It was already dark out and the two arrived at Anderson's house. Anderson sighed deeply.

"Welcome to my humble abode, kid."

Anderson looked deeply disappointed. The house was a small one, surrounded by two much larger houses at least double the size. Anderson opened the door revealing a dusty graveyard. He put his hand up to the back of his head and began scratching it, sighing deeply

"Make yourself at home."

Len didn't know what that meant, he never once had a place to call "home" before.

"Please, don't mind the mess."

He looked around, the house seemed noticeably old. There were cobwebs in every and the floor by the entrance was made up of dark wooden planks, destined to give a splinter. Just to the left of the entrance was a room. There was a small table in this center with a singular lightbulb hanging overhead. A TV sat on a box in the corner of the room, a controller lay on the ground just before it, connecting to a small console right next to the tv.

"What are you looking at?"

Len pointed towards the TV.

"That's where I play my games, you wanna see?"

Len nodded curiously. Anderson threw his left towards the wall, hitting a small switch. An orange glow came from the middle of the room, and the overhead light sparked on.

"You can go ahead and turn it on, just give me a second to change my clothes, then I'll show you how it works."

Len turned around and walked towards the console, staring at the TV. All he could see from it was a bunch of wires and pieces of metal connecting together inside a gray box. He looked around the side of the TV and couldn't see inside, only from the front he could. He sat down in front of the TV and picked up the controller from the ground. He started pressing every button, but nothing worked.

Anderson entered the room, donning a white shirt and blue shorts.

"You figure it out?"

Len shook his head.

"Here let me show you how, you see this colorful logo right here?

Len nodded

"Take your finger, and slight push on it"

Len stood up and pushed on the logo, nothing happened.

"Really? Is this thing acting up again? Here let me try."

Anderson pressed the button, but nothing happened.

"Looks like it's not working, kid, let me try a few things to try and fix it."

He looked behind the TV and found an outlet with two power cables connected to it. He unplugged the bottom cable and plugged it back in right after. He went back to the console and tried again. Nothing happened.

"Sorry kid, looks like it's not working, maybe we can try another time, but now doesn't seem like the time. I would get another one, but the boss hasn't paid me in weeks, I can barely even eat as it is right now."

He exited the room.

"Follow me kid, it's getting pretty late, we should probably head to sleep."

Len followed Anderson into a bigger room with a a dirty mattress in the corner. On top of the mattress, lay two navy colored blankets.

"You can sleep over there on the mattress tonight, I'll just sleep on the floor next to it."

Len approached the mattress and touched it. The mattress was firm but the blankets were fuzzy and warm. Len layed down on top of the mattress, while Anderson did the same on the wood flooring to the right of him.

"Hey kid, can you hand me one of those blankets?"

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Len grabbed the bigger of the two blankets and handed it over to Anderson.

"Thanks kid."

He grabbed the blanket from Len and rolled over on his side, pulling the blanket over his body."

"Good night."

"good night."

Anderson smiled, then closed his eyes, he was fast asleep. Len looked over towards Anderson and turned towards him, staring at him for a moment. He slowly closed his eyes.

***

"Hey kid, wake up, I'm going to be late for work."

"Huh?"

"Get on up kid, we have to leave here soon, I don't want the team leader scolding me again."

Len slowly got up, peering at Anderson who was already dressed in a black suit. Len stood up and Anderson suddenly grabbed him by his arm, pulling him along.

"Let's go kid!"

Anderson sprinted out the door and down the street draggin Len along, he ran across traffic and safely made it to the front of the office building.

"This happens everyday! It's a good thing I live pretty close to the office huh kid?"

Len nodded.

"Let's head on in."

The two headed inside, Anderson quickly spotted the team leader and detective talking. Morin turned his head towards the entrance, spotting Anderson along with Len.

"Ah, you're finally here." He said.

He looked at Len and smiled.

"We meet again, kiddo."

"It looks like you're doing well detective." Anderson said.

