(February 28, 2020: 7 week of pregnancy. Barlow Holm family house)

“And then Nellie goes and raises her hand super embarrassed!! And the whole class turns to look at her and she goes and gets up so fast that she ends up throwing her desk!” Fraje burst into tears of laughter, throwing herself on the bed. Her easily influenced little sister decided to imitate her older brother and catch her laugh, throwing herself on her mother Erika's legs ... only instead of pretending to cry like Fraje Anne was really crying with laughter.

“Damn it, Fraje! It's not fair!” Nellie shouted, throwing herself on her back on the bed, kicking and covering her face with her mother's pillow to try to hide her red face like a tomato. It has been a terrible moment for me! You are my brother, you should be on my side!

“It's too much fun not to tell! Attention students-” Fraje rose from the bed placing his hands on his hip, trying to imitate a monotonous voice and lack of life that Erika assumed was a member of the technical staff of the institute. “We have found some size 15 women's sports shoes in the women's locker room. The person responsible for this joke should immediately go to the assistant principal's office. We repeat-”

"Please, Fraje ... stop it!" Nellie pleaded as her little sister threw herself on top of her, dragging laughter with her. "God... what a shame... I don't know how I'm going to look at the deputy director anymore...-"

"That bitch deserves every scream and more, Ramirez is the only person I can't stand for all my former workmates" Alanna added to the conversation, giving a big blow to her dresser, taking advantage of leaving her comb so that it didn't look like a blow because it did. The Amazonian vice president got up slowly trying not to undo the bun that had cost her so much time (trusting that for the next day's international meeting her hair was straight and shiny), walking to her side of the bed and placing her older daughter's head on her juicy thighs. "It had been so long since I had enjoyed keeping that fool's mouth shut... you should have seen her face when I entered the door... or when I dropped my size 21 heel on her stupid desk. It was so cool to see how her jaw dropped when she saw that my shoes were not only more expensive but also longer than her laptop! It was worth every second..."

Her whole family around her, smiling and laughing. The familiar warmth made Erika feel much calmer, the fears relaxing (either because of the calm she was breathing or the antidepressant that Handshake's psychologist had prescribed) enough for the dream to be taking her slowly, a fact that wasn't left in ignorance for her family.

"Have you taken the pill and the vitamin supplement?, my love?" Alanna asked, stretching out on the bed, stroking her wife's cheek.

“Of course, you don't have to ask. I'm doing everything Theo and the psychologist tell me to try to get out of this sh... crap that is depression...” Erika whispered as her wife took her hand. With her older children remembering what time the family was, Barlow Holm went to sleep hoping that the next day would be better than the last but worse than the next. (Something not too difficult both Erika and Nellie on the other hand)

...

The hours passed until both Alanna and Erika ended up sleeping soundly, the clock showing two in the morning when the sixth secret member of the house left their hiding place.With absolute ease as a result of daily practice Alexander threw himself down, stopping his descent 30 centimeters from touching the nightstand. With mastery while still hanging the mouse, he took his hand scanner from the backpack that suspended him in the air, pointing towards the Amazonian mother.

“Stable growth… Left, center left and right are a little more advanced than center right. It is a little worrying that left hasn't yet begun to separate her legs but there is still time. I will need x-014, c-75 and folic acid to adjust the blood level,... sight... complicated night” The mouse growled as he watched inside the belly with his scanner, recording the growth of each individual baby for future reference. (Attempted in the process not to read the names that Erika had said and that constantly reminded him of what he risked if his treatment failed)

Once all the necessary data were correctly archived, the mouse began the second part of the night. Slowly without making any noise, the mouse jumped to the floor and climbed to Anne's bed, running down the soft sheets until she reached her pillow. "Anne ... little one ... come on, it's time ..." The mouse whispered as she gave small pinches to the bridge of the giant's toddler's nose, tried to help wake her "accomplice"... buddy?... The mouse wasn't yet clear on how to define his relationship with her and the other children.

"Ales mouse ..." Anne whispered, slowly opening her eyes, rubbing with the back of her hand not caring that the mouse was in the middle.

"Come on, baby, it's time" Alexander repeated ignoring (and a little enjoying) the name the children had given him. Careful not to wake up their mothers, the giantess toddler got out of her bed, walking on tiptoe to the bathroom mouse in hand. After closing the door securely as her older brother had taught her Anne left her mouse on the toilet cistern, watching in silence (and still half asleep) as the mouse lifted one of its front legs up and made it glow colored orange.

