"I'm still standing! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" The last words of her song hung in the air as the music faded. The singer of Terandria waved to her fans and took a bow before stepping off stage.

...

Cara flopped down in her chair and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Man, singing and dancing is so much more of a workout than I'd originally assumed." She grabbed the cup of water that had been left for her and quickly drained it. "I've already used my [Encore], but I could go out and sing another one without using a [Skill]." She pulled out her notebook and added a note next to Elton John before she looked through it. "But which song?"

"Cara? Is this a bad time?" A voice emanated from the air.

Who?

"Kevin?" She frowned slightly as she tried to place the speaker. "Is that you?"

"Yes." It did sound like him. "If you have time, I'd like to talk."

"Oh, uhm, okay." It wasn't that late she supposed. If her options were to do another encore, fall asleep, or talk with Kevin, she'd pick the later. "I have time."

"If you take out my crystal, I can appear in person."

"What? Really?" She reached under her costume and pulled out the cube he'd given her. She always kept it on her, even if it was uncomfortably shaped. "Okay. It's out. Now wha-" There was no flash of light. No swirling energy to mark a transport like in a movie or video game. Instead, Kevin had simply appeared between one moment and the next. "Oh."

"Hey, Cara." He smiled. "How's it goin'?"

"Not too bad." She smirked. "I've been drawing in the crowds. Even got someone interested in recording my songs in some crystals." She glanced from side to side before leaning forward and whispering. "And I found another... you know what."

Kevin chuckled and sat down on nothing. "There's no need to whisper or speak obliquely, Cara. No one else can hear or see us right now. We're perfectly safe."

"Oh." Right. Superhero. "I thought that was why you did the whole 'stealth teleport' thing."

"What?" Kevin's eyebrows shot up before he shook his head. "No. I'm still inside Wistram. I'm just projecting my image so that it's more comfortable." He smiled and glowed as a line of light pulsed up and down his body. "I can do special effects if that's what you want."

"Ha!" She snorted. "Where were you at my last concert? I have an [Illusionist] on staff now to provide stuff like that, but I think you'd blow him out of the water!"

"No doubt." Kevin let out a sigh. "I've never toured with a band before, it sounds like fun, but I have-"

"To find your family." Cara interrupted him. "And to do your whole 'superhero thing' and get us back to Earth." She waved him off. "I know. I know. You do your thing, and I'll do mine." She leaned forward. "Speaking of which, how's Wistram? I've found a few more Earthers to add to the ones you saved. One of them is cool, but the rest are shell-shocked. I'm not sure being on the road is good for them."

"That's the thing." Kevin stopped glowing. "If they come to Wistram, they'll be fed, sheltered, and protected..."

"But?"

"But they won't be allowed to leave." He shook his head. "Not in a 'locked in a cell' sort of way, but more like a 'why would you want to leave' method."

"Shit."

Kevin shrugged. "I'm going to confirm it with a breakout attempt, but Winstram's still better than most places. If things play out like I'm expecting, then I'm going to have to challenge one of the Archmages. That should let me loosen the restrictions - like having a [Mage] escort around the clock. Even then, I don't know if I could convince the other factions to let Earthers come and go as they please. They see you as valuable commodities."

"Well, I can lay it out to the new recruits, and let them decide for themselves." Cara shrugged. "We have it plenty good here too." She let out grunt. "Terandria isn't so bad. Especially if you stay in the big cities. I've had to put up with a lot of bitchin' and moaning from idiots that haven't seen a single animated skeleton much less an undead horde."

"The woes of leadership." He replied with a straight face.

"Yeah, laugh it up pretty-boy." Cara glared at him. "The bunch you left on my doorstep are the worst of the lot!"

"Really?" Kevin's face bunched up in confusion. "They all seemed pretty nice to me."

"Where to begin?" Cara rolled her eyes. "Oh, I know. I'll start with the best and work down to the worst - Vincent."

"What about him?"

"All he's good at is punching people!" Cara threw her hands up. "He doesn't have a musical bone in his body, and he's gotten into seven fights... from being a bouncer THREE times!"

"Oh, well..."

"And then there's the Russian who doesn't understand a word I say."

"Michail?"

"Yes. Him." Cara shook her head. "He's nice enough, and big enough to help with hauling things or looking intimidating, but the language barrier is real. At least Vincent understands what I tell him!"

"Right, well Wistram does have a handy [Translation] neck-"

"And finally!" Cara spoke over Kevin again. "There's the most worthless person on the planet - Jiahao!"

"Worthless?" Kevin seemed genuinely puzzled. "He seemed perfectly fine to me."

"All he does is play on that stupid video game you gave him!" Cara raised her voice. "What were you thinking?"

Kevin shrugged. "Well, I had to give him something to make up for taking his electronics. I couldn't let him not have any video games to play."

"Yes." Cara exhaled and calmed herself. "You could have. If you were so willing to hand out tech to him, at least you could've given Michail a translator."

"Those are two different things."

Cara palmed her face and then slowly dragged her hand down as she looked up at Pixel - the video game superhero. "Okay. Fine. But why did you have to tell him about the [Gamer] class?"

Kevin tilted his head. "What's wrong with that?"

Cara shook her head. "Because it's 'a [Gamer] wouldn't do that', or 'I need to beat this game to level'. I swear that he even debates how a [Gamer] would use the restroom. It's not healthy." Not to mention completely annoying and unhelpful.

"Oh." Kevin rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I can see how that would be annoying to some people."

Cara gave him a flat stare. "Some?"

"Okay. Annoying in general, especially since you guys aren't living a lifestyle that would allow that sort of thing."

"Right." Cara nodded her head. "So they'd be fine at Wistram, right?" If she was going to dump anyone off in a gilded cage, it would be them.

"Well..." Kevin hummed. "Michail might get some odd looks. I had to make his copy bigger so I could fit. Vincent also might have a bit of a reputation..."

"Oh God." She slumped down. "If there's one thing that fool can't get over, it's how people see him. Don't tell me you made him look like a 'punk'." She used air-quotes around that last word.

"No. I've used the same mannerisms he used around me, 'n the same sayin's." Kevin shook his head as his voice changed to perfectly mimic Vincent's for a moment. "If anything, I might have pressed it too far the other way." He smiled. "Let's just say that he'll have a reputation to live up to if he does come."

"And Jiahao?"

"No." Kevin shook his head again. "I'm confident I did everything exactly how he would have." He puffed out his chest. "I'm a pretty good actor when I want to be."