Nick rode his bike at a gentler pace as Grizzizzik kept up behind him. He didn’t feel bad about it, considering Grizzizzik was the one that got him in this situation in the first place. The rogue was fit enough that this was more a good workout rather than a punishment.

When he turned onto his familiar street, he noticed Derek’s van outside. It looked like everyone was in the house. A list of alibis tumbled through his mind as he thought about what he might say to Walt. It was better they didn’t all go in together, but he was still nervous.

Nick and Grizzizzik walked in, and everyone was in the living room. Grizzizzik hardly took two steps in when Clarissa was there, grabbing his rogue’s hood.

“Ow. Ow. Ow,” Grizzizzik said as she dragged him into the living room.

“Oh, pipe down. I’m not hurting you,” she said.

Lydia smiled at Nick. “Hello, honey.” She was unaware of the druid and the rogue acting like quintessential siblings. Walt was there too, which made Nick remember all the different alibis even though he never asked.

Lydia adjusted her purse straps around her shoulder. “We’ve got some errands to run.”

Walt dropped his voice as he stared right at Nick. “So they better be gone before we get back.”

A glare appeared on Nick’s face. Walt wouldn’t outright kick anyone out yet. That would be Nick’s job. Nick again looked at Lydia, who was doing nothing to stop Walt. She had gotten so busy at work that she was hardly home anyway, and Nick was jealous of her for that. Anger, too, was there. An anger that she let her husband do this to him.

Nick’s parents moved out the garage door right as Milo defused the argument from getting too heated between Clarissa and Grizzizzik. Nick waved at Alejandra, Derek, and Tyler. “Hello, everyone.”

They all mumbled their hellos, more invested in the drama unfolding between Clarissa and Grizzizzik.

“I’m not angry, Milo! I simply want to know what exactly this rogue was thinking!” Clarissa said.

Grizzizzik folded his arms. “I needed some time to myself to figure things out.”

“That’s not how we work anymore, Grizzly Bear. Let me tell you how this is going to go. You will tell me exactly what you were doing, or I will…” Clarissa trailed off, clearly looking annoyed, until an idea hit her. “I’ll give you a mani-pedi.”

Grizzizzik gave her a look, not at all amused, nor threatened.

“Believe me, you would have been far more threatened if I actually rolled a high number,” Evelyn said.

Nick frowned, then glanced at her. “You rolled for that?”

Evelyn shrugged. “It’s a good threat. I’ve used it on you plenty of times.”

And it never threatened him, either, but now was not the time to point that out.

Clarissa pointed at Hraktar. “Do it,” she said.

Hraktar shrugged, then took a few steps forward. Grizzizzik’s eyes widened. “Wait, wait. I-”

The rogue didn’t get a chance to explain. The fighter grabbed the rogue by the front of his shirt, then turned him upside down before holding on to his ankle. Nick covered his mouth, smiling. This was giving him flashbacks of the early sessions where Hraktar did this all the time to Grizzizzik to get him to talk and to keep him from running.

Grizzizzik sighed, folding his arms as he remained upside down. “I hate you,” the rogue mumbled to Hraktar.

Milo was leaning against the wall. “Just tell us what you were doing, Grizzizzik. We’re your friends, not your enemies.”

The rogue sighed. “I wanted to get a basic idea of what we’re up against with Akshi, and considering all of you would have wanted to help, it might have ruined the whole stealth mission.”

There was a moment’s pause, almost like an instant, when Nick felt his friends blurred out before refocusing. He realized what this was. Everyone rolled for an insight check.

“I think we can believe him,” Milo said, looking at Clarissa. Nick, Tyler, and Alejandra glanced at Derek, who made a satisfied nod. His roll must have been good. Derek held up two fingers twice, which Nick assumed meant twenty-two. “He’s still an idiot, but he’s not lying. Yet.”

Clarissa pointed a finger down at Grizzizzik’s chin. “This was dangerous. You can’t leave us in the middle of battle again. Whatever revenge mission you want to have, you have other people who are worried about you.”

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“Did you find anything?” Milo asked right after.

Clarissa gave Milo’s arm a slap, which was the arm that looked pretty messed up to begin with. He groaned as he grabbed his elbow, and Clarissa’s face softened. “Sorry.”

Grizzizzik shook his head. “I learned nothing. I was trying to get to the school, but this one stopped me before I could.” He jerked his head toward Nick.

“You better be happy I did.” Nick was relieved his parents were gone, because his next phrase would be dangerous if taken out of context. “There are cameras in and around the school building for this very purpose. To make sure they catch who’s breaking into it, so it’s easier to arrest them. Maybe no one would have seen you, but Akshi would have. And known you figured out he took control of someone at school.”

“Cameras?” Grizzizzik asked, still hanging upside down. “What are those?”

Nick sighed. “There is so much about this world you need to learn before you attempt any sort of stealth mission. You need your team if you hope to be successful, so you cannot sneak out by yourself again.”

Grizzizzik did not appreciate the subtle jab at his stealth skills.

Tyler checked his watch. “We better not overstay our welcome. Nick, do you know if you’d be allowed to have another session on Saturday?”

