Indira opened her eyes.

The sky was bright and blue; it was well past morning. Her entire body felt like it had been picked up by a giant, shaken soundly, and then tossed aside like a forgotten doll. She was lying on her back in the mud of a riverbank. Trees crowded around her like nosy neighbors. Her first efforts to sit up sent pain firing down her right side.

She lay there for a while longer, taking in deep breaths, trying to remember what had happened. It was the sound of the river that connected those missing links in her memory. She knew the river led back to the underwater grate. Before she’d reached the grate there had been an explosion. Joey had survived their attack.

Indira groaned with the effort it took to stand. She had several burns, a few cuts. The fall from Phoenix’s back had painted bruises down her right side. That final image of Phoenix pulsed back into her head. His eyes had been so sad and lost as Joey forced him to fire on her boat.

She remembered that the river ran away from the city. Backtracking through the forest, she did her best not to make too much noise. The town came into view through a gap in the trees. At this distance, she heard no cannon fire. Nor was there any sign of Phoenix and Joey soaring through the open sky.

Indira used the cover of scattered farms and barns to circle south. She hoped Gadget and the others would be waiting for her. She was sure they’d feel betrayed by her decision to attack without them, but that didn’t matter now, not with Phoenix in the hands of their enemy. They’d have to make a plan. “I have to save him,” she whispered to herself.

Every step was its own punishment. Not just the bruises and the sore muscles, but the absence at her side. The smiling red-haired boy who’d been through so much with her already. The boy she liked so much. She’d taken him into enemy territory again and let him get captured again. Why hadn’t she thought through the risks of what they were doing? When she’d imagined the showdown with Joey, she’d never imagined them failing.

A small part of her still didn’t understand how Joey had survived. He’d been standing almost within arm’s reach of her. She’d seen the look on his face. He had been afraid. The wide eyes and the gaping mouth. The fall from the building. Why hadn’t he woken up?

As she navigated the final hill, Indira’s concerns doubled. The curtain of forest that had kept their base of operation out of sight had been reduced to char. Indira waited in the shadow of a battered shed. Her eyes were drawn past the still-burning stumps. Through all the smoke she could just make out the call desk they’d been using to contact Maxi.

It had been destroyed.

Joey had found their camp and he’d used Phoenix’s fire to destroy it.

Indira eyed the city and the sky before picking her way forward. She half hoped someone would appear, that Gadget or Squalls would wave at her from the nearby forest to signal that they’d survived. But the only movement came as she was circling the grounds one final time.

A familiar strutting.

“Peck?” Indira called in surprise. “How’d you make it out?”

She couldn’t have said why, but it was a huge relief to see the pet rooster. She didn’t know how the chicken had escaped the city, and she didn’t care. She collapsed to her knees and hugged the little creature, realizing Peck’s survival was the first thing that had gone right in days.

“It’s so good to see you.”

He ruffled his feathers pleasantly against her neck. The moment she released him he made a series of sharp noises before darting straight into the forest. Indira hesitated at first, but she remembered that this was the way stories worked. Strange events weren’t simply coincidence.

Besides, she had no idea what to do next. It was easier to follow the chicken.

Peck found a forest trail and took it. Indira did the same. It was almost pleasant to walk without knowing where she was going, without thinking of all that had gone wrong. Peck continued on for nearly an hour before stopping suddenly to nip at a few specks in the road.

“Hello there, Indie.”

If you’ve ever moved away—or been gone for a long time—and heard the voice of a good friend, you’ll know how Indira felt in that moment, dear reader. There was only one person in the world who called her by that nickname. And it was the one person she needed to see, even if she didn’t know it. Deus came striding forward. He was more commonly known as Deus Ex Machina, the provider of convenient solutions. She’d been lucky enough to have him as a mentor during her first year of school, even if the two of them had gotten off to a rocky start.

He greeted her with a grim smile. “One of these days,” he said, “we’ll meet in far more average circumstances. Perhaps for a cup of tea? An afternoon snack? Anything that doesn’t taste like the end of the world.”

Even in the darkest hour, Deus could always make Indira smile.

“That wouldn’t exactly be our style,” she replied.

“No, it wouldn’t. Shall we go for a stroll?”

Peck made a little noise before continuing down the path. Deus offered his arm and Indira looped her own through it, feeling safe and comfortable for the first time in days. Her mentor had that effect. He was the provider of convenient solutions, after all. It was his job to enter the plot when all looked lost and give characters the slightest nudge in the right direction. Indira found herself hoping that was the reason he was visiting her now.

“Are you here to give me a pep talk?” she asked.

“Would you like me to? I’ve got a few speeches about how the night is darkest before the dawn and all of that….”

She waved the idea away. “I just need to know how to beat him.”

