surprised about me being Kite Cooper.” I started.

"I'm… processing. So continue."

“Alright, so now for a more hard hitting thing.” I said while getting off of Predator and transforming back into my Den Mother form. “That disturbance Vincent wanted to figure out was me...for I am the player in an ‘Admin Game’, where I got to pick a world and basically be ‘reborn’ into life as a normal person, but for me it was to be the younger brother of Sly Cooper cause...well I wasn’t lying when I said I was a huge fan.” I said sheepishly. “And after a long and...very weird history that was nothing like the original games, my secondary goal now is to free all of you from Vincent’s hold...cause my name is King, and I’m fighting for a better future where dipshits like Vincent doesn’t have a chokehold on reality because he’s bored.”

"Uh huh… , and you're willing to tell me this because…?"

“Because Vincent handed you, and every single person that doesn’t believe in his ‘let’s be evil because evil’ bullshit.” I said honestly. “I’m here to prove to you that there is a better life out there than just the job. I’m living proof cause I went back in time before I was born.” I said honestly.

"Hm… and do you have proof?"

“I have two ways.” I said while bringing out a memory card, and raising my right hand to show the deal mark. “Either I show you with this card that has my memories of The Nursery, or show you the deal marker Vincent and I have.”

Enslaver looked my deal mark over, showing it to Predator who simply nodded. He looked at it, then me, then back at it. "So, the short of it is dad abandoned us and we're… free?"

“Better than you all getting murdered by Vincent and all his extremists like...twenty years later.” I shrugged.

"Does this apply to all of Nexus as a whole or just this planet?"

“All of Nexus that isn’t Loyal to Vincent.” I answered. “I don’t know if I’ll have to prove stuff by fighting...but if there’s one thing I don’t want to do, is have needless fighting to prove I’m stronger. I’m not Vincent who rules by fear…” I said while bringing out a self replicating wedding ring. “I’m King, and I want to help people with love and friendship.” I said warmly. “Predator here knows that first hand.” I chuckled.

Enslaver gave a nod. "I see… I need to make a quick call for a second then." He said, placing a hand on the wall as a phone morphed out from the metal… cool. He picked up the phone. "Yo, Operator, hey I need you to put me through to every base. Yes EVERY base. Yes I know that gives you a migraine, I'll make it quick."

Is… is Operator a Cript… that shouldn't surprise me…

After a moment Enslaver began speaking. "This is Cript V788," Enslaver spoke as their voice carried through the hall as if on speakers. "The king has left his throne. I repeat, King Vincent has left us. I am activating the Purge protocol. All who wish to leave to follow him, do so. For everyone else, may your God, if you have one, have mercy in your soul."

He hung up. There was a long silence for a while followed suddenly by the loudest cheer I have ever heard echoing and vibrating the building.

“Jesus, were that many people that excited to leave him?” I asked nervously.

"You've seen how he treats people. Most everyone remembers how things were before he took over, just out of sight and hidden research from afar. Then you got people like me born after knowing only this and doing the most vial and unforgivable crimes cause we were ordered and disobedience was death or worse." Enslaver said, the phone now morphed into a dispenser where a can of chilly beer dropped. He took it and began drinking. "Purge protocol has always been a fever dream for everyone, when Vincent leaves, get wasted." He said, pouring some of the alcohol into Predator's open mouth before taking another drink for himself. "The drunken antics to take place here in the next few hours to few days will be the likes any God would go green with envy from seeing."

“Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Yo Sam! You still owe me that drink!” I called out. “But I have to get back to dealing with Clockwerk sadly.” I sighed out.

“You are at full strength right? Why not just go punch him to death then?”

“Because I think that’s cheating and violates the rules of the Admin Games.” I said nervously. “I’d have to talk to one of the Time Walkers about it...and I’m also going to have to talk to my Time Walker about bringing you all to Present day or something...god there’s still so much to explain.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Eh, live and learn. Bright side is now you can more or less completely fuck with Clockwerk now that we aren’t helping him.”

“Oh yeah, I’m actually a little surprised I haven’t heard anything about troops pulling out by the dozens or them all getting drunk and partying from Bentley.” I said honestly.

“Maybe everyone is still in shock? Eh, well go off and do your Cooper things. I’ll be here getting wasted.”

“Don’t forget to spread the word on who Vincent handed you off to.” I started. “Cause in the future when this all settles down, me and my entire family will be giving you all protection and help in the...ongoing war.” I sighed out.

“Sound’s good.”

I headed outside and it looked like all the Nexus people are gone. Well, alright most of them are out of their armor and walking around town having fun. Nice. I used my glider and flew on over to the nearest receiver tower. Here I got in via vents and crawled around and listened in.

“Hey Sly.” I called quietly over our comm link. “Sorry I was away, just helped get Nexus off our backs forever.”

”I saw… I am not going to ask cause I feel like the answer will either traumatize me or worse. Well I’m almost up here, only people still here are Panda King’s Goons so, this will be easier in every way. Also why did Bentley call me saying you looked like a super sexualized wolf lady?”

“Uh…” I started. “That was my...Admin form.” I started. “It’s a whole lot of complicated stuff that might traumatize you or worse, so let’s just go with ‘my Admin form’ okay?” I asked, not entirely sure how to explain all that to Sly at the moment. “I’ll explain it all when your older and can understand...a few more things.”

"So… you're actually my sister then?"

“No, I’m your brother.” I said. “I was genetically born male, and before I was giving back my full powers due to...reasons I won’t get into right now, I was just Kite Cooper, and I’ll still be Kite Cooper because there’s no fun when I could do effectively anything without challenge.”

"Right… we're gonna need to have a serious talk when this is over."

“I’m gonna start dating Jing King.” I said, hoping to derail this conversation off a cliff so hard we will never talk about this again.

"Several talks then." Sly said as he hung up… well that's not gonna be fun.

“I’m scared for their sake…” I muttered while continuing through the vents to get to the main receiver room. “Oh wait...I still need to talk to Enslaver and Zhang Li...I may be an Admin, but I’d like to learn from Zhang Li damn it…”

With a sigh I found myself in a… hello. Safe. I swiped my cane through it and got the page.

Agitha Leopard Cooper. A European maiden turned pirate that stole from the likes of Hellscore Turner and Black Beard among other notable pirates. Her special skill implemented a mixture of voodoo and navigation with her compass and maps, giving her exact locations of not only her enemies but targets and many other valubels lost to time. The last page on this segment was an old world map and on the back of it was a list of ingredients for what was basically making Jack Sparrow's Compass. Sweet.

"That's gonna come in handy." I said while pocketing it and leaving the mask. "Alright, time to destroy this place and get out."

I made my way out and with slow moving invisibility I got to the control panel and happily beat it into scrap metal. I then made my way roof side and scrapped the dishes too for an extra safe measure.

With that done I headed back to the base and found Enslaver, who was happily drinking while watching some TV with good boy next to him and… and…

"Hi." Said an albino Cript with wet looking black hair, smoke grey eyes that didn't have whites and wearing some pants and that was it.

"Kite, meet Vamp. Vamp, Kite." Enslaver said, giving quick introductions.

"Sup." I nodded.

"So, what brings you back?"

"Well, visitation for an ancestor." I said honestly. "Zhang Li Cooper, I would really like to talk to her."

"Ah, sure." Enslaver said as he snapped his fingers, opening a portal. "I'll leave it open for you."

“Thank you.” I nodded. “And...we’ll have a talk later okay Vamp? Given your the only one I haven’t talked to yet.” I said to the weirdly shirtless and wet vampire.

"Fine." He said simply with a smile at me… God that is nine levels of creepy.

I walked through the portal and wow this is a nice house. Very roomy and like a modern/medieval theme going on here. Actually this feels like the Organization 13 castle if it had color, that's how this feels like.

“Feels very nostalgic.” I chuckled as I started walking around the nice house, being mindful of where I was walking so I didn’t bump into anyone or anything in my exploring.

After a while I found a balcony area where I spotted Zhang Li having tea with a bright yellow skinned lady with green eyes, black hair and blue lipstick.

“Hello.” I said politely to the ancient racoon. “Revered Ancestor.” I said while bowing to Zhang Li cooper in respect.

“So, should I leave?” The yellow lady asked.

“We’ll catch up later Geo.” Zhang Li said as Geo left. “So… Ancestor huh? You’re a Cooper.”

“Sorry for interrupting.” I said sheepishly. “But yes, I am a Cooper.” I said while bringing up the family Cane. “But...again I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It’s fine. So, what brings you here?”

“Well, a lot of things…” I started. “A whole lot of questions Miss ‘I have a Fallen God as a pet’.” I started, Zhang Li seeing small sparkles in my eyes in wonder. “Seriously, how did that happen?”

