Chapter Twenty-Four - More Martial Arts - Part II

Because they hadn't seen anyone around; not even the clones as of late; didn't mean that they weren't under threat of attack. The situation called for a state of watchfulness and thus the bunker occupants, The Eight, did not slacken their daily procedures. That included training for martial arts and doing whatever occult things that needed to be done in order to make sure that they were ready to defend the bunker and now that the next generation of sims were here, there was even more need to be disciplined in their training. This was a harsh new environment that they were now living in and anything in the environment could kill them. So Haruo trained them hard.

Even if there wasn't a human in sight, the price of freedom was eternal vigilance. Humanity, using Probability Theory and Occam's Razor, had probably survived in some shape or form elsewhere - in bunkers much like theirs and it was certain that at some point they would emerge, givven the state of the information they were receiving about the environment - radiation levels were going down and the storms would eventually dissipate.

More than likely, even though they hadn't seen anyone, they would be out there somewhere braving the possibility of radiation poisoning and the fickle electro-static charges in the atmosphere while the bunker occupants were able to chow down on several meals a day.

There was a reason for going werewolf, though it wasn't clear before the transformation. Humans, other than survival, were oft-nihilistic and self-serving. They would turn their backs on those relying on them for survival if it meant that they were able to get an advantage. Weres were less self-serving though they were technically human/wolf hybrids. When in werewolf form, their pack-mentality and a base need for survival through cooperation coursed through their veins. Sure there was in-fighting amongst the wolf-pack, but a wolf knew that his odds of survival outside of the pack was very low. So being a werewolf: all savagery aside, was an advantage in this new world of post-nuclear devastation.

However most elected to stay in their human form unless forced into transformation by the full-moon. Even being in the bunker didn't free them from Luna's influence. As it was, Hildegard played the piano having been given the Musical Machine trait chip and Amanda played with her Imaginary Friend.

Contrary to the evidence presented in the recordings that Horace and Hector provided once their optical sensor hard-drives were downloaded to the computer, there were still humans on the surface, but they were being constantly bombarded by meteors and lightning strikes.

Hildegard used her musical trait chip to entertain those in the bunker and her Steel Chef trait chip to feed those in the bunker that ate while the rest did what they had to do to ensure that they had the tactical advantage if someone chose to attack their bunker.

...and thus they were able to sleep, secure in the knowledge that if anything did happen, they had the skills to meet the challenge.

Chapter Twenty-Three - More Martial Arts

Unfortunately for the rest of the bunker occupants, Saturday was Martial Arts day and Haruo revelled in making life interesting for his fellow bunker-mates. Martial Arts was a necessity and they needed to keep at it in order to get good at it.

Haruo took the opportunity to get in some practice before everyone trickled in and managed to get his master martial arts zhi fu. The rich silk black and yellow uniform with the yellow sleeves and black belt was beautiful and told of his hard work in getting to that level of kung fu.

When the students started trickling in to start working on their board-breaking skills, Haruo started testing River on her kung fu skills since she hadn't been able to practice her brown-belt moves during her pregnancy. She now was able to do so at full speed. So they squared off in the center ring.

...and Haruo pressed her hard, starting off with an aerial move, leaping into the air which she countered just as hard.

A forearm strike was countered and Haruo ducked under a roundhouse kick.

Haruo was gratified to know that River hadn't lost any of her edge when she was pregnant. Her attacks came fast and furious. She first attacked him with another fore-arm strike which Haruo blocked then rapidly shifted into an aerial assault with a leaping roundhouse kick.

Haruo had to admit that she was good; she was aggressive and that any blackbelt had better watch her carefully even though she was one level below them. She had the ability to be able to catch them off-guard and he was impressed by her skill; not to mention proud of the fact that his wife was so good at this...and if he wasn't careful, HE was going to get his head knocked off by her.

...so he decided that he was going to return the favour...

...and blows were traded back and forth...all countered; none landing...

C'est l'amour. C'est faire un bleu.

Chapter Twenty-Two - The Beginning

Most of the work on the science research focused around cloning moonstone and silver. This was one of the tasks that they needed to do in order to ensure that stocks of moonstone to create the Bottled Curse of the Lycan were available. They also needed materials to create the Cure Elixir so that those who were infected by other diseases could be easily cured. One of the ingredients was wolfsbane in order to create the Bottled Curse of the Lycan. Noel did what he could to create cloning samples but samples were hard to come by and periodically the machine would malfunction and blow up the sample leaving Noel singed and not feeling all too chipper.

On the other hand, Noel was good at creating plumbot trait chips, he rarely ever failed in making them now. Actually, he was no in the midst of creating another RoBotany chip that he would either place into yet another plumbot to help Phil with the gardening. And they needed to make sure that the garden had a surfeit of wolfsbane and other needed herbs for the alchemy. Plus truffles and other mushrooms that were edible were also good for potato and truffle torte. It was always good to keep the fridge stocked.

Haruo was busy working on some science as well, but the need to change overcame him and he became a were again. He really needed to get the transformation under control or he would cause everyone in that bunker to become absolutely neurotic.

Now that his wife was no longer pregnant, Haruo conceded to turning his wife were as well and gave her the cursed bite. The Watcher had no idea whether or not it turned his River on, but well, so it went. After he had soundly bitten her, she did feel a little funny; as in her senses were more keen and smells came to be a lot more evident to her olfactory nerves. Plus Haruo smelt like a dog so it might have probably been the fact that he needed to take a long shower.

Mickey went off to practice breaking boards in the martial arts room and well, he levelled up to blue-belt, which was a good thing.

Autumn took the opportunity to take Amanda upstairs and put her in the high-chair to feed her.

That afternoon, it was Andrew's turn to age up to toddler, so he had his birthday cake and was able to grow into a handsome little tyke.

It meant that the first two children were getting older and thus the second generation of the renewal of the human race was starting to bloom. Of course the first generation would bring more children into the world and as supernaturals they would have the opportunity to populate the world to their liking. It would be a race of werewolves that colonized this planet, so in that regards, the human race as they knew it was extinct. And a new beginning for the occult.