#rodtoddy

Ando scoffed inwardly as he walked quietly, heading down to the where he’d get the subway and go home. Why he’d chosen to do that today was... He didn’t even know why he’d chosen to even ride a subway today, when really he could just teleport home. There was really no explanation. 

That in mind, he walked, suitcase in hand and all, and stood quietly waiting at the lane where he’d get into the subway cart and go. He looked at the time, also another thing he hardly did. It was just odd that he was doing so many things he normally did not do. Eventually his concentration was broken by noises being made from the entrance of the subway. 

The noises were actually screams and yells. Something was happening at the top of the stairs which led down to the subway basement. People were bunching up, mostly curious trying to see what was happening. Ando arched his eyebrow, curious. Sure he would have gone to look too but he didn’t want to climb the stairs just to try and push through and see what the big deal was. 

Eventually those yells started getting worse and he had to look again. Some people who had also chosen to stay down on the main floor like him were looking up. Suddenly out of the crowd, a man in a business suit fell down the stairs basically rolling down. Everyone on the basement floor of the subway stared at him wided eyed. He looked like he’d just died from how hard he’d fallen. Then without warning, he began to twitch. Was... Was he alive? 

Cas was winded and dropped her guard as well. "That sword then," she breathed, eyes flickering back to the beautifully crafted pristine steel katana. "Are you from his time?"

Ando hesitated to answer that question, but went ahead anyway. "I'm... I'm not." 

HiroJi smiled as he moved away from Cas as politely as possible. When he finally had the chance he headed over to AndoNi and hugged him tightly.

Cas knew any possible ruse was up when the younger of Hiro's surviving relatives immediately hugged the sword owner. "So, you're both, aiya," she fussed with her hair, still not done up since the sofa tripped her. Looking away and sighing, she went back to the kitchen counter to begin pouring a cup of tea for herself plus two. "Milk, honey, lemon?" she asked over her shoulder, indicating interest in how they'd like their drinks customized. 

"We're both?" HiroJi finally let go of Ando and followed the lady into the kitchen. "Are you ok, Cas?" 

Ando followed right after, opting to leave the sword in the living room, taking it quite seriously that thing about her not being dangerous. If HiroJi had said it, then it meant it was legit. 

"I'm terribly sorry, I didn't catch your name," she turned, offering a cup of tea to him. She was holding the cup directly, not by the handle which she faced toward him for convenience. The heat didn't bother her in the slightest. "Andrew?" 

The older of the Nakamuras cringed inwardly at the name. That was the worst name he'd ever heard. What the hell? "No, my name is Ando." He took the cup carefully not having registered that she'd been holding the hot part with her hands. 

HiroJi tried not to giggle out loud. He could sense his brother's discomfort with the name. 

"Sorry, Ando." Cas blushed apologetically, eager to change subject. "You, know I think there was an Ando in the legends, but I can't remember if he was Hiro's uncle or just one of his interns at the.. Company," only then did her gaze and their proximity allow her to fully catch the beauty of his eyes, which he'd been hiding behind that fearsome sword up to this point. "God your eyes are more beautiful than class 3 wormholes," she explained quite earnestly. 

Ok that was new, someone flirting with him in front of his brother. Either that or genuinely complimenting him because he'd never heard that before. This made him chuckle. He could hear HiroJi in back of him trying not to giggle because that was still funny. "Wormholes, huh? What are you saying? My eyes are too dark?" He started laughing because well funny. 

HiroJi chuckled too, but shut up a little faster than Ando figuring the young lady had actually meant that. 

Cas took the suggestion at face value as she stepped toward him. "Hmm," she used her best optical filters, webs of retina and nanoglass a flutter with information about, yes, the quality of Ando's eyes. "They are not dark," she clarified. She reached for her own cup of tea and began sipping, as if that was that. 

HiroJi shook his head, these two.  “So where are you from Cas?” He asked, trying to distract from the situation. He didn’t really care if Ando was responding to her or not. At the moment he was just staring. She was a sight to behold truly and he wasn’t surprised she had already taken a liking to his older brother. That was normal. 

The finest frontier," she grinned. Her thoughts said what she wanted to brag about: ~Let's just say I run a lot of red lights, where there's no air for the sirens to propagate. I've got all the time in the universe, got a few posthumans under my thumb, they report to me, and I report to my whimsy.~ Then again, that wouldn't fly well with these kind rescuers. "I'm from somewhere even a star's throw wouldn't come close to reaching. Are you familiar with.. " she sipped her tea again, "..the multiverse?"

“Time and space?” HiroJi simplified it a bit, because there was a simpler way to put it. “You travel through time and space? Are you a time traveler too?” He smiled as he asked. 

AndoNi by this time had taken his cup of tea and had taken a nearby stool and sat on it. He eyed his brother and then the lady as he drank quietly and comfortably. Interesting… The tea was good. 

"Adventures, exploits and idle curiosity exist best within a consistent frame of reference. I don't go jumping around like some careless rookie of some wonton space navy. I find people I need in my.. entourage.. and bring them back to that frame of reference." She stepped toward Ando. "You are the legal guardian of that sword, are you not?" 

Ando arched a brow. "Legal guardian? I mean if being gifted something makes you a legal guardian of it, I suppose I am." 

HiroJi chuckled a bit. She was so peculiar this lady. 

Cas didn't waste any time. From her pocket she drew what resembled a 7th gen Ipod Nano. It was camoflaged to resemble as much. The inner contents were much wilder. |Please speak your name, rank, and coded ponder access numerals| the device chirped at her. "Cas, Navigator First Class, Omega Pantheon Seven," she recited. The device dimmed the lighting in the room abruptly. |Two humanoids, alive| the device announced as it began monitoring the area beyond the immediate apartment. |Several guards, several guard dogs.| "All right then," she pocketed the device. The lights in the room were still out. "Oh.. do these require a switch?" 

HiroJi was quite surprised that the thing hadn’t gone haywire, considering how many sigils they had for protection against well anything. “May I see your device?” He had to know what it was made with and why it was able to scan them. Then again it had only scanned them as humanoids. This was quite the conundrum. 

Ando was still trying to figure out why this lady was here in this reality and what her real purpose was. He was going on what HiroJi had told him. She wasn’t harmful, but then again, there had to be a reason she’d ended up stranded around here. 

Distractedly as he waited for Cas to hand him the device, HiroJi turned on the lights with tk. 

The lights turned back on remotely, much to her surprise. She cleared her throat and quickly hid the device back in her coat pocket. "Sorry, what?" she asked, half wondering whether to dodge the issue outright. "Of course you can," she smiled, reaching into her pocket and .. her hand withdrew slowly, no device following with it. "It's.. gone," her face started to go pale. "Oh this is not good!" Her eyes flickered to the door leading to the hall, but HiroJi was blocking any chance of just running for it. 

HiroJi tilted his head. Had he scared her? He smiled slowly, well then. 

HiroJi had no choice but to hold on to her, mostly figuring he was helping her not lose her balance. "Hey... Sorry about that. May I help you with something? You seem to have questions." He was assuming, but that one move he'd made to touch her, had given her away. He let go of her a bit too quickly and eyed her quietly. She definitely was lost.

Cas noticed his accent was from a different time and civilization, but still reliable. "Hi there," she laughed, "sorry I almost bumped you. Yes I'm looking for a story about Star Trek. Are there any movies or comic books about that?"

"There's many, actually." HiroJi continued to eye her carefully. "You're not from around here are you?"

Cas felt her cheeks heat up instantly. "Dangit, how did you know?" she whispered to him, stepping toward the back of the store to not let the employee near the front hear them. "I, I don't know what day it is even." Her chin pointed toward the ground.

He bit his lower lip and nodded quietly. He took her hand gently and read her a little. Surface thoughts told him she definitely wasn't from this reality nor was she human. At least not fully anyway. The youngest Nakamura let her go as gently and offered her a sweet smile. "That's ok. I can definitely help you with that. Erm. you're in the year 2015. It's October fourth, and it's exactly 4: 55 pm. Luckily for you, only five minutes away before I get to go home. You can come with me if you'd like. I can help you figure out how to get you back to your.... time?"

He was whispering too as he'd said this.

Cas blinked, and abruptly waved her hand in his midst to see if he was a hallucination. Such a kind- The bump her hand made against his shoulder proved his presence, and also made her think twice about trying that again in such circumstances. "I'm not dreaming," she stated, hoping he could further confirm that with words.

"No ma'm. You're not dreaming. You'll be fine, though. ok? Let me just get my things so I can get out of here and help you out a bit more erm... efficiently?" HiroJi was surprised by how gentle she was. Mostly when people were not 'human' they were either one, 'lost' and 'scared' aka prone to react violently and or 'after him and his brother and well up to no good as per usual.' This was not the case with this young lady.

"Nakamura! you may go home now." The friendly bloke at the other end of the aisle waved at HiroJi. The younger of the Nakamuras just scoffed. Of course he knew he could go home.

Cas was absolutely relieved at the overpouring of assistance and the fact that, timing-wise, this boy was freed from his captors to lead her around this alien environment. She knew it was only a matter of time, before she would have to possibly recruit this unique fellow into her mustering--already he knew too much about her. With a grin, she followed him toward the door.

The thing about HiroJi was that he normally carried all he needed in his pockets so he headed quietly toward the door and opened it for the lady and waited until she went through. This was probably going to be overwhelming to her, considering this was a new environment. He was a little brave as he took her hand gently and led her along the sidewalk. His home was only a few blocks away. As he did this he took his cellphone and made a few calls. "Mr. Yoshida, I won't be going to class today, something came up. I promise I'll make up for it ok?" He smiled a bit as he heard his swimming coach go on and on about how important it was that he did make up for those few classes.

"Ok. Yes sir, thank you. Bye." He hung up and shook his head a bit.

Cas bit her lip slightly. "I'm making you alter your schedule, this could produce dire consequences," she murmured out loud. "Are you sure you don't want to just point me to the nearest shuttle?"

"Nope. It's not as simple as that.... Cas." HiroJi said as he kept leading her to his and his older brother's apartment.

Now Cas knew she'd blown it. It was against protocol, her own father's drilled in training, and the planet's knack for making a blunderbuss of every human scale headache. "Damnit, if you say so, but I'm not forcing you to do anything for me. You know that right?"

"Oh I know. Either way, we have to get you back to where you belong. I can't quite get that from you, though. I might need to get someone else to help me with that." By someone else he knew exactly who, but wasn't sure how they'd react to ... well this .... Artificial Intelligence. This amazing being. To HiroJi she was amazing. Who knows to them...

"You have a funny way of telling someone exactly what they want to here," she stopped in her tracks. "Qaseemah," she introduced herself, holding out a hand and smiling hesitantly.

He stopped as she did and took her hand gently shaking it. "I'm Hiro. It's a pleasure to meet you Qaseemah."

Cas dodged the next shake of the hand to grab him by the scruff of the neck and haul his face closer to her. "Masaka.. " she gasped, her other words choking and not sending out in audible tones. "Y-.. Hir.. " she froze and didn't want to let go of him.

"Hiro was my father, actually." He gently took the hands which held him and tried to pry them off. "I hear great things about him. He was a great father, while he lived, may he rest in peace." Now HiroJi knew something else. Some of that he couldn't get from her. And he was fine with it.

Cas slowly shook her head. "You're his son?" She let go of him, her manner apologetic. "I.. I.. please forgive me for the outburst," she did the chin tilt again and tried to change the subject, but only a rim of tears started to form on her face.

"It's fine." HiroJi said calmly. She might have burst out once he'd mentioned being related to Hiro, but... She was still not dangerous. "Did you know him?" He asked curiously. Surface thoughts had not told him any of that.

