Chapter 7
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"So...is everyone ready to go?"
Armsmaster carefully looked over the cape, the apparent Lady Hebert, as she spun her tinkertech pistol around the testing sight. He knew from experience that most people with even half decent training in firearms handling would probably be having a heart attack from watching her, but the woman seemed to well-practiced with the weapon.
If it even was a weapon.
As the woman described it, it was more a tinker-tech pistol that shot portals to other realities. That, and it could summon specific heroes into the field.
Armsmaster still had his doubts.
It was something he found a bit odd, if he was honest. By every metric he could reasonably measure, Countess Annette Rose Hebert was exactly who she said she was. Yet, at the same time, it all just seemed so...impossible, fantastical, childish even.
An Order of Heroes composed of the greatest knights, wizards, princes, and queens from across realities, all banding together to stop evil and lead by a woman pulled from her own time by a quirk of fate…
That kind of thing didn't just happen, right?
And yet…
"I certainly am!" Legend responded with just as much cheer. "I have to admit, I'm more than a little curious about what awaits on the other side of this Gate. Why, as childish as it sounds, I'm eager to explore a new world!"
Then he chuckled to himself, "God, I feel embarrassed just to say it."
"Oh, there's nothing wrong with that." Lady Hebert waved it off with a smile, "After all, I still get excited whenever we run across a new realm to explore."
"But," Mrs. Allen said as she adjusted the awkward fit of the bulletproof vest over her clean pressed business suit. "Before we get into any of that, we need to get basic niceties out of the way."
The dark-skinned woman was the PRT liaison that had been assigned to their little expedition. She wasn't an official diplomat or anything, those were still inbound on flights from across the country. She was, however, a legal expert in the PRT's employ and one of the few volunteers for this mission.
"Yeah, but," Lady Hebert raised a lone finger, "Niceties include dinner and a show. For political purposes, of course."
Armsmaster's suit picked up one of the PRT troopers on the mission whistling quietly, "Dinner and a show? What kinda chow we talking?"
"Shove it, Edwards. That's for the VIP's, not grunts like us." Another trooper, Martinez, wrapped him on the shoulder.
"Grunt's like us gotta eat too, Martinez." He pointed out. "An army moves on its belly and all that."
"An army also doesn't get drunk off its ass at a political dinner when it's guarding VIP's," he shot back.
"Knowing Edwards, he's just looking to nab a fancy new trans-dimensional pint and sell it to the first schmuck he can find." Jackson quipped.
"Hey!" Edwards barked in hushed tone, indignant. "I would sell it to the first rich schmuck I could find, thank you very much."
Armsmaster suppressed a sigh at the antics. It seemed unprofessional to him, but the troopers were relatively out of the way, standing at the edge of the room and keeping their voice down. If it wasn't for the audio amplifiers in his suit, he might not have ever noticed them. That, and the combination of nerves and boredom driving him to anything and everything that could occupy his mind for even a moment, no matter how pointless.
On that subject, Armsmaster checked the progress of the search he'd left running in his lab for the fifth time in the past half hour.
He'd recorded Pancaea's responses with his helmet and had gauged what all was likely true or false during the scanning of Lady Hebert. That he wasn't able to get more from the New Wave healer was annoying, but not insurmountable. He didn't doubt that with the President weighing in on the matter, that they'd be able to get a court order soon, but would it be soon enough?
If Lady Hebert had a secret, how much damage could it do by the time they found out?
Well, that was why they were here. Legend was leading an expedition that included the liaison, the troopers, and himself, all to find the basic veracity of Lady Hebert's claims. If there was a trick or a trap somewhere, they'd sniff it out. But if it was real…
At least the search should be finished by the time I return. He thought to himself.
Who are you, Taylor Hebert?
"Yes, actually." Lady Hebert said as she walked over to the troopers, shaking him from his thoughts. "We're going to be having a big 12-course meal fit for royalty. Anything you can imagine, from fresh sushi to beef wellington, meringue pies to marzipan...why, I even taught them how to make lasagna!"
"We actually get to have some?"
"Huh, this might not actually be a shit duty after all."
"Wait, what kind of beer do they have?"
"Edwards! Martinez! Jackson!"
"Oh shit-"
"What in god's name were you telling the VIP worth more than 100 of you ducked taped together?"
