Next morning, Emma arrived with transport.
Transport to her meant luxury cars... several of them, each worth more than the house Phong's inherited from his uncle and aunt. All of them sleek, polished, expensive enough that even the air around them seemed to cost money. Different brands, different shapes, different shades of rich. The kind of cars built less for driving and more for making a statement before the owner even stepped out.
Phong stood at the edge of the curb and looked at the line of luxury vehicles with open suspicion.
Emma noticed at once. Before he could say anything, she folded her arms and spoke first.
"My family owns shares in most of these brands."
That did not help.
Phong looked even less pleased.
Emma sighed.
"The Tannenbaums agreed not to dig too deeply into my involvement with you," she said, "and to trust my judgment, as long as I can turn this into financial and influence gain for the family."
There it was.
The real answer. Not generosity, not friendship alone, not support without strings. Phong groaned softly and rubbed one hand over his face. Of course it had to come with business logic.
Still, after a moment, he let the hand drop and nodded once.
At least Emma was honest. At least Emma was someone they could trust to say the ugly part out loud. That counted for something.
So the team accepted the rides.
Dominic took the first car as driver, settling into the seat with the same steady calm he brought to everything. Alex got in beside him. Phong took the back with Bruno and Nyx, and both animals immediately decided leather seats meant this was now an excellent adventure.
Alexei drove the second car.
Emma climbed into that one with the air of someone entering her natural habitat. Before the door fully shut, she explained the schedule through the open window.
"We gather at the clubhouse first. My family prepared it for the team." She adjusted her sunglasses. "Then we head to the East Coast press conference, make our appearance, and draw opponents for the group stage."
Jake gave a low whistle from where he was getting into Dominic's car.
"Clubhouse."
Joanne grinned. "We really sold our souls."
"Not yet," Emma said. "That comes after sponsors."
Rico had been trying to choose a car based entirely on which one looked easiest to commit crimes in. Emma solved that by grabbing him by the scruff and lifting him one-handed into Alexei's car. The raccoon protested for exactly two seconds. Then Emma showed him something on her phone.
Rico went silent at once. Alexei leaned slightly to see. "What is that?"
Emma turned the screen just enough for the others nearby to catch a glimpse.
It was a design mockup. A mascot concept for Team Nemean. A lion-themed rider in sharp, dramatic armor, mounted on a lion-shaped bike that looked like it belonged in a very expensive toku fever dream.
Rico's eyes widened so hard they almost left his skull.
"I want that bike."
Emma smiled slowly.
"I'm considering making a prototype."
That was the wrong thing to say to the right raccoon. Rico's whole body trembled with immediate devotion. He sat down in the passenger seat without another complaint, staring at the design like he had just seen heaven.
From the back seat of Dominic's car, Phong heard enough of that exchange to know disaster had just been born.
He was half stretched across the seat while Bruno tried to climb into his lap and Nyx pretended she was not also angling for attention. Phong scratched Bruno under the chin, let Nyx lean against his side, and sighed in deep, prophetic exhaustion.
"It will never turn out good," he said, mostly to himself. "Not with Rico and Emma involved."
Alex, seated in the front beside Dominic, glanced back at him.
She looked far too amused.
"You're too tense."
Phong raised a brow.
"At this rate," she said, "you might scare Daniel Harlan just by the look on your face."
That got a small snort out of Dominic.
Phong leaned his head back and closed his eyes for a second.
"Good."
Alex laughed quietly.
Then the cars pulled out, one after another, smooth and silent and expensive, carrying Team Nemean toward cameras, press questions, sponsorship vultures, and the first public steps of the game they now had to play.
The clubhouse turned out to be exactly what rich people thought a team of divers would want.
Wide glass windows. Separated and expensive neighborhood. Closest store 2 miles due east. A private gym downstairs. A lounge that looked too expensive to be touched by muddy boots. More polished wood and soft leather than Team Nemean knew what to do with. The whole place carried the smell of money, new furniture, and quiet staff who had already been told not to ask questions.
They had barely stepped inside when another team rose from the lounge to greet them.
There were only three of them. The one in front stepped forward first and smiled with the easy confidence of someone used to cameras.
"Ron Takeyama," he said. Japanese American, broad-shouldered, clean cut, and carrying himself like a man who had spent years being the center of a team and liking it. "Leader of the Bronx's Musketeers."
He gestured to the woman beside him.
"Tanya."
