Yafu was one hell of a name but as far as Zavier was concerned, him wanting to go home was the point not to miss. In Zavier’s humble opinion, going home was a great goal for Yafu compared to snapping Zavier’s neck. Zavier manufactured another sympathetic look as he spoke, trying to get his words across in a friendly, helpful way. “I can drive you where you need to go, man. I won’t tell anyone about this. You can just go home.” Despite the cordiality, Zavier was blatantly lying. He was calling the police the second he was alone. This guy knew where he lived and who knows who else he could hurt.

Yafu shot Zavier an annoyed look and raised his right arm. Zavier tensed up, bracing for another attack. Yafu’s arm once again began to gain a soft yellow glow. Zavier blinked his eyes several times in disbelief. He had to be hallucinating.

Suddenly, a low rumble started. Zavier frantically looked around for this new threat but saw nothing as the sound only increased in volume. His eyes finally locked on his bed and dresser. It was subtle but they were vibrating which was causing the rumbling noise. The volume continued to increase as the furniture began to shake in a more visually obvious manner. Zavier got up from his chair. He had to stop whatever was going on before the house shook from its foundation. His instinct was to tackle Yafu in lieu of any other options.

Recognizing Zavier was preparing to strike, Yafu released his arm and the room stopped shaking. The glow also dissipated from his arm. Seeing Zavier was still on edge, Yafu slowly raised his arms to eye level and pointed his palms towards Zavier passively. “You need to stop talking to me like I’m crazy or we're going to waste each other’s time. You seemed to ignore my soul aura the first time I used it and concluded I was speaking nonsense. I hope the second demonstration can broaden your horizons.”

Zavier knew Yafu was right. That was unexplainable. It was still too much to process. Unfortunately, Zavier had no choice but to just accept this insanity until he got out of the situation. He could collect his thoughts at a time when he was safe. Until then, he needed to know more to act effectively. With this in mind, he asked the most preliminary question on his mind. “What are you?”

“I’m the same species as you, I think. I’m not from here. Like, I’m not from this planet. I was chasing someone and I got taken here. Where I’m from, everyone knows about soul aura and many can use it. Here, it seems like no one can.”

“I have never heard of soul aura or anyone being able to do anything close to what you just did. I still don’t believe you did it even though I just saw it twice.” Zavier at this point was too flustered to be anything other than honest.

“I must apologize.”

“Why?” Zavier asked this not because he thought the man who broke into his house did not owe him an apology and much much more, but rather because he was intrigued about what Yafu might apologize for. He did not seem to be the apologizing type.

“I incapacitated that man last night and have been following you ever since under false assumptions.”

“You’ve been following me!” Zavier should not have been all that surprised given what had already occurred, but part of him still had not adjusted to what this man was capable of.

“Yeah, since last night.” Yafu replied, brushing off the concern in Zavier’s voice, “I thought you were working with Fang, along with the man and girl you were with. But as unlikely as it seems, you really have no idea what’s going on.”

Zavier took immediate offense to the word unlikely, “How is it so hard to believe I have nothing to do with whatever you’re involved in? I’m a random high school kid.”

Yafu once again ignored Zavier’s exasperation when he responded, “I have no idea what high school is, my language has no equivalent for it so my soul aura technique doesn’t translate.” Several questions immediately rose to Zavier’s mind but he bit his tongue and let Yafu continue, “But the spell that brought me here is a transport spell. It works like a handshake. You can reach out but you have to grab onto someone already there with the necessary amount of soul energy. The spell sent me to this settlement, specifically. And you are the only person here with anywhere close to the needed energy to be an anchor. If I hadn’t disrupted the spell in transit I suspect my enemies would have arrived here right in front of you. Instead we crashed near your general location.”

“Can I send you back?” Zavier could not believe how crazy the words he had just spoken sounded.

“Yeah, with a few cycles of training.” Yafu said with a sarcasm that was lost on Zavier,

“Cycles?”

“I think you people call something similar here years.” After that explanation, the sarcasm was no longer lost on Zavier. Yafu continued explaining in a slightly patronizing tone, “It’s not a one to one comparison but the point is we have no immediate solutions and we have problems with much shorter time frames.”

