Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Following that outburst, it took a great deal to calm her down because Kaley and Marisha's words didn't seem to enter her ears except for mine. I don't know the extent of what Quinn knew about this "operation" as she coined it, but in order for me to know more about it and calm her down, I needed to dig deep into my mind palace.

Because even though I do have perfect recall, it didn't mean that I'd only need a fraction of a second to make it float above my head. Furthermore, doing that while trying to redirect her charge and making her stay in the same spot was making things a little bit difficult.

But yeah, the moment a little spark ignited inside my head, it was just a chain of explosions that made me remember everything from that day:

"QUINN, I SAID STOP!"

"WHY ARE YOU HIDING—"

"LISTEN TO ME GODDAMMIT! I REMEMBER THE NAME 'POPS'! POPS! DOES THAT RING A BELL?!"

"WHAT? WHO—"

And right as she gave me the smallest of openings, I tripped her down and made her splash into the pool, hopefully calming down her hot-headedness with some cool water. I can't believe she'd straight-up had an outburst like that from one of her darker core memories without even hearing our side.

I wanted to be understanding for as much as I could but this was just plain stupid and if it was any other person, she might've repeated the mistake she made on the person their whole family was likening to me.

Obviously, we garnered enough attention for my people to come running and even though our meeting should've been a little joyous, it ended with me waving them off with a bitter smile because I already had things under control and things should've been a little more different.

But yeah, as I tried to give Quinn a hand after she cooled down while standing perfectly straight on my pool, the motherfucker pulled me down and had the audacity to get mad at me:

"WHY'D YOU THROW ME IN THE WATER?!"

"WHY'D YOU JUMP THE GUN AGAIN?!"

"CAN YOU BLAME ME?!"

"OF COURSE, I CAN FUCKING BLAME YOU! YOU CAN FUCKING COOK A CHICKEN WITH A SLAP!"

"NO, I FUCKING CAN'T!"

"HAVE YOU TRIED?!"

"YOU— STOP CLIMBING ON ME!"

"I'M SORRY, I'M NOT 7 FEET! YOU TRIED TO HIT ME, YOU BULL!"

"BULL?! DON'T COMPARE ME TO A BULL!"

"FINE! ROGUE'S MUCH BETTER THAN YOU! HE FUCKING KNOWS WHEN TO STOP!"

"UGH! YOU KNOW I CAN'T STOP MYSELF WHEN I GET MAD!"

"THEN YOU ARE A BULL!"

"SO WHAT IF I AM?! HUH?! DO YOU FUCKING HATE ME NOW?! IS THAT IT?!"

"I DON'T HATE YOU QUINN! IT'S THE REACT NOW THINK LATER'S WHAT I'M FUCKING MAD ABOUT! YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT! DO YOU NOT FUCKING TRUST ME?!"

"WE BARELY KNOW—"

"I KNOW ENOUGH! AND YOU DO TOO! SO CUT THE FUCKING CRAP AND CAN'T WE JUST TALK WITHOUT SHOUTING OR FIGHTING AT FIRST?!"

"THEN GET OFF ME FIRST!"

"Fine! This here's my favorite shirt too…" I slowly got off her as I pulled myself out of the pool.

Quinn was looking down for a moment before she got a glimpse of Kaley seriously pissed from her actions, "I… I thought you like the anime ones Kaley's wearing instead… S-Sorry… Sorry, I snapped…"

I let out a brief sigh before I offered my hand again, "See? You do know me. But I swear to fucking god if you pull me again—"

"I said I'm sorry! Pull me up, please…"

"Typical powerlifter, can't even do a pull-up—"

Kaley and Quinn shouted at the same time, "YOU— DON'T START, ALRIGHT?!"

"What? I thought she knew me that much? Honestly, I'm disappointed– Ow! Kaley! I'm trying to pull her up!"

"Stop joking around!"

In any case, it came as a surprise to those who knew Quinn to start apologizing to everybody because of the ruckus she caused… especially to the kids she frightened. After that, Marisha decided to also have a talk with us but she did bring Dr. Nichols first to their home while Kaley and I escorted Quinn back to our house so that she and I could have a change of clothes.

It didn't take long before we discovered that everyone else had already woken up due to Quinn's screaming earlier and they were just waiting for the right moment to pop up before entering the scene but it ended before they could.

But yeah, after everyone else got ready, we made our way to Marisha's residence—after also giving them a brief tour along the way and introducing them to everybody we came across—but to our surprise, not only was Edith and Rin present with Nancy, but Mimi was also there and was already taking care of Amelia—or Amy's needs.

It obviously came as a surprise to the rest of my group when they saw Amy's condition—missing both her arms and legs—but from the time she was here and receiving proper rehabilitation and counseling, she now could walk by herself but not in the traditional sense.

"Sky! Kaley~! I missed you two! Don't go over here! I'll walk over!" Amy exclaimed with a huge smile on her face.

At this moment, Amy had this prosthesis that was only a few inches in height—not enough to be as proportional to the rest of her body or be as long as a regular teenager's calves—but it was a way to help her get adjusted to walking once again until she could be fitted with something that would gradually get more and more matching to her body composition.

It was something that she'd have to get used to for a span of months and even years—depending on her ability to adapt and get used to the adjustments—but seeing her walk right now was already a huge feat among all the people I've seen that had the same condition but from a different cause.

And yeah, it almost prompted Quinn's reaction from everybody else but it seemed like not only Quinn knew something about this stuff but also Cynthia and the twins.