Kyle:

I was finally back at the camp. I dropped to my butt behind the cleft, holding my chest. I looked up to see- a giant pink bunny staring at me with giant lifeless eyes, about three inches from my face. I screamed like- well like a little kid. I then jumped back and slammed my head into the back of the rock.

I heard chuckles and a straight-up laugh- that definitely belonged to Xao. I stood up rubbing the back of my head as Xao and J-Star came out from behind a bush not far away. "Haha guys," I said. "What if I had been followed?"

"Pretty sure your weapons would have been drawn," Xao said. "Jess taught you well."

I sighed. "Point..." the bunny was waving at me. "So that's a projection..." I waved a hand through it. "So if I- HOLY CRAP!" To my left, I was suddenly looking at a giant grasshopper, again its face about two inches from mine. It twisted its head side to side as I eased my hand away from my lightning blade. "What's the big idea?"

The two teens made finger pistols at each other as I folded my arms. J-Star smiled and started to explain. "Well, Xao said that-"

"That thing goes away," I quickly said, pointing at the bug that was twice my size. It vanished.

J-Star shrugged. "Xao pointed out I was kinda holding myself back. I use presets when I use my projector, but it can project literally anything I imagine. It takes time to manifest a full copy of myself- but if I just project random images your average opponent will be momentarily confused anyway. The idea isn't to project-specific kinds of projections, but just as many sounds and sights as possible, rendering one's senses of sight and hearing useless."

"Hm..." I blinked a few times. "That's... actually pretty clever."

"So I'm practicing confusing the heck out of someone." That voice came from the top of the cleft. At that moment I realized Xao didn't have a bright green shirt like the person in front of me standing with J-Star. I looked up seeing J-Star and Xao waving down at me.

I looked at the ground- which now was bright pink. "Okay... this is gonna be an interesting night." I just looked forward, realizing it was meaningless to try to find them with my eyes at the moment. "All that being established, we have a problem."

A pair of giant lips appeared over my shoulder and spoke in a deep near tenor voice. "I'll say."

I couldn't help but give a grin to that as I inched away involuntarily. "The leprechauns are amassing a small army."

"Just a squad of six huh?" J-Star's voice came from behind me as the lips disappeared.

"Doesn't that thing have a limited battery life?" I asked.

"Yep!" J-Star's voice said somewhere over my right shoulder. "But if I move around and distract you, good luck figuring out when it's out of juice to find me." I looked down at my scanner- which at the moment looked like a giant eyeball- I jumped as it blinked when I almost touched it.

I continued. "Technically it still is a squad of six. The army is composed entirely of mimics and a few hunters. All of those are easy enough to dispatch at a distance since they're not smart enough to carry weapons."

To my left- "Don't the leprechauns just carry laser swords or something?" Xao asked.

I shrugged. "Those things can fire their lasers or retain them, they're good at range or close up." I sat down as the ground appeared to turn into a giant eyeball under me. I just sat down anyway and- "OW!" I shot up pulling the thing out of my behind. "Who even packed thumb tacks?" I demanded.

"I mean... Jessica," Xao said.

I sighed with a small grin. "Yeah, that makes sense." I sighed looking at the thing that stuck me, almost longingly.

"You two are gonna get married, you know that right?" J-Star said, this time her voice coming from straight above me. I was doing my best but this was disorienting... and kind of annoying.

"Maybe..." I said.

"There is no maybe," her voice was now literally coming from my left hand.

"I'm a little young," I said clenching both fists, "don't ya think?"

"I didn't say it would be tomorrow- just that it's gonna happen," the voice came from the trees to my right.

I tapped my foot. "Can you really do all this while in a fight?"

"I can do it while romanticizing," J-Star pointed out. I sat back down again, figuring I already found the tack.

"When you're in the heat of a fight you'll get distracted by all this goofiness."

Suddenly everything around me went completely black.

This one was legitimately starting to scare me. I could see nothing but black all around. "No one said my illusions always had to be creative, just disorienting," J-Star said from behind me. I dropped to the ground, desperately trying to block my flanks as I felt fingers pushing in and forcing me to laugh. "What's the matter, tough guy? Fight back." As often as Jessica and Xao both teased me, one would think I would be numb to tickling, but it was practically paralyzing for me even then. "Just having fun of course, but if you were an enemy you could have been dead ages ago."

She finally let up. I laid on the ground with my hands up catching my breath. "Perfect position for me to do it again," J-Star pointed out.

I sighed between laughs as I calmed down. "Not like there's anything I can do, you're stronger than me and I can't figure out where you are."

A few more pokes came to my sides and belly, forcing out chuckles. "That..." she was now poking me as I tried to speak. "That- knock it off- that is a- daah- really good- ffff-weapon."

The blackness disappeared. I looked up and- no J-Star.

A voice came from the rock cleft, where no one was that I could see. "By the way- yes I do know ventriloquism." I grinned and shook my head. "So... without my deals, exactly how are you two planning on taking down that ship anyway? You're lightning blade got a good enough range? Xao gonna supercharge his pulse cannon?"

"We have it covered," I said.

"You guys told me to ask questions, what's the point if no one answers?"

I twisted my lips. I looked to the side. "J-Star, do you ever think about- just what you are?"

"A trickster?" she asked.

"No," I shook my head. "That's what you became. I mean what you were born as."

"A human?"

