“It’s going to be great!” Martin said with a smile as he looked back at Susan through the car’s rear view mirror.

  Susan met his smile with one of her own, though she couldn’t seem to kick the sinking feeling that had formed in her gut.

  They had been driving for twenty minutes, the town far behind them as they headed toward wherever Thunderbird LLC’s headquarters was.

  “I’ve been telling everybody for years now about you two. It’s been killing me that you haven’t been able to meet them.” Martin prattled.

  Susan took it in from where she sat slumped against the window in the backseat. Beside her Elizabeth had slid down in her seat until she was nearly horizontal, eyes pointed skyward as she listened to the ongoing commentary.

  Leaving her sister to stew, Susan tuned out the talk and turned her attention to the road passing by. It was entirely unfamiliar, a quiet reminder of just how well their parents had hidden the world of magic from her and Elizabeth.

  She probably shouldn’t still feel so surprised by that fact, but the centuries spent in Themus had solidified the idea of her family as entirely normal. Now she watched as her mother casually cast a timekeeping spell, the glowing numbers that sprung from her hand contrasting the digital clock that sat only a few feet away on the dashboard.

  “By the way, are you two girls going to want to keep things incognito?”

  Her father’s voice brought her back into the moment, and she glanced up to see him regarding her with a raised eyebrow in the rear view mirror.

  “It would… probably be better that way.”

  Martin nodded sagely at her words, then looked back toward the road. Meanwhile Susan sighed through her teeth, and rolled her eyes skyward in exasperation.

  One thing that had become clear in the last month was that her father had come from entirely mundane origins. It was clear in the way his attention seemed drawn toward occurrences of magic in the world around him. Even when driving, Susan had seen his eyes turn toward the glowing clock her mother had summoned just seconds earlier.

  Maybe she could make use of that unfamiliarity, pass off a few of her more powerful warding spells as something mundane to make sure everyone was properly safe. Elizabeth and Chay had shot down some of her more… explosive home defense options, but if she played her cards right-

  Something must have shown on her face, because she spotted her mother’s head turn minutely to the side. Now spearing Susan with a glare, she gave a tiny shake of her head. Susan felt a shiver run up her spine. Her eyes quickly returned to the passing landscape, any thought of parental manipulation wiped clear of her mind.

  They were passing through another forest, tall trees whipping by on either side of the car. Beside her Elizabeth seemed to realize that their father’s praises had stopped, so she sat up. They both sat there watching the world outside for a moment.

  “So what's up with the Gashadokuro?” Susan finally asked, breaking the silence.

  “Nothing crazy,” Chay said, “just hundred foot tall skeletons born of resentment and cursed to destroy the cause of their creation.”

  “Oh. That doesn’t sound good,” Susan said, the explanation bringing to mind the many sources of resentment in America.

  “Yeah, turns out road rage is really good at creating them, so there was a bit of a problem for a while with giant skeletons attacking the Department of Transportation. It took a some work, but they finally got things running again by changing the on-paper location of the building to ‘Nowhere’.”

  Susan’s eyes narrowed as a long forgotten piece of trivia made its presence known in the back of her mind.

  “Wait a minute.”

  “Yup, the Gashadokuro spent a few decades wandering the wastes of America harmlessly, until somebody had the bright idea to name a town Nowhere. Now the Thunderbirds have a yearly contract to clean out the infestation of monsters there.”

  “It can be pretty boring, so people tried to make an event out of it. And so take your daughter to work day was born.”

  Susan nodded along to the story, still watching things speed by outside of the car. Up ahead she noticed a warehouse appear at the end of the road. Head leaned against the window she continued to watch it draw closer, then frowned and sat up when she realized something was off about it.

  The white concrete walls of the long, low building seemed to grow as they approached. The distance hid the building's true height until the car reached its shadow and Susan looked up as the walls began to loom over them.

  Unconcerned with the odd architecture, Martin sped the car along toward one of the rolling doors that sat along one side of the building. As they approached, it rolled upward with a roar of metal and then they were inside the building.

  Susan’s mouth fell open as she took the place in. The immense space reminded her heavily of the Brick’s maddening architecture. Hundreds of thousands of square yards devoted entirely to office workspace.

  A quarter of the floor space was covered by desks, the workspaces covering an immense range of sizes to cater to the building's occupants. A couple dozen towers of wood and steel seemed devoted to the company's larger employees, then slowly trended downward in size into an ocean of normal sized desks half filled with shouting people in suits. The rest of the space was taken up with training halls, equipment racks and changing rooms, all with that same dramatic difference in size.

