Arthur heads off with the kid. He won't let him go during the subsequent throng of MIBs crowding us with tasers at the ready, won't stop pleading innocence, and he talks down quite a few officers. Of course, there's nothing he can say for the mass of illegal magical weapons that have emerged with us.

"Mr. Spienwell, did you lead these children on a dangerous expedition into a portal with unknown destination?" asks one of the MIBs, who looks like the one who drove me to school that one morning. Is it too late to hope that maybe this Extra kid could pull his crazy reality-altering powers and possess her again? Yes? No?
Mikayla stands and opens her mouth. Arthur waves her down. "Of course I did. As a Spienwell, I consider it my honor and duty to protect, even when it's unorthodox, even against the rules. It's just what I have to do as an Extra."

Jeez. Talk about pulling a one-eighty. Actually, it's still just Arthur sucking up and being a pretty boy, so maybe it's more of a sharp ninety. Whatever gets his dashing smile, perfectly curved jaw, killer abs, incredible voice, and general charisma on our side is good by me.

"A judge? Come on, jail time is going to kill my ability to get into Harvard," laughs Arthur.

"We're going to jail?" I whisper to the ground. "Oh, shit..."

"You're not going to jail," says Ms. Reema. "Trust me, I work in this department. The system will definitely have stricter trackers on all of you from now on, it'll go on your permanent record, and the world will continue to ensure that all your opportunities are checked by their paranoia, even if you saved the day, but we should at least be able to get you out of jail."

"Ms. Reema--" I feel my voice freeze in my throat. "That's you, right?"

"A lot of that was me, Derrick. I was very much conscious the whole time, even if I was having my thoughts altered somewhat by outside influence. I must offer you my sincerest condolences for how stressed you must have been. However, it looks like you've made a lot of progress here. I'm proud of you and I hope you'll continue to work with me whenever the need arises." Ms. Reema flashes me a grin unbefitting of someone who's been ordered around by a ten year old cosmic deity for the last few months. Some people, I swear...

Mikayla clasps Ms. Reema's hand. "It's on our record? Will they be pressing charges? Can we take this to court? Do we even get litigation? If we do, can I sue? I've wanted to sue for months but I didn't even think I could trust you. Fuck that. I want to sue! That feels so good to say! The world's going to have to take me down fighting."

Ms. Reema's eyes widen. "It's lovely to see you too, Mikayla. Along with everyone. Is anyone here in need of medical attention? I have my first-aid kit!" She holds up a red box with that same profoundly unnerving cheeriness.

I stare around the field. The others are up, thankfully. Maris and a few others are talking with officers, who are frowning at her torn gloves, and Olive is already hugging both her dads. I ignore the stab of pain and stare straight upwards. It looks like, from the height of the sun, it's just around mid-day. I'm hoping we get the day of school off, but if Ms. Reema's here, Ms. Shinke could be too. That thought alone is scarier than anything else that's happened so far. I don't know if she'd be using her pole on us or the MIBs, but I don't like our odds.

"Mr. Renard," calls Ms. Haven. "We're taking you into custody for interrogation. Resist and you will be cuffed."

"We resisted pretty well a moment ago. I might be willing to play my odds," I say, looking across the field. The others are not ready for another fight, but I get a metal collar around the neck anyways. "Do you seriously have to do that?" I hiss.

"Shifter protocol," Mr. Harring says, escorting me off the scene. I take a look back at the others. Mikayla gives me a knowing glance from her conversation with Ms. Reema, but her attention turns to her parents, who rush up and hug her. Finn's with his, but their embrace looks strained. Can't imagine that's out of the usual. Plus, there are MIBs everywhere with guns, and I don't think they're fun magic guns with non-lethal stun beams.

"I'm not a shifter," I say once we're off the scene. I can feel the metal against my neck. Almost makes me feel bad for the real shifters. One of these dumbasses probably did something terrible for protocol like this--actually, I'm almost definite I don't remember any major accidents with shifters. We really do just look so scary that people decided they'd better lock us up before we tried anything. Jeez. They better be treating you better than this, wherever you are. "So, what's your assessment on the damage? What are we in for?"

"Probably suspension," Mr. Harring says. Streets are still blocked off. Nice touch. Gives our calamity a real sense of scale. "It helps that you did manage to avert the catastrophe, but don't expect a pat on the back."

"Fuck, I can't get suspended. I have quarter exams to take," I say, idly.

"You have a prestigious academic record to uphold, Mr. Renard," Ms. Haven says.

"A 50 is infinitely better than a zero, Anna," I snipe. "I learned that in math."

"I'm sure they'll let you take make-ups," Ms. Haven says as we turn into a parking lot, where their limo sits right next to a trembling kid and an old station wagon.

"Hi," Owen says. "I didn't m-miss anything, did I?"

"To be entirely frank, we kind of forgot you existed for a while there," I say.

"O-oh," Owen says.

"On the bright side, I believe that means you probably won't be arrested?"

"Well, now that you've just framed him as an accomplice, I'm sure he will," Ms. Haven says. "Get in the car, Caitiff."

"Like the Caitiff?" asks Mr. Harring, somewhere between impressed and wary.

Owen gets in the limo, scooting up next to me. Kid's still quivering. "I guess so," he says. "Can we uh... this won't be too bad, will it? My family already has one special case. All I did was sit in the back of the car."

"Will the others be at the interrogation?" I ask. "I have to ask about Finn. There's no way Mikayla just coerced him back to this. Oh, oh, and Hoshi apparently has a bunch of powers I didn't know about. Not like that's surprising. Not to mention the ship... I'm sure Mikayla and Arthur have all these theories on if we were actually in our otherworlds or if we were just in copies of them."

"Sounds like you have a story," Ms. Haven says.

"You'd better believe I do," I gloat as the car revs up. "We probably just saved the world. Not like you have to thank us for it, when you could just put us in jail, but..."

"What you did was incredibly stupid, but I'm sure you had some solid rationale for it. Furthermore, no one has ever managed to deliberately enter someone else's ground-class adventure before they won... we might need your assistance in the future, were we to keep investigating the matter, Mr. Renard." Ms. Haven sighs. "There will be legal charges, which our team of lawyers are going to help try to mitigate."
"Aren't you guys the ones arresting us?"

"Which we have to do, under the law."

"Hate cops," I whine. "My parents aren't going to want their son in jail. Actually, no, I feel like the arrangement might be preferable for them."

"That's the thing," Ms. Haven says. "Well, we were... are... your guardians, in a sense..."

"I don't have to tell them?" I ask.

"Sure! I mean, eventually, but err... Frederick. Spit it out."

"We'd like to adopt you," Mr. Harring says. "We've been meaning to do this for a while, but when the battle ended, both of us found each other and immediately told each other how worried we were about you."

Things are getting better, I'm about to say, but it's not entirely true. They will and they won't. Things will never go back to the way they were, and I'll always be distanced from them, right up until I leave for college. Anyways, once I finally stop pulling dumb shit, I'll probably be out of H&H's car, which will take them out of my life. I realize with a lopsided smile that I'd miss them too.

"It'll be an apartment, but there's a park nearby if you need to go out in the woods. We'll try to accomodate for you. We're not married yet, either, but we've been working on that too..."

This is my future, the one I chose to fight for. The one I chose to come back for. Time for me to come out of the woods and stop living like a dog. "Don't worry about all that. Assuming I don't spend the next few months in jail, I'm in," I say. "Just remind me again... what are your names, exactly?"

We all laugh. It's the most I've felt like part of a family for a long time.