That got them going again, and the woman in the judge’s seat seemed to beam approval.
“What is this?” Bing asked. None of it made sense.
Cara snorted. “Can’t you tell? It’s a kangaroo court.”
Bing blinked in confusion. He’d never heard of that, but Walter chuckled beside him. “Of course it is.”
Cara continued. “Nero and I were tracking more of those herds. Every time we got rid of one, two more popped up. We think it’s because of her.” She pointed at the judge. “She seems to gather energy and remake them somehow. Every couple of hours the jury files out and goes rampaging through Wisconsin.”
“But how did you end up here?”
“Because this guy thought it would be brilliant to capture one of the jockeys.” Cara nudged Nero in the ribs, and he jolted awake with a snort. “He figured we could interrogate her and find out what was going on.”
“Didn’t work?”
“Didn’t work. We grabbed her,” she said, pointing at the judge. “Then she screamed like….” She shuddered. “Like a really evil pterodactyl. Nero dropped her—”
“She bit me!”
“And then we got swarmed by kangaroos. Like, a dozen of them came out of nowhere and knocked us out.”
Nero stretched and yawned. “When we woke up, we were here on trial. It was mostly kangaroo grunting until she showed up.” He jerked his head toward Auntie Sand.
“Have you tried to leave?” Bing asked.
“Twice.” Nero moved his shoulder and winced. “There are a lot of them, and they’re bigger than we are. Short of busting through the cinder-block wall….” His words faded as he frowned behind them. “What happened to the kangaroos blocking the exit?”
Walter grinned. “Bing dissolved them. It takes about a minute for each one, but when they go, it’s way cool.”
Everyone stared at Walter. He wasn’t officially part of the group. Bing was barely a member himself. He had no idea how anyone would react, so he slid closer to Walter. “You remember Walter? Turns out he’s paranormal too and can fight like a demigod. If you want to bust out, now’s the time.” Then he winced. “But I really need to talk to her first.” He pointed at Sand.
The group looked at each other and then turned to Gelpack. “You up to trying again, Gelly?” Nero asked.
The alien nodded. “The more kangaroos we dissolve, the better,” he said. “I do not know how much longer she will last.”
Bing frowned. “Who? The judge?”
“No,” Gelpack said as he raised his clear arm and pointed. “The doe behind her.”
Bing narrowed his eyes, only now seeing a chained kangaroo lying on her side behind the judge. She looked pale and sickly, and as he looked with his special ability, he saw that the coils of her energy were weak and significantly more complicated than any of the other kangaroos. “What…?” he asked. Then he changed the question. “Why is she different?”
“Can’t you see it?” Gelpack spoke in his usual neutral tone, like sound coming up through a tub of water, but no matter the tone, Bing heard condemnation in the words. It was as if he had failed, and he’d only just gotten there. “She is a true kangaroo. Whenever the judge makes new ones, she draws the energy from the doe.”
Just as Gelpack said the words, Bing watched it happen. The jockey/judge dropped down and pressed a hand to the doe’s neck. Then she drew energy back, spun it up like a whirling cyclone of power, and pushed it toward the door. Bing watched as a phantom kangaroo appeared. The energy pattern stabilized, and once it settled, the creature jumped up and down with a pleased grunt.
It would have been beautiful if it hadn’t come from the life force of a living creature.
“That is so not cool,” Walter said as he turned back to the front. “The bitch dies now.”
“Hey, genius,” Nero said, “you don’t think we’ve tried that?”
It didn’t matter. Walter wasn’t listening. He held aloft his toothpick, which rapidly changed into a golden cudgel. “Not with me, you haven’t.”
“No!” Cara cried. “Out the back.”
Walter looked over his shoulder at her and grinned. “Run away if you want, but I’m killing the bitch.” Then he winked at Bing. “Ready?”
This was not Walter. Bing could see that. It was Monkey getting excited to knock some heads together and take out an evil bitch who was torturing a kangaroo. Frankly he was itching to do the same. Aside from the whole evilness of the situation, the faster he got rid of the kangaroo nonsense, the faster he could corner Sand and get her talking.
