Something she had said finally registered, so I turned to her and touched her free hand. “You were having nightmares?”

  “Ah…. Yes.”

  “Are you okay? Want to talk about ‘em?”

  She considered, then shook her head. “You all have heard rumors of the atrocities I committed.”

  “You weren’t yourself,” Gale chimed in.

  “Maybe not, but I still was the one who took those lives, who did so many horrible things. Even if I wasn’t in full control, I have the memories…”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said, giving her hand a squeeze. “If there’s anything I can ever do, let me know.”

  “You’re doing it.” She squeezed my hand back and gave me a caring smile, the type of smile that made me wonder how this woman could have ever been the villain we’d had to conquer before freeing her mind.

  Outside the others were laughing. Music started up.

  “Come on,” I said, kissing Murta on the cheek and then looking around for my clothes, “let’s get out there and join the fun. Maybe it’ll take your mind off of all of that.”

  She agreed, but Gale curled up on her side and muttered, “You two go on, I… think I’ll lie here for a bit.”

  “Watch out—I might wake you in some very unpleasant way.”

  “That a promise?” Gale chuckled, and then somehow a snore followed almost immediately.

  I shared an amused look with Muerta, and we both quickly dressed to head out and see what the others were up to.

  CHAPTER 9: KAI

  Earth, Campsite

  How any of this so-called “training” made sense to my dad and Charm was beyond me. They wanted me to climb trees, dodge pinecones, and perform backflips! Maybe I was training to be a circus performer or to be amazing at paintball, but none of this was about to give me superpowers.

  Charm instructed for me to try and keep up and then went bounding from one tree branch to another. I looked down to see that falling would hurt like hell and quite possibly break something. We had to be a good thirty feet up!

  But I’d been training my whole life, so I went for it. First to a thick branch to my left, then one that creaked and seemed like it would crack. I deviated from the path to be safe. Two jumps later I wondered again what else this training could actually help me with. Maybe if I ever wanted to attempt a Planet Kill ascension. Although that show was off the air these days, rumor had it that the whole sick charade still took place somewhere out there.

  Not that I’d ever go that route. My buddy Chissum had shown me an illegal copy of one of the old livestreams once, recorded and sold digitally, and it was beyond what I’d imagined. Blood, fucking, killing, fucking with blood and killing involved—over the top was an understatement.

  I lunged for the next branch and reached out, only to find myself missing completely and clawing at empty air. Branches scratched me and whipped at my body as I fell, and then I hit the ground with a heavy thud.

  “Ugggh,” I groaned, turning and trying to stretch the pain away. It didn’t work. Pushing myself up to one knee, I took a deep breath, telling myself to get back in there and show them that Kai Bostwick was no quitter.

  A shadow fell over me and a woman’s voice said, “Not bad.”

  I looked up, expecting to see one of the members of our superhero teams. Instead, I found myself kneeling at the feet of a girl of about my age, with cute dimples and long black hair in a bun over her shoulder that she toyed with absently. Some sort of mask stuck halfway out of a bag on her shoulder.

  “What’re you doing out here?” I asked, then nodded to the bag and mask. “Some sort of convention?”

  “Not at all. Just here with some family.” She pointed up to the tree I’d fallen from. “And… all of that? Trying to become a squirrel?”

  I laughed. “Hardly. Training.” I quickly made up a reason and added, “Thinking of joining the Marines.”

  “Ahhh. You’d make a great… Marine. But shouldn’t you be swimming, in that case?”

  I cocked my head, wondering what she was talking about. Of course Marines had to pass swim tests, but the days of them being affiliated solely with water were long gone. On second thought, the way she said the word “Marine” had been quite strange, as if she didn’t know what it meant.

  “Name’s Salay,” she said. “And you?”

  “Kai.”

  I stood and offered her my hand, which she frowned at before shrugging and taking it, then placing on her shoulder. For a second I thought this girl was trying to make a move on me, but instead of puckering up or waiting for me to kiss her, she put her other hand on my shoulder and smiled as if this was normal.

  “Now we are friends,” she said. “Hey, maybe you want to come meet my family? We’re about to play some games, and—”

  “Kai,” Charm called out from the distance, though not too far off.

  “Actually,” I dropped her hand and then stepped away, offering her an apologetic shrug. “I’m here with family, too, and shouldn’t be seen with you. Supposed to be training and all.”

  Her lower lip jutted out and she made puppy-dog eyes at me. Maybe I was imagining it, but her cleavage suddenly seemed much more noticeable. What was this all about?

  “Listen, maybe I get your number, or even come find you at your campsite later?”

  “Kai, dammit,” Charm said again, and this time she was clearly closer.

  “One sec…” Salay looked angry for a second, took a step back, and waved.

  “Where the hell did you go?” Charm called out, and I glanced over to ensure she hadn’t seen me, then turned to tell the girl I had to go—only she was gone. Didn’t even give me a chance to say goodbye! Damn, girl must’ve been craving some cock bad.

  “Wha…?” I started, but shook it off. She had probably ducked out of there because of my warning.

  “The hell you doing?” Charm asked, strolling over. She put a hand up to shield her eyes. “If you’re taking a piss, just say so next time.”

