I was blanking for the first time in a while. My civilian persona wasn’t supposed to know that kind of information, but it had slipped out anyway. Toil was right. I really was too tired for this. Still, I was searching with more clarity that I had since watching Bad Valentine in that fight yesterday.

I looked at Nathan, who was squinting at me suspiciously. His mouth twisted in a way that also communicated how suspicious he was feeling. I glanced at Madeleine, who was looking at me for answers. I looked back to Nathan.

“Well it was kind of obvious wasn’t it?” Fell out of my mouth.

“Was it?” Nathan asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded.

Nathan considered that. “Alright…” He let some quiet hang between us. “Going to explain how?”

Shit. “Well she wears green, for one.” I improvised. “And she’s canadian, like me. I had a scroll through the Canada forums of GiftedList after Sonya showed it to me.”

Nathan’s mouth twisted until it was a mirror of his previous expression. Still suspicious. “If you say so.”

“She’s semi-prolific, recently moved, and isn’t part of any large gangs.” I continued. “But her power is strong enough that people give her the time of day. And then there was that other guy she was traveling with. Fucking Dreadnaught.”

“Yeah, I know Dreadnaught.”

“Dreadnaught’s a fucking cat. Didn’t that make you scratch your head?”

“Um.” Madeleine said, making herself known again. “What’s this about Dreadnaught and Greenflame?”

I looked at her and blanked again, but my mouth didn’t. “Crazy things you wouldn’t believe.”

“Try me.” She responded.

I was about to keep going, but Nathan spoke before I could. “It’s none of your business.”

I closed my mouth and forced myself not to say anything.

“Michael, can I talk to you?” Nathan asked in a way that meant it wasn’t really a question.

“Yeah, sure.” I stood to follow Nathan, but paused before leaving Madeleine behind. “I’ll explain. But later.”

Madeleine nodded and I stepped outside of the wedge the conversation had been happening in. Nathan was checking over his shoulders, making sure no one else was close.

Then he looked me right in the eye. “Michael, I gotta ask. Do you have powers?”

Well fuck, I didn’t think I was that obvious. “Why do you ask?”

“‘Cause ever since you came back from that mugging, you’ve been acting weird. I did some reading last night about people getting powers. It only happens during really traumatising moments, and I don’t know. Maybe you survived Salt Lake okay, but that mugging was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

I needed time to comprehend that and come up with a response, but I didn’t have time. If I still wanted my cover, then I couldn’t make it seem like I was trying to maintain one. So I opened my mouth. “I didn’t manifest because I got mugged. I wish I had-”

“Yeah, me too.” Nathan sighed. “Fuck all that did.”

My mouth clicked shut as I realised what he was implying. “Did Greenflame use her power on you?”

Nathan nodded.

“Jesus fucking christ, Nathan. Do you know what she does?”

“She explained it.”

“And you just bought that?” I demanded. “Did it occur to you that she could be lying about her power?”

“As soon as it finished, yeah.” Nathan admitted.

“Greenflame sells the future, or that’s how she puts it.” I said. “Personally, I think it makes more sense if she actually claims the futures of others and tailors it to her own ends. Congratulations, you’re a pawn in whatever game she’s playing.”

“How she puts it? Where did you hear that?”

I was kicking myself as I smoothly replied, “Last night when I was researching, I just told you that.”

“Right, because you can trust everything you hear on the internet.” Nathan muttered.

“So you deferred to the supervillain merchant?” My voice was dripping with incredulousness. “Who deals in fate?”

“Michael, I get it. I fucked up.” Nathan said, strained. “Don’t make me say that you were right.”

“I don’t need to.” I said. You’re thinking it right now, anyway. “What happened after I got left behind.”

“Uh…” Nathan looked past me and stared. I followed his line of sight and met Madeleine’s eyes. She was standing at the entrance to the wedge. “Hey, we just met and all. So could you give us a little space for this?”

“Yip.” Madeleine nodded and promptly vanished back into the wedge corner.

I looked back to Nathan.

He gave a heavy sigh before starting. “Right, so BV was hurling abuse at you for a good chunk of the car chase. But it wasn’t that long because he rolled down the window and hit the tyres of the police cars with his power. We got away pretty easily.”

“Did the police crash?” I asked.

“Not that I saw.” Nathan answered, doing little to answer my question.

