Eris was sitting in her dark blue 1994 Dodge Ram 1500 truck and she was waiting outside Kat's home. She was lucky to get her hands on the truck for cheap as it was on its way to the scrap yard and filled with her great pride that it was running better than a factory new one.

  The first thing Eris did was put in her special perpetual engine and repce the entire frame of the truck with her personally made steel that was slightly stronger than what was on earth’s market. Everything else was standard for earth vehicles and inside the single cab she kept it closer to the original design.

  If asked, Eris would tell people that her impa was like an art piece she’s constantly working on to make it better, and while her truck was meant to follow the K.I.S.S. theory, keep it simple, stupid. It did have an energy shield button like her impa had but it didn’t get any more advanced than that, well maybe the cd pyer was an improvement as it was originally a cassette pyer.

  Eris froze when she saw Kat walk out of her home as her walk and pose was different, slightly angry, and Eris started to feel nervous. Kat opened the passenger door, without saying anything, and Eris lifted up the armrest to turn it into a back rest for the middle seat.

  Kat’s body nguage wasn’t saying she was angry with Eris and Eris moved her arm to rest on the back of the seat to test something. Eris gently pyed with Kat’s hair and Kat leaned into the touch, causing Eris to rex from her reaction. ‘Not angry with me…’ Eris paused in thought as Kat let out a sigh and rested her head on Eris’ shoulder. ‘But she wants to talk privately ter.’

  “Alright.” Eris whispered as kissed the top of Kat’s head and moved her arm from the back of the seat as she needed to shift to drive. Kat shifted to keep her head on Eris’ shoulder and the drive to Rory’s family apartment was done with only the radio quietly pying in the background.

  The apartment that Rory’s family lived in was a four story building and most of the people that lived in it had some kind of blood connection to Rory. Rory was standing outside the building while buried in his phone and Eris honked the truck’s horn to make Rory jump. Eris enjoyed seeing the bewilderment on Rory’s face before realizing it was them and made his way to get in.

  “What happened to the impa?” He asked as he got in and paused seeing Kat’s upset body nguage before brushing it off as something he didn’t want to be dragged into.

  “I ran over a bounty hunter with the impa and I didn’t have time to check it or clean it.” Eris sighed as she got into the flow of traffic and noticed Kat’s brow furrowed at the mention of the hunters. Eris noted that her upset state was probably tied to the hunters and their attack st night.

  At the same time Eris kind of wished she was in the truck when the bounty hunter attacked because her truck had a front bumper guard and was heavier than her impa.

  Rory narrowed his eyes at Eris then gnced at Kat and Eris snorted at Rory’s pinched expression before expining what happened after they left the school. Rory listened carefully and stayed quiet until Eris finished up, while one of Kat’s hands slightly gripped Eris’ thigh as she recounted st night’s event. “You goomba stomp one of them? Really?”

  If Eris’ skin was human, Kat’s grip would be drawing blood by now and Kat’s hand only rexed when Eris gently put her hand on Kat’s to reinsure her. “To be fair, I thought he would dodge but he froze in fear and…250 lbs of muscle nded on a pnt man.” Eris trailed off with shrugging her free shoulder and slowed down to park in the school parking lot.

  Once the truck was parked and Eris turned off the truck, Rory got out of it as fast as he could, “Have nice talk.” He said before he closed the door behind him. Kat slid to the passenger door and locked the door then tapped the middle seat, which Eris slid into after pocketing her keys into her jacket.

  Kat moved to sit in Eris’ p to allow Eris to cradle her in her arms and Kat rested her head on Eris’ shoulder once more. Eris nuzzled the top of Kat’s soft hair and used the nuzzle as a sign of her being ready for Kat’s words.

  “When I got home st night, it gave me time to think about what happened…and for some reason I felt angry, at first at you ordering me into the basement bunker...” Eris flinched from that but rexed when Kat gripped Eris’ shirt. “But you were only trying to protect me, as kinetic rounds still can hurt me, and you didn’t pn on hunting them…”

  Eris was going to keep her mouth shut but changed her mind when Kat tugged on her shirt, “That’s right, I was going lure them deep into the forest before doubling back to the house but…” Eris trailed off to get reading on Kat and got that she wanted to know the reason. “The hunters were being noticeably affected by mother’s and my territory scent markers…A little too much than I thought.”

  Kat tilted her head before widening her eyes, “The goomba stomp, you said that you thought he would dodge. That still doesn’t expin why you changed it to a hunt.”

  “Seeing their reaction led me to think if I took out one like Aseni, maybe they would run off…instead tighten ranks and a deer gave me a moment to silently drag one off…” Eris trailed off and gave Kat a guilty look.