  “No, no…” My mind spun with ideas of what to say, but I ultimately landed on, “Just needed a break. You’re kicking my ass out there.”

  She guffawed. “Um, hello? You’re the son of Breaker! You can take it.”

  Everything about that sentence made me furious, but she didn’t seem to understand how always being in my father’s shadow, always being compared to him, was an insult, so I let it go.

  “I’m ready to get back to it,” I said.

  “Great. Okay, next up, let’s practice some awareness. Close your eyes and try to guess where my attacks will come from.”

  I sighed, knowing how this was going to go. Never, not even once, had I been able to fend off one of her attacks. That was true when my eyes were open and even truer when they were closed. Not that I wouldn’t try. Closing my eyes, I held my hands out in front of me and took a deep breath as she and the others had instructed. Ezra was all about some inner chi or chakra or something, finding your core and progressing it, and lately my dad had been leaning harder in that direction as well, but none of it made sense to me.

  Whack!

  One of Charm’s strikes hit me in the cheek. Another landed on my thigh.

  “Come on, Kai!” Charm chided. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

  With another deep breath in and then out, I prepared to block the next one. No luck, but then I started throwing my arms around left and right, ignoring the way she started laughing. Partly thinking that Salay might be watching, I pushed myself even harder than I had before.

  And to my surprise, one of my blocks connected!

  I opened my eyes to see Charm nodding at me, impressed.

  “Not bad!” Charm said, hands on her hips and grinning at me with pride. “I mean, you’re no Charm, but soon you’ll be up there with the rest of the cobras.”

  “The what?” I asked, then groaned with an eye roll. “Who let you watch that show?”

  “Soooo good, right?”

  “Sure. Whatever.”

  She was of course referring to Cobra Kai—a common answer when people were trying to find a reference for my name. Sometimes I wonder if my dad named me for the old classic, or the even older movie from which it got its name, but he never would tell me one way or another. Considering that he had been a bit of a classic movie buff before becoming a superhero, I didn’t doubt it.

  “Keep it up and you’ll be able to take me on soon enough,” Drew said, and I turned to see him grinning my way. As much as he might have meant that as a compliment, considering his powers and all he had done in the Marines even before becoming a superhero, it sounded like condescension. I wanted to punch him in the throat in that moment.

  But someone else beat me to it. The ground rose up around him, attempting to pull him down with it as it retreated. Drew yelped and vanished but for one hand, which Charm lunged for. White light expanded out from her and then morphed into a burst of various colors as she flew into the air with him in tow.

  “We’re under attack!” Charm shouted, and she lowered Drew to my side as other superheroes charged out and up to see where the attack was coming from.

  Drew looked frantic, scanning the nearby woods until his eyes landed on me and he pointed. “Get him out of here!”

  I wanted to say I could take care of myself but knew that wasn’t true when it came to the type of superpowered villains they fought. A metal tunnel shot out from nearby and then vanished to leave my mom in its wake, and she took me by the arm. She spun me to face a portal that rose up in shimmering lights behind us and said, “You have to get out of here.”

  “But—”

  “All bow in the name of Ragnor!” a voice boomed from the darkness.

  My mom glanced sideways and lifted her hand. A blue shield rose up between us and a would-be attacker, sizzling as some sort of acid-rain attack splashed against it. She gestured to the portal. “Go—you’re not safe here.”

  “I can’t leave you all!”

  “We’ll meet you at the Citadel when this fight is over. Go!”

  As a blast struck her shield and she turned to call upon her other powers for a counterattack, I sprinted for the portal and leaped through.

  Leaving them to fight felt like I was fleeing, and that infuriated me! I was determined to find out if I could get superpowers. Never again would I be kicked down, unable to help those around me. No longer would I be one of the poor schmucks who needed help from those with superpowers.

  Except, as I turned to see if Mom was following, a blast of white light sent her flying away from the portal and pushed me farther in! Not only that, the portal was shifting, transforming as if someone had just changed the coordinates.

  Before it took me, I glimpsed a figure with what looked like fox ears and glowing eyes. Charm? She looked at me and waved, and only then did I see the metallic glint that told me it wasn’t her. And then everything vanished and I was flung onto my back to stare up at a sky full of stars and planets, even two massive spaceships flying by.

  I certainly wasn’t in Kansas anymore… not that I ever had been. Sitting up, I took in the metallic ground and domed buildings in the distance. One detail stood out above the rest: the portal was gone.

  CHAPTER 10: CHARM

  Earth, Campsite

  Terror gripped my heart, my eyes darting about in panic. “No, no, no…”

  Everything had happened so fast. One minute I’d been training Kai, and then the attack came and he was just… gone. How could I have let this happen?

  A punch from Drew hit one of the attackers, and she hit the ground at my side. I stared down at her, horror squeezing my chest at the sight of the armor with metal fox ears.

  The attackers—or at least some of them—were from that Cult of the Fox! And that meant what, exactly? That I’d taken too long to say anything, no doubt. I was kicking myself, and since the attacker at my feet was coming to, I kicked her as well.

