The man in the trench coat hadn't been cooperative at first. He'd stood in our way defiantly. Letting lighting run up and down his body while stretching out his hands.

"I will not let you pass until you've answered my questions!" He bellowed.

"If you attack us, I will consider it a matter of self-defense." Carlyle spoke softly.

He scoffed at that.

"I am a hero!" He declared. "I will not hurt old men or girls."

He said without an ounce of sarcasm.

'Okay, so apparently he can't read Magic half as well as Slitpipes. Though maybe Slitpipes is just weird. He's only had it since Alaska so, maybe mid level 1?'

The he turned to me.

"But I will not hesitate to knock your goon into next week!"

I had to say, the more he talked, the cringier he got.

In fact, I was still reeling from second-hand embarrassment when he charged me. Taking a boxer's stance and throwing a lightning-coated fist my way.

I responded on instinct. Just like coach Russell had taught me. Letting loose a quick jab while tanking the punch.

His punch made a small bit of my skin sizzle.

My punch shattered his jaw into a million little specks of dust and knocked his brain around so that it bounced inside his skull like a dozen maracas being shaken at the same time.

I felt bad immediately, but then I felt thankful that he was still alive.

'Close one.' I thought. 'Hopefully he'll learn something from this.'

The dude fell like a ragdoll. Turning limp as a wet noodle in my arms; in a way that made the women flanking him second-guess their hostility.

They all moved aside. As did Slitpipes McGee.

I rushed past them and soon heard the others moving to my sides as we made our way to the lower floor.

The outside of the hotel was full of cameras. All of them attached to screaming, breying masses and all of the flashing incessantly as we passed.

Asking all sorts of heated, pointed questions. Some of which I would have loved to know.

"What is your response to Mr. Hanamura's accusations?"

"What do you make of the documents Mr. Hanamura leaked to the press?"

"Is Magic real?"

"What kind of impact will Magic have on the world at large?"

"Are you the only ones capable of growing magic food?"

"Why didn't you spread out the method to growing magic food sooner?"

"Why did you wait until the world had a food crisis to start bringing your products to market?"

"Are you trying to start a monopoly?"

"Have you no shame?"

"And now we come to you live from downtown Detroit. Where a group of concerned citizens have landed a custom helicopter in the city's streets and come out to expose what they claim is a massive conspiracy to take over most of the world. Wealthy heir to Hanamura Heavy Industries, Ryuji Hanamura, was recently knocked unconscious by a youth named Cecil Fowler. The event was broadcast live on Chirper and is already having an impact. With netizens dubbing the event as: The Wrath of the Shaved Gorilla. Thousands are now going over the supposed leaks and wondering. Just how much truth there is to these stories? Is Magic real? Why does that make so much sense now that we don't see people who ate the new produce using the bathroom? I'm Jane Holland and this is the Channel 6 news."

We pushed past all of them. The wall of people feeling remarkably light as I kept moving steadily. My own frame effortlessly breaking through their impromptu barricade of bodies.

A few yelled in surprise.

A few cursed.

Many more kept asking their questions. Sounding more and more frantic as they saw that we were making progress towards the public street and to the left where the valet parking was.

I felt a tug on my shoulder, and followed James Robertson's lead. Abandoning the garage altogether in favor of a slight jog down the road.

Running at a pace that was mildly refreshing to me, but that would have been utterly brutal to a professional marathoner. Not to mention a reporter in fancy dress shoes or, if they were really unlucky, heels.

In truth, I had half expected the police to stop us. My mind conjuring black windowless vans from every alley we passed and imagining what we'd do if a bunch of very angry men in suits tried to muscle us into the confines of those vans.

'Kill them, in all likelihood.' I decided.

'I barely touched the cringy trench coat guy back there and I'm pretty sure he's halfway dead.'

That was the logical outcome when two people had a single level of difference between them. Never mind the reality that the poor fool was, at best, a poorly informed and poorly trained level 1 and that I was the kind of guy my fellow level 3s actively avoided looking at these days.

'Even if he'd had training, that was unfair.' I chided myself. 'I was no better than a bully. No better than coach Russell when he caught up to me back in Korea.'

