Gi sighed happily as she felt familiar hands rubbing her shoulders. "Mm. Good timing. I was just getting annoyed, and needed something relaxing and enjoyable to come in and say hello."

"Glad to have job security." Kwame chuckled, putting a kiss on the top of her head. "What's annoying you?"

"Congressman Damon, from the great state of Missouri. He resigned his post this morning."

"Well… that was the goal, right? He was crooked, making people sick, destroying the groundwater? Isn't that good news?"

"It would be, if he had resigned because of our video. Instead, he quit because he was given another job offer."

"Private Sector?"

"The EPA." Gi drawled.

"What!?"

"Seems they need some new staff, and since he just became available, they figured he was the kind of forward-thinking person who should decide environmental policy." Gi held out her tablet computer. "Y'know, not one of those environmental fanatics who keep trying to-"

"Say no more." Kwame sighed. "Ma-Ti left for the Crystal Cave; but I don't think he'll find an answer there, any more than he would here with us."

Gi nodded, somber. "My parents? I told them about the new players. They're pleased. They think if there are other, more powerful Planeteers out there, then the focus and the reprisals may take aim at them from now on. They figure that if their daughter isn't as important, she'll live longer."

"You've been shot once already, love." Kwame held her from behind. "I admit, I'd love to think they're our reinforcements, but…"

"It just doesn't feel like good news." Gi nodded. "I agree. Forgive the Star Wars moment, but I have a bad feeling about this." She shook her head. "I need lunch. You want anything?"

"Not right now. I'll wait and see if Ma-Ti checks in."

Something had definitely changed. Wheeler wasn't sure what, but it felt like something fundamental had shifted. He and Linka were making lunch, just like they had done a thousand times before. But she was standing closer to him now, fingers brushing against his.

"So, I was thinking." She said finally. "We've probably got a day or so before we decide what to do about the Competition. Maybe we should talk."

"About what?" Wheeler asked, still slicing bread. "You want to run down the list again?"

"The mission list? No, not right now." She shook her head. "I mean, it'll still be there in the morning."

"Who are you and what have you done with Linka?" Wheeler quipped. "What did you want to talk about, then?"

"Us." Linka said calmly.

Wheeler nearly cut off a finger, the knife clattering to the floor. "Um… what?"

Linka smirked, triumphant. "Yes." She said gamely. "I admit, I've been pretty cagey about things, and there's no prize for guessing why."

"I don't blame you for not trusting my intentions, here." Wheeler said, and his tone caught her off guard. He was talking like he was picking her up for a prom date and trying to impress her father. "I think you know I don't mean anything wrong by it."

And for the first time, Linka played it up, instead of brushing it off, moving deliberately closer to him. "Wrong? No. But I'd be annoyed if you didn't plan to be at least a little… unwholesome."

Wheeler's eyes went dark. His pupils had grown huge in his eyes. "Link-a-a." He managed to draw her name over three syllables. "Every step of the way, you've been discouraging this."

"I know." Linka moved closer still, closing in on his lips. "And I don't even remember why anymore."

"Because you figured I was a complete man-slut?" Wheeler actually stepped back.

"That's right." Linka breathed, giving chase. "Now I'm thinking I was wrong. Now I'm thinking we should just see what happens."

They were so close now that Wheeler licked his lips, and actually had to lean back to avoid licking hers too. "We don't have to… here, I mean. We can do this the right way. Dinner?"

"We're making lunch." Linka pointed out softly. "You sure you want to wait until dinner?"

"Well, I don't want to be- what was the word? Unwholesome?"

"You'd prefer… Unseemly?" Linka smoldered. "Immoral? Salacious? Scandalous? Dirty?"

"Oh, heaven help me." Wheeler gave in and their lips met explosively.