"Oh, uh, nothing sarge-"
"Oh, the boys just wanted to know about what drinks were going to be at the reception," Annette answered with an odd smile.
"Oh," Sergeant Zhao said, getting a strange look in her eye, "did they now?"
Armsmaster brushed the irrelevant matter to the side and turned to the Protectorate Leader. "Legend."
"Ah! Armsmaster. How do you feel about all this?"
Armsmaster wanted to say, "Like a trap", but recent conversations with Dragon about being personable had indicated that it might not be the best approach.
"I have...reservations." He said instead.
"Reservations, heh," Legend shook his head, "Don't we all?"
The man looked back at Lady Hebert, who was talking to the PRT troopers and Mrs. Allen about what they'd be expecting on the other side.
"...feels too good to be true, right?" Legend said.
"...yes," Armsmaster grunted. "We cannot afford to become too eager to trust her word, merely because of it's benefits. We must remain vigilant."
Legend sighed and scratched the back of his head, "I want to say you're wrong, but…"
"Alright!" Lady Hebert called out, her tinkertech pistol raised in the air and...an owl on her shoulder.
At first glance, it resembled a cross between a snowy and great horned owl, though it was a little on the smaller side. It seemed perfectly happy perched on her shoulder, twisting its head around to observe the room, and silently adjusting its feathers.
It had also come from out of nowhere.
Armsmaster quickly ran back over his suit's recordings, trying to find the source of the owl that he could swear hadn't been there before. All it showed him was the owl swooping down from above and perching itself on her, in spite of the fact they were in a sealed and highly monitored room deep within the Rig.
"I'm about to open the Gate. Are you ready?" She said, idly stroking the bird's head.
"Wait, where did that owl come from?"
Armsmaster winced, Lady Hebert smirked.
"Magic~"
"Should have seen that one coming."
"So?"
Armsmaster checked his suit to make sure all his sensors were working at 100%, as well as all backups, countermeasures, and safety equipment. Even with everything in order, he felt anxious. Still, he nodded.
Surveying the room once more, Lady Hebert looked satisfied.
"Great! Time to get this show on the road." She twirled the pistol once more, readied it in her hand, aimed at the wall, and pulled the trigger.
The Tinkertech pistol hummed, a glow radiating light across the spectrum radiating brightly from its unusual barrel. The runes across its frame lit up with their own ethereal patterns, radiant shapes forming across hit. Armsmaster's suit sensors went wild, detecting gravitational, spacial, and even hints of temporal anomalies.
Then it fired.
A ball of indescribable light flew out of the pistol, expanding and growing in size as it traveled across the room. When it the wall, it didn't so much impact as sink into it, a ring of strange runes carving their way into the brick symbol by symbol as it moved.. As the ball of impossible light pushed into the wall, it seemed to warp the wall itself, leaving a multicolor trail in its wake that pushed out beyond a mere three dimensions. When it was done, there was a kind of imprint in the wall, one that defied his intuitive understanding of space-time and seemed to be a rainbow-colored hole in reality outlined by the set of glowing runes.
"Well...that's not something you see every day." Legend said, blinking and rubbing his eyes. "Honestly kind of hurts to look at."
Armsmaster had to agree, just looking at the portal Lady Hebert had made was giving him a headache. Still, it's mesmerizing shape and color, one that defied intuitive understanding, was enthralling in its own way.
"...huh." grunted one of the troopers.
"Huh? That's really all you have to say, Edwards?"
"What do you want me to say? It's a cool rainbow hole?"
"Edwards, you better shut your own god-forsaken hole before I get you assigned to babysitting duty for a month."
"Aw, but sar-holy shit!"
Everyone stopped as a bright golden light appeared next to the Gate. At first, it was intense and blinding, Armsmaster's suit had to fully polarize the visor, to the point of being opaque, and even then searing bright gold crept in at the edges.
Then it was gone. And in its place, Scion.
The most powerful parahuman on the planet, a golden being who seemed out of touch with humanity, who's motives no one could really parse, and he was hovering right there.
For a moment, no one knew what to do.
Everyone looked around, or stared at the man, trying to come to terms with what happened and figure out what was next. Scion himself didn't seem to be in a hurry, he was just staring at the Gate, and the Endbringer sirens weren't going off so nothing too bad had to be happening. Armsmaster glanced at Legend, hoping for some kind of direction from the Protectorate leader, but the man looked white as a sheet.