  “Then when there were only two running away in fear, you figure ‘I should just finish what I started’.” Kat finished as started to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Of course, you never half-ass things.”

  Eris was about to say something but Kat raised a finger and shook her head. “Do not say sorry, as you didn’t tend to hunt them, it just happened. Also if something like that happened again you most likely do it again.”

  Eris thought about it and shrugged, “You're not wrong.” Eris admitted and kissed the top of Kat’s head. Even after all that Eris could still sense Kat was upset and she could see flickers of yellow in Kat’s eyes.

  “I know that and yet something about yesterday is upsetting me. I mean I’ve heard stories about you being hunted from both you and your mother. I’ve been hunted due to my parents' reputation and job but yet…” Kat trailed off and looked to her hands as if they had hidden the truth.

  “You felt powerless to help, even though your living star, that can set your enemies on fire with your mind.” Eris stated and Kat’s head jerked up to look up into Eris’ eyes. “That is what upsets you, isn’t it?”

  Kat kept her eyes locked onto Eris and Eris saw the fsh of realization and fme in Kat’s eyes. Kat gripped onto Eris’ shirt and gave her a small nod to finally understand why she was feeling the way she was.

  A loud knocking on the driver side window made the two jump and Kat buried her face into Eris’ chest, to hide her glowing yellow eyes. Eris looked over to see their PE teacher, Mr. Willow, standing there and Eris leaned over to open the door.

  Mr. Willow opened the door, “Ladies, the parking lot is not a pce for making out.” He said and Eris blinked before letting out a light chuckle. “What is so funny, Miss. Sauveterre?”

  “Sorry but we aren’t making out, Mr. Willow, we’re just having serious talk.” Eris gnced at Kat, who was now sitting up straight and her eyes returned to dark grey coloring. “But I think we are done and about to go inside the school.”

  “Yes we were,” Kat said in a calm tone and slid off Eris’ p to the passenger seat to unlock the door. “But thank you for warning, Mr. Willow.”

  “Alright, Miss. Varma” Mr. Willow moved back to allow Eris to get out of her truck. “Let it just be talking, I don’t want to call either of your parents, I’m not a fool.”

  Eris couldn’t help herself to let out a hardy ugh at the st comment and Kat joined Eris with a softer giggle. “No, no one would want that.” Kat said through her giggling.

  “While I’m at it, Miss. Sauveterre, please don’t scare the freshmen, please.” Mr. Willow tilted his head forward to look over his gsses at Eris.

  “I only promise that I won’t scare any smart freshmen.” Eris gave him a smirk as Kat wrapped an arm around Eris’ arm. “But dumb sometimes needs to straighten out.” Mr. Willow stared at Eris before letting out a sigh and waved them off.

  “See you this afternoon, Mr. Willow.” Both waved a good bye to him before heading towards the school.

  Chanda was sitting behind her desk and working on red tape paperwork on Zam-28. It was now sitting in an underground space ship impound lot thanks to Kang getting back faster than thought he would and he already removed the radiation core and scrubbed it down with nannites to remove any remaining harmful radiation.

  A beep came from her desk phone and she tapped it, “Mandam, you have gactic call coming through, it’s Minster Furnt,” Her secretary's voice came over the phone and Chanda paused at the name.

  “Minster Furnt…right, the father of the brat who nded a original Zam-28.” Chanda groaned as slumped in her chair before straightening up and fixing herself. “Alright, put him through.”

  “Right away, Mandam,” As her secretary hung up the holo screen turned on and Chanda shifted her expression to not show any emotion as the Minster appeared on her screen.

  To Chanda, Minster Furnt looked like a purple and green humanoid pufferfish, and he was sitting behind a desk with a window behind him that showed he was on a space ship. “Agent V, I have been informed that you are in charge of my son’s case.” He said with a stern and deep voice.

  “Yes sir, I am, and I can re-” Minister Furnt put up his hand to stop Chanda from speaking and she kept her rage bubbling up from behind interrupted.

  “Throw the book at him, not soft throw, hard and fast.” He said and Chanda blinked in confusion. “I understand most people in my position would try to get their children off the hook but this was the st straw, his st chance.”

  “I won’t deny that I was expecting something like that but it's good to hear your stance on your son' s case.” Chanda tapped her desk and rubbed her chin with her other hand. “Can I get that in writing?”

  “I already faxed over the paperwork about my stance and even more paperwork that prevents anyone from my government from interfering with this case.” At that moment Chanda’s fax machine whirled to life and started to print something off. “If you don’t need anything else, I have three other children to raise and a government to run.”

  “Nothing else and thank you, Minister Furnt for you help.” Chanda said and Minster nodded before hanging up on the call. Chanda let out a loud sigh and felt all her muscles rex that were tension. “Kang’s going to be so happy about this.”