Linka felt his heartbeat pounding against her own chest, and her own racing to meet it. His hands were pulling her tightly against him, and her fingers were clawing into his bright red hair. Linka knew she should breathe, but didn't care. The kitchen was filling with gusts of wind, and licks of flame were dancing over the countertops as she practically tried to climb him like a jungle gym. It was electric, and savage, and mindless, and-

"So, what's for lun-OH!"

The two of them broke apart as though Gi's entrance had actually poured a bucket of water over them. Linka put a hand to her mouth, blushing furiously. Wheeler took three large steps back.

Gi was smiling so widely that it seemed to stretch her face. "You know what? I'm not that hungry. Carry on!"

Gi was gone in an instant. The mood was broken somewhat, but by no means dead. Linka looked to Wheeler, and found that he had hurried back to the opposite end of the kitchenette, breathing hard. "Well. That was…"

Linka was breathing hard too. "Yeah. Really was."

"I mean, if Gi hadn't come in when she did…" Wheeler was holding onto the bench with both hands, as though he'd just run a marathon. "... I mean, who knows what might have happened?"

"I have a pretty good idea, actually." Linka breathed. It took her a moment to realize she was smiling, and then another moment to realize he wasn't. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He said immediately. So fast that it was clear he didn't mean it.

"You didn't like it." She was horrified.

"Linka, I loved every searing second of it." He assured her. "That's the problem. I want to do this right."

"Well, I think we were doing fine so far…" Linka almost laughed. He's blushing? Is that seriously happening right now? "I mean, I'm no expert, but-"

"I know you aren't." Wheeler said respectfully. "That's why I want to-"

"What do you mean, 'you know'?" Linka caught him suddenly, frowning. Something's not right here. Something has happened.

Wheeler winced. "Look, I know you won't want to talk about this, but Alana sort of told me that you didn't have a lot of experience w-"

"Alana?!" Linka grated. "My grandmother told you this? So you decided to be all 'patient and respectful'? When did this conversation happen?!"

"Well, um- about twenty minutes ago, actually."

"WHAT!?" Linka raged, suddenly explosive. "Because she had a similar chat with me about ten minutes later!"

"WHAAAAT?!" Wheeler snapped, suddenly furious. The pot of water beside Linka promptly burst into a fast boil. "Wait! Is that what this was about?! You have one conversation with Alana, and suddenly you decide to 'see what happens'? What, did she give you permiss- What the hell am I saying? It's you! She told you to not to, didn't she?! She told you never to let anything happen with me, and you promptly marched over and threw yourself at me precisely because Alana told you not to!"

Linka flushed bright pink. That was exactly what happened. "Yeah, well… If something was actually going to happen on its own, it would have by now!"

Wheeler jerked like he'd been slapped. "Yes." He said seriously. No quips, just straight up sincerity.

"Yes." Linka said back, rage suddenly gone, equally honest. "I'm sorry. This was a mistake."

"I guess it was." Wheeler agreed, and stalked out.

Alana and Ruby were tending their garden, when Gi came along, almost skipping down the beach with a stupidly wide grin on her face.

Alana raised an eyebrow, looking the question to her without so much as speaking aloud. Gi nodded, and Alana let out a satisfied chuckle. "Less than half an hour. They were just looking for an excuse, weren't they?"

Gi giggled. "What did you-" She fell silent as Wheeler stormed past her like he was marching to war. Ruby scampered back a bit when he walked up to Alana and got right in her face, eyes flashing. The space around him was hot enough that she could see the air quiver. For a split second, Alana was honestly scared.

"Gi." Wheeler said, eyes still locked on the older woman. "Take a walk."

Gi turned on her heel and almost ran away.

"You thought you were helping, but what you were doing was manipulating, and no good can come of that." Wheeler said, downright lethal. "As Linka, oh so correctly pointed out, if something was going to happen, a year is long enough to know it. I'm betting that was what you told her, yes?"

Alana considered her options, and finally settled on surrender. "Yes. I said those words to her exactly."

