Family from Beyond the Stars, Epilogue (Patreon)

EpilogueThe Luckiest Man in the Universe

You have 12 new voicemails.  First message.

'Yo Ken!  We just took Emily home for the first time and we want you to come over for a welcome-to-the-family party!  Call into work or something.  Fake an illness.  I'll even abduct you!  Call me back!'

End of message.  Next message.

'Yo, Ken.  Haven't heard from you about coming to the party.  Ring me back.  Aubrey is really happy to have you over and I am too!'

End of message.  Next message.

'Kenny.  Please pick up the phone.  I haven't heard from you in a while.  Call me back.'

End of message.  Next message.

'Kenny! What the heck is going on dude?  Don't make me come down there!  I know how you get but come on.  You know me and Aubrey care about you.  Call me.'

End of message. Next message.

'It's Austin.  Dude what the hell?  I heard about you talking with Derrick and it's all B.S.  I know he was lying about you not wanting to be around Emily.  Is this at all about me spacing and not telling you?  I cannot state how sorry I am over that.  I know how much you've always wanted kids and I cannot imagine someone I wouldn't want in her life more as her honorary uncle.  Call us back.  Please.'

End of message. Next message.

'Hey, Kenny!  It's Austin.  Look man, I don't know what the heck is going on with you.  Your name's been all over the news lately and I'm worried about you dude.  I'm not sure where you are or how you're doing, but if you can, when you get this, call me.'

End of message.  Next message.

'Kenny.  It's Austin.  Listen I...I don't have any idea of what you're going through or what's going on.  Derrick is full of shit.  We cut him out of our lives for all the horrible stuff he was saying about you.  Then he started making up all this stuff about aliens and you being arrested.  I don't know what to believe.  Nobody at the local police station has you on file.  Come back man.'

End of message. Next message.

'Mr. Sissom, this is Kate, down at Lance Autobody.  This is the third time we've called you about your car.  If you cannot come collect it from our lot, we will have it towed.  You can find your vehicle at Burt and Baptist Impound.  Thank you.'

End of message.  Next message.

'Kenny?  It's Aubrey.  I'm not sure what's going on but Austin is beside himself with worry.  I know you may be in a situation where you can't reach us but you know you've always been welcome.  You're our friend, you're even how we met!  I could never not want you in my life, in my daughter's life, and especially in Austin's life.  He looks at you like a brother.  Wherever you are, I only hope you're doing okay.  Come back soon, please?  We all miss you.'

End of message.  Next message.

'Sissom, this is your job.  You know.  The one where you ghosted?  The one you used to have?  I just wanted to give your lazy ass a call and let you know you're f-'

Message deleted.  Next message.

'Hello, Mr. Sissom.  This is your landlord calling.  I haven't heard anything from you and when I went by your place it was very much trashed.  I'm calling to see if you're okay.  Your friend, the big tall football guy, keeps ringing my phone off the hook asking if I've seen you.  Call me back.'

End of message. Next message.

'It's me again.  It's been a lonely few months without you dude.  Nobody I know has seen or heard of you lately.  No police reports, nothing.  It's like you vanished, man.  I don't know why or how it's possible.  I'm just missing you, dude.  You were always there for me.  I feel selfish, knowing you might be going through your own stuff, but then again you never would tell me when you were.  I wanna be there for you too.  I just wish you would call me back.'

End of messages.

***

"Honey, why are we here?" asked Aubrey for possibly the third time that evening.

Austin glanced once at his wife and then back at the isolated parking lot in front of them.  "I told you, it's a feeling."

She sighed.  "A feeling to drive us out here in the middle of the evening, when the sun is going down, on the whim of a random text message from a phone number that doesn't even show up as listed?  I know we wouldn't be out here for anything less than a great reason but..."  She glanced back at Emily in her rear-facing baby seat.  "We're lucky that your daughter decided to go to sleep.  It's after her bedtime."

Casting a humorous eye at his beloved, Austin smirked.  "My daughter is she?  Careful, I might pull some Lion King stuff and say that 'before the sun rises, she's yours'."

Aubrey gave him one of her famous, withering glares.  "Careful yourself, mister.  We are at a park.  Plenty of places to hide your body."

He laughed a bit, but quietly, then returned to staring at the dark, gated opening.  His expression quickly grew sullen once more as he glanced at the time.  His bright blue eyes peered through the gloom, trying to see even one thing out of place.  The text message had only mentioned a time and place.  He wasn't even familiar with the number but the name had jumped out to him.  Cadence Park.

It was a small place, rustic and usually well taken care of. This was the first time it had been reopened to the public though since all the news about a crashed satellite had started up. Austin hadn't known what to think of it all, mainly because, on top of just having had a new baby that same evening, that was also the night Kenny stopped talking to him.

All that crap with Derrick had started up not soon after.  He suspected that Derrick had always been jealous of his and Kenny's friendship and had been working subtly over the years to make Kenny feel distant and unwanted.  Things could not have been further from the truth.  Derrick's stories about alien cats and Kenny being somehow involved in a huge convoy of government vehicles getting into some kind of horrible wreck on the highway out of town had led Austin to finally telling the freeloading gaslighter to hit the road.

Emily didn't need people like Derrick in her life.  Who she needed was Kenny.  Her uncle.  Austin had barely slept at all through worrying about his best friend's mysterious vanishing.  No one had any idea where he had gone.  And so, months had gone by until the mysterious text message from an unknown number.

He checked the phone again.  It was nearly the stated time.  A light-post lamp flickered nearby, making the view before him dance in bright striations of light and dark.  More and more of them seemed to be acting up over the last few minutes.  Then the first drop of rain hit the windshield.  He looked up at the sudden cloud coverage overhead.  When had that happened?