  Chanda got up from her desk to walk to her fax machine and read the files that came through. Just as the Minister said, it was the paperwork about him backing the FCP in their case against his son and no one from his government can interfere with them in the same case. She took the paperwork to put in the case folder and locked it away in her desk.

  After the desk locked Chanda went out of her office to head to the staff elevator and made her way down to the underground space ship impound lot. When coming off the elevator the smell of oil and wave of heat hit Chanda in the face and caused her to scrunch up her face for a second.

  “Hello, Agent V,” A voice said from a booth that was set just outside of the staff elevator. It was one of many Ptyr that worked under Kang and this one reminded her of a golden lion tamarin. “Kang is by the Zam-28 he brought in st night.”

  “Thank you,” Chanda always found the Ptyr race cute as they looked like monkeys from earth and they vary in size but most often they matched humans in size. As she walked down the lot she could see few other Ptyr mechanics working on other ships and her eyes finally locked onto Kang, who was hanging upside down by his tail. “Kang!”

  Kang had simir coloring to a japanese macaque and he was wearing bck jumpsuit. “Agent V, what can I do for you?” He asked as pulled himself up to be up right. “Hoping it’s good news.”

  “Very good news,” Chanda waved him to come down and he jumped down to nd in front of her. “You can start ripping the Zam-28 apart to look for what that brat was trying to smuggle. His father just told me to throw the book, hard and fast.”

  Chanda just watched Kang’s face just light up with joy and wiped his hands on his jumpsuit before finger whistling, loudly. Everyone in the lot stopped to look at Kang, “Alright, I need six of you as we got an order of ‘Rip and Find’ on a Zam-28.” Kang yelled and every Ptyr in the room started to whoop and yell at the volunteer in the ‘Rip and Find’ crew.

  “That’s new, rip and find orders never get these guys this excited,” Chanda said to Kang and she saw him smirk.

  “That’s simple, any normal model, we would have put them back together but a model like Zam-28, that is illegal to have, we don’t have put back together.” Kang chuckled before stepping forward and started to point out members to be part of the wrecking crew.

  Chanda smiled in seeing the excitement from the Ptyr being picked but her smile faded as saw a rookie agent rushing down the lot towards her. “Madmam, we’ve got bit of a problem.” The Rookie said after catching her breath.

  Chanda rubbed her temple, “What is it now,” Chanda grumbled as the other boot fell on her now. She never could catch a break in her position and she should have known that moment with the Minister would spin into a different problem.

  “We have three Aensi cims.” The Rookie said making both Kang and Chanda just give a deadpan look on their faces before raising a brow. “I-I was told it was a bad thing and handed this to you.”

  The Rookie handed Chanda a folder and she opened it up and she just sighed. “Two of them are asking for asylum, one is just here because her cargo ship got hit by a meteor and needs repairs.”

  “Ah yes, the space trucker was in between runs and had no cargo. We are currently fixing up her ship…now thinking of it, she was too pretty to be a space trucker.” Kang hummed and rubbed his chin. “It would be odd if she’s an Aensi though, she looked like a young grandma to me.”

  “A space trucker would be a good job for an Aensi’s strength…it says she has a history of getting arrested for prostitution, meaning under Law 69, we are able to take blood samples to see if she is carrying anything...” Chanda paused to flip a page and read some more. “She didn’t fight about giving blood samples from her, so that can confirm her race.”

  “The other two are refusing to give blood samples and believe their word is enough.” The Rookie said and Chanda sighed as read the name of the agent in charge of this, Agent L. She finally understands why this was brought to her as Agent L was very by the book to point that he was more hindrance than help.

  Chanda took a pen out of the breast pocket of Kang’s jumpsuit and ripped the edge of the piece of paper in the folder. “Go to this address and ask Mrs. Sauveterre, nicely, to come here.” Chanda wrote Amy’s home address and handed it to the Rookie. “Drive her here because she can’t drive.”

  “Y-Yes Madam,” The Rookie said and turned around and started to power walk towards the exit. Chanda just stood there and Kang raised his brow before the Rookie returned, bright red, and took the piece of paper Chanda was still holding. “Sorry, Madam.”

  “Just…just go and not crash.” Chanda sighed and the Rookie nodded before leaving them. Kang was trying his best not to ugh and Chanda gred at him. “Don’t you have a Zam-28 to rip apart…or should I get Kandy in from her break?”

  Kang flinched and cleared his throat, “N-No, Agent V,” He waved to his crew before grabbing a monkey wrench with his tail. “Let’s rip apart that Zam-28!”

