We arrived at Alex's house. It was a simple single-family house with red brick walls and dark gray shingles on the roof. 

“Welcome to my place,” Alex said, stepping out of the car. She opened the garage door revealing an odd sight. The center of the room had a thin piece of red electrical tape cutting the room in half. On the right side, it was completely empty. On the left side, there was a cheap folding table in the center with tools scattered on it, piles of spare parts and assorted finished and half-finished projects. I cringed as I looked at the workspace. 

Wow, our workspace organizational styles are wildly different, I thought to myself. Not wanting to be rude I tried to ignore the migraine her workshop gave me and asked, “So where should we put the stuff?” 

“Oh, just put it anywhere, we can figure out a good spot to put it after we figure out what this stuff does.” 

 I nodded and as I started to move things on the floor next to the table Brad commented, “Alex, I'm surprised your parents are cool with you taking up half of the garage.” 

“Well yeah, my dad works from home and my mom is always on some kind of business trip, so there only ever needs to be one available parking space. The last time I worked in the house, I kind of broke a wall so me working in here just makes sense." 

“I'm sorry, you broke a WALL," I questioned in utter disbelief. “When did this even happen?”

“Remember two years ago when I was out of school for two weeks because I was in the hospital?” 

“Not in the slightest.” Brad answered with zero hesitation. 

“Kind of.” I lied. 

“Well, that's basically the story, no point in explaining anything else if that's all you can remember.” She said somewhat embarrassedly. as Brad & I propped Rosy against the side of the wall. Tulip had finished unpacking the boxes onto the table and Alex had closed the garage door. 

After we finished unpacking the boxes onto the table, we looked at the items before us with Alex asked to everyone. “Can we all be in agreement, when we say giving our blood to these objects is the last option to try to get them work?” She glared at me with attitude.

“Yeah, the bleeding doesn't feel good, " I shuddered. 

“Ok, so what should we start with?" Tulip asked. 

“I'd say start with the armor since it seems like we have the most use for it,” Alex suggested. 

“I'll see if there's something in my book on how to activate it.”

“Maybe something happens when you put it on.” Brad theorized placing his hand into the gauntlet with no reaction whatsoever. “Maybe I need to make some kind of gesture or sign with the thing on.” He said as he started to punch and swat the air around him as well as trying several other gestures. 

“Brad, I think you need another approach.” Alex suggested as much like the rest of us she was bored of watching Brad try for fifteen minutes with nothing to show for it. 

“Ok, ok hold on I have one idea that could work.” 

“Is it finger guns? Because if this is from, what did you say Tulip, the sixteenth century? Then there is no way that’s the trigger for the thing.” I pointed out.

“Well, you never know.” 

“I guess I don't.” I said hesitantly. 

“Ink, you're being too nice. Brad, if you do finger guns, I will throw one of these coins at you.” 

“Why is throwing things at people your go to strategy to get people to stop doing things?” Brad questioned.

“It works, doesn't it?” She said in a cocky tone. 

“Can't argue with that logic," I said, shrugging. 

“Yeah, but I'm still gonna try," he said while extending his arm out, closing his eyes, making a fist and extending his index and middle finger. His other arm was grabbing his forearm as if there was some kind of kick back to it. “Pew! Pow! Blam!" He called out as if he expected something to happen. 

“DUMB!” Tulip yelled as she flicked one of the coins at Brad. When he tried to shield his face with the gauntlet a blue rectangle blocked the doubloon and started to levitate in the air. “Holy crap, throwing stuff actually worked!” She screamed in surprise slamming her hands on the table causing one of the doubloons to be launched out of the pouch and onto the floor a couple meters away from the first coin. 

In a matter of seconds, both coins started to shake and vibrate. The coins levitated in the air until they were about a meter high. The center of the coin disappeared leaving only a dark red space with a bright red spiral that seemed to go on forever. The coins stretched and expanded, growing into two large ovals. The rim of the coins had each formed into a golden wire with several golden cylinders spread around it. The area of red started to fade away revealing a confusing sight. On the oval closest to us was the image of the door to the rest of the house which we all knew was behind us. When looking through the other oval we saw ourselves staring at something. 

