There were any number of ways Pop could have responded to that: from you're crazy to are you seriously calling me out?

But the only thing he managed to say was, "What are you talking about? How do you know my daughter? And what did you call her to do?"

Knuckles quickly extinguished his hands. Good call. We had enough metaphorical heat in the Eye without adding in literal flames.

The Vortex held up his hand. "Patience, Ali."

Pop grimaced. "How do you know my name?"

Amos' eyebrow arched as if he was thinking, now you ask?

I found Amos' reaction understandable. It was the second time the Vortex had referred to my father by name.

The Vortex glanced at Pop, his expression unreadable as usual, but quite stormy in his now-gray eyes. "You do not believe I familiarize myself with the relatives of those I call? I called Imira to fight for justice and for reason. Sadly, I am not finding much reason in her father – or that abusive excuse for a stepmother."

Mom flinched like the Vortex had slapped her in the face. "Why do you say that?"

I'd seen images of gods in power – of Zeus raising a lightning bolt against his enemies and those who did not respect him, of Thor whirling his hammer to summon lightning, of God sending the wicked to the nether world in the final judgment. As much as I didn't consider the Vortex a deity, per se, the look on his face when Mom asked that question was something a lot similar.

"Even now," the Vortex said, his eyes now a fierce dark brown, "seeing what you have done to your family – seeing it through my servant, you still deny it?"

"Your servant?" I remembered Pop's words earlier that morning – someone from heaven. Stupid me. The Siren could easily be mistaken for an angel – what with her white robes and wings. "She spoke to you?" I said to Mom.

The Siren rose. Her voice became hard and clear – very much not the dulcet tones I'd heard when we met. "I have been trying to convince Amina to change her ways," she said slowly. "I visited her often after you were commissioned. On my master's orders."

I glared angrily at the Vortex. "And you show yourself to her now?"

It wasn't exactly called for, but I was unsettled and angry. Not to mention, still exhausted. The fatigue was wearing off, but not nearly fast enough to smack my stepmother. Unfortunately, I had the feeling the Siren wasn't lying about needing my strength for later.

"Dear, dear Imira," he said in a more soothing tone, his eyes going back to gray, his expression back down to his famous stone mask of neutrality. "I do not like intervening in human affairs often. I only showed myself to you the first time to commission you, obviously, and the second time to tell you what you missed about my call. I was hoping the Siren would get through to her. She is very persuasive. But it seems that she had not seen – that I had not seen – what her deeds have done to your trust in her. It was my mistake."

I slumped against the Siren. "Some mistake."

Pop's jaw dropped. "Did you call my daughter dear?"

"Do you ever?" The Vortex's tone became flippant, although I'm not sure anyone else would have recognized it. It is notoriously hard to tell when a divine being is joking – mainly because, well, they don't usually joke. His eyes were now green. "Does your wife ever do so? You are family, do not try to deny it. But try to act it."

"Act it?" Pop roared. "If you know my name, surely you know –"

"The way you treat illegitimates? And I say it was hardly human. It certainly has not been doing wonders on your daughter."

Pop froze like he didn't have anything to say to that.

The Vortex went on, his eyes switching to purple. "I was hoping you would be more open to Imira's company. They were the only ones who were nice to her. Besides, the prophecy was quite specific."

I will not lie – I'd had a rough day. I'd been attacked by a scorpio, shocked by a cysnake, and now the Vortex had popped in to tell off my parents for their poor job of raising me. And now I was hearing about a prophecy?

"What prophecy?" DJ asked, beating me to the punch.

The Vortex lowered his head, as if realizing he'd said something he probably shouldn't have. His eyes switched to a dull hazel. "When I heard of the Rainbow's wishes to continue normal lives, I knew I could not leave the avatars on their own. I sent my Siren to seek out the knowledge of who would take protection of the avatars while Melanie and Alex were attending to their own missions. She found an Oracle – not as good as the Witnesses' Oracle –"

"The what-now?" Amos interrupted.

"– but still possessing sway over fate." He turned to the Siren.

The Siren's voice echoed through the Eye.

"One in the woods, one on the way –

These are the ones who led the enemy away,

Two on the way and two on the sides

Shall support and be the soldiers' guides."