Cas shook her head, raising the back of her wrist to wipe at the side of her nose receiving the most moisture. "It's all in the past I'm afraid, I was too late again." She looked around anxiously. "We should keep moving," she observed, and didn't speak again for the next few minutes of their walk.

"What do you mean it's too late?" HiroJi asked curiously, but had already started moving again. Only one more block and they'd be at his home. "How did you meet my father?" So guess he didn't know everything.

As they started approaching what, by his body language, had to be his immediate neighborhood, she tore away from her morose thinking and tried to come up with the best explanation. "I'm the recipient of his lover's training katana, that's about all the connection I know off the top of my head. But I keep thinking I'll bump into him someday." Cas didn't know if he understood half of what she was saying.

"Oh the sword?" HiroJi chuckled. He knew all too much about that sword. His older brother had it in his room as a keepsake. Mostly because their... Adoptive father had given it to them. It was... Yeah it was a complicated world this one. Not to mention that fact that even they didn't belong in it.

At this point, they were finally here and standing right in front of the building where their apartment was. "Come on. We're here."

Cas glanced briefly down either direction of the street, her hair catching about her forehead in the middle of the scouting. She remained fixed in place, waiting for someone to open the door of this house for them, or for Hiro to instruct otherwise.

Just as she'd expected the guard came by and opened the door for Hiro and smiled at him. "Good afternoon Mr. Nakamura." HiroJi smiled at him and let Cas go through first. Once they were both inside the building he continued doing the same as they reached the elevator. He let her in first and then let himself in right after her. At this point, he was wondering what was up with the story of that sword. He bit his lower lip. "Are you related to Yaeko?" The question was not random.

Cas nearly swore aloud, and it was good she stopped mid breath, for the vaulted ceilings of this entry foyer--about to disappear as the elevator doors began to whoosh shut--would have easily alerted others of her astonishment. Instead, she craned her head to look at him in utmost seriousness. "You get right to the point, don't you slick?" She didn't say much else to the question other than cross her arms indignantly.

"You claim to know my father, and want to meet with him or hope to meet up with him again? I'm only assuming, since you mentioned the sword." As he said this they reached the level where their apartment was at. If they were lucky, maybe Adam was home and he could help them out with this too. Then again, the man spent a lot of time away from them than with them. He didn't blame him really. It was hard for him to pretend to be normal, if anything he was always up to something, and HiroJi as well as his older brother were already used to it.

"If you could call it that, yes I knew about your father but only through what family and broader legends have been able to recall. Don't tell me you have his sword?" her imagination began to run wild.

"It's not my sword. It belongs to my brother now. My older brother." Whom she would probably meet today. Not sure about their adoptive father. As he was distracted by their conversation, he punched in the numbers to their apartment and let her in. "Welcome to my home Qaseema.' The youngest of the Nakamuras smiled at her gently.

Cas did a double-take. "You live in the whole building, or just this place?" She wasn't very familiar with the early 21st century housing conditions, only what they looked like from the outside.

"Just this one apartment." HiroJi said quite amused. Hmmm. That was quite interesting. She seemed so new to the entire situation. Now he was curious as to where exactly she was from. He let her into the apartment and stepped in right after her, locking the door. "This is our apartment, welcome Cas." He said and smiled.

"And if you're wondering why I keep saying ours. It's because I live here with my brother and sometimes our adoptive father comes by and visits us." He nodded matter of fact.

Cas looked around and sighed. "I thought maybe you were heirs of a fabulous fortune, but having just one little roof over your head is totally acceptable. You have anything to drink?" she was thinking of hot tea but wondered what they drank in that part of the early century.

HiroJi laughed a the heirs part. "We lost our inheritance a long time ago, but we'd made ends meet efficiently enough." He smiled at her and nodded. "I have tea, would you like some?"

Cas was floored at the accuracy of the offer. "I would absolutely drink whatever tea you have available, and lots of it please!" She was so excited and relieved at the change of pace from being lost in a comic book shop, that she backpedaled unknowingly into the couch and flopped down into it with a surprised "Oof-wha??" Her hair immediately disengaged from its usual well kept state.

HiroJi headed to the kitchen to make the tea and while he was there he was texting his older brother, letting him know what was going on. The older was concerned and had warned him to be careful and to call Raphael if he needed help or this got out of hand. He would be home as soon as he could get his boss to let him go home early. He wasn't as trusting as HiroJi, even if the younger had already stated that the girl was not dangerous.

Cas repositioned till she was sitting upright, her center of gravity the only thing making sense. Who was this supposed child of the great, legendary Hiro Nakamura? And why was Hiro not around? Then she remembered all too suddenly what this young man had mentioned on their walk earlier. "Hiro, how.. how did your father die?" She asked almost too quietly, but audible enough to supercede the boiling of the kettle.

"Car Accident." In reality, he still didn't believe that. Not only that he'd only been two when that had occurred… He had been too young to even know if that was true or not. All he knew was that his father Hiro loved him and so did his adoptive mother Taeyeon. It was unfortunate that both had to die that way. All had been so vague and he'd never been given any details except that. His parents had died in a car accident and their bodies had never been found.

Cas immediately left the couch and moved as quickly as her legs would carry her. She had reflexes greater than Olympic athletes, and didn't care to hide that right now. The tea kettle was at the right temperature, even though the whistling hadn't begun so noticeably just yet. She switched off the heat, moved the kettle to an adjacent stovetop circle, and in the next half-second was grabbing Hiro with the biggest, craziest bear hug she'd ever distributed in her missions on Earth. "Hiro," she said sadly, "Hiro…"

The hug was surprising and he had wanted to push her away. He didn't need any hugs for having lost his parents. He knew it was sad. He'd learned to cope with it quite well. He'd been living with that truth for 19 years already. What else gave? Either way, and if it wasn't for the fact that Ando was already there, this would not have been so awkward.

With that sword this lady had been speaking of, Ando was set on separating both of them. He was pointing it right at her. "Who are you? And why are you here?" Unlike HiroJi Ando was not as trusting and or as polite. Strangers were always on trial, no matter how benevolent they seemed.

The glint of steel caught her eye and she was hauling Hiro off his feet to safety. "You will not harm this young man!" she bellowed. "He is the last," grabbing a sofa pillow, "surviving descendant," tossing the pillow at the stranger with the dangerous blade, "of the greatest man, my ancestors swore their lives to protect his lineage!!" She had run out of pillow cushions at this point. She stood as far against the other corner of the room from him, her hand raised to keep Hiro from interceding as she huffed, adrenaline building.

At the emailed request of Cas, everyone was off duty until she made her presence known on the bridge. The ship was in a very long warp tunnel, one of the drawbacks to needing privacy in an environment where highly sensitive scopes were always active. However, guessing at Ando's meanderings throughout the main corridor, she asked one of her associates to greet him (coordinating through the security cams) at the next corner.

Standing politely, a middle-aged, dark eyebrowed and slightly balding man, the ship's self-declared culinary staff person, was holding out a mobile phone for Ando. On the screen, a text message declared: "Coffee is twenty paces down current hall, third door."

"Oh?" He grinned at the man and then handed him back the mobile phone, not really registering that it was actually for him. Instead he took those twenty paces down the current hall and went into the third door. COFFEEE hell yes. He smiled as he saw it. Guess space wasn't so bad. Then again, he couldn't believe he was thinking that way at this point. He still wanted to go home, however, but something about having met Cas had really calmed him down. Was it something to be concerned with? hmm.

Cas fluttered both eyelids open just then. "Thank you, Maury," she said, knowing his family's special ability with electronics would allow him to hear her from his station half a ship's length away. As she shifted about on the bed, smiling, she switched on the power to the coffeemaker before Ando could reach it.

It hadn't been that long since he'd ended up in this situation, but it felt to him like ages. It felt like he'd been here forever now. He smiled when the coffee maker went on and then looked around at the strange kitchen here in the spaceship. How did it even function? For once he was fascinated by all this.

The coffeemaker was an antique as far as the rest of the ship was concerned. Built in the late 20th century, it supported the bulk of its brewing weight by a slender glass tube. It looked more like chemistry lab equipment than your ordinary drip brewer. In English, Korean and Japanese, a small laminated instruction placard was posted right next to the base of it. 'Hello traveler! Please place three scoops of ground coffee into the top of this brewer, and press the overhead hot water dispenser for the 16 ounce setting. Four small cups are the resulting pour out. Enjoy!'

Ando did what was instructed on the placard. As he waited for the coffee to be ready, he sat down a bit tired all of a sudden. Maybe he hadn't slept enough? No he swore he had. He wondered if Cas had woken up yet, and if she'd had a pleasant nap?

Cas sweat like any ordinary person, but her body wasn't very bacteria friendly. The A.I. didn't know what she would do with the countless gut population alone, for they would send impulses at a far greater rate than her manufactured brain networks. Even so, she had a basic understanding of what it meant to 'feel hungry' and right now, she was putting on a kimono and stalking down the corridor to spy on Ando's progress.

Ando was weirdly enough falling asleep on the couch he'd found in the little space kitchen. He sighed as he closed his eyes and laid his head on the back rest of the couch.

Cas heard the bubbling, auto-timed coffee filling the last cup almost to the brim as a tray rotated underneath the pour spout. Sixteen ounces split into 1/4 batch per cup. "Ando," she murmured, her lips blowing on the aromatic surface tension of the one cup she happened to pick up.

His breathing was steady as he started to fall into an even deeper slumber. He wasn't even dreaming yet, but this was surprising, because he could have sworn he had slept enough the previous night. Or had he? Whatever the case he hadn't heard her whispering his name. He was tired, so tired.

The coffee would keep warm just fine on the magnetically fixed dispensing tray. She set her cup down and turned to plan her approach. With a gentle but quivering reach of fingers, she started feeling the layers of his gorgeous hair. The texture of its looser portions reminded her of how her hair handled after the green-blue highlights.

He wasn't that deeply asleep... Yet. Or was he? In his dream he was feeling something very pleasant. Small fingers running through his hair softly. It was nice, he smiled a bit and stirred a little. He opened his eyes groggily and grinned. Oh heyyyy. "Cas, hey." He offered her another smile. "Good Morning." He hadn't said it properly because he'd gotten out of bed, before she had, so. It was proper to say it now. He sat up slowly bringing her closer and sitting her on his lap.

"How are you? Hmm?" He whispered and then leaned in to kiss her shoulder gently.

Cas was amused by his choice of kissing area. "You missed," she pursed her lips at him. "These," she began, then her expression shifted as if a thought rose from her legs. "Wha.. " she shifted and reached instinctively for whatever in Ando's clothed lap was pressing against her butt, fingers readying to grip the offending appendage.

Ando's eyes widened a little. He squirmed a bit wanting to get out of her grip but instead he let out a small gasp. "That was not my intention... I." He breathed heavily and smiled at her nervously. "We don't... Don't have to." He had wanted to go back to the whole kissing her shoulder bit and missing on purpose, but at this point it was futile.

Cas had complete control of the situation, after a moment's lapse the thoughts came back to her. "No, you did nothing out of the ordinary," she offered an appreciative smile. In her family's records, the company people she deemed her originators, one of the scientists, her most cherished predecessor, had a medical record going back patrilineally that was replete with testicular and in that scientist's own case ovarian polyps. She narrowed her eyes as her fingers proceeded to check the feel of the base of his pelvis. "Ando, when was the last time you had a physical exam, and I don't mean the kind where you bend over and cough…"

He arched a brow. "Are you really asking this?" This was insanely weird, but nonetheless still a turn on. "You're offering me a medical exam?" He hissed a bit as her fingers came in contact with his 'pelvis' [skin] again. "I have never stepped into a hospital if that helps you." That was not something he could help, though. His little brother was ridiculously powerful, and could heal any wound. Speaking of... or thinking of. This made him come back to reality a bit.

