Archive of Our Own ^beta

Crickets sang out around the tent alongside the chatter of departing guests. A couple dozen visitors in all... pitiful by most circus standards, but for the Aquatos, it was one of their biggest crowds in awhile.

 

The mood was jovial among the family as they prepared props for tomorrow. It may have been a good night, but there was no time to rest until everything was prepped for tomorrow’s show. They still had a week of nightly performances before they packed up and roamed off, never staying in one region for too long.

 

Little did they know, they weren’t alone. One of their guests had remained.

 

A tall figure lurked at the edge of the clearing, shrouded by the boughs. Their bright eyes watched the family, a pamphlet clutched between their fingers. They had a delivery to make. Only to a specific Aquato, however. Though a few psychics lingered among the family, there was one in particular the stranger sought.

 

Razputin.

 

And there he was. The boy grunted as he hefted a crate half his size, grumbling to himself. Were he allowed, he’d levitate the box and make it much, much easier. His father would never allow it though. Frustrated and straining, he’d fallen behind the rest of the group, alone.

 

Perfect.

 

This was the perfect opportunity. The stranger took a step out from the trees, ready to approach...

 

“Razputin!”

 

And immediately stepped back when his mom’s voice called out.

 

“Yeah, mom?” Razputin took the distraction as a chance to drop the crate for a breather... right on his foot. He yelped, hopping back and forth on one leg while he cradled his aching toes. His mother poked her head out from inside the main tent, fingers pressed to her lips.

 

“Oh, Razputin, I thought you didn’t want to add a dance routine to your act?” she asked. “Well, when you are done, your father and I could use a hand reaffixing the nets.”

 

Wincing, the boy nodded and his mother dipped back inside. Meanwhile, the stranger clenched their fist, the pamphlet crumpling inwards in their grip. This was bad. Perhaps their only chance to talk with him was about to disappear. This pamphlet needed to be delivered tonight, or they might never get another opportunity.

 

Once he could stand on two feet again, Razputin glared down at the box and gave it a kick. A gentle one, of course - he couldn’t afford any more toe damage. Afterwards, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. “Hey, Frazie! Can you come get this? I gotta help mom and dad.”

 

His older sister stepped up, twice his height and more than capable of carrying the load. “Need me to do the heavy lifting again, Pooter?” she teased.

 

Raz rolled his eyes. “C’mon, you know I could handle it easily if dad let me,” he muttered as he left for the tent.

 

“Let you break his heart, you mean,” Frazie tutted. Though she was one to speak about their family’s psychic paranoia... she glanced around to make sure she was alone, only to pull the box up with her mind to easily drop it in her hands.

 

Off in the distance, the stranger quickly tugged at the corners of the pamphlet and smoothed it out. Frazie. Not the stranger’s first choice, but still a choice. Raz was a psycho-nut and would’ve been easy to sway... her, not so much. But what other option did they have? It was time.

 

Before she could wander off, the guest approached. Frazie suddenly looked up, sensing someone, and held the box to her chest defensively. “Hey! You didn’t see anything. ...Wait, who the heck are you? Show’s over, and we don’t do autographs.”

 

“Relax, child, relax!” the stranger soothed in a forced, gruff voice. “I’m not here to bother you. I just wanted to give you something.”

 

Frazie’s eyes narrowed. “You know you’re not supposed to take stuff from strangers, right? Especially one as suspicious as you.”

 

The stranger tried to look as innocent as they could in their shady trench coat and face concealing beard. “Ahhhh, but the only thing I’m here to give... is an opportunity.”

 

Frazie’s eyes flicked between the stranger and the paper and, finally, she took a step forward. Then, in a flurry of movement, she snatched the pamphlet and whirled back to her spot. Keeping them in the corner of her vision, she eyed the crumpled paper. “Whispering Rock Summer Camp? Why would I want this?” She kept reading... and then her eyes went wide. “Summer camp... for psychics?”

 

“Correct!”

 

“You did see something!”

 

“Even if I hadn’t, I would have known. Like attracts like, right?” the stranger replied, tapping under their hat. “I can sense your powers. Don’t be ashamed, it’s a great thing! And it can be even greater... if you’ll go to this camp.”

 

Frazie’s caution shifted into doubt, the girl glancing away. “I don’t think I should. I need to stick around and help with the circus. Even without that, psychics hurt us. My family hates their guts. I don’t want to betray them...”

 

“I understand... but if you ignore your powers, you’re ignoring a part of yourself.” The stranger leaned in, but not too close. “Don’t you want to be whole? To control this side of you, to show your family they don’t need to be afraid? ...That you don’t need to be afraid?”

 

“I’m not afraid!” Frazie protested.

 

“Then consider it.” The stranger chuckled and shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll learn a few tricks that can restore your family to the stardom they deserve.”

 

“Hmph. What are you even getting from offering me this, anyway?”

 

The guest scoffed. “Who says I get anything out of this? I just want to see talent shine.” They smiled, their teeth shining in the shadows. “Is that so wrong?”

 

“I guess not, but...” Frazie looked back into their face, squinting. Right into their wide, hazy pupils. “Say, your eyes look kinda... familiar. Have we met?”

 

The stranger lurched back. “No! Never! In fact, I wasn’t even in the country until tonight!”

 

“...Soooooo the first thing you do when you travel is go to circuses and give out fliers to kids?”

 

“Do you want the paper or not?!”

 

Frazie blew out some breath, pupils rocking back and forth as she mulled it over. “...Hmmmmm... well, I guess I can take it. You know, just to properly throw it away and all.”

 

Good enough. Somehow the visitor knew the paper would end up under her eyes and not in the trash can. “Yes, yes, good! Now if you’ll excuse me, I really must be going.”

 

A bit too hastily, the guest turned and hobbled off straight back into the trees. Frazie watched them go, then glanced at the clear dirt exit path to the side, then back.

 

“That’s the biggest weirdo I’ve ever seen... and I live in a circus.” Still holding the box along with the paper, she tried to flip it open with her thumb for just a little peek...

 

“Frazie! Frazie, what’s the hold up?”

 

“Eep!” That was her dad. Thinking quickly, she shoved the pamphlet under her shawl just before the man popped out from behind an old wooden caravan.

 

“Is something the matter?” he asked. “Razputin said you were taking care of his box.” He glanced at her face, then reached out to touch her cheek. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What happened?”

 

As if she’d tell him some weirdo stopped by to encourage her to run away and pursue her psychic powers. He’d disown her on the spot for not immediately turning him away, if he didn’t think she was delusional from eating some really bad cotton candy.

 

Frazie forced a smile. “Juuuuuust had to keep Nona from wandering off first.”

 

Her father rubbed his beard, her heart thumping as he considered her lie. Finally, he patted her shoulder. “Great work, dear! Honestly, I don’t know why she’s been so lost lately... must be something in the air. Let’s get back to work, shall we?”

 

Frazie nodded a bit too eagerly, breathing a long and silent sigh of relief as soon as he’d turned away. She reached for her chest and felt the pamphlet still tucked snugly in her shawl, moving very carefully so she wouldn’t accidentally stir it free.

 

She had some reading to do later that night. And a looooot of thinking.

Somehow, soft snoring was now the most terrifying thing Frazie had ever heard. Why? Because if she made one wrong misstep, the snoring would stop, and she’d be caught red-handed.

 

She tiptoed across the wagon they all shared as a bedroom. Cramped, yes, but cozy, not too unlike the cabins the camp pamphlet had told her about. Problem was, it made slipping out undetected pretty dang hard... especially since this thing was old enough that every step threatened to emit an ear-splitting creak.

 

She’d have no chance to come up with an excuse, either. She’d changed into one of her few decent outfits - she kept her trademark shawl and feathers, but she’d traded out her tattered and raggedy acrobat’s clothes for something fresh. Orange and burgundy tights, a short layered orange skirt, and a brown top, all with minimal tearing. A small satchel sat on her back to carry her few belongings. It was an outfit for special occasions... and what was more special than abandoning your family?

 

If they saw her in this, they’d know she was leaving. Naturally, she planned on not getting caught.

 

The wagon was doing its best to hinder that, though. Years of training had left her graceful and light, but that was just a testament to how freakin’ old the thing was when every step took a good dozen seconds if you wanted to avoid creaking.

 

The door was right up ahead by now. Just a couple more steps and she was free to sprint out into the night. Just a couple more steps...

 

Creeeeeeeeeak.

 

Her heart stopped when she felt her foot hit a loose board right before the door. Time froze and so did she, not even daring to breathe. The snoring continued on behind her. She let out a silent sigh of relief.

 

And then she heard shuffling.

 

A quick glance behind her showed her little sister Mirtala sitting up from her hammock with eyes half-shut. The girl looked straight at her, and Frazie was already preparing her final prayers.

 

“...Spicy pretzel mustard,” Mirtala murmured, sleepy eyes seeing nothing as she rolled back over. “Know we can’t afford it, papa... but it’s soooo gooooood...”

 

That little heart attack was enough to convince Frazie to get out of there now. Taking the risk, she jumped forward the rest of the way, landing outside without a sound.

 

The night air had never felt so good. Catching her breath, she looked back into the wagon, making sure they were all still asleep.

 

She couldn’t help but frown to herself. Her family was a bunch of goofs, yet she loved them all dearly. But could she ever really fit in with them if they hated a part of who she was? She didn’t know if she was making the right choice, but she at least knew that by the end of it, she could either show them she wasn’t like other psychics... or realize it’s a lost cause and close off that bit of her forever.

 

The only one of them that understood her plight was Razputin, and she felt extra guilty watching him shuffle in his sleep. Leaving him alone in this psychic-hating family felt dirty, but hey, she wouldn’t be gone too long. Just long enough to hone her powers and show how useful they could be to the Aquatos... and then things would be better for the both of them, right? At least, that’s what she told herself. If she failed, at least she wouldn’t be taking him down with her.

 

There was no turning back. “Sorry, guys,” Frazie murmured, the grass crunching under her as she ran off to the stables.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Some time after she’d escaped, Frazie only just realized how much she’d been around her family all her life, how little she ever really left their fairgrounds. This was perhaps her first time ever really setting out alone.

 

Part of her wanted to embrace it - climb a tree, find a good vantage point and take it all in. She knew she was on a time limit, though. When morning came and her family woke up, they’d be in a panic.

 

She needed to get to camp.

 

Thankfully, her tiny trustworthy pony Sugarcube was always willing to ferry her at any time of day. It just... hadn’t expected such a long trip. The small critter wheezed under her as she stroked its mane, encouraging it on. “Allllmost there, buddy, almost...”

 

And there it was. Up ahead, the gates to the camp loomed over them. She pressed her heels into Sugarcube’s sides and brought it to a stop, the horse letting out a thankful whinny.

 

Now was a reeeeeally poor time to be getting cold feet. “Am I really doing this...?” Frazie whispered to herself, glancing back into the forest. But even if she turned back, there was no way she’d be back in time before her family noticed her missing. Plus, her pony might actually die from exhaustion. There was no way to go but forward. “Heck yeah, I am.”

 

She dismounted, Sugarcube collapsing in relief while she tied its reins to a post. “Eat up,” she told it, and the horse tiredly munched on some grass as she headed inside.

 

Or at least, tried to. A large metal gate kept the place locked tight. She stepped up to it and tugged - no luck.

 

She tilted her head, then escoffed. “Reeeeal good security.” And it would be... for anyone but an Aquato.

 

“Alley-oop!” Setting her hands on one of its bars, she flipped herself up, putting her legs on the next set. Tumbling upwards over and over, she finally reached the top and sat atop the camp sign as she surveyed.

 

Sure, it was nighttime, but she’d expected more activity than the eerie emptiness of the parking lot. “Hello?” she called, and no one responded. Shivering, she jumped down and pressed on.

 

She delved deep into the camp, passing by cabins and tables before finally finding signs of life. The glow of a campfire illuminated a clearing up ahead, and she crouched in the bushes to see what was going on. Rows of campers sat watching a stout little man march back and forth ranting and raving about psychic warfare. It looked more like a military debriefing than a relaxing night by the fire.

 

She leaned in a bit more, pondering the best course of action. Should she burst in and make herself known? Nah, that’d freak them out. Slip in and pretend she was always there? She was agile and lithe, but she wasn’t a ninja. Maybe just call out to them...?

 

Or maybe get suddenly yanked out of the bushes by an unseen force.

 

“Ack!” she cried. Campers panicked and ran around below her, screaming about monsters and invaders as she was pulled up onstage.

 

“Settle down, children, settle down!” a tall woman called, her tanned skin gleaming in the firelight. “It’s just a girl.”

 

The screaming died down, but the other counselors didn’t seem very relieved. “That’s not much less concerning,” said a greenish man. “This is supposed to be a highly classified remote government training facility. No one should be able to just waltz in.”

 

Slowly, they lowered her to the ground as they lowered their fingers from their temples. The stout man marched up to her, having to glare up at her as she leaned back. “State your name and purpose, soldier!”

 

“Uh...” She drummed her fingers together, put on the spot. “My name’s Frazie. Annnnnd... I’m here to join the program?”

 

“Fat chance!” The orange man spun around, waving a finger as he returned to the other adults. “We triple checked the roster, and you’re not on it! This is a training ground for Psychonauts, future fighters on the frontier of the frontal lobe!” He snorted. “Pfah! Frazie... sounds like a spy’s codename.”

 

Insulted, Frazie leaned back in and jabbed a finger towards him. “I know I’m not on it, but I still want in! Do you know how far and how fast I had to ride my horse to get here day one?!” She crossed her arms. “I may be late, but I’m still a psychic that needs training!”

 

The other two counselors glanced at each other, muttering ‘horse?’ to each other before the green one addressed her. “Be that as it may, we couldn’t train you even if we took in such an unconventional arrival. We’d need your parents’ permission. And on that note, we’ll have to call them and report this.”

 

Frazie’s eyes went wide, and she quickly clasped her hands together, pleading. “Please, don’t! They can’t know I’m here. They can’t!”

 

The woman looked sympathetic, but she shook her head. “Well, it doesn’t sound like we’d have their permission, darling. We have no choice.”

 

“Please.” Frazie wasn’t going to give up. She didn’t take such a huge risk for it all to blow up in her face before she’d accomplished a thing. “Please, think it over. I know I never signed up, but I never could! I didn’t know this place existed before yesterday!” She slumped, speaking honestly, knowing there wasn’t any point to withholding information. “You’re right, my parents wouldn’t approve because... they hate psychics. And I am one, just like all of you.”

 

“That’s why I came here. I want to prove them wrong, that not all psychics are monsters. If you just send me back without a chance to improve myself... well, you’re proving them right. Their psychic daughter’s a monster who abandoned them for nothing. I need to show them I was born with a gift, not a curse. Isn’t that what you said in your pamphlet?”

 

Frazie reached back into her sack and withdrew the crumpled paper that brought her here, waving it in their faces. “Your mother is afraid of you, and your father looks at you with shame in his eyes! Come to Whispering Rock Summer Camp and you can show them all! Back home your powers make you a loner, an outcast, a circus freak...” That last one wasn’t too far off. “But in this psychic dojo, they make you a hero.”She dropped her arm. “Give me a chance to improve, to change their minds! Just... give me a chance.”

 

Once more, the taller adults shared a look. But judging from the quivering lip of the short one, her speech hadn’t been for nothing. Finally, he pointed. “Get that soldier a bunk.”

 

Relief flooded Frazie... for about three seconds, before the woman gave her input. “Alright... we can let you stay for a few days, but we still need to call your parents, and we can’t train you without your their consent. You can join the campers until they come to pick you up, at least. Okay?”

 

Frazie slumped. But despite the setback, she stood straight again after a moment. So long as she was allowed to stay, maybe she could pick up something that’d help her. “Okay. Thank you! I won’t let you regret it.”

 

Peace finally seemed to return to the campsite. “Please take a seat,” the green man instructed with a wave of his hand. “I am agent Sasha Nein. Him, Coach Oleander. Her, Milla Vodello. Now if we could get back to where we were...”

 

Nodding, Frazie jumped offstage and ran to the logs, dropping into an open seat near the front.

 

She paused. It wasright around this time she finally noticed all the other campers were half her size. “Wait a sec...” She whipped her head back and forth, and all the others stared back at her. “Why are all the campers, like, ten?!”

 

“Because this is a kid’s summer camp, not a teen’s summer camp, missy!” Oleander barked. “You’re the one who wanted to hop aboard, so you don’t get to complain about your fellow cadets.”

 

The children snickered and giggled at her, and she groaned. Great. Just great.

Alright, so this camp wasn’t entirely what she’d expected it to be.

 

Running away from home had been bad enough, now she stood out like a sore thumb as the only teen amongst a bunch of children. Sure, she hadn’t come here specifically to make friends and meet peers, but this still sucked.

 

This was a nightmare of her own making. It was her own fault... she really should’ve guessed that when the pamphlet said things like ‘inspiring young minds’ it could’ve meant, you know, really young minds. But that stranger had given it to her regardless, so it shouldn’t have been a deal breaker. Frazie just sort of wished the little snots would stop jeering and gossiping about her.

 

Well, at least it wasn’t too new an experience. Having three younger siblings she was always around had prepared her for something like this. The campers could giggle and whisper behind her back, but so long as something came of this trip, she’d deal with it. Maybe give someone a discrete pinecone to the noggin if they really stepped out of line. She didn’t want any trouble... she’d already caused more than enough.

 

After that little kerfuffle around the campfire, they’d let her bring her horse into camp and let her tie it up near the cabins. She could easily take care of it during her stay... and likely have to fight off any kids who tried to cop a free pony ride. After that, she’d been assigned to the girls’ bunk.

 

The other campers were a strange bunch. There were cowboys and astronauts, tinfoil hats and gym clothes... Frazie wasn’t really surprised that being psychic led to some eccentricities. Though she didn’t exactly look normal with her feet hanging off the top of her child-sized cabin bunk, either.

 

At least in the morning, the drama of the previous night had died down. There was some seemingly normal kids, at least. In fact, one was approaching her right now.

 

Frazie glanced up from feeding Sugarcube to see a girl watching with hands on her hips. A kid with red haired tied down in twin ponytails, already throwing a question her way. “Did you really ride across the state on a tiny pony to break into a government-secured summer camp?”

 

“Uh... I guess?”

 

The girl’s keen eyes had been judging her, but now, they softened as she shifted her weight. “You’re insane. Buuuut, that’s actually kinda cool. That’s the most interesting thing to happen at this camp in a couple years!”

 

Say what you wanted about the Aquatos, but they were definitely interesting. Smirking, Frazie gave her pony a pat and stood up. “Thanks. I wish it felt cooler, though. I didn’t know I was sneaking into elementary school... especially when some of those kids are already ahead of me.”

 

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” the girl said and waved her off. “Some people don’t discover their powers until they’re adults! You’re still way ahead.” She paused. “Mostly.”

 

Far behind some, way ahead of others? “I’ll take it.” Though something the kid said didn’t quite sit right with Frazie. “...Wait, you’ve been here a couple years? How long does becoming a better psychic take?”

 

“Oh! Don’t worry. I just come each summer because my dad is the head of the Psychonauts... it’s a good look for me to keep appearing at their program.” The girl scoffed, shaking her head. “Though sometimes I wish I didn’t have to. Everyone here’s so... obnoxious. But you seem neat.” She suddenly jabbed a finger up at her. “So keep it that way! I dunno if I can handle another empty head around here.”

 

The girl had spunk. Frazie shook her hands, dismissing the thought. “You’ve got noooothing to worry about.”

 

“Good. Now come on!” the kid called, motioning for Frazie to follow her away from the cabins. “Coach wanted us all in his classroom first thing in the morning... and you’re technically part of ‘all’, aren’tcha?”

 

That was right - Oleander had made that morning’s plans very loud and clear when he’d roared them into their cabin right before bedtime. “I like the way you think,” Frazie said. She held her pony’s face in her hands and promised to bring it a treat later before chasing after the kid. “Lead the way!”

 

All the children were gravitating towards a sloppy wooden ramp leading up into the trees, so that’s where the two headed. “I’m Lili,” the girl chimed in while they walked. “So what can you do?”

 

“With my brain?” Frazie thought back to all the minor bits of psychic tomfoolery she’d managed to get away with. “Hmmmm... I’m really good at moving and throwing stuff with my mind.”

 

“That’s called telekinesis. What else?”

 

“Thaaat’s about it.”

 

Lili stopped in her tracks and looked up at her. “Yeesh.”

 

“Hey, don’t look at me like that! My psychic abilities need some work, but I can do this.” Frazie lifted her arms high and swung them down, following the momentum into a flawless flip. On her second spin, she shoved off the ground and twirled before landing with a flourish on one of the ramp’s banisters. “Let’s see one of you braniacs do that!”

 

“Whooooooa.” It was brief, but Lili’s eyes dazzled watching her stunt. “You gotta show me how to do that! If you teach me, maybe I can show you a trick or two if the grown-ups won’t.”

 

“Really?”

 

Lili shrugged. “Beats having to deal with the other campers.”

 

“Gee, thanks,” Frazie muttered before hopping back down onto the ramp.

 

“Don’t mention it!” A brief climb later and they crested the path up into a treehouse, where the Coach and their classmates awaited. A rusty old fan slowly rotated over the classroom, a small wooden auditorium where the kids gathered in a circle around their instructor. Oleander spotted the two new arrivals and grunted, knowing one shouldn’t be here, but not kicking her out either.

 

Once they’d seated themselves, their teacher started up. “Now that the stragglers have arrived, let’s get started! It’s time for Basic Braining 101. As you all know, we are the mighty warriors of the mind... which is why our first lesson is always how to get into the mind. You’re not fighting any wars if you can’t even make it to the front lines!”

 

Oleander fished around in his pockets, finally pulling out a small door covered in a camo pattern. “Let’s see if the newbie here can tell us what it does!” he said, suddenly flinging it Frazie’s way.

 

Startled, she caught it before it beaned her in the face. She peered down at the tiny door and, cautiously, gave it a couple small knocks.

 

“Ha! You’re funny, kid.” Oleander roughly swiped it back from her, holding it up for all to see. “This, cadets, is a Psy Portal! The door to the human mind! Literally and figuratively.” He reached up and slapped it on his forehead, where it seemed to fit snugly against all laws of physics. “Once you’ve got one of these bad boys, you’re good to go. Got it? Good. Because it’s time for the demonstration!”

 

He reached up and swung the door open, white light pouring out from within the frame. “All of you, get in here! Focus on the portal and let it draw you in! Push your thoughts upwards and outwards!”

 

The coach seemed to go into a trance. All around the room, kids did as instructed, and fell under the same spell as their heads lolled to the side. He’d said all again - they really needed to work on their wording - so Frazie took that chance to hop in yet again. She took a deep breath, focusing on the little door.

 

At first, nothing. She squinted, trying to push herself forward like he’d instructed... and then she felt the pull. Like a fishing hook sinking into her lobe, a small tug that grew larger and larger before she felt her vision start to move on its own. She was soaring, her body down below, her consciousness floating in an arc down towards the door.

 

Her projection slipped inside, and the door slammed shut.

 

Now entering:

Coach Oleander’s Basic Braining

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

One moment, she was flying. The next, her feet hit the floor. Even for a trained acrobat, the first time entering someone’s head was enough to almost make her topple forward before her expert balance saved her.

 

Now, where were they?

 

All the campers had entered into a dark room. Aside from a desk and a few photos, it was bare... and had no way out. The only light came from a projector spilling light onto the far wall, and a moment later, Oleander’s face popped into it.

 

“Welcome to the recruiting office, soldiers. And just what am I recruiting you for? The best army in the world... the Psychonauts,” he explained with a wave of his hand.

 

“It’s time to get started. And there’s only one proper way to do it...” His blown up finger pointed them all out. “I want one of you chickens to sock me on the jaw!”

 

For a second, Frazie considered it... but it was a small blue brute that stepped up first. Bobby Zilch, the resident bully. “Finally! I’ve been waiting for an excuse to hit something!”

 

As if taunting him, Oleander’s projection tilted its head up, tapping its chin, just begging for a hit. Grunting, the boy wound his fist up, not one to go easy on a stationary target. “Nyeh!” With as much strength as the tiny terror could muster, he slammed his fist into the wall. To Frazie’s surprise, it fell backwards with a creak.

 

And opened up into a battlefield. The land was torn by fire and artillery, and gunfire constantly rang out.

 

“Ah! That’s what I’m talking about!” Coach shouted, his face now projecting off the debris floating in a hazy green sky. “Now let’s GO, GO, GO!”

 

Before them lay an iron bridge, their path into the military madness that lay beyond. Some of the kids immediately charged, not knowing what to expect...

 

...And were promptly blown up. Mines triggered under them, launching them sky high.

 

Frazie’s jaw dropped. “What the heck is wrong with you?! These are just kids!”

 

“Oh, plug up your bleeding heart!” Oleander snarked. “They’re fine, they just got kicked out of my mind! If I were you guys, I’d be a little more careful than they were.”

 

The pamphlet hadn’t said anything about stuff like this. With his advice in mind, Frazie and the remaining campers decided to take a bit more time exiting out into the battlefield.

 

The next part of the course was no less explosive. Bombs went off left and right, tearing chunks out of their path forward. They were all cautious enough by now to let the grenades go off before they moved on, at least. As they went, terrifying figures leered out at them in a multitude of colors... but a quick pass through them made them evaporate. Crying suitcases... barbed wire... plants made of meat... all while their instructor barked orders and insults.

 

If this was what all minds were like, Frazie was ready to clock out then and there.

 

It was a military obstacle course in every sense of the word, demanding their endurance and agility every step of the way. Frazie was born agile, thankfully, and often ended up ahead of the pack as she zoomed up ladders and leapt across gaps. It almost felt unfair how easily she passed through traps and trials compared to the others, but she tried to even the playing field even as more campers failed around them.

 

The only thing that kept her heart from beating out of its chest was the knowledge every kid that made a wrong step or fell into the void below would be just fine... and her, too, if something went wrong. Her years of training kept her going strong, though, ahead to the point she’d help some of the other campers across obstacles when she could.

 

It was earning favor with the kids, but drawing Oleander’s scorn. “You’re supposed to fight alongside your unit, not baby them! You’ve got more moves than I expected, and you are wasting them on these Slowey Joeys!”

 

Frazie was starting to wonder just how successful Coach’s military career was if he didn’t want teammates saved from a fiery demise, but despite his griping, she and a few of the kids managed to make it to the cockpit of a military aircraft after a few more minutes.

 

“Maybe there’s hope for you pitiful maggots after all!” Coach shouted, his face sprawled across the windshield. “But here’s where easy mode stops. Out the plane, on the double!”

 

Frazie wasn’t sure what was worse, that everything until now had been ‘easy’ or that he wanted them all to go base jumping without a parachute. She’d performed all kinds of death defying stunts way up in the air, but this was straight up suicide.

 

Everyone else shared her sentiments. “...No takers?” Coach grumbled, shaking his head as everyone crowded as far from the door as possible. “Pathetic. New lesson, then: sometimes, things just don’t go your goddamn way!”

 

Suddenly, the plane door jerked open all by itself, gale force winds howling outside. One by one, campers were sucked out yelling and screaming until Frazie was the last remaining. Her bigger frame let her brace herself against the opening, but before long the suction finally forced her into the open air.

 

After a moment of yelping and flailing, her natural instinct to try for a safe landing kicked in. Straight as she could get herself, she descended feet first, falling and falling and falling...

 

...Into a snow drift.

 

The environment had shifted to blue skies and snowfall, the girl popping her head out of the pile and spitting out snow. “What the...?”

 

While she dug herself out, the other campers had recovered and looked around. Their next task lay up ahead: a ring of sandbags with sketched figures of skeletal gunmen and tiny babies popping in and out of the ground. “You’ve made it past the obstacle course, now let’s see some combat training!” Oleander shouted from a nearby wall. “Get enough points, and maaaybe I’ll let you through.”

 

With the way ahead blocked by a barbed fence, they had no other choice. Frazie may have been in peak physical condition, but she’d never been in a fight outside of a scuffle here and there with her siblings. But she could handle some cardboard cut-outs... right?

 

Stepping into the ring, Frazie braced herself. As soon as she heard the kachunk of a stand popping up beside her, she spun, leg held high. With a crack, one of the cardboard warriors was decapitated, and then another.

 

“No, no, no!” Oleander yelled at her. “What part of Psychonauts don’t you get, girly? Your mind, use your mind!”

 

Frazie paused and looked around. While most of the children were letting others do the hard work, Bobby and Lili were rearing to hit stuff, the two kids punching and swinging at anything that popped up. But their fists weren’t connecting. Instead, energy flew from their blows in the shape of hands, extending their reach and turning boards into splinters.

 

She had to adapt quickly. “It can’t be much different from how we entered the portal, right?” she murmured to herself. She sucked in a breath, eyes shut. Direct her energy outward, push it into her limbs...

 

Frazie went again, leaping and kicking and pouring all her focus into striking out, imagining her leg stretching and smacking the target.

 

It didn’t work. Not the second time, either. She just kinda landed awkwardly as the cutout mockingly sank back into the ground. She was reeeeeally out of practice.

 

But that was why she was here, right?

 

She kept trying, again and again. A few of the kids giggled watching her punch and kick at nothing... up until a dozen tries later, when a glowing red foot flew out of her own and crushed a standee’s face in.

 

“Yeah!” It was exhilarating, this small success. Laughing, the acrobat got more into it, spinning and rolling as she attacked her targets. Some of her blows still didn’t work, but the more she tried, the more she got her projection to work. All the while, a couple peppy campers cheered the fighters on louder and louder.

 

“GO, GO, GO!”

 

“FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!”

 

“SCORE, SCORE, SCORE!”

 

“KICK, PUNCH, IT’S ALL IN THE MIND!”

 

“You guys aren’t helping!” Frazie shouted between leaps. “You really aren’t!”

 

Soon enough, all the cutouts disappeared back into the ground when they hit their quota. “Not bad, not bad,” Coach called. “But don’t think I didn’t notice the slackers! Your rations just got cut. Now get moving, go, go!”

 

Some of the kids groaned, and then moved on once the gate restricting them blew open. It only got more hectic from there. Hiding from gunfire as they crossed snowy fields full of snowmen and bunnies before they ended up back in the military wasteland once again. Riding planes and rails and trapezes, which Frazie excelled at. It was like that last bit was made for her.

 

By the end, though, most of the kids couldn’t handle the rigorous physical requirements even if they excelled in the mental. By the time Frazie passed through a saw-lined room of rotating logs, she was all alone. She landed on a small circular stage, looking around.

 

Not for long, though. She only caught a brief glimpse of a strangely clean hallway off to the side before Oleander popped into existence, in the flesh. Sort of. In the mind? Whatever.

 

“You made it to the end, soldier! Color me impressed. You’ve got moves, kid.” The commander raised a brow. “Where ya from?”

 

Frazie just chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. “Would you believe the circus?”

 

“It’d certainly explain all the monkey hoo-hah I just witnessed.” With a snap of his fingers, a small patch materialized in Oleander’s hand. “You might not be here officially, but I’d say you’ve more than earned this.”

 

The merit badge gently floated across the gap between them, affixing to her shawl. She lifted it up to get a closer look; it was a small green pin with a little brain on it. It was tacky, and yet it meant a lot. After all Frazie had been through, it felt like a trophy, and she beamed with pride.

 

“Does this mean I’m getting the hang of my powers?” she asked when she looked back up.

 

“Heck no! I saw you take your good time empowering your strikes, and I could do that when I was in diapers! Great dexterity, though. There might be hope for you yet if you train hard.” Oleander scratched his chin. “Might be use for you yet, too...”

 

Frazie threw her hands down, growling. “Ugh. Whatever. Can I leave this nightmare already?”

 

Wordlessly, Coach just raised a hand, and Frazie once more felt her essence being pulled away and flying through the nether. The wartorn landscape faded away, melting back into reality.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Frazie jolted back in her seat. She was exactly where she’d been before, surrounded by children groaning from overexertion and memories of getting blown to bits. It was like she’d never left, just taken a seriously distressing nap.

 

“Class dismissed.” Oleander gave them a salute in the center of them all before once more falling into a trance. “Now if you’ll excuse me... I’ve gotta get the last few rookies out of my brain.”

 

Those that weren’t too dazed to move or still in their coach’s mind started to file out, exhausted. While Frazie remained sitting to catch her breath, she caught something lingering in the corner of her eye.

 

Somehow, the merit badge had materialized in the real world. She had no idea how that worked, but seeing the little pin on her chest gave her hope. A small sign that she could conquer the challenges in this camp and come out a better psychic. If she could prove she could handle the rigors of training, maybe they’d waive her parents’ permission.

 

She needed to get more of these.

Frazie wasn’t sure what to process first - the scenery that looked like a paint palette threw up, the variety of wild and wacky caricatures walking around like all was normal, or the fact the bench next to them was staring at her.

 

Well, if they wanted to keep their fellow campers’ heads intact, that news snippet they’d overheard seemed like a good place to start.

 

Frazie slid behind a gazebo in the center of the town square, the boys following. Thankfully, it was one of the few things in the area not alive. Peering out from behind it, she listened as the report continued.

 

“Mere moments ago, a roaring blaze erupted downtown. There’s been no indication of the source, but firefighters are already on the scene. It’s one heck of an inferno, though! They’re having trouble fighting it back, and all the folks stuck inside remain in danger. Things are looking grim, citizens. Will anyone be able to rescue them? Can anyone rescue them?”

 

Moments ago... that was around the time Dogen’s hat was ripped off. Whatever had caused the fire must’ve had something to do with that. Frazie tapped her cheek, pondering. “Maybe we can figure things out if we go find that fire?”

 

But the broadcast wasn’t over yet. The living microphone adjusted his bowtie. “In other news... suspicious individuals have been spotted in the area! Worry not, our unique brand of law enforcement has been dispatched to deal with them. Stay safe and stay vigilant, citizens!”

 

At the report’s conclusion, circular red symbols started materializing in the air along the sidewalk. Frazie watched from behind cover while each one popped open, ejecting a little suited man wielding a stamp and police cap.

 

“No!” one cried.

 

“No?” another replied.

 

“NO!”

 

“No...”

 

With that, they split up, waddling in every direction as they began to patrol the square. Frazie’s brow furrowed. “Usually a buncha little clowns don’t pop out of nowhere unless there’s a tiny car involved. I didn’t think this place could get any weirder,” she whispered.

 

“Pffffft!” Bobby looked at her like she was a buffoon. “Those guys are in every stable mind, stupid! They’re censors. They stamp out any thoughts that don’t belong.”

 

“Like us,” Benny chimed in. “Technically.”

 

They didn’t look all that threatening. Frazie was probably tall enough to punt one down the block if she had to. But in a world where microphones talked and televisions were portals, she wasn’t about to jump to conclusions. “Are they dangerous?”

 

Bobby scoffed. “Chyeah. What, you think our mind would let these guys protect it if they were weak? Those stamps pack a punch.” He sneered, flexing one of his scrawny arms. “But so do I!”

 

“...Riiiiight,” Frazie drolled, unimpressed. “So, avoid them. Got it. Hmmmm...” Their hiding place wouldn’t be safe much longer with the little guys walking around. Going out in the open was a bad idea too, and even if they got away they had no idea where they were going.

 

But when you’re an acrobat, finding creative routes and high points was just what you did.

 

Frazie had an idea when she looked towards the corner and spotted a high fence. “Follow me, dorklings!” she whispered to the two bullies, quickly crossing across the road while they followed.

 

As much as these punks deserved to be left behind, Frazie needed them to explain things and they needed her for guidance. So when she reached the fence, she dived into a roll, landing on her back and putting her feet up. “Hop on!”

 

Both the boys tilted their head at her. “Uh... hop on what?”

 

Right. Non-acrobats. “Jump on my legs and I’ll push you up like a springboard. Trust me, it’s easy. Unless you’re afraid of heights?”

 

“Sounds kinda dangerous...” Benny said, scratching his head.

 

“Any more dangerous than a buncha little weirdos punching you in the face with stamps?”

 

They couldn’t argue with that logic. “Me first!” Bobby snapped, shoving Benny aside as he crouched low and jumped. “Hup!”

 

True to her word, she caught him, giving him a second to balance before she reeled her legs in and kicked. “Aiiiiiieeeee!” Bobby screamed, flailing all the way up and over the fence.

 

It definitely wasn’t the quietest escape. Frazie tilted her head back enough to see some of the little goons perking up and coming to investigate. “Hurry up!” she hissed at Benny. He didn’t need to be told twice.

 

Once he’d been launched, she rolled forward and latched onto the fence, scaling it as easily as if it were a ladder. She rejoined them on the other side, landing gracefully with arms raised... as they pulled themselves out of the dumpster they’d landed in.

 

“You did that on purpose!” Bobby groaned, pulling a banana peel from his afro.

 

“You needed cushioning! So only, like, fifty percent on purpose.”

 

“Well I’m fifty percent gonna kick your butt!”

 

He waved a fist at her, and she laughed. “Oh, I’m shaking.” She crossed her arms, just waiting for him to make a move... and then yelped when a boot he’d telekinetically pulled from the trash sneakily hit her from behind. She rubbed her rear, fuming. “Ohhhh, you are asking for it, snaggletooth!”

 

“Uh, guys?” The two looked away from their incoming brawl to see Benny jerking a thumb over his shoulder, pointing out the censors getting dangerously close.

 

“Right, right, right,” both of them mumbled, calling a truce as they all sprinted down the alley.

 

Their side route led back out into the streets, and from there, they ducked under an arch and into a wide open park. Barely wooded, with a large pond and some flower patches, with nothing around but a few animal citizens walking their dogs. ...Frazie tried not to think about how that one worked.

 

“I think we can take a breather here,” she said, peering around. They still had no idea where they were going, and this was as good a place as any to fix that.

 

But before they could do anything about it, Frazie felt something nudging her leg. She glanced down to see a fuzzy little critter tugging at her stockings. “Squirrels?” A few of them, it seemed.

 

The regular critters in this world were extra adorable, the squirrels crawling forward on fuzzy paws, looking up with adorably puffy cheeks and big ol’ eyes. “Awwwww~...” Frazie knelt down to scratch one of their chins, the creature clucking appreciatively. “...Does anyone else hear ticking?”

 

BANG!

 

The squirrel promptly exploded into confetti and cartoony giblets under her fingertips. Frazie was left stunned, blinking through ash-smeared eyes.

 

“Why is everything always exploding?!” she screamed, quickly crawling backwards away from the remaining critters. Not a moment too soon, as they started detonating one by one. Coach and Dogen’s minds were not giving her good first impressions.

 

As if that wasn’t bad enough, she’d fallen on her butt facing the lake. Even though the water was oversaturated and unrealistic, a familiar hand slowly slithered up out of it and waggled its fingers hello.

 

Frazie groaned. “Great. You’re here too.”

 

“Who’s here?” Bobby asked.

 

“Uh... no one.”

 

“You’re nuts.” Right on cue, a few acorns from the detonated squirrels finally started raining down, thunking him on his noggin. “Ow! Ow!”

 

Frazie snickered, but neither got the chance to laugh at each other’s misfortune for long because as it turned out, things could get even worse. With all the commotion, more symbols started to appear in the air and angry little lawyer/cop hybrids burst forth.

 

“Uggggh...” Frazie picked herself off the ground and wiped her face off, the trio finding themselves surrounded in no time. “What’s the point of slipping by if they’re just gonna pop up in our face?!”

 

This time, there was nowhere to hide. The way forward was blocked, and there was only one way to get through.

 

By force.

 

The censors charged first, and the three campers were forced to defend themselves. Much like she’d sidestepped Benny before, they weren’t very hard to dodge. She hopped aside, backstepped, chuckled a little as the stumpy men slammed the ground with their stamps, dotting the grass in little red circles.

 

But they had numbers, determination, and most importantly, intelligence. While Frazie danced around a few of them, another snuck up from behind and slammed its stamp right into her back.

 

“GAH!” Who knew a bit of rubber could hurt that much? It was like the thing was charged with electricity, making her whole body jolt with pain, like it was trying to phase her out of existence. And technically, that was their goal.

 

Her body buzzed, and she gripped her arm to try and make it stop. Winded, but not out, she returned fire to the culprit with a psychic kick to the face. Then another to the censor by her side. It wasn’t too unlike fighting the cutouts in Coach’s mind, except now her targets were mobile and on the offensive.

 

At least this time, she wasn’t stuck using basic attacks. Thanks to Basic Braining, she could consistently empower her kicks and chops with waves of psychic energy. Her powers still weren’t as strong as the other two, but it didn’t take much to send censors flying. Bobby was living it up, jeering and insulting every little man he punched into oblivion. And Benny...

 

Well, Benny just kinda ran around in a panic, sometimes bowling over a baddie with his energy while trying to get away. It was pretty clear why Bobby was the leader of the duo.

 

They were many, but they were dealt with fast, never taking more than a few hits. Their numbers were waning, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t still a bunch of them. They all approached at once, stamps raised... and Frazie knew just how to take them down.

 

One of her common routines back at the circus was the Big ‘Top’, where she’d spin on her hands with legs extended, sometimes even letting her family stand on top of her heels to add a bit of style to their combined moves. Usually it drew in crowds, but here, it was going to clear one out.

 

Dashing forward, Frazie leaped and rolled, landing on her palms and twisting with the momentum. Like a propeller, she spun, her mentally enhanced legs whacking censors aside with the force of baseball bats. With each crack and cry, the little men flew backward and evaporated into puffs of smoke.

 

She spun and spun until she was certain there were no survivors. Flipping back up, Frazie stopped to catch her breath. “If someone had told me being a Psychonaut meant walking into minefields and getting jumped by lawyers, I don’t think I would’ve come.”

 

She wanted out of this park ASAP, before she had another run-in with the squirrels, the censors, or Galochio. Making sure the boys were uninjured, she guided them out the other side. As they left the park, though, she remembered they still didn’t know where they were going.

 

A quick glance upwards gave her an idea. “Wait here,” she told the two kids, running at the nearest lamppost. Once more her acrobatic prowess came in handy as she shimmied up it with ease.

 

Though, usually, poles don’t have eyes on top of them. “Do you mind?” the light spat at her.

 

“Yeep!” Before things could get any more awkward, Frazie leapt off onto a nearby fire escape - thankfully a bit less alive - and ran up it to the roof.

 

She could see it all from up here. With the rainbow of colors around, it was like she was sitting at the top of the world’s biggest paint palette. Even the clouds looked like someone had painted them up on the sky.

 

But the view was flawed. Because off in the distance, a plume of smoke rose up from somewhere out of sight.

 

“Bingo.”

 

A quick descent and an awkward apology to a lamppost later, Frazie rejoined the kids. “It’s not too far away. A little stroll through a couple buildings and we’re basically there. You two ready?”

 

“Are you?” Bobby snarked.

 

“Nope. Let’s do this.” This sunny, funny world had already put her nerves on edge, but how much could happen between here and the next several blocks?

 

She led them in a sprint, slowing down enough to keep up with their smaller legs. What looked like a long hotel was in the way, and she yanked open the door to let them through.

 

As they jogged through the lobby, though, something seemed off. “Where is everyone?” Frazie noted.

 

Outside, as it turned out. The trio were halfway across the building when a voice suddenly blurted over a megaphone from somewhere beyond the walls. “Alright, building is clear! We’re free to proceed with demolition!”

 

All three of their eyes jolted open in unison. “Wait!” Frazie shouted. “We’re still in-“

 

BOOM!

 

Their cries fell on deaf ears as the initial charges went off, making their ears deaf. In front and behind them, the exits were blocked off as rubble rained down on the doorways.

 

Coughing and sputtering, Frazie tried to think of a new plan while waving dust from her face. “We need to go up!” she ordered, dragging the two bullies towards the staircase.

 

By the time they hit floor two, the next wave of explosions were ready to go off. “IhatethisIhatethisIhatethis,” Frazie repeated like a mantra as chunks of floor cracked below them, doors flew past them, and the entire foundation threatened to collapse on them at any moment.

 

No luck on that floor, either. Frazie dragged them yet higher, her hopes falling lower. But as luck would have it, there was an open window at the far end of the hall...

 

...And another wave of explosions going off.

 

By now the building was on its last legs. Walls creaked and groaned around them as splinters flew and the floor threatened to fall out from under them. “Hold on!” she demanded, scooping the other two up despite their protests and booking it down the hall.

 

Figuring out how to land was a problem for later Frazie, because current Frazie wasn’t about to become a mental pile of ash. Ducking under falling support beams and leaping over pits, she hit the final stretch and launched the three of them out the frame with seconds to spare.

 

Safe. From blowing up, at least. Falling three stories was an entirely different matter.

 

“Ahhhhh...!” They probably didn’t deserve it, but Frazie held the two kids close, ready to take the brunt of the fall for them. She ignored her innate instincts and rolled to face up, ready to fall on her back for their sakes...

 

...Any second now. Annnny second.

 

When she finally dared open an eye, she spotted Benny holding a thought bubble, straining with the effort as they slowly descended. “G-good thing I’ve been working on my levitation. Ghhhh, you guys are heavy!”

 

“Ha!” Bobby laughed, partly with relief and partly because he was a jerk. “Hey, look, Dumbo really can fly!”

 

“Shut up!”

 

“Whoa.” Frazie wasn’t sure how she’d gone from terrified to impressed, but whatever Benny was doing was amazing. A trick like that could revolutionize their circus routines... and be a lifesaver for the rare occasion you end up leaping out of an exploding building. She had to remember that one.

 

“...Whoooooa!” It was a shortlived trick, though, especially given how heavy the load it was bearing was. After a few seconds, the bubble violently popped, sending them freefalling the rest of the way.

 

The good news: Their landing was softened.

 

The bad news: It was softened by mud.

 

They landed with a splatter. After a moment of stillness, Frazie peeled her head out of the muck, blinking dirt from her eyes. Over in the distance, a bunch of hardhat wearing hammers and bulldogs celebrated as the rest of the building caved in. None of them noticed the rude gesture Frazie sent them.

 

“Uggggh...” Bobby spit some out of his mouth like a fountain. While he tried to stand up, a creature that’d been playing in the muck before they’d arrived rubbed up on him. “Get off me, bozo!”

 

“...What is that?” Frazie asked. It was piglike, that checked out with where they found it, but it was green and metallic. When it turned enough for Frazie to get a good look at it, it looked like a... walking safe?

 

Bobby’s mouth twitched with disgust as he shook dirt off his shirt. “You really don’t know anything, do ya? I bet your mental world is empty!” He dropped a hand on the thing’s head and knocked a couple times. “It’s a memory vault. They hold onto people’s suppressed memories. And if you wanna get to them, you need a speeecial touch...”

 

Bobby leered ominously at the poor creature. The vault finally realized he was not, in fact, a fellow mud-dweller and quickly moved to escape, but it was too late. Bobby quickly chopped it straight on the head and it flopped over, its vault spitting out a bunch of photographs as its tongue lolled across the ground.

 

Frazie caught the pictures and arranged them while Bobby flexed, leaving Benny to pick himself up without help. Curious, she shuffled through them one by one.

 

---

 

A Visit with Grandpa

 

A younger Dogen’s pajama-padded feet treaded across the small bridge. The room they were in was almost as small, just a compact dome with just enough room for a circular path around a glass booth. It almost looked like a jail, with just enough accommodations inside it to live comfortably, but the person who was in it was there by choice.

 

He was flanked by his parents, two faceless folks whose arms bore the same greenish hue. Though they each held one of his hands, their stance was straight and serious.

 

A metal door separated them from the room’s occupant, and his mother knocked on it. After a few seconds, a slot in the steel slid open to reveal a pair of skittish eyes hopping between them, their owner sighing wearily.

 

“Three... I told them no more than one at a time...” the small man groaned. “Though I suppose a visit from family is always a delight. What’s the occasion, mm?”

 

“Good evening, Compton,” Dogen’s mother greeted. “We’re here because Dogen had an... accident.”

 

“Yeegads, why on Earth are you telling me this?!”

 

“Because it was the kind of accident that makes the neighbor’s cat ‘disappear’.”

 

“...Oh,” the small man murmured quietly. “I see. I was hoping I’d never have to have this talk, but if things ever went my way, I wouldn’t need to be in this Psychoisolation Chamber...”

 

Dogen didn’t understand, his young mind at a loss. “I dun geddit,” he said, trying to look up into the peephole. “I thought bein’ psychic was a gift?”

 

Compton’s eyes brimmed with sadness as he shook his head down at him. “No, no, boy, not for people at my... our, level. Being a psychic is a gift, yes... in moderation,” he cautioned. “But for us... forever buried under the buzz of mouthless voices... where just one stray thought can make your friends and family disappear. Yes, just one! This kind of power is to be feared, Dogen. It’s a huge responsibility... one you’ll need to handle whether you like it or not.”

 

Dogen was shaking. He didn’t fully understand, but his grandpa made it all sound extremely dangerous. Just one wrong thought could have horrible consequences. One thing stuck out to him: Be afraid.

 

After a moment of thought, Compton peered out at them again. “...Tinfoil. Yes, tinfoil should work. Attach it firmly! Cut enough to circle his dome, and that should reduce it to manageable levels for the time being. He’ll likely need an upgrade when he’s older,” the man instructed, reaching up to tap his shiny metal bowler for emphasis. “...I wish I’d known all this when I was younger.”

 

Dogen’s parents conversed amongst each other briefly. “Sam wasn’t anything like this,” his father pointed out.

 

“Yes, well, I suppose that’s the luck of the draw... or the misfortune, rather.”

 

Each parent gave Dogen’s hand a squeeze, but his trembling didn’t stifle much. “Thanks for the tip. We’ll get him some right away.”

 

“You’re very welcome,” Compton said as he started sliding the panel shut. “Now please, stay away... or come one at a time in the future.”

 

---

 

The smaller campers were looking at the memories behind Frazie’s back, her brow furrowed as she delved into Dogen’s past. “Poor kid...” she mumbled, heart heavy.

 

Bobby was a bit less morose. “Ha! Dorken had an accident!”

 

“...Did you stop paying attention after the first five seconds?” Frazie asked, shooting him a look.

 

“Yeah, pretty much.”

 

“I should’ve guessed the only thing smaller than your brain was your attention span,” Frazie sighed, throwing the photos back into the vault. “We’ve wasted enough time. We’re almost there!”

 

Dusting themselves off, they broke into a sprint, following the scent of smoke on the air. Around a couple more corners and there it was... the inferno.

 

A wide apartment building simmered and cracked as flames leapt behind its windows. The firemen - a bunch of Dalmatians - were already there, but even though they assaulted it with hoses and buckets, they weren’t making a dent.

 

All the residents were still trapped inside, flailing and calling out. Frazie squinted to get a closer look and saw...

 

...Herself?

 

All the ‘occupants’ were just poorly drawn cardboard cut-outs of all the Whispering Rock campers. Though they cried for help and wiggled, their limbs didn’t move, each one just leaning out the window like someone had propped them on the ledge.

 

Frazie ran a hand down her face. “Are you for real? Do we really need to save them? They’re made of wood.”

 

“How could you talk about innocent civilians like that?!” a passing firedog barked at her with a stern look. “Ma’am, this is a highly dangerous situation! If you’re not here to help evacuate the building, you need to leave.”

 

She exchanged looks with Bobby and Benny. They shrugged. “Well, you heard them... let’s get to work.”

 

For a crowd of firefighters, the task was risky. For a trio of psychics with telekinetic powers, pulling people from their apartments was a breeze. Especially for Frazie, whose prior experience had her yanking cut-outs down at twice the speed.

 

Each ‘civilian’ was lifted up by ethereal hands and pulled down one by one. The campers were soon joined by drawings of Sasha, Lili, Milla, and even themselves as they cleared the building. Benny stood beside his own cutout and grumbled, its cardboard ears twice as big as its head. “As if I really look like this.”

 

“Yeah... yours are bigger!” Bobby taunted, laughing. “Gottem!”

 

Frazie rolled her eyes as she pulled the last person out, a standee of Oleander that promptly flopped forward as soon as it was on the ground.

 

Once the building was clear, one of the Dalmatians shouted above the crackling blaze. “The building’s clear! No more holding back! Turn the hoses up to max, give it everything we’ve got!”

 

Torrents of water flew from all directions while the ground forces passed buckets along in a steady formation. What started as a raging inferno dimmed to a blaze, then dimmed to cinders and finally went out with a deep sigh of smoke.

 

Cheers went up all around from the dogs and the cardboard. Even the three psychics couldn’t help but get in on it, proud of a (strange) job well done.

 

The celebration didn’t last long, though. As the celebration was dying down, the firetruck’s radio crackled loud enough for all to hear.

 

“Danger!” it blared, voice crackling. “The fire’s out, but there’s a bomb in the building! I repeat! Bomb, in, the building!”

 

Silence.

 

Then, everyone lost their minds. The cut-outs all tried wobbling away while the firefighters ditched their trucks and ran for it, no one concerned with saving the building anymore.

 

Soon, it was just the three campers left. They would’ve ran, too, but Frazie had halted them. Something didn’t sit right with her. She slowly crept up to one of the windows and peered in, finally able to see inside without all the smog and flames.

 

Inside the apartments wasn’t a room, but a dark void.

 

And a path.

 

Now that was worth investigating. “You two stay here,” Frazie ordered, climbing inside. The road was thick and seemed to be made of rope. She nudged it with her toe before following it. “I’m going to check this out.”

 

The coil of rope was big, but not very long. After a brief little walk, she reached the other end, where the path seemed to connect to a large black mound. Curious, Frazie hiked up it, peering around. Nothing. She glanced back to the window and looked up the path.

 

Her eyes went wide. There was a wall of fire blazing at the end of it, steadily growing closer.

 

Now, that alone was concerning. But then Frazie started to piece things together as she looked down at the mass...

 

Big, black sphere. Rope at the top. The rope was lit.

 

She was standing on a giant cartoon bomb.

 

“Crap!” The way back was blocked by the oncoming fuse’s flame, but the boys were still close enough to hear. “Fill up some buckets and put this thing out, now!” she called through cupped hands.

 

The boys might be jerks, but this scenario was too insane for even them to fool around. They jumped to it, using the abandoned trucks and hydrants to fill up some pails and started telekinetically dumping them onto the fuse.

 

It took some work, but the sparks soon started to hiss, finally simmering down to nothing. Frazie let out the deepest sigh of relief she’d ever had, wiping her brow. “I am so done with this.” With the situation handled, she finally let herself relax. “Do you think that’s enough to-“

 

The fuse sparked back to life.

 

“What!?” Frazie shook a fist at the rope, furious. “You can’t do that!”

 

But it could. It did. And it did it for a reason.

 

The flames had slowed, but they still burned brightly, brighter, brighter, growing until they outright spat a chunk of fire over onto the bomb.

 

Frazie jumped back, confused... and then that fire started to stand up.

 

The small clump of flames grew and grew until it’d formed a sort of humanoid giant, its whole body ablaze and its hair a simple wisp of flame. Its face was carved out of fire, its eyes and mouth glowing orange as it grinned at a frightened Frazie. “Well, well, well, lookey what we have here!”

 

Her legs felt weak. Whatever this thing was, it was three times her size. Swallowing her nerves, she dared voice what was on her mind. “W-who are you?”

 

“Who am I?” The elemental cackled. “Who am I?! I’m every niggling little doubt the runt’s had in da back of his head, eeeevery little jolt of panic he has when he thinks a bit too hard! I’m da boss around here that keeps him on his toes, and I’m tired of being restrained!”

 

Reeling back, the monster roared high to the sky, the fuse once more progressing down the path as its body burned bright. The void seemed to shake as it shouted to the sky.

 

“I...

 

am...

 

Bonfear!”

 

Frazie gulped. She had a hunch this guy was going to be just a liiiiittle harder to take down than the censors had been.

Frazie sat in the shade of one of the camp’s many trees, the Psy Portal resting in her hands. She turned it over and over, inspecting it.

 

It felt like something far too important for the counselors to just ‘forget’, especially with its failsafes down. Then again, almost getting your brain popped had a way of making things slip your mind.

 

Whatever the case, Frazie wasn’t about to go up to them and ask what the deal was. She didn’t plan on going jumping into kids’ heads willy-nilly, but this still felt like something worth keeping around. It might come in handy if another emergency sprung up, and turning it in wouldn’t do anything but net her good girl points.

 

Hey, it was a risk. But taking risks was just what acrobats did.

 

What next, though? The campers had dispersed again now that the situation was clear. The cheery campers were up on the lodge roof now, whispering amongst themselves. Frazie could’ve swore she caught a glimpse of a shy girl eying the boy in the sailor hat before vanishing as he passed by. Some kid in an astronaut helmet was dashing off into the trees carrying a bunch of weird gadgets in her arms.

 

Maybe she could go find Lili. She felt kind of bad having to leave the girl behind when she’d clearly wanted to come along, even if she had no choice. Frazie could tell her all about her adventure - Lili seemed like the kinda gal who’d love to hear how she beat fire to a pulp.

 

But before she could get up and go searching, fate had something else in store for her.

 

From behind her, specifically.

 

“Hey.”

 

Frazie jumped, quickly trying to sandwich the Psy Portal between her hands in case it was a counselor. Instead, one of the kids had snuck up on her, a green girl with thick headphones wrapped tight around her ears. Frazie recalled she was one of the two campers that’d been jamming out with drums onstage during breakfast.

 

“Uhhhhh... hey,” Frazie replied with a forced smile. “You didn’t see a door just now. It waaaaaas... a really flat pinecone.”

 

The girl just laughed. “Relax, relaaaax, I’m not gonna tell anyone.” She offered Frazie a hand. “Name’s Phoebe. Phoebe Love.”

 

Phew. Frazie accepted the handshake with her free hand. “And I’m... well, you probably already know after the campfire thing and dealing with Dogen and yadda yadda...”

 

“Yeah, I think the whole camp knows your name by now. That big mess just minutes ago is actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Phoebe said when she took her hand back. “Quentin and I, we’ve been talking about blowing minds with our music. We just didn’t expect someone to try and blow ours, first. Hoo...” She rubbed her head, right behind her earphones. “You’re a lifesaver!”

 

Frazie couldn’t help but grin, but simply shrugged. “You don’t gotta thank me. What else was I going to do? Let everyone explode?”

 

“Don’t downplay it, girl,” Phoebe replied. “We all owe you one. Which is why I’m here.”

 

Frazie’s brow furrowed. “Huh?”

 

“I saw you getting a little hotheaded while practicing pyrokinesis earlier.”

 

The older girl’s cheeks reddened shamefully. “If you say you owe me, any chance you can just forget that ever happened?”

 

“I can do you one better.” Phoebe jerked a thumb at herself. “How would you like to be taught by a pyrokinetic pro?”

