Beach weeks arrived.

The weather cooperated.

The sun was out and the clouds stayed home.

The water was cool and free from landsharks and other dangers thanks to his uncle.

The crowds stretched north and south as far as he could see.

It was as if everyone was at the beach, which he knew wasn’t far from the truth.

The only ones that had stayed away were rangers and SCSDF on duty and those that simply didn’t care for the beach.

It would have been perfect if not for the giant banner proclaiming his birthday.

“What’s the big deal? Just tell them to go away,” Uncle Eron said.

He sat at a table underneath a large umbrella with Uncle Fed, Ranger Colonel Kayl, her husband and Captain Mouthy.

“They can fuck right off,” Captain Mouthy said. “Pussy bitches weren’t around for any of the shit we’ve been through. They think they can come around now that we’ve got things good and take over. Fuck them right up the—”

Grandmother walked by and cleared her throat.

“Apologies for my foul language, Ma’am,” the ranger captain nodded. “It’s a subject that I feel passionately about.”

“Anyways, I’ve had a few run ins with the ‘government’,” Uncle Eron made air quotes, “I can go talk to them if you want.”

“Yeah, I’d love that, but no,” Ranger Colonel Kayl said.

“C’mon, you know they won’t respect your wishes. They’ll keep pushing,” Uncle Eron said.

“The question is why are they coming back to claim us now?” Uncle Fed said.

“I imagine we’ll find that out soon enough?” Ranger Colonel Kayl raised a brow.

“Oh yeah, probably very soon,” Uncle Eron nodded.

Alin thought of his dad.

His dad had stepped away from the party to take care of a large, incoming issue.

The first rearing of the ugly head of the changes the spires had imposed on territorial boundary protections.

Yup, his dad could find out whatever they needed to know by the end of the day, but the urgency wasn’t there.

The ambassador hadn’t delivered any ultimatums or even veiled threats in the course of the verbal spar.

Lera hadn’t detected any lies, just like all their other methods.

He had simply delivered his message and answered all questions as truthfully as he could.

“It’s a moot point,” Ranger Colonel Kayl shrugged. “They lack the strength to enforce compliance. And laws, oaths, the Constitution. None of that matters unless the subjects consent to be governed by them. It’s clear to me that the government failed to uphold its oaths to protect us citizens from the monsters for over two decades. We don’t owe them anything.”

“Is that the official council stance?” Uncle Eron said.

“Yeah, but in legalese. I’m glad I’m not the one having to read the Constitution,” Ranger Colonel Kayl said.

“Here’s to that!” Captain Mouthy raised a cold glass.

The adults clinked their cocktails and talked of more interesting things as Alin let them slide out of his hearing.

“Dude, why do you look like I stole your lunch? It’s your birthday! And your ‘rents went all out!” Victor said.

A couple of his friends had gathered round a table of their own.

Food and drink piled on top.

Non-alcoholic for the latter, though Lake had managed to sneak a flask of cheap vodka from her older sister’s supply.

Cheap didn’t denote low quality.

Everything was cheap these days.

He felt metaphorical heat on the back of his neck. Turning, he realized that it was actual heat.

Uncle Eron observed him with a wry grin.

“Shit,” he muttered. “Hey, Lake, um, yeah, so, my uncle can like see,” he urgently gestured toward the flask as she tried to sneak a splash into a glass of fruit punch.

“What? He can tell?” her eyes narrowed.

“He’s looking right at us,” Victor said.

“You only brought enough for a few drops each anyways,” Chrome said.

“It’s all my sister let me take!” Lake snapped.

“That’s weird, dude. She’s usually cooler,” Victor said.

“She said she had orders,” Lake said.

Their eyes focused on Alin as one.

“I don’t know anything!” he threw his hands up.

His friends broke out into laughter. He joined in a moment later.

“It’s almost insulting,” Victor nodded.

“What?” Chrome said.

“Boy’s parents let us get away with these tiny transgressions against the rules. Enough that we get to test boundaries, but not enough that we can get into real trouble. I salute you, my friend,” Victor saluted.

“For what?”

“For dealing with parents that appear to be impossible to get anything past.”

“On the whole, I figure it’s more good than bad.”

“That’s what she said,” Victor chuckled.

“Oh my god! That stopped being funny a month ago!” Chrome said.

“I’ll say it’s good. Not everyone gets a super alien science power armor for their sweet sixteenth,” Lake said.

“Stop calling it that!”

“But?” Lake pointed to the huge banner. “That’s what it says,” she smiled sweetly.

The ribbing commenced.

