Thunder grumbled across the clouded sky, lightning arcing violently in the heavens. Stan blinked at the clouds churning overhead.
When had they escaped the underground?
The cold chill of dewy grass soaked into the back of his head, dampening his hair and the nape of his neck. His blue-and-white battle gear shivered around him.
He lay on his back in a field, the air cold and heavy with the promise of rain.
Slowly, he sat up, clutching his chest in anticipation of the hollow ache that had taken up residence there in the last few hours. But there was nothing. It didn’t hurt.
He poked at the shining plate of armor, and it felt solid under his finger.
Strange.
The field of grasses stretched out around him in every direction to where it met the clouded skies in the far distance, a dark seam on the horizon.
This wasn’t Washington DC.
And it wasn’t San Francisco.
“Blimey. Where am I?” Stan’s voice echoed strangely in the chilly, humid air.
He shifted to get his feet beneath him, and he stood. Gooseflesh raised on the skin of his neck. If his arms had been in the open, they would have been the same.
Something was very wrong.
Come on, Mia. Answer your phone.
Stan whirled as Ryan’s voice invaded his thoughts, half expecting the Reishosan’s leader to be standing right behind him. But there was nothing—just grass and ominous clouds.
“Ryan?” Stan scanned the hazy distance for his older friend.
Please be all right. Please.
Ryan’s voice sounded far away. Tinny and broken. As though they were connected through a bad phone line.
He took a step. The ground felt solid under his feet, but the world seemed to whirl and spin around him. Vertigo claimed his senses as the whole field tilted and turned upside down.
Ronnie’s voice echoed somewhere around him. Armorlink should work, but I don’t know how. Maybe the radio? But they have to answer, and they ain’t answering.
“Ronnie, I’m here!” Stan shouted, dropping to his knees and desperately fighting the urge to vomit.
His stomach was trying to crawl up his throat.
“Talk to me!”
Ronnie’s voice faded away.
Stan peered through watery eyes. Had the grass always been that color? It had been green, he’d thought, but now it looked more—violet. As though it had been bruised.
My fault.
Stan’s stomach clenched.
My fault. My fault. My fault.
It was Karl. Karl’s voice rang in Stan’s ears, on repeat. Dark and gloomy and full of remorse.
I’m supposed to protect people. All I do is hurt them.
“Karl!” Stan forced his way to his feet again. “Karl, where are you?”
A violent clap of thunder erupted overhead, the force of it strong enough to knock Stan to his knees again. Lightning stabbed the earth, the bruised grasses shivering under the assault.
But you can’t even use your armor.
Sam’s voice hung in the thick air, the words laden with self-loathing and rage. Each syllable struck like a hammer blow. You couldn’t save her then. You can’t save anyone now.
Stan lifted his head, and his heart dropped to his feet.
“Sam?”
Hinode stood before him, vibrant green armor shimmering with an unearthly light, caged in a glass box. The armor beat against the glass walls with glowing hands, every time his fists connected sending lighting exploding across the field.
Until the glass cage shattered.
It rained in a million shimmering fragments, the bruised grass beginning to shine green and pure and radiant. Hinode stepped out of its cage, a blade of pure lightning caught in his hand.
Hinode raised the lightning bolt in his hand over Stan’s head. The light from the blade flashed inside the armor’s empty helmet….

“Stan!” A fierce jolt shook through Stan’s body, and his eyes flew open.
Karl hovered before him, face wide with fear.
The world was blue.
Why was the world blue?
Stan blinked and gasped for breath, and his breath fogged up the visor that had lowered over his eyes. Kagami’s face-shield?
“Karl?” he whispered in a shaking voice.
“Dude.” Karl gripped his arms. “You scared me, man.”
The face-shield retracted, and the cold humid air of the underground pressed against his cheeks. They were still in the abandoned subway tunnels. They hadn’t escaped. And Stan was cross-legged on the cold cement floor.
“What happened?” Stan asked.
Karl knelt. “I don’t know.” He released Stan’s arms. “You said you were going to sit down and rest for a minute, and then you just—passed out.”
“I passed out?”
Karl nodded. “Your face shield came down. And you went all rigid and stuff—and—”
“And what?”
“You were glowing.”
“I was glowing?”
“Dude, like a night light.”
Stan leaned forward and breathed deeply. He paused, and he breathed again. The hollow ache in his chest had disappeared completely. He pressed his hand against his chestplate.
“What?” Karl took his shoulder again. “Are you in pain?”
