I had my back against a wall; I was disarmed, my sword embedded in the street, several metres away, well beyond my reach. A figure towered over me.

I looked up: Emerald Scarab was staring down at me. She looked enormous, easily over ten feet tall; her sword was raised over her head.

“Pathetic,” she said.

The sword fell.

I woke up with a start and a gasp, my eyes glancing around in panic; I relaxed only when I realised where I was: my aunts’ guest room. I took a deep breath. I was safe, for the moment.

I turned my head and looked at the morpher, lying on the night stand. Such a tiny thing, and yet it had caused no end of trouble for me, and especially for my brother. I missed Mark so goddamn much.

I wiped away a stray tear from my eye, and then I realised I was drenched in sweat: the covers and mattress were absolutely soaked – as they always were. I had slept in that bed three times since the first time I’d morphed into Defender Red, and they’d been three restless nights, plagued with nightmares. I hoped that, with time, they would go away.

But I had no time to waste lying in bed, wallowing in self-pity: that day someone from the army would come, and take me to the headquarters of the Defenders, where I would be formally enlisted into the team. I still wished I didn’t have to do it, but I owed it to my brother to pick up things from where he’d left.

I sighed, pushed the covers aside, and got up; I walked all the way to the bathroom I’d shared with my aunts those three days, and got into the shower to wash away the sweat from my nightly nightmare. In short order I was done, I’d dried my hair, and put on my clothes – a simple jeans-and-hoodie combo, I wanted to be comfortable for the day.

I heard someone knock on the door. “Stephanie? Are you in there?” Millie’s voice asked. “Breakfast is ready.”

“Thank you, I’ll be right down,” I replied. Looking in the mirror I quickly put on some eyeliner and lipstick – I judged that a no-nonsense look would be best – and took a deep breath.

“Showtime,” I whispered to my reflection.

Walking downstairs, I saw that Millie and Isabela were already seated at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee in front of each of them: they’d obviously been waiting for me, since there was no food on their plates. I frowned when I saw Isabela’s bandaged leg and the crutches leaning against the wall: she would have to use those for at least a week, until her leg had been healed enough to hold her weight.

And it was my fault she’d been injured: the Repulsoids had been after me, to try and recover the morpher General Ryder had entrusted to my care.

“Good morning,” I greeted my aunts.

“Good morning, Stephanie,” Isabela said, smiling at me. “Did you sleep well?”

I made a face. “Not at all,” I replied. “Still the same nightmare.”

“I’m sorry. Come, have some eggs and bacon, you’ll feel better with a full stomach.”

I sighed and sat down at the table; aunt Millie filled my mug with coffee, and then got up and moved to the stove, coming back in short order with a pan full of scrambled eggs and bacon, which she generously shovelled onto our plates. “Thanks,” I said, and was rewarded with a smile. She sat back down, and we started eating.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Isabela between mouthfuls.

“Better,” she answered. “The pain has almost gone away, in a day or two I’ll go off the painkillers entirely.”

“Glad to hear that,” I nodded. “And I’m sorry.”

There was a metallic noise as Millie slammed her fork down on the table. “Steph,” she said firmly. “We’ve been over this: you have nothing to blame yourself for. You saved our lives. Instead, the one who’s to blame is General Ryder, what was he even thinking bringing something so dangerous here without a proper escort? Because of him we almost ended up like…”

Even though I was looking down at my plate, she noticed the look in my eyes. “Sorry,” she said, looking away.

I shook my head without looking up. “No, you can say it. We almost ended up like Mark.”

There was a moment of silence around the table, then Millie reached across it and grabbed my hand.

“Listen, Stephanie, are you sure you want to do this? No one will blame you if you refuse.”

“No one but myself,” I replied. “The Defenders protect civilians: that’s their main duty. What if somebody gets killed because I wasn’t there to prevent it?”

I looked up and stared at her. “I’m the only one who can do this, aunt Millie. There’s no one who can take my place, and wishing it were otherwise doesn’t change things.”

Millie held my stare for a couple seconds, then sighed. “You’re hard-headed just like your brother,” she said.

Despite everything, I found myself smiling. “I’ll take it as a compliment.”

“At least promise us you’ll be careful,” Isabela said, grabbing my other hand.

“I promise,” I answered.

There was nothing more to be said: we finished our breakfast in silence, and then I made my way back up the stairs to my room and stuffed the few belongings I’d brought with me in my duffel bag, starting with the morpher, which I put at the very bottom, under all my clothes and other stuff. And not a moment too soon: as soon as I was done, I heard the doorbell ring. Once, then twice.

I walked back to the living room: my aunts were still seated at the table, making no move to answer the door. “I think it’s for you, dear,” Millie said, when the bell rang a third time. “Go on.”

Taking a deep breath, I opened the door; Megan, Defender White, was standing on the other side. She was wearing comfortable civilian clothes, too, which was unexpected: I’d expected whoever came to collect me to be in full uniform.

“Good morning, Stephanie,” she said cheerfully. “How are you?”

“Nervous,” I replied. I was happy she was the one who’d come to get me, I remembered her being a really nice person.

