My mom tells me often not to talk to strangers, so I was a bit concerned when Shift asked me to write a story for her. Personally, I'd argue she’s not a stranger. She's one of Seattle’s great protectors! When it comes to the rest of the Unreliables, though, my personal favorite is the Quantum Brain. I never know what he’s going to do, and I don’t think he does either, but whenever he fights, it’s always exciting to watch! It’s like watching comic book pages turn in real time!

  QB even rescued my best friend Sanjit’s brother after the Kinderdrawer kidnapped his whole kindergarten class. He was only 6 years old! He didn't deserve to be forced to draw shadowy men and flying pigs over and over again because some sad adult decided that her mom being in a coma was a reasonable reason to destroy all of Seattle! I’m glad the Unreliables managed to stop her, even if it was just two of them at first, and Quantum Break did most of the work!

  Every time I walk around outside, it always seems like a new hero is making themselves known. A lot of the powered people are coming out of the woodwork. I’m sort of included. I like to think of myself as a member of the Unreliables too, I’m just too young to officially join the team.

  Right, introductions. My name is Lenny McCeal, and I’m 12 years old. I just started 6th grade about two months ago, and the chatter’s been nonstop! Lots of kids are talking about the Unreliables and everything that happened this summer, like the two giant robots fighting each other, one of which being an old raccoon, or when Shift stopped that one radio guy!

  Everyone has their own favorite hero. I heard a few kids in my class have a discussion about The Monster Mash. They just formed their group a couple weeks ago, but they're already popular! Every time I see Mothman flying around, I feel safer, which is kinda silly if you think about it.

  Creature Feature is Sanjit’s favorite hero. He's really into cryptids and other monsters, plus he lives near cape cane so he sees them often! Sometimes his parents come over to my house and bring him along to distract me as they talk about finances and lawyer stuff. Sanjit & I sat for hours in my room reading comic books while he told me all about the creatures Creature Feature can turn into. It's fun! He's also the only person who currently knows my secret identity. Speaking of, I guess it's time to reveal my story! The story of how I defeated a God using the awesome powers of a raccoon.

  It was Monday, November 14th, two weeks after Halloween. I was eating lunch with Sanjit, and we were discussing the events of the Monster Mash that happened, again.

  “So that’s when a Mothman showed up at my door with my baby brother after he was taken to Yakima by a chocolate vampire salesman. Luckily, I was the one who got to answer the door! It’s smile was so wide and glowing red. It was so cool.” Sanjit said, taking a bite of mac & cheese off his lunch tray.

  “Got any stories from recent times?” I asked, having heard this story a million gazillion times before.

  “I think I saw a golem run down the street last night. Might’ve just been a car, though.” He answered, slightly disappointed, “I wanna see another superhero battle. It hasn’t been all that exciting since school started.”

  “Well, then we better become superheroes! Recess is in a few minutes, if that’ll cheer you up.”

  “Maybe, but I wanna see a real life superhero battle! They aren’t just cartoons anymore! Pretending just makes me sad we can’t see the real thing.”

  “We’ll see the real thing soon. If there are heroes, there will always be villains. Like the scumbags who kidnapped your brother, twice.”

  “Hey, Nimrods.” One of our girl classmates called out to us before sitting down at our table.

  “Hey, Alex.” Sanjit spoke dejectedly.

  Alex Doddard is another friend of mine. We’ve all lived on the same street since third grade, and she’s just been casually hanging out with us since. She really likes sneaking into my moms house to steal bags of popcorn from our pantry so she can stay up and watch Danny Phantom on our Paramount Plus account. I guess her parents don’t let her.

  “Whatcha talking about?” She asked.

  “Superheroes.” Sanjit replied quietly.

  “We’re gonna play superheroes at Recess cause Sanjit is being lame.” I also replied.

  “Cool, can I join?” Alex prodded.

  “Sure! Do you wanna be the kinderdrawer? We need a villain.” I replied once more.

  “Nah, I wanna be Starling. I’m guessing Sanjit wants to be the Quantum Brain, which would make you... Buzzkill?”

  “I did want to be Quantum Brain.” Sanjit perked up.

  “Okay, well we still need a villain... I guess I can do it. Buzzkill’s kind of a party pooper. But I don’t wanna be raveman!”