Amos frowned. "Not sure if that really rhymes."

"Amigo, there's mas," Vinny Lee cut in.

The Siren continued with the prophecy:

"Above their birth, apart from their walls

Such are the persons by which the foe falls.

Courage, cleverness, loyalty and fire –

These are their virtues, and they do not tire."

Pop glanced at the Vortex. "What are you implying by that?"

The Vortex's gaze turned steely – as his eyes went gray again. "I needed someone to help my avatars with their job – which is protecting this city, and all of humanity. However, I fear I underestimated how much of the problems are caused by the very people I sent them to protect. Nor does it help that my previous aides needed to… take a leave of absence." I noticed he was being very careful not to say quit. "So, I needed another set of people to help."

He clapped his hands and a holographic image showed up – if you can call an image made from smoke a hologram. It was of two people. One was a girl with dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes, the other was a boy with blond hair and a silver spear in his hand.

"One in the woods and one on the way," the Vortex recited. "Before my avatars came under the Rainbow, they were taken by a corrupt man who only wished to exploit their abilities – and my abilities to generate them – and not to know them as people. He was the enemy. Melanie Stangeley –" he gestured toward the girl's hologram – "was the one who helped get them – and me – out of his hands, but at a great price. I lost a great many of my creations when I broke loose from the man's prison. Only those he sent to others, and three of his creations which Melanie helped retrieve, remained of those reminders."

He gestured between Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails.

I felt as though the cysnake had shocked me again – full in the chest. I knew they were the first to meet up with the Rainbow, but I'd had no idea they had come at the expense of other avatars – avatars who, if they'd survived, would have been unstoppable fighters. The Vortex's tone became sad, his eyes a deep blue, almost as if he felt it was a loss too great to be worth the benefit to himself. He then continued with his story.

"Alex Coleman –" he gestured toward the boy with the spear – "whispered small suggestions in the ears of those left, and they unified toward him. When the Rainbow came together, I was almost certain I had a faithful pair."

"Until they moved on with their lives," I said. I'd heard the story already.

The Vortex graciously chose not to destroy me, though from the look in his now-brown eyes, he came close. He waved his hand, and the little holo-show dissolved. "I respect their wishes. I do not keep humans enslaved forever. But I needed another to act as a stand-in, an embassy."

"Two on the way and two on the sides," DJ repeated. "That's us, isn't it?"

The Vortex nodded.

Pop looked ready to collapse. "So you did call them together. But I don't understand."

The Vortex acknowledged my father quite neutrally, his eyes hazel once more. "You said it yourself, Ali Fadjir. Allah works in mysterious ways. Fate works the same way. I do not understand fate, but I follow it nonetheless." Tails jumped back at the last sentence. "So should you. Of course, you did not realize your daughter was meant for greater things – nor did you even think that, because she came from such a low birth."

"Burn," Kori whispered in a singsong voice. Leave it to the dragon avatar to get so condescending with my parents.

The Vortex continued, not even telling Kori off. "Above their birth and apart from their walls – they were deviant from their circumstances in some way. Every bit the paradox in their own lives as my avatars are in existence. And by happenstance, fate sends into my lap these four."

He gestured emphatically towards me. "Imira – a firstborn, but unappreciated for her parentage. Incredibly strong, and with more fire than someone in her circumstances – abused by her mother, who was not properly reined in by her husband –"

That word hit like another slap in the face – this time directed at Pop. As I said in the beginning, Muslim marriages are based out of respect, but there's also a bit of encouragement to the women to deflect to their husbands. But the men have to understand the capacity of women to be cruel as well. Apparently, that flouting of our teachings did not sit well with the Vortex at all.

After a few seconds of hard eye contact, the Vortex sighed and continued singing praises. "I am truly impressed with her strength. A lesser girl would have been traumatized severely by that. I see why she likes Knuckles. After all, they do have something in common."

"Both outspoken and strong?" Mom suggested.

The corners of the Vortex's mouth twitched. "I suppose they are. What I meant to say was, they have a fire that is like that of hell – harder to quench than you would think."

