Like the world’s greatest stage magician, I produced a few decks of elven-made playing cards in my hand; one instant there was nothing, then poof. Cards.

  “How are you doing that?” Ai said, once again staring at me with the glazed eyes of someone checking out a Status and the confused expression of someone who couldn’t make sense of what they were seeing.

  “Magic item.”

  “Uh huh,” she said. “Must be.”

  Kiki smirked at that, her big eyes shifting between Ai and me. While Ai had sounded dubious, Kiki’s look said she knew I was lying but she didn’t mind as long as she was the only one who knew that. She wasn’t, and the way Lianna was watching all of us spoke to her endless amusement watching people try to figure me out while I tried not to get figured out. She seemed to find my magic item excuse strangely hilarious, too.

  Speaking of actual magic items, that’s when one of the gems on my Dick Tracy Communicator started flashing. It was the topaz, meaning Alice wanted to talk.

  Uh oh. I had a bad feeling about this.

  “Lemme guess,” Ai said, staring at the blinking topaz, “another magic item?”

  “Hang on,” I said, passing the cards to Achmed before turning away. “I gotta take this.”

  Tiff laughed out loud. “He actually did make cellphones.”

  “Huh? Cellphones? And what do you mean he made them?” Ai said.

  I took a few steps away before tapping the topaz and Alice’s hologram appeared, her impractically pretty face marred with concern. “We’ve got a problem, boss.”

  “How’s Anika?” I said. “Is she okay?”

  “We-e-ell,” Alice drawled, “Anika is okay, which is to say she isn’t hurt or anything, but she is being held hostage by that group you called Overgeared.”

  “Dammit!” I waved Tiff over.

  “Who’s that?” Tiff said when she saw Alice’s hologram.

  I quickly made introductions and Alice explained the situation. Anika had been charged with putting captive Players back to sleep, but Team Overgeared had tricked her and she ended up being captured by our own captives. They threatened to kill her unless they were released and returned to the Citadel.

  “I’ll rip their guts out,” Tiff growled. “All of them.”

  “I am sorry I let that happen,” Alice said. “I underestimated them.”

  “It’s not your fault, Alice,” I said. "I was in a rush when I set up their detainment. I got sloppy and now Anika's paying the price."

  “They have not harmed her yet,” Alice said. “I thought it best to contact you before choosing how to proceed.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “Enough. Let’s go,” Tiff said.

  “There’s one problem,” I said, turning my attention toward the dome where Teams Invictus and Droogs were trapped. “We need to use that teleportation array in there to get to her.”

  “Well fuck,” Tiff said.

  “What should we do, boss?” Alice said. “I was thinking maybe I should send her in.”

  “Her?” Tiff said. “Who’s her?”

  There’s only one person Alice could’ve meant.

  “The Gorgon,” I said. “That’s too dangerous, Alice. Anika might get caught in her gaze. Besides, we don’t want to kill anyone if we can help it, and she doesn’t have a non-lethal setting.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Tiff said. “Fatality factor or not, I have zero qualms about killing those bastards. But yeah, let’s avoid turning Anika to stone.”

  “Pity,” Alice said. “She was excited by the prospect, but we have other options. There’s a considerable force waiting outside the door as we speak, but I thought you might prefer to handle this personally.”

  “You thought right,” I said.

  “I need to be there too,” Tiff moaned. “I need to help rescue Anika.”

  “First things first,” I said. “Let’s clear a path to the teleportation circle.”

  “So much for waiting to see how Troy gets everyone out of the dome,” Kiki said, tossing a long blonde pigtail over her shoulder with a flick of her head.

  “Can’t you just teleport to your dungeon without the circle?” Achmed said. “Like how you came to get us?”

  I shook my head. “It’s too far away. I need a circle.”

  “So you do have limits after all,” Tiff said. “Nice to know.”

  I gnawed my lower lip while I considered how to get to the teleportation node. I had any number of ways of doing that, of varying degrees of lethality, from teleporting a contingent of elves and/or labyrinth denizens into the dome to clear things out, to teleporting in myself and filling the space with razor floss, to going in with Lianna with shields up and emptying a few magic crystals worth of stun shots into them, to disguising myself as an Overgeared Player and tricking them into assembling in the circle and teleporting them all to the Fire Dungeon in the Southern Desert, to removing the top of the dome and shifting the gravity inside to make them all float up and out of the way, to opening the door and using the Voice to command them all to scamper out, to...well, you get the idea. I had options. Too many options.

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  “We should figure it out soon, the next score of demons is due to show up in a minute,” Lianna said.

  I couldn’t resist opening a telepathic link with her.

  Me: Did you just say score?

  Lianna: Yeah? What of it? Aren’t you supposed to use archaic words in a fantasy setting?

  Me: You’re surprisingly nerdy at times.

  Lianna: That’s rich coming from you.

  “Well,” Kiki said, “if that’s how it’s gonna be...Daniel, I’m gonna go ahead and assume you can open a hole in the dome any time you want, amiright?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “Whatcha got in mind, Kiks?”

  I was expecting an outburst of righteous indignation but Kiki didn’t say anything about being called Kiks. If anything, she seemed secretly pleased with the impromptu pet name. Instead of complaining, she reached out and grabbed my hand then turned to face the other Players.

  “Who was it who made the barrier in front of the door?” Kiki said loudly.

  “That was me,” the Spice girl named Sonia said, bouncing to the front of the group.

