“Well you see,” Ethan began trying to rack his brain for a way to explain this in a way that makes sense.

How was he going to explain this? He didn’t even completely understand it himself. You see there was a dungeon, whatever that was, underneath the school and it somehow bred these weird monsters that were similar to normal animals but completely terrifying at the same time, like fire breathing chickens. Yeah they’ll totally understand that.

“Ethan, are you alright?” Bella asked moving closer to him with a concerned look on her face.

Tentatively she held her hand out and tried to touch the spirit armor on his arm but her hand seemed to go right through it and instead she was just prodding at his shoulder. She tried this a couple of times before giving up and looking at him curiously.

“Dude, say something,” Alex finally snapped looking annoyed. “Judging by this get up and the way you reacted, you’ve got to know something about it.”

“I uh,” Ethan said still trying to figure out the best way to explain it.

“Maybe just start with the sword and armor, at least I think it’s armor,” Alex said.

Oh right, I should probably turn that off before I get even more curious people questioning me Ethan thought touching the tattoo on his wrist and vanishing the sword and the armor. Maybe I could just play dumb and prentend I have no idea what they are talking about? Nah, that wouldn’t work, they both saw me, and besides I owe Bella an explanation even if I don’t care what Alex thinks.

“Alright,” Ethan said pushing himself to his feet. “I don’t really know how to explain it really, mostly because I don’t understand most of it myself so I think it’s best if I just show you two.”

“Show us what?” Alex asked.

“Just come with me and hopefully this will all make sense, or at least as much sense as it’s going to,” Ethan said starting to hobble back toward the quad.

The pain in his legs, which had momentarily vanished during the fight was now back and worse than ever. Even worse than that was the fact that it felt like his back was on fire. He didn’t even want to know what that looked like. He’d have to contact his mom and tell her that he’d ruined his P.E. shirt in less than two weeks of being at school. That was certain to be a fun conversation.

“Where are you taking us?” Bella asked him nervously before adding, “maybe we should get the nurse to look at that back of yours.”

“It’s fine,” Ethan said lying automatically. “It just a couple shallow scratches. I can barely feel it.”

“If you say so,” Bella said doubtfully.

The three of them walked in silence back down the sidewalk past the tennis courts, past Ethan’s dorm, onto the quad, and finally into Hinan Hall.”

“Why did you bring us into Hinan Hall?” Alex asked. “Is this some sort of joke?”

“Just shut up Alex,” Ethan muttered. “I’m going to show you this so hopefully you won’t ask me any more questions.”

This actually worked because Alex did shut up as he followed Ethan and Bella down the stairs into the basement where Ethan turned down the hall and made his way to the unlabelled room near the end with the ancient wood doors. Heaving the heavy doors he slowly opened them allowing himself, Alex, and Bella to pass into the dark room. Quickly he strode across the room toward the elevator that he knew was at the back.

“What is this place?” Alex asked. “Some kind of storage room?”

“This is the dungeon,” Ethan responded.

“What the hell is the dungeon?” Alex asked. “Bella do they lock you shippers up in the basement as punishment for being so poor or something?”

“I’ve never seen this room in my life,” Bella said. “Ethan what do you mean by dungeon?”

She looked a bit worried as she asked this, like Ethan might be mentally unstable or something. Maybe he was. There were far too many weird things happening since he came to this town to explain.

He was about to say something when torches lit up near the back wall and the big wooden door slammed shut behind then.

“Ethan Russell,” the disembodied voice of the dungeon boomed. “You have returned. I knew you would.”

“You didn’t really give me much of a choice,” Ethan replied angrily.

“Ah there’s that righteous anger that makes you such a fine red,” the dungeon said. “Simmering close to the surface, always poised to strike like the tip of a sharp sword.”

“Could you shut up about that and just explain to these two what is going on,” Ethan snapped.

“Hmm, two you say?” the dungeon asked, “but there are three. Let me see yes, all excellent candidates. Alexander Ishida with intelligence to spare. Cold, logical, and loyal to those who have earned your trust you will make an excellent blue shield for it is your brain that is your greatest weapon.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Alex asked. “Just who are you? Come out where we can see you.”