  People filled the space, training, talking and working to fill the entire warehouse with a healthy roar of noise. Martin barely seemed to register any of it, just turning the car to the side and pulling to a stop next to a huge steel rack that stretched to the ceiling. A host of cars covered the shelves, painting the white wall in a rainbow of reds and whites.

  “Alright, everybody out,” he declared.

  And in a flurry of practiced motion Susan found herself standing outside of the car and looking around at the people filling the building.

  “Hey David!” Martin shouted, and Susan felt the floor rumble from behind them.

  She turned to see a Cyclops in grey coveralls step over their car. Without a word he reached down, snatched it up, and deposited it onto the shelf along the wall among the other cars.

  He nodded to Martin’s shouted thanks, and walked away to a distant mop bucket the size of a truck.

  Susan watched him go, mouth still open wide. The entire interaction simply failed to compute for her. On Themus, magic was an integral part of society. There, the idea of hiring a member of one of the most powerful warrior races just for cleaning would be considered insane. But looking at the vast space around her, the idea somehow worked.

  Her musings ended when her father started walking, and she found herself following him into the maze of desks. Faces both human and animal blurred past until she found herself standing in front of a low wooden desk.

  It was very clearly her father’s, covered in a small mountain of paperwork and a few framed pictures of blond haired babies.

  As Susan looked them over, Martin took a step forward and snatched one of the sheets off the top of the mountain.

  “Here we go,” he proclaimed, then he was turning around and leading them back through the mess of desks and people.

  A minute later Susan found herself entering a small clearing among the madness. It was a grey carpeted area a few hundred feet across. Only a few dozen people filled it, a few armored adults and a cluster of young children and teens.

  Martin was headed straight toward a familiar face, John Hunt, the man from the assault on her grandparents house from a month ago.

  “Martin,” he said, turning away from the group he had been talking to as he spotted them.

  “Hey John, here’s the paperwork.”

  “What paperwork?” He asked, frowning as he took the offered papers.

  “The take your daughter to work day request forms.”

  “You know nobody fills these out, right?” John asked, eyeing Martin. “Whatever, who are you bringing…”

  He trailed off as he scanned over the papers, his head coming up to look over the three people behind Martin.

  “You didn’t.”

  “What?”

  John stared at Martin’s guileless look of confusion, then sighed and passed a hand over his face.

  “Whatever, fine. I have an interview to do anyway.”

  “New hires?” Martin perked up, “who?”

  “Bunch of former BSMP agents. I think they’re trying to get away from the agency after whatever happened last night.”

  “Wait, what happened last night?”

  “Somebody blew up the South Pole,” John said with a shrug, “Looks like the Guardians took care of it, but whatever it was is going to be causing waves.”

  “Right, we better get on that,” Martin said, and a moment later both men were wandering off as they chatted about the new disaster.

  Chay watched them go, then turned to the girls.

  “Alright, now I have to go too. Stay safe, and don’t blow anything up.”

  Ignoring both girls' protests to the contrary, she turned and walked off after Martin. Susan and Elizabeth left alone among the mess of people filling the building around them.

  “Hey, who is this?” A voice asked from behind them. “Are you here for… oh no.”

  Susan and Elizabeth turned to find a familiar wolf headed woman standing behind them.

  “Hi, you’re Rana right? I’m Elizabeth!” Elizabeth said with a smile.

  Susan gave one of her own, feeling distinctly out of her element. She vaguely remembered the woman who had shot her out of a window last month. But she certainly didn’t remember her name, and she barely recognized the woman at all.

  Instead of the heavy kevlar gear from last month, the wolf woman was now wearing a snappy dress and ‘Hi, my name is RANA’ name tag. Her mouth hung open in shock, eyes locked firmly onto Susan as Susan looked back in hellish awkwardness.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Hi?” She began, “we’re here for the ‘take your daughter to work’ day?”

  “Of course you are,” Rana finally got out, her mouth finally shutting to give a toothless smile. “Lets, uh… let's meet the other kids?”

  Susan shrugged wordlessly, and Elizabeth gave an enthusiastic smile. So with stiff backed movements, Rana turned and led them toward one of the small groups of children that filled the carpeted space.

  “Well everybody, I found two more people for our group,” she said, and began to introduce everyone.

  Susan felt the names slide past her as she took in the eclectic gathering of children around her. They seemed to have the usual spread she had come to expect from the magical communities in the brick. A chaotic smattering of races that had probably not even known of each other’s existence back on Themus, but who seemed perfectly familiar with each other here on earth.

