Not My Home

A part of Jude--a small, childish part--had hoped he'd wind up in his childhood home. It was possible, after all. A world where things hadn't gone wrong. Where his house still stood, and his dad was waiting for him, and everything was normal. That would be nice.

But this wasn't his home. It was sometime very late at night, long past midnight with only the faint light of a half-moon through the windows. Jude stood perfectly still for a long while, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness as he got his bearings. He was in a long hallway, with rows of closed doors running down each side.

It was definitely a home, even if it wasn't his.

It was also very empty. There was no sign of any movement, even as Jude began to creep down the hall, doing his best not to make any noise. He had a general idea of where he was supposed to be--Edmund had said it was a 'safe place'--but he didn't know what that really meant. Where was he, exactly?

Maybe a year ago, Jude would have been caught flat footed. He'd have gone flying, protected only by his suit, and slammed into the wall rather painfully. But a year on, Jude had experience. A year, on Jude had Giltenn.

There is someone at your five, Giltenn instructed. They are moving to engage.

It was probably a good thing that Jude had learned to react to Giltenn first and ask questions later, because him jumping back was the only thing that had the fist hitting air and not his gut, Jude's hands going up defensively.

They are swinging with supernatural strength, Giltenn added. Your suit cannot sustain a blow without damage.

Between the fireball and the barely visible red markings under the kids eyes, it wasn't hard to figure out he'd run directly into a superhuman that was very curious to know what Jude was doing in his house at night. But more pressingly to Jude were the similarities. The kid in front of him was his age, with short blond hair and eyes that were... well, Jude couldn't tell because of how dark it was, but they certainly might have been blue. So with the fireball looming there, ready to set him on fire, Jude kept his hands up, palms flattening out into what he very much hoped was a universal gesture of surrender.

"Woah," Jude said quickly, trying to get a word in before a fireball went flying. "I'm not breaking in, and I didn't know-" Jude's brain screeched to a halt.

"A cop?"

Of all the things he'd already learned, the possibility that Basilio was a cop was at the top of the list. Basilio. Basilio a cop.

The moment the kid spoke, Jude was abruptly torn on which was more shocking. The fact that he'd thought his father was a cop, or the fact that he was a cop?

Wait no, scratch that. Was that even a question? Him being a cop was weird and usual, but it wasn't as weird as Basilio being a cop. It did bring up a lot of questions though. Why was he a cop? Who was the kid? Where was he-

There was indeed no way Angelo wasn't waking up with all the noise, but Angelo was (justifiably) paranoid. When he stepped out of his room, it was in full combat mode, his gun ready but pointed down. He could see the fireball down the hall when he slipped out of his room, but he doubted Roa could see him. He was on the far side of the intruder, creeping up when Roa slapped on the light, causing Angelo to blink.

So an intruder. Maybe a kid, based on the size of it, but wearing something absolutely ridiculous. Some kind of body suit in dark grey with blue accents that covered almost his entire body. But his hands were up, and that was what really mattered as Angelo crept up closer.

"Hands on the back of your head, down on your knees, and then we can talk," Angelo said from behind Jude.

Jude wasn't oblivious. Giltenn had told him someone was behind him, but Jude was doing his very best to be as surrendery as possible, so he stayed where he was, hands still up. He thought it was a bit of overkill having him get down like he was surrendering, but if that was him behind himself...

Okay, that was just a confusing line of thought. But he carefully did as he was asked, sliding awkwardly down on his knees as he tried to keep from falling over.

"I'm not trying to hurt anyone or anything," he clarified quickly.

Angelo's first thought had been the worst case scenario. He'd adopted the children of a crime lord. Eventually, someone would come for revenge, and woken in the middle of the night by strange noises, Angelo had thought that it was happening right then.

But if a crime lord was going to send someone to murder the former Rosales children, they wouldn't send a confused looking teenager.

"Explain yourself," Angelo said, eyes flicking up to Roa, who clearly had the same idea.

Oh boy. This was it, wasn't it? Having to explain himself. Having to explain what he was even doing there. There was no real good answer, was there? No explanation that tied things up with a neat little bow.

But probably better to get started.

"I'm, uh," Jude started, taking a moment to get his bearings. "Not from this world. I'm from another world, and we came through via a portal, and we're supposed to end up near our closest living relative from this timeline, because they figured you'd be the least likely people to kill us."

Jude had no idea what the November comment was about, but the mention of a flaming skull was... alright, not exactly normal, but it at least firmly signaled to him that this place had some supernatural stuff going on. That had been a concern, after all: That they'd end up in a place with no supernatural powers or aliens or anything like that.

So, scratch that one off the list.

"I'm not scrawny," Jude protested, reaching up to pull the mask down off his mouth. The goggles were still there, and Jude would have liked to have removed them, only doing so one handed without freaking out the guy with the gun in front of him was all but impossible.

"That really isn't the point," Angelo cut in with a sigh. His gun was still out, but he'd dropped it down, the gun itself pointing at the floor. He was pretty confident in his ability to get it up in time if needed, and even more confident in the fact that Roa would set the kid on fire if he lunged unexpectedly.

Angelo had a sneaking suspicion, as he sat there looking over the scene. Blond. The kid was blond, with short messy hair, and while the bits of metal on his face weren't familiar...

"Don't tell me you're an alternate version of Roa," Angelo said, the groan in his voice obvious. They were about the same age, similar hair... It was all there.