Karate class started the same way it has since Freshman year. Everyone changes into their gi in the locker room, then lines up in the gym. Bow to the flag, bow to Sensei, then about ten minutes of calisthenics and stretches to get warmed up before we move into the lesson. I'm in the advanced class, for brown and black belts, and Sensei Billingsley had us practicing our katas for a bit, then we moved on to sparring. This means a quick trip back to the locker room to grab our sparring gear--mouth guards, padded helmets, soft-soled shoes, pads, and of course the all-important cup--then we pair off and start trying to land a few hits on each other, half-speed rules, for practice and conditioning more than any formal sense of competition.

Find an open space on the gym floor, square off with your partner, fight for six minutes, then he calls time and you find someone else. Repeat for half the class. Then the second half of the hour is King of the Ring: two contestants in the center of the room, full-speed, first to three points sticks around to face off against the next person in line, again and again until someone dethrones the King. Or the Queen, as the case may be.

I faced off against Travis Allred, Cristina Navarro, Joe Dalton and Katherine Ellis, handily beating all four of them, before Sensei called attention to it. "Dave's doing particularly well today," he commented once the second half began, beckoning to me to start out as the first King. "Who thinks they can give him a real challenge?"

A bunch of hands went up, including Kawena and Blake, the top two students, both of whom I had no real desire to spar with for various reasons. So of course, what did Sensei do?

"Kapule, you feeling up to it?"

She grinned. "Always happy to claim the crown, Sensei. Any special rules today?" Once or twice a week, he'll add something to shake things up. An extremely confined ring to simulate fighting in a hallway or alley. Making the two competitors start out touching, standing back to back. Making us start from even stranger positions, such as both lying on our backs to begin with, and so on. This time, he beckoned to her and she came up and stood opposite me. Sensei held up one finger, then went off to the edge of the room, coming back with a pair of blindfolds. "Let's try blind fighting today," he said.

There's no actual ring, just lines on the floor, so he set out a handful of buzzers on the ground so we could tell where the bounds were. Cross one, your opponent gets a point. Otherwise, it's a point per valid hit, to the torso or the side or top of the head; no strikes to the face or below the belt. We got into place, assumed Front Position, bowed to each other, then tied the blindfolds over our helmets and shifted into fighting stance. Sensei let out a quick kiai, the signal to begin.

Fighting blindfolded is no fun. You never really realize how much you depend on your sight until it's not there for you. In movies, people hear the bad guys moving around near them all the time, but in reality... it's not so easy. Not when you're both wearing soft shoes and the room is full of people yelling and cheering. The sense of taste is useless, and so is smell unless your opponent's hygiene is truly terrible. And touch only lets you know if one of you has landed a hit. No, in a fight, when you're blind, you have basically no information about your opponent's current status unless they take a particularly hard step. So it becomes a mental exercise. What are they likely to do?

Snap kick. She had long legs and knew how to put them to good use. I took a quick step back to start the match, and when I heard a few people go "ooo!" I knew I had guessed right. Or at least I hoped I had. I took a step forward, then another, and threw a quick jab-cross, hitting nothing, then heard something just in time. I swept my arm downward in a low block, and it hit a rising leg, knocking it aside. I quickly lashed out in a snap kick at where I imagined the body connected to that leg should be, and felt it connect solidly.

"Lopez, first point!" Sensei called out. "Back to positions."

We removed the blindfolds, and Kawena flashed me a grin. "Good hit. Won't happen again."

"We'll see," I said with more confidence than I felt. Back to positions, blindfolds in place, fighting stance, and Sensei began the round.

I tried stepping forward to strike first, but there was no warning this time. I ran straight into a fist to the chest. "Point, Kapule! 1-1. Back to positions."

If she was going to be that aggressive... as the next round started I jumped back. Laughter from the crowd said so had she. Probably the worst possible start to a blind fight. Well, if she's trying to mix things up and not do what I'd expect... I got nothing to lose, right? I tried something we don't do all that often: a tackle. Lowering my shoulder, I charged straight forward, trying to collide with her and stagger her back a step or two, which would push her out of the ring. It's the sort of crazy thing that no one tries because it would never work, which is why she was totally not expecting it. She grunted softly as my body hit hers, staggered back a step, then my momentum pushed her back another step, and that was all it took. "Point, Lopez! 2-1. Back to positions."

I disengaged and she rolled her eyes at me when the blindfolds came off. "Pushing me out of the ring? Seriously?"

"You weren't expecting it, were you?"

Sensei nodded. "Technically, it's there as a penalty for stepping outside of the ring, but I'll allow it. Don't grow too used to the trick, though. In a real fight, there aren't point rules to abuse."

"Yes, Sensei."

Back to starting positions, blindfolds back on. Sensei let out a quick kiai to start the round. I stepped forwards, hoping to score a quick third point. Rankings aren't everything; I could beat Kawena and even Blake fairly often in sparring, just not 50% of the time. Not even close. But this time around, I was ahead. I stepped forward with a straight punch, then staggered back as a high crescent kick caught me on the side of the head.

