Upon hearing his question, Morpheous immediately pushed Eva behind him. The apples that she was holding in her hand fell down and rolled on the street.
"Brother!" exclaimed a surprised Eva.
"Who are you?" asked Morpheous. His face looked dead serious and his stance looked aggressive. Extending his hands towards him, Atticus gave out a warm smile and said, "I am Atticus Lincoln. An Astrophysicist and maybe in your terms a star watcher."
But Morpheous still stayed hostile and asked,
"How do you know about others? How do you know that we didn't come alone?"
"It's basic mathematics governed by the laws of physics," replied Atticus and looked at them but seeing their blank faces he exclaimed, "My bad. Let me explain it this way. I study the stars and space, I mean the sky, and I can know if there is something that breaks the harmony of energy levels.
"So yesterday night there was a lot of change in the energy level and that cannot happen with the weight of only two of your bodies. So I am pretty sure that there are two or three more people who came along with you."
"How did you know that we have come from someplace else?" asked Morpheous. He still looked apprehensive so Atticus brought the EMP detecting device in front and showed them how the arrow was pointing towards them.
"This little thing can detect any unnatural source of energy that is nearby."
"Then can it help us to detect my people? I really need your help. I will do anything in return. Please just help me find them."
Atticus looked at Morpheous and then with a smile on his face he said, "I guess the first thing you guys need to do is to eat! Follow me!" and started walking towards his jeep. Morpheous deliberated a bit but then holding the hands of Eva he started following the man.
Atticus got inside the jeep and said, "Get in!"
Although they both had seen many such moving entities in the last couple of hours, they were pretty apprehensive about getting into one and that too with a man from this realm.
Looking at their indecisive faces, Atticus said,
"This is perfectly safe. Let me help you out."
And getting down from the driver's seat, he went to the passenger's seat side and helped Morpheous get in. Then opening the back door, he helped Eva get in as well.
Her eyes sparkled in amazement as she got in. As she sat on the cream-colored leather upholstery, she ran her finger on top of it and felt its texture. She then looked at the dashboard, the gear shift, and the navigation unit carefully, trying to understand the purpose of each component.
Then getting inside, Atticus slightly leaned towards the side of Morpheous and the moment when he was about to put the seat belt, Morpheous blocked his hand and with an alarmed look on his face he asked,
"Why do you want to tie me up? You promised that you would help!"
"Oh trust me I am," he said and returned to the driver seat and attached the seat belt to himself. Then he looked at Morpheous and said, "As this object moves fast we need this safety," and saying that he clicked the seat belt on Morpheous's side.
Morpheous looked visibly uncomfortable but seeing that Atticus had strapped himself as well, he kept his thoughts to himself. Little Eva in the meanwhile was trying to observe and learn as much as possible about this place and people. She was looking at everything and everyone curiously.
Atticus then swiftly drove towards his house albeit a bit far from Natasha's place because he didn't want to have an ugly scene with Leonard for bringing two strangers back into his house who had fled before.
Atticus lived in Whitestone, New York which was around fifteen miles away from Riverdale. His house was located in quite a posh area and thus it was sparsely populated as compared to Riverdale. After parking in front of his house, Atticus got down and helped Morpheous get down from the car.
Little Eva, who saw how Atticus had opened the car door and opened the door for herself.
Atticus looked at her in surprise and said,
"You are a quick learner. Aren't you?"
Eva didn't say anything but smiled at him.
"Come inside," he said and took them in. They looked at Atticus all amazed as he punched his key pin and the door opened automatically.
Although his house was much larger and spacious that Natasha's, but it was way less clean and organized. There were papers and whiteboards everywhere and hundreds of equations had been written at all random places, including the kitchen sink.
But then suddenly Morpheous was taken aback as he looked at a picture on the refrigerator and asked,
"Are you related to this woman?"
Atticus, who had planned to tell them later about being the father of Natasha, so as to not to freak them out, slumped on his sofa and said,
"She is my daughter!"
Now everything sounded like an alarm to Morpheous, but before he could panic and say anything, Atticus said,
"Don't you think it is the fate that has brought me to you? Don't you think I just got lucky and found you randomly in the streets? I mean what are the odds that I was able to find you much earlier than the cops?"
"Who are cops? And why are they looking for us?" was the next question of Morpheous.
Hearing his question Atticus got up from the sofa as he understood that the Q&A session was going to be, long. So he took out a carton of milk and poured it into two bowls and said,
"Cops are the people who guard us against bad people. Their job is to catch the thieves and murderers and keep them in jail so that common people like us can live peacefully."
"But why are they searching for us?"
Atticus added cereal into both the bowls and poured some honey on top and said,
"Because it is also their job to help people who are lost. They also help people who don't have anyone in this world. They help you to connect with other people who can help you out. So my daughter had called the cops so that they could help you out as she thought that you have been separated from your parents."
"Yes, we have been!" exclaimed Eva.