Chapter 4: As Dusk Falls
Chilli had heard on the news about what happened at the zoo and had been terrified. All the televisions in the airport were playing footage from the attack. People were frantically trying to reach loved ones to make sure they were okay, and all the planes were grounded until further notice. The crowds were restless and more than a few people were comparing it to recent attacks in other countries.
"Chilli, if you need to make any calls we've got Madge to cover for you." Her boss Carla said, approaching from behind the security counter.
"Thank you." Chilli quickly stepped aside and had Madge take her place, then left her station and went to the break-room, dialing Bandit and praying that things were okay. "Come on, come on…" After a minute it went to voicemail. Fuck! Come on Chilli, keep it together. What about Calypso? She quickly dialed the teacher's phone, but it too went to voicemail. Okay… what about Bingo? She successfully got through to the kindergarten and Bingo was confirmed unharmed, as the center was well away from the area of the attack. It was some comfort, but not enough.
After hanging up with Mrs. Retriever, Chilli returned to her boss, "Carla, my daughter was on a field trip at that zoo, I can't get a hold of her teacher or my husband. I know this is sudden, but I need to go."
"Of course." Carla nodded, "You've covered plenty for others, go, make sure your family's okay, we'll get someone to take care of your duties."
Chilli said her thanks and rushed to the car, not bothering to change out of her uniform. After a short drive she'd picked up Bingo and the two headed straight for the Heeler house, hoping to find Bandit and determine why he wasn't answering and hopefully find Bluey. Chilli parked her car out front and unbuckled Bingo. The mother and daughter rushed into the house and went to find Bandit and Bluey.
"Bluey?!" Chilli said, throwing down her purse at the front door.
"Mum!" Bluey yelled in reply while getting off the couch. She ran over and hugged her mother.
"Oh thank god!" Chilli said, hugging her daughter tightly and planting more than a few kisses on her forehead. After a moment she released her and checked her over, making sure there weren't any injuries.
"Bluey!" Bingo ran up to her sister with tears in her eyes. "Mum said that something bad happened and I was scared that you weren't okay." She hugged her tightly, "But you're okay, so it's okay."
"Thomas saved me. If he wouldn't have been there…" Bluey trailed off as she felt the corner of her eyes water. She swallowed back the fear and looked again at her sister and mother. Chilli teared up and pulled her in for another tight hug. Bingo joined in the hug, the three holding onto each other tightly, making sure they were all still together despite the frightening uncertainty that had surrounded them.
As they continued their embrace Bandit and Thomas came out of the guest room upstairs and descended the stairs to the living room where the rest of the Heelers were. Bandit moved over to his wife and daughters wordlessly and joined in the hug, picking up his daughters and holding them in his arms as he hugged his wife. From across the room Thomas smiled. It was truly something seeing the family together, and since they were his family too, now he would do absolutely anything to protect them.
"Thomas?" Chilli asked, looking at the human.
"Chilli, I…" Thomas started to say until the red Heeler broke from the hug and moved over to him. Before he could react she hugged him tightly.
"Thank you, thank you so much for saving my baby." Chilli said while tears dropped off her muzzle and onto his skin.
"I will never let anything happen to her or you, or anyone else in your family, that's my promise." Thomas said while hugging her back.
Bandit set his daughters down on the couch and turned to face his wife and the human. "Chilli, since Thomas has no family and I thought… since what happened to Baxter… Thomas wouldn't replace him but…" Bandit said nervously looking down.
Chilli looked at Thomas with her tears still falling and then hugged the human tighter. "I know I've only known you for a little while, but I kind of thought of you as a son we never had." Chilli said, still hugging him. Thomas hugged back, this feeling felt very familiar. It was almost like hugging his mother again, and while he couldn't ever get his birth parents back this was the next best thing. He had people who loved him, he had a family again.
"Hooray!" Bluey and Bingo cheered as they hugged him as well. Bandit couldn't help it as he hugged his family and wagged his tail. The five held a group hug, Thomas relishing the warmth that filled him and brought back some part of him he never thought he'd have again. He smiled as they leaned together in the group hug. Unfortunately, the group hug was short lived as Stripe ran into the house.
The light blue heeler looked up from his phone as he entered the room, panting slightly after having run from his car. "Bandit! Is Blue- Ahh!!" Stripe screamed looking at Thomas.
The family looked at Stripe just as Thomas teleported himself to the guest room, hoping that if he disappeared the new dog might assume he imagined the human. Bandit ran over to Stripe and dragged him further into the house and covered his mouth.
