While Anthem hasn't been able to contact me directly yet, she's managed to relay most of the crucial information regarding the next meeting through Megan.

I managed to explain how human weekends work, Megan tells me over text, and she claims we'll figure out how to get around 'scheduling conflicts' once we're doing real missions... although honestly, I can't believe we got recruited by an alien entity to save the world and all you can worry about is honors club.

Sorry Megan, but if I missed honors, the world would actually end. I respond, leaning back into the headboard of my bed.

Unbelievable. I can almost hear her sarcasm from here. I didn't get Serena's number and Anthem can't get through to her, but everyone else seems to be on board for 10 this morning. Think you can sneak out?

Sure, but what do you mean by 'can't'? I ask.

I mean can't. Megan's reply comes in seconds. You coming?

I bound downstairs, and swing around the banister onto the main floor. "I'm going to a friend's house." I yell up the stairs at my parents, hoping they're conscious enough to register the statement. Will is downstairs with a bowl of cereal, tapping the table, but he looks up when he sees me on my way out, all dressed up with nowhere to go. "I'm heading out. Alone."

"It's the girl, isn't it." Will says, lifting another spoonful of soggy cereal, "You know what? You go do that. I'm going to stay home and watch cartoons in the basement with the volume up and enjoy my Saturday."

"I'm going to hang out with this kid I met at school- Evan, I think- and 'the girl'." I say, putting air quotes around the statement. "Her name is Megan, by the way. Stop being a womanizer, Will."

"I am not a womanizer!" Will slams his hands on the table. It takes so little to rile him up that sometimes I wonder if he's doing it for my benefit. "I just didn't know her name."
"Whatever you say. I'll see you this afternoon." I pat him on the back,

"You're the worst!" Will yells out the door as I start down the street, hands tucked into my pockets. The suburban streets are prim as you'd imagine them, the well-maintained, freshly-painted houses stretching out forever in every direction. The streets are dotted by the occasional garden or basketball hoop, with an assortment of cars and young trees lining the edges, but there's a monotony to them that seems unending. It's the type of place you could get lost in if you didn't know where you were going.

The park is over a bridge and a few blocks over, near the place where the forest overtakes the city. The old oaks slump over the shiny plastic playground, and a weed-strangled field lies to the right, mottled by scruffy patches of dirt. The edge of the park slopes down to a river and an abandoned pipe, where I've seen older teens disappear with graffiti. Megan sits at the edge, legs crossed neatly over each other.

"Well?" I ask.

Megan's lips are pursed into a uneasy frown, and her eyes wander across the park. She's wearing a skirt of respectable length, auburn in color, and a gray t-shirt that reads "Keep Calm and Nerd On". Her mousy hair frames her face perfectly, disheveled in an attractively rebellious manner. "Evan's coming back in a second. Harper's coming in through another entrance, according to Anthem, but she might be late. It's apparently pretty difficult to slip out of boarding school."

I nod. Prince Academy is out past the edge of town in the Southwoods community, where property values spike up to sheer madness. The whole area is nothing but idyllic landscapes, horse stables, and golf courses far as the eye can see, and Prince Academy is the overpriced jewel in the center of its crown.

Back in our trashed-up corner of the universe, Evan Drake hops the fence of one of the houses bordering the park, running back to us both. He's wearing a black t-shirt and messy pants. His eyes are alive with a frantic energy. "Alright. I'm back." He's hardly panting, despite having sprinted over here. Noticing that I'm staring at him, he adds, "Thanks for the warm reception, Adam."

"No problem," I say, "Thanks for finally showing up. We've been waiting forever."

"Bull."
"Both of you cut it out," Megan says, "We need to get down to the portal. Are you coming or not?" Megan pushes away some thick foliage, fearless, and darts down to the river and the empty pipe. We follow and enter behind her. The pipe, large enough to fit the three of us without too much crowding, smells like the river and dead things, thick with a cold emptiness deep as the one that pressed against my throat when all this started happening. The darkness fades into distant red light as we emerge into the Veins, fully decked out in our hero garb.

Anthem is already waiting at the entrance, cold yellow eyes fixed on the three of us. Despite her small size and toy-like features, she has a presence so cool and piercing that she manages to intimidate nonetheless.

"Serena's not here." Megan says, "I got the others, though."

"She is frustrating," admits Anthem. "Never mind that now. I need you three to come this way." She turns, white tail flashing, and walks at a quick but dignified pace down the Veins. Evan lights up one of his fingers, providing a candle-like flame, which doesn't do much more than illuminate our outfits but is comforting nonetheless.

"What's with the sword?" Evan asks me.

The scabbard is still slung over my back. I guess transferring it to Megan when we last came down here reset when we re-entered. "I have no idea." I admit. "I don't know what's with the attire. I probably look like a tool right now."

"Maybe a little dorky, but I think it looks badass." Evan puts a hand (the one that's not on fire, fortunately) on my padded shoulder. I can feel the heat all the way down the back of my spine, but it's not unpleasant- more like sitting next to a fire on a cold day. He jerks it away after a moment of tense silence, before I can explain he's not bothering me.