“I nursed him back to health after he fell. As to repay his debt and as part of a punishment from his fellow gods he declared me his master til times end. He took the form of a small bird for me cause his true form is more… hard to travel with.”

“Fascinating.” I said. “What was his true form like?” I asked curiously, wanting to know a lot about Zhang Li since her history sounds really interesting and cool.

“A dog with tentacles all across his spine with legs like trees, teeth made from stars and eyes that when he opens them suck you in like a hollow void.” She said with a shrug.

“That sounds like an eldritch horror.” I started nervously. “So, next up would be the Demon Lord...because Demon lords are comparable to Gods in some sections of magic.”

“Funny story, he actually arrived to kill me but I imprisoned him in my hair pin and took him everywhere mostly because it made him angry. After a while we stopped bickering, began talking and after a while became friends.” She said, rubbing the old bronze hair pin attached to her head via magnets. “Can you believe they put him in a museum. He was so bored.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t put him in the family Vault.” I said honestly. “Would have been funny to be all ‘and here lives Zhang Li Coopers best friend, a Demon Lord from the sixth circle of hell, his name’s Bryan’.” I chuckled.

“Galor, and he wasn’t a member of the six circles. He was their manager.”

“Thought it was nine circles, and that’s even funnier.” I chuckled. “But...mind if I ask how you’re unaffected by Clockwerks tech? The only other that me and my family have heard of that’s resistant is Tennessee but that’s because...well he’s kind of insane.”

“Do you have any idea how many mind control drugs, spells and techniques people tried on me when I was young? I’m immune to all of them.”

“I mean...considering nowadays China is...well it’s kind of a walking talking sapient rights violation…” I said sheepishly.

“Anything else?”

“Uh...can you train me and my family?” I asked innocently. “From what I’ve read from the Thievius Raccoonus, you are the most magically adept, it would help by leagues and bounds against Clockwerk and anyone else that might try and hurt our family.”

“The fact you are even here means something changed from what Enslaver said?”

“He’s free, and I helped with that.” I said with a smile. “He’s...probably getting black out drunk at the moment partying with literally everyone else who’s also been freed from Vincent’s control.”

“Ah, that is wonderful news indeed.”

“It is indeed wonderful news.” I said happily. “Just...something needs to happen between me and Vincent…”

“Being?”

“A...deal.” I said nervously. “It’s...incredibly complicated…”

“Deals with demons typically are.” She sighed. “So, any more questions?”

“What was it like back then? Where Magic and the like was...more common and respected?” I asked honestly.

“Not bad, but indoor plumbing is nice and hot baths at the turn of a knob, yeah, much better. And safer given most all magical beings moved to the ethereal realm.”

“Okay I will admit, technology is great.” I chuckled. “But uh...what’s your Cane look like?” I asked, lifting my Keyblade Cane for emphasis.

“Well, what I have now is more modernized.” She said, taking out a small fan that had the familiar cane shape at the end. She opened it, rather than cloth and wood it was metal with crackling energy.

“Okay, now that’s cool.” I said honestly.

“I prefer my old one. I can’t perform my mist breeze knockout with this thing.”

“Well I’m sure we can find your old one.” I said honestly. “If it’s in the Family Vault than we can surely find it in that mountain of treasure.”

“Hope it was put in there.”

“Coopers take family seriously.” I nodded.

"So, may I ask how my son did?"

“Um...who’s your son?” I asked nervously. “Clockwerk kind of...stole and ripped out the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus and...I probably haven’t gotten to the part where you talked about your son.” I said sheepishly. “But...me and my big brother were like...four and five and...bastard owl killed both our parents…” I growled.

"His name was Rioichi."

“Oh he was?” I asked in surprise. “Well Rioichi was a great Cooper, he invented Sushi on this world and was a master Ninja, even invented the Spire Jump ability.” I said happily.

"Oh, I've heard about sushi but didn't know he made it. So he was taken in by my sister in law over in japan then. I'm glad."

“Yep.” I nodded. “I...have a feeling Rioichi would love to meet you when this is all done...if Clockwerk has him as a Cooper Bot…”

“Most likely. So, anything else you wish to talk about or do you want to jump into the magic training?”

"Um…" I started, thinking about what else to ask. "Um...when did you and Enslaver meet?" I asked curiously.

“When I came online in this body and Clockwerk tried to control me. It didn’t work so I was shut down again. Next I woke up Enslaver had marked me and neutralized my powers. I hated him for it, of course. At first anyway. After a while I realized he only did orders, never did more and when he was off duty he mostly just spent time with his family here. Met a few of his mates and was surprised they all were marked but they all told me their stories. If anything Enslaver saved them. People he marks he puts here and everyone here live their lives. Better than what Vincent planned. After a while I realized Enslaver worked to do good while being forced to do bad.”

“That’s good.” I nodded with a smile, not sure if I should be the one to tell her ‘I’m Enslavers new boss’ or if I should let him do the talking here. “Enslavers job...as you know he’s ordered...but thankfully all the good people are now free of Vincent’s hold and are now going to be working for someone that’s actually a good person.”

“That is wonderful news. In the time I have been here I have seen much of what Nexus can do with their technology and magic. To put that all towards a good cause is the best for all.”

“Yep.” I smiled. “It’s...gonna take a while, but I know them and their new boss will do great things.” I said, pretending that their new boss was someone other than me.

“Is there anything I can do to help? I am immune to Clockwerk’s technology, and I am still a Cooper. Going back out into the field would be fun.”

“Well…” I started. “We’re gonna need your help dealing with the Cooper Bots going forward, Alexander and Tenessee being two thorns in our side with our current job to get to Panda King.” I said honestly. “Then there’s Clockwerk himself...and then a lot of future crap you can probably figure out with future sight or something along those lines...don’t know if the Onmyoji can see the future or just take a guess.” I said sheepishly.

“No. Time is forbidden. Only fools dabble with what they should not know.”

“Ah…” I started, trying to fight by a knowing grin as I knew full well that there was an entire organization about Time in all its facets and capabilities.

“So, what’s my first mission then?”

“Hold on.” I started while moving into my bag and bringing out one of the...many spare communicator maks I had and handed one to her. “Best to hear it from the brains of our group Bentley.” I said honestly.

She put them on and spoke to Bently for a while. After a bit she gave them back. “He says given my immunity and body I’d do best in helping him to create an anti virus for Clockwerk’s mind, cutting him from all the Cooper bots and taking down his greatest weapons.”

“Alright.” I nodded. “Sounds like a good start.” I said. “Yo Bentley, how are things holding up with Sly and the others?” I asked curiously, having been busy with all this stuff I only managed to destroy one radio tower.

”Going well. Uncles M and Jim took down their targets and Sly took his down and got another page of your family book. The writing is encoded, an older language too but he sent me a photo and I’m translating it now.”

“Cool.” I nodded. “Alright, so far we’ve gotten rid of most of the radio towers right? So what’s our next move? And have the others seen either Tennessee or Alexander?”

”Our next move is that Zhang Li should get here to help me make the anti virus to free the others. As for Tennessee with the lack of towers keeping him under control his schizophrenia is giving him more free will. He mostly seems to have gone into hiding for the time being. As for Alexander, even with the lack of towers he is still under control. He was last spotted aiding in a weapons transfer. Large rockets.”

“Alright.” I nodded. “I’ll go and try to deal with Alexander, we need to keep those weapons away from Clockwerk.” I started. “I’ll try to get Zhang Li to ya as soon as I can...just need to talk to a guy who needs a name change badly.”

”Alright, I’ll let you know if anything happens.”

I was about to put them away when I got another call. This one from mom. ”Kite? Why did your brother call me saying you can change your species and gender at will?”

“The better question is, why didn’t he tell you about me dating Jing King.” I started, hoping that would derail that conversation enough so we can never talk about it.

”Son, you’re dating my old enemy in love regarding your father turned teenager by some guy in a cloak. At this point you trying to build a harem is the least of my worries. If you can change gender we have to go out dress shopping! I’ve dreamed about having a daughter!”

“Sorry mom, I’m heading into a tunnel, I can’t hear you.” I said, using my ventriloquist practice to good use as I made my voice sound staticy as I immediately hung up on her and shivered in fear. “No...I get enough of that back home…” I muttered to myself.

Ring.

Matilda?

”So… Jing King huh?”

“She is fluffy, adorable, strong, and please don’t be mad…” I said sheepishly.

”Oh I’m not mad. I tried for YEARS to get your mom into letting me be your dad’s second wife. This is more a fantasy come true. Keeping that in mind should I be expecting more people into this relationship? And if so is it just you picking up girls or can I make a few calls?”

