I've realized there's something I have to explain - the timeline.

See, my stories are set in the 2023 timeframe. I just couldn't update fast enough to keep up. So if I discuss something that happened a long while ago, that's why.

Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper are owned by Chuck Lorre Productions and CBS. Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles are owned by Sega Corporation. I own the rest of the characters.

But why am I telling you all this? Just read on!

The Hangar had gotten a revamp.

When I'd discovered it with Tails, it had been a long abandoned school building with all manner of graffiti on its walls and no life whatsoever inside them. I'd managed to bring my own personal touch to it, but it had still been pretty foreboding, even with the conversions we took to it later in the verano.

Then Señora Jorgman bought the place and Papa was assigned to make it look pretty. Like something we'd actually appreciate coming to. But also a place that we could easily use as our main crime-catching hideout, like the Batcave or something, and that the avatars could still use for training. And boy, did Papa deliver on that.

Now the place had that VLADJI-resides-here feel. Papa had let me paint the front wall last week, and I was only happy to oblige. I'd painted a cross in the center of the left wall, along with a David's star and an Ojo de Dreamcatcher – a dreamcatcher and Ojo de Dios hybrid that had become my personal symbol. On the right, I'd painted our organization name – VL in yellow, A in pink, DJ in blue, and I in red. I'd even done each part of the logo in different fonts, to emphasize the diversity in our group.

I loved the place even more for it.

"Are you (huff) sure this is (huff) the right place?" Leonard asked, out of breath. I guessed he didn't get regular exercise, which made me feel bad about all the detours I'd taken en route – partly because of construction on one street or another, partly to throw off anyone who was following us. I wasn't sure GABAFFS would go to that extreme, but I didn't want to take any chances. And there were other threats in the streets besides – muggers, monsters, and traveling hawkers. Standard Philadelphia dangers.

"Sí," I said softly. I extended my hand to the building. "Bienvenido al Hangar."

Leonard laughed humorlessly. "I can see I'm going to have to learn Spanish. But I'm just going to guess you're showing us the real deal?"

I nodded. "Just stay with me when we go inside."

I said this because our front door was airlocked. This was mainly to discourage monsters and unauthorized humans from entry. Only avatars, VLADJI, and anyone either of us invited in could cross the threshold. Papa had a separate staff entrance in the back that used to be a fire exit before Tails disabled the alarm on it. I much preferred using the front entrance, because reasons.

We approached the doorway – a steel door with no handle, and a touch screen beside it.

"Overkill," Sheldon muttered.

"Amazing," Leonard said.

"Thought you'd like it," I replied to both of them. "Like entering a spaceship bay." I then tapped the touch screen.

"Password?" came the computer's voice. I held up my hand at the geeks, mouthing, quiet. I'd heard more than my fair share of jokes from Amos about J. Jonah Jameson giving us his "warmest welcome." I didn't know whether they were into Spider-Man or not, but I wasn't taking chances with the JK Simmons voice and the geeks.

I drilled off the passcode, as DJ had updated me before I'd gone out with Miriam: "If might made right, the weaklings would be immediately imprisoned."

"That's correct," came the voice from the computer, and the airlock cleared. The door opened like a portcullis.

"Nice," Leonard said in awe.

We walked inside. If you think the Hangar had been mildly spruced up on the outside, wait till you get inside. The walls were still decorated with the pastel flowers and puppies – the one reminder that this used to be an elementary school – but the flooring was clean, for once. No dust at all. Small vases that looked like they had been made in the Greek era lined the hallways. The window glass around the roof now bore images that I'd put up on the wall (with the avatars and Papa helping out, of course) – the quest we'd taken to get to the Doctor, and our subsequent commissioning; us fending off avadarks in the barrio – overall, our adventures over the summer.

Just at the end of the hallway the glass roof pictures changed – instead of us, they bore the portraits of the two Rainbows, the avatars' previous masters. Standing on the right was a dark-haired girl in rainbow clothes, holding a brass knife – Melanie Stangeley – and on the left was a boy with blond hair, purple at the tips, wearing attire that was similarly every color of the rainbow and carrying a spear – Alex Coleman.

The decorations gave off the feel of a sanctuary. Given we were religious – one way or another – it was awfully fitting for us.

"Nice place," Leonard whispered.

I smiled. "Well, let's not stand gawking. I did say I'd take you to the resistencia. I intend to follow through on that."

