Vector slept fitfully all the night, lost in a maze of colourful circus rubble and blackened skies. The Eyes pursued him through the darkness with the rhythmic tap of light sprinting.

Tack, tack, tack, tack …

Metal footsoles clinking with the ground. The steel limbs raced like the pulse across his chest. Tack, tack, tack, tack …

Closer now. Accelerating. Tackatackatackatacka

The creeping fear gripped his heart, but Vector was no coward – he spun, primed like a boxer to take down whatever came while blood rushed tackatackatackatacka through his ears.

The red dagger-eyes lunged; the skeletal claws clamped 'round his neck. No matter how he spun, how certain his senses - the assassin mech always caught him from behind.

--------------------------

Vector jumped from the dream, surfacing into Miss Vanilla's guestroom.

The nightmare. Just the Nightmare, nothing more.

Yet his ears still registered the rhythmic tack, tack, tack.

The window.

Springing from bed, Vector yanked the porthole inward and his snout out.

"Psst! Look up, V-Man!"

The domed roof above Vector's window had grown lumpy over night - as though a gravedigger had packed a spread-eagle body into the wall and seeded it with grass. Behind a scowl, Vector had to admit the pigments matched a perfect spring green, but a careful observer would still notice gloves, boots, a horn and open eyes and connect the dots into the scaley green spider clinging upside-down to the burrow wall.

"You liddle creeper! Get in before somebody sees ya!" Vector stomped aside and let his partner scuttle indoors. "Real cutesy," Espio jabbed, eyeing the pinko girl's room.

"We ain't supposed ta meet till it's dark! Whaddya doin' here?"

Espio fidgeted with his wristlets, like he was ashamed. "Well ... I changed my mind, okay?" The chameleon would not meet his eyes, and busied with examining the family photographs on the dresser. How long wus he sittin' outside that window last night?

Esp grunted quickly. "Besides, I figured you'd have screwed something up already."

Vector had a finger raised and jaws wide but a sound at the door interrupted his retort. The Reptiles swivelled to the entrance, to the shadow of footsteps seeping through the trim and the turn of an unbarred knob.

In a crack, Espio was a lump skirted under the bed sheets; Vector did his best to squash it down. The door fell open and two doughy blobs (standing on one another's shoulders) tumbled like a beanstalk into the room. One plopped straight on its face; the other wailed and dangled off the doorknob a panicked moment before bumping its bottom.

The impish cries stirred Charmy from sleep, and the Honeybee rubbed his groggy eyes, then gasped, wide awake. "Oh awesome! Chao!"

Two sweet chao were the spies - onion-headed cuties with wide eyes and large, clumsy paws. The first to fall was a neutral baby blue; its partner had darkened to an ugly, mottled brown. Charmy was up and playing with them in a flash. Espio uncovered his head to look and Vector breathed easy.

More footsteps clopped down the hallway. Before Miss Vanilla could interrupt, a pillow was in Vector's hands and smothering Espio's head. "Mornin'!" he shouted over Espio's protests, stretching his grin till his gums hurt.

The rabbit landlady raised a delicate paw to her small lips. "Oh dear!" she fretted, and flew in with single mind to collect the offending chao. "I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Vector, Mr. Charmy." The bed sheets were giving muffled screams, but she overlooked that detail in her anxiety. "Cheese, Chocola, you leave our poor guests alone!"

The babes wriggled in her arms, but she held the chao with mother's experience and blushed an embarrassed smile. "I apologize. I'm afraid these boys aren't used to having my daughter away for so long. They must have heard you and come to say hello."

Vector grinned and nodded absently, swinging his legs to account for the random, rocking-chair creaking of the bed. His elbow hammered down on the pillow and he covered up by propping head on his fist.

"Well, since the two of you are up, I hope you don't mind if I'll go ahead and start breakfast? You'll have quite the day prepared for you."

"Beg yer pardon?" The bed twitched less feverishly now, dying reflexes.

Vanilla surprised herself once again. "Dear me, that's right - I never told you. Well, I've arranged for you to take a guided tour of the town. For your newspaper article, of course."

"Huh? Oh right, right teh Spooner. Yeah." So this was what she'd been scheming over last night's dinner!

"Well then, please come right ahead when you're ready to eat." Miss Vanilla curtsied and left with her chao.

She moved all too agonizingly slow. Vector shut the door and whisked off the covers. Espio surfaced and coughed out his lungs. "You are dead!"

Charmy widened with excitement. "Are you gonna use a Ninja voodoo Touch of Death on 'um, Espio?" A very sad, cynical look-over was his response.

"Yeah, sure kid. The Touch of Death - just like my ancient ninja master taught me." Charmy edged in close, waiting intently but Vector wasn't even worth a retaliatory bop this morning. "So, you're a news reporter," the chameleon sniffed, sauntering the room once more.

"Kid's idea," Vector explained, getting up. "But it's gonna be our ticket inta every house 'n burrow here in Serena! An 'o course," he added slyly, "Can't have a newspaper story without pictures." He scooped the still-shot camera from his bag and gave a test snap. Charmy went giddy at all the sneakrecy!

"Waste your time if you want," placid Espio shrugged, rapping knuckles on the wardrobe's varnished frame. "I already know where she's hiding."

"Castle Hangue, eh?" The chameleon rotated an eye; Vector explained. "Landlady told me 'bout it last night. Says its haunted."

"Peasants, what do they know." Espio snorted. The rabbit lady seemed downright slow in his mind. No way a normal person could be so fluffy and polite all the time.

