By the time they made it to their assigned barracks, it was already past 11:00 at night. Over two dozen bunk beds lined the walls, but they seemed to have the place to themselves. Atria took the opportunity of a free water closet and a borrowed set of fatigues to change out of her blood-crusted uniform. When she came out, she found Cap approaching Stella and Adam.

  “Stella,” Cap said. “I’ve got a question about what you said in the meeting.”

  “What is it?” Stella asked.

  “So, I get that if I stay here, my powers are going to fade,” Cap started. “So, I’ll lose my ability to fly and shoot lasers from my eyes. But what about things like strength and longevity? I mean, I’m not human to begin with – I fell through a dimensional portal into my world.”

  “I’m sorry,” Stella said. “I just don’t know. You’ll lose any ability that breaks the laws of physics, but I don’t think anything else would be affected.”

  Cap looked slightly unhappy about the answer. “Well, thanks anyway. I’m going to go see if they brought me the street clothes I requested after the meeting.”

  After Cap wandered off, she saw Adam give Stella a hug and kiss and make his way to the water closet. Stella sat down on the lower bed and buried her head in her hands.

  “Are you okay?” Atria asked, stepping over. Stella looked up, her eyes red.

  “I’ll be fine,” Stella said.

  “I’m sure the thing with your documents will get sorted out,” Atria said.

  Stella smiled, her eyes sad. “It’s not that. Well, it’s not just that. When the battle started, I was completely useless.”

  “From what you said in the debriefing, your bluff distracted the thief long enough for Cap to show up. I would have died if that hadn’t happened.”

  “Five years ago, I would have rained destruction on his head,” Stella said. “I would have been able to paralyze him in place, or put a magical barrier between you and one of those spikes of his. That’s all gone now.”

  Atria took a deep breath. “Stella, I don’t want to ever hear you say that you’re useless again. Not ever.”

  “But it’s true.”

  “Why?” Atria demanded. “Because you can’t fight on the front lines anymore? Because you can’t do what you used to be able to do? Everybody goes through that. I’m going to go through that. There’s already things I used to be able to do as a teenager that I can’t do now. You’re not the same person you were five years ago. In five years you’re not going to be the same person you are right now. That’s just life.

  “You may not have noticed this, but there was a grand total of one person in that conference room who had any understanding of why any of this is happening, and that’s you. There’s only one person who has any chance of unravelling all this and getting us home, and that’s you. There’s only one person who those officers are going to turn to for answers, and that’s you. And there’s only one person with enough experience to be a good candidate for first contact with others like us who fall into this world, and that’s you. If a battle starts, you are the only person in this barracks who isn’t expendable. There is nothing Cap and I can do that can’t be replicated with enough firepower. You are irreplaceable.”

  Stella gave her a fragile smile. “Thank you for saying that.”

  “It’s all true,” Atria said. “Leave the fighting to Cap and me – you worry about doing the things that only you can do.” She saw Adam returning from the water closet. “I’ll leave you in the hands of your fiancé.”

  Atria grabbed the lower bunk beside Stella’s and fluffed her pillow. On the other side, Kaguyama and Mitsubi were discussing who would take the top bunk bed. Kaguyama glanced at Atria, and just as quickly glanced away.

  Atria sighed. “It’s okay,” she told him in Japanese. “I don’t hate you for what you said.”

  Kaguyama looked at her. “You have every right to.”

  “I imagine I do,” she stated. “But I don’t. I’m an officer in a combat unit – I’ve sent men to their deaths in diversionary attacks. I imagine what you do is the same. I’m not happy about it, and I don’t know if I ever will be. But, I know there isn’t any malice in it. You do what you need to in order to tell a good story, and I’m just one of the pieces you use to do it.”

  “That’s not true,” Kaguyama said. “You’re not just a game piece to me, and you never have been. None of my characters are. You’re all like the children I never had. I know everything about you – every triumph, every setback, everything. The same goes for Abel, and everybody else in your story. I know how much it hurt you when Abel died, but I cried when I wrote it too. You lost your best friend, and I lost a surrogate son. But that was where the story went, and that was what it required.”

  Atria nodded and settled back in her bunk. “We should all get some sleep. Tomorrow could be a busy day.”

  The next morning they found their luggage waiting just inside the door to the barracks. Included were some street clothes for Captain Infinite – a button down shirt, sports jacket, and slacks. Cap held up the clothes and grinned. “Just what I asked for,” he said.

  Once everybody had finished using the water closet and getting changed, Atria sat on her bed and took stock. Regardless of what happened today, she needed to check her antigrav unit. Her pistol was almost certainly a lost cause – even if it could be located among the rubble from the battle, it wasn’t designed to withstand a building falling on it. She’d also need a new uniform jacket, at the very least – her street clothes were good for now, but if she was going to represent her nation to the Japanese Army, she needed to be properly attired.

  The door opened, and a couple of orderlies walked in with a large folding table and a meal cart. Quiet and polite, they set up the table and laid out breakfast, then saluted and left. Atria and the others sat down.

  “I’ve been wondering,” Atria said to Adam in English, “how did you two meet? I’ve heard Stella’s side, but I would love to know yours.”

