“How did this get boring!?” Mari asked David. She wasn’t whining. Nope, no whine here, not at all.

But they were behind an electronics store, with a low-level breach and .75 aetheric reading. They had been all over town in the last two weeks, and not once had they seen anything over a level two. There had been three level three or higher readings, all associated with bigger breaches…

And Wilma and Antonio had handled those, telling Mari and David to stay away.

“You’re just angry you haven’t been able to shoot anything with a neutralizer.” David reached out. “Hand me another storage unit.”

Mari reached down into the case and pulled out one, checking the status lights before she handed it to David.

“Well, yeah. We have neutralizers! C’mon David, that’s the kind of thing that you have to use!”

“And we do, back at the base, when we’re shooting targets.” David activated the unit and put it up on the window sill. This breach was just inside the closed store, but close enough for them to seal it, so now it was time to drain the aether.

“And…” Mari checked her glasses. “It’s going down. Hey, do you think this is going to help the store?”

“How?”

“Well, depending on how long its been around here, it might be causing problems for electronics…” Mari looked up at David. “Hey, maybe we can charge them for it!”

“I think you’ve been in the sun too long,” David said, putting his hand on Mari’s head. “Yep, definitely overheated.”

“So…” Mari looked down at her watch. “Rocket-79?”

“Well, we could try the burger place on—”

“No. Not that place,” Mari said. “The high school has better food than that place.” She paused. “And besides, that’s where all the parents take their kids…”

David paused, then grinned at Mari. “Afraid of running into your mom and Kado?”

“I have just gotten off Kado-grounding duty, and I do not want to see him except at home for the next week!” Mari said. “Do you know how much he was whining! ‘Mari, I just wandered off into the woods, with my girlfriend and almost got eaten by a monster! C’mon, give me the password!’” She covered her eyes with her hands. “I mean, sure he couldn’t tell Mom and Dad about the monster, but even so, going to a deserted barn, with Cecelia…” what did he think Mom was going to do?”

“I’m surprised he hasn’t told anyone about the AE,” David replied. He checked the cylinder nodded. “And that’s full up.”

“I threatened him with telling Mom and Dad that he was lying through his teeth.” Mari grinned, showing all of her teeth. “And Little Brother knows not to test me on that.”

“Ah, so you’re getting into your WIB persona.”

“Yep!” Mari held out her hand. David tossed the cylinder to her, and she put it back in the case. “And see! The name is catching on!”

“Good, so let’s go celebrate with food, since we’ve saved the world from… slightly elevated computer malfunctions.”

Mari giggled. “You got that right. C’mon, partner.”

Rocket-79 was more crowded than usual when Mari and David pulled up to the parking lot. Mari frowned for a moment, then shook her head. “I guess we’re hitting the lunch crowd,” she said.

“Or summer school is getting out,” David pointed out. He pulled the sleeve of the jumpsuit over his wrist unit. “Ready for lunch?”

“Oh God, yes,” Mari said. “I got up late and didn’t get any breakfast.”

“You were watching one of your classics on the phone and didn’t go to bed,” David said. “Which one?”

“The Thing.”

David shook his head. “How many times have you seen that?”

“Not enough!” Mari sang as she got out of the van. “And remember how you got grounded a year ago because you just had to finish the last level of Dragon’s Nightmare?”

“I lost track of time.”

“You were still playing when your Mom got home at 5:30.” Mari giggled. “I remember you moaning about it all day.”

David laughed. “Well, since we’re both awake and hungry, let’s go eat.”

The interior was crowded, but Marcy looked at the two and came right up. “Wow, look at you and your natty jumpsuits,” she said. “I’m envious. What do you do?”

Mari grinned. Hunt breaches into other realities to keep them from spawning monsters… “We got an internship tracking down EM interference—so we’re fighting for your right to have good signals on your cell phone.”

Marcy tilted her head and ran a finger through her curly brown hair. “So, I can blame you whenever I don’t get a signal?”