She looked like an influencer who had somehow picked up enough levels to make the image dangerous. Her hair and makeup were flawless, but the way she stood said she could still kill someone before the livestream buffered.
Then Ron nodded to the last member.
"And James."
James had the kind of athletic build that made it obvious his class and his body got along very well. Black, tall, and all spring-loaded power, he gave Team Nemean a nod instead of a handshake. Ron looked over the whole group and grinned wider.
"I've been a big fan of you guys since before the rebrand. Back when you were just Team Dominic."
That made Dominic blink.
Ron kept going.
"The footage you uploaded to the diver league platform, the cockroaches and the body snatchers, that was really good work. In-depth. Clean. Well put together."
Emma tilted her head slightly, pleased.
"That was mostly our people not panicking enough to forget documentation."
Ron laughed. "Whatever it was, it worked. Half the East Coast has been talking about that canyon ever since."
Phong stayed quiet through most of the introductions, watching the group with the same careful eye he always had around strangers. The Bronx's Musketeers did not feel hostile. Not fake either. They were polished, like a team that had already learned how to live in public.
Emma, standing slightly ahead of Team Nemean without trying to, said, "Between matches and downtime, we can arrange practice bouts with the Musketeers if you want."
Ron nodded. "We'd be happy to."
Tanya had not said much yet. That was because she kept looking at Alex. Not rudely. Not obviously enough to call out. But it was still enough that Alex noticed.
And once Alex noticed how Tanya was looking at her like she was a door to a treasure room, she did what she always did when someone made her feel like a piece on a board she did not agree to stand on.
She stepped closer to Phong.
Just a little.
Enough that their shoulders almost touched.
Phong noticed, but did not react out loud. He just let her stand there and asked Emma the question that had been in his head the moment he saw the other team.
"Why are they only three people?"
Emma glanced between the two teams.
"Because diver league teams are usually actual diver teams," she said. "And those tend to be smaller than ours."
That made sense.
She looked over Team Nemean and let the implication sit there for a second.
"Our team is unusually large because we have unusually strong members. Alex. Dominic. Alexei." Her mouth twitched faintly. "And because you had help."
Phong knew what she meant. His plants. Their buffs and utilities. His camp. His support.
But, thankfully, the public didn't know any of that just yet. To the world outside, Team Nemean was just a strangely stacked team with too many talented people and one suspiciously normal coach.
After a little more polite talk, the teams split and Team Nemean went to their own assigned room.
The moment the door shut behind them, the mood changed.
Phong pulled out his phone and sent Emma a message through the group chat rather than say it aloud.
[Would your family bug this room?]
Emma checked her phone, then looked up from the couch.
"No," she said. "The Tannenbaums see Team Nemean as a high-value investment. They're not going to ruin that by snooping out of curiosity."
That relaxed a few shoulders.
Phong sat down then and looked around at the room, the city beyond the windows, and the shape of the next half year waiting for them.
"Six months is too long," he said.
Everyone looked over. He continued, quieter now.
"I need to go back to camp sometimes. Check on the elves. The plants. Our allies."
That got teasing smiles almost at once.
Joanne was first.
"Listen to him. Dungeon mayor."
Jake leaned back. "Mayor. King. Local vegetable warlord."
Alex smirked. "Uncrowned ruler of Lake Baratok."
Phong gave them all a flat look, but one that lacked real heat.
Dominic, more practical, said, "We already thought of an excuse."
That got Phong's attention fully.
Dominic folded his arms and said, "We tell people we want to practice real combat in the dungeon between games."
Emma nodded. "That's believable too. Probably even good for our image."
Janet added, "Then Team Nemean escorts you back to camp."
Jake grinned. "And we get a short vacation."
Joanne stretched out on the couch. "A vacation where the food is better and nobody tries to sell me shampoo or sports drink contracts."
Alexei, who was already half thinking about the chickens again, said, "And the poultry miss me."
That part nobody answered. Phong looked at them for a moment.
At how naturally they said it. Not like a burden. Or a favor. Not like they were talking about going to his weird hidden base because they had no better option.
They said it like Camp Stymphalian was a place they could rest.
A place they trusted.
A place that felt like theirs too.
And that made something warm and quiet settle in his chest. Because that was what he had wanted without ever saying it aloud.
Not just a safe base.
A home people chose to come back to.
Phong smiled, small but real.
That did not get past Alex.
"What?"
He shook his head once.
"Nothing."
But inside, hearing them talk about resting at his camp like it was the most natural thing in the world made him happier than he expected.