Chapter 72 - Guess That Power!

With two down and one to go, Miss Calculated has settled back down into her previous location next to Willy, sighing before continuing further.

"As you may have guessed when you were filling it out, the paperwork for registering pets as part of the family roster is a bit over-the-top to try to dissuade people from registering each and every last goldfish and hamster they decide to raise. And, since animals aren't even expected to have ID chips, I'm gonna have to double down when proving he isn't already registered to someone else, and if he is, then we then have to go through a whole other set of procedures to change that fact, even if they are deceased." While bemoaning her pending busy work, Miss Calculated taps her index finger on top of the closed folder resting on her lap a few times. Towards the end of her statement, Willy's tail abruptly stops wagging when she mentions being registered to someone else, and he lets out a short whine.

'Uhoh. You're pretty sure he's escaped from a lab or something, right?'

[Most likely. I was anticipating that we would hopefully get some information with, er, Dan's help, but it seems we'll be discovering some of the answers to our questions before then.]

Noticing Willy's reaction, Miss Calculated frowns slightly and turns to look at him, but Lucas asks for clarification faster than she does.

"Oh, you think they might have you registered?" Once Lucas asks him this, Willy hesitantly barks twice, but the second one is unmistakably uncertain sounding. "Ah, so you don't think they did, but there's a chance?" When Lucas goes for the clarification, Willy gives a single confirmation bark, but lacks any of the enthusiasm he normally has when agreeing with something.

"...Seems I'll be busy for a while. By any chance, do you know who it might be..?" Miss Calculated tries to fish for a shortcut with her imminent investigation, but she is disappointed before long by Lucas shaking his head no.

"That's part of why we were planning to go see Dan later. He uhh, used to have an ID chip, but, uh, not so much, anymore..." After Lucas's trailing off clarification, Miss Calculated turns her attention back to Willy again when he whimpers softly.

Realizing he has her attention, Willy curls up into a doggie donut and pokes his snoot on the scarred-over missing chunk from his hind leg. It takes her barely a second to connect the points of data, sucking in a sharp breath in sympathy. While neither of her sisters seems to realize the truth behind him forcibly removing the ID chip himself, she isn't inclined toward bringing it to their attention, they're certainly happier off by not knowing.

"Don't worry, if you are already registered, I'll make sure the change is confidential. I can come up with several guesses as to why you did that, and none of them are good. No wonder you wanted to be close to a strength supe... Ah, right, anyway, since it will take me a while, and you guys also have other things to do, let me set you up for everything else and I can chip away at it while you go about getting some of your other chores done. There's no point in making you sit around watching me work." While at first Miss Calculated is speaking directly to Willy, towards the end she also turns her attention back up to Lucas and Jonathan, gently patting Willy a few times as she does so.

'Oh good, otherwise I was gonna have to take a nap.'

[You mean, again?]

'Shh.'

"Right! Hurry things up so we can go to whoever-that-guy-was's place!" When Miss Masher makes her desires known, Miss Chievous nods along a few times, though she is currently engrossed in attempting a new round of the recently acquired block-busting game. After seeing Jonathan's max score performance, she had felt her competitive spirit become rekindled.

Lucas merely snorts at Miss Masher, chuckling a few times more as he readjusts his position so as to be sitting upright again, rather than being sprawled out with his feet on the coffee table as he had done while making his thoughts on proper ceremony clear.

"Do I, um, need any proof or something to go get my name changed at uh, I4?" In response to Jonathan's question, Miss Calculated shakes her head at first but then pauses.

"Hmm, since it's all in the system now they should be able to check it, but I should be able to speed it up for you. I take it you guys are going to be getting a fresh ID for our furry friend here as well, while you're there? Since he wasn't required to already have an ID in the first place, you could give him your surname from the start, even before the registration is complete on my end." While Miss Calculated clarifies, Lucas makes an affirmative hum in response.

"In that case, give me a few minutes, I'll get things started for you in case you get stuck with a service bot that is past due for an update." After this continuation, she starts tapping away on her tablet for a few moments before stopping and suddenly looking up again. "Right! You were thinking about maybe partnering up with a soup kitchen to work on that intern project, right? Now that you have a price estimate on an HQ thanks to... Ahem. Anyway, do you think you could figure an estimate as to what you could potentially put towards that?"

