Max busied himself with two jumbo burgers and an order of chili fries as Indal parked and worked on his phone. Max got chili on the fingers of the gauntlet twice. The first time, he wiped it off with a napkin. The second time he licked it off, with a sideways look at Indal. Indal was deep in his phone screen and didn't notice. Max half-expected the gauntlet to electrocute his tongue, but nothing happened. It tasted like metal, that was all.

  It wasn't until he was finishing the last of his burger that he noticed the trackball had moved on its own. A panel had opened on it, and a little dark lens stared up at him like the eye of a camera. As he moved, it tracked him, never losing sight of his face. Unsettled, Max waved the gauntlet back and forth. The eye swiveled to keep him in sight. He jammed the gauntlet behind his back to keep it from looking at him. Great. It was probably some anti-theft measure. Somewhere, his face was logged in a computer database. The gauntlet probably had GPS tracking, too. Any minute now and the cult would descend on him.

  Outside the car, it was growing dark. The streetlights glowed orange, and cars flowed by in a never-ending stream of white and red lights. The burger joint's signs flickered on. Max felt vastly better after eating, and was beginning to worry about his immediate future. He couldn't go home with this gauntlet on. The other boys would demand to know where he got it. They all loved Watkins. He couldn't go to work wearing stolen Atlantean tech. There had to be a way to get it off.

  Indal must have been thinking along the same lines. He finally set his phone aside and unwrapped his own burger. Instead of a soda, he'd ordered a cup of ice, which he ate like chips. "Unless we can get that gauntlet off, you're screwed, aren't you?"

  Max nodded. "I'm a marked man."

  As he spoke, he set his gauntlet in his lap again. The trackball moved, and Indal saw it. "Uh oh." He leaned closer to look. Max lifted his arm and let Indal see the way the camera stayed fixed on Max's face.

  "So, yeah, about being screwed," said Indal. He picked up a napkin and covered the camera with it. "Keep that there, and don't say anything else. It's probably listening. I'll get help."

  Max held the napkin in place, wondering why he hadn't thought of that. The trackball camera moved under the napkin, as if trying to shake it off. Who was controlling it? A remote operator? An AI?

  Indal glided back into traffic. Max rode in silence, holding the napkin over the protesting camera. As he did, the screen in the wrist lit up. He pulled down the napkin a little to look at it.

  OPERATOR SYNC 32%

  What did that mean? He pushed the napkin back over the screen, just in case it could see him, too. Once more, he tried to pull his hand out of the gauntlet, steadily and gently. The gauntlet still refused to budge.

  As they pulled into the highway and headed east, Max almost asked where they were going before he remembered that the gauntlet was listening. Besides, he reasoned, they were probably going to Jayesh's house. He had hero-worshiped the healer almost as much as he had Omniscient, and his heart thrilled to see him again. Max had watched the blowup on HeroTube when Jayesh had sued the most popular supers for assaulting him. Max had waged war in the comments about it, defending the healer's honor against thousands of naysayers. In the meantime, Jayesh had vanished as quietly as he had appeared. No more missions for the police, no HeroTube rebuttal, nothing. The man was a ghost.

  Max had to ask, gauntlet or no gauntlet. "Are we going to Jayesh Khatri's?"

  Indal grimaced. "Well, sort of. Jayesh is a bit of a recluse after … well, what HeroTube did to him. I'm taking you to a friend who knows how to reach him."

  "Who?"

  "Are you familiar with Wavestrider and Eclipse?"

  "Oh yeah," said Max. "I watch their channel sometimes." Mostly for Eclipse, because she was so pretty.

  "Well, they kind of look after Jayesh. Quietly, of course. You can't mention any of this online, all right?"

  "All right," said Max. "I get it. I watched all the trial videos."

  Indal nodded and said nothing else. Max sat back and relaxed a little. Under the napkin, the camera stopped moving. When he peeked at it, the panel had closed over the lens again, and the wrist screen had turned off.

  "Indal, it shut down," Max said, holding up the gauntlet.

  "I wonder why," Indal said. "Keep it covered, just in case." He sighed. "We can probably talk, now."

  As the drive stretched longer and longer, Max asked, "Are you on HeroTube, Indal?"

  "No," said Indal with a snort. "I'm no superhero. I'm going to be a teacher at a college, help people learn to use their powers safely. That's way better than posturing for a load of viewers I don't know."

  "I wish I could be a HeroTuber," said Max wistfully. "But my power doesn't work right. Do you think you could teach me?" He eyed Indal hopefully.

  "Depends," said Indal. "You said that it's an implant, right?"

