“There must have been another exit point down there,” I said.

  “Plan?” Kinara asked.

  “Anyone with water powers, stick with me,” I commanded. “The rest of you, in there and clear the path.”

  As much as I hated to get my clothes wet, the idea of letting anything come up behind us while we were going to that doorway was worse. Milrae came with me, while Jalee and her sister avoided the water altogether and headed straight for the door. To my surprise, our new friend with yellow hair joined me.

  We submerged, and as I moved through the water assessing the danger, I glanced over to see our new friend in an entirely new way. For one, the shadow that surrounded her was spreading out as squid’s ink might. It flowed back in multiple directions, leaving her to simply appear as a young nude woman. This wasn’t the time to check her out, but I was amazed at her transformation. For a split second, my mind wondered if this worked similarly in a bathtub.

  Focusing, I decided I would refer to her as Shadow from then on. Clearly, she was so much more than that, as a blast of pink light shot out through the water and connected with one of our approaching foes. This was the first to come into the actual line of sight, and no sooner had it appeared, giving me a glimpse of a robotic creature, then it vaporized. Bits of it floated away as two more came to take its place. This time I got a good look at them and saw there were men inside the suits, which gave me hope for another entry point.

  I took care of the one to my right, my amplified water power going into action so fast I barely had time to summon the sword before I was already past a monster, blade slicing through flesh. By the time I turned to see the chaos of the dead monster I’d left in my wake, Shadow had dealt with the other. Both were gone. My senses picked up three more coming from below, but I wasn’t worried. Especially as, a second later, Milrae had dealt with one, and Shadow another. Water gave way as I hurtled toward the third, only to see it explode in front of me.

  I turned with the glare to Shadow, seeing her inches away from me, head tilted, one hand going to my mouth. I froze, wondering what she was about to do.

  “How is it you can breathe?” she asked.

  “How is it I can understand you?”

  She spun, arms out as if she was gesturing to the water around us. In response, I motioned to Milrae. At that moment, thinking of the fact that I had gotten powers from others that I’d claimed, it suddenly hit me that I might have powers I hadn’t even considered yet. Powers earned from my time with Fiare, a shared experience with Bloodsong, and even my brief fun with Shadow. There was no guarantee, as I hadn’t summoned any of the three, but I looked forward to testing it out. If indeed I could get powers from many of these monsters I had fun with, the possibilities were endless. As long as I could maintain my libido.

  “Shall we?” Milrae asked, voice coming out garbled as bubbles rose from her mouth.

  I nodded, then looked down in the direction of the attackers had come from. “Suiko, make sure the others are okay and tell them we’ll meet them up there.”

  Sensing she had heard me and would do so, I motioned for the two with me to travel down and look for other options. We reached the bottom of the ocean and turned to find several tunnels within the rocks of the cliff. All it took was one click of my tongue to get a layout and know which one we wanted. Thanks to Shadow, I also knew our route to meet the others above and that there was minimal issue getting to them.

  Swimming at high speeds through underwater Hawaii caverns was fucking epic. For one, it seemed many of the fish either lived within or had darted this way when the explosions went off out in the main area, because there were all manners of fluorescent fish. All those underwater shows about wildlife and diving came back to me, and I allowed a moment as I went to enjoy it all.

  Long ago, my father had taken me to the Monterey Bay aquarium, and that was probably the closest I’d ever come to experiencing this. But that was like comparing a McDonald’s burger to a Kobe steak. I couldn’t have been older than eight on that trip, but I still remembered the look of joy on his face while showing me the shark exhibit. Or maybe it was joy in reaction to my joy. Either way, the memory lingered, and I treasured it.

  At the end of the next cave, I turned upward and emerged from the water into a cavern with two passages off it. I already knew which to take but went to the other to ensure it was cleared while waiting for the other two.

  “Everyone good up there?” I asked Suiko.

  “Cleared out a passage, but they’re trying to use one of those dampeners on us.”

  “Dampener?”

  “What I’m calling the item that cancels out our powers. Only reason it’s not working completely is, by my guess, Milrae’s new friend.”

  “Ah, Shadow. That’s what I’m calling her now.”

  “Sure. Shadow. Thing is, it’s dampening our powers, so if you’re able to come up behind it and attack, great.”

  I used my spiritual energy to see where they were, then compared it to our trajectory and the direction they were facing. Based on that, I zeroed down on two places the enemy might be with their dampener.

  “Shouldn’t be a problem,” I said, seeing Milrae and Shadow emerge from the water.

  The former climbed out, but Shadow rose, darkness moving in on her and falling back around her body like a comforting cloak. Her eye met mine and I looked away, motioning them to follow.

  “They have those items that cancel out powers,” I explained as we went. “But we have our own special weapon.”

  Milrae beamed. “Told you she’d come in handy.”

  I nodded, unsure how to feel about the sense that we were using Shadow. Now that I knew she could talk underwater—as could I—we at least had a way of getting to know each other in the future.