He took her hand gently and pulled it away. "I think I will opt out of the medical exam." He smiled nervously at her. "I'm pretty sure I'm ok."

Cas squinted at him for the time it took to understand his conveyed body language and why he was okay, specifically. "Ando, you're right, I'm filling in a responsibility that you're more than equipped for," she grudgingly withdrew her hand from his repositioning. "You and I are.. examples of what humans might leave behind in their evolution." She racked her strategic, intuitive and receptive brain patterns. "I like the idea of sitting on your lap, I'm sorry for reacting how I did. Now try the coffee!" she almost slugged him in the shoulder, but instead pouted at him. She didn't like the idea of things cooling off right now.

"I would love to try the coffee, but for that I'd have to move you off my lap." He smiled gently at her. She was gorgeous and truly he wouldn't have minded this particular interaction, had he not gone back to reality and realized he was in outer space and he was getting insanely distracted. Maybe this was what was happening on purpose? He sighed inwardly. "So... Where's Adam?" He asked not randomly. All of a sudden a feeling of dread took over. Sure he'd been really calm and pliable previously, but this was suddenly happening. He was freaking out.

He didn't want this all of a sudden. He closed his eyes and wished really hard for his brother. "HiroJi please... Please... Please I'm here. Please." It was a very sudden 180, but it happened right there and then.

Cas didn't recognize the surge of anxiety taking hold of her new friend until his heart rate reverberated through his digits against the small cup and saucer of coffee she was extending to him. She abruptly spilled the coffee over his front, not paying attention to her own movements. "Oh no, oh, OH! Ando get up quick!"

"Ah! HOT!! " He hissed, stood up immediately and swiped at his pants. "WHO ARE ALL OF YOU!? Why are you distracting me?!? TAKE ME HOME!" He pushed away from the beautiful AI quite sure this was all a set up. How had he become so comfortable with being in outer space of all things!? OUTER SPACE! He clutched his head getting a sudden headache. This was not good not good at all.

"Oh you big paranoid mid third decade super soldier, I oughta cuff your ears not serve you coffee!" She stormed over to the rack of towels, placing one under the faucet and switching on the cold water supply. Wringing the towel out vigorously, she paused, looked half-apologetically at Ando in his uncomfortable state, and swore in Korean. ".. Now you've got me angry too," she grumbled. She slunk her way back to his side, eyeing him with hesitation.

"Ando, that's not good for your skin, let me take care of you," she asked, somewhat polite, mostly concerned.

"Don't... Don't touch me!" He pushed away from her, eyeing the nearest exit. He should make a run for it. Yes, that was the plan. It was a very bad plan, but a plan nonetheless. Not thinking much longer about this, he avoided her and ran over or tried to anyway, to the exit, or what seemed like the exit anyway. "You all are nuts! I want to go home!"

Cas closed her eyes, switching off ocular interpretation as she steadied the rest of her motor functions. The ship shifted ever so slightly in its warp bubble, but quickly corrected itself. In the immediate confines of the kitchen, a spark of electricity traveled from one of the nearby light conduits, ballooning into a cloud of excited air and dust. In the blink of an eye, Ando was feeling his muscles relax, his feet leave the floor. A stubborn sphere of electrostatic repulsive potential had him locked, immobile, but perfectly unharmed. Cas opened her eyes again, and stared at him.

"Is this what you normally feel, trapped, helpless?" She approached him.

He swallowed slowly as he tried not to freak out even more now. He was trapped in whatever this was and she was asking him the question. This question was… It made sense. "You have no idea." He said darkly. This was nothing, what he normally ran from was even worse than space itself. Whatever the case he figured this was all an illusion, he was trying really hard to wake up, to avoid all this, but... It felt too real. Way too real.

"Ando, if you considered me your lover, which I know we're not there yet, you'd know that I would do everything in my power to keep you safe and protected, whether it's from outside threats or your own personal qualms. And right now, I'm restraining you, not because I'm being mean, or want to hurt you, but because I'm afraid for the safety of my crew. Adam is not on station for another hour, he sleeps in, probably due to his old age which he doesn't like to talk about. I know you have a similar ability like he does, but that doesn't permit you to push other people away or treat yourself like you need to be quarantined!" She slammed her foot on the kitchen tile. Then she tried to relax. "I won't get angry around you, it's not worth it."

She grit her teeth, and the restraining bubble collapsed, setting Ando gently down on the floor. "Prove to me, that we can be adults," she stepped toward him.

Every inch of him wanted to take off as soon as he was set on the floor, but he figured that if he tried he'd be stopped again. "You can't help me." He said calmly. "I don't know why I'm here, and I don't even know why I can't take myself back to my own home. I should be able to. That's my ability. Just like..."He was about to say Adam, who has an ability. He arched a brow and then his eyes widened at the realization. Adam.... Adam... Why did the name sound so familiar? OH GOD! He started breathing even harder now. Hyperventilating was not even the proper word to put it. He'd... How could he have forgotten? How could he have for.... This convinced him once more that it was a set up.

"Where's HiroJi? What did you guys do to him?" The distress was quite evident on his face.

Cas looked longingly at him, wondering what had him so phased, unfocused. "Eyes on me, sweetheart," she instructed. "Use your training, notice I'm undefended, only wearing this," she rebalanced her kimono on her shoulders. "I can assure you, the Adam you remember, is not the Adam serving aboard this ship. If you let me, I can explain this to you," she fished into the drawer near the work schedule whiteboard posted on the kitchen wall, procuring a marker. She then did something he probably was not expecting. The kimono opened most of the way, exposing everything above the belt line. "Draw a point, and I'll show you how things diverged, and where they can be closer than ever before."

"You want me to draw on you?" He sighed a bit. "I'm serious about this. Why are you mocking me?" He was still anxious and still was having a lot of trouble trying to keep a good perspective on this. Even though she was absolutely right about the being undefended, nothing told him she wouldn't be able to sprout unknown powers on him. There was obviously a reason he couldn't conjure his powers. He hacked it up to this girl. Maybe she was an angel or a demon. Could be either and those types were not on his favorite creature list. Up to this point, he really didn't know much about her. He didn't even know her true nature. So he was still skeptical about it all.

"Ando, humor me for a moment, this is very basic visual aide material here," she stepped right up to him. "Take marker, make impression, easy as can be."

"ok bossy lady." Ando replied, only a bit sarcastically, and rolled his eyes. He took said marker and made a point on her pretty body. He carefully placed said marker on a nearby table and nodded at her. "So show me. Show me what you want me to know about Adam." Either way, he was not going to be easily convinced about all this. He swore up and down this was some kind of set up or trap. Where was HiroJi? Had Adam taken him? Maybe he had and he was trying to divert him from trying to save his little brother or something.

Whatever the case, his guard was building up again. He had to regain his focus. That is if he wanted to achieve anything. Anything along the lines of escaping and or finding his little brother.

"Okay, you have complied with my request, now I feel more comfortable complying with yours. Adam, if he was referred to as a point in space and time, is this mark. Now," she pressed her thumb firmly on the still drying ink, transplanting part of it and showing the marking now interwoven with her thumb's skin. "This, on my thumb, does not represent Adam, it's something else, can you guess?"

He was quiet as he tried to decipher what she was trying to get at. "No I can't really guess." He flexed his hand a little, without Cas noticing or at least trying so she wouldn't notice. He was set on regaining his power. He had felt it previously, when he'd been around Adam. He'd been angry, he had felt it. The hell hole had opened, and he wanted it back. He was quiet as he waited for her explanation, deep down trying hard to regain those powers. She wasn't a demon or an angel was she? Could she be?

Cas held her thumb up for a bit longer. "Ando, what is this thumb connected to?" she smiled, eyes fixated on his. Her warm breath was beginning to form hints of mist on her chest, the lower part of her now pressing against his makeshift pajamas.

"Your hand?" Oh god, what was this even? She was distracting.

"Think more encompassing," she now had her body flush against his. "What does my hand connect to, Ando? You were kissing it a moment ago."

He smiled because she felt pleasant against him. "What does this have to do with you explaining why your evil asshole of a boss, is not evil? hmmm?" He took her hand and kissed it gently, he was now just humoring her. "Your hand your beautiful hand connects to your shoulder."

"Ando, you seem to relax when I'm next to you, that's a huge compliment," she leaned in to kiss him fully. Pausing, she added: "I, or rather, the ship, went back in time to stop Adam from becoming a monster. I think he appreciated the gesture. But if what you're saying is true, the original Adam is still out there. I don't even want to guess what you had to face," she half-pouted as she leaned in to continue the kiss. After a long bit of smooching, she pulled away, blinking. "Oh, what I was saying.. " she got distracted by a scent coming from his clothes. "Coffee stains!" She held a finger to his mouth.

"Don't move, or you'll drip all over the kitchen!" She went to find the damp rag she had prepared a moment ago. Turning back to him, she tensed. "I need to see how much it has.. seeped in.. "

Ok that sounded far fetched, but it was quite possible too. Did that mean he was creating ... What were those called? He was forgetting considering the insanely beautiful woman in front of him. He snorted a bit inwardly. Did Adam really think of him this way? Was this really what he thought of him? A girl crazy guy? He was going to kill him, make no mistake. Or at least find a way to do so. For the time being, humoring his gorgeous assistant or whoever Cas Happened to be to Adam, was not such a bad idea. He arched a brow as he watched her go. Ok...

Cas stepped up to him, taking his word as permission to proceed. She, without breaking eye contact, slipped the damp rag down his shorts, cooling his first degree burned sensitive areas. "Better?" she whispered against his ear.

Damn... She was good. "Mhmmm." He smiled at her. "Further would be nice." He teased. Hey... Two could play at this game.

Cas happily obliged, moving the towel further down, her wrist brushing against his manhood. "Like this?"

Ando bit his lower lip and nodded quietly. "Yes like that." He smiled as his hand snaked around her waist and he brought her closer as she did her thing. He leaned in enough to reach the side of her neck and he kissed her, sucking a bit at the soft skin that was exposed to him. So what were they talking about? Oh right on, she was trying to distract him from trying to kill her boss Adam. He still had that in mind. But at the moment, why not enjoy this gorgeous.... angel? demon? He'd been with both. Fun times those, dangerous too.                                                                                                                                         Cas found herself giggling at the sensation he was producing on her neck. "Again, that's not my mouth," she tried to clarify. But as his teeth continued to press, she realized the effect it was having was much deeper. "Uuggh.. " she collapsed in his arms.

Ando caught her before she fell hard on the floor. Heyyyy whoah. He chuckled inwardly while outwardly he easily picked her up in his arms and took her to the nearby couch. "You ok there?" He asked slightly concerned. Guess she wasn't either an Angel or a Demon. huh...

"What was that?" she was amazed at the lingering feeling on her neck and deeper, the part of her that corresponded to where she was cooling Ando's skin a moment ago. "Can I try that on your neck?"

Ando chuckled. "Sure, go right ahead." It was fascinating to see how she reacted to specific things. Almost like they were being done for the first time. Then he arched a brow. What if she wasn't angel or demon but something else? What else though? What if she was an alien? Did those even exist? Those were his weird thoughts as he smiled at her for being so curious. She seemed so cute because of it.

"Ando, your mind's racing, I can tell by how your eyebrows are set. Relax.. " she kissed him on the corner of his mouth, proceeding to leave a few light kisses along his jawline. "Does that feel good?"

