I... I don't even know how I can type this all out right now. My hands are shaking too much. I feel like the entire world is tilting, spinning too fast. Today changed everything, in ways I don't even fully understand yet, and I really can't talk to anyone about it. Not even the two people who I really should talk with about it; especially not them!

It's been more than a week, and there were still no monster attacks, and now it's Friday. Everything started out normal enough. Get up, get ready, go to school, avoid the Underwoods, make it through classes, head on home. Mom was in the kitchen, Ramón was out on the driveway shooting hoops, and Cinthia was off somewhere riding her bike around. A perfectly ordinary day so far.

I was just sitting here, doing my homework, when my phone lit up with a group text. Someone had sent a GPS marker to me, Josh, and Jenny. "Don't suppose you know who's doing magic over here?"

I didn't recognize the number. Neither did Josh, apparently. "Who is this?"

"Adams. Just got a ping of magic, like what you're familiar with but bigger. No one there that we know of."

The government agent. And somehow he has our phone numbers now. Lovely.

"That's just a couple miles from here. We'll check it out," Josh sent back. I looked up the marker and saw he was right; it was just a bit past the edge of town, just inside the New Tunguska forest. 16 years ago, but still no one's built anything further out that way. Superstition, I guess.

I checked outside my room just to make sure the coast was clear, then shut and locked the door. "Powers come upon me, Defender Jupiter!" Once I had transformed, I opened a rift out to the edge of town. Mars and Neptune showed up right behind me.

"So, what do you think?" Neptune asked.

"Jury's still out on Adams," Mars said. "Either something really weird is going on, or it's some kind of trap."

I nodded. "Worst part is, right now we have no good reason to not believe either of those. But we kinda have to check it out anyway, don't we?"

"Basically, yeah," Neptune said. "I messaged the others. They'll be right with us."

I saw Mars drawing runes in the air. "What's up?"

"Trying something," he said. "If you-know-who can pull off some sort of 'detect magic' spell, that means it's possible. So why couldn't we?" He finished the spell and splayed his hands outward, and a glowing arrow of light erupted from them, pointing towards the woods.

Right then, the sky darkened and the ground trembled. There was a lightning strike nearby, just a bit into the woods, right where the arrow was pointing at. Then there was another, then a third.

"What the--" was all I managed to get out before an intense crash of thunder rolled over us.

Mars looked back and forth between us as the boom died away. "Three monsters?"

"Whatever it is we're looking for," I said, "the Masters are hunting for it crazy-hard!" We took off at a full run for the treeline, weaving between trees as we headed in the direction of the monsters.

Soon enough we came across three bizarre and horrifying creatures. One looked like a zebra, standing upright on its hind legs like some sort of minotaur, but with a bunch of octopus tentacles growing out of its back. The second was a similarly bipedal great white shark, but instead of the one fin, it had a ton of them running down its back, almost like the spines on a stegosaurus or something. And the third was almost beautiful. It looked like a huge monarch butterfly, all black and yellow and orange, but there was this clear, goopy slime it was secreting from somewhere that dripped down its wings and hissed and smoked when it hit the ground. All three were around 8 feet tall, about normal for a monster... but the strangest thing of all was what was just beyond them.

The three were moving in and menacing a Defender. But it was one I had never seen before: this one's armor was a bright yellow, with a yellow-orange sunburst emblazoned across the chest. I may not know my Roman mythology, but I do know they used the same word for the sun as we do in Spanish. Does that make this person Defender Sol?

Sol didn't have a helmet on, but I couldn't get a clear look at their face with the way their hands were raised; all I saw was a glimpse of dark skin, black hair, and body language that had terror written all over it. Sol was stumbling backwards as the monsters advanced, flinching with each little swing of the zebra-thing's tentacles. The shark monster lunged forward striking Sol's armored chest, and the Defender fell, curling up in a ball, hands and arms covering the head for protection.

The three of us drew our weapons and engaged the monsters. I grabbed my scepter and let Zebrapus have it, baseball bat style, Mars made Stegoshark stumble with a swing of his axe, and Neptune's spearhead skittered across Acidfly's wings, drawing sparks but failing to puncture them. Monsters are way tougher than they look! (Also, I suck at naming them. Oh well, I'm the one writing this. Deal with it.)

I swung again at Zebrapus, but it caught my swing with its tentacles, then charged a few steps forward, tackling me and bearing me to the ground. I heard Neptune cry out in pain too, and it looked like Mars was just barely holding his own against Landshark, but that wouldn't last long. We're used to fighting these things as a team, not one-on-one!

Suddenly I heard two loud kiais and multiple metallic impacts. The Zebrapus bellowed and staggered back, and I saw Venus and Mercury standing over me. Mercury rifted away to strike at Acidfly, while Venus extended a metal hand down to help me up.

"Who's that?" she asked.

Before I could answer, Mercury started drawing a spellform. "Hey guys, we're in the middle of nowhere. That means no collateral damage!" Suddenly Eidolon Mercury faded into existence, the giant Defender clapping its hands, squishing the monstrous bug between them like... well... a bug. It pivoted, punting Landshark so hard it crashed through two trees before falling to the ground at the foot of a third, then stepped forward and raised its foot. Venus and I jumped back as Eidolon Mercury stomped Zebrapus into paste. The three broken monsters exploded harmlessly, and Mercury dismissed her eidolon. "Wow, that was easy! More fights should go like that!"

