"What did you find out?" Clown asks immediately when Branzy enters his office at the casino. The mahogany door closes behind him with a quiet click and the man shrugs off his suit jacket to hang on the coat rack.

"Well," he clears his throat, approaching the desk the killer clown is sitting at. Leant back in his chair, the dark eyes of the mask reveal nothing as the head follows his movements. There is a variety of different weapons mounted on the wall behind the desk such as the sharpest swords and axes and his favourite scythe leaning against the wall, within reach and shining like it hasn't been used to cut the throats of hundreds. "I found where he works and his work schedule, which is morning to afternoon but sometimes he does extra hours but..."

"But?" he can feel the inquiring eyebrow Clown raises.

"He's got kids, Clown."

"Those kids know how to use a gun, Branzy." Clown comments flatly.

"Self defence is important!" Branzy protests. "Especially when there are evil clowns on the loose," –he vaguely shows Clown with a hand; the man huffs a chuckle at that– "Regardless, I don't want you to harm them. He isn't even your target, he's a relative!"

At that, Clown sits up. Any normal member of the staff would have backed away or bowed their head in respect but Branzy isn't a normal staff member; he's more than that and he has earned the respect that he, too, shows Clown. The owner of the casino stands, tall and looming as always; the most dangerous person in the whole city is so out of place in an office, dressed in his black and red costume, idle without blood on his weapons.

"Which is exactly why I'm going after him." he says, putting his hands on the table. "Xanthus hasn't shown his face since last time he came to negotiate, so he is going to turn up at his brother's sooner or later like last time."

Last time, Branzy recalls that Clown had driven the guy into a corner himself until they were led to the brother's residence. Of course, they didn't attack head on; there were too many possible witnesses around, so they waited. The night Clown planned to go in and drag Xanthus back to the casino was a very bad night for Branzy. What do you do when your boss and lover goes missing for more than six hours, when the whole ordeal should have lasted two hours tops? You panic, that's what you do. Apparently, as much as the law forbids voidwalkers from using that alien power of theirs, there are still things and actions that trigger it.

That trigger, Branzy speculates, are the kids. Parrot and Spoke, the two children whom Clown described after he got back from that corn field he ended up in and whom he met at the cafe with their friend, Pangi. Researchers and scientists call the Void dangerous. It's something he doesn't want Clown to end up in ever again, so discouraging him from going after Xisuma directly is his go-to option. Plus, he doesn't want to orphan two innocent, gun-wielding boys. He may be working for a man who has no issue getting his hands bloody but he does have morals when it comes to that.

"... Still! Don't hurt a single father of two, Clown!"

"They aren't his children, though–", his words stutter when Branzy pulls off the best puppy eyes he can muster. Clown loves the lavender of his eyes and Branzy takes advantage of it a little too much but it's always for the better good! "Ugh, fine. I won't hurt the avian and the shadow one."

"Aw–"

"But anyone else is free game."

His voice drops to a threatening tone, one that makes Branzy chuckle nervously. It's as if he's challenging him to forbid him from going after other acquaintances of the voidwalker. Branzy doesn't utter another word. He is perfectly satisfied with this because he knows that's the best deal he's going to get. Xanthus is behind on payment; he has been for two months now and Clown is enraged by his insolence (though he isn't the only one who has taken the money and taken to the hills and he certainly won't be the last but none of them escaped in the end).

"Yep!" he nods, lips held tightly into a smile.

Clown sighs, the sound muffled yet it echoes within the room. He steps around the table with light, quiet steps akin to those of a cat. His hands raise, fingers gingerly entangling within the white and grey strands of Branzy's hair, petting and soothingly massaging his scalp. The man leans into it with a little, pleased hum, feeling all the tension that had gathered on his shoulders fade, letting his shoulders droop as he brings his own hands to gently grasp his partner's forearms. The mask bumps against his forehead and he bumps back, his face warming as he lets himself be held close.

"Xisuma!"

"Suma!"

The two boys burst into the undivided kitchen with as much energy as any other day. They've dressed for the day, which Xisuma finds weird when he looks up from the newspaper he was reading, a steaming mug of black coffee in his free hand. Usually, they dress about ten minutes before they have to leave mostly because of the morning cartoons but Xisuma has begun to suspect that they find it fun to not listen to him when he tells them to change the first time.

