"You are the Hewkin boy, yes?" The unfamiliar voice behind Chase was clear-cut and succinct, not wasting any words. Chase turned around to see a tall, well-built East Asian woman whose straight, jet-black hair was pulled into a high ponytail and who wore a simple black jacket and pants.

"Yes," Chase nodded, now more confident in identifying himself.

"Good. Come with me."

"But Commander Chu, we still have forty-five minutes of lunch left!" Juliana protested, looking down at Chase's half-eaten sandwich. "He has to-"

"He can eat when he is trained. I am dismayed to see that you are still so soft, princess," Chu shook her head disapprovingly before turning her attention back to Chase. "I clawed and fought my way to the top. You were born here, in the golden center of the world, and I will not let you waste that. Come with me."

At this point, Chase had no real choice but to follow her. Despite his stomach's avid protestations, he left the table, staying just behind Chu as they walked out of the food court and toward an ordinary-looking red and white car.

"We will be taking a short field trip," Chu explained vaguely. "Get in."

Remembering how gruff she had been with the princess herself, Chase didn't argue with her. As he stepped into the backseat of the car, he was surprised to see Chu get in beside him.

"Put on your seatbelt," Chu ordered as she buckled in her own. Chase almost laughed at the seriousness of her expression. You're not my mom, he wanted to say, but before he could respond, the car jolted forward.

"Or not," Chu shrugged as Chase went flying forward, his cheek pressing against the seat in front of him as wings shot out of the sides of the car and it accelerated, slowly rising into the air.

"We are going to the Order's secret vault at the edge of the city," Chu explained calmly, her hands neatly folded in her lap. To Chase's shock, she seemed entirely unperturbed by the fact that she was in an actual flying car. "That is where the Principal Weapons are kept. Your first task as an Order member will be to choose your PW, or rather, let it choose you. Only once you are equipped with a weapon can your training truly begin."

"Wait...it chooses me?" Chase frowned as the car began to descend. "What if it doesn't?"

"Then you are unworthy."

"What happens if I'm...unworthy?"

"I don't know, it has never happened before," Chu shrugged, a warning in her eyes. "Do not make me have to find out."

The car landed in the middle of a patch of grass, quite far from the downtown area that hosted the Royal Academy. A short man in a comically large coat ran towards Chase and Chu as they stepped out, shaking their hands vigorously.

"Commander Chu! Young Lord Hewkin! What an honor it is to meet you both. I am Maximilian Fogarty- you can call me Max- Guardian of the Vault. Cool title, lame job," he explained, letting out a seedy laugh at his own joke. "Now, would you both be so kind as to stick out your tongues. I must ensure that it is indeed you, and not some impostors with Maskeys."

They did so, and being satisfied with their authenticity, Max led them forward. At first, Chase wasn't sure that they were going anywhere- the grass only continued to get taller while the nearest buildings on the horizon grew farther away. Yet, after a few minutes of walking, something changed. They took a sharp turn around a seemingly random hedge, revealing a row of steps leading down into the Earth. Chase marveled at how the staircase was hidden in plain sight- if he hadn't been with Chu and Max, he doubted he'd be able to find it.

As they walked deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth, their pathway was lit up by fluorescent lights above them until they finally reached a small, circular chamber. It was certainly much less fancy than the other Order facilities, and something told Chase that it was much, much older. The walls were covered in archaic-looking carvings of old people in robes, some wearing crowns and still others holding pairs of dice. In the center of the chamber was what looked like a podium, with a dusty hand print in the center."

"Put your hand there," Chu gestured to the print. Chase obeyed, reaching out to place his hand in the center of the print, which was much larger than his own palm.

"That print is the hand of Arcan I, the first King of Arcana," Chu almost smiled with pride. "It is a relic of the throne- only nobility is allowed to touch it." Chase almost instinctively pulled his hand away before realizing that he was, indeed, nobility. Applying a bit of pressure to the hand print, he felt a soft click beneath him. The podium sank into the ground, releasing a good portion of dust as it revealed what looked like a hollow bin underneath.

"You do not feel you are worthy," Chu observed with scientific interest. She had noticed his slight hesitation. "You will be an interesting case. The trainees I usually work with have the opposite problem...overconfidence. But anyway, have a good look inside the Vault- the next time you come here, it'll be with your wife to help her choose her PW. If you marry outside the Four Bloodlines, that is."

"Wow..." Chase looked down into the gaping hole in the floor as the podium finished moving away. Inside was an assortment of what looked like ordinary household trinkets, but since he had seen Juliana's bracelet and Roy's watch, Chase knew that they were so much more.