 

Frazie looked a bit doubtful - she didn’t think any of the kids here could really call themselves pros. Phoebe caught her glance and cleared her throat. “Well, I have a bad flare up now and then, but I’m still the best firestarter in camp. That’s even gonna be the name of our band!” Wherever he was, Quentin suddenly had a huge urge to scream about the Levitators.

 

Speaking of screaming, this just shrieked bad idea. Frazie didn’t doubt Phoebe had skill, but would that really make her that much different from Lili? Frazie pulled her ponytail around front and stroked it, not ready to risk losing it again so soon. “I doooon’t think that’s a good idea.”

 

“Relaaaaaaax,” Phoebe soothed with her hands. “I know a place I can teach you where both of us will be safe.”

 

“What’d you have in mind?” Frazie asked, skeptical.

 

With a smirk, Phoebe simply tapped the middle of her forehead.

 

Frazie blinked, then glanced down at the Psy Portal still clasped in her grip. “You mean...?”

 

“I mean literally in mind. Think about it... something burns up in the mental world, who cares? It’s not foolproof, but it’s a heckuva lot safer than training out here.”

 

Phoebe had a point. Frazie recalled how Bonfear’s blaze had scorched her but she was a-okay back in reality. A safe psychic training ground with a sorta-pro... it was a good deal. And Frazie did need something to work on.

 

Well, it wasn’t an emergency... but it was a pretty smart use for the portal. She’d go find Lili first thing after the lesson and show off her pyrokinetic progress. “Alright, sounds like a plan... but if anything starts exploding, I’m leaving.”

 

Phoebe tilted her head. “Huh?”

 

“Never mind.” Frazie held up the door between two fingers, brow raised. “You sure about this?”

 

“Totally. Slap it on me, sister.”

 

With a nod, Frazie reached out and stuck it to Phoebe’s forehead. The now-familiar sight of the door clicking open and pouring white light played out. Phoebe shut her eyes and took a breath. “Come on in... and wipe your feet, first.”

 

With a quick scrape of her heels, Frazie stood up and concentrated. She fell into a trance of her own as she once more felt her consciousness soar through the aether and into the frame.

 

Now entering:

Phoebe’s Fire Mix Tape

 

---

 

As Frazie descended to the ground, a gust of warm air blew over her. When she landed, she could see she was in a strange little canyon - the sky was dark and the area around her was rocky, a few glowing cracks in the ground spitting soft puffs of steam.

 

She had no idea where she was, but it was already an improvement. “No dark rooms. Nothing blowing up in my face. Off to a good start.”

 

Before she could set off to find Phoebe, Phoebe found her first. The girl popped out from behind an arch up ahead, waving. “Yo! You made it.”

 

“Come on, you really think I’d somehow get lost in the five second entry?” Frazie put a hand on her hip, gesturing around. “Not gonna lie, I didn’t expect a place so... volcanic.” At least it was just pleasantly warm and not actually an oven.

 

“Oooooh, this is just the entryway.” Phoebe beckoned her guest ahead. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

 

Frazie hummed curiously, following the kid through the rocky gate... and gasping when she saw what lay beyond.

 

Spotlights and neon signs. Purple walls and smooth brick. A dance club sat amidst the stone, looking out of place as heck and yet fitting completely naturally all the same. Outside, a line of living instruments hopped down the red carpet, a tough looking conga drum serving as the bouncer. Phoebe boldly walked up to it, and it bowed before her. “Welcome back to the club, miss.”

 

Shooting him with a finger gun, Phoebe walked by to undo the velvet rope blocking the way. “Welcome to the hottest place around!” she called to Frazie. “And here, we’re the VIPs.”

 

Frazie still had her mouth open in awe, taking it all in. She’d never really seen anything so bright and urban, her family usually sticking to the rural areas and the nearby forests even when they got close to town. She’d followed her parents into the city now and then, but she’d never seen anything from the nightlife. Still, she knew enough to know kids typically didn’t go to dance clubs, let alone own them. “Aren’t you too young to be in a place like this?”

 

“Girl, I run this place. I can do whatever I want! Now come on, let me show you around.”

 

...Well, Frazie wasn’t going to argue with that logic. She shot the bouncer a cautious glance as she followed Phoebe inside.

 

The club was hopping, even if everyone was a flute or a tuba or a cello. Phoebe swiped a glass of brown liquid off a passing trumpet waiter’s plate, the tool hardly noticing as it tried to balance more drinks on its handle. “Come on, have some!” she insisted, offering it up to Frazie.

 

Frazie wrinkled her nose. She may not have been an adult yet, but she was still supposed to be the responsible one. “C’mon, Phoebe, this is out of li-... glp!”

 

Phoebe had just rolled her eyes and telekinetically shoved the glass to her lips. Frazie took a sip and smacked her lips. “Mmm... is that soda?”

 

“Duh.” Phoebe handed her the cup of pop to let her keep sipping complacently while she guided them around full tables and various instruments. Up front, a dance floor was bustling with all sorts of musical guests hopping to the tunes. Onstage, a bunch of instruments played themselves, a smooth and steady groove keeping the club pumping.

 

Phoebe walked Frazie out into the middle of the dance floor and took her empty glass from her. “Wait here,” she instructed, slipping back into the crowd. Off the floor and off to the side, she dropped the glass onto a random table before climbing up the short staircase to the stage. “Heeeeey, fellas! Music got you fired up tonight?”

 

The instruments roared and bleated with approval, a cacophony of sound all around Frazie. Seemed Phoebe was a big deal around here... which was kinda a no-brainer, it being her own mind. “Well it’s about to get hotter! If you guys don’t mind?” she asked the band.

 

They didn’t mind one bit. They evacuated immediately, the drum even handing off its own sticks to her. “Cool, cool...” Phoebe stepped up to the center and held her arms high, a stick in each one.

 

Before the crowd’s (lack of) eyes, a drum set materialized in front of her, a non-living one by the looks of it. She thumped out a quick beat on it and the crowd went wild. “We’ve got a special event tonight! We’ll get this party started right... if you could all do me a favor and make way for the guest of honor.”

 

All around Frazie, instruments backed away, leaving a big gap in the crowd with her in the center of it. Feeling a bit self-conscious, she glanced around, waving a little. “Uh... hey. Nice strings you got there. Love your brass.”

 

After a few more drum hits, Phoebe pointed a stick out towards her. “Here’s how it’s gonna go down. I’ll play, and notes will fly. You’re gonna burn those suckers to the ground. Take it slow. Relax. Rushing it when you’re starting out is just gonna cause a flare up. Feel that fire in your soul, and push it out through your hands. Harness the burn in your brain!”

 

She spun the sticks in her grip and slammed them down on the cymbals. As if by magic, the sharp crashes materialized in the form of clefs and quavers, shiny glowing notes floating up over the dance floor.

 

Impressed, Frazie took up a stance. “Alright. Here goes nothing...!” Concentrating extra hard, she jabbed her fingers into both sides of her forehead and tried to gather the warm thoughts from her mind. Like last time, she felt that heat simmer to a dangerously high level. Thankfully, a drum splashed a glass of water over her head. “Agh! This isn’t going to be a thing, is it?”

 

“If it has to be,” Phoebe called.

 

Groaning, Frazie shook her hair dry and tried again. Eager to not get soaked, she tried to take it down a notch. She felt the warmth build to the brim again and refused to let it go any higher. Instead, she directed that heat into her fingers and felt the tips of them singe. Up above, the closest note seemed to shudder and smoke as the mental energy condensed around it.

 

Fwoosh! The tip of it lit up and started to spread. A weak start, but a start. Frazie let out a cheer as the symbol burned out of existence.

 

“Not bad!” Phoebe praised as the crowd hollered and whooped. “But we’re just getting started. When you can roast every note in a number, then we’re cooking!”

 

Phoebe played again, a bit faster, conjuring up more targets. A couple saxophones joined in on her sides, pumping up the volume and the flow of targets at the same time. Now that Frazie had done it once, redirecting her energy was a lot easier. Her burns started weak and slow, but with the audience’s support and all the time she needed, she was getting the hang of it.

 

Soon, notes combusted entirely one after another. It was hard keeping up, but by now lighting them up was becoming child’s play. The crowd went wild, spurring her on, and Frazie really started feeling the beat.

 

“Aw yeah!” She spun, pointing up at another symbol that immediately turned to ash. “I’m getting the hang of it! I should get a support drummer for all my exercises.”

 

Phoebe laughed, pounding out a few more notes. “Now you’re getting it! But maaaaybe cut it back a notch,” she cautioned. “You don’t want to overdo it.”

 

“I can handle it! See, watch...”

 

With each jab of her finger, another target lit up. Another, another, another - she was on a roll. Phoebe had slowed her playing to try and get her to chill a little, but that just made Frazie pour more energy into the few notes that were there.

 

One of them floated high up, suddenly combusting into her tallest flame yet. Before the fire could die out, though, it tickled some of the wiring flooding the club with light...

 

And jumped to them.

 

Both the music and Frazie stopped instantly as flames crackled to life and starting traveling both ways along the powerlines. Phoebe’s face grew taut as she pointed a stick right up at it. “Stop it! Put it out, now!

 

The dance floor became a chaotic crescendo as instruments hopped around, grabbing glasses and throwing their contents up at the ceiling. One even tried ripping the sink out and throwing that. But with the fire out of reach and spreading in multiple directions, it was a lost cause.

 

The fire spread to the lights, making them pop and spark... and those sparks just started up some smaller blazes on the floor. Phoebe yelped as a spotlight starting shaking loose up above and jumped out of the way as it crashed down to the stage, which immediately ignited. “It’s no good! Everyone, run!”

 

Instruments stampeded for the exit, Phoebe and Frazie panting as they chased after. All the while, the flames chased after, spreading like wildfire with the naturally warm environment aiding it on.

 

Outside, the crowd reconverged, a worried hubbub filling the air as they all watched the club become consumed. Crackling and crashing echoed all about as the building slowly caved in on itself, falling apart bit by bit with a groan.

 

Pulse racing and heart sinking, Frazie drummed her fingers together sheepishly. “Well... like you said... if something burns up in the mental world, who cares, right?”

 

Normally, that’d be right. But Phoebe just held a hand up to her head, looking worried. “Something’s wrong.”

 

“Huh? What do you mea-“ Before she could finish, Frazie felt a sudden push as Phoebe forcibly ejected her flailing from her mind. “Whoooooooa...!”

 

---

 

Frazie’s eyes snapped open. Before she could properly refocus, Phoebe was already running away towards the main lodge.

 

“Wait!” Frazie chased after, throwing the doors open long after Phoebe had already done the same. The hall was empty aside from Chef Ford doing his usual thing of the moment... and Phoebe, who’d immediately jumped onstage to her real drum set.

 

She grabbed her sticks and started to play...

 

CRASH bang boom bop bang bang CRAAAAAASH boop boop BANG

 

Frazie covered her ears. It was a mess - not a thing like how she’d played before. Behind her drums, Phoebe let out an exasperated cry, slamming her head onto the drum with a loud thump. “I can’t do it! My rhythm... it’s gone!”

 

Uh oh.

 

“What the heck?!” Frazie called, running up onstage to shake her shoulder. “You said it’s fine if something burns down in your brain!”

 

“Well I’ve never heard of someone destroying so much at once!” Phoebe moaned. “Toast a censor, fine! Burn some bushes or cobwebs, fine! Burn down the main focus of the brain... clearly not fine!”

 

Phoebe hung her head in her hands, on the verge of despair. “What the heck, Frazie? How could you save my life just to ruin it afterwards?”

 

“I-it’s not like I planned to!” she protested. Oooooh, this was bad. Somehow, she’d completely wiped Phoebe’s talent away... and that was already bad enough without considering that Phoebe was just trying to help her. Frazie bit her lip, brain racing a mile a minute clamoring for solutions. “...I’m gonna fix this.”

 

Phoebe looked up at her in disbelief, her eyes brimming with tears. “Now how the heck are you gonna do that?”

 

“I have no idea.” Frazie pulled out the Psy Portal again, shaking it. “But things can’t get any worse. Right?”

 

“Yes, yes they freakin’ can!”

 

Frazie winced. “Look... I know I messed up. But if there’s any chance at all of undoing this... I’m going to need to go back inside.”

 

Phoebe sniffed, then hung her head again. “Whatever. Just... just be careful.”

 

“I promise.” Carefully, Frazie gently pressed the door to the side of her head and jumped back in the second it was open. Reality slipped away, the last sound she heard being a choked sob.

 

Now entering:

Phoebe’s Frosty Funk

 

---

 

The first thing Frazie felt when she returned:

 

Cold.

 

When her feet hit the ground, they landed in snow. It was that segment of Coach’s brain all over again... but worse. Wild winds whipped around her, the snow pushing up to her ankles and flakes stinging her eyes. She hugged herself tight and shivered, teeth chattering. “W-what’s g-g-going on...?!”

 

She’d be an ice cube in no time if she didn’t do something. “W-warm thoughts, w-warm t-thoughts...” she repeated to herself, desperately rubbing her arms. The heat welled up inside her again, and this time, she clung onto it, keeping it at a safe level, urging it to pour throughout her whole body.

 

After a few moments, her shaking died down. She was still chilly, but her internal heat was protecting her. She finally unfurled, letting out a sigh. Well, that was one problem down...

 

...But what the heck was she going to do now? She couldn’t see a thing in this blizzard. Nothing except... a light, barely visible in the storm.

 

With nowhere else to go, Frazie kept the heat flowing as she stomped through the snow, pushing against the wind and following the glow in the distance.

 

Until she tripped on something, landing face first in the slush. Growling, she flipped around to look at what’d hit her foot.

 

Her stomach fell. A trumpet, frozen solid with a plate and some glasses stuck with it.

 

“...Sorry,” Frazie mumbled meekly, rising to her feet again and trudging towards the light once more. Watching her footing this time, she finally arrived safely.

 

The glow belonged to a small campfire, flanked by a couple frost-covered logs. On one of them sat Phoebe, the poor girl shivering and stuttering as she huddled under a blanket and leaned close to the flames.

 

“Phoebe!” Frazie ran up to her and threw her arms around her shoulders. “What happened here?! I left for like five minutes!”

 

Focusing intently on the fire, Phoebe’s teeth chattered as she responded. “E-ever have a tune suddenly pop in your head and refuse to leave? Get a headache for no reason, or f-forget something on the tip of your tongue? Things can happen quickly in your head... like one second you have a club, and the next, s-someone burns it down.”

 

Ouch. They were in a snowstorm and somehow that jab was colder than the freezing winds raging around them. Frazie glanced away, then looked back with a fiery determination in her eyes. “I could apologize again and again... but that’s not gonna do anything. So tell me, do you have any idea how I can fix this?”

 

Phoebe shook her head. “N-not a clue. Except...” She turned her head around long enough to glance off into the distance. There, a few more specks of light spread out into the distance, a line of torches lighting the way through the storm. “I t-think there’s a path over there. It’s as good a place to start as any...”

 

Nodding, Frazie tugged the blanket closer around the girl and stood up. “Think warm thoughts, Phoebe. I’ll be back.”

 

Frazie was reluctant to leave her alone in the cold dark, but she didn’t have a choice. Shielding her eyes against the storm, she trudged off into the distance, the crunch of her steps following her as she left stark footprints in her wake.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

 

Alone in the blizzard, only the sound of Frazie’s footsteps kept her company. That as well as the occasional chill that rocked her body, but her repurposed pyrokinetics were doing a good job keeping her going.

 

Where was she going, though? The trail of torches marked no clear path, only forming a loose route through endless piles of snow. Part of her wondered if she was wasting her time, but there had to be a reason these markers were here.

 

And there was. It took a bit of walking, but finally, the storm seemed to ease up a bit as a new area appeared before her. With the break from snow blindness, Frazie could make out a deep gorge in the ground. Roughly rectangular in shape, its walls were a cool blue where the snow didn’t cover it. Inside it sat a bunch of shapes, but they were too far away to make out. A natural ramp off to the side led down into the pit, and Frazie supposed that was as good an indication as any she was meant to go down there.

 

Carefully, she trodded down the slope, making sure not to slip on any ice. Even being an acrobat wouldn’t save her if she tumbled all the way down. At the bottom, everything looked clearer, and the things she saw were puzzling.

 

Piles of snow and rocks formed huge objects, almost like nature had somehow carved them itself. Teddy bears and blocks. Rattles and bottles. Pillars lined the edges of the ravine in an equally spread pattern, leaving thin gaps between each one.

 

It almost looked like... a giant crib?

 

And at the far end of it, carved in even more detail than the rest, was a giant xylophone. Curious, Frazie started to make the trek across the canyon to inspect it.

 

What if I can never play again?

 

She froze - in movement, not literally. Her eyes flicked back and forth, but there was nothing around but these statues. Where had that thought come from? It wasn’t hers.

 

Am I really a musician if I can lose my spark so easily?

 

Was I ever really good to begin with?

 

Frazie kept looking around until she peeked down and stuck out her tongue. Some sort of gross purple goop was clinging to her feet, bogging her down.

 

“Ew, ew, ew,” she repeated, shaking it off and sidestepping out of it. “I wiped my feet before entering, this one wasn’t me!”

 

She hadn’t expected a response to her protests, but before her eyes, the puddle she’d stepped in started to bubble and squelch.

 

Not only was it not her mess... it was alive.

 

Frazie backed away as the slime rose up into a mound and metamorphized before her eyes. Tiny hands clawed out of the muck, and above them, it split into glowing orange eyes and a gaping mouth.

 

She gagged. This creature was not only revolting, just looking at it made her feel uneasy. The stray thoughts had ceased, but whatever it was, it was responsible for them. And it was slowly coming her way.

 

There was no one to instruct her this time. She didn’t want to get close to it, but psi-attacks had been her bread and butter so far. So, standing as far away as she could, she kicked her foot out and watched as her energy slammed into its face.

 

When she pulled it back, she’d left an imprint in the goo. And yet, the creature barely seemed phased from the impact, continuing to waddle after her while the mark faded away.

 

She backed up again, but it suddenly dashed towards her when it got close, its cavernous maw opened wide. Acting fast, Frazie leapt over it as it missed and faceplanted into the ground. It was back up in no time, already pursuing her again.

 

“Eugh. You look like something that’d grow on Dion’s old socks...” Shoving that image from her mind, Frazie focused it on something else. She had no idea how it’d react, but she redirected her internal heat into her palms and focused that building warmth on her foe.

 

The creature lit up like kindling. She was surprised just how flammable it was, the creature howling and stomping around, completely aimless as the fire consumed it. In no time at all, it started to melt, its disgusting slime disappearing into the snow.

 

“Phew.” Frazie wiped her brow, ready to continue her task. She turned...

 

...Just in time to see a whole bunch more of those puddles starting to rise up out of the ground. As if that wasn’t bad enough, some familiar red portals popped out of thin air, spewing tiny men with thick wool hats and very painful stampers.

 

“Come on!” Getting a head start before they grouped up and attacked, Frazie dashed through them, leapfrogging an unsuspecting censor and sending it tumbling into a snow pile. “I’m trying to fix things, here! I’m on your side!”

 

“No!”

 

“Who asked you?!” Great. These stupid things had no way of telling if an intruder was helpful or not. She made good ground while the enemies made their entrances, ahead of the pack and dashing for the xylophone as they chased after.

 

She turned around and kept sending out waves of heat as she moved backwards, aiming for the slimes first. If a censor got too close, though, she found they were just as susceptible to spontaneous combustion. Pyrokinetic training may have been a disaster, but she had to admit, it was great for saving her bacon.

 

Finally making it to the giant stone instrument, she hopped, pulling herself up. Even though the tool was made of rock, it still made a musical tink when she stepped on it. It might’ve been kinda fun to stomp around on top... if she wasn’t under attack.

 

But she had the high ground now. The sludges couldn’t climb at all, and were sitting ducks under her heated gaze. The censors were surprisingly good at climbing and leaping with their stubby legs, but a quick chop would send them flying back off the xylophone.

 

Using her advantage to the fullest, she managed to disperse with the crowd without any real trouble. Before long, the final censor let out a pitiful ‘no’ as she dusted off her hands. “Pains in the neck. Or head, I guess...” she mumbled, ready to check out the instrument.

 

It was a flat kid’s xylophone to be exact, with thin sticks set off to the side that were still three times her size. Little stone screws were set into both sides of each bar, and Frazie walked along them, eying them closely.

 

When she got to the end, she stopped. One of the final pegs wasn’t a peg at all.

 

It was a CD?

 

Frazie stooped down to pick it up, the disc shiny and cold in her hand. Wiping the snow off it, she could see it was still in pretty good condition despite being out here in the middle of nowhere.

 

She didn’t expect to find any record players out here, but she had a hunch whatever this thing was might help Phoebe out. She just had to get back to her. Frazie wasn’t looking forward to the trek back, but at least she’d made progress. Probably.

 

Preparing to head off, she lowered herself off the xylophone... and paused.

 

Off to the side, there was a cave she was pretty sure hadn’t been there a few seconds ago.

 

...Well, checking it out beat returning to the snowstorm. Maybe there was something useful inside? Keeping the CD help securely in her hands, she stepped into the hole and out of the snow.

 

As she departed, she didn’t notice the hulking figure watching her from up on the cliff.

 

---

 

“WhoawhoawhoaWHOAWHOA!”

 

The cave had gone on for a bit, eventually tapering into a floor of sheer ice. Frazie had tried to cross it, only to find the path became a downhill slope that sent her slip-sliding on her feet.

 

It was a testament to her balancing skills that she managed to remain upright even as she zoomed downhill. An exit was gleaming up ahead, and she let out a yelp as the ramp launched her right out of it.

 

“Hup!” Adjusting herself, she landed feet first with arms outstretched, the disc safe in one hand. Nailed it.

 

And not only did she nail it, the tunnel had led her back to Phoebe’s camp.

 

The kid glanced up briefly, but still looked too cold and gloomy to appreciate the trick. Mouth quirking with concern, Frazie trudged up to her, holding out the CD. “Does this mean anything to you?”

 

Phoebe opened up her blanket cocoon wide enough to take the recording in her hands. And when it brushed her fingers... it started to play.

 

Frazie whipped her head around as music surrounded them, echoing from nowhere. The air was filled with tinking and clinking as a bunch of random xylophone notes played, filling the area with light and indistinct sound. It didn’t seem very important to Frazie, but for some reason, Phoebe couldn’t stop smiling.

 

“I remember...” she mumbled. “My parents got me this little old thing to p-play with when I was a baby. Of course it didn’t mean anything to me then, but I guess that was my first taste of m-making music. And it tasted pretty good.”

 

Frazie chuckled, crossing her arms. “Like ham and eggs?”

 

“Yeah. O-or milkshakes and ice cream.”

 

“Shouldn’t you be thinking of something warmer?”

 

The music continued to play as the two girls giggled a little. But when Frazie opened her eyes again... a miracle was happening.

 

The snow around the campfire was melting. As if the heat decided to start working again, the piles of slush disintegrated until the rocky ground of Phoebe’s old mind reappeared.

 

It didn’t go very far - the phenomenon only took place in a wide radius around the camp. The rest of her mind was still a tundra, though oddly enough the falling snow refused to settle on the newly warmed land. It wasn’t much, but it was a sign they were on the right track.

 

Phoebe stopped shivering. Letting out a relieved sigh, she let her blanket fall away, kicking back on her log as she warmed up. “Whoa... I guess my playing was hot even back then.”

 

“Or something like that.” Now knowing what to do, Frazie gestured to her to stay put. “You wait here, I’m going to go find more of those!”

 

“How about you start there?” Phoebe pointed across from her, where a new path of torches had appeared in the snow.

 

Frazie nodded, setting out for it. “Thanks for the tip. Be back ASAP!” Right as she reached the edge of the clearing, she paused, remembering something. “Hey... do you know anything about purple goop monsters?” she called back.

 

Phoebe seemed a bit surprised, then stared back into the fire again. “They’re called Doubts.”

 

So that was what she’d been hearing. Frazie nodded. “I’ll destroy any I see.” With that, she spun on her heel and ventured back out into the whipping winds.

 

She wasn’t looking forward to returning to the blizzard, but now that she had a goal, the next trip wasn’t nearly as bad.

 

---

 

Like before, the raging storm opened up after a trudge through the snow. This time the path had led her upwards, into the peaks, and though the snowfall made looking back impossible, she coulda swore she could make out the dim glow of Phoebe’s campfire from up in the mountains.

 

But what was in front of her was far more important than what was behind. Up ahead, at the crest of the hill, sat some old ruins. Massive icicles hung from the arches, cold stone forming a large box except where wear and tear had taken chunks of rock out.

 

Try as she might, Frazie couldn’t see an entrance, and all the footholds around the building were too slippery for her acrobatic prowess to take her to the roof. Giving the icy stalagmites up front a stern look, she wrapped her arms around them and tugged.

 

Not even an inch. The cold here was powerful... but so was her new power.

 

A heated glare and a tap to the forehead later, the obstacle lay in a puddle at her feet, revealing a double doorway beyond. Smirking proudly to herself, Frazie shoved them open and stepped inside.

 

It was eerily empty indoors. Not a single soul and not a single sound except for the distant howl of the wind outdoors. Shivering (and not just from the cold), Frazie started to make her way around. “Hello? Anyone here?”

 

No response. She passed by rows of tall stones - lockers, by the look of them. They wouldn’t open when she tugged, though, mentally or not, and pyrokinesis wouldn’t help her here. For awhile, she was left wandering in the dark, where the only light came from the occasional cracks and holes in the ceiling.

 

None of the rooms stood out to her, just shadowed chambers where fields of stone desks sat perfectly spaced from each other... except one room, way in the back.

 

At the far side of the temple, a big chunk of the roof was caved in and casting a bright light over some sort of long chamber. A few rows sat on one side, stacked atop each other, each one featuring sets of normal-sized rocky instruments left long abandoned. They faced the other side of the room, where only a desk and the sun’s focus sat.

 

And basking in the sunlight was another of those green vault creatures.

 

Frazie snuck towards it while it snoozed, thinking aloud. “On one hand, I don’t like having to hit you and I’m not sure if poking through memories is a nice thing to do. On the other... I don’t really have any other leads here. Sorry...”

 

Shutting her eyes, she tuned out the gentle snoring as she reeled her hand up and brought it down in a psychic chop. After a brief squeal, she heard the sound of a lock opening and peeked with one eye to see the vault wide open.

 

Stooping down, she poked around inside. Like before, there was a pile of photographs, and once properly compiled, they told a story.

 

---

 

Phoebe’s First Recital

 

Phoebe had been waiting for this day for weeks.

 

The school’s music class had been preparing them. On top of their usual lessons, they’d been training them for the upcoming tryouts to determine who could be part of the official school band. After all that practice, Phoebe was sure she’d make the cut.

 

She’d barely been able to sleep, she was so excited. When the morning came, she floated through classes until it was finally time for auditions. All the applicants were gathered in the music room, forming rows with their instruments in hand.

 

Their teacher was a balding man with a kind face. Once he’d gotten all the kids to quiet down, he got them started one by one.

 

Each child had their time to shine, performing their best to see who was good enough to make it into the band. Phoebe grew impatient as the brass and the winds got their turns first. C’mon, percussion, c’mon, she thought over and over.

 

Finally, it was her section’s turn. She could barely sit still as person after person played, until finally, it was her go.

 

“When you’re ready, Phoebe,” her teacher called, giving a swing of his baton.

 

She didn’t hesitate. After a deep breath, she raised her drumsticks high and brought them back down.

 

She started with a steady beat, each thump coming heavy and steady. She was focusing intently on her work, but she could glimpse her teacher nodding out of the corner of her eye.

 

Her technique was good, but she wanted to make this a sure thing. She started playing faster, stronger, adding a little oomph to her performance. Her brow was taut as she focused as intensely as she could. There was nothing in the world except her and her drumset. Her and the beat.

 

“Stop! Phoebe, stop!”

 

Her heart froze as she paused, wondering if she’d slipped up. But the issue wasn’t her.

 

The issue was her drumsticks were now on fire.

 

“Ah!” Panicking, she flung them into the corner. They hit it with a clatter, the licks of flame starting to spread to the carpet.

 

Kids started shouting as somehow, more flames were spurting up where they shouldn’t have. A big patch broke out on the ceiling, while the teacher cried out when his shoe suddenly lit up.

 

Kicking it off, he quickly raced for the fire alarm. Bells rang and lights flashed as the fire continued to grow out of control. “Let’s go, kids, let’s go, follow me!”

 

Terrified, the class formed a line and clung to his shadow, with Phoebe in the back. As they went, it seemed like more and more fires were starting to spring up around them, like they were walking through the halls of hell.

 

When they were finally outside, the random fires stopped, but the damage was done. All the kids had gotten out, but they could only watch as the wing the music hall had been in became completely consumed by flames.

 

“I don’t understand it,” her teacher murmured to another. “It came out of nowhere!” Phoebe didn’t understand it either, and yet somehow, she felt responsible.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Phoebe hadn’t so much as looked at her own drumset in weeks.

 

An entire wing of the school had burned down before the firefighters had managed to stop it. The other kids hadn’t minded too much outside of being a little scared... it meant they got some time off. Even when classes resumed, Phoebe was ashamed to be relieved that the music room had been the first to burn, since it meant she didn’t have to get near the instruments again.

 

She missed playing, but that haunting feeling that something might happen if she did held her back. Instead, she just laid in bed after her homework was done, staring up at the ceiling and sighing.

 

With nothing to distract her, her ears picked up soft noises from downstairs. Curious, she crept to her door and cracked it open a bit, being able to hear the front door from there.

 

Her mother was talking to some guy, and Phoebe listened in closely to make out what they were saying.

 

“Ooooh no, you do not get to walk up to my doorstep and blame my daughter for the school’s accident.”

 

“Listen,” the man said, “you might not like to hear it, but it’s true - your daughter did it. We’re not blaming her, though, I promise.”

 

“Yes, you are! You can’t even say how she did it!”

 

The man sighed, about as exasperated as Phoebe was confused. “It’s a bit too much to explain. Just know that our agency is the only one that knows she’s responsible and has provided an anonymous donation to help repair the damages.” There was some shuffling. “Here. Take this pamphlet. It will explain a little... I highly advise you consider what it offers.”

 

There was the sound of her mother flipping it open. “...Whispering Rock Summer Camp?”

 

“Precisely. If you have any further questions, call the number on the back and I will be happy to answer them. Until then... good day.”

 

The front door closed, and Phoebe shut hers right after. She turned around and slid down to the floor, hugging her knees. So it had been her fault. But how? And... something about camp? Nothing about this made sense to her.

 

She had no idea yet that that recital was about to change her life.

 

---

 

Frazie closed her eyes again and sighed. She was starting to get the hunch that these memories were locked away for a reason. Maybe she’d find a happy one some day, but today was not that day. All she knew was her hunch was a bust and so she leaned back down to return the photos to their home. She hoped the vault would appreciate having its hoard back when it woke up.

 

...Wait a second.

 

Frazie squinted and leaned a bit farther into the safe. There, leaning in the shadows against the back, sat the next CD.

 

“Yes!” She snatched it, holding it up to the light to admire it. “Two down... however many else to go.”

 

It was time to head back. Grateful this one had been much less guarded, she lowered the disc from her eye...

 

And gasped. Up above the hole in the ceiling, a monster stared back at her.

 

It was bulky and stout, easily twice her height and five times as wide. It was covered in bristling white fur, its face set in a scary snout and stone cold eyes. Now that it’d been noticed, it growled, its lips rumbling around sharp fangs. Using its massive mitts, it hung from the edge of the gap and lowered itself down, dropping into the room with a large thump.

 

Frazie backed away, holding her hands up in a futile attempt to protect herself. If yetis existed, she figured this was what one would look like... but the mind didn’t care what was real and what wasn’t.

 

“N-nice fella,” she spoke softly, backed into a corner. “Nice big... hairy... very angry lookin’ fella.” She flinched as the creature let out a brief snarl, closing the gap between them as it walked on its huge fists. “Ahahahaha...” she laughed nervously. “Annnny chance you like circus tricks? ...No?”

 

It roared right in her face, spitting saliva and blowing her hair back. Clearly, it wasn’t a fan of the circus.

 

It reeled a tree trunk arm back and Frazie had barely enough time to duck under it as it slammed into the wall above her. “Eep!” The building shook from the force and debris fell as she slid out from under the fist and booked it.

 

There was nothing on Earth that’d make her fight that thing if she had a say in the matter. For once, Frazie was completely unpoised as she fled for her life. Judging from the way the halls shook around her, the creature was giving chase. Its force was so immense it toppled over the rockers along the walls, forcing the girl to hopscotch her way down the hall while she dodged falling stones.

 

Remembering the way to the exit was kinda hard when you were running for your life, but Frazie loosely remembered the path as she skidded around corners. The monster’s roars grew ever nearer, yet Frazie didn’t dare look back to see how close it was getting.

 

At last, the glow of the outdoors appeared down the hall and Frazie urged herself to run even faster. Heart thumping, pulse racing, she shot out from the doorway and booked it towards the slope. She didn’t even notice the cold.

 

Once the land curved downwards, she found a steep spot and leapt. Gravity took over as she slid down, finally safe as she fled back down the mountain.

 

Back up top, the yeti stopped at the edge of the mountaintop and roared threats at her. Its dark eyes narrowed until she was just a blip disappearing back into the storm. Once it was sure she was gone, it grunted, turning away. It headed off in a new direction, looking like it knew where it was going.

 

---

 

Whomp.

 

About halfway down the mountain she’d started accumulating snow and become a giant ball of ice. It helped soften the landing when she returned to camp, flipping out of the boulder and landing on her face.

 

But she’d take that over having her face eaten off. Peeling herself off the ground, she rubbed her nose and called out to her fellow camper. “Phoebe! T-there’s something out there! Something huge and, and hairy, and... and what the heck is it?!”

 

Phoebe just looked at her like she was crazy. “I’ve never heard of something like that in the mind. Was it like a bear or something?”

 

“Bears don’t walk on two feet!” Groaning, Frazie just plucked the CD out of the snowpile and marched over. “Forget it. Here... check it out.”

 

The girl looked up from the fire, her smile looking almost as bright as Frazie headed over to deliver the disc. Like before, the instant it touched Phoebe’s fingers, its contents filled the air.

 

This one was a lot more paced and controlled, like an actual song instead of random beating. A fierce drum solo played, starting hard and only growing harder as the cymbals crashed and the beat thumped louder.

 

“Yeah...” Phoebe said, bobbing her head to it. “I played this one back at school. It, uh, didn’t go well. But it helped me discover a lot about myself.”

 

“Like your pyrokinesis?”

 

Phoebe stared. “How’d you know?”

 

“Luuuucky guess.”

 

“Well, yeah... but it also really got me into drumming. That day was awful, and yet so much good came from it...” She sighed wistfully, and as if her breath was flooding the entire field, the area began melting again.

 

This time, a big chunk of the area was restored to its old warm state. All around, instruments that were formerly ice blocks stood up, thumping and tooting in confusion.

 

When it’d stopped spreading, a massive circle was melted... but it still wasn’t enough. The far reaches were still frozen over, and another path had appeared.

 

“One more ought to do it.” While instruments started hopping over to join them, Frazie motioned for Phoebe to stay put. “We’ll have this fixed in no time! I’ll be right back.”

 

Phoebe just chuckled, waving goodbye. “Good luck with your bear or whatever.”

 

Frazie’s face fell. Right. That thing that’d chased her was still out there somewhere. And somehow, she had the feeling it was waiting for her.

 

She took her good time making the final trip. At least only half of it was snowy.

 

---

 

At long last, the final landmark was in sight. It was across a big ol’ frozen lake, but it wasn’t very far.

 

Rather than go around, Frazie leapt onto the ice and hummed to herself as she skated her way across. Being balanced really had its perks sometimes. If she didn’t know there was some horrific beast lurking somewhere hunting for her, she’d even say it was kind of pleasant.

 

But the fun had to stop sometime, approximately around the time she’d made it across. As she hopped back onto snow, she met a familiar sight.

 

Up ahead was Whispering Rock’s main lodge... a stony approximation of it, anyway. More curious than cautious, Frazie walked up its solid steps and pushed open the door.

 

The inside was just as she’d expected - though, thank goodness, Chef Ford hadn’t found a way to teleport here too. It worried her that that had been a legitimate concern. Stepping inside, the door shut behind her while she passed between tables of stone. The stage was just as she remembered it, and up on top of it...

 

The final disc.

 

“Jackpot.” Breaking into a sprint, Frazie ran for it... and almost toppled forward when a massive thud rocked the roof.

 

Her eyes shot up to see what was going on, and as she watched, the roof shook a couple more times before a massive chunk of it finally caved in. Crying out, she leapt away from it, rolling back to her feet as it smashed into the floor.

 

Up above, the yeti was back, and it didn’t look happy.

 

Not good. Frazie needed to get that CD and get out of here before it attacked... but before she could race for it, the creature didn’t even bother with her.

 

Instead, it clambered down and scooped the disc up in one hand.

 

“Hey!” The beast shot her an almost mocking look as it made its escape, climbing up the way it’d come in.

 

She hadn’t come this far to get robbed by Bigfoot. Indignant, she turned and charged back outside, just in time for the creature to leap off the roof and run for the lake.

 

Call it foolish, but Frazie was the one doing the chasing now. She didn’t want to fight this thing, but it might’ve been the only chance to return Phoebe to normal... and that was worth possibly getting squashed for.

 

Halfway across, the yeti seemed tired of running from a teenager and turned, growling at her to back off. She didn’t. Irritated, it roared and slammed a massive fist into the ice, cracking it loudly with one solid blow and leaving a big pool of water in its wake.

 

Frazie frantically skidded to a stop, teetering on the edge. That was too close. She scowled and snapped a finger at the monster. “Alright, you asked for it!”

 

The heat built in her mind, steam slowly rising off the beast. As the creature looked confused, its coat suddenly burst into flames. Surprised, it howled and slapped itself, desperate to put it out.

 

It was no use. After a few seconds the beast seemed to surrender and fell to its knees, reaching for its chest...

 

...And started to peel its fur off, like it was one giant coat.

 

“What the...?” Frazie’s jaw dropped as she watched the monster disrobe, tossing the burning heap of fur to the side... and it dropped even further when she saw what lie beneath.

 

Somehow, the thing underneath wasn’t even close to the same height. It was around the same height as her.

 

Because it was her.

 

Frazie was in a staring contest with herself. Kind of. The doppelganger was like her in every way, except it lacked flesh and color. Instead, its body was solid ice, the clone glaring at her through cold, pupiless eyes.

 

Frazie stammered over and over, trying to process what’d just happened. “I... wha... buh... you’re me! An icy me! A... a Freezie! That doesn’t even make any sense!” she yelled, gesturing wildly with her hands.

 

“Why not?” The creature had gained a voice, even sounding just like her in a mocking tone. “After all... you’re the one who ruined everything around here.”

 

Freezie gestured all around, the CD in her hand as she pointed out the tundra around them. “This lake? You. That storm? You. Everything currently ailing Phoebe? All you. This is all your fault. And it’s too late to say sorry.”

 

“That’s...” Frazie desperately tried to find words to defend herself, but she really couldn’t. It might’ve been an accident, but this was definitely her fault. Instead, she deflated with a sigh. “You’re right. But I need that CD to undo this mess. So please,” she pleaded, “give me a chance to make things right.”

 

“Hmmmm...” Her double tapped its chin, deep in thought. “Nah.”

 

Frazie felt like she’d been slapped in the face. “No?! Come on! This isn’t a game, Phoebe might never be the same without it! I need it!”

 

“Oh? You need this?” Her clone pulled the disc up and waggled it. Then, she popped it sideways into her mouth. She slurped it up like a CD player, the disc disappearing into her head. “Oops.”

 

Frazie stared in shock. “Alright, first of all, never do anything like that with my body again. Secondly, I needed that, you iceprick!”

 

“You should’ve thought of that before you played with fire, huh?”

 

Frazie was seeing red now. “Alright, jerk...” Was she allowed to call herself a jerk? “I don’t have any other choice now.” She jabbed a finger at her. “You’re going down! ...I’m going down? Whatever.”

 

The imposter just laughed. “Bring it on.”

The easiest solution was often the best.

 

The very first thing Frazie tried was leaning in and focusing, willing her imposter to go up in flames and melt. She imagined thermometers rising until they burst, working extra hard to send heat to this frozen foe.

 

It just scoffed. “Predictable.” To Frazie’s horror, it seemed just as agile as she was, leaping high over the hole in the ice and rolling down towards her through the air. Frazie kept trying to incinerate it, but she couldn’t get a lock when it was moving so fast.

 

Like a cannonball, it plowed into her stomach, making her gasp and slide back along the icy battlefield. Frazie coughed, but before she could try and burn it again, it was rushing her and swinging with powerful limbs.

 

Alright, maybe the easiest solution kinda sucked.

 

Clearly fire wasn’t going to be an easy out so long as Freezie kept moving. Instead, the real deal started ducking and weaving, avoiding the flurry of blows launched her way.

 

To her relief, Frazie could see the clone had no psychic abilities of its own. If its intense strikes were enhanced with psychic energy, she would’ve been a goner. Its lack of range gave Frazie all the room she needed to pull back a fist and return fire with a few psi-punchs, shoving the creature away.

 

As soon as it landed, it pushed off the ground and leapt at her again. It was clear very quickly that the double had the turf advantage. When Frazie was knocked around, she skidded and slipped, and though she kept her balance, having to adjust to the ice was slowing her down. Freezie didn’t even have to worry about it. As if it was walking on normal concrete, it immediately pressed forward again when knocked aside and had all the traction it wanted when it struck out.

 

Careful to avoid the watery pit, Frazie skated out of the way of another blow, sweeping her leg down to knock the imposter off its feet. While it tumbled, she telekinetically grabbed a chunk of ice off the top of the lake and tried to bring it down on top of it.

 

The clone rolled, the cluster shattering as it hit nothing. “Nice trick,” it praised with a sneer. “Now let me show you one of mine.”

 

It whipped its hands forwards and Frazie had no time to react as a howling burst of frost exploded from its palms. Debilitating cold washed over her, draining her. It might not’ve had any of Frazie’s powers, but of course, the living ice creature somehow had access to its own form of cryokinesis. Things could never be easy, could they?

 

Pushed back, Frazie didn’t have time to blink the frost from her eyes before she was being attacked again.

 

Frazie tried to push the assault off when she could, but it was relentless, frost-infused kick after kick slamming into her defenses and chilling her with each one. She was at a disadvantage, especially when Freezie spun with a flourish and then blew a cone of cold air all over her.

 

“Blah... stop doing that!” Frazie had had enough snowblindness to last a lifetime already without continuously getting flakes thrown in her face. She rubbed her eyes clean with a sleeve, only to squeak when she saw icicles being launched at her face. She fell backwards, landing on hands and feet, immediately pushing back up to see she was being approached yet again.

 

This wasn’t working, especially with that pool of water constantly threatening her. She had to get to solid ground. Launching a few more psychic attacks, she pushed off in the other direction and started skating towards the shore while Freezie was stunned.

 

But escaping from this creature was impossible. In no time at all, it’d sprinted along the ice, running by her side with a cackle. “Where do you think you’re going?” With a powerful roundhouse, it spun and sent Frazie spiraling back towards where she’d come from.

 

She’d managed to block the blow, but the sheer force had still sent her sliding on her back. It might not be a yeti any more, but her clone was almost as strong. Gliding across the ice on her spine, she soared back where she came from...

 

...And came to a stop with her head dangling over the watery pit.

 

Oooooh heck no. The fear in her eyes was palpable as she immediately tried to shove herself up and away.

 

Only to let out a choked cry as Freezie roughly pushed her back down by the shoulders.

 

Frazie could see the creatures eyes roll back and forth even without pupils, looking between her terrified face and the hole in the ice. Putting two and two together, its face split into a cruel and sadistic grin.

 

“Oooooh... afraid of getting wet, are you?” It started pushing again, harder, trying to force her head down towards the icy water. “Go on... take a drink.”

 

Try as she might to fight it, her head started getting pushed back inch by inch. A sinister splash drew her attention and Frazie glanced back in a panic. Before her eyes, a terrifyingly familiar sight started to form in the hole. Ice-cold fingers rose up and waggled at her, chunks of ice stuck inside it as the Hand of Galochio fumbled for its prey. Freaking out, Frazie kicked and struggled, shoving her head as far up away from it as she could.

 

Her double wasn’t having any of it, laughing to itself as it kept pushing her closer and closer. It knew her weakness, and it was taking full advantage.

 

Frazie’s hope was fading, and soon, the rest of her would be if she let the curse claim her. She had to do something. Anything. Her eyes searched desperately, seeking a way out while her own laughter rang in her ears...

 

...There.

 

Grunting, she focused as hard as she could, mentally picking up another solid chunk of cold rock Freezie’s other form had knocked loose. With a howl of defiance, she jerked it over towards them, a solid crack echoing in the air as it smacked Freezie clean off her.

 

She jerked herself out of Galochio’s grasp and immediately pounced on her clone, holding it down. It was momentarily stunned, but the second it’d recovered, it just chuckled coldly. “Come on, stupid. You know you can’t keep me pinned.” Already it was pushing back, its immense strength easily easing Frazie off it.

 

“I know...!” Frazie hissed through gritted teeth, trying to shove it back down with all her might. “But I just... need to do it long enough... for this to work...!”

 

The clone’s face furrowed in confusion... and then, that face started to hiss with steam.

 

Realizing what was going on, it was its turn to panic as it grabbed for Frazie’s wrists and tried to yank her off.

 

It was too late, though. Before it could break free, its face started to bubble and melt, slowly caving inward as the pyrokinesis worked its mental magic.

 

“You...!” it tried to spit, but its mouth was already melting. The heat was spreading all throughout its body, melting it from the inside out even as it struggled and grew weaker.

 

Its kicks died down and its strength faded as it shrunk, its body disintegrating into a thick puddle below her. Frazie didn’t ease up, focusing hard with body and mind to keep it down and melting even long after its strength had given out.

 

When she finally let her mind take a break, she was kneeling in a puddle. On top of it, floating in the remains, was the last CD right before her eyes.

 

She’d won. Against... herself.

 

“Hggggggh...” Aching, cold, and exhausted, Frazie flopped onto her side. Of course, lying on a lake of ice didn’t really help with that ‘cold’ part, but she needed a minute. Groaning, she limply reached out for the disc and picked it up, holding it to her chest.

 

Breathing shallowly, she thought warm thoughts once more, feeling the heat slowly fill her limbs. After a moment, she finally had the strength to stand again, wobbling to her feet.

 

Her head tilted down, glaring at the puddle that’d just been trying to kill her. “You might look like me... but we’re nothing alike. The real me... is going to set this right.”

 

Slowly, she started sliding one foot after the other, giving the water a wide berth as she headed across the lake. It was time to start the long yet final journey back to Phoebe.

 

---

 

Phoebe stoked the fire, pressing a finger to her forehead to pump it up with a little pyrokinesis. Sure, she didn’t really need it anymore, but the crackle of the flames comforted her.

 

Frazie had been gone awhile. Phoebe hoped that just meant the last disc was hard to find and not that she was in trouble. “Think she’s alright?” she asked a trombone resting on the log next to her. It let out what she could only assume was a comforting honk. “Yeah...”

 

Worried silence settled back in. Then, it perked up. Turning its head towards the distance, it sounded again in alarm.

 

Phoebe looked up to see a figure approaching far in the distance. Frazie, approaching slow and steady, the disc clenched securely in one hand. All around, the thawed instruments started beating and singing a victorious melody as they welcomed the girl back to camp.

 

With the tunes lifting her spirits, Frazie regained her stride, waving the CD over her head. “You have noooooo idea what I went through to get this for you.”

 

She approached Phoebe while the crowd watched eagerly... but paused, holding the disc between her fingers as her brow furrowed. There was something she wanted clarified.

 

“...Phoebe, what do you think of me?”

 

The kid was thrown off by the question. “I mean...” she mumbled, scratching her neck. “You seem cool and those tricks you can do are pretty sick, but... I can’t really say I’m all that fond of you at the moment. Can you blame me? But you’re trying to fix things so I can’t really hold a grudge...?”

 

“...Yeah, sounds about right.” Nodding, having heard what she’d expected, Frazie offered up the last disc. “Well, I hope I can give you a better impression of me... starting with this. Here you go.”

 

Gingerly, Phoebe took it from her, and just like before, a tune filled the air. All heads perked up around the clearing, listening in to it. Not as loose as the first, not as wild as the second... and also, not alone. A hearty and calculated beat, intermixed with electronic sounds and record scratches. Of all the songs that’d played, Frazie liked this one the best, even feeling her foot tapping along with it on its own.

 

The rest of the crowd joined in. As the song reverberated around, instruments swayed their heads to the tune. Phoebe shut her eyes and drummed with her fingers, her face mellowing into an almost trancelike state.

 

“...That’s my first song with Quentin,” she recalled with a serene smile, “after we met at camp. After I’d learned to be less afraid of powers, after I’d gotten back into drumming. Our first show together was scary, but now we play in the dining hall every night. I had no idea being in a band could be so much fun. And...”

 

Her eyes opened again. “It helped me realize I wanted music to always be a part of my life.”

 

Rumble...

 

Frazie’s tapping foot suddenly shook. Alarmed, she braced herself. While the crowd wobbled, the world was undergoing its biggest change yet.

 

The temperature rose steadily, any lingering cold heating up into pleasant warmth as the world’s farthest ice peaks started to melt. All over Phoebe’s mind, any last trace of powder evaporated until hot stone laid as far as the eye could see. The storm was over, and the mind’s status quo was restored. It was missing something, though...

 

...But not for long. The rumbling grew louder as, off to the side, the ground started to rise up. As if pushed up from the ground itself, walls climbed towards the sky and brought lights and signs with them. Purple walls propped into place and the front door spat out a roll of red carpet to welcome everyone home. The spectators watched in awe as the final piece to the puzzle slid up out of the ground and the earth settled back down into silence.

 

Phoebe’s club was back, looking as good as new.

 

A cheer went up as the instruments hopped forwards together, eager to get back inside. Frazie and Phoebe watched them charge, standing side by side and just appreciating the grand landmark shining before them.

 

“Not gonna lie,” Frazie murmured to the other. “I froze my butt off, but... it’s worth it to see everything back to normal.”

 

“And it’s even better to be back to normal.” Phoebe looked up at her, nudging her leg. “You scared me half to death, but you made things right. That, that’s impressive. You could’ve just left me broken, but you didn’t. I gotta respect that.”

 

Frazie just rubbed the back of her head, chuckling. “Nah, I couldn’t have left you broken. That wasn’t an option. I might not know much about all this Psychonauts junk, but now I know you need to be a lot more careful. The mind’s pretty delicate!”

 

“But you’re not, eh?” The two shared a laugh, the air between them feeling clear as the restored world around them.

 

Finally, Frazie pointed up. “Say, could you...?”

 

“Could I what? Oh.” Phoebe gave her a quick salute, and like a hand yanking her up into the sky, Frazie shot up and out of the mind. “Thanks, Fray!” Phoebe called, waving farewell. “Catch you on the flipside.”

 

---

 

Hard stone faded into solid wood as Frazie’s consciousness returned back to the cabin stage.

 

Once she was out, the Psy Portal popped closed and fell, her hands sweeping down to catch it on the way down. After a second, Phoebe seemed to stir, eyes opening slowly. After a second, they lit up with realization.

 

She glanced to each drumstick in her hand, looking unsure. But, finally, she took a deep breath and brought them down on her instrument.

 

The cascade of notes was music to Frazie’s ears, literally and figuratively. Just like when she’d played during breakfast, she was on rhythm and keeping the beat. The lodge reverberated with her familiar brand of funk. “Yeah! Yeah!” Phoebe whooped, belting out a drumline. “I can feel it! It’s coming back to me!”

 

“Woo!” Elated, Frazie cheered her on, all her mental fatigue draining away seeing Phoebe living it up again.

 

Though the moment was cut off with a reminder they weren’t the only two in the hall. “You two keep it down over there!” Ford called from his kitchen. “I’m trying to hear the patties sizzle.”

 

The beat came to a sudden stop and the two girls shared a look, but it didn’t matter. Phoebe was back, baby.

 

And though the girls were overjoyed, Frazie couldn’t help but still feel guilty. She wrung her hands. “...I’m reaaaaally sorry,” she murmured. “I know everything’s all good now, but... I messed up. And I won’t let it happen again. Promise.”

 

Phoebe’s eyes softened, before swiveling in her seat to face her. “Listen. That’s why we’re all here, isn’t it? To get better with our powers. Ya blew it, but if we were all perfect from the get-go, why would we even need this camp?”

 

“It was a pretty huge mistake, though...”

 

“Then that just makes it more impressive that you undid it, right?”

 

Frazie blinked in realization. “I guess you’ve got a point.” Could she really beat herself up if even the person she’d wronged was past it? In the end, Phoebe had only gotten a brief scare... and she’d roughed it out to repair her before it could become more than that. Feeling a bit better, she smiled down at her.

 

Suddenly, Phoebe reached under her camp tee to grab for something on her undershirt. “Just to show there’s no hard feelings...” Her hand returned, and in it sat a small orange patch emblazoned with fire. “Here, you can have this. I don’t need it... I already know I’m the best pyromancer around. Though after all that, seems like you’re vying for my title.”

 

“Really?” Frazie reached for it, but pulled her hand back. “Thanks, but... does it count if a counselor isn’t giving it?”

 

“Does it matter? It’s just a patch.”

 

It was pretty unconventional... but what had been conventional about anything she’d done since arriving? With a thankful smile, Frazie accepted it and pinned it to her shawl. Her third merit badge, forming a triangle with the rest. “Thanks, teach.”

 

Once it was securely fastened, Frazie chuckled a bit. “Sooooo... see you for more training tomorrow?” she joked.

 

“Come near my brain again, and I’ll roast yours from the inside out.”

 

Frazie tugged at her collar. Sheesh. “Yeeeeeah, that’s fair.”

 

“...Aside from that, though, we’re cool,” Phoebe tacked on with a smile.

 

Frazie involuntarily shivered at the last word, her artic adventure still fresh in her mind. “Please, don’t say cool.”

 

Before Phoebe could ask why, the back door to the cabin swung open. “There you are!”

 

Both girls paused their conversation and turned to see Lili walking in, glancing between the two of them. “Didn’t you guys hear the announcement?”

 

The two girls shared a knowing look. “Uhhhh... musta missed it,” Phoebe filled in. “What was it?

 

Lili peered up at them onstage. “Since the counselors are still resting, Ford’s going to let us canoe around the lake in the meantime!”

 

Really, the most worrying part of that should’ve been that Ford was somehow going to teach them when he was cooking right behind them at the moment. Instead, something else struck a fearful chord in Frazie’s heart.

 

“A... a l-lake?”

Water. Murky water as far as the eye could see.

 

Taking a side bridge from the main lodge led out to Lake Oblongata, the hugest death trap Frazie had ever laid eyes on. The lake was absolutely massive, though thankfully only a small chunk was cordoned off for the campers to use. That little section was still too much for Frazie, though. Every little slosh of the waves tickling the shore sent another chill down her spine as she stood alongside all the other campers on the beach.

 

Frazie was no longer surprised to see Ford somehow waiting on the pier, having teleported from the kitchen and changed into a life jacket and bucket hat in the blink of an eye. “Alright, young’ns, gather round!” he called. “I’ll be your instructor for th’ next hour or so. Some nasty lake bugger’s been tearing holes in my canoes left and right, but we still got a few good ones left. Pick a partner or two and line up - but don’t let me catch you on my pier without a life jacket, ya hear me?!”

 

The few kids still without floatation devices promptly leapt to attention and scattered. Chatter sprang up as children started picking out teammates. Benny waved to Bobby from his side, but the alpha bully roughly shoved him away and tried to chat up a girl in an astronaut’s helmet instead. Phoebe and Quentin were inseparable, of course, and it was a relief to see the girl recovered well enough to take to the lake with her bandmate.

 

And Lili had her eyes set on Frazie. “You and me?” she asked, life jacket around her neck and eagerness in her voice.

 

Frazie tried to hide it, but it was clear the idea was less than appealing. Not because of Lili, of course. Out there surrounded by phantom limbs reaching for her throat? No thanks.

 

She sucked in a breath through her teeth, trying to figure out the best way to turn her down. She really did want to spend time with Lili... but somewhere safer, preferably. “I dunno. I really want to, but...”

 

But nothing. Lili grabbed for her hand, trying to pull her across the sand. “Come on, let’s boat together! I feel kinda bad since you taught me a little acrobatics and I didn’t get to teach you pyrokinesis... but maybe I can show you how to handle a canoe instead?”

 

Frazie didn’t budge, staying still while Lili kept tugging and grunting. “No, no, I appreciate the offer, buuuut I think I’ll stay right here.”

 

“Don’t be scared, it’s fun! You don’t even have to use an oar...” Lili let her go and pointed both fingers towards her head. “We move the boats with our minds.”

 

The younger girl looked up at her, pleading, and Frazie didn’t have the heart to turn her down. Yet, she had to. “Listen...” she said, looking down at her. “I can’t.”

 

“What, can’t swim? That’s what the floaties are for.”

 

“Something a biiiiit more than that.” She bit her lip, finding it impossible to be anything but honest about her bizarre situation. “Wooooould you believe my entire family’s got a fortune teller's curse on it that’ll drown us if we touch the water? Swearsies.”

 

Lili’s mouth quirked downwards. Eyes narrowing, she shifted her weight and crossed her arms. “If you don’t wanna hang out, you can just say so.”

 

Uh oh. That was the exact opposite of what Frazie’d wanted to insinuate. “No, no!” she protested bluntly. “I want to, I just can’t! You don’t gotta believe me about the curse, just...” Frazie looked around, and then pointed straight down. “Look. I’m gonna sit right here and watch you. Alright? Won’t budge an inch.”

 

Lili took her time to mull it over, enough to make Frazie sweat, but finally, the girl relented. “Alright. But you gotta teach me another trick later today! Promise?”

 

Relieved, Frazie offered the girl her pinkie. “Promise.”

 

A bit cheerier, Lili took it and shook. “Remember, not an inch!” she reminded her before leaving her behind to race for the dock. Frazie plopped down right where she stood, intending to keep her promise as she watched Ford help Lili and an abandoned Benny into a canoe. The boy flinched and swallowed nervously when she shook a fist at him - clearly she wasn’t going to take any of the bully’s usual shtick.

 

Not her ideal choice of partner, and Frazie was sorry for that, but it could’ve been worse. As Lili claimed the front of the boat and pushed them off land with her mind, Frazie bid her farewell.

 

Lili turned back and waved at her from the canoe once they were far out, and Frazie waved back. It was nice being able to just sit down and relax after running around all day. Sitting here, supporting from the sidelines, reminded her of all the times she’d cheered her siblings on while their parents taught them new techniques.

