Two weeks have passed since the attempted invasion/massacre by the French army, and its subsequent defeat and return to France personally escorted by the Goddess. The image of Eva appeared every day on the newscasts around the world, her arrival on French shores with two submarines under one arm and the aircraft carrier under her another arm.
Her size caused stupor, fear and emotion in equal parts for all countries, and the subsequent sudden disappearance before the sight of all destroyed the minds of all those who tried to seek logic from the Goddess. Thousands of soldiers wounded with bruises and internal wounds in the eardrums were daily harassed in pursuit of information from the Goddess, to the point that the French government had to isolate them at a military base to keep journalists away.
Maybe Eva didnt say a word, but the presence of a woman as tall as a skyscraper had become the biggest event in many years. And days later, the disappearance of the island continued spreading rumors and popularity about the Goddess.
France appealed to the council of united nations hoping that other countries would join their desire for revenge, but as the Goddess already knew, no allied country supported their actions or pretended to join an offensive against the Goddess without previously establishing dialogue.
Given the lack of information, the attention of the press turned to the two journalists who had managed to enter the island days before. Many were the journalists who tried to contact any acquaintances of Lucy or Carmen, but there was something in which both reporters agreed:
Their two families had disappeared without a trace, not a piece of furniture or a bank account, or a medical history or anything. The news network of Carmen and Gabe W. Ray, Lucy's boss until the reporter sent a last farewell message resigning, argued that the two reporters had been brainwashed and, specifically and mainly Gabe, planned to sue the Goddess for kidnapping.
Many were the boats that went to the location of the island, hoping that it was still there and only it was some kind of invisibility field. Unfortunately for them and for governments around the world, the island was no longer physically anywhere...
- Residence of the Descendants:
And nowhere is where Lucy was right now, fighting and fighting in the middle of one of the most important tasks entrusted in several days.
"Damn it, how big are their shirts?!" Lucy growled as she tried to stretch a shirt as big as all of her over 3 washing machines, fighting so that the weight of the moisture didnt make it fall.
"That shirt is 5 feet 7 inches, and Rio says it starts to tighten! Soon we'll have to wash 3 pairs of clothes just like Hope's!" Cora, head of the laundry team at the residence, laughed while fighting against one of Celica's shirts. "Thank you for coming down to help us again, Lucy. Whenever the kids spend so much energy psi they suddenly spend the next few days sweating a lot, and now with the heat it's much worse!"
"I can see it, Cora..." Lucy laughed to herself as she managed to leave the shirt immobile, preparing the stain remover on her other hand. "It's very hard this? Tora say you're the one who has been working the most for the children!"
"You have no idea! They are good guys, good and powerful guys! But no matter how much power they have, they dont stop being teenagers! They dirty their clothes, they dont know how to make their beds... and let's not talk about ironing anymore! The fear that I have so that more girls begin to reach the height of Hope!" Cora sighed without losing her smile from ear to ear, putting the shirt in one of the industrial-sized washing machines and preparing another. "Be careful, above all, with the next T-shirt, Lucy! it's from Mist, and if anything, that girl hates when her t-shirts are not soft!"
With a grunt of confirmation, Lucy threw Rio's shirt into the washing machine, taking the next one. The few opportunities Lucy had had to talk to Mist had been summed up in Mist asking about journalism and about Los Angeles. (Things that Lucy couldnt answer, but Mist did not seem to give up trying to repeat them)
The few opportunities to talk with Mist could be extended to any of her brothers, because except Hope everyone else spent the day in their rooms, sleeping, sneezing or coughing and eating. As the Goddess Eva had explained, most of the children did not know how much psi energy they could spend without getting sick and that led to situations like the current one.
A group of sick children was a hell on earth... a group of sick children almost at the level of superheroes? The closest thing to the apocalypse that the workers of the Residence had faced.
There was only a ray of light among so many complaints and handkerchiefs stained with snot.
"Mrs. Cora!" The laundry doors opened with such force that all the washers and dryers trembled. "I've collected the rest of the laundry baskets!" Elena, the last daughter of the Goddess in reaching the minimum age to join her brothers and sisters in the residence, had made good friends at once with all the staff members. Whether it was because of her innocence no matter her age or her desire to be a hero, Elena had done what almost no other of her older brothers had ever done... help.
"Good job, Elena, leave all the clothes in the basket and help Lucy if you want! She's having a lot of trouble folding her older sisters' clothes!"