Wheeler gave her a single nod. "Alana, do me a favor and don't talk to me again for a while. Maybe a long while. And if you ever try anything like that again, I will see to it that everything you eat is cooked flambe style." He turned to go, hesitated, and then looked back. "Linka never trusted me, even if she liked me. Trying to manoeuvre her was only going to make it worse. If you don't get that, then you don't deserve to be her family."

He stalked off, and didn't even register as Linka strode up to take his place. She'd heard the whole thing. Linka and Alana stared at each other for a long moment.

"Well go on, it's your turn." Alana told her granddaughter finally.

"No, I don't think I can improve on that last part." Linka said, unreadable. "Wheeler's never had a parent butting into his life. His mother died too soon, and his father gone too long. He doesn't understand this particular form of… love. Telling him that I was insecure wasn't going to make him more certain of where he stood with me. If you thought that it would, then you don't deserve him either."

Linka turned to walk away, when Alana's voice called her back. "I didn't expect you to… well, pounce like that; and so soon."

"You said yourself that we're too volatile." Linka reminded her without turning.

"True, but I can't help but notice that both of you are more concerned about what I said to the other, rather than yourselves."

"Stop." Linka said softly, beyond the strength to keep arguing. "Just stop, please?"

Alana fell silent. Hiding behind her hip, Ruby was crying softly. Alana looked a hundred years older. "I'm sorry."

Linka nodded and walked away.

Gi answered almost immediately when Linka knocked on her door. "Are you okay?"

Linka shook her head. "I need advice."

Gi dragged her inside. "Girl talk!" She said brightly. "I was starting to think we'd never get here."

Kwame came by and found Wheeler on the beach, staring out at the ocean. "Everything okay?"

Wheeler shrugged. "Not the time for it, with everything else going on."

"Something I learned from dating Gi while doing this job: There's never a good time." Kwame reasoned. "You and Linka had another fight? Because that's kind of what you do."

"This was worse than a fight, Kwame." Wheeler sighed. "We agreed, politely. I almost wish she'd taken a swing at me, but this time we did everything but shake hands on it."

Linka managed to get the whole story out, in embarrassing detail.

"It's what parents do." Gi offered. "You should have heard the sort of thing my father came up with on the night of my first date."

"I know she didn't do it to have a laugh at our expense." Linka shook her head. "She wanted us to get past this… insufferable stalemate."

"We all want you to get past this insufferable stalemate, Linka." Gi counselled. "It was funny for a few weeks, and a little bit sexy for the first few months, but after Kwame and I sorted ourselves out and got together, we just started feeling bad for you."

"If I'm honest, I'm sick of it too. We went further today than we have before." Linka admitted. "And we got our answer. If there was a chance, we let it go by."

"Didn't seem that way to me." Gi observed.

"Gi, that's the point. It took my grandmother telling me not to go for it. So what do I do? I charge." Linka shook her head. "We're past the point of a fling, or a one night stand. If it was just that, we would have done something about it months ago. I can't live happily ever after just because someone dared me not to. That's not real. And now we both know it."

Gi let out a hard sigh. "That man adores you."

Linka nodded. "And I him. But we both know that's not enough."

Gi shook her head. "You finally admit it, now that you've both decided there's no chance?"

"Yes; because it turns out that's the easy part." Linka actually smiled a little. "I guess you all got your wish. The stalemate is over."

"This is not what we were wishing for at all." Gi shook her head, looking very unhappy.

Linka regarded her. "You want to hug me now, don't you?"

"Yes." Gi said solemnly.

Linka sighed and held her arms apart. Gi didn't hesitate to wrap her friend up in a tight hug. "When I walked in on you two, I was just so happy for you."

"I know. And if I'm honest, I was pretty happy about it too, at the time." Linka admitted. "Gi… It's no secret that I have abandonment issues. I saw my own parents once a decade, before all of you, and this mission started with me walking away from my grandmother when things were getting hard on the farm, and flat out prying a sobbing little orphan girl out of my arms. Wheeler's first impression when it comes to women…"

"I get that, but I daresay we're past that now." Gi gave her a pointed look. "And even when you weren't, you liked him a lot more than you let on."