  “I found her mostly starved in an alleyway on my way home from school,” Adam said. “She claimed to be a character from a video game I had been playing. So, I asked her for proof.”

  “And she showed you a spell, right?”

  Adam shook his head. “She tried, but she was too weak. Nothing happened.”

  Beside Adam, Stella startled.

  “But she seemed so convinced of it,” Adam continued, “and so desperate, that I made a leap of faith and took her home with me. I got my proof a couple of days later when Stella tried to fetch something from a tall shelf with magic, and accidentally brought down everything on it.”

  Atria nodded. They sat and ate in silence for a couple of minutes.

  “Not bad for army food,” Kaguyama said in Japanese after swallowing. “They’ve gotten better since I my time.”

  “You were in the army?” Mitsubi asked.

  Kaguyama nodded. “Just for three years after school.”

  “That explains all those military terms we had trouble understanding in the anime,” Adam said.

  “You write what you know,” Kaguyama stated. “And I wanted to write a military science fiction story that got things right.”

  They ate in silence for another minute.

  “Well, this brings back memories,” Atria said in Japanese, smiling.

  “What, being in barracks?” Stella asked.

  Atria shook her head. “Being confined to barracks.”

  Stella perked up. “What happened?”

  “So, for any unit in training, the final exercise before graduation is to take on another training unit in live-fire field manoeuvres, using training rounds,” Atria explained. “At least, that’s what everybody in the unit is told. In reality, you’re put up against one of the elite combat units. The army wants to give you a bloody nose and knock some of the arrogance out of you, you see. So, the fact that you are up against an elite unit is a closely guarded secret that the trainees should never, ever discover.”

  “And you did,” Stella said.

  Atria grinned. “Somebody told us about it, yes. So, the night before the exercise, someone – and I’m not saying it was me – snuck into the depot and someone – and I’m not saying it was me – replaced all of the opposing force’s training rounds with weighted foam. So when the exercise started, our unit was the only one firing any live rounds. The CO was pissed. Our entire unit was confined to barracks for one week. They were so annoyed at us that they forgot to swear us to secrecy right after the exercise was done, so we tipped off the next class. Worth it, though, especially since it took us three hours to finish spray painting all that foam. That was the first time I was confined.”

  Stella and the others laughed. “What was the second?” Stella said.

  “Well, two years later it was our combat unit’s turn to go up against the graduating class. And, just in case the word was still spreading about what the exercise really was and somebody decided to do something about it, I went into the depot and checked our training rounds. All spray-painted foam.”

  “But you didn’t report it,” Stella guessed.

  “Absolutely not! Our unit got together, and replaced all of their training rounds with foam too. It needs to be a fair fight after all.” Atria laughed. “Both units were confined to barracks for two weeks. That was the last year they used those training rounds. I think they shifted to a laser targeting system after that.”

  Kaguyama chuckled. “I remember writing that. It was fun. One of the best parts of volume three.”

  “It was volume two,” Mitsubi said. “Remember?”

  Kaguyama closed his eyes. “Ah yes, you’re right. Sorry. I mis-remembered.”

  “Was it based on real life?” Atria asked. “Did you do something like that?”

  Kaguyama shook his head. “The army didn’t do that sort of thing when I went through training. I just thought it would be a good idea if they did, so I put it into your story and let you react to it. It was the first time your character surprised me, and the moment I knew you had truly come to life.”

  “I actually drew you painting the rounds,” Mitsubi said. “I could show you that when this is over, if you want.”

  Atria nodded. “I think I’d like that very much. It’s one of my fondest memories.”

  The door opened and a pair of orderlies entered the room holding luggage. Behind them were two newcomers, carrying duffle bags and looking annoyed. One was an African American woman of medium height and stature with curly hair, and the other was a slightly overweight grey-haired caucasian man.

  Cap waved at them. “Welcome to our little hotel,” he said in English, shifting over to make room at the table. “Plenty of food left, if you want some.”

  The orderlies put down the luggage, bowed and left, closing the door behind them.

  “They arrested us and told us this unbelievable story about fictional characters coming to life,” the man said. “Do any of you know about this?”

  Cap grinned. “Well, I’m Captain Infinite, but all my friends call me ‘Cap’, and I hope you will too. That there is Princess Stella, and there is Major Atria Silversword. The others are Atria’s author Junichi Kaguyama, and her illustrator Aiko Mitsubi. They don’t speak English, but both Atria and I are fluent in Japanese, so we can translate if needed.”

  The two newcomers looked at each other for a moment in disbelief. “Shouldn’t you be in costumes or something?” the woman asked.

  Atria swallowed what she had been chewing. “My uniform got wrecked in battle the other day. I’m waiting to arrange a new one.”

  “I stopped fitting in my outfit three years and fifteen pounds ago,” Stella said. She looked at Adam. “Maybe I should try to trim down a bit before the wedding.”

  “I only wear the tights when I’m working,” Cap added. “They’re in a duffel bag by the bunk, if you want to see them. I don’t mind. Just don’t lose them.”

  “Seriously,” the man said. “Can you prove any of this?”