Vector had shouldered his knapsack and was helping Charmy to pull up a stuck zipper. "Well, we're gonna snoop around town t'day. If you find anythin', you come right back here!"

"Once I find her ..." but Espio did not finish.

Fully dressed, Charmy exploded down the hall to the smell of food. Vector stole a glance back at Espio - the chameleon was giving a very critical study to the cornerside wardrobe.

"Whaddya you plannin', Sneak?"

"Nothing!" Espio blurted, and Vector shrugged, wondering why the chameleon's colours were so high-strung, or why he treated the joking question like an accusation.

--------------------------

Charmy's whole face bobbed up and down as he mashed his food. "Pass the syrup!" he chirped, and lathered his cereal with the sticky stuff the way a normal person added milk. The chao gummed down their homemade mush, sitting on the table direct, and even Vector had difficulty restraining his inner wolf, the food was that good! Miss Vanilla relayed him another stack of pancakes. "Can I offer you some fruit, Mr. Vector?"

The croc swallowed and shook negatory. "Sorry, Ahm a carnivore - don't believe in eatin' plants."

"You don't? Oh."

He went on. "No offense Miss, but it's cruel - I mean, it's all unsportsman-like goin' around, eatin' a form of life so low, so beneath ya, it can't even get a chance ta run away or defend itself!"

She watched him for a beat, gorging down his flapjacks. "Mr. Vector, those cakes you're eating were made from flour, from grain; from plants."

"Yeah," he conceded, nabbing the syrup, "but all this sugar's gonna give me diabetes, so I like ta think we're even."

After a careful consideration, Miss Vanilla smiled. For all the calm of her face, she seemed always busy to Vector; planning ahead. Even now she was spooning food to the little baby-blue chao - who fussed and mewled, without appetite.

The nasty-brown one was pawing at Charmy's food, throwing the bits of cereal he stole at the honeybee with glee - and nipping at fingers whenever the boy tried feeding him directly. Charmy took the nastiness as a good-natured game, mimicking the chao whenever it stuck out its tongue. "Aren't they cool, Vecter?"

The brown chao also looked to the crocodile for confirmation - flashing a gummy smile with two baby teeth like fangs. Vector scowled and pulled the chao far away.

"Ahum, pardon me, Miss," he said to ignore the boy's protesting, "there many udder visitors in Serena right now?"

The landlady put a finger to her chin, drawing up a list. "Well now, let me see - first there's Anna, the mouse at the - "

"A mouse?"

"Why yes - she came only a few months ago. I think she said she was vacationing from university; well, she's working at the tavern to pay -"

Vector didn't stay to hear more. He excused himself and plunged down the hallway and into the bedroom. Espio bolted from his slouch and hid a photograph behind his back. "What?"

Vector only stared back at the juicy scene he'd interrupted, his intentions sidetracked for Later. Espio: leaning up against the cornerside wardrobe, arms crossed, back slouched, just the way he liked to lounge around the office. But there was something oddly laughable with the chameleon spread out comfortably in a girl's sugary-pink room.

He had to think of something to say, to cover the laughter threatening to escape. "Ohh ... nothin'. Whatcha lookin' at?" He pointed to the photo behind the creeper's back.

"Beat it." Espio's glare was dead-serious.

Vector approached and tried to swipe the page. "If ya wanna look at pictures o' girls, go ahead, but gimmie a peak!"

"I said beat it!" Espio finally ducked and rolled through the croc's legs, retreating to the porthole window. "Forget you - I've got better things to do!"

"Fine then!" Vector retorted. You keep yer secrets, I ain't givin' up mine! Let the creeper crawl through an empty castle all he wanted. He needed no help closing this case!

--------------------------

"WOW! Lookit all the party stuff, Vecter!" Multi-coloured streamers linked the ringing trees, while paper lanterns were staked along the roadsides, welcoming crocodile and honeybee into Serena.

"Everyone's preparing for our annual spring festival," Miss Vanilla explained to her boarders. "At the end of the week we'll have music, a dance and a prize for the masquerade's best costume."

Miss Vanilla's chao were cradled along for the walk; Nasty, as Vector thought the dirty-brown one, was squirming to escape and fly along Charmy, while Mopey - the depressed bluebell - just smothered itself into its mistress's arms. The rabbit landlady didn't seem to mind; she held them dearly all the same. "Isn't it wonderful?" she beamed, " Serena's own little backyard carnival!"

"C-carnival?" Charmy was oddly still and attentive.

"Yes, at the end of the - oh my!"

Charmy had turned and shot away from the town at top speed. He wouldn't turn even for Vector's calling. "Hey Kid! Kid! Ah no," he cringed, starting a jog. " Hold on, I'll get 'im"

The burrow door had been yanked open, and he could hear Charmy's sobs from the front room. The little honeybee had smothered himself under a pile of blankets and he shrieked when Vector lifted the covers.

"NO! I don't wanna go - you can't make me! NO!"

"Charmy - "

"Don't make me go," he pleaded, soft and meek. "I don't wanna go ta the party, Vecter."

Carnival was the term Charmy meant to use, but he certainly couldn't say that word without conjuring up the Nightmare. Vector scrambled his brains for something comforting.

"Hey, relax kid. Relax!" Carefully, he sat on the bed. "Look, yer scared about goin' ta the ... the party, right?" A nod. "Well heck - if you don't wanna, no one's gonna make ya!"

Was the boy listening over the tears? He needed bigger guns. "I fact, I betcha we'll find teh Queen an be outta before that dumb ol' party starts. Okay?"