“Are these portals?” Alex asked, dumbfounded. 

“I mean what else could it be?” Tulip pointed out. 

“Should we go through it?” Brad questioned. 

“I don't think it's safe to go through.” I advised.

“Ok then what should we do with it?" Tulip sassed. 

“We have to do something, we can't just leave an interdimensional gateway in my garage, that's where all my stuff is.” Alex cried out. 

“Wait, I have an idea," I reached into my pocket, throwing the small wooden dog in the air. “Crescite et confortamini.” Causing Hachiko to grow in the air and land on all fours. I bent down and started to scratch his chin. “Hachiko, I'm gonna need you to do me a favor. I need you to go through that portal,” pointing to one of the gateways. 

“Ink, you can't send your dog through magic portals to test if they are safe.” Alex sighed face palming. 

“What do you mean? Hachiko is a magic dog, he’s perfect. He's not one of us, and he's here.” 

“Yeah, he's a dog, it's animal abuse to experiment on it, not to mention illegal.” Tulip pointed out.

“Show me the exact law that states I can't have a magic golem dog I created to test out a magic portal made from ancient Spanish doubloons?” 

“That shouldn't matter th–” Alex stopped talking as instead she looked at something happening behind me. 

I turned around to see Hachiko skipping through the portals with it having no effect on him whatsoever. “See we have nothing to worry about.” 

“I have my doubts about that.” Brad said. 

“Well, I don't know what to tell you, it's clearly safe.” I exclaimed.

“Ok, then prove it,” Alex said with a cocky smirk on her face. 

“Yeah, prove it, Ink” Brad chimed in. 

“I did, I proved it with Hachiko," I said nervously. 

“You proved your dog could do it, not if a flesh and blood human could, " Alex said with a sly smile.

“Yeah, I mean there is only one way to prove it’s ‘completely safe’.” Brad said using air quotes for the last part. 

“Look we don't need t—” I felt a tap on my back when I turned around to see Tulip with a mischievous grin . In an instant, she grabbed my shoulder and chest and wrapped her leg around mine and Judo threw me into the portal. When I opened my eyes, I was on the ground at the bottom of the other portal. At first glance I had not experienced any strange side effects. I turned my head towards the others who were next to the other portal high fiving Tulip. “How did you do that?" I groaned. 

“Like I said, my dad is a cop. He taught me a couple tricks and moves to use if I'm ever alone at night.” She said proudly as she started to walk forward reaching out her hand. “Sorry, hope I didn't hurt you too badly.” 

"Only my pride.” I wheezed.

“No hard feelings, right?” she asked. 

“Only if you teach me how to do that.” Grabbing her arm and getting up. 

“I'm just gonna close the pouch, so we don't accidentally create any more portals.” Alex said as she tightened the string of the bag. The two portals instantly closed and left behind two gold doubloons. 

“That's good to know," Brad said going over to put the two coins back in the sack.

Tulip and I approached the table, we looked at the last three items: the book, the cube and the polaroid. “I am open to suggestions. Which one should we try next?” I asked around.

“Well, I think the picture’s magic is kind of obvious so I doubt it will be able to do anything else. The cube has almost no information on it, other than it apparently being made up of quaking aspen from the Grand Canyon.” Alex analyzed, looking at me with suspicion about the authenticity of my claim.

“The only item we have a chance at activating is the book. Ink, you have the most experience with magical books, so maybe you could give it a try?" Brad said, as he handed the book to me. 

“Ok fine, but right now it feels like I'm the guy in the group project that does all the work.” I joked as I started to read through trying to see what it could do. As I read, I started to think to myself. We have a suit of armor that creates blue shields, a pouch of coins that create portals and a book made from a strange purple leather. Maybe it activates similarly to the portals? Maybe I need to throw it on the ground or write something in the pages? I thought to myself, maybe if I write– 

“Hey Ink?” My thoughts were interrupted by Tulip and the others who were all looking behind me in shock and awe. I turned around to see what they were looking at; it was three strange figures. One was the suit of armor completely assembled with blue rectangles stationed around it floating in the air. The second was a giant pouch, which was as big as Brad. The pouch was turned over so that the opening was facing us. The pouch opening had a bright red spiral overlaid on top of it, the same symbol as the portals. The third figure was, well it was me, sitting down and writing in the book. The resemblance was uncanny, it was like looking into a mirror. 