Sol was crawling behind a tree, visibly trembling, hands held up to the sides of their head. Neptune stepped up slowly. "Hey, you're safe now. The monsters are gone. What happened out here?"

Then the yellow Defender, hearing friendly, comforting words, did something that absolutely terrified me. Looking up at us, I caught a good look at the person in the armor for the first time. It was a girl, and when I saw her face, it was a face I knew almost as well as my own.

Slowly getting to her feet, face drenched in sweat, panting for breath, eyes still wide with fear, was my kid sister, Cinthia! I was sure glad for my helmet right about then, so she couldn't see the shock on my face, or those of Mars or Neptune for that matter. "I was just walking around in the woods," she said. "I like to come out here. It's so quiet and pretty, even if some people say it's haunted. I found this really pretty jewel just sitting over there, under a fallen tree. Looked like one of those things people lose and then you get a reward if you turn it in, but when I picked it up, I started mutating! And I turned into... into... you!"

"It's OK," Neptune said, as the rest of us approached the terrified Defender slowly. "Guys, we should take her to see Aderan. He could probably help."

"Who's Aderan?" she asked.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Mercury was already working to open a rift. "We'll show you."

Aderan looked up from his book as the six of us stepped through into the Fortress. "Ah, the last Fundament has been found. This is very fortunate!"

I shook my head. "Aderan, we need your help. We know that a Fundament can be passed on from one person to another. This one was found by an untrained girl, someone who wouldn't be safe as a Defender. How do we get the Fundament out of her?"

Cinthia looked over at him, eyes wide. "Wowww! Are you an alien?" Then she turned to look at the rest of us. "Are you all aliens? Like, good aliens, protecting us from the Masters?"

Aderan gave her a little smile. "I am not of your world, Defender. But your teammates are. They, and now you, are chosen warriors, given power to protect your world against the Masters."

"Hey!" I said. "She can't be a Defender. She's not a warrior, she doesn't even have any karate training yet; she's still in freaking middle school! Aderan, we need the crystal removed."

She turned her head to look up at me. "What? You think I'm no good? Just because I freaked out when three monsters attacked me at once? You would have too!"

Yup, that's my sister.

Mercury nodded. "I agree she's a bit young, but... why are you so insistent about this, Jupiter?"

"Because..." I reached up and placed my hands to either side of my helmet, feeling it dissipate. "You wouldn't want your family dragged into this either."

Cinthia's eyes went wide. "Dave?!? ¡La miércoles! How can you be a Defender?"

"Same way as you. I picked up a shiny crystal that I probably should have left alone."

"Wait... so then, are they--"

I held up a hand to stop that question before it got started. "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies, got it? Trust me, the less you know about how the Defenders really work, the safer you'll be, and the more peace of mind you'll have." Ugh. I hated when Kawena said that to me, and now here I was passing on the same advice. At least it actually applies in Cinthia's case. She's still just a kid!

"Dave, you're kinda freaking me out!" she said.

I stepped up to her, putting my arms around her and pulling her in against me with a clank of metal on metal. Not the world's most tender hug, but she relaxed a bit, leaning her head in against my armored shoulder. "Not half as freaked out as I am at the thought of my sister on a battlefield," I said quietly. "That's what we are, you know? Soldiers, even if we don't work for the Army. You don't want any part of that."

She squirmed a little in my embrace. "Yeah... I think you're right." Pulling away, she turned to face Aderan again. "Mister Aderan, you can help change me back? I'm not a coward or anything, but I'm just not ready to fight monsters like they do. Maybe in a few years after I've trained some, but... right now I'd just make a mess of things and get in their way."

With what Aderan had said earlier, the Masters were likely to be out of kirila by the time that point rolled around, so I was just fine with that time frame.

Aderan took it all in impassively. Finally he spoke. "That was impetuous and ill-advised of you, Jupiter," he said slowly, "but I can understand." He reached his hand out to one side, and a big, long staff materialized there, made of what looked like some sort of wood, but with a distinct violet color to it. He started using it to draw one of the most intricate rune patterns I had ever seen. Unlike when we did it with our hands, this staff left a glowing trail, brilliant white light hanging in the air. He drew out over a dozen runes, then finished by drawing a circle around them. "Step through the seal," he said, "and say the words, 'I renounce my powers.'"

Cinthia nodded. "I renounce my powers," she said, stepping into the light hanging in the air. As she stepped across, she began to transform back into her human self, and a small, glowing yellow crystal fell to the ground behind her. Then she grabbed at her arm, wincing. "Gah!" She turned her nails in and started to scratch. "My arms itch! My back itches! My... my everything itches!"

I placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "Go home and take a hot shower, it helps. Neptune, you know where I live. Can you see her safely home?"

Neptune nodded. "Sure."