Ignoring him the dungeon continued, “Isabella Tavarez, the kind-hearted sensitive girl who always puts the needs of others before her own, even when it harms you. You will serve others as the yellow ax.”

“How do you know my name?” Bella asked completely confused.

Once again though the dungeon didn’t answer and instead continued speaking, “Quincy Phillips. Wild, stubborn, and independent. Like the roots of the great oak you go where you will and let nothing get in your way. You will be the green bow hunting all who would seek to stop you.

“Quin?” Ethan asked turning around and staring into the darker section of the room closest to the door.

Sure enough there was a silhouette of a tall girl standing there. He was about to ask what she was doing there when his thoughts were abruptly cut off by the other three as they began to scream. Bella and Alex both fell to the ground clutching at different parts of their bodies.

The symbols, Ethan thought looking at his own and remembering how painful it was getting it. Putting Bella first he rushed over to her and held her as she clutched the back of her neck screaming.

“Hold on Bella,” Ethan said trying to soothe her. “It should be over quickly. At least it was for me.”

The screaming went on longer than he remembered but finally it was over and the other three lay there panting.

“Bella are you alright?” Ethan asked.

“I think so she said still probing at the back of her neck with tears running down her cheeks.

“I’m alright too, thanks for asking,” Alex said lifting up his shirt and looking at a symbol that was identical to Ethan’s, but blue, on the left side of his abdomen.

I didn’t really care if you were okay, Ethan thought rolling his eyes.

“What is this?” Quin asked walking forward toward the rest of them and clutching her left wrist where Ethan could make out the triple comma symbol in green on the inside of her wrist.

She looked to be in much better condition than the other two, but Ethan guessed that she probably had a better pain tolerance or was better at pushing through the pain.

“I have unlocked each of your potentials,” the dungeon said and then proceeded to go into the same lengthy but vague explanation it gave Ethan over a week ago.

“So you’re saying that if I press this symbol it will form into armor and a weapon?” Alex asked pushing the symbol underneath his shirt.

For a second nothing happened and then blue oozed out through his clothes and shirt and formed into the hard but flexible translucent armor around his whole body before finally a tall rectangular shield formed in front of his hand with a grip landing in his hand.

“Hard to argue with physical evidence,” Alex said shrugging and looking the shield over.

Next Quincy pressed the symbol in her wrist and her own green armor formed with a bow in her hand and a quiver full of translucent green arrows on her back.

“Do I have one too?” Bella asked me.

“Move your hand and let me see,” I ordered her.

Slowly she moved her hand and held up her hair, exposing a yellow version of the symbol on the back of her neck.

“Yep, if you press on the back of your neck, I’m guessing that your yellow armor and weapon will form,” I said as Bella pushed a couple of fingers against it.

Yellow armor formed around her with the ax forming in her hand. It was a bit of a weird variation of an ax, with an exceptionally long handle leading to a double-sided head at the top. Both sides of the head had curving axe blades but one was far larger than the other one.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Bella asked looking skeptically at the weapon.

“I imagine were supposed to fight with them, like Ethan used that sword to fight against that strange dog,” Quin answered her and then proceeded to fire an arrow into the wall from her bow.

“Yes, you will use them to defend yourselves as you make your way through the dungeon and try to claim my heart,” the dungeon said.

“You gave them all weapons and I got this shield?” Alex asked incredulously. “How is that fair?”

“I did not give any of you weapons,” the dungeon corrected. “You created those yourselves. Your spirit saw a shield as the right tool for you and that’s why it took that shape.”

“Sounds like a load of crap to me,” Alex muttered.

“Look into yourself and you will see that what I say is true,” the dungeon replied. “Now the time for speaking is over. You must experience for yourselves what the dungeon is like.”

“Wait!” Ethan yelled not wanting to get thrown into that lake again. “Can we just take the elevator down this time?”