“Understandable,” she nodded, her smile never wavering. She motioned to the duffel bag I was holding. “Is that all the luggage you have?”

“It is.”

“Well, let’s be off then.”

I looked at her, puzzled. I poked my head out of the front door and looked left, then right: there was no one else in sight, no cars or other vehicles to be found.

“Let’s be off… How?” I asked.

She gave a brief laugh. “Come on, I’ll show you,” she answered, making her way inside the house. “Do you mind if we use the living room for a couple minutes?” she told my aunts.

Millie and Isabela shook their heads, and Megan walked around the room, drawing the curtains. “It’s best if we avoid anyone looking inside until we’re done, we don’t want people asking too many questions,” she explained. Then she stood in the middle of the room.

“Alright, here we go,” she said. She pulled out a morpher from the pocket of her sweatshirt – it was exactly like mine, only the switches and lever were white instead of red – and placed it against her stomach, pressing the two buttons in quick succession.

“Welcome. Standby,” the morpher said, and then beeped three times. Megan shot me and my aunts a grin, and then she flicked the lever with a flourish of her hand.

“Power Up!”

I’d never seen the transformation from the outside before: I didn’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t much to look at, to be honest. There was a brief flash of white light – extremely brief, I didn’t even have to close my eyes to avoid being blinded by it – and Defender White was standing where Megan had been only a moment before.

“We’re going the quick way,” she said. She sounded different than she had before; I realised it was probably so no one would be able to identify the Defenders by their voice. “We’ll teleport directly back to base.”

“Teleport?” I asked.

White inclined her head to the side. “What, they hadn’t told you we can do that?”

I realised I had been told about the teleport, by Maelyn Kim; I’d even witnessed it first hand, when first Emerald Scarab and then Defender Yellow had vanished in front of my very eyes. But the day of my first battle had been a blur, I’d forgotten about it, until that very moment.

“Okay,” I said. “How do I do this?”

“Well, first you have to morph, of course,” White explained. “And then you simply call mission control, and ask to be teleported to base. And don’t worry about the luggage, everything you’re holding in your hands when you teleport goes along with you.”

I nodded; I unzipped my duffel bag and rooted around inside until I found my morpher. I put it against my waist and, like Megan had done before me, pressed the buttons in quick succession.

“Welcome. Standby.”

I looked at Millie and Isabela. “Well then… See ya,” I said. I was surprised, however, when Millie tackled me in a tight hug, and was soon joined – albeit more slowly, owing to her injured leg – by Isabela.

“Do your best, Stephanie,” aunt Millie whispered in my ear. “Remember, you’ll always be welcome in our home.” Isabela nodded in agreement.

I bit my lip and blinked back tears. “Thank you,” I murmured.

We hugged for a minute more, then broke the embrace. “It’s probably best if you stand back,” I sheepishly said. They retreated a few feet away, and I hesitantly flipped the lever.

“Power Up!”

My second time morphing was less disorienting than my first, but I was still out of it for a couple seconds after the flash of light had subsided; though I was sure I would get used to it in time. I bent over and picked up my duffel bag, then nodded to White. She nodded back, and tapped the side of her helmet.

“White ready for transfer,” she said. And she was gone in a flash of light.

I brought my hand up and tapped my helmet, too. “Hello?” I asked.

“Good morning, Civilian Stephanie Kennedy!” said a cheerful voice. “How are you doing on this fine day?”

“I’m not a civilian any more, I’ve enlisted,” I replied.

Maelyn clicked her tongue. “Not officially you haven’t; you still haven’t signed the paperwork yet.”

“I guess they’ll make me do it as soon as I get there?” I said.

“Probably, yes.”

There was a pause.

“So?” she asked.

“So what?”

“Didn’t Meg tell you what to say in these situations?”

I realised I hadn’t said the exact words White had told me. “Oh, right. Red ready for transfer.”

It was the weirdest sensation. One moment I was standing in my aunts’ living room, the next I was in a large room, standing on a wide platform. My head spun and my stomach churned; I dropped my bag and fell to one knee.

Megan was instantly beside me; she’d demorphed, and she put a hand on my back and started rubbing it. “Okay,” she said. “Demorph, and then breathe. Deep breaths. And try not to puke, we’ve just cleaned the floor.”

I weakly nodded my head, fumbled with my hand, and flicked the morpher’s lever. “Power Down,” it announced. I started taking deep breaths, and shot a glance at Megan.

“Sucks, doesn’t it?” she said. “It’s super disorienting the first few times, then you get used to it.”

I heard a door slide open, and Megan sprung to her feet. “Sir!” she said.

“At ease.” That was General Ryder’s voice.

I heard his footsteps moving closer, and then saw his feet in front of me. I looked up.

“Good morning, Miss Kennedy,” he said, offering me his hand and pulling me to my feet. “Welcome to Defender Base.”

I inhaled deeply, and then slowly let out my breath. “Thank you, sir,” I said.

He nodded in acknowledgment. “First things first: I have prepared the paperwork. Let’s go sign it, and then we’ll introduce you to the rest of the team.”

“Yes sir,” I replied, standing at attention. That, at least, I remembered how to do – my father had drilled it into me and my brother since we were little.

