A year ago, I might have taken what Guardian said as a criticism or threat, but now I saw it for what it was—he didn’t want to destroy the city even though it made a lot of sense.

Looking over at Daniel as he flew next to me, I tried to give Guardian what he wanted, “Well, first of all, you know what’s under the League’s base and in our storage rooms. Blasting the city won’t destroy all of it and the rest will be available to anyone who comes by.

“Second, you’d be destroying the current Heroes’ League while we’re actively working to stop the fungus and wearing suits that have so far successfully kept us from being infected.

“Third, we’ve got more information about this problem than you do and we’ve got a plan for handling it.”

Jaclyn’s voice came into my head through a direct implant-to-implant connection, We do? I hope it’s a good one.

“It’s in the early stages,” I said. “We need to settle some details, but we’ve got one. Oh… and fourth—“

I checked the GPS view of my HUD again, the pattern of dots against the background, showing what I suspected.

“The uh… fourth reason is that Portal, Paladin, and Flame Legion are all in Grand Lake.”

Brooke, Alex, and Jenny had all disappeared from the mystery apartment in Chicago and reappeared in our base.

Over the comm, Guardian made a grunting noise that might have edged into a choking noise. Having heard similar noises from my parents in the past, it was easy to read frustration into the sound, but if Brooke still wasn’t talking to him, maybe there might have been a touch of pain.

It was hard to say. There’s a limit to the amount of information you can read into a grunt.

“She sticks to him like glue,” Guardian muttered a sentence that might not have been part of our conversation as much as an ongoing conversation with himself.

Not wanting to become part of what sounded like an intrafamily dispute, I didn’t say anything, and neither did anyone else.

Stolen novel; please report.

Guardian made another grunt, this one crossed with a sigh, “That’s enough. I know what I’ll tell them, but look, I can’t say no forever. We’re risking the human race and not just because of the zombies. The Xiniti will step in if this gets free. They can’t risk mushroom zombies getting loose in the Human Ascendancy.”

“Maybe. I mean, eventually, they’ll do something, but right now there are five citizens of the Xiniti nation in Grand Lake, one of them on a specific mission to keep a friend of ours safe. You’ll be destroying her too. That’s probably a bad idea. They'll back off if we call them, and it won’t be hard. If you destroy us without giving us a chance to fix this, there will be problems.”

As of that moment, we had Guardian as we saw him in the media—without sighs, grunts, or parenting pain. He said, “You should have led with that. No one on Earth wants to get on the bad side of the Xiniti.”

Taking a breath, he continued, “I’m going to remind my people and the government officials who have been calling us that the League includes honorary Xiniti plus a visiting Xiniti. That will give you some time. I hope your plan includes containing them.”

“It does,” I said. “Remember how the wizards contained The Thing That Eats in Grand Lake? I think they might be willing to do it again especially if we explain to them that we’re releasing a whole kingdom’s worth of fairy knights to help us fight.”

Guardian took a long pause and then said, “The less I know the better. Do what you have to. Good luck.”

With that, he closed his connection.

Vaughn started laughing, “That’s your plan? Call in the fairies, use the Wizard’s Council to box them in, and let them fight it out with the mushroom zombies?”

“Kinda,” I said, “but it’s better than that. I also called in Alex. If we can find the center of the fungus, we sic Alex on it. He can heal, but he can also do the opposite. It’s all one organism. If he starts it dying, the whole thing goes. There are a few holes like, for example, the fact that we don’t know where the center of the thing is, but I think we can find it. Between the Mystic, Ronin, Hal, and physically searching for it, we’ll figure it out.”

Adam’s voice came over the comm, “You realize that calling in my favor is a one-time thing, right? If I use it now, that’s it.”

“Yeah, well,” Cassie said, “if you don't use it and we all get absorbed into the mushroom zombie worldwide empire and the Xiniti burn the planet, then you’ll waste it.”

Looking over at Amy who was flying just ahead of Daniel and me, I asked over the comm, “I’m assuming Bloodmaiden knows how to call in the North American Wizard’s Council now that you’re a member in good standing?”

From the expression on Amy’s face, I guessed that she didn’t think they’d owe her any favors, but she never got to reply.

Over the comm, Samita (who I didn’t even know was listening) said, “I can do it and if they won’t talk to me, they will talk to Reliquary.”

“Great,” I said, “then that’s the best idea I have. If anyone has a way to improve it, tell the group. Otherwise, we should start looking for the second brain, wherever that is.”