"I just told you what my issues are, Gi. None of them are Wheeler's fault, but as long as I have that particular raw nerve, I'll never be able to just… Be honest. Wheeler and I have that in common. We're not looking for love. We need something else to be happy."

"I know." Gi said forgivingly, still hugging her tight.

Halfway across the island, Kwame and Wheeler were having the same conversation.

"Loving Linka was never the issue. That feeling's been mutual for a while. But that's not what's lacking… It's no secret that I have a problem with Commitment." Wheeler told Kwame. "The things I do choose to stick with, I go all the way. But in my life, there have only been two things. My brother, and the Planeteers. My mom couldn't stick with us over her drugs, my dad chose a war over us when she died, my best friend in college got me kicked out over hot cash… To say nothing of exes who sell photos. When I decide to stick with something, I ride or die."

"Is Linka on that list?" Kwame asked.

"I wanted her to be." Wheeler admitted. "But she's not. Because she'll start hedging her bets the second she gets nervous, and if we tried to make something real, it'll be uncertain at first. She'll never trust me to Ride or Die, and until she does; I don't think I'll be able to put her on that list and just… be sure." He shook his head.

"So where does that leave us?"

"So who blinks first?" Gi asked.

"Neither of us, Gi; that's the point." Linka told her. "Wheeler and I are the Hard Luck Cases. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. He knows that as well as I do."

Gi was about to say something, when Ma-Ti spoke in their minds. "Everyone to the Communications Tent. There's something you need to see."

"They've been playing it over and over for the last ten minutes." Ma-Ti reported.

Gi came in and looked at the screen. "Is that…"

"Sure looks like him." Wheeler confirmed, right behind her.

On the screen were five familiar figures. Four of them were the Gauntleted people in masks that they had met in an underground cavern. The fifth was a face that they had splashed on a screen themselves.

"This man is Congressman Damon, of Missouri." The scrawled voice of Gauntlet-Green declared. "Recently, this man was uncovered by the Planeteers as being guilty of corruption. He accepted bribes, and was unconcerned with the harm done to the planet, because he was thirsty for the blood money. The Planeteers exposed this deceit… and his masters rewarded him with promotion."

Damon made his move, shouting to the camera. "We're at the-"

Gauntlet-Blue kicked him in the head.

"When you have a cancer, you don't treat it with politeness." Gauntlet-Green declared. "The Planeteers thought that the human race would step up, be made worthy of their place on this planet. They were wrong. What they got instead was celebrity, and scandal, and attention. Let this stand now as our own Notice of Intent. We're Team Gauntlet. You will not see our faces. You will not learn our names. We aren't here to pose for photographs. We don't require your assent, or your permission. The Planeteers are a half measure, and when you're fighting for the ultimate prize, there is no room for half measures."

Gauntlet-Green gestured to Gauntlet-Blue, who stepped over to their prisoner and hauled him to the middle of the picture, in full view.

"Please…" Damon whispered, pleading. "I'm sorry! I won't ever… Please!"

Unconcerned, Gauntlet-Green made a casual gesture, and the ground beneath Damon parted. The man fell into a crack in the earth that was exactly as wide as he was.

Damon was screaming for mercy, as every inch of the ground closed in on him, a lot slower than it needed to. It was a cruel, slow execution, televised live.

"How did they put that on the air?" Wheeler asked, hushed.

"That's what you're asking?" Gi looked at him in disbelief.

"I am, actually. TV Networks have legal standards of what they can broadcast." Wheeler explained. "A straight up execution? How'd they get that splashed out to the world?"

"I got a better question." JJ put in. "Why are the newscasters smiling?"

That got everyone's attention, and they turned back to the screen. Sure enough, the newscasters were looking pretty pleased.

"Well, this surprising turn of events is certainly unexpected."

