Steve likes to think he's doing pretty well at this whole magic thing. Lessons with Mort are finally starting to stray out of "beginner" and into "intermediate", which is already way cooler. He's just gotten out of another lesson, and he promised Coach he'd be home for dinner tonight – apparently he wants to try to make some sort of lasagna? Steve isn't sure how much faith he has in that, but it makes Coach happy when he at least tries his food.

As he walks back in the dimming light of the late evening, he tries levitating his serrator over his hand. It's still so cool that he has a serrator of his own. He'd brag about how good he is with it to Aja, except then she'd ask why he needs one and they'd be straying into no-go territory.

The serrator twitches and lifts into the air for a brief second, then flops back onto his palm. Steve tries to focus his attention better – clear mind and all that – and the serrator lifts several inches higher. This time, when it falls, Steve has to scramble to catch it. He is not breaking the fancy alien weapon, oh, no.

And then he's punched from behind by an armoured fist.

"Aagh!" he yelps, landing on his knees. He starts turning to face his attacker. "Ikram, what the – you're not Ikram."

"Clever boy," says the Knight. He looms over Steve, tall and dressed in threatening black armour, all sharp edges and way scarier looking than Ikram ever was. Not that Steve would say that to her face. She's still plenty scary. But this guy – oh, man, Steve does not want to mess with this guy. He has an axe. Steve doesn't know how to fight someone with an axe.

"Not another one!" he exclaims, pushing himself to his feet and activating his serrator.

The Black Knight – yeah, he's calling him that – laughs. "A wizardling with an alien weapon! Now that's something you don't see every day."

"I know how to use it, too," Steve boasts. He hopes he sounds more confident than he feels. "You don't want to fight me."

"Actually, I rather do," says the Knight. He brings his axe down, and Steve leaps out of the way. The blade digs into the sidewalk. Steve gulps. He barely manages to throw up a shield as the Knight attacks again. He fumbles his phone out of his pocket and clicks the first contact he can. Please let this be Mort, please let this be Mort–

"Steve?" Aja's voice comes through the speaker.

"Kleb!" Steve exclaims as the serrator shield sparks away and he has to roll on the asphalt to avoid being killed.

"What?"

"Nothing!" He scrambles backwards and screams as the axe comes down again between his legs. Oh, that was close. "Call Krel! Tell him it's an emergency!"

"Steve, what's wrong? What's happening?"

He finally manages to push himself to his feet. He glances at the Knight, decides he's screwed, and takes off running in the other direction.

"Tell him it's the – the game!" Steve manages. "Wizards and – aaah!"

The axe flies right by his head and lands in a nearby fire hydrant. Steve pivots and runs across the street, avoiding the gushing water as the Knight yanks his axe free.

"Wizards and Warzones!" he yells into his phone. "Tell him it's a Knight! He'll know what that means!"

"Steve, are you okay?"

"JUST CALL KREL!" He hangs up and pockets his phone. The Knight is gaining fast. "Okay, new plan. New plan."

He skids to a stop, then – mentally thanking Mort for starting his rune training early – draws a shielding rune in mid-air. His finger traces golden energy into existence, and he throws out his hands. A shimmering golden shield sparks into existence around him like a bubble. The Knight looks unimpressed – Steve is sure that under the helmet he's scoffing or something. He brings his axe down on the shield. Steve flinches, but it holds. The bad news: it's taking a lot of energy to keep it up, and he thinks the Knight knows that, because he starts determinedly hacking at the same spot.

"Come on, Krel, come on," mutters Steve, before squeezing his eyes shut and focusing on keeping the shield up. He can feel every strike of the axe on the barrier – if it doesn't stop soon, he's done for.

Just as he's sure the shield's going to break, he hears the familiar sounds of both of his friends' battle-cries. His eyes fly open just as Toby's hammer makes contact with the Black Knight's head. The Black Knight staggers, then laughs.

"Aw, the wizardling needed back-up from his friends!" he mocks. Steve bristles.

"Leave Steve alone, buttsnack," Krel snaps. Steve is briefly proud of him, but then the Black Knight whips the flat of his axe around right into Krel's head and he goes down.

"Hey!" Toby shouts, running at the Knight again.

Steve abandons his shield and runs to Krel, sitting up and rubbing his head. Toby is thrown into them, and all three of them hit the asphalt. The Black Knight looms over them for a second, then scoffs, turns, and walks away.

