A/N: Hey guys, I just realized something. I have a Discord, if anyone wants to join it. Currently, nobody's on it, and I'm very alone on it as of writing this lol. Link will be on my profile, if I can figure out how to do it.

Chapter 6 - Family Bonding.

Later that same night...

I woke up in a cold sweat, bolting up to see Kara looking at me nervously. "Sorry. I tried waking you up, but you didn't respond. You kept just thrashing and muttering. Nightmares?" She asks. I nod, and hug her tightly.

"It's fine. I don't usually sleep a ton, and that's honestly what I get for not sleeping while we were on the run. I hope I wasn't that loud, and I hope I wasn't a bother." I reply softly, Gamer's Mind doing its work to keep me relatively calm.

I break from the hug, standing up. "I need to talk with Hazel. She wanted to talk earlier, but she sent me to bed around when you fell asleep on her. Is she still awake?" I ask numbly. Kara nods, and with that, I thank her and go looking for Hazel.

I finally find her sitting in the backyard on a lawn chair, and I join her, sitting on the ground, looking around the area as the sun sets. "Beautiful night. Is it always like this?" I ask. She nods, and turns to me. "You care for her." It wasn't a question. She just said it as a fact. "I mean, I invited her along, which was stupid of me, I'll admit, but I had a reason. I think it's rather clear how much I do care for her, though, considering my loss of sleep, among other reasons." I start.

With her silence, I chose to tell her what I was hiding. No point garnering trust if it'll go down the drain to paranoia later, right? The truth is important, no matter how hard it can be sometimes. "System, unlock my status and titles specifically for Hazel." I called out. "Ping!" was heard as it was unlocked. Hazel raised a brow, but looked over me, seeing my title, my stats, and my bio. "It doesn't say what the title does." Hazel says simply. "The Echo title summary." I call out again.

The Echo: With this title, you gain a permanent +5 to Cha. When you speak with people who are destined to be important allies, you can gain or lose influence with them. They will remain allies no matter what, but their actions and goals won't always match yours if your influence with them is decreased. Be careful what you say, smartass. With time, the maximum influence you can gain will increase, as well as your control over them. Choose carefully what you ask of your trusted allies.

Hazel mulls it over, and decides on simply slapping me. "Deserved." I mutter. "You're right. I should be furious with you. But I've had time to think about everything, and realized something like this was pretty likely, in the grand scheme of things. Kara knew that you were losing sleep for her, and only mentioned it when she woke up. She was scared for your health, and was glad that you were sleeping. I'm not sure you knew that she'd known, but it means a lot to her. I don't think you have bad intentions, otherwise I wouldn't be hosting you now. I'm glad you spoke with me about this, so it wasn't some huge confrontation." She rambles.

"Understood. But there's another problem." I replied, bringing up the influence list for her to see. Her name and Kara's name, as well as the influence ratios, appear in front of her, and her jaw drops. "You have more over me than you do her." She mutters. There was silence for a few minutes, as she took in what she saw.

She stands abruptly. "I'm gonna go back in and cook. Anything you want?" She asks. "Just a sandwich, I guess works. Whatever's easiest." I reply absently. She nods and runs back inside, while I sit there, deciding to train my powers a little.

Thirty minutes later, we were seated around a table, eating sandwiches. My Force powers hadn't grown all that much in the time she'd left me, but I did manage to level them all up at least once, the ones like Shock and Revitalize being used on a rat I found scurrying around.

"So... We're all reunited, I guess." I start awkwardly, swallowing a bite of my food. "I guess so." Hazel replies dully, picking a little at her turkey sandwich. "How come you're alone, Hazel? I thought you still had family around?" Kara asked, slight unease in her eyes.

"They'd just left on a trip the same day Cyrus started appearing all over the news. They haven't come back yet, though they should be. They only really told me they were headed east for something important." She responds numbly, clearly avoiding eye contact with me, also seeming a little disturbed in regards to her parents up and going.

"You think it has to do with him?" Kara responds, frowning. At the same time, a thought hit me. "Your father... His name doesn't happen to be Dillon Truman, does it?" I ask, remembering the agent I met the day it all started. Hazel's eyes widen, but she shakes her head.

"He's not related to me, but he works with my dad. You don't think we need to run further, do you?" She says, slightly shocked. "I'm surprised you said we. Glad to have you on the team, I suppose. But yeah, we might need to move, Hazel. If we don't, I don't have much choice on what comes next with your parents. Either I get caught and tested on while you two get hurt or in legal trouble, or I get forced to do something lethal. There's a one in a million chance I can convince them, but consider this. They're government agents." I admit.

"Then let's move when we need to. I'd give it two days before they give up and send agents home for a while." Hazel says grimly. "So we need a new plan. But we have time. We can plan tomorrow. Let's just be friends today, and not allies in a war." I summarize.

Kara nods, and Hazel sighs. "Alright. Family bonding it is, then." She suggests. "Kara, I already know a bunch about you. But Cyrus, you were always a mystery, in and out of school. I never really knew you. Quiet and spontaneous is what I really knew. So let's change that shall we? Tell me about yourself." Hazel asks.

