"Stanton… Stanton?"

The boy groaned as he felt a pair of hands gently shake him away. He opened his eyes and saw Renee standing over him. She looked at him with a worried expression. "Uh, hey there. Sorry to wake you but it's almost time to get ready for school, and I didn't hear your alarm go off."

Stanton looked confused, looking over towards his clock. It seemed to have fallen off of his dresser and onto the floor, unplugging it. He groaned and sat up, and then looked down to see Antigone curled up on his lap.

The cat was laying up on top of him, looking perfectly content with herself. She was probably the one who knocked his clock over last night. Stupid cat. He lifted her up and set her aside before getting up. "I'm okay," he said. He grabbed his phone and looked down at the time.

It was a little later than usual, but if he hurried he could make a quick breakfast for everyone and then get ready. He always gave himself a twenty minute cushion from home to school, so it wouldn't be too big a deal… wait, he was forgetting something… the cards!

He glanced over towards his desk and saw that the pack of cards was indeed still there. "Stanton, are you sure you're okay?" Renee asked worriedly. "You seem a little more out of it than usual." Usually when he got up he went right to his routine. But right now he seemed to be a bit distracted.

He snapped out of it and looked back up at her. "I'm fine. I need to make breakfast."

She hummed. "Okay then… mind if I help?"

Again? Was she trying to make this a thing? Making breakfast was supposed to be part of his thinking time. But once again he couldn't find a real reason to say no. "If you want…"

A few minutes later, the two step siblings were once again side by side at the stove, this time preparing four breakfast sandwiches. Stan was toasting crescents in one pan, while Renee was frying ham and turkey and the other. There was nothing but silence between them for a while, but then Renee spoke. "I… I wanted to talk to you about yesterday."

Stanton flinched for a moment, but then went back to the task at hand. "Did you tell my dad?"

Renee shook her head. "No. I didn't get the chance. He got home really late last night. He's probably going to sleep in today." So, he would have to wait until later to ask about the mark. "I don't think I really would have anyway. I wanted to talk to you first."

Stan slid one of the crescent pieces onto a place. "Why?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I just… I wanted to know why you didn't let any of us know. I can kind of understand me and my mom, but you didn't even tell your dad?"

"I don't want to bother him…"

"So do you think him not knowing you're getting bullied is helping him?" Renee asked. "You can't just let this keep happening Stanton. You have to do something, or tell someone. Even if you really don't want to tell him at least let me help. I can ask some of my friends to-"

"Why do you care?" Stanton asked suddenly.

Renee looked confused. "What?"

Stanton hadn't meant to offend her, he was just genuinely curious. "Why do you care? About me I mean. Does it really matter to you? We're not even real brother and sister."

Renee glared down at him, something which told him he had obviously phrased that wrong. "Stanton, being family is more than just being related by blood. It's about… well uh, it's kind of hard to explain. It's a bond."

He hummed. "You think we have a bond?"

"I'd like to have one," she said honestly. "I know we're not just going to start acting like brother and sister all of a sudden, but maybe we could at least try talking more? Doing more stuff together. Like this," she said sliding another piece of ham on the plate. "We could make breakfast together every morning. It could be a thing."

Stanton slipped the last piece of crescent on the plate and turned his side of the stove off. "I guess so…" This was the second day they'd made breakfast and it wasn't really that bad. He didn't even have to correct her like he did with his dad all the time.

"Since you're a little behind did you want a ride to school?"

"Okay."

Class had passed just as quickly as it usually did for Stanton, and soon enough lunch time had rolled around once more. This time he decided to eat somewhere where Neville, or anyone else for that matter, couldn't bother him. Up on the roof.

He took a bite of his sandwich as he looked over the deck of cards in his hands. Well, it was kind of a deck anyway. There were only twenty two in total. Each and every one was blank. He'd tried scratching them and using a UV light, but he still hadn't found anything. Maybe he should try asking his dad about them… or maybe they really were just blank cards and nothing else.

He leaned back against the wall and hummed, but then suddenly heard a noise. He whipped his head around towards the door and saw it opening up to reveal three other kids walking out. "I told you it was unlocked," the first, a boy with black and white hair, and a green neon hoodie.

"Are you sure we're supposed to be up here?" asked the second, a girl with brown hair that had a green streak going through it.

The boy shrugged. "Relax, it's not like anyone is gonna come up here to check. Nobody ever comes up here," he said placing his hands behind his head.

The third, who looked like a girl with long dark brown hair tied into dreadlocks, pointed. "Then who's that?" she asked, gesturing towards Stanton. The others followed her over towards the boy who simply stared back at them blankly.

The boy looked at him wide eyed. "Huh! So that's why it was unlocked," he said walking towards him. "Hey man, what's up. Have you been eating up here the whole time?"

