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The team paced the floor of the lounge. They were stumped. They didn’t know what to do.
“So, this… thing just… appeared? In the training room? Without any warning?” Pidge questioned Keith.
“Yes! That is what I said!” he replied, exasperated.
“So what are we going to do about it?” Lance asked.
“Tell Allura?” Hunk suggested.
Lance and Pidge looked at each other, “Nah!”
They proceeded to run off, and Shiro put his head in his hands thinking, Why me? Keith and Hunk quickly dragged Shiro with them to stop Lance and Pidge from investigating the mysterious object that appeared in the training room. When they arrived, Pidge had already picked it up and had begun her investigation.
“It looks like a TV remote, but with an antenna. Whoever made this should have come to me for it’s looks.” Lance commented to Pidge.
Keith yanked him back from the device, “How about we don’t mess with it? We have no idea what it is and what it does.”
Shiro moved to grab Pidge, just as she pressed the button on the top. A light blinded them, and they found themselves falling.
“I blame you for this, mullet!” Lance shouted.
“What did I do?” Keith exclaimed in reply.
“You told me about it!”
“That didn’t mean you should go poking at it!”
“You two! Stop fighting!” Shiro shouted at them, a headache forming at the fighting.
The team crashed to the ground and looked up to find they were… in someone’s living room?
“Who are you? What was that light that expelled you into our apartment from?” A tall man with brown hair, brown eyes, black rimmed glasses, a black shirt, and a blue tie inquired.
The team looked around to see that there were five identical looking men in the living room, two wearing glasses, one with eyeshadow, one in an outfit that looked like it was intended to be a prince costume, and one with a star on his shirt.
“What are you, quintuplets?” Pidge muttered, pulling herself up from where she had landed next to the black shirted man with glasses.
“No. We are aspects of Thomas' personality, to put it simply. We each represent a piece of his personality.” The man stated calmly.
Hunk pulled himself up from where he landed next to the man wearing a blue shirt and glasses, “Well, it is… nice to meet you? Where are we?”
The man in the middle of the living room wearing the star shirt spoke up, after helping Shiro up beside him, “You’re in my apartment in Florida. How do you not know where you are?”
“Because someone decided it was a great idea to press a button on an object that just appeared in the training room,” Keith grumbled from next to the guy with eyeshadow.
Lance pouted at Keith from his position next to the prince character, “It wasn’t me this time, mullet.”
“I never said it was you, Lance,” Keith sighed.
Then the prince guy opened his mouth, “Well, I’m Roman. The Prince of the group. Dashing, charming, and all around wonderful.”
Lance smiled, “I’m Lance. Ladies man, handsomest guy on the team, and the sharpshooter.”
Keith and the guy next to him groaned, “Oh no. There’s two of them.”
The guy next to Hunk gave everyone a warm smile, “Well, since Roman started introductions, I’ll continue. I’m Patton. Thomas' morality and love of dad jokes! Thomas is the one next to your friend with a metal arm. Logan is the one next to your short friend, and Virgil is the one next to your friend in the red jacket.
Logan fixed his glasses, “Yes, I am Thomas’ logic, or in other words his reasoning and sense.”
Roman gave a blinding smile, “Yes, I am Thomas' creativity, hopes, and dreams!”
Virgil rolled his eyes, “And I’m Thomas’ anxiety. I make sure he doesn’t mess up and get into awkward situations.”
“Or in other words, our wet blanket,” Roman cut in.
“Roman! You know we are nice to our wonderful storm cloud!” Patton chided with a disappointed frown.
Keith blinked, “He’s just like Hunk.”
Hunk’s face went red, “Aww, Keith, I’m not like that.”
Keith raised an eyebrow, “Who makes sure we’re all fed? You. Who helps me when dealing with dumb dumb over there gives me a headache? You.”
Hunk smiled at Keith, “Thanks dude, but can we not call Lance dumb dumb?”
“Hey!” Lance exclaimed, “How do we know he was referring to me?”
Pidge adjusted her glasses, “Because you are the only one he name calls, though that is because you call him names.”
Shiro sighed, “Well we should introduce ourselves I guess. You already met Lance, Hunk, and Keith. The one next to Logan is Pidge, our resident genius, and I’m Shiro, the team leader.”
Lance smiled, “We call him space dad.”