  "Yeah, ice shard. But I can't get it to work. It keeps freezing my lungs."

  Indal gave him a doubtful look. "That's not right. Maybe the implant was done incorrectly. It should respond to concentration, like breathing."

  "It doesn't," said Max. "They said that I need shard therapy, but I don't have insurance and I can't go."

  Indal peppered him with questions for the rest of the drive. Max kept the gauntlet covered and hoped it wasn't listening. It looked like it had powered down by itself, so maybe he was safe, for now.

  But as they pulled off the highway, a car behind them pulled up almost to the Mercedes's bumper. Another car swerved in front of them and hit its brakes.

  Indal cursed and swerved, ducking out from between the cars. He accelerated down the road, and the two cars gave chase.

  "It's the Cult," said Max in despair. "They know I've got the gauntlet."

  "Keep quiet and let me concentrate," said Indal.

  Max braced himself as Indal ran red lights, maneuvered around cars and up on sidewalks, and cut through a shopping center parking lot. He ate handfuls of ice the whole time, until Max began to wonder if it was some kind of nervous habit. The pursuing cars tried to box them in a second time, then one tried to crowd Indal off the road and into a ditch. Each time, Indal managed to avoid the attack without actually damaging his car.

  Finally Indal lost the pursuit by circling a shopping center and hiding his car deep in an open shipping bay. They sat there with the lights off, waiting in silence. One of the enemy cars drove by without noticing them. Then nothing.

  "Are they tracking me?" Max whispered.

  Indal shook his head. "They're either hunting my car or your gauntlet. Shh. I'm going to run for it."

  He started the car and crept away on a side road. Then he wound through a maze of residential streets before going to ground in the covered parking of an apartment complex. The Cult cars had lost them.

  Indal shut off the engine. In the sudden silence, Max said, "What now?"

  "Come inside," said Indal. "Wavestrider and Eclipse will know what to do."

  Indal led the way through the apartment complex and up to a nondescript door. He opened it, and they stepped into an apartment that was considerably neater than Max's own. The living room was dominated by a huge desk and streaming computer with three monitors, complete with an LED light backdrop and a gamer chair. While the desk was a chaos of soda cans and energy drinks, the rest of the apartment was so clean, there were vacuum tracks on the carpet.

  A man and woman sat at a table in the kitchen, each with their phones, surrounded by empty dishes. They looked up as Indal and Max entered.

  "Hey, who's this?" said the man with an easygoing smile. He was a redhead with fair skin and freckles.

  "This is Max," said Indal. "Max, this is James Chase, alias Wavestrider."

  Max waved with his left hand.

  "This is Xironi," said Indal, gesturing to the woman. She had red-brown hair and cat ears, for some reason. She had the prettiest smile Max had ever seen, and he recognized her as Eclipse at once. She and James wore matching wedding rings, which made Max feel even more tongue-tied. He just stared at both of them, feeling like an utter stranger intruding on these peoples' lives.

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  Indal seemed adept at explaining without actually explaining. He started by asking James if they could get ahold of Jayesh, because Max had potential brain damage and the gauntlet might be part of it. He told them the gauntlet wouldn't come off, but entirely omitted stealing it from the Cult of the Dawn.

  James got up and examined the gauntlet, turning it over and studying the foreign letters etched into it. "Xironi, can you read these?"

  The catgirl walked up and looked at the gauntlet, too. "It's definitely Atlantean," she said, "but it's no runes I know. A lot of them fell out of use after the Calamity."

  "This trackball thing has a camera in it," Max told them. He described how it had watched him and what the screen had said. As he talked, a part of his mind worried about telling them these things. They were strangers. How did he know he could trust them? What if they sold him to the government or the military or something?

  The fact was, he was more scared of the Cult than these people. Indal had spent thirty minutes being chased by cars that tried to run them off the road. If Indal trusted Wavestrider and Eclipse, then Max would, too … if only because they knew Jayesh.

  "Tell you what," said James. "Let me go see if Jayesh is available. It's not too late, yet. I'm sure he'd be glad to see you, Max."

  Max straightened a little, smiling. "I could see Jayesh? Tonight?"

  "Assuming he's not already in bed," said James. "Be right back." He crossed the room to the far wall, where he opened a portal, stepped through, and vanished as casually as if he'd opened a door.

  Max gaped. "What–what happened? Where'd he go?"

  "Portals are one of his powers," said Xironi peaceably. "Come sit down, Max. Can I get you anything? Water? Soda?"

  Max accepted a soda. He sat on the couch and sipped it, keeping an eye on the wall where James had vanished.