Then, Lady Hebert spoke up.
"Well...hello Scion, I was kind of hoping to talk to you at some point, but this is a bit sudden." She started, a bit flustered from surprise, but rallying surprisingly quickly. "Still, I'm happy to see you. Maybe we can talk about-"
Scion opened his mouth and pure sound poured out. It was deafening, a solid wave of noise, but Armsmaster couldn't rightly call it a roar. Intense as it was, for some reason Armsmaster thought he sensed a tinge of...excitement?
Then it was gone, and Scion…
Scion flew through the Gate.
Armsmaster blinked, the expedition team froze, and Legend took a sharp intake of breath.
No one quite knew what to say. Well, almost no one.
"Huh…" Lady Hebert said, her hands perched on her hips.
"Well, he sure seemed eager."
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"So you can confirm that Scion went through the Gate?"
"Yes. We're not sure how he got there, by all the recording equipment we'd set up he just seems to appear in the room, but yes."
"Do you have any indications of where he went?"
"No, once Lady Hebert and Legend's expedition went through the received reports indicating that Scion appeared on the other side in the Order of Heroes base for a moment, before disappearing in another flash of light. As it is, we have no information on his whereabouts."
Chief Director Costa-Brown leaned back across the screed, reclining in her chair and steepling her fingers.
"This...is not good, Director."
"I can't exactly control the man." Piggot pointed out.
"I don't expect you to." Costa-Brown agreed, "But that doesn't change the fact that Scion's actions are concerning."
"Do you think he'll start a war with the Order?"
"It's possible, but doubtful, and it isn't my main concern."
Piggot crossed her arms and thought about it for a moment, "...I can see a lot of implications coming from his reaction to the Gate, but beyond that I'm not sure I see the problem."
"The problem, Director Piggot, is the Endbringers." The Chief Director enunciated carefully.
Piggot frowned, "The next one shouldn't be happening for at least a month."
"And what if he's not back by then?" Costa-Brown pointed out, "We all know how easily distracted he is. If he has an entirely new spectrum of alternate realities to explore, who's to say he'll come back in time for the next Endbringer fight."
Piggot opened her mouth, but the Chief Director cut her off, "-I know what you're going to say and, yes, we need him that badly. At least half of all Endbringer battles end when he shows up and single-handedly blasts them out of the city. Most fights are just us trying to stall for time until Scion shows up. If he's off the table, all bets are off for how long an Endbringer fight can last."
Piggot closed her mouth and scowled at a random spot to the side. She didn't like to admit it, but the Chief Director was right. The fate of most Endbringer fights came down to a scatterbrained "hero" with more power than sense who happened to put saving cats from trees on the same level as saving a city from a monster. And now that man was lost.
"...When will you be arriving in town?" Piggot eventually asked, trying to change the subject to something that didn't make her feel quite so helpless and bitter.
"In two days." She answered, "I'm gathering staff and supplies on my end, then I'll be taking an express flight in. I'll be sending some trusted members of my staff and the Protectorate ahead of me, so expect to see Alexandria leading a veritable army of lawyers soon."
"Joy," Piggot said drily.
The corner of the Chief Director's lips twitched into something that almost resembled a smile. "Why, I thought you wanted reinforcements for your beleaguered branch?"
"I didn't want to get them because the mother of all diplomatic shitstorms is happening in my backyard." Piggot groused.
Costa-Brown made a sound that could have generously been called a chuckle and gave her an amused, almost pitying look. "Beggars can't be choosers, Emily."
That only made Piggot scowl all the harder.
"Well, if that's all…?" the Chief Director said after a moment.
"No, actually." Piggot didn't really want to think about it, but she couldn't ignore what she'd learned. "We might actually have a complication with Lady Hebert."
The Chief Director turned serious. "A complication? I do hope you haven't done anything regretful."
"It wasn't my call," Piggot explained, though to her own ears it sounded like whining and excuses, "Armsmaster took the ...initiative of his own accord."
"Do I want to know what he did?"
"...Probably not."
"I see…" She said levelly. "And what did he find?"
Piggot looked through her emails and found the file he'd just sent her. "Taylor Hebert, her alleged daughter-"
The Chief Director cut her off, "Enough of that. We've run every test we can think of on short notice. As far as the PRT is concerned, she is Annette Rose Hebert. We're currently working with other departments to make sure her citizenship status is updated."
