Hero and Zoey moved.

The Freemans followed.

After a red laser beam shot past the space above him, Hero turned and took aim.

He pulled his laser pistol's trigger. A blue laser beam made sure the Freeman who had opened fire stopped being able to open fire.

Hero had killed another Freeman.

That Freeman found a metaphorical prison, the packed spirit hotel, where Hero's victims metaphorically go after he killed them.

As for Zoey All, she ran beside Hero. The two teenagers had ascended several flights of stairs to get to the hall they now ran in. Since they were in a Freeman building in Freeman territory, they had expected their pale enemies would go on the pursuit.

Hero and Zoey were multiple floors above the building's first one.

Zoey accompanied Hero. As much as he preferred Zoey's company over Wade's company in the present, Hero hadn't forgotten the mission. If Zoey learned what that mission entailed, she might view the teenage Exchanger as a person who harbored much bad.

It didn't seem like Zoey believed Hero was a bad person. The Exchanger didn't plan on proving her wrong.

Her existence, Zoey's existence, brought complications to the task. Perhaps her existence complicated more than Hero knew, but she was his latest friend. He planned on helping her reunite with her parent. Because Hero's own parent was missing in his life, he sympathized with Zoey's status as a girl separated from her mother.

Boone Windsore. He had married Zoey's mother. Since Boone's daughter was Lovely Windsore, that meant Zoey's stepsister was a High.

Hero would love to meet Lovely Windsore. Maybe she was lovely.

After he survived the assault on the Freeman base, Hero would investigate Alice Endman's kidnapping.

The sixteen-year-old owed the deceased Boris Endman that much. Hero had been obsessed with Boris and his family for a long time. He remembered. He remembered facts that should help the investigation.

Hero was an aspiring kidnapper.

Hero was an aspiring family reunion maker.

Where are you, Alice Endman?

A red laser shot into the spot close to Zoey's hand. It devoured most of the pistol's barrel. With her laser pistol missing the majority of its blue barrel, Zoey threw the gun back. A Freeman grunted.

Another laser gun fired, a Freeman gun. Red engulfed most of the barrel of Hero's gun, something that had happened to Zoey's weapon.

Hero didn't drop the gun. He could do what Zoey had done.

With unrestrained grace, Hero launched his ruined pistol. It flew. It struck a pale face.

"Grenade!" a foe yelled, speaking Freeman.

A red object landed in front of Hero.

He kicked it.

The grenade launched off the floor, came to a stop near the wall ahead Hero and Zoey. It detonated.

While sound exploded into the hall, sharp and gray metal erupted from the spot where the Freeman grenade had detonated with violence. Hero kept running.

"Get to the hole!" Hero shouted, hurling his words at his friend.

Zoey would get to the hole, but she wouldn't reach it by running.

"Stop running and raise your hands!" a Freeman ordered, aware his two enemies were several floors above the ground.

Hero wouldn't surrender.

"Zoey, stop running!" Hero said. "We need to surrender."

"But-!" she started saying.

"Stop running, then raise your hands!" Hero demanded.

He stopped running. He raised his hands.

Zoey stopped running. She raised her hands.

"We surrender," Hero said, speaking Freeman.

Then he grabbed Zoey. He shot his body toward the gaping hole, which the grenade had birthed with fierce intensity.

They shot through the hole before a Freeman could open fire, moving fast.

After putting enough distance between him and the hole, Hero slowed his pace.

"You can fly," Zoey said, speaking Soynite, speaking her native language as Hero held her, both teenagers flying through skin-warming air.

Hero could fly. He could fly to the area where he had parked the universe's fastest Soynite spaceship. That was where he needed to hide Zoey.

"I'm going to take you to my spaceship," Hero said, Zoey clinging to him. "Until we find your mother, you're with us. You're with me and my brothers and sisters."

Lasers shot past them.

The Freemans resumed the hunt.

