Max was starting to get used to the trolly rides through Lance’s massive guild.

  The area of the Patriot Guild where Max was led had far tighter security than any active teleportation room he’d seen. In fact, in addition to the standard Challenger-oriented security that he'd also seen outside all of the teleportation areas he'd seen, this part of the Patriot Guild also had plenty of electronic and technological security as well.

  Some of it was obvious, and some of it was probably well hidden. But just by what he could see, there were lasers, automatic guns, cameras, and thick steel doors. The walls even had little holes that Max assumed were a way to gas the hallway. He refrained from asking any questions along the way, and his guide, Amy, didn't volunteer any answers–although from time to time she glanced back in amusement, looking for some sort of response from Max. When there wasn't any, it didn't seem to bother her either.

  Finally, the last thick steel door opened, and Max walked through a wood hallway with a beautifully carved oak doorway at the end. Although the door would look like regular wood to normal eyes, Max could sense the mana in it. However, he could also tell that this doorway was not designed to keep people out, it was meant to keep energies in.

  Past the wooden doorway, he got his first look at his destination and his eyebrows rose. The room was larger than his training warehouse back in Vegas. Additionally, half of the room looked gothic, like a giant rendition of some fanciful Frankenstein laboratory. The other half of the room was so high tech and cutting edge that Max doubted most of the tech had existed on Earth even a few years ago. He didn’t have a name for some of the devices he could see.

  "Oh, our visitor is here," a voice came from Max's right. He glanced over and in the antique-looking area of the room, a tall thin man with a ponytail wearing a lab coat that had mystic embroidery, walked over briskly to shake Max's hand. "Hi, my name is Max," he said. He had an accent that Max couldn’t quite place.

  "My name is Max, too.”

  “So I've heard! I suppose good things come in twos, huh?" The affable man grinned at Max and acted like he was elbowing him in the ribs without making any contact.

  Max wasn't sure exactly how to respond and was still thinking about it when a heavy-set woman with purple hair walked up. She said, "Hi. My name is Rissa. You might be wondering how Max knew you were a Max, but we were briefed on you before you came. A long time ago, in fact. The guild's Jefe knew we’d need it so we got a dossier on you. Then we were just told you Returned."

  “Uh, cool.” Max noticed that the woman was wearing a lab coat similar to researcher-Max's. It was also inscribed with runic and mystic sigils.

  Taking a quick chance based on a gut feeling, Max activated his third eye to look at the woman for half a second before turning it off. In that brief moment, he saw a number of destructive and otherwise bizarre energies woven in the wall behind her. There were plenty of magic systems embedded in the lab coat as well.

  Now that he’d Seen it, he understood that every piece of clothing and equipment that the researchers wore was enchanted in some way, mostly for protection. However, during the brief moment he held his third eye open, he also caught glimpses of darker, more disturbing things deeper in the laboratory. Max was glad he’d already shut his third eye–he didn't need to spend much more time looking at that sort of thing. In fact, he was glad that he'd adopted an almost camera flash methodology to using his third eye, if he used it anymore.

  The lesson he’d learned, back when he’d Seen the Morrigan, had stuck.

  In fact, sometimes he forgot he had the ability now. After getting psychically wounded, he’d used it less, and on top of that, he hadn't been a Summoner all that long to begin with. Max had long accepted the fact that he would probably always be a Blade Sorcerer first and use his other powers as a way to support that Path, rather than vice versa.

  His head snapped around as a third researcher walked up from behind a rack of plants on the technology side of the room. The man smiled warmly at Max and said, "Hi, I'm Matt. Nice to meet you." Then, clearly feeling awkward, he stalked forward the last couple strides to quickly and shakily pump Max's hand before stepping back. Like researcher-Max, this man was tall and thin, but where researcher-Max was dark and had a bit of a scruff, this man had fair hair and was cleanly shaven.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  A new woman approached from the far side of the room. Like the others, she had on a mystically embroidered lab coat, but she also wore what looked like a white, witch's hat. She bowed and clicked a button on a device that she was wearing on her lapel before she started speaking Japanese. An energy built in the air, and through his supernatural senses, Max could almost see, or even feel a few lights. It felt like they were hovering around the woman in the witch hat, and reflexively, feeling no danger, he reached out and mentally plucked them. As soon as he did, everything the woman was saying was very clear to him, although he could still hear her speaking Japanese.