"The past few weeks," Stanton answered before looking back at the cards. He recognized two of these guys. The boy and the girl with the dreadlocks. They were always hanging out with the Vanguard League. He was pretty sure they were members, but he'd never seen what they could actually do before.

One of the girls stepped forward. "How did you get up here?" she asked, tilting her head.

"I picked the lock," Stanton answered once more as he began putting the cards away. He hoped they didn't try to make small talk. He was never good at small talk. "You can have the spot if you want. I'm done eating," he said getting up.

He headed towards the door, but the boy floated in front of him. "Whoa, chill man. You don't have to leave. You were here first after all. Is it cool if we just hang out and… hey, your eyes," he said leaning closer. Stanton was still focused on the fact that he was floating. He had never seen him do that before. "Hey guys, check it. He's got dual eyes like me," he said chuckling.

"Heterochromatic," the dreadlocked girl corrected.

Stanton looked up at him curiously. "Are you a ghost?" he asked curiously.

The other boy turned back towards him. "Huh? Oh, kind of. My mom is half. I don't have any of her powers though. Except floating," he explained. "You?"

"Just a human," Stanton answered.

"Cool," he said before floating back towards the others. "My name's Ezra, and these two are Sky and Erin," he said gesturing towards the two girls. "So what's your name, kid. Never seen you around before. Are you a new kid?"

Stanton hummed. "I'm Stanton Pines," he introduced. "I've been going here for a while. I guess we just never ran into each other before."

"Well Stanton, mind if we just hang here and work on our comic? We were going to try the art room but the teachers caught us there last time and we were looking for a new spot," Ezra said before pulling out said comic. "See, check it out."

Stanton looked down at the cover and… was pretty impressed. He had seen better while traveling with his dad, but it was still pretty solid artwork. "It looks nice," he said before he started walking past them. "You can use this spot if you want. I'll go somewhere else."

Ezra frowned. "Dude, I already said you didn't have to leave. We don't want to kick you out or anything," he said. As much as he wanted to find a new spot, he didn't want to do it by kicking someone else out of theirs.

"It's okay, really. I was leaving anyway," Stanton lied. He thought it might be rude to say he just didn't want to be bothered. But it would also seem pretty rude to tell them to leave. So he figured this was the easiest way to solve the situation. He could always find somewhere else to hide out after all. He'd had years of experience doing it.

Ezra was about to say something else, but Sky put a hand on his shoulder. He turned towards her and she just shook her head. Ezra sighed. "Well, alright then man. But if you want to come back to chat or chill out we'll keep the door open," he offered.

"Thanks," Stanton said as he continued walking off. He would have to remember these guys. Or at least the boys anyway. If he really did have other powers he wanted to see them. For now though, he just worried about getting home without running into Neville again.

Since there hadn't been any incidents worth researching and Stanton wasn't exactly eager to head straight home, he'd decided to stop by the arcade.

Videogames were probably the most normal hobby Stanton actually had, and he was very good at them. When traveling from place to place he had visited many of the local arcades and gaming communities, where he'd picked up more than a few tricks. He had hoped there might be something similar here in Townsville, but it seemed like a regular old arcade scene.

Still, he figured he could go and start taking some of the top spots on some of his favorite games. He was particularly happy to see that they had Final Fight, which he was currently breezing through at the moment. "C'mon kid! Hurry up and lose already! I want a turn!" a boy waiting to play behind him complained.

His older brother shook his head. "Forget it man. He hasn't even taken a hit yet. We're just going to have to wait for him to finish the game," he said turning around.

Stanton completely ignored the two and kept playing. Much like his other hobbies, when he got too focused on it he didn't focus on anything else. Right now he was only concerned with raising his score. Whoever this 'dr0pTHEmicah' had managed to set a pretty high score, and he was going to have to give it his A game to take the top spot.

"Whoa, your score is crazy dude!" Stanton spared a quick glance to the side, and saw Ezra standing behind him. "Your health bar is still full too? Did you even take a hit yet man?"

Stanton shook his head as he kept on playing. "No. I don't want to waste points on healing items. I'm just going for high point items," he explained.

Ezra raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you can control which items you get?" he asked.

"If you do the jump and down attack move and then jag the joystick left to right, then high point jewels will appear instead of cheap or healing items," Stanton said, demonstrating as he broke open a barrel and revealed a jewel.

The other boy looked stunned. "Whoa! You serious? How'd you know that?" he asked.

"Someone showed me once when me and my dad went to Seattle." He hoped he was done asking questions. He really needed to concentrate.

"Mind if I jump in?" Well, so much for that. Stanton bit back and sigh and scoot over some. Ezra smirked and stepped in front of the machine before putting in his quarter and pressing start. "I'm picking Guy!" he said joining in. Stanton just hummed once more as Ezra began fighting alongside him.