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“What the hell?” I said befuddled. 

“Ink, what did you do?" Tulip asked.

“I don't know!” I yelled. 

“Are they real?” Alex asked. 

“They look real.” Brad added. 

“Let me see" I approached the suit of armor, still gripping the book tightly. I reached forward towards the suit. Instead of my hand meeting the armor my hand went straight through armor like it was only air. I dragged my hand through the armor to see if the rest of it was the same. The path that my hand created vanished the part of the armor entirely. Removing my arm caused the image to quickly reform to its original form.

The others walked up trying the same thing. I noticed Tulip was taking a special interest in my duplicate. I turned towards the table wanting to get a better look at these strange images. I put the book down immediately resulting in the images fading away into nothingness like a mirage in the desert. The others immediately turned their heads towards me. Alex was the first one to notice that the book had left my hand. “Ink, what does that book do?” Thinking about it, I realized.

“I think it can create images of whatever I think about. The armor, the pouch and me writing in the book were all things I was thinking about.” I looked at the book resting on the table. “I guess the images only last for as long as you're holding the book.” 

“That's awesome!” Brad exclaimed. 

“Yeah, that's like, the coolest item here," Tulip said with enthusiasm. 

That was the last notable thing of the night, we laughed and joked, learned and tested the limitations of the magic items. We learned the wearer of the armor focused hard enough they could create blue shields that could be used as platforms to stand on. The colour was not changeable much to Tulips' annoyance, who was hoping she could get it to turn red. The shields were unbreakable or at the very least durable to anything we tried. The closest thing to breaking the shields was if we broke the concentration of whoever was creating them, oddly enough it turned out that when someone hit a shield the user could feel the impact. If you hit them hard enough the wielder would feel pain. 

There were one hundred and twenty-six gold doubloons in total, each one a portal that could be opened. There was no limit to the number of portals that could stay open at once, in order to open a portal a coin must be hit with significant enough force. Your average punch would do it but simply tapping the thing wasn't good enough. We learned the portal frame was either unbreakable or at least insanely durable. The only way to close the portals was to close the pouch or wait five minutes were the portals would dematerialize and reappear in the pouch as coins.

The book could create illusions on whatever the user was thinking about. The illusion could move around if the person concentrated hard enough. The more complicated an illusion was, the harder it was to maintain. For example, creating an illusion of a snowman was easy but creating an illusion of two people talking was difficult and the focus required would give migraines to the user. We discovered dropping the book or losing focus would cause all the illusions to disappear. The illusions had no substance to them, and our hand would go through them as easily as hair flowing through the air. 

We still had absolutely no clue what the cube did even after hours of testing. We tried throwing it into the portal, kicking and punching it. We even tried having me bleed on it, all our attempts achieved nothing. As time passed, I looked at my phone to see the time was eight twelve. “Well guys” I said, slapping my knees and standing up. “This has been fun but I gotta go, my mom is gonna kill me if I'm not home in time.” 

“Yeah dude, you gotta get going," Brad agreed with a face of concern, knowing exactly what I was talking about. 

“Hey, I should probably get going too, do you mind if I walk with you Ink?” Tulip asked somewhat nervously. 

Figuring she was probably just nervous to be a girl walking alone at night I figured the more people the better. “Sure, do you wanna come with us Brad?” 

He just looked at me with this dumbfounded before saying. “No thanks, Alex asked me for help with a thing, isn't that right Alex?” 

“Yeah, that's right,” she said awkwardly “I need your help with, um the, um portal coins, yeah that's it.” She said somewhat frantically. 