 

Trying not to dwell on her family too much, Frazie rested her palms on the sand. With a relaxed sigh, she leaned back and stretched her legs. Shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun, she peered down the shore to pass the time.

 

Far in the distance, she noticed she wasn’t the only landlubber around. It seemed those two cheery campers weren’t canoeing, either. For some reason they were hefting huge rocks and carrying them towards the water. Oh, well. Kids doing kid stuff.

 

...Wait a sec. Frazie leaned in, squinting. On closer inspection, it looked like the rocks were leashed tightly around their ankles with jump ropes. So they were tying themselves to boulders and heading to the lake to...

 

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

 

There wasn’t any time to think. Frazie launched off the sand and dashed down the beach, kicking up grains behind her. She was an incredible sprinter, but there wasn’t a second to spare.

 

The shore was split in half, a wide expanse of dangerous liquid blocking her from the campers. Some tiny rocks poked their heads from the water alongside some logs and dirt patches, but the path was still perilous. Her hydrophobia was screaming like mad, but if there was any chance at saving them... she had to take the risk.

 

“Hup!” She leapt as far out as she could, trying not to focus on the water below her as she landed with one hand atop a stray boulder. ‘Don’t look down’ was the acrobat’s mantra when starting out, but she’d always expected it to apply to open air, not sea.

 

Shoving off the boulder, she next landed on a thin branch on her tiptoes. Thankful it was secure, she crept hastily along, leaping to another rock next. While she hustled, she kept her eyes on the cheerers, seeing the kids growing ever closer to their end.

 

And all the while, the Hand of Galochio watched from the sidelines, just waiting for Frazie to slip up.

 

Ignoring it as best she could, she leapt again, skipping a platform. She had to be quicker. Taking a deep breath, she doubled her speed, flipping end over end as she switched between landing on hands and feet. Each little push off sand, off rock, made her a little faster. Unstable, but faster. By the time she touched down on the final stump on one foot, the campers were at the edge.

 

They were in the water. Her time was up. Desperate now, Frazie reached out, extending her psychic reach as far as she could. She was so close... just a little more... one... more... push...

 

To her relief, the boulders jiggled. The gasped as their loads started to rise up telekinetically. “Hey!”

 

Not giving herself a chance to relax, Frazie gripped them tightly in her mind’s eye. The campers tried to yank them back down their minds, but even two to one, Frazie’s telekinesis overpowered theirs. Finally, pelting her siblings with pinecones was paying off in dividends. She hopped down on their part of the shore, trying to float the rocks over to her end. “What are you two thinking?!”

 

“What are you thinking?” the boy fired right back, clearly an expert at rebuttals. “Cut it out! You’re getting in the way of Crystal and I’s project!”

 

“Yeah!” his partner agreed with a glare. “When we’re done with this, Clem and I will be more powerful than you could ever imagine.”

 

“Are you insane?!” Frazie spat, jerking the boulder back towards her when they managed to steal an inch.

 

“We’re the only sane ones here!” Clem grunted. “No one’s even noticed us trying to do this all day! Drinking poison up on the speakers, then jumping off the roof when it didn’t do anything!”

 

“Yeah! All it did was give us upset tummies and bruises!” Crystal backed him up.

 

“But this time... it was foolproof.”

 

“Until you showed up!”

 

The roof... the speakers... Frazie’s mind drifted back to all the times she’d seen them that day even amidst their struggle. She’d thought it weird they were always high up and out of the way, but she’d had no idea what they were up to. She mentally slapped herself. If she’d just paid a little more attention...

 

No. No time for guilt trips. She couldn’t have known, but she did now. So now? She had to do what she could.

 

With her mind straining, she tried to pour her sympathy into her voice. “But you guys are so cheery! Literally!” she tried desperately to appeal to them through grit teeth.

 

“Who cares! It’s not like anyone even likes them. Or us!”

 

“And they’ll pay for it. They’ll all pay!”

 

“I liked them!” Frazie claimed.

 

The three of them paused their tug-of-war to stare at each other. “...Alright,” Frazie admitted shamefully, “I liked your energy at least!”

 

Annoyed, the kids tugged with even more force, slowly forcing the rocks back to their side. Frazie wasn’t reaching them - she wasn’t a therapist, for Pete’s sake. What could she do? She couldn’t just dive into their heads and try to talk sense into them.

 

Wait a second. Yes, yes she could.

 

But there was two of them. If she jumped into one’s mind, the other would take full advantage of the opportunity. No, she had to try something new.

 

Slowly, she snuck towards them while they battled with their minds. Steady. Steeeeady. She couldn’t risk alarming them. While they tugged with all their might, eyes shut with focus, she got up close while they thought they were winning the fight.

 

Before they could realize what she’d done, she slapped her Psy Portal right on Clem’s forehead.

 

“Huh?” He dropped his telekinesis and looked up just in time for the door to pop open and the trance to overtake him.

 

“You leave Clem alone!” Crystal shouted, but before she could do anything, Frazie grabbed her and turned her towards her friend.

 

“What are you...” She gasped as Frazie directed her psyche towards her, not Clem. It latched onto her mind and pulled, yanking her own consciousness along for the ride up and into the air.

 

Keeping Crystal hostage for her own good, she pulled them both head-first into the light.

 

Now entering:

Clem’s Happy Happy Happy Happy Place

 

---

 

“Oof!” Frazie and Crystal hit the ground together, the teen losing her grip on her. Quickly, she pushed up off the ground, ready to act if need be.

 

The first thing Frazie noticed about their new location: They were surrounded by censors.

 

“Ah!” She immediately stood straight, whipping back and forth, making it clear she was ready for a fight.

 

But... none of them were attacking her?

 

It wasn’t like they hadn’t noticed her. They each glanced over, some lounging on lawn chairs and towels, some kicking their feet in a pool, but after a moment they just shrugged it off and went back to relaxing.

 

And boy, was this place relaxing. The grass was golden, the sky was yellow, and everything just radiated positivity and comfort. Censors basked in the sun, and off in the distance, a giant statue of Clem and Crystal kept watch over it all hand in hand.

 

“This place does not look how I expected,” Frazie thought aloud, turning to take it all in. And then her eyes fell on Crystal, the kid glaring defiantly up at her.

 

“You can’t stop us!” she claimed, whipping out a small capsule with one end gripped in each hand.

 

“Just watch me!” Like taking candy from someone half her age, Frazie whipped her arm out and snatched the container away.

 

“Hey!”

 

With the situation finally contained, Frazie held the pellet up to her eyes. “What even is this thing?” she murmured, tugging at it. With a pop, it split open, spilling an absolutely horrid cloud of stench right up her nostrils.

 

A few awkward seconds later, Frazie once more landed back in the mind while Crystal rolled her eyes. “Alright, you’re definitely not getting this back,” Frazie muttered, pocketing it.

 

Crystal’s head whipped around, seeking a back-up plan. And there it was. Clem was here lounging as well, right under the statue, kicking back with some headphones on. Crystal immediately ran for him while Frazie chased behind, the girl shaking her friend wildly when she got to him. “Clem! Clem!”

 

Slowly peeking an eye open, Clem popped awake. The boy sat up when he saw who’d arrived. “Crystal?” he said, pulling one of his earpieces off. “What are you doing here?”

 

“This crazy lady kidnapped me!” Crystal explained, gesturing wildly at Frazie.

 

“Really?” Clem just shrugged, popping his earpiece back on and laying back down. “Well there’s no better place to end up! Come on, relaaaaax. Make yourself at home!”

 

“...Clem?” Crystal shook him again, but he was staying put this time. “Clem, wake up! You need to boot me out of here! The plan, remember ?!” She tugged at his headset, but it wouldn’t budge an inch.

 

Things were finally coming up Frazie. “Looks like you’re stuck here,” she said, kneeling down. “And we’re not leaving until I figure out what’s going on.” Eyes flicking to the side, she leaned her head in towards Clem’s, trying to pick up what he had playing. “What’s he listening to, anyway...?”

 

She perked an ear up. She grimaced. She gasped. She jerked her head back, face aghast. Horrible, horrible things. Listening to the tape had been like having poison poured through her ears, dark voices whispering awful insults and threats. How could he relax with that on?!

 

Standing back up, she motioned for Crystal to stay put. “You stay here, I’m gonna look around. Unless you want to talk?” The girl pouted and sat straight down, turning away from her with a hmph. “Exploring it is.”

 

Leaving her behind, Frazie wandered around. The area was beautiful... but small. A large circle of golden grass and sunshine, but it didn’t seem to extend much farther than that. Giving the censors a wide berth just in case, Frazie walked up to the edge of it all.

 

The sky seemed to slope down as she approached the rim. Not only that, it seemed to fade a bit, growing transparent. Stepping right up to it, Frazie made binoculars with her fingers and peered outside.

 

It was the exact opposite of what she’d seen so far. It seemed they were in some kind of dome that kept the darkness at bay... and there was a ton of it. Twisted, gnarled branches of pure black coiled and grew over barren gray dirt, the occasional patch of dying grass decorating it. It was a jungle out there, one forged from someone’s worst nightmares.

 

That was scary enough. What was scarier was that if she waited long enough, the shadows seemed to engulf the bubble just a teeny bit more. Centimeter by centimeter, picking away at it.

 

Frazie shuddered. Somehow she knew if she wanted to get to the bottom of this, she was going to have to go out there, wasn’t she?

 

She glanced back. Clem and Crystal were still back where she’d left them, one chilling, one fuming. They were safe here... but they wouldn’t be if she left the mental world before she’d done something.

 

That was all the motivation she needed to brace herself, press forward, and pass through the bubble out into the gloom.

Ever since she’d left the bubble, Frazie couldn’t shake the feeling of being bogged down. Or that she was being watched.

 

Something in the air left a growing sense of unease with each step, a weariness that tickled her bones and wanted to slow her down. Just being in this place felt like walking through a toxic miasma. She fought it off by reminding herself it was all in her head - Clem’s head? - and focused on pressing forward.

 

...But where was forward, exactly?

 

As she climbed over another dark root, Frazie realized she didn’t really have anything to guide her. There was no distinct path, nothing but a suffocating jungle made of darkest black and the occasional colorful glow of a figment. Every thick tree and gnarled branch reached up high and blocked out the sun.

 

No... they didn’t block out anything. There was no sun here. Only a white fog hanging high in the sky, as if someone had filled the atmosphere with clouds.

 

The sole comfort in this miserable hellscape was the fact that she could always make out Clem’s safety bubble through the branches, its golden glow a beacon that’d lead her to safety if she got lost.

 

Frazie had never felt so alone. Aside from the rustling of bushes as she clambered over them, there wasn’t a sound. No wind. No birds. Just her own movement, and for some reason, the frantic hum of insect wings?

 

She wasn’t sure why Clem had bugs in his brain, but she could sense them hovering around her. Hearing buzzing by her cheek, she swatted at it. “Shoo, shoo.” A second later, it repeated, louder. “Buzz off!” she snapped, turning to slap it away again.

 

She screamed. The bug was a lot bigger than she’d expected.

 

If it even was a bug. It was some sort of gross hybrid of man and insect, a dopey-looking little creature with large wings hefting a huge weight in its elongated arms. She didn’t need any help with this one. Their name was right on the anvils they carried:

 

Regrets.

 

“Uhhhhh... any chance you’re friendly?” Frazie asked. In response, the fly hovered closer, shouting angrily at her in an extremely high-pitched voice.

 

‘I’ll never get to try out for cheerleading!’

 

Frazie dived out of the way as it dropped its load where she’d been, the weight cracking the ground with a huge slam. “That’s what I thought...!” she called, but as more cries filled the air, she realized this Regret was far from the only one.

 

‘I won’t get to support others anymore!’

 

‘I’ll never see the sequel to that funny lizard cop movie!’

 

‘I haven’t even had my first kiss!’

 

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Frazie dodged and rolled as more anvils rained down from above. She expected the storm of steel to die down, but it wouldn’t. Their ammunition never seemed to run out - they could create more weights from thin air and drop them at will.

 

Thinking fast, Frazie threw a hand towards the next one and grabbed it in a telekinetic grip. Grunting with how heavy it turned out to be, she pushed it right back up to plow into its owner’s face. “How do you like it?!”

 

Keeping the momentum going, she pushed her mental influence to the next Regret, jerking it sideways into its friend. Like two helicopters crashing, they bumped together and spiraled down to the ground as their wings crumpled on impact.

 

Three to go. A quick pyrokinetic roast dispatched two of them - they weren’t very durable. But the last was diving in for a close-range bludgeoning.

 

Frazie ran as it gave chase, keeping just out of its reach until she reached a tree. Leaping up, she grabbed a branch and spun forward. Before the insect could react, she’d flipped overhead and brought her feet down on its back for a crushing blow, squashing it down towards the ground into a puff of smoke.

 

Jumping back to earth, Frazie wiped her brow. “Phew...” Mental creatures were getting more and more ridiculous. She couldn’t rest long, though, as she could hear shrill voices and beating wings somewhere up above, more Regrets searching for her through the brush.

 

It was time to skedaddle. Sticking to the shade, she scampered off, moving quick and quietly to keep from being noticed.

 

---

 

Frazie was starting to miss the buzzing once the eerie silence settled in again. The farther she went from the bubble, the less safe she felt, but for Clem and Crystal’s sakes, she pressed on.

 

Shoving a branch aside, she sighed as she ended up in another non-descript clearing with nothing but more trees and more foggy sky. “What a surprise.” This was starting to feel like a waste of time. With a sigh, she turned around, ready to return to square one and try heading out in a different direction next time.

 

Until she heard a sound.

 

Not a Regret, thank goodness, but some kind of hooting and scampering off to the side. Curious, yet cautious, she shuffled towards the noise and peered out through a gap in the bushes.

 

It looked like a playground. As far as she could tell, nothing living was out there. Some swings, a slide, one of those spinny things she’d never bothered to learn the name of... carousels? It seemed safe enough, but whatever had been running around was gone. She stuck one foot forward and climbed into the clearing, eyes sweeping over the toys and utilities.

 

The biggest thing there was a bunch of interconnected bars rising up over the sandbox, meant for kids to climb and hang from and hopefully not injure themselves with. “Heh...” Frazie couldn’t help but smirk to herself as she looked between the structure and the forest. “Now that’s a real jungle gym.”

 

‘Ehehehehehe...’

 

The skin on her neck bristled. A low, haunting laugh tickled her ear. It didn’t even sound like it was appreciating her high-brow comedy... it sounded more like it was mocking her.

 

She spun, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was watching. With every twist, she could have sworn she saw black fur out of the corner of her eye, but she always missed it by a second. All the while, it taunted her in that same low, sinister tone.

 

‘Can’t keep up?’

 

‘So slow.’

 

‘So worthless.’

 

‘Just give up...’

 

Each whisper felt likes nail scratching against a chalkboard, only amplified into her soul. Thoroughly creeped out, she took a step backwards, ready to run for it.

 

She never got the chance. A piercing animalistic shriek startled her before a mass of fur and claws jumped her from behind.

 

“AHHHHHHHHH!” Frazie was shoved to the ground, rolling with it, landing on one knee as she felt the scrapes on her back sting. In front of her, once more giggling at her misfortune, was perhaps the creepiest creature she’d seen yet.

 

It was squat and monkeylike, about half her height, but it wasn’t like any primate she’d ever seen. It’s fur was bristly and almost shadowlike, its tail tapering into a sharp point and its fingers just as pointy. And its face... its mouth was big, dark, and sneering, like an unlit pumpkin carved into a taunting grin. Its eyes, bright and glowing, affixed her with an orange glare.

 

Intrusive Thought

Aggressive, persistent, and likes to pop out of nowhere.

 

She barely even had the time to process what’d attacked her before it was pouncing again, howling and swinging. Rather than dodge, she fell on her back and caught it with her feet, flinging it back overhead much like she’d done to the bullies back in Dogen’s head.

 

Except this time, she did it to launch the beast back into the jungle gym. Its face slammed into the bars with a clang, stunning it. It wasn’t down long, though. After a few low grunts it shook it off and pushed off to attack again. ‘Not good enough!’

 

It tackled her to the ground, her arms shaking as she tried to shove it off. The creature wasn’t just strong and rude - whenever it was close, it felt like it was draining her energy away. Pouring all her mental energy into her fist, she lashed out and socked it off her. It yelped as it flew back, and she quickly regained her footing.

 

Pushing the advantage, she landed a few more chops and kicks, forcing it back, but as soon as she missed, it was on her and clawing again. Fed up, she grabbed it with her mind and threw it to the ground.

 

Before it could get up, she knelt and grabbed its tail. Yanking sharply, she lifted it up and swung it overhead. It let out a long, continuous cry as it spun around before she released it back into the gym. It landed back-first into one of the bars, striking them with a loud bang.

 

It crumpled to the ground, forcing its face up at her. ‘Weak...!’ it spat, but it was all for show. It was starting to fade away. With a trembling finger, it pointed up at her and screamed a monkeylike shriek before collapsing into smoke.

 

Frazie rested her hands on her knees, catching her breath. “Nasty little thing,” she murmured, glad she’d survived the attack mostly unscathed. Its scratches stung, but it could’ve been worse.

 

‘Nobody likes you.’

 

‘Nobody needs you.’

 

‘Everything would be better if you were gone.’

 

She froze. The voices were back, and coming from all around. Her gaze whipped to the trees, and dozens of glowing eyes stared back at her.

 

The creature hadn’t been letting out a death rattle... it’d been calling for backup.

 

That was around the time Frazie decided to throw in the towel. Putting Clem’s sanctuary ahead of her, she sprinted like mad back towards it and into the trees. One of those things was tough enough... a dozen? No thanks.

 

Of course, they weren’t going to just let her leave. More insults and cruelties rang out behind her alongside primal cries and frantic pursuing as the beasties gave chase.

 

It was a race now, and it wouldn’t end until either Frazie reached the finish line or they reached her.

 

Fat chance she’d let that happen. Breathing heavily, she pumped her legs, trying not to let their words get to her or drain her.

 

Times like these, she was grateful her dexterity gave her options others didn’t have. Leaping up, she vaulted a huge root like a hurdle jumped off it, latching onto a swinging vine. While it carried her, she could glance back long enough to spot the furry horde leaping branch to branch.

 

Up ahead, the dome grew closer. It was the final stretch. Intending to win this race, Frazie spotted a thin root down below and dropped down. Digging her shoes into it, she let gravity takes the reins as she grinded along it, launching off the end and flying straight through the barrier.

 

“Oof!” It was a rough landing, but a safe one. She lifted her head up to watch the berserk baboons plow into the dome, stopped in their tracks.

 

Not like it discouraged them. They continued to scrape and jump at it, frenzied, calling for blood.

 

‘Coward!’

 

‘Get back here!’

 

‘Or do you know you don’t stand a chance?’

 

Frazie’s glared... and then her eyes widened. Now that she wasn’t being attacked or chased, she realized something about their constant banter.

 

Those were the same voices that Clem had been listening to in his headphones.

 

...Clem!

 

Remembering the boy, she pushed up off the ground to see him still laying back without a care in the world right where she’d left him. Crystal had stopped pouting, but she didn’t look happy to be here, kicking her legs back and forth on the edge of her friend’s chair. “Clem!” Frazie called, reaching out to tap him with her telekinesis.

 

“Eh?” He popped one side off to listen. “What, did a censor get caught in the pool filter again?”

 

Frazie gestured wildly to the constantly shifting and spitting wall of rage-filled simians. “Do you know about those things out there?!”

 

Clem quirked his chin to the side, then laughed, waving it off. “Of course! Why do you think I’m staying in here?”

 

“Clem!” Frazie protested. “This isn’t healthy!”

 

Watching the howling mass pound on his final sanctuary, spewing vile words and twisted insults, Frazie could finally understand what’d pushed him to the edge. Having these thoughts all day, every day, insisting the world would be better off without you... to the point where censors couldn’t fight them off anymore. It was sobering to think about looking from the outside, and there was no doubt Crystal was in a similar situation.

 

A loud bang cut her off mid-thought and made her shriek as one of the Thoughts launched itself at the wall.

 

Clem shook his head. “See? They’re too strong... there’s no point trying to fight back. Come on, stick around! Relax a little before they break in and crush everything I have left. I have juuuuice poooucheees!” He reached up, shaking a little baggy. “In cherry, cranberry, and cyanide flavors.”

 

Frazie felt her stomach flip harder than her doing a triple somersault. “I think I’ll pass.”

 

“Suit yourself!” He passed one to Crystal to share before going back to his ‘tunes’, the two kids somehow managing to ignore the non-stop vitriol being shouted through the wall.

 

And all the while, the bubble was shrinking even faster. Frazie had to take a step back from the closing barrier when she realized it shrunk more every time the beasts attacked it. Who knew how long they’d been at it to wear Clem’s safe spot down this small before she’d arrived? To the point he didn’t even care about it anymore?

 

Frazie grit her teeth. She had her moments of frustration, like when Bobby was being Bobby or one of her siblings needed a good pinecone pelting. But that was nothing compared to how she felt right now.

 

She was pissed.

 

She was angry at all the censors who’d clearly given up trying to handle this infestation long ago. She was angry at the monsters themselves, for hurting Clem this badly without a shred of mercy. And most of all, she was angry at the people who’d no doubt instilled these creatures in his head to begin with with their cruel words and actions.

 

Furious, she turned and jabbed a finger at the howling horde outside. “I know you’re just some fake mental projection or whatever mumbo jumbo, but you’re causing real damage! And I’m gonna do the same to you ugly monkeys,” she threatened with a raised fist. “I swear it!”

 

The beasts howled with derisive laughter, not even pretending to be intimidated. A couple blew raspberries at her, the rest clawing at the dome and jeering cruely.

 

‘Say that outside the bubble!’

 

‘She won’t! Too afraid.’

 

‘Useless...’

 

‘Pathetic!’

 

‘And hideous!’

 

“Rrrrrrr...!” Chalk it up as another bad idea, but Frazie couldn’t abide this cruelty - not towards her, she couldn’t care less what some imaginary goons said. Her blood boiled for Clem. All the hate he’d endured, all the mocking, the self-loathing, the non-stop hassling echoing in his own head... she was livid.

 

Fists clenched, she reeled one back for a solid punch straight through the shield at the closest beast. Not even psi-infused - just pure, protective rage.

 

But though she hadn’t been trying, something in her mind took action for her.

 

Orange energy covered her fist - not the usual hand-shaped extension, but a solid covering that clung snugly to her arm. When it struck the beast, it hit with a resounding crack, sending it flying. Ignoring their fallen comrade, the rest of the monsters immediately leapt for her arm, but their fangs and scratches didn’t even make her flinch. Whatever this glow was encircling her limb, it felt weighty, strong... it made her feel invincible.

 

She pulled her hand back in, the power fading as quickly as it’d come. The hecklers outside were forgotten as she puzzled over what that’d just been. And more importantly - could she do it again?

 

Frazie tried to recapture that feeling, the sheer upset on someone else’s behalf, the desire to withstand many attacks at once. Again, the orange covering returned, this time creeping up her arm and settling on her shoulder.

 

She tried again. Again. Over and over until she managed to get the thing completely covering her in a solid sphere. She felt... steady. It was taking loads and loads of energy, but in brief spurts, this new ability might just come in handy.

 

Glancing back out the dome, she shot a sneer at the ogling beasties. They started acting up again, but this time more enraged than mocking.

 

“Round two?” she asked, making them howl all the louder. Ready to try out her new power, she stepped up to the barrier.

 

And promptly stumbled as the ground shook.

 

Her heart thumped in time with the rumbling of massive footsteps. Branches cracked and snapped as something walked through them like grass. The Intrusive Thoughts had grown eerily silent and contained, the crowd parting to make way for whatever was coming.

 

And when she saw it, eyes trailing up in terror. Her hopes fell lower and lower with every thudding step.

 

If the rest of the Intrusive Thoughts were monkeys, this one was the gorilla. No... it was more like King Kong. At least half as big as the dome itself, its nostrils flared as it stomped right up to the edge of the zone, its murky fur and branching mustache blocking out the sky.

 

“C-C-Clem?” Crystal stammered, crawling under his lawn chair to hide herself. “What is that?!?”

 

“Mmm?” Clem popped his headphone off and looked up at the sky, only to see the beast’s monstrous face glaring down at him. He didn’t even flinch. “Ooooh, that’s just dad. Hi, Papa!”

 

When the creature replied, it was like a cannon booming over the jungle. “No one said you could speak!”

 

Clem visibly trembled, but forced on a big-toothed smile nonetheless. “Right you are, Papa!” He chuckled weakly. “...Right you are.”

 

Frazie might not have interacted with the kids much, but they’d been so peppy and eccentric whenever she’d seen them before. Even on the beach, they’d been full of irritation when she’d tried to stop them. Here... Clem just affixed his father fill-in with a glossy-eyed stare and an empty smile. He looked... broken.

 

But that didn’t stop the beast from tearing into him.

 

It accentuated each word with a devastating punch to the barrier. “Why? Are? You? Still? Here?!” Each punch made the ground jump, sending censors and chairs flying. To Frazie’s horror, she could see the dome lose a few inches with every single blow. The other creatures were wearing Clem down... but this single monstrosity was destroying him.

 

The goliath roared, bringing both its fists down on the bubble. Each slammed into it with an echoing bang, making everything within bounce around and cracks appear in the sky. If it really wanted to, it could probably beat the dome down with a good hour or two of pummeling... but a solid few blows seemed to suffice for it.

 

It finally stopped its assault to press its face into the glass. “I shouldn’t be surprised, you’ve always let me down. But now you’re failing at failing! I sent you to camp to get you out of my hair, and hoped you’d never make it back! But I still see your ugly mug in this stupid bubble every day!”

 

Clem was sweating, wringing his shirt together in his hands. “D-don’t worry, Papa! I’m working on it! B-but soon, Crystal and I will be all powerful and...”

 

“No buts!” Clem curled in on himself as the gorilla hurled more abuse. “You’ve let me down since you were born, and you still let me down now!” It reeled its head back. “You... are... USELESS!”

 

As it spat the last word, its mouth opened wide. Like a sonic boom, its roar came out in a beam of wind, pelting the dome continuously and making it shake like a jackhammer while everything inside bounced around.

 

As quickly as it’d begun, it was over. Frazie moaned, leaning her head off the ground to see the monster glaring down with eyes full of hate. It snorted, then turned to leave, stomping back into the trees. Down below, the rest of the Intrusive Thoughts followed after it, a few of them throwing jeers and sticking out tongues back behind them before they faded into the forest.

 

All around, censors were scrambling to put chairs back in place, pick up towels, pick each other off the ground. That one attack had taken a big chunk off the remaining area, making the small dome even smaller. At this rate, there’d be nothing left in little more than a week, if not less.

 

Clem was already at his limit even with this tiny bit of peace. Frazie dreaded to imagine what would happen if it popped.

 

While everyone bustled around him, Clem sat completely still. He stared into the distance blankly, not paying attention to a thing. Finally, he sighed... and perked right back up, his grin as forced as his tone. “Welp! Back to relaxing!”

 

He shifted his position, slipped his headset back on, and got comfy again with the endless negative thoughts pounding in his ears. Below, Crystal peered worryingly up at him through the holes in the chair.

 

“Clem?” Crystal tried to offer her friend her sympathies, but the boy was already back in his own world. Giving up, she murmured to herself instead. “You know what? I think I’m just gonna stay down here for awhile. Yep. Good plan, Crystal. Thank you, Crystal.”

 

As everything around the bubble returned to normal - or as normal as normal could get, anyway - Frazie picked herself off the ground, trying to process all she’d saw.

 

No, wait a second. The anger was coming back.

 

Oooooh, if she ever met Clem’s father, she was going to give him more than just a few pinecones to the head. But she couldn’t do anything about that right now... right now, all she could do was try and deal with the mental version of him.

 

But how? That thing was gargantuan, in size and bulk. And despite all she’d learned today, she was still just a rookie.

 

Feeling that power surge in her again, she looked down at her palm and let that barrier course over her hand again. She still wasn’t sure what it was, but she hoped it’d come in handy.

 

Because like it or not, she was going back into the jungle, and she was taking that oversized primate down. Somehow.

 

The coast clear again, Frazie took a deep breath and once more stepped out of the safety of the bubble. As big as the beast was, it was pretty good at not knocking over every little thing in its wake... but there was still fallen stumps and broken branches marking a path. She might not even need them, as she’d seen which way he’d left and didn’t figure he’d bother trying to change his route.

 

Now with a mission in mind, she practiced conjuring her new power as she walked, keeping an eye out for any Regrets or Intrusive Thoughts as she disappeared back into the brush.

 

---

 

She was in really dangerous territory now, far away from the safe spot with no chance of making it back if she got ambushed again. But as scary as that thought was, the fact the jungle was starting to open up was a relieving sign that she was nearing the end of the trail.

 

To her surprise, like the playground she’d stumbled upon, there were more signs of civilization out here. The next clearing was huge, with rows of buildings around a singular road. A simple little cul-de-sac... except all the houses were made from dark stone and missing chunks of their front halves, looking more like boxy caves.

 

Though she figured they were still homes... just to more of those vulgar thoughts.

 

A few moments watching proved her right. While most of the pack had dispersed back into the jungle, a few had followed their leader back home, hopping and prowling along the street as they snapped and yelled at each other. She counted at least five lurking around.

 

Where she had to go wasn’t hard to figure out. At the far end of the path, the biggest house of them all laid, a huge cave that no doubt belonged to a certain goliath.

 

The question was, how was she going to get to it without alerting the entire neighborhood?

 

Her mind drifted back to that one girl she’d spotted disappearing by the lodge... but alas, her new power wasn’t invisibility. Her best bet was to slip around the outskirts of the neighborhood. Surely if she could sneak out of her family caravan, she could slip past a few monkeys, right?

 

Right. Probably. Keeping her head low, she put her plan into action, keeping her rustling to a minimum as she traveled along the ferns.

 

She kept in the shadows and awaited her moment. When two beasts started bickering with each other, she jumped out and ran on tiptoes, pressing herself against the back of the nearest house.

 

Her heart thudded in her throat as she listened for her next opening. When it sounded like they were either far away or distracted, she dashed to the next cover, steadily making her way down the street. About halfway through, she’d gotten it down, leaping out for the next house when they had a little scuffle.

 

Or, so she’d thought.

 

One monkey threw the other off it, sending it tumbling... and knocking its gaze towards her. Surprise melted into rage as it screamed out in alarm.

 

Crap.

 

In an instant, they were on her. Half a dozen of them, ranting and raving and ready to tear her limb from limb. As the tidal wave of fuzz rushed towards her, she shut her eyes and willed her new power to swell - now was as a good time to try it out, and she prayed it wouldn’t fail her now.

 

The shield spread over her again, and when the Intrusive Thoughts crashed into her, she didn’t even feel it. Claws left no dent, teeth gnawed on solid energy, and even their negative aura had no effect.

 

But she could only hold the barrier for so long. Against one or two of them, the pause would’ve given her ample opportunity to find an opening to attack. But with this many at once, the minute her power drained, she was a goner.

 

Desperate, she jammed her arms out and spun, whipping them off her. Moving seemed to drain her faster, but she needed the space. While they immediately launched at her again, she responded with psychic fists, knocking a couple back and spinning to kick another across the face.

 

Her sides were still open, though. Three Thoughts tackled her from both ends, shoving her down and knocking the wind out of her. She put the barrier back up, but the rest of the swarm was joining in and her energy was running out.

 

She punched, again and again, not caring if she lost her defenses if it got her out of this situation... but it was too late. The shield went down, and the pain began.

 

Teeth and claws, biting and slashing, and all while their cruel taunts rang out. Try as she might, she couldn’t fight them off. Not this many at once.

 

Frazie could feel her consciousness slipping away, her energy fleeing, her psyche fading away from the mental world. It was hopeless. She’d lost. She’d be booted from Clem’s brain, the Psy Portal would fall off, and the kids would no doubt take advantage of her fatigue to carry out their plan.

 

Her struggles died down and so did her thoughts, but those that remained stayed defiant. She had to help Clem and Crystal.

 

She had to help.

 

She had to...

 

Help...

 

...

 

...

 

...Mmm. Tasty.

 

Something like cotton candy and bubble gum with a sharp tang and a heavenly sweetness spread across her tongue. It didn’t make a lick of sense, until Frazie recalled her talk with Ford that morning.

 

The Dream Fluff.

 

Somehow, the candy has sensed her distress and unwrapped itself, placing itself on her tongue. Not only was it delicious... it was revitalizing. Like a generator for the brain, her mind tingled and her aches faded as her connection to Clem’s mind grew stable again.

 

She’d gotten a second chance, and she needed to make it count.

 

By now the Intrusive Thoughts had slowed their attacks, already thinking she was defeated. And that was just the opening she needed.

 

“Get... off... ME!” With hot fury, she built the heat in her mind and let it explode outwards. Like a bomb going off, the simians were pushed back and set alight as her pyrokinesis blasted them away.

 

Panicking, her enemies rolled around, patted each other trying to put each other out. It would be kinda funny if Frazie wasn’t deadset on kicking their behinds back to the stone age while she had the chance.

 

Now it was her turn to do the pouncing. She leapt and crashed down on the nearest one, a psychic foot flattening it as she stomped down. She pushed her hands forward into two telekinetic fists, both latching onto a couple flaming primates and knocking their heads together.

 

As the unconscious beasts went up in flames, the few remaining ones were extinguished and angry. But with their numbers halved, the fight was just a bit fairer.

 

Like before, they leapt in an attempt to overwhelm her with their numbers. This time, when she put her barrier up to stop them, she had enough leverage to grab them and fling them off.

 

Rationing her shield energy, she switched between beating them up and blocking them, shoving them back whenever they were on the attack. Another fell to her blows, but the last two weren’t giving up. This time when they pounced again, she sent them flying back with a sharp kick to each of their chins.

 

One landed atop the other, and Frazie took the chance to pull off her grand finisher. Putting her arms up, she bent and cartwheeled forward. One spin, two spins, three spins, and a leap. Twirling overhead, she descended feet first, sharply bringing her heels down on the survivors.

 

Hands up high, she looked like the performer she’d been all her life as the creatures poofed out from under her. Unphased, she kept the pose and landed on her feet... and then promptly collapsed.

 

“Uggggggh...” That was draining. But with silence once more filling the area, she finally had time to rest.

 

While she sat, she peered over at the biggest house on the block again, its cavernous entrance looming imposingly over the street. Inside would no doubt be her hardest challenge yet. She was feeling confident after handling an entire pack of overaggressive primates, but she still knew that even with superior numbers they’d at least still been a reasonable size.

 

Could she do it? Could she take down the walking mountain? She didn’t know.

 

But with her mind drifting back to the two kids back in the bubble, she knew she had to.

 

Frazie couldn’t linger in the neighborhood too long. It was only a matter of time before more Intrusive Thoughts meandered home and found her sitting in the middle of the road.

 

She sure put it off as long as she could, regardless. But eventually, she couldn’t excuse sitting around any longer. Sucking in a breath, she pushed up off the ground and trudged her way towards the massive housecave looming up ahead on the street’s edge.

 

Welp. It was time to step into the gorilla cage.

 

Inside the tunnel was somehow even gloomier than the shadowy landscape behind her. Jagged rock walls as far as the eye could see, their darkness reflecting nothing but the dim glow of the cave’s lighting. Like some sort of mix between lamps and torches, flickering golden bulbs crackled from upside-down lampshades and kept the path from being pitch black.

 

Being in here made her feel small - which made sense, since the place’s owner was a giant. There was more to it, though. As she walked, descending down into the earth, it felt like the walls were pressing down on her.

 

There was just something about this place that made her wish she had someone, anyone, to keep her company.

 

A second later, she wished she’d kept her big, fat mouth shut.

 

Pools of purple sludge congealed on the slope down, staring at her with glowing sockets. Doubts. Frazie groaned, waving a sparking finger. “Not in the mood, fellas.”

 

Thankfully, now that she knew how to deal with them, Doubts weren’t that big a concern. If anything they were welcome in this dark place, the glow of their burning bodies making it feel a bit less oppressive as she marked a flaming trail on the way down.

 

Farther along the hall, the path began to open up, and she could tell she was close to the main chamber. Lighting up one final pile of goop, she blinked back surprise when something was freed from it.

 

Another vault, looking relieved to be saved. Frazie knelt before it, extending a hand. “Look, I don’t want to hurt you. I did you a solid, so could you...?”

 

The critter’s eyes darted back and forth, but it certainly didn’t want to be knocked the heck out after being submerged in slime. Reluctantly, it gave a soft ‘bleh’ as it popped its mouth open and spat out some photos.

 

“Thanks,” Frazie said with a small nod, fanning out yet another snippet of the past before her.

 

---

 

Father’s Day

 

A little to the left. No, no, the right! Just a smidge, and... perfect.

 

A perfectly composed breakfast smile, with bacon lips and eggy eyes. Throw in some hot buttered flapjacks, fresh telekinetically-squeezed orange juice, and a decorative flower, and it was a father’s day meal meant for the king of all dads.

 

AKA: not Clem’s. But he was going to receive it anyway.

 

Did his dad deserve it? No, not really. But they were family, and somewhere deep in his heart, Clem still felt there was a chance they could connect. He just wasn’t trying hard enough. Right?

 

That’s what it felt like, anyway. No matter how much effort he put in to make his father happy, it was never good enough. To him, he was a burden. A nuisance. Useless.

 

Clem shook those thoughts out of his head. Whenever he felt those voices nagging him, it was just a sign to put on a smile and tell himself everything would be fine. So, carefully balancing the plate with both hands, he ventured out of the kitchen with a hum.

 

His father was in the living room, seated in the chair he spent most of his time in when he was home from work. In contrast to how Clem saw him, the man was actually rather thin, his bushy mustache sprouting past both sides of his face. The harshness of his glare was the same, though, even as they scanned something as innocuous as the newspaper.

 

At least the paper wouldn’t shrink and shake under his gaze. Clem willed his nerves to calm as he very quietly approached from the side. “Hey, hey, Papa! It’s that time of year again! I know you threw last year’s meal in the garbage, but this time I’m sure it’s perfect.”

 

His father shut his eyes tight, as if just hearing his voice grated on him. For a moment, it seemed like he just wouldn’t respond at all and hoped Clem would just go away. But, finally, he turned to give the plate the briefest look. Clem’s heart thudded with anticipation.

 

Finally, he scoffed. “You think I’d try anything YOU made? If I wanted to kill myself, there’s better ways than choking on whatever crap you call cooking.”

 

Somehow, after all the times Clem had had his heart crushed, it always managed to rebuild just so it could fall to pieces again. “E-Eheheh... I know I usually screw up, but this time, I made sure it’s perfect!”

 

“A perfect waste of time!” The plate was suddenly jerked from his grasp and flipped upside down, its contents splattering all over the floor. “Now clean this up and get outta here. Surely you can at least do THAT.”

 

Clem’s hopes were on the floor alongside the mess, but his lips strained as he made his smile even bigger. “Can do, Papa! Can do...”

 

And so he did. Of course his dad wouldn’t notice it, appreciate it, or be satisfied with it, but it was done. Once he’d finished, Clem grabbed their phone off the counter and snuck off with it to his room.

 

Papa wouldn’t be happy if he noticed the phone missing, but then again, he was never happy to begin with. Clem slid a finger into the rotary dialer and called up the only person in this cruel world worth seeking out.

 

“Pickuppickuppickup...” he repeated with every ring until, finally, someone did. Juuuust not who he was hoping for.

 

“Hellooooo?”

 

Clem swallowed. “Um... hey, Mrs. Snagrash...”

 

Silence on the other end. Finally, the sound of footsteps before she spoke sharply. “It’s for you, stupid.”

 

It wasn’t directed at him, but Clem winced nonetheless. His nerves finally eased a bit when he heard a familiar voice on the other end, though. “Clem?”

 

Like the lone beam of sunshine on his life, he felt himself perking up. “Hey, Crystal!”

 

“Clem? Hey, Clem! How’d it go?”

 

And just like that, the sunshine was snuffed out. He sighed. “It didn’t work. It never works.”

 

A short, unsurprised sigh on the other end. “It’s okay, Clem. I know you tried your best. It’s not your fault...”

 

“No, no, it is.” Clem wasn’t sure how, exactly, but it just... was. There’s no way he’d be so consistently rejected if he’d just do one thing right for once.

 

And he knew just the thing.

 

“Listen... Crystal,” Clem continued after a moment. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” He paused. “A little project.”

 

---

 

Frazie had to resist the urge to incinerate the photos in her palms. This was one memory Clem could likely do without, but she wasn’t taking any chances after that mess with Phoebe. At least she’d learned something from that.

 

Instead, she gingerly placed the photos back on the vault’s tongue, which promptly furled back in.

 

She reached down to give its head a couple quick pats. “You’ve got some nasty stuff in your head, little buddy,” she murmured, and the creature gave her a confused look.

 

Frazie stood back up, motioning for the critter to shoo. “Now get out of here! This is gonna get messy.” Grateful to be spared, the critter scampered off back where she’d came from and she finally walked the final stretch into the main cavern.

 

Just like the rest of the cave, Frazie couldn’t shake the feeling she was lost in some dark void, like the walls themselves would consume her if she got too close. She had to run her fingers along the stone to make sure that, no, they were actually just rocks. In fact, she could climb up them if she wanted to, chunks of stone jutting out and scaling up and up to the blunt stalactites on the ceiling.

 

And in the center of it all, the hulking behemoth filling in for Clem’s dad sat reading a normal-sized newspaper.

 

It would be almost comical seeing a giant gorilla squinting at tiny bits of text... if the sight of him didn’t automatically make Frazie’s blood boil. She didn’t really have anyone she outright disliked before she came to camp, since her social circle had been basically just her own family. But this guy? She was going to give him a piece of her mind. The piece that formed hands and smacked people silly, specifically.

 

First order of business? Roast that stupid paper out from under his nose.

 

The beast was taken off guard as the scraps pinched between his fingers evaporated in flame. Finally noticing her, he leaned down, his face taller than her entire body. Frazie forced herself to stand firm as he looked her up and down, fists taut at her sides.

 

To her surprise, he only looked briefly annoyed at her arrival before he sat back up. “I don’t have a problem with you, kid. So beat it,” he spat with a wave of his hand. “Before I change my mind.”

 

To her credit, taking the offer and running for it never crossed her mind. “Well, see, there’s still an issue... because I have a problem with you,” she retorted. Finding her nerve, she shook a finger way up at him. “About your problem with Clem.”

 

You’d think she’d just insulted his mother, the way that last word made him snarl. “Why are you wasting your time on him? That boy... he’s useless. He’s not worth the effort!”

 

Feeling the tranquil fury burning within, Frazie kept herself from starting any spontaneous fire as she shouted up at him. “You’re wrong. Wronger than anyone I’ve ever heard before. No one deserves to feel how you’ve made him feel, and I’m putting a stop to it right now!“ She took up a fighting stance, feet squared and fists raised, already crackling with psychic energy. “If there was any chance of me leaving - and there wasn’t - it’s definitely gone now.”

 

Growling, the biggest Intrusive Thought of them all pushed himself up, and Frazie face fell when she realized he was even taller close up. “Then you’re wasting your time and your life!” the beast roared, lifting a hand.

 

With deceitful speed, he hammered its ten ton fist down on her head. Eyes wide, Frazie covered her face with her arms and braced for impact. He slammed his knuckle right down on her... and cried out when it hit something even more solid than the walls around them.

 

Sucking on its fingers, Frazie just laughed as she lowered her shield. “Gotcha!”

 

In response, Clem’s dad opened its mouth wide and screamed a sonic scream. Oh, right. That sound beam.

 

The ground erupted where she’d just been as Frazie dived, ducking under shrapnel that his explosive voice shot up. To her horror, she looked back to see he was turning his head and directing the weaponized vitriol her way. Scrambling to her feet, she ran ahead as he gave chase with his voice.

 

He couldn’t keep it up forever... but he could slam his arm ahead of her, walling her off between his hand and the deadly laser.

 

“Ghh!” Trapped between fur and death, an idea came to Frazie. It was time to play pattycake with Papa. Violently.

 

Conjuring up psi-punch after psi-punch, she laid into his palm with as much force as she could muster. At first, he just sneered as he kept screaming - and then winced, his paw blooming red and sore as she wailed on it. A loud crack erupted from the middle of his hand as she poured it all into a decisive strike, making him scream and clutch it. He bent forward, his mouth filled with pained cries instead of energy as he rubbed his hand. “AGGGH! Stronger than you look, you little...!”

 

Thwack. A strong kick to the jaw shut him up and made him bite his tongue, the beast muttering swears around the hand it pressed to its mouth. Frazie snickered.

 

“Enough!” Outraged that he was being outplayed by an ant, the cavern started to shake as he slammed his hands on the ground wildly and randomly. Frazie looked up to see chunks of the roof falling towards her, as well as his swinging hand. She brought the shield up, ready to block the debris and make him hurt himself again...

 

...Only for his fist to halt directly in front of her, turn, and flick her forcefully once her barrier fell.

 

Frazie’s back slammed into the wall as she yelped, landing in a heap. The monster just laughed. “Not as smart as you look, though!”

 

Gritting her teeth, Frazie stood up, blocking out the pain. She couldn’t lose this, and no dream fluff was going to save her butt this time. She needed a new plan... and those tumbling boulders gave her an idea.

 

“Up!” Leaping, she hopped up the nearest outcropping on the wall, scaling her way up the cave. She didn’t get to climb far before she was forced to jump back, a fist once more slamming just ahead of her.

 

“Where are you goin’? We were just having fun!” the prime primate taunted, swinging again. Frazie dove out of its path and, catching a falling rock in an ethereal mitt, chucked it right at his eye. “AGH! Where did you learn to fight so dirty?!”

 

“You don’t deserve any better!” She dodged his next punch and hopped up a ledge to start shimmying herself to the next outcropping. Enraged, he unleashed another flurry of blows on and around her, forcing her to time her shields to keep from being squashed against the wall like a fly.

 

He was losing his patience around the time she jumped onto another platform and tossed another huge stone right at his nose. Howling, he completely obliterated her footing with another intense scream of rage.

“Whoa!” she managed to hop to another ledge as her platform crumbled beneath her, but a second later, that one was gone too.

 

Clem’s dad was losing it, firing beam after beam and forcing her to keep moving higher and higher. The cavern sprawled out below her and she forced herself to stay calm. She was no stranger to heights, but if she fell from here, it was gonna hurt... and the odds she’d be able to get back up were low.

 

Climbing above him, she made her stupidest boldest decision yet, flipping out into open air over his head. Caught unaware, his roars cut off as she latched onto his hair.

 

It was her turn to give the smackdown now. Clinging to his dome for dear life, she whacked his skull again and again with energized chops. Getting the headache of a lifetime, he tried to slap her off, but she rolled and jumped out of the way just to grab his hair again and keep up the assault.

 

He was losing control, and she knew it. So with one last hit, she got up on top of his head and leapt straight up, ready to drop right down on his aching scalp.

 

She never got the chance. Pouring all his anger into his vocal chords, the loudest shout of them all shot like a cannon straight above him, crashing around Frazie with all he had.

 

“Sucker!”

 

It passed over her shield, the girl laughing as he hit right behind her as she’d hoped... blasting one of the biggest chunks of rock on the ceiling.

 

Conjuring her shield again to protect her descent, the roof collapsed, a wall of stone dropping right on top of the gorilla’s head. A huge thwack rang out around the room as it shattered to pieces on his dome.

 

It was a testament to his strength that he was still standing after the blow, dazed and wobbling. He was in no condition to fight back, just clutching his head and not even noticing Frazie preparing for the coup de grace.

 

With nothing to stop her, Frazie was free to make a running leap at him, charging at his stomach... then curling into a ball, letting her shield encompass her entire form as she became an unstoppable cannonball of pain.

 

He didn’t stand a chance against her weaponized protection. Like a punch to the gut, he let out an oof as she plowed into him and threw him off balance. With all the wind knocked out of him, he stumbled backward, crashing down on his back and making the floor shake under his weight.

 

Despite it all, he was still conscious, stars and bananas swirling around his head as Frazie pushed her advantage. His sore stomach ached even harder as the girl jumped on it, bouncing off it like a trampoline over his head.

 

This was it. All or nothing. It might’ve been dangerous, but Frazie pooled every trick she’d learned and every bit of energy she had left into one final attack. Feet pointed straight down, glowing bright with psychic energy. The rest of her body gleamed orange, covered in protective coating that rendered her completely solid. And to top it off, she harnessed all the burning fury in her heart and let it coalesce around her, ready to detonate the instant she hit her target.

 

Like an anvil from the heavens, she dropped. He regained focus and lifted his head just in time for her to smash down right on his face.

 

Her pyrokinesis exploded, her psychic kick burrowed into the bridge of his nose, and the added solidity of her shield made it all the more devastating. She pressed down as far as she could go, kicking down hard before bouncing off and back to the floor, sticking the landing as always.

 

For about five seconds. Once the adrenaline wore off, she flopped down to her knees with a cry.

 

Using all that psychic energy at once was a poor, if well-meaning idea. Waves of pain crashed down on her as her skull throbbed. That was too much energy for even some advanced agents, let alone a newcomer. But she’d really, really wanted this jerk gone. The mother of all headaches was a small price to pay for him to be oh god no why was he still talking.

 

His voice was weak, but it was there behind her, the monumental monkey not moving a muscle as he spoke to the air. “Not... not bad, kid...”

 

“Headhurtsshutupshutupshutup.”

 

The beast chuckled weakly, wheezing from the effort. “Coff... of course... that pitiful runt needed someone else to fight his battles. You’re a tough one, no doubt... but as soon as you’re not around to protect him anymore, he’s gonna fall again.”

 

Despite the hammering behind her eyes, Frazie grit her teeth and snapped back. “Clem’s stronger than you think, you troll! He wouldn’t have lasted this long if he wasn’t, keeping a smile on his face even if it was fake. With you out of the picture, he’s gonna do just fine.”

 

“Then I suppose... we’ll just have to... wait and see...” Taking his last breath, the behemoth’s hands fell to his sides.

 

His body started to melt into the shadows that’d composed it, his head tilting to the side before finally vanishing from the world. Frazie was alone in the gloom.

 

Silence. Eerie, peaceful silence. Just what Frazie needed right now, with her head feeling like Dogen was gripping it again. She could barely process her victory through the pain. With nothing more to distract her, she closed her thoughts off and shut her eyes until the jackhammering lowered to a level she could suffer through.

 

When she opened her eyes, things felt... different. She wasn’t sure why. Nothing had changed. But the formerly oppressive stone walls just felt like regular rock again. Sucking in a breath, she got up to her feet, massaging her temples as she retraced her route back to the surface.

 

She stepped out of the cave... and back into Clem’s bubble. “Huh?” ...Oh, forget it. Confusing mind junk. Her head hurt too much to dwell on it. All that mattered was when she looked back, the neighborhood was long gone, and she was safe back in the dome.

 

She wasn’t sure what she expected to happen next. For the bubble to pop and show rolling green fields outside? A parade to march through and announce the day was saved?

 

Nothing that extravagant, it seemed. The only thing different she noticed was Clem suddenly leaning up in his lawnchair with a confused look on his face.

 

“Wha-?” Clem tugged his headphones off and jangled them, thumping his ear. “What’s going on? Those nasty voices haven’t been quiet in, well... in a long, loooong time.”

 

Once he’d spoken, the censors all collectively looked up from their vacationing. A few of them groaned - it sounded like it was time to get back to work. But judging from Clem’s comment, it sounded like their workload just got a lot more bearable.

 

They hopped off chairs, off trampolines, out of the pool. Like the world’s smallest stampede, they folded towels, grabbed their stampers, and scampered off to the edge of the zone. As they all leapt out and into the jungle, Frazie noticed something while she watched.

 

The bubble was expanding. Not much... just an inch or two now and then, like its old shrinkage pattern had been reversed.

 

But the pace didn’t matter. What was important was that Clem was finally getting the chance to heal.

 

As far as Crystal was aware, though, this was her chance. She pounced on Clem, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. “Clem! Cleeeeem! Listen to me! You gotta send me out of here!”

 

Clem still seemed dazed, not from the shaking, but the sheer peace he was experiencing. Slowly, he reached up and gently pried her hands off him. “I... I don’t know, Crystal. I don’t know what to think right now.”

 

“But... the project, Clem! The project!”

 

After a moment, Clem offered her a smile. “You know what? Let’s just put a pin in it for now. I think I just want to... see where this goes.”

 

“But...” Crystal sat back on her knees, pensive. They’d been planning this for ages and now it was just... paused? Cancelled, even? She didn’t know what to think. She searched Clem’s eyes for an answer, but he just smiled at her.

 

...Clem was the person she trusted most. And if he wanted to hold off, then she’d support him 100%. Crystal finally pumped her hands up, nodding. “Alright! If that’s what you want... we’ll pin it!”

 

“Woo!” Clem cheered with her. Finally remembering Frazie was there, Clem looked her way. For once, the hyperactive camper was calm and sincere as he addressed her. “Thanks, Frazie. Things might not be clear up here...” he muttered, tapping his head. “And they might not be for a long time... but thanks to you, I think I can give it one more go. It’s not gonna be easy, but at least I know there’s nice people in the world like you worth sticking around for!”

 

Just hearing all that made the horrific creatures, near-death experiences and the splitting headache worthwhile. Feeling a bit better - and that they could leave without consequence - Frazie pulled out the smelling salts to offer to Crystal. “Ready?”

 

The kid eyed it for a moment... and then she folded her hands over Frazie’s, wrapping the older girl’s fingers around the little capsule. “Ready!”

 

So she wanted her to keep it. Nodding gratefully, Frazie held it between them and popped it in half. The two inhaled sharply, grimacing in unison. “...Blegh!”

 

And with that, they were on their way out of there.

 

---

 

The gentle lull of waves hitting the shore welcomed them back. Frazie blinked the sun out of her eyes and watched the kids wake up.

 

Once he was out of his trance, Clem looked... lost. Like he had no idea what to do now that his own brain wasn’t constantly steering him south.

 

Frazie welcomed him back with a question while she plucked the door off his head. “How are you feeling?”

 

The boy rubbed his head, glancing down at the sand. “I dunno... better? Not good, but I feel... different.”

 

That was a relief to hear. The sand crunched below her as Frazie took a knee, putting a hand on both the camper’s shoulders. “Listen. I’m not going to downplay what you’ve both been through, or tell you what you’re feeling isn’t real. But I am gonna ask... what would disappearing fix? You don’t need to go it alone. Instead of helping each other escape... why don’t you help each other overcome?”

 

Clem and Crystal shared a nervous look. “Sounds scary...” The former murmured. The only thing scarier than what they had almost done was moving onward without a clue what to do.

 

“Hey, for what it’s worth... you two have my support.” Frazie offered them a warm smile, glancing between the two. “And, you can support each other.”

 

“With cheers?” Crystal clarified.

 

Frazie pursed her lips. “Yyyyeeees? If you want? But you both know what you’re going through... so why not work together to beat it?”

 

“Yeah!” The two of them were starting to pep up again, and hopefully, this time was a bit more genuine.

 

The positivity was contagious. Frazie grinned, before focusing on Crystal. “Crystal, do I need to dive into your head too?”

 

“Nope! If Clem’s gonna keep trying... then so will I!”

 

“Alright... but the offer’s open.”

 

Crystal nodded solemnly. “Honestly? Just knowing that... helps me feel a little bit better.”

 

Frazie let them go and stood back up. Brimming with excitement, Clem hopped in place. “Crystal! We’ve gotta thank her with a cheer!”

 

Oh. Wincing, Frazie’s smile tilted a little. “Thaaat’s really not necessary.”

 

“Nonsense!”

 

“No, really...!”

 

But they were already starting. Frazie’s lips skewed into an awkward grin as she watched them hop around with glee, belting out in sing-song voices.

 

“FRAZIE’S GREAT!”

 

“SHE KNOWS THE WAY!”

 

“SHE KICKED AND CHOPPED THE THOUGHTS AWAY!”

 

“SHE SAVED THE DAY!”

 

“MADE THINGS OKAY!”

 

“SO NOW WE SAY...”

 

“HIP, HIP, HOORAY!”

 

...You know what? Yeah, Frazie was cringing to high heaven. But the more she listened, the more she realized how nice these kids were despite all they’d been through. By the time they were done, she was offering them applause for their performance.

 

The kids wiggled in place with sheer joy. That must’ve been one of the few (if not the only) time their positivity was ever praised. Overcome with emotion, they jumped Frazie, taking her by surprise. Each kid took a leg, hugging her tight.

 

Surprised, but welcoming, Frazie knelt down and wrapped their arms around the both of them in a much-needed embrace. “Never change, you two. And don’t let anyone get you down. ‘Cause I’ll give them a kick for you if they try, deal?”

 

After a few moments, she let them go, offering each a hand. “Come on... let’s get back to the docks.”

 

They each took one, and off they went, leaving the boulders they’d fought over resting in the sand.

 

---

 

“Hup!”

 

Clem and Crystal weren’t sure why Frazie refused to touch the water, but they weren’t opposed when she offered to pick each one up and parkour them across the lake debris. They laughed and cheered her on from under her arms before she safely deposited them back on the main shore. They wobbling dizzily, falling on their backsides with a shared laugh.

 

Frazie just chuckled along with them. Though now that everything had finally deescalated, Frazie couldn’t help but feel like she’d forgotten something...

 

“FRAZIE! There you are!”

 

Oh, crap. Lili.

 

Looking out over the water, she could see her friend mentally sailing her canoe towards them with Benny clinging to the far side for dear life.

 

Frazie waved her hands frantically, already prepared to defend herself. “Lili, I can explain-...”

 

But Lili seemed far more concerned with something else. “You guys!” she called out as her boat pulled in. “Have you seen Milka and Elton? The sailor kid and the invisible girl!”

 

Frazie tilted her head. “Uhhhh... if she’s an invisible girl, we wouldn’t really see her, now would we?”

 

“This isn’t the time to be a smart aleck!” Lili snapped. “They vanished while we were all out on the lake!”

“This isn’t the time to be a smart aleck!” Lili snapped. “They vanished while we were all out on the lake!”

 

The claim caught Frazie off guard. She’d seen those two kids just hours ago... not far apart, even, with Milka having been watching Elton from the trees. And now they were just gone?

 

It sounded a bit far-fetched. Frazie shook her head. “I dunno... are you sure they didn’t just head back to shore to use the outhouse?”

 

Lili shot her a look. “We’re sure. One second they were behind us, at the back of the pack. And then they were just... gone! Woosh!” She flew her hand through the air, as if the kids had just up and soared away. “No one claims they saw anything. And Milka might be good with invisibility, but she can’t make her boat and her boyfriend all vanish with her.”

