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Rain knocked on the windows, already given up the sweet act and was pounding like it meant it. Most of the town had retreated to their houses. The others were running away from the angry barrage from the sky tantrum.
Agent Smith was one such stick. He, unfortunately, got out with the thought that he could outrun the rain.
He had terribly miscalculated, and was now sopping wet, dreading the stern talking to he will receive from Pivot. He was a grown stick, and the other still decides to act as a parent. It was slightly comforting as well as irking, so he let it happen. Everyone needed a purpose, and being tossed into an unfamiliar terrain didn't really present many options.
Agent stopped at the café, wringing out as much water as he possibly could before entering. He could spare a couple hours, or at least until the rain retreated slightly. Some tea might do well for his incoming cold.
He went and sat in a booth with a window, closest to the counter. Agent waved a waitress over, ordered a simple cinnamon tea, and started going over some observation documents in his phone. Strangely however, he could feel the odd itch at the back of his neck, screaming ‘there's danger! He's not safe! Someone here isn't his ally!’
Agent sighed and took a leisurely look around, to ease his instincts, if for no other reason. Then he saw it. The one booth of people that was worse than any unexpected enemy or assassin.
He had completely missed the pixel, scribbley, and geometric sticks watching him with gaping jaws.
Why were they worse than any chance encounters with a mercenary with a grudge? Well, this lot was ten times more likely to go to the forest and agitate a bunch of animals. Scratch that, they'll agitate ALL the animals. That is not counting the one time Ballista got swallowed by an anaconda, and they don't even eat sticks by the norm.
But he couldn't stop the tornado of crossants, buns and coffee from taking over his table, even if he was rude. The lot of them had figured out they needed to start treating him like a grumpy toddler, offering ‘milkie tea’ and ‘chweeze', which always gets him to stop out of annoyance more than anything.
“Agent! Hellooooo, did ya hear meeee?” Ballista poked his arm incessantly. “Why's you out around here? Work ended an hour ago!”
“If you must know,” Agent hissed, gulping down his tea. “I stayed back to help Victim with some documents. And, I live around here.” He glared at the mercs that had invaded his table. “What exactly are YOU doing in this area, this is nearly the exact opposite of the office Apartments!”
Hazard scoffed. “We came here for the boba.” He rattled his cup of aforementioned drink. “Nothing like La Vander coffee boba in this entire city. Trust me, Primal would know. And then we got stuck in the rain. I… think the workers want us gone by now, we've been here over an hour and half. Nearly two.”
Agent didn't like what this was insinuating. He played dumb. “Then call a cab.”
“We came on our bikes. You know we're supposed to return them upon returning back to the compound, so there's no way we can call a cab.” Dang it, why did Primal need to be so smug about this.
“Cmon, boss! You've seen my Ma’s home, and you've seen Haz and Pri’s apartment, it's only fair we see yours now.” Ballista put on his most effective puppy eyes. Aka, looking up at you while tilting his head down and puckering his lips, like he wanted a kiss. The only reason it was effective was because of how disturbing it felt to witness such a sight.
And nobody dared to tell him that it wasn't cute, least of all Agent. “... Maybe I just don't want to.” Ballasta kept doing his eyes. Agent could feel it burn through his phone. “..... Fine, you lot can visit my house this once-”
“YEAH!” Ballista cheered, and Hazard choked on a boba pearl out of surprise.
“But you can't pester me about this again, little twat.” Ballista paid no mind to this, buying more boba in celebration, and a coffee for Agent. At least the stick had the decency to order something Agent liked, instead of being ignorant and ordering a boba. Try as they might, Agent refused to believe the black balls were as good as they insisted.
But now the issue of them finding out Agent lived in a house with certain.. ‘Roommates’. That could potentially cause a disaster.
It's not like them finding him weird was the issue. He was already odd, and rather proud of the fact, but if this lot found out this? They'd NEVER leave.
He clicked a button on his phone. Hopefully, that would take care of the issue.
The rain had slowed to gentle patter now, trying to keep up a war with the little numbers left within its clouds. Agent had led his team into the outskirts.
“You REALLY spend an hour traveling to and from work?” Hazard asked, riding up beside him.
“Only on weekends, or during emergencies.” He grunted back. “Otherwise I stay in my apartment in the office.”
“You have an apartment in the office?” Hazard yelled over the engines.
“Right next to the big boss’!” Ballista replied cheerily. Primal managed to shoot him a bewildered look through the helmet. “What? I pay attention!”
They slowed next to a two storey house. With Agent's attitude, you'd expect a plain grey house with the most basic front yard ever. But in fact, the yard was overrun with an abundance of flora and fern, peonies and hydrangeas along the rock path, a rosebush in one corner, a towering willow, and finally a little herb and veggie garden near the front steps.
Agent led them down the dirt path and into the bike shed behind his house, the one place he hadn't renovated yet. The light was not on as soon as he opened the door, so Agent concluded the flickering light finally gave out.
