Trick’s face still stung a little. Naomi could slap harder than he expected.

“I think my face will be permanently numb after after tonight.”

“But we know you love it,” Naomi said with an annoyed note in her voice.

“Don’t you dare mention that terrible excuse for a radio hit,” Trick snapped. “I’ll let the slap pass, but not this!”

“Shut up! Both of you! We have a job that needs to get done tonight,” Agent Brown snapped from behind. “Do not make me regret that we brought you two for this case.”

“Yes, mom,” Trick replied, assuming a more meek stance.

Who would have guessed that after all of the strange cases he and Naomi had gotten involved in, this would be the one to make him feel the most self conscious and uncomfortable? The agents of the Q Files, a bizarre and derided office within the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had accepted that these two, trouble making teens would become a part of their ongoing quest to understand and hold back unfathomable, supernatural forces.

It sounded a whole lot cooler than it had actually been. Oh sure, Trick’s life had been more adventurous than it had ever been since he first convinced Naomi to sneak with him onto a case investigating a werewolf. But it had not been a walk in the park, or any other kind of saying for things going easy. Trick and Naomi had discovered that all kinds of monsters were attempting to break free from a plane of existence called the Realms of Imagination. A war that they still did not understand was waging on the other side and was still ongoing.

Trick and Naomi had since faced werewolves and vampires summoned by stupid teenagers, an all-knowing space entity using video games and movies to try and open a portal into their world, a creature of unbelievable darkness and power called the Mother Jed, and finally getting sucked into a Dungeons and Dragons game. With each case, their brushes with death came closer and closer. And yet, Trick now felt he would not have it any other way.

Maybe that is why this particular case felt so bad.

He and Naomi were going to a prom. He was dressed in a black and silver tuxedo with shiny, black bowtie. His mom had forced him to wear a fair bit of cologne, which stung his nose. Naomi wore a matching black and silver dress, with a deep cut down the back. The mohawk she had been sporting since Spring Break had grown longer and she was wearing it straightened and falling down her face.

And they were being escorted by Trick’s mother, Agent Susan Brown. A crack shot agent from the Bureau and relocated due to politicking within the FBI to be stuck in the Q Files. It was meant to kill her career. It had meant helping save the day already on numerous occasions. But that wasn’t what made this awkward.

It was prom!

This was supposed to be the night that you went with friends and a significant other to celebrate the oncoming end to the school year. To enjoy being young, and to justify making really poor decisions. It was supposed to be a night of partying and reckless abandon, though not necessarily dancing. That was for the really weird people, or those who just wanted to bump and grind.

But no…

Trick was here with Naomi. They knew nobody here, except for his mother, who would be patrolling the outside of the convention center. And, they were in Mesa, AZ in late April. It was hot, and strangely humid, and he was in suit that was causing him to sweat! Which just made the cologne even worse! And he never liked the feel of hot armpits.

The trio walked through overly lit parking lot towards the convention center, where the prom was being held.

“Just remember you two, you’re here tonight to help us find out which of the students has summoned the Door and why,” Susan said in a low voice. “Once you have discovered anything pertinent to the case, text me immediately. We’ll use the chaperones to bring them in for further questioning.”

` “Got it,” Naomi and Trick said together.

Trick then added, “And if everything goes down the crapper, like it always does, we have the character sheets on us.”

Susan sighed behind them and they missed her pinching the bridge of her nose. “I can’t believe you haven’t burned those. Trusting a cloaked dragon from a D&D game sounds like a terrible idea.”

“And wasn’t it a terrible idea that got me and Naomi involved with that werewolf and totally solved the mystery,” Trick shot back.

“Careful young man, or I’ll deck you harder than Naomi,” his mother warned.

“You are in rare form tonight,” Naomi commented.

“All I did was speak the truth,” he protested. “And I am sorry! I didn’t realize that you wanted this night to be like an actual prom with me coming up with an overly complicated way of asking you out and showing up with the flowers!”

“Corsages,” Naomi said. “And you’re right. I definitely did not want you to do all of that. I would have preferred a real gentleman did.”

“Stop it right now, or I will turn this whole operation around,” Susan snapped.

Trick snorted in response. Then he dodged two punches. Barely.

He knew he shouldn’t have been pressing their buttons. But it was too much fun, and he needed a distraction for the uncomfortable situation. And he also needed a release for this odd case.

The Q Files had been asked to consult on case in Mesa, where the authorities had received a very strange package and message.. It said that there would be an attack on a high school’s prom and that all the details were in the cardboard box. However, everything it contained were creepy and unintelligible drawings, calculations, maps, an scribbles.

The police were about to write it off as a very unsavory joke, when more letters came naming the school, the night the attack would happen, and asking if they had made any headway with the clues. The writer swore that they would tell more, but under current circumstances was unable to.