“Uh...do you have any girl in mind? Or...girls at this point since you said ‘calls’?” I inquired. “And also...maybe...I might be getting more cause I’m an overachiever that doesn’t like his pelvis.”

”I heard about that whole gender changing thing. If that’s true, then I am so going to enjoy using my strap on.”

“No.” I started quickly, my face turning a bright shade of red as I was also trying to keep my ‘Kite’ persona up more instead of my true form.

”Fine… Wonder if Jing would be up for it then? Could let you watch. That’d be fun.” With that, she hung up.

“Jesus…” I muttered. “Okay, time to ask Enslaver if you can go visit Bentley...also we need to get him a new name.”

“Okay then.” Zhang Li said as we got up and left the pocket dimension. Here I saw Enslaver, Predator, and Vamp all watching TV.

“Hi Zhang.” Enslaver said as he stood up. “Heading out?”

“Gonna need her help making something to stop Clockwerks mind control on the cooper bots.” I said honestly. “Also...we’re gonna need to change your name, cause ‘Enslaver’ and ‘Predator’ aren’t good names...Vamp...why are you still shirtless?”

“Cause I don’t want to.” Vamp replied casually.

“Just… don’t.” Predator sighed. “It’s his thing.”

“Okay Twilight.” I rolled my eyes. “But yeah, you two need new names.”

Predator and Enslaver shared a look. "Why?" They both asked.

“Cause right now, we only have ‘Predator’ and ‘Enslaver’ as nicknames, and both of those...well they aren’t really ‘good’ so to speak.” I said sheepishly.

"Well, it's that or our base names and That's no better."

“Well then have new names.” I said. “Cause from where I’m from, at least four versions of you have different names.” I said honestly

"Like what?"

“Um…” I started, thinking about possible names even though I’m bad at names.

It should be close, or at least similar to their current ones. Yet also sound normal… En for Enslavor and Tor for Predator? On the nose but it does kinda work? Ugh, this is why I let the girls back home name the kids...

“En.” I started with Enslaver. “And Tor.” I said to Predator. “Simple enough names.”

"I guess that works." En said thoughtfully.

"Work for me." Tor said with a smile and a wagging tail.

En shrugged, getting up and over to Zhang Li and removing her mark. "There we go babe, back to normal."

"Thank you love." She said, giving him a kiss. "I'll be back."

“We won’t be too long.” I said honestly. “Hopefully…” I added sheepishly, not knowing how long it would take to make an anti virus against Clockwerk.

With that done Zhang Li and I left and she met back up with Bently while I tried to hunt down Tennessee. If he's mostly free then hopefully I can talk him into helping. Odds are he's in the sewers where the signal would already be weaker.

As I entered the sewers I tapped one of the railings with my cane. “Tennessee Kid Cooper, I’m calling you out on the fact you shot me like four times.”

There was no noise, nothing aside from running foul water and rats. As I ran along looking for him I found bits of evidence he is here. Bullet holes in the walls, sketches carved into the walls. He was less known for his art but his detail was impeccable. Scenes of what looked like some of his past works carved into the bricks.

“Damn…” I muttered. “Tennessee?” I called out carefully.

I walked around the corner and stood still. I saw him, kneeled down looking at a carving he made. It was of a lovely wolf lady, holding the hand of a young Raccoon child. Tennessee has his hand in the other hand of the wolf lady… right, his wife. He had a wife and son after retirement… like dad. He was taken from them, like dad was from me. Grandpa was from dad… Zhang Li from Rioichi.

“Tennessee?” I asked carefully, stepping closer to the poor raccoon.

He didn't say anything. I kneeled down next to him. Waiting and hoping he'd talk. "Three times." Tennessee finally said, eyes still locked in the carved image of his family.

“Just...take your time…” I said softly.

"Three times he took me from them. Clockwerk took my parents from me. Then he took me from Dalila and Jack… and he took me from them again when I woke up like this." He said, looking at his mechanical body.

“I understand…” I said softly. “The feeling of losing family…” I sighed out, having had that happen a few times to me as well.

"I want to go back."

“Going back in time?” I asked curiously.

"Dying." He said flatly. "I was with them… I remember it. Heaven. We were happy… then… I don't belong in this world anymore. This isn't my world anymore. It already has Cooper's to watch over it, it doesn't need more."

“I understand…” I said softly. “Even if I’d like to talk...you look like you just want it to end…”

"That's all we all want. My bullets Don't work. Not against whatever metal this body is made of."

The bullet holes… that's what that was. They bounced off the metal.

“Zhang Li found a new lease on life.” I started. “But…” I sighed out as I readied my Cane. “Is there anything in this world that you might hold onto? Or do you truly want to go be with your family?”

He just looked back up at the carved image of his wife and son. I had my answer. As I stood up he handed me his modernized cane rifle.

“I’ll make sure it’s quick and painless.” I said while taking the Cane Rifle and putting a hand on his head. “Be at peace Tennessee Kid Cooper...you’ve done well.” I said as my hand started to glow softly, as I started to guide the poor raccoon's soul out of the metal husk Clockwerk has forced him into. “Go, and be with your family once again.”

The soul when outside the body looked a lot like the heart. An orb of light, just missing the pink heart within the orb. Soon Tennessee began to rise up into a Divine light. They were gone now, leaving the metal husk behind…

Now I have a choice. Let Bently study it, or destroy it...

“Do I let my brother desecrate a corpse that has been wanting death forever, or just get rid of it?” I started, only to shake my head and started to destroy the body.

With that done, Tennessee Kid Cooper can rest once again. I teleported the broken shell to Cane Island. He deserves a proper burial when this is over.

I sighed, shaking a bit before heading out to take out another-

I reacted just in time to deflect a bullet aimed at my head, the shooter, Alexander Cooper Bot. Well fuck.

“God damn it.” I groaned. “Alexander, are you really going to let Clockwerk control you like this?” I growled, preparing to defend myself against the bot.

His only reply was more gunshots. Okay, run now, calling Bently.

I blocked the gunshots quickly. “Damn it…” I growled, not sure how to not have Alexander just break the sewer down around us.

I quickly got out of the sewers, Alexander still hot on my tail as I rapidly made it up a building, leaping rooftops with him still following me.

Incoming Call from Bently

“A little busy here Bently.” I said quickly, dodging another bullet. “What do you need?”

"Good news. After looking over Zhang li's coding in her robotic body I discovered it's her internal magic that makes her immune, it messes with the control override chip connecting their brains to the robotics. I believe if you can hit them with a strong enough blast of magic you can create a similar effect that should last long enough for them to get a small Mana generating charm Zhang Li is making for the others right now."

“Cool, thanks Bently.” I said while skidding to a halt, spinning around and raising my Cane. “Let’s hope this works…” I muttered while shooting a beam of magic towards Alexander, not strong enough to do damage to a monofilament body but hopefully enough to start messing with the control chip.

The impact knocked them over. Carefully I walked over to them, watching the Cooper Bot rub it's own head. "Fuck, and I thought tank shells hit like a bitch." They groaned with a rather thick russian accent. "Wait…" They realized they could control their body, standing, shaking a bit. "Well how about that. If I had a mouth I'd celebrate with Vodka and Cheese."

“Howdy great grandpa.” I said to the bot, given I was told Alexander was my grandfather’s dad.

"Hello there little one. Sorry for the shootings. Clockwerk got real pissy after you freed Tennessee." He said as he got up. "So, what now? Am I good or not?"

“We’ll need to get back to Zhang Li to make the effects permanent.” I said honestly. “But how does it feel to be free for once?”

"Sober." He laughed.

“Considering your accent is Russian, I’d say so.” I chuckled. “Come on, I don’t know how long my magic will last, so let’s hurry back to base so we can get you patched up and see if Clockwerk gave you tastebuds for some reason.”

With that I got Alexander to Bentley and I headed off to break a lot more towers. As I did I found another page. This one talked about Alexander funny enough.

“Oh? Wonder what the old man had to write?” I wondered while looking over the page.

The Entry spoke of his ability to gain temporary invincibility against anything, as well as how to enforce Cooper combat styles with booze to create the fighting style, the Drunk Racoon. Pairing Drunk Racoon with this Invincibility is what made him such an unstoppable one Racoon army. Damn.

“That cheeky bastard.” I chuckled while pocketing the page. “Gonna have to ask him to a drinking contest later on...wonder if he can still eat and drink while as a bot?”

I shrugged as I headed out, jumping back on my glider and heading off towards the Panda King's temple. Thankfully it was in the same location as from the game. Inside was just like the game too, save for Panda King himself. Rather than just pants and shirtless get up he was dressed in a military officers uniform. "And a Cooper enters my domain at last." Panda King said casually as he turned to look at me with eyes heavy with regrets and sorrow.