  Chanda smirked before leaving them to their fun and pulled out her phone when she got into the elevator. She dialed the number to the prison warden of their underground prison. “Agnet V, what can I do for you?” Agent W asked with his gruff voice.

  “I need prisoner Ava Jay, we got three cims of Aensi and two of them are refusing blood samples.” Chanda heard a long pause before clicking on a keyboard in the background.

  “Alright, I’ll send her up with two guards." Agent W said before hanging up. Chanda wasn’t surprised by the guards because Ava was Aensi and standard to have guard escorts with prisoners that were as strong as an Aensi. While Ava had no sign trying to escape it was still protocol and none of them wanted to get ear full from higher ups if they didn't follow important protocols.

  “Three Aensi…did someone post that earth is some kind of Aensi safe heaven?” Chanda covered her face with her hands before letting out a loud sigh. “Maybe I should have taken Agent Y’s advice and retire like he did…”

  Marigold was sitting in the back of the physics css, at a b table, and spinning her pen around between her fingers. Her eyes drifted to Rory, who was sitting across from her and buried his face into his phone. “What’s got you so focused on that thing?” Marigold asked finally and Rory stopped to scroll to look at Marigold.

  “Some american girl crashing out after being called out for lying about her boyfriend cheating on them.” Rory said with a smirk and Marigold just rolled her eyes.

  “Why do people post such things on a public internet forum?” Marigold said and raised a brow at Rory. “You don’t post stuff like that too?”

  “Hell no, I only post outfits I wear or cospy my brother made for me, with my face blurred when needed.” Rory looked slightly indignant for a second before a coy smile formed on his face. “Also they think I'm a girl as well.”

  “As long as you are being safe…” Marigold trailed off as her eyes lowered down to where Rory’s calf would be. “Does it still hurt?” Marigold watched as Rory stiffed up from the question and put his phone down.

  “It's fine, it only gets sore when it rains or if I try to run.” Rory looked down to his leg and Marigold grimaced in hearing the lie with her enhanced hearing but she hid her grimace when Rory looked back at her. “And you know I have trouble getting behind the wheel.”

  “Ya, I know.” Marigold gave Rory a soft but yet sad smile. Marigold looked at the clock and tilted her head as five minutes had already passed with no Mrs. Fletch. “I wonder where Mrs. Fletch is, she is rarely te for her own css.”

  “Maybe she finally cro-” Rory stopped when Marigold shot him gre. While Marigold didn’t like Mrs. Fletch either but she found wishing death on a person was ill mannered and bad luck. “Hey there, our two favorite love birds are finally here.”

  Eris and Kat came walking to their table and Kat sat beside Marigold while Eris sat beside Rory. Marigold couldn’t help but smile at Eris’ rge frame dwarfing Rory and she noticed Rory kept looking from Eris to Kat.

  “So, are you two good?” Rory blurted out and Kat gave him a small nod while Eris rubbed Rory’s head. Rory gently pushed Eris’ hand away and started to fix his hair. “Good, I hate it when you two fight, Eris gets this pissy silent angry an-"

  “It wasn’t a fight, it was a serious talk to try to figure out my emotions.” Kat interrupted Rory and waved her hand as if to fan away Rory’s words. “By the way, where is Mrs-”

  Kat was cut off as the Principal came into the room and the little pudge man looked very nervous as he adjusted his tie. Every student stopped what they were doing to look at him and gave their full attention. Marigold found it amazing how much respect that Mr. Bound had with all the students and found he was a perfect example of leading with kindness.

  “Hello everyone, I’m here to tell you that Mrs. Fletch has chosen to retire,” Marigold could see a few students wanting to jump for joy about that but they held back to not interrupt Mr. Bound. “Luckily you won’t be going teacherless as we already have a repcement teacher.”

  Marigold gnced at Kat and remember about the tip about Mrs. Fletch retiring. ‘So meaning that Agent swooped in.’ Marigold thought and her attention went to the door as it opened up again.

  Marigold froze as the person entered the room and stood beside Mr. Bound. The woman stood to be six feet and two inches but two inches taller in bck heels she wore, her medium length hair was pitch bck, and she had pale skin tone. Her eyes were dark turquoise, which she matched her lipstick to match a simir shade, and dark eyeshadow to add depth to her eyes.

  She was wearing a turquoise dress shirt with the front open up enough to reveal a teal cursive heart tattoo on her chest and a bck vest over her dress shirt. She had a pair of bck dress pants, on her right wrist was a simple silver wrist watch and hanging from her ears was a pair of silver earrings.

  “Please say hello to Daisy Astera, your new Physics teacher.” Mr. Bound said and Daisy Astera, Marigold’s cousin, waved to the css.