"RISE AND SHINE! EVERYBODY!" Grandpa Seamus yelled while banging on a pot with a wooden spoon.
Everyone that was at my birthday party the night before had been asleep on the Kestrel's living room floor, with the kids,: Bo, KC, and Indy; all asleep on the couches. I had been sleeping behind the couch. I groaned and grabbed my ears, trying to drown out Grandpa.
"My ears! My head!" Haws groaned. Jade and Angie joined in on the noise brigade and started banging on pots to wake everyone up.
"Come on honey! Have some compassion please!" Nate exclaimed.
"Babe! My head!" Louie groaned.
"Well you lot shouldn't have drank so much after the kiddies fell asleep." Grandpa Seamus chuckled. I frowned and stood up.
"I didn't drink anything that was those four!" I griped and pointed to Sin, Haws, Louie, and Nate.
"MOM! NOISE!" Bo cried out and covered KC ears. KC to his credit was still fast asleep on the couch, the same could not be said about Indy who was covering his own ears.
"Oops…sorry you three." Jade said as she looked at her son. Bo frowned at her then motioned to KC.
"Seriously mom, you could have woken up KC." Bo grumbled.
I couldn't help but chuckle at the exchange. Since KC joined the group Bo has become something of a protective big brother to the younger boy. Probably because for the first time in his life he had a kid near his age that he could interact with without interference from the red dragons and given enough time I could see him becoming the same way with Indy since he spent most of last night he was talking and giggling with him and KC.
"Please! That boy could sleep through a earthquake." Angie said.
"Considering he was born in the middle of the thrad crisis in St. Louis waking up to a beating pan isn't much of a comparison." Louie said as he stretched.
"That's nice for him but I'm a light sleeper." Jane said with a groan.
"Oh really, the pampered princess isn't used to loud awakenings. Giga gasp!" I said sarcastically. Jane glared up at me from her spot on the floor. Iris chuckled and looked at Jane.
"It's not like he lied." Iris chuckled. Jane pouted and rolled her eyes.
"I won't apologize for being born into royalty." Jane said in a dignified tone.
"And yet you're sleeping on the floor…." Bo said motioning to Jane's current position by the coffee table. Jane narrowed her eyes at Bo.
"Shut up Bo." Jane grumbled. Astrid and Damon took that moment to sit up from there sleeping places and looked confused. The both of them looked confused as to where they were.
"Can someone explain why I'm on the floor." Astrid asked.
"Can someone explain where the hell I am?" Damon asked. Jade walked around the couch and coffee table so that everyone could see her and smiled.
"You're in my home and everyone passed out after helping me wrangle my drunk husband and the other shining pillars of the community." Jade said motioning, to Nate, Sin, Louie, and Haws.
"Oh yeah…that's right…" Astrid said softly and then looked to the guys. "…Why the hell did you four start drinking after Sin told you that his son's mother was the daughter of the leader of the Solidarium?"
"Ugh…why wouldn't we? We now have the Solidarium gunning for all of us on top of Justice Technologies and Simon Caldifax." Nate groaned.
"That doesn't make sense. Haws, Louie, you two didn't even know what they were until Jade explained them." I said narrowing my eyes at them.
"And once we did that was reason enough to drink." Haws said. I rolled my eyes.
"Well it's a fine way ta spend someone's birthday, make them chase yer drunk arses around the neighborhood." Grandpa Seamus said with a disapproving look on his face.
"Yeah, kinda like brining the birthday boy's abusive mother to said birthday." Angie said narrowing her eyes at Grandpa Seamus. Grandpa Seamus frowned and looked down at the floor. Guilt written plainly on his face.
"ANGIE!" Louie barked in a sharp tone, sitting up from the floor he gave her a glare and shook his head.
"Sorry…" She apologized.
"It's alright lass. Kinda deserved that…" Grandpa replied, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Doesn't matter…I'm done with her. Plus we could all use the exercise after dinner." I said softly.