While the red and brutal lasers rocketed through open air, Hero and Zoey's own weapons remained discarded. They had thrown them at their pale enemies, the same enemies trying to kill them.

Freemans had tried killing Wade. Hero had left his brother. He had made him continue dealing with a Freeman mob by himself, but Wade had laughed as Freemans tried slaying him. He had enjoyed the violent opposition.

Like Theo Majestic's wife, Hero knew what it was like to be a sibling.

His siblings were inside the Freeman base. Hero assumed they were still there. If the other Exchangers assumed Hero hadn't left the building, they were wrong.

Hero and Zoey held each other like mourners.

If the Freemans would resume finding no success, Hero's siblings wouldn't hold each other as mourners.

Hero Shame needed to live.

Zoey All needed to live.

Hero ascended higher, increasing the distance between him and the Freemans. That distance filled Hero with appreciation.

The armed Freemans were not going to kill Hero and the girl he carried.

Hero could fly. Zoey could not.

A shot from a Freeman's gun could bring down Hero, make him die. If Hero got shot out of the air, Zoey's heart would stop.

"I got you!" Hero said, holding Zoey as lasers flew.

"I know!" Zoey said.

Until it was safe to, Hero was not going to let Zoey go. In addition to that, carrying the girl, having her so close to his body, did not make awful disgust slip into Hero.

Finding no Pure inside the Freeman base would be awful. If that happened, Hero hoped he would at least free whatever Soynite prisoners the Freemans kept imprisoned. The attack on the base wouldn't be a major waste if the Exchangers freed at least one non-Pure Soynite prisoner.

The universe was a massive place. The typical Soynite was not a Pure, but that didn't mean Pures didn't occupy planet Earth, planet Free, planet Still, or space station that weren't on either of those planets.

Who would become the Exchangers' first victim?

Who would become the Exchangers' tenth victim?

Ten.

Ten Pures needed to be taken by the Exchangers.

Ten was four more than the number of Soynite Highs. One of the six Highs had a stepsister named Zoey All. Hero carried Zoey. He carried her as he flew while laser beams flew.

The situation was interesting. It was interesting and dangerous and violent.

Hero flew above trees. Many trees formed the forest the two Soynite teenagers were above. The sun warmed Hero's hair, blond hair that rippled as wind roared in his ears.

Zoey had theorized that the blonde Lilly Majestic had given birth to several children.

If Zoey's theory was true, if Theo Majestic's wife had produced more than one child, was one of Theo's children a Pure?

Thanks to Zoey, Hero had learned Theo Majestic had managed to turn six children into Highs. That was secondhand information for Zoey, since she had learned that from her stepfather, a man known as Boone Windsore.

A man called Boone had seen the latest generation of Soynite rulers get made with his own eyes. Because her mother had met the man, Zoey had learned about her current stepsister. She had been informed about the daughter of a man who was not related to her.

Where was Lovely Windsore?

Where were the six royal Highs?

If one of them was inside the Freeman's huge building, Hero didn't know it.

A red laser shot past the flying Hero, a dozen feet away from hitting him. Another laser passed by, twenty feet away from hitting him.

"They're having a harder time trying to kill us!" Hero said.

A red laser clashed with a flying bird, engulfing it in vicious red that devoured blue feathers and a beating bird heart.

A Freeman hadn't had a hard time killing a bird.

But Earth's birds weren't the Freemans' targets. Two airborne Soynite teenagers were.

The Freemans had failed to shoot and kill Hero. They had failed to shoot and kill Zoey. With Wade unleashing chaos and conflict on other Freeman warriors inside the base, and with Hero's other siblings doing whatever they were doing in the building, the flying Exchanger expected the Freemans to quit. They would quit trying to kill an airborne boy. They would resume hunting the Exchangers who couldn't fly.

Hero and Zoey were in the world beyond the Freeman base's gray walls.

On planet Soy, a person of either Soynite origin or Freeman origin, had stolen Alice Endman from her family. Hero had never become what Alice Endman's kidnapper was.

