...Derek accepts -

I knew it was coming, had hoped for more time, but -

"What happened?" I ask as my eyes complete my cautious scan, taking in the scorching desert, not as dry as my mouth as I see him standing in front of me - a thousand scenarios going through my mind, had they got to my parents, had I made a mistake? Taken too long or...

"Everybody's alright." He held up his hands.

Relief, before a mix of confusion, growing anger - at why he would risk it when we were so close...

"We agreed-" I was walking toward him, ready to grab, to shake sense into him if he hadn't taken my warnings seriously -

"To meet if it was worth the risk. We're ready, but even if we weren't, there's not much time left. I had to warn you."

The confidence of his words, at the veracity of them...

"What?" I paused, arms outstretched. Did he think I didn't know the danger?

"There is more to what's going on, it's getting more obvious each day and I didn't want you to get caught by surprise." He met my gaze with assurance, kindness too. The heat of the desert boiled around me, my body still panting with my temper and he was so different -

I lunged for him, lifting him up - staring into his eyes, I see them flash through expressions, feel him wiggle, waiting, returning my gaze instead of shifting away as though he knew what I'd see there and was proud -

He quirked his lips, the corner just alighted in the shyest half-grin, and it's not just conviction of purpose that brought him here but...he missed me? It was such a sweetness across his face, and a welcome reminder that I had friends -

All his other changes, the glowing confidence. The cleverness, much deeper now, his eyes seem darker even as they sparkle with the slant of mischievousness. Now I see that he recognizes the power of what he can do and sees that it can be good, too - and that we have been reconciled in friendship -

And he missed me...

I realized I was hugging him, feeling him crush against my chest and the pressure on my cowl, the hiss of air he made like a happy puppy -

"I missed you, bro." And it was true. Before that moment, I'd resigned myself to tolerate -

"You're stronger." He said, and after a moment, "You're ready, too."

Even his voice had changed, it always held an entreating note, that pitch of lightness and humor instead of direction, but now -

"And you stink." He added, and I laughed squeezing him tighter, closer to my pits before releasing him, letting him push off me with a - "Uck!"

What had brought about this change, was it as simple as my own - the confidence of passing through a door alive? Of overcoming greater worries to have lesser concerns left behind?

I hadn't even realized I'd fallen into a crouch - facing him, that something in his appearance challenged me and that I wanted to answer it -that he matched my posture and smiled -

We crashed together and I obliterated him, each of his blocks a half second behind. Each of his grabs unable to hold, I jabbed his left shoulder, slipped under his right - took him down at the ribs, the kidneys, leaned my knee over his and followed it to the hot sand where I clasped his neck -

His only grunts between each pin - exertion, as I rolled away and let him recover, he shared -

"I beat Brandon."

"What?!" I shouted, crouching -

"Once." He nodded, not crouching now - but swaying, "Mike's getting better, Jason...bought the skill."

It was good they were fighting, but Jason was in charge of the money, understanding the store - if he was being flagrant...

"If somebody he knows has a skill, it's cheaper for him. It also gets cheaper the closer you are to getting it. Now we're doing more freestyle, I wouldn't have a chance against Brandon in wrestling." Derek said standing up, the open palmed crouch of a wrestler left behind for something more casual -

My hand snaked toward him and his eyes shot at my neck, my grip was already moving to catch - except I felt his hand wrap my waist. Light as a dancers, smooth as silk, he pulled close to me and I reversed my momentum, dropping to a squat to close the net of my reach and he pulled his hands up, launching me -

Into a flip - he sprung up with two fists leading I exposed my gut to take the blow and then clamp down over him, to use my limbs like a grabbing claw, except he had his feet on the ground -

He let me take the bite, but twisted to sling -

Not wrestling - Freestyle? Brandon and I - we'd begun to move beyond grappling, it had happened naturally but this was technique.

On the beach I'd realized that the way I fought needed to change, that we didn't have the motions to fully take advantage of the improvements - our strength, our speed. That I was trying out new things, learning on the fly but it was obvious Derek had found a better way -

"Mike." Derek spoke between our bouts, as I grew a tree next to us, a lone sentinel of shade - "He's always finding new styles, new moves. He knows what works best for each of us, even easier then we do -"

We took our challenge to the branches as it became big enough to support our weight, swinging and working with leverage - I dropped the wrestling crouch and moved more into the style I had been slowly building on myself, and realized Derek was teaching me.

