The shimmering portal is right in front of me, the mushroom jungle environment just beyond the frame. We waited a full hour just to make sure that nothing about the portal had changed because we don't know what we'll find once we enter. There's no telling what bullshit lies beyond the veil. I activate my ability, and a tingling starts in my arms. It's a phantom sensation, but I still reflexively shake them. Metallic dust falls from them, piling up onto the floor. Ignoring the tingling feeling, I keep shedding the dust until I reach my limit of five pounds. With a thought, the dust pile floats up in front of me and begins to transform into three and a half inch nails. And five pounds of metallic dust make around 220 identical nails. My power enables me to create anything I can think of with my metallic dust, but I need to envision it and its composition fully. Nails are the creation I'm most comfortable with, but I have a few others for other situations.

"Get going, Diamond. Why you actin' scahd?" Heart asked.

I ignore Heart, stretching out my limbs to loosen them up. The nails rotate around me in rings, moving exactly to my will. Controlling them takes a lot of focus from me, so I have to remain calm at all times. When I finally feel ready for whatever bullshit may be waiting, I send sixteen nails into the slots carved into my boots. My power allows me to generate more force than I physically can. By placing eight nails into the boots, I can technically fly. I don't have one of the strongest abilities by Neuvohuman standards, but after decades of practice, you learn a few tricks. Here goes nothing. I walk through the portal, rifle drawn and nails spinning around me. The barrier feels similar to gelatin, the membrane actually pushing against me until I force my way through.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" I screamed.

There's no solid ground on the other side of the portal. It's a goddamn screen we were seeing. The entrance opens up miles above any landmass. There aren't any clouds or even a sun, the light is just coming from somewhere above us. Falling through the air, my nails no longer under my control, spinning erratically around me. Below me, I spot the forest of mushroom trees from the screen, and the colors are even weirder than we thought. I can't use my power while panicking. I force my breathing to slow, calming myself as I count down from twenty. Relax. In. Out. In. Out. Regaining control of my nails, I immediately stop my descent, floating in place. The ground is roughly two miles down.

I have to wait for the others to come through the portal. I crumble all the nails except for the ones in my boots, reforming them into twelve six-inch hoops. The rings are spread out around me randomly. Looking up at the shimmering bubble, I watch for who is going to come next. It's unfortunate that Spade's power didn't work from the outside of the portal. Speaking of, Spade is the next one through, and she immediately looks down, trusting that I'm there waiting. That's my partner. She somersaults through the air, transitioning into a dive toward me. Her eyes are locked on me as she descends, spreading her arms and legs to slow her fall. When Spade gets closer to me and the rings, she closes her eyes, using only her power to know when to grab the ring. I don't move the rings at all; trying to help her would only mess her up. Her hand snaps out at the perfect time, swinging herself into the air and landing on the ring with one foot. A second one goes over to her, so she's not balancing on one limb.

"Fucking hell, Diamond. Thanks for the save," Spade said.

"Of course. Heart's gonna hate this, you know how she feels about heights," I laughed.

"Yep. Club will be fine. He's used to this view."

Club may be used to being up this high, but that doesn't mean he won't need help. He can't use his ability here, so I'll save him. I spot Club, his arms spinning as he tries to orient himself in the sky. Five of my rings shoot toward the man as I shout at him to hold on to them. I let the rings fall with him, and Club collects them and then quickly loops his arm through all five, clutching them against his chest. Careful not to yank his arm out of socket, I gradually slow his descent until he lands alongside Spade and me.

"I think I figured out why no one ever survives an encounter with them," Club joked dryly.

"Agreed. Either you get shunted off to an alternate dimension by way of a landmine, or you go splat after free-falling like a cartoon character. There's no telling what else is in store for us," Spade added.

"Can you two wait to game plan until after I've saved Heart, too?" I snapped, struggling to concentrate.

Instead of answering my obviously rhetorical question, they wisely stop talking. Heart, like Club, can't use her abilities in the wide open sky. I wouldn't call that a weakness of our team, because we try not to take jobs that would lead to fighting on planes. The sky belongs to Capes and birds. I hear Heart before I see her; her terror-filled shriek is like nails in my brain. Her eyes are shut tight in fear as she tumbles and flails wildly. I change the remaining five rings into the thinnest sheet of metal possible for me. It ends up being four-by-four, and I send it up toward Heart. She doesn't see it. Instead, she continues to panic.

"HEART, OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES!" I shouted.

She opens her eyes and immediately shuts them in fear. I have the metal sheet falling closely ahead of her, which should allow her to create a shadow to save herself. Her power is dependent on her shadow, but there's a chance that this place doesn't have shadows. Open your fucking eyes, Heart.

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"OPEN YOUR EYES AND LOOK DOWN! DO IT OR YOU WILL DIE!"

To her credit, she listens to me, squinting her eyes and turning in the air to look up at the sky. She fully opens her eyes after spotting my creation. Heart confidently grins as a deep pool of shadows grows on the sheet. Three thick black tentacles sprout from the darkness, reaching out for Heart. They wrap around her, embracing her as they pull her into the dark. Good to know her power still works and that the shadow world still exists even here. The moment she disappears, I start lowering myself, Club, and Spade toward the surface of this strange new place. The two of them stay silent, aware that a lapse of concentration means their death. We don't encounter any flying creatures as we approach the mushroom forest. Purple capped with green spots, they're as large as the giant sequoias, with a white bark-like stalk. The green ground is squishy, spongy, and Spade alerts us that the ground is also composed of mushrooms.

