The doors to the Headquarters slid open and I looked over.

"Neuman!" shouted Ariel as soon as her eyes found me laying down on the couch. She ran to me. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, somehow," I said, standing up.

"We were told that he made it here safely after all," said Buddy as he joined us. "What all happened?"

I explained all that happened since we were split up. Throughout the story their faces seemed to only get more and more surprised. When I finished even they were speechless for a while.

"Well then." Buddy shook his head at the ground. "That's quite the adventure you had there."

"There was good news in there though!" exclaimed Ariel. "You have a power! It's confirmed!"

"Yeah, but I have no idea what it is."

"You'll figure it out eventually! Anyways, this is what happened to us."

The two of them filled me in on their side of the story. They didn't have too much new information to provide me, but at least I knew more about who we were messing with. Urbain and Havel sound like dangerous men, and they're nothing compared to their boss. One thing was for sure: we needed to get far stronger before we could do anything. The question was how.

"Oh yeah, what are they doing here?" I pointed to the crew of three who were sitting on the ground on the other side of the room.

"Go fish!" said Kayson to Bishop.

"Dang. I guess I'll just have to find my fishing pole then. Or do you have one in your purse, Marion?"

Marion's palm met her face in an audible slap. "I thought we were playing One?!"

"We are, I just told him to go fish. I felt like it would help his patience."

"Marion! Do you or do you not have a fishing pole in there?!"

She sighed. "Yes, that is indeed something that he could work on."

Ariel interrupted their fiasco and invited them over.

"The Defenestrator Squad is complete at last!" said Bishop.

Kayson agreed.

"Wait, why are we suddenly part of your squad?!" Ariel crossed her arms. "If anything you all should become part of the Odd Squad because you wanted to tag along with us!"

That's your issue with it?!

"Yeah alright."

Don't give in so easily!

"There you have it Neuman!" Ariel smiled. "They came because we decided to work together!"

I don't believe "we" means what you think it does. I sighed. "Well, the more of us there are then the better off we probably are." I looked at the five faces in front of me. They each had their quirks, but they were all good, fun people. They seemed to understand my desire to chase after my brother without me even saying it. Arlen, just you wait. We'll get to you, stronger than ever! "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Took you long enough," said Buddy with a smirk. He lead us out the door. "All aboard the couch to South Vespuccia!"

-----

We raced through the air, the sun setting over the land below us. I leaned back in the seat and watched the trees flow below me. Buddy was of course driving, and
Ariel was throwing her hands back behind her to feel the full extent of the rush of air.

And then there were the ones previously known as the Defenestrators. Kayson had promptly applied himself to the bottom of the vehicle, sticking to it by just his fingertips and letting himself hang otherwise. Marion, seeing the lack of seating, had shrunken herself, and was sitting on the armrest beside me. I was worried that she would bounce off at a moment's notice, but she didn't seem so worried. In fact, she was enjoying herself. Finally, Bishop had to form his own mode of transportation, much to his disappointment. He had let his power affect a few rocks, and was effectively surfing them in a straight line.

Just like the kids that pick a seat in class and stick with it even though the seats aren't assigned, this became how the six of us travelled everywhere.

We had been flying for a few hours when we saw something shine metallically on the top of a steep hill.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Let's find out," answered Buddy, steering the couch towards it.

"Hey guys! Give me more warning before you turn!" shouted Bishop behind us, who was still going in a straight line. He got low to the rocks, grabbed on tightly, and they took an impossibly sharp ninety degree turn, just about throwing him off.

"Rook-ie mistake," taunted Kayson from below.

"You're the one in the sticky situation," he replied. "What is going to happen when you land?!"

There was a pause. "I hadn't thought about that."

Please don't die a few hours into our journey...

As we got closer to the glimmer on the hill it started to take more and more shape. It was the armor of Prometheus.

Without saying a word, we unanimously decided to land and see what was happening. At the last second before landing, Kayson let go and somersaulted across the ground, unhurt. Bishop just slowed his rocks until they reached a stop, then he jumped off and they fell to the ground.

We walked over to the armored figure quietly and waited for him to notice our presence. A few seconds after we assembled, he looked back and turned around to face us. "Can I help you?"

I spoke up. "Maybe. What do you know ab--"

"One second, let me take off this mask first. It's too hot to wear all the time."

We all gasped as his hand slowly moved to his helmet. His fingers clasped the bottom of the metal joint, and he pulled up. Out from under the mask came an unexpectedly shining face. He had grey hair cut into a crew cut over a suntanned body, which was eclipsed by his blindingly white teeth.

He winked like a stud. "Now, what were we talking about?" His voice sounded a lot different when it was out of the helmet.

Our jaws dropped. There was no way that this guy could actually be Prometheus, right?

"What?" I said dumbfounded. "Wasn't the hidden face like your whole defining trait?!"

"Was it?" he asked, then averted his eyes to the sky. "I don't remember ever establishing that."

We could've fallen over by the force of our cringing alone.

"It's okay if you don't believe me though," he said. "If you don't have anything important to ask me then I better be on my way." He turned around and took a single step forward, tripping immediately. He plummeted to the ground, and soon as his body hit a gigantic wave of force spread out from under him. We were safe behind him, but everything in front of him was devastated. The wave of force ripped trees out of their roots and sent clouds of dust into the air, effectively deforesting several acres of land. He just stood up and brushed himself off as if it was nothing.

