Gavin clenched and unclenched his fists several times, shaking his hands as if to flick water off his fingers. His heart raced, every fibre of his being telling him to run as far from there as possible.

  “Relax Gavin.” Sam said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

  “Yeah, no worries.” Gavin said, trying to calm himself.

  Val reached past them and rapped her fist four times on the peeling door frame. Panicked, Gavin stiffened, his feet willing him to flee, but was rooted in place by a firm hand on either shoulder.

  “Won't be a minute.” a woman's voice called from the depths of the house.

  Gavin was ramrod still he wasn't ready for this. The battered wooden door opened, squeaking in protest at the familiar point.

  “Hi mum.” Gavin said hoarsely, “turns out I'm not dead or whatever.”

  “That's the line you go with?” Judy said, slapping the back of his head.

  “Gavin?” His mother said, stunned as she locked eyes with her son for the first time in a year.

  “Yeah mum.” Gavin said, voice cracking “it's me.”

  Gavin stepped forward, wrapping her in a warm quivering hug.

  “What happened to you? Where have you been?” Moana said pushing her son back to look him in the eye

  “I think you'd better invite us in.”

  “Invite you in? You're not vampires or something? The blonde one looks like she could be.”

  “Muuum.” Gavin complained, his nerves melting as his friends' faces contorted with hidden laughter. “Don't embarrass me in front of my friends.”

  “Come on in then, I'll put the jug on, who are your friends?” Moana said, pottering back into the house, her composure resuming as she found something familiar to latch onto.

  “The vampire one is Sam, the redhead is Val, and the short one is Judy.” Gavin said as he stepped inside his old family home, kicking his new shoes off and setting them neatly beside the door.

  He led the way inside. It smelled exactly like how he remembered, stale cigarette smoke and suffused the walls and the clinical bitter smell of liquor hovering around the edges of his senses. The wallpaper was even more curled than he remembered, oily dust clung to the dozens of picture frames that hung at odd heights along the walls.

  He took a seat at his favourite spot on the left side of the threadbare couch facing the television. Sam took a seat beside him, and Judy beside her. Val took her seat in the faded leather recliner beside Judy, leaving the second recliner beside Gavin free. He became preoccupied by his navel as his friends cast their gazes around the cluttered lounge.

  Moana popped her head into the room, eyeing the three women. “Tea? Coffee? Juice? Milo?”

  “They'll have tea, black, no sugar. ” Gavin said to his mum, “you guys probably won't like the other stuff yet.”

  “Don't be a chauvinist Gavin, I raised you better than that.”

  “What he said.” Val said, shrugging.

  “If you're sure?” Moana said.

  “They're sure mum.” Gavin said irritably, “the sooner you make the tea the sooner we can have a yarn about what I’ve been up to.”

  Moana’s head disappeared back around the corner followed by the sound of clinking mugs.

  “You could help her, you know.” Judy said, leaning over to whisper threateningly at him.

  “Absolutely not. You want me to get stabbed? No way.” Gavin said.

  “So, this is where you grew up.” Sam asked.

  “One of the places, we had another house a bit further south when I was a kid, then we moved here. When I was sixteen I moved out and got a flat about twenty minutes away.”

  “That seems awfully young to leave home.” Sam said.

  “Yeah, well, you know me.” Gavin said summoning a half hearted laugh.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “He always was a headstrong boy” Moana said trundling into the room with a platter of steaming mugs and a tin of biscuits.

  “Cheers mum.” Gavin said, taking the one beige drink on the tray.

  “What is that?” Sam said “smells funky”

  “Coffee, god I missed this.” he said inhaling the vapour steaming off the top.

  “Gavin, how many times have I told you not to blaspheme under my roof.” Moana said, setting her tea down.

  The three women snorted their laughter into their drinks as Gavin gave a half heartedly apology.

  “Good luck with that one.” Val said mirthfully.

  “Okay, mum, so first of all, what happened here? What do you know about what happened to me?”

  “Nothing, you were just gone one day. Your boss sent someone around to your apartment when you didn't show for work and you weren't there. No one knew where you were, the police didn't find anything, useless pricks.”

