Alien vs. Alien

right? I really related to how the Justice League and X-Men must feel when they’d saved the world—again—and yet all said world wanted was to discuss the bill for damages.
    Jeff sighed again. “It happens. Stop worrying about it.”
    “I’ll do my best.”
    The less said about the ride back to Martini Manor the better. White and Buchanan weren’t feeling great, and while White had faster healing and regeneration because he was an A-C, getting mule kicked by an android wasn’t something even the toughest person just shook off.
    Everyone else was in some kind of stress-related mood, to the point where I wished I’d mastered the A-C talent of napping wherever and whenever the opportunity presented itself.
    Once back, happily, Tito didn’t demand that I go immediately into isolation, preferring to get everyone back to the Embassy before Treatments of Doom were handed out.
    We said fast but heartfelt good-byes to Alfred and Lucinda, reclaimed our small child, ensured our belongings were already back at the Embassy, and took a nauseating gate trip back home.
    I’d expected to be happy to be back in D.C., and I was at first, what with getting a lovely greeting from everyone who’d been able to avoid going on Exile to Florida. None of them seemed upset that I’d sort of trashed a building. I was even happier when Tito decided I could merely go to bed really early, as opposed to going into isolation.
    Christopher and Amy dashed for their rooms. White and Buchanan went with Tito, Emily, and Melanie to the medical bay. Len and Kyle went across the street to say hi to everyone at the Romanian Embassy, Olga and her granddaughter Adriana especially. And I got another set of hugs from everyone whom I hadn’t seen for a month.
    The Embassy was a full city block wide and long, seven floors going up, one real floor going down, with one underground parking floor, and then a bigger drop down to the Secret Lab Section that the former Diplomatic Corps had secretly had installed when Jeff and Christopher were little boys. The Embassy, like Martini Manor, was one of the A-C showcases, so it was quite opulent and had pretty much anything you could want in terms of business and home layout and amenities.
    Happy Embassy Hellos done, I really wanted to go up and lie down. Only I could tell Chuckie was still upset and I wasn’t an empath. “You want to hang out here a little while?” I asked him.
    Chuckie shrugged. “Not sure it’s a good idea.”
    Jeff sighed. “You need it. Come on.” He led us to one of the small studies on the third floor. “Hang out here while we get our things squared away.”
    Chuckie looked uncertain. “If you’re sure.”
    “I’m sure we have a lot we need to go over,” Jeff said.
    “Like how in the world Sandra the Android knew to attack us at NASA Base.”
    “And whatd">d"> we’re going to do when those pictures hit the newsstands,” Chuckie added morosely.
    Jeff pulled out his phone and dialed. “Hey, Naomi. Back in D.C. Nope, all here. Yeah, finally. Look, are you and Abigail available? Great. Yes.” Jeff rolled his eyes. “Thanks ever.” He hung up and shook his head.
    “What’s going on?”
    “Naomi and Abigail are going to come babysit Reynolds. Apparently they were waiting for my call and feel I should have asked them to help out in Florida.”
    “I don’t need a sitter,” Chuckie said with a laugh that didn’t sound remotely real.
    “Yeah, to quote Amy, you really can’t lie to me, because there isn’t an emotion you have I can’t read. You need company while we’re upstairs, and we need to go over things sooner as opposed to later.”
    As Jeff finished talking, the Gower girls arrived. They were younger than Michael, but, like their brothers, they were dark-skinned and beautiful to behold. They were also hybrids, which, because human genetics were strongest for external and A-C genetics strongest for internal, was why they resembled their mother, Erika, who was a beautiful dark-skinned African-American human, much more than their father, Stanley, who was also part of the Alpha Four Royal Family, though a few inheritance places farther away than the Martinis were. The Gower girls were also incredibly talented.
    Abigail was the youngest, and she was like a reverse empath—she picked up thoughts but they filtered to her like emotions, so if someone was thinking angry thoughts, Abigail felt angry. There were also gases common to Earth that could cause mass