The first thing he saw was his hands. They looked oddly smooth and small. His clothes came next. Sneakers, ripped blue jeans, and a hoodie. Then came where he was. He'd woken up in an alley. Something told him this was not his first time waking up in an alley. He slowly stood. For some reason, he wondered why his knees didn't ache...or his back. He stumbled for a second once he got to his feet. Everything seemed slightly bigger.

How'd he get here? Where was here?

He finally caught a glimpse of his reflection and paused. He had dark hair that fell over his face and a somewhat olive skin color. He was also about 12-years-old. But, the most important fact was that he didn't recognize the face. He had no clue who he was.

The youngster, not knowing what else to do, headed for the main street and the city. People passed by on the busy streets. The names of buildings were written in a weird language, but he could understand it.

"Sibyl," said someone leaning against a nearby building. This stranger seemed to be talking to no one. "Where is the nearest restaurant?"

The preteen overheard a digital female voice respond. "The nearest restaurant is two blocks away."

"Sibyl?" whispered the boy. Suddenly something came back to him.

***

"Hank! Finally we meet," said the clean-shaven athletic man in the bright business suit. "I've been watching you for awhile, and I have to say...I'm impressed."

Hank, the boy, reached out a hand to shake the man's hand. Hank's hand now seemed bigger and rougher than before.

The man in the business suit spun to show off the building. "Welcome to BLT International. We have our hands in just about everything: technology, publishing, broadcast, gaming, and so on." He motioned to his chest with an elegant wave. "And I am Adam Helios, developer of the Ask Delphi search engine."

"What's the job?" asked Hank, but his voice sounded gruff and tired.

"A man that gets straight to the point. I like that."

***

"Kid! Hey! Kid!" shouted someone. "Get out of the way!"

The boy, Hank, shook his head. "Huh?"

"Get out of the way!" Finally, the impatient pedestrian just shoved his way past Hank. The push knocked Hank against the building wall. That's when he felt something hard on his back. He pulled the object that seemed magnetically stuck to his back. It was a long, golden staff with two snakes winding around it and a pair of wings at the top. Somehow he knew it was called the Caduceus.

Suddenly, the staff started to glow and Hank heard whispering.

***

Meanwhile, Sportsgirl informed me of a break-in at the Louvre Museum. Someone stole the Caduceus of Hermes. Sportsgirl decided that even though I was "out of my jurisdiction" she could use the help cracking this case.

It didn't take us long to find the preteen Hank. A lone kid wandering the streets of Paris carrying an ancient artifact tends to draw social media posts.

Once we arrived, he became twitchy. Sportsgirl did her best to calm him down; but as we closed in, wings suddenly sprouted from his sneakers and hood...and then he was flying.

Fortunately for us, he wasn't very good at it. Sportsgirl used a couple gas pellet tennis balls to bring him down. I'm not sure if his eyes were tearing up from fear or from the tear gas.

We once again closed in on the boy only to have him point the staff at us. A beam blast erupted from the staff. I knocked Sportsgirl to the ground. The blast destroyed a nearby sign but that was all.

The boy was also surprised by the attack and dropped the Caduceus. Upon releasing it, he transformed into a mid-30s man with a French crop haircut and beard. And this is when the DogCom HUD in my sunglasses alerted me to an arrest warrant. This man was the infamous thief-for-hire Hank.

"What is going on?" Hank asked.

"That's what I'd like to know," I said.

Our answers came in the form of a shiny limo that suddenly joined us. A man, in his early 20s, stepped out and introduced himself as Adam Helios. "Or you might know me as Apollo, the god of music, prophecy, and the sun."

____

Words: 724

Total words: 1863