Stan blinked up at him. “No, mate. Actually—I’m not in pain at all.” He knocked on his chestplate. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Karl frowned. “Maybe—your armor needed you to sit down so it could heal you all the way?”
Stan stared at him.
“No, that’s stupid.” Karl glanced away.
“No.” Stan grabbed his arm. “No, mate, I think you’re right. I saw—something really odd.” He scowled. “You’re sure I was unconscious?”
“You were out, dude.” Karl offered him a hand.
Stan took it, and Karl pulled him to his feet.
“What did you see?” Karl cocked his head.
“Well—I saw—a big grassy field,” Stan said. “With a cloudy sky. And I heard—us.”
“Us?”
“I heard Ronnie and Ryan and—well, I heard you.”
Karl recoiled slightly, his worried expression turning almost blank. “What do you mean?”
“You’re still blaming yourself for the fight on the street.” Stan took his arm. “Aren’t you?”
Karl swallowed hard. “Well, it was my fault, Stan.”
“Karl.”
“Shut up.” Karl raised a hand. “We’ll have to talk about it later because the Old Man won’t let it go, so let’s just wait until then. All right?” Karl shook himself.
Stan patted his arm. “All right.”
“So you dreamed you were in a creepy field hearing creepy voices?”
“I saw something else.” Stan shivered. “I saw Hinode.”
Karl stilled. “You saw Sam?”
Stan met his eyes. “Not Sam. Hinode, Karl. I saw Hinode. It was empty, mate.”
“Was it just sitting?”
“No. It—had a sword made out of lightning. And it—I think it was going to attack me.”
Karl blinked at him. “I fed you chilidogs yesterday, didn’t I? Maybe we shouldn’t have chilidogs again.”
“Karl, I’m serious.”
“I am too, man. You’re seriously freaking me out.”
Stan pulled his helmet off and ran his hand through his sweaty hair. “Maybe it was just a dream.”
Karl hesitated. “Yeah. Yeah, a dream makes sense. Kagami needed to distract your big fish brain so it could stitch you back together again, so it made you dream something creepy and spooky and weird.”
“Aye, because that sounds like something Kagami would do.”
Karl swallowed hard again and glanced around. “Is it just me or is this place creepy?”
“It hasn’t changed.”
“So it’s just me.” Karl turned away and pointed down the nearest tunnel. “Near as I can figure, Fish Face, this place is one big circle. We can keep walking, but we’re just going to end up back where we started.”
Stan pulled his helmet back on. “What about an exit?”
“Haven’t found one yet.”
Karl stood with one hand on his hip and the other on the back of his helmet. He would never admit it out loud, but he was scared. That was the lion’s share of the problem. He could break any wall down, kick any door in, move any boulder.
But if Karl were scared to hurt someone, he wasn’t going to do it. He wouldn’t even try it. And if they couldn’t find an alternate way out, they’d just stay stuck until someone found them.
Electricity sparked from a loose wire in the wall, showering shimmering bits of light onto the dead rails. Stan’s mind shifted back to the image of Hinode bearing down on him with a sword made of lightning.
He teetered sideways and leaned on the wall.
“Stan?”
Karl was at his side in two steps.
“Stan, what is it?”
Stan pressed his back against the cold cement of the subway tunnel, gasping for breath.
“Something’s not right with Sam,” Stan gasped. “I can’t—I don’t know what it is, but something is wrong. I feel it.”
Karl chewed on his lower lip. “Can we do anything?”
Stan leaned his head back. “I don’t even know where he is.”
“But you know he’s in trouble?”
“Aye.” Stan’s eyes began to burn. “He’s not okay, Karl. He’s been having nightmares. He hasn’t been sleeping. He’s been withdrawing from all of us, and I’m scared—I’m scared he’s going to leave.”
“You’re paranoid, fish face. He ain’t going anywhere.” Karl didn’t sound convinced.
He pulled away and started walking toward the shadows again.
Stan pressed his lips together, his jaw trembling. “He doesn’t think we can win, Karl.”
Karl stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “Who? Lurch?”
“Aye.”
Karl scoffed. “Of course he doesn’t think we can win. He can’t win on his own, so why would he think we could win together?”
Eyes burning, tears threatening, Stan cleared his throat and tried to stand up on shaking knees. “What if he gives up, Karl? What if he—?”
“What if what?” Karl whirled on him. “Stan, what are you saying? You think Sam’s going to go bad?” He laughed. “Don’t be crazy. He’s a jerk, but he’s not—he’s not a—” Karl huffed. “He wouldn’t.”
“Karl.”