Still, nothing about crashed police had come up in any of my feeds. It was indicitive that the torn tires were the worst of that particular exchange. “Then?”

“We got back to the warehouse after a bit. Bad Valentine called someone before we got there, then the phone was handed to me and I was told you had found your own way there.”

“I didn’t.” I said.

“Yeah, I thought it seemed weird. Rainbowfish met us as we got back and just kept telling me about how you got there before us, since you didn’t have to escape the police. But there was no way, it was too far. Eventually, he threw a chair.”

“His power didn’t work?”

“Do you know what it is?”

I frowned, genuinely thinking of how to describe it.

Nathan seemed to accept that I didn’t and moved on. “Makes lies true, apparently. But only if he gets to pull the wool from my eyes.” I nodded along to that explanation. “Anyway, that flail? Greenflame didn’t care about it. She just told Jackal that all her conditions had been met and that he could make his wish now.”

“And that was?” I prompted.

“For a wide reaching and profitable business. I forgot the exact wording.” Nathan sighed. “Fucking nothing happened when the flames died down. Then she turned around and asked me what I wanted to wish for.”

“And you wished for power.” I finished for him.

“Powers.” Nathan stressed the ‘s’. “I wished for powers to get back at Jackal. That was my wording. She just burned my head with that green fire and when it ended, she had a guitar pick in her hand. Said it was for her, and that my wish was fulfilled. Jackal’s fucking eyes as I walked out, man.”

I took a moment to take all that in. “You got burned, Nathan. In more ways than one.”

“Yeah, I fucking got that. Only thing I have going for me is that Greenflame forbade Jackal from coming after me.” Nathan ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I think I need some time alone.”

“Go hang out with Sonya or something.” I suggested. “She’s good to you.”

“That supposed to mean something?” Normally Nathan was good at indicating whether or not he was joking through inflection alone, but that sentence blurred the line. I frowned, unsure of how to respond.

Nathan shoved my shoulder. “I’m joking, Mike. I’ll see you around.”

I watched him walk off. Right before I turned to go tell Madeleine what all that was about, I made eye contact with a teacher that was walking from one building to another with a white container that held his lunch. It was the guy that I had run from when Elsbeth and I had fled school.

He slowed down, then turned and started walking directly towards me. I sighed and leaned against the wall behind me. Madeleine poked her head out again, looked at me, then the teacher, then went back into the wedge again.

That hurt a little. I pressed my knuckles against the building and felt my awareness expand far beyond my comparatively small self. By dividing my attention and putting half of it through the building, I was able to convince myself that I wasn’t appearing as stressed as I really was.

“Hello there.” The teacher said. I had let my gaze drift to the side and met his eyes when he said that. “What’s your name?”

“What’s yours?” I countered.

He chuckled, making me narrow my eyes. “You can call me Mr Wainwrite. You really gave me quite the impression the other day. I had a lot of trouble finding you. Found out we don’t have a girl with scars like that here, either.”

“Would you believe me if I told you she was the family member picking me up?” I tested.

Mr Wainwrite snorted. “What’s your name, son?”

I looked at him as evenly as I could. If I told him my name, I wouldn’t be able to pull that trick again. But then again, it was a one time thing and if I didn’t fess up now, things could get worse. I sighed.

“Michael.” I said.

“Michael…?” The teacher prompted.

“Barker.”

“Well, Michael Barker.” Mr Wainwrite made sure to enunciate my name. “Truancy tends to have the worst connotation that upper management wants to have associated with students here, so I’m going to be giving you detention for running away like that. However, I could be persuaded to overlook it.”

“We’re in the open.” I said. “Are you sure you want to say that kind of thing here?”

Mr Wainwrite thought about that, then gave another laugh, putting me on edge. “No, no, Michael. Nothing of that sort. I just noticed how fast you were. It was baffling.”

If I hadn’t been diverting my attention between the conversation and the big building behind me, I would have groaned. The threats to uncover my identity were coming one after the other today.

“What am I trying to say? Yes. I’ll forget to file that detention if you join the track team.” Mr Wainwrite finished, then amended. “My track team.”

I blinked, my attention being forced back into me as I lost contact with the building behind me. I shoved my palm against the wall and probably shoved a bit too much of myself back into the building. It shook a little.