The FBI was called in to assess the situation and the Q Files were shortly thereafter consulted. With the bizarre nature of the clues, it only made sense that Agent Conturbatio, commonly referred to as the Sphinx, and his people would be brought in. The Sphinx had practically pounced on the clues and got right to work piecing everything together. Trick had seen the wall where he placed everything together. Each random puzzle, piece of information, oddly drawn map, and strange picture could be arranged into a perfect map of the Mesa area.

And apparently, there was a lot about the city that was connected to ‘powerful’ spiritual and supernatural landmarks and events. Conturbatio had explained that most well developed, and especially older cities, were all like that. But in the case of Mesa, there was something very big at play.

The Sphinx had explained it thus,”There is a Door that is being created here, but this is very peculiar in how they are going about it. Doors are made; they don’t just exist. And neither do the components to a Door just float out there in the Realms for people to use. Doors made are made up of an intimate understanding of the Starlines and the relationship between Reality, Imagination, and the people who walk both worlds.

“I still have nothing to say about the Grey World. We learned about that far too late.”

There was something different about the Sphinx. He had left Memmelsruhe shaken and in despair. The Q Files were shut down for a time, and he had disappeared. There was something harder about him than before, and he was more determined. He also knew more now about the supernatural than he had before.

Whatever had happened after their last case together, though, he had kept that all to himself. At least he was now more open about the knowledge he had questionably akrewed.

“Okay,” Trick had said, looking at the bizarre map back at the police’s district office. “So what does that have to do with this map?”

The Sphinx gestured at the collage of clues and answered, “By focusing on icons, landmarks, and places were big and supernatural things have happened, the architects of the Door are trying to forge those links and create that understanding. This is a very interesting development, because each time it has been the Realms reaching out to humans, but now it looks like humans are reaching into the Realms.”

“But how could they do that? They don’t have any powers in reality,” Naomi interjected.

“I have no idea,” the Sphinx answered honestly.

“Then why do you think we are dealing with a Door,” Trick asked.

“Because the sender of these materials said so.”

“Oh.”

And this is where Trick and Naomi came in handy for the investigation. Because the FBI suspected from handwriting samples and wording that it was a teenager who had sent the messages, they needed a way to worm out information from the students themselves. Naomi and Trick had already proven themselves very capable of that, and suspicious students would not think twice about people their own age poking around. At least, not initially.

The authorities had told the school that they needed to go through with the prom, but quickly switch the date and the location. This would be a chance to see how the message sender would respond, and if it would force anyone’s hand. They had transferred the dance from the school to the convention center, a move that Trick thought should have been made without the threat of a Door and whatever horrors would come through it.

I mean, who would even want to have their prom inside the school itself!? That way of thinking totally goes against what prom is supposed to be! What it stands for! Trick could not understand some people.

So far, nothing had changed. But with the Sphinx’s research, they were certain they had located the location of the Door. Tonight, the FBI and police were going to move in on the location. Susan Brown was on the scene of the dance with her own force to intervene if anything went awry, and Trick and Naomi would mine for further information.

A deep base and unintelligible rap music assaulted Trick’s ears as they drew closer.

“I’ll be close by, ready to step in at a moment’s notice,” Susan said. “Make sure that you keep me updated,”

“Sure thing, mom,” Trick said. “Seriously, we’ll make sure to keep our minds on the job. I mean, after seeing a furry convention come to life, I think there’s a new aversion within me to dancing.”

“Thanks for reminding me about that,” Naomi said, rolling her eyes.

“Alright you two, good luck,” Trick’s mother said as she moved away and joined some other adults off to the side.

Trick caught side of a gun handle poking out from behind one man’s back. Subtlety was obviously not his strong suit.

“Are you ready for this, Trick? You’re not going to go awol on me and do something overly stupid, right?”

Trick turned to naomi and responded, “Are you seriously worried that I am going to screw things up somehow?”

“Naomi gave him a fixed, stern stare and said, “Trick, I remember what it was like when we first went on a case. You were all over the place, jumping for one person to the next, and from one subject to the next. I was convinced the entire time we would get caught and everything would blow up in our faces. I was ready to tell everyone that you kidnapped me and held me against my will. Thankfully it didn’t go that route, but it nearly did.

“And now, I can see that old gleam coming back into your eyes. This will not be like the other cases we’ve been on since the first. Those were all insanity and we kind of stumbled through and flew by the seat of our pants. But tis is not same!”

Trick nodded and said, “Duly noted. Do you feel better now, getting that off your chest?”

“Yes. Thank you for letting me rant.”

“No problem,” he quipped. “Okay, I get where you are coming from. Alright, I will do my best to stick to being normal and just talking to the other students in there. I swear!”

“Good,” Naomi said.

“Good? Good! Now, shall we proceed?” Trick offered his arm.

Naomi sighed and took it. Together, they entered the party, and surrendered themselves to deafness by terrible music.