"Right you are, Dan. I have to admit, when I heard that the Planeteers had exposed Barton's bribery scandal, I thought that would be the end of it. Good to know that there's someone who can carry that torch further."

"As yet, there has been no official statement from the Justice Department, but sources close to the Bribery Investigation agree that this was pretty much the only way to make sure he didn't do it again."

"Well, that's… weird." Linka commented profoundly. "Are they... approving?"

"Find Gauntlet." Kwame told Gi. "If Karen doesn't know where the clip was sent from, find something else. This is the first time they've spoken. The world knows about them now."

"What do we tell Karen?" Linka asked. "People are going to want to know how we're reacting to a new group of people like us."

"Tell her to call our Agent." Kwame brushed that off. "Top priority is finding out where Gauntlet is."

Wheeler looked the question to Gi. Gi shook her head slightly. Kwame's on a mission to avenge his old friend. But he's not vengeful. He's afraid.

Everyone had their assignments and went to work. Once they were alone, Gi reached out and caught Kwame's hand. "Kwame." She said quietly. "Losing Matali would make you angry, but you aren't angry. Admittedly, it's hard to tell with you, but I think I'm right, speaking as your girlfriend. And you were right: If there was an intent to hurt us, they would have actually forced the fight. So why are you so scared?"

Silence.

"What if the statement is true?" Kwame whispered. "Ma-Ti can't get Gaia to answer him. What if she's decided we aren't enough?"

"We always knew we weren't enough." Gi offered. "That's why we were so busy on trying to organize the Foundation, the Power is Yours Campaigns…"

"Have you seen the breakdown on the latest campaign? Nobody cares anymore. I don't know when it happened, but at a time when the most people were doing something, hope was declared dead in the water."

Gi's lip twitched. "In the water?"

Kwame rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean." He bit his lip. "If they are… our replacements…"

"Kwame, our powers still work. We aren't benched. I don't know who Team Gauntlet is, but I don't believe they're from Gaia."

Kwame let out a sigh. "I hope you're right… But either way, we have to find out. And the only way to ask that is to ask them."

"Then I'd better get to work." Gi said, before she kissed the hand she was holding, and let him go. "Now shoo, I have crunching to do."

Ma-Ti had walked the length of Hope Island and found his way to the Cave. It hadn't changed in the year since their mission had begun. The low cave was streaked with opal, and in the centre was a shimmering pool of water, reflecting the opal light like stars.

Wheeler had warned Ma-Ti against drawing on his power too deeply. Wheeler had made the point that Ma-Ti was showing some of the classic signs of addiction, and Ma-Ti had admitted that his friend was right. At the time, Ma-Ti had largely ignored those warnings, assuming that Wheeler didn't really understand. Ma-Ti's power connected him to the life force, including his own. Addictions were dangerous, but Ma-Ti was plugged into the same energy that was already inside him. How could more of your own self be harmful?

But then the Planeteers had been captured, and their Rings taken from them. Ma-Ti had completely imploded. A few months after, Ma-Ti had given up his power voluntarily, as a way to try and atone for his misuse of his power. His family was still more afraid of him than not.

So Ma-Ti hadn't been opening himself to his sixth sense as much as he used to. For the most part, it hadn't made a difference on missions. But this wasn't a mission. This was a search. Ma-Ti could usually find an oasis in a desert, or a lost child in a wilderness.

So why couldn't he find Gaia, who should have been everywhere?

Life force flowed in much the same way energy did. From plants, to insects, to birds. From prey, to predators, to grass, to life again. The whole food web, the whole life cycle. There were places that shone with life, and others that did not, but on Hope Island, it was omnipresent.

Kwame came to the mouth of the cave, and found Ma-Ti sitting beside the water, looking troubled. "She isn't speaking to me, Kwame."

"She often doesn't." Kwame offered as he stepped into the cave and sat beside Ma-Ti. "It's been months since we heard from her last."