“In the morning, right? There’s the homecoming dance in the evening,” Derek said.

Tyler dropped his hand. “Oh, are you going?”

“Yeah, with some friends in drama,” Derek said.

“You’re… going with multiple people?” Nick asked.

Derek shrugged. “I’m in a group. We’ll split off if we have to for dancing and what not, but honestly, these kinds of dances are more fun as a group.”

“Let’s take a week to introduce our characters to modern technology, then we can—”

Tyler’s words were cut off as Derek made a loud, enthusiastic gasp. “MOVIE NIGHT! We need a movie night! We’ll choose all the great heist movies!” He started counting on his fingers. “The Ocean movies, Mission Impossible movies, there are so many options!”

“Um… we’re not marathoning all those movies. We don’t have time,” Nick said.

“It’ll give them ideas,” Derek said.

“All the wrong ideas. Best not to give them too high of expectations. I swear, CCNC heists need one terrible roll to ruin everything,” Tyler said.

“We’ll put movie night on the back burner. I’ll compile a list,” Derek said.

Tyler sighed, shaking his head. “I mean, it might be a good idea to give them some sort of a documentary series on the advances of technology.”

“Go to the library and check out books. They’ll have a lot of options there. It’s what Ezekiel and I have done,” Alejandra said.

“Yeah, yeah.” Tyler sounded enthusiastic. “Check out some books, and, I mean, we could still have a movie night.”

“Alright, so, here’s the plan.” Where Tyler sounded enthusiastic, Derek sounded downright thrilled. “Get familiar with technology. We do our best to dodge Akshi at school, and try to formulate a plan to… to…”

Grizzizzik finally unfolded his arms, pointing his palms up, though for him, it meant they were pointed toward the floor. “Kill him.”

Tyler raked his fingers down his neck. “Killing him involves leveling up. A lot. Ezekiel needs to train, too. We’ve got to get experience points without you all being noticed by Akshi for as long as possible. But we’ve also got to keep our eyes and ears open. Figure out… where he’s going, where he’s living.”

“That’s what I was trying to do,” Grizzizzik said.

“The only issue is if he noticed you, even a little, he could obliterate you. Leveling up in secret is still our best bet right now.” Tyler rubbed his head, looking exhausted. “So keep that in mind, everyone.”

Evelyn pulled out her phone, looking something up. “I’m pretty sure… yep. Once Princess Clarissa hits level three, she’ll learn the spell ‘Pass without Trace’. That could seriously help if we wanted to do a pre-heist mission to gather information.”

Tyler nodded. “Yeah, that makes things not nearly as terrifying in my mind.”

“Can I get down now?” Grizzizzik asked, turning toward Hraktar.

It was impossible to know what Hraktar was thinking. His resting face often made Nick assume the fighter was thinking about crushing rocks for breakfast. Hraktar looked down at him, and the rogue narrowed his eyes. Grizzizzik opened his mouth to say something when Hraktar dropped him. He landed with a grunt, losing a hit point. Grizzizzik righted himself, throwing his cloak over him. “I guess it would be pointless to ask for an apology?”

“I’m sorry,” Hraktar said. Grizzizzik gave the fighter an incredulous look. Hraktar smirked. “That you’re so bad at catching yourself."

Nick felt nervous. He understood they needed to do this. It was part of getting these people back home. But he also realized that if anyone saw him, there were some real-world consequences.

This was dangerous still. He was pretty sure Akshi had the detect magic spell, which meant Clarissa couldn’t get within ten feet of Akshi, or he’d notice them in their significantly weaker state. He realized that if all these characters died, then there would be no one else to stop the CCNC enemies.

Which meant only he and his friends would see fantasy creatures trying to interact with the world and failing. It might not be too bad, except he wasn’t looking forward to seeing a dragon flying around the world, let alone three.

But it was more than that. It wasn’t a game. It hadn’t been a game for a month, but this meant something more. If things went wrong while they were playing any regular session of CCNC, they could move on. If there was a chance things went wrong here, Nick might be discovered breaking into Mr. Stower’s house or some other illegal thing.

“Nick?”

He broke out of his reverie, not even noticing Alejandra had walked over to him. It was only when she was next to him that he realized the sweat he’d accumulated while on a bike ride in one-hundred-degree weather.

“It’s… um…” Everyone else was quiet, watching him. “If this goes wrong. If the police get involved…”

Tyler’s face dropped. “Yeah.” There was silence. Tyler rubbed his chin before dropping his hands. “We level up. We don’t get caught. We talk to Neal Richmond at the end of the month during con. Hopefully, Neal can shed more light on our situation and help us figure out how to get everyone back home.”

Silence again descended among them. Tyler sighed before heading toward the door, and everyone else took that as a cue to leave. Tyler patted Nick’s arm. “Thanks. We hope to see you on Saturday.”

Nick nodded. “Yeah. I hope so too.”

Alejandra glanced at him as everyone started filing out of the house. She looked like she was about to say something, but changed her mind. Instead, she smiled, and Nick tried to smile back. He watched her open the door and step aside for Hraktar to walk through before she followed after him.