“I assumed that is what you would do,” the dungeon replied flatly causing no small amount of irritation for Ethan.

“Then why didn’t you let me take the Elevator down the first time?” he asked very annoyed.

“You seemed to need the extra motivation,” the dungeon explained. “I don’t believe that will be the case will these three.”

I hate this thing Ethan thought, but said outloud, “Come on I’ll show you all the stupid dungeon because the sooner we do this, the sooner we can leave.”

Walking over to the elevator he hit the button to call it and a second later the doors slid open.

“Alright, everyone in,” Ethan order holding his arm in front of the door so it wouldn’t slide shut.

“Where does this elevator go?” Alex asked. “I didn’t even know that this building had an elevator.”

“Just get in an you’ll see,” Ethan answered annoyed. “It will take me way longer to try and explain it to you.”

Walking over Alex, Quincy, and Bella entered the elevator before Alex asked, “What are all these buttons for? You can’t tell me there are this many floors in Hinan Hall.”

“I have no idea,” Ethan responded entering the elevator himself.

“They each go to a different floor of the dungeon,” the dungeon said as the doors slid shut. “Right now only the first floor of the dungeon is accessible to you as well as this room in the basement of Hinan Hall. You must clear each floor before the next becomes available.”

“What do you mean by clear each floor?” Alex asked.

“That is something you will have to find out on your own,” the dungeon answered without really answering. “Each floor is different and they have different requirements.”

“Great that’s super helpful,” Alex spat at the voice. “How will we even know if we’ve cleared a floor.”

“That is simple,” the dungeon answered. “A green light will surround the next floor’s button on this elevator.”

Ethan hit the button for the first dungeon floor and the elevator began descending rapidly heading back towards the hell that he knew awaited them. When they finally reached the bottom the doors opened with a chime revealing the mostly empty interior of the temple.

Stepping out he strode across the room until he reached the doors and pushed them open revealing the bright sunlight outside as well as the temple grounds and the fields in front of it.

“What in the world?” Quin asked stepping up next to him. “Wasn’t the elevator going down?”

“I’m pretty sure it was,” Ethan replied. “I can’t explain it either. It was like this the first time I got dropped in here too, though that wasn’t nearly as pleasant as the elevator ride.”

Alex and Bella stepped outside marvelling at their surroundings.

“This shouldn’t be possible,” Alex said staring up into the cloudless sky and at the mountains behind the temple. “We should be in a sub-basement or even some sort of underground cavern.”

“As I said to Quin,” Ethan stated. “I can’t explain it. This dungeon is totally beyond my understanding of the world.”

“It’s like it’s a different world,” Bella muttered softly. “What is this some sort of Japanese temple?”

“I think it’s a shrine actually,” Alex said thoughtfully.

“Isn’t that the same thing?” Ethan asked.

“No,” Alex answered. “You see Shrines are-- well it’s not really important right now. Quin try to shoot an arrow into the sky will you?”

“Why?” Quin asked looking puzzled.

“I just want to see if it’s like a really good illusion,” Alex answered.

Shrugging Quin did as she was asked and fired a shot nearly straight up towards the blue sky. It sailed a ways up before arcing, reaching its apex, and turning and falling down towards the ground where it ended up landing on the roof of the shrine.

“Guess that settles that,” Alex muttered quizzically. “Definitely not an illusion. Maybe this is a different world.”

“You can’t be serious?” Ethan asked Alex rolling his eyes. “We got on an elevator and went down, not through space.”

“Nothing about this makes logical sense, so in order to try and understand it I think it’s best if we throw out our preconceived notions of how things are supposed to be,” Alex answered condescendingly. “This place doesn’t seem to operate by the same rules that we have thought the world works by so we’re going to have to start from scratch here.”

“So are we stuck here until we clear this floor?” Quin asked looking out toward the forest in the distance.

“No, we can get back on that elevator and ride it back up to the basement of Hinan Hall,” Ethan answered. “That’s how I got out of here the first time.”

“How did you end up in here the first time?” Bella asked.