“Yeah, no.” I decided. There was no way I was going to be using my power so publicly. Even if my power was common knowledge, I’d be banned from that kind of thing anyway.

“So is that a yes or a-”

“That’s a no.” I told him. “Is that all?”

“Are you sure?”

“Hard no.” I frowned. “I’m tired. Can you let me go?”

“It can get you out of some of your classes.” Mr Wainwrite persisted. “All you have to do is show up for training before school a few days each week.”

“Wainwrite.” I said shortly. “I’ve said no.”

“Ah.” Mr Wainwrite blinked as his momentum was finally interrupted. “I just wanted to be sure, because you were incredibly fast.”

“What do I say to make you leave?” I asked.

“You join the track team.” He joked. I met his eyes with a flat expression. “Sorry. Too far. You’re sure, though?”

I breathed in, very slowly. Then breathed back out.

“Gotcha. Going now.” With that, Mr Wainwrite finally left. He looked over his shoulder to see if I changed me mind. I hadn’t.

I explored the building with my power a little before moving on. There were still several people inside, despite it being break. Normally all students got kicked out unless it was raining. I counted the number of people sized masses I could feel. Eight. Then I went to talk with Madeleine.

“Sorry about all that.” I said as I sat down on the bench and pressed my feet against the opposite wall. I was far enough into the wedge that I could do that and have my back pressing against the library building.

“I thought you were on probation from being a Sentry.” Slingshot told me. “So um, what was all that?”

I took that in as I answered. “Nathan got coerced into doing some shady stuff. I tagged along to make sure he didn’t get in too deep, but that quickly went right out the window when Greenflame got involved.”

Madeleine leaned back a bit in surprise. She may have had her shoes on, but she still reacted as if she was flying. Though, she probably was, just with her feet anchored to the ground by her boots.

“What? Greenflame?” She asked. I nodded. “With that guy?”

“It doesn’t make much sense to me either.” I agreed.

“So what happened?” Madeleine asked, and I gave her much the same version that I gave the Constable the day before. The bell rang before I was able to finish the story, because Madeleine asked a few questions that turned the storytelling into speculation, and I evaluated what was left with a few short sentences.

We were moving out of the wedge when a thought crossed my mind, and I vocalised it before my chest could get too tight about it. “Do you want to join us on break tomorrow?” I blurted.

“Uh, sure.” Madeleine responded with a tight smile.

“Just to hang out.” I stressed.

“That’s fine, Mike.” Madeleine’s smile relaxed a bit, moving to a more neutral expression. “I think I got that.

My mind flashed with irritation. “Why do-” Madeleine was looking at me. It made me pause. “I’m more than ‘Mike’.”

“I like saying it.”

“Alright, Madeleine. Call me Mike.” I said, earning a trace of a scowl.

“That’s not fair, Michael.” Madeleine amended.

I shrugged, trying really hard not to react to the disappointment I felt from that victory. “Then we don’t have a problem, Maddy. See you.” I turned around because the way I needed to go was in the opposite direction.

When I was halfway to my next class I noticed Ben moving towards me. I ignored him and kept walking, turning to travel a route which would add a minute or two to my travel time, but put me on a path that he wasn’t on. Unfortunately, that just seemed to aggravate him. Ben caught up to me in a low traffic area and spun me to face him. Unfortunately, he was easily able to since I was still so early in building my strength.

“You.” He said, voice low.

“Me.” I agreed. “Can you let me go?”

“Jackal’s not happy you skimped out on the job.” Ben told me. “Bad Val’ might agree with him.”

“Well when you force people to do things, they act up.” I rebuked. “You can tell Jackal that.”

“Jackal wanted me to tell you somthin’.” Ben told me, tightening his grip on my shirt. “Don’t fukin’ tell anyone about yesterday, or you got the Beasts to deal with.”

“Too late.” I deadpanned. No point in lying about this.

“You shittin’ me?”

“No, I’m dead serious. Do you know what happened? I was left to the police, so I decided to be entirely upfront about everything. Hey, are there any more Hound races tonight? I missed yesterday.”

Ben was looking at me with an expression of disbelief. “Ain’t you the one Nick fucked up?”

