Here's the thing about monsters: they don't strategize often. They usually attack randomly. They are big and brutal and ugly. And the worst part: they don't discriminate between people to destroy.
When I got out to the parking lot, I knew we were in trouble. I'd run into a lot of monsters over the past month and a half, but I'd never seen this one before.
The monster looked like a huge scorpion, with wolflike fangs and a tail curving over its head. Its exoskeleton was shinier than Chevrolet plating – and possibly tougher than the Blazer. Its eyes were a tan like cicada sheddings. When it opened that fanged mouth, it let out a sound somewhere between a snake hiss and a tiger's roar, but much louder.
"Holy crud," Amos said, shaking his head. "What is that thing?"
Sonic ran up to us. I was not surprised he'd responded to the alert so quickly. "Scorpio," he muttered.
"Excuse me?"
"Scorpio. It's an aggressive monster. And tough to kill."
"I think I guessed that," I said quietly.
DJ studied the scorpio. "Doesn't mean we can't try. We approach from the side. Maybe it's got a blind spot –"
Which was right when I heard a scream.
Achmed!
I cursed under my breath. The scorpio was zeroing in on our direction, all right, but not on the Hangar. Instead, the monster was heading toward the easiest piece of human snack food on the lot – my brother.
I started to run toward Achmed but tripped on a crack in the asphalt. Seriously, even if you wanted to preserve the place as it was, someone had to maintain that lot, even if no one was technically operating there. Those cracks could take down an avadark.
"Hey!" I stretched my hijab out and whipped at the scorpio. Naturally, from my terrible aim, I hit the fence, causing it to rattle and shake in a way that would give away that someone was occupying this piece of land. Nevertheless, I got the scorpio's attention.
The thing turned toward me. First step accomplished: Distract the monster.
Now for the second part.
"Hey, ugly!" I shouted, hoisting myself up from the pavement. "Why don't you quit attacking my brother? He didn't do anything to you."
"¿Tu hermano?" Vinny Lee asked.
"Oh, great," Amos muttered. "Does he always look for stuff that's not good for him?"
"More like it finds him," Tails commented. "As it finds us."
The scorpio wheeled on me, its eyes questioning as if it was thinking: Do you have a death wish?
I quickly bolted to the side. Please understand, this was not a move of cowardice. I simply wanted the scorpio's focus on me. The scorpio roared and charged – smack into the fence. While the fence was more than strong enough to hold against humans charging at it, it most certainly wasn't adequate for a giant monster ramming it. So if you see the fence line on the south side bent out of shape like something large hit it – whoops. Our bad.
"RAAASSSS!" The monster screamed as it went down. It tried to shake off the section of chain-link fence that had hit it, but some of the fence links had gotten caught in its legs, and it tripped. The sight reminded me of those old anti-littering PSAs about birds getting tangled up in plastic loops for six-packs, and I would have felt quite sorry for the scorpio had it not been trying to kill us.
"Are you crazy, Imira?" Amos asked as he caught up with us. "And it took out our fence."
"Forget the fence!" I exclaimed. We had bigger problems here. I yelled at my brother: "Achmed! Get out of here!"
Achmed stared instead.
"Achmed, I said go!" I was getting infuriated with my half-brother at this point, and wondering how we could be related at all.
"Imira…" He sounded terrified.
Huh? It took me a second to realize he wasn't looking at me. In the next second, I thought, Imira, you idiot.
I hadn't noticed the scorpio was about to make a move. I was still close enough for it to attack. The thing lashed its tail, which was very much not tangled in the downed portion of fence, at me. Instinct took over and I dodged the tail, rolling to the side.
Turns out, another few seconds and I would have been a goner. As it was, the scorpio's tail hit a crack – the same crack that had tripped me thirty seconds ago – and got stuck in there. An acrid smell filled the air as the asphalt melted under the venom in the tail. I quickly scooted away, as I was not in the mood to be dissolved.
"RAAASSSSS!" the scorpio shrieked again.
"Acid tail?" Amos yelled in shock. "That's completely unfair!"
"Whatever the case," DJ said, "I wouldn't want to keep its tail in there."
As if picking up the hint, the scorpio pulled out its tail. Good news: it wasn't melting the asphalt anymore. Bad news: it could now melt us with that tail, and it looked torqued off enough to do so.
"Achmed," I said for the third time, "get out of here now. It's too dangerous."
"That's the guy!" He'd seen Amos. "The guy who led me away from the library!"
"Yeah, you can thank him later! Get out of here now –"
That's when the situation got out of hand. The scorpio lunged at DJ. She jumped out of the way, all right, but then a pair of pincers (pincers! On a scorpion monster!) shot out and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her up.
Its mouth opened, and it prepared to eat her.
Amos must've heard Vinny Lee scream over her friend getting grabbed. He glanced up and registered the monster holding DJ, getting ready to devour her.
For what happened next, I do not have a single word that conveys a meaning stronger than total pandemonium.
Amos screamed – no, roared – and lunged at the scorpio. He grabbed the extended pincer and pulled.
I don't know how he managed it. I'd judged the monster's exoskeleton to be too sturdy for a by-hand dismemberment. But it didn't matter. The scorpio's pincer arm came off in an instant, and Amos let go, zeroing in on another region. DJ yelped and began pushing on the claw, breaking loose.
"RAAASSSS!" the scorpio howled in agony as its arm came off.
