Chapter 6 - The Atlas Family

Warning: Mild/Strong Language

When it comes to having a day off, well, it's a day off, Jack would say. And what Jack does on his day off is hanging out with his son, school day or not. Carly hates the idea of Jack picking their son up during school time just so they can spend time together. But who can blame him? She thought. Jack getting a day off is like almost never around this time of year, where the championship tourneys are at its peak, so Jack wants to make the most of his off.
Jack and Walter, their son, went out for lunch after picking him up from school and then went home to play video games for the rest of the day. And they're usually racing games. Jack sometimes moves his whole body to turn but you would just have to turn the knob on the remote. It's funny. Walter gets intense when he's behind first place, even if it's only the first lap. Later on through the course Walter caught up to Jack on the last lap. Towards the finish line Jack was right up Walter tail, and then the entire sudden Jack played the trick card.
"Hey look son! A jet passing by our house!" And Walter totally fell for it and Jack just passed him up to first place. Walter looked back only to see him in second place.
"Hey you said that on purpose!" Water's head just grew red with anger, and Jack can't help but chuckle at his cute expression.
"You should've known bet'r that jets don't come by our house," Jack stated.
Walter just looked away arms crossed, still infuriated what his dad did. Jack just chuckled again.
"Ai'll tell you what?" Jack put his hand on his son's shoulder, and so Walter looked back. "Ai'll go easy on ya on the next race?"
"Suurree you will, sure…" Walter knows his dad, knowing that he doesn't go easy with anyone. Well, maybe except his mom in "certain" situations, Walter would quote. And when he meant certain things went through his mind. Damn it brain not that kind of certain things!. He thought dirty, and he hates it when it crosses his mind.
Other than Walter fighting with his mind he accepts another round, hoping that would get his mind off of the "certain" things. "Hmph, you're on dad!" He smirked in determination.
"That's moi boy…. Hm?" Jack heard the front door opened, and was a bit surprised it was Carly.
"Good day hun," Jack spoke. "You're home early."
Carly didn't respond. Instead she put the groceries down on the counter and started putting them away. Home early, groceries, no hello? This can't be good. Jack put the game remote down and stood up from the couch.
"Hey son take over for mei will ya?" Jack kindly asked Walter.
"Me? I…" He looks a little confused, since taking over would have him be his dad's character instead of his own, which doesn't make sense to him. He then looks at his mom, who looks a bit… unhappy. Walter finally got the message. "I- uhh sure dad."
Jack then walks around the furniture and heads towards Carly in the kitchen. Walter puts on his headset so he wouldn't have to hear what's going on between his parents. Jacks sees his wife with concern by the fridge, and then walks over to her, but then Carly turned around and got spooked, dropping the cans she was holding but Jack caught one with his foot and the rest with his hands, and puts the cans away for her.
"Sorry, I was….hehe…. in my own world at the moment." Carly stuttered a bit in her sentence where Jack couldn't fully understand. He just responds.
"So is that why you didn't say hello back?"
Carly just looks down. "Sorry… I didn't hear…" She apologized again. Jack looks more worried now, and pulls her closer to him to have a better look at her. He then removes her glasses. They're not those big round goofy glasses anymore. They're the standard size and you can see her eyes in every angle. He noticed she's been crying. He pulls her closer for a hug.
"C'mon, you can tell me…"
Carly then gave in, bawling over his shoulder. Walter then heard it, turned the music down on his headset. He hates to see, also hear, his mom cry, but it also brings to his curiosity whenever it comes in this situation, so he started to eavesdrop a bit.
"I got fired today Jack," She started to hiccup between her sentences, but Jack can hear her crystal clear. "Th-they said that I was worthless, a-and so they kicked me out! I-I don't know what I did wrong Jack! I just don't know…." She then stops and sobs even more.
Jack was a bit astonished. He thought she finally found the perfect job she's been looking for as a news reporter, an organization that pays her decently for her work, but apparently after three months of working there she's unemployed again. This was her sixth job in the past two years.
"Maybe there was a misunderstanding, you should call them-"
"That's what I said too, but they said it was perfectly clear what I did was wrong!"
Jack puts her chin up. "Any idea what they might've been talking about?"
"No…" She's been thinking the same thing on her way home, and couldn't point out anything wrong. She looked back her own newspaper to look for any mistakes, and then gave it to Jack to see if there was anything wrong. He then looked back at her.
"It's magnificent Carly, I see no mistakes whatsoever," Jack complimented, not seeing one mistake on the news himself.
"Then why did I get fired Jack?" Carly questioned, mainly to herself, putting her face on her hands, wiping her tears from her eyes.
"I don't know…" Is the only thing Jack can really say.

