Welcome (2) 5: Earth Prime…
Welcome (2) The item in question was Neon’s phone, and after several minutes of searching, he finally found it.
Its condition was… well, barely functional.
The screen was cracked; a spiderweb of cracks spread across its surface.
Afterward, the three of them headed downstairs into the living room, where the damage wasn’t quite as bad.
Some picture frames were tilted, and a few decorations had fallen, but most of it was intact.
Neon lowered himself onto the couch, turning the phone in his hand as the cracked screen flickered to life.
And a single missed call glowed at the top.
Atlas.
Neon’s lips curved into a small, knowing smile.
“He’s probably losing his mind.” He tapped the call back, lifting the phone to his ear just as Lucien grabbed the remote from the table and pressed the power button.
The television flickered on, the screen illuminating the room with shifting colors as Lucien flipped through channels, each one showing static, emergency broadcasts, or confused anchors trying to understand the darkness.
And to everyone’s surprise…
Technology still worked.
Neon’s phone had barely rung before Atlas answered, his voice exploding through the speaker before Neon could say a word.
“THE STATUS SCREEN!
THE DAMN LIGHTNING!
HOLY SHIT, DID THE ENTIRE EARTH GET TRANSMIGRA—” Neon eased the phone away from his ear, expression flattening as Atlas rambled on.
“Atlas…
focus.” He muttered with a slow exhale as he closed his eyes momentarily.
Atlas’s voice stuttered, then steadied—barely.
“Right.
Right.
My bad…” “Where are you?” Neon asked, glancing toward the window.
There was a pause on the other end, a sudden quiet that felt out of place after the verbal explosion.
“Well…” Atlas said slowly, “I’m outside.” —- It wasn’t just Atlas—his mother and father were there too, all gathered in the living room with the Hearts family.
Alan, Atlas’s father, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, hands clasped so tightly his knuckles turned white.
Beside him, Alice, his mother, sat with her hands clasped near her chest.
On the other sofa, Lucien and Maylene sat with Neon in the middle.
At this moment, Alan, Alice, and Maylene were already deeply engaged in a tangled conversation, their overlapping voices echoing anxiously as they struggled to understand what was going on.
Alan rubbed his temples, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
“So, does anyone here know…
how the sky breaks open, and lightning in colors we’ve never seen appears?” Alice shook her head, pressing her fingers to her lips.
“And the sun disappearing?
Shouldn’t we all be… dead?” When Maylene and Lucien spoke up, they only added to the confusion of people who had never even considered fantasy and clung hard to rationality.
Neon arched a brow at Atlas, a small tilt that carried a silent message ‘Dude…’ As if understanding the look, Atlas inhaled sharply, straightened his back, and let his voice cut through the chaos.
“You’re not going to make sense of any of this,” he said, his tone steady but edged with a strange excitement, his green eyes bright with a mixture of fear and fascination.
“Because, if I’m not mistaken, everything that just happened is the sort of thing that simply doesn’t add up…” The room fell silent as the adults slowly turned toward him, their expressions caught between disbelief and a fragile spark of something they seemed almost afraid to acknowledge.
In that moment, Atlas dove deep into a casual Fantasy 101, explaining how Earth in such tales is always prone to strange phenomena.
Every recent sign—the broken sky, the wormholes, and more—pointed straight to it.
When he finished, Alan’s head jerked toward him, brows knitting as he let out a scoff.
“Boy… what nonsense are you spouting?
This isn’t one of your comic books.” Maylene nodded, her voice soft but firm.
“Atlas, sweetheart, now isn’t the time for fiction.” Neon lifted his gaze.
“Well…
he might not be wrong,” he said, his voice low and steady.
“I’m not much for fantasy myself, but we all saw the status.
And if any of you felt even a fraction of what I experienced… then you can’t help but be drawn to the elixir waiting in your status.” With those words, everyone knew he was right, and silence dropped over them like a heavy curtain.
Before anyone could really take notice, Lucien stumbled upon a stable TV station.
The news anchor did not look like a woman prepared to deliver information; she looked like someone barely holding herself together as the world unraveled behind her eyes.
Her hands gripped the desk so tightly the veins along her wrists stood out; her shoulders were rigid, her breath shallow, and her voice trembled as she forced herself to speak into the camera.
The studio lights flickered overhead, throwing uneven shadows across her pale face, and even through the screen, the room seemed to grow colder.
“Live from the continent of Eden…” she started, her voice unsteady as she swallowed hard, “we’re… we’re trying to bring you updates on what looks like a global… catastrophic event.” Her words wavered, but she pushed forward, her eyes darting between the camera and the papers trembling in her hands.
“Reports are coming in from all five continents.
Lightning storms of unprecedented scale have been seen carving through the sky.
Wormholes…
actual wormholes—have appeared and vanished within seconds.
Entire regions experienced seismic activity without any tectonic cause.
And… and the sun…” She paused, her lips parting as her composure cracked.
“The sun has completely vanished.