"Oh, that's going to leave a mark," mumbles Krel, rubbing his head. His fingers come back tinged with blue, and he leans his head back and groans.

"You good?" Toby checks.

"Yep," says Krel. "Just a headache. Steve, did he hurt you?"

Steve shakes his head mutely. His hands and elbows are scraped from falling on the sidewalk, but he's otherwise fine.

"Guess it's another sleepover night," he says shakily.

"Guess so," says Toby. He stands first, then helps Steve and Krel to their feet.

"I'm sure my parents – I mean, Coach and Mom would be fine with you guys coming over," says Steve. "Also, I promised Coach I'd be home for dinner and I'm late."

"Sounds good," says Toby. "I'll call Nana on the way."

Krel blinks a couple of times. He looks disoriented, so Steve prepares himself to steady him if need be. "Steve, Aja wants to know what exactly this wizard game is – hey, why did you call Aja?"

"I was blindly choosing a contact, it was an accident!" Steve defends himself.

"Well, you freaked her out," says Krel.

"She knows I'm dramatic," says Steve.

"Oh, he admits it," says Toby.

Steve shoves his friend jokingly. "Shut up, Domzalski!"

"Hey, hey, don't get your grimy, bloody hands on my shirt!" Toby complains.

"Come on," says Krel. "The longer we stay out here, the more likely it is that Knight will come back."

Steve winces. "Yeah. Let's go."

Coach and Mom were both understandably worried when they arrived, Steve all scraped up, Krel sporting a lump the size of Texas on his forehead. Steve almost told them the truth. Instead, he blurted some nonsense about a hoverboarding accident, and Krel agreed because he'd be a hypocrite not to. Toby just silently judged them both.

The next morning finds all three of them in Mort's living room, along with Mort, Douxie, Ikram, and Nimue. Mort leans on the back of the couch, mouth pulled thin and brow furrowed.

"And you think he was targeting you specifically, Steve?" he prompts after they explain the attack.

"I don't know," says Steve. "Maybe I was the only one out and about alone, but he also left, like, right after Toby and Krel showed up."

"Either way, now there's another Knight to deal with," Toby says.

"I remember him," says Ikram, leaning forward with her elbows on her thighs and resting her head on her joined fingers. "I technically reported to him. Now that I've been freed, he must be picking up my slack, so to speak."

"He almost killed me!"

"Yes, well, the Black Knight won't be nearly as merciful as I was," says Ikram.

Krel scowls dubiously at her and flexes his right hand, finally unbraced only a day ago. Steve and Toby dragged him to Dr. Lake to be certain he was fine, because Steve didn't really trust the Akiridion not to lie and say he was better when he wasn't.

"You were merciful?" Krel says doubtfully.

"I didn't kill you, did I?" she points out. "And trust me. I could have. We need to up your training."

Oh. Great. Even more training. Like Steve's days aren't already 95% training, be it in combat or in magic. Not that he doesn't love learning magic, but he does wish he had a break.

"First, we need to make them impossible to find," says Mort. "Training is great and all, but it's better if they don't have to use it. I'll whip up some more potions to hide you from tracking, but we also have to assume that he knows where you live. Do you three have other friends? People you can stay with?"

Steve is somewhat offended that Mort thinks his only friends are Toby and Krel. "Yeah, I can ask one of my friends."

"I can probably stay with Dr. L," says Toby. "Maybe the Nuñez family if I really push it."

"Uh, I can stay with Stuart," says Krel. He doesn't look thrilled. Steve knows it's nothing against Stuart, only that Stuart and his place kinda stink.

"Good," says Mort. "Steve, I think it's time I taught you some potion-making skills."

Steve brightens. They weren't supposed to start potions for another week. "Wait, really?"

"Yes, really," says Mort. "Text your friend to see if you can stay, then follow me downstairs so we can get started."

"The rest of you, training," says Nimue. "You're still miserable at this."

Toby and Krel both groan in unison, but a sharp glare from Nimue shuts them up. Steve takes a second to decide which friend to stay with, but ultimately pulls up Seamus's number and texts a quick, hey mind if I crash at yours tonight?

A few moments later, he gets back, sure man mom wants to know if you're coming for dinner

Steve texts back a dunno yet thanks man, then pockets his phone and follows Mort down the stairs to the shop. The others follow. Douxie yawns but sticks on a nametag as the rest of them climb down to the library. Steve follows Mort back into his potions lab.