  “Daniel and I are gonna go around back. When we give the signal, take down the barrier. Dougie?”

  “Yes?” one of her N3m3s1s boys chirped.

  “When the barrier’s gone, you blast the door open.”

  “You got it,” he said, puffing up his chest, clearly pleased that his Dark Gyaru Mistress had a use for him.

  “What are you going to do?” Tiff said.

  “Daniel’s gonna open a hole on the other side and I’m gonna send in my Efreet to chase them out.”

  “Into our waiting arms,” Achmed said. “That should do the trick.”

  “If we hurry, the rest of us can go hide and let the soon-to-arrive demons play with them first,” Lianna said.

  “I like that idea,” Ai said. “Then we can mop up the rest.”

  For some reason, everyone looked at me.

  It was a bit more complicated than some of my ideas, but the fact that it came from someone else and involved other people’s abilities to make it happen made it the far better choice. I was genuinely worried that I was doing too much, so any plan that didn’t rely on me was the right one as far as I was concerned.

  “Uh, yeah,” I said. “Sounds good. Just make sure you step in to help them out if there’s a risk of anyone dying.”

  “One more thing,” Tiff said, stepping forward to stand next to me. “Anika’s one of us, so Team Spice is coming with you.”

  “Damn straight,” Grace said, stepping up to join her Captain, followed by more of her team.

  “Sorry Tiff,” Sonia said. “I need to stay back and remove the barrier.”

  “Maybe you don’t,” I said. “At this point they don’t think they can get out anyway so they probably wouldn’t notice if it was gone now. To be safe, leave an inch or so on the ground to block any light coming in under and prevent them from opening if they give it a push.”

  “That works,” Tiff said. She nodded at Sonia, who nodded back and gestured toward the dome. The slab of stone she’d raised in front of the door shrank down to a short lip as I’d described.

  “There,” she said, then grinned. “Hang on.” She gestured again, and the little lip she’d left blocking the bottom of the door raised up a few more inches. “Who knows, maybe that’ll trip a few of them as they rush out.”

  “I like the way you think,” I said, and she grinned even wider.

  “We need to move,” Lianna said. “Demons are coming.”

  I quickly shared my portal power with Lianna. I opened my own portal to the top of the wall surrounding the dome on one side. “Okay, Teams Legion and Ninja go through there. Lianna, open one to the other side and take Team N3m3s1s with you over there.”

  “Alright sweethearts,” Achmed said. “You heard the man and you know the drill. Assholes and elbows.” Then without a second thought he charged into the portal I’d opened, his team following hot on his heels. In a surprising show of trust, Ai went through unquestioningly with her crew. At the same time, Lianna opened her portal and went in with Kiki’s group as I went with Kiki and Team Spice to the back of the dome. The moment everyone was through we closed the portals, just as the demons showed up.

  Showtime.

  Me: Everybody all set up there?

  Lianna: All ready.

  Me: Keep an eye on things, okay?

  Lianna: Don’t worry. I’ll use healing shots to keep people alive.

  Me: Thanks. Okay, you can let Dougie know he can blast the door. Good luck.

  Lianna: Same to you.

  When we heard the boom I created a head-sized hole in the dome’s wall, which Kiki stuck her head through. A sudden red glow flared from inside as she summoned a single huge flaming creature into the space.

  The double-whammy of the door exploding and the Efreet appearing had the desired effect. Screams and shouts erupted from the Invictus and Droogs Players and they started shoving each other to get out. I heard Spice girls chuckling behind me when the first few of them who stampeded through the freshly-opened door tripped on Sonia’s trap and fell flat on their faces, only to be trampled by their teammates in their own haste to escape.

  As Kiki’s Efreet swept them toward the exit and into the waiting demons, I made the opening on our side bigger.

  “Thanks Kiks,” I said. “We’ll see you when we get back.”

  “Screw that,” she said, grabbing me. “I’m coming with you.”

  “Oh,” I said, trying not to think about how my arm had suddenly become sandwiched between two very soft objects. “Okay then.”

  Kiki held on to me as our group rushed inside and into the circle. “What’s that?” she said, pointing to a wide hole in the floor off to one side of the dome.

  “Looks like someone was trying to tunnel out,” Tiff said.

  “Oh good,” I said.

  “How’s that good exactly?”

  “At least now we know how they were planning to escape,” I said.

  I couldn’t see outside with the Efreet blocking the door to prevent the Players from retreating back inside the dome, but I could hear them scrambling to fight the demons in the courtyard beyond.

  “Wow Kiks,” I said. “Looks like your plan’s working.”

  “You don’t have to sound so surprised,” she snapped instinctively, then she reached up with one hand to twirl a finger in her pigtail while the other still clutched my arm. “Uh, I mean, thanks, I guess,” she added in a much softer tone.

  “Everyone in the circle?” I said. “Right, let’s go.”

  In the split second before I triggered our teleportation to the labyrinth, I saw Troy’s head poke up out of the hole in the floor. Of course, with his Earth affinity he’d be the one digging the escape tunnel. Shame he hadn’t thought of using his abilities to simply affect the wall like I had.

  I gave the hapless Invictus leader a little wave with my free hand before we twinkled away, immensely pleased with the horrified look on his face.

  Kiki was laughing and still clinging to my arm as we appeared in the Light Dungeon’s teleportation circle. She’d clearly seen his look too.