After everyone woke up the next day, the most noticeable improvement was Angelica being at seemingly full strength which was both good news and bad news. Jones ended up mentioning it when she walked in the kitchen with a pep in her step.

  “How so?” Angelica sat down at the table, tilting her head as she looked at Jones for an explanation. “Why would me being at full strength be bad?”

  “Aren't your and his abilities perfectly matched? So doesn't that mean that he too should be back at full strength?” He was eating some bread with peanut butter, swallowing while looking at her intensely. “If he's so dangerous, we should be ready.”

  Zoi had a smile on his face. “Yeah indeed, be ready. How do you propose to be… ready?”

  He didn't really have an answer to that, chuckling and shaking his head. “Jackass.” Though unlike another day, this was said with less hate and more banter, keeping the mood light.

  “My pleasure.” He tipped an imaginary hat, causing everyone to be slightly confused. “I… saw it in a movie when I was discovering the television.” He felt ashamed, continuing to eat his food as he could hear Jones chuckle.

  “Don’t worry, it's fine. I'll buy you a hat someday. Anyway, Madison, what's on the planning today?”

  Madison pointed at Joey standing in the corner of the room. “I'm going to test out how far his abilities go to get a basic sense. The rest, maybe try some stuff out on each other. Be creative.” She gave them a big smile while even Joey without facial featured looked a bit scared.

  “Don't worry Joey, nobody died so far.” She motioned for him to follow her out, seeing as she was already done eating and Joey didn't need food.

  Angelica and the others looked at each other, not sure how to test things on each other. They all had a different set of abilities that didn't really do much with one another.

  Jones still had some ideas to do with Angelica. “Maybe we two can do something together? I made up some ideas and wanted to expand on them.

  Zoi had nothing to add, continuing to eat and watch as he was left behind. With everyone having something to do, he just relaxed, going back to the television and watch stuff, exploring the world that he never got.

  Training with Joey wasn’t so interesting. He didn’t have any power really, unless you count not sleeping, breathing or eating as a power. He also didn’t feel pain and could be dismantled and depending on how dismantled he was, he could or couldn’t move the detached limbs.

  Unfortunately during the testing, she found out that a not to big blunt force could permanently break something from him, shown by one of his ribs be broken off when hit by a police baton when testing his pain level and to see how quickly he fell apart.

  After that, the testing quickly stopped with Joey holding his rib in his hand. He seemed to be rather shocked that this happened even though he knew that this could happen from back in his world.

  Madison seemed really sorry about it, but Joey walked off back to his room being obviously mad. He walked past Jones and Angelica who were just trying out the cloud bomb that she had made. While it did work for small clouds, there wasn’t a lot that Jones could do with it. If any more was packed in the cloud grenades, it would just turn into water.

  Jones had a solution for it. “Back in my world there was this game where you could have some kind of bag that was bigger on the inside. Think you can make something like that?”

  “You’re asking me to conjure magic into this world to make you a bag to hold clouds? May I tell you that there’s a difference between divine powers and magic?”

  “How is that different? You conjure stuff out of thin air!?” He waved with his hands through the air to get his point through, slightly upset that his grenade plan had gone up into smoke.

  “I don’t know how it works but see it as something more like science. I will something to happen and the divine powers use the building blocks of the universe and laws of nature to make it happen. This includes restructuring molecules.” She held her hand out, showing a metal cube that she started to transform into different shapes and sizes. “Nothing magical.”

  He just nodded, looking at the cube as it magically transformed. “Right, science.” He still didn’t really believe it but he had nothing to go on, letting her have the last word while putting on the insulated water costume she had ‘conjured’ for him. This one was a much bigger success, keeping him warm as he got onto his cloud and flew around. His face still got cold and slightly wet but his body stayed warm.

  Able to focus on his flight, he was able to go higher and higher, reaching the lowest hanging clouds quickly enough as he pulled them closer, starting to shape them more and more. Though the more he took and shaped them, the harder it got.

  He was visibly stronger than in his dream but there were still limits to his power, continuing to shape the clouds until he had remade his house in the dream. Seeing it like this made a weight land in his stomach, feeling tears well up yet again.

  Angelica appeared next to him on his cloud, looking at what he had created as far beneath them, Madison looked up, wondering what the hell was happening up there.

  Jones quickly wiped a tear away, looking at the back of her head as she inspected the house.

