Chapter 150: Chapter 150: Domain
[This is your captain speaking, we are starting to descend...]
Bernard’s voice reverberated from the speakers of the plane, the loud ding just before waking everyone who was asleep up from their sleep, which was only Pauline’s parents.
They had been flying for ten hours straight now, and the feeling of the planet turning around and slowly descending to the ground felt incredibly relieving—especially for Bella.
It wasn’t so much the nausea, or not being able to sleep because of it, that made her feel miserable, no. She was comfortable for most of the flight. After all, her seat could practically turn into a bed with one push of a button.
What made her extremely uncomfortable was her mother.
"Ah, Jesus. Please, take away the devil that is inside my daughter."
Her mother’s palm was completely covering her forehead, pinning her entire head to the seat while forcing her to chew some sort of ginger candy.
"M-mama..." Bella struggled to break free from her mother’s clutch. Sadly for her, Tanisha was a super who had mild superstrength. She was wearing a fake white gold bracelet, which Bella could try to move since it was metal, but the issues and consequences that would follow after that would be... catastrophic.
First, that would mean she was defying her mom. Second, they were practically inside a metal box thousands of feet in the air, and she didn’t want to make the others uncomfortable. And lastly, perhaps the most important aspect—she will be revealing that Tanisha was wearing fake gold right in front of the wealthiest family on the planet.
That last one would ensure she was already dead even before the plane actually landed.
"Does she need anything? We have medicine on the plane."
Diana approached from her seat, awkwardly smiling at Bella as she seemed to be quietly asking her for help. "I think we have one that would work well with ginger."
"Ah, Diana!" Tanisha shook her head, and Bella’s head too, before finally letting her go. And not even a millisecond after she felt her mother’s grip loosen, she instantly slipped away toward Gracey and the others.
"Zabella Simone Jackson! Come back here this instant!"
"You not the government, Mama!" Bella bellowed, making sure to stay out of her mother’s view by using Diana as a shield. Gracey, Hannah, and Pauline, who were playing Jenga
on the plane, all let out groans as she accidentally bumped the table and ruined their game.Even Tomoe, who was only watching on the side, sighed and subtly shook her head.
It was chaos throughout the flight, and Diana was busy making sure that everyone was comfortable. Perhaps the most surprising thing of all was that she didn’t look haggard or tired at all, even though she took care of almost everything, even serving drinks and food.
And when she was sure that Bella was okay now, and that no one needed her attention, she returned to her seat.
Lorraine, who was seated in front of her, closed her laptop and poured a glass of wine for Diana. She slid it across the table between them, and Diana sighed as she quickly took a sip.
"Don’t let me bother you," Diana said, motioning to Lorraine to continue her work.
"No." Lorraine lightly chuckled, shaking her head as she removed the laptop from the table and slipped it back into her bag. "I shouldn’t even be working in the first place."
"And what were you working on in the first place? If you don’t mind me asking."
"Oh, the result of the Hope Guild trials."
"Huh, right. They’re keeping it very tight that it was that Butcher man they chose."
"What?! Why?!" Lorraine’s eyes widened. She hastily grabbed her bag again to pull out her laptop, but as she was about to open it, she just sighed and shook her head.
"That... can wait," she whispered, returning the bag to the side of her seat. "Your husband would just scrub my article if I release it anyway. And anyway..."
She then looked around the vast and luxurious interior of the plane, primarily the bar, with no one on the other side of it.
"...I noticed, for being the wealthiest family in the entire world, you don’t seem to have any personal staff? Not even flight attendants?"
"Oh..." Diana also looked around, chuckling as she relaxed in her seat. "We don’t really need them. And Bernard and I prefer to be hands-on if we can. It’s better for the children, too."
"Ha... and I can’t even have my daughter wash her plate. How do you even do it?" Lorraine glanced at Hannah. "Taking care of a teenage girl and a growing boy on the spectrum."
"Well... Riley was really only a problem in the beginning," Diana said, once again sighing before taking a large gulp of her wine. "It’s Hannah who’s been getting harder and harder to handle. I’m guessing you can relate?"
"Oh god, don’t get me started. They’re all about trying to find themselves now, and wanting to prove that they could tackle the world without us..." Lorraine glanced at Gracey, who was now posing for no reason at all. "Of course, I can’t really complain since I was worse when I was her age."
"Oh? You still remember what you did when you were her age?" Diana tilted her head.
"Yes...?" Lorraine squinted. "Come on, we’re not that old."
"Hmm. I guess raising two children makes me feel older than I am."
"Speaking of... where’s your other?"
"Oh, he’s the one piloting the plane."
"...Excuse me?"
Unbeknownst to everyone there, well, not Lorraine—Riley had been the one piloting the plane from the start, even the takeoff. Bernard wasn’t even a co-pilot, since the plane could be controlled by a single person.
But of course, it was really only the takeoff and landing that truly needed a pilot’s full attention. At least, that was how it should be, but no.
Riley did not turn on the autopilot at all and chose to have his hands on the controls ever since they took off. He hasn’t even stood up, and the only other thing he did was to drink milk and blink.
And V had also been in the cockpit most of the time, watching Riley do nothing at all while occasionally speaking with Bernard.
"Are you sure you no longer plan on joining the Hope Guild in the future?" Bernard asked.
"Hmm. I mean, that’s kind of still far off into the future? I’m only twelve, Sir."
"Already?" A little bit of laughter escaped Bernard’s mouth. "I remember when you were still wetting the bed."
"S-sir!" V gasped, quickly glancing at Riley. But Riley didn’t even glance back at all, his clear eyes completely focused on the horizon ahead. And slowly, the islands revealed themselves to them.
"Father," Riley said, and Bernard quickly nodded as he grabbed the comms next to him.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts...
...We’re here."
***
At the same time, back on land and everywhere else in the world, the rest of the human population was spending their weekend doing whatever it was they were doing. Either lounging around, or still working.
Different people in different time zones, doing random things.
Well, that was about to change.
It started with a person named Fajar, who lived somewhere in Indonesia, and was currently using a VPN to traverse through some dubious sites that would otherwise be banned in their country. In this case, Reddit.
He was scouring the community for any random post to waste his weekend, snacking on kacang pilus while shaking his head in disagreement with everything he saw.
He yawned, shaking his head while downvoting a post just asking for advice on whether a certain video game was compatible with a certain OS.
He was about to close the app, but then he decided to refresh one final time to see if there was anything new and interesting.
And then, he saw it—a newly uploaded post.
It was about a new website. Fajar was about to move on, since posts like that were usually just to promote the website, but something immediately caught his eye.
The domain name.
darkday dot com.
It was no wonder the post popped up for him, as he was just reading about the new supervillain in the USA who was going by the same name.
He squinted, and he even looked around his room like there was somebody else there. And then, with a shrug, he decided to click the link.
He was expecting some sort of messy and clunky website, but it was not at all.
It was incredibly professional, almost like an app, even.
But one thing was for sure—it truly was a site dedicated to Darkday since the UI and the images were of him.
But these images... weren’t available to the public.
Fajar’s eyebrows furrowed, and then he focused on the most prominent button there.
[Apply]
He clicked on the button, and he was immediately greeted by a clean form, with the first question being,
[Who do you want to die?]