“..... I think I misjudged you, dude. I didn't know you liked to garden.” Hazard whipped his head around as soon as it was out of the helmet, whipping water droplets on Ballista.
Agent simply huffed in reply. Did they really think he would reveal everything about himself within a week of knowing them? Fools.
Once they were out relaxing on one of his porch benches, he pressed the button to shut the garage… but it didn't shut. Not even the third or fourth time. So the conclusion Agent came to was that this was a sign to stop procrastinating and get the shed torn down and redone. Fair enough. He had the lock inside the house, so he can install that after he gets his guests in the house.
He opened his door. That's when his mind started functioning at last, connecting the spotty weather to the odd patterns in his electricity.
The shed wouldn't work. The air conditioning was off for quite some time, judging by the lack of coldness. The lights weren't on. And there was a mini, slightly translucent version of Agent sitting on the sofa.
Agent stopped dead in his tracks. Hazard froze. Primal tried to keep Ballista from jumping the poor startled kid.
The kid in question stared at the group of four before deciding to scream at the top of his lungs and dive into the floorboards.
“HEY-” Agent jumped to try and catch the wiggling child, who simply faded through his hands. “Shoot, I forgot about that-”
A loud crash occurred from the kitchen entrance, followed by cursing. At this point, Primal couldn't help but investigate, despite Agent doing his best to sit them down on the couch.
Primal didn't fully know what he was expecting, maybe another double of Agent, but there were only shards of what appeared to be a shattered mug on the ground. Not a sign of the source of cursing. Agent came in behind him, sighing as he eyed the mess. “Are you kidding me?”
“Agent, what's going on with your house? Is it haunted?” Ballista asked, trying to peek into the kitchen.
“Maybe.” Was the only answer he let them work with. “There's no electricity…. Just great. And the electric board is in the attic. Even better.”
“I can go fix it boss!” Ballista offered, but pouted when Agent shot him a glare. Did his parents not tell him if he made a face it would be stuck that way?
After pouring out three cups of water and placing ice in them (the fridge was still cold, thankfully, so the electricity went out just a short while ago) Agent went off to fix the breaker. Not even a minute passed by after the electricity turned on when they heard the thud of something obviously going wrong.
“I'll go check on him,” Primal sighed. “Ill call you if it's more ghost issues.”
“I don't know what we can do, but hey, the more the merrier right?” Hazard called behind him. Primal rolled his eyes. Leave it to Hazard to make even the oddest issues sound solvable. He supposed because that was partially true.
But when Primal came face to face with two identical Agents, one stuck upside down on a rope ladder presumably to the attic, and one floating three feet off the ground? The solution here seemed like his bow.
“... well….” The two Agents looked at each other, then at Primal. “I’d ask which of you was real, but it seems pretty obvious.”
“...Fine. I live in a haunted house.” The one on the ladder sighed, like Primal was an inconsolable toddler. “And this is one of my ghosts, Shady.”
Sorry what? WHAT? How long has Agent lived in a haunted house? Why do the ghosts look like him? Why was he secretive about the whole thing? Why was he upside down on a ladder?
“.... If I promise to explain, will you get me off the ladder? I'm getting light headed here.” Primal blinked. Right. The ladder. He pulled Agent's foot loose from the knot, helping him hop onto the floor. “Thanks.”
“Anytime…. But you owe me an explanation. Why were you stuck?”
“The attic ghost doesn't like visitors, which is pretty inconvenient when the breaker goes off. It's out of his flight range, and he refuses to let any of the other ghosts near his territory.” Agent rubbed his temples. “Let's get to the kitchen before I explain the rest. Oh how I hate interventions…..”
“Then… why not let him speak?” Primal motioned at the ghost who was tossing the ropes into the basement hole. The hallway lights immediately started flickering. “Sorry! I didn't mean to offend you!” Primal waved his hands as he backed away from the peeved specter, who was visibly sulking.
Agent hit the clone upside of his head. “Control yourself. Go to the basement, and bring Pivot to the kitchen. I'm not going to speak for the next fifteen minutes at least.”
Primal watched as the ghost rolled his eyes and sunk into the floor, lights correcting themselves as soon as he left. “He's….. intense.”
Agent grunted in agreement. Shady has been silent from the day he appeared. A stick of few words, but his face spoke enough. From what they gathered of his facial reactions, there was a large-scale something (perhaps caught in the crossfire of a war or explosion) that killed a lot of sticks, including himself. His suit constantly made smoke, a nod to the way he died.
Pivot on the other hand, popped up from the floor like a performer. “You called Key? Are you finally gonna introduce us to your team?” He asked with a tip of his imaginary hat. Agent responded by facing the wall and placing his forehead against it. Pivot sighed, all father-like. “Over exerted yourself again? Cmon, let's get you some coffee. You too, Primal.”
Primal blinked in surprise. “You know me?”
“Of course I do!” Pivot replied while dragging them both down to the kitchen. “I always listen to people's rants, and boy, is Agent a windbag when he wants to be. Im Pivot, pleasure to meet you at last.”