  “Who the heck is raveman?” Alex asked.

  “What’s a rave?” Sanjit asked immediately afterwards.

  That’s when the bell for recess went off and kids started heading out to the playground.

  “I’ll tell you outside. My sister really enjoys raves, and she’s an 11th grader.” I responded, standing up and putting my food tray near the garbage can.

  Alex and Sanjit followed.

  We all made our way to a thick tree near the middle of one of the fences that bordered the woods. It was short enough so if you climbed the tree, you could hop the fence.

  “Why are we here, Lenny?” Sanjit asked.

  “You want excitement, right? Let’s hop the fence. It’s our last year here, let’s explore the woods!” I spoke in a hushed, but excited tone.

  “I’m down.” Alex agreed, immediately making her way over to the tree.

  “What if we get caught skipping?” Sanjit asked, scared.

  “If we get caught, then we’ll talk about it.” I replied.

  Alex was already over on the other side of the fence as we were talking.

  “C’mon, slowpokes!” she called, running into the woods.

  Without a second thought, I climbed over the tree, which prompted Sanjit to do the same. When we went into the woods, we ran into Alex immediately and started to explore the area.

  “Woah, mushrooms!” Alex gasped excitedly.

  “Don’t eat those.” Sanjit spoke like a scaredy cat.

  “I wasn’t going to, they’re mushrooms. They’re untrustworthy.”

  It was then that I heard something really out of place for the woods... an air conditioner.

  “Do you two hear that?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” They both said.

  I took a chance and followed the sound, with the other two following close behind me, and we found another thing way out of place for the woods.

  A Shack.

  The Shack.

  “Is that...” I tried to ask, but before I could finish my thought, both of them agreed.

  “I think so.” Sanjit replied.

  “What’s so special about this shoddy looking shack?” Alex asked.

  The air conditioner seemed to scoff at the insult.

  “Nevermind, guess it’s sentient.” She said, receiving her answer.

  “I’m going in.” I said in my best batman impression.

  “Batman doesn't say that!” Sanjit responded, but by the time he finished his sentence, I was already inside the shack.

  Neither Sanjit nor Alex followed me inside the shack, and I wasn’t entirely sure why at that point, but I had a few moments to sneak a peek at what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to become a superhero for real. Did make me wish that Sanjit was here, though.

  The lights were off when I walked in, and upon looking out the only window, it was dark and rainy.

  I looked through a bunch of drawers, only seeing random household objects, not knowing what any of them did until I rolled some dice on the counter. They both landed on two, and immediately turned into a full turkey dinner. I was flabbergasted, yet took a bite of the turkey.

  It was the best turkey I’ve ever tasted. I put the dice into my pocket and grabbed a couple other dice as well, assuming they could do the same thing. It was epic.

  As I walked around the shack some more, I saw some other interesting items like a toothbrush that grows in size and shoots a bunch of toothpaste at once (Yes, that was me. I’m sorry, Unreliables, please forgive me!) and a raccoon mask that turned me invisible as I put it on.

  “Woah, cool!” I spoke, jumping in front of a mirror that happened to be in the room, “I don’t even have a reflection!”

  I took off the mask briefly, and a Raccoon appeared in the mirror. Well, I think it was a raccoon. It was fairly bulgy and sitting on top of large, furry balls. When it noticed me, it scurried off and I still couldn’t see my reflection. I rubbed my eyes and put the mask in my backpack.

  “That was weird. I do wanna see if Sanjit and Alex are still there, I don’t know why they aren’t inside yet.” I said to myself, before opening the shacks’ door and seeing a dark alleyway, with rain coming down from the sky.

  I took a step outside and the door shut itself behind me. When I turned around, the shack had disappeared entirely. I had no idea where I was, and I really just wanted to see my mom again.

  I sat down in the rainy alleyway, alone. My parents never trusted me enough to have a phone, so I didn’t have any way to get home.

  That’s when a bright, copper light shined its way through the darkness, belonging to what looks like a dog, but made entirely out of crazily tied copper tubing.

  “Thank Zeus I found someone in time.” The dog spoke.

  “You can talk? Who’s Zeus?” I replied, curious but still somewhat frightened.