"Indeed I am."

Team Leader Marko approached them. He placed his hand on Morin's back.

"Morin here was just talking to me about everything that happened yesterday, and so far it seems his suspicions were correct. This kid most likely had something to do with yesterday's abnormal spike on the graphs."

Morin smirked proudly.

"So what are we going to do?"

He glanced down towards Len.

"Well first of all, we are going to need to keep him around."

Anderson became confused.

"Why is that?"

"Based on what Morin described, this kid could potentially possess a power that could be of great help to us."

"What kind of power?

"As of right now only the kid knows, so to figure that out, I thought it would be best for him to tag along on some of your missions."

His eyes opened wide.

"You're going to send the kid on missions?"

"Either that or we send him to the lab. We could benefit from experimenting on him, but that would be too difficult since we don't know if there are any conditions for his powers."

"We don't need to subject the kid to that."

"I agree, however, this kid looks fresh off the streets, and we don't know if he's gotten any form of education up until this point."

"Are you suggesting we teach him?

"It would be better for him to enroll in a school."

"How so?"

"Looking at the kid right now, he seems to be severely timid, which won't be of any help during missions. Enrolling him in a school can help teach him to communicate with others, while teaching him the things he needs to succeed."

"I guess that would be good for him. How should we go about his past though, maybe his parents are still alive, maybe they are looking for him."

Marko began shaking his head.

"That wouldn't be the case, I saw yesterday his eyes showed nothing, they were completely desolate, no sign of life. It's very unlikely that this kid has people searching for him, and if he did, they would probably only want to use him."

"I understand."

Suddenly the Team Leader kneeled down in front Len and asked him something.

"How was staying the night with Anderson here?"

"g-good."

Anderson looked confused.

"Why'd you ask him that?"

The Team Leader stood back up and looked towards Anderson.

"I want the kid to stay with you from now on, you're the one who is going to accompany him on missions, so it's for the best if you two can become close."

"Why my place!?"

"Don't worry Anderson, we'll pay you and take care of all of the child's expenses."

A smile grew on his face.

"I'll do it!"

Marko turned around facing towards the front desk.

"Just make sure he is well fed and attends school, he needs to develop properly if we want to know more about what he is capable of."

"I'll make sure to do that!"

"Alright, you may leave early today, make sure to enroll him in a school by the end of the day so he can start developing as soon as possible."

Anderson looked at Len.

"Are you ready to go?"

Len nodded.

The two started walking towards the exit, but were interrupted by a man behind them.

"Wait a second!"

Morlin shouted from behind the two.

"Come back here for a second, we still need to discuss some things!"

Anderson and Len turned around and walked back towards Morlin.

"Kid, I need to ask you a question if that's fine with you. Do you remember anything at all from yesterday?"

"Y-yes."

"Did you perhaps remember the name of that man near the counter? We were able to identify one of the men but not the other."

"Y-yes, his name was Doc."

"Doc?"

Len nodded.

Merlin began to ponder, transcending into his own mind. He quickly snapped out of it.

"That seems more like an alias than a name, did he say anything else about himself?"

"No."

Anderson interrupted.

"Is there a problem?"

"Sort of, after dropping off the Star-Alloy sample at the lab, I returned back to where we found the kid, and everything was gutted."

Anderson was baffled.

"Who do you think it was?" He asked.

"We are currently unsure right now, but we are positive that they are related to the two men in the room."

"Hopefully we can figure it out sooner than later." Anderson responded.

"I agree, just make sure you stay vigilant when approaching any mission, you remember that too kid."

"okay." Len responded.

Morin turned around and headed towards the elevator, waving at the two of them. Anderson looked back down towards Len.

"I think it's time we head back home now, I still have a lot to do today."

"okay."

A shine suddenly appeared from Andersons face. He had a big smile plastered on his face.

"Before we do that however, let's head to an electronics store, since the Team Leader said he would start paying me!"

***