“That’s a tad more difficult,” he admitted. “My talents are in keeping you alive. Daring escapes. Last-minute rescues. That sort of thing.”

“Some help you’ve been so far,” Indira complained. “He captured Phoenix.”

Deus threw her a stubborn look. “I’ve clearly spoiled you if you don’t see all the ways I’ve been working to turn the tides in your favor so far. Have my efforts really gone unnoticed?”

Indira frowned. “You’ve been helping me?”

“Of course!” he exclaimed, a little annoyed. “You’re up against a rogue Author! I’ve been pulling strings since the moment you set foot in Ordinary. Where do you think Peck came from?”

Now Indira was really confused. “The rooster?”

“The rooster who saved you once already!” Deus corrected. “He wasn’t part of your original scenario. I sensed you would need him, though, so I smuggled him in. Not to mention that first encounter with Joey. Who do you think was responsible for his cannon misfiring?”

Indira nodded. She’d forgotten about that first encounter. Everything Joey had done since then had worked like a charm. “It was a little convenient the first cannon didn’t fire.”

“My specialty.” Deus grinned. “I also provided the bee schematics for Gadget. Those certainly came in handy—and will continue to come in handy. But that’s the extent of my tricks, Indie. I sensed you would face a great threat, but I’d never imagined someone like Joey was on the way. I thought you were preparing to square off with some particularly nasty antagonists.” His grin faded. “Clearly, he’s more than that. Our entire world is in jeopardy.”

“The Editors won’t come,” she said. “But what about the brainstorms?”

Indira knew they possessed some of the most powerful magic in the world, but Deus shook his head sadly. “Their powers were altered after the Brainstorm Ketty incident. It was agreed that they should be brought under the same governance as the Editors. Now the two groups follow the same rule book during any crisis that occurs in the world of Imagination.”

“Meaning they have to wait before they can help too?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Indira took a deep breath. “So I’m on my own. Again.”

“That was going to be my next topic of conversation.” He flipped a silver coin up into the air. Indira caught it instinctively. “You’ve fallen into the same trap you fell into last year.”

She scowled. “No I haven’t. What trap? I didn’t fall into a trap.”

But as she looked down at the face of the silver coin Deus had given her, she saw herself. The engraved image was of her standing triumphantly over a fallen bad guy, hammer raised in the air, all alone. It wasn’t hard to see what was missing on the coin: the rest of her crew.

“You most certainly have,” Deus replied. “You are pretending—once again—that you must face every battle as the lone hero. Even though this whole training scenario was designed to teach you otherwise. You were not alone last year, Indira. You are not alone now.”

Another glance at the coin showed all the other characters who’d come on this journey with her. They crowded around the victory scene like quiet reminders. Indira frowned.

“I know I wasn’t alone,” she said. “Phoenix came with me.”

“As you snuck out on the rest of your team,” Deus reminded her. “Just think about how you’ve approached every problem. Who led the first spy mission into the city? Who thundered down from the sky atop a dragon?” Her mentor sighed softly. “It is in your bones to play the hero, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m simply here to encourage you to make heroes out of everyone else on the next attempt. Let them shine beside you, rather than hover in your shadow. You made the mistake of thinking you and Phoenix could defeat him alone. It wasn’t a bad effort, all in all, but I promise you it will take the entirety of your crew’s combined talents to defeat this enemy.”

For a few minutes, they walked in silence. Peck went on strutting ahead of them, winding through the forests, clearly with some distant location in mind. Indira’s initial annoyance had faded. She was starting to realize how right Deus was. Brainstorm Underglass had sent her here to learn how to be a good teammate. Her tutor device had even warned her every time she’d tried to play the hero without including the other members of her squad.

Sneaking off with Phoenix to save the day? It was hard to admit now how foolish she had been. If she had just waited for the rest of her team, they might have formed an even better plan. It was time to actually take the lesson to heart. She needed to be a new kind of hero.

The forest path wound on until they reached the main road. Indira recognized the location. It wasn’t far from the memorial they’d left behind. Indira realized that if her team members had survived Joey’s attack, they would have come here. This was where Peck had been leading her. Deus paused at the edge of the clearing.

“One more piece of advice. I am not allowed to interfere. I can only nudge. So let me give you a polite shove in the right direction. The key to defeating Joey is to figure out what he fears. You must wake him with something he’s actually afraid of in the Real World. Savvy?”

That sent Indira’s mind racing through possibilities. She looked Deus in the eye and nodded. “See you when I need you,” she said with a smile.

Her mentor gathered up Peck in his arms, winked once, and vanished into the shadows. Indira wasn’t completely sure what needed to be done, but she had a feeling her crew would know. They were going to rescue Phoenix. They were going to defeat Joey.

And they were going to do it as a team.