Xena and Lexie shot to their feet as Evan snarled, remaining in a crouch on the floor. His eyes were veined and red, saliva dripping out of his mouth. His head moved erratically from side to side, tendons snapping with each oscillation.

  “Oh no.” Rose’s horrified whisper echoed in the air. She attempted to run to her son, but Aiden snagged her elbow quickly, holding her back. His eyes were fixed on Evan and he spoke in a tight, steady voice.

  “Lexie. Very slowly, step back from the patient.”

  “You too Xena,” Emma said in a similar tone. “Try not to make any sound.”

  Xena and Lexie met each other’s eyes for the first time, suddenly aware of their precarious position. They were standing closest to Evan and hence were closest to danger. The disease worked like Rabies, so if either of them got bit, they would probably get it too. Xena’s face was a shade of grey as she stepped back from Evan. Lexie swallowed, shuffling slowly until she had put a few feet between her and the snarling boy.

  For whatever reason, Evan’s head snapped to Xena and she froze in step. Everyone in the room held their breaths as he began crawling to her, on all fours, movements jerky. He ate up the distance between them, step by step. Closer and closer. Saliva dripped onto the floor leaving a trail behind him.

  Xena swallowed and her eyes flared even wider as the child stalked her like an animal. Her hand shook. Her face showed she didn't know what to do.

  Maybe there was nothing she could do. Maybe he would attack her anyway.

  In a flash, Emma rushed to block her daughter pushing her back. Evan launched himself and Aiden leaped forward to catch him by the back of his shirt but it was too late. His teeth snapped into Emma’s arm that she used to ward off the attack.

  Emma cried out as he dug in, shaking his head like a dog as he snarled.

  “Mom!” Xena screamed as Aiden yanked Evan off, pulling Emma in the process. She fell and got dragged halfway across the floor.

  Xena tried to run to her but Lexie jumped in and grabbed her wrist as Aiden managed to dislodge Evan's teeth from Emma's arm.

  Lexie didn't want Xena to go over yet. Emma was sitting up but she was close to thrashing Evan and Aiden didn’t have him under control yet.

  Xena turned around and glared at Lexie, trying to claw her fingers off her wrist. “Get off me.”

  “Don’t go there. You’ll make it worse.” Already Evan was twisting around trying to get a chunk out of Aiden and the sight made Lexie’s chest twist with fear. Aiden was in danger. The very thought scared her, so viscerally that she couldn’t deny the terror clenching her heart.

  She just met him. She shouldn’t be feeling that strongly. Was it because she was in his daughter’s body? Were Lexie Sparrowfoot’s emotions taking over?

  Or was it simply because she liked Aiden?

  He may not be her real dad but he seemed like a good guy who cared for his daughter and had already been through tragedy and…heck, he was her only family in this strange, crazy world.

  So, yeah, while she held onto Xena for the girls' safety, it was partially a selfish move too.

  Because if Xena ran in there, and put herself in danger, Aiden would probably instinctively try to keep her out of harm's way and then he wouldn't be able to focus on not getting bitten.

  Xena still struggled and eventually managed to tear out of Lexie's hold. But luckily, by that time, Aiden finally managed to tackle the little boy onto the floor, face down.

  A few white-robed individuals came running, one of them staring at Emma in wide-eyed horror. Another one, a woman with a blonde ponytail, ran into one of the rooms and returned with a blanket, tossing it to Aiden.

  He caught it and pressed it over Evan’s face, muffling his growls.

  “Oh God. My poor baby!” Rose screamed from behind Aiden. “Don't hurt him!”

  “In this state, it would be really difficult to,” Aiden bit out. “His body is extremely resilient.” Aiden spoke as the boy attempted to bite his fingers off through the blanket. Thankfully the material was too thick, but Lexie still bit her lip, feeling on the edge.

  Still struggling to corral Evan, Aiden rushed into a different room and Emma finally got to her feet, cradling her bleeding arm and following him. Xena went after her mother and so did Lexie and all the nurses, crowding into the room.

  They all watched as Aiden pushed the struggling Evan into the hospital bed.

  The white robes rushed forward and they helped hold Evan’s limbs down, fishing out sheets and tying his limbs down the corner of the four-poster bed. In the meantime, Aiden held the blanket over the boy’s face, a bead of sweat in the corner of his head as the boy continued to gnaw at him. He caught Aiden's finger between his teeth a few times, and Aiden winced, but luckily it didn't draw blood.