"Good morning, boys." he greets them, looking from one to the other slowly, waiting to hear an achievement that could vary from a cool looking pencil shaving to a plan to doom the world. He can never tell which it'll be with these kids. He sets the mug of coffee down on the table. "Did you sleep well?"

"Slept swell!" Parrot exclaims, jumping into his seat and he would have fallen over had he not had wings to help him balance his weight. Spoke shares the excitement, enthusiastically running over and jumping on the table."You won't believe what Spoke can do!"

Xisuma raises an eyebrow behind the purple tinted visor of his helmet. His stomach twists in anticipation.

"Look, look!" Spoke demands his attention. The boy grabs the paper right out of his hand and holds it in a tight grip. Then, he tears it apart... or he simply made the motion that should have torn it apart. Pulling a paper from both sides should tear it, not make two of them.

"What did you just do..." Xisuma can't fathom what he's just witnessed.

"I made a dupe!" Spoke waves the new paper around. It is a perfect replica; it has the same smell, the same texture and font. The ink has bled a little in some areas that the original had not. "Isn't it amazing? I've got a second power!"

"We spent the whole night analysing it!" Parrot proudly joins in as Xisuma tries to wrap his head around this new piece of information.

There are hybrids and people who have two powers, that much he knows. Normally, powers show themselves early on in a child's life and so, Spoke should have realised this duplication power of his way earlier. Yet... Spoke isn't a normal child. He hasn't lived the life that a kid his age should, all shy and hidden and life in the streets couldn't have been easy. Perhaps the stress didn't allow this second power to flourish. What more could a scared child need than to hide in the shadows of the world?

"I can do so much with this." Spoke says, lowering his hands and looking down at the papers with determination. "We tested it whilst you slept and I can dupe everything that's in our room. The quality isn't the same or it comes out a little damaged. We theorised that the more I use it, the better I'll get at details but I get tired after a while."

I can dupe everything that's in our room.

Did he hear that correctly?

"Spoke."

Hearing his name, the boy stops his rant, looking up at Xisuma curiously. "What?"

"Did you duplicate Parrot's gun?"

"Yeah."

"Please, don't keep it."

What if the duplicate isn't of the same quality? Or if it's come out damaged like Spoke said? External damage is easily detected but internally? Xisuma isn't good with guns; he's a peaceful man. He doesn't know how dangerous a malfunctioning gun can be. What if it backfires? Can handguns backfire? Wait a minute... He should have thought of that second question when he'd first taken Parrot in.

Regardless, he can't let the kids try to shoot that duplicate; it's too dangerous and he's been putting in the effort to keep them both out of harm's way. As much as the current circumstances will allow, anyway.

"We won't." Parrot nods in agreement. He knows how to handle firearms and apparently, he finds the idea of handling a degraded gun bad. "Pinkie promise."

The man sighs a sigh of relief and gives the two a smile.

"That's good." he says and continues at Spoke and Parrot's expectant gazes. "I must admit, this wasn't something I thought I'd hear this morning," he chuckles. "It's a pleasant surprise, Spoke. I'm happy for you."

Spoke's grin is brighter than the rainbow bandana keeping his hair out of his eyes. "Heck yeah!", he scrambles to get into the seat beside Parrot, who smiles with the same intensity. "Just imagine the things I can do with this! I can make so many things: I can build us a house– no, make us a house! I can make infinite food and water and–", suddenly, his expression turns a little sombre and his eyes lock onto his. "I can help Uncle Xanthus pay off his debt. That way, Clownpierce won't come after you again"

Xisuma's brain stutters; short circuits.

"What did you say?"

"That I can print out money."

Through his thoughts floats that word: Uncle. Uncle Xanthus. Spoke said it with such confidence... and Parrot didn't try to deny it. Somewhere in there, he knows that isn't the piece he should stick to but he can't help himself. Did he even hear that right? There is more important information on the table but his mind is clouded over, only that one word prominent.

"What did you call my brother?"