Ando chuckled. "Always." He tickled her chin playfully. "Kiss me all you want, or I'll kiss you again. Make you collapse even more." He teased.

Cas liked the idea of letting him, the professional at these unique methods of human interaction, take the lead. But again, she knew a thing or two about hunger. "I don't think I cleaned all the coffee off you," she growled, turning tables on him. She pressed a hand against him, prompting him to recline back on the couch. With her other hand, she fixed her hair back from falling around her face. She reached her fingers onto the rim of his shorts, before looking directly at him. "You don't mind?"

"Is that what you're really trying to do? Clean coffee off me?" He teased. That was his strange way of saying he didn't mind. As he eyed her carefully he was still trying to figure out what exactly she was. Or maybe she was just an evolved human like him? Either way, Ando couldn't deny how beautiful she was. Obviously that asshole Adam had picked her quite carefully, the bastard.

Cas started pulling away the coffee soiled shorts. "We have industrial strength washing machines," she consoled him. Her fingers brushed pubic hair, she was prepared for that; she'd grown her own. The first noticeable difference, though, was the oversized--to her understanding of anatomy--clitoris. It was huge, swollen, a complete disaster. "Ando, I'm so sorry," she breathed, convinced the hot coffee had had a bad reaction with his skin. She immediately kissed the affected area, breathing in the hint of breakfast.

JFC... Ando didn't know whether to jump out of the way again or just let her do her thing. In the meantime he closed his eyes trying hard to concentrate and call out his little brother. Were they keeping him here somewhere? Oh..oooooo... Damn this beautiful woman. "Cas... Why are you so insistent on washing the coffee away?" He snickered but was enjoying her ministrations. Unfortunately for him his member too was enjoying the situation quite well. He was a little disappointed with himself.

So sidetracked all the way apparently. He couldn't even keep up with his own thoughts of focusing ... HE needed to focus. Where was HiroJi? Ohhhh... Those lips again. hmm.

~Fade to Black~

For some reason, the men actually looked at each other and instead of taking Adam they let both of them go. "You guys better leave before Adam comes by and makes us search for you. Sorry little buddy." They let HiroJi go and patted his head gently and pushed him equally gently towards Adam.

HiroJi was at most just... confused. Really, it seemed to be the default feeling today, confusion. What was going on now? He stood there awkwardly as he watched the men go and then turned to look at the immortal. "What...?"

Adam straightened his shirt collar and breathed a sigh of disbelief. "We can talk about everything, after you've had a chance to celebrate your birthday properly," he pulls HiroJi toward him as the men encourage the youngest Nakamura to accompany him out of there. "Are you hurt?"

HiroJi pulled his hand away gently and shook his head. "No sir, I'm not. And... Why aren't you trying to kill me, like the other Adam?" He finally pulled out his cellphone and tried to dial AndoNi's number, hoping he could get in touch with him.

Adam was relieved the person he was rescuing was not in a complete panic. "You are a very good communicator, HiroJi, I see much potential in your wellbeing and development. So too does my employer, whom I hope you get to talk to soon. Please place a call when we are at least half a mile away, these men are right, we need to get away from the other man who looks like me and fast."

‘HiroJi you should be running’, something or someone in the back of his head told him that. However, this day was turning out to be the strangest he'd had yet and ... Well he was not sure how to take it yet. When he finally got an answer on his cellphone, he grinned quite a bit.

"Ando-kun!" The person on the other side of the phone line started yelling at HiroJi.

"I'm ok! I... Yes I'm fine. Look I need you to come and pick me and my friend up." Funny how he'd mentioned Adam as his 'friend'. Normally if he knew exactly who this was, he'd probably go running for the hills. Apparently now there were two and too much confusion and yes, he should be more paranoid, but he knew paranoia normally didn't lead to anything good anyway.

"Please Ando-kun." He hung up a little too late to hear that he should have placed that phone call a little later. "Hmmm?" He asked distractedly.

Adam let his sentence trail off as the boy had already completed his call in a prompt manner. "Right, we need to ... are you asking someone to give you a ride?" He blinked at this. "They need to know we're being chased."

"Yeah. They... He's here." HiroJi didn't even blink as he immediately ran over to his older brother and latched on to him.

The older sibling hugged Hiro Jr gently and eyed Adam a bit suspiciously. Without hesitating one minute he took out a gun and pointed it at the elder. "Who are you?"

Adam had no idea how this person managed to get to their vicinity in what seemed like mere seconds. He would have to notify his employer about this, if they got out of there alive. "I'm.. on your side," he said, about to raise his hands again but keeping his cool. "And we need to get away from here as fast as possible. Do you have somewhere uh.. " he glanced at HiroJi. "Somewhere that sells birthday stuff?"

Oh right, birthday boy. AndoNi huffed a bit. "How do I know you're not here to do him harm?"

HiroJi finally looked up placing his chin on his brother's chest. "He's fine Ando-kun. Let's just get out of here please. Bring him with us. He's nice, he tried to save me."

AndoNi's eyes widened. "save you from what?"

HiroJi huffed and extended his small hand out to Adam. "Come, let's get out of here." Slow... too slow. Something in the back of his brain was screaming at him. WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? WHY AREN'T YOU RUNNING!?

Adam started to wonder at the delay their conversation was causing. "We.. we really need to get out of here, now," he glanced worriedly back at the ruined bunker.

The older of the two grabbed Adam's arm and didn't warn them as he teleported both of them far away from wherever they'd been. Eventually he let go of Adam not caring if the man had appreciated basically being taken away without warning. "We're far from wherever that was." The older of the two siblings said as he rubbed the younger's back.

The younger was still latched on to him and had now buried his face into his chest again.

Adam smiled, another post-human no doubt. "Pleasure to meet you, are you his older brother?"

“Yes I am.” Ando said as he looked down at his younger brother and he finally pulled away. “Hey there chibi. You ok?”

The younger now had tears in his eyes. “Where the hell were you? I waited and waited for you and you didn’t come. And and this man’s doppelganger took me and I almost died and then he saved me and I thought you were pranking me, that’s why I acted like a complete dumb ass and didn’t even try to save myself.” He sniffled a bit as he explained.

The older stood there quietly listening. In an effort not to make him cry anymore he ruffled his hair. “But I’m here now and you’re not dead, and your friend over there is not going to kill you either, right erm?”

AndoNi looked over at Adam and expected a name. Or else…

Adam nodded.. "I can't explain anything more than what HiroJi has already related to you. Suffice to say, my employer has set me on this path to coincide with meeting you, in the hopes that HiroJi survives where, according to this person I work for, he was not.. uh.. " he shut up, since HiroJi was in earshot. "Let's find a place that makes.. suitable birthday celebration things.. like cakes."

“Right… I know this place that makes very nice cakes.” AndoNi smiled down at his younger brother. “what kind of cake do you want HiroJi?”

The younger looked up at his older sibling in slight disbelief. “You’re going to buy me a cake?”

AndoNi grinned. “Sure why not? And your friend over there can come with us too.”

HiroJi looked over at Adam and let go of AndoNi momentarily he smiled at Adam and bowed to him a bit. “Thank you for saving me sir. Or trying to anyway.” Though it was still weird to have this one being nice and the other one out there that wanted to take him.

“Come on.” AndoNi said as he took the younger and Adam as well by the arm and once again teleported them both, only a few paces away from a shop that sold ice cream cakes.

“Best birthday cakes in Tokyo.” He grinned.

Adam blinked. He was in Japan again, his home for a time. "You have good choice of.. geography," he remarked, gesturing for Ando to enter into the shop ahead of them. "I should have the right currency on hand."

“Can we buy the cake and go home please? I don’t want to be out here.” HiroJi said distractedly as he held on to his older brother’s arm and looked at every available cake on display.

AndoNi chuckled. “Don’t worry about the money.” He was referring to Adam. “I’ll get us the cake. And you can come along and be our guest Mr. I still don’t know your name.”

HiroJi was still distracted. Really this whole scenario was completely odd.

AndoNi would have never done any of this.

HiroJi had been so caught up, he wasn’t paying attention to the signs.

Adam nodded politely, although he would still insist on paying for the purchase once they were paying. "Thank you for the invitation, I'm grateful you can include me in this very important day. HiroJi, which cake looks good? And make sure it has ice cream too."

HiroJi was quiet as he looked over the cakes and finally chose one.

AndoNi patted his head gently and headed over to the counter to order it, leaving HiroJi alone with Adam. He was a little awkward and looked down at his shoes instead, not really knowing if it was impolite to ask him for his name, because he didn't remember if he got it, ever.

Adam was also feeling uncomfortable. Despite the flirty way in which his 'employer' had repositioned him for civic duty, including assignments such as this, he couldn't help feeling.. "What exactly brought on this situation between you and my look-alike, HiroJi?"

“I don’t know sir. He said something about himself and my father’s past? I really don’t know too much about my father’s past. As much as he is a time traveler, he doesn’t let us try to reveal it. Well, at least he doesn’t allow me to ask my brother if he’s seen anything.” Because well Ando can time travel like his father, and weirdly enough as much of an avid fan that this boy was of comic books, he had never been allowed to read 9th wonders, which would have probably answered a lot of things for him at this point.

Adam nodded at this. He knew the history they just avoided, the timeline that his employer had been born into. Hoping for some more trust and continued efforts to communicate at this risky juncture, he asked the young boy: "HiroJi, are you familiar with skiing? It's a snow sport."

He was going to try and make a very elementary point.

“I’m not very good at it. We’re mostly into water sports. Snow is not our favorite. Well, not my brother’s favorite. I don’t mind it. It was fun when we went.” HiroJi shrugged.

“I kept falling mostly.” He scratched his head a bit embarrassed at admitting that.

Adam cleared his throat, amazed at the boy's proficiency with.. what was he saying! Those two probably grew up in Japan. "Well, when I was first married, I had a cottage in 'Dee-den-ho-fen'," he described, sounding out Hiragana syllables for the German place. "It was absolutely cold that winter, and many scientists agree it was no ordinary season. But my goodness, the townsfolk had nothing better to do than run outside and play around in the snow and ice. The beer halls kept the men warm, the women knit increasingly thick sweaters and frocks and all sorts of tail length coats. We adapted and were stronger as a result. But you know what would have made that winter even more charming with all that resilience and flexibility?"

He smirked, looking from Ando back to HiroJi wondering if the boy could guess.

“Hot chocolate?” HiroJi guessed, not really set on guessing right. It was just a random guess. He smiled at his guess, it was dumb wasn’t it? But well, considering the place was ultra cold, then what better than hot chocolate to make it more bearable, no?

HiroJi would have been absolutely correct if they were talking about Willkanuta and not Wiesensteig. "Hmm, good point. Chocolate didn't circulate in Europe or Asia around that time unless you were very rich and, well, Spanish." The immortal cleared his throat, trying to get back to the snow analogy.

"Actually, in Diedenhausen, the thing we were missing most was something my neighbors to the north- - erm - Scandinavians - were using to farm their hills of crops when everything was snow covered. Can you guess?"

"No sir." Was HiroJi's simple and very polite response.

AndoNi who was still waiting for the cake was happy that they were finally handing them the box with it. He paid for it and walked back to his younger brother and their strange companion. "ready to go home?" That always sounded good, didn't it?

Adam nodded to both of them as he rose. "HiroJi, the thing we were missing," his eyes glanced to the streets outside. "Were reliable, professional and well paid skiing instructors, nobody knew what the heck they were doing on slippery slopes."

Right then from the street outside, another man entered the shop, dressed for the Tokyo weather and his face noticeably into its 5o'clock shadow. "Adam," he grunted.

Adam sighed in relief. "Peter, thank heaven."