"Now, potions are in many ways vastly different from other forms of magic," says Mort. "We'll be sticking to recipes today, but in the future, I'll be teaching you about all the ingredients and their properties so you can experiment. It's a lot like cooking or baking, except more likely to explode."

"Explode?" Steve says warily.

"Drop the wrong thing in, or the right thing in the wrong amount…" Mort makes an explosion noise and throws his hands open. He grins like this is funny. It's not. Mort coughs awkwardly. "Right, well, as long as you follow the recipe exactly, I guarantee it won't blow up."

"Okay," says Steve slowly. "So where do we start?"

Mort throws out a hand, and a book flies into it. Steve is impressed and also can't wait to learn that trick. "Hm. We'll want to shield you from magical tracking as well as mundane tracking. Another core-hiding potion for Krel, just in case. So three potions. Maybe four, just to be on the safe side. Aha!"

He places the open book on a nearby music stand – improvisation, Steve supposes. The book looks fairly old, but that doesn't surprise Steve. It kind of goes with the wizard aesthetic. He thinks he's using that word right.

"Exact measurements and timings are very important in potion-making," says Mort. "Even if they're very weird, you can't just round them up. Once you're more experienced and know the ingredients well, you might be able to make changes, but never do that unless you're in a well-ventilated environment and you're standing far away."

"Uh, is this a well-ventilated environment?" Steve asks. Mort blinks and looks around.

"Oh, yes." He reaches up and presses a spot on the wall. A rune lights up bronze, then fades. "Now it is. But we won't be experimenting today."

"Right," says Steve. He feels even less confident now.

"I keep all of my ingredients properly labelled," says Mort. "Can you fetch me… elder berries, tanner's bark, blood of Hephaestus, and peppermint extract?"

Steve stares at him. "Blood of who now?"

"Oh, yes, I know it's an outdated name for wormwood," says Mort, rolling his eyes. "You young wizards and your want to use normal names. Where's your enthusiasm?"

"I am so confused," says Steve, but he goes over to Mort's ingredient cabinet and searches for the requested ingredients anyway. Mort starts filling a pot with water, then sets it on the stove. He walks over to the mini-fridge and starts searching it. Steve finally finds all four ingredients and manages to carry the jars and extract vial back to the counter near the stove. He's very glad that blood of Hephaestus isn't actual blood. Mort returns with a jug of milk and some other unknown, dark substance. Eugh. Steve doesn't want to know what that is.

"Right, then," says Mort. "Now we have our ingredients, it's time to begin."

Steve rubs his hands together. "Alright! What's first?"

"As soon as the water's boiling, we want to add five crushed elder berries," says Mort. "So, if you'll grab a mortar and pestle and crush those, I'll start preparing the tanner's bark for step two."

Steve nods, then realises he doesn't know what that means. "Uh, what's a mortar and pestle?"

Mort raises both eyebrows. "It's over on that counter. The small bowl with the – crushing thing."

"Gotcha," says Steve. He finds the mortar and pestle easy enough, then picks out five of the juiciest elder berries he can find in the jar and drops them in. Heh, he's not too bad at this. It's just smashing berries so far.

"Boiling!" says Mort. "Scrape them out with a spoon and dump them in. Don't stir yet."

"On it!" Steve makes sure he gets every last bit of smushed berry and dumps them into the boiling water. A few moments later, Mort drops several strips of tanner's bark into the pot and then stirs.

"Ten times, clockwise," he says. "Not too fast. If you go too fast, you risk messing it up."

Steve nods. "So, like, are any of these ingredients, like, magical? Like, what makes the potions magic?"

"That's our influence," says Mort. "Most potions require an activator. For some, it's a rune application – like I did with the core-hiding potion. Most of these will be rune applications. Others have to be activated with a spell – usually the ones you drink. Most injected potions require a double activator, first a spell and then contact with blood. Then, some potions don't require magical activators but do need energy activators. Most commonly used is electricity. In the old days, it had to be captured in a jar and the finalised potion poured in. Nowadays we have tech for that."

That's – actually pretty cool. Steve takes a peek at the recipe book as Mort starts pouring the weird, dark liquid into a measuring cup. Step four – the next step – says to add four drops of peppermint extract, in a circle, counter-clockwise. That's oddly specific, but it looks like all of potion-making is. Steve's surprised to admit to himself it's kind of fun.

