Chapter 280: Chapter 268: Have to Go Out
"Oh, right. One time, some lab staff who brought me food were talking. They said something about... Mirefall Base, I think. Yes, Mirefall Base. The lab had a radio that always broadcasted news from Mirefall Base."
Flora Bloom’s pupils shrank, her face turning deathly pale.
Mirefall... Mirefall Base. The place of nightmares she would never forget as long as she lived.
It was there she had witnessed her parents’ deaths, her brother’s brutal end, and endured ten miserable years of the apocalypse before her own tragic demise.
Mirefall Secure Base, the laboratory, Dr. Wallace, and all those depraved accomplices.
The thought made Flora Bloom’s face turn deathly pale. As if sensing its mother’s distress, a small gurgle sounded from her lower abdomen. Polly Bloom seemed to roll over in her belly, triggering a wave of the morning sickness that had been plaguing her recently.
"GACK!"
"Flora?"
Lex Cross suddenly leaped down from the wall by the wisteria trellis. He rushed to Flora’s side, his hands on her shoulders in a panic. "What’s wrong?"
"It’s nothing, just morning sickness!"
Lex Cross placed a hand on Flora’s lower abdomen. "Polly Cross, if you keep bullying your mom, just wait till you’re born. I’ll give you a good spanking!"
Strangely, the nausea that usually required several sips of spiritual water to quell began to subside as the warmth from Lex Cross’s palm seeped into her belly.
Flora slapped his hand away. "Stop fooling around. I found Annelise’s brother. She’s been taken by some mysterious laboratory."
Jack Locke was frantic. "Flora Bloom, I’m begging you, please save Annelise! In that lab... they cut pieces of my flesh and drew my blood every day. It was a fate worse than death! I don’t want her to suffer the same way!"
Flora frowned. "I understand how you feel." She pushed aside her own sorrowful feelings, but a strange thought flickered through her mind, gone in an instant, too quick to grasp.
"There’s something I don’t understand, though. Annelise has already awakened her Beast Ability and broken through to the Middle Level. Never mind ordinary people, even most other ability users are no match for her. So how did she get captured?"
Guilt instantly flooded Jack Locke’s face.
"It’s all my fault. I was too badly injured and slowed her down. She wouldn’t have been captured if she wasn’t trying to help me escape! As they were taking her, she kept shouting for me to find someone named Flora Bloom. That’s why I risked coming back to the base, but I was ambushed."
Flora Bloom and Lex Cross exchanged a look. Their connection was so strong they knew what the other was thinking without a word.
"Jack Locke, you must know it’s almost impossible to find Annelise if we don’t know their location. So, here’s the plan: I’ll get you somewhere to heal first. Once you’ve recovered, we’ll go rescue her together."
"No, we can’t wait! Annelise is enduring unimaginable suffering right now! If I had known... I never should have gone out in the first place." Jack Locke’s expression was a mask of guilt and regret.
Flora wanted to pat his shoulder reassuringly but hesitated, not knowing where to touch. Jack Locke’s skin was a patchwork of injuries, with no part of it left intact. The flesh that had been carved away—who knew how many days ago—showed no signs of scabbing over.
"If you go looking for her with me in this state, you’ll collapse before we even find anyone. How would I explain that to Annelise?"
"But..." It was as if Jack Locke couldn’t feel the pain, yet his body still trembled uncontrollably.
"Were they testing drugs on you daily? What made you transform? Do you remember?"
Jack Locke shook his head. "I don’t remember at all!"
"The Crown Prince, Leopard Cat, take him somewhere to rest. Watch over him and have Shauna Wallace check him out."
The air behind Jack Locke suddenly shimmered, and the figures of The Crown Prince and Leopard Cat materialized, giving Jack a huge shock.
"Go with them and get treated. You’re not emotionally stable right now. We’ll leave to find Annelise after you’ve recovered."
Jack Locke hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to go with the two who had appeared out of nowhere. ’This Flora Bloom is right,’ he thought. ’If I try to help rescue my sister in this condition, I’ll only hold them back. I need to recover as quickly as possible. I have to get my sister out of there.’
"Do you believe him?" Lex Cross asked, his gaze lowered.
Flora nodded. "I do."
"..."
"Even if he’s holding something back, his worry for Annelise—the look on his face—that can’t be faked."
"I don’t approve of you going out to search for anyone right now." Lex Cross’s voice was soft, but his tone was firm, his gaze flickering to Flora’s belly from time to time.
"It’ll be fine. We’re just looking for someone, it won’t be a problem for me," Flora explained. "Besides, Annelise is a crucial member of my team. A Beast Ability! She’ll be incredibly powerful once she’s fully developed."
"Regardless of the type, everyone needs the same kind of energy to grow and break through from High-level to Nebula Level. As strong as a Beast Type is, once you have your breakthrough, she’ll be no match for you."
Seeing the determined look in his eyes, Flora said, "Don’t worry, I’m not going to rush off right this second! We’ll wait until Jack Locke has recovered."
"By the way, you’ve been leaving early and coming back late these past few days. How come you’re back so early today?"
Ever since The Crown Prince and Leopard Cat called him away that day, he had been gone for seven days straight. He would only return in the dead of night, slipping quietly into bed beside Flora, only to leave again before dawn for some unknown destination.
Lex Cross’s gaze flickered. "I had to go out with Saul Sterling and the others for something. Flora, tomorrow, I’m going back to Argent with Saul Sterling and the team. You need to listen to me: put the search for Annelise Locke on hold. Annelise is a Middle Level Beast Ability user. Whoever was able to capture her so easily is not to be trifled with."
Hearing that Lex Cross was leaving for a while, Flora’s brow furrowed. "Where are you going? How long will you be gone?"
"Not for long. I wanted to bring you with me, but Morhaven is much safer than where I’m headed. You have your pocket dimension, so I’ll feel better knowing you’re staying here."
A glint appeared in Flora’s eyes. "Is there a reason you’re going to Argent? Why for so long?"
"It’s nothing serious. Just wait for me to get back."
That night, Flora took out some vegetables from the second harvest in her pocket dimension. After the dimension’s recent upgrade, not only had the dormant small pets awakened, but some of the eggs that had long remained unhatched were finally showing signs of cracking.
She brought out some chicken and goose eggs, along with two newly-matured chickens and geese, to give everyone a better meal. She also fished out a sixty or seventy-pound sea fish from the newly formed ocean water in her dimension.
Meanwhile, Flora’s home base had moved from its original half of a residential block to Villa Area Three. There, they had torn down the fences between three of the villas, and Ethan Monroe had used his Earth Element superpower to merge the outer walls of the three properties into one.
The three villas originally each had a large yard. Once they were connected, the group tilled a portion of the newly combined land to plant tomatoes, green beans, and eggplants—all popular favorites.
The yard was massive, and Flora had her Rose vine move to the newly erected outer wall. The main trunk of the Rose vine was now as thick as a decades-old tree. Hundreds of branches, thick and thin, fanned out from it, draping over the compound’s new wall like a peacock displaying its tail. The smaller tendrils even crept along the outer fence, cloaking the entire wall in a lush, green mantle.