“You’re free now.” I started. “The Cooper Bots are done with, Nexus isn’t going to follow Clockwerk or anyone bad...so I must ask how you’ve been treating your Country?”

“My people know full bellies, education, jobs and nothing else. I did as I wanted to do for them but at the cost of freedom and morality. In the end, it is a failure on my shoulders. Carried like the sins of my past.”

“And now you have that freedom, and your morality has set China back on the right track.” I nodded. “Sometimes...bloodshed happens, even when we’d rather not have it happen…” I sighed out. “But right now, two things need to happen.” I said while bringing up my Cane. “First, is me and you fighting, just so I can see if you’re legendary ‘Flame Fu’ is as strong as I’ve heard, and for me to get your approval to date Jing.” I said simply.

“With my sins, you taking my daughter’s hand is an undeserved honor Cooper. As for my Flame Fu, that depends, will you fight me like the Racoon you are or as the Keyblade wielder you stand before me as?”

“No tricks, no magic.” I said while my Keyblade Cane shifted into a full fledged Cane as I got into my stance. “Now get out of that monkey suit and let’s have some fun.” I said with a grin.

Panda King nodded, taking his shirt and shoes off before ripping the pants into shorts. He clapped his hands, fire forming along his hands as he readied himself. “It’s a shame only one of the Cooper Brothers comes to face me. But perhaps only one is needed to defeat the demon that has plagued your family since the dawn of time.”

“I’m sure my brother will take all the glory.” I shrugged. “He’s gotta impress his girlfriend somehow without me taking the spotlight.”

“Yet the Spotlight takes aim at you most of all. Brace yourself, Cooper. Clockwerk has watched you more than your brother and will have a trick up his wings.” WIth that, Panda King attacked, rushing as I dodged. For his size he was way faster than from the game, barely missing me by the hairs along my tail. As I was about to swing he stomped, fire flaming out from under him and throwing me back. Fuck! … That, that hurt? I’m at full power, how did I feel that?

“Jeez, that’s some fire you got there Panda King.” I said, checking my stats to see why I just took damage.

“Surprised?” I looked up… Vincent? He smiled at me, walking around myself and Panda King. Everything was paused. “You enjoy these right? A fair fight? A proper challenge?”

“So that’s why.” I nodded. “Good to know that I didn’t somehow subconsciously lower my power all the way down to Kite...which is what I was going to do mind you but better to know I didn’t do it on accident instead of on purpose.” I said honestly.

“It’s a means to our mutual end. You need to get stronger, so I gave you that. Equilibrium. A new ability fresh out the code.”

“Sweet.” I nodded. “So now my concern is, how did you do that when the Admin of...is there an Admin of Abilities?” I asked curiously.

“Yes. Used to be. Two of them. Always at war with one another, trying to better their abilities over the other. They died in the Admin war. They always do. Still, enough resets I picked up more than enough. It’s part of the information I didn’t put in that scroll. No fun in giving you all that up front. In time maybe, but not now.” He said, turning over to Panda King. “He’s out putting the same power as you are right now. That’s what Equilibrium does. Makes your opponent as strong as you are if they are weaker and boy there are so many people weaker than you King.”

“Alright...so there’s going to be...a lot of destruction if this gets out of hand…” I said nervously.

“And of course, the chance of losing. Which brings me to my secondary reason for being here. A mutual pain in the side we share.”

“That depends on ‘which thorn’.” I frowned.

“Oh I think you can take a guess.” Vincent said, giving a tap to the side of his… eye. Void Key.

“I didn’t know Void Key was a pain in the ass for you.” I said. “So what sort of ‘help’ do you want against that rat bastard?”

“I don’t need or want help. You do though. You have a very personal vendetta against them if I recall. Something to do with Coco and a certain inability he cursed her with, among other things.”

“The bastard cursed my wife so she can’t have kids damn it.” I growled. “And besides that, took control of her body and put her in a comatose state that I couldn’t figure out how to cure...and honestly I just want that asshole to beg for mercy when I get my claws on him.”

“Then, win.” Vincent said, taking a seat on a statue that broke in the fight. “You beat him, I’ll give you the Blueprints that made Void Key, and from there, you can learn everything about him. And next time I show up, win that fight, and I’ll tell you where he hid Pecator’s memories of Void Key’s creation.”

“Sounds simple enough…” I started preparing to fight against Panda King. “All I have to do is win against these bastards and figure out how to murder Void Key...cool.”

"If you win. Being as strong as you are there is now the chance of loss in this fight."

“I’m a Cooper, dealing with unwinnable odds is our specialty.” I said happily.

"Heh, sure." With that, Vincent left and the Time resumed as I fought Panda King. He definitely deserved the name as this version of him was a much better fight than the game one.

“So how does it feel to be fighting once again Panda King?” I asked curiously, moving swiftly and tried to trip him.

He jumped my trip attempt, backing up some distance. “I have trained every day since I took over this country, this battle must prove yourself or lose to your family curse.”

“Alright.” I said while starting to bounce a little as I stretched a bit. “So, let’s see how you handle this.” I said while moving quite a bit faster than Panda King was expecting as I fired a bolt of lightning towards the large panda.

His Flame Fu seemed to catch the Lightning, but I was already behind them and gave them a swift whack to the back of their head. Panda King Staggered a bit from the hit but turned around and BREATHED fire at me. Damn he worked a lot more on that Flame Fu here than from the game.

I cast a water spell and it clashed with the fire, creating a massive bout of steam. “What? Is your nickname ‘Dragon of the East’ or something?”

"My ancestor's, actually." He stated, jumping up into the air and aiming his body in a cartwheel of fire at me.

“That’s good to know.” I said while dodging the cartwheel and throwing a fake, explosive hat towards Panda King’s face, having learned a thing or two from Bentley and having it filled with a knock out gas strong enough to damn near knock out Murray.

There was a blast of smoke and for a bit I thought that was that… till I dodged the fireball and saw Panda King still standing, eyes closed and snoring… oh come on, he can fight while asleep?! With a snort Panda King blasted heat waves, not fire, waves of heat that began zapping at my stamina and endurance towards me.

“Okay, that’s not fair.” I frowned as I bolted forward and whacked him upside the head.

That woke them up enough to grab my tail and I yelped as it went up in fire. No matter what race, tail is always sensitive!

“Son of a-mother-” I punched Panda King in the dick because of that.

Panda King fell to his knees and held his now bruised groin. “You punched me in the dick!”

“You burnt my tail!” I countered angrily.

“You punched me in the dick.” Panda King wheezed.

“You burnt my fucking tail!” I repeated angrily.

“Is this a bad time?” We both turned to the doorway, seeing Sly standing there looking quite confused.

“Me and Panda King were just...having a friendly fight.” I said sheepishly, using my magic to help the poor Panda’s junk. “And hey, he approves of me dating Jing, so there’s that.” I said sheepishly.

“Right… Anyway, so Mom’s gonna be here in about… now.” At that moment the ceiling above exploded and mom came down and gave Panda King a knock out head stomp that cracked the floor under him… yeah he’s out cold…

“Hi Kite, everything go well?” She asked as she brushed small debris and dust off me.

“I’m more concerned with Panda King and if you didn’t accidentally crack his skull open.” I said nervously. “But I’m fine, besides a bit of a burnt tail, I’m good. And apparently, Panda King has been running China very well from what he told me.”

“Thats good. And don’t worry, he’ll live.” Mom said as she opened her leg pouch and applied some burn salve to my tail. “Now then, let’s get back home and begin working on the final things we need to do before taking on Clockwerk.”

“Alright.” I nodded. “But uh...should I bring Jing along? Given I need to...have an official date with her?”

“You’ll have to talk with Matilda about that.”

“I know...god that’s going to be awkward…” I grumbled.

With a sigh and feeling beat to hell we all headed back home to Cane Island. Once there Matilda and Jing King started talking, which made me a bit worried… not as worried as the giant portal leading to Tor’s pocket dimension that was there where he, his other mates, and all the children were playing on the beach. Specifically, some part Racoon part Dire Wolf Pups.

“Oh no…” I muttered, immediately covering my face in embarrassment. “Damn it...why did you have to have to do this to me?” I muttered, scared of the questions that are going to be thrown at me even if I was suppressing my urge to just shift back into my den mother form and hug all my new kids a lot.

“Daw, they’re so cute!” Matilda said as we landed on the sand. Immediately, Tor and the pups pounced on me. “So, who’s the big guy?”

“This is Tor, and he’s a good boy.” I said while patting Tor’s head.

“Mommy!” One of the racoon dire wolf pups cheered as they nuzzled me.

“Oh god damn it~.” I whined in embarrassment.