It continued until more friends emerged from the ocean and splattered everyone with cold water.

“Steph, dude, what are you wearing!” Chrome pointed an accusatory finger.

“Swim trunks,” Steph looked down with confusion. “You’ve never seen swim trunks before?”

“Nah that’s underwear,” Chrome snorted.

“No way, see, it’s got ties. Underwear doesn’t have ties.”

“It might as well be underwear,” Victor laughed.

Steph flexed and posed.

Out of their group he had hit his growth spurt early and was a chiseled specimen.

“Seriously, you guys should try it. Feels like wearing nothing at all,” Steph turned and shimmied. “Just for you, Victor, my gay platonic lover.”

“Please don’t,” Chrome said.

“Why? It’s also for you ladies.”

“No means no,” she said flatly.

“Aww,” Steph stopped instantly. “Is it so wrong to want to show of my gains?”

“Yeah. There’s a right way and that wasn’t it,” she said.

“For what it’s worth, I can admit that Steph’s got good glutes and I can do it in a non-weirdly sexual way.”

“That wasn’t sexual! C’mon, no way!” Steph said.

“You’re embarrassing yourself,” Lake nodded to the other tables.

“Oh man,” Steph chuckled and tried to duck down.

But, it was too late.

No less august personages than the ranger colonel and a ranger captain shook their heads at him. Their gazes filled with disapproval and no small amount of disappointment.

“Good first impression,” Alin snorted.

“That was the opposite of good,” Steph hissed.

“Don’t worry about it. They’ll probably forget by the time ranger classes start,” Chrome said mildly.

“That’s like in two weeks!”

“Well, Steph, should’ve thought about that before shaking your booty for the ranger colonel and the ranger captain,” Lake cackled.

They ate, drank and joked, poking fun at each other and at friends yet to join them.

Lera came by and tried to challenge the biggest person there, Victor, to an arm wrestling match before grandpa scoped her up and carried her to the water.

“I feel like I dodged a bullet there,” Victor said.

“Yeah, you did,” he shook his head.

More friends showed up.

Uncle Remy and Aunt Megan arrived with a present.

It was a huge box that was surprisingly light.

His confusion grew after he opened it.

It was five ingots of a silvery metal.

“Mythril. It’s magical metal. Normally, you’d need a magical blacksmith-type class or a blacksmith and an enchanter working together to unlock its full potential, but I can cheat the forging process. So, let me know what you want and I’ll make it. Then you just need to go to an enchanter,” Uncle Remy said.

Naturally, that led to a barrage of questions.

Which his aunt and uncle were gracious enough to answer.

The abridged version of their wild adventures on two other worlds was an engrossing hit.

“You have to ask them to let me interview them, please,” Luzi said.

His friend wanted to be a historian. The one to write the definitive history of what she called the ‘spires emergent era’… the name was a work in progress.

“Yeah, I definitely want to hear more about that metal god stuff,” Steph said.

“Stone Lords sound scary,” Victor said.

“So, wait, your cousins are still on the other world?” Chrome said.

“That’s wild… I want to rule an empire on another world one day,” Lake said with a wistful gaze in her eyes.

“I don’t know if they’ll have the time, Luzi,” he said. “They’re leaving, like, tomorrow to check up on my aunt’s family, but I’ll ask and they’ll probably be back eventually.”

Eventually, they hit the surf.

He had his dad’s old board and managed to catch a few waves, but the best part was Kat asking if she could try.

The cold water was a blessing as he stood behind her and pushed her and the board while she kicked and paddled like a mad woman.

It was a great view.

Kat straddled the board while he stood in neck deep water as they waited in a lull between sets.

“Um… thanks for coming… I mean coming to my party,” he said.

“Yeah, there’s no way I’d miss your sweet sixteen!” she grinned.

He groaned.

“Aww, embarrassed? I think it’s cute how much your parents care.”

“They didn’t care enough to not embarrass me,” he muttered.

“But that’s how you know they care,” she laughed, splashing him in the face.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Not the face!” he feigned outrage.

“So, um… have you picked a team for ranger classes yet?”

They had a pretty large extended friend group at twenty kids. Within were smaller groups that were tighter, but the difference was marginal and there was a lot of overlap.

His mom had once said that trying to draw a Venn diagram of his group would led to a tangled overlapping of so many circles as to be an illegible scrawl like a blind chicken had drawn it.

He understood the Venn diagram, but not the blind chicken.

It had sounded too specific.

He had asked, but she hadn’t elaborated.

Their junior ranger squad was supposed to be a max of ten people.

So they’d have to split in half.