The rain steadily got heavier and heavier, blanketing the area and obscuring everything outside of his car.  Aubrey gave out another one of her sighs.  "Hunny..."

Austin glowered at the steering wheel.  "I know.  I can't explain it.  This...feeling."

"Can you try?"

He shrugged.  The rain continued to hammer on the roof of the vehicle.  "You know I wouldn't drag us all out here this late without a good reason."

"I know.  You're usually very cautious and good at spotting scams."

He grunted.

"So why this one?"

"Because it said Cadence Park, 8:00 P.M, August 17th.  That was it.  What kind of scam call gives you a time, date, and place, and that's it?  Besides..."  He looked out through the heavy downpour.  The sign naming the park was just barely visible.  "This is the last place anyone but Derrick saw Kenny, or at least knew this was where he was supposed to be."

Aubrey touched his arm with her delicate fingers.  "Baby...it's been months.  Kenny is..." she bit her tongue at his glare.  "I wish I knew what to say.  He was my friend too."

He nodded glumly, leaning his chin on the steering wheel atop of his crossed arms.  "I just wish he had talked to me.  Not knowing is worse than anything."

Aubrey nodded.  Then she smiled.  She had a way that even without looking, people knew she was doing so.  "Do you remember when Phoebe asked Kenny out?"

He blinked and eyed his wife curiously.  "Not really..." he admitted.  "It came as a huge shock.  Kenny was doing something for his club...what was it, chess?"

"Chemistry," amended Aubrey.  "And the autobody club had pulled some crap and stolen their showcase for that week's panel.  Kenny was heartbroken.  He'd worked super hard on his display and now it was going to be for nothing."

Austin remembered better now.  "Oh yeah..."  He chuckled then.  "Then this weird, hippie chick was stomping over and reaming the guys in that club out.  The school counselor and the principal got involved and she got it all fixed."

"She was a one-woman army," confirmed his wife.  They shared a small chuckle.  "And after that, I just remember her walking up to Kenny and asking him if he was okay."

"Which proceeded to have him mooning after her for a solid week before she finally clapped him down for not asking her out and she did it herself.  She was an amazing woman.  More than that... I was always so overjoyed to see how happy she made Kenny.  She was a great person...I miss her."  Aubrey nodded in agreement.  He glanced out at the outside again.  The rain had let up.  Just another late summer-shower.  "What brought all this up, though?"

Aubrey settled back in her seat.  "I'm not sure.  I just..."

"Got a feeling?" finished Austin.  "Something...unfinished?"

Again, she nodded.  His hand sought out hers and they held one another tightly.  The clock slowly clicked over to the new hour.  She noticed it as well.  "8:00," she observed.

Austin nodded and looked up once more from his wife, back to their sleeping, tiny daughter in the backseat, and then forward once again.  The rain had vanished as suddenly as it had come.  The clouds were even gone.  Someone was standing there at the entrance to the park.  They wore dark clothing from head to toe; nothing stood out about them at all otherwise.  And they were staring right at the car.

A tingling came to Austin's head then, like a strange, familiar itch that he couldn't explain but on the inside.  He met this person's eyes directly across the span of the empty parking lot.  They looked...bright.  Very bright.  Like LED's.  No person's eyes should have been that visible over such a distance.  The person stepped back, never looking away, and back around the entrance of the park.

Without realizing he had, Austin reached up and undid his seatbelt.  Aubrey grabbed at his arm only as he was beginning to open the car door and step outside.  Her eyes were wary and apprehensive.  "Hunny, are you sure about this?"

Meeting her eyes, Austin gave her his biggest, cockiest jock smile.  It always made her frown but she was so cute when she did when it was like that.  She knew that he had thought this out.  He was making a choice.  He intentionally let her see him adjust his shirt, the butt of his conceal-and-carry firearm barely visible at his waist in its carrier.  "Just stay in the car babe," he told her.  "Lock the doors and, hey, if I'm not back in a few minutes, feel free to come in after me.  Or call the cops.  Probably the smart thing to do."

She glowered at him but nodded, understanding.

Closing the door behind him, Austin walked warily towards the entrance of the park.  Behind him, he heard the dull thud of the car locks.  As he passed underneath the gated archway, bearing the name of the place, he looked around.  At first, he saw no one.  He wasn't familiar with the park as much.  It was nice enough with the apparent repairs and remodels.

Rounding a corner, he spotted the person he had seen earlier.  They sat silently on a black metal bench, face covered in a hood and leaning forward on their knees, illuminated by the flickering lamp-post overhead.  Their head jerked up slightly as he came within sight of them.  Otherwise they didn't move, just staring.  The eyes that gazed up at him from underneath that weird, flat hood were so exotically bright.

Austin paused a good few feet away from them.  He put his hands in his sweater pockets, trying to appear casual and not at all freaked out by the sheer stillness of this person.  It was impossible to tell anything about them from their attire and general quiet demeanor.  If they had not been sitting on the bench, they might have just blended into the surrounding foliage.

They stared at one another for a few solid seconds before Austin cleared his throat.  "Nice night," he quipped, trying to keep his voice calm and natural-sounding.

The person almost seemed to flinch.  Their hands did a strange rubbing gesture on their knees before they sat up a bit more.  "Yes, yes it is," they responded.  He responded.  It was a male voice, not very deep but solid, strong, and healthy.  "A beautiful evening for star-gazing."

"I suppose," responded the jock.  "Seems kind of lonely to do it alone though."

"I suppose," repeated the man, matching his tone and inflection.  "But I'm used to being alone.  Or at least I was."

