Scarab Girl put out the fire with more foam capsules from her gauntlet. She led the

way upstairs. Amenophis’s men had retreated with their master. There was no sign

of the changed Givens either.

“What am I going to tell Givens’s family back home?,” Tanner limped after his

colleague. The keyboard was fixing him up as he walked up to the main floor of the

church. “How do I explain this?”

“I don’t think you can,” said Scarab Girl. “Amenophis will be out of the country in

a few minutes. He can travel fast on his own. His men have scattered. We can look

for them but they won’t know anything beyond what we already know. If you say

anything at all, it will be to tell them that Amenophis took him. Then you’ll have to

explain how you know that.”

“I can’t tell them that,” said Tanner. “It means I have to tell them I caused his

transformation and possible death.”

“I know,” said Scarab Girl. “Someone is going to have to break the bad news to them.

If we don’t, they’ll be looking for him to come back.”

“He won’t be coming back from the way he was changed,” said Tanner. “Where

would he go if he stays in town?”

“I don’t know,” said Scarab Girl. “He’s probably in some bolthole he took from

someone else. New York has a ton of places for someone to hide if they want to get

away strong enough.”

“So both of them could be beyond our reach,” said Tanner.

Scarab Girl nodded.

“I screwed this up,” said Tanner. “If I hadn’t broken those jars, we could have done

something else to get Givens back.”

“Or he could have been turned into a mindless weapon, and used against us,” said

Scarab Girl. “My dad is going to kill me that I took on Amenophis without calling

him. I will be grounded.”

“Too bad,” said Tanner. “I called out of school sick. I’m going to have to forge a note

for my school.”

“Your parents will be looking for you,” said Scarab Girl.

“Not for another two hours,” said Tanner. “But if the school called their work, that

might be trouble for me.”

“I think we should explain things to my dad,” said Scarab Girl. “Maybe he can alert

the authorities where you live. They’ll take care of notifying the parents for you.”

“All right,” said Tanner. “That’ll help me out. Then I have to try to get home and lie

to my parents about what I have been doing all day.”

Scarab Girl shrugged. She had to make her own excuses for bailing out of the last

period in school. Luckily, her parents covered for her though they wanted her to not

patrol on her own until she was older.

Tanner’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and checked to see who was

calling. He winced when he saw it was Darla. He definitely didn’t want to explain

things to her. He thought about ignoring the call. He grimaced and accepted the call.

“Hello, Darla,” he said.

“Where are you?,” she asked.

“Why?,” asked Tanner. He didn’t want to tell her he was in New York before he knew

why she was calling. They didn’t get along at the best of times. Why give her

ammunition?

“The Vice Principal was all over me about you calling in sick,” said Darla. “It’s

obvious you’re not sick. What’s going on?”

“I think I got someone killed,” said Tanner. “I have to meet Scarab Girl’s dad, then

the rest of this mess will be out of my hands.”

“That’s peachy keen,” said Darla. “Who’s Scarab Girl?”

“She’s a local heroine,” said Tanner. “I’ll explain everything when I get home.”

“You better hurry up with your business,” said Darla. “Mr. Butthead might be trying

to call your parents to check on you by now.”

“Thanks, Darla,” said Tanner. “I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

He cut the connection and put his phone up. He grimaced at the thought that the

school was trying to catch him pretending to be sick. What was going on with Roland

Givens? Had anybody missed him being in class? Had anyone noticed the fight that

had happened outside the school grounds?

What did he do about that?

“Let’s talk to my dad,” said Scarab Girl. “Maybe he will have something for you to

use.”

“Thanks,” said Tanner.

“Let me call him,” said Scarab Girl. “We can meet at Good Eats.”

“Good Eats?,” said Tanner.

“A diner my dad and his friends use to meet,” said Scarab Girl. “He probably won’t

like meeting you in civs.”

“I understand,” said Tanner. “I thought about a mask and costume, but I couldn’t

decide on what I wanted.”

“I can see that,” said Scarab Girl. She touched the side of her hood with a finger.

Stolen story; please report.

“Can you hear me, Dad? I need to talk to you in person.”

She bent her head as she listened to the radio in her mask.

“I have a guest from out of town with me,” said Scarab Girl. “We had some trouble

with Amenophis.”

She nodded.

“We’re fine, but things didn’t go our way,” said Scarab Girl. “We need to talk to you

so we can hash this out.”

She shrugged as she listened.

“We’ll meet you at Cassie’s,” said Scarab Girl. “Then he has to head home. His

parents don’t know yet.”

She nodded again.

“I understand,” said Scarab Girl. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

She cut the connection.

“We’re meeting at Good Eats,” said Scarab Girl. “He’s not too thrilled by this.”

“I can see why,” said Tanner. “We’re about to dump a huge mess in his lap.”

“He’s used to that,” said Scarab Girl. “It’s you he’s not thrilled by.”

“That’s no surprise,” said Tanner.

“Follow me,” said Scarab Girl.

She took aim with an arm. She fired a line from her gauntlet. It pulled her into the air

with a yank on the thread.

Tanner checked the timer on his arm. It was almost done. He needed one more

healing spell. He could do that later after meeting Scarab Girl’s dad. That should be

a hoot.

He jogged after the swinging heroine until the timer ran out. He put on his wings and

leaped into the air. He flew after as she crossed Manhattan. She dropped down on

what looked like an old diner in the middle of some skyscrapers. He swooped in for

a landing just as his timer ran out. He landed on the roof a little harder than he meant.

“You need to work on the landings, Transformer Boy,” said Scarab Girl. He sensed

she was smiling at him under her mask.

