"What's going on?" I asked, and Alyssa shook her head. 

"You'll see." She grinned, and ran back out of the door, so fast it swung a few times after she was already gone. 

I glanced over at Shane, who just shrugged, and something kind of passed between us in a way, I guess. We both didn't say anything, but ran out of the door at almost the same time, with me right behind him. 

It took us all of twenty seconds to realize what she had meant. 

"Woah..." Shane mumbled, and there was nothing I could've said that would have better explained what I thought about the situation other than that, either. 

There were hundreds of players on our campgrounds. Actual, living players. Not demons. Not scary monsters. Just people, but they were all armed in some way. 

"Are we...under attack?" I asked, leaning over to talk to Shane. 

"I don't think so?" Shane said, clearly just as confused as I was. 

"Hey, there you are!" 

I turned around, and about half of my questions were suddenly answered when I saw the person who was calling to us. 

Josh was waving at us from a few blocks away, and Lily stood beside him, talking to my dad. 

"Guess they found the survivors." I said. 

"Yeah, you think?" Shane said, and I ignored his sarcasm, running up to Josh. He nudged Lily's arm when I came close, and she waved at me before going back to her conversation with my dad. 

"Look who it is!" Josh grinned. "The amazing Tyler!" 

"I'm not amazing." I said, rubbing the back of my neck sheepishly, a smile on my face. 

"Are you kidding?" Josh asked. "You saved your dad. You're fighting against a demon, and we've got a good chance of winning. I knew you could do it, kid." 

"Well, we've definitely got a good chance of winning with all of these people here." I said, smiling at the compliment. At least I was making one person proud of me. 

"Hey, better late than never, right?" He joked. "We managed to find most of the survivors. And they may have been raised in a kingdom, but they're all players at heart, just like the rest of us. They were doing alright for themselves out in the wilderness." 

"How did you find us?" Shane asked, coming up behind us. "It's not like we just went straight in the opposite direction that you did throughout this whole adventure."

"Do you really think my sister was going to let you go without a way to get back to you?" Josh asked. "Lily may be paranoid sometimes, but this time, that paranoia paid off. There's a tracker in one of those backpacks we gave you, I think it's in the one we gave to Macey." 

"Glad she put it in there." I said. "How many people did you bring?" 

"I dunno'. We didn't count. We kind of just said, who wants to take the fight to the demon who destroyed your kingdom and took away your heroes, and people just came along."

"There must be at least two hundred." Shane whistled. "Bet you Cameron would know exactly how many just by the shape of the crowd." 

"Probably." I said, and looked over at my dad talking to Lily. Shane started talking to Josh again, but I zoned them out, trying to listen only to my dad and Lily. 

"...don't think that's the best idea." Lily said. "It's as much of his fight as it is yours, now." 

"Lily, I'm not letting him risk his soul just to help take down something we can take down ourselves. You know what Darklox does to people, even if you haven't seen it first hand. Who knows what his minions are capable of." 

"I guess you have a point." Lily sighed. "And I've never been a parent, so I won't try and do your job for you. So, when are we going to talk strategy?" 

"As soon as we can." Dad said. "I'll bring the rest of the team to the cabin in about ten minutes or so. You and Josh can meet us there, is that alright?" 

"Sounds good to me. You bringing the kids?" 

"I suppose I have to." He said. "Tyler's not fighting, but the rest of them deserve to know. You're right, this is also their fight, after all. We can inform everyone else after we decide the best course of action." 

"Alright." She said. 

"I don't know how we're going to be able to thank you and Josh, Lily." Dad smiled. "You've just increased our chances of winning by so much." 

"Hey, we all know that you're going to be the one to take the last swing, so just do it for my sister, okay?" Lily said. 

"Will do."

"One more question." Lily said. "Your daughter. She's named after her, isn't she?" 

"It felt like the only name I could give her." Dad said, nodding. "After she'd done so much for us, it felt like the best way to honor her." 

"Well, I think she'd be proud of that kid." Lily smiled. "She may be quiet, but I can tell, when she finds the strength she'd got inside, she's going to make the whole universe sit up and take notice of her."

"I hope she does." Dad said. "Sometimes, I worry about her." 

"Don't." Lily said. "She's a good kid, and so is Tyler. You don't need to worry about either of them, they've proven that they're strong on their own. Even if they do make bad choices from time to time." 

At that point, she glanced over at me, and I looked away, but I knew it was too late. She'd seen me looking, she knew I heard everything. 

And yet, she didn't say anything about it. 

"Well, I better go pass the message around to set up camp here and tell them to train, or rest, or whatever they think is necessary." Lily said, and waved a little before running off towards one of the groups of people. 

"...and so that's when he said, 'no, I'm not saying I'm lawful good, I'm saying you're messed up.'" Josh finished saying as I turned back towards him, and Shane busted out laughing. I wondered what story I had missed. 

"Josh!" Lily called, and Josh looked over at her. 

"Ah, I guess my sister needs some help." He said. "I'll talk to you kids later." 