 

It seemed ridiculous... but Frazie had fought a fire elemental, a giant gorilla, and even her own clone today, so honestly, she was pretty open-minded right now. She trusted Lili to not go around spreading lies willy-nilly. “Where do you think they went, then?” she asked.

 

“No clue,” Lili muttered with a shake of her head. “But there’s a rumor floating around about an old camp legend.” Lili bared her teeth, fingers curling into claws. “The Hideous Hulking Lungfish of Lake Oblongata!”

 

Frazie snorted back a laugh. The campers could be surprisingly mature sometimes, but at the end of the day, they were still kids who fell for junk like urban legends. “I don’t think that’s it, Lil.”

 

Even Lili seemed to agree - she was one of the smarter of the bunch, after all. “Probably not,” she agreed, dropping her hands. “This camp is pretty boring. Still, whatever the reason, we need to tell the counselors... but Milla said she was napping, and no one knows where Sasha likes to hang out in his downtime.”

 

“What about Coach?” Frazie pointed out.

 

“Coach is... Coach.”

 

“...Good point.” Frazie rested her hand on her hip as she thought, fingers fanning out over her pocket.

 

They brushed something small and circular, but solid. And that’s when she remembered.

 

She dug the thing out, squinting down at the little red button in her hand. Snippets of her talk with Sasha earlier flickered through her mind.

 

‘Come to my lab at the big dome out in the woods.’

 

She had a hunch where their counselor might be. “I miiiight just be able to track down Sasha.”

 

“Really?”

 

Frazie flipped the button, catching it smoothly on the way down. “Maybe. I’ll go look into it, and I’ll meet you later?”

 

Lili nodded. “Alright! And I’ll go put a note about it on the camp message board so people can keep an eye out.” Lili shook her head. “Normally I’d be fine if a couple of these loudmouths left... but this is giving me a baaaad feeling.”

 

Frazie nodded, then stooped down to give Clem and Crystal a quick farewell. “Stay out of trouble you two, alright? And, uh... take care of yourselves. Promise?”

 

The two gave her a firm salute. “Yes, ma’am!”

 

“Good.” Ruffling each of their heads, she stood and jogged off across the sand. It was time to head across camp.

 

---

 

Gentle birdsong and the flow of a rushing river filled the air on the outskirts of camp. A river too shallow to be of concern to Frazie, thankfully. It was pretty peaceful out here, compared to the hullabaloo of camp.

 

Ford had said this area was off-limits... but if he didn’t see her, no harm, no foul, right? Though that was a tall order when he had probably already warped over from the lake. She kept a look out for his beady eyes as she walked through the woods.

 

Passing through a natural bridge formed from a giant fallen tree trunk, she kept an eye on the horizon. Sasha had mentioned his secret lab being at a big dome out in the wilds, and... uhhhhh...

 

Apparently, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Numerous domes were stuck behind a huge barbed wire fence, sitting on various platforms with the biggest on top. You could probably see the landmark from back at camp. Frazie pondered how you hid a secret anything in such a blatant place, but she figured she was about to find out.

 

She climbed ramp after ramp, making her way up to the top of the structure. The uppermost dome was already popped open, and inside, it was entirely lined with plush seating. Comfy... but Frazie shuddered to imagine actually being stuck inside one of these things. It’d be enough to make anyone claustrophobic.

 

There didn’t seem to be anything of note within, though. Aside from cushions as far as the eye could see, it was completely empty. Frazie climbed inside, pressing a hand on the ceiling as she investigated.

 

...Hold up. She squinted at her feet. There, in the center of the container, was a dimple in a cushion missing its button.

 

‘When the time comes, you’ll know.’

 

Withdrawing the button again, Frazie flipped it over in her palm. It was just a regular old button as far as she could tell... but surely it was ripped off for a reason?

 

She bent down to push it back where it belonged... and jumped when strings sprung from the ground to tie it back into place. “Yeep!”

 

There was a whir once the flooring was complete again. Right where she’d set the button, a small pillar rose up out of the ground, unlocking the tile from the floor. It clicked open... with Frazie still on it, bumping her head on the ceiling.

 

“Gh...!” Good thing the place was so soft. More surprised than pained, she rubbed her head and hopped off to see that a big hole with a bunch of rungs had opened up in the floor.

 

Huh. So that’s how you hide a secret lab in plain sight.

 

Great, now she was gonna be subconsciously checking everything for missing doodads and hidden passageways. But for now... there was nowhere to go but down.

 

Frazie slid down the ladder, skidding to a stop just before the ground. She’d ended up in some sort of underground chamber, with gray walls and a set of multicolor glass steps leading down. Wary, she followed them, stepping around the assortments of boxes and papers left hither and thither. “Nein really needs to clean this place up...” she murmured to herself.

 

A few more floors and her feet touched stone. On the lowest level, something like a giant hair dryer dangled from the ceiling. Was that how he got his slick ‘do?

 

She could ask him herself, because the man was fiddling with some sort of console off to the side.

 

“Sasha!” Frazie hopped to the floor and ran up to him as the man looked up from his work.

 

“Ah... Frazie. I didn’t expect you to come for that training so soon. An eagerness to learn... respectable.”

 

“No, no, uh...” Now that she was in front of him, Frazie could feel the Psy Portal she’d ‘borrowed’ burning a hole in her pocket. It was just like trying to get away with sneaking the camp pamphlet around her parents - only harder, because her parents couldn’t read minds. She had to focus entirely on why she’d come here. “I mean, I’m still interested in practice, but that’s not why I came. Milka and Elton went missing!”

 

“Hm?” Sasha seemed rather calm about it as he settled his hands in his coat pockets. “They tend to do that... children will be children, and we’re not ones to stifle their curiosity. They likely just wandered into that cave near the shore. There’s no need to worry, it still leads to camp territory.”

 

Frazie shook her head back and forth. “I thought they might’ve just wandered off, too, but Lili claims they straight up disappeared out on the lake!”

 

Sasha scoffed. “Highly improbable. Odds are they simply snuck off to kiss, as kids are wont to do. They can be slippery when they want to be.” He caught Frazie’s unimpressed look and shifted his weight, clearing his throat. “Nonetheless, we’ll extend our psychic reach and see if we can pick up their brainwaves. If they did, in fact, go missing, they won’t be for very long.”

 

That was a relief to hear. Frazie didn’t know what’d happened to them either, but so long as they could be found, she’d done her part. Noooow all she had to worry about was getting out of here before Sasha remembered he was down a door.

 

“Sounds good. Now, uhhhh... I’m just gonna...” She backed up towards the stairs, jerking both thumbs behind her. “I’ll come back for that training later. I’ll go tell Lili it’s taken care of.”

 

She could feel Sasha’s focus narrow behind his glasses. “You look troubled, Ms. Aquato.”

 

Frazie waved him off, a bit too forcefully. “Oh, you know... just worried about the missing campers and all.”

 

“I see.” After a second, he let his fingers hover around his temple, and she knew he was trying to dig through her mind. She gulped, trying to deter his prying.

 

Don’t think about the door, don’t think about the door, don’t think about the door...

 

“You are thinking about the door.”

 

Damn it!

 

He lowered his hand. “A good attempt, Frazie, but I was already aware... I just remembered it after my rest. I was about to come find you and reclaim it, but it seems you found me first.”

 

Guiltily, Frazie pulled it out to show him. “Yeah, you got me. Well, here it is...”

 

“Hold on a moment.”

 

“Huh?” Frazie paused mid step, suddenly feeling tense as the man’s brow furrowed.

 

“...You’re a bit too antsy for someone simply holding contraband. Looking a bit further, I can see you’ve had a rather busy morning, hmm?”

 

Uh oh. Sweating, Frazie tried to offer him the portal again. He took it this time, but didn’t take his eyes off her. She could feel the disappointment piercing through his shades.

 

Sasha shook his head. “Running around knowingly using an illegal Psy Portal without permission... and what you did to poor Phoebe. When we agreed to let you stay, we thought that perhaps you’d act your age, and clearly we were wrong. Maybe you belong amongst a bunch of children after all.”

 

Apparently, he didn’t need pyrokinesis to roast you. Frazie’s face burned red - she hadn’t felt this ashamed since the time her mother caught her trying to put a baby skunk in Dion’s trunk back when they were kids. She’d known she was breaking the rules, but she’d never really thought just how far she was going until it was too late. Her heart skipped a fearful beat as he continued. “We could expel you from camp for this... if not have you taken to Psychonauts HQ for investigation outright.”

 

No, no, no, no, NO. “But I fixed her!” Frazie protested. “And I helped Clem and Crystal! And kept your head from blowing up! I know I shouldn’t have been using it, but it’s not like I was joyriding through people’s brains!”

 

“...You are not wrong, Ms. Aquato.”

 

Frazie paused. “...Eh?” She’d been sort of expecting him to shut her down there, maybe tear into her dignity again, not agree with her.

 

But agree he did. “Dogen and Clem, and then Phoebe. Currently, you are two to one. Though you did fix the mess you made... would that be two and a half to one?” he pondered aloud, rubbing his chin.

 

“...Regardless, I won’t confiscate the portal just yet... so long as your mistakes remain at one.” He held the door up between his fingers, nodding it towards her as he talked. “But if anyone outside camp catches you, you stole it and used information obtained from the black market to undo its safety parameters yourself. Understood?”

 

Frazie’s face scrunched up. “Yes, buuuut isn’t that a bit over the top?”

 

“Anything to cover my ass.”

 

She was still trying to process what was going on. “But... why?”

 

He held the door up between his fingers, turning it, inspecting it. Finally, he offered it out to her. “I am a man of science, Frazie. If we do not take risks, we do not progress. It’s not often a newcomer successfully completes an expedition into the mind, let alone three times in one day. I see great potential in you... and for that, I’ll allow you to hold onto it a bit longer. Do not make me regret it. And if I should find that you’ve caused another disaster, I’ll make sure you spend the rest of the wait for your family sitting outside camp. Or perhaps in psychoisolation.”

 

“What... w-what’s that?”

 

In response, Sasha simply pointed up. The gears in Frazie’s head spun, piecing together the implication.

 

“You’d lock me in that thing?!” Well, if there was any reason to take what she’d learned in Phoebe’s mind and push it forward, that was a pretty good one. She held the door close, nodding earnestly. “Got it. You can trust me. Promise.”

 

“I’d rather you prove it than say it. You haven’t exactly been trustworthy so far.” Adjusting his glasses, Sasha turned back to his machine, though he kept talking with her as he toyed with it. “I saw you picked up another power as well, correct?”

 

Frazie snapped her fingers. “Oh yeah! That barrier. What was that all about?”

 

“It seems you’ve managed to learn Shield all on your own,” he explained with a hint of approval. “Most impressive. Such a thing can only occur from strong, passionate feelings of protectiveness or a need to be defended.”

 

Frazie’s mind drifted back to everything that’d happened that day... guarding the bullies as they fell from the exploding building, fixing up Dogen and Phoebe, fighting furiously to protect Clem from his intrusive thoughts. It wasn’t like she’d just decided to become a guardian today... her mind drifted back further, to her many days with her siblings. Sure, she picked on them sometimes... but she was the only one allowed to do so. Any rowdy crowdies trying to heckle them were promptly thrown out on their ass.

 

It made sense to her. Though as she drifted out of her thoughts, she noticed another pin being levitated her way. This one was purple, with a little picture of a man behind a barrier marking it. “Of course, another successful technique requires proper recognition... ignoring how you got it, of course.”

 

Four pins. From feeling like a psychic criminal to a hot shot in under a minute... talk about whiplash. She was gonna be the one needing to lie down as she pinned it to her shawl - but Sasha still had more to say.

 

His head turned to the side as he addressed her again. “Well, while you are here, there is always that advanced training I promised you. You might as well use that portal properly for once. What would you say to a... co-teacher class?”

 

That gave Frazie pause. “What do you mean?”

 

“It means I will not be the only one instructing you. I believe Milla is done with her rest, and willing to help out as well.”

 

She was lost. “But how can I be in two minds at once?”

 

He glanced back at his machine. “With some work, two minds can form a connection, a shared space. Vodello and I forged one after our years of Psychonaut partnership; we are always talking to each other, no matter the distance. We can let you step inside for a dual lesson.”

 

It was a mighty tempting offer - though Frazie couldn’t help but glance back, thinking of Lili waiting for her. “How long would it take?”

 

“Not very. We’ll just run you through the basics and you can come back later to further improve on them.”

 

Frazie breathed a sigh of relief. She could spare a half hour or two... and that gave the missing campers a chance to reappear on their own. “Alright, I’ll do it. So how do I...?”

 

“The same as usual.” Sasha turned to pluck the door from her fingers and tap it to his forehead. “I can redirect you to the proper segment of my mind.”

 

“Whoa. How did you learn to do that?”

 

Sasha simply smiled. “After many years of practice. Perhaps you’ll learn yourself someday. Now then...” He reached up, pulling the door open for her. “When you’re ready.”

 

Frazie nodded, putting her fingers to her lobes. The colors and blank walls around her started to blur together as she drifted up and through the frame, descending into a world built for two.

 

Now entering:

Nein and Vodello’s Merged Mentality

 

---

 

Talk about an aesthetic clash.

 

Frazie had landed in some sort of shared office area - one half was bright and vivid, covered in beads and lava lamps and pillows. The other, dark, neat, and tidy.

 

And yet, it worked together surprisingly well. A wavy line separated the two halves, but even beyond that there was little speckles of each mind imprinting on the other. There were little spots of orange on Sasha’s side, patterned throw pillows on his couch, a nice fuzzy rug under his coffee table. Milla’s side had clearly been straightened up in some places, specks of grey amid the background and various sticky notes taped around with messages from her partner.

 

In the corner of each section was a desk, with their respective owners typing away at computers. Milla swiveled on her seat, fingers pressed to her lips in surprise. “Oh! Frazie! I didn’t know you were stopping by.”

 

Frazie looked the other way, gesturing to Sasha. “But I thought he said you...?”

 

Milla giggled. “I’m just kidding, darling. Sasha filled me in. I knew you were on your way even before you did.” She swept her arms over the room. “Make yourself at home!”

 

So she did. Frazie took a few steps in, eyes drifting here and there. It was the first adult mind she’d been in, and she had to admit she was curious what her counselors were like. She favored Milla’s friendlier side of the room, and wandered over to pick up some magazines off her coffee table to study: Meditator’s Monthly, The Psychic Stylist, Top 100 Front Lobe Fugitives. “How does this work, having two minds melded together?” she wondered aloud, flipping through one.

 

Sasha spoke up from across the room. “It creates a sort of mental mish-mash. The dominant traits of each person’s mind merge together at random, creating a unified world with shared memories and fears.”

 

“Huh.” Frazie looked around again, at how well laid-out the room was. Not a memory or fear in sight. “But everything here looks pretty organized. Doesn’t look that random to me. You two took your time planning this out, I’d say.”

 

She could see Sasha tugging at his collar. “Well... that is because...”

 

“Because we work so well together, darling,” Milla cut in with a gentle smile. “And everything Sasha touches tends to get compartmentalized, anyhow.”

 

“Yes. What she said.”

 

Frazie raised a brow, but didn’t pry. “So what did you two plan to teach me?” she went on, setting the magazine where she’d found it.

 

“I noted a couple things when I peered into your activities,” Sasha replied curtly. “You’ve been having trouble with keeping foes at bay. For that, I think one of my specialties will do you well,” he said, pressing his hand to his chest. “Marksmanship.”

 

“...You’re going to teach me to aim?”

 

“I’ll be teaching you to shoot,” he corrected. “With your mind.” He turned back to his computer, typing away at something. “You’ve done well with pyrokinesis... but that heat, that anger, can be channeled into something else. You’ll see momentarily.”

 

“And while you don’t seem to have much trouble getting around,” Milla chimed in, “a little extra ‘oomph’ never hurt anyone. I’d like to show you some Levitation.”

 

Frazie jerked her head Vodello’s way. “Levitation? Like... that thing Benny was doing with the thought balloon?”

 

“Precisely! And you haven’t even seen the levitation ball, yet.”

 

Yesyesyesyesyesyes! She’d wanted to learn that one the moment she’d seen it. There was so many new tricks she could pull off with that, and she’d never have to worry about an acrobatic accident again. Her family would love it... if she could get them not to hate it on instinct. “When do we start?!”

 

She was bouncing a bit in place with excitement, making Milla laugh. “Sasha is setting it up over there.”

 

His typing grew faster, louder, a frantic clack clack clacking. “What do you say, Milla? Do you think she can handle course seven?”

 

“Oooooh, yes, that’s an excellent place to start.”

 

“Seven it is. Give me a moment.”

 

It was going to be a few minutes. While he worked, a thought pushed itself into Frazie’s head. She hadn’t known Milla long, but she clearly cared for the children, radiated warmth. And she knew a couple campers in distress that really needed some support.

 

“Hey, Milla?” Frazie tapped her temple. “Could you go through, like... the last hour of my memories?”

 

“That’s a strange request.” But one she’d do if asked. “Very well.” Milla shut her eyes, concentrating, and Frazie could feel the tickle of someone going through her thoughts. Suddenly, the woman’s brow furrowed. “Oh.” She grimaced. “Oh, goodness.” And then her lips popped open in a silent gasp. “Oh, oh no...”

 

Her eyes popped open, full of dread and shame. “We’d known those two had their issues, but we’d never pry into their privacy unless we had to. But this... simply can’t be allowed to continue.” She reached out to take Frazie’s hands, clutching them thankfully. “You did a splendid job helping him stabilize... but let me take it from here. I’ll see to it something is done for them. I can only imagine Crystal’s isn’t much better...”

 

That made Frazie feel a lot lighter. “Thanks, Ms. Vodello. I’m just glad I spotted them.”

 

“No... thank you.” Milla smiled at her, and Frazie couldn’t help but smile back. She was so nice, so motherly... it made her heart sting a bit thinking of her own heartbroken parent making her way across the state to rightfully yell at her until she lost her voice. Frazie finally pulled her hands back, trying to avoid Milla’s gaze as she waited.

 

But of course, someone like Milla would never let that go unnoticed. “You’re thinking about your family, aren’t you?”

 

Always. But a bit more fearfully, lately. “Yeah...” Frazie admitted, rubbing her arm.

 

Milla stood, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You’re not the only psychic with kin that weren’t very receptive. It’s a tragically common occurrence. But your folks... I can feel the love you have for them. And you wouldn’t care for them that much if they were nothing but jerks, right? I feel they’ll come around. I’ll talk with them for you, if I must.”

 

Her emotions were in a knot, but Frazie finally patted Milla’s hand gratefully. “I hope you’re right.”

 

“And I hope you’re ready,” Sasha called out suddenly. The two women stepped apart as he pressed the biggest button on his keyboard - and the far wall split open.

 

Like a sliding door, gray and orange flew apart as a whole new area was revealed. Frazie gaped in awe - it was like a giant obstacle course, one thankfully a bit less terrifying than Oleander’s. Trampolines, giant fans, ramps,targets, and little machines that spat out censors at a piddling pace. Tons of small platforms hovered in the air, just waiting for her to get used to flying between them.

 

Both adults were by her side now, and Milla rested a hand on her back to guide her into the back room. “Now then, let’s start with the basics...”

“WOOOOOHOOOOOO!”

 

When Frazie had been on her way to Whispering Rock, she’d figured psychic training would be boring. Just sitting around, chanting, thinking hard and junk.

 

That was before she’d learned Levitation.

 

Like a paper bag on the wind, Frazie flew around the ceiling on the updrafts Milla had provided. With a solid orange balloon keeping her aloft, she could see the entire course from here. Censors angrily waved their stamps at her from down below, but they were just ants raging at the bird soaring above them.

 

Pop! She let her bubble explode over a trampoline and hit it, flipping forward onto a platform that housed a chugging machine. As if knowing it needed to protect itself, it coughed, spitting out a few little men much, much closer.

 

Pew! It might not make her giggle with childlike glee, but Marksmanship was pretty dang cool as well. Hot lasers sprung from her mind and roasted the censors with ease, a far easier alternative to trying to set them on fire. Frazie already had some great aiming skills from her headlining act back home, flinging knives at her father as he spun on a dart board. All Sasha had had to do was show her how to create psi blasts and she was already good to go.

 

Defenseless now, the machine hummed fearfully as Frazie casually leaned against it, raised a fist, and swung it downwards like it was a malfunctioning jukebox. Her fist wrapped in an energetic glow, the device dented inward and sputtered as it broke down.

 

At the very bottom of the course, her counselors watched, talking amongst themselves. There wasn’t a chance of hearing them from this high up, but she hoped they were saying good things.

 

Eager to impress, she hopped down and inflated another thought bubble, targeting various cut-outs as she descended. Spinning slowly, she fired blast after blast, punching right through cardboard heads like the world’s most graceful turret. If she focused extra hard, she noticed her lasers would taper down, growing extra sharp as they sliced right through wood. Now that’d come in handy.

 

One unfortunate censor made the mistake of shouting up at her from directly below, and she made it her springboard. Popping her balloon, she squashed the poor thing flat, bouncing off towards the course’s main ramp.

 

She landed smoothly on her levitation ball and rolled it downhill rapidly. Keeping balance on balls was one of her family’s most basic tricks, and she’d adapted to the mental version with ease. Where other rookies might slip off or be unable to stop, she brought herself to a screeching halt right before her instructors with arms held high.

 

“So...” she panted, chest rising and falling with a silly grin on her face. “How’d I do?”

 

The two shared a look - and then applauded, approval on their faces. “Wonderful work, darling,” Milla praised. “You’re a levitation natural!”

 

“And not a bad shot either,” Sasha added. “Thirty-three targets and nineteen censors destroyed without missing... remarkable.” With a flick, a small patch appeared in his hand. “The benchmark for successful course completion is in the hundreds... but we can work on that in the coming days. For now, I’d say it’s a safe assumption you’ve got a grasp on the material.”

 

“And you’ve passed my course with flying colors!” Milla chimed, conjuring her own merit badge. “No pun intended. I’ve never seen someone take on the course so fearlessly, baby... and with such flair! If that’s how your family’s shows work, I’ll need to stop by for a performance some day.”

 

“Awwww...” Milla had a way of making you feel even lighter than levitation did, Frazie realized while she shifted sheepishly. “I guess I’m just in my element.”

 

Orange and red, light blue and indigo. Two more patches to add to the shawl, one bearing a targeting symbol and the other a little floating figure. Beaming with pride, Frazie arranged them with the rest to form a little diamond, one that’d only grow as she kept adding onto it.

 

It was hard to believe she’d come so far already. From an almost complete know-nothing to having a rudimentary grasp on five abilities and one obstacle course from hell. And now that she’d accomplished so much, she was invested. She wanted to see how much she could learn before her folks arrived - and with luck, by that time, she’d be skilled enough to show them all the good her powers could do.

 

“Mmhmm.” Sasha finally drew her out of her reverie when he cleared his throat. “Of course, further training will be required. But for now... you’ve had an exhausting day, Ms. Aquato. Why not step out and go see Lili, as you said?”

 

Frazie’s giddiness picked back up again when she realized she could ride up on Lili showing off her awesome new psychic orb. Forcing herself to chill a bit, she nodded. “Good idea. And thanks for the lessons!”

 

“It was our pleasure, darling.” Waggling her fingers, Milla bid farewell and Frazie returned it as Sasha lifted her up and out of his mind.

 

Once she was gone, Sasha shot a glance to his partner. “Have you picked up their brainwaves yet?” he murmured.

 

Milla nodded. “Yes, but it’s strange... it feels like they’re coming from across the lake.”

 

“They must’ve headed that direction when no one was looking. Which one of us should set out to retrieve them?”

 

Milla chuckled into her fingers. “Now, Sasha, you know we agreed you’d be the next to go round up any loose camp-“ She halted mid-sentence, pushing a finger to her temple. “Oh! Never mind. Morry just said he’s got it handled.”

 

“Convenient.” Sasha looked up, hands in his pockets. “We’ll leave it to him, then.”

 

---

 

Colorful and casual unraveled themselves from each other as Frazie flew out of the aether and back into her own body.

 

Frazie half-expected to see Milla waiting for her out there, but it was true, she didn’t need to be anywhere nearby for the two counselors to interact. There was only Nein, right where she’d left him.

 

It didn’t seem like Sasha had even felt her stepping inside, the counselor still toying with his machine. He didn’t even look away from it as the Psy Portal shut and popped off his forehead. He caught it off-handedly and held it behind him for her to take. “A productive session, I’d say.”

 

So would she. Her new badges fitting snug on her shawl, she accepted it from him and pocketed it.

 

“Now then,” Sasha interjected, “I hope you were planning on taking a breather. Like the body, the mind needs time to recuperate as well. The last thing you need is to overload yourself any more than you already have. Take it easy the rest of the day. Milla and I will have activities back up and running momentarily... why not come try some telekinetic arts and crafts?”

 

After all she’d done today, it was almost embarrassing to even consider something that mundane... buuuuut on the other hand, being able to just relax and glue macaroni to stuff with her mind sounded like just what she needed right now.

 

“I just might. But first, I gotta go find someone.”

 

“Ah, yes. Ms. Zanotto.”

 

“Right!” Waving goodbye, Frazie hopped up onto the first step of the stairwell.

 

“Ah, Frazie, before you go.”

 

She paused. Peering back, she saw Sasha glance up from his console. “If you wish to repay us for the training, I could use a little help with an experiment.” He left it and paced over to the giant device dangling off the floor, giving it a pat. “If you’d be so kind, you can stop by tomorrow and help me run a test.”

 

Frazie tilted her head. “...You want to style my hair?”

 

“...?” The man looked his machine over, then huffed. “Mein gott, why does everyone...? No, Frazie. It’s not a hair dryer. This... is the Brain Tumbler. I’ll explain it more thoroughly when you return.”

 

Good. She liked her hair just the way it was. “I’ll see you later, then!” she called, running up the stairs on her way back to the surface. She was eager to try out her new power in the real world.

 

---

 

Bump. Bump. Bump. No matter what little pebble or hole Frazie hit, she kept her balancing act rock-steady as she rolled back to the main lodge.

 

There, sitting on the main steps with her head in her hands, was Lili. Conversing with a small patch of dandelions. For some reason.

 

Frazie jumped up and stomped down, compressing the ball into the dirt and grinding it to a halt. “I let the counselors know,” she called out to her. “And check this out!”

 

The kid perked up, hearing her voice - and her eyes trailed up in awe, her friend even taller than she was before. Frazie pirouetted atop her sphere, turning fluidly on tiptoe and bowing down atop her ride. “Weeeell?”

 

Lili gaped. “I swear, every time I turn around you’ve got another badge. If this keeps up, I’m going to call shenanigans!” Squinting, she suddenly whipped her gaze back and forth. Fortunately, Frazie’s badges hadn’t managed to multiply in that split second. “It’s like Ford all over again. They’re just popping out of nowhere!”

 

Not her favorite comparison, but it made Frazie chuckle nonetheless. “I guess I’ve just been working really hard.”

 

Still looking her in the eye, Lili leaned down to whisper to the little weed. “She’s cheeeeating.”

 

“No I’m not!” Frazie protested. “And why are you talking to that, anyway?”

 

Clearly amused by messing with her, Lili sat back up. “Because they’re better company than most of the people here. My family’s renowned for its herbaphony.”

 

“Your herb phones?”

 

Lili rolled her eyes. “It means we can hear what plants think. Like this one thinks you’re a dork.”

 

Frazie stuck her tongue out at the little white puffs. “I’ll take your word for it.” She’d never really considered the world around her living and breathing before, true as it was. She was kinda glad she didn’t have Lili’s power, honestly, if it meant she didn’t have to hear the grass cry out when she stepped on it.

 

“You’re gonna have to. It’s a pretty rare power. I’d teach you if I could, but we’d probably be wasting each other’s time. Besides... it’s your turn to teach me something, remember?”

 

That was right - she’d promised her another lesson back on the beach. Frazie shook her hands. “Don’t worry, I didn’t forget! Come on, I know just what to work on.” It’d be a nice break to trade out the mental for the physical for awhile, anyhow. With a mischievous grin, she pushed forward and got her ball rolling again. “Race you to the back!”

 

“Hey!” Popping up on her own green levitation ball, Lili gave pursuit as Frazie made the most of her head start. “You ARE a cheater!”

 

---

 

“I know it’s a bit harder than a handstand, but I’ve got you. C’mon, deep breath...”

 

“I’m not scared!” Lili was facing the cabin wall head on, Frazie holding her steady with both hands on her back. “I’m just sensible enough to not run right into a building.”

 

“No one just nails an unassisted backflip without practice. Now come on... feet up!”

 

Lili huffed, but braced herself. Knees bent, body poised, she kicked her legs forward and pushed her soles off the wall. With Frazie keeping her steady, she rolled backwards across Frazie’s arm, landing wobblily on both feet.

 

Once she was sure she hadn’t slipped and cracked her head open, she gasped and pumped her fists. “Holy crap! I did it! Frazie, I did it!”

 

Snickering, Frazie nodded her approval. “Twelfth time’s the charm. A few dozen more tries and maybe you’ll be able to do one without me.”

 

They continued their practice, talking as they did. Frazie urged Lili on with tips and praise, comforting her if her heel slipped or she couldn’t get enough momentum. She’d gone through the same thing with her younger siblings and had been trained the same way herself - comfortable nostalgia washed over her watching Lili make stable improvement.

 

Eventually, Lili started clearing her hands entirely when she leapt. So, sticking close enough to intervene if necessary, Frazie kept back and watched her kick off for her first solo backflip.

 

Frazie was feeling a little prideful herself when Lili threw her arms up, much like she did. A second later, the girl looked over to see her instructor grinning with her hands behind her back. Realization kicked in, and her eyes went wide.

 

“Maybe you can start a circus of your own at this rate,” Frazie teased, motioning for her to follow her to the ledge at the far end of the cabin. “Come on, let’s take a breather. If we keep it up, you might not even need the wall anymore,” she explained as she sat down and let her legs hang loose.

 

Lili shook off her surprise and joined her, still beaming with success, and for a moment, the two girls just kicked back and enjoyed a little rest.

 

Finally, Lili broke the silence, looking up at her friend. “What’s it like living in a circus, anyway? Do you live with clowns or something?”

 

Laughing, Frazie shook her head. “Well, they act like clowns sometimes. But no - we’re all acrobats. Me, mom, dad, my grandma, and my siblings. There’s Dion, my older brother, and then Queepie, Mirtala, and Razputin. Youngest, second youngest, and the middle child, respectively. Heck, I think you’re around his age.” She looked down over the edge, her mind wandering off. “He’s psychic, too. He would’ve loved this place... but I figured if anyone was going to take the brunt of our parents’ wrath, it should be me.” She folded her hands and sighed, face falling for a moment. “I hope he’s okay.”

 

“...Is he cute?”

 

Frazie gagged. “Ew! How would I know? He’s my little brother!”

 

Realizing how stupid the question had been, Lili dialed it back a bit. “Sorry, sorry... it’s just, it’s hard to imagine there’s other people that might be as cool as you. Psychic kicks and sick tricks!”

 

“And in your dating range?”

 

Lili socked her arm. Frazie had to admit, she had a pretty good punch for her age, laughing as she rubbed the sore spot. “Look... if you never ask anything like that again, I’ll put in a good word for you.”

 

“You’d better!”

 

The two shared a chuckle, and Frazie let her worries fall away for now. Her family was a problem for later. Right now, she was going to improve as much as she could, to show them that psychics could be not just good, but useful. It made her gut twist whenever she thought of all the ways it could go wrong... but Milla had been right. She loved them, and they loved her. So she held onto hope.

 

It was all she had.

 

Eventually, the camp speakers crackled to life, startling the two. “Attention, campers!” Milla’s voice rang out. “We’re rested, refreshed, and ready to rock! Activities will be resuming momentarily, starting with telekinetic bracelet weaving. If you’re interested, head on down to the campfire. Hope to see you there, darlings!”

 

The message cut out, and Frazie looked down at Lili with a smirk. “Friendship bracelets?”

 

“Blegh, do I look like Kitty and Franke?” The girl hopped up, tugging at her arm. “Come on! I’ll show you how to weave a punching bag!”

 

Frazie chuckled, letting Lili pull her up. She liked this kid.

 

---

 

The sky gleamed a dim orange as the sun made its way downwards, making way for night to fall soon. Frazie was feeling content, after a humble evening of telekinetic weaving, pyrokinetic firestarting, and levitation ball bowling. She was feeling an almost shameful enjoyment of the kiddy activities, given they were a welcome break from risking her neck the entire morning.

 

It was finally dinnertime, and since they’d spent all those activities together, Lili and Frazie didn’t see much reason to split up now. So the older girl pushed open the front door of the lodge to let them in to the bustling hall.

 

The first thing she noted, regretfully, was that Milka and Elton were still gone. Their conspicuous absence didn’t seem to bother any of the kids, though - a little cowboy was barely keeping awake while his blonde girlfriend prattled on and on, all whilst another kid with an afro kept an eye on them. Maloof was deep in conversation with some kid with a hat so tall it’d make Dogen jealous. Strange... Frazie had figured the kid wasn’t all that popular.

 

Their continued disappearance left an uneasy feeling in her stomach, but she trusted the counselors to handle it. Deciding to stamp out those butterflies, she and Lili got in line to get some food instead, and Frazie managed to get some without freaking out about Ford this time. She really was becoming a proper camper.

 

Frazie couldn’t help but beam as she stepped away, seeing Phoebe and Quentin jamming up onstage like normal. If anything, the girl was playing harder than before, no doubt elated to have a second lease on her drumming. Now, Frazie and Lili just needed somewhere to sit...

 

“Ooo, there’s a spot!” Lili pointed out, a nice chunk of table with no one else there to bug them. But as Frazie’s eyes swept the room, she saw another possibility.

 

“How about there?” At the far end of the room, Dogen sat with Clem and Crystal, one of them on each side.

 

Lili frowned. “I dunno...”

 

“Please?”

 

Her lips quirked, but she finally sighed. “Fiiiiiine.”

 

True friendship was being willing to put up with dummies for each other. “You rock,” Frazie said, guiding them over.

 

She could make out snippets of their (one-sided) conversation as they approached. “You look so nice without your cap!” Crystal praised, playing with his little hair tuft. “It’s like mine! But small!”

 

“Yeah! SUPER nice!” Clem agreed. “But if you ever wanted something new, you should try a headband. It’s comfy, fuzzy, and sweat-absorbing! Tooootally recommend.”

 

“That’s not a hat,” Dogen mumbled to his food as he picked at it, lost in his own little world.

 

“Well, maybe not technically...”

 

Their conversation dried up as Frazie and Lili slid in, the teen greeting them all with a smile. “Hey! I just thought I’d check in on you guys.”

 

“Frazie!” Clem and Crystal cheered, as energetic as ever - perhaps even more genuinely than before. Even Dogen seemed a bit more attentive when she sat down.

 

“Oh, hi,” the little green child greeted. “I’m doing great! I only blew up one squirrel today.”

 

Frazie grimaced. “That’s... uh... great!” she murmured, poking at her steak. That was an improvement, right? She hoped. It seemed he still had a ways to go... but he was already doing a lot better.

 

“Frazie! FrazieFrazieFrazieFrazie!” Clem was leaning on his hands, practically bouncing in place as he demanded her attention. “Guess what!”

 

Chewing, Frazie raised a brow. “You thought up a new cheer?” God, please, don’t let it be that.

 

“No! But I can if you want.”

 

“No, no,” Frazie cut off abruptly. “What is it?”

 

Crystal took over. “Milla pulled us aside while we were all bowling and told us she had a special vacation for us! She said once camp is over for the summer, we can go visit the Motherlobe for awhile!”

 

“That’s where all the Psychonauts stay!” Clem explained, hands clasped with glee. “We’ll get to see where real agents live! Isn’t that cool?!”

 

Almost as cool as escaping their parents. Frazie breathed a silent sigh of relief, sending quiet thanks Milla’s way, wherever she was. “That’s amazing. You’ll keep in touch to tell me what it’s like, right?”

 

“Of course! We’ll send letters every month!” Crystal claimed.

 

“Every week!”

 

“EVERY DAY!”

 

“Alright, maybe not that often,” Frazie murmured and motioned for them to calm down. “But I’m really happy for you guys.”

 

Thwack.

 

What the...? Feeling something wet sticking to the back of her ear, Frazie remembered there was someone here she was less happy with.

 

Discretely peering over her shoulder, she caught Bobby and Benny sharing a high five over his spitball sniping. Instead of getting mad... Frazie grinned to herself. She’d picked up a few tricks since their last meeting.

 

Looking back ahead, she directed her mental energy backward, feeling out Bobby’s plate of food and letting her simmering annoyance build up. The bully’s cackling died down as he looked to see his mashed potatoes wobbling around. “Eh?”

 

A second later, they exploded, splattering his face in creamy goop. He spat and sputtered as all the other kids at his table laughed. “Alright, you turdburgers! Which one of you did it?! I’ll make sure Ford is serving you up on the grill next!”

 

Plucking the projectile from the back of her head, Lili and Frazie shared a sly snicker. Oh, that felt good.

 

Good food. Good laughs. Good talks. Good friends. As dinner went on, Frazie couldn’t help but feel satisfied with her humble little evening.

 

The day had been a lot of things. Exciting, exhausting, terrifying, even painful sometimes. But sitting here, seeing all she’d accomplished and sharing a meal with her new friends...

 

She knew it’d all been worth it.

 

---

 

“Been a good girl?” Frazie cooed, stroking her tiny horse’s head in her hands. “Yeeeeah you have. Here, I got you some carrots from the camp cook. Yes, I know they smell like bacon.”

 

Crickets chirped and kids yelled to each other as they headed to their cabins for the night. It was bedtime, and Frazie made sure to check in with Sugarcube first. The little pony whinnied happily as it took a treat from her, chewing away whilst she petted it.

 

Gently kissing its snout, she left another couple vegetables by it and stood. “Good niiiight,” she sing-songed, heading over to the girl’s cabin.

 

Inside, it was already lights out, though of course, the room was still atitter with chit-chat and giggling as kids refused to sleep. Feeling around, Frazie located her own bunk and hopped up, lifting herself into bed.

 

Only once Frazie’s head hit the pillow did she realize just how tired she was - mentally and physically. Running up and down people’s minds half the day, all while honing her long ignored powers. Was this what being a Psychonaut was like? Was it really for her? It was scary, draining... but also thrilling, eye-opening. And underneath it all, another feeling nagged at her.

 

She wasn’t just tired... she was lonely. Every night for years, she’d shared her bedroom with her whole family, and while that’d had its share of problems, it meant she’d never wake up alone. It was at least somewhat comforting she was still sharing a room with a bunch of people, familiar even... but it wasn’t anything like being with family. Sighing, Frazie rolled over, finding it impossible to get comfy.

 

It didn’t help that her pillow rustled every time she shifted.

 

Grumbling, she picked it up, intending to fluff it. In the dark, though, she could barely make out a slip of paper under where it’d been. “Hm?”

 

Curious, she held it up to the wall, trying to catch some moonlight through the windows. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned it in the dim glow.

 

Frazie,

 

Milka and Elton didn’t wander off. They were taken.

 

Her heart thudded in her throat. Who’d written this? A counselor? A camper? Did they know what they were talking about? It wasn’t signed, but she kept reading.

 

I might have a lead as to WHO (or what) took them, but I need your help. Head to one of the big stumps littered around camp. Any will do. There’s even one near the cabin bridge. Come alone, and come quiet. I’ll fill you in when you get here.

 

That was a... really indirect and weird request. Any stump? Was this a prank?

 

Well, if it was, someone was getting TKed into the lake. But if there was a chance it was legit... the missing campers could be in danger.

 

Was this really her business? Why didn’t they reach out to the counselors? There must’ve been a reason they chose her. And while she felt it was a bad idea deep down... she wanted to find out why.

 

Frazie feigned sleep, but her pulse and mind raced the whole time. Eventually, the gossiping and giggling died down, and when she was sure it was safe, she swung her legs off the bed. Quietly lowering herself to the floor, she pulled the cabin door open and stepped out into the cool night air.

 

As promised, there was a stump over near the bridge. Still feeling silly about it, Frazie started to head over.

 

Alone in the dark, grass crunching underfoot, Frazie hoped the author knew what they were talking about. Whoever was summoning her, she was about to find out.

Frazie wasn’t sure what she’d expected to be waiting for her at the stump. Another camper? An angry bear? Some magic leprechaun ready to whisk her away on a wild adventure?

 

But nope. The only thing waiting for her was a barren chunk of tree trunk and the hum of crickets chirping in the background.

 

With a sigh, she sat down on the edge of the wood, resting her cheek in her hand. She guessed whoever had called for her would show up eventually... if they were even coming at all. She just had to kick back and wait.

 

...And wait. And wait. And wait a little more.

 

Time passed, and Frazie’s eyes started to droop from how long she’d sat there. ‘Any stump’ her death-defying derrière. She’d known the instructions were too vague to be anything but a dumb prank. Drumming her hands along the stump’s edge impatiently, she was just about ready to leave and head back to bed.

 

And that’s when her fingers tapped the outline of something in the wood.

 

“Huh?” The surprise jolting her awake again, Frazie peeked by her legs to spot a small button well-camouflaged inside the bark. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she pressed it down with a little click.

 

“...AaaaaaAAAAHHHH!” Maybe she should’ve gotten off the log first before she poked it. The top of the stump suddenly popped open beneath her, lifting her up and sending her tumbling backwards to the ground.

 

Ow. Groaning, she pushed herself onto her hands and knees and crawled back to the log, peering where the top had been. Her breath hitched.

 

A secret hatch had opened up where she’d been sitting, the wood replaced with a dark tunnel leading into the ground. Only a dim glow at the bottom assured her it didn’t lead to an endless void.

 

Frazie chewed her lip. Crawling into secret stump tunnels at night was probably, most likely, definitely a terrible idea. But at least she knew the letter wasn’t entirely bogus now, right? Whoever had called for her was surely down there. So, against her better judgement, she finally clambered up over the edge and lowered herself down into the depths.

 

There didn’t seem to be any footing. She wasn’t afraid of heights - but typically she at least knew where she was going to fall. Holding her breath, she finally let go and dropped.

 

“Oof!” Fortunately, something soft caught her. She plopped down into the padded seat of a little trolley, still stunned from the fall even as it suddenly spoke to her in an electronic woman’s voice.

 

“Welcome back, Agent Cruller. Where would you like me to take you?”

 

“...Whabuhhuh?” Cruller? Like the pastry? Just who the heck was Cruller? She hadn’t heard that name yet. For all she knew she was about to ride this minecart into a bakery... but she didn’t have much choice, now did she? “Uh... take me to whoever owns this place, I guess.”

 

“You own this place, sir,” the voice chimed. “Having another forgetful day? No worries. Routing to the main chamber for a Psitanium refresh.”

 

“A wha-?” Frazie was cut off as the cart suddenly jerked forward. “Whooooa...!”

 

Her ride sped off down the tracks. Frazie had never been on a roller coaster before, but if she had, this was probably what it was like. Twisting and turning through narrow passageways, clinging to the trolley for dear life and praying this surprise ride wouldn’t have a messy end.

 

But that was exactly where it was heading, because the cart raced towards a solid wall at the end of the path with no signs of stopping. Her heart in her throat, Frazie covered her face and hoped it’d be over quickly.

 

It was... because the cart stopped on a dime right in front of the wall. Jerking still, Frazie sucked in deep breaths, glancing around like a deer in headlights. “...What now?”

 

Sproing.

 

Her and her big mouth. The cart’s seat suddenly punched upward, ejecting her up and out of a hole in the ceiling with a yelp.

 

Aquatos always landed on their feet, though, and this time was no different. Her feet touched down on solid steel, and for a moment, she was just happy to still be alive.

 

Then, she got a good look at where she’d ended up and wondered if she had died after all.

 

It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. A solid metal bridge crossing across an underground cavern, filled with the hum and beeps of a variety of machinery. At the center of it all stood a massive circular platform, an almost magical purple glow emanating from a chunk of crystal placed inside it. As she dared to walk forward and stand over its casing, it made her skin tingle... and her brain, too?

 

All around her, various camera feeds floated around on transparent screens. There were familiar sights - the cabins, the lake, the parking lot, alongside things she hadn’t a clue about. Police feeds, news headlines, mugshots, documents... information flowing in from all over the world.

 

“What is this place?” she wondered aloud, turning in slow circles in a vain attempt to take it all in.

 

She was so wrapped up in it all, she didn’t notice the hand grabbing her shoulder at first.

 

“Ahhhh, good, you made i-“

 

Frazie screamed and leapt away. And when she saw who it was, she screamed again. The chef... er... admiral... uh... groundskeeper... hm... Ford, was eying her with his boggly gaze again. This time, he was wearing some sort of green suit that covered every inch of his body below the neck.

 

He didn’t seem too phased by her howls of terror. All he did was twist a finger in his ear, shooting her an annoyed look. “If you’re gonna keep yelling your head off, could you do it a few steps away? I don’t need a hearing aid yet and I don’t plan on starting today. Criminy.”

 

Her panic finally died down, the girl still poised on one foot looking like she was about to be mauled. After a moment of calm, she unfurled, swinging her arms down in front of her in disbelief.

 

“Whoa, whoa, WHOA,” she repeated louder each time. “You’ve been teleporting around camp all day, and now you’re even following me underground?!”

 

Ford raised a brow, perplexed. “Following you? Missy, this cave here is my sanctuary! If anything, you followed me!”

 

“But I...!” As much as she wanted to refute that, he regretfully had a point. This time, it was her who’d come to him. She still tried to snap back, but mustered up nothing. “I... you know what? Carry on.”

 

So he did. “Now as I was sayin’ before you so rudely interrupted... you got my letter. Good.” He gestured back where she’d popped out of. “Sorry the stumps were closed off, but I gotta keep the kids from tumbling into these things willy nilly. Looks like you were smart enough to figure it out, though.”

 

Right. Smart. Clearing her throat, Frazie perched a hand on her hip. “On that note... you haven’t told me why the heck you sent me on a wild ride to your secret lair yet.”

 

“Sheesh, you teens are impatient these days.” Ford stepped past her towards one of the screens at the edge of the platform, and now that she wasn’t spooked half to death, Frazie couldn’t shake the feeling he looked a bit different. More confident. More composed. More... lucid?

 

Ignoring her curious ogling, Ford brought a finger up to start swiping screens in and out of view. “Like I wrote... those young’ns didn’t just wander off. Something took them, but I don’t know exactly what yet.”

 

Frazie, despite her hesitations, couldn’t help but lean in a bit at the mention of the missing campers. “What makes you so sure?”

 

“This.”

 

He pulled a new screen up front and expanded it. It was a view of the lake, centered on a fleet of canoes sailing into focus with Ford himself at the head of them. He paused the footage, zooming in to the corner. “Darned cameras didn’t see what went down... BUT, they did catch this. Lookie here.”

 

The stream focused on a lone canoe in the corner. Frazie recognized one of the two children manning it.

 

Maloof.

 

That kid that’d been getting milkbombed and blamed by Bobby earlier in the day, she recalled. Now, he shared a boat with the tall-hatted kid she’d seen him with at dinner. Her attention thoroughly claimed, Ford started the footage up again. The two boys talked fervently, with the older kid doing most of the mental sailing work while Maloof relaxed on his side of the canoe.

 

The boy looked off camera, eyes narrowed. It couldn’t be seen, but he seemed to be eying the lone boat straggling behind them. For a moment, nothing happened as he folded his hands over his lap.

 

Then, Maloof’s eyes shot open wide. In a panic, he tumbled forward in the boat to tug at his friend’s sleeve. He babbled and pointed behind them, but whatever he’d seen wasn’t there. His partner just gave him a confused look.

 

After a second, Maloof forced himself to calm down and barked an order. His rowman just shrugged and focused forward again, sending them coasting to catch up with the others at three times the speed of before.

 

Milka and Elton’s boat never entered into view.

 

Ford shut the feed off. “The kid saw somethin’, and it doesn’t look pretty. What did he see? Well...” He turned his wide gaze to her. “That’s what I called you here to find out.”

 

“Me?!” Frazie jabbed both pointer fingers at herself. “You call me out to this...” She swung her hands around the room. “This whatever it is in the middle of the night to send me on some errands? I want to help find those two, but you couldn’t be any sketchier even if I drew you on paper.” Crossing her arms, she stood firm as she looked him in the eyes. “Who, are, you? For real this time.”

 

He met her gaze staunchly. After a moment, though, he finally sighed and paced away. “Ford Cruller. One of the founders of the Psychonauts themselves, now based out here at Whispering Rock dispatching missions to Sasha and Milla when I’m not keeping this place running smoothly.”

 

Frazie watched him, unbelieving. This guy was one of the leaders of the world’s leading psychic organization? She might not have even known they existed before a few days ago, but that sounded more than a little far-fetched. By day, he flipped flapjacks and raked leaves, by night, he handed out orders in a cave? Did he think she was stupid?

 

It was hard to argue with the ultra high-tech cavern and spy network, though. Choosing to play along for now, Frazie waved a hand. “Then why don’t you just ask Sasha and Milla to do it?”

 

“I’ve tried, kid,” Ford replied as he turned back to her. “They’ve told me Coach is on it... but somethin’ ain’t right. His brainwaves ain’t moved far since he crossed the lake, and the kids’ haven’t moved at all. All I get is radio silence when I reach out to him.”

 

Lips pursed, Frazie threw out the million dollar question. “Then why me? Why don’t you figure things out if you’re one of the greatest Psychonauts?”

 

Ford glanced away, looking a bit... remorseful? Like she’d asked the impossible of him. It vanished quickly, though, as he met her eyes again. “Because I want you to do it. You’ve performed some miracles today already, and worst comes to worst, the kid isn’t just gonna give up the info. Maybe he repressed it. Maybe he twisted it into something more palatable. Maybe he just plain doesn’t wanna tell anyone. Whatever the case... we need someone ready and willing to head into his mind if need be, not worrying about anything like what HQ might think. Sasha and Milla are dependable, but they’re convinced nothing’s amiss at camp.”

 

He continued. “You’ve been rising the ranks pretty quick, kid. Started with barely any technique to your name, now I’ve seen you headin’ into heads alone and gettin’ things done. You’ve got talent. Or powerful psychic blood somewhere in your family tree. Maybe both. And that’s exactly why I think you can get this job done.”

 

No doubt he’d kept an eye on her as he whisked himself around camp all day. The campgrounds... the lodge... the beach... he could’ve been at every spot she’d hopped into minds that day. It was an unnerving thought, but he sounded confident in his decision to call for her.

 

Frazie listened, but she still didn’t look entirely convinced. After a moment, Ford sighed, running a hand through what remained of his hair.

 

“Listen,” he said gently. “I know you probably don’t trust me. Strange old guy, sending you down trees in the middle of the night. But I got these young’ns best interests at heart... and I can tell you do, too. Those kids might be in danger.” He extended a hand. “So work with me to make sure they’re not, eh?”

 

Frazie felt herself soften a bit. He did practically run the camp himself, caring for the campers... and more importantly, there might be lives on the line. For now, she’d just have to ignore the fact he gave her the willies.

 

Still, she wasn’t about to take his hand just yet. She raised a finger instead. “Alright... I’ll do it on one condition.”

 

Ford hesitated. “That being?”

 

“You tell me what the heck is up with you jumping all around camp.”

 

The man went silent. His far gaze seemed to grow even wider as he stared blankly into the distance. “Just a buncha disguises and a thorough tunnel network. Can’t let anyone know one of the founders of the Psychonauts lives at the campground, ya know?”

 

...That didn’t sound like the whole truth, especially since every ‘disguise’ was clearly just himself in a different get-up. But that was probably the best she was going to get out of him for now.

 

Frazie rolled her eyes, but finally stuck her own hand out. “Allllright. I’ll do it. But next time I ask for bacon, you’d better share it.”

 

The man’s eyes popped open, like she’d just asked him to hand over his firstborn. Shaking her hand, he quickly changed the subject. “You’ve got your mission, kid. Find Maloof, find out what he knows, then follow that lead. Got it?”

 

She nodded, taking her hand back (and discretely wiping it off on her skirt). “Alright.” Her eyes flicked back and forth. “...Caaaaan I go to sleep now?”

 

Ford snorted, shaking his head. “I might be just as old, but I ain’t your grandpappy. I’ve said what I needed to. Go on, git! A well rested agent is a successful agent.”

 

That was all the permission she needed to swivel on her heel and start heading back to the tunnel system. Though as she left, Ford called out to her, stopping her in her tracks. “Good luck out there, Frazie. Maloof’s been acting mighty uppity ever since he started hangin’ with that tough looking feller. And be careful... we don’t know if whatever took them has more targets in mind yet.”

 

Nodding, she tossed a quick two-finger salute back and lowered herself down to the cart.

 

Alone with nothing but electronic beeping surrounding him, Ford muttered under his breath. “Hope you’re up to it, kid. Let’s see if you’re proper Psychonauts material...”

 

---

 

Sproing!

 

Apparently ladders were too passé for a professional Psychonauts agent. Again, the mine cart suddenly ejected Frazie skywards back to the surface after a quick ride.

 

At least now that she was expecting it, it was actually kinda fun. She pondered if her family could incorporate trolley launch pads into their acrobatic routines somehow. ...Naaaaah, probably too expensive.

 

As soon as she breached the stump, she rolled forward to land on her feet, sighing. She’d had enough surprises the last fifteen minutes to last a lifetime... but now that she was back at the cabins and alone in the dark again, everything Ford had told her started pecking at her thoughts.

 

Somehow or another, she’d become the only one who could figure out what’d happened to the kids. Sasha and Milla were relying on Coach, who as far as Ford knew was also indisposed. She’d gone from a complete newbie to an unofficial rent-an-agent, taking on a mission from one of the founders of the Psychonauts themselves. Part of her wondered if she’d actually passed out back at the cabin and this was all just some bizarre dream.

 

She pinched herself sharply. Ow. Nope. All real.

 

Which meant tomorrow, she had to have a talk with a certain someone. Her gaze swept towards the boy’s cabin, where she knew someone who’d seen a little too much was sleeping away soundly.

 

But that was a matter for tomorrow. The fatigue starting to settle back in, Frazie trudged her way to the girl’s cabin, hounded by her newfound information all the while.

 

Everyone was sound asleep when she crept back in, and she planned on joining them promptly as she climbed up into bed. Nestling into her pillow, she shut her eyes and tried to ignore her roaming brain. She could worry about everything tomorrow after some beauty rest.

 

It took some tossing and turning, but she finally felt herself relax and start to drift off. Before long, she fell into a deep and troubled sleep.

 

Sleep far deeper than it had any right being, really.

 

---

 

Everything hung in the typical blurry haze of unconsciousness, where nothing meshed together and yet everything made sense up until you woke up. The kind of fog where you could suddenly teleport from one place to another and think nothing of it.

 

And yet, despite the dreamy veil over her thoughts, Frazie couldn’t shake the feeling everything was far more real than it should be.

 

Surrounded by a dark void, the only thing of note was some sort of tower perched below her in the inky black. Where was she, exactly?

 

With nowhere else to go, she swam down towards it, taking in its unsettling design. It twisted towards the sky (if there even was one here), a giant brain forming the cap of the structure and a window under it letting outsiders peer within.

 

Frazie floated to it and peeked inside. The strangest blue-skinned man she’d ever seen paced within, a walking fashion disaster mixing aprons and shower caps and stark white coats. When he turned her way, Frazie saw one of his arms was a sharp three-pronged instrument and recoiled. His eyes were green and red, if you could call them eyes anymore, having been replaced with mechanical scopes.

 

He waved his prosthetic arm as he talked. “There’s no need to be shy now, I’m here to help! You’ve got a serious condition that only I can cure.” He paused a moment, then spoke again a bit harsher. “Come now, you’re just making this procedure harder than it needs to be. There’s no point in hiding!”

 

Frazie froze. Did he know she was out here? But when he turned his head to his empty dentist’s chair, she realized he hadn’t been talking to her. “You’re strapped in, child. I know you’re there and not going anywhere! So be a good girl and show yourself, and I’ll throw in a nice sugar-free lollipop~.”

 

Either a sucker was a surprisingly convincing offer or the person he was addressing realized how futile hiding was, because they finally gave in. Suddenly, Milka materialized on the chair, struggling against the bindings on her wrists.

 

“Ah, there you are!” Loboto waggled fingers both organic and mechanical as he flitted to her side. “See, everything goes much more smoothly when you work with your dentist.”

 

Milka wasn’t paying him much attention as she continued to pull and grunt. “Let me and my boyfriend go, or, or... or I’ll make you disappear next!”

 

The mad doctor just laughed. “Ahhhhhh, young love... how cavity-inducing! Revolting, brain-rotting cavities. But luckily for you, getting rid of them is what dentists do! After all... if you’re thinking with your hearts, you really don’t need your minds anymore, now do you?” He left her to head over to a nearby door. “But if you don’t believe me, a second opinion is always available.”

 

The door slid open at his approach... and both Frazie and Milka screamed.

 

Inside the new room, Elton sat lopsided and still in a similar chair. He was alive, at least, but the way his lips moved loosely and his big eyes stared at nothing, it was obvious something was wrong. “TV?” he mumbled, his sailor cap tumbling to the ground as he lifted his head.

 

The doctor was at least kind enough to stoop down and return his hat to him. “See now? Look how happy he is, insanity-free!”

 

Milka just started struggling harder than ever. Returning to her, Loboto bowed by her side. “Now then, let’s try this again. I’m Dr. Loboto, and I’ll be your dentist-slash-decranialization expert this evening.”

 

“No! Get away...!”

 

“Really now, you’re being childish, my dear. Just shut your eyes and this will be over in a moment...” He moved his claw closer to her face, and Frazie tried in vain to somehow push herself through his window to come punch him away.

 

His metal claws clacked, and Frazie couldn’t bring herself to look... before they expelled a cloud of black powder. Confused, Frazie murmured a soft ‘what’ as Milka’s caught it up her nose and sniffled.

 

“Ah... ah...!” With a lurch, the girl’s head bucked forward in a monumental sneeze. “AHHHHHCHOO!”

 

...And sent her brain with it. Frazie gagged with disgust as Milka’s mind flew out, splattering against the far wall. Trying not to be sick, she watched as Loboto clapped his hands together and crossed over to pick it up.

 

“Ahhhh... there we are. See? Quick and painless! Mostly painless. Feeling better?”

 

“TV?”

 

“Exactly!” Casually throwing a tissue over her face, he held her escaped organ up to the sky and cackled. “It’s a win-win, girl! You get cured... and now your brain will be used to accomplish great things! Ahahahaha! Great things indeed! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

 

Frazie tried again and again to shoulder her way in, to throttle the doctor unconscious and take back Milka’s brain, but she was helpless. The more she pushed against the window, the more it pushed back, until it felt like she was actively being forced away.