"That's sad," Austin grunted.  The man nodded and they shared another minute or so of awkward shuffling silence.  Taking a deep breath, he resumed.  "Are you the one who texted me today's date and time?"  He nodded.  "So I came here to meet up with you specifically?"  Again, a nod.  "How'd you get my number?  I don't recognize the one you texted from and the area code didn't make sense."

"I use a...different phone plan," the hooded stranger responded.  He almost sounded amused.  "Also I've been out of the loop for a while now.  Feels like this is all brand new to me, even if I recognize parts every now and then."

"Ok..." Austin sighed.  He slouched a bit more.  The guy didn't feel dangerous but he was very...unnaturally calm and still.  Also his habit of talking in riddles was a bit annoying, even if his voice was actually quite soothing.  Almost familiar.  "So what do you want?"

The man hesitated.  He looked down and away from Austin and rubbed his fingers against his knuckles.  Austin noticed that he wore fingerless gloves.  "I don't even know where to begin," he said eventually.  "It's been a long time and yet it also feels like no time has passed at all."

A nerve was starting to tick in Austin's temple.  "Look, buddy, I'd appreciate it if you could start making sense.  I came out here on a hunch but I don't have the patience or time to deal with this Riddler shtick.  So, either say what you want or I'm leaving."

A chuckle came from the strange man.  "I'm sorry," he added afterward.  "I've been thinking about what to say and how to say it for a long time.  I guess I still just don't have any for sure good way to do it."

"Then just say it," Austin chided him.  "If there's something you need to say, to anyone, then all you have to do is say it.  It isn't on you to decide how it's best for them to hear it.  Give it to them honestly.  Otherwise they won't care, because they'll feel placated or worse, lied to.  We aren't such fragile things that a little bit of brutal honesty will break us to pieces.  If you’re an ass, you’re at least an honest one."

"You...have no idea how much I respect someone with your mindset."  His companion sighed deeply and rubbed at his face beneath the hood.  "Once upon a time, I really depended on people like you because I was never strong enough to be like you."

"What changed?"

"I..." the man paused.  "I went on an adventure.  I saw and did things I never could have dreamed.  I found...a place I belonged, by making it my own and carving a place for myself there."

Austin grunted.  "Sounds like you got it figured out.  But what does this have to do with me?"  He raised a hand, his wedding ring glittering on it.  "Don't get me wrong, you sound like an interesting guy.  But the way you came about all this has my defenses up.  I don't know who you are but you talk to me like I should."

"To be fair, I wouldn't recognize me either."

His eyes narrowed.  "What do you mean by that?"

Silence was his only answer.  Then... "How are...how is your family doing?"

Austin bristled.  "My family isn't any business of yours.  Look, buddy, I'm done playing this game.  Either tell me what you want and how you got a hold of me or I'm leaving.  You can try and stop me but I wouldn't suggest it."  He waited but the man continued to just sit there.  He rolled his eyes.  "Well then, have a nice life."  He turned to leave.

The metal bench creaked as the man stood up.  There was a heavy rustling from nearby and his nerves nearly made him start sprinting away.  He lengthened his stride.  "Austin!" he called, voice finally sounding hesitant and worried.  "I'm sorry."  That made him stop.

He glanced back behind him.  He was indeed standing up, facing him now.  He was kind of tall, straight-shouldered but slender.  He had such a tight frame that he almost looked like he was wearing some sort of diving suit, or other form of skin-tight outfit over a lean, trimmed and fit body.  "Who are you?" Austin demanded.

The fingerless gloved hands lifted to the hood.  They didn't grip it or actually move to lower it at all, but it suddenly retracted around his face.  The light of the lamp overhead illuminated his pale, handsome features.  He had shaggy, thick, very dark hair that curled down to his neck in an untamed mass.  He had high cheekbones, a pinched nose, and a very soft, hesitant smile.  His eyes were disturbingly bright blue, more than even Austin's.  Which was extra weird...because those eyes used to be brown.

They stared at one another for a long, tense space of a full minute.  Blinking, Austin turned slowly around to face the man fully.  There was no way.  He was too tall, too healthy in color, and too...bright.  And yet…

"Kenny...?" he asked, voice in a hushed whisper.

Kenny Sissom grinned at his oldest friend.  "Hey man..."  His voice didn't sound grating, or raspy, or weak.  "L-long time no see."  His shoulders sunk a bit and he grinned, wide, cheesy, and nervous.  One hand lifted to scratch at his thick head of hair, right at the back.  Right then, he knew.

Austin closed the distance in the space of a few seconds.  His time as a football player had given him impressive short-distance sprinting power.  His huge arms went out on instinct.  Kenny flinched right before he was enveloped.  Austin went to pick his best friend up off the ground, to spin him around, laughing, but found he couldn't.  Not nearly as easily as before.  Kenny had bulked up quite a bit.

Even so, his euphoria burst from him in a wave.  "KENNY!" he roared loudly, squeezing tight around the smaller guy, voice ringing around the abandoned park.  His vision blurred and he squeezed a bit harder.

When he used to do this, although never as hard, Kenny had always balked, letting out choking sounds and slapped at the big jock for almost crushing him.  Instead, his arms lifted and wound around Austin's chest, returning the hug just as tightly.  He even felt some of his air pushed out of him at the intensity of that embrace.

"Where the hell have you been?!" he demanded, tears of laughter, shock and joy in his eyes and half choking his words.

"Nowhere.  Everywhere," sniffed Kenny, sounding just as emotional as he was.   "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me," snarled Austin, blinking away the tears as he set his best friend down.  "Start talking buddy."  That was when he looked Kenny up and down more openly.  He blinked in shock.  "Dude...what the hell are you wearing?  And when did you get all Hollywood?  You look...good!"  Kenny laughed, a healthy, thready laugh that rang around them.  "What happened to you?"

"It's a really long story," Kenny chuckled.