“Only if you thank us when you do get a signal!” David said.

“Oh, Hun, you got no idea how customer service works if you think anyone’s going to thank you for things going right,” Marcy said. Then she closed her eyes for a moment, before opening them wide and staring at Mari. “But you will find that out. You will find that out…”

“Am I going to get a last meal out of it?” Mari asked.

“Sure,” Marcy said, opening her eyes. “We’ve got a little booth for you two, c’mon.” With that, she led them past a family and several businessmen. “I never understand why people come here at lunch, with eight people when we don’t have that many corner booths, and then complain,” Marcy said as she gestured for David and Mari to sit down. “So…”

“Number Five and coke,” Mari said.

David nodded. “Same.”

“And separate checks, right?”

Mari opened her mouth, and Marcy waved a hand at her. “I know, I know, but I had to ask. I’ll be back.”

Mari watched Marcy head back and then stared at David. “So… Do you think they’re going to be…” she looked around to make sure nobody was close enough to hear her. “Letting us in on any of the big stuff?”

“We’ve been working for what, a week?” David said. “I mean, that’s sort of fast, and it’s not like they’ve been fighting monsters 24-7.”

Mari sat back and frowned. Well, he’s right. The single AE that had actually popped up had been a shimmering glob of aether, easily disrupted. Antonio had explained that except for powerful AEs, they needed something to pattern after. Still, it’s been forever.

“I know,” Mari said finally. “But well, I mean, we started with the Man With the Bags!”

“You mean, we started almost getting killed by the Man With the Bags,” David looked around.

“And now we have neutralizers,” Mari replied.

“Oh, back to this. You just want to use the neutralizer in the field, don’t you.”

“Yep!” Mari folded her arms. “And if that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right!”

“I—”

“Here you go,” Marcy said. “Two number fives.” She put the hamburger and fries down in front of them, along with their cokes. “Enjoy!”

Mari didn’t hesitate. She was hungry.

In fact, it turned out that she was hungry enough to clear her plate and then steal some of David’s fries from him when he wasn’t fast enough.

“Mari!” David said. “What about me?”

“You’re the one who mocked me for getting up late, so I bet you had a good, full breakfast.” Mari popped a fry into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “So, it is only fair that you share with your famished coworker.”

“And if I keep my fries safe?” David asked. He held a hand protectively over the remaining fries.

“Then, you might have to carry my weakened body out to the van and explain your brutality to our bosses and families,” Mari said, sighing theatrically.

“Fine. Here, take the fries,” David said.

“Thank you!” Mari said and quickly finished them. She was on her last fry when a new voice intruded.

“Hello, David…”

Great. Judy. Judy was coming over, a gaggle of her friends surrounding her. She smiled at David. “What are you doing? I’ve never seen you…” She smiled and gestured at his jumpsuit.

“We’ve got a job,” Mari interjected. “Working with electronics.”

“Really?” Judy glanced over at Mari. “That’s incredible,” she said, turning back to David. “What do you do?” A couple of her hangers-on smirked at Mari as she seethed. Judy could have asked her that, thank you very much.

“Well…” David launched into their rehearsed explanation, Judy looking like she was hanging on to his every word. One hand was playing with her thick braid of blond hair, while her big blue eyes seemed fixed on David to the exclusion of everything else.

Oh, of course, Judy knew exactly what she was doing. The problem was, Mari couldn’t even accuse Judy of going after David especially. Judy flirted with everyone.

“And you two are working together?” Judy finally asked. “That must be so romantic…”

“I mean, not really,” David said. “C’mon Judy, we’re just friends.”

Right. Mari smiled at Judy. “Besides, what are you doing for the rest of summer?”

“Oh, I’ve got cheer camp,” Judy indicated her friends. “We’re all heading up to Arrowhead with some of the other schools. It’s going to be great since I’ll be team captain this year.”

Yes, Judy, you’ve only been saying that every other minute for the last month. Mari crushed her incipient annoyance down. It was okay to be excited about something, but maybe Judy could be a little less… frequently excited, especially since she’d be in most of David’s classes.