The transformation would slip into existence.

A family would morph into people-stealing Soynites who tended to shoot Vamp into their unwilling fellows.

What Hero Shame was, Alice Endman's kidnapper had been.

What Alice Endman's kidnapper was, Hero Shame would become.

Hero might adopt a kidnapper's status and go on the hunt for Alice Endman's kidnapper.

Interesting irony.

That was what it would be.

The will to do what he had been ordered to do stayed in Hero, hooking into him. It hadn't deserted the boy who could fly. He accommodated the will to obey the order, let it settle within him.

Yes, he would take ten people to Heaven.

No, he would not refuse to take ten people to Heaven.

For now, as Hero carried a girl who did not know what he would become, the Exchanger maintained his true innocence.

He hadn't performed a kidnapping.

Yet.

Hero Shame needed to do what he had to do. It was either that or more unwelcome misery.

The airborne teenager knew what he was and he knew what his brothers and sisters were. They were all potential kidnappers.

The Freeman foes had halted their intent to shoot and kill Hero, but the Exchangers hadn't halted their intent to find and kidnap a Pure. The Exchangers, nomadic youths with a fast home, planned on stealing a person the Freemans possibly had.

Hero would kidnap one Pure, birthing a kidnapping incident.

Hero would kidnap ten Pures, forming a string of kidnappings.

Take ten people, enjoy the benefits. Hero needed to do that. After getting Zoey into his home, he could continue the mission.

Hero had survived the massacre at the Ascend Museum, and he had emerged traumatized.

During the invasion, horrible panic had rippled through the Ascend Museum's Soynite visitors. Armed Freemans had caused that panic. They had made it erupt into existence, the pale enemies shooting death into innocents and spreading deep destruction.

Hero, his brothers and sisters, and Zoey knew the savagery the Freemans were capable of. Ten Pures would know the desperation the Exchangers possessed because Freemans had captured their father.

The spaceship that had transported him off his doomed planet would provide welcome sanctuary to him and his most recent ally.

Hero craved the shortest possible time between being what he was and morphing into a kidnapper. The sooner he helped his family take ten Pures, the better.

For the Exchangers, it was better to become kidnappers than not be kidnappers.

After landing in the area where he had parked the fastest Soynite spaceship, Hero let Zoey's shoes meet the grass.

"That was great," Zoey said.

"I'm never going to fly with Boris Endman, but at least I was able to fly us to safety," Hero said, speaking as birds chirped. He placed a hand on Zoey's shoulder. "That's my home over there. Until we find your mother, it's your home."

Zoey smiled and put her arms around him. Hero hugged her back.

Their second hug.

It wasn't dreadful. It wasn't like Lock Tannis. It wasn't like the Freemans and their guns.

Hero would never be able to hug Boris Endman, but he could hug Zoey All.

Did one of his siblings see him fly while he carried Zoey?

They stopped hugging each other. The embrace had ended too early. After spending horrible time fighting for his life, Hero wouldn't have an issue with hugging Zoey for at least a minute.

The Exchanger didn't know how many minutes he had spent inside the Freeman base. He knew he had given permission for Zoey to become his newest housemate. As they stood in the forest, Hero and Zoey were unarmed. They had discarded their laser pistols in the Freeman base, a building that stood. It did not deserve to stand.

The Freemans were too many and the Soynites were too few.

But Hero needed to return to the enemy base.

"Thank you, Hero," Zoey said.

"You're welcome," Hero said. "My brothers and sisters aren't going to hurt you. I won't let them. Also, Sydney should treat you well. I'm her favorite. As long as I trust you, she'll trust you."

If Zoey learned why the Exchangers had traveled to the Freeman base, if she learned about Heaven, it would put her life and the Exchangers' lives in danger.

Wade, Macy, Everett, and Kat had made the choice to not side with Zoey, which was understandable.