Karl held up a finger in Stan’s face. “Sam is a jerk, but he’s a hero, man. He’s a good guy.”
“Karl.”
“He is, okay?” Karl’s voice shook. “He’s had a rough week, and he didn’t want us to be here. And then we met his friend Gideon and I asked all those dumb questions, so of course he’s kind of pissed off. He’s always pissed off at me. That doesn’t mean he’s gonna turn into a warlord.”
Karl’s eyes widened.
“Right?”
Stan clenched his fists and met his friends eyes.
Karl stepped closer. “You don’t really think that, do you, Stan? Sam can’t turn into a bad guy, Stan, he can’t. We’d have to fight him, and I can’t fight him. I don’t want to. He’s my friend.”
“Karl, calm down.” Stan grabbed Karl’s elbows and shook him. “Stop. Just breathe, mate.”
Karl drew a shaking breath, one that hitched and stuttered until he reined his emotions in.
“I don’t know,” Stan said. “I don’t know what’s going on with Sam, but I know he needs help. He needs us. So—we need to find him. And we need to find Mia and the Doc and Gideon.”
A blur of white caught his eye, and Stan spun to follow it. Karl was moving too, hand on his shoulder.
“Wait.” Stan stopped him and pointed.
In the darkness behind a collapsed portion of tunnel, a huge figure crouched and stared at them with shimmering eyes.
Stan choked on a laugh. “Shiro?”
The giant white tiger slipped out of the shadows and regarded them with the feline equivalent of a smirk.
“Oh, mate.” Stan knelt and let the massive tiger approach before he buried his face in his fur. “I’m glad to see you.”
The tiger nudged the side of his head with his nose.
“Hey, pal.” Karl knelt on the other side and scratched the giant tiger’s head. “Man, took you long enough to show up!”
“He’s losing his touch.” Stan dashed away the single tear that had escaped before Karl saw it. “Usually he shows up just before trouble hits, not hours afterward.”
“The Brit’s right, fuzzball.” Karl smirked. “You’re falling down on the job.”
Shirotaro whuffed impatiently and headbutted Karl in the chestplate hard enough to knock him over. The huge tiger spun and smacked Karl across the face with his tail.
Stan shook his head and followed the tiger. “Come on, Karl.”
“What? We’re following him?”
“Aye.”
“Bad move.” Karl got up and brushed his armor off, but followed anyway. “He doesn’t know where he’s going. He shows up and things usually get worse, fish face. You notice that?”
“Hush.”
The huge white tiger jumped down from the platform onto the dead train rails, lumbering into the darkness without any hesitation. Stan jumped down with him and stayed on the animal’s heels.
Karl was right. Usually Shirotaro showed up in advance of a soldier attack, or he made an appearance just before something awful happened. Sam had started calling the animal a harbinger, which only Mia seemed to understand the meaning of.
Karl usually just demanded that they order a pizza since Shirotaro’s appearance meant the world was coming to an end, and he couldn’t fight the apocalypse on an empty stomach.
Shirotaro had been an inconsistent constant in all of their lives since the day Korin Sado had given them their armors. Shiro had tagged along with Korin for each of them, had witnessed each of them transforming for the first time.
Even now, whenever Shirotaro showed up, there was a fifty-fifty chance Korin would show up with him.
Not this time apparently.
Shirotaro reached a point in the subway tunnel that seemed to please him, and he sat down on his haunches. His massive head reached nearly to Stan’s shoulder, and his intelligent eyes sparkled in the shadows.
“What is it, Shiro?” Stan pressed his hand against the tunnel wall. “Is this a safe place to break through?”
Shiro grunted and stood, plodding down the tunnel to where Karl brought up the rear. The tiger seized Karl’s forearm in his huge mouth and pulled the orange-armored samurai along with him.
Shiro sat again and grunted, growling at the back of his throat.
“He’s kidding, right?” Karl glared at the huge tiger.
“I think he wants you to break through this part of the wall.” Stan brushed his fingers over the dusty, grimy square of cement.
Karl shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Come on, mate.” Stan took his place at Karl’s side. “This is the only way out of here.”
Karl shook his head. “I can’t bust any more walls down, Stan.”
“If Shiro’s right, you can.” Stan gripped his arms. “I promise, Karl. It won’t hurt anyone.”
Karl kept shaking his head.
“It’s either break down a wall, or we stay down here, Karl.” Stan bent so that he could look up into his taller friend’s face. “If we stay down here, we can’t help Sam.”
Karl blew out his breath and shut his eyes. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
Stan stepped back. “Like what, mate?”