“Uhh…. Thanks…” Because what else do you say when you meet a ghost that looks like your boss, but definitely isn't your boss?
It seems each version had their own quirks, Pivot's being he was the extrovert, thriving on information dumping newcomers and being the man of the house.
Pivot proceeded to do just that as the ghost gleefully made evening refreshments for the Mercs, including the two that had raced to hide behind the kitchen island upon seeing the Agent double.
‘Mercenaries’, Agent's foot. At least Primal pulled out a weapon, those two screamed as they hid, so he couldn't defend their flight instinct.
Agent proceeded to zoned out on the sofa, while the ghost kid they first saw (Star) was messing around with Agent's wristbands. Shady came out eventually, pulling out the cookies that had most of the ghost family coming out of their separate corners, mouths watering.(Most, considering some ghosts refused to move from their areas. We're looking at you, attic ghost)
They were all versions of Agent, that had their lives cut far too short, and often had some marks of their final ailments. They all found themselves here, in the house of the Agent they dubbed Key, and just…. Accepted this was their non-life now.
“This… that's crazy.” Primal said as he sipped his ghost-made coffee (cruelty free, of course) “It makes more sense than thinking you lived in a ghost house without knowing there's a bunch of ghosts living secret lives when you aren't around. This is really good, by the way. Both the coffee and the cookies.”
Shady nodded to him in acknowledgement of the feedback, and Pivot glowed, placing more cookies on the plate. “Thanks! Here, eat up! Shady loves to bake-” there was slight flickering of lights that Pivot ignored. “-and we can only eat so much.”
“Speaking of which-” Ballista passed a couple cookies to Star, who sat on the floor to devour them. “-how DO you eat? Aren't you ghosts? How are you intangible and tangible sometimes?”
“We can switch back and forth as needed, although it takes up energy. It's nice to pretend we're still human sometimes.” Pivot said as he adjusted his glasses.
“But HOW-” Star covered Ballista’s mouth.
“Shush.” The kid demanded. “We don't think about it. In this house, if a good thing happens, we shut up.”
“But-”
Star pressed his hand harder. “Shooooooooooosh.”
Agent shook his head. Sometimes, the kid took things much too seriously. He was right nonetheless. If something positive occurs, they don't try to play it cool, or look the gift horse in the mouth. Everyone shuts up, and accepts graciously that this happened, and not look past it further.
Agent won a gift hamper? Nice. All his missions went perfectly that week? Slightly suspicious, but okay. The ghosts can conveniently change back and forth from solid to intangible? That's cool. Treat it like a toddler showing a crayon scribble, hang it up on the fridge if it's slightly better than normal, then forget it ever happened.
“This is so cool though. Why'd you keep it a secret and be all weird?” Hazard fed a cookie to Star, who seemed to enjoy getting triple the amount of treats he usually does.
However, Star glared at Primal when he offered a cookie, which Pivot used as a demonstration. “Beacause of things like this. Star has some.. issues with his Primal, which is translating over here. We didn't want conflict or to resurface any pain for some alters.”
“... I did something to him? But look at him, he's just a kid!” Primal choked in horror. Star peaked over the edge of the sofa at that.
“You didn't do anything to him, Primal.” Agents said warily. “From his recounts, and the way I witnessed you, both your characters are very different. The other Primal sounded more selfish and close minded.”
“Yeah, Key's right. I don't hate you.” Star came around to sit by Primal's legs. “I just remember my Primal. But he wouldn't have given me a cookie.”
Primal tried giving him a cookie again, and he accepted it, albeit reluctantly.
The crew ended up getting a house tour by Star, much to the dismay of Agent. But who was he to resist those big, sweet, innocent eyes?
They were shown the basement, which the ghosts had transformed into a life-retirement sanctuary (Sunflower seemed to enjoy Primal's space, not fear it as Agent was expecting, while Hazard hit it up with Nodes in wrestling), the training rooms, the recreation rooms, and the guests' spaces. (Which the mercs immediately made themselves home in). They were shown virtually everywhere, besides Agent's room(which was off limits to the mercs) and the attic (for obvious reasons).
“Well you're certainly comfy.” Ballista whistled at the pantry. “Did you host a house warming yet?”
“... I never found that a useful tradition-”
“He didn't have enough friends.” Star translated. When Agent glared, he just shrugged. “What? I'm right. Even as a school outcast Sunflower had friends. You need to up your game.”
“Cmon kiddo, be nicer. There's better ways to state a fact.” Hazard chided, and Star had the decency to look ashamed. “Anyway, we need to fix that. Let's have an official housewarming party next weekend.”
Agent only half heartedly tried to shut down the ideas, for he found he wasn't as against the idea of his team in the house as he first did. Perhaps it's because the kids seemed to enjoy it, perhaps it's because they made it feel much more like a home by leaving some of their belongings when they left in the morning, but Agent didn't stop them from coming back.
He did change the position of the spare key, however, since Ballista already found that.