“I got lost on my way to Drawing and that stupid voice dropped me in a lake after I stumbled into that room.”

“That’s how you got injured last week,” Bella said with comprehension dawning on her face. “You never fell on the quad and knocked yourself out.”

“Yeah well who would have believed me if I said a disembodied voice in the basement of Hinan Hall dropped me in an underground lake where I could still see the sun overhead,” Ethan answered.

“Yeah I supposed I’d have thought you hit your head harder than you were letting on,” Bella said looking slightly embarrassed.

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” Ethan said, “and nothing down here is what it seems. Like take those chickens for instance. They look normal enough, but they actually breathe fire and try to kill you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Alex said rolling his eyes while Quin raised an eyebrow at him. “They’re just chickens. Quit trying to scare us.”

“If you don’t believe me go out there and see for yourself,” Ethan said shrugging. “I’ll watch from the steps behind the gate.”

“Why behind the gate?” Quin asked curiously.

“They seemed like they were unwilling or unable to cross it the first time I was down here,” Ethan answered.

Moving slowly Alex climbed down the stairs, walked out from under the gate and approached one of the chickens who was absent-mindedly picking at the ground in front of it.

“Hey there Mr. Chicken,” Alex said. “No need to panic, just trying to prove to everyone that you’re just a harmless chicken.”

The chicken jumped and squawked at hearing Alex behind him. It moved a few feet back from the kid and stared at him as if appraising the threat.

“That’s it, take it easy, I’m not going to hurt you,” Alex said edging closer to the bird.

For a second Ethan really thought that the chicken wasn’t going to do anything and that he was going to look like an idiot, but then it squawked loudly again drawing the attention of other nearby chickens. As soon as it felt it had suitable backup it opened its beak and let out a large stream of fire that Alex narrowly blocked by raising his shield.

“Jesus Christ,” Alex yelped. “It’s breathing fire.

More chickens closed in and began adding their fire to the first’s. Realizing that he was wholly unprepared for this Alex turned and ran back towards the staircase where Ethan sat smuggly watching the scene play out.

Passing under the gate Alex ran up the staircase not stopping until he reached the top. He was doubled over and breathing hard standing next to Bella who was looking at him with concern on her face.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Alex replied though he sounded anything but. “I’ve eaten fried chicken before but that has to be the first time a chicken has tried to fry me.”

“I guess you should have listened to Ethan,” Quin said with the same flat expression on her face that she always wore. “He did warn you.”

“Don’t tell me that you seriously believed him when he mentioned the chickens breathing fire,” Alex spat back at her still breathing hard.

“You yourself already said how strange and unnatural this place was,” Quin said shrugging. “Why would chickens breathing fire be out of the question.”

“Fair point,” Alex said. “Next time, I won’t underestimate the chickens.”

Like before the chickens stopped just in front of the gate and stared up at the group on the steps.

“Good thing they stopped at that gate like you said Ethan,” Bella stated.

“I’ll never skip church again God,” Alex muttered speaking under his breath to the sky. “Just please don’t let me get killed by a chicken.”

“If you think the chickens are bad, you should meet the other birds down here,” Ethan muttered smiling back at Alex.

“What other birds?” Alex asked looking around frantically.

This was what led to Ethan launching into the full story of his time in the dungeon from getting dropped into the lake, to getting shot at by ducks and herons to his frantic run through the forest. When Ethan was finished Quin looked intrigued while both Alex and Bella looked pale.

“This isn’t a dungeon,” Alex said seriously. “This has got to be the first level of hell and I want out of here.”

“We can leave anytime,” Ethan said not wanting to torment the other boy any more.

Sure he didn’t like Alex at all, but he didn’t want to destroy the kid. Besides Ethan himself hated this place and had terrible memories of being attacked down here. Only he didn’t think it would be that easy.

“We can go back up that elevator at anytime,” Ethan stated. “As I said before, it’s how I got out of here for the first time. Only I don’t think the dungeon will leave you alone. It didn’t leave me alone in the week after I left it. I constantly heard a voice calling to me and then today that thing attacked us.”

