"So, speaking of the guild, what's the difference between all the stuff that has been in the news versus reality?" asked Max. Next to him, Timothy pursed his lips in thought. Allowing the man time to think, Max looked out the window at the passing countryside. They were driving across state lines to Las Vegas. After the previous night and over about an hour of driving now, Max had gotten to know Timothy a lot better than he would have suspected.

  The man wasn’t stupid, it’d just been a long time since anyone of any real talent had been interested in Trifecta. Now he’d adjusted to Max being interested in his guild.

  When they'd met last night for dinner, Timothy had been like a different man—much more assertive. It turned out Timothy was a C-rank as well, but as an earlier Returner, he had been back on Earth for about three years now.

  Timothy was a Zeni Parasite Path Summoner, which was new to Max. He had the ability to bond with a worm-like parasite that would normally kill a person, but in his unique body, the parasite became a symbiote that slowly made him superhuman. It seemed that the Zeni Parasite Path Challengers, in addition to learning to fight with their superpowers, also had to deepen their bond with their parasite.

  All of it sounded extremely strange to Max, completely alien from any other Paths he'd ever known of. This Path hadn’t been in any of the books in his Quartet.

  Timothy had said the reason his rank was C even after all this time, and even after ranking up, from E, where he’d’ originally been placed, was because he just didn't have the raw power that many other Paths did. He was stronger and faster than a normal human, but that was about it when it came to his offensive abilities. However, what he prided himself on was durability. Timothy had told Max over drinks the night before, very confidently, that he could take a beating with the best of them.

  Max couldn’t sense that he’d learned Western Wind Style, a fact he made note of.

  The rest of Timothy’s history was fairly interesting, too. He'd also been in business school when he'd gone to the Quartet, so after joining the Trifecta Guild over two years ago, he had easily fit into the part of the guild that focused on office work and public relations.

  As Max waited for Timothy to formulate a response to his earlier question, he mused aloud, "At least we're going fast. I don't think I've ever driven this fast on the highway before, at least not for this long."

  Timothy grinned and added a little bit more speed to the car. They were consistently traveling over one hundred miles an hour on the highway. There weren't as many cars on the road as Max remembered before his time in the Quartet, and it seemed like slow traffic kept to the right side of the road without exception.

  "These days," Timothy said, "being a Challenger is sort of like being a cop…on steroids. Even though this is a rental car, I put a magnet on the back to note the Trifecta Guild. The guild's fallen, but it's still one of the larger guilds in North America."

  "So you can speed if you're in a guild?" asked Max. "Actually, does everybody else still have a speed limit?"

  Timothy nodded seriously. "Yes, there's still a speed limit on the roads, but Challenger guild members get a pass.”

  “Why? I mean besides the fact most cops can’t even arrest most Challengers if they don’t want to go.”

  “Good point, but it’s because unless we're flying or maybe even running there ourselves, sometimes we take cars to portals or to go somewhere to fight monsters. We use our own vehicles to get to emergencies pretty often. Unless the police want to do our job for us, they need to get out of the way when we're driving."

  Max nodded sagely at that. "So, anyway, Vegas is really the place to be now, huh?"

  "Sort of," said Timothy. "Some cities are abandoned now. Some cities have more people. The guilds across America have unofficially chosen a few cities to gather in, among other things, for how central they are to get to other places in the country. Challengers need to get to monster subjugations or portals. But another reason is that not many Challengers in the world have teleportation powers. And wherever those people live, the major guilds will often move closer to be near the teleporter."

  "Really?"

  "Yes, especially for conferences and things like that. Traveling by plane, even fast planes, can take an entire day, just for travel. A teleporter, depending on what type they are, can make a meeting across the world, in person, can be like any other meeting. But of course, that sort of service can't even be bought with money; it's usually a courtesy for something major. The Trifecta Guild never had a teleporter, but the Scorpion Guild is based out of Vegas. The Scorpion Guild had a teleporter. Now quite a few guilds on the west of the United States are also located in Vegas.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “So it’s for the teleporter and central location?”

  “Yes, but not only that, flat open areas are harder for monsters to hide in. So over the last few years, guilds and people who can afford to tend to move or live in flat, empty areas. Mountains and dense forests are some of the most dangerous places in the world."

  Max thought about that for a few seconds. "So does that mean that there are guilds located in Utah and Texas too?"

  "Utah, yes. Texas, there isn't a large concentration of guilds in any area like there is in Vegas. But there are a lot of smaller groups and smaller guilds in Texas."

  "I think I got it," said Max.

  The two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence for a while as Max patiently waited for Timothy to answer his question about the Trifecta guild’s current problems. Over the last few days, Max had taken the opportunity to look up news stories about the Trifecta Guild, but he wanted to hear what Timothy would say about it. Finally, the man said, "As you probably have read, about Trifecta–” He trailed off and started again. About two years ago, two of the highest-ranked members of the guild left. And when they left, they took a lot of other members with them. Those two were Toby and Sam Lynch. Both S-ranked challengers. Ever since then, the guild just hasn't been the same."

