When John managed to connect back up with his family, Jessica had given him a hug and tossed him to the girls so she could spend more time infiltrating the local spiritual network with her SPYRAL agents.

Which was fine, because both he and the girls wanted to talk about the Morphin Grid. And what they should do about it.

Temptation frowned as she and Grace looked over John's notes. "No, it isn't aware yet… Less than an animal really. You basically have something like a houseplant that is trying to put roots into you."

John blinked as he considered that. "The Morphin Grid is a pretty big houseplant."

The girls nodded, but Grace began showing other information on her screen. "Think of her as a tree without leaves or trunk… Just roots. So… Almost like a tumbleweed? The roots connect all the Zords and Concepts and memories and so forth, but the entire structure of the Grid is not designed to actually gather and grow energy on its own. More to transport materials from location to location."

Except the roots were bidirectional (Or more) connections between a series of networking nodes and endless endpoints. And some of the roots were more fields, or ranges of coverage, or selective filters on reality.

John mentally pushed the roots back, like a giant gently nudging away an eager puppy. "Can you get her to stop trying to eat me?"

Grace sighed. "Stop her from succeeding, yes. But she isn't advanced enough yet to understand communication beyond the 'language' used to create materials and such through her network. We can't actually ASK her to stop, and she doesn't understand enough to consider stopping on her own."

Sigh. "Fine, whatever. Not like this hurts or anything, it just feels all tingly."

Plus, now that they were AWARE of the issue, most of the 'leaking' energy was automatically gathered and returned to the System so John wouldn't be permanently hungry for munchies while visiting places like this.

So what could he do… Ah. "Can we train it?"

Grace blinked. "I'm sorry?"

Yeah, this could work! "Let's alter my energy overflow handling modules to make packets of power, and use them as snacks. Then we can train the Grid to… I don't know, do tricks? Stop licking me? SOMETHING at least, right?"

Grace frowned. "Telling me to 'teach her to do tricks' sounds SO wrong, my Lord…"

Temptation on the other hand was brightly grinning! "I'LL DO IT!"

John ignored Grace's sputtering and pointed at her sister. "Sold! To my devilish beauty! Now please, PLEASE do something that will get her to stop tickling my dead and crippled modules. It's like an itch I can't scratch, now that I'm fully aware of it."

So! Itchy!

Grace reached over and physically grabbed her sister's hands as she typed to begin typing commands. "NO! Not before we BOTH look over what you wish to propose and our Lady ALSO approves of it BEFOREHAND!"

Temptation wiggled her eyebrows… "Come on sis, I'm sure I can also teach YOU some tricks…"

Her blush was epic. "HUSH YOU!" Cough. "John, my Lord, please be a dear and give us a few moments to talk in private?"

Um. "Of course… I guess I'll just go get some sleep then? It is pretty late…"

She nodded, ignoring the smirk on her sister's face. "That would be perfect, thank you. Sleep well, my Lord."

John was pretty tired… "Goodnight, Grace. Goodnight, Temptation."

"Oh I'm going to make SURE it's good…" "I said HUSH!" "Mrmm mmm MMM mmrm!"

He was just going to ignore all that. System, let sis know I'm hitting the sack, alright? Going to get some shuteye.

[[Confirmed.]]

