The past few minutes of Monty's life had been a chaotic blur.

Finding that door in Silas' mind started it all. Silas had almost wrenched back control, but Monty had twisted his pathway, knocking him out before he could, which of course gave him a throbbing headache, but oh well.

Luckily, invading Silas' mind was easier than it should have been since that…thing wasn't really Silas. Monty never would have been able to do that to the real Silas; scour his mind, and knock him out that easily. It was probably a golem, the most sophisticated one that Monty had ever seen in his life.

It might have been a golem he'd been trailing all along.

It gave him the creeps. How long had he been working with the golem, eating with it, talking with it? Where was Silas? Had he been kidnapped by Villains and replaced with the Golem? Why? What the actual hell was their goal here?

Monty didn't know. All he knew was that he needed to get to Vacek.

He called the big man himself and told him exactly what had happened. Vacek ported within seconds outside the restaurant and said, "I'll take it from here. You need to get to Hartville."

"Huh?"

"We think there might be a problem there. System communication is down. There are reports from a student at the academy that a dungeon was spawning. Go check out what's going on."

"Me?"

Vacek raised an eyebrow. "Everyone else is busy. You just got done being busy."

"But…" He expected Vacek to need him around for the interrogation of the golem. Not that the golem would tell them anything. They were designed to be the ultimate tools of secrecy and impersonation. Things could be wiped out of their minds easily, and they would follow commands without knowing exactly why. They didn't even know what they didn't know. Perhaps if Monty had searched earlier, he would have caught something but now...

Shit, Monty regretted that he hadn't done this a while ago. If he hadn't done it now, then who knows how long they would have continued working with the golem without knowing?

He'd sworn a personal oath a long time ago not to invade people's minds unless he absolutely had to. Most of the time, he was fine with that, but in times like these, he wondered if he would be better off and more useful without that oath holding him back.

Is it okay if I do bad things for a good reason? It was a slippery slope, though. How long until he was using his powers just to avoid the normal inconveniences of life? How long before he was using it to change people to his liking, to control their emotions and their responses? How long until he was his father?

Vacek was eyeing him steadily while Monty went through the mental moral battle, waiting for him to finish dealing with his regret. After Monty nodded, Vacek tossed him a teleportation orb, which activated right as he caught it, encasing him until he appeared on the Hartville pier.

Right then, he heard a blood-curdling scream.

Instinct had him running toward it, into the forest by the pier, as the screaming didn't stop. The forest was on a steep hill, and he had to climb the cliff edge, cursing his lack of athleticness. He definitely needed to hit the gym more often. He was lazy about it because he didn't often do fieldwork. Mostly, he was used for intelligence gathering or interrogations. Only out of necessity had he gone into the field today, and typically, he tried not to get too physical when he was there.

I'm the wrong person for this job, he thought as he climbed, drawing his gun when he got to the top. He ran toward the scream, skidding to a stop when he uncovered the crime scene.

Monty saw the creature first as it crouched over the screaming girl on the floor. It was hands-down one of the ugliest things he'd ever seen, even if he didn't know what it was. It was shimmering, transparent, but also not. Its mouth was open and gaping as it stared down at the girl with unseeing eyes.

Monty was frozen for a moment of indecision, not knowing what to do. Did he shoot? He didn't have that great an aim. What if he accidentally hit the girl? Plus, the thing kept blinking in and out of reality, so what if the bullet passed right through it?

As he lingered in indecision, a portal opened up in the air, and a man stepped out of it. Monty's muscles seized, shock robbing him of his vocal cords. It was Aiden Sparrowfoot. He looked a little older, his hair shorter than he remembered, but he would know that face anywhere, that look of concern twisting his features, before a murderous anger transformed his face.

Aiden held out his hand, and a vein popped in his neck. In the middle of his palm, a forcefield formed, shaping itself into a spike.

The creature turned to him, but it was too late.

Aiden skewered its neck. It was a brutal move that almost had Monty feeling bad for the ugly thing, as it let out a wail. Aiden then grabbed its head in one hand and the spike in the other, slicing through to separate the head from the body.

Monty swallowed.