  She walked towards it, trying to open the door but not being able to. It was a recreation, mostly a visible aspect as the door had no actual mechanics behind it. Still, she turned towards Jones, giving him a soft smile. “Which one is this?”

  “Which one?” He got up, not following what she was trying to get at.

  “Dream house or real… Hmm, this world or dream world?” She didn’t want to call this world the real world, not remembering her life here so why would she consider this one real.

  “Dream house. I can remember almost every little detail, my bedroom in the attic, everything.” He looked to the window at the top, thinking on how he used to look through it.

  “I read your story. Must’ve been scary to be captured by terrorists. How was it to kill?” Her eyes focused on Jones as if she was trying to find some kind of shock when he’d remember those who he killed.

  He hesitated a bit, thinking of the people he dropped out of the sky world to the world down below. “Not really? Mostly because I never saw the end results. Maybe if I saw their corpses, reality would hit much harder.

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  Now that they were alone up here, Jones saw a chance to get some information out of her. He leaned to the side, looking down to the house and Madison. “What do you think of Madison? Do you believe what she is saying? What if she’s the one doing this?”

  Angelica was very surprised with that question. She had focused back on the house at first but now he got her full attention. “Madison? You’re really paranoid aren’t you? I doubt that Madison has something to do with it. I can look up some information if you want? To see if her story checks out?”

  He still didn’t trust her but if she was willing to do this, it would go a long way for his trust towards her. “You know what? Sure. I just want to make sure that we’re not going to get any more surprises later on.”

  Angelica nodded that she understood, leaning over the edge as well. “What are your thoughts on Joey?”

  “Joey seems like an alright guy. Haven't really talked to him. I don't really feel comfortable around him.” He got the shivers just thinking about how he looked.

  “Well, if you want me to check out Madison, you'll need to give me some time. Don't you have some training points to do with her?”

  “I guess that I can ask her to do somethings. How much time do you need?” He got up, preparing to going down to the ground.

  How about until dinner? I'll be there.” She herself wasn't sure how long it would take, having never done anything like this.

  “Dinner it is. Meet me in my room afterwards.” Having said that, he flew down towards the ground, letting the other clouds go since he didn't think he'd need so much of it, then again, there was enough in the sky anyway.

  He did forget about Angelica still being up there, but she was fine, disappearing right as the ground got unstable.

  Once he got down to Madison, he started to talk before she got a chance to ask about them. “So, didn't you mention something about uprooting a tree?”

  That seemed to work wonders as she forgot about her question, instead grabbing a notepad and going to her list for Jones. “I wanted to see if you can uproot a tree. With this test, I can see if you're able to get your clouds in difficult to get spaces and how much you need to do what is needed.”

  She walked towards a rather big and old looking tree, far enough away from the house so that it wouldn't hurt anyone if it fell.

  Jones looked at the tree and got his doubts, not sure where to start with this. At first, he tried to see if he could force his clouds in the ground. Quickly, it got clear that it wasn't possible. Second option was pushing against it.

  With the clouds he had left, he couldn’t keep the cloud together as he pushed, squeezing it into water as it then fell down.

  He then grabbed more clouds, covering the entire side of the tree and pushed. The tree started to move a bit, leaves falling off the harder he pushed, but in the end, he felt his body getting weak as his heart was beating in his head. “Hmmm! I can't…!”

  Madison got behind him, putting her hands on his shoulder and looking rather fascinated at the tree. “Don't give up, see how close you are.”

  Jones continued to strain his muscles, his body shivering as he pushed harder against the tree. Once more, water started to leak down from his cloud as he managed to move the tree a bit, letting go after that small change in the tree. “No! I can't.” He was panting when he said that, bending down forwards to put his hands on his knees as if he had been running.

  She seemed a bit disappointed, looking at the tree before patting him on the back. “You did well. Maybe if you practice, it could make you capable of uprooting it.”

  Jones just nodded, getting back up and looking at the tree. It still seemed rather sturdy so he wasn't sure if he even did something to it.

  In the end, Madison and Jones tested out a couple more things before noon. They ate a quick meal that didn't mean much before continuing the training. At the end of the day, Jones felt weak and tired at that point, having done multiple things that in his opinion, didn't really matter much. At least he now knew that his clouds can't go underwater, as if he couldn't have guessed that.