"I wanna hear it.  You show up looking like you stepped out of Tron or something, with a six-pack!  Are those real?"  He tapped his friend's taut stomach.  "I barely even recognize you!"

"You sure you want to know?"  Kenny sounded hesitant.

"Yes!"

"Okay..." laughed his friend.  Kenny took a deep breath.  "I was arrested by the FBI for harboring/adopting three extraterrestrial children, saved/abducted by their mother, chased across the galaxy by a monster tyrant, met an entirely new species of sentient humanoids to which my new kids belong to, fought an epic battle in space and barely survived it, only to come back to Earth and be squeeze-hugged by a big block-headed jock."

Austin's face transformed from a wide-eyed, almost angry glower to open-mouth, dumbstruck awe.  Kenny said it so straight and factual that it took him a long couple of seconds to even process it.  His head whirled rapidly and he blinked several times before his cheeks broke in a nervous smile and a laugh.  "Y-yeah right..." he joked.

Kenny shrugged.  "I barely believe it myself, but that's what, honest to God, my life has been the last few months."

Austin stepped back a bit, looking Kenny up and down again.  The suit he wore looked like nothing he had ever seen.  "I'm...not saying I don't believe you but..."

Kenny raised his hands.  "Trust me, I get that!" he exclaimed.  "Totally get it.  But...if it helps...I can prove it."

"How?" asked Austin, wary but intrigued.

Kenny actually smirked.  He raised his right hand and touched a dial on his left wrist.  The gloves on both hands melted way seamlessly, revealing the skin underneath.  Or at least, the skin of his left hand.  Austin's eyes went wide as dinner plates as Kenny lifted his right hand and flexed it.  The entire thing, at first looking like it was covered in a metal glove, had actually been replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic that clicked and whirred rapidly, movements seamless and smooth with only the tiniest time dilation between flexes.  It was like something straight out of Cyberpunk but still flush and smooth as living flesh.

At Austin's amazed expression, Kenny seemed to grow a bit cockier.  He grabbed the wrist of his right hand and pressed down in several places.  A second later, the hand popped off seamlessly and he tossed it, underhanded, to his friend.  Austin caught it in alarm and held it reverently between his palms.  He pressed a finger down and it slowly unfurled itself back up before his eyes.  He looked back to its owner, who let him look all over the stump of his arm.

Once Austin had dutifully handed the prosthetic back, and Kenny had reattached it only to again test out his fingers and movements with it, did he settle back.  He gulped a bit.  Then his phone chimed with a message.  He checked it hurriedly.

'Is everything okay?' asked Aubrey.

His hands shook as he typed out a rapid response.  'Come on in here.  I cannot explain it over text.  And bring Emily.'  He knew that Aubrey would understand his seriousness and that he would never unintentionally place their daughter in any kind of dangerous situation.

Sure enough, a second or so later, he heard, distantly, the click of a car door opening and then closing twice.  Austin turned his gaze back onto Kenny.  "S-so what, you got a fancy metal hand," he tried to tease.  He wasn't skeptical at all but he couldn't keep down his eagerness to see Kenny prove his story more true.

Sensing that desire, Kenny flexed his robotic hand and folded down his fingers as if forming a fingergun.  A second later, there was a silent whir.  Some hidden machinery unfolded from his wrist, what had looked like a faceless watch, and then rapidly formed a literal gun over his knuckles.  The barrel immediately glowed.

Austin felt like a kid being shown anime for the first time.  "Dude!" he gleefully chuckled.  "You got a fricking Spirit Gun!"

"Yes indeed, Kuwabara," teased Kenny.  "I also got a sword."

"You got a sword?!"

"Yeah."

"I wanna see it!"

Kenny looked a bit hesitant then, dispelling his cocky demeanor.  "I'd...prefer to wait on that."

Just then, Aubrey rounded the corner, her heels clicking on the pavement and making both men turn to look at her.  She held a sleepy Emily easily in the crook of her arm.  She stopped, dead in her tracks, as she saw who her husband was standing next to.  Kenny quickly lowered the gun and the device at his wrist refolded itself back up.

Aubrey's eyes were as wide as Austin's had been.  She hurried over as quickly as she could, visibly shaking.  "Oh...oh my god..." she murmured over and over.  "Kenny?  Is that...you?" she asked as she came up close to them.

Kenny nodded.

"What happened to you?" she asked, reaching out with a hand and gently touching his face.  Another rustle disturbed the greenery nearby and she jumped.  Emily fussed unhappily to be disturbed.

"He got abducted by aliens!" Austin cried then forced himself to quiet down.  "Look!" he said, once his voice was softer.  "He's got a metal hand and everything!"

"Aliens...right..." Aubrey said, even as she inspected the replacement all over, her own hand shaking as she touched it all over the knuckles and palm.  She looked their friend up and down the same way her husband had, more than once.  "Oh...oh wow Kenny," she muttered.  "You look...amazing!  Totally weird and like you're wearing a really expensive wetsuit but...wow!  I've never seen you look so good!  Aliens seem to agree with you, if my idiot husband is being serious."

"Hey!" objected Austin.

Kenny chuckled.  "Thanks Aubrey...it's so great to see you.  Both of you.  It's been...a really really amazing, terrifying last few months.  Understandably...I haven't had cell service where I've been.  I can barely believe I'm seeing you two again."

Emily fussed again, looking around with her little baby eyes at what had disturbed her rest on an already unusual night.

Kenny's face softened immediately and he looked straight into the baby's face as she met his.  They stared at one another unblinking.  "Oh...oh...wow..." he whispered.  "She's so beautiful."  His hands trembled visibly.  He lifted one and wiggled a finger at her sheepishly.  "Hi...Emily...?" he whispered.  "It's nice to meet you..."  He already sounded close to sobbing in joy.

