And here we are again. Don't mind my comments. Disclaimer: Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter belong to Chuck Lorre Productions and CBS.


Nothing caps off your day like guiding a pair of scientists to your hideout.

I learned their identities while I was talking with them. I have a way of getting people chatting – whether it's with me or about me, or about them. I much preferred it to be with me. About me tends to be behind my back, which I don't exactly like. I never knew whether it was good or bad. As for talking about them – some people are prone to brag.

The guys were just that eager to talk about themselves – perhaps too much so. The guy with the Flash shirt was Sheldon Cooper, and the guy with the glasses was Leonard Hofstadter. From what I gathered, they were scientists – physicists – at CalTech Institute, which I'd never even heard of. Naturally, that got me asking more questions.

"Where's CalTech?" I asked. It sounded like California, which didn't seem wise to bring up with DJ. (She'd never liked the area, especially SoCal. Ironic, since she'd lived there once.)

"Pasadena," replied Leonard. "You really don't know –"

"Never heard of you guys there," I said quietly. Hey, I wasn't going to keep track of college personnel. Besides, I felt that CalTech was more within DJ's area, even though she didn't like it. "But then what are you doing here?"

Leonard glanced at Sheldon as if to say, you want to explain, or should I?

I got the feeling their arrival was not so easily explained. Not like, oh, we just wanted to take a vacation. People generally notify their superiores if they want to do that. Given their expressions and the apprehensive looks around alleyways (which no tourist in their right mind would have gone down anyway), they weren't on vacay. They were here because they needed to do something.

Nor did it sound like they took regular transportation to get here. If they had, Tails would have known about it. Or I would have gotten some gossip from the bus station, or some other mass transit stop. The fact that they were here on such extremely short notice made me suspect they'd teleported – but that wasn't possible. Unless they were someone like me, who was used to weirdness.

Tails… he'd likely be back at the Hangar. Sí, that was it. I had to get them to the Hangar.

Finally, the geeks nodded at each other, like they had come to an agreement. Leonard shoved his hands into his pockets. "Well, we were doing a little observation project. Believe me, I wouldn't have done it if it were up to me –"

"So, you were roped into it?" I asked. "And what's this… observation project?"

"Looking at places where feelings trump belief in science," Sheldon put in. "So far we've been to Los Angeles –"

"Dang. I bet it's infierno right now." Listening to the way DJ griped about her home city (read: prison camp) had given me a negative attitude towards LA. She'd always been ruined by the fact that she leaned somewhere other than the party in command. Not that Philly was much better, but at least here she had a prayer of instituting change.

"We have to take notes on what we see," Sheldon continued, ignoring my comment. "We're particularly looking at the cities."

No surpresa. Cities tended to be where the criminals and questionable types thrived best. There's only so many policemen to handle that many square miles. It also gathered a lot of human presence in a single concentrated area, which would be a lot more effective for a survey. Oh, and the avatars could go unnoticed. Human aura masks avatars, and it works best when there's a lot of people around them.

"I'm doing most of the talking and questioning," Leonard said in response to my expression. "Sheldon does the notes."

Judging from his tone, they'd worked this out along the way here. I figured they'd come to some agreement. I also guessed Sheldon was the more socially inept of the two – to put it mildly. Mejor to have Leonard do the talking.

"So," I said, "Dr. –"

"Please, call me Leonard," Hofstadter replied.

"So, Leonard, looking at ciudades, looking at places where emotion lords it over reason – isn't that every city here?"

"Not quite," Leonard countered, annoyed. I guessed my comment was much too generalized. "And that's not all the criteria. We have to also find where there's a resistance fighting to keep science and reason alive."

There it was – keeping reason alive. Exactly our mission.

"Any luck?" I pressed, keeping my excitement under control. I only let it loose when I caught a can on the ground and yanked it up. Typical of me, but I use the pop tabs in my crafts. Often. And Tails could reuse the rest of the aluminum for some of his projects at the Hangar. It was a win-win for the both of us.

Did I like Tails' company? Well, . More on that later.

Sheldon arched an eyebrow at my action. "¿Que?" I asked him. "Am I not allowed to collect for recycling? It pays pretty well."

Leonard just shrugged. I guessed he wasn't in the mood to argue the point. "Anything, I guess," he said. "And well… it was, yes, a hellhole in LA. Absolutely nothing was done about the situation."

"I put it down as the control group," Sheldon commented.

Leonard ignored him, although I didn't find Sheldon's choice such a stupid course of action to take (especially with Loss of Angels, as DJ liked to call it). "Then we shifted gears to Seattle. Found a small group there. Nice and settled, but no real action. Then moved on to Chicago."

"Ooh, that's…" I wasn't sure what to say to that. Chicago had a worse crime problem than Philadelphia or New York City, which is saying a lot. On the other hand, Nate had habituated and found Stryker in that city. I didn't want to do it too much injustice. Then the right words came to me: "That's unfortunate."

"A small charity was in place," Leonard continued. "People were petitioning for the crime rate to go down. But either the mayor didn't want to listen or had no time for it."

"I'm going with el primo." Again, I didn't want to judge that city too harshly, but problems in city life were often traced back to the management. Also, the Democratic party's priorities are notoriously skewed. But even without that consideration, politicians tend to be selfish.

"And now we're here," Sheldon said, "because heaven forbid Leonard put up with more excessive crime in the city that never sleeps."

I guessed they meant New York, where the avatars came from. They'd been ousted from it after their masters decided to live normal lives – without them. Please understand, I'm not judging the Rainbow. If they want a little normalidad, let them have it. But from the way Leonard was talking, things had escalated pretty heavily in the Big Apple in the avatars' absence. It made me wish they'd been able to stick around.

"So, you found Philadelphia," I said. "And…" I recalled the criteria Leonard had talked about, ticking them off on my fingers. "Looking for a big ciudad. Gotta be ruled by an alcalde who doesn't care a lick about reason and common decency. And there's gotta be someone there resisting all that, standing up for reason and science and common sense and whatnot."

"Precisely."

"And we might need a guide," Leonard commented.

"Good idea, Leonard," Sheldon agreed. "As this afternoon showed us, it's too dangerous to go out here on our own, without someone who knows the area. And you seem to –"

"Whoa, gonna have to stop you right there," I interrupted. "You want… my help?"

"Well –" Leonard hesitated. "Sure."

I squealed with excitement, forgetting my pretense of professionalism. It's not every day a scientist asks for help. "Oh, wow! Ohwowohwowohwow!¡Ay dios mio! ¡Oh, alegría!" I jumped off and bowed to the guys. "I'd be honored!"

"A girl who scrounges for trash and chucks glue bombs at speeding cars is offering to guide us." Leonard shrugged like, eh, why not?

"Well, lucky you, I got some experience in that area." I waved my hands, indicating the entire city. "I've been through a lot of this concrete jungle. Course, I came here a year ago, but I like to explore."

"I dunno that we –" Sheldon began. I could catch his reluctance. I knew I probably wasn't making any sense to him. Nor would he take me seriously – again, the young-kid thing. So, I went in for the sales pitch.

"Aaaand… I happen to know who the resistencia is here. The heart of it. And where it's located. I can point you to them. Oh, and it's got some shiny nice tech you should see for yourself. Star Trek stuff."

Leonard frowned. I guessed he didn't like the way I said it. Then he turned to Sheldon. "I'm sold."

"So," Sheldon said, his tone resigned, "can you take us there?"

"Oh, ," I replied. "And don't worry. You'll love the Hangar."


Well, let's go! Verse for the update: John 3:17.

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