Chapter Text
"So, what's going on?" Said the cat, as he returned to his usual form as the tall, enigmatic, Lead Consultant.
They were all standing there. Six pairs of eyes widen, looking around at all the other familiar yet strange faces. Two of them were tall, thin, melancholic older men, drastically difference in appearance. Only their faces were the same his own.
The other two were young men, wearing the same face as Paranormal detective, but both had brown hair. One in a prison uniform, the other a well tailored suit with the jacket tied around his waist.
Paranormal Detective beside him touch his chin in a thoughtful pose.
"They look like different versions of ourselves. There are theories about multiple realities. Although...I'm not sure how this works. Those four appeared to be variants of possibilities from the same origin. But you and I are from different worlds to them...." The detective started explaining, which soon turned into quiet mumble on his own curiosity.
...As if anyone in this place would understand any of that....
The Detective was looking into a small odd little gadget. How such a thing would give him all those information was beyond the Consultant's imagination.
"Well, well, this guy who looks like me seems to knows things. Care to tell the rest of us what's going on? Me and my professor here were in my lab and all of the sudden we are in this blasted place with two other copies of us?" The young man who look like an aristocrat came up to them, one hand on his hip.
"Ah, of course! Since you are, in a sense, me, Luca Balsa, you should already have some idea. This machine here probably triggered some kind of portal between dimensions causing the overlapping realities to meet" The Detective point at a mechanism, still slightly smoking, lying on the ground near them. A piece of it twitch and the Luca in prison uniform jumped.
"Are you...hold on, you are saying parallel universe exist?" The other man asked, eyes darting around. His left eye was bruised and stay only half open.
"Not so parallel if you ask me. But what was it he was saying, alternative realities?" The other Luca said, raising an eye brow, his left eye although hidden under a fancy monocle, was most likely still good.
"He said something about possibilities, then that means .....wait....if you two are... me?.... Then those guys are...." The Prisoner's eyes trailed of from his alternate selves to the tall men behind them. The one with cat ears piqued his interest, but the other...
"That's my teacher, Alva Lorenz" the other Luca introduced, straighten up proudly. His Alva turned toward him and prisoner Luca looked up.
This Alva had long hair, strict yet gentle face. The face that resemble the Hermit standing behind him now, but without scars or the black sclera, looking alive and somewhat healthier.
An ache crept up in his brain. But then he noticed his own face staring, getting way too close.
"So you are another possibility of me? But damn, you look like shit. Should I be careful?" He said in his carefree tone, earning him a glare from both the Prisoner and his own teacher.
"Luca" The long haired gentleman behind him called quietly, criticism in his voice.
"C'mon professor! Look at him"
The prisoner dip his head, but still looking up defiantly with his one good eye.
"You two came from about the same time frame. I would say the events that deviated your timelines has already pass. So, no, you won't become him" the Detective cut in, looking at his gadget again, while seem to be scanning the two Luca as well.
"Huh? I dodged the bullet somehow, then" The one with fancy monocle cocked his head, looked at his teacher who still shook his head in disapproval.
The Luca in prison uniform bowed his head further, turning to the side. Rather than avoid looking at his other self, he was avoiding the long hair professor. The other Luca was looking smug when a shadow covers him.
"I wouldn't be so sure." Deep, cold voice send shivers up his spine and for a split second, Luca wanted to hide behind his teacher's back.
The tall man in black robe with a long staff looming over him. looking down at him with yellow glowing eyes.
"You may be living a happy life now, but no one knows what the future holds"
"And who might you be?" Luca asked, acting braved. This man, although looked different, has the same face as his teacher. He was confident that this was another version of Alva Lorenz. But he had to say something back.
"They call me the Hermit" he answered and turned away, seemingly resumed his business examining the place and no longer acknowledged the young man.
He fell silent. He wanted to say something back to the weird old man. But his other self seemed hurt and he felt it. There was deep shame in his expression. What mistake did this one made that he avoided? What kind of horrid things happened that turn both him and his teacher into this miserable sight?
Paranormal detective clapped his hands.
"Now now, possibilities or alternated worlds, we all are real enough in our rights and we are here. Let's investigate so we can leave this place and go back to our own realities." Detective Luca spoke loudly, gathering attention to himself.
"Did I said I want to go back?" Prisoner Luca snapped, before diverting his gaze.
"Are we all stuck here?" Aristocrat Luca raised an eyebrow.
"We have looked. There is nothing preventing us from leaving. But this place is not our world" the Hermit said, looking around at each of them before settling on the detective for further information.
"It is ours. This is an old mansion where there are rumors of paranormal activities, so I am here to investigate" the Detective spoke up again.
"Investigate? Paranormal activity? You are here to look for ghost?" Luca couldn't really believe what he heard.
"Don't you laugh. There are things science can't explain, like we being here...or...uh..." The other Luca interrupted him, looking upset but couldn't really finished his sentence. His eyes darting to the Hermit for a split second.
"I wouldn't advice leaving. Should this place be the threshold of the portal, we could still roam here. But beyond these walls, we don't know what will happened." The Alva with cat ears said. Both other Luca tried not to stare too much. Were those real ears or accessories?
"Do I even want to know"
"Well, I don't"
"Me neither, but we have to figure something out. I want to know what everyone was doing before we showed up here. Our actions may hold the keys to going back and sealing this portal." He hold his finger up, eyes glittering. Lead consultant let out a breath. He knew the Detective was very much just having fun.
"As I mentioned before" He tapped the odd looking mechanism "I and the Lead consultant was investigating an old mansion"
"You were investigating. I was keeping an eye on you. And sure enough, he touched some unknown machine against my warning"
"Yes, right, that was my bad. But we don't know if I caused it or the machine just fried itself. And...what about you four?"
"Me first. I was showing my professor a personal project I was doing on the side. Just wanted some feed back" Aristocrat Luca started, gesture towards his teacher beside him.
"He tried starting it. It was only supposed to generate some light" That made Luca looked at him surprised, but Alva turned away.
"I was trying out some new experiment. Since I finally get some things together I had to test it" Prisoner Luca seems a little distressed when he explained. His Alva, the Hermit looked at him from the other side of the room.
"I happened to pass by so I take a look, in case it's something dangerous" he chimed in softly, still exploring the room.
"I'm seeing a pattern" aristocrat Luca huffed a breath and put hands on his hips, turning to look at his Alva.
"It might be a bit fast to jump to conclusions. But it seems that the boys must have started the mechanism at the same time" the professor shook his head and sighed.
"If those machines are here as well,....may be we can figure something out" The other Luca said, stood up and dust himself looking over to paranormal detective.
"We should look for them and any other anomalies. But let's not wander out too far. If we leave this place and ended up in a different reality, things could get ugly" detective concluded. Both other Luca were already on their way out. At least the other two older men acknowledged him with a nod before leaving the room.