Elena nodded happily, leaving all the huge pile of Hope's clothes in place before running to the reporter. "Can I help you, Lucy?"
Lucy could nnt help smiling as she nodded, Elena had turned out to be a great ally in these last weeks. For a girl so young and huge at the same time, Elena was perfectly developed in any task that was put on her way. "Of course! Take your sister's shirt from below and I'll take it from above, we have to stretch it so I can remove the stains and put it in the washing machine!"
"Understood!" And with a childish and innocent smile, Elena closed her eyes using her telekinesis to stretch her shirt alone in the air. "Like that?"
Lucy swallowed a giggle, taking advantage of the extra help to liquidate the shirt and move to the last part, the underwear of the descendants. If all the sons of the Goddess agreed on something, each and every one of them... is in total lack of modesty and shame.
It was almost fascinating to see how they walked through their sections or the or the communal rooms naked or just wearing underwear, some at most wearing an old Hope t-shirt to cover themselves. Neither the boys nor the girls seemed to mind showing their naked bodies to everyone who came in... and in the case of Mythra neither she nor her brides had problems with partial nudity.
"At least you're different, Elena!" Lucy smiled to herself as she finished with her pile of clothes, dropping on one of the dryers while Elena took care of three laundry baskets at the same time. It was impressive to see the telekinetic handling of the young daughter of the Goddess.
"Lucy, you're an adult! Dont let a lovely girl like Elena do all the work!" Cora's complaint was completely logical, but not wanting to bother Elena. For however young and innocent she was, Elena's mother was about to become a matriarch, so any offense to the girl would be a business suicide.
"It's okay, Mrs. Cora! A hero can take care of everything!" And with a smile on her lips, all of Cora's clothes and stain remover rose into the air. What for both adult women were being good 40 minutes of work, Elena ditched it in scarce 5 minutes. "Is everything all right, Mrs. Cora?"
After checking the washing machines, Cora nodded giving him the right signal for Elena to celebrate her success, jumping and grabbing Lucy by the arm. "Lucy, let's do a round!"
Without giving the journalist time, Elena dragged her out of the laundry, leaving Cora to puncture the washing machines in motion.
"Ahhgggg damn... these kids leave you in shame at nothing that you get distracted... I prefer that they do nothing to humiliate me in this way" Cora thought to herself while she was administering the soap.
The round, as Elena called it, consisted of a walk around the residence and the gardens, always stopping at the central structure of the garden of the Descendants, the Spiral of the elegy.From what Tora and the now Great Patriarch Lao had explained, the Spiral of the elegy was a monument to the sister of the Goddess Eve and her guardian during the youth of it.
A monument of white marble in the shape of a spearhead surrounded by spirals of glass tinted with the colors that the sister of the Goddess loved.
Running several meters away from Lucy, Elena would join in greeting everyone who passed by and appreciating her goodwill... the girl had too much fantasy in her head, that was undeniable. Lucy sighed, looking up at the sky, watching the clouds go by at full speed.
Conceiving that the whole island was moving was certainly difficult for the reporter, something more difficult than the idea of r03;r03;concealment devices covering the entire island.
In the end, each new thing that appeared before Lucy was nothing more than evidence for her sanity, hard tests to overcome but that helped her little by little to understand how the people of "Bright Earth" could live ignoring the outside world completely.
Why would you want to know things from people much worse than your home brothers and sister?
An isolation that would be much more serious if it were not for the incredible level of life and technological level that these inhabitants have
During the two weeks of continuous work as an assistant to the children, Lucy had had many tasks that forced her to get to know Luminous garden. Each trip through its streets, every minute in its stores was more than enough for the reporter to forget little by little how it was before making endless queues in supermarkets waiting for a sulking teenager to break the shopping bag and destroy her lunch.
"Come on Lucy! Come on!" Elena screamed from the end of the street, running on the spot while she waited for Lucy to arrive to enter the gardens. Elena hardly conceived that the people smaller than she took longer to get to the sites, which made this scene repeated very often.
Tora was quick and cunning introducing Lucy first. That... that was at least something Lucy had to admit.
"I'm coming, give me time Elena!" Hurrying on his way, Lucy said goodbye to some walkers who smiled knowingly at the harsh task that the reporter was facing. Since Gwyn the city didnt see a children of the Goddess so active and impatient ... at least Elena is not as violent as her brother's idiot.
Ahhhh... Gwyn... brave little or not so little demon... Every time the reporter was summoned to her section some of her brothers had to intervene to protect her. Even for things as simple as not understanding that the control of the television was without battery Gwyn was capable of threatening death.
