Wow. Serious trouble back there.
Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper belong to Chuck Lorre Productions and CBS, and Sonic, Knuckles, Amy and Tails belong to Sega Corporation.
Perfect way to announce my presence, really.
A little whistle to get everyone's attention, and a holler to let 'em know.
Amos and DJ turned their heads at my whistle. "Really, we have enough guests as it is," Amos remarked, sizing up my friends. "But who are these guys?"
"Leonard and Sheldon," I said sweetly. "Ran into them on my outing with Miriam."
"Speaking of which, how did that go? Did she talk you to death?"
"Not really. She didn't exactly appreciate the rule on the Pride Flag." Amos arched an eyebrow, as if he suspected this might be an understatement on my part. (Which it was.) "But I think we've already ruled her out as a suspect. Our current one is GABAFFS."
DJ nodded at the exchange. I knew she already figured Miriam was out of the equation. I'd guessed as much. Even if Miss Stegner had leanings toward the queer community, putting a Pride flag on someone's lawn didn't seem like her style.
"Anything good?" she then asked me.
"Depends on what you mean," Leonard muttered.
"We have a lead," I said, ignoring Leonard's comment. I don't really see good or bad news; I just see news. "Mitch Hollins. Miriam's seen him with the group. He works at Will McKinley."
"Will McKay?" Imira inquired. My whistle had interrupted her training time with Knuckles. "Is he one of the teachers there?"
"Sí." I decided not to mention Hollins' love interest, because it didn't seem particularly important. Just the sort of little background detail Miriam loved to give.
DJ bit her lip, as if trying to extract something good from my news. "Well, at least we know where to look."
"And when do they meet?" Imira inquired.
"After hours, whenever that is," I answered. "And what about our other guests? Why are they here?"
"Oh, yeah," Tails said. "Miller dropped in after his car careened out of control. He called Chabin about it afterward, and she told him he'd find answers here. Not long after that, she came to us with a complaint about a man putting something in her car."
"Must've had the same premonition she gave the cabbie," Amos quipped.
"I didn't even know she had a car," I remarked. "I've never seen her leave her apartment."
Everyone stared at me. I huffed. "What? It's not like I went in there to consult the woman. I would never."
Chabin spoke now, her voice smooth and gentle. She must've had the patience of a saint. "A green Prius. Green is a color of good fortune."
"How ironic," Amos replied, his expression deadpan. "Considering it got broken into."
"And very likely is on its way to a berserk rage like Miller's taxi," DJ added. "As for the geeks, how do you guys… ah, know each other?"
I was happy to share the story. I told the others about the near hit-and-run with Hardwell's Tesla and the two geeks, my chit-chat with Hardwell, and the consequent journey back, where the geeks asked me to guide them.
"I'm glad the Trap worked," Tails said, "but it sounds like we have a more serious problem than just a Pride flag on Fairview grounds. If this carjacking and this… this flag-planting was going the rounds at other houses –"
"GABAFFS works fast," Knuckles observed.
He was surely one to comment. He always looked ready to speak up. He gave his spiky dreadlocks a shake, his gray eyes burning as usual. Given his gangster-like appearance and the fiery look in his eyes right now, I was starting to wonder if we could just send him to intimidate GABAFFS into laying off our school.
But that wouldn't solve the problem of the cars getting broken into and/or going out of control. And I got the sneaking suspicion that both events were connected. That Hollins was just setting this up to frame the school – and Hardwell and Miller and Chabin. Hardwell, from what I'd gathered from talking to him, wasn't into the idea. Miller had stated once that such politics weren't a huge priority for him, as it didn't pay the bills. It sure as heck didn't guarantee he'd hold onto any fares. And Chabin… if I didn't see the protest attempt ending well, most likely neither would a psychic. Although I felt like I was missing something – something crucial.
"You think it was Hollins?" Tails asked.
"Probably," I responded. "From what I could gather from Miriam, it sounded like Hollins was pretty influential in the group. Probably even the leader. But I'm working with incomplete information."
"Pssh. That's not going to keep me from kicking each and every one of them in the groin," Imira stated. "If they put it up on the Hangar –"
"I'm not sure they would," DJ said. "If we gave them enough of a fight. Besides, they weren't flagging Fairview in broad daylight. Pretty sure they didn't want to chance us catching them out. They've probably even heard of the way we shut down Camford's operations. I doubt they'd even want to toilet-paper this place, not if they're scared of us."
"That's mi amiga," I said with approval.
"But how are we going to stop them?" Amos inquired.