That got all eyes on me. They seemed to be processing that for a moment before it was mom who finally fell on her butt in the sand. “Wow… I’m a grandma…”

“And I’m an uncle…” Sly added. “I… should just accept whatever happens around you from now on, better for my sanity that way.”

“Kite, didn’t think you were that kind of girl. I like it.” Matilda cooed at me.

“Shush Matilda.” I said while getting out of the fluff pile I was under thankfully. “Alright...great, I was hoping to ignore this conversation forever but...looks like I’m going to have to start…” I muttered while taking a deep breath, and transforming back into my Den Mother form. “There’s...a lot I should explain...but who wants to go first in asking questions? Also a disclaimer...I have magical clothes to hide my…’proportions’ to at least safe levels.”

Everyone seemed to think questions up and over for a bit. “What’s your original race since you can shapeshift?” Bentley asked.

“That’s...okay, which ‘originally’ do you mean? Before I was born as Kite or before I became a Dire Wolf?” I sighed out. “Cause...a lot of things are involved, and one of them involves a very controlled, safe, and harmless form of Time Travel.”

“Are these little pups your first litter or are you an experienced milf?” Matilda asked.

“I’m actually both genders as a quick side note, but I am…extremely experienced.” I said sheepishly.

“Can you fly?” Murray asked, everyone looking at him. “What?”

“That depends, cause while I can shapeshift, I have learned all the flight spells, I can naturally fly because of other reasons...and I think there’s the possibility where I can actually run through the night sky if some legends are to be believed about Dire Wolves.” I shrugged.

The questions varied. Matilda mostly asking about lewd things, cause she just loves to make me flustered. Finally I took a break, shifting back to Kite form and sighing. Part of me wanted to avoid this heavily… Maybe I need advice?

“God, this is just annoying…” I muttered while bringing out the watch to talk to my Time Walker. “Hopefully I can get some advice here…”

“Yo.” They said, appearing in a flash of blue as time froze. He was eating a candy bar. “Need something?”

“Two things, one, does the whole ‘them knowing who I am’ break any rules on this? And two...has Vincent done anything...bad because of our deal?”

“One. No. With how time works now, there is no issue. Two. No, nothing concerning or unexpected anyway.”

“That’s concerning.” I said nervously. “So, onto the major thing...I need advice about...having told my family here about me...I kind of hoped I wouldn’t have…”

“Why?”

“To be honest...I’m scared it’ll distance myself from them...like they won’t see me as Kite anymore, apart of the family and just...some pretender that magicked his way into things…”

“Well… Didn’t you though?”

“The Admin Game bit isn’t the point...I mean the whole family thing is fake and no one will care about me because of what and who I am…” I sighed out.

“Is that what you think, or what Kite thinks?”

“I’m one in the same.” I frowned. “I just...don’t want my family to think of me any differently...I’m still Kite Cooper...that hasn’t changed.”

“Hm. Sounds like something you should talk about with Kite.”

“Are we seriously going to have this ‘oh no, we’re actually two different people’ thing here?” I asked.

“No, you are the same person, but your heart when whole makes you and you can still talk to your light and dark halves, right?”

“That’s...true.” I started. “I haven’t done it in a while though sadly...hopefully they don’t take it personally...I’ve been busy…”

“Need some help getting there or you good?”

“I’m sure I got it.” I said honestly, focusing as I tried to call on my dark and light half for a quick little chat.

I focused on that for a bit, meditating and woke up in my Station of Awakening. Acceptance and Rejection were standing across from me.

“Hi!” Acceptance said.

“What brings you here?” Rejection asked.

“Some questions I need to ask myself, like ‘does my family think I’m not Kite anymore now that I’ve told them a lot about myself?’, or ‘will they treat me differently or as a different person because of this?’.” I sighed out.

“I… probably shouldn’t say anything then.” Rejection stated.

“They will most likely only see you as different if you haven’t been yourself with them. Far as I can tell you have been you with them, now it’s just the whole of you.” Acceptance said.

“That sounds fine but...I don’t want to alienate them like it seems, especially with Sly’s reactions half the time.” I sighed out.

“Well, can you blame him? Your initial reactions to reality and Cript’s reality were quite confusing and surprised.”

“True.” I said honestly. “I’m just...worried is all…” I sighed out.

“They will adjust, the worst thing for them is to take your normal form all the time. Kite is more than just a body, he is an identity and a life you have lived in and found family, love, and adventure as. Stay as kite, even Genderbent like how Matilda wants to play with you as, and it will help them adjust more and easier. Over time, give them tastes of how your power works, and it will help them adjust and learn to accept it better and faster.”

“Gonna be weird for them at first...but I always wanted to date a Panda Girl...they're soft and fluffy…”

“And plump in all the right places.” Acceptance added with a giddy smile.

“If you two are done being perverts I believe Kite has work to do right now?” Rejection asked.

"Oh you know you enjoy the thought as well." I chuckled. "But I have to go ask our family about this...and also plan how to beat Clockwerk."

"Well, best if luck then." Acceptance said.

Okay, first up was a talk with Sly as he is taking this all the hardest it seems. I found him in his cottage, practicing lockpicking.

“Hey bro.” I said softly and carefully, in my ‘Kite’ form here just to try and not make the situation worse. “How are you doing?”

"Good. You need something?" He asked, looking over at me and putting the lock and picks down.

“We need to talk.” I started. “About… everything that’s been going on about me specifically…”

"Okay. So, what do you wanna talk about?"

“Better question is, what do you want to talk about?” I started. “Cause while I’m scared I’m losing my family because of...all of this, you are the one that this revelation is hitting the hardest.”

"It's not so much the shock or anything it's more the… absurdity. I mean, you being a dual gendered being above a god that got rid of these Nexus people… actually, how did you do that?"?”

“I...made a deal with their boss...a deal with the devil…” I sighed out. “They follow me, and a lot of other positive things my way, and he gets to cherry pick who joins his side...better than what would have happened anyway.” I shrugged.

"That must have been painful to do."

“It sucked...but their boss gave me a lot of more positive things than you’d think because ‘he’s excited to lose’.” I sighed out.

"That's concerning." Sly said worriedly. "Definitely more off his rocker than Clockwerk anyway. Speaking of, Bently launched his anit-virus against Clockwerk. Basically nullifying the radio towers all together."

“Cool.” I nodded. “That’ll help a lot with the coming battle if the Cooper Bots aren’t already trying to tear him apart.” I said honestly.

"That's the bad news… at least One Cooper Bot is still unaccounted for."

“And...what’s that Cooper Bot?” I asked nervously.

"Take a guess." Sly said with a sigh, looking at the family cane in the table. "Dad's bot was last seen attacking the rebels half an hour ago."

“But...why would dad be the one against us?” I asked worriedly.

"Matilda thinks maybe Clockwerk implanted an internal receiver inside dad, broadcast directly into him, or worst case scenario… Downloaded himself into dad. We won't know until we head for Russia."

“Dick.” I frowned. “We’re going to save dad, I know that for a fact.”

"Hopefully. So, how much of the family book do we have so far? I know when we met Mz. Ruby she gave us all her pages, arresting Mugshot after that all… happened, he gave us his pages. We got them from Roughly after mom and Matilda put him in the hospital, and Panda King just gave us his pieces… so looks like we just need Clockwerk's then right?"

"Yep." I nodded. "And we're gonna have to beat an insane cyber owl inside his evil volcano base as he readies his doomsday lazer...jesus how unoriginal can you get?"

"Guess you can't beat a classic then huh?" Sly said, giving a laugh. "Still… I just hope everything with dad works out fine."

"I'm sure it will." I said honestly. "And we'll make sure of it. We're Cooper's after all, and there's no heist we can't pull off."

"What about rescue missions?"

“Well...that can be seen as the same thing.” I shrugged. “Depending on how you look at it.”

"Maybe…" Sly said with a sigh. "Do you think when this is all over things will calm down?"

“When do things ever calm down?” I asked jokingly.

I mentally kicked myself, that made him look more upset. “I really hope they do calm down.”

I sighed out while putting a hand on my older brother’s shoulder. “Things will calm down. I promise.” I said with a smile. “But then it’ll heat right back up when you start fully dating Carmelita.” I teased.

I should have kept my mouth shut. Sly just looked down and went back to messing with the lock and picks.

I left, kicking the dirt. Damn it… why did I have to go and say that? I sighed, looking up and seeing Carmelita jogging down the pathways.

”Okay...I’m honestly concerned on why telling him ‘dating Carmelita would get heated’ is making him upset?” I thought to myself. ”He’s a teenager with a hot girlfriend, the hell would he not get the obvious joke?” I thought to myself in slight confusion as I walked over to Carmelita. “Hey Carmelita.”

“Hey Kite.” She said, jogging in place. “Something up?”