"Well, I'm seventeen now, as of last week. I would be a senior in high school, if not for this mess. My family was never great, and I was never really special or talented, either. Just some freak to them. I kinda sucked in most of my classes, and never really fit in too well. My grades always lacked unless I had a good teacher in a fun subject, so I was never really popular. Anything else that isn't really obvious?" I rambled, trying to think of anything notable that wasn't part of the whole manhunt for me.

"Not that I can think of right now. Nice to properly meet you, though, Cyrus." Hazel says, reaching out to shake my hand. I obliged, and we fell back into a tense silence. "Do you have any games? I'm sure it'd be nice to play something together to unwind." I offer. "There's Minecraft and Mario Kart, but surely training would be a better idea in case we do get found out, right?" Hazel asks, clearly a little reluctant.

I sigh, knowing it was probably for the best. "I know it's probably a better option to train, I just figured a day to relax might not really hurt, you know? But you're right. You two can play if you want, but I should get back to training when we're all done eating." I reply, frowning a little. Can you blame me for stalling it out a bit? I may be a gamer, now on multiple levels, but this is still real life to me. I need time to not just be a mindless vessel of power every once in a while, and I voiced as much.

"I agree, you deserve as much time as anyone to rest, if not more, but didn't you also point out you could only take one agent at a time just a week ago? Constantly hoping you'll only be in one-on-one combat won't get you victory, in the end, Cyrus." Kara cuts in. I nod slightly, and decide to dish out my levels, since I haven't got a chance to touch them in a while. The final results were this:

Level 17

Str: 23
Con: 26
Dex: 19
Int: 28
Wis: 30
Cha: 17(+5)

Computer Use: 17(+9 from Int) = 26
Demolitions: 8(+9 from Int) = 17
Stealth: 25(+4 from Dex) = 29
Awareness: 26(+10 from Wis) = 36
Persuade: 30(+3 from Cha, +3 from the Echo title) = 36
Repair: 16(+9 from Int) = 25
Security: 20(+10 from Wis) = 30
Treat Injury: 28(+10 from Wis) = 38

I'll be first to admit, I was awestruck by the growth I got, and it made Kara's growth a lot less impressive, though still incredible in nature that she grew as much as she did without even realizing it. The Attribute bonuses I get on my Skill ranks makes it all the more impressive for me to have grown this much, plus the passive +5 in Charisma from my title, so my status page looked a little more like this:

Name: Cyrus Ambrosio Elroy
Species: Human
Class: Scoundrel, Dark Jedi Consular.
Health: 260/260
FP: 300/300
Level: 17
Str: 23
Con: 26
Dex: 19
Int: 28
Wis: 30
Cha: 17(+5)

I frowned when I noticed that my alignment in my class changed to Dark, but I shrugged it off for now. Probably comes with, y'know, killing innocent government agents, when all they want is to get paid so they can feed their families, which I can't really judge them for, but they had the misfortune of coming after me, so in the end, they hurt me or my allies, I kill them in return. Oh, and maybe a part of the wanting-to-overthrow-the-government thing.

A few minutes later, everyone was done, and I found myself outside again, training my powers further, this time on a frog I found. I felt a little bad, killing and reviving something over and over, but I needed to grow. Shock was all I could really reliably do in terms of offense right now, so I needed that as a weapon, to be ready for anything.

In the end, I evolved Shock, as well as Revitalize, giving me Force Lightning and Improved Revitalize.

Power Evolved!
Shock - Force Lightning: When this power is triggered, a bolt of lightning shoots towards the target from your hand, damaging the target. Also good for overloading electronic devices or cooking!
FP Cost: 15 FP

Power Evolved!
Revitalize - Improved Revitalize: When you trigger this power on someone recently deceased, they can rise from the dead, the amount of HP and FP you bestow to them multiplied by x1.5.
Cost: 10 HP and 10 FP minimum

I smile slightly. Now I don't have to kill to do damage. I was pretty happy about that. Now I just need to find a way to train with a vibroblade, or, better yet, make a lightsaber, since I have a crystal of choice.

I redeemed a purple lightsaber crystal, and 5 Power Credits, given I can pretty safely assume they'll let me evolve, level up, or unlock powers. "Ding!" Woohoo, plus one to Intelligence.

Knowing that, I already know what I want to put those into. Why have a trump card that can only occasionally be used in dire situations? I knew I should be unlocking it soon anyways, since I'm nearing level 20, which is around when you obtain it in the actual game. I put the five points into Force Crush, making it level 6.

Force Crush Level 6: When you trigger this power, the target is lifted in the air, severe pressure getting applied to their organs, muscles, and bones, crushing them. Highly lethal.
FP cost: 65 FP

I raise a brow when I see it's not locked anymore. My best guess as to why I can suddenly use it is because either something's about to happen where I'll need it, or because I got high enough stats to justify having it unlocked. Or maybe even both. I frown at that foreboding thought, and notice the time, so I go back inside to get more sleep before dawn hits.