"Theodore. Ezekiel. Mercer! Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?" Daniel asked in an icy tone as she stared at Theo who was currently sitting shirtless next to Peter in the lobby outside of the principals office.
Theo, who rushed back once his clone dispelled in the bathroom rubbed the bridge of his nose before he asked in a hopeful tone, "Well considering it was self defense… Probably a week of detention?"
"You-" Peter started but was stopped when Theo covered his mouth and gestured to everyone else in the lobby as he said, "We can discuss the specifics later at home."
The lobby was packed full including the main hallway outside of everyone involved. Milly, Jean and MJ were also there, but they were off to the side since they weren't actually involved. Well that wasn't exactly true, Milly recorded the whole fight and the teachers asked to watch it to determine what happened.
As for how Daniel was already there when most other parents hadn't arrived yet, she was supposed to pick up everyone today after club activities finished. Daniel fixed her frosty gaze on Theo as she said, "Oh we definitely will… Just you wait mister."
Daniel glanced around the room filled with other people before she asked, "Why are there so many other kids here anyways? Which ones are the kids you fought with?"
A smug smirk played across Theo's face as he said, "The entire freshman football team… So everyone here and the other kids, out in the hallway."
Daniel stared at Theo for a few moments and when she realized he was serious the color drained from her face as she said, "This is bad… Besides the possible legal ramifications, both of you might get expelled for this."
An older man's voice with a gentle tone said, "I can assure you Mrs. Mercer, nothing like that will happen."
Everyone turned towards the voice and found an older man with a friendly face who stroked his beard as he introduced himself, "I'm the school principal, Hiruzen Sarutobi. But most teachers and students just call me Professor."
Hiruzen wore a friendly smile as he gestured towards Theo and Peter as he added, "I've reviewed the evidence and determined that Peter and Theo were the victims here."
"But didn't they beat up over forty other kids?" Daniel asked in a concerned tone.
"Young Peter here showed a high level of maturity and tried his best to deescalate the entire situation, while both boys showed incredible restraint until they had no other option but to fight back and defend themselves."
Daniel turned to give both the shirtless boys another look as Hiruzen continued, "Honestly if it wasn't for the fact fighting is against school rules, I wouldn't even punish them. But since it is, both of you are suspended for the rest of the week and will have to spend a lunchtime detention with me for the next two weeks afterwards."
"That's it?" Daniel asked in a slightly confused tone.
"You should watch the video your daughter recorded. It paints a very clear picture of what happened and makes it hard for me to punish these two boys anymore severely. As for now, they're both suspended and I'll see them next Monday at lunch."
Daniel nodded slowly before she gestured for Theo and the others to head towards the door as she said, "Thanks for being so lenient and I promise nothing like this will happen again as long as I can help it."
"No need to thank me, like I said the evidence spoke for itself. Besides a few black eyes and a lot of bruised ego's, it was just kids being kids after all." Hiruzen said in a friendly tone as he watched them leave before he turned towards the first person on the football team.
As they all piled into Daniel's company car which was a fully loaded Escalade, Peter finally said, "Everything is Theo's fault."
"No it wasn't, it was my stupid clone… But we can discuss this later when we get home, because I don't wanna explain it twice." Theo said as he let out an exhausted sigh.
"Wait, why was the fight Theo's fault? We watched them attack both of you." MJ asked as she glanced from Peter to Theo.
"Theo's clone used a skill on all of them to make them attack us." Peter said as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Theo.
"Hey, don't blame me for what a misbehaving clone did! I'm also a victim here!" Theo said in a defensive tone before he added, "Besides, the only thing my clone did was bring their inner thoughts to the surface and had them act on it."
"Aren't your clones just a copy of you? Doesn't that mean you would have done the same thing?" Jean asked in a curious tone.
"While that's true, after the fifteenth clone or so, they start to get personality quirks. Most of the time they tend to be a little lazy or like to play pranks… This one seemed to be a bit more aggressive than normal." Theo said with a helpless shrug.
"Wait, you make more than fifteen clones a day?" Jean asked in surprise as MJ nodded in agreement.
Theo froze for a moment as he realized Jean and MJ didn't know everything about him and tried to think of a good excuse why he would make so many clones. He didn't need to make one though as his mom quickly said, "Theo is contracted through Vibe and makes over a hundred clones each day to do programming work for them."
"What?" Both girls asked at the same time.
Daniel smiled as she glanced at the girls through her rear view mirror and said, "Oh right, you girls didn't know… That game Theo and Peter made as kids was bought by Vibe. They were also both given job offers to come work at Vibe when they are older."
Theo nodded in understanding as he said, "Since my family learned about my powers, my mom talked with the owner of Vibe and worked out a deal to let my clones work each day."
"So the people at Vibe know you have powers?" MJ asked in a concerned tone.
"Yes, but you've probably seen Vibe's owner. He's a meta human himself and he set up everything so only he knows about Theo and his powers."
"Oh, that's good! Wait… Do you get paid a lot because you have a hundred clones working each day?" MJ asked in a curious tone.