"Well, try them out. Pick them up, give them a little rub. Go on," Chu gestured to the vault. Chase continued to stand on the edge, confused.

"Uh...which one do I start with?"

"Whichever one most intrigues you."

Chase chose a dusty top hat, mainly because it looked very fancy and he wanted to try it on. Reaching over to pick it out of the vault, he placed it squarely on his head, feeling very gentlemanly.

"Wait..." he paused after a few seconds of nothing happening. "How do I get it to, erm, turn into a weapon?"

"You can only transform a PW at your will if it likes you. The hat does not like you," Chu replied, seemingly entirely unconcerned.

Chase didn't even want to know the specifics of how he'd just been rejected by an inanimate object. Sighing, he bent over to pick up a ring of keys. They were smooth and fit well in his hands. He twirled them around in his hands, observing the probabilities of them falling.

"Abracadabra!" Chase exclaimed loudly, his voice bouncing off the walls of the closed-off chamber as he held the keys up in the air. They were still keys.

"Another," Luna gestured to the Vault. Chase sighed in defeat, almost sad to part with the glistening keyring. He picked up PW after PW, trying ridiculous stunts with hopes of activating them to no avail. Soon, several hours had passed and he had tried every weapon in the vault except one- at this point, even the overly respectful Max was trying very hard to hold in a grin. Chu was expressionless, past the point of telling him to try once more.

With weary eyes, Chase picked up the only PW he hadn't yet tried: a simple black pen. Please, he thought, squeezing the pen with all his might as he fought back the tears that were beginning to form in his eyes. Was this it? Was he going to be sent back to his old life, perhaps with his memory wiped? Would he remember Project PROB as little more than a remnant of a dream?

There was nothing. The pen was still a pen. Even though he knew it was a priceless artifact, it took all of Chase's willpower not to bash the pen against the floor. He never should've come to Arcana. He didn't belong here. He wasn't an Order agent- he could never stand among people who had practically been born doing this.

"As you can undoubtedly guess, I do not say this often, but I'm... I am sorry, Chase," Chu said gravely, folding her hands in front of stomach. "I suppose this means that you are... unworthy."

Of course he was unworthy. What else was he expecting? He couldn't run an 8-minute mile in PE, let alone save the world. But there was something about this place, about Juliana, that had made him believe... yet, all that would be gone soon.

"Wait!" Chase turned around to see a flustered figure running down the staircase into the Vault Room. As she slowed, pausing to catch her breath, he caught sight of her face. It was Juliana. She was still in her uniform, suggesting that she had rushed here as soon as school let out. Clutched in her right hand was a pair of black gloves.

"Try these," she jogged over to Chase, pressing the gloves into his hands. They were warm with the same sweat that dripped down her brow. Chase looked down at the gloves with shock- he had never seen the princess in such a frenzy.

"Wait...are those...didn't the King..."

"Yes, they were my mother's," Juliana nodded solemnly. "I remember being six years old and coming here for the first time... I wanted those gloves to choose me, more than anything else in the world. But they didn't- my father's spear did. So my grandfather retired them, in her honor... he swore that no Order agent would ever again use the weapon that couldn't save his daughter."

"And yet you bring them here?" Chu raised her eyebrows. "I must admit I am surprised. I was under the impression that you lacked a spine. You clearly do not."

Juliana smiled only briefly at the compliment. "Try them, Chase. Please," she looked up at him almost pleadingly, an incredibly complicated mixture of emotions in her eyes.

"Okay, here goes..." Chase pulled the gloves over his hands. They fit like a second skin. He flexed his fingers back and forth, feeling the soft leather conform to their changing positions. And then, before he even noticed the change, an unbelievable sense of calm came over his body and the gloves weren't gloves anymore. They were thick, metallic disks in the centers of both his palms. Despite the fact that they looked quite bulky, they weighed practically nothing. Chase raised his right hand as the disk began to glow a bright blue, expelling a silver projectile that couldn't have been more than a few millimeters long. It shot forward, bursting midair with a loud pop and a small ball of flame before flying back the way it had come, embedding itself in the disk on Chase's palm.

"I would turn off explosive mode before playing with them," Chu advised.

"Whoa! Holy..." Chase laughed, looking down at his palms as the bright blue glow faded. He didn't even have to try to shoot the dart- he just thought, and it went.

It had chosen him.

"She chose you," Juliana shook her head in disbelief, tears running down her cheeks as she buried her head in Chase's shoulder in an unprecedented burst of emotion. "Mom chose you," she sobbed, and when she raised her head, Chase saw more hope in her eyes than he had ever seen before.