  Cap stood up. “Yeah, sure. Just give me a bit of space – this is the sort of thing I usually do outside, with lots of clearance.” Slowly and gingerly, he rose to hover a foot off the ground. Then he glided down the line of beds. At the end of the row, he landed and walked back to the newcomers and held out his hand. “As I said, I’m Captain Infinite. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  Both of the newcomer’s eyes turned cold. Neither took his hand. “Good for you,” the man said. “I’m Mark Gable. I write comic books.”

  “I’m Alice Matson,” the woman said. “I’m the showrunner and creator of Jenny Calhoun, Monster Slayer.” The both moved past Cap and sat at the table away from his plate.

  Beside Atria, Stella blinked in surprise. “What’s that all about?” she whispered in Atria’s ear.

  “I don’t know,” Atria whispered back. She turned to Alice Matson and Mark Gable. “Look, we know this is hard to take in, but we can all vouch for Cap. He personally saved the life of Stella, Adam, and me, and he doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body.”

  Cap sat back at his plate. “It’s okay, Atria,” he said, his voice subdued. “They don’t have any obligation to like me, or anybody else they don’t want to. You can’t force people to be your friend.”

  “No, it’s not okay,” Atria retorted, staring at Mark and Alice. “You just snubbed a worthy comrade in battle and one of the best men I have ever met. Which is far more than I can say for your Jenny Calhoun, who is quite the vicious little psychopath.”

  Alice blinked and shook her head. “Wait, Jenny Calhoun is here, just like you are?”

  “Out there somewhere,” Atria declared. “She nearly killed me, and if she had succeeded she was going to kill my friend Stella next because I had ‘annoyed her’. And she really likes the word ‘stabby’ for some reason. So considering what your creation is up to, I don’t think you have any justification for snubbing Cap. He’s right that I can’t force you to like him, but while I am around you will respect him!”

  Alice looked down at the table and swallowed. “I never wrote her to be that way. Angsty, yes, but not vicious.”

  “Well, she’s that way now,” Atria said, turning and lifting her shirt to display the scar on her side. “She’s the one who did this to me.” She lowered the shirt and returned to her food.

  Alice closed her eyes for a moment. “For whatever Jenny has done, I am so very sorry.”

  “Just treat Cap with respect, okay?”

  “Okay,” Alice muttered.

  Breakfast finished in an awkward silence. Once it was done, Atria went to her bunk, pulled the belt and antigrav out of her duffel bag, and brought it to the table. Out of a pouch on the belt she pulled out a small screwdriver set and started opening up the back of the antigrav.

  Kaguyama and Mitsubi sat down on each side of her. “I’ve never seen the inside of one of these before,” Mitsubi said in Japanese. “May we?”

  “Sure,” Atria replied. “Just don’t touch anything.” She opened up the back. Everything looked like it was where it should be.

  “So what happened?” Kaguyama asked.

  “These aren’t built to handle being slammed into the sides of buildings,” Atria said. “So when that happened, it stopped working. Everything looks right...hopefully the shock just jostled the battery for a moment, and it will be fine.”

  “And if it doesn’t work anyway?” Mitsubi said.

  Atria closed the unit up. “Then it’s broken. I’m a combat officer, not an engineer.” She grabbed the pillow from her bed and wrapped the belt and antigrav around it. “Stella, could I get your help for a moment?”

  Stella looked up from where she had been sitting with Adam and Cap. “Sure. What do you need?”

  Atria held up the pillow. “Just stop this, very carefully. If it’s travelling upwards, just let it go to the ceiling. The antigrav is rated to lift up to 350 pounds.” She turned on the antigrav, held the pillow in front of her, and then let it go. The pillow floated in the air.

  “So far, so good,” Atria muttered, tapping the pillow in Stella’s direction. It glided towards Stella. Stella caught it with a delighted grin.

  “You could make a really fun game out of this,” Stella said.

  “Stella, I’m shocked,” Atria declared. “This is an expensive piece of military hardware. I would never use it for such a frivolous purpose.” Her face broke into a grin. “At least, not during on-duty hours. Unfortunately, we just have the one, and it’s already taken at least one shock. So, we’ll have to use it sparingly. Send it back, please.”

  After Atria recovered the pillow, she turned the antigrav off and recovered her belt. All that was left to do was wait.

  She spent a while just sitting by the window and watching. Mitsubi was examining Cap’s tights and peppering him with questions about it. Kaguyama had sat down at the table, opened his laptop, and started writing. Alice and Mark sat uncomfortably on their beds, no doubt trying to make sense of it all. Stella and Adam sat nearby, chatting, with Stella occasionally offering to let Atria join them. She waved her off. Sometimes it was good to enjoy the quiet moments.

  It was a couple of hours after lunch that the door opened and Colonel Sato entered with one of his officers, making his way over to her. Atria stood and greeted him.

  “Your request for assistance has been considered by my superiors and the Ministry,” Sato said in Japanese.

  “And?”

  “It is granted. We will help you.”

  Atria nodded and thanked him. The waiting was over. It was time to get to work.

  NEXT: “Unexpected Meetings”

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