Earth 216

Eight Months and Twenty-Two Days After Invasion

Roy's whole body felt fried. He felt like a computer as a sharp plume of oxygen powered his body on, his muscles spasming and jaw clenching. He found it hard to draw in breaths after that, his eyes peeling open and focusing on the hazy figure above him.

"Fandral?" His voice slurred as his eyes squinted together, blinking rapidly to restore sight. A tall, looming figure slowly came into focus, his intense blue eyes peering into Roy's soul and making him quite uncomfortable. Strong, lean muscles outlined his body, wavy brown hair tousled and wind-strewn atop his head. Hey, that's not right. Roy had seen pictures of the legend that was Fandral and this imposter in front of him was basically identical and - was he carrying a skateboard? He groped behind him for the wall, using it to help himself stand up. "Say, aren't you supposed to be blonde?"

"Actually, I do believe you are referencing to me." Roy's head snapped around to see the exact same man, only blonde.

"Wow, I must have hit my head pretty hard," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes and opening them again. Both men still stood there, towering over him a good eight inches.

"He makes funny faces," a female giggled, and Roy had to lean his head against the wall to keep it from spinning.

"Appreciate that," he commented, pinching the bridge of his nose. Okay buddy, you need to figure out what's going on A-SAP. He tried to focus, on anything really, but it was like his brain had shut down. He couldn't remember anything after stepping through the portal besides a blinding light and intense pain…

"Was I struck by lightning?" He asked incredulously, stumbling towards them with weighted steps. "God. Dammit. What-the-hell," he cursed as he tried to lift his feet, but it was like he had lost all control of his body and he either stomped them down with too much power or failed to pick them up altogether.

All three of them were laughing now. Roy summoned on his magic, hoping for spectacle of such grandeur that they would awe and applaud him, but instead his ruins fizzled orange for a brief second before completely sputtering out. He flicked his hands a few times and tried again, but he could manage nothing. They laughed harder.

"Don't worry if you can't get it up," the female teased from where she sat atop the corner, her bobbed hair swaying as another laugh shook her body. "Jace's strikes tend to do that."

Roy was insulted. This wasn't an issue of 'getting it up'—it was an issue of just having it! He was becoming increasingly wary.

"And when exactly do the effects of 'Jace's strikes' wear off?" He questioned, meaning to tilt his head menacingly but it lolled to the side.

"Long enough," Roy noticed that Brunette Fandral was having no problems getting his up. He leaned casually against the wall Roy had just been hugging, twirling the sickest blades Roy had ever seen in his hands. Each one glowed a faint blue color and he was instantly intrigued. It was like an alarm dinging in his head. Shiny! Shiny! Shiny!

Brownie must have noticed his interest in them because the corner of his mouth turned up into a smirk.

His mind worked slowly, his mouth open and ready to speak, the words just not flowing. Finally, he managed to come to their obvious conclusion.

"You want answers." It was like running Windows 10 on a Pentium II. Error—does not compute!

Brownie shrugged. "We just want to know one simple thing." He was a nice little – er, large: very, very large—fellow. He seemed to notice Roy's struggles and didn't make him work too hard to come up with the right conclusion. "We want to know why you're here."

Now that was a nice question; something Roy could easily answer. "We got a distress signal. We knew you were in danger."

The twins shared a look – were they twins? Roy kept glancing back and forth between them. He was still mildly convinced that they were the same person and he was just imagining it all, but then he noticed that the girl's gaze swept over all three of them and that meant that she also saw two Fandrals. Great, at least he wasn't completely crazy…unless he was imaging her, too.

"When did you get the signal?" The OG Fandral asked his question rather forcefully, causing Roy to shrug with another confused look.

"I don't know – a couple days? A week, tops." He caught the surprise flickering across their faces, though they were quick to hide it. He nodded his head in approval – these guys were pretty good.

"Because," Fandral-imposter began, "we sent that signal out nine months ago."

Sam hated to be away from Cat. He hated that his entire body ached. He hated that every damn day was the same futile routine. Most of all, he hated that he was stuck out here babysitting the other visitors while she was in there, away from sight and sound.