Emily giggled.

Tears glistened in their friend's eyes as he put a hand over his mouth.  He couldn't seemingly look away from his niece.  "She's...she's perfect..." he sniffled.  He looked then at Aubrey, a horribly guilty request burning in his eyes.

Immediately, Aubrey handed over her baby, still being careful, and helping Kenny hold her properly.  "Watch her head..." she warned softly.

Kenny sank down onto the park bench with Emily now safely tucked into his arms.  He beamed down at her wide-eyed, babyish grin.  "Hey...hey little girl..." he whispered, voice broken with emotion.  "I've wanted to meet you so bad..."  He sniffled again and seemed to still be fighting back tears.  Emily cooed and lifted her hands up toward Kenny.  He lifted her slightly and she played with his thick hair, patted at his cheeks.  He hugged her against him, shoulders shuddering hard as he held his niece for the first time ever.

Austin took Aubrey's hand in his as they watched the joyful union.  He had wanted this so bad, ever since Emily had been born: to meet her honorary uncle, the real uncle who had loved her endlessly from the day he found out she existed, even if that day had been the literal day she was born.  Austin had never forgiven himself for apparently never telling Kenny.  How his friend must have punished and hated himself for that.  Derrick had apparently said so many horrible, hurtful things, trying to spin it as Kenny being the bad guy.  He had believed none of it.

This was real love.  Real truthful love.

A rustle in the bushes behind them made Austin jump and Aubrey hiss slightly in shock.  They looked through the dense greenery.  A pair of glowing eyes stared back at them, feline and far too bright to be normal.

At their obvious fear and surprise, Kenny finally looked up.  Emily looked around too.  There were another pair of eyes, these ones glittering from another dense patch of bushes.  A third pair rested atop one of the trees, a heavy, dark shape disturbing the branches.  The couple began to back away but Kenny, standing up straight and still holding Emily gently, just smiled.

"Oh, right," he chuckled.  He gave his friends a deep smile and they paused, confused.  "You guys have nothing to be afraid of," he promised.  "Austin wasn't lying when he was talking about aliens.  Do you want to meet my family?"

They nodded but both of them were tight-lipped and wary.  Emily cooed again.

With seemingly no queue given, the branches and bushes parted.  Three hulking shapes drifted forward out of the greenery.  Before Austin and Aubrey's astonished eyes, bright lights began to flash and dance all over their exotic, inhuman bodies.  They were feline in shape but wholly unlike anything they had ever seen.  Their eyes were bright, faces expressive, and they huddled in a group rather than circle or probe closer to the pair of them as if equally apprehensive and nervous.

Kenny, sensing the mood, handed Emily back over to Aubrey as if to make her feel better and crossed over to the alien cat things.  Austin flinched, preparing some instinct to stop or save his friend should they start mauling him as he reached out for one of their heads.  Instead, to his amazement, the red-furred tiger creature just arched up into the touch, purring and closing its eyes.

Each one of them wore a similar, full-body suit over their six-limbed forms.  And they were BIG too.  Big like actual hunting cats, easily reaching Kenny's chest with their shoulders.  Even so, their paws were overly large, as were their heads, making them seem for all the world like cubs, or at the very least, adolescent teens.

Kenny leaned down as the three creatures crowded around him fondly, licking and pawing at him while also nuzzling hard with genuine affection.  "These are my kids!" he announced proudly.  He gestured at a white-furred snow leopard that was built like a truck, with broad limbs, very big paws, and whirling blue, green, and purple rosettes on his visible sides where the suit didn't cover it.  "This is Joey."  He pointed then to a Cheetah-like alien with red tufts on his spine, ears, and leonine tail, from which crackled actually visible electrical arcs.  "This is Chandler."  At last he lowered his hand back to pet the tiger child.  "And this little girl is Phoebe."

Aubrey's eyes went wider and wider as he named them off.  When he reached the apparent female, now obviously given visibly distinguishable features that separated them clearly between girl and boy, Austin's wife even became a bit tearful.  She shakily held out a hand at them, as if trying to shake by way of introducing herself.  "H-hello..." she weakly stammered.

Austin, meanwhile, still trying to get over his amazement at looking at real life aliens, looked over at Kenny again.  He furrowed his brows and then grinned.  "Really?  You named them after Friends?"

"Yes I did," challenged Kenny smugly.  "It just so happens that their personalities completely matched their names.  Perfect happenstance."

"Really?" Austin chuckled.  He looked at the snow leopard cub.  "What does Joey never do?" he asked, leaning back already ready to laugh.

'Joey does not share food,' came a voice inside his head.  It was deep, baritone, and lifted with an actual chuckle.  Before his amazed eyes, Joey sat back on his haunches and gave the biggest, cheesiest grin, wiggling one eyebrow and an ear at once.

Austin's jaw dropped.  "Th-they can talk?!" he squeaked out.

Kenny shrugged.  "Yes, technically.  It's a long story.  These cubs are my family.  Well them and...one other."  He looked away from them all.

Aubrey had since leaned down to kneel as Phoebe the female stalked cautiously forward.  She sniffed at Aubrey's hand.  A spark seemed to jump between them and the tiger cub's eyes flashed, as did the lights all over her pelt.  The next second she was rubbing her face and head all over Aubrey's hand, purring like an engine.

Chandler hung back at first as Joey repeated the gesture with Austin, who immediately took to rubbing the chunky guy's face all over with both hands, making the cub grin and purr just as much as his apparent sibling.  Kenny motioned with his head and the third cub reluctantly approached.  Soon after he was flat on his back, letting a giggling Aubrey rub at his belly with a too-pleased expression on his face.