"Speaking of dinner…I'm hungry!" Indy exclaimed. KC decided to choose that eventually moment to wake up, wipe the sleep from his eyes, hear dinner and perk up immediately.
"Food! Food!" KC exclaimed.
***
With everyone sitting around the makeshift dining table eating the breakfast that Angie, Jade, and Grandpa Seamus made, there was a couple minutes of silence. Save the sounds of KC and Indy noisily eating. The sounds of their utensils scraping against their plates making their father's hangover worse. However it was Madilyn who finally broke the silence.
"So…now that your birthday celebration is over Chase…we need to start making preparations for Evo-cution." Madilyn said. I sighed and nodded in agreement.
"I know…we'll head to Moldworks after breakfast and start looking at the Justice lysdale scripts we have and see which ones are most likely to be presented. I'll mock up some prototypes for shaped versions of those evos too." I replied.
"Gods, straight into business…" Louie grumbled. Angie leaned over to his and whispered something into her son's ear. KC suddenly beamed and grabbed his fork and knife and started banging on the table loudly. Louie groaned and grabbed his head.
"KC…please…" He groaned, along with the other hungover idiots. I smirked and shook my head, deciding to talk over KC's banging.
"Then there is the matter of conducting research on my evos!" I all but yelled. Madilyn perked up at the mention of research while everyone else paid attention to the 'my evo' part.
"Research?!" Madilyn exclaimed.
"Your Evos?" Jane, Iris, Damon, and Astrid groaned.
"Yes, research into my evo's evolutions and their potential for future evolution. By researching their potential I can learn more about the potential of shaped evos and their possible evolutions. Especially from Empress, Bellial, and Jiggles." I further explained, keeping my voice elevated.
"Wait why those three?" Jane asked, then held three fingers up. "Bone-lasher, Alpa'nagia, and Grimm-Guard are all at the True transcended stage. Honestly you could learn the most from studying them?"
"It's because they are at the true transcended stage. I can't learn anymore about their evolutions since at the moment I am assuming that this is the farthest they can go. Empress, and Bellial are both at the transcended stage thanks to my body modification magic. So they can still evolve, while Jiggles is at the base stage. From them I can learn more about the rules and mechanics surrounding evolution as well the base differences between normal evos and shaped slash modified evos." I explained, my voice getting even higher. Much to the hungover guys dismay.
"I see…" Madilyn muttered.
"CAN YOU NOT!" Nate yelled and rubbed head. Flinching slightly at his own tone.
KC froze and started whimpering. Angie quickly grabbed her son and started trying to calm him down but it was futile, he started wailing. I started chuckling as Jade slapped Nate on the arm and the guys all started covering their ears and groaning as their headaches started getting amplified by his screaming.
I glanced over at KC and saw Colossus, who'd been sitting in Grandpa Seamus lap being fed by my Grandpa, jumped down from his lap and scurried over to KC's high chair.
"Hey! Kid! Stop crying!" Colossus exclaimed, he stood on his hind legs against the high chair to talk to KC. KC stopped crying momentarily and looked down at Colossus. He blinked several times then smiled and started laughing at the little porker.
"Piggy! Piggy!" He exclaimed and held his arms out to him. Colossus frowned and his flame Mohawk burned brighter.
"I'm not a piggy! I'm Colossus! The Hell-hog!" Colossus griped and stomped a hoof against the high chair.
"Colossus calm down, the lad is just a wee toddler." Grandpa Seamus instructed Colossus. Colossus calmed down instantly at Grandpa's instruction and snorted.
"Anyway…!" Madilyn exclaimed, grabbing my attention. "…what do you plan to start researching first?"
"First?" I asked cocking a eyebrow. "I plan to research both at the same time. Evo evolution and my evos potential. It'll be relatively easy to research both since my evos will be the subject of both research studies."