Had this not been under complete control this would have been a good moment to panic, but ... Just for reaction's sake AndoNi arched a brow and immediately pulled HiroJi to him. "Now what? Who is that?"

HiroJi had no idea so he shook his head. They'd been having a good conversation. But well now he had no idea what was happening, AGAIN. "Ando-kun, I think we should leave." HiroJi suggested, albeit a little quietly, making an effort to only be heard by his older brother, or at least hoping that would work.

His whisper had suggested that maybe he should teleport them both out of here. That might be useful. Then again, that warning in the back of his head was even worse now. His conscience was screaming at him. It was yelling.

Peter stretched out a hand and pushed the older male away from HiroJi without having to touch him. "I need you to identify everyone in this room right now, or Adam and I leave. Your quarry is not safe here, not yet."

"How am I going to identify everyone in this room when I don't even know his name?" AndoNi nodded at Adam. "I just came around. The situation was already like this. If you don't start acting less suspiciously then I'm going to have to smack both you and your friend over there to hell and back." The older of the Nakamura siblings threatened.

Perhaps over the top and slightly out of character. None of this would be happening had the real AndoNi had been around. Apparently this new person had entered ‘his’ illusion and... it was hard to keep face.

HiroJi was standing a bit behind his older brother his mind racing, and also wondering why AndoNi was being so defiant. Why wasn’t he just teleporting them away from here? That’s when he started getting this feeling that this was wrong. The voice inside his head was now going crazy yelling at him.  

Peter rested a hand against his own forehead at the enormity of this impasse. "Buddy, you are not a known associate of this.. taskforce. I was given instructions to get Adam and the boy to safety after we could not verify your involvement." He let the implication hang in the air.

“You’re not taking HiroJi anywhere. He’s my little brother. And he’s safe now. He’s with me.” AndoNi was sure this would work to get this weirdo and that other dude over there out of this situation. Truly he figured it was time to end the illusion, before things got worse.

Adam spoke up again, trying to speak to HiroJi and not the other two people. "HiroJi, you wanted to take the birthday back to your house right? As long as you trust us, we'd like to provide escort to ensure your safety after what happened earlier."

"Ando-kun." HiroJi pulled on his older brother's arm gently. "Don't get mad at them. I swear to you this man is not bad. He tried to save me right now. They're ok." Not that he knew that was for sure, but... He was trusting this gaijin for a reason. "Please?" He looked up sweetly at his brother and well... AndoNi, how could he fight that?

He couldn't and in an effort to keep the farce going, he gave up and backed up, not interrupting Peter any more from whatever he was doing. "Fine, but you stick with me. I don't want them to try and trick us and try and take you again."

HiroJi nodded quietly. "Let's go please." He suggested in a slight whisper.

Peter nodded at this and stepped aside, speaking briefly with the shopkeeper to apologize for the trouble.

Adam got over by the door and the two of them exchanged words on the sidewalk as they waited for HiroJi and AndoNi to join them, not knowing the immediate route to the house.

As soon as they were outside, AndoNi took HiroJi’s hand and was ready to teleport out of there, but the younger reminded him of the two people who were there with them. Right, there was only so much one could fake they had a handle on everything including an illusion.  

“They’re safe Ando-kun, they should come with us, plus they won’t hurt us. Don’t you think they would have done so already if that was their original intention?” He shouldn’t have said that. His mind was still yelling at him. HiroJi you idiot. You should have let your brother take you away now.

"The boy speaks truth," Peter advised, Adam nodding alongside him. "Lead the way, it's still bright enough out to spot trouble, we'll keep our eyes on the surrounds."

Adam pivoted just enough to hold out a wad of thousand-yen notes to HiroJi. "Psst. Happy birthday."

The younger of the Nakamuras eyed the wad of cash as it was handed to him. “Uh… thank you.” He smiled a bit. What a nice man. Why did he give him money? Was it like a thing with gaijin? They gave out money on birthdays?

AndoNi walked quietly towards their home and kept his eye on the two strangers.

Peter and Adam were both non-talkative for most of the trek to the Nakamura house. Neither of them had been there before, nor were they eager to act too familiar just yet around the older of the two siblings. Something didn't seem right.

Eventually they arrived at the mansion, only to be greeted by no one really. Their father was normally busy, even on special days like this one. If he had time he’d probably come by later and celebrate HiroJi, bring him a gift or something. It was one of those things that happened when your parents ran a very important company like Yamagato.

HiroJi was the first to enter the mansion after AndoNi, but that’s when it hit him again. The voice inside his head yelled at him, something along the lines of ‘I TOLD YOU SO’, and ‘YOU SEE? THIS IS WEIRD ISN’T IT!?’.

Something was very strange about it. Normally it didn’t feel this isolated and or abandoned. “Is tousan working today? Where’s Okasan?”

AndoNi who came in after him leaving the door open for their two companions answered his younger brother’s question. “Both of them are working today Chibi.”

Peter was first to speak up. "This is not the working hour, when I landed at Narita it was already 4:30. That was an hour and a half ago." He looked to Adam. "Kaito and Hiro should both be on the premises, or arriving shortly. I'll wait out front, you," he switched from Japanese to German, "halten Sie Ihre Ohren steif, freund."

Adam nodded as he followed the other two into the main house.

“Our father is the vice president of operations at Yamagato, he could stay there all day if it comes down to it.” AndoNi said, albeit a little defiantly. “What’s happening Ando-kun?” HiroJi was once again confused, the environment was way too tense now. Something definitely was up.

AndoNi carefully went and took the cake they’d purchased and placed it on the nearby dinner table.

The first thought that struck Adam's mind was: Gee, I hope AndoNi doesn't cut the cake. Don't want large sharp objects in his possession until we've cleared him. 

Peter, back outside, was on his cell phone talking to their boss. "We might need Alpha Dog," he said, finishing the call.

This was awkward however. AndoNi stood there watching Adam almost too defiantly. Eventually pushing away his own thoughts of challenging him and his friend outside when he felt that tiny warm hand pulling at his own.

“Ando-kun. We’re home now, why don’t we stop glaring at each other and try to get along, hmm?”

Nope, AndoNi…. Or the person causing this illusion was not liking this, at all. Not to mention the intruder outside who had managed to come right in and join his masterpiece.

Peter was first to spot their latest 'necessary intrusion', but he didn't turn around until after the man was tapping him on the shoulder. "Syl- uh.. Gabriel," he blinked. "Man, I feel like I'm having deja vu and forgetfulness all in one day."

Gabriel smirked, pocketing his own phone and turning to regard the house. "They got the eaves wrong," he stated simply.

Peter followed his gaze. "What?"

Gabriel was only too happy to clarify: "This is the wrong house, but the right person of interest." Peter didn't wait another second, he was sprinting for the door.

It was taking too much effort to hold this all together, instead he shook his head and before they knew it AndoNi was gone, His own boss and HiroJi were deep underground somewhere. The illusion had been all for the intruders. "You know, you all are interesting. Interesting to mess with that is.' Akio said quite satisfied with himself.

The mansion had turned into the worst place imaginable, mostly a warehouse of sorts. "What exactly did you think you were going to accomplish, Monroe? You have your two minions out there helping you out. How adorable." He teased a bit.

His own boss, however quite busy already making calls to the 'real' Nakamuras and putting them under stress.

The doors to hell had sprung open, and the three were caught completely off guard. "I should have smelled this a mile away," Peter grunted as he took up a defensive stance.

Adam, clueless about the level of danger he was entering into, and ready to take most of the brute force if any was imminent, stood at the front of the group, staring dismissively at Akio.

"Oh boy, this just got interesting." Gabriel, who had yet to enter the house, was mostly oblivious, but pulling his phone out once again. "Warehouse, gps restored, bring everything you got."

Akio Kuriyama, Adam’s most trusted assistant, smiled. "You expect me to fight you? I don't have time for this. My job here is done, and that was to keep you away from the brat. He's where he has to be, and the plans which had to be set in motion have been set in motion. You cannot mess with fate."

"Strong words, for a gust of wind I'm about to expel from your lungs," Peter said before friendly Adam could retort. In the blink of an eye, he was up in Akio's face, fist swinging for the illusionist's chest.

Gabriel ditched his phone, planning to retrieve it after the dust settled. "Oh harbinger of swift correction, sails pushed by howling voice, hull abreast on windswept tide. The clarion call has made its melody, now sweet gunboat of the skies, arrive, arrive!" He was starting to go full Sylar, his eyes alight with the opportunity for destructive entry. Or re-entry.

From a thousand miles above the Earth, a flash of light signaled the departure of Oshaberi from its previously stable orbit. In a cough, it was breaking the lowest layer of clouds, hovering directly over the warehouse.

Adam, back in the warehouse, recognized the telltale atmospheric disturbance of the ship displacing air in a heartbeat, and grinned. "Peter, you might want to.. " The entire warehouse grew white hot.

Akio welcomed the hit, almost enjoying it too much. It did push him back a few steps, but he straightened up immediately and then tilted his head as he heard one of the minions go off with some babble about blah blah harbinger of whatever. Right, he’d dealt with those too. He chuckled, “What a strange strange group. Who the hell are you guys? And what are you doing here? Why so intent on interrupting this timeline?”

Peter and Adam had hid from view by the time the warehouse interior resumed normal luminance. They had both stationed behind crates, now sizing up the situation.

Outside, Sylar was beckoning the invisible Oshaberi to pick him up so he could man one of the main guns.

Spaceships, which at the moment were invisible. That was quite interesting. Inside his head he was debating whether to leave these idiots or … Get rid of them once and for all. They couldn’t have these interruptions, not when very important events were about to take place. The death of the youngest Nakamura had to happen, then the implication of the father as the murderer, and well of course … The half Lamia vowing revenge against Adam. It all had to happen. Why did these idiots want to stop that from happening?

The demon folded his arms against his chest and tapped his feet impatiently waiting for Sylar/Gabriel and the spaceship to …. Attack. It was going to attack right? Hnnn. Where to put these clowns? Maybe move them to another reality? One where the Nakamuras were a lot more dangerous? Hmmm.

Sylar was halfway up the boarding ramp, the only other person on board giving him a most quizzical look. "The kid's fine, just some idiots to contend with," he explained, intent on heading straight for the starboard turret emplacement.

Their interim boss reached out a hand to stop him. "Violence only begets smaller forms of violence on the originator of that violence."

Sylar paused. "What?"

Akio grinned, and then pointed at his wrist. Time… He knew there were time manipulators around here. “Time … Is it on your side?” He asked randomly, not really expecting any answers. “Tick tock tick tock.” He teased. He was thinking he should leave now, but he needed to get rid of all these intruders, otherwise the timeline would still be ruined.

"Time is an illusion," Peter called from his hiding spot near the boxes. Adam chuckled at his friend's words, as time was indeed irrelevant for him.

Akio continued standing there, not quite attacking yet either. As a matter of fact he was anticipating their attack. Or whatever was coming. He may have phenomenal cosmic powers, but he still didn't feel like looking into the future or ruining it for that matter was necessary. He waited patiently, even for who he was this was patient.

"Time is always an illusion. Your whole world is an illusion. But even then I have to make sure it doesn't get ruined."

"Then you're as much an agent of the universe as our own boss claims to be," Peter continued. "Why don't we take this conversation somewhere more public? That is, if we're still in Tokyo."

"We are indeed in Tokyo." Akio assured them. "Just not in the same place as the people your 'boss' intended to help. And how much public can we get? We're already outside." The demon shrugged.