"One thing first," I said. "Cinthia, you can't tell anyone about any of this. If anybody asked, you got chased by a monster, but the Defenders showed up and fought them off so you're not hurt, and that's it. You don't talk about this. Not to Sarah or Mei or Piper, or any of your friends. Not to your teachers, not to Pastor Carlos, not to Mom and Dad, nobody. Come to me if you really really need to talk, but no one else. And I swear I will kill you dead if you breathe a word of it to Ramón. Re-contra muerta, you hear me?"

She let out a weak giggle at that last bit. "Only Mom says that, tonto," she said, rolling her eyes at me. "But yeah, I get it. I won't tell anyone."

"Good. This is crazy serious. Monsters kill people sometimes, and if anyone found out where one of the Defenders lived, they might come after us."

She scoffed at me. "I said I get it, OK?" Turning to Neptune, "can we go already, before my brother lectures me any more?"

I heard a soft laugh out of Neptune as she started working the spell to open a rift. Cinthia asked her, "so how come you know where we live? You like his girlfriend or something? In the show, Jupiter's girlfriend is Venus, but she hasn't said a word this whole time. Kinda frigid, don't you think?"

Neptune just shook her head. "Please don't embarrass your brother in front of his team," she said as the portal opened. She took Cinthia firmly by the hand and led her through, and it closed behind her.

Once she was gone, Kawena took off her helmet. "I really hope that didn't turn out to be a big mistake, Dave," she said, glowering at me. "So then, what do we do with the last Fundament? Is it even safe to touch?"

"While in Defender Form, you can handle it as you would any ordinary stone," Aderan said. "Otherwise... touch it only with caution. While your existing bond will give you some resistance, the Fundament would still seek to bond with you, and holding two bonds at once could cause grave harm to your bodies."

Josh and Eden removed their helmets while he was talking. "So, I guess we'd call this one Sol, then?" he asked, reaching down to pick it up, looking closely at the shining yellow gemstone. "If these were created on a distant world, why is their identity based on ancient Earth mythology?"

"They were designed to imprint upon their hosts, to draw meaning from a symbol of great significance that would empower them. The first to take one up chose this theme as his symbolism."

"So Matt Billingsley was a big Roman mythology geek or something?" Eden asked.

"That is correct."

"Wait," I said. "How do you know about him, when you've never talked with Sensei?"

"Kawena filled me in on the basics. And so did Josh." She turned back to Aderan. "There were three monsters after Cinthia," she said. "Why would the Masters spend so much kirila like that? Like... what would they do with a Fundament if they had one?"

Aderan didn't answer that right away. After a moment of thought, he said, "I do not believe it would be possible for a monster to bond a Fundament. There is too much magic in their bodies already. But at the least, they could keep it out of our hands. At worst, one of the Masters themselves could bond it, or they could find a champion from among your people. This last Fundament is the most powerful of all, and having it oppose you would greatly amplify the danger you face."

"So what do we do with it?" Kawena asked. "I mean, all the other ones were found by someone. But this one, the person who found it was... how to put it? Was wrong for the job. What's the protocol here for picking the next one?"

Aderan hmmmed at that. "I agree, this is without precedent." He turned and looked at me. "I believe that it should fall to you, Jupiter, as leader of the team, to select the next Sol."

I nodded slowly. "Well... I can't give you a name right away, but I've got a whole student body to choose from. Plenty of people better trained, and less related to me, than my sister."

Aderan nodded. "Very well. The rest of you are free to go; I must instruct Jupiter on the safe handling on fhe Fundament."

The others gave little nods of acknowledgment and made rifts to head out, leaving me alone with Aderan. He gave me some brief advice, most of which basically boiled down to "keep something thick and heavy between your skin and the crystal at all times, such as metal or leather" and "don't let anyone run across it accidentally or we may end up having to do this all over again."

As I got ready to go, I asked him, "Cinthia was right, Kawena was being really quiet while she was around. You think she's all right? That had to have freaked her out a bit, with the way her own sister was a Defender who got killed on the job!"

Aderan shook his head slowly. "She never had a sister who was a Defender," he said.

Wait, what? But she said...

Oh.

Ohhhhh wow. Crap, crap, crap.

If anything, that's even worse! No wonder she's so serious about the rules! Suddenly I felt this urge to find her and just give her a big hug. Not that she'd likely want it or appreciate it, but... you know what I mean.

"Oh. I must have misunderstood, then," I said. "But... do you think she's all right?"

"I think I have rarely seen a finer Defender wear the armor than this Venus," he said solemnly. "Fear not for her; she is stronger than you believe."

That was comforting, to a certain degree at least. On the other hand, I still remembered what Rachael said, that Aderan was a non-human person who didn't truly grasp how the human mind works, so I should probably take that reassurance with a grain of salt.

Gah, why are there no solid answers about anything as a Defender? In school, they teach you stuff and it has a right answer. Same thing in church. But here, fighting to save people's lives, probably the most "right" thing I could possibly be doing, I have no idea what's right and what's wrong half the time!

I thanked Aderan and headed home, thankfully before anyone realized my room was empty, with a crystal stuffed in my wallet. I ended up hiding it in my closet, under a corner of the rug that I pried up.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with it, among a dozen other things.