Lucas and Jonathan make eye contact with each other, both seriously debating if they should actually speak numbers out loud, and if so just how much out of what is available.

[Well, if the money is already being accounted for, it should be safe enough to discuss with her. The initial issue would have been if you just openly bragged about having a lot available. At least now you realize it isn't as much as you originally thought.]

Determining that they aren't communicating anything useful with just their eyes, Lucas sighs and decides to bite the bullet.

"Well, before we figure out all of our regular spendings I'd say we could maybe do up to a million to start, but maybe as far as a mill and a half in the future, I guess? Uh, monthly, that is." As Lucas initially said 'a million' Miss Calculated's face already lit up a bit, but as he ramped up to the potential higher value she's begun openly smiling.

"Good good, that's already enough to start your own small operation, but if you're building up something already existing... You should see results in a reasonable amount of time. Ahh, now I'm curious what you'll manage to find..." While Miss Calculated trails off into her own imagination, there is a few moments of quiet before she focuses on reality again. "Might as well introduce you to Alley Cat before I forget again, assuming they're available."

Her sisters are both unresponsive to the name, busy staring at their phones, but Lucas and Jonathan both have faintly confused expressions.

[...She already mentioned them earlier, that's the supe name that the boss of Doom Flock goes by.]

Even having heard the name multiple times now, Lucas barely holds back a chuckle at the organization name, though his confusion clears up and he nods at Miss Calculated.

In a roughly similar time-span as Lucas, Jonathan's confusion also clears up and he turns his gaze over to her as well.

Fumbling around to find her phone and take it out, Miss Calculated is distracted by the photo of Franz with Sylph and Dokkaebi for a few seconds before continuing on to her contacts and then beginning a call. Quickly tapping to open it to speaker mode, after ringing twice it is answered by a soft voice.

"Ah, good morning Miss Calculated, I was just thinking about you. I believe within a day I'll have reason to stop by to update some paperwork. Oh, unless perhaps you're calling with good news? Wouldn't be the source I expected, to be honest, but I've been surprised with stranger connections, for sure." As the soft voice shares their greetings and smoothly transitions into their question, Miss Calculated can't help laughing a bit.

"Good morning Alley Cat, and I probably have the good news you're looking for. I already have you on speaker with them, and I have to ask, just what were you looking for funding for?" As she laughs some more, Alley Cat also joins in, but Lucas and Jonathan are both staring at the phone with blank expressions.

[Now I'm curious how long it will take you to guess what their power is.]

'Oh come on, at least give me a hint! How am I supposed to guess with that!?'

[Humorously enough, in a sense, it is actually enough information to make a guess. Just operate under the assumption that Miss Calculated is familiar with what it is and that is why she made the guess she did, and is also why she is as amused as she is by it.]

'That doesn't help me at all!'

[Oh, I'm going to have fun watching you struggle with this.]

'HEY!'

-----

Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0

Lucas total deaths: 10

Lucas current GDV: 8.93 (+.01 net change)

Lucas's fame level: 2.5* (Mostly just local)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Jonathan kills this chapter: 0

Jonathan total kills: 5

Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 1.96

Jonathan's fame level: 1.75* (Just local)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Supervillain social circle size: 9

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, also currently trying to pry hints out of 011: Come on, now I really want to know..!

Willy, totally having accurately guessed Alley Cat's power as soon as Miss Calculated was done answering them, and now watching Lucas and Jonathan visibly struggle while trying to figure out what's going on: (Happily panting.)

Lucas, trying to find a new approach to get information out of 427: Just tell meee, if you don't I'll... I'll... I'll pterodactyl screech at you again!

427, fighting back laughter at Lucas's feeble attempts at grappling the truth: [Then I definitely won't tell you!]

Author, smiling mischievously: And no, before you even ask, I won't tell you either, Lucas.

Mr. Quacks, all-knowing about everyone's powers to the point he forgot that not everyone already knows: Quack?