“Ok then, I just figured I’d ask.” Turning around to Tulip who was standing beside the open garage door waiting for me to come with her. We walked out the garage with Tulip close to my side. After a couple minutes of awkward silence since neither of us were conversation starters. Without Brad's remarkable ability to talk about anything or Alex's personality, neither of us were very good at talking to people. Finally, I managed to break the awkward silence with the only thing I could think of. “How do you think you're gonna do on the math test on Wednesday?” 

“Um, I'm not sure. I think I'll get a pretty good mark like an eighty-five. What about you?” 

“Um, probably the same. I haven't been studying that much, so I don't expect a good grade, but I have been catching up. I think I can get a sixty if I luck out on the multiple choice.” We stayed silent after that, not sure how to keep the conversation going. After a few moments Tulip started to giggle when I looked at her confused, she looked at me and apologized. 

“Sorry it's just funny we’re thinking about our grades when we spent most of the day gearing up to fight supervillains.” Thinking about the absurdity of what I just said myself, I couldn't help but join her in laughter. She looked at me and we both laughed walking down the street as joyfully as could be. “Hey Ink… What do you plan to do when this is all over?” She said arms behind her head gazing into the stars. 

“Well Alex was talking about trying to set me up with one of her friends so I mean that could be fun but after we graduate. I don't really know. I never really thought about it. I mean the plan was to always go to Guelph University but because of well… remember a couple days ago when I mentioned Brad and the others destroyed something very important to me.” 

“Uh huh” Tulip said, nodding her head. 

“Well, that thing was something that was going to get me a scholarship, and without it there is no way I could afford to ever go.” 

“That's why you hate them so much. They basically ruined your life.” 

“Yep, the plan was to try to recreate the damn thing and hand it in and hope it is good enough.” I said solemnly as I shook my head trying to get the thoughts out of my head. “But what about you, what do you plan to do after all this is over?” 

“I guess just continue life as normal and try to get through high school. You know, believe it or not, I want to go to Guelph University too.” 

“Really how come?” 

“I've always been fascinated with history and the secrets of the past. The ancient items give proof to ideas and theories of the way things used to be. Since Guelph University has one of the better history programs.” This makes those March Break rumors a lot more believable I thought to myself.

“Hey maybe, if we both get in, we can study it together.” I offered.

“I'd like that. It would be nice to talk about history and whatnot with other people.” she said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“What about Alex or your parents?” 

“Well Alex, she's my best friend but she tends to have trouble having a calm discussion.” 

“Yeah, I noticed.” 

“Yeah, she takes a bit to get used to but other than that she's great to have around,” I nodded silently. “And my parents, like I mentioned, my dad is a cop, and he really fits the stereotype. History has never been something that's interested him, and I can tell he just listens to be polite.” She whined, I don't think she realized how lucky she was to still be able to regularly talk to both her parents face to face. “And don't get me started about my mom she works as a restaurant manager, so I don't really get to see her that much.” Yeah, because you have three dogs that's not cheap. “When I am, and she's not too exhausted from work, we talk for hours on end about ancient history from the Romans to the American Revolution. She's the reason I fell in love with history to begin with. She used to teach it to me when I was little. It was always something we used to bond over.” Well at least she isn't completely unappreciative, she has some respect for her parents.

“She sounds nice,” my tone was awkward not fully knowing what to say to that display of entitlement, “isn't she also really into gardening?” 

“Yeah, it's one of her two hobbies; history and gardening. She loves gardening so much she named me after one of her flowers. A pink tulip.” 

“Oh, that's a nice name.” 

“It's not when your full name is Pink Tulip Barquero. I go by Tulip for obvious reasons. It was a pick your poison situation and at least Tulip is a somewhat normal name. Honestly, I've kinda resented my mom a little bit for naming me that.” 

“I get where you're coming from but look at it this way at least your mom had good intentions when naming you.” 

“No, she didn't, she just named me after something else she loved, something that would get me picked on a lot.” 

“I get that, trust me I do, but at the same time, tulips represent a lot of things, purple are tied to royalty and luxury. White represents elegance and purity, and pink represents wishes, care, affection and love. Granted it's not my place by any means but I think the fact she named you after one, was not out of any malice or hatred, but a wish that you would grow up to be as kind and beautiful as the flower you were named after.” I said with a smile. 