The two of them fall silent. He sees Spoke stiffen, his demeanour faltering and slumping against the back of the chair. Parrot tucks his wings in, looking like he's a second away from bolting for some reason. For a moment, Xisuma thinks he should drop the subject; that maybe he overstepped or made the boys uncomfortable but then, Spoke takes his shot.

"Uncle." he feels his eyes tear up a little. He doesn't know if the boys know who that title is to be bestowed upon. As if hearing his thoughts, Parrot turns to the side, not looking at him fully, and says: "You're good dad material." with a shrug, like those words weren't music to Xisuma's ears.

"Oh."

The first tear rolls free. Instinctively, he raises a hand to wipe at his eyes but it bumps against the visor. Hurriedly, he raises it and sneaks a paper towel beneath. A solid weight falls on his side and he needs to raise his arm to realise that it's Spoke and Parrot leaning in to get a better look to see what is wrong.

"Suma? You good there?"

"Yeah, yeah," Xisuma tries to reassure them. "I'm fine, something got in my eye–"

"Uh-huh..." Parrot sounds like he doesn't buy it. That lie was full of holes anyway. "Something got in your eye with the helmet in the way?"

"Yes, don't worry about it." he tries again, like he hasn't been caught already. Parrot shrugs and drops the subject, though he stays beside him with masked worry. Spoke nudges him.

"I'm going to be selling crayons and gum in the backyard of the school." he says with a mischievous snicker. "I'm going to become the modern Boss Baby and no one can stop me!"

"You aren't a baby, Spoke–"

The two start to bicker about the title and through the overwhelming emotions buzzing in his heart, Xisuma thinks that he needs to go through the law book to see how much of this is illegal.

Who is he kidding? All of it is illegal but having ten or so erasers isn't going to harm anyone.

"I'll sell them in the alley too."

"Absolutely not."

On the days that follow, the boys come more and more often to the cafe with Pangi. They say they'll be spending more time here than at home so that Xisuma can work longer hours to support them, since he has told Spoke to not duplicate any money and to focus on school because, unsurprisingly, it's illegal to duplicate anything with or without a power. Plus, he can breathe easier. That clown guy could still be out there, looking for the perfect opportunity to pounce and while Xisuma appreciates Red, Zam, Planet and that quiet fellow, Jaron, for taking shifts in picking them up from school when Xisuma himself can't go, he feels immense relief when he sees them alive and well in front of him.

Branzy has become a regular at the cafe as well. Usually, he comes in around early afternoon, orders a coffee and stays for about an hour before leaving. His arrival also signals that the kids will be there soon as Xisuma has observed. He is a very talkative fellow, always exchanging a few words with Xisuma as he pays for his coffee and he has even struck up conversations with the boys. While he does find that behaviour weird, some people like to have some sort of relationship with their barista –and having a babysitter every now and then is something Xisuma won't say no to.

"You are going to begin school on Monday?" he hears Branzy ask the boys as he's turned away to clean the counter. "That's amazing!"

He turns his head to look at them. Parrot, Spoke and Pangi are sitting at their table and Branzy, who was already sitting at the table next to theirs before they came in, is leaning towards the trio of boys, conversing with them. His boys don't look uneasy with his presence, though they have told him that they feel like Branzy is very out of place in the cafe. Xisuma hadn't disagreed when they said that because the man looks like the most expensive thing within the establishment.

"Yeah, I'm going with Parrot and Spoke." Pangi tells the man shyly.

After the first time the boys brought Pangi to the cafe and declared that their friend is preparing for school, they confided in Xisuma that Pangi has parents... just not biological ones. They told him they were a horrible pair, pulling the boy from school and in an attempt to put him to work at a digsite, which led to a Pangi running away for good alongside Mapic. They didn't say much about the other boy as Parrot nicely asked him to enrol Pangi in their primary school. Xisuma was hesitant at first, scared that the boy's parents would find out about it but then he thought that he could take them to court for child neglect. Spoke also assured him that Red had enough contacts to keep the adults away from them.

Xisuma still doesn't know how to feel about Red 'having contacts'.

"That's good, you won't have to worry about making friends on the very first day that way."

"I guess... But I'm a little nervous."

