Chapter 5: Mealtime

After leaving the Training Room RJ started walking towards His apartment and an unexpected encounter happened.

RJ unexpectedly ran into B15 who was accompanied by Miss Minutes going to Her office.

RJ wanted to avoid the killer AI only for B15 to start a conversation with Her favorite recruit. "RJ! How was the first day?"

RJ stopped to talk to B15 since He had no reason to fear Her and talked about His first day which still hadn't ended. Giving B15 the details from Klaus throwing Him in front of the other recruits to being invited by Zeezee out to a drink. Of course leaving the System out of the conversation.

B15 was very interested in RJ's report of His first 'day' and during the part when Klaus threw Him B15 had several thoughts on Klaus's way of doing things but B15 respected each Captain of the Minutemen including the head captain and decided to just simply Ignore that part.

Once RJ talked about Zeezee however B15 interrupted saying "Oh I know who or what she is."

RJ was confused by the outburst and responded "Hun?"

B15 had then asked Miss Minutes to bring up Zeezee's file only for Her to see and said "As I thought."

RJ this time interjected asking "If you don't mind." Asking if B15 could tell Him. B15 was nervous, but still told RJ.

What RJ learned shocked Him. Apparently Zee Zee was subjected to experiments in a failed program called Enhancer. In this project was to enhance the average Minuteman into a stronger more agile weapon. However by using the DNA of a known past Lycanthrope or most commonly known as the Werewolf. Test subjects exhibited psychotic tendencies.

In the end the project was taken down, but not before the Head Scientist was killed by one of the Minutemen test subjects. And without the Scientist who started the experiment and created the formula that turned the MInutemen into half Lycanthrope. The TVA couldn't reverse the test subject's condition.

After B15's explanation RJ felt sad for How Zee Zee was treated and for the other subjects. While RJ was processing B15 was quite the only one to break the silence was Miss Minutes who spoke in a mumble "He wouldn't have allowed it."

Suddenly both B15 and RJ jolted at hearing these words turning to Miss Minutes who looked back at them with a surprised pensive look. Mainly at Herself for having said that.

Both RJ and B15 reacted differently B15 reacted asking Miss Minutes. "When was the last time you checked in with Ouroboros?"

Miss Minutes had answered with a pensive look to try and remember when Her last check up was. After a minute of waiting Miss Minutes responded. "About two days ago."

B15 reacted weirdly stating "It's weird for you to act this way to set up a meet up with Ouroboros later today."

Miss Minutes didn't back talk or anything and just set an appointment with Ouroboros through His Tempad and then remained quiet until RJ responded asking if She was okay.

Miss Minutes never felt like anyone had cared about Her well being except at this moment of Happiness another memory appeared this time showing a man with His face covered yet Miss Minutes knew He was staring at Her and said.

"You are my greatest creation and my only friend. Come I must show you something." Through Miss Minutes point of view showed the man covered in a purplish and greenish robes standing on a balcony. When the man looked up once Miss Minutes did the same She Herself uttered the word "Beautiful."

Then as if it didn't happen Miss Minutes came back to reality and thanked RJ "Thanks RJ" this time instead of Her usual giddy attitude She also had winked when B15 wasn't looking shocking RJ.

After winking Miss Minutes left, leaving both B15 and RJ alone. RJ looked at the time seeing that thirty minutes had passed leaving Him three hours and thirty minutes until RJ was to meet up with Zee Zee at the cafeteria.

After Looking at His watch B15 realized She was late and needed to go back to Her office being the first to leave after Miss Minutes. As She left B15 told RJ to not push Himself in training and was then soon out of RJ's line of sight.

RJ after seeing B15 off went to His apartment and took a shower after doing so decided to open up the shop while getting dressed. RJ's main goal was to get skills to help with future possible situations that required powers and once opening it RJ found that He had more choice than the first four he previously had.

[Skills

Toads Jumping: 9MP

Toads Tongue: 2MP

Union Jacks Enhanced Healing: 10MP

Vipers Poison Absorption: 15MP

HammerHeads Skull: 20MP

CrossBones Gun Mastery: 20MP

Callisto's senses: 17Mp]

RJ was happy having new choices but wondered why He only could buy villain skills not that He was complaining, but simply curious.

To answer His call the System sent a prompt. [The System read the User's brain patterns and saw that you prefer the Villain's to the Hero's. Which made the System decide to place mainly Villain skills available in the Shop. Does the User wish to change this setting?"]

RJ didn't even wait two seconds before answering "Yes." The System then did as ordered without complaint, but against RJ's hopes new skills didn't appear making Him a little mopy.

RJ decided not to complain any more since so far the system has been obscenely helpful with both the Shop and the missions and then brought Himself back on track.

RJ seemed to look at the HammerHead and CrossBones skills, but decided against it since it wouldn't matter if He could buy two skills compared to just a singular one.

RJ then looked at the other skills available and decided to rule out Callisto's Senses. Yes they were good, but these senses don't really help with hand to hand combat which RJ needed if He was to survive.

Then finally RJ looked at the first Four skills the System had given Him. RJ easily deduced that from the possible choices He could go He still could only buy two skills no matter which variation He chose.