“I never found a way to change the timer,” said Tanner. “I don’t like to fly unless it’s

for short hops. High enough in the air that the fall will kill you is hard to judge

against the time it will take me to dial a new power while falling.”

“Experience?,” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Tanner. He had misjudged the first time and almost killed himself with

a car that he just missed when his new power kicked in.

“I have had a couple close calls myself,” said Scarab Girl. “That’s why I’m still in

training.”

“You‘re supposed to be in school,” said a figure in scarlet and silver dropping on the

roof of the diner. “You know better than to ditch.”

“Dad, this is Transformer Boy,” said Scarab Girl. “This is my dad.”

“My name is Tanner, Mr. Scarab,” said Tanner. “I’m sorry about all this.”

“Tell me what’s going on,” said the Scarlet Scarab. “I’ll see what I can do to fix the

problem.”

Tanner told him what had happened from the time he tried to stop Roland Givens

from being taken to the fight in the basement of the church, and how Amenophis and

Givens had both escaped.

“Not good,” said the Scarab. He hooked thumbs in his belt. “We can report them but

no one will believe that the victim had suffered a personality change.”

“His family should know,” said Tanner. “I don’t know what I can say at this point. I

thought this would be an easy rescue.”

“Amenophis keeps his head down and avoids as many entanglements as he can,” said

the Scarab. “If you never dealt with him before, he can throw down a lot of heat

before you realize what’s going on.”

“What do we do about the kid?,” asked Tanner. “He’s wandering around out of his

mind.”

“We start a search for him,” said the Scarab. “If the spirits are running him, there’s

not much we can do. He’ll be looking out for us looking for him. They aren’t going

to want to be pulled out when they are mobile and can run things any way they want.”

“So we have to wait for him to start doing whatever spirits want to do,” said Tanner.

He sighed. “All right. I guess I can do that.”

“I’ll let the Idaville authorities know,” said the Scarlet Scarab. “They can let the

family know. They’ve probably got more experience breaking bad news than we do.”

“So we’re done?,” said Tanner. He still had to get home and see if anyone had caught

on he wasn’t home.

“One more thing,” said the Scarab. He pulled a business card for a computer company

from his belt. He wrote a phone number on the back. “Something like this happens

again, you call for help. Don’t try to take everyone on yourself.”

“Yes, sir,” said Tanner. He stored the card in his wallet.

“Remember,” said the Scarab. “I’ll call the FBI office and leave the tip. You might

want to get home.”

“Yes, sir,” said Tanner. “I guess I’ll see you guys at the next crisis.”

“Goodbye, Tanner,” said Scarab Girl. She waved at him as he walked to the edge of

the roof.

“Take it easy, S. G.,” said Tanner as he keyed in the slide. “I don’t think I like

Transformer Boy.”

He jumped off the roof and slid to somewhere in Texas. He checked his map and

worked his way northwest through a series of zigzagging lines. He reached the

outside of his house without a problem as far as he could tell.

He slipped in the back door. He listened to the house. The place seemed quiet. He

went upstairs. He sat down on his bed.

This was one problem his keyboard couldn’t fix. At least he could call for help if he

ran into Amenophis again.

His phone buzzed at him. He checked the caller ID. Darla again. He wondered what

she wanted. She wasn’t usually helpful to him.

“Hello, Darla,” said Tanner. How was he going to explain things to his parents? He

had no idea.

“You’re all over the news,” said Darla. “Dead guys in the street, missing student, your

Gold Man running around.”

“I tell you about it tomorrow,” said Tanner. “I have to get something to eat and then

get a nap. I’ll see you later.”

Tanner cut his television on. He switched to the local news. He winced at the damage

done chasing Amenophis’s fanatics. He went to the kitchen. He needed something to

eat, and then he had to look at the assignments that might be wanted tomorrow.

He had failed across the board. How did he come back from that?

Maybe he should try to keep the next rescue a little simpler. He made a noise at that

as he walked into the kitchen. He searched the fridge for something he could put in

the microwave. He settled on some bologna and cheese on bread. He put that on a

plate and put it in the microwave for a minute.

He looked out the window as he waited for his food to cook. He blinked at the man

in the coat looking out at the neighbor’s house. His cigar rested in his hand.

Tanner ran out the back door. He held his hands ready to call on one of his abilities

as he looked at the man in the coat. The nameless stranger nodded at him with his

perplexed eyebrows in evidence.

“I lost him,” said Tanner. “You knew what was going on. Why didn’t you warn me?”

“That’s not my job, Tanner,” said the man in the coat. “You know that. I can only

offer options.”

“Options?,” said Tanner. “Roland Givens is a monster. What kind of options does he

have now?”

“The same as anybody else,” said the man in the coat. “You didn’t save him from

being scarred, but you didn’t let him become a slave to a bigger menace. Options for

him is not the question you should be asking yourself.”

“What is?,” said Tanner. He had a feeling he was about to hear some more bad news.

“What is the question you should be asking yourself?,” asked the man in the coat.

“What are you going to do when Roland Givens comes home?”

“Why would he do that?,” asked Tanner.

“Why wouldn’t he?,” asked the man in the coat. “You did as well as you could with

what you had. No one could have done better. Maybe your cousin could have.”

“Next time, more information would be better,” said Tanner. He dropped his hand.

“Maybe a broad outline of the problem.”

“I wish, kid,” said the man in the coat. He puffed on his cigar. “Get ready. He’ll come

home eventually. You can count on that.”

He walked from the back yard, heading for a destination that wasn’t quite clear in his

mind, to warn someone who needed it.