ONE | MEET THE FAMILY

"Dad, who the hell are these assholes?" Ben walked in, displeased with the sudden appearance of us.

"Shit..." We all muttered at the same time as our eyes landed on Ben.  "Ben," Klaus softly gasped from seeing Ben in person. Luther walked toward Ben, inspecting him carefully, "Is that really you?"

I felt a random itch in my neck, I pulled down my collar to scratch it. Five haven't noticed I've been scratching it yet while I was struggling to breathe.

Diego yelled out, "And who are the weirdos on the balcony?" Klaus ducked quickly from Diego yelling at the last part.

"They are the Sparrows,"  Dad introduced them. "My children," He smirked proudly. "I'm sorry what do you mean, your children? That's not possible old man,"  Five approached him slowly, in disbelief.

"Of course it is! I think I'd know, wouldn't I?" Dad responded. I continued to scratch my neck, feeling the itching getting worse. "Everyone else can see Ben, right?" Klaus pointed toward Ben, smiling at him.

"Cute hat, Sundance," as Ben mocked Klaus. Klaus tipped his hat, returning the playful interaction. Ben rolled his eyes, causing Klaus to pout at the shift in Ben's attitude.

"Why are you itching your neck?" Five whispered, watching me itch my neck for the third time. "Because I can," I snapped at him, my nails grazing my neck more aggressively. "You have—" Five tried telling me.

"Shut up, I probably have fleas or something way worse from that stupid fight earlier," I glared at him, telling him to back off. "You're so snappy all of a sudden," Five muttered before reverting his attention to Dad.

"They call themselves, The Umbrella Academy. A group of scheming perfidious malcontents who accosted me in the fall of 1963," Dad introduced us, "When I was away on business in Dallas. Be warned, they claim to be my spawn,"

"Claim? Look, Five, what the hell is going on?" Allison walked toward Dad, offended by Dad's sudden jabs at us. "I don't know yet, but it's concerning," Five answered, tilting his head.

"Is he telling the truth?" Marcus asked, pointing to us. "Not the part about us being perfidious," Vanya clarified.  "No, we're amateur-fidious at best," Klaus tried to joke around.

I tried undoing my jacket, feeling a sudden heat wave wash over me. Five stopped me, putting his hand over my jacket, "You have paradox psychosis, do not take off the damn jacket,"

"I will and you can't stop me," I tried pulling on my jacket, itching my neck for the fourth time.

"But we are his children. This is our house," Vanya admitted. "Yeah, Yeah. We uh... We grew up here," Luther stuttered, trying to sound cool in front of the strangers.

"Yeah, we grew up here," A guy with a melted face taunted Luther, causing them to start snickering. "Are we in the West End of Mean Girls?" I scoffed, wiping sweat from my forehead.

I noticed a girl with red hair, also scratching her neck, staring at me. "Why the..." Five looked back and forth between the girl and me, noticing the similarities.

"I kind of think we would have noticed you," The girl responded shyly. "Hi, I'm Luther," Luther lent out his hand, hoping the girl would return the gesture. The girl merely responded with a shy nod.

"Okay, none of you belong here," Allison snapped. "Oh well, then I guess we'll pack our bags and move out," A girl with sunglasses said sarcastically, earning a chuckle from her siblings.

The cube behind them started "talking", making the group in red start laughing. "You slay me, Chris," Ben chuckles, agreeing with the cube.

"I wasn't expecting company," Grace stumbled in,  anxiously holding a plate of cookies. "This is the best I can do on short--" Grace started glitching, her humane voice turned robotic for a moment, "--short... short notice,"

"Mom," Diego whispered under his breath. "Mom? she's a robot, you perv," Another girl commented, disgusted by Diego.

"She's not a robot," Diego snapped her head towards the girl. "Hey, don't call him that," Luther defended Diego. "Or what?" Ben challenged. "Why don't you come closer and find out," Luther taunted.

"Luther, guys chill!" Vanya tried stopping everyone from a full-blown fight. "Think I'm afraid?" Ben mocked, not feeling threatened by Luther.

"Stand down Ben," Marcus held him back. "Look at that, she's got a voice," Luther snapped at them. "How about I hide that big Rubik's Cube up your ass?" Diego said, aiming the insult at them.

"Enough," The boy stopped, "I don't know what circus you escaped from or how you got past our security, but we're done here," The man warned, his voice tried intimidating us. "You've got 30 seconds to get out of our house,"

"And if we don't?" Allison asked, crossing her arms. "Then we'll have to settle this the old-fashioned way," He said.

