​     The four members of the Dawson family met them in the living room.

     Abby, Skip. Alison. Cathy.

     It felt so good to see them, Niki almost felt like crying. 

​     She hugged Cathy and Abby good and hard. 

     "Are you hungry?" Abby asked. "I could fry you up a couple eggs, if you'd like."

     "Oh my God on some coffee, please," Niki said. 

     "I could use a little something to eat," Trevor said. "I don't know about eggs, though. We were halfway through our workout day, back in the training zone."

     "Don't mind him," Niki said. "He's always hungry."

​     "I'm a growing boy."

​     Damn, that Alison's turned into a real looker, Trevor thought. 

     "You have no idea how good it is to see you two," Cathy said. "It's just been us for the last four months."

     "We can't even get on the net," Skip said. "Technolica controls all of that now."

     "Not all." Gramps indicated the technology that surrounded them. "We've got our own power source and everything else."

     "What's the situation?" Niki asked. "We haven't a clue what's going on."

     "Why'd the Azure eject us?" Trevor asked. "We're not in training anymore?" 

​     "That's over," Adam said.

     "The seventh, and final, talon has been in play for the last year," Gramps said. 

​     "Technolica, you mean."

     "Exactly. Every resource on the planet now goes through either him or Mother Naturia, and they've utilized those resources to, among other things, build a portal a hundred miles in circumference up in the Arctic."

     "A portal leading to where?"

     "The universe that is The Fours," Adam replied. "They get their way, and by dusk the Earth will be dead as ash."

     "Buzz kill," Trevor said.

​                                                  CONTINUE