Piggot grunted at the clarification. She didn't entirely like it, but it wasn't her job to whine about her feelings to command. The order had come down, and she would follow it.
"Then Taylor Hebert, her daughter, is a suspected parahuman. We don't know which cape she is in the city, as there are a handful of teenage girls in masks running around the city, but we think we have a possible trigger event." She explained. "And given how much Lady Hebert has expressed her interest in seeing her family again, a family she's missed and felt guilty about leaving…"
"She could have a volatile reaction to finding out what happened to her daughter. I see…" The Chief Director paused, looking off to the side and tapping the arm of her chair in thought.
"How bad is the trigger?"
"Bad."
"How bad?"
"Could be worse." Piggot admitted, "Nothing permanent was done, but it certainly wasn't pretty. Basic reports indicate it was a case of bullying gone wrong. The girl even had to get hospitalized. She recovered well enough and I don't have anything about any charges being pressed, so the family might have moved on. To an overprotective guilty mother with all that power, however…"
"Right...hell hath no fury…"
The Chief Director looked pensive, likely trying to weigh their options. "Is there anything you can do to see what all happened? I don't doubt that Lady Hebert will be going on a warpath the moment she finds out. It's best if we get ahead of it."
"...I have a ward who goes to the same school," Piggot said, reluctantly.
"And she didn't bring it up earlier?"
"It's not my ward's job to stop every case of bullying."
"Most bullying doesn't end with someone in the hospital."
Piggot sighed, "Shadow Stalker is...abrasive, and has a very...distinct view of reality. It's possible she didn't bring it up because she didn't want us to get involved."
"To be honest," Piggot continued, "I don't want to tap her for this. The girl's anything but subtle, and knowing her if we put her on this case she's liable to track down the party responsible and put them in the hospital herself. Or worse."
"So she's a loose cannon?"
"We have her on a leash at the moment, but to be frank that's only because of a lack of resources. She's not my first pick to have on the Wards, but she's effective. Given what I have to work with, I can't exactly afford much on the name of principle."
"While I can understand that sentiment, we can't afford loose cannons right now." The Chief Director said, then began to tap something down on her computer. "If you have any potential landmines that could interfere with discussions with the Order of Heroes, let me know and I'll do my best to take care of them before things get started. The last thing we need is a ticking time bomb in the bay."
"So, with Shadow Stalker…?"
"If she's that volatile, she'll be transferred."
"Her family wants to stay in the bay."
"Everyone has their price." Costa-Brown said dismissively, "and to facilitate a smooth round of discussions for this? Money is no object."
"Beyond that? I want you to do whatever you can to get ahead of this. If we can find out what happened and set things up for there to be legal intervention on behalf of her daughter before Lady Hebert gets it in her head to take matters into her own hands…"
"Understood, I-" Piggot stopped as an alert pinged on her own computer.
"...It seems that some of the expedition has returned. Legend, Armsmaster, and Sargent Zhao have come back through the Gate early."
"Oh? Any reason why?"
"Legend and Sergeant Zhao are on their way straight here, so we should find out soon."
"I see. Then I suppose we'll wait to hear their report in person."
Sure enough, a few minutes later there was a knock on the door to her office. Piggot discretely checked the security cameras even though she knew what she would find.
"Come." She said as she pressed the button to unlock the door.
The heavy latched built into the frame clicked and Legend swung the door open.
"Director," He nodded with a pained smile. Then he noticed who was on the conference screen in the room and added, "Chief Director. It's a pleasure."
"Indeed," Costa-Brown responded not unkindly. "Director Piggot tells me you're early, any reason why?"
"Ah...well…" Legend winced, "We have good news and bad news."
"Start with the bad. Best to know that upfront." the Chief Director said.
"Right, well…" Legend looked a bit awkward and pained for a moment before he came out with it. "It turns out that the, uh, Realms on the other side of Lady Hebert's Gate's don't really...agree with Parahumans."
"They don't agree?" the Chief Director narrowed her eyes, "Did you lose your powers?"
"Not...totally, but to a degree, yes." Legend answered with a nod, "It's a bit hard to describe, but it felt like trying to use my power was more...stressful than it should be. I was only able to hover a little and fire weak blasts of energy from my hands, and even doing that much gave me a headache that got worse the more I tried to use them."