"So what does that mean for us?" Heart asked, having emerged from her shadow dimension.

"Maybe nothing, but it could mean everything," Spade answered.

"Job's the job. Weapons up and stay alert," I ordered.

No complaints come from the others, discipline gained from over a decade of working together as a unit. My dust is back to being nails, and my rifle is ready. The surroundings are silent; the only noise is coming from us. I've fought in jungles, forests, swamps, and deserts, so I understand how to fight in nature. But everyone's experience doesn't mean dick when we're basically on an alien planet. There could be no life here except for mushrooms, or the very air might be toxic; we have no way to check or know. All we can do is watch each other's backs.

We march forward in a diamond formation. Blue grass growing out of the yellow soil, this forest is an acid trip. The colorful foliage, or fungi in this case, is incredibly vibrant and beautiful. It's actually the colors that are making me suspicious. On Earth, these kinds of colors would indicate that the organism is poisonous. It isn't long before we finally encounter life. A thumping passes through the ground, growing stronger by the second. Something's coming.

"INCOMING!" I shouted.

Everyone spreads out, bracing for contact with a potential enemy. The thing that comes rushing through the trees is a nightmare. It's a giant, two-headed buck shaped like a spider. It's like you asked an alien to draw a deer based on only a few descriptors. A bulbous, oval body with a larger back end, but instead of chitin, it has light brown fur with a white belly. It has eight six-jointed legs that all end in hooves. It's not walking like a spider would, but making short little jumps as it charges us. The neck splits in half, forming two separate heads, each with eight deer-like eyes that cover their snouts. Their antlers are thick, elaborately branching horns that end in spear tips that could only be used for impaling prey. No way that thing's an herbivore.

It opens both mouths and releases a throaty chittering that sends a shiver down my body. Fuck. Now that it's closer, I can see it's even bigger than I thought. Just the body is the size of a dump truck. What the fuck does this thing even eat? I fire a single shot at its chest region, the bullet pierces through it, but the beast doesn't slow. Heart sprints to the left of it as her shadow grows around her. She unsheathes her knives, dropping six of them into her shadow as tentacles wiggle out of it. Each limb grabs a knife, and she has one in each hand. Running into the spider-deer's blind spot, she slashes through two of its legs on its right side. The creature stumbles, stopping and searching for whatever harmed it. Heart falls into her shadow, appearing underneath the beast's body in a whirlwind of blades. She slices through its fur with ease, the fur doing nothing to stop her. Buckets of blood are dropping out of the monster; there's a reason Heart was known as the Butcher of Barbados. Chunks of flesh and muscle are cut out of the stomach as she carves up the carcass. The rest of us don't have to do anything as it lets out a weak chitter as a death cry. The two heads go limp as the unsteady body falls to the forest floor. Heart is already gone, escaping from under it and emerging behind us.

"Depending on how long this takes, at least we won't starve," Heart said, pointing to the creature.

"While there's no way to know whether it's safe to eat, we can always burn the shit out of it to kill any bacteria," Spade added.

"If we run into another one, I can see if my power works on it and get a general idea of what it is," Club suggested.

"We can deal with that if it comes to it. Let's follow the direction it came from, it might lead to a source of water or maybe even wherever White Rabbit is," I said.

We fall back into formation and start to follow the path the creature took. The difficulty of walking on the springy ground is tough to adapt to—every step you take slightly rebounds. I'm confident that if I put more force into my feet, I could use it to jump higher. The unfamiliar ground is only going to make us tire faster. We packed light in terms of supplies, and a prolonged trip through this realm would be a disaster.

The day drags on, and the light level hasn't changed at all. Either this place doesn't have a day-night cycle, or they're operating on a completely different timescale. We've been moving nonstop for over seven hours, and the tension is wearing on me. I'm sure the others feel the same way; we need a break from the state of alertness we've been in. My power is starting to be affected by the length of our trek, my control over the metal lessening the longer we go without a rest.

"Let's stop and take a break," I said, holding a fist up for Heart in the back to see.

"Yeah, my feet could use a rest," Club said, dropping his bag to the ground and leaning against a mushroom tree.

"We'll take a two-hour break. I'll take the first thirty, the Spade, then Club, and Heart, you'll go last."

Spade and Heart don't respond, but I know they're fine with it. Heart grabs a water flask to drink from before she follows Club's lead. She's out in seconds. Spade stretches, then does a quick lap around the perimeter to check for anything nearby. Club starts eating some dried meat rations he brought, while I let my nails crumble to dust. I relax, releasing control of the metal, and it fades away. My creations can only last for eight hours before they collapse, and then my body takes two hours to generate new dust. Spade gets back, and she closes her eyes to rest. Club doesn't seem too tired, and I'm no one's babysitter. If he doesn't want to sleep, then that's on him. I take a chance to inspect my weapon to see if there are any changes or wear to it from the air here. Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be any damage to my gun. Having to rely solely on my ability would eventually make me a liability. That deer spider still bothers me. Was that the only one of its kind, or is there a pack somewhere? And if there is a pack, then what do they eat?

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