  She paused in her considerations as she recognized one of the faces in the group. A curly haired boy who met her gaze and froze like a deer in headlights.

  “And this is a distant cousin of mine, Caleb,” she said, waving a hand toward the boy in question.

  She seemed to notice the boy’s reaction to Susan, and raised an eyebrow.

  “Oh, do you two know each other?”

  Susan held the boy’s gaze, and watched as he gave a minute shake of his head.

  “Nope,” and noticed his shoulders slump imperceptibly.

  “Oh, ok,” Rana nodded along, then continued giving introductions.

  Beside Susan, Elizabeth looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. Susan glanced back and mouthed ‘later’. Elizabeth nodded at that, and returned her attention to the introductions.

  “Alright, now who here has gone Gashadokuro hunting before?” Rana asked, to a smattering of raised hands.

  “Okay,” she nodded to that, “Well for those of you who haven’t, we usually try to keep things simple. We’ll hover above where the skeletons gather, and shoot down at them until they are all gone. If you have any magical abilities you are free to join in, and if you don’t then just sit back and watch the fireworks.”

  A hand raised in the back of the group.

  “But how do we get there?” a voice came.

  “Well,” Rana finally smiled, “we'll get started in just a moment and you can see then.”

  That got a series of disappointed ‘awws’ but Rana held firm and eventually Susan turned her attention away from the group and toward what was going on around them.

  The amount of armored people had massively increased. The carpeted floor space was now crawling with dozens of people all armored in the heavy Kevlar gear. Susan recognized Chay standing in a small group on the other end.

  They were chatting together, but Chay noticed Susan watching and gave a small wave. Susan sent one back, then kept looking. She quickly spotted Martin in another small group, then found her attention drawn to the person beside him.

  John, now wearing a slightly more formal suit, stepped toward the center of the area and clapped his hands. The chatter slowly quieted as the disparate groups turned toward him.

  “Alright,” he shouted once enough people had stopped, “is everybody ready?”

  He was met with a smattering of cheers, and smiled.

  “Then let's get this show on the road!”

  That earned an even larger cheer, and then the floor jerked. It earned several shrieks from the group of kids around her, but the adults only cheered louder. A rumble above them caught Susan’s attention, and she looked up to see a massive skylight overhead sliding open to reveal cloudy skies.

  The floor rocked beneath her, and she realized with a start that she was rising. The world around her dropped away, leaving the entire hundred person group standing on top of an enormous flying carpet.

  Roughly the size of the football field, the space could have easily fit one of the giants that strode around the Thunderbird’s headquarters. Susan heavily suspected that it had.

  The shrieks from the children around Susan changed from surprise to excitement, and with a whoosh of air the carpet shot through the open skylight and into the air above. They quickly rose through the clouds, the roiling of the carpet beneath their feet sending the children stumbling.

  A barked laugh came from Rana as she looked down at them, her legs perfectly steady on the uneven surface. That earned a series of shouted complaints from the children, which only got a bigger laugh.

  Then their complaints turned to gasps of surprise as the carpet beneath them began to change colors. The fibers that made up the rug shimmered, switching form their former dull grey to browns and greens. In moments the entire floor had turned into a perfect image of the ground below, a transparency Susan was sure that the bottom shared as well.

  Rana’s grin never left their face, but as the carpet finally slowed in its descent and the camouflage fully took effect she finally began to talk.

  “Now that we're at cruising altitude, we’ll be reaching Nowhere in about an hour.” Then before the children’s wide eyes her smile began to widen. “In the meantime, who wants to learn how to shoot a fireball?”

  That earned looks of horror from the adults around her, and one woman quickly rushed over. A whispered discussion kicked off between them, and Susan decided to use the moment of distraction to get away.

  Wandering away from the group, she ambled towards the distant edge of the carpet. Some of the groups of adults noticed her go, but most of them didn’t seem to mind one of the older tagalongs wandering off from the group and just turned back to what they were discussing.

  The edge of the carpet was marked by a line of brass poles, a velvet rope running between them to form a barrier. The sight reminded Susan of something out of a movie theater, but as she drew closer she noticed that the poles were nothing like the cheap things you might normally find.

  Hundreds of intricate runes were carved into them, forming the magic circles that powered the construct. She walked up to one, running a finger over the carved letters to feel the hum of magic running through them.

  Looking past them, she could see the ground blurring by below. The carpet was probably moving at hundreds of miles per hour, a protective wall of mana stopping them from feeling the wind screaming by.

