Bobby was behind the wheel, about to ease the van onto the clay road that would take them back to the Abbey, when he saw the flash. He felt it a few moments later, when the blast shook the van, breaking one of the back windows. Holden was tossed from the seat onto the floor, while Hayden had been forced violently up against the door. She'd managed to get an arm up, protecting her head, but the impact broke two of her fingers.

D Hall had been stationed in Turnstone, too far from Broken Bear to arrive in time. They were on their way home when the eastern sky had filled with blue light.

Bobby turned the wheel, and sped toward the explosion, uncertain what would be waiting for them.

"What was that?" asked Harker.

"I think it was the weapon," said Harriet.

"But we won. Rigby said we did when we stopped at Broken Bear," said Holden, pulling herself back up on to the seat.

That was true. Rigby had playfully waved the van on with a "nothing to see here" when Bobby had rolled past her on the outskirts of town.

'Well, what's over there? It's past Falls Rock," said Hayden, holding her injured hand tight to her chest.

"Home," said Harriet.

A hush came over the van as that thought sunk in.

Bobby didn't think it had hit the Abbey, though. He thought it was close, maybe very close, but he thought the direction was off. The blast was just a little too far north. Of course, he didn't know how big the radius was, or what the shockwave might do to the Abbey. It had broken the window on the van.

Behind him, D Hall made a plan, because that's what D Hall did.

Bobby slowed down. The light was hazy, and hot, and flickering. It hurt his head just to look through the windshield.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Then there were three figures in front of the van. Bobby slammed on the breaks, reshuffling the D Hall Hunters again.

It was J Hall. Most of it anyway, and they looked rough. Sheridan's skin was bright red. Cody was blinking strangely. All three girls were covered in dust, and their clothes were worn and tattered. Blaspheme's right foot was bare, her boot missing completely.

"What happened?" asked Holden, jumping out of the van.

"I can only see out of one eye," said Cody.

"A kid tried to murder us," said Blaspheme.

"Was that the weapon?" asked Harker.

Sheridan nodded, and explained to D Hall how they had seen a single individual drive away from Broken Bear at high speed, and decided to investigate. She told them about how they had stopped the boy, and how he had given them the briefcase.

"And then Blaspheme saw him running away from us as fast as he could, and said you can't trust children," Cody said, a little too loudly.

"'Cause you can't! Seriously, name one thing we let children be in charge of. You can't, because you can't trust kids!" Blaspheme shouted.

"I can only see out of one eye," said Cody.

"I'm sure it's temporary," said Sheridan.

"Seriously, children are selfish and murdery. The Universe knows this, that's why it limits their capacity to do evil by making them small," said Blaspheme.

"Anyway," Sheridan cut in. "After Blaspheme pointed that out, we thought it might be a trick. We decided to get far away from the briefcase and watch it for a bit before we took it back home. I took a few big jumps before I ditched it and turned around. I was on the way back when it exploded."

"We thought you died," said Cody.

"Seriously, we were halfway through deciding who to ask to be our new fourth when you came lurching out of the haze," said Blaspheme.

Sheridan glared at her Hall mates.

"Who was it?" asked Hayden with a slight smile.

"Preston," said Cody.

"Bolton," said Blaspheme, at the same time.

"It was between Preston and Bolton," said Blaspheme, with a shrug.

"But the important thing is we saved the day," she continued.

"After we almost got everyone killed," said Sheridan.

"No. First, we saved the day when we noticed the bomb being driven away from Broken Bear. Then, we almost got everyone killed when you wanted to bring the thing back to Abbey. Finally, we saved the day a second time when we realized the little prick played us. Mathematically, that means we're heroes. We saved the day," said Blaspheme.

Bobby hated to interrupt. It had been a stressful day, and J Hall, it seemed, had just had a really close call. The girls were laughing now, because they could, and he didn't blame them.

But he had a question.

"Where's Rafferty?"

The J Hall girls stopped laughing.

"Yeah, about that…" said Blaspheme.