A door clicked and the short white-haired teenager walked out, a perplexed look spread across his pale face.

"Roy!" Jamie leapt from her spot on the floor, Jace also rising to his feet in cautious watch. Sam tuned out the rest as Cat stepped out last. She was filing her nails, her expression bored and impatient.

She had been the light in his darkness through the whole thing. As horrible was it was to say, Sam was glad that the invasion happened. Without it, he would have never encountered Cat and Jace, fighting for their lives, just waiting to be saved. He and Cat would have never fallen in love and – and a lot more people would still be alive. He knew he should feel horrible for thinking this way. He should be overcome with guilt every time a thought like this crossed his mind. The thing was, he felt none of those things. He felt lucky, if anything, to have been there to save her and see that look of gratefulness in her eyes. The rest was history – recent history—but history nonetheless.

He shook his head, the buzz of conversation growing louder in his ear with every passing second. He should pay more attention.

"So, alternate Earth, I got it. There's Fandral, and Clint who seem to be the same, but different children…which is…weird…" Sam could see that Roy was feeling better with every passing second. He had been the last to wake up probably due to the fact that Jace's bolt had hit him first; he probably took in most of the damage. Sam had been on the other end of one of Jace's lightning strikes before – he was amazed at how quick Roy was recuperating.

Fandral had declared that all of their stories matched up perfectly, every minuscule detail fitting in line without hesitation or suspicion.

"Hey, it was weird for us when we found out, too." Tori was right there to reassure them. Sam rolled his eyes and sighed quietly. The guy was always willing to give the benefit of the doubt, and sure that was admirable, but the guy was such a basket case. He found the weirdest people to surround himself with – Sam had heard word earlier that the circus performer had arrived this morning all the way from Tori's old town in New Mexico. He trusted too easily, that was the problem. It had gotten him into trouble before and it would happen again – just because he would outlive it didn't mean the rest of them would.

"Something not sitting right, Clint?" Sam called out over the other voices, drawing attention to the aging man in the corner. He was dazed and had this faraway look in his eyes, like something just wasn't clicking. Upon getting called out he waved his hand and gave a small shrug.

"Well, I don't think the gravity of the situation has quite hit everyone yet, that's all." A heavy dew fell upon their heads collectively. The married couple that had come through grabbed hands.

"Anything in particular you'd like to start with?" Sam prodded, staring evenly at the elder with his harsh blue gaze. Sam wasn't exactly fond of the guy – he wasn't exactly a team player. He lived his life on improvisation and was reckless and was basically everything Sam stood against. Tori was worse, but Jace was the worst.

"I'm just pondering," Clint continued with a harsh tone, "whether the message took nine months to reach them or they got it shortly after it was sent but something went wrong with their portal." He was met with confused looks so he gave another shrug. "What if the trip over took them nine months? Just a thought."

The look on Roy's face could have won an award. It was somewhere between shock and terror with just a hint of desperation.

"We don't know that for sure," Tori was quick to try and please them. A loud sigh left Sam's lips and Tori shot him a look which he met with equal ferocity.

"Can we have a moment to talk?" Jamie placed her hand on the younger one's – Grant – shoulder.

Fandral shot Sam a pointed look. "I think talking would be a great idea." Sam rolled his eyes and turned towards Cat only to find her gone. He then realized that Jace wasn't making a racket like he normally would and narrowed his eyes. He was nowhere in sight.

"Fine, I need some air anyway." He shouldered his way past Tori and left the room.

They were gracious enough to allow Roy and his friends some alone time. He figured they all needed some time to wrap their heads around everything. Roy didn't even know where to start.

He had found a cracked phone under some rubble in the corner of the room and found that it still turned on. No bars. Not even Wi-Fi. Roy sunk to the ground heavily, pulling his knees to his chest and holding the phone loosely in his hands. He stared vacantly at it, unconsciously tapping on the dial pad.