Now! Let's see what the bedrooms are like in these provided apartments!

~~~Pocket System~~~

Manager Melkins looked at THE Ninjor of Ninjors: 31a, the one known to most as 'Hubby'. "Are… Are you alright?"

He did not LOOK alright. Not at all.

The slumped man grumbled at the table.

…This did not bode well. "Did something happen?"

He rolled slightly to glare at her. "That kid is YOUR problem."

She blinked. "I'm sorry?"

And he was standing tall! "THAT kid, and all the craziness that is his everything, is officially YOUR TEAM's priority! Your SOLE priority! I'm having any and all other tasks put on hold, assigned to others, and anything new bypassing you entirely!"

His hand jabbed towards the door. "THAT kid is to be kept under watch, hopefully amused to some extent, and AWAY from as much as we can get away with until he wanders away! Same goes with his companions, and anything ELSE he spawns or summons or calls forth or mutates! ALL of it gets the full 829 treatment!"

Shit, an 829 Entity situation!? Those cases were 'officially' theoretical examples only! "Are we allowed to leave behind last messages before we undergo quarantine?" And probable death, either due to that 'boy' or as a safety precaution once they lost track of him.

The ninja fell back into his chair. "Thankfully we can drop the mutilating and lethal preventative measures entirely in this case, and many of the others. So that won't be an issue."

Oh thank god. "So he isn't hostile? Consciously or unconsciously?"

Ninjor snorted. "No, I mean he's so outside of our control and understanding that even the most extreme methods of containment and mitigation are beyond pointless. On a horrifying scale too, I'm pretty sure if the kid was an issue it'd be on a temporal, conceptual, and positional range beyond our ability to even measure."

…So she wasn't avoiding the secure containment protocols because of the lack of risk, but because they were too late to worry about any of that anyway so they might as well just assume everything is fine until John Doe and family hopefully leave at some point.

Shit. "Sir, is there any guidance for us from Administration? What protocols should my team follow, if we should continue our planned activities and events for settling them in?"

Ninjor nodded. "Yeah, and we've already given them: Take care of the kid. No exceptions, no restrictions, no consequences. He tells you to do something horrendous? Try to mildly dissuade if possible, but don't directly confront the issues. Attempt to distract, divert, ANYTHING you can… And if you end up crossing lines or policies or laws or REALITY, be assured that we understand and will support you to the best of our ability."

Samantha Melkins gulped. "How… How strong is he?"

The ninja pulled out a small vial from somewhere and gulped it down. "He bleeds more energy than entire universes without noticing. Alters layers of existence subconsciously if something distracts his attention at the wrong time. Took concepts and materials and designs from my most advanced prototype, a device that many versions of myself have been working on some variant or other over the course of YEARS, and designed and BUILT better examples in moments without care or concern."

He faltered slightly. "I was very concerned that he saw through my facade, and noticed my fears and concerns about the boy and what he represented… But I rate so lowly on the 'threat' scale that I doubt he even noticed."

But… "How is that possible?"

The man sighed. "I can't quite feel him or examine him well, but the lack of evidence is strong enough that I was able to deduce a few things. The reason this planet hasn't caught fire or worse already, how he can bleed like that without consequences, and the way my equipment reacts to him… The 'boy' in there is like a shadow."

Ninjor casually projected a magical chart of data. "His true nature, or at least some other projection of him, exists outside of the here and now. The power is being bled over THERE, and only the smallest fragment of a portion of a percent of it is being detected by us, fed on by the Morphin Grid, and influencing causality locally."

The images vanished. "Although that's my best guess. For all I know there's even MORE layers of masks and disguises and projections and shadows and shades the deeper and deeper you dig into it. And I'm not going to look again, because something I WASN'T measuring made me feel like I had been noticed, and somehow that caused minor amounts of damage to me in the process. Not even intentionally, like as a warning or provoked malicious intent or something… Nope! Just making those things AWARE that I MIGHT be in some way detecting them caused me issues."

He gathered what seemed to be a small mound of broken electronics from many pockets too small to contain them and began piling them onto the table. "That scrap was supposed to defend my mind, this one was to avert Soul damage, these few shifted injuries to alternate timelines where I didn't exist, this one I haven't built yet but it has somehow ended up here anyway and… Huh, I think I need the parts from that failed attempt to actually construct the original hardware. That's going to become confusing later on, I just know it."

With a flick of his wrist, the hardware bits got shoved into a trash bag. "Point is, we need to keep that kid happy and mostly corralled until he's someone else's problem. YOUR team is going to be cheerful and supportive, and hopefully all of us can get through this mess together. If he wants to research something, let him. Go somewhere? Try to get civilians out of dodge, then lead the way!"

Slinging the bag of trash over one shoulder, he grunted and got up from his chair, ready to leave. "Hell, if we're lucky maybe he'll just open a lemonade stand while his older sister gets a part time job or something… Either way, you all are getting triple hazard pay for this, any and all other responsibilities put on hold for the duration of this mission, and all our hopes and prayers. Further contact is to be limited to nightly submitted reports, as per policy covering 829 Entities."

He paused on the way out the door. "Oh, and for your group the 829 Entity policies have been decensored and provided to your equipment. You are all given special access clearance and can read them without being mind wiped."

The door closed after he left, leaving her alone and with a LOT of weight on her shoulders.

And just a WONDERFUL conversation she was about to be required to have with her people, the cleaning crews, the medical staff assigned to this building…

Breathe in. And out.

Samantha straightened her shoulders and forced herself to focus. She could do this. She COULD!

…Although she did make a mental note to update her 'Sorry, I died' emergency letters back in her room after getting home. Better be safe than sorry.

~~~Pocket System~~~

Jessica blinked. "I'm sorry, could you say that again?" She must have been more tired than she realized.

Her field agent nodded. "ALL digital resources have suddenly been granted to us. Before this, we've been limiting ourselves to only gathering intel using publicly available information, following local customs and protocols… But as of twenty eight minutes ago, all members of 'Displaced Case 8290001' have been given basically a blank check. Full access."

That… That didn't sound normal. Not at all. "For now, do not expand our informational gathering mission scope. In fact, mark the issue and report it to the networking team. Someone might be trying to set us up for some future play here, and I don't want to fall for it."

"Yes Sir!"

Hmm. "Does this extend to other security features? Such as the access codes for facility sections and such?"

Another nod. "Yes Sir. Any members of 'Displaced Case 8290001' are now approved to access all areas within the range of our ability to verify such without actually intruding."

Oh dear. "Quickly map out the facility's public areas and regions we were permitted to visit prior to these changes, and have Grace ENSURE that John doesn't accidentally wander away!"

The agent checked something. "The Emperor is currently resting for the day in the provided chambers… The newly implemented map of restricted areas will be implemented for actual use within an estimated two hours and twelve minutes. He shall be informed of these issues when he awakens."

Thank goodness… And getting some sleep sounded like a GOOD idea at the moment too. "I'm going to call it a day too… Probably should have done so hours ago, really."

The agent didn't even flinch. "I couldn't possibly say, Sir. As of two hours ago: Your room has already been prepared and scanned for observation equipment or concealed threats."

Jessica couldn't help but snort. 'Couldn't possibly say', sure. Like they hadn't been giving her updates every ten minutes about how they had 'secured the resting facilities'.

Whatever. They meant well, at least…

Fighting back a yawn, she began having the virtual interfaces and screens go through the 'non-emergency' lockdown procedures and processes.

She'd handle all the other craziness that might come up tomorrow.