  A few minutes later, a black dot appeared on the wall. It opened into a wide ring. On the other side it was dark, but Max could see a hint of grass and a few stars. So Jayesh lived outside the city somewhere, and probably not in the desert at all. Lucky.

  James Chase reappeared, grinning. After him came the dark-skinned Indian man that Max remembered so well. Jayesh's curly black hair had been carefully combed into spikes, and he wore the sort of grungy shorts and t-shirts that people did yard work in. He had grass stains on his knees. When he saw Max, he lit up in a grin of recognition. "Max! Hey! How're you doing?"

  They shook hands, Max offering his gauntleted hand by accident. Jayesh stared at it for a second, but made no remark. Then he slapped Max on the back. "Come sit down. Did you get a shard implant?"

  They sat, and Max told Jayesh all about his faulty shard. Jayesh listened with the expression Max remembered so well, intent and kind. He hadn't changed from a year ago, and Max's hero-worship returned a hundredfold.

  When Max finished his tale, Jayesh thought for a moment. "It sounds like you have shard-based metabolic syndrome," he said at last. He glanced at Indal. "You know about powers. What do you think?"

  Indal shrugged. "That's one option. Since it's his lungs, I was thinking that maybe they inserted it across the organs instead of alongside. Shards may be semi-corporeal, but they have enough mass to do damage." Indal nodded at Max. "Tell him the other thing."

  "I've been mindjacked by a Cult of the Dawn leader," said Max.

  Silence filled the room. Everyone stared at him.

  "Mindjacked?" said Jayesh softly. "If that's so, are they using you to listen to us right now?"

  The thought made the hair on Max's neck prickle with nerves. He glanced at the door. "I don't think so. John Watson, the cult leader, makes me want to go to the meetings. All I have to do is be reminded about it and it hits me."

  Indal said, "I wondered if you could heal it."

  "Me?" said Jayesh. He looked around at them all, put on the spot. "Well, I … I guess I could try." He turned to face Max on the sofa. "Do you want me to?"

  "Sure," said Max. "I hate getting jerked around by Watkins. Then I stole this gauntlet from him and now I'm really in trouble."

  "Wha-ha-ha-at," said James Chase, drawing the word out in a shocked laugh.

  Indal launched into the story of investigating the Cult's supplies. Max slumped against the sofa cushions and closed his eyes. Jayesh pressed a hand to his forehead and healing warmth trickled into Max's skull. Max relaxed. It felt like how he imagined soaking in a spa might feel. The tension ebbed from his muscles.

  As he lay there, he listened to Indal tell the story of how Max found the gauntlet. Max was surprised to hear Indal taking all the blame.

  "I paid him to go in there with me," Indal said, standing with his hands in his pockets and his head down. "Fifty bucks. He helped me look through the boxes. He found a suit of Exile armor while I was getting pictures. I didn't think anything of it. Since when has Exile armor decided to stick to somebody? When he got the gauntlet attached to his arm, I thought it was too small and had stuck that way. But now …" He gestured at the gauntlet. "The camera on the thing has been watching him. The screen was running an operator sync. I think the armor is trying to attune to Max the way it would an Exile."

  Max pushed Jayesh away and sat up straight, staring at Indal. "What? What did you say?"

  "Atlantean Exiles wear magitech armor that is attuned to their bodies," said Indal. "This is new research coming out of Atlantis after the last altercation out there. My theory is that the suit of armor was intended for a Cult member, maybe even Watkins, himself. But you happened to pick up the most important part, the brain of the suit. Shame you didn't try on the helmet."

  Max looked at the gauntlet, turning it over to stare at his palm, then the screen on the back. Was it possible that he had stolen a priceless piece of magitech armor that thought he was some kind of warrior? If it had been intended for Watkins, then Watkins would hunt Max down, personally, and maybe even cut his arm off. The thought was sickening.

  "This is my fault," said Indal, watching Max process this. "I never should have–" He stopped and grabbed the front of his hair with one hand. He stood there like that, eyes closed, inhaling deeply. Then he turned away and entered the kitchen. A moment later he returned with a cup of ice, which he stood crunching.

  "Well well well," said James Chase, folding his arms. "The great Indalrion Tay, pinnacle of perfection, made a mistake. Who would have thought he was capable of such a crime?"

  "Shut up," said Indal matter-of-factly, as if he said it all the time.

  James turned to Max. "So, he owes you big time for this. What do you think we should do?"

  "Help me get the gauntlet off?" said Max hopefully.

  The team looked at each other.