He draws peppermint extract into a syringe. Mort slowly pours the dark liquid into the pot, then turns. "Alright, now we need – oh, you've prepared it. Well done. Why don't you give it a shot?"

Steve blinks, then nods and switches places with Mort. He winces, then very carefully starts adding the peppermint extract. Drop – move around to the right – drop – again to the right – drop – once more – drop. He moves the syringe immediately away from the pot, so he doesn't add an extra drop on accident.

"Well done," says Mort. "Now, stir it in the same direction as you added the drops – five times, quickly."

Steve does so. He's very careful not to overdo it. The last thing he wants is to ruin the potion – or worse, have it explode on him. Mort pours milk into a glass, then submerges a handful of wormwood – blood of Hephaestus – whatever in it. He sets a timer on his phone.

"Alright, we wait," he says. "In the meantime, we can start preparing–"

"Steve! Mort!" Both of them look at the door as Krel pokes his head in. He looks sheepish. "Do you have any more of that core-hiding potion? I have to go talk to Stuart, he isn't answering his phone."

"Well, we can in a few minutes," says Mort. "Steve, keep an eye on that potion while I make this one for Krel. When the timer goes off, just dump all that in."

Steve gives him a thumbs-up, then whirls on Krel. "You can't go alone. What if the Black Knight finds you?"

"He won't," says Krel. "Not with that potion. And this."

He smugly holds up his serrator and presses a button. His form flickers, and then it's replaced with an unremarkable, unrecognisable blond, white teenager. He's almost as tall as Steve. Even on the unfamiliar face, Steve can make out Krel's self-satisfied expression. "Huh, maybe I should keep my height like this."

"No way," says Steve. "It's weird."

Krel cackles. The timer sounds, and Steve glares at Krel and grabs the cup of milk and wormwood. He pours it into the pot, then glances quickly at the instructions. Stir clockwise rapidly fifteen times. Okay, he can do that.

"You have to promise not to be stupid," says Steve as he stirs. "I don't want to be waiting for you to come back and then see on the news that some random kid was murdered by a crazy guy with an axe."

"Relax, Steve, I'll be fine," says Krel.

"Stop mothering your friend, Steve," says Mort. Steve splutters in indignation. "Krel, come here. I've got to put the rune on."

Krel obediently lifts up his t-shirt and lets Mort draw the rune on his chest. Steve does not mother him. Steve doesn't mother anyone. Does he? He better not, he has a reputation to hold up.

"Thanks, Mort," says Krel.

"Text me when you get there!" Steve demands as he leaves. Oh, no, he's totally mothering him. "Not that I care! Because I don't!"

"Sure, Steve!" Krel calls back sarcastically.

Steve huffs and looks through the recipe book again. Oh, crap, he needs to turn off the heat like now. He moves the pot back a burner and turns off the front one. Now it says to let it rest for thirty minutes. Okay. That's easy.

"Nicely done," says Mort, pouring the rest of the core-hiding potion into a plastic container. "This can be microwaved, by the way. Some potions can't, but this one is good."

"Uh, okay," says Steve.

Mort gives him an appraising look. "Why don't you do this next one by yourself? That way we can get two potions done at once."

"What?" Steve squeaks. "Me? But – it might explode!"

"Or it might not," says Mort. "If it's rubbish, then we won't use it, but you've been doing well. I think you're a natural-born potioneer."

Steve preens. Heh, yeah, he guesses he's pretty good at this. He can totally do a potion by himself. It'll be fun. Mort flips the book to a recipe and nods to it. Steve cracks his knuckles. He can totally do this.

Making his own potion goes… pretty well, actually. There's a couple of times he almost messes up, but ultimately, Mort deems the final product satisfactory. All three of them get the runes drawn on them, then Krel updates Steve's serrator and gives Toby a mini-transduction device. Their disguises aren't nearly as good, since they can't be physically changed like Krel can, but Steve still can't recognise himself when he looks in the mirror and sees dark hair and tan skin. Toby also looks weird, red hair turned brown and dweeby glasses perched on his nose.

Steve really hopes Seamus doesn't ask too many questions. He knocks hesitantly on his friend's front door. He hears footsteps, then Seamus yanks the door open. His brow furrows immediately.