Everyone was quiet. Sasha and Shay were on the dirty couch huddled together, his arm hanging loosely around her. He, too, had hollow eyes. Grant was standing with his back to everyone, his shoulders square and his hands clasped behind him as he looked out the glass panels and into the broken city below. Jamie was throwing loose pieces of floor at her feet.

"Should I just get it out there?" Jamie's voice eased them all back into reality. Grant glanced back at her with a curt nod. "We took a risk," she shrugged, brushing her hands off. "We were prepared for danger and that was the plan. Now that there's nothing….we're stuck here until Carly or Tony or whoever can bring us back and we don't know how long that will take. It could be days for them and months for us – or it could be a lot sooner." Her eyes surveyed around the room, apologetic but still bright. "The best we can do is help these people while we're here; they asked for it. For us."

No one complained or disagreed. Roy had barely heard what she said; his eyes were glued on the screen. But she had been right; they were expecting to step into a whirlwind of danger. They wanted to fight and be warriors because that's exactly what they weren't back home. Their Earth had no need to send out distress signals. Ever since Thanos, well the Avengers were a joke; a title given to those few with powers. The world hadn't been in danger for over a decade. This had been their chance to be heroes.

"Roy, you're awfully quiet," his head perked up and he gave her a half-grin and a shrug. Their eyes met and a mutual agreement came between them. You're disappointed. I know, I am too.

"What are you doing?" Sasha's rather cute accented voice spoke up from the silence. Well, Roy always figured it was cute; girls like accents, right? Especially if there's just a hint of it in there – Australian, that's what Sasha had. Grant turned around again, trying to get a good look at what Roy had in his hands. He waved the phone at them.

"It doesn't work." It seemed like such an obvious thing when he said it out loud. But, just for a moment, he had hoped it would've.

"Who would you call?" Oh, wasn't this a fun little game.

"Well, you, Jamie, would call your mom, which is more creative than Grant sending one to Cap which is just, ugh, typical." Roy was glad to see Grant give a slight smile so he continued. "Sasha and Shay would both pick each other, except they're both here so… Sasha would call Winter, or whoever's watching her so he could talk to her. Shay wouldn't go for their daughter though – it isn't about calling a loved one for her, it's about the best option, the smartest option. You'd call Natasha because you've been trained not to trust anyone – not even her – but you know she'd be your safest bet. Your smartest bet."

There was a lot of smiling and nods. Jamie gave him a slow clap. "We got ourselves a true Sherlock, folks!" Roy looked at her with his blank expression and pretended to tip his hat off to her. "I do believe my actual question was who you would call."

It was probably one of the hardest things he had ever thought about. His first instinct was to say his dad – who wouldn't reach out to their parent if they were an all-powerful Sorcerer Supreme? But he and his dad didn't really get along, yadda, yadda, yadda, Stephen would rather Roy rot a little in hopes he learn something. He wasn't close enough with any of the others to want them as last-hope-call. His only other option was Carly. It was kind of sad to think about; all those years pining after her and she basically hated him. He clicked the phone off.

"Whoever. Dad. Carly."

Grant sat down next to his sister. Jamie—Ah, what a smart little lady. He had no doubt she could see right through him, but she would never say anything to out him on it. He respected her immensely for this. Still, a question itched at the back of her throat. "What would you say to her?"

This seemed to trigger everyone's interest. They all looked at him so expectantly, waiting for some profound confession or whatever. Roy knew he couldn't answer honestly because he couldn't honestly come up with anything he would actually say. Given the chance he probably wouldn't make the damn phone call anyway. Maybe he was the type of person to dial just to hear her voice.

"I dunno," he tilted his head back and forth, cracking his knuckles. "I kinda have to pee."

She laughed. "Unbelievable." In typical Roy fashion he had managed to make everyone smile as a calmness once again filled the room. He smirked lightly to himself and leaned against the wall. His body still ached, and there was this constant gross feeling like someone was rubbing their fingers up and down his feet. Beginning to think harder about it, Roy narrowed his eyes and tapped his fingers idly against the dark screen.

"Say, what emoji would you use for a bladder?"