“Scary.”
Stan laughed wryly. “I know what you mean.”
Karl shifted as Shirotaro wrapped around his legs, resting his huge furry head against Karl’s stomach. Karl hesitated but rested his hands on the tiger’s ears.
“Are you sure, man?”
Shiro whuffed.
“You’re sure, you’re sure?”
Shirotaro made a strange whining noise and smacked Karl with his tail again.
“All right, all right.” Karl held up his hands. “I hope you’re right, dude.”
Stan stepped back and watched as Karl pressed his palms against the cement wall. He listened quietly for a moment before he rolled his head around his shoulders. He backed up a step and cracked the knuckles of his right hand.
Karl muttered something to himself that Stan couldn’t hear.
He reached back.
Shiren pulsed with a burst of energy, and Karl punched through the cement wall as though it were made of nothing but paper.
Stan held his breath.
Karl didn’t move.
They waited in silence to hear if the tunnel was going to collapse further, but nothing happened. Karl barked a laugh and pulled his fist back. He gripped the edges of the hole he’d made and tore the concrete backward.
He punched a few more times and tore some other areas of the wall away, but before long he’d cleared a person-sized hole in the tunnel wall.
“What do you know?” He glanced back at Shirotaro with a big grin. “Fuzzball knows best.”
Shirotaro smacked him with his tail again as he ducked through the hole in the wall. Karl smirked at Stan and bowed. “After you, Sir Fish Face.”
Stan rolled his eyes and crawled through the hole to the tunnel on the other side. The other tunnel was just as dark, although it had a few electric lights shining ahead of them.
Karl appeared behind him, and they continued down the tunnel together.
“Any idea where we are?” Karl asked.
“Not one.” Stan narrowed his eyes to where Shirotaro had disappeared into the shadows in the distance. “But at least Shiro knows where he’s going.”
A distant rumbling stopped him from continuing, and Stan turned around to peer into the darkness behind them. Far away, a single light pierced the shadows, and a wailing horn reverberated in the tunnel.
“Is that a—”
“—a train.” Stan gasped and turned. “Run, Karl!”
“Aw, man!”
Stan bolted ahead, jumping over the electrified rails. Karl stumbled behind him, uttering a high-pitched scream of terror as he ran.
They caught up with Shirotaro who galloped in front of them and then darted to the side and leaped onto the platform.
“Follow the tiger!” Karl pointed.
The train behind them had caught up, rumbling and clanking with deafening noise. Stan ran harder, pushed his shaking legs to go faster, and he spotted the edge of the platform ahead of them.
He gathered his strength and jumped.
The instant he was in the air, Kagami shivered, and the face-shield lowered in his helmet. It so distracted him that he missed the landing and struck the tiled platform with his knees, rolling end over end and crashing through carts and kiosks and benches.
Stan shook himself as the world stopped spinning. He was on his face in a white-tiled subway platform, and people were screaming. Cameras were flashing. Whistles were blowing.
People?
Stan jerked his head up just as a camera flash went off in his vision.
Oh, buttons.
The platform was full of people, now all panicking and shrieking as a huge white tiger and two freaks in samurai armor suddenly burst out of the metro tunnel.
Had Kagami known there were people on the platform? And that was why it had lowered his face-shield?
Next time give me a warning, mate.
Kagami issued a series of cheerful chirps and beeps in Stan’s earpiece.
Blimey.
Thunk-clank-crash! Karl slid to a stop next to him, Shiren shining in the harsh fluorescents of the station.
“Dude, we’re gonna be on TV!” Karl hauled Stan up next to him.
Stan glanced at him, and Karl’s face-shield was down as well. Shiren had apparently been thinking ahead as well.
“Come on, mate.” Stan turned around looking for the way out. “Elevator shaft.” He pointed.
“I gave them a hero pose!” Karl thumped his chest as another round of camera flashes fired off.
“Oh buttons.”
Shirotaro skidded to a stop in front of them and released an ear-splitting roar, showing all his many massive teeth and wrinkling his huge face up in a terrifying expression.
The people on the platform scattered in fear.
But the police officers were running at them now.
“Elevator!” Stan yelped and bolted for the automated doors at the other end of the platform.
Karl reached them alongside him and wrenched the doors open as though they weren’t reinforced steel.
Stan leaped into the shaft and started climbing. Karl was right behind him.
“Get to the surface,” Stan called back. “And we’ll find Gideon and the Doc and Mia, and maybe we’ll be able to figure out what’s happening.”
“Right behind you, Fish Face.”