---

The next day Jack was back to work. He was able to defeat one of the semi-finalists in a duel, which are more advanced around this then it was back when he was king. He did lost his title a few years after gaining the title for himself, but later on after that he didn't care for much about it when he started dating Carly, and then decided to settle down. Ten years after that he decided to work as a turbo duelist at the City Championships. He only got in first place a couple times then, but that fame doesn't compare to his family. The reason he came back into turbo dueling so he can earn some money for his family. He may not get payed as much as he used to, but it will do for his family's care.
After the duel against the semi-finalists, he came to his boss.
"Sir, would it be ok if ai take the rest of the day off? The rest of my opponents are not present for the round today." He's not lying, if that what the boss was wondering.
"Sure Jack, but you'll have to stay working late tomorrow, if that's ok with your schedule…"
"Yes. Of course." Jack then leaves with gratitude and got on to his bike. He was thinking of picking up his son, but after looking at the time Carly might've already done that by now. Now that he thought of Carly, he decided to come by the news company she used to work at. He parked his bike and walked into the building. He sees only half of the work room full of employees, some of them working like supposed to.
"Excuse me," He asks one of the employees that doesn't seem to be working on anything. "Where can ai find the people who runs this company building?"
The employee looked up at him in awe and pointed the direction at the CEO office.
"Thank you," Jack glowered without looking at the other employees who are staring at him, looking a bit nervous themselves.
Jack sees that the doors are open so he comes in himself. The CEOs glared at the intruder, but only sees Jack and their eyes widened, bit confusion in the atmosphere.
"I don't believe you've scheduled for an appointment Mr. Atlas," One of the CEOs spoke.
Jack didn't bother with the message. "Well it looked like you guys are free for a moment, so I want to make this quick."
"Well I guess you can say that we're not entirely busy at the moment," One of the other CEOs said, "But that still doesn't give you the right to just come in uninvited."
"Yes," Jack agreed. "And Ai'm very sorry for doing so. But…" His tone was rough on the last word, and the CEOs looked a bit anxious.
"Ai came here about my wife's termination yesterday, and ai don't think I really need to set up an appointment for that, especially since what you guys did was unacceptable. " Jack continues. "My wife didn't understand why she got fired, and I don't see why she would. She is a very bright, kind hard-working lady who's been looking for a permanent employment but apparently a few months after working her she got kicked out!"
The CEOs looked at each other, knowing where this is going.
"Look," The elderly CEO proclaimed. "About your wife-"
"What about her?" The annoyed blonde interrupted. "What did she do that can be worse than one of your employees out there not doing shoot!?"
All the employees outside the room are hearing Jack's rage and some felt a little embarrassed by his disparagement while the rest want to hear more of what he has to say.
"Mr. Atlas, please-"
"You better give me a damn good reason, Mr. Quinn! Why her?"
Mr. Quinn, the elderly CEO, and the rest of them stood silent for a minute, not knowing the right way to say the explanation. The elder decided to pull out Carly's report as the answer.
"We looked over her report just yesterday, and we found some similar comments about her from the previous companies she used to work for," The CEO slid the report to Jack's side of the table, and the blonde caught it and looked through it himself. He knows his wife too well for her to do these actions that the companies are saying about her.
"This is bullshoot!" Jack clutched onto the report.
"Ms. Carly Atlas is known to be argumentative when it comes to simple tasks at the work station. Not recommended for hire." - NDC News
"Carly is known to be rash and lousy on her assignments and ignores any orders she was given. Not recommended for hire." - KC Inc.
And as the list goes on and on, some other comments were a bit overboard, and then he spot something that is erroneous that shouldn't even been mentioned.
"Carly never worked for KC nor the Gossip Market! Not even…. The AIC?! What?! She was never to get hired at that place! This is not her! Gossip? Really? You must be pulling a prank on her, and mei!"
"I'm sorry Atlas but these are the reports we got,"
"This report must be confusing with some other chick! I swear to the AlMighty if you're making this shoot up I'll sue your @$$-!"
"I think it's best if you should leave!"
Jack couldn't disagree more. "No, Ai'm not leavin' till you straighten this shoot up!"

---

Carly and Walter were at home waiting for their dad to get home.
Walter was lying on the couch upside down, looking bored out of his mind. "Ma…" Walter broke the silence. "When is pop supposed to be home?"
Carly just looked at him. "I'm not sure sweetie, but he should've been home an hour ago-?"
The door was opened and Jack came in, looking a little relieved for some reason, stretching his arms up.
"Sorry hun ai should've left ya a message," Jack said ad he was stretching his back. "Ai did get off work early."
"Then where were you?"
"Up your boss'-"He then looked at his son, who looked a little inquisitive to his response. Jack saved his sentence and put it in a nicer statement.
"-business, and settled out some sense to the CEOs,"
"Wait, you….you went to the Newsport building!?" Carly was a bit shocked and a little embarrassed thinking about it. "Look, hun, please, I know they fired me unexpectedly and all-"
"Which is why ai went over there," Jack then pulled out the same report he got from the CEOs to Carly, who is shocked to read the reviews she got from some unknown companies she never worked with.
"Oh my god Jack! Where did you-"
"The CEOs made this report up, "He then put his hand on her shoulder. "And ai know you will never do such a thing at work, so ai called up the Company Restoration Plan and cleared up some fraud mistakes about your report…" He then pulled out the legit report on Carly and so she read that over, everything about herself on the paper is true.
"Wow, Jack I-"
Jack put his fingers over her lip. "And so the CEOs are now terminated, new ones hired and all, and well…" Jack paused for a moment and sees his wife look on her face, smiling how she seems so eager to hear more. "And well, hehe, you're re-hired."
Carly smiled grew. "Really? Oh my-I…. Oh my goodness!" She started pacing around and panicking, but in a good way.
"Wow dad! How were you able to get on their cases without trouble?" Walter was curious.
"Well, ai have some ways…"

Note: Since the english version of Jack Atlas has a british cockney accent, some of the words he says are spelled differently

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