"Look, we just fought a literal army, ok? This doesn't need to get ugly, let's all just calm down, and let's talk," Vanya tried calming everyone down.

"Psst, Ben-er-ino. You look so much better alive than you do dead. Am I right? Except for that haircut," Klaus tried diffusing the tension, waving his hands around. "What the hell did you just say?" Ben snapped, getting riled up from Klaus's comment.

"Come on, stop with all the hostility, Mr. Grumpy Pants" Klaus smiled. "Ooo nice scar," Klaus walked closer to Ben. "Muy Macho,"

"You shut your mouth," Ben said, raising his voice. "You shut your mouth and just hug your brother," Klaus opened his arm, expecting an embrace from Ben.

Ben then punched Klaus in the face, causing Klaus to dramatically roll onto the table. "Hey! What the hell? You didn't have to do that!" Luther said. "Oh, I'm pretty sure I did!" Ben sneered,

"Oh god..." I muttered, trying to take off my jacket. Five tried stopping me, interlocking his hand with mine, failing miserably as I slapped his hand away.

"That's right he did," The man with the melted face agreed. "Luther, hey!" Vanya called out for Luther to stop arguing.

"Back off!" The guy pushed him and Luther fought back by punching him but he missed. The guy raised his leg, kicking Luther in the stomach. Luther flew toward Klaus as he was getting up from the table, stretching himself.

"Oh shit," Klaus exclaimed, watching Luther fly towards him. They flew to the couch, knocking it over and some of Dad's decorations.

"Bad touch! Luther! Bad touch!" Klaus slapped Luther, trying to get him off himself. "Sorry," Luther muttered, getting up from Klaus.

Everyone started dispersing into different groups. "Hey red-head," A girl called out, I snapped my head. "We have the same hair!" I yelled, itching harder towards my neck. "Come at me, copycat," The girl snapped, running towards me.

"My god," I quickly lifted her with my powers. "You're very pretty," I commented, holding her up in the air. "Thank you," She nodded, grabbing a book from the shelf, and smacking me on the head.

I loosened my grip on her, making her fall onto the ground. "You fight for a kid," The girl tried to punch me. I ducked in time, my head barely missing her fist. "This is freaky," My fist connected with my jaw, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.

"Tate, don't kill her!" Five called out, trying to fight against Ben. "I'm trying not to!" We both say in unison, the tone and volume the same. "Fuck!" I exclaimed, realizing how bad this paradox psychosis was getting.

"What, kid?" She punched me in the face, my head turning to the left. I looked up with a cut with a small trickle of blood coming out.

"Same fight position..." I muttered, trying to run from her. "Hey!"She followed me upstairs. "I'm gonna tell you something weird--" I barely dodged Tate's punch to the gut.

"--You're me, but you're older than me and you..." Tate scoffed, "Bullshit," I swung at her, her hand catching my arm perfectly. "Not bullshit," I shook my head.

Tate rolled her eyes, twisting my arm before pushing me down to the ground. "Run..." She whispered in my ear before I quickly got up and ran downstairs.

I heard a loud thud from behind me, I turned to see Five's dazed reaction on the ground. "Five!" I ran up to him. "We gotta leave, you're gonna kill her," He groaned, rubbing his head.

"Yeah, yeah," I quickly put his arm over my shoulder, limping over to the hallway. "I'm surprised you haven't killed her yet," Five muttered. "I heard that," I cocked my head at him.

"Luther!" I watched him attempt to flirt with one of the girls. "Luther, we're leaving," Five hopped off my shoulder, jumping past Luther. "Come on!" I scolded him, running towards the nearest.

"We gotta go!" Allison said, helping Luther up.

We turned around to see the same girl with sunglasses walking towards us. "Where the fuck..." I asked as Five pushed me towards the door. "Seriously?" Luther asked, his eyes widening at the crows flying towards us.

"Move! Move! Move!" Allison yelled, pushing Luther. "The briefcase," Five exclaimed, grabbing my hand. "Leave it--"

He teleported us to the foyer, "Where's the briefcase?" Five looked around the room. "Shit! It's gone," Five sighed, realizing the briefcase wasn't on the table. "Five, we are leaving," I continued to itch my neck harder.

"Stop itching your neck, it will get worse," Five warned as he wiped my sweat off my head. We hear Vanya's groans of pain as she stood up. "Shit!" I ran over to her before the Five pulled me back, "Are you crazy?" Five looked at me with a confused look.

"Vanya! Get out of there!" Five warned, watching Vanya getting surrounded by the Sparrow Academy. We watched Vanya's power start to appear before Five quickly latched onto my hand and teleported us out of the house.

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