The girl released a loud gasp as she bolted up. That was when Monty realized that the girl on the floor was Aiden's daughter. Lexie. She had twigs in her hair and tears streaming down her face. After dropping the creature's head, Aiden fell to his knees, holding her while she shook in his arms.

I need to leave. Monty thought. Right freaking now.

Monty was alone, and there was no way he could confront Aiden about using magic. The man could simply use that spike on him, thrusting it through his chest like he did to that thing. Monty shuddered. Yeah, leaving seemed like the best idea he'd ever had.

As he backed away, he stepped on something that let out a crack that felt like it reverberated in the air.

Shit.

Their eyes had immediately located him, and Monty had stared right back at them. He truly did not know how he'd ended up in this situation. Everything till now had been a blur of activity.

This moment, though, after their eyes met, stretched out, sharply and poignantly. Everything was in full focus. Monty could taste the salt of the sea, and smell the acrid scent of monster blood in the air. He could feel his impending demise.

He needed to get away.

Aiden could kill him right now before he could have a chance to scream. He could skewer him or kill him in a million other ways. Once he was done, he and his daughter could throw his body over that cliff and into the sea, never to be found again. All because he'd seen something he wasn't supposed to see–Aiden Sparrowfoot using magic.

He knew Aiden's power wasn't from mechs. There were no mechs on his body, and the way he'd appeared from that portal didn't seem like the work of a teleportation orb. Monty waited for Aiden to act, to do something to vanquish him.

Aiden didn't do that, though. He straightened, sending him a steely gaze.

Run, Monty.

"We can discuss it later," Aiden said. "Right now, there are more important matters that need your attention. There are three trolls and possibly more dungeons through the city that need to be found and disabled."

What? Dungeons in Hartville? Trolls? Was this some kind of joke? Aiden looked serious, though.

It had to be a trap.

Is he going to spear me the second I turn my back? Why? He could just do it to my face. He doesn't need to go through that much trouble.

"He's not playing," Lexie said from the ground. "There really are trolls. Someone turned off the system communication, so we couldn't call anyone, but people are in danger."

Monty didn't know if Aiden and his daughter were bluffing or exactly what game he was playing, but he swallowed and nodded. If people were in danger, he needed to go help them. He was a [Hero] after all. It wasn't like he was any physical match for Aiden anyway, and this way, he would live to fight another day.

He slowly inched away as the two of them watched him, but as he turned tail and ran, he left a message for Vacek.

***

"Can we trust him to keep the secret?" Lexie asked.

"We have to." Aiden sent her a wry look and a shrug. "It's either that or we kill him and throw his body off that cliff."

Lexie considered that option for a second, then shook her head. "Too messy."

Aiden chuckled. He picked her up and carried her down the hill back to the city center.

She asked him as he walked, "How did you find me so fast? Not once, but twice."

"Teleportation," he answered simply.

She glanced up at him. "I thought it was forbidden."

"It is," he admitted. "But I can do some types of teleportation that aren't. Right now, I have a portal keyed to you, so I can always find you wherever you are."

"Wow." It was kind of what she'd done with Tate and the cards, except her way had been more convoluted. "You didn't tell me you could do that."

"I did."

"No, you didn't–" That was when Lexie finally recalled that Aiden had mentioned he could teleport. A long time ago, the first time she'd faced that first ghoul, he'd told her that he'd tried to teleport to her side, but it didn't work. Now it had. "So, can you go anywhere else? Like, can you teleport us out of danger?"

He shook his head. "Not yet. But maybe in the future."

"You mean when you get the band off?"

He was quiet and then shrugged.

As they approached the center, Lexie once more avoided looking at the bodies that were thankfully fewer than she remembered. Some of them must have woken up or were being attended to. She saw that a lot more [Heroes] had come and they'd neutralized the trolls. She recognized one of them slicing their scythe into a troll's back and detonating it from the inside out. Messy.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

She also saw Conrad's dad, Mechanico, with his suit of armor, punching out the troll. Lexie smiled. Like father, like son.