'His woman shot you.' Pool Cecil hissed. 'Unprovoked. That, and he had the nerve to strike at us first! He should be thanking whatever gods he keeps that we didn't come out of that building wearing his skin as a cloak!'

I didn't dismiss his words out of hand this time.

Sure, he might be a literal psychopath, but he had a point this time. I had been shot first.

'And that woman couldn't have guessed how tough I was. Unless Casper told them all about levels too. But if he did, then why try and pick a fight?'

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Punching someone who was built like me was already a losing proposition before magic was taken into account. I must have had 200 pounds of pure muscle on the guy.

At least.

But with magic?

Attacking an actual, literal gorilla might have been less dangerous.

'So what do they know and what don't they know?'

"I feel like we're far enough away now." James Robertson spoke once we stopped.

My eyes only now realizing we'd almost reached the police barricade that separated the relatively clean parts of town from those that more or less resembled an active war zone.

"They stole the Jag." James spat in disgust. "Though I guess I should be thanking my lucky stars that it wasn't the Cobra."

"Casper was the one who supposedly teleported it back home grandpa." Elsie reminded him.

"Shiiiiit." He moaned. Allowing the word to drag on. "You're right."

He clenched his teeth. Grinding them until they made a sound not too dissimilar to those of a buzzsaw.

"I swear, when I get my hands on that snake I'll...!"

"Let it go." Carlyle spoke. His voice coming out more softly than I would have guessed.

His eyes were on his phone now. No doubt scrolling through the internet to see what information had made it out.

"Can't reach anyone in town." He said. "But I can still text people outside of our bases and my phone still has internet. I think the signals are being blocked on their end."

"Well isn't that just dandy." His son spat.

"This is not ideal." He continued once his son glared at him. "But it is by no means he worst case scenario."

He paused to suck in a breath. Releasing it in one slow hiss.

"None of the information here implicates us in any crime. There's nothing about Alaska and nothing about us putting a Dungeon Core in the outskirts of Detroit. Growing food and hoarding knowledge and keeping magic to ourselves is sketchy as all heck... but it is not illegal per se."

I narrowed my eyes. Considering just how many of the world's governments would vehemently disagree.

"In a way, this is good. Most people out there won't accept the existence of magic so easily. Not anytime soon anyway. But the one who see what the food does and how the crops keep failing will be skeptical. There will be more public studies. The governments won't be able to hide it as well as they did the first time around."

He repeated the breathing exercises once, then twice, then thrice.

Then he chuckled.

"You know... In a way. This is really kinda funny." He turned around to look at us. Tears gathering at the corner of his eyes.

"Always said I'd never forgive the Japanese, and here comes this kid I had no info on. His mind filled with genuine righteous indignation. Doing the exact same thing I did back in my time to get the truth out in order to mobilize those at the top and save more people."

He laughed again. Though it felt hollow.

"There wasn't a single selfish thought in his head. Makes you think."

His eyes sharpened.

"The police don't know anything about Magic. Neither the governor or the mayor had any clue as to what was happening last time we talked. Some people in the federal government knew something, but not enough get a clear picture and certainly not enough to point fingers at us."

He wasn't smiling anymore.

"That easy ride is over. We have a bit of plausible deniability, since all these documents don't prove anything by themselves and all the Magic he showed could be special effects. I've used my Magic to contact Russell and Homer and my other sons and daughters. But I haven't heard anything definitive back from them. Our contacts in the Canadian government will keep any official heat off our backs when it comes to the town. But that won't do here in the states. I only have a coupe of congressmen and senators in my pocket. Not nearly enough to crush an official inquiry."

He clapped.

"So, we have to move fast. Without the benefit of our resident teleporters. There is a chance that Casper was acting alone, but he'll have moved his family out of town by now. They could be on Mars for all I know."

"We still have Shortround." Elsie pointed out.

"Same Core, level 1. Not to mention the fact that she's only been to a few places in the world." Carlyle shook his head. "Her importance just skyrocketed, but she won't be a proper card in our deck for some time yet. If Casper hasn't kidnapped her too."

He sighed.

"No, we need to move and we need to move fast. I'll head out to some contacts in the media and start putting out fires before they can spread. Then I will go back home and meet with our lawyers. This was always a possibility so the contingencies are already in place. We just need someone to manage the fallout."