“Nope. I thought we were going to talk about it later?”

“Yeah, but I was hoping, well, you know…”

“Uh…” he blinked, waiting expectantly.

Kat sighed and rolled her eyes.

“I’d like us to be on the same team.”

“Oh… oh! Yeah, totally, that’d be cool, to be on the same team, with you on the same team.”

She laughed again and dunked his head into the cold ocean.

He came up sputtering.

A wave finally rode in.

Their friend Lee swerved around, cutting back to spray them.

“Get a room, you two!” he laughed.

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

“They grow up too fast,” Cal said wistfully as he watched his son flirt. “But, I’m not worried! Nila and I brought him up smart.”

“I didn’t say anything, did you?” Eron turned to Remy.

“Nope, Dad?” Remy turned.

“Nope. As far as I’m concerned I did my job with you guys. Proud of you, but my grand kids’ teenage years are on you,” their dad nodded. “I’m here to protect and spoil!”

“Eh, it’s not a big deal anyways,” Eron shrugged, “teenage pregnancy isn’t that bad now. Not like when we were young.”

“Okay, you’re gonna have to back that up,” Remy said.

“They were having kids at fourteen back in medieval times… oh, that reminds me, Rem, you and Megan should catch a show before you leave,” Eron said. “They brought back Medieval Times, but this time with Skills and spells,” he explained at Remy’s questioning look. “Apparently, it’s super popular.”

“That seems wrong…” Remy said.

“Not really, I figure it’s like this, you get to watch all the cool spells and Skills shooting off without the actual danger of the real world,” Eron said. “It’s just like movies and books, people love watching or reading about violence, but only dumbasses actually want to carry the ring to the volcano in real life.”

“Always thought that would’ve sucked,” Remy nodded. “Backpacking sucks bad enough without orcs and giant spiders trying to kill you. Weeks of swampbutt? No thanks.”

“Pretty sure they washed. Plenty of rivers and shit,” Eron said.

“Language,” their dad said on reflex.

“Sorry?”

“Hey, so… we gave him condoms… good idea, right?” Cal said.

“Yes,” the other three echoed.

“Awesome, we weren’t sure. A little worried it’d be taken as encouragement.”

“Think back on your own teen years.”

“Okay, good idea. Thank you again for that, Dad.”

“Yup, imaginary spaghetti monster in the sky telling me to wait till marriage,” Eron shook his head, “even if he was real… nope to that.”

“What’s Boy saying?”

“Cal, dude, I’m not spying on him trying to get his game on, c’mon, man, that’s fudged up,” Eron said.

“Fudge, bro, that’s messed up,” Remy agreed.

“Like you didn’t when it was your girls.”

“Strangely, the boys were super respectful with them.”

“Ah, the privilege of superpowers,” Eron said.

“Mom’s gotten really good with her forcefields. I can feel them, but I can’t see them,” Remy said.

Their mom stood near a gaggle of children defending and besieging a sand castle.

The structure was the size of a small fort proportional to the size of the kids.

It had sand walls, sand ramparts, even sand towers on each corner.

Sand couldn’t naturally maintain its sculpted architecture at that size, let along when kids ran back and forth across the ramparts and climbed the towers, hurling sand balls at the sand walls and each other.

“Uh oh,” Eron tensed.

Lera had packed a sand ball the size of a beach ball and hurled it.

Cal felt the fear surge in the minds of dozens of watching parents.

Before the sand ball slammed into the ramparts and a couple of children, it disintegrated into a spray that showered them instead of smashing them.

For their part, the kids loved it.

Both sides cackled at the excitement.

Lera cast an accusatory gaze at her grandmother.

The distraction cost her as a well-aimed sand ball struck the side of her face.

“Ouch!” Remy said.

“Nah, she can take it,” Eron said proudly. “Remember your strength, honey!” he called out.

“Mom’s blocking most of the impact and keeping the sand out of their eyes and ears,” Cal said.

“I’m impressed. Doing that simultaneously for forty kids…” Remy said. “What about you, Dad? Gotten stronger?”

“Nope.”

The Battle of the Shore raged all day unto the dying of the light.

Kids rotated in and out as some went home and others arrived.

The opposing forces changed periodically.

Besiegers became defenders, defenders became besiegers.

Allies turned into enemies, enemies turned into allies.

The last battle turned into madness, but in a fun way.

The sand fort swelled in size, much closer to a sand castle in truth.

The children convinced Cal to do what he used to do when Alin and his friends were younger.

Give them the illusion of powers or classes.