 

She was waking up. With one last futile slam of her fist on glass, she felt herself being yanked back to reality.

 

---

 

Frazie jerked up in bed. The endless void was chased away by light streaming through the windows.

 

Once she realized she was back in the cabin, she held her head, groaning. What the hell had that been about? Everyone had vivid dreams now and then, but that was a level even beyond that. Was her subconscious conjuring up crazy explanations for what’d happened to the missing campers? Or was it something... more?

 

The dream stuck with her, lingering, clinging to her thoughts like glue as she looked around. Other girls were waking up and chatting, stretching, not a care in the world, even as their fellow campers were possibly getting their brains stolen.

 

Her gut churning uneasily, Frazie kicked her blanket off and got out of bed, heading outside. She needed some fresh air. Now.

 

Fresh sunlight and chirping birds greeted her arrival, and as she sucked in a breath, part of her wondered if maybe everything was fine. It’d just been a wild, crazy dream after all. Nothing was wrong, and the campers would show up with Coach at breakfast to share a good laugh at how dumb she was being.

 

And then Lili practically bowled her over, grabbing onto her waist.

 

“Frazie!” she called, shaking her. “You won’t believe it! I had the craziest dream.”

 

Everything she’d experienced washed over her again, and Frazie forced it away. “Uhhhh... what was it?” she asked, hoping it was anything but what she was dreading.

 

No such luck. “I saw Milka and Elton! And they were in this gross looking tower with an insane dentist doctor guy.” Lili threw her hands up. “He made them sneeze out their brains!”

 

Something was up. Kneeling down, Frazie took a breath as she met Lili eye to eye. “I had the same dream. Creepy claw hand, sneezing powder, something about television?”

 

The younger girl went quiet, realization settling in. “You saw it too?”

 

“The exact same.” And with that knowledge in Frazie’s mind, it was starting to feel less like a dream, and more like a... warning.

 

Lili scratched her head, looking down at the ground. “You don’t think...?”

 

“I dunno what to think.” Frazie stood again, looking off towards the wilderness. “But maybe there’s someone who does? I told Sasha I would visit again today. Maybe he has an idea?” Shared, realistic dreams must’ve been, like, Psychonauts 101. Right?

 

By now, most of the other campers had already meandered off to start their day. Suddenly remembering her encounter with Ford, Frazie snapped her head back. “Oh! Listen, Lili - I’m gonna go find Sasha again and see if he can figure out anything about what we saw. In the meantime, I need you to find Maloof. Can you do that for me?”

 

“Eh?” Lili looked up, confused. “Why? I know he looks super punchable, but he’s already got enough on his plate.”

 

“Huh? No, no, I don’t want to bully him, I think he might be able to help us figure out who took Milka and Elton.”

 

“...Why?”

 

“A little birdie told me he saw something at the lake.” An old, teleporting, kinda creepy birdie.

 

Once she understood, Lili tapped her fist down into her palm. “Got it! I’ll go track him down and we can meet up after.”

 

Giving her a grateful grin, Frazie offered her a fist bump. “Let’s get to the bottom of this. Eh?”

 

Lili pounded it, perhaps a bit harder than she needed to. “Yeah!”

 

Chuckling and shaking her sore knuckles, Frazie led the two across the bridge to camp together. At the far end, they split up - Lili headed towards the lodge, and Frazie, disappearing into the woods.

 

It was time to return to Sasha’s lab.

Over the river and through the woods, to Sasha Nein’s lab she went.

 

The secret hatch was just as she’d left it. She’d lowered the trapdoor enough to obscure it, but not enough to lock it back up. So after a quick ascent up to the highest dome, all she had to do was crack it open and hop on down.

 

To her relief, Sasha either slept here or made checking into his lab a part of his morning routine. He was standing over his console again - seriously, what was so interesting about that thing? - sipping slowly at a mug of fresh coffee.

 

“Ah, good morning,” he greeted once he noticed Frazie’s footsteps tapping down the stairs. “You’re here early.”

 

“It was urgent.” She reached the bottom and leaned over his machine, the man cocking a brow the moment she dared touch his precious thingamajig. “I think Milka and Elton might be in danger!”

 

Casually, he reached out to nudge her off his technology. “We’ve been over this already, Ms. Aquato. I’ll have you know, Oleander called in to let us know he’s handling it. He’s out searching for them as we speak.”

 

As he chugged another mouthful of joe, Frazie crossed her arms. “Cruller thinks they’re in trouble, too.”

 

Pfffbt! Sasha suddenly spat out his sip, sputtering a bit as he wiped his lips. “Hck, guh... you, you spoke with Ford? The real Ford?”

 

She nodded. While Sasha was shocked anyone else had found out about his true self, he composed himself rather quickly and set his mug aside. “Be that as it may... I’ll tell you exactly what I told him. The situation is under control. Milka and Elton’s brainwaves are still accounted for, and Coach is closing in on them. Frankly, it’s disappointing to see how little faith he puts in Coach’s ability. He’s as valuable a member of the team as Milla and I. He’ll be back with the children sooner or later.”

 

Frazie groaned a bit in frustration. He wasn’t budging. Ford definitely hadn’t been lying. Nothing short of a direct order would move them, and Ford had no reason to give one until they knew for certain what was up.

 

Fine. There was something else she was here to talk to him about, anyway. “Alright, alright, forget it! Change of subject. I dreamt about the two of them getting their brains stolen last night, and Lili had the exact same dream. Now what does that mean?”

 

Sasha let out a curious hum, stroking his chin. “That is rather curious. Typically, a shared dream has some sort of psychic correlation. Either a mental link, an implanted mental structure, or a broadcasted brainwave. I don’t know what it means... but I know how we can find out.”

 

He paced to his giant machine again, Frazie following behind. “How?”

 

“With the Brain Tumbler.” He patted the not-hair dryer affectionately, flipping a few switches. “It seems you can help me with my experiment after all. It’s a device that sends a person deep into their own psyche, allowing them to cross through the Collective Unconscious and study their own mental faculties.”

 

“Uh huh. Uh huh.” Frazie nodded along while he explained. Finally, she raised a hand. “Let’s pretend I understood any of that. How will this help, exactly?”

 

“It can allow us to review your dream,” Sasha explained. “And if there’s an underlying cause that’s making multiple people experience it... we’ll figure it out.”

 

That made a bit more sense. Go into her own head, play the memory again, and try and find what it was all about. “So how do we use it?”

 

Sasha pointed to the front of the machine. “Simply stand there, facing away.”

 

While he made the final preparations, she did as instructed, taking her place. “Alright,” she murmured, bracing herself for whatever psychic mumbo jumbo was about to happen. “But if I come out of this thing with a new hairdo, I’m gonna be upset.”

 

Sasha slapped a hand over his face. Not even dignifying her with a response, he flipped the switch, the machine starting to power on behind her.

 

The Tumbler whirred to life, spinning, glowing. At first, Frazie felt a sort of sucking sensation behind her, a light pressure that tugged at her scalp. Soon, though, it was almost like an invisible force was pulling her mind from her body, drawing her even further beyond where a Psy Portal would lead her.

 

Seizing up, teeth grit, Frazie’s consciousness slipped away, and though her body stayed still, her mind fell backwards into nothingness.

 

Now entering:

The Collective Unconscious

 

---

 

The darkness didn’t last long. A second later, it was like someone had flipped a switch and completely filled the void with light. And it was all really, really... blue.

 

Frazie landed on some sort of outer rim, the entire circle lined with all kinds of doors. Some open, some closed, all leading places she couldn’t even imagine. “Is this really my mind?” she wondered aloud. “Blue isn’t even my favorite color.”

 

“That’s because it isn’t your mind,” Sasha’s voice replied in her head, making her jump. “As I said... this is the Collective Unconscious, the astral plane where all of mankind’s unconscious minds are linked together. This is only a tiny fragment of it, but you should be seeing representations of all the minds in the general vicinity. Campers, us counselors, and anyone else nearby.”

 

Frazie’s gaze swept over the doors. So all these were someone in or around the camp? Curious, she walked over and tried one of the closed ones, grunting as she pulled hard. It didn’t budge an inch.

 

“You’re still a beginner, so many of your mental connections haven’t developed yet,” Sasha quipped. Well, that would’ve been nice to know a second ago.

 

Leaving the door alone, she stood on the edge of the circle, calling up towards wherever Sasha’s voice was coming from. “Alright... so if this isn’t my mind, then where is it?”

 

“One of these doors should be yours,” he explained. “All you have to do is find it.”

 

Find it. Simple enough. Frazie started pacing around, cracking open any unlocked doors she saw. One opened into the familiar cartoony vibrancy of Dogen’s mind, and she promptly shut it again before anything had the chance to blow up in her face. The next revealed a land of heat and sound, and Frazie was relieved to see Phoebe’s mind still in good condition. After that, she popped her head into the next one long enough to see Clem’s safety bubble was still gradually reclaiming the land around it.

 

There was only one door left. But was it really hers? It sure didn’t look like it.

 

This one was constructed of thick metal planks, her own hair accentuating the top of the frame and tall towers jutting out around the rest of it. A couple torches lit the frame, their flames not producing any heat. At a glance, it looked... gloomy. And she was anything but that.

 

Still, she had nowhere else to go. So, taking a deep breath, she stepped up to it and headed inside.

 

At least the first room looked more like she’d expected. Another void, with the Aquato circus wagon in the center of it all. It filled her with a profound sense of fondness mixed with worry - a joy to see something familiar again, and yet she couldn’t help but fear that her family would jump out of it at any moment.

 

“What can you see, Frazie?” Sasha questioned in her head, pulling her from her thoughts.

 

“It’s my family caravan,” she answered, approaching it. No spontaneous angry, betrayed Aquato ambushes, thankfully. She ran her fingers over one of its wheels, the wood feeling exactly how she remembered it. “It’s where I’ve spent my whole life. Annnnd it’s currently on its way across the state to come kick my butt.”

 

“The carriage is hostile?”

 

“What? No, I didn’t mean this one, I meant the real one, with my family and... never mind.” She left the wheel, glancing up at the dilapidated door set into its side. “I’m going in.”

 

Cautiously, she reached up to crack open her second door in a row. Static crackled on the inside, and knowing from Dogen it was likely harmless, she stepped through it. Her body tingled as she passed through the waves, and on the other side...

 

...Was a lengthy row of steel bars.

 

“What the?” Her path halted, Frazie tried to back up, but the path had already been replaced by a dismal brick wall. “What?!”

 

“Frazie!” Sasha spoke up, sounding concerned. “What happened?”

 

“I’m in jail?!”

 

“Pardon?” She could hear Sasha hum with thought. “...You don’t happen to have a criminal history, do you?”

 

Frazie wished he could see the death glare she was shooting at him right now. “No! What the heck is going on?”

 

She could practically feel Sasha shrugging on the other end. “Not a clue. The mind is a complex, fascinating thing. Sometimes it sends you to wonderlands you could only dream of. Other times, it puts you in a cage.”

 

“Har, har.” Frazie placed her hands on the cell door, trying to shake it loose without any luck. “Well, what does it mean? How am I going to review the dream from here?”

 

“I can’t answer that first bit - you’d have a better chance of figuring it out than I. But if you want to find what you saw, you’re going to need to get out of there. I suggest looking around.”

 

Real genius plan, Mr. Nein. With little other choice, Frazie did just that, scouring the walls with her hands in search of anything out of place. Not a thing. She was well and truly stuck in an empty block. Frustrated, she sat down to think, arms and legs crossed and her brow furrowed. Trapped in her own mind, even if it didn’t feel like it belonged to her. What was a girl to do?

 

Wait for help, apparently. Her head tilted back up, noticing something outside her cell. The instant she stopped being alone, she was aware of it. Her visitor stood out brightly, stark white fur contrasting heavily with all the doom and gloom outside her container.

 

It was a rabbit, yet clearly not at the same time. Its proportions were all wrong. “Huh?” Frazie got up on her knees and crawled towards it, steadying herself against the bars. “What are you doing here, little guy?”

 

That’s when she noticed it had a set of keys in its mouth.

 

Her eyes snapped to them. Every part of her wanted to yell for it to bring her the keyring, but she didn’t want to startle it away. “Heeeeeey!” she said quietly, doing a poor job curbing her eagerness. “I could really, really use those. I’ll be your best friend forever if you share,” she pleaded, extending her hands through the bars.

 

The critter looked up at her fondly, tilting its head. It seemed to like her.

 

...But it didn’t like her that much. After a moment, it spat the keys out on the floor and bounded away, stopping and looking back at her expectantly.

 

“Grrr...!” The bunny just lost out on a best friend forever. Still, she could make this work. Reaching out with her mind, she gingerly picked the keys up, hovering them over to her hand. “There we go.”

 

“Something the matter, Frazie?” Sasha checked in as she freed herself.

 

“There’s a rude little rabbit in here,” she explained as she stepped out, shooting the creature a look. The critter just looked back at her innocently, wiggling its tail, still hoping she’d follow it.

 

Pocketing the keys just in case, Frazie looked up when Sasha hummed again. “Curious. An unfamiliar animal entity is often a sign of a primal fear or memory. I suggest you follow it... it could lead somewhere important.”

 

Like the tower she’d seen. With a sigh, Frazie begrudgingly forgave the bunny for its egregious sin. “Fine. Lead the way, BFF.”

 

Squeeing, the rabbit hopped off, and Frazie walked after it. The area outside her cell wasn’t any cheerier than the inside. She was surrounded by dreary walls, covered in water droplets and moss, lit only by the glow of dim torches. A dark sky hung over where the ceiling should’ve been, but she had no chance of reaching it. The walls were so high, she couldn’t get up even with Levitation.

 

It was like she’d been whisked to the bleakest castle in existence. Or at least its dungeon.

 

As unsettling as it was, it was at least consistent. Consistency quickly flew out the window, though, when she came across chunks of meat lying all over the place. Huge slabs resting along the sides, flanks and filets hanging from the walls by hook. Now it wasn’t just unnerving, it was weird. “You’re sure this is my brain, Sasha?”

 

“Positive.”

 

She clearly needed a therapist, in that case. Trying not to dwell on what this all could represent, she focused on following her guide. It was somewhat comforting, watching his cheery white form hopping along a place that’d otherwise be entirely constricting.

 

They walked in silence. More cells lined the walls, but they were all bare. Her gaze shifting back and forth, she wondered how long she’d have to follow her new friend.

 

After a time, something strange popped up on the path. A bright beam of light shone down, and the bunny passed through it undeterred. Unable to go around it, Frazie followed after, humming with thought. Did this place really need two different light sources? Even if she appreciated something a bit more effective.

 

Bweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

 

The instant her foot touched the glowing ring, an alarm blared. Her head whipped around, unable to see where it was coming from - it was like it was surrounding her, roaring from every direction. Her gaze rose to the sky again... and she gasped aloud.

 

There were a couple gargantuan watch towers on each side of the path, towering over the walls. They gleamed down at her, their lights travelling to focus entirely on Frazie. And their design stood out in a way that shook Frazie to her core. They looked a lot like...

 

The pounding of footsteps stole her attention. On both sides of her, dozens and dozens of censors poured out of nowhere, stampeding down the hall with stamps held high. Regrets soared down from above, and Doubts pooled around her feet.

 

She was surrounded.

 

“Uhhhh... Sasha?!” Frazie called, panicked.

 

“Frazie, what’s wrong?”

 

“Get me out of here, now!”

 

He didn’t need to be told twice. One second, the army of goons was inches from beating her to a pulp. The next, she felt herself being jerked away up into the sky, both sides colliding into nothing as she escaped back to reality.

 

---

 

Frazie bent over, falling to her knees on the lab floor, sucking in breath after breath. In an instant, Sasha was by her side, clutching her shoulders. “Frazie! Frazie, what happened?”

 

Once she’d recovered from her near-death experience, she shook her head. “Baddies were everywhere! I tripped some kind of alarm. There were watchtowers, and they...”

 

“They...” Both towers had a dual set of lights, looking a bit like glowing eyes. One tower, bearded, a thin crack over one of its beacons. The other, sporting curly eyelashes and a voluminously wide nest of hair. Both of them glaring down at her. “They looked sort of like... my parents.”

 

That gave Sasha pause. He let her go, offering her a hand up as he pondered. “Tell me... do you have a troubling relationship with your family?”

 

Frazie took it, thinking carefully about how to respond. “Well, we’ve got our problems. Everyone does. And they’re the reason it took me so long to get started with psychic training. But I definitely don’t hate them!” She crossed a hand over her heart, as if the very idea hurt her. “I love them. My entire family is precious to me! So why are they...?”

 

Sasha tapped his chin. “A potential representation of them stifling your psychic growth, perhaps? Of course, like I said, the mind is complex. It could mean any number of things. Possibly even more than one.”

 

“I guess...” It made sense, but what it meant didn’t matter. Everything she’d seen had been troubling, and she really didn’t want to think about it any more at the moment. But there was one more thing she was wondering about in particular. “There was also a lot of... meat?”

 

Sasha looked at her strangely, but simply paced back to his computer. “I was picking up some psychic interference, but I can’t pinpoint from where yet. An unusual element you can’t trace to yourself is typically a sign of brainwaves overlapping.”

 

“So you’re saying, like... my mind was mixed with someone else’s?”

 

“Precisely.”

 

Frazie shivered at the thought. Who had she been paired with? Lili? No, that couldn’t be it. And did that mean the prison aspect wasn’t hers, either? She really hoped so, but if that wasn’t hers... then what part of her brain was?

 

Frazie figured it’d be better for her sanity to suppress that line of thought for now. More importantly... the mission was a failure. “I couldn’t keep following the rabbit...”

 

“That’s quite alright.” Sasha rested his hands on his console, likely typing in notes and data to assist with his little experiment. “If it truly wanted you to follow it, it’s likely still waiting for you. We can send you back in once you’ve worked on your training a little. I can think of a few tricks that’d help you make it past that particular obstacle.”

 

“And you’re going to teach me them now?”

 

“In time, Frazie. In time.” Reclaiming his mug, he sipped his drink. “There’s no need to rush science. We can revisit it later today and see if we make progress.”

 

“Uggggh.” You could definitely rush science when her stay here was on a time limit and lives were possibly on the line. But regardless, this whole excursion had been a bust. She still had no idea where the dream came from or how valid it was, and all she’d learned was that something in her head was very, very wrong.

 

It was time to shelve the Tumbler for now. If she was lucky, maybe Lili had figured out where Maloof was while she was gone.

 

At least she had something else she could work on. She headed for the stairs, ready to go find her. “Alright, I’ll come back later.” As she climbed, though, a thought came to her. “Hey, Sasha?”

 

“Yes, Frazie?”

 

“Can you do me a favor? At least try to reach out to Coach?”

 

His typing stopped briefly. “If that will put you at ease.” To her relief, he pressed a finger to his head. At least he was willing to do that.

 

“Thanks.” Satisfied, she ran up the rest of the stairs. It was time to reconvene with her friend.

 

After she’d left, Sasha reached out, honing in on Coach’s distant mind. “It’s been awhile, Oleander. Status report?”

 

In his mind, a response blared back. “Working on it!”

 

“It’s been a day, Oleander. Surely picking up a couple children shouldn’t be this difficult?”

 

“Ah... it isn’t, normally, but theeeey’re... in a cave system! Wandering this maze has been one big headache.”

 

“Hmm.” A suitable enough excuse. “Would you like one of us to come over and assist, then?”

 

Coach’s reply was sharp and instant. “No! No, no, no. If I can navigate the trenches, I can handle these tunnels! Just... errrr... it might take me a few more hours. Half a day, at most.”

 

“I see.” The kids brainwaves were still doing fine. They must’ve found some sort of sustenance, and he had no reason to distrust his coworker. Still... if things took too long, it might be best if he or Milla headed over to lend a mental hand anyway. He’d bring it up with her later.

 

---

 

Frazie didn’t have to go far to find Lili. After exiting the GPC’s barbed wire corral, she spotted her friend standing at the crossroads across the river, looking frantically in all directions.

 

The instant she spotted Frazie, she shouted out to her. “Frazie!” The two met in the middle, and Frazie could see the girl huffing and puffing up close.

 

“You ran here?” Frazie noted, crouching a bit to look at her. “Did you find Maloof?”

 

Lili sucked in one last deep breath.“I didn’t just find Maloof!” she exclaimed, gesturing off towards the lake. “I was down at the beach when I spotted him and Mikhail up on the bridge leading back to the cabins. I was about to chase after them, but then I saw... I saw...!”

 

“You saw?”

 

Lili shook her head sharply, her pigtails bouncing with each movement. “You need to see it for yourself.”

 

“I do?”

 

“You do!” Lili snagged Frazie’s hand and pulled, grunting. Frazie let her tug her along, hopelessly confused. “I moved them to the Lodge!”

 

“Them?” Frazie wondered what she could’ve meant... and then it clicked.

 

Them.

 

---

 

“I brought them here after I found them.”

 

In a small side room attached to the dining hall, a cozy little television room was arranged. A big set sat in the corner, with a bunch of beanbag chairs and other seats scattered around so all the kids could gather up for a movie night.

 

At the front of the comfy pile, Milka and Elton sat, attention locked firmly on the screen.

 

At a glance, you’d just think the two kids were a young couple enjoying some cartoons together... except for the part where they were drooling all over themselves and staring off into space. Frazie dropped down, giving Elton’s shoulder a shake. “Hey! Cabin boy! Anyone home?”

 

“Haaaackey saaaaack.”

 

His head lolled lazily to the side, and Frazie felt her stomach twist. Now it was certain... it hadn’t just been a dream, it was a recording. Their brains really had been blown out.

 

Even Lili seemed a bit off-put as she drummed her fingers together and explained. “Right before I ran after Maloof, I heard something splash behind me. I turned and these two were just... walking out of the lake together! They wouldn’t respond no matter what I did. Not even when I gave Elton an Indian Burn!”

 

Frazie winced. Yeah. If that didn’t provoke a reaction, they were 100% brainless. For a moment the two girls sat in silence, thinking, while the two zombies reclined and flapped their lips soundlessly. Finally, Lili spoke. “So what do we do now?”

 

“Now?” Frazie stood up again, reaching down to tip a leaning Milka back into place. “Now, we need to get to Maloof and get to the bottom of this ASAP!”

 

“Yeah!” Pumped up, Lili waved for Frazie to follow, and she did just that. “To the cabins! Let’s get him!”

 

“Non-violently, of course?” Frazie clarified as they jogged out of the building.

 

“Riiiiight. Right, right.”

 

---

 

The rope bridge clattered and shook as they charged across it. At the far end, a couple girls were standing guard.

 

One of them lifted a hand. “Stop right there! They need to pay the Psitanium tax, don’t they, Franke?”

 

“We don’t have time for this!” Frazie snapped right back. Giving them no mind, she reached the far side of the bridge and leapt high, soaring overhead and twisting down behind the kids.

 

Lili? Lili just plowed through them.

 

“Ow!” The redhead shook a fist at her as they ran past. “Don’t you ever lay a hand on Kitty again!”

 

“I’ve always wanted an excuse to do that,” Lili muttered under her breath.

 

With nothing else to stop them, the duo made it back to the sleeping area. It was mostly empty, all the other campers having spread out around the rest of Whispering Rock. But if they listened closely, they could make out quiet chatter and thudding noises coming from the boy’s cabin.

 

Lili and Frazie looked at each other, sharing a nod. Without a word, they stepped up to it and cracked open the door.

 

Inside, Maloof and his accomplice were at work. Maloof pointed out a bed at the upper half of one of the bunks, and his friend nodded. He extended a hand, encompassing it in an energetic glow, and grunted. Frazie’s eyes shot open when the bed straight up cracked and ripped away from its sibling, the bunks split apart as the upper one was placed gently on the floor.

 

Frazie had just enough time to spot a notecard marked ‘Bobby’ labeling it before Maloof picked it off and tore it in half. Normally she’d be more than okay with someone sticking it to the bully, but it seemed a bit over the top when the older kid started ripping its headboard off, all while Maloof sat back and observed.

 

“Whaaaat are you two doing?” Lili asked, drawing their attention.

 

The two boys spared them a glance, then promptly went back to work. “We’re making a desk for my new office,” Maloof answered off-handedly.

 

“Are you supposed to be stealing people’s beds?” Frazie added.

 

“Are you supposed to be in the boy’s cabin?” he shot right back. “Do you have a point?”

 

Frazie didn’t appreciate the attitude... but she wasn’t here to bicker, she was here for information. So, she shook her head. “Not really. But I do have a question.”

 

“Maloof not have time for interrogation,” the older boy answered for him in a thick Russian accent.

 

“No, no, let’s see what they have to say,” Maloof interrupted with a hint of intrigue.

 

Lili looked up at Frazie, knowing she was the one that’d wanted this. Nodding, the older girl stepped forward, addressing him. “I know you saw something happen to Milka and Elton at the lake yesterday. Care to share?”

 

“Hmmmm.” The young boy eyed the ceiling, lost in thought. “Could I share? Yes, I very well could. But will I? No.”

 

“...What?” Thrown off, Frazie spoke again. “Why not? Those two could be in danger!”

 

“That’s no concern of mine, now is it?” Maloof scoffed, ignoring her to focus on the construction of his new furniture. “The kids at this camp are cruel. If a couple of them have an accident... that’s the grown-ups problem, not mine.”

 

“This is serious! There could be lives at stake.”

 

Maloof rolled his eyes, but finally looked her way again. “Very well. If it’s that important, I suppose you’d be willing to part with a hundred thousand Psitanium arrowheads for it?”

 

Frazie’s jaw dropped at the insane amount. “I don’t have that kind of money!” She leaned down to whisper to Lili. “Those count as money, right?”

 

Maloof immediately lost interest in her. “Then I suggest you head outside and start digging around.”

 

Why the heck was every kid at this camp trying to shake people down?! Bunch of little thugs. Well, Frazie wasn’t going to stand for this highway robbery.

 

“You know I’m older than you, right?” Frazie pointed out, cracking her knuckles. “And not a bad psychic, either. What if I just gave you a telekinetic wedgie until you spilled the beans?”

 

So much for non-violently. But to her credit, she’d said that before the boy put everyone at risk by keeping critical information to himself. And to his credit, he didn’t so much as flinch at her threat. He answered calmly and coldly.

 

“Then I suppose you’d have to speak with my associate first. Mikhail?”

 

“On it, boss.”

 

His assistant looked up from the former bed to turn to Frazie. She just crossed her arms, unimpressed... for about five seconds. When the boy lifted his fingers to his temple, she let out an ‘oof’ as a surprisingly powerful telekinetic grip squeezed down on her.

 

Mikhail yanked her up as easily as if she were a little doll. She twisted as easily as one, too. Lili gaped in horror as the boy jerked Frazie’s limbs in wild directions, curving her backwards into a circle and looping her own arms together. Frazie cried out as her body cracked a few times and hissed in pain, teeth grit, unable to do a thing in his grasp. It was incredibly lucky that she was flexible as heck, or this would hurt five times worse than it already did.

 

“HEY! Let her go, right now!” Lili ran over to wail on Mikhail’s chest, but he didn’t even flinch. He just gave her a brief enough look to let her know if she kept it up, she’d be joining her friend.

 

Maloof didn’t seem in any hurry to listen to Lili’s complaints. But finally, he shrugged. “Very well. Mikhail, drop her. I believe she’s learned her lesson.”

 

“As you wish.” Frazie was flooded with sheer relief as she felt her body loosen up. It only lasted a second, though, because next thing she knew, she was being flung out of the cabin.

 

“GAH!” She landed in a heap, moaning painfully. She’d already been plenty sore from getting twisted around without the sudden impact making it worse. Lili ran out to her, kneeling by her side, while the two boys watched from the cabin door.

 

“Let that be a lesson to you,” Maloof called. “When both parties are psychic, the playing field’s even.”

 

“Will be happy to teach more if you return,” Mikhail tacked on. “Will show Telekiliminator next. Much, much worse.”

 

Just the thought of something worse than that made Frazie break out into a cold sweat. While Lili worked to get her back on her feet, the other kids slammed the door shut. A loud thump rang out from the cabin, and by the time she’d finally sat up properly, Frazie could see they’d levitated an entire bunk in front of the door.

 

Rubbing her aching arms, Frazie groaned. “That could’ve gone way, way better...”

 

Lili patted her back sympathetically, making her wince as she touched a knot. “For what it’s worth, you were pretty kickass back there, Frazie.” She pursed her lips. “Up until the point he made you a pretzel, anyway.”

 

“Thanks. Now my dignity hurts only slightly less than my spine.”

 

Frazie had felt bad for the kid before. Now... he was kinda a jerk. And that was putting it mildly. Climbing back to her feet and cracking her back, she stared at the hut in deep thought. How were they going to get to him?

 

She sure as heck wasn’t going to dig up the entire camp looking for Psitanium. That request was completely ridiculous, even if she wasn’t on a strict time frame. No... they needed to think outside the box.

 

And Frazie had an idea. “Well, if he’s not going to share what we need to know... I guess we’ll just have to take it instead.”

 

“That didn’t go so well, like, five minutes ago,” Lili pointed out.

 

“Well, this time...” Frazie pulled out her Psy Portal, giving it a flip. “It’s gonna be an inside job.”

 

Lili’s eyes lit up with devilish delight. “I love the way you think. But how are we going to get it on him?” she asked, pointing out the barricade.

 

“Goooood question. There’s gotta be a way...” They’d have to figure it out themselves, though. Crouching low to keep hidden, Frazie motioned for Lili to follow, and the two crept around the cabin exterior.

 

It didn’t take long for Frazie to notice the windows were a great opportunity. They were composed criss-crossing meshs of metal that formed a sturdy fence, but lacked any sort of glass. if she squeezed, she could wedge her Psy Portal riiiight through one of the holes. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” she whispered to Lili.

 

“Oooooh yeah.”

 

Letting her mind take the little door from her hand, Frazie peeked through the window, waiting for the right moment. The boys were hard at work trying to turn the ripped-off frame into table legs, oblivious to the girls still lingering around.

 

Frazie only had one shot. If they caught her... she didn’t even want to think about what the Telekiliminator was like. So, concentrating as much as she possibly could, she levitated the door through the grate, waited, and...

 

Fwip! She tossed it at the back of Maloof’s head, praying with all she had that it’d work. The boy barely seemed to notice as it latched onto him and flipped open, spilling light.

 

Jackpot! Frazie offered Lili a quick high five, and the girl gladly took it. “You with me?” she whispered, gesturing to the door with her eyes.

 

Beaming with glee, Lili bobbed her head. “Yes! This is so exciting!”

 

Exciting... and dangerous. Frazie had a hunch Maloof wouldn’t give up the info without a fight.

 

But without Mikhail in the picture, they at least stood a fighting chance. The girls focused together, honing in on the open portal, minds grasping out to latch onto it through the wall.

 

One by one, their consciousnesses floated up out of their bodies. Seamlessly seeping through the holes in the windows, their energies swirled around each other as they dived together into the depths of Maloof’s mind.

 

Now entering:

Maloof’s Mafia Metropolis

Sensations flooded Frazie when she finally touched down. She took in the smell of the sea, the shrill cries of seagulls, and the darkness of a dreary night touching everything she could see.

 

On one side of them, docks, lone boats bobbing on gentle waters. On the other side... a sprawling cityscape. Skyscrapers as far as the eye could see, in a medley of darker colors. Purples, blues, grays, all painting the town in shadows and deep tones accentuated by the occasional glow of a window.

 

“Whoa.” Frazie hadn’t been in cities very often, and when she had, never one this big. Heck, she didn’t think any real city actually was this big. The buildings all seemed to stretch towards the sky, reaching unfathomable heights and disappearing out of view.

 

It was like having a child’s eye view, she felt.

 

“Hup!” Hearing Lili pop into existence beside her, Frazie watched the girl take in their surroundings much as she had. “Huh. Maloof sure thinks big for such a little guy.”

 

“Yeah.” It just made everything feel all the lonelier, without another soul in sight. It also meant they had a looooot of ground to travel. “So where do we start?”

 

Lili went to respond, but suddenly clammed up, putting a finger to her lips and cocking her head to the side. Frazie listened in, catching some gruff muttering not too far away.

 

They weren’t alone on the docks.

 

The two of them quickly slipped to a nearby shipping container, pressing themselves against it and peeking around the side. Off in the distance, a trio of men stood under a light, talking amongst themselves.

 

Well, if they even counted as men. They had pinstripe suits in various colors, sharp fedoras, gloves, stark shoes of black and white... and nothing else. Though they had a variety of body types, stick thin and top heavy and rotund, there wasn’t actually anyone wearing them. Faceless goons, speaking with lips that didn’t actually exist.

 

“What’s the boss want?” one grunted, a toothpick hovering where his teeth would be. “If I’m gonna be smelling fish all night, I at least wanna know what’s so freakin’ urgent.”

 

“Does it matter?” another said. “The Don calls, you come running. Or do yas wanna get on his bad side?”

 

The toothpick suddenly snapped, as if bitten in half. “Whatevas. Let’s get this over with,” the suit grunted, spitting it out.

 

The last one ushered for them to follow, heading off down the pier. “Come on, he’s expectin’ us...”

 

The suits walked away, making for a small warehouse nearby. The girls kept on their tail, keeping out of sight up until the goons approached one of the building’s shutters. The biggest one knocked loudly, and after a second, the door slid aside enough for someone to confirm their identities and let them in.

 

Once the coast was clear, Lili slipped out of cover to head after them. “Come on! I bet they know what we’re looking for.”

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.” Frazie’s arm whipped out to stop her by the collar of her shirt. “They might just be clothes, but that doesn’t mean we should go looking for a fight. And we don’t know who else might be in there.”

 

Grumbling, Lili turned back around. “Alright, then what’s the plan, then?”

 

What was the plan? Her eyes drifting over the building, Frazie mulled over their options. “There!” Instead of trying to head in through the front, there was a window perched above a bunch of pipes they could peer through. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.” If they were lucky, they wouldn’t even have to head inside.

 

It was a less direct scheme, but Lili could still get behind it. So, together, the two of them ran to the building’s side and bounced off their levitation balls right up to the vantage point.

 

“Now let’s see...” Frazie cupped her eyes and peered inside. She was immediately glad they hadn’t barged right in.

 

The warehouse was a lot bigger on the inside. A lot, a lot, a looooot. Instead of shelves and boxes, the interior looked more like a giant parlor, with a second floor and all kinds of ritzy furniture. Brightly lit, a massive meeting table filled a chunk of it while comfy chairs, pool tables and fancy rugs dotted the rest. It was more a hideout than a storage; more a mansion than a hut.

 

It had enough people to fill a mansion, too. A lot more suits strutted around, of all sizes and colors, and they weren’t alone. Censors were apparently allowed in the gang too, because a bunch of them were making themselves at home, donning bowlers and trilbies as they tried to make pool work with their wonky proportions. To her chagrin, a couple of them were even taking after the thugs, looking twice as tall and five times as beefy as their weaker counterparts.

 

Yeah. Definitely a good thing they hadn’t entered. Despite the huge crowd, the leader of it all still managed to stand out - as did his two right hand men.

 

Maloof sat at the head of the room, and he’d gotten a spiffy new look. A stark black suit with a rose pinned to the lapel, and though his face was calm, there was an underlying malice gleaming in his eyes. As he reclined at his desk, his biggest enforcer stood with arms folded by his side. Unlike the other walking outfits, this one was a heavy jacket and jeans, with a wooly hat big enough to hide anything it wanted inside.

 

Frazie had a few good guesses who that was meant to represent. The other one though... she had no clue.

 

Maloof was using a squat little white suit as a footstool. It seemed the exact opposite of high-ranking, and yet even as its boss dug its heels into its back, it fretted over loads of paperwork and plans scattered around the floor. The poor thing clearly got no respect despite all the work it was doing.

 

But Frazie didn’t have time to pity it. With the last few gang members arriving, Maloof finally looked up from his desk, snapping his fingers to draw everyone’s attention. While the assembled crooks turned to their boss, the girls telekinetically pried a panel from the window, allowing all their chatter to ring out loud and clear.

 

“Gentlemen.” Maloof stood up, walking right over his little assistant’s paperwork and making it whine as he paced before his crew. “It does my heart well to see you all here on such short notice. You see... there’s been an upset.”

 

Adjusting his collar, the young man held the reverence of the entire clothing crowd as he talked. “It seems a couple little ladies have taken interest in a memory of mine. The price for it is set, but you don’t get far in this business without planning ahead.”

 

“Little?” Frazie murmured to herself in disbelief.

 

Maloof snapped his fingers again, and this time, a couple strong suits lugged something to the front of the parlor. A shivering memory vault, looking absolutely terrified amidst a crowd of thugs. Interest piqued, Frazie and Lili pressed themselves against the glass as they watched the guards drop off their payload.

 

The young Don put a hand on it, and though the creature squeaked, it didn’t dare budge with an entire gang surrounding it. “Just to be safe, we’ll be moving this information to a more secure location over on Memory Lane. That’s where you lot come in.” Waving a finger, he started picking suits out of the crowd. “Mugsy, Rocky, you’re driving the truck. Pinhead, Dirty Dan, Fat Tony, you’re loading her up. The rest of you... be prepared to defend it at a moment’s notice. With luck, our clients will either play along or buzz off. But if not... if they get any wise ideas... we’re going to have to make them regret their hubris.”

 

A few chuckles bubbled from the crowd, and some nods. Now that was an order they could accept, if not get behind. After a moment, Maloof glared out over his crew, waving a hand. “What are you all waiting for? Get moving!”

 

Startled, his chosen few rushed to their positions. While a couple ran for the door, a few approached the startled safe and started lifting. With a grunt, they hefted it up...

 

...And dropped it back down when one of the goons fumbled it. “Oops.”

 

The safe landed with a loud squeal, immediately making Maloof flick his head their way. The guilty lackey drummed his fingers together. “My bad, boss?”

 

“Tony, Tony...” Maloof stepped up to the man, offering him a sympathetic hand. “It’s okay. Accidents happen.”

 

The suit sighed with relief. Then, Maloof called to his prized enforcer. “See to it he gets a new pair of cement shoes, capiche?”

 

“Wait, what?!” In an instant, Mikhail’s representation was on him, lifting him wholly with one hand and dragging him away. “You said accidents happen, boss! You said it!”

 

“I did,” he admitted. “I never said I forgave them. No one embarrasses me. Not anymore.”

 

The unlucky goon was pulled out of the room, kicking and shouting. A deep silence covered the crowd as he went... until Maloof snapped his fingers again. “Quit slacking! There’s work to be done.”

 

Back outside the window, the girls grimaced. “He’s power tripping,” Lili murmured.

 

“Juuuuust a little.” Frazie shook her head, trying to shake what she’d seen. Don’t dwell on it, she told herself. It’s just some mental entity. She blasted little lawyers with ease... one fake mobster wasn’t a big deal. And yet, the way he’d been so easily betrayed and punished left her chilled. “Alright... that incident aside... we’ve gotta get to that vault.”

 

“The vault they’re about to put in a truck and drive somewhere?” Lili clarified.

 

“Right.” A pause. A second later, the sound of an engine revving across the building rumbled out. “Uh oh.”

 

Jumping into action, the two of them leapt down from their hiding spot and raced around the back of the warehouse. They arrived just in time to watch a transport truck pull away from the building.

 

“It’s getting away!” Frazie said, watching it disappear into the distance. “We’ve gotta-“

 

She paused. Slowly glancing to the side, she could see the poor goon from earlier trying to wobble around in some new rock solid loafers, a few of his fellows having a laugh at his expense. “Aw, geez, guys... these are really uncomfortable.”

 

“...I guess Maloof’s not too far gone yet?” A rough nudge from Lili got her focused again. “Right! After it!” With a hop, Frazie called up her levitation ball and balanced on top.

 

“Let’s go!” Lili mimicked her, and the two were in pursuit in a blur of orange and green. As much as Frazie loved her new power, this wild ride wasn’t fun and games... they had to catch up to that vehicle before it got away.

 

The streets were bare aside from empty cars parked off to the sides, the girls smashing seamlessly through figments as they gave chase. With no traffic or civilians to look out for, they were free to gradually gain on their target as it wound through the city streets.

 

But that made them easier to spot, too.

 

On the passenger side, a shirt cuff stuck out to adjust the side mirror, jolting with surprise when the two of them appeared in it. “Geez! Da boss was right!”

 

“Eh?” The driver poked his head out long enough to confirm it. “Pff. A couple dames on bouncy balls? That’s what the Don’s worried about? I’ll shake ‘em. And you... deter them.”

 

The truck roared, its engine pumping up as the driver floored it. “Hey!” Frazie snapped, leaning forward and increasing her momentum.

 

Fwip!

 

It was a small sound, but one that made her blood run cold. The shrill whip of a bullet whizzing right by her head.

 

Just because it’d only be a mental wound didn’t mean Frazie planned on being shot today. And she definitely wouldn’t let Lili be, either. Swerving to the side, she positioned herself in front of her friend and threw up her shield just in time to deter a round of gunfire from the passenger side.

 

“Eep!” Lili was tough, but even someone like her would jump when they had a tommy gun unloading on them. “Thanks for the cover,” she called, trying not to bump into Frazie from behind as projectiles pinged off her barrier. But while the goon was keeping them at bay, the vehicle was free to add more distance between them, swerving around a corner. “How are we gonna catch up?!”

 

Taking the brief respite to rest her shield, Frazie thought quickly as they barreled around the intersection. They needed to slow that thing down, and they needed to keep themselves safe from the gunman. Her eyes drifted to the truck’s wheels, and her advanced training from the prior day popped into mind.

 

“Follow me!” Frazie protected herself again, pushing to roll as fast as she could. The air split with the crack of gunfire once more, and Frazie soldiered them through it.

 

The instant there was a breather, she swerved to the other side of the road, a finger to her temple and focus in her mind. Channeling that energy, she unloaded some psi blasts on the back wheel, slamming the tire with her newest trick.

 

The force made the truck jump, but a blunt blow wasn’t going to do any good. It just made the driver cry out. “They’re firing back!”

 

“With what?!”

 

“I don’t freakin’ know! Keep shooting!”

 

Rounding another corner, the gunner goon sent another volley, forcing the two to dodge. Rather than follow right after, though, Frazie guided them onto the sidewalk. “This way!”

 

A tall wooden fence blocked off an alley, but it wasn’t tall enough to stop a couple gals on levitation orbs. Easily bouncing over it, they rolled through the shortcut, knocking trash cans and litter aside before popping out on the other side - right ahead of the truck.

 

“Aahhh!” both the girls and the gangsters screamed in unison. Frazie plucked Lili right off her ball and rushed forward, out of the vehicle’s path.

 

It raced right on by, and once the surprise wore off, the two of them were giving chase again, much closer now. With the back of the truck right up ahead, the shooter was having trouble getting a lock on them.

 

With another brief moment for the two to think, Lili surprised Frazie with her next idea. “Throw me up top!”

 

“What?!”

 

“They can’t hit me up there! I’ll try and melt through the roof! You keep working on the wheels!”

 

Frazie’s mind screamed a dozen reasons why she shouldn’t, but she finally nodded. “Alright...!” She wasn’t too keen on letting her friend ride a barreling vehicle, but Lili made a pretty dang good point. “Just be careful,” she tacked on, guiding the two of them to the side of the truck.

 

The driver poked his head out to gape at the two girls rolling right by his side. “What the hells do you two think you’re doing?!”

 

“This!” Frazie grabbed for her partner and spun, flinging her towards the roof of the car. To her relief, Lili latched on, grunting as she lifted a leg over the top.

 

“You crazy bastards...!” With a sharp turn of the wheel, Frazie was forced to back off and let the truck roll ahead as it tried to ram her. “Pass me the tommy, you useless mook!”

 

Things were escalating quickly. The driver was alternating between swerving madly, trying to throw Lili off, and unloading vicious bursts of bullets back at Frazie. Popping her shield up as needed, she kept good on her half of the plan and rolled to the far set of wheels.

 

She could whale on it for awhile and eventually break a tire off, but that’d take too long. Priming her mind again, she focused her Psi Blasts, trying to will up the piercing shots she’d managed earlier.

 

The first few shots rocked the car, but the tire kept rolling on its not-so-merry way. Concentrating harder, Frazie fired again, relieved to see a small nick in the rubber. “How’s it going up there?” she called, continuing to chip away at it.

 

“Poorly!” With the vehicle on a high speed rampage, Lili was stuck rolling and clinging to the top, hardly able to focus let alone stand. When she could, she poured heat into the metal, but she wasn’t having much luck.

 

Which just meant Frazie would have to make her some. Narrowing her eyes, her focus, she tried to hone down her psychic power as thinly as she could.

 

Pop!

 

Her psi blast narrowed to a thin point, slicing through the rubber like a hot blade carving through butter. The truck jerked violently as it suffered a blow-out, a painful metallic scraping coming from the back as it started dragging its corner along the road.

 

“What the hell is up with these girls?!” the driver cried, still trying desperately to shake Lili off, but having a hard time now that their momentum was cut.

 

With the vehicle shaking and speeding a lot less, Lili finally wobbled to her feet, the wind whipping her hair back. “Nice one!” she called below, pushing her hands ahead of her and pouring all she had into the truck.

 

It took some time, but a few moments later, the metal began to bubble. The sharp stench of burning steel filled the air as she started melting a hole in the roof, piercing through the thin layer.

 

Before long, there was a hole big enough to spot the shivering safe curled up in the dark. “I see it!” Lili shouted, willing up every bit of heat she could muster. “I’ve almost got it...!”

 

“Lili, get down!”

 

“Huh?” Lili’s head jerked up just in time to see an archway barreling towards her. With a yelp, she launched herself off the car and into Frazie’s waiting arms.

 

The truck was free to awkwardly bump its way through the gate - and when the girls tried to follow after, it slammed shut in their faces. Popping her ball, Frazie set Lili down and shoved at the bars, grunting futilely as she failed to push it back open.

 

They were too late. The truck had reached its destination.

 

They could practically hear the goons laughing in the distance as they drove off towards the back of the building, taking their haul with it. Groaning, Frazie thumped her head against the gate. “Perfect. Juuuust perfect.”

 

Lili kicked at the ground, huffing. “Grrrr... we had it!”

 

“Almost.” They had. But it didn’t matter how close they’d came if they hadn’t actually succeeded. After a moment, Frazie shook her head, stepping back. Alright... so things just got a lot harder. Where were they, anyway? Her eyes trailed up to the top of the gate, where their destination was labelled in thin black gating: The Hippo-Campus.

 

Indeed, the enclosure was home to a medley of buildings, not too unlike a college. However, squinting closely, Frazie could see that the place wasn’t for learning... it was for storage. Each area was labelled, whether it was a tiny hut marked as Baby or bigger ones for Family and Camp.

 

And at the far end, where the goons had driven off to, sat the biggest building of all: A massive banklike structure marked Significant.

 

The good news: they knew where to go. The bad news... pff, good luck getting to it.

 

On top of the fence being too big to scale, the outside of the place was well protected. Security guards wandered the place, waving flashlights. The strange thing was, their heads WERE the flashlights. With every which way their faces turned, their beams illuminated the area, on the lookout for intruders.

 

Alright, so they needed a way in, and they needed to watch out for those guys. Her mind drifting back to her cell in her own mind, she recalled a certain cheeky bunny. “Maybe we can lure one close and if we’re lucky, telekinesis some keys off them...?” Frazie suggested.

 

“I wouldn’t mess with those guys if I were you.”

 

That hadn’t been Lili.

 

Instantly on alert, the girls whipped their heads to the side just in time to see a hole in reality open up. Not the usual red censor circle - no, it was as if someone just slid their hands through the air and opened them like curtains. And from out of that gap stepped a familiar face... or lack of face?

 

It was the small white suit being used as a footstool from back at the parlor. Frazie held a hand in front of Lili, primed to punt this thing over the fence if it tried anything. Already she was worried this was the first wave of an ambush. If it was, though, it was a pretty pathetic one, because the instant she tightened her fist the goon squeaked in alarm and ducked down.

 

“W-wait wait wait! I’m on your side!” it pleaded.

 

Frazie’s fist faltered. “...Eh?”

 

The suit straightened back up, trying and failing to look composed as it gestured to the guards again. “I’m here to help. Starting with keeping you from getting demolished by those things. They won’t touch you if you stay out of their sight... you don’t have to fight them, and you shouldn’t. They’re nigh unstoppable.”

 

The nearest one perked up suddenly, overhearing their little chat. As it paced closer, its light washed over the three of them. The white beam suddenly flickered red as it let out a howl and ran forward, punching their way.

 

If there hadn’t been a metal fence in its path, they’d have been goners. The metal bent outward from the impact, making everyone scream and jump back. As soon as they were out of its cone, it calmed down, tilting its head left and right in confusion.

 

Object Permanence

Don’t stay in its line of sight too long. Or else.

 

It took a second for Frazie to realize the little suit had jumped up into her arms. She shot it a look and dropped it, the small guy landing with an ‘oof’.

 

“Alright, that checks out,” Frazie noted. “Still, why on earth should we trust you?”

 

Dusting itself off, the suit shrugged. “You can’t, I guess... but you don’t have to, because you’re stuck without my help. And I want to help.” It sagged, sighing. “Things have gotten real scary around here lately, ever since that big new goon showed up. With him, Maloof thinks he can do anything... and he’ll squash anyone who gets in the way. Maybe you can knock him down a peg if you take that memory from under his nose? At the least, I don’t want those campers getting hurt just because he’s being stingy.”

 

Lili and Frazie glanced at each other, their silence speaking volumes. He knew a lot - made sense for the intel guy of his gang. But did they work with him? If he’d wanted them dead, he could’ve just called for the rest of the gang and had them crushed by their sheer numbers and artillery. Skeptical still, Lili jabbed a finger into the suit’s lapel. “And what do you have to offer us, huh?”

 

“I-information,” it stammered, raising its hands to protect itself. “I know the layout of the campus inside and out. Take one of these, and I can help you break in,” he explained, pulling a little walkie talkie from inside his coat.

 

Accepting it, Frazie clicked a button on the side, making it crackle. “And if that’s not enough...” their benefactor continued as he reached for the other side of his jacket, “I have a sweetener.”

 

Frazie’s eyes went wide when he pulled out the next thing: A light blue camp badge, except blown up to massive proportions. Holding it like a plate, it featured a little figure starting to fade out of existence. Curious, Frazie reached out to touch it. It didn’t feel physical, it felt more like... energy. “What the...?”

 

“It’s a skill Maloof used to use a lot,” the suit explained. “Invisibility. This is his knowledge for it... I can share it with both of you. You’re gonna need it if you want to pull this off.”

 

Lili took her turn to poke it, swiping her hand through it and staring blankly at her empty palm. “So how do we...?”

 

In response, the suit crushed the symbol in its grasp. It exploded into little pale particles, the glimmers floating over to settle on the girls. Just touching them made Frazie’s mind feel rejuvenated, expanded. Like she perfectly understood the basics of a skill she’d never once attempted.

 

Distance yourself. Focus on solitude, on quiet, on slipping into the background. Make yourself less noticeable, to the point people can look right at you and see nothing. It was crystal clear, and she would be too.

 

Trying it out, Frazie shut her eyes and concentrated. When she opened them again... her hands were gone. All of her was, she noted, looking down where her legs had been. Dispelling it, she grinned to herself. “Check it out, Lili! ...Lili?”

 

Lili was gone - for half a second, until she popped up right in Frazie’s face. “Boo!”

 

Recoiling, Frazie stuck out her tongue as Lili giggled. “I think he’s legit,” Frazie finally decided, giving the suit an approving nod.

 

Relieved to hear it, the suit turned, once more spreading reality wide open. “Perfect! I’ll call with instructions in a moment. Just be careful, you two. Even with my help, one slip up, and you’re done for.”

 

Reassuring. Before he’d vanished, Frazie reached out. “Wait! What do we call you?”

 

He took a moment to mull it over. “Lefty.” With that, he stepped through the breach and the two were alone again. A second later, the walkie talkie crackled to life. Peering through the fence ahead of them, they shared a nod as their first instructions came in.

 

The heist was on.

“Gross, gross, gross.”

 

Frazie took big, sloshing steps through the sewer sludge, wading her way through the underground passage. To her credit, she at least let Lili ride on her shoulders to spare her the same fate, but when Lefty had promised them a route inside the campus, she’d expected something less... gagworthy. “Why is there even a sewer system in his head, anyway?” she griped. “It’s not like anyone here’s going to use it.”

 

Lili shrugged up above her, holding the walkie talkie and keeping lookout. “Beats me. I guess he’s got some dirty thoughts?”

 

“Not funny.” Frazie made a face, hoping this mental goop wouldn’t stain her only good pair of shoes. “Are we almost there?”

 

“Lemme check with Lefty.” Lili flipped the radio on, its buzz echoing through the empty tunnel. “You said go left, right?”

 

“No, go left, not right,” their guide replied.

 

“Right! Left!”

 

“Left, right.”

 

Lili facepalmed. “You can’t see me right now, but I’m giving you the dirtiest look you can imagine. We’re going left. And then the way up should be there?”

 

“Right!”

 

Lili shook her fist at the air, growling to herself, then promptly pointed off to the side. “That way!”

 

Her head spinning from their conversation, Frazie followed along, and to her relief, a ladder sat carved into the wall up ahead. “Thank goodness,” she breathed, letting Lili hop off onto it first and climbing up after.

 

A lid blocked the way, easily lifted aside with a bit of Lili’s telekinesis. She hopped out and helped Frazie up, the older girl gladly taking the opportunity to shake her feet dry. To her relief, Lefty knew what he was talking about - they’d reached the other side of the fence. They were inside the compound... but they still had a long ways to go.

 

They’d popped up in the corner of the large lot. The primary building was on the other end, and there were a load of Permanences making the rounds in between. Dozens of guard-garbed goons swept their cones of vision over the grounds, their flashlight heads bobbing with each step.

 

“Remember,” Lefty buzzed in, “don’t let them see you for long... or at all, preferably. If you get out of their line of sight, they’ll forget you existed soon enough. And if you stay in it... well, you won’t exist much longer.”

 

“You’re bad at this whole ‘pep talk’ thing,” Frazie snarked. “Any chance you know a way around them?”

 

“Their patrol is solid,” Lefty replied. “There’s not really any gaps. But that’s where Invisibility comes in handy. Follow the fence, cut across the middle, and then keep going to the back of the building. That should keep you out of their way as much as possible... if you vanish as needed.”

 

“And we can’t just invisi-walk all the way across because...?” Frazie asked.

 

“Too risky,” Lefty’s voice crackled. “You just learned it, so it’ll only last a limited time. If it runs out in a bad spot, you’re a sitting duck. Stick to the plan, and you should only have to use it sparingly.”

 

“Got it.” Frazie cut the radio off and sighed, preparing herself. She’d already had enough sneaking around lately, slipping out from under her family’s noses and failing to evade a load of angry monkeys... but if it was either this or going toe to toe with the invincible brutes, it was an easy choice. “You ready, Lil?”

 

“I still think we could take them,” Lili murmured, her hand fading in and out while she played with her power. “But this’ll all be easier if we can get in and out unnoticed.”

 

“Exaaactly.” It was time to move. Repeating Lefty’s instructions in her mind, Frazie led the way with her partner tiptoeing right behind.

 

Just trace the edge behind the buildings for awhile, simple enough. Frazie couldn’t help but feel off-put despite it, because that strategy went so well back in Clem’s mind. These guards were a whole different breed, though. The girls could be right in front of them, but so long as they stayed silent and didn’t touch their lights, it was like they didn’t exist.

 

That didn’t mean it was easy, though. Lefty was right - their patrol route was pretty solid. A couple guards had them surrounded on both sides before long, making Frazie’s breath hitch as they steadily closed in on them. Thankfully, a quick duck into a nearby alcove kept her and Lili out of sight and out of mind. If the guards turned their heads even an inch, they’d be found out, but these creatures were pretty adamant about sticking to their path.

 

All the better for them. As soon as the coast was clear, the girls ducked back out and rushed to the halfway point.

 

This was the scary part. They had to cross the wide open campus, out in plain sight. Which didn’t matter much to these entities, truthfully... but as the two stood on the edge, scanning for the right moment to move, they watched as guard after guard swept the area in wide patterns. There was never really a moment where they could cut clean across. They’d have to slip in and out of invisibility to have any chance of making it.

 

They had to get this perfect. Try to dodge one guard, and they’d bump into another. Their new trick might get them out of a scrape, but not having it at the wrong time could completely shut down their mission.

 

Finally spotting an opportunity, Frazie darted out, walking quickly but silently as Lili kept to her shadow. A second later, a light swung their way, and a quick dip into invisibility kept them in the clear.

 

It got trickier after that. A few stationary guards at strategic points required some power use. By the time they were past, they needed a moment to recharge their minds while their bodies kept pace.

 

Right in time for two guards to head their way, approaching the two from both sides.

 

“Lili!” Frazie warned, begging her beleaguered brain to spark some stealth, to no avail. There was a thin gap between their searchlights, but would it be enough? Only one way to find out.

 

“Do as I do,” she instructed. She twisted sideways and Lili followed suit, both standing arrow straight with their arms at their sides. Each guard passed by them, their lights bobbing dangerously close to their feet, the girls holding their breath and praying hard as they wedged between their spotlights.

 

A second later, the Permanences passed by, none the wiser. “Phew!” Lili breathed once they’d gone.

 

Juuuust a bit too loudly.

 

The guards immediately jerked back their way. Squeaking, the two campers sprinted away before they could properly investigate. Lili gave Frazie an apologetic shrug once they’d made it to the other side, Frazie waving it off. They’d made it, that was all that mattered.

 

They could relax a bit now. The rest of their route was a straight path along the other edge, their invisibility carrying them through any more tense situations until they reached their destination.

 

The main building was far bigger up close - no mind trickery this time, Frazie just had the privilege of not looking at it from across the equivalent of a football field. Resting a hand on its gray brick façade, she fished out the walkie talkie to provide an update. “We’re at the back, what now?”

 

“Good job. Now, you two just need to climb up to the top. You should be able to get into the vents through there.”

 

Frazie’s eyes trailed up the building. Sure, it was big, but with some Levitation and a dream, it was more than possible. Already she was plotting a path, looking for bits of architecture big enough to land on.

 

“That’s dumb,” Lili’s murmur wormed its way past her thoughts. “Vents big enough to crawl through are just a lame cliché.”

 

“Well,” Frazie pointed out, “you’re small, I’m thin, and we’re in the mind of a child who’s probably seen too many crime films.” Lili didn’t really have any comebacks for that one.

 

Instead, she just popped onto her levitation ball and led the way up. “Still a cliché!”