(God, this is weird.)

Megan is watching us with a sneaky half-smile across her face. Anthem pauses up ahead, at another exit into darkness, and leaps through.

"They sure love their portals around here," Evan yells to no one in particular. "Incredible interior design. Goes great with the weird, pulsating red walls."

"Get in the portal, Drake." Megan says, shoving him forwards.

Evan stumbles halfway forwards, and with a snarky grin, glares back at her. "You first, Briggs."

"We're not at a boarding school. You can use each other's first names." I say, arms folded.

"It's not nearly as fun." Megan winks. Evan rolls his eyes so hard I think they might go into the back of his skull. "Fine, fine, I'm going."

The three of us end up piling in almost at once, partially because no one wants to be left alone in the ominous dark of the Veins. We emerge into a dusty room with no windows and books going on far as the eye can see. There are old fashioned chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, elaborate ones with hundreds of tiny crystals, and right before us is a sitting area with large leather sofas. A stone fireplace stocked with logs sits dormant in the center, and the whole room smells of old books and the peculiar scent well-used spaces have. Anthem leaps up into a comfortable bed atop one of the shelves, which she accesses by jumping up a couch and several smaller shelves, and curls up around herself, satisfied.

"Did we leave the Veins?" asks Megan.

Anthem shakes her head.

"First the flesh walls, now this." Evan mutters. "What is this place, anyways?"

"That's a question I am not at liberty to answer, but I can confirm that the Veins are, if not the typical kind, some form of living organism. As for this, this is a pocket dimension inside of the pocket dimension the Veins resides in: my personal abode. Most of the books contain my own memories or knowledge of the human world, so you'll find them dry at best and incomprehensible at worst."

"I didn't come down here to read." Evan says.

"You could serve to make a habit of it," Megan replies, which I pray won't start another round of bickering between the two of them.

"We're not going to practice our powers in a library, are we?" I ask. "I really don't want to cut up those leather sofas."

"That would be the intended purpose of the next room." Anthem gets up from her bed, leaping off the shelf directly onto the ground. Her ears twitch upwards, but she seems unharmed. She turns a right around one of the bookcases and we enter an octagonal room flanked in mirrors. There's a gym-esque training floor at the center, taking up about three-quarters of the room. The wooden deck before it, closest to us, has nice chairs and a good view of the action below. Anthem gestures for us to sit. "Who wants to go first?"

Megan raises her hand but Evan jumps down the stairs and slides into the center of the room, both palms blazing with fire. "You want to rumble?"

"I don't remember your powers involving tectonic manipulation." Anthem says, head tilted.

"Nice," Megan calls from the sidelines. A solid red mannequin appears from the ground, similar in appearance to Evan himself. Anthem nods to Evan, who flashes the cherub a thumbs up. Megan yells, "Don't beat yourself up too hard, Drake!" which prompts a disappointed, slow head shake from Evan two seconds before his double punches him in the face.

Evan gets back up, wiping a trickle of blood from his nose, and tries to flame his double with little success. The double speeds around him with cat-like agility, bouncing off walls, and he can't seem to get a single clear shot. On the sidelines, I ask Megan, "What's with the comebacks? Are all three of you just trying to one-up each other?"

"Maybe a little bit." Megan laughs, "I guess I tend to get a little snappy when I'm nervous."

"You? Nervous?"

"Us. In an underground fortress inside multiple pocket dimensions, training to save the world from who knows what."

"Fair point." I say.

A darker edge to her voice, Megan adds, "Whoever acquired the Diosite, chances are it's likely going to be us, a bunch of kids, against adults who won't be compelled to play nice. We could get seriously injured." Evan, back on the battlefield, smiles like a kid who just beaned his neighbor in the face with a snowball. He's landed his first hit.

"You're still going along with it, though."

Megan stares past me through her mask, which forms a dark heart shape around her eyes, bridging her nose. I feel my heartbeat kick up, and she asks, "When you were young, did you ever... feel like you belonged somewhere else? Like you were spending your whole life waiting on something?"

"Where else would I belong?"

Her eyes widen, and she looks away again, blushing. "Never mind. It's stupid."

"I'm pretty stupid sometimes. It's probably me."

"We should be watching."

"Yeah."

"We are watching."

"You bet."

Evan holds hit foot against the square of the doppelganger's back, which wriggles on the floor beneath him, one arm burned clean away. He flashes finger guns to us, in the audience. "Not too bad, really."

Anthem nods, though she doesn't seem quite convinced. "In addition to pyrokinesis, you also have, as you've demonstrated, heightened agility, strength, and jumping ability."

"So basically dragon powers." Evan says, "Nice. Just going to make a quick pitch here, though- can I actually become a dragon?"

"No. The Diosite uses your desires and general personality as a conduit through which to provide powers you'd be naturally adept at."