  At some point, the woman who tossed Aiden the blanket returned to the room with a muzzle. With a lot of difficulty and clumsiness, she and Aiden managed to secure it around Evan’s face.

  “We need to sedate him,” said another dark-haired woman.

  “How are we supposed to find a vein when he’s twitchier than a hypokalemic sewer rat?” the blonde woman retorted.

  The shorter older woman sighed. “Someone call Godfrey. He’s the only one capable of getting a line into him at this point.”

  One of the male white coats nodded and left.

  Soon, he returned with a tall man with whitish hair holding a plastic container full of syringes, and medical tubes attached to a bag. The man placed the container on the table beside Evan and efficiently began setting up a drip, attaching a thin tube to the syringe. He hummed while he worked and seemed to be in the zone, completely ignoring Evan’s snarling and snapping and jerking in the bed. He almost lovingly caressed the syringe before he attached it to the needle. Then he eventually brushed one of the other nurses to the side, firmly held onto Evan’s arm despite the latter's efforts, and slid the needle inside him.

  The drug was brutally effective. Almost immediately, Evan’s jerks reduced and his snarls drawled into low growls.

  “Good work team,” Emma said. She was holding a blood-soaked cloth at the bite wound. Evan must have really torn her up, but she still managed to give everyone a tremulous encouraging smile. “Excellent response times as usual. Especially Godfrey, you little IV god, you.”

  Godfrey inclined his head once to accept the praise. The male nurse who went to get Godfrey approached Emma, face streaked with concern. “You got bit?”

  “Yeah." She sighed like it was just a bother rather than a life-threatening injury. Her voice shook though, her face beaded with sweat as she swallowed her pain. "But I should be fine. Sparrowfoot was nice enough to make a dozen potions while he was here last time and thankfully I think we have the ingredients to make more.”

  “It’s a loiter bite,” Xena said quietly from Emma's side, her gaze intense on the wound. “Potions can’t cure it.”

  “No, but they can delay the symptoms in time for the healer to arrive.”

  “It’s been three weeks since you guys called for one!”

  “Which means that they should be here any day now.” With her free hand, she touched the tips of Xena’s hair affectionately and gave her a comforting smile. “Don’t worry, dear Xena. It’s not my first loiter bite.”

  Xena’s face showed her struggle to rein in her emotions. She kind of looked like she wanted to scream and cry at the same time.

  “What happened to my son?” Rose asked in the silence that ensued. Her eyes were red, her face pale. Her head whipped around the room, searching for answers. “You told me just yesterday that you had slowed the disease down in the first stage. How did it develop this quickly? He never even got to the second stage.”

  Emma and Aiden shared a look. Finally, Aiden sighed.

  “I’m not sure why this happened,” he said. “But I have my suspicions.”

  “What is it then?”

  “In rare cases…the extended use of the potions as symptomatic relief can cause the symptoms of a disease to accelerate. This is because the infection grows an immunity or evolves in some way to advance faster. In lieu of a healer, we’ve been using the potions to delay Evan’s symptoms for far longer than we should have and thus, we gave the disease more time to evolve, and become much stronger than anticipated.”

  “So the potions you gave my son did this?”

  Aiden’s forehead wrinkled. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. Then he nodded. “In a sense. But–”

  “You murderer!” Rose launched herself at him, slamming her fist into his chest. “You’ve killed Evan!”

  “Rose.” Emma jerked forward to stop her but Godfrey beat her to the punch. He held both of Rose’s elbows, trying to drag her back from Aiden.

  But for such a small woman, Rose was hard to wrangle and packed quite the punch, getting Aiden in the gut again and Godfrey in the face. Godfrey cursed and Aiden reared back at the blow but didn't make a sound.

  “Calm down,” Godfrey ordered. “Or I’m going to sedate you too.”

  “No, you won’t.” Emma countered. “Godfrey, don’t scare her.”

  “It’s your fault he’s like this!” Rose didn’t even appear to hear them. Her eyes glowed with hatred as she spat at Aiden. “It’s my fault too. I knew that I never should have let a [Villain] near my baby.”

  Aiden had flinched at the words ‘villain’ and ‘murderer’ but otherwise didn't try to stop Rose, only putting up his hands intermittently to avoid blows to the face. His expression was carefully flat.

  “He didn’t murder your son, Rose,” Emma explained as another of the female nurses joined Godfrey to hold the woman back. “All potions and medicines have side effects, as we warned you in the beginning. Your son simply caught a rare one. There was no way to know what would be the result–”

  “I trusted you.” Rosa's voice broke as she faced Emma. Tears flowed down Rose's face and her breath hitches matched her son’s muffled murmurs.”When you told me to let him treat Evan, I trusted you would keep my son safe.”