Charmy had slowly inched out of his blankets - now he smothered himself in Vector's gloved claws, holding tight and crying. Vector jerked away, shaking the boy off. "Uh, listen, I gatta get back ta Miss Vanilla. You uh, you maybe wanna stay here a bit? You gonna be okay?"

Charmy was stunned from the rejection, but he bit back his tears and nodded.

"Well, okay then." Vector stood and left the room slowly, but once out of sight his sneakers bolted from the heavy anxiety.

Alone, Charmy grabbed a pillow and sobbed into the feathers.

Miss Vanilla interrogated him the moment as he returned. "Is Charmy all right?"

"Uh, yeah - guess I fergot he don't like carnivals."

He couldn't wipe the concern from her eyes, but she nodded and accepted his tale. "I hope you don't mind if we first stop off at the chao garden - these two are almost ready to Iotae, and my daughter would never forgive me if something awful happened."

Vector hadn't noticed, but Nasty and Mopey were awfully big, their topknots sprouted from an infant's nub. Any day now they could fall into Iotae sleep and begin their evolution to adulthood.

"Ain't no problem, Miss. I can see how the brown one 'ud make ya worry."

Miss Vanilla bunched her eyebrows and checked the muddy-brown chao. "You mean Chocola? Oh dear me, no." Her eyes shifted to the saddened blue. "It's Cheese I'm concerned about. He's been like this ever since my daughter left," she whispered. "He's homesick, Mr. Vector."

"Ain't he - "

"Home isn't a place, Mr. Vector."

--------------------------

Time felt super long whenever he wasn't feeling good - and Charmy was sure he'd hidden under the bed the whole day, he felt that miserable.

Feeling hungry and bored - but not better - Charmy wriggled out of the covers to nibble on some of the crumbly snacks he an' Espio had taken from Beth's place. He hoped he could see auntie Beth again soon. Whenever he had a really boring day, he'd visit her window at the police station. She had this cool secret police car that looked normal, but still made lights and noises. A couple times, she had to go investigatin' and she let him ride along and he got to play with the sirens!

It was too hot inside! With a bit of brute work on the front door Charmy escaped to the open air. With him was his favorite rubber ball, and he adventured himself a game - tossing the toy to the air and catching it before it hit the lava on the ground.

He was kinda starting to feel better.

Charmy played a game of catch with Missez Vanilla's front door. He was good at playing an' imagining by himself. The honeybee pitched a fast overhand toss and the ricochet socked him in the gut and knocked him down.

Uhhh ... It was a dizzy kind of hurt, and he wondered why that made him laugh. ... Wait a sec, that wasn't him laughing!

It was coming from the tree on top 'a Missez Vanilla's house! He hovered up the hill and squinted his baby eyes into the dark eaves.

"BOO!" A black shadow pounced and tackled him down! Bird talons pinned his shoulders to the grass and a bony beak poked its nostrils into his face.

"I GOTCHA!" Avery crowed, tittering and singing "I scared ya, I scared ya!" Charmy recognized the magpie's voice and squirmed to get away.

Her legs pegged him tight! "C'mon, can't cha get up, Biiiiirdseed?" Charmy pouted and wriggled but she was too heavy! "That's not funny!" he yelled, kicking as though buried alive. Only when she pushed off his body and into the air could he get off his back.

"Go away!" he ordered. He was grouchy all over again "I don't wanna talk to you!"

"Well I don't hafta listen to you, so there!" The white hi-lighted magpie fluttered back to the tree, and clamped her talons into the trunk, refusing to budge further.

Ooh, she made his teeth grind just being near! Last night, Avery'd got him all dirty - that was why Vecter got mad and didn't wanna see him! It was her fault! Last night, she made him race her maybe six bazillion times an' she beat him every time - an' every time she beat him she giggled at him and told him he was slow - and that she was better than him until finally he ran away!

Well he'd show her - he wouldn't listen and he'd pretend she wasn't there! Charmy dusted himself off and reclaimed his ball.

The game of catch was nerve-racking - there was an itch Charmy couldn't get rid of! Every time he made a rude glance to the tree, Avery still hadn't left. She acted perfectly casual - clinging upside-down to a vertical axis and throwing her neck back like she was looking up at the clouds. Except she was watching him, and she kept humming some stupid song that got on his nerves!

"Whatcha doooin'?" she quizzed.

"Stuff," Charmy countered.

"Well it looks dumb! C'mon, you're comin' with me, Birdseed!"

"Nu-uh! You can't make me!" Ha! But Avery was fast. No sooner had he pitched his ball, she lunged for interception. "HEY!"

The giggly magpie flapped overhead, talons hooked into the ball. "If you want it back, you gotta come with me," she teased.

"I don't wanna!"

"Fine, I don't care."

Before Charmy could threaten to tell on her, she was already leaving, ball in tow! By the time he found Vecter or Missez Vanilla, she'd hide it. Grrr... "Oh fine!" he huffed. She wouldn't win if he made a big fuss about it.

"Hurry up, Birdseed!" She made a show of slowing and treading on the spot so he could catch up. "Where're we going, anyway?" he grumbled, hoping she'd let him close enough to grab his ball back.

"We're gonna go monster huntin'!" she declared, keeping him at arm's length.

"Monster huntin'?" He forgot completely about the stolen ball, transfixed in her words.

"Yup, yup, yup! A real-live one - I saw him yesterday, an' I'm gonna catch him an' your gonna help me, Birdseed!"

Her tone stressed that he had no choice in the matter, not that he wanted to leave anyway. This was just like being a super-rad detective! "What do I do?"