"Quiet!" Bandit hissed, still covering his brother's mouth. Stripe struggled to get free from his brother as Bandit brought him into the house. While he contemplated licking Bandit's paw to get him to release his grasp he was fairly certain it would only make his brother clamp down on his muzzle more tightly, After all, the last time that worked I was six.
"Uncle Stripe, please don't scream. Thomas is a nice human, unlike that bad one that attacked the zoo earlier." Bluey said.
Bandit continued to struggle with his brother while holding him. "Okay Stripe, I'm going to release you but don't you dare scream. I'll explain everything, got it?" Bandit said while still holding his brother. Stripe nodded, still confused and more than a bit scared, but not wanting to be gagged by his brother any longer than necessary. "Good," Bandit said, releasing his brother.
Stripe was silent for the most part as he looked at his brother's family. After a moment processing what he'd seen he inhaled. "YOU HAVE THE ALIEN HERE?!" Stripe shouted.
"Shush!" The family said directly at Stripe. Bandit stepped closer, aiming to clamp his mouth shut again.
Dodging his brother, Stripe closed his eyes for a moment and tried to calm down before he again tried to communicate. "You have the alien here?!" Stripe said in more of a whisper.
"Yes, well, sort of…" Bandit explained, "We have the good alien, his name is Thomas." Bandit said to his brother.
"He has a name? They actually have names?" Stripe questioned looking at his brother.
"Yes! And well, we've decided to welcome him into our family for saving Bluey, among other reasons." Bandit said with confidence.
"What?! But he's dangerous!" Stripe said, scared. "The news said that they can shoot lightning from their fingers!"
"He is not dangerous!" Bluey spoke up. Stripe looked at his niece, "He's my friend! And I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him! Jinx is the one who's dangerous!" Bluey said with tears starting again in the corners of her eyes. Chilli pulled her daughter in and hugged her as she borrowed her face into her mother's red fur.
"Bluey I didn't mean to hurt your feelings mate; things are just confusing is all." Stripe confessed while rubbing the back of his neck. "This is sorta my first time dealing with aliens."
"Maybe if you get to know him you will see he's not so bad." Bingo said while comforting her sister.
Stripe's eyes widened at the notion. "Maybe I should go…" Stripe said, looking at the door.
"Mate, just meet the kid." Bandit said, placing his hand on his brother's shoulder.
"Really? Is that a good idea?" Stripe asked, genuinely concerned that he was
"I think so, he's basically harmless. Well, aside from the force fields…" Chilli spoke, still holding her daughter and gently rubbing circles into her back.
Stripe raised his brow as he edged toward the door.
"Stripe, come on mate, he saved Bluey's life. He's not some maniac; he's an 18 year old who got stranded here in a freak accident. I didn't trust him at first, but I can vouch for him. He's a good guy." Bandit placed his hand on Stripe's shoulder.
Stripe looked down and thought for a moment. "Alright, I'll meet the kid." He replied, looking at his brother.
Meanwhile upstairs Thomas was in the guest room, panicking just a little bit. "Shit what if that dog tells on me? Or the family? How will I be able to protect them?" Thomas said, pacing back and forth. "Maybe I can wipe memories? How would I even do that?" He glanced at his hands, attempting to will a user's manual to his powers to materialize. It didn't happen. He sighed in frustration as he continued pacing back and forth. He was interrupted by a knock.
"Thomas?" Bandit said coming into the room.
"Bandit?" Thomas replied as he looked at the blue heeler.
"It's okay mate, my brother won't tell on us. He wants to meet you, actually." Bandit said calmly.
"Really? And that's Stripe isn't it? The one on the phone from earlier, right?" Thomas asked.
"Correct, he's my little brother, I have an older brother, too. I'm not sure when, or if, you'll meet him, he works at an oil rig. His name is Radley, but we call him Rad for short." Bandit explained. "Chilli's got a sister Brandy too, but she's only around every once in a while."
"Good to know." Thomas nodded, "Okay I'll come out." Thomas said, now walking out of the room with Bandit.
Stripe sat on the sofa, his leg bouncing up and down. He laced and unlaced his paws as he tried to take deep breaths. Okay Stripe, this is basically first contact with an alien species. For the love of God don't fuck it up…
"Stripe, this is Thomas, Thomas this is my little brother Stripe." Bandit said as he and Thomas came into the room.
Stripe stood up while looking at Thomas. "H-hi mate…" Stripe said, waving at the human. He quickly split his paw into two fingers on either side and his thumb pointing outward. "Um, live long and prosper."