  “I know.” Emma's gaze dropped, then returned with a sheen of sympathy. “We didn’t predict this. And for that I’m sorry.”

  At that point, Rosa collapsed to the floor and wept bitterly. The two nurses stood over her, watching her with pity and conflicted feelings. The rest of them eyed Aiden with some sympathy but traces of accusation or at the very least suspicion.

  Emma was the only one who seemed entirely understanding when she turned to Aiden.

  “Are you alright?”

  He nodded, but he didn’t meet her eyes. Instead, his hollow gaze was on her bite mark. “We should get some poultice on that instantly. And get you started on the potions.”

  “The same potion that drove that kid coo-coo?” Xena asked sardonically and Emma gave her a quelling look.

  “It was a rare side effect,” Emma said. “We’ve given plenty of others the same potion before and nothing like that has happened.”

  Xena pressed her lips together but her distrustful eyes didn’t leave Aiden.

  Lexie glared right back at the taller girl. She understood that this was a very tragic circumstance and what happened to Evan was truly heartbreaking but she was tired of everyone piling on Aiden as though he wanted this to happen.

  Especially since Aiden looked a little worn by it all, as much as he tries to act unaffected.

  “It’s not his fault,” she said, drawing all the eyes in the room. “He tried to help Evan. It’s not his fault that this happened.”

  “Oh? Then whose fault is it genius?” Xena challenged.

  “It’s no one’s fault. It was an unforeseen side effect. The disease evolved.” Was antibiotic resistance not a thing here? Because back on her earth it was common knowledge that sometimes bacteria and viruses could morph and gain immunity from medicine that was supposed to treat it. Heck, she'd had pneumonia three times as a kid back to back, partially exacerbated by the bacteria's resistant nature. "It's not right for you to put it on him as though he's the one who infected Evan. He couldn’t have known for sure the potion would do this."

  “He's an Archmage,” Xena argued back, her voice echoing around the room and probably down the hallway. “Isn’t he supposed to ‘foresee’ stuff like this? Isn't that his whole thing, being smart and magical?”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Yeah, but he’s not all-knowing.” Lexie’s voice got louder too. She hated how it was high pitched and made her sound childish but she couldn’t help herself. “And it’s not like he can use his powers anymore, but he’s still trying to help. As I understand it, without him, Evan would have already been dead."

  “Oh great, he’s trying to help, just like everyone else here.” Xena threw up her hands. “Let’s build a monument in his honor.”

  “Are you even listening to me?" Lexie yelled back because now the other girl was being willfully obtuse. "That’s not what I said. All I’m saying is there’s no need to crucify him for what is, at worst, a mistake.”

  “A mistake? He just killed that kid and you call it a mistake? Of course, because people like you only see our lives as nothing. We’re just experiments to you. That’s how all you rankers see mundanes." She pointed at Aiden. "He may be a [Villain] now but I bet if he was the one with a loiter bite, his old [Hero] buddies would send a healer for him immediately. Or his fellow [Villains] would pitch in for his treatment. But since it’s just a little mundane boy called Evan, no one cares.”

  Even though Lexie had expressed a similar sentiment and frustration just this morning, she hated how Xena was using it to attack Aiden, like all the blame in the world rested on his shoulders. She disliked Xena’s accusing nature in general and it even seemed directed at Lexie who literally (metaphysically) just got here.

  “So?” she said. “How is any of that Aiden’s fault? You think being jealous and nasty is going to solve that problem?”

  “Ha. You think this is nasty? Cause I can show you nasty.”

  “Xena,” Emma said at the same time that Aiden said, “Lexie.”

  Both girls stared at the adults in angry unison ignoring the few nurses who were either staring at them from beside Emma, or clearing out of the room.

  Emma released a breath.

  “I think something very stressful just happened and you’re both a bit tense. Xena, I think you should go home. I might be here for the rest of the day so I won’t be able to make you lunch like you wanted.”

  “Who the hell cares about lunch? You’re going to die!”

  “Lexie, that same goes for me,” Aiden said. “I’ll be here a while so you should probably get home. You remember the way, right?”

  Lexie nodded reluctantly. “But I can stay if you want me to help...”

  He shook his head before she could finish. “I’ll feel a lot better when you’re home safe. Don’t forget to lock the door.”