After much thinking, RJ decided to rule out Viper's ability because it wouldn't mean much unless He was poisoned. RJ also had gotten rid of choosing Toad's Tongue which with Viper's Poison Absorption would be a great combination since the only way to redistribute the Poison was through the tongue and with Toads. RJ could poison anyone within 30 feet from Him and that was if they didn't get paralyzed first.

That only left Two options being both Toads Jumping which could enhance RJ's jumping and leaping ability by a huge margin and Union Jack's Enhanced Healing which was useful in the long run healing injuries faster than the average person.

Together both skills equaled 19 Mission Points right under RJ's spending limit and without hesitation bought the skills after pressing the [Yes] prompt.

After accepting the skills RJ felt a surge of power in his body accompanied by an insatiable need for jumping. Which once done allowed RJ to jump off the ground at nearly twelve feet when He could only jump off at least if He tried three feet off the ground.

Sadly as RJ jumped His head had gone through the ceiling hitting the roof of His head causing a concussion on normal people. But thanks to Union Jack's healing ability RJ didn't have to worry much and unstuck His head from out the ceiling hearing a banging at the door.

The one at the door was RJ's neighbor. She was an old woman who looked to be about seventy and upon looking at Her reminded RJ of His late Grandma. Thankfully She hadn't expected much and believed in the simple lie of remodeling and left as fast as she got there slow and agile.

Before leaving the old Women introduced Herself as Miss Duchess and that If RJ needed help she'd send Her husband to help.

After meeting Miss Duchess, RJ decided to leave thirty minutes early at twelve thirty from His apartment to meet up with Zee Zee at the cafeteria. Thanks to a few shortcuts provided by His Tempad, RJ found Himself at the Cafeteria with Zee Zee waiting for Him.

What took RJ's sight was what Zee Zee was wearing which seemed to be some casual wear compared to both Her Sports and Business wear. What Zee Zee wore was a white sleeveless shirt with jeans.

RJ felt as if he over dressed with His only type of clothing which was just His business suit. After staring at Zee Zee for a while RJ decided that soon in the future to go on a shopping spree for casual clothing.

While RJ stared Zee Zee felt shy looking at RJ's business wear thinking "Did I wear too casual?" Zee Zee had several repeating thoughts mainly focussing on the fact that She had dressed too casually.

But that didn't bother RJ "You look great" He commented. Zee Zee liked His compliments and unlike Zee Zee's persona of a bad girl She had bowed Her head in a shy manner avoiding RJ's gaze.

After both RJ and Zee Zee extended their greetings. Both of them sat down around the cafeteria after walking in a line choosing which preserved food in the microwave like compartments on the wall.

RJ grabbed a simple Cheeseburger with Fries while Zee Zee had a small salad to keep Her diet up. RJ mainly ate the burger to remember what food was like since all He had in the past two days was just two eggs.

Zee Zee was surprised at how fast RJ ate it as if to Her He hadn't eaten in a while. RJ ignored the stares others in the cafeteria gave as He finished eating His last fry. He finally looked at Zee Zee who looked shocked.

RJ felt embarrassed placing His right hand on His head apologizing for His sloppy demeanor. Zee Zee didn't honestly mind the way RJ ate. What did bother Her were the constant stares watching them.

After eating, RJ started the conversation by asking why Zee Zee had joined the Minutemen. Zee Zee's answer was simple yet satisfying. "I joined because I didn't want a desk job."

RJ could agree even though at first He wanted said Desk job, but realized that a whole world was within reach of discorving so RJ easily forgave B15's forced enrollment into the Minutemen and instead embraced it as a new aspect on His new life.

As both RJ and Zee Zee talked about their hobbies and their individual workout schedules. RJ overheard other TVA agents talking about Time anomalies.

"You hear about the Time Anomaly in Cairo and Britain?"

"Yeah. I did. How the found bodies looked unrecognizable from before."

Other TVA agents talked about it, but this was the main byline of it. After hearing this RJ became curious on what had happened, but mainly focussed on Zee Zee since it would've been considered rude if He was caught.

To what seemed to be minutes was hours gone past. Both RJ and Zee Zee talked about other things until it got to the point of them being considered friends during this time Knox and Scepter had joined them through RJ's forcefulness.

Both Knox and Scepter were scared of Zee Zee until RJ brought them to talk. After a while the team seemed to have built some trust around each other if not a little.

As the team talked all of them received a Tempad alert from Klaus that tomorrow's training was going to take place in the Simulation room at seven hundred hours.

After looking at the message everyone looked at the time it had already reached seven pm causing everyone to laugh at how much time they talked.

When Klaus' message was sent and read everyone decided to call it a night and everyone went to their rooms except RJ who still wanted to test out His new powers in a fight against His favorite sparring partner. The Dummy.

Once RJ left the cafeteria He had actually bumped into both Cassey and Ouroboros at least this time no one fell on the ground since they saw each other before running into each other.

RJ wanted to say hi to the both of them but stopped himself when looking at how they were talking to each other it had seemed important so RJ decided to walk past them only to hear Ouroboros slip two words "LOKI" and "Timeline."

RJ knew that at this point in time LOKI had sacrificed Himself in order to give everyone a chance at both stopping the Kang Variants and to save all the Variants in existence.

When hearing this RJ had a sudden thought "Do these time anomalies and LOKI have a connection somehow?"

RJ thought that it was a stupid assumption when He remembered He Who Remains speech about Him dying causing a stir in the timelines with His Variants and decided that it was worth looking into.