 

Rolling her eyes, Frazie rolled on her own orb and bounced high into the sky. She leapt from railing to edge to foothold, finally floating up over the top. By the time she’d caught up to her on the roof, Lili had already melted halfway through the air duct cover.

 

“Getting a lot of mileage out of that today, huh?” Frazie lent a hand, their combined Pyrokinesis burning through the grate like steel butter.

 

The newly-carved hole sizzled, allowing them a peek inside. Yep - nice and big. Even a full grown man coulda moved through it, no problem. Frazie tossed Lili a cheeky smirk, inviting some more commentary, but the girl just huffed and crawled inside.

 

Once they were in, Frazie checked back in with Lefty, and their guide generously mapped their way through the metallic maze. “A few more turns and you should be right above the security room,” he explained while they moved.

 

He’d steered them straight so far, and now was no different. At the indicated spot, Frazie peeked down through another cover to see rows of screens barely visible through the cracks. Manning them all was a lone censor, wearing a nice little guard cap of his own as he scanned for any malevolent thoughts that might want to mess with Maloof’s memories.

 

Sadly for him, the only intruders were right overhead. Frazie dipped her legs into the hole, braced herself, and kicked hard. The covering shot clean off, bonking the poor guy on the noggin and immediately evaporating him in a cloud of smoke.

 

Frazie took his place, dropping down and catching Lili as she followed after. “Now what do we have here...?” Frazie wondered aloud, checking the feed.

 

Most screens were empty, just blank rooms and a few censors waddling here and there. But something was going on in what seemed to be the main lobby, the two girls watching with interest.

 

The goons that’d shook them off were hefting the green safe across the room, stopping before a censor-manned desk. A huge steel vault blocked the way further in, and the little lawyer was the only thing keeping them from moving on with their load. “Got a delivery for ya, pally.”

 

“No.”

 

“What da hell do you mean, no?!”

 

“No!”

 

“If da boss wants it moved to high security, it’s getting moved! Who cares about the contents! You’re not some kinda wise guy, are ya?”

 

“N-no...?”

 

“Good. Because I hate wise guys. Now open the door before I open yer skull, comprende?”

 

Swallowing, the little man swatted at some keys on his keyboard. A moment later, a loud rattling came from the main vault as its door groaned and cracked open. The faceless thug grunted, moving the duo forward again... though not before taking a sudden step towards the censor, making it yelp. He and his pal laughed, carrying on. “What a mook.”

 

They disappeared off-screen, and the girls checked the rest of the cameras. To their dismay, the gangsters weren’t showing up on any of them. “There’s no cameras in the vault?” Frazie asked.

 

“I guess if it’s a good enough vault, they wouldn’t need a look inside if everything bad is kept out.” Lili clicked her tongue with annoyance. “Which means if there’s any other defenses, we’re going in blind.”

 

“Greeeeat.” And what kind of high-security bank would it be without defenses? Frazie shook her head. They’d just have to cross that bridge when they came to it.

 

For now, they needed to figure out how to get past that gate.

 

When Frazie looked away, Lili was already at the door, tugging it open. “Let’s go!”

 

Out in the main building, the two breathed not a word as they crept from room to room. It was a bit relieving, finally being somewhere well lit and not having to worry about getting mauled by a living flashlight... but that didn’t mean they could relax. Censors wandered around, with no predictable route, and the girls had to be careful to pop invisibility the moment they heard their little ‘nos’ heading within earshot.

 

Before too long, the two of them peered over the railing overlooking the lobby, just in time to spot the two goons departing - sans safe - down below. Left alone with the lone doorman, the two eyed the censor as he typed an input that quickly swung the vault shut with a loud clank.

 

“Should we just take him out?” Frazie whispered.

 

While normally Lili would be gung-ho about something like that, her eyes drifted around the room, settling on something behind the little lawyer. “I have a better idea.”

 

The lobby was sparsely decorated, but there were still some paintings and pillars for flavor... and potted plants. Frazie cocked a brow as Lili focused on one bit of greenery near the censor, brow furrowed in concentration.

 

All Frazie knew about herbaphony so far was that it let you talk to weeds. Lili promptly expanded her worldview with an awe-inspiring presentation.

 

The lone ficus began to rattle in its jar. The censor hummed curiously, shifting around to inspect it. A second later... smash! Roots tore out from their confines and took the guy by surprise, coiling around him, muffling him with their thick vines before he could call for help.

 

“I thought you could only talk with them!” Frazie hissed in an astonished whisper.

 

“I can,” Lili replied with a smirk. “And if you’re sweet enough, they tend to be pretty willing to help you out.”

 

Frazie’s first thought: Lili? Sweet? And her second: Awesome. Impressed, she watched as Lili hopped the railing and rode a thought balloon down to her new captive. “Now come on!”

 

One quick descent later, both girls poked and prodded at the censor’s computer while he wiggled and strained behind them. Of course it wouldn’t be as easy as just flipping a switch - a prompt asked them for a password. Making another call, Frazie radioed for their inside man. “Any chance you’ve got a password for the main vault?”

 

Lefty clicked his tongue on the other side of the line. “The code should be... one, nine, seven, five,” he responded right back.

 

Frazie had never really used a computer before, but hitting four keys was hardly rocket science. Or was it? One, nine, seven, five, bzzzzt. Wrong password. She tried again, hitting the keys much more gingerly. Another buzz. “That’s not it?”

 

“What?!” Lefty’s surprised shout pierced through the speaker. After a moment, he spoke again, calm yet somber. “That’s what it was before. Maloof must’ve changed it...”

 

“Well, is there some way around it?”

 

“I’m afraid not. You’re going to need to get that password somehow.”

 

Frazie glanced back to the captive censor. Its muffled ‘nos’ could be just barely heard around its viney gag. “Yeeeeeah... even if this guy wasn’t all tied up, I don’t think he’d be very useful for interrogating.”

 

Lefty went silent to think, and Frazie put her head in her hand, at a loss as well. Then, behind her, Lili’s voice piped up.

 

“Seven, one, five, four.”

 

“Huh?” Frazie looked to see her partner knelt down before the plant, looking at her with certainty. Giving it a shot, Frazie typed it in... and the screen lit up green. “How did you...?”

 

“This guy’s been watching them put in codes for ages,” she explained, gently patting the plant’s leaves. “He’s more than willing to share... if we make sure he gets a bit more water.” She stood, glaring eye to eye at the shaking censor. “So if you don’t want to get creamed back into energy, I suggest you hop to it after we’re gone!”

 

The censor nodded as best it could, both relieved and terrified, and Frazie couldn’t help but sympathize with the awful day it was clearly having as the vault slowly cracked back open. Putting on a smile, Lili waggled her fingers farewell at the little guy as she joined Frazie at the door. “Don’t forget!”

 

“Alright, one obstacle down,” Frazie counted off. “And hopefully not anymore... to... oh.”

 

The door had opened up into a long hallway from hell. Wires hung at various angles, electricity crackling between them. If that wasn’t bad enough, they’d sometimes reel back into the wall and pop out somewhere else, turning it from an obstacle course into an unpredictable nightmare.

 

Even Lili seemed aghast. “Neurons,” she recalled aloud. “They transmit signals all around your brain. And apparently make for a good defense system if they’re placed right, too...”

 

Yeeeeah, nope. Turning on her heel, Frazie marched right back to the computer and fiddled with it. To her dismay, all she managed to do was open up Solitaire. “Saaaay... any chance you’d be willing to shut these things off for a second?” Frazie asked the censor in her nicest voice. Firmly ensnared, the goon gave her a nasty look. “Yeah, didn’t think so.”

 

With a sigh, she rejoined Lili, hands on her hips. “Guess we’re doing this the hard way.”

 

“You don’t mean...?”

 

“Yep.” Carefully, Frazie arched a leg over the nearest wire, holding her breath as electricity coursed right underneath her. “Watch your step.”

 

Tentatively, Lili followed after her. It’d already been a pretty tense trip - getting shot at, sneaking between guards and censors, certainly nothing to relax about. But none of it was close to as terrifying as the silent dread gnawing at them as they crawled over and under various wires, flinching when one whooshed away nearby and snapped back into place somewhere else.

 

One wrong move, and they’d be fried.

 

Each girl went at their own pace, with their own advantages. Frazie’s long legs and athletic grace made it easy to vault and duck beneath criss-crossing sparks, but Lili’s height made it even easier to just crawl under tricky swathes of wire. Going slowly, carefully, they steadily made progress.

 

There was another pro Frazie had that Lili sadly wasn’t quite on par with: swift reflexes. The shrill whip of a wire receding made Frazie jolt in place... and to her horror, she could see it preparing to refire right at her fellow camper.

 

“Lili!” she screamed.

 

Lili had just enough time to whip her head and see the wire poised to launch. Shouting out, she realized she had nowhere to go... but up. It was time to put her recent lessons to the test.

 

Turning to the nearby wall, she ran her feet up it and backflipped, just in time for the wire to slice under her. She shifted just enough in her fall to land with the surge of voltage buzzing right by her hip. Sucking in a deep breath, Lili trembled just slightly before sidestepping away and moving to hop over the next obstacle.

 

Frazie would applaud proudly if they weren’t in a life-or-death situation. Instead, she shot her a fond and relieved smile before taking the next careful step. “Almost there...”

 

With only a few more scares and thankfully no more brushes with danger, the girls passed the rest of the corridor and stopped to recuperate, their hearts racing a mile a minute as they stooped over. “Please tell me that’s it...” Lili groaned.

 

No such luck. One second, they were on their feet. The next, they were flipping, tumbling backwards.

 

They flew, lifted wholly off their feet and tossed back. When the world stopped spinning, Frazie could see they were in a room that hummed and buzzed. After a second, pressure built in the air around them before the walls at the far end suddenly pulsed, sending a wave of energy that knocked the girls back again.

 

They were dangerously close to getting pushed back into the neurons. “It’s trying to repress us!” Lili exclaimed, desperately seeking something to hold onto.

 

But the room was bare. Already, the air was tingling again as it built up another forceful charge.

 

Not if Frazie had anything to say about it. Her hand lashed out and pulled Lili close, and right before the next blast came, she threw up her shield.

 

Even with the barrier holding them steady, the force was immense, making their hair fly back as if caught in a wind tunnel. But with most of the pressure bouncing off her shield, Frazie was free to grit her teeth and press them on through it.

 

Turning around to protect Lili from the brunt of the blast, Frazie walked them backwards across the room, occasionally pausing as the powerful pulses kept her in place. She only had until her mental energy gave out to get them through, or the shield would drop and they’d get launched right back where they started... or worse. Her eyes shutting tight as she poured all her focus into her protective instincts, she kept shuffling in reverse, edging them closer and closer to the far side.

 

At last, they made it. Dropping the barrier and Lili along with it, Frazie flopped on her rear and groaned, rubbing her temples. “What could possibly be next...?”

 

“We’re there.”

 

“We’re...?” Frazie’s head whipped back. To her relief, she saw they’d arrived in a massive octagonal chamber. Then, to her horror, she noticed that the walls were filled to the brim with loads upon loads of memory vaults. Hundreds if not thousands of little green creatures, snoozing and frolicking and pacing behind glass panels.

 

Frazie’s gaze shifted back and forth along the edges, failing to count the massive metal horde. “How are we going to find the one we need?!” she groaned, hanging her head in her hands.

 

In response, Lili held out a finger, waving it towards the center of the room. “I think it’s that one.”

 

Confused, Frazie followed her digit to see a wide pit in the center of the room. And there, snoozing on a pedestal at the bottom, was a lone vault. Too deep for them to have any chance of getting back up if they went in, but completely out in the open. Alone, unprotected.

 

Which begged the question: How did they fish it out without falling in?

 

Frazie quickly slapped a fist in her hand as the answer came to her. “Lili! Telekinesis me close to it, and I’ll use my own to pick it up.”

 

A sound plan... with one problem. “Yours is a lot stronger than mine - I might drop you,” Lili pointed out.

 

Frazie’s lips quirked, knowing she had a point. Still, not a problem. They just had to switch the roles around. “Alright... then I’ll lift you over, and you pick it up?”

 

After a second, Lili gave a nod. With her permission, Frazie gave herself one more moment to rest up before standing and concentrating, lifting her friend up off the ground in a solid mental grip.

 

Pacing to the edge, she extended her reach, carrying Lili down into the pit. The girl stayed completely still, her body floating along at Frazie’s will, trying not to break the older girl’s focus. Frazie moved her far, but in the end, the safe was still out of reach by the time Frazie had hit her range limit. But that’s where Lili’s telekinesis came in.

 

Using her own powers, Lili touched her temples as she floated in the air, gently prying the safe off its platform. It snoozed even as she lifted, its legs dangling in midair as it slowly rose up. For a second, all was going according to plan.

 

Then, it stirred. Its eyes popped open just a tad, drowsy.

 

Lili froze. “Frazie!” she called back as quietly as she could. “If it starts struggling, I don’t think I can keep holding it! What do I do?!”

 

Uh oh. Eyes flitting back and forth between her friend and the safe, Frazie refused to come this far only to lose to an interrupted nap. “Uhhhhh... I don’t know! Soothe it back to sleep with a lullaby?” she called right back.

 

“Soothe it?” Even quiet, Lili’s disbelief was palpable. “Has there been a single moment since you met me where you thought ‘oh, this girl is soothing’?!” she hissed.

 

The safe stirred again, eyes open just a bit wider, and Lili swallowed nervously. With no other options, the girl sighed deeply and silently, trying to keep her concentration going as she shifted her voice to a more melodic tune. “Rock-a-bye vaulty, no need to shout. Keep your eyes shut, or I’ll knock you back out...!”

 

Yeah, that was the exact opposite of soothing. The safe’s eyes suddenly jolted wide open, spotting the two intruders trying to steal it away.

 

It squealed. Loudly.

 

Just as Lili feared, it started flailing, breaking her hold on it and dropping back down into the hole. Its fearful cries filled the room, and all around them, other vaults picked up on its terror and joined it in panicking.

 

The chamber filled with non-stop whining and crying, like an animalistic alarm. Which was a pretty apt way to put it, because once the entire stock of memories started freaking out, the actual alarm suddenly blared like a constantly sounding buzz.

 

“What did I say...!” Lili spat. But there wasn’t any time to gripe about her lyrical skills, because the rim of the chamber was suddenly bending inwards.

 

“Whoooooa!” Frazie started to slip as her platform became a ramp. Soon, she was on her way down into the pit right after them. Letting Lili go, the two of them inflated their thought bubbles and rode down to the bottom, all whilst their target ran around in frantic circles.

 

Immediately upon touching the ground, Frazie called for Lefty. “We’re in trouble!” she barked into the walkie talkie. “We’re in the main vault, and the alarms are going wild!”

 

“I know!” Lefty replied, and his response made an already bad situation ten times worse. “Maloof knows! He’s sending some men in! You need to-!”

 

Bzzt. The radio cut off, and the room suddenly began to flood with portals. Red ones, spitting out censors, and bigger ones, popping out a few gun-wielding goons, none of them looking happy.

 

Could it get worse? Yes. Even bigger portals popped open, spitting out larger censors with brass knuckles primed for punching. Frazie took a few steps back as they stomped forward, their sleeves ripped from their bulging muscles.

 

And it could still get worse.

 

The biggest portal of all slid open, and out of it stepped an unfortunately familiar lack-of-face. Mikhail’s representation stooped down on the other side to step into the chamber, grunting with annoyance when he noticed the two interlopers. He growled. “Coming here was first and last mistake.”

 

He held up his fists, and in a flash, golden knuckles materialized around them. Gleaming in the light, lettering spelled out an ominous message, split in half on each hand.

 

VENGE-ANCE.

 

Gulping, the two girls stood back to back, surrounded on all sides by more than a dozen enforcers all ready to throw hands. Guns cocked, knuckles cracked, making it more than clear they weren’t getting out of this without a fight.

 

Shooting the memory vault a dirty look, the little loudmouth cowering in the corner, Frazie readied herself to brawl. “You with me, Lili?”

 

Worried, but determined, her friend nodded and held up her fists. “Let’s do this!”

Two versus two dozen... yeah, those were pretty crappy odds. But those were the cards they’d been dealt, and it was time to play them.

 

The gang closed in around them, sneering, jeering, taking their sweet time pouncing on their prey. Frazie had taken down some incredible threats yesterday, but never so many at once. Hopefully, Sasha’s training would really come in handy.

 

“Come on!” Frazie taunted, her energy welling up as they approached. She made the first move, unloading on the closest censor with psi blasts until it popped.

 

Her opening fire was their cue to return the favor. Frazie threw up her shield as the bullets started flying, pinging off her barrier in a nonstop rhythm.

 

Lili might not have had a shield of her own... but she could still make one, in a way. A Heavy Censor stomped close, fists raised high to crush her into the ground - Lili didn’t even try to move, standing firm, confident. Its arms dropped like sledgehammers, and at the last moment, she kicked off to the side, narrowly avoiding getting planted in the floor.

 

While her foe tried to recover from missing, she slipped around its side, jumping up on its back with a huff. “Gotcha!” Her tiny arms didn’t do a thing as she wrapped them around its neck, but it kept her latched on when it reached back to try and peel her off.

 

The beefy lawyer spun, trying in vain to swing her off and ending up batting a smaller censor into dust. “Haha!” Lili whooped, holding on for dear life as it jerked and blocked any bullets heading her way. She was on a wild ride atop her bucking bronco, and knocking out cannon fodder in the process. “J.T. would be jealous!”

 

At least Lili was safe for now, but Frazie knew those gunmen were the biggest threat here. She had to deal with them first.

 

Dropping her shield and scooping up a charging censor, she hurled it at the nearest gangster. “What the...?” her target murmured just in time to catch a wailing gremlin to the gut. Its gun clattered to the floor as it fell over with an oof.

 

Frazie quickly flipped over, somersaulting to the side as the rest of the firing squad opened up. She tossed another censor with her mind, but the goon saw this one coming and cruelly batted its own teammate down to the ground to get back to shooting.

 

She needed to close the distance. Throwing up another shield, Frazie rushed forward, intent on getting up close and personal.

 

“I think not.”

 

“What the-?” Mikhail’s representation shoved itself in front of her, making her crash into him with an ‘oof’. Before she could skirt around him, he pulled an arm back and lashed out with his knuckledusters - hard.

 

Frazie might not have felt a thing, but that didn’t mean it had no effect. The sheer force of his blow sent her flying backwards across the room, though she was able to tuck into a roll and land on her feet at the least. She glared at the brute, expecting him to at least have broken his hand from the blow, much like Clem’s dad had hurt himself on her shield... but no, all he did was shake his fingers off and start coming for her again.

 

“What are you?” Frazie breathed.

 

“Strong.”

 

Or at least, Maloof saw him that way. The big, tough, invincible Mikhail that no one in camp wanted to deal with... and this form of him was as durable as everyone else thought he was.

 

Frazie’s shield was running out, and the bullets kept coming. But not for much longer.

 

Off in the distance, one of the mobsters felt their gun click and looked down at it, slapping it. “Stupid, cheap piece of- AHH!” He let it go, the weapon clattering to the floor and starting to melt. “What the hell?! Freakin’ thing is burnin’!”

 

“Wha?” his partner called, still firing away - and then the stock of his own tommy lit up in flame. Before he could let the trigger go, his weapon exploded in his hands.

 

Both the goons evaporated into nothing while a laughing Lili kept a grip on her frustrated mount. “You’re clear, Frazie!”

 

The gunmen were gone now, leaving only censors both light and heavy and a steadily approaching Mikhail. “Good one!” Frazie called, leaping back out of the way of another punch.

 

She willed her psi bullets back up again, but they thudded against the man fruitlessly, not even slowing him down. When he took a running swing at her, she gave up and dropped down, throwing out a kick to trip him up instead.

 

To her relief, he toppled over. Sure, he was already getting back up, but at least he wasn’t completely unstoppable.

 

In the meantime, Frazie turned her focus to the censors. At least they could be dispatched with a couple psychic strikes. Reeling a leg back, Frazie punted one at one of its bigger brethren, then took the startled heavyweight by surprise by shoving a foot in his face as soon as it’d recovered.

 

Its head snapped back - and then it grabbed her leg and slammed her to the ground. “Ack!”

 

It was no Mikhail, but these upgraded censors didn’t have all those muscles for show. Rolling out of the way of its follow-up punch, she tilted her head up and launched sharpened psi blasts directly into its face.

 

Its glasses snapped, the man bellowed, and promptly disintegrated back into energy. Another one rushed her way and Frazie lit it on fire, dodging out of the way as it panicked and ran past her with its pants blazing. The burning brute took out some more of its fellows before collapsing into a smoldering heap.

 

Two dozen had become around ten by now. Mostly little censors, steadily getting picked off one by one as they tried to leap onto Lili and were promptly pummeled by her flailing steed.

 

Mikhail’s representation paused in its pursuit, glancing around, taking a head count of its remaining allies. “Weak,” he grunted. Changing course, he stomped his way over to Lili’s wild ride. Pulling back, he slammed her mount in the face hard enough to send it flying - and Lili with it.

 

“AHHHHH!” She fell on her back as her unwilling assistant evaporated with just one hit. As she sat up, groaning, she spotted Mikhail looming closer and closer, clearly having no qualms with hitting a little girl.

 

He raised an arm to attack... only for his head to jerk forward as a censor slammed into the back of it. “Hey!” Frazie called, unloading psi blast after psi blast into his back. “Some tough guy, picking on a kid!”

 

Lili would resent being talked down to like that if Frazie’s distraction wasn’t saving her from becoming a smear on the floor. Instead of pummeling her into a pulp, Mikhail just grunted, lifted her by her head, sending hurtling like a missile towards Frazie. “You talk too much.”

 

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Lili spun in midair, plowing into Frazie’s waiting arms and bowling them over. A rough landing, but a safe one. Dazed, but fine, Frazie set her aside to get back up.

 

Across from them, Mikhail was scanning the arena, humming with disappointment. From two dozen, to ten, to about four; only a few smaller censors remained, cautiously circling around the arena, still deciding if they wanted a part in this brawl after watching all their brethren get demolished.

 

Annoyed, he clenched his hands, his weapons gleaming across his knuckles. “Relying on guns and stamps over might... is why they fail. Cowards. I told boss I could handle this myself, and now look.” He suddenly raised a foot high. “No more. Will end now!”

 

He stomped, crashing his heel to the floor... and making the entire room quake.

 

Around them, the arena shifted. The walls slid into the ground, slowly unveiling a new enclosure underneath that made Frazie grit her teeth.

 

Thousands, millions, even billions of neurons, all thickly meshed together in a constantly buzzing current of signal-sending sparks. An all-encompassing cage of pain.

 

Mikhail was pretty good at throwing them around like ragdolls... but if he got his hands on them now, one toss would fry them like a mosquito to a bug zapper. “Lili,” Frazie instructed sternly, “go deal with the small fries. I’ll keep him busy.”

 

Keen to not get launched again, Lili gave her a salute and sprinted off, making the censors wail in terror. Turning back to Maloof’s right hand man, Frazie strode towards him, and he mirrored her approach.

 

He moved to make the first attack again - and that was fine with Frazie. If he planned to knock them into the neurons, well, the answer was simple:

 

Don’t get hit.

 

The air whooshed by her head as she ducked and weaved around each powerful blow, dodging every grab. Her pulse pounded to the beat of his fists, but she stayed focused, using all her agility to duck under his haymaker and jut to the side as he followed up by bringing his arm down like a sledgehammer.

 

She readied herself for his next punch, dancing on her feet, eying his upper body intensely... and then she let out a choked cry as his boot connected with her stomach.

 

Oh, right. He had legs, too.

 

Pain exploded in her gut. The force of his kick sent her flying back, rolling over and over until she landed on her side, groaning. She pushed herself up, trying to wobble to her feet... only to feel two massive mitts wrap around her midsection.

 

“H-hey!” She struggled helplessly as Mikhail lifted her up over his head, dangling her sideways. “Let me go!” she demanded, punching down at him with psychic fists.

 

His hat bobbed a bit with each strike, his invisible head shifting with each impact, but he didn’t seem to notice as he shrugged. “Very well.”

 

He turned her and pulled her back, aiming for the outside of the arena.

 

“Wait...!” Frazie’s cries fell on deaf ears as he flung her like a javelin. She soared through the air, hollering all the way. Betrayed by her own incredibly aerodynamic physique.

 

The wall of pure electricity rushed towards her, and she finally just shut her eyes, accepting her fate.

 

At least until she jerked to a stop in midair.

 

Frazie popped her eyes open again, face to face with the pulsing wires. The buzz of static tickled her ears, made her hair stand on end. That was too close. Swallowing nervously, she glanced back to see Lili straining, her telekinetic hand lifting her up by her skirt.

 

The censors were gone, and Frazie’s partner was finally free to halt her momentum and lower her to the ground. Never so relieved to touch the floor again, Frazie promptly took a biiiig step away from the edge. “I owe you one, Lil!”

 

Now completely alone, Mikhail looked between them, grunting. “Good. Better this way. Less chaotic.”

 

He was right. It was less chaotic... which meant they could focus all their efforts on him.

 

But what did they do? Psi blasts didn’t faze him, punches glanced off, and fat chance they could levitate him off the ground. They could try pyrokinesis...

 

Or they could get creative. The sharp crackle of a stray bolt behind her gave Frazie a better idea.

 

“Lili!” Frazie called across the pit. “Follow my lead!”

 

She started running right at Mikhail, and Lili looked at her like she was crazy, but she trusted her friend to not be leading her to her doom. “Okay!” she yelled back, rushing at his other side.

 

Mikhail braced himself, stance wide and scoffing. “You think you can touch me?” he taunted, seeing Frazie coming a mile away.

 

And then he didn’t see her at all. Taken off guard, he whipped his neck back and forth - only to jerk forward as an ethereal fist slammed into his back.

 

Frazie whaled on him, the man merely grunting as he turned and swung. She vanished back out of sight again, though, only to surprise him with an uppercut.

 

He stumbled back a step, chuckling. “Does not hurt. You waste time.”

 

“Am I?” Frazie asked. While he focused on her, another fist suddenly materialized in front of him as an invisible Lili punched him full force.

 

Before he could push her off, Frazie joined in, shouting a battle cry as she returned the favor from earlier with a psychic kick to the stomach. The girls bobbed and weaved around him, popping in and out of existence only to reappear and shove him back a bit more before he could retaliate.

 

It was impossible to see them coming, impossible to brace for impact. They might not be hurting him, but they were pushing him back again and again, their combined force steadily overpowering the bulky man. He swung wildly, trying to fight them off, only to hit air and get kicked back another few steps as Frazie materialized above him and jabbed her heel into his shoulder.

 

Another few steps closer to the neurons.

 

By the time Mikhail realized what was going on, it was too late. With one final cry, the girls popped out of invisibility in unison, plowing their fists straight into his chest for a powerful finishing blow.

 

“No-!” Unable to keep his balance, Mikhail’s representation tripped backwards, the sentient clothes toppling into the intense wall of energy.

 

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

 

Frazie and Lili winced when he hit the wall and sparks flew. Mikhail spasmed wildly, arms and legs kicking to and fro, smoke starting to rise up from his hat as a small fire sparked up on its peak.

 

At last, the goliath finally broke free from the current, collapsing to his knees with a cough and a gasp. “Not... bad...” he admitted, right before toppling forward.

 

He landed with a loud thud, still twitching occasionally. Lili looked down at him and grimaced. “Is he dead?”

 

Cautiously, Frazie nudged him with her toes. She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or terrified that his fingers flexed in and out even after taking millions of volts all at once. “Nah, just stunned.”

 

Checking for herself, Lili gave him a swift kick. He groaned. “Looks like it.”

 

“Thanks for the second opinion, doc.”

 

But Lili didn’t hear her wisecrack. She was too busy bouncing in place, giggling with giddy glee. “AHHHH! This is the most fun I’ve had at camp in years! Forget telekinetic basket weaving and running Coach’s course for the umpteenth time, this is what it means to be a Psychonaut!”

 

Frazie rubbed her still-aching stomach, forcing a lopsided smile. “Well, at least someone’s having fun.”

 

“You’re not?”

 

The acrobat took a moment to think it over. “I mean... outside of the headaches and the blunt force trauma, I’m seeing things I couldn’t even imagine. Who else can say they kicked an invincible guy into an electric fence? Sooooo, upsides, downsides.”

 

“Well, keep practicing, and soon, you won’t be getting hurt at all. Then it’s all upsides!”

 

Frazie didn’t think even the best Psychonaut ever would be completely untouchable, but Lili’s faith in her was refreshing. And the idea of helping people out, seeing these wild worlds and learning so much about herself and others... it did have a certain charm to it.

 

The ache in her gut, less so, but hopefully that’d fade once they got their loot and got out of here. Speaking of...

 

“Come on, let’s get what we came here for before the big palooka gets back up,” Frazie said, turning away.

 

“What’s a palooka?” asked, following after.

 

“I have no idea.”

 

The formerly full arena now lay bare, with all the gangsters having poofed away. It made finding the memory vault a breeze - the poor thing was off to the side, knocked open, no doubt caught in the crossfire as it lay dazed in the corner.

 

Frazie didn’t feel too bad for it after it got them into this mess in the first place, but she was admittedly glad she didn’t need to clobber it herself. Approaching the downed critter, she groaned and ignored the sharp stab in her abdomen as she knelt down to rifle through it.

 

Jackpot. Grinning widely, Frazie fished out another stack of photos and fanned them out in front of the two of them. They scanned them intently, Frazie shuffling through them steadily.

 

Her shuffling slowed. “...Wait a second.”

 

Frazie went over the photos again, leaning in, staring intently. The more her eyes scanned them, the wider they got. “These aren’t the right photos! This vault’s a dud!”

 

---

 

Son of the Mob

 

“Crybaby, crybaby, eyes wet and lips shaky!”

 

“Maloof the doof!”

 

“What a loser!”

 

Maloof sobbed over the remains of his sand castle, all while a few of the neighborhood kids pointed and jeered. He didn’t want to cry. Really, he didn’t, but he’d worked on it for an hour! Then they’d come by and he’d offered to let them join, and then they got too close and...

 

And stuff like this ALWAYS happened.

 

He didn’t get it. He just wanted to play with others. To make friends. But for some reason, everyone’s first instinct was to hurt him, one way or another. Was it his face? His aura? He was just lucky it wasn’t physical pain this time.

 

He was tired of being pushed around. It just wasn’t fair.

 

He wasn’t the only one tired of seeing him get pushed around, either.

 

Off in a nearby alley, a shadowy figure scoffed, the ember of their cigarette falling to the ground. Crushing it underfoot, they stepped out of the darkness, adjusting their necktie.

 

The trio of tormentors finally looked up from their victim when they spotted the newcomer headed right their way. Wiping his eyes, Maloof followed their gaze. A tall, thin man, hair slicked back with far too much grease and garbed in a snazzy red suit. One of the guys his dad talked with often - Maloof wasn’t sure what his real name was, but he liked to go by ‘Weasel’.

 

“Ha! Is that your dad?” one bully laughed as the man stopped and glowered down at them.

 

“Nah. I just work for ‘im. And you little runts are damn lucky he isn’t here, because he’d do so much worse to ya.” The man stooped down to their level, a cruel gleam in his eyes. “You don’t buzz off, and I’ll happily twist some pinkies so you snots can’t play with yer toys without cryin’ in pain anymore. His pops, though? You wouldn’t be found eeeever again.”

 

The kids giggled a little more, but the longer they met his stern glare, they realized he wasn’t joking. The biggest of the trio swallowed nervously. “W-why not?”

 

“How the hell would I know? I ain’t him. But if I had to guess...” He leaned in, his sneer growing wider and wider. “Maybe he’d tie ya to the front of a train and send ya cross-country. Maybe start a nice car backfire with you in the trunk.” He leaned right up into their faces, the kids holding each other and trembling as the smoke on his breath washed over them. “Or maybe... he miiiiight even... BOO!”

 

The kids shrieked as he jumped at them, darting off in all directions.

 

“Now scram, ya little cockroaches! And don’t ever bother Maloof again!” Weasel waved them off, spitting on the sand as he straightened back up. “That’ll learn ‘em.”

 

Sniff. The gangster’s face softened when he heard the sound, glancing down to see Maloof still crying quietly.

 

“Aw, geez...” Threatening people? Easy. Soothing kids? Not really his thing. But he’d try. “I wasn’t kiddin’ about that finger breakin’ thing, ya know. They bug you again, just let me know, eh?”

 

Maloof just shook his head solemnly. “I don’t think they’re going to bully me anymore... but they’re not going to be my friends, either. No one is.” He hiccupped, his destroyed sandcastle just a reminder that no one could ever just let him be happy. “I don’t get what I’m doing wrong! I’m trying my best, but everyone just wants to pick on me...!”

 

“...” Sighing, Weasel tugged a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and offered it to him. “Come with me, kid, let’s have a lil’ talk. Man to man.”

 

---

 

It was a ridiculous sight, a little boy and a pinstripe-sporting thug sharing a seesaw, but if you said it aloud you likely wouldn’t live to tell the tale.

 

Maloof finally had someone to play with, but it didn’t make him feel much better. It just made it sting all the more that no one his age would look his way. Would Weasel even care if he didn’t work for Maloof’s family?

 

Plus, Weasel kinda sucked at seesaw. He bent his knees low, but was still too tall to push Maloof up all that high. But the toy wasn’t the focus here. Weasel caught him continuing to look down, face twisted with barely repressed tears, and sighed.

 

“Lemme ask ya somethin’, Maloof...” he finally said, drawing his attention. “Why do ya need friends so badly?”

 

“...Huh?” It was like he’d asked Maloof why he needed to breathe. “Doesn’t everyone?”

 

“Frick no!” Weasel exclaimed, toning down his language. Last thing he needed was his boss’ wrath for teaching his son a swear. “Your father definitely hasn’t made many friends getting where he is. But he still gets whateeever he wants. He’s got the city in the palm of his hands. And you know why?”

 

Maloof’s face scrunched up, with thought instead of tears this time. “Because he’s really smart?”

 

That got a good laugh out of Weasel. “Well, he is, but no. It’s because he’s strong. He does the things no one else has the guts to. He carved a niche in the world for himself with his own hands... and made sure no one would dare complain about it.”

 

“So let me ask ya again...” Weasel got them moving again, a strange dichotomy between riding a seesaw and espousing the virtues of fear. “Who needs friendship when ya got loyalty? When ya runnin’ the whole shebang with an iron fist? Your pops, he’s a good man... and by good, I mean tough. The kind that don’t take no sass from any uppity mooks.”

 

Weasel chuckled, gesturing to the boy. “And you might not be strong now... but you will be. I can feel it. Just like your dad. So don’t let anyone give you any disrespect, capiche?”

 

He said it with certainty, like it was something he should be proud of... but was it? Maloof wasn’t sure.

 

His father was good to him, one of the best dads you could ever ask for. He was busy a lot, but he always praised him, encouraged him, gave him anything he wanted. But did that mean he was a good person? Many times Maloof would see people come crying or disheveled from his office. Sometimes people had to be carried out. Sometimes people didn’t come out at all.

 

He didn’t quite understand what it all meant... but it made him uneasy.

 

Almost as much as the idea that he’d be the one with the room people didn’t leave one day.

 

Weasel’s mouth quirked when he saw Maloof still lost in thought. Well, at least he wasn’t crying anymore, that was a start. Halting their ride, he swung a leg off and made a new offer.

 

“Now how’s about I getcha some ice cream?”

 

The idea that he had to get respect through force instead of being himself was one that couldn’t really be made better with some ice cream. ...It sure helped a lot, though. Wiping his nose, Maloof nodded.

 

Chuckling, Weasel reached over and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Attaboy. You’re gonna be a real big shot like yer papa some day, I know it.”

 

Maloof didn’t know if that thought was exciting or terrifying.

 

---

 

Frazie wasn’t sure if she wanted to give Maloof a hug or wring the little twerp’s neck for this fake-out. The latter was starting to win out. “All that work for nothing!” Frazie moaned, tossing the useless memories back where they came from.

 

Lili was definitely in the throttle camp, her fingers curled into aggravated claws. “Come on! I got thrown across the room for this! When I see that guy again, I’m gonna...! I’m gonna...!”

 

“You’re going to what?”

 

A voice called out from behind them. Twisting around, the girls’ eyes popped open as a portal materialized. Maloof stepped out, his shoes clacking on the floor.

 

Then another portal opened. Then another. And another. Another, another, anotheranotheranother...

 

Hundreds of little breaches in reality slid wide, each one spitting out a gun-wielding goon. Both girls quickly threw their hands up when they found themselves held at gunpoint by an entire mental firing squad.

 

A bead of sweat rolled down Frazie’s face. “Where’s Lefty?”

 

“You mean this guy?” Maloof snapped his fingers, and another portal opened up. Suddenly, Lefty was roughly booted out of it with a cry, landing on his back in front of his boss.

 

The suit moved to sit up, only for Maloof to kick him back down. “I’ll be having a little talk with him later. A looooong talk. I wouldn’t worry about him if I were you.”

 

Lili grit her teeth. “Where’s the real memory?!” she snapped, promptly shutting up when her attitude earned her a load of weapons aimed her way.

 

“I had a little hunch you two would be stopping by, so I did a little switcheroo. Oldest trick in the book,” Maloof drawled with a wave of his hand. “Though I didn’t expect you’d be able to survive the ambush, I admit. Surprise me once, shame on me.”

 

With a snap of his fingers, the air was filled with the clicks of weaponry as the crowd of thugs readied their guns. “I won’t let you surprise me twice.”

 

Frazie gulped. They didn’t stand a chance against this army. Her shield wouldn’t hold them off that long, and they’d be in a world of hurt the second it dropped. It pained her to admit it, but right now, her smelling salts seemed like the only sensible option.

 

Reluctantly, she resigned to their failure, preparing to make a grab for her capsule. But just as she was reaching for their escape plan, she froze as a loud, meaty sound rang out.

 

Thwack!

 

Halted in place, Frazie’s eyes flicked to and fro ahead of her, unable to process what she was seeing. Maloof was on the floor and Lefty was the one standing, fist raised... but something was different.

 

Maloof had just been punched out by... Maloof?

 

Maloof was in the white suit now, and also the black? Twins, one rubbing their aching cheek and the other glaring down at them with righteous fury.

 

Frazie slowly pushed her jaw back into place. You know what? She was gonna stand back and watch this play out - and it seemed all the gunmen agreed, lowering their weapons as they glanced back and forth between the two Maloofs. Ugh. She was just going to keep calling him Lefty until this was sorted out.

 

“I’ve had enough!” Lefty shouted.

 

Down on the floor, the old Maloof glared at him, trying to soothe the bruise on his face. “Pffff. Where was that attitude when Bobby was tying fish to your head with your own underwear? You’re pitiful. As soon as I came in with promises to make things better around here, you rolled over like a dog.”

 

‘Lefty’ looked down, guilt etched into his eyes... but when he glanced back up, they were steeled with newfound resolve. “I know I didn’t stand up for myself then... but I’m standing up for myself now.”

 

“Standing up against what? The guy who’s finally gonna get you the respect you’re owed? Because a couple morons got snagged out on the lake?”

 

“You’re really going to let people get kidnapped and possibly KILLED just because they gave you some wedgies?!” Lefty gestured wildly to Frazie and Lili. “They just want you to share one tiny bit of info, no cost to yourself, and you can’t even do that?! What is wrong with you?!”

 

“Just wedgies?!” Maloof snapped back. “They’ve ruined camp, they’ve ruined my trust in others, and they don’t care one bit! They’re a bunch of cads! Jerks, freaks, and morons! They’re rotten, all of them, and the ones that stood by and let it happen are the worst of all. They deserve it!”

 

“Well you deserved THAT,” Lefty spat, brushing off his knuckles. “The kids might’ve been jerks, but at the end of the day, they’re just bullies. You’re worse than a bully. You’re a monster.”

 

“I’m you, you idiot!”

 

“No.” Lefty spoke assuredly as he gave all his attention to his other half. “ I don’t have to be you. I don’t want to be you. I know I need to be stronger...” He glanced Frazie and Lili’s way. “But I don’t want to give up on people to do so. And thanks to them, I know it’s possible.”

 

Maloof scoffed, getting off the floor and dusting himself off. “This is ridiculous. I think it’s about time we ended this little charade...” He snapped his fingers once more, the loud crack echoing around the chamber. “Mikhail! Get over here!”

 

Frazie’s body tensed up at the sound of a familiar voice groaning and pushing itself up off the ground. The gangsters stepped aside and made a path for the right hand man to return, tugging his hat back into place.

 

“There you are,” Maloof snapped, giving him a dirty look. “You failed to defend the vault... but I’ll forgive you. If...” He pointed to his clone and the girls. “You make them sorry.”

 

Mikhail stared down at him, silent. Then, he stepped past him... and stopped by Lefty’s side. “No.”

 

“Good, make them-...” Maloof’s eyes shot wide. “Wait, what?!”

 

Mikhail’s representation crossed his arms, even as Lefty looked up at him in surprised awe. “I join Maloof to make him strong. So no one can hurt him again, to put bullies in place, not so he can hurt innocents. I value strength above all else... and you are not strong. You are baby hiding behind men. He... he is strong one.”

 

The power shift happened instantly. The gun-toting goons shared a confused look, shrugged, and adjusted their aim towards their former boss. Maloof threw his hands up, sweating bullets.

 

“W-what?” He turned slowly, all coldness lost from his face and replaced with panic. “Please! You don’t know what you’re doing! They’re setting you up to make a fool out of you, to let people walk all over you again!”

 

Chuckling, Lefty shook his head. “I’d rather people walk on me than grind them under my heel. But don’t worry... neither’s gonna happen. Now then...” He lifted a hand, and snapped his own fingers this time. “Let’s make this new management official.”

 

Before everyone’s eyes, the old Maloof’s body began fading away. He looked down at his slowly fading hands, a choked cry in his throat as his visibility slowly drained away. A moment later, he was nothing but a black suit, like Lefty had been before.

 

“That’s better.” Lefty turned away from him, head held high. “Fellas, hook my friend up here with a nice pair of cement shoes.”

 

The suit’s former lackeys were quick to converge on him, a couple grabbing onto his arms and dragging him off through a new portal. “Noooooo...!” he wailed, kicking all the way.

 

And then, he was gone. Hopefully a couple days in the stone sneakers of shame would mellow Maloof’s dark side out a bit.

 

Maloof - the one and only white-suited Maloof, now - stepped away from his gang to approach the girls, Mikhail following behind loyally. “My apologies for the scene,” he said.

 

“Uhhhhh...” Frazie tilted her head. “It’s alright? But... I don’t think I fully understand.”

 

“Make that WE don’t fully understand,” Lili tossed in with finger raised.

 

Maloof nodded, face solemn. “I’ll explain briefly. I was the Maloof in charge around here for a long time. Then Mikhail showed up and brought that new one with him.” He looked up at his right hand man, who offered a shrug. “That other Maloof promised to make things better, and foolishly, I believed him. I didn’t know he only planned to make things better for himself, treating everyone like tools to make the people who wronged us suffer.” The little boss sighed. “He wasn’t entirely wrong... I need to be tougher. And I’ll try my best. But I won’t let myself become him again.”

 

That made a bit more sense. Nodding slowly, Frazie offered him a smile. “Well, I’m glad to see control back where it belongs... buuuuut, what about that vault?”

 

“Ah, yes.” With another snap, another portal popped open by his side. A new safe waddled out of it, grunting softly as it stopped next to him.

 

“Handing this over is the least I can do after stopping me from sinking even further.” The girls watched as he bent over and started twisting the knob on the creature’s face. The vault didn’t seem to mind, even making a happy noise as its true owner popped it open and pulled out the photos within.

 

Tidying them into a neat stack, Maloof reached up to offer it to her. “For you.”

 

“Thanks, Lefty. Er... Maloof?” Malefty? Ah, forget it. Frazie took them and once again spread them out for her and Lili to analyze. This was the right memory, alright, calling back to yesterday at the lake... but its contents provided more questions than answers.

 

---

 

Now You See Them...

 

“A little bit faster, Mikhail. I want to feel the wind.”

 

“Will do. Is good practice, too.”

 

Their canoe picked up the pace, and Maloof sighed contently. Things had really started looking up after Mikhail had stepped in for him... Bobby and Benny were avoiding him, he had someone to cruise him across the lake in style, and they even had plans to get a little protection racket going.

 

Yep. Things were gonna change around here.

 

But as much as some things changed, some things stayed the same. Like other campers being annoying kissy-faced dweebs.

 

Maloof turned his head back, glaring at Milka and Elton smooching in the canoe behind them. Back of the pack, and they couldn’t care less. Maloof stuck his tongue out, gagging. What was so cool about locking lips, anyway? What’d ever happened to cooties?

 

He made his look even dirtier, but the two were in their own little world. Rolling his eyes, he made to turn around...

 

And almost missed an unbelievable sight. Heck, he saw it and still almost didn’t believe it.

 

One second, they were floating behind them. The next, a big dark spot rapidly grew under their boat. And then... the water exploded. It all happened in the span of a second. Some large, misshapen object burst from the lake, its maw spread wide. The kids didn’t even get a chance to scream before the thing swallowed them whole, canoe and all.

 

Alright, that was a little TOO much change for Maloof.

 

He hadn’t gotten a great look at it, but he knew it was time to get out of there. Now. In a panic, he tripped over himself crawling to the front of the canoe and grabbed Mikhail’s sleeve. “Mikhail! We need to get out of here! Go faster!”

 

His associate just gave him a confused look. “But I’m already going faster.”

 

“EVEN FASTER!” Maloof pleaded. “There’s something back there!” He took a deep breath, willing himself to stop shaking. “Get us back to shore NOW.”

 

Mikhail peeked past him, the waters completely still. As far as he was aware, he’d never noticed anyone or anything back there. Still... Maloof was the one making the shots around here. He just shrugged, pressing his fingers deeper into his temples. “As you wish, boss.”

 

On edge, Maloof took his seat again, constantly glancing behind them, but whatever he’d seen was gone. Milka and Elton were gone with it.

 

It’d been so fast, so surreal, he almost thought he’d imagined it. But he never saw the two campers the rest of the day, or the next. At first, it bugged him. The more he dwelled on it, though, the more he rationalized it to himself.

 

Who cared? Not him. Weird stuff happened at this camp all the time, and for once, it wasn’t happening to him. They’d never lifted a finger to help him out, and he didn’t feel inclined to do it himself. They’d be fine on their own.

 

And if they weren’t... well, that wasn’t his problem, now was it?

 

---

 

When they’d stopped looking it over, they could see Maloof wringing his hands. “I should’ve told someone. But even if I did, who would listen? I’m not even sure what I saw.”

 

Frazie and Lili weren’t sure either. Whatever they’d seen was big, it was scary, but they couldn’t exactly tell the counselors there was a giant man-eating blur in the lake.

 

It might be enough to get them moving at least. Then again, they were pretty adamant that everything was a-okay. For all she knew they would claim they’d made a false memory just to get them to go on a wild goose chase. And could Frazie blame them? They were going to have to convince them there was some kind of giant monster in the lake, and that sounded ridiculous even to her. Even when she’d just seen it with her own eyes.

 

No, she wasn’t going to bother Sasha and Milla until she was 100% sure they wouldn’t brush her concerns off.

 

Which meant they were going to need more evidence.

 

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Frazie offered him, soothingly. “What matters is you did the right thing in the end.” They just had to break into his head and overthrow his new power-hungry outlook in the process.

 

That last bit went unsaid, of course, and Maloof forced a small smile. “I guess so. I guess that means you’re leaving, now...?”

 

The girls nodded. “Yeah. We need to look into this and try and get Milka and Elton’s brains back,” Frazie admitted.

 

“I thought as much. At least allow me the honor of sending you off.”

 

The girls nodded, and a second later, Maloof sent them up on their merry way out of the city and out of his mind. Waving farewell, side by side with his memory vault and Mikhail, he called up after them. “Good luck, ladies! And don’t worry! Things are gonna change around here... for the better!”

 

---

 

Frazie breathed a soft sigh of relief once they were out of the big mental metropolis and back in nature. This was more her element. Definitely an exciting trip, though. It might be fun to take another visit to a big city... in the real world, where the scariest thing she’d have to worry about was getting overcharged for a hot dog.

 

Lili stirred beside her, and she reached over to give the girl a grateful pat on the shoulder. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

 

Taking her praise to heart, Lili beamed up at her... then paused, eyes drifting off to the corner. “Thanks, but... I can’t help but feel we’re forgetting something.”

 

Thunk.

 

Both girls jolted. “What was that?” Lili asked.

 

It’d come from inside the cabin. Where the Psy Portal was and where it’d detach after use with no one to stop it and oooooh crap.

 

Wincing, Frazie listened in as a soft ‘huh?’ came from within. A second later, Maloof peeked out over their heads, a sour look on his face and her doorway in his hand. “Drop something?”

 

Lili suddenly found the ground very interesting while Frazie twiddled her thumbs. “Noooooo...?”

 

He wasn’t amused. “Get in here.”

 

Like hell. “So you can have Mikhail put us in the Telekiliminator?”

 

Maloof rolled his eyes, giving her trinket a shake. “I just want to talk. And if you want this back, you need to come get it anyway.”

 

Frazie and Lili gave each other a look while Maloof went to unblock the door. “Think he’s telling the truth?” Frazie asked quietly.

 

“Dunno. But if he’s not, I’ll go for Mikhail’s shins.”

 

Frazie had no plans to jump a kid no matter how strong that kid was... but she definitely had her shield prepared, juuuust in case. Leading the way, she took a deep breath and guided them around to the front door.

 

When they stepped in, the first thing they noticed was Mikhail kneeling over his finished project, a sloppily constructed desk made by jamming some headboards into the underside of Bobby’s mattress.

 

It lasted about five seconds before one of the legs slid out of place and the whole thing flopped over. Mikhail simply let out a disappointed hum. “I am bodyguard, not carpenter.”

 

Maloof didn’t seem to mind that much, more focused on the two girls that’d just raided his mind without his knowledge. Pacing back and forth in front of them, he shook his head while Frazie and Lili stood tensed.

 

“I oughta sic Mikhail on you two for disrespecting me like that,” he snapped, and Frazie immediately readied herself to fight off a telekinetic Russian kid. To her surprise, though, his face softened as he turned to face them. “But... honestly... I feel a lot better.”

 

The girls shared a glance. “You do?” Frazie asked.

 

“I do.” He dropped his head, looking ashamed. “The kids here have hurt me, but if I just let them be kidnapped and hurt even worse... I’d be no better than them. Heck, I’d be worse than them. Which is why I’m generously lowering the Psitanium price... to fifty-thousand arrowheads.”

 

“You WHAT?!”

 

Maloof laughed, tossing the Psy Portal to her. “Hey, I’ve earned one joke after your uninvited intrusion. I’d tell you what you need to know, but I have a hunch you already figured it out.”

 

That they had. Chuckling with relief, Frazie caught the door, nodded, and pocketed it. Pleased, Lili stepped up and lightly bumped the boy’s shoulder.

 

“You know, Maloof, you’re alright. Maybe you’re not so extremely punchable after all.”

 

He rubbed his arm, brow raised. “Excuse me?”

 

Lili smacked her cheeks. “That’s not what I meant! Sorry, it’s just people look at you and... ugh, never mind.” She dropped her hands and gave him an apologetic look. “If anyone else gives you trouble and Mikhail’s not enough to handle it, let me know and I’ll knock some skulls around, ‘kay?”

 

His natural bullyableness aside, her offer made his lips curl up into a smile. “I’ll keep it in mind. Now if you’ll excuse me...”

 

Giving their failed construction project a glance, he shrugged it off and stepped past them to the door. “C’mon, Mikhail, let’s do something more interesting. How about we try and sneak some ice cream from the lodge kitchen?”

 

Puzzled, but intrigued, Mikhail got up and followed after. “Is delicious idea... but dangerous. Ford is old and brittle, but he threaten to throw me in oven when I asked him for fight. Have hunch it’s not empty threat.”

 

“Ahhhh, he’s all talk. And when we’re done with that, maybe we can go looking for that big hairless bear you keep talking about.”

 

That got a grin out of Mikhail. “Is good plan, boss.”

 

“C’mon. You can call me Maloof, you know.”

 

He stopped at the threshold, then paused, one last thing on his mind. “Frazie?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

Maloof reached into his pocket, pulling out a little purple patch. He placed it in her hand - the real Invisibility merit badge. “Here, you can have it. I don’t plan on doing any hiding anymore, anyway.”

 

Grateful, she pinned it to her shawl with the rest of them. Bidding them farewell, the two boys finally departed, leaving one very mangled bed behind.

 

Frazie grimaced at it. Bobby wasn’t going to be happy, but hey, it wasn’t like he didn’t deserve a little humbling. Ignoring it, she looked down at Lili instead. “Alright... so there’s a monster in the lake.”

 

Stroking her chin, Lili hummed with thought. “You don’t think there could really be... a Hideous Hulking Lungfish of Lake Oblongata?” she asked, fingers curved into talons.

 

“Do you have to say it like that?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Well... there’s no way to know for sure. How are we going to find out?”

 

Lili put her hands on her hips, chewing on her lip. “Hmmmmm... I might just have an idea. We have an old bathysphere down on the pier. We could use it to go down and look around, couldn’t we?”

 

Just the very suggestion made the older girl shiver. “Is it really a good idea to go underwater when there’s some sort of giant kidnapping thing in the lake?” Not to mention the idea of heading under the surface was already making her skin crawl. No doubt Galochio was already rubbing its grubby, watery palms together in anticipation.

 

“Is it the best idea?” Lili answered. “Probably not. But we need to figure out what we’re dealing with, and there might be a clue down there. We won’t go that far out! And besides, we just took down the mental mafia!” she boasted, throwing her hands up. “We can handle whatever it may be.”

 

Frazie absolutely hated where this was going. But finally, she just sighed and nodded. “I hope you’re right.”

 

She was in absolutely no rush to go lake diving, but Lili was, and so she had to start jogging when the kid ran out of the cabin. “Let’s go!” Lili called, leading the charge back to the main area.

 

Frazie couldn’t help but feel unsettled, spotting that the bridge guards had vanished. Kitty and Franke had just gotten bored and wandered off, right? Surely whatever lurked in the lake couldn’t leave the lake. The kids hadn’t been snagged while they were dealing with Maloof... right?

 

Trying to ignore that possibility, Frazie shook it off and crossed the bridge back to camp with Lili.

 

Unseen to either of them, a column of large, webbed handprints sat ignored against the canyon wall.

Ah, Lake Oblongata. Frazie’s recent yet most feared enemy.

 

And now she was minutes away from diving right into it.

 

At least she’d have Lili by her side, but that quite frankly didn’t do much to calm her nerves. Her spunky friend was tough, but Frazie didn’t think she’d be much help if Galochio got her and refused to let go. All she could do was pray that this bathysphere thing would do a good job keeping her dry.

 

Frazie was admittedly a bit ashamed that she briefly considered making some excuse to run off and let Lili go by herself. She shook that thought from her head, replacing it with more encouraging ones. Come on! She’d escaped exploding buildings, dodged bullets, and beaten King Kong! Surely she could handle a terrifying family curse that assured she’d die a slow and agonizing death if she went too deep into water.

 

Alright, maybe she could’ve worded that better.

 

“Frazie? Hey. Earth to Frazie. Come in, circus girl.”

 

Frazie shook herself out of her thoughts. By her side, Lili peered up at her with concern as they made their way down the bridge to the beach. “You alright? You’re looking kinda spaced out.”

 

“Never better,” Frazie lied blatantly through her teeth. She just had to keep telling herself everything would be alright, even if heading down into the lake went against every survival instinct she’d learned since she was young. “Where’s this bath sphere thing, anyway?”

 

“Bathysphere. Bath-e-sphere. It’s over there.” Lili wavered her finger out towards the farthest part of the docks once they’d reached the sand - if Frazie squinted, she could barely make out some weird metal contraption under the roof at the very end of the pier. Old, rusty... yeah, Frazie totally trusted this thing with her life. And that was just the stuff she could notice at a distance.

 

She was more than a little scared of how crappy it’d actually look up close. She’d find out soon enough, given how quickly Lili was leading the way. “This way!” the younger girl called, heading off to a hut at the side of the shore that stood between the beach and the farther docks. “We’ve gotta go through here.”

 

Frazie reluctantly followed after. Ford was in the little shack, because of course he was. The man had swapped back into his beachside get-up, his life jacket clinging around his shoulders as he lovingly wiped down one of his boats with a dampened rag.

 

...Hold on a second. She and Ford were working together now. Which meant now was a great time to tell him what they’d learned.

 

Leaning to the side, Frazie gave her friend a little nudge. “You go on ahead, I’ll catch up. Alright?”

 

“Eh? Why?”

 

Thinking quickly, Frazie tipped her head towards the old admiral. “Just gonna make sure we don’t have him on our butts for taking this thing for a spin.”

 

“Ooooh, good call.” Accepting her excuse, Lili picked up the pace and jogged out onto the planks extending across the water. “Don’t take too long!”

 

“I won’t,” Frazie promised. But she certainly wasn’t going to rush, either.

 

Once she was alone with the man, she cleared her throat loudly, drawing his attention.

 

“Eh?” Cruller turned away from his precious canoe, taking the opportunity to apply some more polish to his cloth. “Well now, if it isn’t lil’ miss too-good-for-my-canoe-lessons.”

 

“Ford!” Frazie brushed off his odd greeting, meeting him face to face. “We found Maloof and got what we needed. He didn’t make it easy, so we had to go in and take it, but I think everything worked out pretty well in the end.”

 

To her surprise, his brow furrowed in disapproval. “You took something from the Canola kid? I’d give it back if I were you. Poor sprout’s dealt with enough.”

 

Frazie blinked. Was... that a joke? “...Ehehe,” she finally chuckled dryly, offering a pity laugh. “Don’t worry, he’s fine.”

 

She expected him to drop his charade any second, congratulate her on a job well done, maybe theorize on what they’d learned. Instead, the awkward silence continued until she finally made herself break it. “Annnnyway... there’s something in the lake!”

 

Ford snorted. “Yeah, they’re called fish. Clams and crayfish, if you’re so inclined.”

 

Not even an uncomfortable giggle that time. Frazie’s face scrunched up in confusion instead. “...Allllright? Uh... Lili and I are gonna go check it out now.”

 

“Well, good luck with that,” Ford muttered off-handedly as he went back to waxing his boat. “Just put on a life jacket if you’re hitting the water, unless you want me to hit ya with my oar instead.”

 

He returned to his all-important boat worship, leaving Frazie to stare at the back of his head in befuddlement. Ford was acting weird. Well, weirder than normal, which was already really freakin’ weird. She understood that he was a master of disguise, but there was a point where refusing to break character was reeeeally unnerving. Just when she thought he couldn’t get any more bizarre, he defied expectations yet again.