  “You too, Xen-Xen. And don’t worry. I won’t die. You just called me ‘mom’ so there’s no way I’m going to die now.” Emma gave her a smile that trembled a little bit at the corners, and Xena’s face was filled with palpable devastation that Lexie's anger melted away instantly.

  The other girl looked like she was trying very hard not to cry. Beyond that, she looked terrified. Like her nightmare had come to life.

  She didn’t say anything else.

  She swung around and stalked out.

  Lexie hesitated for a second but at Aiden’s encouraging nod, she also left. And then on her way out, she heard one of the nurses in the room say, “The kid has less than a few hours before the disease eats his brain.”

  “What do we do?” That was Emma’s voice.

  “We need Max,” Aiden murmured in response.

  But then as Lexie got to entrance of the hospital, her guilt worsened. She thought that maybe she was too hard on Xena. The girl just watched her mother get bit and infected with a deadly illness all because she saved Xena’s life. She was entitled to be upset about it. Sure she shouldn't have turned it on Aiden, but Lexie should have tried to de-escalate rather than make it worse. After all, she was older than the girl, at least mentally. She should have kept her cool better.

  And on a deeper level, she could relate somewhat to what Xena was feeling right now. Lexie had reacted similarly when her grandpa died.

  Grandpa Morris, her mother's dad, had often been snarky and mocking, calling her Point-Dexter, and crowing endlessly whenever he beat her at spades. Not to mention the obscene things he said when he lost. He was a sore loser and an even worse winner.

  But he was also the only one in her family, apart from Logan, who encouraged Lexie to pursue a life she wanted, not one that her parents planned out for her.

  "You're a smart girl, Point-Dexter," he would say in that heavy, raspy voice of his. "And you're wasting it on good grades and a formal education. Pah! Wasting the best moments of your life on pleasing those wardens you call parents."

  “It’s okay,” Lexie smiled as she shuffled the cards. “I don’t mind. I like studying and getting good grades. I enjoy most of my subjects too.” Plus it wasn’t like she had a ton of friends to hang out with, or even other hobbies to participate in. She hadn’t cultivated them because of her upbringing. Her parents limited the amount of fiction she could consume every month and her phone and TV time was monitored. Apart from occasionally gaming with her brother, and even less occasionally hanging out with Mickie, reading textbooks and research papers was really her only means of entertainment. And getting good grades gave her something to do, gave her purpose. Without it, she’d probably just be lost and depressed.

  She didn’t think she said anything wrong, but Grandpa Morris had stared at her for a long time after she spoke. And then he’d responded in the most sober tone she’d ever heard him speak in. “You know, Lexie, there’s a difference between the prisons others make for us, and the ones we make for ourselves. The former sucks, but the latter is a lot harder to break out of.”

  Lexie never figured out what he meant by that, but she could appreciate that it came from a good place. And so she continued to visit him every Sunday because she knew her mother probably couldn't visit often and her dad hated him, and Grandpa Morris didn't have any other friends or family.

  Until one Sunday, the one time her mother could visit with Lexie, they were met with devastating news.

  Lexie knew the old man would die eventually but she didn’t expect it to happen like that, so suddenly without warning. One second he was there and vibrant and full of sarcastic life. And the next second, he was gone and the doctor was delivering the news in a monotone, exhausted voice of someone who’d been on-call all night and was probably heavily questioning the validity of their own existence at that point.

  Lexie’s mother caused a scene, railing at the doctor for not trying hard enough to save him. Lexie was silent but she mostly agreed. She also had a split-second thought that maybe the sleep-deprived doctor intentionally let her grandpa die so he wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore. After all, not everyone could tolerate Grandpa Morris’ special brand of humor.

  She just couldn't understand how he was dead. He wasn’t even that sick the last time she’d seen him. What changed between then and now, and why wasn’t her mother informed? It had to be the hospital's fault, and right then and there, the doctor was responsible as a representative of the hospital.

  But it had just been grief making her thoughts irrational and cruel.

  Thinking about that now, made her cringe, regret flogging her. To be honest, it was probably Grandpa Morris’ choice to go out like he did. He probably just made himself stop breathing out of sheer willpower. And even if that wasn’t how it happened, it still likely wasn't the doctor’s fault either. She wished she could rewind time and go back and apologize to the poor medical resident, who was probably fighting his own emotions at watching someone die. She wished she could tell him she was sorry that she and her mom had acted so thoughtlessly, blinded by their own despair and probably a fair amount of guilt on mom’s side.

