Originally, Cat offer me to just go to school and make a normal life if I wanted, but I refused while saying a heroic thing like I didn't want to leave Mei alone

In truth, I just wanted money Living in the streets and having to buy anything I want in the facility with points made me a little greedy with money. I learned you can never have enough of it

Living in the streets and having to buy anything I want in the facility with points made me a little greedy with money. I learned you can never have enough of it

Well, there was also the thing about not trusting Cat 100%. I mean, I owe her a lot and it looked like she was telling the truth when she said she would look after me even if I didn't work for it, but the fear of her leaving me again still hadn't left me. What if something happens and she has to leave me behind again? Or if she gets tired of me? Or if she dies?

It is a scary thought, but I am the kind of person that expect the worst and gets pleasantly surprised when things turned out right. With the life I had so far, you do that or suffer disappointment over and over again

So yeah, I used Mei as an excuse to get a job and earn some extra cash on the side. Sue me

What was I going to do with the money? Use some of it if I wanted anything, and save the rest for emergencies. Like I said, expect the worst, besides, the job didn't look too difficult

And what job were we going to do? A similar job than with Uncle Muscle actually. Our job would be to deliver "stuff", and messages to other people for the mafia

In case you are wondering why the mafia would hire little kids to do their "Stuff"(when I say "stuff" I mean not so legal things), there were a couple of reasons

First, getting arrested. Kids don't get in a lot of troubles when they are caught by the law, and even if they go somewhere, it is only to a reformatory for a couple of years, no matter the crime

Best part, it wouldn't go into record, would get a proper education, free food, and exercise. It was a better condition than most kids in the street had

Second, kids don't draw as much attention as adults, so they manage to slip by more easily. Who would suspect that a kid with a hello kitty bag was actually carrying 3kgs of weed?

Third, most people think twice before thinking about hurting some kids for something they are not even sure it is worth their time, and even if they do, they usually ended up blacklisted by other groups and heroes. No one likes a child abuser

I know that hiring kids would technically make them child abusers, but as long as they gave them a proper pay, it was considered better than just let them root on the street. It is not like the government or heroes were doing a fine job looking after them, in case you are wondering

Fourth, kids are usually more innocent than adults, so there is a lesser chance to get screw over. They are also more gullible

Fifth, kids are cheaper than adults. Why do you think so many countries use 0child labor, even if they have a bad rep for it?

Six, getting them early on meant they would we trustworthy and already used to the organization when they grow up. Basically, early brainwashing

Seven, if they had super powers, all the above reasons made it even more worth it to get them early on

For all those reasons plus having Cat as a reference made it the obvious choice for the organisation to be more than happy to hire both of us without any sort of complaint

By the way, they also didn't complain about bringing Mei family here and were even glad about it for one simple reason, they worked as hostages to keep a powered person on a leash(Mei). I was also Cat leash in a way, but I didn't realise at the time, thanks to my young and more naive mind

I guess you could say that the eight reason would be that it helps keep on a leash some of the mafia members that have their sons and daughters working inside the organisation

So, because of all that, the day after we went to the beach, Cat took both of us to one of her organisation offices, wich it turned out it was actually a bar owned by the mafia. The mafia also had a chain store of Pizza places called Luigi and a couple of Italian restaurants La Parolaccia

As for their business, most stores had to pay "protection" money, and in the Luigi chain store, if you order stuff like "Pizza a la Madona extra crispy", the pizza box came with a "special" reward. They also had a couple of gambling dens, some prostitution, and probably more stuff I didn't even know about, so they did have a big slice of the cake

This group was bigger than the one Cat use to work with, but at the same time, it was smaller. Cat used to work with one of the mafia groups in Capital City, that only had 3 super powered, but the actual group was a lot bigger, she was just part of a branch family. The only reason she changed from a 3 A powered group to a 7 A powered group was because she did a good job (under the circumstances) 4 years ago and she got promoted

So, thanks to having been working for 4 years there, as soon as we got to the bar, all the people there both recognized and greeted Cat with a smile

"Hello Celina"(Random mob guy 1)

"Hey Celina"(Random mob 2)

"Who are this two pretty ladies that came with you?"(Creepy guy 1)

Etc

The place had mostly guys, except for the bartender and a couple of girlfriends and "girlfriends". I am pretty sure that all of them were Italian or at least European descendants, making Mei the only not white person in the bar

As for how they dressed, they were either in a suit, or at least dressed nicely and not even one was wearing something like a t-shirt or shorts. They were wearing a suit, vest, shirt, dress, or similar stuff

Things were a little different in the high season since it was a popular place, and there wasn't a strict dress code there, but that was only in high season and at night. In the morning, and evening, the place was a meeting place for those in the organisation and if they needed to have a private meeting, they just closed the place for the evening

We went in the morning, so the place was only half full( The place also served coffee) and there was nothing going on at the time, so the place was open to the public. We would have enter anyway if it was closed considering Cat importance in the organisation, but it would have been a lot more awkward in that circumstance

Since the people there weren't really relevant, Cat(or Celina) introduced me as her adopted daughter(that shocked most people there) and Mei as my friend. We said hello a little shyly, and proceeded with Cat to an office in the back

The office wasn't anything fancy, it had a reception room with a sofa, table couple of chairs, some cabinets and a door to a smaller office. As for the smaller office, it had a desk, some chairs, some decorations and a pig

When I say pig, I don't mean an actual pig or a decoration of a pig, but a really fat and sweaty, almost completely bald, with serious troubles breathing, and below the average height that looked like he was stuck to the chair all day long "human" that we went to see. You can see for the way I presented him how much I respect the guy

"Cat, good to see you! how are you?"(Pig) Said as if he was seeing an old friend after a long time, with a nice smile and a pleasant tone but he did that with almost everyone

"Everything is fine, and as you can see, I brought what we talked about"(Cat) Said a little indifferent and she sat in one of the chairs

We followed her example, and we sat on the two remaining chair in the office. You could see that there was a great difference in quality between our chairs and the Pig chair, but that was the usual office standar

"I can see that. You don't mind if I test them,right?"(Pig)

"What do you have in mind?"(Cat) Said cautiously

"Nothing dangerous, just test that what you said is true. I brought a handgrip dynamometer so I can test their strength"(Pig)

After saying that, the pig took a dynamometer from one of the desks and throw it to Cat. She caught it easily and after looking at it for a bit, she handed it to me and showed me how to use it

"Squees it for 3 seconds"(Cat)

So I did exactly that. Still, I had to do it pretty often over at the facility to test my progress over time, so I actually knew how to use it

"36"(Me)

Last time I did it, it was 34, so it wasn't bad. For those that doesn't know, 36 would be the average strength of a 15 old boy, so it wasn't bad for a 9 years old girl. Those that had only reinforced arms would reach around 60 when they were around 8-9 from what I heard but I have no idea how it would go from there

"Let me see"(Pig)

So I handed the dynamometer to him so he could see the result. He even tried it himself and I think I saw 40 for a moment

"Well, looks like you really have powers kid. How about you? Can you lift something in the table for me?"(Pig) Said while looking at Mei

When the pig took a look at her, Mei panicked for a second, but she composed herself and nodded. She looked around the table for a moment, and she decided to levitate a small decoration at the table. She just lifted it, moved it a little and put it down exactly where it was

"Not bad, not bad. Wel I guess I will take them. Congratulations, you two are hired"(Pig) Said with a what I guess I should call it a smile

Yay....

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Note: Still alive :P