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Aiden thought things were going pretty well. 4 years after relocating to Earth Aleph, he had a pretty big social circle, and was even borderline one of the popular kids.
If he occasionally reacted weirdly to things, well, he was from Bet, wasn't he? And while everyone was cool about him having two moms, people were generally confused as to why said moms were only a few years older than him. It usually only took seeing his face when he said they were actually his aunts who had "taken him in" to end that line of questioning. Even 4 years later, no one wanted to talk about Gold Morning.
Even if, in Taylor, Lisa, and Aiden's opinion Aleph had gotten off lightly.
The other kids had welcomed him, and he fit in surprisingly well among the rich kids at the elite private school he attended in Boston. Between the 20 million dollars in ill-gotten gains Lisa had brought when they emigrated, and her willingness to "creatively fudge" things, he'd been a shoe-in for a spot.
He kept his spot through hard work and tenacity, though. His grades were, if not excellent, then pretty good. He was thankful Taylor and Lisa were both encouraging where his education was concerned, despite both having theirs ended precipitously.
So here he was, mixing with the kids he considered rich, despite the fact that his "parents" were worth more than many of theirs.
The fancy birthday party was in full swing at Caitlin's house. Her dad did...something...with art and their house was enormous. The kids were gathered in the living room, eating snacks prepared by an actual catering company. A real DJ was playing the music. It was just cold enough outside to make the pool not an attractive option, so the party remained indoors.
Aiden found this slightly annoying as it deprived him of easy access to birds. Years spent with two professionally paranoid people had rubbed off on him a bit; he now habitually kept track of his surroundings almost constantly.
This fact meant he was fully aware when a black van rushed up the driveway then disgorged men in black carrying guns.
He turned away from Ashleigh and Kayleigh, twin sisters who were currently alternating between poorly veiled flirting (which Aiden did not catch) and being catty to each other (which Aiden also did not catch). He checked again to confirm the men were headed toward the front door.
Taylor and Lisa had told him repeatedly that there would likely come a time when Taylor's enemies caught up to them. They took every precaution they could, and Aleph was sealed off as tightly as possible, but the other worlds had Parahuman tinkers who could laugh at the idea should they so choose. Given the use of goons, Teacher was Aiden's guess for the source for today's excitement.
He started moving toward a side door. If he could slip out and into the large gardens behind the house, he could likely jump the fence and leave the wannabe kidnappers behind. Hopefully that would mean they'd leave the partygoers alone and pursue him instead.
However, as he made his way across the room, the catering staff dropped their trays and servingware and produced guns. He turned, keeping his head down, moving toward an interior door instead. He pulled out his phone.
"STRAWBERRIES, L" he sent to his group chat with Lisa and Taylor, titled "Mumdersiders."
The moment of distraction this caused meant he didn't see the man in a caterer's outfit stepping in front of him.
Crap.
The man leveled a gun at him and snatched the phone from his hand, then grabbed him by the shoulder. Aiden shifted his weight, preparing to break the hold and then the man's wrist, the way Taylor had taught him, but stopped when someone spoke.
"Attention guests," a male voice said. Aiden turned to see one of the masked men who had shown up in the van holding the DJ's microphone. "No need to panic, you're just going to be held here to assure Mr. Sterling behaves. We're going to discuss a little business with him, and then you'll be on your way. No reason for this to get ugly."
Aiden let his shoulders slump. Thank God, it was just a robbery. They weren’t after him.
Wait crud that meant-
His phone started ringing, the distinctive bass line of "Boris the Spider" playing tinnily.
"You should really let me answer that," he said.
The goon looked at his phone to read the caller id:
"Taylor (Mom #2)"
"Awwww," the goon said, "does someone miss their mommy?"
"No," Aiden said, "you don't understand. It will be better for you if you-"
The guy backhanded him. Aiden rolled with the hit, reducing it to a weak slap.
"I don’t care who your mommy is, get the fuck into the living room with the other little shits," the guy said.
Aiden sighed and walked into the room and sat with the most panicked looking of the kids, and set about trying to calm them down.
Gunshots rang out.
Darn it.
"He hit the silent alarm," a guy said on the radio, "Cops are inbound."
"When they get here," Aiden said, "you guys should turn yourselves in. It'll be better for you than if-"
One of the goons, a woman this time, tried to kick him. He managed to catch it on his forearms, but it still smarted.
Through his birds, he saw another car pull up by the side of the road. He sighed, recognizing the black Subaru.
"Listen," he said, "if you guys turn yourselves in right now-"
Another kick, taken on his shoulder this time.
He blew out a breath.
The radio crackled.
"Can I get backup at the rear there's-" the voice cut off.
"Headed to you," another voice on the radio. "Hey, who the fuck are-"
The three goons watching the kids looked nervous now. The man at the DJ table motioned the others to check it out.
There was a crash, then muted thumps.
"I told you to let me answer the phone," Aiden said to the remaining goon.
"What the fuck is happening?" The guy asked.
While his attention was focused on Aiden, he was too distracted to notice the side door opening. A tall, slender woman with long dark hair flipped her hand and an extendable baton flew across the room and struck the guy in the face. He staggered, clutching his nose, and Aiden watched Taylor launch herself across the room, then winced when Taylor got her hands, both metal and flesh, on the man.
Aiden was pretty sure fingers weren't supposed to bend that way.
She turned from the now unconscious goon. There was a gasp from the girl next to Aiden at the look on his adopted mother figure's face.
"You okay, Chicken?" She asked, her face softening.
"I'm good," he said, "just a couple bruises."
Taylor growled.
"Seriously," Aiden said, "I'm fine. There are at least two of them upstairs with Caitlin's dad."
Taylor nodded and stalked out of the room.
He saw the looks on his friends' faces.
"Dude," one of the guys said, "where did your mom learn to do that?"
Crap. He completely blanked on the cover story they had.
"Well she and Lisa were in the peace corps and..." He trailed off, trying to come up with something.
"Guys," one of the girls said, "don't you remember? She's from Brockton Bay."
There was a chorus of understanding “ooooohs”.
Aiden was left extremely confused as to what exactly that meant.