Lexie spotted Conrad squatting in front of a destroyed coffee shop, with an injured Top Dog on the ground. There were also now reporters on site with their PHORBs flying around recording the damage. A woman Lexie had seen on the morning news had her PHORB in front of Xena and Torin, who were sitting on the ground, by the broken fountain. Lexie guessed they were being interrogated because Xena and Torin both looked irritated by her presence.

Lexie met Xena's gaze, and they both radiated mutual relief that they were okay.

Lexie then directed Aiden to go toward Conrad and Top Dog. As they got close, Lexie realized that Top Dog had his arm and leg bent at an unnatural angle and a gash in his side, with blood matting up his hair. TD gritted his teeth, cursing while Conrad told him, "Get it all out. I'm sorry, buddy, I'm sure it hurts. The medic should be here soon."

Conrad despite having fought the troll looked right as rain and it clearly was making Top Dog resentful because he glared at him and called him a 'Fast-healing, ultra-resistant freak son of a bitch."'

Aiden frowned at the language, but Lexie gave him a look that warned him not to embarrass her in front of her friends. He sighed and let her down. She walked over to them.

Top Dog, sweating and groaning, attempted to smile when he saw Lexie approaching. "Well, well, well. Look at the hero of the hour. I bet you must be feeling very proud."

"Huh?" Lexie had no clue what he was talking about. "Why would I be proud?"

He attempted a shrug that looked like it took everything out of him. "I mean, you warned us. We should have listened. This would be the best time to say 'I told you so.'"

"Oh. Right." Lexie couldn't be less interested in that right now. She couldn't take her eyes off his broken arm. "Sorry about your arm."

"It's fine." He bit out groaning. "Believe it or not, I've had worse."

Conrad looked over Lexie's shoulder and threw Aiden a salute. Aiden nodded back. Lexie heard her name mentioned where Xena was and also heard her tell the reporter, "Well, she was the one who actually figured out where the dungeon is, so you should probably ask her."

Damn it, Xena.

"Oh? Do we have another [Hero] in our midst?" The woman with her PHORB hustled toward Lexie, but Lexie shook her head. "Um, not a [Hero]. Just a girl."

"People are saying you were the first one to call the warning about a spawning dungeon. How did you know?"

"Um…" Lexie met her father's gaze and shrugged. "I don't know, I just…I had a feeling."

It wasn't a convincing lie, but the reporter got distracted when she followed Lexie's eyes to Aiden. She must have recognized him because she gasped, forgot all about Lexie, and rushed over to her father. Aiden looked uncomfortable but remained polite as she pelted him with questions.

Sorry dad.

Xena approached Lexie and asked her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Are you?"

She also nodded.

"Thanks for the help back there, by the way. You really saved me."

Conrad was speaking to Xena, who gaped at him for a second before recovering and brushing her hair back in her attempt to recover her cool girl image.

"Yeah, it was fine." She shrugged. "It's what we [Heroes] do." It was a corny line, and Xena clearly knew it from the way she shut her eyes in regret. Conrad merely nodded his agreement.

Lexie realized then that in the chaos that had ensued, she'd forgotten to do one very important thing.

She turned to Conrad and smiled. "Conrad, this is my friend, Xena. She's a huge fan of yours."

"I heard." Conrad grinned. "I'm guessing, you're the Xena that wrote me that letter a while ago, right?"

Xena gave Lexie an accusing look, then tried to play it off casually. "Yeah, I guess."

"She'll probably want something signed." Lexie continued because she was evil. "Maybe like a hat or something."

"Of course. You can get as many signed hats as you want. You saved my life." To Lexie, he added, "She flashed her light at the troll, blinding it so I could get away."

Xena couldn't blush, but her eyes were reddening. "Yeah, it was nothing. But a signed hat would be nice. Or whatever."

Lexie laughed at Xena's forced nonchalance, and Conrad's grin widened. When Xena shoved Lexie and Lexie shoved her back, even Top Dog managed a smile.

***

Max dashed through the darkened dungeon, the timer threatening in the corner. The trace of light beckoned him, and he ran toward it, hoping that it wasn't another trick, that it was the real entrance.

