Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 425: Hijacked show.

Outside the door, Sunshine and Leah backed away slowly. They had not overheard what the children talked about alone.

"So, you forgot to tell me that I am raising a what..." Leah looked at Sunshine inquisitively. "Telekinetic?"

"It was not in the manual." Sunshine replied with a shrug. "I guess she awakened. Your family is truly rivaling mine in terms of fame on the base. The first family that is all superhuman."

Leah had a frown instead. "She is too young to have such abilities. I don’t want her pulled into any squads and sent out to fight just because of this."

Sunshine was astounded. "Do I look like the kind of person that would send a three-year-old out to fight?"

There was a loud sound of smashing that came from the kitchen. Both women immediately rushed to the kitchen. They found spilled sugar and a little boy and a bear who were both in tears.

"Perhaps it’s time to end my visit." Sunshine suggested. "And we will replace everything in the kitchen my boys broke or ate."

Leah could not agree more.

*****

Everyone’s morning was moving on well, some even better than normal_ except for Zulu. The morning show she had hijacked from Lisha had somehow become a thorn in her feathers.

When Sunshine said Father Nicodemus would be present, Zulu had assumed the priest would sit quietly in the corner, maybe admire her talent, maybe learn a thing or two about hosting from the most charismatic non-human to ever perch on a microphone_ but no. Somehow the man had hijacked the show. What was supposed to be a breezy, silly and fun talk show had turned into something between a morning sermon and a worship booth.

Zulu sat there, wings neatly folded, fuming as Father Nicodemus droned about humility, virtue, and walking in grace. He didn’t even let her throw in one fun comment or witty jab.

Lisha as a co-host used to balance her to a small extent_ Lisha enabled her chaos. Father Nicodemus, on the other hand, was turning her into a church ornament. Halfway through the show, Zulu flew off in frustration, but Father Nicodemus didn’t even glance up.

Rude, was the right word to describe his behavior.

That was when she knew she needed to talk to one person that could make her feel better_ Hadrian Quinn.

When Sunshine walked into the training room with Castiel and White, she expected clanking metal, grunts, sweat, discipline_ but instead, she found small clusters of trainees scattered around, listening to Zulu rambling dramatically about the tragedy of her stolen spotlight.

The bird kept hopping around Hadrian as he moved from one equipment station to another. Sunshine noticed immediately that he looked bothered_ jaw clenched, shoulders tense, movements sharper than normal.

People were sniggering.

Sunshine assumed that Hadrian maybe wanted to break the parrot’s neck.

She also assumed that perhaps, Zulu was shooting her shot at her cousin-in-law and decided to rescue him from the horror of a parrot confessing its feelings in front of the entire training team.

Zulu needed to leave because was distracting too many people.

Those who were pretending to train suddenly snapped back to focus the moment they saw Sunshine approaching. They hurried to grab training equipment like guilty students in class reaching for books after a teacher walked into a rowdy classroom.

"Zulu, leave Hadrian alone. How many times must I say that he is not interested in you," She chided the parrot, shooing it away.

Every trainee who heard her froze like she had thrown a grenade.

"Interested?" Hadrian stiffened_ mid lift_ barbell hovering above his chest. "What do you mean interested?" He stared at Sunshine with a dark scowl like she had just exposed his deepest secret.

Lisha had been circulating a rumor for a week that Zulu liked him, and honestly, the bird was too friendly for his comfort_ always bringing him seeds, flowers, hovering above him like a protective guardian, and feeding him gossip he never wanted.

He did not imagine that Sunshine would add more volume to the ridiculous rumor.

Before Sunshine could answer, the smart barbell in his hands chirped brightly, "Lift me like you lift everyone’s expectations, champ"

Hadrian let out a low growl. "Just shut it?" he muttered as he quickly dropped the barbell. "Where were we?" he turned to Sunshine.

Zulu blinked rapidly, trying to look innocent. "Yeah, Purple, what interest? What are you saying? How can you spew such absurdity?" It asked, but its feathers puffed guiltily, betraying every secret feeling it thought it had hidden so well.

Sunshine tried not to laugh. "Oh, my bad, I heard a rumor and made a false assumption," she said lightly, turning to Zulu, "What were you two talking about then?"

Hadrian finally snapped. "Zulu was blabbering about something and wouldn’t leave me alone. Now that you are here, deal with it. I need to train." He pushed the parrot off his shoulder, " Whatever complaints you have Zulu, take them to the base leader." He jabbed a finger at Sunshine. "Not me. I’m not interested in_ any of this. And if sides are being chosen, I choose Lisha."

"Ouch," Zulu muttered, wings dropping dramatically.

Sunshine choked on laughter.

She grabbed Zulu gently by the wing and pulled to a quieter spot.

Once they reached a private corner, Sunshine said, "Zulu, Hadrian’s message was loud and clear. You should stay away from him."

Zulu puffed up. "What message?" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Sunshine gave her a look. "Clearly your love interest doesn’t feel the same way. And he is not a male parrot. Move it along."

Zulu dismissed that with a dramatic flick of one feather. "He’s just playing hard to get. Look at my shiny feathers Purple. Which female, human, animal or bird is more good looking than me on this base?"

Sunshine burst out laughing. "You have quite the over inflated ego. I hate to break it to you, but Hadrian Quinn is not playing hard to get."

Zulu huffed. "Let’s agree to disagree. But for now, we should talk about you. You almost spilled my secret, purple! Your mouth is too big!"

Sunshine pointed a finger at the parrot. "Excuse me? If anyone has a big mouth, it’s you and that damn animal spy network you are running on my base."

"You’re the one who wanted us to be spies!" Zulu shot back.

"On the Watchers! Not base residents!" Sunshine barked. "Even if I did in a way want you to spy on the residents, you and those animals have gone a step too far. Blackmail Zulu! I did not send you to blackmail anyone. From now on, leave the humans alone. If there’s something suspicious, report to me. That’s an order."

Zulu twisted her beak, annoyed. "Fine. But only if you fix the morning show."

Sunshine exhaled sharply. Of course that was the real crisis in the parrot’s opinion. She had heard Father Nicodemus praying loudly all morning but pretended not to. "Why? Didn’t you get Lisha off the morning show like you wanted? You should be chirping in joy and screeching like Pink whenever she throws a temper tantrum."

Zulu shook her head dramatically. "I didn’t want that! Don’t spread lies and come between my relationship with Lisha. She is my best friend. I would rather have Lisha back than holier than thou Father Nicodemus. Purple, fix it before I screech worse than Pink."