He turned to James, Elsie and me.

"You three have the trickiest job though." He spoke softly.

"The Dungeon Core is more or less exposed to the elements right now with only a couple of floors. It, by itself, is a strategic resource that will make or break countries in the future. Casper has nabbed it before, but only after Cecil bonded with it and shut down most of the natural Dungeon's inherent defenses. As it is now, the Core is even more defenseless than before."

"It needs to be secured." James agreed. "Casper might try to take it to who-knows-where."

"Not to mention its owner." Carlyle agreed.

'Oh yeah.' I realized suddenly. 'If Casper wants to erode Carlyle's influence, I'm much more valuable than a Core. Thanks to me being the controller and the one who can grow food. Just like...'

"Holy shit! My family!"

"Yeah." Elsie agreed. "Mercy can grow food too and if Casper wanted to take you away from town..."

"We have to make sure they're okay!" I bellowed.

Carlyle Robertson looked up to me and placed his hands ion my shoulders.

"We will. You have my word. I already reached out to my kids via [Telepathy]. I'm waiting to hear back. For now, I need you to get to that Dungeon and make sure no one gets close to the Core. It could do a lot of harm if it falls into the wrong hands, and we don't even know if Casper and whomever he's working with can really contain it like you can."

I nodded slowly.

"Okay. It's decided then. Best of luck."

Just like that, the old geezer bent his knees and rocketed up into the sky like coach Homer had done when I'd first arrived in town. Practically flying with the momentum he'd built up from a single leap.

However, I didn't stand there gaping this time. Instead, I grew wings and feathers. knowing full well that James was about to pick me and Elsie up before doing the same.

----------------------------------------

The abandoned garage was more or less how we'd left it.

The only difference being in how many people were running away screaming.

Some of them stopping only briefly to fire guns at the emerging Sunflower brutes.

The announcement had had a great big impact on the population here. Enough so that thousands had crowded around to the place in order to see what all the fuss was about.

‘Or maybe they’re all really desperate to get powers.’ I thought to myself. ‘If the food really is as addictive as they say, a lot of folks might not see another choice. That guy McGee basically told everyone I grew the food. They might think they can grow Magic food too if they get in there and kill some monsters.’

It wasn’t an impossibility per se, but the chances weren’t good. Not to mention that the units guarding the Core wouldn’t be anything like the pushovers on the surface.

If they gave the seniors trouble back in Korea, then regular people would turned into Swiss cheese faster than they could blink.

"I thought the monsters in the surface were supposed to be weak." Elsie commented.

"They are weak." I answered. "Some of the weakest units I could think of. They're slow, clumsy, blind, mostly deaf and mostly dumb. The one thing they're good at is pushing folks away and taking hits."

"And bullets." Elsie followed up.

"That too. But to be fair, any level 1 monster would be really good at taking bullets."

We were soaring through the air now. Lazily drifting downwards on heavy feathered wins James Robertson and his granddaughter clinging to my sides as I angled our descent so that none of the passersby saw us.

"Hey Elsie."

"What?"

"Connect to my mind. Increase my range so that I can target each one of my units and the Dungeon itself from here."

James Robertson sputtered. Looking shocked.

"You did the [Mind-Meld]!?"

Elsie shriveled. Shooting me a dangerous look.

"Yeah? Was she not... oh. Yeah. That checks out." I said with resignation.

"You're both 14!?"

"Yeah and dad was 13 when he did it with mom." Elsie quipped.

"Your father's not a proper role model all the time young lady!" The older Robertson snapped.

"And you should know better!"

Elsie pretended she didn't hear him. When that didn't work, she tried the logical approach.

"Yeah, well. This is kinda an emergency grandpa. I'm sure you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

He looked furious. Though more at her than at me.

Which was good because the inverse would have been the height of unfairness.

We connected again and the borders between our bodies and our Magic faded away.

'Explode outwards.' I commanded. 'Send the challengers running. But don't kill them. Release the Cannonlings. Create a new form with my specifications.'

I felt the Magic roil around us. I could feel the Core rushing to obey.

More importantly, I could feel the cement cracking and shifting and disintegrating.

Giving way, before the new life I was about to unleash.