  All around the woods where I’d been training Kai were bursts of flames, explosions of ice, and all manner of other superpowers that animated trees or knocked people off-balance and or paralyzed them with sonic blasts. It was a lot! I stared at the spot where Kai had been and saw Andromida already on the attack with her metal warping tunnels — but there was no sign of the kid.

  “FUCK!” I screamed, then unleashed on two cult S.O.B.s as they tried to get to me. For some reason, others were directing their attention toward me now, too, like they were hoping to make me disappear next.

  Not a chance. I was determined to get revenge for what they had done to Kai, even though I hadn’t sat back and figured out what exactly they had done to him. He was gone, but was he dead gone, or just taken gone? Either way we would raise hell, but the former would mean complete annihilation of anyone who was even a little bit involved.

  A cloak and purple eyes came at me, so I activated the extent of my power and thrust a glowing, white hand with claws fully extended into his chest. The poor sap didn’t know what hit him, and a second later he was nothing but smoke in the dark of night.

  One thing I had learned in my interdimensional travels was how to hone my powers so that my attacks were lethal. The remnants of this man were testament to my success.

  I spun, ready to take out anyone else who thought they had a chance against me, but had to stop at the sight of Gale.

  “You good?” she asked.

  I quickly nodded and looked around. Were there any bad guys left?

  A hand grabbed me and pulled me to the ground, where I watched as a barrage of purple rounds shot through the air.

  Spinning and pushing free from the woman who had me in her clutches, I was surprised to see Reyen.

  “You!” I said, grabbing her by the hair and yanking her head back. “Reyen, was it?”

  “They’re here for you,” she hissed. “We gotta get you out of here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you! I thought we had a deal—that we were going to work together to free your planet. What the hell is this?”

  “You’re right!” She pulled me around a tree and down a decline, where we ducked as more shots went off. “I’m here to warn you and get you out of here before it’s too late.”

  I shoved her back, then dodged a strike from my right and turned to see a knife glinting in the dark, wielded by one of the cult members with armor and a helmet with metal fox ears. They stole powers and imbued them into the armor, meaning anything was possible from these traitors.

  A rock hit the attacker’s helmet—thrown by Reyen—and I lunged for a leg sweep, catching the knife as it fell from my attacker’s grip. She was fast, recovering and thrusting out a hand that sent a strange, debilitating vibration running through me.

  “Charm!” Reyen shouted, floating into the air next to me.

  “Go! I got this!”

  I tried to teleport away, but it wasn’t possible. I couldn’t move at all, actually, but that didn’t stop me from breathing. I hit my attacker with a strong breath of purple and sent him stumbling off to turn his ire on his buddy. As I was about to shoot up into the sky to fight the assholes pelting us from above, a Nihilist appeared. This one’s hands went to my face and I heard Reyen shout as my vision went black.

  I tried to lash out, but next thing I knew, darkness shrouded me.

  When I came to, Reyen leaned over me, shaking me awake. No idea how long I’d been out, but I could still hear the fight churning around us. Her power must’ve been healing-related, because waves of turquoise light washed over me, chasing away my pain and the fog in my head.

  “They have Destiny, okay?” she hissed. “They’re using her to get to you and the boy.”

  “Kai?”

  “Sure. They believe he’s the key to something I’m not party to, but you have to stop them, save him, and, I hope, free Destiny.”

  “But… what about me?”

  “They’re only after you because the leader, this Ragnor prick, believes he can turn you and then use you to convert the rest of the Order of the Fox, and maybe those from the kitsune planet as well.”

  I gritted my teeth but wasn’t sure if I was more annoyed by the idea of being used as a pawn or by the idea that Kai was somehow more valuable than me.

  “Fine. How do we save them?”

  She motioned for me to follow her. “We have to get to the portals before they’re closed. Maybe if you can conquer the openers…”

  We ducked under branches and fought off more than one cult jerk, but my attention was divided. Where the hell was Breaker? I leaped over to Drew’s side and saw him with Threed as she punched an attacker. Green energy shot out from her fist, and her target screamed as it ate at her armor and the flesh beneath.

  “What the hell’s happening?” Threed asked, tossing a tuft of pink hair out of her eyes.

  “War!” I shouted, not wanting to linger. We’d have more of an answer soon enough, I had no doubt.

  An arm appeared out of nowhere in front of us and slammed into Reyen’s chest, then vanished. She crashed onto her back, gasping for breath. Whoever had struck her was still lurking around somewhere, and I sensed another cultist coming up behind me — but this time I was ready. I shot power out with such force that they puffed into smoke before they ever reached me.

  I pulled Reyen up, but she was clearly shaken.

  “Go hide—point me in the right direction,” I told her. “I can handle these jerks!”

  “This goes beyond us,” Reyen said. “They’re coming… coming for all of us. Even with your powers, I don’t think you stand a chance.”

  “Even with…?”

  A hand reached out from the darkness, and a pair of glowing purple eyes appeared. I struck out with my light claws, amplifying my power to damage this being that could exist between two dimensions, but before I made contact, it had Reyen! The two of them faded before my eyes.

  None of this made sense to me, but I knew one thing—I needed to get to Breaker and figure out how the hell we were going to make this right.