"It's me," Steve says, hoping his friend can recognise his voice.

"Steve!?"

"Shh!" Steve hisses.

"Come on in," says Seamus. "Uh, you look… nothing like you."

As soon as he's safe inside and the blinds are all drawn, Steve deactivates the transduction effect and sits on the couch. Seamus joins him and waves a hand to prompt him to explain.

"Krel rigged this up for me," Steve says. "We needed disguises."

"Disguises?" repeats Seamus, brow furrowing. "Dude, seriously, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"It's just – weird stuff."

"Like the trolls?" prompts Seamus. "Or, I dunno, like – like Krel?"

Steve bristles on his friend's behalf. "Krel isn't weird, okay, he's just – different! That's all."

Seamus holds out his hands and shakes his head. "No, no, I just – is it an alien thing? Sorry. Extra-terrestrial thing? 'Cause if it is, then I want in. You know I love space stuff, man."

"It's not space stuff," says Steve. He wishes it were space stuff. At least he has some experience with space stuff, and maybe then Krel would let them call Aja. "It's just – complicated. Weird. Hey, man, thanks for letting me crash here until we figure things out."

"No problem, bro," says Seamus. "If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know."

"Thanks, Seamus," Steve says.

Seamus smiles, then leans back and crosses his arms. Steve can't tell whether he's worried or not, but he'd guess he is. "I'm guessing Krel and Domzalski are mixed up in this, too?"

"Yep," says Steve. "We're all just playing it by ear. Oh, hey, but check out what Krel gave me."

He stands and activates the serrator sword. Seamus's jaw drops. Steve smirks and shows off some attacks, then switches it to blaster mode to show him that too.

"Real life Akiridion tech," says Steve.

"Can I see it?" Seamus asks. Steve passed him the deactivated serrator. A moment later, Seamus manages to switch it back to blaster mode. Unfortunately, he's not as skilled at it as Steve is, and the blaster goes off, leaving an ugly scorch mark on the wall. Seamus's eyes widen in horror.

"SEAMUS!" his mom calls from the other mood. "You and Steve better not being playing with anything explosive!"

"Sorry, Mom!" Seamus shouts back. "We'll put it away!"

"You better!"

Seamus shoves the serrator back at Steve, then points at the scorch mark. "That was already there."

"Definitely," agrees Steve. "Should we go help your mom with dinner?"

"Nah, she's one of those people who hates other people in her kitchen," says Seamus. He nods his head towards the stairs. "Wanna go upstairs and play video games?"

"Now that sounds like just the dose of normalcy I need right now," Steve agrees.

The two of them settle for some mindless war game they don't have to think too much to play. Steve likes having a break. It's nice to at least pretend to be a normal teenager for a little bit. He has nothing against the wizard stuff, or the Akiridion stuff, or even the troll stuff, but he does kind of miss the days when he could just hang out with people without any supernatural things out to kill him and his friends. Even now he's on edge that the Black Knight will show up at any moment, putting Seamus and his mom in danger. They don't deserve to be dragged into this. Steve would never forgive himself if one of his friends got killed because of his mess.

"You know," says Seamus. "This summer has definitely been the most eventful one we've ever had."

"That's not a good thing," says Steve.

"Maybe not," says Seamus. "Not really bad, either. I mean, I got to laugh at all the people who thought I was nuts for believing in aliens."

"No one's made fun of you for that since sixth grade, man."

"But they used to," says Seamus. "And I was right. Aliens are real! And now I'm friends with one of them."

That's unexpected. Steve never saw Seamus hang out with Aja, and the only time he saw Seamus and Krel together was that math duel thing. "Really? Who?"

"Krel."

Steve snorts. Part of him isn't surprised. Krel and Seamus both love math and stuff, they'd be good friends. Still, Seamus considering Krel a friend is news to Steve and almost certainly would be news to Krel. "Dude, I think you need to tell Krel that."

"Huh?" Seamus glances over at him, then back to the TV. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you're friends with Krel, he doesn't know it," Steve says. "Hey, I thought you hated him."

"What? No," says Seamus. "I mean, I got kinda annoyed that he was one-upping me in math class. And then I let my dad rub off on me. Not one of my prouder moments… okay, I can see why you thought I hated him."

