It's simple really."Nikolai said as he put the chair in front of Jia before moving to the sidelines to join his friends," All you have to do is run."
"Build up your momentum." Brad added.
Dalton continued on, "Somersault while grabbing the chair."
"Charge it with your lightning and throw it at the target." Nikolai finished with a smile.
"Simple, "Brad added. They all nodded in agreement as they watched their niece take off her purple elbow-length gloves with a huff. The target stood a few meters ahead of the chair and the trees behind it rustled lightly. The calm morning breeze blowing through them and finally through Jia's curly silver hair.
Jia frowned thoughtfully, "I think my definition of simple is different form yours."
The teenager scanned the target for a brief moment as the men held their breath.
"Are you still going to do it?" Dalton finally asked his god-daughter.
"Absolutely!" Jia exclaimed with an excited smile. She then took off running and laughing before somersaulting and grabbing the chair. Lightning coursed through her hands before charging the chair. As soon as she landed, she threw the chair towards the target. It hit the target before going through it and taking apart three trees behind it.
Everyone in the yard jumped slightly and their eyes widened at the sight of the burning trees in front them. Jia's jaw dropped.
Nikolai gulped, "Well, that was unexpected."
"I must have overloaded my lightning," Jia muttered to herself. She looked down at her hands as the lighting ran over her hands. She grimaced.
Brad ran his hands through his blond hair, "Marcellus is going to kill us."
Dalton turned to grimace at his companions, "Forget Marcellus! Think of what our wives will do to us when they find out what we encouraged Jia to do!"
All three of them gulped and grasped their necks.
"What did you do?!"
Everyone turned to the French doors leading out into the backyard to see a man in a black uniform. Standing like an angry mother, Marcellus ran his blue eyes over the damage done to his backyard before settling on his family.
"Scatter!" Jia yelled as turned to run with her god-father and uncles.
"Jia! Stop right there!"Marcellus roared.
Jia froze before turning with a guilty smile," Hi, papa! When did you get back in?"
"Inside. Now! "Marcellus yelled as he turned and walked in, "And you three idiots better be inside as well!"
"Busted," Jia mumbled as she followed after her dad. Her three uncles moving behind her quietly with their heads lowered. Inside the dining room, Marcellus took his place at the head of the table and watched Jia moved to her chair on his right while his so-called responsible friends took the chairs on the left.
Marcellus cleared his throat before beginning, "So I heard that you've had a very productive weekend."
Dalton winced, "Marcellus-"
"Because not only did you blow up an armory at HQ," Marcellus continued on and mentally ticked off the incidents in his head," You also froze all the computers in the Reconnaissance Labs, you destroyed all the dummies on the practice range and now you've blown up our own backyard."
The three men winced. They had so far been the worst uncles in the history of the Universe. They were supposed to be watching over her and instead they encouraged her to cause trouble.
"In my defense, I was just following their instructions," Jia stated and pointed at her three uncles on the other side of the table.
"Jia!" the men all exclaimed. Jia shrugged innocently.
Marcellus rubbed his forehead, a headache was already sinking in, "Marina, give me patience. Look Jia," his blue eyed daughter turned to her dad expectantly," I know you love spending time with your uncles and I love you for that but I need you to stick to our own Estate. Castle Paravel is off-limits from now on."
"Fine, papa."
"Now onto more pressing matters, are you packed?"
Jia nodded, "Yep, have been since Friday. I am so ready to go."
Today was supposed to be her last day at home before she leaves for her school year. That was sort of the reason why her three uncles convinced her to try out the chair trick before she left.
They were suppose to help her pack and take turns watching over her while he was away leading a Training drill in another country. Not that she needed supervision, she was sixteen and quiet capable of entertaining herself at home.
Nikolai huffed, "Remind us again why she needs to go to school?"
Marcellus arched an eyebrow at his friends, "Because she and I quote' needs to be around normal teenagers and not grown-up men who think it's cool to encourage their niece to blow up a ship' end quote."
As anyone could clearly tell, her uncle's were not happy about her going to school and don't think her dad wasn't either. He just had the fight knocked out of him about a month ago by her aunt Willow and Uncle Elias. Besides, it was his idea to keep her hidden away from the outside world.
Brad threw up his hands, "It was just one time and it was for research purposes."
"Oh, I definitely believe that." Marcellus snorted, looking faintly amused.
"Do you have to go?" Dalton asked Jia directly.
"Yes, because aunt Willow says I need to be around people my age and learn how to socialize."
Dalton gestured to everyone on the table, "You socialize with us all the time."
"I need to be around teenagers," Jia stressed before giving her uncles a scolding look," Besides, I wouldn't need to do this if you had just had my cousins early but no, you just had to get married and have kids now."
"You have your cousins Roy and Isabella." Dalton tried again.
Jia shook her head, "Roy is in school as well and Isabella hates me."
"No she doesn't," Marcellus insisted weakly.
"She blew my birthday cake onto the ground when I was eight and then she laughed in my face afterwards," Jia countered. She folded her arms and dared her dad to shoot her down.
Marcellus simply sighed and nodded in defeat.
Marcellus knew he wasn't going to win because even he could see that Isabelle detested his daughter. Jia and Isabella had been at odds since birth and always found new ways to antagonize each other. He guessed that it had more to do with the fact that Camilla brainwashed her daughter to become Camilla Two point Zero.
While Jia was a mixture of both him and his late wife, Isabelle was all Camilla.
"Alright but you are going to call us right?" Nikolai asked.
Jia nodded, "Whenever I can."
Marcellus huffed," Aren't I supposed to be the one trying to convince her to stay? I'm her dad."
"You live with her, we have to find time to see her, "Brad exclaimed.
Marcellus arched an eyebrow, "You make her do stupid things, besides don't you have children of your own?"
"Of course, but children grow up so fast that soon they're leaving home and starting their own adventures. We need to make up for lost time."
"You realize that what you're describing is going to happen to your own daughters, right?"
The men paused and swore out loud as realization dawned.