TAKING CARE OF A PROBLEM IS PROBABLY THE FIRST STEP TO SOLVING IT...

Nicky was crying in Curtis's arms when he squeezed his eyes closed then said,"I've gotta go."

"Be careful."She said, already knowing what he was going to do.

Curtis went to an isolated kingdom in the heart of Europe then knocked on a door of a random house.

A teenage girl munching on a wad of gum, still glued to her phone answered the door and without looking at him, asked,"What do you want?"

"I need to speak with Samuel, it's rather urgent."

"Yeah, you can even have that creep for all I care."She said.

She then banged the door in his face and began yelling words which were too strong to be used by any sane individual of any age at the boy who should be no older than ten at this point.

After that, she dragged him to the door and kicked him out and immediately stole a glance of the tall, handsome Asian man before her and the gum she was chewing involuntarily plopped down her throat with her gushing at his beauty.

Curtis also banged the door in her face and Samuel begged,"Please don't hurt me!"

"Sammy, don't you recognize me? Curtis?"

The boy didn't seem to have a clue for a second then blinked and asked,"Are you the second husband of Ms Alexa?"

Curtis smiled then said,"Yes, I am, and I just wanted to talk."

At a small diner nearby, Curtis began the conversation after the child had been served.

"Okay, so..."

"You haven't began eating."

"... I'm not actually very hungry."

"But you shouldn't waste food either..."

Curtis chuckled then took a spoonful and asked,"Better?"

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full."

"That's the point of me taking only half a spoon."Curtis said.

"But wouldn't that be a waste of time?"

"Alright, fine, you win."

He jumped ahead in time to when he was done eating then asked,"Better now?"

"Did you really have to do all that in order to talk to me? You could have just patiently eaten the food that you ordered in the first place."

Curtis half closed his eyes then double blinked for a second and asked,"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"How did you know what I did? Th-that I jumped forward in time?"

"..."

"It's the same way you could always see death, isn't it?"

He nodded slowly, then Curtis asked,"But how?"

"I don't know."The boy said, fearfully.

Curtis went on one knee and placed his hand on Samuel's, then said,"Sammy, I really need you to be honest with me, I wouldn't tease you or think you're weird."

"Really?"

Curtis nodded.

After taking a deep breath, Samuel said,"It didn't start with death, I had always been able to see people or even things that others said were dead and talk to them, I had been able to see people with wings and scary creatures in my room which no one else seemed to see, but that's not the only ability it gave me."

"What gave you?"

"...my..."

"Your what, Samuel?"

"...my system."

"What?"

"It's like a couple of control panels which float around my face and give me missions, tell me of my present abilities and act like a sort of...remote control for everything around me."

"Like what?"

"...I can't do it now."

"Why not?"Curtis asked, trying to be as patient as possible.

"Because... because it wouldn't work."

"Why wouldn't it work?"

"...I can only do one thing at a time with my level and I already used it to see that you traveled through time, it also told me that my memories wouldn't be unlocked until I reached level five."

"And what level are you on presently?"

"...One."

Curtis then stood up, lost in thought.

How had this kid been born with a system?

He had met a number of people with abilities like this but just, not this refined.

For one, they didn't have it all their lives and he could easily detect them with an ability he had always had.

He looked to the child, took his hand and said,"Come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"Back in time, we only have a limited time till the apocalypse and so I'm buying us some."

"Some to do what?"

"To train you."

Samuel became a little scared when his system showed him Curtis's history and how he was trained.

He pulled his hand out of his grip but Curtis bent to his level then said,"And I will make sure to protect you and never harm you, because you may be the entire multiverse's only hope."

Samuel slowly placed his shivering hand back in Curtis's.

Curtis figured that if even he couldn't sense this kid's origins, then maybe Darlok couldn't either.

***

Jessica was asleep when Alek appeared and yelled, continuously for her to wake up.

She stuck her palm on his face and yelled for him to shut it, then he licked her hand and she punched him in the nose.

She lay back down and covered her ears with a pillow when Alek began shaking her on the bed.

She yelled for him to leave her but he pointed out the window and then she saw it, monsters, everywhere.

"Monsters again?!"A man yelled.

The creature screeched and began to gobble him up as he yelled, then his wife, who was breathing heavily, slowly cracked her lips into a smile, till he said from within,"I'm okay."

The creatures were pouring in from all angles, then Maame just got sick of them and snapped her fingers and all the water in each of their bodies evaporated, leaving them to turn, bone and flesh, to dust.

She groaned then walked back in to continue her nap, till there was another scream, what was it now?!

She walked out then began hyperventilating when she saw Apollo had been impaled by a creature wielding a large sword, which then glared at her.

She began hyperventilating then began to frown as she dashed at it with a thin current of water behind her hand.

The creature pulled it from her husband's body and blocked the attack as she slashed it at it, but the liquid diffracted over the obstacle and went on to cut deeply through its face and arm.

It screeched and she screeched even louder then ripped off its sword wielding arm with her teeth, then slowly pulled the other off as the creature screeched, then placing her fingers on its forehead, a small shooting sound was heard as a drop of water shot through its iron armour, skin, forehead and brain and came out the other side, leaving a hole through its head.

She went to Apollo's body, then kicked him in the side and said,"Get up, I know you aren't dead."

He sat up and said,"It's worth the try."

She punched him across the face for pulling a stunt like that, then asked where the children were as he rubbed his nose in pain.

The wall exploded open as a creature fell through and the looked to see its body impaled with knives all-over, then to the other side to see my mom killing more of the monsters.

My mom kicked the knee of one of the creatures hard and when it fell, she kneed it to the side of the head, buckling its helmet and knocking it out cold.

She then took its sword then faced the rest of the creatures coming up the stairs and breathed out.

She ran towards them then jumped up and hit one of their swords, before slicing through the side of the creature and stabbing through the knee of the next.

She hit one of their swords five times, then picked one of the dead creatures and hurled it at the next in line.

It caught the body in time, but she was nowhere to be found and when it looked up, she dropped down and gauged out its eye with the sword in her hand.

Squeakers roared when one of the creatures threatened the Squeakies, but the creature roared back and scared it, so it ran to seek refuge behind Lilith, who had a leaf casually floating and maneuvering between her fingers.

She looked at the creatures as they ran closer, then crushed the leaf between her thumb and index finger and vines grew around and choked the creatures, with ice blocks piercing through those remaining and molten lava engulfing the bodies of the thirty monsters in the room.

The leaf regained its original shape and she continued fidgeting with it while gently brushing Squeakers' fur.