"Theo's part owner of Vibe, so he doesn't technically get paid in the normal sense. But he gets a percentage of the company's profits each quarter." Daniel said as she waited for the light to change.
"So he makes a lot of money?"
"I make enough, but it gets split up between investment accounts for all my family. While my parents and the other adults all have access to their accounts. All the children are locked out until they turn twenty five, but we will each be given a small monthly allowance once we reach sixteen that increases a little bit each year." Theo said before he pulled out his phone to check a notification.
Theo's right eye twitched as he read the notification before he glanced at Milly and asked, "Are you really trying to upload that to Vibe?"
"What?!? No fair, you're cheating!" Milly said with a pout.
"What did she try to do?"
Theo showed the notification to his mom since they were stuck at another light as he said, "Milly tried to upload the fight she recorded to Vibe."
"Nice, I wanna see it!" MJ said before Jean added, "Me too! We couldn't see it properly because everyone was in the way, but you had the perfect view from the bleachers."
"Emily Mercer…"
"Come on mom, it's awesome! I even added music to it and it turned out great." Milly said with a pout.
"You added music?!? Now I wanna see it too." Peter said in an excited tone.
"Really? Mr. I don't wanna get in trouble, you want to watch the fight now because it has music?"
"It already happened and I'm gonna be in trouble now anyways, so I might as well find some enjoyment in this whole situation." Peter said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Wow, they grow up so fast. I never thought it would happen…" Theo said as he wiped a fake tear from his eye as the other kids laughed.
"Shut up you idiot." Peter said before an instant later Theo replied, "Takes one to know one!"
"Peter, Theo, apologize!" Daniel said as she glanced at Peter in the mirror for a moment before she said, "Also, why are you still shirtless? There are girls with us… You too Theo, put on a shirt."
"We don't mind." MJ and Jean said at the same time before they giggled and Milly said, "I mind! Who wants to see their brother shirtless?"
"Sorry, Theo." "Sorry, Peter."
Daniel came to a stop at another light before she glanced at Theo and said, "Don't you carry extra clothes with you? Put on a shirt and give Peter one too."
"Fine. Give me a second." Theo said as he put his hand over the storage seal on his arm and searched it for something.
After a few moments he pulled out two t-shirts and tossed one to Peter as he said, "That should fit."
After Peter and Theo put on their shirts, Milly excitedly said, "It's up! You actually put it up."
Theo smirked as he said, "I had to approve it after I saw the song choice."
"Theo… You shouldn't put that online. It could cause issues for you when you get older." Daniel said in a concerned tone.
"Like getting a job? I'm pretty sure dad will hire me no matter what kinda videos get posted. Plus I own part of Vibe, so I can always work there or just not work and collect free money." Theo said with a chuckle.
Theo played with the infotainment controls before he said, "Here, I pulled up the video so everyone can watch."
Theo also put it on the main panel so Daniel could watch too since they were currently stuck in traffic. The video started with the football players confronting Peter and Theo and upbeat music slowly faded in. Once they started to attack while Peter and Theo dodged everything, Elton John started singing, "You can never know what it's like, your blood like winter freezes just like ice."
The music played for a bit longer until Peter and Theo finally counterattacked as the song continued, "Don't you know, I'mmmmm still standing, better than I ever did! Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid. I'mmm still standing, after all this time. Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind."
Theo kicked someone towards Peter who perfectly pivoted around in time to punch them in the face as the song kicked up a notch, "I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah! I'm still standing!"
When the video finished MJ said, "That was awesome, great job Milly!"
"Yeah, I have no idea how you could edit that on your phone." Jean said as she nodded in agreement.
"It wasn't hard, the options in the phone editor are pretty great. Plus I didn't really need to edit it, just the audio of the music track."
"Still, it turned out pretty good… I can't believe that was me in the video." Peter said in a surprised tone as he rewatched the video with the volume low.
MJ nudged Peter with her shoulder as she said, "Believe it tiger."
"Tiger?"
MJ pointed at the video as she said, "You reminded me of a tiger I saw on a nature documentary with the way you were fighting."
Jean slowly nodded in agreement as she said, "I could see it… And it's not a terrible nickname."
"Well I'm never calling him that… It sounds more like a pet name than a nickname if you ask me." Theo said from the front seat as he shook his head.
"Yeah, I'm definitely not calling him that either…" Milly said in a tone filled with disgust.
They chatted for a while longer as they headed back to their neighborhood before Jean and MJ were dropped off. Everyone else headed to the shop because most of the family was currently there. When they got out of the car and started walking inside, Jacob took one look at them and burst out laughing.
The others stopped working to see what was going on and also started to laugh before Daniel asked, "What's so funny?"
Jacob pointed towards Theo and Peter or more specifically their shirts as he tried to hold in his laughter. Daniel turned to see what the issue was and saw Theo's t-shirt first that read, "Ask me about my massive COCK."
Daniel was almost upset with the shirt, but there was a giant rooster on the back of it. But then she looked at Peter's shirt and froze as she read, "If it has tits or tires, I can make it squeal."
"Theodore. Ezekiel. Mercer!"