  "Hello, Max-san. My name is Fujiisawa Yukari. Like the others, I am one of the researchers here in the Patriot Guild Applied Science Department. I am actually tasked with working as the manager of this group, so it is very convenient that we developed these devices early on," she said and tapped her lapel gadget. "It only works for other Challengers though. And... They're very expensive to produce."

  Max frowned, and in Quartet, he said, "Why don't you just speak Quartet if you don't have a common language with someone else on Earth?"

  The four people in lab coats exchanged glances, and it was researcher-Max who answered. "Unfortunately, not all Returners actually truly keep the Quartet language. And most who return don't have perfect command of it. Nobody knows why most people can almost always use it to speak simply or give commands in Quartet, but for what we do here in the lab it’s not deep enough. We really need to communicate precisely. In fact, we have had to actually invent probably a thousand words in the last three years!"

  Rissa laughed. "Ain't that the truth," she said.

  Max thought about what he’d just heard. He said, "So it's nice to meet all of you, of course, and I'm glad that you're going to help me with my people-summoning problem. I don't think it always takes a genius to recognize one, but I’m glad I have a team of geniuses to help me." He let his voice trail off, and the four researchers chuckled politely.

  Matt said, "It would probably be good for my ego to accept that compliment, but along with your dossier from the guild leader, we were also told in no uncertain terms that you are a very powerful Challenger, too–at least on par with the guild leader. Maybe even stronger."

  “That last bit was our extrapolation,” said Rissa.

  Researcher-Max cracked a grin. "The memo also said to keep any theories we formed about you or your relative power to the guild leader absolutely secret. Part of me thinks it was to help you and with this project’s secrecy, the other cynical part of me thinks that the longer the rest of the world believes that the guild leader is one of the strongest Challengers in the world, the better off the Patriot Guild will be."

  "You're not supposed to say that part out loud!" said Rissa.

  Max grinned. He had a feeling that he was going to like these four researchers. He said, "Lance told me that you all have been working on teleportation, like, summoning people, for a while now.”

  “Correct. That project was started to assist you,” said Matt.

  “Well, now that I'm here, what do you need me to do?"

  Fujisawa was the researcher who answered. She said, "We have actually built a detailed observation pod, and we have something very simple to ask you to do."

  Risa nodded. "One thing that's holding us back is that we need a really good read on your energies or at least the ones at play for how you might be summoning people from another planet."

  Max nodded calmly. He still wasn't sure exactly how much Lance had told these people but he figured that now was probably not the best time to hold too many secrets back. He replied, "Yes, I still have a pretty good snapshot of their individual souls, or energies, too."

  All the researchers nodded. Fujisawa said, "We interviewed the guild leader at length about all of his interactions with you over the last few years we've been employed. During that time we learned about the beads that you asked your friends to wear and we surmised what that had to have been for."

  Max made a face, showing that he was impressed. "So what else do you know about me?"

  "Well," said Rissa, "we know that you can use some sort of subspace as well and that this might be in some way linked to whatever abilities it is you might be able to use to move people here from another planet."

  Max thought about it a moment before slowly nodding and saying, "I guess that's fair to say."

  "Okay, good," said Rissa. She grinned at him with glittering eyes. "Then I just need you to step into a box over there in my area of the lab and open this subspace gate of yours so I can watch."

  "Really? That's it?"

  "That's it," she said with a nod.

  The other researchers were looking strangely excited and nervous as Rissa she spoke though. "Is there some part of this you're not telling me that I'm not going to like?" he asked..

  Matt slowly raised a hand and coughed. "The guild leader might have mentioned that you have a few interesting spirits and that if they manifest it may be a," he paused again, "an experience. We are led to believe that one of your most…intense spirits might be part of your subspace ability."

  Suddenly, cutting through the room like an ice-cold blade through pig flesh, Saliron’s voice drolled, "I do believe they're talking about me, contractor." The dark spirit wasn’’t speaking loudly, but his voice echoed off the walls, like he was death-made flesh, gracing them within a vast underground cavern.

  All of the researchers froze, stiff as a board, and Matt's knees grew weak for a moment. He caught himself.

  "Oh my," said Rissa. Her eyes held more fear now, but still sparkled. "That's probably the one we heard about."