Having a brother that transcends mere dimensionality has some perks.

Like dogs.

Sometimes it was nice to have government cover ups work in your favor. The twins had threatened to sue the socks off the entire governing body of the Ark down several generations if they were not left alone. They didn't make any other threats involving Armageddon. The Prophets came to that conclusion themselves when Akira and Akane both politely sat in the lobby and smiled at the government clerks after taking a number. It helped that there was a subtle pressure to Akira's presence that was hard to define. Something about a guy made of hundreds of copies of himself superimposed into his own being? The twins didn't fully understand the collective Akira either.

Well, it wasn't subtle. They had dragged Yoseph in handcuffs to the station, thrown him in a holding cell, then waited to see how long for anyone to notice the man fuming in a forgotten cell. (Hal and Kyle may have hacked in to watch.) While waiting, Akane and Akira had brought a deck of cards with them to the main Union office building. They played poker with the Axe Legion. Akira had forgotten to check his eyes were not glowing purple and Akane decided to not tell her brother to tone it down.

It took a long time for the fuss to die down for them. Akira politely declined offers of a new Legatus and Olive did not press the issue when he continued to space out at random times. Akane stuck to his side and cheerfully deflected nosy people. The two had no issues handling anything Astral Plane related, other than the fact that all their official bodycam footage tended to be staticky and corrupted at exactly the wrong times for people to see what the two actually did.

Of course, sooner or later they had to slip and have other people get a glimpse of the terrifying power of the Akira collective walking around.

It started the evening with the twins jumping into a gate at the end of a long graveyard shift. Akira stopped and Akane waited for him to sense out the area. No one but her had an inkling of what Akira was truly able to do now but she had yet to lay Akira's insecurities about it to rest. The two were, of course attacked by Chimeras. They were no match for Akira. He was completely unaffected by any attacks. His lack of Legatus did nothing to slow him down. Normally his twin sister would be just fine too but they were tired and Akira was more preoccupied trying to pinpoint the direction of any lost people.

Akane took a heavy blow to the head.

"YOU." Akira declared with nothing held back. The entire Astral Plane seemed to freeze. The Chimera that delivered the concussion froze in terror. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

The Astral Plan shuddered like a kid caught in the act of stealing the forbidden cookie dough. The Chimera cowered.

"YOU ARE SO UNDER ARREST." Akira said. He didn't notice the other side of the comms was absolutely silent. He couldn't have seen Olive and Alicia stifling nervous giggles. The Chimera fled, as did every Chimera in the vicinity. Akira teleported right to Akane's side and she looked up with unfocused eyes.

"Don' worry Dad it's jus a little bump." Akane tried to get up and winced at the headache. "It's fine, Dad." Akane's headache pounded but a thought came through the daze to her. "Hi dad, I'm concussed."

Akira raised an eyebrow. "Yeah I'm not Dad. You're still concussed."

Alicia snickered. "I don't know, kid, you might be turning into your old man. You sounded so much like him, you fooled your own twin sister."

Akane squinted. "Wait, you're not Dad?"

"I'm not even the right hair color, he's way taller, has a beard? That scar?" Akira complained as he dragged Akane out the gate to get some medical attention.

"But..." Akane's concussed mind faltered as it really wanted to make sense of the fact that she'd heard the angry dad voice earlier. The Axe Legion came out to fuss and Akane squinted at him now. "Oh there you are. I knew I heard you!"

"Okay, that's just sad." Alicia said. They got Akane bandaged up and handed her off to the medical team. Akira walked back alone to the apartment with his thoughts.

What with the trauma of the whole clone merging incident Akira was still reluctant to try too much with his abilities. Akane tried not to push too much but they'd both held an unspoken hope Akira would be able to extract people out of their aberration state. He'd managed to de-fuse Akane with zero problem. Extracting Yoseph from within the collective Akira entity fusion had been harder. It was like removing a stubborn splinter.

Other things though... The twins so far had stuck to simple red matter cleanup and blueshifting. Turning an Aberration back into a human should follow the same process but there was a significant jump in difficulty if minds were going to be involved. Removing the Astral corruption from non-living things had become second nature to him after all the practice the twin could get away from prying eyes. He compared fixing Chimera minds to brain surgery for Akane.

Akira's mind was set firmly on Captain Howard and how to extract him from the Axe Legion tonight. He fed the cats then went to a secluded area. Akira opened a small portal to the Astral Plane and collared a smaller beast Chimera. He focused all 432 of his thought processed on the thing and reached for the fragments of the simple mind.

"Hey, Akira, I'm home!" Akane opened the door to find Akira kneeling on the floor, head in his hands. "Um."

A small fluffball bounded into the room and yapped. It... had legs, pointed ears, a curled tail made of fluff, a pointy little nose? Did... that tail just wag?

"Akira, what... what is that?"

"I don't know. I think I messed up. It was supposed to be a dog." The twins stared at the thing which certainly acted like a dog. They, having grown up on the Ark with it's limited choice of dogs, had not seen a Pomeranian before. Akane tossed a jingly ball and found that it certainly knew how to fetch. "Wait, didn't Mike say something about dog breeds?"

The two spent some time on the internet looking at different types of dog and playing with the Pomeranian. Akira, heartened to know he had not severely deformed a dog but had done the chimera reversal correctly, tried again. And again. They probably should have stopped but he wanted to master the delicate process.

Hal found the twins later, apartment full of dogs.