One quick flight to the toy store for props and kids were shooting all sorts of things at each other.

The beach was consumed as older kids, like Alin and his friends, joined in the chaos.

Two factions split into many as traitorous deals to secure power were made underneath the water balloons bursting in air.

It ended when Lera battered down the sand door with thunderous blows that would humble even the underworld’s hammer.

The besiegers poured through and overwhelmed the dwindling the defenders.

Alin fell with a foam blade in his back.

Kat cackled and bumped fists with Lera securing her new role as spymaster under her new overlord.

The Solar Tyrant herself, to usher in her quadrillion year rule underneath that which was to be dubbed The Tyranny of the Sun.

The end of war ushered in the beginning of the new era.

Lera presided over the fire pit.

Hot dogs and marshmallows cooked under her benevolent tyranny.

“Mom, Cal… you guys made a mistake,” Rayna said.

Cal shrugged he already knew what she was about to say. It didn’t take psionic powers to know that the kids looked forward to a repeat tomorrow and every remaining day of beach weeks. He wasn’t opposed to being gamemaster again.

“What do you mean?” their mom said.

“They’re asking if you’re going to run games again,” Rayna said.

“That’s fine,” their mom smiled, “I had fun! And I’d rather use my powers to make kids happy than fight things.”

“Oh, that’s good! Are you sure, though?” Rayna waited for and received the nod. “Okay, well, let’s go over a few different scenarios we can try.”

Cal listened, grunting here and there to show that he was paying attention, mostly.

“No. We aren’t calling you the Solar Tyrant,” Eron said.

“But, Dad!”

“Tyrants aren’t good. Do you want to be not good?”

“No! I’m good!”

“You can’t and be a tyrant at the same time. It’s an oxymoron. Check and mate!”

“Then, I’ll be the first good tyrant!” she proclaimed.

“It’s too bad Wytchraven couldn’t make it.”

Cal regarded his mom.

She hadn’t hesitated over the name.

“Yeah, Mom, she was planning to but… Fae,” Eron shrugged.

“Stupid faeries won’t leave us alone,” Lera’s face fell. “It’s their fault I can’t go anywhere,” her face lit up, “can I be a tyrant on them?”

“Uh… oh… god, how do I answer that?” Eron’s eyes went to his parents and his siblings, one by one.

“Are they people? That’s the first question you need to answer,” Remy mused.

A long discussion on the nature of the Fae ensued.

Their conclusion was inconclusive.

The fire dwindled the night grew colder, though only one person truly felt the cold, but Megan’s class allowed her to keep herself warm enough with just a small continuous expenditure of mana.

They only decided to go back to the Cruces’ family home when they detected something huge coming in from the ocean depths.

“Rock, paper, scissors?” Eron suggested.

“I’m out. I took care of the thunderbird this morning,” Cal said.

“We’re leaving early tomorrow, right, hon?” Remy said.

“Yeah, but I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Megan said.

“Sorry, busy with…” Rayna spread her arms to encompass the beach, “beach weeks!”

“Hrmm,” Eron grunted. “Well, I have to come back super early and make sure landsharks and other sundry dangers won’t return.”

“Whatever, you sleep like an hour a month,” Remy scoffed. “What do you call them again?”

“Orbital naps!” Lera chimed in.

“Exactly!” Remy high-fived Lera. The clap echoed like thunder across the sparsely populated beach. “Oww! That stings,” he shook his hand.

“Wait, aren’t you sticking around till closing, Eron?” their dad cut straight to a solution as he was wont to do.

“That’s right!” Remy snapped his fingers. “You’re stuck here anyways, ergo, you should go check it out.”

“I’ll ergo my fist into your face,” Eron grumbled before rising into the night sky.

Home for people that didn’t need as much sleep as the standard Earthian human meant board games and movies until past midnight.

“I want to watch this one,” Lera pulled a DVD from her grandparents’ collection.

“Why?” Alin said.

“It’s got lions and it sounds like a regicide.”

“Do you even know what that is?”

“Yeah, duh.”

“How?”

“I read stuff, don’t you?”

“She’s got you there, Boy,” Cal laughed.

“Well, that’s a moot point because I’m picking the movie.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve existed since before you were born,” Alin intoned.

“Well, duh, that’s what it means to be older,” she frowned up at him.

“It’s natural law. Therefore, I pick and that’s final,” he plucked the case from her hand and inserted the DVD into the player before heading to the kitchen to pop some corn.

Lera stared at him intently as if trying to figure out the trick.

In the end, she plopped down on the couch next to Grandma and Grandpa satisfied at her nascent rise as the Solar Tyrant.