  “The Thunderbirds have some really nice toys, don’t they?”

  “WHAT THE-”

  Susan spun around to see a tiny old woman standing behind her, looking distinctly out of place among the armored operatives and hyperactive children. Her mouth opened to challenge her, but then her eyes narrowed as she recognized the incredible flow of mana through the woman.

  “Nora?”

  “That’s me,” she replied with a smile.

  “How did you- Wait, how did you find us?”

  Nora raised an eyebrow at that, and turned to point a finger at Elizabeth, who stood further toward the center of the carpet, talking animatedly with Caleb. Susan’s eyes narrowed at the sight. There certainly wasn’t anything good that could come from her crazy little sister meeting with Ruth’s nutty little brother, but she managed to return her attention to the current problem.

  “Alright then, why are you here?”

  “Did you forget?”

  Susan frowned at that, then sighed and lightly smacked herself on the forehead.

  “Right, the BSMP thing, sorry.”

  “It’s no problem,” Nora said, stepping up beside her so that they were both looking down at the countryside below.

  A wizened hand passed Susan a paper. She looked it over, seeing that it was a summarized list of U.S. citizenship laws. A hand came to her chin as she regarded it, and eventually it came down and she turned back to Nora.

  “Well it looks like I’m still a U.S. Citizen,” she said with a shrug.

  “Perfect,” Nora shot a smile back at her, “that’s just perfect.”

  They fell silent and Susan found herself watching the scenery pass below. Nora seemed content to let the moment lie, and the two of them spent a minute there.

  “Well, good luck with that,” Susan finally broke the silence. “As long as I don’t get dragged into more of the BSMP’s bullshit I’m happy.”

  “Don’t worry,” Nora smiled back, a vicious one this time. “If I have my way none of their leaders will see the outside of a jail cell for a good long time.”

  Susan smiled at that. She took a breath to reply, then frowned at the sensation. Her chest and shoulders felt oddly heavy as pressure settled over her. The breath hissed out of her as she realized what was happening.

  Within the warped space that hid her true body, her dragon heart roared to life. The mana flowing through her and pushing back against the grasping pressure that tried to drag her away.

  “Not again!” She growled, bringing a hand to her chest where the weight of the summoning spell had settled.

  “What’s wrong?” Nora caught her attention, and Susan looked up to see a frown covering her face.

  “Someone’s trying to summon me,” She said, and Nora’s frown deepened.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, yeah, should be,” Susan said, “It’s just…”

  “What?”

  “The spell is still going.”

  “…Meaning?”

  Susan’s head came up to meet Nora’s, both their gazes sharp. Nora though had one eyebrow raised as she regarded Susan.

  The thought occurred that despite the Guardian’s extensive knowledge of things that go bump in the night and how to beat them silly, they seemed to have very little knowledge of Realm travel.

  “Whoever it is that is trying to summon me,” Susan finally said, “they have my name. My real one. That’s the only way they could sustain a summoning spell like this.”

  “Do you need any help?” Nora asked quickly.

  “No, as long as I have enough mana I can resist the spell, but just…” Susan grumbled and began to pace back and forth in front of Nora. “My name shouldn’t be known outside of Themus.”

  Her hand came up and quickly sketched a rune in the air. It glowed for a moment, before the glowing lines shifted to form a word; the homeworld of whatever idiot was trying to summon her

  “Exulum? What the hell kind of name is Exulum?” She muttered, barely noticing as the letters faded.

  “Susan,” a hand landed on her shoulder, “relax!”

  “But- but-”

  “Susan,” Nora continued, “there are two Guardians here. If there’s any time you don't have to worry about a problem getting out of hand, its now.”

  “Fine. fine.” Susan turned to meet Nora’s look, “I just… Damn it, why can’t I just be done with all this?”

  That earned a shrug and a half grin from the old Guardian.

  “I think you’re asking the wrong person.”

  “Heh,” Susan let out a chuckle, “yeah.”

  She took a deep breath and let it out, this time ignoring the pressure that pulled within her. The weight of Nora’s hand remained a constant comfort on her shoulder, and soon she found herself properly calming down.

  “Hey Nora, what are you doing here?” A voice came from the side, and both of them turned to see Elizabeth walking toward them with Caleb in tow.

  “Hello little Liz. Who’s your friend?”

  “This is Caleb, he’s great,” Elizabeth said, shooting a glare at Nora before turning to Susan. “Why didn’t you tell me you can make people magical girls?”

  “It didn’t come up?”

