Helena chuckled. "Doesn't everyone?"

Alasea giggled. "That's true. Well, the reason you two fought was because he wouldn't let you help out in the battles."

"Why not? I can take care of myself. At least, I'm better at it now than I used to be."

"Well, Matt never really said why, but I have an idea," replied Alasea with a bit of a pensive look. "I think he felt that you had gone through enough already, and didn't want you to get hurt any more than you already did."

Helena looked straight ahead. "I guess that's a good reason. But I came along to figure out where everything fits with these powers I have, so I've got to use them sometimes. Though I don't really want to."

"Has he tried stopping you this time around?" Alasea asked, looking over at her.

"Not after I roasted a bunch of aliens on my own." Helena pushed out her palms as if she was doing it now, fingers curled like the claws she knew well.

"Well, its good that he's relented," Alasea said with a bit of a smile. "More often than not you'd just ignore his instructions and go your own way with helping."

It was then that the girl's arms caught her attention. "Hey, wait a minute," she said, leaning a bit to get a better look. "Your body's starting to change?"

Helena snapped her left hand over her right, fingers digging into her knuckles. "No. W-well, not exactly." Her shoulders tightened. "I've been changing even while I'm human. Scales are growing on my hands, my teeth are getting sharper...but it's been really slow so far. I don't know why it's happening."

"Its okay," Alasea reassured. "I've seen this happen before, at least. I'm guessing Matt or R.D. told you about Khalis?"

"Who? You mean daddy?" Maya shot the question practically back at the one whom had asked. She smiled a little and took a hold of Mercy's arms from behind to just hold onto something as she stood there, still a little afraid of this Reaper being. "He is the best daddy in the world. He made this place. It was all in his head until poof, it all came out! But he had some help, too, though. He told sis about it once but I couldn't understand..." The little girl was silent for a moment and just stared at the ground before lifting her head again and she smiled brightly. "But don't be sad, mista, this world is still nice even though bad people are here. Like Akumu, he is pretty bad, but then I gave him a hug. He did not like that at first but then he was just gone. I think he really liked being hugged but just hated people seeing that."

"R.D. did. But he said it was because of the atmosphere. Why is it happening to me now?"

"That I don't know," Alasea said, giving Helena an apologetic frown. "There is some scientists here, maybe we can talk to them some time. My father said that the device that scanned us figured out everything in our biometrics, so I'm sure they have a clue."

"I'm surprised they haven't tried to kick me out for it yet," Helena said.

"You're travelling around with a bunch of kids who can shoot lightning from their hands," Hugo said, without turning around. "You'll be fine."

"After what happened on this world, I think people might be a bit more accepting of others," Alasea reassured. "Don't worry. You're gonna do fine, Helena."

"Thanks."

Hugo turned to look up at them, now walking backwards. "You two ready to go back?"

"If you want to," Helena said to Alasea.

"Its fine with me," Alasea said, shrugging.

Back at the recreation center, Matt slammed back another root beer, sucking all the soda he could out of the caramel-colored bottle before he set it on the table with a clack. "Been a while since I've had that."

R.D. spent his time practicing his aim with a shooter arcade, and therefore only part of his attention was listening to Matt. "Like, what? A couple hours?" he said offhand, aiming the gun controller and blasting three creatures in a row, only for a fourth shot to miss and get him hit in return.

"I need my JUICE, man! My LIFE JUUUUUUUICE."

"You need to stop drinking things that give you brain damage," R.D. said, blasting one more creature while looking at Matt. "Seriously, you're causing people to stare."

"Well, that's nothing new for Matt," Alasea said with a laugh as she returned. "Hey guys."

"Hey," Matt said with a wave.

"What's that?" Helena asked, pointing at the empty bottle.

"Root beer. Want some?"

"Sure."

Matt held a fresh bottle out by the neck. Reaching across and taking it, Helena twisted off the cap with an audible pop.

Matt leaned his elbow on the table. "Guess you won't be needing the bottle opener."

"I guess not," R.D. said, dropping the controller into its holster, as "GAME OVER" flashed in bright red letters on the arcade. "So, done with your walk, girls?"

"Yeah, for now," Alasea said, sitting down at the table and pulling a bottle of water out of her own purse. "This place is too big. I don't even know how my father found out that this place even exists."

"I bet he's got friends in high places," Matt said.

Hugo nudged Helena's leg. "Probably true, considering our luck." She reached down and picked the Mettaur up, placing him on the table.

"Yeah, but Carnax wiped out the administration first," Alasea mused, "So it wasn't any of the government who told him."

"That's par for the course on this world," R.D. muttered, sitting at the table. "You can't go one day without something trying to kill you here."

"And we're about to get a big ol' chunk of that pie," Matt said.

"Almost makes you wonder what higher entity we pissed off to deserve this," R.D. said, leaning back into his chair with an irritated motion.

===Couple Hours Later===

Time passed, and soon it was time to eat. In the various mess halls, soldiers and their families gathered, serving up food. In one, the doors opened, allowing Matt's group entry.

"Well, the stuff they serve for dinner here can't be any worse than some of the stuff Matt's cooked up," R.D. commented as he stepped through.

"Oh, come on, his food isn't bad," Alasea defended as she followed. "I mean, sure, there was the one time that he blew up our meal, but the food wasn't terrible."

"You blew up dinner once?" Ileyna asked, looking back at Matt. "How'd you do that?"

Matt chuckled, chopping the air under his chin with a short motion. "All the time. I used to have reality-altering powers, and half the time they never worked right. I think one time I flipped some guy's car in the air, didn't I?"

"It landed right in front of him," Hugo said. "And then he said-"

"My VOLVO!" Matt and Hugo said at the same time, bursting into laughter.

R.D. and Alasea stared back at the two of them. It was damn creepy to hear Hugo laugh.

They took a table flat against the wall, at Matt's insistence. They spread their trays over the table and spread out their padded chairs until no one could touch feet-at least, Matt made sure his feet had room to idle. He rolled the toes of his shoes along one point on the tile as he took a big bite of something close to a discount roast beef sandwich.

"I really shouldn't have taken their food since we're not going to be in the vault," Helena said. "I'll give it back later."

"Keep it," Hugo said. "You already touched it, so they probably won't take it back."