General Ryder looked at me closely, almost as if he was judging me. “Lieutenant Walker, please go tell everyone else to assemble in the training room,” he said, without taking his eyes off me.

“Sir,” Megan saluted, and she was off.

The general motioned at me to follow him, and turned around and walked away, with me following him. We left the teleporter room – which I realised, looking around, hadn’t been built to purpose, but rather converted from something else – and started walking along corridors, while the general spoke. “You may be wondering where we are,” he said. When I nodded, he continued, “We’re near Indianapolis. I forget what this town is named, but it probably doesn’t even matter any more; it was evacuated eight years ago, when the Repulsoids were advancing on it, right before the battle. It was relatively unscathed by the nuclear bombing… Compared to the rest of the city, at least. And it was close to the front lines, so when the aliens were repelled, we took over the buildings that were left standing and turned them into our forward base. This was a school.”

He was right: looking around, I recognised the familiar layout everyone who has gone to high school in the United States knows by heart.

General Ryder opened a door and waved me through. “And this is my office, which was once the principle's office.” He smirked. “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. Yet. Take a seat.”

I complied, and he placed a sheaf of papers on a desk in front of me. “Standard contract, with the modifications you… Requested,” he said. “Please read it, to make sure everything is correct.”

It took about fifteen minutes, but it seemed like everything was okay: every single one of my demands had been addressed in the contract. I looked up at the general and nodded. He handed me a pen, and I took it from him. I was about to sign when he spoke up again.

“I know I probably shouldn’t be the one to say this, since I was the one who recruited you,” he commented. “But think about this carefully. Once you sign, you’re committed: there’s no going back.”

I stared at him for a moment, and then, without taking my eyes off him, signed the contract with a flourish.

He nodded gravely. “Come with me.”

We walked along more corridors, until we came to a set of double doors, like the one that would lead to a gym – another hint that this was a former school. The general shouted “Attention!” when we went through; five people were milling in the middle, but as soon as they heard the order they lined up in a row, backs straight.

“Good morning, team, and thanks for coming,” he said. “As you already know, we have a new recruit today. This is Second Lieutenant Stephanie Kennedy, and she’ll be joining you as Defender Red in place of her brother Marcus Bishop. I expect you to treat her with the same respect as you did him.”

“Yes, sir!” the quintet replied as one.

“Lieutenant Kennedy, these are the members of the Defender Squadron,” the general continued. “From the left we have First Lieutenant Megan Walker, Defender White.”

Meg nodded and smiled at me.

“Second Lieutenant Clyde Weber, Defender Yellow.”

The second person in line, a man with close-cropped black hair, scowled at me instead; I glared back, remembering how he had treated me when we’d met three days before.

“First Lieutenant Amelia Miller, Defender Green.”

She was a stocky, muscled woman, who barely blinked when the general said her name.

“Captain Elijah Wilson, Defender Blue, and field commander of the Defender Squadron.”

Wilson, an average-looking man with blonde hair, stiffened up and gave a short nod.

“And Corporal Maelyn Kim. She’s mission control, responsible for communications and coordination when the squad is in the field.”

Maelyn had marked Asian features – she probably had Korean ancestry, judging by the name – and she was shorter than the others. She beamed at me, and I reciprocated: it was nice to finally put a face to the name.

General Ryder paused, and then said: “Does anyone have questions?”

Clyde raised his hand. “I do, sir.”

The general closed his eyes for a brief moment, and I could swear that, by the expression on his face, he was regretting asking. “Lieutenant Weber?”

“Why is she a Second Lieutenant, sir?” Clyde asked. “She’s just enlisted today. I don’t think it’s fair.”

“Sir?” Mae said, raising her hand.

“Corporal Kim,” the general said, nodding at her.

“According to protocol agreed on by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all members of the Defender Squadron who are likely to see combat have to be commissioned officers,” she said. “And as Lieutenant Weber knows, Second Lieutenant is the lowest rank such an officer can have. Besides, it’s not Lieutenant Kennedy’s fault that Lieutenant Weber hasn’t been promoted yet.”

“Precisely right,” General Ryder said. Clyde glared daggers at Maelyn, but didn’t say anything.

“No further questions?” the general asked. When no one spoke, he continued, “Very well. Lieutenant Weber, prepare the room for combat training. Lieutenant Kennedy, go with Corporal Kim, she will brief you on the threats you will have to face. The rest of you, go back to your duties. Dismissed.”

At those words, everyone broke ranks; all the members of the Defender Squadron came over to me to say a few words and shake my hand to welcome me to the team – except for Clyde, who kept glaring at me from afar.

“Just ignore him,” Maelyn said. “He’s always grumpy like this. So, ready for an information dump? Because there’s plenty I have to teach you, and you’ll have to remember all of it.”

“Lead the way,” I said, and followed her out of the training room.

ZoeStorm

And we're back! Thank you for your patience, folks, and I hope you've had a good end-of-year vacation. I've managed to rebuild my buffer quite a bit: I can't promise there won't be further hiatuses, but at least not for some time soon. Enjoy the ride!