The Innkeeper



As panicked as Lex was about the situation, he did not lose his senses. He honed in on all the refugees and paid close attention to whatever they had to say. So far, none of them had a clear picture of what was happening.

Everyone seemed to be reiterating the same things. They had been hit by a power outage, and though some of them had backup generators, none of their devices seemed to be working. Due to this, there was a complete blockade on communication via any electronic devices. As a result, they did not know the extent of what the situation was.

What they did know was that there was a gargantuan vessel, or possibly multiple vessels parked in the sky above the planet. Though the massive vessel itself had not attacked yet, many of them witnessed many distant, smaller vessels approaching the planet.

Out of sheer panic they had escaped to the Inn, unaware of what else to do.

"Mary, have the planning division find a spot to build the temporary refugee spot. I won't force them to separate from the rest of the guests, but I think it'll be good if we have a designated spot where refugees can gather amongst themselves."

Not wanting to wait much longer, Lex decided to teleport to earth. Still bereft of any gear fitting his current realm, he decided to stick to the army fatigues given to him by the empire for not only were they extremely comfortable, they were easy to move is, and seemed durable.

After… well he was unsure exactly how long it had been since he had last been to earth, but it had been a long time.

Lex appeared in an unfamiliar street, causing him to feel slightly confused before he remembered that he was in London.

He looked up and, indeed, saw the massive spaceship hovering above earth. Upon observing its massive, oval shape blocking out most of the sky, Lex decided to dump all the physics he had learned in high school and college, because there was no way something so massive should have come near a planet without being affected by it, or causing an adverse effect in return.

Even the moon caused changes in the tides due to its gravitational pull, so if either the ship was massive enough to block the view, or close enough to cause the same effect, things should not have been so calm.

But then again, there was a global electronic blackout and information was scarce, so there was a real possibility that he was just lacking information.

Lex shook his head. That didn't matter right now. What mattered was that while the street he was on seemed barren and as if it suffered a storm, and there was not a single person in sight, there were also no invaders in sight either.

His senses were sharp enough that if there was fighting even in the distance, he would have picked up on it. Yet while there were sounds of screaming, running and general panic that Lex could pick up, there was no fighting. Or at least, no fighting that wasn't happening between humans.

In the distance, though, he could pick up a seemingly endless stream of ships exiting the ship in the sky and descending towards earth. Whatever was happening, it hadn't made its way here yet, which was good enough for Lex.

He sprinted towards his old home, reaching quickly due to speed. Things were actually progressing pretty smoothly for once. He expected to have to fight through an army of villains who happened to be between him and his family. Thinking about it, that was pretty stupid. Just because he often faced difficult situations didn't mean the universe was specifically targeting him to make his life difficult.

The door to the house was locked, but Lex didn't even need to exert himself to break it. Considering the circumstances, he didn't think anyone would mind.

"Hey is anyone home?" he yelled, as he extended his spirit sense out to search the house. Immediately, he noticed a number of unusual details. He did not recognize the furniture, and much of the layout of the house had been changed. There were fewer bedrooms and the rooms had instead been turned into storage rooms. Moreover, he noticed the distinct lack of certain items he knew his sisters would never leave.

There were still minor details. The most significant thing he noticed was that the house was only occupied by two, extremely senior citizens!

"Stay back, I have a knife!" yelled an old lady from somewhere deeper inside the house. Lex had a daunting realization, though he held out a faint hope still.

Calmly, and prepared to hear bad news, Lex walked forward so that he came into view of the old couple. There was an old, feeble looking man sitting in a wheelchair, while a similarly aged petite lady stood in front of him, holding a kitchen knife in her softly trembling hand.

"Don't come any closer, we don't have any money!" said the old lady, putting on a brave front.

"I… I don't mean any harm. I used to know the people who lived here before, I didn't know they moved out," Lex gently explained. "Is there any chance you know where they might have gone?"

It had been a long time since he came to earth, so it was entirely possible his family moved. In fact, it was highly likely since his entire childhood he lived a nomadic life. Belle had even informed him that she had gotten a new government job, which might have caused them to move. Or maybe his parents came back and decided to go somewhere else on an expedition.

Maybe them moving even had something to do with their secret. There was literally no way for him to know. He suddenly felt like an idiot for waiting so long to confront them about that, but in his defense, how was he supposed to know the world would be invaded? That had never happened before!