Teaching me as Brandon once had - in silence, new moves used against me, striking me - I'd open myself the same way again and try to counter, then use it against him - seeing how he responded. I felt him learning as well as we matched each others pace and the styles became more congruent. He took from me the wild lunges, his shoes vanished and his feet gripped the bark - his body almost seeming to roll toward me, shoulders impossible to discern where he would strike as our arena became three dimensions -

Again his eyes caught my chest, my groin, and I dodged two invisible blows that never manifested to leave my face bare to his palm, not a slap but a push - I lunged backwards and he dove, following right on top of me, his hands finding my stomach and neck. It was enough for me to feel solid contact - with his touch and the branch reaching the groove of my shoulder blades -

It wasn't his win - not a point to cheer over, but I saw him take the prize regardless - my growing respect for him. That he had earned it.

"You're dangerous." And all his changes made sense, that if he didn't have that languid confidence now, that it would be far stranger then seeing it now, not worn like clothes but actually under his skin...

He pulled back from me, leaned against the trunk even as I shaped the branch into a wide swirl, a bench and table, leaves like an umbrella - it was too hot to be lounging like the beach, but we both sat down at the table like it was perfect - and I could tell he needed to speak, to share -

"We don't get to practice as much as we'd like, we go to school, keep up appearances. But we aren't idle."

I reached for the store - nodding as he continued and bought some lemonade. Wood cups appeared and plates quickly made to hold a pile of cooked crab legs and fat oysters, melted butter. Red meat that made deer taste domestic, and of course some roasted 'chicken' -

"I still don't have a skill or ability." I nodded at the food, warning him. It wasn't restaurant quality...but it was fun to try new things, and I hadn't found anything yet that poisoned me. Still I'd mostly stuck to animals that at least resembled something I've eaten before -

He ventured a bite of fowl and swallowed politely, not asking what it was. The long drink of lemonade chasing it back before he produced some food of his own to share, we ate silently -

Everyone was safe, but he was here - what was worth the risk? Complicated enough to not share online? Every one of us had our roles - the responsibilities that fit us best. Derek's was -

"There's more to what they're doing, more than stopping people from entering the doors, it's how...there's a bigger purpose." I looked across the bright horizon, thankful for the shade. I leaned back in my seat that stretched to let the wood cup my lounging form as I focused on his words -

I nodded.

"...at first it was just the doors, how they appear at random? They dispatched people to handle it, and then the door vanished -"

Obviously somebody was going in - we knew that.

"They only do that now if it blocks a road, something major, and even then not right away, just once a week. If not they cover it, just dropping a locked shipping container right on top, and they pay whoever owns the property to rent it."

"But that's good, if they don't have enough people to get them all?"

"I wish it was that simple, and maybe it is true, but now they have scientists saying the amount of doors doesn't change." Derek shrugged, "What's more important is that it's convinced people they have a way to control them. That if you cover them, you can be safer. The anybody going into one is acting selfishly and now, every time one appears it's automatically blamed on a 'Dark Diver."

I shook my head - even if it was having an effect, it was helping. What about the other countries? Time zones? If they really cared they wouldn't just lock up some. And they definitely wouldn't issue licenses - they'd stop everything to figure it out -

"Even the supporters like the licenses, and with them, there's no excuse to go into a door - when one pops up in public, people stop, like a neighborhood watch they monitor them, making sure nobody goes in. On accident or on purpose. And an entire industry is being built up around the doors, around keeping them safe and protecting people from them."

And I saw the conundrum - what he was getting at - that they didn't have to take the doors from people, if they could convince them to take them from each other. It was just like the compound - all those service people who thought they were doing the right thing, that would never guess that what they believed in had been turned to a bad purpose -

Wasn't this the same, even admirable? That people were coming together to protect each other, and that almost everybody was doing it for the right reasons? Sacrificing time to protect neighbors? Giving up resources to keep from endangering others, even strangers? It angered me, seeing the strength of their humanity turned against them without even realizing it...

I was so caught up with the deviousness of the plan, to see goodness turned into a weapon, that I completely missed Derek's actual point -

"They're becoming traps. And they're perfect. A door disappears and later you return, the same spot. Who knows how many they're watching, how many they monitor with satellites or drones. You're going to get caught and soon there will be nothing to convince people you aren't guilty, they won't have to abduct people they can just put you on trial."

"Stupid me. Stupid, stupid, stupid me." I looked at Derek, more respect earned, a cold beer pushed over. I drummed the table, thinking over his words, of what they meant for the future. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how right he was, but what did it change? There wasn't really anything I could do about it except give up and I wasn't -

He was pulling out a phone, a tri-pod, setting it on the table and realized - I didn't have to do anything -

He had a plan - of course he wouldn't just come to warn me of a trap. He wanted to do something about it...