  “King of the Greek Pantheon? God of the Sky? Is the only reason why it’s raining right now? Ugh, Americans. Can’t educate your kids but can fund enough wars to keep me alive.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Oh, right, that part... I’m... Hephaestus! Yes, that’s right, I’m the god of the forge. The reason why I said war keeps me alive is because I forge all of the weapons of war. The Trojan horse? All me, baby!”

  “You... made a wooden horse... in your forge?”

  I was questioning whether or not this dog was telling me the truth, but I really needed to get home and I didn’t care how it was done.

  “You know about the Trojan horse but not Zeus? Geez Louise, we need to get you Americans some proper education. Now then, where do you live?” The dog asked.

  “Cape Cane.” I replied.

  “And how far is that away from here?”

  “I dunno. I dunno where we are.”

  “Okay, well, I may be able to help. I saw a sign in a dumpster behind some weird roller coaster that said ‘Do the Pooey Loopy’. The sign had a donkey on it.”

  “Must be Puyallup. There’s a bus that goes directly to my house from here, but I don’t have any money.”

  “I got some drachmas.”

  “I don’t know what that is.”

  “It’s greek money."

  “My dad said that greek money is de-fi-cit-ly underpriced.”

  “I don’t want to explain the Grecian financial issues right now, I need to get out of this rain, kid. My armor’s gonna rust eventually and I’ll permanently die in this contraption, which is usually unheard of but I’m in a precarious situation.”

  “Precarious?”

  “Whatever, just take us to the bus.”

  We finally walked out of the alley and made our way to the bus, which for some reason allowed pets. It took me about one hour to get home, and when I finally did, my mom opened the door and hugged me.

  “Where were you, Len? The school called two hours ago, told us that you had disappeared into the woods during recess.” She said, her eyes closed and her hug tight.

  “I found the shack, mom. The Unreliables shack! I got this cool mask from it!” I shared excitedly.

  My mom then opened her eyes and saw the dog I brought home.

  “Len, did you find a stray?” She asked politely.

  “Yeah, his name is Hephaestus, or so he tells me. To be honest, I don’t know who he is but he wanted to come home with me.” I replied.

  “Yep, Hephaestus! That’s me! God of the Forge. No one else. Definitely not a different god, no ma’am.” The copper dog barked back.

  There was a brief moment of silence.

  “Lenny, where did you find this stray?” Mom asked.

  “A rainy alley in Puyallup.” I replied.

  “How’d you get all the way out there?”

  “The Shack.”

  “So... if I understand this right, you found the shack in the woods behind your school, entered it, then when you left, you emerged into a random alley where you found this... dog, then took the bus back?”

  “Yeah! The Puyallup buses allow pets now, so it was easy.”

  There was another moment of silence.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re safe, just be more careful next time. Hephaestus can stay with us until his owner comes back.” Mom replied politely.

  “Listen, that might be tricky. I don’t have an owner, but what I do have is a need for help. Do you happen to know a mechanic that can free the souls of gods?” Hephaestus barked.

  “Well, my ex-husband’s a mechanic...”

  “Dad’s an ex?” I asked.

  “I’ll explain later, Len,” Mom replied instantly, “you should go inside for now.”

  “Okay, but I wanna look after Hephaestus! I found him, after all.”

  “Ah, kid, stop making me tear up, you’ll rust my body!” Hephaestus called, tears in his mechanical eyes.

  “Do you even know what he eats?” Mom asked.

  “Not sure, but we can ask!,” I replied, turning over to Hephaestus who was exploring the yard, “Hey, Hephy! What do you eat?”

  “Who’re you calling hefty?” Hephaestus barked as he ran to the stairs of the house.

  “No, I said Hephy. Cause your full name is pretty long and I’m rather bored of it.” I stood up, and tried to pick him up off the ground.

  Which didn’t really work anyway. Picking up that android canine was like trying to lift a really heavy bowling ball with legs and a big handle that weighed like 3 tons and wouldn’t shut up. Upon heaving with all my might, I still managed to stumble backwards into the dirt behind Hephaestus.