"Hi." Thomas said with a small smile. He mimicked the gesture, "Peace and long life." He chuckled, "I didn't know they had Star Trek here." Stripe blushed at the reply, realizing he'd just used a quote from a 50 year old TV show as his first interaction with alien life.
"See uncle Stripe, he's nice." Bingo said, looking at her uncle.
Bluey then left her mother's side and jumped into Thomas's arms. Thomas held her close to him, feeling her heartbeat close to his for a moment. Thomas smiled as he hoisted her up onto his shoulders, the weight uneven for a moment before Bluey grabbed onto his hair. Thomas winced, but wasn't too bothered.
"So uh you saved my niece, thank you." Stripe said nervously.
"You're welcome; I already told everyone here that would keep them safe from Jinx even when he used to be my friend." Thomas said while still holding Bluey. "No matter what, I will stop him from doing any more harm." Thomas added.
Stripe nodded, understanding the human was going to do his very best to keep the whole family safe. Chilli's and Stripe's phone started to go off with alerts about more of the news outlets talking about the aliens. At Chilli's prompting, Bandit turned on the TV.
"Two aliens have been spotted causing damage to Brisbane Zoo." A news anchor reported while showing some overhead footage of the zoo grounds. "There are a total of twenty five dead and sixteen injured, with four in hospital and two of those in critical condition." The news anchor added. Thomas looked down, saddened for those he couldn't save. "Although by the looks of it, the new alien-who was identified as 'Thomas'-seems to lack the violent tendencies of his counterpart. This 'Thomas' alien saved a group of children who had been cornered in the reptile room of the zoo. It is believed that due to him the Greenhouse Primary School children and their teacher were spared an untimely end."
"I guess there's some good news." Stripe said while watching the TV.
The anchor turned to the side, "We go to our opinion panel on these new events. Kent, what do you think?"
"Save them?! This new alien probably wanted to kill them for himself!" A male brown lab added to the conversation.
"And… here comes the negative comments." Bandit said with a sigh.
"Alright that's enough TV." Chilli said, turning it off. Thomas stood there with his arms crossed taking in the thoughts about him and Jinx.
"So why did he choose the name Jinx anyway?" Bandit asked while looking at Thomas.
"It's his call sign, his real name is Jonas 'Jinx' Miller." Thomas explained, his arms still crossed as he thought.
"Then what's your call sign?" Bluey asked, trying to stay steady atop Thomas' head.
"I'm Thomas 'Titan' Gomez." Thomas replied with a soft smile while glancing up at Bluey.
Bluey giggled, "You're so tall, it makes sense." Thomas sighed as he gestured for Bluey to let go, and a moment later he set her gently back on the floor.
"So you two are U.S. Military?" Stripe asked, looking at Thomas. "I mean, I'm assuming you're some sort of American, with your accent. Is there an America where you're from?"
"Yes, I'm American. But I'm actually in the Air Force. That's why Jonas and I were able to fly the aircraft that got us here, my parents and I designed it." Thomas explained.
"Okay, right… So what kind of dog are you?" Stripe asked while studying the human, trying to piece together the bits of information he had.
"He's not a dog, mate. He's a human." Bandit explained.
"Ohhhh…" Stripe nodded as if he understood. "What's a human?"
"He's a distant cousin of monkeys!" Bingo spoke up.
Thomas chuckled, "That's right, Bingo." He said with a smile.
"Wait, I still don't understand…" Stripe said, scratching the back of his head.
"Stripe, have you been listening?" Bandit asked with a chuckle.
"It's okay, let me start from the beginning…" Thomas smiled. "It all started a few days ago when Jonas and I were getting ready for our test flight…"
Meanwhile….
As the Heelers continued their discussion, dusk fell over Queensland and the sky again grew a dark purple as the sun started to set. It wasn't far from Brisbane that the sky again started shimmering as the Southern Lights came to life. Suddenly something appeared in a flash, streaking across the sky it was falling like a meteor. The foreign object crashed into a backyard pool, sending bits of tile and concrete shattering into the yard.
A little black husky girl awoke from her sleep at the sound of the impact. She blearily rubbed her eyes and looked out the window. She blinked; it looked like a bomb had gone off in her yard. After sliding out of bed and putting on a pair of slippers she snuck out the back door to see what had happened. When she arrived outside she was shocked to see the pool smoking. Suddenly a hand slammed onto the concrete sending her reeling back.
The hand was followed by an arm, and then a massive black form slowly pulling itself out of the crater that had been a pool.