I started to disguise my features, my eyes taking the cat eye iris, my teeth growing sharp and fierce - Derek shook his head at me.

"I don't think that's what we want, that if we disguise what we're doing, we'll be just like them." Derek said, "People are going to be afraid of us, we can't help that. But if we're honest about everything we can be honest about, they'll make up their own minds. Hopefully, before it's too late for them, too."

It was a good idea - Derek wanted to do a dungeon tutorial, to dispel the rumors, to help people survive if they wanted to go in. But it was more then that - it was spreading a message of what the powers could do for good, what they would become - more then just an easier way to steal stuff, or a flashlight, as most people currently thought about them.

I planted a seed and grew it into a tree. I made ropes appear out of my inventory - a board, shaping the wood quickly, I made a swing. I made a hammock and took a nap, a comfy blanket of leaves.

No threats or speeches, no promises of revenge. Just my abilities put to good purpose. And I enjoyed it - realized it was the most important part of my message. That Derek had even managed to convey it without words...that the power belonged to the person, that it could be used to make everybody's lives better, that the goodness was sometimes the simplest parts of it -

I built a small tree house in the tree that kept growing, harvesting fruit and dropping them into a basket, the desert around me became greener - footsteps of grass and flowers followed behind each step, and beautiful green dragon flies circled me in harmony -

No pollution, unlimited food and medicine - guaranteed for everybody. How terrifying it must be, for the Government -

I wasn't sure it would help - but, Derek was planning for the future. He understood people in a way I never could, and I had to believe in him as much as he was believing in me, because he was - they all were...

"It's the only way to keep our families safe, hiding them, it won't work. Something will happen. We have to draw so much attention to them, that harming them will do the opposite of what they want. They may benefit from secrets, but they will only hurt us in the long run."

What he wasn't saying was that they were all in, that they'd done everything to get their families ready, to prepare them, and they were ready to say goodbye for now -

Then we were off - him running, filming as we hunted...

It was my first desert, and the hunting was pitiful. Almost everything was camouflaged and hiding in the shade, beneath rocks. There were sand snakes, a few giant lizards, and occasionally we passed a small oasis with a pocket of life for some quick money -

*Twang. Twang."

Derek's bow was deadly, he hardly aimed and every time his arrow flew true, head shots - his power was the most subtle so far, at first appearing weak mostly because it was slow. Enough to nudge an arrow - to keep a few extra shots floating close to hand, along with the phone bobbing - but apparently not enough to send them flying without the bow.

Normally with such sparse hunting, I'd hunker down, work on crafting or study. But with Derek here, and because he wanted to share as much of the dungeon as possible - I found myself roaming farther and farther. Searching for anything interesting to share - the different animals and plants, the scenery - sharing my own tips of how to survive and what I'd encountered, as well as telling more of my story.

"Do you think you could give me a ride?" He asked during one of the long stretches between kills, it was slow, even with him running he could tell he was holding me back.

Do I think? Anything, for a friend...

I was on all fours, and he was climbing aboard - I can't wait for those eagles to hatch.

Even before he found balance I took off - soft sand, peaking dunes - the second he got comfortable I shifted my bones, my body, making it as uncomfortable and lumpy a ride as possible, laughing at his struggle, or when I bucked him off.

And hunting was much faster, I didn't even need to slow down or steady my pace as he lobbed off a couple awkward shots and guided them home, I collected the carcass and returned his arrows. Wider and wider we traveled, then I saw it -

Just a speck in the distance, but it stuck out because it was the only thing on the horizon. A mountain, just one in the whole desert, and I headed toward it watching it grow, larger and larger, until it was impossible to deny...

Derek had been talking about the dungeons, giving survival advice. Tips on gear to bring with you, what to watch out for - when he noticed and turned the camera - then there was just the crunch of sand and our breathing until the structure loomed in front of us -

Derek's tone changed - all the humor, the playfulness gone -

"Have you ever seen something like this before?"

"Only pictures..." I whispered, and who hadn't seen a pyramid? We were in a desert - and there were cactus, and ugly brown desert animals, and -

"Holy shit, that alien dude was right." Derek whispered - as we walked closer and I reverted to my normal form, just staring up -

Because on top, on a pyramid in a dungeon, that looked like it could have been built yesterday, there was a very obvious carving -

And it went with a pyramid, too - it was on our money.

"What does it mean..." Derek breathed the words -

I just looked up and frowned at the All Seeing Eye.