“Wait, I am confused. Another support?” Candace asked me, after the whole nightmare of coming back to the academy, endless questions about the kidnapping I had to mostly dodge with creative half-truths, and some paperwork affirming eyewitness accounts of a supervillain, Magazine, associating in a criminal enterprise with Baelfire, identity unknown. The bureaucracy was more exhausting than the kidnapping.

  I nodded to her. Most of the others were out. “Yep. Sabrina, this is Candace. Candace, this is Sabrina. I am going to put her on the suite system to complete her academic screening and assign her to the last room. She can meet the others when they get back from class, but I plan on getting in a workout in my secret garden.” I needed to soak up some radiation and process the fact that my life had gotten even weirder.

  Her nose wrinkled. “Secret garden? Really? You make a sewage tunnel sound pornographic. Hi Sabrina. No offense, but don’t we like… get a vote or something?” She crossed her arms, the picture of skeptical aerokinetic solidarity.

  Sabrina looked at Candace with genuine, artless confusion, “I’m sorry if my presence bothers you. Are you his lover? We aren’t having sex.”

  Candace coughed, loudly, a gust of wind rattling the window. “No… no… I just… this team is brand new, and we are still learning to rely on each other. I just don’t know what the power dynamic is supposed to be. Most teams are led by their primary anchor, which is me, but in this case, the secondary anchor is leading. Her name is Mindy.”

  I sighed. “Okay, I need a team, but not to put too fine a point on it, Mindy is lead, but I have to do what I feel is right for the team. Sabrina is more valuable as a support than you can possibly imagine, so I had to make a unilateral decision. I don’t mean to be harsh, but you do have a choice. I would hate to find another anchor, but if you force me to do so, I will.” The words came out colder than I intended, but this was a negotiation. You don’t bring a breeze to a power-play fight.

  Candace sat down heavily. “I am not threatening anything, I am just wondering what the hell makes her so special that you just completely blow off the opinion of the rest of the team without even talking to us about it.”

  I looked at Sabrina, “Would you like to explain it, or should I? It involves your… cultural background.”

  Sabrina sighed, “I have sort of an idea, but you ran with it much farther than I expected, so I just went with the flow. Umm… I am an alchemist. Where I come from, that’s considered a valuable thing, although it is less so here because most people don’t know what that really means.”

  Candace nodded, “Potion chucker? You make bombs? Kind of cool. I guess we could use more area effect attacks if we get into another invasion or monster siege situation.”

  She shook her head, “Not that kind of alchemist. More like the pill and potion-making kind.”

  “Like healing potions? That’s amazing, but we already have a team healer… everyone will try to poach you and just say it’s fair.”

  Sabrina looked at me helplessly, and I nodded. Time to play the trump card. “Okay, remember my problem? The big, energy-related, constantly-hungry, might-fall-into-a-coma problem?”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Candace nodded, “Wait, did you like fall in love with her? In two days?” She was stuck on the romance angle. Typical.

  I growled, “Not that problem, the power problem. Dammit, if I could spank you, I would.”

  She smiled a little, “Promise?” and then nodded, “Yes. The big one.”

  “Well, Sabrina knows how to get around it… helped me get around it. She’s like… a superhero therapist. With the right tools and ingredients, she can expand almost anyone’s powers, and the healing potions, and temporary buffs, and a ton of other things I can’t understand.”

  Sabrina nodded, “Power Therapist is a good title. I could help expand your power core, and if you agree, there’s a chance we could disconnect you from the chaos realm and help you reconnect with your guide.”

  “My what?”

  “Your guide… the spirit wind over the mountain? He is very unhappy that you are tapped into the chaos rift instead of drawing on your spirit energy. You could be a powerful shaman, but you are linked into the destructive energies of the rift, and he is not happy with you using it to support the gifts he’s given you.”

  I looked at Sabrina askance. This was new, even for my weird life. Candace, however, paled, her bravado vanishing. “What? What? You can talk to spirit guides?”

  She shook her head, “No, but I can analyze your aura, and right now, it’s charged with Chaos essence… your guide cannot get in, and he’s projecting unhappiness at you using your affinities, the song of the south wind and the strength of immortality, in order to become a basic thug instead of the powerful spirit warrior he hoped you would become. It should be possible, with time and a lot of work, to sever your connection to the outer darkness and allow his energy back inside as your people need.”

  “Wait,” I said, cutting in. “Are we talking about cultivation? For her?”

  She nodded, “Yes, she has a powerful spirit hawk bloodline. If we can find the right materials for a bloodline awakening pill, probably the seven heaven blue yin-yang pill, it could purge the chaotic essence and allow her to reconnect with her true bloodline’s energy. But, I don't know if you would call it cultivation, really, more like avatar empowerment.”

  Candace looked a little breathless, “Seriously? You sound like my grandfather.”

  Sabrina smiled, “Your grandfather most likely carried the bloodline. I think Chaos awakens most alphas because it is so prevalent, but magic is in the air of this world now… She would have to be cleansed, but she should be able connect to her true power, and her advancement would not be blocked like it is now.”

  “What do you mean, blocked?” Candace asked.

  Sabrina shrugged, “You are using a sort of energy that is antithetical to life. It is natural, but so is feces; that doesn’t mean you should eat it. It chokes this world because of the Q-bombs years ago, chokes it to the point where some natural processes, like radio waves, cannot even cut through it anymore. It’s like living in a wasteland of radioactive fallout, but all of the alphas are eating radioactive food because it’s EVERYWHERE. It won’t kill you immediately, but it does corrupt you and the world itself, and it chokes off your ability to advance towards your eventual natural stabilization point, or even immortality and ascension.”

  Candace nodded slowly, her expression shifting from skepticism to awe. She then looked at me. “Okay, she’s convinced me, you have my vote.”

  I chuckled. I didn’t think I needed her approval, but it was nice to have. “I will bear that in mind.” Technically, the only approval I needed was Mindy’s, but at this point, Candace, Akyo, and Abigail’s approval stood fair to make the team run a whole lot smoother.

  Six people. Four active and two support. I was planning to get a non-alpha into that sixth slot, which was the maximum team size for competition, and maybe hopefully another guy, so it wasn’t quite as choked with estrogen, but each of my new teammates filled a valuable role. And if, as Sabrina claimed, the ether energy that most alphas used was indeed as horrible as we thought, then this new team had a secret mission that might be needed to save the entire world from its own superpowered indigestion.

  No pressure. It must be a Tuesday.