  “I don’t know what exactly you were trying to do, kid, but I like your guts. You’re brave, daring. Courageous. I can see it, you and me, fighting side by side. How we shall tear apart our enemies with my vicious canine teeth and your putrid stench of puberty-enhanced testosterone. GLORY!” Hephy yelled as he proceeded to strut around the area of the ground I fell on, like that one rich kid in class who showed up with a really cool machine for show & tell that week.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I still hadn’t realized it at that moment, but soon I’d learn exactly why this dog was so... off-putting.

  Either way, we made it back up to my room without breaking anything, which was a mess of clothes, comics, and video games as per usual. Since I was gone for most of the day, I didn’t have a chance to clean up. I walked over to my small bed near the window, and turned on the TV located on the other side of the room. Hephy wandered around the place, sniffing things curiously. Mom remained downstairs, and began cooking. No idea if Sis was home.

  “So, what do you do for fun around here?” Hephy asked.

  “Fun? I dunno. Normally I zone out and play the superdude game.” I replied, launching the Superdude game from a shortcut I had on my homescreen.

  “Superdude?” Hephy asked.

  “Yeah! Before the Unreliables came along, Superdude was the top comic in the world, rivaled only by Vampman, a half-vampire, half-human billionaire with only half the powers of an actual vampire. I don’t really like him that much.” I replied, hitting continue on the main menu screen.

  “That doesn’t explain anything about this game, kid.”

  “Basically you just fly around the city of Little Rock and punch enemies in the face really hard. The main villains are the Gods of Olympus, who’ve gone rogue and you need to kill them as Superdude, in various forms of combat. I’ve already beaten Hermes, Apollo, Demeter, and Athena! I’m excited to see who the next boss is.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “No, I’m running through this playthrough blind. I dunno anything about it, I didn’t know anything about Greek Mythology before playing this game, either. Athena treated Medusa and Arachne like garbage, and I destroyed her for it.”

  “Who’s next on my Super Hit List?” Superdude’s voice played upon finally loading into the video game, with the title ‘SUPERDUDE KILLS THE OLYMPIANS’ popping up on the screen.

  “What kind of game is this?” Hephy asked as I flew around the map.

  “Oh, don’t worry, Hephy, you’re working with Superdude. He makes Superdude’s weapons and power-ups in this game. Had to rescue him from Apollo.” I replied.

  “That’s not what I’m asking-” Hephy asked before a cutscene cut him off

  “Shh, this is the next boss fight.”

  “Come on out, Ares. I know you’re out here!” Superdude called out, flying into the forest of Hot Springs National Park.

  “Superdude, we meet at last,” a large, shadowy, armored being emerged from a small clearing in the middle of the forest, moving entire trees out of the way, “Athena was a worthy martyr, but I am far stronger than her!”

  “That’s supposed to be m- Ares? He’s not that evil-looking. I know the dude personally, and lemme tell ya, he looks more like Dwayne The Rock Johnson then Chernobog, if you get me.” Hephy spoke, somewhat offended, “Also, who uses words like Martyr anymore? I thought that died out with World War 2.”

  I ignored him and continued paying attention to the game.

  “Your rampage has gone on for too long, Ares!” Superdude exclaims, flying closer to the shadowy figure, “If it wasn’t for Aphrodite, I would’ve never figured out what you were up to!”

  Ares makes a swipe for Superdude, but Superdude is making sure none of his hits connect. Then, the cutscene ends, and we get into the groundbreaking gameplay, which builds on mechanics used in Superdude 64, but better because Superdude 64 was universally hated. I think Superdude: Kill The Olympians is also universally hated, but I don’t understand why. I just like mashing buttons.

  “Aphrodite would never rat me out!” Ares yelled as he summoned several shadowy swords aimed at Superdude, who was played by me so I just kept dodging.

  “Oh, but she did. Hephaestus did too. You were planning to kill Zeus and take Olympus for yourself, so you could plunge the pantheons into an eternal war, thriving off the bloodshed forever! You can’t manipulate your way out of this, Ares!” Superdude exclaimed, punching Ares in the face several times.

  “Plunge the pantheons into an eternal war?” Hephy repeated quietly, his mechanical eyes now focused on the game.

  “Aphrodite is a lying whore!” in-game Ares screamed as I continued to beat him up.