Adam stood from his hiding spot, again, not concerned with the current levels of damage being offered. He walked slowly toward Akio. "There's a new trend in sustainable seafood, perhaps we can all grab a late lunch at one of the more prestigious sushi bars in the area? But we'll need transport there."

Akio just had to tease. "Did you just ask me out on a date Adam Monroe?" This was so strange. "I much prefer your real boss asking me out on a date than you, though. You're not really my type." He teased.

"Allow me to prove otherwise," Adam smiled. "Besides, a very special someone's birthday ought to be honored with sake and freshly prepared sashimi. Or are you more of a beer drinker?"

Akio tilted his head in slight disbelief. "The birthday boy is not here."

"Probably for the best! He's only just turned old enough to drink, we might want to let his parents treat him out first for that sort of thing." Adam walked right up to Akio. "I'm proposing that you, me, the other Adam and my two buddies all get crazy drunk tonight. The timeline can afford to wait, illusion or not."

"You're just set on partying aren't you?" This was not panning out the way he thought it would, and unfortunately for him, that more relaxed and calm side of him was threatening to win this... Whatever it was. And that meant he'd end up just not doing anything major today. As for his boss it was uncertain. The man had taken the brat with him, was probably in the process of killing him.

Should he be helping stop that? or .... Should he let these weirdos do the dirty work for him?

"Sometimes, doing nothing is just pacing oneself for the big whole lotta something ahead. I think," Adam now was resting a hand on Akio's shoulder, "that we can relate a lot closer than my more extreme future self can. Let's party." He grinned at Akio.

 Akio narrowed his eyes a bit. "You're all going to die if you keep messing around with time and space. One of these days you're going to run into a reality that's going to take you, and all of your crew and destroy you completely."

The demon shrugged as he continued his convoluted sort of scolding. "drag you right into a hell hole." He smiled a bit.

"Or You might set off a bomb you can not stop.."  Well wishes and all. Lucifer's key, if these people discovered it... oh boy.

Adam merely shrugged. "I'm not that different than the Adam you work for, I'm well aware of the risks inherent with any pursuit. But right now, I'm all betting on, is a good time with potential business partners, and a massive hangover tomorrow. Let's go find some grub, c'mon." He turned to start walking out of the warehouse.

"Can You even get drunk?" He asked Akio randomly. He followed the immortal still on guard the entire time.

They exited the warehouse and faced the street with the sun slowly setting in the distance. "Think any cabs will pick us up out here?" Adam asked.

Peter was wordless, checking the time on his phone. Sylar was nowhere to be seen.

Adam sighed, placing a call. "Gabriel, where are you?"

He was quiet as he watched their interaction. Akio really couldn't get the exact location on Sylar either. If the man was shielding himself, he was doing a very good job of it.

Adam sighed as he hung up the phone. "Gabriel is being antisocial, but at least you can count on Peter and I. Will the other Adam be joining us?" He switched tabs on his phone to call a cab company. "Need a lift for three, possibly four people," he paused to look at Akio again. "Any preference on restaurant?"

"No, no preference. And no the other Adam is busy right now. Killing your friend?" He shrugged. "But let's not forget to drink to life while we're at it." Akio was just being honest, truly. Or he thought he was anyway.

The ship, its owner and the somewhat calmed down Sylar were elsewhere, tracing the real demon of the hour. "You're telling me this guy killed Hiro's dad? And now he wants to incriminate him in his son's murder?" The navigator wouldn't speak to him, but her shift in posture indicated the reality of the situation they were in. "Well let's go stop him then."

The ship was already slowing down before she spoke at last.

"Stopping him, no Gabriel, we're restarting him." She gazed at him balefully as turbulence started to rock the ship. The landing zone just ahead was closing in fast. "Gabriel, there's a reason why the Hebrews trace their ancestry to an Adam and Eve. He's half of the answer to that."

Gabriel's jaw dropped.

 Adam smiled down at HiroJi as the youngest of the Nakamura bloodline laid there passed out again. Had taken quite a bit of time to re-capture the kid and bring him back. Hopefully his assistant had taken care of the unforeseen interruptions. "I'm so tired of this, you know?"

He spoke, mostly to an unresponsive subject. "I didn't want to go through all the trouble, I really didn't, but your father never cared to actually apologize for what he did. He just did it. He took everything from me quite advantageously I might add.” He eyes HiroJi as the boy is resting peacefully inside the coffin. He wouldn’t remain this way, not until he woke up and realized where he was. Then he’d suffer. His father would too. That was the most important thing here.  

“I promised your father I was going to do the same. Unfortunately, you're the one that will be paying the price for this today. Sorry kid, you were actually a very pleasant boy compared to your father. A lot more honest a lot less corrupted."

He sighed.... He had already started this, he couldn't hesitate any longer.

The attention span of a water strider, that's what the ship registered in the navigator's brain waves during those crucial last milliseconds of buffer before the ship impacted the surface of the much larger and (previously) ultra secretive bunker housing Adam and his prisoner. She was built to break through chunks of asteroids if it came down to it, so a softer landing of earthen turf was no big deal. The human aboard the ship however immediately lost his lunch.

"You okay Gabriel?" his boss asked as she traipsed over to the boarding ramp while it finished lowering. "Will need you in tip top shape for this next bit."

He had gone as far as sending a text to the father of the boy now laying in the still open coffin. He waited quietly for a reply really hating how he was depending on apparently new technology to communicate. The reply was immediate and he smiled as he let the phone call come in and answered the phone. “Hiro.”  

Whatever sound was supposed to come from the phone was interrupted by the faintest of surface shuffling, loud enough even at the distance below ground to make Hiro's first words to Adam indecipherable. The next second, a ceiling tile dislodged, knocking the phone from Adam's fingertips. Then, a column of furious lightning shifted the several hundred yards of overarching dirt into a hollowed out glass tunnel. Speckles of cinder-hot dirt and debris littered the chamber, covering Adam and HiroJi with a noticeable coating of what resembled pale powder makeup.

Through the opened space came Sylar, rappelling on down in a controlled motion. Once he reached the chamber proper, he leveled a taser at Adam's chest and promptly fired.

Adam saw the taser coming right at him and quickly moved out of the way. He was using the dust all around him as a way to hide. "Sylar, of all the people. How are you, hmmm??" He asked teasingly, making sure to stay hidden. Here they were again, to ruin his plans. Damn this. He needed a better plan, and ... Maybe they'd done the job and killed the kid. He wasn't sure if any of the debris had landed on the young boy and crushed him to hell and back.

It was a shame if that had occurred, but he figured he wanted the boy dead, and that was a good way to put him out of his misery. Then again he would have preferred to have seen Hiro’s face as the boy died in front of him. That would have been priceless.

The realization that this might not happen got him back on track again. Ah…. Interruptions.

Little did Adam realize, Sylar wasn't launching a usual taser bolt. Instead, he was amplifying the ship's somewhat attenuated lock on this Adam's DNA signature.

"We got a live one!" Sylar crowed. "Adam Monroe! Good to see you too, stop hiding!"

He came out with his hands up in the air. "Right right... What the hell are you riding on a spaceship for Sylar? Can't you teleport yourself? " He grinned at him, his eyes wandering over to the coffin. Apparently no debris had landed on it. .... good, maybe there was still hope.

He still had to kill him. That is if Sylar didn't make this interruption too long.

Sylar was in too much shadow for Adam to see his smile, but he answered quite clearly: "Adam, teleport is how you get from being deep undergro-" a brief pop caught his speech off guard as Adam, Sylar and the coffin's sleeping rider all resumed material form aboard the ship high above, "und.. to, whoa, that was fast." He noticed the change of scenery and quickly jumped back as a shield wall stretched from ceiling to floor, locking Adam in a transparent box.

"Welcome aboard, I guess," Sylar finished. Footsteps approached, and despite his usual behavior he  gulped, quickly saluting the highly intelligent and sexy navigator, his chief employer. "We got him."

Adam looked at his .... imprisonment a bit annoyed. "Great. So you got me, now what?" He hadn't looked at the ship's captain quite carefully... yet. That is until after a while. Well then, as comely as she may be, he was still trapped and not highly amused, at all.

Where was the kid? He sighed inwardly. Guess he’d have to do it all over again when this was over. And now it was going to be harder, because the boy knew he wasn’t up to any good. Though he figured there be a good chance for a ‘thrill of the chase’ type situation. Hnnn. Guess the future didn’t look so grim.

… That is…. Of course, depending on this particular situation.

"Not what, Monroe-kun," the navigator replied. "When, when-when-when." She tapped her head knowingly, and turned to head back to the ship's bridge. "Sylar, try to not stay out too late, otherwise I might have to amuse myself by playing with Monroe's hair, which he might not like much."

The ship started to list and sway as it picked up speed for rendezvous with Peter and the friendlier Adam's location.

Sylar nodded respectfully. "I shan’t be out past 2 in the morning," he advised. Cas traded glances again from him to their prisoner.

"Make it Aussie time," she corrected, and sped off down the corridor.

Adam simply arched his brow. This was going to be long and painful wasn’t it? He grunted inwardly.

HiroJi smiled at the man, whom he'd been meeting secretly with for probably two or three months already. He'd met him at the comic book shop where he worked and had taken a liking to the man and his peculiar interest in historical manga. "I am... I'm turning 19 today."

Adam grinned even more. "That is such a remarkable age."

This made HiroJi snicker a bit. "I'm still a teenager though. I wish I could be 21 already. Officially I feel like that's already an adult age."

Adam scoffed. What was even adulthood? He'd never quite experienced adulthood in the whole, or perhaps he’d experienced too many adulthoods, centuries of.

"Right. Well, you have two more years to go Hiro." The immortal had said the younger's name. Aiming to put him at ease even more. It seemed to be working. "Are you liking your juice?" That orange juice bottle. He figured the boy would be thirsty after finishing his swimming classes. That special special juice.

"It's very good, thank you. You shouldn't have bothered." The youngest of the Nakamuras said, but had actually enjoyed the juice. It tasted nice.

Adam chuckled. "It's a sort of birthday present." looking over his rear view mirror he winked at the just turned nineteen year old son of Hiro Nakamura.

Already blocks away from the comic shop, the vehicle could not be tracked down fast enough. "It's no use, Captain, they are on a firmer time loop than us," a voice crackles through on his upheld cell phone. Adam frowned, "I don't understand you navigators," he sighed.

He time traveled the old fashioned way: forward, in real time. He abruptly hung up, allowing for no further discouragement reaching his ears as he checked the intersection for coming vehicles. What would get him there faster? Horse? Train? "Taxi," he signaled, not quite looking and nearly slamming his fist into the side view mirror of one cab as it rolled to a stop at curbside for him. He climbed in to the car, eyes flitting to the meter display.

"Can you get me as far as the north passage, I-39 if you have to. Hospital's misplaced one of its patients." He plopped into the back seat of the cab and double checked his wallet. Time in this instance was more important than money.

He would have asked, again, how the boy was liking his juice, but obviously it was doing what it was supposed to. The boy had already passed out, the bottle had been dropped sloppily on the back seat and that wasn’t a big deal. Adam smiled calmly watching as the youngest of the Nakamuras as he’d finally fallen into his trap.

The immortal had been watching the family quietly, on the sidelines, giving the older of the Nakamuras, his old ‘friend’ a false sense of confidence in their lives. All was fine and dandy, but it wasn’t, it had never been and it never would be. Hiro Sr. couldn’t possibly expect for Adam not to keep his promise. That promise that he’d made to him back in feudal Japan. That promise where he’d told him that he’d destroy everything he loved and held dear.

This particular case was the prime example. The older boy, Ando Nakamura, had been a lot harder to pin point. Apparently he was as powerful as Hiro Sr if not more, and Adam at the moment was only interested in the younger, because apparently he was the gem of the family. The one that Hiro and his wife were holding in high esteem as well as had extremely high hopes for.  