  Max nodded slowly. He knew there was more to it than that. The Lynch brothers had also reportedly stolen from the Trifecta Guild, and some of the Trifecta leadership, including Chad, had tried to sue them using official channels, but nothing had come from it. Max waited patiently until Timothy said, "I'm sure you've seen the news stories about bad blood too. That's actually true. And it doesn't help that the Lynch Brothers' new guild, Victory, is in Vegas as well."

  Max nodded thoughtfully at this. He knew that Victory Guild belonged to the Lynch brothers and had even seen one of their reps at the challenger job fair, but he didn't know that they'd established their guild headquarters in the same city as the Trifecta Guild.

  "Okay, so how does that differ from what really happened?" asked Max.

  Timothy didn't say anything for a minute, and then he finally broke the silence again, speaking slowly and thoughtfully. "In order to answer that question, I need to ask you one first. Why are you really trying to negotiate to join Trifecta? Nobody with your credentials has for a long time. At first, I thought it was just because you believed you'd get a better deal with a guild that's on a decline like Trifecta is. And maybe that's true. I don't know. But over the last day of talking to you, I haven't gotten the impression that you're really a money-motivated person. And then you're asking these questions about what happened to Trifecta from my perspective. And I gotta be honest, I'm a little suspicious now."

  "Suspicious? How?" asked Max.

  "Well, reporting on guild dirty laundry is a good career for some reporters, and getting inside information is worth money too. But you are a C-rank challenger, same as me. And unlike me plateauing at C, you're probably going to be B very soon. Shoot, maybe even A. So I doubt money is really that much of a concern for you, even if that's what drove you. I just don't understand, Max. I don't understand what you're doing, or why I'm taking you to the Trifecta Guild."

  "It's really simple," said Max.

  "It is?"

  "Yes, I just want to join the Trifecta Guild."

  Timothy briefly took his eyes from the road to look incredulously at Max before he turned back and chuckled. "It's just that simple, huh?"

  "Yes, it's just that simple.’

  “Well, I'm not even going to pretend anymore to understand, but to answer your question, what those bastard Lynch brothers did almost destroyed the guild, and the guild leadership has been hanging on with their fingernails. Now, somehow, the Trifecta Guild still exists. I and many others are optimistic that we can eventually bounce back. But the last two years have been rough, very rough."

  "I understand," said Max. He lapsed into silence again and looked out the window at the passing scenery that flashed by at around one hundred and twenty miles an hour, now. Even though most challengers had superhuman abilities and tough bodies, he doubted that many would survive a crash at this speed. It was a strange thing to think about. But as he watched Timothy flash past the other cars like they were practically standing still, it drove home that the Challengers were a special class of people in this new world.

  It hadn't even been a decade since the monsters attacked, so people were still adjusting to what that actually meant. He frowned, ignoring the distractions with a bit of willpower and thought about what Timothy had said.

  Max still hadn't seen any specifics about what exactly the Lynch brothers did when they left the Trifecta Guild, but he had a feeling that when he got the full story from his friends, he wasn't going to like it.

  Timothy drove the two of them straight to Vegas with only a couple of stops along the way for a rest break and to eat. Finally, after driving down most of the Vegas strip, they pulled into the parking lot of a large building that looked like it used to be some sort of hotel.

  "This is Trifecta?" asked Max.

  "Yep. We were originally in a different building before, but after everything that happened two years ago, we had to move."

  "Is this cheaper?" asked Max.

  "Exactly," Timothy parked the rental car and said, "Let's go ahead and check in at the front counter before we get you a room. Everybody in Trifecta has their own room in the guild in case we have to pull all-nighters or it's more convenient to stay there. We have guards at all times. And a vault too, in case you want to leave any weapons here."

  "Got it," said Max.

  As they walked across the parking lot, a group of people left the front doors at the same time and walked out. Some of them were wearing expensive suits, and others had on the anachronistic armor or otherworldly gear that Max was getting used to seeing challengers wear on Earth. Suddenly, Max recognized one of the people in the group. He immediately smiled in excitement, waved a hand, and shouted, "Chad!"

  Everybody in the group ahead stopped and looked at him incredulously. To his side, Timothy hissed and tried elbowing Max in the arm to get his attention. Max ignored him.

  "Chad!" he yelled again.

  One of the members of the group of seven, a young man in battle armor, frowned and took a step as if he was going to move himself in front of Chad. However, Chad, with shock written all over his face, grabbed the man's shoulder and prevented him from walking out any further.

  "Max, is that you?" In that moment, Max verified that none of his friends knew that he was back on Earth yet. Whoever had told Timothy to take him to guild headquarters must have just been another PR person or a manager. Chad really hadn’t known that Max was back, there was no way he could act this well.

  Max gave his best shit-eating grin and folded his arms. "Happy to see me? Well, whether you are or not, wanna go somewhere we can talk?"