Amy decided to hold the next get-together in Theater City, since Proscenium was the one who wanted to meet.
Finances being what they were, Amy chose the Theater City Public Library as their location, instead of spending cash on another rented conference room. Proscenium, in another curt phone call, insisted on meeting on the building's roof after sunset.
Amy waited for Future Girl to meet her in Boston, and the two of them flew to Theater City. Proscenium was already waiting atop the library as they flew over the city and came down for a landing.
"Hi," Amy said. "It's nice to see you again."
Proscenium just stared at her, his only readable expression being the frown on his mask.
"You remember Future Girl?" Amy said.
Proscenium gave Future Girl a slight nod. "Child."
"Hey," Future Girl said.
"Where is the Dreamsmith?"
"Oh, he's right here." Amy pulled out her phone and clicked it on. "Sam? You there? I'm going to put you on speaker."
"Hi, everyone," Dreamsmith said, his voice sounding metallic over the small phone.
"What superpower did you wake up with today?" Future Girl asked.
"My fingernails have turned into these really long claws," he said. "They're about eight inches long and razor sharp."
"That's awesome," Amy said. "You should go fight some bad guys. Give them the old slice and dice."
"Fight? I can't even dress myself."
"Enough!" Proscenium said. "What is the Temple?"
"It's major crazy conspiracy theory," Amy said. "We don't think it's a specific place, like a church building. It's an organization that has agents everywhere, all preparing for some big event. My publicist was one of these agents. He tried to get me to compromise my principles in order to make a movie star."
"My school's headmaster turned out to be a Temple bigwig," Future Girl said. "She tried convincing all the Mirai students that money is more important than knowledge."
"No convincing or corrupting for me," Dreamsmith said over the phone. "Someone from the Temple killed my friend and teacher, and they destroyed a totally sweet telescope in the process. And they trashed the British Museum."
"These Temple agents keep throwing around the word 'sinner,'" Amy said. "As in, they think anyone not part of the Temple is lesser than them. I don't like it, either."
Future Girl and Amy looked at Proscenium, who stood there, silent.
"And you, big guy?" Amy said. "How have you encountered the Temple? Did you find out something about them? Did they do something to you?"
"I have information," Proscenium said. "Two degrees north to two degrees south, and ten degrees west to twenty degrees east."
"Those are coordinates," Dreamsmith's voice came from the phone. "Sounds like right on the equator."
Future Girl nodded. "Just between South America and Africa, I believe. At the narrowest part of the Atlantic."
"Show-off," Dreamsmith said.
"We heard there's a submarine as part of all this," Amy said. "Where better to find one than the middle of the ocean?"
"The ocean is beyond huge," Future Girl said. "Even with these coordinates, we still have a needle and haystack thing going on."
"Can you talk to the genius-brains at Mirai?" Amy said. "Maybe they can whip up some doohickey to help."
Future Girl shrugged. "I'll ask, but I can't promise anything. I haven't heard of anyone doing a class project on submarine-finding."
Amy's heart raced. Everyone was working as a team. This is what she wanted. Then she saw that Proscenium had barely moved during the conversation. She took a step toward him. "What about you, Proscenium? Can you help?"
Proscenium stood remained silent, unreadable.
"We still don't know anything about you," Amy said. "How'd you get your powers? What all can you do?"
Amy feared he would remain silent all night, but then he bowed his head.
"I'm an old man," Proscenium said. "Set in my ways."
A crack sounded through the air, and a bullet struck Proscenium across his face, leaving a small, blackened streak on his bronzed metal mask. Amy jumped away in surprise as Proscenium turned his head toward where it had come from. Future Girl was faster than them both, already in the air and flying in the direction of the bullet.
Amy didn't see anything at first, but her heightened hearing picked up the sound of helicopters.
"They're still watching us," Proscenium said. "Likely they predicted I would contact you."
"What's happening?" Dreamsmith said from over the phone. "Who's watching what?"
"I'll have to call you back, Sam. Careful with those nails." Amy hung up on him.
With a whoosh sound, Proscenium's body transformed into a formless cloudof purple smoke. It swirled around in the air for a second and then shotthrough the air after Future Girl. The cloud spread out in mid-air, making it alittle hard to see in the increasingly dark sky. Amy flew after him, still afew seconds behind him and the wind, presumably, blew him toward the helicopter.
# # # #
Next: Helicopter.