"She speaks when she has something we need to hear." Ma-Ti said. "Why didn't she warn us about this? About them?"

"I don't know." Kwame admitted.

Silence.

"She'd tell us, wouldn't she? If we had failed?" Ma-Ti bit his lip. "If she had decided we weren't enough? If she had decided to recruit a new team, she'd tell us?"

"If she recruited a new team, I believe the Rings would stop working." Kwame told his youngest teammate firmly. "This is something else."

"Then where is she?" Ma-Ti murmured. It wasn't fear in his voice, it was curiosity. "Kwame, I wish I could describe to you what it was like, to see the way I do. Everything that lives has the same signature, like an echo all singing a refrain of the same song."

"Poetic."

"Yes, except it's nothing like that at all." Ma-Ti said simply. "Everything that lives has one thing in common. It has life. It's like when you play a loud musical note, and then suddenly cut it off, and just for an instant, the air still hums with the sound that used to be. It's what makes a flower open it's petals in the morning and follow the sun. It's what makes a sparrow fly a thousand miles on migration and be accurate to within a hundred feet. It's what makes eggs hatch and lungs breathe and… All of it has something identical in it somewhere, like God, or Gaia or whatever you want to call it, left a Signature on all their creations."

Kwame nodded, listening.

"I can still feel that echo, Kwame. But there's something different now." Ma-Ti said. "It's like the life force itself is trying to curl into itself and hide, the way some animals do when a predator passes, or when winter strikes. It's like everything my Power can see has decided to wait out a storm."

"So why doesn't she tell us what the Storm is?" Kwame sighed, looking into the still pool.

Let me talk to them.

No.

Let me talk to them. You want this showdown, they'll be there; but they have to know where to go.

They'll know soon enough.

Let me talk to them.

Beg me.

...please. I beg of you, let me talk to my Planeteers.

No. But that was enjoyable.

Gi turned the clip inside out, ran it through her computer, studied every frame. Then, quite suddenly, she found something. Gi pumped a fist. "Ha! Geeks Rule!"

"What have you got?" Kwame asked, coming over.

"Absolutely nothing." Gi said primly. "No names or facial recognition, obviously. So I started looking at social media feeds from airports."

"But if there's no faces or names to work with…"

Gi shook her head. "After we started our second Power is Yours Campaign, there was a social media service that kept an eye out for… well, us. Assuming Ma-Ti was right about there being a Fifth Gauntlet, I had it look for five people on a flight to all the places where their victim was, and then leaving again."

"The service doesn't look for us specifically?"

"We had to use disguises before." Gi reminded him. "Anyway, it's academic. They found nothing. Which is, in itself, interesting. It means either someone's covering for them, or they have their own transport, like we do."

"Okay, so what worked?"

"Well, after that, I ran a search on the Gauntlets. There are forty thousand websites devoted to our Rings. Cosplayers did a roaring trade for it."

"I know. Lizzie Quinn still wants royalties."

"Right, so I figured those Gauntlets must have at least one person who took an interest." Gi reported. "But there's nothing there, either." She looked over. "You ready for this? In the time it took me to run the search, another eight thousand websites formed around Team Gauntlet. More than three thousand of the sites dedicated to us have been shut down; and traffic at the Foundation Website dropped to almost nothing. They aren't even asking us questions about the new guys."

"So, you don't have a lead for there, either." Kwame said. "So, the reason you're telling me all this?"

Gi flushed. "I spent three hours on this, Kwame; and got nowhere. At least let me tell my boyfriend?"

"Apologies, please continue." Kwame said with a placid smile.

"Well, I figured if I can't find the players, look for the board. So I ran the image from their video." She pulled it up on the screen and started pointing out details. "The background is a bare highway, nothing but wasteland, but the far background? I ran them through an image search, and I found a match on the horizon line." Gi reported as the rest of the team came hurrying in. "They're in Nevada."

