"How much looooooonger?" Jeremy whined.

"You asked that twenty minutes ago." Quinn said, shaking her head.

In Jeremy's defense, we had been walking for a while. My legs were getting sore, and as if the distance weren't bad enough, the sun had apparently decided that it would be a great time to start super heating the planet.

How Skylar was standing it in her jacket, I didn't know. The only thing she had done was unzip it maybe a millimeter.

Does she have a death wish or something? I thought.

"Just for your information, I don't." She said.

Oh, crud.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"Yeah, kind of." She said. "What makes you think I have a death wish, 'or something'?"

"I dunno, maybe it's the fact that it must be twelve million degrees out and you're in a freaking leather jacket. How the heck are you standing this?"

She shrugged. "I just am, I guess. And I doubt it's twelve million degrees out."

"It's an expression!" I protested.

She didn't say anything, but stopped.

"Ugh, stupid necklace..." She muttered to herself, and pulled at a thin necklace chain around her neck, adjusting it. A small flash of green appeared.

"Hey, what's that?" I asked.

She tensed. "It's nothing." She muttered, letting go of the chain, and the green disappeared.

"Didn't look like nothing." I commented.

"Oh my Notch, can you just mind your own business?" She snapped, turning to look at me.

I held up my hands in defense. "Geez. Just asking."

She didn't say anything, but turned away and kept walking.

Wow. I thought. Whatever that is, she doesn't want anyone knowing about it.

*****************************************

It didn't take long after that until we had made it to the coordinates, where a house sat.

"So...who's gonna explain all this?" Jeremy asked.

"What do you mean?" Quinn asked.

"Come on. Nine random kids appear at your doorway, wouldn't you be a little confused?" Jeremy said.

"He has a point." Shane said.

"I'll do it." Jenna smiled. "No big deal, right?"

Yeah, no big deal. I thought. Just the fact that, hey, we're at your house because there's a crazy demon loose and we need to know if you'd have an idea where he would be. No biggie at all.

She walked up to the door wit way more confidence than I could ever muster in this situation, and knocked.

The door opened after a little while, revealing a woman with a confused expression on her face.

"...hi..." Jenna said, her confidence crumbling.

"Uh, hi? Who are you?"

"Well, I'm Jenna, that's my brother Jeremy, and these are my friends, Tyler, Macey, Skylar, Alyssa, Shane, Cameron and Quinn."

I was surprised by how easily she said "friends". She barely even knew me, but she trusted me enough to call me a friend already? I couldn't decide whether it was kind or just plain stupid.

"And we're from the Kingdom."

"The Kingdom? If you're from the Kingdom, then what are you doing here?" The woman asked.

Jenna rubbed her arm nervously. "Well, it's kind of a long story..."

************************

The woman, who now I knew was Lily, had a hand over her mouth.

"This...this isn't good. Of course, you probably already know that." She said. "Come on in, you're probably getting tired standing there."

"Thanks." I said, and we all walked in after her.

"My brother's around here somewhere..." She muttered. "Josh! Where are you?"

"In the kitchen, sis! Calm yourself!" I heard a voice call from another room.

"Yeah...not exactly in a calm situation anymore." Lily said.

We walked into the other room, where a person was sitting on a chair at a table, a book in his hand. He looked up when we came into the room.

"Hey Li- who's this?"

"They're from the Kingdom, Josh. They're Team Crafted's kids."

Josh straightened. "What happened?"

"Someone else's turn to explain." Jenna said. "I'm not doing it again."

"I'll do it." Shane said.

After a long explanation that I was getting tired of hearing- it only reminded me of how bad the mistake Macey and I made was- Josh looked freaked out.

"This is a bad dream, right? I'm going to wake up in a few minutes?"

"'Fraid not, brother o' mine." Lily said, attempting to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

"So you want to know where we think he would be?" Josh asked, and Shane nodded.

"Pretty much. You're basically the only possible lead we could think of."

"Hate to tell you this, kid, but we didn't see the Battle of Demons. And to be honest, I'm kind of glad we didn't." Josh said, shuddering.

"The...Battle of Demons?" I asked, and Skylar facepalmed.

"I keep forgetting how little you know." She said. "Most important battle ever fought, they defeated Darklox in that battle."

Josh and Lily look confused at my question, but they don't question it.

"So...you're saying you have no idea where he could be?"

"Now, we didn't say that, did we?" Lily said. "When we were younger, we found an old compass."

"Apparently, Jason had made it after the Battle of Demons. It senses the type of magic that Darklox uses. He made it just in case anything else came to mess with this world." Josh explained.

"Luckily for us, he let us take it with us when we left, on the condition that we would notify him if we ever noticed something weird. That was...eighteen years ago?" Lily said, looking to her brother for confirmation.

He nodded. "Yeah. We...kind of forgot." He said sheepishly. "I'll go look for it, but you kids should stay here for the night. It's getting late, and you don't want to get caught up in the mobs."

"I hate to admit it, but my brother's right." Lily grinned, and Josh rolled his eyes.

"You're just jealous that I know more than you do!"

"You do not!" She laughed.

"Do too!" He said, and disappeared into another room.

Lily shook her head, a smile on her face, and turned towards us. "Well, you guys can go ahead and make yourselves comfortable, okay? I'm gonna go help my klutz of a brother find that compass without managing to break it."

"That might be helpful." Jenna smiled.

*************************************

"Hey, you're Sky's kid, right?"

I looked up from where I was sitting to see Josh standing in front of me.

All of the others were in random places around the house. Jeremy, Jenna, Alyssa, and Cameron were all in the middle of what was apparently a very intense game of hide and seek, the prize being "bragging rights". Lily was talking to Macey over in a corner. Quinn, Shane, and Skylar were all watching the game, and from time to time, a small smile appeared on Skylar's face whenever a person was found and they did a hilariously fake pretend death.

And me?

I was sitting farther away from them, half watching the game and half thinking about...well...everything.

"Yeah, that's me." I said. "Tyler."

"Tyler, huh?" Josh said, sitting beside me. "Should have known..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Not the one to tell you that." He said. "You know, you don't look much like him."

"Kind of getting tired of hearing that." I responded. "I'm adopted."

"Oh, I see." Josh said.

After a short period of silence, he spoke again. "You know, I could barely believe it when she told me who you were." He said, pointing towards Skylar.

"I'm not anyone special. My dad apparently is, but I'm just Tyler."

"I'd bet money you'll truly be your father's son." He said. "Something I admired about your dad- he didn't believe in limits. He and his team saved over ten million lives, including her father's." He said, nodding his head towards Skylar. "He and Jason saved Deadlox from a group of squids that came back two years after the Battle of Demons. Man, the stories I've heard about that adventure..."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. "I'm just a kid who doesn't really understand anything that's going on. You can't compare me to my dad yet."

"I'm not comparing you to anyone. I'm telling you what happened. Ten million lives. That was just Sky's army. But if Darklox achieves whatever he's planning, there's not a single shred of doubt in my mind that the plan will end in world domination. And when the world is taken over, over seven billion lives will be doomed. So I'm not comparing you to anyone. I'm saying your dad saved ten million lives."

He paused for a second.

"And I'm daring you to do better."

--------------------------------------------------