  The tunnel opened into more of what one would expect from a government facility, and I had to wonder if this had once been a military base. Hawaii certainly didn’t lack those. We charged up a yellow hallway, then into a room where we found two agents. We didn’t waste time with them; Milrae took them both out by slamming their heads into the wall. Harsh, but effective.

  “Coming up on you now,” I said to Suiko.

  We rounded the next corner to find a metal room, with a mechanical device spinning, and a man grinning our way. He didn’t worry me, but the floating screen that showed the queen we’d met in the monster world certainly did.

  “What’s he doing there?” she asked. At least her surprise brought me relief. “Kill him already!”

  As I held out my sword, senses ready, I realized I had a nice upgrade ready and quickly focused my energy on it. What I felt was an ability to summon more than I had before, and what followed came as a great surprise. More figures were appearing, according to my bat sense, but we were fine with that. One second I was there ready for the attack, the next I’d summoned Fiare and Jalee to my side, so that we attacked the STP agents at once, from multiple angles.

  What struck me as odd about that was I could now summon my ladies wherever I was, and also summon the monsters who had already come over. I had to wonder what that meant for my powers, too, and gave my connection to Fiare a pull. Turning in the next hall as one of the STP agents tried to flee, I thrust out a hand to stop him, and my hand burst into flames. It was nothing like a flame thrower, but a ball formed around my fist and flared bright, stopping him in his tracks. At that moment, the other monsters attacked the spinning object that had to be the dampener, and the guy whimpered.

  “Where is she?” I demanded, grabbing him with my non-flaming hand. “The queen. Is she here?”

  He took a step back and looked to the screen for help as she vanished from it with a grunt of disgust.

  “You tell us, and you live today,” I said. “Don’t, and I can’t make any such promises.”

  He took one look at us, then at his dead buddy, and fell to his knees. “Of course, anything you want.”

  I grinned. This was working out just fine.

  20

  “Speak up,” I said, not about to let this guy waste any more of our time than was necessary. “Is the queen through?”

  The man stood shaking, eyes darting to one of the panels on the far side of the room. I stepped into his path and summoned my sword.

  “Not yet,” he said.

  “Meaning, she might be soon?” Ahlaksiz asked, and I turned, having not realized she’d made it down. Good, we had everyone who had come here. All in one cramped room, though some in the hallway beyond.

  “Rumor has it she has found a way.” The man gulped, starting to shake. “If they find out I said anything, and… they probably already have, I’m as good as dead.”

  “I’d assume not, considering STP is about to be no more. Considering also, that we’re about to shut the queen, and the hunters, down.”

  He nodded, then laughed. “It’s like I can almost believe you.”

  “How’s the queen making it through?” Bloodsong asked.

  “From what I hear she managed to get the sun disk. Or at least half of it… she’s not exactly through. She found a way to travel where she’s not quite here.”

  “I don’t understand a word he’s saying,” Koharu said.

  “The simple version is, there’s some way that the queen is using half the sun disk to be here.” I eyed the man, weighing him, waiting.

  “Are we going to have to scare the answer out of him?” Fiare asked. I was surprised that she sounded so excited at the idea.

  The man was really shaking now and fell to his knees. “We’re not evil here. Trying to make the world a better place. She has such power, made such promises…”

  “And you believe them?” I asked.

  “At first…” He lowered his head, shaking it. “But then the hunters came, and I heard them talking. She has bad plans for this world. Enslaving us, doing whatever else. Who knows?” He laughed. “If STP can’t stop her, we’re all doomed.”

  “Wrong.” I leaned in, growling, “You know what item we’re here for, don’t you?”

  “It’s down below, where we keep the monsters.”

  My bet was that the item we’d taken and given to that man with the golden armor and red cape was the type of item these others used to open the portals. If so, once we destroyed the portal from our side, it would, I hoped, be over. Without that golden pyramid, they wouldn’t be able to open the way again.

  “We’ll follow you,” Ahlaksiz said.

  “And this guy?” I asked, eyeing him. “I prefer we don’t kill him. You know, set a precedent.”

  “This one can put him to sleep.” Ahlaksiz stepped out of the way, gesturing to one of the monsters she had brought along. It was a man with dark skin that glowed spots resembling stars. It was as if his whole body was space itself.

  With a nod, the man stepped forward and held out his hand. We all sensed the energy flowing through him; a second later the STP agent was on the ground. We made our way back to the hall we’d come through, taking a different passage to get to where my senses said the monsters were located. We would find them, then end the portal.

  As we went, I heard Fiare saying to her sister, “You don’t worry he’s too soft?”

  “He’s hard enough,” Jalee chuckled.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I do, and I also know that’s what I like about him. I wouldn’t call it soft, but… Considerate? Humane?”

  I cleared my throat. Turning and gesturing to the stairway on our right, I said, “They should be below us. Right through here.” Eyeing Fiare, I added, “I’ll lead the way.”

  Jalee rolled her eyes, but had a half-smile as she met my gaze.

  Ahlaksiz moved up beside me and said to Jalee and Fiare, “You two go first. We don’t want to go in there guns blazing, because we don’t know who’s on which side. The more we can bring over, the better. We’ll follow close behind.”