“I don’t care about your problems.” It was actually a testament to Yafu that Zavier now believed he could speak plainly and honestly to him. “I just want you gone.”

“My problems are yours. Or they will be.” Yafu said, shifting to a foreboding demeanor, “There is another interloper here with me. The man I thought you were working with. I am here by accident, he is here by his own design.”

“Shen?” Zavier guessed the only other name he had heard Yafu say.

“Yes. Shen. He will try to bring his friends here. The Poison Fang. They’re a sickness on my world, but they will be a plague on yours. I have no doubt that eliminating you and I will not be very far down their list once the reinforcements arrive.”

“Why me? I have no fight to pick.” Zavier responded. His goal remained to remove himself from Yafu’s affairs.

“This world is a desert. There are only muted puddles of soul aura here. The aura of others is so uninspiring that you are a tree amongst grass. Shen has the same sense. When they get here, they will find you and they will remove anyone who might disrupt their search. The only people who I can sense with that disruptive potential are in this room.”

“Are they going to, like, conquer us?” Zavier immediately felt stupid after he asked. It was not a stupid question, but Yafu did not look at him like a genius after he asked. It was unfair to Zavier though, he was completely lost. He needed to watch more sci-fi at this point.

Yafu sighed and moved his gaze to the window again. Zavier could sense a deep bout of introspective existentialism come over Yafu. His face showed it all. He was clearly distrubed by something. Bringing himself together, Yafu began to speak and for the first time did not move his eyes to match Zavier’s when he spoke. “Where I’m from… it’s called the Biterrain. Its two worlds that are linked by the spiritual energy of the people who inhabit them. We use portals to get from one world to the other. There is a myth of a third world. A world called Earth. This myth is central to our beliefs and our culture because this third world is the resting place of our all-powerful founder-King. He is supposed to be immortal as well, so finding this third world is akin to finding God. The Fang are zealots. If they believe this is the same Earth as the myths, they will rip your world apart with religious devotion to find our King.”

“Do you believe this King is here?” Zavier asked.

Yafu turned his head to give Zavier the most forlorn look he had ever received. “The only part I can believe about the myths is that our supposed savior abandoned his people. Either way, no man is immortal. The only thing that could be here is a corpse and I don’t need to worry about any more of those.”

Yafu's face contorted into a very painful look. This was not the mood Zavier wanted him in. Yafu could still kill him in more ways than Zavier could imagine. Zavier racked his mind for an appropriate change of topic, but he was drawing blanks. What can you really talk to an alien about?

Suddenly, this concern faded to the background with the emergence of a new one. Zavier could hear his garage door opening. One of his parents was back from work. Yafu had heard the garage as well and had brought himself into a defensive stance as a slight yellow hue returned to his hands.

“Hey, hey,” Zavier said frantically, “It’s one of my parents, they’re just coming home.”

“The rumbling noise.” Yafu replied, stopping but not reversing the buildup of yellow glow.

“Their car. We use it to get around places faster.” Zavier prayed they had cars where Yafu was from.

“The metal things everyone is in?” Zavier’s prayer was not answered but this rudimentary level of understanding was the next best thing.

“Yes, yes. They’re just for transportation, no threat.” Zavier had his hands up as he spoke. This defensive posture was by instinct, there was nothing he could really do to stop this man other than talk him down.

Yafu stayed in his stance for another second, then relaxed himself and laughed. Zavier exhaled in relief and the glow dissipated from Yafu. Yafu turned to Zavier with a big smile on his face. It was this boyish look that made Zavier realize Yafu could not be much older than him. The dirt and poor grooming made him look a lot more aged but this deception was removed when he smiled. He was still a kid or at most a very young man.

Yafu could still barely suppress his laughter as he spoke. “You know how much those things scared me initially. I hid from them for at least a day and a night when I first got here. It was only after I saw one turned off, when I got close enough to operate it myself that I could function here. It was quite the puzzle.”