 

Well, she’d filled him in, and that’s what mattered. She’d also put off her lake expedition as long as she could.

 

It was time to go join Lili.

 

Leaving Ford to his strange devices, Frazie gave him one last perplexed look before running off down the docks to catch up with her ally.

 

She’d expected to find Lili preparing their diving vehicle for departure... but the girl hadn’t even made it to the bathysphere. Frazie slowed to a stop when she spotted Lili halfway down the pier, arguing with a couple campers Frazie wasn’t exactly thrilled to be seeing again.

 

Bobby and Benny. Great.

 

“Come on, Bobby!” Lili snapped as Frazie arrived. “Could you do this some other time? Really, any other time. We have serious business to get to.”

 

Bobby just snorted, a cruel sneer on his lips. “Yeah? Me too! Like how I’m seriously keeping you dweebs from having fun! Haw!”

 

“Grrrr...! We’re not here for fun,” Lili hissed, frustration blatant. “We’re here on Psychonauts business. So I’m gonna tell you nicely one more time... get out of the way, or we’re going to throw you in the lake.”

 

“I’d love to see you try!” Bobby laughed, elbowing his accomplice. His purple lackey joined in on the guffawing.

 

“Yeah! We’re not afraid of you! Bobby could take you both with one hand tied behind his back. I make it overkill!”

 

“Wanna bet?” Frazie already had her fingers to her forehead, waggling telekinetic fingers threateningly. “Do you really think you can stop us?”

 

For a moment, Bobby looked slightly less cocky. Then, he smirked again, reaching into his pocket. “Chyeah. But if you dorkettes somehow managed to get by... this might stop you.”

 

He fished out a small metal stick, its iron shaft bent and jagged. Judging from the way Lili’s mouth hung open... that wasn’t good.

 

“You broke the lever off?!” she snarled.

 

Bobby cackled, waving the little rod back and forth in her face. When she tried to swipe for it, he jerked it back and stuffed it into his pocket. “Heck yeah, I did. You’ll never get that piece of junk to work without this doodad I took from it to keep dweebs like you out!”

 

“I thought you broke it by accident when you were trying to take it for a joyride?” Benny questioned.

 

All the wind emptied from Bobby’s sails as he gave his partner in crime a blank look. “Benny, how can your ears be so big when your mouth is even bigger? There’s not gonna be any room left on your stupid head!”

 

“M-my ears aren’t big!”

 

Alright... Frazie had already had enough of their shtick. She bent down, meeting Bobby eye to eye. “And what’s stopping us from just taking it from you?”

 

“Because you couldn’t! And also because you don’t know how to repair the bathysphere.”

 

“Do you?” Lili asked sharply.

 

“Psssh, no,” Bobby replied. “But I at least know what it looked like beforehand!”

 

For a moment, the four of them glared at each other - Frazie made hers as nasty as she could, shooting daggers with her eyes, but neither boy would budge. Finally, she threw her hands up with a groan. “Fine! We’ll figure something else out. Let’s get out of here, Lil.”

 

The two of them turned to go - though not before Lili made a threatening gesture - all while Bobby’s mocking laughter rang out over the lake. “Haw! Chalk another one up for the Zilch!”

 

Frazie huffed as they marched away... but deep down, she was a bit relieved they could put off their dive a little longer. Emphasis on a little. This was a reprieve, but she couldn’t let her phobia hold them back. They just needed a bit of time to figure out how to put Bobby in his place...

 

But as they stomped away, a small voice suddenly reached her. Not her ears - it reverberated directly in her mind.

 

“Frazie?”

 

She glanced down at Lili, but the girl was too busy fuming to herself. Who’d said that, then?

 

“Frazie, can you hear me? Behind you.”

 

Surprised, Frazie looked back to see Benny standing as firm and cross-armed as before - but the brief glance he sent her way gave away where his focus was. He was speaking directly into her mind, a trick she hadn’t tried since she was a little girl herself. Her father’s scolding had put a stop to that right quick.

 

How did it go again? Trying to play it cool, she turned back forward again, but slowed her pace while she tried to remember. It was just like thinking normally... except you took those thoughts and pushed them outward, redirecting them into someone else’s mind. It took a couple tries, but she finally felt her psyche link up with the boy’s.

 

“What do you want?” she thought, sending it behind her.

 

“I just wanted to thank you for earlier... you know, keeping our heads intact, getting us through an exploding building, being all awesome and junk...”

 

She hadn’t expected anything like praise to come from either of the two goons. She appreciated it... but that didn’t quite make up for halting them in their tracks. “Thankful enough to get Bobby to stop being a weenie?”

 

“He’s not a weenie!” Benny whined in her head. “He just... goes a bit hard sometimes.” A pause. “I don’t think I could get him to help you... but maybe I know someone who might.”

 

Now that got her attention. “I’m listening.”

 

“Yeah! You ever seen that girl with the space helmet? Chloe? Bobby talks about her a lot, and always tries to sit with her at lunch. She’s usually busy, though, always talking about trying to contact aliens or something. Maybe she’d be able to convince him?”

 

Hmmmm. Yeah, she’d seen Chloe - it was pretty hard to ignore a kid wearing such a noteworthy get-up. They’d never really interacted, but if she had any kind of sway on Bobby, Frazie might just have to. Hopefully the kid’s huge headwear meant she’d be pretty easy to track down. “You know, you can be pretty cool when you want to be, Benny. Why do you hang with that guy?”

 

“Bobby’s cool!” he protested.

 

“Agree to disagree. For what it’s worth, though... thanks.”

 

“Don’t mention it! I just thought, you know, since we made such a great team and all... I just thought maybe you’d appreciate it, and...”

 

“Whoops, getting out of range... gotta go, bye!” Frazie promptly severed their connection before it got weird. She could acknowledge Benny was a decent kid who kept bad company, and that was about it.

 

Smirking to herself, Frazie picked up the pace again, drawing a curious glance from Lili when they fell in step again. “What are you so happy about?”

 

“I might just have an idea how to get past Bobby.”

 

“Oh?” Lili looked up at her with intrigue, a gleam in her eyes. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”

 

Frazie quickly filled her in on her little mental chit-chat with the bully’s second-in-command. “Huh.” Lili put a hand to her chin as they reached the beach, pondering. “Bobby has a crush? I didn’t think he could feel anything except aggression and misplaced superiority.”

 

“Yeah, same here. But if there’s a chance it’ll work...”

 

“Then we’ve gotta take it!” Turning towards camp, Lili directed Frazie’s attention to a little cave off to the side. “She likes to hang out in the forest, trying to contact outer space or whatever. If we’re lucky, that tunnel should take us right to her! If we hurry, we can-”

 

Splash.

 

Both girls jumped as a loud, wet slosh echoed from the water. Slowly, they turned with gradually growing horror to see what’d made the sound. “Not another one...” Frazie breathed.

 

A boy awkwardly hobbled up from the depths, some seaweed sticking to his face and his blank eyes seeing nothing. “TV, my dudes...”

 

Oh, no. Frazie recognized that scarf, that face, always up on stage alongside Phoebe.

 

Quentin.

 

Phoebe was not going to be happy about her bandmate going brainless. Of course, Frazie hoped the little firestarter was still okay herself. The boy tried to wobble past them, and Frazie put a finger to his head to hold him in place. “We should hurry,” she murmured. “They’re going after the other campers.”

 

Lili had no complaints. “I’ll go put him with the others,” she decided, grabbing his shoulder. “You go find Chloe. We’ll meet back here once you’ve got her, alright?”

 

“On it.” With a parting nod, the girls split up, Lili escorting the debrained DJ back up to the lodge, and Frazie heading off to the side path her friend had pointed out.

 

Her eyes trailed up and down it. Dark, spooky... but a shortcut. Wordlessly, Frazie stepped inside, trusting that Lili’s word was genuine.

 

She’d take eerie caves over the lake, anyway.

 

---

 

The great outdoors was slowly becoming anything but now that Frazie knew something monstrous might be lurking behind every tree.

 

If there was a lake beast here, though, it still had a lot of work to do. The area felt emptier, but kids still flitted to and fro blissfully unaware they were being hunted. Dogen was holding a very heated conversation with a (thankfully intact) squirrel. The blonde girl and the afro kid were locked in a spirited argument, Frazie catching the latter asking where J.T. was. The former accused him of hiding J.T. from her. Clem wandered amongst the trees, calling out for Crystal with increasing concern. Frazie really hoped she’d just wandered off.

 

She also hoped Chloe was still around, or this whole trip would’ve been for nothing.

 

Things were looking dire. If Frazie couldn’t spot that big helmet clashing against the forest greenery, the odds were getting slimmer and slimmer. After a quick search, the acrobat sighed, ready to wander off and pray the girl could be found elsewhere.

 

Then she looked up, the gleam of sunlight on glass drawing her eye.

 

There she was. Chloe had managed to climb high up on a boulder, the kid fiddling with something in her hands. Breathing a sigh of relief, Frazie promptly hopped on her levitation ball and bounced up to meet her.

 

“Chloe!” She settled down on the rock, snapping her sphere with a pop. “There you are.”

 

“Mm?” The little astronaut eyed her through her helmet pane with brief interest before going back to toying with the little paper airplane in her hands. “Greetings. This is restricted airspace, so I’d appreciate it if you made it quick.”

 

“I will. I need a favor.” Frazie jerked a thumb over her shoulder, back towards the tunnel. “Bobby’s made a mess of things down at the docks and a little birdie told me you might be able to talk some sense into him.”

 

Chloe kept her head down, a disinterested hum escaping her as she worked at taping an antenna to her little paper spacecraft. “Nothing new there. But unfortunately, I’m busy. I’m not Bobby’s keeper, anyway.”

 

“I didn’t mean to imply you were, it’s just...” Frazie sighed, rubbing the back of her head. “Look. I’d really appreciate it if you could come see him, just for a minute. It’s really important.”

 

Chloe shrugged. “You have my sympathies. Still, I have no desire to involve myself in the affairs of earthlings.”

 

Frazie raised a brow. “Uh... you’re an ‘earthling’, too. Come on... pleeeeease?”

 

For the first time, Chloe looked fully up at her, annoyance plain on her face. “You come up to my runway and insult me? I’m on the verge of a breakthrough here! The last thing I need is to bother with some earth monkeys.”

 

The glare she got was so heated that Frazie found herself holding her hands out to defend herself. Clearly, now wasn’t the time to pick at her shtick. “Sorry! Look, I’ll help you with your project if you’ll just lend me a quick hand, alright?”

 

Chloe relaxed a bit, but finally went back to putting the finishing touches on her plane. “No thank you. I don’t trust earthlings with my sensitive equipment.”

 

Frazie gave her a deadpan look. Sensitive like paper and plastic? Still, the girl wasn’t budging. And frankly, with Bobby involved, Frazie couldn’t blame her.

 

Still, she needed her help... but Chloe was too invested in her outer space aspirations to even consider it.

 

Frazie put a hand to her chin, thinking hard. She really didn’t want to do this... Chloe was just being stubborn, but with more kids popping out of the lake without a brain, it was clear they didn’t have any time to fool around.

 

Frazie reached down to trace the outline of the Psy Portal in her pocket. If Chloe’s head was stuck in the stars... maybe there was a way to change her mind, even if only briefly.

 

Tugging the door from her skirt, Frazie shifted just slightly, keeping the device out of Chloe’s narrow field of view as she held it behind her. Gently, she pressed it against the back of her helmet.

 

Clunk.

 

Frazie waited for the familiar sound of a door opening, the glow of a new mental world opening before her.

 

It never came.

 

Puzzled, she swiftly hid the portal behind her back when Chloe turned to her, suspicious. “What was that?”

 

Eyes darting back and forth, Frazie finally glanced up and pointed to the branches above. “I think a squirrel dropped an acorn on you?”

 

She held her breath as Chloe considered it, sighing silently with relief as the girl shrugged and returned to her engineering. “Irritating earth rodents.”

 

It didn’t take Frazie long to piece together the problem. Chloe’s helmet was huge and thick, easily twice the size of her head. The perfect protection against a potential psychic probing. Frazie’s little door had no way to connect with her brain so long as that thing stood in the way.

 

Crap. Frazie knew there was no chance she’d take it off, either. There had to be another way.

 

Crouching down a tad, Frazie pretended to study Chloe’s little project alongside her, her eyes occasionally darting over to eye the girl. And there, hidden beneath the helmet, was the solution.

 

The hat was so big, a sizable gap rested between the helmet’s rear and Chloe’s neck. If Frazie could just get the right angle, it’d be a breeze to slide the doorway right up there and touch it to the back of her head.

 

She just needed the opportunity. And she had a hunch how to create it.

 

Handing off her door to her mental grip, Frazie levitated it behind Chloe’s back and held it there as she pointed out her little plane. By now, the space cadet had finished attaching the antenna to it, perfecting her masterpiece. “So... what’re you playing with, anyway?”

 

“I’m not playing. I’m working,” Chloe scoffed. “I’m testing a new low-orbit space plane design. If this one passes inspection, I should be able to craft a working space vessel in as little as a couple months.”

 

Somehow, Frazie doubted airplane folding translated that well to alien vehicle construction. Still, she’d developed a knack for playing along with childish antics thanks to her younger siblings. Reaching out, she pointed at the back edge of the little paper jet. “Are you sure? It looks pretty wide. Don’t you need a thinner spaceship to cut through the atmosphere or something?”

 

Chloe tutted, shaking her head back and forth. “Please, Frazie, leave the designing to the experts. Besides, if I cut down on it, there wouldn’t be any room for a hyperspace thruster.”

 

“Oh.” It made tooootal sense. Still, Frazie directed Chloe’s attention to the sides next. “But what if you put a smaller thruster on each wing instead? Same boost, and you could change the shape to be more aerodynamic.”

 

“Hmmmmm.” Intrigued, Chloe craned her head forward, staring intensely where Frazie was pointing. “You know... you may be onto something.”

 

Pretty smart for a dumb earth monkey, huh? But the small sense of satisfaction was nothing compared to the real prize. As Chloe tilted her head further and further forward, the gap at the back of her head opened up juuuust enough to...

 

There. Frazie promptly thrust the Psy Portal up into her helmet, and this time, it attached firmly to her noggin.

 

Chloe’s collar started to illuminate with a soft glow as the door’s light leaked out of her headgear, her analytical chatter dying down as she slipped into a trance.

 

Her airplane started to slip from her grasp, and Frazie carefully adjusted it so the girl had a firm grip on it. Satisfied, she shut her eyes and let her consciousness slip away. First down, then up, sliding under the barrier around her skull and finally slipping into the door she’d hidden away.

 

Hopefully, this world would be less dangerous than the last one.

 

Now entering:

Chloe’s Cosmic Charter

 

---

 

Frazie had never seen anything so beautiful before.

 

Billions upon trillions of stars, twinkling, glowing against the vast background of space. Planets of all sizes hung among them, the crimson miasma of a distant galaxy spreading out behind it all.

 

Sure, Frazie had spent plenty of nights atop the family caravan just staring up at the stars and thinking, but this was something else. It was like she was among the stars themselves, and if she just reached out, she could touch them.

 

So she tried. She took a step forward, reaching out a tentative hand...

 

...And hit glass.

 

Too good to be true. Still, to no one’s surprise, one thing was obvious: she was in space.

 

But where in space? What had her fingers hit? While she tried to figure it out, a low electronic voice pierced her thoughts.

 

“Ma’am, please keep your hands off the window.”

 

She backed off as a little white box flew into view, a pixelated face on its screen and a spray bottle clasped in its tiny claw arms. Before her eyes, it spritzed the smudge she’d left, gave her a look, and flew back off. “Errr... sorry?” Frazie called to it. Were you supposed to apologize to robots?

 

As her eyes followed it, she turned, finally figuring out where she was. Aside from the view out into the cosmos, everything was metal. Robots of all types moved to and fro, some flying, some rolling around on treads, each attending to their own personal tasks. Screens flittered around above a wide console, a huge hologram of various stars and planets glowing up above it. All sorts of control panels dotted the area... it was like Ford’s lair on a grander scale.

 

It was a spaceship. At least what Frazie imagined the inside of one looked like, anyway.

 

And every ship must have its captain.

 

Seated at the main console, Chloe’s fingers were a blur as she typed in various commands to her onboard computer. She was the only living being in this giant metal craft. A small living being, too, as the transparent celestials floating above dwarfed her in size.

 

Cautiously, Frazie approached her, stepping around little robots flitting all across the bridge as she made her way up to her fellow camper-turned-commander. “Chloe?”

 

The kid looked up from her work, eying her curiously through her helmet, and then nodded. “Ah... you must be the new recruit.”

 

“I... guess I am?” Frazie played along. She swung her arms out over the ship, knowing her chances of processing all this on her own were somewhere around zero. “Soooo, what’re we doing here?”

 

Chloe gave a disappointed click of her tongue. “Didn’t you read the mission briefing before you teleported up here? No matter. I’ll fill you in, greenhorn.”

 

With a few clacks of her keyboard, an image of waves rippling across space displayed over her console. “I’ve picked up a strange signal from somewhere far, far out there in the cosmos. It’s reaching out to me... but it’s faint. I need to know what’s sending it, but to find it, we’re going to have to charter a path. That’s where you come in.” Another few clicks, and a strange looking satellite popped up - except instead of a radio dish, a giant eye sat blinking on its bottom. “I’ve deployed a beacon that you should be able to connect to, seeing what it sees, and we can use that knowledge to guide us through the stars.”

 

Frazie understood approximately 30% of all that. “Coooould yoooou put that in layman’s terms?”

 

Chloe sighed. “Form a mental link with the satellite I put outside, use it to find the planet where the signal is coming from, and point me to it.”

 

That, Frazie could do. Probably. Maybe. “...What do you mean by mental link, exactly?”

 

“Clairvoyance. Look through its eye, and it’ll amplify your gaze throughout the quadrant.”

 

Clairvoyance? “I... don’t really know how to do that, yet.”

 

Chloe glanced her way, then sighed again. “This truly is rookie hour. But no matter, it’s not hard to learn. You can astral project, yes?”

 

If only Chloe knew that was what she was doing right now. “Yeeeeees?”

 

“Then you can use clairvoyance. It’s sort of the same thing, except instead of pushing into their minds, try and push into their eyes.” Chloe swiveled her seat to face her, resting her hands on her lap. “Try it on me until you get it. It shouldn’t take long.”

 

Frazie took a breath, nodding. Alright... she’d jumped into people’s heads, what, six times already? Give or take. Directing her energy into someone else was easy peasy by now. The hard part was trying to guide her focus somewhere beyond the brain.

 

Her brow furrowed, feeling a connection build between their two minds. A soft pressure flittered on her frontal lobe, a small sign of encouragement from Chloe. Concentrating, Frazie swept her focus all over Chloe’s brain, making the girl giggle as she sought a path to her eyes. “That tickles.”

 

At last, she found a route. The optic nerves. Pushing her projection along them, Frazie found herself surprised as her vision suddenly leapt into Chloe’s eyes.

 

She could see the world from Chloe’s point of view. Not all that different, really... except Frazie was aghast to see that for some reason, Chloe viewed her as some sort of maroon alien, her wide tufts of hair looking more like the wings of a butterfly while antennas poked out above them from the top of her head.

 

Frazie promptly cut the link, pouting. “I don’t have a butterfly head!”

 

“Subjective.”

 

“Well... I’m definitely not from outer space!”

 

“Don’t take it so literally, Frazie,” Chloe said. “Of course you’re just another earthling. But you’re... different from the rest. Not everyone would come here and help me find the way to my brethren.”

 

Frazie crossed her arms, but so long as people didn’t actually see her as a slimy space creature, she’d be fine. “Alright. Am I ready to get this show on the road, at least?”

 

“Affirmative.” Chloe returned to her console, fingers flying once again. “Allow me to pull the satellite into view.”

 

While Chloe tapped away, Frazie glanced around, watching the robotic crew do their medley of tasks. They worked quickly and efficiently, but the place still felt awful empty with only the occasional sounds of their beeping and whirring filling it. Finally, her eyes swept back over to the front window, a shudder rolling over her as the satellite she’d seen finally floated into view. It was a lot bigger than the hologram led her to believe... and also, it blinked. Bleugh.

 

“So you want me to look through the eyes of... that thing?” It gave Frazie the creeps, but finally, she relented and focused her attention on it. “Alright. Here goes nothing.”

 

She shut her eyes. Now that she knew the path to seek, it wasn’t hard to get clairvoyance working again. The dark canvas behind her lids quickly lit up from the machine’s point of view.

 

And she could see... everything.

 

It was as if the satellite amplified her vision a hundredfold. She could see every rivet, every facet of the ship - it looked a lot like Chloe’s helmet, honestly. As the satellite slowly swiveled to face away from the vehicle, she could see stars and spheres trillions of miles away as if they were up close. It was a bit... overwhelming, to say the least.

 

While her body steadied itself with deep breathing, Frazie’s mind started scouring the endless void. The first thing she noticed was that she could see things she wasn’t able to see normally - far, far in the distance, a steady stream of radio waves pulsed outwards from a lone planetoid. To her surprise, it looked oddly... hospitable. Despite being covered in greenery and water, it definitely wasn’t Earth. That was all she could make out from this far away.

 

“I think I’ve got it,” Frazie finally spoke.

 

“Coordinates?” Chloe asked curtly.

 

“Uhhhhh... a gajillion yards away and slightly to the left?”

 

“The numbers, Frazie. You should be able to get a reading from the satellite.”

 

Perplexed, Frazie squinted at the planet even harder... and suddenly, the sides of her vision were full of all sorts of numbers and letters. Section CL0 Triple E Hector... it was all meaningless technobabble to her, but she read it off to the best of her ability.

 

When she’d finished and pulled back to her own body, Chloe was typing away even faster, looking pleased. “Yes, yes, that’s it...!” she exclaimed, pressing one final button.

 

A new hologram popped up, this one a replica of what Frazie had seen. “Is that what you were looking for?” Frazie asked.

 

“Only one way to find out.” Chloe stood up from her seat, waving her arms and barking orders to her crewmates. “The coordinates have been locked! Prepare the interstellar hyperdrive and engage all thrusters. Let’s go!”

 

She plopped back into her seat, giving Frazie a cautious glance. “You might want to grab onto something.”

 

Frazie promptly gripped the back of Chloe’s seat tightly. All around them, robots buzzed back and forth as they prepared for... whatever the heck Chloe had been talking about. While Frazie looked over it all, she couldn’t help but notice the captain drumming her fingers along her armrests, impatient, excited. “What do you think this signal’s going to lead us to, anyway?” Frazie finally asked.

 

Chloe thought a moment before responding. “Cygnus A. My home planet.”

 

“Home? But...” Frazie cut herself off. Best to just play along for now and see where this went. Instead, she just nodded, tightening her grip as the ship began to hum to life.

 

A low whirr grew to a loud buzz as a subtle vibration ran through the metal around them. The satellite drifted out of the way, clearing their path, and that was their cue to take off. Frazie flinched and held the seat tighter as a loud boom reverberated around them, the stars outside suddenly becoming a blur as they cruised forward at speeds never seen by man before.

 

They were off. Sailing through the cosmos, in search of worlds unknown.

The ship almost seemed to judder around them as it raced across thousands of lightyears in the span of seconds. Frazie grit her teeth and gripped Chloe’s seat, praying everything wouldn’t spontaneously fall apart, but the little captain sat completely calm while stars and worlds whipped by in a flash.

 

Just as quickly as it’d started, the vehicle stopped on a dime. The planet Frazie had scouted so far, far away suddenly filled up the ship’s window. Just like she’d seen through the eye of the satellite, it was very Earth-esque, covered in trees and dirt, and yet so different. There was very little water to be seen - thank goodness - mostly concentrated in one spot while forest and mountains covered the rest.

 

A soft ‘wow’ escaped Frazie. Sure, it wasn’t real... but the sight took her breath away nonetheless. This was the next best thing to actually going to space.

 

While Frazie took in the beauty of a whole new world, though, Chloe paid it little mind, more interested in the various readings on her monitor. “Hmmmm. My scanners aren’t picking up any lifeforms on the planet, despite its atmosphere being entirely habitable. How strange...”

 

“No one’s on it?” Frazie asked. “Sooooo, it isn’t your home planet?”

 

“It seems not,” Chloe answered with a hint of dejection. “But, for some reason, the signal being broadcasted to me is being routed here. Something down there is responsible, and your mission is to go down there and see what it is.”

 

She’d been conscripted into Chloe’s intergalactic crew, so if the captain ordered it, Frazie would obey. She just needed more information first. “Alright... any idea what I’m looking for?”

 

“At a glance, the world seems rather primitive in nature. Despite the lack of water, similarity to Earth, and the signal triangulation having lead here, there's little to no metal to be found on this planet. You’d need something particularly advanced to redirect radar waves across the galaxy, so I imagine the cause will stick out like a sore thumb.”

 

Soooo, look for something technological and out of place. “Got it.”

 

“Also, while this planet may be hospitable,” Chloe added as she reached under her desk, “you should still take precautions. Plus, we need a way to keep in touch. So here... take this.”

 

The kid pulled another helmet out, offering it up to her subordinate. Frazie took it with both hands, turning it to peer inside. “Thanks, but don’t I need a suit to go with this or something?” She was the exact opposite of a space expert, but even she knew that.

 

“I don’t have anything in your size.”

 

Frazie blinked. “That’s... never mind.” That didn’t answer the question at all, but you know what? Forget it. This was a mindspace, not actual space. She probably didn’t even need the helmet, but she’d keep it to have a way to stay in contact.

 

She just had to... find a way to get it to fit over her massive tufts of hair. It fit snugly over most of her face, but in the end, her sidetails were stuck jutting down out of the helmet. Well, this was a fashion disaster, but she’d deal with it.

 

At least Chloe seemed to approve, giving her a thumbs up. “Looking good. Now let’s get you down to the surface to investigate.”

 

Frazie nodded. “Allllright. And how do you plan to do-“

 

Bweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeem!

 

---

 

“-that?”

 

In the blink of an eye, a pillar of white light descended on her and swallowed her up. One second, she’d been up in the atmosphere, the next, she was talking to thin air. She’d been teleported. “Ah. That’s how.”

 

Frazie straightened back up, taking in everything through her helmet. Up close and personal, she very quickly pieced together what this world was all about.

 

Pine trees surrounded her, and underneath her feet, clear-cut dirt paths marked routes around the area. Small wooden huts dotted here and there, nothing extravagant, yet still very familiar.

 

It was the camp, on a global scale.

 

It was like someone had taken Whispering Rock and both stretched and shrunk it simultaneously. The camp was blown up to encompass the entire planet, and yet that planet wasn’t all too big to begin with. She estimated if she rolled nonstop on her levitation orb, she could circle the globe in a few minutes.

 

But if it was camp... where was everyone?

 

Frazie spun in a circle, arms held out, gesturing over the empty clearing. “Hello?” she called. “Anyone here?”

 

“I told you,” Chloe’s voice suddenly crackled in her ear, making her jump. “The planet’s empty.”

 

“But there’s buildings here!” Frazie pointed out.

 

“Hmmm... perhaps the remnants of a species that moved on somewhere else?” Chloe suggested. “Fascinating.”

 

Frazie found it more strange than fascinating, but she was speaking from the viewpoint of someone outside the mindspace. Then again... she didn’t even see any figments of campers. It was like this place had sprung up and never been inhabited.

 

Frazie shook her head, focusing elsewhere. Whatever it meant, that wasn’t important. What was important was finding some sort of doodad amidst the woodland. Now where to start...?

 

She took a step towards the cabins to begin with... an unusually springy step. She paused and hummed, bouncing on her feet. What would normally be a couple tiny hops pushed her a good half foot off the ground. “Whoa!”

 

Experimenting, Frazie leapt, soaring higher than she ever had before. Flipping slowly through the air, she descended gently, touching back to the ground like she’d been gently set down. “This is awesome!” She was living an acrobat’s dream.

 

A good few low gravity backflips, twirls, and swings later, Chloe’s voice crackled in her ear again. “Frazie. The mission. Focus.”

 

Oof. Chastised by a child. “Right, right, sorry.” Returning to earth, Frazie found the cabin again and headed for it. “Now let’s see here...”

 

She checked thoroughly. Under tables, beneath counters, even taking the (welcome) opportunity to high-jump up to the roof and check there. Not a thing. Nothing even remotely close to technological, just wood, wood, and more wood.

 

From there, Frazie spread her search out, hopping on her orb and rolling through the trees. While she went, she peered up, noticing the sun had shifted quite a bit from when she’d first arrived. It seemed the orbit here was a lot faster than normal.

 

Hoping to scan the entire sphere before night fell, Frazie rolled in all directions, steering clear of the miniature lake and the Galactic Galochio that no doubt lurked within as she rolled all over the wrap-around camp. No luck.

 

By now, it was already late afternoon. With the sun setting and her options dwindling, Frazie stomped down on her ball and shoved up off the ground, almost rocketing straight up into the stratosphere as she took a bird’s eye view of the planet.

 

“Hmmm...” Her eyes swiveled from the trees to the nearby mountains, inspecting closely...

 

There.

 

Atop one of the peaks, something metallic gleamed in the setting sunlight. Redirecting herself, Frazie popped her sphere and floated down towards it with a bubble.

 

Up close, she found something not too unlike the satellite that’d guided them here in the first place. Smaller and rounder, but it still had that big ol’ eye that made Frazie shudder. “Hey, you...” Frazie greeted with a grimace, getting a blink in response. Holding it in one hand, she used the other to tap the side of her helmet. “I think I found it, Chloe.”

 

“Hold it up a bit higher so I can pick it up.”

 

Frazie lifted it up and stared right into its unerring gaze, waiting until Chloe’s voice finally broke their staring contest. “Yes, this is it. It’s not creating the signal, but its being used to extend it.”

 

“So this planet was a bust?” Frazie asked.

 

“No, no... this might not be the right beacon, but I still detect the main signal. It’s closer now. If you deploy this little satellite, you should be able to use it to direct us closer to the source.”

 

“Soooo... throw this thing up into the sky and use Clairvoyance on it to find another planet?”

 

“Precisely.”

 

Frazie looked down at the little satellite in her hands and shrugged. “Alley-oop!” Crouching low, she flung it skyward, letting the low gravity do the rest.

 

It rose higher and higher until it finally settled up in the darkening sky. Pressing fingers to her temple, Frazie used her new trick to see through its eye.

 

Another sprawling snapshot of the universe stretched out before her, somehow similar and different to the last one. Once more thrown off by her massively improved vision, Frazie glanced around until she spotted the steadily pulsing signal beam and narrowed her focus on it.

 

When she saw their next destination, she had to double check she had the right place. The planet was... strange, to say the least. It was very flat and dark, like a giant black doughnut on its side. Did that even count as a planet? Well, it was where the signal was coming from, so Frazie narrowed her borrowed gaze on it and read off the coordinates that appeared.

 

“Section TE3 Double E Victor...” Chloe repeated. “Good job, cadet. Give me a moment to lock it in.”

 

“Gotcha.” While Frazie waited, she glanced out over the landscape, watching as night finally fell across the planet. It might’ve been a familiar sight, but seeing it rearranged and given its own place in the cosmos gave it a sort of unnatural beauty.

 

At least until night fully fell... then things took a sharp turn for the worse. Frazie flinched as a beastly howl rang out far down below. “W-wait, wasn’t this place empty...?”

 

She was thankfully high up above, but glancing down at the trees below, she could make out shadowy figures creeping through the darkness. Large lumps and small lithe creatures prowling about, blending in with the shadows, crawling on all fours.

 

Okay, it was a helluva lot less beautiful now. “Uh... Chloe? Can you speed it up a little?” Frazie called tersely.

 

In response, she was thankfully whisked away from her safe perch and beamed back aboard the ship.

 

“Phew...” Frazie put her hands on her knees and breathed a deep sigh of relief when she found herself back amongst the robot crew. She wasn’t sure what Chloe had seen lurking around the camp at night, but whatever it was, it was pretty scary.

 

Still over in her seat, Chloe raised a brow behind her helmet. “Are you alright? Let me know if I should delay takeoff. Having to clean puke out of your helmet would be unpleasant.”

 

“No, no,” Frazie insisted, taking a breath and grabbing onto the nearest chair. “Please, get us out of here.”

 

“Roger.”

 

Once more, the ship hummed to life, and a second later, the girls and their robot crewmates were hurtling onwards to their next destination.

 

---

 

Once more their spacecraft slowed to a stop, defying all known laws of physics as it braked smoothly at trillions of miles per second.

 

The newest planet hung in front of the ship. At a closer glance, it looked like some kind of hub - spaceships of all kinds sat docked around its rim, with various metal structures poking up here and there on both sides of the disc.

 

Immediately, Chloe leaned forward in her seat, spotting the various signs of advanced life. Her hands darted to her keyboard, her screen reflected in her visor. “I’m picking up radio signals!”

 

Surprised, Frazie raced to her side. “What does that mean? Did we find Cygnus?”

 

“I don’t think so. The signal’s stronger, but not coming from here. But it means there might be lifeforms here we can communicate with...!” Fingers practically trembling, Chloe typed in a few more commands, changing her feed to a video call. “This is Captain Chloe, sending a call to any local sentient species. Do you copy?”

 

For a moment, the screen stayed blank. And then, it flashed, lighting up with an image from down below. It looked like a busy market, with bizarre figures strolling by in the background, strange creatures of all shapes and sizes with all manners of parts.

 

In the center of the screen sat a squat green creature, with mismatched eyes on stalks and a massive set of fringed lips spreading out past its face.

 

Frazie’s jaw dropped. “Holy crap... aliens, Chloe! Aliens!!!”

 

Chloe’s hands were clenched with the barely restrained urge to jump for joy. When confronting extraterrestrial life, one must remain calm and composed. Taking a deep breath, the young captain simply nodded in response before addressing her caller.

 

“Greetings,” she said, spreading four of her fingers into a V shape. “We come in peace. I just have a few questions to ask, if it isn’t any trouble... primarily, have you received any correspondence from Cygnus A?” And then, she started gushing. “Also, what are your customs like? Your species? Your home?”

 

The alien blinked at her, and then waved, saying nothing.

 

Chloe paused, then tapped a few more buttons. “My sincerest apologies, I must have had the volume off. Feel free to speak your mind. Over.”

 

Again, the creature remained silent, simply shrugging.

 

Perplexed, Chloe seemed frustrated as she tried one last thing. “I promise, we mean you no harm, don’t be afraid to communicate. Ahh... have you, by chance, seen a quasigalactic multiamplifying beacon?”

 

At that, the alien snapped its fingers and started rummaging offscreen. A second later, it returned, holding up a little satellite identical to the one Frazie had found on the last planet.

 

Chloe smiled, a bit lopsidedly. “Yes, that. If you’d be so kind as to hold onto that for us, I’ll send someone to come barter for it...?”

 

She received a thumbs up in response, and the broadcast finally cut out. Groaning, Chloe held her head in her hands.

 

Confused, Frazie reached down to rest a hand on her back. “What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to find aliens.”

 

“I do, but I was hoping for ones I could, you know... communicate with.” Chloe sighed, sitting back up. “No matter. I detect fuel on the planet, and we know there’s another beacon beaming Cygnus’ signal to us. I’ll bring us down and refill the tank while you go find its owner.”

 

Letting her go, Frazie tipped her head. “Aye-aye, cap’n.”

 

Disappointed, but resolute, Chloe guided their ship forward again at a much more manageable pace, sending it drifting down to join the many other ships in galactic port. Once more the teleportation beam swallowed Frazie and sent her down - this time, with Chloe at her side.

 

On the surface, everything looked a lot more bustling, with bizarre creatures walking about hither and thither, circling around the big hole in the planet’s center as they went on their way. Once more, Chloe called out to a nearby group of aliens, and they all waved in response.

 

Grumbling, the kid gave up and walked over to the nearby fuel station that looked suspiciously like an Earth gas pump. “Hrm... if you’d be so kind as to go find that merchant, Frazie?”

 

The older girl saluted. “I’ll be back in a flash.” With nothing more to be said, she jogged off into the throng of planetary pedestrians.

 

Frazie hadn’t been in too many crowds before, unless you counted the rare ones at her family circus - but being in such a hugely varied one really took the cake nonetheless. There were aliens twice her size with thick stomachs and thin heads, teeny ones that were basically sliding blobs, and everything in between.

 

It’d be hard to find the correct stall on such a busy street. “Has anyone here seen a guy with a beacon?” she tried calling out among the silent throng. “Small, metal, has a really creepy eye sitting on it. Come on now, don’t all speak up at onc-“ Her words cut off as she suddenly bumped into one of the aliens from behind. “Oof! Sorry...”

 

The creature turned to face her - squat, yet stout, a little big bigger than her and much wider. It had tentacles for legs and arms, and a speckled green face with three eyes behind a pointed glass helmet. Those eyes promptly narrowed as it suddenly growled at her through sharp fangs.

 

Frazie took a step back, holding her hands up as the angry alien advanced on her. “Hey, relax! It was just an accident.”

 

Her plea fell on deaf (non-existent?) ears... and before she could protest further, red sigils sprouted up all around the creature, spewing out little men in spacesuits. Censors, howling their usual catchphrase behind their helmets.

 

Frazie gasped and quickly switched to a fighting stance, pointing at the snarling brute. “Wait a second... you’re not an alien, you’re with them!”

 

Obsession

Hard to ignore.

 

Crud. The crowd around them split apart, making room for the sudden street brawl between her, this unknown threat, and its lackeys. Already the censors were hopping towards her, low gravity slowing their approach a bit as they jumped her way.

 

Fine by her. Taking out the small fries first was always a good idea. Pulling her fist back, Frazie channeled her energy into it and struck out at the nearest goon...

 

...And her punch swerved, barely doing a thing as it slammed into the Obsession’s side.

 

“What?” Before Frazie could process what’d just happened, she felt a sharp sting in her stomach as the censor’s stamp slammed into it.

 

“Ghhh...!” Clutching her shirt, Frazie backed off as both the victorious censor and its tanky friend chortled at her. Ticked off now, Frazie once more swung towards another censor, only to once more find her attack unusually drawn towards the biggest foe there.

 

Sidestepping the counterattack this time, Frazie glared at the big fella. She wasn’t sure how, but its mere presence was forcing her to focus on it. Which meant the normally easy-to-dispatch cannon fodder now had free reign to ruin her day.

 

She didn’t have much choice. “Alright, fine! You want my attention so bad? You can have it!”

 

Rolling into the fray, Frazie kicked at it, unleashing a fierce flurry of psychic blows. No longer laughing, the creature shielded itself with its tentacles, blocking each hit with a grunt. It was durable, but she was wearing it down.

 

In a fit of desperation, it swung its arms out wide, catching her midswing. Knocked off her feet, Frazie yelped and threw her shield up as low gravity sent her wrapping around the outer rim to the flipside of the planet.

 

The barrier was a good call. After a few second’s flight, she crashed into a large metal booth, hanging upside down over a table of displaced goods. “Ugh.” Dropping the shield, she sat up...

 

...And found herself face to face with a huuuuge pair of lips.

 

A short scream escaped her. Thankfully, the creature wasn’t bothered by her rudeness. Even better... she recognized that massive maw from Chloe’s video screen.

 

“Hey!” she said once she recognized it. “Hey, you! It’s me, from the call! Listen, I’m sorry for the barging in like this, but I need that beacon and I need it in...” She glanced back to see the angry mind defenders approaching over the horizon. “...The next five seconds. I can give you, uh...” She rummaged in her pockets. “A dream fluff wrapper, some smelling salts... no, wait, I need that...”

 

Her rummaging was suddenly interrupted as the alien held the device up to her. It shook its head and smiled a bit wider, offering it for free.

 

“Really?” Frazie took it gingerly, the construct’s eye popping open to inspect her. “You’re a lifesaver.” She’d never been so grateful to an imaginary creature before.

 

Sadly, it was only a metaphorical lifesaver, not a literal one. There was still an angry crowd on its way, and Frazie needed to get out of there before they took their frustration out on the kind merchant’s stall.

 

Tucking the beacon under her arm, Frazie ducked low, preparing a potentially stupid plan. “Thanks again!” Frazie called to the shopkeep before leaping back outside - running straight for the Obsession.

 

It spread its tentacles wide as if to catch her, flanked on both sides by its back-up censors ready to pummel her silly. Gathering heat in her mind, Frazie charged ahead fearlessly, waiting for the right moment.

 

Finally, face to face with the beefy brute, she jumped and let the fire loose at the same time. A burst of pyrokinesis exploded around her as she leapt high over it, catching the creature and some of the space lawyers in the blast. It could steal her attention, but it couldn’t block an attack that hit everyone.

 

Frazie could hear the Obsession and the few censors she’d caught succumbing to the flames, but there were still a bunch more squabbling angrily as they gave chase. And from the sound of it, more portals were popping up to deposit reinforcements. Keeping her focus up front, she hopped on her levitation orb and made a run for it, rolling back to the disc’s other side.

 

She easily outsped her pursuers, but she was stuck on this planet with no escape. They’d catch her eventually... unless she and Chloe got out of there ASAP.

 

Dodging around curious cosmic civilians, Frazie spotted her captain pulling a nozzle out of the slot in her spacecraft’s side.

 

“Start the ship, Chloe! Start the ship!” she called. Chloe turned to ask why, only to spot the crowd of tiny astronauts and a couple angry aliens stampeding after her.

 

“Oh, quasar.” Dropping the pump, the handle clanked to the floor as she quickly closed the fuel port and then disappeared in a flash of light. A moment later, the angry clamor behind Frazie vanished as the same light teleported her away.

 

“To your stations!” Chloe barked, startling a bunch of loitering robots into action. The whirr of rolling treads and the hum of hovering screens filled the air as they prepped the ship for launch.

 

Only once the ship pulled out of port and flew a safe distance away did Frazie finally relax. She chuckled sheepishly. “Eheh... sorry about the unwelcome surprise,” she murmured, “buuuut... I got it.”

 

Frazie pulled the little satellite out from under her arm and handed it over to the little captain. Chloe took it, humming with approval. “You’ve proven yourself trustworthy, cadet. Keep it up, and there may be a promotion in store for you.”

 

Frazie didn’t really expect to stay here long enough to capitalize on that, but more importantly, they had the key to carry on their quest. Chloe held the beacon up, and in a flash, it was teleported right outside the main window. “Now you just have to-”

 

“Clairvoyance and scout; yep, yep, I’ve got it.” Knowing the routine by now, Frazie dove into the satellite’s vision and began her search.

 

Their next location: Section HU0 Double E Sierra, a rocky and barren lump of a planet. There was an unusual structure on it, though, one Frazie would need to be closer to inspect. As she returned and read the coordinates off, she wondered if this jump would take them somewhere important.

 

In a way, it would be.

 

---

 

One spontaneous case of galactic speeding later, their next locale rotated in front of the ship.

 

It was so... bland. One big spinning brown dirtball with only a few caves and cliffs adorning it. It made its one noteworthy feature stand out all the more: some sort of pristine temple, situated at the top of the globe.

 

Well, at least Frazie had a good idea where to start searching if she needed to go beacon hunting again. And on that note... “Did we finally make it?” Frazie asked.

 

Some quick typing brought up rows and rows of data for Chloe to analyze, and the child studied them for quite awhile. “I’m... unsure. The signal here is strong, but I don’t know if it’s strong enough.I’m picking up lifeforms here, but I can’t send a message to them. You’ll need to go down and check for any signs of intelligence. One way or another, we’re close.”

 

If this wasn’t the right place, the next would be. That was reassuring at least. Nodding, Frazie twisted her helmet a bit, hoping it wasn’t ruining her hair too much. “Ready when you are, then. Just gimme a sec, all this teleporting’s starting to get a bit disorien-”

 

In a flash, her feet were on solid stone instead of steel. “Thanks,” she quipped to her radio.

 

“Sorry.”

 

Once she was ready, Frazie prepared to set off across the barren plains. There was only one thing here worth checking out, and she was determined to find it.

 

But before she could... she was surrounded.

 

Either she’d landed among them or they’d snuck up on her while she was still recovering, but she was waist deep in a small crowd of little creatures. She twisted back and forth, on the defensive. “Hey...! Back off! I can start fires with my mind and I’m not afraid to do it!”

 

She prepared some psi blasts for firing, only to dismiss them when she realized the creatures weren’t aggressive. If anything... they were curious. Small, square-faced aliens with thick brows and vacant stares, all dressed up in tattered rags. Like a buncha little cosmic cavemen.

 

Mumbling in incoherent grunts and gibberish, they poked and prodded at her, a couple batting her ponytail around while one picked up her foot and inspected the sole. “What are you... ahahahaaa!” A burst of laughter slipped out of her as a couple others nudged her ribs. “Stop it, that tickles!”

 

Some of the creatures imitated her, giggling and clapping in what she could only assume was approval. A strange bunch, but a harmless and inquisitive one.

 

That was worth a report to the captain. “There’s a buncha goofy little guys down here,” she filled her in over the radio. “Are these what you were looking for, Chloe? They seem pretty friendly to me. Not very bright, but friendly.”

 

After a moment, she got a response. “No. They’re friendly... but primitive. Too unintelligent to hope to glean anything from them. We’re not at Cygnus A yet. We need to keep going. Whatever’s trying to reach me is smart enough to broadcast its own signal... we just need to find them. We’re almost there. I can feel it.”

 

Welp. “Sorry guys, but I gotta go,” Frazie apologized as she tried to step over them. It took a bit of wobbling, but she finally hurdled over a couple. Instead of taking the hint, though, the crowd of Cro-Magnons huddled behind her, mumbling and following even as she tried to walk away.

 

It looked like she had an entourage now. At least they made the trek over this drab desert more interesting. Frazie couldn’t help but giggle as they waddled behind, occasionally playing with each other or trying to view her from another angle. She’d take this over the earlier scuffle, any day.

 

...And as if in retaliation, portals popped up in front of her. More Censors spilled out ahead and an Obsession suddenly sprouted up from the floor, snarling. They weren’t alone. A couple Regrets and Doubts poured in from above and below, filling the barren landscape with a violent mob in seconds.

 

She just had to open her big, fat mouth. The last planet’s merchant would be jealous.

 

Behind her, her followers screeched and squawked in panic, scrambling away from the intruders. But as scary as they were, it was Frazie they wanted. Determined to protect them nonetheless, Frazie swung a hand down, calling out to the defense force. “Come on! I’m not running away this time!”

 

Like it or not, the big guy had to go first. But if she was smart... she could multitask. As they rushed her, she flipped to the side, positioning a Censor between her and the Obsession. Before it could realize her plan, she lashed out, aiming for the big baddie and hitting its grunt in the crossfire. She kicked the little gremlin like a football, cracking the alien’s glass when their helmets collided.

 

Rinse and repeat. Her newest foe might draw her attacks, but it couldn’t stop her from hitting anything between them. Alternating between psi blasts and psychic strikes, she wiped out the Censors, their cries vanishing with them into thin air as she chipped away at the Obsession in the process. She flipped again, ready to finish them off...

 

...Only to get stuck fast. Underfoot, purple sludge held her fast as an orange face leered up at her. “Eck!” Strings of gunk clung to the bottoms of her shoes as she strained to step off.

 

She couldn’t do it fast enough. Frazie only had enough time to make out the shrill whistle of something falling overhead before a hefty weight smashed down on her helmet.

 

Her glass cracked, she heard a sharp staticky noise, and the Regret that’d pegged her buzzed away to reload. While her vision was splintered by the split in her visor, she was thankfully (mostly) unharmed. Her headgear had absorbed the majority of the blow.

 

Still, she had to get out of there before things got worse. The Obsession was approaching, the Regrets were swarming, and the Doubts were slowly preparing to lunge. Frazie strained and strained, trying to burn away the puddle beneath her while she did. At the last second, she felt her legs pull free as she propelled herself high into the sky.

 

Low gravity carried her up and the Regrets gave chase, the only creatures capable of aerial pursuit. They buzzed and squeaked below her... and below her was right where she wanted them. Pouring all her energy into her foot, she pushed herself back down with one powerful psychic stomp.

 

Squashing the Regrets like the bugs they were, she rocketed downwards, smashing clear through the Obsession’s fractured helmet and crushing it into oblivion. With a little pyrokinetic clean-up, the remaining Doubts were a cinch to deal with.

 

Chest rising and falling from the exertion, Frazie took a second to make sure the coast was clear. Already, her primitive pals were poking their heads out from behind rocks and from inside holes, looking relieved she was alright.

 

If only she could see them properly. Her cap had been thoroughly wrecked in the fight, and it wasn’t going to suffice anymore. Frazie tugged her helmet off, her long suppressed hair springing back into place.

 

Like she’d predicted, she didn’t immediately die a horrible death (thankfully), instead taking a deep breath of fresh air. Peering through the cracked glass, she spotted the little radio inside with its wires knocked loose. Broken beyond repair.

 

“...Ah, dang it.” How was she going to get in touch with Chloe now? She supposed she could use her smelling salts to hop out of the mind and back in, returning to the ship.

 

But before she could so much as reach for the capsule, the speaker crackled to life... inside her head.

 

“Frazie, come in.” Surprised, Frazie let the helmet slowly float to the ground as Chloe’s concerned voice tickled her brain. “I heard sounds of conflict. Is everything alright?”

 

Was she alright? Yeah. But whatever was happening right now clearly wasn’t normal. “Uh... Chloe?” Frazie spoke aloud, not sure if she’d get a response. “How are you talking to me?”

 

“Through the radio. How else? ...Did you hit your head?”

 

Yes, but not in the way Chloe thought. As her alien buddies gathered around her again, Frazie shook her head, scooping up her broken helmet to hold onto for now. “No, no, I’m... I’m fine. Forget it. Just ran into a bit of trouble.”

 

Something was off, and she wasn’t sure if it was wise to let Chloe know or not. For now, she’d keep this little revelation to herself. “Roger,” Chloe replied. “I assume you took care of it. Any news on finding the beacon?”

 

Frazie glanced up into the sky, where Chloe’s ship hovered far, far, faaaaar away. “...Nothing to report yet,” she lied. “I’ll let you know when I see something.”

 

Her head went quiet, and she prepared to set out again. No sooner than she’d taken a few steps, a bright glow lit up the horizon. “What the...” She stopped in her tracks, but the light kept coming, and soon, she could make out a silhouette amidst it all. Whatever it was, her cave crew wasn’t afraid of it like they were the mental defenses... instead, they ooo’d and aaa’d and even started to run towards it.

 

The light died down a bit, but it still hung over the figure like a shroud. It was humanoid, but not fully. Very tall, dressed in a flowing robe, hairless, feminine, a bright beacon of calming light amidst an otherwise empty rock. Frazie was still uneased, but lightened up a bit when the creature spoke in a soothing voice. “Ah... so you’re the one who protected my children. Thank you, kind stranger.”

 

A couple cavepeople nudged Frazie forward, and she let them, no longer worried as she looked up into the figure’s warm gaze. “I, ah... I guess I did,” she murmured sheepishly, rubbing her neck. “If I can ask, though... who are you?” Or what?

 

The figure bowed down to her level, eye to eye. “You may call me the Matron. It would honor me if I could call you our guest. Come... I would like to give you something for your assistance.”

 

Maybe it was because Frazie had a hunch it’d get her what she needed, maybe it was because the Matron was just so warm and welcoming, but declining the offer didn’t even pop into her head. The Matron offered her a hand, and she took it. “Alright, lead the way.”

 

It felt strange, being guided by the hand by an alien creature, but the aura she put off just made it feel right. It reminded her of all the times her own mother would hold onto her while she taught her to cartwheel when she was young. All the little cavelings hopped and squabbled around the Matron as they walked, some clinging to her robe affectionately.

 

Before long, a large bright spot appeared on the horizon. The temple she’d spotted, finally up close, its golden rooftop pointing up into space in a few spots. Its walls were pure white - Frazie ran her fingers over them as they stepped inside, finding a smooth material unlike any she’d ever felt before.

 

The inside was equally bright, with a few beds and rugs scattered about amidst the white background. As soon as they were inside, the little Neanderthals promptly scattered, some playing, others hopping into bed and bouncing around, all whilst the Matron let Frazie’s hand go and guided her to the back of the building.

 

“Ah... here it is.” The alien stopped before a splash of green amidst the white, an upside-down memory vault dozing comfortably. “This is our sacred treasure. I offer it to you... may it guide you on your journey.”

 

Frazie glanced up at her, an unsaid ‘are you sure?’ in her eyes. The Matron nodded, and she took a breath, quickly knocking the safe open with a quick slap. Inside, she found two things: another beacon, staring out at her from its dark confines.

 

And as usual... snippets of the past.

 

 

---

A Visitor From Beyond

 

“Zkkkt... num... five... din... hrrrrrt... fries... brrrrrr...”

 

Chloe shut her eyes even tighter, concentrating with all she had. Ever since she could remember, these snippets of distant conversation would pop into her head at any given moment. At first, it was scary... but the more it happened, the more it felt like something was trying to reach her. Something far away, something intangible, something speaking words she could only sometimes understand.

 

Aliens.

 

Now, whenever she picked up one of their messages, she dropped everything she was doing and focused, trying desperately to glean some meaning from the babble.

 

She just wished she had a less distracting environment.

 

Childish laughter broke through her thoughts, and she huffed in annoyance. A second later, she could feel a dull tapping as someone poked at her helmet. “Chlooooe? Are you asleep?”

 

Irritating earthlings. Chloe finally sighed and opened her eyes, turning her head to see a little boy grinning goofily at her through gap teeth. Just another of the many other children that lingered around here, though Chloe preferred to think of them as distractions.

 

“No,” Chloe griped, already feeling the voices slipping away. “I’m performing important research to try and form a connection with extraterrestrial life. What do you want?”

 

“Oh.” The boy clearly had no idea what she was saying. “Welllll, if you’re done with that, wanna come play with us?” He gestured to a bunch of other kids behind him, giggling and gearing up for what looked like some pillowfort building.

 

Play? There was no time to play. Even now, there was someone out there that wanted to reach her. To communicate. And right now, she was leaving them hanging. “No, thank you. I need to get back to work.”

 

He stuck out a tongue. “You sound like a grown-up. But alright!” He turned to go, waving farewell. “If you change your mind, you know where to find us!”

 

Finally. Peace at last. Chloe shut her eyes once more and concentrated with all her might, but the connection had slipped away into a dull, meaningless hum.

 

Damn it. She’d lost the trail again. Every day she could make out more, but she still hadn’t a clue what the aliens wanted to tell her. But she’d keep trying. One day, she’d decipher their ruminations. One day, she’d find a way to converse with them, to bridge the gap between man and spacekind.

 

But for now - she’d earned a break. Because at the moment, she was picking up a familiar, pleasant brainwave heading towards her from somewhere a couple blocks away. The only event almost as exciting as making extraterrestrial contact.

 

Ignoring the kids still preparing to play behind her, Chloe got up and jogged out of the room, passing several others just like it on her way through the hall and down the stairs. Her house was huge, but that was because it had to hold so many people.

 

Right as she made it outside, a car was pulling in, and she already knew who was driving it. As it parked, she ran to the driver side and stood on tiptoes to try and see through the window. “You’re back! What did you find?”

 

The door gently opened, and she stepped back to let the driver step out, a tall woman in a long dress that chuckled softly at the sight of her. “Easy now, my child... let me get out first. I swear, you’re somehow always the first out to greet me.”

 

That would be because Chloe had a little psychic advantage - and because she was the only person around here Chloe was actually eager to see. That, and Chloe knew she had some special info to share this time. “I’m sorry, it’s just... what did you find out? I need to know!”

 

The woman shut the door behind her and knelt down, placing a gentle hand atop Chloe’s helmet as she smiled down at her. “The counselors weren’t too eager to let a ‘civilian’ look around, but I let them know I wouldn’t let you come unless I was sure it’d be a safe and productive venture for you. I think the camp will be a good fit. It should be just the thing to help you hone your gift.”

 

Chloe bounced on her heels with glee. “So I can go?! Did they have an observatory?! Or at least a Zero G research facility?”

 

Laughing again, the woman shook her head. “Chloe, my dear, it’s a summer camp, not a space camp. Even if it is one for psychics. Now come...” She stood and offered Chloe a hand, which the kid eagerly took. “I need to get dinner started for all you little ones. We’ll talk more about it after. If everything goes well... I should be able to drive you out to camp next week.”

 

Chloe hadn’t felt this excited in ages. Sure, her alien outreach had failed, but with luck, Whispering Rock would be exactly what she needed to finally close the gap between them. She was one step closer to finding a place where she truly belonged.

 

Clinging to the woman’s hand, Chloe eagerly fired question after question at her as she guided them up the stairs back into the orphanage.

 

---

 

“...” Frazie shut her eyes, sitting in pure silence for a moment.

 

“Frazie, come in. Did you find anything? You’ve been quiet awhile.”

 

She’d almost forgotten Chloe amidst the new alien’s arrival and the new vault. “No! Nothing! Nothing at all!” she yelled, flinging the photos back into the vault.

 

A pause. “...You’re acting unusual. You didn’t happen to pick up any brain slugs on your head while you were out, did you?”

 

Frazie tilted her head. “No, no, I’m good. I got the beacon, I’ll be ready for pick-up in a minute.”

 

“Oh, that’s good. But seriously... check your scalp for anything green, clingy, and mentally draining.”

 

Yeah, Frazie was pretty sure she was okay. Instead, she gently shut the vault again, patting it apologetically, and stood to turn back to the Matron. “Thank you,” she said, tilting her head towards the beacon. “And, uh... I know you’re not real and all... but thanks for taking care of Chloe, too.”

 

The alien seemed perplexed, but no less friendly, finally just smiling and nodding serenly. “I do not follow... but you are most welcome. Tell this Chloe that she is always welcome to come visit my children and I any time she’d like.”

 

Frazie bit her lip, but finally nodded. “Yeah... IIIIII’ve gotta go. Thanks again.” She quickly threw her helmet on and turned to take her leave, only to almost trip on a couple more little cavemen clinging to her skirt. Offering them a sorry smile, she gently peeled them off and made for the door while a few chased after her, wanting to play. “Chloe!” she shouted out into the air.

 

And in a flash, she was gone.

 

---

 

Back on the ship, Chloe was quick to notice Frazie’s damage. “Your helmet! Shoot, why didn’t you tell me? I’ll get you a new one and-“

 

Frazie shook her head, turning her down. “It’s fine! We’re almost at the end anyway, right?” It wasn’t like she actually needed the radio in it or anything. It was useless. She was just going to take it off as soon as they landed again, anyway.