He turned to Amos. "Amos Darvosky – a Jew with hardly any of their political standings, the last in his family but not last in my heart. He is much like my Melanie – once he trusts someone, he will stick by them through everything."

"Like a barnacle on a whale," I muttered.

"I will pretend I did not hear that," the Vortex said, his right eye twitching. "He is unappreciated by his own people as much as Imira is by her own. And yet, he manages to be more adventurous than they are."

"Come on, Tex, you're embarrassing me," Amos said, blushing, though that was hard to tell in the swirl of the Eye.

"I find loyalty to the truth to be impressive indeed. Not many can hold up with someone who holds different beliefs. But it is clear Amos saw more in the people he chose to go with – the general belief in humanity shared by all, and a respect of that humanity, which was never present in his own world."

He turned to DJ and Vinny Lee. "Vinny Lee arrived in a time of trouble – trouble in her family, trouble in her world. Her family had fallen apart over how to handle her demons – her mother wanting to encourage her identity –" he spat the word like a bitter seed – "and her father seeing the problem for what it was. Her father took her to Philadelphia to show her what was wrong. And yet she adjusted so well to her new environs. As shrewd as a fox, indeed – and just as adaptive.

"DJ similarly arrived at a troubling time in her family. Her father recently perished; her city fallen into darkness – you know full well what is going down in Los Angeles."

I certainly didn't need a reminder. DJ's face turned as stony as the Vortex's, whose eyes turned gray. Judging from how fiercely they burned, he didn't approve of LA's activities either.

"DJ grew up in comfort – a family and all the riches she could want. But her family behaved like a middle-class one. She knew full well that not everyone in Beverly Hills behaved this way. She took to the streets – only to find a harsher environment. Another extreme she hated. She has courage beyond her birth – I cannot mistake it."

Mom glanced at the Vortex. She'd been silent for the whole duration of the Vortex's speech. Now she spoke up.

"So, you're basically saying my daughter has been fighting for justice to help out some characters leaping straight out of video games. And doing this alongside a set of strangers. This whole time."

"Indeed." The Vortex's tone became sterner. His eyes shifted to a dark gray. "Imira, why did she not know about this? Why did you not tell her?"

"Busted," Amos muttered.

"She's the one who abused me," I said firmly. "She's the one who made me work like a dog without even a break."

Mom's face paled even further. "Imira –"

"Don't!" I yelled. "You deserved to get arrested for working me so hard. I hate you!"

At that moment, I realized I'd been wanting to say that for months, even years. But now, all the anger and rage just went out when I said it, leaving only guilt. Funny how that works.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean –"

"No, Imira." Her voice broke. "I should have seen it. I should have seen it when I was almost arrested. I should have seen it when you came into the house. I only saw it when this – creature –" she gestured toward the Siren – "came and started warning me of impending danger. I put you in Fairview upon hearing of its reputation with troubled and lower-class children. And upon hearing of the update, of course."

I wasn't sure what to say. She'd actually wanted to help?

"It was more than that, wasn't it?" DJ asked. "I'd bet you heard about the Fallads canceling their cards after a drag story hour showed up in their route. You've been hearing stuff like this a lot in your neighborhood, haven't you?"

Mom nodded. "I didn't want any of my children growing up with that. Hearing what happened to Achmed…" Her voice trailed off. "It seems I wasn't doing enough."

I let that sink in. She'd wanted to help me all along. She'd kept me in that life so I could avoid the social woes of illegitimate children. Even more startling – she knew I was having trouble with my strength. Every box I lifted, every dish I scrubbed – had she meant it as a means to exercise control over it?

As if reading my mind, the Vortex said with a faint smile, "Do not fret, Imira. It is clear now that she had your best interests at heart all this time. And she must muster her courage now. Creamer is on the loose and will hunt us down."

"You won't be there, will you?" It wasn't exactly a question. He did say he didn't like interfering with human affairs.

"The cysnakes would gladly take me down if they had the chance. They, in slang terms, hate my guts. Besides, this is your problem. You must do this yourself. Prove to your parents you are worth more than they know. And make sure they believe what I am telling them."

With that, the Vortex lifted his hand and a rainbow gateway materialized.

"Go," he said. "Take down Creamer."

With that parting charge, we jumped through the gate.