"¡San José y María!" Vinny Lee yelled, looking aghast. I suppose I couldn't blame her. I didn't think Amos had it in him.
"Watch for the –" I'd been about to warn Amos about the tail swinging in his direction. But Amos seemed to have spotted it ahead of me – surprising, considering he was in a blind rage. He spun into the tail and grabbed onto it, proceeding to give it the rip-your-limbs-off treatment as he had the arm of the scorpio.
Yes, I said spun. He whirled in a tornado-style manner that reminded me disturbingly of the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes. After ripping off the tail, instead of throwing it to the side – which I would have deeply appreciated – he jammed it straight at the scorpio's thick side.
"Dude!" I yelled at the same time that the scorpio let out another scream of pain. And no, I never thought I would sympathize with a monster.
Amos then yanked it out and readied for another strike.
Meanwhile, DJ finally disentangled herself from the recently detached pincer and doubled away from the scene, looking pale. Fair, as she'd just almost been eaten, but if I didn't know better, I'd have thought Amos' tantrum was scaring her more than the scorpio.
"What just happened?" Sonic asked. I was a little annoyed the avatars had waited until now to start intervening, but we had bigger problems to worry about.
"Short version," I said, "Achmed's here and DJ would have gotten eaten if Darvosky hadn't flipped out."
"Flipped out?" Knuckles looked quite disconcerted by the sight. "More like exploded."
"You're one to talk, hothead," Sonic retorted. "Although I'd almost take you losing it over what's going on with Amos."
Meanwhile, the scorpio let out another agonized "RAAASSSSS!" as it got skewered, again, by its own tail. Amos had, by pure luck, landed on the monster's weak spot. I could catch the smell of sizzling scorpio – which (I will not lie) smelled even worse than the dead rats I used to clear out of our mouse traps. However, I knew it wasn't enough to take it out. If Sonic was right about the amount of punishment it could take, it would take a full assault to weaken it.
I glanced and spotted a heavy dumpster. What it was doing in this place, I didn't know, but I didn't care. On the other hand, I couldn't very well hit Amos – who was still whirling around, totally out of control.
"Oh, I hate this idea," I muttered.
DJ spotted me looking at the dumpster. "You'd have to be crazy, Imira. What about…" She faltered. I guessed she was dodging the matter of Amos' outburst deliberately. The pink-Taz-tornado fit must have really freaked her out.
"You have a better idea?"
"I'm afraid not." DJ stared at her Forcecuff. The jewel, which normally changed color to reflect her mood, turned a dark brown.
I grimaced, trying to dodge the obvious question she'd just asked: Are you crazy?
Out of all her Alter Egos – the forms she took on with the Forcecuff, each carrying a specific superpower – Brown was not my favorite. It channeled the power of the earth, sure, but the first time she'd used that one, she'd buried a rock giant alive with it. It hadn't been quick, either. Not much scared me, but DJ could be pretty scary when she wanted to be.
"I'll use the asphalt to drive Amos away," she said. "You throw the dumpster at the scorpio and end this thing."
Nice and simple plan. I liked it. Although I couldn't blame DJ for wanting this over with. We had an innocent caught in the crossfire and this battle was getting way too scary way too fast.
"Guess we're doing it," I said, and raced over to the dumpster.
DJ slammed her hand against the gemstone and magic tendrils raced all over her, turning her hair and clothes brown.
I swallowed down my nerves and grabbed the dumpster, lifting it up with all my might.
Now channeling Brown, DJ slammed her foot into the ground.
I suppose the asphalt was at least somewhat earth, because it responded almost immediately – it liquefied and shot out in an arm, which looped around Amos, holding him back. He kicked at the asphalt, but it hardened as soon as it got around him.
With no time to lose, I threw the dumpster.
The projectile landed on the scorpio's back, where Amos had previously stabbed it with its own tail. The scorpio howled, but it was interspersed with gagging. I guessed the thing was dying – much like any bug when you stepped on it. Then it quickly dissolved into chunks of dust, as only a monster could.
"Gross," I muttered.
"Gracias," Vinny Lee said.
Sonic bolted over to Amos, who was still in the asphalt prison DJ had put him in. I didn't stop him. I figured if anyone could calm down that boy, it was Sonic, Sirensong that he was.
Sonic's throat stripe glowed, as it did when he channeled his power.
"It's over," he said in a low voice, speaking slowly. "You can calm down now."
Amos relaxed in his cage, allowing DJ to release him and dispel Brown.
"Can't believe I had to do that to hold back my own teammate," I heard her muttering.
"That. Was. EPIC!"
I'd completely forgotten about Achmed! He was still there, gaping in absolute awe. He ran up to me and said, "I had no idea you were that cool."
Knuckles shook his head. "What do you mean, little squirt?" Oh great, he'd picked up my term of affection for Achmed. How much influence could a human have on an avatar?
"I didn't know my sister could take on that thing like that! How did she gain control over that strength? She could throw the Rock on the ropes!"
"I helped her with that," Knuckles said.
"And I had to do that," I said, deliberately avoiding looking at Amos. "Maybe you should head back home. I mean, I'm guessing you didn't come here to watch me take down a killer scorpion?"
"I came for a different reason," Achmed said. "Someone was trying to talk to me. About the story hour. And it wasn't anyone I wanted to be around. A man in woman's clothes. I need help."