The rest of the Planeteers assembled and Gi brought them up to date on how she'd found them.

"The news didn't try running the image?"

"No, and it's odd." Gi admitted. "The background search is usually the first thing they think of when they're taking apart an image."

"Now that you mention it, they aren't doing anything they usually do." Wheeler commented. "When we came out, there were panels, polls, debates about whether we were heroes, or Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They had church leaders, military advisors… These guys are universally welcomed."

"Maybe we softened things up for them?" Gi said dryly.

"Or maybe there's something else going on." Ma-Ti put in. He looked as troubled as he ever did. In fact, this was the most concern anyone had seen on his face.

"And then some." JJ announced as he came into the tent. "I've just gotten a call from Emily, for the first time since we broke up."

"Oh?" Wheeler tried not to smile.

"Yes, but not for that." JJ swatted his brother. "She tells me that the Planet Foundation is empty. Nobody's coming back to the meetings. She tells me that there are new groups forming about the Gauntlet broadcast."

"New groups?" Linka repeated. "Are they starting their own Foundation after all?"

"I don't know yet." JJ admitted. "But I want to find out. Can I get a ride back to the States with you?"

Linka checked their flight plan. "You… can, but you may have to get your own ride at least part of the way."

"Let's get moving." Kwame said. "We leave in an hour. Get your things. And Linka? We might want to-"

"Check in with the proper authorities, keep them out of the danger zone." Linka agreed. "I'll call my dad."

"I'll call mine. See what the military thinks." Wheeler agreed. "Um, Kwame? When we say: 'keep them out of the danger zone', does that mean we're declaring war on Team Gauntlet?"

"Right now, it means we're being prepared." Kwame told him. "We have a mission, and it was left to us to find the right way to handle it. The method we chose was to motivate the human race into fixing the problem. Part of that has to involves protecting them, doesn't it?"

Linka clocked that, and wasn't sure she agreed, but didn't argue the point.

Stephan answered the phone on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Dad, it's me." Linka called. "You saw the video? The Gauntlet?"

"Yes. Truth is, Interpol doesn't know what to make of it. There's been all sorts of hoax footage on Youtube in the last year. Plenty of people have been faking Elemental powers, and nobody's quite sure if Gauntlet is one of them or not."

"They're the real deal." Linka confirmed. "How do you not know that? You saw Damon on film, being executed. Dad, you put us onto him in the first place."

"And more than a few people are wondering if maybe that's not a coincidence." Stephan told her. "I identified a polluter, the world's most famous eco-enforcers splash his face to the world, and a few days later, he's dead."

"Gauntlet isn't working with us."

"Well someone sure is." Stephan told her. "We're seeing a massive spike in violence against guys like Damon in the last three days."

"How big a spike?" Linka was surprised.

"Over a thousand percent." Stephan said seriously. "And the thing is… They aren't being done by people with Elemental powers. We have suspects in half a dozen cases. No record, no connections to any eco or fringe group. No affiliations of any kind, in fact. A bunch of ordinary, everyday people just up and decided to go around and start torching coal trucks, oil tankers, lynch people who voted against green initiatives…"

"Well, that's unsettling." Linka agreed. "What's Interpol going to do about it?"

"That's the weirdest part. There is no investigation into any of it."

"Not your jurisdiction?"

"No, I mean at any level." Stephan told her. "Local, federal, Interpol. Nobody seems to be investigating this."

Linka frowned. "What does mom think?"

"Still haven't been able to reach her." Stephan admitted. "Has she contacted you?"

"No, nothing; but that's not unusual." Linka reported. "Listen, when you say nobody's investigating, does that include Gauntlet? Because we've already met them, and they're the real deal."

"Good to know, but the truth is, nobody knows where they are… and nobody's much interested in finding out."

"What is going on here?!" Linka demanded. "They flat out executed a Congressman, and put it on international television. How does nobody think it's worth investigating?"