"Point, Kapule! 2-2. Back to positions." Sensei looked at me when I took the blindfold off. "You good, Lopez?"

"I'm fine, Sensei. No dizziness."

He nodded. "Next point takes the crown." We put our blindfolds back on, got into stance, and the round began. Instead of going straight forward or back, I stepped forward and off to the left, then launched a side kick and hit... nothing. I jerked my foot back, and it made a stomping sound against the wood floor as it hit the ground harder than I wanted it to.

I couldn't see anything, but I knew that was loud enough to draw Kawena's attention. I... felt something, and quickly brought my arm up just in time to block a powerful kick. Ow! No point to her, but now we both knew where each other were. I struck with a quick jab, but she was faster, tagging my chest a split-second before I hit her shoulder.

"Point, Kapule! Match goes to Kapule."

We took off the blindfolds and bowed to each other, and I headed back to stand against the wall as she prepared to face her first challenger.

"You're making good progress!" Sensei said after class as I rubbed my still-sore arm. "I think you might be about ready to test for your next belt."

"Already?"

Sensei nodded, leaving me feeling a bit confused. I'd only received my first-dan black belt eight months ago; usually it was at least a year before you could test for the second one, though he had been known to make exceptions from time to time for particularly gifted students. No real reason I should be admitted to this elite club, though... unless it had to do with being a member of an elite club. Were the other students who had progressed quickly Defenders?

Point in favor of that theory: Kawena was one of them.

Point against that theory: so was Blake, and he didn't have a heroic bone in his body!

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Second point against the theory: I could think of six other students who had been accelerated at one point or another, and while I'd have to check with Josh, the number didn't feel right. I really doubted we'd been through that many Defenders in the last three years.

Third point against: Josh did pretty well in sparring today too, but didn't receive a similar offer.

Second point in favor: Sensei believed in helping us uphold Aderan's code. If former Defenders were among us, showing favoritism exclusively to Defenders would be a dead giveaway, so it would be too obvious to pick me and Josh, especially on the same day.

Bleh. I'm probably overthinking this. Regardless, that gives me six students to look more closely at, all of them in the top 20 in the school rankings. Travis, Cristina, Matt Perry, Dan Staley, Gretchen Adams, and Jimmy Weng. Well... four. If the old Neptune was built about like Jenny but bustier, that eliminates Gretchen, who's shorter and just all-around more petite than Jenny -- and I hope she never reads this; I don't want her thinking I'm some sort of pervert who's always checking out girls' bodies or something! -- and Dan, slender and short but surprisingly quick, doesn't fit Josh's description of either of the previous male Defenders. So, Cristina's my best bet for past-Neptune, and either Travis, Matt, or Jimmy could have been the previous Mars. None of the three were built shorter and heavier than me.

Another point against the theory, I guess. Then again, just look at Eden. Not every Defender has to be a top-ranked karate student.

Maybe I'm just getting good at this, and Sensei's recognizing it? No need to overthink everything... I think?

* * *

After school, Josh sent a message around to everyone to find some way to rift over to the Fortress from school, without going home first. I slipped away into a bathroom, made sure I was alone, and opened a rift. Josh and Kawena were there; Eden and then Jenny arrived soon after.

"Again you come here when the Masters do not attack," Aderan said, looking at us quizzically. "What brings you here today, Defenders?"

I sighed. "Guys, we've got a bit of a problem." The three of us recounted the visit from the two agents yesterday.

Kawena looked at me like I was crazy. "So a couple Men In Black show up and you spill your guts and tell them all about being Defenders?"

Jenny shook her head. "They had figured it out. We didn't tell them a thing until they already showed us the evidence."

I nodded. "By that point, there was no secret left to protect." I looked between her and Eden. "They'll have some general idea where you two live, but I don't think their tracking was advanced enough to pinpoint your exact houses yet. Probably."

Eden looked nervous. "All right. People show up. They show proof that they figured out who you are, and that they have their own Fundaments. They claim that they work for a government department so secret it officially doesn't exist, and that the Fundaments were artificially created in a lab, but offer nothing to back up those two claims." She looked over at Aderan. "Are the Fundaments what they described? Crystals made principally of oxidized kirila?"

Aderan nodded. "My field of study is sorcery, not physical science, but what you say is consistent with my understanding of the Fundaments and how they were built by our researchers. Also, Mars reported that the Fundament the man showed you was green. I only brought one green with me, and it resides within Venus. Any other that exists on your world must have been created by other means."

I thought about what Rachael had said, the difference between evidence and proof. "So this is pretty strong evidence that someone somewhere has been researching magic and found a method of creating artificial Fundaments, and everything they told us about the process seems plausible enough."

Jenny nodded. "And they say they're government. Basically the Magic-FBI. If they're lying about that, though, who else might they be?"

"Not to get paranoid or anything," Kawena chimed in, "but I can only think of one organization that has the resources to run a big expensive lab like that, a motive to seek out the identities of the Defenders, an interest in kirila research, and a presence in Michael's Landing."

When she put it like that, yeah, the answer was pretty obvious. "Underwood Consolidated," Josh said. "But do we really think it's them?"