We were speechless by his accidental display of reckless power.

Well he doesn't know how to control his own strength... Sounds like Prometheus alright.

"Now I'll be going."

"Wait!" I wasn't going to let him get away yet. "What do you know about Hades?" I had to get leads to find my brother. Aimlessly stumbling around the continent wasn't going to get us anywhere any time soon.

He looked at me, dead serious, and spoke with a condescending tone. "You'd better not be thinking of picking a fight with him." He held up three fingers. "Out of the Sentinels, he is easily the third strongest, quite possibly the second. I would fall at around sixth place." He glared intensely. "Go after him and you'll end up worse than dead. You'll end up with your soul in tatters."

He started to walk away.

"B-but!" I couldn't let the thought of letting Arlen stay in the captivity of a man like that for more than a second. Right when I thought that I could do something useful, that I had a goal for this world, it was ripped down in front of me. What was even worse is that I felt that the other person that we had some beef with, Odin, was probably in the top two spots of strongest people in the world. No! I can't let it end like this!

"Neuman? Are you okay?" Ariel put her hand on my shoulder and looked at me.

Tears ran down my face. How could I be "okay?" Yes, I knew all along how impossible of a task it was from the beginning, but being told that I had no chance of achieving my goals shattered my hope.

It can't end like this! It won't end like this! Who cares about this dream world when all that happens in it is dreams getting destroyed?!

"Neuman!" Ariel slapped my face out of nowhere. The pupils of the rest of the crew shrunk. "You better not be thinking what I think you are! You're giving up, aren't you?!"

No, that wasn't quite it. Sure, I was losing hope, but I was at least going to have the last laugh. I was at least going down with a fight.

I rubbed my cheek from the pain and wiped the tears from my face. "No, Ariel. I'm alright." I looked up and straight at Prometheus. "Tell me what you know of Hades."

He mentally judged me. "Very well. If you're going to be that stubborn I won't stop you." He squatted down to the dirt and drew a map with his finger. It looked strangely like South America, but had some strange deformations. He rubbed a dot into the map. "This is where you'll find his laboratory, in northern Pindorsa. I've never been there personally, but the rumor is that once you get close enough to it you'll end up at it whether you want to be or not. People disappear from the area surrounding his lab every year, so the people who live around it regard it as an almost enchanted place and have it as forbidden. They don't know why people disappear, of course, but ask the right questions and you won't have any problems finding it."

He stood up and put on his helmet, changing his voice back to the way it was before. "If you do go, though, don't go as you are now. At least have some weight behind your name before you barge into that place, or else everyone will just laugh at your deaths."

He tipped his mask to us as a sort of farewell and jumped into the air, stirring up even more dust and sending him flying into the forest far away where we wouldn't find him again.

Us of the Odd Squad looked at each other. I could tell that Bishop and Kayson weren't going to crack any jokes at a time like this. Actually, to my surprise they were the ones that offered today's bit of wisdom.

"Would you look at that? He almost made me question my decision," stated Kayson.

"Yeah," agreed Bishop. "But I think we know something that he doesn't."

The rest of us looked cluelessly at them.

"Honor or safety aren't what make this life meaningful."

"It's not even the fact that we're alive."

"It's the fact that we're human and have other people in our lives to live for."

"None of us need to worry; none of us need to back down just because a task seems impossible or even fatal."

They walked forward and put their hands on my shoulders.

"So Neuman, if this is something that is so important to you that you'd think about dying for its cause, then go for it."

"We might hardly know you, but we'll back you up all the way, because if it matters that much to you then it matters that much to us too."

"I hate to give it to them," said Marion, "but they have a point." She looked at me with soft eyes. "And I think that everyone here agrees."

"Well, we don't have anything better to do right?" joked Bishop, resulting in a fist landing on the heads of both him and Kayson from Marion.

"I apologize for agreeing with them for a second."

"Why did I get punched too?!" squealed Kayson, rubbing his head.

Marion scolding him with an accusing wiggle of finger.

Buddy spoke up for once. "And let's just take care of that vile Odin while we're at it, right?!"

Everyone laughed.

Doing the impossible is just what you do when you find yourself in Insomnia Wake.

-----

"So it's just you, Baron," said Juno as she walked out of the shadow of a tree. "I heard that Prometheus was around here, but I guess he just used you as a proxy again."

The suit of armor stopped and took off its helmet, revealing the same guy as before. "Well, can you blame him? My power is perfect for faking his overwhelming misdirected strength. I'll have you know that it took every muscle in my body to keep myself from shouting 'Barren Landscape' when I ripped up the forest like that."

"Yes, I'm sure you hardly had the self control to handle that," Juno retorted. She waved and got ready to leave. "Tell your boss to handle his grunt work for himself sometimes." She leapt into the air and was gone.

"My my, she's sure cocky for the supposedly second strongest in the world," said Baron with a sigh. "If she would stop clinging to Prometheus and actually handle the crooks of this world herself we would have a lot less to worry about." He put his false mask back on. "Guess I can't blame her though. I wouldn't take punishments that can affect our lives on Earth lightly either.