My eyes widened, then narrowed. Was he just realising that? “Yeah. It didn’t turn out well for him now, did it? Because he did that, I just stood back when the cops showed up. Hell, I was eager to tell.” I glanced down at his arm. Short sleeves. I couldn’t force him away by wrenching his arm away from me so I placed my palm on his shoulder. “If he wants round two…” I pushed, using my power to exaggerate the force. Ben’s hand lost its grip on my shoulder. “I’m right fucking here.”

Ben looked at his hand like he couldn’t believe he just lost his grip. “Got it.” Then he punched me in the gut with the other hand.

One of the things I didn’t like about my power was that I had to be able to focus on a force to change it. In the case of Ben punching me through my shirt, the blow came too quickly for me to tamper with it. I felt the force appear in two ways, then I felt it vanish before being able to do anything about it. The force in my shirt vanished, while the pain from the blow stayed.

I leaned forward a bit, feeling sick. “You going to dig your hole any deeper?” I asked pointedly.

Ben froze, realising we were in a hallway that, while it didn’t have much traffic, still had people walking through it. People were giving us space. Some were watching with Vphones in their hands. Her gave me an expression of impotent rage, stuffed his hands in his pockets and stalked off.

“Thanks for helping, guys.” I told the crowd sarcastically, then pushed through towards my class. The crowd parted around me.

~~~

The sun was still in the sky, irritating me as I inspected each car I passed walking down the sidewalk. I was alone and back in Beastmaster territory. The warehouse where the races had been was three corners away, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. There was a chance that what I was looking for had already moved into action, in which case there wasn’t anything I could do. But I was hopeful it hadn’t yet.

I rounded a corner and found what I was looking for.

“Glitter Bomb. Forsaken.” I projected my voice as I knocked on the door of the white and yellow van. My mask active from the moment I raised my hand. “It’s Lock.”

I heard a high pitched gasp from inside, then some movement. The door opened revealing Forsaken in his metal mask.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, curt.

“I have some more information regarding the situation yesterday.” I said. “And I got the impression that you wouldn’t let this matter with the flail lie. I’m here to offer help if you’ll have me.”

“Hi Lock.” Glitter Bomb eagerly waved from inside. I waved back less enthusiastically.

Forsaken took a moment to respond. “Tell me the information, then go home.”

“I’m not going home.”

“Then go talk to Toil. He seemed to like you.” Forsaken started sliding the van door shut.

I touched it and opposed the force, stopping him. “While I’ll admit the information doesn’t really apply to the flail, it’s just stories from my friend. That thing creeped me out. It isn’t exactly ‘game’ level, is it?”

Forsaken tugged on the door again, but I was still opposing it. He let go and it slammed back into its open position. “You’re sixteen. There are rules regarding underage heroes in situations with high levels of danger. The Regulation should be keeping you far away from such situations.”

“Cool.” I said. “It doesn’t.”

“This is a matter that could result in deaths.” Forsaken stressed. “Real deaths. Not the theoretical ones that Risk works to avoid.”

“And I was on a team with Satellite.” I rebuked. “Admittedly, only for one mission, but I still rubbed shoulders with a killer. It doesn’t bother me because I manifested after Salt Lake City. Yes, that Salt Lake City. I’m restless. Can you please let me help?”

“Forsaken,” Glitter Bomb said from within the van. “The path just widened.”

Forsaken looked at the heroine. “With Lock’s involvement?” Glitter Bomb nodded. “And without?”

“It’s the same as before.”

Forsaken looked back to me, calculating. Eventually, “Inside.” He stepped back into the van and let me enter. I got the door, using my power to slide it off the catcher with a dismissive wave of my hand.

The inside of the van was spacious enough for multiple people to stand in with their head’s ducked. Instead of rows of seats facing forward, there were two rows along the long sides of the van with two seatbelts marking where people were supposed to sit. Glitter Bomb was sitting next to the back door of the van, and was looking out even though there was solid metal between her and the world outside.

Forsaken sat next to Glitter Bomb. I sat opposite Forsaken, slinging my bag off my shoulder and depositing it between my feet.

“What’s your plan?” I asked.

“We follow the path.” Glitter Bomb answered.

“That’s it?” I asked when Forsaken didn’t elaborate. He nodded. “Are you relying on her power that much?”

“Hey, my power is really good.” Glitter Bomb told me indignantly. The childish reaction took me off guard coming from a grown woman.