“Just messing up talking with my brother, where he weirdly missed some context on the last thing I said.” I said honestly.

“You just realised how dense he can be?” Carmalita asked with chuckle.

“More like he thought bad things would happen when he finally started dating you, instead of the obvious sex joke I teased at him.” I sighed out.

“Heh, well… He’s probably just worried. The news about your dad still being controlled and all… Lately I get the feeling Sly’s getting burned out.”

“I think it’s more ‘world shaking revelation’s’ that are getting to him, not the job part.” I said honestly. “I know he needs a break...honestly we all do after this…” I sighed out, hoping to god that we’ll have enough time to enjoy life before the Klaww Gang decides to throw a wrench into our lives.

“Maybe… Say Kite, how does that whole family cane thing work with brothers? I know you made your own but, how would it have gone down if your dad had to give it to one of you two?”

“I’m pretty sure he would have given it to the eldest, I...don’t actually know, I’ll need to go back into the book to see if our family even had multiple children before…” I said nervously. “Cause so far, a good majority only had a single child.”

“Huh. Fair enough. Oh, Bentley was looking for you. I’m pretty sure he wants to question you on anything and everything you know. Science wise anyway.”

“God, we’re going to be all day with that, even if I keep it to this world's level of tech.” I sighed out. “But...what’s your opinion of me now that you know the truth?”

“I always figured you were a bit… skilled at everything you did. I mean, how many eight year olds can complete a military grade obstacle course day one? Wasn’t expecting the higher being of existence thing, but I still grew up with you and to me you’ll always be that little kid who stole the cookie jar with your brother and friends in the orphanage, then helped us raid Uncle Jim’s snack closet growing up here.” Carmalita said with a laugh.

“That was fun.” I laughed at the memory. “But to the obstacle course thing, while I am skilled, it was mostly me doing it by memory and natural talent given I’m a Cooper, I didn’t have any of my abilities, powers, or physical capabilities...also when you have to do mountains of paperwork with others half the time, attention to detail and hand eye coordination is really good when you have to look at so many pages and also write down signatures in the blink of an eye…” I groaned. “God...even with regeneration, paper cuts still suck.”

“Is that most of what beings more powerful than gods do these days?”

“There’s a lot more to it than that.” I said honestly. “But when you also have to rule an entire Kingdom because you became one of those ‘more powerful than gods’ due to becoming King of an Energy Source that’s a fourth of all Existence...but that’s another topic for another day, but I’m still one of the main ‘Royals’ that runs the Kingdom and...so much paperwork.”

“Huh, can’t you, ya know, delegate most of that to other people?”

“We do.” I deadpanned. “And the Royalty not only have to do their jobs, mine being the ‘face’ of the Kingdom, and you can see why being a Den Mother, but also help out with all the paperwork that’s still in the realm of ‘asston’.” I sighed out. “Happens when we have the ‘final say’ as it were just to make sure no bullshit get’s through to hurt the people.”

“Huh. That’s weird. Well, good luck with that then. I’m gonna get back to jogging then check on Sly later on.”

“Slightly weird.” I shrugged. “So Bentley’s where he normally is when he’s about to start questioning things?”

"His lab, yes." Carmalita said with a nod.

“Alright, so before I go...please check up on me and Bentley regularly just in case we keep talking for...a day and a half straight.” I said sheepishly.

"I'll try." Carmalita said with a laugh as she jogged off.

I smiled. At least that went well. I headed over to Bentely's lab and found the turtle at a desk, him sitting on one side and an empty chair on the other. "Hello Kite."

“Hey Bentley, how are you doing?” I asked, taking a seat on the empty chair.

"I'm doing well, I just have a few questions."

“Yes, and you said that before when I started helping out with magic training and you were at it for about a day and a half.” I chuckled.

"Before anything I must know… how you been using your powers to cheat at our DnD games? Cause I still can't believe you can roll that many perfect rolls I'm a row."

“I literally just got my powers when I made that deal with Nexus’s leader.” I started. “I don’t know why I keep getting Nat20’s, but I do, and there’s no magic involved.” I said, the actual honest to god truth. “You know me well enough, and you know I would never cheat on family game nights.” I told him, still not telling him about how I figured out how to properly roll it to get more precise numbers.

"Did you make any other deals with gods? Any higher beings who know about where/when you are?"

“Nope.” I shook my head. “The only other being that would be of importance would be my ‘Referee’ in this, which is a Time Walker...I think I’ve either mentioned before or you met them, I don’t fully remember which it’s been a while.”

"I don't believe we have met them."

“Alright.” I nodded. “So what questions do you want to start with besides questioning if I cheat at DND.”

"Homework… you already knew all those subjects didn't you?"

“I came here with my memories of my…’future life’ technically. So I do know a lot of things...just uh...this world threw me for an absolute loop on a lot of things.”

"Hmm… okay… back at the orphanage. You singled out Murray and I. Why?"

“Alright, so what do you know about Multiverse theory?” I asked. “Cause I’m gonna need to start with that to...at least make some sense with what I’m going to explain.”

"I know it basically states any possibility is an outcome within this or other universes."

“Now imagine that on an astronomically bigger scale.” I said honestly. “So, where I’m from, the ‘key events’ are the same, like mine and Sly’s parents dying, the orphanage, you two becoming fast friends with us, and us beating Clockwerk and going on merry adventures, but the details surrounding them are vastly different. Some examples being Carmalita’s family being targeted as well as her joining our gang, Uncle M and Jim weren’t around because Uncle M was going, pardon the pun, ape shit trying to open the Cooper Vault and Uncle Jim was in Prison after dad retired, just to name a few differences.” I explained.

"Okay… how then? I doubt our worlds are that identical. So, how does this reality appear in yours? I've always theorized one universe can appear as a work of fiction in another."

“That’s...going to take a bit.” I said sheepishly as I moved over to a more clear area of the Lab and created a neat little gaming setup with a PS4, a good TV, and all four Sly Cooper games. “This is going to take a while, but...before I fully start, do you want to go through all four games or just the first one?”

"... Wow. My life is a video game… I wanna level up now." Bentley said with a laugh.

“Well, I’m certain that’s going to happen sooner or later.” I chuckled. “So, first game only or the entire quadrilogy? Cause this can technically tell us what key events might occur still, but everything else is already so wildly different it might not even matter.”

"Hmm… knowing future events could be useful, but also just as dangerous. Typically on the path to avoid one's future often leads you right to it."

“But considering how massively different these two worlds are, it practically doesn’t mean shit.” I shrugged. “And trust me, as someone who only knew about this storyline...I was in for a very rude awakening that...had its ups and downs.” I said nervously.

"Huh. And… I take it in all of these you knew of, Sly was an only child, huh?"

“Yes, and honestly, while I knew that if I was in the games timeline there would be differences, I didn’t expect to be in a completely different one with a brand new set of rules as it were.” I shrugged.

"Huh. That's the ripple effect I guess."

“Honestly...there isn’t really a ‘ripple effect’ here since...apparently where I’m from, my entire life here is already documented in video game form for...some reason.”

"One of those ’don't question it’ things I take?"

“When I completely gave up on trying to figure out half this shit, yes.” I nodded. “Just know that ‘everything has, is, and will be happening’.”

"... That just hurts to think about."

"So let's stop thinking about all this alternate universe stuff." I started while booting up Sly Cooper 1. "Instead let's focus on alternate universe stuff."

"Why do I get the feeling that's a reference only you know about?"

"Sadly." I sighed out. "It's hard knowing a lot of things sometimes."

With my fun and talk with Bently done I headed back out and was then tackled by Matilda who began dragging me by my tail.

"I didn't do anything!" I said in panic as I tried to not be dragged away by her.

"You, and I, need to have a talk about Jing."

"Is there something wrong?" I asked nervously. "Cause I made sure things weren't awkward or...weird or anything."

"That was before I learned how much of a sheltered girl she is."

"It's not my fault she was damn near being held captive." I said nervously.

"I've tried everything, innuendos, flirting, body language, being pretty damn blunt physically and verbally but the girl don't quite get that sex is a two person job." I blinked a bit at that. "She just lays there, it's weird."

"And you want me to help teach her? Also why is the first thing you want to teach her about is sex?" I asked nervously.

"It's that or nothing. She already cooks, cleans, an ace Gardener, had pretty impressive medical knowledge, and her father taught her his flame fu so combat is out. Sex is literally the only thing she has zero experience in."

"Alright...alright…" I sighed out. "I don't know how many soundproofing spells I'll need on this one…" I muttered to myself.

"I already set those up."

"From personal experience...we need them stronger, or just more." I said nervously. "Also...uh...is there plenty of water in there? It's gonna be a while...like...a long while."

"Lots, yes."

