Chapter 169

Carol arrived at the palace followed by Monica and Maria.

The three of them trained almost the entire day, with Carol mainly sparring against the other two.

Although there isn't much she can teach them about their vampire powers, she can instill battle instincts through beatings, just as she learned.

Upon entering the room, she saw Ana, Ophelia, and Jane.

"Hello, where are the girls?" Carol asked upon arrival, not seeing or hearing them.

"Mom took them to play in the city," Ana said, sitting on the couch with one leg crossed over the other, looking at her phone.

"I see, I'll go take a shower," Carol said, heading upstairs without noticing the mischievous looks from Ana and Ophelia.

"I'll also go take a shower," said Maria without bothering to greet; she was physically and mentally tired, something she hadn't felt in years.

"Join me for a shower," Monica said, noticing Jane still texting since they started training.

"Wait, I'm discussing something important," Jane complained as she was dragged by Monica.

"Plus, you're all dirty, looks like someone rubbed you against the ground," Jane laughed, much to Monica's annoyance.

Carol floated up to her room quickly, opened the door without thinking, and was surprised to find Damian and Natasha in a rather interesting position.

Both stopped and looked at her in surprise.

"Just continue, but next time, remember to lock the door," Carol said without words, closing the door and locking it before walking to the bathroom.

Damian and Natasha laughed as they saw Carol entering the bathroom before deciding to stop and also take a bath.

"Aren't you going to continue?" Carol teased as she felt them enter. She had already undressed and was leaning against the edge with her eyes closed.

"The water is too hot for you, Nat," Carol said before Natasha entered.

Natasha chuckled before entering and feeling the high temperature. She would have burned herself if she had entered before becoming a vampire.

She quickly swam to Carol before hugging her while laughing.

Carol, feeling the softness on her chest, opened her eyes in surprise to see Natasha smiling at her.

Now, looking at her carefully, she noticed Natasha's clear changes.

"You look very beautiful; being a vampire definitely suits you," Carol exclaimed in surprise as she also hugged Natasha.

"Hm, I became a little more beautiful than you," Natasha said, laughing.

"We'll see who's more beautiful after we train. Now that you have powers, there's no excuse," Carol said with an evil expression.

"Don't be so confident; in hand-to-hand combat, we still don't know who's better," Natasha said confidently.

"You didn't tell me you would turn Natasha. I wouldn't have left, and I would have stayed by her side," Carol said, hugging Natasha and looking at Damian.

"Enough already, or I'll get jealous," Damian joked before approaching and hugging both of them.

"Oh? And what if I wanted to do naughty things with Nat?" Carol said, looking at Damian with a flirtatious smile.

"I wouldn't object; it would be hypocritical of me," Damian reluctantly replied.

"Don't make that expression, even though I love Nat, it's not like that," Carol said, pinching Damian's face, trying to fix his expression.

"Or is it?" Carol teased as she looked at Natasha.

"I thought men liked that kind of situation," Natasha said, looking at Damian thoughtfully as if suspicious.

"I'll exercise my right to remain silent," Damian said calmly.

The three of them just enjoyed the warm water for a while before getting out.

"All right, let's go downstairs; we should celebrate the fact that you became a vampire," Carol said, getting up and pulling Natasha's hand.

"Hm, let's go," Natasha said excitedly, following Carol.

Damian stayed for a few seconds appreciating the view before following them.

After a few minutes, the three of them came down well-dressed.

When they entered the living room, everyone's gaze couldn't help but stop at Natasha—her hair and eyes red as blood, truly striking and beautiful in contrast to her pale face.

Both made a contrast that was hard to look away from.

"Why did Natasha become so beautiful when she turned into a vampire? I feel like there was some kind of preferential treatment," Ophelia joked, looking at her.

''Now there's only you left Jane, if we get hungry one day we'll eat you for dinner,'' Monica said jokingly as she hugged Jane from behind and bit her shoulder.

"Ouch, don't do that," Jane said, hitting Monica's forehead with her finger.

"How about we go for a walk and celebrate that Natasha is a vampire?" Damian suggested, looking at everyone.

"Let's go for a walk," Alice said excitedly.

"I took charge of a planet, and it's in the process of building a city. Let's stay overnight and see the landscapes of the place," Damian said.

"That sounds good," Sophia agreed.

"I wonder what kind of animals are there," Ivy commented curiously.

"Then let's get ready and go after dinner," Damian said, nodding with a smile as he saw everyone liked the idea.

...

Tony had returned home and found Rhodes, who was accompanying Pepper with his armor on.

"Hello," Tony greeted Pepper and Morgan.

"Thanks," Tony said, nodding toward Rhodes.

"What's going on, Tony?" Rhodes asked, concerned.

"It's better if you don't know. I don't want the government meddling," Tony said seriously. The last thing he wanted was interference in getting Extremis.

"Be careful when you go out these days, the armor is not invincible, and with alien technology, there are a lot of interesting toys out there," Tony warned Rhodes.

"All right," Rhodes said, nodding without asking anything more.

"Be careful too. See you," Rhodes said goodbye to everyone before flying off.

Rhodes flew for a while before reaching the military base where he lived.

He hadn't taken off the armor when he received a message about an important mission.