"If I really wanted to, then could I shapeshift into a dragon?"

"I forgot how infuriating human children are."

"It's really just him," Megan says, getting up from her seat. "Move aside."

A mirror version of herself, this time in blue, emerges from the ground, bobbing back and forth slightly in a fighting position. Megan lifts her arm and a stream of water condenses, travelling along the path of it, and then with one graceful movement she sprays it back at her opponent. The movement turns into an elaborate dance, the many layers of her dress undulating against each other as she twirls about. It looks significantly shorter than last time, and tight enough that the flowy fabrics don't get in her way- did she find some way to modify it herself?

"She's pretty good," I remark.

Evan nods. "Guess we're going to have to catch up."

"Can't be too hard," I joke, "How much damage can she really do with water?"

"It's Megan Briggs," Evan says, shocked at my utter lack of respect. "She can do whatever she wants to. Just watch her."

Megan waves to us on the sidelines, sweet smile across her face.

Here's hoping she didn't hear that.

"Guess I'm last." I say.

"You didn't seem all that enthusiastic, so I saw no harm in letting you skulk in the corner some more." Anthem says, primly.

I sigh as I enter the arena. Trying to get my sword out of the unfortunately positioned back scabbard seems to be a larger issue than I previously anticipated, and I end up throwing it over my head and shaking it out onto the floor. Anthem casts me a look of shrewd disappointment.

"I'm guessing the sword has something to do with my powers." Several versions of me stare back at me from the walls. My outfit, which is mainly gray, is somewhere between formal attire and uniform. My mask glitters a pale yellow, with three upwards spikes like those of a crown. It looks like I kind of, almost tried. I think Evan was trying to make me feel better earlier.

"I'm as confused as you are, Adam Rosenbloom," Anthem says, "but yes. The blade is capable of launching light-based projectiles, will heat up in order to melt or cleave most metals, and will return to you naturally if thrown."

"Like a boomerang?" calls Evan from the sidelines.

"No, it will reappear in the sheath."

"First you're telling me I can't turn into a dragon, and now Adam can't use his anime sword as a boomerang. This has been a day of disappointments."

Anthem makes a noise like a cat drowning deep in her throat.

My doppelganger, dark as shadow, bubbles up from the ground. Its eyes open to empty sockets, and despite its sword, it bares a more striking resemblance to my shorter, messy-haired brother. There's even that same eagerness in the way it stands, bobbing back and forth with Will's bubbly enthusiasm. When I take a step forwards, it mirrors mine, and then it tries to slam the sword straight into my chest.

Something kicks in and I parry it, holding it inches away from me, and the sword heats up so that I can slice its blade open with mine. There's a white arc through the air, like lightning, as I round on the doppelganger, which backs up, defenseless. I strike with all my might to the right and with a quick, sickly chink, the blade embeds itself in the side of the shadow's neck. It crumbles back and disappears into the ground. "God damnit," I hiss under my breath, as if I didn't just make the motion myself. "What was the point of that?!"

"Interesting." Anthem says as I go to sit back down with the others. My hand still trembles slightly around the blade, and I have to take a few breaths to steady myself. I slide it back into the sheath, still warm. Megan and Evan don't seem fazed by this at all (great) and Anthem, undeterred, continues: "I suppose we'll be waiting on Harper now, won't we? Until then, if you have any questions, I could at least explain some technicals of our assignment."

"Just not where we are, or who we're actually fighting?" asks Evan.

"I don't know whose hands the Diosite are in. My grasp on the human world is limited, and my ability to effect it is minimized. When I enter a domain claimed by another shard, I'm no longer able to keep even an incorporeal form."

"You can't even get close to it." Megan clarifies.

"Do you think I would enlist you if I could?"

"Fair. So... has anyone who acquired this stuff ever done anything?"

"What have they actually done? A few unexplained disappearances, a 'wildfire' here, a casualty there. As for what they've almost done... human imagination is one of the most powerful forces there is. It is restrained by the weakness of your physical forms and the conventions of your supposed morality. When both of those are stripped away... that is how gods are made. Gods and monsters."

The room is dead silent. Evan's cocky grin is gone and Megan has that faraway look in her eyes. I get the feeling I don't look like either of them, because I don't feel solemn, or resolute, I just feel terrified.

"We need to start." Megan says, for all three of us. "We need to start now."

"Three weeks time, we'll go scope out the current coordinates of the Diosite." Anthem responds. "Best I can gather, we should have months, so it'll be a balance of careful training and providing maximum buffer times in case something goes awry. Charging in there as you are will do nothing and will put you all at risk, something I do not wish to do."

"What if they try something before that?" asks Megan. "We could at least help."

"Doubtful," Anthem says, "Highly doubtful. It never gets them that quickly."

(A/N: Whoops, I'm late! The Friday chapter will still be up at the usual time and I'll swoop in with that "make up chapter" for last Friday... whenever. Hopefully this extra-long chapter will be enough to tide you all over!)