"Even worse, my powers were unreliable. Sometimes my flight would cut out or get stronger, a beam would go from little more than laser light to something that could punch a hole in a wall. If had stayed consistent I might have been able to adapt, but with how much it kept changing I could never get a good reading on it. Armsmaster reported much the same with his Tinkertech, apparently there are instabilities and power fluctuations all across it."
"And I'm back here with Armsmaster right now because the headaches just kept getting worse the longer we were there." Legend explained. "No one else in the expedition felt them, and according to Sergeant Zhao, her men, and Mrs. Allen, they all felt perfectly fine. Even their tech, like basic phones radios, worked just fine so long as it didn't require local infrastructure like cell towers."
"Sergeant?"
"It's true, ma'am." Zhao nodded, "I don't know what was going on with the parahuman side of things, but no one on my end had any difficulties. Even tested the radios over standard distances with no discernable problems. Just felt like a vacation to most of us."
"A vacation?"
"The Order of Heroes threw us a welcoming party for our arrival. From what we can tell Lady Hebert was in full contact with them the whole time she was here. How, I can't begin to speculate, but they were waiting for us." Legend winced at the implications of that, "Not that that was a bad thing, mind you. They had an excellent spread of food, drink, and even performances for us to watch. It was all very flattering, if, uh, hard to appreciate."
To accentuate his point he gestured to his head with another grimace.
"And how your powers now?"
"Still got the headache, but it's getting better. As far as we can tell, though, Armsmaster and I got our powers back in full once we came back through the Gate. His tinkertech stopped reporting malfunctions, but he said he needed to run a proper diagnostic on it before he made any real claims on it." Legend said.
"So...a power disruption effect on the other side...and the Countess had no knowledge of this?"
"Not as far as I can tell. Everyone seemed pretty shocked when we realized what had happened. Lady Hebert, especially, was very concerned about our well being. From what we gathered this kind of power interaction wasn't something the Order had ever encountered across all the different Realms they'd traversed."
"I see…" The Chief Director trailed off thoughtfully.
"If that holds true for every parahuman, it could be as much a blessing as a curse," Piggot commented. "On the one hand, there's less of a chance of some random parahuman flying off the handle and causing trouble in their Realms. On the other…"
"It gives us less leverage if the Order has less than honest intentions." The Chief Director finished, "I know…"
"Well, on that I end I do have good news." Legend said. "We weren't there long, but in the short time we stayed everything looked to be just as she described it. A large multi-national organization spanning numerous different dimensions and alternate timelines. All working towards the goal of mutual peace and prosperity."
The man seemed genuinely impressed to the director.
Piggot didn't want to admit it, but the dark, bitter, cynical part of her hated that kind of optimism.
"Mrs. Allen and the other troopers are still there, enjoying the rest of the welcoming committee, so they'll be able to report back better tomorrow."
"Very well, is that all?"
"Er, no, actually." Legend said, "There's actually one last thing. Sergeant Zhao?"
The Sergeant stepped forward and pulled a slip of paper out from one of her pockets, "Ma'am, if I may?"
Piggot looked at the slip closely, or as close as she could from across the room. It looked to be a rectangular piece of paper covered in elaborate writing. That or illegible scrawl, it was hard to tell at this distance. She glanced at Legend in askance, who nodded, silently asking her to trust him.
"Alright, carry on then."
Zhao nodded and then turned all her attention to the slip of paper. She spoke a short chant with words that Piggot couldn't make sense of, and then the slip ignited. It burned in her fingers, yet the Sergeant didn't so much as flinch. Instead of burning her hand, however, it disintegrated into flaming motes of light that hung in the air. They collected over her hand, eventually forming a ball of light hovering neatly over her palm.
"It seems their claims about magic were more than mere fairy tales." Sergeant Zhao reported, "And it seems that the talent needed to perform it is…surprisingly common."
For a moment the room was silent as everyone tried to digest these facts. Magic, tinkertech, trump abilities, it didn't matter what you called it, this was power. Mass-produced, widespread, easily accessible power. Power in the hands of the common man, of a trained man, of the right man.
"Piggot…" The Chief Director began, "I don't care what you have to do-I don't care what I have to do…"
"We are signing that agreement."
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Annette raised her hand to knock on the door and stopped.
Looking at the raised fist, she saw it was trembling.