But at the same time, his threats and screams were even cute, always turning completely red and calling his older sister Celica ... if only he had no power to meet those death threats, it would be much better.
The gardens of the Descendants are one of those places that naturally lead to relaxation, if not for Elena running and jumping all over the place, teleporting to the treetops and throwing themselves to the ground... crashing, rising laughing and repeating trying this time to stand up.
A strange game, there is no doubt about it.
Lucy went to open her mouth, but telling the young woman to be careful would be practically useless...
"How much can these children endure?" Lucy exclaimed while making a memory, remembering how one day ago Buck had broken a knife by accidentally cutting it helping the reporter to prepare dinner. Broken, shattered and with the blade deformed with the shape of Buck's finger... being completely intact.
"Holy God..." When the fourth fell flat on the ground Elena stopped, sitting on her knees.
"This isnt working... Miss Marvel is almost always on her feet! Gravity is a problem..." Elena said to herself out loud, crossing her hands and closing her eyes. Lucy could almost see how her mind calculated hundreds of plans to defy gravity... surely many of them functional.
"Elena, let's leave that for a while, okay?" Lucy tried to pull the young woman out of her thoughts, pulling her arm and pointing to the Spiral. "We're going to do a race-"
And before Lucy could continue speaking, the wind was cut in two and the tops of the nearby trees creaked violently as they stirred. Elena smiled and jumped proudly with one hand on the Spiral, shouting "Win!" and laughing.
Lucy had to hold the breath counting to ten to not faint, enduring the pain that ran through her body because of Elena's brutal impulse. Pain that for the girl was completely unknown. "Well done, Elena!" Lucy said getting up carefully, praying that none of her bones were broken. A huge hand on the reporter's shoulder conveyed a warm sensation that restored the strength of her body.
Lucy turned her head, seeing Olwen smiling. "I regret the attitude of my little sister" Lucy hastened to deny and get up, watching as the duelist (according to Rio, the nickname duelist comes directly from Leon and nobody has yet guessed right because of it) teleported a soccer ball to her hands.
"Elena, if you can find this ball I will play with you whatever you want!" Releasing the low, Olwen tipped the most powerful shot Lucy had ever seen, making the same ball disappear with Elena behind. "That will keep her busy for a while, do you need help getting up?"
"...I hate to say it, but yes..." Lucy admitted embarrassed while Olwen took her in his arms and took her to one of the benches around the Spiral. "Thanks for getting me some time to rest"
"You're welcome, I know that Elena can be very stressful and most of us are still not 100% to be able to take care of her" Olwen sat on the floor next to Lucy, placing one of her hands on her knee and transmitting again the same warm feeling.
"Stressful? No no! She's very energetic and active, just that! I have several brothers like her-"
"Dont let them get close to Elena for now" The expression on Olwen's face hardened at once, becoming completely serious. "Elena is still not clear on how far she can play with others and that leads to things like what she has just done"
Lucy remained silent for a second, finally bursting into a small laugh. "Olwen, how old are you?"
The young woman's expression softened again, covering herself with a soft blush. "11 and a half ... I'm a bit older than Enju"
"Then dont act so serious! You're still a girl and your job is to have fun, smile and learn!" Taking advantage of the fact that Olwen was sitting on the floor, Lucy rubbed the head of the daughter of the Goddess. "I know perfectly well that Elena cant play with other children for now, but as soon as she understands to control herself, I plan to present her to all my little brothers, and to you, too, if you want to. I am your assistant and if I want to earn a good salary from your mother, do my job well!"
Olwen lifted her knees against her chest, crushing her small but promising breasts. "Surely mom soon promoted you to personal assistant of the Descendants, seeing that most of them have loved you and treated you much closer than Tora... I am sure that Tora is happy to be able to return to his administrative work together with dad Lao"
"If she pays me a lot of money, I love having jobs with so many words!"
"Why do you want so much money? My brother just gave you 5 million of our monthly salary, do you have any plans to invest all that money or is it just for you to accumulate it? Greed for vile metal only brings misfortune"
Lucy hit her forehead, sighing and laughing in equal measure. "You're only 11 years old! Do not talk like a university professor!"
Olwen's blush did nothing but increase, forcing her to raise her legs higher to cover herself. "You couldnt know my age just by looking at me, that's why I speak according to my appearance and not my age. As children of the Goddess, we must be able to represent our nation from age 10, responding to any question with diligence, honor and courage-"
"Tits"
Olwen stifled a giggle as she turned to Lucy. "What?"