“You know you just admitted to grand theft auto right?” Zavier responded, sharing the laugh with Yafu.

Yafu could not hide his happiness to see Zavier lightening up, “I assume it is illegal to just take them, but I’ve got to imagine that is one of the least interesting activities I have engaged in since I’ve been here. Plus I don't think anyone here takes nightrock bits for payment.”

“You’d get more jail time for breaking an entry and threatening murder.” Zavier was only barely joking even though his delivery was still deceptively comedic. It was time to put the passive aggression on hold as Zavier could hear the parent who was home walking up the stairs. These walls would only keep their conversation private to those on the first floor. He had to hide Yafu in order to prioritize keeping his parents away from this madness. That meant never letting them meet Yafu.

“Go into the bathroom for a minute, I’ll tell you when to come out.” Zavier said as he motioned to his bathroom door.

“What?” Yafu replied in a dazed confusion. He then picked up on another person approaching and gave a slight nod before quietly filing into the bathroom. The bathroom was Zavier’s own with no connection to any other room in the house. He had used it as a place to hide things from his parents when he was younger. Now he was hiding a whole person. There was a knock at his door. Zavier opened.

“Did you miss school today? I saw your car this morning.” The speaker was his mom, a plain short woman with short auburn hair. She was dressed in a cheap pantsuit that was standard and fitting, but ultimately uninspiring. She had an assortment of freckles and the beginnings of a dropping wrinkling face with a perpetual look of baggy tired eyes. Honestly, Zavier’s mom and dad could have posed for the painting American Gothic and the world would have been none the wiser.

“Yeah, I felt really sick. But I’m better now.” Zavier replied in a casual manner that had only started really being accepted with his parents in the last eighteen months or so.

“Alright, try to finish your high school career strong. I got crawfish for tonight.” Crawfish were a regular at their house. It was his Dad’s favorite.

“I might eat with you, I might have to get some errands for school tomorrow.” Zavier replied, having a feeling he needed to have some wiggle room with his whereabouts for the evening. Zavier’s mother nodded and turned to head back downstairs. Zavier shut the door and flipped on the TV to add some ambient noise in his room. He opened the bathroom door and motioned to Yafu to come out.

“Was that your mother?” Yafu asked as he strolled back into Zavier’s bedroom.

“Yes and now that she’s here, you need to speak quietly. If my parents become involved I won’t help you.”

Yafu responded by staring blankly out the window. He suddenly seemed to be in another world mentally. This annoyed Zavier as his parents were too important a stipulation for him not to get a more convincing affirmation from Yafu.

“You understand right?” Zavier said firmly.

Yafu snapped back to the present moment and nodded to show he understood. He then quickly transitioned back to his goals. “We need to find out where Shen is before he can bring reinforcements. You were my only real lead when I got here. He’s very likely still in this immediate area but it's a lot harder by his own design to track him the way I tracked you.” Yafu glanced at Zavier after he finished hoping the “Earth expert” of the two would have a plan.

Zavier knew Yafu was expecting him to say something useful but he was at a loss. He sighed in exasperation and motioned toward the TV where the local evening news was running. They were reporting what The Spider had predicted. The two men in a coma and the burn patient were like catnip for these programs. “You don’t think he’s leaving a trail like you are?”

“What do you mean?” Yafu was not amused.

“Well, you got lucky about last night. Neither the man you attacked or me are going to say anything but the stolen car and the three people you put in the hospital are officially noticed. By the way, where is the car you stole, it isn’t nearby is it?” Zavier did not know what they were going to do about the car at this point if Yafu had just left it around the block but if he had, it definitely meant they had to move carefully in the neighborhood.

“I put it back where I found it. Way back where we first met. I needed to be on foot to follow you effectively after that anyways.”

“Ok, I guess they can’t really ID an alien so your fingerprints aren’t an issue. But there’s going to be a very spirited investigation about the three people in the hospital. That type of shit does not go under radar here. What were you doing, just swinging your glowfists at people?”

“My what?” Yafu replied in a confused tone before brushing the obvious shot aside, “I told you I didn’t do anything when I first got here but hide from the cars. The first thing I did afterwards was get one and find you.”