  After everything that had happened, Madison had made some pancakes for everyone. By this time, Angelica had shown up again and Joey didn't even bother showing himself. He didn't eat so why would he need to be there?

  Madison accepted that he wasn't there, still feeling bad for what she had done and breaking his rib. Though there wasn't a lot to talk about, so after everyone ate, everyone went to their own room, even Angelica.

  Jones had expected her to come with him to his room, being surprised as when he opened his door, she was already sitting in his bed.

  At first he checked around, never having cleaned his room, he was a bit scared that it was messy before remembering that he barely had anything to call his own. “Make yourself at home I guess. So what did you…”

  There came a knock on his door, making him stop. “What?” He looked at the door, gesturing for her to move away as he slowly opened it up.

  Zoi had decided to come by leaning with his hand against the wall next to the door. “Hey, can I come in? I want to talk for a second.”

  Jones looked back at Angelica who shrugged, opening the door to let him in. “Yeah sure, come in.”

  He came in, seeing Angelica standing against the wall out of sight of the door. “What are you doing here?” He sounded surprised and suspicious, rubbing his hands together.

  “Why do you ask? Wanted to talk about me to Jones?” She gave him a smile, walking back to the bed before lying down.

  “Actually yes. Even though I was inside the whole day, I did notice that you were gone for a long time. I wasn't sure what to think of it.” He didn't go to the bed, leaning against the wall and looking at her, trying to find some kind of reaction that would make her guilty.

  Jones sat down on the other side of the bed, yawning as he was pretty tired. “I talked with her about something, she checked it out for me.”

  “Hmmm.” Zoi didn't really have anything to say after that, having to yawn as well as the thought of Joey came to his head. “Should we invite Joey if we're going to talk about something important? He's part of us all right?”

  Jones shook his head, waving that idea away. “No need.” He looked at Angelica, waiting to see what she had to say.

  “Before I say what I found out, can I ask what you were hoping to find?” She turned to face him a bit better, getting onto her knees on the bed.

  He wasn't really sure on what he had wanted to figure out, just anything that would show that this wasn't something that would end in them being dead. “Perhaps something that points to her being behind this all? I mean, what if she's behind everything that happened? I mean, some kind of overpowered being choosing children to spread imagination and fantasy?”

  That was a rather laughable thing to say, making both Zoi and Angelica grin and smile with Angelica brushing her hair back. “Jones, I was created by a god, brought him into this world causing me to be weaker.”

  Zoi couldn't help but chime in, leaving his wall to go to the end of the bed putting his hands on the wood and leaning forwards. “I was the son of a god, adopted by hers, I do believe in overpowered beings.”

  He grumbled a bit, looking away and waving a bit with his hand through the air. “Yeah well, I didn't think about that. Now talk, what did you find?”

  She got a bit more serious now, straightening her back while summoning some papers out of thin air, going through them. “I found that she had served in some big war. Her corpse got ambushed where she was captured and others died. The rest escaped and retreated somewhere after which everyone but one was killed after the enemy had gotten information from some source. It's assumed that she talked. So loyalty might be shaky?”

  A couple of papers were dropped as she went to a new, maybe important one. “Euh, she made some deals with some people to have this built after which the builders disappeared. Someone on the internet said he saw a woman from a drawing of pirates in his local store many years ago and Madison is rather recognizable so… piracy background?”

  “Honestly, nothing I found is that special for someone with her lifespan. She seemed to have done some bad things but nothing that would hint at her being behind this.” The papers disappeared again as she waited for a reaction.

  “She was in a war huh? Might explain why she is a bit mental.” He thought about it, remembering how she handed some weapons as if they're toys. “Not that weird if you're used to killing people.”

  Angelica just shrugged, throwing a quick look at Zoi before looking back at Jones. “Anything else?”

  “No, I'm fine, let's go to sleep. Tomorrow we should come up with ideas to start spreading fantasy or whatever our mission is.” He yawned, lying down onto his bed, putting his hands underneath his head as he looked up at them. “Any ideas would be welcome.”

  Zoi got up from the bed, followed by Angelica as he walked to the door. “Right, if David doesn't decide that we're too dangerous and drops a bomb on our heads before we can finish our mission.”

  He opened the door, walking outside as somewhere down the hall, a door could be heard closing. He didn't really pay it too much attention, holding the door open for Angelica, both saying goodnight before going to their beds.