She managed a bitter smile, choked back a tear, and tried to will the butterflies from her stomach.
What is wrong with me? She asked herself.
For years, this had been the one thing she'd been working towards. All-day and all night, fight after fight, battle after battle, war after war, she'd always been chasing one goal.
Getting back home.
Even with all the lives she'd saved, the world's she'd changed, the friends she'd made, this had always been the thing driving her, the thing she wanted more than anything else. Yet, here she was, standing not a foot away, and she was so nervous she wanted to puke.
She'd devised tactics to bring down empires, faced grand heroes of legend, and even tangled with the gods themselves. After all that, how could this still phase her? After all she'd been through, how was it that the thought of taking that final step and entering her own home that made her sick to her stomach?
It was fear, she supposed. Before, home had seemed like such a distant goal. Unattainable, yet ever in reach. Something to strive for, but never really grasp. Now that it was here, in front of her, it seemed so much more real. All the joys…
And all the fears.
Even as she walked up the broken steps to the modest family home, her mind was wracked with nervous thoughts. Guilt, regret, anxiety, it all poisoned her mind.
What if they didn't believe her? What if they thought she wasn't real? She had to have been dead to them for years now. The PRT had confirmed she'd had a funeral, even if it was an empty casket.
While the authorities had never found her body, they'd found enough blood in the wreckage of her car that her fate hadn't been much in doubt. They probably would have been right if Askr hadn't had their best healers on hand for her summoning.
But her family didn't know that, her friends didn't know that, nobody had known that. To all of them, she'd been dead, and now she was back.
How were they supposed to react to that?
Even if they didn't deny it, what would happen then? What would her absence mean for them?
How many things had she missed? Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, time, all she couldn't get back.
Her baby girl was a teenager now, right in the middle of high school. She'd missed her little owl grow up. How many events in her baby's life had she missed? First dates, first breakups, making new friends, finding new hobbies, winning championships, losing championships...she had no idea.
Annette didn't even know what kind of person her daughter was now, and that fact stole all the steel from her soul.
And Danny…
Oh gods, Danny…
What had it been like without her? Had he been able to get over her death? Had it weighed on him instead? Had moved onto to someone else? Annette couldn't blame him if he had, as far as he'd known she'd been dead. It'd kill her inside, but she could live with it. But if he'd taken it hard, if he'd…
Annette didn't even want to think about it.
And how would they react when she stepped through that door? Would they blame her for being gone? For everything that went wrong in their lives? Would they even want her to be a part of their family anymore? It'd been years since she'd left, if they'd managed to move on without her...coming back could wound them more than anything else. And if her absence had shattered their family, how could she live with that?
I...I suppose I'll just have to make it up to them.
She rallied herself, finding her fire once more. She'd had these thoughts hundreds of times before. They'd been lesser, less present, less immediate, less intense, but they'd been there. She'd wound her way through thousands of lines of guilt, fear, and longing over and over, but as much as she was a worrier, she was also a doer.
It was how she'd made it through the years of war, how she'd become the Summoner of the Order. As much as she worried, as much as she poured over plans, tactics, strategies, to try and turn even the most dire tide, at the end of the day she'd always done something. Even the best plan was useless if you were too scared of failure to implement it.
So, Annette decided, she would do something. More than something, she'd do everything.
She'd make up for every missed party, every missed date, every lost moment of time. She'd make up for every single instant that she wasn't there to love her family. And it all had to begin with one step.
For the first time in four years, Annette Rose Hebert knocked on the door.
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A/n:
Alright, so SV's had its turn, they made note of some things and I've made edits for those things in turn, so I think it's good.
The next chapter will follow up this one from Taylor's perspective, and it will probably be out in around two weeks, maybe less but don't count on it.
As for now, I think it's a decent enough chapter here. I'm rushing a few things, doing tell instead of show, and while that is supposed to be a cardinal sin in writing, what's also very important is actually getting to the story and not wasting the reader's time. Had I hashed out the whole minor expedition thing, it probably would have been an additional 3 chapters for something I'm going to be repeating on a grander scale for the actual diplomatic talks between the US and the Order. So while I'm not 100% happy with it, I've learned what happens what I try to show everything, and I'd rather actually get to the important stuff before I lose interest in the story.
In any case, hopefully, this chapter finds you well and I didn't leave some embarrassingly huge errors behind in the transfer.
Hopefully.