“You’re saying that thing was really after you?” Bella asked.

“That’s my guess,” Ethan said shrugging. “When you both insisted on knowing what was going on I brought you here figuring I could show you this place so you’d understand. I didn’t know the dungeon would mark you as well. As I said I don’t really understand much about it.”

“Thanks for that,” Alex spat sarcastically. “I’ve always dreamed of getting chosen by a satanic force of nature like this.”

“Sorry,” Ethan replied shrugging. “You really were insistent and I couldn’t think of a way to explain it without sounding crazy.”

Taking an arrow from her quiver, Quin strung it on her bow and then fired it right into one of the chickens. The chicken and the arrow vanished almost immediately after the arrow hit it by turning into black essence and flowing down into the earth.

“That’s interesting,” Quin said looking quizzically at the cluster of chickens and where the one she’d shot had been. “I guess eating them is out of the question.”

“Yeah, that same thing happened when I hit one with my sword,” Ethan said. “Still it’s nice to know you can shoot them from back here.”

“Yeah Quin, why don’t you just go ahead and shoot the rest of those chickens for us,” Alex said motioning over at the remaining cluster.

“What do I look like to you?” Quin asked turning to him. “Some kind of Chicken butcher?”

“Well I did say to myself after the first time I saw you. I said that girl has definitely strangled a few chickens in her day, no doubt about it,” Alex replied with a smile.

“So you thought I was some kind of farm girl?” Quin asked looking confused.

“More like Xena the Warrior Princess,” Alex replied.

“Whatever,” Quin muttered shaking her head. “I grew up in urban Seattle just so you know and we got our chicken delivered to us from Whole Foods.”

You got your groceries delivered to you, Ethan thought frowning. Someone definitely comes from money.

“Maybe we shouldn’t needlessly kill all of them,” Bella suggested. “What have those chickens done to deserve that?”

“What have they done?” Alex repeated turning on her. “They just literally tried to burn me alive. What have they done? They tried to kill me.”

“But we don’t know that they are malicious,” Bella responded quietly. “You could have just started it and it might have just been trying to defend itself.”

“Maybe the first one, but what about the rest?” Alex shot back. “They swarmed me and I wasn’t anywhere near them. No, the only good chicken is a dead chicken, preferably battered and fried, but I’m not too picky.”

Speaking up before Bella could retort, Ethan said, “Maybe we can figure this out later. I for one would really like to leave this place and go lay down. I’m so sore I can barely walk and I really don’t want to be moving around this place without full mobility.”

“Jesus dude, come on,” Alex said rolling his eyes. “You’ve only been doing soccer tryout for what like two days?”

“Three,” Ethan replied defensively, “and it’s a whole lot more running than you do sitting on your butt playing video games all night. Thorton makes us run two miles before we even start.”

“You’re sore from a two mile run?” Quin asked sounding genuinely surprised.

Oh shut up Quin he thought staring angrily at the girl. Not everyone can be a superhuman athlete.

“I’ll have you know that my thumbs and fingers are in better shape than even the warrior princesses over there,” Alex quipped, “but fine lets go back up and find a hospital bed for the old man here.”

Without waiting for a response Alex set off back towards the shrine and the elevator. Ethan stood up slowly and followed after him with Bella falling in beside him. It took him almost the entire way back to the building before he noticed that Quin wasn’t moving with them.

“Are you coming Quin?” Ethan called back to her.

“I was debating on staying and exploring on my own,” Quin said.

“You can do what you want, but I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Ethan said shrugging. “It’s really dangerous out there and if you get hurt there won’t be anyone around to help you.”

Looking thoughtful Quin thought for a moment before moving purposefully toward the others.

“Yeah I suppose you’re right, but we should return as soon as you’re healed,” Quin said. “This looks like a good challenge and I really want to test the limits of these new abilities.”

“Yeah sure,” Ethan muttered not meaning it.

He didn’t have any intention of coming back down here if he could avoid it.