  Xena was younger than Lexie had been when Grandpa Morris died. And Xena was losing someone even closer to her. She was losing her mom.

  Lexie saw Xena’s back retreating in the distance. She ran to catch up, needing to give her an apology.

  “I’m sorry,” Lexie said when she was sure Xena could hear her. “About what I said. I shouldn't have called you nasty. I get that you were just upset about your mom–”

  “She’s not my mom,” Xena interrupted without pausing her long, angry strides.

  Now Lexie was confused. “That’s not what you said when she was bitten.”

  Xena stopped, turning that fierce greyish-blue gaze on Lexie.

  “I'm an orphan,” she said. “I don’t have real parents or family, but the orphanage was getting filled up, so the system paid Emma to take me. I have to live with her till I turn eighteen or get a decent job, but no one said I had to like her or treat her like my mom. But for some reason, she thinks I should.”

  Ah. So like foster care.

  Annoyance bristled over Xena’s face as her eyes flickered over Lexie’s shoulder.

  “I’m not sure I like it here. There's nothing to do in this town and everywhere smells like old people. Emma’s always working. And when she's home she is always in my business trying to talk to me. Calls me that stupid nickname ‘Xen-Xen’ like I’m a toddler. Burns all our food, because she’s scatterbrained and whatever she doesn’t burn just tastes like ass. She also constantly plays these annoying holiday songs even though it’s not the holidays and then calls me a pill for not singing along.” She took a breath after that long rant. “But she’s not a bad person. She doesn’t deserve to die.”

  “You are kind of a pill.” It slipped out before Lexie could stop herself. Xena shot her a look.

  She attempted a comforting smile in response. “But your mom’s not going to die.”

  “She’s not my mom. And I won’t let her die.”

  Xena continued walking, and Lexie followed behind her. Xena didn't seem like she'd accepted her apology yet and Lexie still felt bad for not being sensitive enough about Xena’s feelings. But she also didn’t know what to say next. Maybe by the time they reach their destination, she might.

  Lexie kept track of the path they took, but it was really only one straight road, surrounded by rolling hills, with vast expanses of nature and a few lakes in the horizon. The crisp air stung her nose, carrying the scent of grass and sea to her. A light mist hung low in the sky, and the two moons were now too blazing suns on opposite sides of a distant mountain.

  It really was a beautifully quaint town.

  But clearly deserted.

  She didn’t see a lot of buildings and at least half of those she saw didn’t look like anyone was living there. Single branching lanes lead to stone cottages that littered the hillside on the left. The right side of the road revealed a town center, with low brick buildings that were either gray or brown and had wooden shop signs out front.

  She saw a few older women riding mopeds that hovered over the ground, with bags of groceries in their baskets. The shop buildings were often intercepted by grassy plains rather than roads and were arranged in winding rows.

  Train tracks soon intersected the main road, bordered by stone ruins and what looked to be a rune carved on them. The train station itself was on the right side of the road, the platform so small and dated that it was almost ignorable.

  Xena turned and headed that way, but Lexie frowned. She thought Xena was going home, but there were no buildings beyond the platform.

  “You live at a train station?”

  Xena sighed. “You know, you ask really stupid questions sometimes.”

  Fair enough. Lexie shrugged and followed.

  The station was made up of faded awning over cracked pavement with walls that had several layers of dust on them.

  A single wooden bench, with uneven cracked panels stretched across the middle of the platform, bordered by the worn pillars holding up the awning. Right next to them were metallic trash bins, sleek glass podiums, and vending machines that were half empty.

  As opposed to the dilapidated nature of the train station, the tracks themselves looked new and shiny, the gleaming metal cased with a transparent bluish fluid like substance that seemed to crackle with energy.

  What was that?

  Xena continued moving until she approached one of the glass podiums with a curved stand and a square surface.

  She tapped the surface a few times and a hologram appeared in the air, with buttons. Lexie couldn’t read them from a distance, but as Xenae continued pushing buttons, Lexie surmised that she was about to take a trip.

  “Where are you going?” Lexia asked.

  “To the Azures’ party.”

  “The who?”

  Xena gave her another ‘you’re dumb’ look and Lexie got tired of looking stupid so she finally explained. “I lost my memory, okay? I fell into a ditch and hit my head and I can’t remember anything. So I don’t know who the Azures are.”

  Some of the tension on her Xena’s face fled. “Really?”

  Lexie nodded.

  “Oh.” Xena visibly relaxed, eyeing her with less suspicion. “You probably should have led with that.”