The conversation goes on for a while, only interrupted when Spoke or Parrot has a question. Customers file in at some point and Xisuma can't focus on them anymore in order to serve the people. Pangi is smiling when he glances over between orders, happily speaking with the grey-haired man.

When Pangi joins Parrot, Spoke and Xisuma on the car ride to school, the whole squad shows up outside of the school gate. Everyone is there, waiting, wearing the fanciest clothes Xisuma has seen them wear. Red is in his classic red suit and tie, Zam in a slightly wrinkled, white dress shirt and black slacks with suspenders, giving him a classic look with his usually electrified hair tidy and Planet has donned a midnight blue button-up and black jeans. Jaron wears a black vest under his coat.

Even the kids have dressed nicer than normal for this occasion, which shouldn't be as important as they make it seem. They all wear button ups: striped red and white for Bacon, blood red for Mapic, pastel violet for Ro and black gloves for each floating hand, brown for Terrain, which has been stained by the cloud of dirt that follows him everywhere and the new face, Ashswag wears a dress shirt that is split in the middle in lavender and black.

They are definitely overdressed for this but the gesture is too sweet for Xisuma to criticise them.

"Pangi!"

Excitement erupts the moment the group notices the kid, who is dressed in a simple hoodie and trousers. The children bundle around him and say and scream things in their enthusiasm for their friend. The teens join in with huge grins on their faces as they hype up the boy. Parrot and Spoke wait patiently, although Xisuma can tell they also want to hug the life out of Pangi but they're already a little late, so he doesn't give them the green light.

"The first bell is going to ring in a minute, boys." he announces, waiting for the hug to break up.

"I will go in there and I will conquer the class!" Pangi exclaims.

"Famous last words." someone teases.

"Mister Marriott will have a heart attack." Parrot snickers.

Playfully rolling his eyes, Xisuma herds the schoolboys to the gate by gently pushing them onwards.

"Don't torture Mister Marriott, you three."

Zam huffs a laugh. "Nah, he deserves three menaces in his class."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Xisuma says, watching the three boys make their way through the door and enter the care of the school. He can only hope the day rolls without a hitch. Then, he looks at the group and jokingly asks, "Is there anyone else who would like to be enrolled?"

Hesitant hands raise in the air. Everyone has raised their hand with sheepish and enthusiastic expressions. Oh, they took it literally. He has his work cut out for him. A few moments pass and at Xisuma's silent shock, Zam decides to take it upon himself to explain.

"We don't go to school." he says, moving the hand he'd raised to rub the back of his neck in embarrassment. "We're just a bunch of strays."

"Oh."

Planet moves forth and puts his hand on the other's bicep, prompting him to take a step back.

"If we're going to discuss this, let's do so somewhere private."

The boys look more concerned than the teens about the matter at hand. They nervously glance at Xisuma, who is standing nearby, waiting for them to finish their discussion, while Red tries to calm them down with humour and Jaron merely observes. After a long moment, Jaron speaks.

"Sir, how bad is the morning rush?"

They pile into the cafe before the traffic in the streets can get too bad. There aren't any customers yet, so Xisuma tells the boys to sit wherever they'd like, whilst he brings fresh pastries from the kitchen to the front. He proceeds to fix the displays, then, and Planet offers to help him. He doesn't object and the teen rushes behind the counter, looking in awe at all the coffee machines on the back counter.

His boss hasn't been informed that there will be a horde of misfits, so he needs to be aware of what they do, especially behind the counter, specifically near the cash register. They could steal money as well as Parrot and Spoke can steal bags of chips from the convenience store. He doesn't like the thought but there is nothing he can do about it.

"So, what did you want to share with me?" he asks Planet, who is observing his actions from over his shoulder. The teen snatches a biscuit and chomps half of it before Xisuma can even realise what's happened. It seems like he's trying to buy time to think over his words, his eyes glancing to where the rest of the group is sitting and his back is slightly hunched, a foot closer to the open side of the bar counter. "I've had my suspicions ever since Spoke moved in..." he starts, trying to sound as casual as he can as he stacks sweets in trays, "That you aren't living the easiest life."

Planet blinks, his wings flutter lightly as if surprised. He nods. "We aren't." he says, "All of us work whatever job we can find and try to make ends meet."