Keith pressed his face into his hand and sighed in irritation, “You are the only one that calls him that, Lance.”
Patton perked up, “Am I the only one that picked up on the fact that you guys seem to match us rather well? Keith is really similar to Virgil from what I can tell, Lance is really similar to Roman, PIdge is like Logic, Hunk is like me, and Shiro is the one that handles you guys like Thomas does us.”
“How does Thomas ‘handle’ us?” Virgil inquired.
“Well, he did get after Roman for being mean to Logan when we got the sweaters.”
“True,” Virgil admitted, “can I go now? I really don’t think I’m needed anymore.”
Thomas waved a hand, “Stay there. Let’s get to know these guys and see if we can figure out how to get them back home.”
Roman clapped his hands, “So, where are you all from?”
Keith gave him a bland stare, “Earth.”
Lance snorted out a laugh, “Well, technically you aren’t. Your mom is an alien after all.”
Keith sighed, “I was born on Earth though, Lance. That means I am from Earth.”
There was a brief moment of silence before Logan spoke up, “You are saying you are half alien. Intriguing….”
Thomas looked at Logan, “Isn’t curiosity an ‘icky human emotion’?”
Logan gave him a firm look, “That is inaccurate. Curiosity is the push to learn or investigate something further.”
Virgil smirked, “Yeah, Logan has no emotions, and the most reaction he has is an eyebrow raise.”
“FALSEHOOD!” Logan shrieked, pointing at Virgil.
Virgil rubbed his ear, “I stand corrected.”
Shiro turned to look at Pidge, “Pidge, are our comms working?”
She sat back on the ground and tried her com and then began messing with it until she smiled, “They are now. Let’s see if I can get in contact with the Castle. Allura? Coran? Does anybody read me? Allura?”
She gave a huff and began messing with it again until they heard Allura’s voice, “Paladins? Can you hear me? Paladins where are you?”
Keith spoke up, “We’re here, Allura. We got sucked through a portal and ended back on Earth in some guy’s living room. There should be a remote with an antenna sticking out of it laying on the floor of the training room. That is what sent us here.”
“Oh, thank the ancients. You’re alright. What is a remote?” She replied.
“Oh of all the… please just find the object on the floor of the training room and help us get out of here. I really don’t want to risk the galra showing up while we’re here and unable to defend the Castle,” Shiro interjected.
Allura was silent for a moment before she said, “Oh, I found it! I’ll have Coran look into this and we shall get you back right away.”
Once she disconnected everyone stared at each other. Patton spoke up, “Well, we need to head out. I’ll leave you to entertain them, Thomas. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
With that, he sunk down and had the team gaping at where he had been. The others quickly followed and left them with Thomas. Thomas sat on his couch and stared at the group for a moment.
“So… do you want to tell me about what you have been doing before you got here?” He asked awkwardly.
They looked at each other, coming to a silent agreement. Lance sat forward and began their story.
“ … and then Pidge pressed the button, sending us here.” Lance finished.
Thomas looked at them, eyes wide, “Wow. Now my emotional dilemmas seem small in comparison.”
Pidge sat forward, “Hold it. Have you ever heard of the Garrison?”
Thomas looked at her, confusion filling his face, “No, what is that?”
Keith sighed, “That is the school we went to. The place that sent Shiro to space.”
Pidge hummed in thought, “Like I thought. I think that sent us to a different universe. One where the Garrison doesn’t exist. In ours, Florida is real, but it has the Garrison. What is your space exploring group here?”
Thomas tilted his head, “NASA, for the U.S.”
Pidge nodded, “Yep, different universe.”
They just shrugged and accepted it. After a while, a flash of white filled the room and the team waved goodbye to the kind and funny man that allowed them to stay in his apartment. They collapsed on the floor of the training room and chuckled, as a group, about their weird day.
“Good to have you back Paladins! You gave us quite the scare for a tick!” Coran greeted warmly.
They all smiled and went to the lounge, ready to tell Allura and Coran about the unique man and his personalities.
Back with Thomas, Logan had shown back up, “They were… intriguing people, but I am glad they have returned home.”
Patton joined in, “I do hope they can visit again. They were fun to have around.”
Thomas smiled, “I wouldn’t hate having them visit again, but I think they have a very important job to do.”