  Would it have made a difference?

  “The Azures are a loaded family that live in a mansion over a hill, in Arcadia. The dad is the Governor of our tri-state and is also a retired cape called Blueman whose whole thing was changing people’s vision to only see the color blue. Dumb ass superpower. No wonder he got benched.” A mild gust of wind blew hair into her mouth and she spat it out before continuing. “They're holding some kind of gala for the Arcadian [Heroes] in Coventry Garden today. I saw it on NET, so it's probably being live streamed right now."

  “Okay.“ At least she knew what ‘Arcadian’ was. Arcadia, according to the map, was a city close to Hovelton. “So you’re going there in order to…”

  “To get help.” Determination was set on her face. “The capes are all about their image and looking like good guys. They won’t want the public to know that they’re over there partying it up while a kid is dying. I mean yeah, everyone knows that there’s a healer shortage and other places get priority over our mundane little town, but to have it be so blatantly in their face, especially with the fact that we've been requesting a healer for three weeks…it just doesn’t look good. So, I’ll go crash their stupid party, stand in front of the cameras, and expose to the world how much they suck until someone there gives me a fucking healer.”

  Lexie blinked. She wasn’t used to hearing kids swear. Even at sixteen years old, she still hesitated to drop f-bombs but this little girl said it like it was her birthright.

  And Xena’s idea was wild and crazy… but if it worked, it would save Evan and Emma.

  Which Lexie wanted desperately.

  Though she had just met them, she felt some kindredness towards them. Maybe it was because Evan’s name was Lexie’s last name. Or maybe it was because Emma pinched her cheek and seemed to find her adorable.

  In any case, Lexie didn’t want anything bad to happen to those two. And it seemed, if a healer didn’t come, something bad would.

  Lexie watched Xena for a while weighing her options. She didn’t know much about this world, and didn't know if ten year olds could go on a trip to a different town by themselves. Aiden didn’t seem to mind that she was walking home by herself but that was a whole different thing than hitching a ride to a different city.

  Was that normal here? Would Xena be safe?

  Lexie felt conflicted, biting her lip.

  On one hand, it wasn’t Lexie’s business. She’d done what she came to do, which was apologize, and she could leave Xena, go back home and focus on her own problems.

  But two images remained imprinted on her brain–Evan, switching from a smiling boy into a rabid creature, and Emma, holding her bleeding arm, smiling despite the pain.

  She couldn’t forget it. This was a game but it was starting to feel more real to her. If those two died while she did nothing to stop it, she would feel awful. And if this mundane little girl was willing to risk herself to do something, then Lexie had no excuse not to.

  “I’ll come with you,” she found herself saying.

  Xena turned to stare at her. “Why?”

  Lexie shrugged.

  “I feel bad about what happened to Emma,” she said. “She was a nice person.”

  “Don’t say ‘was’ like she’s dead.”

  “No, I meant it like…you know, I don’t even know what I meant. Were you planning on going by yourself?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Not like I have anyone to go with.”

  The short-tempered, sarcastic, unnecessarily abrasive girl had no friends? Shocker.

  Lexie chewed on her options once more and then said, “It might be too dangerous to go alone. I’ll go with you. I can help."

  “How?”

  “I’m pre-awakened. So I can use my dad’s cards to get us into the party.” Though her plan for that was a little fuzzy, she knew the cards may be able help. They were magic after all. Besides, she was curious to see what this cape party was about. Maybe she would see a few characters she recognized from her brother's notes. Maybe one of them could help her.

  A word of mental caution told her that it was risky to wander off with someone who could barely stand her to break into a party of super-powered people.

  But then again, she was in a video game and getting out of it would require some risk. The more information she had the better and seeing the world from a perspective that wasn’t Aiden’s would give her a more fleshed out view. Besides, if anything went wrong she would call Aiden. He showed her how to use the call function on the system to contact her guardian. It also had a location feature that she could turn on and off at will.

  “There might be security and stuff so I can help cause a distraction so you can get in,” she told Xena.

  Xena raised an eyebrow but she appeared to be thinking deeply about it, her eyes holding the air over Lexie’s shoulder. A rumbling sound in the distance, along with a loud horn warned that a train was coming.

  They didn't have much time left to wonder. She looked from Lexie to the approaching train and then back to Lexie.

  “Fine. But no yapping and no dumb questions on the way there.”

  Lexie made a zip and lock gesture over her mouth. “No yapping. No questions. Deal.”