“So that’s not you.” Zavier asked as he motioned to the newscaster with the license pictures of the two people in comas on the screen.

“No.” Yafu said flatly.

Just like that, Zavier felt a sense of direction. “Then that’s probably your guy. Shen. We need to figure more out about what happened to these people.” Zavier mimicked the expecting glance Yafu gave him earlier.

Yafu glanced at the TV and then looked at Zavier. “I need you to translate for me.”

Zavier was confused. “You can speak English, dude.”

Yafu responded, his voice barely trying to conceal his irritation. “No, I can’t. I’m using my soul aura to hear your intent in my language. In fact I’m doing the work for both of us so you can understand me in my language.”

“How the fuck does that even work?”

“Brain waves and such. I learned how to do it, not how it works.” As Yafu was speaking, Zavier noticed for the first time his lips were not matching what he was saying. It was like watching a foreign TV show. “It has a limited range. If we were shouting at each other from across a canyon, you’d hear gibberish from me and vice versa. It also doesn’t work through this moving picture. I can’t lock in on their cognitive intent through the glass veil.”

Zavier sighed. He was going to feel crazier than he already did repeating the local news verbatim for the next thirty minute block. But he obliged. The report was done in a standard local news format. Basic facts with the slightest hint of fear mongering and threat exaggeration. Basically, the two men were found slumped outside bars late at night, initially thought to be drunk until they didn’t respond to bouncers at closing time. One was an accountant, one was an insurance agent. Both were family men and a lot of the story focused on that and the strangeness of their condition. The third guy was a security guard for a warehouse just outside of town. He was found at his post by a coworker. The man claimed he was attacked but could not provide much detail of the assault. The fact that the warehouse had no exterior cameras made the perpetrator quite elusive since they did not appear to enter the warehouse after assaulting the guard.

Zavier finished the second half of the new report and then started on the repeat at the top of the hour until he got to the point he had started at. Thankfully, they did not spend much time at all on anything else. The celebrity birthdays and deaths translation to Yafu was a long three minutes.

Once they had gotten to repeat information, Zavier let Yafu know and then turned to Yafu and waited for him to speak. Yafu took a minute, standing as still as a statue while he gathered his thoughts. Then he turned to Zavier and spoke like a chess player breaking down his opponents moves. “He wiped the memories of the two men he talked to at those bars. Most likely because he asked questions that were suspicious. I believe because he was looking for large indoor private spaces to perform the ritual to bring his friends here. That would explain the third man. He went to the warehouse the man was guarding but gave up on it as a location because it lacked the privacy he needed. He will go to the next place on the list. It will be another large space that is enclosed and empty.” Yafu then broke his analytical trance and turned to Zavier, “If you can take me to such places we should get close enough that I can sniff him out. We got lucky with the security guard last night. Tonight is most likely the last chance to stop him before we have more enemies to worry about.”

Zavier hesitated after the last sentence of Yafu’s plan. He was unsure what “stopping” this guy meant. At this point, Zavier felt the same feelings as when May texted The Spider earlier that day. The situation was spiraling out of hand and he needed to regain control before something dangerous happened. Trying to be as gentle as possible, Zavier offered an alternative to an impatient Yafu, “What if we tip off the police here and they take care of it. If he is what you say he is, we’re putting ourselves in a dangerous situation.”

That line of thinking made it very apparent to Yafu that Zavier had lived a better life than him. Yafu was not as lucky to be so deferential to his problems back home. It was going to take some convincing to get Zavier to take risks. Zavier just had more appealing places to retreat to in his own life.

“It’s not a good call.” Yafu said dismissively.

“Why not? They’ll at least have numbers and firepower.” Zavier challenged.

“If this world is as ignorant as it appears, then they will not take you seriously enough to send more than cannon fodder to Shen. By the time they are convinced there is a threat, it will be too late. Besides, we actually are the most qualified to fight him.” Yafu replied.

Zavier's choice was made pretty clear to him by those comments. Yafu was going to fight this man. Zavier could either help him or abandon him.

