Jack Powells had moved up in the world.

  Matthew just didn’t realize how high until he saw his old teammate waiting with his back against a black Chevrolet Corvette’s door, a golden Rolex gleaming on his right hand while sporting Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses. His expensive shirt and form-fitting pants only served to better showcase his chiseled muscles. He had just hit twenty, with the physique to match.

  Jack had truly become a living ad.

  Nonetheless, he remained Maggie’s elder brother in so many ways. Same skin tone, same amber gaze, same ‘too tough to approach’ aura. Only Jack’s devil-may-care grin differed so much from the harsh scowl his sister usually sported nowadays.

  “Hey, it’s my favorite Evermarsher!” Jack said when Matthew and his crew stepped out of Mr. Auguste’s car. He immediately grabbed his old teammate in a manly hug. “It’s been too long, man!”

  “You’re squeezing me!” Matthew complained. Even his Doom Sense had started acting up. “Damn, I should call you Jacked-Up from now on!”

  “Ah! Yeah, I’ve been working out since we last met.” Jack let go of Matthew and checked on the rest of his team. “This is your new crew?”

  “My name is Kari Matsumoto, alias Crit,” Kari introduced herself properly, her arm extended. “Nice to meet you.”

  Unlike his sister’s, Jack’s handshake was strong, warm, and firm. “Name’s Jack Powells, cutie, though I go by Firebomb on Youtube.”

  “I’m surprised to find you here,” John said without introducing himself. “I’d heard you were a coward uninterested in using your powers to clear Dungeons.”

  “I usually leave Dungeon crawling to the pros, but I guessed it would be a good opportunity to catch up with Matt. Nostalgia helped too.” Jack met John’s gaze. “You’re a Red too, aren’t ya? ‘Cause I was an ass too until I learned to smile for the cameras.”

  “I don’t respect those who don’t speak their minds,” John replied bluntly. “But I won’t spit on assistance, so I will keep my mouth shut.”

  “And here I wanted to teach you the ropes,” Jack joked, his eyes glancing at Mr. Auguste next. “And you are?”

  “Sir Jonathan Auguste.” Mr. Auguste squinted at Jack, and unlike Kari, he didn’t extend his hand. “You’re quite the savage soul, aren’t you? I can see it in your eyes.”

  A savage soul? Matthew wondered. He thought Mr. Auguste’s reaction was quite odd. It’s like he’s wary or something

  Jack’s grin didn’t waver in the slightest. “My good sir… I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “I am quite certain you do.” Mr. Auguste shrugged his shoulders. “In any case, young Matthew vouched for you and I’ve heard you have years of experience under your belt. We follow specific protocols for our teams’ safety, so I please ask you to follow orders and not to act on your own.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m just along for the ride. I’ll return these three safe and sound.” Jack gave Matthew a tap on the back. “So what is it today, team leader? We blow our way to the core with fire and lead?”

  “This one is going to be more Indiana Jones than Doom,” Matthew warned. “No Nazi super soldiers though, which is a shame.”

  “Man, that Dungeon was good,” Jack reminisced. “We nailed that werewolf boss good too.”

  Kari blinked in shock. “You fought a Nazi Dungeon?”

  “Yup, but we have yet to find a Commie one,” Matthew joked back. “You would think extradimensional predators with monster hiveminds would find the concept appealing.”

  “I’m glad that there are still aspects of human culture Dungeons have yet to mock,” John said before focusing on Jack. “Anyway, what does your Key do?”

  “Me?” Jack snapped his fingers with a grin, flames bursting forth from his hand. “I’m fire.”

  It didn’t take long for Matthew to recall one of the benefits of having a fire user on the team; namely, it saved them a fortune on the lighting budget.

  The rooms after the laser corridor—which had been one of the most painful parkour experiences in Matthew’s entire Crawler career—were cast in thick and impenetrable darkness, without any lightsource whatsoever. Jack spent the trip keeping a flame up in his hand to light the way while Kari used her Key and spells to check for traps. Matthew’s Doom Sense had mostly acted muffled for now, so he didn’t think they were in immediate danger, but better safe than sorry.

  “So there’s only one monster in this place, and you want to capture it alive?” Jack asked, his previous grin nowhere to be seen. “And it talks back?”

  “Not gonna lie, I’m not feeling this plan either,” Matthew replied. “We’re scraping the bottom of the barrel nowadays.”

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  “More like you guys are poking a hornet’s nest.” Jack shrugged. “Ah, well, that Tarantulas fellow can’t be so tough if it ran away from a fight.”

  “I suppose that makes two of you,” John replied coldly. Clearly, he had taken an immediate dislike to Jack.

  Matthew glared at his teammate. “Misfire–”

  “It’s fine, Matt, I don’t really care what your pal thinks of me,” Jack cut in. He seemed more amused than bothered by John’s jab. “Didn’t Matt tell you how our old group split up? You wouldn’t be blaming me for retiring if you had gone through the same thing.”

  “Perhaps,” John conceded. “But I cannot stand the fact that you chose to use your power for fame rather than saving lives.”

  “There’s more people dying in Sudan right now than in Dungeons, but I don’t hear many Crawlers using their spells to save those people,” Jack countered. “And if you’re good at something, why not earn a paycheck for it? Life’s too short to die poor.”

  “We do use our spells to earn money now and then,” Kari said offhandedly. “I see light further ahead.”

  True enough, they finally reached a large, cubicle-like metal room with a set of halogen lamps providing a measure of light. The place was almost empty of scent, stain, and decor except for a large, six-armed steel statue of a faceless woman wielding kukris in all her hands and with a mane of blades for hair.