“Once the path reaches a certain breadth, reaching the destination becomes certain.” Forsaken added. “We’re waiting for the path to spread to that width and more. Then we’ll make for the flail.”

“Sorry to step in on your operation and start asking questions.” I said, “Do you mind if I ask?”

Forsaken waved a hand to give me the go ahead.

“Does the pathing power get you back out?” I asked. Forsaken shook his head a moment before Glitter Bomb did. “Do you know who is in there?”

“We haven’t checked in the past half hour. It has likely changed.”

“Where is Toil? He knows this is a serious thing, right?”

“Toil is aware.” Forsaken nodded. “Your stories of Bad Valentine have caused him to become cautious. He is putting through requests for information from people who are able to procure it.”

I thought of contacting Fail at that, then thought better of it. “Can’t he just guess? He’s really good at that.”

“When all is said and done, a guess is just a guess. Toil wants to be sure before committing.”

“So are you going behind his back by being here?” I asked. Forsaken looked at me levelly, then nodded. “I see.”

“I like this.” Glitter Bomb said. “Being rebellious, I mean.” She got a concerned look from Forsaken. “This much is harmless, right?”

“We need to get the flail back.” He said grimly. Glitter Bomb didn’t say anything, but I inferred from her body language that she wholly agreed.

“So why is the flail so important?” I asked. Forsaken met my inquisitive gaze, which wasn’t a squint, for once. “You’re making a really big deal about it, and the only thing I would give that much importance to is one of Greenflame’s artefacts.”

“Your view of the world is still small.” Forsaken said, then sat straighter. “It is a creation of mine that possesses a will, but not a life. That will is of hostile intent to all that is not the holder of the weapon. Fortunately, without a holder the flail cannot exert its power on the world. Unfortunately, the flail has a holder by the name of Bad Valentine.”

“What does it do?”

“It grants the wielder a power.”

“Which is?” I asked when further explanations weren’t forthcoming.

“It’s got two parts.” Glitter Bomb told me. I turned my attention to her. “First it bleeds everywhere, and it can keep bleeding for a really long time. If it bleeds more, the second part is stronger. Which is a big old stabby stab.”

I blinked. “A stabby stab?”

Glitter Bomb faltered and glanced at Forsaken. “That’s right, isn’t it?”

“In essence.” Said Forsaken. “The liquid of the first stage acts as an origin point, and the wielder chooses a target for the second. When the power is activated the blood converges on the origin point, then transmutes to a metallic substance and extends towards the target.”

“From how you’re talking about it, this happens quickly.” I said.

Forsaken gave half a nod. “In an instant.”

“So why did you make it?”

Forsaken didn’t answer that question right away. I noticed his head twitch towards Glitter Bomb, but his eyes were trained on me. At length he said, “There was no other choice.” And that was all he said.

I had a feeling I knew what was going on, but I decided to move past that. There was no reasonable way I should have known.

“You’ve said you’re keeping watch, but you’re on the inside of a van, and the window is up there.” I pointed at the high window at the back. The rest of the walls in the back of the van were windowless. “May I ask how you’re keeping watch?”

“Fairy.” Forsaken said, getting Glitter Bomb’s attention.

She looked at us, then realised we were waiting for her to speak. She got out some pictures from a pocket of her costume. “See these?” She showed them to me. They were pictures of all the known Beastmasters. Bad Valentine was missing. “I can focus on these people and path towards them. These ones.” She pointed at Jackal, Rainbowfish, and Wayvern. “They’re that way, as well as the flail. This one.”

She was pointing in the general direction of the warehouse the Beastmasters were using as a headquarters. Then she pointed at Channel, and then in another direction. “Is that way, and this one is that way.” Another direction for Retch. “She’s really far away. Like, really far. She moves quickly, though.”

“Bet she does.” I murmured, thinking back to my fight with Clothesline.

“So basically, we’re waiting for the path for the flail to move, or to get wide enough.” Glitter Bomb finished. “Then we’ll be able to stroll on up, and take it!”

“Just like that?” I asked Forsaken. He seemed to be the one in charge.

Glitter Bomb let out an indignant, “Yeah!” Before the male hero could answer.

He finished his nod from earlier. “In essentiality, yes. If it moves, we will be able to follow from a distance, thanks to Fairy’s power.”

“And Fairy is…” I drifted a hand to gesture at Glitter Bomb.

Forsaken nodded while Glitter Bomb went, “That’s me.”

