23 A good influence

A/N: ples gib me powr stone, ples (ಥ _ ಥ) and review, ples.

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After making it back to the city, the first thing I did was check my flat, only to find that it is already up for rent again, which made me really wonder how long I'd been gone.

Luckily for me, I had the foresight to keep my bug out bag outside of the house, hidden under a disused air conditioner on top of a building.

Which is nice, because at least I have most of my money and some necessities.

It is a shame to put an end to 'Alice', but I didn't really think she'd survive forever so it's not too big of a deal.

After that it was just a case of finding another empty house and breaking in, whilst also making sure to ditch the truck some distance away.

Then after that it was just a matter of carrying all of little James' stuff, as well as James himself, since he'd fallen asleep, to the new house and getting settled.

This leads to the next day, where I have a whole list of things I need to do.

First things first is finding some hair dye. I've decided to go with brown hair and not bother with contacts this time.

Then I need to do some clothes shopping, for both James and I.

Oh, and food too, James needs normal human food.

Then I need to get my hands on some information.

After that, I am going to experiment with my powers, because the thing is, powers don't really 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦, everyone knows this.

You can't train powers, you get what you get and all you can do to improve is gain experience and find more creative ways to use your powers.

Like Pop Stop, her power is never going to change in radius or frequency, because powers don't change.

This made me assume that my two tails was the limit of my power, that it wouldn't change from that, so I never really bothered.

But clearly, my power is more than that, so I've got to do some tests with that.

Then, and only then, comes the most important item on my list.

Finding Equaliser and ripping his spine out.

Well, I don't really care how he dies, just so long as he does.

However I won't simply rush into Red Branch territory looking for him like I no doubt would have two weeks ago.

It's wild to me that I was apparently in that room for ten whole days.

Who knew that all it takes is ten days of constant torture to find the true meaning of life.

Because as much as I hate Jason, I am still thankful to him for helping me understand.

Also, it's christmas tomorrow, so I want to get through my whole list today so that I can give Equaliser a proper christmas present.

I finish getting dressed shortly after going through my list one more time and head down the stairs only to be greeted by piles of junk that has somehow materialised surrounding little James in the kitchen.

"...James.. what the fuck?"

At the sound of my voice, he turns to face me and shrugs, completely unrepentant.

"I was hungry but there wasn't any food, then I got bored and you said boredom sucks so I started doin' stuff."

"..Fair enough, I can't really argue against that. Well, I was about to go do some shopping, wanna come with?"

I don't bother asking what he was doing, because it's clearly some tinker stuff and not only do I already know his specialty, but I also kind of just don't really care what he does with his free time.

It's not like I'm actually his mother after all. I'm not even twenty yet, I'd have had to have been eleven or twelve to have birthed him.

Still, it is really weird to me that I am asking a child if they want to hang out. The joys of not having any friends I guess.

Ah well, he is a pretty cool kid.

His eyes sparkle as he looks back at me with a smile.

"Really! I've never actually been outside before!" He cheers.

Huh, awesome.

That means that his face won't be ticking any cameras for missing child posters or something.

That settled, I bundle all my gross hair into a beanie while little James get's ready, and then we are out, stalking the streets with a bag full of cash and a mind full of shopping.

At least for me that's the case, because after we left the house, only after making sure no one was on the street, something that wasn't too difficult considering how out of the way the street is, James' head was like it was on a swivel as he keeps looking around everywhere.

As we walk to the nearest mall, I find myself eyeing the floor and it's light dusting of snow.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting snow here, not even such a small amount as this, but I guess it's a christmas miracle or something.

But the reason it actually draws my attention is the fact that I don't actually feel the cold.

Well, that's not entirely accurate. I can feel that it 𝘪𝘴 cold, I just don't 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 cold, even though I'm only wearing thin jeans and a normal white shirt. All I have to 'protect' me from the cold is the beanie I'm using to hide my hair and the scarf I'm using to hide some of my face.

Eventually, James actually notices the snow, having been too distracted by looking at everything else to really notice it beforehand.

He tugs on my sleeve to get my attention, and speaks once I look at him with a raised brow.

"What's that?" He asks me, pointing down.

"It's snow. It's something that happens when it's cold enough. Do you know how it rains sometimes?", He nods, "well, it's like that, but when it's cold enough then the rain turns into snow, which is basically frozen water, like a mix between ice and sand. You can even clump it together into what we call a snowball."

Turning back to the snow on the ground, he looks at it with a curiosity that only a child could have, reaching a bare hand out to grab a handful.

Mentally, I add warm gloves to the shopping list.

"What's the point in making a snowball?" He asks me after he crushes the snow into a ball.

Getting a devious idea, I hide my smile as I pause in my steps and turn to him.