“I think we need to keep an eye on her,” Cal whispered.

“No, she’s good,” Nila whispered. “What we need to do is something about the Fae. She shouldn’t have to look over her shoulder for the rest of her life or spend it in their coven thing.”

“You’ve got to trust the subject matter experts. Wytchraven and Eron know that once they come up with a solution, we’ll be right there to help.”

“Boy’s been antsy,” Nila said. “He’s been wearing that undersuit everywhere. I swear, he’s gone through the manual twice in the last week.”

“Well, I’m here for about a week after beach weeks ends, before I need to fly Mom and Dad back to Manila. I’m taking a few hours on Saturday to look into this government thing, but aside from that I’ll be running him through training so hard that he won’t have the energy to obsess. Although, I think he’ll be wanting to spend time with his friends. So, really, the suit is like the shiny new toy. It won’t be such a focus soon.”

“It’s cute that you think that,” Nila smiled as she cupped his cheek.

“SES classes start soon, plus Ranger Academy classes. He’ll be way too busy.”

“You know how he is.”

“He’ll obsess,” he sighed. “That’s who he is, can’t change that. Ironically, that girl might be the only thing that can take his focus away.”

“Yeah, I know, I just kinda wish that he was still that carefree kid that wouldn’t leave me alone,” she sighed.

“It’s natural for a cute girl to supplant the mother in her son’s eyes.”

“That’s not what I mean… okay, mostly.”

“You want to come with me on my next Quest?”

“Hmm… I’ll think about it. I want to be here for Boy. I might’ve cashed in a few favors to find out what Ranger Academy is going to be like.”

“Love, we’re not supposed to used our privilege to give our son an edge.”

“Oh come on. Most of the kids have a parent or grandparent or other relative in the rangers. You know they’re telling them everything they know.”

“Which is why the Ranger Academy curriculum is a closely guarded secret. Only, like, four people know all of it.”

“Do you count in that?”

“I swear I know nothing,” he crossed his heart and mimed stabbing his eye.

“That’s exactly what Rayna told me,” she muttered.

“She told the truth. You know she’s mostly retired from the day-to-day decision making.”

“Well, she could ask. They’d tell her.”

“Which is why she won’t.”

“I suppose it’s better for him. The harder it is the better prepared he’ll be and maybe it’ll push him down a better path.”

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

Cal crossed the length and breadth of the former continental United States of America gathering intelligence before the sun had fully risen over the eastern horizon.

The defunct U.S. Government had been busy over the last few months.

Diplomatic teams had been sent to nearly every settlement.

These were the open hands reaching out in friendship.

The other hand closed around the hilt of the hidden dagger.

These were covert agents. The spies. The assassins.

He marked them all for later.

The government had emerged from their bunkers and regained control over the old capital. Unlike the Morlocks, the president and all his men didn’t slink back into their tunnels when day rose.

Militarization was in evidence wherever he looked.

Soldiers patrolled the streets on foot or in vehicles.

He spotted the odd tank, self-propelled artillery, or random armored vehicle stationed at key points along with concrete bunkers and barricades.

Indeed, some old buildings had been replaced with squat bunkers bristling with machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars.

He landed on the White House lawn.

The place had never looked more like a military fortification.

Fairly unobtrusive black fences had been replaced with a tall, thick wall of dirt, concrete and iron. Guard towers loomed with mounted machine guns and grenade launchers. Armored vehicles parked on the lawns. Hundreds of soldiers sat in their stations and walked on patrol.

He walked through the front door.

He had been on a tour once long ago as part of a school trip.

Back then the security had been unobtrusive, now, armed soldiers patrolled the halls and stood at nearly every door.

Every so often he came across one of those hulking super soldiers. Like larger bodybuilders, their grotesque musculature was the product of alchemy. A blending of magic and pharmaceuticals.

The only price the super soldiers paid was a shortened lifespan.

They’d be lucky to hit sixty, which, all things considered was a massive improvement over performance enhancing drugs from the pre-spires days. Bodybuilders had died before they hit thirty or forty all the time. The natural human heart and other organs simply weren’t designed to carry three-hundred pounds on a frame meant for half that.

He supposed the trade offs were worth it to the super soldiers.

No class, but quickly-gained strength, speed and agility that placed them equivalent to around Level 30 to 40 in a combat-focused class.

He ignored the president, vice president, the cabinet and the generals.

They didn’t realize it, but the fools had given their power and authority over to an outworld invader that aimed to replace their society.

She waited deep underground.

An eidolon claiming to serve a god.