After a pause to consider this choice, Zavier spoke, “Before anything else we need to get you cleaned up. Do you have showers back in your world?” Yafu shot Zavier an annoyed look to which Zavier responded, “It was an honest question.”

“Yeah we do. I’ve had priorities above everyday washing.” Yafu said matter of factly.

Internally, Zavier was a little disgusted and annoyed at what sounded like a cop out for just plain poor hygiene, but he decided to conserve his energy and just roll with it. “Be that as it may, you’ll draw a lot of attention this dirty and with these clothes. Use my shower and I’ll give you some clothes to help you blend in. Just to get us around while we look for Shen.” Yafu obliged this request and headed into the bathroom. Zavier sighed in relief when he heard the shower turn on. It seemed Yafu was not unbearably stubborn.

While Yafu showered, Zavier went through his dresser and picked out clothes for his guest. Zavier had an inch or two on Yafu but it was close enough that almost all his clothes would fit. It would be better than the mud stained robe Yafu had been wearing prior. Sifting through the stack of folded clothes, he selected his beat up but still wearable pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt with his school mascot imposed on the chest area. Yafu was going to fit in a little better with these. It did occur to Zavier as he was picking out clothes that he was going through the process that would end with him following Yafu’s lead into this fight. He had initially proposed Yafu shower partially to give himself time to think about what to do, but the second he heard the water go on, he flipped on autopilot and started the task in front of him. Zavier could not figure out an acceptable alternative with any sort of certainty of success. In the end, he was just defaulting to Yafu’s plan.

As Zavier heard the water shut off, he opened the door slightly, reached his arm in, and dropped the clothes onto the bathroom counter. He then sat on his bed and waited for a few minutes while Yafu got himself situated. It was a little amusing to hear clothes get pulled on only for them to get pulled off as Yafu clearly was testing out which way they were to go on. As he walked out, Zavier was half expecting him to have his pants or shirt on backwards, but to Yafu’s credit he got it right.

Now that Yafu had cleaned off, Zavier was able to size him up well for the first time. Yafu was incredibly skinny and scrawny at first glance, but had some subtle lean muscle mass on his frame. His dark olive skin and bright, curly blonde hair stood out more without mud and rain in it. His eyes were a dull, dark red. The combination of phenotypic traits on this man were certainly unique. Hopefully alien would not be people's initial guess when they looked at him.

Yafu gave a small nod to Zavier, almost asking him to say something if he was not wearing the clothes correctly. Zavier let his silence in combination with a quick look down of Yafu serve as affirmation that Yafu was.

Understanding this, Yafu moved back to his prior focus, “We need to get going. He’ll almost certainly start the ritual at sundown, when he believes he will have the most privacy. We’re going to have to check every place you know that fits his needs. Nothing escapes through the cracks.” This was the first time Yafu let a good amount of deep animosity seep into his instructions. Zavier could tell it was not for him.

Yafu turned and headed for the door. Zavier shot up from the bed and tapped him on the shoulder before he reached the knob. “We can’t let my parents see you. They need to stay out of this.”

“How do I get to your car?” Yafu responded in a ‘figure it out before I do’ tone.

Zavier hesitated to gather his thoughts. An idea formed. He pointed at the window. “Drop out through there, go left around the house, and duck low to avoid the windows. I’ll meet you at my car at the front of the house. Wait for me.” Yafu registered Zavier’s instructions and turned to the window. With an impressive amount of flexibility and smooth athleticism, Yafu slipped out of the window and dropped down. Not wanting to have the mercurial alien in his front yard unintended for long, Zavier moved quickly out of his room and down the stairs. Trying to avoid a signal of anything being amiss, Zavier walked discreetly past his parents in the family room without much eye contact.

“They need me for a last second shift tonight.” Zavier announced, hoping that would give him a blank check for being out late. His father looked up from his tablet, nodded, and looked back down again. Zavier was in the clear. He grabbed his keys from the bin and walked outside. Yafu was standing next to his driver door peering through the window.