  Jack immediately blasted it apart without hesitation.

  It had been years since Matthew saw his Key in action. His old teammate could barely create crimson fireballs hot enough to incinerate monsters back then; the blue, nearly hot-white projectile he threw at the statue melted its steel into a puddle in an instant.

  “Whoa!” Matthew whistled in admiration. “Somebody got an upgrade!”

  “You’ve noticed?” Jack beamed with pride. “I’ve found a way to strengthen my Key with practice. I can burn hotter than the sun now.”

  “Could you please give us a warning next time?!” Kari complained, the blast coming from behind her having startled her.

  “Calm down.” Jack scoffed. “You always break statues in Dungeons, that’s rule number twelve. They’re either monsters in disguise, traps, or distractions.”

  “Oh, you remember my old Dungeon manual!” Matthew grinned ear to ear. “You know Crypto made a whole checklist out of it?”

  “I’m out of practice, but I haven’t forgotten either,” Jack observed the puddle of steel with disappointment when it failed to attack them. “Shame, I was hoping it would be an actual monster.”

  “You did well in destroying it though,” John said, pointing his finger at the statue’s wrecked eyes. The molten steel revealed cables and processors underneath. “Do you see that?”

  “A camera?” Kari shuddered. “Are we being filmed?”

  Matthew scowled upon activating his Flux Sight. The aura around the camera was a faint mix of Green and Blue sorcery, as he feared. “Those cables are web strands.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think this is the first set of eyes we’ve encountered,” John said, a scowl forming on his face. “Tarantulas must have been observing us for a while.”

  “Damn, I should charge him for the footage,” Jack idly said.

  Kari then moved to check out the room. She pressed a spot on the leftmost wall, a click resounding across the room as she unveiled a secret door to a miserable, three-meter-square chamber.

  “Here,” she said, pointing at an awfully familiar metallic-looking cobweb tucked into a corner; the first clear sign of Tarantulas’ presence they had found yet. “These webs are a few days old according to my spells.”

  “Neat,” Jack said. “So we just have to keep digging until it has nowhere to go?”

  “I doubt Tarantulas will risk a confrontation,” John replied. “It ran from the three of us last time, and we have another heavy hitter now on top of that. Considering the high number of secret passages and hidden cameras around here, it would be child’s play to move to another room as we close on to its current position.”

  “In that case, it’s time to use our first piece of bait,” Kari said. She opened her bag to unveil one of the flowchart copies she kept there and placed it on the cobweb.

  “What’s that?” Jack raised an eyebrow upon seeing the first page’s content. “Step one: begin to negotiate and give the initial offer.”

  “It’s a peaceful negotiation flowchart,” Kari explained. “Basically a pacifist’s guidebook.”

  “You want to teach this thing how to negotiate?” Jack scoffed in amusement. “What’s there to settle for? Its side is winning.”

  John bristled. “All the Dungeons we’ve blown up would beg otherwise.”

  “Yeah, right.” Jack shrugged his shoulders. “Well, you do you.”

  “Yes, yes we do,” Kari said with a frown. Jack’s remark bothered her, but she was too polite to argue. “I see a set of secret doors. It will take me time to figure out the correct sequence.”

  “The two of you can cover our rear while we check the secret chamber,” John told Matthew and Jack. “Play catch up.”

  Matthew had spent enough time around his teammate to detect the undercurrent of disdain in his voice. John was just looking for an excuse not to speak with Jack any more than necessary.

  Jack didn’t miss it though, and waited for John and Kari to enter the secret room to whisper in Matthew’s ear. “Your pals don’t like me, and I don’t think they’ll warm up to me either.”

  “Give it time,” Matthew reassured him. “We’re all on edge lately. My whole house disappeared a few days ago, if you can believe it.”

  “What, like Bielefeld? That’s messed up.” Jack sounded more amused than spooked. Matthew had only ever seen him looking rattled once in his life, back at the Mall. “Did my sister’s place disappear too?”

  “Not yet.” The Association had been monitoring the Powells’ home since the black Flux incident, but hadn’t reported any oddities since. “She spends more time in Old Town teaching her ducklings.”

  “Aww, Maggie’s playing mentor? You’re pulling my leg.” Jack glanced at the secret door, his gaze unreadable behind his sunglasses. “Why are you even bothering with teammates? It must be maddening to always hold yourself back. You could dump this whole place in a black hole and call it a day if you went all out.”

  “You’re making me blush,” Matthew replied with false modesty. “I know I’m the best Crawler in town, but I’m not that powerful.”

  “Are you kidding?” Jack let out a warm laugh. “You wield the most busted power I’ve ever seen, Matt. Even back in the day, I could tell you held back to indulge us. Plus you’ve got the balls to make the hard calls when needed.” He scoffed upon glancing at the secret door. “None of those finks would have taken that shot.”

  A sharp pain erupted in the back of Matthew’s skull, sudden and unexpected. He would have loved to say he had grown used to headaches by now, but they always managed to strike without warning.

  “What…” Matthew winced while trying to hide his pain. “What shot?”

  “You know, back at the Mall?” Jack frowned at the secret door and then nodded to himself. “Ah right, yeah, we shouldn’t discuss that with those two around. They wouldn’t get it anyway.”

  Matthew felt sick in his stomach, and he couldn’t remember why. “Get what?”

  “Perse.” Jack gave his teammate a bemused smile. “Come on, Matt, don’t make that face. It was her or us.”

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