Emily giggled and cooed, delighted to see so many big kitties prancing around her.  The three of them paused and looked straight at the baby in evident interest.  Even trusting Kenny, Aubrey was very wary at letting three seemingly wild animals, no matter their intelligence and gentleness thus far, openly approach her child.

Then, jaws opening as did a row of glowing vents at her throat, Phoebe spoke out loud.  "Emily..."  Her voice was melodious and only slightly distorted somehow but it came out clearly.  The baby giggled even more.  At Kenny's kind and patient nod, Emily was allowed to pet the big cat, who responded with the utmost gentleness and soft, teasing sniffs of her big nose.  Joey and Chandler were eager to do the same.

As the cubs, Aubrey, and Emily played and touched very gently, Austin looked back up at a beaming Kenny.  "You...mentioned a mother Alien," he said warily.  Their eyes met again.  "Where is she?"

Kenny took a deep breath and then smiled.  "We...figured it would be best if you guys agreed to meet me and the cubs alone first.  I knew it would be interesting enough for you guys to get introduced."  He glanced over his shoulder again.  "You can still meet her, if you want."

"Well, yeah!" crowed Austin immediately.  "Where she at?  Is she like them?"

Kenny chuckled.  "More or less."  He closed his eyes for a second.

Abruptly there was a heavy sound of something pushing through the underbrush.  Heavy, muted footfalls sounded.  Glowing lights, like the flames of a bonfire, lit up the park walls and trees with their radiance.  Austin looked up, up, and up even more as the largest creature he had ever imagined could exist appeared seemingly out of nowhere.  It...she...was huge, towering over them by at least twelve feet tall if not more, standing up like a biped rather than hunched over on all six limbs like the cubs.  She wore a heavy suit of armor, making her look like some kind of feline Spacemarine from the Warhammer 40k universe, but with four hulking arms and a completely tigerine face.

"This..." Kenny said softly.  "Is my Nova."

Nova kneeled slowly down in front of the awe-struck Austin and his now also openly-staring wife.  Their jaws fell open as the huge alien mother lowered herself as much as possible, kneeling in front of them while still remaining much taller.  Her glowing eyes swept from side to side, taking all three Humans in front of her in.

That same, strange scratching feeling came to Austin's mind and he allowed it, although he wasn't sure how.  It was like deciding not to itch a bug-bite but not at all unpleasant.  A second later, warmth rushed into him from his own mind and flooded his body as if he had stepped into a sunbeam.  A soothing, calm, relaxed, even motherly voice filled his head with its songlike cadence.

'Austin...' Nova breathed.  'Aubrey...'  Her gaze softened and she looked at the tiny bundle in their arms.  'And this must be Emily...Kenny is right.  She is the most beautiful thing in the universe.'  She met their eyes again.  'I know much about you two from Kenny's memories.  You saved him from his own darkness, showed him kindness where he otherwise received none from anyone else around him.'  Her ears folded down and she blinked once, slow and deep.  Austin got the feeling that it was a gesture of deep respect and trust.  'I owe you both everything.'

"It...It wasn't any problem..." Austin managed to choke out.  "Kenny's...been my friend for years...  What...are you?"

Nova inclined her head slightly.  'I am Nova, Kenny's mate.  His...wife.'  She nodded at Aubrey.  'As Aubrey is yours.  Our cubs, although not born of our union, are nonetheless both of ours to raise and nurture and cherish.  Indeed, I would have lost them long ago if not for his kindness and loving heart.  He saved them from your own people who would have done... awful things to them.'

Austin nodded along before his eyes went wide again and he looked at Kenny.  "The...crashed satellite?" he asked dumbfounded.

Kenny nodded.  "I didn't want to tell you guys and risk getting you and Emily involved...things went out of control so quickly that I barely had time to think.  One minute I've become the adopted father of three otherworldly if also wonderful kids, and the next I'm being arrested by government officials.  Nova found us before they took us into federal custody.  It's a really...really long story."

"Well we want to hear it," declared Aubrey with the utmost certainty and conviction in her voice.  "We want to hear all about your adventures."  She blinked rapidly and sniffed a bit.  "We missed you.  A lot."

Kenny likewise seemed to be getting teary eyed.  Aubrey handed Emily over to her daddy before she hugged Kenny tight against her.  Nova looked down at all of them with warmth and genuine affection.  Austin could barely look away from her and the cubs.  Their faces, while so different, were intelligent, expressive, and endearing.

"I'll tell you guys everything," promised Kenny.  "Just...not here."  They all nodded before Kenny grinned wider.  "I just...can't believe it..."

Austin grinned right back at him.  "Neither can we dude, neither can we.  We have a lot to catch up on."  He motioned with his head at Aubrey.  "Let's get home."

His wife looked conflicted just then, stepping back from their best friend.  "Not that you guys aren't obviously welcome in our house..." she began to say, looking up at Nova pointedly as the huge alien Mother stood up to her full height again.

Kenny raised a hand. "Say no more.  We have a better option."  He looked back at Nova, who grinned back at him wordlessly and blinked those lighthouse beam eyes once.  A second later, there was a massive rushing of air as Nova pressed a button on one of her gauntlets.  Before their very eyes, the opening to a previously cloaked alien ship, hovering slightly over the park, materialized out of nowhere.  Its dark, sloping hull reflected the streetlights off of itself.  "We would happily have you welcome in ours."

Wordlessly, as Kenny finished speaking, Nova reached out for Austin and Aubrey and, with the utmost gentleness, scooped them up in her arms.  It was an unspeakably intimidating and humbling experience to be held so easily by a creature as big as her but Austin told himself that there was nothing to be ashamed about.  She was an alien after all.  She jumped, Hulk-like up into the open porthole, the motion accompanied by the muted sounds of some kind of booster engines on her legs.

