Kenji's basement was the definition of 2001 suburbia. It had wood-paneled walls, a shag carpet that smelled like stale popcorn, and a heavy CRT television in the corner hooked up to a Nintendo 64.
It was usually a place for playing GoldenEye and arguing over who got to be Oddjob. Tonight, it was a field hospital.
"Hold still," Maya whispered.
She hovered her hands over Kenji's neck. The purple bruises shaped like fingerprints were already fading under her warm, yellow glow. Kenji winced, sitting on the edge of the floral-patterned sofa.
"It feels like a sunburn," Kenji muttered.
"It's cell regeneration," Aris said from the floor. He was surrounded by a tangle of wires, taking apart his Walkman and splicing it with the tape recorder. "She's speeding up your metabolism. That's why you're hungry."
"I am starving," Marco mumbled. He was raiding Kenji's mini-fridge. He pulled out a box of Hot Pockets and tore it open, not bothering to microwave them. He took a bite of the frozen pepperoni brick. "My skin is back to normal, but my bones feel heavy. Like lead."
"You turned into a rock golem, Marco," Sarah said. She was pacing the room, peeking through the blinds of the small basement window. "You probably burn ten thousand calories a minute in that form."
Sarah turned to Kenji. "Is it gone?"
Kenji touched his neck. The pain was dull now. "Yeah. Thanks, Maya."
Maya smiled weakly and slumped back onto a beanbag chair. She looked pale. "I'm okay. Just tired."
Kenji stood up and walked over to his desk. He grabbed a notebook and a sharpie.
"Okay," Kenji said, clicking the pen cap. "We need to get organized. We faced two monsters in twenty-four hours. A Scout dog-thing, and a... whatever that Shadow-Clone was."
"It was a construct," Aris corrected without looking up. "A solidified sound wave."
"Right," Kenji wrote Construct on the paper. "And Mr. Henderson... he's gone. Melted."
The room went quiet. The reality of what they had seen in the boiler room hung heavy in the air. A man died. A man they saw every day.
"We should tell the police," Marco said, swallowing the last of the frozen Hot Pocket. "Sheriff Miller isn't that bad. If we show him the sludge..."
"And say what?" Sarah snapped. "That a glitch monster ate him? They'll think we did it. Or they'll think we're on drugs. My dad... if the military is involved like Aris thinks, telling the cops is the fastest way to get disappeared."
"Sarah's right," Kenji said. "We're on our own. For now."
He drew a circle on the paper.
"We need to understand our assets. Aris, what are you doing with the Walkman?"
"I'm building a scanner," Aris said, twisting a copper wire. "Leo's Ghost-Buster gadget. I recorded the frequency the Shadow emitted. If I can invert the wave, I might be able to make a jammer. Or at least, a long-range detector so we don't get ambushed again."
"Good," Kenji wrote Radar next to Aris's name. "Sarah, your sword. How long can you hold it?"
"About two minutes," Sarah admitted, crossing her arms. "Then it flickers out. It's like holding a flashlight with dying batteries. I need to get stronger."
"We all do," Kenji said. He looked at his own hands. "I can warp maybe three times before I pass out. And I can't carry anyone with me yet. I tried to grab Marco during the fight... it felt like trying to lift a car."
"So we train," Marco said, cracking his knuckles. "We meet here. We practice."
"But not tonight," Kenji said, looking at the clock. It was almost midnight. "My mom will be home in an hour. You guys need to sneak out the back."
"Wait," Aris said sharply. "You need to hear this first."
He pressed a button on the tape recorder.
"I isolated the audio from the boiler room," Aris explained. "Before the Shadow attacked us, remember the buzzing sound? I ran it through a filter to remove the background noise."
Aris turned the volume up.
Hiss... crackle...
Then, a voice cut through the static. It wasn't the Shadow's voice. It was deeper, colder. It sounded like it was coming from the bottom of the ocean.
...Phase one complete... Anchor point established... The signal is stable...
There was a pause, and then a sound that made Kenji's blood run cold. It was a laugh. A distorted, digital laugh.
...Find the Key. The boy with the displacement signature. Find the Key.
Aris clicked the tape off.
The basement was dead silent.
"The boy with the displacement signature," Sarah whispered, looking at Kenji. "That's you."
"Displacement means moving things out of place," Aris said, his face grave. "Teleportation. You're the Key, Kenji."
Kenji felt sick. The monsters weren't just invading randomly. They were looking for him.
"Why me?" Kenji asked. "I'm nobody."
"Maybe because you're the one who touched the main screen first," Maya suggested softly. "At the station. You shielded me. You were closest to the blast."
"Great," Kenji slumped into his chair. "So I have a target on my back."
"We all do," Marco stood up, walking over and putting a heavy hand on Kenji's shoulder. "But they have to get through the Tank first."
"And the Sword," Sarah added, stepping closer. She smirked, though her eyes were serious. "Even if you are an idiot."
"And the Brains," Aris said, holding up his jury-rigged Walkman.
"And the Healer," Maya said, smiling tiredly from the beanbag.
Kenji looked at them. His friends. His team. The fear in his chest didn't go away, but it felt manageable now. Lighter.
"Okay," Kenji said, standing up. "Aris, finish that scanner. Marco, eat everything in the fridge. Sarah, Maya... try to rest. Tomorrow is Saturday. No school."
"So we sleep in?" Marco asked hopefully.
Kenji looked at the tape recorder, remembering the deep voice. Find the Key.
"No," Kenji said. "Tomorrow, we go back to the woods. We need to find out where that Scout came from. If there's an Anchor Point... we need to destroy it."
Somewhere in the Woods of Ravenwood Creek
2:00 AM
The forest was quiet. Too quiet. Even the crickets had stopped chirping.
Deep in a ravine, hidden by thick blackberry bushes, a deer lay dead on the ground.
Above it, something hovered.
It was a tear in the air. A vertical slit of blue light, hovering three feet off the ground. It buzzed softly, like a high-tension power line.
From inside the slit, a long, spindly finger reached out. It tapped the air, testing the atmosphere.
Then, the slit widened.
It wasn't a monster that stepped out this time. It was a man.
He wore a dark trench coat that looked like it was made of liquid shadow. He wore a fedora hat pulled low over his face. He looked like a detective from an old black-and-white movie, except his skin was pale gray, and his eyes were glowing blue orbs.
He looked down at the dead deer, then up toward the lights of the town.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, metallic device. He clicked it. A holographic arrow appeared, pointing directly toward Kenji's house.
"Found you," the Void Detective whispered.
He adjusted his hat and began walking toward the suburbs.