"Artemis, Come Home"

Chapter 2: The Stranger

Classes came and went rather quickly today for Artemis. It was mostly just things like the studies of quirks and what would be considered appropriate when saving people from certain situations. 

Now that school was over for the day, he had a lot of shopping to do. Not only did he need more fabrics and accessories for a new design for the Cafe Club, but he also needed to pick up some groceries so Shino can make dinner. Artemis decided that jogging to the mall would probably be the best idea since he didn't know when it would close.

He supposed that he should've watched where he was going because as he turned a corner, he crashed into someone. Both the boys fell over on the sidewalk, trying to keep balance, Artemis losing his glasses in the process.

"O-oh, geeze. I'm s-so sorry!"

Artemis apologised repeatedly to the boy as he searched for his glasses on the pavement. The person he bumped into grabs them and hands them to him. "Here."

After putting his glasses back on, he could now make out what this new person looked like. The man looked a little older than him. He had piercing red eyes and what looked like platinum blond hair with a hint of red faded in; however, it might've looked like there was red in his hair because of his attire. The man wore a scarlet red jacket over a dark grey and white striped shirt. His pants were faded (probably from wearing them so much) and had red and black sneakers.

Artemis noticed that he was probably staring for too long and shook his head slightly, breaking from his trance. He stands and faces the stranger.

"Oh, thank you."

"You should really watch where you're going," the stranger told him. "You could've gotten seriously hurt."

Artemis brushed off any dirt that might've gotten on his clothes. "Oh, I'll be fine. My quirk would've activated and stopped me from getting hurt too badly... but I'm so sorry that I bumped into you, mister."

The man looked at him with an expression Artemis couldn't quite read, almost as if he was looking for something. 

"Well, let this be a lesson to you to watch where you're going. Try not to do it again, or I won't be as nice," the man scolded him as he walked away from Artemis and turned a corner.

"Hey, wait! I didn't get you're-" Before Artemis could follow him, he noticed that the man was no longer there. He looked around to see if he was just hiding to look mysterious or if he was walking the other way. 

After having no luck, Artemis stood there and wondered if he had just imagined the man. He had been losing sleep from those vivid dreams after all. They could be messing with his brain to think that someone bumped into him and scolded him to watch where he was going. Yeah... He's sure that's what happened.

Without another word, Artemis headed to the mall to do his errands, deciding to himself to head to the nurse's office afterward to see if there's anything she could do for his sleeping problem.

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The stranger walked away from the tall teenager and turned the corner where he summoned a portal and walked through, the portal itself disappearing after he goes in. 

He's taken to a looming structure resembling a dark castle or a palace. the surrounding area filled with dead grass and trees. No sign of any other life except for what appeared to be a small garden area with even more dead plants and a walkway that has pieces of it missing. 

He walked into the dark castle where the first thing he sees is a man trapped in a red crystal. the crystal itself placed ontop a large podium with a spiral staircase leading downwards.

The second thing he sees is the small living area that a certain nuisance had build for himself, deciding to stay there with the man. Though, he supposed he couldn't call him a nuisance too much now; Afterall, he did take him in after that certain event that led to him having to grow up twice now.

Speaking of the nuisance, the other man walked up the spiral staircase to come to greet him. "Well, look who's back! How did it go, son?"

"I told you to not call me your son"

The other man faked a gasp. "Oh yeah, sure, disown the man who practically raised you when you were turned back into a small baby. I get it. You don't appreciate all my hard work to make sure you grew up to be the man you are today and-"

The man ranted on but the younger toned him out, simply walked down the staircase himself to where all the other demons were. He sensed that they seemed happy to see him back.

"-Are you even listening to me?!"

"Nope, I am not," the younger man told him. He waited a good moment before telling him the news. "I think I found him."

The older man stared at him. "...who?"

the stranger stared at him with minor annoyance. "You know who. The child."

the other man, now understanding who he was talking about, raised his eyebrows in acknowledgment. "Wait, HIM? Are you sure?"

"Not entirely, but his resemblance to his parents are uncanny." 

"Well, what do you suppose we do then? Do we take him now?"

"Not just yet," the stranger told his older friend. "He doesn't even know what he is yet. It would be better if he knew his true power so it would be easier to control him."

"Then, do we take him?"

The stranger sighed. "Yes, then we take him."

The older man raised his arm in a salute. "Got it, son."

"Stop calling me "son"."

"Alright, fine. Got it, Brandeen."

Brandeen looked over at his friend. "We'll give him about a week to discover who he is. If he still doesn't know by then, I'll take things into my own hands and... give him a push in the right direction..."