Austin felt the wind rush past his ears and Aubrey let out a startled shriek of surprise.  Emily just giggled more.  As they landed and Nova set them safely back down, the Human family looked around the interior of a real alien ship.  The sight took the breath out of them both.  He glanced back at Nova who had just been rejoined by her cubs and Kenny a moment later.  The door closed behind them, resealing itself before it became just another part of the seamless wall.

Beneath their feet, the engines hummed to life and, moments later, they were rising above the city.  Earth fell away in moments and they were abruptly hovering above the planet itself.  Aubrey and Austin crowded the window set into the wall with open mouths and bulging eyes.  Emily patted the glass-like material with glee, waving as if bidding farewell to their home.

The family turned to see Kenny and his all taking seats on the floor.  Nova provided some sort of strange, plush material for the Humans to sit on, while deliberately plopping Kenny into her oversized lap and curling her lower pair of arms around him.  The cubs all curled up around Austin and Aubrey, remaining within easy petting distance.

"So...where should we start...?" Kenny mused, leaning comfortably back against Nova's armored chest.  She immediately purred and nuzzled her nose against the back of his head.  "Nova, come on," he laughed, looking back and up at her before kissing her big nose.  "You're embarrassing me in front of my friends."

'Our.  Friends,' rumbled Nova within all their minds.

Austin felt a swell of pride at being acknowledged as such.  He grinned over at Kenny.  "Well what do you know...you two make a damn cute couple."  Aubrey nodded assent immediately before she placed Emily down to let her explore and roam as much as she could.  The cubs delighted in cuddling around her and letting her pull and pet their fur.

Kenny beamed at the lot of them.  "Well...I suppose that the best way to start is to say welcome to my home, our home."  He brushed his forehead against Nova's cheek and she rumbled in joy.  The sight made Austin's heart swell with emotion.  He looked back at them again.  "This is my Family.  I found them, and she found me.  We made a place together.  And now...we're here to welcome you to it."

They sat and talked at great length about Kenny's adventures with Nova throughout the universe.  They spoke of battles and harrowing chases, heartwarming stories of play and exploration.  Of nearly losing each other but never giving up hope of being together.  They spoke and the Humans saw it all as if a movie of their exploits were being broadcasted into their minds.  It was all incredible, exhilarating, terrifying, and humbling.

At last, they finally reached the end, telling of Nova's father's final defeat and saving her from the black hole.  Kenny's retelling of his just barely having caught Nova in the tractor beam before whisking them away from the doomed solar system had everyone on edge and they all breathed a sigh of relief, even knowing that the tale had an obvious happy ending.  How else could they have been there with them?

They had visited Nova's people once more, wishing them peace now that they too were free from being hunted.  They could go out and find their scattered people once again, to rebuild their world somewhere new.  And someday, they would go back to visit, but not to rule.

Austin looked at Kenny now with a whole new light.  He literally glowed before him, eyes shining as he espoused about seemingly minor details that he took endless joy in.  Kenny was happy.  Content.  He could have been a King, a real King, of an entire alien species, but he had turned it down.

The ex-garbageman had found peace and love at long last again after the tragedy of losing his first and only girlfriend, the only person other than him and Aubrey who had accepted Kenny.  It was something he had always wanted his friend to find.  And he had found it.

But, at last, came the question that Austin and Aubrey had to know.

"What will you do now?" his wife asked.  Nova and Kenny met their eyes again.  "Now that you and your cubs are free from being hunted?"

Kenny glanced at his Mate.  "We...hadn't talked about it."

"Will you come back to Earth?" asked Austin.

His friend's sigh told him a lot.  "Earth isn't ready, not yet anyway.  And...I'll be honest guys.  Other than you, there isn't a lot there for me anymore.  My home is out here, among the stars, exploring new worlds, seeing things that no Human ever has.  You guys know that I always wanted to be an astronaut.  I've found something better than that."  He looked them both in the eyes.  "But I'll still come back and visit whenever I can.  And now that I figured out a way to contact you, props to Chandler and Joey for that," he motioned to the two male cubs who preened themselves.  "My little tech masters."  Kenny's eyes shone with pride.  "I'll be phoning you as much as I can.  And no worries about pesky long-distance phone calls or fees.  We found a way to work it out."  He lifted his own phone from a hidden pocket, the device having been disassembled and rebuilt with Alien tech now.

Austin sighed deeply.  "Well...I guess that'll work," he conceded.  Then he pointed harshly at Kenny.  "But you phone once a week, at least.  And visit on the holidays.  Maybe even one a month."

"Or more," insisted Aubrey with a stern, motherly expression.  "You have a niece after all."

Kenny beamed, tears in his eyes.  "Of course guys..." he promised.  Nova nodded deeply, blinking once.  The Humans all stood and hugged once again.  "If you ever need us, we won't be far away.  I have a family that I love more than anything...I'm the luckiest man in the universe."

They dropped the family back off at their car in the park.  Austin watched, waving frantically as the ship hovered slowly up and away from Earth once more until it was firmly out of sight behind some clouds.  He looked to his wife, beaming.  She returned his smile.  Had her eyes always been that bright?

Emily waved goodbye too with her chubby little fingers.  She liked her new cousins.

***

Nova was just about to gun the engines away from Kenny's home planet when he touched her paw.  She glanced at him once.

"Thank you..." he murmured to her.

She smiled down at her little Earthling and bundled him back up into her arms in the cockpit.  'For you, anything.  My mate.  My Kenny.'

He nuzzled into her fur, hugging her back just as tightly as she did him.  He had grown so strong and confident over the time they had been together.  She remembered only barely the time when they had first met, the fear she had felt of him, the jealousy and infuriating admiration she had for such a small being willing to sacrifice everything he had just for children that weren't even his.

