He could not have said better words to trigger my big-sister instincts.
I wasn't about to let my brother get harassed like that. Someone he didn't want around trying to talk to him – aside from wrestling, I usually trusted Achmed would figure things out. I wanted him to trust his own instincts, as well. Besides, after the close call at the library and his father's warning, I wagered Achmed wasn't going to be hanging around anything to do with a drag queen anytime soon.
We headed out on the street toward another big meeting place of ours – Aramingo Square. It was a decent-sized park – a lot of green space with a sizable baseball diamond, followed by the Cione Playground, where we often hung out. It wasn't as covert as the Hangar, but it was a good place to exercise when we needed it – and outside, no less, even with the smog of Philadelphia. Besides, other avatars liked to hang out there.
No sooner had we reached the tennis court than we were greeted by Carrie Keehan, another of our avatar friends.
"Hey, guys!" she yelled at us, her light Boston accent showing – she'd spawned in that city – as it tended to when she was upset. Her spiky pink hair and dress starkly contrasted with her dark complexion, making her look perpetually in shock. Her mismatched gloves – silver and extending to her elbow on her right, gold and wrist-length on her left – further accentuated the funky vibe she regularly gave off. "I heard some rumors about a kid being led away from a drag story hour! Please tell me he's alright!"
"I would hope, since I'd say he was targeted again," DJ said.
Carrie gaped. "Are you kidding?"
"Unfortunately, not," I said. "If I'm right about Achmed's stalker."
"Achmed?" Carrie possessed telekinesis as Tails did, but her form of it was quite a bit stronger. Had there been any inanimate objects in Aramingo or Cione, they would have levitated. "Someone was after your own – Oh, this is not good."
Vinny Lee frowned. "Cuéntame, Achmed. Tell me. Who was it?"
Achmed took a deep breath. "It was this man in a dress. I already said that."
"Any other details?" Amos pressed. "Not that I'm dying to know myself."
"The dress was short and skimpy. I'm almost certain Mom would've fainted at the sight. Cream-colored, with pink bows. And a pink wig."
Carrie muttered some words Mom and Pop wouldn't have approved of. "That was Creamer, the drag queen at the story hour. He must've really wanted you there. But how did he find you?"
"Rocky's House," Achmed muttered. "He followed me to the Rocky's House!"
I bit back a curse. Now it was personal. Hosting a drag story hour was one thing, but someone stalking my little brother – I couldn't let that happen. I could imagine that scorpio's tail looming over me again.
Knuckles' hands were starting to steam, as was wont to happen when he was disturbed or angry. "I can't believe this," he muttered. "What was his deal? Can't he leave well enough alone? And did he rig all that up just to get his hands on Achmed?"
"You know, I'm really not sure," DJ said. "For all we know, there was someone getting the scoop on that fact. I mean, Amos shooed Achmed away from outside the door. If Creamer was in there telling stories –"
"He wouldn't have a way to know who was out of the building and who was in," I said. "The story nook isn't within easy sight of the door."
"Unless…" Tails growled. "No way. He can't have had info on that."
"¿Qué quieres decir?" Vinny Lee asked. At this point, I could gauge Vinny Lee's purely Spanish questions, but I still have a bit of trouble when she mishmashes the two languages she knew. I could tell what she was asking Tails – what are you talking about?
"There's a security camera outside that door," Sonic said, having interpreted her question (one of the perks of Sirensong – he can interpret almost any language), "but it's only open to the staff. No one else has access."
DJ bit her lip. "So, you're saying someone might have given Creamer that info."
"Maybe the system was hacked," Vinny Lee said. "Maybe some bozo swiped it and handed it to el diablo –"
"Come on, VL," I chided.
"I just hope it's not el obvio, Imira."
I knew what el obvio was, of course. And I didn't like it either.
"Whoa, maybe we should cool it down here," Carrie said, catching the tension.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want tempers flying over a drag queen stalking a little boy," Amos said dryly.
"Speaking of tempers, what the holy heck was that about?" I demanded. "Did you lose your cool or your head?"
Amos huffed. I guess he thought we'd dropped the matter of his outburst in the Battle of the Parking Lot. A little side effect of Sirensong ability was that it could rather muddle people's minds immediately afterwards. "Sorry about the berserker rage, okay?"
"Whoa, what's this over?" Carrie asked. "Berserker rage?"
"A scorpio attacked the base," I blurted out. "DJ would have been eaten alive if Amos hadn't pulled off its claw in a fit. And he didn't stop attacking it after that –"
"I was upset!" Amos exploded. "I didn't think it'd happen again, though –"
"Again?" DJ looked pale. "You mean this, these sorts of incidents, these 'berserker rages' – they've happened before?"
"Unfortunately," Amos said. "Amy called them 'temper flares.'"
"Awfully mild way of putting it, if you ask me," I commented.
