Mrs. Sparks dropped Sunny off at home with the promise they would talk about things when she was done for the day. At the very least, they would have to break the bad news to the Hyperions who were not going to like their girl running off after being put in a hospital to be looked after until she woke up from whatever had gone on.

Sunny frowned at being the bearer of bad news. Why hadn't Emily asked Ra to do it for her instead? Sure he was a bird, but that would make things more believable if he started talking to them.

Sunny went to her room. She still had homework to get through, and studying the next few chapters. Her mom would help her with Emily's parents.

She doubted they would take their only child running off without asking very well.

A tapping came from her window. She looked over. The orange bird looked at her. She imagined it was saying let me in, or else. She went over and opened the window. Ra hopped inside and flapped to her computer desk.

“So, why me?,” asked Sunny.

Sunny's desktop switched on. She frowned at it. The bird selected Word and opened it with a touch of the mouse.

Emily chose you to be her proxy wrote itself on the screen.

“Emily said that you needed a defender for the city,” said Sunny. “What am I supposed to do?”

Fight the forces from other places.

“With the masked thing you gave me?,” asked Sunny.

It is a small piece of me.

“What happens if I die?,” asked Sunny. She sat on the bed.

I will have to pick a new champion to preserve this nexus from invasion.

“Neither of us want that,” said Sunny. She smiled to hide the shaking that decided to work down her spine to her hands.

What do you plan to do about the Anubians?

“I don't have a clue,” said Sunny. “They are obviously kidnapping people to put in their machine like batteries. I might have done something when I blew out their breaker box, but the sky got dark again really fast.”

Another expedition?

“I can't beat their numbers by myself,” said Sunny. She closed her eyes. “The light power you gave me hurts them, but if I can't blow a permanent hole in their darkness, I will lose ground on their turf.”

She heard clacking and opened her eyes to read his reply.

They will not fight in the sun if they can help it.

“Do you know how long it will take them to fix the damage I caused?,” asked Sunny.

No. I am unsure they fix anything. I think they just add on to what they have.

“What happens if I can destroy enough of that machine,” asked Sunny. She had an idea the sun would come out and the Anubians would really hate that.

I don't know. I imagine they would rebuild and return to raiding for batteries to power it.

“And that would be bad,” said Sunny.

A large portion of people would have to be taken to resume their darkness capability.

“I can't save any of them already there, can I?,” said Sunny.

I don't know. If you do expose the Anubians to the direct light, it might stop them for good.

“And that's what we want to keep people here safe,” said Sunny. She decided to put that away. She didn't have any ideas on how to shut everything down. “What are you?”

I am the defender of Earth.

“What does that make me?,” asked Sunny.

My proxy through Emily Hyperion. When she returns, you will be allowed to step down if you want.

“So I don't have to fight all the time?,” said Sunny.

“No. I never intended to have two champions in existence at the same time, but Emily's plan needed it to happen. It was luck that you could use the gift I gave you. If that had not happened, I would have had to pick someone else.

“I still have to tell her parents she went away,” said Sunny. “Any tips on that?”

I have no idea what you can say to make them feel better.

“They'll want answers, but I don't have anything,” said Sunny. “I doubt they will accept taking a job right out of the asylum after supposedly being in a coma.”

It seems difficult to believe.

“Maybe Mom can help me break it to them,” said Sunny.

Perhaps. Do not let your guard down. The Anubians know you are on the board. They will be looking for your interference now.

“You can't do anything?,” asked Sunny.

If I did, things would get much worse before it got better if it did get better.

“All right,” said Sunny. “I will try to think of a way to stop the Anubians, break the news to Em's parents gently, and try to get my schoolwork done. Maybe I can get two of those things done before I graduate.”

I will be watching. I am sure you will accomplish your goals.

The bird flew out of the room, heading for the open sky beyond. His words remained on the screen to assure Sunny the conversation had taken place.

She still didn't know how she was going to deal with things. Her mind picked at the future talking with the Hyperions. There was no easy way in her mind to break the news that your daughter didn't want to talk to you before moving to another dimension to fight monsters. Despite what both Ra and Emily said, she wasn't sure that the move was temporary.

And there was nothing she could do about it either. She certainly couldn't follow Emily without Ra's permission, and she didn't think he was going to give it to her unless she found a proxy for herself.

And there was an issue of how much power he would be willing to split between three agents.

She doubted he would be willing to take on one more girl so he could send his original backup after his first choice.

She had to do what she could until Emily returned.

Sunny walked over and saved the conversation to a file. Maybe Ra could make more agents, maybe he couldn't. Until he did, she was on her own.

She went through her schoolwork. She had hours before either of her parents came home. She might as well knock it out before she had to do any monster hunting. When she was done with everything, she packed it up in her bag for the morning.

She still had time. She used that to look at how to shut electronics down. The most obvious answer was magnets. She decided it would take a magnet as big as the city to knock out what the Anubians had built.

And she had no way to rescue any of the trapped people in the yellow cells. What happened to them when she did knock out the machine? At least she knew some of them had been used up by the machine before she got the job.

She didn't see any way to rescue any of the people by herself. Maybe if she could open a hole and let everyone try to get out while she held it would be okay, but she felt that their numbers would overcome her despite her ability to cast light on them.

Her mind turned back to the use of magnets. How much damage could she do with one? What if they had installed shielding to protect their machine from such a thing?

An EMP bomb might work for what she wanted, but she had no way to build such a thing.

Maybe if she had some way to cut the wires to cut the darkness off over where the damage was done, she could force some kind of rerouting instead of repair. If she did it often enough, she might be able to create a safe zone for people to leave the machine and come home.

She didn't know if she had a way to get an acid powerful enough to cut through metal. That was something to look into.

And depending on what the damage looked like, it might take them a long time to find what she had broken and fix it.

Maybe her chemistry teacher could advise her on what she needed.

She put the ideas down in a separate file. The problem, if she did break part of the machine, was how long did she have before they could block the sun again and trap her on the scene. The first foray had led to a hole that had lasted maybe a minute for her to use to come home.

And she doubted Ra could open a hole from there to here unless he was inside, or taking advantage of what they were already doing. The next time they talked, she had to ask what his limits were on that.

If he could make an exit from there for her, part of the problem would vanish. If he couldn't, she would have to hold out until she allowed the sun to shine there and created an exit on her own.

She didn't like that plan at all. There were too many moving parts for her to make it work.

Did she have to stop them on their homeground?

She decided to put it aside. She still had to deal with her parents, and by extension the Hyperions.

She wished Emily hadn't put her on the spot.