Hero would rather kidnap ten Pures than not kidnap ten Pures, but there was a way he could keep Zoey alive and well and not receive punishment for it. Heaven's people didn't need to learn about the Exchanger's new friend. The Exchanger's new friend didn't need to learn about Heaven.

If Hero killed Zoey, she would never reunite with her mother.

Hero gestured for Zoey to follow him. They moved toward the spaceship, which reflected the sun's glorious light. Hero had kicked a grenade in the Freeman base, and the result had been sunlight entering the building through a gaping hole in a wall.

The Exchanger boy had revealed his power to Zoey and the enemy Freemans. The too-pale adversaries had pursued Hero and Zoey, and they had tried to shoot and kill the pair. Hero had thrown his ruined gun at a Freeman. Zoey had done the same. The teenagers had spared the hall-running Freemans' lives, but it hadn't been because of kindness.

"What's the name of your mother's best friend?" Hero said.

The tree branches not far from them swayed as a strong wind blew. Green grass rippled. The spaceship maintained its sturdiness, tough enough to handle wind, not tough enough to handle red laser beams. If a Freeman fired a single laser into the spaceship, it wouldn't be safe to use the spacecraft for travel.

"Crammer Cole," Zoey said. "But I like my stepfather a lot better. I love Boone."

Theo Majestic had chosen Lovely Windsore to rule. She was Boone's biological daughter. Hero kept a High's stepsister company, but he couldn't keep his father company.

He and Zoey loved people who weren't related to them.

Hero was only an Exchanger. But he was an Exchanger who cared about people who didn't share the same biological parents as him. Those people Hero loved had been good to him.

Father.

Sydney.

Macy.

Everett.

Wade.

Kat.

Five of those people had seen Zoey.

One of those people possibly saw the dreadful interior of a Freeman prison cell.

Zoey knew about preteens who had become rulers. She had expressed her belief that Theo Majestic and Lilly Majestic had produced several children. She had hugged Hero in a building harboring more than a few of planet Free's armed and terrible natives.

Hero and Zoey had hugged inside a Freeman place. They had hugged outside a Freeman place. Macy and Sydney embraced others more than Hero, Wade, Everett, and Kat tended to.

Where was Macy?

Where was Sydney?

Hero had witnessed his youngest sibling trying to reach the invisibility bracelet Zoey's mother owned.

Macy had clashed with a Freeman mob.

The back of Hero's hand brushed against the back of Zoey's warm one.

"How did you and him get separated?" Hero said. "And how did you and your mother get separated?"

"It doesn't matter, really," Zoey said. "I just know that I have to find Boone, and I have to find my mother."

"You will," Hero replied.

"Lovely left Earth with her Watcher," Zoey said. "Just like all the other Highs. Her name is Marina Tome. That's what Boone said, but it's probably not her name anymore."

"My last name used to be Haysen," Hero said. "Mitch Shame became my father, then I changed my surname to his. His other adopted children did the same."

"When is your birthday?" Zoey said. "Mine is January first."

"We share a birthday," Hero said. "I was born on January first, just like you."

They reached the spot near the spaceship's door. Hero opened it. He gestured for Zoey to enter the space vessel, which she did.

Hero led Zoey to his bedroom.

Four blue walls. A big bed. A photograph. Two teenage Soynites.

Birds chirped outside. Animals weren't native to planet Soy, but Hero and Zoey heard Earth's feathered creatures make noises as they stood inside a flyable vehicle that had come from a distant planet.

No Soynite Box sat in the space. Hero had been inside the Ascend Museum when the invasion happened. He hadn't brought his Soynite Box into the building with him.

Zoey glanced around.

"Where's your Soynite Box?" Hero said. "I don't have one. I left it at home before going to the Ascend Museum."

"I don't have one," Zoey said. She walked close to one of the four blue walls, then placed her index finger against the photograph taped to the wall. "Who is he?"

"My father," Hero said. "Mitch Shame."