After all, Mari didn’t want Judy to annoy David.

“Well, I’ve got to get back home,” Judy said. “We’re heading out tomorrow, but I hope you all have fun with your job!” She waved as she turned, some of her friends waving as well.

Mari waited until they got out. “Oh, time for cheerleading camp.” She stared at her plate. Her betraying, empty plate, and now there were no more fries to steal.

“I thought you liked Judy,” David asked. “Are you jeal—”

“Me? A cheerleader? Oh, God, no!” Mari shuddered. “Can you imagine running out with everyone staring at you while you’re bouncing around?” She shook her head. “It’s just that Judy can be so… bouncy. She tires me out just by looking at her.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Granted, Judy can liven a class up. She’ll be in most of my classes, so at least they won’t be boring.”

“Right. Not boring.” Mari grabbed her coke and drained it. “So, let’s get back to work!” she said.

“Don’t you want to have dessert?”

“No time!” Mari said. “Breaches to seal, aether to drain!”

David blinked in confusion. “Sure,” he said. “I think we can do one more patrol…”

David glanced at Mari as they drove down the road. While the sensors at the company could pick up breaches and areas with elevated aether levels, they weren’t always able to pick them up immediately. So, they drove around town, looking for the tiny little collections that might eventually lead to a breach.

Or at least that was the theory. Antonio and Wilma had been upfront with all the times a breach either just appeared, or you had an area of elevated aether that just dissipated on its own.

But right now, Mari just seemed a little… grumpy. “Hey, maybe we’ll find a big breach,” David said.

“That’d be neat,” Mari replied.

“Are you jealous of Judy? I mean, you didn’t sound like you wanted to be a cheer-”

“What? No! She’s just a little too perky. I mean, it’s not like—”

A beeping sound cut Mari off. David looked down at the dashboard monitor. “Hey,” he said. “Looks like you got your wish—there’s a breach.”

“What?” Mari said. She stared at the readout. “It’s a level three aether zone? How did that happen? Level threes aren’t just supposed to appear like that.”

David frowned. Mari was right. Most breaches started out small, not… He made a u-turn at the light and headed back for the breach.

“Dunno, but we can close it and let Wilma and Antonio know.”

“Yeah. It’s still only a three,” Mari said.

The site of the breach was an old junkyard. David pulled the van over to the side of the road, the long shadows of late afternoon extending over the road. In front of the van there was a sign over a closed gate. The two got out and walked up to the entrance, staring at the sign.

STANS RECYCLING.

Underneath was a smaller sign: “Will be back soon! 02/23/2009.”

“Out of business,” Mari muttered, looking up at the sign.

“Yeah,” David said. “But if we go back to get help… It’s already a three.”

And if it goes to five, we’ll just be told to wait outside… Antonio and Wilma tended to take the night shifts since adults wandering around at night had less of a problem then teens.

“I… Hey!” Mari said. “The gate’s unlocked.”

David stared at the chain as she pulled it free. Unlocked hell, someone cut it… That might mean there were people in there. And if they were wandering around by a big breach that was jumping up aetheric levels…

Man With the Bags. But they could close it first. Nobody needed to get hurt or in trouble, and well…

“The gate’s open. For all we know, the owner did that deliberately,” David said.

“Yep,” Mari agreed. “And that means it’s not wrong for us to go in.” She grinned and deployed her neutralizer, holding it like a ray gun. “I’m going to get the storage units, you get the sealer.”

“If we see any bees…” David started.

“We leave, like small, obedient children, so we don’t end up running like screaming, terrified children,” Mari said primly. “C’mon! Let’s hurry!” She went to the van, positively bouncing with every step.

Is this a good idea? David glanced back, then nodded. It was a junkyard. If they let it get worse, it might not stay in the junkyard. So they could clear it up and then talk to Antonio and Wilma. With that, he joined Mari getting the equipment out of the van.