"I'll show you." I say, holding my hand out expectantly.

He obliges me and gives me the golf ball sized sphere of snow.

"Ok, now don't move." I say as I move behind him.

Then I simply raise my arm, aiming for the back of his neck so that it goes down his back as well.

Honestly, I thought about not doing this, about throwing it at someone else and picking him up and booking it, but then I realised that he wouldn't understand why it's funny if he's never experienced it himself.

So I let the ball lose.

𝘗𝘴𝘩.

𝘚𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘬!

When the snowball hits him, he jumps into the air like a startled cat and lets out a scream that also sounds like a startled cat.

By the time he turns around to glare at me, I am already bent over and laughing, my hands on my knees.

"Haha- you- yo- hah- you scream like a girl! Hahahahaha!"

I notice James running at me, but I pretend not to as I let him tackle me to the ground, my back making a small puff of snow raise around us.

With me under him, James starts shovelling the snow around my face and neck to under my scarf, making me squeal as I pretend that it's cold, laughing as he does so.

I let it go on for a moment longer before I sit up, the action knocking him to his butt in front of me.

Looking at each other with matching smiles on our faces, I speak to the panting child.

"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵, is why you make snowballs."

"Humph, you could have just said so." He pouts, but his smile betrays him, so I just shrug in response and get to my feet before offering him a hand up.

"Now c'mon, we can throw some snowballs at strangers later if you want, but not until we get us some gloves, 'kay?"

With an innocent smile on his face, he takes the offered hand and we are once more making progress to our shopping trip.

It doesn't actually take long before the streets are getting pretty crowded, buzzing with activity as people prepare for the festivities to come tomorrow.

Eventually we do make it to a mall, and the first thing we bought was some clothes.

For myself I only actually only got another cardigan like the one I used to have, but other than that I am not desperate for clothes so I can get more later.

For James we just got him a simple warm blue jacket and gloves as well as a scarf on his insistence.

Now however, it is time to feed the beast.

We take a bit to find a place to eat, not due to a lack of options but because I wanted to find a place that at least had some good coffee.

I just pretended I couldn't hear James as he complained about walking past so many food stalls.

At one point, a mother and her kids passed us by and took one look at James yapping at me and me completely ignoring him and then gave me a sympathetic smile before moving on.

I suppose from her point of view James is likely to be the one being unreasonable.

Heh, bold of her to assume that I can't be more unreasonable than a child.

Still, I eventually found a place that smelled palatable enough and we made our way over.

"Fiiinally! I thought I was going to starve!" James exaggeratedly complains as he collapses into one of the chairs outside the café.

"Yeah yeah brat", I wave him off, "what do you want to eat?"

"Pizza!" He yells, making my eyebrow twitch.

"They don't do pizza here."

"Humph, fine then, a burger." He huffs out, crossing his arms and looking to the side.

"They don't do burgers either dipshit, read the damn menu then pick something."

Like a lightbulb going off, I see realisation spark in his eyes as he lunges for a menu to start perusing.

Meanwhile, I focus on the gasp I heard from behind me as what is presumably another mother is sitting with a family of five and looking at me with the most scandalised expression I have ever seen.

With her is who I presume is her husband and three kids. Obviously I don't know their exact ages, but if I had to put it in words, they were kid-sized, teen-sized and gross-puberty-moustache-sized, only the middle one is a girl.

While the youngest is focused on some colouring book, the others are all staring at me, the teen in mirth, the older guy who should shave also in amusement, while the mother looks like I just told her that I thought Hitler might have been on the right track.

Heh, train pun.

Wait no, that was a shit pun. It was too obscure for anyone to even find it funny, and now that I think about it, wasn't it Mussolini that did the whole "The trains will run on time!" speech thing?

Eh, doesn't matter.

Anyway, the husband is similar to his wife, but rather than scandalised, he has that look that only middle aged white people get where he is all disapproving because he can't accept anything different to what he knows as being right.

Seeing that James is taking his time, I turn myself in my seat so I am sitting on it side on and face them properly.

"What? You dipfucks got a problem with how I'm raising my child? I bet my kid could kick your kid's ass any day bitch, fuck around and find out."

With that out of the way, I turn away from the appalled looking parents as they try and fail to inform their own kids that what I just said was not in fact funny, but actually very rude.

Looking back, I see James with his knuckle in his mouth holding in his own laughter.

That makes me smile, and soon we are both laughing, only laughing harder when the parents drag their kids, who are also laughing, away from the café.

Well, that was fun.

"You pick anything yet?"

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

So, accidentally adopted James 2 Electric boogaloo.

P.S, credit to the reader Oglan for commenting James 2, because somehow I didn't notice the electric boogaloo opportunity before seeing his comment.

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