  “Woah, I thought this game was meant for a younger audience.” Hephy spoke up.

  “What? No, it’s PG-13. I stole my sister's credit card and bought it on Steam for like 5 dollars.” I replied as I continued button mashing Ares' face in.

  Ares has 3 large health bars, and with each health bar depleted, he summons more weapons, in more varieties. Eventually, I managed to punch him hard enough to shrink him into his lowest form, where he sits in the middle of the now-destroyed forest, having created a crater under him.

  Superdude flies down, where Ares now rests, on his right knee, with his shadow weapon holding him up.

  “Your plans are foiled, Ares. Humanity wants never-ending peace, and there simply is no longer a need for war.” Superdude boldly shouts before laser beaming Ares in the forehead so hard, his shadows turn to rust, and the rusted metal armor that was then exposed slowly rots away.

  The end credits roll.

  “Huh. Wasn’t expecting a positive message.” Hephy said disappointedly.

  “That ending sucked. That boss fight sucked. I can’t believe this game costs 100 dollars normally.” I said, upset, looking out the window.

  The moon was out, so it must’ve been around 6 at night. I decided to quit the game and take the dog for a walk, which Hephy didn’t sound too thrilled about. As we walked down the stairs, there was a knock at the door. My mom, who was already in the kitchen, went to answer the door. When she opened it up, there was a large, burly man in overalls, lifting a heavy hammer over his shoulder.

  “Hello, are you the mechanic I called earlier?” Mom asked the stranger.

  “I am. May I come in?” The stranger, who spoke with a begrudging voice, asked.

  “Oh shit.” I heard Hephy say quietly.

  “Do you know him, Hephy?” I asked.

  “Yes. You should leave.” He spoke to me.

  Without a second to hesitate, I ran back to my room, but not to hide there or anything. I decided I wanted to test my raccoon mask so I could sneak back into the dining room, so I grabbed it out of my backpack and put it on my face, before going to the bathroom in the hallway to look in the mirror.

  There were no raccoons with balls staring back at me, or a me staring back at me. I was completely invisible. I took off the mask, and I reappeared in the mirror.

  “Hell yes.” I said to myself, putting the mask back on and immediately returning to the downstairs area.

  I went directly to the bottom of the staircase, listening to what was going on. The Stranger was now inside the house, trying to capture Hephy, with my mom using some strange kind of blue light to empower the stranger.

  “How did you find me?” Hephy asked the stranger as he jumped from bookshelf to bookshelf, destroying the room.

  “You asked the first adult you saw if they knew a mechanic who could free godly souls, what do you MEAN how did I find you?” The stranger shouted back at Hephy, “you’re an idiot, Ares.”

  I knew something was amiss for awhile, but judging from their conversation, I realized that Hephy was lying to me for some reason. He wasn’t Hephaestus, but Ares, the boss I just fought! That means the Stranger must be Hephaestus, and that would make my mom... the goddess of love, or so I thought at the time.

  After everything that had just happened, I felt my world get twisted, shaken, and flipped upside down before all of the truth got squeezed out. The dog was not my friend, the stranger was not a stranger, and my mom may not even be my mom. I felt like I was on a roller coaster that just would not end.

  “I knew from the second you came here with Len. At least he was able to distract you.” Mom spoke, the blue lights glowing from her hands getting stronger.

  The Stranger lifted his massive hammer off his shoulders and proceeded to play Whack-a-Dog with it, creating many holes in the walls and floorboards. Eventually, he was able to whack Hephy hard enough that the mechanism that trapped him broke, revealing the true form of Hephy.

  Which was Ares, a middle aged man with a handsome face, cloaked in dark black armor, dual wielding shadowy swords. Almost exactly how he was depicted in my video game.

  Hephaestus, the stranger my mom invited in, continued wielding his hammer, but remained still, as if preparing for an attack.

  “Congrats, you’re free from my punishment.” Hephaestus spoke warily.

  “Hmph. What’s your endgame, why did you free me? Wasn’t the point of the contraption that I suffer? Solely because I was having sex with your wife?” Ares replied haughtily.

  “Don’t remind me, Ares. The path between pantheons has opened, for the first time in eons. The end of everything is near, and we need your help to prevent it. Zeus asked me to get you myself.”