Strange… but okay. “Does the origin point of the path matter? If it does, you could try driving around the block and see if it gets wider at any point.”

“That depends.” Forsaken answered before Glitter Bomb could. “Fairy has access to more than one kind of path. For her most direct paths, which come with great risk, the origin point does matter. In regards to her safer paths, if another starting spot would be safer, then one starting in a different spot will go there first. We are using one such path for this mission.”

“So there’s more than one kind of path?” I questioned, getting a nod. “What others are there? They could be useful.”

“I recognise that you are becoming familiar with how we operate.” Forsaken said. “However, we are taking point in this operation. If you want to work with us, you must trust that we know what we’re doing.”

I tried to come up with a response that would let us continue to discuss powers, but none were forthcoming. I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms. “So now we wait?”

“Now we wait.” Forsaken echoed as Glitter Bomb returned to staring through the van door.

After some comfortably uncomfortable silence, I reached down and opened my bag. From within, I pulled a pair of fingerless gloves and pulled them on. They weren’t the pair I’d worn when Greenflame came to Graceland, those had gotten lost somewhere. This pair was new, bought from a sports store on the way over.

Before I put them on, I decided to apply my Ghost power to them. I got most of the surface to the black colour on my face by wiping my palm over it, but all the little details where the design left tiny little trenches were left untouched. It wasn’t that bad an effect, so I let it be. Where the fabric had creased on my initial pass had been left untouched, however, and I made sure to get those on my second run.

When I was done making my gloves look cool, I did the same to my shirt and jacket, going with the green of my costume for the jacket and black for the shirt. I didn’t bother with the parts that were covered by the jacket. My pants were made the green as well.

I noticed Glitter Bomb watching me as I ran my hands all over myself. She glanced away quickly when I turned my head her way. Once I was done with my appearance, I pulled a collapsible baton out of my bag and let it rest in my hands.

The segmented object was something I found myself enjoying analysing through my sixth sense. The sliding mechanisms, or more specifically the locking mechanisms that kept the baton in one of two positions were gratifying to figure out. I removed friction from the parts that slid, and ended up having the baton extend and collapse without moving a muscle.

“I thought you were an Enforcer.” Forsaken commented. I started looking through my eyes again, and realised his attention was on me.

“You’re not the only one. Risk thought so as well until I told him otherwise. I’m a Dagger range Disrupter and Ghost.” I raised the baton, stopped holding it, and made it slide halfway down my hand, where it stuck as if glued. I had to pause and focus because of the finicky uses of my power. “I have telekinesis on anything I touch, on the deader side of Felwyr’s law.”

“How strong?”

“Pretty strong, but not as strong as Orcus and I can hurt myself.” I explained. “I thought you guys knew.”

“I didn’t.” Glitter Bomb said. “What’s your Ghost power?”

“My face.” I explained. “I change the colour of things.”

“That’s pretty cool, you can like, do graffiti and stuff.” She leaned closer. “Have you done any graffiti and stuff?”

Forsaken crossed his arms. “I’m worried now. You just improvised a costume, but you don’t have much protection. With your powerset you’ll need to get close.”

“It’s why I got the baton. I’m vigilante at the moment, I can’t access the stuff I’d have as a Sentry. My costume was specifically made with that in mind, but that’s not helping us here.”

Forsaken thought for a moment. Glitter Bomb looked between us.

“Forsaken! Are you really going to do it?” Glitter Bomb asked excitedly.

“Lock.” Forsaken ignored the heroine. “I will lend you a weapon for this mission.”

That got my attention. If all Forsaken’s weapons had powers, then he just told me that he was giving me a power. “Which one?”

“The spear.” He said. “But not now. When we move.”

“I don’t want to stab anyone.”

“Then the spear won’t let you.”

That made me frown, but Forsaken offered no further explanation. Maybe he thought his vague explanation of the will in his flail was enough. I nodded hesitantly and set the baton down beside me. Back to waiting.

As time passed I did my best to stave off the tiredness the inactivity was giving me. I failed first when my head fell back and hit the wall of the van. I straightened back up, but there wasn’t any action to be had, so I soon found myself back in that position. From that position, I failed at staying awake again when my eyes closed.

I saw gold overhead.