Today is the day Jack totally understood why some men hate shopping with women and kids together. With three bags in each hand, he had totally become the bag-carrying person for these three.
"Mom,"
"Can you stop calling me Mom for now?"
Emma looked disappointed. "Why?"
"Because I'm still trying to process the fact that I'm apparently going to have a daughter someday, and on top of that, she's a time-traveled daughter from the future, and I'm still only 18, just 6 years older than you right now. This whole thing feels weird, so please."
Emma pouted.
Gwen sighed.
"Call me Gwen for now. You can call me Mom when you're back in your own time."
"No, that feels weird. I'll call you Little Mom then."
"That's even worse," Gwen felt troubled.
"Hahaha." Hearing this, Jack, who was nearby, tried his best not to laugh, but he couldn't.
Hearing Jack laugh, she glared at him.
"Daddy fetish guy."
Hearing her say this, he felt his personality was offended.
"Hey, don't say that. I just don't mind. Maybe I'm more mature than you," Jack defended himself.
The whole day went with them enjoying themselves, taking pictures and visiting famous places in New York like a family.
"At night, since everyone now knew his secret, Jack decided to surprise them by showing them his hideout."
"What are we doing here at this time, in this old, unused train station tunnel?" Gwen questioned Jack as they walked, while Emma and Morgan were excited to see what surprise Jack was going to show them.
"It's a surprise, as I told you earlier. Just follow me."
Soon, Jack reached a place and moved a rock nearby. Suddenly, on the side, the wall moved as a biometric scanner came into view. After it verified him, the wall opened, and he looked at the others.
"How, surprised, right? Welcome to my secret hideout." Jack opened his hands, looking proud.
"I didn't expect you to build a secret hideout yourself here," Gwen praised him.
"Wow, Daddy, this is cool. Even future Dad didn't tell me about this hideout ," Emma exclaimed.
"Maybe I moved it in the future," Jack said, showing them his hideout. Since the upgrade, this station at least looked more like a secret base than before.
"Yes, compared to Uncle's other hideout, this one is really shabby," Morgan commented, looking at the place.
Hearing Morgan call it shabby, Jack's proud expression immediately disappeared. It seemed even his future self was better than him at building secret bases.
"Yes, yes. Even the Plumber organization's base on Earth is many times bigger than this one."
"Plumber organization? Is that the organization you told me about earlier? I totally forgot because of all these secrets."
Gwen asked curiously. Jack hadn't explained it in detail before. He had only mentioned that they had a large organization in the future.
Even though knowing too much about the future wasn't a good thing, she couldn't help being curious.
Actually, even Jack was very curious about that, but since the future was already good and everything had gone well, he didn't ask Emma or Morgan about the Plumber organization.
"Yes, it was built by Dad. A very powerful organization. It has many aliens in it," Emma said.
"Aliens?! You mean aliens like the ones you transform into?"
"No, no. Those aliens come from another universe, just like we told you earlier about the alien watch. These aliens are from our universe. Some of them look similar, I guess."
Jack wasn't entirely sure, as there had to be many different kinds of aliens in the Marvel universe. He had only seen some of them in movies and comics.
"Yes. What's there to be surprised about? Aliens are very common," Emma said, not understanding why her little mom was so shocked.
"Common? How common?"
"There were many aliens in the organization. Outside, maybe fewer, but after aliens attacked New York, everyone on Earth knew aliens existed, right?"
"Aliens attack New York in the future? When?"
Before Emma could answer, Jack stopped her.
"Why are you stopping her?"
"Didn't we talk about this before? Knowing future events isn't a good thing. We can't spend our lives chasing every possible disaster."
"But if we know it's coming, shouldn't we stop it?" Gwen asked.
"And what if trying to stop one thing causes something even worse? We don't know how much the future has already changed."
Jack sighed.
"If something happens, we'll deal with it. Until then, let's focus on the present instead of fearing the future."
Hearing this, Gwen understood what Jack was trying to say, but she still felt it wasn't wise to ignore something they could prevent.
"Then are you not going to do anything? You have the power to stop this completely," Gwen questioned.
"Yes, I can. But how many attacks can I stop? And what if the butterfly effect changes the future where Emma is?" Hearing this, Gwen fell silent.
"See, even without knowing the future, I would've become a hero and saved people anyway. Why do you think I built the Plumber organization in the future? To stop disasters like this."
Jack then looked at Emma.
"I saved people during the alien war, right?"
"Yes, Daddy! The heroes stopped the war, and even Mom participated!" Emma said while making punching motions with her hands.
"See? We did it."
Jack smiled.
"So don't stress over it. Stop asking about the future. It'll only make us fear things that haven't happened yet."
Hearing this, Gwen was silent for a few minutes.
"I understand... I just need some time to think about everything."
Saying that, Gwen turned around and left the hideout.
"Mom—"
Jack wanted to stop her, but Emma shook her head.
"Leave her some time. In one day, she heard so many crazy things about the world. She's very confused right now. She'll come back after she clears her mind."
Jack looked at Gwen's departing figure and sighed.
Only Emma felt a little guilty, thinking that her Daddy and Mommy had fought because of her.
Author's Note
A small update for everyone.
Due to some personal matters, I won't be able to continue the Power Stone bonus chapters for now. My regular release schedule will remain the same at 5 chapters per week, just like before.
I apologize to everyone who was looking forward to the bonus chapters, but I hope you can understand. Once things settle down and I have more free time again, I'll consider bringing them back.
Thank you all for your continued support! ❤️
If you enjoyed the chapter, don't forget to vote with your Power Stones, leave a review, and add the novel to your library!