I twisted my lips again. "I mean, that's pretty meaningful too. You were born a pharaoh. You were born a descendant of those who fought off the great Olympians. You were born a citizen of Triad. Hm... I guess these days, that's coming into focus for me. Even as I disagree with my people at times, to really think about what it means to be descended from them..."

"What does it matter how someone is born?" she asked. The voice now appeared at my back.

"To your value as a person, it doesn't, but to what you can draw on... roots... they may not tell you what you will be, but they tell you what you can be. They tell you where you come from." J-Star sat down next to me-or an image of her did, this one wearing a purple shirt. "Guessing Xao said you have to keep practicing no matter what huh?" The image nodded. I looked up into the sky.

I started to explain. "You're a human, a creature of the earth, one uniquely capable of rational thought. Capable of invention, massive creativity, even of ruling over and guiding many other species on this world and others. That's already something pretty impressive I'd say- what do you think?" She looked up with me.

"I mean, I guess. Not like being human is unique."

"Isn't it though? Humans are the only ones on this planet anywhere near their intelligence level, anywhere near their ability to work in a community, anywhere near their ability to advance."

"Pretty easy to hurt... easy to kill," she said, giving a sigh.

I nodded. "That we are." I gave a chuckle. "We're also Pharaohs. Ever think about our powers? We're faster than humans- and there's electro-kinesis- but otherwise, we're just humans who live longer than others. Think about our homeworld. Their people have made whole buildings float- they have landmasses that house hundreds- that are mobile. The planet of Triad is so advanced it's impossible to tell where pharaoh ingenuity stops and nature begins. Heck, half the plants there aren't even native to the planet-and several are crossbreeds between those native to earth and those native to Triad. Humans transform environments. We pharaohs... we're terraformers. We changed a whole planet, and I'm pretty sure we could do it again. Girl, that is the blood that flows through you. When the Leprechauns threatened earth, we destroyed one of their moons- those pharaohs are your people. Each of us has so much raw potential it can hardly be calculated. Even if you were to set out to try, how would you even start?"

"How does this answer my question?"

I kept looking up. "One of the military strategies of the pharaohs is being unknowable. I can't share everything with you, or you might tip off our enemies to our real plan. You'll have to just trust me." I paused. "Some of that I also want you to think about, to be honest. If you left the Tricksters-"

"This again?" she said with an exasperated sigh.

"Can you just listen?"

The image shook its head, rolled its eyes- then sighed. "If you insist."

"If you left the Tricksters, you believe you wouldn't have much power huh?"

"The power is what scares you," she pointed out.

"It's what attracts you. But let's be real, you're not weak in the first place."

"So all that power you say we have, you've never felt helpless?"

"I... more often than I've felt in control," I admitted.

"So why not take whatever power you can get?" she asked. "There are things you want to fight for right? So take whatever power you can and secure them!"

I nodded. "There may have been a time I would have thought like that too. But it's like a perversion of the truth. First, you already have all kinds of power just as you are. Second, the more power you have, the more responsibility. The line between right and wrong gets harder and harder to see. Pursuing power for its own sake- there's no telling what that will do to someone."

She went quiet.

Her image disappeared. I heard a voice from the ground next to me. "Well... if they're growing in numbers, I guess we better get going huh? Can't just wait for the ship. Who knows how strong they'll be by that point?"

I clenched dirt in my hand. "No. If we attack now the ship might not come."

"If we rescue the kid now it might not come- Kyle do you hear yourself? If they control when that ship comes- they control when we attack, and if they know we're out here, I'm guessing that's when their defenses will be the strongest. We're attacking based on them, we're giving them the advantage. We don't have the power to do that. We're just three kids."

I folded my hands and clenched my eyes shut. "I don't know what you are... but I'm a son of Triad. We terraform worlds, we destroy moons- we're not satisfied till we do the impossible and do it ten times over just because we can. Those creatures know we're coming, they're terrified, and they should be. We'll wait."

Xao finally came into view and sat in front of me. "Kyle, you and I should know well, we can fail."

I suddenly glared, just a feeling of such pride overtaking me... I was inviting it this time. "I'd rather fail in my own power, power I control, not power that controls me. Power I earned over the course of a long life- one that's hardly over. Power I understand because I learned it with my own hands." I felt like I was on a roll- it was a good feeling to just have.

"I thought you disowned Triad," J-Star said.

"I disowned my father, not my country. I... I still cling to my heritage," I said.

"You boys think you're so wise. So tell me, out there, we're going to have to kill aren't we?" J-Star's voice asked.

I nodded. "Probably."

"For such moral people, all three of us sure seem to be okay with that huh?"

"What?" Xao asked. He appeared standing on my right- in the correct clothes this time.

"We've discussed it so many times, haven't we? My mistake. You two have completely considered the fact that we're deliberately hunting down other intelligent creatures with the intention of killing them, right?" she asked sarcastically.

I shrugged, while Xao paused like his whole body was going stiff. "Um... Kyle you've been talkative, you take this one..." Xao said.

"They're Leprechauns. They're evil. It's their fault the gargoyles exist. It's their fault our people attempted genocide. They eat humans. They hunt children like animals. Personally, I'm looking forward to killing a few."

"Kyle... we do what we have to, but attitude matters. You have to remember..." Xao said.

I smiled with a snide look. "What Xao? Are they human too? Oh right... they're not." Xao went silent. "Get back to practice. I'm going to modify my plans." For some reason, it sure felt good to say that.

It only felt good for a few minutes. After that, I sorely wished I could take those words back... it looked like that controlling attitude wasn't just going away after all.