A/N: I just realized that I was calling Lok Lambert, Lor. Heh, Freudian slip. Sorry. I meant Lok. Thank you, Cuerebel, for pointing that out. :)


The Titan, Book Two: Blueprints for Perfection

Prologue

After three months, DeFoe was finally beginning to find his place in the Huntik Foundation. And it was about time. Thanks to Dr. Reese, the Professor's amulets had been removed and DeFoe had been thoroughly patched up. For a while, he wondered if he would ever make any progress in his new home, but when Guggenheim returned his first amulet, it provided a little assurance that he would eventually find equilibrium.

Today was his first time summoning Kreutalk since the Foundation had stolen DeFoe's amulets. Guggenheim and Dante Vale had accompanied him to the wide, empty gym. They stood twenty or so feet away, watching, waiting for DeFoe to summon his titan.

"Emerge, Kreutalk!" Defoe held the amulet above his head, but no titan emerged. The amulet didn't even glow. DeFoe lowered it for inspection.

"You didn't do anything to it, did you, Guggenheim?" he asked.

Guggenheim shook his head, looking just as confused. "I swear on my life," he replied. "I would never harm a titan."

"Not even one that belongs to you," Dante added. Guggenheim gave Vale a look.

DeFoe turned his attention to his rival. "I wouldn't put it past you to tamper with it."

"That hurts, DeFoe," Dante said with a hand on his chest. "That really hurts. What kind of agent would do something like that? If Guggenheim wanted to keep you from using your amulets, he wouldn't have returned them."

"You have a point," DeFoe muttered, returning his attention to Kreutalk's amulet, though he couldn't shake his suspicion of foul play. The amulet still remained unresponsive. But it was more than that. It felt empty: not dead, but as if nothing had ever lived there. As though it were nothing but a piece of jewelry.

"Do you notice something, DeFoe?" Guggenheim asked, walking towards him.

DeFoe adjusted his glasses and turned the amulet over in his hands. "I can't feel Kreutalk's presence," he replied, though he sounded uncertain. "Might he could have left…somehow? Traveled away to take up residence in something else?"

"Maybe you absorbed him?" Dante teased, raising his eyebrows.

DeFoe and Guggenheim frowned.

"What?" Dante asked, still smiling. "Too soon?"

"Too soon," Guggenheim replied.

"Completely unprofessional, you twit," Defoe added.

"Fine, fine," Dante said, his hands up in surrender. "In all seriousness, DeFoe, you know titans can't be transferred, and they especially never transfer themselves. Maybe if you broke an amulet, somehow protected the titan inside, and created another amulet, summoning it, like new, to that one…maybe it could change amulets. But, as you can see, Kreutalk's amulet is in tact."

"And I can feel Kreutalk's energy field from way over here," said Lok. Everyone turned and saw him and Sophie enter from the far door. "Maybe you're just not summoning him correctly."

DeFoe coughed a laugh. "Right. Thank you, Lok, for your wisdom. Clearly, you know more about titans than I do. You've been at this, what? Six months? I've been a seeker for ten years. Do you hear me? Ten years! So don't presume to tell me I'm summoning Kreutalk wrong."

"All I'm saying," Lok continued, "is that if the Professor did to me what he did to you, my summoning abilities would be messed up, too."

"My abilities are not messed up," DeFoe said, covering the amulet in his hands. "I practically invented the technique, and no amount of… ehem… anything… could make me forget how to use it."

"Technique is only part of it," Sophie added. "There's a lot of will involved."

"I know that, little girl."

Sophie scowled. "You're not great at making friends, are you?"

"Are you insinuating that I don't have the will to summon my oldest titan?" DeFoe barreled on. "That I'm weak? Afraid?"

Sophie didn't answer. DeFoe looked wildly around, but the other three were silent.

Then Guggenheim spoke up. "There is no shame in having to back track after a traumatic experience."

"I am fine, sir. Better than fine, actually."

"As much as I'd like to believe that, the fact remains that you were unable to summon your titan," Guggenheim continued gently. He paused to look at DeFoe. DeFoe carefully opened his hands and peered at his precious amulet. "So either you have some…uh…techniques to relearn, or we must consider the possibility that, for whatever reason, Kreutalk no longer answers to you."