Avery giggled to herself. "Live bait!"

Second thoughts entered Charmy's brain. Avery nattered on anyway. "First we gotta find the monster again - I saw it walking in the valley yesterday: it's big, an' it's green an it's got a long beak with lotsa teeth an a tail ..."

She drilled off the monsters stats: little legs, super-huge arms that went down to its knees. ... Green ... teeth ...

Charmy wasn't so sure this was a monster anymore. It sounded a lot like ...

--------------------------

Vector lounged at the garden gates while Miss Vanilla deposited her chao with the village veterinarian. He didn't mind the wait - he knew exactly where Ellie Slater was holed up, so what was the rush? He could bag her photo anytime.

His tour guide apologized immediately. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. There was ... a delay."

Vector had heard raised voices directed at his landlady from inside the chao garden's veterinary office, but if he asked, she might steer the conversation back at Charmy's phobia.

"Y'know - maybe I'm bein' nosey here - but I don't undastand why y'ain't worried about that - whats 'is name - Chocola?"

"I'm not sure I follow, Mr. Vector."

"Well Miss ta be poifectly honest, he's a nasty liddle sneak, he's greedy, he steals - I think he bosses that blue guy around - an he bites!"

"Oh, do you need some ointment?" Quick as a bunny she'd grabbed his claws, looking for puncture marks. He pulled away, flustered.

"Uh, I - I'm fine! B-but that chao! I mean, just look at him - he's all black an' brown. What's gonna happen when he Iotae's? The kid's goin' rotten!"

"Mr. Vector, chao may blacken and bruise, but they aren't like fruit. They don't spoil. Chocola can be ... quite the rascal - "

"So instead o' havin' a good kid, you'd take a liddle devil?"

"Yes! And I would love him all the same!"

He hadn't expected such firmness. Even Miss Vanilla seemed flustered by her tone, and diminuendoed to her motherly softness.

"It's Cheese I'm worried about, Mr. Vector. The poor thing's been upset something fierce ever since my daughter left. I have to force him to eat, he's so lonesome. It's the early years that are most important to a chao - if they don't learn and keep their energy up, well ... some of them come out of the cocoon unchanged; others don't come out at all."

She looked to him, and to Castle Hangue. "It doesn't do one well to get stuck," she whispered.

He could never agree with her. He was falling into memory: the long-haired girl from Corvalis and the two full-grown chao he'd rescued - one solid white and gentle; the other black as tar and filthy to the core. Both with wings, antenna and yellow stripes. Both terrifying possibilities.

"Things're fine teh way they are," he grunted. " They don't need ta change … or grow up inta someone rotten."

"Mr. Vector - " But he hushed her, shushing his lips and darting his snout around with suspicious sniffs. "Mr. Vector, is something the matter?"

"Nuthin," he muttered. "I just had a crazy feelin' we was bein' watched..."

--------------------------

Avery ducked her head back into the tree, fixing a disbelieving look on Charmy. "You live with that Monster?"

"Vecter's not a monster - he's a croquet-dile!" The twigs here were too close for him to hover, so he sat and swung his legs from a safe branch. Avery hung upside-down from her roost, wings spread to hold her balance.

"You're supposed to live with your mommy and daddy," she said, an accusation of lying.

"Well I kinda got lost from my Mommy and Daddy!" He'd been mad and the words blurted out.

He had her full attention.

"- but it's okay," he said quickly, "cause Vecter an Espio found me, an I get ta stay with them. Vecter told me it's kinda like havin' a sleepover!"

"So what're you doin' in Serena, huh? There's nobody like you here."

"They're ..." he hesitated, "You hafta promise not to tell, but they're detectives! An' as soon as we get a lotta money, they're gonna help me get back home!"

"Detectives!" Now she was excited. "Are you here ta catch a badguy?"

"Ssh! It's a secret! You gotta promise!"

Avery gave a short laugh as she flipped out of her inverted perch. "You can't make me, Birdseed!"

"Where're ya goin'?"

"I-m n-ot tell-ing!" she singsonged.

"Well gimmie my ball back!"

"Oh that?" Avery had kept her hostage close, cradled in a nest of branches. She gave an uppity huff and used a leg to knock it to the ground. "Take it - I don't wanna play with your stupid ball anyway!" And the white-trimmed magpie launched into the sky.

Oooh! His favorite ball had fallen on one of the mushroomy platforms on the tree-fort level where the birds lived. Charmy dived out of the branches to pick it up. Vecter had gotten him that ball - now she'd probably messed it all up!

"Heads Up!" The call came too late, and something round and rubbery twhacked Charmy in the back of the head and off his feet. Ow! ... Huh?

The missile was a rocket-shaped rubber ball - like a brown egg with pointy tips - and a rainbow of sleeves dangling off the bottom end. The novel shape and bright colours immediately made him forget his pain. "Whoa - cool! What's that?"

A prissy voice giggled his answer. "That's my Rocketball," Avery declared, fluttering down to hold a talon over her toy. "An' it's a million times better than your dumb ol' ball!"

She grabbed the rocketball by its tassels and went airborne to show off: spinning in a circle and hurling the ball like a discus. The torpedo flew in a perfect arch, streamers dancing in the sun, and bounced onto the mushroom pad, barely missing Charmy. He was too awestruck to care about the second near-hit.

"That's awesome! Can I try, can I, can I?"

"Pretty please?"

"Pretty pleeze," he mirrored.

"With a cherry on top?"

"With a cherry on -"

"Now bark like a puppy dog!"

"No!"