"All of you?" Xisuma asks.

"Red, Zam, Jaron and I, though Mapic and Bacon have been asking us to bring them along." the boy admits, "We don't because the jobs we get are the dangerous kind."

"The 'mug-someone-in-an-alley kind?" Xisuma offers jokingly, recalling the time a certain parrot did the exact thing to him... but his mugging also included adopting said parrot, so can he really call it a mugging? It was more like a forced adoption that he doesn't really mind.

Planet chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "Yeah. That's how we found each other too. We're brothers in arms."

"So, how did you all meet?" he asks. Looking at the time, they have a few minutes before the morning rush begins. "It must be an eventful story."

And so, Planet begins his story, soon joined by Zam, who leans over the bar like an ordinary customer. When the real customers come in, he tells the two to pause so he can take and prepare their orders. They end up helping out, even though they aren't employees. They seem to enjoy the job, especially when they ask Xisuma to make all kinds of classic shapes on the lattes. What is routine for him appears to be extraordinary to them.

At the beginning, it was just Planet. A small boy with moth traits, named after the planets that hung off the crib mobile that he loved so much as a baby. Compared to the others, he had a good life but it was still difficult. He was moved into an orphanage after the tragic death of his parents, where he had to work to earn his living as the head of the asylum demanded him to pay for even stepping foot inside the building. It was tough and sometimes he had to skip meals to work. He was thankful that the cafeteria of the Primary he was going to at the time served free meals to the students but eventually, it all came to an end. After he graduated, he didn't look into middle schools; instead, he looked for a better job and saved up for when he could leave. He was never fostered, so that was the only way for him to get out of there.

One of his favourite places to visit was the public library of the city, which was funded by the mayor to provide knowledge to unfortunate souls like him. He visited so much that the staff knew him by name and allowed him to lounge in the archive of newspapers. His moth side certainly enjoyed the smell of old paper but out of respect for the librarians who were so kind as to give him shelter on rainy days, he didn't submit to the urge to have a bite. That was when he bumped into the first kid of the group: Pangi, who didn't go by that name at the time.

The child was young, accompanied by his parents, who were looking for books to borrow. Planet immediately noticed the red scales and the sharp claws, which neither of the parents shared with him. Primary had a very interesting course in Biology, so Planet quickly figured out that they weren't his actual parents. He felt a connection between them, in a way and though he didn't have evidence that Pangi wasn't a victim of the system yet, he still approached him. He pointed out children's books and even read a story to him but he left the moment he caught sight of the parents entering the hall.

About a month passed until he saw Pangi again. The boy had come to the library, alone with a sad frown on his childish face. The librarians were concerned and made plenty of attempts to persuade the kid to call his parents, they couldn't get a word out of him. So, Planet grabbed one of the thick animal picture books, found a certain page and approached.

The page he had marked was that of the pangolin, a mammal that looked like a small version of the anteater with scales and sharp claws for digging. The boy's face lit up when Planet showed it to him, giggling like he had handed the reins of the world to him.

"We match!" he laughed and Planet laughed with him. That was when the boy decided to change his name to match that of the animal his hybrid traits resembled. That was when the name 'Pangi' began to exist.

Then, there was Zam and Reddoons. Planet met one at a vending machine and the other in a dark alley respectively. Zam was a runaway, trying to get a Zam! Energy drink out of the old, beat up machine with little success. He was kicking at it with annoyed grumbles and when Planet was about to offer help, he put his hands on either side of the iron box and shocked the thing into dumping the drink to the bottom. His hair looked funny after, raised in all five directions as though he had electrocuted himself –he was fine, really!

Reddoons was but a red blob on the ground, just a cone-shaped body of red wearing his signature red suit and a circular head with his cool sunglasses. He didn't have any hands but somehow he managed to hold an assault rifle –which was overkill but Planet held his tongue because they were in a shady, dark alleyway. A man was kneeling on the ground before the well-dressed blob, cowering and begging for his life –the scene was so comical that Planet laughed until his stomach began to hurt and his eyes watered.