He walked to the spot next to Zoey, then moved his hand, intent on pressing his thumb against the picture.

Zoey stumbled. She moved away from Hero.

"What's wrong?" Hero said. Zoey pressed her hand against her cheek as she stared at Hero's hand. Hero glanced at it. His hand wasn't bleeding. No wound. "It's okay. I'm fine."

Zoey stared.

"Are you okay, Zoey?" Hero said. "You look scared."

"Tell me your sister Sydney is going to come back with the invisibility bracelet," Zoey said. "Please."

"She's going to," Hero said. "I saw her trying to get it. She was so close. I'm very sure that she has it."

Zoey gestured to the bed.

"Can I sit down?" she asked.

"Sure," Hero said. Zoey sat on his bed, then crossed her thin arms. The sole Exchanger in the room furrowed his brow. "Did you think that I was going to hit you? We hugged twice, Zoey. Doesn't that show that I'm not a threat?"

Zoey looked at the floor.

Hero was not a threat to Zoey, but Wade sure was. And Macy. Maybe even Everett. Kat's cowardice prevented her from becoming a fighter or killer.

Every Freeman warrior was a threat to Zoey.

Freemans had unleashed destruction upon her world. Soy had been Hero's world.

"I know most of my siblings don't want you to stay alive, but I'm going to talk to them," Hero said. "Wade tried to kill you when that fight was going on in the Freeman base, but I'm alert and away from any Freemans. Wade isn't going to stop me from protecting you."

Zoey had moved away from Hero's hand.

"I'm not like Wade," Hero said. He took a step toward Zoey, who uncrossed her arms before moving back. "I wasn't going to hit you. I was just trying to touch the photograph of my father."

Freemans deserved to be hit. Hero had thrown his ruined laser weapon at a Freeman, but that enemy deserved to experience deep pain, pain more agonizing than what Hero had struck him with. The Freeman who had ruined Hero's gun was gone. The Exchanger wasn't aware of what had happened to that hostile warrior.

Did Wade kill him?

Hero's sister Kat possessed the lowest chance of being the person who had killed the gun-ruining Freeman. Kat hadn't protested when Wade displayed his belief that Zoey needed to die.

Macy had agreed with Wade.

Sydney would side with Zoey. If Hero trusted a person, Sydney would trust them.

"Do you have a photograph of your mother?" Hero said. Zoey nodded. "Can I see it?"

Hero waited.

Several seconds went by.

Zoey moved a hand into her pocket, then pulled a photograph from it. Hero came closer. The girl handed him the picture. It displayed a woman with brown hair and brown eyes. She grinned at the camera that had taken the photograph.

Misty Windsore seemed okay.

"This home is your home," Hero said, giving the photograph back to its brown-haired owner. The Exchanger gestured to the space around him and his seated friend. "You live with me and my family now. But I need to leave you here. I have to go back into the Freeman base. I'm going to reunite with Wade and the others, then we're going to come back here."

He smiled.

"Okay?" he said.

"Just make sure one of you comes back with my mother's invisibility bracelet," Zoey said. She made eye contact with him. "Please, Hero. Please."

"I'm going to make sure you get the invisibility bracelet back," Hero said. "Don't worry. We're going to bring back your mother's invisibility bracelet and everything is going to be fine."

"Stay here with me," Zoey said. "Just for a little bit longer, at least."

Hero could stay.

He would have to leave soon, but he could afford to spend more time with a friend.

"Okay, Zoey," the Exchanger said.

Time went by.

Hero and Zoey hadn't spoken for several minutes. Zoey stayed seated on Hero's bed as Hero himself paced back and forth. As he paced, he sometimes glanced at the photograph displaying his beloved father.

"Hero!" Sydney said.

She stood in the doorway. As Hero stood, as Zoey sat, Sydney entered the room.

The Exchangers took off their backpacks, then set them on the floor.

Sydney headed toward Hero, moving with fast steps. The two Exchangers hugged when they were close enough to each other.