"Fine - here! Bet you can't throw it as far as I can!"

"Oh yeah?" They were off and running once again.

--------------------------

Vector couldn't contain the boogey beat of his heart - the day was simply marvelous! First Miss Vanilla took him to the solar farms where the villagers collected sunlight to power their machinery; then the acres of orchards that fed the people. His cover as a reporter went smoother than imagined - visitors were entirely welcome, and the villagers were happy to tell their stories over tea and a meal.

Everyone was most generous with food, Vector discovered, waddling from interview-to-interview and having a meal offered at ever stop! Vector recalled the tradition of the stone blocks aside every door: Every home he entered was its own little monarchy, and the homeowners checked themselves with the obligations of a king.

Miss Vanilla never actually joined him for the chats, but waited hermit-like at each burrow's front gate. Vector noticed the villagers giving his landlady a wide birth when they passed her in the street.

Community life centered around the non-burrow constructions: the schoolhouse and the church. Between these centers and farmwork, (and ministering to the tourists) everyone kept content and busy. Vector relished his visit in the chapel, bowing his head in prayer under the Four stain-glass windows portraying the Primaries, and the Great skylight high above.

That evening, Espio snuck into the burrow once again; the poor creeper was sooty and dusty from excavating the castle tunnels, and Vector figured his partner had suffered enough to spill the beans. "Hey Esp, did I ever tell ya I found our lady? Calls 'erself Anna now; works at the tavern!"

The croc had been positive he'd blow the little guy's fuse this time. It would've been a sight to remember. But Espio wasn't upset at all; in fact, where his scales weren't grimed over, he looked a little pale.

"Tell ya what, Esp - I found 'er; you finish the job. How's about you sneak inda that tavern an get us a mug shot?"

Espio caught the tossed camera. "Yeah ... sure. Later."

That word would serve as both their mottos in the days to come.

For the next three days, Vector and his crew settled into routine. Every morning he and Miss Vanilla would leave to inspect an area of town, or to complete a checklist of interviews arranged by his landlady. Espio made himself scarce in daylight hours. Charmy meanwhile, would hurry to shove down his breakfast and race out the burrow door and to the woods. If he came late to the meeting place, Avery made fun of him!

Avery informed him that she was going to be a historian and an asplorer when she grew up (that's explorer, Birdseed!). She would be just like her grandma, who had discovered a whole new wing of tunnels beneath Castle Hangue while only a little girl. The feisty magpie always wore her grandmother's red bandana round her neck to seal the family legacy.

She told Charmy that even though he was slow and funny looking, he could be her assistant. It would be his job to carry all her asplorin' equipment (a neck satchel where in-flight bird talons could rout around for spades, pails an' water bottles) when she went on a dig. And if he worked super hard and helped her every day, she might let him be in the newspaper pictures when she got famous.

To cinch the deal, Avery whisked him away to the forest where she kept her secret hideout inside a rusted old water tower. There was still icky water inside, but Avery had built a floor by nestling big tree branches and sticks inside until they stuck together as a lattice. She showed him her hunting trophies - old, creepy skulls and pieces of bone she found around the valley. The bones were each so grotesque and foreign Charmy had no doubt they could only belong to Monsters!

"A lotta this stuff I found just a couple months ago. I think it's because the Moon got broken an' it's darker at night - that's why the monsters are coming out from the castle!"

Avery took him around the woods to see the recent phenomenon of 'Witch Spots': scorched circles of earth where a witch had been brewing potion. Sometimes a patch of grass and brush had been incinerated, but even rock could be scorched black. Charmy remembered Missez Vanilla's scary story: Wraiths gliding through the valley as they please ... Thunder on cloudless nights and fire bursting in the darkness.

Avery wasn't afraid, though - if they found a witch, all they had to do was squirt her with the water bottles and water guns from Charmy's satchel. "Witches are made of sugar," Avery explained. "So if they get wet, all their little crystal pieces can't hold on ta each other anymore."

She had a tankload of arcane knowledge that always left him awed. "Wow, you're smart, Avery!"

"Well no duh!"

Everything about Avery was different: she had a hard beak instead of lips, feathers instead of scales. Her legs bent backwards like his elbows, and had three long toes that wriggled like his fingers and a fourth coming out of her heel! (Charmy decided it was sorta like having a thumb on your wrist). She could squeeze these hands like a clamp, rotate at the wrist and even stretch her legs as far as her shoulder to scratch her neck. When she ran, her feet bent backwards, up to her tummy and pushed forward like a scoop - he got to think of Avery as walking on her hands, and told this to the magpie.

"You're really weird, Birdseed." Her left 'arm' knocked him on the chest, and the weight from his assistant's satchel made him wobble and fall to her giggles.

Her wings were for flying, and maybe to spread for balance when she ran fast. She pushed and punched him using only her talons.

When they weren't digging for bones or hunting monsters, they played games like catch, rocketball, or hide-n-go-squeak (because whenever Avery found him, she jumped on him and made him squeak).

Then there was story-swapping. Avery demanded to know everything about Corvalis, about the Chaotix and Beth and all of Vector's detective cases, listening very carefully, but then she'd snort and tell him that his stories were stupid, that cities were too silly to be real (Houses as tall as mountains? - Liar!).

Charmy wondered if Avery was weird because she was a bird, or a girl. She kept changing! Avery was creeper black from long, bamboo-reed tail to pointed, predator beak, but with shoulders and wingtips dipped in innocent white. When she listened to his stories, she seemed white covered with black. When she'd toss her rocketball at him, she was black with bits of white. Her eyes weren't any help - mischievous, chao-blue eyes balanced perfectly in-between.