"Since when are you friends?" Steve hopes this isn't just because Krel is Akiridion. Still, he knows Seamus better than that. When he actually manages to ignore his dad, he's a good guy. Not that Steve would ever say something sentimental like that out loud.

"Well, maybe more like acquaintances," muses Seamus. "School friends. I dunno."

"Again, might want to tell Krel that." Steve pauses to shoot a few enemies on the screen. "Anyway, I guess it is pretty cool that extra-terrestrials are real."

"And trolls!" exclaims Seamus. "Man, I never would have imagined. Sucks that they all had to leave."

"You think Logan's right?" Steve prompts, aware he's getting way too close to a forbidden subject. Seamus gives him a confused look. "About what's next. Wizards or something."

Seamus scoffs. "Nah, man. I'll believe a lot of crazy things now, but wizards? No way. It's probably something like… I dunno, pixies."

"Pixies are real," says Steve. "Jim told me about them. Remember that day we all, like, totally hallucinated our worst fears or something? Yeah. Pixies."

"Huh. That makes sense," Seamus mutters. Steve isn't sure how that makes much sense, actually, but whatever floats Seamus's boat. "Whatever it is you're hiding, we'll find out eventually." Then, after a pause: "Is it wizards?"

Steve laughs awkwardly. "No, no, no. It's not – no, you're right, that's super crazy."

Seamus gives him a dubious look. "Alright. Well, we'll know by the end of the summer. Mark my words. Nothing stays a secret in this town anymore."

That, Steve can't argue at all.

Seamus offers to walk with Steve to Mort's, not that he's aware Steve's going to Mort's. Steve kinda figures that would risk exposing all this wizard stuff to Seamus, so he declines. He's pretty sure there's some rule against telling mundane people about magic.

It's a really nice morning, but it's kind of early so not many people are out and about. He doesn't run into any trouble on the walk. Unfortunately for Steve, when he reaches Mort's shop, the Black Knight is already there, waiting for him. So much for not running into trouble. Steve freezes.

Okay, Steve, be smart. Maybe awkwardly tell him his cosplay looks cool and keep walking. Pretend you don't know him.

Even more unfortunately, the transduction chooses that moment to flicker and die. Steve is left standing right in front of the Knight looking just like himself and also just like a deer in the headlights.

"Wizardling," greets the Black Knight.

"Oh, no," Steve manages.

Okay, options, Steve has options. Calling for help is a good option. But then he remembers what the Knight had said before, taunting him about needing back-up. He could maybe take him. Could he take him?

His hesitation costs him. Before he can react properly, the side of the Knight's axe connects with the side of his head. Steve hits the ground, dazed and dizzy. He tries to pull out his serrator to shield himself, but the Knight brings his armoured foot down on Steve's wrist. Steve yelps and unwillingly drops the serrator. The Knight kicks him hard in the ribs.

"I don't even need this to kill you," says the Knight, laying his axe down on the sidewalk. Steve tries to start drawing a shielding rune, but he's thrown back into confusion by a kick to the head. He blinks stars out of his vision.

The Knight brings his foot down hard on Steve's shin. There's a sharp snapping sound and blinding pain. Steve screams. When he goes to get another breath, he finds his breathing constricted by the Knight's foot on his chest.

"Pathetic," he scorns, digging his boot downward. Steve gasps and struggles. "I can see why you needed back-up."

The Black Knight lifts his foot and then brings it down hard on Steve's chest. There's more snapping sounds, more sharp pains. Steve coughs and tastes metal. Metal? No. Blood tastes metallic? Oh. It's blood. That's not good. His vision is blurry and he's still disoriented by the blows to the head.

The Knight leans down and picks Steve up by his neck. Steve's hands go to pry his hand away, but his grip tightens, and Steve can't breathe. He ignores the pain flaring from his leg as he kicks out and struggles.

"Hey!" he hears Mort call, finally. Steve's vision is darkening at the edges. His lungs burn for air and his leg throbs with his heartbeat. He's barely aware of Mort's hands lighting up with focusers, barely aware of the spell hitting the Black Knight, barely aware of himself hitting the concrete. He thinks he hears his friends calling his name. He coughs and gasps for air. Huh. What're those red spots on the sidewalk? He coughs more, pain spreading from his ribs. Why can't he breathe right?

"Steve, stay with me," says Toby's voice, detached and fuzzy. Steve tries to look up at his friend, but dizziness overcomes him. The world spins and disappears into black.