Anyone watching could tell that one of them was much better than the other. Stanton still hadn't even gotten hit, easily knocking out every enemy that came their way and breaking open every breakable item to some high point jewel. Ezra on the other hand, while not particularly bad, had to have Stanton help him out a few times.

Stanton hadn't been all that happy about having to break open some crates to get healing items instead of his jewels, but didn't say anything. He figured when Ezra was done he could just try again sometime. By the time they had been finished, Stanton had fallen short of the top score. But considering he'd pretty much been carrying someone with him the whole time, he hadn't done too badly.

"Man, that's the highest I ever scored on this thing. I know it was pretty much all you though. You're seriously amazing at this game. How did you get so good?" Ezra asked.

Stanton shrugged. "Practice," he said simply.

Ezra reached into his pocket and then pulled out two quarters. "Here you go man. Since you totally bailed me out and you probably would have scored higher, I figure I owe you."

"No, It's okay," Stanton assured. "It was… fun."

Okay, he still would have preferred breaking the high score on his own.. But it was a nice change of pace to play a co-op game. He was used to playing on his own all the time. "If you say you," Erza said, pocketing the coins. He wasn't going to argue with the guy about giving his own money away. "Hey, you come here to the arcade often?"

"Just when I've got nothing else important to do," he said as he headed towards the door. It was starting to get late, and he needed to get home before his dad.

The other boy walked alongside him. "Well when you head back, maybe you could let me know and give me a few pointers. I got a friend who's always smoking me and our buddies in games like this, and maybe I was thinking I might be able to beat him if I got some pointers."

Stanton flinched for a moment. His time at the arcade was another of what he considered his personal time. He really didn't like the idea of having to spend it with someone else. But then the words that Maggie had told him popped up in his head. "I… I'll let you know," he said.

"Awesome," Ezra said before leaning over and hooking his arm around his shoulders. "You know, I have no idea why, but I feel like we're going to be good buddies Stan."

Stanton hummed. "That's good I guess…" He guessed if he was going to try and make a friend Ezra wasn't a bad start. Besides, he might get the chance to see what some of his powers were and record them in the journal.

Stanton made his way through the front door of the house and saw his father and Pacifica sitting on the couch. Dipper smiled towards him. "Hey buddy. Was surprised you didn't beat me home today. You stop by your aunt's place?" he asked.

The boy shook his head. "I stopped by the arcade," he answered.

Pacifica sat up. "Sounds fun. Are you hungry? Because we were about to order-"

"I ate on the way home," he said as he headed for the stairs. "I'm gonna go upstairs now. Good night dad. Good night Ms. Pacifica."

The two adults both frowned as he walked up and left. "Still with Ms. Pacifica…" Pacifica said with a sigh. He hadn't called her anything but that since they'd met. It was understandable when they first met, but she had thought that maybe he'd get less formal after a while. Even just calling her Pacifica would have been a step up.

Dipper put a hand on her shoulder. "Stanton had always had a hard time opening up. I know it's been a while already but I'm sure he'll start coming around soon," he said.

"I hope so. It's not like I'm expecting him to call me mom or anything but… I just don't want to feel like I'm invading his life you know," she said shrugging.

Dipper smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Pacifica, nobody feels like you or Renee are invading. Like I said, he just needs time to adjust."

Upstairs, Stanton set his things aside and got ready to take a seat at his desk. When he pulled his chair out however, he saw Antigone sitting in it. "Why are you always in my room?" he complained. There were a dozen other rooms for her to relax in, yet she always seems to wander into his. He picked her up and set her aside, but the moment he sat down she jumped up into his lap. "Seriously…?"

"Meow…"

He sighed before reaching down, grabbing his journal. While nothing had happened today he wanted to make a page of Ezra, and maybe that Sky girl too. Just as he opened it up and reached for his pen though, something caught his eye. There was a glow coming from his pocket. "Huh?" He reached down, thinking he might have left the flashlight on his phone on or something. But as it turned out, it was the deck of cards that was glowing.

He tilted his head. "What the…?"

He pulled the top card off of the deck, which was shining brightly. The back of the card suddenly grew a number on it.

Zero.

He flipped it over and saw the card was no longer blank. It had an image… an image of Ezra. It showed the boy floating and smirking as his eyes glowed. He seemed to be holding some kind of staff or something in his hand. At the bottom of the card were the words 'The Fool'.

"The Fool?" he asked as he kept looking over the card. Not an inaccurate description in his opinion, but he was still curious about this. How did Ezra just suddenly show up on the card? How did any of this show up on the card? He was sure they were blank earlier. He picked up another of the cards and saw that it was still blank. So were all the others.

Why was this the only one that seemed to change? And why Ezra?

He hummed as he grabbed his pen and began scribbling down. He was adding this to the journal along with Ezra's page. And tomorrow he was going to try and figure more of this out.