Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 502: Ulterior motive?

The remaining parts of the skeleton cake suddenly vibrated. The decorative lights flickered and air hummed. Everyone froze.

Sunshine reached for the phone, but Earl hugged it to his chest. "Mine," he declared. "Mommy, this is mine. You cannot take it back."

Before the adults could react, the phone floated from Earl’s embrace and flew into Ala’s hand. She held the phone with cream coated fingers, tapped a sequence of symbols and held it out to Castiel. "It comes with an extra hidden layer of protection."

Everyone stared at her in awe.

Hadrian raised his hand, "How did you--?"

Ala shrugged, already reaching for another piece of cake. She stopped and frowned at her hands, displeasure open and blatant. "Mommy...." she cried out.

Leah rushed over with tissues, "I am coming, I am coming baby. Don’t cry, it’s just cream."

Dominic asked Tank for a warm wet hand towel.

Lisha pointed at the table. "Can anyone explain why the cake was vibrating or the lights flickering."

"It was Hunter." Leo shouted, giggling through the gaps of his three missing teeth.

The dog could care less. It retracted long claws that had been just about to slice Tank’s left leg laid down its head and closed its eyes.

Meanwhile, Hades whispered to his wife, "Where did this phone come from exactly?"

"Same place as Ala." She whispered back.

They both looked at the little girl who was standing with her neck raised as her father wiped her face with a warm towel. Her mother Leah was showing her clean, fresh dresses, asking which one she wanted to change into.

"She definitely knows what happened to the stone." Sunshine muttered. But would she ever come out with that story?

***

Meanwhile, in Westbrook town, Amber was pacing restlessly near the black steel gates that kept her confined. From the moment she arrived, the town had not been as warm and welcoming as she expected.

First, she was jumped in an alley and beaten up. Something that she was certain Sunshine had done. Hades was too much of a gentleman to be involved in such backward tactics. After the beating, she had been given ordinary painkillers at the medic bay despite them having extraordinary pain meds that everyone in the town was aware of.

Thirdly, she had discovered one evening that unlike everyone else, she was forbidden from leaving Westbrook to visit the other towns. Her husband and children could leave, but she couldn’t.

This was something she thought would change on Earl’s birthday but, she thought wrong. The guards would not let her leave. She had begged, explained herself, promised to return in an hour, but nothing worked.

Now, she was using tears to get her way. They had helped her get out of a few stops with police officers a few times.

But the guards remained unmoved. "Orders are orders," one grunted, biting into the corn bread which was all that was left of his lunch. "Amber Harrington, you are not allowed beyond the perimeter."

Elijah stood nearby, holding their two children, a three-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old. Both of them were squirming uncomfortably. "Amber, let’s just go home."

But Amber’s eyes burned with determination. "Why should I? Today is my son’s birthday and all I want to do is give him a gift and a hug. What right do these apes have to stop me from leaving? I have rights...a right of freedom. I am allowed to go anywhere in the world I please." She tried to push her way through the guards, and one shoved her back.

There was a scuffle suddenly and a man was thrown to the ground and taken away on cuffs.

The three-year-old piped up, "Mommy, are we going to be arrested?"

"No sweetie, we are not criminals. Mommy just wants you to meet your brothers, but these guards are cooperating." she huffed and pulled Elijah to the side. "How can we use your powers to escape?"

Elijah looked at the gate. He had seen people with superpowers try to break through beyond curfew and be repelled. The only things would work was if he hid in a car of someone leaving and they drove him out. But the power would not extend to Amber and their children.

By the time he gathered his thoughts, Amber was trying to crawl through the first exit.

"Unauthorized exit attempt!" shouted the captain of the guards. Sirens wailed, and armed guards rushed in. Amber was dragged back, screaming at the top of her lungs. As soon as she was on her feet, things became even more ridiculous. She started running around as if they were playing a game of tug.

She dodged, ducked and even managed to kick a guard that was heading out for his lunch break and grab his baton.

People gasped. Elijah froze. Their children whimpered.

"Amber, drop it." Elijah shouted.

A guard’s voice echoed, "Unauthorized weapon retrieval. Prepare for containment."

A weapon was fired. Amber wailed. The baton fell to the ground.

Elijah shouted Amber’s name, running to her side. But he did not make it before she was neutralized with a taser. Even as she fell and wriggled like a worm, Amber said, "I know my rights, you can’t keep me here." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Orders say otherwise." The captain of the guards replied. "Now we have tolerated your escape attempts time and time again and we have had enough." He forced her up on her feet.

She was escorted to the police station, and Elijah and the kids followed.

Officer Buckley, who had faced Amber a few times before for the crimes of being a nuisance sighed and shook his head. "Lady, you were only allowed to stay because the higher ups did not want people doubting the validity of the bounty. Why can’t you behave? Do you want to be thrown out?"

Amber sneered. "Who dares?"

Officer Buckley sighed and got a list of punishments that had been sent down by Ambrosia Quinn. Punishments meant for Amber Harrington only. "We won’t be releasing you today. You did the crime so you must serve the time. You have to choose between cleaning the sewage tunnels, cleaning grease in the industrial kitchen, sorting through garbage...."

Amber was outraged and she gasped.

"Mixing and packing compost in buckets before they are delivered to Busker."

Amber got up in a panic, covering her mouth. She barely made it out the door before vomiting.

Officer Buckley laughed. "You are retching before seeing the sewage tunnels! Seems like you are excited already."

Elijah covered his face and sighed. Their life could be so easy. Why was Amber making it hard? She had lived for four years without attempting to reconnect with Hades and her older sons. Why was it suddenly so important?

Had his wife come to Fortress four with an ulterior motive that she had not shared with him?