  “Zeus did? Doesn’t he have a swan to screw or something?”

  “Enough, Ares. This is bigger than us.” Mom spoke up, the blue light in her hands fading away as she approached the other Gods.

  “Did you seriously bring along Aphrodite to convince me?” Ares retorted.

  “What? No. Aphro is her own woman, she’s hanging out with Freya at the moment,” Hephaestus replied, gesturing at my mom, “This is Isis. President of the Pantheons.”

  “... The Egyptian goddess Isis?”

  “Yes. Zeus asked me to tag along, so I took the form of Len’s mother to find you. You are not hard to track down.” Mom, who I guess is actually Isis, replied.

  “This situation must be dire, then.” Ares spoke, concerned.

  “More than dire,” Hephaestus started, lowering his guard, “The fate of the planet, and the pantheons are at stake already. Janus, Apollo, and Thor are dead. There is word of war on the horizon.” Hephaestus replied.

  “We don’t know much, but someone is trying to plunge the pantheons into an eternal war, and due to the nature of what’s going on, we need you on our side, Ares.” Isis spoke in a warm, motherly tone.

  “You trapped me in that mechanical dog for decades, why should I help you?” Ares shouted.

  “Because if you don’t, billions will die. Including the Gods themselves.” Hephaestus responded.

  “You absolute fo-” Ares started, before a massive, blinding green light absorbed the room.

  As the light faded away, there was a tall, black woman in a relatively tight green dress, standing between Hephaestus and Ares.

  “I should’ve known you’d show up.” Isis spoke, upon witnessing this magician's arrival.

  “Aww. How adorable. Mother and Mountain Face got to Warfreak before I could.” The magician spoke with a tone of pure elegance.

  “Mountain Face?” Hephaestus shouted angrily.

  “Yes, isn’t it common knowledge that Hera hated you so much for being so ugly, she threw you off a mountain? Tsk, shame the fall didn’t kill you.”

  “Why are you here, Loki?” Isis asked.

  Loki wasn’t a name I was familiar with, outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but this Loki wasn’t masculine. She seemed more similar to a femme loki, but not like the one in the Loki series. Like... a strong, femme woman.

  “Don’t play coy, Isis. We both know that humanity is rapidly deteriorating. They’re on the verge of a final world war. The election is coming up, and both Prometheus and Lytir confirmed that the next sitting president will be the same reality show host the Pantheon already hates. There’s no better time to strike.” Loki chuckled, refusing to share anything more than that.

  “You intend on sending the Pantheons into an eternal war because Humanity is stupid?” Hephaestus asked, confused.

  “No, I plan on wiping humanity so they can’t continue to be stupid,” Loki replied, “but in order to accomplish that, I need Ares. Seeing as you trapped him for a couple decades, I have a feeling he’s not willing to rejoin your cause.”

  “He cheated on my wife, Loki.” Hephaestus grunted angrily.

  “A wife that was forced onto you by Zeus because he couldn’t bear to see her with any of the other gods. Aphrodite never belonged to you, Hephaestus.” Ares grunted angrily in response.

  “She doesn’t belong to you either, Ares.” Isis spoke, her eyes glowing yellow.

  “She doesn’t belong to anyone, President.”

  “Good, good, seems we’re all on the same page. Ares, would you like to cause insane amounts of war without interference from these fools?” Loki spoke, directing her attention at Ares.

  “Yes, my queen.” Ares replied without hesitation.

  “Well then, I suppose that’s one warmongering asshole down, only two serpents to go.” Loki smiles, snapping her fingers and disappearing in a puff of green smoke, Ares going with her.

  “Two Serpents?” Hephaestus asked.

  “She must be after Set and Lucifer. We must warn the Pantheon.” Isis spoke, disappearing in a cloud of yellow light.

  Hephaestus followed, disappearing in a cloud of smoke after the sound of a hammer smashing against metal rang through the house. I took off my mask, unsure of what I just saw, and went back to bed.

  By the morning, my real mom came back as if nothing had happened last night. She was making pancakes for breakfast, which I could smell as I walked down the staircase. The smell was delicious.

  “Good morning, kiddo.” She smiled, flipping a pancake into the air and having it land back on the pan.