She cowered in fear as a seven foot tall figure in black armor began to climb out. She trembled as the figure turned its head towards her, frozen to the spot in terror as the thing approached. Whimpering, she closed her eyes as it started walking over to her and reached down. The husky covered herself with her arms, hoping that the thing might be just a bad dream and that she'd be waking up safe in her own bed just a few meters away. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be the case as she felt the figure pick her up. She braced herself and balled up tightly, wanting nothing more than to be safe and in her room. Suddenly she felt herself deposited on the ground and she opened her eyes to find herself on the back porch
The figure stared at her a moment, when the light to the porch turned on.
She turned as she saw a comforting silhouette appear on the screen of the back door. "Amelia? What are you doing out here so late?" The familiar voice of her father asked as he went outside to check on her. "HOLEY DOOLEY! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE POOL!?!" The white husky exclaimed. Amelia turned to point out the strange man in black, but he'd vanished, leaving only a large crater as evidence he'd ever existed.
As the father and daughter stared at their yard in shock the figure continued through the alleyways that had backed up to the Huskman's home, hiding in the shadows as it continued to avoid being seen any further. After ducking into an empty carport the figure tapped the side of his helmet as he picked up a radio transmission.
"Agent Fenrir... Do you copy?" A male voice said, voice slightly impaired in the static.
Fenrir clicked a button on the side of his helmet, noting an affirmative response.
"Good, you know your objective: Find Thomas Gomez and interrogate, then eliminate him, by any means necessary. And remember, if you fail... I will send the rest of the Hellhounds to finish this mission and bring you back... and it won't be alive..."
Fenrir tapped again on the button on the side of his helmet.
"I'm glad you understand. I expect an update soon with your progress. You are dismissed."
Fenrir clicked his communications off on his helmet before continuing his hunt.
Elsewhere with Jinx
Jinx growled as he paced again back and forth along the length of the in-construction apartment's living room. The building was halfway finished without any tenants, and the night guard had been easy enough to sap and stow. I have to be careful now; I can't get caught before I'm ready. He scowled and clenched his fists as he continued pacing. The battle at the zoo had been annoying, and had also made him aware that while he was a god in this realm, so was Thomas. And until I manage to eliminate him, I have a few problems. Jonas turned over his hand and saw the veins creeping down his arm, pulsing slightly with a crimson light. Ever since the accident he'd had them, and from what he could tell they seemed to indicate his power. At the zoo he'd been topped up, with them glowing brightly until Thomas had forced him to flee, Thomas' hit and the need to teleport away had taken most of the power he'd worked so hard to achieve. I mean, where else am I going to manage to drain that many people all at once, now that they're on fucking on high alert?
He grit his teeth as he reflected back on the battle and the unfortunate truth he'd discovered. While he was far superior in every way to the pathetic creatures that called this dimension home, he wasn't truly all-powerful, at least not yet. From what he could tell Thomas could heal himself. The burst into the sign in the reptile room should've easily severed Thomas' spinal cord, if not outright killed him, but he managed to get up moments later. And he could seemingly do it without needing any external source to get his healing from. It was clear that Thomas had a superior healing ability. Jinx's lips curled into a sneer at the admission, but it was undeniable. He needed to drain a living thing to heal. Which means if I'm shot enough, or injured enough, or incapacitated and I'm not privy to a warm body to drain-I'm fucked. There was also the fact that his healing took a little time after he drained something, which compounded the issue. He wasn't immortal, and it pissed him off.
I need to get Thomas and drain the bitch. Not only should I get his powers, it'll also mean there won't be any assholes who can challenge me to control this world. Jinx exhaled, But how exactly am I going to find him? He's probably in this city, or at least close to it, but that doesn't exactly narrow it down. Jinx narrowed his eyes as he replayed the fight in his mind; there was one moment that stuck out. That girl, the one that ran up to him… She knew his name; she has some sort of connection to him. He sat down on an overturned bucket and thought. She was with a school group, but I didn't catch the name-after all, it wasn't the first class I'd run into, why would I care about it? He paused, a vile grin growing across his face. If I can manage to figure out what school she's with, I can track her down and find Thomas. He pulled out the phone he'd taken from the guard, "Alright Bluey, let's see where you're at…"
Back at the Heelers
"…which pretty much brings us to when you came in through the door." Thomas concluded.
Stripe nodded, "Okay, so you can use force fields and you have some sort of pulse blast thing-plus the healing-is there anything else?
"Well, there's also teleportation." Thomas blipped out of the room, before returning right in front of Stripe.