After a few seconds of waiting Alexander's message was received, and appearing accompanied by a flash of light and sparks running through his body until it unloaded on the marble floor, little Lisa appeared, jumping with her hands wide open. “Ta-da! And this time I am not upside down! ”Lisa whispered proudly of herself, Alexander's teachings (and the NEP battery that the mouse had turned into a transmitter bracelet like his) had greatly advanced in his ability to teleport.A ll the hair of the little girl, whether arms, legs, tail or head was completely bristled by static electricity, giving an appearance that Anne found especially funny.

"I am very happy for you, Lisa Fang! You are the engine of the plane of our operation!" Alexander said as he pulled out his projector, really proud that after several nights of appearing both lying down and face down (with the consequent fall) the little neohuman wolf was finally taking real advantage of his gift.

The little neohuman wolf smiled proudly despite not understanding what the mouse was saying, all while Anne helped comb her hair by imitating what her mother did to her (Without any use because in the following teleportation she would end up the same). The mouse while managed to find the right image of her personal folder: Little Sammy's bedroom.

"Tonight we're going to need Sammy, Gideon and Bobr, girls ... let's start with Sammy, okay?"

"Ok!" The two shouted innocently, so loud that Alexander feared the two wives in the next room would wake up.

After 5 seconds of courtesy the mouse jumped to the ground, running and climbing through Lisa's pajama pants until it reached the head of the wolf. With Anne in position grabbing her friend's shoulders, the wolf gathered enough NEP energy (for lack of a better name, Alexander thought) to use her NEsPer ability to the next level.

With another flash of light and a slight whitish smoke the three disappeared, thus giving rise to the next part of the mission.

(Handshake underground facilities, floor -2: Laboratories. 02:45 in the morning)

“Ta-da!” The five children repeated for the fifth time that night to Alexander's disgust, getting quickly out of the formation to check that there was no guard in the hallway near his hiding place. Lisa's young age not only influenced her teleportation ability, needing an external battery to make use of her NEsPer skill (and not counting that using these skills consumes as many body resources as high intensity exercise). Without enough memory (or ability to memorize, both are very possible options) to remember the places where teleporting skills like Lisa's were simply unhelpful.

Luckily for the little ones Alexander had already worked on that, going through Brightside by foot photographing all the places within the maximum range of Lisa's ability and which were useful for working. "Children! Shhh” The mouse tried to calm their incessant laughter, the result of seeing how their hair had been lifted behind the multiple teleports.

"Shhh" Everyone answered the mouse in unison, the gesture of joking had become almost a way of greeting children for how much the mouse was forced to repeat it.

Once the children understood that it was time for the new game the situation was much faster, the 5 accompanying the mouse peeking around the corner of the server cabinet that Alexander had decided to use as an access point to Handshake." What's next, Ales mouse?" Gideon asked whispering as low as possible, the five children forming a curious totem with their heads that Alexander used to move up and down between them.

"Sammy, Gideon, do you see the camera?" Alexander whispered, pointing to the upper corner of the hall. After seeing that his children nodded, the mouse jumped to the ground, beginning to search his backpack. “Sammy, flash of light. Gideon, throw me up to leave me on top of the camera. Anne, get the snack backpack. Lisa, you can choose a cereal bar but only one to recharge your stomach. Bobr, keep an eye on the other side of the hall”

After their fifth assault on Handshake the children had internalized the mouse instructions much better, taking the "game" (at least for them) much more seriously than ever. The orders of the mouse were fulfilled quickly, Anne carrying the bag full of energy bars (all healthy and without sugar, the mouse could be using the children's skills but it wasn't a monster destroying their diets) that Alexander had hidden days ago between two servers. "Ready? ...-" Alexander raised his hand while Gideon grabbed him like a baseball. "NOW!"

The mouse shouted loudly beginning the maneuver. Without waiting for a second Sammy concentrated all energy inside her between her claws, the electric current leaping from one to another nail causing a small but effective flash of light that Gideon used to go out into the hall and throw the mouse. Redirecting with a mastery that the mouse could never understand, Gideon managed to leave it on the camera before its limit reached.

To spoil the work of his children wasn't an option that Alexander thought to accept, quickly opening the upper panel of the camera with his tools and causing an image loop. "Ufff ... ready guys!" The mouse shouted as the five of them went out into the hall, Bobr using his abilities to create small bursts and streams of wind to carefully close the door to the server room from inside.

Anne was placed just below the camera with the backpack open above her head, the target on which Alexander landed to rejoin his makeshift toddlers team. “We need to get to the lab, so today there will be 4 cameras more. Ready guys?”

"Yes!" Everyone yelled at the same time, forcing the mouse to come back to gossip.