  “Sounds about right. Well, funny story, I got sucked into another universe, well, im not entirely sure if it was a different universe, or just another planet, anyway, these guys are from the world I was on.”

  “Come off it son.” him mum said with familiar patience for her sons stories. “I’m going to need something better than-”

  Gavin floated himself a foot into the air, his eyes glowing amber as he activated his vision power.

  “Got some magic powers too.” he said as the room filled with illusory lights that swirled like fuel spilled on water.

  He set himself back down into the couch and let his powers go. It was quite taxing on him to maintain them for any length of time, especially without the sword to replenish his reserves. The team were becoming better at controlling the rate they leaked mana out into the world but it wasn't perfect, they still needed to return to the fortress every few hours and ration out what they used their powers on.

  “I've gone mad.” Moana said, her hands shaking.

  “Who's gone mad?” a stern clipped voice called from the front door “And who's shoes are these? Who’s here.”

  “You're home early.” Moana said in reply “something happen at work?”

  “Got laid off didn't I, if you must fuckin know.”

  “How's it going dad.” Gavin said as his father rounded the corner into the lounge.

  He stood there for a good ten seconds unblinking, unmoving before deciding on a course of action

  “Steven, dont.” Moana said as he stalked towards his son.

  Steven's fist balled and he swung it like a club at Gavins forehead. He made no effort to dodge or avoid it, taking the blow in stride.

  “Ahh shit.” Steve grunted as his bony hand cracked on Gavin's head.

  “So mum, when did you get the new tele?” Gavin said, paying his father no mind.

  “You've got some nerve, turning up like that.” Steven said, nursing his hand. “Disappear on us and then turn up again and the first thing you do is get lippy? You can clear out of my house before I make you.”

  “Told you guys this was a bad idea.” Gavin said, turning to his team.

  “You, out of my chair.” Steven said pointing to Val.

  “Fuck off dad.” Gavin said standing up, “come on guys, let's get out of here, see ya round mum.”

  He stalked out of the room, brushing past his father, the barest touch shunting the older man aside.

  “You know.” he heard Sam say behind him “How Gavin turned out to be a good man when he had you as a role model, I have no idea. Thanks for the tea Moana.”

  “Get out of my house.” Steven bellowed, pushing Sam ineffectually down the hallway.

  Gavins blood boiled. Teleporting back into the lounge he pulled his father away from her, shoving him against the wall.

  “If I find out you've raised a single finger to anyone I’ll make you wish you hadn't” he said through gritted teeth, bending his will on his father the same way Alana Starbourne did to him all those months ago.

  Gavin shoved his father to the side, turning his back but not his will away from him. He walked over to his mother, slipping her a piece of paper

  “He gives you any trouble, call me. I'm serious mum.”

  A Gothic arch of black stone rose from the living room floor filling itself with pearlescent light, blazing orange runes glowed across its surface. He stepped back through, followed by his friends.

  “That could have gone better.” Gavin said, frustration at himself dripping in his voice.

  “It could have.” Sam agreed.

  “Thanks for coming with. There's a lot of emotion in that house, I shouldn't have gotten angry like that, it's only going to make things worse.”

  “Probably, it's easy to be rational after the fact.” Sam said.

  “Yeah, next time I think I should try more diplomacy and less bullying.”

  “He deserved it.” Val said.

  “He did. But I want to be better than him. I know I solve a lot of my problems with violence, but I feel that I probably could have solved that one with words.”

  “So what now?” Judy asked.

  “I'm thinking we could go hit up a beach or two, we've got the best beaches in the world here. We could go to the movies, or to a concert, you guys don't really have music like we do, oh, shit, We're gonna need to buy some stuff for the fortress too, I bet I can rig up a generator to give us electricity.”

  “So, basically just screw around until we decide not to?” Sam asked, eyebrow raised.

  “And computers. We all need computers, I'll make us up a server and download Wikipedia or the library of congress or something, having a bunch of earth knowledge is probably going to end up being very useful. I wonder if I can figure out how to make computer components?”

  “Sounds like it.” Val said.

  “Actually. I’m gonna see if I can-” Gavin continued to ramble while his team watched unphased.

  “Yep.” Judy said.