  “Come on, that's like the coolest thing ever!” Elizabeth whined. “You have to do that again. It’ll be so awesome!”

  Susan rolled her eyes at the reaction, tuning out Elizabeth's further complaints and turning back to Nora. She met her gaze and raised an eyebrow.

  “I would like to hear more about that,” she said, interrupting Elizabeth as she went to take another breath. “I’ve never heard of someone copying the Great Rune before.”

  “Only if you have three hours to waste,” Susan said with a shrug.

  “Not now, then.” Nora nodded, “I have some extra time but I am on something of a schedule.”

  “Oh yeah,” Elizabeth said, “Why are you here, anyway?”

  “Nothing much, just the destruction of the BSMP,” Nora deadpanned.

  “Oh cool.”

  “Wait, what?” Caleb broke in, voice shrill.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Nora said, patting him on the head. “It’s Guardian business.”

  Judging by the boy’s open mouthed expression, the platitude had utterly failed. Though his mouth did slowly close as he stared around at the bland calm of the others.

  “Anyways, I do need to be going,” Nora said.

  A snap of her fingers conjured a shimmering pillar, and she vanished through it a moment later. It winked out of existence, leaving the trio standing in a rough circle.

  “So… about the magical girl thing,” Elizabeth said.

  “Hey, I think they’re finally starting!” Susan said, fleeing from her spot at the railing to head over to where a crowd was forming on the other side of the carpet.

  A whistle blew from its center, catching the attention of the still talking groups. As Susan approached, the crowd thickened until she couldn’t see to the center anymore.

  “Alright everyone,” a voice she recognized as John Hunt’s came from the center, “we’ll be arriving in Nowhere in a few minutes. The lures have already been set up. Now we want all noncombatants at the center, but anyone who wants to join in the extermination can pick a spot along the edge and start firing.”

  “For anyone who hasn’t heard,” he continued, “the prize for killing the most Gashadokuro this year is a fifty dollar gift card to Doe’s Dough. Thanks to its owner, one of our very own members, Barbados!”

  Susan’s mouth watered on reflex. As far as local restaurants went, Doe’s Dough was the town’s pride and joy. Its donuts were sublime. She tried very hard to ignore the new information that it was, in fact, owned by a dinosaur.

  She heard a gasp from Elizabeth behind her. “Doe’s Dough?”

  They didn’t wait for the speech to finish, instead hustling over to the edge of the carpet. Reaching it, Susan looked around the lures John had mentioned. And the giant skeletons.

  The Gashadokuro were hard to miss, dozens of feet high and crashing their way through a grassy plain. There were hundreds of them, all following along after a dozen glowing spheres. The spheres hovered in the air just out of reach of the skeletons, which swiped at them with enormous clawed hands.

  “Did you hear what he said?” Chay’s voice came from behind them.

  Susan turned to see her and Martin, both with wide grins as they stepped up to the edge next to her and Elizabeth.

  “I think this is the first time they’ve ever offered anything genuinely good as a prize,” he said, reaching into a pocket and taking out a small packet of papers.

  Twin fireballs lit up in Chay’s hands as she shot him a grin. It was matched by two others from Susan and Elizabeth. Martin smiled back at Chay, the entire family united in their desire for fancy pastries.

  Their reverie was broken by the shriek of a whistle from the center of the carpet. It was followed a moment later by a tidal wave of magical force that rained down from the edges of the carpet onto the helpless skeletons below.

  The Hill family wasn’t far behind. Sketching a few runes in the air, Susan sent down a flurry of fireballs that exploded among the skeletons and sent them flying. Beside her, Chay was throwing her own. Conjuring them one after another in her hands she would toss them down like baseballs where they impacted the gigantic skeletons heads with unerring accuracy.

  Martin’s papers turned out to be business cards sketched with magic circles. One by one he charged them with magic before flicking them downward into the morass of explosions and tumbling skeletons.

  Elizabeth seemed to be trying to keep her identity a secret, but Susan did spot her surreptitiously shooting down the glowing spears of energy that resembled Abana’s. She hit one Gashadokuro, sending it collapsing to the ground in a pile of bones. Her head came up, looking around with wide eyes to see if anyone else had spotted her.

  Still watching her, Susan let out a laugh. Elizabeth retaliated with a poke to her side, forcing Susan to jump away. Even as she was still chuckling she threw down another fireball to a triumphant shout from Chay as one of the skeletal giants toppled.

  The pressure in her chest twinged, but she ignored it. The demon kings and Archdragons of the world could wait. Today, she was going to have fun.

  And donuts.