Needless to say Matilda wasn't wrong. Jing just laid there for it. It took four days, a lot of porn and this world's version of the karmasutra and a few things from Rune's book, but Jing now has sex like a proper perverted young adult.

With that done I left our cottage after a good shower and went to find Murray. He and Uncle Jim should both be in the garage.

“Yo.” I knocked on the garage door to let the two know I’m here.

"Come in." Murray said,

I entered and saw Murray standing next to the van and a tool box, uncle Jim under the hood of the van.

“How’s the work on the Van going?” I asked curiously, looking over the Van to see if anything was outwardly changed.

"Clockwerk has defenses up the rear with his bots and weapons, I'm outfitting the van with heavy duty armor Matilda gave me from those cashes she recovered as well as some turrets. We're gonna need em to get close enough. Oh, that reminds me, your ma and M wanted to see you. Said to bring your cane."

“Well...I promised to get Zhang Li her fan back.” I said honestly. “But how have you two been?”

"Pretty good. Uncle Jim is teaching me a lot about automotives and how to harness your body's whole strength even without having a peak physical form."

"It's a good technique for the fast food lovers." Jim said with a laugh.

“Sounds about right.” I nodded.

"We're hoping everyone can get their own ride. That would be so cool! I mean, the Keyblade Gliders are neat, but the roar of an engine just can't be beat."

"I was actually gonna ask Matilda if there was a way to make them powered by Keyblades." Uncle Jim said. "That way nobody can start it up unless they have one themselves."

“Huh...that is an interesting idea.” I said honestly.

"Would also solve an issue Involving power supply. A basic battery and gas engine can't fly us that far or be strong enough through the storms that protect the island."

“Believe it or not...I haven’t actually heard of Keyblade Vehicles before.” I said honestly. “It’s gonna be a group effort to figure that out that’s for sure.”

I blinked, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the scroll Vincent gave me in the deal. Everything huh? Well, almost everything…

“Alright...so where are the Keyblade Vehicles…” I hummed while going through this massive scroll.

Once I opened it, the code language flooded my mind. It was an interesting feeling, all that information in my head at once and I can sort through it all to find what I needed. And I found what I needed. So many vehicles, so many blueprints, so many ways for a single Keyblade to power so much. Hello upgrades.

“Okay, yeah that can work.” I said, kind of giddy at how awesome we could make the Van. “Alright, there’s a lot for me to write down and figure this stuff out.”

I found the more basic, simple one I could filter out and began writing up the needed materials, drawing the blueprints and all that. With that all done I looked through other things. Mainly, Nothingness. Shit there is a lot here I didn't know at all. Including that Nothingness as an energy can evolve into something greater. Cypher, and one more time, simply called The Empty. Doing so though is not only time consuming but incredibly dangerous. The fact Vincent even put a warning in that tells me as much. The same goes for the other elements too, Balance, Void, Fire, Terra, all of them.

“Jesus…” I muttered. “This is quite a thing...also, where’s Bravery in here?” I frowned while looking into that bit of Nothingness as well, knowing my family’s got it covered but might as well see if Vincent decided to give me that info.

I lucked out. Bravery Nothingness.

Bravery Nothingness is quite the interesting energy, much like it's normal and other variations it holds a near complete immunity to Void energy, but it actually attacks Void at it's code, converting it into more of itself. It's especially potent against Fear, Dread, Sorrow, and Hatred Void variations and is easily weaponized.

Making it is simple enough. The base foundation of all Nothingness, Willpower Spark, Pure Bravery, preferably in code form, and lastly a shell or kiln to house the fires as it burns for eternity. A person or body can do but frankly keeping it inside any container works just as well.

The only thing that can affect the Bravery variations is Hope Void. Makes sense, two positives often react as such.

“Excuse me, Hope Void…” I started, not believing those two words could be used together like that as I looked up what the hell Hope Void was.

Hope Void. This is a unique, far more passive variation of void that so far does not appear within the machine naturally and must be made. Like all void it infects basic code entities but does not corrupt, rather, it seems to pacify aggressive entities. It heals rather than decay's and can revive a corpse that has died of unnatural causes.

Primarily only one being in all reality aside from myself has utilized this variation, Esen, the guardian of the Void Wolves forest. It seems in turn for protection she gives the void wolves a safe home with beasts that can be hunted without losing half their pack in the effort.

Making it is interesting. You need the base foundation of Void, Corruption, Dread, Bravery, and lastly, Innocence. So far it can't be weaponized, but can be used In healing spells, potions, protection enchantments and runes.

“Huh...that is very interesting.” I hummed, finding it very good that Void has healing properties and isn’t just murder.

That piqued my interest. What about Psychopaths?

Psychopaths were born when the Admin of Blacksmithing killed and forged the admin of beauty into a war axe to kill her lover. Yeah that was a bad day. Interestingly, the Admin of Blacksmithing isn't actually the first Psychopath, while he is the first to slaughter and defile a corpse, the power of blood comes from the axe. Guess the Admin of beauty is still alive as that axe, likely in more pain than any admin ever has felt, but alive. Sorta.

So far only Humanity energy, Kingdom Hearts little side project has any effect on the bloody little things. Turns out you can cure blood with blood.

A mixture of Blood of someone who holds both the Psychopaths power and Humanity, Hope, and Regret can cure a fully converted Psychopath. Haven't tried it on that axe though, it would easily cure all the lessers since their power comes from it. Maybe if I get bored I'll test that theory.

“Well looks like I’m gonna have to do that...if I can find that axe.” I said honestly, having a feeling Vincent didn't leave a 'here's where the axe is' in his notes.

I decided to check.

Old bastard left the axe in his armory. Admin of war, yeah right. Same place as every time the machine resets and formats, The Ore Pitt, his old workshop. Place is crawling with Deletes and Void Psychopaths these days, Deletes want in for the weapons, Void Psychopaths want in to worship the thing. Honestly, that whole concept of letting those lesser beings worship you never made sense to me. I mean if it gave you power than sure, it would be with it, but until those twins decide to do so, it's just pointless.

The Ore Pitt… I looked for a map and wow...woah… woah… okay the void is WAY bigger than I expected. There's the Heroes Tomb, That's the Void Wolves forest, The Void Mother's sanctuary… wow… ah, here it is, The Ore Pitt… on the complete other side of the void… cause of course.

"Okay so I'm not doing that any time soon…" I muttered. "I should see what mom needs from me after this…"

I closed up the scroll and headed off. Mom was with uncle M in his lab. "Ah, there you are Kite." Mom said, giving me a smile.

"We are glad you have arrived. We have some news regarding Clockwerk." M said.

“And what would that news be?” I asked curiously.

"While working with Miz. Ruby we discovered some possible clues as to Clockwerk's past." M said as he placed a book that defined the definition of old and falling apart on the table. Carefully he opened it and on the front was an image of a large owl flying over wilderness.

"According to legends, back in the early days of our world's creation, Clockwerk was the first male of his kind, followed by the female, his wife, made by God along with the other first born races our world has." Mom read. "According to this, Clockwerk and his wife started off as guardians of the garden of eden. Their home and birthplace."

“Alright, so who fucked up and murdered his wife?” I asked. “Seems...very obvious something happened to his wife if he was born way back when.”

"Not his wife, their eggs." M said sadly.

Mom looked sad at that. "The first born Racoons, stole their eggs for food. They had young. In anger, Clockwerk and his wife slaughtered the two, and left their children to survive on their own. While he and his wife had more eggs, leading to the owls of his race around today, his rage never left. It kept him alive, even centuries after his wife died."

"The Cooper's are direct descendants of the first born Racoons, the cane's hook is said to be made from Clockwerk's original claw, broken in the bloodbath." M said, holding the family cane up.

“Uh…” I started. “Is...it wrong that...I found Clockwerks eggs...and then hatched them while...somehow adding Cooper DNA into all those robo owls?” I asked nervously. “And...I’m technically their parent now?”

"Zhang li already told us that, and they are interesting little beings." Mom said.

"Clockwerk's claws are the only known thing that have been able to injure the metal of his new form. It was mandatory to stave off his death. We were wondering if you knew of something that can do the same. Some metal similar to his claws." M said as he handed me the cane.

“Okay, I know exactly what we’re doing for Family Game night next...and that’s showing you all how little I know about this world's finer details.” I said sheepishly while looking over the material of the Cane. “Cause ‘key moments’ I know...but other than that...it’s best to show you all.”

Analyzing.

Analysis complete.

Clockwerk's claw. Organic bone consisting of the density and atomic structure similar to Adamantium.

“Really? Only Adamantium?” I raised an eyebrow. “While a strong material...still not the strongest.”

"So you know of stronger?" M asked me.

