The sun was setting on Selenium City. The events of the day had been simply incomprehensible, and there had been a lot of pain and struggling, but in the end we took away determination. We didn't want to be powerless like that any more, and I'm sure each of the three of us formed our own goals that day.

What was mine? I decided that I would work my way up the Squadron Squad ladder in an attempt to find out who this "Prometheus" guy really is, and what he really does. Well, with the rest of the Odd Squad of course.

What was Buddy's goal? I knew he wanted to search for Berk if he was indeed out there somewhere in this world, but I also knew that he was more ambitious than that. I think that his goal was similar to mine, to move up the organization's ranks, but probably to make sure that such an incident never happened again.

What about Ariel? What could possibly be going through her head? Perhaps it was as simple as just trying to enjoy every day that had been given to us. I've always had trouble trying to figure out what makes her tick.

This walk back to headquarters was too quiet for me. There was a slight tension in the air, regardless of how much none of us wanted to admit it. "So Buddy, what was up with your power back there? I thought you said it couldn't affect any hair other than your own."

"Oh yeah, that." He thought for a few seconds. He started absentmindedly kicking a pebble down the street. "I honestly didn't know that I could do that. I just suddenly knew in that moment that I could, and that it was my best shot." He kicked the pebble a little too hard and it rolled out of our way. He sighed. "I'm sorry about that by the way. I didn't want to hurt you guys as well, but I knew that if he was indeed right by me, then constricting every hair in the area would get him too."

"Oh, that's fine," said Ariel. "Hey, have you named that attack yet?!"

"Named it? What am I, twelve?"

"Come oooon, it's fun! Plus didn't you already name an attack 'Hairnet'?"

His face contorted as he strained his mind in trying to come up with something. "How about Dread Lock?"

"I like it!"

"That works great for that constriction thing," I said, "but what about that vein-looking thing you did? What about Embody Hair?"

"Oh come on Neuman, don't encourage her!"

"Ew no! It should be Bawdy Hair because the technique is so gross!" Ariel stuck out her tongue to show her disapproval.

He smiled. "I guess that's a pretty good name though. The 'Embody Hair' one, that is."

We all laughed and shortly after arrived at headquarters. When we stepped in all we saw was people scurrying about. There was a small crowd huddled around the receptionist's spot.

Finally, the receptionist girl burst under pressure. "You guys do realize that if you stop being informants than this sort of issue would only become more common?!"

The crowd only got more enraged.

"The Squadron has too much authority!" yelled someone.

"Yeah! Just take down the entire Squadron!" yelled another.

What is this mess?!

Masamba burst into the room on the other side. He walked over to a girl and nodded. The girl nodded back, then formed a massive block of glass at her side. Masamba put his hand on it and shattered the entire thing instantly, creating a loud and horrific sound that made the room go quiet. With a wave of the girl's hand the shattered glass disappeared.

So she can make glass?

Masamba took command of the situation with a booming voice. "It's fine if you want to leave the Squadron, but do it in an organized way!!!"

The scared people lined up in an orderly single file line and stayed quiet.

Masamba glanced our way and waved us over. "Listen guys, I know you've completed your mission, because somehow the word travelled rather fast, but I don't have time to handle you all right now. You guys can go play Earball upstairs or something. There's the necessary stuff in the gym that has the weapons in it."

He shooed us up the stairs and went back to assisting the receptionist.

"Earball?" I asked while walking up.

"Vespuccian Earball, not real Earball," complained Buddy.

"You're in Vespuccia, deal with it," said Ariel back.

I feel like I've heard this argument somewhere before... "Do you play it with your ears?!"

"Not Vespuccian Earball: you play that with your noses," he explained. "Real Earball you play with your ears, but you need groups divisible by four to play that."

"Then why is it called 'Earball'?!"

"Who cares!" Ariel ran ahead of us. "All that matters is it's fun!"

We eventually reached the gym where we had previously shown our skills, or lack of skills in my case. We looked around and found a large cupboard that had the equipment in it, except that none of it looked like equipment. The two of them set up the stuff while I watched in confusion.

"Alright, we'll show you how it's done."