  I nodded and said, “If you say so. But I’ll lead the way down the stairs to make sure there are no problems, then step aside.”

  They didn’t argue, so I went ahead. My vision was showing the monsters, and my bat sense showed what I assumed to be STP members. Maybe hunters, but judging by the other STP guy above, they hadn’t infiltrated down here yet.

  What surprised me, however, was when we reached the bottom and there were two Marines standing guard. Huh. It seemed this was an actual military base. They couldn’t have possibly known about the monsters and all that, right? Because if the Marines were involved, I was about to be fucking out.

  I paused, glanced back to the monster guy who could make others sleep, and nodded him forward.

  “Careful,” I said.

  He eyed me, then turned back to Ahlaksiz. She gave him a nod. Apparently, this guy had an issue with my authority. I’d have to have a talk with him later.

  The Marines passed out a second later, and I considered being all badass and taking one of their uniforms. First problem with that was I wouldn’t fit into them. Now that I saw these Marines up close, it was clear they were way too skinny. As badass as they likely were, these were some tiny dudes.

  “You coming?” Jalee asked, while more monsters joined us.

  I frowned, looking around to see that the monsters had already moved on and were in the room ahead. I guffawed but ran in to find Ahlaksiz in the midst of briefing them, and Milrae already gesturing to a couple who had seemingly decided they were on our side. My role seemed to be to stay out of the way, so I motioned to Kinara and stepped back into the hall.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, poking her head out.

  “I’m going to let you all do your thing. Keep watch here.”

  She arched an eyebrow in doubt, which made sense because I was not seeing any more movement. The enemy had to know we were here. So, where were they? Why weren’t they responding in force?

  Turning back to the room, I considered our options.

  “Suiko,” I reached out. “All good?”

  “Seems to be,” she replied. “Devasla and Amabie are keeping watch.”

  I looked around at the monsters, one lion-looking dude with a huge mane was going off on Ahlaksiz, and I considered going in and punching him if he didn’t chill. Clearly, I was on edge. I’d have preferred to simply have a big fight than this not knowing business.

  The lion man suddenly stopped, turned my way, and marched over. He had a full line of fur going down his front, though it still wasn’t enough to hide the action downstairs. Worse, he seemed to be getting aroused the closer he got to me.

  Standing there, glaring at me, he was now fully erect. I wanted to turn away but had a feeling I couldn’t appear weak here.

  “You’re the one?” he asked.

  “Ferris,” I told him.

  His lips pulled back to reveal sharp teeth. “Showing off with your ability to throw your name around? I’ve got a name, too, and know one or two.” Almost under his breath, he said, “Jalee, get over here.”

  She stumbled toward us, looking horrified, then managed to walk the rest of the way. Her eyes met his with confusion, then turned to mine.

  “You okay?” I asked her.

  “This beast served the hunters,” she admitted. “In fact, his knowledge of my name is one of the reasons I was forced into servitude to begin with.”

  My distaste for the lion grew exponentially. Turning back to him, I asked, “And what do you think you’ll do with it this time?”

  “Maybe see how strong her bond to you is,” he growled, then motioned to his erection. “Maybe have her hold you down while I have my way with both of you.”

  I eyed the room, noting how most of the monsters were watching us now. Then I turned to Jalee, who looked genuinely worried. Her sister, however, had stepped up behind the lion man and seemed to be waiting for my signal. If I slaughtered him, the message sent to the others would be one of intimidation, but would set me up as no better than the hunters.

  Instead, I stared at the lion, eye-to-eye, and thought, “Suiko, be ready,” before saying, “I’m not here to control you. To take away any of your freedom, or anything of the sort. Only to set you free.”

  “You?” He laughed, then took up a fighting stance. “You can’t do shit here.”

  I opened my mouth to retort, then said fuck it and moved with my increased speed and power, sliding in to deliver a quick punch to the lion’s hairy chest. The force was enough to knock him back; Fiare had to catch him.

  As he roared, trying to regain his footing, I charged but didn’t touch him this time. Instead, I stood over him and said, “If he tries anything stupid, turn his cock into a fucking shish kabob. Flame-broiled.” Next, I turned to the group, unsure what had come over me but rolling with it. “This goes for all of you here. I’m not trying to play some game of domination or show you who’s boss, but I’m also not about to be fucked with. We’re here fighting a very real battle, or war, even. Not only for Earth but for your world. For you to be able to join us if you want or to go back home if that’s an option. Now, I’m going to ask my new friend here,” I gestured to the lion, “to stand and apologize for being an ass.” A grunt came from one of the monsters who looked kind of like a donkey, so I held a hand up his way and said, “No offense meant. What I’m saying is, we don’t have to be friends here, but we do have to work together. Anyone not willing to accept that needs to be dealt with.”

  “And you’d be the one to deal with us?” a monstrous woman with three sets of horns around her head asked. She was tall with dark purple skin and scales.

  “I am,” I replied. “But not only me. All the rest of us here who want to make a difference.”