They hit it off easily; being in the same age group had its perks. Planet learnt that Zam and Reddoons couldn't remember their birth names or a time when they had parents, so they picked their own. Zam liked the 'Zam!' energy drinks a lot because they tripled his electricity output, which was the only defence he had against bad people. Reddoons liked pirates, money and the colour red, so putting his favourite colour at the front and deriving the 'doons' from 'doubloons', an old Spanish coin that was closely associated with the treasure chests of pirates, he made up his own name. They bumped into Jaron in a dark alley, dealing with a shady character –his name was from a detective book he adored.

A few years later, just a year before today, they came across Bacon, who, well, really liked bacon –and waffles. Planet ran into Pangi again and found out that the boy was living with a different couple to the one he'd seen him with in the library. Then, they bumped into Parrot and Spoke, who had run away together from the local orphanage with the goal to never return to that rotten place ever again. Parrot chose his name because of his wings, whilst Spoke received his name from their growing friend group. The kid wouldn't shut up, so his nickname was 'Spoke' and as the days and months went by, it stuck more and more until it wasn't as much a tease as it was a name. Spoke liked it, saying something about his name matching his personality, a fact that made it unique amongst all of them.

The kids were the ones to come across Mapic, Terrain and later Ashswag. Mapic knew Pangi from the orphanage and he was known for his incredible memory and his ability to orient himself. No matter where he was, he could not get lost. Hence, his name referenced his imaginary cartography with the word 'Map' and the '-ic' that hints at his photographic memory. Terrain was inspired by his little cloud of dirt and a thrown-away dictionary. They found him at the park shaping dirt into little castles all by himself, when they'd gone there as a group to play football.

"And that's how we found each other." Planet finishes his story from his point of view. By now, all of them have gathered at the counter, either in front or behind it, listening and adding details to their own parts of the story as the sweets that have yet to be put on display are mysteriously disappearing.

"What about you, Ashswag?"

The boy looks at him with a hum, rolling on his heels. He seems to think twice before answering, shyly looking away and putting his hands in his pockets. "I saw some kids do graffiti in an alley: they drew "SWAG" on a brick wall and I thought it was super cool."

"I wanna be Swag!" Ashswag shouted as he stared at the swirly and very cool font the word 'SWAG' had been graffitied on the wall.

"That's dumb though, you have to pick a better first name." Parrot, ironically, told him.

So, the boy went on the hunt for a better first name and kept 'Swag' as a sort of middle or last name –he couldn't decide at the time. On his hunt, he came across a TV store with a big display and variety of screens, one that he loved to visit for one sole reason. There was a cartoon playing across half of the screens and even though there was no audio, the imagery hooked him. Every day, he would run there and sit in front of the window display for as long as the episode would play and then leave. He was told it was called 'Pokemon' by the owner of the shop (Ashswag had gone to watch and the man was standing at the door, seemingly waiting for him) and he also explained the plot and the characters. The main character was a ten-year-old boy named Ash Ketchum and like all kids his age, Ashswag looked up to him.

It was easy to pick a first name after that.

"How about Ash?" he said randomly one evening as the group had gathered at the school yard to play. Most of the players had no idea what he was talking about because Parrot had kept it secret that he was choosing his own name.

"What?"

"Ash... Y'know, as a name."

"Add the Swag!" an arm fell over his shoulders, followed by a mouthful of feathers and a grin by Parrot.

"You said it was dumb." he accused playfully.

"Eh, maybe not so much with a proper name!"

He had issues pronouncing each word separately (he had trouble with the 'S'es), so he decided to make it one word.

Thus, "Ashswag" was born.

After listening to their tragic backstories, Xisuma's had the urge to hug them and herd them back to his house. He couldn't house more people, however, so he doesn't offer this. A few words into a new conversation, Zam tells him that the teens work enough to afford a small apartment some blocks away, where some of the boys stay at from time to time.

"I'll see what I can do about your education," he offers instead of a bear hug and in an instant, everyone has gone silent. He's got three kids past the gate without a hitch, what's another eight of them? "I know some of you work, so I need you all to think about it carefully. Middle and high school are going to take up a lot of your time."

They agreed that they'd think about it and that they'd give him their final answers in a few days.

Mr. Marriott is lucky that half of them aren't young enough to go to a Primary school.