Not that the older of the Nakamura children wasn’t important, but apparently that one had a very specific history Adam had never bothered to find out about, and wasn’t even here. Apparently, he’d gone off to college. Was in… Hawaii?

The little one was here and the focus at the moment. Perhaps later he’d target the older.

But either way, what better way to celebrate a birth, than with a death? Born and dead on the same day, October eighth to be exact. It was October eighth, and this tiny little Hiro Nakamura doppelganger was about to meet his end.  

The taxi was going to get brand new tires after this debacle. Adam was practically screaming when the engines' revolutions turned lower than he'd like to hear. "Burn rubber, burn your fucking tank of gas, we cannot lose this patient or my job is history!!"

Once he’d reached the hiding place Adam stopped the car, quite confident that he hadn’t been tailed. He once again gave a look at the rear view mirror and smiled. HiroJi was sprawled out in the back seat, apparently sleeping quite soundly. Perfect, he looked perfect, despite the situation. As soon as he could he exited the car, and opened the back doors to reach in and pull the passed out boy into his arms.

The boy was so tiny and not as heavy as Adam thought maybe he’d be. Apparently this little one needed to eat more. In all honesty, Adam was wondering if the boy even had enough nutrition in that little body of his. This made him snort inwardly.

Hiro…. Did  he even care how his children grew up? This one obviously had a very bad case of malnutrition. So tiny…

As soon as he was inside the warehouse he proceeded to head where he would hide the boy and begin his plan. He couldn’t wait to see Hiro’s reaction to all this. It would be revenge, finally, or more like pay back. Hiro had a lifetime of pay back to account for, centuries really.

Working past 35.. no 36 hours without coffee, the other Adam thrust cash at the driver without bothering to expect or accept change. The driver had none anyway, and happily received $500 of tips for the unexpected levels of hurry.

The other Adam slammed the taxi door, not preempting with… only acknowledging any degree of stealth, nor acknowledging how much the sound yet to emanate from that torture chamber was going to make waiting around impractical. He had to act fast, he had to bury his own paranoias and confront his worser self. "I'm on the premises," he spoke into his cell phone mid sprint.

It wasn't hard to put HiroJi into an empty coffin he'd prepared just for him. When he'd wake up he'd wake up tied at the wrists and gagged as well. It was all for dramatic effect really.  Adam hadn't closed the coffin yet, he was waiting quietly for the younger to wake up again. As soon as he did, the older was standing there quietly and smiling down at him. "Good morning sunshine."

HiroJi's only reaction to this was a widening of his eyes in mostly disbelief. Why was this happening? Wasn't Adam a good person? He was supposed to have taken him home. What? What was happening?

"I feel bad for you, for your father never having told you what happened between us in the past." The immortal explained himself, mostly to a confused subject.

To HiroJi everything Adam was saying, was ... well... gibberish. Really, he had no idea what was so bad about his father that he'd ended up like this, tricked by someone he’d trusted so much, or had grown to like so much.

"You can thank your father for this. Make sure you think of him even more when you feel your life slipping away as you lose oxygen little one. I'm sure you'll enjoy that. " Adam teased not caring if the younger Nakamura even cared about what was about to happen to him.

HiroJi just continued staring at Adam in absolute disbelief. Why was this happening?

The other Adam didn't know the extent of agony and overall gratuitous amounts of boredom one experienced when immortal yet cut off from ordinary, daily doses of human interaction. He was the exception, plucked away from his quest for the unholy virus by the very person running intel by him through his cell phone. His footfalls echoed in the concrete bunker's stairwell as he made his way into the basement. It was not his usual line of work, but the old saying held true:

"Desperate times, call for even more decency by us elders, Kensei." He didn't throw his fist at the carbon copy, as much as he wanted to, he was learning what Hiro himself had once said about not acting out of anger, but rather, out of duty. He resorted to glaring cooly at the Adam standing beside the open coffin. "Release the young boy, and let's talk."

Perhaps he had been a bit too overconfident, coming here by himself, but really. This feat had been way too easy, specially considering the tiny bounty laying in that coffin ready for their well... certain death. Now here was his doppelganger talking to him. He had no idea when this situation had turned this... awkward nonsense.

"Excuse me?" The elder stepped up to his doppelganger, wondering if this was some kind of evolved human with the power to imitate anyone in front of them. "I know it's quite excruciating to be this handsome, but ... Really, you need to quit right now, and either join me in my celebration or ... well, die." Because he wasn't wasting any time. Out of nowhere he'd taken out a machete and had swung it across aiming to cut the doppelganger in half.

In the meantime, HiroJi was trying to get out of the coffin. As he'd tried to get up he'd gotten dizzy and fell back down. Damn... What the hell had Adam put in whatever drugs he was given? He whimpered, the noise muffled a bit. This was not how he was dying today, not on his birthday anyway. And ..... yeah... Why were there two Adams?

This was insane, but his focus was on trying to get out of that coffin.

As if reaching to receive a hot cup of coffee, which he was immensely craving, the other Adam grasped his fingers gently upon the clenched hand as it swung toward him with machete blade, bent on splicing. The force of the swing rippled into his forearm tendons and muscles like a suspension bridge holding its own against a multitude of commuters. "You know, I can't remember when was the last time I had a good, solid," he lost his grip of the meaner Adam's sword hand to help HiroJi sit back up.

"Meal," he lunged his face toward HiroJi's neck and made a gnashing sound, all the while whispering to HiroJi 'play along, pretend,' as he made hungry sounds like a vampire finding its prey.

WHAT? HiroJi was no other word for it confused and had closed his eyes as soon as he'd seen the Adam doppelganger immediately heading to his neck, only to pretend a few seconds later to be sucking on it. This was... So strange. He was hoping this was maybe a birthday prank. Right? That had to be. Maybe his older brother Ando had a friend that was a doppelganger? Maybe he had two friends that were capable of that? They couldn't possibly be Adam. One was angry the other one was... crazier.

Adam wasn't too happy to see what was happening. He fell only slightly for the lies and within seconds he was pointing his machete again at the man. "............. What are you doing? " To kill or not to kill.  

Who was this idiot?

"Little Hiro, this is just a birthday prank," the other Adam explained quietly as he turned to face the meaner twin. "You tease, you can't possibly win a sword fight with a bushwhacker," with a flourish, out sprang his favored.. his hands felt air. In the lack of caffeinated clarity, he'd forgotten that his sword had been lost ever since that last encounter with Hiro Sr.

"Pardon, but do you have a spare sword? I was told we'd be putting on a swordfight show for the birthday boy," he smiled patiently at the infurious Adam.

"This is absolutely not a prank." Adam was a little taken aback by his own doppelganger. So far he'd been quite efficient at distracting everyone. In conclusion , this was not going to go as he'd planned was it? He sighed a bit and tilted his head. "You believe I would give you a sword?" He scoffed and shook his head. "Touch the boy one more time, and I will slice you up."

HiroJi was still confused and had made an effort to remove the gag, since the Adam doppelganger was busy trying to stage this as a prank. He had no idea what was happening, but whatever was happening he wanted it to stop.

Adam on the other hand was still patiently waiting for his doppelganger to turn into the person he was supposed to turn into. He still didn't think this 'creature' was Adam himself. How corrupted did he need to be, to not believe the Nakamuras owed him? If anything he would have figured that a doppelganger of his should be cooperating instead of being against him. This was definitely a ploy of some sort and … He wasn’t very amused by any of it. By now, he’d already locked on to help.

He needed his back up.

"You don't know the meaning of sliced," the other Adam countered. "I have been to hell and back, all because of your meandering," he now turned to face his athletic back toward HiroJi as an invitation for piggie back riding. "Hop on little one, we need to get some fresh air apparently."

Adam arched a brow. Ok this was not working out and he wasn't about to let his bounty leave. He didn't wait any longer and he rammed the machete into his doppelganger's stomach. He was doing this out of curiosity. Who was this? Was this really another version of him, or just a fraud? He took out the machete and stood there quietly watching the reaction.

Ok .... Regen. He looked up at him tiredly. "So speak. You have exactly one minute for it. Make it a good explanation or I slice you again and take the boy with me. YOU." He pointed the machete at a still squirming HiroJi. "Don't move stay there." He once again looked at his doppelganger. "Speak."

"This only reinforces my earlier argument," the other Adam grunted, letting his molecules assume their previous bonding, his blood no longer leaking through his shirt. "Put away your weapon, so that I may speak without being disemboweled by my debating partner. Also," he stepped away from HiroJi to conclude his side of the debate.

"Of the two of us, I show more candor and decisiveness through words, not barbaric bludgeoning. But you sir, have my ire," with that, he backhanded the Adam with the machete, very very brusquely.

Adam was still not showing any sign of emotion, even after he'd taken the hit. "Speak, and stop running around the subject. Who the hell went into your brain and destroyed it? It should be impossible, you know?" He shook his head a bit and was still keeping his eyes on the youngest of the Nakamuras.

HiroJi was still confused by the entire situation. He sighed as he sat there feeling queasy and hating how his birthday had turned out. Two Adams at the same time. One he thought was his friend turning completely against him, and then another showing up out of nowhere to apparently try to save him.

What a birthday.... Seriously. He pouted a bit at the realization. Right now, all he wanted was to be with his family. AndoNi, his father, his mother, just… People he felt safe with and loved.

Adam was not as skilled as his other crew members in intuition, it was a huge field, packed with skilled empaths. To him it was a burgeoning art form that required constant redressing. "Sorry, you might have rehearsed this whole dealio with coffin and sword abilities a bit better than me. I'm fresh out of fake blood for this vampire roleplay, much less the proper makeup. Can we just grab a beer or something?"

Adam once again sighed, mostly out of impatience. "I'll tell you what. I'll go anywhere you want, but I get to keep the boy. You seem to want to negotiate. I'm not letting you take him He belongs to me now." The immortal smiled quite smugly and then went back to that neutral look on his face.

HiroJi grunted a bit when he heard that. He wasn't some random item they could just deal around. "You two are insane! I want to go home!"

He growled basically. Had he been able to, he would have jumped out of that freakin coffin. "Let me out of here!" He was finally yelling at them both, not caring this time who was the good one or who was the bad one.

The other Adam had stalled as long as he possibly could. He stepped back so that at least three feet remained between him and the other Adam. HiroJi, however, was immediately next to him. "Concrete tolerance permissible, ready the package," he spoke into his phone. The area was quiet for half a second, a blur of crumbling structure happened next, and then the sonic boom kicked in. In the confusion, he reached for HiroJi and began running from the thickest part of the imploding mess.

Ok that, he wasn't expecting. He was thrown off guard by it all and had ended up a tad bit confused, and quite annoyed at having lost the younger of the Nakamuras. He groaned a bit and sat back up from where he'd ended up and looked around. "That son of a... "

HiroJi on the other hand was freaked out by everything. He'd only felt hands lifting him up and carrying away to God only knew where. By the time everything was visible again he realized that whoever was carrying him was running or trying to far far away the place wherever this was. He didn't recognize it in all honesty. "You know, if you don't untie me and carry me around all day you're not going to get anywhere fast." of course, he had no idea who he was dealing with, so perhaps his words went unheard.

"I don't have the right tools for that, but she might," the other Adam huffed. His ears were ringing, despite all the precautions from what he loved to call their 'mothership'.

"Fortunately, we aren't running to anywhere on this, uh, terrain," he squinted into the sunlight for their ride out.