"You laughed, only a child laughed to hear the word Tits! Olwen, dont try to be what they expect from you, you have to be what you want to be! I dont know how it feels to be so as powerful as you, but if you are a young girl and you enjoy things like the word Tits, do not force yourself to be an adult!
I have personally met almost all your older brothers, only Eylen and Alec have escaped me in these two weeks, and I can assure you that none of them acts as you say you should be!"
Olwen under his head, approaching Lucy again. The reporter saw it as a clear signal, beginning again to rub her head.
"I can understand what Celica was referring to..."
"Eh" Lucy asked, confused by the turn of the conversation.
"You are motherly and at the same time fraternal... but you are not maternal like our mother or fraternal like our brothers, you are different and equal at the same time... above all you are good unlike Carmen!" Lucy couldnt help laughing, imagining poor Carmen working at this hour in the kitchens. The Goddess had also been kind to her, naming her assistant to the assistant's assistant.
Translated as Lucy's assistant, ergo her subordinate. Lucy wasnt a bad person, letting Carmen do what she wanted as long as she went to the call of the children or the technical team of the residence... but if there were two tasks, Lucy was always the first one.
The tops of the trees gently rocked next to the island, which crossed the seas in the direction of what everyone in it called "The Nation of the Goddess".
Lucy had already accepted that there was no turning back and that this was now her new life, and seeing the salary, there could not be any better.
The en-
"LUCY! BIG SISTER OLWEN!" Elena appeared in front of them, measuring almost 20 feet and covered in hollin completely. "It has cost me a lot, but I managed to catch the ball!" The little girl jumped and shouted with joy, making Olwen and Lucy cover their ears.
"Elena, no growth until age 16. You know the rules!" Olwen was quick pointing her palm towards her sister, threatening enough for Elena to quickly return to her excessive height for her age.
With her head down, Elena dropped the ball on the floor. "I'm sorry... I did not reach the ball and there was no space to teleport..."
"Can you ... grow at your whim?" Lucy asked completely worried, growth at will was something clearly dangerous for her job of taking care of Elena.
"Yes..." Olwen sighed, wiping the dirt from Elena's body by manipulating a gust of wind. "But it's dangerous because it consumes a lot of our pk power and can leave us in very bad situations being too big... my brothers cant use this ability, they change their growth for what Gwyn calls muscular vulcanization.
I'm not sure how it works, but basically relax a muscle to the extreme and then force it with pk potential to harden, exponentially multiplying the strength of that muscle"
Lucy nodded, relating the new data with the feat of punching a baseball ball at the moon. Without a doubt, both capacities are surprising. "You are almost magicians..."
"It's not magic!" Elena said proud to be able to contribute to the conversation. "Mama Valentine says that it is the result of a unique genetic combination with the release and total control of the extra genes of our other parents... or something like that. I said it right, big sister?"
"You almost got it right" Olwen stuck out her little sister's tongue, which surprisingly took Lucy well. "It is the result of the genetic combination of the cells inherited from mom with..." Olwen stopped when she saw the expression of confusion on Lucy's face.
"Let's say that a person can be XX or XY, okay? Our mother Eva is XYX... although it is not literal I think it will help you understand it, and we are XYX plus the few genes that we inherit from our secondary Father/mother. Mom's genes are always dominant and to them are added a few genes that become the variety of our physiques, such as the nose of Celica and Rio or the huge legs of Mist"
"I..." Lucy hesitated a second, realizing that keeping the truth would be useless. "I wasnt very good at biology, even so your explanation more or less I understand it!"
"I'm satisfied with that!" Olwen admitted with a sigh of relief inside. The daughter of the Goddess also hid her ability to understand biology, basing all her explanation on the drawings that Eylen had in her laboratory-
"Can we play something now? I've got the ball!" Elena interrupted between them, raising the ball high as a trophy for her feat.
"I suppose we can, yep... go see if any of our other brothers want to play hide and seek!" Elena disappeared at once, leaving Olwen time to prepare.
"Where did you send the ball?" Lucy asked as she got up completely restored.
"Inside one of the chimneys of the factory-" Lucy's frown was reason enough to stop the phrase. "What, it's not like Elena was going to burn herself!"
These children ... still need a lot to learn and And Tora has not done anything for them until now that Lucy is in charge. Stupid Tora