It was an honest question; but they all took it rhetorically. Ah, there goes silly 'ol Roy again asking stupid, dumb stuff. That is, all of them except Sasha. Roy liked Sasha a real lot. Shay kind of scared him, but he guessed that she was used to that from a lot of people – it took a real scary lady to be trainable under the Black Widow. How she and Sasha ended up together was anyone's guess.

"The little water droplet things, maybe? You know, for, like, pee?" He had this real hopeful look on his face and a kind of smirk that hung sideways on his mouth.

Roy was sad to disappoint him, but it was a rather teachable moment. "Nah," he shook his head with a serious look but amusement in his eyes, "You use that when you're about to nut."

"Roy!" Jamie burst out laughing and nearly fell over. Poor good-guy-extraordinaire Grant Rogers looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"What?" Roy asked while sharing a cracked grin with his favorite Australian. "It's true! Someone had to tell him!" Sasha winked at him and gave him a thumbs up like a true white American dad would.

"The heart emoji? That kind of looks like a bladder." Roy wasn't sure who was more shocked between them all as Grant continued the fun. Jamie gaped at him as he huffed, looking rather offended at how surprised they were.

"Yea, with the drops after it," Sasha added as Shay smacked his arm, letting out a sharp laugh. Roy smiled to himself. This was how it should be; no crying, no arguing, no talking about what had happened and what will or should happen next. This was just good old fun.

His smile widened. "Because peeing is basically just the bladder nutting, right?"

Tori tapped his foot impatiently. He was fed up with this entire conversation. The fact that they even had to be having it was a waste of time – especially since it was three against one.

"They came," he pointed out again, desperately trying to get him to see the point. It was a beautiful thing, why couldn't he see that? The fact that they were late had little to no effect – they had already beaten the invasion. They were all so sour when nobody had originally answered the call. They knew it worked; there was absolutely no question about that.

"They aren't needed. They shouldn't have come at all." He couldn't see why Sam was so determined to make their arrival a bad thing. Sure, it was dangerous and now they were all stuck here – Tori couldn't even begin to explain how bad he felt for them – but it was like some sense of hope – or, no, it was optimism – had returned. They had received the call and they had arrived as soon as they could; they have no control over time.

"It does not matter. They're here and they're stuck here until we can promise them a safe way back that will harm neither of these Earths." Fandral's calm voice instantly soothed Tori's sore attitude. He was so tired of sticking up for these people. Not because they didn't deserved it, because they did, but because it was his story all again. Sam should have realized that Tori would be their number one empathizer. He cast a glance at his father and they shared a brief glance before Fandral gave Sam one of his powerful grins. His smile radiated like a million suns.

So many people had told Tori that he could do the same – that he was an exact replica of his father. He could never, would never, grow tired of hearing mow much alike he and his father were. Especially with the invasion – Fandral the Dashing had quickly turned into a brilliant leader. It came as a shock to many people; but not to Tori. The invasion was a war and Fandral was the singular best warrior there was; of course he would rise to the top at a time like this. But that also meant that he had matured quite a lot too, and Tori knew it was for his sake, after all they hadn't seen each other in years and now they were reunited on the very planet that had ravaged them both. It was hard times for the both of them, but it somehow grew them closer and Tori was unashamedly grateful. Cat liked to joke around and say how they would morph into one Super-Fandral any day now.

"So let's get back in there and show our guests some hospitality," he was saying, making each word like a gift as he spoke. "It's the least we can do for them."

It was true. Clint had long gone quiet from being tired of repeating himself. He simply stood like a statue and the only thing that let Tori know he wasn't made of stone was the gentle nods he would occasionally give. Tori loved to watch Clint in his every-day life and admire how years of training shaped him; from the little tasks to making important decisions. He especially loved the way Clint could be so still and silent and yet be so undeniably clumsy.

"Nice of you two to show up," Sam's booming voice made Tori look up, watching as Cat and Jace slunk up to them. Their faces were agitated and cast annoyance in long, invisible shadows. Tori could basically see them stretching out, attacking Sam with their useless shapes.