"See you later, Josh." Shane said, and Josh waved, running over to his sister. 

"What was that story about?" I asked. 

"Oh, nothing. Just some random thing about his friend told him once." Shane said. "Hey, have you been getting the feeling that people are staring at you?" 

I looked around the crowd of people to see that he was right. The people in the crowd kept glancing over at us from time to time in between their conversations. Some people were whispering, and I suddenly felt like we were being talked about. 

"You think they recognize us?" I asked. 

"Well, I lived in the Kingdom all my life." Shane said. "There's no doubt that some people will recognize me. But I don't think they'd be able to recognize you, especially with the amulet tucked under your shirt like that."

"Maybe rumors have been going around?" I guessed. 

"Maybe." He said, and shrugged. "Eh. It's whatever. Come on, I heard they're setting up a training area. I want to stab something." 

"Of course you do." I said, but followed him anyway through the crowds of people. We squeezed our way through the crowds, trying not to step on anyone's foot as we looked for the training area. 

It wasn't long, however, before someone grabbed a hold of my wrist. 

I yelped, surprised, and Shane turned around at my noise. 

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to scare you." Said the wrist-grabber. I turned around to see a girl standing there, one with purple hair that was cut short. Her eyes were a greenish brown color, and she was wearing dark jeans and a blue t-shirt. 

"Grabbing someone's wrist randomly kind of tends to scare them." Shane said. 

"Right. Sorry." She said. "I'm Ari." 

"Uh, nice to meet you." I said. "I'm Tyler." 

"That's what I was wondering. I was trying to get your attention by grabbing your wrist." She said. "Are you the Tyler? As in, Sky's son, Tyler?" 

"Oh. Uh, yeah, that's me." I said, feeling a little sheepish as her eyes got wide. 

"Woah. That's so awesome!" She said, a smile on her face. "You're like, a legend!" 

"Really? Me?" I asked. 

"Yeah, really? Him?" Shane asked, a grin on his face. I elbowed him in the arm. 

"Well, yeah." She said. "Josh and Lily told us all stories about the kids who were working against Darklox, and you and your sister are the only ones none of us had ever met before. Plus, your dad is Sky. The Sky. As in Commander of the Kingdom's army, Sky." 

"Really, my dad was a commander?" I asked. 

"How did you not-" She started, looking confused. 

"Sky never told them anything about the Kingdom." Shane interrupted, answering her unspoken question. 

"Oh, really?" She asked. "Huh. That's weird. Hey, could you maybe come over and meet some of my friends? We're all going to be heading to the training area later, if you'd want to come along to that." 

"Uh, sure. Why not, right?" I shrugged, turning towards Shane, who was giving me a death glare. 

"Awesome!" She smiled. "Come on, follow me." 

I started to follow after her, and Shane sighed, walking after me. 

"Dude, you've got a lot to learn about fangirls." 

"What?" 

"Fangirls." He repeated. "There's a ton of girls in the the Kingdom who think our dads are 'hot', or whatever." 

"But, they're like, forty." I said, raising an eyebrow. 

"I don't try to understand the female mind, Tyler. That's frightening territory." Shane said. "But anyways, that's besides the point." 

"What is the point?" I asked. 

"Imagine you're a fangirl." He said. "The guy who you think is 'so totally hot' is forty something, and nowhere close to your age. But, lo and behold, he has a son that's just about your age, and just as 'cute.'"

"Oh." I said, still not getting it. I thought about it for a few seconds, and then it dawned on me. "Oh." 

"Yeah." He said. "And don't get me wrong, sometimes, having a bunch of girls want to date you is awesome. But some of them can get a little nuts, and you've just lead us into what's probably going to be a horde of them."

"Oh, come on, Shane," I said. "They're probably not that bad."

He gave me a look. 

"You have so much to learn." 

Suddenly, Ari started running, waving at somebody in the distance. 

"Hey, guys!" 

"And let the show begin." Shane muttered, and I elbowed him in the chest. 

"Come on, man. Give them a chance."

"Fine." He sighed. "But if I get attacked, it's on you." 

"I think you're overestimating how much a person would want to date you, buddy." I said, and the look on his face was priceless. He put his hand to his chest in mock offense. 

"How dare you even insinuate-"

"Hey, guys." Ari called, waving us over. She was standing with five others, three girls and two boys. 

"See, look, they're not all girls." I pointed out. 

"Just you wait, Tyler." Shane muttered, as we met up with them. 

"Okay, so this is Reagan, Cassy, Char, Ashe, and Jar." Ari said, pointing at the different people in the group. All of them except for the Cassy girl were holding some kind of weapon, which would have been a lot more intimidating if we weren't in a war. They all seemed to be around my age. 

"Hi!" Cassy said, with a smile on her face and a small wave. She pushed her pair of red glasses back up onto her nose. Her glasses were the same color as her shirt, but the red of her outfit seemed to really stand out next to her long blonde hair. 