When he burst out and smelled the forest again, he nearly wept. He laughed as damn tears filled his eyes and almost rolled down his cheek. He'd made it. He was out and alive, and he'd made it out of that hellscape. He dropped to his knees and gave the dirt and grass a big smooch. Jeez, that had been tough. It was a level six that should have been a level seven for all the mind games it played.

He'd ordered the rest of his team to get out before he did, so he could finish off the last monster so it wouldn't follow them. One of them had to stay back to activate the trap they'd set for the monster, and it had to be Max himself. Bane had argued, of course, because he was Bane. They'd gotten into a damn near yelling match as the timer ticked down and finally, he'd ordered Samira to get him out. Good old Samira, part-giantess, fully awesome. She hadn't hesitated and had hoisted the large wolf man over her shoulder and run, with Bane cursing both of them the whole way out.

It left Max to hold the trap open, waiting for the giant, blood-sucking bat creature to approach.

Come on, come on.

Finally, when it was in position, he let go, and the giant swatter catapulted the bat into a cave wall before crushing it flat. Then Max had finally turned tail and ran, praying that he beat the clock, but terrified he might not.

But he'd beat it by nearly two spare minutes of the extra time awarded by the dungeon when it noted people still inside.

And now he was free.

As he got back up, he patted himself to make sure there were no injuries, no poison, no acid on his body, no skittering creatures he'd brought out with him. He also patted his backpack. They had collected a lot of loot, but it would be meaningless if he had to spend all that money on remedies for poison or weapons to kill whatever creature came out with him. Not to mention the earful he would get for that.

When he found nothing, he felt a fresh wave of victory. Now, time to find his team and share the loot. The loot was currently with Haner, who had the first one out. Max only had his trusty backpack on his back and a gun in his hand as he stepped forward. He expected to meet his team at the base of the slight hill, but as he stood and looked down, they weren't there. Probably, Samira had taken Bane far away so that he wouldn't attempt to make his way back. Or maybe they'd run into those wolves he'd heard howling yesterday.

Oh well. They could take on a few wolves on their own. Max would catch up to them eventually.

Or at least that's what he thought until a half dozen men shimmered into view, forming a semicircle around him.

It took only a second for Max to figure out they were thugs. No, not just thugs. Hardened criminals.

Max immediately raised his gun and shot. It hit a shield that appeared in front of them. He switched a dial and shot again, the next bullet accompanied by an explosion, contained by the forcefield dome that was erected around them. When it cleared, the shield was still there.

Okay. Bigger explosion then.

Max rolled the dial one more time, clicked, and shot. The next explosion was a blast of sound and wind that should have uprooted a few trees within the radius, if not for the forcefield absorbing it. Debris and dust erupted around and made him cough, but Max was still relentless.

As he turned up his dial again, the leader, a scarred man, sighed. "Max Devereaux."

"Who are you to use my government name, bastard."

"They call me Vulcan," he said. "Viktor Vulcan. But if it makes you feel better, my government name is John."

"That's a stupid name."

"Which of them?"

"All the above." Max turned the dial one more time, seeking a piercing bullet that would shatter the forcefield. He shot. The forcefield suddenly turned metallic. Shit.

John smiled.

"This isn't about me," he said. "It's about you and everything that's going to happen tonight. Because I have to tell you that I've played this exact scenario a few hundred times. Almost a thousand, I think. You're very unpredictable and a little crazy, which made it difficult and cost me more than a few reruns. I still managed to adjust and run it until I was sure that I could get the result I wanted in every single case. And now that I have, I can confidently tell you that no matter what you do, and how you try to defend yourself, there's no scenario in which this ends with you alive."

Max had been threatened before, hundreds, maybe thousands of times. This time was different. The man didn't look all that intimidating, and he dressed like a stupid pirate, but the absolute certainty on his face was chilling, not to mention the madness hinted in his smile.

Nevertheless, Max gave him a careless smirk. "Oh yeah?" In the meantime, he stuck his hand behind his back and started materializing an explosive that would melt metal.

"I'm just telling you this so you don't waste your time," John continued. "For every bullet you shoot, we have a forcefield for it. If you throw that bomb you're holding, we'll reflect it at you. If you run, we'll shoot you in the back. There are no escape routes for you from this."