(4 cameras, two corridors and a staircase later)

 Seeing young children work with such mastery and innocence was a spectacle that Alexander couldn't get tired of. Their innocence combined with the exploits they managed to accomplish, their coordination beyond needing words, their determination that prevented them from accepting something that wasn't a good result.

Gyeseung only saw in them soldiers for his Reality King, soldiers who launched against humanity in order to bring out a god that more than possible wouldn't exist. Not even Anne herself acted as what Gyeseung wanted! The giantess toddler was the sweetest thing that Alexander had had the honor of knowing, a combination of shyness with strangers and total confidence in her family and friends both realized by the girl's own unusual size. As much as he didn't like having to even think about it, Alexander was getting more and more away from his Master's ideas, either by the influence of his own NEP resonating with Anne's or simply by enjoying being able to talk to children with such a brilliant vision of everything around him.

"Way open, ales mouse!" Bobr and Anne shouted as they rejoined the group, proud to have hidden well.

"Perfect, I just need one more moment..." Alexander whispered as he fiddled with the wires under the quadruple electronic lock in the lab's warehouse. “Children, you have to remember not to touch anything in here, okay? Stay by the door while I collect our treasure and prepare to leave”

"Yes, Ales mouse!" The five shouted at the same time, just as Alexander manages to disconnect the last of the closures.

"Ooooopen!" Anne humming as she grabbed the mouse and pushed the door too heavy for the rest of her friends. Of course, on the exact second that Anne started to open the door Alexander noticed something was wrong. The mouse had already taken the team to the laboratory several times in search of components for its treatment (although the team had varied between each occasion, Naseera and Zhong being part of it in the first interactions) in no time had so much light come out of the interior of the laboratory.

The mouse tried to tell Anne to close the door quickly, although to his misfortune it was too late. The little girl had already opened the door completely, her smile instantly fading like her friends' eyes when they saw they weren't alone.

Of course the most broken expression was that of Alexander, since whoever was inside the laboratory wasn't a scientist or part of the staff.

That would have been too simple for Alexander's life.

And if the mouse was only able to slightly tolerate the eccentricity of his Master, the universe would of course throw him a kind of ... man (?) In a sort of crossing between Doctor Doom's armor and a kind of Kamen Rider storing in a leather shoulder bag that nothing stuck with its appearance what were obvious vials of the NEPF. The children stared at the masked man, the masked man looked back at the children, alternating between them and the mouse on Anne's arm. Absolute silence for the perplexity of both sides of the room.

Until everything exploded: "Rabbitan!" Anne shouted full of happiness that confused everyone present, releasing the mouse in Gideon's hands and running to the masked. Before he could defend himself, the “little one” of 5 feet 4 inches tall threw himself on him, clutching his legs without stopping to laugh and repeat Rabbitan again and again. The other children didn't sit still, deciding that if Anne liked him so much, the man couldn't be bad. “Rabbitan?” The other children asked, approaching the masked man after leaving Alexander on the nearest table.

"I'm not ... Ahem ..." The masked man cleared his voice, clearly not happy with the tone his voice modulator had chosen. After a few seconds in silence the masked man gestured to clear his throat (stupid when he was completely covered), speaking again this time with a sharper and more elegant tone. "I'm not Rabbit Tank children ... although I have no idea how you can know something like that..."

"And how are you? Don't come to me with any excuse, please…” Alexander asked as he managed to jump from table to table, reaching as far as the masked bandolier was.

"I? I am…-” The masked man fell silent again, banging his fist against his palm as he tried to gesture that he had a revelation. Releasing Anne carefully from his leg, the masked man made an exaggerated leap back. Exaggerated by both the choreography of the jump and the distance traveled. (Alexander thought he had seen a kind of propeller on the feet of the masked suit)

“Can you feel the hunger? Don't be afraid because only hunger accompanied you from the beginning! Hunger for the truth, hunger for justice! Don't fear the ancient rites! Don't fear unfaithful blood! There is a special charm in the dark, so take a seat and get closer, as the feast is about to begin! My name is Hunger Skull, the one who will change this world and devour his ugly masks to expose their authentic faces!”

The masked song while he was doing poses worthy of Jojo bizarre adventure, a catchy rock melody coming out of his suit as accompaniment. To his delight, the children seemed to enjoy the show very much, clapping and laughing nonstop. (Alexander was clear that they were the only ones who were going to enjoy such a show. Without a doubt, too)

“Well, and now the presentations are made… Give me a reason not to Llik right now, Gyeseung's minion. And please, let's be adults made and rights and not say those concrete words in front of such small and influential children, you gnikcuf reppandik”

“Ugly words for someone who is stealing in a laboratory, also especially ugly words coming from an adult disguised for the next anime expo… And for your information I don't know where you got it, although seeing that you have been able to sneak in at least here it shows that you have at least access to the computers in the building, I am not ... I am not working with my Master right now-” Alexander tried to defend himself from the masked man, who without cutting a hair passed by the children to grab the mouse with both hands.