"I saw you flying while you carried Zoey," Sydney said. "I was invisible. I was already outside, because I planned on coming back here. I saw you and Zoey. I wanted to help."

Sydney was a good kid.

Why couldn't Wade and Macy be more like her?

The hug ended.

The youngest Exchanger started moving her hand into her pocket, then turned invisible. When she was visible again, Sydney watched as an invisibility bracelet dropped toward the bed.

"Here," Sydney said.

"My mother's invisibility bracelet," Zoey said. She smiled. "Thank you, Sydney!"

She stood, hugged Sydney. The younger girl hugged her back.

Hero smiled.

Happiness flowed through Zoey again. Seeing Zoey don a frown had been almost as bad as the moment when that Freeman ruined Hero's laser weapon.

"You're welcome," Sydney said, holding Zoey.

Hope.

Wade, Macy, Everett, and Kat would have loved for Zoey All to get killed inside the Freeman base, but Hero and Sydney sided with Zoey.

With Sydney preferring to see Zoey live than die, the two Exchangers who liked the brunette would have an easier time convincing Wade, Macy, and Everett to rid their cruel intention to kill her.

"Like I said," Hero said, training his blue eyes on Zoey's closed eyelids as she embraced the youngest Exchanger alive. "Sydney trusts whoever I trust."

Hero closed in on the girls, then wrapped his arms around them. He had carried both girls in the past. The boy had taken flight while holding Zoey, and he had carried Sydney when she was a baby. He had carried her after her infanthood ended.

"Hero," a voice said. The group hug died. "Sydney. Step away from her."

Macy slipped into the room, Everett and Kat accompanying her. They all wielded Freeman daggers in their right hands.

"Where's Wade?" Sydney asked.

"Be quiet!" Macy said, scowling. She glared at Hero. "Hero, you know that we can't let her live."

Zoey.

While piercing anger snaked into him, Hero stepped in the path between him and the girl he had carried in the warm air outside the blue spaceship. Sydney didn't move from her position beside her blond brother.

"Macy, listen to me," Hero said. He glanced at Everett, then glanced at Kat, then scowled at Macy. "Right now, you're making me consider doing something I'll regret later. I'm not going to let you kill Zoey. She saved my life. Until I help her reunite with her mother, she's one of us. This spaceship is her home now. If you kill her, Macy, I will never forgive you. If any of you kill her, I won't forgive you. You are all my brothers and sisters, but what I just said is the honest truth."

Macy's glare didn't fade.

"She got separated from her mother," Hero said. Kat bowed her head. Everett blinked. "Her stepfather is missing. You know exactly what it's like to lose your parents. All three of you know what that's like. If you kill Zoey, I'll find Father on my own. If any of you become as horrible as Bane Sinister, I would be grateful if I never saw you again."

"If she stays with us, we might never see our father again, you moron!" Macy said. Hero clenched his fists. "You can't find Father if you're dead! We can't find Father if we die!"

"Please, Macy," Sydney said, holding Zoey's hand. "Just stop! Stop! Don't kill Zoey! She saved Hero!"

Macy sneered.

"Let her live!" Sydney continued, trying hard to convince Macy to drop her murderous intent. "Then we can go find Wade!"

"We can't risk keeping that girl alive," Everett said. He made eye contact with Zoey. "I'm sorry, but you need to die."

Kat, standing a few inches from a wall, tapped her free hand's fingers against it.

Macy's free hand was clenched into a fist.

Everett, like Macy and his nervous sister, did not drop his weapon. No, Zoey didn't need to die. Everett the fool. Fool. Fool. Fool.

Macy and Everett were alike.

"No one needs to die!" Hero shouted. He took a step toward his armed brother. "Everett, you're just as foolish as Macy!"

"Stop talking," Macy warned.