Experts cannot determine when…
or if—it will return.
The world is expected to remain in darkness for an unknown amount of time.” In that moment, Maylene’s hand shot to her mouth.
Alice inhaled sharply, while Alan muttered something inaudible.
Lucien sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead as he slumped back into the couch.
“I need to make sure the House of Hearts is stable,” he said, voice tight.
“If the world is collapsing, commerce will panic first.” Alan nodded, his voice strained.
“I need to check things on my end too.
If the markets crash—” The anchor froze mid‑sentence, her eyes widening as she pressed a hand to her earpiece.
“We’re receiving urgent updates—” BOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!
Her update…
it never finished.
A massive explosion ripped through the wall behind her at the broadcasting station.
Debris flew across the studio, the shockwave shaking the television speakers as dust and smoke engulfed the screen.
The anchor disappeared in the blast, and for a moment the camera captured only a swirl of gray.
Then the dust settled.
A man stood in the wreckage, his clothes shredded, his skin smeared with blood, his eyes wide with horror as he stared down at his trembling hands.
He looked around the destroyed studio, his breath ragged, his posture shaking as though he were barely holding himself together.
He stepped toward the camera, each movement jerky and terrified, and when he reached the lens, he leaned close, his voice cracking as he whispered…
“I didn’t mean to do it… It was the elixir…” Before anyone could react, he turned and ran.
He shot forward with such sudden speed that the screen seemed to smear, a flash of motion gone in a heartbeat, leaving nothing but the wrecked studio in his wake.
Moments after he disappeared, the TV fizzled out, its picture melting into static before fading into a black, glassy surface that mirrored their stunned faces.
A single beat later, the lights sputtered—once, twice—and then died completely, swallowing the living room in a thick, suffocating darkness.
The silence that followed was suffocating, thick enough that even breathing felt loud, and for a long stretch of minutes no one dared to speak or acknowledge the reality that had just unfolded in front of them.
Well, everyone aside from Atlas.
After a short moment, he stood up, shoulders squared…
and his green eyes burning with a mixture of fear and adrenaline.
“Alright…
Enough waiting,” he said, his voice steady in a way that didn’t match the tremor in his hands.
“I don’t think we need any more evidence…
The world has changed.
And we’re involved in something way bigger than any of us.” Neon exhaled slowly, rising to his feet as well.
“Yeah, Atlas is right,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
“There’s no point in avoiding what’s sitting right in front of us…
literally.” Atlas looked around the room, meeting the eyes of their parents, the adults who had spent their entire lives grounded in logic and stability.
“Now…
I can’t say exactly how deep into fantasy we’re about to dive,” he continued.
As his words drifted through the room, a chill seemed to settle in.
Even Neon felt it…
a sudden, instinctive shiver crawling down his spine—but beneath that sensation, something unexpected began to stir.
‘Hmm?’ he wondered to himself, ‘Why…
am I actually feeling excited?’ He had no idea where the feeling came from or what it was supposed to mean, but it lingered there, quietly beneath the haze of uncertainty.
Atlas went on, his voice taking a more serious edge.
“No matter what lies ahead… in fantasy, the smartest move is to gain more power.
Once you have that, everything else falls into place.” They all understood the weight behind those words—if these mysterious elixirs could truly grant power, like the man they had just seen on television, then hesitation was no longer an option.
They would have to set aside their uncertainty and press on.
Lucien rose to his feet, his movements measured and deliberate, the shock fading from his face as it hardened into grim acceptance.
Alan and Alice rose with him, Maylene following, her eyes flicking between her son and the status screen hovering in front of her.
Lucien looked around the room, his voice low.
“So… we’re doing it?” Neon chuckled, the sound soft but carrying a strange confidence.
“Of course.
Unless you plan on waiting for some superfreak to come kill us.” At his words, everyone let out a small chuckle.
The tension in the room loosened just a little, the parents exchanging glances that carried fear, determination, and resignation all at once.
Neon had always shifted the atmosphere without trying, making people breathe easier even when the world was falling apart.
Lucien watched him for a moment, a quiet thought drifting through his mind—one he wouldn’t dare say aloud.
‘I just hope this new world doesn’t warp whatever greatness lies within him… and turn it into something broken.
He’s talented, charismatic… but lacks ambition.
I only hope that won’t come back to haunt you… My son.’ In that instant, they all reached into their status screens, and the elixirs appeared in their hands—small vials, each glowing softly with its own distinct hue.
Neon’s was a deep black, flecked with specks of red that swirled lazily, like glowing embers suspended in dark ink.
He glanced around at the others, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
“Well… bottoms up, I guess.” Lucien gave a steady nod, raising his own vial in unison.
“Together, as a family.” Without wasting another moment, they lifted their elixirs high, the shimmering liquid catching the light as if holding some deep promise.
In one smooth motion, they brought the vessels to their lips and drank deeply, the taste flooding their senses with a rush that hinted at the unknown yet to come.
HUMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!