“Otherside, you’re not driving.” Zavier said as he moved toward the driver side door. Yafu looked up, nodded and headed to the passenger side. Once they were both in, Zavier started the car. Yafu was not a seatbelt guy. Zavier shifted to drive and drove out of the subdivision towards the area’s main road.

“What is our plan?” Yafu did not hide his impatience. His frantic energy had begun to wear on Zavier.

“There are a few places across town to check.” Zavier slowed his speaking pace to a crawl, hoping to slow their energy down a little. “The first place is a condemned hotel down the road of the warehouse that that guard got burned at. Then, they’re a lot of old farming barns and storage lots that are just outside of town. If we don’t find anything there, I’ll think of some other places.”

“Be thinking of the other places while we are at these first few.” Yafu ordered rather rudely. Zavier sighed. It was going to be a long night. They might not even find anything and Yafu was liable to get more cranky with each passing dud.

Zavier drove for just under a half an hour before he pulled into the parking lot of the old hotel. There was no one else here. This hotel was set to be demolished this summer. It was three stories tall and in a decrepit condition. The only reason the city was dragging on tearing it down was that it was too far away from anything else to be a pressing eyesore. Empty undeveloped land surrounded it about a mile in either direction with the exception of the warehouse about halfway in between. You could only just make out the housing line in the distance as the sun was setting.

Zavier hoped Yafu’s soul sense thing was good enough that they did not have to search all three floors of this place. The elevators might not even be working to go up. Another thing was bothering Zavier about Yafu’s abilities. The man clearly was a superman amongst himself and everyone else on earth. But he had no idea how impressive his powers were compared to other users back at his home. Yafu seemed to be very pessimistic about what would happen if Shen and his friends were able to run amok on earth. Was he taking Zavier to a fight they were going to lose? Most people would logically avoid this type of direct confrontation with a superior foe which should imply Yafu was confident he could beat Shen, but the former may not be a safe assumption. In the brief time Zavier had known him, he got the sense Yafu would show up to fights he had no chance of winning. This fear loomed over Zavier as they got out of his car. It may be an empty night of searching but it was impossible to get a read on what would happen if they really did meet Shen face to face.

Yafu leapt out the second the car was turned off and walked quickly toward the hotel. Zavier got out a little more deliberately and trailed behind Yafu. He was expecting to make a lot of these walks tonight and was already conserving his legs. Yafu got about five feet away from the glass front doors and stopped. He leaned in toward the hotel and squinted as if he was trying to make out small writing at a distance. Zavier thought it was more likely than not that Yafu could not interpret written English based on how his powers seemed to work, so it was a safe assumption he was trying to sense Shen.

Sure enough, as Zavier strolled up next to him, there was a faint yellow glow in his eyes. This continued for about two or so minutes. Zavier patiently stood behind Yafu. For safety purposes, he was going to let this man take the lead whatever they went tonight. Finally the glow dissipated from his eyes and Yafu straightened up.

“No luck?” Zavier said as he started to turn back towards the car.

“No, he’s here.” Yafu replied so intently focused on the hotel doors he hadn’t even noticed Zavier starting to head back. This caught Zavier tremendously off guard. He did not realize how unready he was for this until it was in front of him. It was delusional but Zavier had subconsciously expected to not find this guy tonight at all. Or at the very least at a stop down the line. The fact that it had come this early was a shock.

Zavier began to tense up and felt sick to his stomach. What was he doing here? What would happen if he got hurt or died? What if this ends with him in jail for trespassing? In his distress, a very critical question floated to the top of his mind, one he was upset for not asking earlier. “What are you planning to do once we face him?” Zavier asked, his voice cracking slightly as the adrenaline hit a fevered pitch. It was an open ended question but there was a binary choice of intent on Yafu’s end that Zavier had to know.

Yafu sniffed out the real crux of Zavier's question and responded calmly and clearly, “No prison here can hold him. Even if there was a way to deny him his aspirations logistically, I had one goal when I started this and it remains the same no matter the world we’re on.” Yafu’s implication was clear. Zavier now knew he was planning to help with a murder.