"So that's how you disappeared all of a sudden." Stripe crinkled his brow, "Why didn't you just teleport somewhere instead of walking for a few hours to try and get to Brisbane?"
"At the time I didn't know, most of my powers appeared when I needed them, and I have to sort of be in the right mental state to use them." Thomas paused, "Well, except for the healing of myself, that seems automatic, least far as I can tell. But I have to think about it if I use it on others."
"It's a shame you can't shape shift." Stripe remarked.
"Shape shift? What good would that do?" Bandit asked, taking a sip from the beer he'd grabbed halfway through Thomas' story.
"Well, with his face all over the news and half the stations lumping him in with that Jinx maniac it would help if he could look different. Ideally, if he could look like one of us instead of a human it would make his life a lot easier." Stripe noted, gesturing to the human.
"Well, I haven't exactly tried to see if I could shape shift, not that I'd know how to even try." Thomas conceded.
"How do all your other powers work? Maybe you could try thinking about shape shifting and doing whatever you do for one of the other ones." Bluey suggested.
"Well, that's the thing, for me to do anything I need to think about that power, then do it." Thomas explained, "It isn't like I have to really focus on it too hard, but think like waving your hand-you still have to think about it to do it, and it's different than kicking your foot. Each one of them is sort of a little different, and I need to be mentally prepared before I have to do it, almost like stretching before you exercise, if I don't then it doesn't really work."
"Oh, so you're like one of the X-Men!" Stripe declared.
Thomas blinked, "Um, maybe? I'll be honest; I never saw any of those movies."
"What's an X-man?" Bingo asked, looking at her uncle.
"Yeah Stripe, explain it to those of us who didn't spend our teenage years watching anime and playing D in the back of a comic shop every weekend." Bandit jibed.
Stripe scowled, "And yet I still got married before you." He retorted, Bandit opened his mouth to reply before he was cut off.
"Boys, come on, focus. We were talking about Thomas' powers and the X-Men." Chilli interjected.
Stripe smirked and continued, "In X-Men there's a character called Mystique who can psionically shift the formation of her biological cells at will to change her appearance…"
"Dag!" Bandit coughed.
"Really? This coming from the man who has every Custard album on CD signed by all the band members?" Stripe said as he crossed his arms.
"Hey, you know they're bonzer!"
"Really, considering their biggest hit is 'Girls Like That DON'T Go for Guys Like Us'?"
"It was ironic!"
"Yeah, and so was your mullet." Stripe smirked, "Or so you allege."
"Least I didn't start balding at 30!"
"You take that back!"
"Bandit, Stripe, come on…" Chilli worked to separate the two men who had devolved quickly into childish bickering. Bluey and Bingo just glanced at each other, knowing that for as much as they were lectured to get along, their father had a much harder time with his brothers.
"Hey it worked!" Thomas declared. The Heelers turned to see a duplicate Bandit standing where Thomas had been.
Bandit blinked and inhaled deeply, "Kids, cover your ears for a moment, daddy's about to freak out." Bandit ordered his daughters. Once Bluey and Bingo had done so he continued. "What the fuck?! How in hell did you do that?!" He took another deep breath and motioned that the kids could uncover their ears.
Thomas shrugged Bandit's shoulders, "I just sorta did what Stripe said, I thought about changing how I look and you were the first person that popped into my head, so I guess I turned into you." He paused, "I'm surprised it worked, actually."
Bandit nodded, trying to process the fact that he now basically had a twin.
"So, are you stuck like that now? Because it's gonna be pretty confusing to have two Bandits running around." Stripe asked, looking over his brother's body double.
"Um, let me see…" Thomas concentrated a moment and the others watched as Bandit's fur rippled into a lighter blue and a wavy stripe appeared around his middle. "Nope, doesn't look like it."
"Woah." Stripe said. "Can you quick spin around? I've never seen my back before and I've always wondered what it looks like."
"Stripe…" Chilli rolled her eyes.
"What?"
Thomas chuckled and complied.
"So that's what it looks like."
Thomas stuck out his tongue slightly in concentration as the fur changed from blue to red.
Chilli was now standing beside her double.
"So, it isn't limited to just men, I guess." Chilli replied, looking at herself.
"Well, I'm still a guy, even if it doesn't look like it." Thomas replied, glancing downward for a moment.
"Oh! Me now!" Bluey said, her tail wagging.
Thomas attempted to change into Bluey, but it didn't quite work. "I don't think I can change my height that much." He stood as a sort-of Bluey. The pattern was correct, but it looked more like Bluey as an adolescent than her current state.