"Whoever it is, they're blowing our cover!" Eden protested. "Why is no one talking about that part?"

I wasn't quite sure how to answer that one. Neither was anyone else, for a few moments at least, before Kawena finally answered.

"Because it already happened," she said, her voice softer than usual. "Can't go back and fix the past... no matter how much you might like to. We can only try and affect the future as best we can." She looked at Aderan. "Is there any sort of... magical jamming spell?"

"Jamming?" the alien asked.

"Interference," Eden said. "Something that would counteract the magic they're using to track us."

"I am not certain how they are tracking you," he responded, "but perhaps..." He turned to a blank page in his book, wrote something, then tore the page free and gave it to her. It was a spell form, a pretty intricate one that looked like it was based around at least seven runes stacked atop each other. "Carve this ward into the foundation stone of your home. Any magic worked within will confound scrying, making it appear to have come from some other point within half a linn's distance."

Josh looked at him funny. "How big is a linn?"

Aderan just shook his head. "I could only explain it properly in terms of other measures that are meaningless to your culture and your world. If I understand correctly, it is... slightly longer than your 'mile.'"

"And if our houses don't have foundation stones because they're made of wood frames?" Eden asked.

"It will still work. Carve it upon a piece of wood that supports a great deal of the house's weight, as near to the ground as you can."

She took a picture of it on her phone and sent it around to all of us. "So... after talking this over, it feels like we know even less now than we did before."

Jenny nodded agreement. "We've got a bunch of ideas and no clue if any of it's true or not." She turned to look at me. "You've been pretty quiet here, Dave. Any thoughts, Fearless Leader?"

Why does she always come up with stupid nicknames for me? "I... really have no idea," I admitted. "I mean, fighting monsters is one thing. We're trained for that. But government agents..." Then I remembered something. "Actually I have a reason to think they're telling the truth about that, or at the very least, that they're not Underwood Consolidated."

"Why's that?" Eden asked.

"The agents seemed legitimately surprised to find that we were teenagers. But a few weeks ago, remember the assembly, and Josh's little stunt he pulled? Later that day, I happened to overhear Blake, Scott, and Kim talking in the hallway. They didn't notice me. But they were all frustrated that a real Defender had shown up and they weren't able to figure out which student it was. They know that much, and the only way they'd find out is if their dad and his company already know." I looked around at them, and saw all of them looking a bit freaked out by the news. "Umm... yeah, I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but it kinda slipped my mind with everything else that was going on. So yeah, the thug brigade is actively trying to figure out our secret identities. Just one more worry on our minds."

Aderan gave me a bit of a reproachful look at my word choice. "Jupiter, your powers are meant to defend against threats to your world, not to fight other humans. Beware of thinking of other humans in ways that defines them as your enemy."

Josh shook his head. "They're bad news, Aderan. And if they're trying to hunt us down... well, I don't think any of us who actually knows them thinks it's because they want to help out! They're in the business of harvesting kirila and getting wealthy and powerful off of it. I bet they'd like nothing more than to rip the armor from our flesh and sell it for billions of dollars. If Dave thinks of them as our enemies... he's only acknowledging the truth. If they chose to be our enemies, by their own free will, is it really a problem to accept that reality? Our Sensei says it's better to accept a difficult truth than to cling to a sweet, pleasant lie that will cause harm."

Jenny nodded agreement, and Josh gestured to her. "See? Jenny likes everyone, and even she knows they're bad news!" She scowled at him for that, but said nothing.

Eden nodded too. "We're not going to go hunting them down or anything stupid like that, but we'll definitely be wary about them. Thanks for the warning, Dave."

Everyone turned to Kawena at this point, the only one who hadn't weighed in on the subject yet.

"What are you all looking at me for?" she asked. "Not much I can add to that, now is there? Sorry Aderan. You're right, but so are they. We're all in agreement here."

"Very well," Aderan said. "But remember your code."

"Yeah," I said. "I've been wondering about that. Does breaking the rules weaken our powers somehow? Right before the last guys fell, they did an attack more aggressive than anything I've heard of the Defenders doing before, which might be considered a violation of the rules. And then immediately afterward, they lost, so I can't help but wonder if the two are related."

Kawena nodded, and Eden looked over at me. "Really? What did they do?"

"The three of them picked up a car and threw it at the monster."

Josh nodded at that. "You're probably right. I mean, not only is that pretty aggressive, but if nothing else, that car belonged to someone. They weren't doing much to defend that person's expensive property by actively turning it into collateral damage."

Aderan shook his head slowly. "The magic of the Fundaments is not tied to compliance with the code; the code exists to point your minds towards your duties as Defenders, that you may be more effective in protecting this world that is in your care. If they fell, they were simply overpowered by the monster's counterattack."

Well, so much for that theory.

We headed home after that. I took care of homework, then wrote this out, mostly to sort through my thoughts. It's almost bedtime, but I still got stuff to do.

Kawena showed me, back on the first day, that the Fundament makes me smarter. I need to go online and take a few crash courses in architecture, to figure out where the load-bearing elements of my house's frame are.