"I didn't realize we needed your permission." Jace spoke everything to Sam like it was a challenge. Tori almost smiled to himself – it was amazing how many secrets you got told when you weren't liked. He glanced at Cat and she was quick to avert her eyes.

"We sent signals to the others so they'll know what's happening," Cat's soft voice cradled Tori briefly as it passed over him. Sam appeared next to her like shackles. That's exactly what Sam had done the very day they met – slapped on some cuffs and sentenced her to life.

There was happy laughter from inside the room. Fandral glanced towards it, his hands resting on his hips and ready to pull his sword at any time. He was always ready for a good fight. That was Tori's favorite quality. Not because he provoked it or because he liked to kill people, but because of the adrenaline and the sense of empowerment. Danger provoked action. Action kept things moving.

It made long years shorter.

"Well, they certainly do seem to be enjoying themselves. Let's go in." His father led the way with discrete swagger, that roguish grin never straying nor fading.

When they entered the room they broke the magic and the laughing stopped. They all looked on edge but sure of themselves and Tori found that quite interesting. He wanted to just stand there and study them but there were conversations to be had.

"I'm sure you all have many questions," Fandral began and no sooner did Roy nod his head.

"You bet your buns we do," he declared with grand emphasis, only struggling a little bit to be upright on his feet. Did he have some sort of advanced healing? Tori had been present when he produced some sort of orange fizzle, but other than that he suddenly realized that nobody in this room had any idea what pure, unattainable power they each possessed.

"I'm going to need more coffee." Clint waved them to continue as he cut straight through the middle of the room and into the kitchen.

"Oh, cool, so he's the same both places," Roy shared an appreciable nod with Jamie and took a step forward with a cringe. He looked at Jace with a weirdly constructed grimace. "Seriously, dude, why does this feel so goddamn weird?" Jace was beaming.

"You have questions?" Sam crossed his beefy arms and tore his gaze through everyone. Tori wanted to applaud as each of the newcomers met it with blatant impudence.

"Right. The basic story is: you sent a signal and we got it and traveled through another dimension to get here, but ya' boy here destroyed that portal so we're stuck here until our homies back home get us…home." He made a face, turning to Jamie for help but she only shrugged with a smirk and left him to fend for himself. He huffed and turned back to them, grasping at the air with his hands like something might help him. "Everything's like the same….but not really," he summarized, looking expectantly at Tori and his team. Tori raised an eyebrow.

"Um, I guess?" It was pure absurdity that they were all taking this so well. Tori could see something behind their eyes – something not quite right, but it didn't give him the gut feeling that they were bad or untrustworthy people. In fact, he felt oddly at home with them, almost like it was destiny for them to meet. He was raised on stories of destiny and great tales of prophecy and legend. As a child, and even now, Tori had a great deal of trouble trying to discern one from the other.

No, Tori felt completely at ease with these people. It was something else that was bothering him – something he was determined to find out. Until then, he would accept them and that would be that. He was a big advocate for innocent until proven guilty.

"No," Sam's strong voice was quick to contradict Tori's. Nothing Tori ever did was good enough for him, no matter how hard he tried. Eventually, he just gave up and stopped trying altogether. He can accept me for who I am or find a way to deal with the disappointment – they all can. "It's actually a lot more complicated than that."

Roy's hand shot out and he pointed a finger at Sam while he stared directly at Tori. "Shut up, I don't like you, and no one's talking to you." Clint's laugh echoed loudly from the other room. Sam's eyes were blue fire.

Clint's head poked out of the kitchen, his lower lip stained with coffee. His eyebrows quirked up as he regarded Roy, "So…questions?"

There was a brief pause as Roy looked in wonder around the room and Tori watched as his eyes drifted up to the ceiling. When he realized Clint had been speaking to him he gave a sheepish smile. "Oh, yea, no, we don't really have any."

"You've got to be shitting me." Sam threw his hands up into the air, looking at Clint and Fandral and the rest of them like their brains had slipped right out. When no one agreed or disagreed, or spoke anything for that matter, he turned to Jace. "At least tell me you see this is all crazy."