“There are several, one of them Nexus was literally mining out of this planet.” I said honestly. “Monofilament ore is very strong and durable...but then I need to remind myself that Adamantium has like...four different variants now that I think about it.”

"So that means if we get our hands on this Monofilament, we can actually damage Clockwerk and his bots." Mom said. "Since you got Nexus on our side now, do you think they'd be willing to lend or trade some to us?"

“That depends.” I said before turning around and whistling a special whistle to call Tor.

The doggo jumped out from my shadow. "Yes?" Tor asked with a wagging ta.il.

“Do you know of any Monofilament materials we could either get or trade from you guys if your not all hungover to hell?” I asked. “Also Sam still owes me a drink.”

"Monofilament? Well, yeah we have lots all stashed away in storage."

“We’re gonna need some to get past Clockwerks armor.” I said honestly. “So got any to lend us?” I asked while unconsciously scratching the good boy behind the ears, having learned that it was one of his favorite scratching spots.

"Sure. We don't even use it that often, and mostly we just keep it all stored away for whatever reason." Tor said, a portal opening next to us. "This way." He said, walking into it. I followed and found myself in a warehouse the size of… quick scan… the Milky way galaxy… "This is warehouse 88-C."”

“This is a big warehouse.” I said in surprise.

"Actually, this is one of our smaller ones." Tor said, walking over then sitting in front of a metallic looking box. "Here it is."

There was a screen on this box I read. Monofilament ingots. Current number of ingots, 999… Centillion…

“Jesus how much Monofilament ingots have you been farming!?” I asked in shock.

"I dunno." Tor said with a shrug.

“Well...this is way more than enough, I shouldn’t need a literal lifetime worth of it though…” I said, trying to think of how much I would need for what’s about to happen.

"Well, what are you making then?"

“Things to get past Clockwerks adamantium body.” I said honestly. “Unless he upgraded to Monofilament while we weren’t looking.”

"Even if he did take some I doubt he has the ability to melt it down. That volcano of his is not hot enough for that." Tor said. "One ingot should do for you though."

One ingot? I guess you can make a metal that tough stretch pretty far. Tor tapped the screen, asking for a single Ingot-

THUD

I looked up at the metal block that went almost to the ceiling and was as wide as this hall, which was at least twenty feet between the boxes, and went easy a thousand miles back. That's their definition of an ingot?! Wait… 999 Centillion of these ingots that big in that box…

“The fuck do people think an Ingot is sized!?” I was honestly flabbergasted at how much Monofilament ore they had stored here.

"Once we began mass producing the ores we wanted to see how big we can make the ingots. They're a bit oversized but this is still smaller than the first massive ingot they made back then."

Mass… produced? They can make Monofilament?!?!?!

“You...can make this shit?” I asked carefully.

"If it's made from code, yes."

… that's literally everything in existence inside the machine...

“But… that’s just cheating.” I frowned.

"So, you don't want it then?"

“No, I still want it.” I said while grabbing the literal pillar of an ingot.

"Okay. Anything else here you would want?"

“What else is here?” I inquired. “Cause this place is the size of a galaxy.”

Tor messed with his blue dot, a holoscreen appearing as he gave it to me. Storage warehouse 88-C inventory log.

It was fifty million pages long...

“Holy shit…” I muttered. “This...is a lot of crap.”

"You can take what you want, we don't even use half a percentage of all the materials we store away."

“Sweet lord…” I muttered. “I don’t even know where to begin…”

Tor shrugged. "There's refined ingots and gems, raw ores and gems, parts and tools, vehicles, weapons, ammunition, medicine, food, spells, entertainment, ect."

“This is gonna take me a while…” I said, before just leaving a Starfish Clone to start dealing with all of that. “And so I’m going to leave a clone to start seeing what I’m going to take or not cause I still have stuff to do back home.”

"Want some help regarding things here? I can see who is willing since you're basically the boss now."

“That would be great...and can I get a list of everyone at least on this world? Might as well also acquaint myself with the people here and show I’m not Vincent...even if I raise a pinkie finger to help it would be leaps and bounds better than that asshole.” I grumbled.

"So, here and here." Tor said, giving me a list of personnel on the planet and all the warehouses on the world… wow...

“Hooray for more paperwork…” I whined. “Damn it…” I muttered while handing it to my clone as they started to go through everything. “Even with a clone, it’s gonna take a while.”

With that underway I headed off, next I need to find… who else do I need to talk to?

“Wait…” I started. “Fuck! I forgot to ask the others what they thought of me.” I facepalmed hard. “But...after that, it would be...Murray’s girlfriend...maybe Penelope if she is on the island...I forgot if she is...god a lot of things have been happening my minds slipping a little.” I grumbled.

With a sigh I headed off, wondering what I should do next? I should ask the others if everything is fine but… honestly they didn't even seem bothered. Murray and Uncle Jim thought my thing with the scroll and all that was cool, M and Mom actually asked for some help from me by asking me to analyze the materials of the family cane, Bently mostly just wanted to make sure I wasn't cheating at game night. Do they just not care about what I am?

“Okay, I’m gonna need a Family meeting about this, cause something’s a little weird here.” I frowned.

I managed to get everyone together at dinner time some hours later.

“Alright, so time for the obvious question.” I started. “Does anyone besides Sly actually care about all my big revelations? Or does Sly just need to remember he’s a teenager with a hot vixen of a girlfriend?” I decided to accuse Sly on his previous thoughts on me saying something bad when I was teasing him about Carmelita.

"I think I speak for all of us here when I say, we have seen some shit, and we are more or less used to it." Uncle M said.

"I think in the case of Murray and I, we just know who you are as a person and since that is who you are at your core, it didn't bother us so much." Bentley said, Murray nodding.

“Are you all sure?” I asked. “Cause me being some being above god’s and just magically getting their full power back, with restriction I must add, isn’t that groundbreaking? Also Sly, my bro, you’re a teenager, and when I said ‘things will get heated when you and Carmelita start dating’, did you really believe I meant bad things were happening and not you two going at it like rabbits when no one’s looking?” I asked while staring at the racoon. “And yes, I am bringing this up because I have been honestly pissed at myself about that all day.”

"Well, there was Antarctica." Mom said thoughtfully.

"That thing in New York." Uncle Jim said.

"The Netherlands…" Uncle M sighed.

"I can list off way more from secret agent work on top of Keyblade welder duties." Matilda said.

"Did I look in a mood I would understand a joke?" Sly asked me.

I pointed at Carmelita. “My dude...we know you're as dense as a brick, but come on.” I frowned.

"I'd be more forward with him but every time I try I can hear my grandma calling me a whore from the afterlife." Carmalita sighed.

“What’s her name?” I asked politely, bringing out Book of Retribution and Staff of Leniency real quick.

"Rosa."

“Alright, Commune with the Dead.” I said as my book opened up to the right spell. “I call upon Rosa Montoya Fox, get down here and explain yourself lady.” I frowned.

“Uh… I don’t think she meant literally Kite…” Mom spoke up.

“I’m pretty sure it’s literal.” I said honestly. “I’ve dealt with enough ‘not meant literally’ become literal very quickly.”

“Now who’s dense?” Carmalita laughed.

“Hey!” Sly yipped.

“I called you as dense as a brick and got no reaction, what the hell bro?” I asked while continuing to try and contact the old lady as a dial tone was ringing at least in my ears.

“I’m used to it from you.” Sly replied.

“Fine fine.” I said. “Jeez, can’t be this hard to commune with the dead…” I muttered to myself.

“Depends, which afterlife are you trying to call?” Matilda asked.

“Carmelita...would you say your grandma would be in heaven or hell?” I inquired.

“Hell. Definitely hell.” Carmalita said with a nod.

“Didn’t want to assume.” I said while closing my book. “Never mind then, so anyways, back to the main topic at hand where people are way too okay with this…”

“Are actually upset that we aren’t upset?” Mom asked.

“I was more scared you were upset.” I said honestly. “And honestly, I’m just surprised none of you are upset given the obvious.”

“Well, regardless of what you are, I know you are still my son. The stretch marks prove as much.” Mom said as I blushed a bit.

“I remember growing up with you… and changing diapers.” Sly laughed.

“Cops and Coopers.” Carmalita laughed.

“Birthdays.” M said with a smile.

“So, yeah, you’re something much more than we thought, but you’re still part of the family, still a cooper, and still Kite, be that your first or millionth name.” Uncle Jim said.

“Thanks guys.” I smiled, truly happy to know I still belong with my family. “It means...so much more than you realize for me to hear that.”

The next few days were more relaxing. All in all it was fun. Life was good and relaxing for a while. Finally though, the final battle against Clockwerk and saving dad was soon, and things could finally go back to normal, or at least, be calm.