Jitters walks through the portal and kneels down on the ground as he removes his helmet, kissing the ground and for the second time in the past month, grateful to have returned to his depressing hometown that was just about thoroughly destroyed. Tears stream down his face from happiness. He got back on his feet and strolled through town, merely going a little less than twice as fast as most other people (when his normal speed is more than three times faster). While the city was destroyed and rebuilt, almost all of the old roads remained the same as it was simply easier to remake an old road than it was to bulldoze and make a whole new road. He moved through the city with his eyes half closed as he drew upon nothing but his memories, five years old they may be (despite the fact that his mom saw him leave her only about two months ago). It wasn't until he almost fell through an old bomb shelter door, catching himself before he fell all the way in, that the city was still recovering from the attack a couple weeks prior. Looking around, he saw that he was only three blocks from his childhood home. The excitement built and he bolted the rest of the way, coming to a stop and skidding the last 250'. Despite being the furthest place of the city from the blast, the buildings here were the most damaged, although none of the damage came from the fight but rather years of neglect and poverty and filled with unwanted outcasts. This was the D-Bee Alienage. On the front steps leading to his old home, a middle-aged woman sat on the front steps, holding a picture and sobbing. Jitters took his helmet off as he slowly approached the woman.
"Mom," he called out quietly, getting her attention. The woman looked up and was about to reply when she started to realize who he was.
"No,
it can't be. You've only been missing for several weeks now, but you look like you've aged 5 to 10 years! And what did you do to yourself" his mother says through sobs, realizing just now that he had Mind Over Matter implants in his head.
"While I might have only been gone from here for a couple of months, I've been gone for much longer. The night of the big concert, as I was leaving I got sucked into a temporal anomaly and found myself in a different timeline. I did what I had to to survive, to get back here." His mother collapsed into his arms, crying for several minutes. Eventually, Jitters held her at arms length and said
"I need to get you out of town and safe. Get what you can carry and come with me." He informed his mother. After she has all the essentials that she can carry, Jitters escorted her to the Tomorrow Legion Shifter at the hotel, the entire time his mother had to keep saying
"Slow down, son! We may be Quick Flex Aliens, but I'm not that fast!" As they walked, Jitters told her that he got a monkey tail in Hell. At the hotel, he found the Shifter taking a rare break from opening portals to and from Castle Refuge and he asked if there was anyway on the next portal to the castle, he could get his mom through as well. The Shifter agreed to do it on the condition that Jitters preforms a favor for him later.
An hour later, as the Shifter was opening another portal to the castle, Jitters hugged his mother tightly and said
"You'll be as safe there as you'll ever be. I promise to come by as often as I can to check on you, and so you can rest easy knowing I'm still safe and well."
"Honey, I'm never gong to rest easy knowing the path you have chosen. A mother's prerogative and all that." she replied.
"I know. I've also included a note I want you to give to my commanding officer telling him to have Finance give you a quarter of my pay." When he told his mom that, she fell into him and cried at all that he's done for her. The portal was open with the Shifter staring at them.
"Go, mom. He can't hold the portal for much longer." At that, Jitters mom hurried through the portal and then turned around for the last look of her son that she would have for a long time...
