There is a saying... and a word for it.

That word being silence.

And the word?

It could only be described as the brief moment between being bitten by a hidden snake and soon after, realising what the snake had just done.

Before even the horror could come into the heart...

... there comes a feeling.

A feeling one could only refer to as a deafening silence.

But, in this case, it would probably be better described as a shrieking silence.

In short, all their thoughts, everything that was going on, came to a frighteningly quick and also unanimous halt.

All the teens stopped what they were doing, be it gaming, instructing a gamer, talking, and even watching.

Their actions, their thoughts... everything they were doing.

All of it, halted.

All their minds going... "what the...?"

All their heads turned to the mother, whose own eyes had widened, in shock at what she'd just said.

Tiffany: (thinking: Did she... just....?)

Luke: (thinking: Not a... proto.... )

Ken: (thinking: What!?)

Rose: (thinking: She's not a... she's a... what...!?)

All their eyes fell upon Julianne Hunter, and then, slowly towards Max, who himself looked completely perturbed. His eyes were fixiated on his mother's, whose eyes were also looking back at him.

There is a saying. That being that all parts of the body are connected.

Everything, every sinew, every vessel... even the toe nails on one's body are all connected.

This is true... after all, when one hits oneself in the foot, it would make sense that the entire body would work together to protect it.

The nerves would alert the brain to the fact that the foot was in danger, the brain would then tell the leg to remove the foot from said danger, the blood would immediately rush to the spot with whatever cells or chemicals would repair said damage, for example, in the case of bleeding, the platelet cells would cause the wound to clot, all the while the other cells work together to repair the damage.

But that isn't where the help ends.

The brain takes note of what had happened, keeping it as a memory so as to further protect the foot, the hands wrap around the foot to both carress and inspect it, all with the help of the nerves and the eyes, in the case that something bad was to have happened.

What's more, the entire body changes its normal pattern just to accommodate the foot.

Said human's walking pattern may now look different, to mitigate the pain from the foot, pain, that is a message from the nerves, warning that more danger is to come to the foot if one does not tread carefully. In an odd sense, be it selfish or altruistic, the entire body works together to fulfil its purpose.

This is the same with this situation.

Julianne Hunter was absolutely spent, and, as a result, she was, for lack of a better word, "loose."

Her entire body had given way to exhaustion. And so, how to keep Julianne Hunter awake?

The body chose to sacrifice some cognitive ability, physical ability, and more.

This is the process that the body goes through when trying to work when tired.

The owner of the body has decided that the body must go on in spite of exhaustion, and so, the body, fully submitting to its user's whims, does what it can to make due.

And this... came with an unexpected result.

The first to speak up was Rose.

Rose: Not.... exactly... a protonite?

Now, not being completely awake was what the mother was going through mere moments ago.

But there and then, something hit her, something like adrenaline.

Suddenly, it came to her. She'd messed up. Big time.

She had no intention of saying that. But then and there, she did.

And there was no taking it back.

Not being awake was no longer an option.

The human body is a strange thing.

In a sense, one could even argue that it has a mind of its own.

A great example being in peril.

The human body, naturally speaking, is one of conservation and affluence.

It is not built just to survive... but rather... to thrive.

Hence, it seeks out plenty, and also, avoids lack as a concept.

This bears true even in the animal kingdom, with several predators that do not chase prey they believe is not worth the effort it would take to hunt it down.

As a result, most animals only hunt down what would take the least amount of energy to capture and kill while also considering how much energy the kill would bring them.

Humans do this as well while shopping, talking to one another, or even watching a movie.

All this in the pursuit of one ethos.

Minimizing risk... while ensuring affluence.

All in the pursuit of thriving.

And to do this, the body has several interesting tools. One example being... adrenaline.

This adrenaline is an incredible chemical. One that, without fail, easily brings the entire body into an energy rich state.

Its purpose?

In the case that something goes horribly and suddenly wrong, this chemical starts the body up, much like a backup engine, immediately bringing it into full pelt.

All this, for the simplistic purpose: Getting away from mortal danger.

How it's activated?

Stress.

And how it affects the body?

Well, for one thing, it can make a one extremely tired body suddenly extremely alert, albeit not for very long.

For Julianne Hunter, this meant suddenly realising what she'd just done, becoming shocked, and then also suddenly realising that she had to fix this while staying calm.

Julianne: Oh... that?

Her acting skills and understanding of human nature saved her here.

Rose: Yeah.

All the teens' faces were then turned to her, including that of her son's.

It wasn't like it was a horrible thing to not know, but rather, that it would be a strange thing if they did, in fact, not tell them about their actual species.

The reason being, not what, but, ... why?

They were all, for all intents and purposes, very open about their "weirdness and specialness."

They all knew each others powers, and they all knew Rose was an alien.

In fact, they all knew exactly what kind of alien Rose was.

It really wasn't a big deal.

So... why wouldn't the Hunter family tell them that.

But... that wasn't all that ran through their minds.

Bit by bit, one after the other, first Tiffany and Ken, and then Luke, they all turned to Max.

The other question was... did Max lie to them? And if so, ... why?

He did, after all, continually use the term protonite, did he not?

He referred to himself as one, did he not?

So... why?

Rather than what? Why?

Tiffany: (thinking: Max... why would you...?)

Ken: (thinking: And this just gets more interesting.)

Luke: (thinking: He does look... bothered...)

And bothered he did indeed look. His eyes were still stuck on his mother's in quite a shocked state.

However, Rose's eyes never left Julianne's.

And as for the wise mother...

Julianne: Well, ...

Her sudden answer brought all their eyes back to her face.

Julianne: ... it's a long story.

Rose: A long... story?

The anticipation in the room was growing, growing to a point that it was thick enough to cut through.

All their eyes turned to Max for a moment, as Max's eyes remained to his mother.

As for her, ...

Julianne: (thinking: I'm... gonna have to explain this all before I get to bed.)

... her eyes turned to her son's.

Julianne: (thinking: I can't leave my son here with this question.)