"Why are you doing this?" Max asked. "Can I ask that, John?'

"Sure. Long story short, you messed with the wrong guy."

Max thought about it. "You're going to have to narrow it down, bucko. I've messed with a lot of wrong guys in my lifetime."

"How many of them have the kind of power to ensure a scene like this?"

Max narrowed it down. "Silas Creevy sent you?"

John nodded. "Creevy sent me."

"Huh." Max was wondering at what point the threat he had on Creevy would no longer be enough. He knew he'd put a target on his back on the day he'd threatened him, and now Creevy had finally come to collect.

Max was only disappointed that the coward hadn't come to do it himself.

"You realize by killing me you're releasing a lot of black boxes into the world, full of all the information I've gathered for a year," Max asked.

"We already found your black boxes. The one with your ex-girlfriend, the one with your brother, the one with Aiden Sparrowfoot. Everyone you've told about this has been neutralized or is about to be neutralized. We've found the ones that are to be mailed upon your death to Vacek. The ones you buried in sewers, in caskets, in random cabins in the woods. You're a thorough man, at least so I can appreciate that. In any case, we found them all, buddy."

Holy shit. How?

Max felt his world growing thin. He was beginning to understand the direness of his situation as Vulcan walked forward. "You see, Max, I can predict everything. I have a special skill that helps me replay every scenario as many times as I want, so when I do a final playthrough, everything goes as planned. There are only two people in this world who mess that up and interfere with those predictions. One, because she has powers that can also predict things on a wide scale. And the other one because she's not supposed to be here, so with her involved, I only have about a fifty percent chance of success."

Max had stopped listening, looking around. He fought back panic. His team was nowhere to be found. Were they dead? Had this bastard killed them?

"Don't worry, your team isn't dead," John said. "That would make the whole thing too messy and guarantee an investigation. Your team was chased away by a pack of wolves that live in this forest. They had their cave disturbed approximately three minutes ago and had been starved for food for weeks, so they viciously attacked the first thing they saw. Of course, that was my fault, but they'll never know that." He smiled pleasantly. "Your team will survive. We want to make this as clean as possible to avoid an investigation."

"And you think people won't investigate me?"

"They won't. Because the idea is that after we kill you, we're going to toss your body back in that dungeon that's about to disappear, and they'll simply think you never made it out."

Holy shit.

He really was about to die.

Well. That fucking sucked.

With that acceptance came a realization.

Max thought about everything he should have done before this. He should have smacked Luke on the back of the head one more time, kissed Flavi, and told her he was sorry for being a terrible boyfriend. He should have talked to Aiden and asked him the secret to that damn Snickerdoodle recipe. He should have given Lexie a big hug before he left. Emma too.

He should have given all his weapons in his garage a kiss. He should have enjoyed his last year more, and not been so miserable just because he'd been banned from participating in dungeon season.

He'd always seen his life as empty without a delving; lonely, and depressing.

Ironically, now that he was about to die, he finally understood how full it was. It wasn't the dungeon he was thinking about in these final moments. It was everyone else in that damn town, and his crew, and random pockets of people he'd met here and there. He wouldn't get to finish Terry's training or collect on his bet with Frank. He wouldn't get to set Emma up with his brother, so they finally stopped the cat-and-mouse game they'd been playing since the beginning of time.

He was going to die.

No. A stubborn will fight that acceptance, reinvigorating him once more.

This wasn't how he planned to go out. He refused to give in to this asshole's plans, refused to let himself be killed by a bastard named John. Even if he attempted to take them out with him, the asshole probably had a plan for that too.

If he was going to die, then he wanted to choose how it happened.

Live by the dungeon, die by the dungeon.

Max detonated a smaller bomb but only used it as a distraction. Instead, he bolted back toward the dungeon, right as a gunshot hit him in the shoulder and another in his leg. He kept running when another pierced through his bag and hit him in the back.

He kept going, leaping forward into the dungeon.

He heard the words, "What did I tell you? Right as I predicted", right as the time elapsed, and the dungeon disappeared.

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