Avery's wings were her bicycle, reserved for tall distances or hurried moments - getting across town, or over the woods. She moved in gymnast strides and fluttering leaps, both ground and branches. She didn't seem to like his four membrane-wings, or how he could hover hours at a time and not get tired. "That's cheating!" she huffed one day, grabbing his ankle and pulling him into the dirt. "You have to walk beside me, Birdseed!"

To make sure he couldn't get away, she insisted he hold her wing, giggling with victory. Charmy couldn't remember the last time he'd used his legs other than a landing pad. He and his satchel cramped up and collapsed in fifteen minutes. Avery was not impressed. "So what're you supposed ta be, anyway?"

Wasn't it obvious? "I'm a bee!"

"Well no duh - what's your Primary? You're not an Eagle; you don't have any feathers."

He drew a blank, and Avery snorted again. "Geez, don't you know anything, Birdseed? The Lord made four perfect peoples in His own image, and we all come from those Primaries!"

"Lord Who?"

"Argh! It's not a Lord, it's The Lord; He doesn't have a name!"

"How come?"

"Because, stupid, my mommy says that when you give something a name, that tells you who and what it is. An He's in everything and He's everywhere, so you're not allowed to say He's one thing or one name. He's God - He can do whatever He wants!"

"Can he make a rock so big even He can't carry it?"

"If He makes you smart, I'll buy that."

"Hey! I am so s-m-r-t! ... Anyway, what's a Pimenerary?"

"Primary, stupid! God made the Four Primaries, an' they were the Dragons, the Manticore, the Angels an the Eagles."

He was catching on. "Oh - so then Vecter's a Dragon!"

"Pff! No he's not! There aren't any more Primaries, dummy. They're all dead: they Fell!"

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"Now this is teh life!" Vector slurped back on his lemonade, enjoying the sunset and the ember-red sky like a relaxing fire from under the burrow's hillside tree.

"Good food, great weather; wundaful neighbours," Miss Vanilla dropped her eyes glumly (obviously she was feigning modesty at his lavish praises - didn't hafta look so depressed, though.)

"Hey, didn't you say you hadda daughter?"

Miss Vanilla immediately woke up, and perked up. "That's correct - my little Cream. ... Well, I shouldn't be calling her little any more. She'll be seven when she returns from boarding school this summer."

The rabbit femme had enrolled her child in the Anova Academy of Learning, at no small expense. "I gadda ask - what's with teh school? I mean, you gotta great joint here in teh valley; that teacher lady I interviewed seemed plenty smart. Why ya keepin' yer girl away from home?"

Under the setting sun, Miss Vanilla gave a soft, sad smile. "I want to be sure I've let Cream see the world, and everything that's outside these valley walls. ... Because ... I don't think there will be a Serena very much longer."

His drink was on the table and his eyes completely attentive. "I don't think there's much life left in the old ways, Mr. Vector. People are growing tired of farms and struggling off the land; and so many new people have come with new ideas and new ways. So much of our money comes from tourism these days - in ten years or so this valley might be nothing but private cottages and hostels.

"So I want my daughter to see the people and cultures outside our little village; I don't want her to be overwhelmed and unprepared when they come for this place."

Vector panicked at the thought of his private paradise bulldozed into suburbs, swimming pools and golf courses. "That's awful - no, it's woise; downright sick!"

"Do you think so?" She smiled. "It's keeping yourself locked up and hidden away that's truly terrible." Her tired eyes looked to the lakeshore. "Hangue believed he could do just that - but the Lord has ways of shaking us from our complacency."

Then she looked at him. "Charmy's lucky to have a parent who can show him so much."

A shame arose, hearing his lies resonate from this innocent and generous woman. The Dragon-spawn gave a long and defeated sigh. "He's not really mine - "

"Oh don't say that, Mr. Vector. Adoption doesn't make you any less of a father -"

He laughed, a short, mocking bark. "Me? I ain't no Father! I let teh kid run wherever he wants, all day! He ain't goin' t'any school; he can't write, can't count! Kid can't even read a map! I tried teachin' him stuff, but he's so slow it just gets me so mad I can't stand it!"

His face was clutched in his leatherhide claws, hiding his failure. "I stole him, Miss. I didn't adopt him; I didn't sign any legal papers. I just took him."

"Mr. Vector - "

"Y'ever heard what happened ta teh Carnival Island Amusement Park?" The wide eyes and hand over her mouth were his confirmation. There was no going back now. He had to be purged.

"Three years ago - that made me seventeen; I'd just come over from the Westside Islands, figured I'd give big city life a try. Was a nightmare tryin' hold down a job, but I thought I hit the jackpot when I got aboard teh security team fer teh Island. They payed for teh ferry rides every morning ... heh, I had this crazy blue shirt ..."

"I was workin' the day The Doctor took over.

"First thing they did was blow up the docks, t'keep any ships from gettin' out. All these metal bees started droppin' from te sky, blastin' stuff while teh submarines heaved on shore 'n started unloadin'. I'm tryin' te keep things cool, while all these egg robots start marchin' up, proddin' people inta groups.

"They sandwiched off all teh Island's sections - marina, water park, fun house. Then they start dumpin' down these huge capsules, an' start herdin' groups inside: one box fer each ride.

"Y'd never think it, but all those lines an' turnstiles an gates - amusement parks 're pretty much ready-made prisons. I was in teh security office when they shoved me inta one of them metal boxes. Got ta share my cell with this Armadillo - name wus Mighty.