Jace, who had been smiling the whole time, gave a strong shrug of his broad shoulders. "I like these guys."

"Fucking hell," Sam muttered. Cat went over to him and began whispering to him soft words like a purr. Jace's jaw clenched and Tori swore he saw sparks start at his fingertips. There would always be problems when two head-strong men determined to be leaders were told to be teammates. Tori tried to be as indifferent as he could, but Jace was uncaring and straightforward. He wasn't a fake person and that's the only way Tori knew he was free from his contempt. What bothered Tori most was that while Jace had stepped down once Fandral had taken lead, Sam continued to challenge every word. He had absolutely no idea of when to pick his battles – he could call himself a soldier however many times it took to stroke his big ego but he'd never be a warrior.

Jamie had taken an elegant step forward so that she stood behind Roy. She leaned to whisper something into his ear, to which he shot a reply back and it was obvious that whatever words he had spoken were not appreciated. She, too, held fire in her eyes, but unlike Sam's it wasn't angry or violent. As she looked up and made eye contact with him, he could see that the fire burning in her eyes was much livelier. It made her look determined and powerful and Tori became entranced in their wondrous beauty.

She shifted her eyes back to Roy and Tori watched her with great fascination as she pinched his arm. "Ow!" It quickly drew everyone's attention as Roy glared at her, rubbing the sore area and turning to the audience with reluctance. "We have a question." Everyone waited. Roy shared a silent and seemingly argumentative conversation with Jamie through several forceful blinks and glances. She held up her hand to slap him and he ducked with a glare. Tori liked to imagine what they were saying. 'In public, really?' 'You embarrass me.'

"We know Sam's a cap baby—seriously, dude, how obvious could you make it." Sam's jaw clenched with such raw force that Tori feared he might break it. As comical as the current situation was to spectators like Tori and Fandral, Roy wasn't helping anybody and none of his peers were stopping him. Roy hooked his thumb in Tori's direction. "And Brownie here is of Fandral and Jace of Thor, but is Cat a daughter of something?" There was instant outrage and Roy ducked behind Jamie. "This is your fault!" He squeaked and this time she really did slap him. Tori assumed that Roy wasn't having one of his best days.

"I'm not Thor's bastard!" Jace was on his feet like lightning, electricity pouring out of his eyes like water. "I'll be damned if anyone says otherwise!" The lights flickered above them as Clint rubbed his temples.

"Chill out," he demanded, examining his cup with feigned interest. Jace's whole body seemed to flicker with raw power as he sneered and turned his back to everyone, his hands clenching and relaxing in a seizer-like manner.

Jamie's eyes narrowed. "That makes no sense," she replied calmly, raising her hands to show she meant no harm. Tori shared a glance with his father – they were stepping on thin ice that was guaranteed to break before they made it safely to shore. Roy was looking less than enthusiastic to get electrocuted again but he stood firm besides Jamie. Grant clenched his fists and waited for the fight; Shay bounded over to back up her teammates while Sasha watched from afar with curious eyes. Everybody was on edge and waiting for a fight – except for Jamie. She stood firm in the eye of the storm and let the chaos around her ensue. She wasn't going to back down, no, but she wasn't going to let anything unnecessary happen.

She continued, "There's no one else with abilities like that. If you're not a son of Thor, then who?" Her voice was calm and sounded almost concerned, like it was her last option to make him angry or upset. She was simply a tourist of their world, trying to gain access to whatever information would float her way. Tori looked at her eyes but they hadn't changed. Fire, like a gift from the gods.

"They're mutants," Clint clarified as everyone tried to calm down. Jamie cast her fiery glance back to the others who all gave shrugs. Sam was trying to reach for Cat but Jace wouldn't have it.

"I'm sorry?" She asked. Tori's face narrowed. There was a long pause around them as Tori shared another glance with Clint, and then Frandral. Jace eventually broke the silence, Tori having to duck to avoid a stray branch of lightning that spun from his shoulder like a missile.