  "Worth a try," said Xironi. "Come in the kitchen, Max. We'll try dish soap first."

  The gauntlet resisted dish soap, coconut oil, and however much they dragged and yanked on it. Their efforts finally ended when Max's shoulder popped ominously and he yelled in pain. Jayesh had to heal a dislocated joint, and Max was left gloomily staring at the gauntlet. It was much cleaner and shiner now, the brass designs gleaming orange in the light. It was wet inside, despite water draining out through the joints in the fingers, and now the inside of the gauntlet chafed his skin. He blew through the cracks in growing discomfort.

  "What do we do, then?" Indal was saying. "Just send him home? Leave him with the gauntlet?"

  "He can't stay here," James argued. "He needs to go home or we'll get accused of kidnapping."

  "The gauntlet, though!" Indal exclaimed, turning to gesture furiously at Max. "Argh, why won't it come off?"

  "Just wrap it up," said Jayesh suddenly. "Make it look like a cast. I have a sling in my med kit."

  Thus it was that fifteen minutes later, the gauntlet was wrapped in gauze, and Max carried it in a sling across his chest.

  "I can say that I tripped and landed on my wrist," said Max cheerfully. "They won't even ask about it at work." He didn't add that the little camera couldn't watch him from under a layer of bandages. This reassured him, too.

  "Come on, then," said Indal. "I'll take you home."

  It was a long, quiet ride back across town. Max gazed out the window and sleepiness grew on him. First the mindjacking, then the shock of being stuck with the gauntlet, then Jayesh's healing … the warmth of the healer's touch lingered in his head somewhere, safe and comfortable. Max didn't feel any compulsion to visit the Cult of the Dawn at all. Had he been healed, or had Jayesh negated the effects of the mindjack? Whatever he had done, it had left Max tired and peaceful. All he wanted to do now was sleep. Maybe tomorrow the gauntlet would come off and he could go back to normal.

  Zero was awakening.

  She had slept for a long time, drifting, vaguely aware of movement and voices, then long silence in the dark. Loneliness plagued her dreams. Where am I? Why am I alone?

  Then He was there, and He was terrible. Zero flinched from him, but he caught her and shaped her.

  You will serve in my army. You will be power and devastation to my enemies. When your operator takes you up, you will serve him without question, as he serves me.

  Zero cowered in silence. After a time, He left her in the armor, and she slept. But it was a restless sleep, always aware that He was watching. The one He had chosen as her operator was coming, and then Zero would be a slave. Even her name would be changed. She would no longer be Zero, but … something far grander and more terrible.

  But something went wrong.

  She opened her eye to see not the cruel, proud man who He had intended for her. She saw a much younger man, scarcely out of boyhood, with blond hair and vivid blue eyes that sparkled with curiosity and life. She studied every inch of his face, memorizing the sweep of his eyebrows and the shape of his nose, the set of his mouth and his square chin.

  But he noticed her looking at him and blocked her view. What? No! I need to see you!

  But he could not hear her. The sync was incomplete. She saw him again, briefly, and felt him trying to remove the gauntlet.

  It won't come off that way, whoever you are.

  Then they wrapped layers of cloth around her, and she could see nothing. But she was awakening, and actively working to sync to this young man as her operator. Better him than the cruel, proud man intended for her.

  Now the young man was asleep. Zero studied his life signs through the gauntlet, his blood pressure and heart rate, the chemical composition of his body. The damp inside the gauntlet made this even easier, but it was harming her operator. Zero drove the gauntlet harder, its runes blazing beneath the cloth wrapping. It grew warm, evaporating the damp.

  I'm sorry, she told him. This armor is not pleasant when wet. If only I could speak to you!

  As her sync level increased, she began to sense his magic shard. Ice type, she was pleased to learn. Arcane class, which she knew well. Something within her fit with arcane shards. But his shard felt … wrong. She would need a deeper sync to understand it and learn how it might be fixed. She anxiously scanned the young man's body again and found markers of shard-related sickness.

  He would not be happy that she was synchronizing with a young man whose own magic made him ill. But so far, Zero had given Him no cause to check on her. After all, He was great and had many other people to watch over, and Zero was nothing. Besides, she was proceeding with the synchronization process, as designed. If He checked on her, he would find her behaving appropriately. He need not know that she had a rogue operator until it was too late. Then … well, Zero preferred not to think about that.

  She felt the young man begin to awaken. If only she could study his face more closely! She would have to content herself with synchronizing with him through his biosigns. It would take longer, but then, Zero was in no hurry. She would sync slowly, bind herself so thoroughly that He would never be able to separate them.