"Look at that." The Ashe guy said. He kind of looked like Shane, in a way. His hair was the same color, and was only a little shorter, and his eyes were brown, just like Shane's. The only difference seemed to be that the guy really liked the color blue. The only thing he had on him that wasn't blue were his sneakers, which were a dark red color. "He's actually a real person. I thought those people who brought us all here were just messing with us."

"Oh, shut up, Ashe." The Reagan girl said, shoving him lightly. She seemed to really be going for some kind of yin-yang theme, and her dark hair swept over one eye. I was instantly reminded of Skylar's dad. A ring of purple and black flowers wrapped around her head. "Ignore him. He's obnoxious." 

"You're obnoxious." Ashe protested, punching her in the arm. 

"You're both obnoxious, how about that?" The Char girl said, pushing her brown bangs out of her face. I couldn't help but notice the scars on her face. I wondered how she had gotten them. "I'm sorry, they're always like this." 

"It's fine." I said, not sure what else to say. 

"Is it true that the amulet you have is magic?" I had to look up to look the Jar guy in the eyes as he spoke, he was at least a whole head taller than I was. He smiled, holding up a charm that was attached to a silver chain around his neck. "Because then we have something in common."

"Yeah, mine's magic." I said. "What do you mean, something in common?" 

"Jar's necklace charm there is magic." Cassy said. "He never shuts up about it."

"Uh, yeah, I do!" Jar protested. "I only use it in emergencies, 'cause it's kind of a one-use-every-three-hours-or-so kind of deal."

"Ooh." I said, suddenly interested. "What does it do?" 

"It knocks back whoever it's aiming at about twenty blocks or so." He shrugged, but the look on his face showed he was proud of it. "Not as cool as summoning an awesome sword, I guess, but hey, I work with what I've got." 

"Sounds pretty awesome to me." I said, and I meant it. Shooting an enemy back twenty blocks sounded like it could be a life saver. His face lit up. 

"Oh, now you've gone and done it." Ashe said. "He's not going to shut up about it for the next week." 

"So, you're actually Sky's son?" Reagan asked, ignoring Ashe's complaints. 

"Yeah. That's me." I said. 

"You don't look like-" Char started, but I interrupted before I could finish. 

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I don't look much like him." I said. "Me and my sister are adopted." 

"Oh. Neato." Char said. 

"So, where is your sister?" Ari asked. "We've heard things about her too, she sounds really sweet." 

"Uh...I don't know." I said. If I knew my sister, this was her nightmare. Having to meet six new people while surrounded by a crowd of hundreds more...yeah. I wouldn't have been surprised if I had found Macey hiding in one of the cabins we had made. "She's not really good with people." 

"Hey, would you look at that. Reagan and Sky's daughter have something in common." Ashe said, earning himself another punch on the arm. 

"I swear to Notch, I'll stab you here and now." Reagan said, and seemingly pulled a dagger out of thin air, aiming it at Ashe. 

"Sure you will." He said, sounding much more confident than I would be with someone holding a knife in my face. 

"Hey, Shane!" 

I turned around to see Cameron coming up behind us, and tap Shane on the shoulder. Shane's expression immediately changed to something a little happier than before when he saw Cameron. 

"What's up, Cam?" He asked. 

"Dad says everybody's meeting in the cabin for a strategy thing." Cameron said. "Come on, let's go."

"Sounds good to me." I said, and waved goodbye to the six people, walking over to Cameron. 

"Actually, Tyler..." Cameron said, suddenly looking very awkward. "Your dad says you...uh...you can't come." 

I stood there for a few seconds, unsure what to do. Couldn't go to the strategy meeting? That wasn't fair. I mean, I knew he didn't want me fighting, but I at least deserved to know what was going to happen!

"Hey, man, it's alright." Shane said, as if he could sense my disappointment. "I'll tell you what happened when it's over. It's probably going to be really boring, anyway." 

As he looked at me, he winked, and I understood what his sentence meant. It meant, 'let me go, I'll figure out everything, and then we can make a plan to get you in there without him knowing.' 

Still, I pretended to be upset, not wanting to tip anyone off that there was something bigger going on. 

"Ugh, it's not fair." I muttered, scuffing my shoe on the ground. 

"I'm sorry, Tyler." Cameron said, and he really did look sorry. He tugged on Shane's shirt sleeve. "But we have to go. Come on, Shane." 

Shane nodded, and followed Cameron away, towards the cabin where my dad was going to help plan a way to take down Darklox for good. 

"If they think they're doing this without me..." I thought. 

"They've got another thing coming." 

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

i think this is the longest chapter i've ever posted in this story wow

and it's still not going to be the longest

and that's right, the characters from the character submission thing have begun to be used! (if your character was not in the chapter, don't worry, it will be eventually! everyone who submitted a character will be in the story!)

Characters Used in this Chapter:
Ari - Leleisland
Reagan - Trinity-11
Cassy - Jackfan10
Char - NerdyLionGamers
Ashe - AsheVille47
Jar - thejamestersmine