Tulip looked at me with a strange gleam in her eyes. “I never thought about it that way before… Thank you Ink. That means a lot. How do you know so much about tulips anyways?” 

“I had to learn a lot about what different colours meant and symbolized in Canada. Because, let me tell you, painting a wavy messy red line on white tile that leads from the door to the counter does not help the idea you used to live in the murder house! Turns out red in China means very different things then it does in Canada!” She started to giggle before taking a more curious expression before asking

“Hey, do you ever miss China, like if you don't mind me asking do you ever regret coming to Canada?”

“Eh bits and pieces, I mean obviously I prefer the government and opportunities I have here, but I had friends back in China, I had my dad, my Aunt where here it's just me and my mom.” I sighed.

“What was your aunt and dad like? Wait I thought you didn't talk to any of your family is she on your dad's side.” Tulip asked in a way that even I could tell meant she thought Aunt Estelle was dead.

“Ok first off, they aren't dead.” A look of embarrassment fell on her face. “Estelle my aunt is one of those family friends that are so close their family she's someone my dad met when he was in England. She went to China to start a bakery. My dad works as an architect over in Hong Kong, he taught me to draw, I still talk with him on the phone, but it isn't the same.”

“He sounds like a good person.”

“He is, I miss him dearly”

The rest of the walk was mostly in a lighter mood both of deciding to move to calmer topics just cracking jokes about school and just random things, until we would eventually end up across the street of Tulips house.

“Well, this is my stop. Thanks for walking me home.” Tulip said with a bright smile. 

“Same here, it is always the bright spot of my day or night in this case whenever I get to talk to you.” I said with an equally bright smile. She looked at me for a moment, almost like she was going to say something. Before walking away.

After waiting to make sure she got inside safe i made my way back home. When I walked through the door, I saw mom was beginning to close the shop, putting the books down and checking the cash register. 

“Hey Ink," she said as she put the binder full of varnish options under the counter. “How was the project?” 

“Um, it was good we've made a lot of progress and had some fun too.” Being careful with my word choice so I didn't make her think I was lying. 

“That's good, it was nice meeting your friends. I'm so used to seeing the other four that truthfully, I didn't know what to expect from them.” 

“Yeah, I guess I really only ever hung out with them before.” rubbing the back of my head. 

“You know, believe it or not, one of your friends Tulip, her mother Rosaland, is actually a regular customer here.” 

“Yeah, we talked about her a bit.”  

“Oh, you know you should give her the friends and family discount.” 

“That's what I said!” 

“Well in that case I'll give her mother the friends and family discount the next time I see her. And hey who knows maybe you'll be able to make it so that it's the family discount.” she said in a cheeky tone. 

“Mom,” I groaned. 

“I'm just joking sweety. If Tulip is anything like her mother, I'm sure she's very sweet.” 

“She is, well, I'm gonna go work on something in the shop, so have a good night.” Quickly, walking around the counter and opening the door. But before I could do that, I felt a hand on my shoulder. 

“Hey Ink, what are you gonna be working on in there? She said with a concerned voice. Realizing what she meant, I said. 

“Don't worry I’m not gonna be working on that. The truth is I'm gonna be working on something else, something I got an idea of from the look you gave me.” 

“Oh, that's wonderful,” she said in a much different tone, "What are you going to be working on this time?” she said with genuine curiosity instead of the previous concern. 

“It's kind of hard to explain, but I have the image of it on my phone.” I opened the photo app and showed it to her. 

“Ohh” she said trying to fake admiration, “well not what I expected. “

“Yeah, well I tried making something simple so now I'm gonna try and stretch my legs a little and try something a bit more challenging.” 

“Well have fun and please make sure to go to bed at a reasonable hour.” She said as she walked up the stairs. 

“I promise” I said as I went into the shop to get to work. I worked on it for around an hour getting the basic shape of it, its four legs, its long tail and its two heads before I headed up stairs to get some sleep.