"Then it was darkness, an everythin' outside was screamin' and rattlin'. I wish I could've gotten away, at least then I wouldn't hafta imaginin' pictures behind all teh screamin'.

"Don't remember how long I spent in there, but teh prison door just opened. Me 'n Mighty figured 'that was that', and our goose were cooked. That's how I met Espio."

You can stay in here and die - be my guest. But how about you make yourselves useful and watch my back?

"Espio was a Chameleon - he could change colours, an' when those robots came, he hid until he got brave 'n snuck up on one. He wus just a kid - a runt - but you should've seen the guy: he was so tough, so serious, I thought he was older than me!"

The chameleon child had stolen a laser gun and shot up the guards around Vector's prison cell. He and Mighty and the little reptile boy had armed themselves and made a mad dash to escape, shooting the robots that crossed their path and unlocking whatever prison capsules they found. Espio and Mighty wanted to make a suicide break for the shore, encircled by predator submarines, but Vector championed them to go at the main security office, where the robots had set up shop. None of them knew how robots worked, but the newspapers always said there was a man in control. Maybe He would call off his robots under a little pressure?

The newly forged trio stormed through roller coasters, fun houses and entertainment tents, making use of all the shortcuts Vector had mapped while patrolling with security. They were no warriors, and spent a good amount of time hiding and dodging the relentless patrols. With the airborne buzzbombers, it was often best to run through - not around - the indoor arcades.

One such detour was the Speed Slider, a children's area full of video games, pipe mazes and slides. "We busted up all teh robots; teh other guys were movin' on, when I hear somethin' horrible ..."

A voice: just a weak mewling, tiny, scared and confused, but painful enough to pull the crocodile from his teammates. The voice was coming from the ball pit. Vector curled his claws around the rim and dipped his armored, saw-tooth snout over the pool.

Two round, caramel eyes whimpered and locked stares with the massive muscle and teeth. The boy had the most adorable fuzzy hair and a dab of sunscreen on his chocolate-chip nose. He was so cute, he made Vector forget the invasion and lapse his security role.

Hey guy - where's yer mom n' dad?

The boy shied his face into the ball pit and shook his head.

Ah - y'don't know?

He nodded quickly. The questions were enough to get tears going, to remind the child how frightened he should be.

Well my name's Vector; an I woik here. Why don't we go look fer them t'gether, okay?

The little boy sniffled and nodded okay.

Back in Serena, Vector was choking up. "He was just a little guy then - I could hold him in my hand, just like that. He never let go 'o me the whole time. I put 'im in my shirt pocket, but they guy crawled out an' grabbed me by teh neck an' he just held on like he was gonna die if I left him ..."

"But how did you get off the island - Did you find Iv - I mean, The Doctor?"

He'd hoped to avoid this part. "Wasn't 'im. He sent down one of 'is generals ta take care of this job. I know, cause when the four of us gat ta teh security office, he was waitin' fer us. Watched us on cameras teh whole time, an figured we might be some fun."

The lights cut off; the doors slammed shut. They caught his profile in the security monitors before he shut those off as well: a metal skeleton crowned with crescent moon spines; a twisted, wire-frame hedgehog forged in blue metal.

And then the monitors shut down, and there was nothing but the hungry red eyes and the sound of bony claws scraping together like sharpened knives. "Come and die."

Vector said no more. He only pointed to the areas over his body where the assassin mech had dug in his claws, guiding her furred palms over the scars. "How did you escape that monster?"

"That," Vector snarled, "is where The Guardians helped out. We didn't escape. He had us on teh ground, when teh whole buildin' started shakin. A wall fell in, an we could see teh harber. Military Division had five juicy aircraft carriers surroundin' teh island, an they were blastin' teh bees from the sky, an sinkin' all teh subs in the harbor. Game was up - that hedgehog mech smartened up an' jetted outta there before they could drop anuder bomb on 'im.

"After he left ... after the cannons kept firin', we figured out this wasn't a rescue operation. G.U.N. was out there ta make sure that boss mech, an' every last robot on Carnival Island was wiped out."

Vector's fists hammered the table, and he bit his teeth to keep his eyes dry. "All those people! They were still stuck in those capsules! They didn't have no way out.

"Mighty an' Espio were too hoit. I carried them, an teh kid, an ran fast as I could while teh bombs kept droppin', an' everythin' was fallin apart - teh rides, teh robots - everythin'. When I got ta what's left of teh harbor, I grabbed a wood board and paddled. They never saw me leave - they never saw that mech leave. We were just too little."

It took till nightfall, but the mainland came. Then the vacant weeks in the hospital, the bar, the departure and the partnership forged. And when the immigrant brought Espio back to his first apartment, the wide caramel eyes were waiting.

"An' I kept him. An now there's nothin' I can do. If I sign him up for school, for a flyer's license ... if anyone figures out how I found him they'd take him away. They'd take him away."

He could keep brave no longer, and excused himself, breathing deep breaths to hold in the flood. His story, his sin, his eyes - everything escaped.

He could hear Miss Vanilla's skirts, and sucked it all back, propping a hand against the burrow. She observed him a length, then approached the scaley, hunchbacked monster, laying a hand to his shoulder.

--------------------------

Over at Avery's secret watertower fort, magpie and honeybee sunbathed atop the riveted metal roof, trying to guess what the puffy clouds overhead looked like.

"It's a kittycat!"

"No it isn't, dummy, it's a big lion!"