  “Morning, mom.” I replied, not fully awake, my mind going crazy with everything I witnessed last night.

  “Did you sleep well?”

  “Not really. I had a weird dream where you were actually one of the gods in disguise and Loki was kidnapping my dog.”

  Mom lost her balance a bit trying to flip another pancake, but managed to catch in on her spatula just in time.

  “Gods? You’re not playing that Superdude video game before bed, are you?” She spoke sternly.

  “I mean... I was a little bit...” I replied anxiously.

  “That’s why you’re having such crazy dreams. We don’t even have a dog, Lenny.”

  I stopped eating the pancakes stacked in front of me. That mechanical dog, I was sure that wasn’t a dream. Hephy and I met during the day, and I thought my mom saw him, unless my mom was replaced by Isis the whole time.

  “Something wrong?” Mom asked, concerned.

  “I thought you remembered Hephy.” I spoke, which made Mom drop the pancake she was holding.

  “Hephy? A Dog? What are you talking about?”

  “The mechanical dog I brought home after getting lost in Puyallup."

  “You didn’t get lost in Puyallup, Sweetie. You’ve been home every day this week. You must still be tired, eat more of your pancakes.”

  I stopped talking after that, cause I knew at that point something weird was going on. I was certain my mom met Hephy, but if she didn’t, that meant that the woman called Isis was pretending to be my mom since the moment I brought him home. But how? How did she know?

  After awhile, mom finally dropped me off at school, and I immediately looked for Sanjit and Alex on the playground. After running a bit, I found them sitting on the swing set, talking about anime.

  “Naruto could totally beat Luffy in a fight. All ninjas can beat pirates.” Sanjit said intellectually.

  “Nuh uh!” Alex replied, locked into the conversation, “All of Naruto’s jutsu would bounce off Luffy cause he’s stretchy!”

  “Hey!” I shouted, trying to get their attention.

  They immediately got off the swing set and approached me with quicker speed than I was expecting.

  “Where were you, Len?” Alex asked.

  “We’ve been worried sick. It’s already wednesday.” Sanjit continued.

  “You’ll never believe what happened.” I spoke, immediately reciting everything that had happened after I entered the shack.

  Once I told them everything, they both looked flabberghasted.

  “The gods are real?” Sanjit asked incredulously.

  “Loki is planning on destroying humanity, and you found a mask that turns you invisible? Wow, you’re like a real Unreliable, aren’t you?” Alex chuckled.

  “This is serious! I need to warn the Unreliables! We’re all in danger!” I replied.

  “I dunno, Lenny, seems kind of out there...” Alex said.

  “I believe you.” Sanjit spoke, his eyes gleaming with belief.

  “You do?” I replied.

  “Yeah. I can help, too. I know where The Quantum Brain lives.” Sanjit spoke before running towards the entrance of the school.

  “Sounds like it’s quest time!” I shouted, following Sanjit.

  I didn’t hear anything she said, but after a moment I saw Alex following the both of us.

  We both followed Sanjit straight to the bus, which eventually led us to a random apartment complex in Seattle. It took a couple hours, and the bus drivers gave us strange looks, but we managed to make it. We knew it was the right complex cause there was a shiny black-tinted motorcycle sitting in front of it, the same motorcycle Starling was seen using. I never caught the name of the complex.

  “They live in one of the upper rooms.” Sanjit said before running closer to the door.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “The Quantum Brain rescued my brother, remember? He told me where to find him in case anything else came up. I think... it was... room... 723!” He replied, opening the door so we all could head inside.

  “Do you kids live here?” The woman at the desk asked us, her eyes looking really tired.

  “My uncle lives in room 723.” Sanjit lied.

  “... yeah okay I don’t really care. You know where the elevator is.” She said before leaning back in her chair, scrolling through her phone.

  Sanjit looked around for a sign pointing to the elevator, and eventually found it. Once we got in the elevator, no one else got in, and Sanjit hit the Floor 7 button.

  “I’ve never been to Seattle before.” Alex spoke up.

  “It’s cool, I think. Lots of people.” Sanjit replied.

  “Yeah, and superheroes.” I added.