"No," Hero said. He bared his teeth, as if he were a dangerous bellma, as if Macy had revealed a plan to stab him. "You need to stop talking. I carried Zoey in my arms. I brought her to safety. If you want to kill Zoey, then you're going to have to kill me. Because I won't accept it if you murder her. If you lose my love for you, you will lose so much."

Macy's blue eyes narrowed.

"I feel the same way Hero feels," Sydney said, defying Macy.

"You're willing to die for that girl you barely know?" Macy asked Hero.

"I'm willing to live," Hero said. "I'm going to live, then I'm going to find Father."

Macy pointed her red dagger at his face.

The Freeman weapon's sharp tip could slip into Hero's warm flesh, make him drown in physical agony.

Macy could make it happen.

"You're a fool," she said. Then she nudged Everett with her elbow. "Let's go, Everett and Kat. We need to help our brother Wade."

Macy left the room with Everett and Kat.

Sydney grabbed her backpack, lifted it off the floor, then put it on.

The girl placed her hand against Zoey's back, then the eleven-year-old made her exit. Hero assumed she planned on joining Macy, Everett, and Kat.

They needed to reach Wade.

They needed to reach the Freeman base's prison wing.

Macy, Everett, Kat, and Sydney had gone into the blue hall outside Hero's blue room, and Hero himself planned on going with them. He had to talk to Zoey. He needed to do that before joining his siblings.

The photograph taped to the wall with clear tape, the photograph displaying Mitch Shame, didn't leave. The grinning man in the picture hadn't left imprisonment. He required help.

A black invisibility bracelet rested on Hero's big bed. Zoey needed to get it back to her mother, a woman known as Misty Windsore.

Hero and the other Exchangers needed to get back to Wade.

Then they needed to perform a kidnapping.

"I'm coming!" Hero shouted. "Just let me speak to Zoey first!"

A hand met Hero's arm. It touched the teenage boy through his jacket's blue.

"You defended me," Zoey said.

Macy had been foul. She had been foul to Zoey, the girl with a missing stepfather and a mother separated from her.

Hero had been foul to Macy, but it had been a necessity.

Defending Zoey was what Hero had done.

"I did," Hero said. He faced her, turning to the girl who had defended him from a Freeman. "Stay in this room. If you have to use the toilet, go to one of them. Me and my siblings are going to go back into the Freeman base. When you hear us, close your eyes. Don't look out any windows. I'm not going to explain why you can't come with us, but it's for the best. Wear your mother's invisibility bracelet."

Zoey put her arms around him. Hero had taken off his backpack before hugging Sydney. It now sat on the floor, carrying the boy's Vamp-filled syringes as it remained idle.

Hero hugged Zoey.

He couldn't let her know what his mission was.

The sixteen-year-old had gone into the Freeman base before his siblings.

Hero had led the Exchangers into the Freeman base himself. They had found Zoey All, who had followed them while invisible.

Misty Windsore's invisibility bracelet sat on the bed, its power not turning anyone invisible. It had granted Zoey the power to become the Exchangers' unseen follower. The teenager had made it seem as if that item were the universe's most important item.

Zoey had defended Hero.

Hero had defended Zoey.

No one had defended Boris Endman. If the opportunity came, the Exchangers would defend a Pure.

They would kidnap them.

If the person who had stolen Boris Endman's grandchild was a harsh brute, was Hero Shame going to become one?

"You defended me," Hero said. He shut his eyes as he hugged a girl who was shorter than him. Perhaps Wade's probability of surviving the Freemans had shortened. Hero opened his eyes. "And I defended you. After me and my family do what we have to do today, we're going to get you back to your mother. I promise."

The hug died.

If Hero was lucky, Wade hadn't.

Mitch Shame could be dead. But if Hero and the Exchangers didn't victimize ten Pures, they would never find their father's living body or his lifeless corpse.

The Exchangers' father mattered, and so did finding him.

Hero put on his backpack. It stored what he needed to force a person into unconsciousness.

"Be careful," Zoey said.

"The Freemans need to be." Hero said.