He had taught her so many things and she would be forever grateful to him for everything he had done for their family.  She had a lifetime to repay him for it all.  He was her Light after all.

'I would like to ask for one favor...' she admitted to him, nuzzling his face with her cheek.

"Of course!" he replied immediately.

She pulled back on the engines and turned the cloaked ship back around.  She searched for the memories of his mind that she was looking for.  In no time at all, barely a few seconds, they had reached their destination.  They landed the ship in an abandoned parking lot and she and Kenny left the cubs behind while they exited silently and stealthily, using a portable cloaking generator attached to both of their livesuits.

Nova looked out at the tiny, rundown, miserable-looking apartment where Kenny had once lived.  She poked her head inside, careful not to break the door when Kenny unlocked it with a rusted key from underneath the floormat.  Her bright eyes immediately saw the dilapidation and disrepair the place had fallen into.

She saw how lonely and horribly her Mate had once lived.  She sniffed hard and grimaced at the scent.  Kenny squeezed past her and immediately strode over to a small desk.  He plucked up a faded leather wallet and opened it.  Nova looked over his shoulder at the picture of a brightly smiling female Earthling with red hair, seated on the branch of a tree.  She knew the face very well.  Their daughter bore her name.

Wordlessly, Nova leaned her head down against Kenny.  He sighed and closed the wallet again.  He made to drop it but her tentacle caught the small pouch and lifted it back up to his confused eyes.  'Treasures, such as these, are worth saving,' she told him simply.

He understood what she meant and pocketed the wallet in his suit.  As they turned to leave his pathetic old home, he caught her paw with his small hand.  "Can I...do one more thing before we go?  If we don't have time, I understand."

Her eyes shone down at him and she kneeled gently in front of Kenny.  'We have all the time forever now, because of you,' she told him.  He nodded and opened his mind, letting her see his admittedly selfish and slightly immature request.  She grinned eagerly.  'Especially for that...'

***

Derrick grumbled as he saw yet another ding on his brand new car.   Months ago it had been his pride and joy, purchased flat out from the dealership using the reward money for turning Kenny the loser into the authorities.  Now, however, it was like a living symbol of everything he had given up.  Austin had dumped him as a friend immediately upon hearing his 'outlandish' stories, no matter how he tried to prove it.

The reality of it was that Derrick understood it all, even if he didn't want to.  He wasn't a good friend.  He'd never tried to be, just cashing in the social accolades of being among Austin's group of friends to get dates, drugs, anything.  Austin had never approved but kept him around for whatever reason.  He'd always hated Kenny, been jealous of him for the bond he and the jock shared, of the fondness that Austin's dropdead gorgeous wife had for the sickly runt.  He'd even somehow gotten a girl, granted she had died of cancer.

Derrick turned away from his car and started up the walk to his own, crappy apartment.  It wasn't much better than Kenny's old one.  Having Kenny around had been his way of not having to realize how shitty of a life he had.  Seeing someone else worse off had made him feel better.  Now he had no one to feel superior over.

As he fumbled for his keys, a sudden burst of rain showered him out of nowhere, making him curse and sputter in surprise.  He looked around in alarm but the rain had already dissipated.  That was when his car suddenly exploded.  One second it was sitting there, paint faded, chipped, and dented in multiple spots, and the next it was flipped upside down and twisted into a smoldering, blackened wreck.  The shockwave nearly knocked him on his ass and the windows of the apartment building shuddered.

He barely had time to even register what had happened before he heard someone whistle from above him.  Above him?  He looked up.  His eyes went wide.

"Hey, Derrick!" called Kenny, floating in the middle of the air somehow.  Before Derrick's disbelieving eyes, the hull of a massive, four-winged spaceship revealed itself, appearing out of thin air.  Looming behind the no longer skinny, sickly, or bespectacled Kenny Sissom were three distinctly bigger, feline creatures that glowered down at him.

"KENNY?!" Derrick yelped in complete and utter shock.  Behind him and the aliens appeared a fourth shape, this one truly massive and utterly monstrous.  It had the head of some kind of scaly-armored tiger with flaming stripes, mounted atop a burly, armored frame with a double pair of arms, one of which was connected at the elbows.  From the combined gauntlets glowed the still smoking barrel of some kind of cannon.  The Giant lowered its weapon, glaring down at him with what could only be true venom and disgust.  He'd never felt so judged before in his life.

"I don't say this to many people!" continued Kenny, sounding smugly satisfied.  Then he lifted a hand and flipped Derrick off.  The aliens all around him mirrored the gesture with their six-fingered paws.  "But FUCK!  YOU!  DERRICK!"

Before his disbelieving, stunned eyes, the ship's door slid closed and became a seamless piece of the hull once again.  The ship turned and rocketed off into the atmosphere, leaving Derrick, slack-jawed, beside his now completely melted and ruined car.  He couldn't even be angry.  The only thing that truly sucked was that insurance was most assuredly not going to cover the damages.

Melting by Space Alien was definitely not on his policy.

***

The alien spaceship blazed away from Earth at all speed.  Off it went, to find new galaxies to explore, new sights to discover, new adventures to share.  They were a family, and that was all that truly mattered; free to pursue their dreams wherever they went.  As their children steered the ship, their Alien Mother and Human Father held one another in their private bunk, embracing one another in the throes of passion and love.  They all knew, more than ever, that this was where they belonged.

This was their family.  A Family from beyond the Stars.

THE END.

***To all those who struggle to find their place in this world, know that it is out there.  You belong, you matter, and you are uniquely special.  Go out, find your place, and make it your own.  Thank you for following along with me on this adventure.***