  The elevator door finally opened up again, and we looked for room 723. Once we found it, Sanjit knocked on the door. It was silent for a moment, but eventually a black guy with a dark brown mullet answered the door.

  “Yes?” The man asked.

  “Hi. You rescued my brother from the Kinderdrawer and told me where you live in case anything else happened.” Sanjit spoke.

  The man paused for a second.

  “What day is it? Wednesday? You’re skipping school for this?” He asked.

  “It’s very serious.” Sanjit replied.

  “It’s Loki. She’s going to destroy humanity!” I spoke, which caused the man’s eyes to grow a bit wider.

  “Loki...? Shit.” He started, leaning away from the door, “Brendan, Loki’s not done. Call everyone.”

  A voice from behind the man at the door called back “Are you kidding me, dude? I have to work in like 2 hours! I can’t deal with Loki again!”

  “Brendan, if Loki isn’t done then we’re in a lot more danger than we thought!” The man shouted into the room before turning his attention back to us, “You three want hot chocolate?”

  We all nodded, with the man guiding us into the room, which was a little messy. He sat us down in the living room area, with a white guy in a Jurassic Park t-shirt staring at the TV with the news showing on it, and glancing back at us every once in a while. Eventually, the guy who met us at the door sat back down in the living room, leaving three hot chocolates on the table in front of us.

  “Start from the beginning.” He said, staring at Sanjit, who in turn placed his gaze upon me.

  I gulped, “Well, this all started when we found the shack a couple days ago...” I started, explaining everything I witnessed to the two adults in the room.

  Once I was done explaining, the two adults looked at us, then turned their attention to each other.

  “Alphonso... please tell me we’re not getting involved.” The white guy spoke.

  “We have to, Brendan. If Loki kidnapped Ares and is planning on kidnapping two other malevolent gods, then everything we know is in danger. We have to tell the others.” The other guy replied, turning his attention back to us, “We believe you. Loki’s already targeted two of our members for her goals. If this is as bad as you’re claiming...”

  “It is.” Sanjit interrupted.

  “Really, really bad. Like, we need to call in Superdude levels of bad.” I spoke.

  “Superdude? You know he’s not, like, a real person, right?” The man referred to as Brendan asked.

  “I’m 12, I’m not stupid.” I snapped.

  “Yeah, Brendan, stop insulting the intelligence of kids with higher IQs than you.” The man referred to Alphonso said as well.

  “These kids don’t have a higher intelligence-” Brendan started before getting interrupted by Alphonso again.

  “Name one extinct creature that’s not a dodo bird.” Alphonso retorted.

  “Orca Whales.” Brendan said without thinking.

  “Dude... even I know about Superorca.” Alex said disappointedly.

  “Superorca? Come on, that’s a cartoon...” Brendan replied.

  “No, it was on the news and had an animated segment on Last Week Tonight.” Alphonso shot back.

  Suddenly, a third person came in through the window near the TV, rolling on the ground and putting away a grappling hook. A girl also appeared behind us suddenly.

  “You’re going to ruin our window panes, Casp.” Brendan shouted at the man who came in through the window.

  “Apologies,” The man referred to as Casp replied, “but this is urgent.”

  “Loki’s back. She pulled me into an alternate dimension.” The girl continued.

  “Yes, we know,” Alphonso said, gesturing towards us, the three kids sitting on the couch, “She’s kidnapped Ares and is after two other serpents.”

  “Set and Lucifer. The serpent god of egypt and the garden serpent from christian mythos. What else do these children know?” Casp asked, turning his attention towards us.

  “Well...” I started, explaining the whole story again to the two new people now in the room.

  “Are you certain? Loki wants to get rid of humanity?” Casp asked as soon as the story was over.

  I nodded, not a shred of doubt in my face bones.

  “This is 1000 times worse than I was expecting. Odin told me that I must be the one to stop Fenrir. Loki... she must be toying with us.” The girl spoke.

  “Serenity, do you think...?” Casp started, before the girl called Serenity turned her attention back to us.

  “I think I want this full story on paper. So, kids, tell me everything that happened.” Serenity spoke, pulling out a journal she had in her purse.

  “Well, let me give some background first...” I started.

  If you want to know what I said after that, go back to the start.