"I've gotten control over it. Er… more or less. I just… it always seems to happen worse when I'm facing injustice. I freak out, fly into a rage. I don't always know what I'm doing in that state –"
"And that just makes it scarier," Vinny Lee commented. "You should have seen La Capitana."
I didn't argue with her. Not just because she seemed in her right mind at the moment, and it had been a long morning. I remembered the shock on DJ's face when she saw that – shock and fear. Anything that could scare DJ like that… I was only grateful that that something was on our side.
DJ quickly shifted gears. "Enough about that," she said. "We should figure this out. Knuckles, you escort Achmed home. He might need a bodyguard if Creamer is stalking him. Just… keep it on the downlow."
I understood what she meant by the downlow – gifts, but not powers. Humans are better with what's familiar to them. They might not understand, upon first seeing an avatar, that there were more powers to them. It was especially important for Knuckles, as his fire powers could cause even more property damage than his punching.
"Aye," Knuckles said. "In my game plan, anyhow."
"Vinny Lee, Imira, you two head out to the library. Imira, you know the place, you should be able to lead Vinny Lee there. If someone passed the info from inside –"
"Let's hope that wasn't the case," I added.
"Amos and I will help Tails sort out the activity on the library security camera. The rest of you, keep on the lookout for anything else. We already had our base attacked. We can't have that happen again."
"Roger that," Amy said.
Knuckles departed with Achmed. DJ and Amos left for the Hangar with Tails.
"Okie doke," I said. "Are we in as much trouble as I think?"
"Possibly más," Vinny Lee said, with a slight smile. "Let's talk to the librarian, now, shall we?"
Getting to the McPherson Square Library wasn't as hard as I'd anticipated. It wasn't exactly walking distance, but we had the avatars.
I realize that sounds completely crazy – oh, by the way, we've got the avatars. But VLADJIs could call in favors from them pretty much when we needed them. And believe it or not, some actually had public transport of their own – or could scare up some. Or even, in some cases, become that transportation.
We'd headed up Lehigh Avenue to where it met with Tulip Street when Vinny Lee stopped and scanned the road. What was she looking for? Taxis? I didn't have decent money for a fare, and I was willing to bet Vinny Lee's allowance didn't cover it, either.
She then broke into a smile. "Yo, Kori!"
Huh?
I only understood when I saw the punk fighter approaching.
Even from a distance, Kori Marven struck a figure. Part Fortnite, part racing biker, she looked every bit the part – dark hair with a light purple streak, slung in a ponytail; fierce brown eyes, hard and aggressive posture. She wore a Kevlar vest over her purple tank top (for reasons I can't explain), black fingerless gloves, blue skinny jeans and black combat boots. And if her tattooed shoulders didn't suggest an antisocial rebel enough, her swearing habit certainly did.
I wasn't sure I wanted to summon Kori. I mean, she is one of the people my crew was helping. But I liked Kori the way I liked a good spice – in small doses. And people call me way too up front.
"You two need something?" she asked. Always getting to the point, like me.
"Could you possibly summon a dragon or two?" Vinny Lee asked sweetly. Kori's power was Dragonite. It allowed her to easily speak with dragons, and even gain dragon powers, such as fire summoning and flight. But she didn't deploy these powers in combat that often, much preferring to use her own dual pistols. If you've got any guns, you might as well use them, I suppose.
"For what? The library?" She scoffed. "I suppose you expect me to shorten distance, then?"
I didn't need this. My brother had been messed with, my base attacked, and Kori was brushing me off.
"In case you weren't aware of the situation," I said, keeping the irritation out of my voice, "my brother is being stalked by a drag queen in connection with McPherson. Creamer?"
Her expression shifted to shock, fury, then a mask of calm. I guessed she'd heard about the rumors as well.
"So he's out of hand?" she said.
"Afraid so. Amos led Achmed away from a story hour he was hosting. Someone got hold of that info and passed it on to Creamer. At least, that's what we believe –"
I may have mentioned Kori has a habit of cussing like a sailor. The blue streak she muttered would've made Duke Nukem blanch. "And you need to get to the library to interrogate her?"
"Exactly," I said. "And when I do, I won't just make her eat her words – I'll stuff 'em down her throat."
Kori smiled lightly. I'd learned that a little attitude can really work wonders on that avatar.
"In that case," she said, "grab an arm."
Vinny Lee grabbed her left arm. I took her right. I wasn't sure what Kori had up her sleeve (despite her not having any sleeves to speak of), but she closed her eyes as if concentrating. She grew in size to the point where she'd have no trouble carrying both of us and wings sprouted out of her back – dragon wings. Her body suddenly sported a pattern of scales, and suddenly I found myself with dragon talons in my wrist. Not entirely unpleasant, mind you, but it was still like getting my wrist in a vise.
"Here we go," Kori, now a dragon, announced, and launched off the ground.