"Linka, they did a poll on the news, and the vast majority were happy about it. That doesn't matter to Interpol, but it does matter to politicians and news anchors; so there's no kind of traction on anything official… And the investigators here are in the same boat. There's a group in the lunchroom that are playing that execution, over and over. It's like they're watching a hockey game."

"They're happy about it?" Linka repeated. "We've been getting one email after another that the public has become apathetic and is losing all hope. How does this line up with the majority being bloodthirsty for someone they hadn't heard of a week ago?"

"It doesn't." Stephan said, as though that explained everything. "Something's going on, but I can't for the life of me figure out what. It can't be conspiracy, there are too many people involved. It can't be bribery or coercion, there's no financing involved. We have no idea who Gauntlet is, and nobody seems to be interested in finding out."

"Gauntlet didn't make any demands." Linka told him. "This is an announcement."

"Yes. So I'm guessing you're feeling pretty good about it."

Linka froze. "What?"

"The others, I'm sure they're worried; but I'm betting you're not." Stephan said gamely. "I heard the statement, about 'no half-measures'. You've been pushing your own team for that all year."

"I guess I have." Linka admitted ruefully. "But I would have at least warned those people before…" Linka trailed off. Her first use of her powers had been a chemical plant in her own hometown, after it started dumping in their water supply. Something that was almost certainly going to happen again if Damon's bribe had been real. Linka hadn't issued any warnings that night, when she took the plant off the map. "I already have a team." She settled on finally.

"And Team Gauntlet already has wind power." Stephan pointed out grimly.

"The military has the same reaction." Wheeler reported. "My dad can't figure it out either. There are fan-groups sprouting up all over the place, even in the armed forces."

"This just keeps getting weirder with each phone call." Kwame observed. "A group with superpowers has declared war, and people are throwing a party?"

"Why Nevada?" Wheeler asked. "They could have picked any place in the world to have an execution."

"Come to that, why any of their choices?" Gi thought aloud. "At first, I thought there were active in Zambia because of Kwame's hometown, but why Nevada? That has nothing to do with any of us."

"Damon did, though only briefly."

"Damon was from Missouri, he worked in Washington. Why take him to Nevada?" Wheeler put in. "Because they could have collapsed any town in the world, but they chose your hometown?"

Kwame looked. "We agreed it wasn't an attack on us."

"Not an attack." Linka told him. "An introduction."

"Linka and I have been thinking on this for a while." Wheeler explained. "We think that what you said about how they didn't want the attention was right. That night in Africa, they made sure we saw them, and then left before anyone else did. Pardon the choice of words, but they just made the biggest splash that anyone has made since Hope Island. The tape of them with Damon was their Coming Out Party, but they wanted us to know about them before anyone else did."

"Which brings us back to: Why Nevada?" Kwame summed up.

"Well, I might have an idea." Gi raised a hand. "We all agreed that the river in Zambia was stopped deliberately, by Team Gauntlet, right?" She bit her lip. "But the river stopped before we began the new 'Power Is Yours Campaign'. Damon was before that."

"So you think Damon was a spur of the moment choice?" Kwame reasoned.

"I do." Gi nodded. "Your Hometown was a planned mission, and if taking out Damon was an improv; then it means they were on their way to Nevada already."

"Why?" Linka asked.

Kwame's eyes flashed. "For their next mission."

AN:

Between this chapter and the last one, a story was published that broke down voting trends. The top issue for under 18's since the new millennium was Climate Change, with Gun Control close behind. Half the world's population is now under 30. The kids are the ones doing the dying in this world, and the millennials will be making their first trip to a voting booth in a matter of months. Watch and see what happens now.

Other news that broke since the last chapter: New Zealand has now banned all off-shore drilling, and committed to a totally Renewable energy policy by 2050. Japanese Scientists have developed an enzyme that breaks down plastic waste in a week instead of a century; and a San Fransico energy company is seeking permission to build a solar farm in California, which will triple the one Tesla put in Australia.

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