Unfortunately, I didn't exactly know where in the Hangar we were meeting up. We had several places to choose from in this place – the library; the cafeteria, which we had turned into a rec room/dining hall; the Cyberoom, converted from the computer lab and our main tracking hub. But then I remembered Tails saying something about scuttlebutt on the Web. Most likely the others would be trying to elaborate on that. Which meant the Cyberoom.

"Vamonos," I said, and beckoned down the hall.

"Where are we going?" Sheldon asked as he and Leonard followed me to the Cyberoom. "And why do you call it the Hangar? It looks nothing like a hangar."

"It's a little joke," I replied. "The Hangar's parking lot is pretty big – could hold an airplane. ¿No observas? As for where we're going – it used to be the computer lab. A dear amigo of mine took some of the old computers, used them to build a special supercomputer."

"Sounds like someone you'd be interested in," Leonard remarked.

I didn't ask how he'd pegged me for a brainiac. It's not that obvious to many people, given my… unusual habits. But he had seen my action with the Speeder Trap. He was on to me.

"And why hang out in a school building?" Sheldon asked. "Are they educators?"

"Humorous," I responded, laughing a bit at the joke. "Crime fighters, actually. The school just has a lot of space and no one else used it for a while. It needed a reason to stay open. We just found one."

"We… as in…?"

"Sí. I'm among them."

"Whoa," Leonard said, obviously quite surprised.

The Cyberoom had been cleared of some excess clutter since Sras. Jorgman and Darvosky bought the place out. The empty desks had been moved to another room, and the rest of the dead computers – the ones that hadn't been used to create Tails' supercomputer, the Holo – had been scrapped. But not before Tails had pulled some parts out of them that he then put aside for his/our projects. There's another thing Tails and I have in common – we don't like things going to waste.

I also thought Tails was glad to be rid of the extra computers. Even though he's the smartest of the avatars, he's just as ADHD as any of them. Most avatars exhibited it in some form. If he had too many distractions in his space (the Cyberoom), he could never focus.

As I'd expected, I caught the other VLADJIs in the Cyberoom with Tails and some other avatars – specifically, from the Sega Gang. Imira was presently sparring with Knuckles, which didn't seem like a good idea in a computer lab, especially one Tails frequented. (He's a little obsessive about the safety of his devices.) DJ and Amos were conferring with Sonic, perhaps dropping the news about the PF and/or suggesting some ideas on how to deal with GABAFFS – I didn't know which.

More of a surprise – two other guests were with us, talking with Tails. And those guests were people I'd seen before on my past summer recycling runs – Theo Miller and Madame Chabin.

Miller was one of my close acquaintances and a taxi driver who worked predominantly in the Penn-Knox neighborhood. He never charged high fares and was entirely willing to talk cars with me. He always referred to me as miss, even when I was male, because I was female at the time we met and that was stuck in his head. I'd come to like that about him. I always thought of Miller as the nicest guy around – even if he did have a weakness for swamis, which he'd confessed about in one of his conversations with me.

Madame Chabin was one of those people, a phone psychic from Wister. I often passed by her apartment building – purely combing it for recyclables I could send to Tails – and would overhear her at her work – talking to some girl about which guy she should look for, what danger was coming, stuff like that. I never much liked fortune tellers and psychics – it's mostly just a sham, and I much prefer to live my own life, muchos gracias. I don't need someone else telling me how to live it.

Why were they both here?

Sheldon shook his head incredulously, glancing at the Sega Gang. "You guys hang out with Sonic characters?"

"Por supuesto. They're our biggest helpers. Not to mention, close amigos."

"And who's among your resistance?"

"Imira – the girl sparring with Knuckles – and Amos – that's the boy with Sonic – and the girl with him is DJ, our capitana." I spun in a circle, pointing at each of my friends in turn.

"And the other two?" Leonard inquired, pointing in the direction of Miller and Chabin. "They look more like customers."

"A couple of neighborhood amigos," I replied.

"Must've had some trouble if they're coming to you," Leonard remarked. "Serious trouble."

I ignored him. I was pretty used to not being taken seriously. It was to be expected when the only thing between humans and annihilation is a bunch of teenagers.

I whistled to my friends. "Hey, guys!" I shouted. "I'm back."

Now what's going down? Verse for the update: Mark 9:39-40.

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