The Jeep’s engine was a welcome hum as Max stayed lost in thought for a few minutes. He didn’t allow himself to brood too long, though.

In some ways, the time limit he was under was serving as a great motivator not to get too lost in thought.

He stared out the window, thinking about the fight with the kobolds. It’d been easy for him, and he’s saved a lot of people. Part of him felt like he should be happy about that, but he just felt hollow. The fact he couldn’t figure out why was bothering him.

There was enough difficult, damn near impossible shit waiting for him in the Quartet. Why couldn’t he just enjoy the wins?

Suddenly, his mind, his full processing power, became his own again as the part that had been tied up with his new Path finished absorbing the most important details. A torrent of information flooded Max’s mind. Even though he knew most of what he needed to know about being a Bead Sorcerer now, he would still need to meditate on it later and unravel more secrets.

He looked up and realized he knew where Blake was taking him. This part of town had been where he’d started to change his life before the whole world went to hell.

Max was not entirely surprised by the fact that his friends’ base was most likely the dojo. He recognized the area long before arriving, and noticed Blake trying to watch him for a reaction. Max stayed stony faced. He didn’t give his friend the satisfaction of an exclamation of surprise.

The area had been turned into a field-expedient, post apocalypse fortress. All the entrances to the parking lot had been blocked off and there was fencing around the entire lot.

"What's all this?" asked Max. He pointed at the fence and the blocked access.

"Oh, you know," said Blake. "We put it up on the fourth day after the attack. Some of the smaller monsters just bypassed the area entirely with it there. Too much trouble, I guess. Even the bigger ones still have to climb over, and that would give us more time to deal with them. But we haven't had a direct attack here for a while. Now it's kind of helpful too because there are human looters and troublemakers around but this kind of declares that this place is occupied. Tell them it's probably not a good idea to mess with us." Max nodded in reply.

They approached one of the entrances and Blake honked the horn. People pushed the car that was blocking the entrance out of the way. As Blake pulled in, Max observed how two men he was unfamiliar with were starting to push the car back, using the parking brake to keep it in place once it was where they wanted it. He thought, A stop-gap measure, in this case literally.

He’d half-expected Lavinia to comment on the thought since he hadn’t shielded it, but she stayed silent.

"Who are those guys?" he asked.

"Ramon and George," said Blake, "They're two guys from the family that own the Mexican restaurant in the complex. They're friends of ours and they help us keep this place safe. We actually have a few families living in some of the stores now." Max nodded. Now that his memory had been jogged, he recognized them.

The Jeep pulled into the end of the parking lot against the wall where all the other vehicles were. Max was amazed to see how the area had been transformed. What was once a strip mall, and a slightly seedy one at that, now looked something like a cross between a military compound and an apartment complex. The parking lot had been transformed into an open-air courtyard of sorts. Ladders leaned against the roof, and armored defensive emplacements had been erected with the high ground advantage. To one side there were barbecues lined up, some of which were currently smoking. On the other side of the compound, there were a couple of port-a-potties in the corner.

Max pointed at the porta-potties and looked a question at Blake. His friend shrugged., "We stole those." He didn't say anything more. Max didn't pry further.

He studied the portapotties, wondering why the survivors had gone through the trouble of getting them. All of the shops in the strip mall had restrooms. But then he answered his own question when he realized his friends probably weren't relying on the water lasting forever. If they continued to have running water, everything would be fine. But if the running water stopped, this little community would continue to function a little bit easier than some others might.

Blake parked the Jeep and they both got out. Max was pleased and a little excited when he spotted more of his students coming out of the dojo to meet them. It took a few seconds for the first to recognize him, but after that, it was like a chain reaction of surprised yells, people calling his name, and folks running up to hug him and pat him on the back.

Everyone did their best to keep their eyes dry, and everyone mostly succeeded.

The last to join the little group was Ethan and Max looked into the man's world-weary eyes as they shook hands. Ethan had never looked so old or frayed, which was probably appropriate given the circumstances.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm glad you're back," said Ethan. "Now then, since you're here and you're alive, would you mind coming into the dojo? I’d love to just have a mid-apocalypse party, but it has to wait. We all have some questions for you."

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Max nodded solemnly and followed the group inside. He wasn't going to tell them everything, but he did probably owe them some answers and some further guidance at this point.

***

Max sat on the floor in front of the mirror that ran along one side of the dojo. All of the sleeping bags and other belongings that his students had brought, at least the ones that were living there, had been pushed against one wall to clear the space. All of his old students sat on the floor facing him.

Max scratched his cheek and said, "I'm not one hundred percent sure where to start."

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" asked Chad. Ethan’s brother looked as serious as usual, and had obviously lost weight.

Max chuckled, "No, that would take too long, I think. Also…context is needed."

"Well, how about you just get to the point where you tell us why we're all superheroes now?" said Chad.