Rhodes quickly opened the file, and although the mission sounded strange and definitely wasn't the kind of thing he usually did, since it had the presidential seal, he didn't think twice and started flying to where he needed to go.

His mission was in Miami, and he had a long journey ahead. It seemed he was going to intercept a ship with spies who had stolen data from a very important investigation.

When Rhodes reached the coast, he was told that the ship had already left and was 10 kilometers offshore.

Without any other option, he could only keep flying until he found a medium-sized ship in the middle of the ocean. After confirming the images, he knew that was the ship he was looking for.

A quick scan told him there were 5 hostiles, and he had to retrieve all of them to extract information.

They all seemed to be on the bridge, so Rhodes landed directly, breaking through the roof before firing his repulsor at low power to neutralize them.

Rhodes quickly turned the helm, steering the ship toward the mainland.

He began tying up and checking the unconscious people but couldn't find the device containing the information.

Frowning, he started searching the rooms, not being on alert as he knew there were only 5 people, and they were peacefully sleeping.

While searching the rooms, suddenly, upon opening a door, he saw two individuals wrapped in an energy cloak and a mask, holding two cylindrical weapons on their shoulders.

With no time to react, the two unknown individuals quickly fired.

Two blue balls were shot, hitting him directly in the chest, and knocking him down. From these balls, an energy mesh spread out, wrapping him tightly.

Rhodes suddenly saw an alert on his interface, warning him that the energy reserves were decreasing. At the same time, Rhodes felt that it was harder to fight against the nets.

In vain, he tried to send messages as they seemed to be blocking communications.

He quickly activated his repulsors, trying to fly away from the place; at least, he mustn't let the suit fall into enemy hands.

Unfortunately, he couldn't fly away; the nets seemed to stick to the floor.

With effort, he moved his body to the side before using all his energy on the repulsor in his hand, trying to open the ship's floor, only to discover that it was reinforced too. He could go through it, but it would take a long time, and his energy was already at its limits.

Rhodes suddenly decided to cut off all the energy from his suit; he would wait for a good opportunity to try to free himself.

The nets, no longer receiving energy, began to coil around him before grabbing him tightly.

He could only watch in dismay as the two individuals approached him.

It was a well-planned ambush; they blinded his detectors, making him lower his guard, and shot a net clearly designed to counteract his suit.

The two individuals removed the cloak before each took two limbs of the suit and started carrying him.

A helicopter arrived before they could take him away.

...

Damian and his family had arrived on the planet Green.

A small town had already formed around the military base with all kinds of humanoids, many of different skin colors.

They were refugees who had lost their homes, many of whom came to Knowhere and were transferred to live on the planet.

In exchange for protection, they would cultivate the land and deliver a percentage of the harvest.

"The air is different," Natasha said, taking a breath.

"Yes, the oxygen percentage is higher," Damian nodded.

"This is not an agricultural planet. You have too much security for that," Ophelia squinted her eyes, looking at the strict security before looking at Damian with a faint smile.

"Smart girl," Damian smiled, pinching her cheek.

"At the beginning, it was an agricultural planet; it's just that later, I discovered a mine, so I moved the camp to this place and increased security," Damian nodded.

"Is it very important?" Carol asked, confused; there are many metallic resources in the universe.

"Any civilization would declare war if they knew what's down there," Damian laughed.

"Anyway, we came to celebrate, so let's do it," Sophia wanted to put those topics aside.

"There's a quite special forest 100 kilometers to the south; we can spend the day and stay overnight there before returning. What do you think?" Damian looked at everyone.

"Okay," Natasha, the protagonist, said.

"Let's go," Emma took her father's hand.

"Then let's go," Damian nodded before making them appear on a small hill with a view of a valley full of trees with crimson leaves.

Occasionally, some leaves fell off and flew a certain distance, giving it a magical atmosphere.

"How beautiful," Carol said, looking at the forest.

"Daddy, why are they red?" Ivy asked curiously.

"Because they're like you, my little vampire, they drink blood, although these trees drink the blood of animals that die," Damian said, kissing Ivy's cheek, that's what the scientist had told him.

"It seems that when the animals are old and near death for some reason, they come to die in this forest," Damian said.

"Then are they vampire trees?" Alice asked confused.

"Well, if you want, we can call them that," Damian laughed to himself.

"Is it dangerous?" Sophia asked, looking at the girls who were already full of curiosity.

"No, it's totally safe," Damian said.

"Can we go for a walk?" Alice asked.

"Sure, go and look around," Damian said, stroking Alice's head.

The three girls ran off immediately, full of curiosity.

Damian turned to his family and was left speechless to see that Monica and Jane were already taking pictures with the forest behind them.

"Do you like it? When you transformed, I couldn't help but think of this forest," Damian smiled at Natasha while taking a strand of her hair.

"Oh really? Does Natasha have something similar to a red forest somewhere on her body?" Ophelia asked as if she were confused.

Everyone burst into laughter at Ophelia's joke.

Natasha looked fiercely at Ophelia as her cheeks turned slightly red. She also looked at Damian, annoyed by not choosing his words carefully.

"It's not my fault someone has a dirty mind," Damian said innocently.

"Look who's talking, Mr. I have four wives," Ophelia teased.

"Fuck you," Damian laughed.

"Fuck me," Ophelia hugged Damian and laughed.

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