Drake Kendrick closed his locker. “Look, Lar. I don’t see what the problem is.” Drake had just invited Larry to come with him to his girlfriend’s family reunion that weekend. Drake had been dating Sara for about two years now, and he wanted Larry to come with him because they were best friends, and Drake and Larry had been like brothers since Larry lost his family to a car accident. “I just figured it’d be cool if you could come with me. You’re like a brother, man.”

“Well, Drake, to be honest, it’s because a few months ago, I got into a fight with Angus over Summer, and I know for a fact that he’s bringing her to meet the family, too.” Larry had had a crush on Summer Early since kindergarten, and they had been good friends for years. Larry and Sara’s cousin, Angus both happened to tell Summer about their feelings over the same break period, and they had decided to fight over her. Larry won the fight (barely), which made Summer feel bad for Angus. The two had been dating since, and Larry still wasn’t quite over it.

“Come on, Lar. My dad’s out of town. You’re the only other family I’ve got. Please?” Drake gave his best puppy dog eyes, which made Larry shove his hand in Drake’s face to stop laughing.

“Alright, alright,” Larry agreed. Drake gave a quick victory fist pump before Larry added the condition, “but! You have to agree that we will all three leave if things get awkward.” Larry gave Drake a stern look, and Drake looked to the incognito Terira.

“Can we do that, Sara?” Drake asked, amusedly scanning the hair she had dyed red to prevent suspicious glances at her naturally blue do. Apparently, though, dying blue hair red turns it lavender. She had already gotten quite a few rude remarks from staff members, but luckily, there wasn’t anything in the school’s dress code about hair color. Drake thought the entire situation was hilarious, but Sara found the whole thing irritating. She really liked her hair.

“Yeah, that’s fine. Besides, Angus has been talking about Larry ever since he transferred schools.” If there was one thing other than Drake that Sara loved about Earth, it was her father’s family. Unfortunately, Frederick Ayling had died a couple of months before Sara had come back to Earth, so she had never gotten the chance to see him again after leaving as a child. “I think he still wants to be friends.”

“Alright, but anything gets too awkward?”

“We leave,” both Drake and Sara say simultaneously.


“In fact,” Sara chipped in, “I think I know exactly where we can go after the reunion!” She gave an excited smile to the boys, who both grinned. Obviously, she was referring to Valkyr 53, the spaceship she had parked on the edge of town by Drake’s house and disguised as a large Airstream. Since Drake hadn’t been able to keep himself from telling Larry all about Terira and Thorlinthia and his mother, she had decided to let Larry train in Thorlinthian fighting styles while Drake worked on controlling his power.

Since Larry had always wanted to learn martial arts and take weapons training, it had been a great chance for him. He had only used some of what he learned once to beat Angus Ayling in a squabble over a girl, but he had proven that day that he at least knew how to hold back to appropriate levels.

“Awesome! I love hanging out in 53. It’s like the treehouse we never had as kids, right, Drake?” Larry looked to Drake, who chuckled.

“Yeah, well, I think we’d have played different card games in a treehouse, Lar. Still, the reunion’s going to go great. We’ll have a great time.” Drake looked at his watch. “Oh, crap, we gotta go!” He patted Larry on the back and took Sara by the hand. “Come on, Sara. Larry, we’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah! Absolutely! I’ll see you guys at Sara’s house. I’d better get to the gym. Coach Weber’s being a total jerk about us being late on game days.” He turned and started to head in the opposite direction.

“Oh, right, Larry,” Sara said, stopping in the middle of the hall. “Good luck. I’m sure you’ll do great.” She smiled encouragingly at him before starting back on her way out of the school with Drake.

“Thanks, Sara,” Larry replied.



“Lieutenant? You alright?” Summer Ayling asked as the SUV escorting them to Drury Lane came to a stop.

“Yeah,” Larry said. “I was just thinking about some times back in high school.” Summer and Angus may have known about Sara Ayling and Drake Kendrick, but no one else in the vehicle did, and he had put a lot of effort into keeping it that way.

“Oh, god, don’t remind me,” Angus said. “I still can’t believe you beat me that badly in that fight. I mean, I was twice your size, mate. Not that I’m complaining. I think I got the better deal.” He smiled at his wife and kissed her lightly on the lips.

Summer just rolled her eyes and gave an amused smirk, “Is that why you transferred schools? Too embarrassed about losing?” Larry gave her a quick fist bump, and the three laughed it up.

“Nah. I just wanted to study martial arts, and there was nothing in that town for that sort of thing. Still can’t beat the Lieutenant in a fight, though,” he added, trying to put it in as an afterthought.

“Well, anyway, I suppose a lot’s changed since then, hasn’t it?” Larry knew it was time to refocus on the present. Now wasn’t really the time for humor, as much as they needed it. He opened the door and stepped out. “Let’s go meet the Muffin Man.” The whole team cast aside their grins and chuckles, taking on a somber tone more befitting to the situation before following him out.



“Oh yes,” Grie Khuda’Mundi said quietly to himself as he approached their location. “Let’s…”