The group heads over to a place, just a block away. The first thing you notice is that the place's mascot is a cartoon bored looking middle aged in a chef's hat.

"It's better than it looks," Scion said.

"No objections," said Dave.  "I'm getting burgers.  Choice of logo is secondary, I promise."

Inside it was pretty busy. Mostly with fellow high school aged teens.

Just the smell made Dave drool; he looked for a menu.

"Uh, what's good here?" he asked the others.

"How much can you eat?" Red Shift asked.

"A lot," said Dave.  "Especially if it's good Earth food."

"Okay, then I recommend the Double Cheddar Bacon Burger with the fried pickles on the side," Red Shift said.

"Eh, why not?"

Dave made his way to the counter, keeping vague track of how people were reacting to him.

The teenagers at the front didn't seem to care.

"You want fries with that?"

"Absolutely," said Dave with a happy sigh.  "And a coke.  Or mountain dew.  Or whatever your house cola is."

"Sure," the teen said as he handed you a slip with a number and went on to take other orders.

Dave went to rejoin the others.

"Dude, nice cosplay!' someone shouted to you.

Dave thought that was funny-- who was he cosplaying as, if not himself?  But he laughed and waved at the 'fan,' and went to join the girls.

The first thing you notice is that Red Shift has even more food than you and she eagerly dug in.

That wasn't surprising at all.  Probably her powers gave her an incredibly fast metabolism.

"At this rate, you'll be done before I get my food," he joked.

"All too true. Burger is temporary," Red Shift said.

"...In your case, very temporary," Dave observed.  "What are the rest of you getting?"

"Probably something simple like a burger and a shake," Scion said. "We got the table, so we'll go order now."

Dave went with Red Shift to claim the table.

"...So they think we're all cosplayers?" he said.  "Interesting town."

"You anyway," Red Shift said. "A nice way to keep you secret I.D."

"True," said Dave.  "Until they keep seeing me.  But that's all right.  World's full of all kinds of people."

"We could always try the whole trench coat and hat thing from old cartoons," Red Shift said.

"In this weather, that looks really suspicious, though," said Dave.

"Yeah, I guess...," Red Shift said as the others returned.

"Not going to worry about it for now, though," said Dave.  If his food was ready, he was going to tackle it.  Eagerly.

The food was ready and they called your number.

Dave went to get his food, expecting no mysterious problems whatsoever, perhaps unwisely.

There was no problems. You have acquired your food. Soon, everyone did and the group was eating happily. It was quite good for fast food.

...which Dave hadn't had in literally years.

"Yeah, okay, new favorite place," said Dave.  "Most excellent."

"Yeah, it's great," Red Shift said.

"What did the two of you get?" Dave asked the other two girls.  He considered stealing samples... or asking for them.

"Just some fries and the avocado bacon burger," Scion said.

"I got the cheddar mushroom melt burger," Tinker said.

"It all sounds good," Dave admitted.  "It is SO amazing to be back home.  With, you know, humans.  Good food.  Music.  Furniture for people with human shapes.  All of that."

And girls!  And GIRLS!  But it seemed impolitic to go that far.

"It does sound like it was quite an ordeal," Scion said.

"Well, there were upsides," said Dave.  "But I hadn't realized how much I miss everything about this place until I got back."

"It's good you're back then," Tinker said.

"Oh, yes," said Dave.  "While we were fighting for the cause, well, it kept me busy and I put up with whatever.  But now... now, so many things I missed so much are around me again.  And that's amazing."

"What'd you miss the most?" Scion asked.

"Other humans," said Dave.  "None of the people I met out there look anything like us at all. I missed other humans most of all... especially girls."

"Sorry, I missed that last bit," Tinker said.

Dave sighed.

"...girls," he admitted.  "I very much missed having girls around."

Red shift grinned and reached over and ruffled your hair.

"Fair enough, but is there any truth to all those hot alien girls in science fiction?" Scion asked.

"One hundred percent false," said Dave, "in the places I was.  It's a huge galaxy.  There might be hot aliens out there somewhere.  But I met absolutely none of them."

"Oh, so like, alien aliens?" Scion asked.

"I think I mentioned the gigantic spiders," said Dave.  "Okay, not actual spiders, but, you know, close enough.  The whole 'bipedal' thing was pretty rare to start with.  Turns out moving around on three or four legs or no legs at all is fairly common.  Internal skeletons aren't remotely universal either, just to give you a taste of it.  I mean, great people!  Very cool, interesting worldviews, lots of cool societies.  But no cute girls at all."

"There'll be some eventually," Tinker said. "Oops, I shouldn't say stuff like that."

"Planning on going out there?" Dave asked.

"Not really, I mean, Earth itself has a whole lot of stuff to see and do already," Tinker said.

"It certainly does," said Dave.  "But you did drop a hint, and you're a high-tech heroine, right?"

"Yes, and I'm from the future," Tinker said.

Dave digested this.

"Well, that would account for it," he said.  "Same places I've been, or different places?"

The galaxy was huge, after all.

"No, just a few places," Tinker said. "But a few more humanoid ones do show up eventually."

"That's cool," said Dave.  "Did you study the history of this time period?"

"...I actually really studied the first decade of the 2000s and then messed up my leap and ended up here," Tinker said.

"In a way, that's easier to deal with," said Dave.  "At least we know you aren't trying to keep your mouth shut about secrets of our future all that much."

"I suppose. There are still somethings," Tinker said.

"Don't tell me," said Dave.  "I'd rather find out the run way."

"I'm not going to, that's how you make the Chronos Police mad," Tinker said.

"Huh, actual time cops?" said Dave.  "Well, that makes sense.  Since causality hasn't collapsed, I mean."

"There's a lot to it," Tinker said.

"A feeling that I can respect," said Dave.  "I mean, there would have to be, right?"

He glanced at Scion, seeing what she was doing.  She'd been pretty quiet...

She had been listening quietly as she ate.

"So how does all this work for you, Sci?" he asked her.

"Sorry, what do you mean?" Scion asked.

"Being part of all this, I guess?" he said.  "On your own team, independent and everything."

"I'm fine with it," Scion said. "I have too much power to not do anything."

"Well, sure," said Dave.  "Are your parents involved with this team or anything?"

"No, they're pretty busy with theirs," Scion said.

"So is that good or bad for you?" Dave asked.

"it's alright. I have my own team," Scion said.

"That's cool," said Dave.  "And really, thank you all for including me in this.  It's amazing to be welcomed like this when I finally get back home."

"Don't worry about it. You're a good guy," Scion said.

"Thanks," said Dave.  "I really appreciate it."

...He'd feel like even more of a good guy if he wasn't continually distracted by thoughts of making out with any or all of them, but at least he could try to not show it too much.

"What kind of stuff did you do out in space?" Tinker asked.

"Well, you know," said Dave.  "The usual thing.  Met weird aliens.  Found out about cool new tech and cultures and things.  Helped lead a revolution against slavers.  The stuff you'd normally do, basically."

"Neat. That sounds fun," Red Shift said.