"I hate to interrupt, but I'd always suggest neutral reasoning," Sheldon said.
"And what are they doing here?" Imira asked, having now noticed the geeks.
"Urban profiling," I said.
Everyone gave me blank looks.
Leonard launched into the explanation of their mission and what he and Sheldon had found on landing in LA – the news that it was a hellhole didn't surprise DJ at all – Seattle, and Chicago.
Sonic nodded. "And you didn't want to chance New York? Bummer."
I guessed he'd been very interested in what was going down in the Big Apple now that the avatars were gone. If they had, they would have gotten some real info on how downhill the city was, like DJ with Los Angeles.
Sonic was quite a handsome fellow, indeed. His blue quills stuck out in an aerodynamic fashion. His green eyes glittered with excitement and energy. His general attire – black leather jacket, green t-shirt, blue jeans, red-and-white shoes – gave off the impression of a Grease biker. It had an effect on people, I will say. I wondered why he'd left the interrogation to Tails when he could've wheedled it out of Miller and Chabin with his Sirensong.
"They didn't want to chance another sky-high crime rate like in Chicago," I explained. "That last one left a bad taste in Leonard's mouth, apparently."
"I don't blame him," Tails said. "But why profile the city? This city? And please don't say you didn't want to take a chance with New York."
Leonard looked nervous. "It was the last one we were assigned. We were only given three with a resistance, Los Angeles was only our starting point. Where we were dropped off. Sheldon decided to use it as a control group to compare against." He then glanced at DJ. "You're from there, aren't you? You didn't look surprised about the news with it."
"Well, I expected no less from Loss of Angels," DJ replied. "I never took to the city when I was living there."
"But why is it so important?" Sonic asked the geeks.
I got the sense he wasn't asking why the geeks chose Philly. It was more like, why do it at all?
"And, Sheldon, I got bad news on the neutral reasoning front." DJ brushed at her skirt. "The group didn't clear the flag-flying with Phillips – that's our principal. Didn't even take a chance talking to him – or us. I'm pretty sure these guys won't listen to reason."
"Could you describe the man you saw out with your car, Madame Chabin?" Tails asked the psychic politely, heading up to the Holo and powering it on.
The sight of the computer's holo screen coming on – full 3-D screen and everything – was quite a shocker for the two geeks. "That's a real hologram device?" Sheldon asked the fox, still a little disappointed that DJ had rebuffed his proposition – which, as she'd pointed out, didn't seem practicable with the type of antagonist we were facing.
"Yep," Tails said casually. "Built it myself. It was worth using half the computers in here." He then turned to Chabin, who was already giving a full description so accurate it was like she was looking at a photograph. "Okay," he responded, "that settles it." He then began typing the description into his facial recognition software. (You can't build a computer for a vigilante group without adding some really good facial recognition software.)
"You built a holo computer out of a bunch of outdated computers?" Leonard gaped in awe. "Dang. Now that's a feat of genius for… how old are you?"
That was a pretty fair question. Tails, being an avatar, didn't age outwardly. His physical body maintained the same appearance and health as when he spawned, which was basically at eight years old. But Tails had aged quite a bit behind it. It wasn't obvious, but it was there in the look in his eyes.
"Eleven," Tails replied, still typing, like he was tired of the answer. I got the sense this wasn't the first time he'd been asked the question.
Leonard whistled. Eight or eleven, that was still impressive.
The computer came up with the result: Hollins, Mitchell. The teacher Miriam had mentioned! The one in GABAFFS.
I caught his picture on the Holo. He looked like a regular Owen Wilson clone – blond hair, blue eyes with a gentle light in them. Hard to believe he was the one responsible for our flag problem.
"Well," Miller said, getting up, "I gotta get going. I don't want to miss another fare. And thank you, miss, for telling me about Hardwell. Nice to know it isn't just me having this problem."
"And I have other people to advise," Chabin said softly. "Fair warning to you children: the villain is a desperate one. He is working with things he should not. He will endanger many lives if the youth are not there in two days' time."
I got a chill up my spine. As I've said before, I don't buy into psychics, but something about the way she said it deeply unsettled me. I didn't know what I was dealing with, exactly, but I got a bad feeling. I remembered the way Hardwell's car veered off, as if it were being pulled by someone else, probably Hollins. If Chabin was right about that description… I didn't like where that led me.
"And I gotta go, too," I responded, shaking the thought out of my head. "Clear my thoughts. Also, does anyone need help with homework?"
Boy, do we ever. Verse for the update: Galatians 6:9.
Please review, no flames, and don't lose hope. There's more coming!
