No. 62 Claremond Street

7 // Banks v. Banks

The antique grandfather clock situated at the far end of the dingy hallway chimes a shrill tone; the minute hand will have pointed at a 4 if it weren't broken. The landing above this clock creaks as a restless Tom steps on it.

"Tony," he calls for the hundredth time. He rubs his forehead, his neatly combed hair now ruffled. He's looked everywhere, meaning the unlocked ones. Tony can't pass though doors...yet. "Just tell me where you are. I won't lecture you on anything." 

He lets out a shaky sigh.

"What do you mean he saw it?" Tom asks, holding the gift basket. He stands on the old porch of No. 62. "I mean, what did he see?"

Chloe exhales slowly, rolling up her sleeve. Her gaze lifts from the floor. "Your brother saw the Triquetra."

"What?" Tom gasps, catching a glimpse of the Xenoxian sign on his friend's wrist. Chloe loathes the Xenos gang, she would never join, unless-

"You joined the Fifth Regiment?"

"Not the time to discuss that," Chloe says. "You need to talk to Tony." She steps off the porch and begins to head home.

"But everything's fine now," Tom says, making Chloe stop. "Your parents have cleared their debt to the ICJ."

Tom has never understood this. As if saving the lackluster world from astray criminals isn't enough, every superhuman is supposed to complete a mandatory 4-year service, to try to put an end to the ever growing Xenos gang, by the age of 25. Otherwise a heavy debt would be imposed by the ICJ.

Tom knows this, since his dad, the No. 3 going on 2 in ICJ's Top Secret Agents List, surprisingly had a lot of debt.

Which is somehow transferred to him.

Chloe looks down at her shoes for a moment. Both her parents didn't go, since they had been taking care of her sick older sibling. The sibling she never met.

"It's not that," Chloe says, turning around. "I'll explain it later. You need to tell Tony I'm not part of the Xenos gang."

Tom exhales sharply, "But aren't you technically one?"

Chloe shakes her head. "Adios, Tom." 

With that, she zaps out of the compound. A distant slight creak is heard from No. 61 a second later.

Tom glances at the front door from  the landing, why did Chloe join the Fifth Regiment? How did her parents-

He shakes his head. Chloe's right - he should be taking care of his brother right now.

"Anthony!" he shouts, looking everywhere as he walks downstairs. Hearing no response, Tom grunts. "Fine then, sulk on your own." He plops on the bottom stair, rubbing his wearied face.

Where could he be? He muses, biting his lip as he inspects the hallway before him. Most of the doors are locked, and Tony wouldn't be outside.

Think, Tom, think. The young shapeshifter gets up, trudging down the hallway and inspecting the open rooms. He reaches the living room doorway.

Bingo.

The one place he thought his brother would definitely not be there.

Tom steps inside, sighing in relief when he sees Tony sitting near the resting place of Mr. Ivy Man.

Tom straightens when his brother doesn't even bother to look up. But it's Tony who speaks, not him, his gaze on their grandma's bronze mirror held in his hands.

"I did the right thing." His voice trembles with uncertainty. Tony glances up at the cocooned corpse, the ivy beginning to loosen near its waist. "Of course you did," he mimics, in a pirate's tone.