Charmy's sigh flopped over the outpost like a heavy, smothering blanket. This wasn't all that fun bein' wrong all the time. "I'm bored," he huffed.

Avery twitched her beak his way. "Bored?" she exclaimed, something akin to panic in her voice.

"I guess." Actually, he was achy all over from playing tackle rocketball, wrestling, and more full-contact racing. Never in his life had he conceived Tag to be such a violent sport, but when Avery caught you, she made sure you felt that touch. "I think I'm gonna go home."

Before he could buzz away, Avery rolled to her stomach and pushed onto her feet. "No! I didn't say you could go, so you're not allowed to go!" She fanned her wings like flags to block his path.

"Well what're we gonna do then - I don't wanna watch clouds no more."

"Um ... um..." Avery's wings drooped and she clicked her talon's desperately. She perked "Oh! I know! We can go see the movie stars!"

"Movie stars?"

"Yeah! There's this lady who came here a couple months ago; she lives up on tha mountain with her butlers, an she's the prettiest lady in tha whole world!" Avery paused to heave a fangirl sigh. "Wanna go see?"

Like eager little rockets they whisked over the forest and over Serena and when the sunlight suddenly shut off, Charmy slowed and realized their destination. "T-there?" he gulped, craning his neck back to take in the black sickle curve of sinister Mount Fang. Avery had lured him all the way underneath it's shadow and the black mountain stretched over all he could see.

Avery fluttered back and tugged at his wrist. "C'mon, Birdseed, don't be a baby!"

They flew low into the shadowlands, skimming the ground, "Cause if she sees you, she gets super mad! My mommy says she's hidin' from the newspaper men!"

The younglings ducked into the forest marking the entrance to Mount Fang. Charmy felt like he'd gone into a cave; goosebumps pricked over his arms. Everything was dark, and wisps of green moss hung off the gnarly trees like ghosts reaching out to catch him. He grabbed Avery's talon at the wrist - but only because he didn't wanna get lost. He wasn't scared!

The haunted forest was all incline, growing up the foothills of Fang. A path zigzagged left and right, sometimes stopping and growing into a clearing where dark wooden cabins had been built. "They're the Chateaus, dummy! Rich people come an' live in um when its summertime!"

Avery ordered a landing, and they waddled off the path and into the creepy bushes. The magpie fixed him a look. "You gotta be super quiet, okay?" Charmy nodded vigorously, unsure whether those were branches or skeleton fingers brushing his back.

Their heads peered through the creepers. Charmy had to squint - this wasn't like the other houses, where the forest canopy broke to let in red sunlight. Whoever owned this place had let the trees grow and cover the property like a thundercloud.

He saw the final chateau, though. A tower, tall and narrow; no wings or attachments, just three rickety stories of ivy-swarmed planks. The windows were drawn, except for an attic porthole that glared light like a single angry eye.

The front door - the monster's mouth - belched out yellow light. Avery squeaked and pulled Charmy's head into the bushes. "Hide! The gorilla's comin' out!" Charmy fought from her feathery grip to let an eye peep through the leaves. "You gotta be quiet," she warned.

An ogre of a man had thundered down the front porch, rattling the wood with every footfall. He was taller than the doorframe, had to move sideways to shove his broad shoulders through and totally hidden underneath a full-length trenchcoat and a wide-brimmed hat.

Avery whispered the man's backstory. "Everyone says he's really ugly - that's why he wears that coat." Charmy noted the monster was hunched over - despite his elephant height and bulk, his floppy hat stood no higher than his shoulders. Avery said he was a gorilla, but Charmy thought the figure looked a lot like the scarecrow he'd seen in a picture book - a tall, terrible specter with beady eyes, and long straw fingers whispering out of his coatsleeves.

The scarecrow dragged a fat garbage bag over to the caged, animal-proof bin at the edge of the yard. He swung and slammed away his load violently, making Charmy gasp. "Quiet!" Avery hissed at a whisper. Charmy was getting tired of her whining.

"I AM QUIET!"

The scarecrow snapped his hunched face in their direction. He curled his straw fingers and stomped for the bushes, rattling the land. Charmy and Avery shrieked falsetto and bolted.

When they exploded out of the forest, they didn't stop until they were on the opposite end of Serena - at Miss Vanilla's burrow. They panted and huffed like sore dogs underneath the rabbit femme's umbrella-like tree, back at where it all began. Charmy was scratched and lashed by branches; Avery was carrying brambles in her feathers. They looked at each other, all tousled and tired and giggled together.

Then Avery knocked him with her talons. "Dummy! You were supposed to be quiet!"

"Ow! Well sor-ry!" He wasn't angry long, though; running away had been so fun! "Hey, d'you wanna come in for some juice?"

"No," Avery chirped. "My mommy says Missez Vanilla's a bad lady an' I'm not supposed to talk to her."

"Oh."

She leaned her beak into his face. "If you tell anyone we went and bugged that lady, you're dead meat!"

"I wasn't!"

She made him pinky swear a vow of silence, and they shook their smallest fingers on it. Then it was time for Avery to go home. "I'll be at the base tomorrow morning, and you'd better be there, Birdseed!"

Somehow, he felt sore just thinking about playing with Avery again.

It occurred to him that he'd been ripped off - he never got to see any movie stars, just movie monsters! Maybe I could ... Charmy stole a final glance at Mount Fang. The blackrock tower leaning into the valley, like a dagger preparing to drop, and it seemed to suck out all his courage.

Like a bolt of striped lightning, he was at the burrow door, banging to be let in, while the sunlight failed and the shadow of the Fang stretched its dagger hand for the valley.

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