"He said; I'm a mutant," Jace spat the words at her like poison, turning around to get right in her face. "Me and Cat both are, so if you've got a problem with that—"

"No problem at all," she stood unflinching in his presence. Clint had been reaching for the boy but stopped, falling quiet as her calm demeanor floated around the room and embraced them. Their noses were almost touching. "We just don't understand what that means, is all." Grant was shoulder to shoulder with his sister, his face calm but his body rigid as if to say 'mess with my sister if you want to die.'

Jace laughed, right in her face. She clasped her arms behind her back and shook her head slightly as Roy and Sasha moved to stand beside her. Grant flinch but she quickly caught her arm and that's when Tori realized he was going to punch Jace. Jamie had just stopped all-out war and nobody would ever know any different.

"Jace," Clint called calmly but forcefully, grabbing his arm and stiffy pulling him away. They had a brief conversation away from everybody else before Clint let go of him and he lights turned back on with a powerful jolt. The rays casted a silver glow onto everyone, illuminating Jamie's face like the moon.

"You don't have mutants back on your Earth?" Fandral directed the conversation to a more peaceful note and even offered them a kind smile as if he were begging to understand them. Tori watched him work his magic, knowing full well he wasn't called dashing just because he could work the ladies. His hair fell into his forehead just like it always did when he was preoccupied with other tasks – it never stayed groomed for long. In a matter of seconds everyone was calm again and Fandral had diffused the bomb. Shoulders unstiffened and smiles returned. Everyone drew in a collective breath.

There was a lot of head shaking on their behalf. Jamie's eyes cast over to where Jace and Cat stood together as if it were them against the world. That's how Sam had found them and he had helped them despite their unwelcoming attitudes. Tori had understood; before the invasion the public hadn't been very open to their kind. Not that it had changed much since then; there were just less people around to judge. They were disgraced, outcast, forced to live under the streets and fend for themselves. "If we do, they are well hidden. I have never heard of such a thing."

An unnerving silence hung in the air like storm clouds above them. Never heard of Mutants? It was quite a shock to hear, especially given their history on this Earth. Tori glanced around, wondering who would speak first. Roy nudged Jamie as if to suggest she said something wrong.

"We are humans with genetic mutations," Cat's timid voice broke the remaining tension in the room. She looked uncomfortable as all the eyes landed on her, her dark eyes shifting from person to person.

"Evolved," Jace added with malice, causing Cat to tilt her head. He was standing right beside her now, shoulder to shoulder in the middle of the room. Them against the world.

"Some think that way," she agreed, "though others do not. The truth is: we're abnormal –"

"Oh, please," Jace scoffed but Cat placed a gentle hand on his arm.

"We are," she urged, looking into his eyes. "Before the invasion we were not accepted. There were few places we could hide to live. There was this place in Manchester – a safe haven, but it was destroyed."

"We're the only ones left." Jace's voice was oddly soft as he gazed back into her eyes, looking up to see that Jamie and the others were still in the room. It almost gave him a jump, Tori noticed, like he thought they had all left. It was hard to tell, but Tori noticed that he almost looked broken, if being broken meant you didn't know what to do with yourself.

"In New York?" It was the first words Tori had heard Grant speak. He looked absolutely heart broken, like every word Cat and Jace spoke drove daggers into his skin.

"In the World." Jace put his arm around Cat and she gave a pained smile. "Anyway," she broke away from his embrace after a few stunned moments, "Each mutant had different powers." She looked back at Jace briefly. "He can control and emit electricity so powerful we haven't found something he can't break yet," she let out a brief laugh and glanced sideways at him. He crossed his arms with a begrudging snort, nodding his head as an afterthought.

Roy nodded sharply at her. "What can you do?"

She looked bashful as she stared down at her feet and refused to answer the question. Jace snapped his fingers to draw their attention and with a shark-liked grin he watched the electricity flow from finger to finger. It was if he were baiting them, drawing their breaths and hooking them before he delivered the answer they wanted. Jace lived for the attention.

"Let's just say; she's a beast."