The children were scared to see that their friend and protector (as they had accepted) was caught, tears falling from their eyes as they threw themselves at Hunger Skull's legs. “Look masked… you go to yours things and we go to ours. These children are helping me protect the pregnancy of Anne's mother, the biggest of the five. If you have something to solve with me I am willing to give myself to you once I have managed to ensure that this mother can give birth to her children without problems...”

The masked man kept silent while looking and pressing the mouse in his hands, all without the children stop crying at their feet. The situation was especially uncomfortable for him, who had only come to look for samples of NEPF for the investigation of Elizabeth for the first time premiering his combat suit.

Mafia, corrupt employees, international spies... so many possibilities of people who could have crossed the door and allowed him to act as the temporary antihero/villain he so wanted to be. Of course fighting in front of children was out of the question... and so the producer had been investigating quadruplet pregnancies are extremely risky. "Are you going to surrender?" Hunger Skull decided to ask just to make sure he heard correctly. (and that Elizabeth was listening correctly)

"Voluntarily too" Alexander said without believing very well what he was saying. “The same day that the delivery arrives I will be waiting for you on the roof of this building, Hunger Skull. You have my word-"

“Your word is worth as little as your master's, elohssa the mouse. I want one… a way to enforce your word”

The mouse growled looking away, the masked man just out of the geek pride parade was no an idiot. "Okay, okay ... do you want a way to keep my word?" Alexander growled as he pulled his hand from the masked's grip, partially removing his transmitter bracelet. “Take this, it is my method of contact with you… I will use the one I have in reserve at my base and so you can contact me when whoever made the suit manages to implant it inside. All I ask is that you let me prepare before giving you the image so that Lisa, the neo-human wolf of your left leg, can teleport us home”

“Image, huh? Can you teleport wherever you see? And why didn't you teleport here directly then?” The mouse sighed as the masked man released him next to his shoulder strap.

“I wish it were that easy, but the limit of the NEsPer teleport comes when traveling inland like this basement. The first day I tried to bring us here without success, so instead I went looking for the deepest place of the facilities where Lisa could reach”

"It makes sense ... at least as much sense as the NEPF can make it" The masked man nodded as the mouse prepared the image projected on the floor, an image that Hunger Skull instantly recognized as the bathroom of Erika and Alanna's bedroom. The mouse rushed through the refrigerators where the Handshake scientists stored all their components and materials, keeping them all in Anne's backpack. (who had already stopped crying once the mouse was already safe)

Alexander didn't enjoy the attentive and fixed gaze on that of the masked man, studying every movement of the mouse and not letting him do anything suspicious. A real shame, the mouse thought since the masked armor looked like the best toy in the world in his eyes.

"Well Mr. Skull ... I have everything I need tonight" Alexander sighed as he closed Anne's backpack, getting on his head while the girl joined her friends. (still looking suspicious of the masked). "If you allow me the suggestion, if you call yourself Hunger Skull one would expect you to wear skulls as motif... I don't know if you understand what I mean" The mouse tried to make fun of the masked man, projecting the image of the bathroom Anne's on the ground.

"I know I'm missing skulls, this suit is still just a functional prototype, thank you very much" Hunger Skull growled as the children disappeared by Lisa, a truly incredible show and that he thanks to have engraved with the cameras in his eyes . "Elizabeth, have you recorded all that?" Cascadio asked as he took off his helmet, wiping away the sweat caused by such tension. “We need… to control the children anyway without revealing how the information has been obtained. I don't want to let a Gyeseung puppet play with them-”

"Have you tried offering to work with him instead of children?" Elizabeth asked without any irony or sarcasm in her voice, something that bothered her godfather very much.

“Work with that bastard!? I am a hero on my way to antihero when Anne and the other children can take their role! He is my enemy-”

“Doom working with the fantastic four” 

"I hate you"

(20 minutes later, home of the Barlow Holm family)

Anne had already gone to bed, sleeping soundly while the mouse finished administering Erika's "treatment."

Using the children wasn't to his liking, but now more than ever the mouse needed spare hands to handle all the work. The Amazonian mother turned on her back, turning around until she looked at her beloved. Her belly had not yet begun to stand out but little would be missing by the time the mouse's work became much simpler. Looking with his hand scanner Erika's belly one last time Alexander said goodbye to the 4 small ones, using his zip line to return to the ventilation duct.