Ariel and Buddy stood on opposite sides of a chalkboard on wheels, which was placed in the middle of a circle on the ground.

"This circle is the 'warzone.' You have to hit the the ball over the net and you can't let it land outside of the circle."

So like volleyball, okay, that makes sense. "Wait, that's not a net. That is most certainly a chalkboard."

"Na, it's the net," said Buddy. "We can even keep score on it!"

"You forgot the correct term Buddy! It's not a 'net' it's an 'internet'!"

You don't even know what the internet is!

"And this is the ball!" exclaimed Ariel. She held up a cube that looked to be made out of rubber.

"Uhhh Ariel? That's not a ball." The little bit of normal left in this game immediately went out the window.

"Of course it is, it's inflated and stuff." She tossed it upwards into the air and jumped up. In an action reminiscent of a sneeze, her head swung forward and hit the cube with her nose. It sailed over the board.

Buddy tried to dive to hit it, but he failed, and the ball hit inside the ring.

"One to zero!"

He stood back up, then smirked and dusted himself off. "Guess I'm going to have to play seriously. My 'employment' this time!" He took the ball and threw it, hitting it with his nose practically horizontally. The inflated cube hit the board, pushing it away on its wheels, then bounced back. Buddy bent down and hit the cube from under, bouncing it over the so-called net and over to Ariel.

She volleyed it back, and once again landed it in Buddy's area. She smiled. "Unluckily for you, I'm a confinement-type player! The score is now seventeen to zero!"

"Wait wait wait!" I was terribly confused. "What are you talking about?! 'Employment'?! How the heck did you earn sixteen points right there?! Why do you allow the net to move?! I'm so confused!!!"

"Oh come on," said Ariel with a wink. "It's not that hard. 'Employment' is when you're the one starting with the ball, and you call it a 'serve' when you're not starting with it!"

This is overly complicated!!! Why does point of view matter?! Neuman questioned himself.

"And I didn't get sixteen points, I only got one. That's just how the scoring goes! It goes from zero points, to 'one', to 'seventeen', to 'love', to 'true love', to 'tragic breakup', to 'the love we were looking for was right in front of us all along', and finally you win when you get to 'sappy ending'!"

My head hurt from the information dump that didn't make the slightest bit of sense. Where did they get that sense of scoring from? Tennis?!

"And last but not least, the net is on wheels so that you can move it silly! Just know that you can only hit the ball with your nose and I think you've got all the rules down!" She acted as if she was wiping sweat off her brow. "That wasn't easy."

You're telling me! What kind of person comes up with this stuff?!

"Now that he knows the rules, let's play two on one," suggested Buddy. "Mind if he's on my team?"

"Not at all! You're still going to lose though!"

What have I gotten myself into?...

-----

I lunged and hit the cube skillfully with my nose, giving it some spin and a curved trajectory. It soared over the blackboard and went right over to Ariel.

"Oh no you don't!" She jumped and sent it back.

"I've got it," said Buddy. He sidestepped and cocked his head sideways. "Take this!" In a violent turn of head, he hit the ball, but he miscalculated, and the box soared over the net, only to land outside of the warzone.

"Yes! 'Sappy ending' to 'tragic breakup'! I win!" Ariel jumped up and down in excitement.

I laughed. "You deserved it that time! That 'return to sender' was rather impressive!"

She sent a wink back my way. "I don't know, your bit of 'French' that you put on the ball really made it hard to hit! To think you would pick up the game so quickly!"

I stood proudly, even though I had lost. "No big deal, it was easy to learn."

Buddy stood in the corner and looked down. "I've already been surpassed..."

Ariel and I went over and patted him on the back.

"It's okay," I said. "No one can hit it as hard as you can! You've got us beat there by quite a bit there!"

He cheered up and we all had a good laugh.

"Hey," shotted an unfamiliar voice from across the room.

We all turned around to see three new faces standing there: two boys and one girl, just like our group.

"Mind if we join in on your game of Earball?"

"Uhhh... Sure, you can join," replied Ariel.

"Oh man, good deal," said a boy with checkered hair with a smile. "We're the Defenestrator Squad. Nice to meet you!"