 

Chloe relented, and sent the satellite out for one last reconnaissance. Their next jump, and hopefully last, immediately grabbed her attention. Section BR1 Triple N Alpha. A big, stony brain, hovering in an empty void.

 

That just screamed important. Or maybe that was just Chloe screaming in delight beside her. “This is it, Frazie! The signal’s at its strongest point! The next jump has to be Cygnus A!”

 

Frazie put on a smile for her, but inside, she wondered if that was really the truth. Something strange was going on ever since her radio had broken. And this last planet might help her find out what.

 

A few moments later, Frazie was sent down to the planet, promptly yanking her helmet off and tossing it to the side to let it float away. “I can’t look, Frazie,” Chloe’s voice whispered in her ear from far above. “Tell me... what do you see? Big cities? Technological marvels? A welcoming party? Is there cake?”

 

None of the above. “I don’t really see much of anything,” Frazie answered, seeing nothing but rocky cracks in the ground.

 

“...That can’t be right. The signal is 100%, most definitely, coming from right here. Keep looking. There must be something.”

 

Frazie planned to do just that.

 

Hopping on her levitation ball, Frazie rolled across the surface, occasionally bumping along the veins in the ground. At long last, after some brief scouting, she finally found something.

 

A radio tower. Pointing high into the sky, its girders criss-crossed as they held up a massive radar dish. Just being near it made Frazie’s hair stand on end - the energy this thing was outputting was massive.

 

All the pieces were finally starting to come together. The fact Chloe could speak with her no matter the distance. Her ability to detect her matron coming from streets away. This structure casting incredibly strong waves out into the furthest cosmos. Chloe’s devotion to finding someone she’d always heard, but never seen.

 

Her telepathy was cranked to the max. And, odds were, stuck there as well.

 

This radio tower must’ve been a symbol for Chloe’s powers. So long as its output was full capacity, Chloe was picking up thoughts and feelings from incredible ranges. But as powerful as her ability was, there was no way she was getting messages from outer space. She must’ve been unintentionally reading minds from a mile around her and attributing them to aliens.

 

Frazie rolled closer to get a better look. At the base of the tower sat a lone lever, shoved waaaay up past all the labeling notches it had. Tentatively, she hopped off her ride and reached out to touch it.

 

“BACK AWAY FROM THE STRUCTURE. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DISABLE HER POWERS.”

 

She yelped as a loud robotic voice suddenly boomed out across the planet. Her head whipped back and forth - nothing there. “I’m not trying to disable it, I’m trying to help her!” Frazie protested to empty air. On edge now, determined to repair this and skedaddle, she grabbed the lever again and yanked.

 

It didn’t budge an inch. If she could just get it unstuck, Chloe should be able to turn her powers off if she wanted, finally getting a break from the voices. She kept trying, straining and straining...

 

Until the earth quaked beneath her.

 

“WARNING IGNORED. DEPLOYING DEFENSIVE UNIT: D3-F3ND3R.”

 

Frazie wobbled back and forth as the entire planet shook, and in front of the tower, a hole slid open. Everything went quiet, the globe stilled... and then a massive metallic claw shot towards the sky, careening back down to anchor itself with a boom.

 

Two more shot out, and whatever mechanical monstrosity they were attached to hoisted itself up out of the ground. Like a giant alien tripod, the three claws supported a big egg-shaped structure, the entire thing bigger than the radio tower itself. Its core turned to face her, a bright red eye glaring down at the frozen acrobat down below.

 

“TARGET LOCKED. EXTERMINATION IMMINENT.”

 

Frazie took a couple steps back, face falling. “Can’t I ever just help someone out without something giant wanting to kill me?!”

 

Defend its host’s mind at all costs. For better or worse.

 

With the telepathic tower’s lever still wedged tight, it was definitely the latter. The guardian’s arms proved scarily flexible as they snaked their way through the beams to snap at her, forcing Frazie to back away from the console as its claws snapped at her. Its glowing red eye stayed locked on her and only her, full of emotionless determination.

 

So long as it stood, Chloe was doomed to listen in to everyone and everything around her. Like it or not... it had to go. And Frazie really, really didn’t like it.

 

But by now, it wasn’t a surprise anymore. Putting up her dukes, she was ready and willing to throw down to change someone’s brain for the better. One of the robot’s claws made another swipe at her face, and she roughly knocked it aside with a psychic chop and a loud clank.

 

While the creature was taking great care to not harm the structure in any way, its arms steadily entangled themselves throughout the structure, coiling around its girders like steel snakes and lashing at her whenever it got the chance. She couldn’t stay under the tower any longer, not without risking getting ensnared or clipped.

 

As soon as she stepped out from its shade, the robot’s limbs whirred loudly as they reeled back in. The bot was not only big, it was mobile, skittering across the tower towards her in a surprising burst of speed.

 

Dust flew up as one of its arms hammered down, slamming into the spot Frazie had been a second ago. Diving to the side, low gravity carried her a ways away before she flipped back onto her feet. “Is that all you’ve got?!”

 

No. Not by a long shot.

 

The creature's eye glowed brighter and brighter, glaring at her with enough intensity to make her regret her taunt. She regretted it a heckuva lot more when the air suddenly split with the shrill twang of hot plasma, the bot firing a laser beam right at her.

 

Frazie ducked, feeling the intense heat searing the air as the beam pulsed directly overhead. Nope. Definitely did not want to touch that.

 

...And then, the beam started to lower down towards her.

 

“Nope. Nope, nope. Nuh uh. No.” Frazie frantically dropped to all fours and crawled away as the beam carved downwards, giving chase. Pushing up off the ground and breaking into a sprint, she leaped and bounded across the planet’s face while red hot death kept her on her toes.

 

Forced on the move, Frazie hopped on her orb and rolled across the rocky plains, firing Psi Blast after Psi Blast at her aggressor all the while. “How do you like it?!” she yelled, her own beams of energy slamming into its blazing iris. If poking this thing’s eye out kept her unfried, so be it.

 

Her blasts slammed into it, the robot unflinching with each hit and yet finally forced to blink from the pressure. Its laser shut down, and Frazie breathed a sigh of relief as she rolled to a stop.

 

“DEPLOYING MISSILES.”

 

Oh come ON.

 

Holes slid open all over the top of the mech’s core, promptly filling the air with the high-pitched shrieks of artillery as it launched rocket after rocket all around... all of them aimed at her.

 

Getting the hell out of dodge, Frazie jumped, the earth exploding under her as the first of many projectiles went off at her feet. Two more whizzed by, the acrobat contorting in midair to keep them from touching her, only for them to adjust course and circle back around at her.

 

Her thoughts still warm from her psi blast barrage, she let loose another flurry, taking pot shots at the remaining rockets, blasting them to kingdom come before they could do it to her first. Smoke flooded the air as she slowly descended back to earth, relieved.

 

And then one final missile charged out of the cloud, unseen in the smog.

 

Screaming sharply, Frazie threw out a hand as the explosive suddenly jerked to a stop, caught in her reflexive telekinesis. Phew. Okay. Close one. Now that she had a bomb of her very own, a wicked grin split across her face.

 

“Catch!” Her mental grip twisted the rocket around in midair and let it fly. Returning to sender, a loud boom echoed over the planet as the mechanical monstrosity shuddered under the blast.

 

Frazie dusted her hands off, watching the creature wobble on its claws. She was getting better at this.

 

But Chloe’s guardian wouldn’t go down that easily.

 

One of its metal tentacles reached up to wipe the ash from its face, its eye pulsing brighter and its electronic voice rising up again. “INTRUDER POSSESSES UNFORESEEN TENACITY. INITIATING PHASE TWO: DIVIDE AND CONQUER.”

 

The behemoth straightened up, stock still... and then, as if photocopied on the spot, a clone of it stepped out of the first. A second joined it, leaving Frazie’s jaw hanging before three very big, very deadly robots.

 

“That’s not fair!” It was three against one now, and from the way their eyes were glowing bright with lethal intensity again, they didn’t care one bit.

 

Three lasers pierced the sky, forcing her behind her shield. The combined heat was unbearably intense, even from the safety of her barrier. Grunting from the strain, she stepped far enough out to safely drop her cover and book it as the beams chased after.

 

Running backwards, Frazie let Psi Blasts fly again, firing wildly at the multiplied mechs. Though each shot struck true, only one robot seemed to actually react to her attacks... but before she could focus on it, they shifted places, scuttling in a brisk circle that left her unsure which one was the main machine.

 

She needed a moment to process this, and since they weren’t going to give her one, she’d do it herself. Willing herself to disappear, she faded away into the safety of invisibility and stepped away right as the lasers converged where she’d been standing.

 

The bots promptly cut their attacks, staring intently at the empty circle of soot they’d left on the surface. Sharing a glance amongst themselves, they silently split up, the air filled with the clank and whirr of diligent defenders who knew the intruder was still there somewhere.

 

Quietly, Frazie jumped atop a rocky outcropping, keeping herself as inconspicuous as possible as she studied her opponent(s). They patrolled quickly, thoroughly, covering great amounts of distance in little time. One struck out randomly, swirling around in a tornado of titanium tentacles in hopes of catching her hiding. Another peeled a rock off the surface and scanned under it, literally leaving no stone unturned in its search.

 

And all the while, Frazie had absolutely no way of telling which one was the real one.

 

They could all hurt her, but she could only hurt one of them - and it was impossible to tell which one at a glance. They were visually identical. There had to be a way, and she had to figure it out quickly, because her invisibility was wearing off quicker and quicker. As soon as it was down, they’d be on her relentlessly. Think, Frazie, think...

 

...Thinking. Hey, now there was an idea. They weren’t organic creatures, but did they think? Anything was possible in these bizarre mental worlds. Shutting her eyes, Frazie reached out with her mind, trying to detect any brain waves she could latch onto.

 

A second later, only one pulsed faintly back at her. Bingo.

 

Reaching out with Clairvoyance, Frazie synced her vision up with the target. Its sight became hers, and she found her vision rapidly scanning over the ground a fair distance from her.

 

She could only look through one of their eyes. That one had to be the real one, and that one was currently the robot farthest away.

 

She froze up as her stolen vision suddenly jerked her way, but to her relief, it saw nothing before searching elsewhere. With her target in mind and her cloak fading, she knew she had to act fast. Moving quickly, she jumped off her perch and raced across the globe, ignoring the two clones entirely and honing in on the original.

 

“Raaaah!” She cried out as she leapt up, phasing back into existence. Landing on the robot’s back, she pushed herself up the rest of the way while the bot buzzed quizzically below her. Quickly processing what was happening, it whipped an arm up overhead, lashing out at her.

 

She met its claw with her fist, her psychic projection knocking the attack off course before she brought her hand down on its core. Punching away, she struck again and again, pausing only when another arm jabbed at her. This one she dodged and grabbed onto, yanked up into the air as she clung for dear life.

 

The robot swung her to and fro, trying to shake her loose. By now, its doubles had noticed the commotion and crept forward to interfere. “Q-q-quit i-it!” she warbled, jerked around wildly above all three of them.

 

The bot did, in fact, quit it... but only so its brethren could try and pluck her off its arm. Loosening her grip, Frazie slid down the monster’s tentacle before they could catch her. They chased after, twin snakes of steel coiling through the air after her, snapping and snipping every time she swiveled around to make them miss.

 

Their arms had become a titanic tangle by the time Frazie reached the bottom. Dropping back down to the ground, Frazie looked up to see the three bots shaking hands in the worst of ways, their arms entwined. But that didn’t leave them helpless. Looking as annoyed as emotionless borgs could be, they focused their eyes on her and opened their missile silos.

 

This time, Frazie was ready... but she had to react quickly. Three times the rockets, much less room to screw up. Taking a deep breath, she faced down the hailstorm of steel and prepared herself.

 

She cartwheeled to the side, bouncing up and gliding through the air as missiles hit the ground behind her. Focusing, she fired psi blasts to knock explosives from the sky, always keeping the real robot in her mind. As soon as she landed, she hopped back on her orb and raced forward towards it.

 

The remaining projectiles pursued, looping downwards towards her as she led them back where they came from. Like the pied piper of pain, she popped her sphere right in front of the perplexed progenitor and gave it a cheeky wave farewell before leaping up into the sky.

 

All the remaining rockets honed in where she’d been, leaving the metallic heap defenseless as they all crashed into the original robot. It juddered with each explosion, panels popping off it, its eye buzzing and flickering wildly as each blow knocked more and more servos loose.

 

By the time the barrage was done, it was barely holding itself together. The leader of the protectors buzzed loudly and collapsed, leaving its clones staring blankly. Then, they let out a loud beep as they faded out into wireframes, then pixels, and finally, nothing.

 

Frazie touched down again, catching her breath. Her cybertronic combatant stayed still, smoking and lifeless. The tower stood undefended on the horizon, finally ready to be tinkered with.

 

It was finally time to get everything working as it should.

 

Taking one last look at the smoldering heap, Frazie left it behind before it decided to get up again.

 

Under the radio tower where she’d left it, the lever sat waiting, still stuck fast. She stepped up to it with a glare, like an eager circusgoer about to try their hand at a carnival game.

 

Now free to work at her leisure, Frazie rubbed her hands together, gripped the lever, and yanked.

 

Uff. The thing was stuck tight. It was like trying to pull a brick wall back into place. How long had Chloe’s telepathy been left at max? Likely ever since she first discovered her powers, if not from birth.

 

Giving up on physicality, Frazie switched to mentality and grabbed the lever in a telekinetic grip. Grunting with the strain, she leaned back, pulling hard.

 

It took a good bit of effort, telekinesis, and muttered curses, but at last, she finally felt the device give a bit. Careful not to outright break it off - she didn’t want to imagine what awful side effects that’d have - she pushed her advantage until the lever started to give.

 

Clunk.

 

For the first time in who-knows-how-long, the tower powered down. A low hum rose up and fell as all the energy from the area seemed to dissipate, the air feeling unusually empty without the faint tingling of static to fill it. For a moment, Frazie waited, unsure what to do next. Did she just turn it back on, like some sort of mental tech support?

 

And then, it started moving on its own.

 

The lever rattled a bit, then rose. It wavered back and forth, sometimes high, sometimes low, but it wasn’t getting stuck anymore. The energy in the atmosphere returned, and Chloe’s voice suddenly echoed in her mind.

 

“Frazie?! I couldn’t pick up your signal for a second... did something happen?”

 

Mission accomplished. “Yeah,” Frazie admitted, “but it’d be easier if I explained it in person.”

 

Say no more. Frazie waited for the teleporter to take her, and before long, she was whisked away to give one final status report.

 

---

 

One debriefing from her cadet later, Chloe sat quiet in her captain’s chair, fingers steepled as she tried to process it all. “So, let me see if I’m processing this all correctly... you encountered hostiles, blew them sky high, and then messed with a tower that somehow connects to me?”

 

When Frazie had retold it, there’d been a lot more sound effects and hand gestures, but yeah, basically. She nodded. “Something like that.”

 

Chloe nodded back, but she didn’t seem all that enthusiastic. “I’m glad you’re alright, but... you didn’t find any signs of Cygnus A? At all? ...Maybe it’s an underground colony...?” she murmured to herself.

 

Frazie’s heart broke for her, but she wasn’t about to lie to the kid. She stepped closer, resting an arm around her. “I didn’t see anything... sorry. I have no idea what your home planet’s like, but I’m pretty sure this wasn’t it.”

 

Chloe went quiet. As much as Frazie had just helped her out, as far as the captain was concerned, this entire expedition had been a bust. Frazie rubbed her back sympathetically, but the young astronaut was clearly having a rough time processing everything as her gaze stuck to the floor.

 

Even if it was just the little Chloe inside the kid’s head, she wasn’t going to just leave her moping like this. “Hey...” Frazie murmured, “this whole journey might’ve been a dud, but I think your home planet’s still out there.” She turned the chair around and gestured out the window, where trillions and trillions of stars and planets just waited to be explored. “And one day, you’ll find it. I promise.”

 

The kid still didn’t look too sure. Frazie finally let her go and leaned past her, fingers hovering over her keyboard. “Uhhhh... quick, how do you bring up that last planet we visited?”

 

Even in her fugue, Chloe knew that letting Frazie anywhere near her database was probably a terrible idea. Gently, she pushed the older girl’s hands away and typed in her stead. A moment later, all the details for the previous planet sprung back up... the one where the Matron and her children lived.

 

“Yeah, that one!” Frazie recognized the temple gleaming atop its otherwise empty expanse. “It might not be exactly what you were looking for, but... there’s at least one talkative alien there amongst the rest.”

 

That got Chloe’s attention. The kid jerked forward in her seat, eyes wide. “There is?!”

 

“There is. And she’s real lovely. She told me if you ever wanted to stop by, feel free, sooooo...” Frazie gestured to the planet’s hologram. “Have at it. I think it’ll be a nice place for you to prepare for your next adventure. But hey...”

 

Frazie bent down to Chloe’s level, addressing her fellow camper directly. “I know the other guys on the planet might not be what you were hoping for, but... I’d suggest you give them a shot. They might not be rocket scientists, but they’re really friendly. I think you might be able to find some new crewmates if you give them a chance.” Maybe some new friends as well.

 

Chloe considered her proposition, thinking. “I wouldn’t trust those things anywhere near my advanced geomatrix cosmap,” she muttered. “...But maybe I could teach one to be a janitor or something.”

 

Frazie chuckled. It was a start. “Whatever the case, head there. The Matron will treat you right, and the others will too.” She paused, then left Chloe with one final bit of wisdom. “Don’t forget... no matter how big and empty space can seem, you’re not alone in it.”

 

At last, Chloe seemed to perk up a bit, smiling behind her helmet. “Maybe so, cadet. Maybe so. Now then...”

 

The tiny space explorer typed into her console again, the ship’s engines revving back to life. “The coordinates are already in, so I guess we might as well check it out once more. Buckle in, everybody!”

 

Frazie stepped back, watching the captain get to work with enthusiasm again, her crew of robots hopping to action. Satisfied with all she’d accomplished, she reached for her smelling salts, held them up, and popped them open.

 

“...Blegh...!”

 

---

 

One very jarring inhale later, the cosmos swirled together into nothingness before her eyes. One second, she was aboard Chloe’s ship, and the next, she was back on the rock with her, the two of them overlooking the camp from up above.

 

The psy portal popped loose, falling out of Chloe’s helmet, and Frazie dived down to catch it. Chloe finally stirred again, blinking in confusion as she looked all around. Confusion quickly found itself replaced by fear.

 

“I... I can’t hear the aliens anymore,” she murmured quietly.

 

Knowing she had to handle this as gingerly as possible, Frazie knelt down, looking the camper in the eye. “I’m sorry, Chloe, but... you were never listening to aliens. Just people. Your telepathy was in overdrive, but not that much.” She tapped her forehead. “I just let you turn it off. You should still be able to hear them if you try. But... they’re not what you’re looking for.”

 

Chloe seemed to zone out slightly as she focused... and then she nodded with a sigh, seeming relieved to still be able to hear her precious aliens. But... they weren’t aliens. She knew that now. “I... always did think it was weird they were always talking about earth food, or how bad traffic was. But it was always so hard to make out, so garbled, I thought for sure it must be coming from...”

 

Chloe never showed much emotion, but for once, Frazie could swear she heard a slight choke in her voice. She’d probably be upset, too, if her main drive in life ended up being a lie.

 

The kid’s eyes dropped to her little paper spaceship, still faintly clutched between her fingers. Finally, she pulled it back and let it fly with a frustrated sound, the little vehicle promptly making a nosedive down towards the ground.

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa...” Before it could crash into a little white wreck, Frazie snagged it with telekinesis, lifting the toy back up to deposit it in Chloe’s hands. She rested a hand over it, keeping the child from throwing it away again. “Come on, don’t be like that.”

 

Frazie’s eyes drifted up to the sky as she thought, the sun marking past noon now... and beyond it, just waiting for night to fall, was an entire field of stars still waiting to be explored. “Hey... sure, you might not have been hearing anything from space, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anyone out there eager to meet you.” She waved a hand out over the sky. “Just think about it a sec... countless stars and planets to explore. There’s gotta be something out there, right? And I’d bet there’s something out there just waiting for you to explore and stumble upon them. Don’t you want to be the one to find them first?”

 

Chloe followed her gesture, eyes locked firmly up above. She seemed conflicted... but the more she thought, the more her eyes lit up with the limitless potential of the cosmos. “You’re right!” Sure, she knew now her ‘aliens’ had just been her own out of control telepathy... but that didn’t mean there weren’t real aliens out there.

 

Relieved, Frazie patted her, gently rolling her head around a bit under her helmet. “See? You get it. And while there may or may not be aliens out there, I definitely think there’s a Cygnus A for you somewhere.” Chloe turned to look at her, and Frazie gave her a smile. “In the meantime... why not hang out with us earthlings a little bit more? It can’t hurt to make some connections you know for sure are real.”

 

Chloe nodded solemnly, her gaze dropping again. “I am... unsure. But you may have a point.” Her eyes flicked back up. “At the very least, I owe you one for getting my powers under control.”

 

Frazie chuckled sheepishly. “Well... I don’t want to be too pushy after, you know, completely shattering your worldview.” She tilted her head off towards Oblongata. “But if you feel up to it, we do still need help with Bobby.”

 

“I think I can handle it. Besides...” Chloe gave her a small grin. “I should work on connecting with more earth monkeys, correct?”

 

Earth monkeys? Frazie raised a finger, then changed her mind and dropped it. “Yeah, something like that. Ready to go?”

 

Chloe nodded, but stuck out a hand. “Hold on one moment. As thanks for helping me with my little problem... I’d like to mark you as my honorary space cadet with this.”

 

She reached into her pocket, fishing out a stark pink patch. Two wide eyes were emblazoned on it, staring deeply into Frazie’s soul... or her mind. The Clairvoyance patch, hers for the taking.

 

So she did. Nodding appreciatively, she took it and pinned it with the rest, an almost complete diamond of felt on her shawl now. “Thanks! You know, you kids are awfully generous with these things.”

 

Chloe shrugged. “Badges are temporary. Adjusting my powers is forever. Plus, if we want, we can just tell Sasha we lost ours and get a new one.”

 

That made sense. At least it did Frazie’s heart good to know she wasn’t robbing these kids of their trophies. “Well, I appreciate it. I’m starting to feel like I actually know what I’m doing with all these badges...”

 

Smirking, Chloe motioned for her to follow and set her plane down for later. If it’d been a normal kid, Frazie’s heart would’ve stopped when Chloe suddenly jumped off the rock, but she just inflated a thought balloon and floated down safely. “Now then... onwards, cadet!”

 

One ride down to the ground later, the two girls were step in step, making their way back to the tunnel that’d take them to the beach.

 

Frazie couldn’t help but notice Chloe was still distracted, though. The kid’s eyes were on the sky as they walked, no doubt thinking of what might or might not lie beyond it. Frazie stopped them to kneel down and point to her back. “Want a closer look, captain?”

 

Drawn out of her thoughts, Chloe took the invitation, climbing up on Frazie’s shoulders. There, she could contemplate all she wanted along the way... and it’d keep her from stumbling into any trees. That was a plus.

 

“Thank you, earthling,” she said as she held onto Frazie’s head. Chloe paused before correcting herself. “Frazie.”

 

Smiling to herself, Frazie held Chloe steady, guiding the two off towards the lake where Lili and a certain couple bullies awaited.

 

---

 

Gotta put just a bit of the post-chapter analysis in the actual fic because it's too long for the end notes, lmao. Anywho, if I don't manage to get another chapter out in a week or so, happy holidays! The day is waning on, and the asylum draws ever closer.

 

General Aesthetic: A lot like Maloof, Chloe’s world was designed to emit a sense of loneliness. Adrift in the vast void of space, the only living member of her crew, desperately seeking signs of intelligent life. The difference between them is that Maloof’s loneliness stemmed from feeling like an outcast, which warped into viewing people like tools or targets. Chloe, on the other hand, has a loneliness born from not having anyone who understands her, from not having anyone who could make her feel like she’s right at home.

 

 Every creature in Chloe’s head either can’t communicate with her or doesn’t draw her interest, emphasizing just how much she feels like she has nowhere she belongs. Everyone’s either boring, annoying, or doesn’t understand her passions, and above all else she really just wants to find a place she can call her own.

When Frazie finally finished piggybacking Chloe to the beach, Lili was right there waiting for them as promised... and she did not look happy.

 

“There you are!” The girl marched up to them, her hands on her hips. “I already had to fish Nils and J.T. out of the lake while I waited for you! I put them with the others.”

 

Crap, Frazie thought. How many was that now? At least five kids, with yet more unaccounted for. It might not sound like much when there were twenty kids total, but who knew how many were currently missing, and how many more were on their way back? They were disappearing and popping back up frighteningly fast.

 

Frazie knelt down to let Chloe hop off, a grimace on her face as she met Lili eye to eye. “It’s getting that bad already?”

 

“Mmhmm.”

 

“What are you two talking about?” Chloe asked from the side.

 

“Oh, uh, nothing,” Frazie assured her, not wanting to scare her with the debraining pandemic going on behind the scenes. “Buuuut... if you happen to see any giant, monstrous lake creature things, stay away from them, alright?”

 

“That sounds more like common sense than a necessary warning.”

 

Frazie couldn’t really argue with that. “You’re not wrong, but... be careful anyway, okay?”

 

“Roger.”

 

With that, it was time to get back to business before they had even more brainless bodies on their hands. Frazie had brought Chloe here for a reason, after all. She turned back to Lili. “I take it Blahby and his yes man haven’t budged?”

 

In response, Lili pointed off across the water towards the two tiny terrors still lingering on the docks, now tormenting a poor little trout they’d tossed onto the planks.

 

Their disturbing display of aquatic animal abuse aside, it was relieving to see they hadn’t been nabbed yet - even if it’d have made getting to the bathysphere easier. Now they just needed to fill Chloe in.

 

“Here’s the plan,” Frazie began, ready to cash in that favor. “See that big sphere behind Bobby? We need to use it, but the little snot broke off a piece of it. He won’t listen to us... but he might listen to you. Think you can convince him to undo the damage and then get him out of here before he makes everything worse?”

 

Chloe tutted, her helmet swaying as she shook her head. “Oh, Bobby. Earthling stubbornness is so obnoxious. If you think my communicating with him might help, I’ll give it my best shot.”

 

Lili gave the girl a friendly nudge. “I always knew you were one of the good ones, Chloe. Let’s go, we’re burning daylight!”

 

“Right. The solar orbit stops for no one.” Chloe took the lead, marching boldly towards the far docks. “Onwards!”

 

The three set off through the boat shack and across the pier, the caw of seagulls ushering them towards where the bullies awaited. When they approached, the two boys looked up from their finny victim. “Eh? You dorkazoids are back already?” Bobby snorted. “I thought I told you the bathysphere’s busted! And I’m gonna break you next if you don’t-“ He cut off when his eyes finally fell on a certain astronaut. In an instant, he deflated. “I-if... if you don’t... um... h-hey, Chloe. W-what are you doing here?”

 

“Hmmmm...” She tapped her helmet in thought, swiftly calculating an excuse for her sudden interest in the diving ball. “I thought it might be fruitful to scan the lake bottom for signs of crashed spaceships and seafaring alien lifeforms. But I’ve been informed the bathysphere’s malfunctioning?”

 

Taking the chance while Bobby was distracted, Frazie discreetly nudged the poor fish back into the water with the side of her foot. “Yeah - sounds like she was reeeally looking forward to it, but we told her it was a no go.” She hummed. “How did you put it again? ‘You’ll never get that piece of junk to work without this doodad I took-‘”

 

“-Mmph!” Frazie’s lips suddenly snapped shut of their own accord - or Bobby’s, anyway, as his telekinesis held her mouth closed.

 

While she tugged and pulled at her face, Bobby chuckled nervously, wringing his hands. “W-what can I say, accidents happen! That stupid sphere’s so old, the thing was practically falling apart anyway. It didn’t stand a chance against the Zilch’s muscles!”

 

He flexed his scrawny arm for emphasis, netting a blank stare from Chloe. “I see,” she replied flatly. “That’s a shame. I suppose I have no reason to stick around, then...”

 

“W-wait, wait, wait!” Bobby threw a hand out to stop her, fishing the broken lever out of his pocket. “I’m really handy, you know! I can have it fixed in no time! Y-you’d like that, right?”

 

“You are?” Benny wondered aloud. “I thought you were better at breaking things than-“

 

He found his lips zipped, too, and Bobby’s sharp glare in his face. “SHUT. IT.”

 

Chloe quickly stepped in before anyone else ended up tongue tied. “I would very much appreciate it, yes.”

 

Bobby turned on a dime and ran down the pier, motioning for them all to follow. “Then what’re we waiting for?! Come on, slowpokes!”

 

Frazie and Lili shared a look. The world wasn’t ready for a Bobby this eager to help someone... but at least it was them he was helping. It was still Bobby, though. “Leeeeet’s make sure he doesn’t break anything else,” Lili pointed out.

 

“Good plan.”

 

“Agreed,” Chloe chimed in.

 

By the time the three girls (and Benny) caught up with Bobby, he was already inside the bathysphere, trying to roughly reattach the rod by sheer force. “Come on, you stupid thing! If you had a butt, I’d kick it!”

 

With a roll of her eyes, Lili stepped inside with him. “Cut it out, dummy. Just hold the lever still while I weld it back in place.”

 

Bobby relented, steadying the shaft in place while Lili readied her hottest thoughts. Fingers to her temples, she directed her pyrokinesis outwards...

 

“GAH! You burned my pinkie!” he howled.

 

“Oops. I must’ve missed.”

 

Bobby looked like he had some far harsher things to say, but one glance at Chloe made him shut his trap and grumble to himself. Sneering to herself, Lili got to work properly. Like a mental blowtorch, she made the metal glow red hot with psychic heat, filling the sphere with the acrid stench of burning steel.

 

It was a sloppy operation, but before long, the jagged bits melded together solidly. After it cooled, Bobby jiggled the lever a bit, pleased to see it was functioning again. “Haw! Told you I was handy. What do you think of that, Chloe?”

 

“Hmmm.” The other camper peeked at their handiwork. “Passable.”

 

Bobby sighed dreamily. “She thinks I’m passable~...”

 

Then, remembering why he’d bothered helping these dweebs in the first place, he jolted upright. “Oh yeah, you wanted to use this thing! H-heh, lemme just uh, scootch over and we can r-ride together...?”

 

Chloe glanced back and forth between Frazie and Lili, remembering the next part of their plan. She shook her head. “I have changed my mind. I’ve decided I’d rather go for a walk. Somewhere far, far away from this particular location.”

 

“Oh...” The bully instantly deflated.

 

At least, until Chloe spoke again. “You may come with.”

 

“Heck yeah!” Shoving his way past the other girls, he followed her after she turned to leave. “L-let’s go!”

 

The two departed, leaving a certain purple lackey behind. Benny fidgeted in place a moment, then ran off after them. “Wait! I can come along too, right? Bobby! BOBBY!”

 

“And remember! No giant lake creatures!” Frazie shouted after Chloe. It was more a wish than a warning at this point, though. Whatever was making off with the campers was really good at staying out of sight... almost as if it already knew the layout of the camp, the best routes to take to stay hidden.

 

Frazie promptly shelved that chilling thought and held out a hand for Lili to high five. Mission accomplished! At last, it was just the two of them again... and one properly functioning bathysphere, ready to go.

 

It took about three seconds for the glow of victory to vanish, replaced with a nervous gnawing in Frazie’s gut as she remembered exactly where the bathysphere was designed to take them.

 

Frazie swallowed loudly, feeling a faint sweat on her brow. Ah, right. She’d forgotten that she’d have to throw away all sense of preservation and head underwater if they wanted to find any clues. And she couldn’t put it off any longer - Lili was already inside, fiddling with the controls. “Come on!” her friend called. “It’s all ready.”

 

Every nerve in her body screamed at her to run, to charge back to shore and dive headfirst onto the sand, but she ignored her instincts long enough to shakily duck down and climb inside the structure. The very old, rusty, likely dangerous structure. “That’s, uh... that’s great.”

 

“Do you wanna pilot it?”

 

“NO.” Frazie cleared her throat. “I-I mean... nah, you can do it. You know how it works, right?”

 

Lili quirked her brow. “...Ooooookay,” she murmured, giving her the side eye. “It’s really not that hard, though. All you need to do is lower it, and then you can use telekinesis to propel yourself through the water. It’s a bit harder than the canoes, but not much different. Sure you don’t want to?”

 

Frazie closed the machine’s hatch tightly. Very, veeery tightly. And triple checked that it was locked, secure, and still. “Noooo, no, you do it, I insist.”

 

With a shrug, Lili pulled the lever, making the whole thing lurch and groan. Frazie screamed, pressing back against the wall... then screamed again as the bathysphere suddenly plunged, its heavy frame crashing, splashing, and slowly sinking down beneath the surface.

 

Their view of the afternoon sun was swallowed up by murky water, bubbles rolling over the porthole during their descent. Frazie breathed hard and fast, eyes shut tight - then she squeaked again when they jerked to a stop, Lili’s telekinesis keeping them from colliding with the lake’s floor.

 

Held afloat under the waves, with not a single sound around them but Frazie’s hyperventilating, there wasn’t anything to focus on but the endless expanse of lethal liquid around them.

 

It was impossible to ignore Frazie’s gradually intensifying panic attack, either. By her side, Lili stared at her, concerned. “Uhhhh... you can relax now. Everything’s alright. I know it doesn’t look like it, but the bathysphere’s pretty sturdy.”

 

Fat chance of her calming down. Frazie’s nails dug into her palms as she struggled to nod. Lili put a hand on her arm, her voice concerned. “What’s gotten into you?

 

“The curse!” Frazie hissed through her teeth. “The one I mentioned before! If I get submerged, I’m a goner. It’s kinda hard to relax when water itself wants to kill me and oh look what we just dived into!”

 

Lili squinted at her. “Uhhhh... you do know curses and all that junk aren’t real, right?

 

If it wasn’t real, then why was there a pair of hands floating just beyond the window, stubby fingers pressed against the glass? There was two of them now! Frazie leaned back even further, pointing a shaky finger at the ghostly limbs just ahead. “T-then explain that!”

 

Lili glanced out the window. “That’s water. Dirty, gross water.”

 

“The hands!”

 

“Frazie!” Lili grabbed her, even her strong grip unable to steady her. “There. Is nothing. There.”

 

Maybe not for Lili, but Frazie could see the Hand(s) of Galochio clear as day... and it was just waiting for the slightest mistake, an errant bump against a stray rock, so it could flood the chamber and finally claim another Aquato.

 

“Frazie...” Her friend scowled at her, but the longer she looked her way, the more her eyes softened. She finally turned her head, sighing. “I still don’t think magic and curses are real... but your fear is real, and I don’t like seeing you like this. I’m sorry... I just thought you couldn’t swim or something, this is way beyond that.” After a moment’s thought, she grabbed the controls again. “Hold on, I’m taking us back up.”

 

By all accounts, Frazie should’ve breathed a sigh of relief. But instead...

 

“No!” Frazie shouted, surprising herself. “We’re... we’re already down here, okay? Two pairs of eyes are better than one. I can handle it.” Or at least, she hoped so.

 

Equally surprised, Lili stared blankly at her closed lids. “I don’t think it counts when your pair of eyes is shut.”

 

Frazie finally peeped her eyes open just a teeny bit, forcing the most lopsided grin in history. “See? Fine.” Oh, she was a filthy liar. But for the sake of the camp, for finding out just what the heck was going on... she’d endure. Plus, with a lake-dwelling threat about, she knew she’d have to contend with the water sooner or later. Best get it over with.

 

Lili didn’t look sure at all. But, finally, she took her hands off the controls and started to gently propel them forward with her mind. “You’re clearly not fine... but you’re pretty brave. I’m still going slowly, though. And if you start screaming again, I’m resurfacing, got it?”

 

Fair enough. Frazie knew she’d be more of a hindrance than a help if she started banging on the walls demanding to be let out. For now, she focused on trying to calm down as Lili steered them gently through the deep.

 

It took time, but Frazie finally managed to slow her breathing and quell her shivers. The ride itself wasn’t so bad... but the pair of hands constantly leering through the window kept her from fully relaxing. She watched them more than she did the lake bottom.

 

“Do you, ah... do you see anything that might relate to that tower?” Frazie finally asked, still eying the hands warily. “Or the lake creature?”

 

Lili shook her head. “Not yet. This lake is humongous, though, and we’re only covering a small bit of it. I’m not seeing any clues down here, and if we wanted to go up and check every landmass we come across, we could be out here for hours.”

 

Somehow, the idea of being in this tiny claustrophobic death sphere for a long time wasn’t the most appealing idea. Plus, the longer they were down here, the higher the odds of whatever lurked in the water finding them. The one upside to these miles and miles of water was that if the creature was around right now, there was too much area for it to just stumble on them.

 

Yet.

 

The search continued. Every wayward shift or groan of the bathysphere made Frazie jump and suck in a breath. But despite the pounding of her heart, she did her best to scour the lakebed with Lili.

 

And what they found was... surprising, to say the least.

 

It started normally enough - fish (duh), big clams, crayfish, your typical lake fare. The girls weren’t entirely sure what they were looking for - giant markings, an aquatic lair, a hidden underwater evil base perhaps? - but they found none of the above.

 

What did they find after heading a bit further in?

 

Destruction.

 

For a moment, Frazie’s fear was replaced with awe as they stumbled on wreckage as far as the eye could see. Sunken ships, their worn masts pointed towards the sky. Old buildings, their wood soaked and long rotted from decades of neglect. Splinters and debris littered forsaken roads - and lots of crates of nails for some reason. Amidst all the mess, a sign bobbed gently from its lone remaining chain, giving a name to it all.

 

Shaky Claim.

 

Judging from Lili’s face, she had no idea where all of this came from either. “Look at all this stuff... it’s like Atlantis. Only falling apart and made out of junk. Craplantis.”

 

Frazie dared to lean in for a closer look. “You don’t think whatever’s in the lake had something to do with this, do you?”

 

“Not unless it built an entire city just to demolish it,” Lili replied with a shake of her head. “This stuff must’ve been here for ages. Something this big right next to camp this whole time, and I never knew! Unbelievable!”

 

“...Why do you sound annoyed?”

 

“Because the most interesting thing about camp’s been under my nose this whole time!”

 

Frazie wasn’t sure under what circumstances it was alright to find a long ruined city and think ‘boy, I wish I’d stumbled on this sooner’, but now wasn’t the time to question her friend’s thought process. Instead, she squinted, trying to spot anything that might help them prove their case amidst the wreckage. “What’s that building say? Is that a nail factor-“

 

Galochio rudely reminded her of its existence by slamming its palms against the window, making Frazie yelp. “What is it?! Are you alright?” Lili questioned.

 

“I’m fine... I’m fine... I’m fine...”

 

“You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself more than me.”

 

“Yes, I freaking am!”

 

Galochio knocked again, and Frazie felt her shakes coming back as she shut her eyes and tried to drown it out. But Lili had already seen enough.

 

The bathysphere slowly swiveled around. “Allllright, that’s enough searching. Whatever that thing is, it’s sneaky. There’s some strange stuff down here, but not anything worthwhile enough for us to stay any longer. Let’s go back.”

 

Thank god. Not the lack of evidence part, that sucked. Frazie definitely wasn’t moping about it when Lili took the controls and guided them back up to the surface, though.

 

But now, they had even more questions, and even fewer answers.

 

---

 

One agonizingly long drive later, the bathysphere finally popped back up where they’d first arrived.

 

The exact instant they breached the surface, Frazie was already fumbling with the latch, tumbling over herself to get the hell out of there. She didn’t care one bit when she tripped in her rush to escape.

 

Frazie fell to her knees on the planks, sucking in great, heaving gasps of air. She’d be tempted to kiss the docks if it wouldn’t taste like fish and splinters. “Ooooogh... that was the worst hour of my life.”

 

“Children?”

 

A familiar, concerned voice made her jerk her head up. Not far from the dock, Milla levitated over the water itself, floating on air like some sort of disco goddess.

 

She hovered closer, offering Frazie a gloved hand up while Lili climbed out of the bathysphere to join them. “Oh, children, you really shouldn’t be going underwater without adult supervision!”

 

Frazie shook her head vigorously. “Don’t worry... pfah... I’m not going down there again anytime soon.” Though now that she was feeling more like herself again, a question came to mind. “...Why are you here, anyway?”

 

“Oh!” Milla fanned a hand out over the water. “I was just going to levitate across the lake and check on Oleander. He still hasn’t found the kids and hasn’t responded in awhile... he might need a little help. Morry always did have a little trouble with admitting when he needs assistance.”

 

Frazie felt her spirits soar. Finally, one of the adults around here was actually doing something. Milla and Sasha definitely cared about the campers, but their faith in the camp’s normalcy had been aggravating to no end.

 

In that vein, Frazie wasn’t going to keep her busy any longer than necessary. “That’s great! I mean, uh, it’s great you’re helping him out. Don’t let us stop you, we’re not going back underwater.” For a while. Hopefully, a loooong while.

 

Pleased to hear it, Milla smiled softly. “Thank you, darlings. I shouldn’t be long... if you need anything in the meantime, just check with Sasha, okay? Be good.”

 

“No promises,” Lili hummed.

 

“Oh, you. ...But no, seriously, dear.”

 

“We’ll be fine,” Frazie assured her. “Promise.” To her relief, Milla seemed satisfied, turning around in midair to face out across the lake.

 

Milla floated away, waving farewell. “Tsau, children! We should all hopefully be back before dinner.”

 

Dinner. After all they’d done today, that was only a couple hours away. Frazie had been busy, hopping through minds and trying to solve the mysteries of the missing campers. Only now that Milla mentioned food did Frazie realize she hadn’t eaten all day.

 

She held her stomach, the gnawing starting to become apparent after all this running around. It was honestly probably a good thing she hadn’t eaten, or else that ride underwater could’ve been a lot messier. But now that she was aware of it, she was starving.

 

Even Lili could tell, eying her arms. “Hungry?”

 

“Surprisingly, after all that.” Frazie shot a glance at the bathysphere, quickly looking away again.

 

“We’ve definitely earned a break. You in particular.” Lili rubbed the back of her head, looking ashamed. “Sorry again. If I’d known just how it’d affect you, I would’ve gone down by myself. And we didn’t even find anything about the lake monster...”

 

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Frazie insisted, putting a hand on her shoulder. “At least the bathysphere’s fixed if we need it. And I really, reeeeally hope we won’t.” But that was a fool’s hope.

 

Lili didn’t look any less guilty, but she nodded. “Well, it’s still really cool you faced your fears. Or, uh... tolerated them, I guess. To the mess hall?”

 

“Please.”

 

Nodding, Lili pulled away and ran down the pier, the planks clunking underfoot. “And while we’re there, we can check on the brainless kids!”

 

“Right. We can...” Frazie’s words died on her lips. That was right. A bunch of brainless kids they could’ve shown to the counselors this whole time, and a mind stealing threat on the loose they should probably tell Milla about.

 

Milla, who’d already left.

 

“WAIT!” Frazie hollered across the water, but it was no use. Milla didn’t hear her nor stop, her speck on the horizon floating further and further away. Desperate, Frazie tried to reach out to her mind, but she was already out of range of her telepathy too.

 

Damn it. If Chloe was still around, she could’ve had the gifted child contact her with her enhanced telepathy. It was too late now. She just had to have faith in Milla’s expertise - she was a veteran Psychonaut, surely she could handle herself. At least, that’s what Frazie told herself.

 

She smacked her forehead. Forgetting to show the counselors all the children... at least she could comfort herself with the thought they’d try to explain it away. She’d been on the move so much, it’d slipped her mind. She really needed a breather to think and eat.

 

Frazie turned to go, still eying Milla as she walked away. Wishing her good luck, she finally jogged off to catch up with Lili.

 

---

 

The main area of the camp, normally abuzz with the sounds of playing children, now stood eerily quiet with little more than the distant tweet of birds giving any signs of life. With the sun drifting lower in the sky, kids should’ve been gathering around the lodge for supper, but only a couple lingered around.

 

A blond girl stomped across the path, cupping her mouth. “CHOPS! Get out here! I know you’re hiding Nils from me!” She clapped a hand over her lips. “I mean J.T.!”

 

Frazie grimaced, fully aware both of them were drooling in the TV room right now. Proooobably shouldn’t tell her that. Aside from her, though, she couldn’t see anyone but Ford raking away.

 

Putting her hands around her mouth while she walked with Lili, Frazie shouted out as well. “Chloe? Phoebe?” Frazie called, to pure silence. “Clem? Crystal? ...Dogen?”

 

The little green boy suddenly popped his head out from a nearby bush. “Hi.”

 

Startled, yet relieved, Frazie pressed a hand to her chest. “Well... that’s one.” But it didn’t bode well for the remaining four, or any of the other missing campers.

 

It wasn’t any better inside the lodge. Normally abuzz with wild chatter or the pleasant lull of the Firestarter’s/Levitator’s tunes, they entered into dead silence.

 

At least Ford was still here. Frazie didn’t even mind that she’d literally just seen him outside. With the camp so empty now, it was relieving to see a familiar face.

 

But was he still deep in character?

 

While Lili grabbed them trays, Frazie leaned over the counter. “Psssst... Ford, are you still acting weird?”

 

“I dunno, do you still not know how to address your elders?”

 

That was a yes. She sighed. “Never mind. Any chance you could spare another Dream Fluff?” It sure would be handy to have another one of those if she ended up dogpiled by an entire zoo again.

 

“I can spare one if you got fifty arrowheads on hand, missy.”

 

Even without checking her pockets, Frazie knew she didn’t have that. She’d been a bit too busy fighting for her life and getting to the bottom of things to go around picking little purple triangles off the ground. “Come oooon,” she pleaded. “We’re on the same team! Can’t you give me a discount?”

 

Ford’s empty eyes filled with confusion briefly, before he pointed his spatula at her. “I dunno what you’re on about, but the only thing I can give you for free is home cookin’ Or a whoopin’, if you keep trying to haggle.”

 

Frazie held her hands up. “Alright, alright, sheesh.” She had no idea what’d gotten into him, but it was clear she wasn’t getting a sweet treat or a second chance. Lili walked over with the trays, and Frazie held one out to him. “Load her up.”

 

“You’re lucky I got plenty of lunch leftovers,” Ford muttered, grabbing a bag of buns. “Barely anyone showed up today. You kids had better stop stuffing yourselves with marshmallows.”

 

Reheated hot dogs and macaroni. Milk and green beans. Frazie was practically salivating as the two girls claimed one of the many empty tables. “Ugggggh, I needed this,” Frazie groaned, biting into one of her buns. A little too soon. “GAH! Hot!”

 

Lili snickered, and Frazie shot her a look. Mild tongue burning aside, it was exactly what she needed. She had to get her energy back after all she’d done today already, and if things kept up, she was going to need some more.

 

The two girls discussed their plans while they ate. “What do we do next?” Lili asked. “Do we just let Milla handle it?”

 

Frazie could tell from her hesitant tone that Lili was hoping they wouldn’t let their counselor keep all the excitement to herself. “I don’t know,” Frazie admitted. Her eyes drifted towards the stairs that led up to all the brainless children. “At the least, we might not have filled her in, but I think I’ll show Sasha the kids after this. Maybe he can reach out to her?”

 

“Good plan.” Lili stirred her fork through her noodles, humming with thought. “Still... we’ve been out and about all day, and all we’ve learned is there’s something in the lake. But what? And what was with that underwater town? The tower in our dreams? Nothing’s adding up. We can’t do much if we don’t even know where to go and what to prepare for.”

 

It was true. They had the bathysphere now, they could reach wherever the kids were being taken... but where was it? What was it? What were they even facing? Frazie sipped from her carton, unable to answer any of it. “Sasha helped me look into my dream earlier, but we ran into some... problems. He said to come back when I’d trained a little. Maybe I’m ready now?”

 

“Maybe.” Lili shrugged... but before they could say any more, a new, monotone voice spoke up.

 

“I thought I heard someone out here. Want to come join storytime?”

 

Both girls looked up towards the TV room, spotting a boy peering around the door frame. His black hair poked out from under a flat hat, his eyes locked on them.

 

Before Frazie could respond, Lili did for her, rather abruptly. “No thanks, Vernon. We’re trying to have a discussion here.”

 

“Yeah,” Frazie agreed. “We’re trying to figure some things out.”

 

“Oh?” Without their permission, he started heading downstairs to join them. “Maybe I can help. I’ll let my audience have a break to get some snacks.”

 

Frazie was pretty sure his captive audience wasn’t going anywhere. Lili groaned, though, and Frazie wondered just why she had an issue with this kid. Vernon didn’t seem to notice, sitting across from them and folding his hands. “Proceed.”

 

Confused, Frazie shrugged him off, focusing on Lili. “Anyway... I’ll go see Sasha, but I’m not sure how much it’ll help. If only we had more to go on. We still don’t fully know what the dream means, and I don’t know if I can make it through Sasha’s hair tumbler yet. We know there’s some sort of thorny tower...”

 

“A thorny tower?” Vernon interjected. “Ohhhhh... I think I know exactly what you ladies are pondering about.”

 

That got Frazie’s attention. “You do?! Tell us!”

 

“Frazie...!” Lili rolled her eyes, her face simply oozing ‘oh boy, here we go’.

 

“What?”

 

Vernon motioned for them to settle down. “Relax a bit and let me give you all the answers you seek. You see, I’ve thoroughly studied all the camp lore just in case I ever had to retell it. I might not see the future, but no one can say I don’t plan for it.”

 

Frazie was skeptical, but if it might give them some answers, she’d give it a shot.“Alright, cool. So what is that tower?”

 

Vernon stood up on his bench, arms waving as he talked. “Seventy five years old, with bricks older than all of us combined, and probably falling apart from years and years of mildew and decay. Infested with rats and long forgotten by everyone... I shudder to think of what it would be like to explore it today. There’s probably ghosts and stuff. Though it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve dealt with ghosts, so I could probably handle it better than other people would.”

 

Frazie blinked. “That’s, uh... that’s neat. But what does it mean exactly? Are you saying the tower is real? Or is it some kind of mental metaphor?” she asked.

 

“Ah, when you walk the path of the narrator, you come to see there’s a bit of metaphor in everything. The birds, the grass...”

 

Lili rolled her hand, motioning for Vernon to get on with it.

 

“Okay, okay. Let me start from the beginning. Over seven decades old. I said that, right? The introduction is the most important part to any story, and establishing the setting is vital. And the bricks... I mean, I’ve never seen them myself, but they have to be pretty old. That’s called inferring.”

 

Frazie was starting to get annoyed. She could see why Lili had been so dismissive. “Hrrrrg... look, how about you tell us WHERE is it? Is it near here? Past the lake?”

 

Vernon tapped his chin. “Mmmm... I saw it marked on a map. Of course, a map is a poor secondhand reference, truly nothing compared to seeing it yourself. That’s why I tried to climb up high and see if I could see from the mountaintop. But I didn’t realize until afterwards that there wasn’t a way back down, and I hadn’t worked on my Levitation yet. Figuring out how to get back to camp is another story entirely... I had to eat my sleeve to survive before I got the idea to start a signal fire.”

 

“...Your sleeve?” Frazie repeated. “How long were you stuck up there?”

 

“About two hours.”

 

...Wait a second. Frazie smacked her cheeks gently, realizing she’d started getting lulled off track as well. “Look! Can we get the abridged version?”

 

Lili put a hand on her arm, shaking her head. “Forget it. The only abridged version we’ll get is the one we build ourselves in the time it takes him to get to the point.”

 

Vernon furrowed his brow. “Not into non-fiction? That’s a shame. It’s a good thing you didn’t join us, then. I was telling everyone about my ancestors back during the Civil War. But no worries... I’m an accommodating storyteller. Maybe you’d rather hear about my dog instead? Everyone loves dogs.”

 

Not waiting for their response, he launched into a new story, just as boring, verbose, and off-topic as before. Lili nudged Frazie with her elbow. “Let’s get out of here,” she hissed.

 

Frazie pushed out a hand. “Wait.”

 

Lili look baffled. “You’re not really gonna wait for him to tell us what we want, are you? We’ll be here for days. We don’t have days! We might not even have hours!”

 

“There might be a way to get the cliffnotes,” Frazie whispered, Vernon still rambling in the background.

 

“How’s that?”

 

Frazie pulled out her Psy Portal, holding it before Lili’s eyes. “Ooooh,” her friend hummed. “...Are you really sure you want to go into his head? I don’t want to imagine how convoluted it is.”

 

“We’ve already used the portal to get information earlier,” Frazie pointed out. “I can handle it. Gimme a sec...”

 

She gripped the door with her telekinesis and slid it under the table, sneaking it behind the boy to set it on the back of his head. It clicked open as usual... but he didn’t even seem to notice, continuing to monologue on and on to his inattentive audience.

 

“Wow. He’s dedicated.” Frazie shut her eyes, trying to focus on reaching into his mind. “You stay out here and keep him distracted, alright? Make sure he doesn’t notice the portal.”

 

Lili’s face fell immediately. “You mean I have to listen to him?”

 

“Or at least pretend to. I’ll try to be quick. Just say yep or something every now and then.”

 

“Uggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh.” Lili put her cheek in her hand, already looking bored out of her mind. “You owe me big time.”

 

“Believe me, I know.” But that’d have to wait. For now, it was time for an internal inspection. Frazie locked in on his mind and projected herself into it, descending into his head even as he droned on and on.

 

Now entering:

Vernon’s Vernacular

 

---

 

 

At first, there was nothing. Then, there was flame.

 

A single flame amidst a sea of darkness; a bonfire roaring in the distance. Frazie blinked and shielded her eyes, its warmth flowing over her. This place was pretty cozy, for a black void.

 

The environment might’ve been nondescript, but it wasn’t empty. Rows of seats and benches sat on one side of the fire, filled with giant ears sitting silently. Frazie shuddered a bit, ignoring them and checking what was on the other side. A giant loom sat across from the crowd, surrounded by shelves, one filled with books, another filled with all sorts of silks and thread. And manning the loom was a strange figure.

 

It was an old man, his white beard long enough to reach down to his legs. He wore a hood and a robe, completely silent as he worked away weaving something together.

 

Curious, Frazie crept closer, approaching him and making herself known. “Excuse me...?”

 

“Hmmm?” The man turned his face to her... a very familiar face. “Ahhhh... a weary wanderer. You’re just in time for my latest storytelling masterpiece. Go on, take a seat and listen.”

 

“Vernon?!”

 

“I see my reputation precedes me.”

 

She was used to encountering the campers inside their own minds by now, but they always looked like themselves. Here, Vernon looked more like... a wise sage. Was this how he saw himself?

 

“Please, sit, miss.”

 

“Oh... right.” Complying, Frazie circled around the campfire to grab an empty seat amidst the crowd of ears. Understandably, she was a bit skeeved out, keeping her hands in her lap as she glanced back and forth at the giant body parts surrounding her.

 

Vernon stood up from his seat, pulling his work from the loom. Flapping it a bit, he spread it out wide, then threw it up into the sky. The cloth flew up and hung in the air, a cloth canvas frozen in place.

 

And boy, was it ugly. So many different threads entwined together, of all kinds of colors and fabrics. Some sort of frankencraft, looking like someone had puked a rainbow all over a blanket. Some figures could be barely made out amidst the mess - something that barely looked like a dog, and a lamp. No, wait, that was supposed to be a boy?

 

“Behold!” Vernon called. “I present to you a tale I like to call... The Walk of a Lifetime.”

 

Frazie’s eyes widened as the fabric began to shift and move, the figures on it playing out the words Vernon was speaking. It was amazing, like a quilted movie screen adding images to his story. It was also amazingly awful. The colors were an eyesore, and the movements were janky and nonsensical.

 

Basically, it had the same quality as the story he was telling. He went on about a walk he took with his dog, and within seconds, he’d already diverted subject to an interesting rock he’d found, then the kind of leash they had, then the weather. It was a barely coherent mess, and the parts that could be understood were a complete snoozefest.

 

The audience had been listening quietly, but before long, they grew irate. One ear booed, and before long, they were all hopping and raving as they made their displeasure heard.

 

Tomatoes flew, alongside rocks, all aimed at the tapestry. It was already barely holding together with the many different components used to make it - the first stone punched a hole in it, and it fell apart the instant the rest struck. It unraveled, raining threads down on its creator as his story came to its conclusion.

 

Vernon held his arms out, catching the string falling down on him, soaking in the roar of the crowd. “Such a loud response... they’re really cheering me on, huh? Truly, my best work yet.”

 

Frazie’s face scrunched up. Yeeeeeeah, she didn’t get that impression at all. Vernon seemed pleased, though, turning around to start work on another tapestry. “I’m on a roll today. I’ve already got inspiration for my next piece. Oh, muse, you are too kind to me...”

 

Frazie approached him again, watching him grab books off one shelf, skimming very briefly, then grabbing a bunch of unfitting spools. His materials were completely unorganized, and clearly, so were his ideas.

 

“Hey,” Frazie said, drawing his attention. “Would yoooou, by chance, want some help...?”

 

“Mm?” Vernon paused his work, swiveling in his seat to face her. “A collaboration? Hmmmm. A risky proposition... but also an exciting one. Perhaps. Do you know anything about bureaucracy?”

 

“...” Frazie didn’t even know what he’d said, but she nodded. “Yes?”

 

“Good. Good. Perhaps you can help me with my next piece after all. One moment...”

 

He shut his eyes and hummed. Suddenly, something whistled overhead. Frazie looked up - just in time to see pillars falling from the sky.

 

The void quaked as three bookstands slammed down, massive tomes resting atop each one. “These are some of my favorite ideas,” he explained. “Feel free to take a look, see if there’s anything you can add... so long as I get to tell the story.”

 

The problem was things needed to be removed, not added... but Frazie nodded. “Sounds good to me. I’ll let you know when I’ve got something you can work with.”

 

Leaving him to his work, she cracked her fingers, crossing over to the first of the pillars. “Now, let’s see what we’ve got...”

 

She pulled the book open, grunting a bit as she hefted the heavy cover. Pages flapped as it landed somewhere in the middle of the book... displaying a mish-mash of overly articulate sentences and mismatched pictures.

 

Hoo, boy. Clearly she had her work cut out for her. She rested her hands on the paper, leaning in for a closer look... only to almost topple over as her palms sunk into the pages.

 

“Eh?” The book almost seemed to ripple as she dipped her fingers in them. She stuck her entire arm in, not grasping anything, but not stopped by anything either.

 

So it was something like the TV in Dogen’s mind. She already knew what she had to do.

 

Frazie took a few steps back, taking a moment to ready herself. Then, she charged forward, jumping high. She somersaulted through the air, finally straightening out so she could slide smoothly right into the tome.

 

When people said to dive into a good book, she didn’t think it was meant to be taken so literally.