"I understand." Madilyn said.
"I should probably break down everyone's duties while I have everyone here…" I said then looked to everyone that was seated around the table. Everyone stopped eating and looked to me, either awaiting my orders or just looking because I wanted to. "…Jane, Angie, Jade, and Nate; the four of you will be in charge of promotional items production, as well as logistics for Evo-cution. Once I have a full list of evos that we'll be producing I want informational booklets created for each one as well as contracts written up for their sell. I also want enough supplies obtained for housing and care of a large number of evos. Use the numbers that we spoke about yesterday as a basis Jane."
"Got it. I'll get everyone on it once we finish eating." Jane replied. I nodded in approval.
"Grandpa Seamus, Iris, and Bo; the three of you will work to create new cars for the mana train. I'd prefer to increase it's total number of cars from three to nine." I said. Grandpa Seamus smirked cockily and crossed his arms.
"Only nine? Underestimating yer Grandpa aren't ya?" He asked. I arched a brow at that statement.
"Underestimating you? I thought asking for six new mana train cars was asking too much already…" I said. Grandpa laughed and pounded his chest.
"It's not even a challenge! Give me two weeks and I'll have a brand new engine car as well as nine cars for both trains!" Grandpa Seamus exclaimed. Everyone gasped and looked at Grandpa in exasperation.
"Another engine car! Isn't that over doing it?!" I asked. Grandpa shook his head and smiled deviously..
"It's been decades since I last had a chance ta work on mana trains, so many plans, so many ideas that I haven't had a chance to try out…I honestly can hardly wait…" Grandpa Seamus said. Bo and Iris both shared a look of apprehension then abject terror as they saw the devious smile creep on Grandpa's face.
"Well then, have fun." I said then smirked at the both of them. Iris and Bo both looked at me with pleading eyes while I just smiled and waved. "Next…Louie, Haws, and Madilyn, the three of you will be in charge of evo creation and management. While I will be creating their mana cores, you will be in charge of their gestation and housing once they finish gestation."
"What about research on each evo?" Madilyn and Louie asked simultaneously.
"I'm getting to that. Louie and Madilyn, both of you will be on the research team with me as well as your duties with evo creation and management." I said then looked down at my farm crystal and added. "I'll also have Jiggles and his Ogarai squad acting as security."
"I understand, we'll put them to good use." Madilyn said.
"Finally…Damon, Astrid, and Alberto, the three of you will be part of the mana battery squad." I said. Astrid and Damon both frowned at me.
"Mana battery squad?" Damon said indignantly. I nodded in a matter of fact way and continued with my explanation.
"You three will be in charge of supplying me with mana so I can maximize the amount of mana cores I can create in a single day. That way even we can keep a steady routine inside Moldworks." I explained. Despite that explanation Astrid and Damon still looked pissed. "What?!"
"Mana battery squad? Could you not give our task a better name?" Damon griped.
"Plus Alberto isn't here for one, two: a member of your company, or three: contracted like Damon and I are." Astrid said holding up her fingers as she named off each point.
"But he is bound by honor to learn shaping because of his loss in the duel. What better way to learn about shaping than to help me shape?" I said with a smirk. Astrid narrowed her eyes at me.
"Gods above you are despicable." Astrid grumbled.
"I call it resourceful." I countered.
"What about us?" Chad spoke up pointing to himself and Sin. I honestly had forgotten about Chad, he normally was so quiet it was easy to forget he was there.
"Both you and Sin are to keep up with your normal duties, mindful of the fact that the Solidarium is still trying to kill Sin. For that reason Grimm-Guard will be accompanying you two on your patrols while also maintaining his own patrol route." I said.
"Gods above not that giant monstrosity again…" Grandpa shuddered.
"He'll be out of your way Grandpa, I'll make sure of it. The last thing I need is you running off again." I said. Grandpa blushed and looked away. "Now Astrid pass the eggs…"
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