"Oh, that. Yeah. Okay." Max leaned his head back and crossed his arms. "The martial art I taught you before is why you have superhuman abilities now. Which I'm sure you have probably figured out, at least to some extent.”

"I knew it!" said Toby, one of the other students. He smacked his open hand with a palm. "I told you it was the martial arts!"

Max grinned. "And now, to answer the question that you haven't asked me yet. Yes, I am human. And yes, I am from this world." Some of the students in the room chuckled nervously, but others had serious expressions, and their eyes didn't flicker. Max noticed that Blake was actually one of them.

He continued, "Before I met you, I mastered a martial art from another world, a world of mana and magic. How I know this martial art is not important, at least not right now. If we survive all of this, I’ll tell you later. Maybe. What is important is that even with no mana, it was an effective, profound system which I think all of you would agree on. However, once the monsters attacked, and mana came back to earth, this martial art became something else.

“No, I did not know the monsters were going to attack. It was a complete surprise to me I was actually at my dayjob when it happened. When I was getting ready to leave work, shit went down. I killed a few small monsters before trying to get some coworkers out of the worst of it. Come to think of it, I have no idea where my car is right now.”

Ethan quirked a smile. Everyone around him nodded as they digested what he’d said.

Max continued, “So the reason you have all developed powers is because after you used your Albion Western Wind Style, after the earth was full of mana, you basically began harnessing mana into your body and infusing it into your bones. This will make you all stronger over time, even at rest, and when you fight–use your martial arts, you can pull in mana around you, use it like a battery. All of you will develop your own techniques over time, too. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

“Now you’ll be stronger, faster, and harness mana while you fight. You might have heard of this, but in the universe, there are Paths. If you’re on a Path, you’re considered a Challenger. All of you are currently on the Mana Swordsman Path.”

“Is that what you are too?” asked Blake.

“No. I’m on a different Path. More than one.”

“Can we learn other paths?” said Chad.

Max grinned without humor. “Master one first. Then we can talk about it.”

"So you're not going to tell us how you know, or how you knew Albion Western Wind Style in the first place?" asked Blake.

Max shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. There are some secrets I'm not willing to share yet. But again, I’ll say again: I am human. I was born on earth. You are all my friends, my students.” He paused. “However, I need to ask you all to never teach Albion Western Wind Style to anyone else without my permission. Actually, it’s not a request. That is a hard and fast rule. I’m sorry to be a hardass about it, but if I ever find out you did, we will be enemies."

There was a moment of silence.

"So where have you been?" asked Ethan.

"He’s a returner, I think?" said Blake.

Max pondered how to answer the question without spending a few hours trying to explain how the universe worked…especially when he himself wasn't entirely sure yet. What he eventually said was, "I was given a prompt to get stronger, a choice. When I chose Yes, I was sent to Quartet training. But the truth is that I'm not actually done with my training in the Quartet. I have a special set of circumstances that allowed me to return for around two days before I go back. It’s kind of a unique thing. Just to be safe, all of you please keep this stuff to yourself. After I go back to the Quartet from here, I don’t know when I’ll be back again, actually be a Returner. But next time should be for good."

Silence greeted this until Blake nodded slowly and said, "Yeah, I haven't heard of any other returners coming back with weird, dirty clothes unless they looked like that beforehand. You should have appeared in your work clothes, right?”

Max nodded. “Yup. And I would probably have my cell phone.” He pointed at his sword. “Returners can’t come back with items or weapons unless they pay a shit ton of money for it, too. But to be honest, I’m still not 100% sure how all that works yet.”

"So what's the Quartet like?" asked Ethan. “We have heard a little bit about it. News stations are going nuts trying to interview the handful of Quartet graduate Returners. Most of them are in other countries so far, though.”

"I don't even know how to answer that question." Max chuckled. He shook his head and said, "It's kind of like military training and college and summer camp all mixed together. But it's not all good.

"How many other returners are there that you know of?" asked Max.

Chad answered, "It seems like most of the people who are back failed in some way. A lot of them won’t talk about it. And most of them have powers now, but not tons of it. Like, most of us are stronger than they are. People are calling people who developed power on Earth Local Hunters, or just Hunters. Anyway, there are a few people that are real Returners and graduated from their Quartet schools. They’re strong as hell. But I don't think there are any around here, at least not yet."

"Yeah," said Ethan. "One thing I have heard consistently is that the Returners say there's going to be more of them coming back eventually."

"That's true," said Max. "I don't know when though so don't ask me. Just like I don't know when I'll officially Return either."

"So what powers do you have?" asked Ethan.

To one side, Blake smiled. He said, "You guys have got to see this. Max, do the armor thing!”

Max grinned. “Alright, but after that, we need to talk business and about the near future.”

“What do you mean?”

Max made eye contact with Ethan and Chad. “You guys need to form a guild while I’m gone.”