When Anti opened his eyes, he could hear the shouting of the others. Even in his cave away from the house, the shouting hurt his ears. Anti clenched his jaw and stood. This needed to stop. He raised his hand, clenched it, and felt his body grow fuzzy. Anti closed his eyes- even after all these years the teleportation made him dizzy.
The shouting grew louder as Anti materialized in the living room. He opened his eyes to see Sam playing on the floor, looking up with worried eyes.
Anti knelt, "Hey bud. What's going on up there?"
Sam looked at him, "Chase is mad because someone else was fronting."
Anti found himself nodding, "Are you okay?"
Sam nodded enthusiastically, "Henrik got me new toys!"
"That's awesome, bud," Anti stood, eyes now looking at the spiral staircase in the corner. He tried to keep his footfalls quiet, but couldn't help how the picture next to the staircase glitched and turned on its side. Of course.
As he ascended the stairs, he heard the shouting become clearer. Something about how Marvin shouldn't have been fronting at the moment. Anti reached the top of the stairs and rounded the corner to see Chase getting in Marvin's face.
Oh hell no.
Anti rushed over and pushed Chase back, getting in front of Marvin and Jackie. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Marvin fronted without permission! We've talked about it before!" Chase shouted. Tears had formed in the father figure's eyes. Henrik now stood almost in front of him, not completely blocking him off, but enough that an effort would have to be made to move forward.
Anti let his eyes scan over Chase, then turned to Marvin, "What happened?"
"Seán got an ad for a magic show, and I got excited," Marvin mumbled, rubbing his arm. "I promise I didn't mean to front! I just wanted to see it!"
"Are you okay?" Anti asked, checking over Marvin now.
Marvin shrugged.
"You promise, that's all that happened?" Anti asked.
Marvin nodded.
"Go downstairs. JJ," Anti turned to the alter now in question and began signing, "Can you take Marvin and Jackie and go make them some tea?"
JJ nodded, holding his hand out. Marvin rushed forward and grabbed it, followed closely by Jackie. As soon as they disappeared onto the second floor, Anti turned to Chase. He waved Henrik to the side.
"Now, you tell me what happened."
Chase sucked in a breath. "I came up to check on Seán when I saw the switch. Seán was freaking out, and Marvin was being frantic so I couldn't see much on the screen. I thought that..." Chase sucked in a breath and pressed his hands to his eyes.
Even if he was annoyed, Anti felt his heart twinge. "You thought Marvin had fronted into a dangerous situation?"
Chase nodded, "I can't lose him too."
Henrik silently came forward and wrapped an arm around Chase. Anti let out a huff.
"Chase, you need to apologize to Marvin. Explain what happened." Admittedly, Anti was having a hard time concealing his feelings at the moment- they had woken him up after all. "Before you do that, check on Seán one more time and make sure he's okay."
Chase nodded but didn't move.
Anti huffed again, "Any time now."
Chase began walking away, leaving Henrik and Anti.
"It's been a while," Henrik mumbled.
Anti nodded, "What's got him like this?"
"He fronted while Hank was drinking," Henrik looked at Chase as he came out of the control room. If Chase heard the duo talking about him, he made no notice as he numbly walked down the stairs.
Anti growled, and a door turned sideways this time, "That's my job." He reached his hand out and touched the door. Quickly, the door glitched back into place.
Henrik nodded, "He was there at the time though. You were busy chasing the other one."
Anti sighed, "I still haven't caught whatever it is."
"Don't you think we should let it come to us? It's not like it can front unless it's in here." Henrik waved to the control room absently.
Anti thought for a moment. "You're not wrong, however, it could hurt us in other ways."
"How?" Henrik asked, now looking at Anti, "I basically front-proofed the entire place. You can't front unless you're in here."
Anti didn't have an answer. Truthfully, he was worried that whatever the new alter was would be able to break into the house and front when they were all sleeping.
Henrik gripped Anti's arm, "We'll be okay. You need more than a few minutes of rest. Go sleep."
Anti nodded. He was honestly too tired to protest. Anti clenched his fist again and teleported back to his cave.
Henrik watched as Anti glitched out of sight. He waited a moment to make sure no one else was coming, and then began to approach his office. Henrik opened the door, stepped in, and shut the door as silently as he could. Everyone knew he was in here, but they didn't know what he was doing.
He sat at his computer, pulling up the cameras. Different areas of the house were sectioned off, and Henrik had always promised not to use the cameras when someone needed a private moment. Henrik only ever used these cameras to spot potential threats.
Despite that, he glanced into the kitchen. Aoife had joined the group, and she was sipping on tea right alongside Marvin and Jackie. Henrik navigated away to the forest surrounding the cabin. A blur of white, that's what he had been searching for.
Henrik felt like a hypocrite at the moment. He told Anti to go get some rest, but he probably needed it just as much as Anti. Henrik had been up all night watching Anti chase this thing.
Now, looking through the forest, he found it. An all-white body, hiding behind a tree. An android.
Henrik pulled his notebook out, beginning to take notes. The camera, luckily, was right in front of the android's face. The LED flashed red as it looked around. Henrik sighed, "I could tell Anti to go get it right now. I really could." For some reason, he hesitated though.
"I could research more if he doesn't know." Henrik finally decided. Henrik turned his gaze back to the screen and felt the blood drain from his face.
In front of the camera stood an exact copy of Seán, but now it stood in an android's uniform. The LED still flashed red, but it was looking directly into the camera. It reached its hand out, and the screen turned to static.
"Shite."