"Well, can you do something else, or only copy others?" Bingo asked.
"I don't know." He paused, "I suppose it would be best if I had some sort of dog version of myself that isn't the same as the rest of you guys, but close enough. That way in case anyone meets me you can pass me off as a relative." After a moment Thomas had an idea in mind. He concentrated and completed the shift.
"Well, what do you think?"
Bandit's breath hitched in his throat. Thomas was a heeler, which made sense as he was aiming to pass himself off as a relative of theirs. He was mostly blue with darker splotches around his eyes and on the tip of his tail. His stomach was red, like Chilli's, and he had a handful of small grey and red dots on his torso and tail.
"He looks just like-" Stripe began.
"Yes, he does." Bandit interrupted.
Chilli's eyes watered a moment as she ran over and hugged Thomas. She placed her muzzle directly above his and felt the warmth of his face.
"Woah, is everything okay?" Thomas asked.
"Yes, everything is." Chilli said as she pulled away. She cleared her throat, "Um, it's been a long night, why don't we all get ready for bed?"
"Yeah, I'd better be going, Trix 'll wonder where I've been." Stripe replied.
"I'll see you out." Bandit said, gently leading his brother to the door.
"I'm going to make myself a cup of tea before I go to bed, I'll be back in a minute." Chilli said, leaving Thomas with the girls.
Bluey and Bingo both dashed up to Thomas.
"Wow! You really do look like us!" Bingo commented. "Can you feel this?" She grabbed his tail.
"Yeah, it's kinda weird, because I don't normally have one of those." Thomas remarked.
"Oh! We have to teach you how to wag your tail!" Bluey smiled.
Thomas returned the smile. "Okay, how do I do that?"
"Oh! First you have to think happy thoughts." Bingo said.
Thomas closed his eyes. "Got it."
"Okay, good. Now you've gotta get ready. Wiggle around a little bit." Bluey ordered.
"Wiggle?"
"Yeah, like this!" Bluey wiggled her bottom around as she moved from side to side.
Thomas raised an eyebrow, "You aren't doing this just to embarrass me, are you?"
"No!" Bluey crossed her arms. "Bingo would we ever do that?"
"Yes." Bingo replied. "We do that all the time with dad."
"Bingo!" Bluey groaned, "But I'm serious, wiggle!"
"Alright, I'm wiggling…" Thomas shifted back and forth.
"Good, now finally go!" Bluey spun Thomas' tail like a propeller.
Thomas could feel himself wagging as he laughed.
"Yay! He did it!" Bingo cheered as Chilli and Bandit reentered the room.
"What's all the excitement in here?" Bandit asked.
"We taught Thomas how to wag his tail." Bluey responded.
"Very good, now how about you all go and wag your way upstairs and get ready for bed, it's late enough and you still have school in the morning." Chilli said.
"Okay…"
Half an hour later the girls were in bed, Thomas was a human again in his room and Bandit and Chilli were in their bedroom. Chilli was holding a book tightly with her legs curled up under her.
"He did look just like him." Bandit breathed.
"I know, but he can't be him, right?" Chilli asked, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"Remember what we told Bluey, that sometimes people come into our lives for a short while, and then when they go you don't know if you'll ever see them again? Maybe this is our second chance. Our chance to see him again." Bandit paused, "I know it sounds crazy, but I think he really is him."
"But he isn't him, he can't be… Thomas is a human."
"A human who just happened to pick that exact form when he looks like us?" Bandit asked.
"He wouldn't even be that old, he'd be six." Chilli stated as she moved her hand across the baby album.
"Regardless, it's clear that Thomas is in our lives for a reason. And whether he is or isn't him, Thomas is still our son now." Bandit stated.
Chilli smiled, "I knew you'd like him."
"Well, you were right, as usual." Bandit smiled as he turned out the light.
"Good night Ban."
"G'night Chilli."
Kodiwolf321 A/N: Hey guys! Welcome back to Project New Era! Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as we did making it for you! Thomas doesn't know what Baxter looks like so my question for you readers out there… Do you think Thomas is Baxter from a parallel universe? Let me know your Theories in the reviews! Alright guys see you soon for the next chapter!
The-Suburban-Guy A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! We're starting to see a bit more of Thomas' powers, and with his shape shifting he can finally get a chance to see a bit more of what Bluey's world has to offer without as much of a threat. Keep an eye out for what happens next, you're gonna like it! And don't forget to review, we appreciate the feedback!