HiroJi sighed a bit, giving up and letting the apparently 'benevolent' Adam carry him out of wherever they were. This seemed like it was going to turn out alright. He was about to start talking to Adam again when he saw them, they were all there waiting at the very entrance of the place. Guess they weren't safe.

The men surrounded the outermost exit and once they saw the man carrying the young boy they all came up to them blocking their exit. As soon as they were closer the men lifted their guns.

"HiroJi, this is not your time to die," Adam breathed, setting the boy down roughly on the ground so his small body would be harder to hit from their vantage point. "It's me you want, assholes," he raised his hands. "I'll come quietly," he added, while hoping his ride wasn't far away.

"WHO ARE YOU!? COME ON NOW! SAY IT!" One of them demanded. Ando tried to make out the language. English? He hated English. He didn't speak up, instead he mumbled something quietly. "I do not know what I'm doing here." It was all in Japanese, so even if anyone had been able to hear it, he doubted they understood.

From his desk a report issued audibly, there was an intruder. The silent alarm had gone out; most personnel were still on regular assignments throughout the ship as the incident had only sparked raised eyebrows instead of an all out firefight. The individual's -- whose prone figure was being projected via hologram by one of his subordinate's handheld communicators --bore no immediate resemblance. Interrogation would solve that.

"Bridge, this is the captain, I am on my way." With a sigh, Adam strolled from his quarters into the main hallway. Passing a few fellow crewmembers, he rounded a corner, trying to picture in his mind who this person might be.

Truly, Ando had tried everything. He'd tried to stop time and he had tried to teleport right out of there as soon as he'd showed up. To no avail. He was terrified of the guns being pointed at him. At some point feeling whoever was holding him down turn him so they could hold his hands back, so as to keep him from attacking them.

How was he even going to attack? He was so disoriented. He really had no idea where he was, yet. If he found out where he was exactly, he was probably going to have a nervous breakdown. Space was not his favorite, it had never been. He may be a Marine Biologist and be used to the deepness and strange space that was the sea, but .... He felt safe there for whatever reason.

He tried, unsuccessfully, to squirm out of the grasp holding him in place but to no avail.

'What language did this guy just speak?' one of the members of the crew who had actually heard Ando's last words asked loudly. 'I think Monroe might be able to help us with this one.'

Ando sighed and wondered what was going on. Were they talking about their leader? Monroe? Ugh... "Where am I?" He asked in Japanese. A little louder this time. No one answered his question.

After a few seconds of perplexed yet 'look like we're busy' shuffling, the crew switched attention to the brisk footsteps of their captain. The lieutenant chimed his issued signaler, and everyone snapped to attention.

"At ease," Adam responds, slowing to a halt a sword's reach away from the suspect. "Busō shite imasu ka?" he asks the individual in relatively convincing yet outdated Japanese, as if he had spent a lifetime in that archipelago. "And if you're not armed, are you merely seeking asylum?" He gestures to a crewmember to keep their weapon at bay, no hostility or guarantee thereof.

Something in Ando stirred a bit. There was a reason this had happened as soon as the leader had showed up. It was either because he knew he was in trouble, this was the leader, and or because he felt like this man was someone he might have known? No... He couldn't recall ever having met him.

Whatever the case, he shook his head and finally spoke up. "I'm not here to be hostile. I don't even know what here is.... sir?" He replied in perfect Japanese.

Adam's hand switched from sword hilt to extending outward in a clear attempt to help the stowaway onto his feet. "You appear to be lost, that much is certain. Are you in need of medical attention? My medical bay is, shall we say, not of this era."

He exchanges a smirk with his lieutenant before gazing at the oddly familiar person once more, arm still outstretched calmly. "The name's Monroe."

Ando debated whether or not to reveal his ‘real’ name to this man. Whatever the case, this might just be a dream and before he knew it, he’d be awake and once again at home with his little brother. This was the only thing he really hoped for at this point. Not hesitating any further he introduced himself, not really shaking the outstretched hand. He wasn’t used to doing that. “My name is Ando Nakamura.”

Adam nodded at the brief introduction, recognizing the family name but keeping a straight face. "This, Mr. Nakamura, is the bridge of my starship." He let the last word hang a bit, testing Ando's understanding of space worthy civilization. It had been some time since he'd let a mere civilian aboard his ship, voluntarily or bound.

Starship!? That was the only thing that had stood out to him. STARSHIP. It was ... He was. Oh god. He tried not to show his nervousness as he nodded quietly. Great, just awesome. He'd previously been speaking to his little brother about just how scary ending up in space would be.

Fate... He hated fate. He hated that he had probably caused this, had probably brought this on himself. He swallowed slowly. "Right erm... Spaceship." Sounded great. Nope, nope, noooo.

"Lieutenant," Adam warns, and immediately his second in command drops their clipboard to brace Ando midst his wobbling. "Steady on, we'll get you stabilized. It's a whole different feeling in space, there's no rocking of ocean currents, no air turbulence, only gravity, and how well you can convince it to alter course for your bipedal needs. Lieutenant, to the medical bay, and be quick about it."

Adam turns to regard the rest of the crew. "Action stations, immediate scan ten parsecs, find out what this idiot was using to get stranded so far from home."

Ando wasn't liking how he couldn't even get out of this joint at the moment. He wanted to just run off, and be away from this, and wake up in his bed all nice and comfy and realize all this was just a dream. Nope, no such luck. He was now being dragged to apparently the 'medical' bay? Ugh. Please no. "I said I was ok." No he was not. He did feel queasy, but he was a little rough with the man that was trying to drag him there as he stopped abruptly and pulled his arm away from him.

"Just let me get it in my head that I'm in outer space ok?"

The lieutenant's voice followed Ando down the hallway. "No puking until you see the medical tech, we might have to take a few… samples."

Adam, hearing this, speaks loudly after them: "Lieutenant, he doesn't speak English!"

The person addressed turns briefly to acknowledge this. "Sir, right sir."

Adam, shaking his head, waves them away, fishing out his communicator. "Doc, you'll want to look at this Nakamura, and would appreciate a little medical records search while you're at it."

"I'll see what I can do, Captain," the communicator relays. Out past the ship's display screens and a good 60 centimeters of structure and armored plating, the cold vacuum kept to its affairs, ignoring the ship, hardly affected by its duties.

The older of the Nakamura siblings tilted his head watching everyone scrambling to control the situation. Had he been taught when he was younger about the man he'd just ran into, he would have had a bit more urgency at this point. Whatever the case, he continued to pull away from everyone trying to hold him down and drag him to the medical place.

"I don't have a stomach ache you idiots!" He growled in Japanese again and managed to elbow one of his captors. He had to dodge the other one as they swung at him. He landed a blow on that particular aggressor and backed away from the medical place or whatever they were dragging him to.

Time to hijack this stupid spaceship and fly it back to earth. Though, he’d never flown anything in his life. Hell he’d never used any transportation for that matter. At least not extensively.

Adam was just enough out of earshot when the brawling started, but the first person to receive an elbow to the stomach had backed away to alert the crew on communicator. "That kintama is out of his damn mind," Adam wastes no time signaling to nearby crew members as he keeps his sword hilt steady and sprints to action.

Few of the crew had been able to land blows. Actually, none of them had. Most of them came close as Ando continued to dodge and land his own blows on either their faces or their torsos or other key limbs. He was pissed, he wanted to take over the ship and fly it back to earth. This whole being out in outer space deal had to end, NOW.

Everyone kept scrambling and now the ones that had been originally holding weapons regretted it a bit, as Ando had used some of their own as shields. That had thrown them all off guard as this had quickly turned chaotic. They'd never had someone invade their spaceship like that. He had seemed so scared at first.

Maybe that had actually been the plan after all!? Maybe Adam's enemies had sent this man and he was probably going to destroy them.

No such luck, though. Ando just wanted to go home, and he was pissed. Never piss off a Nakamura. Adam knew that by heart didn’t he?

It was an absolute mess, broken bones and bruised ribs left and right by the time Adam reached the forefront of the disturbance. "O Koroshimasu, Christmas has come early," he leers only too eagerly, sword drawn. "C'mere and taste metal, shit stain."

Ando turned sharply to look at Adam and glared at him. He then turned to face him fully and wondered why he felt the way he did. Something in him was stirring even more. From the moment he had laid eyes on the man, something just had jumped at him. It was a sense of dread, but at the same time familiarity. "Have I met you before?" He asked, not so randomly. He was angry, and weirdly enough, outside, in 'outer space' a big vacuum 'to hell' of all places was starting to grow.

At the moment it was small, but it kept growing and growing, the more time Ando did not get what he wanted.

Adam didn't notice anything at first, but with an audible groan his ship listed a third of a degree off its original course. Already, the singularity outside had the mass of twelve Jupiters. He thumbs his communicator, sword drawn as he carefully awaits Ando's next move. "Helm, check with engineering, something's not right."

Ando tilted his head. "What's the matter Monroe? Something not going right with your flight?" He teased. Not that he knew what was really going on outside. If anything, the scariest of his powers was the one that was managing to actually manifest at the moment. So this Monroe guy. What was his deal? "Maybe we can come to an agreement? Take me back home and I won't destroy your vessel and or take over it." He was bold like that, mostly because that was who he was and unlike his younger brother, he was never afraid to say what he felt.

Too bold perhaps? He was still angry. The black hole grew a few more feet.

Adam studied Mr. Nakamura for only a moment more before sheathing his sword and raising his hands. "Funnily enough, I believe you 100%. If it's safe passage home you want, you're not to take any of my crew hostage. Let's talk agreement, I'll need to isolate you from my crew while we change course."

"No, I need you to SHOW me, you're going to steer your spaceship in that direction." He insisted. The black hole was still growing in size. Not only was it growing in size but acting like the vacuum that it was. Despite the distance at the moment, between it and Adam's spaceship, it was now being sucked in. Weirdly enough, Ando caught a glimpse a sudden flash of the hole and his eyes widened. He fell to his knees all of a sudden. He started to hyper ventilate again.

Another thing he was terrified of, was his own ability to create portals to hell, and well he was stuck in outer space. His boldness had suddenly dissipated. This was not how this was supposed to go. "I just want to go home. " He repeated as his palms were pressed against the floor and he kept himself from falling over and passing out.

Adam reversed his sword arm and out the blade came once again. "You will not barter, not the life of my crew or the manner in which I conduct affairs on my own ship!" Angrily, he rams the sword into the wall, the blade sticking between very precise gaps in the tilting hull.

"Let go of your parlor tricks, leave my ship intact, and I'll take you home. That is final!"

Ando kept breathing steadily really trying his hardest to stop the hell hole from growing even further. The spaceship shook as it kept heading in the direction of the hell hole. He was not being successful. The only way he'd ever known for these to stop was... He looked up at Adam abruptly. "Knock me out." he suggested, the urgency also evident in his voice.

"Knock me out or you're all going to hell." It sounded like a challenge and or a threat, but it wasn't. It was more a warning than anything.  

Adam was already thinking the same thing, but was surprised to hear it coming from this tumultuous visitor. "Safe passage, none of us are visiting hell today," he agrees, slamming his fist across Ando's jaw to bring the man's head promptly against the passage wall.

As soon as Ando was out, the spaceship was no longer shaking and or was flowing towards the hell hole. Deep down and before he had been knocked out, Ando had really hoped to get out of this place and maybe wake up back in his own room, again. That had been a farfetched dream. Whatever the case, Adam and his crew were out of danger... for the time being.

Adam watched the man slump unconscious, then wiped his brow. All was quiet in that part of the ship, the growing creak and static sparks announcing imminent doom no longer present. Space would leave the ship in place for the time being indeed. "Helm, lay in a course for Earth, as fast as you can."